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Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Come one, come all, and see the one, the only: Eclipsing Moon! Yes, it is finally here to be (slowly) LPed! My fabled Ultra Moon hack is finally here for public enjoyment (albeit in the form of just following along)! For the past 2 years, me and Giratina93 have been spending a bit of time making this bad boy for our personal enjoyment (and for a few others). It's taken a while and several revisions, but this thing is finally in a state where I can consider it "release ready" (granted, it's been like that for a while...). So without further ado...
What is Eclipsing Moon (EM) you may ask? Well, barring the obvious in that it's an Ultra Moon hack, EM is a hard mode hack for UM that greatly increases the difficulty (think something kind of along the lines of a Drayano or Buffel Saft hack). It can get downright brutal at times. Worry not though, there's systems in place to make it easier to get more competitive Pokemon. But let's get into the basic features of the hack, shall we?:
Higher difficulty: As said before, this hack greatly expands the difficulty of the game. Plenty of opponents have good movesets, IVs, EVs, held items, Abilities, Natures, and more. Eventually expect bosses to rock full teams of 6. Watch as Totems get better auras and more competent sets and allies. Some opponent's AI has been increased. And more. And expect more than just the bosses to try...
Type chart changes: Possibly controversial, but this hack has made a few type chart changes to balance out a few types slightly. Those changes are: Fairy no longer resists Bug and Ice resists Water and Flying. It's not much, but it should help Ice not be a joke of a defensive type and should make Fairy a tad less overpowered.
Expanded available roster: While this hack is not an 807 one, expect more than several new options to be available. Version exclusives are a thing of the past and it should be possible to complete your Alola Pokedex. And who says only Pokemon in the Aloladex are available? Plenty of Pokemon not it are available as well! They're not always the most common thing, but they should be reasonably findable. Also, enjoy being able to find normal forms of Alolan Pokemon. They're not common, only being available via rare SOS with their base Pokemon, but the option is there...
Pokemon rebalancing: Don't worry about your favorite (fully evolved) Pokemon being too shit. Plenty of (fully evolved) Pokemon have gotten stat buffs to make them more competitive, if only a little. And that's not all: some Pokemon get access to new moves or Abilities. Some even have new types! While sadly the buffs are not as good as some other hacks, they should help your (and your opponents') Pokemon keep up. A few Pokemon got some nerfs, but they rarely affect how they perform in battle. Generally, the nerfs only affect catch rate (to make more ovepowered Pokemon for the area harder to catch) or evolution level (some pseudo legends could reach their final form too early for my tastes in comparison to where they came in). While nerfs can suck, especially for a hack like this, rebalancing does not only consist of buffs. Sometimes nerfs are needed. And yes, several Pokemon can evolve earlier as well.
Revised evolution methods/levels: Like many hacks, trade evolutions are a thing of the past. Pure trade Mons evolve via level up and Pokemon that needed to hold and item and traded now evolve by using said item on them. Said items are also now purchasable in the main game. Location based evolutions are (mostly) a thing of the past: just use an appropriate stone on them. Eevee evolves purely through stones: along with the removal of its location based evos, its friendship and Pokemon Refresh (meaning you no longer need to use that busted ass mechanic) evolutions are accessed via stones. Most other friendship evolutions are easier to obtain, especially if it's an intermediate form. And to top this all off and as mentioned before, several Pokemon just evolve earlier (or later). Go wild and obtain your Pokemon's evolutions with less hassle than before.
Rebalanced moves: It's what the name implies: some moves got changes. By and large there was only buffs. Some standouts include: buffing the power of most two turn moves, especially the ones that leave you vulnerable; Shadow Claw becoming 80 BP; Icicle Crash becoming 95 BP; the reversal of most of XY's base power nerfs; Sucker Punch going back to 80 BP; etc.
Easier raising of competitively viable Pokemon: Vitamins, EV reducing Berries, etc. are all easier to obtain than ever before. Vitamins in particular are dirt cheap. You'll need them though! Your enemies are going to be rocking good EV sets sooner than later. Also, enjoy the selection of easier to access competitive items. Again, they'll (probably) be needed if you want to succeed.
Built without the Exp. Share in mind: You heard that right! This hack is not made with the Exp. Share in mind! You'll have to earn your levels more now. The level curve and training options have been made with this in mind. Don't come complaining to us if you break the game using that busted ass item. But that leads us into our next point.
Slightly easier grinding: Of course, without the Exp. Share and with the Gen 5 experience system (among other things), you're going to need to have some reliable way to grind. Enter our wilds. They generally keep up pretty well with the lowest level "trash" Trainers in area (with their upper bound levels being at that level generally. Lower bound will generally be 2 levels beneath that). Also, wilds generally evolve a lot. To add too this, some areas have wilds that buck the described trend to allow for even easier grinding. Also, the Kantonian Gym has been mostly repurposed as a grind spot, with the Chansey line and Audino being used by the normal Trainers there.
Etc.: There's some other changes we made here and there. I'll probably highlight them as they show up.
I'll probably start a proper run of this soon (or when I feel like it). I'll also let you readers choose the starter I use and the nicknames of the Pokemon I later use (better to tell me in the OI Discord). Note that all starters should be viable and my last test run used a Rowlet. Was certainly usuable (as I said), but I'd prefer to use Popplio or Litten. Again though, you peoples' choice (though I'll be selecting my later Mons).
Also, do tell me how indepth you want me to get with the Trainer/Totem/etc. teams. I've access to all their data, but I'd like to know how much information you'd like. Should it just be Mons, movesets, and items? The full sets? Something else? Tell me.
And yes, I plan to share dev war stories. Gira is free to do as well. I plan on least getting to Giovanni. I will not be using the Exp. Share or Pokemon Refresh at all in the main run to Giovanni. I also plan on restricting Roto Loto and the like usage to just the required/forced parts. I will be allowing myself to use the Pelago, but only parts I find "acceptable" (the EV training and friendship parts. Along with the Bean tree so I can upgrade those).
Hope you have fun reading this (but do note that I make no promises on consistency of updates).
Credits:
King Feraligatr
Roles: Project Lead, Implementer, Creative Designer, Writer, Playtester, etc.
Giratina93
Roles: Consultant, Creative Designer, Team Designer, Writer, Playtester, etc.
Individuals:
Drayano60,
Buffel Saft,
KazoWar,
Asia51,
Volt,
Blitzamirin,
Worldie,
our players,
and of course you, the reader. :)
Organizations/Websites:
Bulbapedia,
Serebii.
Project Pokémon,
the PKHex and pk3DS teams,
Smogon,
the Smogon Orange Islands Community,
Nintendo,
and GameFreak.
Update 0: Introduction
Update 1: Stranger to a Brutal Land
Update 2: Getting Schooled
How about Lunala Necrozma and such? Wouldn't having access to such powerful Pokemon kill quite a number of challenge? And it seems like you yourself don't want even optimal ways of cheesing the game difficulty as seen by the exp share. Are they not obtainable at all? Do they have nerfed stats? Or are they obtainable, but at low levels?
Also, I'd love to do a no EV, no IV, bad nature, no item, no stat enchantment (minus by forced stat enchantment like leveling) run of this. It'd sound really fun. But eh. It's all in my dreams I guess since it's a crime to post links to stuff like this. But when it comes though I'll be ready!
How about Lunala Necrozma and such? Wouldn't having access to such powerful Pokemon kill quite a number of challenge? And it seems like you yourself don't want even optimal ways of cheesing the game difficulty as seen by the exp share. Are they not obtainable at all? Do they have nerfed stats? Or are they obtainable, but at low levels?
Also, I'd love to do a no EV, no IV, bad nature, no item, no stat enchantment (minus by forced stat enchantment like leveling) run of this. It'd sound really fun. But eh. It's all in my dreams I guess since it's a crime to post links to stuff like this. But when it comes though I'll be ready!
Trust me, We've taken care of the Legendaries. You'll see what we did with them when the time comes. And as for your run idea, man, you're crazy! (in a good way) I'm not near enough of a masochist to try such a thing. Not in a normal game, and especially not in a hard mode hack.
Sorry for the wait all. Let's get this party started, shall we?
Anyways, speaking that you can only have one save per game on Citra, I rename my old save so it's no longer picked up by the emulator. Only thing left to do is obviously start a new game.
After selecting my language (obviously English), we're already greeted with something new:
Yeah, our intro breaks the fourth wall (not like that's out of character for hacks like this). And the instructions on how to advance some of the intro text is needed. We go over the normal space for more than several parts of text boxes. What this translates to is mashing A making you miss text and information. There's fortunately a workaround as mentioned, but it wouldn't be fair if I didn't tell you it.
Anyways, after this we are greeted by Kukui being the avatar of me and Gira:
After this, cue title drop!
The introduction then goes over the features of the hack. Most of these are listed in the introductory post, so I'll save us time from reiteration. This intro I hope goes into enough detail for those of you playing the hack though. :(
With the summarization out of the way, we move onto character creation:
Yeah, I just chose to go this way with choosing how you look and the like. Saves everyone hassle, even if it's awkwardly phrased...
Anyways, this is how we're going to "start out looking like".
And this will be our name. Too bad there's not a 14-15 character limit....
Kukui as me and Gira gives us some last words of encouragement before unleashing the gates of hell on us. Ending with this:
Oh dear, are we ready for this? A land of endless cutscenes, attempted handholding (that has been diminished a bit), demented Pokedexes, and most importantly, tough ass opponents?
Well, I guess that's semi-rhetorical. I know I'm kind of ready for this. After all, I've playtested this hack several times. But you can never be fully ready for Eclipsing Moon. And more importantly, are you, the audience ready for this? Well, I guess so, since you're reading this LP :).
Anyways, this part of the game plays out the same. Mom asks us to help move, Lillie gets chased and teleports away, we move in, etc. Then Meowth wakes us up. Shouldn't we see how we look in game?
There's better looking out there, but what can you do when you're on a handheld game made by a game company that finds even the most basic of modeling or game design hard? We'll take it (for now).
Also, I'm going to be playing most of this hack sped up. Who wants to suffer all those cutscenes and the like at normal speed? The speed posted is the general speed I play at. Eat it Gamefreak.
Also, I make sure to switch the battle style to Set and the text speed to fast. Because who wouldn't? (Who plays a hard mode hack on Switch anyways....we did do something with that mode though, I'll have to show you.)
Anyways, we leave our room, but our mom asks us if we're ready for (Alolan) Pokemon:
Like the picture says, I'm not sure mom. If it means endless cutscenes and battles that'll kick my ass, I'm not sure...
Also she wants us to get our hat and backpack on before we can move on.....Anyways, after being all hatted up:
we're ready to leave the house.
Naturally, once we leave the house, we can't go far. As we all know, USUM is notorious for locking you into the path it intends. As we have to deal with the stupid roadblocks, ignoring the NPCs that teach us how to play a game we should already know how to play (and if you're playing a hack like this, you really should know how to play Pokemon at this point....)
Anyways, we continue on the Gamefreak ever so forced us down carefully crafted and are ambushed by our first Pokemon:
Of course, this doesn't last long. After an awkward scene of the Yungoose growling at us, the starter squad comes in to rescue us. With that out of the way and a nice celebration:
Professor Roadblocker Kukui comes and asks us to choose our starter:
So who are we going to choose to suffer with us this run? Well as the cursor suggests, that'd be:
Litten! As chosen by the OI Discord. Honestly, Litten won't be a bad choice for this run. Especially once we get Intimidate on it.
