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TLDR at end for those who don't want to read everything.

I've played through the original Quartz at least 6 or 7 times, and as much as I love the original, it always left me wanting a bit more. Found this hack (Ultra Quartz) which claimed to be "a big improvement hack of the 2006 romhacking classic by BARO BOAR himself". With features like unique new statlines instead of just having the same stats as the pokemon that were replaced with Baro's creations, and trainers being updated in levels, movesets and pokemon overall, I really wanted to give this hack a shot since it sounded like a massive step in the right direction.

Up through the second gym, it was clear how different Ultra Quartz was in terms of difficulty when compared with original Quartz. The difficulty increase was mostly welcome, with a couple small exceptions. Nothing too big. Still very enjoyable. HOWEVER...

After getting to Seablue (Slateport equivalent), I ran into an NPC that was blocking the way and was not present in the original game, stating that I had to speak to an old sailor by the docks. Found him and it took me to a new area. Get taken to an island with a wormhole on it and get thrown into a giant forest area after going through the wormhole. Beat the trainers there and it leads you to a mountain where there are apparently more trainers. "Okay sure, whatever. There's only 7 trainers because 'Deadly seven', that's not bad".

This is where EVERYTHING goes straight downhill.

On the mountain is a series of entrances that take you to separate rooms within a cave area. You enter one, get the stuff inside or beat the trainer and then leave. You'd expect leaving the cave to put you back at the entrance that you went through to get there, right? Nope. Drops you in the middle of nowhere, forcing you through grass (encounters, ugh), and making you walk all the way back up the mountain to get back to where you entered the cave. I'm not a fan of forced backtracking, especially when you're forced to reclimb the mountain a good 5+ times.

Begrudgingly beat all the trainers in the caves and the guy on top of the mountain (There were 10 trainers, not 7) and had to WALK BACK THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN AND FOREST to get back to where I entered just to speak with a sign that warps you to a completely unrelated area. Couldn't have included the warp in the last trainer's text or something, huh?

If you think this is all, we're just getting started.

In this new area, you need to walk through a large open area on an invisible path. If you take one wrong step, it puts you back to the beginning. There aren't really any visual aids, just a couple tables and display cases(?) (which the path does eventually go around). At the end of this invisible path, you are forced to fight the EXACT SAME 10 TRAINERS THAT YOU JUST BEAT. Again, I begrudgingly beat them and proceeded onward.

You'll never guess what happens next

YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THE EXACT SAME 10 TRAINERS FOR A THIRD TIME. THEY HAVE THE EXACT SAME POKEMON, LEVELS AND ALL. To make matters worse? There are no healing stations at all until after the 5th fight on the 3rd round of fights. You can heal before entering the area, but then you are forced to do 15 fights before you get access to a healing station.

After beating these trainers for a third time, you have to go through another invisible path puzzle (albeit in a smaller area), just to reach the final guy. Do you get to fight him? Nope. Not before doing a completely pointless trial. You're forced to go through forced encounter tiles, like those in Rocket Hideout in Gen 2. All these encounters are level 5. This would be like whatever if there were only a few of these rows of tiles to go through, but you need to go through 20-30 of them. Why. WHY? You can't even get any decent exp from these things since they're all level 5. There is NO reason to include this.

The next area is trivial where you just speak with the generator to move on. Cool. Then 2 more rows of forced encounter tiles because why not? Then finally you get to fight the final guy -JUST KIDDING- you're forced to fight 2 Blobbos and an evolved(?) Blobbos, then you can fight the final guy. After beating him, you get an item that evolves(?) Blobbos into T. Blobbos. All the deadly 7 trainers say pointless dialogue while they jump into the wormhole, and then you are FINALLY free to go.

One more point that needs to be brought up as well: If you white out at any point in the 3rd round of fights or lose to the final guy/the blobbos fights, the 3rd round of fights is RESET - meaning that you will need to fight them AGAIN for another chance at the final guy or whoever you whited out to.

After finally finishing up on this island/forest/mountain/cave, you can go back to Seablue and continue northward toward the 3rd gym (Mauville City equivalent). I was interested in how the level spike would be handled for Rival 2 considering my starter was level 36 and fully evolved by this point.

I was SORELY disappointed.

My Rival still had level 19-low 20s. Why? Where's the difficulty in that? I was expecting a power spike like every big fight prior had, but nope. Nothing. I played through the 3rd gym and up to Mt. Niveous (Mt. Chimney equivalent) to see if the difficulty evened out again with my level - nope, still nothing. At this point, the regular story stuff was easier than original Quartz, only because there was so much exp forced down my throat that clearly wasn't accounted for.

At this point, I quit playing because there was simply no reason to even bother continuing. The battles were pathetic and I just wasn't interested in seeing what else the game had to offer. The 3 rounds of 10 trainer fights completely turned me off of this romhack and ultimately makes my recommendation a NO.

Here are some suggestions to avoid this mess from happening in the future: 1. If new content is forced, it should be mostly fluid with the base game. The deadly seven have absolutely no reason to be in the game. 2. If new content is forced, it shouldn't be horrendously tedious. Invisible paths is extremely lame without some sort of indicator. Fighting the same trainers 3 times back-to-back-to-back is not interesting or worthwhile. 3. Don't force 15 fights before giving access to a healing station or a mart. Players should be put through 5-8 at VERY most before being given access to a healing station or mart. I ended up running out of potions and ultimately whiting out to the final guy because I was so strapped for potions due to the massive gauntlet of fights. Not to mention that the final guy also Badly Poisons constantly, which eats through healing items really fast. 4. If you're going to force new content that contains a ton of exp, account for all that gained exp in the fights that follow it. Rival 2 onward was PATHETIC. 5. If you really want to include incredibly tedious new content, MAKE IT OPTIONAL. PLEASE LET IT BE OPTIONAL. I would have completed this hack if not for this humongous string of poorly designed "new content".

TLDR: Started well but did not last long (2 gyms) before new EXTREMELY TEDIOUS FORCED CONTENT was added, stopping story progression and ultimately RUINING Quartz in its entirety. Ultra Quartz is awful at best and does not live up to being "a big improvement hack of the 2006 romhacking classic by BARO BOAR himself" in any way, shape, or form.