From a first look, Glazed is every ROM hack player's dream. It's almost complete, with its own new regions and including Johto. It has beautiful visuals, and it looks different enough from its Emerald ROM base to feel like a completely different game. There are cases where the graphics could do with some improvement, but seeing as everything's been completely changed, I'm not complaining. I enjoyed the different styles of each town/city, and the every person I talked actually had something interesting to say, something quite rare in hacks, at least from what I've played. As soon as you start off you're introduced to the parallel dimension side of the story, which could be made quite interesting, but instead, not much is really explained or introduced, and the second time you visit this dimension all you do is chase a Mudkip. Elements like the poison ivy were a nice touch, though a bit too early in the game, having your only Pokémon poisoned very early in the game is never a good thing, but it made for an interesting challenge. The level curve, however, took out a lot of the enjoyment. After the first gym, everything suddenly jumps to a much higher level, and my only option was mindless space button grinding, and my Shroomish with Leech Seed. After this part it's not as bad, and the great amount of content afterwards makes up for it. The amount of areas and Pokémon/legendaries makes for an enjoyable "catch them all" adventure.
Graphics: 7/10
Story: 6/10
Gameplay: 5/10
General Appeal: 7/10
Adventure Red starts off well, with the maps looking lively and colourful, though some of the graphics don't really go well together. I've only read the first chapters of the manga, but the story seems to go along well, though I found myself stuck and not knowing what I'm supposed to do quite often. There were enough of typos and grammar errors in the dialogue to make it annoying to read sometimes, and the things NPCs had to say were either too plain, or just bad. The level curve was actually decent, even as it followed events of the manga, with a few exceptions such as Magnemite at level 100 and trainers whose Pokémon only know the move Explosion. There's a lot of content and side quests, but overall it feels very rushed. The mapping and the scripting are far from perfect, and even though the story and the fact that there's always something going on can get you to keep wanting to play more, these, along with the dialogue, have put me off instead.
Graphics: 5/10
Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 5/10
General Appeal: 4/10
Gaia uses a mix of the default Fire Red graphics along with a few new tiles, and it's looking great. The maps are beautiful, and likely the best I've seen in any hack I've played so far. There are things to look around for in every single map, with many obstacles that require Hidden Machines or other items to access, which I find great and it makes revisiting maps worthwhile. The overall feel of the region of Orbtus is very adventurous and mysterious, which goes really well with the story. Not much of its story is playable, however, but it seems to be unfolding quite interestingly, though not much is explained at all. I enjoyed playing Gaia the most out of all three. Encountering wild Pokémon never gets boring as there are different varieties of them in each route, and the level curve is decent, I haven't had the need for any grinding. There are however too many trainers in between towns, and even though NPCs offer to heal your Pokémon in-between, perhaps reducing the number of trainers or making some of them optional would be a better approach, even though I prefer it over an unbalanced level curve, it gives you reason to actually train more different Pokémon (I usually play through hacks with one or two Pokémon). Even though Gaia doesn't have as much content as the other two, its overall quality, and the fact that it doesn't feel rushed at any point in the game, makes it the most appealing out of all three.
Graphics: 8/10
Story: 6/10
Gameplay: 7/10
General Appeal: 8/10
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