What Pokémon Heart & Soul changes
How the game plays differently from Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver, then what it does to the Pokémon.
How the game plays
Heart & Soul is a from-scratch Game Boy Advance decompilation remake of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, built on the Rom Hacking Hideout's pokeemerald-expansion engine rather than as a ROM hack of any existing GBA game. Johto plays out in full, followed by a complete Kanto post-game across all 16 gyms, and the adventure keeps going afterward through Mt. Silver, Trainer Hill, the Sinjoh Ruins, the Battle Frontier and a set of bonus areas that reach as far as Alola. Species, moves and abilities are current through the modern generations the engine supports, with the physical/special split and every trainer built with real held items, abilities and movesets.
The main changes
- The whole of Johto followed by a complete, 8-gym Kanto post-game
- Every trainer rebuilt with held items, abilities and real movesets
- Modern-generation species, types (Fairy included) and the physical/special split
- Bonus post-game areas beyond Kanto, including a Sinjoh Ruins you can actually walk through and an Alola-set side region
- Built on the Rom Hacking Hideout's pokeemerald-expansion engine
How the Pokémon change
The game leaves the official base stats, types and abilities alone. What it changes is elsewhere: movesets, encounters and trainer teams.