I have finally completed all three rounds of Mt Battle, finally finishing off XG: NeXt Gen once and for all*(minus competitive colosseum).
Final thoughts: I always liked the GC titles and I am glad that they finally got some love from modders. These two romhacks show me not just the potential that these two games have, but how much potential the general Pokemon formula has. It makes me that much sadder that Gamefreak squanders it year to year, but at least there are alternatives to that. In fact, I was wondering if I was "missing out" by going cold turkey once Dexit dropped(technically that started in Let's Go since that game cut out all but the original 150, or 151 if you bought the 50$ DLC), this whole "journey" starting with SuperGold 97 was me asking if I really do need Gamefreak to enjoy this series. I think the answer is a resounding NO. The romhacks of the GC titles are some of the best Pokemon content I had in years, if not ever, and I hope that as I push on with the mainline titles, that will only continue. The potential is there, the sky is the limit, what could go wrong? I guess I will see. Either way, anything is better than the official slop that gets pushed out nowdays.
I do have two addendums to my last post:
An addendum since I completed Mt. Battle:
1) I talked about a move relearner that taught you moves no matter your level, like in modern games. Sadly, after some testing of really low level Pokemon, I can confirm that is not true. You can only teach moves that this Pokemon would already know at this level, altho some have "hidden" moves that would normally be taught at lv1 only available from him, making him still a very worthy addition to the mod.
2) You can complete Mt. Battle without the "Battle Mode" rules. Bulbapedia lies there. This means that you are going to get the ribbons and the reward Pokemon even if you do not complete the game in one session(ie you can save and turn the game off). Really, all you have to do is not lose(you can save and reload if need be) and not change your team at all by the PC for all 100 battles consecutively. Not a hard challenge, especially when you do it once, this makes it a lot more accessible than the "Battle Mode" challenge in Colosseum. That one required you to not just complete all 100 battles(using Stadium rules) in one session, but also to purify every Shadow Pokemon in the game to get a reward Ho-Oh at the end. This was a ridiculous requirement and I am glad that this was fixed.
I took a few screenshots from my last battle and my 3 sets I used to get the three Mythical Pokemon in the screenshots below.
My original post on the game has a txt document with the movesets, if you missed that.
I don't have anything more to say about Mt. Battle "postgame" that I didn't already say. The modern mechanics and Fairy typing really bring out the best in every Pokemon and change how you play the game, this facility is perhaps the finest example of how much potential this gameplay formula really has if you play around with it. If I used this same team in the original Gale of Darkness, I would likely not be nearly as effective, and I would have to butcher my movesets as well, where as in XG I was able to have very creative roles for each and every member(not to mention bring out their potential to the fullest).
As for what's next for me, well I already linked the next ROMhack I will be playing, for Emerald this time. I already ordered a flashcart so I can play these games on a real console, and I will be breeding/raising Pokemon in the meantime to get them ready by then. In fact, many of these Pokemon are the unique ones from Gale of Darkness/NeXt Gen with completely whacky movesets not found in the mainline games, I will be linking another txt document that has my current draft for New Emerald(the moves not normally learnable are listed as "Event"). I know that Double Battles will play a larger part in NE than in the original Emerald, but to what degree I cannot say. That's why I am going to port over some rather unique sets on the Pokemon I am trading over, while I take the opportunity to catch more "mundane" day to day Pokemon. With how easily they are accessible compared to Orre games, finding a team I like in the grass should not be a problem. In fact, the new mechanics where Pokemon can disobey will change everything, it means I can't just bring over high level Pokemon and use them from start, they will only be usable around mid-late game once I have enough badges. To counter that a bit, I am going to breed some of them and transfer over the eggs to be hatched in the game, therefore making my player character their owner and letting them be used from the start(Every single Pokemon can be transferred in one swift go thanks to Trigger's PC, no need to spend an hour trading each one individually like in Gens 4 onward).
Of note is that the Metagross in my txt document is the Metang you see in the screenshot. I kept him as such because in XG the family line keeps "Levitate" ability until it evolves to Metagross(same as with Gastly line in modern games). I will keep Metang as is if it continues to have that ability in NE, otherwise I will finally evolve it. You will note that this is a high leveled Mt Battle veteran Pokemon, you can consider it a "Babysitter" just like XG itself had a Feraligatr I transferred over from Grand Colosseum. I like some sort of canon continuity in these playthroughs.
Once I'm done with breeding, I will pay my last respects to the 3DS games and do some last minute wonder training. It's crazy that this is already the end, I very much enjoyed Gen 7 even if I had mixed feelings about Gen 6. I would suggest anyone with the games to do the same, even if you get nothing but route 1 trash, that is still going to be Pokemon from different trainers, possibly different countries. You won't get that anymore starting with next week.
After that? Well, that means that only Switch games will be officially supported. God help us all, it really is an end of the era.
