Art by: Idk I found it on SteamGrids
This game is a romhack that I'm playing on phisycal hardware,
that means is that screenshots are not only difficult,
but pretty ugly looking as well.
So instead I took notes throughout my playthrough, trying to capture my feelings and important details.
Even though this is a gameplay log, and I will do my best to be as accurate as possible I more than likely will end up embellishing points or adding details in order to make this a more interesting read.
At the beginning of the game, I am given some options to make the challenge more difficult.
These are the options I have on.
1. Level Caps (I belive the way this works is that exp slows down exponentially when you reach the same level as the next milestone.)
2. Hard Mode (This increases the level of each trainer battle along with adding pokemon I belive, also my bag becomes unuseable during trainer battles.)
Spoiler alert, this is not the run where we win. This, is a tragedy, a lesson to myself, a tale of hubris and ego.
This, is the first run.
Our story begins where all Emerald runs do, in a van, going to a new home. Our our protagonist is a boy named Xander and he has just moved from his home in Johto to Littleroot town.
After exiting the van running upstairs to set up our clock our mom sends us to talk to our new neighbors. After meeting May, I hear a scream coming from route 101. as I run out I see Prof Birch being chased by a wild zigzagoon while he screams for me to save him.
Before I go much further, I must say this game is beutiful and playing it on OG hardware makes the whole experiance that much more amazing! If you havn't seen this game definetly look up some screenshots, it's pretty awesome!
Our choices for this run is Treecko a grass type that in this game evolves into a part dragon type, Torchic a fire type, and Mudkip a water type. I grab Treecko and defeat the Zigzagoon without any trouble. Prof Birch is so grateful he gives me the Treecko, which I name Twig.
Next we make our way to route 103 to meet up with May and have our first Pokemon battle.
The fight was tough even though it was just spaming scratches, mostly because May's Torchic has the ability speed boost, making my early lead with leer quickly faded as she sped up every turn.
It ended with Twig having 3 hp when it was over. Little did I know, this was an omen.
We make our way back to the Prof's lab and the run can truly begin. With pokeballs in hand I head out to route 101 to get my first encounter.
A Zigzagoon!!! Nice a pokemon that has the pickup ability to get items, and his evolution can probably help too.... And he's dead... Twig crit him and knocked the Zigzagoon out in one hit. Oh well, on to the next route, 103 where I get another chance at a Zigzagoon. I catch her with no problem this time, I name her Kira and move on to route 102 for my next encounter.
In the first patch of grass I find a Surskit I name Sylvia and try my hand at a couple of the trainers on this route. Most of the trainers are no problem, until I accidentally run into a youngster before I heal up.
This youngster had a Spearow, a flying type vs Sylvia who is a bug type and weak to Spearows attacks. I swap to Twig because he has the most hp, but Twig goes down to 3 hp before taking out the Spearow. The youngster sends in his next mon. A flash of white and my heart drops, a Tailow and the same level as Twig no less. we try to take it out with a hard hitting Quick Attack, but it wasn't enough Tailow used Peck and killed Twig.
Our first death.
After that harrowing experience we make our way to Petelburg city to meet my father, who upon seeing his child for the first time in probably years, imedietly sends me to watch some kid named Wally catch His first pokemon. afterwards our Dad tells us that in order to challenge him to battle, I need to gather more gym badges and sends me on my way.
On route 104 I get a Pidgey I named Guacamole (Long story). and in the woods Melvin the Ladyba joins us, but it was not to last. For you see this is where our tale ends. While exploring Petelburg woods, we were attacked by a member of team Aqua, and while I felt confident going into the fight once his Wailmer started using Rollout, a move that gets stronger each turn it successfully lands, my team was flattened and the run was lost.
If I could sum up this run in one word, it would be Impatience. every loss in this run was due to me not taking my time and planning for future fights. I was impatient and that lead to all of my pokemon's deaths, but this lesson wouldn't be learned quite yet.
Back to the van we go. This time we picked a girl, named her Amelia, and off we went. Everything went the same as before at up to getting pokeballs (our Treecko's name is Arbor this time).
After beating Brendon we got Chrys the Wurmple on route 101, Sting the Weedle on route 103, and Hope the Ralts on route 102.
The youngester was no issue this time and we make it to Petelburg no problem. We help Wally catch his ralts, evolve Sting into Kakuna,
and head back to those woods that ended our run last time, nabbing Odysseus the Poliwag on the way.
Inside Petelburg Woods we get Phoebe the Caterpie and pretty much imedietly evolve both her and Chrys into their cacoon forms.
After a bit of training we return to the Grunt, but this time we are ready. Arbor gets hit by Rollout but due to our training only takes off 5 hit points and Arbor takes wailmer down no problem. Also Sting evolves into Beedrill.
Outside Petalburg Woods we get the TM for Bullet Seed and teach it to Arbor right away.
We finally made it to Rustboro City!!! Inside we get Chimely the Chingling along with Sky the Tailow from a nearby wishing well (A new feature in this version that lets you trade wishing stones for pokemon, at the time I didn't realize how broken this would become). Then on route 106 we find King the Nidoran Male. Little did I know this will be one of the most imortant captures of the run.
After a bit of training we evolve Chrys into Dustox and challenge the gym.
Pre Gym Team:
Arbor, lvl 14 Treecko
Sting, lvl 12 Beedrill
Odysseus, lvl 13 Poliwag
Chrys, lvl 10 Dustox
Hope, lvl 11 Ralts
Sky, lvl 9 Tailow
The Battle begins. I send Arbor and Roxanne Sends Anorith. Due to Anorith's bug typing my advantage has turned into neutral ground, I try Bullet Seed nearly taking her down but Anorith hangs on and knocks Arbor down to the red with Smack Down and due to a previous bubble I'm not sure if Arbor is faster so I switch to Hope who imedietly dies to Smack Down. Next is Sting hoping to outspeed but he dies as well, I'm forced to bring Arbor back who finishes the job with Mega Drain. I now am down two pokemon and we just passed the first fight.
next is Lileep, I use a neutral Mega Drain to try to heal but Rock tomb knocks us back to red and lowers our speed. I need to switch, I send Odysseus who tanks a rock tomb and gets slowed down. Ody misses 2 Hypnosis attempts but Lileep missed one of her rock tombs. So now Odysseus has 11 HP aabd two speed drops and Lileep is still awake. I go for one more Hypnosis, and it lands!!! With Lileep asleep I can swap to Arbor and start chipping away with Mega Drain to heal. I only get two hits off before Lileep awakens, she sends a rock tomb, now Arbor is at 3 HP. I hope that Overgrow will give enough of a boost to finish Lileep off. But its not enough Lileep kills Arbor with one last rock tomb.
I Send Chrys, and it still takes three hits and Chrys going down to 5 HP but Lileep finally falls. Finall pokemon is Nosepass, I don't have any clean switches anymore so I send a Poison Sting in hopes of poisoning him, but the speed drops are too much and Chrys dies as well. I send Odysseus and try to Hypnotise Nosepass, but it misses again and Ody dies to a rock tomb. My final Mon is Sky but she gets one shot...
We Lost