Crystal hack: Pokemon Lunatic Crystal v1.7

[GetKosiorekt]

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Pokemon Lunatic Crystal is a difficulty ROM Hack that provides not only a major challenge, but is also an attempt at making Gen 2 more balanced and enjoyable, while also retaining the charm of the original games.

Lunatic Crystal has the following features:

• Trainer parties have been massively improved. Every trainer has a more varied and stronger line-up and all of the important opponents have custom movesets (many of which also use Hidden Power with an advantageous type), held items, better Pokemon and are at a higher level.

• Lunatic Crystal has Level Caps that set you on equal terms with the bosses that are increased with each badge/met condition. At a certain level your Pokemon will no longer gain EXP, no matter what you do whether be it battling, using Rare Candies or using the Daycare. As an extra feature Pokemon also no longer gain EXP once they reach Level 100.

• Every important trainer has had their DVs improved.

• When defeated, the Player does not lose half of their money like usual, but rather a proportional amount depending on your highest level Pokemon and the number of badges the player has.

• Lunatic Crystal features a brand new secondary Rival in Lyra, who will obtain the starter weak to the player's and challenge the player at various points in the main story, both in Johto and Kanto for a total of 7 battles. Silver also has an extra battle in Johto.

• More opponents use healing items and those that already did have better ones available.

• Stat EXP and all of the badge boosts have been removed. The 25% Status miss chance that the AI had is also gone. This makes fights more challenging and sets the player on equal footing with enemy trainers. Furthermore Vitamins (with the exception of PP UP) and X items have been removed.

• Lunatic Crystal removes the "SWITCH" battle mode, every single trainer battle is on "SET" mode and the player is prohibited from using items in battle against important opponents.

• The progression of the game has been made more linear, rather than open like the original Crystal to better help with the level curve. There are also changes to the Gym Leader order, Eusine's Cianwood City battle (and the Suicune event), as well as the Tin Tower section is now enforced. The game also features extra mandatory opponents. The Sprout Tower is also a mandatory location when the player visits Violet City for the first time and acts as the first, real challenge of the game as well as a check that prevents progression. Some Gym Leaders will also refuse to accept your challenge if you do not have the right amount of badges.

• Lunatic Crystal has new mandatory battles in Johto such as a second battle with Eusine and trainers normally only fought in Kanto.

• More generic trainers are available for the player to fight, with examples including Jasmine having Gym trainers, trainers being in Ice Path and various new trainers in multiple locations in Kanto.

• Team Rocket now longer has unnamed Executives, all the members present in HGSS (Proton, Petrel, Ariana and Archer) are present in this hack. All of the Team Rocket members use the Team Rocket theme and all of them have a custom "R" battle transition. There is also an important returning character...

• Every Gym Leader has a unique battle transition with their respective Gym Badge, the Elite Four have new battle transitions as well.

• The player has the ability to rematch all 16 Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, Champion Lance, the Rivals, Red, as well as many characters that were fought at some point in the playthrough, that includes the new Kanto characters. In total there are over 30 Level 100 rematches for the player to take on. All of these rematches are unlocked (other than the E4 rematches which are unlocked after beating Blue) after beating Red, with one main exception.

• Battles against important Kanto characters that were not in the original GSC have been added (ex. You can now battle Lorelei in Kanto). Professor Oak also is able to be fought after beating the main game.

• Some trainers now have new, custom battle themes that were added into this hack.

• Better encounter variety in Johto: you can now get every Johto Pokemon before unlocking Kanto and many Kanto Pokemon are now obtainable in Johto. The player can now also get fossils and revive them just like in Generation 1. Game Corner Pokemon have also been changed. Wild Pokemon have increased levels as well and you tend to find more evolved forms in the wild.

• The player can now catch all 251 Pokemon. Every single legendary can be caught as an overworld encounter, with the exception of Raikou and Entei who are still roaming Pokemon.

• Some in-game trades have been changed (for example you can now get a Rhyhorn in Violet City).

• The Celebi event has been restored and functions in the same way as the Virtual Console releases.

• Friendship and Trade evolutions have been removed, every Pokemon that evolves now does so by either level up or with the use of evolution stones. Evolution Stones are now purchasable in Goldenrod and Celadon, albeit at a higher price. Several Pokemon now also evolve at lower levels.

• Improved level-up learnsets: the vast majority of Pokemon now have much better learnsets, with all moves being learned at lower levels. All evolution stages share the levels at which they learn moves, so the player no longer needs to delay evolutions and can enjoy a power boost right away. This does not apply to most stone evolutions (the exception being for example Eevee), however.

