Thank you so much for the kind words in regards to Rejuvenation, both in the video itself and what people are saying in the comments! It makes me so happy to read AGH 😭 And personally speaking, I fully agree with what you followed it up with; Rejuvenation really is an exception in terms of quality standard. We put the bar extremely high for ourselves, but it is not the median for fangames as a whole, and I don't really think it's fair towards other games to consider it as much. I think every fangame deserves a fair shot and judgement without it being compared to a project of this scope because realistically, most projects do not take 10+ years to hit completion! Or revise half the game multiple times! And that's ok!! Not everyone is as unhinged as we are about polishing a game to perfection and it's probably healthier that way for everyone involved LOL. Fangames can still be amazing even without ridiculous scope and always should be given a fair chance. But again, thank you very much!!!!!!! I'm so glad to see people enjoy Rejuv as much as they do!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm very thankful for all the work you guys have put into rejuv, but I really wanted to make sure the community understands that such a thing shouldn't be expected as the standard for free to play fan games. I'm glad you enjoyed my segment about it!
Yooo! You’re part of the Rejuv team?! Thank you so much for making such a wonderful game! The secretion right before you get the gift Mawile (being vague for obvious reasons) was so powerful. Same with what happened in Amethyst Cave. And the side quests! I always look forward to doing them when I find a help center! Seriously, you’re all doing incredible work. Thank you so much for the many hours of entertainment! Lastly, at this point that Dragonite needs to be fired.
A lot of these games I haven't seen on any top 10 list (despite them deserving to be), goes to show that we need more people on this platform dedicated to covering Pokemon fangames.
because a lot of people do not like to rate unfinished games, it's not that they are bad it's just that until they are finished a review does not really make sense , it's even more important for fan games since a lot of them will be abandonned and never finished.
Love that reborn was in this. Feel like reborn is often looked over with rejuvenation. I personally LOVED the story, the gameplay, everything about it!
Reborn is much too difficult for the finances you have available. If I could buy the 15k ev trainer items before the bug gym, it'd be fine, but as it is? Nope. Not gonna do that grind. Screw that.
@ ya reborn in the beginning is definitely like that. I struggled with that too actually. I didn’t really start worrying about IVS/EVS til after a couple gyms. That’s when I noticed difficulty really start coming
@@easymac10 thats where the codes come in at the begining. to help those whos having a hard time. having stuff like hardcap (my favorite) which makes it like revjunation does and makes it so you cant go over the level cap. theres also things that lowers the difficulty greatly. like making you go full gen 2 mode and have max evs in every stat (yup that was the case in gen 2 just that noone really cared about it back then much). theres a ton that helps out a lot
@@easymac10 oh back when i started we had like... i think 3 or 4 gyms XD. i dont remember but it wasnt much at alllll. though the updates came out during my first playthrough i dont think i actually caught up to the ending till episode 18 came out. i actually think i got the original game on my old pc
Ashen Frost is probably the most out of the box from all of then. Its a complete life simulator with a great story and engaging characters. I'm halfway through it and despite the difficulty spiking sometimes, it's exactly how Pokémon should start doing their games.
Rejuvenation isn't just my favourite fangame, its my favourite pokemon game period. It has EVERYTHING I want from a pokemon game. A good story, interesting characters, split paths, a beautiful overworld, tons of replay value, new pokemon forms and most importantly, a good challenge. I am on the newer side of fans, (played v12 two weeks before v13 came out,) but its no understatement to say that Rejuvenation is the single best pokemon game I've ever laid my hands on. I wish the devs success, and can't wait for future updates. (I can't wait for v14).
From this list I really enjoyed Glazed, Realidea System, Reborn, Ashen Frost, Desolation and Rejuv. Reborn & Rejuv are two of my all time fave games, not just fangames
Rejuvenation, Desolation and Reborn are great in their own ways. The latter also has the Reatomized mod, which adds in all the Pokemon from Uranium and also Infinity. Absolutely mindblowingly fun. Pokemon Empire would be my number one though. Fantastic story, great characters, stellar Fakemon, a dynamic story that goes places even Rejuvenation doesn't go...and the dev team is wonderful too. It's also very challenging...definitely up there with Reborn. My only gripes with it are some of the puzzles and some of the overwrought NPC dialogue.
For all the flak that Reborn gets, it needs to be said that it was the prototype of Amethyst's dev team. The innovative biome mechanic is my favourite of all time including Gamefreak's additions (MegaEvo included). I believe wholeheartedly that Desolation will be their vest work yet once it's complete. I agree the Dreamscape arc was the best bit of storytelling and game immersion i've ever encountered in a game (excluding the Mass Effect 2 & 3 games) frantically scouring every visit to make sure I didnt miss anything. Another significant moment in Desolation is in hour 2-3 that has your heart sink (IFKYK) and you can honestly see the evolution of storytelling from the Reborn and Rejuv being the seeds to subtly inform the player that all is not what it seems. Great list btw thankyou
I am happy that you put rejuvenation at the 1st place! It deserves to be in 1st place as the developers have poured their heart and soul into making this game and its just mind-blowing and surprising at the same time that they all were consistent and worked on it for 10 years!! I mean that's just insane and the story, plot, character development, environment, tilesets, animation effect and everything about it is just amazing. I really liked the fact that you took the right approach and spoke realistically on how unsatisfied and complaining can people be no matter how good a game or a thing is in general. They always compare stuff and blabber unnecessarily about the pros and cons of anything. I mean they should respect and appreciate the developers for their consistency and the efforts they make to develop such a amazing game. Thank you man for making this video 🙏🏻. I liked the whole video and every single point that you made was understandable and everyone has different opinions but the points that you pointed out were reasonable. So yeah please keep making videos like this and I will surely support em👍🏻💯
Tried it for the 1st time. First thing I notice is that, I am a side quest nerd and always surprised how underlevel I am. I wish you can see like a quest rank or even the expected level of pokemons you will battle.
@@RukoS-xy6joThe thing is, you can't just go ahead and complete every single side quest in an area within a matter of minutes, start off with the small ones first, then progress through the main story and level up, then take on the big ones when you're sure of yourself. But I agree with your last point, hopefully they'll implement something like that in a future update.
I knew which gane you'll put as the top... And you're right: Rejuvenation, as a game, is an experience that is fresh for those who are new and want a challenge or a good plot... But for those who saw it grow up for a decade, and how those things are implemented or used as easter eggs... This game is like seeing a child who you watched growing up, you played with them, you know them from beginning and they remember you how much time have spent invested... And it remember you how many changes have been to this point...
Agreed, I like how the game seems to imply that each and every version of the game that released takes place in different timelines from one another, or the fact that both routes seem to intersect with each other at certain points.
I think it's also a testament to how good Rejuvenation is that even people like me can recognize it. I say "people like me" because I honestly love Rejuvenation, but I can't really play it all that much because it doesn't really fit my playstyle. I love playing Pokémon games with good stories, but the main reason I want to play a Pokémon game is to collect (to follow the "Gotta catch 'em all" motto), and Rejuvenation is not friendly to that playstyle at all. Even with that, I managed to make a full playthrough of it (prior to the current version) and still had tons of fun with it.
Rejuvenation is the goat, it's funny I really wasn't expecting to ever grow to like characters like Venam or Saki but they somehow did it, without piles of edge to boot.
when it comes to insurgence the reason I still hold in in high regard for a couple reasons despite playing a very large number of fangames and romhacks is 1. nostalgia, i started following fangames when i was around 14 years old and i remember following the head dev on Twitter looking forward to sneak peaks and playing the full game on release was a good feeling 2. the sheer amount of delta forms, alternate forms, and megas is insane. all in all there is about 300+ practically new Pokemon giving TON of different team comp options and a large majority of their designs are awesome 3. the story, while not great i find endearing. it can be a funny kind of bad at a lot of points making it entertaining. it's why i much prefer insurgence to something like reborn because with reborn the story and edge it is so dry that it just makes for a boring adventure. it also has a decent amount of QOL features like ev/iv training and audio training readily available after the 1st gym. I recently played Insurgence about a year or 2 ago and it by no means holds up the best but there is enough there to keep you entertained
This list was very unique and overall felt very justified.I share same opinions about some of the "popular" fan games as litterally anything that comes out these days gets called "the best".Still im patiently waiting for desolation and rejuvenation to get completed.While im at it, thanks for the extra games in the list :)
I personally find Insurgence and Reborn to be masterpieces, but I understand that they walked so that future fangames could run. Rejuvenation and Desolation are two of the three "Reborn Evo" games alongside Reborn, and they share many of the same devs between them, and it's really cool to see how their ideas have evolved in the over ten years since Reborn started development.
I agree with the thought on insurance. I picked it up because my favorite starter got a cool form. Found out it was post game. Disappointed is an understatement.
