What grinds my gears; Touhoumon Another World Edition
Feb 23, 2015 16:08:10 GMT
Post by Zak on Feb 23, 2015 16:08:10 GMT
Because there's a LOT of gripes and nitpicks I have here.
But first I'll go over the general issues I have with Aichi's 1.5x hack triangle (Another World, World Link, and Marisa's Magical World)
-There's a lot of mons that have awkward-to-use typing due to the lack of the phys/spec split (Murasa is Ghost/Water, Mokou is Fire/Fighting, Layla is Ghost/Psychic, Remilia is Flying/Dark, Kasen is Ground/Dragon, etc.)
-There are a LOT of unnecessary/joke forms (Swimsuit forms, "Final" forms, Tenshi and Ran have a naked form, Mystia and Wriggle have a princess form, Reimu and Marisa have a Yukkuri form, etc.)
-EVERY mon is capable of getting a Recover-move (Bride Study is a TM that is a renamed Recover that EVERYONE who doesn't learn recover can learn).
-Mitori and Sasha are present. This is not an issue and is actually freaking awesome. The issue is that their sprites are generally pretty ugly, and that they don't have a shiny palette AT ALL.
-Most of the legendaries (more than half anyways I don't remember off the top of my head) are LW forms. This is pointless, since you can actually evolve a character from EX to LW VIA trade evolution with a held item.
-That said, trade evolutions in a ROM hack is stupid, since GBA emulators with link cable function are recent and uncommon, and are generally a heavier load for compys.
-There's an attack called Destroy, which is a 100 accuracy OHKO move. Yes, it's normal type. Yes, you can switch into a Ghost to avoid it. Yes, two of the 4 characters who learn it are Dark and will tear said Ghost to shreads.
-Toyohime and Yorihime learn Sketch and have actual stats, making them legitimate monsters if used well.
-Kasen seems thrown in as an after thought. The readme states her stats were lowered, so I assume she went from having LW stats to EX stats, making her unusable unless you like her character.
-The existence of Z-forms with insanely high ( >900) BSTs makes using an EX form (~520-580 BST) feel like you're severely limiting yourself.
-3 of the mon slots are occupied by Vocaloid characters. This is a problem because they're actually only used in one fight ever, in the beginning of World Link. These slots could've been used for other mons or boss-exclusives in the other hacks. They also have no Backsprites.
-Angel VIVIT's backsprite is the same as regular VIVIT's.
Problems with AW specifically
-The game uses a mix of 1.5x styled sprites and the newer 1.8 sprites (the ones from PPE, Purple, etc.) so it's visually awkward when half of the game's sprites are ugly-looking
-There's a map-sprite glitch where sometimes, the sprites glitch out and turn into other characters (Meiling will turn into an Orange Sakuya, fairys stack on each other, and a ghost in one of the later pokemon centers turns into half of a pink Alice, for example)
-You don't get to pick your fairy starter. So you'll probably end up with the one you like least.
-The Shiny Remilia thing at the beginning is a bit dickish because it might actually traumatize people (before I knew it was a fixed encounter I literally stopped playing at this point because I have enough issues with terrible luck as it is).
-There's a LOT of grinding you need to do to get anywhere, even in early game.
-The Magic Forest stops you for a few minutes to go over agame mechanic that isn't even relevant or present in the hack.
-After you beat Marisa, the game does not tell you what to do next (you need to lug yourself all the way back to Reimu)
-The Reimu fight is ridiculous. She has a Sakuya, Sanae, Youmu, and Marisa. Notice how I didn't say stuff like "CSakuya, CSanae, etc." because she's fighting you with stage 2 mons. Also she has a Z-Reimu, which is absurd to have to fight at this point in the game. Also you need to beat her to continue on.
-You get a Konngara, a legendary, right AFTER the fight with the stupidly OP trainer battle that she could've helped A LOT in.
-Much of the hack takes place in a slightly-leveled up, renamed version of Kanto. After playing the original RBY, FRLG, and various hacks, Kanto starts to get old real quick (not counting that I've always hated Rock Tunnel).
-There's still a lot of "Where the fuck do I go" moments even then (you're supposed to interact with a certain tile in Lavender Tower to get to the area with Yuyuko).
