Emerald hack: Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack [Complete, v1.16 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]

[BrandonXL]

View attachment 169714
First playthrough since 1.09. The well is running low, but I still managed to bring a few newcomers to the HOF.
Still my favorite Emerald hack to date. All the added content is an absolute joy to explore. This is very nearly the perfect Pokemon experience. Thanks so much for making this.

JesseNoEyes,
Your support has been a constant throughout the lifetime of this project. I'm forever grateful for your kind words!
Still in a bit of a break mode, but hoping to start working on a new project sometime in the near future. Hopefully good news awaits :)

Just finished the main story. Very difficult but super fun!
View attachment 169827

I'm very glad you enjoyed it! There's a newer version - v1.15 - floating around with some new content. Hope you get a chance to play!

View attachment 170212
Just finished my first play through and it was a blast. I like how easy it is to level up a new member and add it to your team. I switched through different Pokemon before landing on this team. A lot of fun HA pokemon in the recent gens. Plus, the Dexnav feature was very handy for shiny hunting. The challenge mode for the Elite 4 was pretty difficult but the challenge was very fun. I wonder if one of my team members made a first entry?

Giratina and (surprisingly) Bisharp are new entries, so the honor is all yours! Also love the all shiny team :D

 

[criticap]

In term of story, is it basically the same as Emerald?

 

[gaelzadafazo7]

In term of story, is it basically the same as Emerald?

yesssss

 

[BrandonXL]

In term of story, is it basically the same as Emerald?

Yeah, the main story is basically the same thing. You might encounter a few characters that can prompt you to do side quests , but the story is the same. The side content and side areas are new, though.

hi , i need some help with quests , i´m trying to find venossaur´´s spot but the quest doesn´t say to much , and i couldn´t find on the map , could you help me ?

Hey, Venusaur is to the left of Fortree City. There should be a little opening in the woods.

 

[gaelzadafazo7]

Yeah, the main story is basically the same thing. You might encounter a few characters that can prompt you to do side quests , but the story is the same. The side content and side areas are new, though.

Hey, Venusaur is to the left of Fortree City. There should be a little opening in the woods.

thank you

 

[Jimster2025]

Hee, what are the shiny odds?

 

[Gerrat]

This crew successfully defeated the Challenge Mode E4, Wallace, Steven, and Red. Together we finished 45 of the quests. Battle Frontiers and such have never really been my style, so I'll count my playthrough as finished for now. Winona was the toughest Gym Leader for me; she convinced me to bring in Snorlax, and after that we pulled in Dhelmise to complete the squad. There was no MVP, exactly; each Pokémon fought fiercely and helped out in different ways.

I raised every one of them from their basic or baby stage, so I became pretty attached to this team. They all have nicknames. I would love to gush about them, but this post is already too long!

This team started off as my Team Aqua counter. While the story was ongoing, I had two teams, one for facing Aqua and another for facing Magma. So, shout-out 1. to the Pokémon I used against Team Magma and Flannery: Swampert (starter), Camerupt, Golem-A, Dugtrio-A; 2. to the Accelgor whose Final Gambit helped me finally crack through Winona; 3. to the Vivillon who trivialized the Petalburg Woods grunt. Y'all were awesome.


Fine, So How?

Save state scumming. Intense save state scumming. It took me so many hours to beat the hack even with that 'technique' that I don't feel sorry for it in the slightest. With a couple of exceptions (for catching legendaries and for fighting the rare full-team route trainer), I only used save states for gym leaders, for the E4/Champion, and for quest bosses. Even then, I usually had to restart the battle a time or several to retool the team's moves and items. And yes, I still took plenty of losses, believe me.

For the question on any beginner's mind, it only took me 2-4 tries against the Petalburg Woods grunt. If someone is struggling with that, I recommend pouring a few minutes into training some Bugs up into their evolved forms. Roxanne was tough and took several tries too, but she wasn't quite as hard for me as other people here have reported. I believe I used a Huge Power Marill/Azumarill early on; I would recommend one for the early game if you're missing some Water-type punch. Brawly was the only Gym Leader I remember beating on the first try, although I might have been lucky there.

After Brawly the Gym Leaders began to require more work again, especially since at first I was too poor for any items from the Slateport market. Still, the Leaders all felt manageable until my struggle against Winona... She had a stacked double battle team, and in retrospect she was a foretaste of the Challenge Mode E4. Winona was the first boss where I wondered, "Can I beat this hack after all?"

