I’ll preface what I’m about to say with the fact that I am probably pickier about Pokémon ROM hacks than maybe any other person on the entire planet. So, you may take it with a grain of salt that I think this “expansion” is a bit of an overzealous mechanical mess. I first became curious about it by reading another Backloggd user’s review of it and quickly sought it out. Upon glancing over the Pokédex of this game, which chooses to not only include scrapped beta Pokémon, but also new evolutions of Kanto natives and regional forms of the existing cast, as well. I found myself gearing up for another Pokémon playthrough a lot sooner after ‘Legends: Arceus’ than I anticipated. This seemed like just the thing for me; an expansion that includes new evolutions and some new Pokémon with a familiar scenario that I can jog on through.

Upon further research I found out that this hack was based on a fan-made meta played on Pokémon Showdown, and became a little skeptical. The more I read into it as I started the early parts of this playthrough, the more I realized this was less of an expansion and more of a complete overhaul of ‘Red & Blue Versions’ to imagine a version of its first release that didn’t have the limits it did. Though these limits are surpassed without a whole lot of thought; a lot of “what they could do vs. should do,” you know? Some of the scrapped Pokémon that make their return are ugly motherfuckers, and feeling the need to include every regional form and even the paradox forms of Kanto Pokémon just make the Pokédex feel bloated for the sake of including everything that was scrapped and created since Generation 1 instead of just what actually was a good fit.

Then there are some changes that I just found annoying. Some mechanics are shifted in an attempt to evolve ‘Red Version’ to some in-between the first and second generations. The ol’ 1997 Spaceworld Demo. In this demo, the Dark- and Steel-type act differently, and while the different type advantages were fun to experiment, you quickly realize that these were changed for a reason. Though, you can also chalk up a lot of my nitpicking to me running into battles that frustrated me because some things were changed in ways that did not benefit me, and when you package this with the first generation of Pokémon’s baked-in bullshit (I do not remember status effects being this psychotic in ‘Yellow Version’, lol), and you get an experience that feels very kaizo, for lack of a better world.

Despite all these complaints, I must say that I still had a blast. I loved the team I ended up with here, and I’d like to share some of my buddies to show off some of the members who weren’t organic to the vanilla version of this game.
Lilypad / Tortartle - my starter! Tortartle is a beta-version of Wartortle’s evolution (Blastoise is still here, but evolves from a different Pokémon!). It is inexplicably part Grass-type, which I didn’t love as someone who wishes there were more Water-type starters that gained the Ice-typing in its final evolution. Love this guy’s design, though, as it keeps Wartortle’s little wings and tail.
Dogtooth / Guardia - a surprise entry to the team, Guardia is a new Marowak evolution that is basically a fusion of Kangaskhan and Marowak. I don’t know when this ‘mon was scrapped, as it seems to be a cute little reference to the theory that Cubone used to be the baby inside of Kangaskhan’s pouch until its mother died. Anyway, Guardia is good as hell. A perfect design (like, I really, really want this to be real), and it was knocking out motherfuckers left and right.
Catscratch / Gorotora - the final evolution of Kotora, everyone’s favorite little round, electric, tiger ball. Any hack that has this ‘mon is kino, and I will make sure to use it. The bastard was a menace with Thunderbolt and helped secure my Championship.
Torchlight / Ninetales - one of the scrapped ‘mons added in this game is Vulpii, a baby evolution of Vulpix who I actually never saw in my entire playthrough because I forgot it was found early on in the game and I just ended up finding a Vulpix where they usually are. Torchlight got a lot of use out of Toxic & Confuse Ray and also helped remind me that Vulpix and Ninetales’ Gen 1 back sprites are funny as fuck.
Popsong / Wigglytuff - an early member of the team whose Body Slams got me through a lot of the early hurdles of this game. Though my dear puffball fell off as the trainers we faced got stronger, without them I would not be where I am today.
Bitemark / Tricules - this is that dope-ass Pinsir evolution that is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It was through Tricules’ Steel-typing that I realized how shitty the Steel-type would’ve been if they kept the demo match-ups. He’s a strong motherfucker and while it didn’t get any Bug-type moves, Swords Dance & Strength did plenty of the work I needed of it.
So, yeah, the Pokédex has some amazing new entries and you’ll have a ball discovering many scrapped Pokémon that you did not know exist and finding the ones you thought were really cool.

