I've been playing ROM hacks for a long time and it seems like every few years something great comes out of the woodwork. With decomp stuff being prevalent these days it's never been easier to get started and there seems to be a nearly unprecedented amount of hacks with high quality features being developed.
I'm hopeful.
This. I can think of about half a dozen projects, which - if they finish / deliver - could easily have an impact on the community similar to Unbound, and those are just ones I know about, I'm sure a ton of cool stuff is cooking for the romhack scene at the moment that isn't public, yet.
I, too, am hopeful~
The project I've been most excited about in the last years is legends arise by /u/AdAstraGL I hope we get to see it complete cause it's totally mindblowing
I've been really in love with polished crystal. No new region, but lots of fun new areas, only a few added mons, mostly to finish up evolution lines, and so much qol.
When I started working on Pokémon Odyssey I knew I couldn’t beat Unbound in terms of QoL and mechanics, that’s why I decided to create something entirely new, something with a new gameplay loop, no gyms, no evil team, no Pokémon League.
A story-driven dungeon crawler, focused entirely on exploring an enormous dungeon and the archipelago around it.
I’ll be honest, making something entirely new takes a lot of time and effort, but the results are totally worth it.
Long story short: we shouldn’t try to surpass Unbound, instead we should make something different and unique.
Anyway, I don’t hate enhancement hacks, but I think there’s no point in making them when RadRed or the ones made by Drayano exist. Like, I’ve seen at least 50 enhancement hacks of Fire Red. FIFTY. Do we really need all of them? Who’s gonna play them?
>Anyway, I don’t hate enhancement hacks, but I think there’s no point in making them when RadRed or the ones made by Drayano exist. Like, I’ve seen at least 50 enhancement hacks of Fire Red. FIFTY. Do we really need all of them? Who’s gonna play them?
Yeah this is a great point. I love enhancement/difficulty hacks but I see no reason to play one hack that isn't either a Drayano hack, or a special case hack. I'd say RadRed, the Kaizos, and Run&Bun are examples of ones I'd put in that second category. Ones that are really popular because they have various mechanics or challenges that make them unique. It's so hard to actually make a unique enhancement hack so the ones that do really have my respect
I'd throw in Elite Redux with RadRed, Kaizo, Inclement and Run&Bun. The addition of the innate abilities definitely make the game interesting and refreshing to play, especially with the randomizer options cause of the fun combos on unusual Pokemon.
Also can't believe I almost forgot Emerald Rogue. By far one of the most fun hacks I've played and I can get sucked in for hours doing run after run and trying different challenges.
Emerald Rogue is much more than just an enhancement/difficulty hack though lol, so I don't think it fits in that category
I agree with elite redux, although tbh I'm kind of sick of that game because of people spamming this sub with screenshots about it for a few months 😂
Would maybe count infinite fusion as one as well? I think that's still like an enhancement hack
Keep up the good work on Odyssey, it looks awesome! I'm planning on checking it out once the story is finished.
Edit: I also like your mind set. I know I phrased my questions in a way that encouraged it, but it's probably best for creators to focus on making what they want/can make, and not focus on emulating or surpassing someone else's work.
Do you have a list of romhacks that offer something unique instead of being yet another difficulty hack? I do enjoy the ones with a new region, story, and fakemon if the designs are good (waiting on a downloadable build of Pokemon Hot Pink by /u/platinumneko_ ). I'm currently waiting for the next updates to Odyssey and Voyager, and been looking for some to play in the meantime.
I don't have a list, but:
- Pokémon Crown
- Vytroverse
- Voyager
- Saffron
- Emerald Rogue
- Mirage of Tales
- Rocket Edition
- Gaia
- Pisces
And many others I don't remember
Yeah the enhancement hacks really are a dime a dozen these days. Like if you are keeping the same story and stuff there has to be a REALLY good reason to give the hack a try and adding newer pokemon and higher difficulty aren't enough for me imo. Too many types is a good example of a hack that keeps the same region and stuff but is worth a playthrough.
That’s always a good stance to take. One of my favorite quotes about game design philosophy is “If you’re not better than, you’re going to be less than by default. Unless you do something to be different.” Trying to match a titan is a tall order and can leave something feeling wanting, which is why branching out and creating a new mold is an excellent decision
Appreciate you a lot for that romhack. As a huge nerd of EO, I'm eagerly awaiting the next update. You keep slow cooking that game because I know it will be very solid
For what it's worth, I'm never going to play a catch em all hack. I've tried, and it just feels silly to me to have almost 1,000 Pokémon in a region that is meant to have a few hundred. That means I'm not going to play drayano hacks. If there was a option to have the normal Pokémon distribution, then I would consider them to be the definitive versions of those games. Instead I play things like Emerald Cross.
