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For those of you who don't understand, Smith is saying the creator of Crystal Clear steals work without crediting original creators. He's not making it obvious because he doesn't want to cause inter-community drama between Crystal Clear and Crystal Legacy fans.
Ohhhh, it's Crystal Clear he's talking about. I'm what some people might describe as "a bit dense" and struggle to understand what people are talking about unless they say it to me directly. Not being sarcastic either, I'm just like that.
I’d personally recommend Crystal Kaizo+ over Crystal Kaizo; pChal’s community made a rebalanced version of Crystal Kaizo recently to make it a more polished game. It’s still hard, but it’s hard in that it’s crafted to be hard but beatable, closer in design to Emerald Kaizo than Blue Kaizo. Also has a lot of QOL.
As someone who has played both versions a lot, I would recommend the original CK as the much better challenge for casual players, while CK+ is better for hardcore nuzlockes.
Is that what you get when you face a pokemon with a special of 21? Or when you fight the same trainer you normally fight to get mew? Because they might have a different special stat.
I was wondering if he was going to mention Pokémon Brown or Pokémon Prism, but then I remembered him stating that he prefers to experience romhacks that remain more faithful to the regions and stories of the originals rather than the ones that build their own from scratch, and I can respect that.
One recommendation I would change is instead of the original crystal kaizo is the newer crystal kaizo plus. Instead of making difficulty through insane overleveling of enemies, it’s more balanced and much more fun in my opinion
@@arach6199 in general it’s just much more well balanced. But it’s balanced around nuzlocking, in my opinion almost every pokemon is viable, but the game is still incredibly difficult
One of the best Rom hacks ever. But in my experience, it's a really hard hack, take the bw2 games at the hard difficulty, slap a hard mode on it, and then add strategies and modern items on them. This is the hardest fair hack I've played.
For Gen 2, I’d recommend Fool’s Gold. The Pokédex is replaced with alternative forms of every pokemon up to Gen 4, level curves are adjusted, and a few new areas are added. Very enjoyable experience - I’ve played through it about 3 times I would also hesitate to recommend Crystal Kaizo personally… Blue Kaizo is grueling, but a fun and fulfilling experience. Crystal Kaizo is more on the tedious side of things and just not all that much fun imo
I'd recommend CKKPlus made with the help of Pokemon Challenges' community. It uses the concepts laid out by CK and makes it more doable in a hardcore nuzlocke scenario. So no more healing item spam needed.
Hell yes, Fool's Gold was the most fun I've had with a rom hack so far. It's like Pokemon as a fever dream: Everything feels so familiar, but it's all different and weird. The feeling of every pokemon being new and somewhat unknown to you was such a breath of fresh air and that feeling reminded me of playing RBY for the first time.
Some really good romhacks beyond just gen 1 & 2 as well. Literally any of the Drayano hacks for example are amazing, and I couldn't recommend them enough.
Most of this community is actually gen 1 or 2 fans so he tailored it to that. On our discord we will have a section dedicated to gba games and such as well
“I love Kanto. Sometimes, FireRed just feels too modern for Kanto. I think the Gen 2 graphics is a nice touch of modernization without going too far.” Wow, did we just become best friends?
I'd like to recommend Pokemon: Cramorant Edition. It's a Romhack of Yellow, where the starter Pikachu is replaced with Cramorant, and there's a lot of Legacy-like improvements to the game. It has lots of custom animations and makes for a really polished Gen 1 experience with a twist.
Finally, somebody brings up Sour Crystal, I rarely hear anybody mention it. Everyone talks about Polished Crystal, and while I can agree that it's an amazing hack, it's way too over-the-top in my opinion - though I'm not opposed to trying it out and seeing if I don't change my mind. Sour Crystal is juuuuuust the right balance of old and new for me. And to clarify, I specifically have a version of Sour Crystal that has both HMs *and* the gen 7 system - I don't know if that's still the case for the current version of the hack, but if it is, just know that if you don't like the gen 7 field move system, you don't need to use it since HMs still exist. Edit: Out of curiosity I decided to check out Polished Crystal, but its page on Pokécommunity says it removes certain Pokémon from the game. And I'm sure it was because of certain limitations at the time, or it's an intentional design choice for one reason or another, but I draw a line at removing species of Pokémon.
Appreciate your effort to shed some light into gen 2 romhacking. I enjoyed a lot playing polished crystal back then, but sharing updates on UA-cam like you is way more friendly than on a forum for noobs like me. :)
I’m surprised nobody here is talking about Emerald Seaglass, its spritework is so beautiful and makes me feel the way I did when I played Crystal for the first time
If you make a follow up video you should consider these gen 2 romhacks: 1. Quarantine Crystal 2. Fool's Gold 3. Peridot 4. Coral 5. Orange 6. Dark Energy 7. Johto Legends 8. Black and White 3 9. Gold and Silver 97: Reforged 10. Salt Crystal (for a completely different yet fun battle experience) Quick shoutout to Prism (didn't include it in the list because everyone knows of it already), Kanto Explorers Through Time, and Tri Attack (hopefully it hasn't been abandoned).
Pokemon Vega is easily one of my favorite rom hacks. It has the perfect combination of a new region, new tiles, new story, original music tracks and very well done Fakemon. It genuinely feels like a lost Pokemon game from the 3rd Generation. It's just such a solid experience and what every rom hacker is looking for in a game!
Pokémon Radical Red is my favorite rom hack of recent years. I was a bit disappointed to not see it on this list tbh. Y’all should check it out if you haven’t already!
@@smithplayspokemon why did you say it was then. Manufacturing drama for your video is wrong. While you’re here can you clarify what code it supposedly stole as well? I know everyone would love to know.
Came upon your channel by YT's algorithm on my feed. Loving your content so far and definitely gonna try to play Legacy Crystal on my GBC for extra nostalgia points. Gen2 is criminally underrated but it will be one of my favorites along with Gen 3
2 rom hacks I'm very fond of are Perfect Emerald and Perfect Fire Red. They are just the regular games with QoL improvements, like the physical/special split, reusable TMs and the ability to catch/evolve all pokemon. I especially like that you evolve trade evolution pokemon in Perfect FR by sending them through Bill's teleporter.
