Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 3.1.1!)

[JasonPK]

I also considered the Burned Tower/Bell Tower music for the Whirl Islands, especially since the Burned Tower was supposed to be Lugia's tower before it burned down and Lugia relocated, but once you go down into the Whirl Island caverns the music seems a bit out of place.

 

[Zeta Sukuna]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of changing around canon music too much. To try weighing in specifically on things:

Ruins of Alph absolutely shouldn't be changed, since the inside of the ruins have a unique variant of the theme used outside.

I would also consider keeping Union Cave the same, since it's the first mandatory area that has that theme. Slowpoke Well is right next to Union Cave so if that's kept the same I would also keep Slowpoke Well the same for consistency.

Goldenrod Underground is so inconsequential that I would honestly consider it weird to give it new music.


Mt. Mortar and/or Whirl Islands could both use different music though, I don't really think of "oh yeah, the Union Cave theme is playing here" when I think of them. Burned Tower has unique music in GSC, doesn't it? I could see that working in Whirl Islands, and most players probably wouldn't even think "oh, they changed this music from the original." I could see a similar thing happening by changing the Mt. Mortar theme to Mt. Silver's theme.

Ilex Forest I would try not to change, and Tohjo Falls is also really inconsequential so I don't have an opinion on it. Perhaps change Tohjo Falls' theme to the Kanto Cave theme, since it's meant to be the first barrier you cross to reach Kanto.

By changing Mt. Mortar, Whirl Islands, and Tohjo Falls, you've now reduced the number of areas Union Cave's theme plays down to five without adding any extra music to the game that would stand out.

I'm quite in agreement with this. Quite a few of the areas are just fine with their music. I don't agree with giving Mt. Mortar the Lighthouse/Mt. Silver theme, but I don't have any better ideas, so if that works out, it's whatever.

 

[JasonPK]

On second thought, I'd say leave Union Cave's music alone because it connects to the Ruins of Alph, which has its own remixed version of Union Cave's music. That way they stay the same thematically.

 

[Rangi]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of changing around canon music too much.

I'm quite in agreement with this. Quite a few of the areas are just fine with their music.

Me neither. On the other hand, I like more variation in music, so I'm looking for opportunities to add some new BGM that sounds appropriate for its location.

For Slowpoke Well, I'd say use the RBY Rocket Hideout music while Team Rocket is still there

The Radio Tower during the Rocket invasion already works like this; I like it.

On second thought, I'd say leave Union Cave's music alone because it connects to the Ruins of Alph, which has its own remixed version of Union Cave's music. That way they stay the same thematically.

Good point.

Ilex Forest I would try not to change, and Tohjo Falls is also really inconsequential so I don't have an opinion on it. Perhaps change Tohjo Falls' theme to the Kanto Cave theme, since it's meant to be the first barrier you cross to reach Kanto.

By changing Mt. Mortar, Whirl Islands, and Tohjo Falls, you've now reduced the number of areas Union Cave's theme plays down to five without adding any extra music to the game that would stand out.

Yeah, those are the top three I was thinking could be changed without it sounding wrong or unusual. Your Road To Reversal Mountain and Oreburgh Gate/Ravaged Path demixes are two cave themes I haven't used. Maybe I'll use Oreburgh Gate for Shamouti Tunnel (instead of Stark Mountain), then Stark Mountain for Mt. Mortar, Road To Reversal Mountain [Meteor Falls, that works better and you already plan to demix it] for Whirl Islands, and Kanto's standard cave theme for Tohjo Falls.

 

[JasonPK]

EDIT: After double-checking myself, I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. I'm just thinking of the actual Ice Path music from HGSS, the GB Sounds/demixed version is the same as the originals and is already shared with Dark Cave. Ignore me. :P

 

[Rangi]

Here's a giant world map (3520x2080, 394 KB).

 

[JasonPK]

Whoa, seeing the whole world map like that is awesome! *o*

 

[sandyb87]

I'm trying to collect all the Pokemon dolls but have no idea where some of them are hidden. Is there anyway I can find out where they are located?

 

[Kingfisher99]

Here's a giant world map (3520x2080, 392 KB).