The double battle with Steven as a partner was also terribly hard for me. I don't remember how I survived it other than luck and scumming, but I suppose I could have used a more suited trio there if I felt like raising more Pokémon. Teambuilding aside, the difficulty in the Steven team-up felt like it was mostly due to the opponents' type advantages against Steven's Pokémon (and possibly Steven's poor move-sets?); in any case, his team always quickly collapsed and Team Magma wasted no time doubling up on mine. We made it somehow, though, so I think anyone could do it with enough persistence.

To give some more specific examples of methods, tactics, and strategies I used later in the game:

Against Winona I combined Snow Warning with Snorlax's Snatch to hit for super effective Ice damage while forcing Lugia to fail its setup strategy multiple turns in a row. Throughout the game I repeatedly changed my Pokémon's move-sets to adapt them to the next challenge. My Snorlax in particular usually augmented his physical set with a revolving door of super effective Special moves suited for the opponent's weakness. A few times I tweaked Abilities, by which means I gave Vanilluxe her Storm Warning for free Blizzards and Meowstic his Prankster for some screening and Toxic plays. I also relied on a Quick Claw on either Snorlax or Dhelmise for some bonus chances to strike. However, save states taught me that while resetting back to before a move selection changes many things it does not affect whether Quick Claw will activate. So, if I was counting on a Quick Claw—I couldn't. In such a case I had to go back several turns and just try something else. But, it always felt awesome to see it kick in anyway. A Bright Powder/Lax Incense effect can also be a game-saver if you like cheese, as I obviously do.

If someone is struggling against a boss, I recommend they try completing a quest or two first, or even exploring new areas added into Hoenn for the hack; quest rewards can really elevate your team, and many valuable items like TMs are in diverse places to encourage exploration.

For the Elite Four gauntlet and so on, Drake was the easiest (least hard?) thanks to Vanilluxe and Alcremie. At some point in the E4 I remember repeatedly swapping Snorlax (Normal) and Dhelmise (Ghost) out in the same slot to bait a fighting move and then a ghost move to avoid damage. Wallace required Toxic + Protect stalling strategies for my team to withstand him, and then only by the cream on Alcremie's head. Her 121 base Sp. Def helped her hold on just long enough to see Wallace's legendaries collapse to poison. The only way I survived even the first turn against Wallace was actually to bait super effective Ice moves into my Protecting Dhelmise, since that meant I could avoid the Water Spout I would otherwise be facing.

Later on, against Steven, Meowstic managed to set up with Calm Mind and powered past most of his team. Versus Red, I remember that Dhelmise forced him to switch his buffed Pikachu into his fragile Deoxys so Dhelmise could whack it with Poltergeist, and then with Zacian and the rest I relied on Vanilluxe's Water Pulse to bring in some confusion. I think Thunder Wave strategies would be helpful in many spots in the game, too; somehow I didn't get that TM until after the E4, though. I didn't explore enough the first time through. Don't make my mistake there if you can avoid it (which should be easy to do).

So, overall, hax, but whatcha gonna do. I was surprised I made it all the way to the Battle Frontier before an NPC referenced save scumming in their dialogue.


Some More Fantastic Things:

The variety of Pokémon and the QOL changes made the game a lot of fun. I didn't care much about the Pokédex, so I didn't really use the DexNav. However, I enjoyed everything else, particularly move relearning and the early-ish access to battle items. I especially liked that in this revision of the hack there was a Town Map in the inventory and, most importantly, there was no need for HMs!

I was impressed at how much dedication was given to the added and modified dialogue of the game. It's obvious the developer actually cared about the player experience in this regard, which encouraged me to keep playing and meet the game halfway in a sense. By following the general plot of Emerald the hack kept its special additions easy to spot and enjoy; at the same time, because of so much added flavor, the hack did not feel like a simple rehash of Emerald's elements to me.

For the most part, the boss fights felt fair. The lack of EVs and Nature boosts contributed to this, because it all came down to strategies and team/move/item choices; the ability to freely reuse TMs helped a lot with planning, too, and it reduced the need to grind up a bunch of one-use Pokémon. Given the variety of options, I never felt like there was only one solution to a fight, which was refreshing. Obviously, all this activated my brain so much I wrote this monster of a post. Hopefully the reader can feel how excited I still am about finishing the hack.