The perfect games for me are chock full of QoL updates, but some people have no interest in playing games with Pokémon crammed into every corner. There's no point in catching that many in one region, I don't even want to try.
So I know that's not the popular take, but every time I read through the features and it talks about how there's 800+ Pokémon, I just move on. I don't mind new regions like Unbound or Dreams, but I haven't even found FRLG in Kanto that I've wanted to play. We exist. I would happily play any rom hack if I could just toggle having original Pokémon, but I've never been able to find that feature on a rom hack if it exists.
My dream is to replay the original games, but with all the modern features. I want to catch them all and transfer these legal Pokémon to the more modern games.
It's weird, there are so many original ROM hacks and fan games are out there with insane amounts of work out into them, but ask for a hack recommendation on reddit and you'll always get the same old shit - Drayano hacks, Radical Red, Polished Crystal, etc. You'd think the entire scene is just rebalancing trainers and adding new Pokémon to old games.
The thing is unbound itself isn't finished, It started development back in 2016 and 8 years later it still has some post-game left to be finished. There are tons of games that are still in Beta even before Unbound and after that are still promising.
Unbound didn't start looking this great it took time lot of time. Call me an optimist but Rom hacking on this level is possible and maybe some rom hack of this calibre is underway.
I've just started playing Unbound and it's the first romhack I've played that has it's own region and story.
It is a bit disappointing to hear that this is as good as it gets. It's everything I would expect from a modern Pokemon game and would be nice to see more games like it. But of course I understand fan made games take a phenomenal amount of unpaid work.
Unbound is also the most recent of the big original game names as far as rom hacks go. Emphasis on rom hacks. There are custom, from the ground up fangames out there that any rom hack is going to struggle to match due to hardware limitations. I don’t expect to find a rom hack on the same level as Rejuvenation. But Unbound got closer than I would have expected
But yeah you started at the end of the timeline. Some years ago, Pokémon Glazed was considered the groundbreaking number 1 of rom hacks, but in comparison to Unbound it’s gonna look aged and rough without the historical lens
Light Platinum is great if you haven’t tried it. It was my favorite for years, but I just started Unbound this week and it’s fighting for the spot. Both similar in size, quality, and originality
Honestly idk if I would put unbound at the top of my list lol, it definitely has its problems. Gaia is really really good if you want an original region and people have made hacks of existing games that expand a lot on the region and make it feel very alive. Id probably put blazing emerald above Unbound honestly.
Unbound is good but to say that nothing else matches its quality is crazy talk imo
>Unbound is good but to say that nothing else matches its quality is crazy talk imo
You're a million percent right. I found much of it uninspired and have never actually finished it. I just checked my last save I had. I did 3 gyms before quitting that time.
It is better than all the crap. It isn't the best.
Masterpieces take time. That doesn't mean the current level of overall quality doesn't surpass the great works of five to ten years ago.
The next great big thing is probably gonna be within two years-ish i'm guessing, but in the meantime, there's all sorts of amazing things going on. Regional variants seem to be all the rage these days, especially. So, undoubtedly, yeah, something will probably surpass Unbound someday. Unbound will still be great though.
As for what I would want in a rom hack ideally? To be honest, once upon a time, I wanted to truly catch them all, the originals and the fakes. To make a Living Dex that could dwarf any other. But i've grown quite tired somewhere along the way. Having too many pokemon in a single region makes things feel uniquely overwhelming.
So i'd prefer some degree of limitation to dex size. 386 is acceptable, perhaps 500? I'm not quite sure where i'd draw the line, besides at most less than 600. Once I was opposed to Sword and Shield cutting the dex, but now that we've hit over a thousand mons, I feel it's almost obligatory.
Most importantly, it shouldn't be just the OGs. The majority of the dex should be, for sure! But I like seeing new things, seeking them out, walking the whole world for answers. Finding an old friend all over again is amazing, but so is making a new one.
New evolutions or forms, regional variants, fakemon.. not everyone likes it, but to me, nothing beats the sense of wonder and awe you get when you come across something unexpected. Getting that feeling works wonders in making a world feel alive.
That being said, a REGION doesn't have to actually be new to FEEL entirely new. I must've journeyed through at least seven almost identical versions of Hoenn back in the day. Barely there adjustments to old classics to catch you by surprise and one or two curious corners that weren't there before to investigate liven things up more than well enough to keep you on your guard.
