Mateo's Hoenn Adventure (WIP)

[Luna]

Note: This is just a sort of side project I started messing around with the other day when I wasn't feeling especially inspired to work on my other hacks (and after a few ideas came to me that didn't really fit in anywhere else). I don't expect this to get a lot of attention, and honestly wouldn't be surprised if people don't especially care I just wanted to post a thread for it anyway while I work on it.

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Name: Mateo's Hoenn Adventure (Title subject to change if I invent a better one)
Base rom: Pokémon FireRed BPRE

Premise: Similar to Chaos Rush's hack "Pokémon Dark Violet", this can be considered a reboot instead of a remake. It will take place in the Hoenn region-- but because I always got bored with the Hoenn-based games (and always prefered the FireRed style of graphics) this will be my own "re-fangled" Hoenn adventure with a combination of my own graphics and the ones from FireRed.

Story: Brendan (or May) is a teen from Littleroot Town in the Hoenn Region. As the story begins, they set out on their very own journey with a Pokémon they received from Professor Birch. Originally wanting only to follow in the footsteps of their father and train to become a Gym Leader, this dream is interrupted along the way by the nefarious Team Aqua among other things. They will face fun times and tough challenges along the way, which may or may not have anything to do with the original RSE versions.

Features: Still too early to say for sure, since I am basically using this hack as a way to learn how to hack the Gen III games. But here are some things I have in mind.
- Day and Night. I always hated the fact that there was no day/night cycle in Gen III after Gen II had it. I think everyone else agreed with me on that though, since there was a tool to easily add this feature in for me.
- A new rival. I think it was kinda cheap to just have the non-chosen player serve as the rival. It makes them seem very bland, since the dialogue and personality have to be very gender-neutral and generic. Since this is based on Fire Red, I can very easily add a new stand-alone rival while allowing both May and Brendan to appear in the hack as well.
- Travel to new areas after the Elite-Four. I plan on trying to include a Battle Frontier as well as some areas in other regions (maybe not one full region but parts of others. I'm thinking of including South Isle from my Johto Legacy series as a way to include some of the Kanto legendary Pokémon, but I don't plan to include all of Johto for example.)
- A completely new story from the original games. I haven't got the whole thing planned out yet, still working on mapping and graphics right now. But the story can best be described as "what I remember liking from Ruby" + "What I would have done differently" + "Places where I just completely made up something new and said screw the original story". This won't be your grandaddy's Hoenn game.
- More to be announced as I work on this. Like I say, this is a work in progress, a side project, and is first and foremost a way for me to experiment and learn how things work in a Gen III rom. I'll announce more features once I get further into development, and who knows when that will be since I am primarily focused on other hacks right now.

Screenshots:

Littleroot Town


Route 101


Oldale Town

FAQ:
Q: Why don't you replace the trees and mountains?
A: Because I actually like the trees and mountains from Fire Red. Sue me.

Q: Why are you Leaf in those screenshots?
A: Because I haven't been bothered to edit overworld sprites yet, I'm still just focused on mapping at the moment.

Q: Will (random thing) from Ruby still happen?
A: Too early to tell at this point, I haven't even started scripting. Still planning ideas in the back of my head though.

Q: Will there still be Secret Bases?
A: I am going to try and find a way to include Secret Bases in some form or another, because I always thought they were a neat idea.

Q: Can I be a trainer in this hack?
A: Probably not, unless you end up contributing to the hack in some way and want that as a cameo.

Credits:
JPAN - Hacked FireRed Engine


Download:
Yeah, nowhere close to available right now. Will be eventually, though.

[Alice]

Hmmm, I know you've been talking about this on Skype for a few days, but now I see it here I am actually kinda interested. I look forward to seeing if you can "fix" Hoenn <3

If you want any help let me know, I'm sure I can help out with *something*

I can haz trainer pl0x?

[RocketLeader]

Well, I really like the idea of this hack. I've thought of something like that myself but don't have much time. And I prefer Fr graphics 100x over RSE ones. I'll keep following this.

[Luna]

Thanks guys! Not sure how regularly this thread will be updated, but I'll keep this thread up-to-date as I work on it.

[Pia Carrot]

*is the only one that wants Firered in RSE graphics*

Looks good, haven't had much time to prepare the gold rom from AP so that's gonna have to be put on hold for now.

[Luna]

Man, I definitely know how that goes-- both the part about putting hacks on hold, and the part about having apparently unpopular opinions But thanks, glad you think it looks good so far even if you do prefer the original RSE style.

Also, here is a little update. Mapped a little more last night.


Outside Wally's House


Petalburg City again. So far I'm trying to keep the mapping very close to original RSE, but I may vary it up a bit as time goes on.


And Route 102, since I mapped that while I was at it.

I have to say, while it can get a little tedious in some places, I'm definitely enjoying the flexibility of mapping in Gen III over Gen II (and I'm DEFINITELY a fan of how easily you can edit connections, which were a total headache in Gen II even if you knew what you were doing). I'm sure scripting will be a lot nicer too once I get around to learning the differences between Gen II and III scripting (but I'm taking this one step at a time, so it will probably be a while before you see any people in my screenshots that aren't just sitting there waiting for a script).

EDIT: Just noticed a little goof in a couple of houses. Oh well, easy fix.

[CGJ]

Gotta say Mateo, I am impressed, not only are you picking this up, you are doing a lot better than I have in my attempts. I like the idea and hope to see a full game out of this WIP one day.

[Luna]

A couple more new screenshots. (I really need to get back to work on finishing Pokémon Christmas if I'm gonna keep calling this a side project haha).

[Chaos Rush]

For someone that's new to Gen III hacking, this looks very-well executed and from the mapping alone, it seems like you're not new to Gen III hacking at all. Then again, your Gen II works prove that you have an eye for detail so you obviously know what looks professional and what doesn't. It's hard to believe from the screens that you're new to Gen III hacking.

Anyhow, this looks promising, I hope you don't abandon this!

Originally Posted by Mateo

- A new rival. I think it was kinda cheap to just have the non-chosen player serve as the rival. It makes them seem very bland, since the dialogue and personality have to be very gender-neutral and generic. Since this is based on Fire Red, I can very easily add a new stand-alone rival while allowing both May and Brendan to appear in the hack as well.

Why not just make Wally the main rival? Like, give him the Hoenn starter that has the type-advantage over yours, and have May/Brendan have the disadvantage over yours. This is just a suggestion, that's all.

[Luna]

Originally Posted by Chaos Rush

For someone that's new to Gen III hacking, this looks very-well executed and from the mapping alone, it seems like you're not new to Gen III hacking at all. Then again, your Gen II works prove that you have an eye for detail so you obviously know what looks professional and what doesn't. It's hard to believe from the screens that you're new to Gen III hacking.

Anyhow, this looks promising, I hope you don't abandon this!

Thanks! I'm glad that you like what you see so far, and hopefully I will end up finishing this one day. I'll probably focus on it a bit more seriously once I finish up Pokémon Christmas but for now I'm impressed with how well it's coming along too honestly. I think one thing that helps is that I have a bit of practice mapping in Gen III style already from using Fire Red tilesets in RPGMaker 2003. And I guess I'm not completely new to Gen III hacking since I started to dabble with it back in the day before Fire Red was out in English but decided to stick with Gen II, even once we learned more about Gen III. But that was about a decade ago at this point and I don't think any of the tools from back then are still relevant any more (Elitemap, Pokepic, etc.) so I may as well be completely new to Gen III hacking. But like you say, my Gen II experience definitely helps a lot in knowing what works and what doesn't. :3

Originally Posted by Chaos Rush

Why not just make Wally the main rival? Like, give him the Hoenn starter that has the type-advantage over yours, and have May/Brendan have the disadvantage over yours. This is just a suggestion, that's all.

That's definitely worth considering. I was originally planning to invent a new character as the rival, but I haven't come up with a sprite (and hadn't even decided on the new rival's gender) so it could go anywhere at the moment. But giving Wally a larger role in the story and making him an "official" rival is definitely something I'll consider. Thanks for the suggestion!