[Discussion] Which is easier, pokemon essentials or rom hacking?

I have a question, which of the two ways to create a pokemon game is easiest? I've been using pokemon essentials, and there is quite a bit of stuff to learn (the scripting language, switches, lot of other things.) but then I also wonder about hacking and making a rom into my own game. Which one is worth the most time?

comicmast said:

I have a question, which of the two ways to create a pokemon game is easiest? I've been using pokemon essentials, and there is quite a bit of stuff to learn (the scripting language, switches, lot of other things.) but then I also wonder about hacking and making a rom into my own game. Which one is worth the most time?

Click to expand...

Some people find assembly more easier than RGSS, and others not so much. It depends on what you like.

ROM Hacking has the distinct advantage of being a complete engine, and being playable on emulators. But, this makes it prone to bugs and much more limited on what you can do with it, since you have to hack every feature.

I personally like RMXP simply for the mapping engine. I could go on and on about how much I love RMXP's mapping system, but that's just the surface of it's benefits.

Eventing is much easier than scripting in XSE in my opinion. The commands are much more straightforward and you don't have to worry about offsets or free space.

To top it off, RPG Maker allows you to use MP3s and other music formats instead of the pain music hacking is in ROM Hacking, which by the by, is also limited to your instruments and MIDIs.

These are just a few reasons why I do not ROM Hack, and instead use RPG Maker XP. Scripting isn't as hard as you think, it just takes patience and willing to learn it.

Pokemon Essentials is so much easier then ROM editing it's not even funny. You could make a complete game about as feature rich as the GBA games with ~80% copypasting events from the example maps included with Pokemon Essentials. There's a almost complete remapping of all the GB/A games into RMXP too, so you don't even have to do that.

No attack animations, some unfinished abilities and moves, and having to get the Pokemon music yourself are literately the only downsides.

The animations in ROM Hacking are also extremely difficult to change, whereas they are rather simple in RMXP. ^^

Graphics in RMXP is a LOT more simplistic. Everything is organized for you to find and change.

However, I personally found ROM Hacking to a lot easier on the scripting side, simply because the commands are all preset and somewhat confined. Scripting for ROM Hacking is a lot more of a memory game than a complete understanding one.

I personally like the freedom of RMXP and the language is actually a fairly basic one if you have the time and desire to learn it.

Hands down, RMXP is the easiest way for many to design a fangame. You can do things easier in RMXP that could take you forever to achieve in ROM hacking. I have to say, hats off to ROM hackers that complete their games. It's a rather difficult method to game design.

I couldnt grasp Hacking. I switched to RMXP. Much easier to map and event. Scripting may be hard, but it gets easier slowly.

This thread had me looking at Pokemon Dissension when I was doing ROM Hacking.. Total throw back.

I then moved it over to RMXP and it opened up a lot of options graphic wise, but as I was comfortable with ROM scripting and not RGSS, I quickly discovered a new limitation.

It is crazy to look back at those projects to see what skills I picked up and how things like the ROM Hack became what is now Pillars of Destiny.

What is more difficult is purely subjective I think.

I think Pokemon Essentials is a lot easier and user-friendly than rom-hacking.
I was doing rom-hacking for a lot of years, but the fact that the rom always seemed to grow corrupt and the free space searching was too much for me to handle, that's why I moved over to Game Dev.

I personally think if you're just doing it as a little of a hobby or you need the flexibility of being able to change core elements in the game engine, RMXP with Pokemon Essentials is for you.

If you want authenticity, are a little more serious about the game, want it to be able to be played on a real GBA or NDS and you aren't bothered by the restrictions of the graphics engine, Rom Hacking is for you.

Buy RMXP. Don't waste your cash on VX or Ace. They are horrible in compassion (to XP). I like XP more than rom hacking because XP allows me to make a few mistakes that I could quickly fix (as opposed to ROM Hacking where I would need to use multiple programs to create a full game.)
RMXP is an all in one program.

Fading Tree said:

Buy RMXP. Don't waste your cash on VX or Ace. They are horrible in compassion (to XP). I like XP more than rom hacking because XP allows me to make a few mistakes that I could quickly fix (as opposed to ROM Hacking where I would need to use multiple programs to create a full game.)
RMXP is an all in one program.

Click to expand...

Why does everyone hate on VX Ace? The only bad thing is the new mapping style. I've used both and I honestly like Ace better. The perfect RPG Maker for me is Ace mechanics and XP mapping.