Emerald hack: POCKET MONSTERS SCALE X FANG (DEMO v1.0.2)

[MuddyShadows]

The anti-speed up measure is quite possibly the most insanely stupid feature I've ever seen anyone put in any game, ever. And I've played Superman 64.

If someone wants to read the dialogue, they'll read the dialogue. If your game relies so intensely on someone reading the dialogue that you'd do this then it probably should just be a visual novel. Meanwhile I'd just like to run faster, as someone points out above it's useful for running back to the Pokemon Centre to heal, and in many ROM hacks the balance is all out of wack so it becomes quite a frequent trek.

Please do not include anti-quality of life features.

Edit: And while I'm on QoL issues:
- Use a cog icon to show the options menu. It's neat that you're trying something different here, but when changing the UI it needs to actually be more readable than the original to be worth it.
- The main menu blends into the background in the starting building
- The game sometimes hangs randomly

Someone shared this on Discord (how to fast-forward this game with mGBA): https://files.catbox.moe/ygosff.webm

 

[Davy Gravy]

Um, which server on the Scale x Fang Discord site lets you know where a wild Pokemon is??? I was looking for a Nuttail. Can this Pokemon only be found in honey trees???

 

[Safr]

Just finished the demo. My impression is although short the demo is pretty good, chosing gen 3 graphics make the game looks minimalist yet also beautiful

it's been pretty long time not seeing any room hack with new region and story, most of it being dropped, i hope someday this will be completed, please stay healthy and stay safe

 

[RenElite]

If my anti-speedup makes the game unplayable for you, you're free to play a different game

YOU'RE anti speed-up? Last time I checked, Skeli was the one who did this code, imagine having the audacity to claim that its yours despite being not. Him specifically told me how to bypass this questionable game design decision, which btw, can be avoided if you guys just implemented a quest log. It's funny that ocean questioned a poster about not knowing what an RPG is, yet he seems to be the one not in the know as quest logs are implemented for people who just want the gameplay in RPGs, and not care about the story and dialogue, which is funnily enough is not even that good.

 

[HamishS]

YOU'RE anti speed-up? Last time I checked, Skeli was the one who did this code, imagine having the audacity to claim that its yours despite being not. Him specifically told me how to bypass this questionable game design decision, which btw, can be avoided if you guys just implemented a quest log. It's funny that ocean questioned a poster about not knowing what an RPG is, yet he seems to be the one not in the know as quest logs are implemented for people who just want the gameplay in RPGs, and not care about the story and dialogue, which is funnily enough is not even that good.

How would you know the story is bad if you sped up and autofired through all of it?
Also, *Your

 

[manta]

YOU'RE anti speed-up? Last time I checked, Skeli was the one who did this code, imagine having the audacity to claim that its yours despite being not.

Hamish wrote the anti-speedup code.

Him specifically told me how to bypass this questionable game design decision, which btw, can be avoided if you guys just implemented a quest log.

Quest logs have nothing to do with anti speedup.

It's funny that ocean questioned a poster about not knowing what an RPG is, yet he seems to be the one not in the know as quest logs are implemented for people who just want the gameplay in RPGs, and not care about the story and dialogue, which is funnily enough is not even that good.

Quest logs are used to track the progress of side-quests in RPGs, which often have their own plot-lines. I have no idea what you're trying to say here.

You should probably think about what you're saying before you say it. You do have the mentality of someone who uses speed up, which is to rush through things without doing your due diligence.

 

[RenElite]

Hamish wrote the anti-speedup code.


Quest logs have nothing to do with anti speedup.


Quest logs are used to track the progress of side-quests in RPGs, which often have their own plot-lines. I have no idea what you're trying to say here.

You should probably think about what you're saying before you say it. You do have the mentality of someone who uses speed up, which is to rush through things without doing your due diligence.

A certain game called Pokemon Unbound, applied quest log also to the main story, maybe you should try that instead of limiting choices to the player. Even games like Final Fantasy (later titles at least) tells you where to fucking go even without reading the dialogue. You literally have zero idea how painful it is to grind new members in your game due to the aforementioned backtracking and no speed up. I found it funny that a story driven game like Pokemon Reborn allows me to use speed up while I digest the story, and that game is even more dialogue heavy, and mind you I fucking care about that game's story despite playing in fast forward, while also respecting the player's time in terms of the grind. Literally the grinding is the biggest problem of this game right now due to how of a slog fest it is, making a new team member up to speed to the old ones is so fucking shit. Also tell hamish that I played the game on the intended speed first before the fast forward bypass is out, and yes the dialogue is fucking horrendous. I had high expectations for this hack, but its looking like this is gonna be average compared to fakemon giants like Vega and Clover.

EDIT: Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Ruby Destiny:Life of Guardians implemented a system that guides players where to go, and that game is story focused as well. Despite being a hack from 2011, they found a way to tell people to read the dialogue (by making it actually good) and at the same time not making the grind a slog fest.

