I decided to skip a Johto game for now since I don't have very fond feelings towards the structure of those games, but man I love Hoenn's dex. It has probably the most stacked starters out of any of the regions, like for crying out loud there's MUDKIP, my goat. Everything they do new in Emerald compared to Ruby and Sapphire is also very fun, while also allowing you to catch what were previously version exclusives. Even Platinum didn't let you do that. My only problem is that Hoenn is a jagged mess of a region design where you kinda have to look up a guide on where to go. There were so many cases of backtracking, especially around the 4-5th gym areas. It might've been the first time I actually used the map in one of the games outside of for flying. Overall, a good Pokemon game, Wallace is king, and no I'm not doing Battle Frontier.

Bem... não sei por onde começar direito... acho que poderia começar dizendo...
Olá leitores! Como vão? Hoje vim trazer uma review de Pokémon Emerald, terminei há algumas horas antes dessa review, então estou ciente do que estou falando.

Iniciando então, o ponto que mais me agrada na franquia Pokémon: diversão.
Todos os jogos (até agora que joguei) não possuem histórias geniais, reflexões ou nada do tipo. E isso não é problema, um jogo bom não sobrevive de história. Ao meu ver, um jogo é uma experiência que você consegue se envolver mais, afinal, você faz as ações acontecerem. Um jogo não necessariamente precisa de uma trama sem igual (pontuando que, jogos que a possuem, também podem ter notas baixas) mas sim, pelo menos, me divertir. O meu perfil não é nem um pouco crítico ou tenta se passar por um, é apenas uma avaliação sobre como eu me senti jogando e minhas vivências nele. E adianto, em Pokémon Emerald, essas vivências podem ser resumidas em poucas palavras: Descaso, desprezível, desorganizada e irritante.

Não serei desonesto só atacando o jogo, porque afinal, se fosse tudo isso, o mesmo estaria com uma nota bem abaixo, coisa que não foi o caso. O jogo se inicia bem, possuindo uma pokedex muito rica, diga-se de passagem. A minha trilhagem nessa nova jornada se iniciava, e logo percebia que houve uma tentativa de uma inclusão de diversos diálogos extensivos buscando uma história? Eu realmente não sei o que foi aquilo, vários personagens possuiam falas intermináveis, mesmo no início. Mas, ainda estava muito cedo pra julgar...

O decorrer da história foi muito bom, e eu diria até, prazeroso. Consegui evoluir os pokémons muito rapidamente com o Exp. Share, coisa que eu não fazia ideia que existia e passava dias farmando nos outros jogos. Portanto, muito tempo foi poupado com isso.

Fora isso, pode ter sido culpa minha e tals, mas eu pulei a gigantesca maioria dos diálogos, pois, não estava nem um pouco interessado e nem minimamente curioso no que eles queriam me dizer, uma pena. O jogo realmente mostrava uma tentativa de atribuir uma história maior para o jogo, mas ao meu ver, acho que não funcionou, isso se dá por vários motivos.

Dentre esses motivos, posso dizer um em específico:
O mapa extremamente irritante de Hoenn.
Caramba, eu não fazia ideia mesmo do que estava por vir. Nem falo da água, que é o que mais a galera recama, mas sim da parte de terra mesmo. Tendo que fazer zig-zags imensos o tempo inteiro, caralho.
Agora falando da parte da água, citada anteriormente, CARALHO. Eu nunca passei tanta raiva jogando Pokémon. cara, não era pra isso me divertir? Foi totalmente o oposto, sério. Sei que era pra tematizar o Kyogre e ter partes aquáticas mas CARA, é MUITO grande, que chatice imensa.

E depois de tudo isso, enfim a Elite 4, as batalhas finais foram ridículas de fáceis, eu estou realmente jogando contra os oponentes mais fortes? O que aconteceu aqui? Derrotei quase todos com facilidade extrema, estava sem Revives e Hyper Potions para segurar o tranco, e mesmo assim saí vitorioso.

Uma rápida comparação com Pokémon HeartGold, em HG, eu possuia um carisma com a maioria dos líderes de ginásio e membros da Elite 4, principalmente o Lance (Boss da Elite 4) e foi super divertido e desafiador, e bota desafiador nisso. Em Emerald foi só uma batalha que me forçou a usar itens para sobreviver, e eu me curando, matava o inimigo com insta kill......

Encerrando por aqui, não é um jogo ruim, mas bem na média, eu amo a pokedex de Hoenn e seus lendários, mas, mesmo com isso, a diversão durou pouco. Em tantos momentos de alegria com as minhas aventuras com meu Swampert, veio tudo de terrível de uma vez só.
Agradeço a leitura de vocês!! ♡♡

guys wouldn't it be really fun if we made you grind really early and lock an exp share behind a gym that you need to beat in order to get access to the exp share?
Which leaves your starter and every other pokemon you catch at a massiv power gap?

i think that'd pretty fun ngl

PSA: Everybody is completely allowed to like this game. I just didnt vibe with it in the beginning. I'll prolly come back one day to actually progress lmao. I'm just being stubborn :p

Um jogo que pra mim equivale a Half-Life 2 no quesito de como melhorar absolutamente TUDO em relação ao seu antecessor.

Os Pokémon de Hoenn são muito bacanas, e o jogo aproveita muito bem deles para criar uma historinha muito boa e interessante (diferente dos outros jogos que era algo bem esquecível). E também estão muito mais estilosos, já que o gráfico do jogo foi todo retrabalhado e ficou lindo.

