## 2025-04-11 The romhack to end all **Pokemon** romhacks. I've been putting this one off because people keep telling me I won't want to play any other romhacks. But I've already played [[Mario Mon]], [[Pokemon Crystal Clear]], [[Pokemon Scorched Silver]], and **Emerald Seaglass**, so I'm ready for the big one. Right now it's sort of a repeat because I got to the second gym before stopping, but it's still wild to see the detail and QOL in this game early on. Love being able to customize my character, the lack of limits in your "Cube" which replaces your backpack, and the various difficulty levels you can have. Right now I'm doing Difficult for the combat and Easy for the puzzles, but you can change them whenever. I'm also using Exp. Share, but I've been told to keep the cap on so that combat doesn't get ridiculous / impossible later on. Last left off having caught a Riolu that I named Aura on Route 2,[^1] which has nicely rounded off the rest of my current team: Gible (Kiryu), Alolan Sandshrew (Blizzard), Trumbeak (Comet), Elecktrike (Bolt), and Smoochum (Kissy). All of their EV / IVs don't seem...great? But I don't care I'm a heart Trainer as much as I am a [heart fighting game player](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6FHt2RCV0). ## 2025-04-12 Got the first gym done, evolved my Riolu into Lucario and got through the volcano. Swapped out my Smoochum with a Ralts that evolved into a Kirlia. Kiryu evolved into Gabite[^2] as well. Traded Blizzard for a Ducklett which helped with the gym because it had Defog. And I replaced my Trumbeak with a Litleo that I named Nala. I *kinda* wanna replace it with a Vulpix I found in the volcano, but I always use Vulpix when I don't have a fire type, so I think I'm gonna try and switch it up. I wish **Unbound** didn't show me the stat trends for real, I don't need to know!!! Also I've heard murmurs that a ghost type is useful for the fourth gym, so I might add one to my party...but I don't know who I'd swap! Maybe Bolt, but I kind of like the type coverage it's giving me. On that note, actually learning and thinking about my team has been fun, because now I know what type coverage can actually entail! Anyways so far this hack has been as good as I have heard. I actually love **Pokemon**. ## 2025-04-15 Some team switch-ups! ![[20250415_233924.jpg]] Electric not doing much for me so I've benched Bolt for now and replaced it with Ganon, my tepig that quickly turned into Pignite. They're fire-fighting though so I'm probably gonna swap my Lucario with something else…not sure what though, maybe Dark/Ice? I will continue team-building. I'm happy with everything else I have though as of now, but I do want to start adding some Eeveeloutions when I can finally get them, I have a ton of elemental stones so I can do that right when I get access. ## 2025-04-16 ![[Pokemon Unbound-1744839789421.png]] Swapped out my Lucario for Mawille. I’ve never used fairy type that much[^3] but as I’m playing this game in “Difficult” mode I’m actually taking my team-building pretty seriously, lmao. So a Steel/Fairy type seems like a good round-out for my current party. Got my fourth badge and am about to trudge up Thundercap Mt. This game has something called the Dexnav, which was apparently introduced in the **Ruby & Sapphire** remakes. I don’t know why it isn’t in every **Pokemon** game. The ability to know if I’ve caught everything in a given route or cave saves me so much time sand hassle, and getting to target pokemon you’ve seen but might not have caught sis fantastic too. That’s actually how I caught Pearly! It’s gonna be hard to live without it in any follow-up **Pokemon** I end up playing. I think I should be set with this team for now – the only other change I’ll probably make is replace Smug with a Leafeon ‘cause they’re [[2025-04-14-1744840225194.png|my favowite]] :) ## 2025-04-18 Whelp, I was wrong and made an Eeveelution team, lmfao. I'm like 15 levels below where I need to be in this part of the game and I can't fly so I dunno how sustainable this is gonna be but I'm gonna try for it! ## 2025-05-04 This game was alright! I think my expectations were too high. It has great mechanics and QOL and stuff like that, but its plot leaves so much to be desired that I can’t appreciate those aspects, and for now am DNFing it. The thing is if the plot of a pokemon romhack is bad, then why play it when I can play one that has the same mechanical quality of life and no plot to get in the way at all? Right now I’m playing **Pokemon ROWE**, which is an open-world hack of **Pokemon Emerald** with every generation of pokemon, a ton of QOL, and some cool extras. I am having significantly more fun with it because it does everything **Unbound** does without the silly romhack-ass plot. That plot is bad to me because it tries to be “dark” and “edgy” to an extent, but it just doesn’t hit. If I want dark Pokemon I’ll just pick up **Shin Megami Tensei**. The problem with Pokemon, to me, has never been its storytelling. Like I said recently, it has some [[Hop is the Best|great rivals]] that provide interesting narratives, and stuff like **Black & White** has genuinely great story! So a poorly-paced plot where you chase after an edgy evil team from place to place but never making any progress isn’t some positive replacement for what we usually get. Sooo yeah. It’s been alright, but stuff like [[Pokemon Crystal Clear]] and **Fools Gold** and **Pokemon ROWE** have been way more engaging to me. [^1]: I name every single Pokemon I catch just fyi [^2]: I also just got it! G*ible*, Ga*bite*, Gar*chomp*! Hehehe... [^3]: I actually had no idea that Gardevoir was Psychic / Fairy now lol