This video is sponsored by NordVPN. Use the link on screen and in the description
to get 68% off a 2 year plan, with 4 additional months free. Stay tuned for more details. After Pokémon Gold and Silver, this franchise
was unstoppable. Pokémon was a marketing behemoth, and Generation
3 was an absolute explosion. Alongside the everpresent toys, movies, and
trading cards was a horde of ambitious spinoffs. This generation was the birth of the Pokémon
Mystery dungeon series, the Pokémon Ranger series, and most importantly, the two 3D,
console Pokémon adventures across the region of Orre. This was my generation, the era where Pokémon
captured me, and likely many others. The root of that ambition tracing back to
the mainline titles Ruby and Sapphire. Once again there's a new region with new Pokémon,
but a number of changes saw a somewhat noticeable shift in the direction of the series, which
could be seen as either good or bad. I tend to think it was a favorable direction,
but now I'm just getting ahead of myself. This video will be a little different. It is still primarily focused on the debut
titles, Ruby and Sapphire, in order to get a more accurate picture of its flaws at the
time. However, it will include a somewhat lengthy
focus on Pokémon Emerald version after the broad discussion of the debut titles has concluded. In my opinion, this is the first sister release
which radically altered its debut games, and those changes are big enough to warrant its
own sizable chunk of the video. As usual, there will be no discussion of the
remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I plan to cover every Pokémon remake in one
video at a later date. Let's take a dive into the Hoenn region; a Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
Retrospective. --
Part 1 - Harmonious Hoenn -- Hoenn is based on the Kyushu region of Japan,
home to the production of major agricultural products; hot springs; an active volcano;
and other hallmarks of a tropical climate. Kyushu is a sight to behold, one of the most
beautiful regions in the world, and a place I definitely want to visit one day: it was
wise of Gamefreak, then, to make that natural beauty a focus. Junichi Masuda talks about how he visited
Kyushu during summer vacation when he was a kid, where he, “...would dive into the
sea and catch fish with spears, collect shellfish and crabs, go fishing with rods, or with a
net, go to the river to catch crabs and shrimps, catch sleeping fish in the river with hands
at night, and go hunting for beetles.” His view of Kyushu is one of a warm heart,
of its people and its creatures; and so Hoenn’s central themes revolve around the building
of gentle relationships. People in Hoenn are quite caring; Rusturf
Tunnel, which would more easily connect Rustboro to cities like Mauville, had its construction
work cancelled after it began causing discomfort to the local Whismur; the residents of Fortree
City commune with nature amongst the trees, as its map description remarks: “The people
and the Pokemon of this city follow nature’s cues to rise each morning and end each day.” I think this image sums up the region best:
https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/5/54/Slateport_City_Mt_Chimney_artwork.png People and Pokemon having fun on the beach,
a tradeyard just behind them, with the towering Mt. Chimney in the distance. Nature is an ever present force in this region,
something you can never escape, and learning to coexist with it is the key to happiness. Many of the Pokémon in this region reflect
this relationship with nature. Ralts is meant to resemble a small child,
shy but empathetic. As it evolves into Kirlia and Gardevoir, it
becomes more mature and elegant. It starts to resemble a ballroom dancer, and
becomes even more protective of its trainer. It’s japanese name is Sirknight as well,
so there’s probably some chivalry, blurring of the gender barriers going on, but I’m
not gonna read too much into it. Whismur is a timid Pokémon, using its loud
cries as warning calls, but as it evolves into Loudred, and eventually Exploud, those
cries can be used to communicate feelings across long distances. While Exploud is certainly capable of causing
earthquakes with its loud soundwaves, the fact that it uses its sound to relay messages
from city to city, instead of going on rampages, is pretty telling. Many Pokémon live deep inside caves, out
at sea, or deep underwater, away from civilization. Treecko and Mudkip are quite reclusive, Treecko
in particular very defensive of its territory and able to blend in with its natural surroundings. They're based on animals you'd find in more
tropical settings, a leaf gecko and an axolotl. I'm a really big fan of the designs in this
generation. Zigzagoon and Linoone are by far my favorite
rodents of any generation. Zigzagoon only run in zig zags, how is that
not the cutest thing? That jagged, light and dark brown color scheme
is replicated by Linoone, but with a straighter pattern since it can only run in straight
lines. They're just so wonderful and dumb and I love
them. Shiftry is a cross between a tengu and a nutcracker,
said to arrive with harsh winds, and can read people's minds. Kinda terrifying. Snorunt is adorable, it looks like its constantly
pulling its coat over its body to warm up. It evolves into Glalie, a weird devil ice
rock thing that's as rad as it is scary. Of course, I'd be remiss to mention that this
generation introduced my favorite Pokémon, Absol. First of all, it's one of the coolest looking
Pokémon ever, and it inspired my love of the dark typing. That scythe-like horn and the smooth, white
fur are just so alluring. It's majestic, but also foreboding. Let me read you its initial Pokédex entries: Every time Absol appears before people, it
is followed by a disaster such as an earthquake or a tidal wave. As a result, it came to be known as the disaster
Pokémon. Absol has the ability to foretell the coming
of natural disasters. It lives in a harsh, rugged mountain environment. This Pokémon very rarely ventures down from
the mountains. It sharply senses even subtle changes in the
sky and the land to predict natural disasters. It is a long-lived Pokémon that has a life-span
of 100 years. All of this just sparked my imagination like
no other. It's such a mysterious Pokémon. It embodies the spirit of a recluse, a loner
that only journeys to a human settlement to warn of impending disaster. Its willingness to warn those around it of
impending doom is very kind, despite it not always receiving a warm welcome from those
inhabitants. It's a misunderstood beast of legend, one
you can't quite pin down. This is my favorite part of Pokémon: the
wonder of it all. I can only imagine living in a world where
Absol was real, a barometer for natural disasters, an omen in physical form, one that you can
catch and befriend. Our “villainous force” this time around
are Team Aqua and Magma, depending on the version you're playing, with very similar
goals. Team Magma wants to expand the landmass, and
Team Aqua wants to expand the amount of water. Both of them approach these goals with a modicum
of care, despite the ridiculous premise. Ultimately, they seek to help the world and
its inhabitants, they’ve simply arrived at a faulty conclusion. It is somewhat ridiculous the lengths to which
they believe the things they do about how to improve the world, but I always found their
presence to be entertaining at the very least. I don't know that anyone is ever meant to
sympathize with Archie or Maxie, their motivations are simply an interesting backdrop to the
adventure, one with a touch more depth than Team Rocket. You run into them a few times, they almost
destroy the world, and you put a stop to them. One thing I don't like about this dynamic
are the version changes. Ruby and Sapphire are the only Pokémon games
to have a split team across both versions. In every other game, the evil team is the
same, and so are the characters involved in the story. When you play Ruby, you'll be fighting against
Team Magma, and when you play Sapphire, you'll be fighting against Team Aqua. Their dialogue and motivations are almost
