A look back at: Pokemon Dark Rising: Order Destroyed

I think this will be the only time ever in which I have actually managed to finish two ROM hacks in a single week's worth of time. I know I finished Mega Power 4 days ago, and started Dark Rising: Order Destroyed, but honestly I didn't expect to finish with this ROM hack in literally only three days. That's a first when it comes to overall Pokemon ROM hack length.

But the gameplay of Order Destroyed is so much different that it encourages speedy play. I've heard of the Nuzlocke challenge, which I never bothered with because I'm a casual. The gameplay of Order Destroyed is somewhat like it, but not quite. The "faint = dead" rule is in play, but that seems to be the only real Nuzlocke rule. The other rules are that you must find Pokemon in certain places, and the worst thing is that there's only seven total (one of which is traded for another anyways), and also there's next to no place to do a full heal of the entire team. The only places this is possible are at "the machine" and by using Zinnia's Aster before the final battle (the latter is actually unimportant given the final battle is up ahead anyways and it is a hopeless battle). The idea of scrounging for items to keep your mons HP and PP up is very important, and you're always in more danger of encountering the rare high-level 2% encounters than anything else. One of the BIGGEST troll moments ever happens at the midpoint, where you find the machine, it works like a PC, but the guy you allied with earlier says to leave some mons in the PC because he detects something worse may pop up soon. Then you leave the area, find out you cannot come back, and that you've been tricked as he works with Hoopa. Yikes.

Well, the story of Dark Rising 2 continues in this mini-prelude to Dark Rising 3 (the RPGmaker game), which is why it's so short, and you actually play as whatever you named that blond-haired, blue-wearing dude that was your main rival in this game. To play with his team was pretty neat, although I never found the guy's Yveltal at all. And Hoopa, of all possible evil Pokemon, screwing up the ENTIRE world, putting places according to everything the way he wants, good lord, that's an evil wet dream that someone clearly had to come up with. But to have two twin kids be half-human, half-Pokemon (part of Zygarde apparently)? Even weirder. Causing your character to be someone who has to kill zombie-like trainers to keep these kids alive makes this plot much colder than Snakewood's could ever hope for. Powerful stuff, short ROM hack. Still kinda mixed on these final battles in the DR series, especially considering that the final battle is one you're supposed to lose.

Oh and here's a walkthrough, because I am generous and always have these things at hand.