Vs Heart and Soul · v1.0.9 · checked 2026-11-09
Heart and Soul is a different hack
Pokémon Heartfelt Gold and Pokémon Heart and Soul share a heart metaphor and a Johto setting. They are not the same file. One is a Nintendo DS patch of HeartGold by Trinsic64. The other is a Game Boy Advance hack of Emerald by Lil Dill, on v2.0.6 as of 16 September 2026.
The split that matters
| Heartfelt Gold | Heart and Soul | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Nintendo DS | Game Boy Advance |
| Base game | HeartGold | Emerald, pokeemerald-expansion |
| Author | Trinsic64 | Lil Dill |
| Version cited | v1.0.9 on 6 Nov 2026 | v2.0.6, marked completed, 16 Sep 2026 |
| First release I can date | 31 Oct 2026 | 26 Sep 2025 |
| What their pages emphasize | Retiled maps, static legendaries, Mega stones | Following Pokémon, day and night, rematches, difficulty and randomizer options |
| Save files | .nds / DS emulator | .gba / GBA emulator |
A Heartfelt Gold xdelta will not apply to an Emerald ROM. A Heart and Soul patch will not apply to HeartGold. If a download page offers an APK named like either hack, that file is not what either author lists.
Heart and Soul’s official documentation is the place for its feature list. I am not restating their randomizer options from memory. Their completed label is theirs; Heartfelt Gold’s author still calls v1.0.9 a work in progress.
Questions people ask
Can I use a Heart and Soul save here?
No. Different platform, different base ROM, different author.
Which one is on Delta’s GBA core?
Heart and Soul is the GBA hack. Heartfelt Gold needs an NDS core.
Who made Heart and Soul?
Lil Dill, according to the official Heart and Soul documentation.
Sources
Checked against the linked public pages on 2026-11-09. Multiple documents from the same publisher count as one source; a single-publisher claim is identified as such.
- Heart and Soul official documentation — checked 2026-11-09
- Independent Heart and Soul guide — checked 2026-11-09
- Heartfelt Gold readme — checked 2026-11-09
- Releases feed — checked 2026-11-09