Hack Series: Pokémon Photonic Sun & Prismatic Moon

[james19]

Thanks again for the kind words, much appreciated! It's really good to hear Prismatic Moon is an improvement over Eternal X, I did try to improve on the weaker aspects of my XY hacks with the USUM ones. Also good to hear the level curve worked well for you, I've had mixed feedback on that one so far.

Hope you enjoy the post game!

Maybe you can put some Lucky Eggs on the stores for those who wants a little less difficulty experience? The level curve it had some "meh" moments speaking of difficulty , specially because I wanted a full gen7 team, and sometimes fighting without a Mega evo, or some OverUsed mons, gives some advantage to the rival. Mallow trial was a nightmare, it was too well planed your sos battle for me. But again, those were just "meh" moments, and overall was very good. And the post game with only 100 lvls mons its so simple, and yet fascinating. You cant power creep the shit out of the rivals. Which is awesome.

And let me ask you a question, did you modified the sos battles? Because for example I want to hunt a Shiny Incineroar. Can I do that? I know in the OG games there are some pokemons which cant be called from sos system

 

[Buffel Saft]

Maybe you can put some Lucky Eggs on the stores for those who wants a little less difficulty experience? The level curve it had some "meh" moments speaking of difficulty , specially because I wanted a full gen7 team, and sometimes fighting without a Mega evo, or some OverUsed mons, gives some advantage to the rival. Mallow trial was a nightmare, it was too well planed your sos battle for me. But again, those were just "meh" moments, and overall was very good. And the post game with only 100 lvls mons its so simple, and yet fascinating. You cant power creep the **** out of the rivals. Which is awesome.

And let me ask you a question, did you modified the sos battles? Because for example I want to hunt a Shiny Incineroar. Can I do that? I know in the OG games there are some pokemons which cant be called from sos system

I could add Lucky eggs to a store somewhere, sure. Might be hard to find space for them though, I'll probably just make Pelipper available earlier instead so people can get them as wild held items.

Yeah, all the SOS battles are modified; most Pokemon should be able to call for help (though some fully evolved Pokemon like Salamence still can't), so you could definitely chain for a shiny Incineroar.

 

[WJBez]

Trying to update my game file (Prismatic Moon, Rebalanced) to the latest version, but whenever I do, the PokeMart changes to Poke Ball prices don't go through - did you change your mind on this in a later version or is it missing the changes?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Trying to update my game file (Prismatic Moon, Rebalanced) to the latest version, but whenever I do, the PokeMart changes to Poke Ball prices don't go through - did you change your mind on this in a later version or is it missing the changes?

I didn't intend to remove those changes but it seems they've been lost at some point anyway; I'll get an update for the game up soon to fix that. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[lisl]

Are you planning on making a smiliar hack for Pokemon Sun and Moon? I know there is already Dio Vento's Pokemon Nova Sun and Umbra Moon hack, but I like these types of hacks better because you have edited the weaker pokemon to make them more useful and also made every legendary avaiable to catch, which is something that Dio's hacks don't do.

 

[Fresio]

Hi Buffel. First of all, huge fan of your romhacks, wilting y has been the most enjoyable romhack I've played. Now the issue since i can't find a solution anywhere. I installed PM through the Luma folder method, but doing this it only applies the changes without the official update installed (just like wilting y) why would this be? It wouldn't be a problem if the shop wouldn't crash or there was a solution for the crash without having to update. Thank you.

 

[Buffel Saft]

Are you planning on making a smiliar hack for Pokemon Sun and Moon? I know there is already Dio Vento's Pokemon Nova Sun and Umbra Moon hack, but I like these types of hacks better because you have edited the weaker pokemon to make them more useful and also made every legendary avaiable to catch, which is something that Dio's hacks don't do.

Unfortunately I'm not planning on making a Sun and Moon hack any time soon; it's far too similar to Ultra Sun and Moon, but with less features.

