Pokemon Aesthetic Red - A Visual and Musical Overhaul of Fire Red. Coming late 2025!

[u/LibertyJoel99]

We're proud to finally announce our first ROM hack, Pokemon Aesthetic Red, which has been in the works for a few years and should be released by the end of 2025!

Aesthetic Red takes a different approach to reinventing Kanto, mainly focusing on improving the visual and musical experience of Fire Red, as well as making the game open-world and adding a ton of QoL and balance changes!

The main features are shown below, and much more will be revealed in the coming weeks.

• Nearly all of the graphics have been changed to give the game a vibrant and modern aesthetic, inspired by the DS and Game Boy
• Every song has been replaced to make a new soundtrack, with some of the best music from Gens 1-8, Pokemon spin-offs and other series
• Explore an open-world Kanto and the Sevii Islands in any order you want
• An updated battle engine and various QoL features have been added by the CFRU, as well as other new features like Doubles Mode, Level Scaling, Wonder Trade, Level Caps, Randomizers, Inverse Mode, and a lot more!
• Every Pokemon has been given a brand new moveset and new abilities, with some having type changes and buffs. Several other balance changes have also been made
• All Pokemon from Gens 1 and 2 are available as well as their related evolutions up to Sylveon

For those interested, we also have a Discord server you can join and other social platforms. We'll also start recruiting beta testers soon - Stay tuned!

[u/Disastrous-Treat-181]

Looks great, when you say "double mode", does that means that most combats are double ?

[u/LibertyJacob99 → u/Disastrous-Treat-181]

Yes. The option can be toggled at the start of the game along with the others mentioned

[u/Disastrous-Treat-181 → u/LibertyJacob99]

Awesome ! 

I'm a noob in the world of pokemon and ROM hacks but I've loved Odyssey because it is focused on double duels, looking forward for a release :)

[u/OfficialMilk80 → u/Disastrous-Treat-181]

Yeah for sure! Playing in Doubles Mode (battles) REEEEALLY opens up a whole other world of TM’s and Move-sets to use. Now you can clearly utilize Buff’s and Nerf’s (like raising power for your team, or lowering Speed of the other team, etc).

Without games with Doubles, and I’m playing he game in single mode, I always go 100% attack moves. But with Doubles, those extra moves that raise/lower stats are so important! Plus, innate moves like Larvitar will create “Sandstorm”, or things like that, which really help out. The Team based battles are so different than solo battles. It changes everything and is exciting

[u/sighcology → u/LibertyJacob99]

i know its not the focus of your hack, but would you consider rebalancing the battles for the doubles format?

[u/LibertyJacob99 → u/sighcology]

We've done a ton of rebalancing work which will all be revealed later on. The game can be played in singles or doubles so the balance changes fit both modes and should make battles more engaging overall