Pokemon Gen 3 - Underrated or Underappreciated?

[Azure-Tranquility]

Back when Ruby & Sapphire released in the US in 2003, I got them at launch.

Despite my interest in Pokemon somewhat waning by that time, I still managed to enjoy Ruby & Sapphire, but not nearly as much as Gold/Silver/Crystal or even Red/Blue/Yellow. However, I did enjoy the Double Battle mechanic completely, and thought it was Gen 3's biggest contribution(Especially with how they pull it off in Emerald, more on that later).

Everything else though, like the Berries, weren't doing anything for me gameplay-wise. Abilities are another great addition, but those combined with Natures make catching Pokemon a much more cumbersome process than needed. Unlike Gen 1-2 where you could take the first Pokemon you catch, in Gen 3 and onwards you'll pretty much want to catch a Pokemon with a beneficial nature, or at the very least a neutral nature. Even if just doing single-player, if you're stuck with a Pokemon with a horrible nature it WILL hold you back, and it's even worse competitively when factoring in IVs and such.

And that's really just Ruby/Sapphire thus far. Pokemon Colosseum came out in March 2004, acting as both the Gen 3 equivalent of Pokemon Stadium and as a full-on 3D Pokemon game... except you were restricted to the 50 ish Pokemon you could catch in the game, as opposed to the 200ish that Ruby/Sapphire offered, which leads me into my main problem with Gen 3: The Pokedex.

Not only could they have chosen better Pokemon to bring back for the new Hoenn Dex(Lol Wobuffet line over Mareep line?), but they made it a cumbersome process to get all 386 Pokemon due to the absent Kanto & Johto Pokemon.

Later on, Nintendo would go on to release FireRed & LeafGreen, which are remakes of japanese Red & Green(In other words, Blue was never properly remade and still counts as a "seperate" version for you collectors out there).
They were Gen 1 but with Gen 3's new additions, sans the berries which weren't a really good addition anyway! Thanks to FireRed & LeafGreen, it became much easier to get 386 Pokemon on Ruby & Sapphire, but there will still some missing Pokemon.

Enter Pokemon Emerald, which not only fills in most of the blanks of Ruby & Sapphire, but is overall Gen 3 perfected. The Double Battle mechanic introduced in Ruby & Sapphire is expanded upon to where you're not limited to certain trainers; That is to say, as long as two trainers encounter you at once, a double battle will initiate.

Gen 3 concluded with the release of Pokemon X Gale Of Darkness. An overall much weaker sequel to Pokemon Colosseum, but it did allow capture of Lugia and a few Johto pokemon that weren't accounted for between Emerald, FireRed+LeafGreen, and Colosseum.

I really think that Gen 3 was much better than most people took it for, myself included. It is now, playing through all of the games that I now see it for its true quality. It's definitely better than Gen 4 overall, and maybe even on par with Gen 5. While I still think Gen 1+2 cannot be touched except in remake form, Gen 3 has proven to be much better than what most people took it for. Emerald is the definitive way to experience Gen 3, while FireRed+LeafGreen is the definitive way to experience Gen 1... it all works out.

Needless to say, I was a mistaken young child. Pokemon Gen 3 is fucking bombass, and if you didn't like it or gave it much of a chance before, you owe it to yourself to give it a second chance.

[Garamonde]

They uh, never sucked... also why did we need a thread about this?

[Azure-Tranquility]

It's been popular opinion for ages that "Gen 3" of Pokemon was the weakest gen.

[Proton]

Where the fuck do you get your opinions from?

You always come from fucking nowhere with them, because you always have to have random ones.

[Kriven]

The only reason they were considered weak was because the old generation of Pokemon fans were grown up by the time it came out, and so only "sires" played Pokemon still. The new generation hadn't been ushered in yet, so RSE kind of fell between the cracks.

But I've never heard of any widespread hate on Gen III specifically.

[Alpha Six]

HEY YALL GENERATION 3 IS THE BEST

[Gwen]

HEY YALL GENERATION 3 IS THE BEST

I'm going to agree with this.

[X Gamer 66]

Humph! I disagree! Gen III is not so great.

[Azure-Tranquility]

Humph! I disagree! Gen III is not so great.

Not even for FireRed and LeafGreen?

Anyways I'm pretty sure it was mostly due to the "Pokemon Phenomenon" already dying down after Crystal released in August 2001. How could people who first played Red/Blue be adults by the time Ruby/Sapphire came out? There's only a 5 year gap.

EX: I was 7 when Red/Blue came out, and then 11/12 when Ruby/Sapphire came out. Even if someone was 10 when Red/Blue came out, they would only be 14/15.

[Maxpphire]

Honestly, I've heard opposite things about gen 3. Where do you get these opinions? I'm actually curious over this because you claim they are the majority but they seem more like the minority.

[Azure-Tranquility]

Honestly, I've heard opposite things about gen 3. Where do you get these opinions? I'm actually curious over this because you claim they are the majority but they seem more like the minority.

*shrugs*

I'm basing it on my own opinion, combined with what everyone else I knew at that time both in person and on the internet was saying. I'm sure if you went on GameFAQs you'll still find plenty of people(like X-Gamer) who find Gen 3 to be a weak one, or maybe even the worst.

Meanwhile, Gen 1 & 2 are mostly praised(For good reason), while Gen 4 seems to be overall mixed(Positives include a shit ton of evolutions and wi-fi, and negatives include slow as molasses game speed, battling, and the single player in Diamond/Pearl dragged on for way too long.)

Where the fuck do you get your opinions from?

You always come from fucking nowhere with them, because you always have to have random ones.

Ehh what? Anyways, I was inspired to make this topic since I'm playing through Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen all at once.

[Gwen]

The first two are the worst, and although they hold special nostalgia for me, the designs are boring as shit, although Team Rocket is BADASS in Gen 2.

[Proton]

GameFAQs

oh look, the problem.

[Azure-Tranquility]

Well you could argue Red/Blue are now pretty primitive in design.
There were no EVs, IVs, or even Special Defense. If you had an Alakazam(or god forbid, Mewtwo), you'd pretty much dominate everything in the metagame.

Meanwhile, Gen 2 added everything I mentioned Gen 1 didn't have, though admittingly Alakazam was still kinda broken, at least he could be subdued with Dark types; Heck, it's almost like they designed the Dark type to intentionally sabotage Alakazam.

Gen 1 was perfected when it was remade in FireRed and LeafGreen, though they made some little changes that really grind my gears... like how you can't skip straight to Saffron as quickly as you could in Red/Blue. >:/

GameFAQs

oh look, the problem.

What problem? Lots of people visit it, thus plenty of varied opinions can be expressed... provided the boards aren't dead of course. There are idiots, but there some sensible people as well.

[Gwen]

I really find the pokemon designs horrifyingly boring in 1, not so much 2.