And we also nickname it Not Fighting (courtesy of Volt and Blitz). I had other suggestions, but this got the most support and I found it the funniest.
Now about the starters themselves...I'll be covering their evolved forms later, but I'll cover the initial differences right now. For starters (ha....), all their Hidden Abilities are now their Ability 2, making it possible for them to get these Abilities with just an Ability Capsule (which is more readily available in this hack). However, I hard set the starters here to always have their Ability 1 (So no Intimidate Litten right off the bat (ironic)). Also, Rowlet has had its Sp. Attack and Speed switched (so SPA: 50 -> 42 and SPE: 42 -> 50). This will carry into its evolutions. This is probably a reduction of Aslowa and the first thing we did to make Rowlet's line more viable. Told you they should all have some viability :).
After selecting our starter, Kukui spouts some exposition before leaving. However, one piece of exposition that takes on greater meaning in this hack is the part about the kahunas. You'd better be ready for them....they'll be able to kick your ass if you're careless.
After Roadblocker Kukui leaves us alone, we're finally able to move a tad!
But not for long....After kicking the shit out some wilds, we run into Hau for the first time....:
Come on man! Hau could you roadblock me like this?
Predictably, he chooses Rowlet:
and challenges us to a battle. Come on man. If you're going to do that, at least choose Popplio...
Anyways, this should be fast:
This battle is barely harder than normal. Two Embers and Rowlet is toast. Why am I even putting a boss section for this battle? I guess he has perfect IVs now, but that's the norm for bosses in this hack. Hau gets better, but this fight still isn't meant to challenge you.
Anyways, after kicking this kid's ass and taking his money, we're directed to Iki Town. With nowhere else to go, that's where I head...
We're trying to find Hala as usual, but of course he's not here. So after dealing with more lazy roadblocks, we go off to try and find him.
Of course we're not going to find him, but we do see Lillie for the first time. And like usual, Nebby can't stay in the damn bag and gets promptly attacked by some homicidal Spearow:
And not long after that, our character meets Lillie, who's a tad bit rude.
Won't even say who she is before roping us into saving Nebby. Well, our player, embracing their inner Leeroy Jenkins, goes to try and save Nebby. After KOing a Spearow that attacks (that strangely doesn't seem to thin the flock....lazy Gamefreak), Nebby does something and breaks the bridge (thanks a lot Nebby, that thing isn't upkept that much....). It leaves us falling to certain doom, until....
We're saved by a deus ex machina Tapu Koko. Being left with a shining stone and a saved Nebby, our character gets awkwardly railroaded back to Iki Town with Lillie and Nebby. There we meet Kukui again and....
The big man (sorry) himself! Hala!
He won't kick our ass right now fortunately. He just wants to talk.
Of course, such pleasant talks cannot last. Kukui gives us the precursor to the demon spawn that will be driving us insane later:
It's not possessed yet, but once it is.....Shudders......What a waste of good UI space....
Also, Hala takes our shining stone to look at and says he'll give it back tomorrow. I hope so, old man.
Anyways, after sleeping for over 10 hours straight, we arrive at the "next day". Kukui unceremoniously breaks into our house as well:
I'm pretty sure I can have you arrested for that man. I should call the cops. Oh wait. This is Pokemon. The cops are useless. Also...
Moving on, Kukui takes us outside to Route 1, where more lame roadblocks roam. After a capture tutorial that I drown out, Kukui gives us some actual Poke Balls! Finally! After this cutscene, I'll be finally be able to play Pokemon, not Button Mashing Simulator. Also, he kind of needlessly gives us like 5 Potions. I get shit can be hard in this hack, Kukui, but still. It's not that hard yet.
Anyways, here we are. "Free" and able to capture Pokemans. And I'm totally going to be exploiting the capture feature at this point of the game (what was the point of that tutorial again if in the first time you can capture Pokemon, what you "learned"/learned is unneeded? Not good game design....). I think I'll just cut the crap and show you what I captured.
Grubbin named Railbug. Kudos to Volt. While Vikavolt got changes, its preevos didn't. We'll cover Vikavolt later though.
One of the afore mentioned extra encounters mentioned in the OP. Patrat named Minezumi. Kudos to Blitz. Watchog got changes, but not Patrat. Will cover that later as well.
Yugoose named Pikachu. Kudos to Merritt. Gumshoos changed, but again not Yungoose. Will also cover later.
Caterpie named Raupy. Kudos to Blitz. I actually plan making this part of my team (for now) for early Butterfree, which did get changes. Caterpie also got a change, in now that its HA Run Away is its Ability 2. Will be using the switch trick/capture exp. to train Raupy for now.
Pikipek named Pikichu. Inspired by Merritt. Toucannon got changes, but Pikipek and Trumbeak did not.
Ledyba named Blipbug. Kudos to Blitz. While Ledian did get changes, so did Ledyba. SPA is now 20 from 40, but ATK is now 50 from 20. So it should be less of a joke now.
Pichu named Charizard. Kudos to Merritt. While every member of this rat's line got changes, the only one Pichu got was its HA Lightning Rod being able to be its Ability 2. Also, it comes being more friendly to you.
In the midst of this grinding, Raupy evolves into Metapod. Congratulate it.
Eventually, we get into our first "generic" Trainer battle:
Most of these Trainers are what we called "trash" Trainers. They barely, if at all, try and are more like your standard Gamefreak Trainer (but with more Pokemon). I won't really be covering them all that much unless there's something that stands out or has something important happen. Not every "generic" is a "trash" one, but there's no Trainer classes on this Route that we would consider "trying". Anyways, the battle with this Lass is uneventful.