I recently played Pokemon Atlas, its a spanish-made fan game with absolutely stunning visuals and a really great storyline. The game is only on its second demo with 4 playable gyms but it was a really fun experience nonetheless. I'm not connected to the Atlas team whatsoever I just played it recently and would love for it to get more recognition so that the devs could notice their hard work paying off and good things happen for the game!
This is a great list!! Reborn, Desolation, and Rejuvenation are such amazing games! My personal favorite game is Pokemon Emerald Elite Redux but I love all of these!! :D
Pokemon reborn actualy got an update recently to version 19.5, which adds even more qol features, several of which come from rejuvenation, and even more passwords, and a new quest that gives you a comfey before the 2nd gym, which is kinda insane to have that early on.
Great to see pokemon rejuvenation getting some love and appreciation.It's probably my favourite pokemon game of all time.I like it more than the canon ones if without taking the nostalgia factor in consideration. It's such an amazing story driven game with balanced difficulty in pokemon battles.The world of pokemon rejuvenation rejuvenation feels truly grand due to the ammount of tales and lores of different times and place scattered throughout the story. What I love most about this game are the intriguing side characters.Some are mysterious,some are humorous,they are always fun to interact with.They stick around with the mc even when their character arc is over.They don't feel like npcs at all.The side quests are also fun to do and they dont feel like waste of time. I would say the main drawback is the pacing. It feels very slow at times especially at the first 4 badges.I think most people would not want to invest 100+ hours in a relatively lesser known pokemon game.I truly started liking this game at the terajuma arc(approximately 30 hours into the story).And as I mentioned before,tales of different eras are told,so it's hard to keep track of all the plot points.But after considering everything the the pros definitely outweighs the cons.Pokemon romhack fans should definitely try this game out.
There is a modified version of Insurgence that provides Qol improvements and more called Pokémon Detergent. It also allows you to get more Delta Pokémon before the post-game.
Ooo, I might actually hunt that down. I loved Insurgence back in high school, but I tried playing it again recently and… yeah, fan games have improved a lot since then. Not bashing the game, mind you. Insurgence walked so other fan games could run.
Rejuv and Reborn are bar none the best pokemon experiences one can have if you actively play Pokemon. If you want a creative one go for Salt N Shadow, but nothing compares to Reborn and Rejuv, and ever since they nerfed the highest difficulty in Rejuvenation, Reborn takes the crown no questions asked imo. I think its just a natrual conclusion if youve played many romhacks /fangames. You want rewarding exploration, a huge world and diffucult but doable battles, with a nice progression and a rewarding lategame, thats all there is to it. You can say you like a story or the graphics but those dont keep you playing. You can say you like fakemon but that wares out extremely quickly if you play for more than 3hours. Play Reborn and Rejuv, if possible leave months of space between the two. Edit: Pokemon Reloaded is the best non-pokemon pokemon game there is, if you find the above too difficult play Reloaded, you will finish it
i recently started playing rejuvenation because of your past video talking aout it. i was looking for a new game after i finished the current version of vanguard (which is my fav fan game to date and i still think about on a daily basis) and i really have to say thank you. because pokemon rejuvenation is so nice to play, it scratches the exact itch i had for a fan game and its the first time that a game with not that many fakemon has given me this much enjoyment. i have never looked at pokemon the same way as i do now.
I recently finished Reborn and I genuinely think it's a masterpiece; Amethyst Liddell and her team put in like a decade of truly pioneering work and it paid off massively. Now I'm really looking forward to what is apparently quite a beefy postgame! Also Rejuvenation and Desolation share a lot of their dev teams with Reborn, and collectively they're called the "Reborn Evo" games, which combined with what I've heard from people who have played them makes me super excited to try them out myself!
In my opinion, Reborn is the gold standard for fan games. For those who mentioned "growing up" with Rejuvenation, following the development with new chapters, that was what I got to experience with Reborn. I loved the story and the characters, and still do to this day. And yes, there are a lot of characters in that game, but the challenge and the story was always engaging for me. Eventually, once E14 of Rejuvenation comes out, I'll start the game properly (started it a couple of times beforehand), but for now, I do love what Reborn was for the fan game community.
@@cameroncase1730 Yeah honestly I feel like Reborn is kinda THE fangame success story just in terms of not only its own merits but what it's done for fangames going forward in general. Niche as it is, it and Reborn Evo have really become an institution in their own right in the Pokémon community. I haven't really been keeping up with Rejuvenation, is Episode 14 slated to be the completed game or do they still have a ways to go?
16:24 Absolutely agree, I dont like Xenoverse either and I never understood why so many people like for example Zwiggo praised it as the best pokemon fan game, I see that the developers put much effort in it but it isn't by far one of the best fan games
No offense but zwiggo's opinions probably aren't the best to listen to. I've never watched his videos themselves so I can't judge the quality, but his titles and thumbnails are very clickbaity. He calls every popular fan game "the best" and makes videos about "the best of (year)" before said year is even halfway over.
@@ayrei1503 Yes I agree, do you know Pokemon Myth? He praised it as the the best fan game or rom hack (I forgot) of 2023 and as I played it I was thinking like W T F the story is trash as hell, no qol features, a very dumb new gimmick (it's basically terastillizing without terastilling) the gyms are the worst joke ever (puzzles and leader), random legendary spam and unbalanced, you can catch in the early game a new water dragon type with D Dance and with this you can sweep every thing (I did it in my playthrough).
I think Pokemon Tectonic is the greatest pokemon fangames in terms of Qol and also completely rebalancing of the pokemon formula and amazing visuals and loveable characters. There's always something to discover about every pokemon. Your channel was the one who introduced me to it.
Rejuvenation is so GOOD! I’m playing it right now, actually. Just dealt with a very grumpy carnavine. The characters are SO good. I adore Nim, Aelita and Mosely especially, but the others are wonderful too. And the towns… they all feel so different! Goldenleaf is probably my favorite because of its vibes.
I absolutely agree with Rejuv being number 1. The characters and story nowadays are written in a way that's so crazy in scope yet so endearing to me that it's practically changed my life. The Rebornverse community may be flawed, but thanks to Rejuvenation I found tons of new friends to call my own and brainnot about the game with. I can't say that for any other fangame I've played. Both the community aspect and the sheer quality of the game, with so many little details that made me "ooh" or "ahh" or guffaw, make this a modern masterpiece in regards to what a small, low-budget team can achieve through sheer passion.
I literally never play Pokemon Fan games but my two favourites in this video are Glazed and Rejuvenation! I really want to try both out now, in fact I will.
Rejuv is probably my favourite game of all time with the amazing story, the effort put into each area, including the Easter eggs for people who have already beaten the game, the difficulty and customisation, I played on fullevs mode classic no items for my 2 play throughs, and thinking for my next full evs no items no evs gain and empty ivs renegade in v14 - it’s going to be stupidly hard, and finally the music which perfectly captures the mood even in side quests like missing persons, it’s just an amazing game and I can’t recommend enough you haven’t already played it
10. Pokemon Glazed, been Complete for years, but keeps getting quality of life updates. 9. Pokemon Infinite Fusion, ...Honestly not sure how to answer since they keep adding more and more stuff. The Kanto and Johto regions are complete though. 8. Pokemon Realidea, Complete. 7. Pokemon Reborn, Complete. (Warning: Extremely long and difficult. Highly recommend looking into the game's password system if you need to make things a bit easier on yourself.) 6. Pokemon Harmony? Aarmony? ...I honestly haven't played this one and have no idea. (Can't seem to find it looking it up either...
Rejuv might not just be my favorite fangame of all time, or even my favorite Pokemon game, it might just be my personal favorite *game* if they can stick the landing. Genuinely, aside from past Football Manager addictions, I don't think I've had a game own as much of my brain as Rejuv has. I think another thing is that with *so many* characters, and yet all of them being distinct, everyone can find at least one character that they can kinda see themselves in. Still gotta play some of these games (once I'm done with Unbreakable Ties), but the ones I've played I generally agree on except mayyyyybe Unbound which I haven't replayed with a more critical eye yet (I remember enjoying it on my first playthrough but that might just be new toy smell).
Rejuv is so wonderful! I’m playing it right now! Just dealt with Carnavine and am in the town with all the rangers. Everything about the game has impressed me thus far. Do you have any favorite towns or characters?
