Released Project Vanguard (4.0 UPDATE RELEASE 8/27/2025)

Logo is a WIP
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Welcome to Ayrei​

The Ayrei Region, a landmass split into four different quadrants.
Each with their own people and Pokemon every moment of your adventure has something new in store.
This is not the full planned region, only what's currently available in 4.0


No Gyms, No Elite Four

In Project Vanguard, the role of the Pokemon Trainer is no longer to collect gym badges and become the champion. Instead, Trainers protect the region from criminal organizations, aggressive wild Pokemon, and whatever other conflicts come their way. As a brand new Trainer, you'll enroll in the Vanguard Academy, a school dedicated to teaching the next generations of Pokemon wielders. As you rise through the ranks, you'll face new challenges, meet new friends, and of course, uncover your mysteries past.
Oh, that's right, you.

An individual who's awoken in this region with no memory of who they were before.
With no where else to go, you join your newfound friend, and become a Pokemon Trainer.


New Regional Forms

In the region of Ayrei, you'll encounter a total of over 300 new regional forms, evolutions to existing Pokemon, and even completely new ones. With thousands of hours of work from both our artists and balancers, each one will be fun to play with and offer a useful role in your team.


A Brand New World To Explore

The region of Ayrei is built with exploration in mind.
On your journey across it, you'll not just find trainers to battle, but also den's home to rare Pokemon, treasures guarded by powerful opponents,
and a lot of optional areas you'll miss if you don't look hard enough.


Defined Difficulty Modes

Vanguard has three difficulty modes for your choose from. Each one with hand crafted teams for every important boss trainer. No matter what type of player you are, one of these modes should offer an engaging experience.

Quality of Life

While we still want Vanguard to feel like an proper adventure, we of course cut down on a lot of the tedious tasks you'd find yourself stuck with in other games. This includes the removal of EV training, as points can now be allocated at any time from the summary screen, and other Pokemon customization items now being easily purchasable.


Additional Features
Old Gym Leaders return as cosplayers ("super fans") for you to battle with new teams!
Most route Trainers are optional (progress at your own pace!)
Non-Binary protagonist option
28 Starters (22 of whom are Regional Variants!)
Advanced Pokedex that displays the stats and learnsets of every seen Pokemon
EXP all (right after picking your starter)
Infinite Repel (right after picking your starter)
Canon Pokemon up to generation 9
Fast travel between towns


Download
Goes up to chapter 35, around 36-38 hours of playtime

Spoiler: Credits

Development team
Ayrei - Lead developer, Story, Eventing, Mapping
Ironic Omens - Concept Art, Cutscene Art, Spriting, Story writing assistance
Moonpaw - Spriting, Concept Art
Jaguarkia - Spriting, Concept Art
Simonz - Spriting
CherubiNym - Concept Art
Chrysanthemum - Spriting
NnekArt - Concept Art, Spriting
Verity - Custom Music
Draco - Balancing every regional, fakemon, and main story boss fight
Fictional - Also balancing every regional, fakemon, and main story boss fight
Just_a_Gameaddict - Balancing Super fans and Route Bosses
WeOathKeeper - Programming custom moves and abilities
Dred - Bugfixing and Mapping help
katsuki - Spriting


Previous development team members/contributors
Spriting - PrismShrimp, Celestial Fearow, Chobbis3, Chobbis4, Pixeldust64, Givemeloop, Kana, Darkside Official, Alcreed, HyperTox
Mapping - Kristalwolf, IceGummi, Chobbis3
Advanced Battle AI - Moto & Demice



If you find your work in game that is uncredited, or work of yours that should not be in Vanguard, please contact me and I will work towards fixing the issue ASAP.