Hi Buffel. First of all, huge fan of your romhacks, wilting y has been the most enjoyable romhack I've played. Now the issue since i can't find a solution anywhere. I installed PM through the Luma folder method, but doing this it only applies the changes without the official update installed (just like wilting y) why would this be? It wouldn't be a problem if the shop wouldn't crash or there was a solution for the crash without having to update. Thank you.

Hey Fresio! Thanks, glad you enjoy my hacks! I'm sorry to say I don't know what would be causing that issue; the hack should work with the update and still seems to be doing so on my 3DS. I'd suggest making sure you have the latest version of luma (or at least version 9.1, as that's working for me). You could also try re-downloading and reinstalling the hack, and maybe the update too. If you do reinstall the hack I'd suggest deleting the luma/titles/00040000001B5100 folder from your SD card before copying over the files to be sure it's a clean install.

If that still doesn't work, you could follow part three of the citra guide to build a custom game update. I've never tried to use one on the 3DS, but I think it should work. Just make sure you uninstall the official update before installing the custom one to avoid conflicts between the two.

 

[Fresio]

Okay, thank you for the response. I did a fresh reinstall of everything except the game and it still doesnt work (I will try to do the citra method if theres no other way since thats how I installed wilting y) But i should note that when i use the update, the name at the beginnning of the game chanmges, but nothing else, and when i dont, the shops crash, is there any particular fix for the shop crash without installing the update. Seems kind of weir that when you start a game it says prismatic moon but nothing else changes...
My luma is 9.1-2 so i should be fine, or maybe theres a problem with thta, i dont know anymore, i just want to play your romhack. Also a system like that cafe where you killed audinos in wilting y foir the nuzlockes would be an amazing addition :) but dont add it if i cant get it to work Thank you

 

[Buffel Saft]

Okay, thank you for the response. I did a fresh reinstall of everything except the game and it still doesnt work (I will try to do the citra method if theres no other way since thats how I installed wilting y) But i should note that when i use the update, the name at the beginnning of the game chanmges, but nothing else, and when i dont, the shops crash, is there any particular fix for the shop crash without installing the update. Seems kind of weir that when you start a game it says prismatic moon but nothing else changes...
My luma is 9.1-2 so i should be fine, or maybe theres a problem with thta, i dont know anymore, i just want to play your romhack. Also a system like that cafe where you killed audinos in wilting y foir the nuzlockes would be an amazing addition :) but dont add it if i cant get it to work Thank you

So the reason the shops crash is a mismatched shop.cro file. The one included in the download is for the official game update, which for some reason is slightly different from the base game (even though it doesn't change anything), so without the update installed it doesn't work and locks up the game. I might have an edited shop.cro from the base game lying around if you'd like to try that without the update, but you'd still miss out on the new TMs without the update installed.

It is strange that the text changes are working but nothing else is. Which changes have you been checking for so far and what have you noticed that's missing? Some specifics might be helpful, it's hard to tell what's going on here.

Yeah your luma version should be fine, I don't think that's the problem. I wanted to add an Audino grinding system, but there weren't any good places to add them unfortunately. IIRC there's one set of repeatable trainers really early and one in the post game, but neither would have been usable for that purpose.

 

[Fresio]

So the reason the shops crash is a mismatched shop.cro file. The one included in the download is for the official game update, which for some reason is slightly different from the base game (even though it doesn't change anything), so without the update installed it doesn't work and locks up the game. I might have an edited shop.cro from the base game lying around if you'd like to try that without the update, but you'd still miss out on the new TMs without the update installed.

It is strange that the text changes are working but nothing else is. Which changes have you been checking for so far and what have you noticed that's missing? Some specifics might be helpful, it's hard to tell what's going on here.

Yeah your luma version should be fine, I don't think that's the problem. I wanted to add an Audino grinding system, but there weren't any good places to add them unfortunately. IIRC there's one set of repeatable trainers really early and one in the post game, but neither would have been usable for that purpose.

