Pokémon Chaos Emerald

[mattbcl]

The only thing this game doesn't feature is Sonic the Hedgehog himself...

An explanation is in order. My girlfriend has Virtual Boy Advance and has used it to play various Pokémon games not at her disposal, as have I also done in the past. Not so much an issue these days, so we haven't used the emulator in forever, but then the other night, I saw her making use of hers to play an Emerald ROM. And the Pokémon featured on the screen at that moment had some truly bizarre color schemes, but they were clearly not shinies. I asked what was up with this. She said she'd found a randomizer program that allows the complete scrambling of virtually every feature - from the starters you have access to, to Pokémon type, to the complete randomization of movesets, Pokémon abilities, and even TMs. An option exists to change the color scheme of Pokémon to reflect the type they are, whether or not they retained their original type.

Having not played any of the games in quite a while (I haven't touched White in over a year, I don't have B2/W2, and I have no 3DS for X/Y), this fascinated me. When I described this oddity to a friend of mine, he proclaimed it to be something like Delta Species, or maybe the first fight you have with a Sudowoodo, every single time you run into a new Pokémon. I decided to try it out and see what I'd get.

The starters available for selection were Gligar, Pichu, and Snorunt. I chose Pichu. It was blue, and when I consulted its stats, I saw it was Ice-Type. Its first two moves were Sludge and Foresight. I was immediately hooked by the madness, and raised him up to Level 15, by which point he learned Leaf Blade and Hyper Fang, and also attempted to learn Rain Dance (no thank you). I have since caught a Dragon-Type Staryu, a Bug-Type Chimecho, an Ice/Fighting-Type Poliwag, and a purely Poison-Type Zubat (whose only current move is Tri Attack). I've run afoul of several Slakings in the wild (Level 5's) that are lacking the Truant ability and are sporting False Swipe among their moves. I haven't yet caught one, but rest assured that's my next goal.

I have no idea what type all these newly randomized Pokémon are, and the only way I'm going to learn is to zap them with my Pokédex and/or catch them all. (Fortunately, an option in the randomizer also helps to ensure that all Pokémon have a chance to appear in-game). Back to the original spirit of the game! I don't think I've felt quite this invigorated to play a Pokémon game in years.

Has anybody else tried this? If so, do you have any stories to share about the experience? My girlfriend attempted a Nuzlocke challenge, but unfortunately was defeated early - her starter got whomped by a Level 3 in the wild that had Dragon Rage. This random thing can be a doozy.

[Lady Vulpix]

Sounds really interesting! I don't have Emerald (nor a GBA), but I would love to see that someday.

Nice topic title, by the way!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Cool! Um, I'm not disdaining randomizing things, they can be amazing surprises, but I'd also be curious about hacking the game with my own ideas. Like drawing your own Pokemon and trainers, making your own towns etc.

Is that possible?

[mattbcl]

It might be possible, but if it is, it wouldn't be through the program we have. See what you can find, though, it sounds like you'd have some serious fun with it!

[Poryhedron]

Cool! Um, I'm not disdaining randomizing things, they can be amazing surprises, but I'd also be curious about hacking the game with my own ideas. Like drawing your own Pokemon and trainers, making your own towns etc.

Is that possible?

Quite possible. I have no idea how, but there are people who do exactly that. There seems to be information on how to get started available on YouTube if you search "ROM hack"; you can also find many videos of people playing ROM hacks to show what the games are like.