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Released Pokemon Emerald Azure

This project has a release available. The full version is still a work in progress.
Project Status
Work in Progress
Project Version
0.4
Title.png


Quick Overview:

Emerald Azure is a rom hack for Pokémon Emerald. Emerald Azure brings an entirely new story for you to enjoy. There are new locations, NPCs, and gyms. Emerald Azure is also difficulty-focused. The Rom Hack uses the Radical Red dex as a base (all stat changes, abilities, movepools, etc, from the Radical Red dex are present here). The Rom Hack also currently contains 111 variant forms (counting all evolutions), 9 new Eeveelutions, 26 new Mega Evolutions, along with a plethora of custom signature moves for the new variants. You can find more information further down. The download link can also be found below.

Last Update:
2/28/26
(View the changelog for details. The Download links have been updated.)

Story Overview

Heaven hums in desolate white,
Darkness extinguishes light.
Voices pray as one,

"Azure has begun."

Emerald Azure features every evil organization from the Pokémon universe. Each organization has its own goals and desires, with some teaming up with one another. Some of these partnerships are real, and some are temporary, used as leverage or for some secret motive. The groups will clash against one another and against the player, with an overarching storyline that everything will build up toward. The story is still a work in progress as the ROM is not fully complete. You can still experience a good amount of story. More is added with each update.


All Features:
- New Story (Currently up to Gym 6) [Littleroot, Rustboro, Woody Woods, South Dewford, Dewford, Slateport City gyms]
(The story ends after the Aqua grunt fights in Slateport for now)
  • New Gyms & New Locations
  • Difficulty (Like Radical Red)
  • Unique Enemy AI
  • Quests
  • Minigames
  • Field Effects
(The AI is expanded upon Emerald Expansion. The AI can think a few turns in advance to create a tactical line. If there is a combo of moves that can defeat your mon in 2-3 turns, the enemy AI will see that line and will try to get to that state.)
  • Level Cap Progression
  • 111 Variant Pokémon Forms
  • 9 Eeveelutions
  • 26 New Mega Evolutions
  • Radical Red Dex as a base (Buffs & changes)
  • Gen 1-9
  • New Signature Moves
  • New Signature Abilities for variant form Pokémon
  • Overworld Static Encounters
  • Optional Bosses (with rewards) [Some of them are tricky to find!]
  • EV / IV Allocation from anywhere!
  • Infinite Candy to get your Pokémon to the level cap!
  • Emerald Expansion features (following pokemon, sleep clause, type icons, move effectiveness, etc)
  • And so much more!




Discord:
https://discord.gg/NfBcTjQFGD
Updates and feature previews will be announced on Discord before any updates are posted here. Discord is the main source for information on the rom-hack's development. You can also make suggestions there or help test upcoming updates.

Screenshots:
Keep in mind this is a work in progress project. Content shown is subject to change.
Nyehe.png
Tropic_Pine.png
Wazoo.png
Roxane.png
swordshield.png

leafy.gif
sewers.gif

Rocket.png
Fan_Club.png


Help Wanted:
Recruitment to join the team is open for the following positions:
  • Testers: Test out the game and find bugs. Also provide suggestions and insight on how to strengthen the overall gameplay.
  • Artists: Design variant sprites, design overworld sprites, and trainer art, etc.
  • Audio: Create music! As well as sound effects.
  • Writers: Assist with story development and plot progression
  • Mappers: Help plan out new locations, static encounters, etc.
    Reach out to me through this project's Discord if you would like to assist.

    I am also interested in feedback! Do you enjoy the ROM? Do you hate the ROM? Let me know!



Difficulty Disclaimer:

I loved playing Radical Red's Hardcore mode, and I loved playing Emerald Imperium. So... you can expect this rom hack to be difficult, but it will be fair. Enemy teams will not use legendary or mythical Pokémon unless there is a story-relevant reason for them to have that Pokémon. All gym leaders will follow a specific theme and will not contain random off-types. For example, Rustboro's gym uses Rock & Ground types. South Dewford's team is entirely Dark type. Dewford's gym is entirely fighting type. Wattson's gym will be Electric Steel themed (race-car theme), and so on.