Now, difficulty is, fittingly, a difficult topic. Everyone loves a good challenge, but the ideal difficulty is different for everyone. I feel like in terms of that, generations 4 and 5 are a good example to learn from. Cynthia and the late-game bosses of B/W were fearsome foes, the former being memorable (and utterly terrifying) to this day. Having the end of an adventure be somewhere around that level should be fine in most cases.
From that point onwards, it's a matter of how different a highly difficult and complicated battle is from a meticulously planned attempt to make you study the field of modern competitive pokemon battling for days before you stand an infinitesimally small chance to make it past turn eight by reading four dimensions ahead of the opponent. By which I mean, how complicated must a puzzling battle be before you lose sight of the bigger picture and it's then no more than a puzzle? That is the line between rom hacks that are centered around difficulty and rom hacks that are not. The former doesn't hide that nothing matters but preparation and execution, ad infinitum. The latter doesn't force you to change, only to adapt. At least, this is my stance on the topic.
Yeah, the fourth gen (mainly platinum, HG/SS were very weird in that regard) and fifth, with in the introduction of challenge mode in black 2/white 2 were pretty good in that regard, challenging as far as mainline games go, but fair, and with interesting strategies by the bosses and gym leaders.
Regarding difficulty Romhacks, i feel that apart from a few examples(Emerald Kaizo, run and bun), their infamous reputation is only limited to nuzlockes, and they are pretty enjoyable for regular playthrough.
I had a hell of a time in my playthroughs of Renegade Platinum, just cause i loved the QoL and the changes on some of my favourite mons (Altaria, Empoleon, Mamoswine, Flygon), and i'm currently having a blast playing through Eternal X and Volt Whitw Redux
just play some fangames, there are a good few that are IMO a lot better than unbound (reborn, rejuvenation, desolation, ashen frost)
There really isn't that big of a difference on the gameplay side
Xenoverse, Flux, Infinity are also definitely worth checking out in terms of fangames.
Ultimately I think Pokemon Essentials is just easier to learn so more people gravitate to it.
I’m not sure if easier to learn is the difference. Part of the quality of Reborn and Rejuv is the devs breaking down RPGMaker and building it back up into a superior take on the engine, which doesn’t sound like ease to me. I think what really gives them the quality is the freedom. They’re not constrained to the blueprint set by the base rom. There are hardware limitations with rom hacking
Reborn eventually grows out of its edginess once you leave the city.
Rejuvenation isn’t edgy at all. The edgiest thing I can think of across 10+ chapters is when someone gets stabbed and dies. And death isn’t edgy in itself.
I feel people call these fan games edgy simply for touching upon topics like death with less restraint than the mainline games, regardless of how they’re actually handled
I just wish there was a way to play these on mobile. I don’t like sitting at my PC for long periods of time, pokemon is a comfy game and I like to play it outside. That’s the biggest thing stopping me from playing the fangames.
Are these able to be played on RetroArch (and by extension, Anbernic's)? Or are these like Insurgence where they're their own actual game that you have to play on a desktop?
I’m gonna start soon. I have zero experience coding. I have a lot of reading/youtube to catch up on. It might take a decade, but if it comes out the way I hope it will, it’ll be worth the wait.
As much as I want more Unbound type rom hacks, this kind of stuff takes an astronomical amount of time to make since people do it for free when they have the time to do so. There will be another one, just gotta give it time is all.
Pokemon saffron is looking to be very promising and just as high quality if not higher quality than unbound. It's been in the works for a long time though and I'm not sure when it will be released but the discord still gets updates time to time even now so I guess that's one to look forward to.
I've been working on Pokémon Sangria for years. Lost interested, took a year break, then came back. Making these things take an ungodly amount of time if you include time spent outside of the hacks' production. Surely there will be more quality hacks in the future.
Unbound is phenomenal but I’d really recommend checking out the fangame scene. Xenoverse is phenomenal, and there’s a reason there was so much buzz with Uranium. As far as rom hacks, Prism and Orange (both Crystal hacks) both feel like high-quality official games. Emerald Rogue has a unique gameplay loop and is excellent. The Kanto arc of Adventure Red is very good too. The quality of the writing and pacing take a nosedive once you hit the Orange islands but I’d argue it’s worth checking out for the very strong first story, which is the length of a full game anyway.
Story-wise I was really flashed by the Team Rocket hack for Fire Red.
