Topic: The Pokemon Generation III Appreciation Thread

[Pyro]

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Generation_III:_Criticized_too_often%3F

This article got me to thinking about the Gen III games and how much flak they get from parts of the fandom. Personally, I believe much of it is unwarranted because many of them hated RS for two main reasons. 1) The lack of connectivity with Gens I & II, which is understandable because of the hardware limitations and the revamping of the data structure. 2) The (relative) lack of the old Kanto/Johto Pokemon and the fact that many of the new Hoenn Pokemon were copies of the original Kanto. Yeah, I will be the first to admit that I have little love for Wurmple, Electrike, and so on but I consider Treecko/Torchic/Mudkip the best starters of the series and some like Swellow aren't half bad. The fact that you couldn't go to Kanto (until FrLg) and Johto either were disappointments in themselves but I always had a soft spot for Hoenn.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on Gen III? It's definitely the most underrated generation and as far as I'm concerned: RSE > RBY. Sorry, but the original Gen I graphics are nightmare fuel to me.

[Sakura Leic]

I loved the gen 3 pokemon myself.  I mean Torchic/Blaziken and Absol are some of my favorite pokemon.

[Protoman Blues]

I think the main problem people had with Gen 3 was that, quite frankly, it was a step down from Gen 2.  I mean, I'm just speaking for myself, but G/S/C was easily the best Pokemon game ever for me, which is why I'm loving HG/SS so very very much.  I mean, I actually very much enjoyed Ruby, and a lot of the Pokemon in it. However, I didn't even come close to investing as much time in it like I did Silver.

[Sakura Leic]

Actually to tell you the truth I think I like the Hoenn region the most, so I guess  Sapphire is my favorite Pokemon game.

[Gaia]

Gen I Nightmare fuel? They are pocket monsters for crying out loud! 

Best part of Gen III at the final leg of it: Being able to get all THREE legendaries at once in one sitting, and the Battle Frontier. Ohh yes. I liked III actually.

[VixyNyan]

Something that Generation III had that was wonderful was the music.
Most of them were pretty cool, and was worked on by Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Morichi Aoki, and Morikazu Aold.
They were very memorable too, specially some of the Route and Battle songs. ^^b

Kyorge and Groudon were in those games. Oh, and Gardevoir too.

[Pyro]

I think the main problem people had with Gen 3 was that, quite frankly, it was a step down from Gen 2.  I mean, I'm just speaking for myself, but G/S/C was easily the best Pokemon game ever for me, which is why I'm loving HG/SS so very very much.  I mean, I actually very much enjoyed Ruby, and a lot of the Pokemon in it. However, I didn't even come close to investing as much time in it like I did Silver.

Well, I can't argue that GSC was a tough act to follow but RS, at least to me, exceeded GSC in the sheer amount of environments to explore and how smoothly the game ran graphically. (DPPt and HGSS interestingly scaled back the framerate for reasons I'll never know.) Emerald on the other hand, was a more rewarding experience with Battle Frontier or the added mechanics to breeding. Heck, I think I spent more time playing Emerald than I did Silver but I think that was mostly in anticipation for DP.

[Sakura Leic]

Something that Generation III had that was wonderful was the music.
Most of them were pretty cool, and was worked on by Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Morichi Aoki, and Morikazu Aold.
They were very memorable too, specially some of the Route and Battle songs. ^^b

Kyorge and Groudon were in those games. Oh, and Gardevoir too.

Umm actually I'd have to give best music to GSC or the GBA remixes in Fire Red and Leaf Green.

[VixyNyan]

I didn't say best. I said wonderful.
(they have this beautiful thing to them, with the GBA soundfont being used)
the music in Fire Red/Leaf Green~

I very much love the old tunes from Gen I (Kanto) and II (Johto). They are the most memorable songs ever.

[Sakura Leic]

True but most of the music in Hoenn just didn't hit home with me for some reason.

[Protoman Blues]

Kyorge and Groudon were in those games. Oh, and Gardevoir too.

That it did, and Groudon is one of my favorite Legendaries.

Well, I can't argue that GSC was a tough act to follow but RS, at least to me, exceeded GSC in the sheer amount of environments to explore and how smoothly the game ran graphically.

R/S did have more environments to explore, due to superior hardware, but Silver still let you go around more so you could get 16 Badges, which is what I really missed in Ruby.  Not to mention fighting Red again.

[Pyro]

True but most of the music in Hoenn just didn't hit home with me for some reason.

It was nice music to have in the background, but not so much for me to appreciate the Gen III soundtrack on its own.

R/S did have more environments to explore, due to superior hardware, but Silver still let you go around more so you could get 16 Badges, which is what I really missed in Ruby.  Not to mention fighting Red again.

Would've been interesting to have to run the gauntlet with Silver, Gold, Blue, and Red. That could've have been the crowning moment of awesome for Gen III.

[HyperSonicEXE]

Gen 3? Really?

Contests and water abound?

Gen 3 was good for:
-Solidifying the combat formula
-Battle Frontier
-Menu/interface/feature fluidity
-Special effects in the course of the storyline

[Solar]

You know, despite all the hate gen 3 gets for its pokemon designs I have to say that it also has some really awesome ones and some of my favorites ever. For example there's Absol, Blaziken, Glaile, Gardevoir, Salamance, all its legendaries, etc. Oh, and I don't care what anyone else says, Tropius is one of the most awesome pokemon ever.