All trainers have EV-trained Pokémon. You have access to stat-editing, so you are expected to assign EVs to your Pokémon. All trainers (with custom teams, which is 90% of them) have smart AI. Their Pokémon will also be at the level cap (this isn't the case for all trainers in the first few zones, to help ease the player in)
A few general difficulty points:
  • Trainers (both enemy and you) can not use healing items (like potions) in trainer battles
  • Set battle mode is forced
  • The Enemy AI will never cheat and know what Pokémon you are switching into. The enemy DOES know your entire Pokemon team, so it can make smart predictions. It'll never know 100% though.
  • Enemy trainers will have access to TM, Tutor, and Egg moves. I keep this to a reasonable amount early on. The player also has a good amount of TMs they can find early on to help counter this.
The difficulty starts off easyish, but becomes difficult after the 1st gym. There are still a handful of fights that can wipe your team leading up to the 1st gym, especially with the optional boss battles. Some of these optional boss battles can only be challenged BEFORE gym 1.


Nuzlocking:
- I've designed the game with Nuzlocke challenges in mind. I currently do not have a Nuzlocke Mode to enable or anything, but you can self-enforce the rules if you would like. One of my play testers will ONLY play through self-enforcement of nuzlocke rules, so I've designed the game with this style of play in mind. There are static encounters you can find early-game, as well as patches of grass in places that normally wouldn't have it. (You'll definitely need the increased encounter options if you do a Nuzlocke challenge)




Download:
  • Base Emerald Patch Download (patch file for base Emerald roms)
    The Romhack is tested using MGBA, Afterplay (Web Based), GoGBA (Mobile), and SkyEmu (Web Based) emulators.
This is a patch file. You'll need to apply the patch yourself to a base EMERALD rom.
(You can get early access to updates through the Discord)
Typing "Pokémon Rom Patcher" into Google will bring up a website you can use to do this.


