Sounds a bit like Petit Cup from stadium. Gen IV had some odd rulesets available too, like Fancy Cup.
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RTTP: The Pokemon. All 721 of them, and counting.
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Sounds a bit like Petit Cup from stadium. Gen IV had some odd rulesets available too, like Fancy Cup.
Raven77
Member
I know this off topic but a little public service announcement. Target has Omega and Alpha on sale for 25 dollars each. You can price match them at Best Buy and they have a buy one get one 40% off going on. I was able to get Alpha and Omega for $43 total. Will be ebaying one of them for 35 later on.
Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Introduction to Generation III Pokemon
Hoenn's going to be the second biggest write-up next to Kanto. There are 141 individual Pokemon I'll be covering here---133 Pokemon introduced in Generation III, minus Azurill and Wynaut, and then eight more Pokemon introduced in Generation IV including two babies, five evolutions, and one Trio Master. Though Unova beats that out at 156 Pokemon, there are also 21 Mega Evolutions of Hoenn Pokemon to talk about, so ultimately Hoenn still wins out. And, well, I have a lot to say about many Hoenn Pokemon so this is going to be fun. Seriously, I've been waiting to get to Hoenn. Like with the Johto Pokemon, I'll take this moment to set the stage right, say "see ya!" to Johto, and get us ready for our journey to Hoenn. Rev up those trumpets!
I'll begin with my personal relationship with Ruby and Sapphire. The fact is, my first exposure to Ruby and Sapphire was pretty minimal. Now, I was still into Pokemon at the time, but around Crystal, which I skipped over, plenty of other franchises such as Digimon, Medabots, and especially Yu-Gi-Oh had caught my interest, and while I followed the news about all the new Pokemon being revealed for Ruby and Sapphire, I was rather limited when it came to funds as a child and most of my money went to buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards, so I actually skipped over Ruby and Sapphire when it was first released, though my little brother bought Ruby. A friend of mine had imported the Japanese version of Ruby a bit earlier, and he had let me borrowed it, but it seriously weirded me out. Part of that was, of course, everything being in Japanese, but the game just felt really off to me with the new graphical style and all these new Pokemon who just weirded me the fuck out. I remember feeling that same way when I looked at all the Johto Pokemon way back when Sandwich Islands released that importer's player's guide, but this was on a whole new level of weird. In particular, Makuhita and Seviper I recall being two examples of Pokemon who just looked really off to me and, to be honest, I was quite disappointed in the direction of the franchise. From what I played though, it was classic Pokemon in terms of the basic game, but everything else felt foreign---and not just because it was in Japanese.
Eventually though during the summer after the US release of Ruby and Sapphire, my brother let me play through his Ruby version and let's just say I instantly became hooked once more. Perhaps playing through the adventure in English helped things feel more familiar, because everything suddenly clicked and I found myself actually liking the new Pokemon. Ruby literally restored my love for Pokemon, and not only did it restore it, it took it to a whole new level of enjoyment as around that time I discovered the online community, started watching the anime in the original Japanese (subtitles were quite infrequent then but it was easy enough to follow, the first Japanese episode I watched was the one where Jessie captured Seviper), and began to slowly understand the more "complex" parts of the game such as breeding and stats that as a kid I never quite got. Junichi Masuda once said that Hoenn was inspired by the Kyushu region of Japan, his summer home, and if there's any game that gives me a feeling of summer when I play it, it's Ruby. I fondly remember spending time with my grandmother exploring Hoenn, and it was the first, and only, Regional PokeDex I ever completed. I believe the last Pokemon I got, excluding Deoxys, was Metagross after spending a long and grueling rainy day raising him up from a Beldum. When Emerald was released, I pre-ordered it since I didn't want to pass up a Pokemon adventure, and loved it immensely---still probably my favorite game of the series, and I remember I actually used Ash's Hoenn team during the main plot which was surprisingly fun.
But that's just my relationship with Ruby and Sapphire. The truth is that a lot of folks don't like Ruby and Sapphire---while Johto added a ton of new content to Kanto, and brought back Kanto, Hoenn removed features, Day-and-Night and a second region being the most egregious, and felt almost like a different series on the surface though simultaneously felt too familiar beneath the new coat-of-paint. Personally it bugs me when people focus on what Hoenn removed, and don't focus on what it added, because I don't think it's fair to call Game Freak lazy with Ruby and Sapphire because it was probably, and arguably still is, the biggest overhaul they ever performed on the series until Generation VI with a new graphical engine, and a completely redone mechanical system that from my understanding was basically built from the ground-up. And I also believe this was a necessity, as there was incompatibility issues between the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance, so, well, say what you will about how Game Freak handled ORAS, but Ruby and Sapphire certainly had a lot of effort put into it, though I can see why some fans dislike it. Though it seems many folks have warmed up to it in recent years.
