Open the Door (Author's Corner)

Pokemon Light Platinum rom hack

Issues it has:

-Too many random encounters. I know it’s Pokemon, but even by those standards, this is overkill. I counted; you encounter a wild Pokemon literally every two steps. Just a tad ridiculous.

-The catch rate is ridiculously difficult. Level 3 Taillows and Shinxes with one HP were breaking out of their Poke Balls repeatedly. Poke Balls aren’t even available to be bought until the third town, which is a hell of a hike. That early in the game, it’s almost impossible to get a couple good Pokemon.

- What’s up with the text? Was it translated from another game? It’s really hard to understand what’s going on.

-The Gyms. Hooo my God, the Gyms. The first Gym had Vespiqueen with Double-Team and Toxic. That early in the game is ridiculous. Second Gym had a Roserade doing a Toxic/Leech Seed combination repeatedly. Third Gym had a fucking level 30 Kingdra. Fourth Gym had a Dusknoir that repeatedly used Double Team, then spammed Rest, then Toxic, then occasionally used Overheat. I don’t think I need to sum up my thoughts. Challenge is one thing, but like, we can do this under more controlled circumstances, y’know?

-Money issues. Lots of them. It seems like you can’t really buy many items, even after you’ve saved up items. Most of the money seems to go into Great Balls to try and help with the stupidly difficult catch rate.

-After the fourth Gym, when you go to the research center place, the game glitches out. I’ve had this happen on two playthroughs now. I’m guessing either the game was never finished, or it’s a bug that never got fixed. Either way, that’s as far as you can go.

Things I liked:

-The Pokemon that are available to you are actually really good. Taillow, Shinx, and Starly early on are terrific, level 30 Gyarados can be caught fairly decently at the fourth or fifth town, you can actually find some pretty good Ghost-types for the fourth Gym, and you can get Trapinch and Gible after that. So some pretty good options to use.

-Legendary catch rate is surprisingly pretty easy. Uxie and Celebi can be caught without TOO much difficulty, although Uxie can be a hassle. If you save your Master Ball, Latios appears fairly frequently, and it makes a hell of an addition to the team.

-Good choice on having the Sinnoh starters. Those are probably my favorite batch, in honesty.

-Replacing the bike with a Fearow that you can actually ride around town, I have to admit, brought a smile to my face.

-It was kinda cool to be able to visit Azalea Town in Johto at one point. Even cooler to see Ilex Forest burning to the ground. Kudos to that.

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Overall, it’s a great concept, but it’s infuriating as hell. I recommend playing it like a drinking game, if you’re gonna play it at all. If you want to give it a go, it’s on Pirate Bay, you can torrent it.

Final Score: 6.5-7/10

Anyone know any other Pokemon rom hacks they want to recommend me?