PMD hacks

Archive List 1 - Archive List 2

Recommended: City of Light, Psychic Puppets, The Fragments series, Divided Spirits, Cubone's Desire, Amaura on the High Seas, Blizzard Island Guide, Explorers of the Spirit, Distant Connection Prologue, BLORG, Chip 2: Apple Alliance, Tenebris Halloween Festival, 3 DAYS, Delusion, Gegenspieler, Merchants VS Pirates.

Note: This is used for spoilers.

SkyHard

I probably talked about this a few months ago when I played it, but I was enjoying it overall. I haven't continued it yet so I can't comment on the last few dungeons at the end of the main story.
The story is unchanged and cutscene are unfortunately unskippable.
As all the hacks I've played so far, it uses the modern selection patch, which I like, although it needs something to tell the player how many PP are left for each move. Learning new moves also changes the buttons they're assigned to which is confusing.
The first dungeon can be kind of bad because you can easily run into situations where you just can't win, since it features Monster Houses. But it has as many floors as Beach Cave, so it doesn't take long to get through it. The dungeons themselves have stronger Pokémon than the regular game, and the Pokémon spawns and dungeon themes are changed entirely. I played as a Porygon with a Drifloon partner, which was interesting. I'm not sure if the partner is locked, but it might be. There's a dungeon that features multiple boss fights similar to Buried Relic. My favorite dungeon dungeon is near the start of the game. It uses explosions as its gimmick. It's full of exploding Kakuna and exploding traps, so you need to avoid them and check every tile you step on. It's rare, but in this dungeon you can also find the item that lets you see all the traps.

Archive - SkyTemple

Amaura on the High Seas

The team is an NEET Amaura and a retired pirate captain Feraligatr. I enjoyed the humor, but I wasn't into the more emotional parts of the story, I didn't enjoy them and I don't think they fit a Pokémon game. But that's what unofficial material is for, so I don't have a problem with it.
This also applies to the next hack: I enjoy getting to play as new Pokémon in an older game, especially Pokémon you don't normally hear about like Amaura or Vanillite (and I like both of them too).
Saving the game is buggy, so don't rely on it. It's short (only 5 dungeons if I remember correctly) so it should be easy to play it all in one go.
I saw someone claim the dungeons in this hack are hard, but I didn't think they were. I got defeated a few times, but I often do since I don't even bother trying to play well (plus I get to see the optional dialogue, so it's not like there's any incentive not to)
There are no interesting gimmicks in the dungeon themselves, but you can learn any TMs you find. At first I was using them as a way to chage up my moves and restore PP, but eventually I decided to keep my moves instead, mostly using Amaura's actual moveset. I'm sure the game is intended to be played both ways. I enjoy the inventory being limited to 16 slots (which I know is a controversial opinion), but in this hack I didn't need the inventory much and it mostly ended up being filled with TMs that I never used.

If anyone else is going to play Amaura on the High Seas, I recommend doing it without relying on in-game saves. I loaded my save file only to find myself at Wigglytuff's Guild and forced to skip part of the story by jumping to a later dungeon. Loading the game is a little buggy, at least if you save right before Windswept Wastes.

Archive - SkyTemple

Blizzard Island Guide

This one is a really short demo (4 dungeons I think) for a bigger project. Team is an insecure Vanillite who wants to help Pokémon who wish to explore the island, and a Groudon he wants to help. I like the dialogue and I especially like how some gameplay elements play a role in the story. I was confused when Vanillite started calling Groudon "they/them" because I didn't know who he was talking about for a moment (when have PMD legendaries ever been neutral or anything like that?), but I don't care much. The Glalie, especially the one at the end since he's by himself, didn't feel threatening at all gameplay-wise. I'm sure I could easily defeat him by just using Icy Wind a few times. The reason they attack Vanillite and Groudon also didn't seem good ("you're invading our territory" probably would have been better than "this is nature"), but there might be more to it later on in the story.
The menu mentions some features that are clearly not implemented yet, I guess we'll find out in a full version of the game when/if that happens. When you interact with a save point you get a confetti animation and a congratulation message, which is cute.

Expect a lot of multi-hit moves (including Icicle Spear in Vanillite's moveset, which almost always fails). The dungeons make good use of weather and abilities, which also plays a role in the story. Groudon has Drought, so Vanillite is constantly taking weather damage when Groudon is in the party. When it isn't, it hails instead, so Vanillite's speed is doubled and HP is recovered faster thanks to Ice Body. In the last dungeon Vanillite is alone and all the enemies can defeat you in two hits or so, but you can still defeat them if you're careful, mostly thanks to Icy Wind, which is ranged and slows down the target, I enjoyed using it, especially against the 3 Glalie boss fight. At least one of the dungeons also features the irregularly shaped rooms (unused in the original game) that you may heard of recently.

Archive - SkyTemple

Corrupted Core - Prologue

Just played this one. Story heavy. Only features a single generic dungeon (15 floors). Team is Chimchar, Pikachu and Manaphy. I think this one is also meant to become a bigger game eventually. Interesting premise and funny self-aware humor. Reading a description of this will trick you into thinking it's about Manaphy, but it isn't, I'm sure that's just so it doesn't spoil the premise.

This is some sort of spinoff or sequel to a video series made with custom cutscenes in a hack where the story is a reimagined version of the original game. That's unreleased as far as I know, and I wasn't sure why this is a separate project. I haven't been following it, so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to follow along, but that wasn't really the case, so I guess it's fine if it's just going to be an independent sequel.
Apparantely the author reimagined the story around himself, which is cool, however it's a little weird to play as someone else's self-insert. Perhaps that's why it only started off as a video series and not a proper game. I didn't expect a Pokémon game to begin with a disclaimer pointing out that it's fiction, but it seems a lot of people on the Internet can't distinguish between this and real life anymore, so perhaps it might not be such a bad idea after all.
This hack doesn't really do anything interesting gameplay wise, other than starting off with some items already in the inventory. However three of those items are Reviver Seeds, which is annoying. Especially after realizing that failing the dungeon or simply giving up just makes the game proceed almost identically, which shows how little thought was put in the gameplay. This is less of a game and more of a fan animation using assets from the game. I like it so far, but I think it would be more interesting if it became a proper game eventually.

As for what the plot is actually about: like I (and most players, I assume) thought before Super released, this game considers every PMD its own independent world. This story brings the characters (and possibly places) from Gates to Infinity and Super. I haven't noticed anything from Rescue Team and Adventure Squad, but I assume those would get some references in a more complete version. Umbreon, Espeon, Dunsparce and Emolga join the player's team, Nectar Meadow is visited and the Expedition Society makes a cameo at the end. Kinda weird that Virizion and Keldeo weren't there, but that might just be because they don't have sprites yet. Besides, it would probably make more sense to introduce them later on. I like the Gates to Infinity characters a lot, so I'm kind of looking forward to this even if it doesn't seem to have anything interesting gameplay wise at the moment.

