Just a quick note about my review:

I stopped just before the elite 4 because I am already playing a bunch of other stuff and I got so into Radical Red that I burnt myself out. However, I will 100 percent come back to this game soon.

My Review:

This truly is the Pokemon game for someone who loves the singleplayer experience but feels like Pokemon is too easy and hand-holdy. To be clear, this is not what I would describe as a kaizo game but each gym or rival battle requires forethought, planning, and team building. For me, it is exactly the right difficulty.

This game "fixes" many things that I do not like about other Pokemon games:

- includes physical special split
- an easy place to level up your team in the mid game that scales to late game so I don't need to grind a TON
- Easier ways to get hidden abilities
- Methods that reduce grinding for a specific wild Pokemon
- Level caps for each gym so I can't just steamroll with 1 Pokemon
- 1 use hold items don't get used up when in gym or rival battles
- Unlimited use TMs
- No need for HM slaves
- A lot of information provided by the dev online to make planning easier

I'm sure I am missing other features I love about this game but these certainly are some of the big hitters imo.

The Cons:

I believe this game is still a work in progress but there still is a ton of content. The game currently ends after the Pokemon Champion so you do get a full game.

Some fights have a theme (like the gym leaders) and may randomly have a Pokemon that only marginally fit the theme. Most of the time, these Pokemon act as a spoiler to prevent obvious strategies for beating that battle. This feels a bit unfair at times. This is few and far between and never feels unfun.

Conclusion:

This is a big recommend from me boss

I played this when it first came out and got stuck on a boss (the one who's name starts with G). Thought the game was fine but didn't really get the hype.

Just came back to the game on a whim a couple days ago. Beat the boss after many tries. Played through the rest of the game. Gotta say, it's pretty dang fun now that I get the feel for it.

Can't wait for more levels to come out