Emerald hack: Pokemon R.O.W.E. - an Open World Version of Pokémon Emerald(Gen 8, Following Pokémon, Costumes and much More)

[rioluwott]

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Introduction
Pokémon R.O.W.E is my first published project started back in 2021 this game was made with the objective of being an open world version of Hoenn with a lot of Quality of Life changes to make teambuilding easy without having to breed for anything and a lot of replay value with a lot of modes that changes how you play the game and what kind of team you can use to beat the league since all the Pokémon are obtainable from the start so you can try any team you can think of, there are also a lot of features from future games like Wondertrade, Following Pokémon, Updated mechanics up to Gen 8, etc.


Features

• Explore the region in any order you want.
• Following Pokémon(450+ different species available)
• Trainer Color Customization
• Tons of QoL Changes to get your team without having to Breed to get good Ivs/Abilities
• Egg Move Tutor
• Mystery Gift System
• New Game+
• Multiple Title Screens
• Achievements
• Chose between 9 starters or get one randomly.
• 3 Different Game Difficulties - Easy, Normal and Hard
• Regional Music Options(Chose between Kanto, Jotho, Hoenn and Sinnoh Music)
• Randomized Mode
• Double Battle Mode(Every fight is a Double Battle)
• Inverse Mode(Inverted type chart)
• Perfect Ivs Mode(everything has 31 ivs)
• No Evs mode(Nothing has evs)
• Random Party Mode
• Little Cup like mode
• No need for HMs
• In Game Wonder Trades
• Nature Mints
• A way to change the Poke Balls of already caught Mons
• Pokémon from all the 8 Gens
• Auto Run Options
• Up to 120 Tms
• Physical/Special Split(This can be removed by an In-game Mode)
• Daily Gym Leader Rematches
• Level scaling based on your number of badges with evolution system for both trainers and wild Pokémon
• Re-Usable TMs
• Mega Evolutions
• Find rare Pokémon with the DexNav. (by ghoulslash's)
• Gen 8 Flying Taxis from the beginning. (by surskitty)
• Name Rater, Move Reminder, Move Deleter and Iv checker on all the Pokémon Centers.
• Decapitalized Text. (by Wyrserth and AsparagusEdu)
• Press B to Surf faster. (by ghoulslash)
• Pokémon Clover Soft Level Cap in Hard Mode (by PokémonCrazy)
• Gen 7 Daycare System
• A beautiful and useful Pokedex. (by TheXaman)
• Gen 6 Exp.Share that you can always turn off (by Lunos)
• Fly without the need of the move by having a Pokémon that could learn it in your party (by Buffelsaft)
• Eon Flute
• And more...

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Screenshots

Kanto Screenshots(To be added in a future update)

Links
You can easily patch ROWE using the
Pokemon R.O.W.E. Online Patcher
you just need to provide a 1986 Pokemon Emerald (U)(Trash Man) rom and let this patcher do everything for you, it works on Windows, Android and IOs.
Discord Server Link
1.9.4 Source Code

How to Patch the Game
Patching Guide

Documentation

Spoiler:

All the Documentation can be found Here and has the next information

• Important NPCs
• Pokemon Locations
• Legendary Pokemon List
• Special Pokemon List
• Wild Encounter Tables
• Important Items Locations
• TMs Locations
• New Ability/Item List
• Move/Ability/Item Modifications
• Signature Move List
• Different Modes
• Known Bugs
• Resources
• Important Trainer List
• Pokemon Changes
• Evolution Data

FAQ

Spoiler:

