History VideoGame / PokemonRadicalRed

** Dhelmise: Water/Grass (only shared by the Lotad line)

** The endgame bosses will use Legendary Pokémon that you will never have access to, like Groudon and Eternatus. Hardcore mode takes this a step ''further'', by giving Legendary Pokémon to more bosses, giving some illegal moves (like Dragon Hammer and Spirit Shackle on Clair's Giratina), and outright preventing the player from using certain moves and abilities (mainly stat boosting and weather moves and abilities, as well as few others) but the opponents are able to use them just fine. In addition, any weather or terrain the opponents set up is permanent, and some battles even have special rules like giving the boss permanent Tailwind or permanent Tinted Lens (boosting the power of not very effective attacks). The Champion is the worst with this, as he has a permanent weather that benefits his team, has obscenely powerful Legendaries such as Xerneas, Ultra Necrozma, and ''Eternamax Eternatus'', and he can Mega Evolve ''more than one Pokémon'' depending on his team.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Brendan brings a never-before-seen Masquerain to help out against Archer and Ariana at Silph Co. Masquerain has Intimidate, which is normally a great ability to have in Double Battles, but the problem is, Archer leads with a Gothitelle (standard)/Galarian Articuno (Hardcore), which has Competitive, which boosts its Sp Atk by 2 stages when its stats are dropped, meaning Archer starts the match with a +2 powerhouse.

** Prior to Version 4.0, in the Safari Zone, [=DexNav=] is disabled to prevent exploiting its features to easily seek the one rare Pokémon you want.

* ShoutOut: One trainer in the Power Plant has a team that is just one big ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'' reference, with Pokémon like Machamp with its RapidFireFisticuffs and Celebi with its ability to manipulate time.
-->'''Dumbass Jojo Fan:''' Oh? You're approaching me...? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me? ''[Select Yes]'' Oh ho! Then come as close as you like!

The game can be found at [[https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=10649752#post10649752 The PokéCommunity]]. The most recent version as of this writing is 4.0, released August 3rd, 2023. There's also a special client of [[Website/{{Smogon}} Pokémon Showdown]] featuring the buffs added in ''Radical Red'', which can be played [[https://play.radicalred.net/ here]].

* WakeUpCallBoss: Misty can be a major roadblock for inexperienced players for numerous reasons: she can easily switch in her Lanturn to absorb Electric attacks, her Frogadier has Protean (which easily changes its typing into the type of the moves it uses), and the members of her team pack Ice-type moves to deter Grass-type Pokémon.

* TookALevelInBadass: Every major trainer has access to every Pokémon up to Gen VIII, giving them much more of a Pokémon selection as a result, with some even using [[OlympusMons Legendary Pokémon]] towards the end of the game.

Inspired by Creator/Drayano60 and created by Soupercell and [=koala4=], ''Pokémon Radical Red'' is a difficulty ROM hack of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen Pokémon FireRed]]'' that adds modern mechanics like Mega Evolutions and Dynamax and Pokémon from all the way up to [[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Generation VIII]] and redoing the Kanto adventure at a [[NintendoHard much higher difficulty]]. Many Pokémon also received various [[BalanceBuff buffs]] to their capabilities, although a few received nerfs instead.

* CrutchCharacter: Snover can be obtained as early as Viridian City and has great matchups against the first four gyms (except Brock, and even then most of his mons don't like taking a Razor Leaf to the face), often being able to sweep much of their teams. Unfortunately, it drops off pretty hard after that due to its horrendous Ice/Grass typing giving it oodles of weaknesses. Even with Abomasnow's Mega form getting buffed via an increase to its Speed, its performance is still quite underwhelming, even on Hail teams. As a Hail setter it's also terribly outclassed by Alolan Ninetales.

* NintendoHard: This game's difficulty is brutal, and will demand that you strategize and min-max your Pokémon's stats or you will lose. Each boss fight is essentially a competitive battle, and the AI is improved to be more of a challenge. Version 2.3 introduced Hardcore mode, which introduces even ''[[HarderThanHard harder]]'' bosses, while also restricting the player from using certain moves like stat boosting moves, weather, and some status moves.

** The Champion himself, fittingly as the FinalBoss, is the ultimate example of this. He leads with either Primal Kyogre or Groudon, meaning permanent heavy rain or harsh sun respectively, he can use up to two Mega Evolutions (Mega Metagross and Mega Swampert) if you chose Charmander at the start, he has the monstrously powerful Geomancy Xerneas if you ''don't'' start Charmander, and he has both ''Ultra Necrozma'' and ''Eternamax Eternatus'', although the latter is thankfully nerfed and isn't the gargantuan [=BST=] monster that it would have been, but it's still very formidable and has Levitate to remove its Ground weakness.