• Improved TM/HM learnsets: Many Pokemon now have the ability to learn new TMs and HMs. TMs are now also reuseable, rather than one use. Pokemon can now freely forget HMs as well. A lot of TMs that normally would only be obtainable in Kanto, can now be found in Johto. TMs and HMs found or obtained in the overworld instantly display the name of the move, rather than just the number of the TM/HM.

• This hack features two new Move Tutors in Cianwood City and Blackthorn City that teach the following moves: Thunder Wave, Reflect, Light Screen (Cianwood) and Rock Slide, Outrage and Submission (Blackthorn). The Goldenrod Move Tutor now appears after defeating Pryce, rather than beating the Elite Four. He can also be found on all days of the week, charges 500 coins rather than 4000 coins and does not dissapear after teaching one of your party members a new move.

• Ecruteak City has a Move Relearner who can teach your Pokemon moves that they knew at lower levels at a cost of 500 Pokedollars.

• Many moves have changed power, accuracy and type, as well as new effects in order to make them more viable and give player more varied options (For example Strength is now a Rock Type Move and Sky Attack functions in a similar way to Brave Bird).

• Some Pokemon have increased stats and new secondary types in order to make them more viable.

• Fourth Stat Page in which you can view the DVs of the Pokemon, as well as its' Hidden Power type.

• Many in-game rewards have been changed, for instance Mr. Pokemon's reward for bringing him the Red Scale is the TM for Hyper Beam.

• The Cianwood Pharmacy now sells status curing Berries.

• All Pokemon now have custom, colored menu icons. Badges that are viewed in the trainer card also have colour now.

• Some characters such as Eusine get a new overworld sprite. Characters added to this hack also get an overworld sprite of their own.

• The EXP system has been updated to match the one found in Generation 6, all battle participants obtain an equal amount of EXP and the EXP. Share now functions the same as it does in Gen 6 and is now a key item, instead of a held item. To further help with the grind, the player now can get more Rare Candies either in the overworld, or as rewards. Lucky Egg is also obtainable in Johto. Catching Pokemon also grants EXP, just like it does in Let's Go games for instance. The EXP Share is also obtained very early to make levelling much less tedious, the player receives it from Prof. Elm once they deal with the rival for the first time and get Pokeballs.

• The mart in Indigo Plateau sells Rare Candies at the price of 10 after Blue has been defeated to take away the need for grinding for the final battles of the game.

• Introduction of Repel as a togglable Key Item. The Repel is obtained after being shown around Cherrygrove by the Guide (which is now a mandatory scene) and it can be turned on and off at any moment and it acts as an infinite repellent. Because of this the regular Repels have been removed from the game since they serve no purpose. Also the Map Card is now obtained as soon as you get the Pokegear.

• Pocket PC is a new key item that allows you to open the PC in the overworld at any time. It's obtained as soon as you get your starter Pokemon and it serves as a great tool to organize your party and check caught Pokemon as soon as you can, without the need to rush to the nearest PC. There is a limiation however, it cannot be used indoors, so you can't use in spots like Rocket Hideout, Radio Tower, Gyms or Indigo Plateau.

• Bag expansion: Rather than having a limit of just 20 items, the bag can now fit up to 84 items.

• Resetting the Clock is now a pernament Menu Option, removing the need for any button inputs and passwords.

• Many QoL features: The ability to run by pressing B that also allows for fast surfing, removal of the save delay (that also helps with organizing boxes), a clock in the bottom left corner while the menu is open, Pokemon don't take damage in the overworld, faster healing in the Pokemon Center of the first heal, Kurt instantly making Pokeballs, among others.


Screenshots:


A massive thank you to everyone in the "pret" Discord, the Pokemon Crystal Disassembly and the many tutorials you have written.

Credits for the battle themes to Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm on Soundcloud and TriteHexagon, for the Team Rocket sprites to SirWhibbles on Deviantart, as well as LuigiTKO for the Menu Icons!

Credits for Kris' running sprite to Seasick and for Chris' running sprite to Tom Wang.

Download patch (V1.7): https://workupload.com/file/CwMth2t4nDw
Download docs: https://workupload.com/file/q85rHcdRR5H

 

[JSepol]

This sounds interesting. I'm going to give it a try. Any thoughts about physical/special split? Or, at least, make Ghost moves special and Dark physical?

Thanks!

 

[GetKosiorekt]

This sounds interesting. I'm going to give it a try. Any thoughts about physical/special split? Or, at least, make Ghost moves special and Dark physical?