The biggest issue with the Hoenn Pokemon pretty much falls in-line with the above, as while the Johto Pokemon did not monopolize the spotlight in Gold and Silver, sitting back and letting the Kanto Pokemon take the spotlight once more, with Ruby and Sapphire the Hoenn Pokemon were pushed to the forefront and could not be ignored. While Ruby and Sapphire did have a decent amount of classic options still available, including some like Tentacool and Zubat who probably should've sat this one out, and the Regional Dex was actually about as varied as Johto's and far superior to Diamond and Pearl's, a ton of old Pokemon were completely missing. And not only missing from the main adventure, they weren't available period at first when Ruby and Sapphire released leading to a lot of fear and anxiety about the fate of the classics. I think this led to a lot of resentment towards the Hoenn Pokemon, and also a feeling that many of them were meant to "replace" the classics, though this has died down in recent years as both classic and new now co-exist peacefully, and also likely because the Unova Pokemon took that "counterpart" idea even further making Hoenn look modest in comparison.
I got to say, while Game Freak dividing all 386 Pokemon between R/S/E, FR/LG, Colosseum and XD definitely felt like the first obvious money-grab, each game was a pretty substantial and fun adventure and I actually enjoyed having to work to "Catch 'Em All!". I don't think any Generation after has quite captured the accomplishment of completing the National Dex like Generation III, as by Generation IV collecting all the Pokemon for the most part simply became going online and requesting folks to breed them for you as opposed to having to play through different games and catch them yourself---some might disagree with me, but Generation III was probably the funnest time to be a Pokemon fan even though the Pokemon "fad" had greatly calmed down and was possibly at an all-time low, I think those who stuck with the franchise during this time really had a blast.
Hoenn's Pokemon are a pretty eccentric bunch, as the first Pokemon game in full-color and taking place in a tropical biome, Game Freak didn't miss the chance to give us some of the most colorful and vibrant Pokemon---though this is seen as a flaw by many due to quite a substantial amount of Generation III Pokemon looking quite garish, and having rather odd and pointless markings covering their body. Remember my criticism of various Generation II Pokemon for randomly switching their color-scheme throughout their evolution? Well, it reached its peak in Generation III. Though Pokemon had reached the level of a global phenomenon, Game Freak didn't shy away from having Pokemon influenced by obscure Japanese cultural still pop up, and a lot of Hoenn Pokemon are based on pretty odd and unique concepts that likely left a lot of fans scratching their head, though this makes them extremely fun to talk about. It's actually this weirdness that makes me enjoy Hoenn so much, and, well, I absolutely love the Hoenn Pokemon---though of course my job here isn't to mindlessly praise or bash Pokemon, but try and talk about them in a fair manner, so I'll have to focus on the flaws here as well.
To finish things up, Hoenn is really chaotic when it comes to talking about the Pokemon because while Kanto mainly had full families, and Johto had a lot of single-stage Pokemon, Hoenn is oddly in the middle---it has a heft amount of full families, but it also has the most single-stage Pokemon of any Generation so I'll really be bouncing back and forth here. The best thing about Hoenn though is the variety as it introduced a lot of cool new Type combinations, and also gave a boost to the previously underutilized Ghost, Dragon, Dark, and Steel Types, so overall I thought the Pokemon themselves brought a lot to the franchise. And then there were Abilities, easily the best thing Ruby and Sapphire introduced, not only from a gameplay point of view, but also from a lore point of view as it helped make a lot of Pokemon feel unique and contributed to making them feel more fully-formed. A lot of now standard Abilities were introduced here, and I'll be paying particular focus to the Hoenn Pokemon who helped introduce them into the fold. So without ado, look forward to coverage of the Hoenn Starters next time!
Hoenn's going to be the second biggest write-up next to Kanto. There are 141 individual Pokemon I'll be covering here---133 Pokemon introduced in Generation III, minus Azurill and Wynaut, and then eight more Pokemon introduced in Generation IV including two babies, five evolutions, and one Trio Master. Though Unova beats that out at 156 Pokemon, there are also 21 Mega Evolutions of Hoenn Pokemon to talk about, so ultimately Hoenn still wins out. And, well, I have a lot to say about many Hoenn Pokemon so this is going to be fun. Seriously, I've been waiting to get to Hoenn. Like with the Johto Pokemon, I'll take this moment to set the stage right, say "see ya!" to Johto, and get us ready for our journey to Hoenn. Rev up those trumpets!
