YMMV / Pokémon Fool's Gold

• Anti-Climax Boss: Mew may have a somewhat neat and nostalgic method of encountering it (you have to 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.
• Broken Base: 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.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • 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 ROM hack 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 deal breaker for more casual players.
  • The new rival Eris is the biggest point of contention for most players. They were intentionally designed not to play fair, which comes to a head at the 7th shrine where they LITERALLY hack their team to go over level 100. But aside from that their team is ludicrously high leveled in general, special mention going to their Sirfetch'd who, thanks to their newfound Sketch ability (which can permanently copy the last move it saw in battle), knows the 4 most overpowered moves in the hack. While you're allowed to lose their first encounter on Navel Rock, you will be REQUIRED to defeat them on several occasions in order to progress the shrine challenge.
  • Other than the aforementioned shrine leaders, you are also required to defeat a level 100 legendary pokemon at the top in order for that shrine to be considered complete, which is a feat in of itself. However, should you luck out and manage to catch one of these shrine legendaries then you can effectively turn the tables on the Sevii Isles and make things much more manageable to deal with (special mention going to Seviian Deoxys, who comes prepackaged with the all powerful Alien Boost).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Lapras is one of the more popular Fool's Forms due to its hydra-like design and sad backstory, as cutting off their heads was a common practice, causing them to become near-extinct.
  • Both forms of Togekiss are this (especially for people who disliked regular Togekiss's design) for being cool dinosaurs who have globes for bodies. Kantonian Togekiss is particularly popular for its uncommon Poison/Dragon typing, apocalyptic design that invokes Symbolic Blood with the lava leaking out of it, and its Secret Art Apocalypse, which is a special Poison-type equivalent of Explosion.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Many people thought the Fool's Totodile line, which eventually evolves into a living airplane, was an elaborate 9/11 joke. This is due to the fact that it has a (very small) chance to be found in the Tin Tower (which used to have a sister tower), gets the Secret Art Plane Crash, and has a part Ghost-type Kantonian variant. However, the developers stated that this was not their intention, though they found it funny as well.
• Game-Breaker:
  • 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 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.
  • Fool's Farfetch'd is similar to vanilla Smeargle in that it has weak stats but gets Sketch, letting it learn (almost) any move. Unlike Smeargle however, it can evolve into Sirfetch'd with the use of a stone (albeit one that isn't available until after the seventh gym). This makes for a mon with incredible versatility and solid stats to back it up. It's Eris's Signature Mon for good reason.
• Goddamned Bats: Missingno is an interesting case. It's only found in a secret cave that can only be accessed after you beat the developers of the game. It's not a threat to your Pokémon so much as it is a threat to your sanity when you're trying to catch it. Its defensive stats of 0/0/0 means it'll keel over to near anything that isn't False Swipe, and it packs Heal Bell to heal any statuses you try to afflict it with. It also carries the bane of Pokémon catchers everywhere: Explosion. And even if it doesn't kill itself? It has a high chance of straight-up fleeing the battle. All of this makes for an enjoyable, fun, and enriching experience for the whole family. And don't even get us started on trying to shiny hunt for it...
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Both Lugia and Ho-Oh are this for similar reasons: High offensive and defensive stats, Safeguard to block status, powerful Secret Arts, and access to Recover. Ho-Oh is arguably worse though, since its signature move Astral Fury has a base power of 120 and has a decent chance of either inflicting you with a random status or giving Ho-Oh a boost to all of its stats. You're better off just using a Master Ball on it.
  • The Legendary Birds (when they were still designed as ultra beasts) can qualify. While they thankfully don't have Beast Boost, they each had two annoyingly strong signature moves. The first were the Anti moves (Anticrystal, Antithunder, and Antifire), which are all 100 base power ???-type unresistable STAB moves that have nearly no drawback (aside from imperfect accuracy). The second set of moves were 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.
  • The Regi Trio. Aside from having a somewhat obtuse method of being encountered, all of them have low total PP, with Regirock and Regice having 3 moves with 5 PP. Registeel has one of its 5 PP moves replaced with the 10 PP Flash Cannon, which is only slightly better. This means that they'll often Struggle to death thanks to their low catch rate, even with Struggle's lowered recoil damage. Regice is arguably the worst of the bunch, since it gets Refract (a Screen move that boosts its Special Attack) and several powerful moves to nuke your Pokémon with.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • 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, irretrievable 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, including Fire moves to beat the Steel-types that otherwise wall it. Sadly, this was patched out with the patch that introduced Seviian Blastoise.
