Pokémon Ruby Destiny: Reign of Legends is a ROM Hack of Pokémon Ruby and the first game in the Ruby Destiny series created by destinedjagold, or DJG. It was created on August 22nd, 2007, around the time Generation IV hit the scene.
The setting takes place in the region of Gento, which is located south of the Kanto and Johto regions, as your brother has called upon you and your mother to live in the region where he is the Gym Leader of Snow Soft City in the region of Gento. There, you arrived and decided to live in Sun Ford Town, where you'll get your first Pokémon to begin your very own journey.
Along the way, you come across two rivaling gangs known as Luminous Cenaries, who's vision is to overcast the world with sunlight, and Royal Darkness, which tries to shade the world with darkness... sounds pretty familiar doesn't it?
Considering this was DJG's first ROM hack, it is essentially the same plot as the original game the hack is modified from, however it included Gen IV Pokémon, as well as some Fakemon that are part of the story, and Shadow Lugia from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
DJG would then go on to create two more games, making up the Ruby Destiny trilogy. Its sequel, Pokémon Ruby Destiny: Rescue Rangers, which is based on the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series and the third title, Pokémon Ruby Destiny: Life of Guardians following after.
A fourth game in the series, Pokémon Ruby Destiny: Broken Timelines was in development and a beta version was released, before restarting the game from scratch with a new plot. Due to lack of motivation and inactivity in the hacking scene, the game was cancelled.
Tropes used in Ruby Destiny: Reign of Legends:
- Ascended Extra: The Pokémon Ranger trainer class, which was simply yet a generic opponent trainer one can find in forest roads in the main series, are now the good guys in this game. They help the player infiltrate the Royal Darkness base deep in the Dark Woods, accompany the player to the confrontation of Blitz at Dark Isle, and gives updates via the player's PokéNav upon the whereabouts of Shadow Lugia.
- Bigger on the Inside: Unown Cave is this, while on the outside it appears to be a short alternative exit out of Green Valley, inside the cave, it's a huge labyrinth cavern full of dead ends and long passageways.
- Blackout Basement: Alastor's gym is this.
- Colony Drop: Raleso Town was destroyed by a meteorite.
- Death Mountain: Mt. Blaze, which is a renamed Mt. Chimney.
- Developer's Room: The final gym contains cameos by DJG's friends and beta testers.
- Disc-One Nuke:
- Suicune can be caught in the North Cave as soon as the player gets the fifth badge and is able to use Surf. At level 50, at a point where the player's team would be in the low thirties, it can crush most of of the game.
- If the player
somehow manages to catch the Shadow Lugia during the first encounter, the player can effortlessly make the rest of the game an entire joke.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Down Pour City, a city where it's always raining.
- Fake Difficulty: Many boss trainers use Double Team on their Pokémon.
- First Town: Sun Ford Town.
- Guilt by Coincidence: Upon being warped to the alternate dimension by Palkia, the player is immediately arrested by the police. It turns out that the alternate counterpart of the player in the alternate dimension is the one that takes control of Shadow Lugia and uses it to destroy half of the Gento region in that dimension. The Blitz of this alternate dimension did manage to defeat the player there, but the player from the real world looks strikingly similar in appearance to their alternate counterpart. He/she does get out of prison quickly enough with the help of Blitz.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Upon defeating Blitz a third time, Shadow Lugia will attack you. The kicker? It's at level 99, at a point where your team would be in the mid thirties at most. The game really expects you to flee, but if the player manages to defeat it, or outright catch it, the story goes on as if nothing happened.
- List-of-Experiences Speech: Angeallen gives one about all the legendary Pokémon you've caught before battling you, which inexplicably leaves out Celebi.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: A non-comedic example. While talking about every legendary Pokémon you've caught, Angeallen gives a description of them. Phione doesn't get one.
- Mythology Gag: Ash Ketchum is the champion.
- Naval Blockade: Luminous Cenaries blockades Retazo City with Wailmer.
- Nostalgia Level: Vermilion City, Cinnabar Island, New Bark Town, and Cherrygrove City make appearances.
- NPC Roadblock: One of them that stands out is a Pokémon Ranger that blocks the cave where Angeallen resides until the player catches almost every other legendary in the postgame.
- Olympus Mons:
- You get a Baby Lugia that eventually evolves into Lugia.
- You can get an egg containing a Manaphy in the post-game.
- Phione and Rotom are considered legendaries here, despite a
dispute over whether they should be considered legendaries among the fandom. - Catching every other legendary in the game gives you the chance to catch the Dragon/Flying legendary Angeallen.
- Ominous Fog: Used in Royal Darkness' hideout and Mt. Pyre.
- Port Town: Monatami City and Retazo City are both one.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: The game has many spelling and grammatical errors.
- Shifting Sand Land: Sand Path contains a desert.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Snow Soft City, where wild Ice-type Pokémon appear.