Credits
Pokemon Essentials v19.1 by Maruno
Graphics and ScriptsMagiscarf
WesleyFG
SailorVicious (Formerly known as Heavy-Metal-Lover)
Shawn Frost
NSora-96
PeekyChew
MewTheMega
Kyle-Dove
Pablus94
Princess Phoenix
Zeo254
Claisprojects.com
Minorthreat0987
The-Red-Ex
UltimoSpriter
TyranitarDark
DarkDragonn
rafa-cac
Phyromatical
Alucus
Newtiteuf
ChaoticCherryCake
moca
Akizakura16
Kyle-Dove
Clara-WaH
ThatWelshOne_
raZ
Marin
Maruno
Nuri Yuri
PurpleZaffre
Savordez
Vendily
Mr. Gela
Voltseon
Neo-Spriteman
VanillaSunshine
PurpleZaffre & Maicerochico
AtomicReactor
Zerokid
Amethyst
Jan
Zumi
Bazaro
Koyo
Smeargletail
Alex
Noscium
Leparagon
N-kin
fishbowlsoul90
princess-phoenix
DatLopunnyTho
Conyjams
kaji atsu
The cynical poet
LuigiPlayer
Falgaia
Pikafan2000
Mashirosakura (Magearna recolours)
Lord-Myre
MillaLya
AveonTrainer
JorgeBurgos
KajiAtsui
cubeR
DiegoWT
rhaidor
KnoblePersona
Amras Anárion
IndianAnimator

Demice

eriedaberrie#1569
NoProbro
Biggusweeabus

Music
GlitchxCity
VanniluxePavilion
Kamex
Bliitzit
Sheddy
Mewmore
BitSymphony

Battle backgrounds
Aeveontrainer
Advanced Pokedex
FL
Gen 9 Project
Script Gen 9 and Adapting PLA for v20:
-Caruban

PBS for Gen 9:
-Caruban
-PorousMist (Updated the short abilities, items, and moves description)
-DJChaos (TM Items)

Pokemon Gen 9 Battler Sprites:
The-King-Of-Roads-X, Mak, leParagon, Caruban, Azria, Mashirosakura, Katten, Jinxed

Pokemon Gen 9 icons:
-ezerart

Pokemon Gen 9 Followers:
-Azria, DarkusShadow

Gen 9 Item sprites:
-Caruban, lichenprincess

Pokemon Gen 9 Cries:
Edited from Lightblade Absol's Gen 9 Cries compilation video

Original Pokémon: Legends Arceus Expansion Script :
-StCooler (Original script for Gen 8 Project in v18 and Status sprites)
-PorousMist and curryofthepast (Adapting the script for v19.1 use)

Some item PLA icons :
-AztecCroc, 3DJackArt, Caruban, lichenprincess

PLA Pokemon cries ripped:
-Morningdew

Pokeballs battle animation and summary icon:
-Caruban
-WolfPP (Beast ball battle animation)

PLA Pokemon icons:
-LuigiTKO

PLA Follower sprites:
Boonzeet, DarkusShadow, princess-phoenix, ezeart, Wolfang62

PLA Sprites from Smogon Gen8 Sprite Project :
-Blaquaza, KingOfThe-X-Roads, KattenK, Travis, G.E.Z., SpheX, and Hematite

Gen 4 Style Version
Gen 9 sprites:
KingOfThe-X-Roads, Mak, Red7246, Vent, Caruban, leParagon, Sopita_Yorita, Z-nogyroP,
Alxndre~◇, Mashirosakura, NanaelJustice, KRLW890

PLA sprites:
Travis, KingOfThe-X-Roads, Blaquaza, leParagon, Red7246, G.E.Z., Katten, Vent, Cesare_CBass, AlexandreV2.0, PKMNTrainerRick., CarmaNeko, JWNutz, Erkey830

Gen 9 Icons:
Vent, Katten, leParagon, Cesare_CBass

PLA Icons:
LuigiTKO, Pikafan2000, Cesare_CBass, Vent, Cesare_Cbass, MultiDiegoDani, leParagon, JWNutz
and thanks for Pokémon Icons Act 2.9 - Teracristalizando

PLEASE TELL ME IF I MISSED ANYONE!

