#regius

I’ve been working hard on maps for my pokemon game! It takes place in a region called the Regius Archipelago, made up of a series of islands connected by open ocean.

Arid Island is the first island the player will visit, and it’s a sandy desert. Pictured above is the town portion of the island, shielded from the harsh sandstorms that batter the island’s interior. Pictured below is the inside of a typical house.

If you venture further into the island and trek through the desert, you’ll find the entrance to ancient ruins.

These maps are not final and I’m constantly updating them and adding new graphics to make the game look unique. Look out for more soon!

Here’s a secret about Pokemon Emerald you may not have known… there’s an unused ability in the game called Cacophony. It’s also present in the other Gen III games. It has no actual effect in battle, but its description is the same as Soundproof: it blocks sound-based moves. Presumably the Whismur family were supposed to have this ability, but instead they got Soundproof for some reason.

I’ve been rooting around in the source code of Pokemon Emerald for my new rom hack, and sure enough, the ability is defined right here at the bottom of the list, just before Air Lock:

And its description:

The only thing it’s missing is an actual effect in battle. And if that’s all I need to make the ability usable, well, why don’t I give it one? Besides, I have some new pokemon that would be a great fit for Cacophony.

So I dug into the labyrinthine nested if-statements and switch cases that control the various effects of abilities during battle, and simply copied the code for Soundproof. And… that’s it! Cacophony lives once more.