-Said area has you fighting 4 trainers in a row that ALL have exactly the same roster of Ghost, a Yuyuko form, a Youmu form, and a Youki form. Because variety.
-The Gym Leader theme isn't First Suite From Far East
-Trying to get back into Gensokyo has you have to fight against Tenshi, who has a ZTenshi. What fun.
-The Bamboo Forest in Gensokyo is a maze and the author had to put a map of it in the readme.
-The fight against Mokou is hell. I keep complaining about Z-boneka a lot, but ZMokou actually roadblocked me for QUITE a while, even though I had Level 50 mons. She has Drought, high Speed, and a STAB Fire attack that can boost ALL of her stats like Ancientpower. Yeaaah, fun.
-The entire Kanto league feels like an unnecessary diversion from the Gensokyo plot, although it's actually required to get some of the books for Patchouli.
-One of the books requires you to sleep in your bed after you beat the E4. Twice (one to fight Kirumi, and the other to get to Yuuka). This isn't mentioned in-game at all and is mentioned in the read-me. Did I mention most people typically don't read the readmes and that putting tips in there isn't necessarily the best idea?
-The scenario with Makai is actually kinda painful. The general overworld in Makai is painful to the eyes, and the part with Byakuren is awkward.
-After you get all the books back, you can get to the Gensokyo league. This is a gauntlet of 10 trainers with 6 Level 100s each and many of them have 2-3 Z-forms each. The final 3 don't even have a pause between them to stop and heal.
-Before you can fight the Gensokyo league you have to fight through an Angel VIVIT. This isn't necessarily a problem. The problem is that she's a Level 30, and considering the only thing left at this point is a gauntlet of level 100s, nobody is EVER gonna use her unless they REALLY REALLY want to and thus stop story progression for 20 hours to level grind more than they already have.
-The post-game for this is kind of lacking. You get a random Z-form (you CAN save scum to get a good nature, but the mon you get is always randomized, so your chance of getting something usable like a TimidZMokou or JollyZYoumu are rather bad). Additionally, all you have are a fight against Yukari, a fight against yourself, and a couple of fights against people from World Link. all optional and pointless.
-Aichi's sister has a shiny Layla. That's just ruuuude.
But first I'll go over the general issues I have with Aichi's 1.5x hack triangle (Another World, World Link, and Marisa's Magical World)
-There's a lot of mons that have awkward-to-use typing due to the lack of the phys/spec split (Murasa is Ghost/Water, Mokou is Fire/Fighting, Layla is Ghost/Psychic, Remilia is Flying/Dark, Kasen is Ground/Dragon, etc.)
-There are a LOT of unnecessary/joke forms (Swimsuit forms, "Final" forms, Tenshi and Ran have a naked form, Mystia and Wriggle have a princess form, Reimu and Marisa have a Yukkuri form, etc.)
-EVERY mon is capable of getting a Recover-move (Bride Study is a TM that is a renamed Recover that EVERYONE who doesn't learn recover can learn).
-Mitori and Sasha are present. This is not an issue and is actually freaking awesome. The issue is that their sprites are generally pretty ugly, and that they don't have a shiny palette AT ALL.
-Most of the legendaries (more than half anyways I don't remember off the top of my head) are LW forms. This is pointless, since you can actually evolve a character from EX to LW VIA trade evolution with a held item.
-That said, trade evolutions in a ROM hack is stupid, since GBA emulators with link cable function are recent and uncommon, and are generally a heavier load for compys.
-There's an attack called Destroy, which is a 100 accuracy OHKO move. Yes, it's normal type. Yes, you can switch into a Ghost to avoid it. Yes, two of the 4 characters who learn it are Dark and will tear said Ghost to shreads.
-Toyohime and Yorihime learn Sketch and have actual stats, making them legitimate monsters if used well.
-Kasen seems thrown in as an after thought. The readme states her stats were lowered, so I assume she went from having LW stats to EX stats, making her unusable unless you like her character.
-The existence of Z-forms with insanely high ( >900) BSTs makes using an EX form (~520-580 BST) feel like you're severely limiting yourself.
