What a lovely romhack! This hack makes a full game out of the Spaceworld 97 demo of Gold and Silver, and it's so charming. Early generations of pokemon had a strangeness that has slowly been sanded out as the games kept going. By Scarlet and Violet, as much as I like those games, it's almost gone entirely. This hack is like an alternate universe where that weird energy kept going, and it made me feel like a kid playing through Gold on my game boy for the first time again.
The region of Nihon is full of oddball areas and concepts, so many surprises around every corner. How about a secret cave inside a fountain in Sanskrit town? How about a zoo? How about the entire Kanto region but shrunk down to the size of one huge map inside a city?
That's not even mentioning the pokemon differences. Some are completely unique to this version, like Raitora and Plux. Some would be revisited later, with early versions of Leafeon and Lickilicky and such. Some would be completely different versions of existing pokemon, like the poison type Umbreon and the infinitely cuter Hoppip line.
It's absolutely fascinating as someone who grew up with these games, and arguably a better balanced experience given it lacks Johto's obnoxious level problem. I don't think this will be my preferred way to play through Johto going forward, but I'll definitely be playing it again in the future.
Can't recommend it enough! I want Raitora in real pokemon goddammit!