BEST Pokemon Rom Hacks YOU Should Play

GAMES MENTIONED

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[RBDSTN]

Not a romhack, but if you're interested in playing a moderately difficult fangame with unique battle mechanics, I can't recommend Pokemon Reborn enough. The story does go over some dark themes and is in general not the best, but the gameplay, graphics and music are all top notch.

[darcidious]

One Id personally recommend is pokemon blazing emerald. It feels like if emerald got a major enhancement for modern players, and a fair amount of new fun content like regional forms which are all great, but it also doesnt trample on what made emerald so fun in the first place. I love the difficulty hacks like inclement emerald but I find that sometimes they can also get difficult in annoying ways rather than fun ways, blazing emerald I find can be challenging but Ive never found any annoyances with it. Its genuinely one of my favorite pokemon games period even amongst main series entries.

[BreeneGean]

One of my favorites is Elite Redux. Im super excited for future updates

[barleyoats]

One day, GS Chronicles will make it back on to the list for best rom hack. We are getting closer to the Kanto release, as well as more and more bugs and issues being ironed out.

[Macheman]

I'd like to recommend Pokemon Altered (alter red) for anyone that would like a goos, fun hack, that's just plain different. Every Pokemon's type is changed, as are movesets, abilities, and just about everything else, including new or edited maps compared to base Fire Red I like Altered because it has a strong feeling of exploration for me. I never know what I'm going to run into next. It's also one of only a few romhacks that made Pokemon that don't evolve, such as Solrock, actually usable and fun.

[bjho]

Pokemon Reborn and Rejuvenation are both pretty good. Neither shakes up the mechanics of vanilla Pokemon too much. Both stories are longer, darker, and a very unusual twist on what most would expect.

They do both require a pretty substantial time investment, though.

[RibombeeTeacher]

Shorts plush has been ordered, let's go. Can't wait for it.

[doodledumpster]

I'd definitely have to recommend Pokemon Super Eevee Edition. I feel like I never see anyone talk about it, but it's got a cool story, a fun sense of humor, and mixes up the whole pokemon style to more of a traditional rpg. Plus, the gimmick of an eevee that can change evolutions is just so fun in battle.

[Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

I'd recommend Crystal Clear, it's a hack that makes Crystal open-world. You have over 20 starters, and it's possible to actually transfer your Pokemon from CC to Stadium 2 and Bank, or so I've heard. It does have some issues with a bit too much grinding in the end game in my opinion, but otherwise it's really good

Another one is Pokemon Kanto Expansion Pak, it adds in a bunch of beta Pokemon and the new evos for gen 1 mons (example is Annihilape). Also Wiglet is in the game alongside regional variants. There's also new content, and the game was meant to more so play like if RGB was given extra time in development. Also it's balanced pretty well, and has some good post game.

I recommend playing KEP with documentation, but regardless it's really fun.

[DarkOrigin]

If you’re a Dragon Ball fan then you might be interested in Pokémon Z-Team Training. It’s essentially a modified version of Fire Red but every Pokémon is replaced with a Dragon Ball character. It’s a simple way to ease yourself into ROM Hacks with non-pokémon pokémon in them and it even has a challenging battle tower in the post-game which is necessary in order to complete the Pokédex, or as this game calls it the Scouter

[luishenriquefalconifilho]

An addendum to Unbound: it natively has Pokémon up to Gen 7, meaning that you can find all of them in-game, but you can also have the Gen 8 Pokémon, either by waiting until postgame and getting a Gen 8 Mystery Gift Pokémon or using the Unbound Cloud to bring a Gen 8 Pokémon.

[jiminjeongX]

GS Chronicles and Bushido are my fav two not mentioned here as well as Infinite Fusions

[Nat-ffpq]

Emerald Rogue got an update as of now. It's way better, so y'all should play it. I'm on a Pokerogue break, so I'm playing Emerald Rogue as of now.

[bluebear]

If you are a fan of original early pokemon, Fire Red Rocket Edition is a must play. I can't even remember the stories of the other 50+ fan games and ROM hacks I've played. 10/10 would recommend Rocket Edition

[fruitpunchsamuraidavid]

My absolute favorite rom hack is by far Renegade platinum I'm such Sinnoh baby and that game feels like the true potential for the game.
Also I fell in love with Emerald Rogue through your channel and I was hooked till I 100% the game

[btg]

Pokemon Glazed is a old but good rom hack

[sariix]

Pokemon Elite Redux for sure! You covered it on this channel and I've loved it ever since. I've done so many mono type runs with pokemon I never thought were worth a second glace (Lookong at you Cinccino). I rarely play any rom hack that doesn't have the Cal seal of approval!

[pikachuwu]

For more recs, especially comparatively lesser-known ones:
Pokemon Shining Opal(basically a soap opera)
Pokemon Heartred/Flirtygreen by Shima Draws on Tumblr(You can and are encouraged to be gay!)
Pokemon Stunning Steel(Great original content and characters)
Pokemon Celia's Stupid Demo(It's stupid fun for so many reasons)
Pokemon Resolute
Pokemon Saiph(Wattles fixed my dad issues and I mean this platonically)
Pokemon Gaia
Pokemon Castform Killed My Father(if you know Spanish)

[freddykrueger]

Honestly, i wish there were more good Pokémon rom hacks that aren't just made to be more difficult and challenging...
I prefer it east or at most moderately difficult, but almost all the good rom hacks are much harder-

[MarcuwuMaiaa]

The one thing that doesn't let me enjoy Unbound to the fullest is that I feel like for every gym leader the game wants you to have a specific team/strategy or else you'll have a very hard time, something that Radical Red for example doesn't do. The gym leaders are tough yes but you're free to decide what type of strategy you'll build upon to tackle that gym leader.