u/Dull_Mixture_9648

This game is an extremely challenging enhancement of Fire Red where the gym battles have you fight in three on three battles instead of your entire team versus the gym leader’s entire team.

The game is extremely generous with TM’s and battle items cause you will need them. The boss fights are hard and the AI is really smart.

The hardest battles include Brock’s fight(was so difficult, that players had to request that the dev put oddish and bellsprout in viridian forest to give Charmander users a chance to win)

Giovanni in the rocket game corner’s Nidoqueen, and Tauros are insanely stacked with good moves and tough strategies.

Erika’s Tangela, Leafeon and Vileplume were nearly unbeatable until I had Fearow get Fly and then after many attempts and learning how she was using her Tangela’s strategy helped me get the timing right to stay alive long enough to finally take it down.

After that, the game gets easier. Fearow having a dark type attack for the rival’s Alakazam always came in clutch against him, and by the time I got Starmie the game got way more manageable.

It’s a fun Kanto romp especially if you’re wanting a game that makes you focus on your strategies but you don’t want Radical Red level analysis paralysis. It’s a good middle ground between that level of difficulty and vanilla Kanto.

Pokemon Valiant by Shachar700 is a great rom hack in the making.

A lot of great QoL features that make fun well paced, straight forward gameplay as you go through the Levan Region. When it’s complete you’ll get to go to Hoenn.

Good battles throughout the game. The difficulty is well paced.

As it’s still in Beta and has a lot of things it could improve on though but if you’re patient enough you can have a decent time if you’re between rom hacks and looking for another one to add to the collection while waiting for some of the new hacks being worked on that we’re all excited for. You’ll get excited for the completed version of this game too.

I highly recommend avoiding using the Nidoran line as they don’t get good moves until very late into the game. Same with Gligar, and honestly don’t choose Beldum as your starter, or at least just know that as a physical psychic attacker, it will be a while before you get Zen Headbutt
and also make sure you get a fighting type early because you will be facing a lot of Vigoroth in the early to mid game and they can be annoying to fight.

You become champion of the Tunod Region, the Johto Region and a collection of islands called the Rankor region.

Team:

Mega Lucario named Ricochet

Swellow named Skybreaker

Hyrdeigon named Hydra

Tangrowth named Thorndruid

Swampert named Floodgate

Gengar named Vampiress

Pokemon Dreamstone Mysteries managed to have a uniqueness about it that separated it from other rom hacks out there. There was some real effort put into the characters and the story that had me really engaged with it.

The starters for the game are all Pokemon that I otherwise would never choose to be in a team and I decided to take a chance on Galarian Zigzagoon and I am happy to say that my initial judgment of this Pokemon was wrong. He was as much fun to use as every other physical attacking dark type that I have ever used.

I named the Zigzagoon Bandit. Initially I thought we would find the professor and we would be given a standard fire/water/grass starter but it didn’t happen by the time I realized it wasn’t happening I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I’d be and decided to dedicate this run to not having any staters at all.

I caught Skarmory that same way everyone else did but decided to add her to the team since I always wanted to try a Skarmory but most games you don’t meet it until after you’ve already decided on your team’s flyer/bird. I named her Valkyrie and holding the quick claw she was sweeping enemies.

I had just Bandit and Valkyrie for what felt like the first third, maybe the first half of the game or so until the sewer where i picked up Toxel, almost boxed it when i saw that he doesn’t learn any good moves but i saw how so many HoF teams have Toxtricity so I leveled him up anyway to see what Toxtricity learns and he became a mainstay, I named him Riot.
One con about this game, it needs the elemental punch TM’s. Riot needed Thunder punch so bad. I refused to use Wild Charge cause it hurts the user. I don’t like that so he was stuck with Spark as his STAB electric attack. Oh well he still did great but having Thunderpunch I think would’ve took him from great to perfect.

There’s only one place to get a Litwick when I got her, I immediately boxed her as I normally don’t like any Pokemon based on man made objects like candles and chandeliers.
But then it got later on the game, I was 6 badges in with just three Pokemon on the team and I couldn’t decide who I wanted. I looked up the lore around pokemon based on man made things like Litwick, and Honedge and Voltrob and learned a lot which helped me decide to add Litwick to the team and man am i glad I did. I named her Nocturne. All the man made object based pokemon, including voltorb, are awesome. Never thought I’d be saying that.

