Emerald hack: Pokémon Revelation v231014: A Vanilla Improvement Hack for Hoenn

[RichterSnipes]

Revelation Discord Link​

And he said unto me, "It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end..."​

-Revelation 21:6

Story
Ten years to the day of the release of Pokémon Throwback comes its sequel! Pokémon Revelation is a vanilla quality-of-life/enhancement decompilation hack of Pokémon Emerald. There's a wealth of other QoL Emerald hacks out there now, so that poses the question:

"Why Revelation?"

The aim of Pokémon Revelation is to add as many QoL features from the more recent games as reasonably possible while looking and feeling just like vanilla Emerald and maintaining compatibility with the official games. There may be hacks that have a more exotic visual flair or hacks that have more involved features, but none will feel or be as true to the original game as this one. Or at least that's what I'm going for! Features added to the game will still look similar to the base game, and added or adjusted text/events will respect the intent of Emerald and the official games. If you want a hack that's just like Emerald, but better, check out Revelation!

What's more, Revelation now supports just about all major save editors with Generation III support as well as loading hack saves back in vanilla Emerald! If you've ever wanted to bring your hack efforts back to the base game, you can here.

As for the game's story? Well, there actually is a little change to a part of that. But you'll need to play to find out what it is! Or just be an observant reader.

Features
Revelation comes jam-packed with a ton of features. As a decomp hack, more advanced features and techniques are possible, and I've taken good advantage of that!​

Pokémon: Gotta Catch 'em All!​

Revelation one-ups Throwback and meets the expectations of many hack players: All 386 Pokémon from the first three generations can be obtained in this hack. As overwhelming as that may sound, this hack makes everything feel natural. Here's how:

• Time-of-day-based encounters
• New Pokémon in Emerald-exclusive maps
• Mass outbreak expansion and overhaul
• Simulated trade for trade evolutions
• In-game trade additions and changes
• New events
• Access to all event tickets
• Roaming expansion
• Game Corner prizes
• Trainer Hill prizes
• Altering Cave overhaul
• Fossils from breakable rocks in Desert Underpass
• Receive all three Johto starters for reaching specific milestones

All but two obtainable Pokémon should be recognized as legal when transferred to the Gen IV games on onwards. Want some general ideas on how to get the newly-available Pokémon? Check the "Pokémon.txt" text file in the "Documents" folder for more information!​

Items: Gotta Bag 'em All!​

A cavalcade of improvements have been introduced for obtaining items, as well as using and managing them.

• The Bag is expanded. Now you can carry every item in the game at once! You can also carry up to 999 of a single item.
• Items are sorted into nine different Pockets for better organization, with each new Pocket being based on ones from the official games.
• Items within a Pocket can be sorted through several different means by pressing the Start button.
• The functions of both the Mach and Acro Bikes are built into one item (the Bicycle), and you can switch gears at any time while riding it by pressing the R button.
• You can register multiple items at once. If multiple items are registered, you can select which one to use from a menu when pressing the Select button.
• Medicine and Rare Candy can be used repeatedly without leaving the Pokémon menu.
• The game will prompt you to use another Repel after the effect of the previous one wears off.

As for getting these items...

• Just about every item, as well as every decoration and legal Berry, can be obtained repeatedly.
• Additional item prizes are available at the Battle Frontier Exchange Service Corner, and prices have been slashed across the board.
• Poké Mart inventories update based on Badge count. Items exclusive to specific Marts are sold by a second vendor.
• Pokémon wild held items have been expanded greatly. Look at the accompanying document for more information.
• The Pickup table has been expanded.
• Breakable rocks can leave behind valuable items. The specific items found depend on your location.

Outfits​

Of the many changes made from Ruby and Sapphire for Emerald, the most ever-present one is the altered sprites of the main characters. I've added these original outfits back into the game for the player character to wear. Not only that, you can switch between the R/S and Emerald outfits if you feel like it! Simply access the newly-added Fitting Room that can be found on the second floor of any Pokémon Center to change your outfit.

