Pokemon Fan Game Recommendations [Community WIP]

[SSJG Goku]

Hi all, whilst waiting for the next update for Reborn and Rejuvenation I was looking for a new game to start playing. I've completed Insurgence before and looking for another difficult game to play along the lines of those mentioned before. Are there any games which are quite far through development which fit the role which someone can recommend?

[Gastronely]

Zeta and Omicrom are completed, and i heard they're pretty good. There aren't a lot of fan games, but there are ROM hacks, if you're into that. I recommend Gaia, Flora Sky and Light Platinum, all of them are complete, and with content up until Gen 6

[Ya Gorl]

I dunno if anyone's mentioned it but Empyrean is pretty dope from what I've seen so far. I've beaten the 4th leader so far, and although the difficulty certainly isn't as fulfilling as Reborn or Rejuvenation, it makes up for it with the really interesting mechanics and really cool fakemon, which are very few and far between. There's also quite a few alternate forms for existing mons, which all look awesome and add a new flavour to the gameplay.

The story is alright I guess, some characters are a bit forgettable but that's kinda to be expected given that there's quite a few of them. Those that aren't forgettable are really fun and exciting, and I do love every one of them.

Although I haven't finished it, I will rate it 7.8/10 on the Hella Dope Scale.

[JWijsdoorn]

Hi everyone, I've been looking for fangames that alter the balance between existing mons. One example would be Pokemon Clockwork with its added typings, moves and base stat changes. Does anyone have examples of similar games?

[groniack]

9 minutes ago, JWijsdoorn said:

Hi everyone, I've been looking for fangames that alter the balance between existing mons. One example would be Pokemon Clockwork with its added typings, moves and base stat changes. Does anyone have examples of similar games?

 

One that comes to my mind is Pokemon Empire. You should definitely check it out. They have lots of new abilities, rebalanced pokemon stats, some moves and abilities have been slightly changed and stuff like that. I think you will enjoy it. Here is a link to it:

 

[JWijsdoorn]

Quote

One that comes to my mind is Pokemon Empire. You should definitely check it out. They have lots of new abilities, rebalanced pokemon stats, some moves and abilities have been slightly changed and stuff like that. I think you will enjoy it.

That was enjoyable, thanks! Now the wait begins for updates, as always

[groniack]

25 minutes ago, JWijsdoorn said:

That was enjoyable, thanks! Now the wait begins for updates, as always

Glad you liked it! The second episode is close to being released, so you won't have to wait that long

 

[Alilatias]

I am popping in here to mention that Legends of the Arena is currently planned to have its final chapter released by the end of the month (per their reddit/discord).

[FaisLittleWhiteRaven]

Had a bit of time, played some more fan games so... Time for some more blah about Fangames worth talking about~

 

Esentuals Kit Games

Pumpkin Redux: An older and shorter game by the wonderful souls that made Pokemon Present (which is currently being revamped into Pokemon Ashen Forest) comes a fun little halloween themed game that like Pokemon Present is a little harder than regular Pokemon games but far from being a Reborn-difficult game. Lovely aesthetics, slow building mystery and fun - Sadly I haven't quite gotten to the end due to my old computer suffering a disasterous accident right before I could finish it but it was fun and if you liked Pokemon Present I'd absolutely recommend giving it a shot.

 

Pokemon Apex: A very different and tricky Pokemon fangame with frequently torturous puzzles, strict long-lasting level caps, some type chart changes (like ghost being SE against normal types), a setting that's very much Alternate Universe to how the Pokemon World is generally portrayed (for example the Pokemon World is called Gehenna, after a biblical valley where children were sacrificed via fire and may or may not have been considered hell. Character names are frequently things like Dante -after Dante's Inferno perhapes?- and Yorik so yeah, lots of odd references sprinkled all over the place), and a story which despite being unfinished still has me quite invested.

