09/11/09 HG/SS Fever

This is just in! HeartGold and SoulSilver are awesome.

No, really. Okay, so I've been lazy updating this minipage recently, but if you for some reason haven't heard already: ROM got leaked, people received their pre-ordered games, Serebii has a discovery thread, PokéBeach is also having a running commentary, Eevee ripped the sprites, the games are AWESOME. There's a Johto Safari Zone, a couple of new routes leading to it, the new music remixes sound great, all 493 Pokémon will follow you around if they're your first party member and show up as shiny or female where appropriate, the game has a much better proper touch screen interface even while allowing the old button combinations to be used exactly as we're used to, Kanto Gym leaders are leveled up, Gym leaders and Elite Four get stronger teams for a later rematch, Red is back and is the most powerful trainer in the series again, any tree whatsoever can be Headbutted, the Rocket admins who took over after Giovanni now actually have names (they're named after rockets, which is pretty cool) and personalities and thus feel a lot less half-hearted, you get to disguise yourself as a Team Rocket member, you can toggle running on or off on the touch screen instead of having to hold down B all the time, you can trade with D/P/Pt immediately without getting the National Pokédex, you can get ALL the Kanto/Johto/Hoenn legendaries except the Regis, you can get Kanto and Hoenn starters later on in the game, Viridian Forest is actually properly there, et cetera. Basically everything we ever hoped for and more. Best Pokémon games ever without a doubt.

Though I don't like to listen to complainers so I haven't been actively looking for what people manage to find wrong with it, I have heard a few complaints that I will address here.

"The Gym leaders still have the same Pokémon!"

*gasp!* You're kidding me! They have the same Pokémon? It's almost as if this is a remake or something! Oh, wait.

No, seriously. What was wrong with the Pokémon they had before? The levels have been adjusted, so the difficulty is not the problem. Did you just want change for the sake of change or what? They have new Pokémon in the rebattles, anyway.

"The Elite Four's levels are the same!"

Okay, I see where you're coming from on that one, fine. But think about why they did it this way. In the original Gold, Silver and Crystal, Kanto was a lazy afterthought where the Gym leaders were way behind your Pokémon in levels by the time you got there. Now, however, the Kanto Gym leaders' levels have been raised - they all have Pokémon in the fifties the first time around - making Lance honestly just a halfway point in the game. If they'd given Lance Pokémon on par with the newer generation Champions, they'd have had to either make the Kanto Gym leaders pushovers again - and nobody wants that - or give them even higher-leveled Pokémon, and they'd have ended up with the main quest not over until your Pokémon are in the eighties. That's really a bit much. Red would have had to be raised ridiculously much as well.

Then think about why it was so annoying that they were low-leveled in the first place. It was to a large extent simply because it took so long to get good EXP from the Elite Four post-story. Now that they level up, that problem is gone. All that might be off about it now is the difficulty curve. I've yet to see how that plays out exactly since I haven't gotten that far, but I don't really worry much.

"The Kanto Safari Zone is still gone!"

So? We have a new one. It doesn't even have added annoyances like the Great Marsh (well, not to my knowledge, anyway), and it does have the added convenience of rearranging the areas so that you won't have to walk through a bunch of other areas before getting to where the Pokémon you're looking for is found.

"The Battle Frontier is the same as in Platinum!"

Okay, fine, that was kind of lazy.

I'm off to play my, ahem, totally-not-a-ROM HeartGold. See you.

Comments

(Comments are closed.)

HGSS
If you were to get the "original" game, what site would one go to?
Zora
...You should really change the span verification Pokemon.

Oh my god the first time I heard the battle themes I swear I fangasmed.
I want these games so bad. ; ;
Happy (Website)
ahhh my OCD says I can only buy the third main game for each generation, but this is so convincing. OTL;;;
Have fun! I'm gonna save my experience for when it releases in PAL regions (which is like... a year away). The spam verification needs to be changed. XD
Mewlover (Website)
I can't wait for mine to arrive. O_o I ordered HeartGold so that I could get SoulSilver in English. ^ ^
Kiriazis
I was in the thread that leaked it :D

of course, we were a bit slow on the uptake, since people were trollflooding it with fakes...
koopa120
0_0 that's AWESOME!!!

BTW, I have an account on Youtube!
AndyPKMN
The only reason the Battle Frontier is the same is so that the Battle Recorder's videos from HGSS work on Platinum. It's not lazy, it's to maintain compatibility, and I for one am glad of it.
Pidgeot
>People received their pre-ordered games
Wait...you could preorder the games NOW? Are we talking about pre-ordering the Japanese versions, or the English ones? Where could you preorder them at?

I will be mad if it turns out I missed my chance to preorder the English versions.
Eeveefan14
It sounds soooo awesome! I really want to play it!

BTW, are you playing HG, SL or both?
Butterfree (Website)
Nonono, it's the Japanese versions that just came out. The English versions won't be available for pre-order for a while.

And I'm playing HeartGold, mostly because the game I'm actually going to buy is SoulSilver.
GSDS *HGSS*
Actually, you can already preorder HGSS I already have mine preordered. It's on Amazon.com and Gamestop.com. I haven't checked other sites, but they're already taking pre orders!!! It's going to be released on April 1, 2010 *at least in NA*.
@Butterfree: where did you get your HeartGold ROM?
Scyther
^ That's illegal! She would never tell you!

However if I wasn't looking for an illegal ROM, I definitely wouldn't go to romulation.net...
Eeveefan14
I finally found a working ROM ^_^ There's a bad thing, though... I can't understand most of the stuff in there. I'm stupid, I learned to read japanese. But I still can't understand anything XD

On the other hand, my cyndaquil is adorable :)
ShadScy
I do believe one can find a perfectly "legitimate" version at Romulation.

Feel free to delete that bit, Butterfree.

On a side note, started a new game with the partially English patch and loving it. ^_^
NonaSuomi (Website)
There's also a translation patch in the works at GBATemp, which does a fine job translating the entire battle interface so far, and the group looks to be trying for the whole game (and are pretty far along with it too).
koopa120
I am gonna get SoulSilver. It has Groudon and Lugia in it.
ShadScy
Gah, Karen's Houndoom is a source of pure evil.
Kiriazis
"Gah, Karen's Houndoom is a source of pure evil."

and yet it turns out that your Pokémon are underleveled, know crappy moves, or both!
Chatot Lightnin'
I got the SoulSilver ROM, and it's really fun, but does anyone know a way to make it speak English? :\ I only recognize, like two words...
ShadScy
@Kiriazis: I would level my Pokemon up a bit more, but I have battled every trainer in Johto. Anyway, Lance is an AR douche who won't let me beat his haxor Dragonite.

@Chatot Lightnin': Search for the Rudolph patch (stops freezing) and an English patch (translates battles and bits of story).
alexsandar (Website)
pikahcy
ABZB
OMG! The US release date is Pi Day. I am so excited (math nerds ftw!)
ABZB
OMG! The US release date is Pi Day. I am so excited (math nerds ftw!)
ABZB
OMG! The US release date is Pi Day. I am so excited (math nerds ftw!)
ABZB
oops, sorry... how did I do that? is there a way to delete my triple post? over-exuberance...
El Garbanzo
I wonder if the Kanto wild Pokémon battle music is still as bad as it was in the Gameboy version... seriously, that one awful remix was the single worst part of the original G/S/C.
koopa120
I just got SoulSilver, and it's AWESOME!!! I traded my Lugia, my Weedle, a Totodile egg and my Drowzee to Pokemon Pearl, my first ever Pokemon game. BTW, Feraligatr is UBERRRRRR