All player sprites, including the overworld sprites, battle sprites, and opening and credits sprites, will be switched when changing outfits. Even the Bag changes depending on what you're wearing! If you link with other Revelation players, your selected outfit will be displayed in other players' games across all relevant modes. I haven't tested cross-compatibility with other hacks to see how they look in those, but I'll work on adding cross-hack support for those if reasonable.​

Moves​

The usage and obtaining of various moves has been improved greatly, HM or otherwise:

• TMs are infinitely reusable, and all standard Move Tutors will teach your Pokémon their moves an unlimited number of times.
• Battle Frontier Move Tutor prices have been significantly slashed, and all general tutor moves exclusive to Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness have been added.
• The Physical/Special/Status split can be optionally enabled thanks to moves now having assigned categories. Press the Select button on a Pokémon's summary screen Battle Moves page with the split enabled if you need a refresher.
• Moves learned through leveling up and tutoring that are exclusive to FireRed and LeafGreen have been inserted into the level-up learnsets of all applicable Pokémon. Moves learned per level for these Pokémon have been slightly adjusted to account for this.
• HMs can be used by wild Pokémon without being taught, and they can be forgotten normally if taught. Animations for wild Pokémon using HMs are faster than normal.
• You can use Fly from the PokéNav map screen, and you can fly to almost any location in the game.
• Cut trees and smashed rocks that block paths remain gone once removed. Boulder puzzles also remain solved once completed and progressed past.
• The default Flash radius is slightly larger, and using Flash will illuminate the entire cave its used in.

But wait, there's more!​

• Decapitalization: All text is properly decapitalized the text in the game. Menu items and moments of actual shouting are left capitalized.
• R/S Changes: Various elements of the game's opening section have been reverted to how they are in all other Hoenn games. The same goes for the end of the game.
• Running Free: You start the game with the Running Shoes, can run indoors, run on Fortree City bridges and at Pacifidlog Town, and can toggle between automatically walking and running with the R button.
• Faster Text: Text speeds have been increased all around, with the new Fast speed rendering text twice as fast as the vanilla version's fastest speed.
• Additional Speed-Ups: Battle transitions are sped up by 50%, the HP bar drains more quickly, fleeing from battle takes less time, using Pokémon Centers is a much faster process, Berry picking is sped up, and the game saves quicker.
• EV Training: Altering Cave transforms per day into a different layout, with a different wild Pokémon available suitable for EV training and corresponding vitamin in an item ball that respawns daily. EVs are capped at 252 per stat, and vitamins can be used to max out the EVs for their given stat.
• Stats Judge: Get a general idea of what your Pokémon's IVs are on the summary screen. Unlock the feature by speaking to the judge at the Battle Frontier.
• Battle Difficulty: Easy mode enables the modern-day Exp. Share system, Hard mode disables Badge boosts.
• No Bzzt: The low health sound effect only plays four times instead of repeatedly, and poison no longer affects your Pokémon in the overworld outside of battle facilities. It's still enabled in the Battle Pyramid and Battle Pike, as well as during Trainer Hill challenges.
• Less Money Lost: Blacking out in battle will only cause you to lose a fraction of your Poké Dollars based on how many Badges you have.
• Catching Enhancements: Sleep and freeze increase catch rate by 2.5x, most Balls have their catch rates boosted to match modern games, and catching Pokémon will still net you experience.
• Overworld Ability Improvements: Additional field effects that various Abilities gain in later generations have been backported.
• Lucky Charms: The Oval and Shiny Charms have been added to the game, obtainable through the same means as in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
• Breeding Enhancements: Nature and move inheritance has been improved to modern standards, and the Masuda method of shiny breeding has been implemented.
• More Options: Change the game's font and message window, choose your preferred measurement units, and toggle random overworld Match Calls.
• Box Mode Order: Deposit Pokémon is now the top option. It can be switched to Move Pokémon by speaking to Lanette.
• Improved Reflection Palettes: The palettes used for reflections are automatically calculated to be highly accurate as opposed to using faulty pre-defined palettes.
• Higher Quality Cries: Higher-quality WAV files for the cries of Kanto and Johto Pokémon have been inserted. They're sampled at 13379Hz, the default sampling rate for the GBA Pokémon games.
• e-Reader Support: All English-language e-Reader Trainer and Berry cards for R/S can be scanned into Revelation via the Mystery Events option in the main menu menu and function as they do in those games.
• Terminology: Terminology for various aspects of the game (Nature, Ability, Trainer classes, moves, etc.) have been updated to modern day standards.
• Fixes: Most notable vanilla glitches and oversights, as well as various graphical oddities, have been fixed.

