I think one thing i miss from old games are routes, open world is cool and all but everything feels a bit of the same with a enviroment skin, routes used to be so iconic, chances are you still remember how them and what went down on each route
I'm playing through Shield right now. They totally fumbled the bag with swsh's routes. They're too short, and there's no exploration to be done. Now that I think about it, there's only surf that let's you explore more of the old routes, and it's clear this was an afterthought. What a shame.
I prefer routes as well, i didn't like the fact trainers were completely optional but it was the very first open world pokemon game and switch have his limitations, let's hope the next game is switch 2 it's a more enjoyable open world experience
Ngl, SwSh killed my interest in modern pokemon games. The only 3D open world pokemon game that made it for me was Legends Arceus, and that game is a glorified Safari zone.
Route 119 is my favourite. Very tall grass, waterfalls, hidden areas you could only traverse with a special bike, these big bridges and the only river where you could find Feebas, this mysterious pokemon with that obscure evolution technique. And then there is this mysterious weather institute in a place where it almost always rains. I felt so excited, exploring this route in my childhood and I always had my secret base there (the one under the bridge by the waterfall). I also love Absol, Tropius and Masquerain, which you can catch there. Route 119 is great. Edit: And the music! I almost forgot to mention the music!
I felt really smart as a kid figuring out the broken bridge across the waterfall in front of the weather station you had to do sideways tap-hops to traverse, wish the games had more interesting environmental exploration like that
I consider Route 119 (and 120) being the best illustration of what it is to be in a Pokémon adventure. It is so immersive, you really feel like you are in a huge adventure, with no limits to explore
Yup the inventive ingenuity for that whole route was just creatively satisfying.. everytime you explored an found something it felt like a new discovery everytime. Very VERY few routes are as well designed honesty. An that’s so sad could you imagine something like that in sun an moon… but nope what we got was the beginning of the end.. super simple route an the demise of in-depth optional exploration.
I still cry because i know the battle frontier will never be back. Eff the player for getting a diverse challenge for after the league. I kinda liked the fighting ring, because it made you play completely different than other fights, since yoou had to ask yourself if you want the points for effective attacks, most damage dealt and whatever the last one was. It also punished you for trying to play the long game or set up. But the mansion is definitely not missed.
What I like about Emerald compared to Ruby/Sapphire is that there are way more double battles. Many trainers are placed that two of them see the player and want to battle at the same time which results in a double battle. And for those who don't like double battles as much, they can speak to each of the NPC trainers individually and have single battles instead.
@@Br0oham Personally, I like that the gym leader rematches are double battles. The rematch feature made its debut in Emerald, and they used it to flesh out the double battle mechanic introduced earlier in this very generation. Just feels really efficient and natural to me.
@@pacifierjunkee6016 indeed especially because it felt like in the first ruby an sapphire games they weren’t enough doubles.. especially not serious ones they rectified that problem in emerald. Who can say they weren’t pleasant surprised when they discovered not only were gym leaders rematches possible but they were different in a whole new way.
I remember discovering/walking through the desert for the first time. A complete shift from not just the routes around it but from the previous two gens as well. Along with the more tropical feel of Dewford and the alpine feel of Fortree. Gen 3 really was a game changer.
SmithPlays: "Pokemon Emerald is not as good as you remember it." Lyra: "This game is ABSOLUTE PEAK Pokemon!" I love this duality of approach to Emerald that is taking place simultaneously.
One thing i'll always remember about Hoenn and Johto is the fact that i'm often confused between Mauville City and Violet City. People who can understand why most likely speak french.
It's a very pure shift, which makes me personally feel better about loving the region so much. Like, it isn't just nostalgia and that fact that I have the entire region memorized.
While Platinum remains my favorite Pokémon game of all time, Emerald sits VERY close to it due to how vast and mysterious it is. Everything in Hoenn screams what Pokémon was and should be to me: a world full of interesting places, routes and mysteries that just WAIT to be discovered, not NEED to. It was game that challenged trainers, but also adventurers.
