Emerald hack: Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack [Complete, v1.11b ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]

[JoeMama546]

This game is not friendly to casual players and it's such a shame, too. I'm interested in the new content, but it's gatekept by unfair mons with impossible movesets. Who the heck starts out a game with a Team Aqua grunt whose mons have elemental fang moves to counter any team? Plus with a level cap, set mode, no items in battle, and other restrictions, it makes the game more frustrating than fun. As another user suggested, you must abuse savestates to win, which defeats the whole point. Please make a "chill mode" for people who want to enjoy the new content.

I'm not banging my head against an Aqua grunt and pray for them to miss attacks just to get past the first boss fight. Please update if the game gets fairer.

The hack creator did state in his introduction that this is a difficulty hack. Honestly, that fight isn't bad, unless for some reason you're running a full team weak to electric moves, which makes it hard to blame the fight itself.

 

[JoeMama546]

Loving the hack so far. In my opinion, the difficulty tag is slightly misleading. I think it's almost on par with radical red, which was a sweet surprise (could be that it gets easier in the late game though).

The only questionable thing were the first two gyms. It's very possible that my team prompted this, but the first two gyms only spammed Rock Tomb. It was a bit disappointing because I wanted to see more variety and different tactics from each Pokemon. After that point, it seems to have gotten better though, especially Whitney and Jasmine, who were very fun.

I have a question regarding Sceptile. Would you consider swapping it's attack and special attack? It has never made sense to me why its special attack is higher when its signature move is physical, along with most of its fun moves. I loved the physical Sceptile in radical red, which I ran with Unburden + Acrobatics.

 

[farmoaks]

The hack creator did state in his introduction that this is a difficulty hack. Honestly, that fight isn't bad, unless for some reason you're running a full team weak to electric moves, which makes it hard to blame the fight itself.

There is a tutorial on how to use savestates to scum fights on this thread, bro. That says something about the actual level of difficulty and unfairness. There's a difference between unfair and challenging. If your game is so unbalanced that people are advising savestates, you're doing something wrong.

 

[BrandonXL]

Loving the hack so far. In my opinion, the difficulty tag is slightly misleading. I think it's almost on par with radical red, which was a sweet surprise (could be that it gets easier in the late game though).

The only questionable thing were the first two gyms. It's very possible that my team prompted this, but the first two gyms only spammed Rock Tomb. It was a bit disappointing because I wanted to see more variety and different tactics from each Pokemon. After that point, it seems to have gotten better though, especially Whitney and Jasmine, who were very fun.

I have a question regarding Sceptile. Would you consider swapping it's attack and special attack? It has never made sense to me why its special attack is higher when its signature move is physical, along with most of its fun moves. I loved the physical Sceptile in radical red, which I ran with Unburden + Acrobatics.

There is definitely a bit of a early game hell, but nothing too crazy. It could certainly be curved better by lessening Roxanne and Brawly's party size, but I certainly find it doable for people that get a little creative.
So, I've also playtested with Sceptile, and Sceptile is definitely in need of love. As you noted, hacks like Radical Red do a great job of modifying mons so that they're viable in unique ways. I've considered this, but ultimately opted to not (currently) do this. There are a few exceptions, namely with TMs and a few NPC mons, but I tried to maintain as much of the vanilla Pokemon data as possible. Hope to hear more about your journey :)

There is a tutorial on how to use savestates to scum fights on this thread, bro. That says something about the actual level of difficulty and unfairness. There's a difference between unfair and challenging. If your game is so unbalanced that people are advising savestates, you're doing something wrong.

Hi, I think it was more another user trying to help someone struggling with the game and suggesting a workaround. There wouldn't be a formal tutorial simply because not everyone requires that. Granted, not everyone has the same level of experience with these types of games, so it's not the first time an easier mode has been suggested. The game was originally designed around being a difficulty hack, but as more features got incorporated, it definitely put extra content behind a "wall" for other audiences. Currently, an easy mode is not on the roadmap simply because of what I'm hoping to add for the next update. However, that's not ruling it out afterwards.