 

[manta]

A certain game called Pokemon Unbound, applied quest log also to the main story, maybe you should try that instead of limiting choices to the player. Even games like Final Fantasy (later titles at least) tells you where to fucking go even without reading the dialogue. You literally have zero idea how painful it is to grind new members in your game due to the aforementioned backtracking and no speed up. I found it funny that a story driven game like Pokemon Reborn allows me to use speed up while I digest the story, and that game is even more dialogue heavy, and mind you I fucking care about that game's story despite playing in fast forward, while also respecting the player's time in terms of the grind. Literally the grinding is the biggest problem of this game right now due to how of a slog fest it is, making a new team member up to speed to the old ones is so fucking shit. Also tell hamish that I played the game on the intended speed first before the fast forward bypass is out, and yes the dialogue is fucking horrendous. I had high expectations for this hack, but its looking like this is gonna be average compared to fakemon giants like Vega and Clover.

EDIT: Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Ruby Destiny:Life of Guardians implemented a system that guides players where to go, and that game is story focused as well. Despite being a hack from 2011, they found a way to tell people to read the dialogue (by making it actually good) and at the same time not making the grind a slog fest.

Any examples of poor dialogue? You can learn where to go by engaging with the game. I don't make games for people who just want to turn their brain off, sorry buddy.

 

[RenElite]

Any examples of poor dialogue? You can learn where to go by engaging with the game. I don't make games for people who just want to turn their brain off, sorry buddy.

Yes and a lot of games like Unbound and Reborn I use my brain and actually read the dialogue, yet they don't have to turn off the speed up so grinding would actually be tolerable. In your game, grinding is nothing short of inconvenient and borderline unfun. Also example of poor dialogue? Well the prime example is the first encounter with the female rival, she literally doesn't talk like a normal person, like I found myself cringing hard when I red the dialogue, same with the male rival, which is even more of worst offender due to the MC provoking him for no reason at ALL. Why do you keep dodging the grinding problem tho? Is it because disrespecting the player's time and choice for easy grinding part of your dictum?

 

[manta]

Why do you keep dodging the grinding problem tho? Is it because disrespecting the player's time and choice for easy grinding part of your dictum?

You don't need to grind, there's an Exp. Share for a reason which will help new captures level up. Mons are also strong enough to be useful even when slightly underlevelled. In fact when testing the demo I avoided wilds for the most part and fought all Trainers and I was still fairly overlevelled.

Yes, it is a long walk to Pokémon Centers, this is intentional, it is a punishment for not preparing for areas properly and letting your Pokémon faint. There is an emphasis on good resource management, if you manage your money well you will make it through an area without having to return to Valenta.

 

[Ayrei]

From my understanding, most people use the speedup feature because of how slow the gen 3 engine/battles are, not to blow through story that they are unfamiliar with.

 

[RenElite]

You don't need to grind, there's an Exp. Share for a reason which will help new captures level up. Mons are also strong enough to be useful even when slightly underlevelled. In fact when testing the demo I avoided wilds for the most part and fought all Trainers and I was still fairly overlevelled.

Yes, it is a long walk to Pokémon Centers, this is intentional, it is a punishment for not preparing for areas properly and letting your Pokémon faint. There is an emphasis on good resource management, if you manage your money well you will make it through an area without having to return to Valenta.

The problem with this is your higher leveled mons would keep receiving exp like your underleveled mons, which means making a team that is close enough in levels will be hard especially when the hack reaches the later portions of its development. It literally just spits on the face of players with playstyle like mine because this means we are obligated to train using wild mons or switch training just to make the new team member up to par with the old members. And this is where the long walk to PCs problem enters, since I have to grind a new member which sometimes requires switch training just to speed up the process, it faints quite often and literally loses a lot of exp when it faints in trainer battles. If the game has speed up then you could make your new team member up to par with wild pokemons easily due to the game speed, meaning there would be no experience wasted during trainer battles, leading to a more efficient level gain for your party members due to one of them actually on the same level as the big bois and not on level 3 and losing important exp points that could instead be used at a higher level to quickly level up. I would also like to point out that in most rom hack servers that I'm in, no one wants to play your game due to how anti-QoL the no speed up thing is, and is often compared to the removal of experience share to games like Unbound and Radical Red.

 

[Omarick548]

Congratz on your release! However, being able to play it on only real hardware is huge bummer :( Is there no way getting around that? I tried to play on MyBoy but the game froze when I opened trainer ID...

Same. Was mad when i had to do a new game. But then again, the game is in it's early stages. So, I'm not suprised at all.

 

[Max Elixir]

The problem with this is your higher leveled mons would keep receiving exp like your underleveled mons, which means making a team that is close enough in levels will be hard especially when the hack reaches the later portions of its development. It literally just spits on the face of players with playstyle like mine because this means we are obligated to train using wild mons or switch training just to make the new team member up to par with the old members. And this is where the long walk to PCs problem enters, since I have to grind a new member which sometimes requires switch training just to speed up the process, it faints quite often and literally loses a lot of exp when it faints in trainer battles. If the game has speed up then you could make your new team member up to par with wild pokemons easily due to the game speed, meaning there would be no experience wasted during trainer battles, leading to a more efficient level gain for your party members due to one of them actually on the same level as the big bois and not on level 3 and losing important exp points that could instead be used at a higher level to quickly level up. I would also like to point out that in most rom hack servers that I'm in, no one wants to play your game due to how anti-QoL the no speed up thing is, and is often compared to the removal of experience share to games like Unbound and Radical Red.