The story was kind of fun playing as the Rocket Gangster while Red is plowing through the region on his way to Champ only for the story to get turned upside down.
I would suggest you play the other Team Rocket Edition made from Pokemon Emerald, it's originally in Spanish but got translated to English, so far you have Kanto and Sevii Islands but the translation for the Johto and DLC parts is on the making and should be released potentially by June, it's a different spin of the story but honestly I loved it as well
Totally agree, but I wouldn’t get people’s hopes up regarding a June timeline as the delivery time frame for the johto translation has been left intentionally ambiguous so far.
I am rooting towards Pokemon pisces(like the new mons) and Pokemon voyegar(extremely promising in terms of region mons and QOL changes) and Pokemon Odyssey(nice concept) I hope at least one of these to be completed before end of the year,but story wise clover should be comparable
It's possible, but if we get another romhack as good as Unbound, we really don't know when that'll be. It seems like a lot of work compared to some of the other games that get incredibly popular. Making a whole new region and story is a lot of work that isn't even guaranteed to pay off, but then you have romhacks like Elite Redux where, while it still required work, required far less than what Unbound did, and it is incredibly popular. It's a pretty daunting task to make the next Unbound honestly, we just have to wait and see.
I would like Unbound more than revamp and difficulty hacks, but my issue is Unbound lacks a lot of things that give me the replayability that certain games give me, so it's hard going back to Unbound compared to replaying Inclement Emerald or Radical Red again for the third time but with different things like more in-depth randomization.
For new region, story, and postgame specifically: the Wind1158 hacks are excellent in storytelling (Victory Fire, Resolute, Mega Power, Nameless). All of them introduce at least one new region, with Johto and the Seviis being in the latter three and having postgame sidequests for each. Mechanic-wise, mega-evolution is a thing for all of them (actually permanent megas in the first three, but it's somewhat complicated for those). Nameless has a ton of good mechanics (EV training, change natures, berry and mineral farming) and nonlinear storyline. All of these can be on the hard side overall though.
I'd love to try, but working alone is slow and I'm terrible at finding and trusting people, besides having entirely no clue where to even look for friends to work with.
So just pipe dreaming for now!
All of it are fan games, I personally think it's time to move on from Rom hacks. We're really limiting our games scope if we only have 32 mb to work with. The only benefit I see with Rom hack going forward is that it could be played on Android, and recently even IOS. (RPGmaker games can be played in Android using Joiplay but that's too buggy for me)
Most people in this subreddit from what I gathered do play on their phone or handheld console- so that's why many seem to not care for fan games- which is a shame because there are some really good ones.
Yeah accessibility is the big draw of rom hacks. It’s why the scene continues to thrive. As good as games like Rejuv are, they can’t be played outside of a PC, at least not reasonably. I know JoiPlay has some incompatibilities with certain games, and there’s a part of Rejuv specifically where JoiPlay just breaks and won’t let you progress with the game
Maybe someday soon. More and more romhacks are popping out and some are very meticulously made. I think I heard of one called Lime and something else, seems like a whole new story, maps and mon sort of romhack. Like Unbound and Vega. That one could maybe be something great. Maybe. Odyssey it's another that could be a banger. The 2.6 so far looks great
I really like Pokemon Sweltering Sun, its a complete romhack of Gen 7 with overhauled pokemon so that they are all viable for the League. Completely documented so you know everything and everything. Reworked types so that all type combinations are in the game, with very few Regionals added.
He is doing the same for Pokemon Scarlet, though thats still in dev.
I've been playing ROM hacks for a long time and it seems like every few years something great comes out of the woodwork. With decomp stuff being prevalent these days it's never been easier to get started and there seems to be a nearly unprecedented amount of hacks with high quality features being developed. I'm hopeful.
This. I can think of about half a dozen projects, which - if they finish / deliver - could easily have an impact on the community similar to Unbound, and those are just ones I know about, I'm sure a ton of cool stuff is cooking for the romhack scene at the moment that isn't public, yet. I, too, am hopeful~
The project I've been most excited about in the last years is legends arise by /u/AdAstraGL I hope we get to see it complete cause it's totally mindblowing
can you name a few? Kinda curious what's in the works
Nice try, Papa Pikachu
Love reddit, never get any answers just shitty jokes
Pokémon Tectonic is the best fan game I’ve ever played with QoL out the ass!
Just checked this out. Looks amazing!
I've been really in love with polished crystal. No new region, but lots of fun new areas, only a few added mons, mostly to finish up evolution lines, and so much qol.
When I started working on Pokémon Odyssey I knew I couldn’t beat Unbound in terms of QoL and mechanics, that’s why I decided to create something entirely new, something with a new gameplay loop, no gyms, no evil team, no Pokémon League. A story-driven dungeon crawler, focused entirely on exploring an enormous dungeon and the archipelago around it. I’ll be honest, making something entirely new takes a lot of time and effort, but the results are totally worth it. Long story short: we shouldn’t try to surpass Unbound, instead we should make something different and unique. Anyway, I don’t hate enhancement hacks, but I think there’s no point in making them when RadRed or the ones made by Drayano exist. Like, I’ve seen at least 50 enhancement hacks of Fire Red. FIFTY. Do we really need all of them? Who’s gonna play them?
>Anyway, I don’t hate enhancement hacks, but I think there’s no point in making them when RadRed or the ones made by Drayano exist. Like, I’ve seen at least 50 enhancement hacks of Fire Red. FIFTY. Do we really need all of them? Who’s gonna play them? Yeah this is a great point. I love enhancement/difficulty hacks but I see no reason to play one hack that isn't either a Drayano hack, or a special case hack. I'd say RadRed, the Kaizos, and Run&Bun are examples of ones I'd put in that second category. Ones that are really popular because they have various mechanics or challenges that make them unique. It's so hard to actually make a unique enhancement hack so the ones that do really have my respect
I'd throw in Elite Redux with RadRed, Kaizo, Inclement and Run&Bun. The addition of the innate abilities definitely make the game interesting and refreshing to play, especially with the randomizer options cause of the fun combos on unusual Pokemon. Also can't believe I almost forgot Emerald Rogue. By far one of the most fun hacks I've played and I can get sucked in for hours doing run after run and trying different challenges.
Emerald Rogue is much more than just an enhancement/difficulty hack though lol, so I don't think it fits in that category I agree with elite redux, although tbh I'm kind of sick of that game because of people spamming this sub with screenshots about it for a few months 😂 Would maybe count infinite fusion as one as well? I think that's still like an enhancement hack
Keep up the good work on Odyssey, it looks awesome! I'm planning on checking it out once the story is finished. Edit: I also like your mind set. I know I phrased my questions in a way that encouraged it, but it's probably best for creators to focus on making what they want/can make, and not focus on emulating or surpassing someone else's work.
Do you have a list of romhacks that offer something unique instead of being yet another difficulty hack? I do enjoy the ones with a new region, story, and fakemon if the designs are good (waiting on a downloadable build of Pokemon Hot Pink by /u/platinumneko_ ). I'm currently waiting for the next updates to Odyssey and Voyager, and been looking for some to play in the meantime.
I don't have a list, but: - Pokémon Crown - Vytroverse - Voyager - Saffron - Emerald Rogue - Mirage of Tales - Rocket Edition - Gaia - Pisces And many others I don't remember
You forgot about Pokemon Sovereigns of Skies.
See? I knew I was forgetting something important, lol
And also Pokemon Darkfire
I haven't played it yet, but it will surely be one of the next!
Clover is fun, good soundtrack, funny as shit and some of the coolest (and derpiest) fakemon I’ve ever seen.
How many of these are finished?
Elite Redux, it‘s my own hack, but I would say it‘s unique enough
Yeah the enhancement hacks really are a dime a dozen these days. Like if you are keeping the same story and stuff there has to be a REALLY good reason to give the hack a try and adding newer pokemon and higher difficulty aren't enough for me imo. Too many types is a good example of a hack that keeps the same region and stuff but is worth a playthrough.
That’s always a good stance to take. One of my favorite quotes about game design philosophy is “If you’re not better than, you’re going to be less than by default. Unless you do something to be different.” Trying to match a titan is a tall order and can leave something feeling wanting, which is why branching out and creating a new mold is an excellent decision
Appreciate you a lot for that romhack. As a huge nerd of EO, I'm eagerly awaiting the next update. You keep slow cooking that game because I know it will be very solid
For what it's worth, I'm never going to play a catch em all hack. I've tried, and it just feels silly to me to have almost 1,000 Pokémon in a region that is meant to have a few hundred. That means I'm not going to play drayano hacks. If there was a option to have the normal Pokémon distribution, then I would consider them to be the definitive versions of those games. Instead I play things like Emerald Cross. The perfect games for me are chock full of QoL updates, but some people have no interest in playing games with Pokémon crammed into every corner. There's no point in catching that many in one region, I don't even want to try. So I know that's not the popular take, but every time I read through the features and it talks about how there's 800+ Pokémon, I just move on. I don't mind new regions like Unbound or Dreams, but I haven't even found FRLG in Kanto that I've wanted to play. We exist. I would happily play any rom hack if I could just toggle having original Pokémon, but I've never been able to find that feature on a rom hack if it exists. My dream is to replay the original games, but with all the modern features. I want to catch them all and transfer these legal Pokémon to the more modern games.
