The jump from Game Boy to Game Boy Advance was truly an outstanding leap in Pokemon. Playing a game in the region of Hoenn after one of the Johto games feels like the developers had so much more they could work with, and it shows. Many of the problems in Gen I & II are now gone (though not all: the endgame level curve is still steep, the type diversity is better but still not fully there especially re: Steel type), and the game has more diversity in types of routes, now including a desert and a volcano! Though this game loses the branching that Pokemon had been known for up to this point, the story is legitimate and the dungeon quality ranges from decent to very good, with the only complaint being how many HM moves you need to know in victory road.

I really think Sapphire (and Ruby, also) is a great game on its own merits. It's a bit of a shame that Emerald is just Better, and you really do feel that when going back to Sapphire, but I'm basing my judgement on this games own merits, not that "it's not Emerald", especially since Emerald did derive from Ruby & Sapphire.

Similar to how I feel about Diamon/Pearl, Sapphire/Ruby were solid games when they came out, that were rendered obsolete almost immediately by the release of the third game that refined them.

Still, the games themselves were fun at the time, with the introduction to the Hoenn region, as well as better visuals due to the GBA, and the introduction to new mechanics to the combat (double battles) and gameplay gimmicks (contests).

Still, these games suffer a bit in retrospect, with things like poor gym leaders, and only a single of the 2 enemy teams to fight, both contributing to the feeling of the game being a beta for what Emerald would eventually achieve, combined with the inherent faults in the Hoenn region itself (too much water making the late game feel samey, bad Elite Four).

This game and Ruby both walked so Emerald could run, and they should be commended for building the groundwork for that game, but all these years later, they fail to stand-out themselves in any significant way.

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are some interesting games I feel. They’re among a small set of Pokemon games where I just question why anyone would choose to play them in particular. Not because the games are bad by any means, but because there’s clear and better versions of the Hoenn games out there, and it makes me wonder why one would chose Ruby and Sapphire in particular. While I played Pokemon Sapphire specifically, I will be talking about both Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire for the sake of this review, cause they’re both nearly the same.
Generation 3 as a whole was a major step forward for Pokemon. The introduction of abilities created a distinct change of style for Pokemon going forward, as now all Pokemon had unique abilities that can impact battle. Some Pokemon were immune to things such as flinching, or evasion drops. Some Pokemon can lower the opponent’s attack at the start of battle, and other can be immune to specific types. Generation 3 also was the generation that introduced Double Battles to the game, and it’s something that’s been a staple ever since. All the way to the point that Double Battles became the standard for official Pokemon Tournaments, and I think it’s something important to note. And while I never did any, Generation 3 introduced Contests, which was a fun optional side mode you can do, and I appreciate it.
Now to Ruby and Sapphire itself, as I said prior, I wonder why people would choose these games over any other version of Hoenn. Emerald and ORAS are both upgraded versions of Ruby and Sapphire, and unfortunately, that makes the original Ruby and Sapphire lacking in comparison, especially since I’ve played those before Ruby and Sapphire. Though saying that, I still believe that Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are good games, they’re just not as good as their alternate versions. I feel like I’m biased here though, when I played Emerald a bit over a year ago, I absolutely fell in love with it, and it became my preferred version of Hoenn. Now going to Ruby and Sapphire, it still has a lot of what I love about Hoenn, but some parts of it did not feel as good.
Particularly, I think about the Gyms. While the Gym layouts are the same, I feel as if Emerald gave the Gym Leaders better, and overall more interesting teams. It feels wrong for Brawly not to have a Meditite, or Flannery to not have a Camerupt. Norman’s team isn’t as interesting in Ruby and Sapphire, 2 Slaking and a Vigoroth is fine and all, but I love how in Emerald he still has a Slaking, but now has other Pokemon, like Spinda and Zangoose. I really don’t like Tate and Liza in Ruby and Sapphire particularly, they only have 2 pokemon, Solrock and Lunatone, and for being the 7th gym overall, they’re way too easy. While the Gym Leader teams in Ruby and Sapphire are fine, I much prefer them in Emerald overall.
I feel as if Generation 3 was the start of Pokemon really trying to incorporate more story into their games, and of course that starts with Ruby and Sapphire. I really like how Team Magma and Team Aqua play in the games, and how their roles are swapped depending on what version you play. I definitely think after ORAS, going back to the original designs for Archie and Maxie is a bit off, as I think ORAS had the better character designs overall. However I also really like how the legendary Pokemon are incorporated into the story, as they’re tools trying to be awoken by the villainous team of the game. I believe this is the first time that legendary Pokemon were integral to the main story itself. Team Magma and Team Aqua are some of the most memorable of the villainous teams, and though I believe a lot of the later ones are better than them, I think they still deserve that recognition.
I really enjoyed my time playing through and exploring the whole of Hoenn. My team consisted of Swampert, Breloom, Gardevoir, Sableye, Camerupt, and Altaria, and it was probably one of the best teams I’ve ever crafted in a Pokemon game. There’s something about the early Pokemon games where it’s easier to get attached and form bonds with your Pokemon, probably due to spending a lot of time training. I think Hoenn itself is a really good region as well. I get the whole “haha too much water” joke, and yeah, a lot of Hoenn consists of water routes. However that’s also just because Hoenn is a more tropical location, thus, it’s going to have a lot of water. I love how there’s a lot of side paths in Hoenn, being able to find and just explore in areas that you never have to go. One of my favorite areas in the entire game is the route below Mt Pyre that’s completely optional, and there’s such an appeal to me just going somewhere you don’t need to. This goes to a lot of the ocean in Hoenn as well, Pacifidlog Town and the Abandoned Ship are some of my favorite locations in all of Pokemon, and yet again, you never need to go to them. Getting lost in games is something I absolutely adore, and just being able to explore through Hoenn in Ruby and Sapphire is really nice.
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are still at the end of the day, great Pokemon games. I mean, it’s hard to make a Pokemon game bad, even if there’s issues with the game, the general structure of a Pokemon game is really appealing. But that’s to say that I still think at the end of the day, I’d rather playing Emerald or ORAS over these games, and I think that’s unfortunate because, yet again, these games themselves aren’t bad. It’s just that Emerald and ORAS are just better versions of these games. It was quite nice to play these games though, and I did enjoy my time with it.