• When will gen 9+ Mons/Husian Forms will come to the game?
  Never, the game will NOT feature Pokemon that were introduced after Pokemon Sword and Shield release.
• Where can I find [Evolution Stone]?
  All the evolution items are sold in Lilycove Dept after you get 4 badges.
• Are every Pokémon Available in this game?
  Every Pokémon is available in some form with the exceptions of some Mythicals and Legendaries that are going to be added to the game in a future update.
• What is the Surprise Me Option in the starter selection?
  It gives you any First Stage Pokémon randomly(the only exceptions are Mythicals and Legendaries).
• How can I evolve Pokémon that evolve by trade?
  Go to the Name Rater house in Slateport, talk to the Tradeback Guy and chose the Pokémon you want to evolve.
• How many badges do I need to use the Egg Move Tutor or the TM Move Tutor on every Pokémon Center?
  For the Egg Move Tutor you need 6 badges and for the TM Move Tutor you need 8.
• Can I change my Pokémon Abilities/Natures?
  Yes, to change the ability of your Pokémon for the other normal Ability you need an Ability Capsule that can be bought in Oldale Town in the house behind the Pokémon Center, and for a Hidden ability you need an Ability Patch, you can get it in Pacifidlog Town in exchange for 1 Yellow Shard
• How does [Pokémon] Evolves
  You can check the in-game Pokédex to see how the Pokémon Evolves and a lot of other useful information(Base Stats, Abilities, Movesets, Ev Yield, etc).
• What is the shiny rate in this game?
  The Shiny Rate is the same as Vanilla emerald but if you want to shiny hunt, I highly recommend using the DexNav.
• What Mythicals/Legendaries are obtainable?
  Articuno, Moltres, Mewtwo, Mew, Entei, Ho-oh, Lugia, Registeel, Regice, Regirock, Latios, Latias, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Deoxys, Azelf, Heatran and Shaymin, Terrakion, Volcanion
• Why does my Pokémon won't evolve after reaching the evolution criteria?
  Check that you haven't used an Exiolite on that specific Pokémon and the Pokémon isn't holding an Eviolite as this game changed it to make it work similar to an everstone.
  Also check that the Pokémon evolution is not different in this game since some of them were changed, check the in-game Pokedex for more
  information, and make sure you are not in the "No-Evolution mode"
• How do I "update my game without losing progress"?
  Go through the patching process again with a new clean version of the trashman rom, then rename your .sav so it has the same name.
  for example:
  Pokemon_ROWE(1).gba and
  Pokemon_ROWE(1).sav
• Will you add more Boxes in the future since the current number of boxes is not enough for a Living Dex?
  No, I will not add more boxes at any point.
  This is because the Game Boy Advance hardware(And all the GBA emulators) has a limit for the size of the save data that its already at its limit and since the Pokémon structure is really big it's not possible to add any boxes since it would cause an overflow of data and the Box data would corrupt every Pokémon on your PC upon saving or loading your save file.
  There is a tool called Pokémon ROWE Transfer Tool(available in the Patcher site) that should help you to backup your Pokémon as .pkm files so you can save them in your computer if you fill your boxes or you want to transfer them to any other save file.
• Why does every cry in the game sounds the same?
  They were removed to make space for more stuff since the gba cartidge can only go up to 32mb, the cries use around 16mb so they were removed to make space for more features and content.
  If you don't want to hear the same cries you can disable them in the options by changing the "Use generic cry" option to off.
• Is [Specific Pokémon] shiny locked?
  No, there are no shiny locked Pokemon only the starters because they have a set nature and always have the same personality

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What is not done

Spoiler:

• Battle Frontier still has the vanilla sets for most Pokemon
• Battle Arena its closed until it is fixed
• There are still 3 Sevii Islands not in the game and are being worked on
• Kanto its still being worked on
• Some Legendaries cant be caught yet
• Gen 4+ has little to no balance changes to their Pokemon since I want to take my time to create custom abilities for most Pokemon and have to think about each change I do plus I'm working on them in order of their Pokedex Entry
• There are still some signature moves to be added
• There are some bugs that will get fixed in future updates

Changelog

Spoiler:

Changelog 1.8.2
-Added Four Island and Icefall Cave to the game
-Reworked the whole signature move system, now you can see a lot of information for signature moves, in the summary screen signature moves will
have a blue font and will show the correct power of the move after the modification, it will also show the correct type and some of them even have custom descriptions.
-Signature moves power, accuracy, type and type effectiveness will show in battle.
-Hidden power type effectiveness in battle will be correctly be calculated to show the pokemon hidden power type.
-Move Types for Pokemon with certain abilities will be shown correctly in the summary screen(abilities like pixielite, liquid voice, etc.), their type
effectiveness will also be calculated correctly in battle.
-Moved some Alolan/Galarian forms to Sevii
-Gave a Signature Move to Meganium - Petal Blizzard, it has a 100% chance to lower the enemy attack.
-Gave a Signature Move to Typhlosion - Eruption, it does a minimal damage of 60 no matter how low you are on HP.
-Typhlosion hidden ability was changed from Adaptability to White Smoke.
-Gave a Signature Move to Feraligatr - Jaw Lock, it has a 30% chance to confuse and becomes a Water-type move.
-Gave a Signature Move to Furret - Coil, now it raises its speed by 1 stage + its normal boost.
-Fixed Furret getting Adaptability in Vanilla mode instead of in the Normal Mode.
-Ampharos family got illuminate as a secondary ability(Mareep has fluffy instead for those who want to use exiolite).
-Run away now boost speed by 1 stage when sent out.
-Delibird hidden ability was changed from Insomnia to Unburden.
-Gave Cranidos and Rampardos a signature move: Headbutt, when used by any of those two its damage goes from 70 to 50 but becomes a rock type priority move.
-Gave Cranidos and Rampardos Rock head as a secondary ability.
-Petal Blizzard is now an Special move that hits both enemy pokemon instead of being a Physical move that also hits your ally.
-Karate chop now has the same effect as brick break.
-Vice Grip now has a 50% chance to lower the target speed and becomes a water type move with 60 power.
-Mega Punch got its accuracy increased from 80 to 100.
-Mega Kick got its accuracy increased from 75 to 85.
-Some minor stat changes were made.
-Other misc changes and fixes that I forgot about.

Difficulty Modes and Game Modes

Spoiler:

You can find all the Modes information here.

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Known Bugs

Spoiler:

You can find all the known bugs here.

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Credits

Spoiler:

AsparagusEdu
Bee
Jastolze
Faebrgleiss
KaiaWolf
GamblinFever
Agergo100
PCG
Darky
Maree
Yda
Leigh
Phrog
Mia
Erd
Roo
zef
TheXaman
Lunos
Jaizu
CyanSMP64(Furret) for the Amazing music expansion
Hyo oppa
Kwenio
Merrp
Josh
PokémonCrazy
ghoulslash
Agustin for the drop items code
Feliz Navidaddy
surskitty
Diego Mertens
WiserVisor
Dizzyegg
Pyredrid
Buffelsaft
Sapphire Jester
ProjectRevoTPP
Pikalax
LarryTurbo
Drayano
Poffin_Case
Anarlaurendil
KingOfThe-X-Roads
Everyone in the RHH discord for answering my silly questions
Radical Red/Pokémon Clover Team for the balancing changes and new abilitites
Pokeemerald Team
RHH Team
/rheg/
Everyone that contributed to the Gen 8 Sprite Project

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[Dr. Seuss]

Oh yes. New decomp romhack. Approved!

Nice to see another open world romhack. I hope it i as fun as others like Crystal Clear.

 

[RenElite]

That Pokedex looks crisp af. Definitely trying this out now!

EDIT: Suggestion, why not let us start with Gens 4-7 starters (or maybe Gen 8 if its in the game) considering this has an expanded Pokédex?

 

[ricomanuel32]

This looks amazing! Just to clarify, can Gen 3 pokemon evolve into their Gen 4+ evos? Ex. Gallade, Duskinoir, Froslass, etc..?

 

[rioluwott]

Yeah they can evolve, gen 3+ mons can also be encountered in the wild but im still working on that

 

[anonymous722]

this looks good!

 

[ricomanuel32]

hey so here's some notes to keep in mind, got up to beating Tate & Liza. My progression was Winona, Wattson, Flannery, Roxanne, Brawly, Norman, T&L

- !! Dive script is not working for me so I can't finish the game past Tate and Liza
- Guy who typically gives TM36 Sludge Bomb in Dewford after 5 badges/Norman does not show up, so my Roselia had no Poison stab
- There's no clear indication on where to get the newer evolution stones/items (Dusk Stone, Dawn Stone, Shiny Stone, Protector, etc..) so many of my Pokemon could not be fully evolved by my 7th gym badge, nor was there an Eviolite available so sometimes they held my team back
- TM27 Return is given twice, once in Fallabar from Prof. Cozmo, and once in Pacifilog
- Pokemon that should learn a move upon evolving don't learn the move. For example, my Combusken should have learned Double Kick at 16, but because it evolved from Torchic at that level, I did not receive the prompt to teach it Double Kick.
- Lack of an Exp. Share due to Steven's Letter quest not existing.
- Lack of access to New Mauville due to Wattson's quest not existing.
- Alolan Vulpix cannot learn certain moves that every Pokemon gets, such as Protect I believe (if not Protect, Hidden Power); not sure if it is just A-Vulpix, regional formes, or an Alola Pokemon issue, but TM compatibility for newer Pokemon should be checked

and then besides those bugs, here are just some recommendation notes, not necessarily anything thats needed to be fixed, but would improve the game
- Move Tutors only teach once, unlike TMs. I know fixing this is as simple as the Infinite TM script if im not mistaken.
- Many Pokemon lack decent movesets, as they rely on modern TMs like Dark Pulse, Poison Jab, Dazzling Gleam, etc.. while some are just for viability, some Pokemon, especially Poison types, often lack a usable stab for their preferred offensive stat or in general, so potentially adding TMs or relearner moves to those who need coverage.
- This may take a bunch of effort, and is not neccessary at all, but potentially updating movesets to USUM or SWSH may help alleviate the previous note's issue, as most of these current movesets in-game are from XY or ORAS.
- Providing a Wild Pokemon/Item info document would really be neat too for effective team building.

Overall, this is an amazing beta, I was really impressed by how much fun I had team building. While the wild pokemon curve can get annoying, and Norman was a pretty hard match compared to other leaders, I thoroughly enjoyed this open world version of Hoenn, and once some of the bugs are fixed, I can see myself replaying this a bunch of times. Good work!

 

[ricomanuel32]

Also, the cycling road route had Helioisk/Helioptile found in the water, don't know if that was intentional or not

 

[ricomanuel32]

Sorry one more thing I forgot, the shops all had the same item list since before getting one badge, the scaling did not effect any shop except Dewford and Pacifilog which had the correct items lists.

 

[rioluwott]

Im currently working on fixing most of the issues, so i will upload an update later today, the evolution items are sold on lilycove after getting the sixth badge.
You can get into sootopolis without needing dive by talking to archie outside the big white rock(but i will fix dive anyway)

EDIT: The update is out now, tell me if you find any bug

 

[Pqs]

Cheats doesn't seem to work, tried Emerald, Ruby and Fire Ree cheats

Also, Mauville gym is bugged, if you battle against Watson and your pokemon is defeated, or you try to switch them, or try to use the bag the screen will go black, and then you can't get out of that black scrren, loved the rom, please fix that!!

 

[jakez]

I've been hooked with Clear Crystal so I wanted a GBA counterpart of that game and I finally found it!! Hope you'll keep updating it more and more because this looks like one of the best projects I've seen in a while!

 

[rioluwott]

Sorry for the lack of updates, i have been busy litely but i think i will have more free time now.
My current plan for this hack is to redo everything from scratch, since i made this hack to become familiar with the Pokemon emerald code it had a lot of weir bugs, unfinished stuff. Since the gen 8 update for the pokemon expansion is starting to roll out im going to use that so i think the next version will have gen 8 mons but it will take a while to complete, any suggestion for the next version would be appreciated and considered.
on a side note, would anyone would like to do a gen 3 version of this?, i mean without using the pokemon expansion, and item expansion for those who liked the gen 3 mechanics.

 

[FeraligatrMaster]

Here are some suggestions:
-A way to check your Pokemon's EV's and IV's
-Evolution items being buyable in Lilycove City
-A Genetic Code Mapping System like the one from Pokemon Emerald Enhanced

 

[jakez]

Sorry for the lack of updates, i have been busy litely but i think i will have more free time now.
My current plan for this hack is to redo everything from scratch, since i made this hack to become familiar with the Pokemon emerald code it had a lot of weir bugs, unfinished stuff. Since the gen 8 update for the pokemon expansion is starting to roll out im going to use that so i think the next version will have gen 8 mons but it will take a while to complete, any suggestion for the next version would be appreciated and considered.
on a side note, would anyone would like to do a gen 3 version of this?, i mean without using the pokemon expansion, and item expansion for those who liked the gen 3 mechanics.

Although it's not pretty to say, I think you should look at some of the features Crystal Clear has.. For example, when starting in a city, instead of generating in front of the Pkmn Center, it would be prettier to generate in the nearest "secret cave" (the ones with the indentation in the rock)
Or, like I already anticipated you, giving a wider selection to choose the starter from, instead of the classic water/grass/fire trio!
And in general, the rematch feature for the gyms in which you can choose the team to face!

In general, there are so many features you could add little by little, it's like a sandbox!

 

[rioluwott]

Here are some suggestions:
-A way to check your Pokemon's EV's and IV's
-Evolution items being buyable in Lilycove City
-A Genetic Code Mapping System like the one from Pokemon Emerald Enhanced

I have to take a look at Pokemon Emerald Enhanced to see how it works, but i was planning adding a way to get 31 IV mons easily.
You can buy evolution items in Lilycove after you get 6 badges there.

Although it's not pretty to say, I think you should look at some of the features Crystal Clear has.. For example, when starting in a city, instead of generating in front of the Pkmn Center, it would be prettier to generate in the nearest "secret cave" (the ones with the indentation in the rock)
Or, like I already anticipated you, giving a wider selection to choose the starter from, instead of the classic water/grass/fire trio!
And in general, the rematch feature for the gyms in which you can choose the team to face!

In general, there are so many features you could add little by little, it's like a sandbox!

I haven´t played crystal clear in a lot of time i think the last version i played was the one that included following mons, how does those secret caves work?
yeah other starters would be good since adding all the starter up to gen 8 would be a lot and boring choices so i would redo the whole starter list

 

[jakez]

I haven´t played crystal clear in a lot of time i think the last version i played was the one that included following mons, how does those secret caves work?
yeah other starters would be good since adding all the starter up to gen 8 would be a lot and boring choices so i would redo the whole starter list

I haven't played 3rd gen much, but if I recall correctly there are some indentations in certain walls that, upon interacting with them, become a secret base that you can decorate in any way you want! If anyone can explain better than I can, please do 🤣

 

[jakez]

Are you planning on editing some pokemon's stats/movesets to make them more viable or will you keep it vanilla?

 

[rioluwott]

I want to make some changes to some bad mons, like ledian for example
i may take some changes from drayano hacks since im fan of his games

 

[jakez]

Fair enough! Please give some love to my boy Unown as well 😭