the trio boss legendaries that require the other two i can totally understand, and also dialga/palkia requiring the red chain and lugia/ho-oh being necessary for the beasts. My main problem is the other unexplained conditions and/or the lack of any little hint on that regard. I don't mind having the legendaries being harder to find, my gripe is the lack of any kind of hint for how to encounter them. As i said, the regis are the best legendaries in any pokemon game because they are well hidden but not unfairly hidden. I know, while soaring i would eventually have 3 max EVs and max happiness members as well as a level 100 but give me something, anything game! Some person saying "hey i heard there's a place that appears if you really cherish your pokemon" or "there's a legend that says that there is a place/set of pokemon that only appear if you are very strong" or the weather center could say something about investigations that relate castform to sever weather events that burst out of a weird cloud or they could say there was an situation, long time ago, where the best trainer in hoenn, that had only 1 pokemon, seeking the ultimate challenge looked at the sky and found a very strange thundercloud.
You know, subtle hints, no need to be direct, in fact, the judge is not direct but it implies that your pokemon stat's are the best if they are at 31. Again, i refer to the regis. They are there but if you don't figure out how to open the chambers they remain hidden. Maybe ORAS should have in the digital manual the braille code or something but the originals had that. I felt like a boss when i figured out that the messages in that weird, hard to access cave were coded like the strange thing on the last page of the manual. I was very thrilled. And that is one of the best feelings i had while playing pokemon. Sure i used i guide to actually figure out what to actually do but that was 12 years ago. i was freaking 12 then, i didn't know exactly what that meant. But now i could figure out what to do if they have the hints there. Sorry again, rambling, and on my favorite pokemon game nontheless.
Another unrelatable topic (but still refering to the legendaries and also sorry long read ahead) i wanna talk about is groudon's awakening, the whole process in it's transition to OR. For starters, in the originals (didn't play AS yet), kyogre's danger was never as grave as groudon's to me. The key thing in this, i think, it's the music. The heavy rain theme looks like a darker adventure tone while the drought theme absolutely terrified me when i first heard it. It didn't go away when i switched routes and i was legitimately scared because i didn't exactly know what was happening. Is something out to get me? Is everyone gonna die now? the whole section from beating team magma once and for all to the realization that even these really strong guys can't control this gargantuan and now the world is ending! Did i mentioned he lives inside LAVA! Then you go to a new place, talk to a guy you never saw before telling you you're the only one that can stop this. You enter that foggy cave with each step you take the ground shakes. when you reach the bottom, there's no music, just ground shaking every time you approach and in the end, after a terrifying roar, absolute silence. I'm face to face with this colossal beast, can my team take it? can i even catch it? The battle is intense, this monster has earthquake and fire blast and the sun from drougth boosts that power even more, while water attacks don't do as much (remember, i was 12 so i didn't even use status moves. Also, sure there's the master ball, but i was saving it for the other legendary i heard it's even stronger in school). I struggle with revives every now and then and when i finally catch it, i am so excited. i did it! i saved the world from disaster! And i can control this awesome looking beast now somehow. Sotopolis gym is beaten by a ground type that can learn thunder and a new love begins for this amazing legendary.
Now to the new version. Well, i relived all those moments again and this was even more intense. The new drought song still brings that sense of dread and doom the original had (although not as strong but still), my team was stronger and although primal forms are cool, they won't make the feeling i had when i fought him any different. Oh boy was i wrong! Watching groudon awaken, watch it actually moving by simply boinling the water around it, it was scary. Talking to everyone affected by the drought made the imersion ever bigger. The people are actually suffering. After i made my way to sotopolis, finding steven and going in the cave of origin, i had that feeling of epicness fowing. It's getting foggy...every floor i went down, the ground shakes. And in the last floor, the nax doesn't work anymore. It was like i was inside a volcano now. And then the biggest surprise. after saving the game before engaging groudon, i am stoked that i'm suiting up with the magma suit and i'm RIDDING ON GROUDON'S BACK! h0ly crap that was amazing (didn't make much sense but who needs that). The reveal for groudon's reversion, that violent roar, the threat i felt was way stronger than the original. this time no water moves but i had my strategy. Send altaria, cotton guard twice, weaken him enough and throw balls at it, while roosting and burn healing every other turn. I sure had relicanth's yawn and gardevoir's hypnosis but if they got hit it was probably an OHKO so i sticked to my strategy. Sure enough i got it but took me a lot of tries (not even for nature checking). And then poor sotopolis gym, groudon was not kind to you. They got absolutely destroyed and couldn't do anything to fight back. primal groudon is an amazing improvement. for making me relive the best moment in pokemon and for making it even better I gotta say, THANK YOU and VERY WELL DONE GF, you blew me out of the park.
So after me probably fangasming all over i can safely say hoenn is the best region by far. gen 2 sure was amazing but gen 3 was so intense and so fun to go through and explore. And one of the main reasons for me to love this region is the legendaries. They are so cool, appearance, unlocking and encounters. Damm, i really go on and on about this don't i? Sorry for the really long read (again) and may pokemon Z be awesome.
