Hello,
Thank you for this wonderful hack. The Orange season of Pokemon aired twenty years ago and it certainly feels like I have been wanting to play this game for 20 years!!
I really, really, really enjoyed playing.
The first Pokemon game I ever played was the Yellow version, so starting the game with a Pikachu also brings back a lot of memories. But mostly I loved all the constant references to the animated series. Even the small ones.
Because it's easier to criticize than to praise, please let me give my observations about a few details. Most are my opinions and feelings when playing your game. But there is also an actual bug I encountered in the Scyther episode.
- When I first arrived on Tangelo Island, I only had a Pikachu and no pokeballs. I realize I could have bought pokeballs earlier, but I hadn't. And now it was too late: during the Lapras episode, we're trapped! There are three trainers to defeat, and no access to the pokemart. I defeated the first of the three trainers, then got destroyed by the second. I kept defeating the first trainer and losing to the second trainer until my Pikachu had acquired enough experience from the first trainer to defeat the second and third trainer as well. I was a bit annoyed not to have the possibility to catch new Pokemon to prepare for this battle. I've mentioned I started with Pokemon Yellow: in that game, it would be incredibly hard to defeat Brock with only Pikachu; the better option is to catch a Butterfree or a Mankey so we can use psychic or fighting attacks on Brock's Pokemon. If we didn't have access to a pokemart and forgot to buy pokeballs earlier... That would not be fun!!
This fight was also a bit annoying, because the cutscene to get to the fight is very long. I would have really appreciated it if the cutscene only happened the first time. It would have been more enjoyable, both because I wouldn't have had to go through it so many times in a row, and also because I was taken a little out of the story by seeing Misty "not remember" that we already had had that conversation. This hack follows the story of the animated series, so I think the storytelling part is even more important than in more classical Pokemon games.
- I loved the first fight against the Team Rocket Trio. Jessy&James were always a bit bland in Pokemon Yellow. They are so much better in your game. I think it's okay that we have to fight against the same team several times in the game. Plus those are double battles, as opposed to most other battles in the game. In Pokemon Emerald, the Television duo "Gabby and Ty" can be fought over and over again and that's not a problem. Although their Pokemon do evolve during the game, as opposed to Jessy and James'. I also enjoyed seeing that Jessy and James Pokemon were holding the anti-paralyze berry. Of course I have a Pikachu. I think it's a great touch that the main opponents, especially near the beginning of the game, are prepared for my Pikachu.
- When I walked into the second gym, just once second before I talked to the gym leader, I thought "Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a pokemon race and a target practice?" and I talked to the gym leader and her first words were "Target Practice? Pokemon race?". She read my mind!! Very good job with that dialog. Interestingly, I lost very severely the first time, because her Pokemon were faster than mine (Pikachu and Lapras) and had very strong attacks. The second time around, my Pikachu was faster and defeated all of her Pokemon in just one attack. Again, good job setting the difficulty of that fight.
- The first Rocket base was great! I loved the recurring joke about the floor panels throughout the game. I also loved being allowed to capture Drowzee. Of course Ash doesn't capture it in the animated series; but this is a Pokemon game. Pokemon can be captured.
- Every Pokemon game I've played before taught me to talk to all NPC when I arrive in a new city. In your game, however, it's important to talk to the NPC again after defeating a gym leader or completing a task. Of course, I missed the rock-climbing guy. When I arrived in the next city, I talked to an old lady who told me to go back for him. Good job with that old lady.
- During the 20 years I've waited to play this game, the Cristal Onix is probably the Pokemon I've most anticipated. There's a parallel to be made between the Cristal Onix in the Orange Islands, and the Red Gyarados in Johto. Ash doesn't capture the Red Gyarados, nor the Cristal Onix. But in the games, the Red Gyarados is capturable. And in your game, I just captured Drowzee!! So I really expected to be allowed to fight and capture the Onix. I was extremely disappointed. Now I've read these forum pages, and I see that I will be allowed to go back and capture it after I've defeated the Elite 4. I probably won't. When I've defeated the Elite 4, I will most likely stop playing the game. I wish I could have captured the Cristal Onix and used it during the game.
