Deokishisu
Mr. Magius
- 990
- Posts
- 18
- Years
- If I'm online, it's a safe bet I'm at a computer.
- Seen May 13, 2024
Just beat Lance and entered the Hall of Fame. Phew was that a good set of battles!
Minor bug, when I received the Sandstorm TM in the house outside Tohjo Falls, I experienced a text overflow.
As for feedback so far... The level curve is fantastic! Seriously, this was how G/S/C should've done their curve. Very steady, but a good difficulty level. Never impossible, never unfair, just right. I really appreciate that. My battles felt like a steady climb up the curve from the Rocket Takeover of the Radio Tower on, and every battle had something that could trip me up and make me lose a Pokemon. The early Gym Leaders were more challenging than their vanilla counterparts, but not by much, which kept them from being hard walls. They didn't fall over at a glance, but didn't gleefully murder you on turn one, which was nice. My first boss wipe was Morty and his somehow-100%-accurate Hypnosis/Dream Eater combo. I then wiped multiple times in Victory Road (love love love the Elders you put in there, really good challenge and perfect for that part of the game), and 3 times to my Rival at the end of the cave. My Hi Jump Kick kept crashing, and I would lose to his powered up Weavile. I was underleveled when I hit the League, and wiped maybe 7-8 times going through. 40 Hyper Potions, Revives, and the experience from those failures pushed me over Karen (who I again wiped to Hi Jump Kick missing and her Swords Dance'd Weavile sweeping the team like 6 times) and from there my Ice Beam Lanturn tank tore through Lance for the Championship title. Arbok did pretty much nothing the whole League, and I'm considering replacing her if she can't shape up. I raised her because I've never played with an Arbok before, but I suspect the cobra's better in games where it gets Intimidate. My Odd Egg Hitmonlee and Golem were definitely my MVPs of the League. Also, if you're wondering, I have a Dusk Stone but I'm waiting for Nasty Plot before using it.
Extra Trainers like the cameo battle after Suicune (who I one shot with 6 Poison Jabs courtesy of Arbok), and the familiar face in Ice Path were welcome additions and felt natural. Extra optional bosses are always great and these were executed well. Extra generic Trainers like in Ice Path and Victory Road that should've been there in the original were also appreciated, and helped keep the level curve sane.
I originally was going to go with the Faithful patch, but decided to go with the standard patch and play with all of those changes, and I'm glad that I did. Having to beware of Pokemon like Sunflora was a fun experience, and things aren't changed so severely that you have to relearn the whole game. Fairy made Meganium a bit difficult to handle for the later Rocket portions, but made him tankier overall and granted him a great coverage move after Suicune with Dazzling Gleam. I figured with the increased difficulty, I'd try out the punching bag starter (over my beloved Totodile), and it worked out well for me. Other than Meganium, I didn't take advantage of the type changes, though if Misdreavus was left late game, I would've gone for Ghost-type Ninetales. Would probably have picked up Sunflora had I picked Totodile as well.
Lyra was a great rival, and is so much more enjoyable here than in her HGSS appearances. I don't really have much else to comment on with her, other than that I hope to see her doing something in Kanto.
As for the extra areas you added, I loved all the areas west of Cianwood. The Rocket event, again, was perfectly placed and reinforced the pacing in that section of the game where in the original the pacing between Chuck and Jasmine was bad. I was also super excited for the cameo Trainers that came in during that event on the bridge. Was not expecting them to show up at all, and was happy that they did. I haven't fully explored Yellow Forest, but I did run into an issue around here. If you don't have any Poke Balls when you get to Cianwood and don't have a Flying-type Pokemon yet (like I didn't) you have to Surf all the way back to Olivine for Balls, and you won't be able to use Fly to get off the island and back to the mainland right away. It was very annoying to basically have to skip catching Pokemon around there because of my blunder. Perhaps have someone sell Pokeballs at Yellow Forest's reception gate or in Cliff Cave or something? Even if they're sold at a higher price than normal because you're so far out in the wilderness, it would be appreciated.
I didn't like the Ecruteak Shrine, mostly because I think the Shrine Maiden should be a generic Kimono Girl and not a named NPC who supposedly has lore behind her. I'm also a little put-off by the blessing mechanic there, as I don't think that sort of religious reference would've been allowed had this been a legit Game Freak game and it broke my suspension of disbelief. Perhaps the Shrine Maiden could massage the Pokemon instead with incenses or something, and the happiness gained could depend on the incense she happened to have that day like how the Haircut Brothers raise happiness by different values. The map itself was gorgeous though, and it's a great little area despite my gripes.
