Pokemon Adventure Red Chapter

Most FireRed hacks either remix Kanto or replace it. Pokemon Adventure Red Chapter does something different: it adapts the Pokemon Adventures manga (known as Pokemon Special in Japan) and lets you live it as Red, the manga's hot-headed protagonist, starting from Pallet Town.

The hack is the work of a single developer, Aethestode, who also drew a lot of its sprites, with routines and assets credited to well-known names in the GBA hacking scene. It is split into chapters — a prologue, main chapters, epilogues and a long list of side chapters — so the pacing feels closer to reading story arcs than to collecting eight badges in a row.

Instead of a single rival you deal with both Blue and Green, as in the manga. Character mugshots appear in dialogue, there are playable characters and costumes, and a day and night system plus a real-time clock drive some bonus chapters. Under the hood, it adds the physical/special split, reusable TMs, a level cap raised to 255 and an item called the Lens for checking EVs and IVs.

The current build is Beta 15 with the Expansion Fix C patch, last updated in October 2020. The developer has said Beta 15 is the final major update for Volume 1, with only game-breaking bugs fixed from now on, while Volume 2 is in development. Kanto and the Orange Archipelago are playable; other regions are planned. Some scenes follow the manga's darker moments, so it is not ideal for young children.

• Story adapted from the Pokemon Adventures manga, told from Red's perspective
• Chapter structure with prologue, epilogues and many side chapters
• Two rivals, Blue and Green
• Character mugshots, playable characters and costumes
• Overhauled visuals: tiles, maps, trainer classes and Pokemon sprites
• Day and night system and real-time clock for bonus chapters
• Physical/special/status split and modified type effectiveness
• Level cap raised from 100 to 255
• Reusable TMs and a Lens item to check EVs and IVs
• Kanto and the Orange Archipelago playable in Volume 1

This is a story-first hack. Fights are tuned around the events of each chapter rather than around a punishing difficulty curve, so the main appeal is seeing familiar manga scenes recreated in pixels. Some Pokemon were buffed or nerfed, and type effectiveness was adjusted, so expect a few surprises in battle.

It is ideal for fans of the manga and for players who want a guided, narrative FireRed experience. If you want an open world or a min-maxed challenge, look at Unbound or Radical Red instead.

• Patch the UPS file onto a clean FireRed v1.0 (US) ROM — that is the revision the patch was made for.
• Apply Beta 15 and the Expansion Fix C together to get the latest bug fixes.
• The developer recommends VisualBoyAdvance 1.7.2 or 1.8.0; other emulators usually work but are not officially supported. On mGBA, enable the real-time clock for the time-based chapters.
• Do the side chapters — many of the hack's best scenes are there, not in the main path.
• Use the Lens to check IVs and EVs before investing in a team member.

Beta 15 expanded Volume 1 and wrapped it up; Expansion Fix C is a follow-up patch that fixes bugs found after release. The developer's FAQ is clear that only Kanto and the Orange Archipelago exist for now, even though other regions such as a Sinnoh storyline are planned for the future.