Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire - Review

On the topic of water however, I will add that HM usage was a significant source of annoyance for me throughout the course of the game. The very first time I played a third generation Pokémon game, I’d played Emerald, and I’d picked Mudkip, the water-type starter.

However, due to the prevalence of sea-based battles and exploration, it quickly became clear to me that I needed to teach my water-type Pokémon the move “surf” in order to explore the sea. Then, I had to teach it “dive” to explore the underwater caverns.

Add to that repertoire “waterfall” and pretty soon my previous start type Pokémon was effectively an HM slave, relegated to the role of a pack animal. It was kind of sad, and I had to plan hard in advance to avoid reaching this kind of state in later playthroughs.

I understand the necessity of having HM moves and gating certain regions in the game behind natural barriers, but it doesn’t make me any less annoyed at clogging up my water-type Pokémon’s move set with effectively useless moves and limiting its flexibility in battle. Still, for the casual player this might not be that much of a problem if they don’t rely on their water type in battle.

However, what I do want to add, and probably the biggest positive that I felt Pokémon Ruby added and that the previous generation lacked, was the addition of a strong sideplot.

In Red and Blue, fighting Team Rocket was still a new experience, and at the top of their power they were able to form a significant barrier to the player’s progression through to the Elite Four, what with Giovanni holding Viridian City gym, Team Rocket’s grunt’s blocking access to the Saffron City gym, and even holding Mr. Fuji hostage in Pokémon Tower, where the player has to get the Poké flute.

In comparison, the sideplot in Gold and Silver was pretty disappointing, with just some lingering remnants of Team Rocket hanging around Johto, waiting for Giovanni to come back, and stopping their scheme to enrage the Gyrados in the Lake of Rage felt more like a chore than anything.

On the other hand, the sideplot in Ruby and Sapphire was both consequential, rewarding, and interesting. The player has to fight the heinous Team Magma or Team Aqua (depending on the game version), which unlocks ancient powers rooted in the history of the Hoenn region in a misguided attempt to enslave a legendary Pokémon and expand the surface of the Earth or the ocean respectively.

The consequences this time affect the entire world, and the premise is quite a bit more interesting than some lowly criminals looking to make some money, so I was quite invested in it in my playthrough, and that’s all besides the tasty reward of the powerful legendary Pokémon Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza that can be unlocked through the quest, of course.

Gameplay and Art

If there was one field where I had to say that Ruby and Sapphire improved over Gold and Silver, it was in the art department. The upgrade to the Game Boy Advance definitely gave Game Freak the room they needed to begin creating more concrete and colorful designs for the Pokémon in the game.

Most of the background art is new, with my personal favorites being the new designs for the Pokécenters and Pokémarts. The variety in the Hoenn region I mentioned before definitely owes a lot of its success to the vibrant colors of the Game Boy Advance, with the deep blues of Sootropolis City’s oceans, the rich reds of the mountains, and the lush greens of the forests and grasses in Hoenn all appearing spectacularly pleasing to the eye.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of improvement in the gameplay department, what with dropping the day/night cycle introduced in Gold and Silver, and making only a few small improvements elsewhere.

The backpack and PC upgrades were definitely helpful, more organized storage space is always appreciated for hoarding RPG gamers, and the added doubles battles were fun to play, especially in Emerald where you get to fight a doubles battle with your fellow Pokémon trainer against Team Magma, although I have to admit that, as noted by 1UP.com, the doubles battles were greatly underused, and could have used with more inclusion in the gameplay.

Conclusion

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire are, in conclusion, a solid entry in the Pokémon series. They generally felt to me like a bit of a break from the wide expansion that Gold and Silver made in terms of gameplay features, taking time to refine some of the things that Pokémon already had going for it, like an attractive cast of Pokémon and notable rivalries and battles, while applying a previously successful formula to a new, unused location.

In retrospect, Gold and Silver definitely felt like they were piggy-backing off the success of Red and Blue, with Johto opening up directly onto Kanto and a lot of the characters from Red and Blue being accessible in Gold and Silver.

In contrast, Ruby and Sapphire feel like fresh, interesting takes on the Pokémon genre, while maintaining the entertainment and adventure that the earlier generations so successfully developed.