I knew I needed to settle on a water type and when I got the second opportunity to collect more fossil Pokemon, I decided to get either an Omanyte, Kabuto, or a Tirtouga and Tirtouga came up first. I caught him and named him Bastion. It was really hard to make a physical attacking water/rock type work. In the tournament, he may have got the most wins. Glad I used him but I might not be using a water/rock type again. It’s hard to use Rock type in general and it seems like most games make you wait to find good physical water attacks.

I got 7 badges I knew the story was coming to a head and I realized I had no kind of coverage for dragon, or dark types, I went back and forth on who I wanted for a while before deciding to get Jangmo-o from the game corner. The TM for brick break is not in this game in it hurt to not have it. I named him Bronzefist. I find it very difficult to come up with names for dragon types that aren’t too on the nose or low hanging fruit.

This game was really great in almost every way except that it could’ve used more TM options, and I have to say the catch rate is really hard.
Catching Pokemon was so tough it almost always took like 5 or 6 balls(ultra balls included) to catch a Pokemon. I like to try to fill the Pokédex even though I never fully complete it but I gave up on it cause it was costing too much money to buy more pokeballs. And that problem where your team gets too strong to just weaken the Pokemon around you, instead they just keep one shotting them, was prevalent in this game for me, Not because Pokemon were not leveled properly as you traverse the region, but because when I would lower their hp to the red, it was still never enough and I didn’t have a Pokemon that could put them to sleep. It was very frustrating.

The curated Pokédex of this game was very fascinating to me. I was forced to use Pokemon I would never use and I can’t appreciate that enough. I also loved not being given a normal starter. In most pokemon games, it always feels like you and the rival are the chosen ones, gifted with this nearly exclusive Pokemon that no other young trainer gets access to and a Pokédex to go on a journey that’s more special than the lass and the youngster down the road, but this game found a way to have the cake and eat it too in that, you get your appointment with the professor to get a Pokemon and Pokédex but what’s going on isn’t about you and you’re almost an afterthought to what’s going on. If anything it almost feels like the rival is the real chosen one and you took that from him. I loved this freshness. Maybe there’s plenty of rom hacks that already do this but this was my first one that did it.

Pokemon Lazarus is fantastic.

Started with Fuecoco. Named her Siren cause I know Skeledirge is supposed to be a singer as well as a fire crocodile. Using a Fire/Ghost dual type was so much fun. I was hating on this Pokemon so hard when Scarlet and Violet first dropped. Happy to say she’s become one of my favorites.

I’ve used Poliwrath on teams many times. I love Fighting type Pokemon and the dual typing of Water and Fighting was a lot of fun. I named him Corsair and he served as a great powerhouse physical attacker.

I usually don’t like to use Steel types but I’m trying not to repeat any of the same pokemon between games so I chose Aron to be a tank on the team. Named him Forge. I also got his mega evolution going and it really turned him into an impenetrable wall.

I wanted a flying type and a psychic type on the team and Hisuian Braviary was the perfect match. Named him Echo.

I got alolan Vulpix in the wishing well. (Great mechanic by the way) and named her Rune. Making the vulpix line dual typed with Fairy turns Alolan Ninetales into the ultimate Dragonslayer. Rune also won a Beauty Contest as well. I usually never do Pokemon contests but I was so happy with Rune that I decided to level up her beauty stats and enter her into the contests.

I also pulled Sprigatito from the wishing well. Grass/Dark dual typing makes you very vulnerable to bug type but it was very worth it in the end as Meowscarada, named her Briar, was coming in clutch against ghost and psychic types clean.

I missed having an electric type but it was a worthy trade off for this team.

Pokemon Lazarus is fantastic.

Started with Fuecoco. Named her Siren cause I know Skeledirge is supposed to be a singer as well as a fire crocodile. Using a Fire/Ghost dual type was so much fun. I was hating on this Pokemon so hard when Scarlet and Violet first dropped. Happy to say he’s become one of my favorites.

I’ve used Poliwrath on teams many times. I love Fighting type Pokemon and the dual typing of Water and Fighting was a lot of fun. I named him Corsair and he served as a great powerhouse physical attacker.

