That's right, I made that joke.
So what's new?
Actually, This One Goes To 649
- Aha! That's right, Gen 5 has finally infiltrated Essentials. In before "it's about time!". As well as that, the DNA Splicers now have an effect, which means you can fuse Pokémon as much as you like. Other Pokémon-related improvements include a reworking of ribbons, a customisable obtain location phrase, and a way to make any wild Pokémon a fatefully encountered one.
- You're being given something, but you don't know what it is. A Mystery Gift, if you will. Yes, Essentials now has that. You start off by creating a Pokémon using the improved debug options (or get an item, which can also be Mystery Gifts), and then export it to a Master Gifts file. From there, you can choose which gifts to export to a Gift file for you to upload. You can now also upload .txt files to the wiki, which is very convenient (although unsecure as anyone could change it). In fact, there's already an example gift file there, so fill in a questionnaire at the Mart and download it!
- That's right, seven new mini-games! I should admit, though, that they're all variations on a theme - they're all tile puzzles. Pop into Rock Cave on Route 7 to try them out. Special thanks to the__end for creating the graphics, which include a special set of tiles featuring a certain legendary feline. I've heard whispers there may be even more sets of tiles to come...
- Here's a list of the puzzles: Alph (the classic Unown-related tile jigsaw from Johto), Alph Rotator (the same but you can also rotate the tiles), Mystic Square (a 15 puzzle), Tile Swap (swap two adjacent tiles at a time), Tile Swap Rotator (the same plus tile rotations), Rubik's Square (shift an entire row or column along at once), Star Rotator (rotate a tile and all adjacent tiles will also rotate).
- The first batch of animations to come out of the All Animations Project have been added. Hopefully this will be the start of something big. While I was at it, I thought I'd fix a bug which prevented these new animations from being imported properly. Oh, and when you export an animation, you can now give it a custom filename. Which is nice.
- Many other changes, including tweaks to the example maps (check out the all-new Daisy's house in Lappet Town) and tilesets. Large maps can now appear properly on the Town Map. Partner trainers let you deal with single battles rather than try to get in on the action. You can now list as many Regional Dexes as you like in the Pokédex as the list now scrolls (and is 1 longer anyway). NPC trainers can now stuff their pockets with as many items as they want, although they can't use the exact same item on both their battlers at once. Gengar can now Curse with the best of them. Customised trainer events no longer erase your hard work. If you type some text in via the keyboard, that text is now exactly what you typed. And so on and so forth.
As usual, check out the change log on the wiki for a complete list of changes.
Enjoy!