I've gone back to this video a few times to read comments, and this is my two cents on the Crystal Clear bit. While I think you had good intentions to spread awareness about Shock Slayer, it definitely wasnt handled the best. You bring up points but don't provide any proof. This doesnt spread any actual awareness because viewers are left to rely on your word and nothing more. It instead causes confusion. It would have been better to provide some proof for what you said, or instead very briefly mention Crystal Clear and just say something like "the reason I didn't mention Crystal Clear is because theres some controversy about it and i dont feel comfortable supporting it" and then move on.
5:58 Um no, _Yellow_ is very much based on the anime. Gym Leader teams reflect their anime counterparts, you obtain the starters in a similar way, Pokémon locations are changed for anime accuracy, and Jessie and James (anime specific characters) are in it.
thank you for the recommends- im waiting for (your) "kanto expansion" before i play crystal legacy so i will check these out while i wait for that or yellow legacy to be finished in the meantime- love your stuff- hope your having a great trip / vacation or whatever it is buddy lol
Id love a fusion of Lecacy and Polished Crystal. Which is to say, Crystal Legacy's conservative approach to balance tweaking, but with Polished's gorgeous sprite art. Perfection.
Another great mention would be Super Gold 97/GS 97 Reforged. Both of these hacks work off of a similar framework to “recreate” what Gen2 might have been like if it had been closer to the leaked 97 build. Super Gold sticks closer to the aesthetics of that build, while 97 Reforged takes that and updates it to visuals akin to the finished GSC. They’re both just also really well made! The creator of Super Gold 97 even has an old school strategy guide (based on the GS Versus Books strategy guide) available for download as a pdf! It’s awesome.
I think my perfect rom hack right now would be Polished Crystal with Crystal Legacy's dex and encounter table. I really, really love the sprites and QoL they added in Polished, but I'm not a fan of cutting random mons to add some other random mons that weren't in gen 2.
Polished Crystal's 9bit branch (aka the current development branch) brings back all the original mons that were left out of previous releases, plus it adds the latest regional variants of the original roster.
these kinds of rom hacks are my preference as well so i got a lot of good recommendations out of this that i can't wait to try! thank you! also, this vid came out before this hack, but highly recommend emerald seagless to you or anyone reading this! it's such a delight. emerald in a gen 2/old RPG style without going past the 386 originally in emerald aside from adding in new evolutions as well as regional forms (and a few later gen mons that the developer included for funsies). there's upgraded features like fairy and phys/spec split. there's also new minigames that are a lot of fun! there's other stuff i didn't mention, it's very loaded and it feels like a new emerald, looks like crystal, but still feels homey and familiar even with the changes.
I started with Red and with all due respect to Legacy(which you've put a lot of great work into), Polished is what I'm looking for in these romhacks of older games, improving upon the old experience with modern all encompassing updates(new evos, new moves and QoL). Thank you for highlighting it.
What I like about Legacy is the difficulty curve. I appreciate Polished trying to bring a lovely visual element to an older game and adding the Orange Islands to it and I appreciate you keeping it as OG as possible and only updating/improving only where necessary. If only there was a way to merge the two, that would be perfect 😭But how difficult it Polished compared to Legacy? Because I feel as though you put a lot of thought and effort into making sure its a fair difficulty curve
Really loved this video. Crystal Legacy was pretty much exactly what I was looking for in a gen 2 rom hack so I'll be honest that when I would see people discussing Polished Crystal, Sour Crystal, Crystal REDACTED I would pretty much skip those threads and discussion as I felt like I had found 'the one' and was content to continue to play and master it. Having a great breakdown of their vision and differences definitely makes me feel like I was a bit too hasty to write them off. I think I'll take Polished Crystal for a spin first.
I used to be involved in the MMO private server community circa 2006. I have played ROM hacks for a while, but I never realized just how similar the development process was until now. I always kinda assumed they'd be an entirely different thing. But I guess they are both game development using community shared assets.
Crysal Kaizo was a very interesting experience. It forces me to use Pokemon in Gen 2, who I never thought, I would use them like Dugtrio or Electabuzz. The high encounter rate comes on top. Besides Koga Crystal Kaizo was more annoying than frustrating, but I had always fun (besides Koga and his Shuckle from hell). Even with the complicated paths like the route to Route 25.
While not in these styles, really have to say that my fave hacks are Crystal Legacy as a hit of nostalgia from my childhood and Blaze Black 2 Redux because it’s my fave region. Really love your work and Drayano’s work!
Crystal Clear is still the best Crystal romhack released so far, imo. Regardless of what you might think of the dev and their actions, it's still incredible.
I mean, I had an absolute blast playing Crystal Clear, for well over a thousand hours across updates. While I agree SS's actions are not cool, most of it is his prerogative, and he's free to suffer the consequences of his actions. As far as I understand it (my info may be out of date cuz I haven't paid attention to it in almost 3 years), the stuff locked behind a paywall is not directly related to Pokémon IP. People complain because "it's obvious people are paying for CC cuz it's his team's most popular project;" I say that's irrelevant. If that was a truly accurate depiction of the truth, Nintendo would've shut him down fully long ago. SS prolly isn't gonna make the same mistake twice, and has probably done everything he can to make his team legally bulletproof after his website and github got axed.
A really fun enhancement mod I've played recently and been extremely inspired by is Energized Emerald. Its central tenet is basically "What is the Pokebilities pet mod were a ROMhack?", which is a concept that is SO fun to play in practice. For those of you who are not competitive players who like to dabble in the Other Metagames section, Pokebilities is where each pokemon has all of their abilities active at once. For example, what if Ambipom had Skill Link and Technician at the same time (along with its other, less useful ability)? What if Breloom had Poison Heal, Technician, and Effect Spore all active at the same time? It's that concept, explored and deepened so as to account for things such as Skarmory otherwise being nerfed into the ground by being forced to have Weak Armor. Having all of these abilities going around at once seems as if it would be chaotic, but in practice, it manages to feel engaging and exciting, but without crossing the line into outright zany or overbearing. It expands the game experience, but does not fundamentally compromise it. The major drawback (for someone like me) is that Energized Emerald is not at all a challenge hack. The battles are largely those of vanilla Emerald, so if you go into it expecting to try out the fun of multiple simultaneous abilities in battles with challenging trainers, such as in Radical Red or Inclement Emerald, you're going to leave disappointed. This mod is in desperate need of some ambitious ROMhacker making a challenge mod fork, but in the meantime, it's great for casual run-throughs.
