History YMMV / PokemonFoolsGold

** The Legendary Birds are now frightful Ultra Beasts, and while they (mercifully) don't have Beast Boost, they each have two annoyingly strong [[SecretArt signature moves]]. First are the Anti moves (Anticrystal, Antithunder, and Antifire), which are all 100 base power [[NonElemental ???-type]] unresistable STAB moves that have nearly no drawback (aside from imperfect accuracy). The second are Absolute Zero for Articuno, Plasma Bomb for Zapdos, and Napalm Shot for Moltres. Though not as accurate as the Anti moves, they have higher base power and a '''70% chance''' to inflict Freeze, Burn, and Poison respectively.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The 1.3.1 update fixed the EXP gain so it's quicker to level up, removing a lot of tedium and especially making the Sevii Post-Game substantially less of a slog. Lorelei on Four Island was also finally updated to actually serve as a Move Deleter so players don't have to travel all the way back to Johto to speak to the man in Blackthorn City.

* GuideDangIt:
** Can overlap with [[ThatOnePuzzle That One Puzzle]] as well; there is so little information provided in-game on how to encounter the Regi Golems that you're just better off looking up a video guide on Website/YouTube.
** Dhelmise cannot be encountered in the game at all unless you entered a very specific password when you started a new game. Additionally, the password itself can only be found by somehow triggering the game's crash screen of all things.
** Much like Dhelmise, the newly added Seviian Qwilfish line doesn't have any info in-game on where to obtain it, or even that it exists. In a strange way, this is a zig-zagged example as not even the hack's designated online wiki/guidebook provides any help, as the only thing written under its location is "It's a Secret!"
* HateSink: Eris was designed to be that stereotypical pro trainer with a highly overinflated sense of worth and skill who brags about their perfectly trained team of Pokemon. This point is drove further home with how increasingly frustrated and petty he gets every time you manage to successfully win against him.

* LastLousyPoint: While it's entirely possible to complete the Pokédex without the need for outside sources (trading, etc.), there are a good number of Pokémon that can potentially drive people up a wall.
** Some Pokémon, unlike in the vanilla game, require friendship to be completely maxed out in order for it to evolve.
** There's a ton of Pokémon who have bafflingly low catch-rates, such as the Sevii shrine legendaries, or even unorthodox Pokémon like Missingno. Have fun resetting multiple times for these.

* GuideDangIt: Can overlap with [[ThatOnePuzzle That One Puzzle]] as well; there is so little information provided in-game on how to encounter the Regi Golems that you're just better off looking up a video guide on Website/YouTube.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: After the final battle atop the final shrine of the Sevii Islands, Eris [[spoiler: has a HeelRealization that they were in the wrong for cheating their team to go over level 100, and that the player character is the real skilled trainer. Eris apologizes profusely for being such a jerk to them during their shrine challenge, and even tries to hold back tears of remorse what how they acted. After pulling themselves together, they turn their mood around and cheer the player character on, having complete faith that they can take down the final shrine guardian.]]

* TrollingCreator: When asked about it, one of the developers has explained that they don't like implementing quality of life suggestions to their ROM hack because it goes against their intention of preserving the original Gen 2 Pokémon experience. This is immediately contradicted by the fact that their ROM hack includes unlimited TM use, new locations, and the physical/special split that wasn't introduced until Gen 4.

* GuideDangIt: Can overlap with [[ThatOnePuzzle That One Puzzle]] as well; there is so little information provided in-game on how to encounter the Regi Golems that you're just better off looking up a video guide on Website/YouTube. Don't tell the [[TrollingCreator developer]] though!

*** There is also ''no'' move deleter anywhere in the Sevii region, so if you need to swap HM moves you will have to go all the way back to Navel Rock, take the boat back to Cherrygrove City, and then finally fly to Blackthorn City to visit the original deleter.

