Cut seemed like it should have 100% been a Bug move. If you use it on the tall grass in the overworld, the grass goes away...it's LITERALLY super effective against Grass!
@@CreepyBlackDude Agreed, bu being a bug move might be quite restrictive for a lot of team, while Cut being a normal move make it more easily to fit in. Just like strnght should be a combat move and isn't
I really don't like the reduction of Sludge Bomb's chance to poison. Poison type isn't that strong of a offensive type in the first five gens, being super-effective to only one type and having a type be immune to it. So in order for this move to still have an edge compared to Psychic, Thunderbolt, and Flamethrower, moves of similar power with much better types, that 30% chance to poison gives it a niche that really helps. I appreciate the changes to Poison Sting and Smog to make them better, but this feels like an unnecessary trade-off for a move and a type that don't need to be nerfed.
Well, I know that Vine Whip needs to have it's PP increased. 10PP for the Grass equivalent of Ember and Water Gun has always been egregious (especially with how shallow Grass type movepools were in the early gens). Regarding other Grass moves, Petal Dance needs a power boost, at least to 90 to be equal to Thrash and Outrage (personally, I'd buff them all up to 100). I do think it's a little weird that Twister and Dragon Breath are equal in power. Kinda think one or the other should be more of an early game placeholder move that eventually gets replaced, something like Twister at 60 and Dragon Breath at 75 or something.
Agree with this one, so you have 60 - 75 - 90 with Twister, Dragon breath and Outrage, plus Twister is an early game move to a couple of mons, so I think it makes perfect sense to make it weaker than DB
Always bugged me that *_Dragonbreath,_* what should be the signature dragon attack (like Flamethrower or Thunderbolt) only has a power of 60, compared to Flamethrower's 90. That's just... unacceptable. DB should be AT MINIMUM 75, if not 80 or 90.
For PP issues, making ethers and PP ups more readily accessible or farmable might be worth exploring. The farming methods for both of them are obnoxiously random. Maybe as a game corner prize? I just thought it could be viewed as giving the player a different way of making their team stronger, not just by giving them better attacks or replacing them for better Pokemon, but by making their strongest moves easier to use.
This is a good idea. The problem with upping them to ten is that will make certain AI battles much more difficult. Imagine 10PP Ancient power. That statistically says omniboost is almost guaranteed at least once.
Counterpoint to upping 5 PP moves to 10: it requires that you manage your moves, adding an extra element to strategizing. Do you go with Thunderbolt for some sure damage? Or Thunder for raw power at the expense of accuracy and usability. Basically, it assigns a further trade off to very powerful moves.
@@danielquinlan2457 oh. Forgot about that… just replace everything I said with Fire Blast, Blizzard or Hydro Pump. My basic idea is to make players manage their PP and add an extra element to strategy.
@@sobblegaming350 yeah, I genuinely don't understand that at all. Is it a mistake and they just left it from the rest of the generations or was something intentional? If so why?
@@mortomultiverse8778 For gen 1? Yeah, I could see it be one of the many, many, MAAAANY whoopsies they had. For gen 2 onwards, I think they kept it at 10 due to the now more gimmicky nature of the move. 100% accuracy in rain, 50% accuracy in the sun.
I think the 5 PP moves should stay at 5 PP, that makes it a thing you have to consider mid battle and adapt your strategy to. I would say just make ethers more available because im just going to assume most people who play rom hacks also play without item's in battle
I also agree and feel like it makes the biggest difference with the elite four. I like that pp limits prevent you from just relying on blizzard all the time against the elite 4.
Eh having the super powerful moves double in pp scares me. It's not just force you back to the poke center it's also prevents you from Sweeping an entire team with one move. I think there's a reason they all have 1 less than the amount of pokemon in a full party
I think the lack of powerful moves for every type is an intentional design choice for the earlier games that was questionable in its inception and aged more poorly as more powerful moves were added. Gens 4 & 5 added very reliable and strong moves for every type, with examples like Close Combat, Hurricane, Stone Edge, and X-Scissor. If you grew up on Gens 3-5 and onward, the lack of these strong moves feels very noticeable when going back to the older games. However, a lot of the RPGs Pokemon was based on don’t have perfect elemental systems for every single attacking type, so it’s understandable why movesets aren’t completely optimized to deal the most damage at all times.
Very good point, but I would counter that those RPGs didn't have the same level of modularity as Pokemon. Like, in your standard JRPG, you have around 5-10 teammates that you can choose between, whereas in Pokemon you are collecting monsters and choosing from over a hundred evolutionary lines. As such, you want your players to be able to choose Pokemon that they like and go from there. This is where the lack of versatility of moves and poor distribution becomes an issue. With Pokemon like Yanma or Misdreavus, they literally don't learn any attacks of their own type through level up, their stats are bad, and their availability is very poor, which means that the average player has no real incentive to use them, even if they like them. Plus, in Crystal, your options for things like TMs and leveling are much more limited (no Exp Share is VERY jarring for people that have played the last few easy mode gens), so the moves you get are really important
It also made things a little less "rock, paper, scissor"- like. Not that it helped balance anything at all. I feel like newer games are running into the stagnation of "that's just steel hyper beam" or "functions like water quick attack."
