As you’ve probably all heard by now, remakes/sequels of Ruby and Sapphire are coming to the 3DS in November. A lot of people, myself included, are excited to learn more about what to expect and what exactly these games will entail.
I’m mostly excited because Ruby and Sapphire hold a very special place in my heart. As I mentioned in my “About Me” blurb, I’ve played Pokémon since Red/Blue/Yellow came out on the GameBoy. Gold and Silver definitely took the original formula, improved it, and became some of the greatest Pokémon games ever, but Ruby and Sapphire truly felt like a new game rather than just a sequel set a few years later.
The story was really great, and it was the first time there was really a difference between versions rather than certain version-exclusive Pokémon. In Ruby, you’d be working against Team Magma, who want to have land cover the entire planet. Team Aqua appears and helps you defeat them. In Sapphire, you work with Team Aqua, who want to flood the earth and erase all land. Team Magma appears and supports you. So sure, it isn’t the largest difference but it was still there. All we had seen up to that point was Team Rocket being jerks and the only major difference being whether you could get Lugia at level 40 or 70. It expanded the cast and the world, introduced new allies and villains, and raised the stakes. And when the sun was shining brightly in the overworld (Ruby) or the rain was pounding like the wrath of Arceus (Sapphire), it really helped you appreciate just what the stakes were. And hell, when you used Surf you didn’t just morph into a white blob with eyes. A Pokémon appeared (a vague black blob, but still) and you actually surfed on top of it. That was awesome back then.
Not only that, but there was more development of the player character as well. You start off in a moving truck – which must’ve been ridiculously stuffy and massively unsafe for a child – and arrive in Littleroot Town just as the adventure begins. This allowed us to acquaint ourselves with the town and its residents (including your rival) fairly naturally. They were introduced to us at the same time we were introduced to them.
Not only that, but this was the first main series game that gave your character a father. Not only that, but he was a gym leader. It allowed for a really interesting dynamic and it put more meaning behind that gym battle than we’d seen since defeating Giovanni in the original games.
The Running Shoes were by far my favorite addition to the series. I had always hated having to walk everywhere until we could finally get a bike, so having the option of running – even if it was limited to only outdoors (curse you, etiquette!) – was fantastic and really helped the games separate themselves from what came before.
And, of course, there were the Pokémon themselves. There was still the Caterpie-clone (Wurmple), the Pidgey-clone (Taillow) and the groan-inducing Pikachu-clones Plusle and Minun, but I loved a lot of them because a lot of them were different, too. Slaking was a badass. The concept behind Ninjask and Shedinja was awesome, and there was even HSOWA. Part of the reason behind my love for it, though, was that each Pokémon was finally given its own image in your party. Rather than just blobs and generic sprites of monster-shaped things or a bird, you’d be able to look in your party and see Swampert, Mightyena, Skarmory, or whoever.
Then, of course, there were the other gigantic changes that were made. Abilities, natures, a polished EV/IV system, and so much more that have become staples of the games and forever changed how competitive play worked. For the first time, Pokémon of the same breed could be vastly different. Each one was an individual, rather than just “Pikachu,” or “Torchic.”
Pokémon contests were also pretty cool – though not fantastic – and I did miss them in future installments. It was a frustrating, confusing mess, but it was cool to have a way to sort of battle that didn’t involve fighting.
For a time, I also owned an Action Replay, which I would plug Ruby into and then plug that into my GBA. It was really just a cheat device, allowing me to give my character 99 Master Balls, 99 Rare Candies, and pretty much 99 of whatever item I wanted as many times as I wanted. I only did this after I beat the game (I didn’t want to cheat my way to the top), but man, once I started, I went to town. It got to the point where I’d use a Master Ball on a Wurmple because why not? At one point I gave myself 99 of every item at the same time and the game just freaked out completely. I was afraid I may have broken it, and I stopped playing for a while.
When I started dating my current girlfriend, I found out she had never played Pokémon. Naturally, I couldn’t let that stand. All she had was a Game Boy Advance SP, so I gave her my old copy of Ruby and had her start a new file. She absolutely loved it and has been hooked ever since. When X and Y were released, we bought each other a 3DS and played through them together. It was fantastic.
I’ve heard Gen. 3 get a lot of flak from fans. A lot of people say it was the worst of the series (or just ranked really low), that the Pokémon weren’t that cool, or whatever their logic is. For me, they’ve always been among my favorite. It finally felt like a whole new world, with whole new Pokémon, with new challenges and a new adventure. It may not have been flawless in its execution, and there may have been some absurd bits (the Regi puzzles, anyone?), but the changes it introduced shaped the series into what it is today. It allowed Pokémon to grow into the deep, strategic series it’s become rather than keep it as just a kid-friendly RPG-lite.
- Azathoth
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