Dear Ruby Destiny,
We met for the first time during my spring break about 11 years ago. A youtube video caught my eye. It was a ROM hack where the player faced off against Dark Lugia in a glitched forest. Little did the younger me know, he's just discovered his favorite and most influential rom hack series, no, any kind of series in general.
I remember Reign of legends being pretty tough (That damn Infernape in the 4th gym). But I fell in love with the map design. Especially the second island you travel to. The story was much deeper and complex than what I've encountered in Pokemon up to this point. Baby Lugia was a cool idea, I got to use Sinnoh Pokemon (and goddamn, I feel so much nostalgia for the messy resized sprites). I remember it took me a long time to finish the game, but it felt amazing once I did. At the end, catching Angeallen was a crown on top. Although, I did find it a bit anticlimactic that it used a Dodrio cry.
Young me wants more and discovers that there are 2 more games, one of them had a new trailer posted earlier this year (which I'll get to later).
Rescue Rangers, here I come! At the time, Explorers of Time was still quite fresh to me and I loved it. I pretty much gobbled Rescue Rangers up. I was amazed by the sheer creativity of the concept. How you took a main series game and twisted it into a spin-off. I did get lost in the story a bit, but after replaying it a couple of years later, actually understanding the plot made it so much more enjoyable. Thinking about it in retrospect, you did the Isekai thing before it was popular :o
RD: Life of Guardians.
Where do I even begin. Without exaggeration, one of my favorite games of all time, Pokemon or not. From the plot, the characters, the graphics, especially music, map design... it was simply amazing. I started following the development since it wasn't finished when I first played it, mostly through your YouTube channel. And now let's get back to the trailer. The "Hohoemu namida" trailer. It was probably my first exposure to japanese music, although at the time I had no idea it was japanese. I thought, since you were Filipino, it was a Filipino song. And speaking of music, it has expanded my horizons at the time. I loved the soundtrack and I went around searching what the original song is. That's how I discovered stuff like Chrono Cross/Trigger and Kingdom Hearts, both series very dear to me today. When the game finally finished development, it was very bitter sweet for me. I wanted to see more of Chaomega, I wanted for Devihel and Breatherna to be happy, Kevin... you managed to touch my heart with the cast you've created...
I've played through RoL 3 times, RR 2 and LoG 4 times, the 4th replay taking place a month or 2 ago. And I can say that the game aged really well and I'm in love with just as much as I was 10 years ago.
Remember how I mentioned I was introduced to Kingdom Hearts through Simple&Clean? Well, that series along with Okamiden softened me up to Japanese culture, eventually anime and... here I am, sitting at 136 entires on MAL...
I was listening to youtube generated mix a couple of weeks ago. Through the magic of YouTube algorithm, Survive by Kotoko found its way. It almost made me tear up. I also found out where it's from. Luckily, the younger me was too dumb to research that.
I should also mention DJG youtube channel. I love how it became a place where you just simply post things you're passionate about. Looking through your update videos as I'm writing this... my admiration for your work has grown even further. Whereas many don't even finish 1 hack, you have finished 3. 3!!! And great ones at that. When you announced you're retiring, I was a bit saddened, but shortly after I remember nodding at the screen and saying: "you deserve it champ".
And then you cheekily announce the polished version years later. :D
In conclusion, thank you so much DJG for creating such a legendary series. You have had a hand in shaping me into a person I am today. It's almost surreal coming in contact with you after all these years.
Sincerely,
an elementary school kid, now a university student.
