RSE In-Game Discussion Thread

The QWAZ

approved by Birkal


RSE DISCUSSION THREAD
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hello orange islands, today we are here to talk about the best selling game boy advanced games of all time pokemon ruby, sapphire and emerald.
Being released in Japan in 2002 and the rest of the world following in 2003. Im sure many of you have played these games and They have a special place in my heart as the first pokemon games i ever played. while there were complaints about the lack of old pokemon i think the brilliant new additions more than made up for it, these include:
  • A brand new region
  • Two new villainous teams
  • 135 new pokemon
  • The EV and IV system
  • Abilities
  • Contests
  • Mudkip
  • Double battles
  • Mudkip
  • 10 new legendaries (13 if you count all of deoxys formes)

You can discuss anything in this thread. What pokemon you had, how hard did you find the gym leaders? Did you ever get to mirage island? Did you ever beat Steven at meteor falls? kyogre or Groudon? Or anything really, have fun remembering these incredible games

Enjoy.
 
Well, I have been a fan of Pokemon from the beginning, but I didn't play competitively until fourth gen. So what did I do before then? Just played through the games over and over. And no game have I played more than my Ruby version. I seriously think I have done a playthrough with every single Pokemon available in the game. I'm not gonna say it is my favorite Pokemon game, cause it is not (and I don't like ranking them), but I know this game like the back of my hand.

My favorite thing to do was always to see how low level I could have my guys upon reaching the elite four. I can't remember exact levels, but I know I have done it in the past with guys in the low 30s. I never really got into too much else in the games though, and I have always wanted to go back and finally beat the master rank contests. But, I always seem to just start a new game before I spend enough time on this stuff.

I also have played through Emerald version a few time. It is definitely the definitive version and improved on the previous two in almost every way. My only real gripe with the game is the ability to catch Rayquaza at such a high level before the elite four. It almost made the latter part of the game too easy if you used it. Otherwise though, the game is awesome. I especially loved the battle frontier. I never trained guys good enough to do well there, but it was a lot of fun, and I think the awesome layout and facilities far outclass its 4th generation counterpart.

Anyways though, great games. Now I want to go play through Ruby again (This entire new forum is going to have a really bad effect on my productivity. So many cool games I want to play again).
 
I hear all the time that "R/S/E are considered by many to be the weakest Pokémon games", but I honestly can't see why. The Hoenn region was so diverse, the colour pallette really bright and cheery, and it introduced many awesome things, most of which I was gutted not to find in D/P.

- The contests are worthy of their own thread (which, by the way, has been created). I've posted my thoughts there.
- SECRET BASES. Big letters, because man that feature was awesome. You could make your own home in the Pokémon world, a home you could decorate as you wished. No stupid "you have to do X stuff to remove the rocks" crap. Also, battling friends for experience and EVs.
- The amount of cool places to go in Hoenn. Just biking down (or up) the Jagged Pass, visiting the Scorched Slab (what was it, why was it scorched? Who knows?), exploring Route 120 above the Weather Institute or generally chilling around. Gen. III also had the most awesome Gym Puzzles. They didn't seem as "forced" as they do nowadays.
- The Battle Frontier, back when it was a serious sports facility reminiscent of an Olympic village and not a theme park. It had the coolest facilities ever, not too complicated yet exciting anyway.
- Proper Berry Growth.

I missed higher-levelled trainers, though. The Elite Four were quite weak and forgettable, and once your Pokémon passed level 60 or so, there were extremely few places to train them. The "Trainers' Eyes" re-battle system was also quite annoying, and far from reliable.

That being said, R/S/E are among my favourite Pokémon games ever. I have tons of fond memories from Hoenn, and I hope to revisit it again one day.
Now, where did I put my Emerald game...
 
When I first played through Ruby, I was heading off on holiday with my brother. The owners of the site where our static caravan was stationed were from malaysia and were really into the franchise. Their entire family had a copy each and between my brother, myself and our four "vacation buddies" were playing through the game.