Aesthetically the game uses very different visuals and music than most Pokemon fangames and this is probably it's biggest strength: Sheer uniqueness. Apex does it's own thing almost all of the time and that's really what helps it stand out - Looking for hidden secrets in the walls, exploring enormous routes, desperately avoiding trainers to avoid missing out on easy exp or getting KOed before reaching the next checkpoint, struggling to solve the puzzles before running out of one's limited heals and trying to figure out which pokemon is worth using your very limited pokeballs on... It's a difficult game especially early on but not really in the standard 'Reborn-esc difficulty curve via powerful trainers' kind of way and I find that actually makes it more fun~ 

Very much recommended, though do be warned: Those puzzles can be mindboggling and the plot can have long, unskippable sections of talking and exploring.

 

Pokemon Floral Tempus: Only recently began playing this one (currently at the Water gym) but so far it's been a lot of fun - Mon selection has been quite nice, plot is dark-ish at times but has a very pokemon feel to it (though surprise completely optional early game cannibal was a bit jarring), side quests vary from comfortably easy to 'OH GOD WHY' depending on when you do them, visuals are very nice and... Yeah. It's a fun one though it does have some flaws: Some computers won't start up the game properly and so far the only solution is pressing CTRL F12 whenever you are opening the game up to fix it (solution does work by the way as my current computer is one of these). Second the levels of certain trainers (namely the rivals and gym leaders) seem matched to the player's and can be higher than the level cap the player is restricted to which can be extremely annoying at times. Lag can also be an issue at times but it didn't seem too frequent.

 

Pokemon Alabaster: An interesting fangame with a neat plot, nice selection of music and the... Interesting starter selection of Togepi, Beldum and Larvestia. Not the hardest fangame considering I was able to get through the current available demo with Pokemon like Aridos, Seaking and Pachirisu in my party but there was one 'optional nigh impossible to defeat' overleveled boss fight and other bosses in the game can hit quite hard at times so if you are looking for a more standard pokemon adventure with some nice writing and interesting plot moments this one is pretty fun.
Mon selection, especially early on can be a bit brutal though - the vast, VAST majority of catchable mon before you can escape leave the early area are bug, grass and fairy types (maybe some birds as well?) and thus it may take you a while to develop a balanced team. Also some pokemon sprites are very tiny for no real reason which is technically a bad thing but I found having a Seaking smaller than a Togepi rather charming so... Yeah~ XD

 

Pokemon Apathy: A short game with very limited mon selection and grinding opportunities but it had a fun story and some very nice use of visuals and music. Not too much to say about it beyond I had a lot of fun playing it and way quite sad it ended as quickly as it did.

 

Pokemon Circular Knowledge: Another short game though this one can be outright hard due to everything in the game scaling in level with the first mon out in front of the party. The gameplay is more geared towards survival and good resource usage rather than straight up battle, largely because heals are very hard to get and using up your limited amount of items before the end can doom your chances of winning, but I still beat the game within a day with mon I caught on a whim with largely awful movesets so... It's not that bad? 

Story is kinda so-so. Nothing super amazing and I did enjoy one of the plot beats near the end but otherwise the game is rather minimalistic and ends somewhat suddenly. I sort of recommend and sort of don't.

 

Other:

Not sure what program these two games use but both play more akin to some Final Fantasy turn based games  rather than the standard 1v1 turn based Pokemon games so I suspect a different program is being used.

Both have battles with up to three pokemon battling at once (the foe can occasionally have more), a turn order dependant on filling up a gauge for each pokemon that is determined of each pokemon's speed (so very speedy pokemon can frequently attack several times before slower ones even get started), massive movepools more akin to a spell list (I think one of my mon had around 20 moves at one point?) with some moves becoming their more powerful forms after certain amount of usage, predetermined mon joining your available team via side side-quests or plot battles instead of being catchable, and status effects having very different effects, being stackable (at least in RR) and in some cases wearing off over time. Very different but fun  

Super Eevee Edition: A Gen 2 themed game with a very meta plot and a very super Eevee (which can frankly curb stomp the entire game solo if used correctly).

If you haven't played this game before I absolutely recommend checking it out as frankly no other fangame other than Rocket Rising plays anything like it and it's honestly quite fun, though the story can be a bit out there~ XD

Very Gen2 though but in art and music so if that's not your thing then it may not appeal.