But the weird balancing means that in most Pokémon’s limited movesets the moves they do learn you never use or even the tms they give as rewards lack purpose because the move will never be used. This also puts Pokémon that are a certain type to be inherently stronger than another type because they have actual moves. Also makes Pokémon’s learnsets even less useful because the limited moves that exist do not even do much.
A little something Jrose11 theorized on Generation I's moves; the weird balancing was done on the idea that they weren't being balanced on you using them, but being balanced on them being used against the player. Perhaps a similar thing occurred in Gen II?
I agree. The player is going to hit by most moves far more than they'll ever use them. 100% accuracy fire spin is...interesting...for exactly that point.
I have a theory that it was balanced the same way you'd expect a traditional RPG to be, where it's done relative to the player and has less focus on the actual Pokemon themselves. Things like Scratch completely dominating Tackle due to Charmander's mismatch up to the second gym, a load of early game Pokemon and moves are completely useless, there are some types like the Ghost and Dragon types that seem to exist more as player obstacles than anything else (Ghost's immunity to normal moves and Dragon being resistant to all 3 starting types, which the only trainer you're going to face with one is the big boss of the Elite Four). Tying into the previous point, Dragonite's typing and stats, Dugtrio being completely overleveled and powerful in a path you're more or less forced to cross, and Pokemon like Abra and Magikarp having the potential to be broken yet are unhelpful as is. Just a load of strange decisions like that which seem to have carried over to Gen 2, which seem to have been phased out a lot more during Gen 3 when the series decided to expand more. I seem to remember hearing something about G/S being the intended finales to the series as a whole. EDIT: Completely forgot a glaring example: Onix, the first gym's boss pokemon, having an abysmal base 45 attack.
or they could've just put it at random? there are a ton of things on gen 1 and 2 that are straight up badly thought out, psychic is immune to ghost in gen 1 due to a versight in programming(most likely ocurred bcz there was only lick as a offensive ghost move) balancing is still non existent, modern video game theory is non exhistent at the time and they only had a couple of JPGs to base the game off of gen 1 is littered with glitches and etc etc what i want to say is they just didn't polish those games enough there are plenty of bad moves and a lot of mons are literal garbage(unusable) spread trough gen 2 they probably didn't have enough manpower to play test a lot all of the mons and with 200+ mons playing with all of then is def imposible to make then feel balanced
True. Not so much in Gen 2 though. There are some really strong Grass types that benefit from the lack of Flying, Fire or Bug moves in Elite 4 of this generation. There is some nasty Ice moves on 2-3 pokemon but other than that you can pretty much enjoy the big synergy and strong status effect variety they have to offer. 😊
@@overlordalfredo i think theyre still overall bad in gen2 seeing as they're really bad against the gym leaders(byproduct of grass being good against the kanto gyms and putting those in the game too)
@@teeth227 believe me I have beaten crystal with every fucking Pokemon Gen 2 has to offer and Grass is not super weak. Even if you run only grass Mon challenge, there is pretty devastating stuff you can have: leach seed, perma sleep and sunny day boost for synthesis and solar beam are very run-able options xD
@@overlordalfredo yeah but my stupidbrain likes stupid dumb super effective moves. but yea grass can do cool stuff outside of hitting hard but against the gyms its pretty objectively disadvantaged defensively. its weak against 3 and doesnt resist any. just look at how useless the chikorita line is in vanilla crystal
I think the sludge bomb debuff is unnecessary. Poison is pretty underpowered offensively, and the poison status is weaker than burns or freezing compared to Flamethrower and ice beam. Otherwise, I love these changes
I agree in this context that nerfing sludge bomb is unnecessary. Outside of this context, Poison needs an offensive buff as much as Ice needs one defensively. Give it one more super effective and one less resisted by, and it still won't be GOOD. It'll still be behind Steel, which is already pretty terrible coverage.
Agreed, especially as he later made the argument that Dragonbreath should keep its paralyse chance at 30% because dragon is a poor offensive type. Poison is far worse offensively than Dragon. Before Gen 6 it only hit one type super effectively (grass, which is hit by 4 other things so it's not even like that gives poison a useful niche) and is resisted by 4 types + Steel is immune. By comparison Dragon only hits itself super effectively, which is somewhat useful as dragons are only hit by one other type for super effective damage pre gen 6, and it's only resisted by steel.
Thank you for actually making Cut and Rock Smash somewhat viable it always bugged me that some of the HM moves like Surf and Fly we're pretty useful while others were useless.