@@SleepySeal121 I would say my fav characters buuuuut knowing that you're in Kakori you haven't really met them yet haha! Kristiline is my favorite town, though you likely haven't seen it at *peak* yet
Very good list and I agree with most of what you said although I believe desolation is above rejuvenation personally .On a side note there’s a Spanish fan game called Pokémon awakening that’s really good and will be finished soon .And the game that I personally prefer but hasn’t gotten news in years black cinder (not an improvement hack)
Happy to see Reborn and both adjacent games^^. I was a big fan of Reborn since I played it first in ep. 13 or sth. and I absolutely love it now that it is finished, definitely my most favourite fangame. I do like the other two aswell but have small reservations. Desolation was very much fun aswell, I enjoyed it immensely and it would probably be my second most favourite but I managed to softlock me at some point and that made me quit the game entirely. But it's been quite a while since then so I may return in the near future and try it again. Rejuvenation was also a pretty neat game but I had and still have some problems. The first problem was my mistake entirely, I don't like fakemons (if I want fakemons I play different monster taming games, not like Pokemon is the only one) and I mistook these crypto pokemon for fakemons, as at that point I had never heard about Pokemon Colloseum before. Then when I tried it my second time I just honestly got bored of it after getting quite far, but I would be willing to try it again. Regrettably my third problem prevents me from trying again, it's just not finished and I can't expect me trying it another time once it might be finished. That's what Reborn now has as a clear advantage, it's finished and I knew I could pull through after replaying it for the third or fourth itme.
My favourites are for sure rejuvenation and reborn for their combat system with the field effects and their difficulty. Reborn especially (because it was my first one out of the two) taught me a lot about pokemon that I never knew. I've done a few monotype runs of Reborn and they are really fun and challenging. Also the experience in general is just very fresh, after every gym badge you are almost always making new additions to your team because these two games don't just shower you with overpowered pokemon until the late game and the post game (for legendaries). The only ''bad'' thing that I have to say, is that I now can't play any fan games that don't have speed up lol.
As I continue to watch, I’m one of the ones who holds insurgence in high regard 🤣you were definitely on point about stuff though. I personally thought the story was pretty easy to follow if you read through stuff. And legendaries don’t have much of an excitement element to me, so I thought how they added them in gave them some worth 😅
I recently played Pokemon Odyssey and it's SO fun!, I'm tired of the usual Pokemon League Gym Challenge and then suddenly the evil team steps in, I definitely agree when Odyssey is gonna be the best romhack over Unbound after it's complete
I, as a huge Pokemon Insurgence fan, having it as my favorite pokemon fangame, I absolutely agree on the negatives on the game and will add even more to it: - I believe that locking the majority of the deltas in the postgame is really sucky, especially when a lot of the empty areas would've used an extra delta encounter or 2 Koril town for Delta Tangela, Amphitrite city for Delta Dratini, etc. Like why put Delta Diglett in the post game when playthrough normal and ice deltas outperform it, it's just a slap in the face. - Whilst you mentioned the story being confusing, it doesn't stop there, it's straight up not FINISHED, Jaern just disappears, Audrey is just gone after her rescue, we don't get any info on Reukra and Sylvan's bond, Adam is just stuck in the nightmare realm, The 3rd gym leader (which I forgot the name of) is just...revived off screen??????, Xavier does nothing but switch houses, the region is left with like 4 working gym leaders at the end of the game, you finish the game by sealing a whole race of people to their doom, it's just...what?? - The battles, whilst great, I absolutely love them, (1500 hours on the game speaking), it's really just random how hard they'll be, there aren't fights like in Reborn which you can pin point and say they'll be hard each and every time, cause these ones are just never consistent. - The team variety (maybe just for me) is really lacking, think which deltas will you use every playthrough? Bisharp, Gardevoir/Gallade and Haxorus are definitely there and the last 3 are filler slots. - The way some characters just get shafted throughout the entire story, like after the 3rd Gym Jaern just pops out of existence, and after Utira town you don't have another rival battle....for 4 gyms, until you get till the next Damian fight. - The game doesn't run as smooth and that's mainly a problem i've noticed after playing fangames like Reborn where it just moves so buttery smooth, it isn't as atrocious like let's say This gym of mine or Omicron/Zeta, but it's still just not as good as a lot of other fangames. With all of the negatives I still hold Insurgence very dear to my heart and love it, a lot, and will forever keep loving it a lot, mainly due to it appealing to me a lot, to what I look for and enjoy in pokemon games, through things like each delta being "Special", that you can get only 1 of which, making the act of getting the delta's seem like a collectible which I can't overstate how much I love, and even if the characters and their stories are weak I still found myself attached to Persephone, to Adam, to Nora, to Reukra. It's absolutely an incredibly flawed fangame for this time, in comparison to it's competition in these days, and it's mid by comparison to others, but it's my mid and i'll love it till the end. Great video btw.
List Just from Wild Guess Without Fully Watching the Video (CMIIW) 10. Pokemon Glazed (Happy Tunod, Who's Still Remember It? 😂) 9. Pokemon Infinite Fusion 8. Pokemon Realidea (Really recommend if you want to chill and enjoy memes, the story is kind of refreshing to play. If you're FGO players, then there are few surprises in the game) 7. Pokemon Reborn...I think? From the graphic style is similar 6. Pokemon Harmony (I didnt know and haven't played it yet) 5. Pokemon Flux (Made by Uranium Devs) 4. Pokemon Odyssey (Haven't tried yet and didnt know) Pokemon Insurgence (Great for you who want to start playing fangame for the first time. For you who have played it I think there is an upgrade of Insurgence named Detergent...) Pokemon Xenoverse (Great for you who want a breather from usual pokemon game) Pokemon Unbound (Another breather, good game) 3. Pokemon Ashen Frost (Havent tried it yet and played it) 2. Pokemon Desolation (Reborn and Rejuvenation. The same devs) 1. Pokemon Rejuvenation (Hella great game I love it very much but haven't continued it for a long time). Honorable mentions: Bushido and Clockwork (Just right, one you become a samurai who fights against people who spam poisoned or electrocuted knives out of nowhere 😂 and another one is travelling with Celebi) Adventure Red: Story of Red from original manga. Project Reunion (Red interacts with Multiverse) Reminiscent (the same devs as Realidea, different type of storyline) Opalo (Wild west and American Independence, well, yeah, set in US like region) Uranium (For those who haven't played or didnt know it, a great game) Atlas (haven't finished in development, but has a great potential) Unbreakable Ties (Good story, cinematic, etc.) Pathways (If you want split decision making game) Of course, Ayrei's own fangame: Vanguard. It's great and has a good difficulty level. You can choose many starters too. You need a lot of patience if you want to play this game ❤ If you want a dating sim there's Pokemon Academy Life. I dont know if it's cancelled or continued, but I heard it's in reboot process.
I personally prefer Desolation to Rejuvention but honestly not by much! You can tell a lot of work went into them and both have compelling stories. I can't wait to play them again when they are complete but I expect that wont be for a few more years
Of all the fangames/romhacks I’ve played, Rejuvenation has to be the one that has caused the most meaningful and positive impact. What’s crazy is that it’s not completed yet
Been looking for more fan games to play recently after finishing the most recent update of rejuv (been following since v7) and nothing can live up to it, but excited to give some I didn't know about here a try
I've played Insurgence and dozens of other Fangames and it still is in my top 10 personally, but I get where you're coming from and why it's not in yours.
I used to play a bunch of fan games, especially Pokémon Reborn and Rejuvenation, and I’m still kinda active in the community (technically I have been writing a Reborn fanfic for an embarrassingly long time 😅). Glad to see them mentioned in this list. I actually haven’t finished playing either Reborn or Rejuv, cause grad school, but I’d like to return sometime.
Great list, finally found a Poketuber that has a similar taste. Played most of these and agree, including the 'overrated' section. Pokemon Clover, Soulstones 2, Postscriptum, Empyrean, Opalo, Legends of the Arena are also great, though each in their own ways, and you should check them out if you haven't.
Ya know I was gonna throw up the pitchforks when you put xenoverse in the mid category but uhhhhhh yeah I kinda agree. The artificial difficulty spike with the amount of healthbars and almost forcing toxic stall is pretty insane to.
Very fair list, ill likely replay rejuvenation when it gets completed, I will say on my most recent play through I did find myself disliking the main cast quite a lot so even though it has so much going for it I cant really place it in 1.
I loved reborn and am happy to see it on this list I never finished it or played the complete version but it was an amazing experience nonetheless the edgy wasn't overly edgy and the world was pretty interesting
Good Video I do agree with Rejuv being No.1. While it's only my second favourite fangame in regards to straight up how much I like it (favourite here being an arbitrary matter of the heart; I still adore it to no end) I think it's certainly the best, and I cant wait to see what wild things V14 is going to put us through; If the final scene of Renegade was any indication, oh boy. I've been meaning to check out ashen frost for a while and i thank you for the additional recommendations.
Ima be so real, I drop Rejuvenation after the shadow mons were introduced. Not cause I don’t like Shadow mon it’s just cause I thought it was boring and heard it was really long. Is it really that good?