- About Pokemon capture: I very much dislike that pokeballs are not lost when a Pokemon escapes from a ball. This removes most of the tension of hunting and capturing Pokemon. Besides, after going through the first Rocket base and defeating every Rocket henchman, I had *a lot* of cash. I bought 150 pokeballs. I don't think I've ever had that much cash so early in a Pokemon game. Now I have too much cash and too many pokeballs and I don't know what to do with either. Normally, there is a decision to be made between using a Poke Ball, a Great Ball or an Ultra Ball, with the knowledge that an Ultra Ball costs as much as six Poke Balls, which means we usually have a very limited supply. Now I can just buy a few Ultra Balls and always use Ultra Balls, without fear of wasting them.
- I got stuck for a very long time before I managed to pass the whirlpools on the way to Pinkan Island. This is because one of the swimmers on the road gives a really big hint that what's important is climbing the steep cliffs of the island. So I figured "I'll get an HM to pass whirlpools later in the game. Right now, I can't pass the whirlpools, I have to find the cliffs instead." This made a lot of sense, since I had already met the old lady who told me if I wanted a climbing kit, I should go back to Mandarin North. But of course there were no cliffs. I had to pass the whirlpools first. True, one of the swimmers does give a small hint about the whirlpools. But there were so many hints about the cliffs already that it seemed obvious I should look for cliffs, not whirlpools. My Pikachu and Lapras gained nearly 10 levels each, from 20 to 30, because of the army of Tentacool I had to face while I was sailing the seas looking for cliffs to climb. I tried climbing every thing that looked even remotely like a rock along the road. Let me tell you there are a lot of rocks along those roads. And a lot of Tentacool. Only when I was convinced I had tried every angle of every rock of route E, of Sunburst Island and of Valencia Island did I go back to the whirlpools and tried passing those through every angle.
- Pinkan Island was really fun! I love Team Rocket being attacked by every big wild Pokemon. Neither Pinkan Island nor Fukuhara has Pokemon centers, so there was a bit of difficulty there managing the PP and HP of Pikachu and Lapras.
- About the fight with Gary... I was a bit disappointed. I remembered Blue as one of the hardest challenges, both in Pokemon Yellow and in Gold&Silver. The first time I played Pokemon Yellow, my heart always skipped a beat when he showed up unannounced in the middle of a dungeon and I had to wonder, how long ago did I heal my Pokemon? Will I be able to defeat him this time? And the game even remembered whether we defeated him or not, by changing the evolution of his Eevee. But here in the Orange Islands... Gary has three Ground-type Pokemon in a row, followed by a Fire-type Pokemon. I have a Lapras with Surf. It's not even relevant what other Pokemon I had in my team and whether or not I had healed them properly. This fight was too easy for Lapras.
- Navel Island was great. I think it's good that you removed the Geyser freezing and Sledracing, but not the mountain climbing. However, I wish we did not have to use the Climbing Kit so much during the way up. Using the Climbing Kit goes like this:
<Press A or nothing happens>
"This wall is very rocky. Would you like to climb it?"
<Press A or nothing happens>
"Ash uses the climbing kit!"
[animation of Ash climbing]
Then walk a few steps to the next rocky wall, and it has to be done all over again. I wish when I talk to a rocky wall, Ash would directly climb it, without me having to wait for two text messages and specifying that yes, I would like to use the Climbing Kit. This is a bit reminiscent of the use of HM Strength in the games: the first time the player talks to a movable rock after entering an area, the played is asked whether they want to use Strength. But once the player said yes ONCE, they can now move all moveable rocks in the area just by walking towards the rocks, without having to talk again. Talking is SLOW. The trainers along the mountains were pretty strong, and if I recall correctly some of the wild Pokemon had Explosion which does a lot of damage, so I had to go back to the Pokemon center more than once to heal before I could face the gym leader. Every time, I had to walk up and down the mountain and talk to every rocky wall on the way up and on the way down, and that took an insane amount of time.