@@MrRandall171 oh that’s totally the reason but still, 25 base power? For a move I can’t delete without talking to a specific npc? It would’ve been fine with 50 as you had limited options back then but it’s crazy it only ever got pushed as high as 40
@@jmaldonado790 rock smash specifically is unacceptable. 25 BP move you get AFTER Cut. You also need to go out of your way to get it too. Not very far out of the way but cut gets handed to you directly. Should be at least the same BP. At least 40
@Jmaldonado rock smash is a tm in generation 2, not an hm like in gen 3. 25bp is pretty bad, but that defense drop utility is pretty good. I'd be happy with 20bp and guaranteed defense drop similar to mudslap. (Or like 99.6% chance, as it's actually not 100 I don't believe) and giving us strength as a fighting type move that rivals moves like rockslide, flamethrower, surf etc. With 80bp and 100% accuracy
@@RyanNash20 right I forgot some of the overworld moves weren’t hms for some weird reason. I also agree that a guaranteed defense drop would be pretty good. Would make for a pseudo power up punch.
If you feel like PP is scarce in general, instead of buffing PP across the board, would you consider making Ether and Elixir items available for purchase from pokemarts? While it is a change none of the games have made, it feels to me like it would make it so long stays between towns and between healing only cost money to maintain, provided you plan ahead.
I think you made poison sting too strong there, as it is now it's just flat better than tackle. Maybe drop the base power down to 30? So it's still competitive with tackle, but neither is completely outshining the other one.
What do you think of the idea of turning Razor Wind into a Flying type move, so the Pokemon that don't learn Drill Peck have something a bit stronger than Wing Attack. Lower its BP a bit and make it a single turn move, and you could turn it into a Gen 2-friendly Air Slash substitute.
The type change is interesting but you get Cut not long after getting Fury Cutter. Makes more sense to buff Fury Cutter as its better and isn't stuck on your pokemon until blackthorn Personally I feel Flying fits more
@@robertlupa8273 yeah exactly, I feel Flying type could do with having a TM that isn't HM fly Aerial ace is such a decent move that pokemon of different types can learn
I have a suggestion. Give evolved forms with bad learnsets (like arcanine) the moves it could learn as a growlith. I feel many stone evolutions are crippled by a lack of learnable moves after evolution. (My boy arcanine specially)
I feel like this is to balance out stone evolutions. You can have some scarily strong Pokemon fully evolved early on, like Starmie or Arcanine. The easiest way to nerf such a strong advantage is clearly by limiting their moves. For example, a Cyndaquil gets a light increase in strength when evolving into Quilava but is easily outclassed by Arcanine. If you give Arcanine a move like Flamethrower after it evolves, you've got no reason to keep it as a Growlithe. Giving an unfair advantage to the species. I can understand the frustration with it but I feel like this is the fairest method to balance stone evolutions. You can have overpowered mon with terrible moves or less powerful mon with great moves.
They could balance it out by allowing the stone evolutions to learn the move extremely late (50s to 60s/60s to 70s). so even if it is too high for story they can learn the move for multiplayer. Generally I like the idea of whether you want this good move and wait for more power / get better stats and possibly skip out on moves.
@@matthewstockhausen I disagree about that solving the balance because either way they'll be waiting for the powerful move except taking the higher stats early on would be more beneficial due to the stuff available by comparison. Sure, it might fall off later but by then, your starter will be fully evolved & you can have a full team. The idea is to punish early stone evos. If I were to try and think of another balance, maybe make it so stone evos, below a certain level, are disobedient. Like an Arcanine below 30 (debatable) acts like an over-leveled traded mon. Then they could still get the powerful moves on the evolved form without it upsetting the balance.
@@pun-inator6075Except the very next generation Flamethrower was a TM move. Yes you should probably be punished for evolving early and a limited move pool is a good punishment...but Growlithe is an awful Pokémon that you're forced to keep in your party an ungodly amount of time to learn the only good move it has. Lv.50 is TOO punishing. Compare that to Alakazam, the best Pokémon in the game that can be evolved early with zero downsides, learning its best move 12 levels before a Growlithe, at the same level it's pre-ev learns it.
@@Psytrese The next generation also comes with its own inflation of power creep and Growlithe is not a readily accessible Pokemon in the main story of gen 3. Growlithe isn't awful, it's mediocre. The issue is more that Arcanine is amazing. I agree Alakazam is also broken (which is why I'm glad previous videos in this series indicated trade evolutions would go by level, similar to starters). If I were to balance Alakazam, I'd give Abra a few more moves but increase its evo to thirty or add in the disobedience for a too-early evo as I previously mentioned with stone evos.
i personally dont like the PP changes for Hyperbeam, Firestorm etc. I mean those are really Powerful moves and as such should feel to have an impact! They should not be that "spammable"
Was (only mildly) disappointed to hear there wont be many trainers with held items in this! Always thought that was an untapped potential for a more challenging battle dynamic in these games. Miracleberries, gold berries, and certain held items could really make some random trainers more of an entertaining challenge! Jasmine's steelix having a burn heal berry, random trainers with tanky mons having miracleberries, or just type-boosting items, could open up some cool difficulty spikes at the end of routes/key points (like sprout tower guy or eucine) in the game!
