Emerald hack: Obsidian Emerald v1.4 Release [VGC/Doubles Challenge/QoL/Modernization Hack, Story Completed]

[Skolgrahd]

A PvE experience for VGC Fans
Hello Pokécommunity! This is my first post, and it's to tell you about my ROM hack, Pokémon Obsidian Emerald, made together with co-designer Speaker. We love the VGC format of competitive Pokémon, which pits players against each other in Double Battles. It has always been our opinion that 2v2 battles offer a much richer experience than singles. We have also been huge fans of difficulty/enhancement hacks for a long time. A little over a year ago, we began to wonder whether there were any ROM hacks that would offer a VGC fan like ourselves a fully Doubles experience that would force us to craft competitive teams with well-thought-out synergies to overcome powerful VGC-inspired opponents, all with a modernized battle engine and quality-of-life features. After a lot of searching, we came up empty, so we decided to make it happen! The result is Obsidian Emerald Version.

Obsidian Emerald Version is currently on v1.4, which has just released! We will continue to update the game, and have already implemented many community-suggested features, balance changes and more. Currently, the game is complete through defeating the Champion. The post-game will be updated in version 2.0, which Speaker and I will begin working towards soon!

To download the game, you can use this Google Drive link, which also contains a full Changelog and the documentation:

Pokemon Obsidian Emerald Version - Google Drive

drive.google.com

If you're up for it, please join our discord! We have a great community growing there, and would love to hear your suggestions, receive your bug reports, and see your Hall of Fame teams!

Join the Obsidian Emerald Discord Server!

Home of the Pokemon Emerald decomp hack, Obsidian Emerald Version. | 1202 members

discord.gg

Trailer (outdated):

Spoiler:

Editing by Ogshinokami, music by Dr. Pez

Screenshots:



Features:

Spoiler:

• All non-legendary, non-mythical Pokémon through Gen 8 and their evolutions are available
• Updated Gen 9 battle engine with modern abilities, moves, and typing
• The DexNav is fully implemented
• Every single trainer has a completely revamped party optimized for Double Battles, with Poképastes in the documentation's Master Sheet
• Mega Evolution returns with custom Mega forms for select Pokémon
• Minimal Grinding Mode sets EVs and IVs to 0 and 31, respectively, for all Pokémon
• Candy Mode allows access to an Infinite Candy that instantly takes Pokémon to the level cap
• Nuzlocke Mode enforces Hardcore Nuzlocke rules and causes the Hall of Fame screen to state that you completed a Nuzlocke Challenge
• The Pokédex+ displays the base stats, learnsets, abilities, evolution methods and more for all Pokémon
• The AI has received many Doubles-specific enhancements, and will continue to see improvement going forward
• All Gym Leaders have a unique field effect, heightening the difficulty and giving the feeling that you are challenging the leaders on their home turf
• To challenge a Gym, Pokemon League rules stipulate that the player must have no more Pokemon in their party than the Gym Leader does
• The monotony of traveling from town to town has been replaced with grueling gauntlets, forcing you to battle many trainers consecutively to reach your destination
• A hard level cap prevents overleveling and keeps the fights fair
• Retooling and customizing your team is streamlined with Exp. Candies, Vitamins, Nature Mints, Ability Capsules and Ability Patches and Feathers all available early on
• Moves can be relearned from the party menu
• Field moves like HMs can be used by any Pokemon that can learn them, regardless of whether they actually know the move

FAQ:

Spoiler:

• What emulator should I use?
  The game was developed and tested on a physical cartridge and on mGBA, so if you want to be 100% safe, use mGBA. You can run mGBA through Retroarch on mobile. Many other emulators have worked well for other players, with one major exception: Obsidian Emerald is not compatible with MyBoy!
  
  
• How do I download the game?
  Click on the Google Drive link above. There, you can download a .ups patch file. Apply this to a clean vanilla copy of Pokémon Emerald Version (USA/Europe) using your favorite patcher (mine is this one). The resulting .gba file will be the most recent version of Obsidian Emerald.
  
  
• Is there post-game content?
  As of now, there are a few secret fights in the post-game, but otherwise, there is no post-game content that has been altered from vanilla Emerald Version. The scope of our version 2.0 is to revamp the Battle Frontier and provide a replayable post-game experience.
  
  
• What Pokémon are in this hack?
  Pokémon up to Gen 8, along with evolutions of Pokémon from Gens 1-8 introduced in Gen 9, are obtainable, besides legendaries.
  
  
• How do I apply a new patch to my version of Obsidian Emerald?
  Repeat all of the steps you took to download the game, as if you'd never downloaded it before. Do not apply the patch to your version of Obsidian Emerald, apply it to a vanilla copy of Pokémon Emerald Version.
  
  
• Will my save file be okay after applying a new patch?
  Yes, hard in-game saves will always be okay with new patches unless otherwise noted in all caps and bold letters. As long as you rename the patched file so that it has the exact same file name as your old version of Obsidian Emerald, and you place it in the same location, your save files will be fine. Save states will always be corrupted when applying a new patch.
  
  
• Where is xxx item?
  All battle item, evolution item, TM/TR, and Mega Stone locations are detailed in the documentation. Click on the Google Drive link, choose the relevant tab of the spreadsheet and use ctrl+f to find what you're looking for.
  
  
• How does xxx evolve? When does yyy learn move zzz?
  All information about Pokémon evolution, level-up learnsets, egg moves, teachable moves, abilities, base stats, alternate forms and more is visible in the Pokédex. Click on any Pokémon in your party and choose the Pokédex+ option, then navigate to the relevant tab to get the information you want. Use A, START, and the D-pad to navigate within a Pokédex+ tab.
  