- The first time I faced the gym leader, I lost. Then I decided to move on to the next Island to train a little before I face him again. I was so pleased when I talked to a swimmer who told me about a large, unusual, blue and white Pokemon swimming in the area :D Needless to say, I captured Snorlax before I went back to fight the gym leader. Snorlax was really helpful.
- The Meowth episode was fun. The NPC have good dialog, including the swimmer near the island. It's also a very appropriate place for the Amulet Coin. Although, do we need an amulet coin? I already have so much money and I don't ever need to buy pokeballs again...
- Scyther!!! I remember this episode so well. In fact, I must have watched this episode before I got Pokemon Yellow, or at least before I was very far along in the game. In the animated series, Scyther is very scary, especially because of the move Double Team. So in Pokemon Yellow, I was convinced Double Team was the best move ever, and I taught it to every Pokemon who could learn it. Haha. It turns out this move sucks :-D. Anyway, here is a little bug I encountered in the forest, just after Scyther escaped from the Pokemon center. I talked to one of the ferns in the forest (I often talk to rocks or plants) and the fern answered: "This Scyther is looking injured!". Apparently the fern was convinced it was a Scyther. I was not fooled and I went looking for the real Scyther. I made a screenshot when that happened, so I can show you which fern it is. However, I just created an account here, so I am not allowed to post urls.
- The Waterfall-teaching NPC says he can only teach my Pokemon Waterfall once. I did not want to teach it to Lapras and I did not have another water Pokemon on me and even if I did, I wouldn't want to waste a once-only Waterfall move on a crappy Pokemon. So I missed out on the Waterfall sidequest, whatever it was.
- I lost my first match against the third gym leader. So I decided to move on to the next Island first, to train my Pokemon, before I came back. It turns out that 1) the way to Fairchild Island is blocked by the whirlpools 2) the way from Trovita Island to route F is not blocked by the whirlpools 3) the way from route F to Trovita Island is blocked by the whirlpools. So... I went the whole way around. Fukuhara Island, Kinnow Island, Navel Island, Grapefruit, Moro....... I did them all over again. My Pokemon certainly gained a lot of xp doing that, and happily I got the VS Seeker by this point, so at least I could fight all the trainers again. It would have been incredibly boring if I had to fight only Tentacool. On the plus side, I went to the Museum again, so I could get my first prehistoric Pokemon and give out my second fossil.
- The first time I faced the third gym leader, I was really impressed by the hot air balloon and the whole cutscene. But then I had to face him again, which meant going through all of it again. Which means talking to Misty and Tracey, who apparently forgot we had had that conversation before. This took me a little out of the story. Generally, going through a long cutscene a second time is an unpleasant experience. It's a brutal reminder that this is just a programmed game and that the NPC are just following routines and not remembering anything.
- After I defeated the gym leader, I tried going to Fairchild Island again. Haha. Again, in other Pokemon games, it's important to talk to NPC once. It's usually not important to talk to them again after completing a task. That's how HM work: 1) Talk to an NPC to get the HM; 2) Defeat a gym leader to be allowed to use the HM. It's not necessary to talk to an NPC again after defeating the gym leader. So I did not talk to the NPC who would give me the Whirlpuller. Again, I got trapped on route F. This type I checked these forums and I found the info about the Whirlpuller. So again, I went the whole loop around. Fukuhara, Kinnow, Navel, Grapefruit... On the plus side, I got the Old Amber from nurse Joy and I got my second prehistoric Pokemon from the Museum. I again used the VS Seeker a lot so I had something to fight besides Tentacool. And I think it's during that long road around that I found a Charmander.
- Fairchild Island was fun, although I was a bit disappointed to only find wild Pidgeot and Rhydon. Team Rocket was fun, as always. Unfortunately I didn't manage to catch the boss Pidgeot because it has Whirlwind!!!!! Arrrrrrh. I had also failed to capture the boss pink Rhydon on Pinkan island, so this is my second failure!!! (I never reset)
- Shamouti Island... was... puzzling? I don't remember this episode from the animated series and I just moved on to the next Island, not knowing if I had to do something before I could unlock a sidequest here.
- Before agreeing to fight Tad's Poliwrath, I changed my first Pokemon to Lapras. If this were any other game, I would have changed my first Pokemon to Pikachu, to have the type advantage. But given how important the story-telling is on this game, I thought it would be fair to treat this as a 1vs1 between two similar Pokemon. This was a very fun battle. Poliwrath is very strong! In fact he defeated all my Pokemon (mostly due to his speed and his luck with Hypnosis) and I had to send Pikachu last to finally win. We'll never know if Lapras would have been able to handle him, with some better luck.
- I was a bit afraid not to be allowed to progress because I did not have Waterfall. Happily there was a way around. I got HM Cut and while teaching it to a Pokemon, I noticed I already had HM Fly. Well!! This could have saved me a lot of time with those Whirlpools!! I don't remember when I got it. The good news is, now I can go back to do the Waterfall sidequest.
- I enjoyed the Rocket base, and the recurring floor pannel joke. I also like that Jessy&James are actually stronger opponents than Butch&Cassidy. Although Jessy&James are mostly there for the comedy, they still are Ash's main enemies.
- Kumquat Island and the fourth gym leader... I am very disappointed in this fight. At the entrance they told me to make sure I had at least two Pokemon. So I thought, "Cool, this is going to be a 2 vs 2 battle!". I thought I would be asked to pick two Pokemon before the fight start. In the Emerald version, the played is sometimes asked to pick a few Pokemon before a battle, especially the double battles. But not this time... My first two Pokemon were Pikachu and Eggsecute, and they were both KOed immediately (Eggsecute by Alakazam's Hyper Beam, Pikachu by Marowak's ground-type attack). Then I switched in Snorlax and Lapras, who could easily defeat Alakazam while it was recovering from the Hyper Beam, and the gang up on Marowak who for some reason was using Protect exclusively and hence was not a threat at all. All in all, this gym battle was very disappointing. The gym leader proved to be pretty strong by defeating my first two Pokemon, but then just let me defeat him without fighting back. I wish I had only been allowed two Pokemon. Fighting 6 against 2 is very unfair. If I had known in advance, I would have stored four Pokemon in Oak's Lab, so I could fight fairly 2 vs 2. Then if I lose, I get to fight again and win properly. But instead I fought 6 against 2, so of course I won, but this was a very cheap win and I wish I could do it again. Unfortunately, I cannot, since I won already.
This is where I'm at! I haven't finished playing yet. I am curious about the Elite 4, because I actually haven't seen those episodes in the animated series. I have only seen the episode where Ash meets Prima/Lorelei, and I remember her saying she can be "as flowing as water and yet as hard as ice". I am very curious because the way I understood it, Pokemon Leagues differ in the game and in the animated series. In the animated series, the final step in the Pokemon League is a tournament between all the pokemon trainers who managed to get here; but in the games, the final step is to face the Elite 4. Therefore the Elite 4 is more or less missing in the animated series; but the characters still exist (for instance, Lance appears in the Red Gyarados episode). Lorelei is the first Elite 4 trainer in the generation I games. She's the same character as Prima from the Orange Islands. So for 20 years I had thought that the episodes I missed in the Orange Island series were about the Elite 4 from the games, which had been turned into the final step of the Orange League in the animated series... The mystery will unfold when I finish your game!!!!
Thank you again for this magnificent hack.
