FireRed hack: Pokémon FireRed: Rocket Edition (Completed)

[colonelsalt]

Hey there. I wanted to say how much I enjoyed playing your amazing rom! It has a compelling story, and it really gives you the sense of viewing the same old story from a 3rd person perspective. I admit I was heartbroken when Bill suddenly told me that here it ends xD

Spoilers for the game following. (and annoyingly long text)

Spoiler:

I really enjoyed how back stuff like how the card key or the warden's teeth were where found where they were found because of the MC, a really nice touch. Makes the character feel more alive and affecting the storyline.
I can't say I was quite happy with how Lance was depicted, but hey it's something new. I enjoyed the more realistic and less mary-sue ish version of every character where nothing is black and white but everything is actually grey.
Getting to fight Bill, the SS Anne captain and Blue's sister was unexpected and quite an experience, thanks for that.
I really hope Daisy is okay after that Hyper Fang, and if she isn't I hope we get a chance to smoke that grass-haired punk the way he deserves.
I also enjoyed how we can help miss Hoenn escape the life she was leading and get a normal job. Real good. Quality stuff.

Following, I wrote a few suggestions that would make the game even better imho. I don't know whether you're open to suggestions or if it's too late for suggestions, or even if those suggestions are impossible to be materialized, but I still feel I should write them down :)

Spoiler:

1) I believe the game needs extra dialogue for all trainers in case you steal their Pokémon. I saw the early trainers had extra dialogue if you stole, but in late game no one said anything different (saved and played both cases out with several trainers to test it, and they said the same thing both times), and some even implied having been robbed when the player doesn't steal anything from them.

2) A few more twerks when you take the straight path can be added, other than your bounty. Like different dialogues from some npcs other than cops, based on your bounty level.

3) Being able to return stolen Pokémon to their rightful owners also, other than the police officers alone, would be great, making those trainers forgive you or have some extra dialogue in that case too, anyway.
Though I don't know how many numerous events would have to be added to the rom's programming for this to work, like one for each trainer? Sounds a lot and impossible, but I thought of mentioning.

4) Being able to rematch some trainers (preferably the ones you haven't stolen anything from, in case you accidentally pressed the B button instead of A so you get the chance to steal from them the second time). Also because rematching trainers is always fun. And Gym Leaders (asking too much now, I know).

5) Making link trades and battles possible between two Team Rocket Roms would rock more than team Rocket itself!

6) The lack of a trainer card is mandatory due to obvious reasons, but I can't help but say that always having to go to a Mart to see how much cash I'm carrying is a bit annoying. Just saying.

7) I got angry by how we never say no to Ronnie, even when we get promoted to executives. As the MC ranks up it feels like more and more work is laid upon his shoulders and he receives even more orders (I mean he got to clear up the entire Silph Co. by himself the moment he was promoted to admin). The only thing that implies the MC has risen in rank is the clothes and the trainers he can steal from. Being able to boss grunts around some more would be extra cool.

8) Making the stolen Pokémon have a different trainer ID number than yours, and possibly making them disobey you a little, would make it a bit more realistic imo.

(Hope those suggestions help in any way :D)

BUGS:

Spoiler:

The only bug I spotted was when on the Nugget bridge the rocket guy in the end leaves. He just walked through one of the trainers. Very minor bug, but I felt I should mention it.

That's pretty much it. I know I wrote a lot, but that's what happens when I love a rom too much! Can't wait to see the final version of this!

Thanks a lot! Most of the suggestions you mentioned I've tried to implement and/or are already planned for a later release. I want to get the "final version" that wraps up the story out as soon as possible for everyone waiting, but have a backlog of features that I aim to add shortly afterwards (it will just take a non-trivial amount of extra time, and wouldn't be compatible with old save files). Off the top of my head, the post-release backlog is

• Female playable character (straightforward to implement, just *a lot* of dialogue and scripts to be re-written and re-compiled)
• VS Seeker (requiring some extra ASM to work alongside stealing, but have an idea of where to start here)
• Differing dialogue based on which Pokémon stolen (which after solving the above should have a simple solution)
• Money view-able from the main menu (have seen some clues as to where to start here, but will require a decent chunk of ASM work)
• Original OTs retained for stolen Pokémon (maybe? I tried very hard to do this back for Beta 1, but messing with Pokémon properties comes with the danger of producing Bad Eggs, which would not be fun. Need to do more research on pulling this off safely.)