I'll begin with my personal relationship with Ruby and Sapphire. The fact is, my first exposure to Ruby and Sapphire was pretty minimal. Now, I was still into Pokemon at the time, but around Crystal, which I skipped over, plenty of other franchises such as Digimon, Medabots, and especially Yu-Gi-Oh had caught my interest, and while I followed the news about all the new Pokemon being revealed for Ruby and Sapphire, I was rather limited when it came to funds as a child and most of my money went to buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards, so I actually skipped over Ruby and Sapphire when it was first released, though my little brother bought Ruby. A friend of mine had imported the Japanese version of Ruby a bit earlier, and he had let me borrowed it, but it seriously weirded me out. Part of that was, of course, everything being in Japanese, but the game just felt really off to me with the new graphical style and all these new Pokemon who just weirded me the fuck out. I remember feeling that same way when I looked at all the Johto Pokemon way back when Sandwich Islands released that importer's player's guide, but this was on a whole new level of weird. In particular, Makuhita and Seviper I recall being two examples of Pokemon who just looked really off to me and, to be honest, I was quite disappointed in the direction of the franchise. From what I played though, it was classic Pokemon in terms of the basic game, but everything else felt foreign---and not just because it was in Japanese.
Eventually though during the summer after the US release of Ruby and Sapphire, my brother let me play through his Ruby version and let's just say I instantly became hooked once more. Perhaps playing through the adventure in English helped things feel more familiar, because everything suddenly clicked and I found myself actually liking the new Pokemon. Ruby literally restored my love for Pokemon, and not only did it restore it, it took it to a whole new level of enjoyment as around that time I discovered the online community, started watching the anime in the original Japanese (subtitles were quite infrequent then but it was easy enough to follow, the first Japanese episode I watched was the one where Jessie captured Seviper), and began to slowly understand the more "complex" parts of the game such as breeding and stats that as a kid I never quite got. Junichi Masuda once said that Hoenn was inspired by the Kyushu region of Japan, his summer home, and if there's any game that gives me a feeling of summer when I play it, it's Ruby. I fondly remember spending time with my grandmother exploring Hoenn, and it was the first, and only, Regional PokeDex I ever completed. I believe the last Pokemon I got, excluding Deoxys, was Metagross after spending a long and grueling rainy day raising him up from a Beldum. When Emerald was released, I pre-ordered it since I didn't want to pass up a Pokemon adventure, and loved it immensely---still probably my favorite game of the series, and I remember I actually used Ash's Hoenn team during the main plot which was surprisingly fun.
But that's just my relationship with Ruby and Sapphire. The truth is that a lot of folks don't like Ruby and Sapphire---while Johto added a ton of new content to Kanto, and brought back Kanto, Hoenn removed features, Day-and-Night and a second region being the most egregious, and felt almost like a different series on the surface though simultaneously felt too familiar beneath the new coat-of-paint. Personally it bugs me when people focus on what Hoenn removed, and don't focus on what it added, because I don't think it's fair to call Game Freak lazy with Ruby and Sapphire because it was probably, and arguably still is, the biggest overhaul they ever performed on the series until Generation VI with a new graphical engine, and a completely redone mechanical system that from my understanding was basically built from the ground-up. And I also believe this was a necessity, as there was incompatibility issues between the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance, so, well, say what you will about how Game Freak handled ORAS, but Ruby and Sapphire certainly had a lot of effort put into it, though I can see why some fans dislike it. Though it seems many folks have warmed up to it in recent years.
The biggest issue with the Hoenn Pokemon pretty much falls in-line with the above, as while the Johto Pokemon did not monopolize the spotlight in Gold and Silver, sitting back and letting the Kanto Pokemon take the spotlight once more, with Ruby and Sapphire the Hoenn Pokemon were pushed to the forefront and could not be ignored. While Ruby and Sapphire did have a decent amount of classic options still available, including some like Tentacool and Zubat who probably should've sat this one out, and the Regional Dex was actually about as varied as Johto's and far superior to Diamond and Pearl's, a ton of old Pokemon were completely missing. And not only missing from the main adventure, they weren't available period at first when Ruby and Sapphire released leading to a lot of fear and anxiety about the fate of the classics. I think this led to a lot of resentment towards the Hoenn Pokemon, and also a feeling that many of them were meant to "replace" the classics, though this has died down in recent years as both classic and new now co-exist peacefully, and also likely because the Unova Pokemon took that "counterpart" idea even further making Hoenn look modest in comparison.
