Video Game / Pokémon Fool's Gold

Everything is familiar, yet different...

Pokémon Fool's Gold is a ROM hack of Pokémon Crystal (not Pokémon Gold, despite what the title may suggest) that began as a for-fun project among friends, but quickly became much larger in scope. First released in April of 2020, the game has since released numerous updates expanding the content of the game.

The story and plot remain largely unchanged from Crystal, but the game's main draw is that every Pokémon up to Generation III (along with cross-generation evolutions up to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, including regional evolutions introduced in Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Legends: Arceus) have been given strange new regional forms, known collectively as "Fool's Forms". The game also has a few features from later generations, specifically a number of moves and the physical-special split. There's also a number of new areas to explore and new people to meet...

The hack can be found here. For legal reasons, you'll have to find your own ROM of Pokémon Crystal (once again, not Gold despite the title).

Has nothing to do with a similarly-named manga.

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Pokèmon Fool's Gold contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Bomb: The Fool's Seedot line combines this with Your Head A-Splode, being a walking bomb not unlike a Bob-Omb that turns into a humanoid with a bomb for a head that regenerates after losing it. The Pokédex notes it can somehow still see without its head.
• Adaptational Abomination: A number of Fool's Forms have rather strange, even alien designs:
  • The Zubat line has transformed from relatively standard bats to Oculothoraxes who fly on wispy tendrils. At the very least, Crobat is actively helpful towards humans due to its ability to detect cave-ins.
  • Eevee is a Missingno-esque blob whose only resemblance to the Evolution Pokémon is its head. It's even a ??? type. Thankfully, it stabilizes upon evolving.
  • Aerodactyl is a terrifying Glitch Entity husk of its former self, also being pure ??? type. Its Pokédex page is (deliberately) glitched to hell and back as well.
  • The original iteration of the Legendary Birds are outright described as Ultra Beasts and are part ??? type. All three of them are terrifying Eldritch Abominations from another universe, with Articuno being the only one who remains vaguely bird-like. Later averted in an update, and the Fool's Forms of these mons were retconned into more natural-looking sea life.
  • Feraligatr becomes a living plane upon evolution. Except the plane part is the upper half of its body, and it looks... rather uncomfortable. Its Kantonian form has it slightly better, being a bit less top-heavy, but not by much.
  • The Chinchou line in the main games is a Lighter and Softer take on horrific real-life deep sea dwellers like the anglerfish. Fool's Chinchou line "fixes" that accordingly by making them more Gonk and representative of their inspirations.
  • The Fool's Snubbull line is actually even more ordinary than the originals, as they're Normal/Fighting-type Bully Bulldogs. The line's Kantonian forms, on the other hand, are absolutely horrifying Dark/Ghost Smiledog-esque Animalistic Abominations that bear Slasher Smiles and make technology go haywire with their mere presence.
  • The Sneasel line, which normally comprises of sneaky weasel-cat things, become terrifying, writhing draconic bugs.
  • While an ordinary (if annoying) cow in the main games, Fool's Gold's take on Miltank is a horrific beast that resembles a cow partially stripped of its flesh. Known as the "Meat Pokémon", it never feels pain and seems to be a source of meat for the Kanto and Johto regions. Its Secret Art is Meat Eat, a clone of Milk Drink which is implied to be executed by Miltank eating its own flesh.
  • The Larvitar line arguably takes the cake, as they become horrifying masses of darkness and evil energy. The game even categorizes Tyranitar as the "Horrifying Pokémon". They're also Dark/Ghost type, and since the Fairy type doesn't exist in this game, they have no weaknesses.
  • The original Celebi? A cute little onion fairy who protects forests across time. Fool's Celebi? A wilted, ghostly husk of its former self who is categorized as the "Old God Pokémon".
  • Normally, Beautifly is a cutesy (albeit aggressive) swallowtail butterfly. Here? It's a hulking, pitch-black mothman-esque beast whose Dex entry implies that it's very aggressive and dangerous. Dustox only has it slightly better, as while its shape is recognizable, it's still pitch-black and is said to appear before imminent disaster.
  • Salamence is a relatively standard, aggressive dragon in the main series, but here it's a barely corporeal foggy ghost dragon that borders on being a Dracolich. Surprisingly enough, this variant of Salamence is significantly less aggressive, and just wants a friend.
