Development:Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Early Maps/Towns & Cities

This is a sub-page of Development:Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Early Maps.

Littleroot Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	316011_townのラベル表ver3.00.xlsx	Final

• The flowers are more sparsely distributed.
• The tilesets for the houses were slightly modified, as can be told by the window designs and the chimney on top of top of Professor Birch's Laboratory.
• Birch's lab was later moved a tile to the left.

Oldale Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

• All Poké Marts have red roofs in this file, very similar to the trailer and the earlier prerelease images.
• The roofs of the houses were redrawn for the final game and are no longer red.
• An extra tree was added at the bottom-right corner in the final.
• The flowers were rearranged.

Petalburg City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	Final

• Both the ponds are smaller compared to the later revision and final.
• The hedges behind the gym were removed.
• A few of the signs and flowers were repositioned.
• The house in the middle isn't connected to the path in the final, but it did get a few trees to compensate.
• The two NPCs blocking the path to the west seem to be unused, as in the final there's an NPC next to Wally's house that walks you to the Gym if you haven't met Wally yet.
• There's never a physical blocker preventing you from leaving in the final game.
• Oddly, that NPC does appear to be in the earliest map's .xls.

Rustboro City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

More red removal. The doors on the grey houses are all red in the old tileset, and the Trainer's School has a grey roof. The two- and three-story buildings in the lower half of the city were cut down in size, as was the building next to the Gym, with which it switched places for the final product. The Cut Master's house next to the Pokémon Center isn't marked with a sign. There's no fountain yet, but, possibly as a placeholder, there is a puddle, which is seen in the commercial. The Devon Corporation building is either blocked off by NPCs at this point, or NPCs are set to appear on those tiles.

Dewford Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

Dewford Town stayed relatively unchanged compared to most early maps. A few rocks were added and some trees were moved. The house in the lower-right has a sign out front that was removed for the final game.

The largest change is that the small wooded island north of Dewford was moved up to a cliff, preventing you from surfing to it. This is also seen in the pre-Festa commercial.

Slateport City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

Every important building was redrawn or touched up for the final game. Most obviously, Slateport City was the original location of the Weather Institute! It was moved to Route 119 and replaced with the Oceanic Museum, which then switched places with Stern's Shipyard for the final game. Speaking of the shipyard, there are only two boats outside instead of three. The lighthouse was moved down a bit, replacing the circular tile pattern that used to be there. Slateport Market has more stalls, a wider covering at its northern entrance, and is completely open to the east instead of having one small entrance. There's one more enterable house in the final game, and the Pokémon Center was moved over a bit. The house roofs weren't redrawn, but they did change colors from red to gray. The harbor building uses generic house graphics as a placeholder, and the actual dock area appears to be outside the building instead of inside. Finally, there's no covering over the north exit to the city.

Shared with Verdanturf, Fallarbor, and Lilycove is a completely different design for the Contest Hall, blue and domed with a large white ribbon decoration. In a shocking twist, it was made red for the final game.

Mauville City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls
ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit
ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24
Final

The houses use a rather blinding yellow and light pink color palette that was thankfully toned down for the final game. There's no fence splitting the city in two, meaning you can access the Game Corner (which uses placeholder graphics and has no sign out front) right away. Rydel's shop has a few changes; it switched locations with the display bicycles out front, which received new, much less crude-looking graphics. There's a house in the lower-right corner with chimneys and a sign out front that looks quite a bit like Professor Cozmo's house, which is missing from Fallarbor Town at this point. The Gym was moved up one tile, and a few decorative, non-enterable buildings were removed.

Lavaridge Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	Final

The hot springs are larger in the early version, pushing the Pokémon Center and Poké Mart to the right and the Gym down, and are completely surrounded by sand; the steps leading down into them are made of stone instead of wood. The house next to the Herb Shop is level with it in the final game, making the layout a bit neater. The Gym sign was moved left a tile to overlap the building in the final game, and some trees and flowers were added to beautify the town.

Fallabor Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

The houses were redrawn from the final game, and are no longer obviously wooden. The Poké Mart is located where Professor Cozmo's house is in the final version. Assuming Cozmo lived in Mauville at this stage in development, Fallarbor would have been just a tiny stopover town with no real attractions aside from the Contest Hall, which gained some decorative rocks outside for the final game.

Verdanturf Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

There's an extra sign and fence outside the Rusturf Tunnel in the final version, causing the Poké Mart to move over a bit. The houses use unique graphics in the final version, and a fence was added between Wanda's house and her neighbors. Besides that, there are few differences beyond the usual repositioning of signs and flowers.

Fortree City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

Fortree City is oddly one of the most finished maps in this file. There aren't any structural changes from final. A single tile was changed where a tree was removed in the the southwest portion. Of note is that there's no NPC blocking the way into Fortree Gym, which you would expect to appear if the invisible Kecleon counted. There is, however, an NPC directly to the side of the path, sitting where the top of the sign would be. Odd.

Lilycove City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls
ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit
ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24
Final

The biggest and most obvious difference is that the Department Store is instead a regular Poké Mart, located where the Pokémon Center is in the final version; one of the houses was moved next to the Center fill in some space once the Department Store was added. The fences, buildings, and paths all use unique graphics in the final version. The little cape with the beacon on it is larger in the final version, and the Cove Lily Motel is much smaller while the Contest Hall is much bigger. All of the trees went from 16x32 to full-size 32x32 trees. There's an additional set of stairs leading uphill in the early version, and because the Department Store has yet to be added, the art museum (which uses more primitive graphics) is a bit to the right of where it's found in the final game. The harbor displays the same changes as in Slateport. In the early map, it's possible to go down to the beach without climbing to the topmost level first; some one-way ledges prevent you from doing this in the final. The beach itself is similar, apart from some shrunken or removed sandbars and a slightly tweaked shoreline. Finally, the rock formation near the entrance to the Magma/Aqua Hideout got pushed over to the right a tile.

Mossdeep City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls
ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit
ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24
Final

The rocket launch site was reused in Pokémon Emerald.

Pacifidlog Town

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

The southeasternmost house was moved a bit north to make it not flush with its neighbor, and the driftwood path was moved to compensate. The northwestern house had its platform expanded a bit. This is the most complete thing found in any of the water routes, by the way.

Sootopolis City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	ME2 emerald\031017_2map\bmp\02_08_24	Final

• The houses have a sleek black tileset in the earliest map, instead of the final's unique domed structures. Additionally, the roofs of the finalized structures were changed from blue to black.
• The entrance to the Cave of Origin is more natural, with no arches around it and having a grassy area. Oddly, the remake has a grassy area in front of the Cave of Origin.
• The southwestern house used to only have a staircase up to it, in the final it's connected to the Pokemart.
• The fences just used the normal white fence instead of the yellow stone wall, which tracks with the entire cave tileset changing color in the final.

Ever Grande City

ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ 全マップ.xls	ポケモン_ﾙﾋﾞｰ･ｻﾌｧｲｱ \ マップラベル.sit	August 24, 2002 to Final

• The earliest map is the most unfinished out of the bunch, lacking in the hedges, unique graphics for the Pokémon League building and using the generic houses to form that building and "pillars" itself. The pillars would not be implemented in later maps.
• The pathway to the Pokémon League Building was also shorter, which also lacks unique graphics.
• There were NPCs present on the pathway, which are not present in the final.
• The hedges also extended to the second map, but were removed in later maps.
• The rocks at the bottom had little variance in design like other water routes.
• The flower and tree textures were different in the second early map.