copy-pasted, making it harder to see either of these leaders as their own person, and
more just like a collective embodiment of their misunderstandings. My bigger problem with this setup is that
the opposite team leader will become your ally to help stop the evil team. This means that the versions have opposite
evil and good teams. If you play one after the other, I guarantee
you'll get narrative whiplash. It's as if they body swap between the versions,
who is the real Team Aqua or Team Magma? I respect the attempt at distinguishing between
the two versions more radically, but I think we can safely keep those decisions limited
to version exclusives. Still, it's a solid enough premise to distract
from the eight gym badge quest, and its tackling of climate issues in this day and age is sadly
more relevant than it has ever been. As is often the case, I'm much more interested
in what this focus on climate means for the region's legendary Pokémon. As much as the story would have you believe
Groudon and Kyogre are beings of calamity, their Pokédex entries tell a different story. Groudon has long been described in mythology
as the Pokémon that raised lands and expanded continents. This Pokémon took to sleep after a cataclysmic
battle with Kyogre. Groudon has the power to scatter rain clouds
and make water evaporate with light and heat. It came as a savior to people who had been
suffering from terrible floods. Kyogre has the power to create massive rain
clouds that cover the entire sky and bring about torrential downpours. This Pokémon saved people who were suffering
from droughts. Kyogre is named in mythology as the Pokémon
that expanded the sea by covering the land with torrential rains and towering tidal waves. It took to sleep after a cataclysmic battle
with Groudon. Just as their capacity for destruction is
highlighted, so too was their ability to help the world. They are opposite forces of nature, and though
they often feud, they both must exist to preserve nature's harmony. I adore these box legendaries, they're some
of the strongest the series has seen yet. They double as creation myths and forces of
planetary calamity. I'm in awe of their ancient designs, covered
in sleek colored plates, with lines of power coursing through their body. Fitting with the theme of ancient legends,
hidden away to keep their tremendous power at bay, the regi trio are fascinating. Regirock is composed of many different types
of rocks, and can repair itself by collecting more. Regice was frozen into being during the ice
age, and has remained deep in hiding ever since. It cannot be melted. Makes you wonder why it’s still weak to
fire types, but uh, I’ll let that one slide. Registeel is made of the sturdiest metal known
to the world. Curiously, there isn't much actually known
about them. They were locked away years ago, but for what
purpose? None can really say. One can only guess as to their unique origins. Finally, we reach the dedicated "KingK complains
about mythical Pokémon and why limited release Pokémon are bad and dumb." This particular case hurts a lot, because
we're talking about one of my all time favorites. Jirachi is so cool. It's like a genie in the lamp mixed with a
fortune teller. It will grant people wishes, with the caveat
being that it sleeps for thousands of years and will grow restless at the sign of danger. It's elusive in a very exciting way, I love
it's star-shaped design, I love its color scheme, I just want to hold it in my hands…
and it's a Pokémon you can't get in-game without an event. Amazing. Even more crushing, Deoxys is an organism
birthed from a space virus that can shape its body into any form it wants. This one is particularly brutal since you
can visit the Mossdeep space station, and it almost feels like the game is teasing you
about it, especially in Emerald. As a kid, I was absolutely convinced this
space station meant something. If you did this, that or the other thing,
you'd be able to fly the rocket into space and encounter Deoxys! Basically my version of the Mew under the
truck theory. That in and of itself isn't necessarily bad,
it's part of the curiosity and wanderlust only this series could have provided. However, since it isn't available in-game,
and only through a limited time event, I never got to go out into the world and find it like
I did with the regis. The regis had it right, they made you figure
out how to read braille so you could perform an elaborate set of commands to open the door
to their caves, it was really cool. Jirachi and Deoxys have really cool lore,
but they may as well not even exist in the generation. This problem is only going to get worse as
the series goes on: you haven't even heard the worst of me going off about this trend. Once again, Japan reigned supreme in this
sense. While there were american events, it took
quite a while for those events to reach Europe and other countries, and the majority were
still in Japan. If only there existed a way to eradicate regional
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the Black Friday deal before it ends! May Jirachi and Deoxys always be in our hearts. --
Part 2 - Et tu, water? -- I've talked at length about the design etymology
of Hoenn, how it relates to its larger themes and messages, and how the Pokémon designs
often reflect that climate. It's only fitting we now talk about Hoenn's
geometrical design, and how the player journeys through it on their badge quest. I don't know that enough credit is given to
Hoenn's landscape design, how seamless it is to get from place to place. Your journey is sort of a spiral out from
this midpoint, perpetually in circles until it all fans out into the ocean. The second city you visit has the fifth gym
in it, meaning at some point, you'll need to get back to Petalburg. You don't get Fly until the 6th gym, so you'll
have to get there on your own. Thankfully, everything is connected so well
that it doesn't take long at all to get from Lavaridge back to Petalburg. Simply jump down these ledges, make it to
Mauville, head west to Verdanturf, travel through the Rusturf Tunnel back into Rustboro,
then south through the forest and back to Petalburg. You could also journey south through the cycling
road, and then have Mr. Briney take you back by sea. Either way, it's a fairly quick journey because
of the various shortcuts that open up and link these initially disparate communities
together. It's such a fun region to explore, closing
back in on itself in a way that's almost akin to finding a shortcut in Dark Souls. Wow, I was here a long time ago, look at how
much I've grown since then! It narrows out once you get Surf, but as soon
as you reach Mossdeep and obtain Dive, the ocean is yours to explore in its entirety. Haha yes yes, too much water, 7.8, let's get
the funny memes out of the way now. Let out your laughter, connect with your inner
meme for a moment. Bask in its glory. I kinda love how much water is in Hoenn. They're some of the best water routes the
series has to offer. In previous games, they were basically just
normal routes with water in them. They funneled you to your next destination,
and that was that. Hoenn's water routes are gigantic, with many
secret islands, trainers, and items to seek out. Getting lost at sea is a legit possibility
with how much there is to do, both above and under the water. Diving underwater will lead you to Pokémon,
into secret bases, or into closed off islands with trainers and other useful items. There's an entire city out here, floating
on the water. You're never required to go here, you just
can if you want to. It's around where you can activate the hunt
for the regis, and where the mysterious mirage island can sometimes appear. An unfortunate side effect of the ocean is
that there are a lot of water type Pokémon, and once again 3 different water HMs. Dive replaces Whirlpool, and while it's a
better move than Whirlpool, it's just a weaker version of Surf that takes an extra turn to
damage the opponent. I have to save this rant for one more video,
we are not yet at peak HM annoyance. The abundance of trainers on the water routes
