Wow, has it really been nearly three months since my last post? I had to renew this domain name by the way ever since a change occurred in who owned Blogspot, but more importantly, the primary reason why I haven't made any posts here are twofold. First, Heroes of Might & Magic 3, its expansion packs, and, currently, Heroes Chronicles are taking up a lot of my time, and I'm almost done with them. Second, I did a replay of Pokemon Prism. If you guys want, here's a walkthrough to that game. But wait, I should be talking about the current ROM hack I went through, named Ultra Fire Sun. And here's a guide, no, not a walkthrough, a guide, because this game doesn't change base Kanto/Sevii Islands from the original Fire Red. My team was Crobat, Ribombee, Torterra, Infernape, Vaporeon, and Gallade.
So the handful of ROM hacks that I know that barely change base Fire Red have increased. Mega Moemon FireRed, Ash Gray, Red Fire, and Stigma don't count, because Ash Gray tries to follow the anime which has differences, Stigma starts you out in Lavender Town instead of Pallet, and Red Fire and Mega Moemon don't have the Sevii Islands at all. I'm speaking moreso of Metal Red and Voda Red, and Ultra Fire Sun follows in their footsteps. But I would say it's closer to Metal Red overall. The amount of Pokemon goes up to Gen-7, so we're talking a lot of additions, and we even have double wild encounters (but only in grass). There's also fakemon, and while I did recognize some from Vega, they dropped the ball with those, because their types are nowhere what they should be back in Vega and also they are just not obtainable. Boo. Some of the other fakemon at least were somewhat interesting, but then again, I would rather use more familiar Pokemon instead. Voda Red was super difficult with type changes and nonsense I didn't like, while Metal Red just went overboard with content and actually had loads of glitches. Ultra Fire Sun does what Metal Red did, but not with too much in glitchiness and maybe a little more fun. Heck, for my final team, Crobat, Ribombee, and Torterra were already part of my team in Metal Red! It's cause I easily compared things.
The best thing about this hack is, aside from a lack of overall glitchiness and a small graphics facelift, the portals. The green portals that appear in some locations as one-time legendary encounters. Some look inaccessible, but actually are accessible as you can walk through some walls or so to get to them. Thank you for giving me more legendary options if I wanted them. With that said, there were some portals that were supposed to appear but didn't. Furthermore, the Sevii quests had to be completed before challenging the league the first time, and you miss out on a what-would-have-been first league match. Some of the trainers on the Sevii Islands also don't battle, which was weird, especially the admins in the Rocket Warehouse who just let you pass.
The biggest thing Ultra Fire Sun has against it, however, is that it really doesn't follow a good difficulty pattern nor do the trainer teams make sense. For the trainer teams, it's like each and every single trainer just went through a randomizer as to what Pokemon they use. Gym leaders have full teams, but not really in their type specialty at all. They also have default movesets and almost no items, so that mitigates the challenge. Possibly for the better, considering their starting levels. Your first rival has of course the Lv6 starter (which is randomized, and they just had to bump a level up) but the optional rival battle on Route 22? He has a Lv25 and a Lv26 mon! Yeah, that's a lot of grinding just to catch up and you haven't even gotten past Viridian that much yet. The first bug catcher in Viridian Forest has not only Lv22 mons, but fully evolved ones. Brock isn't far behind, with a full team and the highest is Lv29. Misty and Lt. Surge are equal in their highest levels, at Lv39, a lot more grinding still in the early game, but things even out, as later gym leaders don't usually go higher than 68. The highest trainer pre-League would have to be Cue Ball Paxton (Three Island leader of the biker gang) at Lv79, his levels are higher than Giovannis!
The gist of this is: Play to catch a ton of mons just about everywhere, but you gotta do lots of grinding and evolving even before you truly leave Viridian City the first time, and it's like you're playing a randomizer with this hack. I may revisit this game just to do Vs. Seeker rematch info, since those too are randomized, but I'm just tired and glad to have finished something before summer closes.
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