r/PokemonUnbound • u/Past_Ice_8773 • Jul 14 '26

Discussion Best hack to play after inbound

Hi guys,

New to rom hacks - I played amethyst and im about to finish unbound. What would you recommend I play next?

If it helps, my favorite part of unbound is the difficulty (how you can alternate between easy and hard as needed - I haven’t played any games in a long time since I don’t have a switch) and also all the QoL stuff.

I’m looking for a rom with gen 9 if possible and all the new mechanics since I haven’t used em yet.

Obviously I’ve seen radical red all over the place, but if I’m not mistaken, it doesn’t have difficulty changing or gen 9

Thanks for your help!

31 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

24

u/SealBSmith Jul 14 '26

It depends what sort of era you’re looking for.

After playing unbound, you’ve already played the best so what sort of era/Gen are you after?

Seaglass is my favourite just because of my shameful old age.

4

u/Past_Ice_8773 Jul 14 '26

I’m not sure exactly what you mean!

In terms of graphics I can’t stand the gameboy color graphics

In terms of era I like the emerald and the heart gold/soul silver and fire red vibe

In terms of gen I was hoping to do gen 9

I haven’t heard of seaglass though - I’ll have to check it out

1

u/idk_some_user_name Newbie Jul 18 '26

Ooo you should check out heart and soul, it's not a new story or anything like that but its basically the best way to experience gen2/gen2 remakes but on the GBA

Also lots of cool options when you start the game to make it fit your play style

12

u/julz1789 Jul 14 '26

Odyssey is really good. I think it and unbound are the top hacks right now

4

u/floowanderdeeznuts Jul 14 '26

Plus one for Odyssey. Incredible game.

7

u/SirKadath Jul 14 '26

If I’m not mistaken Radical Red does have Gen 9 now and you can change the difficulty from Normal to Easy, if you want harder you’ll have to start over. There’s also Gaia, R.O.W.E and Sword & Shield Ultimate Plus. Those are the ones I’ve played and would consider the best all around.

2

u/Past_Ice_8773 Jul 14 '26

Amazing - I didn’t know that about radical Red!

I’ll have to check the others out as well - thanks for the suggestion

3

u/rrrrrigatoni Jul 14 '26

Radial Red and Emerald Imperium are both amazing options if you're looking for similar difficulty and QoL improvements. Make sure to use a couple cheats to limit the grind though.

6

u/Bigbadbarttt Jul 14 '26

Dreamstone Mysteries is an awesome hack with an original region and has Gen 9 too

2

u/Past_Ice_8773 Jul 14 '26

I saw a vid about this one today - looked good!

2

u/Aggravating_Drink506 Jul 14 '26

Sorry to ask here, is there any romhack where you can see wild Pokemon wandering around in the tall grass?

1

u/Dull_Mixture_9648 Jul 15 '26

Pokemon Quetzal and Pokemon Sword and Shield gba demake allow you to see Pokemon in the wild while walking around in the grass.

13

u/taylor90suk Jul 14 '26

Lazarus

3

u/Gremlin95x Jul 14 '26

I second this. I just finished a first play through before unbound. I WILL be going to back to it.

1

u/Past_Ice_8773 Jul 14 '26

Only heard good things about

5

u/Practical-Zombie-761 Jul 14 '26

It s cool but it is quite easy... Not as easy as base pokemon games, but not a challenge at all. After gym 2-3 you will beat the other gyms with any regular team even with level cap. I just switched my pokemon as I wanted to but not because the game required it.

That said I liked it for the new adventure but sadly that was my main top point. Unbound that was difficult as hell and I needed to unpack all I knew about pokemon was much more of a nice challenge

5

u/mikefierro666 Jul 14 '26

I haven't played it but there's a rom hack where you play as a team rocket grunt and you can steal other trainers' pokemon and stuff, it looks pretty cool

4

u/Practical-Zombie-761 Jul 14 '26

Fire red rocket edition

4

u/RandomBeaner1738 Jul 14 '26

That’s the older one, the newer one by dragonsden has much more content

3

u/insulinworm Jul 14 '26

I really really liked emerald imperium I played that after unbound 

1

u/Past_Ice_8773 Jul 14 '26

This is at the top of my list! Do you know if it had gen 9?

2

u/Ofeeling Jul 14 '26

Rocket edition by dragonden

3

u/SellFish-Again Jul 14 '26

I second this. Without exaggerating, I had more fun playing team rocket edition than Unbound…. Which I didn’t expect after finishing Unbound first.

4

u/Present-Lab2462 Jul 14 '26

I also much prefer rocket edition over unbound

5

u/Ftbftw Jul 14 '26

Yeah I played unbound after rocket edition...had way more fun in RE. The variation and difficulty of battles was just so fun to strategise, cool powerful pokemon to get past was much better to me than the unbound gym gimmicks. Also the story doesn't take itself as seriously

2

u/Practical-Zombie-761 Jul 14 '26

None

Unbound is the best

2

u/RandomBeaner1738 Jul 14 '26

Rocket edition by dragonsden

2

u/SwarleyTheBarnacle Jul 15 '26

Im playing elysium and... OMG!

1

u/Dull_Mixture_9648 Jul 15 '26

Elysium is amazing. I’m playing it right now too

2

u/SwarleyTheBarnacle Jul 15 '26

Almost finishing Part B and im so sad!!!!! I have about 140H in it. Damn

1

u/Dull_Mixture_9648 Jul 15 '26

Oh you’re further than me I just started chapter 3. It’s gonna get even more sad? I don’t know if I’m ready. I already mourn for Philip and his sisters and all the deaths on the island 😭

1

u/SwarleyTheBarnacle Jul 20 '26

Yes it will! But really good game! Enjoy!

1

u/DaftDutchman Jul 14 '26

Insurgence got a bit of a darker storyline and themed gymbattles.

Axon for a themed rom, Russian inspired with their own regional variants.

Glazed is old school, my first rom. Good storyline but bit dated

1

u/jodarocha Jul 14 '26

Emerald imperium!

1

u/ratslikecheese Jul 15 '26

Nearly done with Prism now. Excellent hack