And much, much more! The complete list of changes can be found by clicking here.

Screenshots and GIFs

Spoiler:

Credits
If there's a notable exclusion, please let me know.

Spoiler:

Ghoulslash - overworld expansion (fixes by Deokishisu), costume system, auto-running (adjustmenst by Jaizu), repeated medicine use, dynamic Marts by Badge count, bag sorting framework, options menu scroll arrows
DizzyEggg - colored stats by Nature on Pokémon summary screen, faster text rendering (fixes by AsparagusEduardo), options menu scrolling, Exp. gain from catching Pokémon
TheXaman -registered items list, options menu expansion framework, self-trading (fixed names by Zeturic), text font option framework, Match Call option
AsparagusEduardo - units system option (with Lunos), modern white out money loss calculation (with tweaks by lightgod87)
Citrus Bolt - legality/personality seeding code, Nature/gender checks for chain encounters, saving data to Trainer Hill save sector, e-Reader card verification/offset info
ExpoSeed - reuse Repel OW prompt, dynamic overworld palettes (public branch; original code by Slawter, algorithm by CompuMax)
Lunos - one-time TM purchases
Blurose - modern Exp. system
Zeturic - Pokémon summary screen wrapping
Jaizu - automatic lowercase for text inputting
cbt - simultaneous multi-directional inputs
Ketsuban - bike switching
AkimotoBubble - framework for displaying IVs
Tustin2121 - framework for full save block compatibility

Beta testers: Hobusu, Akiak, Cael Thunderwing

All of the people who've contributed to pret's pokeemerald decompilation.
All of the people who contributed to the main decapitalization branch (Wyrserth, Lunos, and AsparagusEduardo, with tweaks from me).

Also, thanks to the above and countless others who've made and edited tutorials to both implement those features and gain a better grasp on the decomp environment in general.

Tools Used

Spoiler:

VSCode
Porymap
paint.net
Irfanview
Audacity
Tilemap Studio
Sekaiju​

All known bugs in Pokémon Revelation - be they hack-specific, from the vanilla game, or only present in emulators - are listed in the "Bugs.txt" text file included with the download. If you find anything that isn't specified in there, please let me know. It's best to report it in the #bug-reports channel of the Discord server.​

Download (for BPEE, the English-language release of the game)

Discord server

Current Version: 231010 (2023 October 10)

Support Banner:

​

The .zip file should contain two versions of the complete hack and a folder with various documentation for the hack. The only differences between the patches are the capitalization of terms. If you want to keep things capitalized like the vanilla Gen III games, choose the caps version. In the far-more-likely scenario that you want things decapped, though, use the decap patch.

Revelation has been tested to work on actual hardware. It's also fully compatible with vanilla saves. If you import a vanilla save file, the game will make the necessary tweaks to it to make it compatible on first load. If any overworld graphics look odd, just move to a new screen and everything should look fine afterwards. Keep this in mind, though: Once you bring a vanilla save over to Revelation, you won't be able to bring it back to the vanilla version of Emerald.

Check out the guides for obtaining the newly-added Pokémon, wild location changes, and held item changes if you're interested in learning those. If you want a fully-extensive list of changes, take a look at the "Changes" file. If you do, though, sit back. You might be there for awhile!

If anyone has any suggestions for Revelation, feel free to share! The "Ideas" channel on my Discord server is the primary place to put them. Just keep in mind that keeping the hack compatible with the official games is an utmost priority. Also, anyone is free to use and modify this hack's fork for their own projects so long as you give proper credit.