Mew is found under a truck. Excellent dedication to form there.

The world is packed with legendaries, but it didn't feel immersion-breaking because apparently the legendaries in this universe are not unique Pokémon so much as rare species. Two Calyrex back-to-back in the E4 still made me chuckle (in a good way). It's kind of funny to wonder—in this hack was it a group of Arceus (Arceuses? Arcei?) that made the universe? Is the myth of Arceus having 1,000 arms corrupted and there are actually 1,000 Arceuses? Anyway, the legendary saturation made it even more satisfying watching Alcremie soak up a Judgment and then Protect stall Wallace's last few Pokémon at the end there. If I had been using more powerful Pokémon, I doubt I would have needed so many save states... but I wanted to play with more unusual options since there were so many Pokémon available. No regrets; this hack was a lot of fun.

Thanks to the developer for the hours of fun!


Some Frustrating Things:

While I liked much more in this hack than I disliked, I have a few points of constructive criticism that might be relevant for the developer's future endeavors if my concerns seem fair to them. Number 1 is the only point that meaningfully impacted my enjoyment of the hack, and please note it's only for love of this work that I'm typing this at all.

1. Route trainers felt too powerful for fluid progress. These trainers are not too powerful in isolation, but they are too much in the context of the player's attempt to progress through an area.

I know the intention behind the level scaling was to ease grinding, but it never worked for me; this was because in order to level up Pokémon I needed to spend party slots on them when a full team of Pokémon at equal power often felt like the only way to survive more than one trainer battle. So, I usually gave up and did my leveling on wild Pokémon instead. This 'method' I also found superior to the Grinder in Slateport because it didn't take much longer and it was free.

Basically, my problem is that the hack seems to encourage exploration by placing so many quests, encounters, and secrets throughout the region... But the continual cycle of fighting one battle, healing, fighting another battle, running back to town, running back to where you left, fighting, healing, fighting, then running back to town... it was frustrating and, for me, the least fun part of this hack. The trip back to town at least became faster for open areas once the Poké Pager became a Fly button, but the trip back to where I left off stayed a hassle, especially on the same-y water routes.

I think my pick for the most painful required stretch was the Magma Hideout in Jagged Pass because I had to bunny hop back after just about every battle. The Scorched Slab was so densely packed with opponents as to be unpleasant too, but at least it wasn't required. Thank you for having a healer at the Team Aqua hideout, though! At some points in the game after just beating a Gym Leader, I also remember that on a first pass you can't even avoid a route's wild Pokémon with Repel due to their level. At those points you always stand a risk of wiping on the way back to town until you gain Fly.

Some route trainers had diverse teams of six, which is fun to face when you are prepared—but I can't help but compare it to real-life competitive play, where both trainers always start at full health and no one is trying to level up any lower-level Pokémon in the process. I know that's not realistic at all, so my recommended solution for this whole point is actually... just start with more Poké Vial charges and up or change the rewards for the quest that currently gives the upgrade. It would really be that simple to improve the game flow from my perspective.

2. The monetary punishment for whiting out in this hack can still feel like too much due to the expected frequency of loss. One major reason I resorted so soon to save-states and battle resets instead of just eating losses was because the monetary punishment for accepting in-game failure was just too high. This was especially true at the beginning and middle of the game. Later, yes, the side quest bosses do give a big payout—but unless someone is constantly resetting, I think many people like me could easily lose the same amount of money to that boss before they get a win. In those cases trying to use an Amulet Coin also takes up a valuable hold item slot.

It feels sometimes like the monetary penalty for losses could be cut even further to avoid punishing players for experimenting with different approaches against their opponents. I say this only because experimentation itself feels like a major part of the hack. It can be difficult to prepare for your first battle against any NPC when playing blind. That's not a bad thing at all! But the hack gives mixed signals when it both rewards and punishes the player for trying out different options.

3. Two small text nitpicks in an otherwise great script. I believe at one point a Black Belt on Route 115 has his original dialogue that mentions a Machop, but his edited team doesn't have any Machop at all. Also, in the Battle Frontier Pokémon Center one of the NPCs has accidental capitalization—they say "Trainer'S School" instead of "Trainer's School." I'm sure I've made quite a few mistakes in just my post here, so I want to emphasize that I think the developer did an astoundingly good job with all the game text they had to look over.

