FireRed hack: [COMPLETED] Accept Defeat, Version 2.0

[Unfolding]

Note: There's no grinding necessary, it's a puzzle! Also, please mark spoilers in the comments, especially about the mechanics and endings!




A Curious, Experimental Puzzle / Short Experience / Adventure / Haiku

by Unfolding


INTRODUCTION AND STORY​

You've just survived a shipwreck. You need to get home to Fuchsia City by any means possible... but you're no trainer. You're just a fisherman, washed up on a strange island, with only a few items in your pack and a single Pokémon. You never needed to Fly, so you never got the Thunderbadge. And now you're trapped on an island crawling with scary-strong trainers, and you have to find your way home.

Hi, I'm Unfolding and this is my very first attempt at a ROMhack. This is an entry to Anthroyd's MAGM competition, and I've patched up the bugs we found for a re-release here! Accept Defeat is a puzzle-y, atmospheric experience that explores the mechanics of the Pokémon world. It's not particularly long (you could probably speedrun one ending in two minutes), but there are three distinct ways to play the game, leading to three endings, and one of them takes quite a bit of time and dedication. It's not the standard "eight gyms of content", but I really hope you enjoy it for what it is!

In the immortal, somewhat edited words of Sonja Lang, "If [Pokemon Unbound] is a thick novel, [Accept Defeat] is a haiku."

FEATURES (GOOD!)​

• An unlikely protagonist and a new archipelago to explore!
• A single new Pokémon, with an interesting gimmick!
• A completely unique battle mechanic that rewards creative teambuilding!
• Many small puzzles to solve in battles; larger puzzles to solve in the world!
• A brand new type of hidden item!
• Running Shoes indoors and a Bicycle from the start!
• Wait, three endings?!
• And one of the endings requires you to solve a difficult puzzle based on the core mechanics of the game?!

FEATURES (BAD!)​

• It's my first time creating literally any of the things you will experience!
• A vague sense of melancholy and helplessness despite the cheerful tropical setting!
• Game design that incorporates intentional softlocks! Yep, that's right, I'm one of those weirdos who believes softlocks have a place in game design, especially in short experiences like this. (Don't worry, it's story-relevant and hard to do by accident!)
• One impressively bad dad joke!
• Mostly vanilla Gen III mechanics - no later gen Pokémon, moves, or abilities, no physical / special split, etc.!

SCREENSHOTS​

CREDITS​

Tools:
AdvanceMap, by LU-HO
HexManiacAdvance, by Haven

Scripts:
FastNewGame, by Haven

Resources:
flags.h and various other decomp files, by Pret
frspecials, by cbt
Pokemon Gen III Romhacking Tutorials, by Anthroyd

Special Thanks:
Gamefreak, for everything
Anthroyd, for MAGM and his tutorials
U. Flame and Cutlerine, for their short hacks which were partial inspirations for this one
Skeli and Coolboyman, for really setting the bar high
Shiny, PhoenixBound, Petuh, and AGSMG, for their support in answering so many of my questions
Haven, because HMA is an amazing tool that made this all possible
And you, for taking a chance on a new creator!

PATCHING AND TESTING INFORMATION​

Accept Defeat needs to be patched onto FireRed 1.0. I've tested it with mGBA and on console; both work just fine. Feel free to message me if you experience any issues!

 

[DJCherryTempo]

I can only get two of the three endings- White out to get to the main land or use Gameshark codes to grind my way to the Legendary and trade it off. There's nothing else to the game that I can find.

 

[Unfolding]

Mark spoilers, please! And there's no grinding necessary - you can get to the cave without gaining even a single level!

I'll happily DM you with more details or hints. Thanks for giving it a try!

 

[theOven]

Nice short hack. I was able to find all three ending within an hour.

Spoiler:

However, I never understood what the name of the isles meant. Is there a 4th ending? These are the endings I got: 1) whiting out. 2) trading 3) teleporting. Am I missing anything else?

 

[DJCherryTempo]

I mean, your Images kinda give away one of the endings to begin with, so I dont see why you say to mark spoilers. Either way, I dont see myself trying this hack again. I've never been much of a puzzle fan to begin with.