I wanna make this VERY clear. It's not that I don't think enhancement or difficulty hacks shouldn't exist at all, I just think majority of the ones already made or still being made were almost pointless cuz they don't change much or add anything new that another hack already did outside of the more vanilla feeling or increase in difficulty

Enhancement hacks are great. Honestly they're probably the best ways to play the game normally and a decent way of bringing people who are new to pokemon into the series. The pokemon Legacy series with Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and upcoming X Legacy are great examples because these hacks fix any bugs, make things more balanced and less pointless but still keeps you feeling the majority of feel of the generation you're playing like how non of the legacy hacks they made don't have physical special split which will change once X Legacy since it's a gen 6 hack. A few other Enhancement hacks can be made that do make things less vanilla and more like the ultimate version of that game such as ROWE, Quetzal and maybe even elite redux (more extreme examples but they're still emerald at the end of the day just with more stuff)

Difficulty hacks work in much the same way or at least to me. You can make a vanilla FRLG hack, you can make one that included megas, you can make one with Gen 1-9 pokemon etc but at a certain point what else can you add and why continue making FRLG difficulty hacks or other hacks of other games/regions without something to make it unique like a new region or story or battle gimmick

Ultimately once you've played 1 Enhancement or difficulty hack of a game/region, do you really need to play another? Difficulty hacks have more of a reason to play another because you can leay increase the difficulty but there will be a limit reached at some point and again you'll be stuck at nothing else needing to be played. At least with something like water blue or aesthetic red you get a visual overhaul of the game to make it look much better when you want to replay Kanto all over again

What is the truly the most beautiful Pokémon romhack? A romhack where the regions look aesthetically beautiful and pleasing, where you can just walk around and enjoy the world. Also preferably that there is some sort of life around the world, like Pokémons walking around, many NPCS etc.

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It gets very tedious when I catch a pokemon and try to evolve it later for either using it or dex completion but spend way too long trying to find it.

Playing through Emerald Imperium right now. There’s 11 boxes of Pokemon and I’m only through gym 4. Almost every ROM hack is like this now. I’m fine with a large Pokédex but I wish ROM hacks made it easier to find them in the PC.

Example of this is when I was playing Soul Gold. I had around 18 boxes of Pokemon and was running out of room. I tried to start the dex completion process but finding each pokemon to evolve them felt like a different task all on its own. Especially if the game requires you to have multiple teams due to the difficulty.

Sorry for the rambling I needed to inflate the word count because of the 150 word minimum. But Is it even possible to implement a search function? Because I think it would be an incredible quality of life feature.

Pokémon Shifted Spectrum is an alternate-reality version of Pokémon Platinum! It’s the same Sinnoh Region we all know and love, with completely redesigned Pokémon, altered encounters, more strategic battles, and a completely new way to experience the game from start to finish!  

Features:

Every Pokémon has a completely new “Shifted” typing!

Custom abilities, learn sets, and recolored palettes to match new identities – including brand new shiny forms.

Increased shiny odds to 1/1024!

Expanded wild encounters featuring Pokémon from the first 4 generations.

Wild Pokémon can hold useful items, chosen to help with evolution requirements or to improve caught Pokémon in battle.

All special battles, gym leaders, and the E4 use full teams of 6 along with useful held items, coverage and setup strategies.

All gyms and E4 retain original typing’s aside from the 1^st gym which is now a “Fossil Pokémon Gym”. Only Cynthia retains her iconic team.

Team Galactic has redesigned teams that grow stronger as you progress. Galactic grunts have more variety.

NPC trades have been changed, and all received Pokémon have perfect IVs.

Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup remain the starts, but have been reworked.

Selected moves have been rebalanced or redesigned including changes to power, accuracy, typing, and possible secondary effects.

Difficulty is increased, but NOT a difficulty rom hack.

A gym leader/ E4 guide is nearly complete, and a Shifted Spectrum pokedex along with other additional documentation to help you on your journey are also being worked on.

The goal was not to change a great game altogether, but to alter the Pokémon and challenge us to rethink the game while replaying a classic we all know and love! Shifted Spectrum is meant to feel like rediscovering Platinum again for the first time, with plenty of surprises and changes to keep you on your toes.

Thank you for reading and please join the Discord channel to stay up to date on the progress of the testing. Follow me on twitch @ Director_Smitty to see us live testing and enjoying the first playthrough of Pokémon Shifted Spectrum!

I just finished Pokemon Unbound after playing it on and off for about 5 or 6 months. All in all I had a great time. I used to be big into rom hacks in high-school but I fell out of them pretty hard in college, but now I am trying to play more.

I find myself constantly comparing rom hacks to Pokemon Insurgence. While its not a rom hack, it is a fan game that I find myself constantly re playing because I enjoy it so much. In terms of story, I did really enjoy Unbound. It was about on par with insurgence with me. The only thing I didn't like was the switch from Zeph as the main villain to Aklove. I don't hate Aklove, it just kind of felt like he came out of nowhere and I liked Zephs story more.

In terms of mons I really enjoyed the variety of Unbound. I like that I had basically every pokemon to choose from, I just had to try hard to find some (namely ferroseed). I do kind of wish this hack had some new regional variants. I really like delta pokemon from insurgence and regional variants scratch that same itch for me. It just kind of felt like Unbound didn't have anything unique in terms of pokemon. I did really enjoy the dex nav though. I liked that I could shiny hunt during the story with just a little bit of work, and it paid off, letting me get a shiny of one of my favorite pokemon.

The difficulty was annoying at times. I played it on the middle difficulty ( I can't remember if it was called normal or hard, it was whichever one was the easiest with level scaling), and I felt like it made the game unfun in some of the early gyms. Those gym gimmicks made me crank the difficulty down and just beat them by overlevelling, which was frustrating. Maybe that was due to not having a good team comp early or not ev training yet, but personally I don't feel like the early gyms should demand that, even on higher difficulty. A lot of the gyms felt like the fight against east immediately into Jaern in insurgence with how unfair they felt. In the late game things mellowed out, which is what makes me think it was due to not ev training or having a cohesive team, because I did both of those in the late game. I felt like by the time I got to crystal peak and the end of the game I had the tools to handle basically anything.

In conclusion, I'd give the game a 10/10 for mechanics and graphics, 7/10 for story, a 9/10 for pokemon, and a 5/10 for balance between battle difficulty and fun. Overall, I'd give the game an 8/10 and I would absolutely recommend it to people. I feel like it is a must play rom hack and largely embodies what a rom hack can be at its full potential. Most of my critiques are largely my personal preference and not objective, so certainly others experiences may differ.

Goodbye for now, Pokemon Unbound, I can only imagine I'll play you again, possibly as a nuzlocke. I'm really gonna miss this team. I feel like it's one of the truest to myself teams I've ever made and I wish modern pokemon games would let me have all these pokemon at once in a playthrough. I hope someone finds this helpful and maybe tips them over the fence to try the game if maybe they weren't going to before. I'm moving on to pokemon gaia next, so if anyone has any advice about that, let me know. Peace.