Thanks!

Good to hear :)

I haven't implemented the Physical/Special split into the game, because I feel like the old system is a core part of Gen 1-3's experience and is what makes them unique compared to newer generations, I still wanted to keep the feel of Generation 2 while also providing the player with a challenge and implementing QOL features.

The Ghost Physical and Dark Special system has also been kept, but I did make adjustments to the Pokemon and the types to make them more viable, for instance Marowak is now a Ground/Ghost type to provide a strong physical Ghost Attacker while Sneasel saw its' SpA stat more than doubled to make its' Dark stab more viable, Dark moves in general have been distrubted to more Pokemon via learnset and I did give one Pokemon the Dark typing as well.

 

[lou8723]

Hello. I tested your hack and I really liked the increased difficulty (a very nice surprise was finding one of the initial bug catchers had a fully evolved butterfree and beedrill), but I had 2 main gripes that made me quit the game for now:

1. The obedience lvl cap was annoying and at odds with the increased difficulty and increased level of trainers and gym leaders. I found myself kind of softlocked at Falkner since my Pkmn wouldn't obey me, yet I was forced to level up to match his levels and very decent movepool.
2. This is a very personal gripe, but, the game is very, very slow, to the point that it's unplayable for me. I was playing on real hardware, so I had no way to speed it up unlike with an emulator. Perhaps there could be a way to speed the game up while still playing it at 1x speed?

Regardless, I think it's very good.

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Hello. I tested your hack and I really liked the increased difficulty (a very nice surprise was finding one of the initial bug catchers had a fully evolved butterfree and beedrill), but I had 2 main gripes that made me quit the game for now:

1. The obedience lvl cap was annoying and at odds with the increased difficulty and increased level of trainers and gym leaders. I found myself kind of softlocked at Falkner since my Pkmn wouldn't obey me, yet I was forced to level up to match his levels and very decent movepool.
2. This is a very personal gripe, but, the game is very, very slow, to the point that it's unplayable for me. I was playing on real hardware, so I had no way to speed it up unlike with an emulator. Perhaps there could be a way to speed the game up while still playing it at 1x speed?

Regardless, I think it's very good.

Thanks for giving it a try!

As for your first point, the obedience mechanic is (Leader's Ace + 1) and it was mostly implemented to balance the new EXP. Share, but I can see how the early game (Falkner, Bugsy, Whintey) is rough in this regard, while testing Falkner originally had all of his Pokemon one level higher, but I did lower them by 1 before the release, because it was a headache at times. I also considered adding level caps with every badge instead, but I decided to go with obedience for the final release and only left the level cap for Champion Lance. I'll wait for more opinions, but I could replace the obedience system with level caps or increase the obedience levels, depending on reviews.

Secondly, I am looking into adding Running Shoes, an instant text option in the menu and I fixed the HP bar's speed at higher levels already, I'm in the process of fixing some bugs from Original Crystal (like the Berserk Gene confusion count for instance) and adding some extra QoL features, expect these to be a part of a v1.1 release.

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Updated the Game's Version to 1.1, the changes can be found in the description.

 

[lou8723]

Thanks for giving it a try!

As for your first point, the obedience mechanic is (Leader's Ace + 1) and it was mostly implemented to balance the new EXP. Share, but I can see how the early game (Falkner, Bugsy, Whintey) is rough in this regard, while testing Falkner originally had all of his Pokemon one level higher, but I did lower them by 1 before the release, because it was a headache at times. I also considered adding level caps with every badge instead, but I decided to go with obedience for the final release and only left the level cap for Champion Lance. I'll wait for more opinions, but I could replace the obedience system with level caps or increase the obedience levels, depending on reviews.

Secondly, I am looking into adding Running Shoes, an instant text option in the menu and I fixed the HP bar's speed at higher levels already, I'm in the process of fixing some bugs from Original Crystal (like the Berserk Gene confusion count for instance) and adding some extra QoL features, expect these to be a part of a v1.1 release.

A level cap would be less frustrating, but I saw you updated and made some changes. I'll try them out.

Thanks for the hack!

 

[Ribafish]

Hey GetKosiorekt,
I'm asking only out of curiosity if there is any particular reason you chose obedience over soft/hard level caps based on number of owned badges? In my opinion obedience is more annoying to players since we have to be extra careful not to level up too much. I imagine transferring our Pokemon to a box to prevent that from happen would eventually become a chore.

