Man, what a game.

This was a really special experience for me, because not only did it feel like a more or less perfectly designed thing on its own, it's also the first real traditional dungeon-crawler I've played, and I think I've discovered a new subgenre to love. I've played plenty of games adjacent to this kind of thing - Diablo, Dark Souls, and Shin Megami Tensei (at least, the PS2 era and beyond) are all favorites of mine, and they all share more than a little DNA with this particular strain of RPG. But the specific references for this game, whether they be the "blobbers" like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder, or the classics that led to those, such as Wizardry, are all games that I've been curious about for a long time but a little too intimidated by to dive straight into. Now, I can't wait to explore the classics to which this game is paying obvious tribute.

It's just a wildly compelling game loop, RPG systems boiled down to their bare essentials to make for a game that feels both simple and yet always interesting. You create a party of four, a group of prisoners chained together that must move in a unit, in any combination of four races and three classes that you'd like, and build out their specialties according to your preferences of play. It's limited, and arguably a little shallow. For example, as a warrior, you can choose to level up your skills in the use of swords, axes, or maces, but ultimately the difference doesn't really particularly matter, because either way you're just clicking on your character every few seconds to deliver an attack. I'm sure each one has slightly different stats for speed, accuracy, and damage, but I never felt required to take those differences into account. And yet, for the length of the game and the mechanics that it DOES choose to focus on, I'm not sure I'd want anything deeper from this particular system. It gives you just enough agency over your characters and encourages replay without overwhelming you with choice.

For as much as the level design intentionally relies on disorienting exploration through uniformly textured labyrinths, each level of the dungeon manages to pace its combat and environmental puzzles in engrossing combinations. There's always one more thing driving you forward - finding a key or a lock and searching for its counterpart, facing off against an intimidating new enemy, racking your brain over what placement of objects or what combination of floor switches will trigger a new path to open, discovering an evocative hint of lore through a scroll - and this bag of tricks is deployed with masterful variety.

The style of combat this game uses is interesting because even though making it real-time rather than turn-based theoretically makes it more "realistic," grid movement makes it feel just as abstracted. Just like I've said about other systems of the game, it's simple, but that more often feels like a strength rather than a flaw, giving you just enough opportunity to put new skills and stats to the test in brief moments of tension. Like the dungeon crawling as a whole, it feels deliberately, methodically paced, but never less than absorbing.

I suppose I could say there were a few aspects of the game that I would have liked to be different. I wish there was a separate inventory for scrolls so that I didn't have to throw out spell keys to make room for other items. There were a few puzzles in the second half of the game that felt slightly too obtuse and had me seeking answers on the internet. The final hour or two got a bit tedious.

But did any of these things meaningfully hinder my enjoyment? Not really! I just really loved my time with this thing, and feel like a whole new style of game has been opened up to me. Really just can't sing its praises or recommend it enough.

This is an underrated game with excellent music.

It's HARD though. Rumor is that the western release was mistakenly made more difficult, rather than the other way around, so you will probably have to do quite a bit of grinding to make it through comfortably.

There are many main characters to choose from, and the setting blends science and fantasy together in a way that just works for me.

I wouldn't blame anyone for disliking it, but the challenge of the game has me periodically coming back after years to give it another go.

Let me just say that this game is a huge technical accomplishment, it pushes the boundaries of what was thought to be possible with gen 2 rom hacks. It adds a ton of new Pokemon, types, items, has a huge map, etc. and that should absolutely be applauded. Unfortunately it falls short in just about every other aspect.

The writing is actually just awful, it's teenager fanfic tier. How any adult looked at this script and thought it was passable is beyond me. I literally wrote Pokemon fanfic that was better than this when I was younger, the bar is through the floor. It's edgy, immature, and tries to punch above its weight with regards to subject matter way too often.

The maps are also really weak. So many areas are huge and empty for seemingly no other reason than to waste your time with endless random battles. Also, the region is laid out in a way that makes progress feel completely unnatural, I hardly ever knew which direction was progress until I hit a roadblock on two of three possible paths.

The music is also extremely weak. Most of it is gen 3&4 tracks crunched down to fit on the GBC soundchip and the results are absolutely ear grating.

Overall, I think that Pokemon Prism has some great ideas, and I hope that someone can pick up the pieces of this in order to make a game actually worth playing. Cannot recommend this to anyone except the most diehard gen 2 fans.

Finished the main story. My thoughts on this romhack are mixed, but I was otherwise sucked in.

Gameplaywise it feels like a modern Pokemon game on the GBC. You can run, type splits, abilities, gen 3 and 4 mons are present and drawn beautifully. Its a bit harder than the average Pokemon game but you wont need to put on your Smogon University cap.

My main complaints are that money is scarce and most of the difficulty more results in wasted time running back and forth to Pokemon centers if you don't wanna grind. Especially since the battles against the Pallette Patrollers are some of the hardest.

Dungeons are a mixed bag. Some are genuinely cool for a GBC game and some have puzzles too complex for a game with frequent random encounters. Its not that I cant solve them, its just annoying to do so.

That being said the story, while not the best, is entertaining. I like the technology vs nature theme, some of the writing is genuinely funny and witty. Its a little less kid friendly but it feels more in line with the Pokemon Adventures manga, and never goes beyond any form of more mature themes you would see in that. The world was probably the most fascinating part of this game. Naljo is just as interesting as Orre from the colosseum games.

I also enjoyed the few sections where you played as your Pokemon. Very cute and the dialogue was fun to read.

I wish there was a better explanation of Sound and Gas types though. Took me a sec to realize why my thunderbolt attack was super effective against a Jigglypuff.

Music is mostly remixes from other Pokemon games. The original battle themes are alright. I like the gym and Pallette Patroller themes.

Overall, good Romhack. I may have a few qualms withe the lack of resources that result in frequent trips to Pokemon Centers, but overall its a fun game with gorgeous sprite animations and a region that had interesting lore.

The post game seems unfinished, but still has a lot of content. There seems to be a lot of regions but some are inaccessible. Looking forward to coming back to it at some point.

In an attempt to make the base game more difficult, this hack not only equips important trainers with competitively viable teams, but also artificially increases their Pokémons' levels to a point where you're basically forced to kill dozens and dozens of Chanseys before every gym leader to even stand a chance. While I do appreciate the increased pool of Pokémon to choose from, as well as the effort made to increase viability on generally bad and mediocre ones, ultimately, I don't want to continue wasting my time with this way too grindy game.