Is Pokemon Blazed Glazed Better Than Pokemon Glazed? (2024)

This post was last updated on May 1, 2024

What’s better than a fan-made ROM hack with a brand-new region, a rich storyline, and a wide range of pokemon? Well, it just might be a complete overhaul of that game. Today, we’re looking at Pokemon Blazed Glazed ROM to see if it really is better than the famous Glazed Pokemon game we know and love.

What is Pokemon Blazed Glazed?

Pokemon Glazed Version is an incredibly well-made ROM hack that swept through the community. Pokemon Blazed Glazed is a hack of that hack that seeks to provide a bit more balance to the original Glazed version while also adding in some new moves and pokemon.

This might seem like hacking inception, but it’s not too uncommon at all. Plenty of ROM hacks seek to do little more than change the balance of a game. Some of the most famous hacks out there are known as difficulty hacks because they simply raise the difficulty curve.

In that sense, Pokemon Blazed Glazed can be seen as a sort of alternate version of Glazed, not quite an entirely new game. While there are plenty of fun changes like new evolutions and new pokemon, Blazed Glazed doesn’t actually change anything about the story.

Wait, What is Pokemon Glazed?

If you’re new to the ROM hack scene, the names Pokemon Blazed Glazed and Pokemon Glazed probably mean nothing to you, and it would be easy to get them mixed up. Glazed is the original ROM hack in this pseudo-series of fan-made games.

Just like Pokémon Fire Red is a remake of Pokémon Red version that adds in a bit of balancing and new pokemon here and there, Blazed Glazed is a remake of Glazed. The only real difference here is that they are both fan-made games.

Pokemon Glazed is a Pokemon Emerald ROM hack that puts you in the role of a young trainer in the Tunod region. Yes, that’s donut written backward, so it is customary that you eat a glazed donut while playing this game.

Jokes aside, the Glazed ROM is a fantastic game that brings you to not one, not two, but three regions, has a completely new story, allows you to catch Pokemon from up through Gen VI, and does so much more. Some might say it’s a model for what not just ROM hacks but Pokemon games, in general, can be.

The toted features from the Glazed ROM are as follows:

• Choose from five starters (Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup, Riolu, and Shinx)
• Three regions: Tunod, Johto, and Rankor
• Pokemon from up through Gen VI
• Travel between the Pokemon World and the Real World
• Rematches with all trainers and gym leaders
• All legendaries from Kanto to Sinnoh, as well as eight from Unova
• New out-of-battle effects
• Modern physical/special split for move damage

Of course, beyond that, there’s something to be said for a story that is as compelling, if not more compelling than, an official Game Freak release. I mean, this game has it all – an evil team, a talking Pikachu, and even the ability to slip between realities.

Pokemon Glazed is certainly a Pokemon Emerald Rom hack worth playing.

What Makes Pokemon Blazed Glazed Different?

Pokemon Blazed Glazed is mostly the same game. The story, maps, and graphics are the same. The difference lies in movepool additions, pokemon modifications, and a slight rebalancing of the difficulty curve.

Essentially, Blazed Glazed attempts to take what is already a great game and make it slightly more approachable to the average Pokemon fan. Since the original game had quite a high difficulty curve, this was a welcome addition.

Before we make a verdict and say that balancing automatically makes Pokemon Blazed Glazed the superior game, let’s look at the actual changes that were made.

Pokemon Blazed Glaze Balance

In the version of the original Glazed that Blazed Glazed was built on top of, the game was quite challenging. It wasn’t quite to the scale of a game like Pokemon Inclement Emerald, but it was certainly harder than your average official release.

The general consensus is that the first four gyms were very difficult and required not just grinding, but good IVs and strategically chosen movesets as well. After that, the difficulty dropped off until you faced the Elite Four of the Tunod region.

The Johto gyms were a bit less of a challenge, but the Johto League and the Rankor gyms brought the challenge right back up.

Essentially, Glazed was a game with a lot of difficulty spikes but no clear curve.

Pokemon Blazed Glazed attempts to actually align the game to a more standard curve. The early gyms are the easiest, and battles along the way slowly increase in difficulty. Elite Four battles are still a minor spike to this curve since they’re meant to be incredibly challenging trainers.

This is the goal, and honestly, we think it was a success. Blazed Glazed is by no means an easy game, but insane amounts of grinding aren’t necessary at strange points throughout the progression. Playing the game naturally will put you basically where you’re supposed to be for the most part.

Pokemon Blazed Glazed Movepool Additions

The addition of new moves from generations 4 through 6 is something that we can’t quite judge. Certainly, new moves have been added that change the experience. Whether or not that makes the game better is something that’s really up to the individual player and their preferences.

What we can do is give you a preview of some of the changes. Below is a list of movepool additions made in Pokemon Blazed Glazed followed by the moves that they replaced in Glazed. Keep in mind that these aren’t all one-for-one replacements (a pokemon that knew Kinesis doesn’t necessarily know Roost).

• Drain Kiss (Sweet Kiss)
• Flare Blitz (Sacred Fire)
• Wild Charge (Volt Tackle)
• Icicle Crash (Icicle Spear)
• Flash Cannon (Luster Purge)
• Nasty Plot (Torment)
• Dark Pulse (Doom Desire)
• Dragon Pulse (Mist Ball)
• Bug Buzz (Spit Up)
• X-Scissor (Crush Claw)
• Night Slash (Guillotine)
• Earth Power (Fissure)
• Air Slash (Air Cutter)
• Iron Head (Slam)
• Power Gem (Egg Bomb)
• Zen Headbutt (Psycho Boost)
• Brave Bird (Aeroblast)
• Snarl (Snore)
• Leaf Storm (Petal Dance)
• Shadow Claw (Shadow Punch)
• Drain Punch (Dynamic Punch)
• Wood Hammer (Bone Club)
• Rock Polish (Sharpen)
• Flame Burst (Stockpile)
• Bulk Up (Pay Day)
• Ominous Wind (Razor Wind)
• Fire Fang (Comet Punch)
• Ice Fang (Vicegrip)
• Thunder Fang (Bind)
• Sucker Punch (Rolling Kick)
• Roost (Kinesis)
• Hurricane (Magic Coat)
• Bullet Punch (Sky Attack)
• Cotton Guard (Cotton Spore)
• Grass Knot (Meditate)
• Aqua Jet (Skull Bash)
• Sacred Sword (Dizzy Punch)

A lot of these are slightly more powerful moves with similar purposes, but some are completely new options. The removal of Snore, for example, is a rough decision for fans of Rest Snorlax, while Cotton Guard replacing Cotton Spore gives grass-type pokemon a significant bonus.

There are also plenty of changes to specific moves. Covet is now a fairy-type move, Aerial Ace now has 80 base power, and Sucker Punch doesn’t fail if the opponent uses a status move, for example.

Beyond that, there are significant changes to what moves different pokemon learn. Most of these movepool additions and changes exist in the interest of balance, and while some decisions are interesting, they seem to be reasonable.

Pokemon Changes in Pokemon Blazed Glazed

Some of the biggest changes in this game are those that have been made to the pokemon available across the three playable regions. New pokemon have been added, some pokemon have been removed, several evolutions have changed, and the locations of quite a few pokemon are different.

Again, this is something that comes down to preference. Changing out the Ledyba line for the Roselia line probably doesn’t upset a lot of people, but removing the Trapinch line for the Goomy line could easily be a very divisive decision.

We then have some interesting evolution decisions. One of the biggest examples of this is the Eevee-off and Eevee-def that have been added in. These are, respectively, offensive Eevee and defensive Eevee, and they are ‘evolutions’ of regular Eevee and of each other.

The exact way they work is complicated, but it allows you to, hypothetically, evolve your eevee more easily. Most stone evolutions still work the same way, a Water Stone will give you a Vaporeon and a Fire Stone will give you a Flareon.

Now though, you can only evolve into certain lines with the offensive eevee and certain lines with a defensive eevee. So, instead of high friendship, you’ll need a def-Eevee with a Moon Stone or Sun Stone to get an Umbreon or Espeon.

There are a lot of other evolution changes, like how Riolu evolves from friendship rather than leveling up, or how you can change Rotom’s forms using evolution stones.

Which is Better: Pokemon Glazed or Pokemon Blazed Glazed?

Pokemon Blazed Glazed sought to be a balancing improvement to Glazed, but balance is honestly pretty subjective. None of the changes make the game worse, but few could be said to make the game objectively better either.

We’ve also been holding out on some info. Pokemon Blazed Glazed was made on top of an older version of Glazed back in 2015. Since then, Glazed has received an update that makes plenty of its own changes to the game.

The current, and likely final, version of Glazed has added in Mega Evolutions and done a wide range of balance scaling to make the game better and more appealing to a wide audience.

Pokemon Blazed Glazed only has one mega evolution, and that’s Mega Lucario who evolves at level 70 rather than temporarily with a mega stone.

Then, since balance is the biggest thing Pokemon Blazed Glazed sought to achieve, we think that the two have become mostly even.

Pokemon Glazed now offers more content than Pokemon Blazed Glazed, along with a level of game balance that makes the two games relatively equal. If you’re looking to enter the Tunod region, it probably makes sense to do so in the original game.

Final Thoughts

The fact that there are ROM hacks of other ROM hacks is nothing short of awesome. The Pokemon fan community has come so far, and for that, Pokemon Blazed Glazed is definitely an achievement.

Still, Blazed Glazed doesn’t offer any great improvement on its predecessor, so it’s not the version we’d recommend. Of course, if you want to try out some different pokemon and get a slightly different experience, we certainly encourage you to download both and come up with your own opinion.