 

Pokemon Rocket Rising: Ever wanted to join the Team Rocket organisation? To betray or take them over? Or do you just want a game with FRLG graphics, a new (borderline parody at times) plot, and gameplay more resembling Super Eevee Edition? If any of that sounds good play Rocket Rising as it's honestly quite fun~

Gameplay early on can be quite rough as Rattata is not exactly a power house and most fights will be double or triple battles while you're stuck with a single (lovable) rodent but once you get a few other mon and some levels the game swiftly becomes a lot easier, allowing you to focus on just how evil you want to be, which as someone who generally despises playing the evil side in a game... It's a LOT of fun being a jerk in Rocket Rising, probably because main character is kind of a jerk no matter how you play things and some segments (like a certain acting quest line) can be hard to take seriously. Also people are way too into Team Rocket at times but somehow that adds to the charm?

This game is weird but it's a lot of fun and some of the battles can be quite tricky... Until you learn the joy that is fast mon + status effects that is and proceed to status effect everything into complete inability to harm you, but that's fun too. Definitely recommend this game though be warned: Do NOT run from a battle right after a mon learns an attack - this prevents the move from showing up on the movelist which, in the case of my beautiful dark Persian, prevented me from learning not only Fake Out but several other moves I really wanted as well.

 

Edit: Planning on playing Pokemon Empire and Pokemon: Legends of the Arena after reading people's recommendations so will let you know how they played probably some time in the future.

Also rec-ing Pokemon Uranium for a good standard Pokemon game if you can handle fakemon (most are well designed but some are... Off), Pokemon Prism (the final version can be hard to find since the S&D order but some folks around the Twitch Plays Pokemon reddit may have copies they can share - like I did before last computer died...), and of course the Reborn like Pokemon Desolation (currently fairly short) and Pokemon Rejuvenation are absolutely worth getting into if you haven't already. Will write proper 'info-blah's about them later.

 

Also Pokemon Pheonix Rising is amazing but does have lag issues and worst of all is only a few hours long demo... Absolutely fantastic outside of that but it's very much like Pokemon Sage was (still is?), a game worthy of much interest and respect but not exactly something highly recommendable until more content is available for it.

[Puckbaudelaire]

I have already finished a lot of fanmade and obviously the most pleasurable that i played were the hardest ones, but now i have nothing to play anymore. I have already finished pokemon reborn, rejuvenation, desolation and i am looking for a game in the same mood and difficulty because games such as pokemon uranium are actually boring to me. Hope you guys have some good games to share ! (i have already played all of the mainstreams ones and insurgence is garbage)

[Lorisaur]

If you love difficulty, you can play pokemon memeborn, a Reborn mod that GREATLY enhances its difficulty. I am currently monotyping it and it is... you will see with your eyes how hard it is. You can find the download in the mod market

 

If instead you want to try something different from a game playthrough, what do you think of joining the reborn devolved league? You'll have fun, make a team, get 18 badges aganist good leaders and try to claim your champion spot! 

 

It isn't a game but those two are the hardest things that came to my mind right now. You can find a post about the devolved league in Victory Road

[Puckbaudelaire]

I am gonna check the memeborn but i am not really into the devolved league because i have played a lot of smogon 6v6 and im quite bored of online battles. Thanks for your answer and i am still open to an enjoyable fanmade.

[poop face]

I have no clue if anyone's interested, but here's my take on the fan games.

I'll start by saying that it was a mistake starting with Reborn, since it spoiled me in the quality I was looking for. So far, outside of Reju/Deso, nothing even comes close. So while I will sound harsh against these games, some of them are still good.

In brackets after the name I wrote my progress of the game, not what the game has. It may go further.

In underline is my final thoughts of the game (AKA too long didn't read AKA tl;dr)

 

Let's start with the 2 classics:

Pokemon Uranium: (finished all content)

definitely one of the better fan games. A lot of the designs are pretty well made (there are some bad designs, but so do the original games), and while the story is no Reborn, it holds up quite nicely. There are some balance issues, so if you don't want the game to be too easy, don't use Nucleon.