Some small issues I noticed (I'm sure the author is aware of most if not all of them)
-Talking to the partner in the first area does nothing. This applies to a lot of areas of other hacks as well, but with how story heavy this is, and how this doesn't happen in any other area, makes me think this isn't intended.
-If you enter the guild area and then leave, Manaphy disappears until you enter another area.
-Chimecho lets you change your party freely, changing the leader and removing the rest of the team. This is interesting because you can try doing the dungeon as Manaphy or something (although he may be too weak), but I'm not sure if it's intended.
-The "Where would you like to go?" text at the Crossroads is weird since you can't do anything there, it feels like it's intended to play the same script as when you try to go to the beach
-Why does this almost feature a tutorial for something that's in the base game?
-The "You checked the other entrance" text appears regardless of which entrance you actually check
-When I loaded the game for the second time after completing it, I tread the entrance thing again, holding B to skip through the text, and at a certain point the text glitched. Some pixels weren't where they were supposed to be, going up and to the left.
-The "Mission objecives" text wasn't changed. I'm sure this applies to other hacks as well, I just didn't think of checking it until now. I'm not even sure people know that's a thing.
-That Emolga sprite looks way off, but I guess the dialogue makes up for it
-If Explorers characters have never seen an Emolga before, shouldn't Gates to Infinity characters also not know what a Riolu is, or most other Pokémon for that matter?

Archive - SkyTemple

Explorers of the Unknown

Another short demo for what should eventually become a full game. Probably the most ambitious project I've seen yet. This one is less like a Special Episode and more like a regular Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game. It's a sequel to Explorers, however it seems like the events of the original game may have played out in a slightly different way here. No personality test, you directly pick a main character and a partner (although the partner doesn't appear at all in the demo).
I don't think the story is bad, but it feels a little off. The biggest problem is the main character, who is presented as a self-insert, but is actually his own character, which created an unexpected disconnect right after the game asked for my name. It's pretty much exactly what we were talking about earlier in the thread. The main character talks and has his own personality.
Some of the writing feels off, especially considering it seems to be trying to be similar to the official games. Minor issues like not capitalizing "Mystery Dungeons" (I'm pretty sure all the games do this), a few grammatical errors, and not using some of the writing workarounds the official games use/generally being written in a different style. Even the scripts have a few issues here and there, as the text occasionally skips ahead before you press A or B. Not a big deal, but this sort of thing sticks out to me. The author seems to be still learning in general, as he couldn't figure out how to let the player walk around freely. But it's not like there would be much to do if you could walk around freely anyway. The way the characters talk about the human world is weird, but I'm not going to nitpick it too much, that's always been weird.

The starter list includes a few Pokémon from the later games. I picked Snivy. Other possible starters are Larvitar, Rockruff, Alolan Vulpix (female only) and probably a few others that I don't remember. A major character in the story is a Litwick. Wigglytuff tents are recycled and recontextualized in a clever way.
Most dungeons aren't particularly interesting. The most interesting thing about them is that you can find Fomantis and irregularly shaped rooms. The story lasts for 3 dungeons. After that, you unlock two more dungeons: Vanilla Plain and Purity Forest. I haven't completed either of them yet, but I wonder if there's some sort of reward. It seems you're expected to grind a bit before attempting Vanilla Plain. Purity Forest is what you'd expect from its name, a new version of Purity Forest for this game. I've only attempted it once so far (as Snivy) and I got to floor 11. I found a Monster House on floor 10 and kept fighting so I could gain some more experience even though I was poisoned. I managed to save myself by reaching the stairs with just 1 HP left and healed for a few turns on the next floor, but I couldn't heal enough. I might try it again.

Oh, by the way, I was wrong about the "Mission objectives" thing. Explorers of the Unknown made sure to change them!

Archive - SkyTemple

Stardom Treasure Prologue

It's one cutscene. The main character is a Gible in Wigglytuff's Guild, but the guildmaster is a shiny Charizard and Chatot is replaced by "Lady Gabite".

Archive - SkyTemple

Fount of Victory

Team is Magikarp and Feebas. Magikarp wants to climb a mountain to prove that he's strong, and insists that Feebas comes along too. Both only know Tackle and Splash. It's a 15 floor dungeon with two breaks (one of which is right before the boss) I disabled Splash on Feebas and almost never had any use for it in general (although I did use it to warp at some point). You need to heavily rely on items. Wands, similar to the ones introduced in Super, are in this hack. Well, not exactly, they're actually sticks that cause status conditions or slow down the target instead of causing damage. It's a great idea. Personally I think I would have called them sticks though, since you "hurl" them and they may fall on the ground. The Victini sprites look weird, probably the same artist as the Emolga one, but these are better. It looks like a Victini that's a little too big. Buying from Victini's shop is bugged, if you select multiple items it only asks you to pay for the one the cursor is on. Finding a shop in the dungeon was weird because it uses Victini portraits, but Kecleon sprites (the screenshots included with the patch tell me that's not supposed to be the case). If you fail or give up during the first part of the dungeon, it sends you to the first failure cutscene of the original game (on the beach) and then enters the second part of the dungeon. Speaking of which, if that text is unaltered, that means I was wrong about "Mystery Dungeon" always being capitalized, apparently that wasn't the case in Sky. Using the new sticks/wands was fun, some enemies are annoying (mostly Wynaut).

if you select multiple items it only asks you to pay for the one the cursor is on

To clarify, you still get all of them, even though you only pay for one.
Archive - SkyTemple

John Cena and the Quest for the Undertale Orgy

Memes. No gameplay. Uses all new maps, but they are crudely drawn, as you can see in the screenshot. A sequel is supposedly in development.

Archive - Hacks list

Algernon XS

Another demo for what should become a bigger game. One dungeon, 9 floors. Choose a main character and partner (Oshawott, Tepig, Snivy, Fennekin and Chespin are among the options, I don't know why the partner list had two male Chespin). It only has two starters and the story is sort of confusing, but I think it's meant to be. It doesn't seem to be the start of the story, but I may be wrong. The partner shouldn't be in the dungeon according to the story, but he is anyway. A Pikachu is also in the party. Nothing particularly interesting in the dungeon.

Archive - Hacks list

Distant Connection Prologue

No gameplay. Based on the name, I think this is also meant to become a full game. A socially anxious human turned Shinx befriends a socially anxious Fennekin who wants to join the guild. Some of the music was edited (not new music, I don't know what they did exactly, it may just be a disabled channel or another small tweak, it's nice to hear some variety).

Archive - SkyTemple

Fragments Chapter 1

Team is Beautifly and Goldeen, and Mienfoo. 5 dungeons. The two are part of an unofficial team and they want to meet their master and find a treasure. The leader changes during the story after each dungeon. This hack uses the full party control patch. There's a lot of attention to details, I was randomly checking the "Game Hints" for no reason and I was surprised to see they were edited. Third dungeon features long hallways. Fourth dungeon has many traps and enemy spawns, perhaps too many. You start out with some items, including 3 Reviver Seeds, and if you fail a dungeon more than twice you're asked if you want to skip it. Kinda lame since it feels like the author was saying that there's nothing worth seeing there, but at least it's not forced like in Corrupted Core Prologue. I can also tell a lot of effort went in trying to make the dungeons interesting.

Archive - Hacks list

Jigglypuff's Adventure

Demo of an Igglybuff the Prodigy sequel. 3 dungeons. Team is Igglybuff, later joined by Nidoking. Shouldn't the Defend Globe be in the inventory at the start? Nidoking mentions Chatot if you talk to him in a dungeon, I guess that's a spoiler for what will happen in later versions.

