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Pokemon Emerald is one of the purest games out there, released in a time before microtransaction hell. More than a decade before the release of lootboxes, battle passes and other predatory gubbins, Emerald released on the beautiful Game Boy Advance.
In a comedic bid to bring modern gaming practises to our untainted retro games, one Pokemon modder has hacked the GBA game to bring loot box mechanics to the the beloved classic JRPG.
Pokemon Emerald defiled by Loot Boxes
Created by modder “btchmampdup”, the new Pokemon Emerald mod replaces the basic Pokemon catching mechanic with, well, loot boxes. Just like an EA game crawling back from its 2015 grave, players will no longer be able to engage with fun gameplay mechanics, but will instead will have to open a box for a random game of chance.
The new Pokemon mod has a bunch of different loot boxes that you can purchase to get your hands on new creatures. The basic Poke Pack willgive you a weak, basic monster; Great Packs give you a Stage 1 Basic Monster; Ultra Packs give Stage 2 monsters, and more bespoke Packs give you themed creatures.
Of course, the “Master Pack” is here, and can be opened to get a guaranteed legendary creature. Come ooooon, Deoxys!
“There’s actually no way to get any Pokemon outside of packs of trading,” the modder told fans on Reddit. “I changed the code for Poke Balls and any instance where you receive a mon, so you’re kinda stuck opening these things until you get a good mon.”
Additionally, as with real loot boxes, the mod creator made it so that the game nickle-and-dimes players to even get a chance at gambling. A basic Poke Pack is 3,000 PokeDollars and an Ultra Pack is 8,000. In comparison, a single PokeBall price in Pokemon Emerald costs 200 PokeDollars.
“I did a play through and before Gym 5 while fighting everyone and selling everything the most you get per town is 2-5 of these packs(assuming you waste your money on only packs),” the modder explained. “Also it’s not common you get anything good from these by design so you’ll have to keep grinding them to get anything good, like real loot boxes!”
While the idea of real loot boxes in an actual Pokemon game is demonic, their addition into Emerald via this mod does make for a fun challenge mod. If you’re tired of Nuzlocking the Gen 3 games, this could be a fun new addition to your library of ROMs you play three hours of and never pick up again.
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