The eldest of the 2 brothers and sisters thought he knew everything there was to know about the game, and when he was trying to catch Rayquaza, he wouldn't tell anyone else how to get it. I was sat on the trampoline as I wasn't far behind, and he said I needed to have a "Heart Scale" to catch it; I felt so betrayed!

Not only that, but in our link battle he wouldn't tell anyone the weakness to Rayquaza because non of us had a Flygon/Salamence to even try and outspeed it. Plus, we missed the Ice cave where Shell Bells were obtained. I got a lucky Ice Beam freeze when his Thunderbolt failed to 2HKO my Kyogre, and when it said super effective I was like, "finally!". (Like many of us once believed, I thought super effective was as random as critical hits were, just more damage @_@)

I started with Torchic on my Ruby run, and the Sceptile-line when I bought Emerald. This was when I really started to get involved in the game.

I started looking online for strategies on movesets on how to accomplish a winning-streak in the Battle Tower, and essentially what was required to complete the game all the way through. This is how I joined Smogon all those years back, through actively exploring all there is to be discovered about Pokemon; I could do this, and against everyone around the world!

I think Tate & Liza was somewhat difficult due to the double battle. However, like Whitney's battle back in GSC, I feel both 2nd and 3rd Generations' final gyms were more challenging. Sootopolis City reminded me of Milotic's "lair"; it was as painful to try and make faint as it was Claire's Kingdra.
 
Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald really have me torn on their in-game play. Certain things were really irritating, like the maaaaajor need for HMs, as well as the fact that a ton of the region was water based. Wild Pokemon encounters while Surfing have always been my pet peeve, so that really devalued the games to me. Also, making Victory Road need Flash was another thing I hated. Those caves were always so irritating, and Flash as an HM was just a massive pain.

HOWEVER, I was a really big fan of the whole Team Aqua / Team Magma struggle. Having two bad guys who were playing for different teams left you as the "good guy" who sabotaged one team, and then sabotaged the other. It was just pretty cool!

I also liked a lot of the little things, like the choice between the Mach Bike and the Acro Bike (which definitely after you beat the game, Acro Bike is the superior choice -- those tricks were so cool!), as well as the PokeBlock mini-game and the first ever Battle Frontier.

It definitely opened up a lot of cool features that they've worked on and improved throughout other games, and the Dive system was pretty cool as well. Gen III was a pretty good time for the Pokemon games, so I'm overall a fan of these games.

Now I kinda want to play Sapphire again lol
 
I really enjoyed the storyline of R/S/E and the changes they brought to the game. Abilities were a great addition, even for ingame and the feud between between Team aqua and Team magma was really interesting and funny.


R/S/E also introduced some of my favourite Pokemon to the series, mainly Snorunt, Torkoal, Treeko, Wingull and Dustox. All of these pokemon regularly find their way onto my teams during my runs of the game.

That being sad there were many flaws with the game as well. Way to much emphasis was placed on the water routes and by the end of the game I hated HMs. Unlike B/W where you did not need hms at all in R/S/E you needed an hm for basically everything which was really frustrating.

Also Kyogre / Groudon for best legendary pair in the series.
 
Didn't like Ruby when I first played it, the graphics were flashy but a tough transition from GSC graphics and I just couldn't get used to it. Time was still present but day and night graphics were not >:0 Most of the RSE Pokemon designs were ugly as sin, plus almost all of the old ones weren't available. Mudkip was cute and Marshtomp was alright, but when it evolved into Swampert I was basically :evan:, the region also had far too much surfing, and I thought double battles were as gimmicky as they come, now years later there's triples and even rotation battles...

Went through the game with a team of Swampert, Manectric, Camerupt, Breloom, plus Pelipper and something else as HM slaves if I recall correctly. It was alright, I think the Psychic gym was a bit tough, Makuhita's Vital Throw in the Fighting Gym was lethal, Altaria with Dragon Dance in the Flying Gym was trouble, Shock Wave in Electric Gym was pretty powerful too, but the rest were straightforward.

The rival in RSE sucked, there's no arguing with that. They quit before their starter full evolves, and I don't think there was even any postgame rematch afterwards. What a cop-out this was.