The Goldenrod harbor connected to Olivine and Cianwood looks great! All of the small changes throughout the regions make Johto and Kanto feel so much more rich. Good editions!

 

[uchihamadada]

Here's a giant world map (3520x2080, 392 KB).

It looks awesome!! Specially because now it's much more fluid, I mean, like the connection between Goldenrod and Olivine and Cianwood, or Cinnabar and the Cycling Road. GREAT WORK!!

By the way Rangi, will you make an update to back sprites for the new pkms? Like Gliscor, Yanmega, Togekiss, Magnezone, etc...because I reacently see the Gliscor sprite and I noticed that his pincer don't appear...same happens with the "wings" of Yanmega...Greetings!

 

[JasonPK]

Yeah, the connections between different towns and routes makes the world feel much more connected and less linear, while at the same time taking care to not break progression.

 

[WorldsBoss]

Yeah, the connections between different towns and routes makes the world feel much more connected and less linear, while at the same time taking care to not break progression.

Indeed. Rangi actually went to a lot of effort to make sure that the more open environments didn't break the game, which shows a lot attention to detail there. Although seeing how much is left on the to-do list, 3.0 looks very far away.

 

[canwestartnow]

I actually liked the general look of the game, but it is a bit too easy. Maybe easier than the original game. I started with cyndaquil and absolutely destroyed everyone including withney and her miltank without even letting my cyndaquil evolve. Didn't even needed any special training either. This game does not force me to catch any other pokemon, because I am doing more than enough damage with my starter even when I am in a type disadvantage.

 

[JasonPK]

Pokemon generally isn't that hard to begin with, but leveling only your starter is an easy way to cheese the game. The Physical/Special split and new moves works very much in favor of the player more than it does the AI. This could be rectified by increasing trainer levels even further, but the entire game is already on a rather balanced level curve.

 

[Linnie]

I agree with JasonPK here. Part of the reason the official games get easy over time, even disregarding the shit like the Gen 6 Exp. Share that singlehandedly ruins any fun you may have otherwise had with the game if you forget to turn it off (like I did my first playthrough), is just the fact that as you have more Pokémon and more moves available to you, you get more powerful Pokémon/moves to use. It gives the player opportunity to be stronger, while the AI doesn't usually take advantage of these new moves to build optimized teams. And as he said, the game gets easier the less Pokémon you spread Exp. between, because it causes them to be higher-leveled. If you want to make a Pokémon game harder, the way to do it is ironically to force yourself to use a full team as early as possible and keep experience gains the same between them.

I forced myself to only use new Pokémon from Alola when I played Moon, and it was one of the harder experiences I had with the game just because most of the Pokémon in Alola are absolute garbage regarding stat and/or movesets, like Lurantis and Palossand. If you aren't giving yourself restrictions like this, however, then as you play more and more Pokémon (and anyone looking at ROMhacks has probably played a lot of Pokémon before) you're going to get better at optimizing your team, and the enemy is more or less going to stay the same. I have a more general rule of "try to use Pokémon you've never used before" when I start a playthrough of a Pokémon game, and it works for keeping the game interesting because I can't just pick Pokémon I know are good from past playthroughs.

 

[Rangi]

A slight "HG/SS demake" feature: you cross whirlpools instead of vanishing them.

Edit: And the HG/SS layout for Union Cave, because now its northern connection to the Ruins of Alph actually makes sense.

Spoiler:

 

[RedRob]

Whens 3.0 coming out​? I'm itching for a new playthrough of polish crystal

 

[Acrozz]

I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but can you make the Lake of Rage similar to HG/SS? (I mean the lake flooding "feature")

 

[passarbye]

Whens 3.0 coming out​? I'm itching for a new playthrough of polish crystal

also wondering about this, what stuff needs to be done for the 3.0 release?
I'm loving the changes that you've been making Rangi

 

[PonyTheHorse]

Not answering for OP and I probably sound like a broken record, updates like that are usually out when they're out... not trying to be snarky or anything, but sometimes a few features/bugs take an unknowable amount of time to finish/fix, so it really can be hard to tell even if you're the one working on it.