Hoenn just has so many little secrets on every route, its genuinely worth grabbing some max repels and following the entire rock wall around the oceans checking for breaks in them. It lets you find "Jigglypuff Island", regice's cave, sky tower, the various colored shard islands, numerous sandbars with trainers & items, and shoal cave. But there are also just a lot of spots like the top of the waterfall west of fallarbor town that are tiny with 1 minor reward. To my recollection Hoenn just has the most of these little secrets hanging off the routes. Sinnoh is good and mysterious in its own way, but i don't remember as many secrets. (Maybe its because i only had Pearl)
I love gen 3 simply for the world, I love the dessert in one part, volcano with soot fallen on route 113, forest area fortree, island theme with the ocean, loved pacifidlog city completely out on the water. The amount of details that went into this region is incredible
I totally agree with you. Also one addition compared to previous games which mustn't be forgotten are the running shoes. Without them the experience would be significantly less great.
Gen 3, with Gen 4 and 5, represent for me the golden age of pokémon. You make justice of what make Hoenn great to explore. It's not just "too much water", is bigger than that. Just one think that make emerald one of, if not, my fav it is his engine... It's SO FAAAAST. The travell, animation, battle, everything is so smooth, it's so good 😁😁😁.
It's so refreshing to see a video praising something (especially something that deserves praise!), since so many videos today are negative just to drum up attention. I love the positivity!
I don't think any other game made me feel like Ruby (and later Emerald) ever. The sense of discovery and immersion as a kid in Hoenn was just amazing. Playing it on summer, when you could go to the beach in real life and then playing 3rd gen back on home felt like an extension of your beach days. I remember playing this game with the scent of the sea water, wich matches the ambience of this gen. It brings so many memories of joy and peace :)
@@chrispember172 Brother you can build immersion in books which is just text. It's a difficult skill to build immersion in any format and Pokemon emerald nails it.
As a summer/sea lover hoen will be forever my fave region. It managed to encapsulate the feeling of exploring the seaside during a vacation but on a region level
Speaking of optional areas, everyone knows that you don't have to visit Pacifidlog Town to beat the Elite Four, but I think that there's another optional town. Technically, you don't need anything from Verdanturf to be able to beat the game. To get the strength HM, you can just get to Rusturf Tunnel from the Rustboro side. I've not tried it yet, but maybe I should!
ah yes, afte getting rock smash HM in mauville let me just go back to rustboro city with the help of briney for no reason and then go back to rusturf tunnel for no reason and then obtain strength HM and retreat and go back to mauville city again instead of checking whats on the other side, cuz this must be what the game intended. i cant tell if you're joking rn or if you're a 🤡
@@TheRealMycanthrope Bro's insulting my reading comprehension after OP suggested probably the most inefficient route possible just to glaze the middest Pokemon region. So I’m supposed to backtrack to Route 108 for no reason (or because I'm "exploring"), go to Rusturf Tunnel just to pick up Strength HM and then ignore checking the exit on the other sife of the cave (which is contradictory because I might be "exploring"), all just to avoid visiting Verdanturf Town...? Yeah, I bet players actually waste their time like that. 🤡
As much as I love Gen 1 and 2, especially with the Stadium games basically expanding the postgame for them, Gen 3 was truly a breath of fresh air for the franchise. I absolutely loved FireRed/LeafGreen and Emerald due to how much they added to the series! Gen 3 being able to truly have no region restrictions in terms of trading and actually having event islands was a huge plus. Also, you should probably mention that Southern Island is still legitimately possible to reach, and will be until the end of time. Would have been great if it was the same for the other islands. I think in order to really appreciate Scarlet/Violet, you had to complete the Pokedex there. I still have fond memories of basically every area in that game. There's also the fact that they keep on adding so many QoL features every game.
Started in gen 1 (even won a legit competiton Mew) when I was like 13 but gen 3 ended up being my favourite , enviroment and sprite work really sold the adventure with the more potent hardware.
Amen to that. I loved exploring Hoenn from north to south, from land to sea. It felt unique, interesting and adventurous. It's one of the reasons why Emerald is still my favorite, even if games like Shield are, arguably, better and more modern games.
Even when story is not the best, I think the changes they did in this version are awesome. Facing both teams makes more sense and you get to see how both are equally evil. Also, some say their goals are dumb and they are and the game KNOWS they are, so it's not like everything ends when you defeat the team's bosses like Team Rockets'. Here Maxie and Archie see the consequences of their dumb acts and the fact they learn from that aswell as us the player is kind of cool! (Like, my younger self knew they could do damage to people and pokemon with their goals but seeing that world-ending weather crisis was shoking and creepy with the music in that part!) I agree something else was needed for the end, that scene of Rayquaza arriving was epic but then maybe doing a battle where we use Rayquaza temporarily to stop Groudon and Kyogre, no option to catch them there and at the end Rayquaza leaves so we catch them in the post game in their caves. But that's almost the only and the biggest change I'd do to the game so it is in fact peak and my favorite aswell!