 

[farmoaks]

There is definitely a bit of a early game hell, but nothing too crazy. It could certainly be curved better by lessening Roxanne and Brawly's party size, but I certainly find it doable for people that get a little creative.
So, I've also playtested with Sceptile, and Sceptile is definitely in need of love. As you noted, hacks like Radical Red do a great job of modifying mons so that they're viable in unique ways. I've considered this, but ultimately opted to not (currently) do this. There are a few exceptions, namely with TMs and a few NPC mons, but I tried to maintain as much of the vanilla Pokemon data as possible. Hope to hear more about your journey :)

Hi, I think it was more another user trying to help someone struggling with the game and suggesting a workaround. There wouldn't be a formal tutorial simply because not everyone requires that. Granted, not everyone has the same level of experience with these types of games, so it's not the first time an easier mode has been suggested. The game was originally designed around being a difficulty hack, but as more features got incorporated, it definitely put extra content behind a "wall" for other audiences. Currently, an easy mode is not on the roadmap simply because of what I'm hoping to add for the next update. However, that's not ruling it out afterwards.

it's cool, you listed what programs you used to make it, so I'll just download them and tweak it myself. :)

 

[JoeMama546]

There is a tutorial on how to use savestates to scum fights on this thread, bro. That says something about the actual level of difficulty and unfairness. There's a difference between unfair and challenging. If your game is so unbalanced that people are advising savestates, you're doing something wrong.

Well, you said yourself you're casual. Save states are useful if you don't want to sit down and plan/prepare strategies for battles, and instead just want to brute force your way through. The use of save states doesn't diminish a hack, people use save states for all hacks. I'm on the third gym and I haven't used any save states, and I wouldn't say I'm an expert on Pokemon. I have no clue what Pokemon do past gen 4.

 

[JoeMama546]

There is definitely a bit of a early game hell, but nothing too crazy. It could certainly be curved better by lessening Roxanne and Brawly's party size, but I certainly find it doable for people that get a little creative.
So, I've also playtested with Sceptile, and Sceptile is definitely in need of love. As you noted, hacks like Radical Red do a great job of modifying mons so that they're viable in unique ways. I've considered this, but ultimately opted to not (currently) do this. There are a few exceptions, namely with TMs and a few NPC mons, but I tried to maintain as much of the vanilla Pokemon data as possible. Hope to hear more about your journey :)

Hi, I think it was more another user trying to help someone struggling with the game and suggesting a workaround. There wouldn't be a formal tutorial simply because not everyone requires that. Granted, not everyone has the same level of experience with these types of games, so it's not the first time an easier mode has been suggested. The game was originally designed around being a difficulty hack, but as more features got incorporated, it definitely put extra content behind a "wall" for other audiences. Currently, an easy mode is not on the roadmap simply because of what I'm hoping to add for the next update. However, that's not ruling it out afterwards.

It definitely has gotten easier after the first two gyms. More accurately, I think it's because now I have access to more powerful moves/Pokemon. Overall, I think their party size is fine. If anything, I think the rival is a bit too easy by having too few Pokemon.

I understand you wanting to keep Pokemon vanilla. I initially disliked when hacks changed Pokemon's stats/types, but radical red changed my perspective on that. Not changing Sceptile incentivizes me to use another grass Pokemon anyway; I always end up using Sceptile in other hacks.

 

[JamesNorritom]

hey man do you intend to remove this ''the pokemon got away!'' mechanic?. i know this is a fun mechanic but sometimes it's a bit frustrating when i forget to hold down the button or accidentally stop pressing it and the pokémon runs away. Radical Red removed this and the quality of life of the gameplay improved a lot.

 

[JesseNoEyes]

Thanks so much for making this game. It has easily been the most fun I've had completing a Pokémon hack. The variety of teams and Pokémon, the diverse quests and rewards, modern mechanics, and quality of life features really make Hoenn feel especially enjoyable. It feels like there's dozens of answers to each challenge, so I'm already excited for a second playthrough with a more unique team. Excellent work.