can get a little exhausting since they all pull from the same selection. You're almost always going to be using a grass
or electric type to deal with them. Team Aqua and Magma grunts have the same problem
Rocket grunts had, where they use a lot of Poochyena, Carvanha, and Zubat. Get ready to see a lot of those specific Pokémon. We once again start our gym badge journey
up against the rock typing, but in this case it's so much easier to forgive since Game
Freak have clearly learned to space out the time until the first gym, and have made a
wider selection available to deal with rock types. Torchic, the fire type starter, evolves into
Combusken, giving it the dual fighting type to deal with Roxanne. Treecko and Mudkip can deal with them without
evolving, so you won't need to grind them out for the gym. If you don't want to grind evolve your Torchic,
though, Shroomish is available in the forest, and Lotad is available before Petalburg. You can also catch Seedot, but I’m not a
big fan of using it early game. This is the first game in the series where
you must challenge every gym leader in order. There's no freedom to be had, but thanks to
the design being pretty backtrack friendly, I don't find this to be as annoying as it
could have been. Plus, since there's a set order you'll fight
the bosses in, level scaling works so much more naturally. The leaders themselves are pretty hit or miss
in their difficulty. Norman, Winona, and Wallace are quite challenging. Norman's Pokémon pack a ridiculous punch,
armed with the bulk to survive multiple hits. Slaking, generally, is a monster of a Pokémon,
even with his Truant ability drawback making it so he can only attack every other turn. The gym itself is built around stat rooms,
where the trainers will focus on raising a specific stat. It's a fun way to teach you that you'll likely
need to use stat boosting or stat lowering moves to survive, since Norman's Pokémon
are only weak to fighting, a physical type up against physically defensive Pokémon. Despite his brazen use of Luvdisc, Wallace
has a pretty good spread. Milotic is a fairly bulky Pokémon, Whiscash
nullifies its electric weakness. It's not the most difficult fight in the game,
not by any stretch, but at least he has a lot of interesting typings and some rare,
bulkier Pokémon. Winona is the peak of the gym challenges. She has four unique dual typings. Swellow allows for a Normal type attacker
that doesn't have a weakness to fighting types. You can't give it a status condition or its
attack will be raised by 50%, and with its base speed of 125, you probably won't be outspeeding
it unless you paralyze it. It makes using an electric type a bit of a
risky play, since most electric type moves have a chance to paralyze. Next, she uses Skarmory, a Steel/Flying type. Skarmory is famously defensive, its typing
is extremely effective. It eliminates the Steel weakness to Ground
and Fighting with the flying type, and eliminates the Flying weakness to Rock with the Steel
typing. It has access to Steel wing so you can't just
use a rock type, and forces you to use a special attacker to bypass his defenses. You'll likely need an electric type to break
through. Which brings us to Altaria, a Specially defensive
bird with the dual dragon typing. It would be helpful to carry an ice type to
exploit that 4x weakness (which you can only really get at the Game Corner, so good luck
with that), and you'll want to do that quickly since it's built around spamming Dragon Dance. If this thing gets set up, it is a force to
be reckoned with. I'll admit that Pelipper isn't amazing or
anything, but it continues the pattern of a unique typing with a different stat specialization. Each of Winona's Pokémon changes her weaknesses,
thus changing which Pokémon you'll need to use. She has a physical attacker, a special attacker,
a defensive wall, and a specially defensive wall, with a diverse move pool and some scary
strategic combinations. She is the ideal "monotype" gym leader, because
there isn't a clear solution. You'll need a variety of Pokémon to win,
I almost always struggle against her. Compare Winona to Flannery. Oh dear. Slugma, Slugma, Torkoal. The curse of Blaine's past has come to haunt
Flannery in an even more extreme fashion. At least she uses one of the new fire types
in Hoenn. To be charitable, this isn't really Flannery's
fault. Fire types available in Hoenn include: Blaziken,
Magcargo, Camerupt, Torkoal, and Ninetails. Not a lot of great options here, but even
then: she could have had a Magcargo instead of two Slugma. She could have had a Camerupt, a new Hoenn
fire type. Maybe this is controversial, but she really
should have also had Combusken. I understand that your starter should be special,
only you and your rival should have one, whatever. Random damn trainers have had starters before,
a gym leader would totally use a starter Pokémon if it fit their monotype. Anything would have made her less pathetic. Wattson suffers from "a ground type will end
my career" syndrome, since he has literally nothing to deal with ground types. In the generation that introduced abilities,
one of which nullifies ground type moves, it is absolute horseshit that Magneton doesn't
get Levitate. Even if he had Levitate, he's still weak to
both Fighting and Fire. At least give Wattson a Chinchou or something
for the water typing, this is just sad. Not like it'd help him much, but he doesn't
even use Manectric? The debut Hoenn electric type with Static,
which could have paralyzed the player? Nah, guess he's just Kantonian. Monotype gym leaders are always beholden to
whichever Pokémon are available in the region. As you'd imagine, not every type gets the
same treatment. I won't be the first to say this, but gyms
have needed a serious rework for many, many years. My approach to team building in Ruby and Sapphire
ironically presents two different solutions to this dilemma that inherit the spirit of
what these battles are supposed to be. My team for Sapphire was a monotype water
team. Swampert, Gyarados, Walrein, Gorebyss, Ludicolo,
and Crawdaunt. Figured this is the gen where a monotype water
team would be the most effective, and since it's in the version where Kyogre is going
to drown the world in water, we needed a team that could survive that apocalyptic event. This is a team that can cover so many different
bases. Each one has a unique dual typing, and can
learn a variety of different moves. Swampert is the best starter from a pure usage
standpoint. He has extremely good coverage, he isn't weak
to electric, he's a bulky mixed attacker, meaning he can make efficient use of both
his water and ground typing. He has an answer for virtually anything, just
don't use him against a grass type. Walrein serves several functions. It's a decently bulky Pokémon, which already
has a dual typing that removes its weakness to fire types, and an ability which further
reduces incoming fire and ice type attacks. It's signature move, Ice Ball, powers up after
using Defense Curl, meaning you can set up your defenses and then decimate with the ice
type equivalent to Rollout, without the initial low base power. It's also a good Rain Dance setter, crucial
for a monotype team. Giving it the ol' Resto Chesto set means it
can get a free max heal at any point in battle, likely after setting up a ton of defense curls. He's incredible against flying and dragon
types. Crawdaunt is a Water/Dark type. His ability can either prevent your attack
stat from being reduced, or make it so critical hits can never land, two really great abilities. He offers a natural immunity to psychic types,
with a potential offensive answer should you want to run Crunch… oh wait, he only learns
Crunch at level 51… and only in FireRed and Leafgreen… and it's a dark type attack
on a Physical attacker… in fact, this is a water and dark type, a dual special attacker,
with its max stat being physical attack. You know, now that you mention it, the Walrein
line, introduced in Ruby and Sapphire, can't even learn Defense Curl naturally in its own