With the remake. The region just gets better with easy to obtain fairy types and megas that give new life to older pokemon I really should replay Oras someday
ORAS did a lot right but took away so much of what made Gen 3 so good. If you never played Emerald, it feels like a faithful adaptation of the original games. If you did play Emerald, so much content that improved upon RS feels missing. It's unfortunate, but ORAS sorely lacks post-game content, merely teasing the Battle Frontier we never got while copy-pasting the Battle Maison from XY, which feels so out of place in comparison to its place in Kalos.
@@Goldenblade14 well yeah Oras isn't delta emerald as pokemon doesn't want to do third games anymore A delta emerald would have even more hype with the better mons. Story. Battle frontier and more overall battles. So I'd rank ruby Sapphire Oras then emerald in how good they were
@@DeathofHeavensthat's basically every game without it after gen 3 Honestly it should be included so players can basically train to be competitive players without battling other people. That'd be fun.
@@Goldenblade14 people these days just be saying stuff when they have no idea what they're talking about... 1. pokemon oras literally improved upon the hoenn region in a way which pokemon emerald wishes it did. did you play/see the delta episode, or read professor's cosmo extremely dark letters to his dad, or see ANY oras' exclusive content (even stuff that doesn't have anything to do with the whole mega evolution plot)? you claim pokemon emerald improved upon RS so much that the lack of its exclusive content is detrimental for oras, but did you actually see the full list of changes, because a lot of what emerald added is either marginal or not as impactful as you’re suggesting. pokemon emerald didnt even expand on rayquaza's lore (it just made it available before the league and gave it 1 good 25 seconds long cutscene) and oras did wallace so much better than emerald which litearlly just made him the champion so steven can be the postgame superboss for some reason. 2. you're not even right about emerald having the best version of hoenn to explore because emerald shoehorned every contest rank hall into lilycove city and replaced them with completely useless battle tents... 3. postgame in emerald (battle froniter) sucked because gen 3 was so unbelievable unbalanced that to stand a chance in the later rounds of the battle frontier you were practically forced to use pseudo-legendaries and sub-legendaries. there is a reason why every other battle froniter team has a lati@s and a metagross... battle maison might not thematically fit into hoenn but it provides a more balanced and varied challenge, instead of just using the most sweaty teams trying to fool you into thinking that the game doesnt read inputs and wont make you go against hard counter team sooner or later... also, i will always believe that battle maison was put in hoenn because its an on-going joke in the series which was first done in the anime with hoenn battle frontier being in kanto, and then in hg/ss with sinnoh battle froniter being in johto. ORAS is so much better than emerald, it's not even funny. There is litearlly no reason to play gen 3 games in 2024 unless you're legitimately addicted to battle frontier even tho there's nothing fun about it after like 2 rounds.
There's such a palpable sense of adventure that pervades the region. I feel it most strongly upon receiving surf and setting foot on the eastern half of the region for the first time. The grandeur evoked by the themes on routes 119 & 120 is genuinely magical. This feeling is something I value the most in a pokemon game.
Having played both platinium and emerald, apart from maybe black & white 2, these are my favourites games. Platinium felt like this to me, every reagion just screamed that it wanted to be explored.
Gen 3 was my first one so I'm very biased in that sense, but yeah Emerald is fantastic. I love how colorful and varied Hoenn is, there are so many memorable areas. Weirdly enough the remakes just don't do it for me, I think it's because they lack a lot of the upgrades Emerald brought, such as extra trainers in routes, better gym leader teams, a more complete plot involving both teams magma and aqua, and of course the battle frontier. Still, I'm happy that Oras helped making Hoenn even more popular haha
This is exactly how I feel about Emerald vs ORAS. Emerald feels like the definitive Hoenn experience because of how much of an improvement it was over Ruby/Sapphire. They fleshed out basically everything introduced in those games and made the region feel more complete. ORAS has its own additions that are welcome, but for some reason, it falls back to the Ruby/Sapphire design for overworld battles & gym battles. ORAS falls short because it doesn't quite flesh out its generation's mechanics the way Emerald did.