Here are a few things that stood out to me while playing that could potentially be adjusted.


Difficulty Curve
The game overall feels heavily frontloaded when it comes to difficulty. I think I spent around the same amount of time getting from the beginning to 3 badges as I did going from badge 3 to beating Steven. Early on, each major battle felt dangerous and required me to get creative with my mons and movesets and decisions. One unlucky crit or a misclick could lead to a wipe. Mid- to late-game, it was much easier to stick to one balanced team and cruise through most battles as long as I was a little careful with my decisions. I found myself imposing restrictions upon myself to add to the difficulty, banning Z-moves, gems, mega evolutions, and 600+ base stat mons (with the exception of bringing Dragapult to the E4).
Additionally, a few specific battles felt particularly easy for their place in the game, namely Norman, Juan, and Wallace. Even blind, Norman nearly gets swept by Lucario with a decent held item. Juan and Wallace fall victim to a problem already inherent in Emerald, that being the abundance of Water trainers. Short of changing their typing, there may not be a fix to this one. However, Roserade was able to Petal Dance her way through several grunts, admin, and Archie battles with a little coverage to assist her. It may just have been my particular team and luck, but these are the battles that stuck out to me as being pushovers. I'll re-evaluate after my second playthrough with a different team.
Another factor that contributed to the difficulty waning was the amount of money available to the player. In the first few routes, I was doing a Professor Oak's challenge and found myself abusing Pickup mons to sell items to be able to afford enough Pokéballs. Money felt like it was at a premium. After the first few gyms and quests, I never thought about money again even though I utilized the grinder quite frequently.


Additional QOL Features
Without sounding too greedy, here is my personal wishlist for future features:
* PC in grinder house to make leveling up multiple Pokémon faster
* More box space for mons. I know this has been mentioned and may be impossible due to memory restrictions, but I thought I'd include it anyway since I filled my PC to the brim. Catching all sorts of new mons that I had no experience with as a Gen 3 pleb was a big part of the fun.
* The ability to register multiple key items. This is a feature I've enjoyed in other hacks that I think could benefit this one tremendously. Having to go into the menu and tab over just to get on and off the bike feels clunky in an otherwise incredibly streamlined experience.
* More informative battle display. Again, this is coming from someone whose experience really is limited to the first three generations. I found myself opening countless PokemonDB tabs just to figure out mons' types, abilities' effects, and moves' categories. Even just an unobtrusive type icon by the HP meter of each mon (á la Radical Red) would go a long way towards helping oldheads feel less lost. Also a physical/special/status icon by moves' types when selecting a move would be super helpful.
* Documentation. Again, mentioned and addressed, but it is the thing I found myself wanting the most throughout the playthrough. In fact, I ended up making pretty detailed documentation for each major trainer the best that I could discern.
* More item tabs in inventory. With all the added held items, crystals, mega stones, and evolution items, scrolling through a hundred items just to find the Life Orb can get tedious really quickly. Even just separating out Held Items would be amazing, though having a separate tab for stones & crystals and medicines would be incredible.
* Shiny gem changes. I am probably in the minority on this, but the Shiny Gem makes the shiny rate far too high in my opinion. By the end of the playthrough, I had three full boxes of shiny Pokémon, which made encountering them feel much less special. Honestly, it just felt like work when going through any encounter-heavy area, as I would feel obligated to catch the shiny before proceeding. Looking back, if I had known I would receive this item as the reward for a battle, I would have skipped it. I didn't like the way it permanently affected my relationship with collecting Pokémon. Even just an option to turn off the gem or reduce its rate would be appreciated.
* Fewer running/biking restrictions, i.e. being able to ride the bike or at least run indoors, on Fortree bridges, in Pacifidlog, etc.
* Having both bikes at once. One bike, switch between Acro and Mach with the L button. Happiness.
* Reusable repellent item. This one represents more of a major design change, but a welcome one in my opinion. Needing to frequently return to purchase more stacks of Super Repels feels like more of a weight than anything added to the difficulty or challenge of the game.
* Flying to any location. This one is admittedly the laziest of the bunch, but going back and forth to Meteor Falls and areas in the sea gets pretty taxing.
* Missing items? It's entirely possible that I missed them, but there were a few items that I never came across in documentation or as any quest reward. One notable one was the Wide Lens.