Outstanding. Went to a bunch of concerts and continue to plan on attending concerts with my son. I do feel like these opportunities are going to become few and far between with all these resale and hard to get into venues. Thanks
Kanto Expansion Pak is awesome. Not sure if Smith meant to miss mentioning what I think is one of the biggest additions in KEP: reintroducing Pokemon cut from original development (e.g. Gorochu and Wartortle’s original evolution).This is what blew my mind the most about it.
After not seeing thesmithplays since prime bo3 days and accidently finding out he has a pokemon channel while looking for romhacks is mind boggling lol. Brings back memories.
I'm already intending to play PureRGB for a video series on my own channel sometime. I've already played through it myself, and I can't recommend it enough for people wanting a Gen 1-like experience but with some QoL improvements and a little more to explore. I'll look into some of the other ones listed here too.
Everything he claimed about it is false. Why do you think he didn’t name it? He’s jumping on a bandwagon/ hate train for the clicks and views, and doesn’t want to have to stand by what he said.
@@TheTuerespendejo How do you know? Try to find the crystal clear code online or other people talking about the same topic. If he were trying to hate on it then he would of put more emphasis on that and he was giving constructive criticism more than just hating.
@@gonzoengineering4894It's not too far off from the truth. The patreon is still very unethical even without the pay wall. Crystal Clear was made using Pokecrystal which is the disassembly project of Pokemon Crystal, and grabbing a lot of code from different Open Source projects that were also created using Pokecrystal. Compared to them though, Crystal Clear is CLOSED SOURCE, so no one can benefit from Crystal Clear's code and that the developer's of Crystal Clear cannot improve their coding skills by receiving well written feedback. But to make a project off the back of someone else's hard work and then accept tips for it is insane. Completely unethical.
This list is a very good introduction to rom hacks here, i wouod've personally recommended crystal clear, radical red, emerald elite redux and prism, maybe even unbound but you need to get there gradually in my opinion, very gen 1-2 focused list which was a breath of fresh air from the sea of lists recommending gba hacka
I'm only playing gsc hacks, but want to add these for that generation (in no particular order): Pokemon prism, pokemon black&white 3:genesis, and serene crystal if you don't hate fakemons. Also pokemon orange, but wait until it has been remade in the dissassembly (crashed randomly when I play it now.
I must admit, most of these rom hacks add bit too much that makes them lose track of these games having an identity of when they came out, in their respective generations. Its exactly what makes them special. Hence why Smith, I love your take on the OG gen perservation as nowadays you can not experience that anymore when you think about it. Once gen 4 came to fray, with physical and special split, there was no going back. Dont get me wrong, some of these are neat, either as an idea or execution. Ngl, I cant wait to see what ideas will you guys come up with for Pokemon Emerald Legacy. I've played the heck outta Gen 3 in all sorts of shapes and form that I grew to enjoy it. Even if, Pokemon Platinum along with Heartgold/Soulsilver are my all time favs.
Pokémon Garbage Green is probably worth a mention for not only being designed for Trashlockes but introducing something novel: gauntlets. Most gyms and dungeons in Garbage Green are gauntlets that force players to complete them without leaving-no backtracking, no using Teleport, Fly, or Dig, and almost no healing since most healing items are absent or finite. Completing a gauntlet without wiping requires careful management of both HP and PP. Having a Poison-type Pokémon also becomes critical since such is the only reliable way to combat being poisoned by opponents.
Shin Red is my personal favourite romhack! I never expected to fall back into gen 1 so much, but this game feels like everything a Pokemon game was meant to be.
Thanks for making crystal legacy it is an awesome rom that makes great changes and actually makes me care about base crystal I love the gen 2 fan games like xenoverse gs chronicles and even ss/hg but never really cared about the older versions but now I am all in btw sorry for leaving a ton of comments on your original crystal legacy video
Been playing Crystal Legacy and I'm having a blast. Definitely helping me to enjoy the older games with the QoL improvements. Wish the bike wasn't slower than sprinting though lol
Dont worry bout your hairline, it looks fine. Swooping your hair forward is really distracting and looks far stranger than what you think your hair line looks like. I also am someone who is worried about my hairline, and I just want to say you look great and the swooping is offering nothing. With that said, can't wait to play yellow legacy. Thsnks to you and your team for your work,
kanto expansion pak is also notable for having a pokemon showdown mod the metagame actually gave the devs some feedback about the pokemon balancing; this is why lickitung is obtained so far from its evolution level, for example
Played most of these already and they are all fantastic as well as Crystal Legacy from you and your team, I got real excited when I saw Sour Crystal on here it's such a great one and it's tied with Legacy as my fave gen 2 game, I like the expanded Kanto, Berry Pocket, Instant Apricorn Balls, and the HM Pager system. with Legacy I love the updated Pokédex, the teams the Gym Leaders have, the added bits in the Rocket Plot line, and the improved Rival Battles and his storyline.
Bro with all due respect Crystal Clear is a fantastic hack and you going on a rant against it makes you seem bitter and a bit hypocritical. Firstly, nobody is paying for Crystal Clear, nothing is locked behind a pay wall, and there are disclaimers all over the hack informing the player of such. And secondly, chill out for a bit and realize, we're all pirates here. But a pirate criticizing other pirates for pirating is no pirate. You may not see yourself as such, but...I guess that's what makes you a hypocrite. That said, love the content, keep it up (outside of the bitterness of course).
Thanks for the recommendations, im pretty new to playing Romhacks. I never enjoyed them in the past because i hate playing on a PC, but now that ive jailbroken my 2DS and can play them on that ive been playing a bunch of different ones. Not a fan of the ridiculously hard ones like Kaizos or Radical Red. But i love the wacky ones like Rocket edition and fusions, and just the improvement/expansion ones like Legacy, and a few of the ones you named sound right up my alley too
There's a version that's like Unova Red, but in Fire Red/Leaf Green, which is called Kanto Black. They have Gen 6 pokemon in the Sevii islands, similar to how Johto pokemon can be found there in FR/LG, and also implement some morr recent features such as the Physical/Special split
Rangi did their thing when they made polished crystal and Red++. My boy actually read my comments all the way back then and played my two favorite romhacks ever.
I'm a sucker for Gen 3 ROM Hacks and would also recommend Kanto Black! It's like Unova Red but is based on FireRed and uses the Sevii Islands really well by letting you go there as soon as you beat Surge. It also has built in difficulty modes, as well as a bunch of brand new battle facilities and even a Trick House!
You didn't really touch much on the Gen 3 hacks as much focusing really on Kanto and Johto. Another one to consider that was good fun was a fire red hack based on the Orange Islands story. You start off with the blimp ride and go through Ash's story through the orange islands. It ends with the events of Pokemon 2000 with the island festival and puzzles related to gathering the orbs and delivering them back as the hero in the legend. I also played a Team Rocket hack that was pretty good. You basically work your way up through team rocket. I didn't have a final version when I played it so I never finished the story line, but it was creative and fun and the robotic portrayal of red is pretty solid. It was at the very least a great creative project that shows a different perspective of the kanto storyline.
Ash Grey is super fun, but for anyone who wants to play it, do try to follow the anime as closely as possible or you'll really miss out on a lot! And you may even get soft locked if you skip an important part...
I love all the wonderful work going into these roms. Now if only we could get everyone to start using the gen 5 engine to remake all of these wonderful regions and games.
This is a very nice list. I don't know what happened to people that made lists like this but they kind of make terrible content nowadays. If you look up "best ROM hacks" you'll either get really semi results or very terrible ones
Ayy, Red Plus Plus! Haven't heard that one in a long while. Used to work with the creator back in the day, still have an _old_ version of the hack when they were early on in development.
The only one i disagree with is Crystal Kaizo, as even for Kaizo standards, it's not a good rom hack. A lot of tbe mid to late battles rely on using really slow stall strategies like toxic stalling with shuckle. I remember watching Pokémon Challenges play it and he found it pretty boring to the point where it actually sparked the creation of making an improved version of Crystal Kaizo that makes me game feel more like Emerald Kaizo (which is easily a better Kaizo game) Edit: it's called Crystal Kaizo+
I really enjoyed playing liquid Crystal last summer. It was cool to see jhoto in the gen 3 engine with a slight difficulty increase. I stopped after beating the elite four, so i can't say much about the added story elements in the kanto section of the game
The issue I ran into with Blue Kazio was the massive increase encounter rate and the extended paths in the mid game and f**** cycling road. Cycling road made me save more than most.
I surprised you didn’t mention any of the drayo hacks. I’m currently playing through his renegade platinum hack. It is a pretty tough rom and supposedly he makes them almost impossible to nuzlock them.
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💡Note: be quick, this offer is available for a limited time only! ⏳ The promo code is available from March 7th to April 11th.
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😅😊😊😊
😊
no
Can you sell me a copy of pokemon crystal legacy completed for gba cartridge?
For those of you who don't understand, Smith is saying the creator of Crystal Clear steals work without crediting original creators. He's not making it obvious because he doesn't want to cause inter-community drama between Crystal Clear and Crystal Legacy fans.
Ohhhh, it's Crystal Clear he's talking about. I'm what some people might describe as "a bit dense" and struggle to understand what people are talking about unless they say it to me directly. Not being sarcastic either, I'm just like that.
I mean he can post evidence or links to the claims, I've been on the discord for years and have not once seen any paywalling
it says in beginning of game that if you payed for Pokemon crystal clear you got scammed. its a free ROM hack.
i will say tho that trying to edit the ROM is hard for some reason
@@Arccharger448Yeah, me too. Then again I'm not really active in the server, I mostly just... exist there kinda.
Thank you for promoting the Kanto Expansion Pak! It means the world ❤❤❤
Very well deserved
Thank you for keeping it open source too!
We love kep and plague is awesome please play it
Easily one of my top gen1 hacks. I really appreciate what you did with it. Guardia was so cool!
@@angeldiselatciathat's my policy! Anything I learn or make will always be freely redistributed in some way!
I’d personally recommend Crystal Kaizo+ over Crystal Kaizo; pChal’s community made a rebalanced version of Crystal Kaizo recently to make it a more polished game. It’s still hard, but it’s hard in that it’s crafted to be hard but beatable, closer in design to Emerald Kaizo than Blue Kaizo. Also has a lot of QOL.
Yeah thanks for saying the name. I forgot what it's called
Oh thank you!! That’s a good suggestion
I will note this on our server when I get the recommendations channel set up
Yeah, Id love to play it but its impossible to find.. 😢 Could I ask you for a link?
As someone who has played both versions a lot, I would recommend the original CK as the much better challenge for casual players, while CK+ is better for hardcore nuzlockes.
For those wondering, Unova Red still features the Mew Glitch. The Pokemon replacing Mew, believe it or not, is Munna.
Is that what you get when you face a pokemon with a special of 21? Or when you fight the same trainer you normally fight to get mew? Because they might have a different special stat.
@@Alienldr I have no idea. All I know is, both Mew glitches from Gen 1 are present in the game, and Munna is the Pokémon that replaces Mew.
@@zephyrurchin4763 ok. I'll have to get that hack and investigate then, because now I'm curious.
Missed opportunity to make it victini
@@bewearstar9462 fr, definitely shouldve been victini
I was wondering if he was going to mention Pokémon Brown or Pokémon Prism, but then I remembered him stating that he prefers to experience romhacks that remain more faithful to the regions and stories of the originals rather than the ones that build their own from scratch, and I can respect that.
We shout out prism on our server alot and will continue to do so fantastic hack
Maybe in another video! I wanted to keep this one focused on enhancement hacks :)
@@smithplayspokemon That's what I figured after a second thought, lol. Looking forward to the next one either way!
fool's gold is great as well.
We appreciate other rom hacks in this household.
One recommendation I would change is instead of the original crystal kaizo is the newer crystal kaizo plus. Instead of making difficulty through insane overleveling of enemies, it’s more balanced and much more fun in my opinion
Definitely felt like the kaizo pokemon games were hard in super uninteresting ways. I'll have to check out what's different with plus
@@arach6199 in general it’s just much more well balanced. But it’s balanced around nuzlocking, in my opinion almost every pokemon is viable, but the game is still incredibly difficult
I Said on an above comment when I get it set up how I want I'm gonna link that one for sure.
Black and White III: Genesis was a really cool and original experience. Not sure when people don’t talk about that one more. Great vid!
I've had a lot of fun with this one.
yes! it was amazing!!
Oh! Is that rom hack finished?!
One of the best Rom hacks ever. But in my experience, it's a really hard hack, take the bw2 games at the hard difficulty, slap a hard mode on it, and then add strategies and modern items on them. This is the hardest fair hack I've played.
@@shimogane2474 totally agree. The curve isn’t very fun. I think it was the impressiveness of the game kept me through
For Gen 2, I’d recommend Fool’s Gold. The Pokédex is replaced with alternative forms of every pokemon up to Gen 4, level curves are adjusted, and a few new areas are added. Very enjoyable experience - I’ve played through it about 3 times
I would also hesitate to recommend Crystal Kaizo personally… Blue Kaizo is grueling, but a fun and fulfilling experience. Crystal Kaizo is more on the tedious side of things and just not all that much fun imo
I'd recommend CKKPlus made with the help of Pokemon Challenges' community. It uses the concepts laid out by CK and makes it more doable in a hardcore nuzlocke scenario. So no more healing item spam needed.
Not only a few new areas, but the entire Sevii Islands!
Hell yes, Fool's Gold was the most fun I've had with a rom hack so far. It's like Pokemon as a fever dream: Everything feels so familiar, but it's all different and weird. The feeling of every pokemon being new and somewhat unknown to you was such a breath of fresh air and that feeling reminded me of playing RBY for the first time.
@@staxstix Probably my favorite gen 2 experience along with Prism and Silver 97 Reforged.
If we are talking Romhacks the best one in recent years got to be Pokemon Emerald Rogue. Turning Pokemon into a roguelike was a genius idea.
Some really good romhacks beyond just gen 1 & 2 as well. Literally any of the Drayano hacks for example are amazing, and I couldn't recommend them enough.
Most of this community is actually gen 1 or 2 fans so he tailored it to that.
On our discord we will have a section dedicated to gba games and such as well
“I love Kanto. Sometimes, FireRed just feels too modern for Kanto. I think the Gen 2 graphics is a nice touch of modernization without going too far.”
Wow, did we just become best friends?
I'd like to recommend Pokemon: Cramorant Edition. It's a Romhack of Yellow, where the starter Pikachu is replaced with Cramorant, and there's a lot of Legacy-like improvements to the game. It has lots of custom animations and makes for a really polished Gen 1 experience with a twist.
This was on a list of 20 that we tailored down to 11. I will for sure be linking it in our discord when I get it set up
Finally, somebody brings up Sour Crystal, I rarely hear anybody mention it. Everyone talks about Polished Crystal, and while I can agree that it's an amazing hack, it's way too over-the-top in my opinion - though I'm not opposed to trying it out and seeing if I don't change my mind. Sour Crystal is juuuuuust the right balance of old and new for me.
And to clarify, I specifically have a version of Sour Crystal that has both HMs *and* the gen 7 system - I don't know if that's still the case for the current version of the hack, but if it is, just know that if you don't like the gen 7 field move system, you don't need to use it since HMs still exist.
Edit: Out of curiosity I decided to check out Polished Crystal, but its page on Pokécommunity says it removes certain Pokémon from the game. And I'm sure it was because of certain limitations at the time, or it's an intentional design choice for one reason or another, but I draw a line at removing species of Pokémon.
The latest dev build of Polished Crystal (9bit) adds them all back
@@innocenthedgehog8367 I'll wait until the full release then, I don't like using dev builds due to them being so unstable.
when i saw there was a branch with lickilicky in it i was intrigued but then i saw it had abilities and natures and idk about that
@@egon3705when you start the game you can turn on and off stuff you like/dislike
@@Yominication hm, might try 9bit then
Appreciate your effort to shed some light into gen 2 romhacking. I enjoyed a lot playing polished crystal back then, but sharing updates on UA-cam like you is way more friendly than on a forum for noobs like me. :)
I always enjoyed Perfect Crystal. Adds all 251 Pokemon, unlimited TMs and many Johto Pokemon from Kanto are put back in Johto.
I’m surprised nobody here is talking about Emerald Seaglass, its spritework is so beautiful and makes me feel the way I did when I played Crystal for the first time
If you make a follow up video you should consider these gen 2 romhacks:
1. Quarantine Crystal
2. Fool's Gold
3. Peridot
4. Coral
5. Orange
6. Dark Energy
7. Johto Legends
8. Black and White 3
9. Gold and Silver 97: Reforged
10. Salt Crystal (for a completely different yet fun battle experience)
Quick shoutout to Prism (didn't include it in the list because everyone knows of it already), Kanto Explorers Through Time, and Tri Attack (hopefully it hasn't been abandoned).
Thanks for this list! It's great to hear about some less known gems.
Pokemon Prism is another top tier rom hack. Gen 2 hack. Has old school Zelda-like puzzles; new region, new sprites, etc.
Pokemon Crystal Clear was a pretty good Rom Hack that wasn't mentioned.
it was mentioned, just indirectly. its the open world controversy one he talks about, though its bs cause its not behind a paywall like he claims
Even if shockslayer is a scum bag, crystal clear just might be the best pokémon game ever, even including main titles, its that good.
Pokemon Vega is easily one of my favorite rom hacks. It has the perfect combination of a new region, new tiles, new story, original music tracks and very well done Fakemon. It genuinely feels like a lost Pokemon game from the 3rd Generation. It's just such a solid experience and what every rom hacker is looking for in a game!
I just wish it alongside Glazed got a decomp glow-up.
Pokémon Radical Red is my favorite rom hack of recent years. I was a bit disappointed to not see it on this list tbh. Y’all should check it out if you haven’t already!
Other games I'd recommend are Pokemon Brown and Prism. I know they are a different type of rom hack but those games are so fun
Could you or anyone clarify about the paywall thing about Crystal Clear? Ive never heard about that before and cant find anything about it
Cuz it’s not true lol.
I don't think any proof for or against that allegation has ever been posted. Seems like people are just picking a side based on hearsay alone.
To clarify, CC specifically was not paywalled
@@smithplayspokemon why did you say it was then.
Manufacturing drama for your video is wrong.
While you’re here can you clarify what code it supposedly stole as well? I know everyone would love to know.
@@smithplayspokemon so what *was* paywalled, or was the bit on CC just a smear campaign?
Came upon your channel by YT's algorithm on my feed. Loving your content so far and definitely gonna try to play Legacy Crystal on my GBC for extra nostalgia points. Gen2 is criminally underrated but it will be one of my favorites along with Gen 3
I appreciate all these GBC Rom Hacks they look so good on the Analogue Pocket
Stoked to try Yellow Legacy
2 rom hacks I'm very fond of are Perfect Emerald and Perfect Fire Red. They are just the regular games with QoL improvements, like the physical/special split, reusable TMs and the ability to catch/evolve all pokemon. I especially like that you evolve trade evolution pokemon in Perfect FR by sending them through Bill's teleporter.