** The man on Route 35 who gives you a surprise Kanto Pokémon. There's no real way to determine what you'll get from him, and unlike the odd egg you get from the day care couple the developer programmed back in what was originally an unused ID in the game's code to ''prevent save scumming and save state re-loading.'' This means if you want to use a rare, Kanto-exclusive Pokémon early without having to beat the entire E4 first you're likely going to have to manually start a new game from the beginning multiple times.

*** Speaking of the cross-generational evolutions, many of them require stones that aren't available until after the seventh gym, and they're very expensive to boot, at '''20,000 Poké''' a pop. While this isn't a huge issue for Pokémon such as [=Porygon2=] and Togetic, weaker Pokémon like Yanma and Eevee often become dead weight until then.

*** There is also ''no'' move deleter anywhere in the Sevii region, so if you need to swap HM moves you will have to go all the way back to Naval Island, take the boat back to Cherrygrove City, and then finally fly to Blackthorn City to visit the original deleter.

** Staying as close to the original Gen II formula as possible also means no move reminder

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: With the obvious exception of the alternate Pokémon forms, new moves, and optional bonus areas, everything else is the exact same experience with the same mechanics and progression as vanilla with no variations at all.
** Although there is the newly added Sevii Islands content to explore, complete with unique Fool's Gold forms of Hoenn Pokémon it's totally unavailable until you defeat Red at Mt. Silver (as well as finish a couple of other needed side-quests), so you are still required to complete base Crystal in its entirety before you can explore the new region.
** Hidden Machines are still a consistent issue, with a lot of side areas requiring constant use of weak moves like Whirlpool, Cut, and even Strength. This becomes a noticeably bigger issue when you get to the Sevii Islands, where at this point you've improved your team and movesets to such a depth that it would be wildly unhelpful to teach a forgotten HM just to explore a bonus dungeon.
** Staying as close to the original Gen II formula as possible also means no move reminder, and there's still only one move deleter in the entire game which, if you're in a different region, is going to be a long trip back to visit.

* ScrappyMechanic: A number of Pokémon, especially cross-generation evolutions, aren't available until late in the game, with most of the Hoenn Pokémon (unless you use specific passwords) and Kantonian forms being unavailable until post-Lance. While this was made to encourage people to switch up their teams once they got into Kanto, many fans are more annoyed by the stifled selection than anything else.
** Speaking of the cross-generational evolutions, many of them require stones that aren't available until after the seventh gym, and they're very expensive to boot, at '''20,000 Poké''' a pop. While this isn't a huge issue for Pokémon such as [=Porygon2=] and Togetic, weaker Pokémon like Yanma and Eevee often become dead weight until then.

** There's a reason as to why the Tyranitar line isn't available until Victory Road. Now a Dark/Ghost type, the lack of a Fairy-type in ''Fool's Gold'' makes Tyranitar have no weaknesses. Even without considering its lack of weaknesses, Tyranitar's new typing is still a significant step-up from its vanilla [[TierInducedScrappy Rock]]/Dark typing, removing its biggest flaw. It retains all of Tyranitar's strengths from the vanilla games, making it an extremely powerful option to use in Kanto and Sevii.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: With the obvious exception of the alternate Pokémon forms, new moves, and optional bonus areas, everything else is the exact same experience with the same mechanics and progression as vanilla with no variations at all.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Mew may have a somewhat neat and nostalgic method of encountering it (you have to [[spoiler: bring Mewtwo to the truck in Vermillion City and interact with it, a nod to the legendary playground rumor of old]]), but catching it is a complete joke. It's encountered at a meager level of ''fifteen'', which is even lower than Celebi in the Illex Forest. One can easily catch Mew with only a couple of Ultra Balls, even at full health.
* BrokenBase: A lot of players find the difficulty of the Sevii islands to be a refreshing experience compared to how debatably easy the official games have become by comparison and praise it as very satisfactory. However there are just as many players who are extremely put off by the abrupt bump in difficulty, especially because it literally bumps up to that degree without any gradual progression, so many uninitiated players will be taken off guard by it and not feel motivated to play through anymore.