I think my biggest problem with the game is the lack of extra content. Not a lot of side-quests, with the ones there are being low quality, and while they tease you on post-game, there is little to none of that, probably due to them being shut down.

Pretty good game, and is worth a shot.

 

Pokemon Insurgence: (finished most of post-game)

Probably going to get a lot of hate since this one is so popular, but this game was extremely disappointing.

Let me explain - the biggest flaw this game has is the lack of fleshing out everything. the story is forgettable, and the characters even more so. I have never forgot that my rivals exist until this game. I'm not even joking. when they show up, it was always "Oh... You exist..." and then proceed to forget them again.

While the puzzles ideas of gaining different abilities were unique and cool, there were too short it always felt that the creator got bored with it way too fast and moved to another kind of puzzle, forgetting the first kind. This is less of a problem in post game, where there are more of using a couple of abilities together.

What is annoying me is that this game is quite competent, but is missing the last push, most of the time feeling like it's backing out on itself. 

Delta forms are nice though, so that's a plus.

If you don't mind the story and characters that much, pick up this game, since it still is a decent game.

 

Now that these are out of the way...

 

Pokemon Clover: (stopped about half way through)

Made by the people of 4Chan. While funny and offensively so, it does drag out. The main selling point of this game is the absolute ridiculous Fakemons and dark humor. if you're not a fan of that, or if some things do offend you, steer away and don't look back, for this game insults everyone (for example, some Pokemon include but not limited too: an arab suicide bomber lizard, feminist whales, jews, a bunch of adult jokes, and tree jesus). Not much more too say. I can't remember the story, but that's not the point of this game, so it's not really a con for me. Like I said, it drags a bit, so I decided to just look at the designs at the wiki, laugh and move on to the next game.

If you have time and like dark/offensive humor, go ahead and try this out.

 

Pokemon Legends of the Arena: (made it to the 7th arena)

this is the latest game I tried. Interesting concept that instead of gyms, there are arenas. you start off as 8 people, and slowly you beat them throughout the game, trying to become the last contestant and fight the champion.

The story is pretty solid and unique, and some charcters like your rival and the manager are memorable.

However, it suffers 2 major flaws in my book:

1. the rest of the cast vanishes, except of your rival and the next person you are going to battle, which makes who you are going to battle next not surprising at all, and feels a bit cheap to give character development only right before you battle them. When I said vanishes, I don't mean sitting at the side throwing a random sentence and that's it. I mean that they are literally nowhere to be found, not apearing at all until their time arrives, then being a medium to small part of the story in that particular town/city, battling you and leaving the group, letting the next stock character apear. To some it may not be a problem, but it really bothers me...

2. Battle bugs (Warning: rant incoming). This actually made me rage quit. I spent a long time creating a rain team. then I spent over an hour getting a good Poliwhirl, training it to learn Hydro Pump, evolving it, and changing it's ability to drizzle, only for the game to decide that it doesn't use that abilty, even though in the past someone with a drizzle Politoed fought me and it worked for him. After checking, I found out there are a bunch of these kind of bugs. Maybe one day I will continue. Maybe not

All in all decent game, if you don't mind the bugs or stock characters.

 

Phoenix Rising: (completed what's out)

There isn't much content at all yet, but so far it's a solid game. The way the quests are given, the graphics, the overall theme. I quite enjoyed this. Because this has almost no content, it's hard to know if the story will be good. so far it seems to be going in the right direction. I'll let you know in 2030 when they release ep 2

Good start for a game, but not enough content to say for sure.

 

Pokemon Edge rising: (finished)

Oh boy, this game... what a rollercoaster. Played this right after I replayed Reborn/Reju (monotype challenge), and that was the right decision.

While a short game (only a few hours), it was hilarious to play. for those who don't know, Edge Rising is a spoof of all the edgy games and movies, with a stupid plot, over the top characters and moments, and so edgy with the dialogue, sound choices and ending, that I cut myself on this game more then once. also, a bit of Fakemon and Pokemon variants.

