A look back at: Pokemon Gold & Silver '97 Reforged

Text walkthrough! May actually be updated once I get ALL the information I need from the Github page, which was super helpful. My main team was my starter Dynabear (Fire type), Nidoqueen, Gelania (new evolution of Tangela), Dewgong (which replaced Quagsire because for some stupid reason Quagsire cannot learn Waterfall), Crobat, and Ampharos.

So Generation 2 is a polarizing generation. No question about it. The designs are fine, but the new Pokemon were underwhelming. Lots of baby forms, Pokemon that needed newer evolutions down the line, while Crobat, Ampharos, and Quagsire, along with maybe the starters, more or less carried the weight of this generation alongside returning Kanto mons. And then there was what could have been. Which kinda felt over-stimulated to say the very least. Tangela gets not only a new evolution (not Tangrowth) but a baby form? Paras, Ponyta, Growlithe, AND Vulpix got baby forms? Ditto gets a new evolution? Aipom, Azumarill, Hitmontop, and Sneasel look drastically different? You got Sunflora, Snubbull, and Quagsire here but not Sunkern, Granbull, or Wooper? Umbreon's a Poison type? Steel being weak to Water and Electric but not Fire or Ground and also resisting Fighting? Dark being weak to NORMAL? There's actually a lot to take in. For the record, the type changes are from the Space World '97 type chart, and you can actually change it to the regular one.

The region actually feels quite organic, even if you scrunch up Kanto's region and do it Dragon Quest 2 style fitting it right into Nihon while allowing the post-game to be clogged by random islands where the only things of interest are catching legendaries and the remaining starters. Not too much of a plot, but I'm used to it, the only really notable thing is that Giovanni is actually in the game this time. New sprites for the gym leaders are kinda cool too. But overall, the '97 Reforged hacks really are just about playing through what could have been, the beta stuff, as Crystal hacks too. And it was quite a neat showing.

A look back at: Heroes of Might & Magic II: The Succession Wars (+ The Price of Loyalty)

It's been almost two months. Yeah, it's somehow going slower once again, usually do to work commitments, but there's more to it for this installment. As expected, I went through HoM&M2, but I not only did it, I went through both main campaigns, Archibald and Roland. And this is the first time I actually did an expansion pack too, which consisted of four campaigns separate from the main game itself, yet with the same mechanics.

Mechanics-wise, HoM&M2 only really allows for more tweaking when it comes to totally new things. Now you have more skills, better use of army management, and a better magic system. Plus victory bonuses for taking specific paths. Things are a tad smaller this time around, which allows for more in terms of movement across a hex grid for battles, though regular navigation remains. When you factor in everything else, the second HoM&M really just plays like an improved version of the first. Maybe this is all I would be here for though. More "conquer everyone" missions. Though some with timers or specific characters that you need to keep alive. So they are improving in that regard while they keep the empire-building and other notable things intact.

While there probably isn't too much else to say at this point, it's really just a Heroes of Might & Magic-a-thon for me for the next couple of RPGs to check out. The biggest godsend this series has thus far is the ability to save at any time, as well as a flowchart that shows the branching paths. So having multiple saves on my file allows me to utilize things much better and make more interesting plans. I hear HoM&M3 is the most famous of the whole franchise, oddly enough, and now I wonder what's in store after all that strategy RPGing I took with this game. And there's even more expansion packs within it! This will take me quite a while.