Archive - SkyTemple

Dark Destiny

Demo. One dungeon. You play as Darkrai. I was expecting this demo to have more, since I saw some clips and pictures (like this one with Shedinja) by the author. Some of Darkrai's characteristics are changed (can't walk through walls, the moves are probably different as well) so it can be balanced around the dungeons. I like that you start off with the exclusive item Eclipse Robe.

Archive - SkyTemple

Exploration

One dungeon, you play as a Growlithe. This was clearly just a way to try out Sky Temple, but I wanted to check it out.

Archive - SkyTemple

Chip

You play as a Bulbasaur. Your Apple gets stolen, so you go through what I think is an unchanged Beach Cave to get it back. The boss is different though. Again, this is one of the earliest hacks, just the author trying out Sky Temple.

Archive - SkyTemple

Chip 2: Apple Alliance

5 dungeons, although one is optional. Bulbasaur teams up with the Staryu who previously stole her Apple after a pirate captain Feraligatr (coincidence?) steals her new Perfect Apple. Boss fight against Thundurus and Tornadus. A bunch of text boxes disappear by themselves before I'm done reading them, but that's definitely intentional. Gameplay wise there are some interesting ideas here: it starts with a boss battle, you can choose which dungeon to play as the second one (skipping the other) and you don't actually need to complete the third dungeon, you just need to find a key there. It's a nice hack.

Archive - SkyTemple

Victorious/Team V

3 dungeons. Team is Victini, Vanillite and Mienfoo. This one is messy, I couldn't run it on my flashcard (it works on nds-bootstrap and emulators though), most of the dialogue doesn't fit the size of the text box, the grammar is bad, Pokémon types and abilities are wrong, Mienfoo can walk through walls. Vanillite only knows Harden, making things more annoying. Also Victini randomly becomes a Giratina for a few cutscenes. I guess they ran out of time. A few maps were new, which is nice to see.

Archive - SkyTemple

Chatot Comes Out of the Closet

One dungeon (probably). The party is Chatot and Wigglytuff. I don't think the author intended for it to only allow to have one item at a time. Either that, or the floors shouldn't be this huge. It would very likely be a lot more fun if either of those were changed. If Spite drains you out of Peck PP, you may as well restart the dungeon. There's Mirror Move and Sing, but I don't think that's enough if you run out of Peck PP. Tons of ghosts walking through walls, dealing with them is annoying, especially if with Wigglytuff following you. So I just set Wigglytuff to "Wait there". Wigglytuff running out of DoubleSlap PP is also bad. I didn't immediately think that letting Wigglytuff stay still next to a wall was a bad idea, but it is, of course. Floor 2 is good, and it would have been interesting if you could get a bunch of Warp Seeds to use in the other flloors. But you can only hold one item at a time, so you can't do that. My attempts in this dungeon are mostly just hoping to get good RNG. I think this is also my first time seeing a Monster House that doesn't have any monsters in it. I think it's 5 floors since it's Beach Cave at night. I got to floor 4 and gave up, maybe I'll try it again at some point to see the rest of the dialogue, but for now I'm tired of it.

I haven't beaten it so I don't know what's after the dungeon, but the story leading up to it is quite short. There's a parody of PMD Retold (which I still haven't seen), some joke that I didn't get, and then it's just Chatot being gay with Wigglytuff. It's like a toned down version of his previous hack (John Cena and the Quest for the Undertale Orgy), which was story only. I think he focused more on learning to edit the dungeons this time around.

Archive - SkyTemple

PMDND

One dungeon, 6 floors and a boss. Team is Zangoose and Purrloin. Chatot finds a tabletop game and decides to play it with Bidoof and Chimecho. The custom map is a map drawn by Chatot, and that also applies to the tileset of the dungeon. The hack is incomplete, but I don't know if the project will be continued.

Archive - SkyTemple

Divided Spirits

3 dungeons. First two are 10 floors each, last one is 6 floors if I remember correctly. 2 boss fights. Team is Haunter, Duskull and Banette. Actually, Banette isn't part of the team, it's like an escort. I don't understand why. Also, during bosses, they aren't in the party at all. It's weird. At some point you can press R and talk with Duskull, who has default partner text that the developer forgot to remove/disable. This has some custom graphics that are on par with the original game. Of course most are still recycled, but I don't remember all the original maps, so if you told me some of them are custom, I would believe it. The story is interesting too. I don't have anything particular to say about the dungeons other that I liked making use of the ability to go through walls since I don't really do it in the original games since I don't use Ghost types.

Archive - SkyTemple

Cubone's Desire

6 dungeons (for now). Team is Cubone, later joined by Gengar. Version 1 of what is planned to become a full game. The first few dungeons only allow you to hold one item, which is intentional and contextualized. The dungeons are actually designed around it too. I think the best item to take is Geo Pebble since you can find many. Other than that there is nothing particularly interesting to say gameplay wise, but the dungeons do feel well designed. It is a work in progress, so it gets less polished as it goes on, especially the grammar and some weird bugs, like occasionally being brought back in the story if you fail a dungeon or some text boxes being weird when talking to NPCs/pressing R. Avoid talking to Gengar in dungeons, it can crash the game.

The story is good and interesting. Cubone wakes up alone and goes out looking for his mom. Eventually he meets an outlaw, Gengar, and befriends him. They go around stealing from explorers and running away from explorers trying to catch them. There's more to the story, like Cubone having some sort of connection with a Deoxys, who fought against a Rayquaza. This hack is not part of the second hack jam, however Divided Spirits is a prequel Special Episode for this game. I assume the goal is to implement it as a proper Special Episode in the full version. Shouldn't Gengar have known about the Pineco in the tree? I think that happened in Divided Spirit too. Also, I wonder if there's a connection with Duskull and Dusclops.

The world of the game is its own original setting, but it's still based on Explorers. Some maps have had their graphics rearranged, and that makes them look new. If you liked playing through the story in Explorers, I think you will enjoy this.

Archive - SkyTemple

Sea of Regrets

2 dungeons. You play as Galarian Corsola. Another hack where you only have the one item inventory, but it doesn't matter, the dungeons are short and simple. The first one has messed up graphics. There are some custom maps made by editing the game's original maps. I don't understand the story.

Archive - SkyTemple

Gengar

One dungeon, 10 floors. You play as Gengar and fight against other Gengars. Nothing particularly interesting, just Gengar.

Archive - SkyTemple

The Soulsless Life

One dungeon, probably. You play as a Boo from Super Mario. You choose between Trapinch or Vulpix as the partner. Every map is modified and replaced with memes. The story is regular Explorers but with meme edits to the dialogues. Another hack with that silly one item inventory mistake (assuming it wasn't intentional). Unexpectedly, the Boo can't walk through walls. I got to floor 10 of the dungeon and got bored with it.

Archive - Hacks list

Otherworld

Three dungeon, one is optional. Team is Fomantis and Galarian Zigzagoon. While adventuring in a cave, they find a Griseous Orb that sends them to the Distortion World. Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit are imprisoning Giratina there, and you help him escape. Many great looking custom maps. The menu mentions something about a map, but you can't do anything about that as far as I can tell. Fomantis has Growth, which is a wasted move slot since the other moves are physical. For the second dungeon you come to a split path and you need to choose if you want to go the Diamond route or the Pearl route.

