Pokemon Aesthetic Red (v1.1) GBA Download

Pokemon Aesthetic Red is a Completed GBA Rom Hack made by LibertyTwins. Explore a vibrant Kanto with enhanced visuals, immersive music, rebalanced gameplay, and an open-world adventure!

Pokemon Aesthetic Red Completed GBA Rom Hack

Author: LibertyTwins
Hack Off: FireRed
Language: English
Released on: December 13, 2025
Latest Version: v1.1
Last Updated on: December 30, 2025
Status: Completed

Pokemon Aesthetic Red is a Fire Red ROM hack that takes a completely different approach to reinventing the Kanto journey. This isn’t yet another enhancement hack trying to add as many features as possible…

Instead, Pokemon Aesthetic Red is all about enhancing the visual and musical experience of Pokémon. All of the graphics have been changed to create a vibrant aesthetic, inspired by the DS and Game Boy. It also has a brand new soundtrack, with each song chosen to give a refreshing and immersive vibe. On top of that, we’ve also upgraded the gameplay side of things with new QoL and features, an open world, major rebalancing and more.

Major Features

Complete Visual & Musical Overhaul with vibrant graphics and a refreshing soundtrack
Open-World Kanto and Sevii Islands: No HM restrictions, Gyms can be challenged in any order
All Gen 1-2 Pokémon available with related evolutions
New Features: Reusable TMs, Portable PC, Infinite Rare Candy, Wonder Trade, Move Tutors and more! Optional Level Scaling, Level Caps, Doubles Mode and Randomizers
Major Rebalancing: New Learnsets & Abilities, Type & Stat changes, no IVs/EVs/Natures, streamlined Evolution Methods and more. (Faithful Version available if you don’t want rebalancing)
Increased Difficulty: Improved AI and Trainers, reimagined Gym Leaders & Boss Trainers

Graphics:

Beautiful Outdoors Tilesets by Ikarus
New Overworld Sprites for NPCs, Items and more
“No Platform” Battle Backgrounds
Gen 1-2 Pokémon use revamps of the best Game Boy sprites
Custom Trainer Sprites for all classes and characters
New Menus:
- BW HP Bars, Summary Screen, Main Menu & Naming Screen
- Full-Screen Start Menu
- HGSS Party Screen
- SWSH Bag & Mart Menus
- Custom Options Menu
- All menus have been recoloured
Full Decapitalization
Custom DS-styled Text Boxes
GBC-styled Font
Custom Type Icons inspired by the TCG
New Opening & Title Screen
Weather Effects added to certain maps
Various Upgrades to the Battle UI, Town Map and more

Music

Enjoy some of the best songs from Gens 1-8, Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Ranger, Sonic, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy and more!
Extra Battle Themes for your Rival, Team Rocket, Elite Four, Champion and Legendaries
More songs have been added to reduce repetition between maps

Note: While most players prefer to use speed-up, the new music is a core part of Aesthetic Red, so we recommend playing at normal speed with the sound on for the best experience.

Features provided by the CFRU & DPE:

Battle Engine Upgraded to Gen 8
- All Moves, Abilities & Item Effects through Gen 8
- Physical/Special Split
- Fairy Type
- Improved AI
- Battle Terrains
- New Move Animations
- Ability Pop-ups
- Disappearing HP Bars during Attack Animations
Level Scaling
Updated Exp. Share
Expanded Learnsets
New Evolution Methods
Expanded TMs & Move Tutors
Reusable TMs & Removable HMs
Field Moves can be used without teaching HMs
Updated Repel System
Auto-Run and Faster Bicycle
Move Items on Party Screen
Roaming Pokémon
Instant Text
Day & Night
Pre-Battle Mugshots
Base Stats Displayed on Pokédex
Item Image shown when obtaining Items
Footstep Sounds on Grass, Sand and Water
…and more!

Open World

National Dex, HMs, Old Rod, Portable PC, Candy Jar (Infinite Rare Candy) and Infinite Repel are given by Prof. Oak
Badge Requirements for HMs removed
Field Moves can be used without teaching HMs
Fly anywhere from the start (excluding the League)
Trainers & Wild Pokémon scale with Party levels
Gym Leaders, Rival and Giovanni scale with your badge count
SV-Styled Trainers are optional (except for Gym Trainers or Rocket Grunts)
Sevii Islands accessible from the start (from Vermilion City)
Navel Rock & Birth Island are unlocked by getting the Ruby & Sapphire

Optional Gameplay Settings:

Trainer Level Scaling (doesn’t affect Boss Trainers)
Level Caps (Candy Jar is always capped to prevent cheating)
Doubles Mode (Wilds are Single)
Catch Trainers’ Pokémon
Inverse Battle Mode
Species Randomizer
Ability Randomizer
Learnset Randomizer

These options can be toggled by speaking to Poké Dolls in your bedroom.

