Pokemon Emerald Imperium GBA ROM Hack Video Game Boy Advance

Pokemon Emerald Imperium is a challenging and quality-of-life (QoL) focused ROM hack of Pokemon Emerald, offering a complete gameplay experience from the start to the Champion battle, with additional post-game content. Designed as a difficulty hack inspired by Pokemon Radical Red, this project brings enhanced gameplay mechanics, new battles, and thoughtful balance changes to the Hoenn region.

While not affiliated with Radical Red, Emerald Imperium adopts many of its acclaimed features, including updated abilities, stat adjustments, type and learnset changes, evolution method updates, and much more. The goal was to recreate Radical Red’s intense, strategic gameplay within the Hoenn region, offering players a fresh and challenging take on a beloved classic.

Features

• Almost all Pokemon from Gens 1 – 9 are available (still need to add some Legendaries)
• Vastly improved battle engine with modern mechanics and much smarter AI
• Configurable Minimal Grinding Mode (MGM, described later)

• Built-in Difficulty Modes: Easy and Normal for now, would definitely be open to adding more options if there is interest (described later)
• Built-in Randomizer with configurable species and ability randomization (described later)
• Built-in Level Caps
• Several Gen 4 characters have been added, including Dawn as an additional rival, all the Gym Leaders (only Roark is a required battle), and more!
• Several additional optional Boss Trainer battles (with hopefully good enough rewards to incentivize the player to actually want to do the battles!)
• Some music from Gen 4
• Post-game Legendary events including access to Mystery Gift locations from vanilla Emerald
• Mega Evolution
• New custom Megas have been added for several Pokemon, including Gen 4 starters, and several Gigantamax forms converted to Megas

QoL Improvements

• Not needing to teach HMs to use them, and they are forgettable if taught
• Reusable TMs
• Held Items are restored after battles
• Expanded Bag pocket size, added Mega Stones pocket
• Bag sorting by Name and by Amount per pocket
• Capability to register multiple Key Items
• PokeVial with infinite uses to heal your party from anywhere
• Access to the PC from anywhere
• Time changer
• Stat Editor (for EVs and IVs) given in Mauville
• IV Perfecter NPC in Mauville
• Hidden Power type changer NPC in Mauville
• Toggleable Infinite Repel
• Toggleable Auto Run
• Hold R to speed through NPC dialogue
• Option to relearn level-up moves and egg-moves for a Pokemon in the party menu
• Move-tutor moves converted to TMs so they can be taught anywhere, no more move tutors in-game
• In every Pokemon Center, a 2nd Nurse has been added who can:
• Change Pokemon’s natures
• Swap genders for Pokemon with gender-specific evolutions
• Set Pokemon directly to the Level Cap

• “Quick throw” option for Poké Balls in battle
• Can scroll through options easily by holding the L button

Difficulty Modes

• Normal: the intended difficulty of this game, and the one it was balanced for. Boss battles will be difficult, you cannot access the Bag during trainer battles, and the battle style is forced to Set.
• Easy: this experience should still be harder than a vanilla Pokemon game but should be considerably easier than Normal mode. All Boss Pokemon will be 2 levels lower than in Normal mode. Additionally, you can access the Bag during trainer battles, and you can change the battle style to Shift if desired, but it will still be Set by default.

Randomizer

• Accessed in-game.
• The player can choose between normal species randomization (fully random), scaled species randomization (Pokemon randomize into Pokemon with similar base stats), and Legendary-aware species randomization (fully random, but ensures Legendaries get randomized into Legendaries), all of which applies to encounterable Pokemon as well as regular NPC trainers’ Pokemon. Boss NPC trainers will never be randomized.
• Ability randomization is also configurable and is independent of species randomization.