Just started playing the romhack last night, found it via Pikasprey. The premise of playing as a Rocket Grunt in Kanto seems pretty interesting, and the implementation is pretty solid. My only gripe is the cell phone key item crashing the game, but man. I'm looking forward to the full version, even if the screenshots are a little spoilerific, I'll probably forget by the time I get to that point in the game! Might be a romhack that can be played through multiple times. Can't wait man, super stoked. 👍

Cheers! Which emulator do you get that crash with? I recall only being able to reproduce that with some specific non-standard settings on MyBoy. (VisualBoyAdvance and MyBoy are my primary testing platforms, and everything works as it should on normal settings there as far as I can tell.)

 

[Drakyle Lord of the Forgotten]

Thanks a lot! Most of the suggestions you mentioned I've tried to implement and/or are already planned for a later release. I want to get the "final version" that wraps up the story out as soon as possible for everyone waiting, but have a backlog of features that I aim to add shortly afterwards (it will just take a non-trivial amount of extra time, and wouldn't be compatible with old save files). Off the top of my head, the post-release backlog is

• Female playable character (straightforward to implement, just *a lot* of dialogue and scripts to be re-written and re-compiled)
• VS Seeker (requiring some extra ASM to work alongside stealing, but have an idea of where to start here)
• Differing dialogue based on which Pokémon stolen (which after solving the above should have a simple solution)
• Money view-able from the main menu (have seen some clues as to where to start here, but will require a decent chunk of ASM work)
• Original OTs retained for stolen Pokémon (maybe? I tried very hard to do this back for Beta 1, but messing with Pokémon properties comes with the danger of producing Bad Eggs, which would not be fun. Need to do more research on pulling this off safely.)

Cheers! Which emulator do you get that crash with? I recall only being able to reproduce that with some specific non-standard settings on MyBoy. (VisualBoyAdvance and MyBoy are my primary testing platforms, and everything works as it should on normal settings there as far as I can tell.)

Looks like a lot of cool new features are planned to be thrown our way, i'm glad you constantly are considering what features could be added while you progress the story releases though i can't help but feel like the VS Seeker for Rockets would be more like a Revenge Seeker XD

Also by differing dialogue do you only mean when talking to who you stole from (especially if rematching them) or will random trainers and rockets mention what you stole?

 

[TD013]

Neither dead nor dying, but time between development cycles seems to fly by faster than it used to when I started the game five years ago ;)
Thrilled to see people are still excited about the final release, and will get it out for you to play as soon as I can. I've clearly not been too active posting updates here, but have dropped a few mini-updates on the Rocket Edition Discord server over the past year, which has been kept active by a group of dedicated fans for a long time (even when I've been absent).

For those waiting to play more who maybe haven't been crawling my every move since October 2017, here's a summary of updates for the final release that I've shown in one form or another since then:

Gameplay screenshots

Custom music previews - potential spoiler alert! Listen at your own risk
(all courtesy of a good composer friend of mine - @Backwaxed on the Discord server)

• Revamped title theme
• Secret battle theme 1
• Cinnabar Island???
• Secret battle theme 2

Graphical update previews
(Admin revamps by Brolunite and Player revamps by strange_kid - both of whom have additional excellent spriting work that will be included in the final release)

As development carries on, it becomes difficult to show much of anything without spoiling key plot points to come. For the more tech-inclined, you can check out some code snippets from the final release that will reveal bits of dialogue. Anything I post won't include any significant spoilers - but nevertheless read at your own risk ;)

Been following this for 5 years. Very excited to see the updates and near finish. Few keep at it to the end. A big congrats. Can't wait for the end result.

 

[Tunak23]

Wow Colonesalt is around,our hacker is back on the trail!

My eyes have widened to the maximum after I watched the new screnshots and listened to the tracks.

Only say that both the changelog and the message are appreciated!
You have given me hope for the future of your work beyond the crazy spamming Discord,thanks for your effort mate!!!

 

[BackpackerRex]

Just posting to say that I'm a fan of the patch. I really like how you can make a Rocket Grunt that's as evil as you want or as good as you want, with rewards on both ends of the spectrum. I also appreciate how the "friend" character of the game is more of a hindrance than a help, in opposition to the standard way these games play out. I'm assuming that was an intentional subversion? And the additions from later generations are much appreciated as well.