Imo the first like 4 or so chapters are probably the most boring for me but yet still very important to the story and everything, I would say when you get to blackstreee castle the game picks up a lot, I even dropped rejuv for like 2 months when I got to keta but just decided to pick it up again, and will I now have 2 completed save files one paragon and one renegade with almost 300 hrs in total and will do another complete playthrough when v14 comes out
Honestly, insurgence has a good structure, but it needs an update. If the developers (the ones that took over after Suzerain left) keep working on it, combing through the story, working on balance, and, for the love of god, changing the move animations, it might become a lot better
I personally play on mobile mostly and have gotten addicted to fan games recently. I really appreciate how reborn literally has a build for Joiplay that makes it super easy to play amd really wish more games had a joiplay option to help optimize the game. Could anyone recommend any other games optimized for mobile play? I say this as other games actually warn against mobile play.
I am very similar to you in that I only enjoy Fan Games (compared to Rom Hacks) and seek the ones with fakemon. Xenoverse is extremely overrated, although I did enjoy the story the slowness of the game and the lack of battle animations made it a non-replayable game for me. It was actually the first fan game I ever downloaded and set the bar kind of high. That said, the best ones for fakemon, are WITHOUT A DOUBT 1.) Infinity 2.) Uranium (can't wait for more FLUX) 3.) Solar Light/Lunar Dark. I've played those twice each after a year or two break in between, and they need to be mentioned. Infinite Fusion is the most replayable one in my opinion, due to limitless fusion mechanic and ability to re-roll wild mons with random encounters. I typically get 2 or 3 badges, spend days hunting and re-rolling until I have a roster of like 12-15 insanely cool fusions, then continue. You must use the fusion generator app, and it is very time consuming just researching the possible fusions using 1 mon as head, then body. It is rewarding to then pick your favorite one, try to find the other half, and make the fusion. If you haven't played the other 3 i mentioned, they are MUST PLAYS! PS>> Love the direction of this channel, also am re-playing VANGUARD atm as its added more regionals and chapters so thank you for that. Biggest gripe with that game however is the level caps should be higher between chapters. Typically when starting a chapter you can EXP Candy your team to the max, then battling feels a bit pointless.
You know I’ve been meaning to say this about Insurgence so I just wanna say it: Pokemon Insurgence is the Dragon Ball Z (specifically Z maybe a bit of OG too) of the Pokemon Fangame world. It was the one that many people started off and hold in such a place that they swear it’s the best, when in reality they either have barely dipped their toes in others or they have a huge bias. In reality Insurgence isn’t that great but I will stand by that it is good and doesn’t really stack up to anything more modern. I will agree that the music was a crime. But at least it wasn’t Zetta/Omicron, now that game was a hot mess
I am curious, what are your thoughts on Super Pokémon Eevee Edition? It’s personally one of my favorite fangames and most of it I’d attribute to the concept of the “Super Eevee”, a special Eevee capable of swapping between different Eevelutions, and how fun it is to use it, especially with the slightly more “real time” final fantasy style combat.
The ones that I know that has easy griding are Pokemon Desolation [Num. 2], Rejuvenation [Num. 1], and Infinite Fusion [Num. 9] (there are specific trainers with fused pokemon that give a lot but you may have to search their locations). Pokemon Realidea System [Num. 8] may not have an audino or candies grind but the level gaps feel balanced, in my opinion.
Rejuvenation has Audino trainers and candy but in the harder difficulty it also has a level cap. Ashen Frost has candies and a endlessly rematchable trainer (as well as a room that as you progress the game fills up with merchants that sell stuff like evolution stones, Nature Mints, Ability Capsules, IV increases, etc)... But there's a strict level cap, the candies are expensive (everything in the room is expensive so personally I'd buy just about anything else), the repeatable trainer can be absolutely BRUTAL to win against and even if you don't lose anything by losing to them it can be frustrating realising that 'dammit, half my team didn't level up because they got KOed before I won' or something. That said, I only ever needed to grind like crazy against that trainer because I personally kept switching between like 16 or so pokemon I liked and I wanted them ALL up to the level cap pretty much chapter, so good odds you'll probably won't 'have' to use the endless trainer anywhere near as much as I did~ XD Reborn has daily rematchable trainers in a certain hub area and there's plenty of mods for stuff like Audino trainers I think, but yeah it's another strict level cap game (and way, WAY harder than Ashen Frost is so you WILL be grinding up new mons periodically). Desolation I believe has Audino trainers and/or mods for them (been a while since I played so the memory is fuzzy) but is another game with strict level caps. Would recommend using the passwords for letting your Pokemon have max EVs in every stat and max IVs if difficulty is an issue for you (same with Reborn actually - full EVs helps out a surprising amount with difficulty issues). You flat out should not need an Audino trainer for Glazed - it's like standard mainline Pokemon game difficulty at most but they might've added candies or something like them in the many MANY QoL updates I haven't been keeping up with. Pokemon REALIDEA SYSTEM doesn't have either I think, but it does have a points system you can use for things like leveling up your mons (and a ton of other useful features) so while not as 'go endlessly crazy' in your grind it should easily help your team stay strong/help get a new team member up to par fast. ...I cannot remember if this game has level caps or not (if it does, they really did not stand out so arguably a non issue?). And I flat out don't know/remember about the rest but hope that helps you with whether or not you'd be into these great games =D
I stopped playing pokemon rejuvenation after v13 because when I grow up(older than i already am), I want to forget about it so that I can play it all over again. I may be praising this game too much, but rejuvenation is the only game I truly want to forget so I can experience it for the first time again. Nothing has made my whole life more fun than playing pokemon rejuvenation.
Interesting selection. I think the biggest flaw of Xenoverse is the central role of the pokemon starter. If you happen, like a lot of people, to do a nuzlocke and you kill the starter, gg you now have to carry a corpse to follow the plot.
Pokemon infinite fusion, should have a rogue like/lite with preecedural gyms and routes, would be inifnity fun because the only thing that makes you stop to play this game, is beat the story mode!
a couple of the games here are rom hacks, not fan games. even though they are fan made games rom hacks and fan games are different. overall good video, hope you continue uploading great content
I love this video! I am so happy to see a list that actually criticizes the most commonly praised fangames. I liked Unbound, but I just could not enjoy it due to it seeming to have an identity crisis.
can you provide links for these fangames? I'm having trouble finding some of them (especially Harmonia/Harmony - Harmony pulls up a Y romhack, and Harmonia pulls up stuff about N no matter how hard I insist I'm looking for a fangame).
Thank you so much for the kind words in regards to Rejuvenation, both in the video itself and what people are saying in the comments! It makes me so happy to read AGH 😭
And personally speaking, I fully agree with what you followed it up with; Rejuvenation really is an exception in terms of quality standard. We put the bar extremely high for ourselves, but it is not the median for fangames as a whole, and I don't really think it's fair towards other games to consider it as much. I think every fangame deserves a fair shot and judgement without it being compared to a project of this scope because realistically, most projects do not take 10+ years to hit completion! Or revise half the game multiple times! And that's ok!! Not everyone is as unhinged as we are about polishing a game to perfection and it's probably healthier that way for everyone involved LOL. Fangames can still be amazing even without ridiculous scope and always should be given a fair chance.
But again, thank you very much!!!!!!! I'm so glad to see people enjoy Rejuv as much as they do!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm very thankful for all the work you guys have put into rejuv, but I really wanted to make sure the community understands that such a thing shouldn't be expected as the standard for free to play fan games.
I'm glad you enjoyed my segment about it!
Yooo! You’re part of the Rejuv team?! Thank you so much for making such a wonderful game! The secretion right before you get the gift Mawile (being vague for obvious reasons) was so powerful. Same with what happened in Amethyst Cave. And the side quests! I always look forward to doing them when I find a help center! Seriously, you’re all doing incredible work. Thank you so much for the many hours of entertainment!
Lastly, at this point that Dragonite needs to be fired.
rejuvenation is amazing, can't wait for v14! Thank you and all of the team for creating such a great experience.
no wayyyyyyy I subbed to you like 6 years ago cuz of the xenogene videos 😲
That, my friends, is the main artist for Rejuv, Zumi. She's cool. Honnojis is the name she uses outside Rejuv afaik
that's why I love this channel. you don't talk only about the most famous fangame, but of every one of them.
A lot of these games I haven't seen on any top 10 list (despite them deserving to be), goes to show that we need more people on this platform dedicated to covering Pokemon fangames.
because a lot of people do not like to rate unfinished games, it's not that they are bad it's just that until they are finished a review does not really make sense , it's even more important for fan games since a lot of them will be abandonned and never finished.
rejuvenation 100% changed my view on fangames
Thanks for putting Ashen Frost at 3 been in the community a long while now game means alot to me
Love that reborn was in this. Feel like reborn is often looked over with rejuvenation.
I personally LOVED the story, the gameplay, everything about it!
Reborn is much too difficult for the finances you have available. If I could buy the 15k ev trainer items before the bug gym, it'd be fine, but as it is?
Nope. Not gonna do that grind. Screw that.