Archive - SkyTemple

Tenebris Halloween Festival

Three dungeons. Team is Pikachu and Eevee, but they have an additional Ghost type as well. Pikachu and Eevee have good moves in general, Pikachu has good range. Incomplete. Pokémon sprites are changed to make them wear halloween costumes. Items are renamed, with different descriptions and sprites, and slightly different names and effect. Some changed moves, or renamed, with slightly different effects. When leveling up you can learn + moves that are more powerful. They may also occasionally hit twice during the same turn. There is a cool overworld section where you need to walk through a maze filled with traps, and if you step on one you're sent to a giant floor Monster House that you need to escape from. There is a "Reaper" enemy which is a Spiritomp recolor. Apparently it's supposed to be strong, but I only met it once and defeated it before it could attack me. The replacements/edits for Reviver Seeds and Reviser Seed are intentionally identical in everything but the sprites, which are different shades of blue, and you're supposed to tell them apart. All the maps are custom. The third dungeon is a haunted mansion. My favorite hack in this hack jam so far.

Archive - SkyTemple

3 DAYS

No dungeons. You play as Espurr, and talk with your Litwick roommate friend. Mostly story, with branching dialogue choices. Features a fully new map that doesn't use any assets from the original game. You can interact with the envirnment, and that affects the story. Litwick is actually feeding off of you and slowly killing you. I managed to get two different endings. I wonder if there's a third one. I assumed there was and tried to get it, but I couldn't. The two endings are either Litwick killing you, or you killing Espurr after a boss fight.

I enjoyed it quite a bit even if it doesn't have any dungeon gameplay or anything. I'm disappointed I couldn't get a better ending though.

Archive - SkyTemple

Dusknoir the Spirit Guide

4 dungeons, 3 boss fights. Team is Dusknoir and Litwick. They have good moves that you need to make use of during boss battles. Bosses are Decidueye, Phantump and Houndoom/MegaHoundoom. Litwick is a powerful Pokémon who finds herself in "the underworld", and Dusknoir is tasked with showing her around. She's too powerful and starts destroying everything. I liked the boss battles, they are well thought out.

Archive - SkyTemple

Fragments Chapter 3

3 dungeons. Team is Girafarig and Butterfree. The title and readme suggest that this is a sequel to Fragments (>>47317942), but confusingly it is also the third chapter, despite the fact that chapter two hasn't been released. I also didn't see notice anything that would connect the two stories, but I can easily see future hacks piecing it together.

This is the most creative and unique hack yet. It features puzzles and quizzes outside of dungeons and unique dungeon mechanics. PP has been removed and HP has been reworked (I can't recall what HP was renamed to, so I'll just call it HP). Using a move consumes a set amount of HP, and the wind turn limit is very low, meaning you have to get to the stairs as soon as possible. However, there is also an additional mechanic that allows you to rewind time (restarting the floor with the same RNG) if you faint, so if you know where the stairs are, you can get to them as quickly as possible. Also, there's a floor with overpowered enemies and traps. The game asked me if I wanted to skip it and I accepted because probably I had bad RNG, but I regret it and would like to try it again.

While exploring a cave, Girafarig ends up in the Ghost World despite not having died. The mechanics described above are supposed to be unique to the Ghost World.

Archive - Hacks list

Delusion

4 or 5 dungeons. Team is shiny Umbreon, Manaphy, Espurr and Phantump. It's easy. Phantump is weak and gets defeated easily, but the game gives you a lot of Reviver Seeds at the beginning, so it doesn't matter. I think the game expected me to lose the last boss battle. It features many Pokémon that weren't in the original game, such as Braixen, Honedge and Sinistea, as well as ghost versions of other Pokémon. Sometimes you'll find a floor where those are the only spawns, and there are many of them, and the floor is only two rooms with a Monster House. But they are weak, and you have a lot of good moves, especially with the TMs you can find. Speaking of which, I found a Milk Drink TM, but the description says it teaches Taunt. I haven't tried it. The last boss is Marshadow.

You hear rumors about an abandoned mansion and decide to check it out. This hack features a lot of good looking custom art. Great portraits, sprites and dungeon tilesets, as well as some decent new locations.

Archive - SkyTemple

Shrine of Seals

You play as a group of three Eevee. After a short dungeon, you get to choose their evolutions, and are tasked with completing five or so dungeons. I haven't completed any of them. The enemies are much stronger than you and their moves are annoying, and while items help a little, it's really not enough. All your Pokémon start at level 1 (and go back to level 1 when you evolve), so they don't have any of their interesting moves at the start. Enemies are annoying to defeat (Tentacool raising its stats and curing endlessly, far away Sneasel using the same move every turn making it annoying to do anything, Drowsee and some other Pokémon trapping me and taking control away from me for several minutes until Drowsee KO'd himself by using Struggle) so grinding to level 2 or 3 to learn moves other than Tackle is boring. You can change the leader and send your Pokémon home, so I tried that, but it didn't help. The latter usually works fine, but at one point the other two Pokémon left my party entirely even when I went out of the dungeon. There are some interesting custom items. I enjoyed the author's previous hack (Fount of Victory), but I don't feel like playing this one further. The dialogue is fun, so I might look up a video to see what happens later.

Archive - SkyTemple

Gegenspieler

You choose your protagonist and partner, and then you take on the role of the villains in Explorers. You select one out of 4 scenarios (Zubat & Koffing, Drowzee, Grovyle, Dialga) and then play a dungeon and the following boss fight as the enemy rather than the protagonists. The Grovyle fight has two additional seemingly random Pokémon in the hero's party. The added dialogue and scenes are interesting, pirate Feraligatr is a staple PMD fan character at this point. It's a fun idea, but I don't like the execution. There's the usual one time inventory mistake every beginner Sky hacker seems to make, and every time you get defeated you need to start over (this game really needs a patch that lets you skip cutscenes), I would have gladly tried the bosses more if I didn't have to wait several minutes between each attempt. Dungeons are easy. You can also give up/get KO'd and still reach the boss fight, which makes me think the author didn't try playing the dungeons. After the credits, Grovyle teases the author's WIP hack, "Grovyles Story".

Archive - SkyTemple

Grovyles Story

Demo for a longer hack. About 7 dungeons. You play as Treecko, who later evolves into Grovyle. Dusknoir as a guest in some dungeons. Treecko discovers a human village and befriends a human child (who uses Riolu sprites). A group of Sableye attack, so you run away. Then you fight the Sableye, Treecko evolves, everyone is surprised because that's supposed to be impossible. Timeskip. Now Dialga wants to know the secret of Grovyle's evolution, so he sends Dusknoir to invite him to Temporal Tower. Grovyle accepts because he wants to read the murals there, Dusknoir figures out he doesn't want to obey their orders, Grovyle manages to escape. This ends the demo. Selecting continue after this plays a trailer that features shiny Celebi and an actual human sprite. The outfit seems to be based on Piplup, and at least in the trailer he uses the name "Lucas". Apparently you'll have to choose if you want to side with Grovyle or Lucas. It's weird how Grovyle and the human can communicate normally, given that he's surprised that a Pokémon can talk at the start of the original game, I assume it's supposed to work like in the anime. Surprisingly, you get a proper inventory after the first or maybe second dungeon. The gameplay isn't particularly interesting.

