Would this pokemon game idea be capable of making using rom hacks?

[TheShotgunDog]

Hello all, I'm very new to the scene so my knowledge Is limited. I've had an idea for a pokémon game for quite some time but never really had the tools or capabilities to create it (also life and it's many distractions). I actually only recently discovered ROM hacks and think I have the basics of what they are pretty much down.

So I don't think the idea is capable via ROM hacks but am curious if others would and could clear that up for me. I'm not entirely asking for help on the idea but just to know if it's possible I can tackle the know how execution etc on my own time. (Not trying to sound rude but idk how much of the pokemon fandom world would appreciate the idea in thought)

It's been a very Alpha state of idea in general so I honestly couldn't get very technical with it as would probably be preferred. That said here's the question.

Could I create say Fire red but change the battle system entirely?
Personally I am dead tired of the same/harshly similar turn based system and would like a live action game. General idea when walking in tall grass or getting into a trainer battle the sequence still starts and takes the player to a different screen but instead of the normal turn based battle say it takes the player to a battlefield (for visual discussional purposes imagine Smash bros and the trainer character from that. Now still have a lvl hp and etc (enclose the battlefield so knockouts like in SSB are incapable/irrelevant) and have a battle system as such replace the turn taker?

(Another reference of battle system feel game would be any of the major "Tales of" titles)

Also duly noted this would take lots of effort and time to create that's already in my mind just ignorant If a rom hack would be able to create such a thing.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Not really understanding here. You want to create a real time battle system that tries to mimic something like the tales series?

I would say that something like that already exist, POKKEN TOURNAMENT! But I guess that's more like the fighting game TEKKEN than the one Tales games uses. (Not to mention both games are produced by the same company NAMCO BANDAI, so similarities may be obvious)

A redesigned battle system with real time battles is something I had expected with Pokemon Arceus. Being able to freely run around and just command pokemon attacks. If something like that happened, then a multiplayer feature in similar vain to "Battle royale" would have been possible and comical. Imagine starting a round where you just run around catching pokemon and then immediately using them to battle other players or reach other areas of the map.

To be fair, the best of what hacking can do depends mostly on being able to decompile something and the programmer's ability to code and reprogram said thing. Many things thought impossible are sometimes proven wrong. First I suggest finding out how far has hacking for pokemon gone in terms of scope. What's has & hasn't been done yet and why.

Not saying it has to be at the level of a 100% Game > source code decompilation and being able to port to other consoles without emulation. Even if the game's has disassembly for it, things just might not have been done for other reasons. Like just no one straight up wanting to do it or whatever. That's stuff maybe all that right accessible either. Last option would just be to create your own game engine and use that instead of rom hacking. Even if you could do a hack, you're still restricted to the GBA Hardware limits. So some ideas to consider. I'm no expert on this, but I observed lots of things.

 

[TheShotgunDog]

Pokken tournament is a thing but that's just a fighter game, looking for more adventure meets fighter, so tales of series combat seems to work as best example since they too have swappable moves which would be good in place due to the Pokemon learning new moves etc. In an updated quick summarization trying to make pokemon with a tales of battle style system.

I understand the drawbacks due to hardware statement. Graphically speaking wasn't trying to surpass GBA pixel styled graphics long as done right can still feel and look good. But maybe more suitable for different console type. Or heck due to the amount of pokemon and the amount of moves available and all the statistics that tie in with it all would make sense why something like this hasn't been done. Even thinking about it I start to question my own idea (when I get into more in depth thought or bring a friend to the idea table) like okay I want it to be as close or as true to pokemon as can be but what about pokemon size, how would that effect things. (Example used was Pikachu vs rayquaza) if we're keeping true this type of fight couldn't happen in game due to rayquazas sheer size like unless it were a specific special boss battle or something but then that more or less also removes huge/bigger pokemon out of the roster even if non-legendary (wailord as example) it's still something I'd like to try and do but again the thought process is still alone in its own Alpha state lol.

I very much would probably be better off creating this in an engine/using my own, just trying not to fully overwhelm myself to see if since no one else has made this happen if I could and hopefully others will enjoy it as much as I enjoy the thoughts on it.

Also yes I too was hoping more/different from legends Arceus it had such capability I've yet to play it but have viewed a lot on it and still plan to give it a go myself sometime

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I understand the drawbacks due to hardware statement. Graphically speaking wasn't trying to surpass GBA pixel styled graphics long as done right can still feel and look good. But maybe more suitable for different console type. Or heck due to the amount of pokemon and the amount of moves available and all the statistics that tie in with it all would make sense why something like this hasn't been done.

The statement about the hardware limitation wasn't about graphics or music. It was more about the programming itself. There is a reason why later game got much better improvements with newer hardware. Older games was too limited for the size and scope of the games intentions.

First gen (Green Red Blue Yellow) you had very laughable storage box for pokemon and items. You couldn't hold many items and the storage box was very small only holding about 20 pokemon in each for a total of 12 boxes. If a box was full, you have to go to pokemon center and switch them. Everytime you switch boxes, it had to save the game. You had to switch boxes often cause if a box was full, you couldn't catch more pokemon until you switch to a box that wasn't full. It can be painful to play after later games. Second Gen (Gold silver crystal) try to fix that with seperate categories for items like pokeball, tm/hm and key item pocket. Even as far as letting pokemon hold items. But you still needed to use the pc for storing items.

It wasn't until the Nintendo DS where stuff got easier to manage. No more storing items in PC. You had a pocket for every category of item and every item has a slot that can stock up to 99 of each. Plus in fifth gen, TM are unlimited use like HM. Some maybe related to better hardware limits or some just better programming in general. Either way, it helps that you can get much more with less restrictions.

I wouldn't say that what you wanted isn't possible on gba, with a rom hack. But it will take much more work, recoding the game game into something new. Hacking documents and decompilation helps due to better understanding what the game is made of to begin with. But who is to say that the creators had ideas that never made it cause of it being a GBA game? Can we say for sure? Maybe they didn't have the time to do it or at the time, didn't have big rom carts that store lot more than 16MB of data, along with the save data needed for all of that.

Gets me sweating just thinking of that work.

 

[FAST6191]

Decompilations and leaked source code exist that would be the better option if doing this "properly" (though I might consider going the other way and adding pokemon mechanics to a fighting engine), however I once saw a presentation on Diablo and its development.


https://gdcvault.com/play/1023469/Classic-Game-Postmortem
The whole series is fascinating so apologies for those that have another series/site on the pile.

Anyway it noted that it was originally a turn based game and at its heart it still is (if you ever had slowdown and suddenly it did them all at once in turbo speed then you saw it). Turns are instead automatically taken such that it appears more real time. That would be easy enough to implement, indeed could probably do it in a Lua script before the evening is out (maybe even with some minigames to put a thumb on the accuracy/power/luck/whatever scales) -- sense when you are in battle and take a move list and give a strict timer to select within, fire back in inputs for the user.