YMMV / Pokemon Emerald Kaizo

• Broken Base: Some people like the challenge and the ability to catch every Pokémon from the first three gens, others claim it's way too unfair even for a kaizo game.
  • Flannery is a very polarizing gym leader. Either you have a Pokemon that can sweep most of her team, or you do not and will lose multiple Pokemon in a difficult perma-sun battle to her.
• Demonic Spiders: Any Pokemon that uses recovery or status ailment stalls are bound to be this to players. A Shuckle with Protect, Toxic, and Rest comes to mind as one of the nastier examples of this.
• Even Better Sequel: Many considered Emerald Kaizo to be the strongest Sinister Hooded Figure Kaizo Pokemon romhack yet. Being brutally difficult yet tightly balanced, the game is beloved by the Hardcore Nuzlocke community.
• Goddamned Bats: When it comes to grinding, any wild Pokémon that knows fleeing moves such as Whirlwind, Roar, and Teleport are this.
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!: This is how a good chunk of players feel about the mod, in that while it accomplishes its goal in trolling players like kaizo games are meant to do, a lot of people feel like it’s not very fun to play due to being way too unfair, especially with the lack of EV training, the inability to use items in battle, and the fact that boss trainers have legendaries while you yourself are unable to obtain legendaries until the post-game.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Even among the fans that the game has, almost none of them defend the horrible experience that is grinding in this game. The encounter rate is extremely low; it can sometimes take nearly a minute to find a single Pokémon, and the wild Pokémon are always much lower level than what the next gym leader has. But it is necessary to grind in order to compete with the gym leaders. Grinding is considered so awful in this game that many players either make it a priority to grab a Sweet Scent user or hack in ultimate rare candies.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: The nightmarish difficulty of the game doesn't stop players from making it even harder, such as attempting a nuzlocke or monotype run of the game.
• That One Boss: Watson is one of the most notorious boss in Emerald Kaizo. For that point in the game, his Electric type team hits hard, fast, mostly have Thunder Wave, and have great coverage which got even worse since said coverage includes moves that covered his would be counters. This is particularly worse on Nuzlocke due to limited pool of pokemon you can use against him. For a lot of early game pool, Lanturn is basically required to even have a chance against Watson.
  • Of all the Trainer on the Pokemon League, its commonly agreed that Glacia is the most dangerous one especially on a Nuzlocke. With permanent rain that turns her otherwise Mighty Glacier team into Lightning Bruiser, 3 Action Bomb mons, and potential for freeze messing with you. Even worse she leads with a buffed Glalie. Under Rain, it effectively loses its fire weakness, and its intimidate significantly improves its ability to take physical hits, even from super effective hits. Glalie could then use that one turn to set up Spikes or use Explosion to set up her entire team to sweep with boosted water attacks. There is a reason many hold onto the one White Herb you get in the game for fighting that Glalie.
  • Any gym leader or Pokémon League member with legendaries on their team can end up being this. Steven for example has a Mewtwo and Deoxys.
• That One Level: Magma Hideout is generally considered by players to be the hardest section in the game. It comes with eighteen battles in permanent sunlight that cannot be overridden. Magma Grunts also commonly use items such as Quick Claw and Bright Powder to screw you over with RNG, which becomes infinitely more infuriating when dealing with buffed up fire types with Solar Beam and Explosion users everywhere.
  • In particular, there's one grunt who tends to spam high crit-rate moves and Ancient Power, ending with a Jumpluff who outspeeds everything and stalls with Substitute, Sleep Powder and Leech Seed.
  • The last battle with Maxie at the end is considered the hardest battle outside of the Elite Four, where his ace is a buffed Entei with moves such as Sacred Fire and Extreme Speed. It's also where some people end up choosing to use the one White Herb on his Tyranitar who has Intimidate. Many a nuzlocke have been decimated by this place.

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