@ ya reborn in the beginning is definitely like that. I struggled with that too actually. I didn’t really start worrying about IVS/EVS til after a couple gyms. That’s when I noticed difficulty really start coming
@@easymac10 thats where the codes come in at the begining. to help those whos having a hard time. having stuff like hardcap (my favorite) which makes it like revjunation does and makes it so you cant go over the level cap. theres also things that lowers the difficulty greatly. like making you go full gen 2 mode and have max evs in every stat (yup that was the case in gen 2 just that noone really cared about it back then much). theres a ton that helps out a lot
@ ya my first playthrough of reborn there weren’t a lot of passwords 😅
@@easymac10 oh back when i started we had like... i think 3 or 4 gyms XD. i dont remember but it wasnt much at alllll. though the updates came out during my first playthrough i dont think i actually caught up to the ending till episode 18 came out. i actually think i got the original game on my old pc
Ashen Frost is probably the most out of the box from all of then. Its a complete life simulator with a great story and engaging characters. I'm halfway through it and despite the difficulty spiking sometimes, it's exactly how Pokémon should start doing their games.
Rejuvenation isn't just my favourite fangame, its my favourite pokemon game period. It has EVERYTHING I want from a pokemon game. A good story, interesting characters, split paths, a beautiful overworld, tons of replay value, new pokemon forms and most importantly, a good challenge.
I am on the newer side of fans, (played v12 two weeks before v13 came out,) but its no understatement to say that Rejuvenation is the single best pokemon game I've ever laid my hands on. I wish the devs success, and can't wait for future updates. (I can't wait for v14).
That's it. Gonna play Pokémon Reju once more, a whole lot of years later. THAT'S YOUR DOING. Thank you
From this list I really enjoyed Glazed, Realidea System, Reborn, Ashen Frost, Desolation and Rejuv. Reborn & Rejuv are two of my all time fave games, not just fangames
Rejuvenation, Desolation and Reborn are great in their own ways. The latter also has the Reatomized mod, which adds in all the Pokemon from Uranium and also Infinity. Absolutely mindblowingly fun.
Pokemon Empire would be my number one though. Fantastic story, great characters, stellar Fakemon, a dynamic story that goes places even Rejuvenation doesn't go...and the dev team is wonderful too. It's also very challenging...definitely up there with Reborn. My only gripes with it are some of the puzzles and some of the overwrought NPC dialogue.
For all the flak that Reborn gets, it needs to be said that it was the prototype of Amethyst's dev team.
The innovative biome mechanic is my favourite of all time including Gamefreak's additions (MegaEvo included).
I believe wholeheartedly that Desolation will be their vest work yet once it's complete. I agree the Dreamscape arc was the best bit of storytelling and game immersion i've ever encountered in a game (excluding the Mass Effect 2 & 3 games) frantically scouring every visit to make sure I didnt miss anything.
Another significant moment in Desolation is in hour 2-3 that has your heart sink (IFKYK) and you can honestly see the evolution of storytelling from the Reborn and Rejuv being the seeds to subtly inform the player that all is not what it seems.
Great list btw thankyou
I am happy that you put rejuvenation at the 1st place! It deserves to be in 1st place as the developers have poured their heart and soul into making this game and its just mind-blowing and surprising at the same time that they all were consistent and worked on it for 10 years!! I mean that's just insane and the story, plot, character development, environment, tilesets, animation effect and everything about it is just amazing. I really liked the fact that you took the right approach and spoke realistically on how unsatisfied and complaining can people be no matter how good a game or a thing is in general. They always compare stuff and blabber unnecessarily about the pros and cons of anything. I mean they should respect and appreciate the developers for their consistency and the efforts they make to develop such a amazing game. Thank you man for making this video 🙏🏻. I liked the whole video and every single point that you made was understandable and everyone has different opinions but the points that you pointed out were reasonable. So yeah please keep making videos like this and I will surely support em👍🏻💯
Reborn and Desolation deserve that too
Tried it for the 1st time. First thing I notice is that, I am a side quest nerd and always surprised how underlevel I am. I wish you can see like a quest rank or even the expected level of pokemons you will battle.
@@RukoS-xy6joThe thing is, you can't just go ahead and complete every single side quest in an area within a matter of minutes, start off with the small ones first, then progress through the main story and level up, then take on the big ones when you're sure of yourself. But I agree with your last point, hopefully they'll implement something like that in a future update.
This game is sick
I knew which gane you'll put as the top... And you're right: Rejuvenation, as a game, is an experience that is fresh for those who are new and want a challenge or a good plot... But for those who saw it grow up for a decade, and how those things are implemented or used as easter eggs... This game is like seeing a child who you watched growing up, you played with them, you know them from beginning and they remember you how much time have spent invested... And it remember you how many changes have been to this point...
Agreed, I like how the game seems to imply that each and every version of the game that released takes place in different timelines from one another, or the fact that both routes seem to intersect with each other at certain points.
I think it's also a testament to how good Rejuvenation is that even people like me can recognize it. I say "people like me" because I honestly love Rejuvenation, but I can't really play it all that much because it doesn't really fit my playstyle. I love playing Pokémon games with good stories, but the main reason I want to play a Pokémon game is to collect (to follow the "Gotta catch 'em all" motto), and Rejuvenation is not friendly to that playstyle at all. Even with that, I managed to make a full playthrough of it (prior to the current version) and still had tons of fun with it.
Rejuvenation is the goat, it's funny I really wasn't expecting to ever grow to like characters like Venam or Saki but they somehow did it, without piles of edge to boot.
when it comes to insurgence the reason I still hold in in high regard for a couple reasons despite playing a very large number of fangames and romhacks is
1. nostalgia, i started following fangames when i was around 14 years old and i remember following the head dev on Twitter looking forward to sneak peaks and playing the full game on release was a good feeling
2. the sheer amount of delta forms, alternate forms, and megas is insane. all in all there is about 300+ practically new Pokemon giving TON of different team comp options and a large majority of their designs are awesome
3. the story, while not great i find endearing. it can be a funny kind of bad at a lot of points making it entertaining. it's why i much prefer insurgence to something like reborn because with reborn the story and edge it is so dry that it just makes for a boring adventure.
it also has a decent amount of QOL features like ev/iv training and audio training readily available after the 1st gym. I recently played Insurgence about a year or 2 ago and it by no means holds up the best but there is enough there to keep you entertained
story was great
This list was very unique and overall felt very justified.I share same opinions about some of the "popular" fan games as litterally anything that comes out these days gets called "the best".Still im patiently waiting for desolation and rejuvenation to get completed.While im at it, thanks for the extra games in the list :)
I personally find Insurgence and Reborn to be masterpieces, but I understand that they walked so that future fangames could run. Rejuvenation and Desolation are two of the three "Reborn Evo" games alongside Reborn, and they share many of the same devs between them, and it's really cool to see how their ideas have evolved in the over ten years since Reborn started development.
I agree with the thought on insurance. I picked it up because my favorite starter got a cool form. Found out it was post game. Disappointed is an understatement.
I recently played Pokemon Atlas, its a spanish-made fan game with absolutely stunning visuals and a really great storyline. The game is only on its second demo with 4 playable gyms but it was a really fun experience nonetheless. I'm not connected to the Atlas team whatsoever I just played it recently and would love for it to get more recognition so that the devs could notice their hard work paying off and good things happen for the game!
Absolutely agree! It's fantastic. I hope they'll be able to complete it.
This is a great list!! Reborn, Desolation, and Rejuvenation are such amazing games! My personal favorite game is Pokemon Emerald Elite Redux but I love all of these!! :D
Pokemon reborn actualy got an update recently to version 19.5, which adds even more qol features, several of which come from rejuvenation, and even more passwords, and a new quest that gives you a comfey before the 2nd gym, which is kinda insane to have that early on.
Great to see pokemon rejuvenation getting some love and appreciation.It's probably my favourite pokemon game of all time.I like it more than the canon ones if without taking the nostalgia factor in consideration.
It's such an amazing story driven game with balanced difficulty in pokemon battles.The world of pokemon rejuvenation rejuvenation feels truly grand due to the ammount of tales and lores of different times and place scattered throughout the story.
What I love most about this game are the intriguing side characters.Some are mysterious,some are humorous,they are always fun to interact with.They stick around with the mc even when their character arc is over.They don't feel like npcs at all.The side quests are also fun to do and they dont feel like waste of time.
I would say the main drawback is the pacing. It feels very slow at times especially at the first 4 badges.I think most people would not want to invest 100+ hours in a relatively lesser known pokemon game.I truly started liking this game at the terajuma arc(approximately 30 hours into the story).And as I mentioned before,tales of different eras are told,so it's hard to keep track of all the plot points.But after considering everything the the pros definitely outweighs the cons.Pokemon romhack fans should definitely try this game out.
There is a modified version of Insurgence that provides Qol improvements and more called Pokémon Detergent. It also allows you to get more Delta Pokémon before the post-game.
Ooo, I might actually hunt that down. I loved Insurgence back in high school, but I tried playing it again recently and… yeah, fan games have improved a lot since then. Not bashing the game, mind you. Insurgence walked so other fan games could run.