It gets too much hate because it followed GSC, and although I can see why I still say a lot of the hate is not really that deserved. I don't know what it is about Hoenn that I like, but it's easily my favorite region for some reason and also the one I spent the most hours in.

[Alice in Entropy]

I like Generations III and IV best.

Why?

SEALEO.

AND.

SNOVER.

That is all.

[Pyro]

You know, despite all the hate gen 3 gets for its pokemon designs I have to say that it also has some really awesome ones and some of my favorites ever. For example there's Absol, Blaziken, Glaile, Gardevoir, Salamance, all its legendaries, etc. Oh, and I don't care what anyone else says, Tropius is one of the most awesome pokemon ever.

It gets too much hate because it followed GSC, and although I can see why I still say a lot of the hate is not really that deserved. I don't know what it is about Hoenn that I like, but it's easily my favorite region for some reason and also the one I spent the most hours in.

Gen III also gets a lot of flak because of the fact that Ruby and Sapphire were the test beds for the new engine. Like PB said, it felt like a step back (in some respects I agree with that) but overall I think it was a huge leap forward. Even moreso than GSC. Look how many of the Gen III mechanics transferred over to Gen IV, would HGSS have been half as awesome without RS? I think not.

On that note I think Gen V will probably have the toughest act to follow out of them all.

[Klavier Gavin]

Most of the Pokémon I didn't really care for, but the music and graphics. <3

Also, Gen3 had the Red and Green remakes, so [tornado fang] yeah! :v

[Mirby]

I love the Gen3 games... I mean, if it weren't for that, we wouldn't have SO I HERD YOU LIEK MUDKIPZ, amirite?

The legendaries are cool, Emerald was the first game with actual cutscenes, and you could catch Rayquaza and own the Elite 4 with him!

Lastly, ummm... I had something to say here, but I forgot what it was...

[AquaTeamV3]

I like Hoenn in itself, as I think it's a rather beautiful region and had a lot to explore.  I only played Emerald, but it was pretty cool and I think the introduction of the Battle Frontier was an excellent move.  That said, I think it lacked some of the charm that Gen 2 had; the music immediately comes to mind.  While there were a few songs I liked (like the Abandoned Ship), a lot of them seemed a bit dull and didn't really stick with me.  The Pokemon designs weren't bad either, although some of them are blatant copies of older ones (Beautifly, we're looking at you!).  

I like the inclusion of Natures and EV's were as well, but I really don't think the system was too inviting as aside from the Macho Brace and the ever rare Pokerus, you really had no way of speeding the process up.  Egg hatching didn't get sped up until Emerald (Magma Armor/Flame Body), so that was a much longer process as well, especially with certain Pokemon that take forever to hatch, like Eevee.  Contests were pretty cool, as they actually gave you something else to do with your Pokemon, and you could actually use certain ones that fail at competitive battling. *coughLuvdisccough*

IMHO, Generation 4 felt like a breath of fresh air after R/S/E.  There were many cool additions to the series that Gen 3 introduced, but it just felt like it was missing something.  D/P/Pt's soundtrack stood out more, and I liked more of the Pokemon designs.

Also, I personally think that Secret Bases were a terrible.

[Stardius]

Well Generation III had some really nice looking Pokemons (expecially Legendaries), some stupid Pokemons and some pointless Pokemons (seriously Plusle, Minum? more like degenerated Pikachu's cousins to me), but overall I think it was solid. I liked additions like the contests and the graphics are really nice and colorful. I thought music was sort of meh, because I liked that more striking sound of GB/GBC games. Maybe the difficulty curve could be little better, since I could run through most of the game as I was, but before about last 2 Gyms and League I had to do some heavy grinding.
But still I liked it, not like the Generation IV where I had hard time just to pick starting Pokemon, because they all looked so ridiculous and my team was pretty much composed of the Gen I and II ones.

[HyperSonicEXE]

I think that's where my main gripe with 3 lies because it's the start of the complete malarky of Gen 4.

In 1 and 2, there was a story, a bit dark and sinister at times. Evil organization in a Casino and puppeting a shell corporation, cutting off Slowpoke tails, graveyard, what have you. And when the story didn't explore these tangents to an otherwise perfect world, it would use the legendaries and focus on a creation story.

Then Gen 3 came along, and split Rocket into Team Magma and Aqua, which is just bloody lame. No way around it, that's just stupid. Furthermore, it told the creation story again, only now segmenting it even further among legendaries that are even MORE mediocre than regular Pokemon (save for Kyogre, whom is actually quite the statistical beast). On top of that, there were some fine designs (Tropius) mixed in with some god-awful scribbles.

And then, what I feared would happen, did. Gen 4 went down the DARKNESS AND EMOTIONS path that has been the demise of Megaman Battle Network, Megaman Starforce, and Kingdom Hearts. To add further injury to the creation story, now you've introduced beings that control TIME, SPACE/MATTER, what essentially is the GOD of Pokemon, and yet they can all have their asses handed to them. Worse, the designs throughout this game were infinitely worse. Whatever gameplay improvements there were are far overshadowed by the sheer ruination wrought by the story.

Here's hoping Gen 5 kinda gives the series a clean slate.

[Black Mage J]

Never played it, so I can't criticize or appreciate. Though it seemed too different for the nerds.

[Solar]

And when the story didn't explore these tangents to an otherwise perfect world, it would use the legendaries and focus on a creation story.

What?

[HyperSonicEXE]

What?

What what?

I didn't say world or universe creation, just creation or the start/origins of things in general. Perhaps origins story would be the better term.

[Gotham Ranger]

I've not played Gen III