Pokémon Emerald Kaizo is a super-hard mode ROM hack of Pokémon Emerald and the official sequel of Pokemon Blue Kaizo & Pokemon Crystal Kaizo . These titles were inspired by Kaizo Mario World, though the game's difficulty was inspired by Drayano60's Firered Omega, as well as Pokémon Stadium.
Just like Blue Kaizo & Crystal Kaizo, just about everything in the game, including the wild Pokémon, the teams of trainers and gym leaders, and even the layouts, has been changed to make the game a much more difficult experience than vanilla Emerald.
It is authored by SinisterHoodedFigure.
The game can be found here
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Tropes used in Pokémon Emerald Kaizo:
- 100% Completion: You can obtain all 386 Pokémon in the game, although, just like in vanilla Emerald, some are reserved for the post game only, such as Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and more, after meeting certain criteria. Usually by the Sootopolis City gym, you'll have seen 330+ Pokémon, and by the time you reach the Elite Four in Ever Grande City, assuming you haven't missed any Pokémon Trainer battles (in most routes, nigh impossible due to Kaizo), you'll have maybe 10 Pokémon remaining (376/386), all of them special legendaries. Unlike Blue Kaizo or Crystal Kaizo, you most likely will have to play in the post-game to see & have a chance to encounter all 386 Pokémon. Certain Legendary Pokémon can be obtained in Emerald Kaizo by trading one of those exclusive Pokémon. As for the roaming Legendaries (such as Latios, Latias and a few others), all of them are level 100, which in theory, should not be an issue in post game since by then, you should have a team that can easily handle them.
- Action Bomb: As with all Pokémon Kaizo games, if there is a Pokémon that can potentially learn Self-Destruct or Explosion in their learnset, expect them to know it as a wild Pokémon. Unfortunately, the ability Damp * has been removed from Emerald Kaizo. Using a Ghost-type Pokémon might help with wild encounters as they are immune to the attacks..... Until it is revealed that Regirock, Regice and Registeel know Explosion and Self-Destruct, giving them a 50% chance of destroying themselves during their battle to be captured.
- Adaptational Badass: One of the signature changes in Crystal & Blue Kaizo, and Emerald Kaizo follows suit. Even the very first Pokémon you'll encounter, a level 2 Zigzagoon, was given a significant buff with a more competitive moveset.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The game is friendly to players on occasions:
- You can catch the first three generations of Pokémon all in the wild, allowing a better variety of choices for your team, and the option to recruit powerful Pokémon that weren't obtainable in the vanilla game, such as the original starters.
- Pokéballs are very cheap, allowing for easier catching of Pokémon.
- Even though you can't use items in battle, enemy trainers won’t use them either.
- You can buy an unlimited supply of evolution stones from the Fallarbor Town shop.
- Rare candies can be bought at the Pokémon League for a cheap price.
- Boss in Mook's Clothing: Some Magma or Aqua Grunts can engage in surprisingly difficult double battles, and the Cooltrainers and Experts are often comparable to bosses. Winstrate Vito is the last obstacle in Victory Road, and is much stronger than the previous trainers.
- The Cameo: Pokémon Trainer Red is fought three times in the main game, and once in the Trick House. He uses pre-evolved forms of his 2nd and 4th battle team. The third time, he uses powerful Legendaries and pseudo-legendaries.
- Cast from Hit Points: Several moves are edited to be recoil moves.
- Water Spout, which used to have more power based on how much HP the user has.
- Sky Attack, which used to be a Charged Attack.
- Superpower, Overheat, and Draco Meteor, which used to debuff the user after use.
- Combo Platter Powers: Every Pokémon is buffed up to have a much more varied and higher-quality moveset, which means you have Pokémon being able to learn moves that they couldn't in the vanilla game or are otherwise outside of their typing.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Quite a few moves and items are only available on the enemy side. In the case of items, Thief can't even be used to get them because its secondary effect is removed.
- Damage Over Time: The Stall Room uses Toxic, Spikes, and Sandstorm. Some trainers in the Victory Road use that as well.
- Disc-One Nuke: Omanyte and Kabuto returns as a strong early game pokemon, being alvailable at route 115 to the north of Rustboro City by Fishing. Both have fantastic base stats for an unevolved Pokémon, potential ability in Shell Armor, and a strong starting movepool with a 60 Base Power Water move and Rock Tomb. They would eventually fall off owing to their unevolved base stats until their evolution at Level 40.
- Sunflora is a particularly enforced example. Sunkern is the most common ecounter in an early route. Every wild Sunkern had Sun Stone as a held item, letting it to evolve immediately into Sunflora. This gives Sunflora a statistical advantage relative to its unevolved peers and opposing trainers Pokémon in the early game. Its one of few Pokémon with access to a set-up move in Growth, learns Synthesis at level 16, and its Grass typing gave it a good match up against Roxanne, and a favorable one against Wattson and Brawly's Poliwrath to lesser extent. Used properly, Sunflora is able to sweep the first 3 Gyms in the game until its mediocre stats caught up to it making Sunflora sweep much harder to pull off. Contrary to its reputation in mainline games, Sunflora is considered one of the strongest ecounter in the game.