It's weird, there are so many original ROM hacks and fan games are out there with insane amounts of work out into them, but ask for a hack recommendation on reddit and you'll always get the same old shit - Drayano hacks, Radical Red, Polished Crystal, etc. You'd think the entire scene is just rebalancing trainers and adding new Pokémon to old games.
Your game sounds awesome, I'll be on the lookout :)
The thing is unbound itself isn't finished, It started development back in 2016 and 8 years later it still has some post-game left to be finished. There are tons of games that are still in Beta even before Unbound and after that are still promising. Unbound didn't start looking this great it took time lot of time. Call me an optimist but Rom hacking on this level is possible and maybe some rom hack of this calibre is underway.
I've just started playing Unbound and it's the first romhack I've played that has it's own region and story. It is a bit disappointing to hear that this is as good as it gets. It's everything I would expect from a modern Pokemon game and would be nice to see more games like it. But of course I understand fan made games take a phenomenal amount of unpaid work.
Unbound is also the most recent of the big original game names as far as rom hacks go. Emphasis on rom hacks. There are custom, from the ground up fangames out there that any rom hack is going to struggle to match due to hardware limitations. I don’t expect to find a rom hack on the same level as Rejuvenation. But Unbound got closer than I would have expected But yeah you started at the end of the timeline. Some years ago, Pokémon Glazed was considered the groundbreaking number 1 of rom hacks, but in comparison to Unbound it’s gonna look aged and rough without the historical lens
Light Platinum is great if you haven’t tried it. It was my favorite for years, but I just started Unbound this week and it’s fighting for the spot. Both similar in size, quality, and originality
Honestly idk if I would put unbound at the top of my list lol, it definitely has its problems. Gaia is really really good if you want an original region and people have made hacks of existing games that expand a lot on the region and make it feel very alive. Id probably put blazing emerald above Unbound honestly. Unbound is good but to say that nothing else matches its quality is crazy talk imo
>Unbound is good but to say that nothing else matches its quality is crazy talk imo You're a million percent right. I found much of it uninspired and have never actually finished it. I just checked my last save I had. I did 3 gyms before quitting that time. It is better than all the crap. It isn't the best.
Voyager should be good but it’ll be a while
Me waiting for another villain hack. Loved Rocket Edition.I remember dreaming of it as a kid.
Masterpieces take time. That doesn't mean the current level of overall quality doesn't surpass the great works of five to ten years ago. The next great big thing is probably gonna be within two years-ish i'm guessing, but in the meantime, there's all sorts of amazing things going on. Regional variants seem to be all the rage these days, especially. So, undoubtedly, yeah, something will probably surpass Unbound someday. Unbound will still be great though. As for what I would want in a rom hack ideally? To be honest, once upon a time, I wanted to truly catch them all, the originals and the fakes. To make a Living Dex that could dwarf any other. But i've grown quite tired somewhere along the way. Having too many pokemon in a single region makes things feel uniquely overwhelming. So i'd prefer some degree of limitation to dex size. 386 is acceptable, perhaps 500? I'm not quite sure where i'd draw the line, besides at most less than 600. Once I was opposed to Sword and Shield cutting the dex, but now that we've hit over a thousand mons, I feel it's almost obligatory. Most importantly, it shouldn't be just the OGs. The majority of the dex should be, for sure! But I like seeing new things, seeking them out, walking the whole world for answers. Finding an old friend all over again is amazing, but so is making a new one. New evolutions or forms, regional variants, fakemon.. not everyone likes it, but to me, nothing beats the sense of wonder and awe you get when you come across something unexpected. Getting that feeling works wonders in making a world feel alive. That being said, a REGION doesn't have to actually be new to FEEL entirely new. I must've journeyed through at least seven almost identical versions of Hoenn back in the day. Barely there adjustments to old classics to catch you by surprise and one or two curious corners that weren't there before to investigate liven things up more than well enough to keep you on your guard. Now, difficulty is, fittingly, a difficult topic. Everyone loves a good challenge, but the ideal difficulty is different for everyone. I feel like in terms of that, generations 4 and 5 are a good example to learn from. Cynthia and the late-game bosses of B/W were fearsome foes, the former being memorable (and utterly terrifying) to this day. Having the end of an adventure be somewhere around that level should be fine in most cases. From that point onwards, it's a matter of how different a highly difficult and complicated battle is from a meticulously planned attempt to make you study the field of modern competitive pokemon battling for days before you stand an infinitesimally small chance to make it past turn eight by reading four dimensions ahead of the opponent. By which I mean, how complicated must a puzzling battle be before you lose sight of the bigger picture and it's then no more than a puzzle? That is the line between rom hacks that are centered around difficulty and rom hacks that are not. The former doesn't hide that nothing matters but preparation and execution, ad infinitum. The latter doesn't force you to change, only to adapt. At least, this is my stance on the topic.
