Pokemon ROM Hack Review #2: Pokemon Prism
NuMetalManiak So now we go from one Koolboyman hack to another, wait a minute, I never even bothered to list the author of Pokemon Brown did I? Yeah, it's Koolboyman, who also made Pokemon Prism, a hack for Crystal. It's like Brown, a hack with a load of new stuff, and unfortunately Prism was given a cease-and-desist from Nintendo which screwed its development. A leaker however managed to save the project though, and the leaked development is currently being bugfixed by RainbowDevs. Yes, currently, as it's still got plenty of bugs and therefore unfinished. What can we look at here?-To start it off, the region in the game is Naljo. This is the main region, where you have to get through eight gym leaders as usual and then the league.
-Being a Gen-2 game, you can revisit the old location, Rijon, and get the badges from the gym leaders there (Giovanni isn't in this game though, his place is taken by Silver, the original Gen-2 rival, much like in G/S/C his place gets taken by Blue).
-There are a few familiar locations that are available, Johto for one, although only Azalea, Goldenrod, and areas in between are accessible. Kanto only lets you explore Saffron City with familiar faces in trainers such as Koji, Sabrina, and even Blue himself in Silph Co. There's one Sevii Island available with Mt. Ember (players can catch Moltres here), and the region of Tunod, which is actually a city in a different ROM hack, Glazed, is here, although you can only explore Southerly City. There's also the Mystery League, where it's possible to battle Brown (yes, Pokemon Brown's protagonist), Gold, and Red.
-Pokemon in the Naljo Pokedex comprise of various kinds from the first four generations, nothing from the ones past Gen-4 except for Sylveon show up. And not every single one from the generations is available of course. An example is Oddish and its evolutions which don't exist in the hack.
-The three main legendary birds, Lugia, Ho-oh, and the three weather legendaries from Hoenn are here (although as of yet Zapdos is unobtainable). More importantly, the "Naljo Guardians" are several brand new Pokemon legendaries, including Varaneous, Libabeel, Raiwato, and Fambaco, with interesting typing and all around legendary stats.
-Some of the types from Brown are here, including Gas and Sound with two Gym Leaders specializing in them. Fairy is also here, and Tri (for Tri Attack only) is another type. There's also an unused Prism type and a rumored Prismeon Eeveelution that never made it.
-TMs are now multi-use
-Oh I love this, CUSTOMIZABLE CHARACTERS. You can customize your trainer look any way you want, and it's AWESOME.
-There's now mining, smelting, crafting, and jewelry skills to use for some items. And there's levels for each of these skills too.
-Abilities are used, which wasn't in Gen-2 games but are here for this ROM hack.
-There's a brand new clock system which actually works pretty well for this hack.
-New minigames at the Game Corners (there are three) allowing me to play Poker, Blackjack, and a matching game. Also a Bingo parlor later on as well as a Battle Tower and Battle Arcade.
-There's a couple areas in the game where you can take control of a Pokemon in areas only they can access, they can fight battles, but usually are alone. They can "talk" to NPC Pokemon here. It's sort of like the Mystery Dungeon games.
Finally, an actually interesting plot for a Pokemon game aside from the whole "get starter, beat 8 gym leaders, beat league" ordeal. The default name for the protagonist is Prism. On a camping trip with your mom you get separated by a landslide and wind up on a minecart ride to the Naljo region, where a lost Larvitar becomes your starter. After a run in with a thief who uses a Bagon as his starter and becomes the rival, while helping the scientists in Caper City, the journey goes into the same sort of thing. Only this time, there are numerous characters running around. A trainer class known as Pallet Patroller here, functioning as the Team Rocket of the game and being HUGE KNOCKOFFS of the Power Rangers while doing so, even color-coding their Pokemon to whatever suit they're wearing. Missions are done against these guys, including impersonating a patroller as well as getting out of a prison. However, the main goal of these guys involves waking Naljo Guardians, which leads to their arrest and pretty much their demise for the most part. It's also said that the protagonist is the son/daughter of Lance, and that he had the power to control these guardians, but due to his obsession with fame, only the player can do it now. If you're wondering, yes, Lance is still the champion of the league.
Overall Grade: A+
For a Gen-2 ROM hack, I'm quite surprised at how well this was made. There's just so much to do.
My Pokemon used: All Eeveelutions, Crobat, Houndoom, Xatu, Mamoswine, Magnezone, Metagross, Salamence, Tyranitar, Cradily, Armaldo, Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Parasect, Lucario, Togekiss, Flygon, Alakazam, Ampharos, Luxray, Scizor, Gallade, Breloom, Weavile, Gliscor, Froslass, Yanmega