- The Dreaded: Intimidate users, including new users such as Glalie, Pinsir, Houndoom, and Tyranitar.
- Dual Boss: Tate and Liza both have Latios and Latias in their boss fight. Maxie and Tabitha battle together. Sootopolis Gym has two Gym Leaders. You only battle them one at a time, but the first one is a single battle, while the other is a double-battle.
- Elemental Absorption: Volt Absorb and Water Absorb, available on the Chinchou line and Wooper line respectively.
- Elite Mooks: Gym Trainers, Cooltrainers, and the Experts have high quality, full teams, with strategies or cores.
- Fragile Speedster: The speed room has very fast Pokémon
- Glass Cannon: Half of Sydney's team consists of this, among two Mighty Glaciers and a Lightning Bruiser.
- Tailow and Swellow are this, thanks to their Guts ability combined with the move Facade making them one of the strongest possible attackers in the game. However their bulk is poor and a player using nuzlocke rules will have to be careful to protect them. To compensate for this power, they are no longer Com Mons, but a rare encounter.
- Hostile Weather: The Weather Teams are very threatening. Lavaridge Gym, Sootopolis Gym, Magma Hideout, Seafloor Cavern, and Glacia's room have permanent sun and permanent rain. Unlike the game it's based on, Emeral Kaizo gives you zero weather manipulating moves for your own use, the weather you encounter is the weather you get.
- Infinity -1 Sword: While every Pseudo-Legendary line counts, Salamence particularly stands out with its high power, durability, speed, and having Intimidate. It is alvailable just after Flannery in the Mirage Tower as a guaranteed encounter Bagon. Similarly the buffed Dusclops are available on Cave of Origin as a Duskull. Worth noting that the area with easy access to Bagon and Duskull are only available until their respective storyline are dealt with and are locked until the post game after that point.
- Lethal Lava Land: Magma Hideout. In addition to lava, the dungeon has permanent sunlight and heat, and the Magma grunts have full teams of sun abusers, in addition to exploders, status users, and setup. This is regarded as one of the hardest dungeons in Emerald Kaizo, second only to the Elite Four.
- Lightning Bruiser: The bulky swift swimmers such as Swampert, Ludicolo, Kingdra, and Dewgong.
- Mana Burn: Phoebe upgrades this with Double Teaming Ghosts with Pressure, and recovery moves.
- The Maze: Most of the dungeons in the game have large mazes and puzzles to navigate through. The post-game Trick House has a several rooms full of mazes to navigate.
- Mighty Glacier: Wailord, Dusclops, and Sableye are buffed in that regard. They hit hard, they take multiple hits, but are very slow. Glacia has bulky Wailord, Lapras, and a literal example with Regice.
- Misplaced Wildlife: A fantasy variant. The game contains the first three generations of Pokémon all crammed into the Hoenn region. In addition to a lot of these Pokemon not being canonically native to the Hoenn region, expect a lot of them to show up in weird locations, such as the Fire-type, mountain-dwelling Numel near your wooded hometown.
- Monster Whale: Wailord is notably buffed, and a formidable Pokémon. Its stats are on par with Snorlax, with the lowest speed in the game, and with a powerful buffed Water Spout and Self-destruct attack.
- Ninja: The Ninja Boy, who utilizes fast Pokémon, status inflictions, or evasion abuse. They hide in the overworld.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Dragon Tamer in the Fortree Gym and Drake in the Elite Four have powerful Dragon-types, but also some dragon-like Pokémon.
- Resource Management Gameplay: Amped up a bit. There's more incentive to delay evolutions for early access to stronger moves, and Heart Scales are now a finite resource.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Team Magma often uses dog Pokémon, notable ones being Houndoom, Arcanine, Manectric, Granbull, and Smeargle.
- Status Buff: Almost entirely averted on the player's side, but not on the enemy's. A part of the reason for Sunflora's value is that its Growth, one of the weakest buffing moves in the series, is one of the only buffing moves you have access to.
- Rage is the only other move that you can use for buffs, and even then only by proxy. The only mons that can learn it are Spearow, Mankey, Doduo, and Bagon - if you drop the moves in their evolved forms, that's it.
- Using Taunt to suppress enemy buffs or Snatch to take them isn't even an option - they now do absolutely nothing.
- Drake uses Dragon Dance to buff his attack and speed, while using Calm Mind to buff his dangerous Soul Dew Latias.
- Status Infliction Attack: Many trainers, but Phoebe is a notable abuser of sleep and paralysis moves.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: In addition to Shoal Cave, two more dungeons have some very difficult ice puzzles to navigate: Granite Cave, and Seafloor Cavern. Sometimes if you make a mistake, you have to start back at the very beginning. The mist makes some parts more difficult.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: While the early trainers are certainly competent, it will be your encounter with Red and his Curse using Eevee or Roxanne and her extremely diverse team that really make it clear this is meant to be harder than hard.
