Let's Play! PvK plays Pokemon Super Gold 97

[Plague von Karma]

~~PvK plays Pokemon Super Gold 97!~~​

Ayup, not done one of these threads before but there's a first time for everything. I found this hack to be something to behold, really, it's just very well-made. As a bit of a GSC enthusiast, I've always been interested in the beta versions of the titles (if you do some lookups of my antics in 2013-2015 you'd prolly see it get a bit misguided) and this hack naturally crossed my path. One view of the incredible guide this game has, and I was hooked.

No specific rules here other than to (hopefully) clear the game. The second I give myself rules, I find myself getting demotivated since I'm like "but I have the optionnnn", y'get me?

So essentially, this is a ROM Hack of Pokemon Gold, aiming to restore the SpaceWorld 1997 demo's content into a fully playable title, with story and all. It's extremely grounded and uses everything available to it, presenting itself very well: it feels very official, and I'd even call it pseudo-canon. The one issue I can muster are the Pokemon names not using Ogasawara's localisations which feel more official than anything anyone can come up with, but this is hardly a hinderance. I guess there's my typical "Put baby Pokemon at the start of the game please" critiques of any Pokemon ROM Hack, but bleh.

I've been streaming this on my Twitch, with my first stick shaken at it hitting 6hr30. Here's the archive, it's difficult to summarise because the game is just really vast.

Things that happened:

• Beat the first 4 gyms!
• Got Honoguma as my starter, and evolved it!
• Hatched a Shiny Smoochum, reaction here!
• So far only lost to Enoki's Gengar at the fourth gym but there have been some incredibly close calls. This hack is decently hard!
• Discovered how good the "self-activating, single stage X Items" are, eg. Sharp Horns. Use these if you plan on playing this game!
• Happened to get a Magnet because I was playing on Sunday and found the Sunday girl in the first area. Neat!
• Having a lot of fun using Farfetch'd, which evolved into Luxwan right at the end of the stream. You can get it right at the start but its level-up movepool seems limited so you should be ready to burn a TM or two.

Current Team:

You should absolutely grab Nidoking given the chance, he's available just beyond Westport City up north as an L15 Nidoran-M, ripe for evolution! You also get access to Blizzard, Fire Blast, and Thunder really early, but money is tight, so you probably can't make a full on balls to the wall broken one. Got lucky on the lottery for a PP Up to help Flambear get plenty of Fire Blasts too...

Progress:

 

[Plague von Karma]

Aghhh, forgot to update!

I grinded on stream 3 days ago, getting to Alloy City and buffing my team up by a lot. This included evolving an L19 Magikarp I found, as well as evolving Tyker into Straigar, where it's gone from pretty terrible to a competent member of the team. I also got a Bipulla from the Game Corner, one of my favourite designs from the Spaceworld demo, and I intend to have it on as a permanent member of the team. Basically, we're getting to that point where all your stuff starts evolving and becoming important!

Not much happened story-wise outside of beating up Team Rocket, getting an Odd Egg, and solving something that was a bit cryptic. However, within around 10 minutes of this post I will be streaming for a few hours, where much is likely to happen! Depending on what the Odd Egg hatches, I may drop Nidoking or Luxvan for it.

Current Team:

Nidoking and Luxvan are in the Day Care, gaining Exp as time goes on.

Progress:

 

[Plague von Karma]

Ok, game, set, and match! I finished the game but unfortunately didn't keep this as up-to-date as I planned. There's still post-game, but wowza...

Here are the two missing archives from here...again, a lot happened, it's very hard to summarise. I hope my commentary and stuff suffices!

My team had a few shake-ups since the last post, shipping out Girafarig in favour of a Kangaskhan I got on Victory Road, as well as bringing Luxwan back to serve as a HM slave for the remainder of the run. Girafarig had issues keeping up and being weak to Normal just kept coming up, and I was starting to fall behind the level curve once Red came up. Kangaskhan is not only one of my favourite Pokemon, but also came at a level akin to my party. Straigar quickly came into its own as a bulky Electric-type with the capacity for physical attacks post-evolution, I truly adored using this little blighter...modern Pokemon simply hasn't got one of these yet, now that I think about it. I guess you could say Eelektross, but it's not quite like it.

Here's my final team that I used to defeat Lance. I adored every second of using each of these Pokemon, everything felt great. Straigar, especially, was important in defeating Lance, exploiting his Hyper Beams and paralysing his Dragonites before chaos ensued. I will clarify I was underlevelled and used items, but it ended up being really cool!

If you can get a Tyker, go for it. It takes a while to evolve, but once it does, it'll quickly become a team player. The 15ish levels it spends as a baby are worth it, but I do recommend getting one with good DVs. Steel is weak to Electric in this game, so you can use it to easily beat the Magnemites you see soon after obtaining it.

Probably the best starter, you get Fire Blast before the second gym and pick up a crapload of Exp killing the Pinsir the leader has. I think this may be a bit unbalanced, but hey, I'm just playing. I don't think there was ever a point where Bruinus hurt my team, except maybe against Lance where it has no moves to really hit his Pokemon. I could have used the Earthquake TM here, but I chose Straigar since I liked Crunch a bit.

Gyarados makes an excellent HM slave; in fact, it was so good, I had issues fitting Waterfall come Victory Road as it also had Rock Smash. Gyarados is broken in Gen 2 in-game on account of it just...using Surf and Strength well, really. You don't lose much using this monster, those two moves are all it needs to function.

Shoutouts to ausma for the name! Jynx took ages to get up to speed after hatching but it definitely served its role well. What can I say? Ice Punch + Psychic is a nice combination. Nay, not even an Ice Punch...but a Subzero Ice Punch! I've been having weirdly good luck with shinies lately, even missed two in Legends Arceus when I was finishing that game...

Found on Victory Road, slapped a few TMs on to make it acceptable, and it was away! I could have used the Earthquake TM here for perfect coverage but I'd already decided on Straigar I believe. It didn't do much, but was still a handy member. Will likely be good in the post-game should I go for it.

Incredible from start to finish, even if it took a backseat for the remainder of the run after Enoki. I really like how Farfetch'd works here, it's a nice early-game pick that becomes a pretty significant force post-evolution, and can either remain such or return to the HM slave role later. Interesting little thing.

And here's the final product!