4. There's a tiny issue I had that I just wanted to vent about that is almost certainly not the developer's fault. I kept stepping just a little too far or saying hello to the wrong person and accidentally entering battles with quest bosses and legendary Pokemon without meaning to do so or being prepared for it. For example, in the Fiery Path I took a step too many and stumbled into Blaine, and on a separate occasion I ran into Entei there when I wasn't ready. I dream of a prompt before dialogues with the bosses start, maybe something like "You sense a battle ahead... Do you want to continue?" But I think it's my own coordination/comprehension issue at fault here in the end. Anyway, I just wanted to vent that.


Would I Recommend It?

If this hack sounds interesting and you have considerable patience, then yes, I absolutely do recommend it! Some difficulty hacks I have given up on at the very beginning because their only identity is to put the player through the wringer for little reward. Emerald Horizons seems to focus more on the satisfaction of a tough job finished. Moreover, although the hack generally follows the vanilla Emerald plotline, it has much more going than just a 'hard mode.' There's real heart put into it and it shows. I do not mean just in the opponents' crafted strategies or the quality of life improvements, but also in the diverse, rewarding quests available to complete and even in the well-written dialogue for the NPCs. Throughout this thread, the developer has listened to feedback from their players and made adjustments which still fall within the bounds of their vision, which itself is impressive given the sometimes harsh tone of said feedback. To me, save states were integral to my exploration of this hack, but a more optimized playstyle may not need such support. So long as you approach it with persistence and an open mind, I think you too will feel the heart of Emerald Horizons shine through.

 

[Quantaris]

Love this rom hack BrandonXL

 

[BrandonXL]

Hee, what are the shiny odds?

Same as vanilla Emerald, but you can get a Shiny Charm in Lilycove City to really bolster your odds :)

Love this rom hack BrandonXL

Glad to hear that! Feel free to ask any questions :D

 

[BrandonXL]

View attachment 171228

This crew successfully defeated the Challenge Mode E4, Wallace, Steven, and Red. Together we finished 45 of the quests. Battle Frontiers and such have never really been my style, so I'll count my playthrough as finished for now. Winona was the toughest Gym Leader for me; she convinced me to bring in Snorlax, and after that we pulled in Dhelmise to complete the squad. There was no MVP, exactly; each Pokémon fought fiercely and helped out in different ways.

I raised every one of them from their basic or baby stage, so I became pretty attached to this team. They all have nicknames. I would love to gush about them, but this post is already too long!

This team started off as my Team Aqua counter. While the story was ongoing, I had two teams, one for facing Aqua and another for facing Magma. So, shout-out 1. to the Pokémon I used against Team Magma and Flannery: Swampert (starter), Camerupt, Golem-A, Dugtrio-A; 2. to the Accelgor whose Final Gambit helped me finally crack through Winona; 3. to the Vivillon who trivialized the Petalburg Woods grunt. Y'all were awesome.


Fine, So How?

Save state scumming. Intense save state scumming. It took me so many hours to beat the hack even with that 'technique' that I don't feel sorry for it in the slightest. With a couple of exceptions (for catching legendaries and for fighting the rare full-team route trainer), I only used save states for gym leaders, for the E4/Champion, and for quest bosses. Even then, I usually had to restart the battle a time or several to retool the team's moves and items. And yes, I still took plenty of losses, believe me.

For the question on any beginner's mind, it only took me 2-4 tries against the Petalburg Woods grunt. If someone is struggling with that, I recommend pouring a few minutes into training some Bugs up into their evolved forms. Roxanne was tough and took several tries too, but she wasn't quite as hard for me as other people here have reported. I believe I used a Huge Power Marill/Azumarill early on; I would recommend one for the early game if you're missing some Water-type punch. Brawly was the only Gym Leader I remember beating on the first try, although I might have been lucky there.

After Brawly the Gym Leaders began to require more work again, especially since at first I was too poor for any items from the Slateport market. Still, the Leaders all felt manageable until my struggle against Winona... She had a stacked double battle team, and in retrospect she was a foretaste of the Challenge Mode E4. Winona was the first boss where I wondered, "Can I beat this hack after all?"