game, which is a core feature of its signature move. You have to do it in FireRed and LeafGreen. Who the FUCK- *ahem* Whoops, looks like I fell into a trance there. I'll try not to let that happen again. Gyarados is just a solid pick, with access
to a wide variety of moves, and Intimidate as an all around amazing ability to lower
enemy attack on switch-in. It's bulky enough to survive special attacks,
even with its electric 4x weakness. I don't think I need to even explain why Gyarados
is good. Gorebyss was a nice surprise. It's got a decently high special attack, and
can learn Psychic, an incredibly powerful move even if it unfortunately doesn't get
stab. What really surprised me about Gorebyss, though,
was that it learned Baton Pass and Agility. Baton Pass is a move that retains all stat
changes, and gives them to whatever Pokémon you switch into. This, on its own, isn't amazing. It's not a particularly fast Pokémon, nor
is it all that bulky. However, it's ability Swift Swim doubles its
speed in rain, which synergizes wonderfully with a mono water team. Rain Dance is crucial to the core anyway,
we're gonna be using it all the time. So not only is Gorebyss a great special attacker,
it can set up with Agility and Swift Swim, using Baton Pass before it dies to give the
next Pokémon a ridiculously high speed stat. This works wonderfully with Crawdaunt, who
can learn Swords Dance, but has a low speed stat. All of a sudden, Crawdaunt turns into a sweeper,
one with Brick Break and Aerial Ace. Finally we have Ludicolo. It can learn Swift Swim, but it also learns
Rain Dish, which restores HP every turn during rain. Pairing this with Leftovers, which restore
HP every turn, Giga Drain, a powerful stab move that restores HP, Dive, a usually useless
move that gives Ludicolo an extra turn of natural HP recovery, and Toxic, which badly
poisons an opponent, doubling in power every turn it's poisoned. I don't think I need to say anything else. This is a monotype team done right, it has
a ton of synergy, covers a bunch of different types and stats, and was a pleasure to use
throughout the game. There were unique struggles, unique victories. I loved using this team despite some of the
underdog picks like Gorebyss. Even without monotype teams, though, a gym
leader could center around a separate theme. My team for Ruby was a Sunny Day team, a perfect
fit for an apocalypse with eternal drought. Torkoal, though he unfortunately does not
yet learn Drought, is a defensive fire type. It's unusual, but he's very effective against
physical attackers, especially with Curse. Shiftry has the ability Chlorophyll, which
like Swift Swim, doubles its speed in the sun. It doesn't learn a ton of moves, but it gets
Fake Out for the first turn flinch, Giga Drain for HP recovery, Faint Attack and Shadow Ball
for coverage. Blaziken is a solid all around pick. Mixed attacker typing, access to a variety
of moves, you know why Blaziken is good. Golduck has the ability Cloud Nine, which
ignores all effects of weather conditions. While he may not get bonuses for being in
rain, our team doesn't want to be in rain anyway. Ever. For any reason. So you can ignore all effects of weather,
including the 50% damage decrease to water type moves while in sunlight. One of the side effects to basing a team around
a weather effect is that your opponent can make use of it as well. Not only are there almost zero fire types
in gen 3, you can now use Golduck to get rid of them. They'll have no answer to it. Claydol is here for a similar reason. It's a good wall, with access to Calm Mind,
all that good stuff. But, it's also weak to water, which is weakened
by 50% in sunlight. Finally, we have Castform, a unique Pokémon
that changes its form and typing depending on the weather condition. This is our Sunny Day setter. He'll gain the fire type in sunlight, for
one thing. He can learn Thunderbolt and Solarbeam for
amazing coverage, especially considering Solarbeam doesn't need an extra turn of charge in sunlight. Weather Ball, though, is the signature move. It will take on the typing of whatever weather
is currently in effect. Water for rain, rock for sandstorm, ice for
hail, and fire for sun. It's a 50 base power move with the potential
for on the fly STAB depending on which weather condition is in play, and it upgrades to 100
base power in any weather condition. Castform is a Pokémon I've never used before. I always took a glance at its stats, its weird
gimmick, and ignored it. Under the right team setup, though, this thing
is a monster. Once again, this team struggled and triumphed
at different points. I played Ruby and Sapphire back to back with
completely different teams, and it wasn't draining in the slightest. Both teams gave me a completely different
experience. This is always the answer I give when people
ask me how I can keep playing Pokémon over and over and over again: team building is
the best part of Pokémon. Full stop. There are endless combinations, endless synergies,
endless favorites to discover. Gym leaders could do the same, they don't
have to be limited to one type, and even if they are, there's so much more you could do
with the monotype than these games are willing to. And this problem only ever gets more tiring
with time. I'm not saying they need to use all the best
moves, or all the best Pokémon, this doesn't need to be a damn Drayano hack, I would just
appreciate more interesting and varied boss fights centered around different themes, even
if the theme is very loose. That's all. Steven Stone, the champion, is a great example. Steven's a rock collector, he travels throughout
the globe looking for rare stones. His team revolves around a trio of types as
a theme. He has Rock, Steel, and Ground types in his
arsenal. Two of those are the gen 3 fossils, a nice
touch. It's a pretty loose theme, admittedly. He's a collector of rare stones, his type
reflects that, and it gives him a variety of strong options. That's all I'm really asking for here. It makes Steven a really memorable and unique
final boss encounter, a massive step up from this stick in the mud. Your rival, Brendan or May depending on your
gender, is unfortunately not much of a threat. I've always found them pretty milquetoast,
their team just flat out sucks, your last fight with them is in Lilycove City, and they
only have four Pokémon. Wally, who should have been your actual primary
rival, is a much more interesting character. He has an unexplained illness that seems to
improve when there's clean air, falling pretty nicely in line with the very faint environmentalist
message the game aligns itself with. Wally's illness means that he can't progress
at the same pace as the player, even though he desperately wants to train Pokémon. Despite his many setbacks, he meets you at
Victory Road with a really cool team. It's not the most powerful team, but it's
a team he got to make. He caught Ralts during the catching tutorial,
and now he's trained it up to a Gardevoir. He's got Roselia, Delcatty, Altaria, and Magneton. It's a wide range of types, a pretty good
team, one which he managed to pull together despite his illness. It really sucks he couldn't have been the
focus. He barely shows up, making his Victory Road
appearance feel kinda unearned. His story also mirrors Brendan and May's story
in the sense that they're not hard-core battlers with a team of super strong Pokémon. They both just want to get out there and train
Pokémon. Wally could have filled all of those roles,
with the added benefit of struggling with his illness. He braved so much to make it to Victory Road,
it's commendable. A feel good story. --
Part 3 - Personalizing Pokémon -- Hoenn brought with it a few additions to the
battling formula in the form of natures and abilities. Natures determine which stat your Pokémon
specializes in, and which one it has a weakness in. Bold Pokémon have increased physical defense
at the cost of decreased physical attack. Jolly has an increase in speed at the cost
of decreased special attack. Abilities give your Pokémon an extra effect. Levitate gives your Pokémon an immunity to
ground-type attacks; Intimidate lowers the opponents physical attack by one stage; Flash
Fire absorbs fire type attacks and powers up your own fire type attacks in return; Guts