• Heartwarming Moments: After the final battle atop the last shrine of the Sevii Islands, Eris has a Heel Realization 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 about 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.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • 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.
  • Most wild Pokémon 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.
  • Staying as close to the original Gen II formula as possible also means no move reminder, like so many other modern romhacks have included.
  • 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.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • 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, reptilian mass of darkness and eyes), Miltank (who has exposed bone, can feel no pain, and is implied to partake in Autocannibalism for its Secret Art) and Beautifly (a burly Mothman-like beast that's almost entirely pitch-black), of all things.
  • Tumbleweed Town is a Ghost Town 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 that speaks in glitched, slurred speech. It only goes downhill from there as you head into the basement, as you discover melting Humanoid Abomination 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 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 Awful Truth about the place, as well as the Nurse Joys as a whole: 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 Dhelmise, has a somewhat silly-looking design, even making an OK-gesture with its hand. However, its Pokédex entry is surprisingly unsettling, as the first page is just a set of ellipsis while the following page states "This isn't supposed to be here." While it too could be interpreted as a joke, it definitely invokes Nothing Is Scarier, almost like a prelude to a Creepypasta.
  • Fool's Celebi already has an incredibly unnerving design, being a ghastly, withered shell of its former self. However, when you battle it, instead of the standard Wild Pokémon theme, the Unown Radio sounds play. Already an unsettling choice for a battle theme, it's sure to bring back terrifying memories for those who were active on the Pokémon side of the internet in the early 2010s...
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • 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. Pokémon with evolutions added in version 1.3.1 have it worse, as their stones are only available right before Victory Road.
  • 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.
    • Prior to the 1.3.1 update, there was also no Move Deleter anywhere in the Sevii region, so if you needed to swap HM moves you would 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 to get the one you want.
• That One Boss:
  • Bugsy can be a deceptively difficult gym leader to beat in this hack. He sports the very strong Scizor who, thanks to its new fighting typing, comes packed with the devastating Dynamic Punch, which can potentially one-shot anything you have up to this point in the game if it lands.
  • The good news is that Whitney no longer carries a Miltank, as it's now a Ground/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 The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard as well, due to the fact that their Pokémon levels hit the maximum cap with suspiciously perfect stats, and even break the meter in their final encounter to drive the point home.
• That One Puzzle: The entire segment for getting the Regis 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, that's exactly what he was hoping for.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Evolving Snorunt into Froslass is an enormous pain, as unlike other friendship-based evolutions (who have to have at least 220 friendship in order to evolve), Snorunt has to have its friendship totally maxed out to 255. Otherwise, it'll keep trying to evolve into the horribly Gonky Glalie. Using a Friend Ball on it does lessen the sting a bit, however.
  • Catching the secret password-exclusive Pokémon, aka Dhelmise. Not only is the password to get it in a very obscure location, but it's only available after you get Waterfall on a route that's somewhat out-of-the-way. Fighting it is also a pain, due to its low catch rate and the fact that it constantly fires of powerful physical STAB attacks backed by a high Attack stat. Additionally, using the password prevents you from reaping the benefits of any other passwords, such as different starters or an increased shiny rate.
• Unexpected Character: Very few expected a Pokémon from Alola to get a Fool's Form, let alone Dhelmise of all things.
• Unfortunate Character Design:
  • Though meant to resemble a cloaked angel, Froslass's white, slightly pointed hood makes it look like a member of The Klan. Its shiny form has it even worse, since it has a reddish tint to it.
  • Treecko was originally a Psychic-type brainy lizard, as shown here. However, the brain resembles a turban, giving Treecko an unfortunate resemblance to a Muslim stereotype (specifically the deliberate caricature Iguallah from Pokémon Clover). Pretty easy to see why it got changed.
• Woobie Species:
  • Just like its original counterpart, Lapras. Being a three-headed dragon didn't save it from near-extinction; if anything, that trait made it more prone to overhunting, as people cut off their heads as a common quest in the olden days.
  • Kantonian Togetic was affected by Kanto's pollution while still in the egg, causing it to become rotten and tainted. Its evolution doesn't have it much better, as it's constantly bleeding lava and has a very sickly appearance. Its signature move is even a suicide move!