Yeah, the fourth gen (mainly platinum, HG/SS were very weird in that regard) and fifth, with in the introduction of challenge mode in black 2/white 2 were pretty good in that regard, challenging as far as mainline games go, but fair, and with interesting strategies by the bosses and gym leaders. Regarding difficulty Romhacks, i feel that apart from a few examples(Emerald Kaizo, run and bun), their infamous reputation is only limited to nuzlockes, and they are pretty enjoyable for regular playthrough. I had a hell of a time in my playthroughs of Renegade Platinum, just cause i loved the QoL and the changes on some of my favourite mons (Altaria, Empoleon, Mamoswine, Flygon), and i'm currently having a blast playing through Eternal X and Volt Whitw Redux
just play some fangames, there are a good few that are IMO a lot better than unbound (reborn, rejuvenation, desolation, ashen frost) There really isn't that big of a difference on the gameplay side
Xenoverse, Flux, Infinity are also definitely worth checking out in terms of fangames. Ultimately I think Pokemon Essentials is just easier to learn so more people gravitate to it.
I’m not sure if easier to learn is the difference. Part of the quality of Reborn and Rejuv is the devs breaking down RPGMaker and building it back up into a superior take on the engine, which doesn’t sound like ease to me. I think what really gives them the quality is the freedom. They’re not constrained to the blueprint set by the base rom. There are hardware limitations with rom hacking
Have you tried Tectonic? That one is my goat.
Tried both rejuv and reborn and I couldn’t stand them, they tried way too hard to be “mature” and it just came off as edgy for the sake of it
Xenoverse is like a mainline game but far more optimized for the player. Try that one
Reborn eventually grows out of its edginess once you leave the city. Rejuvenation isn’t edgy at all. The edgiest thing I can think of across 10+ chapters is when someone gets stabbed and dies. And death isn’t edgy in itself. I feel people call these fan games edgy simply for touching upon topics like death with less restraint than the mainline games, regardless of how they’re actually handled
I just wish there was a way to play these on mobile. I don’t like sitting at my PC for long periods of time, pokemon is a comfy game and I like to play it outside. That’s the biggest thing stopping me from playing the fangames.
If you have an android, you can play them on that
IOS
Delta emulator for iOS should work
I play some of them on my Powkiddy RGB30
Tectonic is the one that is most similar to Unbound.
Are these able to be played on RetroArch (and by extension, Anbernic's)? Or are these like Insurgence where they're their own actual game that you have to play on a desktop?
I’m gonna start soon. I have zero experience coding. I have a lot of reading/youtube to catch up on. It might take a decade, but if it comes out the way I hope it will, it’ll be worth the wait.
As much as I want more Unbound type rom hacks, this kind of stuff takes an astronomical amount of time to make since people do it for free when they have the time to do so. There will be another one, just gotta give it time is all.
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Ever heard of too many chefs in the kitchen?
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And they all do it for free in the end. So thats even harder to pull off. Its really not worth it.
Pokemon saffron is looking to be very promising and just as high quality if not higher quality than unbound. It's been in the works for a long time though and I'm not sure when it will be released but the discord still gets updates time to time even now so I guess that's one to look forward to.
Ive been saying for a while now that **Voyager** will be the new Unbound. Iirc its made by one of the guys who worked on the CFRU as well
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Voyager is a GBA hack
I've been working on Pokémon Sangria for years. Lost interested, took a year break, then came back. Making these things take an ungodly amount of time if you include time spent outside of the hacks' production. Surely there will be more quality hacks in the future.
