I am seriously struggling to keep up with the new wave of Pokémon ROM hacks making their way onto my feeds, and at times it's hard to find the hidden gems that come to fruition, but I feel like this is one of the good ones that's worth checking out, even if it does have a sprinkling of AI assistance. This new ROM hack based on Pokémon Emerald is called Wishes of Tomorrow.
The developer known as flatfootlabs has recently revealed an all-new reveal trailer for it, showing off the incredible new look, alongside a dark and stormy storyline that brings with it shadow Pokemon, a brand new region, Mega Evolutions, Pokémon from generations I-X and a bunch of postgame content for you to explore that's currently in development, if you're strong enough to get there, that is. The story is explained as:
"When Jirachi, the Undying Wish, awakens from its thousand-year slumber to grant a single wish, you're not the only one racing toward its promised power. A mysterious faction led by a gold-masked Oni emerges from the shadows, determined to seize Jirachi's wish for their own sinister ambitions. Witness Mega Power. Capture Darkness. Seek the promised land of Shin-Tokyo. The wish is waiting. Will you be the one to claim it?"
There's a bunch of quality-of-life upgrades to the base game, such as all Mega Stones being can be found or purchased, a quest journal, character portraits, animated boss intro cards, ability machines, HM field-move menu fast-forward, and more. The shadow Pokémon is a cool concept with over 60 variants available to capture and purify; they apparently hit incredibly hard but do take more damage, making them tricky to defeat, but come with benefits if you purify them.
I won't spoil any of the story because that's the best part, but from what the trailer reveals, this is one to add to your ROM hack collection for sure.
Was AI Used?
This hack contains some AI-assisted content, according to the developer, such as:
- NPC portraits are generated caricatures of my friends, hand-edited in Aseprite. (These can be toggled off in the options menu).
- Some dialogue was drafted with AI then edited by hand.
- Cover art and region map: the artwork is human-made, then quantised to downres to the 16-colour hardware limit.
- Automated unit testing and source control.
But I also want to make you personally aware that there were a lot of creatives who were involved in this game, from the sprite design to tile assets to quest menus; humans were used to build the right things such as graphics and its art direction, which in my opinion is exactly how it should be with AI only assisting on the coding side when needed. This is how AI should be used to create ROM hacks, not replacing humans, instead using it as a development tool, so big respect to flatfootlabs for standing strong and no succombing to the pull of AI in the wrong areas.
You can download Pokémon Wish Of Tomorrow via HackDex, this require a Pokémon Emerald ROM to patch your game legally with this new ROM hack. It's free to play and more content is on its way.