Graphical Glitches
Throughout the playthrough, I noticed a few small graphical and sprite related bugs. The ones that I remember:

• Illumise's sprite in the PC seems to be missing a tile in the top left
• The bottom left and right of Mirage tower overlap the player when you walk through their tile
• Spirit Shackle seems to glitch out a bit, with it's right side missing the chain graphic while it flashes

These all come from a genuine place of respect and appreciation for your work. I can already tell this is a game I am bound to play a dozen more times from start to finish, and only want a game I enjoy so much to be even better. Even if none of these changes were made, it would still be 11/10.
Thanks so much again for all your effort. :D

 

[JesseNoEyes]

Update: I ran into a pretty game breaking glitch. I talked to Brawly after having finished everything else in the game, and...this happened. His dialogue became random symbols that looped for a long time before closing, my character was locked in place, the Pokédex was randomized, the bag was a mess, all my Pokémon were eggs, the map glitched and labeled me as being in Pacifidlog, clicking the glitched menu option took me to the Frontier Pass, and talking to him again begins a very glitched battle with Brawly. I tested several things, but most just ended in emulator crashes. As far as I can tell, Brawly is the only gym leader that causes this behavior. 🤷‍♂️

 

[BrandonXL]

hey man do you intend to remove this ''the pokemon got away!'' mechanic?. i know this is a fun mechanic but sometimes it's a bit frustrating when i forget to hold down the button or accidentally stop pressing it and the pokémon runs away. Radical Red removed this and the quality of life of the gameplay improved a lot.

This is definitely something I'm going to look into today as I try to put out a hotfix for a few things JesseNoEyes identified.

View attachment 155018
Thanks so much for making this game. It has easily been the most fun I've had completing a Pokémon hack. The variety of teams and Pokémon, the diverse quests and rewards, modern mechanics, and quality of life features really make Hoenn feel especially enjoyable. It feels like there's dozens of answers to each challenge, so I'm already excited for a second playthrough with a more unique team. Excellent work.

Here are a few things that stood out to me while playing that could potentially be adjusted.


Difficulty Curve
The game overall feels heavily frontloaded when it comes to difficulty. I think I spent around the same amount of time getting from the beginning to 3 badges as I did going from badge 3 to beating Steven. Early on, each major battle felt dangerous and required me to get creative with my mons and movesets and decisions. One unlucky crit or a misclick could lead to a wipe. Mid- to late-game, it was much easier to stick to one balanced team and cruise through most battles as long as I was a little careful with my decisions. I found myself imposing restrictions upon myself to add to the difficulty, banning Z-moves, gems, mega evolutions, and 600+ base stat mons (with the exception of bringing Dragapult to the E4).
Additionally, a few specific battles felt particularly easy for their place in the game, namely Norman, Juan, and Wallace. Even blind, Norman nearly gets swept by Lucario with a decent held item. Juan and Wallace fall victim to a problem already inherent in Emerald, that being the abundance of Water trainers. Short of changing their typing, there may not be a fix to this one. However, Roserade was able to Petal Dance her way through several grunts, admin, and Archie battles with a little coverage to assist her. It may just have been my particular team and luck, but these are the battles that stuck out to me as being pushovers. I'll re-evaluate after my second playthrough with a different team.
Another factor that contributed to the difficulty waning was the amount of money available to the player. In the first few routes, I was doing a Professor Oak's challenge and found myself abusing Pickup mons to sell items to be able to afford enough Pokéballs. Money felt like it was at a premium. After the first few gyms and quests, I never thought about money again even though I utilized the grinder quite frequently.


