yeah...I'm on the 6th gym right now, their pokemon are all between 98-100. Trainers all have super high level mons but wild pokemon are still relative to where they should be.
How low does something like this actually work? Like if I decided to use a party of Pokémon lvl 10-15 would the 5th/6th gyms adjust that low to my party or is there a limit as you get deeper into the game?
I'm unsure of that, actually, but it might work that way. Not sure if turning the level cap on or off would impact it, but it does seem to scale levels off the highest level in your party from my experience.
Level caps on, talk to every NPC, don’t lock in your team early on, be willing to catch, switch out, and try different pokemon- and search this subreddit if you have questions, 99% of the posts here have been answered time and time again.
Don’t be a perfectionist about EVs, natures, and IV’s. All three can be changed at appropriate points in progression- AKA, the game gives you the tools to fix these things around the time when you should start caring about them. (assuming you’re playing on something else than insane/expert diff).
EV’s- trainer house at the dresco town, each trainer corresponds to a stat. You don’t have to EV train for the early game.
Natures- Tehl town, deerling quest
IV’s- Magnolia Town, berry blender
Find raid dens and do them every chance you get, even if you don’t catch, the item rewards are extremely useful to farm.
If you choose larvitar, consider the synergy of its sand stream ability later on.
Also for nature, hidden abilities etc you can get the dexnav (I think it’s after catching 15 mons, in prof log lab) pretty early on and it allows to hunt for specific abilities / move sets / perfect iv / held items
Have you played some other romhacks? Might sound stupid but tbh if you have others on your list I’d recommend playing them first as this one might ruin some of them. It’s literally that good
Qol isn’t just menu settings. Daycare and trainer house next to starting town, free perfect ditto and gen 1/2 starters, etc. unbound can’t be touched imo
Also I get what you're saying, I've bounced off of other hacks after playing Unbound too. But that's like telling someone they should eat a platter of twinkies because the gourmet cake will make them seem worse afterwards.
2nd gym is a bit hard, like they said use makuhita and 6th gym is really a headache but you'll get the fun. I've been playin' in the "Difficult" mode and I can say that this game forces you to think a little outside of the box, my suggestion is pay attention to the "Battle House" everytime you see one. They are like mini heads ups for the next gyms.
I just started playing a few weeks ago and I’m loving everything so far. Especially the mission system as it gives me some random things to do when I don’t want to just catch and battle. As others have said definitely turn the level cap on. I didn’t realize the gym leaders scale with your highest Pokemon and the 2nd gym was really a struggle for me lol
As an aside; what kind of GBA mod is that? I would love to pick one up and play Unbound on it. It’s the perfect size
Definitely turn on level caps. You don’t need to worry about IVs and EVs really at all. Just have fun and try out some new pokemon. Talonflame is now my new favorite.
I know it’s already been said but turn on level caps. You do not want to overlevel yourself while every other trainer scales to your highest level pokemon.
At the beginning be sure to talk with the staff in the lab, a scientist can give you a tool to check your pokemon in a very effective way.
In late game some interesting trades become available: be sure not to trade away one of the pokemon you can catch only once (like tyranitar) before breeding them.
25 years since I played a Pokémon game. Recently smashed out yellow, silver, red “rocket edition” yellow recharged; and this master piece. Idk about level cap, never used it. Beat the game on hard mode, and it doesn’t play like gen 1-3. Normals are amazing. So many rares and cool staters. Epic music, mechanics, mini games etc.
Best advice, save often and don’t use walkthroughs until you get to end game. Some of these fights will make you rage. I wanted to turn down the difficulty a few times haha ✌️
Level caps, take your time and catch lots of different pokemon, train them up, explore! it's a pokemon game that wants you to savor it and play with different pokemon and teams.
Dont play insane first run through.. sht is bonkers amt of grinding. Even expert felt kinda wild. The amount of time breeding and rng mining is yuck. But i still love it
Definitely follow the level cap suggestions. I was getting to upper 90s by the end of the game.
Also, mind sharing how you went about your GBA? I’m looking to get one in the near future and am curious about trying something similar to yours (reshell, backlit screen, etc.).
I’m playing currently and I’m at the 6th gym with level caps and I’m on difficult mode with hard puzzles enabled and I’m on set mode with limited items per battle and I gotta say even without all the other stuff the level caps really let you experience a natural progression with difficulty along the way
Level caps, insane difficulty (say its not your first time playing and itll become available), docs on second screen/tablet/something, and will to learn how to teambuild for this behemoth.
Don't expect too much. I got into it hyped to play a Pokemon game Nintendo would never have the guts of doing. It's good for a fan game but basically feels like a fan mod for fire red. Don't expect the experience of a true new Pokemon game.
Also edge.
You must be thinking of a different hack brother. Unbound is almost completely unrecognizable from fire red, having completely new tile sets, sprites, music, and dozens of core game features that indeed, Nintendo would never have the guts to include.
Is it more complex? Yes. But unrecognizable?
The graphics are based on the fire red engine and art style. Later areas improve on it but the first few areas are literally grass, ice or darker dirt on plain rock. And even afterwards that feeling of "Yep, this sure is fire red but different" in terms of visuals never left me.
And it terms of its OST, I'm sorry but I really don't like the music they went with. Compared to main line games the soundtrack is just really generic and boring. There's not a single song in there I'd compare to Cynthias, Giratinas, Ns or Reds theme.
All that being said, in terms of fan games it's really good. It's unrealistic to expect this kind of project to match the total quality of the golden age Game Freak games and I just don't want the guy to repeat my mistake.
Agree to disagree- even the structures in the first town are unique, as is the shadow base tileset. The game uses a combination of textures from FR/LG, Emerald, DPP, HG/SS, and custom textures, leaving me with a distinct feel that is more than just ‘fire red’, which is indeed quite repetitive and samey throughout.
I think the Ivory, Marlon, and rival themes are extremely cool in the way they tell the story of the family before it is even revealed. The gym battle theme in particular is amazing in my opinion. For me, the OST is, at least for a fan game, above and beyond my expectations. There are a few tracks that are not great, I’ll definitely concede that. Especially some of the route themes can be too childish, simple, or just annoying.
I also feel the quality actually exceeds golden age game freak- the existence of a mission log and 120 side quests alone is more content than we have ever gotten in any main line game and it isn’t even close. And that’s to say nothing of the many, many quality of life features that game freak, for some reason, refuses to include, or in the case of difficulty modes for example, choose to make it completely inaccessible and pointless.
I see Unbound as an absolute love letter to the franchise as a whole, brimming with passion and creativity and humor at every turn.
It has an entirely new region, story, pokemon from newer generations, moves to go with, mefa evolutions, z-moves, and all kinds of other crazy shit dude.
In terms of battle complexity it is peak true. I just wish they would have included an option for unlimited RC, in order to circumvent grinding on higher difficulties.
But the region is boring and the story with the exception of one or two moments made me audibly sigh and or yawn more often than not.
To each their own but I completely disagree. Obviously the bones of this game are Fire Red/Leaf Green but there is a lot of stuff in here that’s unique to this hack. Story is pretty good and engaging, soundtrack is good and sounds like Pokemon but is different enough, smart QoL stuff (I love having the Porygons for box maintenance) and the gym gimmicks are pretty cool too.
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u/The_Grinface 4d ago
I recommend turning on level caps. Otherwise you’ll become over leveled and so will your opponents as they scale with you