The discord
https://discord.gg/sr24E8keRs
Why join the discord?
I'm not always online this site or others that I have this game posted on.
Joining the discord allows easy access to bug reporting, game patches, progress updates, beta testing, and more.
​

 

[KLG04]

Hello ! My friend and I started playing the game today but we encountered two issues, whenever we enter tall grass, the fps drops a lot and whenever we change locations like entering a building or end a battle, the black screen is way longer than usual, do you have any tips or solutions to fix this ? Because other than that the game is one of the best fanmade games ever

 

[KLG04]

Hello ! My friend and I started playing the game today but we encountered two issues, whenever we enter tall grass, the fps drops a lot and whenever we change locations like entering a building or end a battle, the black screen is way longer than usual, do you have any tips or solutions to fix this ? Because other than that the game is one of the best fanmade games ever

Nevermind! I downloaded the last patch and it's fixed ! Now we can fully enjoy the game

 

[Ayrei]

Nevermind! I downloaded the last patch and it's fixed ! Now we can fully enjoy the game

The engine the game is built with has a memory leak issue I'm not currently able to fix, if the game starts to lag, save and hit f12 to soft reset and you'll be good for a bit.

 

[Aeyodis]

Just played through the entire game and I honestly didn't have this much fun since Rejuvenation (which it clearly takes inspiration from :P)
Story is very intriguing, especially thanks to the very good characters who are fleshed out a lot more than I think they'd be initially.
The music selection is absolutely stellar I NEED to know where Zeke's theme comes from because it's my absolute favorite from the game and fits so well especially for the first fight with him

Minor nitpicks include:

• Most sidequests are not really interesting
• As others said, a few more heal spots would be cool
• A few typos, like in the last document thing that gives more info about the world

looking forward to the next version!

 

[Ayrei]

Just played through the entire game and I honestly didn't have this much fun since Rejuvenation (which it clearly takes inspiration from :P)
Story is very intriguing, especially thanks to the very good characters who are fleshed out a lot more than I think they'd be initially.
The music selection is absolutely stellar I NEED to know where Zeke's theme comes from because it's my absolute favorite from the game and fits so well especially for the first fight with him

Minor nitpicks include:

• Most sidequests are not really interesting
• As others said, a few more heal spots would be cool
• A few typos, like in the last document thing that gives more info about the world

looking forward to the next version!

Thanks for the feedback! I'm really glad people are enjoying the game enough to take the time and post about it here.
As for your nitpicks:

• I'll be honest I don't put very much effort into sidequests, they are mainly just extra things for the player to do if they choose to
• I'm adding a few more heal spots that make sense next update, but there are some spots that people have complained about, for example the banette cave, that don't really make sense to have healing spots for. Part of the realism I want to stress is that you aren't a 10 year old kid on a Pokemon journey, but rather a nearly adult person tasked with protecting the region, which comes with the responsibility of being prepared for situations like falling into a random cave.
• I've always had an issue with typo's, luckily I've had a lot more pointed out to me in this development cycle so things will be much cleaner next update

Edit: Oops I forgot to mention lol, Zeke's theme is Sea of fire by Hiroyuki Sawano

 

[BlossomTea]

hi this game is super fun! i really enjoy it so far but im around the tournament and cant help but feel the story was written with a male protagonist in mind, not only with the undertones with destiny but with the way people talk to you. Not really a critique just something i noticed

 

[Ayrei]

hi this game is super fun! i really enjoy it so far but im around the tournament and cant help but feel the story was written with a male protagonist in mind, not only with the undertones with destiny but with the way people talk to you. Not really a critique just something i noticed

Hi thank you for the nice comment I'm glad you're enjoying the game. About your comment with the story, while I've tried my best to break gender roles with the protagonist, I feel like it's hard for me to get it completely right since I'm a male myself so I often subconsciously may portray that through the writing and the protagonist's decisions. I'm also technically still a novice to story writing. But I do also want to mention that you aren't the "player character" in this game but rather just controlling a character with their own personality traits and decisions that not all players may agree with.

