What's your "must-have" feature when choosing a hack to play?

[BH]

OK here's mine:

1.Hacks of generation 1-3 games
2.Common Eevees in grass since i prefer them as females, but don't mind it now that much
3.Ralts family in generation 1 games (So people made sprites of them, but i haven't found a hack that includes them? I know Gallades can't be in generation 1 as only males can be ones thought)
4.Generation 4 & 6 Eeveelutions optainable before using the national dex in FR/LG/R/S/E/HG/SS
5.Cries for pokemon from generations 4-8 (them having a cries of Bulbasaur or Unown just seems odd), even thought it messes up previous pokemon cries
6.Hacks that don't change the story but only add new pokemon (even thought i enjoy Pokemon Glazed and Pokemon Prism)
7.Child friendly hacks (that's why i stopped playing pokemon adventures red chapter ver 14, too creepy for me)
8.Playing as anime Misty
9.Don't make messed up facts about characters (like why is R/S/E's May an rude girl in shiny gold sigma and Tracey hates Gold/Ethan in Shiny Gold Sigma?)
10.Include fake Eeveelutions (Althought gamefreak eventually add them...in about 20 years that is)

Update

11.Don't make the game harder (that's why i hate about Omega Red)

 

[LucarioBread]

After playing through numerous hacks over the course of over 10 years, I have developed my own taste and while I wouldn't say these are m u s t , I really appreciate them:

Something unique - doesn't have to be huge, but the regular beat 8 gyms and elite four isn't going to cut it for me if it isn't accompanied by either a very unique region or a good story. I guess the exception would be the [Insert game title]+ versions. I do enjoy those if I feel like replaying older games, but want at least something to be a new experience.
Pokemon from all sorts of regions - pretty self-explanatory, I like to make teams I usually wouldn't be able to make in a main series game
Please don't scale the levels - there's a trend both in rom hacks and in fan games to turn up the challenge by making all trainers scale with you. And I hate it. First and foremost, I think it's a very shallow way to increase difficulty - you'll beat the trainers anyways no problem, it's just that it's going to take unnecessarily long and you'll probably need to go back to the Pokemon Center every battle or 2. On top of all that, it removes the feeling of your team becoming more powerful. I'm not saying I'd like to steamroll the game (looking at you Pokemon X), but give me those moments of power from time to time. There are better alternatives to level scaling that don't take that away.

 

[Roni]

Please don't scale the levels - there's a trend both in rom hacks and in fan games to turn up the challenge by making all trainers scale with you. And I hate it. First and foremost, I think it's a very shallow way to increase difficulty - you'll beat the trainers anyways no problem, it's just that it's going to take unnecessarily long and you'll probably need to go back to the Pokemon Center every battle or 2. On top of all that, it removes the feeling of your team becoming more powerful. I'm not saying I'd like to steamroll the game (looking at you Pokemon X), but give me those moments of power from time to time. There are better alternatives to level scaling that don't take that away.

Honestly I wouldn't mind if it was just the boss battles that did this. Rival, Gym Leaders, Pokemon League you name it. I recall there was a fangame where all Gym Leaders scaled to your Pokemon's level so that their main would always be 1 level higher than yours. That was a pretty cool feature to prevent you from being over-leveled & steamroll through the game.

If all trainers throughout the region had this though, then yes I'd see that as a mood-killer.

 

[Kaasbaas]

A must have feature for me:
1. Special/fysical split.
2. No need for a HM slave.
3. Either reusable TM's or the option to buy the most important TM's.
4. improved and more balaced movepools so every pokemon becomes useable.
5. Some way to give me a bit of a challenge. This is diffecult since everything seems to have pros and cons. Smarters opponents are nice, no need to use "leer" on me 4 times.
6. Being able to evolve Pokemon without trading.
7. Being rewarded for exploring. Like finding TM's.

Preferred:
8. Some financial dilemma's. Like making you have to pay for the pokecenter, or making some cool TM's very expensive, pay toll for routes. Reward me for being carefull with my money.
9. Trainer tip signs on every route that tells you what pokemon are available. Then make the special ones hard to find (but youll know that they are so youll be rewarded when you eventually find them).
10. Maybe its because ive played Ash Grey, Orange Island and Advanture Red in a row. But im getting tired of pokemon forced upon me. Advanture Red even has more then 6 pokemon forced upon me. I know Im allowed to not use them but it doesnt feel right to put poliwhirl, bulbasaur, pikachu in the PC and train other pokemon story wise.
11. Early on EXP share or something simular.
12. I prefer either child friendly or serious/mature games. I dont like those "funny" immature games.
13. 151 pokemon can be just enough if you make a lot of them appair in the wild. If you actually scroll through the 151 list most of them are not even obtainable in the wild in Firered. A lot can be won if fully evolved pokemon appear in the wild. Anyway, no need for fake pokemon or 700+ pokemon in a small game to me.

 

[TheAfghanistanMonk]

I really really don't like typical starter pokemon. not sure if its possible to do in a hack, but create regional forms for pokemon.

 

[BH]

I really really don't like typical starter pokemon. not sure if its possible to do in a hack, but create regional forms for pokemon.