What really stood out to me, though, are the changes to the region. This hack’s vision of the Kanto region is one of the most well-realized vision of a more fleshed-out Kanto region. The additions here like the expanded Cinnabar Island, the Celadon University, that really stays true to the vibes of Generation 1 that I laud a lot in most reviews of Kanto-set Pokémon games. Even if I think this game is a little overzealous dex-wise and mechanic-wise, it perfectly plays within the table setting that Game Freak gave us with these first games and I really enjoyed the vibe of the setting here. So, regardless of any of these points, this is a great way to replay the first game in this series, and I can’t imagine anyone who doesn’t hate Gen 1 not having a fun time here.

Look, I don’t want to preach to the choir here. I’ll get it out of the way and say that this game is better at looking ugly than it is at looking awe-inspiring. Hell, I noticed more graphical errors and visual bugs on this second playthrough than I did during my first 100-hour-long save file. Textures and models popping into a scene some frames later than it should, parts of a model freaking out because it doesn’t know how to stand on the ground its on, Pokémon having odd movement because it can’t figure out how to act around the player character. Though, of course, some of this is fun to run into in a game like this that has you interacting with so many curious moving parts (I find it’s only really unwelcome in story segments). That’s all without mentioning the awful looking water and rocks. I don’t know what it is about caves in these 3D Pokémon games, but good fucking god, I am thanking the lord that Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes place primarily in a cityscape, supposedly.

You all know this, though, and I certainly don’t want to come off as some parrot who’s about to show you a screenshot of this game with “BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY:” plastered on the top next to a screenshot of fucking Palworld for comparison. I’m better than that and you’re better than that. I’m not here to talk about how plain-as-day it is, now, how much this game preludes Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s fumbling first footsteps, in both game mechanics and graphical bugs. No, see, Pokémon Legends: Arceus gets me thinking so much of the trajectory of Pokémon as a game series, something I caught myself going on hour-long diatribes about during my livestreaming days. I could talk about it so much, really, and the ups and downs of this game in particular really highlight for me the stuff I think about all the damn time.

Because, really, these are just rough edges on a game that’s trying a lot of things. It’s very thematically in tune that the central conceit is that the player character is a future-born Pokémon trainer in a world where most humans have a fear of venturing out of their comfort zone into an open world full of dangerous creatures. The player is familiar with Pokémon, as a game, as a concept, and familiar with how Pokémon games usually work, and Game Freak uses this to its advantage within how it’s framing this game and I like that a lot. You are to complete tasks and face challenges that Pokémon games never asked of you before. When I first played this game, I was riding an incredible high, experiencing all of these new things, seeing new sights, and catching Pokémon in new ways. When I started this second playthrough, it was the first time I felt that rush of playing a new Pokémon game on the second go around. It’s some real magic going on here that, I think, is just hindered by being the first of its kind. I do think that a lot of the issues Game Freak runs into is having to start from scratch so much, they’re never able to just take an existing thing and sand down the edges anymore, with their current formula (please bring back third versions). Though, even with these self-made hurdles ahead of them at every release, there’s still something about these games that they get right every time.

Exploration in this game is so goddamn fun; breaking through on a new area once you’re able to traverse waters or cliffs and discovering Pokémon you’ve never seen before feels really amazing, still. Of course, this does have its natural end. You get to later areas and find yourself exploring, stumbling on packs of Pokémon you’ve seen dozens of times, and whose dex entries you’ve completed thrice over. The poor Bibarel who hang out in the Alabaster Icelands; I probably soared over them with Braviary a billion times without paying them any mind at all. Then, sometimes, you’ll scale the cliffs of an older area with Sneasler and find yourself in a little nook you’ve never been to, only to discover, “Oh, it’s, um, more Stantler.” There’s probably some design-hack around this. Maybe a section of some Pokémon’s dex entries that asks the player to “catch [Pokémon] in [area it’s not as common],” in order to entice players to explore and not have their hopes dashed by finding MORE FUCKING PARASECT…

I usually do have more fun with a Pokémon game when I know what I’m getting into. Knowing the Pokédex and being able to plan a team is my main thing, but in this case, knowing what was expected of me to complete the game allowed me to be more forthwright and efficient in my tasks and objectives. I found myself spacing out main story missions with more excursions to past areas to complete dex entries and complete requests, as well. I rolled credits on my first save file with a lot of the Pokédex empty and the tedium of going out to different areas to play catch up in an attempt to reach Arceus eventually wore me out. Especially because in my first save file I could never fucking find a Cherubi or a Magby. I had such a better rhythm in this second save file, and finding that right pace made the game feel a lot more cohesive. Though, the only downside was I think I was so efficient in my time spent in locations I rarely stayed long enough for distortions to spawn, leaving the starter and fossil Pokémon to be dead last on my checklist.