The credits for the original release of Pokemon Red lists just 23 names, for Silver this was bumped up slightly to 28. By contrast Pokemon Sapphire features more than 60 developers in its credits. The transition from the Gameboy Color to GBA was apparently a difficult one for Game Freak as recounted in interviews, with this also being the first title in which Masuda took over as full time Director.

Despite the apparent internal difficulties I would say it doesn't show much in the final product, as Sapphire comes across as an extremely polished and good-looking GBA game. The spritework both on the overworld and in battle has taken a considerable leap in detail. The use of negative space is pared back as all battles and tiles on the overworld now feature full-colored backgrounds.

This all works to give the game a vibrant, colorful feeling that suits the tone of adventure and exploring a completely new place that's set up by the intro of our character moving to a new town. There's none of the melancholy of Gen 2 here, with Hoenn portrayed as a distinctly lively and energetic place full of adventure.

This game also marks the point at which more overt fantasy elements started to become introduced into the world. Obviously the Pokemon themselves were always fantastical creatures, but outside of this the world of Red/Blue felt more like an analogue to our own modern day world with the presence of Pokemon being the key distinguishing factor. Even the most powerful legendary Pokemon was a product of science rather than divine intervention. Silver/Gold took us to a more rural setting and introduced more elements of mythology to the world, but largely left the veracity of these elements as mysteries for the player to speculate on.

Sapphire (and its sister game Ruby) are the first time we see Pokemon displaying god-like, world changing powers outside of random Pokedex entries that have no bearing on the actual gameplay. It's also the first time in which legendary Pokemon feature prominently in the plot (as despite their presence on the box art the legendaries remained optional sidequests in Gold/Silver). Now they both define the plot as well as dictate progress through the game more so than the traditional league championship story does. The environments we travel also end up feeling more fantastical and divorced from our own world than those in Gold and Silver were, with Sootopolis and Fortree being notable examples.

Technically some of these elements were first introduced in Crystal, which leaves that particular title as a sort of bridge between the storytelling of the first two generations and this one. While attempting to do something new isn't a bad thing, the overall plot is very sparse and a little bit nonsensical even for a lighthearted adventure. I ultimately preferred the more proactive storylines of Red and Silver, but a better execution of what Sapphire goes for wouldn't necessarily be bad.