I would like an eeveelution starter for once (e.i. choose between Leafeon, Flareon, Vaporeon)

 

[Aurori]

This is going to be a long answer :)

This is what I look for, in a Pokemon Hack:

As I browsed for Pokemon Hacks, my
1st requirement was with which device I could play them. PC, MAC, Ipad, Iphone, any smartphone etc.
My second was that the hack actually had pokemon-y characters, and was not further than +1 Generation away from what I last played (abilities, Special attacks, gear etc).
3rd, I looked for a base minimum of quality. And time wasted on being non-functional through bad emulators etc.
4th: Graphics works.
5th: Theme!! (I see this first, but its only ranked 5th, so I got decieved many times over after finding appealing hacks.)
6th: Sound works
7. some sort of competition exist (battles, speed-racing, nuzlocke or League).
8. A pokemon of my choice follows me : )
9. Depending on mood;
Online Feature; where I see my own unique avatar journey/run past other player's avatars.
10. I can chat through pms with other players and there is a local, Regional & Global Chat.
11. VIP feature: quicker Exp, more cool Avatar Options & more money from trainers. (Avatar remains even after VIP ends) (like 1$ for first time purchase), Then 1$ per month.
12. I pick any starter amongst starters I wish for, and/or can pick Any common pokemon as starter, then uncommon pokemon as starter.)
13.-19. ...
...
...
20. Local, Regional & Global Tournaments every 2 hours (8-64 players in each)
21. Legendary Pokemon are legendary, you can't see everyone having them. Maybe a system causing players to face Events where you earn Legendary Pokemon's respect, and can then have access to up to 3 of these per week.
22. I can progress, trade etc.
There is a regulated mini ingame rotational market for pokemon, gear and quality pokemon. Where you can see Abilities, Natures, IVs, Moves, Historic Move-pool etc by spending a minor ingame-fee.
23. Being able to pump IVs and swap abilities through ingame-currency / and/or through ingame mini-game.

This is what I look for in a Fangame.^
Edit: Oh.. the question was about Pokemon Hacks... ...

 

[kalarie]

@Aurori, are you sure you're talking about ROM Hacks and not Fan Games? Since what you name seems to be very, very ambitious for a Fan Game let alone a ROM Hack.

 

[Aurori]

Ah, you're right.
Although the hacks I enjoyed playing had standard or unique traits on my list 1-8. ^
I rapidly quit any hack which crashed frequently.
So my 1st requirement is:
The hack-creator has access to genuine judgement throughout the process. I feel so compressed otherwise.
It gets repetitive just doing 1.. thing.

Now that I think about it, I am most definately a veeeery picky player.
Sorry if I've accidentally discouraged or confuddled you 🙏

 

[CPT.Fahim]

Not enough gen 2 hacks

 

[BH]

Not enough gen 2 hacks

Oh man, you should try the hacks in early 2000s (that i collected), an user named meowth made many gen 2 hacks (but all of them were short, and had dead ends), but agree, Gen. 1 and 2 were the best gens of pokemon

 

[Nex]

If it has good graphics that all match the same artstyle I can play about anything.

 

[kapparill]

A story that isn't too edgy, and a world map that contains references to the original hack. Also, a tileset that isn't a carbon copy of Generation 4's would be nice.

 

[BH]

Also i have an idea, if there are hacks when we play as an bad guy AND Pokemon Prism when we play as Lance's kid, how about a game based on Adventures's Lance in which we control his kid to make him proud and use our pokemon for pokemon utopia free of human race?

Yeah i know, the humans would not like the idea 😣

 

[Goldikarp]

A speed-up toggle feature and physical/special split. And maybe a solid storyline?

 

[Roni]

A speed-up toggle feature and physical/special split. And maybe a solid storyline?

I mean, don't all GBA games have speed up by default thanks to emulator capabilities? Or are you talking about fan games?

 

[Goldikarp]

I mean, don't all GBA games have speed up by default thanks to emulator capabilities? Or are you talking about fan games?

Yup. I should have mentioned fan games. It's just that due to the pokemon game itself being an RPG style game, without speed ups there's at least a section during the play where the feature seems so needed. Yes some would say that's part of the experiences of playing pokemon but I think players should be given choices to speed up the game when needed.

 

[Roni]

Yup. I should have mentioned fan games. It's just that due to the pokemon game itself being an RPG style game, without speed ups there's at least a section during the play where the feature seems so needed. Yes some would say that's part of the experiences of playing pokemon but I think players should be given choices to speed up the game when needed.

Exactly. Give us the choice at the very least. Those who don't use it are free to do so (and feel highly of themselves or whatever), but for the rest of us who don't wanna sit through 2 hours of grinding or traversing a long ass route, give us that Speedy Gonzales option.

 

[Murcrew]

Solid original maps are a big deal to me. Fans can get so creative and detailed with them in a way that you just don't see in the regular games. That, and I'll be honest, if I have to play one more Firered route I may lose my mind.

 

[Illyasviel]

If I'm playing a game, it needs to not be filled with game-breaking bugs. Some bugs here and there are always expected, but not ones that break the game entirely.

I can't tell you how many times I've played a game that crashes in the same place every time, locking all progress, or has a bug in the postgame that requires you to restart the entire file to fix it.

I've also seen a lot of devs that are reluctant to admit they are wrong when several players report a game-breaking bug. They are more willing to gaslight their supporters than make their game playable and it's sad how often I've seen this happen.