2 more pieces of exploration i love about Hoenn. All those random small areas only accessible by one of the bikes, like the sandy slopes north of the desert, or the fact you can bunny hop up the jagged pass. And the shard hunter house quest, an NPC will trade you evo stones for 1 colored shard, and mentions he dives for shards. All around the main ocean are little dive spots that take you beyond the stone wall to little areas that have colored shards you can bring back and trade for evo stones. (You can also theif/covet redshards from wild corsola, yellow from chinchou, blue from clampearl, and green from relicanth all with a 5% chance to hold.)
Emerald has and always will be my fave Pokemon game, but there is also a lot of nostalgia attached to that with it being one of my first along with yellow. My first console was a gba sp and I'd lusted after one for so long just for ruby or sapphire.
I miss when Pokemon had an endgame. They used to sell you games with the expectation that you'd keep playing over and over again, for several years. Now they get insulted if you care enough to want to keep your Pokemon for more than one game.
@@earlymorninstonedpimp I didn't, Pokemon Home *is* the issue. Because each game restricts which Pokemon it can transfer from Home, any Pokemon you bring into Home risk being stuck there for an indefinite amount of time. And it's a subscription service, so that means your Pokemon are held hostage for ransom.
Exactly the replay value has gone to crap! I’m sorry but I don’t want to play anything after 5 gen maybe 6 cuz omega ruby is solid..X an Y we’re cool enuff I guess but felt unfinished.
And the “Fans” are defending Nintendo for not trying to make high budget leap for Pokemon Games despite its status as one of the biggest video game franchise. Thats how we end up with BDSP, one of the arguably best Pokemon Gen that sells the DS. Outsourced to a third party devs that had never made proper game before rather than making the leap like ORAS.
I don't want to sound like a hater, but 12:53 the point of releasing 2 versions is not for you to buy the 2, but for you to buy 1 and find friends with the other version to trade
Gen 3 was the generation I got to play as a kid. Emerald (also my favorite color, so extra yeah!) felt massive and full of content: massive world, tons of side quests, TWO gangs to fight, no less than 10 legendary pokemon to find, several new post-game regions to explore, and inter-exchange with FireRed & LeafGreen for more content. Watching multiple reviews, I have ended up agreeing with both sides, it was the best pokemon game ever made, fixing many of gen 1 & 2 issues, yet it also made new problems that future games carry to this day. It was the nexus to permanently altering how future pokemon games were made and experienced (both better and worse). It added the first truly new region to the pokemon world, almost doubled the number of pokemon to catch (roughly 400), and tried to add both mystery and post-game content. It also carved up its gameplay into multiple other games (on other consoles no less) demanded region locked content, and sealed hours of gameplay behind one-time real-world events. Love it or hate it generation 3 was the most important generation of pokemon, creating much of what people love about pokemon today and expanded its base, preventing them from going stale. Imagine if instead of all of this, the only change between Ruby & Sapphire and Gold & Sliver was a graphics upgrade to the gameboy advance. Would pokemon have remain relevant or interesting if nothing had changed over 3 generations?
One of the things that you didn't mention about Hoenn in gen 3, is how easy it is to explore! It is designed almost like a metroidvania, with routes that loop into themselves, which makes getting from point a to be both interesting and a lot faster then it would otherwise. It also helps a ton that most of the world is completely without loading zones, you can visit almost every single town in gen 3 without it ever fading to black.
I think also the battle frontier is such a great addition! With all the different ways of looking at battles and getting everything gold feels rewarding.
I gotta disagree on the claim that Kanto has no sense of mystery. Maybe it's because I was playing Red/Blue/Yellow when they were new, but I always found the world strangely captivating and intriguing.
Also hard disagree that Kanto somehow cheapens the experience of Gold/Silver/Crystal. I agree that the post-game content is lacking, but I don't think it diminishes Johto in any way.
Only Southern Island is Hoenn iirc. Birth and Navel Rock are part of the Sevii Islands in FRLG (implied in game by mentioning they aren't named for being 7 of 'em) and Faraway is well... Far. But to me that was even better as both brilliant region and cross-game world building while letting both Kanto and Hoenn have access and relevance.
Hot Take: I actually LOVE the amount of water in Hoenn. Yes, I’ll agree surfing can be as obnoxious as a cave (although to me it is worth trying to surf for a lower-level already evolved Wailord), but… Fishing is a blast in those areas. As one who has done ocean fishing before, I got mad respect for the idea that I can fish in the Hoenn sea and possibly reel in a Sharpedo or Wailmer, maybe even a Horsea. I also do like the diving mechanic, I just wish they included more than 3 underwater Pokémon in RSE.
The “evil” teams in this gen are such an improvement from team rocket. Beside the main inspiration which stems from an actual environmental controversy of one of Japan’s islands at that time, the fact that both Archie and Maxie are just misled guys, confused by greater ideals and ambitions that even them can’t fully grasp make the ending so satisfying. You can see the remorse, the guilt and realization when both see what they have caused. They really tried and succeeded with the plot and the characters. Meanwhile Team Rocket was just evil and bad because yes. I love Hoenn, gen 3 and emerald and it’s my favorite Pokémon game ever❤
Side content is meaningful, because you can miss it. When you find something that you know you could have easily missed, it gives the sense of authorship of your own experience.
I played Platinum way more, but Emerald will always hold a special place to me. First one I ever played, at a friends house, and still the best looking imo. They really worked hard to make it look and sound great in spite of the severe hardware limitations.
I really do agree with you when comparing the game's "openess" to Scarlet. After I finished my Paldean Pokédex, I found there wasn't really much to do. So many towns and places don't even have interiors or NPCs to interact with. There's a real lack of interesting things to find and do, even with the DLC improvements taken into account. I think that's why I replay games like Emerald and Leafgreen so much more. Aside from being a Gen 3 fan, there's a real feel and pull to the world and the journey that is just so engaging.
Bro your content was extremely informative and I enjoyed every bit of it. Keep up the great work . I am also a Pokemon fan and I loved playing Emerald version too. 👍👍
Even as a staunch advocate of Hoenn and Emerald, I'll be the first to admit that it has it's flaws (looking at you learnsets and physical/special split), but it still remains my favourite alongside gen 5. Much like you experienced, Hoenn encapsulates what a Pokemon adventure is and should be. In my humble opinion, Hoenn is the most fully realised region thematically and from a world building perspective (shoutout to Alola too). It has such a rich, varied and interesting set of biomes and there's so much to explore even despite the amount of water, which I personally don't mind. Everything is connected both in the literal sense and in relation to one of the game's main themes of nature, yet there's still more to find on repeat visits to areas. Route 119 in particular is really a macrocosm of the region itself and the best route design in the entire franchise if you ask me. I think an underrated aspect that helps with the sense of exploration is how smoothly and quickly the gameplay moves. In comparison to gens 1, 2 and even 4, simply moving about and battling was sluggish which could make exploration feel like a slog. But with gen 3 the speed of battles and movement, and thus the transition between the overworld and battling, is remarkably seemless and dynamic for a game of its age. You're thrust staright back into things which makes exploration feel much more exhilarating. No region before or after has managed to capture Hoenn's level of charm for me. Plus it has the Battle Frontier. Need I repeat what's already been said about how much fans of the series appreciate that place?
Cool, a new video! Missed you, mate. Hope to see you tackle a Gen 4 living dex. I probably mentioned it on previous videos, but your series inspired me to do living dexes for Gens 1 through 4 and I would love to see you tackle DPPt and HGSS.
I still have a working cartridge of Emerald from when I was a kid that has had the battery replaced. Also, getting a Feebas and Ralts with an optimal nature is a lot less painful in Pokémon Emerald. Gardevoir has always been my ace in Pokémon Emerald. It alone made a joke of the Champion's Pokémon. Gardevoir is my favorite Pokémon because of this and the lore reason that I liked as a kid that Ralts only reveals itself to kind-hearted people. Yes, I am aware how the internet views Gardevoir. Yes, it ruined my youthful ignorance and innocence.
Emerald truly is peak, at least for myself i keep coming back to it, originally had saphire then traded for ruby during recess and eventually sold and got emerald from game crazy The battle frontier was amazing, plus you could catch smeargle
14:48 "Cheating is MANDATORY to access these areas." Came down here to say that if you're willing to invest some time exploring glitches, they're still accessible! Of course, it sucks that it's basically gatekept behind these techniques (or purchasing/printing ereader cards etc.), I still think it's worth knowing about the alternatives to deliberate cheating. Papa Jefé and imablisy both have content surrounding the specifics of these alternative methods, and I've personally followed along with the glitch side of things (arbitrary code execution/ACE) to get the Eon Ticket myself and play through the puzzle. This is also one of the few ways you can actually legitimately obtain the shiny variants of these now-shiny-locked legendaries/mythicals!
oh for more specifics on my personal dive into this, the process involves some setup using EV training and the pomeg glitch, and then using the names of your PC boxes to write and execute arbitrary code (this is a HEAVILY simplified explanation). This can be used for a LOT of different things, but in my case, I followed a guide to set the game's flags and get the Eon Ticket to fully experience the New Moon island for myself. Not gonna go into the ethics on whether or not glitches are "cheating", but considering this is doable on a completely original copy of Emerald with no extra modifications or hardware (even ignoring that the content is otherwise essentially inaccessible), it is as close to legitimate that you could ever get again without having obtained the event in person in the first place.
Your discussion of a huge vs interesting world finally put into words what I've been feeling about Scarlet/Violet. When playing through Violet, the entite world felt very samey, despite the areas technically being varied with their different biomes. You're right, there isn't anything really interesting in Paldea. There aren't any dungeons, or cool landmarks, or hidden areas, or special hidden items, or anything like that. It may be big, but that's it. It's *only* big. There's nothing more to it. Hoenn, which is my favorite region, on the other hand, is small and very interesting. There are all sort of side areas to discover and explore, with their own side quests and secrets. You can find rare items and Pokemon in those unique little areas. Exploration is actually rewarded. And this, in turn, makes Hoenn feel bigger than it actually is.
By design, Houen balanced the land and sea, and you will have fun trying out any Pokémon's Ability effecting the overworld to encounter different wild Pokémon.
Southern Island doesn't require cheating in Emerald to reach, and I'm not talking about paying mad cash for one of those physical Eon Tickets. The scanned content of an e-Reader is written to its GBA save file, which can be backed up and "restored" through the same methods as any other GBA game cart can. I personally used a DS Lite and a flashcart to inject the Eon Ticket save file onto my e-Reader, but there are other devices like the GB Operator that can do the same thing. *Edit:* Apparently people have figured out how to reprint the Eon Ticket card and sell them for like $20-30. e-Readers seem to have gotten expensive enough that it's probably cheapest now to just get a GBA flashcart loaded with the e-Reader rom and the Eon Ticket save file. I guess going that route would also allow you to use the Deoxys/Ho-Oh event distribution rom (Yes, they've been preserved and can be downloaded) through the flashcart if you have two wireless adapters.
I first played Gen 3 as a kid when it first released. Ive played Pokemon Ruby the past weeks and i can honestly say its not as good as i remember. Its such a grind to level up Pokemon. You come across the same Pokemon on every route. Poochyenas/Zigzagoon/wingull/tentacool etc. The soundtrack is phenomenal and its still one of my favourites but this is definitely the last time i will pick up to play it.
I wish Gamefreak would still do 2D Pokemon games :( Hoenn felt the most mysterious region to me, I liked it when not everything was explained or answered/left ambiguous. The golems for example, they simply were just there, but only accessable after doing some braille puzzle in a hidden unterwater cave you can easily miss. I love it
"The story is scisophrenic, jumping back and forth between team magma and aqua" that is the point, both are extremists that need to be stopped before they destroy the careful balance that is the world
And that neither are villains. Both are just misguided. You get helped by both Archie and Maxie against the other. Plus you get cool interactions like the magma emblem. I do still think it was cool how they somehow were able to make the same story beats make sense for both antagonists between Ruby and Sapphire.
I feel like Sinnoh also manages to cleverly utilize it's map in an extremely interesting way because it uses Mt Coronet like 3 or 4 different times with completely different results and purposes, the player threads a weave around one location and it rules.
Everyone talks down on Gen 2’s Kanto for it being so empty in the post game. But my rebuttal to that: Red and Blue already ran through that place conquering it, defeating Team Rocket, etc. my only gripe is Cinnabar Island being wiped by a volcano. But I feel as if the disappointment isn’t warranted. Just my 2 cents bleh.
Dropping the day/night cycle was a huge mistake, especially when they kept time tracking. The different times of day made the game far more atmospheric and would have put gen 3 over the top.
Yeah, the villains are both the coolest concept of Gen 3 and my biggest nitpick. What made the approach they chose to go with the evil teams that much worse in Emerald is that it back-loaded the Team Aqua fights when the 8th Gym and Champion are also Water type. The abundance of water Routes I do think is okay, but most of the major boss battles sharing a typing theme in the endgame is a problem. They could have at least let Magma take the spotlight at that point. It'd even have been a boon for the early game to face Team Aqua more in contrast to the player personally being landlocked. Fits the theming for the evil teams to be causing trouble in the locations they're trying to fight against instead of the places they're comfortable in, and it would have avoided overshadowing the 4th Gym. Even as great as Emerald was, it did suffer from being rushed in development. Overall, when ignoring all the bells and whistles added in Emerald, I feel like Ruby version has the best critical story path flow, since a lot of the evil team plots seem more tailored to them. So if Emerald didn't mix things up with both teams, having Magma be the sole antagonists would have been the best pick. Could have made up for it by having Aqua Grunts and Admins fight alongside you at certain points, much like how there's many more optional Double Battle opportunities in Emerald.
I'm currently replaying emerald and might go for the national dex. It really is a great world and one of the best pokemon games ever made. I really appreciate your website and hope you get to gen 4 by the time I start replaying those. I'm interested to know which pokemon absolutely have to be transferred up from gen 3.
Thank you for going against the rage bait algorithm and showing some love to a phenomenal game, even after your trauma from the national dex for gen 3!
You can get the legendary pokemon events working by using the pomeg glitch, if you find having to learn braille to catch pokemon cool, then it's the same but with hexadecimal instead
As someone who grew up with heartgold and soulsilver to x&y Emerald is the pokemon game I may love what gen 4 introduced to the games via evolution, and a decent story, black and white stand amazingly on their own but pacing wise and mechanically I think emerald has them beat
The Regi-caves were THE coolest puzzle in any Pokémon game to my opinion. It wasn't too difficult as the game and booklet gave you all information you needed to solve it. Even if the Regis weren't that strong of a Legendary. But figuring out how to get them was very exciting as child. I felt super smart afterwards. I remember the Pyramid head having had the three Regis in the first or second fight. You could just bring 1-2 fighting types and body him. Too bad Gamefreak will definitely never make another Battle Frontier again. I really loved the area andd how different the Challenges were (except the mansion, fuck this thing). My favorite was the fighting ring as it required you to fiight very differently as in most other challenges since it punished you for turtling or trying to set up. I kinda forgot just how many additional, "useless" routes there were in Gen 3. But this is exactly, what is missing from the newer games, where every route is just a funnel towards the next city. Sinnoh was a bit more streamlined but had plenty of secrets to explore. B/W had the entire second half of the game after beating Ghetsis and a huge heart attack for any seasoned player in the coastal city on the right. B2/W2 had some additional areas to explore but not the amount of Emerald for sure. Afterwards it kinda became.. tubular, sadly. I'd say X/Y had too few developement time but did have some nice side area like the haunted woods leading to the special peacefull field (that contained Mewtwo for some odd reason). SM/USUM had... admittedly, can't really remember if they had anything really optional to explore. And SwSh was a travesty. Looking back and towards a bunch of Pokémon hacks, that do this exploration really well (Pokémon Reborn and rejuvenation as example, although Reborn can be quite overwhelming in this aspect even), i actually do miss the side-routes, hidden caves etc.
@@patryksiennicki1747 It's been a long while since i've played B2/W2. As far as i know, you have the forest and the starting city from B/W including a new sideroute to explore. You may correct me, if i'm wrong but please refrain from insulting me. It's not particularly productive and only leads to bad blood and people less likely to listen to your input.
I think you missed the point of Kanto in gen 2. Trainers there are lower level and gyms are more freely accessible as a means to help you train up the low-level "rare" pokemon you find in Johto's endgame, like Larvitar, Dratini, Houndoor, etc. It also wouldn't make sense for everyone in Kanto to be walking around with level 50~60 pokemon, rivaling the Elite Four and towering so far above everyone else in Johto.