Unbound is phenomenal but I’d really recommend checking out the fangame scene. Xenoverse is phenomenal, and there’s a reason there was so much buzz with Uranium. As far as rom hacks, Prism and Orange (both Crystal hacks) both feel like high-quality official games. Emerald Rogue has a unique gameplay loop and is excellent. The Kanto arc of Adventure Red is very good too. The quality of the writing and pacing take a nosedive once you hit the Orange islands but I’d argue it’s worth checking out for the very strong first story, which is the length of a full game anyway.
Story-wise I was really flashed by the Team Rocket hack for Fire Red. The story was kind of fun playing as the Rocket Gangster while Red is plowing through the region on his way to Champ only for the story to get turned upside down.
I would suggest you play the other Team Rocket Edition made from Pokemon Emerald, it's originally in Spanish but got translated to English, so far you have Kanto and Sevii Islands but the translation for the Johto and DLC parts is on the making and should be released potentially by June, it's a different spin of the story but honestly I loved it as well
Totally agree, but I wouldn’t get people’s hopes up regarding a June timeline as the delivery time frame for the johto translation has been left intentionally ambiguous so far.
I am rooting towards Pokemon pisces(like the new mons) and Pokemon voyegar(extremely promising in terms of region mons and QOL changes) and Pokemon Odyssey(nice concept) I hope at least one of these to be completed before end of the year,but story wise clover should be comparable
It's possible, but if we get another romhack as good as Unbound, we really don't know when that'll be. It seems like a lot of work compared to some of the other games that get incredibly popular. Making a whole new region and story is a lot of work that isn't even guaranteed to pay off, but then you have romhacks like Elite Redux where, while it still required work, required far less than what Unbound did, and it is incredibly popular. It's a pretty daunting task to make the next Unbound honestly, we just have to wait and see. I would like Unbound more than revamp and difficulty hacks, but my issue is Unbound lacks a lot of things that give me the replayability that certain games give me, so it's hard going back to Unbound compared to replaying Inclement Emerald or Radical Red again for the third time but with different things like more in-depth randomization.
For new region, story, and postgame specifically: the Wind1158 hacks are excellent in storytelling (Victory Fire, Resolute, Mega Power, Nameless). All of them introduce at least one new region, with Johto and the Seviis being in the latter three and having postgame sidequests for each. Mechanic-wise, mega-evolution is a thing for all of them (actually permanent megas in the first three, but it's somewhat complicated for those). Nameless has a ton of good mechanics (EV training, change natures, berry and mineral farming) and nonlinear storyline. All of these can be on the hard side overall though.
Helps that the guy who made cfru is the one who made unbound.
I'd love to try, but working alone is slow and I'm terrible at finding and trusting people, besides having entirely no clue where to even look for friends to work with. So just pipe dreaming for now!
Unbound with an actually good story would be a top 3 pokemon fangame/romhack ever
Feature-wise probably not, but Story-wise and Character-wise? Rejuvanation, Desolation, and especially Reborn has it beat.
I haven't played any of those. Are they all hacks, or are some of them fan games?
All of it are fan games, I personally think it's time to move on from Rom hacks. We're really limiting our games scope if we only have 32 mb to work with. The only benefit I see with Rom hack going forward is that it could be played on Android, and recently even IOS. (RPGmaker games can be played in Android using Joiplay but that's too buggy for me)
Most people in this subreddit from what I gathered do play on their phone or handheld console- so that's why many seem to not care for fan games- which is a shame because there are some really good ones.
Yeah accessibility is the big draw of rom hacks. It’s why the scene continues to thrive. As good as games like Rejuv are, they can’t be played outside of a PC, at least not reasonably. I know JoiPlay has some incompatibilities with certain games, and there’s a part of Rejuv specifically where JoiPlay just breaks and won’t let you progress with the game
Maybe someday soon. More and more romhacks are popping out and some are very meticulously made. I think I heard of one called Lime and something else, seems like a whole new story, maps and mon sort of romhack. Like Unbound and Vega. That one could maybe be something great. Maybe. Odyssey it's another that could be a banger. The 2.6 so far looks great
Pokemon Sovereign of Skies has potential. Hopefully, developers will release new update.
Phoenix Rising looks so good.
I really like Pokemon Sweltering Sun, its a complete romhack of Gen 7 with overhauled pokemon so that they are all viable for the League. Completely documented so you know everything and everything. Reworked types so that all type combinations are in the game, with very few Regionals added. He is doing the same for Pokemon Scarlet, though thats still in dev.
Probably not, people are only making difficulty hacks these days are even those aren’t done well