Hello everyone. Recently, I finished the game Pokemon Sword and Shield Ultimate Plus GBA Version 1.2.1.2. A ROM Created by PCL.g, Jean star', Phantonomy and many others.
This ROM Hack is a demake of the 2019 game Pokemon Sword and Shield. Translating the game down to a 2D GBA game. I reviewed the complete edition of Pokemon Sword a few years back and when I stumbled across the complete Rom Hack, I was tempted to try it out. Plus, I was trying out the ArcEmu Emulator on my Apple Watch and decided to play Sword Shield Ultimate Plus on it during my now 2 hour daily commutes. What started as a casual game I wanted to play on my Apple Watch became something of an obsession. I really loved playing it. I lament ArcEmu doesn't have Retroachievements integration like PC emulators do because I would have grinded the hell out of them lol. I would played more but I recently reset my Watch and lost my save file so I decided to review what I already played which is the "base game" and Isle of Armour "DLC".
Reviewing the game itself, the first thing that struck me was how faithfully the Rom Hack recreated aspects of Sword and Shield. Towns like Postwick, Wedgehurst, Motostoke, Circhester, as well as areas like Rose's Battle Area feel like 1:1 of their 3D counterparts and arguably look better. The GBA version has a more colourful and saturated palette that makes these places pop.
A few areas do suffer for not coming close to the 3D counterparts. In the 3D version, Ballonlea and its preceding route is like this really moody and cool mushroom route with nice lighting that reminds me of Pandora from the James Cameron Avatar movies. The GBA version, unfortunately, makes it look like a standard GBA Pokemon game forest.
I also find the Pokecenters odd. Almost all of them use a sort of "2 floor" design with the healing centre at the bottom, at the Pokemart/Name Rater/Move Relearner at the top floor. 3D Sword and Shield used a compact 1 floor model where the Name Rater/Move Relearne, Healing Centre and Pokemart where in front of you on the first floor. There is a Pokecenter in Motostoke with a more accurate layout but it's used only there. I do kinda like that version more since it's more compact.
I do like how the GBA version also tries to make Gyms resemble their 3D counterparts as much as possible. Nessa's, Pier's and Raihen's are 1:1 (no surprise there as simple switch puzzles and gauntlets were staples in the GBA Pokemon games). Milo's is now a Strength Bolder pushing puzzle rather than a Wooloo/Yamper challenge and Opal's is a copy of Blaine's gym. A bit of shame but I imagine this was the best you could do on the GBA.
Allastair/Bea's (the GBA version lets you choose whichever you want to fight) gyms are a downward sliding bike puzzle that I actually like better than the Stick Rotating challenge from the 3D version since I was always worried about giving my joycons more drift. The only gym I feel is worse is Gordie/Melony's since you don't have the radar and now have to trial and error your way through it with worse checkpoints and respawning floors so you can't even see the path you took (Also, there is a bug for this gym that advises you to avoid saving until after you beat the gym and talk to Leon).
One of Sword/Shield's new features were Overworld Pokemon (technically first in LGPE but SwSh were the first mainline games with them) and the Wild Area. And the GBA version adapts that.
Tall grass in the GBA version will only have sprites of the most common Pokemon walking around. You don't start battles by walking into them. You have to interact with them first. But you can also do random encounters by walking in grass normally (which also include the most common pokemon from the overworld) but also rare Pokemon.
I really like this implementation. If you don't want any encounters, you can just repel and move through routes without an issue. if you want random encounters, you can enter the grass as normal and/or use the DexNav (yes, this Rom Hack carries the DexNav. An awesome feature removed after Gen 6) to track down specific Pokemon. And the overworld spirtes give you a good idea of what the most common Pokemon are and the chance to target them specifically. I spent quite a while farming for Rolycolys with Heatproof and it was way faster and easier to do with Overworld spirtes than running around for random encounters.
The Wild Area is interesting. I wasn't fond of the 3D version's take on this. I found it a bit boring to ride the bike past stretches of grass as each large stretch of area had similar spawns until you got farther away, cycling between Dynamax dens for Watts. The GBA version shrinks it down drastically. Having a couple town sized spaces with signs you can move between. It's by far the "least accurate" to the 3D version as the GBA's Wild Areas don't even come close to resembling the layout of sections from the 3D Wild Area..... and I honestly prefer it like this.
The GBA's take is way more compact. It's way quicker and more efficient to move through areas, check Dynamax dens, do a few raid battles and move on. Hell, even the concept of Watts is gone. It's all just money now which I prefer.
With the 3D version, I felt it was structured in a weird way. You could ignore the Wild Area entirely, but you had fewer chances to get stuff like certain TMs/TRs, EXP Candies and other rare items. Plus a lot of content, especially in the DLC, required Watts as a currency requiring you to farm Dynamax Dens. There was this sense of "fine, I gotta go do my Watts chores". The GBA version making it all just money based means even if I neglect the Wild Area, I'm fine. I can earn money and XP by doing battles. And if I need a break to go do Wild Area stuff, the rewards go both ways.
I suppose a missed opportunity was doing what the Rom hack, Radical Red did and having Dynamax dens along regular routes as well. That way, the 3D version has a way for players to get some Dynamax Raids and Watts as they naturally the play the story. And the GBA version has more chances for rare Pokemon and money.
Speaking of which, Dynamax raids, I loathed doing these in the 3D version but found them more enjoyable in the GBA version. The 3D version was this 4v1 where 4 trainers brought 1 Pokemon each against a Dynamaxed Pokemon. But it felt rough to play because AI trainers were absolute idiots. You have a finite number of "lives"/KOs your team can take before you get ejected from the Dynamax Den. No last man standing or survival options. I have never hated someone like I did Martin and his Cosmic Power Solrock 😤. My man, you know you've failed as a trainer when the guy bringing in a Magikarp is more useful than you!
The GBA version is instead a 1v1 where your team of 6 face the Dynamax Pokemon and you are allowed to use items like revives and potions. The catch being that the Dynamax Pokemon can further boost its stats and even gets bonus boosts for KO-ing your Mons. As well as launching multiple hits against your Solo Mon. But honestly, I 100% prefer this version. Even with the dumb shields that require 1 regular hit per damage or 1 Max Attack for 2 damage, at least this version doesn't have idiot teammates that ruin it. You only lose when all your Pokemon get knocked out and you can use revives to keep it going.
But even with this, late game and post game Raids are challenging. I got swept by a Dynamax Blaziken, Gengar and Tyranitar that boosted too much and got out of hand. It becomes a separate teambuilding challenge as you construct more bulky Mons with HP EVs that can go toe to toe with these monsters. Unlike the 3D version, you don't get to see a preview of what you will be fighting. Even reloading a save-state won't help you as this rerolls the dynamax pokemon. And Dynamax Pokemon will scale to the highest level Mon on your team.
I generally had the best luck with HP/SpDef Trained Metagross, Coalossel, Rotom-Wash all with Leftovers. These were bulky enough with good resists to handle the repeated battering from Max Moves and did enough damage that, provided they could be safely healed, could hurt the Dynamax Pokemon enough secure wins (since Dynamax Pokemon get automatic defense drops as you damage them). I found Dragon, Poison and Ghost Types generally unreliable as defensive mons as a lot of Dynamax Mons had stray Fairy, Ice and Dark Coverage for some reason. I guess this Hack is prepared for when I ever find a Shedinja.
I also kept a Haze Crobat with either a Focus Sash or Choice Scarf in the back as a failsafe to reset Dynamax Mon Boosts. Machamp and Gardevoir were also decent physical/special walls that could deal damage when the situation called for it. I wonder if I could swap out Gardevoir for Hatterene. Speed really doesn't help much when you have to eat multiple hits. And same goes for Trick Room.
I found early game Raid Battles more fun as Dynamax Pokemon wouldn't get shields so it was just a 1v6 against a very powerful Pokemon. Whereas later ones were more a "either I have a team that sits on the Monster and can whittle it down, or the monster boosts too much and I can't stop it". Plus, stuff like Status, Perish Song, OHKO moves etc are automatically blocked in Dynamax Raids so the number of strats and playstyles are more limited. I personally would rather have something like "hey, here's a super or ace trainer on this route with 6 hard Pokemon that rotate. Beat them for a prize". Or give me a mini Battle Tower like Emerald had in the campaign but for prizes. But still, at least the GBA Raid Battles were kinda fun.
-The Story/Campaign
One of SwShUP's flaws is how much it adheres to its source material. You face much of the same gym leaders and major battles with the same Pokemon and levels they had in the 3D version. This means, like in the 3D version, it's easy to end up overlevelled, especially if you do a lot of Dynamax Raids. But even casually, enemy levels grow quite slow relative to how much EXP you earn. Even fresh Mons I caught and never used or brought to Dynamax Battles that just stayed in my party during story battles didn't take long to reach parity with enemy trainer levels. Poor Hop for example, had to face my Mons which could be anywhere from 10-15 levels above him. I ended up intentionally benching a lot of my overlevelled Mons and drafting newer Mons.
SwShUP actually has a solution. Some major fights scale to the highest level Mon on your team. I remember going into the Semi-Finals, going up against Nessa. My team was all around 58 minus my Intellion sitting around 72 that I forgot to remove. I expected it to be a standard fight..... only for Nessa to sweep my team with Level 72 Pokemon. Had to do a bit of grinding (with Intellion actually benched this time) with Dynamax Raids to get the team up up to around 67 before trying again.
Honestly, I love this feature and wish I could toggle it for every fight. You even get more money for doing scaled fights. The main issue is how inconsistent it is. After doing the Semi-finals and beating Nessa, Allastair and Raihan, I had to go fight Chairman Rose who was packing Level 58s. So my team that had to grind up for Nessa made short work of him. This inconsistent scaling also applies in the Wild Area as you can come across level 10s and level 68s in the same patch of grass.
Onto more positive stuff, SwShUP, being a 2D Pokemon game, is a lot more brisk and faster paced than its 3D counterpart. Cutscenes go by faster as characters don't have to animate and move around. And even the Apple Watch can do 3x Speedup which meant I was zooming through the game (at the cost of my poor battery). This honestly makes the game feel more replayable than the 3D version as I loathe replaying any Gen 6 Pokemon game and onwards given how many long unskippable cutscenes they have that drag down the pace.
One minor complaint I have that SwSh’s 3D version does better is the UI/Map markers. The 3D version tells you in the pause menu what your next objective is and where to do it. Not a huge deal in pokemon games as they are usually pretty straightforward and linear but it helps when you haven’t played a Pokémon game for months, load up your old save and are a bit confused on what you were doing last and why you’re standing in the middle of nowhere instead of close to the next story trigger.
SwShUP has a few instances of not being entirely clear where to go. Such as needing to go to the pool in Circhester City after the restaurant. I remember being confused why the game was blocking me from going to Route 9 until I remembered about that one event from the 3D version, walked to the pool and triggered the next cutscene and was able to proceed normally. Other GBA pokemon rom hacks have found ways to have quest logs and journals so it’s a shame SwShUP couldn’t also have it.
The worst of this was in the Isle of Armour DLC. It's this really large area but you don't have a proper map for it. So when the game asks you to find the views (same as in the 3D version except with 1 fewer), it was hard. Even though I knew what to do from the 3D version, actually executing it was hard. I had to pull up both the Wiki and YouTube Walkthroughs to find my way through it.
As for the actual story itself, here is my critique from when I Reviewed Pokemon Sword since the 2D version is almost entirely faithful to it:
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Sword's base game has a similar premise to that of its predecessors. You start in a small town, you get your starter and your rival. You set out to get the Gym Badges to be able to challenge the Champion. There's an evil team and antagonist you have to stop along the way.
I have said this before, but I don't have a problem with Pokemon's basic story structure or premise. It works as a nice way to get the player out into the world and exploring. The player character doesn't need a strong personal motivation to do that. My issue with Gen 6 and onward is that they tend to "expand" the story by adding lots of cutscenes and interruptions to an otherwise brief story which I feel has the opposite effect of tanking the pacing since often no new information is revealed or progress is made. I remember this quite a bit in ORAS compared to Emerald. Emerald's "cutscenes" and dialogue boxes were quite brief. Generally getting to the point and letting you continue on. ORAS often added more dialogue such with the encounters with Steven Stone or Archie/Maxie that still gives the same information but pads it out.
Sword Sadly continues this trend with plenty of unskippable cutscenes (despite there being an option in the menu to skip cutscenes) that really didn't need to be this long. The story was at its best when it was being hands off and letting me go about the Gym Challenge and talking with people myself along the way.
Hop as a
rival was decent with a surprisingly relatable story. He's a dude that
spent his whole life preparing for a role. His family are already really
proud of his older Brother Leon for being champion and Hop feels like
he's hurting his brother's reputation with his losses so he's definitely
under a lot of pressure. Hop's putting in all the effort to be the best
despite not being the best. He does stuff like switching out and
training up an entirely new team whenever he loses to you (I feel it
would have sealed the deal if he also ditched his starter, showing his
desperation). And here you are, essentially taking his life's work from
him effortlessly because you are the main character. I'm reminded a
little of the plot of Monsters University here with how Mike was doing
his best to be a scarer but being unable to due to lacking the natural
talent of other monsters. Hop is the first rival in Pokemon I really
felt bad beating because I've been in his shoes before of being
outclassed in something I'm passionate about and trying my best to be
good at despite my flaws by someone with seemingly God given natural
talent. If Sword had branching paths where if you lose to Hop he becomes
Champion, I'd gladly take the L there.
That aside, one of my criticisms with Pokemon games is that despite their massive wealth of deep and intricate systems and options for combat, the games never teach you or even hint that exists. Often relying on simple "Wow, you used a Super effective move there. Good Job". Which makes the Post Game Battle Towers feel like a completely different game when the training wheels suddenly come off with no warning and make people complain the base game doesn't evolve or is too basic. When I first played Sword, I was expecting Hop to turn this "You use Super Effective Hits" around on me as a way to teach the player new things through Hop. As an example, what if in one battle, Hop goads you into using Ember on his Grookey. You do so and it turns out he had an Occo Berry or a Weakness Policy in addition Max Sp Def EV investment. Hop then brags that even though "you may know Type Matchups, I know there's more than that".
I wish Sword did something like that as stuff like this would have really improved both the story and gameplay here. For gameplay, it gives the base game more of a challenge (the base game is a bit too easy) and teaches the player more mechanics. And for story, it shows how Hop is trying to go out of his way to improve by implementing competitive strats against you. Making his loses sting even more since he couldn't even beat you despite doing cool stuff like that.
Imagine if every time you faced against Hop, he tried out a new stratgedy against you that often took advantage of you blindly just clicking super effective moves. In addition to using berries and Weakness Policy, he could have used a Zoarak with Nasty Plot to trick you into using Psychic moves against it. Or he has a really bulky team that used Trick Room to be able to turn the tables on you. It was a missed opportunity to not go all out here. I understand Pokemon is a game for children but prior games did these things before. B2W2 even had difficulty options for those who wanted more of a challenge (granted, unlocking them was convoluted but it showed these games could often be more challenging and use more of their depth).
A common criticism of Sword's story is directed towards Chairman Rose and his plotline. And I'm not going to argue against them. Rose's role in the story isn't done well. And I feel Sword is another example of how such over the top and "epic" storylines don't really work in Pokemon.
This is a bit of a long section but bear with me here. So developers of Pokemon games like Masuda have given interviews where they've talked about the world and stories of Pokemon. In particular that Pokemon's world is "a subtle version of utopia" and that "Hoenn was based on Masuda's childhood memories of going on vacation on Kyushu". Essentially, Pokemon games are generally going for a "nostalgic childhood vacation with your pets through a perfect world" feel. And the games really commit to this vibe. The Pokemon world has free healthcare. In Hoenn, we see examples of how people are concerned for the environment that places like Whismer Tunnel got shut down the moment it was clear there was ecological concerns. Gen 6 has people creating infinite reusable and clean energy with no downsides whatsoever. In Alola, you can visit a police station where the cops are kinda bored because there's nothing for them to do. There are no systemic problems in crime, housing, overpopulation, resources, energy, environmentalism etc. Hell, even food isn't a problem everyone is vegan (and they don't eat grass types). You won't even see many farms of livestock in Pokemon.
This isn't a criticism. This
sort of vibe gives Pokemon games a really comfy feel. Even if there are
some darker stuff in Pokedex descriptions or in the Manga, they are
almost always disconnected from the games. You won't see any Drifloons
stealing children or Eevees crushing people despite what their Pokedex
entries say.
But this does limit the kind of stories that would work well in this kind of world. You can see an example of this in ORAS with Archie and Maxie. In a vacuum, their motivations make sense. One of them wants to expand the Earth's landmass to create more room for humans to build and expand. The other wants to return the world to a state fit for Pokemon untainted by human progress. But the problem is that the world they live in doesn't have the problems these actions would be solutions to. Hoenn doesn't have a problem with overpopulation or resources that would prompt Maxie. Nor is there such disregard for the environment to prompt Archie.
As a result, Archie and Maxie
aren't great antagonists and their story is unengaging. Their motives
are so disconnected from the world that there's nothing you can really
latch onto. And even defeating them is unsatisfying because no progress
can be made because the Status Quo is perfect anyway. It's a similar
case for Cyrus, Lysandre and Rose.
This is why I feel Pokemon antagonists are at their best when they have smaller scale and more personal plans, generally related to exploiting Pokemon. Like, Team Rocket are great villains because they are essentially the mafia. They profit off stealing Pokemon. Their motive is greed. You can understand why someone would do that and they do leave behind consequences of their actions like Slowpokes missing their tails or missing Pokemon. So taking them down actually "fixes something that is broken". Same with Ghetsis and Co in Gen 5.
Back to Pokemon Sword, this is the main reason why I feel Rose's story falls flat. Like Archie and Maxie, Rose is concerned about a problem disconnected from the Utopian world of Pokemon. And one that was already solved in prior games. In order to make Rose's story work, you'd either need to put cracks in that Utopia, such as Galar actually having energy and sustainability issues, or change Rose's motivations.
One idea I have to do the latter is to kinda take inspiration from the Isle of Armour DLC. Why not have Rose and Leon in cahoots as the antagonists? Have Rose be the one fixing Leon's matches so he remains the unbeatable champion. You can have Leon either be in on this and have him cheat against the player (which would create an interesting dynamic for Hop to go through) or have Leon be oblivious and join your side so he can have a proper fight as a proper champion. This would shift the conflict to something more connected to the Pokemon world.
Switching topics but this is why I like Team Yell in Sword. They are just Marnie's rabid fans which justifies their status as jobber grunts. The rest of the story with Bede, the other Gym Leaders and even Swordbert and Shieldbert, I enjoyed.
As Galar is based on the UK, I really like how the Pokemon League here resembles more of an official spectator sport. And the game does a neat job with this idea from the stadiums and crowds and official League Cards and merch, to more subtle things like how Gym Leaders deal with their fame as essentially professional athletes. Like, you have Leon and Raihan that are show offs and play to the crowd. You have Alaster that is a lot more shy and scared of the attention he gets as a Gym Leader. You have Opal that's "been in the game so long" that she's past all the formalities. You have Kabu and Bede that take the competitive side more seriously. It's neat.
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I did note one strange addition to the story. On Route 8, you can come across a lone house past a cave. Inside you find a man lying on the ground with some Garboders around him. After you defeat them, your character investigates the body, finds the man has been dead for a while and the Garboders were eating his corpse and gets the Focus Sash item. Your character freaks out and says he wants to leave and never think about this.
This took me by surprise. It feels so at odds with the story, tone and world of Pokemon and how otherwise faithful or inline SwShUP has been. Is this a reference to something? An Easter egg? Am I missing something?
-Other features
The game features all pokemon from Gens 1-8 as well as a few Hissuisn and Paldeans Mons. I think the final count is around 902 with around 800 minimum obtainable before beating the main game. Sword and Shield’s main 3D Switch version, with all its DLC, has around 668 Pokemon with around 500 or so actually obtainable to a solo player.
SwShUP even lets you do in game trades to get other regions starter Pokémon, has all mega stones and lets you mega evolve all applicable Pokémon (even though no NPC uses Megas) and you can find an NPC that sells you almost every battle item like choice specs, leftovers, Ability Pills, assault vest etc (but not Choice Band for some reason). The only omission seems to be a vendor for evolutionary stones as those are really rare. I haven’t come across a single one. Not even from Dynamax Raids.
The game features the Isle of Armour DLC and Crown Tundra DLC and these are.... kinda mixed. I already mentioned earlier that the Isle of Armour was annoying to navigate without a Map. A shame because I really the environments, the bonus 4 original Gym Leaders packing new types. Even the Cubfu quest is arguably "better" since you actually have to fight 6 powerful Dark or Water Types instead of jobbers (granted you can bring your own team. You're not limited to Cubfu but I did try to clear as much as I could with Cubfu before having Gardevoir come in).
I will complain that the game is missing the Restricted Sparring Mode from the 3D version. This was hands down my favourite part of the 3D version. The way it works is that it's a Battle Facility with a monotype challenge where a team of 3 tries to get as far as possible with 2 heals only through the entire streak. The game even tracked with types you won with. I remember having a blast in the 3D version clearing the Flying challenge with Corviknight, Gyrados and Togekiss.
I was so prepared to dive into this in the 2D version. With way more Pokemon, I was already planning my teams. I had Rotom Wash, Heat and Mow ready to go for the Electric one lol. But sadly, the 2D version doesn't have it despite how rad it could have been 😭.
As I was heading into the Crown Tundra "DLC" , I accidentally reset my Apple Watch when trying to do a backup which meant I lost my SwShUP save file. A shame as I was looking forward to seeing how the game handled it. My last memory was meeting up with Peony and catching Thunderus and Landorus from special Dynamx Dens.
In conclusion, this is my favourite take on the Galar region and I really enjoyed my time with Sword and Shield Ultimate Plus GBA Version 1.2.1.2. The added Pokemon, content, graphics and design were more fun to play with than the main 3D Version. Stuff like Dynamax Raids were actually fun instead of a chore.
The Hack is held back from being perfect by a few bugs, the inconsistent scaling, the lack of polish in the DLC, inheriting some of the story issues from being too faithful to the 3D version, missing some features like Restricted Sparring. But I can 100% see myself playing this game in the future properly and getting achievements via Retroachivements. Even for a Nuzlocke of just the base game, this would be so sweet to go through. I still strongly recommend this Hack to everyone.
This also makes me wish for more rom hacks to be demakes of DS and later Pokemon Games. I've always wanted a demake of a Kalos or Alola game in this format. Here's hoping this is the first step in that.