I do feel the dialogue is a little excessive with the swears at times, but I suppose this is meant to be a bit more along the lines of an adult look at the Pokemon world so perhaps that's intentional. It's not bad enough to take away from the patch's strengths, though, given how nice it is to see Kanto looked at in a different way. I'm kinda surprised Sabrina and Koga weren't in with Team Rocket, though, much like Pokemon Special.

I did have a bit of a theory as to how the plot is going to turn out in the final update. My assumption was

Spoiler:

that Red was going to turn out to be Oak's pet project after Mewtwo. The one that Blaine never got in on. That would be the reason that Oak shows him so much favoritism over Blue and why he's so good at battling. I would assume that, since Red canonically catches Mewtwo, that's also going to wind up being a part of whatever Oak is planning. Especially since Reds disrupt Giovanni at Silph shortly after we see Oak there. Perhaps Gold will be a project of Lance's to counteract Red down the line?

I'm mainly curious as to why Agatha works for the E4 given that she dislikes Lance (though, if it was explained, then I apologize) and whether or not Red and Blue will reconcile by the end to match up with the later games.

 

[Latenzo]

Hope for a new update soon.

 

[TinchoX]

Excellent ROM hack! Been playing it on a daily basis, got to the end of beta 3 and hoping for a full release soon!

Here's a little list of bugs I came across during my playthrough, hopefully you're already aware of them and fixed / will fix them for the final version.

Spoiler:

-The first time you battle Blue, if you access your bag, the screen goes back, music still plays but you can't do anything (Softlock)

-Cellphone item, in key items, also softlocks the game whenever you hover your cursor over it.

-I may be forgetting something...

(This was play-tested on my New 3DS, in a totally legit way)

 

[dimension traveler]

i love hacks like these which the setting isnt new but adds enough flavor to make it interesting and fun

 

[joshspicer]

Of course, there's still the loose end of "The Catastrophe" to cover up.

 

[CleverForks]

Cheers! Which emulator do you get that crash with? I recall only being able to reproduce that with some specific non-standard settings on MyBoy. (VisualBoyAdvance and MyBoy are my primary testing platforms, and everything works as it should on normal settings there as far as I can tell.)

I also had the glitch that caused the game to crash every time the cellphone was about to be highlighted in the menu. It would always crash right as I pressed the arrow key to move up/down to the cellphone. Dragging a different item past the cellphone was the only way I could get to the rest of the menu items.

I was using OpenEmu on a macbook. It was January 2019, so I believe the version would have been 2.0.7 or 2.0.8.

Psyched to see the last update! Good luck moving forward!

 

[siarseven]

bug report[?] : when i evolved my clefairy using moonstone (she was lvl 37) it turns into lvl 43 clefable (6 level bonus?)

 

[Wolfzy]

this is my first post on pokecommunity and i just had to write how much i liked this rom hack!
i like the more adult way of looking at kanto that you didnt get to see in firered.
sooo hyped for the final release!

 

[dimension traveler]

Did a 2 completely different run by never stealing pokemon/ always stealing pokemon while making different poketeams and heres my opinions;
Loved the little events like beating mr pshyic or beating up the policeman / lover of "worker girl"' and then giving said girl a job. Playing as bad rocket way easier since you can have kinda decent team and you actually get items. (when i was good police never gave me items).

I hope this hack gets finished since in both plays it didnt feel repetitive since in my second playthrough i tried to not battle with men and older people before getting promoted to capture more pokemon.


Things i wish will be added;
fake pokemon trainer id
exp share from rocket gifts. (or all items being obtainable from police or rocket hideout)
after robbing the pokemart being able to buy stones etc. from rocket shop (also more but overpriced items in rocket shop)
Being good felt lacking compared to being evil so maybe something to compare
Theres nothing to use crowbar for (?)


Bugs (?) ;
Theres an invisible npc at the cave (theres no sprite but can bump into and interact with it)
after red comes inside the building(dont recall its name, the building that we normally get masterball from) if you go back everyone is the same like nothing happened
Police never gave me items in my good person playthrough
Some shops allowed me buy stuff like regular gameplay despite me having big bounty
I got an fossil in my bag and no clue how i got it (other than the one in museum)

 

[Xtimertx]

Did a 2 completely different run by never stealing pokemon/ always stealing pokemon while making different poketeams and heres my opinions;
Loved the little events like beating mr pshyic or beating up the policeman / lover of "worker girl"' and then giving said girl a job. Playing as bad rocket way easier since you can have kinda decent team and you actually get items. (when i was good police never gave me items).