I got to say, while Game Freak dividing all 386 Pokemon between R/S/E, FR/LG, Colosseum and XD definitely felt like the first obvious money-grab, each game was a pretty substantial and fun adventure and I actually enjoyed having to work to "Catch 'Em All!". I don't think any Generation after has quite captured the accomplishment of completing the National Dex like Generation III, as by Generation IV collecting all the Pokemon for the most part simply became going online and requesting folks to breed them for you as opposed to having to play through different games and catch them yourself---some might disagree with me, but Generation III was probably the funnest time to be a Pokemon fan even though the Pokemon "fad" had greatly calmed down and was possibly at an all-time low, I think those who stuck with the franchise during this time really had a blast.
Hoenn's Pokemon are a pretty eccentric bunch, as the first Pokemon game in full-color and taking place in a tropical biome, Game Freak didn't miss the chance to give us some of the most colorful and vibrant Pokemon---though this is seen as a flaw by many due to quite a substantial amount of Generation III Pokemon looking quite garish, and having rather odd and pointless markings covering their body. Remember my criticism of various Generation II Pokemon for randomly switching their color-scheme throughout their evolution? Well, it reached its peak in Generation III. Though Pokemon had reached the level of a global phenomenon, Game Freak didn't shy away from having Pokemon influenced by obscure Japanese cultural still pop up, and a lot of Hoenn Pokemon are based on pretty odd and unique concepts that likely left a lot of fans scratching their head, though this makes them extremely fun to talk about. It's actually this weirdness that makes me enjoy Hoenn so much, and, well, I absolutely love the Hoenn Pokemon---though of course my job here isn't to mindlessly praise or bash Pokemon, but try and talk about them in a fair manner, so I'll have to focus on the flaws here as well.
To finish things up, Hoenn is really chaotic when it comes to talking about the Pokemon because while Kanto mainly had full families, and Johto had a lot of single-stage Pokemon, Hoenn is oddly in the middle---it has a heft amount of full families, but it also has the most single-stage Pokemon of any Generation so I'll really be bouncing back and forth here. The best thing about Hoenn though is the variety as it introduced a lot of cool new Type combinations, and also gave a boost to the previously underutilized Ghost, Dragon, Dark, and Steel Types, so overall I thought the Pokemon themselves brought a lot to the franchise. And then there were Abilities, easily the best thing Ruby and Sapphire introduced, not only from a gameplay point of view, but also from a lore point of view as it helped make a lot of Pokemon feel unique and contributed to making them feel more fully-formed. A lot of now standard Abilities were introduced here, and I'll be paying particular focus to the Hoenn Pokemon who helped introduce them into the fold. So without ado, look forward to coverage of the Hoenn Starters next time!
They do eventually.
Every single one (except Meloetta...so far) has been given over the Internet at one point or another.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Yassss Hoenn. Gulpin is within sight.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Wait, Meloetta isn't available for some odd reason?!
balladofwindfishes
Member
Gen III was a pretty huge change for game mechanics. Abilities, natures, a new EV system, and a new IV system. And Double Battles, which have been adopted as the official battle mode for all tournaments.
Personality values meant genders and shinies didn't have set stats. Pokemon remembered the region they were caught in, and a lot of interesting data was now being stored in the Pokemon's files, including detailed hereditary information.
By the end of the generation, we'd see the Run Button added (a much needed feature), items that influence breeding, and abilities that have special out of battle effects.
This generation also saw the first wide spread use of battle simulators, with Netbattle being a massive part of the Pokemon community back then. So much so, Nintendo reps themselves would discuss it with fans at tournaments and it served as a fantastic team building and training tool in an age when training and battling was as time consuming as ever. Think up a team, design it using the convenient GUI, join a server and practice with it. If it worked out, then start building the team on the game. If it didn't, then no harm done, and no real time investment lost. I made a lot of friends via Netbattle and learned a ton about Pokemon back then. Mostly that's why most of my competitive knowledge is pretty much 100% from the Third Gen.
Gen III was also the only generation to have a console RPG (two actually). And they were pretty great, with charming characters, a decent world, a decent story, and Mirror B. Even if they were just glorified ways to sell Johto Pokemon, lol.