Okay so. Initially i had the game up to date (version 1.2 of pokemon ultra moon, which might be EU version although i think is US.) so i used the luma method and started a new game since i couldnt see any changes in my savefile, and that was not the point anyway. In the kukui starting sequence he clearly says welcome to prismatic moon but when you get to play the game neither the wild pokemon nor the trainers are changed. So i decide to reinstall the romhack and check if it works with a tsareena in my team, and it doesnt work (in the process a couple of savefiles edited with pokesav get corrupted for some reason) so i uninstall the update, boot up the savefile and tsareena is grass/fighting. So i decide to start a new game and the encounters and trainers are changed but the shop crashes the game when i click buy (this is the first city god bless usum cutscenes). I come here looking for help, i do fresh installs of everything in every order (update first the patch, patch firtst and then update) but the two problems stay the same, i update the game, go to the mart, and it works but pokeball are 200, inventories are unchanged and wild pokemon are reverted to usum originals. I would take any fix to play this mastahpeace i can add the tms if necessary, although dio vento based marts are too good so i dont think if i could pass up buying leftovers or lifeorbs and the sort. Thank you so much for the help and for the hours of entertainment you have provided (every message i send is going to end with a thank you whether you like it or not. :pink_pissed: )

 

[Buffel Saft]

Okay so. Initially i had the game up to date (version 1.2 of pokemon ultra moon, which might be EU version although i think is US.) so i used the luma method and started a new game since i couldnt see any changes in my savefile, and that was not the point anyway. In the kukui starting sequence he clearly says welcome to prismatic moon but when you get to play the game neither the wild pokemon nor the trainers are changed. So i decide to reinstall the romhack and check if it works with a tsareena in my team, and it doesnt work (in the process a couple of savefiles edited with pokesav get corrupted for some reason) so i uninstall the update, boot up the savefile and tsareena is grass/fighting. So i decide to start a new game and the encounters and trainers are changed but the shop crashes the game when i click buy (this is the first city god bless usum cutscenes). I come here looking for help, i do fresh installs of everything in every order (update first the patch, patch firtst and then update) but the two problems stay the same, i update the game, go to the mart, and it works but pokeball are 200, inventories are unchanged and wild pokemon are reverted to usum originals. I would take any fix to play this mastahpeace i can add the tms if necessary, although dio vento based marts are too good so i dont think if i could pass up buying leftovers or lifeorbs and the sort. Thank you so much for the help and for the hours of entertainment you have provided (every message i send is going to end with a thank you whether you like it or not. :pink_pissed: )

Yeah that's really strange, the update shouldn't be interfering with Pokemon stats/typing etc. at all. It's almost as if luma isn't applying the patch properly once the update is installed, which is also really strange. I'd have to suggest building the hack and its update as .cia files and installing both with FBI. It'll take forever but it's much more likely to work properly at least. If you follow my citra guide to build them, make sure you choose to build a decrypted CIA during step 7 of part 2 instead of the whatever it says to do for citra; I'm pretty sure that's what's needed for using FBI. Hopefully the custom update will work with FBI too; I haven't tested it on a 3DS yet, but I can't think of any reason it wouldn't.

Also those USUM cutscenes really are something else, hopefully we'll get scripting tools for the 3DS games one day so I can speed them up.

 

[Fresio]

Okay, thank you so much, i cant find your guide and its been forever since i did the wilting y repacking (i had it in version 2.1 and the luma method work for updating your rom, again no official update in that game and the jksv calls it pokemon y challenge mode, love it) could you direct me to that guide please?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Okay, thank you so much, i cant find your guide and its been forever since i did the wilting y repacking (i had it in version 2.1 and the luma method work for updating your rom, again no official update in that game and the jksv calls it pokemon y challenge mode, love it) could you direct me to that guide please?

You're welcome! The guide is available in the hack's download link, it's a pdf file named "Citra Install Guide" in the main folder (so you should be able to see it immediately after following the link).

 

[Fresio]

You're welcome! The guide is available in the hack's download link, it's a pdf file named "Citra Install Guide" in the main folder (so you should be able to see it immediately after following the link).

All done, I checked the wilting y one which was among my files still. It was a bit messy specially by mixing versions 12 and 9 of th 3dstoolkit but i think i did it. At least its installing right now, who knows if it will work. Do i need to install the update still? (I guess that was the whole point of this). Looking forward to a challenging nuzlocke again, maybe i can actually finish this one. Thank you for your time.

