Pokémon Emerald walkthrough/Section 1

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Opening
As you boot up the game, you will be greeted by Professor Birch, and he will give the standard world of Pokémon speech. You will then be asked to choose your character's gender. Choose whichever you like, it does not make much of a difference on the storyline. The one you don't choose will end up as your rival. Birch will then ask for your name. You can enter up to seven characters, or pick one of the default names. You will then start off your journey.

After the intro, you will find yourself in a moving truck, which will take you to Littleroot Town.

Littleroot Town
Littleroot is a quaint town in southern Hoenn. Hoenn's region-exclusive professor, Professor Birch, has a laboratory in the town used for research on Pokémon. Males live on the left, females on the right.

As you step out of the truck, your mom will talk to you for a while. After some dialogue, both of you will enter the house, where Vigoroth are moving in furniture and stuff. Your mom will ask you to set the clock in your room upstairs; the time you enter will affect several events in the game. You can read the manual next to the PC if you wish; it explains how to save your game. Be sure to grab the Potion from the PC before leaving. Go downstairs, and your mom will want you to take a look at the TV. It's an interview with your dad at his gym, but you missed it.

Get out of your house now and go next door to your rival's house. Go upstairs and you'll see your rival. Your rival is the other main character of the other gender. That means if you chose to be a boy, the rival's a girl, and if you're a girl, the rival's a boy. After a brief speech, he/she will leave. Turns out Prof. Birch is her dad.

It is time to get your starter, so head on to Route 101.

Route 101
As you enter the route, you'll see Prof. Birch running around in circles, being chased by a Zigzagoon. The Zigzagoon corners him, and then you have to go and save him. He'll ask you to take a Pokémon from his bag. Press A against the bag, and you'll have to select your starter.

As soon as you pick your starter, a battle with the Zigzagoon will commence.

After the battle, Birch will take you back to his lab, and will allow you to keep the Pokemon you used earlier. Give it a nickname if you wish (ten characters maximum). He'll force you to go visit Brendan/May on Route 103, so he/she can teach you what it means to be a Pokemon Trainer.

In order to get to Route 103, you need to take Route 101 to Oldale Town. With ledges blocking the way, you must go through the tall grass to keep moving north. Pokémon can be battled, but not captured, seeing as you don't have any Poké Balls yet. It is possible to train if you wish to raise your level to at least 7 or 8 to make it easier to face Brendan/May.

Head over to Oldale Town.