Pokemon Heart and Soul is the ultimate Johto experience, I love this game and I played it back to front !
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So I had never even heard about ROM hacks until a few weeks ago, I was thinking about jumping back into Johto on a GBC emulator, then randomly I typed “Pokemon gold gba mod” and ended up reading a Reddit post where someone suggested Pokemon Heart and Soul. In my head it sounded a lot like HeartGold and SoulSilver so I downloaded the romhack and wow, I’ve been glued to this game for weeks now. I usually only play on weekends because of my work schedule but anytime I get a bit of free time I find myself going straight back to it.
I’m a big fan of the original GBC games but this just takes it to another level. It keeps that gen 3 art style which I really love, but the story is still purely Johto. I thought the creators might take huge creative liberties but nah, it’s exactly how I remember it, just expanded with gen 3 Pokemon.
The level scaling is honestly one of the best parts. During the main story the gym leaders are around your level so instead of just overleveling I actually had to think and use strategy. The option to add exp share also made progression feel smoother and more balanced. On top of that the gym leaders have updated teams which keeps things fresh because you never really know what’s coming next.
Overall this ROM hack feels like a proper love letter to Johto and it absolutely nailed it. I even found myself catching way more Pokemon than I normally would and constantly looking up type matchups in the process lol.
Shoutout to the devs for this one, you really brought my inner kid back to life while playing this game.
Here's the team I beat the Johto and Kanto E4 and Red in the endgame