We then move onto fighting a Youngster with 2 Mons. Nothing really stands out except that he has a Spinarak, which we haven't covered yet. Spinarak and Ariados both got changes. Spinarak only got a +10 ATK buff though, bringing it from 60 to 70.
I also catch a Buneary that I named Wabbit. Lopunny got several changes, but Buneary only got one: it's more friendly to you now, starting at 90 base friendship instead of 0.
The last fight on this route is with a Preschooler, who has 3 Mons. The only one that stands out at this moment is his Rockruff:
All of the Lycanrocs got changes. However, their preevo didn't....except for the fact that it can now evolve into any of its evolved forms at the appropriate time of day. Yes, even Dusk Lycanroc. And this is for all generic Rockruff. Own Tempo Rockruff can be found, but they're really rare. And no different barring Ability from their common brethren.
After finishing our catching and grinding spree, we run into the Boring and Generic Squad....I mean the Ultra Recon Squad (URS):
While I did some story changes in this hack, these people are barely, if at all, changed story wise. Soliera will get a better team though, so there's that. Anyways, after button mashing through their scene, we move onto Iki Town for the festival.
There, we carry out the strange and ancient tradition of two 11 year old beginners having their pets beat each other for the pleasure of the island's guardian.....man this place is weird.
And we get our first "real" boss battle. Let's see how Hau's stepped up his game:
With 3 Pokemon, Hau's already looking more competent. But let's see how he fares in battle. And I have, well, 6 Mons.
Hau leads with Pichu. Classic. Of course, I know his team. So I'm going to be using that knowledge to my advantage. I lead with Minezumi to weaken the Pichu so my "real" team members can just mop up with less damage and paralysis.
I start with Leer, while Pichu Charms. Repeat that with the second turn. After this, Hau feels fit to switch up his tactics and uses Thundershock. I don't though, and I have Minezumi use Leer again. However, I don't get the option to Leer again as Pichu faints Minezumi with another TShock.
I still need this rat controlled though, so Railbug comes in and String Shots the Pichu. It Charms me. With Speed control done, I send in Pikachu. Hau's Pichu goes for another Charm. Pikachu follows in Minezumi's footsteps and Leers and Hau's mouse again. Said mouse uses TShock on me.
I'm still not done with my Leering though, so I have Pikachu do against Pichu one last time. The Pichu loses its brain though and Charms me. Sastisified with my Leers, I have Pikachu go for a Tackle. However, I get paralyzed due to Static (if only "Pikachu" was the real thing). Pichu continues to be dumb and Tail Whips its fake evolved form. The next turn though, it gets that brain back and KOs Pikachu with TShock.
My stupid strategy complete, Raupy comes it. It only takes one Tackle before Pichu squeaks its last (this battle). Hau, realizing he has a brain then switches to Rowlet.
Raupy's no match for this birb, so I switch to a Trashmon to take hits in its stead. Pikichu will do. It takes a Peck down to red health. Just stay in there for a bit longer Pikichu! You'll faint soon! Which I think it did next turn (forget and didn't record it). Anyways, let's cut the crap. It's time for Not Fighting!
I do what any sane person would in this circumstance and Ember Rowlet. However, it's knocked into Oran Berry range, which yes, Hau has. It procs and Hau attacks Not Fighting. Not standing for this, Not Fighting teaches Rowlet another lesson in fire. Rowlet burns away as Hau sends in his last Mon:
Oh man! Another easy target! And see why I wanted to make sure that rat was taken down with minimal harm to Not Fighting first? Anyways, here's how this exchange went: Ember, Tackle, Ember, fried Ledyba. And that was Hau 2. And Hau 2 win against Hau 2 (yes, I just did that!).
Don't worry, Hau gets better.
With this, the festival continues and old man Hala gives us our shiny stone back, now a Z (Power) Ring!:
After some exposition, we head home. The "next day" we wake up as someone rings our doorbell. But we'll find out who next update.
And that's the end of Update 1. Please tell me how I did. And tell what I could do better. And how I should narrate boss battles. While, under advice of Volt, I've already decided I will probably not give out entire sets at the start (so people playing the hack don't know what to fully expect. My documentation is planned to never give out enemy teams, so yeah.), tell me if I should say what happened every turn, be brief, or something else. Also tell me how good my picture usage is, both in battles and in general usage.
A playthrough of a harder hack for the hollow imitation of my favorite region... This should be interesting! Ultra Moon ain't my favorite game though (far, far, far from it), which brings me to my main question...
I highly doubt this is the case since you've established in previous posts you don't care for Pokemon plots at all really, but you did mention story changes coming up in later parts of the hack so I wanna know: Has any attempt been made to salvage Lillie's arc, whether it be restoring it to be as close to the originals as possible or actually taking it in a new direction that doesn't feel like extremely cheap sidelining?
If you didn't feel it was worth your time or wasn't possible with the tools you had, I understand. In that case I'll enjoy riffing on Game Freak's embarrassing story alterations while talking about some of your own boss fight changes :)
Ledyba's an interesting choice on Hau. Either you're expecting him to replace it relatively early, or giving him some kind of screens/VoltTurn gimmick to go with raichu.
A playthrough of a harder hack for the hollow imitation of my favorite region... This should be interesting! Ultra Moon ain't my favorite game though (far, far, far from it), which brings me to my main question...
I highly doubt this is the case since you've established in previous posts you don't care for Pokemon plots at all really, but you did mention story changes coming up in later parts of the hack so I wanna know: Has any attempt been made to salvage Lillie's arc, whether it be restoring it to be as close to the originals as possible or actually taking it in a new direction that doesn't feel like extremely cheap sidelining?