This. Altough it may make the game feel "less gen 2", making trainer pokemons held berries kinda make sense, in a "discover a new mechanic" kinda way, it could also be a way to make Thief more useful. Good combination of items per trainer would be: Pickniker having healing berry Rockets having berserker genes And those elite trainers i forgot the name (ace trainer or smth) could have the 10% elemental buff items, like charcoal or silk scarf (which i think is called bow tie in this gen) Gym leaders could also have status healing berries I don't know if this would remove the gen 2 feeling, but I'm sure would create a new gen 2 feeling, the feeling that this game is different than the first and it want to teach you how to play it. An NPC that talks to you and says something like "Did you know pokémon can hold items?"
Also, the Kanto leaders should all have a Gold Berry on their strongest Pokémon (like they have a Sitrus Berry in the remakes) since they're way too easy in the vanilla game, and Red's Pikachu should hold a Light Ball.
@@robertlupa8273 Like adding to the Kanto leaders, but I'm not 100% on ALL the gym leaders getting held items as it sounds like they're buffed enough already. I think it would make the in-between bits, you know like routes and side-quests like the lighthouse, more interesting if there's some held items and semi-tough battles that get you thinking added in though. Doesn't just have to be the bosses/checkpoints that get beefed up
I'd like to say just for consideration that poison is less impactful than the other non-volitial statuses and Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Flamethrower are all 95 power pre gen 5. I think sludge bomb's higher poison chance was a good move. That is just my input you can feel free to do with it what you will.
Agree, especially as he later made the argument that Dragonbreath should keep its paralyse chance at 30% because dragon is a poor offensive type. Poison is far worse offensively than Dragon. Before Gen 6 it only hit one type super effectively (grass, which is hit by 4 other things so it's not even like that gives poison a useful niche) and is resisted by 4 types + Steel is immune. By comparison dragon only hits itself super effectively, which is somewhat useful as dragons are only hit by one other type for super effective damage pre gen 6, and it's only resisted by steel.
I'm not sure I like the changes to Smog and Poison Sting; Poison Sting always felt like its power was supplemented by the chance to poison, and on a tough enemy, Poison can do hefty work. I think instead of raising the base power, the chance to poison should have increased. Comparatively, Smog is now just Poison Sting, but a slightly better poison chance; if Poison Sting keeps its extra damage, Smog should maybe keep its high chance of poisoning. Personally, I just want to see one of the moves have a better chance of poisoning!
@@Tracey_In PvP, yes. In the main game? Fights usually aren't slow enough for Toxic to do its thing outside of some niche cheesing you're probably only doing in a challenge run.
Since you were fixing Cut , one move I’ve always wanted to see changed was Strength . I always felt it was the most boring unimpressive move ever , and if not for the fact it was a HM , I felt that there was no reason to ever have it instead of Headbutt , even if it was 10 base power weaker . I always wished it was a Fighting instead of Normal type so it could essentially be the Surf of Fighting moves, even if not as strong . I think an 80BP fighting move with no added effects would be just fine .
The choice for 10 PP on moves such as Psychic and Ice Beam were likely done because the balancing team believed those types to be more capable than Surf, Flamethrower, and Thunderbolt. I don't necessarily disagree with making them usable more! If anything, you could say it increases difficulty for trainers that use said moves, as stalling them out of it is less viable. Excited to see the final extent of the changes!
The change I really wanna see if it hasn't been made already is distributing aurora beam to most electric types. It makes a bit of sense, as the aurora borealis is believed to be an electromagnetic phenomena and electric types could really use *SOMETHING* in the way of coverage moves.
I never understood why strength was a normal move. I think making that a fighting or even a rock move would benefit either fighting or rock types with limited moves for those respective types.
I agree with this, especially since Strength is somewhat redundant with Headbutt since they're similar in power level. Maybe change Strength to Fighting, drop Rock Smash down to 50 BP but raise the stat drop chance to 30%, and bump Submission up to 100 BP. That would put Submission on par with Cross Chop but with better accuracy and the recoil damage drawback. It also makes sense that you use Strength to move rocks and Fighting is strong against Rock (similar to how Cut is now strong against Grass after the change to Bug type) whereas Rock is resistant to Normal. But maybe changing Strength to Fighting would make it too powerful.
7:40 You need to add more "stealable items" to your revised trainers. It's a great "minigame" option to pursue; especially if you give some avoidable early game trainers useful held items. Imagine some random caterpie with leftovers early in the game; it's different and interesting... but if you skipped it and go back to get it late game, leftovers!
@@treespawned7844 I'm inclined to think they should add an option that would let you rebattle trainers once a week after you've beaten the elite 4. But let's be honest, shall we? This is a rom hack; you can always quit and/or use save states to undo mistakes like this, and people won't play the post-game as much as they would a real Pokemon game. So it's more of an easter egg than a missed opportunity.
Dude, these are some fantastic changes! I also unnecessarily popped off when you mentioned Twister’s 30 BP increase because Yanma’s getting Twister, and I love the Yanma line, so I’m genuinely really excited for this rom! Edit: THANK YOU for buffing Rock Smash and Cut! For years, I’ve hated these moves for being so bad: “Why 95 accuracy!?” “40 base power and 1/2 chance of lowering DEF!? It should’ve been 100% to compromise for its terrible power!” And buffing the moves has literally been a godsend for me. I no longer have to dread obtaining their HMs! (I am aware that Rock Smash is a TM in this game) Once again, thank you! Edit Edit: One more thank you for addressing the inconsistencies of inaccurate (future Physical) Rock-type moves and Tackle! I always felt like players who picked a starter with Tackle in gens’ 1-4 were inadvertently punished with a 95 accurate normal move when other starters get 100 accurate Pound and Tackle. One thing about Tackle tho is that Pound and Scratch both have 40 BSP and Tackle still has 35. I know that in future gens Tackle also has 40 and I’m aware your trying to avoid taking ideas from future games, but buffing Tackle to 40 would give a small edge to players who pick Chikorita or Cyndaquil (I myself choose Cyndaquil). Great changes as always, though!
You should just change two of cubone's bone related ground moves into drill run and bulldoze. then add those moves to other pokemon. like giving every pokemon earthquake or dig is kinda boring for a ground move. EQ is kinda busted balance wise compared to literally every other move. It would be more fun if some non ground types could learn ground moves naturally to deal with those pesky electric types.
It really warms my heart to see this project. Crystal was so much fun, and you’re putting so much love into bringing it back as it’s best possible self with the help of decades of hindsight and what looks like a ton of elbow grease.
I like the idea of buffing moves. I also agree with the premise of not simply updating moves to modern versions. But I think if given the choice between changing a move that has remained consistent and updating a different move to modern version, I would choose the latter. I guess a specific example would be Twineedle. I like the idea of giving Bug some good moves. But Pin Missile did receive a buff, and is learned by more Pokemon, both in this generation and in future ones. And a functionally 70 power, 95% accuracy Pin Missile fits the same niche as Twineedle. Additionally, the modern buff to Fury Cutter would make that move have a reasonable niche, and it is accessible through TM. That being said, I think your approach to Leech Life makes sense. IDK. I guess my argument would be to try to use existing "lore" first when it makes sense, then adjusting what remains if there are still concerns.
I think the rationale of giving Ice Beam only 10 PP instead of 15 was to reflect the fact that freezing a Pokémon is better than paralyzing or burning it. Yes, Pokémon in Gen II can be unfrozen at random on any given turn, but having at least one free turn is itself very useful.
The problem with making lick stronger is that it was pretty good for whittling down and potentially paralyzing pokemon you were trying to catch at the same time.
@@derekclawson5707 It's not myth-related that people remember it wrong, it actually is supposed to do that, but it is one of the status effects that is bugged. (Kinda like how Ghost is supposed to counter psychic Pokemon in Gen 1 but some genius put the wrong value in place, so it does not damage them instead.)
On the topic of Poison moves, have you thought about giving Kakuna Acid Armor later in its movepool to reward you if you delay leveling it up? I think Beedrill would be a good place as a actually OK party member with all the new changes, but maybe this would give it some defensive utility without messing with stats too much.
@@robertlupa8273 eh, Shelmet and Accelgor get it by level-up in later gens, so I don't think its that much of a stretch, especially with how few good Poison moves Gen II has for a part Poison type Pokemon
@@NoMoreLegBrace Shelmet can learn it because it's a snail. Other snail/slug Pokemon (Goomy, Slugma, Shellos, ) can learn it too. Kakuna doesn't really fit here.
I like the buff in PP to giga drain, because, as you said; grass is REALLY weak in gen 2 but the other buffs to the strong moves make me nervous. 5pp moves with secondary effects are fine as 5pp I think but I can see giving Mega Horn the buff. Psychic and Ice Beam tend to be the better coverage moves, so I believe they actually play well at 10pp. Personally I think making PP Ups and ethers more readily available to the player is a better choice than blanket buffing end game moves pp. I hate stalling personally (in theory I love it, but I find it boring in practice) but I think *some* of these buffs truly remove the ability to stall for many pokemon that are built that way. edit:typos and below this Also to address the rest of the changes, I think you are onto something. I can now run wild with Chikorita and Butterfree and I am STOKED 😂
Really interesting changes to these moves. To bring up Crystal Clear again, it choose a different but still compelling way to fix the movepools of every pokemon by increasing the number of moves they could learn via move tutors you can find and unlock. I eagerly await your level up movepool video to see what approaches you continue to take to make your ideal Crystal Version.
Reckon Cut should be flying type and be like an aerial ace power due to no flying TMs in gen 2 other than HM Fly. We already get Fury Cutter moments before getting the HM for Cut so we still have a great bug move available Great work btw, really excited for this Rom Hack. Always dreamed of playing a balanced Gen 2
Rather than changing a bunch of moves to have 10 PP, I'd much rather change the game to just have a ton of PP max items (You could flat out make them a cheap item maybe?) The reason being: I don't know if I *like* my opponents getting access to way more uses of the same powerful moves, as that can limit stalling strategies. Alternatively, you could view this as just a good thing since it makes item spam technically more expensive? But for challenge runners, who probably won't even be using any theoretically abundant PP Max items anyways, it does just make the game harder. For the 10->15 pp change though, I don't mind? But it seems unnecessary if you go the PP Max route.