Gen III was an interesting Gen for me, because I was sort of getting out of Pokemon, and Ruby brought me back in after quite a few years out of the game. I didn't pick up Ruby until a few months before Fire Red came out, mostly because my cousin had Sapphire and I wanted to play with him. Ruby is actually one of my most played video games ever, with 1,000 hours logged. I have NO IDEA how I got that much time spent in the game, because the only other games that even come close are games I've been playing for years longer than I played Ruby. I'm pretty sure there must have been a point where I left the game on, but charging for a week or more.
Personality values meant genders and shinies didn't have set stats. Pokemon remembered the region they were caught in, and a lot of interesting data was now being stored in the Pokemon's files, including detailed hereditary information.
By the end of the generation, we'd see the Run Button added (a much needed feature), items that influence breeding, and abilities that have special out of battle effects.
This generation also saw the first wide spread use of battle simulators, with Netbattle being a massive part of the Pokemon community back then. So much so, Nintendo reps themselves would discuss it with fans at tournaments and it served as a fantastic team building and training tool in an age when training and battling was as time consuming as ever. Think up a team, design it using the convenient GUI, join a server and practice with it. If it worked out, then start building the team on the game. If it didn't, then no harm done, and no real time investment lost. I made a lot of friends via Netbattle and learned a ton about Pokemon back then. Mostly that's why most of my competitive knowledge is pretty much 100% from the Third Gen.
Gen III was also the only generation to have a console RPG (two actually). And they were pretty great, with charming characters, a decent world, a decent story, and Mirror B. Even if they were just glorified ways to sell Johto Pokemon, lol.
Gen III was an interesting Gen for me, because I was sort of getting out of Pokemon, and Ruby brought me back in after quite a few years out of the game. I didn't pick up Ruby until a few months before Fire Red came out, mostly because my cousin had Sapphire and I wanted to play with him. Ruby is actually one of my most played video games ever, with 1,000 hours logged. I have NO IDEA how I got that much time spent in the game, because the only other games that even come close are games I've been playing for years longer than I played Ruby. I'm pretty sure there must have been a point where I left the game on, but charging for a week or more.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Gold was my first Gameboy Color game, but Sapphire was the definitive GBA game for me and remains for me (along with Emerald) the definitive Pokemon experience. I've played every game since then, and greatly enjoyed them, but perhaps that's why I haven't bought OR/AS: because I don't want to play them and have the "oh this is pretty fun" reaction I've gotten from both BW and XY. I sort of want Sapphire to remain this pristine thing in my memory. I have such tactile memories of that game, of sliding the cartridge into the slot, or the way it felt to sit on my friends crappy couch during a sleepover and clutch a GBA until like 2am
Not75Drops
Member
.
For what it's worth, outside of the better QoL features we get with each gen, I think Emerald is still a better singleplayer game than ORAS
drtomoe123
Member
Being a Pokémon fan during Gen III was a lonely, lonely time.
balladofwindfishes
Member
It certainly was an awkward time for those of us who had left Gen II with Middle School, and Gen III was now with us in high school. Well... almost High School, I was in 8th grade when I got Ruby.
Netbattle really was the best for this. With nobody around to play Pokemon with, at least there was a way to battle people for fun and practice.
I could never get into the simulators that came after (Shoddy and then Showdown). I think it was just the right place at the right time in my life.
TriggerShy
Member
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
For me it was Gen III in middle school and IV in high-school. Despite the ubiquity of DS's in high school and the popularity of D/P those are the games I honestly have the least memory of. I remember my brother and I spending two hours with our two copies to give ourselves every starter when we first got them home and...uhm...that Purrugly is a dumb design and that's literally it. I could not tell you the plot, the gyms, any of the cities or routes or anything else. Its weird how much of a void that is in my memory
Gen 2 was middle school for me, and Gen 3 was high school. I actually had a pretty decent core group of people to play R/S with so there was a ton of link battling/trading done that gen for me.
Gen 4 was in college and EVERYONE around me had it and DS's. It was like a renaissance, lol.
Gen 4 was in college and EVERYONE around me had it and DS's. It was like a renaissance, lol.
balladofwindfishes
Member
I have barely any recollection of Diamond or Sinnoh, other than a couple of areas like where the Daycare was and the snowy area.
I guess that region just wasn't particularly memorable.
The 4th gen Pokemon are great though.
I guess that region just wasn't particularly memorable.
