Despite going in knowing this game has had a reputation in the past, I wanted to give it a genuine go. A fair shake, form my own opinions... EV training is something I usually quite enjoy, and I did partake in my fair share of competitive Pokemon from the Black/White era up until the end of the Sun/Moon era. The premise for this hack honestly seemed really promising to me as a result! And what I got was a technically good game... that is generally unenjoyable to play through. Unfortunately so, because I really liked the opening to this game and the first gym battle provided a good taste of what should've followed.
The balancing for this game is all over the place. On the one hand you get a lot of resources off the bat- too much all at once I would argue -but on the other hand you're left starved of resources that the enemy gets access to WAY before you can. As early as the third gym you will be fighting mega evolutions fairly consistently, with even your rival and AI partner getting access to megas before you can. When DO you get megas though? After Sabrina. Alright... so for most of the early game and part of the mid game you're fighting a generally uphill battle; keep in mind, uphill. Not impossible. Not even always unfair. But a lot of the time it comes down to finding a specific Pokemon to counter the boss, which by itself isn't a bad idea. However: The game boasts custom balancing, from changing existing Pokemon to adding custom moves and even entirely new forms. Though it's not impossible to work with these, often times the specific solutions to boss fights are using Pokemon that weren't even changed and/or were already really good in the real competitive scene. In a nutshell, it feels like you should "get meta" or really just suffer because of it.
The balancing overall feels out of wack. I felt this most with Lavender Town: The boss fight against Marowak is a Level 58 WITH ADDED STAT BOOSTS and coverage moves whilst your level cap is 56... and then directly after that you're fighting Level 42-ish Pokemon with moves like Scary Face. Boss encounters should obviously be a noticeable challenge but a difference this huge in the same area (one room apart no less) is absolutely nuts. Honestly the Silph Co tower made this feel a bit evident too, with how there are three consecutive boss fights (in all fairness you get a free heal and have easy access to a full team heal as well); one being your rival, which is fairly well balanced and decently enjoyable. The second being a tag fight against Archer and Ariana, which is where the mega evolution starvation was especially felt... on top of the AI partner really being set up to fail, from having a lead Pokemon that instantly buffs the opposing Gothitelle to being given a Mega Sceptile that is stuck with Mega Drain and Dragonbreath. Keeping in mind the enemies at this point have long had access to competitive strategies and proper moves... including the third Silph Co. boss, Giovanni. In his first encounter he already had a Mega Kangaskhan. He still has that here, fair enough, but he also just gets to have a competitive-grade Garchomp because why wouldn't he. It's a shame because he does have a fairly interesting lead with Hippowdon, only to then devolve into the average OU team.
Really, I feel like a lot of my bitching is...well, bitching. But when they go out of their way to stop you from getting access to competitive items early, as well as making you deal with 30+ experience levels of mega evolutions before you can feel like you're on a level playing field, I would say the janky balancing is fair play to be critiqued. To put it another way, there was rarely a moment where I felt satisfied in my eventual victories... it was more commonly the feeling of "Fucking finally" which isn't a good thing to make the player feel in place of actual satisfaction. I don't mind swapping team members around and using multiple Pokemon, in fact it's something I love to do. But when just about every boss trainer invalidates at least one of the Pokemon you really want to use it's not a fun feeling; it rarely felt like my own fault for having a badly built team, it was more or less the game punishing me for wanting to try out the new toys it's given me. The feeling doesn't get much better as the game goes on, but I wanted to at least get to the elite four before calling it quits. Thankfully I did at least have the will to go on and finish it, but not the post-game...
...but I did nearly run through the game a second time. Yes, seriously, for real, I put myself through it one and a half times. The first playthrough I did on vanilla settings, but for my attempted second run I tried mininal grinding mode since it piqued my interest. Unfortunately, my feelings remained mostly the same. The only real difference is how it cuts down training and catching, because even with an easier bar for entry (no EVs + perfect IVs for everyone) and knowing what fights had what Pokemon? It was really much of the same experience. A fun taste at the beginning that quickly devolves into a hellish uphill battle, which becomes a largely mediocre experience after finally getting the tools your opponents have been using for most of the game. For what it's worth the champion battle felt like a satisfying enough end, although truth be told I don't know how much of that was me being happy to be done with the game.