If you didn't feel it was worth your time or wasn't possible with the tools you had, I understand. In that case I'll enjoy riffing on Game Freak's embarrassing story alterations while talking about some of your own boss fight changes :)
Don't worry, we gave Lillie some justice. Sadly, it's basically all postgame, so you'll have to wait a while. I will say this though: Gira, who has similar gripes as you, likes the changes we made to her. So should tell you something. :)
Also, you'll see what happens to Ledyba in the Hau 3 battle, Ironmage. Patience. :)
No, it's not dead. But yeah, I've just low motivation to do this ATM. People rightfully insulting USUM thus leading me to feel bad about having hacked the game doesn't help either (do continue to insult the game....I'm just a wimp.). Sorry about this. :(
Okay, some updates. I've been changing/improving some parts of the hack (yep, I just keep working on it). I've got some parts of Update 2 done. Plan to cut it off after Ilima 1. Sorry that I'm comically slow, but thanks for your patience nonetheless.
Yeah, this still isn't dead. I never said it was, did I? I just update comically slowly, had other things I wanted to do, and hate writing up long posts. I do warn you, the stuff from this update is from about a year ago, so my memory will be foggy, but luckily I have my transcript and pictures to help me out.
Last time we left off, somebody rang our doorbell... who was it? Well, before we move onto that, I'd like show some things off:
I am now running the game with Citra's upscaling feature, and later in the update, a no outlines cheat. The result is something that just looks good. Like something that looks modern. So yeah, get used to this.
Anyways, it turns out the person who rang our doorbell was Lillie. If my memory serves me correctly, she wants us to see Professor Kukui. So we do so, but not before our mom sends off with way too much spare cash:
Really Mom, it's a hard mode hack... do you really need to babysit me this much?
Anyways, due to lame roadblocks with characters knowing that we've a passed a point they couldn't have possibly seen, we continue down the rest of Route 1 to Kukui's lab. Along the way, we get uneeded tutorials on shit we already knew as well as some exposition. We also get into some battles, like with the kneecap obsessed Youngster (2 Mons), who actually has a Pokemon with kneecaps now (Machop). We also get see our new battle gwaphix:
This also marks Inkay and Machop's introductions. Both families' final evolutions got some changes, but that will come in time. All I wish to cover right now is that Inkay now just evolves at a flat level 30 --- no gimmicks or anything. This is to play nicer with Citra and it being way harder to make the game think it's "upside down" (I don't even know how to trigger that with Citra.).
Anyways, we kick this kid's ass and move on. Eventually we find a (female) Wingull:
catch it, and name it Drone (Suggested by Volt). While Pelipper got changes, Wingull did not.
As we continue down to the lab, we fight a Lass with 2 Pokemon. My notes say to mention that the random AI was actually lucky and "smart" and used Pursuit on a switch. Quite the fortunate coincidence for the AI. The Lass' second Pokemon marks its introduction to this LP, so let's see it:
Happiny, its evolutions, and Audino all got exp. payout buffs to make grinding on them a bit more profitable. In fact, they're the only Pokemon to get exp. point buffs. Happiny's base exp. has gone from 110 to 125. Not much, I know, but it's a thing.
Anyways, beating the Lass, Raupy evolves again, this time into Butterfree:
Butterfree of course got changes. While not reflected in this update's pics as I'm currently doing rebalancing, fixes, and other things on the hack, Butterfree as it stands has changed in the following ways: SPA: 90 -> 100, SPD: 80 -> 85, and SPE: 70 -> 95 for a BST of 435. Tinted Lens is also its Ability 2. It was more "absurd" before my rebalancing, but yeah, I thought what I did before was overboard, so I'm using someone else's (Buffel Saft) changes as a different base here.
On the way down to the lab, two new Pokemen also make their debut: Poocheyena and Slowpoke. Mightyena got changes, but Poochy and Slowpoke's line did not. We do not catch either at this moment.
Anyways, we finally reach Kukui's lab (I can end your suffering, finally):
In addition to normal lab things, Kukui gives us talks about an unholy hellspawn. A thing so vile, so awful, so loathesome, so annoying that it's said to drive people nuts. What can this awful monster be? Well, I'll let Kukui make your stomach drop:
The dreaded Rotom! While normally not bad, it's said that Rotom that infest Pokedexes are some of the worst demons to infest the world of Pokemon. Kukui does not stop talking about thing....
Dude, you've no idea what you're doing! Stop this madness now! Before we all go mad! Wait, what's that?!
Aw fuck! The thing lives! Kukui, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! Do you know what you have wrought?! A terror that will drive us insane and waste the UI space of an entire screen! For little benefit! And also, it provides gamebreaking bonuses Kukui! You're madman if I ever saw one. Who let you become a Pokemon Professor? You should be in prison for life (with no chance of parole), man. You're that evil.
In continuing to be a vile man, Kukui suggests we go to school:
Dude, school sucks. Don't make me go to it in a video game, plz. Especially a hard mode hack. I don't need the education. I mean sure, the other games have Trainer's Schools, but you're never required to interact with them much, if at all. They're just resource. I swear Kukui, you must be evil incarnate.
With no choice to go to... gulp... school, I decide to leave at least one monster unsated:
Seriously, Rotom is annoying and wastes the bottom screen babbling on about inane shit (why couldn't we turn that off?). Keeping it depressed mitigates that. Also, keeping it depressed stops it from providing game breaking benefits like the Roto-Loto and reusable Z-Moves in battle... we're in a hard mode hack, man. Keep that OP shit away.