Enjoy your time in Hoenn! 😁​

​

 

[bwburke94]

This feels like it's the "best of both worlds" for Hoenn, although some of the RS-specific stuff being brought back just feels unnecessary.

 

[RichterSnipes]

I've updated the OP to have a static font color regardless of theme. Sorry to those who were trying to read this with the site's current theme!

The download link's also been updated to the Discord attachment for an immediate download, along with an edited wild held items document. The previous one accidentally said that Solrock could hold a Moon Stone instead of a Sun Stone. Finally, the "changes" link now sends you to a Google doc instead of a text file for better formatting.

This feels like it's the "best of both worlds" for Hoenn, although some of the RS-specific stuff being brought back just feels unnecessary.

I understand your last point, although the latter could be argued for Emerald changing them in the first place. I know that OR/AS didn't look much towards Emerald at all for its specific content, but some of the changes made for Emerald feel weird to begin with.

For the moving company Machoke/Vigoroth, I think the impact of having the first Hoenn Pokemon being shown be the ones from your first battle hits better. Meeting your rival was switched for a more technical reason that'll make sense if you beat the game. And Birch being chased by a Zigzagoon just feels so off compared to a Poochyena. While Poochyena can realistically go after another person they don't like, Zigzagoon are docile by nature. So for a Zigzagoon to become hostile to Birch would mean that Birch did something real, real dumb.

 

[Chirutalis]

First off, congratulations. Secondly, since you added new items in this hack, I would like to see Prism Scale and Linking Cord in this game, or better, they are usable along with trade-based evolution items without trading. Also it would be great to see IVs and EVs in the menu.

 

[Lekla]

Hey RichterSnipes,
The projects sound really well done and i have always wished for a Pokemon Emerald Vanilla + QOL experience like this one.
Because i didn't read it in your post:
Do the enemy trainers have adjusted movesets in case you are playing with a Physical/Special Split? For example, Wallace Gyarados having Waterfall instead of Surf. Or did you just leave all the movesets vanilla?

 

[Inner Rhymes]

This sounds phenomenal! Do you have any plans to add the following Pokémon mechanism? I believe that woudl be a really nice touch!

 

[RichterSnipes]

I put out a quick bugfix for players being able to bypass the scientist blocking the path to Route 102 at the beginning of the game. Hopefully there aren't any other embarrassing dumb bugs still left in the game!

... famous last words. Also, did a couple of quick formatting changes to the OP for general viewing, like changing the color of the link to the list of changes and putting the GIFs/images behind a spoiler tag.

First off, congratulations. Secondly, since you added new items in this hack, I would like to see Prism Scale and Linking Cord in this game, or better, they are usable along with trade-based evolution items without trading. Also it would be great to see IVs and EVs in the menu.

I was thinking about Milotic's alternate evolution method, but I realize that putting it in exactly how it works in later games might cause problems. The reason I'm fine with adding the items I did to the game (so far, just the two Charms) is because you can't give them to Pokemon to hold. If you can, that could cause problems with connecting to the official games. I know you can do checks for the other Gen III games (like with the Enigma Berry), but I'm pretty sure such a thing doesn't exist for transferring Pokemon to Gen IV via migration/Pal Park.

As for the Linking Cord and making trade-evolving items usable, I suppose that would be a possibility. I think that'd be pushing the limits of what a vanilla Pokemon hack would be a bit too much, though.

Hey RichterSnipes,
The projects sound really well done and i have always wished for a Pokemon Emerald Vanilla + QOL experience like this one.
Because i didn't read it in your post:
Do the enemy trainers have adjusted movesets in case you are playing with a Physical/Special Split? For example, Wallace Gyarados having Waterfall instead of Surf. Or did you just leave all the movesets vanilla?

Have at it! I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and I'm happy to hear that there's still interest in this kind of stuff. I love seeing the crazy stuff that hacks can do, but I also like the idea of making improvement patches to games while keeping them feeling just like the base games themselves.

