Azurefel_Raphleshia
Eirch Pacifos: Online
- 22
- Posts
- 274
- Days
- He/They/It
- Massachusetts
- Seen Jun 18, 2025
I played Rom Hacks for a long time... But this particular hack was held in high regard to Light Platinum, Flora Sky, and even Glazed!! So with these in mind, I went in with an open mind but this open mindness quickly melted away...
Pokemon: Dark Rising.
Probably one of the most unbalanced, poorly mapped and cringe-plotted hack I've ever played.
Gameplay: I went into this game thinking "oh this can't be so bad." But by the second gym, I started to see the holes people have pointed out in this hack... the game is not fair. It knows it's not fair. The game isn't even a cakewalk when your team is LVL 100. An absolute brutal fangame through and through and just when you think you are FINALLY at the next city... BAM. You are thrown into more relentless trainer battles (these teams can range from stalling teams to full on assault, the game does not let you take a BREAK)! And to add insult to injury in these battles: YOU CANNOT HEAL OR USE REVIVE ITEMS. So if your stuck on a boss, good luck. The level curve is ridiculous, some trainers having Pokemon 20 levels above you! The grind is insane, as wild Pokemon are the opposite, being 10 LEVELS BELOW YOUR TEAM. The movesets for the Pokemon themselves don't make much sense, as some can learn moves they can't even learn, type coverage being all over the place. And one final gripe are the stats. You can be levels higher then the same Pokemon you are fighting and the enemy can STILL K.O you with 2-3 moves! Glitches wise, I didn't have any issues, unlike some players.
Graphics: The mapping... oh, god the mapping. Most of the maps in this hack are poor at best. The towns aren't bad (considering how very little there are) but the routes are where this complaint stems from. Some of the worst routes are later in the game, these include the desert area and the lab areas (the kicker is that these routes are back to back and are some of the most stress I ever had in a fangame). The graphics itself isn't that bad but you can TELL they just reused Firered's maps, like the casino. The creator just sprinkled some additional trees or rocks here and there to make it "stand out."
Story: The story is insanely edgy. From what I gathered, the game was made by a 13 year old (very impressive!)... so this pretty much explains everything. The characters spout out the edgiest of dialogue and certain characters are put in just to get hype, not giving much of an impact to the plot. But over looking that, the story itself is simple, some moments surprisingly being nicely written. Spelling errors can be spotted here and there, such as Pokemon names like Prinplup.
I understand for a time, this game was good. But it has AGED poorly. I'm not sure why this game is STILL being recommended when we have BETTER games like Unbound?
But this Rom Hack isn't worth it, unless you dig a challenge even greater then a nuzlocke.
Pokemon: Dark Rising.
Probably one of the most unbalanced, poorly mapped and cringe-plotted hack I've ever played.
Gameplay: I went into this game thinking "oh this can't be so bad." But by the second gym, I started to see the holes people have pointed out in this hack... the game is not fair. It knows it's not fair. The game isn't even a cakewalk when your team is LVL 100. An absolute brutal fangame through and through and just when you think you are FINALLY at the next city... BAM. You are thrown into more relentless trainer battles (these teams can range from stalling teams to full on assault, the game does not let you take a BREAK)! And to add insult to injury in these battles: YOU CANNOT HEAL OR USE REVIVE ITEMS. So if your stuck on a boss, good luck. The level curve is ridiculous, some trainers having Pokemon 20 levels above you! The grind is insane, as wild Pokemon are the opposite, being 10 LEVELS BELOW YOUR TEAM. The movesets for the Pokemon themselves don't make much sense, as some can learn moves they can't even learn, type coverage being all over the place. And one final gripe are the stats. You can be levels higher then the same Pokemon you are fighting and the enemy can STILL K.O you with 2-3 moves! Glitches wise, I didn't have any issues, unlike some players.
Graphics: The mapping... oh, god the mapping. Most of the maps in this hack are poor at best. The towns aren't bad (considering how very little there are) but the routes are where this complaint stems from. Some of the worst routes are later in the game, these include the desert area and the lab areas (the kicker is that these routes are back to back and are some of the most stress I ever had in a fangame). The graphics itself isn't that bad but you can TELL they just reused Firered's maps, like the casino. The creator just sprinkled some additional trees or rocks here and there to make it "stand out."
Story: The story is insanely edgy. From what I gathered, the game was made by a 13 year old (very impressive!)... so this pretty much explains everything. The characters spout out the edgiest of dialogue and certain characters are put in just to get hype, not giving much of an impact to the plot. But over looking that, the story itself is simple, some moments surprisingly being nicely written. Spelling errors can be spotted here and there, such as Pokemon names like Prinplup.
I understand for a time, this game was good. But it has AGED poorly. I'm not sure why this game is STILL being recommended when we have BETTER games like Unbound?
But this Rom Hack isn't worth it, unless you dig a challenge even greater then a nuzlocke.