increases your attack stat when you have a status condition. There are too many to list, but there are
a lot of interesting ones. I think we're at the point now where there's
a lot more to team building than simple Pokémon choice. Some Pokémon have multiple abilities to choose
from, and they all pull from a list of 20 different natures at random. I usually just roll with it. If a Pokémon has a really bad ability, I'll
take it along with me anyway because it's part of the narrative I create for myself
as a trainer. As far as I'm concerned, my Pokémon is the
runt of the litter, he has a lot more training to do and a lot more to prove. These changes add a lot to your battle strategy. Now you have to be aware that your opponent
has an ability, and you'll usually need to play around it. Koffing and Wheezing are no longer weak to
Ground types due to Levitate; Carvanha and Sharpedo do damage to Pokémon that make physical
contact with Rough Skin; Wobuffet's Shadow Tag prevents a Pokémon from switching out
of battle. Not only will you be up against all new Pokémon,
they'll have abilities you'll need to work out. All of the existing Pokémon have been given
abilities as well, adding not only to the possibilities you'll see in combat, but to
the possibilities you'll have for team building. Will you raise a gang of underdog misfits,
or a battle hardened team of all-stars. The choice is yours. A more subtle addition was that of the Effort
Value system, where you can raise a specific stat by battling. When defeated, you earn a couple effort values
in a single stat. Whismur will give you HP EVs, Poochyena will
give you Attack EVs, etc. Although this system is more or less hidden,
I really like how much it contributes to the silent narrative of your Pokémon selection. If you aren't rigorously EV training, your
Pokémon is going to specialize in a stat based on what Pokémon he's fought. They learn from the Pokémon they're pitted
up against. This is similar to the individual value system,
which is locked when catching a Pokémon, where some stats will be inherently better
than others by default. Think of the possibilities for personalized
team building. Even if your team is the exact same as someone
else's, you'll have a different experience. Maybe you'll live an attack that definitely
should have killed you because you had a defensive nature with an abundance of defense IVs. Maybe you defeated an enemy you wouldn't have
otherwise due to your attack nature and attack EVs. Through this process, you'll grow closer to
these monsters and gain new favorites. However, there have to be good options in
the first place for this to work effectively, which is why I like to examine the balance
of available Pokémon, when they're available, and how well designed they are. Unfortunately, there are still many problems
to cover. The Dark type gets shafted again in several
ways. The Carvanha and Poochyena lines are physical
attackers, even though their typings are special. Absol is heavily attack based. My favorite Pokémon can't even make use of
its dark typing. You might say that not every Pokémon needs
stab. It might have good coverage, a good ability,
what have you. I would agree, but I also think the type as
a whole needs a wider degree of solid options. Otherwise it feels like you're kneecapping
an entire typing for no good reason. Cacnea and Shiftry do pick up the slack a
bit, and they're available somewhat early on, but I really expected to have some better
choices. Both of their best dark type moves is faint
attack, 60 power. Why do all the damn physical attackers learn
Crunch? It's so aggravating! Sharpedo doesn't have an awful special attack
or anything, 95 is nothing to sneeze at, but for what purpose is his physical attack 120? Just switch those around. You can still run Slash and Earthquake for
coverage, and then run Crunch and Surf for stab. But it just has to be awkward, doesn't it? Though this is the generation of water types,
I don't know that it excuses just how pitiful the fire type selection is. You know, the starters are the core three
types, fire-water-grass, and it seems like Fire, as a typing, is treated so much worse
than the other two. There are so many solid water types in Hoenn. Swampert, Ludicolo, Milotic, Walrein, and
that's not even counting the returning water types like Kingdra, Gyarados, Starmie, Tentacruel. Grass types get Sceptile, Ludicolo, Shiftry,
Breloom, Cacturne, Cradily, plus the returning Vileplume line. All of those mentioned are either decent or
great Pokémon, so many options there for team building. If you want a fire type? Well, you've always got Blaziken. Really good fire fighting type mixed attacker. Camerupt, who is 4x weak to water types in
a generation infested with them. Magcargo… also 4x weak to water. Torkoal's pretty cool! Very defensive, I've always liked it. Ninetails is available after the sixth gym,
and still has all the same problems it's always had. Awesome! Could you not have just given us Houndoom? Please. Or Arcanine? Even Magmar would have been nice, have mercy
on the poor type. I will always champion having a variety of
options and condemn an imbalance of options. I know it makes sense that there would be
less fire types in Hoenn, but that just means you need to make the small selection a solid
selection, and Hoenn didn't even accomplish that. Aside from that, it feels like there's a healthy
amount of use of most of the types throughout the game. Despite the abundance of water types late
game, you don't see a whole ton before that point, so it's not like they dominate the
region in terms of power. Gardevoir is a great new Psychic powerhouse,
with Medicham as a really cool new fighting psychic type. Flygon and Altaria are two of my favorite
dragon types, Altaria in particular has always been really fun to use in any playthrough. I enjoy using dragon types that aren't pseudo
legendaries. It diversifies the typing, so now you can
pick a dragon type and it won't absolutely crush everything in your path. Salamence does still exist though, don't worry. Well-balanced as these new 135 are, there
is one pervasive problem that cripples a few Pokémon in particular. Generation 3 introduced double battles. Each opponent would now send two Pokémon
out instead of just one. Game Freak… did not seem to have a lot of
confidence in this feature. In Ruby and Sapphire, the only required double
battle is against Tate and Liza. Every other double battle in the game is voluntary. When you walk past a double battle, it won't
automatically trigger, so you could theoretically go the entire game without having a double
battle until the seventh gym, and it's just weird. I don't get it. I really like double battles, it adds a new
dimension to your possible strategies and countermeasures. You can double up on a single Pokémon, but
maybe they have Protect and you've just wasted two of your attacks. One of the Pokémon could use a stat boosting
move, while the other focuses on attacking. Helping Hand was introduced for this very
purpose, powering up the attack of its partner. Additionally, Pokémon like Plusle and Minun
were built for double battles. They both learn helping hand, their abilities
power each other up, it's really cool. Volbeat and Illumise are similar, as are Solrock
and Lunatone. Except, the funny problem is, you basically
never engage in double battles, so why would you ever use these Pokémon? At least Solrock and Lunatone can function
on their own, but the other ones are built to be allies in double battles, and are crippled
because they almost never happen. It's even more painful because Minun is one
of my favorite Pokémon and I never want to use him because he can't play to his own strengths. It's so ironic that double battling is the
official Pokémon competitive standard and yet has never been widely adopted by Game
Freak. Contests have been introduced, as well as
contest stats. Each move has a contest stat like Cool or
Beauty associated with it for contest use, and each Pokémon will specialize in a set
of contest stats. I think this is a really cool addition for
