Pokemon Astral Red ROM

Does anyone else look at the incomplete Procyon & Deneb hacks and get sad that they can’t use all the new Fakemon? Especially if you can’t read Japanese? Well here is the Rom Hack for you. This is my first Rom Hack, and it is not very complicated (it hurts to say that with how much work it was), but it does what I want it to do.

Synopsis

All of the Pokemon in the Kanto region have been replaced through a dimensional shift that no one seems to acknowledge (read as: I didn’t change the story, just the Pokemon). Otherwise, this is a regular Fire Red story with a functional (and primarily untouched) post-game.

Features

• All Pokemon exclusive to Procyon and Deneb have been used to replace the Kanto Pokemon (with 2 exceptions; Drowzee and Hypno).
  
  • To fill out the rest of the Dex, some Fakemon from Altair/Sirius and Vega were used.
• All Pokemon without a translated name were given a English name based on the Pokemon, its description, etc.
  
  • Like with all real Pokemon, some are great, some are good, and some are okay.
• All Pokemon have their correct front and back sprites and cries.
• All Pokemon have move sets that align as close as possible to their moves in Procyon and Deneb. No attacks were added, but some attacks received type/damage changes for balancing purposes and to make move sets more closely match the original games.
• All Pokemon have the correct types, stats, EV values, and heights/weights from Procyon and Deneb.
• All Pokemon have the correct abilities from Procyon and Deneb, or have abilities that make sense for the Pokemon and/or its type if those abilities don’t exist in Fire Red.
• All Pokemon evolve as they would in Procyon and Deneb. If their evolution method is not present in Fire Red, it was adapted to whatever would make the most sense.
  
  • The PokeDex entries tell you how to evolve the Pokemon.
  • Any Pokemon with a stone or friendship evolution will also evolve at level 42.
• All Pokemon are available to be caught/obtained (no exclusives)
• Any important Menu that references Pokemon will display the correct Pokemon Names.
• Gym Leader & Elite Four Pokemon have moves that belong to their updated Pokemon and their Pokemon match their types (so you know what to expect).
  
  • The rest of the trainers are not updated so good luck and God speed.
• Some Pokemon locations have been adjusted to ensure that they make sense for the Pokemon overall (you won’t be fishing up a cat… hopefully).
• One singular map edit (see if you can find it).
• A handful of easter eggs.

Quality of Life

• Fairy Type was added (truly added, not replacing ??? type).
• Infinite TM use
• Running Indoors
• Skips PokeCenter Flashbacks
• Default Fast Text and Stereo Sound
• BW2 Repel System
• Caught Pokemon Give XP
• Natures give colored stats for increase and decrease
• No Item usage animation
• Low HP Beeps 3 times and then stops
• When Learning Moves the cursor will hover over the new move to prevent accidental move deletion
• No Beginner Intro when starting a new game

Change Log

v1.2

• Caught Pokemon not giving XP (REMOVED)
  
  • Code was broken. Attempted fixes broke game. Feature removed.
• Luvdisc causes game to freeze (RESOLVED?)
  
  • This happens on the version that PokeHarbor patched and I haven’t been able to duplicate it on a self-patched version. Patch your own Fire Red 1.0 with the current v1.2 release.
• Misty’s 2nd Pokemon is a Grumpig / Lt. Surge has a Spoink / X trainer has Y Pokemon (RESOLVED)
  
  • This was indicative of a game wide trainer corruption. I have since fixed the issue. Please patch a fresh Fire Red 1.0 with the added v1.2 release. From what I’ve seen saves should transfer.
• Game crashes when Chewmunk evolves with Moon Stone to Gumbalina. (AVOIDABLE)
  
  • When trying to evolve two Pokemon in a row with stones, the game will freeze on the 2nd one. This can be avoided by entering/exiting a building or going to a new area (when the new location sign pops up). This is an issue with the “No Items Use Animation” patch. If anyone knows how to fix it, let me know.

Creator note for v1.2

• Due to removing the “use items animations” you cannot evolve two Pokemon using evolution stones in a row in the same place (map). The game will freeze. Avoid this by moving to a new place (map) before evolving the next one (in/out of a building, one route to another, route to a town, etc.). I think it is some sort of cache issue, but it isn’t game breaking, so just be cognizant of it.
• “Caught Pokemon Give XP” broke the entire game. It has been remedied by being removed. However, you might still receive XP for the first Pokemon you catch every time you boot the game. I have not seen this cause any crashes in multiple different save files, it doesn’t happen every time, and I don’t know why its happening.
• I don’t know why some people’s games are crashing when they fight Luvdisc. I was only able to duplicate it using the pre-patched ROM from PokeHarbor. Every time I’ve patched it myself I don’t have a problem. I use mGBA on PC and Delta on iOS for emulators, so it might also be an emulator incompatibility.
• If your Gym Leader’s teams don’t seem to match their type, or trainers randomly seem to have too strong/weak Pokemon, you’re using an old version.