Detergent is NOT just a Qol improvement. For me that is by far the hardest fan game I've ever played so far.
Yo thank you for this! I've always wanted to get delta Aggron sooner.
Detergent is a difficulty mod, it’s extreme min maxing imo.
@ You can play the game in what I think is called vanilla mode. This is the original Insurgence difficulty, but with all the QoL improvements.
I love Fakemon too. Saw a few of your other videos would love to see more like it or even some let plays of some ! Keep up the good work!
Rejuv and Reborn are bar none the best pokemon experiences one can have if you actively play Pokemon.
If you want a creative one go for Salt N Shadow, but nothing compares to Reborn and Rejuv, and ever since they nerfed the highest difficulty in Rejuvenation, Reborn takes the crown no questions asked imo. I think its just a natrual conclusion if youve played many romhacks /fangames. You want rewarding exploration, a huge world and diffucult but doable battles, with a nice progression and a rewarding lategame, thats all there is to it. You can say you like a story or the graphics but those dont keep you playing. You can say you like fakemon but that wares out extremely quickly if you play for more than 3hours. Play Reborn and Rejuv, if possible leave months of space between the two.
Edit: Pokemon Reloaded is the best non-pokemon pokemon game there is, if you find the above too difficult play Reloaded, you will finish it
i recently started playing rejuvenation because of your past video talking aout it. i was looking for a new game after i finished the current version of vanguard (which is my fav fan game to date and i still think about on a daily basis) and i really have to say thank you. because pokemon rejuvenation is so nice to play, it scratches the exact itch i had for a fan game and its the first time that a game with not that many fakemon has given me this much enjoyment. i have never looked at pokemon the same way as i do now.
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!
I currently playing Pokemon reborn i love this story difficulty everything is perfect
I recently finished Reborn and I genuinely think it's a masterpiece; Amethyst Liddell and her team put in like a decade of truly pioneering work and it paid off massively. Now I'm really looking forward to what is apparently quite a beefy postgame!
Also Rejuvenation and Desolation share a lot of their dev teams with Reborn, and collectively they're called the "Reborn Evo" games, which combined with what I've heard from people who have played them makes me super excited to try them out myself!
In my opinion, Reborn is the gold standard for fan games. For those who mentioned "growing up" with Rejuvenation, following the development with new chapters, that was what I got to experience with Reborn. I loved the story and the characters, and still do to this day. And yes, there are a lot of characters in that game, but the challenge and the story was always engaging for me. Eventually, once E14 of Rejuvenation comes out, I'll start the game properly (started it a couple of times beforehand), but for now, I do love what Reborn was for the fan game community.
@@cameroncase1730 Yeah honestly I feel like Reborn is kinda THE fangame success story just in terms of not only its own merits but what it's done for fangames going forward in general. Niche as it is, it and Reborn Evo have really become an institution in their own right in the Pokémon community.
I haven't really been keeping up with Rejuvenation, is Episode 14 slated to be the completed game or do they still have a ways to go?
@@TheAstrobiologistOWNot at all, they still got a pretty long way to go.
16:24 Absolutely agree, I dont like Xenoverse either and I never understood why so many people like for example Zwiggo praised it as the best pokemon fan game, I see that the developers put much effort in it but it isn't by far one of the best fan games
No offense but zwiggo's opinions probably aren't the best to listen to. I've never watched his videos themselves so I can't judge the quality, but his titles and thumbnails are very clickbaity. He calls every popular fan game "the best" and makes videos about "the best of (year)" before said year is even halfway over.
@@ayrei1503 Yes I agree, do you know Pokemon Myth? He praised it as the the best fan game or rom hack (I forgot) of 2023 and as I played it I was thinking like W T F the story is trash as hell, no qol features, a very dumb new gimmick (it's basically terastillizing without terastilling) the gyms are the worst joke ever (puzzles and leader), random legendary spam and unbalanced, you can catch in the early game a new water dragon type with D Dance and with this you can sweep every thing (I did it in my playthrough).
I'm sorry about that, it's why I do try my best to be honest with the game's I'm covering, even if it means the video wont perform as well
@@ayrei1503 Yes and that's very honest and respectable and for that I apreciate you very much!
Agree
I think Pokemon Tectonic is the greatest pokemon fangames in terms of Qol and also completely rebalancing of the pokemon formula and amazing visuals and loveable characters. There's always something to discover about every pokemon. Your channel was the one who introduced me to it.
Rejuvenation is so GOOD! I’m playing it right now, actually. Just dealt with a very grumpy carnavine.
The characters are SO good. I adore Nim, Aelita and Mosely especially, but the others are wonderful too. And the towns… they all feel so different! Goldenleaf is probably my favorite because of its vibes.
I absolutely agree with Rejuv being number 1. The characters and story nowadays are written in a way that's so crazy in scope yet so endearing to me that it's practically changed my life. The Rebornverse community may be flawed, but thanks to Rejuvenation I found tons of new friends to call my own and brainnot about the game with. I can't say that for any other fangame I've played. Both the community aspect and the sheer quality of the game, with so many little details that made me "ooh" or "ahh" or guffaw, make this a modern masterpiece in regards to what a small, low-budget team can achieve through sheer passion.
Rejuvenation is such a great game man! Anyways good video as usual
i real man never speaks ill of pokemon rejuvenation 🔥
I literally never play Pokemon Fan games but my two favourites in this video are Glazed and Rejuvenation! I really want to try both out now, in fact I will.
Rejuv is probably my favourite game of all time with the amazing story, the effort put into each area, including the Easter eggs for people who have already beaten the game, the difficulty and customisation, I played on fullevs mode classic no items for my 2 play throughs, and thinking for my next full evs no items no evs gain and empty ivs renegade in v14 - it’s going to be stupidly hard, and finally the music which perfectly captures the mood even in side quests like missing persons, it’s just an amazing game and I can’t recommend enough you haven’t already played it
is it possible to put the names of the games and if they are completed or not pls?
10. Pokemon Glazed, been Complete for years, but keeps getting quality of life updates.
9. Pokemon Infinite Fusion, ...Honestly not sure how to answer since they keep adding more and more stuff. The Kanto and Johto regions are complete though.
8. Pokemon Realidea, Complete.
7. Pokemon Reborn, Complete. (Warning: Extremely long and difficult. Highly recommend looking into the game's password system if you need to make things a bit easier on yourself.)
6. Pokemon Harmony? Aarmony? ...I honestly haven't played this one and have no idea. (Can't seem to find it looking it up either...
pokemon reborn and Rejuvenation number 1 for me
This is the video I needed, looking for new games to playthrough‼️🎮🔥
Ashen Frost and Pokemon Odyssey mentioned. Absolutely great games, to be honest.
Rejuv might not just be my favorite fangame of all time, or even my favorite Pokemon game, it might just be my personal favorite *game* if they can stick the landing. Genuinely, aside from past Football Manager addictions, I don't think I've had a game own as much of my brain as Rejuv has. I think another thing is that with *so many* characters, and yet all of them being distinct, everyone can find at least one character that they can kinda see themselves in.
Still gotta play some of these games (once I'm done with Unbreakable Ties), but the ones I've played I generally agree on except mayyyyybe Unbound which I haven't replayed with a more critical eye yet (I remember enjoying it on my first playthrough but that might just be new toy smell).
Rejuv is so wonderful! I’m playing it right now! Just dealt with Carnavine and am in the town with all the rangers. Everything about the game has impressed me thus far.
Do you have any favorite towns or characters?
@@SleepySeal121 I would say my fav characters buuuuut knowing that you're in Kakori you haven't really met them yet haha!
Kristiline is my favorite town, though you likely haven't seen it at *peak* yet
@@valpix7007 Ooo, then consider me excited to see the town in full!
Pokemon Rejuvenation and Desolation definitely got me hooked and were my top 2 for a long time untill I played Opalo.
Great vid, and i have to say your game is defo in my top 10. Will go even higher with every act
Sigh, looks like I'll be adding ANOTHER fan game to my "pokemon games" folder, time to go download Rejuv
Welcome to rejuvenation, you've got a long road ahead of you :)
Enjoy getting tortured by the bosses and field effects lol.
@@absolutelyunepic3072 meh, been playing Desolation, can't be that bad....... r-right?
Great video glad to see reborn and rejuvinination there not often seen. Have u tried Unbrekable ties? i wish i saw this in the main game
Very good list and I agree with most of what you said although I believe desolation is above rejuvenation personally .On a side note there’s a Spanish fan game called Pokémon awakening that’s really good and will be finished soon .And the game that I personally prefer but hasn’t gotten news in years black cinder (not an improvement hack)
Happy to see Reborn and both adjacent games^^. I was a big fan of Reborn since I played it first in ep. 13 or sth. and I absolutely love it now that it is finished, definitely my most favourite fangame. I do like the other two aswell but have small reservations.