All I've done so far is complain, but what about positives? Well. The Pokemon buffs do make the game fairly interesting and were a main draw for me... my main issue there is just how a number of Pokemon are still relatively useless despite getting really fun anf exciting changes. Likewise, when the enemy teams aren't your average Smogon tryhard they can be fairly creative. If anything that makes me hate the difficulty discrepancy more though! The devs clearly know how to make an interesting battle yet most of the time opt to just look at what's hot in OU or Ubers and make a team revolving around that. The presentation is good... yeah, that's a positive I don't really think has a drawback to it. At first I would've said the Pokemon availability to be a positive, but the game is so chock-full of encounters to shove in that it was borderline unplayable without inputting an in-game cheat that opens the DexNav without needing to go through random encounters first. Not to mention just how many of these Pokemon have a consistent usage (or even a niche usage) is heavily up for debate, considering every potential option is up against options that also outclass them. It makes for what I think is a pretty redundant meta, even as a singleplayer experience.
People have already torn the unfun enemy AI to shreds by now and I think that plays into the unfun feeling; you can't have a counter in your pocket because the AI just fucking knows about it before you get a chance to use it. The battle that, retrospectively, was the beginning of this game's downfall exemplifies this; the rocket grunt after Nugget Bridge. I lead a Flaaffy with Power Gem, unintentionally giving me a coverage option against his Growlithe. But suspiciously enough the AI swaps out it out before I've shown that I have the move... hhmmmmm... so, you end up playing hot potato with your switches because the AI has help from Jesus, apparently. Also this grunt has a competitive Gabite, because fuck you. As I said earlier in this ramble of a review; it's not impossible, it's just unfun to deal with. Even when I knew it was coming. That's not a good thing. I shouldn't have to say that it's not a good thing. But apparently all-knowing AI is a good thing in someone's eyes...
When this game is fun, it honestly is fun. But when this game drags, you absolutely feel the drag. And unfortunately for every step forward this game takes, it takes a few steps back and ends up as a horrendously mixed bag of trail mix that is technically well made at the core but has so much going against it at the same time. I wish this game were fun because the core of it all is an interesting prospect. There's genuine challenge and difficult, but then there's what they did here...
Apparently the devs use their Discord to mock people who don't like the game? So in the off-chance they read this: You've got great ideas going here, and kudos for wanting to make a more challenging Pokemon game. But this is not how it should be done. The difficulty ramps way too fast and starves you of resources as a way of making you feel underpowered by comparison. I don't hate this hack, I had fun moments with it to the point I decided to seek out shinies for some of my final team members (Lopunny and Flareon if you're curious) but there is just too much of that "Thank fuck that's over" feeling to make the entire game a satisfying experience.
Maybe I'll check the postgame out at some point, or maybe I'll just finish my minimal grind run. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm done with this game unless a major overhaul happens.
The balancing for this game is all over the place. On the one hand you get a lot of resources off the bat- too much all at once I would argue -but on the other hand you're left starved of resources that the enemy gets access to WAY before you can. As early as the third gym you will be fighting mega evolutions fairly consistently, with even your rival and AI partner getting access to megas before you can. When DO you get megas though? After Sabrina. Alright... so for most of the early game and part of the mid game you're fighting a generally uphill battle; keep in mind, uphill. Not impossible. Not even always unfair. But a lot of the time it comes down to finding a specific Pokemon to counter the boss, which by itself isn't a bad idea. However: The game boasts custom balancing, from changing existing Pokemon to adding custom moves and even entirely new forms. Though it's not impossible to work with these, often times the specific solutions to boss fights are using Pokemon that weren't even changed and/or were already really good in the real competitive scene. In a nutshell, it feels like you should "get meta" or really just suffer because of it.
The balancing overall feels out of wack. I felt this most with Lavender Town: The boss fight against Marowak is a Level 58 WITH ADDED STAT BOOSTS and coverage moves whilst your level cap is 56... and then directly after that you're fighting Level 42-ish Pokemon with moves like Scary Face. Boss encounters should obviously be a noticeable challenge but a difference this huge in the same area (one room apart no less) is absolutely nuts. Honestly the Silph Co tower made this feel a bit evident too, with how there are three consecutive boss fights (in all fairness you get a free heal and have easy access to a full team heal as well); one being your rival, which is fairly well balanced and decently enjoyable. The second being a tag fight against Archer and Ariana, which is where the mega evolution starvation was especially felt... on top of the AI partner really being set up to fail, from having a lead Pokemon that instantly buffs the opposing Gothitelle to being given a Mega Sceptile that is stuck with Mega Drain and Dragonbreath. Keeping in mind the enemies at this point have long had access to competitive strategies and proper moves... including the third Silph Co. boss, Giovanni. In his first encounter he already had a Mega Kangaskhan. He still has that here, fair enough, but he also just gets to have a competitive-grade Garchomp because why wouldn't he. It's a shame because he does have a fairly interesting lead with Hippowdon, only to then devolve into the average OU team.