Since this is a short game with some very good moments, it is definitely worth playing.

 

Pokemon Empyrean: (finished)

This game feels the most fan made of all, and it barely has new Pokemon in it. The first reason for that is because the power lv is insane, with lv 150 cap, GP (explained in game), and stat boosting cards. The second reason is the story. It goes over the top with it's setting (don't want to spoil), giving it a bizzare feel. some of the new Pokemon are pretty good, and the characters are not that bad either. It's easy to see who the creator wanted and who not, since some characters apear for their roles as gym leaders and never seen again, while some are throughout the entire game. The game has quite a large scale, so if you are looking for short game, this is not the one.

This game is hard to review, since it's good points are also it's bad points:

1. Insane power lvs may be your style, but you may hate it.

2. The story feels like a weird fanfic. Not a bad cringy one mind you, as some of the story's actually not bad at all, but it gives off more fan made vibes than most games.

3. This is mostly for post game - the broken mechanics. The game has some broken abilities and items, and it's aware of it. In post game you start battling insanely broken Pokemon (for example there is a trainer who has a wonder guard smeargle with an item that nullifies fighting type moves. He has 5 other broken mons, but I won't spoil more). personally, I loved it. It felt less like a battle and more like tough riddles, as they all have a way to be beaten.

Unless you really don't like thing that feel too fan made (which is understandable), you should give this one a go

 

A few extra games that I didn't progress enough to review:

Pokemon Spork:

It feels more like a Pokemon relaxation game. it is not challenging, and not meant to be. you Get all the powerful mons at the beggining, and I personally didn't connect to the story. If you do want a game to just relax to while building your dream team, check this out.

Pokemon Postscriptum:

Didn't get far. It bored me, Plot, but mainly gameplay.

Romhacks:

I used to play a bunch of them on my phone. So far the non Romhacks far surpass them in every way, so I see no need to list them.

 

 

Now if you read this until now, wow you're bored...

I do have 2 requests:

1. If anyone knows more good games, please share with us. (btw, is Apex really good like people say?)

2. Very specific, but while trying to open Pokemon Sage, it kept crashing. I tried installing the fonts but to no avail. If someone had the same problem and manged to fix it, let me know.

 

That's all folks.

[Temporal_Diamond]

Hey yall i just finished reborn and am looking for a new fan game but i have a MAC SIERRA . I am new to these fan games and am SO thankful that reborn has a mac version of this game to download as an application for mac, it was my first fan game ever due to my technological limitations on a mac sierra.  I beat reborn and tried to download rejuvenation, get wine and all that, but i can't even get to the first gym leader without it crashing all the time so i am close to giving up on it, and the music doesn't work only like sound effects work.

 

So my question is...

Are there any other games that are made with a mac version , like reborn has?  That would be my preference... but if you also have suggestions on how to get my winebottler to work on MAC sierra without crashing every fifteen minutes that would be much appreciated.

 

 

 

[Display name]

@Temporal_Diamond If you haven't played it insurgence has a mac version.

[Oni-Mushkan]

Here is a list of games I'd recommend checking out

 

 

 

Fan  Games

Pokemon Reborn - (Love the story, soundtrack, characters  and challenging AI)  10/10
Pokemon Rejuvenation  - (Love the story, soundtrack, characters  and challenging AI)  10/10
Pokemon Desolation -  In similar vein to Reborn and Rejuvenation. Excellent Game! Still currently playing
Pokemon Empyrean - Haven't finished but is an awesome game so far. Different feel to the previous three yet fun.
Pokemon Insurgence - This is a fun game. New Megas and Deltas look great! Only complaint is misplaced soundtrack or lack there of. Story is okay
Pokemon Sage - Incomplete but the best design Fakemon I have ever seen
Pokemon Uranium  - Haven't finished yet. But it is pretty good so far. It's a Fakemon game that follows traditional Pokemon formula
Pokemon Spork - I haven't played this one in a while but a lot of optimization from what I remember
 

 

 

 

Rom Hacks (with Original story)

Pokemon Gaia - Very well made game. Brand  new region  yet it feels  like  an official Pokemon game

Pokemon Glazed or Blazed Glazed - Original Tunod Region. Includes Johto as  well. Well made game indeed. 

