NEW ROM Hack Demo: Pokemon Crystal Ultimate

[Major_Agnostic]

Hello again, folks! Today I have for you a playable demo (up 'til the Pokemon League!) of my upcoming ROM hack: Pokemon Crystal Ultimate!

Credit for the title screen goes to Stan40/Stamba

The goal of this hack is to be the ultimate Pokemon Crystal experience for fans: same story, same Pokemon, same locations, but the game is more playable, balanced and challenging. Just about everything is viable now due to a thorough revision of moves, learnsets, base stats, and Pokemon availability. The game's challenge has been increased by revamping the level curve and adding to trainer parties custom moves, DVs and stat experience, as well as providing a greater variety and number of Pokemon to their teams.

More or less empty locations in the original game such as Ilex Forest, Ice Path and Victory Road now have extra trainers and items. I have also taken some liberties to spice up and rebalance gameplay, such as type changes to a few Pokemon, a couple of regular-shiny palette swaps to reflect this, and Steel now normally resisting Poison moves.

As well, all 251 Pokemon can be obtained in-game (in the full-release) and all Johto Pokemon can be obtained before reaching the Pokemon League (except for legendaries and the starters that you didn't choose). On top of all of this, there are many quality of life upgrades as well as brand new features that improve playability without compromising the feel of the original game! These include new music and softer night versions for all outdoor themes, Hold B to run, an improved move tutor (and a new gen 1 tutor that will be accessible in the final release) that also teaches Rock Slide, a move deleter in Goldenrod, a brand new move reminder in Blackthorn, and darkened sprites to better match the night graphics.

Additionally, I removed the badge boost and 25% AI chance to fail status moves, TMs are reusable, elemental stones can be purchased and used to evolve former trade evolution Pokemon, the economy has been revised to provide more challenge and variety while still being fair, the shiny odds have been increased and shinies always have high DVs, in-game trades have been revised, many bugs have been fixed, etc.

RESOURCES:

- To learn more about the hack, check out the fancy google doc readme: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VnC8wWP8CjpresyAZV_YlFcY8oWutHZeUr-RQj8lyCI/edit#

- For the game file, questions, discussion and updates, please check out my Discord server: https://discord.gg/XMYBvDA

- Check out my YouTube channel as well; although there isn't much pertaining to the hack at the moment, subscribe so that you'll be notified of my upcoming demo trailer in the near future: https://www.youtube.com/user/NicktheLP/videos

I hope that you guys will enjoy my demo and make sure to keep the documentation handy! There are a lot of changes and the doc will help you track them as you play to get the most out of the experience. I would be ecstatic to receive feedback from people, whether via PM on here or in my Discord. Cheers, good luck, and enjoy!