(I meant for Politoed to be in the Shinies picture instead of Hitmonlee, because I didn't want to include the Shinies that are just handed to you (and Hitmonlee was my Odd Egg) but eh. It's fine. You get it.)
The Hall of Fame picture is for their second phase. I didn't have much trouble with them, only wiped once to a High Jump Miss on Karen (again) and her powered up Houndoom sweeping the team. Didn't even need to restock on items and pulled from the leftover Revives and Hyper Potions from the first phase of the Elite Four. Mismagius was definitely my MVP, and waiting for Nasty Plot before evolving was definitely the right call. I'd wait for an opening and then Nasty Plot up and sweep, which worked for everyone but Karen. I normally don't use boosting moves in the vanilla games because the AI (between their lower levels and idiocy) tends to fall all over itself when you boost and sweep. Here, however, not only will the AI boost and sweep you the first chance it gets, but it also seems to try to counter your sweep by going for a faster Pokemon for a revenge kill. I feel justified in giving those Trainers a taste of their own medicine. Misses seem to be my bane, and normally a miss for boss Trainers means a significant momentum loss that normally leads to a wipe. And I miss a lot, with High Jump Kick, Gunk Shot on Muk, and Rock Slide on Aerodactyl. I shudder to think how many wipes I'd have if I taught Aerodactyl Stone Edge instead.
But let me back up...
Last time, I was whining that I fell out of the curve and was having a hard time in Kanto. I maintained my old team while unlocking all the towns in Kanto for flight, and used them to beat Blaine and capture my first Moltres. When I went back to Vermillion and merged back into the intended curve, I noticed that my team composition and move distribution were making things pretty difficult. My bulky Pokemon seemed like dead weight, as they could still be 2HKO'd and weren't powerful enough to take good enough chunks out of the higher-leveled Trainer Pokemon. So I scrapped most of the team and started looking through my boxes for alternatives. I never use Legendaries (not that I had a ton at this point) and needed a team with a well-rounded type spread and decent coverage moves to exploit weaknesses and resistances. I knew that I had to keep Misdreavus (I mean, come on) and Hitmonlee's High Jump Kick was too powerful to miss out on. So I pulled my Aerodactyl from Pewter (sick of not having a Fly-er on the team) out of my box, a Magneton from outside the Power Plant, a Muk from Route 18 (that I didn't have to train to my old team's level 55, thankfully) and started looking for a Poliwhirl outside of the Power Plant to evolve into Politoed. It was there that I found a shiny Poliwag, and decided to raise him for that sweet Water/Grass goodness. After some super fast grinding south of Blackthorn and some TMs, I had my level 55 team that I took to the Elite Four's second phase.
I had no trouble with the Kanto Gym Leaders with my new team. In between Gyms, I battled every Trainer on every Kanto route in the appropriate order to keep up with the Gym Leaders. I did beat Erika before Misty to get Politoed Giga Drain, but Muk and Aerodactyl tore her team up. I even accidentally challenged Agatha without being healed up and made quick work of her with some clever strategizing. After beating Blue, I went back to Seafoam and caught my first Articuno. I then presented my Old Sea Map to the ferryman in Vermilion and caught a Mew, but I cheated by bringing along a level 10 Magikarp and forcing Mew to Transform into it. I then caught it with a single Ultra Ball at full health. The authenticity of Faraway Island was great, and I appreciated the tile animations for puddles and Hoenn grass that you put in. Alas, I was hoping for a dungeon, but it's cool. Afterwards, I headed straight for the League, which you know what happened in. Incidentally, I was looking forward to the League's second phase, because I was interested in what you'd have them say after beating them once, but all the text was the same. Was pretty disappointed there.
I headed straight to Pallet after I loaded my save to gain entry to Mt. Silver, and man, was I surprised when Oak asked to battle! It was the perfect place to put in the Oak battle that we've all wondered about since it was discovered in RBY, and just made so much sense. Really good idea, and I liked the extra lore afterward about him allowing Red to go to Mt. Silver to train after his first defeat as Champion. Oak was tough because he was so overleveled compared to my party, but I managed to barely snag a win. His levels made me nervous for Red, though.
And then I hit Mt. Silver and was immediately walloped by the wild Pokemon there. The curve skipped 10 levels, it seems, from the Elite Four's second phase to here. I used my Lucky Egg and superspeed to bring my party up from ~66 to 75 outside of the Pokemon Center in preparation for Red. I caught two Shiny Arbok here almost back-to-back while training. Headed into Mt. Silver (thank you for not requiring Flash) and my first encounter was a 75 Pupitar, who I caught, went right back out, and Rare Candied into a Tyranitar. I meant to leave Tyranitar at the Pokemon Center, but accidentally left Hitmonlee and brought him along for Red. It worked out though, as Tyranitar tanked Pikachu's Iron Tail and pulled off a last ditch Earthquake to pretty much painlessly kill off his first Pokemon. I did wipe once on Red, to a last stand Gyarados sweep I think. While Pikachu has to be there and is sort-of a free kill if you're fast enough, Omastar was literally one shot by Giga Drain. I think Red would be harder if you replaced Omastar with something that doesn't have a 4x weakness to a type, as Charizard is already eaten by Rocks (though he did tank a Rock Slide hit). I switched in Mismagius when Espeon went out (his 3rd mon after Pikachu and Omastar), Shadow Balled it to half health, and then Red switched in Snorlax who could literally do nothing but Curse at me while I Nasty Plotted up in his face and swept what I was faster than with Psychic/Shadow Ball. Maybe give Snorlax a move other than Double-Edge to make him a threat to every type.
After beating Red, he handed me a MysticTicket and didn't roll the credits, and I was thoroughly confused. Wasn't this the final boss? Didn't I just beat this hack? Why would Navel Rock be in when we can already catch Ho-oh and Lugia? Was naming your children after colors a fad that swept Pallet Town 13 years ago?
I went right to Vermillion and headed to Navel Rock. After Surfing around and catching, like, level 80 Tentacruel and Starmie (Wonder Trade fodder was my first thought after seeing those levels) I wandered into the cave. Found a Sacred Ash (!) and a second Master Ball (!!) on the way to the ladder. Noticed that there was no ladder going down, and was more confused. What could be up there? I headed to the top theorizing on what it could be. If not Ho-oh, then some other Legendary Pokemon? I saw meteorites near Pewter, was Deoxys moved here? When I made it to the peak, I was literally like, "No way," out loud when I saw Leaf (named Green now). I was not expecting a secret superboss at all, and was like, "Welp, I guess I'll try this out with my mid-70s and see how it goes." Saved and talked to her. Just to note, when I wiped, I softreset to try again. I wanted us to beat Green as we were, and didn't want wipe levels to push us over. I knew that with some strategy I could beat her.
Green was definitely a hard wall. It didn't help that it seemed like she had a built in Serene Grace and Super Luck happening, as I would reset if she froze or crit my Magnezone with Ice Beam on the first or second turn. Spoiler alert, I reset. A lot. Light Screen from Magnezone let me take out Lapras with little fanfare, then I switched to Aerodactyl for Moltres who I would kill in two Rock Slides (which would also miss and wipe me occasionally). Venusaur was Muk fodder, as it preferred to use Growth as I nuked it with Gunk Shot (more than two misses on Gunk Shot and it was a wipe) and I would sometimes get unlucky and be killed or put to Sleep before Muk finished it off. In those situations, I'd switch to Aerodactyl and revenge kill with Fly. Muk would take care of Sylveon with two Poison Jabs after a Hitmonlee sacrifice to Hyper Potion/Max Revive it. Aerodactyl was just mean. I'm glad it didn't have a boosting move, because that would've been awful. I had to use Politoed, who would get one Surf in before being 2HKO'd, and Mismagius who would finish with Shadow Ball. If either of them flinched from Rock Slide, it was a wipe. Then Mew. Oh god, Mew. Mew alone wiped me a good 20-25 times. I made sure Mismagius was full health (I consistently had three Pokemon alive by this point) for Mew, who would always Nasty Plot first turn. I'd hit it with a Shadow Ball, and if I didn't get the Special Defense drop, it was a wipe. When it eviscerated Mismagius before my very eyes with Psychic, I'd switch to a sacrifice to heal/Max Revive Magnezone. Mew Dark Pulsed Magnezone to 1-35HP and crit often (which was an instant wipe) or flinched (which was also a wipe) as Magnezone tried to put up a Light Screen. If I got the Light Screen up, I would Max Potion back to full health. I needed to get in two Thunderbolts before the Light Screen went down to win, and had to deal with the BS crits and flinches, if either happened it was a wipe. Those Thunderbolts didn't happen. What pushed me over Green was a crit from a Mismagius Shadow Ball on my last attempt. That brought me from two Thunderbolts to win to just one Thunderbolt to win. I sacced a Pokemon to bring in full health Magnezone again, the stars aligned and I got up the Light Screen and hit with the Thunderbolt, which ALSO CRIT, taking down Mew and rolling the credits.
I was very, very impressed. That was probably the most satisfying win I've ever had with an NPC Trainer in all of Pokemon.