Changelog:
2/28/26 (0.4)
For this update, some previously implemented features were lost due to corruption. So if you see something that was already in the game - it was redesigned and readded. This is in order from when I added or modified things from start to finsih for this update.
  • New starting island (Wazoo Island). This includes new characters, quests, etc etc.
  • New starting cutscene (No more professor cinematic)
  • Custom moves have been re-added (redesigned) and thoroughly bug-tested
  • Redesigned custom move animations
  • Re-imported Radical Red modifcations
  • titlescreen UI added
  • Custom battle AI redesigned to be less laggy but just as smart.
  • Quest journal feature added
  • Minigame Expansion added
  • Littleroot Town redesigned
  • Various edits to all sorts of different routes and locations due to tileset issues. You may notice minor differences.
  • Oldale Ruins location added
  • Fishing Minigame added
  • Fixes for every single AZ variant sprite (again)
  • Rotom UI added
  • Gen 1-9 sprite code remade to function with palette edits
  • Sprite colors (palettes) recoded to increase the amount that can be used by Pokemon on various screens - this helps to prevent color glitches. (this will still be present if you have a bunch of AZ variants in the PC storage box.)
  • TM Case added
  • Berry Pouch added
  • Bulbasaur-az (and evolution line + mega) added. (art by EchoTheThird)
  • Infinite Candy is now a KEY ITEM
  • All events, NPCs, scripts, etc attached to Littleroot have been purged to go along with the redesign.
  • HELP WINDOW feature added to display important information for the player.
  • Rare doubles softlock crash fix
  • Level up + UI enter / exit (repeated times) crash fix
  • Follower pokemon properly disabled for AZ variants & Custom Eevees
  • Follower Pokemon sprite fixes
  • Custom abilities redesigned / tested to remove bugs.
  • Beer Held Item added to game. Restores +15 HP but causes your Pokémon to become confused. Sold at the bar in Wazoo Island
  • Quest Indicator UI added over quest giver NPCs
  • Mini Boss Quest added to Wazoo Pokemart
  • TONS of new music added
  • Quest UI Icon added to Rotom Phone
  • Dexnav Icon added to Rotom Phone
  • Dexnav Pokemon can no longer flee when searching for them
  • Sword & Shield Party Screen UI added
  • Sandy battle background added
  • Remade gym battle background
  • Pineapple held item added. (Heals +50 HP. If weather is sunny, +1 speed. Functions like a berry)
  • Pond battle background added (applied to Wazoo Island)
  • Chips item added. Held item that heals 2% of a pokemon's max HP at the end of each turn. This is a weaker version of LEFTOVERS. You can find this item as a common treasure while fishing.
  • Shiny Token item re-added
  • Field Effect - Rocky Terrain added (see wiki for details)
  • Ghostly Wind effect modified slightly to work with a few abilities and moves
  • Additional cove added to Wazoo Island
  • Additional encounter spot added to BountyOfTheSea
  • Treasure list reworked from original Fishing Minigame
  • BroniusClearing location re-designed/Re-added. Currently not acessible yet.
  • Bug fixes from the first public testing version.
  • Disabled whiteout in the lab incase the player loses the first battle
  • End of Wazoo Island Cutscene Added
  • Littleroot Gym added (and various other buildings)
  • Delibird Quest added (Starts in Littleroot ends in Rustboro)
  • Removed all references to the player character's family. (Norman is no longer dad)
  • Removed the Wally tutorial bit in Petalburg & the forced interaction with Norman
  • Mimikyu-az added
  • Castform has been buffed. Forecast triggers at turn start rather than at the end of a turn.
  • Running Shoes added to the list of items the Wazoo Professor gives the player.
  • Gym Leader Birch music, sprites, and info added
  • Enemies will now change what Pokemon they lead with depending on your opening Pokemon
  • Enemy AI planning method reworked to ensure lag remains eliminated.
  • Rival fight on route 103 Buffed
  • Old Rod fisherman in Petalburg City changed to a trade NPC. (Give Magikarp, get Feebas)
  • Trainers in Petalburg Woods changed
  • Overworld Sprite Loading updated to fix sprite corruption
  • Edits to trainers on route 104
  • Map section added for the Unown Shed.
  • Custom title screen added
  • New music added to a few zones. Some of it needs additional work to sound better.
  • Beating Roxane makes the level cap 20 instead of 26 now.
  • Rival's team has been changed post Rustboro gym to account for the new level cap.
  • Woody Woods gym team updated (sorry not sorry for the addition)
  • Falling leaf graphic remade
  • Quest for defeating Elesa added
  • Roxane Battle Background added
  • New Gym Leader battle music added
  • Elesa battle background added
  • Woody Woods battle background added
  • Another new Wazoo Island battle background added
  • Several new gym tilesets added
  • Fishy Stick item added to the game. Consumed item from the bag screen. Raises friendship with the Pokemon by +10
  • More DexNav fixes
  • Reduced Relincanth catch rate to be equal to Magikarp
  • Fixed missing Flabebe graphics
  • Darkness Field Effect added
