Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 3.1.1!)

[FIQ]

I've been playing this ROMhack for a couple weeks now. Polished Crystal is, for me, the ideal way to play Gen II. I love all the quality-of-life improvements and the mechanics borrowed from later generations, all paired with greatly-refined Gen II graphics. (I've always loved the Gen II battle animations in particular, and you've built off of the existing ones to show newer-gen attacks beautifully.)

I especially appreciate how you display Abilities in the battle interface: the black text cards that pop up are actually better than how Gen III handled abilities. There's a practical limit to how much text you can shove through the main text box at the bottom of the battle screen before it becomes annoyingly too much information, and by splitting abilities into their own unique text boxes, you made it much easier to process what's going on.

I also really, really like the new PC Pokemon storage boxes. (Though I do miss the PC box mid-save cloning glitch from the base Gen II games. Farewell, infinite master balls...)

And I don't mind how you removed some Pokemon to fit later evolutions in, or how you merged some attacks together. I'm a minimalist at heart, and I'll happily take a smaller, more carefully-curated collection of attacks and Pokemon over the Pokedex- and battle engine-bloat of other ROMhacks.

I do have one minor criticism. I understand what you were trying to do by slowing down the cries of fainting Pokemon, but in practice, I don't think it has the effect you intend. In the original code, the hundreds of Pokemon cries were based off a handful of sound samples that were altered to make them sound "unique". Slowing a cry down often makes it sound like a completely different Pokemon's cry, because that's how the original programmers often made those cries in the first place. Fainting Electrode sounds exactly like a regular Electabuzz, and several others end up sounding like Noctowl. (Others just sound weird. Fainting Electabuzz doesn't sound anything like a slowed-down Electabuzz cry, but it does sound mildly disturbing, like the cry isn't playing right.) I'd appreciate an option to turn off the altered fainting cries, though I understand if you decide that's too much work.

But that's a pretty minor complaint, and as far as I'm concerned this is the ideal ROMhack, so perfect I thought something like it would only exist in my imagination. It's that good!

btw, I cannot for the life of me find the other Johto starters in Yellow Forest. I wanted to revamp my team after beating the Elite 4, and I've seen it mentioned in a couple places that Totodile and Chikorita are catchable there. But after spending a couple hours fruitlessly walking in grass and surfing in Yellow Forest, I gave up, downloaded your code from GitHub, and searched the wild encounter files for any mention Totodile or Chikorita, only to find that they're not even listed anywhere as a wild encounter. Is it possible to obtain them at all? (Yes, I am playing v3.0.0)

>I especially appreciate how you display Abilities in the battle interface: the black text cards that pop up are actually better than how Gen III handled abilities. There's a practical limit to how much text you can shove through the main text box at the bottom of the battle screen before it becomes annoyingly too much information, and by splitting abilities into their own unique text boxes, you made it much easier to process what's going on.

This is actually inspired from how more modern generations do it, but I do indeed vastly prefer it over how Gen 3-4 did it. Specifically, it's inspired by how Black/White 2 does it:

>I also really, really like the new PC Pokemon storage boxes. (Though I do miss the PC box mid-save cloning glitch from the base Gen II games. Farewell, infinite master balls...)

This wasn't deliberate (although I was aware of the fact that the upgrade would remove the glitch as a side effect), I don't really *mind* the glitch, but saw it more as a quirk caused by technical limitations than anything else. You can still induce cloning by the link trade method.

>btw, I cannot for the life of me find the other Johto starters in Yellow Forest. I wanted to revamp my team after beating the Elite 4, and I've seen it mentioned in a couple places that Totodile and Chikorita are catchable there. But after spending a couple hours fruitlessly walking in grass and surfing in Yellow Forest, I gave up, downloaded your code from GitHub, and searched the wild encounter files for any mention Totodile or Chikorita, only to find that they're not even listed anywhere as a wild encounter. Is it possible to obtain them at all? (Yes, I am playing v3.0.0)

There are no Johto starters in Yellow Forest, are you reading an older guide perhaps? Starters (both Kanto and Johto) are gift Pokémon acquired through various events in the game. The exact gifts are determined by your initial starter choice for each region, but you will end up with all 6 after completing all of the events.