The double battle with Steven as a partner was also terribly hard for me. I don't remember how I survived it other than luck and scumming, but I suppose I could have used a more suited trio there if I felt like raising more Pokémon. Teambuilding aside, the difficulty in the Steven team-up felt like it was mostly due to the opponents' type advantages against Steven's Pokémon (and possibly Steven's poor move-sets?); in any case, his team always quickly collapsed and Team Magma wasted no time doubling up on mine. We made it somehow, though, so I think anyone could do it with enough persistence.

To give some more specific examples of methods, tactics, and strategies I used later in the game:

Against Winona I combined Snow Warning with Snorlax's Snatch to hit for super effective Ice damage while forcing Lugia to fail its setup strategy multiple turns in a row. Throughout the game I repeatedly changed my Pokémon's move-sets to adapt them to the next challenge. My Snorlax in particular usually augmented his physical set with a revolving door of super effective Special moves suited for the opponent's weakness. A few times I tweaked Abilities, by which means I gave Vanilluxe her Storm Warning for free Blizzards and Meowstic his Prankster for some screening and Toxic plays. I also relied on a Quick Claw on either Snorlax or Dhelmise for some bonus chances to strike. However, save states taught me that while resetting back to before a move selection changes many things it does not affect whether Quick Claw will activate. So, if I was counting on a Quick Claw—I couldn't. In such a case I had to go back several turns and just try something else. But, it always felt awesome to see it kick in anyway. A Bright Powder/Lax Incense effect can also be a game-saver if you like cheese, as I obviously do.

If someone is struggling against a boss, I recommend they try completing a quest or two first, or even exploring new areas added into Hoenn for the hack; quest rewards can really elevate your team, and many valuable items like TMs are in diverse places to encourage exploration.

For the Elite Four gauntlet and so on, Drake was the easiest (least hard?) thanks to Vanilluxe and Alcremie. At some point in the E4 I remember repeatedly swapping Snorlax (Normal) and Dhelmise (Ghost) out in the same slot to bait a fighting move and then a ghost move to avoid damage. Wallace required Toxic + Protect stalling strategies for my team to withstand him, and then only by the cream on Alcremie's head. Her 121 base Sp. Def helped her hold on just long enough to see Wallace's legendaries collapse to poison. The only way I survived even the first turn against Wallace was actually to bait super effective Ice moves into my Protecting Dhelmise, since that meant I could avoid the Water Spout I would otherwise be facing.

Later on, against Steven, Meowstic managed to set up with Calm Mind and powered past most of his team. Versus Red, I remember that Dhelmise forced him to switch his buffed Pikachu into his fragile Deoxys so Dhelmise could whack it with Poltergeist, and then with Zacian and the rest I relied on Vanilluxe's Water Pulse to bring in some confusion. I think Thunder Wave strategies would be helpful in many spots in the game, too; somehow I didn't get that TM until after the E4, though. I didn't explore enough the first time through. Don't make my mistake there if you can avoid it (which should be easy to do).

So, overall, hax, but whatcha gonna do. I was surprised I made it all the way to the Battle Frontier before an NPC referenced save scumming in their dialogue.


Some More Fantastic Things:

The variety of Pokémon and the QOL changes made the game a lot of fun. I didn't care much about the Pokédex, so I didn't really use the DexNav. However, I enjoyed everything else, particularly move relearning and the early-ish access to battle items. I especially liked that in this revision of the hack there was a Town Map in the inventory and, most importantly, there was no need for HMs!

I was impressed at how much dedication was given to the added and modified dialogue of the game. It's obvious the developer actually cared about the player experience in this regard, which encouraged me to keep playing and meet the game halfway in a sense. By following the general plot of Emerald the hack kept its special additions easy to spot and enjoy; at the same time, because of so much added flavor, the hack did not feel like a simple rehash of Emerald's elements to me.

For the most part, the boss fights felt fair. The lack of EVs and Nature boosts contributed to this, because it all came down to strategies and team/move/item choices; the ability to freely reuse TMs helped a lot with planning, too, and it reduced the need to grind up a bunch of one-use Pokémon. Given the variety of options, I never felt like there was only one solution to a fight, which was refreshing. Obviously, all this activated my brain so much I wrote this monster of a post. Hopefully the reader can feel how excited I still am about finishing the hack.

Mew is found under a truck. Excellent dedication to form there.