  • Egg Move Tutor fixed
  • Cave battlebackground added
  • Various edits to teams in Dewford Town & Granite Cave
  • Mars has been removed from South Dewford and replaced with Rocket Admin Zull
  • Edits to Brawly's gym team
  • Battle background added for Darkness field effect
  • South Dewford Rocket Cave softlock fixed
  • Fighting Gym trainers & gym leader team updated
  • Battle background added to Dewford gym fight
  • Woody Woods's pokemon center now respawns you there if you die
  • Jerry's dialogue now takes place in Slateport city (previously bugged)
  • Thief NPC's interactions work now. No longer randomly triggered by the Energy Guru in Slateport
  • Battle background added to Pryce's fight
  • Battle backgrounds added for Fennel's gym
  • Custom TMs no longer display ?????? as their description
  • Route 107 Battle House is no longer level 100. (It scales to your level now)
  • Jessie & James added to route 110
  • Fennel's Gym has been redesigned
  • Oldale Town Ruins Roark Questline Added
  • RocketCave (South Dewford Town) dialogue re-written
  • New Nyehehe Battle Sprite added
  • Another new Nyehehe overworld sprite added (replacing my temporary replacement)
  • Default grass battle background replaced
  • Custom music added to remaining zones missing it
  • Word Map updated
1/9/26
  • Looker's Post Sewer Quest dialogue updated + a reward given
  • New overworld NPC sprites added for various characters
  • Custom music added to South Dewford (and interiors)
  • Custom music added for when you battle Jerry
  • Custom music added for when you battle Roxane's gym
  • Custom music added for Fennel's gym
  • Custom music added when battling Nyhehe
  • Custom music added in Rocket Cave
  • Custom music added when fighting gym leader Mars
  • Custom music added inside of the South Dewford Gym
  • New Tileset added
  • Added Triple Layer Metatiles (code by smithk200)
  • Rustboro Sewers layout updated
  • Custom music added to Rustboro Sewers
  • Petalburg Woods edited
  • Woody Woods added
This new area features an inn and the new 2nd gym.You will need to complete this new zone before advancing to Dewford Town. All of the locations within this new zone have custom music attached to them. You will also find story NPCs that add some more lore to the world and explain the area's purpose in the game world. The plan is for this map to have two parts. The first part being what is already added. The second part will be a reason to revisit the map as the second half of the location would become accessible. That part is currently not added yet as that will be done later on in the story.
- AI upgrades to make the AI perform better.
AI thinks about status effects / setup states and plans around them better. AI thinks about item/ability procs (Focus sash, gems, orb activation) and how to plan around them. This changes the turn score when evaluating a line to chose, it will value multi-hit moves more to break focus-sash for example. AI switch logic upgraded.
(Note that the AI upgrades will cause a bit of lag at the end of each battle turn. I suggest using the speed-up button for this part of battle. It's about a 20second delay while the AI thinks about its next turn)
  • Custom music added to Littleroot
  • Reduced Dwayne's team from level 65 to 36 in the seashore house (oops)
  • Custom item, Sweet Treat, added. (Held item consumable. Heals 1/4th HP and gives +1 defense.)
  • Door animations fixed for the ORAS animations (Thanks Leob050)
  • Static Morelull encounter added, can you find it?
  • New battle background added for the new zone (this took 10+ hours of working through crashes and bugs!)
  • Various overworld palette fixes for NPCs
  • Minor battle UI updates
  • Optional Boss Battle added in WoodyWoods. Winning gets some nice rewards
  • Added in 'quiz' NPCs for the 2nd gym 'puzzle'.
  • New Battle Background for Gym Battles (this time it was easier to add!)
  • Redesigned my original Woody Woods layout. Added a poke-center, Poke-mart, and a new house.
  • Static Chatot encounter added. (Can you find it?)
  • Additional Move Tutor NPC added.
  • Overworld Map updated to include Woody Woods.
  • New Pokemon Center tileset added (used in Woody Woods & South Dewford)
  • Special Pokemon sidequest added. Starts in Woody Woods.
  • Additional battle AI tweaks to try and combat the lag (It didn't help too much D:)
  • Pokemart Vendor in Woody Woods sells two TMs
  • Nyehehe added to WoodyWoods Mart
  • Petalburg Woods tile fix
  • More Overworld Sprite fixes
  • Emulation VRAM Corruption issue fixed
  • Fixed the follower pokemon getting stuck in Littleroot Town during the tutorial sequence
  • Fixed rival dialogue overlapping in Rustboro City
  • Level of wild pokemon raised on various routes to match level-cap
  • Various encounter pool updates on different routes
  • Pokemon Center added to South Dewford (and fixed the tiles for the roof)
  • South Dewford redesigned
  • Region Map updated, South Dewford now appears on it (and has a town dot)
  • Fishing encounters added to South Dewford
  • Fixed location names for South Dewford interiors
  • Trainers on route 110 now have Pokémon parties. (One of them gives you a mega-stone when defeated)