 

[BlossomTea]

Hi thank you for the nice comment I'm glad you're enjoying the game. About your comment with the story, while I've tried my best to break gender roles with the protagonist, I feel like it's hard for me to get it completely right since I'm a male myself so I often subconsciously may portray that through the writing and the protagonist's decisions. I'm also technically still a novice to story writing. But I do also want to mention that you aren't the "player character" in this game but rather just controlling a character with their own personality traits and decisions that not all players may agree with.

that makes alot of sense! honestly im surprised to learn your a novice bc its def one of the better ones! ive been enjoying doing a monotype fairy run and it would be cool if that is mentioned or comes up sometime, over all im super excited to follow your work the map design and how the world feels alive has been my favorite i wish main line pokemon games did similar stuff <3

 

[Ayrei]

Hello everyone, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to fill out this feedback survey! The required questions should take you less than a minute to answer, however, I've also added some optional questions that I would also appreciate if you answered! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...nuVk4seuhIu-or8UNNhyQqIA/viewform?usp=sf_link

 

[Zinkatron]

Hi Ayrei, just checking in to see how you are faring with your latest update. Definitely excited to try out your game, and was gonna just wait for your next update to get into it. Absolutely no rush, was just curious. Thanks!

 

[floodryan123]

can't wait till 2027 lol

 

[Zinkatron]

Ha, I did see that above.

That said, I think he mentioned on PC that he was planning on an update in June, and the next release date on this page eludes to June 20th, so was just curious how it was going.

 

[Ayrei]

Ha, I did see that above.

That said, I think he mentioned on PC that he was planning on an update in June, and the next release date on this page eludes to June 20th, so was just curious how it was going.

I am actually releasing the update tomorrow :P but I suggest joining the discord since I'm releasing it there first before taking the time to edit the threads here.

 

[Ayrei]

New update!

 

[safr]

New update!

What is new and changelog in the update?

 

[Zinkatron]

Hi Ayrei! I am really enjoying your game, it is one of the best experiences I have had with a fan game, the story and character development is superb. I think some balancing with the starters might be needed but not why I am posting.

Just reporting a minor bug I experienced, I'm in Chapter 21 or 22 (or maybe right between them?) and the main character is just in the middle of the screen during cutscene dialogues that they are not supposed to be in. Example attached (they were there in the previous one when Chelsea talks with Zahn (sp) in his room).

 

[Zinkatron]

Hey, one more bug I found. After the Galar Den in Eastcliff Cavern, the prompt is to pick a Sinnoh starter instead. They still "map" correctly by their original typing, (e.g. Turtwig maps to Grookey) so just like the bug above it isn't game breaking by any stretch, just caught me off guard lol.

 

[safr]

I got lag on grass after 5 hours playing but despite the lag the game is good and have engaging story. The lack of gym mack the game lack of achievement and the school tournament not giving same prestige for me but the battle is good. The region variant design is good and some bad but i think even the bad one give the game a taste of originality.

Stay healthy dev team and thank you for the update

 

[Ayrei]

Hey, one more bug I found. After the Galar Den in Eastcliff Cavern, the prompt is to pick a Sinnoh starter instead. They still "map" correctly by their original typing, (e.g. Turtwig maps to Grookey) so just like the bug above it isn't game breaking by any stretch, just caught me off guard lol.

Hi Ayrei! I am really enjoying your game, it is one of the best experiences I have had with a fan game, the story and character development is superb. I think some balancing with the starters might be needed but not why I am posting.

Just reporting a minor bug I experienced, I'm in Chapter 21 or 22 (or maybe right between them?) and the main character is just in the middle of the screen during cutscene dialogues that they are not supposed to be in. Example attached (they were there in the previous one when Chelsea talks with Zahn (sp) in his room).

Hello! both of these issues have been resolved in the latest patches, but thank you for posting them!

 

[Keiko17]

Do you have a list of the music tracks for the battles and overworld?