The world is packed with legendaries, but it didn't feel immersion-breaking because apparently the legendaries in this universe are not unique Pokémon so much as rare species. Two Calyrex back-to-back in the E4 still made me chuckle (in a good way). It's kind of funny to wonder—in this hack was it a group of Arceus (Arceuses? Arcei?) that made the universe? Is the myth of Arceus having 1,000 arms corrupted and there are actually 1,000 Arceuses? Anyway, the legendary saturation made it even more satisfying watching Alcremie soak up a Judgment and then Protect stall Wallace's last few Pokémon at the end there. If I had been using more powerful Pokémon, I doubt I would have needed so many save states... but I wanted to play with more unusual options since there were so many Pokémon available. No regrets; this hack was a lot of fun.

Thanks to the developer for the hours of fun!


Some Frustrating Things:

While I liked much more in this hack than I disliked, I have a few points of constructive criticism that might be relevant for the developer's future endeavors if my concerns seem fair to them. Number 1 is the only point that meaningfully impacted my enjoyment of the hack, and please note it's only for love of this work that I'm typing this at all.

1. Route trainers felt too powerful for fluid progress. These trainers are not too powerful in isolation, but they are too much in the context of the player's attempt to progress through an area.

I know the intention behind the level scaling was to ease grinding, but it never worked for me; this was because in order to level up Pokémon I needed to spend party slots on them when a full team of Pokémon at equal power often felt like the only way to survive more than one trainer battle. So, I usually gave up and did my leveling on wild Pokémon instead. This 'method' I also found superior to the Grinder in Slateport because it didn't take much longer and it was free.

Basically, my problem is that the hack seems to encourage exploration by placing so many quests, encounters, and secrets throughout the region... But the continual cycle of fighting one battle, healing, fighting another battle, running back to town, running back to where you left, fighting, healing, fighting, then running back to town... it was frustrating and, for me, the least fun part of this hack. The trip back to town at least became faster for open areas once the Poké Pager became a Fly button, but the trip back to where I left off stayed a hassle, especially on the same-y water routes.

I think my pick for the most painful required stretch was the Magma Hideout in Jagged Pass because I had to bunny hop back after just about every battle. The Scorched Slab was so densely packed with opponents as to be unpleasant too, but at least it wasn't required. Thank you for having a healer at the Team Aqua hideout, though! At some points in the game after just beating a Gym Leader, I also remember that on a first pass you can't even avoid a route's wild Pokémon with Repel due to their level. At those points you always stand a risk of wiping on the way back to town until you gain Fly.

Some route trainers had diverse teams of six, which is fun to face when you are prepared—but I can't help but compare it to real-life competitive play, where both trainers always start at full health and no one is trying to level up any lower-level Pokémon in the process. I know that's not realistic at all, so my recommended solution for this whole point is actually... just start with more Poké Vial charges and up or change the rewards for the quest that currently gives the upgrade. It would really be that simple to improve the game flow from my perspective.

2. The monetary punishment for whiting out in this hack can still feel like too much due to the expected frequency of loss. One major reason I resorted so soon to save-states and battle resets instead of just eating losses was because the monetary punishment for accepting in-game failure was just too high. This was especially true at the beginning and middle of the game. Later, yes, the side quest bosses do give a big payout—but unless someone is constantly resetting, I think many people like me could easily lose the same amount of money to that boss before they get a win. In those cases trying to use an Amulet Coin also takes up a valuable hold item slot.

It feels sometimes like the monetary penalty for losses could be cut even further to avoid punishing players for experimenting with different approaches against their opponents. I say this only because experimentation itself feels like a major part of the hack. It can be difficult to prepare for your first battle against any NPC when playing blind. That's not a bad thing at all! But the hack gives mixed signals when it both rewards and punishes the player for trying out different options.

3. Two small text nitpicks in an otherwise great script. I believe at one point a Black Belt on Route 115 has his original dialogue that mentions a Machop, but his edited team doesn't have any Machop at all. Also, in the Battle Frontier Pokémon Center one of the NPCs has accidental capitalization—they say "Trainer'S School" instead of "Trainer's School." I'm sure I've made quite a few mistakes in just my post here, so I want to emphasize that I think the developer did an astoundingly good job with all the game text they had to look over.

