Many rom hacks feel kinda bloated

[Libelldrian]

The first Drayano hack I played was Renegade Platinum and I really enjoyed it (probably because Gen 4 are my favourite games).

I started to play Firered Omega a couple of days ago and noticed that the game is completely overrun with Pokémon. I'm not even at the second gym and had already 100 Pokémon encounters. I feel like this is the only mayor issue with Drayano's games - so many Pokémon are available from the get go that it doesn't feel like you are playing the original game anymore.

I'm not saying it isn't valid game design, everybody can put stuff into their rom hacks however they like and many people enjoy Drayano's hacks for good reason, but I generally feel that rom hackers get tempted to much by making so many Pokémon available. Another example is Inclement Emerald which is a fantastic difficulty hack, but includes so many Pokémon, I think up to Gen 7 or so.

 

[klue44]

I keep seeing people say this and I genuinely don't understand it.

One of the things I always wanted as a kid was to play a Pokemon game that had all of them. I wanted to catch them all.

People keep saying it's a lot of different things to catch, and it's not like the vanilla games, and all I can think of is "Yeah, that's good." I honestly don't understand why people want to keep seeing the same Pokemon popping up over and over again.

You mentioned a hundred encounters, that means you had a hundred *different* encounters. You had *variety*. Which is exactly the kind of thing I want from a Pokemon game. I don't want a bajillion zubats and geodudes, I want to see a bunch of different Pokemon.

I mean, really, trainer battles in most of these games are trivial, so there's no actual challenge to get through a route, which makes most of them boring gameplay wise. Having a whole bunch of Pokemon to catch actually creates something to do beyond grind through 5-6 trainers all with the same basic teams.

Now its "How many different Pokemon can you catch while making your way from point a to point b."

And I like that. I like that *a lot.* It's exactly what I've always wanted from these games.

 

[Sake-Kun]

I'm not saying it isn't valid game design, everybody can put stuff into their rom hacks however they like and many people enjoy Drayano's hacks for good reason, but I generally feel that rom hackers get tempted to much by making so many Pokémon available. Another example is Inclement Emerald which is a fantastic difficulty hack, but includes so many Pokémon, I think up to Gen 7 or so.

You have summarized pretty well the reasons why I have been holding off on jumping into more of these romhacks. Call me spoiled by the greats of fan projects I've played before from various communities like Prism, B3313 or SRB2.2 all you want, nowadays when I look for these fan-created experiences, I often tend to seek projects that have creative touch, intent & effort beyond just being a dream match title.

There's nothing wrong with the approach for those who just want "X but more", it just doesn't sate my appetite anymore personally.

 

[Corveone]

Both approaches have their pros and cons.

A smaller, smartly crafted custom dex gives a rom hack more "personality" (especially if it's a game that takes place in a fan-made region). It also feels more natural, having 700+ Pokémon crammed into a region that was designed to have like 200-300 species doesn't feel right.

A "full" Gen 1-7 or 8 dex gives players every Pokémon available. This is very valuable in high-difficulty rom hacks where you're expected to experiment and come up with more elaborate strategies to defeat powerful or gimmick "bosses". It may feel bloated and generic, but helps in this kind of games.

This is an example of something I've noticed in full dex rom hacks:

Route 1: Rattata, Zigzagoon, Bidoof
Route 2: Sentret, Bunnelby, Yungoos
Route 3: Alolan Rattata, Patrat, Skwovet

And the same applies to other "stereotypes" (The regional birds, the early game bugs, the Rock-shaped mons inside the first cave, the Ghosts in the cemetery or whatever spooky area the game has, etc.)

So, does a game need all those regional rodents that at the end you're likely not going to see in anyone's Hall of Fame?

Honestly, in a more casual oriented, or story focused rom hack, no, it's just unnecessary bloat. Variety is nice, but you don't need so many Pokémon filling so similar roles, especially when that variety also means tons of massively overpowered Pokémon and Megas to choose from, that will easily outclass the weaker, early game, niche, or less meta Pokémon.

In a high difficulty rom hack... that's a different story. You might at some point have a cool strategy to win a difficult battle, and it happens that specifically Diggersby is the Pokémon you need for that strategy to work. So that kind of games do somewhat justify the need for a complete dex, they also usually require players assembling a full team early on, and use more Pokémon than you'd normally use, as opposed to an official game or a light difficulty rom hack where you can breeze through the early game with just your starter and one or two more Pokémon.