Pokemon Emerald EX released, features new routes and towns alongside eight new gyms

raxadian · Aug 3, 2026

SeriousBandicoot99 said:
What is the name rom based you use the patch?!

The main USA and Europe Pokemon Emerald game rom.

Pokemon - Emerald Version (USA, Europe) I think?

defenceplox · Aug 3, 2026

Has anyone tested it on real hardware yet? I'd love to play this on a cart

Post automatically merged: Aug 3, 2026

Has anyone tested it on real hardware yet? I'd love to play this on a cart

ZachariasBarnham · Aug 3, 2026

SeriousBandicoot99 said:
What is the name rom based you use the patch?!

Pokemon - Emerald Version (It's the USA version.)

That's the name of the one I've got for romhack usage. The website patcher accepted it, so it must be the right one.

StevieFeathers1 · Aug 5, 2026

Scarlet said:
View attachment 584489

Hoenn to the ROM hacking scene is like Kanto to the official games. It's everywhere. At this point you've probably played through Pokemon Emerald with a party of eight Pokemon, with an assortment of competitive teams, fake Pokemon, with no experience, and maybe even with a Game Boy Color-themed aesthetic. For those who like Hoenn but want a bit more to freshen up the experience, I might have a hack that's worth checking out.

Pokemon Emerald EX released earlier this week after more than two years of development. The hack is a new take on Pokemon Emerald that expands Hoenn with new routes, towns, events, and even gyms. Boasting a near-vanilla difficulty, it's designed to be accessible to those who enjoy the mainline games. You can check out the full feature list below:

New routes

New towns

New Special areas

New events

Expanded routes

Expanded towns

Expanded Pokedex of 479 Pokemon

Updated Pokemon learnsets, stats, and abilities

Physical/special split

8 new Gyms

Updated trainer teams

Near Vanilla difficulty

Those interested in trying the hack for themselves can find it over on Hackdex. As always you will need to provide your own ROM, but Hackdex can at least handle the patching for you.

Hackdex Page

Its impressive how the community do better than bigger companies, this is impressive

plasma · Aug 10, 2026

This is impressive, but when will modders stop changing existing Pokemon types!! That's usually the one thing that puts me off hacks like this.

ChronoCrossfangirl2002 · Aug 13, 2026

Sonic Angel Knight said:
Shocking, I know. If I wanted a higher difficulty challenge, I'd just go to the trainer battle hill tower, or battle frontier. Instead of romhacks focused on making every trainer battle feel like you fighting against real life tournament player's pokemon. Just cause I don't want to spend my time breeding the perfect pokemon stats & moves.

to be fair trainer tower isn't very difficult, it can be cleared in record time with 6 lvl 5 smearagle's with dragon rage, it's alot better than the lvl3 electrode strat due to sonic boom missing more often and having a chance to kill your run, but battle frontier? im honestly surprised it's not implemented in hacks more often I'd imagine it'd be easy to since it is it's own map not interconnected with the region.

Sonic Angel Knight · Aug 13, 2026

ChronoCrossfangirl2002 said:
to be fair trainer tower isn't very difficult, it can be cleared in record time with 6 lvl 5 smearagle's with dragon rage, it's alot better than the lvl3 electrode strat due to sonic boom missing more often and having a chance to kill your run, but battle frontier? im honestly surprised it's not implemented in hacks more often I'd imagine it'd be easy to since it is it's own map not interconnected with the region.

Well, I never really used smearagle to know that. Still, the game HAS difficult challenges, that's what matters. Weather it's trainer hill, trainer tower, or the battle frontier with the ridiculous rule changes. I also heard the Japanese version had E-Reader cards that changes the opponents to stronger ones too. Maybe if that was possible in the english versions...

But as impressive as it is to see a 32MB rom hack with more than 900 pokemon, and mega evolving, it's not fun to see all the common trainers and gym trainers using the kind of pokemon a real life tournament competitive player would have. Because people don't feel pokemon isn't hard enough. That's why there is challenge facilities in the games to begin with. Just modify those areas unless the goal is to overhaul the entire game into a new experience. Or in Hoenn's case, secret bases with a friend's trainer data could just be NPC who give you rewards if you can beat their level 80 mega evolving pokemon.

Radical Red example keeps most of the game the same familiar kanto experience but with more difficult battles through the adventure (if you play with the default settings). But ones with it's own region and story is not the same pokemon it originally was making it more unique. Sometimes people want new content. Not the game skill checking them especially when there so many options for players to build their teams.

ZachariasBarnham · Aug 14, 2026

While 1.0.2 resolves the issue of "this" and "THIS", there are still quite a few polishes to the grammar that need doing. Here are a few of what I speak of in Route 101 and Oldale Town.

vermillion026 · Aug 15, 2026

great work

LeyendaV · Sep 2, 2026

Making everything huge just because is actually counterproductive, you don't enjoy getting lost in the labyrinth the region has become.

Discussion

Well-Known Member

New Member

Inquisitor

Member

GBAtemp's Artificial Lifeform

Bushido Pizza Feline

Well-Known Member

Inquisitor

Member

The One and Only

Similar threads

Most read this week