What's your "must-have" feature when choosing a hack to play?

[ajgropius]

I pretty much play Gen II hacks exclusively, so I'm a fan of how far people can push the graphics and sound. Ever since playing Pokémon Prism, I'm a huge fan of seeing more recent Pokémon in Gen II. I also love hearing more complex cries for post-Gen III Pokémon in a Gen II hack. I imagine it isn't that simple to do, either, so it shows talent on the hacker's part.

 

[Tales_Casey]

I usually check if the game has reusable tms and if i can make an unconventional team to train.

 

[Dav124]

-Reusable TMs
-A good story that gets me hooked and will engage me, Gaia is a great example
-Physical/Special moves
-I really hate it when they include Mega Evolution and treat it as a permanent evolution. You can either have megas, and use them in-battle, or forego them entirely.

 

[Mystesis]

The ability to play it with the default difficulty or close to it, no overwhelming on this part.

 

[castlemurphy]

Personally, I hate when hacks waste so much time with their poorly written "edgy" stories.

I prefer exploring the familiar yet completely different environments to be found in hacks. Exploration should be the main focus.

Personally, I think not having the PSS split is interesting. I'd play a gen 4 hack if I wanted that!

Rebalancing all Pokémon so they're usable is important.

Difficulty!!

 

[UnleashedFurai]

Personally, I really enjoy new regions, fake Pokemon, or Fakemon, and a long, interesting story, and a decently sized post-game.

 

[Tanya]

Probably the Day and Night System usually catch my attention.

Although it is very easy to implement, it is the most feature that catches my attention.

 

[Gavoca]

Uhmm... for me a good story

 

[SuperSpyroDragon64]

Catch rate multipliers.

Enduring 600 turns of throwing Ultra Balls because you felt like making some Pokemon almost completely uncatchable isn't "difficulty", it's a sign that someone's game needs to have 999x masterballs and rare candies "Bugfixed" in.

 

[CyanSMP64]

Custom music.

 

[jello_magmortar]

i dont particularly have requirements, but i love seeing custom pokemon/fakemon (that look good) and regions. as long as said region isnt just a kanto retexture.

speaking of textures, gen 5 overworld graphics on the gba tend to look weird in my opinion. gen 4-5 sprites in battle look ok, but ive always preferred the gba graphics to be, well... on the gba.

 

[Ahmad Adnan]

Well a good story love story awesome graphics and made with cfru

 

[okeus]

I don't really do the (main game title here)+ games. I don't need 700+ pokemon in gens 1 and 2, nor do I need it to be a grindfest. I enjoy fakemon, when they're well made and there's enough to build a team with them.

For me I'd have to say the deal-breaker is, gimme a new region. Aside from Red Adventures, Ash Gray, and Sirius / Altair, I basically refuse to play Kanto or Hoenn.

I expect smarter trainer AI, as stated earlier in the thread "no need to use leer on me 4 times" lmao. I don't mind losing battles, but I shouldn't have to spend an hour speed grinding to beat a non-boss-type trainer. Trainer pokemon variety is also important, make me use a balanced team and not a team carrier.

Give me unconventional starters. I love using different mon's in different games. Pokemon that often go overlooked in a regular game. Like, please do not just put Pidgey, Rattata and Nidoran on the first route and so on. Make me really think about who I want on my team, and for what reasons.

Postgame is important to me, I don't wanna just collect 8 badges, beat the league, and call it a day. So some form of story other than "you're the champion, go do the thing" is appreciated.

I loathe NPC's who say useless things like "the pc in the corner is free to use". Like yeah, I'm well aware my dude. Also 2009 "edgy" humor is seriously outdated. LOLSORANDOMXD humor is also, seriously outdated. I'll probably never play CAWPS or Outlaw.

Could honestly care less if there's the stat split everyone's always so concerned about (although it's basically normal now). I care more about exploring and story, and building a team with good type coverage than I care about stats.

Custom events! For example lots of gen 2 hacks just retext the events in order, and it's very obvious.

A lower shiny rate is nice but not mandatory. Running shoes early on is nice but not mandatory.

Just nitpicky things from there so I'll leave it at that.

 

[dylans555]

i love the pokemon romhacks where we play as an evil character, and i'm selective by hyow the story is, how insteresing is, etc, etc.
but what i'd like mostly of everything else is, freedom of choices, that we can decide the outcome of the story, besides being able to the story continue even if you lose in certain battles (because, let's say that a team rocket member fights you and threatens to steal from you if you lose, but then you lose like infinite times before of beating him, that's ridiculous pathetic) this should be added in certain story-based battles, of course.

 

[eatthepear]

I personally won't play any hacks that don't have the old Exp. Share. It's just way more convenient to grind up a new team member through that than accidentally leveling up your whole party or even worse, switch training.

 

[Pyxal]

I personally won't play any hacks that don't have the old Exp. Share. It's just way more convenient to grind up a new team member through that than accidentally leveling up your whole party or even worse, switch training.

Agreed. The new Exp. Share is just ew.

 

[GummiBerryJuice]

Personally, my top must have game play mechanics for rom hacks are:
-A VS Seeker of sorts (or some kind of way to rebattle previous trainers so that we won't have to rely on battling wild Pokemon to level up our team all the time)
-Night & Day feature
-Graphics and sprites that don't clash with each other (Gen 4/5 sprites on top of gen 3 graphics/tiles don't look good, even if the story is good)
-Decent story that isn't too kiddified (or just plain immature and crude). I dont mind some of the edgier stories once in awhile.

Features that I like, but I can live without:
-Pokemon following me
-Fakemon or custom designs for custom Pokemon
-Custom trainer sprites
-Nuzlock mode
-level caps (I kind don't like this but yet I do)

 

[Ragengar]

0.Complete Dex : with in-game trade for evolution or trade-to-stone modifier,and legendary catch before E4
1.Rare Candy Mart post game: if there is no rematch ,E4 farming is fine and Mart
2.Master Ball in Gamer Corner or Post Game Major Prize.
3.Gym Rematch: from set 0 to set 8 or 9 for any Gen,or 16 if is Gen2
4.Open World: Crystal Clear is the best for it.
5.Physical/Special Split: That will be for Gen 3 forward, Gen 1 and 2 will still have no split for compatible Pokemon Home and Bank

 

[ZephyrValgale]

PSS Split.

I literally do not care what other features it has. If it doesn't have the PSS Split, I probably won't play it.

 

[Fantaseed]

For me:

1.New region
2. A new story(even though it's not that great and polished, I'd still play it if it's a brand new story)
3.Not much of a graphics guy but, I prefer some little additions that is isn't from the vanilla game graphics.

Optional:

1.Moemons(Yes, the moemons, you have my full attention if you had moemons instead)