Handheld Wars #166 - Pokémon (Round 3) (Civil War)

When I suggested the pokemon games to Armored Core, the gen 3 games are the ones I wanted to talk about the most.

This is because gen 3 was famously declared the first (subjectively) disappointing pokemon gen back when it hit in 2003. I'm not sure why interest in the pokemon franchise had declined at that time, since Gold & Silver were considered landmarks in the handheld JRPG genre, which you would think would help propel the series' popularity further. But it's likely that the decisions & questionable additions Gamefreak made with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald could have turned off returning pokemon fans.

On one hand, gen 3 greatly improves many areas compared to the previous gen, ESPECIALLY the visuals, but also things like the inventories, the gameplay variety, the inclusion of double battles (which was arguably the best new addition), pokemon now having natures (which makes catching & breeding funner), faster, less clunky world navigation, and the battle tower which was a feature that Gold & Silver REALLY needed, because end-game mileage really improves with it.

But then there are the controversial additions and all the short comings. Firstly, there's the dreaded abilities. This was a REALLY great idea that was HORRIBLY implemented IMO, which in several cases totally broke the game's balancing, even on a casual level of play, and made pokemons' stats seem irrelevant. For example, there was the ability sand veil, which was so OP that it resulted in certain pokemon with it being banned, something which was unheard of until this point! Source: False Swipe Gaming



For casual or single player playthroughs, sand veil might not have been an issue, but other abilities like Intimidate and Pure Power potentially were, since they basically either doubled your pokemon's attack stat or halved your opponents attack stat upon switching in! Looking back this REALLY irks me mostly because there was no way to turn abilities off! It was not merely an option IT WAS FORCED! All Gamefreak needed to do to make abilities fun would've been to have pokemon require some sort of hold item in order to activate. I think this might of been able to balance abilities out since hold items like leftovers are extremely useful, especially in serious play, so forcing the player to choose between using abilities or hold items might've given the gameplay more balance. IDK, that's just me, anyway. 

Secondly, the pokemon designs seemed like a noticeable step down in quality, or at least a slight step down. The new pokemon still looked colorful and imaginative, but there seemed to be less refined and detail in many instances, and the golem legendaries were no where near as cool as the legendary dogs and legendary birds we got previously. Compared to the other problems, this one is minor but it's still worth mentioning.

Thirdly, there are less pokemon featured! Yes, the game introduces 100 new pokemon, which matches gen II number of new pokemon, but only about 50 old pokemon give/take make a return. So overall there's, like, 50 less pkm to catch than in gen 2. And the worst part is that you NEED to use a cheating device if you want anything more, since the game doesn't feature any sort of official way to import all the omitted pkm.


Overall, while I absolutely LOVED my time spent with pokemon Ruby, I don't think gen 3 was an objective improvement over gen 2 like many fans hoped it to be. For every thing it improves on, it takes one step backwards. I think Game Freak should've saved the less-important additions like the beauty contest for Emerald version and instead put time into adding an extra 50 more new pokemon into the game for Ruby and Sapphire version. THAT would have turned the games into objective 5/5s. But as they are, I give them 4/5. More refined than gen 2 but also more gimmicky and less ambitious.

Bonus complaint: I really wish these games were available digitally. :/ I want to play them again!

Sapphire is definitely the pokemon game I have logged the most hours in. Absolutely love it and still revisit it now and then.