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Pokémon Emerald Version

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Pokémon Emerald Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスターエメラルド Pocket Monsters Emerald) is a solitary version to Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and is the fifth and final Generation III core series game. Like its predecessor, Pokémon Crystal, it added many features not present in the earlier paired versions. It was released in Japan on September 16, 2004, in North America on May 1, 2005, in Australia on June 9, 2005 and in Europe on October 21, 2005.

Pokémon Emerald Version
ポケットモンスターエメラルド
Emerald EN boxart.jpg
Pokémon Emerald Version's boxart, featuring Rayquaza.
Basic info
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Category: RPG
Players: up to 5
Connectivity: Game Link Cable, Wireless Adapter, e-Reader
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
Part of: Generation III core series
Ratings
CERO: 全年齢 (all ages)
ESRB: E
ACB: G8+
OFLC: G8+
PEGI: 3
GRAC: Not applicable
GSRR: N/A
Release dates
Japan: September 16, 2004[1]
North America: May 1, 2005[2]
Australia: June 9, 2005
Europe: October 21, 2005[3]
South Korea: Unreleased
Hong Kong: N/A
Taiwan: N/A
Websites
Japanese: Pokémon.co.jp
Nintendo.co.jp
English: Pokémon.com
Nintendo.com
Nintendo.co.uk
Japanese boxart
Emerald JP boxart.png
Boxart of Pocket Monsters Emerald.
StrategyWiki
StrategyWiki has more about this subject:

It was the second highest-selling video game of 2005 in North America. It was also the third best-selling game for the Game Boy Advance, losing to the other Generation III games, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

Plot

050Diglett.png This section is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Blurb

The Hoenn region is unstable — Rayquaza has awakened! Your skills as a Trainer will be challenged like they've never been challenged before as you try to maintain balance between Kyogre & Groudon. Prove your skill by earning Badges & gaining access to the Battle Frontier — the front line of Pokémon battling that offers a whole new level of competition. Never-before-experienced battles await you!

  • The third adventure with new episodes in the Hoenn region!
  • Tons of new features, including surprising plot twists and changes to where and how often you can catch certain Pokémon!
  • Use the Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter to trade & battle between Pokémon Emerald and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen versions.
  • Expand your collection when you trade with a friend. Using a Game Boy Advance Game Link™, link up with Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire, Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen, or connect with Pokémon Colosseum using a Nintendo GameCube® Game Boy Advance cable. See instruction booklet for more details.

Changes from Ruby and Sapphire

Gameplay

  • e-Reader support is removed from the international releases, requiring players to mix records with a Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, or LeafGreen cartridge containing e-Reader-exclusive items in order to obtain them.
  • Groudon and Kyogre are now respectively captured at the new locations Terra Cave and Marine Cave and at higher levels.
  • The entrances to the Team Magma and Team Aqua Hideouts are not sealed after defeating Tate and Liza.
  • The Pokémon roaming across Hoenn, Latias or Latios, can be selected right after beating the Elite Four. The one that is not selected is available on Southern Island, requiring the promotional Eon Ticket.
  • The Legendary titans' puzzles are slightly different, though the same in principle.
  • Multi Battles are available outside link-cable battling, being featured in the Battle Tower with a computer player (or, using the Wireless Adapter, a human player), as well as through an in-game plot event at the Mossdeep Space Center, battling alongside Steven.
  • Double Battles are more common as different Trainers can team up if the player is able to be spotted by two Trainers at once.
  • Gym Leaders may be rebattled in Double Battles, with new Pokémon on their teams that are not normally found in Hoenn.
  • The Trainer's Eyes in the PokéNav is replaced by Match Call, which integrated a calling system similar to the Pokégear cellphone.
  • Chikorita, Cyndaquil, or Totodile may be acquired from Professor Birch after obtaining every Pokémon in the Hoenn Pokédex (excluding Deoxys and Jirachi).
  • Deoxys is in its Speed Forme.
  • Abilities have new field effects. For example, Abilities also have a role in breeding as Magma Armor and Flame Body speed up the hatching process if a Pokémon which has either Ability is in the party.
  • Pickup has a new item list; Pokémon pick up items based on their level.
  • Having a female Pokémon or Ditto of the breeding pair hold an Everstone grants a 50% chance of passing down their nature to the hatched Pokémon when breeding.
  • Raising friendship and lowering effort values can be done with certain Berries.
  • Pokémon Contests are all held in Lilycove City.
  • Unlike Ruby and Sapphire, trade restrictions between games are in place. Trading with Ruby and Sapphire as well as with another Emerald only allows trading of Pokémon indigenous to Hoenn while the player possesses only the country's regional Pokédex, while the National Pokédex is required to trade with FireRed and LeafGreen and XD: Gale of Darkness. This restriction also includes Pokémon Eggs from Ruby or Sapphire regardless if it contains a regional Pokémon. However, trading with Colosseum only requires the Hoenn Pokédex regardless of the Pokémon being traded.
  • All the Gym Leaders from Ruby and Sapphire, including former Gym Leader Wallace, have upgraded Pokémon teams. Changes include the addition of Pokémon they did not have in Ruby and Sapphire, or in rare cases the removal of some of their previous Pokémon.
  • When encountering either of the villainous team leaders, the game will now play the encounter theme and battle animation of their respective team, unlike in Ruby and Sapphire in which they had no encounter theme and used the standard battle animation.

