I forgot to mention the multiplayer features, thanks for bringing that up. Though how I'd see the multiple versions thing going, it'd be only in SKXS+, Past Version, the landscaping would look more oriental and be altered slightly, to fit with Shui Hu, while still featuring the same plot (Ballot's father goes missing, he must collect engine pieces and (most of) the beasts from Shi Kong, though with a Shui Hou flavor. Both SK and SH beasts appear in both games, though like with Pokemon, the game you play, either Past or Future, determines what beasts you can confront. This remake will bring fourth Shui Hu's tower feature, and NPC's that demand battle if you approach them in their line of sight, which now appear on the routes, which are extended significantly, and also can be connected to more than two towns and have more interesting features, including one-way routes that lead back to a previous town/route, sometimes are blocked by obstacles that cannot be removed the first time the player may come across them.
The overall world map will be a fusion of both Shi Kong, Shui Hu, and in some (though minor) cases Pokemon. For example, there'd be the towers in the major cities where you fight leaders for medals, the amount of water-filled areas which require Merlith to cross increase, and you even spend a part inside Ballot's mind when he dreams of seeing his father, with monsters to catch and a single man at the end that prevents escape unless his beasts are defeated. In places where you could become trapped until you complete the area, a character appears and allows the player to warp back time, sending him/her to the area before the player enters the inescapable-until-defeat area. Fallen beasts do not revive with 1HP after battle, and losing all monsters causes a white-out and respawn at the last healing center the player visited.
The partner beasts can now be checked on ala Pokemon Yellow with emotions and everything, and they can also obtain new abilities as the game progresses.
*Bladeberus, whom starts with no ability, later is able to boost the player's walking speed (like what a certain monster can do in Shui Hu Shen Shou, because of this, your default movement speed is slow) by 1.5x, destroy rocks with a headbutt, and move certain boulders, the later both which allude to Rock Smash and Strength, two HM's from the Pokemon games.
*Beattro can learn to fly/warp players to visited towns, for quicker transportation.
*Electreep learns later on to turn on/charge up machines for a variety of purposes.
*Chromanix can burn down weak trees and remove them temporarily.
*Merlith, besides crossing over water, can learn to climb up waterfalls, and very late into the game, even dive into deep water automatically upon the player's command.
*Muserode can re-trigger battles/rematches with defeated "trainers" after taking 500 steps following victory.
*Signaliton can scan areas for hidden items, some which are unavailable until they are revealed. Must charge between uses.
*Drawville gains no new abilities, but it's ability to spawn random items is made much more strict. The player must now take 750 steps and also must wait 8 minutes before it's ability can be used. the chances of spawning better items are much rarer, and it always fails when inside a building.
I'll get more into detail about the beasts and their graphics later in detail soon. For now, I leave you with a chart, detailing all 267 beasts and which ones are determined to be removed and replaced (reds), as well as modified excessively (blues).
EDIT: I found out there is one duplicate spotted in the pic, the liquid dragon that appears both as No. 114 and No. 259. Maybe we could make the second a Poison-based dragon made of oozing sludge instead of water? :facepalm:
UPDATE: Finally figured out the scenario to my rock man refusing to destroy boulders, just back up the save file. I caught the two monsters that I did before the backup, and swapped out one of my monsters for one the Rival abandons after you defeat him in the desert. I secured Chapter 3 not long afterwards and beat the chapter's true boss on my first attempt (it was tricky) and rode a dragon in the water to a new area filled with plant life. So now I'm going to focus on training until I get my current monsters in the Level 28 area (the starter needs to be at least Level 33, and the small fire dragon that I caught in a secret woods area should be anywhere over Level 30. Though I will tell you; leveling up in SHSS is a lot more complicated and time-wasting compared to SKXS.
For those of you that wanted more unused monsters, you've got 'em. Thanks to YY-CHR, I gutted out SHSS and found more monsters not in the dex (they are located far below the listed ones which is why Demonlemon missed them when he ripped the monster graphics last year). I'm going to assemble the sprites later (as they are scrambled) and post them here.
But just like Shi Kong, Shui Hu has seen but uncatchable monsters, like an overpowered Level 99 one that you have to lose to to continue the story; it is a large blue snake-dragon confronted at the beginning of Chapter 3.
In terms of the SKXS+ beast chart, I will make the final decisions on which ones will be modified and/or replaced, which now will include Shui Hu's roster.
P.S. If anyone knows this; what is the program Demonlemon used to extract the sprites? They don't appear anywhere like what you see in YY-CHR. :/
ANOTHER UPDATE: It's time to Kong this Shou. (does Donkey Kong wear shous?)
