Pokemon Emerald

Hello Everyone. I recently played through Pokemon Emerald for the first time. I heard many things about this game. That it had the best region. That it was the best Gen 3 game. That it was a "director's cut" to Ruby and Sapphire. Given all that, I had high expectations for this 15-year-old GBA title. My first Pokemon Game is Diamond back in 2008. Since then, I've played Pearl, A little of Soulsilver, White, Black 2 and Y. I've also gone and played the ROM hack Crystal Clear. I'm going to be comparing Emerald to these games. It may seem unfair but I feel it will provide a better look at the strengths and weaknesses of the games.

If you want the short version of my thoughts on the game, I enjoyed it but there were some major problems. The visuals, world, gyms, post-game content and general gameplay are great. But the overuse of a handful of Pokemon, the excessive overuse of boring water routes and pokemon, The overuse of HMs, the limited TMs and movesets overall for most Pokemon all bring down the experience by a significant margin.


Let's Get started:

-The Visuals
Despite being on a Gameboy Advance, The game looks great. Environments are varied. Places like Fortree, MossDeep, LavaRidge are all visually and thematically distinct. The Pokemon Look varied as well. Their poses and design show their personality and styles. The overworld may have this pixellated style but it looks pretty charming to me. I especially Like the Starters and how the evolve forms look.

-Gameplay
The game is very familiar to other Pokemon games but this gen introduced a few new features that have become standard in later games. Abilities are passive effects that trigger in Battle when certain conditions are met. For example, the Ability "Blaze" powers up fire type attacks when health is less than 50%.

Overall, it's still fun. What makes Pokemon's battles more than just fancy rock, paper, scissors is that you have context for why your opponent may pick rock and the ability to choose the target of your opponent's attack. This is what makes more competitive Pokemon interesting. If you predict your opponent's attack, You can switch to a ground type to nullify an electric attack and stuff like that is very satisfying to pull off. Sadly, the latter is really rare in mainline games. But as a whole, add in abilities and cool effects from moves and you have an RPG with a simple pick up and play nature with a lot of depth.

However, there are some problems. Firstly, type balancing isn't great. Grass and Bug, in particular, get the short stick with a lot of pokemon resisting them, and very few strong pokemon and moves compared to later gens. It's to the point where hidden power grass and bug are considered some of the best moves to have (It's somewhat similar for poison except at least it has toxic. Ice and Rock have too few resistances but is great offensively). In contrast, fighting and dragon get a lot of benefits.

This even extends to the starters. Torchic ends up being the easiest as there are lots of great fire and fighting moves, it's super effective against much of the elite 4 and gyms and can get a lot of great coverage moves. It's also one of the few good fire pokemon. Mudkip and Treeko aren't bad but less valuable as there are many more good water and grass pokemon around Hoeen than fire ones. Not to mention grass's earlier shortcomings. Gen 4 would take this discrepancy even farther.

Ideally, a Pokemon game should have its starters be roughly level with each other so their pros and cons end up being roughly even by the end. Gens 1 and 6 seem to be the only ones so far with this design. I've heard people defend this approach by saying "picking a tougher starter is like a hard mode" to which I respond:
firstly, a dedicated hard mode would be a better option and secondly, for a new player who picks what looks cool, they may inadvertently give themselves an easier or harder time without realizing it as the game's don't make it clear from the start which starter has what advantages.



Another issue is the lack of level-up moves for many Pokemon and the limited TMs. This makes making a well-rounded team and even backup Pokemon much harder and really forces you to commit to a team early on for the best results. It Also means you're dealing with weaker moves for way too long. As an example, Crawduant, my Water-Dark Type, doesn't learn a decent dark move like Crunch in the game (it does in FireRed and LeafGreen, and subsequent gens would also give it moves like Night Slash meaning Gamefreak recognized this is a problem). Even your starters are not off the hook. Blaziken for example, learns only 2 fire type attacking moves by level up, Ember and Blaze Kick (that's worse than Flamethrower) and no decent fighting moves after Double Kick until level 59 with Sky Uppercut. Compare this to Gen 4 onwards which at least added flamethrower and flame wheel among others to the mix for Infernape, alongside mach panch and Close Combat.

