Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP) is a series of social experiments in which commands representing buttons on an original Game Boy Color (up, down, left, right, A, B, start, and select) are entered into a chat on Twitch, and then translated into a game of Pokémon via an IRC bot. In short, hundreds of people are fighting over a controller. Throughout its life, Twitch Plays Pokémon has spawned hilarious characters, memorable moments, and even a few religions.
Twitch Plays Pokémon Fused Crystal is the sixth and final run of Season 5; it began on December 4th, 2018, and ended on December 19th, 2018. It features an original romhack based on the popular Crystal Randofuser tool
. Said tool replaces every Pokémon by a "fusion" of it and another random Pokémon; its name, type and movepool become a combination of each, whereas its stats, growth rate and gender ratio are recalculated as the average of both. Evolutions are preserved, meaning both pokémon chosen will always be of and have the same amount of evolutionary stages; for example, Totodile + Pidgey can happen, and will evolve into Croconaw + Pidgeotto, but Totodile + Pidgeotto (different evolutionary stages) or Totodile + Spearow (different amount of evolutionary stages) can't.note
Fused Crystal, however, implements several changes on top of the Randofusion process. Firstly, whereas fusions generated by the original Randofuser were merely represented as the base sprite of the first Pokémon with the color palette of the second, Fused Crystal features specially-created sprites for each existing fusion. Secondly, Johto and Kanto have been given a winter-themed makeover, with the two regions being covered in snow and Trainers wearing winter-appropriate outfits; this change is however not merely cosmetic, as certain bodies of water are now frozen and can thus be navigated through sliding puzzles. Thirdly, on top of the Randofusion, item locations were randomized, as well as which badges each Gym Leader awards. Finally, as per tradition, a secret opponent awaits on top of Mt. Silver.
The Host for this run was a kid simply named "Y", whose final team was comprised of IIIRRRJJS the Steelurret
◊ (Steelix + Furret), FEB the Togetape
◊ (Togetic + Primeape), bbbii the Jumpanium
◊ (Jumpluff + Meganium), FOOLK the Megastoise
◊ (Meganium + Blastoise), JKilt the Quagynx
◊ (Quagsire + Jynx), and T SS the Noctdrio
◊ (Noctowl + Dodrio). Athough selected as a male character, Y is most commonly depicted as a fusion of the male and female protagonists, keeping in with the whole theme of the run.
See here for the archived progress of the game, here for the archived status of the run, or here for live updates, which have been archived here. The ROM has been released in the form of a BPS patch, and can be downloaded here. All 251 different fusions have also been listed here.
Twitch Plays Pokémon Fused Crystal contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Guide Gent, the old man that gives the player a short tutorial and a Map Card at the beginning of Pokémon Gold and Silver, now gives the player his phone number. As Fused Crystal allows for more Sequence Breaking than the original Crystal, calling Gent will prompt him to offer advice on what to do or where to go next.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Invoked. During the final battle against Larry, moves from the opposing Pokémon were named after their Bootleg Green counterparts.
- Continuity Nod:
- Larry being the final opponent on top of Mt. Silver alludes to the fact that he himself has merged Pokémon during the course of Bootleg Green, which was fitting with the theme of Fused Crystal.
- The moves used by Larry's Pokémon were also renamed in accordance with the Blind Idiot Translations of Bootleg Green, as a reference to said run.
- Larry being the final opponent on top of Mt. Silver alludes to the fact that he himself has merged Pokémon
- The Dividual:
- Ekancute◊ is a single Pokémon made up of six disembodied pink snake heads.
- Magnarow◊ consists of three seperate Fearow heads with magnets on their side, likely held together through magnetism.
- Lickiwoodo◊ is a... weird case. It's basically an armless Sudowoodo wrapped in the tongue of a Lickitung, but it's not clear whether said Sudowoodo is attached to the tongue or merely trapped by it. Either way, they are treted as the same Pokémon.
- Ekancute
- Flying Face:
- Frictionless Ice: Several places that originally required surfing to get across have frozen over, and now consist of ice-sliding puzzles instead, similar to those found in the Ice Path and Pryce's Gym.