Areas

Storyline

  • Both Team Magma and Team Aqua are featured as the villainous teams, each stirring trouble at different stages in the game. The objective of each team, to awaken Groudon and Kyogre, respectively, is eventually fulfilled.
  • Rayquaza is prominent plot-wise, awakened in order to stop the destructive battle between Groudon and Kyogre. It is now the one out of the three ancient Pokémon that can be caught prior to the Elite Four challenge, while still at the same place and at the same high level as in Ruby and Sapphire.

Characters

  • Brendan and May have slight changes to the design of their outfits, primarily from the change in color scheme from red to green (tying into the game being named "Emerald").
  • Vigoroth move boxes into Brendan's or May's house instead of Machoke (though the cries are not changed in the Japanese version due to an oversight, but this was corrected in the localizations).
  • A Zigzagoon chases Professor Birch instead of a Poochyena. In contrast, the first Pokémon Trainer fought after the rival has a Poochyena instead of a Zigzagoon.
  • Contest Lady, Quiz Lady, or Favor Lady in Lilycove Pokémon Center.
  • New Move Tutors added, including most of the ones in FireRed and LeafGreen (all but Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn and Hydro Cannon), along with 15 others that teach moves previously acquired through Generation II TMs.
  • A new Gym Leader in the Sootopolis Gym, Juan, while its former Gym Leader Wallace is now the Pokémon Champion.
  • The former Champion Steven can be fought in Meteor Falls after the Elite Four challenge, with all of his Pokémon at exactly 20 levels higher than in Ruby and Sapphire.
  • Scott, a new character introduced in Emerald, will meet the player numerous times throughout the game, ultimately inviting the player to the Battle Frontier after beating the Elite Four.

Graphics

  • Animated Pokémon front sprites return for the first time since Pokémon Crystal. This feature was defined as standard for the core series Pokémon games ever since. Emerald is also the first game to have animated back sprites.
  • The cave floor design has slightly changed.
  • Every Gym has received at least a slight renovation due to the addition of Trainers for the option of Double Battles. Some of these Gyms received complete overhauls in their designs, such as the Mossdeep Gym, which was given a new, rearranged puzzle that the player must navigate through. All Gyms now have the Badge mounted on the wall behind the Leader.
  • The color of the Champion's room at the Elite Four was recolored from its original shade of purple to blue.
  • The text and required actions in Sealed Chamber have changed slightly.
  • The Legendary Pokémon battle intros include a different animation before moving into the battle scene. This animation involves the body patterns of the weather trio and the Legendary titans's braille eye patterns.
  • A young girl now blocks Route 101 instead of a young boy.

Incorporated from FireRed and LeafGreen

Although Emerald is a modified version of Ruby and Sapphire, a number of changes occurred to make it more similar to FireRed and LeafGreen.

  • Wireless linking with Union Room, as in FireRed and LeafGreen.
  • The Mystery Gift system from FireRed and LeafGreen is added, and relies on both e-Reader and Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter in Japan (e-Reader support was removed from overseas releases), being available alongside Mystery Events in the Japanese version.
  • A new battle area, Trainer Hill, which is similar to Trainer Tower found in FireRed and LeafGreen. Has support for the e-Reader in the Japanese version.
  • The wireless minigames Pokémon Jump and Dodrio Berry Picking were added and are found on the Game Corner in Mossdeep City, which replaces the e-Reader Trainer house from Ruby and Sapphire.
  • The Pokémon List interface was updated to match the one in FireRed and LeafGreen. The background color was changed but other elements like the larger HP bar and colon-less level indicator are unaltered. Field move entries also appear in the Pokémon List's menu after the entry for the Pokémon's status screen, as in FireRed and LeafGreen.
    • This creates some inconsistencies, however: the HP bar shown during the battle HUD is the smaller one from Ruby and Sapphire, and in the Japanese version, the HUD's level indicator also uses a colon for levels lower than 100 like Ruby and Sapphire (e.g.: Lv:45 as opposed to Lv45).
  • The text font has been changed to one very similar to that of FireRed and LeafGreen.
  • The PP counter for a move now changes color depending on how many points are left.
  • The two event locations from FireRed and LeafGreen, Navel Rock and Birth Island, make a return.
  • Altering Cave, from FireRed and LeafGreen, appears in Emerald.
  • Stars pop out of a Poké Ball after a successful capture, rather than no animation happening.
  • All of the music tracks from FireRed and LeafGreen were inserted into Emerald, but only a handful are actually used:

Missing Pokémon

These Hoenn Pokédex Pokémon are missing from Emerald and must be traded to the game from another Generation III game to be obtained. While wild Surskit can appear in Emerald, the player needs to mix records with a copy of Ruby or Sapphire in order for Surskit to appear by way of swarming; otherwise, Surskit cannot be legitimately caught without the aid of another game.

These Pokémon can all be obtained in Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness alone.

Missing Pokémon
0283 Surskit Surskit
 Bug Water RS
0284 Masquerain Masquerain
 Bug Flying RS
0307 Meditite Meditite
 Fighting Psychic RS
0308 Medicham Medicham
 Fighting Psychic RS
0315 Roselia Roselia
 Grass Poison RS
0335 Zangoose Zangoose
 Normal R
0337 Lunatone Lunatone
 Rock Psychic S

Connectivity

Emerald maintained the same levels of compatibility as its companion games Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Trading between each of these games is possible, but not with games from Generations I and II. This utilizes the traditional Game Link Cable, or alternatively, the GBA Wireless Adapter like in FireRed and LeafGreen.

While Emerald cannot trade directly with the Generation IV games Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, a player's Pokémon may be permanently transferred via Pal Park, and some of the Generation II Pokémon introduced into the Hoenn Safari Zone extension can be found using the dual-slot mode.

Reception

Many reviews criticized Emerald for being too similar to Ruby and Sapphire, with Game Informer stating that "there simply aren't enough changes to make this a must-buy."[4] However, IGN gave the game a "Great" rating of 8.0/10, stating that there are "special, newly-created treats sprinkled throughout the experience to make experiencing this repeat worthwhile."[5] Gaming magazine Famitsu gave Pokémon Emerald a score of 34 out of 40. It holds a rating of 76.65% on GameRankings, based on 29 reviews.[6]

Sales

As of March 31, 2007, Pokémon Emerald has sold 6.32 million copies worldwide.[7]

Japanese sales

Pokémon Emerald sold 790,527 units on its first week on the Japanese market,[8] with a sell-through of 91.37%. By January 2, 2011, the end of its 329th week, it had sold 1,916,505 copies.

Week Week ending Ranking Units sold Total units sold
1 September 19, 2004 1st 790,527 790,527
2 September 26, 2004 2nd 150,964 941,491
3 October 3, 2004 2nd 74,642 1,016,843
4 October 10, 2004 5th 38,883 1,055,726
5 October 17, 2004 3rd 31,764 1,087,490
6 October 24, 2004 3rd 21,676 1,109,166
7 October 31, 2004 9th 21,970 1,131,136
8 November 7, 2004 9th 17,788 1,148,924
9 November 14, 2004 9th 14,093 1,163,017
16 January 2, 2005 16th - 1,397,615
68 January 1, 2006 - - 1,645,364
120 December 31, 2006 - - 1,773,390
172 December 30, 2007 - - 1,848,568
224 December 28, 2008 - - 1,883,975
277 January 3, 2010 - - 1,908,780
329 January 2, 2011 - - 1,916,505

Staff

Main article: Staff of Pokémon Emerald

Music

Main article: Pokémon Ruby & Pokémon Sapphire: Super Music Collection

The soundtrack contains all of the background music used in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (the basis for a majority of the music in Pokémon Emerald), composed by Junichi Masuda, Gō Ichinose, and Morikazu Aoki. However, the soundtrack does not include the remastered music from Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal or the other unused music, all of which are present in the internal data of Ruby and Sapphire, as well as Emerald.

Main article: Pokémon FireRed & Pokémon LeafGreen: Super Music Collection

The entire soundtrack is present in the internal data of Emerald; however, only select pieces of music are used during gameplay.

Main article: Pokémon Black 2 & Pokémon White 2: Super Music Collection

Several music tracks exclusive to Emerald went officially unreleased until 2012, when they were included with the official soundtrack of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. These Emerald-exclusive tracks comprise tracks 1-17 of Disc 4 of the soundtrack.

Development cycle

Main article: Pokémon Emerald beta

Internal battery life

050Diglett.png This section is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Clock-based events in this game as well as Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire are controlled by a CR1616 lithium battery in the game cartridge. When starting up a file, players may receive a notification that the internal battery has run dry, and that clock-based events will no longer occur. This does not affect the save file or progress in the game, only events that happen in real-time, such as berry growth or the Shoal Cave tides.

Even after replacing the battery, symptoms may persist in existing save files. This is because as soon as the battery runs dry, the timestamp associated with real-time events (that had been increasing steadily since the file was created) reverts to its initial value. This means that if the game was played for 5 years before the battery ran dry, it would take 5 years with a new battery for the new timestamp to catch up to the old value and for time to "progress" once more. Furlock's Forest details this issue and possible solutions.

Starting a new save file after the battery is replaced will fix the problem because all events will be triggered relative to a new timestamp.

It should be noted that the same symptoms, but lacking the notification about the internal battery, may be caused by the Berry glitch.

Gallery

Logos

  • English Emerald logo

    English Emerald logo

  • Japanese Emerald logo

    Japanese Emerald logo

Title screens

  • English Emerald title screen

    English Emerald title screen

  • Japanese Emerald title screen

    Japanese Emerald title screen

Trivia

  • Groudon and Kyogre appear in Fiore after Pokémon Ranger's ending. The two seem to have been injured in a battle, which took place in Hoenn, according to Emerald.
  • The game uses a faulty implementation of the pseudorandom number generator used in Generation III and IV games, which allows literally identical personality values for a Pokémon even after multiple resets. The game neglects to reseed the PRNG on startup (only doing so when the adventure is begun), which means that the personality values of an encountered Pokémon follow a predictable sequence once the seed is found and/or forced.
  • Pokémon Emerald has many similarities with Pokémon Platinum:
    • Both are the third versions of their respective storylines.
    • Both add a Battle Frontier in the place of the regional Battle Tower.
    • Both are represented by the final member of a Legendary trio which was not confirmed to be part of it beforehand.
    • Both share features with the remakes of their generation that are not present in the original paired games.
    • Both added the ability to rematch Gym Leaders after obtaining the National Pokédex.
    • Both allow the player to capture both of the game mascots from the original paired games.
  • Emerald was the last Nintendo game with a specially colored cartridge.
  • Emerald was the final core series game released on the Game Boy line of Nintendo handheld video game consoles.
  • Various retailers had a special tin with a Frontier Pass as a pre-order bonus with Pokémon Emerald.[9]
  • During rematches with Roxanne, Flannery and Winona, their Pokémon are male instead of female. The reason for this is unknown.

In other languages

Language Title
Japan Flag.png Japanese ポケットモンスターエメラルド
Mandarin Chinese 神奇寶貝綠寶石版
French Canada Flag.png Canada Version Emerald de Pokémon*
France Flag.png Europe Pokémon Version Émeraude
Germany Flag.png German Pokémon Smaragd-Edition
Italy Flag.png Italian Pokémon Versione Smeraldo
South Korea Flag.png Korean 포켓몬스터 에메랄드
Brazil Flag.png Brazilian Portuguese Pokémon Versão Esmeralda
Spain Flag.png Spanish Pokémon Edición Esmeralda

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pokémon.co.jp
  2. ↑ Pokémon.com (US)
  3. ↑ Pokémon.com (UK)
  4. ↑ Pokémon Emerald Version Critic Reviews for Game Boy Advance - Metacritic
  5. ↑ Pokemon Emerald - IGN
  6. ↑ Pokémon Emerald Version for Game Boy Advance - GameRankings
  7. ↑ Nintendo Co., Ltd. - Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2007
  8. ↑ Media Create Sales: Archive Thread 2 | NeoGAF
  9. ↑ Pokemon Emerald | EBgames.com (archive)
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