Leaderboard

I’ve been playing the HeartGold version of this hack (haven't tested Diamond or Pearl yet), and I am currently up to Morty. I have to say, the construction of this project is incredibly interesting! First off, "Project Caramel" is a genuinely funny and fitting name for what this hack does—taking the vanilla experience and heating it up until it's dark and intense. What I appreciate most is how well it preserves the integrity of the base game. There are no unnecessary gimmicks or artificial bloat; the added features are super cool, straightforward, and make the game purely, wonderfully difficult. The absolute best part is the sheer element of surprise. You walk into a boss fight thinking you know what to expect from your childhood, and suddenly you're getting half your team absolutely swept by a Metapod! It completely catches you off guard and forces you to actually use competitive strategies. If I had to point out one minor critique, it would be the pacing of the difficulty. Because the regular route trainers remain completely untouched, there is a very jarring whiplash between steamrolling through a route with zero effort and suddenly hitting an absolute brick wall at the Gym Leader. However, these are small gripes in what is otherwise a fantastic, challenging spin on Generation 4 that perfectly respects the original games. Highly recommended!