I remember Contests being an aspect of these games I really enjoyed, though I would struggle to tell you what I used, but I do remember mastering all categories and getting all the portraits done. Also, Secret Bases were fun as fuck, would not mind having those back.

By Emerald I had gotten used to all my qualms from Ruby, so as a result I wasn't so negative while playing through it. The one big plus about Emerald was the Battle Frontier, I spent so much time in the Battle Factory oh my goodness.

also:

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I really enjoyed Emerald, especially since that was what brought me back into actually playing somewhat (hell, it's the only other Poke game I own other than Red and Stadium 2). I thought it was a fun game, I enjoyed the Random Battle and Gym Leader tracks. Story was solid.

But yeah, it had flaws, like it has been said, HOLY HELL with the HM dependency. I mean, thank god Surf and Waterfall are good, but you need to saddle another poke with things like Dive? You basically needed 3 HM slaves to go to places without worrying about having to leave and grab the right slave. Rival was bland. And screw Juan's Kingdra. Seriously, Water Pulse/Ice Beam/Rest/Double Team, in the game where your only non-Legendary Dragon options are Salamence and Flygon? ARGH! I literally had to turn it into a huge stall battle, and cheese with items.

But it was a fun ride.
 
Easter Sunday 2003 will always be remembered as possibly one of the most glorious days of my childhood. I received a copy of Sapphire in my basket, and played it non stop till I lost it two years later. The next Christmas, I then got a copy of ruby, and then proceeded to get another sapphire, then fire-red, (which I beat, then played in conjunction my other gen 3 games.) and when emerald came out, played it till I collected every last pokemon that was non event and recorded it on my pokedex. Needless to say, I have a history with Hoenn, which is often reflected in the competitive teams I make. Emerald was personally the epitome of a pokemon game with much to do post game, considering that it lacked wi-fi competitive battles. Personally, the contest's were also best in there original incarnations, gen 4 had you doing too much, and gen 5 too little. I've logged roughly 530 hours into my White version, but even though it is more hours than I put into Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh combined, it doesn't even come close to the amount of time I put into Hoenn.
 
Ah, Gen III. I remember being so amazed by it as a 8-11 year old, wanting to play it so badly as a kid, thinking Rayquaza was called "Raya-quizza" and Kyogre was caled "Co-gree", lol, but my parents thought Pokemon was from like the devil, and I was never allowed to get it as a child. But about two years ago, when my parents stopped caring about all that, I finally picked up Sapphire, still new to the Pokemon fandom, and I can say that it is my second-favorite game in the series bar White. Hoenn is just such an amazing place, with so many locales, great Pokemon, and revolutions such as Double Battles and EV/IVs that made Pokemon much more than it was before. Shame that most people are blinded by nostalgia when they see these games.

Recently my Sapphire's internal battery ran dry, I don't know how long it will be until all my Pokemon will be gone too :(

RIP, Sapphire
 
To be fair, a dry battery is about the best thing that can happen to your R/S carts. It makes RNG as simple as Emerald but with WAY better spreads, and can help you get stuff to use in the Battle Frontier should you be into that sort of thing. But if you're really devastated about it, just get a copy of Emerald, another GBA, and a link cable and you can do the battery fix. Don't do it, leave the battery dry and RNG like a pro!
 
NixHex said:
To be fair, a dry battery is about the best thing that can happen to your R/S carts. It makes RNG as simple as Emerald but with WAY better spreads, and can help you get stuff to use in the Battle Frontier should you be into that sort of thing. But if you're really devastated about it, just get a copy of Emerald, another GBA, and a link cable and you can do the battery fix. Don't do it, leave the battery dry and RNG like a pro!
Click to expand...

Not to be off topic, but that could be extremely useful. Is there a specific guide, or can I find the info in the generic RNG thread?
 
Haha, you listed Mudkip twice! It was pretty darn cute, and I always chose it as my starter out of the 500 times I've played through R/E.

I remember the Battle Frontier of Emerald being the best thing ever for me. I spent so much time in Battle Factory just trying to see all the combos of pokemons and what sets I'd get for them. Not to mention the "part II" feeling of the frontier lengthened the life span.

Another thing were secret bases. They were so fun. I'd always find new spots to make one and I'd always love decorating them, haha.
 