-3 of the mon slots are occupied by Vocaloid characters. This is a problem because they're actually only used in one fight ever, in the beginning of World Link. These slots could've been used for other mons or boss-exclusives in the other hacks. They also have no Backsprites.
-Angel VIVIT's backsprite is the same as regular VIVIT's.
Problems with AW specifically
-The game uses a mix of 1.5x styled sprites and the newer 1.8 sprites (the ones from PPE, Purple, etc.) so it's visually awkward when half of the game's sprites are ugly-looking
-There's a map-sprite glitch where sometimes, the sprites glitch out and turn into other characters (Meiling will turn into an Orange Sakuya, fairys stack on each other, and a ghost in one of the later pokemon centers turns into half of a pink Alice, for example)
-You don't get to pick your fairy starter. So you'll probably end up with the one you like least.
-The Shiny Remilia thing at the beginning is a bit dickish because it might actually traumatize people (before I knew it was a fixed encounter I literally stopped playing at this point because I have enough issues with terrible luck as it is).
-There's a LOT of grinding you need to do to get anywhere, even in early game.
-The Magic Forest stops you for a few minutes to go over agame mechanic that isn't even relevant or present in the hack.
-After you beat Marisa, the game does not tell you what to do next (you need to lug yourself all the way back to Reimu)
-The Reimu fight is ridiculous. She has a Sakuya, Sanae, Youmu, and Marisa. Notice how I didn't say stuff like "CSakuya, CSanae, etc." because she's fighting you with stage 2 mons. Also she has a Z-Reimu, which is absurd to have to fight at this point in the game. Also you need to beat her to continue on.
-You get a Konngara, a legendary, right AFTER the fight with the stupidly OP trainer battle that she could've helped A LOT in.
-Much of the hack takes place in a slightly-leveled up, renamed version of Kanto. After playing the original RBY, FRLG, and various hacks, Kanto starts to get old real quick (not counting that I've always hated Rock Tunnel).
-There's still a lot of "Where the fuck do I go" moments even then (you're supposed to interact with a certain tile in Lavender Tower to get to the area with Yuyuko).
-Said area has you fighting 4 trainers in a row that ALL have exactly the same roster of Ghost, a Yuyuko form, a Youmu form, and a Youki form. Because variety.
-The Gym Leader theme isn't First Suite From Far East
-Trying to get back into Gensokyo has you have to fight against Tenshi, who has a ZTenshi. What fun.
-The Bamboo Forest in Gensokyo is a maze and the author had to put a map of it in the readme.
-The fight against Mokou is hell. I keep complaining about Z-boneka a lot, but ZMokou actually roadblocked me for QUITE a while, even though I had Level 50 mons. She has Drought, high Speed, and a STAB Fire attack that can boost ALL of her stats like Ancientpower. Yeaaah, fun.
-The entire Kanto league feels like an unnecessary diversion from the Gensokyo plot, although it's actually required to get some of the books for Patchouli.
-One of the books requires you to sleep in your bed after you beat the E4. Twice (one to fight Kirumi, and the other to get to Yuuka). This isn't mentioned in-game at all and is mentioned in the read-me. Did I mention most people typically don't read the readmes and that putting tips in there isn't necessarily the best idea?
-The scenario with Makai is actually kinda painful. The general overworld in Makai is painful to the eyes, and the part with Byakuren is awkward.
-After you get all the books back, you can get to the Gensokyo league. This is a gauntlet of 10 trainers with 6 Level 100s each and many of them have 2-3 Z-forms each. The final 3 don't even have a pause between them to stop and heal.
-Before you can fight the Gensokyo league you have to fight through an Angel VIVIT. This isn't necessarily a problem. The problem is that she's a Level 30, and considering the only thing left at this point is a gauntlet of level 100s, nobody is EVER gonna use her unless they REALLY REALLY want to and thus stop story progression for 20 hours to level grind more than they already have.
-The post-game for this is kind of lacking. You get a random Z-form (you CAN save scum to get a good nature, but the mon you get is always randomized, so your chance of getting something usable like a TimidZMokou or JollyZYoumu are rather bad). Additionally, all you have are a fight against Yukari, a fight against yourself, and a couple of fights against people from World Link. all optional and pointless.
-Aichi's sister has a shiny Layla. That's just ruuuude.
