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Hack Series: Pokéluv - A Balanced, Randomized Experience (FireRed/Emerald) [UPDATE]

Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
Hi, my name is Akiak, and this is a hack for Pokémon Emerald and Pokémon FireRed that I've been working on for the past few years. It's quite fun, and it's basically finished now.

It's essentially a 'rebalancing' hack. All 386 Pokemon have been redesigned (stats, moveset etc.) so that they're ALL relatively viable in some way, giving them a unique flair in the process which they never had in the original games.

The catch here is that this includes all pre-evolutions as well. Every Pokemon was treated as its own unique entity, so if you want a Charmander to spearhead your team (or a Hoppip, or an Oddish), then that's a perfectly viable option.

As an example, Charmander has lower overall stats compared to Charizard, however they're a bit faster, boast a pretty special secondary ability and can learn a few unique moves such as Will-o-Wisp.

I didn't set out to make every Pokemon equally strong, but I tried to give every single one some kind of redeeming quality that makes them worth using.

There are a few crazy ideas in there, but they're all based on something, wether it's the Pokemon's appearance, lore, or 'hidden potential'.

I've also included a modified version of the Reasonable Randomizer, which I highly recommend using. It preserves trainer types (Roxanne has Rock-types, etc.) and habitats (no wild Growlithe in the sea), and includes several competitive movesets for all 386 Pokemon, which it can choose from when building enemy teams.

FEATURES


  • All 386 Pokemon, including pre-evolutions, have been 'rebalanced' (stats, movesets, abilities etc.) to be at least somewhat viable, but without being unrealistic.
  • All level-up and trade evolutions have been replaced by an optional evolution via Rare Candy. Stone evolutions are unchanged.
  • Many moves have been rebalanced (full list below)
  • 9 new moves, including Poison Jab & Shadow Claw
  • Legendary Pokemon have been considerably buffed, and are now uncatchable (think of them as boss fights)
  • Based off of Emerald Final and Throwback, which include many QoL features
  • A more balanced distribution of single & double battles
  • Optional Gen 6-style EXP Share from the start (entire party receives 100% of the EXP)
  • A specially tailored version of Reasonable Randomizer, with competitive movesets for all 386 Pokemon. This is an essential part of the experience, and I don't recommend playing without it.
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  • Scaled EXP system from Gen 5
  • Gym leaders have better teams
  • Better AI
  • 7 new Move Tutors
  • Physical/Special split (applied to certain moves)
  • HMs don't need to be taught
  • Catch rates have been buffed, to make Nuzlocking less painful
  • Critical hits nerfed to 1.5x
  • Sturdy & Rough Skin have been updated
  • Steel no longer resists Ghost
  • Poison survival on 1 HP
  • Rare Candy substitutes can be bought in certain Pokemarts
  • Cleanse Tag reduces wild encounters by 1/3
  • Lucky Eggs are obtainable early on that disable EXP gain (useful for level caps)
  • The Master Ball is replaced by TM35, and an extra PP Max is available (hint: scanner) (Emerald)
  • Eevee, Tyrogue & Wurmple evolve via Sun Stones (which can be found on wild Gloom & Vileplume) and Moon Stones
  • Revamped Battle Tent/Battle Frontier sets (Emerald)

DOWNLOAD
View attachment Pokeluv.zip

MEDIAFIRE LINK
https://www.mediafire.com/file/yuvnxb7cgqtcnw0/Pokeluv.zip/file

Updated 25 August 2022

HOW TO INSTALL/PATCH/RANDOMIZE
Spoiler:

DISCORD
https://discord.gg/FHWk4GmqdS

jMKconZ.png
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G4OptkQ.png


PPLOv7t.png
LvWiLz1.png
B9rGqDQ.png


LUVLOCKE CHALLENGE

Spoiler:

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Some examples of Pokemon picked at random, to give you an idea:

Spoiler:

List of moves modified:

Spoiler:

Hall of Fame:

Spoiler:

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Previous version: https://www.mediafire.com/file/zzcxuhyjt93j4x0/Pokeluv21.zip/file

Thanks to:

RichterSnipes: for the super good Pokemon Throwback.
dearman4: for the excellent Pokemon Emerald Final.
LAT10S: for the Reasonable Randomizer project, and making it open source.
karatekid552 and his team: for the Gen III Suite which kickstarted this whole project.
Gamer2020: for the Pokemon Game Editor toolset.
DoesntKnowHowToPlay, MrDollSteak, Jambo51, esperance, LAT10S, TL, haven1433, SevenChurches, ABZB, LocksmithArmy, Cha Cha Dinosaur, HackMew, Anthroyd, dylan, Lunos, FBI, Uncommon, mbcn10ww, AkameTheBulbasaur, Samu and probably countless other people.

Contact me on Discord (Akiak#4655) or on Twitter. Much love.
 
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Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
I've made some pretty massive updates to this hack. Ironed out some bugs, made improvements, added features etc... It's all detailed in the OP.

I'd highly recommend giving this a try coupled with a randomizer. Just download the PokeluvPSX patch and follow the instructions provided.

Enjoy!
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
OmegaBlazerX said:
Great hack i have to try it but i have to say do you have idea to add the 3rd gen Pokemon to the hack ?
Click to expand...

I'd love to but unfortunately given the amount of time it took to do the first 2 gens it's very unlikely that I'll ever get around to it.

Pretty much the only update that I'm considering making at the moment (barring any bugs/issues people might find) is giving the trainers with Custom Movesets enabled a fixed team that can't be randomized, which would fix some minor issues (that are explained in the OP).

Although if someone else wants to tackle the 3rd gen I'm open to that, just let me know!
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
So uh... I ended up completing the 3rd gen while I was on vacation...

