Emerald, Region Free?

[RLRL]

Well the UK finally has an approximate release date for Emerald, October!
Taking this into consideration, I am thinking about Importing a copy so I can
play it over the summer...
However remembering problems I have had in the past with imported games I need to know first, will I still be able to transfer pokémon from my R/S/LG/C versions to my copy of Emerald?

[Lugiasian]

If it comes out in October, then Elliot might be screwed if he buys Emerald in Florida. XD

He's going in October, and the game itself comes out in October, so it might be best if he bought it in the UK. For one, there would be no worries about region restrictions, if any.

As for your question.....if you can transfer Japanese Pokemon to English games(as I think Gary said), then I'm pretty sure you can trade American Pokemon to British games. :p

One more thing: What's the C stand for? Crystal? =/

[Stonewall]

Nope, it stands for Colosseum.

Yeah, I agree wait for it to come out so you're SURE there won't be any transfer problems. If it was just a game you were gonna play in your gameboy, it would be fine becuase the gameboy is region free, HOWEVER since it links to other games (and so many other games) I wouldn't risk it because then you'd be out the price of Emerald. I'd wait. Or better yet, if you have a friend in the region you are importing from, or go there sometimes, borrow or rent a pokemon game from that region and try it out. If not, I would just wait. It's better to wait until it gets released rather than buying it, it doens't work or worse yet screwed up one or more games, and you're out all the money you paid on it PLUS you end up having to buy another one when it gets released near you.

[baratron]

I have European region Sapphire, Ruby, Fire Red and Pokemon Box, and US region Colosseum and Leaf Green. Have had no problems whatsoever in transferring pkmn between any of them.

Basically, no GBA games are region-locked, for the simple reason that people travel with their GameBoys. And, although Nintendo may be anal about not allowing people to buy games from the "wrong" region when they are at home, they actively want people to be able to buy games from other regions if they're travelling there with their GameBoys.

I'm currently trying to persuade one of my American friends to preorder Emerald for me, but failing that I'll just buy it on import. Probably be £38 from either of the two sources I know will definitely have legal copies. (PM me for details - don't want to post the names of the shops here and have Nintendo's legal team descend on them!).

[Gary Oak]

There is no problem communicating between GBA versions no matter what reigion they're from.

There have been reports of the Gamecube - GBA link not working when the reigions are different (IE: Sonic Advance 1 from America not working with a PAL SA2B), but they're not regular occurances. No more so than a memory card problem that wipes your card. You are warned this can happen with 3rd Party cards but it very rarely does. It's just the same risk when linking say, a Japanese FR to a PAL Colosseum.

Realistically, you'll not face any problems at all.

Mind you, if you import, you wont be able to get any pre-order goodies. Or, any stars for the NOE Stars Catalogue if you collect them.

I might pick up Emerald if a certain site i used often puts the US version into their catalogue. Other than that, I can wait. I wont have much time for playing it until the summer anyways.

[Yoshimitsu27]

If it comes out in October, then Elliot might be screwed if he buys Emerald in Florida. XD


I wont. I'll be getting it in America no matter what =-/ Things are cheaper over there *slaps the pound system*

[Gary Oak]

It's not the pound system that makes things cheaper over there. It's the companies. In fact what you'd spend £35 on to buy Emerald here, you'd be spending $40 to buy it there.

The conversion puts it under £35 when put back, but that's not because of the currency rates (which actually FAVOUR us) but rather the companies being evil to us.