Archive - SkyTemple

Templus Machina

6 dungeons and a boss fight. You play as Growlithe and Alolan Vulpix, and then switch over to a team consisting of Umbreon, Illumise and Ralts, seeing their side of the story. The team is searching for a weapon on behalf of the guild, and you mistakenly think they're trying to steal it. Custom graphics. A custom item, Mysterious Relic. When used, it makes a random move effect, similar to orbs. An NPC can trade 1 for an Oran Berry, 2 for a Max Elixir and 3 for a Reviver Seed. The second team's inventory is nearly full of them at the start, encouraging you to trade them. I did, but the dungeons are easy and it didn't matter. You catch the criminal, and that's it. Between the two stories, you get a choice. Both times I chose to keep going. I assume selecting the other option changes what happens next, probably making you fight the criminal with only one team, or letting the criminal steal the weapon, but I'd have to replay it to know for sure. Not bad, but not all that interesting either.

Archive - SkyTemple

Future of Hope

About 4 dungeons. You play as Arcanine, Murkrow + Togepi ally. During the future of darkness, Arcanine steals a Togepi egg and waits for it to hatch. It doesn't until time is restored and Murkrow steals it from him. Togepi thinks Murkrow is his mother and is scared of Arcanine. Both of them originally stole Togepi for Honchkrow, who wants it for some unspecified reason, but then they form a family. Nothing worth noting gameplay wise.

Archive - SkyTemple

Turnabout Dimension

1 dungeon (6 floors). Team is Bidoof and Corphish. Bidoof's Wish sequel and Ace Attorney crossover. I only have some surface level familiarity with the series, so I was quite confused, especially at the end. But aside from the short dungeon you go through, that's what it plays like. I'm confused as to who the victim is. I think it's Chatot but I don't get why he would be so excited to eat apple pie, unless that's an Ace Attorney reference. Why did the fact that Bidoof was supposed to do sentry duty that day never come up again? I thought it would be relevant. It crashes on real hardware regardless of how you run it, so I used an emulator. It says the latest version was made to fix a softlock, but it's not the one I'm referencing. After the dungeon, a Darkrai gives you a choice, and if you refuse, you have to reload the save file and go through dialogue and the dungeon again. I like the transparent text box patch, it makes the game look better.

Archive - SkyTemple

Soulless 2

Remember that garbage hack "Soulless Life"? It ended with a Dialga swallowing you, which is supposed to be a funny vore fetish joke, apparently. People on Discord didn't like that, so the hack was disqualified from the second hack jam. Apparently this is supposed to be a sequel to that. Which means I was expecting it to have some sort of story, but every line of dialogue is replaced with random memes. Beach Cave with different Pokémon. Easy. You play as pirate Feraligatr, Nidoqueen and a Totodile. At least the dungeon is actually playable this time. I got to the boss and the game crashed on real hardware using my flashcard. I don't feel like trying to beat the boss. I just wanted to take a quick look out of curiosity. He's made many hacks, and I'm not expecting any of them to be good.

Archive - Hacks list

Soulless Trapinch

Prequel to "Soulless Life". At least this one seems to have some sort of story. Team is Trapinch and Vulpix. You go to a club and get raped, so you go through a dungeon because you want to find the rapists. Lots of random sexual dialogue. The dungeon seems manageable, but I don't feel like going through it.

Archive - Patch download

Expose Groomers and Pedophiles and Ect

1 dungeon (7 floors) and a boss fight. Team is Poochyena and Vulpix. The author of "Soulless Life" got banned from the Discord server he was obbsessed with, apparently after claiming someone sent him what he "thinks is CP" (he seems to be talking about drawings). So he made a callout hack. It's like a callout post, but as a PMD hack. It starts with a long, badly written rant on how YouTube is allegedly full of pedophiles, how "everyone can use SkyTemple, even pedophiles", there are several instances where he comes close to accusing the developer of being one, and some other rant about the age of consent in Canada and Germany. He also claims the cartoon show "Total Drama Island" is porn. The dungeon is badly designed, the usual in his hacks (but it is playable, which isn't guaranteed). Got to the boss fight against the SkyTemple mascot and some YouTuber I'm unfamiliar with and then the game crashed on my flashcard. Once you beat them, they give you their "cat in the hat" porn and run away. The credits are a list of people the author doesn't like (notable mention: Chris-Chan) followed by many "placeholder" lines, some people he likes and some YouTubers he likes. I should play a good hack next.

Archive - Patch download

City of Light

4 dungeons. 2 or 3 bosses depending on your choice. You play as Poipole, joined by Rotom for one dungeon and Fomantis later. Tons of custom graphics, some custom sounds/music. Cute litte story involving Ultra Beasts. Dialogue is fun. You're a kid Poipole who looks up to another Ultra Beast. Near the end, you need to choose if you want to side with the Ultra Beasts or normal Pokémon, which changes the ending. Poipole has Beast Boost, so your Special Attack increases when you defeat an enemy. Other than that there's not much to say regarding dungeons, you find tons of Reviver Seeds and they're easy to get through even if you don't use them. After the credits the game teases a continuation of the story. The best hack I've played lately.

Archive - SkyTemple

Psychic Puppets

Amazing hack, the gameplay is interesting and new, even shops outside of dungeons have new mechanics (although I didn't really use them shops besides trying Gulpin's once) and the story is entertaining. The dungeons, while mostly easy, are well designed and have multiple gimmicks. You play as Mewtwo initially and you leave Western Cave to visit Pokémon Square hoping to make some friends. Mewtwo has a new move called Brainwash, which forces enemy Pokémon to become your allies (for only one floor if I remember correctly). I think you can go through all 99 floors of Western Cave if you want, but it's optional, there's a much quicker way to get through it: brainwashing a specific Pokémon species. Another dungeon is only one floor and the correct way to progress the story to brainwash a Pokémon to force it to be your friend. You later need to go through Western Cave again, this time as Mew, who has a similar custom move, Befriend. This makes enemy Pokémon join your party immediately. Elixirs are uncommon, so you have to manage your PP. This hack makes good use of items in general. Again, there's a quicker way to get to floor 99, but you can also do it normally. I got to floor 70 on my first attempt. At floors 5 and 50 there's a stop where you can shortcuts that lead to a different short dungeon and then back to a later floor of Western Cave, but only if Pokémon with certain moves are in your party.

If you decide to go through it normally, I recommend you conserve your Psychic PP for floor 58. While other floors have few Pokémon, that floor is full of Golbat. Starting from floor 70, the dungeon seems to be more challenging, if you don't take shortcuts. I gave it a few more attempts starting halfway through, but then I did it the easy way. The game uses Rescue Team maps and the story acts as a sequel to Mewtwo's story in Rescue Team. The mailbox has a ton of references to other rom hacks. Pirate Feraligatr is in town selling land, replacing Wigglytuff. I don't think you can buy any though. I haven't even really explained everything this hack has to offer (probably forgot or didn't notice some details). I haven't seen anything directly saying that this hack will get updated further, but some things seem inaccessible/incomplete, so I think it's possible. I recommend trying it out if you want to see something new in PMD.

Archive - SkyTemple

Operative Labours

Few dungeons. You play as Rampardos and a female Pikachu, two detectives investigating on the kidnapping of a shiny Caterpie kid. Some custom maps, but you don't really get to explore them. You can walk around, but you can only go where the story wants you to. Intriguing story concept, but the execution and writing isn't all that great (at least in English, it's also available in German and French). At some point it made me play as another team of story characters, but weirdly I didn't need to complete the dungeon to progress the story. After interrogating all the characters, you get to choose which of three Pokémon you think is the culprit, which leads to one of three different finales. I only got the third one, Flygon. It seems that to get the other two finales I need to play the game over from scratch. If you want to see all three finales, it might be better to make a savestate when you get the choice near the end. Dungeons are uninteresting and some of the items you find don't fit into the game (I got some Treasure Boxes in one dungeon even though you can't open them). For a small part of the story, Pikachu becomes a boy, this is most likely not intended. Most characters have names instead of being referred to as their species. I think this type of hack would be better if it let you choose where you go and who you talk to.

Archive - SkyTemple

Explorers of Death

Game adaptation of a creepypasta fanfic I read a decade or maybe a little over a decade ago. I don't remember the details, but the story was about the narrator resetting the game to cheat on the personality test in order to get Vulpix. I remember thinking it was silly, but I enjoyed reading it. In the hack, you play as the Vulpix. This premise isn't really explained in the game. It's just a short demo for now, it ends as soon as you reach "the Dungeon", so it's pretty short, you only get to explore Treasure Town, the guild areas and the beach. The overworld has some gameplay elements, such as the game taking you back to a previous location if you enter the wrong room when you're being chased by the Pokémon who want to kill you. I want to see more of this hack.

Archive - SkyTemple

Mystery Mail 1: Blooming Chaos

A collaboration between 20 rom hackers, each one doing a bit of the story, starting off where the previous rom hacker left off. I enjoyed seeing how some of them connected, and I like that that this contributes to building some lore and characters across PMD hacks. The narrative goes off rails a little over half way through, but I suspect Mystery Mail 2 and other hacks make up for that. I guess this is what the end of Turnabout Dimension (>>51720528) was referencing, although I'm still confused. There is next to no input from the player besides progressing the text, so you may as well watch it on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsKLEHAibWo), however there are two scenes where the player can give some sort of input. In one you need to press the A or B button at the right time to attack an enemy, and another scene tries to imitate main series battle mechanics. Both seem generally inconsequential though. The game also asks for your name (at the end, or when you select it from the scene selection menu), I don't know what that is for.

There's hidden messages for each participant, primarily in-jokes and "thank you for participating".

Archive - SkyTemple

Mystery Mail 2: Branching Chaos

More of the same, but with even less player input (not that it matters, that's not the point of this). The story branches in two parts at the start, branch B later reconnects to branch A somewhat, and branch A is referenced multiple times. Except the Shaymin. I wanted to see them, but they seem to have been forgotten. Instantly crashes on flashcard, and one of the branch B scenes crashes on TWiLight Menu++.

Archive - SkyTemple

Princess Alexander and the Search for Obama's Last Name

Mystery Mail 1 spinoff story. Incomplete. At the end of this demo, you reach a 4x4 tic-tac-toe minigame. I won it a few times, tried to let the opponent win, it seems its input is random. Nothing happens after that, you just keep playing the minigame. The author said he might continue development.

Archive - SkyTemple

Probopass Last Quest

About 5 dungeons, but you don't need to complete the last one, I'm not sure if that's intended. 1 boss fight. Easy and unremarkable. The most interesting thing about it is that the team or leader is different in every dungeon (Probopass, Swablu, Alolan Diglett, Chansey). Some custom graphics. Confusing story. Probopass takes over Wigglytuff's Guild, his enemy Shiftry is doing... something. I don't know what. He lures you to his tower, and the tower falls, I don't know why it falls, but it does. The story is supposed to continue in another hack, "Explorers of Pokérus".

Archive - SkyTemple

BLORG

4 dungeons, 2 bosses. First dungeon didn't have anything special as far as I can tell. The others are interesting and fun. Second dungeon: you often start floors closed between floors and need to leave by using Rock Smash, instead of stairs you take warp points, which may also be between walls in rooms. Team is Lucario and Archen. Third dungeon: You play as Archen, you're fast and need to avoid Muk enemies. You can find useful items like Switcher Orb, Warp Seed, Mobile Orb, etc. First boss: Archen vs Marshadow. Lava tiles that Marshadow can walk on. You're weak, but you can defeat Marshadow using Stealth Rock. Fourth dungeon: Enemies are based on Pokémon featured in various hacks. On floor 5 there's a key and a room with about 6 Reviver Seeds. Team is Zoroark, Magmortar and Blissey, who heals you and occasionally takes damage for you. Second boss: Blissey and mutliple Muk. Each Muk has one Reviver Seed. Story involves a Marshadow helping two teams save the world, preventing everyone from getting turned into Muk zombies.

Archive - SkyTemple

Merchants VS Pirates

2 dungeons (one is 15 floors, the other is 10 floors), 3 bosses. 4 playable characters: 2 merchants and 2 pirates. You can only use one on each playthrough. Kecleon, Purple Kecleon, Feraligatr or Cinderace. Merchants have IQ skills (remember to turn them on). Pirates have less inventory space. When you complete the game, you get a score based on your play time and the Poké value of the items you collected. I like the idea, but I was expecting the game to either only be one dungeon, or the dungeon to be a bit easier, perhaps with less monster houses. I got a really bad score (55) on my only attempt so far. Maybe I should prioritize time over items. I didn't know time mattered until right before the credits. I played as Purple Kecleon, who gets Protean. There are many enemy Pokémon from later games, and the second dungeon is almost filled with only Ultra Beasts. Many of the items you find are "relics", which initially don't do anything, but after a few floors transform into treasures, which have a high Poké value and act like exclusive items that affect all Pokémon. The game also has proper Wands, like in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon and Rescue Team DX. Second dungeon is easy. First dungeon feels a bit too hard considering the goal, maybe it would be more enjoyable if the hack got some balance changes. Or maybe I just need to play it more to figure out a strategy.

Archive - SkyTemple

Fragments Chapter 2

Another hack in the Fragments series. Interesting and creative as usual. I think this one is my favorite of the three. You play as Plusle and Nidoqueen. There are no randomized dungeons. Instead, this hack takes a more puzzle-based approach, plus some boss fights and a minigame. This hack is full of custom mechanics and the puzzles are fun. Some of them took me a while to figure out. The story is interesting, but as usual with this series, I don't have a clear idea of the overarching narrative, probably because I play one of these once every six months.

There are multiple ending. Some are failure endings that take you back to the top menu, and others are actual endings. I was able to get three of them: normal, Plusle, and Minun. The last one gave me access to a menu where the author shared some personal thoughts and it was interesting to read. Apparently he doesn't feel comfortable with how much praise he receives.

Apparently there are some things that I wasn't able to unlock. I found a secret boss fight (the Minun ending), but apparently there is another one. I went through the whole game from a new save file. It doesn't take long now that I know what all the puzzles are, but I can't find it.

Archive - Hacks list

Fragments Chapter -1

3 randomly generated dungeons. Gameplay is interesting and mostly fun (it seems like the author didn't think it would be fun, but I enjoyed it, to me the only issues are that the second dungeon is a bit too long and the quiz at the end is unfair).
I want to recommend this hack, it's similar to Fragments Chapter 2 in some ways gameplay wise, but many players might not like it, at least without savestates. I don't mind needing to start over in case of failure aside from the quiz. I played on real hardware and there was a nice detail though. If you already want to play it, I recommend you don't read the spoilers below. The gameplay kind of reminds me of JojoRetroGamer's garbage hacks at times, except this one is fun. I think the author wanted the hack to be bad, or at least look bad at first, but I enjoyed it.