Desolation was very much fun aswell, I enjoyed it immensely and it would probably be my second most favourite but I managed to softlock me at some point and that made me quit the game entirely. But it's been quite a while since then so I may return in the near future and try it again.
Rejuvenation was also a pretty neat game but I had and still have some problems. The first problem was my mistake entirely, I don't like fakemons (if I want fakemons I play different monster taming games, not like Pokemon is the only one) and I mistook these crypto pokemon for fakemons, as at that point I had never heard about Pokemon Colloseum before. Then when I tried it my second time I just honestly got bored of it after getting quite far, but I would be willing to try it again. Regrettably my third problem prevents me from trying again, it's just not finished and I can't expect me trying it another time once it might be finished. That's what Reborn now has as a clear advantage, it's finished and I knew I could pull through after replaying it for the third or fourth itme.
My favourites are for sure rejuvenation and reborn for their combat system with the field effects and their difficulty. Reborn especially (because it was my first one out of the two) taught me a lot about pokemon that I never knew. I've done a few monotype runs of Reborn and they are really fun and challenging. Also the experience in general is just very fresh, after every gym badge you are almost always making new additions to your team because these two games don't just shower you with overpowered pokemon until the late game and the post game (for legendaries). The only ''bad'' thing that I have to say, is that I now can't play any fan games that don't have speed up lol.
As I continue to watch, I’m one of the ones who holds insurgence in high regard 🤣you were definitely on point about stuff though. I personally thought the story was pretty easy to follow if you read through stuff. And legendaries don’t have much of an excitement element to me, so I thought how they added them in gave them some worth 😅
I recently played Pokemon Odyssey and it's SO fun!, I'm tired of the usual Pokemon League Gym Challenge and then suddenly the evil team steps in, I definitely agree when Odyssey is gonna be the best romhack over Unbound after it's complete
I, as a huge Pokemon Insurgence fan, having it as my favorite pokemon fangame, I absolutely agree on the negatives on the game and will add even more to it:
- I believe that locking the majority of the deltas in the postgame is really sucky, especially when a lot of the empty areas would've used an extra delta encounter or 2
Koril town for Delta Tangela, Amphitrite city for Delta Dratini, etc.
Like why put Delta Diglett in the post game when playthrough normal and ice deltas outperform it, it's just a slap in the face.
- Whilst you mentioned the story being confusing, it doesn't stop there, it's straight up not FINISHED, Jaern just disappears, Audrey is just gone after her rescue, we don't get any info on Reukra and Sylvan's bond, Adam is just stuck in the nightmare realm, The 3rd gym leader (which I forgot the name of) is just...revived off screen??????, Xavier does nothing but switch houses, the region is left with like 4 working gym leaders at the end of the game, you finish the game by sealing a whole race of people to their doom, it's just...what??
- The battles, whilst great, I absolutely love them, (1500 hours on the game speaking), it's really just random how hard they'll be, there aren't fights like in Reborn which you can pin point and say they'll be hard each and every time, cause these ones are just never consistent.
- The team variety (maybe just for me) is really lacking, think which deltas will you use every playthrough? Bisharp, Gardevoir/Gallade and Haxorus are definitely there and the last 3 are filler slots.
- The way some characters just get shafted throughout the entire story, like after the 3rd Gym Jaern just pops out of existence, and after Utira town you don't have another rival battle....for 4 gyms, until you get till the next Damian fight.
- The game doesn't run as smooth and that's mainly a problem i've noticed after playing fangames like Reborn where it just moves so buttery smooth, it isn't as atrocious like let's say This gym of mine or Omicron/Zeta, but it's still just not as good as a lot of other fangames.
With all of the negatives I still hold Insurgence very dear to my heart and love it, a lot, and will forever keep loving it a lot, mainly due to it appealing to me a lot, to what I look for and enjoy in pokemon games, through things like each delta being "Special", that you can get only 1 of which, making the act of getting the delta's seem like a collectible which I can't overstate how much I love, and even if the characters and their stories are weak I still found myself attached to Persephone, to Adam, to Nora, to Reukra.
It's absolutely an incredibly flawed fangame for this time, in comparison to it's competition in these days, and it's mid by comparison to others, but it's my mid and i'll love it till the end.
Great video btw.
10/10 review
3:11 What is the name of this fan-game
Pokémon Realidea System
List Just from Wild Guess Without Fully Watching the Video (CMIIW)
10. Pokemon Glazed (Happy Tunod, Who's Still Remember It? 😂)
9. Pokemon Infinite Fusion
8. Pokemon Realidea (Really recommend if you want to chill and enjoy memes, the story is kind of refreshing to play. If you're FGO players, then there are few surprises in the game)
7. Pokemon Reborn...I think? From the graphic style is similar
6. Pokemon Harmony (I didnt know and haven't played it yet)
5. Pokemon Flux (Made by Uranium Devs)
4. Pokemon Odyssey (Haven't tried yet and didnt know)
Pokemon Insurgence (Great for you who want to start playing fangame for the first time. For you who have played it I think there is an upgrade of Insurgence named Detergent...)
Pokemon Xenoverse (Great for you who want a breather from usual pokemon game)
Pokemon Unbound (Another breather, good game)
3. Pokemon Ashen Frost (Havent tried it yet and played it)
2. Pokemon Desolation (Reborn and Rejuvenation. The same devs)
1. Pokemon Rejuvenation (Hella great game I love it very much but haven't continued it for a long time).
Honorable mentions:
Bushido and Clockwork (Just right, one you become a samurai who fights against people who spam poisoned or electrocuted knives out of nowhere 😂 and another one is travelling with Celebi)
Adventure Red: Story of Red from original manga.
Project Reunion (Red interacts with Multiverse)
Reminiscent (the same devs as Realidea, different type of storyline)
Opalo (Wild west and American Independence, well, yeah, set in US like region)
Uranium (For those who haven't played or didnt know it, a great game)
Atlas (haven't finished in development, but has a great potential)
Unbreakable Ties (Good story, cinematic, etc.)
Pathways (If you want split decision making game)
Of course, Ayrei's own fangame: Vanguard. It's great and has a good difficulty level. You can choose many starters too. You need a lot of patience if you want to play this game ❤
If you want a dating sim there's Pokemon Academy Life. I dont know if it's cancelled or continued, but I heard it's in reboot process.
Why don’t you type the list in the description?
I personally prefer Desolation to Rejuvention but honestly not by much! You can tell a lot of work went into them and both have compelling stories. I can't wait to play them again when they are complete but I expect that wont be for a few more years
I HAVE BEEN NEEDING A VID FROM YOU!!!
Of all the fangames/romhacks I’ve played, Rejuvenation has to be the one that has caused the most meaningful and positive impact. What’s crazy is that it’s not completed yet
babe wake up, ayrei uploaded ‼‼‼
Been looking for more fan games to play recently after finishing the most recent update of rejuv (been following since v7) and nothing can live up to it, but excited to give some I didn't know about here a try
W list
You are one of the rare youtubers who has a very similar taste as mine...great video ❤
u make me feel like a shounen only anime enjoyer (i am), with these super intuitive and unique games in ur top 5 haha
I've played Insurgence and dozens of other Fangames and it still is in my top 10 personally, but I get where you're coming from and why it's not in yours.
I used to play a bunch of fan games, especially Pokémon Reborn and Rejuvenation, and I’m still kinda active in the community (technically I have been writing a Reborn fanfic for an embarrassingly long time 😅). Glad to see them mentioned in this list. I actually haven’t finished playing either Reborn or Rejuv, cause grad school, but I’d like to return sometime.
Try Pokémon Empyrean too
Great list, finally found a Poketuber that has a similar taste. Played most of these and agree, including the 'overrated' section. Pokemon Clover, Soulstones 2, Postscriptum, Empyrean, Opalo, Legends of the Arena are also great, though each in their own ways, and you should check them out if you haven't.
Ya know I was gonna throw up the pitchforks when you put xenoverse in the mid category but uhhhhhh yeah I kinda agree. The artificial difficulty spike with the amount of healthbars and almost forcing toxic stall is pretty insane to.
Very fair list, ill likely replay rejuvenation when it gets completed, I will say on my most recent play through I did find myself disliking the main cast quite a lot so even though it has so much going for it I cant really place it in 1.
I loved reborn and am happy to see it on this list I never finished it or played the complete version but it was an amazing experience nonetheless the edgy wasn't overly edgy and the world was pretty interesting
Good Video
I do agree with Rejuv being No.1. While it's only my second favourite fangame in regards to straight up how much I like it (favourite here being an arbitrary matter of the heart; I still adore it to no end) I think it's certainly the best, and I cant wait to see what wild things V14 is going to put us through; If the final scene of Renegade was any indication, oh boy. I've been meaning to check out ashen frost for a while and i thank you for the additional recommendations.