- Tree Top Town: Tabuli Town.
- You Are Not Ready: The player's brother, Kevin, requires you to collect 4 badges before you're able to battle him.
Tropes used in Ruby Destiny: Rescue Rangers:
- The Big Race: You participate in a race with a gang of Scyther at one point.
- Birthday Beginning: The game starts with the player character going to their birthday party.
- Dark Horse Victory: In said race with the Scyther Gang, the Go-Getters seem to be on the verge of victory, but an Oddish manages to win the race in the end at the last minute.
- Disc-One Nuke: Espeon. By the time you get it, it's easily the strongest member on your team with its high special attack and speed.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The only reason the Scyther Gang attacked Butterfree is because she refused to enter their race.
- Face–Heel Turn: The villagers of Pokémon Square briefly turn on you after finding out that your group is actually humans transformed into Pokémon. They do so again upon being freed from the Pokémon Hunters' petrification, forcing the party to flee town.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: As in the Mystery Dungeon games, the player wakes up in the Pokémon world transformed into a Pokémon, in this case Pikachu.
- Gameplay Grading: Steelix gives you a percentage score after completing missions. Unlike other examples of this trope, this is completely arbitrary and the score for each mission never changes in different playthroughs.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Averted surprisingly at first in a series where one of the main goals is to catch all of the Pokémon. The player will not get their hands on Pokéballs or a Pokédex at any point, and the members that join the party are the ones you use for almost the entire game. Eventually played straight after the player gets 8 badges, where they can finally recruit Pokémon using Recruit notes.
- Green Hill Zone: The fittingly named Green Hills.
- Healing Herb: Healing plants are used to heal your team instead of Pokémon Centers.
- Inevitable Tournament: You participate in one at the Rescuer Arena.
- Lost Woods: Sinister Woods is this.
- Mirror Match: Used with your team in Shadow Valley when you pass by the mirrors.
- Mythology Gag: Pokémon Hunter J is the leader of the Pokémon Hunters.
- Nostalgia Level: Ilex Forest appears in one mission.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Pikachu, Chikorita, and Torchic can't evolve.
- NPC Roadblock: Jagold blocks the path to Vextra Forest for most of the game.
- Olympus Mons: New ones are added, including Felinar, an alternate form of Cresselia, and Devihell, a counterpart to Angeallen.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: All of the TM's and HM's are specifically set so that one of the six party members can learn at least one of them.
- Shifting Sand Land: Silver Desert.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: One part of Mt. Krystal is full of ice puzzles.
- Taken for Granite: The villagers of Pokémon Square are petrified by the Pokémon Hunters.
- Underground Monkey: Ice Tauros appear in the icy part of Mt. Krystal.
Tropes used in Ruby Destiny: Life of Guardians:
- Beef Gate: Early on in the game, the player can access one part of Mineral Cave. The only problem is the entrance in Bouquet Field has Pokémon in the thirties or more, If the player manages to catch one of those wild Pokémon, they can easily break the difficulty.
- Boring, but Practical: The free Lapras with Perish Song is tanky enough to survive a hit and use the move, which can knock out pretty much anything. While it's possible to beat the high level and stat bosses without Lapras's Perish Song, doing so is extremely difficult.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Among the possible encounters in Bouquet Field is a level 15 Breloom, at a time where your Pokémon might not even be level 10.
- Cool Airship: You go onto one being piloted by Dark Organization.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Andrew's gym layout is the same as Gardenia's layout from Pokémon Platinum.
- Disproportionate Retribution: You get your first symbol taken away at Hevah Academy because you got it without having a Pokédex.
- Mighty Glacier:
- Guibit has low attacking stats, but high defensive stats.
- Suvir-Bot has very high HP and defensive stats (specifically, a base stat of 250 in HP and both defenses).
- Mistaken for Quake: Dark Organization's attack on Hevah Academy is mistaken for an earthquake at first.
- Money for Nothing: Averted. Defeated trainers give little in the way of prize money, so you'll be relying mainly on selling items you find on the ground and/or by Pokémon with the Pickup ability.
- My Name Is ???: You face a Pokémon literally named "????????".
- No-Gear Level: Team Earth takes away your Pokémon, Pokédex, and symbols before throwing you into a cell in their base. You have to traverse their base without being spotted by the grunts after escaping the cell, though it's not very long of a trek fortunately.
- Punny Name: Exeggutor gets an evolution named Exegglent.
- Shifting Sand Land: Silver Desert, as in Rescue Rangers.
- Shout-Out: Several music tracks are from other games, such as the Final Fantasy win fanfare when you beat a wild Pokémon.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Low Point Path and Highpoint Town are this. You have to buy a Cold Scarf to get through Low Point Path without randomly freezing.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: You always face "????????" at level 15.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Alice is afraid of Rayquaza.