I think the 5 PP moves would do well the stay low, considering battles which may be a matter of attrition, but maybe add some kind of restorative function, like PP restoration for every so many steps taken? With that, there's no reliance on items (and thus their usability in battle), and there's a cost/benefit of whether to spend time (and potential risk) pacing around or just getting on with the next fights.
My list: I would actually turn Poison Sting into: - Nidoran learns Poison Tackle and POISON NEEDLE: * Poison Neddle is 15BP but can hit up to 3 times, chance to poison... around 10$?; * Poison Tackle is the poison physical move that is the same as tackle but with chance of poison... 20%?. I would actually makes Iron Tail to lower Defense by Two stages, the move is resisted by many types, at least make a difference. Psychic is 90CP/100ACC and can lower SP.Def. Slugde omb could actually have a 5% chance to badly Poison and have the chance to poison the enemy or badly Poison if the opp is already poisoned, that would make Poison types much more useful even against Psychics.
IMO moves like Blizzard, Fire Blast and Hyper Beam should keep the same PP the same. They're meant to be "nuclear options" that are used sparingly. Honestly, instead of adjusting PP values, I'd probably prefer if you just make Ethers purchasable from later-game Pokemarts.
I agree with all the points being made to keep the PP at 5, if people have issues with the low PP powerhouse moves things like ice beam and flamethrower are there for a reason.
You have some really good ideas. Your romhack sounds like it will be fun to play. Outside of the scope of this video, another huge problem is man jhoto pokemon are introduced in the postgame
I feel like things like smog and poison sting should be base power 30 instead of 35 since they cause poison. Cant really compare it with tackle since tackle does nothing but dmg
Tackle has less chance to hit, while scratch is more accurate but slightly less powerful. This was a trade-off to make the moves different from each other.
I feel like you can make tackle 40 base power to match scratch especially since the other moves that became 35 base power come with secondary effects unlike tackle. to be fair though, it's not like you'll keep tackle long anyways
Please fix Phanpy and Donphan's moveset, the fact that they don't learn a ground move until 49 is ridiculous and the only other move they have access to is Mud-Slap but only through TM. I think a good change would be giving Phanpy access to Magnitude and Mud slap early on. I think Wooper can also benefit from learning these moves naturally since it only has access to Earthquake too. Also Wooper and Quagsire need to learn more water moves regularly, they only have access to Water Gun by level up lol.
@@Tracey_ Actually no, in crystal only, you can find Phanpy at like level 2 on the route above the first route. Also neither Phanpy nor Donphan have access to dig in gen 2 either lol.
Cut would probably be better as a Dark-type move. Especially when you consider the Japanese name for the attack is in reference to one unsheathing their sword, quickly cutting the opponent and sheathing the sword. Could also consider it as the predecessor to Night Slash, which Sneasel would benefit from.
(2:38) Steel Wing is normally 70 power, but you showed 50 there. (4:16) That's really nice. I've seen hacks that make Cut into a 60-power Steel-type move with never-miss accuracy, so it's basically a Steel-type Swift. But, your change here to make it Bug-type is cool too. (5:49) Why do you have a green ↑ for Rock Smash's chance to lower Def, when you're actually dropping its odds of doing so from 50% to 20%? (6:13) Triple Kick normally has 90% accuracy, but you showed 100% there.
Instead of changing rocksmash so much, why not just make Strength into a fighting move like you did cut? Don't even need to give it a higher crit chance, just a more universal damaging fighting move. That leaves Rocksmash with its small debuff niche.
One thing to note about Giga Drain is that your version of it is now better than it is in the modern games, as it has 5 more PP. I think you should keep its base power, but increase its PP to 10, which would put it at the same level as Gen 4 Giga Drain For Dragon Breath I'd increase its power to as high as 80, while lowering the paralysis chance to 20% Outrage might also be in need of a buff, cus 90 power isn't that great for such an unreliable move. 100 BP might be good for it
I like the changes! My only criticism is about Sludge Bomb: the other moves comparable moves in gen 2 (Thunderbolt, etc) have 95 BP... Sludge Bomb only has 90 and poison is just super bad offensively (only good against grass). The 30% poison chance is exactly what makes it "ok" to use.
I think that Octazooka needs something to make it worthwhile. Bubblebeam is learned sooner for nearly equal power and by the time you get to Octillery Surf is there to instantly replace it. What about a flinch, paralysis, or critical hit chance?
Octazooka already has a 50% chance of reducing the enemy's accuracy while having 65 BP and 85% accuracy. It's not a bad move as-is. That said, perhaps it should be bumped up to 85 BP.
Your buffs to lick, poison sting and smog are pretty close to what I usually do on my hacks. The main difference is that I do what I call the 30/30/30. I turn those moves and also Constrict and Astonish into 30 BP / 30 PP / 30% chance of effect moves. Since I usually apply the Phys/Special split, Smog and Poison Sting are different there. The reasoning is that those moves do more than just damage, and with 30% they do that somewhat realiably. Those are early game moves and compete with moves like Tackle, so I did not want them to just be better than them, while still be usable. I just wanted to tell the I do those things, I really liked your changes there and I think you Crystal is shaping up to be really cool (while still being Crystal).
