Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh are two very different franchises, and yet when you bring them together, they work surprisingly well…
If you grew up on Pokémon Emerald for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, or Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories for the PlayStation, keep reading.
The aptly named Pokémon Forbidden Memories is an excellent ROMhack that’s worth a go if you’re looking for something new to play this week.
This was brought to our attention by Distinct_Shoulder536 on Reddit, and it was built from Pokémon Emerald. It’s basically a remake of Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories in the style of Pokémon. The characters, cards and story are the same, but you’ve got an open-world to explore and the simplified RPG mechanics that made the Nintendo series so popular.
Every ‘mon has been replaced by an iconic Yu-Gi-Oh monster, though you’ll only find monsters that were present in the Forbidden Memories game. That’s good if you prefer the OG formats, though, as many Yu-Gi-Oh fans do. The modern rules are so complicated if you only watched the first show!
Unlike other ROMhacks, this means there are no custom sprites, as the pictures of the monsters have been ripped straight out of Forbidden Memories.
They all play fine though, even if it’s a little jarring to summon monsters from a card deck in what looks like a Pokémon game.
Pairing nicely with this ROMhack is another for Forbidden Memories, this time replacing the traditional cards with Pokémon cards. There’s a ROMhack for everyone if you’re willing to look hard enough.
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All in all this is a fun way to re-experience Forbidden Memories, and in an alternate universe, we could have had loads of Yu-Gi-Oh games presented in this style had Pokémon not gotten to it first.
If you’re looking to go a step beyond, though, be sure to check out Yu-Gi-Oh POKeDUEL too. That one is for Pokémon FireRed and supports custom-made sprites of the monsters, so it feels a touch more authentic.
Don’t be a pirate!
Now, we of course have to warn you about the requirements for Pokémon Forbidden Memories. The fan-made add-on is free, but the game obviously isn’t.
To play it, you’ll need to combine it with a Pokémon Emerald ROM, and this should be from your own physical copy that you legally purchased, not downloaded from the internet.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done nowadays, as Pokémon Emerald is an incredibly popular game. In fact, most games from Gen III and IV are.
This means the second-hand market is more expensive than these games were at launch, so if you don’t own them now, you’re not going to get them cheap.
If you do have your physical copy though, and are tech-savvy enough to rip the ROM from it, you’re more than encouraged to try Pokémon Forbidden Memories, and all of the other ROMhacks if you’re enamoured with the idea of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh crossing over.