players that like to collect more than they like to battle. It's not a difficult side mode, you basically
just need a Pokémon with a lot of the same contest stat moves. You'd probably bring a lot of beauty moves
into a beauty contest, for example. Moves do have unique secondary effects in
contests. Leer can stop the crowd from getting excited,
Rage can be used more than once without boring the judge (since you're encouraged to use
different moves each round for more points), Mean Look causes nervousness. A lot of ordinary moves become very useful
in contests, and I think it's cool that you can build a Pokémon specifically for contest
domination. Unfortunately, there's really no in-game incentive
to do this, other than the player's own satisfaction. The win condition is still battling centric. Which makes complete sense, by the way, I'm
not suggesting that there would even be a way to make contest participation a win state,
you'd basically be ignoring how everything is primarily framed. The story, evil team, trainer battles. It's a fun side attraction that I wish had
more of its own satisfying narrative to it, that's all. Ruby and Sapphire have a lot going for them,
obviously, they're a fantastic step up from generation 2 in many, many ways, despite a
few stumbles here and there. But. What if I told you, this isn't even their
final form. --
Emeralds, oh how they glisten! -- In the past, I've glossed over the sister
versions. I talked about what made them different, their
various improvements. They were a very small part of the video though,
since they were fairly incremental upgrades. Pokémon Emerald version is such a huge upgrade,
in so, so many ways, that it deserves a significant portion of the spotlight. There aren't just small tweaks, like the addition
of many gen 2 Pokémon to the safari zone, like the aforementioned Houndour. The story has been entirely rewritten so that
both Team Aqua and Magma are villains. Gym leaders have changed up their teams. Double battles are more frequent and often
mandatory. There's a startup animation for every Pokémon
during battle. There's a new champion. And, the main attraction, there's a new island
in the post game, called the Battle Frontier. That deserves its own section. Let's start with the story changes. Ruby and Sapphire felt like somewhat incomplete
narratives, so Emerald put them both in the running. Now, you're competing with two evil teams,
who are also competing against each other. Since you're fighting against both of them,
you get more variety throughout the game, oscillating between Aqua and Magma grunts
fairly regularly. You get to fight both Archie and Maxie, you
get to see the world on the precipice of apocalypse, as Groudon and Kyogre clash, accompanied by
both Archie and Maxie realizing the error of their ways. It's a much cleaner way to tell this tale,
pitting two extreme ideologies against each other to demonstrate how far removed from
reality they both are, and how futile their conflict is. You can actually discern the difference between
Archie and Maxie, between their organizations and stated goals, as well as their methods. Their secret bases are different, they attack
different buildings, they feel like two distinct factions. In Ruby and Sapphire, they both just swapped
roles in a play, it was really jarring. Emerald doesn't increase the caliber of the
writing on display or anything, it just cleans up the messiness, heightens the stakes and
spectacle, and leaves you with a more satisfying tale than you could get in either Ruby or
Sapphire… However, there is one crucial decision that
will always boggle my mind, something that will keep me up at night for the rest of my
days. Steven Stone is a really cool champion, with
a themed team reflecting his hobby. Why. Why. Why did they replace Steven with Wallace? Sure, he has a fun mono-water team, but it
feels more like he's an Elite Four member now, not a damn champion. I really love the changes to the gym leaders. Tate and Liza get two extra Pokémon, Claydoll
and Xatu, so that their battle doesn't end in five seconds. Flannery still ain't great, but at least she
uses a Camerupt now. Wattson uses Manectric! It's beautiful, truly. Winona loses Swellow for a Swablu and Tropius,
though, which is kinda lame, but at least her unique dual typing theme is maintained. Juan also has a much better team than OG Wallace. Kingdra and Crawdaunt is a nice glow-up, but
it makes it all the more annoying that Wallace is the champion, because you ostensibly have
two water type boss fights. At that point, I can start to understand the
complaints about too much water. As if most of those team changes weren't cool
enough already, all of the gym leaders have rematches, with better teams the more often
you fight. Some of their final rematch teams are awesome. Flannery has Arcanine, Magcargo, Houndoom,
Rapidash, Camerupt, and Torkoal. About the best you could possibly do in this
gen without giving her Blaziken. Winona uses Noctowl, Tropius, Pelipper, Skarmory,
Altaria, and Dragonite. Still a better dragon user than Lance, I will
die on this hill. Unfortunately, gym leader rematches are completely
random, and you can only start them once you've entered the Hall of Fame, which is a really
strange requirement. The first couple rematches have really low
levels, implying that they'd be given to you throughout your adventure. You essentially just have to wait for them
to finally give you their team at the end of many underwhelming rematches. They are all double battles, though, giving
the underused battle paradigm even more time in the sun. Thankfully, you're going to be spending a
lot of time in the post game, so you'll have stuff to do while you're waiting for those
rematches. Hunting for Groudon and Kyogre, for Latios,
fighting Steven as a superboss. This is pretty cool, but it doesn't excuse
removing him from the champion position. Finally, you'll be spending a lot of time
planting berries that remove EVs, training EVs, getting the right natures, and finding
a wide variety of moves. The Battle Frontier is no joke. --
Braving the Battle Frontier -- The Battle Frontier is a post-game island
the player can visit after conquering the league challenge, one that houses several
facilities that further test your mettle. In the main game, you don't even need to know
that EVs exist. You'll never pay attention to natures, and
you'll pick your favorites. For the Battle Frontier, though, that is insufficient. This island is for aspiring masters. You're practically required to EV train, and
you'll need a team of all-stars to contend with the best that Hoenn has to offer. All of your opponents will be using competitively
viable sets, with maxed out EVs, and interesting synergies. Compared to the hit or miss difficulty of
the main game, the Battle Frontier feels like a completely different ballgame. I constructed a team of the absolute best. Swampert, Salamence, Gardevoir, Breloom, Dusclops,
and Linoone. Granted, Linoone was just there for moral
support, but he's thankfully very good at being cute. You need Pokémon that can hit hard. Swampert and Gardevoir are my special attackers,
whereas Salamence and Breloom are my physical attackers. They have really good coverage, I can hit
practically anything. Dusclops, then, is defensive. He's there to inflict status conditions, and
to use Night Shade for fixed damage, in the rare case where we have absolutely no solid
offensive options. I put in the time to grow the necessary berries
to reset their EVs, and exterminate the local Corphish, Spinda, and Wingull populations,
just to meet the baseline requirements to obtain the symbols. I completed my team of champions, and went
on to challenge the Frontier Brains. The Battle Frontier houses seven facilities
that each operate in a unique way. We'll start with the simplest of them all,
the Battle Tower. What you see here is what you get, fight 7
trainers in a row and record your streak. Each trainer is stronger than the last, using
unique strategies. The Battle Tower is no nonsense Pokémon battling. Either you're up to the challenge, or you're
not. Enemy Pokémon will have berries that cure