I've gone back to this video a few times to read comments, and this is my two cents on the Crystal Clear bit.
While I think you had good intentions to spread awareness about Shock Slayer, it definitely wasnt handled the best.
You bring up points but don't provide any proof. This doesnt spread any actual awareness because viewers are left to rely on your word and nothing more. It instead causes confusion.
It would have been better to provide some proof for what you said, or instead very briefly mention Crystal Clear and just say something like "the reason I didn't mention Crystal Clear is because theres some controversy about it and i dont feel comfortable supporting it" and then move on.
Super fair and super valid! I have done my research to get the best possible idea of the picture if it means anything, talking to many sources.
@@smithplayspokemon then why not show any of this evidence in the video? You didn't talk to Shock Slayer, so the drama wasn't that well researched.
@@smithplayspokemonAre you not going to reply to valid criticism?
@@HeyHiHowdy6969"Are you going to reply to valid criticism?" You write in response to his reply to valid criticism lmao.
5:58 Um no, _Yellow_ is very much based on the anime. Gym Leader teams reflect their anime counterparts, you obtain the starters in a similar way, Pokémon locations are changed for anime accuracy, and Jessie and James (anime specific characters) are in it.
There's also Crystal Kaizo + which seeks to refine and polish the rough edges of the original and make it more in line with Emerald Kaizo.
thank you for the recommends- im waiting for (your) "kanto expansion" before i play crystal legacy so i will check these out while i wait for that or yellow legacy to be finished in the meantime- love your stuff- hope your having a great trip / vacation or whatever it is buddy lol
Id love a fusion of Lecacy and Polished Crystal. Which is to say, Crystal Legacy's conservative approach to balance tweaking, but with Polished's gorgeous sprite art. Perfection.
Another great mention would be Super Gold 97/GS 97 Reforged. Both of these hacks work off of a similar framework to “recreate” what Gen2 might have been like if it had been closer to the leaked 97 build. Super Gold sticks closer to the aesthetics of that build, while 97 Reforged takes that and updates it to visuals akin to the finished GSC. They’re both just also really well made! The creator of Super Gold 97 even has an old school strategy guide (based on the GS Versus Books strategy guide) available for download as a pdf! It’s awesome.
I can't wait for Emerald Legacy!
I think my perfect rom hack right now would be Polished Crystal with Crystal Legacy's dex and encounter table. I really, really love the sprites and QoL they added in Polished, but I'm not a fan of cutting random mons to add some other random mons that weren't in gen 2.
Polished Crystal's 9bit branch (aka the current development branch) brings back all the original mons that were left out of previous releases, plus it adds the latest regional variants of the original roster.
@@angeldiselatciaoooh, that's good to hear! I'll definitely check it out then, thanks for letting me know
these kinds of rom hacks are my preference as well so i got a lot of good recommendations out of this that i can't wait to try! thank you! also, this vid came out before this hack, but highly recommend emerald seagless to you or anyone reading this! it's such a delight. emerald in a gen 2/old RPG style without going past the 386 originally in emerald aside from adding in new evolutions as well as regional forms (and a few later gen mons that the developer included for funsies). there's upgraded features like fairy and phys/spec split. there's also new minigames that are a lot of fun! there's other stuff i didn't mention, it's very loaded and it feels like a new emerald, looks like crystal, but still feels homey and familiar even with the changes.
What about Pokemon Prism? Shame Nintendo shut it down right before the release of the final version, but the version we have is quite good
I started with Red and with all due respect to Legacy(which you've put a lot of great work into), Polished is what I'm looking for in these romhacks of older games, improving upon the old experience with modern all encompassing updates(new evos, new moves and QoL). Thank you for highlighting it.
What I like about Legacy is the difficulty curve. I appreciate Polished trying to bring a lovely visual element to an older game and adding the Orange Islands to it and I appreciate you keeping it as OG as possible and only updating/improving only where necessary. If only there was a way to merge the two, that would be perfect 😭But how difficult it Polished compared to Legacy? Because I feel as though you put a lot of thought and effort into making sure its a fair difficulty curve
With 10 play testers, we put a lot of time and effort into making it as optimal as possible
@@smithplayspokemonthe game is great!
Really loved this video. Crystal Legacy was pretty much exactly what I was looking for in a gen 2 rom hack so I'll be honest that when I would see people discussing Polished Crystal, Sour Crystal, Crystal REDACTED I would pretty much skip those threads and discussion as I felt like I had found 'the one' and was content to continue to play and master it. Having a great breakdown of their vision and differences definitely makes me feel like I was a bit too hasty to write them off. I think I'll take Polished Crystal for a spin first.
I used to be involved in the MMO private server community circa 2006. I have played ROM hacks for a while, but I never realized just how similar the development process was until now. I always kinda assumed they'd be an entirely different thing. But I guess they are both game development using community shared assets.
Crysal Kaizo was a very interesting experience. It forces me to use Pokemon in Gen 2, who I never thought, I would use them like Dugtrio or Electabuzz. The high encounter rate comes on top. Besides Koga Crystal Kaizo was more annoying than frustrating, but I had always fun (besides Koga and his Shuckle from hell). Even with the complicated paths like the route to Route 25.
While not in these styles, really have to say that my fave hacks are Crystal Legacy as a hit of nostalgia from my childhood and Blaze Black 2 Redux because it’s my fave region. Really love your work and Drayano’s work!
Crystal Clear is still the best Crystal romhack released so far, imo. Regardless of what you might think of the dev and their actions, it's still incredible.
I mean, I had an absolute blast playing Crystal Clear, for well over a thousand hours across updates. While I agree SS's actions are not cool, most of it is his prerogative, and he's free to suffer the consequences of his actions.
As far as I understand it (my info may be out of date cuz I haven't paid attention to it in almost 3 years), the stuff locked behind a paywall is not directly related to Pokémon IP. People complain because "it's obvious people are paying for CC cuz it's his team's most popular project;" I say that's irrelevant. If that was a truly accurate depiction of the truth, Nintendo would've shut him down fully long ago. SS prolly isn't gonna make the same mistake twice, and has probably done everything he can to make his team legally bulletproof after his website and github got axed.