- Fun with Palindromes: While the name of the fusion between Girafarig and Slowking should've been "Slowfarig", the devs changed it to "Slowols", thus conserving the original idea behind Girafarig's name.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Because items were randomized, some NPCs occasionally gave very inaccurate descriptions of the items they were offering.
- Prof Elm's assistant at the beginning of the game gave Y a bunch of Max Revives, stating that they could be thrown at wild Pokémon to capture them. In case any of you are wondering, no, you can't actually catch Pokémon with Max Revives.
- One NPC gave Y a Revive, stating that it could be used to shatter rocks. You can't do that with a Revive either.
- Averted with the cutting master in Azalea Town, whose dialogue was altered, meaning he did not state that the Up-Grade he gave could be used to cut trees.
- A man near the Lake of Rage made an observation about the Gyararing being angry, and Lance himself commented on how the Magikursa in the Lake were forced to evolve into Gyararing. When Y explored the lake however, due to the randomization, there was nothing but Swinpy to be found.
- Gender Bender: A glitch causing every Pokémon to have 0 DVs (the Generation I and II equivalent of IVs, which are used to calculate not only stats, but also gender and shininess) was fixed during the course of the run, causing Skipleef, Woochum, and Sunkeowth to suddenly turn male.
- The Immune: Unown were unaffected by the Randofuser, showing up as regular Unown rather than being fused with other Pokémon species; in terms of lore, this would seem to imply that the Voices (which are usually depicted as Unown) are immune to its effects.
- This short comic◊, however, seems to imply that Unown weren't entirely spared by it.Unown-T: THEY MUST NEVER KNOW I USED TO BE A P.
- This short comic
- Mythology Gag: The sprite for Pinsicross◊, the fusion between Pinsir and Heracross, is actually taken straight from the SpaceWorld beta of Pokémon Gold and Silver; because Heracross was actually supposed to evolve from Pinsir at the time, said sprite resembles Heracross current design with some features from Pinsir thrown in, most notably its pincers.
- The Nameless: Larry's Charazam doesn't have a name, since it is based on the invisible 'M glitch from his original team.
- One-Letter Name:
- The Host for this run was simply named "Y". Some have interpreted that name as short for "Wyatt", "Yves", or even just as "Mr. Y".
- The game's rival was also given a single-letter name, being called "R". Some have joked that Y was just hesitating when asked about his name, and the policeman interpreted it as an actual answer.Chat: "What's his name?" "Errr..." "OK, so R? Thanks!"
- Plot Armor: By the end of the run, Y's entire team was equipped with Surf Mail, preventing them from being released.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: As per tradition, a TPP character awaits on top of Mt. Silver. Here, the character in question is Larry from Twitch Plays Pokémon Bootleg Green. Each Pokémon from the original run has been replaced with the fusion that uses it as its based species, including the two "invisible" glitch Pokémon that were treated respectively as a Doduo and a Charizard, thus resulting in a team composed of MOM the Mewmew◊, WEEB the Vapordoom◊, SUNRA the Jolteckle◊, GG the Flarelax◊, CUCKO the Dodagby◊, and a nameless Charazam◊.
- Sequence Breaking: Due to items being randomized, Y obtained the S.S. Ticket very early, and was as a result able to travel to Kanto right after arriving in Olivine City for the first time.
- Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: Fused Crystal is overall less linear than the original Crystal. Item and badge randomization can allow for some Sequence Breaking, several bodies of water can be crossed without surfing due to having frozen over (which notably allows for an early access to Kanto), and the Pokémon League can be challenged with any eight badges regardless of whether they were obtained in Johto or Kanto.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The regions of Johto and Kanto were given a winter-themed overhaul, with the landscape covered in snow and enemy Trainers dressed in winter clothes. Several stretches of water have also frozen over, turning them into ice-sliding puzzles.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A mere three hours after depositing XXXX,,,,,, the Togeykey, aka the starter for this run, another Togekey named FEB was hatched. The latter made it to the final team, whereas the former was never retrieved again.
- Unfortunate Names: The fusion of Ho-Oh and Suicune ended up being name Ho-Cune◊, which the chat immediately realized was pretty much a combination of two slurs.User 1: Excuse me?User 2: Ho-WHAT?