I didn't realize Goldenrod Harbor was there until I was almost done with the Radio Tower event, but it was definitely a neat little area. I surfed around and explored the whole thing, and it's a welcome addition. Being able to buy room decorations was sorely needed in this game. Not everyone has friends with GBCs to Mystery Gift with, Game Freak!
Cherrygrove Bay was cool. Didn't know that that was there either until I was messing around near Union Cave getting Lapras and stumbled across it. It's nice to have that connection for a quicker way back to civilization from that Route than heading all the way back up to Violet City. It's meh, but in the good and natural feeling way. Like it belonged there.
Generic tileset changes in Ecruteak, Bellchime Trail, Olivine, and Cherrygrove were welcome changes and served to make the areas much prettier. Again, how Game Freak did not think to make these areas stick out a little more with simple palette swaps of existing trees, we'll never know. These changes also felt mostly natural. However, if you look at the Olivine Lighthouse, the island it's on is a higher elevation than the beach, yet a bridge connects the island to the beach with no increase in elevation and it looks awkward. Either the lighthouse needs to be the same elevation as the beach, or there needs to be steps, or something.
Minor changes, like multiple berries from a tree and the clock reset being straightforward and not requiring a passcode were appreciated as well. But, I do think that something needs to be done about Apricorns. You can get a bunch of them from trees, like berries, but they're worthless all but once a day (and even so, you can only get rid of one stack) and serve to take up a significant amount of bag space. Maybe the count of the Apricorns you're holding could be stored in variables instead of being actual items and Kurt's script could read that instead of from the bag? Kurt is also pretty inconvenient. Could he make the balls instantly and then rest until the next day? Or perhaps allow him to take all of your Apricorns at once and hand you all the kinds of balls he's made for you the next day (which would alleviate Apricorn bag space issues. You would make a loop for the Apricorn Trees and then hand them all in at once at the start of the day). I also think that Oran Berry trees should mature midgame and instead grow Sitrus Berries, as Oran berries become worthless very quickly. To prevent getting stuck on making MooMoo well, the option to feed it Sitrus Berries or Oran Berries would work, with Sitrus making it more healthy than Oran. Perhaps the more worthless status healer berry trees (Like the ones that cure Freeze or Burn; at least Freeze) could mature into Lum Berry trees lategame as well. These are small changes, but have a big impact on player quality of life. Also, if it's possible to reallocate total bag space to give the Items Pocket even one more slot, it would be appreciated. Like, there are only 11 varieties of Poke Balls in the game, so why not shrink the Poke Balls Pocket down to 11 slots and give the extra to the Items Pocket? I have plot coupons (like the Basement Key, Clear Bell, and Card Key) sitting in my Key Items Pocket taking up space that could also go into the Items Pocket. Perhaps plot coupons could break or be taken after use so that precious space could be reallocated to the Items Pocket.
The Thief system for tutors seemed cool, but I didn't partake. I found that I was powerful enough without the tutor moves, and didn't want to stop the action to farm leaves. Perhaps I'll come across a must-have in Kanto that I'll want to horde leaves for, but as of right now I'm passing on the feature.
All in all, this hack is amazing so far. Definitely not what I was expecting, in a good way. It's given me a whole new opinion on the Gen 2 games, is a better "remake" than HGSS, and is probably one of my favorite hacks. The additions seem natural and fit in perfectly well with the rest of the setting (save the Shrine Maiden), while making Johto seem more vibrant and more alive than ever. I have high hopes for Kanto, and am looking forward to digging in tomorrow to check it out.
Keep up the good work, and thanks for putting up with my vague bug reports!
EDIT: Oh, also, mandatory shiny mention. Other than the Odd Egg Tyrogue (now Hitmonlee) and that Egg that I traded the Red Scale for, I caught a shiny Geodude in the Rocket Hideout beneath Mahogany and a shiny Rattata while revisiting the Route under Violet to grab a Lapras in Union Cave.
EDIT2: Also, the Waterfall HM's OW in Ice Path was red instead of blue. I know that TMs are now blue, and I don't know if the only HM found in the OW is intended to be red, but I think that it should be blue.
EDIT3: Almost forgot, the Rocket Executive sprites are... very unflattering. Perhaps, in your free time, you could take a stab at respriting them. Archer is perfect, but Petrel is pretty bad, Proton is disproportionate, and Ariana needs to be tweaked a bit.
Last edited:
