About the Game
Pokémon has always held a prominent place among my hobbies. When I was younger, I enjoyed assembling teams to challenge different Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and any formidable Trainer considered a “boss battle.” The idea of creating my own game never crossed my mind until I played titles like Pokémon Unbound (by skeli and ghoul), Radical Red (by soupercell), and Inclement Emerald (by BuffelSalt). These hacks, in my opinion, represent the pinnacle of Pokémon experiences. What attracts me most to these games are a few shared characteristics: a diverse array of obtainable Pokémon, a sophisticated and modern battle engine, and, most importantly, a substantial level of challenge, masterfully exhibited in their intense boss battles. The concept of “boss battles” has always fascinated me, and after playing these exceptional games, I knew I wanted to create my own.
With the abundance of selflessly shared resources from this community, especially RHH, DizzyEgg, and PRET, I embarked on creating a game with a few guiding principles in mind:
- Difficult, yet fair – On a scale of 1-10, with vanilla being a 1 and Radical Red being a 10, I would rate this game at a 6.
- Aligning with modern entries in the series.
- Streamlining the player experience.
Regarding point three, while I do enjoy competitive battling, I never found pleasure in obsessing over EV training, maxing out IVs, or capturing Pokémon with optimal natures. Likewise, the need to grind endlessly for experience is likely unappealing to the average player.
The project was designed to enable players to swiftly achieve their team-building goals while still presenting them with a challenge through enhanced difficulty. Honestly, my aim was to deliver the kind of Hoenn experience that I would personally relish playing. Although the game predominantly follows the vanilla Emerald storyline, players will encounter new Trainers to battle and fresh activities to explore!
Taking all of the above into account, I am delighted to share my Emerald difficulty hack with the Emerald Horizons community.
Features:
- Difficulty Related: Set Mode, Level Caps, and Disabled Battle Bag
- Most Gen 1-8 Pokémon are obtainable, including Hisuian forms
- Modern Battle Engine, with Fairy-Type, Mega Evolution, Updated Moves, and Physical/Special Split
- Loads of optional boss battles, with 8 Kanto Gym Leaders, 8 Johto Gym Leaders, and a few miscellaneous bosses who reward valuable items
- Exp. All
- Bosses and mid/late game Trainers scale to or relative to your strength, so grinding/over leveling isn’t a factor
- Updated move animations, courtesy of Skeli and ghoulslash
- No EVs/IVs/Natures factored into stats
- 75 TMs, with about 50% vanilla TMs and 50% custom TMs
- Ghoulslash’s DexNav (12 unique land/5 unique surf/5 unique fishing encounters)
- PSF’s Quest Menu UI, with 30 Side Quests to Complete
- Buffel’s Poké Vial implementation
- Ghoul’s Item Description Headers
- Badge-Based Poké Marts
- BW Repel System
- Unlimited use TMs/Forgettable HMs
- Nicknaming and Move Relearning in Party Screen
- Decapitalization
- Level Grinder to quickly hit Level Cap
- Linking Cord for most trade-related evolutions
- Post-Game Boss Rush Mode
- 2.5x Lucky Egg
- Premier Ball Bonuses
- No poison damage in the overworld
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