~Edit~ Version 1.15 is out! Starter triangle has been added back in.
After nuzlocking touhoumon hacks for quite a while, I noticed that I was tweaking some of the 1.5-based hacks to serve more more interesting runs. Eventually, I wondered if I could "tweak" an entire hack into existence. So a long time later, I ended up tweaking lobsterhime's 1.5 port into oblivion, and ended up with the hack I'm presenting right now.
So... What's new with this hack? Well, this hack is intended to be two things. First, a spiritual successor to touhoumon emerald AE's "1.5-styled evolutions in a 1.8-styled typings" deal. The other was to have a hack to help newer players bridge the gap between the 1.5-based hacks, and the 1.8-based hacks/fangames. As such, it also features the 1.5 evolutions/1.8 typings system that AE had... kind of. As with any good hack, the Physical/special split has come along for the ride, along with most of the moves from 1.8 as well.
And of course, here are the lovely features that this hack brings to the table:
Spoiler
~Alternate evolutions! Expanding on AE's idea of the transcended puppets, every single puppet has one "Alt" form, which play very differently compared to their normal forms. They can be accessed by using a mystery shard on a puppet's middle evolution stage. Almost every puppet has an Alt form, and most of the exceptions don't even have Ex forms. Even minor characters like shizuha and meira get Alts! There are five mystery shards during the main game, and more can be bought during the postgame. Some puppets also have other forms, such as advent and PC98 forms.
~Your starters this time around are mostly 1.5 starters, with Reimu and Marisa reprising their roles; but Sakuya has been replaced with Kokoro in order to form a Faith/Reason/Heart triangle. Thankfully, unlike vanilla 1.5, the game dosen't drastically favor one starter over the other, so feel free to pick whichever starter you want.
~The scripts have been edited heavily, so NPC's only mention pokemon when it's contextually appropriate. Otherwise they'll refer to puppets and touhou-ish things. Additionally, some very important scripts like move descriptions, pokedex entries, and even the type chart have been edited to be fully accurate. There have also been mass decapitalizations, so NPC's no longer shout their important lines at you.
~The type chart has been edited from the 1.8 chart to bring three new types to the table! The first is wind, which is now separated from both electric and flying. The second is fairy, brought over from Kalos and modified to fit Touhou's fairies a bit better. the final type is dragon, carried over from 1.5 and is just as rare as it was back then.
~New gym leaders! While their personalities are nothing exciting, They provide for a fresh Kanto experience as you have to deal with whole new gym types. Giovanni is still around doing his earthly thing, however, and there are reports that Sabrina is still somewhere in the region.
~New puppets! Many puppets have been added into the game compared to 1.5 vanilla, such as every puppet added from UFO to DDC, as well as a few other puppets such as Rinnosuke and the Watasuki sisters. All of these puppets, along with the PC98 puppets, are available in the maingame.
~Tasteful difficulty! Like touhoumon purple version, gym leaders and important trainers in this game focus more on playing puppets to their strengths, as opposed to overwhelming you with bloated BST's or throwing out puppets that don't share the gym type at you. While this hack isn't as hard as purple, it's about on-par with some of the harder pokemon games. Well, the post-game kinda goes a bit nuts with the difficulty, but it should be nothing that you can't handle by that point. A hard mode patch is also included if you feel like the main patch just isn't challenging enough.
~Reusable TMs! Just like the later pokemon gens, TMs can now be used as much as you like. Feel free to add a bit of diversity into your movesets without having to worry about losing a TM forever!
~Help is in the zip! Various files have been included to make your life easier as a player. These files contain things like wild locations, trainer levels and type specialties, and even a list of the fully evolved puppets in the game and their stats!
Of course, while these features are nice, they are just empty bluster without any proof to back them up, so here's a picdump to prove that I can hack a 10-year-old game.
The hack can be downloaded
Right hereThe current version is what can best be described as an "unstable, but finished release", but there will be bugfix patches in the future in case some major bugs get discovered, as well as some new mode patches to create a more varied experience.
Older versions for anyone who's interested:
Thanks goes out to...
Game Freak, for creating pokemon. Without them, we wouldn't even have this series in the first place!
And on that note, Hemoglobin1AC, for starting touhou puppet play in the first place.
ZUN, for creating touhou. Without him, we wouldn't have a fantastic shooting series with fantastic characters.
Lobsterhime, since I did use his english port of 1.5 as a base.
ExSariel and Agastya, for creating Touhoumon Emerald AE, as well as being cool in general.
DosentKnowHowToPlay, for helping me out with a lot of hex-related things. His physical-special split patch is also used in this hack, as is his IV viewing patch.
Spyro, for providing a few backsprites.
SoulfulLex, for providing ideas for a lot of the extended attacks.
The rest of the Touhoumon shoddy chat for "helping" me out with a few ideas and providing a few suggestions.
The waflas station wagon, for helping out with the playtesting.
Gamer2020 and 0xRH for creating GBA pokemon game editor, which greatly simplified the editing required
HackMew, thethethethe, denopqrihg, ZodiacDaGreat, mewthree9000, Darthatron, LU-HO, loadingNOW, linkandzelda, userpr, Jambo51, JPAN, Kawa; all for contributing to the GBA pokemon game editor
Bulbapedia, for providing useful information during the hacking process.
Tohofes, for providing some of the alt form sprites, as well as some of the sprites used in the 1.8 sprite patch.
Some issues with the hack, color coded by how much they impact the game:
The E4 showdown pictures show the wrong sprites.All of the out-of-dex puppets share cries with AltAliceThe postgame only has been edited to include the extended puppets on hard mode, so nobody uses any of the new puppets in the postgame of the main patch.Some of the egg moves are still normal pokemon egg moves.CMarisa has no cry. Her evolved forms have their proper cries but hers is just silence for some reason I can't figure out.The sprites during the credits are also mostly wrong/glitched.The sprites from the intro have the wrong palettes.The pokedex is somewhat glitchy. Entries are unlocked almost at random and looking at one glitch entry at the end of the dex will crash the game.The cable center on 4 island may or may not let you leave when you are done. I'd save before entering myself.Eggs crash the game when viewed in the party. They can be dispensed in the PC, and hatch normally. The Kin Island Egg Shop and the four island daycare have been blocked off until this glitch can be fixed, so eggs are unobtainable in the current version.The current version still needs to be edited a bit (mainly for the Kusanagi fix as well as potential future ability changes) so please report any bugs you find while playing.