>I do have one minor criticism. I understand what you were trying to do by slowing down the cries of fainting Pokemon, but in practice, I don't think it has the effect you intend. In the original code, the hundreds of Pokemon cries were based off a handful of sound samples that were altered to make them sound "unique". Slowing a cry down often makes it sound like a completely different Pokemon's cry, because that's how the original programmers often made those cries in the first place. Fainting Electrode sounds exactly like a regular Electabuzz, and several others end up sounding like Noctowl. (Others just sound weird. Fainting Electabuzz doesn't sound anything like a slowed-down Electabuzz cry, but it does sound mildly disturbing, like the cry isn't playing right.) I'd appreciate an option to turn off the altered fainting cries, though I understand if you decide that's too much work.

I've considered just removing the distortion (or perhaps just slowing down the cry, leaving the pitch alone) since it clearly doesn't work right, as a stopgap measure before I or someone else can figure out how to implement fainting cries better.

 

[Luke472]

Hello Rangi .

Your hack pokemon polished crystal is so good that I had to create an account to this site just to tell you how awesome it is , I also have a few suggestions :

> Since you like to restore removed maps from the originals red/blue games , I think it would be really cool to restore the old team rocket basement of celadon city casino in gen 2/gen 3 style , what do you think ?

> I played the latest version of Pokemon Orange and I saw that the Valencia island in Pokemon Orange and in Pokemon Polished Crystal are a bit different ; to be honest the it looks kind of cooler in Pokemon Orange with two bridges and water in the city , and also some areas in the city where you can Surf , I was wondering if you could use that exact same map of the city of Valencia for Polished Crystal ?


> I saw how you made the 3 floors of Silph Co. , but have you never thought of simply restoring Silph Co. in the way it was in the original red/blue games but obviously with gen 2 or gen 3 graphics ? Also only 3 floors seems kind of little for such a big building , the original silph Co. had like 10 floors I think

Good luck with the progression of your game , we're looking forward for the complete final version !

 

[codysgames]

Is there any way to restore special moves that I have lost? For example, the move relearner won't let my Raichu relearn Extremespeed, or my Poliwrath to learn Aqua Jet. They simply don't exist in the move relearner menu. Is there any way I could fix this or hack the moves back onto my pokemon? Really sad that my shiny Raichu doesn't have extremespeed anymore :(

 

[DeadMan_Living]

So I got to the guy in Goldenrod that offers a machop for an abra but now he asks for a cubone for a diglett. Did this change? I was really banking on that machop.

 

[buayagator]

how to access cave between route 32 and goldenrod city? I can't enter from both sides since the entrance has blocked by the lamp.

 

[SonicWindStriker]

Would someone mind letting me see if there's a new shiny sprite for Hoothoot? Currently trying to breed to get my Shiny Noctowl

 

[seph54]

Hey, I've been trying to join the discord, but the link says it's invalid.

 

[Narchy]

Hello everyone, I have just been in PC3.0 recently, I wonder if there any code or cheat in the latest version? I find my pokemon a little level off, so a Rare Candy cheat may be a good help to me.

 

[Thacobell]

An improvement hack that removes pokemon available in the original? Strange deciison.