Really, I feel like a lot of my bitching is...well, bitching. But when they go out of their way to stop you from getting access to competitive items early, as well as making you deal with 30+ experience levels of mega evolutions before you can feel like you're on a level playing field, I would say the janky balancing is fair play to be critiqued. To put it another way, there was rarely a moment where I felt satisfied in my eventual victories... it was more commonly the feeling of "Fucking finally" which isn't a good thing to make the player feel in place of actual satisfaction. I don't mind swapping team members around and using multiple Pokemon, in fact it's something I love to do. But when just about every boss trainer invalidates at least one of the Pokemon you really want to use it's not a fun feeling; it rarely felt like my own fault for having a badly built team, it was more or less the game punishing me for wanting to try out the new toys it's given me. The feeling doesn't get much better as the game goes on, but I wanted to at least get to the elite four before calling it quits. Thankfully I did at least have the will to go on and finish it, but not the post-game...
...but I did nearly run through the game a second time. Yes, seriously, for real, I put myself through it one and a half times. The first playthrough I did on vanilla settings, but for my attempted second run I tried mininal grinding mode since it piqued my interest. Unfortunately, my feelings remained mostly the same. The only real difference is how it cuts down training and catching, because even with an easier bar for entry (no EVs + perfect IVs for everyone) and knowing what fights had what Pokemon? It was really much of the same experience. A fun taste at the beginning that quickly devolves into a hellish uphill battle, which becomes a largely mediocre experience after finally getting the tools your opponents have been using for most of the game. For what it's worth the champion battle felt like a satisfying enough end, although truth be told I don't know how much of that was me being happy to be done with the game.
All I've done so far is complain, but what about positives? Well. The Pokemon buffs do make the game fairly interesting and were a main draw for me... my main issue there is just how a number of Pokemon are still relatively useless despite getting really fun anf exciting changes. Likewise, when the enemy teams aren't your average Smogon tryhard they can be fairly creative. If anything that makes me hate the difficulty discrepancy more though! The devs clearly know how to make an interesting battle yet most of the time opt to just look at what's hot in OU or Ubers and make a team revolving around that. The presentation is good... yeah, that's a positive I don't really think has a drawback to it. At first I would've said the Pokemon availability to be a positive, but the game is so chock-full of encounters to shove in that it was borderline unplayable without inputting an in-game cheat that opens the DexNav without needing to go through random encounters first. Not to mention just how many of these Pokemon have a consistent usage (or even a niche usage) is heavily up for debate, considering every potential option is up against options that also outclass them. It makes for what I think is a pretty redundant meta, even as a singleplayer experience.
People have already torn the unfun enemy AI to shreds by now and I think that plays into the unfun feeling; you can't have a counter in your pocket because the AI just fucking knows about it before you get a chance to use it. The battle that, retrospectively, was the beginning of this game's downfall exemplifies this; the rocket grunt after Nugget Bridge. I lead a Flaaffy with Power Gem, unintentionally giving me a coverage option against his Growlithe. But suspiciously enough the AI swaps out it out before I've shown that I have the move... hhmmmmm... so, you end up playing hot potato with your switches because the AI has help from Jesus, apparently. Also this grunt has a competitive Gabite, because fuck you. As I said earlier in this ramble of a review; it's not impossible, it's just unfun to deal with. Even when I knew it was coming. That's not a good thing. I shouldn't have to say that it's not a good thing. But apparently all-knowing AI is a good thing in someone's eyes...
When this game is fun, it honestly is fun. But when this game drags, you absolutely feel the drag. And unfortunately for every step forward this game takes, it takes a few steps back and ends up as a horrendously mixed bag of trail mix that is technically well made at the core but has so much going against it at the same time. I wish this game were fun because the core of it all is an interesting prospect. There's genuine challenge and difficult, but then there's what they did here...
Apparently the devs use their Discord to mock people who don't like the game? So in the off-chance they read this: You've got great ideas going here, and kudos for wanting to make a more challenging Pokemon game. But this is not how it should be done. The difficulty ramps way too fast and starves you of resources as a way of making you feel underpowered by comparison. I don't hate this hack, I had fun moments with it to the point I decided to seek out shinies for some of my final team members (Lopunny and Flareon if you're curious) but there is just too much of that "Thank fuck that's over" feeling to make the entire game a satisfying experience.
Maybe I'll check the postgame out at some point, or maybe I'll just finish my minimal grind run. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm done with this game unless a major overhaul happens.
origamiking592
11 months ago