In addition, the physical/special split hasn't happened yet (a system that categorizes moves based on if they make contact and thus use physical or special stats to calculate damage) so many Pokemon aren't at their most effective. Blaziken's Blaze Kick would be cool but being Special, Flamethrower beats it in every way. Pokemon like Absol can't have STAB (same type attack bonus) with their high attack stat because Dark is special. Gyarados, an absolute monster with physical attack, is straddled with special water moves.


I also wish the Exp Share was like its Gen 6 Incarnation. It would make growing a team much less tedious while still being challenging.


Exploring the overworld is fun. It really makes you feel like you're going on an adventure. The towns and routes are all well done. But there are a few things holding it back.

Firstly, the HMs are a pain. Before I rip into them, Let's talk about the positives of HMs. They allow your pokemon to do something in the overworld and they can add a bit of intrigue to routes (like seeing an item past a tree). Now for the negatives:
Firstly, most of their battle applications are useless. Cut is less accurate than tackle, your actual starting move. Rock Smash does pitiful damage. Strength, Fly, Surf, Dive and Waterfall are at least fine but most of that list is water type moves, which limits coverage and are special and redundant in many cases. The 8 of them mean you basically need 2-3 HM Slaves and need to plan your party around HMs. Secondly, even using the HMs isn't all that fun. You see a rock, you go to it and smash it, the decision makes itself. There is no clever thinking aside from maybe Strength with its puzzles. Here's the thing, you could do what Dragon Quest does and make all HMs an item you can use as soon as you have the appropriate Gym Badge and that would solve all major issues with it instantly. You still have problems like the flavour text that keeps appearing (except for Strength) even when you keep using the HM. Why can't when I press A next to water, I start surfing instantly?  I don't need to keep being told the water is blue. Why can't when I press A next to a rock, or a tree it gets removed instantly? That would save so much time, it's not even funny.


Secondly, The Water Routes are a pain. (I know, IGN's 7.8 Too much Water but they are absolutely right). Firstly, despite being half the routes in Hoenn, The water routes do not have half the content. They are boring, repetitive, have very little to do or to differentiate them and have the same bloody Wingulls and Tentacruels. I'm sick of them. They're not even at a high-level consistently (I've fought level 9s and 39 next to each other). Compare this to the land routes, they can be visually and even geographically distinct (you can have giant grasses, differing elevation and bridges, different terrain, different pokemon and weather effects. One land route can look and feel remarkably different from another).

I've seen people defend these routes for quite a few reasons. Here are a few:

>"It makes thematic sense. Water vs Land"

Here's a quote from a review of Pocket Morty's that responds to the same defence

Ghost in a Jar
3 years ago
+Human Jokic While thematically it makes sense that Mortys should mostly feel the same when using them, applying that to gameplay makes it very shallow and repetetive. And usually gameplay > theme. and I am sure no one would complain if the Morty's abilities and attributes were more wildly different. Nothing dumb about her insight on that at all, imo


>"It's based on a real place"

Firstly, The job of game designers isn't to be realistic. It's to make something fun. Assassin's Creed devs have frequently stated how they changed the real maps to be something more fun to navigate.

Secondly, Future Games avert this. Sinnoh is based on Hokkaido and is much farther north than prior regions and has a major mountain in the middle. Despite this, it's not all mountains and ice. Unova is based on New York, it's not all giant urban city and filled with lots of steel and poison types. Kalos isn't all fairy type. And the final nail in the coffin, Aloha is based on Hawaii and its islands, yet has a far better balance of types and environments

>"You can skip it/go faster with Sharpedo and later with the Flute in ORAS"

That doesn't change the fact that you're still playing a boring part until then. And even then, making something slightly less bad doesn't magically make it good. There's also the issue of HMs from earlier that it interferes with.