I hope this hack gets finished since in both plays it didnt feel repetitive since in my second playthrough i tried to not battle with men and older people before getting promoted to capture more pokemon.


Things i wish will be added;
fake pokemon trainer id
exp share from rocket gifts. (or all items being obtainable from police or rocket hideout)
after robbing the pokemart being able to buy stones etc. from rocket shop (also more but overpriced items in rocket shop)
Being good felt lacking compared to being evil so maybe something to compare
Theres nothing to use crowbar for (?)


Bugs (?) ;
Theres an invisible npc at the cave (theres no sprite but can bump into and interact with it)
after red comes inside the building(dont recall its name, the building that we normally get masterball from) if you go back everyone is the same like nothing happened
Police never gave me items in my good person playthrough
Some shops allowed me buy stuff like regular gameplay despite me having big bounty
I got an fossil in my bag and no clue how i got it (other than the one in museum)

The fake trainer I'd is already in this version you have to go to koga and accept his mission then he will give you a fake employee ID for the saffori zone after you get surf from the gift house you give it to koga and he will give you a trainer I'd but before you go to the saffori zone go to warddens house go behind click a and that will scare him and make his teeth fall out cause the guy at the desk will call the wardden to make sure you actually work for them but with out his teeth the guy won't understand him so he will let you through also it is still being worked on it's just coming along slowly since he doing it all his self

 

[Komedinos]

Looks like a lot of cool new features are planned to be thrown our way, i'm glad you constantly are considering what features could be added while you progress the story releases though i can't help but feel like the VS Seeker for Rockets would be more like a Revenge Seeker XD

Also by differing dialogue do you only mean when talking to who you stole from (especially if rematching them) or will random trainers and rockets mention what you stole?

Uh, if I have save files from my old game how can I change to female character, while already having progress up to 2nd beta, I've done much and grinded lots having many levels and bounty.

 

[Xtimertx]

Uh, if I have save files from my old game how can I change to female character, while already having progress up to 2nd beta, I've done much and grinded lots having many levels and bounty.

There currently is no female character still there may be one after the next update as for your current save data for the game idk if your playing on computer and using a emulator on there or your phone but if your using a John gba emu all you do on the rom select screen is press down on rocket edition it will give options to delete press delete game only it will keep your save data then download a clean FireRed(v1.0) rom unarchive it then download the beta 3 ips from here use unipatcher to patch it to the FireRed rom after it's done patching it will say the same type of rom file name that it had when FireRed was unarchived but it will have (patched) next to it do not change the name it will make it a corrupted and will not show up when show once you search for it once it's patched go back to jgba emulator press the search button and it will show up again where you last saved but again this is for the John gba emu idk how the others work for patching

 

[N Empyrean]

Really hope the developer is still working One this amazing rom

 

[_Eyolf]

Still being worked on he adds regular time updates on discord server

 

[Illyasviel]

Really love this ROM hack -- it honestly feels super surreal, and having read the Pokémon Adventures manga, it really gave me nostalgic vibes. One of the best and more interesting I have played to date.

A couple things I want to comment on:
1.) The game seems to reset randomly for me, but it's somewhat of a rare occurrence. (Edit: It happens when I navigate my items near the cellphone.) The admin back sprite is missing for me as well.
2.) I can't help but notice that Lance refers to the legendary beasts as "dogs". It just feels out of place in a Pokémon game, as every language calls them "beasts" (and in any case, it's been confirmed numerous times that while the original designs were based on dogs, the ones we have now were based on cats after they were unsatisfied with the first ones). For the sake of polish, "three legendary beasts" is both clear and accurate.
3.) Edit: Ignore this, I had given up and dumped Haunter before Lv. 40 to realize.

Aside from that, this clearly has a lot of work put into it, and is one of the very few hacks that doesn't have an awful level curve. Keep up the great work!

 

[Urthor1996]

Uhm trade pokemon already evolve with level...

There is the list of pokemon that evolve with level... i think i posted that one here before:
Kadabra -> Alakazam: Level 33
Machoke -> Machamp: Level 45
Graveler -> Golem: Level 40
Haunter -> Gengar: Level 40
Onix -> Steelix: Level 36
Seadra -> Kingdra: Level 50
Scyther -> Scizor: Level 44
Porygon -> Porygon2: Level 36