  
• How do I use the DexNav?
  Press L in the overworld after getting the Pokédex from Professor Birch.
  
  
• What does Minimal Grinding Mode do?
  Minimal Grinding mode sets all IVs to 31 and all EVs to 0 for all Pokémon.
  
  
• What does Candy Mode do?
  In Candy Mode, and NPC in Oldale Town will give you the Infinite Candy item, which instantly brings your Pokémon to the level cap.
  
  
• I brought my Pokémon to the level cap with the Infinite Candy, and now I can't evolve it since it cannot level up again. What do I do?
  Just use the Infinite Candy on any Pokémon that meets its level-up evolution requirement. It will trigger the evolution even if the Pokémon cannot level up.
  
  
• What does Nuzlocke Mode do, exactly?
  In Nuzlocke Mode, you will not be able to heal fainted Pokémon, and you will only be able to capture the first Pokémon you encounter on any given route. Eggs will not hatch if you have already encountered a Pokémon on a route, and if you hatch an egg on a route where you have not yet had an encounter, you will not be able to catch the wild Pokémon on that route. If you wipe in Nuzlocke mode, Nuzlockde mode is turned off. Becoming the Champion on Nuzlocke Mode results in Nuzlocke Mode being printed on your Hall of Fame screen, and screenshotting this and sharing in our Discord server gets you the prestigious Nuzlocke Champion role.
  
  
• Every time I leave Route 104, I have to fight the stupid youngster again. What gives?
  Route 104 is the first of many Gauntlets in Obsidian Emerald. These are sequences of trainers that must all be beaten without ever leaving the area, or else they will all reset. It is a feature of the game, not a bug!
  
  
• Can I buy healing items in any shops?
  No. Use them wisely.
  
  
• How do I turn on debug mode?
  You can't. There is a screenshot from the alpha test on Pokéharbour that is misleading people!
  
  
• How can I give feedback?
  Positive feedback is awesome and we love to hear it anywhere you like! If you have an idea for an improvement, we're most likely to see it quickly if you join our Discord and use ⁠#suggestions to let us know.
  
  
• I found a bug. Where should I report it?
  You can tell us here, or preferably, join our Discord and use #⁠bug-reports.

Many thanks to everyone who worked directly on or provided features for this project!
Contributers:

Spoiler:

• Skolgrahd and Speaker: Main creators, devs and designers for Obsidian Emerald
• pret: This project, and many others like it, would be impossible without the Pokémon Emerald Decomp/Disassembly project, pokeemerald. Thank you for your work!
• RHH: Likewise, the modernization of pokeemerald is due to the hard work of the team at the Rom Hacking Hideout. Thank you!
• IridescentMirage: Custom sprites
• Archie: Gen 5 Party Screen
• TheXaman: Pokédex+ (main dev), TM Case (main dev)
• RavePossum: Gen 5 Summary Screen (main dev), Pokédex+ (dark theme)
• Againsts: Gen 5 Summary Screen (tiles)
• Sphericalice: Gen 5 Summary Screen (grade sprites)
• Vexx: Gen 5 Summary Screen (move description formatting)
• Buffelsaft: Gen 5 Summary Screen (IV/EV viewing code)
• Dizzyegg: Gen 5 Summary Screen (nature color code)
• Zeturic: Gen 5 Summary Screen (wrapping)
• Greenphx9: Gen 5 Summary Screen (provided reference code)
• Ghoulslash: DexNav (base code)
• Pokabbie: Reference code for additional menus in party screen and overworld
• Winter, JustMonikaThings, Dathobbitfrodo, Rosalynn, CluelessLemon, Thunder, James Blackthorn, Rentoid: Playtesting
• Alex, Lunos, Griffin, RavePossum, Archie and AsparagusEduardo: Truly, thank you for answering the many questions I had over the course of the past year, no matter how silly. Engaging with a new ROM Hacker and sharing your love for this community has really allowed this project to become a reality for me. I really appreciate it.

 

[Traiges]

I love playing difficulty hacks, but spamming single battles tends to get monotonous very fast. This will take me out of my comfort zone for sure but I am hyped for it

 

[Corveone]

Thank you very much for this. There's a lot of features I love from what I'm reading

I'm doing a test run on the Nuzlocke mode, and I found something strange:




For some reason, the game allowed me to catch a second Pokémon on Route 102 (it locked me to one in 101 and 103), not sure if it's intended or the catch limit may glitch sometimes.

 

[Skolgrahd]

I love playing difficulty hacks, but spamming single battles tends to get monotonous very fast. This will take me out of my comfort zone for sure but I am hyped for it

love to hear it, i hope it's a fun change of pace!

 

[Skolgrahd]

Thank you very much for this. There's a lot of features I love from what I'm reading

I'm doing a test run on the Nuzlocke mode, and I found something strange:

View attachment 160097
View attachment 160098
View attachment 160099
For some reason, the game allowed me to catch a second Pokémon on Route 102 (it locked me to one in 101 and 103), not sure if it's intended or the catch limit may glitch sometimes.

Thanks for the heads up! We've noticed that sometimes this happens, and are working on nailing down the reason. If you think you have a guess as to any specific circumstances that cause it to happen, don't hesitate to reach out - discord is probably the fastest way, but I'll check this thread periodically too

Edit: This has been fixed, along with a few other minor bugs, namely:

• Static overworld encounters now properly count as an encounter (like Voltorb in New Mauvile)
• New Mauville and Mauville City now count as separate maps for purposes of Nuzlocke Mode
• Shiny odds for chaining with the DexNav were too low due to a bug; they are now correct and approximately twice as high for large chains

Thanks for letting us know and hope you have fun!