Agreeing with some of the arguments here.
Also bad sprites, I'm currently playing Ruby Destiny Reign of Legends (Yes, I know it's really old but still) and sprites like Monferno, Staraptor, etc are freaking horrible.
This.
I always see promises of "DPP sprites inserted!!!" but all of them turn out the wrong way. You see...
DPP sprite border: 80x80
RSE sprite border: 64x64
So when a DPP sprite manages to fit in 64x64, they just leave it like that. Thus Combee is as big as Charizard.
When it
doesn't fit, they shrink it directly, resulting in
sprites like Monferno, Staraptor, etc are freaking horrible.
Don't be lazy, hackers. I DON'T want to see a Groudon-sized Bidoof or a humongous Cynthia-lookalike in the game I'm playing.
And if you're changing most of them to DPP sprites, do the job thoroughly. I will not tolerate my Dragonite being dwarven when compared to Gastrodon.
**************
One of the most overlooked aspects when hacking, is
storyline versus replayability.
In the official games,
once you finish the game, you can play it again. Which means a different gender, different starter, different team, different routes to take (like GSC), beating gym leaders in a different order (RBY or GSC), and more exploring of sidequests (trick master, contests, bike road time run, collecting ash, feebas).
Many hackers disregard this part of the game, and think: "I must make it more interesting!!ADD STORYLINE!!!"
The game then loses replayability.
Let me use the example of RB: Rescue Rangers. (No offence to DJG, I still look up to you as a hacker.) You start as a Pikachu (minimal gender differences). You get two companions (no choosing, it's Chikorita and Torchic). You
walk through a specific path to advance in the prefixed storyline. Only halfway through the game do you get to recruit Pokemon.
The experience is nice for the first time. But
once you finish playing, you will dump this game in a corner. Why? Because
there's no reason to replay it. If you do, you will have to go through the same freaking stuff for the first half of the game. The only notable differences you can make are: your name, stats, movesets. That's it. This annoys me.
IMO a truly engaging game is one that
magnets you into replaying it over and over again after you've finished. They don't force you to mash A through one script after another- they're a form of
breathing space from everyday life, allowing you to
enjoy your time. This is what I'm looking for in a Pokemon hack, or any game in general.