 

[Buffel Saft]

All done, I checked the wilting y one which was among my files still. It was a bit messy specially by mixing versions 12 and 9 of th 3dstoolkit but i think i did it. At least its installing right now, who knows if it will work. Do i need to install the update still? (I guess that was the whole point of this). Looking forward to a challenging nuzlocke again, maybe i can actually finish this one. Thank you for your time.

Yeah, as per the citra guide for Prismatic Moon you'll need to make a custom version of the update and install that instead of the official one. The shop and TM changes won't work without the edited update. Hopefully everything works for you!

 

[tifaluv]

There's an annoying bug with Mega Camerupt. Once you defeat it, the battle acts as if Camerupt was never defeated, and Camerupt gets sent out again. If Mega Camerupt was the last Pokemon, then the battle goes on forever, since the battle continues even though Camerupt was fainted. This just cost me my battle tree run

 

[Buffel Saft]

There's an annoying bug with Mega Camerupt. Once you defeat it, the battle acts as if Camerupt was never defeated, and Camerupt gets sent out again. If Mega Camerupt was the last Pokemon, then the battle goes on forever, since the battle continues even though Camerupt was fainted. This just cost me my battle tree run

Hey, sorry about your battle tree run. I've just fixed the Camerupt bug. Apparently Mega Camerupt was in a different experience group than regular Camerupt, and that caused its HP stat to increase when it fainted and reverted to normal, which stopped the game from realizing it had fainted.

 

[mrots]

Hello, First let me say im currently playing Eternal X instanity version and loving it! Thanks for making such a great hack and so im wondering if you will be making an insanity version of this hack as well?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Hello, First let me say im currently playing Eternal X instanity version and loving it! Thanks for making such a great hack and so im wondering if you will be making an insanity version of this hack as well?

Hey, thanks for the kind words! I'm not currently planning on making an insanity version for these hacks, but I could make one once my Emerald hack is finished. Dio Vento's USUM hacks have a similar or higher difficulty level than my insanity mode though, so those are worth trying as long as you don't mind the lack of Pokemon changes.

 

[Guinevil]

First off, thank you Buffel Saft for making more or less of a spiritual successor to Blaze Black, which I enjoyed playing many years ago. I'm thinking up a team to edit into my save file at level 5 while going through the pfd that contains all the changes you've made to many Pokemon. Some of the balance changes, while cool, seem to make some Pokemon overpowered.

For example, I think the idea of a Shell Smash Torterra with Head Smash, Rock Head and Wood Hammer makes for an interesting unique combination, but on paper it looks kinda broken. So while I'm tempted to use it, I'll get bored half-way if it makes the game way too easy. Maybe it's stats should be altered like what you've done with Maractus lowering it's attack score but giving it Huge Power. If Torterra gets Head Smash, may as well give it to Aerodactyl as well to go with Brave Bird. Mega Steelix would also like Rock Head and Head Smash instead of Sand Force, though that might break him too considering he has Shore Up.

Serperior with Contrary is already plenty powerful considering it's in the OU tier, but with dragon typing and Draco Meteor few things can resist it. It does have a boring movepool apart from those moves as it has enough speed to make Glare rather situational.

Electivire getting a fighting type is cool, though I think Sheer Force would be more useful on him than Galvanize? A suggestion would be giving Alolan Golem Rock Head so it can be an interesting choice whether to go for Galvanize or Rock Head as both have pros and cons. I think Hitmontop getting contrary is interesting, but his brothers are still pretty mediocre even with a HP buff as are numerous other Pokemon that didn't get rebalanced nearly as much and are therefor less appealing.

Might be neat to give Noctowl No Guard so it exclusively has a 100% accurate Hypnosis, making it a bit of a flying-type Parasect. On Reddit they have a Rebuild Tuesday where people provide ideas to make Pokemon more interesting and balanced and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more places were people discuss this stuff like Smogon. Ideally these changes could be tested for balance, but that's probably unrealistic lol.

Just my 2 cents 😆.