5 Reasons Why You Should Play PokeMMO in 2023 (2024)

Do you remember when you first played Gold, Silver, or Crystal in Gen II games or HeartGold and SoulSilver in Gen IV games, and you later discovered a whole new region to explore after defeating the Lance and the Johto Elite Four? I first played Pokemon Crystal in Gen II games and was ecstatic when that happened. I was even more thrilled when I realized it was the Kanto region I explored back in Pokemon Red.

Back then, I honestly thought that regions from previous generations were accessible in the post-game of later generations. I was disappointed when I later realized that Ruby and Sapphire didn’t feature either Kanto or Johto. I wished for the same experience to happen again, and the closest we got is the remakes of Gen II in HeartGold and SoulSilver.

I only recently heard of and played PokeMMO last January 10 of this year, and I was frustrated that a 10-year-old Pokemon game went under my radar for several years. PokeMMO, as described by the developers, is a fancy emulator requiring Pokemon Black or White Rom to play. However, if you only have one of those Roms, you can only play in the Unova region. Other Roms from Generation III to Generation IV are optional for you to play the other Regions.

PokeMMO has everything I could ever wish for in a Pokemon game. After playing it for seven months, I can now recommend PokeMMO to my fellow Pokemon fans who want to scratch their itch to play older Pokemon games with unique content.

Are you tired of having to pay every time Game Freak releases a new Pokemon game? Or perhaps you cannot afford to buy the new Nintendo console to play the newly released Pokemon game. I got good news for you. PokeMMO is a free-to-play MMORPG. You don’t have to buy any console to play the latest PokeMMO content.

You only need a smartphone, a PC, or a laptop to serve as the console for the game and Pokemon roms, which you can download online or extract from your old game cartridges. Once you have set up your account and Pokemon roms into the PokeMMO client, you can play to your heart’s content without paying for newly released Pokemon games or DLCs like recent games.

Before playing PokeMMO, I played Dragon Nest and Path of Exile. I enjoyed the online aspect of those games, especially the online trade mechanics. I enjoyed playing the economy and earning currency by farming, crafting, and flipping items in those games and have been hoping that Gamefreak would make the same for Pokemon. After getting the fourth badge from the region you’ve started in, you can access the GTL and buy decent Pokemon and items to help you during your playthrough. I’m thankful that the developers implemented this in PokeMMO.

What I like about PokeMMO is the economy. It is well-balanced compared to other online games I played. It has many currency sinks that prevent the inflation of Pokeyen in the form of consuming parent Pokemon in breeding, GTL Listing fees, and consumable items such as Pokeballs, Amulet Coins, berries, consumable held items, etc., while having many ways to generate currency such as re-battling NPCs, Payday and using Pickup/Thief to farm items to sell in PokeMarts.

Recent Pokemon games have become easier over the years, and it’s clear from the outcry that Pokemon fans don’t want that. Game Freak includes mechanics that Pokemon fans don’t ask for or even want, such as the changes in the mechanics of Exp. Share. It went from sharing experience to Pokemon holding it to sharing it all with your party.

What makes it more frustrating is that GameFreak made the change that gives all Pokemon in your party to have half the experience instead of splitting it between Pokemon. This change forces you to over-level your Pokemon and play through the whole story without breaking a sweat. On top of that, most Elite Four, and Champions have underwhelming Pokemon teams and strategies, such as the Elite Four of Kalos, Gheeta, and Dianta, making it much easier to finish the game than earlier generations.

Gone are the good old days when Whitney crushed us with her Miltank or when Cynthia traumatized us with her Garchomp for the first time battling them. If you think these two trainers are hard, wait until you play the game. NPC trainer AI in PokeMMO is much more intelligent than the NPCs in the original games. Even if you can buy strong Pokemon with good IVs and nature, the Pokemon battles in-game will still give a challenge that no other original Pokemon game could provide.

Most NPC trainers’ Pokemon often have coverage moves, which usually counter their weaknesses. They sometimes even switch Pokemon in their party with a strong move against your Pokemon. They have changes in their Pokemon teams, especially the notable ones such as Gym Leaders, making it more challenging than it already is. PokeMMO also prevents you from over-leveling or using over-leveled Pokemon during the story run, which makes it even more difficult.

The developers have done a great job updating content, improving quality-of-life features, and balancing game mechanics and economy. They constantly update Pokemon base stats, abilities, and moves. Pidgeot, Pikachu, and many other Pokemon have updated base stats based on the stats in the latest original games. Grachomp doesn’t learn Swords Dance, and Hydreigon doesn’t learn Draco Meteor for PVP balance purposes due to the game not having Ubers.

Breeding mechanics has diverted from the original games to improve quality-of-life and balance the economy. Breeding in PokeMMO have deterministic factors, allowing you to breed Pokemon with selected IVs and natures at the cost of consuming the two parent Pokemons to serve as a currency sink and to preserve the GTL economy. Pokemon summaries have visible EV and IV stats for PVP competitive training transparency, and most Pokemon have access to powerful hidden abilities.

PokeMMO has Alpha Pokemon, which was recently included in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Alpha Pokemon has a guaranteed 2x 31 and hidden ability. You can EV train quickly with horde encounters which were non-existent in the older games until Pokemon X & Y. You can catch Pokemon you won’t find in the wild in the original games, such as Starter Pokemon, Togepi, Eevee, etc. You can also catch Pokemon from swarms, which sometimes feature rare Pokemon. There are many other things unique to PokeMMO, but for now, let’s move on to the next one on the list.

Having access to multiple regions in one game is the main reason why I started playing PokeMMO. The luxury of exploring four Regions (Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova) without switching games is one of the best experiences a Pokemon fan can have.

Over the years, PokeMMO has added more regions since its release in August 2012. It started from Kanto, then added more Regions such as Hoenn, Unova, and Sinnoh. What hypes me up in the coming weeks is that Johto will come soon to PokeMMO. It’s only a matter of time before we can play Johto in PokeMMO again since the Public Test Server last June 2023.

What I love about having multiple regions in one game is that you have a sense of progression. Even if you start again from another Region, you still have your Pokeyen, Pokemon, and Items, which you can use in other regions. After defeating the Champion of your first picked region, you can prepare Pokemon and items to use for your next playthrough in a different Region. You don’t have to transfer your Pokemon from one game to another.

In the original games, you need to transfer Pokemon from generation to generation through mechanics such as Pal Park, Pokemon Transfer, Pokemon Bank, and Pokemon Home so you can use your previous Pokemon in later generations. On top of that, you won’t have to pay anything to use your older Pokemon and play all Regions in PokeMMO, unlike buying new Pokemon games, paying for a Pokemon Bank/Home subscription, or paying for DLC expansions to play new content in the recent Pokemon games.

Overall, PokeMMO offers more than the original Pokemon game could provide. It fulfills the potential of what Pokemon could have been. It exceeds my expectations of what my ideal Pokemon game should be. This list is not enough to cover all the reasons to play PokeMMO. There are many other reasons I can think of, but that is for another story. With all that said, it is by no means perfect. It still has flaws, and one of those flaws could be a deal breaker for some players. Now that you read my story, would you give PokeMMO a try?

Thank you for reading up to this point. I hope you enjoy reading my story as much as I enjoy writing it. If you like my story, follow me on Medium for more stories about PokeMMO. You can support me by clicking the button below and buying me a coffee. I appreciate it. I wish you the best of luck in your PokeMMO journey.