The goal is to survive with the items you find. Almost always hungry. There are few types of items, but the way they're used makes a lot of sense. You can delete enemies and warp to any spot on the entire floor, at any moment. That might sound like it would make the game too easy, but it's actually balanced. You don't see where you're warping to, so you need to make a guess. Statuses and Heal Seeds are important, and if you warp into a wall you immediately get hungry. In order to beat a dungeon, you need to perform a specific task in each one of them.

Story: The character you control (the author of the hack?) is getting tortured by the villain (also the author of the hack) and you help him escape from his nightmares. You can also read some development info on his hacks and some of his thoughts.

So far for the Fragments series, I think I rank the chapters 2 > -1 > 3 > 1.

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Bad EGG Myst3ry Dung30n

It's the original game, but it makes you play as an Egg (ability: Unburden, starting moves: Tackle, Softboiled, Natural Gift, Helping Hand). Only some lines of dialogue are changed, and occasionally the music is different. First dungeon is unchanged, I was about to close the game at the second one, but it's called "Wayback Forest". I don't know how much is changed, but I don't want to go through more of the story just to see if later dungeon are different. In general the changes in this hack are minimal.

Archive - SkyTemple

Pikachu's Great Adventure

4 dungeons, 3 bosses. Supposed to become a full story. Interesting so far, but it feels like a draft. Uses towns and dungeons from Rescue Team and Explorers. You play as a shiny Pikachu starting at level 55, later joined by a level 55 Marshadow and for the last dungeon you escort a level 49 Espurr that evolves halfway through the dungeon.

Gameplay is basic. The most interesting thing was finding an item hidden in a wall and using manual mode to control Marshadow inside the wall. Getting defeated shows some exclusive messages, different for each dungeon. Beating the hack unlocks hard mode with silly changes to the dialogue and badly balanced dungeons. I only completed the first two dungeons in hard mode. This hack is named after the leaked prototype name for Rescue Team, but it isn't relevant, so I find the chosen name confusing.

Story: A 14 years old human wakes up as a Marshadow, and an experienced Pikachu from Wigglytuff's Guild finds him. He has knowledge from the real world (as in, without Pokémon) and makes numerous references to Pokémon games and other games in general. Apparently Espurr is supposed to be the same one from Super, but this one is male instead. There is also a Jirachi who is also the same as the one in Super, but strangely he doesn't seem to recognize Star Cave. I don't think the human (Miguel) has played Super, so that might be relevant to the story somehow. During the story they meet an arrogant Charizard and Miguel accidentally kills him, Pikachu seems to gradually become afraid of Miguel, but he doesn't have much of a reaction to the murder and is immediately willing to keep the secret. I suspect they may be hinting at Pikachu being a murderer himself. If it isn't clear, Miguel retained all of his memories, so he already has knowledge of the Pokémon world. I think there are some interesting plot points, and I like the characters, but it needs more development time.

Archive - SkyTemple

Gates to Infinity demake

I played version 0.1.4.3. It would be cool to see GtI areas recreated in 2D and its unique gameplay mechanics (like Gridless Floors) reimplemented, but that's not what this is, at least for now. Maps are reused from Explorers and Rescue Team. Music from GtI is used. The story is the same as GtI, most of the dialogue is exactly the same, but a few sentences are changed and occasionally the main character has extra lines that weren't in the original. I think it only goes up to after Hazy Pass. Some Pokémon don't have sprites, so they are replaced by other Pokémon, like a shiny Ninetails instead of Swanna or Machop instead of Timburr. There are some bugs. On the first boss fight, Machamp defeated me in one hit and the game just locked. I don't want to play through Hazy Pass again now since there doesn't seem to be much more to it in this version. The developers talk about this hack as if it's supposed to become some sort of improved replacement to the original game, which I don't like, I think it should just be an alternate reimagining. I'll check it out again if it gets a major update.

Archive - SkyTemple

Flight of the Bluebird

3 dungeons, 1 optional boss fight. You play as a Swablu.

Nothing particularly noteworthy, but I enjoyed it. Belly depletes faster than usual, Apples fully refill, but I don't think it made much of a difference to me. I like when hacks have small gameplay changes like this though. The second dungeon has certain items spawn on certain floors and makes you collect Magikarp Scales and Gyarados Scales, which are the currencies used in a custom town. I didn't buy anything with them though. Third dungeon has custom music. To beat the boss fight you need to pay attention to the layout of the boss area and use it to your advantage, which gameplay wise is the most interesting thing here.

Story is okay, but the dialogue is weird at times. Swablu lives in a nest and doesn't want to evolve, Swellow wants to force him to evolve because it's their tradition, so Swablu runs away and tries to live in a new town. There are three endings, two where you come back (one after a boss fight, one without), and one where you go live in the new town and the other birds give up on looking for you.

Not bad, but it's besides the story there's nothing I haven't seen in other hacks. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't stand out.

Archive - SkyTemple

Infinite Labyrinth

2 dungeons. You choose your partner, and your Pokémon is assigned through the quiz. I don't think the questions are changed, but some of the possible Pokémon are different (if I remember correctly I saw Mareep, Cranidos, Shieldon, Gible and maybe some more). It's a very short demo for what is supposed to become a full game. The dungeons are easy and uninteresting. You play as an alleged criminal who suddenly gets amnesia when he's about to get arrested by Magnezone. Your partner is one of Magnezone's trainees, believes the amnesia story, and invites you to join him as a trainee hoping Magnezone accepts.

Archive - SkyTemple

Explorers of the Spirit

Probably the most popular Sky hack so far, so you've likely already heard of it. It's meant to be a standard full PMD game (with little postgame content). The gameplay isn't very interesting, it's like the original game but with less things to think about. Many dungeons have Pokémon of a specific type, and the game encourages you to use linked moves. Boss fights were the best part, gameplay wise. There are no traps and no Monster Houses. What interests people the most here is the story. It's a sequel to Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky involving Grovyle and Darkrai traveling back to the past, sort of like an alternate universe and a sequel at the same time. The first few hours are boring because it's mostly the same as the original game, but eventually it picks up and becomes interesting. It mostly focuses on expanding the role of minor characters from Sky, including Ampharos and Mawile, who get their characterization from PSMD. Unfortunately, the last part of the story was disappointing for me, it doesn't feel like a proper conclusion, and some things that seemed to be building up for the ending, like Breloom, are ignored. Other aspects of the story, like the Treasure Town ruins, seemed interesting, but didn't go anywhere. It feels like the author lost interest around the last chapter but still wanted to release it as a full game instead of an incomplete project. The postgame features some bonus dungeons with side stories that cross over with other rom hacks. I enjoyed most of the story. Eventually more main story length hacks will be made, so this one might not stand out as much. I'd say it's still worth playing if that's the sort of thing you're looking for, and I've seen people who seem to like the ending anyway.