  • Porygon-Z actually inverts this, surprisingly. Whereas the original was a corrupted, buggy mess of an entity, this Porygon-Z is a stable flotation ring who actively works to save people from drowning.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In a sense, all of the Pokemon in the romhack have their whole type(s) changed (like the Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile lines becoming Fighting, Ice, and Flying-type respectively), a type getting added on to them (like Growlithe and Arcanine gaining the Ice-type on top of their Fire-typing), or one of their types changing (examples: Venusaur is now Grass/Fire instead of Grass/Poison, Charizard is now Fire/Dark instead of Fire/Flying, and Blastoise being Water/Dragon instead of pure Water).
• Ambiguous Gender: It is undetermined if Eris is a boy or a girl, however Word of God seems to confirm that they at least go by they/them pronouns, which likely disproves both former assumptions.
• Apocalypse How: According to the Pokédex entry, it is theorized that when herds of Kantonian Togekiss gather, it signifies the end of the world.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The method of encountering Mew harkens back to the early days of the fandom; that is, the classic "Mew under the Vermilion truck" rumor. By interacting with said truck with Mewtwo in your party, you'll be able to encounter the Mythical Pokémon.
  • Celebi's battle theme has been changed from the Johto wild Pokémon theme to the terrifying, otherworldly sounds of the Unown Radio. This is a reference to Pokémon Lost Silver, an infamous Creepypasta that featured a decayed Celebi and is heavily associated with the Unown Radio.
  • The Regi trio's cries when you encounter them is based off of the "Regicries" meme, which made fun of their bizarre cries in the anime. The most obvious is Regirock's, whose cry in text is "Unn un unn!".
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • This game brings back both the physical-special split and reusable TMs, and also changes up some of the TMs to newer, more useful moves.
  • There is a candy shop in Two Island that hosts a small gauntlet, with the reward being 12 Rare Candies. This makes grinding on the Sevii islands for levels and money a lot easier, especially considering the increase in level and shops carrying useful (but expensive) items. While this gauntlet takes place only once per day, one can easily change the date of the game at the title screen simply by holding Down, Select, and B at the same time, letting one repeat the event ad infinitum.
• Autocannibalism: Fool's Miltank's signature move is Meat Eat, which implies that it eats its own flesh to regain HP.
• Awful Truth: Tumbleweed Town reveals the truth behind the nurses at the Pokémon Centers: They're created from people who step into a special machine which forcefully transforms their bodies into Nurse Joys. Additionally, many of these transformations go haywire, resulting in melting Humanoid Abominations who speak in glitchy text.
• Beyond the Impossible: All of Eris's Pokémon are above level 100 in their final match, with their Signature Mon Sirfetch'd being at level 120. After you beat them, they later admit to cheating to accomplish this.
• Bleak Level: The newly-added Tumbleweed Town is an abandoned, barren town in the middle of the desert, complete with the lovely original Lavender Town theme playing in the background. It's also home to an abandoned Pokémon Center filled with horrific Humanoid Abomination Nurse Joys.
• Body Horror:
  • As mentioned above, a number of Fool's forms invoke this in their designs, but special mention goes to Miltank, who's missing roughly half of its flesh complete with exposed bone. Did we mention that no Miltank has been found intact?
  • Tumbleweed Town's Pokémon Center reveals an Awful Truth about the Johto region: Its Nurse Joys are created via forcefully transforming people and their bodies into that of the Nurses we know and love. The Abandoned Pokémon Center is home to tons of these failed Nurse Joys, who are practically melting and speak in garbled, glitchy text. Even the relatively "normal" one on the top floor who heals your Pokémon still speaks in a slurred, glitchy manner.
  • Poor Seviian Charizard. Taken out of its natural cave habitat as a Charmeleon, it's unable to handle the tropical climate of Sevii and is now constantly burning alive.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Arceus retains its amazing stats from vanilla and, while it's ???-type, it resists every type in the game.^note The way the developers pulled this off is by making a completely separate type for Arceus that resists every other type but is still labelled as ???. A similar trick was pulled off for Shedinja, who is a One Point Wonder but is immune to a variety of types. However, by the time you catch it, there won't be much left for you to sic it on, if anything.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • One of the Nurse Joys in Tumbleweed Town has a level 25 Ampharos. Flaaffy doesn't evolve into Ampharos until level 30.
  • Deliberately invoked with Eris in their final fight, as all of their mons are above level 100. It turns out that they did indeed cheat to make them stronger, something they admit after you beat them.
• Content Warning: The NPC outside of Lost Cave warns the player of the cave's bright, strobing color scheme and how it may trigger seizures in those who are photosensitive.
• Cute Monster Girl:
  • Downplayed with the Tentacool line. Both are clearly feminine figures in a jellyfish-like body, but they're not conventionally attractive.