I thought most pokémon of III gen were ugly when I did see some preview of those games in some local Nintendo magazine (but I bought it anyway because it had some cool G/S/C articles and pokédex). I didn't like the new graphics either and colors were like marshmellows and lollipops. Anyway, my dad bought this game to me and to my sister as an early Xmas present (he bought also GameBoy Advance Sp because he thought we were ruining our eyes with GameBoy Color) in November 2003.

What made me really sad during that time was the fact you couldn't transfer any of your Gen II pokémon to Gen III. I lost my favorite Typloshion and Ho-Oh along with Mew (from offical Nintendo event!) and other stuff I was very attached to... Well it doesn't matter anymore but as a 12-year-old-girl I was very pissed and sad.

I played Ru/Sa games mostly during vacations and my longes save file was over 4 years old (around 600 hours played) before I overwrited it. I remember having many Secret Bases from different people around Finland (yes we traveled a lot when I was a child) and having all contests mastered and few lvl 100 pokémon trained through Elite-4. It took 2 years to collect all 350 something pokémon after FR/LG/Colosseum came out. So yes I played that game a lot... After III gen I didn't have that much free time for such a thing.

However I wasn't a fan of that game, I was very irritated by many of the things you guys have listed. I played it just because I didn't have nothing else to do during boring trips with a car (not much to see when there's just trees and lakes around you for 500km or so). xP Yet when I think of Ru/Sa games I remember how fun it was to travel around the Europe with my family.
 
Ah, Emerald version....

I still remeber my first team on that game *memories*

1). Sceptile
2). Linoone
3). Crobat
4). Camerupt
5). Wailord
6). Nuzleaf (didn't know how it evolved then)

It was great times. I still never figured out stats and STAB or what moves came from what stats. I just chose the highest BP attacks....

I don't want to know how long that I spent in the Battle Factory. I used to impress my friends that I knew the pokemon just by the sound it makes. I was a legend then :D
 
I was 12 when I first got Sapphire. I remember I got to the fourth gym the first day I got it. I played that game so. much. But then I lost it for about a month and I was really upset. My mom told me she would get me Ruby once I was done with school, though, and I actually found Sapphire about a week before. Then I think I accidentally threw it out with the box Ruby came in. Then about a year later, I left my GBA on a plane with Ruby inside of it... but Emerald came out when I was 14, and in my opinion it's much better than Ruby and Sapphire, and I still have that cartridge.

What I like about those games:
Team Aqua and Team Magma
Contests (I actually like the RSE contests a lot better than the DPPt contests. They got too complicated...)
Hoenn. To this day, I still think it's the prettiest region. I still really wanna go to the beach in Lilycove and the hot springs in Lavaridge.

What I didn't like was that I couldn't bring over my Pokemon from the older games. It was really disappointing at first, but then FRLG came out.
 
Emerald Duo Run

Hi everyone ^_^
I'm going to be attempting my first challenge run in the form of a duo run soon, but I don't know which pokemon to choose. I'm going to be playing pokemon emerald. One of the pokemon is probably going to be houndour.I can get any pokemon from generation 1-3 onto my game so region availability isn't an issue (which is evident by my choice in houndour). So far all I could come up with wasHoundour + Corphish (for the eventual Crawdaunt Water/Dark + Fire/Dark team)Houndour + Carvahna (again Water/Dark + Fire/Dark)Houndour + Espeon (more of a Dawn/Dusk feel, like espeon and umbreon, I just like houndour's movepool more than umbreon's and this team wouldn't get wrecked by fighting types, but that could be part of the fun for the other teams)
Any suggestions are appreciated, unless you love one of the aforementioned combos!
 
Honestly I was disappointed in the animations for that generation. (It started with Ruby/Sapphire. Don't get me wrong I loved Ruby Peliper was my best pokemon until I was dumb and tried using stockpile/swallow.

The animations weren't that imaginative. Anyone remember Psychic/Psybeam/Hyper beam from Gen II. Those were classic move animations with sound effects. Now psychic is a large headache and psybeam is purple slinky.
 
Pokemon Emerald is my favorite game in the franchise, primarily because I can get a majority of my favorite Pokemon in that game. I remember getting Ruby version in 2003 after I saw some kids playing it at recess (I already played Silver, but never knew that R/S came out). I made it to the Elite Four using only three Pokemon: Sceptile (who had Rock Smash/Absorb/some other move I forget), Sharpedo (Dive/Surf/Waterfall/Crunch) and Groudon. I wasn't able to get pass Glacia though and stopped playing.

When Emerald came out, I was able to complete the game because the programmers decided it was a good idea to give you a LEVEL 70 RAYQUAZA right before the Elite Four. I picked Treecko but I don't remember actually even using it that much, it was still a Grovyle when it made it to the Elite Four. I remember mainly using Swellow, Flygon, Kecleon and Sharpedo (again) throughout most of the game.

Emerald is probably my favorite game in the franchise because I like the Gen III mechanics, it had a better postgame and, as I said, I could obtain most of my favorite Pokemon. I'm currently playing through it again with Grovyle/Seviper/Swellow/Aron as my current team.

Also, I can't beat any of these games in Nuzlocke, I get to Tate and Liza and die :(
 
I remember doing Emerald like mono-Sceptile with some random HM slaves and Rayquaza the whole Elite 4. I got the Regis after getting confused by Bulbapedia and Serebii came to the rescue :). Oh and Wailord with Surf, Waterfall, and Dive.
 
I remember first playing these games and thinking, 'Holy crap, these gyms are hard.' But they were ('cept I laugh in their face now as I do a solo run with my Swampert). I still remember my first team: Sceptile, Gardevoir, Aggron, Hariyama, Manectric, and Wailord.
I think these were pretty good games, except for one thing: ALL THE SURFING. Holy crap, you had to use that move so often it wasn't even funny. Like half the region is water. Finding Sootopolis and the submarine is pretty hard, and finding a Tentacool like every five seconds doesn't make it any easier. On the plus side, though, Manectric got pretty buff.
The Gyms were pretty hard. I was doing fine until I got to Wattson...it was a hard road from there. But I don't mind; I appreciate the challenge.
Overall, I thought these were pretty good games, aside from all the surfing.
 
I didn't find the Water Routes that teduios, really. Or the HM reliance in general. The Ocean was part of Hoenn's feel, there were neat little islands everywhere. The Abandoned Ship was also pretty cool. The sea felt so vast, yet so rich with content. There were many hidden coves with intriguing secrets (Sky Pillar, Shoal Cave, Regice's chamber), trainers to fight and items to find. The hidden entrance to Sootopolis was also a neat touch. Hoenn had - hands down - the best geography of any region.

It has to be said, though, I always stocked up on Repel before I set out to the sea.
 
These games were pretty Bad Ass, there are few things I found wrong with it. One of which was the waterfall/surf/dive HM water combo. I hated this. I ended up having to teach my top-percent Sharpedo(yes-It had perfect IVs) waterfall because I thought I wouldnt need it in Victory Road. My reaction? WHY GOD WHY??? What also pissed me off was the Regi Way. Some guy just walks into Ocean Cavern with a random Relicanth and Wailord and starts reading Braile( because hes blind of course) and catches Regice, Registeel, and Regirock. Because that makes absolute sense.

There were some awesome things though, Contests were awesome. Hours were wasted trying to get all master ribbons on one pokemon(which I never acomplished- Only needed tough ribbon on my Grumpig) Also contrary to what many people think, I thought the pokemon designs were fantastic. I mainly caught the pokemon I thought were cool, and they all turned out to be useful. My first team was Blaziken, Ludicolo, Altaria, Banette, Crobat, and Grumpig. This team kicked the asses of all the Gym Leaders and the Elilte Four. The Battle Tower that didn't have hax was nice too, though I was disappointed upon learning "Hey wait a second...this Grumpig sucks".
To me, Emerald was a gift from God. The Battle Frontier was amazing. I still play the Battle Factory today( because I never EV trained my pokemon and I realized they started sucking). I really hated those battle tents though, the trainers were pushovers and so were the prizes.
 
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