The Faults of Gen III

[Mega Altaria]

Sneasel was a version exclusive to LG. It could be found in the Four Island Ice Cave in place of Delibird.

It would have been quite a bit better if both of them weren’t version exclusive. There would be more access to Dark-types but anyway the Dark-type roster in FRLG felt disappointing.

 

[Leonhart]

Sneasel was a version exclusive to LG. It could be found in the Four Island Ice Cave in place of Delibird.

Yes, although my main point still stands. The Kanto remakes just had a small number of Steel and Dark Pokemon, although I guess Game Freak just didn't want to add more Gen II Pokemon to keep these games as focused on Gen I as possible.

 

[D*N]

I loved Hoen, the main thing that could have been better is the characters/story. Mainly the rivals. Brendan and May are probably one of the worst rivals the series has ever had.

 

[Leonhart]

I loved Hoen, the main thing that could have been better is the characters/story. Mainly the rivals. Brendan and May are probably one of the worst rivals the series has ever had.

Yeah, and even Mitsuru (Wally) seemed weak in the sense that his final R/S/E team was incomplete and didn't get any stronger in the post-game.

 

[shoz999]

One interesting fault about Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire that had an substantial impact on the anime and manga was how much of a blank slate their villains were. I don't know if anyone realizes this but the ORAS depiction of Maxie and Archie almost practically makes them feel like new characters. There was never saving Pokemon or advancing humanity in the original Ruby and Sapphire. All they wanted to do was expand the earth or sea for unknown reasons and you can tell that GameFreak never really put any real thought into Team Magma and Team Aqua through how it impacted their adaptations in the anime and manga. If you've seen Maxie and Archie in the Adventures manga and anime, you know that they are so different from the remake version. This is because that Maxie and Archie in the games were pretty much just blank slates.

I suppose the difference between the Adventures take and the anime take is how it was handled. I don't know about you but it was pretty clear that the anime crew had absolutely no clue what to do with Maxie and Archie. They just had them in a two-parter in the middle of the 6th and 7th gym and that's it. In fact it felt like the anime crew just wanted to wrap it up as quickly as possible. The Adventures version is, this is my personal opinion, is leagues superior than the anime version. Because of this blank slate, the writer could be more creative with Maxie and Archie and with that, he actually gives a reasonable and logical explanation that makes TEN TIMES more sense that Maxie and Archie trying to advance humanity or save Pokemon. It's simply power, that's really it. It's a generic trope but its a generic trope that not only makes so much sense but is also executed so well that your actually kind of rooting for Team Magma and Team Aqua to win. I say that because unlike previous story arcs, Team Magma and Team Aqua actually feel like main characters here as well, you get to see them operate step-by-step making unexpected quick decisions to reach their goal. The generic trope about power is suddenly made ten times more interesting than the overcomplicated reason GameFreak came up with for the remakes. In fact, honestly. I kind of think the Pokemon Adventures writer captured GameFreak's vision for these villains, just simply the bad guys out for power, far better than GameFreak did with the remakes.

 

[dannymusic]

I love Gen III and it's what I'm best at competitively, but despite the meme, I do feel that "too much water" is a legit criticism for Ruby/Sapphire. Once you get beyond Lilycove, there are a lot of bland water routes with the exact same pokemon available and trainers who all have other water pokemon. And if Team Aqua's the team you're up against, yeaaaah, too much water. >.<

 

[Ducolamia]

I love Gen III and it's what I'm best at competitively, but despite the meme, I do feel that "too much water" is a legit criticism for Ruby/Sapphire. Once you get beyond Lilycove, there are a lot of bland water routes with the exact same pokemon available and trainers who all have other water pokemon. And if Team Aqua's the team you're up against, yeaaaah, too much water. >.<

The problem with the meme wasn't that some of the criticism wasn't valid. It was that IGN worded it the worst way possible. They didn't say "tedious water design" or "tedious level design", they said too much water while playing Pokemon AS in a tropical themed region. If they said the former none of the meme stuff would've happened to begin with. People would complain but not nearly as much. (It also doesn't help they gave the original games a 9.5/10 but that's a debate for another day)

Honestly I'm fifty-fifty. On one hand I can see the complaints because the water Pokemon diversity is lacking. But at the same time if you have some repels and are willing to search for some heart scales and other stuff it really isn't that bad. Yeah, some water routes are blander than others but I don't think it's the worst. Doesn't make it great mind you, but that's just me.

Also, Team Aqua does not use that many water Pokemon surprisingly. They use standard grunt stuff and carvanhna. Wish they updated it more.

 

[thexuberant1]

• Too much water overall - Hoenn has many surfing routes and it takes forever to travel to places like Pacifidlog Town. Also, Hoenn has lots of water type Pokemon and the final gym leader in RSE has water types. You'd struggle without a good grass or electric type Pokemon on your team.
• Lack of older Pokemon - Not being able to transfer Pokemon from previous generations was very disappointing.
• Boring characters - The rivals Brendan/May didn't have a personality and they don't have a fully evolved starter at the final battle. Wally was kinda boring too.
• Too many HMs - I hated that Victory Road required HM Flash.
• Obtaining Feebas was too difficult.
• No post game content in Ruby and Sapphire, although Emerald has a lot.

