I discovered the tools for hacking Pokemon games (specifically ROMs) this last summer, and ever since I've been hankering to make my own version of Pokemon. I'd like to see how much I can realize within the limits of 8-year-old technology and the standard Pokemon game parameters.
I may be in over my head. I apparently have decided to change just about every possible aspect of the game. There are new overworld imges to make (for NPCs and building), new pokemon to design (special thanks to a friend for visuals of the new critters), new town and route maps, new building interiors new color palettes to adjust, new mythologies and storylines to create, and Holy Noodles, new scripts to write.
I have the starting town mostly done, with regards to scripts and mapping. There are still all the new interiors and overworlds to design, but I'm putting those off until later, as they are not strictly necessary for game progress (that is, I can run a beta test without them).
And along the way I may slaughter a few sacred cows. While I'm on the line about making this hack ride the zeitgeist of "make things grittier/American Kirby is hardcore", I do want the environment and the pokemon themselves to feel, for the most part, a little more dangerous. Not all of them, mind you (how can an Eevee be scary?), but it disappoints me in the games how a big deal is made in the very beginning about the dangerous of going out into the world without a pokemon by your side, and almost right away there are even individuals who aren't even trainers of any sort (at least, they're not telling) lounging about on a route, sometimes even strolling about in the tall grass.
I'm also going to change up the ways Gyms work. That's right, hold on to your hats, because:
Gyms will no longer focus on elemental type. That's right, instead each gym will have a different sort of focus.
Gyms focusing in types is an okay idea, and it even makes a little more sense in various adaptions--each gym is dedicated to bringing out the strength of certain types of pokemon and exploring the powers and combat capabilities of that type of pokemon. However, those goals are hard to express in game-form, at least in the third-gen incarnation. Each type has a limited number of moves, which by now practically every player of the games will have memorized, and a gym's challenge almost seems to come from variation, rather than adherence, on/to the theme--using a move not of a type, using a hard-to-get move, or using a pokemon with a variant type or half-type.
Because all it really comes down to in the games in type superiority. In the comics or in adaptations, it may be possible to explore methods and techniques for overcoming or adapting to type disadvantage, but in game (at least in my experience) it always come down to level and a STAB (same-type attack bonus) move.
Speaking of Gyms, I also have the crazy thought of making defeating all the gyms or getting all the badges unnecessary to "beating" the game. Since I can't unlink the usability of most of the HMs from the owning of a badge, many badges will likely still be necessary for game/story completion. Odds are that most people will challenge all the gyms anyway, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. But I'm exploring the option of multiple storylines, some of which do not involve the usual Pokemon League Challenge.
I'm also think making it so that the Gyms don't have to be challenged in a particular order, while still keeping each Gym a challenge. Yes, there are some canon games in which some gyms can be avoided, up until a certain point, so this isn't exactly new. I don't know how mutable I can make the order, though, while still retaining the level of the gym challenge and my sanity.
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