Archive - SkyTemple

Emolga and the Mail Trials

About two dungeons. You play as a level 40 female Emolga, later joined by a level 40 baby Minior. 2 dungeons, 2 bosses, and an easy overworld puzzle. It also features a morality system, where you can choose what to say during the story, and the characters have different opinions of you based on your choices. Emolga wants to become a mailman, so she joins the Pelipper and proves she can perform the job. I like the idea, but it's short and very easy. The dialogue needs a lot more polish, the grammar is broken and things just kind of randomly happen. One of the dungeons is a recreation of Fire Island Volcano from PSMD, including the music. Uses many Pokémon that weren't in the original game, but their data is clearly not set properly, they give 1 experience point each. A nice detail, different characters make different sounds as their dialogue appears. I would like to see this get expanded and polished.

Archive - SkyTemple

Artificial Revenant Chimera

3 dungeons, 1 is optional (branching path where you either choose one or the other). You play as a level 50 Type: Null, with a level 50 Mienshao partner. Gameplay is basic and easy. The story takes place in a laboratory where two Type: Null have been made, you play as the second one, the first one is out of control and you choose to either defeat it or escape. You also befreind the Mienshao scientist that created the two Type: Null. There are two endings based on a simple choice at the end. The most unique thing about this hack is that most of the maps (the laboratory) are made from scratch.

Archive - SkyTemple

Finneon Accidentally Causes The End Of The World

3 dungeons, as far as I know. Team is a level 35 Finneon and a level 40 Lanturn. Dungeons are easy, you can walk on water and avoid most enemies. There is one simple overworld puzzle. An optional boss fight at the end against Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres requires some strategy to win, but winning is also optional. Multiple endings based on your choices, I got 3 endings out of 5. The story kept emphasizing how important the decisions are and how they affect the outcome, but I didn't see much of a difference. Good custom overworlds. I'm not particularly invested in the story itself, but it might be hinting at some interesting worldbuilding. It's presented as a prequel to a WIP hack called "Explorers of the Merge", apparently these "merges" have something to do with humans and animals in the Pokémon world. This hack is set in the past, and some animals (creatures of "the first merge") still exist. The story takes place underwater and Finneon lives in a ship. The hack itself is alright, it plays well and it made me interested in the author's main hack, but unless the other endings and alternate story paths have more to offer, it isn't much. Also, I think the title might be a lie, I couldn't get Finneon to ignore the warning and actually cause the end of the world, maybe that's in another ending I didn't reach.

Archive - SkyTemple

Cryptic Conundrum

7 easy dungeons, 1 boss that requires some strategy, some decent puzzles both inside and outside of dungeons. You choose a Pokémon to play as, and get an Eevee partner. The story starts at Wigglytuff's Guild and it's presented as a normal adventure during the story of the original game. Chatot tells you to explore a dungeon to retrieve a mysterious object. The partner accidentally drops it and the Grass Continent is taken over by a mysterious enemy. You play as Eevee for most of the game, usually joined by a Bisharp from the Mist Continent, who makes multiple Gates to Infinity references. You befriend him and help him find four orbs that he wants to use to defeat the enemy. Your Pokémon disappears and your goal is to get him back. I don't fully understand the story, likely because I haven't bothered trying to figure out the custom characters the game occasionally uses. Weirdly, at first the characters claim it's footprint writing, which Eevee can't read. Which is strange, because he should. But later they say it's definitely some other language. Probably a mistake in the dialogue. At some point Bisharp gave me several dialogue options, I didn't bother trying them, but I checked a YouTube video and it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Later in the story you can read Bisharp's diary, a nice touch.

There is also a crafting feature, many of the items you find in dungeons are materials that you can use to make other items. If you make a key, the second floor of the second dungeon in the north has a door that gives you an X-Ray Specs, but the dungeons are already easy even without it or crafting. The boss is Missingno, who uses the moves of the Pokémon you choose at the beginning, as well as some special attacks that damage, confuse and warp you. I'm assuming Missingno is the hero then, and that's the effect dropping the mysterious object had on him, but I couldn't read Missingno's dialogue, so I don't know for sure. There are two endings, one where you don't forgive the partner for the mistake and one where you do. There is also a new game plus mode, but I played it for a bit and didn't notice anything different.

Archive - SkyTemple

Seeking Skyward

You play as Rayquaza (who can Mega Evolve), occasionally joined by a Minior. Dungeons are mostly short and easy except the last two, where you need to use items and Mega Evolution, and pay attention to enemies. The story is inspired by Psychic Puppets. It's a sequel to the main story of Rescue Team, and a prequel to Super, as you visit Baram Town, which Kangaskhan and other Pokémon are currently building. It doesn't look like the official Baram Town, if the game hadn't told me I wouldn't have made the connection. The story is about Rayquaza befriending a Minior. Very silly at the start, it shows what Rayquaza was doing before the boss fight in Rescue Team: trying to sleep in his cloud bed while checking Discord, where the Sky Tower Pokémon are him calling for help. The hack starts after the fight. Minior wants to visit Pokémon Square and the Hill of the Ancients, so Rayquaza brings him there. Minior's shell is broken, so he's about to die. You can either choose to let it happen, or go to space and get the materials to make him a new shell in time. In the latter ending, Minior seems disappointed that Rayquaza didn't respect his request to give up, which I find strange and unexpected. Mega Evolution can be activated at any time, by pressing L+R, which uses a turn. While Mega Evolved Rayquaza gets hungry faster, but there are custom items that you can buy at the shop for cheap which, when used, release multiple food items that fill the belly but reduce stats. I didn't use them much because I would only trigger the Mega Evolution to fight. I didn't like the start of the story, but overall it's alright in both story and gameplay.

Archive - SkyTemple

Team Triple Trouble in: The House of Horrors

Only has two short dungeons at the moment. First dungeon you play as a Quilava with a Togetic partner, second dungeon as Togetic with a Poochyena partner. All three have low HP compared to enemy Pokémon and are easily defeated by enemies. First dungeon is manageable because Quilava has Smokescreen, but the second one you just need to have decent RNG at finding the stairs. Good custom overworld graphics. The story is incomplete, it barely started when this demo ended. The team is trapped in a mysterious mansion, Poochyena is excited to explore but the others are angry and scared. Then Togetic sees some paintings and is scared of them for some reason.

Archive - SkyTemple

Wigglytuff's Bizzare Adventure

You play as Wigglytuff, with Chatot as the partner. The story is sort of a sequel to Fount of Victory, though it's not particularly relevant. Wigglytuff decided to start hormone replacement therapy, and apparently Armaldo doesn't approve, so Wigglytuff and Chatot explore the mountain to have fun. There is an overworld minigame where Wigglytuff jumps up and you have to land on a platform, and if you jump into a platform it gives you an extra boost. The minigame crashed when I played on real hardware using a flashcard, so I played it on an emulator instead, and the game still had rare occasional freezes in other areas. The dungeons expect you to use items, but I often couldn't find enough, which made them annoying. You can take different paths when exploring the mountain, and that leads to different dungeons and minigames. The game says there are multiple endings but I only got one. Victini thinks you want to destroy the mountain for some reason, so that's the boss at the end of the hack. The wands from Fount of Victory are back, but now they're called darts, which makes a lot more sense. The overworld has hidden orbs that you can collect, which you can bring to Magikarp near the end of the hack. Doing so makes him teach you Splash. Or at least that's what the game said, I didn't have it in my moves list when I checked. Wigglytuff also knows a move called "Yoom-tah". The description says to not use it. The first time you use it, it makes you skip the dungeon. If you use it again, it deletes your save file. I don't know if getting a different ending gives you context for that, but I doubt it. Strange hack.

Archive - SkyTemple