MidnightMirage

Ascend Stone mechanic is garbo as well. Went to the beach early a lot out of habit for checking bottles, and noticed the Marowak. Went into the dungeon early and figured I was underleveled for it and then thought "he'll be there later". Then I get a treasure quest at the beach, and figured that would get me an Ascend Stone, but I didn't get anything other than 60 team points. Unless the Scizor quest triggered because I did the treasure bottle quest, and doing all that gets me an Ascend Stone Mark 1 (didn't find a conclusive answer to this in other posts/replies), this is garbo.

I don't have an issue with the starters being forced in these dungeons. I have an issue with an extra member or two not being allowed. Plus, little Timmy would bring his starters to everything, because little TImmy's starters would be stronger than anything else they have, due to gummis and statboosters likely being allocated to his starters, as well as exp being maximized to said starters. The only people ditching their starters after graduation are playing the game in a hyper specific/weird way, which is in a lot of ways counter intuitive to the eventual endgame story dungeons being decent spikes even in vanilla. "Benced" also implies that you're never using your starters forever. Maybe a player will still bring them along but not as leader? Options options. Another issue comes into play with the story around the dungeons that are suddenly restrictive. These dungeons are softer on story. They aren't Hidden Land or Dark Crater by ANY stretch in terms of story involvement. They are in between quests that have dialogue from other characters. The dungeons with direct story involvement from the starters perfectly fit into the starters only mold. However, everything in between Mystifying Forest and the Darkrai/Cresselia arc offered minimal dialogue from your starters. The Manaphy dialogue is clearly "let's go to Miracle Sea" and not "just you and me go to Miracle Sea". It can be immersion breaking from another viewpoint, as an exploration into unexplored areas wouldn't just be a duo exploration. I think that preventing players from using other team members that they potentially invested into is something that really neuters the fun of the in between post game dungeons. An argument can be made about game balance, however other party members will just be complete liabilities unless they have been invested into. It's better here than in the vanilla game, but they're still weaker than your starters objectively, due to exp and gummi acquisition. This is especially the case if you were to add party members later on in your journey, as they'll get less gummis especially if you're avoiding grinding missions. Less gummis will also mean them getting exp elite later, if available as a skill. Should've been a toggle instead of a forced mechanic. Or better yet...let players decide. If a player doesn't give a crap about a third or fourth member...then they play that way. If a player wants a full stack for dungeons that aren't super plot focused, then let them. Forget "considering the options available to all starters". How about "considering the optional available to all Pokemon you've recruited"? Railroading players after giving them newfound quality of life and freedom = bad.

Why are the post game dungeons such as Blizzard Range, Surrounded Sea, Miracle Sea, Aegis Cave etc starters only, when they weren't in Sky? For a great hack full of quality of life, this is a strange anti quality of life aspect. Is my game broken or did you intend for these dungeons to be more difficult via restricting party size? What makes it weirder is that Sky Peak lets you bring a party member alongside starters and Shaymin. I think this hack is great. Just asking/giving honest criticism. Playing on Difficult on Desmume, starters set to Zoura-H and Zoura-U. Scaling off. Putting those there in case one of those is making this happen.

I'm not familiar with this website. Idk how to search for an answer to this, so I'll just ask it. Playing on Difficult and currently writing this before going into Surrounded Sea. Not worried about spoilers since everything I'm mentioning is something that everyone looking up this hack already knows lol. Why are post game dungeons like Blizzard Range and Surrounded Sea starters only? They weren't in Sky, and it seems like an anti quality of life change for a hack that has had great quality of life improvements across the board. The vanilla game already railroads you hard with plenty of dungeons being starters only + an occasional NPC. Takes the fun out of building a team when you go thru all of the post Crystal Cave content to the graduation exam, and then once the game frees you up and you get a taste of that freedom with Sky Peak, you then get starter only'd when it feels really artificial. My first guess was that you might've done this to make these dungeons harder, but you already made every dungeon harder via making enemies stronger and what I call challenge rooms with fixed layouts and strong enemies, which I really love except for the room with the pitfall traps in chokepoints. Is my game bugged or is this intentional design for every difficulty? For the record, I'm not judging nor trying to put you down. I'm just offering some honest criticism after my first playthrough of this hack, and after many many playthroughs of vanilla Explorers of Sky. Personally, I'd much prefer every filler story dungeon after Mystifying Forest to be completely insane in terms of difficulty instead of being starters only. I'm not the only player that builds teams in these games, and having more tools + quality of life makes team building a lot more fun. That is, until you're not allowed to use that team when you otherwise could in vanilla, with no justification. Sky Peak letting you bring a fourth team member makes it even more confusing for me, as that one has more story than the ones that follow.