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Pokémon Ruby (Vast Fame)

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This article is about the role-playing game by Vast Fame. For other games with a similar title, see Pokémon Ruby.

Pokémon Ruby (口袋怪獸 聖變石 in Chinese regions, 寵物小精靈 結晶塔之王 in Taiwanese regions) also known as Pocket Monster Ruby and Pokémon Pikecho, is a bootleg game for the Game Boy Color likely released around 2002, possibly 2003. Its title is taken from the then-recent Game Boy Advance game of the same name.

Overview[]

The game puts you in control of Ash Ketchum (Satoshi) (though not explicitly stated as being him) and has you traveling to each town and defeating its leader, much like in the traditional Pokémon games. Interestingly there are no wild battles or experience points, instead you start off with a full team of six early form monsters and collect rubies to evolve them into a higher form. Also worth noting is that you can evolve mons into almost any mon of the next evolutionary stage, meaning you can evolve a Bulbasaur into a Charmeleon or a Seadra. Some of the final evolutionary forms, along with legendary Pokémon, are early form Pokémon like Murkrow.

This game is also a major hack of a Digimon-themed RPG developed by Vast Fame, named Digimon Adventure Pocket. Aside from the new graphics and maps, the attack animations and how they work got changed and simplified to match Generation 2 Pokémon moves (only in Chinese releases; the English release still has Digimon Adventure Pocket's attacks). The Chinese releases also feature slightly revised music from Shi Kong Xing Shou but keeps the original's intro theme while the English version keeps Digimon Adventure Pocket's music.

Releases[]

This game received several variants in various parts of the world, most of them being language variants. The most commonly known version of the game (in English-speaking circles, at least) is the English version, named Pokémon Ruby on the box and cartridge, and Pocket Monster Ruby on the title screen, which was published by the company currently known as "New Game Color Advance" due to their Game Boy Color releases, including this game, using the aforementioned name as the side logo on their game boxes in place of the original Game Boy Color one. The (presumably original) Taiwanese release is named 寵物小精靈 結晶塔之王, which roughly translates to Pokémon: King of the Crystal Tower. Currently, no documentation on this version of the game exists and the game itself is exceedingly rare like most of Vast Fame's Game Boy Color games from 2002-2003. Mainland Chinese versions were also released by Kongfeng and Li Cheng, with the Kongfeng release being named Kou Dai Guai Shou: Sheng Bian Shi (口袋怪獸 聖變石). Another Chinese variant, named Digimon Emerald (數碼精靈 綠寶石), changes the name on the title screen and replaces Raichu with a Kyogre, although the "Pokemon Pikecho" border remains unaltered. The Chinese releases are also undumped, with the Li Cheng version currently only having a deprotected version from a generic pirate release in the early 2000s dumped, named Chong Wu Xiao Jing Ling: Jie Jin Ta Zhi Wang (宠物小精灵 结金塔之王).

Trivia[]

  • The song that plays in the intro is similar to the Japanese opening theme of the original Pokémon anime's first season.
  • The sprites and maps are pulled from Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal.
  • This is one of the rare cases of a bootleg game's title actually having meaning outside of tricking consumers. In this case, rubies are actual in-game items used to evolve your Pokémon.
  • Despite some versions of the game being named after the (then upcoming) Generation 3 Pokémon game of the same name, there are no Generation 3 Pokémon present in the game.
  • The English release of the game has alternate music, moves, and starter Pokémon. The main character's portrait is blue instead of red. The final boss can be challenged at the start of the game. These changes also appear in the hack 數碼精靈 綠寶石.

Gallery[]

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