  • Collision fixed for the locked house in LittleRoot
  • Dialogue fix for the secret shop vendor in LittleRoot
  • Team Rocket (Jessie, James Meowth) added to Route 102
  • Softlock fixed when going to switch pokemon in a double battle and canceling the switch (this took forever)
  • Egg Wonder Trade & Normal Wonder Trade code added - not used yet though
  • Trade NPC added to South Dewford
  • New Music added to the Ghost Room in Petalburg
  • A new (another) location has been attached to Petalburg Woods. There is a strong trainer waiting within but the encounter pool is very strong.
  • Team Rocket (Jessie, James, Meowth) added to Woody Woods
  • Intro cutscene added
  • new Stat Edit UI
  • New Party Screen UI
  • New Title Screen UI
12/27/25 (Later That Day)
  • Looker Quest #1 created in the Sewer Access building (Work in progress)
  • Jerry's dialogue in Petalburg Woods has been updated. He no longer talks about Kanto instead of Hoenn (woops)
  • Fixed the location tag in Rustboro Sewers
- Fixed a softlock in the Nyehehe Fan Club (The reason for releasing this quick patch)
- Fixed location tags for South Dewford & Dewford Cave
12/27/25
  • Updated Jerry's overworld and trainer sprites
  • Added in a new recurring character.
  • Modified how overworld sprites have their palettes assigned to better support additional custom NPCs.
  • Weedle-az can no longer be found in Littleroot Town (This was from the previous update but forgot to note it). Beedril-az is too overpowered in the early game, having it in the encounter pool was a leftover bit from testing if variant sprites loaded correctly during wild encounters.
  • Brawly has unique dialogue when first interacting with him.
  • Fixed Jerry's text in the starter-select room. Part of his dialogue was not fully displaying properly.
  • Defeating Brawly raises the level cap to 36.
  • A new character appears in Dewford Town with story dialogue and a very difficult battle. Only appears after Brawly is defeated.
  • Added custom parties to 3 trainers inside of Dewford Gym
  • Added a trade NPC in Dewford Town (They want a Luxray in exchange for Mawile)
  • Jerry has been added to Dewford Town (Battle + Dialogue)
  • Granite Cave no longer requires FLASH to see, since you are required to go there BEFORE the gym.
  • Route 109 trainers have unique teams
  • Added in Sage Power ability (from Radical Red).
  • The house on route 109 has unique trainer teams. If you beat them all you get the usual reward + a TM (and something special)
  • Added in more missing RR abilities (Bad Company, Oraorao, raging boxer)
(Now there are no missing RR abilities)
  • Double checked every pokemon to make sure they have correct abilities assigned (some didn't). Fixed that
  • Shiny Token item created. Use it to turn a pokemon shiny. One time use.
  • Rustboro Sewers location added (Work in progress location, but you can find some pokemon there)
  • Added in various new trainer sprites for usage
  • Updated Granite Cave encounters to give some stronger pokemon (each level has its own encounter pool)
  • Route 110 Encounters updated
  • Slateport encounters updated
  • Added Pryce into Slateport. He is a boss battle. Defeating him gives you some really useful TMs to help with the Slateport Gym. You can only challenge him if you have not yet beaten the Slateport Gym
  • Slateport City Gym added.
  • Lapras variant added
  • Added a blocker in Slateport that will prevent you from starting the museum quest until after the Slateport Gym has been defeated.
  • Fixed mega Tsareena's battle sprites
  • Added a level cap rise after Slateport Gym
  • Mega Glalie and Mega Froslass battle sprites fixed (AZ variants)
  • New minor NPCs added to Slateport
  • Updated Aqua Grunt teams in the Museum
  • Looker can be found in the Sewer Access building. He has placeholder dialogue until a future update
  • Fixed Mega Meganium battle sprites
  • Move Token item added
  • Egg Move Vendor added to Slateport (charges move tokens)
  • TM Vendor added to Slateport
  • Jerry added to Slateport (in a new house) [Gives story dialogue... A lot of it]
  • Bugsy's team has been updated
  • Bugsy now only has one team. He will go away after the player defeats Roxanne, making him a limited time boss battle.
  • Bugsy dialogue has been updated to reflect the above changes (and his rewards updated too)
  • Nyehehe dialogue updates in South Dewford
12/22/25 (But later in the day):
  • Fixed the CHARM NPC to show how much the TM costs when buying
  • Fixed Nyehehe in Rustboro City, you can now actually battle him
  • Changed how overworld object sprites are loaded to remove sprite corruption
  • Added Leo's tilesets to replace vanilla ones. Every location looks different (if they used a vanilla tileset)
  • Route 104 and Route 116 now have custom trainer teams. (For Route 104 I added two more trainers in that were missing unique teams)
  • Added interiors to the two houses in Dewford that were missing them.
  • Fixed RocketGruntM's overworld palette (no longer miscolored)
  • Added collision to the RocketToll in Dewford (collision near the bottom). You can no longer skip the toll event without paying!
12/22/25 (at like 2 AM):
- Demo Release (Yay!)