Additional QOL Features
Without sounding too greedy, here is my personal wishlist for future features:
* PC in grinder house to make leveling up multiple Pokémon faster
* More box space for mons. I know this has been mentioned and may be impossible due to memory restrictions, but I thought I'd include it anyway since I filled my PC to the brim. Catching all sorts of new mons that I had no experience with as a Gen 3 pleb was a big part of the fun.
* The ability to register multiple key items. This is a feature I've enjoyed in other hacks that I think could benefit this one tremendously. Having to go into the menu and tab over just to get on and off the bike feels clunky in an otherwise incredibly streamlined experience.
* More informative battle display. Again, this is coming from someone whose experience really is limited to the first three generations. I found myself opening countless PokemonDB tabs just to figure out mons' types, abilities' effects, and moves' categories. Even just an unobtrusive type icon by the HP meter of each mon (á la Radical Red) would go a long way towards helping oldheads feel less lost. Also a physical/special/status icon by moves' types when selecting a move would be super helpful.
* Documentation. Again, mentioned and addressed, but it is the thing I found myself wanting the most throughout the playthrough. In fact, I ended up making pretty detailed documentation for each major trainer the best that I could discern.
* More item tabs in inventory. With all the added held items, crystals, mega stones, and evolution items, scrolling through a hundred items just to find the Life Orb can get tedious really quickly. Even just separating out Held Items would be amazing, though having a separate tab for stones & crystals and medicines would be incredible.
* Shiny gem changes. I am probably in the minority on this, but the Shiny Gem makes the shiny rate far too high in my opinion. By the end of the playthrough, I had three full boxes of shiny Pokémon, which made encountering them feel much less special. Honestly, it just felt like work when going through any encounter-heavy area, as I would feel obligated to catch the shiny before proceeding. Looking back, if I had known I would receive this item as the reward for a battle, I would have skipped it. I didn't like the way it permanently affected my relationship with collecting Pokémon. Even just an option to turn off the gem or reduce its rate would be appreciated.
* Fewer running/biking restrictions, i.e. being able to ride the bike or at least run indoors, on Fortree bridges, in Pacifidlog, etc.
* Having both bikes at once. One bike, switch between Acro and Mach with the L button. Happiness.
* Reusable repellent item. This one represents more of a major design change, but a welcome one in my opinion. Needing to frequently return to purchase more stacks of Super Repels feels like more of a weight than anything added to the difficulty or challenge of the game.
* Flying to any location. This one is admittedly the laziest of the bunch, but going back and forth to Meteor Falls and areas in the sea gets pretty taxing.
* Missing items? It's entirely possible that I missed them, but there were a few items that I never came across in documentation or as any quest reward. One notable one was the Wide Lens.


Graphical Glitches
Throughout the playthrough, I noticed a few small graphical and sprite related bugs. The ones that I remember:

• Illumise's sprite in the PC seems to be missing a tile in the top left
• The bottom left and right of Mirage tower overlap the player when you walk through their tile
• Spirit Shackle seems to glitch out a bit, with it's right side missing the chain graphic while it flashes

These all come from a genuine place of respect and appreciation for your work. I can already tell this is a game I am bound to play a dozen more times from start to finish, and only want a game I enjoy so much to be even better. Even if none of these changes were made, it would still be 11/10.
Thanks so much again for all your effort. :D

Hey, I'm always super receptive to community feedback, and it's clear you put a lot of thought into your responses. I'm going to work on a hotfix to fix the graphical issues first (which I've confirmed on my end, so thank you for that) before getting some time to go through the other items you mentioned, like finding ways to make Wallace more of a challenge. Thank you so much for the kind words! It really does mean a lot and I'm very happy to add your team to the Hall of Fame :)

Update: I ran into a pretty game breaking glitch. I talked to Brawly after having finished everything else in the game, and...this happened. His dialogue became random symbols that looped for a long time before closing, my character was locked in place, the Pokédex was randomized, the bag was a mess, all my Pokémon were eggs, the map glitched and labeled me as being in Pacifidlog, clicking the glitched menu option took me to the Frontier Pass, and talking to him again begins a very glitched battle with Brawly. I tested several things, but most just ended in emulator crashes. As far as I can tell, Brawly is the only gym leader that causes this behavior. 🤷‍♂️

I'm currently unable to replicate this on my end, but this is certainly a major issue if anyone else were to reproduce it. Are you playing on 1.05? Did you update from an older version to a newer version? It seems like you are on 1.05, since you had the Shiny Charm. Any further context would be super helpful to me!

 

[JesseNoEyes]

I'm currently unable to replicate this on my end, but this is certainly a major issue if anyone else were to reproduce it. Are you playing on 1.05? Did you update from an older version to a newer version? It seems like you are on 1.05, since you had the Shiny Charm. Any further context would be super helpful to me!

This is 1.05 patched from a clean rom. I haven't attempted to use any codes or mods or anything. I'm not sure what other context I can give regarding gamestate. I've completed the E4, champ, Steven, and I've completed every quest except the Boss Rush and Across the Pokeverse. I was talking to all the NPCs in Dewford because I was looking for the Sludge Bomb TM, and the documentation lists it as being in Dewford.
There have been several, but the crash I most often get is:

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. Let me know anything specific I can let you know, and I'll happily reply. The glitch is still reproduceable for me even after completing one more quest, collecting more TMs, and catching the Regis.

 

[BrandonXL]

This is 1.05 patched from a clean rom. I haven't attempted to use any codes or mods or anything. I'm not sure what other context I can give regarding gamestate. I've completed the E4, champ, Steven, and I've completed every quest except the Boss Rush and Across the Pokeverse. I was talking to all the NPCs in Dewford because I was looking for the Sludge Bomb TM, and the documentation lists it as being in Dewford.
There have been several, but the crash I most often get is:
View attachment 155036
I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. Let me know anything specific I can let you know, and I'll happily reply. The glitch is still reproduceable for me even after completing one more quest, collecting more TMs, and catching the Regis.

My guess is that I didn't handle disabling rematches properly, so Brawly is probably trying to rematch you. I've fixed all of the graphical errors and think I fixed the issues related to rematches. I was hoping to drop this patch as a hotfix, but because of needing to exclude some stuff to prevent the gym leader rematch issue, I'll have to release this as a new (and unfortunately, incompatible) version. Thank you so much for bringing these things to my attention. I'll do some extensive playtesting on v1.06 to make sure I can reproduce any of the above described errors, but because I'm certain it's stable, I've published it on the Drive for others to access.

Edit: and reductions to shiny charm and "buff" to Wallace, per your suggestions. :) thanks for shaping the game to a better version of what it needs to be!

 

[JamesNorritom]

This is definitely something I'm going to look into today as I try to put out a hotfix for a few things JesseNoEyes identified.

Hey, I'm always super receptive to community feedback, and it's clear you put a lot of thought into your responses. I'm going to work on a hotfix to fix the graphical issues first (which I've confirmed on my end, so thank you for that) before getting some time to go through the other items you mentioned, like finding ways to make Wallace more of a challenge. Thank you so much for the kind words! It really does mean a lot and I'm very happy to add your team to the Hall of Fame :)


I'm currently unable to replicate this on my end, but this is certainly a major issue if anyone else were to reproduce it. Are you playing on 1.05? Did you update from an older version to a newer version? It seems like you are on 1.05, since you had the Shiny Charm. Any further context would be super helpful to me!

Ty for the reply man! U hack is so damn AMAZING!!

Man, I'm so stupid. I forgot to ask u if it was also possible to let us run instead of "walk slowly" when using Dexnav.
Also, if possible make it 100% to avoid random wild encounters (even without Repel) while using Dexnav to search for certain Pokémon. I swear to you that I went super crazy when I saw a pokémon with a good ability but that was lost due to the Repel expired prompt. hahaha

 

[F1lthy]

Just beat the game recently. There's definitely a lot of legend spam by the end game, but I really did have a good time. This was the team I used:


In addition, I have uploaded the actual battle for those curious. Here's the battle in question:

 

[JesseNoEyes]

My guess is that I didn't handle disabling rematches properly, so Brawly is probably trying to rematch you. I've fixed all of the graphical errors and think I fixed the issues related to rematches. I was hoping to drop this patch as a hotfix, but because of needing to exclude some stuff to prevent the gym leader rematch issue, I'll have to release this as a new (and unfortunately, incompatible) version. Thank you so much for bringing these things to my attention. I'll do some extensive playtesting on v1.06 to make sure I can reproduce any of the above described errors, but because I'm certain it's stable, I've published it on the Drive for others to access.

