"Zero AI" Pokémon Epsilon Emerald Gets A New Trailer Just Days Before Release

The wave of ROM hacks continues this year, so it's very rare to see a 100% human-made ROM hack come to fruition amidst this boom, but here we are, and this is one to keep an eye on because it looks incredibly well made and fully releases on the 14th November, so not long to wait at all. The developer known as pokemerrp has said post-development will happen well into 2027 too, to offer new features for their core audience.

Pokémon Epsilon Emerald is a ROM hack of Emerald and is a complete demake of Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire with tonnes of quality-of-life upgrades, new difficulties, additional following Pokémon, new Pokémon from multiple generations, super secret bases and more.

New Features Include

• Following/walking Pokemon
  • Originally coded.
  • Supports hundreds of conditional messages, every type of Poké Ball, and Shiny Leaves
• Day/night lighting, effects, and encounters
• Gen 6-7 style icons everywhere (including the PC!), with shiny support
• Three difficulty settings:
  • Easy, which imposes no additional challenge
  • Normal, which forces SET style and only allows up to two items per battle from the Bag
  • Hard, which is like Normal, but allows zero items from the Bag, and trainers’ parties scale with your party’s level
• Reworked teams for every trainer in the game
• Soft level caps (for Normal & Hard), scaling with # of badges (diminishing EXP returns)
• Built-in Nuzlocke mode (See intern in Prof. Birch’s lab)
• Built on RHH’s Pokemon expansion
• Updated battle mechanics
• Detailed Pokédex with evolution methods, learnsets, fast paging, etc.
• Decapitalized text
• Modern TM/HM mechanics: TMs are reusable, HMs can be used without being taught
• Toggleable Exp. Share
• Hyper Training / Bottle Caps
• Mystery Gift Wonder Card (and Wonder Code) input for event distribution
• DexNav
• Fame Checker ported from FireRed / LeafGreen
• Super-Secret Bases
  • Compatible with vanilla
  • Added locations across Hoenn
  • Shareable with others via mGBA savestate
  • Dozens of new, functional decorations (Berry Pot, Berry Blender, Pinball Machine)
  • In-game Secret Bases featuring the Mauville Old Guys
• Pokemon Memories, retained during trades
• Dozens of new or newly arranged music tracks and artwork

ORAS Inspired Features

• Complete, playable Delta Episode
• ORAS NPC changes and additions: Prof. Cozmo, Aarune, Lisia, Zinnia, etc.
• Soaring via Latias or Latios, also includes Mirage Spots
• Mega Evolution & Spectacular Talents may be performed in Contests
• Cosplay Pikachu, with updated types and abilities
• Sidequests involving Lisia, Chaz, and Wallace in Contests
• Sidequest to acquire a gear-switching Bike in postgame, the Machro Bike
• Register up to four Key Items at once
• Enhanced TV shows / BuzzNav
• A postgame location in Rustboro for EV and level-up training
• New locations near Route 111, Dewford Town, and more!
• Custom Mega Evolution for Milotic
• Wally can be rematched in the Battle Frontier’s Ranking Hall

And of course, a wide range of quality-of-life upgrades to the games to give it that modern feeling, such as text speed improvements, fewer repeated NPC interactions, flying to routes, not just towns and a whole lot more. This is a neat-looking ROM hack for Emerald fans, and you can follow the launch on their official website here.