4. There's a tiny issue I had that I just wanted to vent about that is almost certainly not the developer's fault. I kept stepping just a little too far or saying hello to the wrong person and accidentally entering battles with quest bosses and legendary Pokemon without meaning to do so or being prepared for it. For example, in the Fiery Path I took a step too many and stumbled into Blaine, and on a separate occasion I ran into Entei there when I wasn't ready. I dream of a prompt before dialogues with the bosses start, maybe something like "You sense a battle ahead... Do you want to continue?" But I think it's my own coordination/comprehension issue at fault here in the end. Anyway, I just wanted to vent that.


Would I Recommend It?

If this hack sounds interesting and you have considerable patience, then yes, I absolutely do recommend it! Some difficulty hacks I have given up on at the very beginning because their only identity is to put the player through the wringer for little reward. Emerald Horizons seems to focus more on the satisfaction of a tough job finished. Moreover, although the hack generally follows the vanilla Emerald plotline, it has much more going than just a 'hard mode.' There's real heart put into it and it shows. I do not mean just in the opponents' crafted strategies or the quality of life improvements, but also in the diverse, rewarding quests available to complete and even in the well-written dialogue for the NPCs. Throughout this thread, the developer has listened to feedback from their players and made adjustments which still fall within the bounds of their vision, which itself is impressive given the sometimes harsh tone of said feedback. To me, save states were integral to my exploration of this hack, but a more optimized playstyle may not need such support. So long as you approach it with persistence and an open mind, I think you too will feel the heart of Emerald Horizons shine through.

Wow, thank you so much for such an insightful and detailed writeup. There's a lot to unpack here, so I'll try to address as much as I can.
I'll first start off by saying I love the Hall of Fame team - lot of first timers that people typically wouldn't use; I think it speaks volumes to how creative players can get to overcome challenges!
The last time this game was updated previously was actually September of last year; I just released a very minor update in consideration of your post.

1. Firstly, fixing that grammar and Machop reference; those things bug me to death and I am so happy you pointed it out lol
2. I reduced the amount of money lost to 1/4 of the original rate; losing should be expected, and I don't think it's fair to have the player pinch pennies in a game where finances are the focal point.

This game was really my first attempt at anything. When I released the initial v1.0 back in July of 2023, I was certain that there were just going to be minor changes to maintain the game. I can't tell you how wrong I was! As you mentioned in your post, a lot of community feedback was incorporated, and the reality was (and still is) this game is not perfect. It has its flaws, and the way I look at it, the community really helped shape the game into the experience it is today. There were so many iterations where I told myself, "This is it," only to come back next week to carve out some new things. I learned a lot maintaining and updating this - more on the importance of that later.

I played a good amount of hacks before, but what I fell in love with the most after college were difficulty hacks like Inclement Emerald and Radical Red (both of which the game clearly takes inspiration from); in my eyes, the gratification from overcoming those obstacles (as you correctly guessed in your post) was one of the things I wanted to create and make my own. However, one of my biggest mistakes was not providing an avenue for a wider audience to enjoy the game. The game was and always will be a difficulty hack, but I also spent countless hours trying to add in some character and love to other parts of the game; those new elements can't be experienced by new players. That is definitely one of my bigger regrets. The other thing that you mentioned was having to grind through the route trainers; again, this came from a lot of inexperience. I'm hoping that I can take that into consideration for future projects and make it so that exploration is encouraged while battling doesn't become overly tedious.

In trying to make this game stick out from others, one of the challenges I faced (at least, in my own head) was wanting to limit duplicative teams; you've probably noticed that Megas only belong to specific trainers for the most part. As the scope kept increasing, so too did the challenge of making teams feel unique. This is where the legendary spam came in, which is pretty polarizing. In a game where base stats define a good majority of the fights, it was easy to load up the teams with legendaries. Again, just another design flaw that came from inexperience - perhaps giving too many tools at once caused the difficulty to not grow consistently.

So, earlier I talked about the things I learned. In truth, no game will ever be unanimously perfect, but there are lot of things I could do to mitigate the small frustrations of players. Money management shouldn't be an issue, exploration and side content shouldn't be tedious, and things of that nature. My goal is to hopefully take these lessons learned into a new project; I mentioned this back in a few older posts, but development still hasn't begun. As one might imagine, starting something with a big scope like that is intimidating. Plus, I definitely hyper-fixate on things, and I'm not yet ready to get totally absorbed back into this world quite yet. Soon, but not yet! I'm hoping that everything the community has taught me (including everything you've said) will help guide me in that endeavor.

