The RS section of the Adventure manga is great! One of my favorite arcs so far with what I’ve read.
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I’m playing Heartgold at the moment, and Alpha Saphire is next. These two are the last mainline games I “had” yet to play. Personally, I like grinding, but that doesn’t matter since ORAS gave us the option to turn Exp. share on/off. So those people you mention don’t even have a valid complaint.
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Exactly.
The exp share is on by default for Kids appeal.
If you are old enough to know how the game works I’d say it’s either your duty to turn it off either to make a wise use out of It, not overleveling your main team but instead works on the ~300 Pokémon you can catch around the playthrough.
You didn’t have this many in 2003.
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I would be curious as to what the average age of the poster in this particular thread is? As in, was there anyone who experienced Gen 1 or 2 in their glory, and then also experienced Gen 3 in all it’s glory, who considers Gen 3 their favorite? Not trying to start a fight or anything, just genuinely curious. There is about a 4 year difference between the R/B/Y release, and the R/S/E release.
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The gen 3 games really did improve every aspect of the Pokemon formula. I was big into the tcg ever since base but didn’t get into the games until sapphire. Partly because of age, but the tcg is different from the games in many ways. Born in '95 so yeah I could enjoy the cards at 5yrs old but too young to game I guess. But still I play the games now and honestly there is no reason to play mainline Pokemon games made before 2003
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Right here! Started with OG Blue but Gen 3 is my favourite game. BW2 might be a close second and I don’t even love that many designs in gen 5. If we’re talking purely design-wise I’d still put it up there with Gen 1 and 2.
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I experienced them all from start to finish. Can’t decide which one I like the most but at the very least, Gen 3 is equal to the others. Let’s put it like this; every time I try to quantify it, Gen 3 comes out on top.
I met few people with the same experience. Mostly I saw a few significantly older guys at LGS tables, a random kid at the toy store once in a blue moon, a few younger people that played the games seriously and openly.
It cannot be overstated how different the experiences were. All of a sudden you could smell a Pokemon fan a mile away. Kids with poor single parents, the kids with ADHD, the fat kids, the intelligent-and-socially-awkward kids, the nonconformist pariahs and the kids from little hick towns where bullying isn’t (necessarily) so fine-tuned. To the point were you can be in a room with 40 people and you immediately know the 1-2 people in the room that are going to be receptive to talking about Pokemon, maybe even become your poke-friends.
Again, cannot be overstated. It was hard to be a Pokemon lover during Gen 3.
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Absolutely true. Makes for some of the best collecting in a franchise that is so big and mass produced.
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Yeah it was after the initial hype and I feel as though a lot went over to Yugioh. Although I do remember playing fire red and sapphire. As far as tcg I. Wry much remember buying fr/lg packs because I wanted the charizard
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If it wasn’t for the constant, incessant opposition (I remember as an 11 year old boy thinking to myself “why does it have to be like this?”) this is the time when Pokemon could’ve felt like a normal hobby. Ignored by most, accepted by some, enjoyed by few, just…yeah, normal, in a good way.
That’s kind of how it felt going to Toys r us in that era. A lot of juicy Pokemon stuff, Colosseum on the game rack, Game Boy Micro’s and blisters behind the glass, a booster box of FRLG on the counter. No fanfare, no anti-Pokemon mob, no product shortage but a generous selection as well. TCG doing well, competitive RSE doing well, sets are amazing and things are going along just fine.
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I will have to admit that Gen2 is my firm favourite, but I also really love Gen3. It was such a huge leap in terms of graphics and presentation from Gen1 and 2 and R/S/E has such a unique sound for the music which is instantly recognisable. I for one enjoyed all the watery areas and felt that was I actually exploring.
Plus there were all the mysterious things such as waiting for something to actually happen at the rocket launch centre (when the number of rockets launched kept going up), Mirage island, and all the locked-up, almost mythical ticket and e-reader events that I had no hope of seeing for myself when UK support for events was so rubbish during Gen3, and the e-reader wasn’t actually ever released in the UK either (I did buy one from Australia in the end but barely used it because the cards themselves were impossible to get here and I wasn’t old enough to have a proper job/income and buy stuff offline at the time).
One of my favourite bits was connecting to Coliseum and XD and transferring Gen 1 and 2 Pokemon into the game. It was amazing seeing the old favourites come to life with glorious Gen3 sprites, even if they didn’t have a Pokedex number. It felt like a secret or a hack lol. Was amazing getting Lugia, Ho-Oh, Tyranitar, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, the legendary birds, and loads more into Hoenn.
Still have my launch day Sapphire and Emerald copies that I saved up allowance money for back then. Never selling these babies.
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I’ve mentioned it before but these things continue to baffle me. These prices imo can only mean that hoenn fans want sealed gen 3 stuff but can’t fully afford boxes yet because the sum of the contents in there is not $1500 plus the likely $250 in tax and fees from heritage
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If you’re interested in competitive Gen 3 in any way, the CALLOUS Narrates Youtube channel is a must. Don’t let the low subscriber count fool you, Callous is a pillar and a titan. Years and years of excellent, high-quality narrations (literally thousands of videos on the old channel that was deleted,) arranging tours, putting up prizes, gathering the best players on the planet. Every once in a while he delves into Gen 1, 2, 4 and 5 narrations (with good results) but Gen 3 is his true passion. He also hosts guest narrators, all of whom are excellent.
His narrations are complex, professional and, which should be emphasized here, they are digestible. He doesn’t ramble, he doesn’t speak in meme language and he doesn’t machinegun factoids.
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Gen 3 OU is one of my favorites formats! Nothing else quite like it in the franchise!
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That team could hold it’s own even after 2 decades of power creep!
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Yeah many top tier mons from gen 3 are still viable today!
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One of the most fascinating success stories is Breloom. So many bad qualities and yet so dangerous, one of the special Pokemon that’ll make almost any battle interesting.
Too bad we didn’t get more holos but the one we did get is amazing:
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Yeah Breloom is one of the best spore users to date. I always wanted an ex as a kid.
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Not one ex or eseries box on heritage premier today 
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I have been watching these gen 3 OU videos a lot! I love watching competitive Smash bros / pokemon, never actually played at a competitive level, but they are fun to watch!
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