Frontier Demo

In addition to its original region and storyline, Pokémon Voyager also has quite a few custom battle mechanics, battle types, and Battle Frontier facilities. This is a large undertaking for a small development team. In order to release incremental changes to our battle engine separately from the storyline, the Pokémon Voyager team has created a separate Frontier Demo patch for players to exercise the battle engine and provide incremental feedback on its quality and mechanics without waiting for the storyline to stabilize.

Here is a summary of the key systems that are being introduced in this demo (more details below):

  • Multi-ability system and beta demonstratation of ability cost constraint linear programming solution
  • Triple Battles
  • New Mega Infusion system
  • Z-Moves
  • Royale Battles
  • 3v1 battles
  • Custom Battle Frontier Facilities
  • Frontier Mode/Sandbox Menu
  • Gym Leader Gauntlet Challenge

Welcome

Gameplay

The Frontier Demo deploys you into the Entry Hub which is the central location for the demo. You will begin your challenge with a random team of six starter Pokémon. From the Entry Hub you can challenge Battle Frontier facilities to earn Frontier Coins, which you can use to acquire new Pokémon, obtain new items, or teach new moves and abilities. At any time you can also try your team against the Gym Leader Gauntlet Challenge, which we consider to be the "bosses" of the Frontier Demo.

For each challenge you will be able to bring your own party members, customize an entirely new party, or have one chosen for you at random (with the ability to customize further). You can turn on various randomizer settings for each challenge, or turn on a fixed-type challenge. Your last party on each battle mode (e.g. Singles, Doubles) will be saved and can be used on the same battle modes in other facilities. Note that you won't be able to turn on any randomizers when using your last party, and you won't be asked to save your last team if any randomizers are active, either.

Starter Pokémon Hub Menu

Battle Frontier

Pokémon Voyager's Battle Frontier includes several new battle types:

  • Triple Battles
  • Rotation Battles
  • 12v12 doubles and 18v18 triples partner modes (in the Battle Tower)
  • Battle Royale battles (1v1v1v1)
  • 3v1 Battles
  • SoS Battles
It also includes all of the facilities from Pokémon Emerald, including:
  • Battle Tower - Battle modes include:
    • 3v3 and 6v6 Singles and Doubles
    • 4v4 and 6v6 Triples and Rotation
    • 12v12 Doubles partner battles
    • 6v6 and 18v18 Triples partner battles
  • Battle Pyramid - Battle modes include:
    • Singles with 3 Pokémon
    • Doubles with 4 Pokémon
    • Triples with 4 Pokémon
  • Battle Factory - Battle modes include:
    • Singles with 3 Pokémon
    • Doubles with 4 Pokémon
    • Triples with 4 Pokémon
    • Rotation with 4 Pokémon
  • Battle Dome
  • Battle Pike
  • Battle Arena
  • Battle Palace
In addition to several new/custom facilities:
  • Battle Royale
    • King of the Hill Mode - 1v1v1v1 battle with the winner being the last trainer standing.
    • KO Mode - 1v1v1v1 battle with the winner whoever achieves the most number of knockouts. The battle ends when any trainer is out of usable Pokémon. The same as the facility in Generation VII.
    • 3v1 Mode - Survive with 1 Pokémon against 3 other trainers with 1 Pokémon each. You get a 50% boost to defenses as well.
  • Battle Arcade - At the start of each of the 5 trainer battles, a roulette wheel is spun to determine a random effect to apply to the battle scenario. Effects may include stat raises, stat drops, random statuses, random terrain or weather effects, and more!
  • Battle Satellite - This facility involves a 7-trainer challenge in a microgravity environment, introducing Pokémon Voyager's Microgravity Battles! Since these battles take place in a microgravity environment, each Pokémon floats on the screen, making them immune to ground type attacks. In addition, the microgravity environment atrophies the Pokémon, lowering their speed stat at the end of every turn.
  • Battle Barn - Battle wild Pokémon who will call for SoS allies any chance they get, with the allies getting increasingly-large stat boosts every 2nd call. The goal is to get the highest SoS chain you can. Defeating both Pokémon will end the battle.
  • Battle Library - Face off against a series of 4 trainers where each Pokémon has access to all of its learnable moves and abilities. You will choose the abilities at the start of each battle, but beware because each ability/move is only usable once throughout the entire challenge.
  • Battle Rink - Take a team of 3 Pokémon into a series of 8 procedurally-generated ice sliding puzzles! There will be an increasing number of trainers on each level that are generally placed close to the solution path, but not always. Since the maps are generated during run-time, there are some instances where the solution may be very easy or very hard! There may also be instances where you can get trapped, in which case you can press L+R from the start menu to restart the level. There will also be a Nurse Joy every 3rd floor to heal you if can slide your way to her!

There are also some key differences in the Pokémon Voyager Battle Frontier compared to the baseline games:

  • Battle Points/Frontier Coins are awarded even if you don't win the challenge. Instead, your award is proportional to the number of Pokémon you defeat and the specific battle mode, facility, and challenge tier.
  • Facility tiers are now independent of battle mode. So, for any given facility, beating tier 1 on one battle mode allows you to challenge tier 2 on all other battle modes, as well. Losing a challenge also does not reset your tier, although it does still reset your win streak.

Sandbox Menu Triple Battles Rotation Battles Royale Battles 18v18 Battles Battle Arcade Battle Library Battle Rink

Gym Leader Gauntlet Challenge

At any point in the demo you will be able to challenge the Gym Leader Gauntlet Challenge. This lets you take your current party into a separate challenge area where you will challenge each Pokémon Voyager gym leader in series. If you're able to defeat them all, your team will get entered into the Frontier Demo Hall of Fame! You can also purchase healing items in the entry hub to support your endeavor!

Gauntlet

How to Play

Pokémon Voyager is a ROM hack of Pokémon Emerald. To play, you will need a Game Boy Advance emulator — we recommend mGBA — and a legally obtained ROM of Pokémon Emerald 1.0. You can follow Voyager's patch file here. If you have a tool to patch ROM files that you are comfortable with, then use it to apply the Pokémon Voyager patch to Pokémon Emerald. If you don't, you may use Hack64's web patcher. Here, you can select your Pokémon Emerald file as ROM, the patch file as the patch, have the patcher apply the changes and download a playable Pokémon Voyager ROM.

Demo Title