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Hey GetKosiorekt,
I'm asking only out of curiosity if there is any particular reason you chose obedience over soft/hard level caps based on number of owned badges? In my opinion obedience is more annoying to players since we have to be extra careful not to level up too much. I imagine transferring our Pokemon to a box to prevent that from happen would eventually become a chore.

It all mostly came down to preference, I've always like the concept of obedience, especially with how it was done in the other Pokemon media (such as anime) so I always felt that it was a wasted opportunity in game to only have it apply to trades and it tied in with me wanting to put some restrictions in place, that and you don't really see it being used in other hacks (for better or worse ofc).

There is a hard level cap in Johto (75) and it applies before you defeat Lance, so I suppose there is a mix of both.

I'm open to suggestions though and I might change the system depending on reviews, I've already buffed the obedience caps by 4 since releasing the hack and if it's still a troublesome system for the players I'll swap it with level caps instead.

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Also, completed some more documents. This file covers all the movesets, type changes, stat buffs and evolution changes for all the Pokemon that were edited, keep in mind it's quite a bit bulky lol

I'll get to making an document listing encounters next.

 

[Ribafish]

It all mostly came down to preference, I've always like the concept of obedience, especially with how it was done in the other Pokemon media (such as anime) so I always felt that it was a wasted opportunity in game to only have it apply to trades and it tied in with me wanting to put some restrictions in place, that and you don't really see it being used in other hacks (for better or worse ofc).

There is a hard level cap in Johto (75) and it applies before you defeat Lance, so I suppose there is a mix of both.

I'm open to suggestions though and I might change the system depending on reviews, I've already buffed the obedience caps by 4 since releasing the hack and if it's still a troublesome system for the players I'll swap it with level caps instead.

I respect your point of view. Usually difficulty hacks nowadays have level caps but you choosing obedience is just a different approach. Nothing wrong with that. Not every hack has to follow a set pattern based on popularity.

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Updated the ROM up to version 1.2, the most important change is the introduction of a 4th Stat Page displaying Location where the Pokemon was caught/obtained, DVs and the Hidden Power Type. There are also some other changes listed in the description.

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Updated the ROM up to version 1.25, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, Mew and Mewtwo are all available to catch at various points in the game, making all 251 Pokemon obtainable.

 

[Ribafish]

Secondly, I am looking into adding Running Shoes, an instant text option in the menu and I fixed the HP bar's speed at higher levels already, I'm in the process of fixing some bugs from Original Crystal (like the Berserk Gene confusion count for instance) and adding some extra QoL features, expect these to be a part of a v1.1 release.

Are you done with the hack after this part or do you plan adding more and more features from time to time until you type final release?

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Are you done with the hack after this part or do you plan adding more and more features from time to time until you type final release?

Right now the hack is pretty much done when it comes to content. I am looking into adding a fight with Green, a second battle with Gold in Virdian City with a stronger team after you beat Red as a Superboss and I will make adjustments to the Battle Tower line-ups in the future, but other than that it's mostly done.

In the future I'd be open to restoring some areas like Seafoam Islands, Virdian Forest and Cerulean Cave but that will require much more editing so I wouldn't expect it in the near future if I commit to it.

I'm also waiting on any reports about Bugs as I'll fix any and I'll go over the graphics and see if anything else needs fixing. I will also look into giving all the overworld Pokemon their custom sprites too.

I'm also working on final documents, expect docs with encounters, move changes and mart changes to drop in a couple of days.

 

[Ribafish]

What I personally love about hacks is a rich post-game content that adds a new event such as finding and catching legendary Pokemon, new area(s) to explore, rematches against stronger gym leaders, E4 and Champion, new type of Superboss trainer that is a greater challenge than the Pokemon League Champion and so on. Not to mention a Pokedex that can be fully completed is definitely a necessary feature in ROM hacks.
Cheers for adding docs. It enhances the joy of a playthrough by quite a lot.
I'll keep an eye on your project to see what happens in the future.
Good luck!

 

[GetKosiorekt]

The Encounter Document is complete! I've also updated the link in the hack description covering documents to a new one which features all the documents.

Also version 1.3 has been released, all of the changes and the new patch can be found in the description.

 

[vietlh]

Interesting, downloaded. Thanks!

 

[GetKosiorekt]

Edit: Had to swap the files, the new one has the Olivine City trade be Krabby for a Remoraid, I meant to put it in the release but when I went over the files it was still a Voltorb trade, the new files reflect the change

 

[Soraftw23]

Hi there, thank you for the hack. I like it a lot so far, but I would love it if you got rid of the obedience and just put in level caps, much less frustrating. The only thing the obedience does is make me spam save states more.