Emerald hack: REGIUS: An Island Adventure [Full game beta]

[Gelatino]

​

Welcome to REGIUS, an original Pokémon fangame set in an all-new region!

Journey through the Regius Archipelago, a series of remote islands steeped in ancient mysteries. The islands are host to a wide variety of ecosystems, from the desert to the lush jungle to an active volcano, and the vast ocean that connects them. You'll also find the ruins of a long-forgotten civilization scattered about the region. Can you unravel the mystery that lies at the heart of the archipelago?

This game currently has a fully playable region ready to explore, with only a few zones inaccessible (for example, the Strength HM required to reach some areas is not yet obtainable). However, I have plans to add many more features, including Pokémon from later generations and a more detailed story, before I consider the game complete. So please enjoy REGIUS during its current beta release, and stick around for later improvements!

Features

All game mechanics are the same as in vanilla Pokémon Emerald, with the following changes (links to modifications are given where relevant):

• Physical/special split, with icons! (x)(x)
• 48 brand new species of Pokémon!
• Double battle mode: by default, most trainers will challenge you to double battles! This can be toggled off from the options menu at any time.
• A few new signature abilities for new Pokémon. Cacophony was also made functional, with the same effect as Soundproof.
• Overhauled HM system: when the player receives an HM, its field effect can now be used by any Pokémon capable of learning the HM, without needing to actually learn the move. Additionally, HM moves can be replaced freely without the help of the Move Deleter.
• Smashable rocks have a chance to drop items.
• More bag pockets (x)
• Scrolling options menu with more options (x)

Smaller modifications:

Spoiler:

• Shuckle can produce berry juice by holding any berry (x)
• Pokémon can be nicknamed from the party menu
• Trade evolution items can be used out of battle like evolution stones
• More forgiving money calculation on losing a battle
• Surf music was removed from all areas, so you can enjoy the route music uninterrupted while surfing

Additionally, I would like to credit the following developers for their branches which helped me implement some much-needed features under the hood:

• surskitty's trainer control (x)
• surskitty's flying taxi (x)
• SBirds's dynamic multichoice (x)

Planned features for the future:

Spoiler:

• Documentation for new Pokémon, route information, and trainers
• Compatibility with pokeemerald expansion, allowing for updated battle mechanics, new items, and a new regional dex with Pokémon from later generations
• Main story scenario, including new characters, more battles, and postgame quests

New Pokémon species discovered!

The Regius Archipelago is a hotbed of biodiversity, home to over 50 species of Pokémon not found anywhere else in the world. Use your Pokédex to learn more about them, and try to catch them all!

Playtesting feedback

Thank you for taking interest in my game! I appreciate all feedback about your experience. Is the game difficult? Confusing? Something missing? Positive feedback is also welcome! You can share your feelings about the game by posting in this thread, or if you prefer, use my private feedback form, linked here.

Known glitches/bugs

Please read through this list before making a bug report! If you discover something not on the list, you can make a post in this thread or use my bug report form, linked here.

Spoiler:

• Trainers can sometimes see the player through other trainers, causing them to overlap with other NPCs.

Credits

Thanks to pret and pokecommunity users for teaching me everything I know about rom hacking! All community-developed modifications used in my game are linked in the features list above.

Human character designs were made by my friend Roll.

Art

Spoiler:

Character art by Roll:


Poster by me!


Another poster by me

Documentation

Spoiler:

Pokemon info

Wild encounter tables by PepsiCola64

Download

REGIUS v0.1.bps Google Drive link

This is a .bps patch file, which requires a clean Pokémon Emerald base rom. Here is a link to a browser-based rom patcher you can use to patch your game. Your base rom will need to have a SHA-1 hash of f3ae088181bf583e55daf962a92bb46f4f1d07b7 to successfully patch. For more information on how to patch and play REGIUS, see this thread.

Stable releases will always be posted here, but the most recent development version can also be built from source. The source code is hosted here on GitHub.

 

[Inner Rhymes]

Oh wow! This looks so sick! May we please know how many hours the does current beta provide? Thank you!
P.S: Is there a storyline present? Asking because the screenshots make it seem like an exploration based game.

 

[clappo]

can we use old saves?

 

[Gelatino]

Oh wow! This looks so sick! May we please know how many hours the does current beta provide? Thank you!
P.S: Is there a storyline present? Asking because the screenshots make it seem like an exploration based game.

My current playtest file has about 20 hours on it, and that's after completing everything in the game short of filling the pokedex. I hope that gives you a good estimate of what to expect!

There's currently no main story, all objectives in the game are self-directed at the moment. So yeah, it's pretty open ended and exploration based. I have plans to add a main story later, but it will take some time to develop!

can we use old saves?

There's only one version of the game out right now! You need a fresh save to play it. If I release any updates, I'll let you know if save files can transfer over.

 

[Safr]

Hope more people paying attention to this game because it's enjoyable to play, for me i hope the city on the future will be big but not feeling little empty. As for gameplay i think it will be nice maybe to use the city champions system in pokémon darkfire if in the future you have plan to make the game have some focus in battling but also in story at same time

 

[JRP_15]

This is an AWESOME romhack. I commend you for making such a banger game! Finished the base game already, and I want more. Ended up using a whole Regius Archipelago team. I'm currently attempting to finish the regional dex (lots of grinding soon lol).


If it isn't too much to ask though, how does one get the third split evolution of Plakomask? I would love to use it in the game but I have no idea how to obtain it? I would appreciate even just a tiny hint on how to get it. Thanks, and once again, great job!

 

[Gelatino]

Hope more people paying attention to this game because it's enjoyable to play, for me i hope the city on the future will be big but not feeling little empty. As for gameplay i think it will be nice maybe to use the city champions system in pokémon darkfire if in the future you have plan to make the game have some focus in battling but also in story at same time

Glad you enjoyed! Going forward I'll definitely consider adding more npcs with stuff for the player to do, especially to populated areas. I want this region to feel packed!

This is an AWESOME romhack. I commend you for making such a banger game! Finished the base game already, and I want more. Ended up using a whole Regius Archipelago team. I'm currently attempting to finish the regional dex (lots of grinding soon lol).


If it isn't too much to ask though, how does one get the third split evolution of Plakomask? I would love to use it in the game but I have no idea how to obtain it? I would appreciate even just a tiny hint on how to get it. Thanks, and once again, great job!

I'm honored that you're so into the game! That's great to hear. I'd love to see the team you ended up with

I'm working on getting documentation for new pokemon out soon, so you'll be able to see every pokemon's stats, moves, and evolution methods. But I'll give you a hint with plakomask right now: it evolves the same way as Tyrogue!

 

[JRP_15]

Glad you enjoyed! Going forward I'll definitely consider adding more npcs with stuff for the player to do, especially to populated areas. I want this region to feel packed!


I'm honored that you're so into the game! That's great to hear. I'd love to see the team you ended up with

I'm working on getting documentation for new pokemon out soon, so you'll be able to see every pokemon's stats, moves, and evolution methods. But I'll give you a hint with plakomask right now: it evolves the same way as Tyrogue!

The team I ended up with to clear the entire current Battle Grotto and beat the current final boss was Dunkeep, Bibferno, Frigesty, Gladither, Volquito, and Algorest (all awesome designs btw!)

Oh and of course, Plakomask's thing is THAT way. I initially thought it would be location based upon reading the line's dex entries. Got me scratching my head when I can't seem to get the third split. Thank you so much! Onwards to completing the dex again.

 

[Gelatino]

Happy first week since release! I'm glad to see people enjoying the game and giving feedback. I hope everyone enjoyed finding and learning about all the new pokemon native to the Regius Archipelago. For those who'd prefer to have all the details, I come bearing good news: documentation!

Here's a link to a spreadsheet containing all info about the 48 new pokemon in the game, plus any others that have been significantly changed. This will be added to the main post. For the sake of compactness, some cells will need to be expanded to view all their contents. (I previously miscounted and cited the number of new pokemon as "over 50". Sorry for the false advertising! I've corrected the number in the main post.)

Some notes:

• The "tutor moves" section contains every tutor move in vanilla pokemon emerald, but only a small number of those are accessible in REGIUS.
• I tried to ensure that all egg moves can be obtained using breeding partners available in the game, but it's possible I overlooked some that aren't actually obtainable.
• I did not list these in the spreadsheet, but Regirock, Regice, and Registeel have modified movesets. The only difference is that they were all given Endure as a starting move.

Finally, I've also put together a graphic containing every new pokemon so far! If you want to preserve the mystery, you might want to avoid looking, but otherwise, here it is!

Spoiler:

 

[Safr]

Now after looking at the thread title i just realized the game is full game beta, i need to pay more attention next time

 

[Cilenthemaster]

getting off gateway island is proving difficult

 

[Gelatino]

Pokecommunity user PepsiCola64 has kindly made a spreadsheet of wild encounter tables for REGIUS! These will prove a valuable asset for players trying to locate all the pokemon in the region.

Click here to view the google spreadsheet. A link has also been added to the main post. Thank you!

 

[Wirawr]

Just drop by and saying thank you for this game last year and hope you're having amazing year this year

Pokecommunity user PepsiCola64 has kindly made a spreadsheet of wild encounter tables for REGIUS! These will prove a valuable asset for players trying to locate all the pokemon in the region.

Click here to view the google spreadsheet. A link has also been added to the main post. Thank you!