[GBA] Digimon Emerald Project v1.0.1

Name: Digimon Emerald Project
Remade by: Guzeinbuick
Based on: Pokemon Emerald
Source link: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=10482220#post10482220
Hello, Welcome back to Ducumon Website and I’m Pokemoner. We will play Digimon Emerald Project by Guzeinbuick! It’s a New GBA Hack ROM and based on Pokemon Emerald!

It’s the same as the original game but all pokemon are replaced into Digimon with full stats, abilities, type, moves, new moves, and more… This game has lots of custom moves, HM isn’t trashed now, reusable TMs, EV/IV checker and more… It’s complete and playable in English. And now, Let’s play if you love Digimon!

FEATURES
330+ new monsters with unique stats, abilities, Typing, and movepools built from the ground-up!
No more filler mons!
Every single Digimon is viable! Don’t be afraid to build a team out of your favourite Digimon!

As many as five or even six stages for prominent Digimon!
LOTS of custom moves from the Digimon canon!
Diversify your strategies with over 150 signature moves!

Digidex Entries state criteria for evolution so you never need to feel out of the loop!
Icons are V-Pets now
So there’s that.

Reusable TMs
Convenient Shop Data
Tired of random encounters? Repels are cheap as heck now.

Move Deleters and Reminders in every shop to deal with those pesky HM moves:
HM Moves are no longer garbage!
Unfortunately, no one knows how to make HMs forgettable in Emerald (the old trick of writing 00 at 0x6E822 and 0x1B6D2C DOES NOT WORK so don’t try it)
So I can’t make HMs easily forgettable. But I can do the next best thing:

Make them viable.
Cut now raises ATK, like Grow Punch!
Flash is now Electric and lowers foe’s Accuracy, like a supercharged Mud-Slap!
Rock Smash lowers foe’s defense AND always goes first!

EV/IV Checker, Up to Gen VII Abilities and Moves, Fairy Type, Physical-Special Split, Poison Survival, BW Repel System, Reusable TMs, etc.
Minor Dialogue Tweaks:
Dive is a TM now.
So don’t freak out when Steven gives it to you and you can’t find it at first.

Known glitches:
No game-breaking glitches so far. There are a few graphical glitches which can lead to certain awkwardness/hilarity.
-When Team Aqua steals the Submarine… their sprites don’t disappear lol
Purely graphical. Doesn’t affect the game besides making for an awkward scene.

-When meeting Steven in Sootopolis, he takes you on a magic walk-though-walls trip before finally dropping you off in the Cave of Origin. Again, completely graphical and doesn’t harm the progression of the game. Certainly looks funny though.

-WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO INTO THE MIRAGE TOWER. I am unable to edit the Encounter Rates using Advance Map for whatever reason. If you wander in there, you may encounter random Digimon at random levels… including level 100 if you’re unlucky.
-Sometimes Cyberdramon will pop out of a rock after you Rock Smash it. It’s catch rate is 0, so don’t waste pokeballs trying to catch it.

System Requirements:
The game runs on VBA for Desktop and MyBoy and JohnGBA for mobile. I haven’t tested it with other emulators but these three seem to be the most popular GBA emulators.

Plans for future expansion:
Finish off the dex to a nice clean 350. As you can see in the Excel file, some Digivolutions are still in the planning stage (Shawjamon, Gokuwmon, etc.).
Custom animations for Digimon moves. Right now the animations are simply borrowed from other moves. Now, I’m not saying you SHOULD go pester ortz3 at (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=457087) into finishing his Emerald Animation Editor, butttt…. 😉
Doing away with HMs entirely. One day I’ll figure out how to replace HMs with key items. One day…
Polish up some of the more rough sprites. I think I did a pretty good job handling 330+ Digimon all by myself. That said, there’s a few (like Bulucomon’s line) that are a bit… eh. I’d say there’s probably about ten or so Digimon sprites that needs cleaning up. I’ll get to it whenever…
Replace the word “Poke” with “Digi” in every piece of dialogue. Trust me, it is mind-numbingly boring to go through every single event in every single map changing “Pokemon” to “Digimon,” “Pokedex” to “Digidex” for hours on end… I did it for the better half of the day and I got so sick of it I gave up lol
Hammer out those glitches. I’m sure I’ll figure out the above two glitches one day, and hopefully any more glitches my playtesters find. I’m counting on you guys!
Fix that damn title screen. The “Emerald version” is a bit off-kilter and it’s messing with my ocd.
If I could figure out how to include MIDIs of songs from the anime’s ost that would be sweeeeeettt.

