God this hack is so fucking bad. Runs take for fucking ever. The save system is god awful. If you so much as look at this game wrong it will boot you out of your run and make you start over. Trainers in the endgame are stacked with legendaries designed to screw you over because Pokeabbie couldn't think of any better way to make it difficult. Easy difficulty is for piss babies while medium and higher just fucks you over in the endgame.

Deleted it after losing yet another run due to the save system being retarded.

8/10 for mere concept and thorough execution. This gimmick makes so much sense, it feels like pokemon was designed to be played like this. Pokemon has always suffered from misguided goals. "Beat the pokemon league", "catch 'em all", "Be the very best". What some pokemon hacks fail to realize is those goals are easy when you're given unlimited combat options and unlimited documentation. On top of that how god damn tedious their game is because pokemon was designed to be an absolute slog to play.

Pokemon Emerald Rogue narrows your focus and limits your options. It bridges the gap between using (basically) unlimited combat items + pokemon to cheese the game and playing on set mode with self-imposed nuzlocke rules.

Lots of things in pokemon are up to chance, and it makes more sense that way. Having a chance to find a legendary or permanent buff instead of always getting that every single playthrough keeps things fair and forces you to try new things. Most people only use what they have always used because why would you not choose the most powerful option? Why would you not make an unbeatable team? If you don't, you're just gonna have to grind your life away to make another.

It all becomes very monotonous. This hack plays to pokemon's own strengths. You have hundreds of pokemon to choose from who are all very interesting with their own mechanics, randomize the pokemon to prevent them from using the same party. This also helps you become familiar with each pokemon's traits so when you face a pokemon you've already used, you don't need to look it up or guess. Force the player to adapt instead of feeding them the same experience over and over is what pokemon has been missing and what people ultimately chase for when playing vanilla pokemon. You have to go through all these hoops to make the game you want to play. This one just did all the work for you and said "be free".

On top of that, this adds all the features you could ever want without all the logistics. "Where do I get that mega stone? oh great now I have to use these 3 HMs." Or "How do I evolve this pokemon again? Oh great I have to wait for nighttime." Or "I don't want to play gen 3 pokemon, I love gen 4 too much." Or "Great now I have to walk cause I haven't learned fly yet". This is not why people play the game, they play it for the strategy! Strategy is not looking something up and spending hours to get what you want to win, strategy is not having what you need and dealing with it.

And then putting an extra RNG twist so that when you lose, you can just blame it on the game and that keeps you playing because now you avoided the responsibility that you just misplayed it. You keep playing and naturally get better.

The only thing this is really missing is great graphics (like gen 4 or 5) and traversal mechanics that aren't teleporting you to a new map. Something extra to make it make sense, some story, stage design, unique character interactions. Although, as you introduce that, you have to be careful. Making a roguelite means you want to keep repeated interaction to a minimum.

First game "beaten" this year and it's pokemon, surprise surprise. I'll always come crawling back...
Emerald Rogue is a simple but effective roguelike spin on the pokemon formula. Romhackers always enhance the base games and this is no different. Lots of options here to custom tailor your experience to make it as fun as possible. The gameplay loop can feel a bit repetitive (it's a roguelike) but still had a ton of fun binging it over the weekend. To call this game "beaten" I finished both a single battle and double battle run of the main mode.
The customizing before your runs allows for so much replay ability and helps let people tailor the game to what they want, so it's greatly appreciated. The normal/hard difficulty game modes feel cheap sometimes with RNG (the first gym challenge having 3 legendaries at level 15???), but since you can alter it that's not a dealbreaker by any means.
If you want to play pokemon w/ a roguelike touch, this is absolutely the game to play. So much to do and lots of fun to be had here. Quality romhack that is still being updated at the time of this post. Try it out!

Played v1.3.2a EX.

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald are the epitome of comfort games for me, and I consider them near infinitely replayable with just a handful of caveats (mostly due to later games' mechanical improvements). Imagine my surprise when I found out that there's a full-throated roguelite ROM hack of Emerald version that includes damn near every Pokémon, evolution, and mechanic up through Sword and Shield and puts the gameplay focus on competitive, strategic battling and team building.

Folks, this shit got me feeling like a Junji Ito protagonist: "👉 This game was made for me!!" I'm gonna have to force myself to put it down after my holiday travel is over or else I might not play any thing else ever again.

If you like doing nuzlockes with Pokémon randomizers, this is basically that but with more randomization in a more structured way with permanent progression systems linked to the hub area. Anything you do in the hub (level or evolve your partner, teach your partner new moves, purchase items like Pokéballs or TMs, catch new partners in the Safari Zone, and much more) is maintained after the reset following each adventure, and each adventure sees you heading out with one of your partners and whatever's in your bag at the time into a map field where you pick to explore different types of routes or gamble on varios events that may bestow great rewards. Your goal is to reach the end of each mini map and challenge a gym leader before doing it all again, eventually collecting all 8 badges and challenging the Elite Four. Money is limited, healing your team is expensive, and fainting is unrecoverable.

This is an impressively technical achievement that reworks so much of Pokémon Emerald into a completely new experience that somehow still retains the magical core gameplay loop of the series. It's a genuinely incredible breath of fresh air and I wholeheartedly recommend it to Pokémon fans who are looking for an interesting new challenge wrapped in a nostalgic package.

First adventure clear team: Charizard, Gardevoir, Deoxys, Salamence, and Regirock. RIP to Magneton, Golem, Mew, and the other fallen soldiers along the way. 🫡

When I heard there was a roguelike Pokémon fan-made game using my favorite game (Emerald) as a host, I had to give it try. It's a little raw, but also surprisingly in-depth and a true testament to the Pokémon fan-made and ROM hacking community. It's different than every other Pokémon game I've experienced.

Pokabbie (the creator) eliminated a lot of the annoying, grindy elements of the core Pokémon games that I despise and instead focused to make battling way more interesting (and challenging) than just hitting your opponent with your strongest attack over and over, which is all "real" Pokémon gameplay was to me, while also adding some neat classic roguelike elements to it like permadeath and procedural generation.

It felt like all of my problems with Pokémon were shared with Pokabbie and she fixed most of it. You can tell she is a true Pokémon and Roguelike fan. As far as pure mechanics go, this is now my favorite Pokémon game. I got way too addicted to this.

75/100

As a seasoned Pokémon enthusiast and avid gamer, I can wholeheartedly declare that Pokémon Emerald Rogue stands as a true testament to the boundless creativity and ingenuity of the ROM hacking community. This ingenious reimagining of the classic Pokémon Emerald takes the familiar formula and infuses it with a roguelike twist, breathing new life into the beloved adventure.

The roguelike elements seamlessly blend with the Pokémon universe, creating a captivating gameplay loop that keeps me coming back for more. Each run presents a unique challenge, forcing me to adapt my strategies and carefully consider my choices. The permadeath mechanic adds a thrilling layer of tension, making every encounter feel consequential.

Pokémon Emerald Rogue masterfully captures the essence of Pokémon while introducing innovative mechanics that elevate the experience to new heights. The thrill of exploring randomly generated routes, the excitement of encountering unexpected Pokémon, and the satisfaction of overcoming challenging battles make this game an absolute gem for any Pokémon fan seeking a fresh and exhilarating adventure.

I wholeheartedly recommend Pokémon Emerald Rogue to anyone seeking a unique and engrossing Pokémon experience. It's a testament to the passion and creativity of the ROM hacking community, and it stands as a shining example of how to breathe new life into a beloved classic.

I'm not really a rougelike guy and after countless years of playing pokemon games I got sick of the boring battle system. That's why I'm confused as to why I loved the game so much.

This game encourages innovation, strategy, and ballsy plays like no other rpg I've ever played. The game is very well crafted and not a single action feels wasted, you never feel like you're wasting time.

I just beat the game once and felt pretty satisfied but you can definitely keep playing with all sorts of customization options that i will definitely play with in the future.

If you're a jaded pokemon fan who gets bored by the modern gameplay formula definitely play, it feels really unique and fresh

Man, when I hear of a Pokemon ROM Hack, I think of your typical Pokemon game. Catching, battling, collecting gym badges, and all. This has that, sure, but completely twists the game upside-down into a roguelike. A Pokemon roguelike. On paper, that sounds outstanding. In execution, it was!

The gameplay is never-ending amounts of fun, with the fast-paced levelling and catching. Not worried about XP grinding, figuring out where to go, or anything. It's all right there, and I know is going to be very replayable for a long time.

I think for a standard gamer, maybe don't try this one, as there are plenty of more fleshed out games in the genre, HOWEVER. If you're a diehard Pokemon fan, there is no reason to wait! I liked this game more than some actual mainline Pokemon games. Now I'm just gonna wait for Platinum Rogue...

I give Pokemon Emerald Rogue an 8.25/10!
Game #6 of 2024

I don't know if the point of this is to be hard and get easier as you keep going, but I didn't find it too difficult even on the first run. You could just replace all of your fainted pokemon between each badge. And if I did more runs they would only be easier, right? Additionally, the tutorials were pretty bad but I'm sure those are super hard to code. I feel like I still don't know all of the mechanics, and didn't know some really important ones until over halfway through my run.

But my biggest issue is the length; my run took 5.5 hours which is like over 25% of an actual Pokemon game. I'd rather play that, I think. Anyway shoutout Raikou and Salamence for the hard carry.

Condenses Pokemon down into its core, mechanical appeal. You lose all of the adventure game trappings in the process, but these tend to be the least-polished elements of fan games. What you gain in return is a fast-paced, streamlined game where each run feels like a complete, satisfying experience despite only taking a few hours. All killer, no filler, as the saying goes.

The randomization leads to interesting team compositions you would never otherwise consider and your limited supplies mean that resource management is relevant in a way it's never been in the main series or even most fan-games. Permanent KOs for your Pokemon mean you'll really consider your actions in battle and their long and short-term consequences. Smart play is heavily incentivized and rewarded.

On top of this there's a load of unlockables (either by completing the game or using a secret switch in the hub) like more Pokemon all the way up to Generation 8, double battles as a format, and a ton more.

The only major downside is how routes tend to feel a bit samey and like in any roguelike there's going to be rare runs where you feel like the game just has it out for you.