** The Sevii Islands content after you defeat Red and complete other certain requirements. Practically every trainer is in the mid 70's in level at the lowest, and all shrine challenges have their own shrine leaders who are within the 90 to 100 level range. Most hardcore players will tell you that the stagnant stat growth after level 50 and the Badge Boosts you get will help you stand your ground, but unless you have intimate knowledge of the romhack and know how the AI will react in most situations you will still find your team getting swept in a lot of cases, which may or may not be a dealbreaker for more casual players.

** In previous versions, the daycare often corrupted Pokémon placed in it due to a bug with the levelling. While this usually manifested in the form of a corrupted, unretrievable black square, sometimes the daycare would make the Pokémon shiny and/or a different, rarer species unobtainable until the late game. As just one example, one player on the ''Fool's Gold'' Discord who forgot to apply the hotfix had his Tyrogue transform into a shiny underlevelled Pupitar, which otherwise can't be obtained until Victory Road.
** The version that introduced Seviian Charizard had a bug where Charmeleon will constantly try to evolve into Caterpie if it's under 36. While it can be mildly annoying unless you give it an Everstone until then, it's still somewhat hilarious to see a terrifying cave lizard evolve into a cute little rocky caterpillar. Additionally, if the player lets their Charmeleon evolve into Caterpie and then a Butterfree, it will have access to have moves it otherwise wouldn't be able to learn, namely Fire moves to beat the Steel-types that otherwise wall it. Sadly, this was patched out with the patch that introduced Seviian Blastoise.

** Although there is the newly added Sevii Islands content to explore, complete with unique Fools's Gold forms of Hoenn Pokémon it's totally unavailable until you defeat Red at Mt. Silver (as well as finish a couple of other needed side-quests), so you are still required to complete base Crystal in its entirety before you can explore the new region.

** Staying as close to the original gen II formula as possible also means no move reminder, and there's still only one move deleter in the entire game which, if you're in a different region, is going to be a long trip back to visit.

** Some elements actually are thankfully subverted, however. For example, all TMs have infinite use now, so you don't need to worry about cherry-picking what moves your team learns anymore. The game also implements the Gen IV physical/special split for moves, making Pokémon substantially more viable for the kinds of stats they have.
* LastLousyPoint: While it's entirely possible to complete the Pokedex without the need for outside sources (trading, etc.), there are a good number of Pokémon that can potentially drive people up a wall.
** Some Pokemon, unlike in the vanilla game, require friendship to be completely maxed out in order for it to evolve.
** There's a ton of pokemon who have bafflingly low catch-rates, such as the Sevii shrine legendaries, or even unorthodox pokemon like Missingno. Have fun resetting multiple times for these.

** Tumbleweed Town is a GhostTown that uses the classic Lavender Town theme (not the bittersweet, relaxing GSC one) as its background music. And that's just the beginning; it's home to an otherwise-abandoned Pokémon Center with a lone Nurse Joy [[spoiler:that speaks in glitched, slurred speech]]. It only goes downhill from there as you head into the basement, as you discover [[spoiler: melting HumanoidAbomination Nurse Joys that speak in glitchy text and inexplicably ''know your name'' as well as the password you're using (if applicable), in addition to one of them using fellow abomination Aerodactyl]]. Near the end, you encounter a strange machine that [[spoiler: you are mysteriously pressured into entering, which you almost do until a Nurse Joy stops you from doing so at the last second]]. She then reveals the AwfulTruth about the place, as well as the Nurse Joys as a whole: [[spoiler: the machine is used to morph people's bodies into that of Nurse Joy's, with many transformations failing and creating the melty abominations from earlier, and that she was only narrowly able to escape and keep her sanity]]. ''Jesus Christ''.
** The secret, password-exclusive Pokémon, AKA [[spoiler: Dhelmise]], has a somewhat silly-looking design, even making [[spoiler: an OK-gesture with its hand]]. However, its Pokedex entry is surprisingly unsettling, as the first page is [[spoiler: just a set of ellipsis]] while the following page states "[[spoiler:This isn't supposed to be here.]]" While it too could be interpreted as a joke, it definitely invokes NothingIsScarier, almost like a prelude to a {{Creepypasta}}.

** Speaking of the cross-generational evolutions, many of them require stones that aren't available until after the seventh gym, and they're very expensive to boot, at '''20,000 Poke''' a pop. While this isn't a huge issue for Pokémon such as [=Porygon2=] and Togetic, weaker Pokémon like Yanma and Eevee often become dead weight until then.

** The good news is that Whitney no longer carries a Miltank, as it's now a Ground- and Ghost-type. The bad news is that fellow gym leader Morty now carries it, continuing its Rollout shenanigans all while having an overall better typing, both offensively and defensively.
** Your Sevii rival Eris is the definition of this trope, and then some! Often overlaps into TheComputerIsACheatingBastard as well, due to the fact that their pokemon levels hit the maximum cap with suspiciously perfect stats, and even break the meter in their final encounter to drive the point home.
* ThatOnePuzzle: The entire segment for getting the Regi's has earned the ire of many players for being even more vague and cryptic than the chambers in Ruby and Sapphire. Not a single player has stated enjoying it, and no one even considers it good game design, but according to the main developer [[TrollingCreator that's exactly what he was hoping for]].

* TrollingCreator: When asked about it, one of the developers has explained that they don't like implementing quality of life suggestions to their romhack because it goes against their intention of preserving the original Gen 2 Pokemon experience. This is immediately contradicted by the fact that their romhack includes unlimited TM use, new locations, and the physical/special split that wasn't introduced until Gen 4.

* GuideDangIt: Can overlap with [[ThatOnePuzzle That One Puzzle]] as well; there is so little information provided in-game on how to encounter the Regi Golems that you're just better off looking up a video guide on youtube. Don't tell the [[TrollingCreator developer]] though!
* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: With the obvious exception of the alternate pokemon forms, new moves, and optional bonus areas, everything else is the exact same experience with the same mechanics and progression as vanilla with no variations at all.
** Although there is the newly added Sevii Islands content to explore, complete with unique Fools's Gold forms of Hoenn pokemon, it's totally unavailable until you defeat Red at Mt. Silver (as well as finish a couple of other needed side-quests), so you are still required to complete base Crystal in its entirety before you can explore the new region.

** Most wild pokemon you encounter before engaging an end-game battle (Elite Four, Red, etc.) are still laughably weak for how far into the game you'd be at that point. Expect leveling to slow down to a snail's pace while you're training for the big match.
** Some elements actually are thankfully subverted, however. For example, all TM's have infinite use now, so you don't need to worry about cherry-picking what moves your team learns anymore. The game also implements the Gen IV physical/special split for moves, making pokemon substantially more viable for the kinds of stats they have.
* LastLousyPoint: While it's entirely possible to complete the Pokedex without the need for outside sources (trading, etc.), there are a good number of pokemon that can potentially drive people up a wall.

** A number of Fool's Forms have some surprisingly terrifying designs that can catch new players off-guard. Special mention goes to Tyranitar (now a writhing, reptillian mass of darkness and eyes), Miltank (who has exposed bone, can feel no pain, and is implied to partake in {{Autocannibalism}} for its SecretArt) and ''Beautifly'' (a burly [[TheMothman Mothman-like]] beast that's almost entirely pitch-black), of all things.

* AmbiguousGender: It is undetermined if Eris is a boy or a girl, however [[WordOfGod Word of God]] seems to confirm that they at least go by they/them pronouns, which likely disproves both former assumptions.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: With the obvious exception of the alternate pokemon forms, new moves, and optional bonus areas, everything else is the exact same experience with the same mechanics and progression as vanilla with no variations at all. This was intentionally invoked by the developers to preserve the original gen II experience as much as possible, flaws and everything.