Somewhat continuing all of the Pokemon I played last year (though without the looming responsibility of using the Pokemon within them to beat Pokemon Stadium games XD), this is a game I played a TON when I was in grade school. It’s also, however, a game that I never played through with a proper Pokemon team of six, and it’s also a game that my partner really wanted to parallel play together. This made for a great opportunity to give this a replay for the first time in nearly 20 years, and seeing my partner’s experiences in her version of the game was also a really fun time~. It took me about 33 hours to beat the Japanese version of the game on real hardware (with a team of Blaziken, Claydol, Sharpedo, Plusle, Skarmory, and Shiftry).

The third Pokemon game starts and plays out very similarly to the previous two. You’re a young person (you get the choice of a boy OR a girl this time, carrying forward the trend started in Crystal) going out on an adventure to become the regional Pokemon League champion. You arrive in the Hoenn region having just moved there from Johto to here where your father is a gym leader, and you quickly set off on your quest to be the best like no one ever was. It tries a few new things with the narrative writing, like how we’re not fighting Team Rocket anymore or how there are a few more characters with a little more meat to them, but it’s by and large very similar to how these games had always been up to that point. That absolutely isn’t a bad thing, mind you, as I certainly don’t mind a Pokemon game with a thread bare story if it’s otherwise fun to play, and this one absolutely fulfills the being fun to play.

Gameplay-wise, it’s still Pokemon. You catch them, you train them, you fight trainers, win badges. It’s something you’re almost certainly already well familiar with by now, and the third generation of Pokemon doesn’t really rock the boat too much on the fundamentals and plays very similarly to the first two generations. That said, while some of the more fundamental problems with Pokemon still haven’t been cleared up yet (most prominently, the stat a move scales off of is still tied to the move’s type and isn’t particular to the move itself), there are a LOT of quality of life changes as well as general polish to the design that makes this game WAY easier to go back to than its GameBoy predecessors.

The game as a whole is so much easier to play now. You still have an inventory limit, yeah, but it’s far larger than Gold & Silver’s was, and inventory management is far less of a constant burden. You also no longer need to swap your Pokemon boxes manually, so you can catch Pokemon to your heart’s content without ever needing to worry about running out of space in your computer. Lastly, while it’s still not perfect, the running shoes are a VERY welcome addition to the bicycle to make getting around a lot faster and easier. Sure, it sucks that you still can’t run inside, but being able to zoom around in outdoor areas really helps the pace of the gameplay significantly.

As for the topic of polishing design, the overall experience has been fine tuned very significantly from the previous game, and a lot of more burdensome design choices of past games have been either ironed out or removed entirely. On the topic of the latter, wild Pokemon no longer run away from you unless they’re one or two very special cases, which makes catching Pokemon FAR less of a burden than it once was. Additionally, while there are still 8 HMs in this game, far less of them are actually needed to progress, so you need to spend a lot less time worrying about juggling HM users or trying to find space for crappy moves in your team. The biggest and most important change, however, is not only all of the new Pokemon, but all of the new moves. We’re still not quite there yet, but the moves added in these games make SO many Pokemon types SO much more viable now that they actually have move sets. Poison and bug types are still SOL, sadly, but most other types with really weedy move sets (especially dark types) are finally far more usable than they’d ever been, and the game balance is SO much better for it. We’ve still got some important stuff to clean up, but we’re at least at the point where Pokemon isn’t just fun to play, it’s easy to play, and that’s a milestone worth celebrating in and of itself.

Just about every main line Pokemon game is a big presentation upgrade, and this game is no exception. With the power of the GBA, Pokemon look bigger, better, and more detailed than ever before. The GBA’s sound chip is infamously under powered compared to the graphics, but this game still manages to have a really fun and memorable soundtrack either way, even if it’s not the best the music would ever be.

Verdict: Recommended. There are still some quality of life features and design shortcomings that make Pokemon games from this era a chore to go back to compared to more recent entries, there’s no doubt about that, but the advances we’ve made by this point really cannot be understated. If you’re looking for some retro Pokemon fun, this is a really good game to sit down with, even if all the kinks in the series still wouldn’t be ironed out for another game or two.

Esse jogo é incrível em praticamente todos os aspectos!

O estilo de arte do jogo é ótimo, músicas icônicas e maravilhosas, e o principal: a ambientação diversa.
A melhor coisa é poder explorar toda Hoenn em suas diversas áreas e suas peculiaridades.