Edit: and reductions to shiny charm and "buff" to Wallace, per your suggestions. :) thanks for shaping the game to a better version of what it needs to be!

Been going through my second playthrough on 1.06. 5 badges in, I decided to try talking to some previous gym leaders to check for crashes. Talked to Roxanne, and it instantly crashed. No crazy graphical glitches preceding it like before with Brawly, but a crash nonetheless. Just thought I'd let you know.


UPDATE: Talking to Roxanne and Winona instantly crashes the game, and talking to Flannery glitches the game out similarly to how talking to Brawly did before ultimately crashing in a glitchy battle. Talking to Norman has normal dialogue, and talking to Wattson and Brawly does abolutely nothing, dialogue or otherwise. This is all the leaders I can access to test currently.

 

[BrandonXL]

Just beat the game recently. There's definitely a lot of legend spam by the end game, but I really did have a good time. This was the team I used:
View attachment 155129

In addition, I have uploaded the actual battle for those curious. Here's the battle in question:

Might be our only Pikachu run ever :) glad you enjoyed! I'll add you to the Hall of Fame as soon as I resolve the described bug below!

Been going through my second playthrough on 1.06. 5 badges in, I decided to try talking to some previous gym leaders to check for crashes. Talked to Roxanne, and it instantly crashed. No crazy graphical glitches preceding it like before with Brawly, but a crash nonetheless. Just thought I'd let you know.
View attachment 155156

UPDATE: Talking to Roxanne and Winona instantly crashes the game, and talking to Flannery glitches the game out similarly to how talking to Brawly did before ultimately crashing in a glitchy battle. Talking to Norman has normal dialogue, and talking to Wattson and Brawly does abolutely nothing, dialogue or otherwise. This is all the leaders I can access to test currently.

Yeah, now I'm able to reproduce, and it has to do with how I was handling rematches. I'm going to have to work on this a bit more, unfortunately, so I'm rolling back to 1.05 (where it was less of an issue but still there). Going to prioritize this after work tomorrow. Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention and running further tests.

 

[BrandonXL]

Been going through my second playthrough on 1.06. 5 badges in, I decided to try talking to some previous gym leaders to check for crashes. Talked to Roxanne, and it instantly crashed. No crazy graphical glitches preceding it like before with Brawly, but a crash nonetheless. Just thought I'd let you know.
View attachment 155156

UPDATE: Talking to Roxanne and Winona instantly crashes the game, and talking to Flannery glitches the game out similarly to how talking to Brawly did before ultimately crashing in a glitchy battle. Talking to Norman has normal dialogue, and talking to Wattson and Brawly does abolutely nothing, dialogue or otherwise. This is all the leaders I can access to test currently.

Apologies for double post, but v1.06b is now released. v1.06b takes all of the graphical improvements from 1.06 and modifies Gym Leaders and Trainers to prevent crashing. I've tested in the limited time I've had, but based on how the code was modified, I don't expect this issue to be present anymore. Assuming all is good, thank you so much JesseNoEyes for bringing this up; this issue was actually present in v1.0, exacerbated because of 1.06, and is now hopefully addressed.

 

[Riddic]

I'm having a hard time evolving Riolu. I've given him like 50 berries, and leveled up in the day time. Caught around 40, hes level 60 now. No leveling at the level trainer.

 

[Jabberwok]

Just finished playing through. Had a blast. Enjoyed the challenge without ripping what little hair I have left out…barely…

Spike the Nidoking
Sky Noodle the Rayquaza
Traeger the Emboar
Houdini the Alakazam
Squatch the Electivire
Shelldon the Blastoise