The Pokemon games feature creative and often surprisingly complicated maps designed to offer players a wide variety of towns and biomes to explore--and Pokemon to catch. Each game offers its own map, which is dotted with interesting locations and puzzles that must be solved as the player advances through the game and gathers HM moves. Recently, a group of Pokemon fans developed a mod for Pokemon Emerald that randomizes the entire map, turning each new screen into an unpredictable adventure.
Redditor PointCrow shared the mod to Reddit and announced that, alongside XLuma, Turtleisaac, and AtSign, they had created a new type of Pokemon Randomizer that randomized every warp point in the game. This means that players using the mod could walk into a Pokemon Center and walk out in a random building, a cave, the location of an Elite Four member, or even run into a Legendary Pokemon like Ho-Oh.
PointCrow went on to note that the mod had made several changes to the base Pokemon Emerald game to make it easier to play with the randomized map, including Teleport and Fly being made available in every part of the game. This means that players are recommended to catch an Abra or a Raltz as soon as possible to ensure they don't get stuck somewhere they can't get out of. Although the mod is currently only available for Pokemon Emerald of Gen 3, the modders have announced intentions to make a Universal Map Randomizer for every generation of Pokemon. Reportedly, they're hard at work on one for Pokemon Platinum.
The mod also changes the accessibility of several locations. The caves that Gen 3's Regis are found in are permanently open, as is Mirage Tower, which usually appears and disappears under specific circumstances. A number of areas also have yet to be randomized in the current build, namely the Museum, Lilycove Harbor, and the Aqua/Terra Caves, though they may be randomized in the future. The modders have promised that patches will come in every Friday and be accompanied by a weekly changelog.
When one fan questioned whether the randomized Pokemon Emerald map would render the game unbeatable, PointCrow stated that they've tweaked the logic so that the game should always be possible to complete. In fact, players should hopefully still be able to beat the eight Gym Leaders and the Elite Four in order, meaning that the first Gym should hopefully not be blocked by something that needs Surf or Strength to get past and the Rock Smash HM shouldn't be behind a rock. Although some bugs may be present in this build, the modders have promised to be constantly updating it.