As for this game, while I don't expect any future changes (unless you find any other grammar mistakes, let me know lol), it still brings me joy to read about the experiences others have had.

Truly, and I hope you believe me, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. It's clear to me you put a lot of thought behind your response. Believe me when I say I fully agree with everything you shared! It's been a year and a half since the first release, but I still get so much joy seeing a new Hall of Fame team. I hope that in the future, I can create something even more enjoyable than this. Thanks for playing!

 

[Millenia]

Hi, there, I have a question. Is this mod also adjust stats of usually unusably weak Mons like Ledian and such? Something akin to Pokemon Inclement Emerald?

 

[BrandonXL]

Hi, there, I have a question. Is this mod also adjust stats of usually unusably weak Mons like Ledian and such? Something akin to Pokemon Inclement Emerald?

99% of the stats are vanilla; I only made a small adjustment to Nihilego by inverting its Sp. Def and Sp. Atk.

 

[Millenia]

99% of the stats are vanilla; I only made a small adjustment to Nihilego by inverting its Sp. Def and Sp. Atk.

Ah got it. I've been playing the hack so far and I'm liking it. Was getting an idea to make some funny team comp lol, but alas. It is how it is I guess.

 

[PierceFrog]

Hi, I wanted to ask if all the Pokémon from Gen 1 to 8 (905 in total) are available, or there are still missing legendaries? Is the Battle Frontier fully playable (with all facilities) and updated with Pokémon from all generations? Also, can you use legendaries in the Battle Frontier (since I want to use them, not just catch them)? Great hack by the way, good job!

 

[PastelRoswell]

Hi! This is my favorite ROM hack. I just started emulating it in pizzaboy today so I can play on mobile, and it's working great, except there seems to be a strange issue with the dexnav. The details (such as ability and egg moves) don't show up until I actually run into the grass tile the pokemon is in, and because of this I'm having trouble catching pokemon the way I like to when I play this, and sometimes not even seeing the details before the battle starts because they only show up for a split second between walking unto the grass and the battle starting. I've been looking for changelogs or anything to explain this but I've had no luck figuring out why this is happening. I'd really appreciate the help so I can dive back in and enjoy this ROM again. Especially now that I caught a shiny poochyena!

Edit: to clarify, the details absolutely should be showing up in my experience with this game- I'm not simply searching a new pokemon, this happens regardless of how many I've caught or encountered. The number encountered and the sprite still show up but nothing else, as if it were my first time searching for it.

 

[Rivenge7]

Heya, really enjoying this ROM Hack so far, loving the difficulty of it. Just beat the E4 for the second time, this time with the additional difficulty on. MVP was Dugtrio, his earthquake and speed were always something i could rely on. The second run was carried by Toxapex and his toxic spikes and mewtu spamming Thunder at Wallace.

I do have one issue tho, i cant seem to start the quest for Navel Rock. I saw you telling others to enter altering cave, but i assume that was before the rocket stuff there? I did find this weird arrow, which doesnt do anything tho.

 

[BrandonXL]

Heya, really enjoying this ROM Hack so far, loving the difficulty of it. Just beat the E4 for the second time, this time with the additional difficulty on. MVP was Dugtrio, his earthquake and speed were always something i could rely on. The second run was carried by Toxapex and his toxic spikes and mewtu spamming Thunder at Wallace.

I do have one issue tho, i cant seem to start the quest for Navel Rock. I saw you telling others to enter altering cave, but i assume that was before the rocket stuff there? I did find this weird arrow, which doesnt do anything tho.


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Hey, first off, good catch on that tile! I ended up patching it, although the small change doesn't necessitate a new version.
Actually, after beating the game, Birch gives you a Travel Pass, which allows you to go to a few extra destinations from Lilycove Harbor. This'll take you to Navel Rock :)

 

[DarckMysteri]

(Google translation)
Incredible ROM hack! The champion team surprised me. But after a few (many) attempts, I was able to defeat it. Now I'll just do the quests. Greetings from Argentina.

 

[JamesNorritom]

change log for v1.16 ft?

 

[gaelzadafazo7]

where can i find darmanitan-g ?????