Now, I'm not a 100% sure this is how it works in Gen 2, but I know for a fact it's like this in Gen 3 and it'd be weird to make a chamge like this, BUT surprisingly, Triple Kick doesn't multiply its BP by 2 and then by 3, it just adds 10 BP every time it hits; making the new one effectively 75 BP, not 90. Try making it a 20 BP, so that it is actually a 90 BP, if it manages to hit 3 times in a row.
Funnily enough, the changes you made to Cut are almost identical to how Cut works in Pure Red/Blue/Green (a Red version hack, the only real difference between versions is cosmetic). In that hack, Cut's basically just a bug type version of Slash. Also, and this is just my opinion, Ether and Max Ether should be made purchasable in shops. Elixers and Max Elixers could be finite items to find around the world.
I would personally bump the power of Dragonbreath to 80, just to give it slightly more viability and also because Dragon Pulse and Dragon Claw don't exist in Gen 2. Also, change HM04 Strength to a Fighting-type move with a 10% chance of raising the user's Attack :)
The main problem was that entire types in Gen 2 were special / phsyical. In the end you had a perfectly special attack gengar - but the shit part was that his stab moves (poison AND ghost) where physical. So it didnt matter if Gengar has high Special Attack when you would use Shadow Ball for example. The game considered Gengars Attack Power (not his Sp Attack) for the dmg output and that was in my opinion the biggest flaw in the entire Gen2. It was only for roleplaying to use his stab moves - other moves which way less power were still better in the end (for example ice/thunder/fire punch because they were in the special category). Thank god they changed that in Gen 3 and upwards.
I have put thousands of hours into Gen 2 (especially crystal) so you can wake me up at night and I can tell you basically any data there is... But I still like most of these changes for quality of life. BUT I never felt that moves like a twister or smog or rocks mash or similar needed any changes! The fact that some moves are required to progress but less useful in battle made it more necessary to have a strategic move set for your team. See, waterfall is worse than surf in any capacity. Still you need to use water wall in some areas of the game. So do you keep 2 water pokemon or do you sacrifice a move on your only water pokemon? Also rocks mash: it is a better option than tail whip, as it at least deals damage, but you could also need that in some areas to reach hidden stuff, so it was okay to have low damage imo. Overall I think if every type has the option of one good low level move (20-40 damage) one decent later level move (50-80) and one strong move around 100 that's more than enough. It's just necessary to make Pokemon learn these moves, that was way more annoying to me 😂
I strongly disagree with reducing the chance for Poison moves to inflict the poison status. This is one of the defining features of the Poison-type, that its moves have a higher-than-normal chance of inflicting the Poison status when compared to other types with moves that inflict status. This advantage is counter-balanced by the fact that Poison is the single worst offensive type in the game. Grass is the only type that is weak to Poison, and most Grass-types are Grass/Poison so they're actually neutral. Poison is virtually never going to be super-effective, and that's why Sludge Bomb deserves 30% Poison chance.
I would leave the 5 pp moves at 5 pp but make pp ups farmable in some way. Battle tower reward or purchasable from vitamin shop, or add a bunch to the table of items your mom will buy. The tradeoff to having these big damage attacks was supposed to be that they weren't spammable. I'm all for icebeam and psychic going to 15 as those were supposed to be your main spamable attacks. Putting them on par with thunderbolt seems reasonable. Side note. Don't know if it's possible, but make Dark a physical type and Ghost a special type. It is one of the weirdest design choices in early Gen pokemon. Ghosts, which are ethereal by definition somehow are classified as being physical. The move shadow ball even lowers sp def while dealing physical damage. Also, every dark type attack makes physical contact in some way but gets considered a special type.
Disagree with nerfing sludge bomb’s poison proc from 30 to 15%. Not only is poison much less devastating than burn, paralysis, and freeze from flamethrower, thunderbolt, and ice beam, but poison is a much worse offensive type than all of them. Only doubles grass types and half of grass types are also poison. Keep the 30% chance.
Poison types have always been pretty bad in earlier generations, so I applaude the effort to boost moves like smog etc... But the debuff to sludge bomb? It's already pretty weak in comparison to tbolt and company due to psn status being weaker than prz brn and frz, and because it hits supereffectively only grass types. Besides that, im loving the changes you're making, keep up the good work! Hope that moves like Dig an Fly get a boost like in gen4!
Dynamicpunch and Zap Cannon are weird moves. They're very unreliable because of the low accuracy. Dynamicpunch makes more sense, though, because the high potential damage from move and the guaranteed confusion means that the opponent has a decent chance to knock themselves out if they're hanging on by a thread. For Zap Cannon in the same situation, though, it doesn't seem as useful as paralysis would seems like it'd be better from the beginning of a battle with a higher accuracy move like Thunder Wave. The bad accuracy just makes these two moves really difficult to use, especially since there are better moves that could be used to occupy their TM slots like Cross Chop or Thunderbolt.
There are a lot of remarkable normal moves: Bind, constrict, wrap, rage, slam and false swipe. Most of these moves are to weak for the lvl at which you get them. Also: I think you could do a lot with status moves: Such as giving moves like growl, withdraw and harden priority. Spite, Scary face, Cotton spore, string shot and sweet scent all are nearly useless, compared to better moves. Leer is not useless, but outshined by many other moves. Ariados spider web also does little and Arboks Glare is just the same in effect as thunder wave. Stun spore is just a weaker version of the previous two. Maybe give splash some use as a move that removes paralysis. Wirlpool is also a underpowered move.
Not a fan of the PP upgrade for 5pp moves: The value of these moves in a battle is that you shall not wipe an entire enemy with just one move over and over again. The game offers enough to refill your PP. You have 2 berry trees before Elite 4 to compensate any lack of ethers and elixirs. But if you know the hidden stuff (or use the item finder a lot) you will always get more than you ever need in the game. Also it makes it more strategic if you need to be conservative with your strong moves. There is no use in having other moves even learnt if you can just spam 120 or 150 dmg to your heart's content 😂
On the topic of Grass types, and more specifically, Chikorita… know something I never understood about it? Why does it get Poisonpowder and not Sleep Powder? Just take a look at Chikorita’s Pokédex entries - you’ll see everywhere that it releases “soothing aromas” and all that jazz. Now, I know it also doesn’t get Sweet Scent by level up (it does by TM, and also, it should get this by level up!), but WHY oh WHY does it get Poisonpowder?! This Pokémon that’s designed to calm and soothe you with its aromas… but it instead does the inverse and poisons you? Surely it would make way more sense for Chikorita to have Sleep Powder instead of Poison - especially because it still has access to the Toxic Tm, and anyone wanting to do poison stalling strats WILL use Toxic over Poisonpowder anyways as it’s garage. Plus, a sleep inducing move will buff the middling Chikorita further, allowing it to now only make use of Giga Drain safely, but also be a team player, and help capturing Pokémon - it would make it arguably the best choice on a Complete Pokédex challenge run etc. Meanwhile, Cyndaquil or Totodile would likely still be better at general speedruns/in general etc. TL:DR - why doesn’t the “calm and soothing aroma” Pokémon Chikorita get Sleep Powder and Sweet Scent? Yet it gets the opposite to “calm and soothing”, Poison Powder?
I think you should repurpose some obscure useless moves like razor wind. Could be a bug or flying move. Barrage could become bullet seed. Sky attack should be something like brave bird or thunder/blizzard. There are more moves like this that are needed elsewhere. Also, Turn ledian into a fighter please.
Some of the changes are Ok. Others are completely unnecesary and change a lot of the game like we know it, making feel like a modern pokemon game, instead of just classic Crystal with some fixs. The thing that I dislike the most is making almost every move 1005 accuracy. Including rock moves!!
I think Outrage could be buffed as well. Similar to Kingler and crabhammer, Dragonite has a special signature move that's using a weaker stat. While it is 90 BP, I am not sure if that's enough. I think a buff of 10 BP might be ok.
Base 10 pp on Thunder, Fire Blast, Blizzard, etc... is too OP. When maxed out that gives you 16 uses. I'd suggest either finding a way to default them to be at +3 pp when learned or increase the availability of PP Ups.
i was very interested in watching this but .. come on tackle is made to be a bad move because it is exclusively a very early game / tutorial move; it is balanced according to the stage of the game where you usually use it, it is widely available, and is stronger in BP than some other moves that are available this early (ex, poison sting, vine whip, etc.) ... it's ... a balancing matter ...
I disagree with your assessment on Tackle. The uncertainty is the point. Without it, early game battles would be more predictable since there's usually only one move for each side to select. It's the same reason critical hits exist; this just doubles up on the number of surprises during the point in the game with the fewest options.
I feel like sludge bomb should keep it's high chance to cause poison. Not only is poison really the weakest status effect in the game, but poison itself is also not a very strong type, especially in the absence of fairy type. It seems unfair to hold it within the constraints of other types that are afforded more privileges.
Why not bump Tackle up to 40 to be symmetrical with Scratch and Pound? Are there ramifications for some early Normal-types hitting harder in the early stages of the game?
Interesting that you made Cut Bug instead of Grass like I've seen in most roms. One idea for gym tms specifically is make them available in the Goldenrod TM shop after you beat their gym or make them reusable.
Bug type cut that's probably the biggest change to the feel of crystal that you've done so far. Following along and I hope to play this romhack once it's complete.
for a teensy bit MORE incentive to use future sight, I think it would be neat to make it confuse also, like dynamic punch... cause it's like "wooooah where did that hit come from", ya feel?
I believe in early games when the internet wasn’t available everywhere that tackles 95% accuracy was supposed to be a learning point. That way players learned to check that as they learned new moves and took accuracy into account.
would be cool to see learn sets updated maybe. some pokemon just don't learn many good moves. electrode for instance doesn't even learn an electric move by level up.
Cant say i agree with the lick para change, many types dont have that much generalist moves and has to work with funny stuff, with niche big bonuses as well as i dont think you get ghastly that early.