  • The Ralts line (minus Gallade) is this as usual, though it's a bit more downplayed as they look more like fierce, toxic mushrooms.
• Darker and Edgier: Though the story remains largely unchanged from Crystal, the designs of the Pokémon are a bit darker in general, with a decent amount of Body Horror and Adaptational Abomination designs. There's also Tumbleweed Town, a completely abandoned Ghost Town with a Pokémon Center that hides a terrifying secret. Additionally, there's a few more mature jokes here and there, like how the Miltank farmers can't sell diseased meat because of the damn FDA.
  • The Sevii islands campaign becomes a bit darker with its use of swears and mature jokes. Special mention goes to the seventh shrine, where Eris goes on a swear-filled tirade about how it's unfair that you keep beating them despite putting a lot of effort into building their team.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Fool's Ho-Oh trades its Fire typing for Dark and has a black-and-purple color scheme lit up only by yellow stars. However, it's just as benevolent as its regular counterpart, and is treated as The Sacred Darkness.
  • Fool's Lileep and Cradily are demonic and disturbing looking ghosts, but they just want a cool cup to inhabit. Once it finds one, Cradily is described as being constantly filled with pure joy.
  • Fool's Suicune has a mane that looks like an endless, space-filled abyss and a giant eye in the center of its crest, but according to its dex entry it is simply a peaceful being who is believed to have painted the night sky with starry constellations.
• Decomposite Character: Fool's Beautifly and Dustox both take different aspects from The Mothman, with Beautifly having its humanoid build and Dustox its tendency to appear before disaster strikes.
• Discard and Draw: A lot of evolutions of Hoenn Pokemon and Kantonian/Seviian forms will often replace one of a Pokemon's two types with an entirely different one. The most notable example would be Fool's Trapinch, which starts as a Grass/Ground type, before turning into a Grass/Psychic, and then a Dragon/Psychic type, discarding one of its types for a new one twice.
• The Dividual: Fool's Shroomish starts as a joey, while Fool's Breloom is a kangaroo with an identical joey by its side. Since it can be male or female, its unclear which individual the evolved Shroomish became^note Since Real Life kangaroos only have pouches if they are female, which Fool's Breloom clearly does. It has a signature move called Kindred Kick that always hits twice, implied to be the kangaroo and the joey each getting in a kick on the target.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Resting in the Lakeside Inn will send you to a dream world that highly resembles this. It's home to one of Sevii's seven shinies, in this case Chimecho. Additionally, Pokémon themed around angels and devils, specifically Chingling, Snorunt, and Taillow, can be found in the grass there.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • In 1.3, the Day Care had an unfortunate tendency to corrupt any Pokémon you put in it, and trying to interact with or retrieve it would crash the game, thus preventing the player from breeding Pokémon. A hotfix was later released that fixed this.
  • If the player is using the Sevii Gifts password, attempting to use the Poké Flute radio on Snorlax will have it bring up a dialogue string from a nearby NPC rather than waking up, blocking access to half of Kanto without the use of cheats. This was fixed in the 4th 1.3 hotfix.
• Glitch Entity: A few of Fool's Gold's Pokémon are In-Universe examples of this:
  • Aerodactyl is a ???-type glitchy abomination that's based off of Missingno's Aerodactyl fossil form, complete with an extremely glitched-out Pokédex entry.
  • Eevee is implied to be a downplayed example, as it's a strange glitchy blob that vaguely resembles Missingno. It's also ???-type like Aerodactyl. Averted for its evolutions, who are relatively normal.
  • The Nurse Joys are implied to be this, as they speak in glitched-out text and even use the aforementioned Aerodactyl.
  • After getting Waterfall, you can battle the developers of the game. Beating then will net you a pencil eraser, which grants access to a cave where one can find Missingno, the OG Glitch Entity in Pokémon. Like Aerodactyl, it's ???-type and has a glitched-out Pokédex entry. Worth noting is that its HP, Defense, and Special Defense stats are all base zero (though the stats themselves never reach zero, they're still mighty low).
  • Eris's trainer sprite in his final fight is surrounded by a glitchy aura, hinting at the fact that they cheated to make their Pokémon above level 100.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Little to no information is provided in-game on how to encounter the Regi Golems, and as a result most players will find them by looking up walkthroughs.
  • 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.
  • The newly added Seviian Qwilfish line (which is noteworthy for being the only fairy type in the game) 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!"