Awesome video, need to do some playthroughs of these‼️🎮🕹💥
A really fun enhancement mod I've played recently and been extremely inspired by is Energized Emerald. Its central tenet is basically "What is the Pokebilities pet mod were a ROMhack?", which is a concept that is SO fun to play in practice.
For those of you who are not competitive players who like to dabble in the Other Metagames section, Pokebilities is where each pokemon has all of their abilities active at once. For example, what if Ambipom had Skill Link and Technician at the same time (along with its other, less useful ability)? What if Breloom had Poison Heal, Technician, and Effect Spore all active at the same time? It's that concept, explored and deepened so as to account for things such as Skarmory otherwise being nerfed into the ground by being forced to have Weak Armor.
Having all of these abilities going around at once seems as if it would be chaotic, but in practice, it manages to feel engaging and exciting, but without crossing the line into outright zany or overbearing. It expands the game experience, but does not fundamentally compromise it.
The major drawback (for someone like me) is that Energized Emerald is not at all a challenge hack. The battles are largely those of vanilla Emerald, so if you go into it expecting to try out the fun of multiple simultaneous abilities in battles with challenging trainers, such as in Radical Red or Inclement Emerald, you're going to leave disappointed. This mod is in desperate need of some ambitious ROMhacker making a challenge mod fork, but in the meantime, it's great for casual run-throughs.
I had no idea about those Crystal Clear shenanigans!
read verymelonman12 convo above.
I dare you to do a video with a different speaking cadence.
Why don't you?
Fuck I can't unhear it now
@@yasin_GD I’m sorry I did that to you 😂
Why? It's really nice to listen to as is
What a weird nitpick
This is a great a great video I didn't know I needed. Defenitly gonna try some of the roms you've recommended!
Outstanding. Went to a bunch of concerts and continue to plan on attending concerts with my son. I do feel like these opportunities are going to become few and far between with all these resale and hard to get into venues. Thanks
Kanto Expansion Pak is awesome. Not sure if Smith meant to miss mentioning what I think is one of the biggest additions in KEP: reintroducing Pokemon cut from original development (e.g. Gorochu and Wartortle’s original evolution).This is what blew my mind the most about it.
7:45 "You're probably gonna have a bad time"
My brain: _megalovania intensifies_
This was thorough, honest, and complete! Awesome video, thanks for showing me some new games to add to the library!
After not seeing thesmithplays since prime bo3 days and accidently finding out he has a pokemon channel while looking for romhacks is mind boggling lol. Brings back memories.
Crystal clear is amazing.
( Elite four is a bit excessive )
Too much OC and general weirdness.
@@Joker22593
agreed
I'm already intending to play PureRGB for a video series on my own channel sometime. I've already played through it myself, and I can't recommend it enough for people wanting a Gen 1-like experience but with some QoL improvements and a little more to explore. I'll look into some of the other ones listed here too.
You are by FAR the best Pokemon ROM hack reviewer on UA-cam. Its not even close.
Wow and people have been praising crystal clear for years without the full story. Today i learned something
Everything he claimed about it is false. Why do you think he didn’t name it? He’s jumping on a bandwagon/ hate train for the clicks and views, and doesn’t want to have to stand by what he said.
@@TheTuerespendejo How do you know? Try to find the crystal clear code online or other people talking about the same topic. If he were trying to hate on it then he would of put more emphasis on that and he was giving constructive criticism more than just hating.
The paywall accusation is litterally just slander
@@gonzoengineering4894It's not too far off from the truth. The patreon is still very unethical even without the pay wall.
Crystal Clear was made using Pokecrystal which is the disassembly project of Pokemon Crystal, and grabbing a lot of code from different Open Source projects that were also created using Pokecrystal. Compared to them though, Crystal Clear is CLOSED SOURCE, so no one can benefit from Crystal Clear's code and that the developer's of Crystal Clear cannot improve their coding skills by receiving well written feedback.
But to make a project off the back of someone else's hard work and then accept tips for it is insane. Completely unethical.
This list is a very good introduction to rom hacks here, i wouod've personally recommended crystal clear, radical red, emerald elite redux and prism, maybe even unbound but you need to get there gradually in my opinion, very gen 1-2 focused list which was a breath of fresh air from the sea of lists recommending gba hacka
I'm only playing gsc hacks, but want to add these for that generation (in no particular order): Pokemon prism, pokemon black&white 3:genesis, and serene crystal if you don't hate fakemons. Also pokemon orange, but wait until it has been remade in the dissassembly (crashed randomly when I play it now.
Playing Shin Blue/Shin Red, its so far pretty enjoyable, changes arent too crazy, but it feels like a more complete experience.
I'd probably also add Anniversary Crytal to the list. A really neat reimagining of gen 2.
I must admit, most of these rom hacks add bit too much that makes them lose track of these games having an identity of when they came out, in their respective generations. Its exactly what makes them special.
Hence why Smith, I love your take on the OG gen perservation as nowadays you can not experience that anymore when you think about it.
Once gen 4 came to fray, with physical and special split, there was no going back.
Dont get me wrong, some of these are neat, either as an idea or execution. Ngl, I cant wait to see what ideas will you guys come up with for Pokemon Emerald Legacy. I've played the heck outta Gen 3 in all sorts of shapes and form that I grew to enjoy it.
Even if, Pokemon Platinum along with Heartgold/Soulsilver are my all time favs.
kanto expansion pak is actually really great about this
the battle system is entirely untouched
Pokémon Garbage Green is probably worth a mention for not only being designed for Trashlockes but introducing something novel: gauntlets.
Most gyms and dungeons in Garbage Green are gauntlets that force players to complete them without leaving-no backtracking, no using Teleport, Fly, or Dig, and almost no healing since most healing items are absent or finite. Completing a gauntlet without wiping requires careful management of both HP and PP. Having a Poison-type Pokémon also becomes critical since such is the only reliable way to combat being poisoned by opponents.
Shin Red is my personal favourite romhack! I never expected to fall back into gen 1 so much, but this game feels like everything a Pokemon game was meant to be.