It's not all bad though. If you for some reason want to bond with Rotom, the "advice" it provides is actual advice now. It deals with things that pertain to the hack: like changes, Legendary Pokemon leads, the type chart changes, lore, and more. Stuff that you might actually not know or might need a refresher on. Also, I nerfed the Roto-Boost to only buff offensive stats (ATK, SPA, SPE), not defensive ones. So Roto-Loto is slightly less OP (Maybe I should nerf other parts of it as well?). Finally, we've added some riffs on the Rotomdex, including changing a location's lore to be one massive "fuck you" to the POS. However, for now, we just have to stick with depressed Rotom to knock on it.
Anyways, we get some more exposition, go outside, get a foreshadowing I won't even bother to cover, and get more exposition. Some more stupid tutorials later, we're finally at the Route 1 Poke Mart to some shopping:
While the "main" stock of stores has been unchanged, basically all of the second clerk's stocks (if they exist) have been changed. We'll see that once we get to Hau'oli City, which has arguably the most important second clerk in the hack.
Anyways, with more Poke Balls in hand, it's time to go on a catching and training spree on Route 1:
Male. Named Tip Me Off (myself).
Female. Named Poochachu (Merritt). Adding to team.
Male. Named Joey (myself). Both Raticates got changes, but the Rattatas did not. Can find normal forms with SOS's with their Alolan forms.
I also battle a Swimmer with 3 Pokemon. Besides some boring Yawn avoidance from her Slowpoke, it also marks the debut of Clamperl. All members of the family got changes, but Clamperl's only one is that Rattled can be its Ability 2.
Anyways, after those catches and training up our team, we head to the school, where we are met with this dumb roadblock:
I mean, I guess an angry Tauros is a better roadblock than some, but it's still dumb.
Anyways, since a patented Gen 7 Roadblock (TM) is in our way, we've no choice but to go to the Trainer's School:
If you say so, monster.
Anyways, after a bit more talking and more Kukui and his obsession with the number 4, he gives yet another broken ass thing:
The dreaded Gen 6+ Exp. Share (Or as I like to call it, the Exp. Broke.) (I guess it's good at least that we can turn it off in this game... last one we could.). However, this hack was not made with it in mind, and Kukui seems to agree:
(Maybe you aren't pure evil, Kukui).
So yeah, besides guilt tripping you into turning it off, this just serves as a reminder to turn it off, which we do:
(Later pic is from later in the update. Didn't take the correct pic at this time.)
Trust me, if I could just make the Exp. Share a reward for beating Rainbow Rocket, I would. I wouldn't even guilt trip you at that point, as you're already done with the final non-repeatable challenge of the hack. If I could remove the Exp. Share from here, I'd just have Kukui give you a Rare Candy or something, with no guilt tripping. Alas, I cannot do that with my knowledge, so I have to put in this inelegant solution here. A shame.
With all that out of the way, we are free to loot and explore. I pick up a Quick Claw and battle Alolan Youngster Joey, who has 2 Mons, one of whom is fittingly:
an Alolan Rattata. Now Alolan Joey can know peace and vengeance for the crimes against him and his team.
Afterwards we battle a Preschooler with 2 Mons and eventually see the debut of Alolan Meowth. All Meowths and Persians got changes, with the Meowths getting +5 to ATK and SPA (normal: ATK: 45 -> 50, SPA: 40 -> 45. Alolan: ATK: 35 -> 40, SPA: 50 -> 55. BST: 290 -> 300). Alolan Meowth also comes more friendly (base friendship: 70 -> 90).
With the Preschooler defeated an one last Trainer to defeat before we can face Rising Star Joseph, we, well, go face them. We defeat the Young Athlete with 2 Mons, who also debuts Bonsly and Mime Jr. Their evolutions got changes, as well as Bonsly, but not Mime Jr. Bonsly's changes are as follows: HP: 50 -> 55, ATK: 80 -> 85, DEF: 95 -> 100, SPD: 45 -> 50. BST: 290 -> 310. Catch rate: 255 -> 165. This brings its BST in line with Mime Jr.'s, as I see the two families as sort of "parallels".
We have now defeated all 3 Trainers we needed to beat to face the Rising Star, so let's fight him, shall we?
Rising Stars, Ace Trainers, Veterans, and some other Trainers are not "trash" Trainers in this hack: they actually try. They have better IVs than normal and have actual EVs and held items, in addition to the better AI that should come with them. Joseph holds back, but it won't be long before the "good" Trainers actually come out in full force.
Joseph's battle also marks the debut of Ekans, Magnemite, and Noibat. Arbok and Noibat are the only Pokemon tied to these Pokemon that got direct changes, though Magnemite has changes by proxy. To the delight all, Noibat evolves at an earlier level, at 38 instead of 48. It's still steep and likely to be deadweight, but you can get Noivern 10 levels earlier... so yeah... Magnemite's (and its line) "by proxy" change is just making it rarer in the wild. It's still a very good Pokemon, so that was my way to nerf it without nerfing the Mon itself.
With our first victory over a Rising Star, we get TM01 (Work Up) and get called to the teacher... Did we kick this school's ass too hard?
(Think I selected "Well..." here.)
However, we are a bad kid! We will not go immediately. There's still some Mons to find, catch, and grind against (for as long as my patience holds out... and I don't get too far ahead of the level curve.). Our first catch in the school is a Zorua:
However, I forgot to name it or record its gender.... Oops! This line has no changes.
We also catch a male Blitzle with a special feature:
It's Shiny! I name it Glowbra (myself). This hack has a higher Shiny chance (don't know what it is, honestly), so getting a Shiny isn't as big a deal as usual. Adding Glowbra to the team. And yes, Zebstrika got changes.
I train up Glowbra to bring it in line with the rest of the team and have another Pokemon debut on Route 1:
Male. Named Zigzagging (myself). Both Pokemon in this line got changes, with Zizagoon getting: ATK: 30 -> 40, SPA: 30 -> 20. BST: Still 240.
