On the surface, Pokémon Heart and Soul isn’t anything special. The Pokémon ROM hacking scene has its fair share of games based in the Johto region, and these can range from simple quality-of-life improvement hacks like Crystal Legacy to original stories that expand on the existing lore, like Scorched Silver, and everything in between. As beloved as the Johto region is, it has many flaws that make it a prime candidate for ROM hacks to try and fix, but there are only so many changes that can be made before the region starts to lose its identity. It’s a tough balancing act that Heart and Soul handles quite well.

Crazy amounts of customization

When you start the game, you’ll immediately notice a staggering amount of customization options for your playthrough. These are broken down into several categories, and each category has a good amount of things to adjust, some of which I haven’t seen in any other ROM hack. For example, the Randomizer options let you randomize enemy teams, the type chart’s effectiveness, and evolution lines. That’s not even getting into the Gamemode, Nuzlocke, Difficulty, Features, and Challenges categories.

So while Heart and Soul isn’t necessarily a difficulty ROM hack, you can adjust the Difficulty and Challenges settings to make the game as hard or as easy as you would like. For my playthrough, I went with the Modern settings for Learnsets, Abilities, and the Fairy Type, and set the Experience Multiplier to 2x while implementing a Level Cap set to Hard so I wouldn’t steamroll through the game. It was a good mix of the quality of life features I’ve gotten used to with newer Pokémon games, without having to worry about grinding.

Same old story, but it looks great

Once you actually start playing, you’re met with the standard Johto story. If you played Gold/Silver, Crystal, or Heart Gold/Soul Silver, you know what to expect. The visuals might seem like a downgrade from Heart Gold/Soul Silver since this is a GBA game under the hood, but the spritework here definitely has its charm, and there are extra details you won’t find in the mainline GBA games, like seeing Pokémon on routes in the overworld. Not only did that help make it feel like a living world, but it was also informative since the Pokémon you see running around are the wild Pokémon that you encounter in that area. I enjoyed this approach and found it to be a very intuitive way to convey that information to the player.

Other visual improvements include the Whirl Islands, which have their own unique look now instead of the generic cave sprites in the original games, and the first Pokémon in your party can follow you in the overworld, like in Heart Gold and Soul Silver.

When it comes to the changes unique to Heart and Soul, some areas have been expanded, such as the Seafoam Islands in Kanto, and some new areas have been added, like the Safari Zone to the West of Cianwood City. Both feel quite natural and help Heart and Soul stand out from the mainline games.

Available Pokémon

Heart and Soul uses what I call the “extended Johto dex.” This regional dex only has the first 251 Pokémon and their evolutions from future generations, including some generation 9 evolutions like Annihilape and Dudunsparce. This might turn away players who are used to ROM hacks that include every Pokémon, but this is a deliberate design decision that I respect. Limiting the regional dex this way provides the appropriate nostalgia that we all crave, while sprinkling in some newer Pokémon to keep things fresh. The usage of the extended Johto dex in combination with wild encounters and trainer teams heavily inspired by Crystal Legacy put the Gen 2 Pokémon at the forefront of this ROM hack. It worked perfectly with the visual improvements, giving players a better Johto experience than the official games. Even when you unlock the national dex, the game only adds Gen 3 Pokémon and their evolutions, so it never feels like Heart and Soul is overwhelming you with Pokémon.

GBA limitations

Sadly, there are some changes that I feel are downgrades from the mainline games. Most of them are because this is a GBA ROM hack based on Emerald, so some things, like the cell phone, aren’t in Heart and Soul because that mechanic didn’t exist in Gen 3. The system used for the custom Poké Balls Kurt makes had to be redone to use the berries available in Emerald, since Apricorn was also not a thing in the GBA games. But the one that bothered me the most was the changes made to a couple of puzzles where you have to use the Mach Bike. If you played Emerald and enjoy those puzzles, more power to you, but I don’t like them at all, and I don’t think they fit the Johto vibes that this game is going for. And as always, I notice that when I can’t customize my bedroom with Pokedolls that my mom randomly buys them with my hard-earned Pokedollars.

Too much Kanto

Another gripe I have with Heart and Soul is the fact that your post-game grinding mostly takes place in Kanto. The berries needed to remove EVs from your Pokémon are in various spots throughout the Kanto region, and the Gym leader rematches, and items you purchase with Battle Points are in Saffron City’s Fighting Dojo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great use of the Dojo and makes perfect sense, but it doesn’t feel good to spend most of your time in Kanto when playing a game that’s supposed to highlight Johto.

Opinions from a Johto fanboy

As someone who’s read the Pokémon Adventures manga and played through Gold/Silver, Crystal, and Heart Gold/Soul Silver multiple times, along with many ROM hacks that take place in Johto, I often think about how I would go about making the “perfect” Johto ROM hack, and honestly, Heart and Soul get most of it right. It provides quality of life features, cherry-picks the best parts of Heart Gold and Crystal Legacy, and adds the right amount of its own original ideas that give players a nostalgic Johto experience that isn’t ruined by being overly ambitious.

Pros

• Beautiful visuals
• Includes new areas and cut content
• Almost every customization option you could ask for

Cons

• No cell phone or room customization
• Post-game grinding mostly takes place in Kanto

Latest Heart & Soul release

Download on Github