Pokémon Emerald is definitely one of the best Pokémon games ever made, it’s not my favourite but it’s pretty damn good.
Personally I think Pokémon Platinum is better, but perhaps that’s a comparison for another time, anyway Emerald is good and it’s about to get even better thanks to a new remake.
Unfortunately it’s not being made by GameFreak or The Pokémon Company, the next game from that team is Pokémon Legends: Z-A releasing later this year
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No, this remake is being created by Pokémon fan undreamedpanic, who’s doing the very thing we’ve been begging The Pokémon Company to do for the last few years.
It’s a HD-2D remake that recreates the environments of the gaming to have more depth and life behind them, without going full 3D.
This ensures that the world of Pokémon Emerald looks better but doesn’t interfere with the sprites of the Pokémon, which I’ve always said look far better than the 3D models used in the modern games.
At the time of writing the remake isn’t complete but steady progress is being made, after all Pokémon Emerald is a massive game so it’s obviously going to take a while to update.
You can track the progress on undreamedpanic’s TikTok account thought of the same name, where updates are shared as well as gameplay of the exploration and Pokémon battles.
The HD-2D style has been used in several modern releases and remakes over the past few years, possibly the best example being the Octopath Traveler games which are a real treat to the eyes.
Why some of the early Pokémon games haven’t been remade in this style yet is beyond me, but you never know; perhaps it’ll happen one day.
Just goes to show though that 3D graphics aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, sometimes the old ways work better.