Advice:
Don’t go “Shiny hunting” because there are no shinies in the game. Sorry.
No need to go fishing more than once. Only one Digimon can be caught via fishing: Manbomon.
While all Digimon are viable, some have higher stats than others. They generally run on “short-term gain, low investment” vs. “high investment, high payoff” archetypes. If you come across a horribly weak baby Digimon, chances are it will grow up to be a total monster if you put in the time.
The game is about 1.5 times harder than vanilla Emerald. I’ve playtested the game four times now and was able to beat it pretty easily, but then again I made the damn thing so of course I’d know all the best strategies.
My advice is to use stategy. Grinding is not the answer. If you lose against a Gym Leader once, don’t go off and grind for five hours. Try a few more times and see if you can figure out his movepool. Using brute force will not work in this game because all Gym Leaders have an “ace” with full coverage. Use strategy instead.
This game is a bit easier than Digimon Nova Red (my previous romhack), if you’ve played that.

Changelog:
3/18/2022: Version 1.0.1 – Waterfall now obtainable (next to Juan in gym)
3/16/2022: Version 1.0 initial release

FAQ:

Where do I find _____mon?
All encounter locations listed in the Excel file included in the download link.

Any Cheat codes?
Don’t know! Maybe try some out and get back to me?

Why isn’t BlahBlahBlahmon in the game? He’s my favourite Digimon?
Adding in new Babies, In-Trainings, and Rookie Digimon are very simple. Assuming a quality sprite exists online, I can whip up a movepool, some base states, encounter rates, and evolutionary paths in about ten minutes.
Champions, Ultimates, and Megas, on the other hand, rarely have sprites that are going to fit into a 64×64 pixel box with only 16 colours. That means I’ll have to spend the next few hours editing the sprite pixel by pixel until it fits the parameters. For example, you can see how much tweaking it would take to turn this:

into this:

Why only 330 Digimon? Other hacks have a much more complete dex.
Quality over quantity, my friend. The other Digimon hacks online don’t take the same approach to their spriting. When it comes to Champions and up, most other Digimon romhacks simply compress the sprite until its small enough to fit into the 64×64 box. Their backsprites also tend to follow a similar procedure of simply enlarging an overworld sprite.
I totally respect the approach of other Digimon romhacks. But this is not the direction I chose to take with Emerald Project. Digimon Emerald Project is supposed to provide a clean, consistent experience in which every Digimon looks good. And despite my best efforts, there’s still about three or four sprites I failed pretty hard at lol

Why am I still playing as Brendan and May? Shouldn’t I be Tai or Sora?
The Digimon world is fundamentally different from the Pokemon world. In Digimon canon, Tamers do not go around capturing Digimon and keeping them on their person for friendly competition.
Therefore it would make no sense for Tai to go around capturing hundreds of Digimon and storing them in his PC on a quest to become the “Digimon League Champion.” That sounds more like the behaviour of the Digimon Emperor than anything (haha).
It’s helpful to think of Nova Red as taking place in an alternate universe identical to the Pokemon world in every way, except this world is inhabited by Digimon instead of Pokemon. No other narrative or structural changes.

Level 18 at the first gym?? How grindy is this game? Why did you make it so hard?
The game is about 1.5x harder than the original Pokemon Emerald. At the time of writing, I’ve played through the game four times now and I’ve never needed to grind against wild mons. You do, however, need to fight with careful strategy and diversity to come out on top. Gym leaders will always be a higher level than you so you might need a to take a few tries to figure out your opponent’s movepools and how to exploit their weaknesses. But it’s not a grindfest.
I do recommend fighting all enemy trainers for exp though. Not sure if you consider that grinding or not.

ExpAll?
Nah. Removes the challenge.

These “back sprites” don’t look like back sprites at all.
They’re supposed to be “side sprites.” Wouldn’t you rather see the profile of your beloved Digimon in action instead of staring at the back of their heads?

Can you add in ____mon in a future update?
Sure! If you want to provide the sprite and it’s up to quality, then I would be happy to add in more Digimon at other users’ request. If no compact sprite is available, I can still work my magic if the particular Digimon is in “high demand.”

What about antibodies-X (evolution X), BM’s and Jogress? How about more variations of each Digimon’s evolution? Alter-S/Alter-B/Omega X, Jessmon, etc.?

Huh?
Digimon are supposed to de-digivolve back into their Rookie forms when they’re not battling. Any chance of making that into a mechanic here?
You can use your imagination. When you check your party Digimon, you can imagine them in their Rookie forms but the DigiDex is displaying their potential strength (as in, how far they are capable of Digivolving at that present moment). Or something. Idk

Remember Ducumon Website just uploaded and stored this game. You can download it on the Source link! We don’t force you to download from Ducumon Website!

This game is a GBA Hack ROM! It’s Complete in English!

Screenshots:

Gameplay: