[GBC] Pokemon Crystal Maeson

Name: Pokemon Crystal Maeson
Hacked by: Maeson
Based on: Pokemon Crystal
Source Link: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5706/
Description:
Hello, Welcome back to Pokemoner.com, and I’m Pokemoner. Today, We will play Pokemon Crystal Maeson by Maeson! It’s a GBC Hack ROM and based on Pokemon Crystal.

It’s a Feature Hack ROM where PSS split is added, Battle Towner is reworked, Trainers are harder to defeat, The Graphics and Music are improved, and more… It has 4 versions and It’s English. And now, Let’s play!

Pokémon Crystal Maeson, like other hacks of the same author, aims to give a game he has played a lot a different flair through a variety of changes, so it keeps feeling fresh or more interesting to his own particular tastes.

This one goes much further with the tweaks and changes, here’s a general summary of them:

·Moving away from the “vanilla Pokémon experience” by making a different “balance” for the Pokémon themselves. This means new Type Matchups to make Types equal, giving many species different Types, new Stat distributions for each evolutionary line and putting them at the same level, streamlining evolution across all species, and more.

·To help with the above, the Pokédex has been changed. It no longer offers the dubious trivia it originally had, and now provides both a list of Weaknesses and Resistances and the Base Stats of each species to help the player.

·A Physical/Special split has been added, and beyond that, many old moves have been taken out to implement new ones in order to give each Type moves of different Power tiers for both Physical and Special sides. There has been no intent to follow trends made by newer games with the new moves, though.

·An effort has also been made to streamline all stuff related to training and RNG. DVs/IVs no longer factor in Stat Calculations, meaning any Pokémon can reach full potential (Shiny and Female Pokémon included, of course). Acquiring Stat Experience is a far less frustrating process now, as there have been changes to Vitamins in addition to new Items to make them actually useful this time, and you will need to pay attention and take care of your team this way.

·There has been a fair increase in the overall difficulty of the game. The AI has been improved, Levels have been raised (Generation 2 had a rather low-Level curve), teams for pretty much every trainer out there have been tweaked (which, with the prior changes and having to learn new stuff does in fact increase the challenge), and the Pokémon from Trainers do get progressively harder as you progress because just like you, they also get Stat Experience, and after a point, all of them will have fully trained Pokémon. Badge bonuses and NPC “nerfs” have been removed too, among other changes.

·Another big point of this hack is a huge rework of the Battle Tower. Besides renewing the Pokémon you fight there to be in line with the new changes made to the hack (and also adding a lot more variety to the species you find there), a lot of new stuff has been added to it. Among other things, Move Tutors of various types and a reward system where you can get Special Eggs with Pokémon that know a unique move, somewhat similar to what Pokémon Stadium did. This place is much more than it ever was.

·Some “endgame” content was added too, in the form of rematches and other things. Once you beat Red, the Elite Four gets stronger and Gym Leaders want to fight again (not the only ones though). To help to level up, a series of helpful Items were added to the Battle Tower. Pokegear Rematches also had some pretty substantial upgrades compared to the original.

·There has been a number of changes to Items and Item storage too. There are a few new items, such as Fruits that help you strengthen your Pokémon, and Kurt Balls are now very different from what they were in the original game.

·While there’s no intention to create a new story or region, there are some new maps here and there, sometimes to bring back stuff like the Viridian Forest, others to expand certain places that felt short, or simply a few new areas. There were also many small additions and changes made throughout the game, way too many to point out here.

·Big changes to the graphics in many areas. Pokémon sprites were cleaned up, improved, or changed (they also have individual icons for each, and Shiny colors were altered too), the overworld graphics had also some touches here and there. Many areas had some edits here and there to make them feel better to traverse or to look at, and the scrolling is also smoother. In general, the colors used by the game are less saturated so it’s easier to the eyes when playing on anything with a back-lighted screen. Also, some menus and other UI stuff got redesigns to make them easier to the eye, and hopefully more clear to see.

There’s much, much more to the changes, but if you want to read more about it you have the usual “why this is so long” readme included. In fact, there’s a variety of files with different information to help accommodate people to all these modifications, in case you have ages of free time to read it all!

Patch Differences
Now, there are four patches, so let’s explain this quickly.

First, we have the Original versions, and the Alternative versions, these last ones offer a tweaked experience in case you want to play this hack again with some differences.

In which ways it is different?

Well, the Starters have been swapped, so when you begin a new game, you get to choose between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.

A MUCH bigger difference, though, is that all the Gym trainers, the Leaders, other important NPCs and the Elite Four no longer have their teams limited to following the thematic “Type” standards.

Other trainers such as the Rival also have different teams, (and like the original patch, he develops a different team
depending on the starter they steal).

Without that restriction, each of those trainers has way more varied teams, making the game less predictable because you can no longer coast on the Type disadvantages most of the Pokémon of a Gym Leader share.

This of course changes how you make your teams. You no longer “have” to bring “this or that Type” because later on the road there’s a Gym weak to it. It’s more about making a team that you feel it can withstand anything it may come.

The order of certain Ingame Trades has also been changed.

There are other smaller changes to make the bigger ones sit well, such as small text edits or change the order of the Pokédex.

But Original and Alternative are divided in two too, one that I’ll call “Intended Versions” and the other two are “Items in Battle” variations.

The “Intended Versions” disables healing Items in battle and it forces Set options, meaning you don’t get free switches after knocking out a foe Pokémon. You can’t change the option, because it’s not even there anymore.

That’s how I’d like people to play my hack, but knowing how some people can be, there’s an extra patch, “Items in Battle”, that gives you the possibility of using Items and to change the battle option, but there’s a price to pay.

If you choose to play with enabled Items/Switch in battle, a few items will be unavailable to you, the price of several items will increase, and the HP they restore will be lowered. Also, NPC Trainers will also use Items.

That’s simply because Items can be easily abused, and that is the opposite of what I wanted in this hack. If you choose the “right” to abuse Items during the battle, then I have the right to make adjustments to annoy you with your choice.

It’s not like Hyper Potions will heal 1 HP or anything crazy like that, but because in my hack you can’t use Items in battles, they’re more powerful than the usual vanilla items so you could recover better between battles.

The items you lose access to are all new, by the way.
A set of consumable Held Items that raise a stat whenever the holder is attacked or under other circustances, similar to the berries in the Third Generation, albeit they’re activated differently.

Another change is limited access to a team-healing item that I made, and restores all your Pokémon to perfect shape. Intended to be used in a pinch, like being lost in a cave, or between hard fights, but you can only have in small amounts. In the Original patch, you can carry 3 of them, but only 1 on the “Items in Battle” versions.

You’re free to choose how to play. Of course, you only apply one patch.

If for some reason you started a game with one version, for example, with the patch for Items in Battle, and you later on want to go to the No Items in Battle version, you can actually use that save file and not start again.

But I recommend you to save first in a Pokémon Center before doing so. Once you did that, patch a clean ROM and rename the .SAV file into whatever the new patched rom is. Now you can continue with your game.
Remember to always make backups before doing anything of this sort.

I do not recommend changing between the Original and Alternate versions.

Lastly, trading and battling with vanilla Pokémon Crystal is not going to work. Not only many of the fixes made already impossible to be compatible with Vanilla Pokémon Crystal, but the gigantic load of changes I made to the game would render any attempt become a glitchy mess.

But you can trade and battle with other copies of this hack, and the four versions of the patches should be compatible with each other for both trading and battling. I’d recommend using the No Items versions because it gives you access to those extra Held Items, though.

This game is a GBC Hack ROM! It’s a Completed in English!

Screenshot:

Gameplay: