Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Criticism

[SlowPokemon]

Okay, I'm not sure if this is worth asking or starting a new topic, but I have a question:

Ruby and Sapphire are the most-criticized games in the Pokemon series. However, maybe because my first Pokemon game was Ruby, I don't really see anything terrible about them. To those of y'all that don't like it, do you not like it as a game, or just because it didn't live up to Gold and Silver?

I like R/S. They introduced Abilities, new Pokemon, double battles, coolest legendaries (except perhaps Ho-Oh/Lugia), and berries with actual names, not to mention finally distinguishing between the Special stats...

Just a thought.

[dahans]

This is definitely worth a topic IMO, we have had other topics that were a million times more unnecessary than this one. Basically, I consider Pokemon RS a great game, with a mediocre storyline and a great battling system. Many people didn't buy this game, because it was only playable for the Advance. This is not justified, because the graphics are great.
Moreover, I love the legendaries, especially the golems (is this the right expression for it? I don't know ). I really enjoyed playing this game.

[SlowPokemon]

I agree (well, duh, you already know that). As far as legendaries go, Diamond and Pearl had more, but they weren't of high quality.
Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie weren't great and, despite their size, really weren't as cute as Jirachi or Celebi. Dialga and Palkia had horrible, robotic designs, and besides, nothing can compare to Groudon's and Kyogre's... overwhelming epic-ness.
Heatran, Cresselia, and Regigigas were the only really good legendaries in D/P/Pt, and even so, Regigigas was based off of Hoenn legendaries.
Latias and Latios are really cool, as are Rayquaza and Deoxys.
And Jirachi is, well, awesome.
My only bad comment about the legendaries are the three "Regis," Regirock, Regice, and Registeel. They weren't designed well, nor were they...good.

[Cobraroll]

Bulbanews to the rescue!

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Generation_III:_Criticized_too_often%3F

And I love generation III: The colourful Hoenn region, the tropical climate. There was a reason to return to every town/city (ask yourself: How often do you go to Cherrygrove City in G/S/C or Floaroma in D/P?), they had proper Pokémon Contests (Super contests are just silly), there was lots of cool stuff about the environment, and they were only on the brink of going overboard with the legendaries.

I loved the weather of the tropical Hoenn region, I loved the Secret Bases you could hide wherever you want and rebattle your friends. Okay, I did not love the highest EXP yielding opponent in the game being below lvl 60, but hey, there are flaws to every piece of art, right?

R/S also had a thing that D/P sorely lacked: Landmarks. Mout Pyre, Mount Chimney, Scorched Slab, the desert, Fiery Path, the Trick House, the ash on route 113, the weather institute, the abandoned ship... those are just a few of the many. What does D/P have? The random Lost Tower and Mount Coronet? The three lakes? How boring. Don't get me started on the routes. Not two routes in R/S are the same, whereas in D/P, everything is so similar it's boring.

All in all, I loved the Generation III games. Okay, the game mechanics in Gen. IV were superior, but gameplay- and variety-wise, Gen. III is the champ.

Also, I agree with SlowPokemon over here concerning the legendaries. Though, I think the Regis had certain qualities. They were quite bad, indeed, but they were cool, so to say. I wish their chambers could be a little more prominent, for example Regice residing in the ice portion of Shoal Cave and Registeel in New Mauville somewhere. Those locations were too cool to be left unnoticed.

Also, no denying Darkrai and Giratina are epic.

[SlowPokemon]

Yup, you're right about Darkrai and Giratina. Forgot about those.

Okay. Looking back, there is one thing that irritates me about gen III:
There were SO MANY water routes. Not that that's always a bad thing; but those Tentacool can be pretty darn irritating. The other thing is Sceptile - Grass-Type starters are my favorites. But Sceptile - despite the fact that I choose him most of the time - is weak compared to his partners. Blaziken is unfairly strong, and Swampert has an amazing Type combination. Sceptile's Speed is one of the highest in the games, but does that really account for it?

[Taser9090]

I didn't really like the water routes, I couldn't use my fire or rock type Pokemon. And I also didn't like how they got lazy to make the  Pokemon animations in R/S.

The gameplay was fun, I even played it three times, for the past 2 years. I can't play Pearl without being bored for the next month.

[SlowPokemon]

I love Hoenn - in fact just now doing another Emerald Version journey - but after playing Diamond and Pearl once each, then dragging through Platinum, I can't do Sinnoh anymore.

It gets old REAL fast.

[Ruto]

I didn't really like the water routes, I couldn't use my fire or rock type Pokemon. And I also didn't like how they got lazy to make the  Pokemon animations in R/S.

The gameplay was fun, I even played it three times, for the past 2 years. I can't play Pearl without being bored for the next month.

I didn't like the animations much . When it was introduced in Crystal, it took too much extra time for me. Not sure about it in the later games but I always think animations take too long.

Ruby is the game (second to Leafgreen) where I completed the entire region dex and caught every possible Pokemon in national dex (excluded Celebi). It was actually possible in that game, but in D/P/Pt, even trying to see every Pokemon made me wanna puke. It became a chore. And I thought they would probably make it so rain would have some effect on planted berries.

Okay. Looking back, there is one thing that irritates me about gen III:
There were SO MANY water routes. Not that that's always a bad thing; but those Tentacool can be pretty darn irritating. The other thing is Sceptile - Grass-Type starters are my favorites. But Sceptile - despite the fact that I choose him most of the time - is weak compared to his partners. Blaziken is unfairly strong, and Swampert has an amazing Type combination. Sceptile's Speed is one of the highest in the games, but does that really account for it?

They made speed more important, but I really hated how the fire type was ALWAYS the best and the only set without 4x weaknesses. Swampert is 4x weak against Grass, Torterra weak against Ice and Empoleon could be easily beaten by Infernape. The only good attack Sceptile had was Leaf Blade.

[Cobraroll]

The D/P starters are quite cool, actually.

With access to Ice Beam, Empoleon can beat Torterra. It does not get STAB on Ice Beam, but Torterra's 4x weakness makes it a viable move regardless.

Torterra, on the other hand, has a secondary Ground typing, with deals super-effective STAB damage to Infernape...

...who on its own side has a Fight typing which hits Empoleon hard.

It's not a type triangle: It's two.

[SlowPokemon]

I think Hoenn is my favorite region. Before y'all shake your heads, Ruby was my first Pokemon game EVER.

The vastness of Pokemon... A new one to be discovered every day... Heroically battling Team Magma (the best team ever) to stop their nefarious plan to expand the landmass...

It was so amazing, seeing the world with endless possibilities. I just wish I could feel that again.

I remember I only trained my Sceptile. Never did that again.

After I finally beat the Pokemon League (with a Sceptile Lv 84) I started to train some other Pokemon.
I had a Gardevoir, Salamence, and Cradily in their 60s and 70s in addition to my Sceptile. It was a terrible team, but I loved them all so much. ^.^

I look back and shake my head because my Sceptile knew Cut, Dragon Claw, Hyper Beam, and Solar Beam. All Tm/Hm. lol.

I think I could rant on about Pokemon Ruby forever if I wanted to.

[Roz~]

Those games were so... childish. Okay, I know that maybe RBY and GSC were not any better, but since I grew up with them, I don't care. But when I saw RSE, I was sooooo disappointed. The game were too "colorful", the Pokemon were effin ugly (with a few exceptions including Metagross and Gardevoir). To me, the teams were just lame compared to team Rocket. So yeah, I didn't really like those games.

[SlowPokemon]

Those games were so... childish. Okay, I know that maybe RBY and GSC were not any better, but since I grew up with them, I don't care. But when I saw RSE, I was sooooo disappointed. The game were too "colorful", the Pokemon were effin ugly (with a few exceptions including Metagross and Gardevoir). To me, the teams were just lame compared to team Rocket. So yeah, I didn't really like those games.

Metagross was like the ugliest one from Hoenn. lol.

[Cobraroll]

^Not at all. Not even remotely.

[SlowPokemon]

Which one was ugliest then? I love all Pokemon, I'd never call any of them really ugly or weak. I even like Magikarp, though I'd never use it. I feel sorry for it. lol.

[Cobraroll]

In no particular order:

Lombre
Pelipper
Plusle&Minun (damn Pichu clones. That's also why I hate Pachirisu and the electric rodent in Gen. V)
Makuhita
Skitty
Sableye
Meditite/Medicham
Volbeat
Illumise
Spinda (especially Spinda)
Chimecho
Snorunt
Huntail/Gorebyss

Metagross is among the coolest out there. I mean, look at it!