Naillevaihcam - Full Playthrough

Machiavellian backward. Here I thought the backward thing was just tied to the name of the hack, I was wrong. Made by the same person who created Magical Altering Gym Menagerie, U.Flame, this is another short hack that was submitted for the Make A Great Map contest, and it won first place. This came out before Magical Altering Gym Menagerie, but this particular version is brand spanking new. Version 1.5's main feature is fixing a lot of text to be more structured. I can't really compare to previous versions as this is my first playthrough, but I assume it's a great fix. In this hack, you have to climb a mountain. The NPCs talk backward, while the antagonist always talks normally. You chase this person up the mountain and it ends with a Double battle against the person. All the NPCs are nameless, including your character the antagonist. I nicknamed the antagonist "Gio" because the sprite is the Giovanni one. You start with a level 5 Absol, and 100 Master Balls in your bag. There are no healing items, the only way to heal is by the Pokemon Center. So you either have to backtrack to the Pokemon Center, or wipe and end up back in the Pokemon Center. As Absol's level 5, it's important to catch the wild Pokemon, as they range from level 30 to 40. There are not many items in the overworld. As far as I know, no hidden items. The only items you can get: some Rare Candies, some Lucky Eggs, a Cleanse Tag, and 3 HMs. Surf, Waterfall, and Rock Smash, all 3 are necessary to progress through the mountain. There are several trainers to battle, but they're pushovers. I did lose to the Gentleman twice, mainly because I didn't maintain a fully healed team and made mistakes on the lead. I lost to the antagonist once. Hell, you see everything in this video, including my losses. Well, you don't see me grinding, I cut that down, about 20 minutes of shit you don't need to watch. The story is very vague, deliberately so. This is going to get more spoilery, so here's your spoiler warning. Similar to Magical Altering Gym Menagerie, there are multiple dimensions. There are only 2 here, a snowy realm and a volcano realm. Both are important to traverse through. I think the volcano realm's more important, you can do most of the run in that realm. The sliding floors lead to dead ends most of the time, so it's crucial to be in the volcano realm and have Surf and Waterfall handy. Rock Smash is for the snowy realm as the rocks are smashable in that realm. How you switch between realms feels a bit random, but all you have to do is enter and exit the many openings in the mountain. What's also important about these parallel realms is that they determine how the NPCs speak. They either speak backward or normally based on what realm you are in. From my observations, affected greatly by speedup, they just complain about the weather and their current location. Some observations as well. The backward speech isn't annoying and easy to make out, probably because of version 1.5's text fixes. This flp-flopping of text is more important on what the antagonist says. You encounter him multiple times while going up the mountain. His overall personality and motivation varies between the realms. In the volcano realm, he's an evil bastard, and you two are sworn enemies. In the snowy realm, you two used to be allies but betrayed each other. The details I'm revealing come from U.Flame's own words. I admit to slacking on keeping track of the dialogue, mainly because of speedup. Without speedup, the hack probably lasts you 2 hours, maybe shorter if you just speedup on grinding. The snowy realm is basically a sort of afterlife, while the volcano realm is a living Hell where you cannot die. Somehow the antagonist can create realms. Mystery and ambiguity is the hack's biggest gimmick basically. You don't get all the answers, the whole backstory, and that's fine. I think it's fascinating and pairs well with the traveling and puzzle aspect of the hack. The puzzles are not difficult. The one with the currents might be a bit annoying, but nothing you can't figure out in a couple of minutes. As far as Pokemon selection, it of course depends on the realm you're in. I didn't realize there was a deeper theme with the Pokemon selection. The snowy realm has more Ghost-types and Pokemon related to death, and some obvious Water and Ice-types. Volcano realm, mons related to illusions and nightmares, so Drowzee, Hypno, Psychic-types in general. Also, some obvious Fire and Ground-types. The antagonist's team represents both rosters evenly. Surprisingly I have a bit more to say, check the pinned comment. The music's from Naillevaihcam itself! I just recorded the emulator with sound on and let the music play. First song's I guess the general overworld theme. You hear Pokemon cries. For the battle with the antagonist, there's a great track that I've used for my 2 attempts against him. Enjoy the video.