I usually don’t like to use Steel types but I’m trying not to repeat any of the same pokemon between games so I chose Aron to be a tank on the team. Named him Forge. I also got his mega evolution going and it really turned him into an impenetrable wall.

I wanted a flying type and a psychic type on the team and Hisuian Braviary was the perfect match. Named him Echo.

I got alolan Vulpix in the wishing well. (Great mechanic by the way) and named her Rune. Making the vulpix line dual typed with Fairy turns Alolan Ninetales into the ultimate Dragonslayer. Rune also won a Beauty Contest as well. I usually never do Pokemon contests but I was so happy with Rune that I decided to level up her beauty stats and enter her into the contests.

I also pulled Sprigatito from the wishing well. Grass/Dark dual typing makes you very vulnerable to bug type but it was very worth it in the end as Meowscarada, named her Briar, was coming in clutch against ghost and psychic types clean.

I missed having an electric type but it was a worthy trade off for this team.

Just beat Leon in the Sw&Sh demake and wanted to share some thoughts.

https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/sword-and-shield-ultimate-plus-gba-english-version-complete-1-2-1-2.526384/

Firstly, really fun rom hack, I had a great time with it and will definitely play it again in the future. Would recommend for anyone who is considering this one.

For me, I have never played gens 4, 5, 8, and 9 so I can’t compare this to the actual Sw/Sh. I don’t know how faithful to the original games this demake is to how Galar is designed on the Switch. That said, the world in the GBA demake feels… fine. Like it was functional but sometimes navigation is a little janky.

Specifically there were many points while traversing the world that felt extremely linear where it could’ve been more varied but I don’t know if that decision was based on faith to the switch Galar or the people who made this Rom Hack could stand to design the roads of Galar better.

Here’s a specific thing I dealt with; I think the game needs more of the more modern TM moves and some really good ones were missing. You can buy a huge selection of TM’s in the Pokemon center next to the vendor who you would normally find in the mart but I still felt like I needed to go out and find some moves that I wanted but was never able to find.

For example, I used Weavile on my team and I wanted her to be a fast physical attacker but the selection of physical ice moves was non existent save for some early game weak ones. I was forced to give my Weavile Ice Beam for her Ice STAB move which is a special attack, I looked up Weavile’s move set on Bulbapedia and saw that she is capable of learning powerful physical ice moves but I didn’t see the TM’s for those moves in the game which begs a question that I have about Rom Hacks in general:

If we’re playing Rom Hack’s that mix generations the way so many of them do, and we find the next Pokemon we are considering to add to the squad, and we want to do some research on the pokemon’s specs, and we check the move set online to see what they can learn, which generation do we look at?

For example, if I’m playing a Kanto Rom hack that adds Pokemon up to Gen 9 but I’m considering adding a Pokemon from let’s say Gen 6, and I look up what this Pokemon can do, what generation’s move set is this Gen 6 Pokemon going to be learning? You would think 9 since the rom might go up to 9 but I have found that to not be the case especially with my Weavile in this Rom Hack.

I played two hacks called Heart and Soul (demake of Hg&Ss) and Modern Emerald, those Rom Hacks had features in the Pokédex that allowed you to check when your Pokemon evolves, which method, and what moves and TM’s that the prospective pokemon can learn. Lazarus has this too i think.

This Rom Hack could’ve used that feature for sure.

This might be a critique on Sw/Sh itself or the people who made the demake but the raid battles, terrain moves and dynamax in general, are not very well explained and I think that’s something that could be improved on.

The Wild Area was pretty interesting and was a nice way to get a diverse team early without waiting to reach a bunch of different biomes. They give you a fishing rod right at the beginning of the game so I didn’t need to wait until mid to late game to get your water type.

Right now I’m only up to where you beat Leon and I guess the crown tundra and isle of armor is next but I wanted to share this after becoming champion cause that’s usually where I start call it finished on Pokemon games. Try this one when you’re between rom hacks. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope it helps someone with their decision to try it.

Pokemon Amethyst has only been up for about a week on Hackdex

https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-amethyst

This is the fourth Rom hack I have ever played so I can only really compare it to what I have played. It’s an incredible experience for a GBA Pokemon adventure.