 

[Spock]

I'm doing a full dex sweep on Emerald and have all the games, so I enjoy the challenge of beating Colosseum and XD to get the birds as trophy extras. But, I think it was rather foolish to get rid of the true clock in RSE, and even more foolish to drop Eevee's evolutions in the Kanto remakes. They could have had a proto-location based event with Umbreon and Espeon at Mt Moon and the Pokemon Tower, but alas. It was also a missed opportunity doing regional dex locks for Emerald and FRLG - would be a lot more fun getting an unexpected Golbat evolution rather than the tease they offered.

 

[Boss1991]

Gen III is flawless.

 

[RileyXY1]

Yes, although my main point still stands. The Kanto remakes just had a small number of Steel and Dark Pokemon, although I guess Game Freak just didn't want to add more Gen II Pokemon to keep these games as focused on Gen I as possible.

They mostly included Johto Pokemon that weren't in the Hoenn Pokedex for the purposes of dex completion.

 

[Ignition]

Planning to play through Sapphire in ~a week but from what I remember:
-the water routes always ruin my interest.
-the movesets for Pokèmon are so limited especially with TMs being locked behind such infuriating tasks
-Sprites are really hit or miss.
-Battle Frontier is such an underwhelming postgame
-Sky Pillar and Granite Cave
-Selection of Hoenn Pokèmon gets scarce after the 4th gym
-Contests
-Secret Bases got stale pretty fast

 

[Leonhart]

Now that I think back to my days of playing R/S/E, I did find attaining the powerful TM moves infuriating, especially the ones given as prizes at the Game Corner.

 

[KyogreThunder]

Now that I think back to my days of playing R/S/E, I did find attaining the powerful HM moves infuriating, especially the ones given as prizes at the Game Corner.

I think you meant TM, not HM moves, but at least you can still buy the Coins, unlike in HG/SS.
Anyways, I'm rather disappointed by the fact you can't rematch Steven in Emerald, unlike Red in the Johto games, who only requires beating the Elite Four to appear again.

 

[Monozu]

Working out where to find HM Surf (I think Wally's parents give it to you or something.) That took me way too long to work out.

The extremely low encounter rates for Pokemon such as Skitty, Ralts, and of course Feebas.

Brendan going AWOL, Wally not getting much screen time between the point where he runs away from home and when you see him at Victory Road.

Idiotic evil teams. I'm not sure how anybody would think that turning the entire world into solely water or land is a good idea. In RS, what's even weirder is that you side with one of the teams. Doesn't say a lot for the protagonist's intelligence.

 

[Leonhart]

The extremely low encounter rates for Pokemon such as Skitty, Ralts, and of course Feebas.

For me it was especially annoying to find Ralts since it was available early in the game, but required a lot of patience to find. And since as a kid I didn't like wasting time by hanging out in a single route for too long, it drove me crazy.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

For me it was especially annoying to find Ralts since it was available early in the game, but required a lot of patience to find. And since as a kid I didn't like wasting time by hanging out in a single route for too long, it drove me crazy.

Ralts and Skitty I have been able to find rather easily but Feebas is a completely different story. I’ve only been able to make a Trendy Saying that made Feebas spawn in a spot that I found easily only once in Emerald. Then that game was stolen from me along with my LG, Platinum with the Pikachu colored Pichu and Draco Meteor Jirachi, SS, And DS Lite And the rest of my games. My Emerald also held the only Shiny I’ve ever managed to hatch from breeding and not a preprogrammed Egg with a high chance like Crystal had. The stolen Platinum was also the only Gen 4 game where I managed to find Feebas in Mt Coronet. I’m so glad ORAS made Feebas so much easier to obtain.

 

[MockingJ]

The internal battery problem thing was a big flaw. I was relieved that the battery wasn't tied to the save file unlike in the Gen 2 games, but the battery running out still affected other things in RSE like the Shoal Cave tide change and Berry growth and daily events too.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

The internal battery problem thing was a big flaw. I was relieved that the battery wasn't tied to the save file unlike in the Gen 2 games, but the battery running out still affected other things in RSE like the Shoal Cave tide change and Berry growth and daily events too.

Definitely. Mine ran dry in Emerald and Sapphire. Agreed, I'd be bummed if I lost those saves. Yep, which is frustrating. But at least I wasn't like Gen 2 where we lost everything.

 

[Sham]

Team Magma and Team Aqua weren’t really villains you could invest yourself in and it’s bad enough to this day they have the most ridiculous goals ever (only be slightly ahead of Cyrus), your rival was boring and apparently secretly jealous of you, the water routes were confusing as heck (at least for my as a child), little to none of the Gym leaders are memorable besides your dad and just a lot more things I didn’t like about Gen 3. To this day it’s the only Gen I will outright refuse to play again.