Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen+ ROM

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen+ is a GBA ROM Hack by Deokishisu based on Pokemon Fire Red in English. It was last updated on January 28, 2024.

Description

The intention of this hack is to be the definitive FireRed and LeafGreen experience, adding in many quality of life and gameplay conveniences to make the game more bearable to play in 2024 while attempting to make the postgame better. The main goals of this project are as follows:

• Implement options that can make the gameplay more or less difficult, giving the player more choice over the type of run they’ll have.
• Optionally remove unnecessary time wasters in the gameplay (health bar animations, text delays, etc.) while adding in methods of speeding up basic gameplay.
• Maintain full compatibility with all of the games that vanilla FireRed and LeafGreen can link with and maintain the core Gen 3 gameplay.
• Make sure all obtainable Pokémon are 100% legal in Gen 3.
• Make the postgame more robust and make each Sevii Island unique and distinct.
• Step on established canon as little as possible.

Features

The full feature list can be found in the project’s repository here. The list in that link is easier to read as well.

• A Key System has been implemented similar to Black 2 and White 2. Accessed from the main menu, this contains several difficulty options as well as the version toggle.
  • 2-in-1. This hack includes both FireRed and LeafGreen in their entirety, played with one savefile. This allows to player to organically catch the version exclusives in one playthrough. The current version can be toggled from the Key System.
  • Easy and Challenge Mode toggles; a built-in Nuzlocke ruleset; IV and EV calculation modifiers; a “No Free Heals” mode that prevents healing by any means except items; and an Experience Modifier are all accessed from the Key System.
    • The built-in Nuzlocke implementation is a special version of the standard ruleset to allow for a semi-normal playthrough. Fainted Pokémon cannot be revived by any means (including with the PC), and the player can catch Pokémon other than their first encounter in an area, those Pokémon will just be automatically fainted so they are unusable. This allows a Nuzlocke player to still fill up their Pokédex normally.
    • With No Free Heals toggled on, the PC will not heal Pokémon deposited into it in addition to disabling heals from the Pokémon Center and other healing spots.
    • Press L in the Key System menu to access the help entries that explain each option more thoroughly.
• Better Postgame
  • Faraway and Southern Islands ported from Emerald. All 4 event islands accessible through gameplay accomplishments.
  • More obtainable Pokémon. Alongside all Kanto Pokémon, 90% of Johto Pokémon and 5 Hoenn Pokémon are obtainable for a total of 246 Pokémon available in one playthrough without trading.
    • Special care has been taken to ensure that all obtainable Pokémon are valid and legal in Gen 3. (With the possible exception of English Faraway Island Mew.)
    • A new Pokédex mode, Extended Mode, lists all Pokémon available without trading and is given out instead of the National Dex. The National Dex is now only obtainable by trading in a Pokémon not in the Extended Mode. Never wonder again if blanks in the Pokédex are obtainable without trading.
    • Some new areas added to house the new Pokémon, including a Safari Zone expansion.
  • Master Trainers for the 151 Kanto Pokémon similar to the Let’s Go games with earnable titles for defeating them. Titles can be shown off to other FRLG+ players in link battles.
  • Unlockable Gym Leader rematches.
  • The RS Battle Tower has been ported, and its Level 100 mode has been changed to Open Level like in Emerald so it is more accessible.
• Quality of Life improvements
  • Instant text option.
  • Running indoors; toggleable auto-running.
  • Other travel speedups: a faster gear for the bike, hold B to surf faster, cut trees stay cut permanently, BW Repel system, boulder puzzles stay solved permanently, etc.
  • Expanded inventory space with two new pockets to ease bag navigation. The player can hold one stack of every possible item at once.
  • Infinite TM uses.
  • EV-reducing berries ported from Emerald and made available.
  • New settings in the options menu that can skip the field transition that leads into a battle, the slide-in animation at the start of every battle, animate healthbars faster/instantly, and skip in-battle text delays.
  • Move Tutors charge after the first time they teach a move, allowing infinite tutor reuses.
  • The Move Reminder can teach moves from a Pokémon’s pre-evolutions (with some caveats, see the full features document).
  • Indicators for which stats are modified by a Pokémon’s nature on the summary screen.
  • Press select on the initial Pokédex screen to open the last viewed entry. No need for excessive inputs to see where the roamer went.
  • No evolution restrictions: Pokémon will evolve regardless of whether or not they’re in the Kanto Dex.
  • Trade evolutions can also be evolved with a Key Item obtained during the story.
  • All Deoxys formes included; they are implemented in a way that is link compatible with vanilla games.
  • No link restrictions. Trade with the other Gen 3 games the moment the Pokédex is obtained.
  • Softlock prevention mechanisms are in place.
• Miscellaneous
  • All Revision 1 bug fixes are included here, and other vanilla bugs, localization oversights, and tile errors that were never addressed are also fixed.
    • The Roaming IV bug has not been fixed to keep the Legendary Beasts legal.
  • The summary screen can display the met location of any Pokémon obtained in Gen 3, including Pokémon from Orre.
  • Abilities have effects in the overworld, ported from Emerald.
  • The Day Care has been made more convenient overall, and Everstone passing down natures has been ported from Emerald.