Other Features

277 Pokémon – All Gen 1-2 Pokémon and related evolutions (and a secret Pokémon 👀)
All Pokémon obtainable before the Elite Four (excluding Mewtwo)
All Legendaries obtainable between Kanto & Sevii Islands
Reimagined Gym Leaders & Boss Trainers
Gym Leader & Elite Four Rematches
Items can’t be used in Boss Battles
Upgraded Marts
- Marts sell more items based on your badge count
- Ability Capsule can be bought from all Marts
- Celadon Dept. Store sells Hold Items, TMs, Evolution Items, Poké Balls
- Celadon Dept. Store has Move Tutor, Relearner and Egg Move Tutor
- Pokémon League has improved Marts & Tutors
TM Compatibility visible from the TM Case
Wonder Trade available after 3 badges (level received depends on your badge count)
New In-Game Trades
Improved Catch Rates based on rarity
Press Select to move Pokémon in Party Screen
Shiny Rate is 1/2048
Pokémon will always obey
Cerulean Day Care breeds Pokémon
All Pokémon can breed (except for Babies, Genderless or Legendaries)
All Eggs hatch within one cycle (256 steps)
Saving shows number of Pokémon Seen > Caught
Safari Zone has normal battles
Various Upgrades and Fixes (see Credits)

Balance Changes

Battle Engine, Moves & Abilities updated to Gen 8 by the CFRU
All Items added up to Gen 8 by Leon’s ROM Base
All Pokémon have new Abilities (most of which are more present in battle)
Some Pokémon have new Types (e.g. Charizard is Fire/Dragon)
Some Pokémon have Base Stats adjusted (similar to Drayano/Radical Red)
IVs, EVs & Natures removed
Few Type Table changes (e.g. Psychic is 1x against Steel)
Learnsets expanded with Egg Moves, new Signature Moves and more
- Moves learned every 3-4 levels, with Extra Moves offered on evolution
- Signature Moves from later Pokémon have been redistributed (e.g. Starmie can learn Water Shuriken, Magmortar can learn Magma Storm)
Evolution Methods have been made more accessible:
- Friendship, Trade and Unique Evolution Methods have been replaced with Level Up or Item Evolutions
- Elemental Stones can be used instead of specific items (e.g. Magmar can evolve with a Magmarizer or Fire Stone)
- Hold Items can be used on a Pokémon to evolve without trading
- Most Baby Pokémon evolve at Lv.15
- Most Trade Evolutions evolve at Lv.40 or with a Link Cable
Weather & Terrain Effects are permanent if triggered by an ability
Harsh Sunlight nerfs Water and Ice moves. Desolate Land prevents usage of these moves
Hail increases Defense of Ice Pokémon by 50%
Hail increases damage of Ice moves by 50%
Sandstorm increases damage of Ground moves by 50%
Misty Terrain increases damage of Fairy moves by 50%, no longer nerfs Dragon moves

Changelog v1.1 – Final Update

Chansey Doll now correctly toggles the Level Caps as intended
Route 5 Day Care Lady’s husband is now present outside of the Day Care
Route 24 Rival now appears regardless of whether the Town Map has been obtained
Daisy will still give you the Town Map after beating the Route 24 Rival
Rival Battles at 0 & 1 Badges now include his starter Pokémon
The Bag can now be used during all Legendary Battles
The Fossil Restoration NPC now allows all fossils to be resurrected
Tyrogue’s Evolution Methods have been updated to the following:
- Hitmonlee – Lv.20
- Hitmonchan – Sun Stone
- Hitmontop – King’s Rock

Version Difference

The hack comes in 3 different versions:

Normal Version: Full game with new music, graphics and features
Faithful Version: Same as above but without rebalancing (vanilla Base Stats, Abilities, Learnsets, Type Changes and Type Table)
Music & Graphics Only: New music and graphics while keeping the vanilla gameplay

Normal and Faithful Versions come with 2 Patches, so you can play with either GBC or DS Font and Battle Sprites.

Note: While some players will prefer the vanilla balance, we recommend playing Normal Version to fully experience the boss teams as designed, as Faithful Version loses new Ability changes, reducing boss difficulty.

Screenshots

Known Bugs

We’ve avoided as many bugs as possible, but there are a few minor bugs caused by third-party resources.

Exiting the Bag crashes on emulators using a BIOS file. We recommend using mGBA, Pizza Boy or Delta, without BIOS.
- Normatt’s Open Source BIOS does work, but use at your own risk as we haven’t tested it ourselves
BW HP Bars (these also appear in other hacks that use them):
- The first digit of your HP doesn’t update when dropping below 100
- The left opponent’s Level won’t always show in Double Battles
  - (Going to the Party Menu or Bag fixes both the above)
BW Naming Screen (these also appear in other hacks that use it):
- Gift Pokémon doesn’t save nicknames when received
- Expanded Species show incorrect names when nicknaming
Game Corner Prize Room may have bugs (incompatible with CFRU)
- The game crashes if you surpass 9999 Coins in the Game Corner
Silph Co. Elevator has been removed (incompatible with CFRU)
Using Candy Jar via Select offsets the camera
The 9th character of the Rival’s name changes after events in Oak’s Lab
In-Battle Type Icons disappear during the Tutorial Battle
The Pause Menu Clock not working is only a bug with the menu. The real time clock does actually work
Shiny Pokémon may appear in their normal colours. We’ve tested all versions and seen screenshots with correctly-coloured shinies, so we can only assume this is down to the emulator or base ROM used!