status effects, berries that increase stats at low health, Leftovers. They will always have a useful held item,
often paired with a set of moves that synergize well together. Rest and Chesto Berry, dubbed as Resto Chesto,
is fairly common amongst attacking Pokémon. So too is Persim berry Petal Dance, nullifying
the confusion side effect that comes with Petal Dance. Even with my team of all-stars, I ran into
a lot of sticky situations, battles I had to claw my way out of with superior strategy. Milotic is a beast of a water type. Surprising bulk, great movepool, and is a
major threat to most of my Pokémon. It has ice beam, 4x effective on Salamence,
Surf, neutral stab on my Swampert, and has Mirror Coat to reflect any attacks its weak
to, like my Gardevoir's Thunderbolt. Dealing with Pokémon like this was exhilarating,
it's such a rush to win against actually competent teams. Of course, a lot of the early trainers in
the Battle Tower are made to be easy, so the difficulty can ramp up naturally. Even then, you'll still run into the occasional
would-be fodder that could potentially wipe out one of your team members and put you in
a precarious spot. Since you can only bring three Pokémon with
you, the battles progress at a steady pace. If they're overstaying their welcome, it's
probably a pretty intense battle anyway. Nothing can better exemplify the strengths
of the Frontier than the Frontier brains, in this case, Anabel. Her silver symbol team, alone, is terrifying. Alakazam with the elemental punches and Brightpowder
to lower accuracy; Entei with Fire Blast, Calm Mind, and Roar to force a switch; and
Snorlax, with Belly Drum, Yawn, and a quick claw for a devastating offensive wall. I needed a very sound strategy to win this
battle. Ice Punch would obliterate my Salamence, meaning
I'd have to switch into my Dusclops, since it was much better than Swampert at taking
hits. From there I'd confuse it, poison it, take
the Synchronize hit, and whittle it down with Night Shade. Once Alakazam was dealt with, Swampert was
built to take on Entei before it could set itself up for destruction. Finally, I had both Swampert and Salamence
to deal with Snorlax, both of which had enough physical attack prowess to defeat it before
it had time to use its scary belly drum attack boost. This is just for the silver symbol. Her gold symbol is, in some ways, even scarier. Though some trainers have really weird strategies
that are easily taken care of, the fights that shine in the tower really shine, and
the lack of gimmicks makes it the perfect place for pure battling, especially when the
challenge ramps up in the higher streaks. It's also one of the many facilities that
accepts double battles, so you can use strategies that are completely unique to the format. Branching outward from the tower, each facility
has a gimmick placed on the traditional art of battling. Only one of them is a failure, in my opinion,
and that's the Battle Palace, where Pokémon choose attacks for themselves based on their
nature. At face value, it's already pretty bad. You can't even choose what move your Pokémon's
going to use, so already you have absolutely zero strategic sway over the battle. Most of the time you're spamming the A button
and praying. However, I think the worst part about the
Palace is how it utilizes natures. Depending on your Pokémon's nature, they
will tend toward Attack, Defense, or Support. Defense moves are usually stat boosting moves,
like Iron Defense, Acid Armor, Safeguard, but can also include moves like Sandstorm. Support moves are the opposite, they usually
lower the opponents stats. Leer, Stun Spore, stuff like that. Attacking moves are all moves that do damage,
essentially. Your nature will determine the percentage
chance that a Pokémon will pick a move from one of these categories. If you don't have a move of the type that
the Pokémon selects, it will either pick a move at random, or do absolutely nothing. The Battle Palace is so far removed from the
rest of the Frontier that it hurts. Building a team for the Battle Frontier is
fairly straightforward, so I can understand incentivizing natures that are less than optimal. Maybe you don't always want the best attacking
nature or whatever. In practice, though, the Battle Palace is
the only facility that needs you to have weird natures to make the most of it, and natures
cannot be changed. In some facilities, you might want to change
moves, or even change the Pokémon you bring with you, to adapt to problematic strategies. This is all fairly easy, you can swap out
moves and items with the BP you accumulate in the facilities. If you want a team that can do well in the
Battle Palace, though, you'll essentially have to raise a separate team to get the job
done, since chucking a Pokémon with a suboptimal nature into one of the other facilities can
sometimes be a death sentence. The Palace also brings into focus the problems
with the streak system that don't quite manifest in other facilities. The Battle Dome, for instance, is a neat twist
on the traditional format. You bring your best team of three with you
into a tournament setting. You get to see a preview of your opponent's
Pokémon, and they get to see a preview of your team as well. It gives you a rundown of where the team's
stat strengths lie, and then you pick two of the three to send into battle. You have to evaluate your opponent's strongest
assets, and predict whether or not they'll be sent into battle. Which Pokémon is your opponent leaving behind. In this sense, the choice is always in your
hands, you can pick the best Pokémon for the job every single time, and then it's up
to you to win. Each trainer in a streak gets progressively
more difficult, which makes perfect sense since they're also the ones who survived the
lower levels of the tournament. In this facility, a battle streak is the most
natural. Each tournament is a string of battles back
to back, with a clear endpoint. During your fifth tournament, the Dome Ace
Tucker will take notice and battle you. His silver team is fairly challenging; Swampert,
Charizard, and Salamence. It doesn't take absurdly long to reach Tucker,
but it's not a walk in the park, and the tournaments get stronger the longer you last. After ten tournaments, Tucker will challenge
you for the gold. This time, his team is downright scary. Swampert, Metagross, and Latias. What will you use, and what will he use? The tension when you reach a silver or gold
battle, the knowledge that a loss will reset the streak to zero, is terrifying. Sure, it is extremely frustrating to lose
to RNG. Maybe a Focus Band activated at the worst
time, or you were paralyzed two turns in a row, but I don't find that to be the overwhelming
norm. Usually, it's just down to strategic skill
and good maneuvering, which is why I don't ultimately mind the streak system. Facilities like the Battle Pyramid admittedly
stretch my tolerance for it, with each attempt taking quite a long time to complete. For just the silver symbol, you need to clear
the pyramid three times, and ten for the gold. Each run will have seven floors, where you
can encounter wild Pokémon, trainers, items, all while contending with the darkness obscuring
your vision. Your Pokémon also aren't healed for you,
you need to keep them healthy with items you pick up along the way, and can transfer to
future attempts. Despite how long and arduous the process can
be, I enjoy this facility quite a lot. Exploration is encouraged so you can get the
best items, but you also can't spend too long doing it since the wild Pokémon encounters
are set up to inflict status conditions. Your chances of fleeing a battle are automatically
lowered in the facility, so you'll either have to try to run away and risk a status
condition, or waste one of your Pokémon's likely valuable PP to dispose of it. If you just search for the exit, you won't
get as many items, but your team also won't be crippled by status effects. Sure, it's a long facility, and losing in
the 8th or 9th segment of your streak is crushing, but it's not like the Pyramid itself is horrible
inherently. Even though it sucks to lose a streak and