With our training complete, I feel I am ready to face Teacher Emily. With a sort of true line from her:
we are ready to face our second real boss of the hack.
I lead with Glowbra while Emily leads with Cottonee (which debuts here.... but its line got no changes). I start with Tail Whip as Cottonee uses Leech Seed... and misses. The next turn, we repeat our moves, but Cottonee actually hits with Leech Seed. Next turn, I Quick Attack while Cottonee uses Fairy Wind. Next turn goes similarly, however I proc Cotton's Oran Berry. Glowbra then faints from Leech Seed.
Next Mon on my side out is the big guns: Raupy. One Gust later, Cotton faints, but not before getting out another Leech Seed. Down a Pokemon, Emily sends in her next:
(Growlithe's debut... but the line is unchanged) Wanting to avoid losing my all star and not wanting to just rely on her, I switch to Not Fighting. Growlithe Leers while I do this. It then turns into what my notes say is a "Leer fest"... I don't know how long this lasts, but I assume just one turn. Not Fighting, already at -2 DEF, is switched out to Zorua to take a hit and reset his debuffs. Growlithe uses Bite and breaks Zorua's Illusion. We then have another turn of "Leer fest" before me using Pursuit. Growlithe uses Ember and has its Oran Berry proc. I have Zorua use Pursuit again, but Growlithe uses Roar. Poochachu comes in.
By this time, Growlithe is an easy kill, Poochachu takes an Ember but kills Emily's dog with a Bite. This has her send out her last Mon:
(Its real debut in battle, but I already covered Poppolio's changes.) Anyways, this Poppolio could be a problem, so I switch to my crutch Raupy again (yeah... it's good I nerfed it from before). Poppolio uses Disarming Voice on the switch (which got buffed a bit: it now has a PP of 20 instead of 15). The next turn, I use Gust. Poppolio uses Work Up. Raupy uses Gust next turn, proccing Popp's Berry Juice. The little sea lion uses Water Gun.... which results in a crit. Undettered (Raupy is just a beast), I continue to Gust. Emily probably realizes Poppolio just isn't powerful enough right now, so she has it use Work Up. We repeat the same moves the next turn. I switch up my moves to Confusion, but not before Emily tries a last ditch effort to save her sea lion with a Potion. It means little though, as I use Gust next turn, killing her Poppolio.
And such ends this battle in my victory. Too much cheese was used.... I guess.
After a healthy amount of cheese, Emily falls in defeat. She still has some training wheels for a boss --- that will change as time goes on. Also, Ilima shows up:
I guess he congratulates us and invites to take on his trial. Sure, we can do that... as soon we're out of this cutscene.
We go outside and get a meaningless celebration:
and continue on our merry way. However, the stupid Tauros is still in the way:
and Hala only shows himself to be useful just now... Come on man, you're the kahuna... dealing with problems like this is your job. Anyways, for this Tauros being an annoying roadblock for too long, I decide to fuck with it a bit before choosing the option that lets us continue. When the Tauros finally fucks off, we're ready to enter Hau'oli City:
Here a native teaches us how to say hi in the native style before we move on (a dumb stop, but at least it guarantees the player character knows the Alolan greeting for later... I'm mixed on this stop, actually.)
We explore the city a bit and pick up the items before being railroaded again. This time, we have to get the stupid Poke Finder. An employee somehow magically installs the Poke Finder without having physical access to my Rotomdex and does it with minimal animation --- psychics exist in this setting, but I don't think you are one lady. It's not all bad --- we're a small time lottery winner on our first try:
Hey... I'm not complaining. Moomoo Milk is a good healing item. We also get 10 Ultra Balls from a Scientist for seeing like 10 Mons... really not hard in a hack like this. Though 10 Ultra Balls at this stage of the game seems... excessive. Maybe 1-3 would be better. A taste of power, but not too much.
Anyways, after we go outside, we're forced to used the damned Poke Finder, like so:
and the first Mon is the overexposed rat:
Ugh... Can this shit just end? Honestly, can't I just get a tease for the Poke Finder and choose whether to get it? It's utterly nonessential to the plot or the core gameplay and I'd rather feel like I took my own initiative to get it.
I do a bit of grass diving and find:
Named That'sRight (myself). Didn't record the gender.
Anyways, back to the plotted line, we find Lillie who makes a dubious claim that she was the 99,999th customer (I don't doubt that's what she heard, I just doubt she just happened to actually be that person):
(Why would they even give someone something if they didn't buy anything?) Anyways, being a nice friend, she gives the item to us. Thanks Lillie!
I decide to do some makeovers myself. In addition to getting a Silk Scarf, I get a new look:
(Fear meh.)
Rocking our new style, we're beset by yet another roadblock... This time for the Totem Sticker tutorial.... alright, cool, Ilima. Don't care. Let me just wander around. When we're able, we take to the grass a bit more and see Abra make its debut. The Abra line got no changes besides how Kadabra evolves into Alakazam. We'll cover that when Kadabra debuts, but moving on...
We enter the Poke Center and find what I consider the most important secondary Poke Mart in the hack. Ladies and gentlemen, may I show you your lifeline:
(Not pictured, Oval Stone.) While Cherish Balls are a meme and Oval Stones are just a nicety, the real meat of the this store are the cheap Vitamins. This is a hard mode hack where your enemies have good EV sets, so getting your EV training off the ground quickly is paramount. If this was a game where Trainers could not have EVs, I don't think I'd be this generous, but since they can and I took full advantage of it (where appropriate), I threw you a much needed bone. Mantine surfing is another good way of getting Vitamins quickly, but we'll cross that bridge once we get to a surfing beach. For now, this our lifeblood. (Should I have made the Vitamins cheaper? Dunno.)