Trainer movesets are not adjusted for the split. It won't affect things in general since most Trainers' Pokemon just have default movesets (based on level), but I'll definitely consider adding separate Trainers to cover some significant edge cases (like Wallace's Gyarados you mentioned) to account for that.

This sounds phenomenal! Do you have any plans to add the following Pokémon mechanism? I believe that woudl be a really nice touch!

Thanks! Much appreciated.

I don't have any plans to add that. I feel it's beyond the scope of this hack's goals.

 

[Inner Rhymes]

I put out a quick bugfix for players being able to bypass the scientist blocking the path to Route 102 at the beginning of the game. Hopefully there aren't any other embarrassing dumb bugs still left in the game!

... famous last words. Also, did a couple of quick formatting changes to the OP for general viewing, like changing the color of the link to the list of changes and putting the GIFs/images behind a spoiler tag.

I was thinking about Milotic's alternate evolution method, but I realize that putting it in exactly how it works in later games might cause problems. The reason I'm fine with adding the items I did to the game (so far, just the two Charms) is because you can't give them to Pokemon to hold. If you can, that could cause problems with connecting to the official games. I know you can do checks for the other Gen III games (like with the Enigma Berry), but I'm pretty sure such a thing doesn't exist for transferring Pokemon to Gen IV via migration/Pal Park.

As for the Linking Cord and making trade-evolving items usable, I suppose that would be a possibility. I think that'd be pushing the limits of what a vanilla Pokemon hack would be a bit too much, though.

Have at it! I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and I'm happy to hear that there's still interest in this kind of stuff. I love seeing the crazy stuff that hacks can do, but I also like the idea of making improvement patches to games while keeping them feeling just like the base games themselves.

Trainer movesets are not adjusted for the split. It won't affect things in general since most Trainers' Pokemon just have default movesets (based on level), but I'll definitely consider adding separate Trainers to cover some significant edge cases (like Wallace's Gyarados you mentioned) to account for that.

Thanks! Much appreciated.

I don't have any plans to add that. I feel it's beyond the scope of this hack's goals.

i completely get you would you consider making an alternative patch for peeps who would like following Pokemon?

 

[SPazzzi95]

Great hack so far. But it would be cool if you had the option to press b during a wild battle to quickly flee. Also the last ball used would be a great qol addition too.

 

[SuperEgz]

I just saw a Zigzagoon after midday on Route 110. Isnt it not supposed to be avalaible then?

 

[RichterSnipes]

Famous last words! Another bugfix patch is here, this time for fixes to a Trick House question and event ticket distribution (for players who've gotten that far). Neither are game-breaking bugs, but it's still recommended to be on the most up-to-date version possible!

i completely get you would you consider making an alternative patch for peeps who would like following Pokemon?

Although my previous hack had a lot of patches for various options, that led to a lot of confusion. When you throw in the complexities of making and applying patches for decomp hacks, it just becomes a situation that I don't want to think about handling for the time being. I'll look at my options in the future.

Great hack so far. But it would be cool if you had the option to press b during a wild battle to quickly flee. Also the last ball used would be a great qol addition too.

Thank you!

I feel like having a "Press B to flee" feature would lead to a lot of accidental running from battle. Probably better to just leave that as it is. As for the "last ball" feature, I've seen multiple hacks use it. It's pretty nifty! I'm just not sure how I feel about including it given the goal of being a vanilla-feeling hack. For now I don't plan on adding it, but I'll keep it in mind.

I just saw a Zigzagoon after midday on Route 110. Isnt it not supposed to be avalaible then?

What time was it when you ran into it? Nighttime starts at 8 P.M. in Revelation.

 

[SuperEgz]

What time was it when you ran into it? Nighttime starts at 8 P.M. in Revelation.

Ah! All good. It was just after 1pm. I thought it was a midday split between day and night in Gen 3.

 

[RichterSnipes]

Ah! All good. It was just after 1pm. I thought it was a midday split between day and night in Gen 3.

Oh, gotcha. The day/night split was changed for the hack so that day is 6 A.M. to 8 P.M., and night is everything else.