Credits:
Official Team Members:
- Kacey_ (Creator)
  • Hammy (Lead Tester)
  • Blitzydragon (Sprite Artist)
  • Yogggi (Sprite Artist)
  • Kristal (Sprite Artist)
  • Kaien (Pineapple Man)
  • n1gh7bl4d3 (Tester)
  • Jerry (Tester)

Pokemon Variant Graphics:
Kristal, Skallhati, Marix20, Anarlaurendil, Geno, Steelman2004, EndlessTGX, Tibjib, PurrfectDoodle, Nico.
jos_louis (Soulstones Dev) for letting me use his variant designs!

Tilesets:
leob0505, PurpleZaffre, Ekat99, spaceemotion, Phyromatical, Amethyst, Crim, Smeargletail, Princess-Phoenix, Heartlessdragoon, Vurtax, M,agiscarf, Kyle Dove, Kane89, Aveontrainer, Rejuvenation Team

Trainer Sprites:
OgJazz, Elinthind, aveontrainer, Galaxeeh, Black Fragrant, Pawkkie, RavePossum, Horo, RBRNNova, DiegoWT, Kyledove

General:
Radical Red (for their dex changes and inspiration)
Emerald Imperium (Inspiration)
Pokemon Soulstones (Sprite contributions)
Pokemon Reborn & Blazing Emerald (Inspiration / ideas)
Emerald Expansion Team (For using Emerald Expansion!)
The Great Nyehehe (inspiring the Nyehehe character being added)
Eevee Expo Community (Assistance & motivation)
HighNoonMoon
Lolw3e932
Ulithiumdragon
Teraneck
EmperorOfManJebBush
Chaiiry
Ruki

Beta Testers (Non-Team Members):
lyokuu, lone_nomad, sheep1shly

Audio:
Blue Warrior, Total Yosh, King Meteor, Matt Furda, Mike, Dr. Fruitcake, Blue Boo, SNN, Dentelle, Shadow, Paper_Luigi, Matthew Seldon, Alluro95, Fluff, Sean Handwek, Mark Jansen, Britan Grimmer, Susan Carriere, Chibi Vegito, DoctorJ, Jarel Jones, Robert Smith, Tyler Prevost, Temjin, Anubis, Crono, Cyber Buddha, Joshua Kaufman, Ryan J. Bury

Miscellaneous Code / Graphic:
Silvergold
Archie (UI contribution), Mudskip (Graphic contribution), Ghoulslash (UI shell code for save-game select), Grunt Lucas, Pret, Rioluwott.
Ruby
Ibsbezerra (Falling leaf code)
PSF (Quest journal code)
HashtagMarky (Rotom Phone UI)
Bivurnum (Stardew Valley Fishing Minigame)

Everything Else:
Me! (Coding, mapping, story stuff, etc etc)
(This should be everyone so far. If I accidentally forgot someone, please let me know!)
If you make a video (or stream) that contains gameplay of this rom-hack, please share it with me! I would love to watch! ♥
 
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Going to try this. The first demo and it goes to the 6th yeah definitely playing. Thanks for making it for the fandom

Edit:I patched but it won't load on my phone I'm using pizza boy GBA and mygbaboy.
 
Last edited:
Going to try this. The first demo and it goes to the 6th yeah definitely playing. Thanks for making it for the fandom

Edit:I patched but it won't load on my phone I'm using pizza boy GBA and mygbaboy.
Edit: Our tester uses GoGBA for mobile emulation. I recommend swapping to that. It should work fine :)

Edit 2: Posted a hot fix to fix various issues, including a softlock. Should be good to go now.
 
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