• The Gunslinger:
  • The Kantonian Pidgey line starts off as a bare-fisted greaser with a slicked back pompadour. Pidgeotto and Pidgeot, however? Gun-wielding Mafioso thugs that mug trainers and work for loan sharks and crime bosses, according to the Pokédex. The former wields a pistol, while the latter has a tommy gun and learns a signature move called Bullet Hell.
  • Fool's Gallade has a cowboy hat and Arm Cannon shaped like a pistol, is classified in the Pokédex as the Gunslinger Pokémon, and learns Bullet Seed upon evolving.
• Hate Sink: Eris is the traditional 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 they get every time you manage to successfully win against them.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: In stark contrast to its regular counterpart, Fool's Salamence is categorized as the Lonely Pokémon, and it constantly cries out at night for a friend.
• Inn Between the Worlds: As a Call-Back to the Harbor Inn in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Four Island has a mysterious, abandoned inn known as the Lakeside Inn. Repeatedly entering and exiting the inn will have an old man escort you to the inn's bed for a nap, claiming that you have a reservation. At first, it seems like you're heading into a nightmare world similar to that of the Harbor Inn's. However, you wake up in a Fluffy Cloud Heaven where a shiny Chimecho awaits, along with rare Pokémon like Chingling and Snorunt.
• Jungle Japes: Among the new areas added by Fool's Gold is Laceleaf Town, the surrounding routes (specifically Routes 49 and 51), and the Jungle Maze, all of which is one massive jungle.
• Last Lousy Point:
  • Some Pokémon, unlike in the officials games, require friendship to be completely maxed out in order for it to evolve.
  • Many other Pokémon have much lower than normal catch-rates, such as the Sevii shrine legendaries, or even unorthodox Pokémon like Missingno.
• Man on Fire: Fool's Charizard is constantly burning because it is not able to adapt to the tropical climate to which it is native.
• The Maze: The Lost Cave is a labyrinth that seals you in until you find the exit, with near-identical rooms making it difficult to navigate. At the end of the cave lies a shiny Altaria, who claims to be your end before battling you.
• Mythology Gag: There's a lot of references to other aspects of the Pokémon universe in the Fool's Forms, especially the Pokémon Gold and Silver Spaceworld 97 demo and development builds:
  • The Cyndaquil line is now Ice-type and has icy spikes instead of flames. An early design for Cyndaquil found in a development build had its fire replaced with what appears to be icicles, and its original name, Igaru, was likely a corruption of "Igloo", suggesting that it was originally Ice-type.
  • Furret's Fool's Form is based off of a windsock, and is even classified as the "Windsock Pokémon". The aforementioned development build had a strange fox-like Pokémon that resembled a windsock, and is widely believed to have been reworked into Furret.
  • Pineco's Fool's Form more directly resembles a bagworm, while Fool's Forretress is a pink moth instead of the bagworm fortress we all know and love. A bagworm-like Pokémon was discovered in one of the development builds, and is believed to have been an early version of Pineco. It too evolved into a moth rather than a larger bagworm.
  • Seel is a circus seal that loves balancing balls on its nose, and its evolution Dewgong becomes part Fire-type, a reference to Bomushikaa, a cut Fire-type seal that balanced a flaming ball on its nose.
  • Sunflora is now a Grass/Psychic type with much smaller feet, referencing how Beta Sunflora was also part Psychic and was completely rooted instead of having feet.
  • Two of the most famous Pokémon cut from Gold and Silver are Kotora and Raitora, a pair of cute Electric-type tigers. The Fool's forms of Skitty and Delcatty, two cute cat-like Pokémon, are Electric-type wildcats.
  • Fool's Gyarados is a now a giant Sand Worm lamprey, a nod to a similar beta design for Pokémon Red and Green that's widely believed to have eventually become Gyarados.
  • Arceus's Fool's Form has design elements borrowed from its beta/placeholder design found in the leaked Pokémon Diamond and Pearl prototype, as seen here.
  • For a non-Pokémon example, the music that plays when a password is revealed is a chiptune remix of the Wi-Fi Connection theme from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
• New Game Plus: A variation. Fool's Gold has a password system, and upon entering a password upon starting a new save file it will modify your game in various methods. The passwords are hidden throughout the game and are meant to be found by the players, and the developers highly discourage people from spoiling them. The sole exception to this is the EMELARD password in the readme, which lets you pick either Bagon, Beldum, or Trapinch as your starter.
• Non-Elemental: In addition to the Normal-type, the long-unused ???-type is applied to a number of the more alien Fool's Forms.
• The Old Gods: Fool's Celebi is a long-forgotten, withered deity who is now part Ghost-type rather than Psychic, and its category is "Old God Pokémon".
