FireRed hack: Pokémon Radical Red (VERSION 4.1 RELEASED! Gen 9 DLC Pokemon, Character Customization now available!)

[mn105441]

I'm not making an easy version, this is final. The intent for this project from the start was to make a difficulty hack like none other, and that obviously delivered.

To be honest, you'd be perfectly justified in making this hack even harder, given there are certain bosses and gym leaders that are countered pretty hard by individual pokemon.

I'd imagine the people struggling with this game are used to just playing the vanilla games on shift mode, with items in battle and no level caps where you can easily get away with a varied-type hyper offense team with four attacking moves each. That just won't work in this game with the competitive restrictions and the opponents having max EV trained ubers. Just a tip to anyone having issues beating this game - it really, really helps to have at least one, but probably more, really good defensive "stall" pokemon like Ferrothorn, Corsola-G, Toxapex, Florges etc that allow you to pivot or 1v1 their most powerful pokemon. Also, purposeful EV training is almost certainly mandatory to win, even if you want to do it by hacking in vitamins or something like that. The random EV spread you get from just playing through the game isn't going to cut it in the late game.

 

[lucario4xe]

can you go to sevii islands? how long does it take for the next update?

 

[soupercell]

To be honest, you'd be perfectly justified in making this hack even harder, given there are certain bosses and gym leaders that are countered pretty hard by individual pokemon.

I'd imagine the people struggling with this game are used to just playing the vanilla games on shift mode, with items in battle and no level caps where you can easily get away with a varied-type hyper offense team with four attacking moves each. That just won't work in this game with the competitive restrictions and the opponents having max EV trained ubers. Just a tip to anyone having issues beating this game - it really, really helps to have at least one, but probably more, really good defensive "stall" pokemon like Ferrothorn, Corsola-G, Toxapex, Florges etc that allow you to pivot or 1v1 their most powerful pokemon. Also, purposeful EV training is almost certainly mandatory to win, even if you want to do it by hacking in vitamins or something like that. The random EV spread you get from just playing through the game isn't going to cut it in the late game.

the bosses have only been getting more polish since the first version, anyone following this would agree w that. so don't worry lol. regardless any sort of team is susceptible to some kind of cheese given that there's a billion viable pokemon to use in this game on top of AI limitations

can you go to sevii islands? how long does it take for the next update?

when it's ready

 

[ForbiddenJungle]

the bosses have only been getting more polish since the first version, anyone following this would agree w that. so don't worry lol. regardless any sort of team is susceptible to some kind of cheese given that there's a billion viable pokemon to use in this game on top of AI limitations



when it's ready

Is there any reason why the stat scanner could have disappeared from my bag? I don't use it a lot so I'm not sure when it disappeared.

 

[soupercell]

Where do I find Nosepass in this game? In Victory Road?

Rock Smash in Rock Tunnel

Is there any reason why the stat scanner could have disappeared from my bag? I don't use it a lot so I'm not sure when it disappeared.

If a stat scanner isn't in your bag, if you talk to the fat guy in Pewter City he should be able to give you another one.

 

[kd24]

This is great and I'm glad the difficulty is amped up. So tired of hard Roms where you don't even need to ev train / strategize

 

[IronWarrior94]

Finally reached Cerulean Cave. Between Psychic, Ground, or Fairy which type should I choose for Silvally? Current team is Inteleon, Volcarona, Hydreigon, Toxtricity, and Corvinkight.

 

[Amitmidday]

How to evolve sligoo. There is no rainy weather.

 

[IronWarrior94]

How to evolve sligoo. There is no rainy weather.

It's always raining near Bill's house.

 

[Axiao]

Between the quality of life improvements provided by the CFRU and the re-balancing (or unbalancing.. kek) of gameplay to a higher level of difficulty has easily made this the best pokemon game I've ever played. I played gen 1 + 2 as a kid and didn't really play through the other gens (starting from where I left off) until a few years ago when VII came out. Every single one of them suffered from the same fatal flaw of grind to over-leveled pokemon and mash button mindlessly to win. EVs and IVs could be completely ignored unless you were playing against other people. I love that this hack forces you to move beyond that mold and actually plan (at least a little bit) how you're going to handle things to get over the next obstacle.

I won't lie, I started playing this like every other pokemon game, pick the ones I like, ignore the rest and plow ahead. The very first gym completely ended that. I actually had to go back to the routes, reevaluate my team, switch out members and move sets... and actually make sure I was prepared. 100% worth it, as it made succeeding feel more worthwhile and satisfying that something was accomplished or achieved. I thought I had it down good enough after that, until I got to that POS Frogadier... who wrecked me all over again. Eventually beat him, the struggle was worth it. A similar thing happened in the 3rd gym, although not as many actual fails to get the badge.. as I thought the early 'surprise' there was a little underwhelming since I 1-shotted it until the floating rat appeared and party wiped me. Every time things went wrong, it was because of something stupid I did and everytime I corrected those stupid things everything went a lot smoother.

I'm almost to the league at this point, but I do have one singular suggestion (in retrospect): Regular trainer battles could be harder because once you bust through a gym leader or other unique NPC everyone else feels mushy and you can blitz through ~10 of them and not go to the pokemon center once. Even the wild battles could be made just a little bit harder as it feels a bit weird that pokemon levels are sometimes ~10 levels below trainers/gyms that are immediately next to them (instead of less of a gap).

