Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen+ (FRLG+)

Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen+ (FRLG+)

Please read the FAQ located here before asking questions or opening GitHub issues.

This hack is intended to be the definitive FireRed and LeafGreen experience. It preserves the original Generation III gameplay and flavor, while adding in many quality-of-life features to make the game more bearable to play in 2026. The postgame has also been made more robust while respecting the Generation III feel, adding many more hours of content.

The main goals of this project are:

• Maintain the core Generation III gameplay.
• Expand player choice by adding various difficulty options alongside the original difficulty.
• Optionally remove unnecessary wasted time in the gameplay (health bar animations, text delays, etc.) while adding options to speed up basic gameplay.
• Maintain full link compatibility with Generations III and IV.
• Ensure all obtainable Pokémon are 100% legal in Generation III.
• Make the postgame more robust and make each Sevii Island unique and distinct.
• Fix vanilla bugs and oversights.
• Step on established canon as little as possible. The source material should be respected.

Features

The full feature list can be found in the project's repository here.

• An advanced settings menu, called the Key System Menu (akin to B2W2) has been implemented. Accessed from the main menu, it contains several difficulty options as well as the version toggle.
• 2-in-1. This hack includes both FireRed and LeafGreen in their entirety. Swap between both in the Key System Menu to catch version exclusives with one save file.
• Easy and Challenge Mode toggles, a built-in Nuzlocke ruleset, IV and EV calculation modifiers, a toggle that removes free healing, and an experience gain modifier are all accessible from the Key System Menu.
  • The built-in Nuzlocke implementation automatically faints invalid Pokémon, allowing players to catch Pokémon normally without breaking Nuzlocke restrictions.
• Better Postgame:
  • The Ruby & Sapphire Battle Tower has been ported, and its Level 100 mode has been changed to Open Level like in Emerald.
  • Event islands are accessible in the main game. Both Faraway Island and Southern Island have been ported from Emerald.
  • More Pokémon are obtainable, and all obtainable Pokémon are 100% legal in Generation III.
    • Some new areas have been added to house the new Pokémon.
    • The Extended Dex Mode lists all obtainable Pokémon in the hack, so players will know what is obtainable.
  • Master Trainers similar to the Let's Go games appear in Kanto after becoming Champion. Beating them rewards titles that can be shown off in link battles with other FRLG+ players.
  • The player can unlock rematches with the Kanto Gym Leaders (minus Giovanni).
• Quality of Life Improvements:
  • An instant text option has been implemented.
  • Toggleable auto-running; running indoors.
  • 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. The player can hold one stack of every possible item at once.
  • Infinite TM uses.
  • EV-reducing Berries have been ported from Emerald and made available.
  • New settings in the options menu that remove or speed up battle-related animations.
  • Move tutors will reteach moves for a fee, allowing infinite move tutor uses.
  • The Move Reminder can teach moves from a Pokémon;s pre-evolutions.
  • Indicators for which stats natures are modifying on the summary screen.
  • Trade evolutions can also be evolved with a key item obtained during the story.
  • No evolution restrictions--Pokémon can evolve regardless of the player's story progression.
  • No link restrictions. Trade with the other Generation III games the moment the Pokédex is obtained.
  • 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.

Screenshots:

Downloads

The current version is v1.5.1 and was released on 28 January 2024.

This hack is best played on mGBA. VBA is an extremely outdated and inaccurate emulator, and I cannot guarantee smooth play experiences on it.

Please do not upload the patch or especially a patched ROM to third-party sites. I am explicitly not giving my permission for FRLG+ to be on sites that host patched ROMs. They are making ad revenue money off of my work, mess up my download metrics, and are generally unsafe and frequently outdated.

Please read the FAQ located here before asking questions or opening GitHub issues.

Cheating

This is not a binary hack, and therefore everything has been shifted inside the ROM. Action Replay and other similar codes will not work and should not be used. Using those codes could damage your save file.

The preferred method of cheating is through save editing. The save files of this hack are mostly compatible with PKHeX. If you opt to save edit, do not under any circumstances open the Items submenu. Bag data has been significantly changed and attempting to edit it with PKHeX will corrupt your save. All other functions of the save editor should be fine. If you want to edit flags or variables, a full list of each is in the repository here for flags and here for variables, respectively.

Credits

• The contributors to pret without whom this work would not have been possible.
• Kurausukun for an initial Nuzlocke implementation done on pokeemerald that I based mine off of.
• The Accurate FireRed Overworld Sprite Resource, this thread, and this thread for some of the OW sprites that I edited.
• ghoulslash for the Dive implementation, as well as several quality of life improvements originally done on pokeemerald that I ported.
• Josh/ShinyDragonHunter for the Emerald hero(ine) OW sprites used in the link rooms.
• Lunos for a few improvements originally done on pokeemerald that I ported, including letting the player only buy TMs once and LGPE-styled Premier Balls.
• Revo for his pokeemerald Instant Text implementation that I ported.
• SBird for turning TM/HMs into a bitfield in pokeemerald that I ported.
• Hiroshi Sotomura for submitting a bugfix PR that got merged.
• The pokeemerald-expansion team for several features and optimizations ported from pokeemerald-expansion.