Ima be so real, I drop Rejuvenation after the shadow mons were introduced. Not cause I don’t like Shadow mon it’s just cause I thought it was boring and heard it was really long. Is it really that good?
Ye it’s really thst good
Imo the first like 4 or so chapters are probably the most boring for me but yet still very important to the story and everything, I would say when you get to blackstreee castle the game picks up a lot, I even dropped rejuv for like 2 months when I got to keta but just decided to pick it up again, and will I now have 2 completed save files one paragon and one renegade with almost 300 hrs in total and will do another complete playthrough when v14 comes out
honestly the reborn story is better than most fangames, especially the character writing
I LOVE POKÉMON REJUVENATION (I love saki)
Hyped for your list
Another thing about Pokémon glazed is that you’re given a device that helps you better understand your Pokémon.
I don’t think anything is going to beat Pokemon Atlas for me but I love trying new games
My 2017 Pokémon Glazed Nuzlocke brutalized me. Still love the game, and appreciate that its here on the list.
Honestly, insurgence has a good structure, but it needs an update. If the developers (the ones that took over after Suzerain left) keep working on it, combing through the story, working on balance, and, for the love of god, changing the move animations, it might become a lot better
I personally play on mobile mostly and have gotten addicted to fan games recently. I really appreciate how reborn literally has a build for Joiplay that makes it super easy to play amd really wish more games had a joiplay option to help optimize the game. Could anyone recommend any other games optimized for mobile play? I say this as other games actually warn against mobile play.
You can try emulator ones, if you have a good device you can go from gameboy up to switch games
@@Scarecrow9black ashen frost has a JoiPlay version which will be released soon™!
Tectonic plays well on joiplay
Rebornverse glazing goes HARD
couldn't have it any other way :P
All 3 reborn games are like the top peak that any fangame fails to achieve .
once pokemon harmony comes to mac i will be very happy
I am very similar to you in that I only enjoy Fan Games (compared to Rom Hacks) and seek the ones with fakemon. Xenoverse is extremely overrated, although I did enjoy the story the slowness of the game and the lack of battle animations made it a non-replayable game for me. It was actually the first fan game I ever downloaded and set the bar kind of high. That said, the best ones for fakemon, are WITHOUT A DOUBT 1.) Infinity 2.) Uranium (can't wait for more FLUX)
3.) Solar Light/Lunar Dark. I've played those twice each after a year or two break in between, and they need to be mentioned. Infinite Fusion is the most replayable one in my opinion, due to limitless fusion mechanic and ability to re-roll wild mons with random encounters. I typically get 2 or 3 badges, spend days hunting and re-rolling until I have a roster of like 12-15 insanely cool fusions, then continue. You must use the fusion generator app, and it is very time consuming just researching the possible fusions using 1 mon as head, then body. It is rewarding to then pick your favorite one, try to find the other half, and make the fusion. If you haven't played the other 3 i mentioned, they are MUST PLAYS!
PS>> Love the direction of this channel, also am re-playing VANGUARD atm as its added more regionals and chapters so thank you for that. Biggest gripe with that game however is the level caps should be higher between chapters. Typically when starting a chapter you can EXP Candy your team to the max, then battling feels a bit pointless.
you lied to me you said i was ranked number 1!!!!!!
great vid tho Ayrei! Keep up the good work!
i love lying......... :3
You know I’ve been meaning to say this about Insurgence so I just wanna say it: Pokemon Insurgence is the Dragon Ball Z (specifically Z maybe a bit of OG too) of the Pokemon Fangame world. It was the one that many people started off and hold in such a place that they swear it’s the best, when in reality they either have barely dipped their toes in others or they have a huge bias. In reality Insurgence isn’t that great but I will stand by that it is good and doesn’t really stack up to anything more modern. I will agree that the music was a crime. But at least it wasn’t Zetta/Omicron, now that game was a hot mess
Ashen frost, desolation(potentially 1), and rejuvenation are top 5 for me so I like the list quite a lot.
20:00 someone finally gave credit to pokemon desolation, this game is one of the best game i played, story wise, and that story is just goat...
POKEMON REJUVENATION FOR THE WIN🎉
I am curious, what are your thoughts on Super Pokémon Eevee Edition? It’s personally one of my favorite fangames and most of it I’d attribute to the concept of the “Super Eevee”, a special Eevee capable of swapping between different Eevelutions, and how fun it is to use it, especially with the slightly more “real time” final fantasy style combat.
One of my favorites is Vanguard so I cannot wait until you finish the second half of the game 🖤🔥
Which of these games have an easy way to grind levels such as candies or audino trainers? That’s a big factor in what determines if I play them
The ones that I know that has easy griding are Pokemon Desolation [Num. 2], Rejuvenation [Num. 1], and Infinite Fusion [Num. 9] (there are specific trainers with fused pokemon that give a lot but you may have to search their locations).
Pokemon Realidea System [Num. 8] may not have an audino or candies grind but the level gaps feel balanced, in my opinion.
Rejuvenation has Audino trainers and candy but in the harder difficulty it also has a level cap.
Ashen Frost has candies and a endlessly rematchable trainer (as well as a room that as you progress the game fills up with merchants that sell stuff like evolution stones, Nature Mints, Ability Capsules, IV increases, etc)... But there's a strict level cap, the candies are expensive (everything in the room is expensive so personally I'd buy just about anything else), the repeatable trainer can be absolutely BRUTAL to win against and even if you don't lose anything by losing to them it can be frustrating realising that 'dammit, half my team didn't level up because they got KOed before I won' or something.
That said, I only ever needed to grind like crazy against that trainer because I personally kept switching between like 16 or so pokemon I liked and I wanted them ALL up to the level cap pretty much chapter, so good odds you'll probably won't 'have' to use the endless trainer anywhere near as much as I did~ XD
Reborn has daily rematchable trainers in a certain hub area and there's plenty of mods for stuff like Audino trainers I think, but yeah it's another strict level cap game (and way, WAY harder than Ashen Frost is so you WILL be grinding up new mons periodically).
Desolation I believe has Audino trainers and/or mods for them (been a while since I played so the memory is fuzzy) but is another game with strict level caps. Would recommend using the passwords for letting your Pokemon have max EVs in every stat and max IVs if difficulty is an issue for you (same with Reborn actually - full EVs helps out a surprising amount with difficulty issues).
You flat out should not need an Audino trainer for Glazed - it's like standard mainline Pokemon game difficulty at most but they might've added candies or something like them in the many MANY QoL updates I haven't been keeping up with.
Pokemon REALIDEA SYSTEM doesn't have either I think, but it does have a points system you can use for things like leveling up your mons (and a ton of other useful features) so while not as 'go endlessly crazy' in your grind it should easily help your team stay strong/help get a new team member up to par fast. ...I cannot remember if this game has level caps or not (if it does, they really did not stand out so arguably a non issue?).
And I flat out don't know/remember about the rest but hope that helps you with whether or not you'd be into these great games =D
@ omg that’s super helpful, tysm🩷
@@azuraflavoredwater2 Of course, if you have anymore questions about any of the games, feel free to ask me :)
@@dinglechalk4092 do you know of any games that have many new regional forms/fakemon with easy ways to grind?
I stopped playing pokemon rejuvenation after v13 because when I grow up(older than i already am), I want to forget about it so that I can play it all over again. I may be praising this game too much, but rejuvenation is the only game I truly want to forget so I can experience it for the first time again. Nothing has made my whole life more fun than playing pokemon rejuvenation.
Good video as usual
Interesting selection.
I think the biggest flaw of Xenoverse is the central role of the pokemon starter. If you happen, like a lot of people, to do a nuzlocke and you kill the starter, gg you now have to carry a corpse to follow the plot.
Pokemon infinite fusion, should have a rogue like/lite with preecedural gyms and routes, would be inifnity fun
because the only thing that makes you stop to play this game, is beat the story mode!
6:42 oh believe me I would love to play this one but the problem is that it’s not complete yet
What fan game had that nekrocat in it at 11:18 ?
pokengine
@ ah the MMO thank you
i played rejuvenation and it is hands down my favorite fan game ever
a couple of the games here are rom hacks, not fan games. even though they are fan made games rom hacks and fan games are different. overall good video, hope you continue uploading great content
I love this video! I am so happy to see a list that actually criticizes the most commonly praised fangames. I liked Unbound, but I just could not enjoy it due to it seeming to have an identity crisis.
I was worried about that segment not really fitting into the video, so I'm glad you liked it!
can you provide links for these fangames? I'm having trouble finding some of them (especially Harmonia/Harmony - Harmony pulls up a Y romhack, and Harmonia pulls up stuff about N no matter how hard I insist I'm looking for a fangame).
Sorry but I’m new to fan games and rom hacks. Is there any website that allows me to play these games on a MacBook?
Some of them (like Reborn) have Mac versions. Others can be played with Wine iirc