I went into Rock Tunnel (which was the only place in Kanto that I left untouched because screw Flash) and caught Zapdos. I wandered around Victory Road looking for the Silver Wing, but couldn't find it. I even put the birds in my party and got nothing! Then I realized, I beat the League's second phase before you updated the respawn logic for the Legendaries, so I went back to Cinnabar Volcano and Seafoam Islands and recaught Articuno and Moltres. I'm curious; Articuno was technically my last bird catch, does Lawrence come up to you as well if Moltres or Zapdos are your last catches? What does he say in each case? He mentioned being unable to find Moltres to me and to meet him in its last known roost in Victory Road, but I can't imagine he'd say the same thing after he watched me catch Moltres first-hand. Anyway, I followed him to Victory Road and beat him so thoroughly he probably wet himself. Then I went and grabbed Lugia. Again, Lugia's chamber seems to have the wrong music. After that, I explored Cerulean Cave and caught Mewtwo. Then did the Celebi event, which was neat and good thinking. I didn't try, but if I traded that Pichu back into Wonder Trade, would I get the same Pokemon I traded for it back to complete the paradox? Then, I had to catch Entei a second time and my first Raikou. It took me an hour, and Raikou was a little asshole the whole time. Then I went up and caught Ho-Oh. Liked the music on top of Bell Tower, nice touch. After that I noticed that I still needed, like, 6 Pokemon to have seen them all, so I spent half an hour catching the last Pokemon I needed (Ledian) and evolving Electabuzz, Magmar, Yanma, Gligar, and Rhydon. I own 151, and I've seen em all.
Unless I've missed something, I seem to have beaten the hack. I'm not interested in actually completing the Pokedex, but when I realized that I was so close to seeing them all, I had to finish. I just need to explore the entirety of Yellow Forest and find Quiet Cave now.
As for your additions in Kanto, I can't say enough good things. Once I merged back into the curve, I had an okay time. It
sort of sucked that I felt that I had to scrap my party to continue, but I did enjoy playing with my new team, so I'm not sure. Without superspeed, training a new party would've been ridiculously time consuming, and my impression of Kanto probably would've been skewed if I was locked into 100% speed the entire game. The new building of the Dept. Store was a pleasant surprise, and it's good to have a money dump this late. Did you change Cerulean's music? If so, I'm not a fan of this particular arrangement. The extra Snorlax was unexpected. I suppose it's good to get another free, strong level 60 Pokemon basically the second you get the Power Plant going again.
Cinnabar Volcano was great. I loved the tiles and the puzzles, but I feel like it was a big missed opportunity. When I got in there, I was hoping for it to be a bigger dungeon. It seemed like I found Moltres in like two seconds and was done. There really isn't anything else like the Volcano in the game, so I was hoping you'd take that motif for everything it was worth and make the dungeon bigger and more treacherous. Seafoam Islands seemed fine, and because we already have Ice Path, it didn't need to be big and punishing. Cerulean Cave was great. Pretty standard as far as Cerulean Cave goes. The layout seemed unfamiliar to me though (which was a good thing), did you do it yourself or lift it from HGSS? I was also expecting Mt. Moon to be bigger. Or at least have the option to go off the path and stumble down into old Mt. Moon. Viridian Forest was... well... Viridian Forest. Not much to say about it.
The Safari Zone though. Great idea to just leave it open and let players explore it. I was only in there for a short period of time (because I explored it when I was out of the curve and severely underleveled) but I couldn't seem to find the Surf house at the end. Did I just goof and miss it or is it no longer there? The Trainers in there were a surprise, but a welcome one. The Safari Zone would've felt sad and empty without them. Is there any hope of porting the Safari Game over from Pokered and maybe opening it back up as post-Green postgame? With the Safari Warden bringing back super powerful level 80+ rare Pokemon to catch? That'd be fun and definitely a wild addition for the player to be able to play through.
I don't think I'm missing anything else that was added. I do have to say that the jump between the 2nd phase of the League and Red was very big, and without superspeed it would've been really prohibitive time-wise to grind out those ten levels on my six Pokemon. I may have been able to beat him with my mid-60s team, but then I'd've had to grind hardcore for Green anyway. Maybe lower everything post-2nd wave by 5 levels, just to keep things sane. That still puts Green's Mew at 94, which is really high. That's my only suggestion as far as the curve goes. Everything else was golden. I didn't utilize the Dojo rematches to train, but I suspect that they wouldn't have been enough without timeskipping to grab many multiple rematches in a day.
Let me just say that the hack was phenomenal, and I don't think that I'll be able to go back to vanilla Gen 2 again after this. It was that good. Definitely the remake that Gen 2 deserved, and fixed all of the problems I had with GSC (and some that I didn't know I had!). Kanto was satisfying, the surprises kept me guessing, the additions felt natural, and it was just epic from start to finish. I'll be recommending this to anyone who might be interested. Thank you for your hard work, it definitely paid off.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, Cinnabar Mansion was awesome. Really good use of that area and the item at the end was a great reward for exploring. Loved how destroyed it was, the motif was on point. Good job!