 

[Mastercarp]

Hello and thank you for this wonderful hack!
It actually inspired me to spend a bit of my summer learning the gbc dissassembly and microsoft paint in order to add rare candies and the pokémons I wanted to play with, and edit some of the old sprite art I didn't like as much as the later. I had never planned on doing something that before! But now I may be the only guy in the world (aside from my little brother) who can play polished crystal with ursaluna (bye bye slugma, at least you're in garbage green), albeit one subjected to the two color limit and my creative decisions :)
I never liked Tyranitar´s old front sprite, so I made a mash-up of some of its gen 3 and 4 sprites.
Leafeon's back sprite had no tail so I added that (maybe the ear didn't have to go, it's just how it went).
Lastly Lugia never looked more fierce (imo) than in gen 3, so I tried adapting that too, but had to give up on the moving fingers part of the animation since it was tough fitting it in, in a meaningful way.
Since your hack is the reason I made the "art" I wanted to show it here!

ps. Glaceon's sprite is great from every direction.

 

[Ranger11]

Can't get Mr. Fuji to move from stairs. Is there an event I'm missing?

 

[Ranger11]

I have a question about the Ruins of Alph sidequest:

Spoiler:

About the egg from the Sinjoh Ruins... Does it contain Arceus or another legendary? I lack the patience to keep it in my party for such a long time, and I don't want to use whatever it is. So I'm just curious.

@Maxim I got Mr. Fuji to come up just by talking to him. I assume you have an earlier build of the beta.

The Pokémon is a

Spoiler:

shiny togepi that knows moonblast and aero blast

And what event did you do prior to talking to Mr. Fuji?

 

[Draconeel]

Hey. Good hack!

I never posted because i forgot to do it (?) however i am playing it since the past month annd finally got to beat Green (my god, never before used save slots and look at me now xp) it was so nostalgic to see all those characters, the Birds lore, Celebi arc, etc. and THAT ARMORED BEAST! lol, love it.

i suppose i will do new game+ BUT i got a few questions before the big re-start:

1.- all my pokemon (including legendaries) will be inside the boxes? now i have inside them eggs from my actual party so i'm thinking in hatching them to get those babies to my new game, i dont know if is possible (:

2.- what is "perfect stats"? i chose it "yes" in my actual game but i dont really know what is it or what is does, the "perfect" applies only on enemy side pokémon? or mine too?

Sorry to bother ya and thanks in advance!

 

[RFMOMA]

Whats the rare candy cheat?

 

[Mimicking Mimikyu]

Trying to scrounge up Leaf Stones in my current playthrough. Are there any hidden ones in Johto I should look for?

 

[Durand]

Is there a tutorial somewhere for how to configure pokemon data and gfx files for insertion? Just trying to learn how it works, and am practicing with re-inserting Spearow. I have some files from the original dissessembly to start from, but there's quite a few more files and settings in the polishedcrystal format due to all the enhancements.

The first thing I'm noticing is that the polishedcrystal sprites are in black and white, which I assume is to allow for different palettes to be applied for the "IV's vary colors" option. In regards to simply prepping the sprites for insertion, would I just take the original spearow sprite and greyscale it, or is there more to it than that? I've got plenty of other questions as well.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has some insight!

 

[Corveone]

Hi. I started playing on the nightly 3.0 build and noticed that there are Alolan forms implemented in the game, as I got a couple through Wonder Trade. And from what I've read there should be an item called Odd Souvenir for Alolan evolutions like Raichu, Exeggutor and Marowak.

So, is this Odd Souvenir item already implemented, and where can I find it? I'd like to know so I can decide my team and I don't know if it'll be worth waiting for that item.

01/12/23 Edit: Nevermind, found a way to add one myself. No clue if this item is actually obtainable before the post-game but as of beating the Elite Four I haven't found any.

Anyway, great work on this rom hack, it has a lot more great stuff than I was expecting.

 

[Attila0501]

Where to find working money cheat for version 3.0.0? I'm using BGB emulator.

 

[Super_Flygon]

Is there a current list of all the Pokemon available on each of the routes? My understanding is that there were some good changes made to make some Pokemon available earlier than they were in the original game.

 

[Dee-Oh-Ex-Whys]

Where can I see the sprites for the Gen 4 evolutions such as Yanmega and Magnezone?