For me, I thought the curated Pokédex was excellent. The devs chose a great selection of Pokemon from the national dex and I was able to put together an awesome, diverse team out of some very good options. I want to extend a special thank you for not including tentacool and geodude lines.

There’s a lot of the mainline games I have not played (have not played Gens, 4, 5, 8 and 9 and never completed 2) so with my limited experience, I thought the pacing of this game’s plot was pretty good. I don’t know if other Pokemon stories pace things quite like this so I found this to be very fresh.
For a moment you start to think the game’s plot(everything outside the gym challenge) ends too early because of the way and the timing in which you defeat the game’s villain organization but after that a little plot with the game’s supporting characters takes place and I found it to be an interesting surprise with some nice twists to it, for a Pokemon story of course.

The villains are ok. They aren’t trying to take over the world and there’s no attempt at dissecting the philosophy of Pokemon like some mainline villains have done but I found them to be serviceable. The actual authorities in the region are acknowledged and they actually do something a little bit which I found refreshing.

The region itself was really great! Every route felt big and expansive, I think almost if not every route had multiple pathways you could walk and you always feel like there’s ground you didn’t cover every time you go anywhere. There’s points in the game when you’re exploring where you think “wow this is gonna be a slog” but it never feels like that. Multiple times throughout my playthrough I was pleasantly surprised by how much everything was approachable, never felt too easy but didn’t feel too hard either. I think this rom hack really captured a sweet spot of how much exploring is just enough before it starts feeling too tedious.
The trainers are paced nicely. No random level jumps and not too many trainers who are under leveled where they should be stronger like many of the mainline games that I played started to do.
This could be reflective of my skill level but most of the trainers throughout the game felt adequately challenging and I had to pay attention to most battles whereas many Pokemon games you get to a point where all you need to do is spam you stab move and everyone is just fodder. Thanks for that attention to detail.

The gym’s are not based on types which I found to be exceptionally refreshing. Maybe many rom hacks do this but this was my first time seeing gym’s themed around strategies and not typing so I found it to be very fun.

One thing I have to compliment was the music. Usually games from this era use music that is mostly inspired by classical music/film score type music like a Bach Chorale type of thing and this game had that too bit There was also this cool mix of jazz fusion/funk grooves that were very enjoyable. Maybe many other rom hacks do that too but this was my first time hearing music like that from a Pokemon game.

If there are any cons, there were some little bugs here and there, nothing game breaking, but since the release of the game, the devs put out an updated version with some fixes and they seem to be active online and their discord is active so maybe there will be more updates.

I will say the sprites for the people are pretty cool but could be a tad better, you won’t even notice it if you’re not a stickler for such things.

I just got to the post game, and there seems to be some content for that, which I will check out now but I personally never care that much for post game content on Pokemon games so it’s not a requirement for me but for people who are into that there’s something there for you.

I’m new to rom hacks since the Delta Emulator dropped and I can play full Pokemon games on the iPhone. Only had the app for about 3 months now.

I’ve only ever played Gen 1(red blue yellow) Gen 2 I played gold up to the elite four and when I learned that all the Kanto gym leaders after you complete Johto were weaker than the Elite four and my whole team was almost in the 60’s I stopped playing cause every battle was gonna be too easy until all of a sudden Red’s level 80 Pikachu. I wasn’t down for the cake walk the. Sudden grindfest.

Never played Gen 4 and 5, over the pandemic I got a DS and played Pokemon Y, Omega Ruby and then Sun, I hated Y and Omega Ruby and Sun was ok.

A friend gave me his switch and I played Let’s go Eevee. Beat in like 3 days, super boring.

Then a few months ago I got delta and played fire red and Emerald. Had a great time the entire time cause we had cheat codes that these roms offer and delta makes it easy to enter them.

Then I realized you could play rom hacks on delta and I grabbed Pokemon Heart and Soul which became the greatest Pokemon experience I ever had to date.
https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-heart-and-soul

Then I tried Gaia after years of seeing it online and had an incredible time with that game as well.

All this to say the Gen 3 GBA era is the best way to play Pokemon. I hope the team who made Amethyst continues to make more because they have a lot of talent.