Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald

Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald
Immerse yourself in the beautiful region of Hoenn!
Protagonist(s): Brendan May Genre(s): Role-playing Rating(s): E Platform(s): Game Boy Advance Release Date: Ruby and Sapphire JP: November 21, 2002 NA: March 19, 2003 AU: April 3, 2003 EU: July 25, 2003 Emerald JP: September 16, 2004 NA: May 1, 2005 AU: June 9, 2005 EU: October 21, 2005 Developer(s): Game Freak Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Pokémon Predecessor: Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal Successor: Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum (Canon) Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (Remakes)

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire are role playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. These games mark the beginning of Generation III. An enhanced version, Pokémon Emerald was later released and corrects some flaws of the previous two games and makes some changes in the plot.

Twelve years later, remakes of Ruby and Sapphire were released as Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the Nintendo 3DS.

Why It Makes You Wanna Catch 'Em All in Hoenn

1. A new region to explore was introduced, named Hoenn, based on Kyūshū, Japan. Hoenn is much bigger than the regions of prior Pokémon games, as well as being much more diverse, for example, there are deserts, a volcano, a town covered by the volcano's ash, and for the first time, you get to explore the ocean.
   • The ocean offers a large amount of secrets, islands to explore, and you can even dive underwater. Some of the main cities are located in islands around the ocean.
2. Improved graphics. Pokémon now are fully colored with more colors and detail than before, and are now actually sprites. Also, each Pokémon has its own unique status screen sprite making it easier to determine what Pokémon it is. The games all run at 60 frames per second as well.
   • In Emerald, Pokémon sprites have a brief animation whenever they enter battle. This feature would continue to be used in the Nintendo DS Pokémon games.
3. Pokémon mechanics have been reworked significantly behind the scenes, and now Pokémon have abilities, which either help them in battle, or help you outside of battle.
4. It introduced the Running Shoes which allows you to run when holding B.
5. 135 new Pokémon species have been introduced.
6. While not as cool-looking as the species introduced in Gen V, it did have some memorable monster designs that are some of the most fan-favorite species in the series (examples: Blaziken, Seviper, Absol, Altaria, and especially Gardevoir).
7. For the first time in Pokémon series you have a dad.
   • And also the first time that you had a Gym Leader as a family member
8. Berries have been reworked completely and can be planted in soft soil where they will grow up and produce more berries, but they must be picked up in time or the trees will die.
9. Trainers outdoors can be re-battled using the new Vs. Seeker item, which is a good source of additional Pokémon Dollars and extra experience.
10. A side quest named the Trick House is included.
11. Players can set up a Secret Base which they can decorate with furniture and accessories.
12. Double Battles were introduced where four Pokémon will battle at the same time. Some moves target all three other Pokémon, while others target the two enemy Pokémon, and still others target only one other Pokémon.
13. The Pokémon Storage System has been significantly enhanced, now you don't need to save the game to switch boxes. Also, Pokémon in boxes are indicated by mini icons in the box, and the amount of Pokémon that can be stored in each box was increased from 20 to 30.
14. For the first time, you have two villainous teams; Team Magma and Team Aqua, which do different things depending on the version of the game you get. In Emerald, you fight against both teams at once.
15. Emerald introduces the Battle Frontier, a post-game side quest where you play battles with special rules and earn rewards for winning streaks. There are seven different facilities each with its own set of rules.
16. Very memorable OST, such as the Wild Pokémon battle theme.
17. The games aged considerably well with their 3DS remakes, which were released in 2014 as part of Gen VI.

Bad Qualities

1. You need three different HMs to fully explore the ocean (Surf, Waterfall, and Dive).
   • On that topic, much of the final parts of the game are spent surfing, which becomes very tedious.
2. Unlike Gold, Silver and Crystal, there's no day and night cycle, even though some events are dependent on the time of day.
3. There is a flaw in the internal calendar of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire versions that causes a glitch called the Berry glitch which delays timed events in the game by a full year. There is a program in certain Pokémon games that fixes this glitch by advancing the calendar by up to 366 days so that timed events continue.
   • There is also a flaw in the internal battery for Emerald that stops the time in the game, which also can affect time-based events.
4. When you are soft resetting for a shiny starter, there's a chance you could find an uncatchable shiny Poochyena, or a Zigzagoon in Emerald.
   • In addition, there is also a chance the Ralts that Wally catches during the tutorial appears as a shiny, although it won't remain shiny for the rest of the game.
5. Pokémon Contests are polarizing among the fans. Some people like it while some others found it extremely boring and pointless.
6. Ruby and Sapphire have a very unappealing font and GUI, which was thankfully amended in Emerald.
7. Team Magma and Team Aqua's motivations are nonsensical. Fortunately, this is fixed in the remakes where they make more sense.
8. The games are noticeably easier than most other main series Pokémon games.
   • Furthermore, unless if you do side quests, they're also the shortest entries in the mainline series. Both that and the easy difficulty are painfully evident by using GameShark cheats.

Trivia

• When Ruby and Sapphire were initially released, for the first time in the series, not all existing Pokémon were available. Despite there were a total of 386 Pokémon at the time, 184 of the Pokémon from Generations I and II didn't make the cut, leaving 67 "survivors", 46 from Kanto and 21 from Johto. Those who were "cut" have been coded into the new games, but it took quite some time before they would all be legitimately implemented.
• Sharpedo was originally going to be the water starter Pokémon instead of Mudkip as shown in a Beta version of Ruby and Sapphire at Pokémon Festa 2002
• Originally, Blaziken and Latios were going to be one Pokémon as shown in some concept arts.