Em uma parte vc tá numa floresta, dps numa praia, dps num local próximo ao pé de um vulcão cheio de cinzas, dentro do vulcão, num navio abandonado, no fundo do mar, numa cidade nas árvores, numa caverna de meteoros e etc. Isso traz uma diversidade absurda pra cada área. Ver todo sprite diferente pra cada região, cavernas, casas, gyms. E pequenos detalhes como os crys dos pokémon podendo ser ouvido ao caminhar pelas rotas dão um charme a mais.

Agora o que não o deixa ser perfeito é o uso péssimo das HMs e da curva de exp no fim do jogo ser muito baixa em relação aos treinados, no qual vc não consegue manter um nível justo mesmo tendo batalhado com praticamente todos os treinadores do jogo (e olha q fui em rotas q nem era necessária para zerar e mesmo assim).

Mas isso prejudica mais ao final do jogo.
De resto é bem bom.

Pokemon Ruby is a cool video game.
I think it might actually be my favorite Pokemon game, which is weird cause for the longest part of my life I always considered it kind of like the black sheep of the series in a way.
But after this most recent playthrough I found so much to enjoy here - all the new monsters are so cool and fun, it's so easy to just pick 6 favorites and go to town with them because of how much the game's constantly throwing at you, a stark contrast to its predecessors which would often hide some of the more appealing Pokemon behind ludicrous or time consuming requirements.

One thing I really want to highlight about this game is the world itself, in a lot of ways Pokemon Ruby feels like the most fantastical Pokemon game.
It's very easy for the world in Pokemon to feel relatively small and compact, you always know you're never too far away from civilization so the games never tend to stop feeling like you're just a kid playing around the outskirts of town.
In Pokemon Ruby though, while the game does start out feeling like this, it quickly throws you into a bunch of cool and out there locales that really makes you feel like you're going on an adventure, from a town built on the back of a volcano, to a small civilization living in tree huts in the middle of a rainforest, to a city built around a giant coral reef in the middle of the ocean housing a great legendary being underneath - this game takes Pokemon from an urban fantasy to, well, a full on fantasy, and it really helps with the way the story this time focuses way more on myths, legends and powerful god-like creatures rather than the petty material conquests of the past games.
The whole game just has this really cool and mystical vibe that I think complements Pokemon incredibly well.
I know part of the appeal of the franchise is the idea that Pokemon exist in our world, but part of me wonders what could be done with a game that goes full throttle on the fantasy aspects of the Pokeon world, even more than Ruby already does.

Ruby also brings with it some new gameplay mechanics, though I'm somewhat mixed on these to be quite honest.
First off, natures and abilities are introduced here, and while I think they're a good idea in concept - I really like that you can have the option of having Pokemon specialize in different stats and that they can have these extra passive abilities - having it all be tied to RNG just feels like it's overcomplicating the process of teambuilding and catching Pokemon.
I said earlier that it's easy to pick 6 favorite Pokemon and just run with them, but that's provided you're lucky enough for those 6 Pokemon to get the RNG stat distribution that you're happy with, same with the specific Pokemon that happen to have more than one ability.
I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that this stuff is game breaking obviously, you can more than get by with sub-par natures and abilities, but if you're like me and enjoy knowing that you're playing with the best you possibly can then don't be surprised if you find yourself catching dozens of the same Pokemon just to find an acceptable one.
Kind of goes against the fantasy of finding this cool new monster and befriending it when you're just farming the whole species.

But that's really just a small drop in the ocean of amazing things this game has going for it, though the star of the show really is just the Hoenn region itself and how well realized it is as a game world.

The final gen 3 Hoenn game I hadn't played and the first time getting to use many popular pokemon like Blaziken and Flygon. I love a lot about this game. As always the music is a huge part of the experience as a lot of what you do is going to be accompanied by some sort of brass assortment.

General gameplay I find to be addicting in these games too. I know what happens in these games anyway as the loop rarely changes from the classic sort of storyline from the original games but I don't necessarily find the gameplay itself bad, I suppose it's more that they've left it to go stale these days but that's not important right now.

The actual Pokemon you collect in these games massively influences your experience. I have always taken great pride in my team building and also name choices as I tend to spend a lot of time coming up with names. Hunter (Blaziken) turned out to be very fun to use and as far as I can tell, this generation is my favourite starter trio closely followed by Gen 1 and then Gen 4 as those are the only other games where I have used all 3 starters.

