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Pokemon Gaia Version

December 8, 2025

Don't Want to Read?

A FireRed hack in a new region with an original story focusing on a new evil team and the Regi legendary Pokémon. Pokédex includes Pokemon from a variety of regions and Mega Evolution.
  • An early ROMhack to feature a new region (2014) that feels like a regular Pokémon region.
  • Harder than an official Pokémon game, but without being strictly "difficult."
  • Good variety of Pokémon early enough in that you can be flexible in team building.
  • Unique areas and sidequests help reward exploration along with hidden grottos and other locations providing unique Pokémon and items.
  • There were a couple points where the next steps could be unclear.
4/5 Stars

Summary

The Orbtus region was home to a powerful civilization, but after a series of deadly earthquakes, only relics of that past remain. Archaeologist and Pokémon Professor Redwood has noticed the area's increase in seismic activity and is concerned about what this could mean for the future. He seeks new trainers to investigate what is going on and who is involved.

Major Features

  • Mega Evolution
  • Physical/Special Split
  • Fairy type and updated type charts.
  • Pokémon from gens 1-6.
  • Rock climb, Dive, hidden grottos, and more to make exploring the overworld different.
  • Bug Catching contest and Battle Marsh provide fun side-activities as you play through the game.
  • Original story and region to explore and uncover.

Review

Gaia is one of my favorite ROM hacks I've played so far. I'm always interested in original region hacks as I love the exploration aspect of Pokémon. Getting to explore areas that aren't seen as often in Pokémon games like farms or seeing more statues and temples than the older 2d games had was a lot of fun. The addition of hidden grottos also helped exploring feel special as it could be rewarded with a rare Pokémon with some unique abilities or moves.

The writing feels similar enough to a "real" Pokémon game and features some funny side characters and moments that avoid the edgy dissonance a lot of ROM Hacks from this era could have. The story of the Regi legendaries, the ancient civilization and the evil team of "New Elders" isn't exactly breaking new ground, but provide a good enough story to keep you going through the plot.

The Pokémon selection is varied and supported a variety of gimmick team concepts. I went with every 'mon on my team sharing a type with my starter, Torterra, and managed to get a full team and swap out a few members without issue throughout the story. There are no fakemon and no new megas either, so it does have the general issue of Mega Pokémon existing: you're going to want one of the Pokémon with a mega on your team.