Nostalgic Gem from 2005? Ultima's Pokemon Emerald Review!
Pokemon Emerald. One of the 3 Pokemon versions alongside Ruby and Sapphire. Emerald came out around 2 years after Ruby and Sapphire, bringing in a few tweaks and extra features. This includes slightly new presentation, altered story, new gameplay additions, and more! Like most Pokemon GBA games, it’s a super popular game to emulate and a popular game in general. However, after over a decade after, does it still hold up? Is it a nostalgic gem, or has time tarnished its value?
Story:
The story shares some similarities to Ruby and Sapphire, just with a few twists. The main focus of the story is the legendary dragon Pokemon, Rayquaza! Apparently, it has recently awakened! As usual, you get your starter Pokemon and become a Pokemon Trainer. From then on, your job is to help quell the quarrel between legendary Pokemon Groudon and Kyogre, while also stopping the criminal teams known as Team Magma and Team Aqua, collecting the 8 gym badges, battling the Elite Four, and becoming the Champion. You know, usual Pokemon stuff. Rayquaza will play a big part in the story, and maybe you might even recruit it to obtain its great power!
Simple story is simple. It is good enough for kids to follow, just not a very deep story for older audiences.
It's an intense battle. Comparable to... two kids fighting over a piece of candy!
Gameplay:
You probably know how a Pokemon game works due to Pokemon’s popularity, but in case you don’t, allow me to teach you!
Pokemon is a relatively simple RPG. You are a Pokemon Trainer! Gameplay consists of collecting and catching wild creatures called Pokemon, training them, and battling them VS other trainers. While you do have the objectives previous mentioned, becoming Pokemon Champion is the ultimate goal.
There is quite a lot of gameplay in Pokemon, but most of it involves Pokemon and battling!
We’ll go over the two most prominent mechanics in Pokemon, catching Pokemon, and battling Pokemon. Firstly, catching Pokemon. Pokemon hide in a variety of places, like Grass, caves, water, etc. Walk around in these areas to find a Pokemon. Finding a Pokemon is only half of the fun, and rare Pokemon are quite valuable. Once you find a Pokemon, a battle ensues!
This would be a good time to explain battling. Battling takes place in a turn based format. The Pokemon first in the party is sent out. Each Pokemon can learn up to 4 moves. Your job is to use your Pokemon’s moves to whittle down the opposing Pokemon’s HP to either defeat it, or in this case, weaken it to catch it with a Pokeball! The fastest Pokemon moves first in any battle.
Now onto battling Trainers! There are two types of battles vs trainers, Single Battles and Double Battles. In Single Battles, each trainer sends out one Pokemon for battle. In Double Battles, 2 Pokemon are sent out on each side of the field, turning the battle into a 2v2! This adds loads more strategy! One example includes combos with moves such as Helping Hand with your allied Pokemon for more damage. Some moves even hit more than one Pokemon!
Regardless of the battle format, the goal is to defeat all of the opposing Pokemon to win. Trainers can have either one, two, or even more Pokemon, so be ready! Once victory is yours, you are rewarded with money!
This is what a Single Battle looks like...
...and this is what a Double Battle looks like!
Battling in Pokemon isn’t hard to grasp. However, it still has a nice layer of strategy that comes from team-building, movepools, type matchups, and more. Each individual Pokemon has their own strengths and weaknesses, and have their own unique sets of movepools, abilities, and stats. The 6 stats are HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Attack and Special Attack affect the power of your physical and special moves respectfully. Defense and Special Defense affect damage taken from physical and special moves respectfully. Speed affects turn order. HP is health, and the Pokemon faints if it reaches 0. Pokemon Abilities have a special effect in battle, like an increase in Grass type moves when below a certain percentage of HP, or lowering the opposing Pokemon's attack. This adds more strategy, and helps individualize Pokemon more.
One cannot succeed in Pokemon unless you have Pokemon that can cover each other weaknesses,, like type weaknesses, defenses, or offenses! It’s basic enough for kids to understand, and complex enough for adults to enjoy it! This is one of Pokemon’s greatest strengths, and Emerald is no different. It’s why it’s gained such a huge audience over the years.
Other side activities exist outside of battling, such as Contests, where you compete against other Pokemon to give out the best and most appealing performance, and the Game Corner, where you, well, GAMBLE GAMBLE AND GAMBLE SOME MORE. The Battle Frontier returns from the previous versions with more features and exhibits, like the Battle Factory or Battle Pyramid! They are enjoyable.
You do all of this while exploring the wide varied region that is Hoenn! Hoenn is vast and large, with unique routes and plenty of interesting locations to explore pre and post game. There are caves, towers, oceans, a route with raining ash, and so much more. There are more locations here in Emerald than in Ruby and Sapphire too! Puzzles may need to be solved in said locations! Most are basic, but serviceable.
Hoenn is HUGE and expansive.
You might be wondering what is different from Emerald compared to Ruby and Sapphire? Unfortunately, I never played Ruby or Sapphire, but a common complaint is that Emerald is too similar to Ruby and Sapphire and doesn’t add enough to make it a truly new experience. What Pokemon Emerald did add when it comes to additional game features include Pokemon Abilities having an effect outside of battle, altered breeding mechanics, and a few more additional changes.
Graphics and Sound:
Being a GBA game from 2005, Emerald’s graphics have aged. However, they certainly stand the test of time better than its predecessors. Graphics are sharp, colors are bright and vivid, and the Pokemon look awesome. The Pokemon in the game are varied in design from cute, to cool, to menacing, and even mysterious. Certainly, they do have some iconic designs. Each location looks different from each other location, and some include what I might call iconic tourist spots, like the Day Care Center or the Trick House.
A minor tweak made in presentation is animations for Pokemon. These are shown when Pokemon are sent into battle or when viewing their stats. I personally love this, and it’s a nice little touch to give the game extra polish.
Sound design pushes the GBA to its limits. Thunderbolts sound like thunderbolts, fire like fire, water like water! Music in the game is catchy, memorable, and fun to listen too. Music ranges from exciting to calming to even ominous. It’s super good for a soundtrack.
Conclusion: Despite Pokemon Emerald possibly being too similar to Ruby and Sapphire, I still believe it’s an extremely solid Pokemon game and video game in general. Pokemon has always been a great series due to the accessibility and having JUST the right amount of depth for young and old people to enjoy it. There is a reason Pokemon Emerald is popular among the emulation community. Personally, I love it too.
...I have said the word" Pokemon" a lot, haven't I?
Score: 8.75/10