Pokemon Adventure Red  - Follows the Pokemon Manga if you are into that. Very fun game

Pokemon Dark Violet  -  (Best Fire Red Remake in terms of Updated Story)

Pokemon Ruby Destiny: Life of Guardian  - Still currently playing this and so far it is good. Multiple endings I've heard. Soundtrack is good

Pokemon Prism - If you like Retro GBC style, you will love this game! Lots of Customization , Original Region and fun story

Pokemon Grape  - Also Retro GBC style  but Red & Blue style  instead of Crystal. Brand  New Region! The story is confusing but fun play through nonetheless

 

 

Rom Hacks that are essentially remakes

Pokemon Radical Red    -    Includes up to Gen  8! (Best Mechanics and Increased Difficulty)

Pokemon Sacred Gold & Storm Silver - Remake of Heart Gold and Soul Silver.  More variety and  increased difficulty

Pokemon Blaze Black & Volt White - Remake of Black & White. More variety and  increased difficulty

Pokemon Blaze Black 2 & Volt White 2 - Remake of  Black 2 & White 2.  More variety and  increased difficulty

Pokemon Renegade Platinum - Remake of Platinum. More variety and  increased difficulty

Pokemon GS Chronicles - Updated Gen 2 Johto Region but using the Gen 3 Games

Pokemon Crystal Clear  - Basically Open world Version of Pokemon Crystal GBC Style. You can battle Gym Leaders in any order and the AI levels scale depending on badges

[Dark Legend]

I think the best fan made games in order are 

1. Insurgence

2. Reborn

3. Uranium

4. Rejuvenation

If you could all respond with other games that would be great I need a new game to play.

ALSO

I am in the middle of making a pokemon game called Pokemon Revenge. I don't have a website yet but here is whats in it:

 

18 gyms (you only need 8 badges though)

an SH/SW styled pokemon league

New megas

New Regional Variants

New abilities

New moves

and of course a new region

 

im not very far in the code yet i havnt even done the new sprites ive only drawn them on paper if anyone wants to see 1(AND ONLY 1) i will show them

Edited March 10, 2021 by Dark Champion

[OmegaSolare]

How about Pokemon Xenoverse? Do you like to try to play it?

[Aariq]

Here are some more:

Pokemon Xenoverse

Pokemon Ashen Frost

Pokemon Desolation

Pokemon Sardonyx

Pokemon Phoenix Rising

Pokemon Infinity

These are just some of the best ones excluding Reborn and Rejuv.

 

2 hours ago, RoyChaos said:

How about Pokemon Xenoverse? Do you like to try to play it?

Dude, why is your profile pic literally just Trishout?

[Dark Legend]

thanks ima try out xenoverse sounds fun

[Gham]

ive never been a fan of games with fake-mons. Not to say i didnt enjoy games like Uranium which has a really good story or others, but in general throws me off. anyone know of any other games in the tier of Reborn and Rejuv?

[Siragon]

17 hours ago, Gham said:

ive never been a fan of games with fake-mons. Not to say i didnt enjoy games like Uranium which has a really good story or others, but in general throws me off. anyone know of any other games in the tier of Reborn and Rejuv?

Desolation is generally viewed as the third "big" from the community here though it is somewhat shorter as of now because it went on several quite important hiatuses (though it's now back on track with a full team compared to the one-man-project it was at the start)

Spork is also pretty neat from what i remember

[Gham]

Just now, Siragon said:

Desolation is generally viewed as the third "big" from the community here though it is somewhat shorter as of now because it went on several quite important hiatuses (though it's now back on track with a full team compared to the one-man-project it was at the start)

Spork is also pretty neat from what i remember

dope! thanks. good to hear it has a full team to support it, just from following the big two for years a lot of time and pain goes into making these lol

[Display name]

Pokemon empire has great story and differs from the traditional fangame style It's a really great game and the community is super active

[Dark Legend]

ive played that already didnt like it that much