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Renegade Platinum

July 30, 2022

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A 'definitive' version of Pokemon Platinum with a lot of minor improvements, Pokemon buffs, better difficulty curve and interesting integrations of event and legendary pokemon.
  • Catch 'em all. That's right, all of them. All 493.
  • Trainer and boss updates give the game an increased challenge without being overly difficult.
  • Fun updates to Pokemon types, stats, and moves to shake up the game and make more Pokemon viable.
  • Quality of Life improvements throughout make the game much breezier to play through.
5/5 Stars

Summary

A 'definitive' release of Pokemon Platinum. A catch 'em all hack that adds some quality of life changes and makes boss battles a bit more difficult. Also Pokemon are modified to have some better moves, some weaker pokemon have buffed base stats, and some type updates (Bug/Dragon Flygon, Ghost/Fairy Mismagius, etc).

Major Features

  • All 493 Pokemon are available
  • All Trainer battles updated to use a wider variety of Pokemon
  • Boss battles are harder and Elite Four use a randomly chosen set of 4 teams to keep you on your toes.
  • Big changes to Pokemon move sets to make them more useful by giving them TM moves, egg moves and other moves as part of their level up learnings.
  • The Fairy Type has been added
  • Changes to Pokemon base stats to make Pokemon like Butterfree more viable and adding some thematic type changes, such as Bug/Dragon Flygon. These are can be removed through a secondary Classic Version patch if you want.
  • Move Relearners and Move Tutors no longer require resources and are available earlier.
  • TMs are infinite use
  • HM requirements have been reduced
  • Speed Up Patch allows you to run through the game much faster.
  • New events throughout the story to change up some of the areas you can get to.
  • Lots of custom events for the other Legendary Pokemon.

Review

The second Drayano hack I've played after Fire Red Omega, I went from his first to his latest and this one is really really good. It's a great 'definitive' version of Platinum and Gen IV as a whole and I really see why he has such a good reputation. The gift pokemon are well-integrated and I enjoyed all the Pokemon changes. With the multiple Pokemon given dragon typing inspired by their mega evolutions, I ran through the game with a dragon-only team which was a fun playthrough.

Given that one of Diamond/Pearl's biggest flaws is the Pokemon selection, having all of them available and most of them catchable in the early and mid game is a great change. I also really enjoyed the work put into the various events for some of the legendaries.

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say outside of "it's really good." I had fun playing around with my team, the difficulty curve was good, and I never played Platinum just Diamond/Pearl so I had fun with some of the Platinum features. If you wanna play Gen IV, this seems like the way to go.