start all over, each of the facilities have fun, competitive level Pokémon battles with
gimmicks to spice things up. They're fun even without the boss fights,
the boss fights are just your ultimate goal. Nowhere is this "journey rather than the destination"
philosophy embraced like it is in the Battle Factory. Here, you use a random team given to you,
each with interesting sets and synergies. You'll get a resto chesto sweeper, or a sunny
day user, or a defensive tank. Pretty much any competitive set you could
imagine, spread across any Pokémon in the national dex. Though you'll run into a lot of the same sets,
since your opponents will grab from the same pool, practically every run will be different
from the last. You pick three from a selection of six at
the beginning, and can swap one of your Pokémon with one of your opponent's after you beat
them. Slowly but surely, you can construct a team
with interesting synergies that can tackle any challenge thrown their way. This facility has by far the most staying
power. If you get the gold symbol in the Battle Tower,
for instance, there's not much reason to keep challenging the tower. The battles are fun, sure, but you've already
achieved your goal. After you get the gold symbol in the battle
factory, though, you can keep coming back since you'll always have a different experience. You get to use a variety of Pokémon, each
with different movesets and strategies. If anything, this is a contender for the strongest
facility in the Frontier because of how accessible it is. For the other facilities, if you don't EV
train, you will lose. This isn't an exaggeration, if you aren't
EV trained, you will be decimated, and that can take a lot of time and energy. But the Battle Factory doesn't require knowledge
of these secret systems, you can just walk in and have fun right out of the gate. Sure, it does have the potential to be one
of the absolute worst facilities because of its propensity for RNG. Sometimes your options will be terrible, and
that can quite easily end your streak, but as I already said: streaks in the Factory
don't matter too much because it's fun to keep coming back and trying out an entirely
new team. Since Noland uses a team of random Pokémon,
anyway, the silver and gold medals don't mean too much in the grand scheme, other than bragging
rights. In all of these cases, the streak system is
alright. It can be fun, or it can be disregarded. In the Battle Palace, where you can't select
your moves, the streak system is a nightmare. Your streak can just end because your Pokémon
decided to do sweet FA. Battles can last decades if you and your opponent
are dumb, cycling through non damaging moves or just not selecting them at all because
of their nature. Though not nearly as frustrating, the Battle
Arena is fairly underwhelming. Each one-on-one encounter is given three turns
of battle, after which, if both Pokémon are still standing, they will be judged. Whoever loses will be knocked out, and then
the next battle will begin. The judging criteria are split amongst three
categories: Mind, Body, and Skill. You get points in Mind for selecting attacking
moves, Skill regards a Pokémon's accuracy, so missing a move will deduct points, and
Body concerns the amount of HP remaining when compared to how much HP you had when you started
the round. This all sounds great, but I find it often
doesn't end up mattering much. If you knock out the opposing Pokémon, the
judging doesn't even occur, you just move onto the next round. Whenever judging does occur, since it only
really concerns the immediate round, whatever happens is fairly inconsequential anyway. Maybe you lose your Pokémon, but you can
send the next one out and your opponent is still at the same health it was at previously. It's not a bad judging system, I like the
idea of rating your Pokémon based on their performance, and whenever it does happen I
find it to be a cool twist. It's just a bit underwhelming. And because I've completely run out of transitions,
the final facility is the Battle Pike. Here, you pick from a selection of three rooms,
each with randomly generated results. Now, I'm not gonna get into the specifics
here, but here's the general outline. The NPC in here will tell you what one of
the rooms possibly contains, and depending on her dialogue, one of two outcomes will
occur. For instance, if she senses a trainer, that
room will have one of two possibilities. Either it will be a trainer battle, or it
will be a healing event. This is another facility where your Pokémon
are not healed, so healing events are extremely valuable. You'll find yourself in a lot of situations
where you either pick a relatively safe option, or risk it all for a full heal or an empty
room. This is one of the rare facilities where,
if you're lucky enough, you can complete a full streak without entering a single battle,
so it's fairly unique in that regard. I think this is a really fun facility. Weighing the risks is fun, biting the bullet
and getting rewarded for it is satisfying, and getting punished for it makes sense. The most punishing rooms are the ones that
inflict status conditions, but since your chances of being able to find a room with
healing in it is pretty decent, it's not often you'll be floundering around with your team
on the brink of death. I acknowledge that with supremely bad luck,
it could happen, but getting to the silver symbol, at least, wasn't too much of an ordeal
for me. Honestly, I'm surprised by how solid these
facilities are. The Battle Palace is the only one I don't
enjoy doing, the rest are either average in the case of the Battle Arena, or excellent
in the case of the Battle Factory. They all have really fun boss fights with
crazy teams to contend with, and if you ask me, it's an incredible reward for going through
the arduous process of EV training. Not only that, it's a wonderful way to teach
the player about building competitive teams. You'll run into a lot of unique strategies,
some of which you might even want to use competitively. Now, finding people to battle in this day
and age is probably… next to impossible, but hey: Pokémon Showdown has competitive
tiers for all of the generations, so you can always go on there for team building. Their scenes are surprisingly active. I can say with absolute certainty that the
Battle Frontier is as excellent as people say it is, and it's a sin that Omega Ruby
and Alpha Sapphire did not have it. It makes for one of the strongest post games
in the entire series. --
Conclusions -- I really love Generation 3. I love the region, I love the Pokémon. And perhaps the reason why I'm so enamored
by it is because it was my first generation. Maybe it's why so many of my favorites are
Hoenn Pokémon. Maybe it's why so much of the music gives
me that tingly feeling inside. It was my introduction to this truly fantastical
world of mythical creatures, and though I try my best to look at it as fairly as I possibly
can, I'm always going to think back on it all fondly. There were a lot of missteps. This was one of the only generations where
you couldn't transfer your Pokémon up from prior generations, it was just impossible. All your favorites would be stuck on the Game
Boy forever. HM usage is even more frequent and annoying,
as is the asinine way in which physical and special distinctions are made by the typing. I acknowledge its imperfections, but in terms
of being an improvement on Gold and Silver, it is a resounding yes. To be entirely honest with you, I consider
Generation 3 to be the point at which the series got good. The Game Boy titles feel somewhat antiquated,
fun as they can be, it is particularly hard to journey back to them. Visually, they're quite limited, and though
their music is composed well, the sound font can become annoying through repeated listens. There are just a lot of barriers that keep
me from wanting to come back. With generation 3 onward, though, those barriers
are practically nonexistent. At the very least, the series continues to
trend upward, and at the risk of spoiling my next Pokemon video, that trend would steadily
continue its trajectory.