-The Story

It's a standard Pokemon story that set many of the staples of the series going forward (You're a kid in a small town, you get a starter from a tree named professor. You fight the Pokemon League and an evil team that wants to use a Legendary Pokemon you gotta stop). There are some twists along the way. Your protagonist has a parent in Norman the normal type leader which adds a bit more stakes to the journey. You have a sort of apprentice in Wally who grows more confident from Pokemon. You have 2 evil teams with nonsense motives (this is something ORAS improved on). There are some nice interactions and characters along the way.

I have some problems. May, your actual rival, kinda drops off after a certain point, making her feel superfluous. I'd rather she be more present throughout the adventure. Wally is cool because of his arc but he too is very absent from the events at hand. I'd love if he was someone you mentored throughout the adventure.

The Evil Teams and the Legendary Plot isn't very interesting. It feels tacked on for the sake of tradition. I prefer either Gen 1's approach where the Evil Team was grounded and connected with the main plot (Giovanni was the 8th Gym Leader) and the Legendary Pokemon were Legends you had to seek out. Or Gen 5's approach where it was even more integrated (the evil teams, legendary and league were all connected). Emrald's set up falls flat because the climax of the story happens before the Elite 4.

On the plus side, At least catching Rayquaza is a decent challenge for the reward of a level 70 monster before the Elite 4. It being optional also helps.


-Gyms and Elite Four
Compared to Gen 6, The game is  challenging. The Gyms frequently had higher levels and some pretty interesting tactics I couldn't brute force through with a single stronger Pokemon like the normal trainers. Norman, for example, had a Slaking that would tear through my team despite being higher level than it. It's facade and counter were very powerful. My winning tactic involved sending out Gyarados and using leer while Slaking used 2 counters that failed before taking it out in a single Facade. I then sent out Combuskin who took it out with a single Double Kick. Or the Twins Tate and Eliza who required me to synergize my team so my surfs and revives were used effectively, culminating in a very tense 1 on 1 with Gardevoir with Shadow Ball versus a Lunatone that healed at least 4 times. It was fun (I do wish their gym was teamed more around double battles).

I do have some issues. While the puzzles were decent, some Gyms' ideas fell a little flat. Norman's gym used X Items but the trainers had only 1 Pokemon so the Gym may give players who aren't knowledgable of X Items the impression these items are useless. If these Trainers had more pokemon and maybe even moves like Trick Room and Baton Pass, it would be a much better learning experience.

I'm mixed on Wallace being the champion. On the one hand, he does mix up returning Ruby and Saphire players and makes it harder for Blaziken to sweep through like he did with Steven. But on the other hand, It's more dang water types, especially as the 8th gym was already water.


-Post Game

The Battle Frontier is really cool. The different facilities and their challenges are a fun test of the player and things can escalate very fast. I do wish the requirements for medals was made more clear. Overall, I'd love to see this become a staple of the series.

Now personally, I prefer Gen 5's approach to a post-game with new areas to explore with higher level challenges as well as a Battle Frontier Like area. I also wish there were easier ways to level up and Train Pokemon at this point because the best bet is to grind the Elite 4.

Catching some of the remaining Legendaries wasn't that fun. Groudon and Kyogre moved around so much so finding each of their caves was frustrating. The Reggie puzzle is cool but way too over the top. Latias/Latios as roaming Legendaries is as painful as always.

Breeding is cool. There is a lot of depth through the system with egg moves, chains and more. My problems are how long it takes (even with Slugma’s abilities) to hatch eggs and how mammals can lay eggs. I’d rather have a system where the daycare man tells you a Pokémon had appeared after fewer steps that a new Pokémon has appeared, you can examine its stats and choose to keep it or leave it permanently with the daycare. This would solve both issues.



-Conclusion

Despite Emerald being over 15 years old at this point, I enjoyed my time with it and glad I got to experience it. I am of the belief that good game design is timeless. This means that Emerald, no matter how many years pass, will always have its positives as positives. But if I had to rate it and recommend it, I'd give it a 6.5/10 at best with a "if you want a fun straightforward Pokemon adventure with lots to do, go for it". If the HMs were removed, water routes removed or made extremely less tedious, Movesets and TMs improved, and types be improved, I'd give it an instant 8-8.5

With that done, My next look will likely be Need for Speed Shift and Undercover for the PSP.