Some big mechanical shakeups are introduced in this generation with the addition of Natures and Abilities for Pokemon. Abilities add a nice bit of battle flavor to each Pokemon beyond just their stats and learnsets, and while they do increase the burden of knowledge on the player I think it's ultimately well worth it. I was impressed with how conservative the abilities in this game are as well, with very few absurdly powerful ones (though some like intimidate are clearly a cut above the rest).

I'm slightly more mixed on the inclusion of Natures, which determine which of a Pokemon's core stats will be increased and decreased. While nice for adding variety on paper, there's no doubt that some Natures simply mesh better with certain Pokemon. As such it can be disappointing to catch something you wanted and realize it has a Nature that is almost entirely detrimental to it. Most Pokemon will have around 4-8 of the 25 Natures that benefit their playstyle. This means they're far more likely to have a suboptimal one, and while they may still be perfectly usable for completing the game that fact will always nag at the back of your mind once you understand the system.

On another gameplay front Game Freak did make efforts to improve Pokemon learnsets in this game. While they're still fairly conservative most Pokemon continue to gain better moves as they level up now, with very few 'garbage' moves at higher levels as they once had. Access to coverage moves (particularly by TMs) has increased somewhat too, and while still restrictive enough to keep teambuilding interesting it does somewhat move Pokemon further away from the rock-paper-scissors dynamic that defined Red/Blue and mostly remained true in Silver/Gold. Switching to make better use of type advantage is ultimately less effective when many Pokemon will have sneaky moves unrelated to their type in their arsenal.

This especially hurts Pokemon with lots of weaknesses and specific defensive roles like Aggron. We're not quite at the point where it's easy to have an individual Pokemon that can cover all its own weaknesses, but we do inch ever closer to that potential future. There's at least little/no power creep visible in this game and if anything many of the Hoenn Pokemon aside from some obvious contenders feel a bit weak compared to their Kanto/Johto counterparts.

While Sapphire is still a comfortably easy game to play through it does contain more advanced enemy trainer AI and better team composition than any of the Gameboy games. Trainers are more likely to have evolved Pokemon later into the game and to make more effective use of their moves, some even employing niche strategies. A random Milotic-carrying NPC toward the mid-late game even managed to surprise me with their defensive strategy that nearly managed to take my team out.

Sapphire notably cuts back on the more immersive elements introduced in Gold/Silver. There's no more day/night cycle or phone and while the real-time clock still exists its only major use is for growing berries. Events based upon days of the week are a thing of the past and ultimately the game returns to the more focused, adventure-based structure of Red and Blue. It is also even more linear than both previous games with few points in which the player can get badges out of order (and virtually no reason to when they can). This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it leads to a more focused gameplay experience and Ruby/Sapphire come with their own additional gameplay elements in the form of secret bases, and more notably contests.

Contests provide a method of progression and gameplay for raising Pokemon that doesn't involve battle, which makes them a fantastic introduction to the overall gameplay structure. I do wish there was slightly more to them, as it'd be great if contests had their own alternate 'endgame' like the battling side of the equation, but even without that they're still a nice feature. Secret bases are more limited in scope and basically expand on the room decorating element of Gold and Silver, but with far more decoration options as well as the ability for the player to choose where in the overworld they want their base. There's not ultimately much you can really do with them, but it is a fun little side feature for those that want to keep on playing.

It's very difficult for me to find faults with Sapphire as it's a polished game with lots of fun features and content. It's admirable how well Game Freak were able to make their transition to the GBA seem effortless despite the apparent internal struggles with this title. This easily ranks up there among the better games on a platform with a whole lot of good titles.

Technically speaking, I think this is the first ‘real’ video game I ever played as a kid. I must’ve been 4 or 5 years old, I played it a bunch until losing the cartridge several years later and by then I had mostly moved to playing Emerald and the new Gen 4 games anyhow. Recently my childhood nostalgia and how much it holds up has been a subject I’ve been interested with, so I decided to replay this game 2 decades later and see how it held up compared to my memories of it.

I had a lot of fun doing a specialized Water-type only run of the game, however the age of this game really shows in certain ways. Especially because I’ve played Emerald at least a couple dozen times by this point and the improvements it made on the original Gen 3 games are really apparent coming back to this one. You probably are playing this over Emerald either because of certain version exclusives or for nostalgia reasons like I was, otherwise Emerald is strictly better. But I’m happy I went back to this for a little while.