And yes, we buy some Vitamins and put them on our team. We're probably going to want them.
After going outside, we do a bit more grass diving and encounter a:
Female. Named Mrs. Mime (me). Adding it to our team.
We're ready to plot again, and fortunately we're graced by these glorious losers:
(Keep being dorks, you guys. It's great.) Team Skull is just as bad as ever. Even in battle. Yes, they get more Pokemon. Yes, they get higher levels. But unlike most other Trainers, they don't evolve all them. They really are just pathetic. Guzma, Plumeria, and Gladion are of course exceptions, trying as hard as any other boss, but most other members still suck (hm..... "most"... foreshadowing?). Anyways, these laughable punks want to do battle, and we shall gladly kick their ass (2 Mons).
After defeating their Zubat, it's time I let you in on something: I put this battle on Switch to show you what we did with that mode:
Yeah, you're no longer psychic and know what Mon is going to come out next. You could, in theory, fuck yourself over if you mispredict. (The second Mon is a Koffing, if you're wondering... why are you looking at me like that? This totally isn't a reference to anything. No siree/ma'am. Nope. Nada. No! Stop looking at me like I'm suspicious. Geez.)
And I guess Koffing and Zubat have made their debuts, so let's go over changes, shall we? I'm just to go ahead and spoil the Zubat line's one change: making Infiltrator their Ability 2. That's it. Koffing got no changes itself, but Weezing did. We'll go over that once it shows up.
Anyways, after we send Skull packing, Ilima heals us up and asks us if we want to battle him. I kind of scared to battle him right now, so I allow myself to explore and prepare. In our exploration we run into one of the worst roadblocks I've seen:
Honestly, why should I let this stop me? It's dumb.
I eventually pick up a couple of X Items, an X Attack and X Defend. We did change X Items, and you might like what you see:
They are back to only a raising single stage of the appropriate stage. Also, by consequence of having no more room in the Marts for them, they're finite in number... that wasn't strictly intended in my high level design...it just sort of happened. So yeah, make these items count.
Also we catch this:
Female. Named pikachu (Merritt). Both Muks got changes, but the Grimers are SOL. RIP.
By this time, I feel I am ready to face Ilima. Let's face our first Trial Captain, shall we?
Ilima is where the kid gloves come off in boss battles. Like the base game, he's not screwing around EV-wise. All his Pokemon have 252/252/4 spreads. Could I have softened the curve? Yes. But I didn't.... so.... uh... yeah.... You've 6 Mons and he doesn't?
Anyways, I lead off with Poochachu while Ilima leads off with Yungoos. I start off with Howl while Goos goes for the Leer. Next turn, I Bite the Young Goose, proccing its Berry Juice, while it gives me another Leer. Next turn, Goos tries to Work itself Up, but I give it a good old fashioned critted Bite, fainting the junior detective.
Ilima's second Mon is his strongest for this battle: his Smeargle. Smeargle actually did get changes: +5 to ATK and SPA (20 -> 25) and +10 to SPE (75 -> 85) for a BST of 270 (from 250). I lead use Bite while Smeargle uses Echoed Voice. Next turn, I try to Bite Smeargle again, but the echoing of its Voice is too powerful and Pooch faints.
Time to send in the crutch: Raupy. Raupy uses its Gust on Smeargle, KOing it, but not before taking an Incinerate from the art dog.
Time for Ilima's last Mon. I use Gust, bringing the Rat into Berry Juice range. It gives me a Leer. I then use Gust again, but alas, Raupy falls to the Rat's Bite.
With Raupy down, but Ilima almost defeated, I send in my next Mon: Glowbra. I think the Rat used Bite, but it didn't matter: Glowbra's Spark defeated it. Thus having Ilima 1 go down in defeat.
(Dev war story: This fight used to be harder, with Ilima having a 4th Mon: a Munchlax. It just didn't die and made the fight too hard for this point of the game, so we removed it.)
Anyways, with our first victory over a Trial Captain, we are free to heal up for the next challenges:
What awaits next? How hard will the game kick our ass next time? Find out next time!
Wew, sorry that update took so long. But yeah, I hate writing long posts like this. The next updates will probably either be: A. shorter or B. via video. I have a headset, so I can talk while playing. I just don't know how to video edit. Also another thing: you know how I said I was working on the hack again? Well, that's another hiccup. I won't bother updating this again until the update for the hack goes through.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this exercise in my own pain. :)
So, a “SOS Poni Gauntlet” with a wild Wigglytuff? How does that work, considering the numerous Pokémon it can call for help? I also like how all Pokémon it can call for help refers to the characters from Mystery Dungeon: Explorer of Time / Darkness / Sky.
Wigglytuff theorically could be not too difficult to wear down and catch if it haven’t been buffed, but having a gauntlet of SOS help would make it a threat if not handled quickly, unless you wanted to catch a Celebi.
The way SOS works is that you have the base Mon that you initially encounter and 7 more slots for the Pokemon to call. Like so:
In this example, the base Alolan Rattata call either more of its own subspecies, or base form Rattata. Same with any other Mon in this SOS chain: all Pokemon besides the initial slot are potential calls. So even a base form Rattata can call more of itself or more A-Rattatas. Of course, they still need a call rate, but I took care of that as needed. So there you go.
You think I'd make a PMD reference!? How dare you accuse me of such a thing. I would never throw in a PMD reference in my works. Nope. Nadda. No siree. No dam way. Man, your accusations are just absurd...
This time for the Totem Sticker tutorial.... alright, cool, Ilima. Don't care. Let me just wander around. When we're able, we take to the grass a bit more and see Abra make its debut. The Abra line got no changes besides how Kadabra evolves into Alakazam. We'll cover that when Kadabra debuts, but moving on...