So now all 386 Pokemon have been revamped, which significantly improves compatibility with randomizers. You can now use the Reasonable Randomizer instead of UPR, which has habitat and trainer type specialty retention.

I always found it really jarring and immersion-breaking when I'd find a Growlithe swimming around in the sea, or a gym leader with completely random types.

I also fixed an issue with Prof Oak's aides and made some general improvements. As always it's all listed in the OP, which has been revamped and is hopefully easier to understand now too.

Finally, I'd like to also announce that I will begin working on an Emerald version, so stay tuned for that (if all goes well)!

☺️
 

Master_Z

Pokemon Trainer
82
Posts
18
Years
  • Age 32
  • USA
  • Seen Mar 6, 2024
Very cool hack! So does this make the trainers in the game stronger as well? I see an option called "retain trainer strength" in the screenshot you posted.
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
Master_Z said:
Very cool hack! So does this make the trainers in the game stronger as well? I see an option called "retain trainer strength" in the screenshot you posted.
Click to expand...

That's simply an option in the randomizer that skews the Trainer Pokemon based on their level, so early trainers are more likely to have pre-evolutions whereas later trainers will have more fully-evolved mons.

But as you can see I have the Strictness slider set to 10 so it's a very minor effect, I wouldn't recommend increasing it too much as it kind of goes against the idea of this hack which is to "level the playing field" and give every Pokemon a chance to shine.

I would say the difficulty is certainly at least a little bit higher than vanilla, since literally every Pokemon that you encounter will be somewhat threatening in some way, plus the randomisation adds unpredictability that can be hard to prepare for (even more-so if you set the Battle Style in the options to SET instead of SHIFT).
 

Arionix

6
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 23
  • Seen Apr 20, 2024
About the rare candies, do they have a special store or are they in the normal places?
 
SevenChurches

SevenChurches

368
Posts
5
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Apr 9, 2024
I've reached a dead end. Bill didn't confront me in Cinnabar Island after beating Blaine, so I can't go to the Sevii Islands. The woman blocking the entrance to the Elite 4 said that Lorelei is not present, meaning she's on Four Island. Am I missing something?
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
SevenChurches said:
I've reached a dead end. Bill didn't confront me in Cinnabar Island after beating Blaine, so I can't go to the Sevii Islands. The woman blocking the entrance to the Elite 4 said that Lorelei is not present, meaning she's on Four Island. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Oops! I should include this in the main post.

As part of the "Catch Em All" hack, the Sevii Islands are no longer accessible until after the Elite Four.

Are you saying you've got 8 badges but you still can't get into the E4?
 
SevenChurches

SevenChurches

368
Posts
5
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Apr 9, 2024
Akiak said:
Oops! I should include this in the main post.

As part of the "Catch Em All" hack, the Sevii Islands are no longer accessible until after the Elite Four.

Are you saying you've got 8 badges but you still can't get into the E4?
Click to expand...

That's right.
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
SevenChurches said:
That's right.
Click to expand...

Thanks, can confirm this is indeed a bug that's unique to my hack, only idea I have atm is that it might be caused by the National dex being given at the start and making the game think you've already beaten the E4.

Looking into it but might take like a week as I'm pretty busy

Thanks for reporting tho 😊
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
Have fixed the issue, so the FRfull patch should work fine now.

I have been working on the Emerald version but progress has been slowing down due to lack of time. I may still get it done soon tho, can't really say right now.

Have also noticed a few mistakes and things I wanted to change when copying the Pokemon over from the FR version, so hopefully will get that sorted soon too.

✌️
 
SevenChurches

SevenChurches

368
Posts
5
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Apr 9, 2024
Akiak said:
Have fixed the issue, so the FRfull patch should work fine now.
Click to expand...

I was able to beat the Elite 4 and Champion, but I don't see any way to reach the Sevii Islands. I went to Cinnabar Island's Pokemon Center to see if Bill's there. He isn't, and in his house, he doesn't mention the Sevii Islands.
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
SevenChurches said:
I was able to beat the Elite 4 and Champion, but I don't see any way to reach the Sevii Islands. I went to Cinnabar Island's Pokemon Center to see if Bill's there. He isn't, and in his house, he doesn't mention the Sevii Islands.
Click to expand...

Looking into it.
 

agan

25
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 27
  • Seen Dec 12, 2020
Interesting hack, i will play this hacks when sevii islands solved.
Can we match with other people using linked battle feature?
 
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
agan said:
Interesting hack, i will play this hacks when sevii islands solved.
Can we match with other people using linked battle feature?
Click to expand...

Yes of course, this is a fairly vanilla hack so all communication features should work normally.

Not sure how it'll behave if you battle against someone who isn't using the hack, if it'll cause desyncs or if you simply get to use your buffed mons as normal, probably the latter but idk
 

agan

25
Posts
11
Years
  • Age 27
  • Seen Dec 12, 2020
I can't see the randomizer setting picture dude

Can i combine PokeluvFRps with latest version of fire red throwback?
I'm trying to patch latest throwback first, then i patch it again with PokeluvFRps
 
Last edited:
Akiak

Akiak

dreamin'
86
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 28
  • Seen Apr 10, 2024
Please don't do that, there's a reason I'm using an older version of Throwback, there'll be compatibility issues with newer versions.

I'm currently looking into the post-E4 issues and will hopefully have a fix soon.

As for the picture, that's really weird, I can see it fine on multiple different devices. Not sure how to help you :/

EDIT: here, try this link for the pic: https://imgur.com/a/BksRxqR

EDIT2: also for the record, the only features that are missing from Throwback v190806 compared to the current version are the moveset changes, which cause compatibility issues with Pokeluv, and the Celebi encounter, where Celebi is just added to your party for free, which can't be allowed in this hack for obvious reasons.
 
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