Thanks for making crystal legacy it is an awesome rom that makes great changes and actually makes me care about base crystal I love the gen 2 fan games like xenoverse gs chronicles and even ss/hg but never really cared about the older versions but now I am all in btw sorry for leaving a ton of comments on your original crystal legacy video
Crystal clear is also a great rom
Been playing Crystal Legacy and I'm having a blast. Definitely helping me to enjoy the older games with the QoL improvements. Wish the bike wasn't slower than sprinting though lol
Dont worry bout your hairline, it looks fine. Swooping your hair forward is really distracting and looks far stranger than what you think your hair line looks like. I also am someone who is worried about my hairline, and I just want to say you look great and the swooping is offering nothing.
With that said, can't wait to play yellow legacy. Thsnks to you and your team for your work,
kanto expansion pak is also notable for having a pokemon showdown mod
the metagame actually gave the devs some feedback about the pokemon balancing; this is why lickitung is obtained so far from its evolution level, for example
Played most of these already and they are all fantastic as well as Crystal Legacy from you and your team, I got real excited when I saw Sour Crystal on here it's such a great one and it's tied with Legacy as my fave gen 2 game, I like the expanded Kanto, Berry Pocket, Instant Apricorn Balls, and the HM Pager system. with Legacy I love the updated Pokédex, the teams the Gym Leaders have, the added bits in the Rocket Plot line, and the improved Rival Battles and his storyline.
Bro with all due respect Crystal Clear is a fantastic hack and you going on a rant against it makes you seem bitter and a bit hypocritical. Firstly, nobody is paying for Crystal Clear, nothing is locked behind a pay wall, and there are disclaimers all over the hack informing the player of such. And secondly, chill out for a bit and realize, we're all pirates here. But a pirate criticizing other pirates for pirating is no pirate. You may not see yourself as such, but...I guess that's what makes you a hypocrite.
That said, love the content, keep it up (outside of the bitterness of course).
Finally, a series of romhacks I actually think I would like!
Thanks for the recommendations, im pretty new to playing Romhacks. I never enjoyed them in the past because i hate playing on a PC, but now that ive jailbroken my 2DS and can play them on that ive been playing a bunch of different ones.
Not a fan of the ridiculously hard ones like Kaizos or Radical Red. But i love the wacky ones like Rocket edition and fusions, and just the improvement/expansion ones like Legacy, and a few of the ones you named sound right up my alley too
LOVE that concept for Unova Red! Especially considering some gen 5 mons were designed to be HARD counterparts to gen 1 mons!
I really enjoyed Crystal Legacy and Polished Crystal. The best gen 2 romhack Ive ever played in my life.
There's a version that's like Unova Red, but in Fire Red/Leaf Green, which is called Kanto Black. They have Gen 6 pokemon in the Sevii islands, similar to how Johto pokemon can be found there in FR/LG, and also implement some morr recent features such as the Physical/Special split
Just finished Crystal Legacy (Hard). Thanks for such a great romhack. I plan to catch-em-all at some point.
Ive been playing one caled Firered Rocket Edition. It's a lot of fun too!
Love this one!! Highly recommend
Heck yeah, that one is great. I really enjoyed the added depth to the classic story.
Rangi did their thing when they made polished crystal and Red++. My boy actually read my comments all the way back then and played my two favorite romhacks ever.
I'm a sucker for Gen 3 ROM Hacks and would also recommend Kanto Black! It's like Unova Red but is based on FireRed and uses the Sevii Islands really well by letting you go there as soon as you beat Surge. It also has built in difficulty modes, as well as a bunch of brand new battle facilities and even a Trick House!
You didn't really touch much on the Gen 3 hacks as much focusing really on Kanto and Johto. Another one to consider that was good fun was a fire red hack based on the Orange Islands story. You start off with the blimp ride and go through Ash's story through the orange islands. It ends with the events of Pokemon 2000 with the island festival and puzzles related to gathering the orbs and delivering them back as the hero in the legend.
I also played a Team Rocket hack that was pretty good. You basically work your way up through team rocket. I didn't have a final version when I played it so I never finished the story line, but it was creative and fun and the robotic portrayal of red is pretty solid. It was at the very least a great creative project that shows a different perspective of the kanto storyline.
KEP is forever goated, I'm sad Pokemon Prism didn't appear though
Ash Grey is super fun, but for anyone who wants to play it, do try to follow the anime as closely as possible or you'll really miss out on a lot! And you may even get soft locked if you skip an important part...
I'm surprised that Fool's Gold wasnt mentioned here! Fantastic Gen 2 Romhack with a lot of creative ideas
I love all the wonderful work going into these roms. Now if only we could get everyone to start using the gen 5 engine to remake all of these wonderful regions and games.
This is a very nice list. I don't know what happened to people that made lists like this but they kind of make terrible content nowadays.
If you look up "best ROM hacks" you'll either get really semi results or very terrible ones
My favorite rom hacks are clover, unbound, rocket edition, and ofc crystal legacy!
Ayy, Red Plus Plus! Haven't heard that one in a long while. Used to work with the creator back in the day, still have an _old_ version of the hack when they were early on in development.
The only one i disagree with is Crystal Kaizo, as even for Kaizo standards, it's not a good rom hack. A lot of tbe mid to late battles rely on using really slow stall strategies like toxic stalling with shuckle. I remember watching Pokémon Challenges play it and he found it pretty boring to the point where it actually sparked the creation of making an improved version of Crystal Kaizo that makes me game feel more like Emerald Kaizo (which is easily a better Kaizo game)
Edit: it's called Crystal Kaizo+
The crystal system just doesn't have the tools to facilitate faster paced battling
@@alihasanaxe4936Improvements can still be made, hence why Crystal Kaizo+ exists
I really enjoyed playing liquid Crystal last summer. It was cool to see jhoto in the gen 3 engine with a slight difficulty increase. I stopped after beating the elite four, so i can't say much about the added story elements in the kanto section of the game
Hey dude, what do you think of Liquid Crystal?
(That sounds like I'm asking about drugs lololol)
The issue I ran into with Blue Kazio was the massive increase encounter rate and the extended paths in the mid game and f**** cycling road. Cycling road made me save more than most.
I surprised you didn’t mention any of the drayo hacks. I’m currently playing through his renegade platinum hack. It is a pretty tough rom and supposedly he makes them almost impossible to nuzlock them.
It's probably as simple as them already being incredibly well known.
@@BeyondTrash-xe1vs I can respect that.
Very surprised that Pokemon Prism isn't on this list. It is the best Gen 2 experience I've had with a romhack other than maybe Silver 97 Reforged.
I can't recommend Polished Crystal enough. Easily one of the best rom hacks I've played.