This was my team and their inspirations:

Hunter the Blaziken Lv. 52 (hunters chicken)
Tsunami the Tentacruel Lv. 52 (Mako Tsunami from Yu-Gi-Oh)
Blackbird the Skarmory Lv. 50 (the SR-71 from Black Ops)
Radar the Gardevoir Lv. 51 (Ralts Pokedex entry)
Boaby the Cacturne Lv. 51 (a Still Game Character)
Ackbar the Flygon Lv. 51 (Admiral Ackbar because "It's a TRAPinch)

Alright, let's talk about the 3rd generation of Pokemon! In my opinion, Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire represent the biggest leap in the Pokemon franchise. I personally believe these games took the series the most amount of steps forward compared to any other generation. I don't believe these are incredible and ground-breaking video games by any means, but, for Pokemon's standards, they are pretty darn good.

The most noteworthy aspect about these games is how much harder the battles are compared to the previous generations, and that's primarily due to the improved AI, the slow level-up curve of the Pokemon used by the player, and the introduction of abilities. There's much more critical thinking involved with battles compared to the first 2 generations, so players will be spending more time in battles. Furthermore, the introduction of EV's and natures means that the Pokemon in these games have far more personality than their predecessors. Not every Pokemon of the same species the player captures is going to be practically identical anymore. Their stats will change in different ways, and they may have different abilities that cause them to gain certain advantages or disadvantages compared to other members of their species.

Let's talk about the new plot. This is the first time in the franchise when Team Rocket isn't the primary crime organization, and it just feels so refreshing. Despite how retarded Team Aqua and Team Magma's plans are, at least they don't involve just making money. Furthermore, the region the teams operate in isn't Kanto or connected to Kanto; it's an entirely new location with completely new NPC's, many new Pokemon, and an almost entirely different style of music. Whereas Gold & Silver were pretty much just a continuation of Red & Blue with a very lackluster set of new things in them, Ruby & Sapphire felt like a completely new slate for Pokemon. In my opinion, there is only 1 other generation of Pokemon games that felt like this, and I'll talk about it when I get to it.

Hoenn is, in my opinion, easily the best Pokemon region of this franchise so far. It just feels so much more alive than Kanto & Johto. Some reasons for why that is include the fact that everything is in full color as opposed to being monochromatic (Gen. 1) or having a very basic color scheme and execution (Gen. 2), detailed visuals, overworld weather conditions, etc. The world is just so much more interesting to explore. In Gen. 1 and (ESPECIALLY) Gen. 2, I never got that sense of wonder from going through the region city by city and route by route; it always felt like more of the same. Here, however, the world is just so much more unpredictable and exciting. Take the underwater areas, the chambers of the regis, the ENTIRE section between Mauville City and Fortree City, Seafloor Cavern, Sky Pillar, Meteor Falls, the routes before and after Fallarbor Town, Pacifidlog Town, Team Aqua and Team Magma's hideouts (in Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald), and Mt. Pyre. So many interesting and exciting locations filled with natural wonders just waiting to be explored. It's genuinely a breath of fresh air compared to the absolute SLOG that was the journey through Johto.

It's not just the region that has this sense of newness to it; it's also the music. Now, I'm not a music expert; in fact, I know next to NOTHING about music theory. So, unfortunately, I'll be quite brief here. All I'll say is that, if you compare the soundtrack of Gen. 3 to those of Gen. 1 and Gen. 2, it feels almost entirely different. I don't know if it's the trumpets or the fact that the system is not 8-bit anymore, but, either way, I just love the novelty in it. Again, it goes back to what I said earlier about how these games felt like a completely blank state for Pokemon. Some of my favorite themes include the Gym theme, the Gym Leader theme, Cave of Origin's theme, Petalburg Woods's theme, the crime boss's theme, Steven's theme, Groudon, Kyogre, & Rayquaza's theme, and the rival's battle theme.

While I do think these are great Pokemon games, I don't think they are incredible games in general. There will almost always be a glass ceiling when it comes to my ratings of Pokemon games, and that's because, while these games are fun to play, they're nothing special, in my opinion. There's nothing about them that ever really blows me away. The characters & storylines are practically never well-developed and nuanced, even in the games that are much better in these aspects, like Black & White. The character motivations seem very superficial and questionable most of the time, and the plots never really proceed in a way that make sense. In fact, a lot of things never make sense in these games. For instance, why do the adults always give up their evil plans after losing Pokemon battles to kids? Are they not able to carry out their malicious schemes without their Pokemon? Also, why in the living fuck do Maxie & Archie want to expand the world's landmass and seamass, respectively? They don't even seem like scientists with real, practical applications behind these goals; they just seem like schizos who got high one too many times and thought it would be a cool idea to raise these primordial deities of nature because of how much it would fuck the world up.

In the end, though, I still appreciate how much effort went into the design of these games. I honestly feel that, without them, people would've gotten burnt out of the Pokemon franchise LONG ago.