The 4th gen Pokemon are great though.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Also it is craaaaaazy looking up the sales numbers and realizing how stable this franchise remains. Nothing quite reached the heights of RBY or GS, but ever since gen III the sales performance is incredibly consistent. III, IV, V and VI all consistently sell between 14 and 18 million copies and the remakes almost always do basically 12 million units themselves
drtomoe123
Member
Same here! I was one of the few kids around who stuck with the games after GSC. I was a pretty nerdy kid at the time, so I got the occasional shit for still playing haha.
I put so much time into making a competitive team by EV training, breeding, and grinding through Colosseum to end up never getting to use it. When FR/LG came out, I'd wander around the mall hoping that some other kid was frantically walking around with a wireless adapter too. I definitely spent a ton of time in Netbattle, too. Weird times.
By the time I got to college, D&P had just come out and Pokémon had started to become this cool retro/nostalgia thing. And now all those kids who had given me shit back in high school are playing again, go figure.
balladofwindfishes
Member
Soul Silver in college was the first time I had fought someone in a real Pokemon game in about a decade
It was kind of refreshing.
It was kind of refreshing.
The series is certainly a powerhouse.
Gen III is an odd duck. A lot of the Pokemon introduced in this generation were really... Weird. In both good and bad ways. There was also a significant stylistic change with Gen III with the bright colors and more detailed designs.
The bright color palette is probably my favorite thing about the generation. Everything is really vibrant, especially after the earthy colors of Gen I and pastels of Gen II.
The bright color palette is probably my favorite thing about the generation. Everything is really vibrant, especially after the earthy colors of Gen I and pastels of Gen II.
Fuck yea Hoenn. My second favorite region/Gen. Bring on the trumpets
Back in the day I was quite young and didn't follow video game news as much as I do now, I also didn't have internet at the time. I knew about some vague details about Pokémon Advance I read from the occasional VG magazine. Then one day one of my classmates was like "Dude have you seen the new Pokémon commercial? It got like a red Tyranitar in it and a more badass looking Mantine". Couldn't wait to get home that day to turn on the TV and wait for that ad. My hype went into overdrive after watching that ad. Loved the legendary designs. I bought Ruby day 1 and even buggered my brother who isn't really into Pokémon to buy Sapphire and play it alongside me. Was cool exploring an all new Pokémon game with tons of new, unknown Pokémon alongside my brother. Those were the days.
I actually really like the trumpets
I think this was done since the GBA could display more colors and had a higher pixel count. Also the tropical setting was likely another reason why bright clean colors were chosen. Oddly enough it took away the day and night cycle while still retaining an internal clock for berry growth. That was a step back honestly.
balladofwindfishes
Member
And that clock meant we got the first patch for a Pokemon game! And the last patch for a Pokemon game until X/Y a decade later.
Contests should have developed a meta. They were fun, but nobody ever wanted to do them with me, and there wasn't any online simulator for contests.
Contests should have developed a meta. They were fun, but nobody ever wanted to do them with me, and there wasn't any online simulator for contests.
Also want to point out Gen 3 really pointed the problem HM system more so than 1 or 2. A large portion of the region was water and a lot of the routes had obstacles which needed detours even after getting past them so you always needed a pokemon with Surf and/or Fly at all times which compromised your team.
The Hoenn Gym Leader battle theme is the best gym leader battle theme and one of the best battle themes in Pokemon. It's just glorious.
Especially the Colosseum remix.
And then Sinnoh's Victory Road was even worse.
Especially the Colosseum remix.
Hoenn's Victory Road is horrible because of this.
And then Sinnoh's Victory Road was even worse.
And the fun oddity of being able to permanently get stuck in sootopolis IIRC.
Kind of, I think you could fish a pokemon then teach it Surf and Dive to get out. Could be wrong though.
Dark Orchid
Member
I think the most jarring thing about the Hoenn Pokemon, to me, was that the sprites were much less rigid than they had previously been. Even in the days of Red and Blue when they appeared to be made of clay left out in an elementary school that had just watched Godzilla, they still had a certain solidity to them. I can remember my younger brain saying most of the new Pokemon looked like X Parasites from Metroid Fusion, which I guess makes sense a bit. They're all pretty rounded, even on the points that jut out.