• True Final Boss: After beating Eris, you battle the Shrine of Ascension's Totem Pokémon, who is none other than Arceus. It resists every type and packs powerful moves, so be prepared.
• Off to See the Wizard: The Weather Trio and Jirachi's Fool's forms are a subtle reference to this: Kyogre is a reference to the Tin Man, being part Steel-type and having a heart motif, Groudon is the Cowardly Lion, having a lion's mane and being referred to as the Courageous Pokemon, Rayquaza brings the Scarecrow to mine, given its use of wisdom in battles and being made of straw and flowers, and Jirachi is the wizard itself, being the one that gave the trio their powers and its Huge Holographic Head.
• Our Angels Are Different: The Chimecho line is basically a G-Rated version of biblical angels. Chingling has a single, prominent eye and the wings of classical angels, while Chimecho has a ring-shaped head with several eyes and six wings, two of them being feathered wings on its head. Despite their unsettling origins, both are perfectly benevolent and actually pretty adorable. As a bonus, the shiny Chimecho you meet in the Fluffy Cloud Heaven outright says "BE NOT AFRAID" before you battle it.
• Power Up Letdown: Played With by the Fool's Spheal line. Fool's Spheal starts as a Dark/Water type, a deep-sea dweller saught after for its cool appearance. But upon evolving into Sealeo, it looks significantly derpier with a Water/Dark typing instead and the dex says it's grown weaker as a result of being forced to the surface (despite its stats being better than Spheal's). And then it turns into Walrein, looking like the infamous blobfish with a pure Water type that's lost all of its cool factor and suffers from various health problems. What did you expect, forcing a creature to adapt outside of it's deep sea habitat? Still ziz-zagged since its stats do increase as you'd expect, but their natural learnset shrinks and shrinks with each stage until the only move Walrein can learn without TMs is Acid Armor.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Instead of Slakoth evolving into Vigoroth and then Slaking, the latter two serve as split evolutions for Slakoth, with the former emphasizing speed while the latter has better offenses.
• Secret Character: Aside from Arceus (and technically Missingno), there is one Pokémon in the game that isn't from Gens I-III or related to them via evolution, and can only be found via a password found in a very obscure location. That Pokémon is Dhelmise, now a Dragon-type, whose password is found on the crash screen, of all places. Once entered, it can be found on Route 52.
• Shifting Sand Land: Route 50 and Tumbleweed Town are new areas in Fool's Gold which are found in the desert, with the former even having a perpetual sandstorm.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Kantonian Snubbull line's horrifying Slasher Smile-y designs are very clearly based off of the Smiledog Creepypasta.
  • Upon beating the developers in Daffodil Creek, you are given a pencil eraser that removes a pencil-shaped statue blocking a cave.
  • The cloudy dream world you enter in Four Island's Lakeside Inn is highly reminiscent of the Coin Heavens in the Super Mario Bros. series, with the background music being similar to the Coin Heaven theme from Super Mario Bros. 3.
• Sore Loser: Eris doesn't take losing very gracefully, since they pride themself on their high-leveled, perfect stat Pokémon team. At first, they just shake it off and see you off to explore the Sevii Islands, but after every progressive loss, they get more and more frustrated to the point that they basically rant to you at the top of the seventh shrine.
• Symbolic Blood: Kantonian Togekiss is based off of a post-apocalyptic Earth destroyed by pollution and climate change. As such, it's constantly leaking reddish-orange lava. Its shiny form makes the lava even redder, reinforcing this trope.
• Underground Monkey: The entire point of this game is to give all the Mons up to Hoenn (and a few extras) alternate forms a la Alolan or Galarian forms. There's even alternate forms of the new forms in Kanto and Sevii.
• Unskilled, but Strong: The Seviian Staryu line in a nutshell; the entire line only has four moves: Hyper Beam, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Ice Beam, meaning that it always has the same moveset. Starmie in particular more than makes up for it with it's awe-inspiring 150 Special Attack, fitting for an Attack Drone dead set on killing all life.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Scyther does not evolve into Scizor in this game, as they're two unrelated species here. Similarly, Azurill is unrelated to Marill and Azumarill.
• Visual Pun: Fool's Scyther is a Fire-type ant, a fire ant.
• Yellow Snow: The Fool's Cacnea line is a line of Ice-type (later Ice/Ghost) snowmen. Their shiny forms are yellow, complete with Fool's Cacturne having yellow liquid underneath it. Oh yeah, Cacturne is also one of Sevii's seven shinies, and catching it is necessary for 100% Completion.