Changelog

V1.5.1

• Fixed Silph Co. 4F failing to load with a black screen.
• Fixed an unintentional reversion in printing the “FERRY” met location for Pokémon hatched on the S.S. Tidal. The met location should no longer be blank in the summary screen.
• Fixed an unintentional reversion with Deoxys’ icon handling. Its icon should now show correctly based on its current forme in the PC’s party popout.
• Route 12’s Rocker Luca’s rematch now uses the correct trainer sprite.
• Newly-added OW sprites should now animate like their vanilla counterparts when the VS Seeker triggers a rematch instead of all defaulting to raising their hand and staying still.
• Swimming Master Trainers now use the swimming-and-raise-hand animation when undefeated instead of the aforementioned raise-hand-and-stay-still animation.
• Fixed the Pickup message for one picked-up item. It should no longer print nonsense for the item name at the end of a battle.
• Fixed the Pokémon Center healing jingle playing the incorrect song and not restarting the music.

V1.5.0

• New Features:
• Most map loads from warps will be significantly faster. In the best case they should be around 4x faster and at the minimum around 2x faster.
• Sprite loading/sorting optimizations were ported from RHH. This increases performance in the field.
• Return and Frustration’s true power is shown on the summary screen.
• Weather Ball’s type and power are updated with the weather in both the summary screen and in battle.
• Nature Power now displays the type, power, and accuracy of the move it will call in both the summary screen and in battle.
• The summary screen now prints a modified “nice place” string for eggs obtained from Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire signifying that the egg was obtained from Brigette.
• TM44 (Rest) has been added to the Celadon Dept. Store TM shop inventory and is no longer missable.
• Restored the vanilla functionality where the Pokémon Center nurse can tell if someone the player has played with before is currently in the Union Room when the Wireless Adapter is connected.

• Bug Fixes:
• Fixed Wireless Adapter linking desyncing and disconnecting frequently due to an earlier WaitForVBlank() change.
• Fixed issues with the Cinnabar softlock check.
• Fixed a path tile error in Sevault Canyon.
• Fixed tile layering error in Cerulean Cave’s Yellow 1F layout.
• Fix accidental restrictions on trading Chimecho before the National Dex is obtained.
• Sun and Moon Stones are now no longer removed from the Two Island shop inventory when it expands for the final time.
• Fixed Gym Leaders in the Seven Island Rematch House resetting when loading a save in the room.
• The Day Care Man now his raises hand instead of walking forward, fixing a bug where he can rarely trap the player in the Day Care fence. He still indicates that an Egg is present immediately.
• In Nuzlocke and No Free Heals Modes, swapping Pokemon with the PC Box hand should no longer sometimes faint them.
• The player can no longer challenge the Trainer Tower with the Nuzlocke or No Free Heals Modes enabled.
• Fixed the “Exit” option in Glass Workshop menu, avoiding a possible game crash.
• Improve snow weather for Four Island.
• Pokemon now gain effort values when the Exp. Modifier key is set to 0×.
• Fixed Ghost unveiling with the Silph Scope sometimes corrupting the battle background when the Move Animation option is set to off.
• In vanilla, Super Nerds in Mt. Moon use the Scientist OW sprite. They have been changed to the Super Nerd OW sprite.
• Fixed the vanilla evolution move-learning glitch.
• Fixed trying to sort a bag pocket with no or one item erroneously respawing the horizontal scroll arrows infinitely, avoiding a possible game crash.
• Fixed a typo in Blaine’s after-battle rematch text.

• Master Trainer adjustments:
• The Golbat Master’s Golbat now knows Aerial Ace in place of the incorrect Wish.
• The Dragonite Master now has a Dragonite instead of the incorrect Dragonair.
• The Dragonite Master’s Dragonite now knows Ice Punch instead of Ice Beam.
• The Scyther Master’s Scyther now has Hidden Power Flying instead of Hidden Power Rock.
• Forcing a draw with Master Trainers no longer confers the title and counts as a loss.

V1.4.2

This release fixes a crash, several bugs and tile errors, and improves some overworld sprites.

• The Juggler, Young Couple, Rocker, and Lady classes have received new overworld sprites. The Cable Club receptionist has had her walking sprite tweaked.
• Challenge Mode Misty’s rematch no longer sets the Safari Zone flag when beaten.
• Icefall Cave should no longer allow the player to overshoot a cracking ice tile and fall in such a way that they will be trapped.
• Icefall Cave’s cracked ice tiles should no longer spawn wild Pokemon, fixing a vanilla bug where if a wild Pokémon was encountered, the ice would not crack.
• Fixed Icefall Cave vanilla tile errors.
• Fix potential crash in party menu when swapping Pokémon with the select button.
• Swapping Pokémon with the select button now only works when the player has at least two Pokémon.
• One and Three Island’s tall grass now animates correctly.
• Deoxys is now affected by the IV Calculation and EV Calculation keys.
• Deoxys formes now show correctly in the Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame entries from before this release will show Normal Forme Deoxys in all cases.
• Eggs now obey Nuzlocke rules. When hatched, an egg will set the encounter flag of the place it was originally obtained in (e.g. Four Island if it was obtained from the Day Care). If the encounter flag is already set for that location, the Pokémon will hatch fainted. This does not apply to eggs that were traded in from another game.
• The Teachy TV now uses the correct text color.