I did manage it, though. In all of my years playing Pokémon, I’ve never completed a Pokédex before. Not even a regional one! Not even in the days when both my brother and I would have copies of opposite versions and two DS’. Not even as an adult with a copy of every GBA game and two GBAs and a link cable. It’s just not what I play these games for, and it was even a trend for me to only catch six entire Pokémon per playthrough. One monster per team slot and then none others. You can forget about catching legendaries, that’s for sure. It was easier in most Pokémon games because the real adventure was the gym challenge, and taking down organized crime, and, well, in terms of role-playing, I’m just the kid that the professor was wrong to give a Pokédex. For ‘Legends’, though, the Pokédex is everything, the dex’s completion is mandated by God. The mechanic that a certain amount of tasks need to be completed so “your rank is high enough to venture into this area” is really nice. It doesn’t feel like an arbitrary hurdle; the more you know of Pokémon, the more we can trust you with more dangerous missions and excursions. I’m excited to see how the next ‘Legends’ game’s city development conceit changes this part of the game.

One of my only personal gripes when it comes to the Pokémon part of this Pokémon game is that there’s no breeding. It’s funny to replace the personal computer that trainers usually digitize their buddies into with just…a farm. Like, a field, where they just chill out, but then you can’t have the Pokémon breed and lay eggs for you to hatch. Only a big gripe because Sinnoh’s Pokédex had a big focus on not only new evolutions for existing Pokémon, but new baby evolutions for new Pokémon. Of course, this was mainly to serve as a parallel to Generation 2, and there’s no need for that here, but it bummed me out! Munchlax, Bonsly, Happiny; breeding was a big focus of this generation, and maybe it just wasn’t something they were able to get around to, or maybe it was an after thought because baby evolutions in general are such an after thought these days. Who doesn’t want cuter versions of cool Pokémon? When I first saw Bonsly as a kid I had a fit because of how much I liked it. As I constantly visited the same few areas where some of the more scarce baby Pokémon spawned, I truly lamented the lost art of PKMN Breeder……

A lot of people also complain about the story here, but I found it to be pretty standard fare for a Pokémon game. I think the lack of voice-acting (or even just some noises in place of actually voice acting, or something like Fire Emblem Awakening where characters say a general word or phrase to indicate they are talking) makes these games’ stories feel a little more dull because, just, naturally, games like this feel like they should have voice-acting! But, yeah, it’s fine! Just fine, though, because one thing I wish this game had was a little more teeth. It only needs a little, because when the game threatens the player character with death and maiming as a consequence of the wilds, it feels slightly more mature than most other games in this series. Where it retracts its fangs is with the diamond and pearl clans, whose rivalry never felt real. The stakes of this rivalry felt small because the two leaders are young adults who express their disdain for each other with mere sass and snark that would lead an audience to believe they are merely rival school team captains instead of rival leaders of contradictory religions, who have had past skirmishes!

At the end of the day, even as your commander talks much about not wanting to upset the current peace between the clans, Adaman and Irida don’t take much to become agreeable enough to assist the player character in, well, doing whatever it is you need to at a moment’s notice. They really like you a lot and I guess not only did you fall from the sky to meet Pokémon, but you’ve also fallen into becoming an important figure in this vital moment in the history of the region. I wonder how that messes up the timeline… Especially since I guess you’re going to stay here forever?