First experience with Hoenn was seeing screenshots in Nintendo Power around 2002, probably from the demo which had been at Spaceworld that year (fun fact: the map from that along with most of the text still exists in the final game, parts of it even survived the transfer to Emerald but not as much). It was also around this time that I was starting to expand more into the internet, going to fansites such as Pokemon Elite 2000, Pokefor.tk, Pkmn.co.uk, and Serebii.net. Each of them was talking all about these new games but not providing many screenshots of it due to most of the world still being stuck on 56k and emulation of GBA games not being quite there yet. Still being pretty young, my mind began to fill in the blanks of what this game actually looked like and what happened during it, which is unfortunately why I don't think I enjoyed it as much. I was super hyped for the games, though, and had printed off entire sprite sheets to carry around wherever I went.
Personally, I think the beginning of R/S is the strongest in the series. I have no idea why, but I feel going from Littleroot all the way back to Petalburg to fight your father really made the region and story feel whole. It's possible that it reminded me of finally getting back to Viridian in Gen 1, but it worked even better here. Instead of feeling like "Wow, now there's 3 more badges and the Elite 4 still!" after beating Norman, however, it felt more like "Ugh, there's 3 more badges and the Elite 4 still..." Now, nothing against Winona, but honestly this is the point where I just stop playing the most on replays. The Pokemon after this point start repeating too, minus some cool single-stages, the ghosts, and most of the returning Pokemon dumped into one area. It just makes you feel like it should have ended a while back. Then they don't even give the rival their final starter and uuuugggghhhhhh...
Also, the villain plot was laughable even for Pokemon. I know, taking down the mob analogue as a ten year old wasn't the most realistic, but what kind of IDIOT would go "Yeah, this plan to remove water sounds great! LET'S PUT ON HOODIES AND DRAIN THE OCEANS!" Pokemon has never had the smartest villains (Ghetsis revealing his true motives every speech with a slip of the tongue) but even as a twelve year-old I was just so baffled that any adult could think removing all land or water was a good idea.
So I guess, I do enjoy Hoenn, but it's a very flawed generation. I don't think I'd have it any other way, though. This was the generation where a lot of changes happened at Game Freak, and I respect them for trying everything and anything to keep the series from becoming stale. The changes to a more focused stat system helped, double battles remain strategically interesting (although I don't agree with their complete replacement of competitive singles), and as stated by others, the multi-year quest to finish the Pokedex was the most rewarding even if it did feel like a pathetic cash-grab. I just wish some more effort had been placed on the second half and they hired a better writer, really. Kids are a lot more capable of understanding and enjoying stories than most adults think, and I hate that "it's a kid's game" gets used to explain the lack of depth to mechanics or plot.
First experience with Hoenn was seeing screenshots in Nintendo Power around 2002, probably from the demo which had been at Spaceworld that year (fun fact: the map from that along with most of the text still exists in the final game, parts of it even survived the transfer to Emerald but not as much). It was also around this time that I was starting to expand more into the internet, going to fansites such as Pokemon Elite 2000, Pokefor.tk, Pkmn.co.uk, and Serebii.net. Each of them was talking all about these new games but not providing many screenshots of it due to most of the world still being stuck on 56k and emulation of GBA games not being quite there yet. Still being pretty young, my mind began to fill in the blanks of what this game actually looked like and what happened during it, which is unfortunately why I don't think I enjoyed it as much. I was super hyped for the games, though, and had printed off entire sprite sheets to carry around wherever I went.
Personally, I think the beginning of R/S is the strongest in the series. I have no idea why, but I feel going from Littleroot all the way back to Petalburg to fight your father really made the region and story feel whole. It's possible that it reminded me of finally getting back to Viridian in Gen 1, but it worked even better here. Instead of feeling like "Wow, now there's 3 more badges and the Elite 4 still!" after beating Norman, however, it felt more like "Ugh, there's 3 more badges and the Elite 4 still..." Now, nothing against Winona, but honestly this is the point where I just stop playing the most on replays. The Pokemon after this point start repeating too, minus some cool single-stages, the ghosts, and most of the returning Pokemon dumped into one area. It just makes you feel like it should have ended a while back. Then they don't even give the rival their final starter and uuuugggghhhhhh...
Also, the villain plot was laughable even for Pokemon. I know, taking down the mob analogue as a ten year old wasn't the most realistic, but what kind of IDIOT would go "Yeah, this plan to remove water sounds great! LET'S PUT ON HOODIES AND DRAIN THE OCEANS!" Pokemon has never had the smartest villains (Ghetsis revealing his true motives every speech with a slip of the tongue) but even as a twelve year-old I was just so baffled that any adult could think removing all land or water was a good idea.
So I guess, I do enjoy Hoenn, but it's a very flawed generation. I don't think I'd have it any other way, though. This was the generation where a lot of changes happened at Game Freak, and I respect them for trying everything and anything to keep the series from becoming stale. The changes to a more focused stat system helped, double battles remain strategically interesting (although I don't agree with their complete replacement of competitive singles), and as stated by others, the multi-year quest to finish the Pokedex was the most rewarding even if it did feel like a pathetic cash-grab. I just wish some more effort had been placed on the second half and they hired a better writer, really. Kids are a lot more capable of understanding and enjoying stories than most adults think, and I hate that "it's a kid's game" gets used to explain the lack of depth to mechanics or plot.
NotDreamcast
Member
Nah your right but since the fishing rods are optional...
Gotta say I love the remix they did for route 113 in ORAS
Too bad soot is more of a pain to get now though.
Edit: Sea mauvile was so...strange and dark lol. Not something I'd expect in a Pokemon game.
balladofwindfishes
Member
Mommy sure does seem to like hanging out with her friend a lot while Daddy's away.
Honestly, as someone who played R/S in college, it was entirely forgettable. The only things I remember from the single-player were the blaring horns, the parts where you had to dive underwater all the time and the Saturday morning cartoon villains. None of these are positive.
Gen III is really the generation that struck a cord with me. Lots of people dropped of playing the series, declaring it to be a 'fad' more so than at any point I can recall. Maybe it was an age thing, or an insecurity thing, I don't know. But because of that, R/S became one of my favorites.
well there is the problem
No wonder his dad never came home.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Also I was into the Ralts line long before creepy kids started sexualizing Gardevoir
NipplesAndToes23
Member
Oh yeah Hoenn. Emerald was the first game I played since I took a long ass break from Pokemon. I believe it was 2011/2012 when I first played Emerald. The overall game was pretty forgettable to me. The combat still had felt too simplistic for me and I never got any challenge in the game. I think I remember losing to an Elite 4 member's Wailord that used Earthquake one time, but shit that was only one time.
I never bothered looking up the sidequests.
Out of the designs of this generation I like Blaziken, Wingull, Gardevoir, Surskit, Masquerain, Whismur, Azurill, Nosepass, Aron, Sharpedo, Wailord, Torkoal, Lunatone, Duskull, and Wynaut.
Actually that was a lot more than I thought and I didn't realize the bolded ones were from Hoenn. Don't remember them at all in Emerald. The rest are okay or I dislike.
I never bothered looking up the sidequests.
Out of the designs of this generation I like Blaziken, Wingull, Gardevoir, Surskit, Masquerain, Whismur, Azurill, Nosepass, Aron, Sharpedo, Wailord, Torkoal, Lunatone, Duskull, and Wynaut.
Actually that was a lot more than I thought and I didn't realize the bolded ones were from Hoenn. Don't remember them at all in Emerald. The rest are okay or I dislike.
papertoonz
Member
ah yeah time for hoenn
Ah, Generation III, the one where my friends and I started to host tournaments with one another. Good times. On the subject of beginnings, much as I enjoy Ruby/Sapphire and the remakes of the original games (if only because both have aged incredibly poorly), in retrospect they're responsible for a lot of the more irritating trends in the series: The focus on Legendary Pokémon and the mandatory catching/battling thereof (let alone the massive increase that we'd see in future generations), a greater emphasis on a poorly written narrative and the introduction of features that could have been fleshed out in future entries but are instead turned into gimmicks (i.e. Contests) among others. That and an increasingly disappointing soundtrack, save for Black/White 1/2 but that entry is more of an outlier than any before or after it.
woopWOOP
Member
This is true, but with the overabundance of water Pokemon and Surf being such a great move I never really play a Pokemon game without a surfer on the team, so it isn't such an issue for me.
Having to climb up the waterwall and push rocks around in the Victory Road cave meant I had to bring two low level HM slaves along one playthrough tho, which was a bit annoying.
I had a bigger problem with Sinnoh's bigass mountain actually. Dragging all those useless monsters around to use Strength, Rock Smash and Rock Climb.... bleggh.
Is that from the remake? I just got to Mauville (it's pretty nifty now) and I know they changed up the sunken ship into something else, but... that seems kinda grim in a non-modern Pokemon way.
Also reminds me of when I randomly stumbled across New Mauville in Sapphire late at night. Some random cave with a big metallic door with some eerie music, it creeped me out :V