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!
Very nice ROM hack, though I've noticed a few issues. Aside from stuff like the gen 9 starters not having sprites, fairy type moves don't seem to work.
I finally got moonblast on my starter (popplio) and started using it only to find out that, while the typing DOES say it's fairy, the damage it deals is water type. I tested on ground and fire types. Supereffective. Tried it on a water absorb pokemon. Healed them.
EDIT: Talked with the dev in the SkyTemple discord. Apparently Moonblast was using the Judgement placeholder animation and therefore would cause it to be the same type as the user. They fixed that in Dusk!