It’s my other gripe with this game’s story, that it doesn’t have any finality to it. In fact, beyond the first hour or two, you’ll be hard pressed to find moments where you or the characters around you stress about the idea of you needing to go back home. As I said before, I like the idea of a trainer from modern times being sent back to a turning point in relations between people and Pokémon, since the player is an assumed intermediate or expert in Pokémon being sent to a world where things work differently. So when the player character knows a thing or two right after waking up in the beach, it reflects the player already knowing a thing or two despite other characters having just learned about a lot of this. The problem is that Pokémon games can’t end. The story might end, and the credits may roll, but, wait, what about shiny hunting? I have to shiny hunt now, and download this update that came out and use my save file to do all the extra content. What do you mean most JRPGs usually save the game right before the finale so that players can go back and do extra content after beating the game? What the fuck?

Which, quick aside about the (second) finale, the fight with Volo is so flaccid to me. It’s cool on the surface, to fight Cynthia’s team then fight against a two-phase-RPG-boss Giratina, but the story around it is so hilarious. After you defeat Giratina, there is a total of three text boxes dedicated to Volo spouting a quick expository explanation of why he and Giratina are buddy-buddy. It’s a terribly clumsy way to reveal the ultimate mystery of this game’s plot: why the space-time rift was opened in the first place. The fight itself is also a little underwhelming only because, at least for me, with my Pokémon close to level 80, the fight with Giratina became this stalemate of me trying to heal my Pokémon and get around the battle system, and it wasn’t until the poor bastard’s Phantom Force just stopped working that I really got a leg up.

And don’t get me started on the Arceus battle. That one hurt me. I like what it’s doing here, with its narrative of Arceus “choosing you,” the player, but I just keep thinking about how much more special a game like this could be if it ended with the player character going back home and having to say goodbye to the people and Pokémon they meet. A game about Pokémon games, that you are only briefly transported to this world and there will always be a day where you look back at your Pokémon, and go back to your real life, and never see them again. There will always be a last time you play a Pokémon game………

Speaking of that Daybreak update, though, I do think it’s really good. The little story told throughout the arc of “massive mass outbreaks” (aka the shiny hunting mechanic), is pretty bland but it ends on this really sweet note. Mai tells you that, “maybe these outbreaks are a gift from almighty Sinnoh to you, for everything you’ve done for this world.” It puts a nice end to that thread of this game being about the player playing a new Pokémon experience. This update is a gift to players for playing, still. It’s a shame there wasn’t more after this update. It kind of hints more that the content that makes up ‘Daybreak’ was unfinished post-game content that they couldn’t squeak in at the finish line. In critiquing the mechanic itself, massive mass outbreaks do mostly feel like a “gift” to shiny hunters. When you ask Mai’s Munchlax to reveal what each pack of Pokémon are, I found myself looking at the map and going “I finished that Pokémon’s entry, I finished that one’s entry, too, I finished that one’s entry…”

All this to say that this game is flawed; both in ways you hear about all the fucking time by annoying people, and in ways that only this particular person find annoying. It sort of disappointed me that ‘Scarlet & Violet’ brought a lot of things from this game and baked it into its open world. It made this game feel less like a hopeful branch breaking off of the main series, and more that this was just another stepping stone in a hypothetical perfect Pokémon game that stops trying too many new things and just focuses on refining good things they’ve tried already. I started this playthrough in February, after the Pokémon Day livestream, and aimed to stretch out this playthrough to hopefully kill some time between now and the far-off release date Game Freak gave themselves. The extra time for the next installment makes me slightly hopeful, but I think the only way that ‘Z-A’ is great is if they just take what they did with Arceus and sand down those rough edges and refine some minor mechanical problems. Either way, I’ll probably play it, because, well, I mean, if it does do most of the same things that this game did, I can’t imagine it would so sorely disappoint me.

I guess that makes me one of those people who “buys Pokémon games anyways.” People say that a lot, that people buy these games despite their flaws, despite the fact that they may seem lackluster to most. Even in cases like ‘Scarlet & Violet’, I don’t like this sentiment because it makes Pokémon fans seem like a bunch of mindless drones who have no feelings about a game, but really they just like Pokémon. It’s hard for most to not get what they’re looking for out of a Pokémon game because, at the end of the day, Game Freak has never failed to make a game where you can meet lots of Pokémon of all shapes and sizes, and then collect and battle them with all sorts of different characters, and with friends in real life. That’s what it’s all about it, folks. It’s what makes the ugly, dysfunctional generation 1 games playable, still, and it’s what makes the ugly, dysfuntional generation 9 games playable.