I did go back and play around a bit with save states, I think most of the harder sections (gyms in particular) can be mostly reliably beaten with almost any pokemon (still working on the 6 member bidoof party though) available in the areas preceding them as long as some forethought is put into the team.

I appreciate all the hard work that went into making this hack, cause the quality shows, 10/10.

---

Separately I did have a bit of a weird problem on Route 11 (although it could be my setup):
1) massive FPS drop (playing on the latest stable release of mGBA; SDL Audio, OpenGL Video, 60FPS no frameskip)--- I don't know if it's related to the kid running around in the grass... but it seemed like it, because it was fine when he was offscreen/away.
2) Only Stuffuls were spawning there [during the day]... (or I was just impatient after the 13th+ one in a row). I've been filling up the DexNav in each route/area before moving on to the next one and Route 11 was the only one I skipped (partly because the FPS drop would have made it more of a chore)

3) I also had a Rattata-A that did not evolve into Raticate-A but I think thats because I didn't evolve it at night and screwed it up.
4) On the 2.1 Pokemon location google sheet, you may want to add a comment to one of the cells (like Route 1 Rattata for instance or just below the table) that the Pokemon with red text change with the time of day and the ones without do not. It seems super obvious in retrospect, but I didn't figure it out until Mt. Moon... "WhAt DoEs IT AlL MeAn?"... oops.

5) It took me literal hours to get a baltoy in Mt. Moon tunnels (day) for DexNav completion and drifloon Route 5 (day and night) for same, although that just could have been me being very unlucky. Everyone else (minus the fps/spawn issue with route 11) has showed up within 30-40 minutes or so, even at 2% spawn rates. (averaging about 2 in that time for the rare spawns)

 

[SmellyOpossum]

Oh, I haven't done much Pokemom before but this is a mean one. Really good at teaching you typings via getting sent back to a pokestop after all your pokemon faint. My only thing so far is that I'm not sure how to get into the game center. I got badges 1, 2, and 3 so far, but maybe I'm missing something. Well, I definitely am missing something, but still. Any help so that I can continue to learn lessons the hard way?

 

[DJCherryTempo]

Oh, I haven't done much Pokemom before but this is a mean one. Really good at teaching you typings via getting sent back to a pokestop after all your pokemon faint. My only thing so far is that I'm not sure how to get into the game center. I got badges 1, 2, and 3 so far, but maybe I'm missing something. Well, I definitely am missing something, but still. Any help so that I can continue to learn lessons the hard way?

Take a break to smell the flowers. But where would there be a bunch of flowers in Celadon City?

 

[Amitmidday]

Thx I really forgot that

 

[Amitmidday]

How to get ash greninja

 

[SmellyOpossum]

Oh, right. I did everyone in the gym except for the leader because I beat her buddies, healed up, saved at the nearest pokestop, put the game down for later, and came back to it thinking that I had already beat the leader. That's my bad, but thank you so much for being helpful! I appreciate that, sincerely.

 

[Lord Gengar]

I'm not making an easy version, this is final. The intent for this project from the start was to make a difficulty hack like none other, and that obviously delivered.

If you don't like the difficulty that's fine; this game isn't for you then. There's nothing wrong with that. But I'll give a little reasoning as to why I chose to make this game difficult.

I've seen plenty of people that came into this game a complete casual, and digged into team building, building optimal sets and EV spreads, and just getting better at Pokemon as a whole. I understand some of you didn't enjoy this experience but many found this very rewarding. Furthermore, 90% of ROM hacks and Pokemon games as a whole are a seriously brain dead experience of just using practically any Pokemon and just mashing A when you have:

• a slight type advantage
• you're just 10+ levels above the opponent

I've obviously tried to deter from the standard formula and focus on the core gameplay of Pokemon, which I think delivers a cathartic experience when you construct a powerful team to disassemble a boss's broken team. This was the experience I envisioned for everyone playing my hack which is among one of the reasons why I don't want to have an easy version. And on top of that, I'm not going to spend extra effort making a version of the game I simply don't care about. ROM hacking is obviously a hobby, I get nothing out of this. I've only done this out of my free time and passion. I have zero passion in making a vanilla or an easier version.

Anyway another thing that probably gets overlooked is that this game actually has only gotten more casual friendly since its first release lol (Easier grinding for both EXP and EVs, easier ways to obtain money, raid battles, Nature Changer, etc...)

You guys simply want an easy version because there isn't another Fire Red hack like this out there - in time, I hope more ROM hacks begin using CFRU or decomps so that you guys can obtain a similar experience.
Be on the lookout for Saffron, Unbound, Ultra Heart of Fire, and GS Chronicles. I get that many of you like playing Pokemon hacks casually for a relaxing experience - that's completely understandable. You'll just have to look elsewhere.

And if you want something similar that's much easier you can check out Last Fire Red

Thanks for your detailed reply. I understand exactly where you're coming from- I agree that most hacks are easy, I enjoy a challenge but at the same time don't have much time to dedicate to gaming anymore. That being said, this hack really hits most of the right boxes, so I look forward to trying it out once I have a little spare time to dedicate.

 

[Arcanine arke]

How to get ash greninja

Rematch against Misty, and she will gift you frokie

 

[Turtol]

Hey,

I have been dex naving to find a good sneasel, finally got one but where do I get the razor claw for it? :)

 

[xnlght]

Where to find Shieldon?

 

[nemesish]

Where to find Shieldon?

Celadon Mansion.
There's a hiker that trades shards for fossils.