 

[RichterSnipes]

Another day, another set of bugfixes. This time it's for late/endgame stuff, such as post-Sootopolis Sky Pillar, a couple of battle triggers at Victory Road, and a cave entrance appearing just a little too early for my liking in Meteor Falls. Again, nothing game-breaking, but always good to be as bug-free as possible!

 

[RichterSnipes]

Revelation's Getting a New Feature!

... plus a bugfix. Lol.

Today's update fixes an issue with Pokemon not evolving if they reach a evolution-triggering level from experience gained through catching a wild Pokemon. I've had multiple cases of players missing out on immediate-evolution moves because of it. I'm gonna make it up to them - and everyone else - by giving every current player a free Heart Scale. You can use that to teach them the move they missed out on!

I've also tweaked the requirements for rechallenging the Pokemon League after beating the game. Now all you need to do is have all Gym Leaders eligible for rematches. That means beating the New Mauville sidequest and making sure you've beaten all current Gym Leaders once (if you know what I mean).

As for that feature? Mew can now learn tutor moves exclusive to Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness via the Move Reminder. It's mainly for completion's sake, but is still neat for edge cases. Oh, and the transition back to the field after catching a wild Pokemon should be a tiny bit faster now. That's nice.

Enjoy!

 

[Helixir]

Maybe megas for the pokemon that would have them?

 

[pokemonfan6498]

i hope future versions will add ability to reset clock

 

[SuperEgz]

i hope future versions will add ability to reset clock

The current Version has that ability.

From the Changes document:

*The game's built-in code for resetting the real-time clock has been enabled. Hold B + Left + Select to access it.

 

[pokemonfan6498]

really? ok maybe i haven,t saw it

 

[chris burton]

Hi. I love your hacks, going as far back as Sonic 3 Complete, and of course Throwback. Had a quick blast through Revelation and its superb. It condenses and tweaks the entire gen 3 experience in such a tasteful and authentic way.

However there are a couple of niggling things I'd like to ask your advice/opinions/considerations on.

1)

Firstly, and perhaps most simply - would any patches that update or modify existing moves and level up movesets work on this hack? If not, would you consider releasing an - entirely optional - additional patch that did so?

Maybe balanced, custom, Gen 3 - legal level up moveset modifications to your liking? Gen 3 has some egregiously bad level up movesets, like the Seedot and Lotad lines that don't naturally learn any useful STAB for the vast majority of the early-to-mid game. Lombre can't even easily get a Water Stone to evolve until you get Dive, which, if I recall is near the 7th Gym! As for moves, one of the best grass type moves learnable across the board, is Giga Drain which has 5 pp and 60 base power. It's just...not very useable you know?

It just makes training and levelling most of the base monster set a total chore. I wouldn't expect nor want it as part of the base hack, as per your wishes for compatibility and legitimacy - but an optional patch for people whom that isn't an issue, nor who mind throwing off the balance a tad, it'd be extremely appreciated.

2)

The implementation of version exclusives/biases via day/night splits, and fitting in the non-Hoenn-native mons in via expanded mass outbreaks, and the bonus post game areas exclusive to Emerald is genius. I adore your version of the Altering Cave.

However some of the wild encounters seem a bit oddly placed for my personal preferences. I love the idea of the daily Altering Cave being a biome for different themed monsters, like the Underground from BDSP. To me that'd be more organic than Seel being found in tropical waters or Sneasel randomly popping up on Mirage Island (which to me would be a much better fit for Unown than Artisan Cave?). I appreciate its explicit purpose is easy EV training with a specific mon each day, but personally, its a sacrifice I'd be willing to make.

I would never ask nor expect you to change any of these placements. It's your hack and the placements are intentional/functional. But if I wanted to go about tweaking them myself, could you please, briefly, explain how I might do that?

Naturally being a decomp hack nearly all the old, vanilla, binary romhacking tools are of no use. I'm no hacker, I'm vaguely aware of PoryMap but wouldn't know the first thing about how to open your hack as a project to edit your hack with it? Could you point me in the right direction?

Sorry for the essay, but I wanted to be thorough! If you can help me out with either of these two points, I'd be very grateful.