Anyone pushed away from the game by the lack of speedup probably isn't anyone with an opinion worth listening to anyway. You've done a pretty thorough job of demonstrating why with your little tantrum. You're exactly the type of person who uses terms like "bad game design" and "quality of life" as a crutch in conversation in order to try and make your positions on things come across as more authoritative, when it's really just the flailings of a child who's watched a few youtube videos and thinks that makes him an expert. Do some self reflection instead of crying about a game having non-zero expectations of its players.

 

[TheGrifReaper]

is there a Discord server for this hack? makes it easier to stay up to date for this hack cause from what i see it's pretty interesting

 

[manta]

The problem with this is your higher leveled mons would keep receiving exp like your underleveled mons

But the higher leveled mons need more experience to level up, so the lower level mons will eventually catch up.

It literally just spits on the face of players with playstyle like mine because this means we are obligated to train using wild mons or switch training just to make the new team member up to par with the old members.

You can also use the new mons against Trainers, which often have weak Pokémon or ones with glaring weaknesses.

And this is where the long walk to PCs problem enters, since I have to grind a new member which sometimes requires switch training just to speed up the process, it faints quite often and literally loses a lot of exp when it faints in trainer battles.

You don't have to use the mon in battles where it will be easily defeated.

If the game has speed up then you could make your new team member up to par with wild pokemons easily due to the game speed, meaning there would be no experience wasted during trainer battles, leading to a more efficient level gain for your party members due to one of them actually on the same level as the big bois and not on level 3 and losing important exp points that could instead be used at a higher level to quickly level up.

Experience is wasted when you let your mons faint, like I said it comes down to carefully making sure your team members aren't defeated easily.

I would also like to point out that in most rom hack servers that I'm in, no one wants to play your game due to how anti-QoL the no speed up thing is, and is often compared to the removal of experience share to games like Unbound and Radical Red.

Good thing that this game isn't Unbound or Radical Red and isn't trying to be. The game is challenging, yes, because the bulk of it focuses on resource management and getting through long areas whilst tending to your team carefully. It's not a game that focuses on ultra-hard boss battles like Unbound or Radical Red.

I've also noticed a lot of bad faith criticism coming from people that haven't played the game and only comment on the anti-speedup. I don't really care if those people don't want to play the game, because I'm not trying to appeal to everyone. Instead of wanting the game to adapt to you, perhaps you should adapt your playstyle to the game.

 

[Omarick548]

Someone shared this on Discord (how to fast-forward this game with mGBA): https://files.catbox.moe/ygosff.webm

I wish i could do this on my android😫

 

[Zygarde-Crowned]

The anti-speedup really made this romhack unplayable for me, right at the start. I play with 4x speed on my mGBA, and every second or so the game froze for a second. I could not be able to even write my username due to this. None of the other romhacks I played had this issue. Really, please fix this "anti-speedup".

 

[Max Elixir]

Try setting the speed to 1x, should fix the problem right up!

 

[RenElite]

Anyone pushed away from the game by the lack of speedup probably isn't anyone with an opinion worth listening to anyway. You've done a pretty thorough job of demonstrating why with your little tantrum. You're exactly the type of person who uses terms like "bad game design" and "quality of life" as a crutch in conversation in order to try and make your positions on things come across as more authoritative, when it's really just the flailings of a child who's watched a few youtube videos and thinks that makes him an expert. Do some self reflection instead of crying about a game having non-zero expectations of its players.

I am indeed pushed away by the lack of speedup. Wanna know why? Because training mons at a painfully slow pace is nothing short of disrespectful to the time of the players. Wondered why SWSH showers you with exp candies? SV implementing auto battles? Simple, convenience in grinding, and that's what speedup is in gba rom hacks. It's basically a QoL without the bullshit exp that exp candies gives you or the little exp you get from auto battles (which can still be huge due to bulk battling). In this game, it is nothing but an inconvenience. Like I said, if a game doesn't respect the player's time, its instantly a showing of bad game design. Also it seems to me that you're the one having a tantrum here, because your comment is the one that looks like someone is having a tantrum while adding nothing good to the argument, just nonsensical bullshit that only a 1st grader would care about. Mind you I have 11 years of experience when it comes to playing hacks and fan games, and had seen first hand how this scene evolve to what it is now. From the Dark Rising era to the Unbound era, the QoL just got better and better, and yes I can definitely call myself an expert for this just from my experience alone. But this game, not only it disrespects the player's time for adding more inconvenience, but also throw away the most apparent QoL that rom hacks offers. Luckily Pokemon Crown is releasing tomorrow to alleviate my frustrations on probably my highly anticipated rom hack of 2022.