Em questão de novos conteúdos, gostei bastante das batalhas em duplas, que são muito mais divertidas que as batalhas convencionais e do Team Aqua e Team Magma, que são mais interessantes que a Equipe Rocket, tendo toda uma motivação por trás que me interessou bastante.

Pokémon Emerald é um jogo excelente, que tem batalhas muito divertidas, uma história interessante, gráficos estilizados lindos e novos Pokémon muito legais.
9,5/10

Time Final: Swampert, Manectric, Torkoal e o resto (Swellow, Hariyama e outro Hariyama)

This was recommended (re: forced lol) by my fiance as my first Pokemon game to play. I wanted to try some of the RPGs she seems to like much and Pokemon is apparently supposed to be the easiest of this genre!? Well this game was hard as heck man. I did not beat a single gym on the first try and don't even get me started on how long it took me to prepare for fighting the champion. But all this did make me feel quite close to my cute little companions, we ended up spending quite a lot of time together and beat up a crap ton of other Pokemon. I appreciate how much I cared about my team in the end.

It’s Summer 2005. I’m on my way to my grandparent’s place in Buffalo, New York. I’m crammed in the car with the rest of my family as we barrel through our 5 hour long drive. At this point I’m either yapping away about random nonsense or playing Yoshi’s Island on my silver GBA SP. But quickly something else catches my attention: trumpets. I look over to my brother and see him playing this game. I watch him run through Hoenn and experience a grand adventure as those iconic 32-bit horns sang endlessly. It was intoxicating.

At that moment and many times afterward I’d beg for him to let me try it, but he was territorial with Emerald. “No. This is my game. You’re not allowed.” This was common with many of the games we had growing up—Wind Waker, Sonic Adventure 2, etc.—but with those he’d eventually grow out of love and I’d take over the reigns after a short time. Pokémon was always different, however. Even though I’d eventually get my own game with Pearl a few years later, I had always felt more like an onlooker with the series more than anything else. I’d keep up with what they were doing from time to time, replay my own games, maybe dabble in the the newer titles; but subconsciously I always saw it as my brother’s game. It was special to him, and still is to this day.

It’s funny, though; no matter how much I’d distance myself from the series I still wanted more out of it. I wanted the connection that my brother (and so many others) had with this titan of gaming. In that sense you could say I was jealous of how engrossed he was, and even bitter that he restricted my access from such a young age. Sure I could’ve asked my mom for my own copy, or even played it behind my brother’s back; but again to some extent I felt like it didn’t belong to me. I was a passenger to the Pokémon, not a driver. And even now, after spending nearly 50 hours having my own adventure in Hoenn (and almost definitely spending more hours catching the remaining legendaries); I still feel like an outsider of sorts.

However, I’d absolutely be lying if I said that finally defeating the Elite Four after all these years of hearing their theme out of the corner of my ear many times as a small child wasn’t cathartic as hell. There’s something about the traditional Pokémon structure that just makes it all worthwhile in the end. Through all the bullshit, through all the grinding, through all the gnawing little grievances that would make me put down the game and nearly swear it off after playing for hours on end, there’s rarely a better feeling than seeing your team—that you personally raised from the early areas—inducted into the Hall of Fame. Again, it’s just intoxicating.

I have a lot of nostalgia for Gen 1 and 2 but after that I didn't play any Pokemon games basically until Sword and Shield. It was exciting to come back to a classic Pokemon and I love knowing I still have a few more just waiting for me one day. Had a really good time playing this. I love how much personality some of the towns have and Team Magma and Aqua were fun. Overall I think it was a more memorable experience than some of the newer ones.

This game has given me some new favorite towns and Pokemon as well. Breloom is one of my new favorites and Verdanturf theme is peak.

Played on Analogue Pocket

Man, early Pokemon was so full of life. You can see in games like Pokemon Emerald just how clearly full of passion the design team was for these games once upon a time. Gen 3 of Pokemon's greatest strength is just how enduring it is, these games are collectively over 20 years old now and they still look absolutely amazing, the pristine pixel art has allowed them to hold up for longer than any 3D models ever could. You can see your own reflection in puddles as you run over them in this game, for the GBA that still kinda blows my mind! Not a thing about these games look dated even today, and the UI and menus are still sleek and gorgeous too.

Pokemon Emerald (and Gen 3 by extension) has so many cool, unsung little setpiece moments that help it stick in the mind. The route before Fallarbor Town being covered in volcanic ash from the nearby Mt. Chimney and having brown grass that only turns green when you run through it, the series of long-winded forest routes leading up to and past Fortree City (one of the coolest locations in any Pokemon game) and the vast and open-ended oceans you can begin exploring to your heart's content as soon as you get Surf.

Pokemon Gen 3's world design, both literally and figuratively are brilliant. Hoenn is a lush, tropical region so beautifully realised by all those little moments of artistry I touched on, but in terms of progression it's also incredible. So open-ended, so rewarding to the player for paying attention and thinking about the world. Once you beat Norman and get Surf, the game never tells you that you're supposed to go east of Mauville City to progress to Fortree, but you as the player are rewarded for caring and paying attention and thinking to yourself; "hmm, I should come back here when I can Surf." There's so many little moments like that peppered throughout the game like coming back to Meteor Falls to get Bagon when you have Waterfall or using Surf to go back yourself to the places near Dewford Town and Slateport City that Mr. Briney used to have to ferry you across. (And perhaps discovering the Abandoned Ship in the process!)

HMs do feel antiquated and needlessly restrictive, especially given the modernization of more recent games - and the physical/special split not yet existing hurts the game mechanically, but almost everything else is so well done. The new Pokemon designs are charming and do a great job at reflecting Hoenn's tropical nature, the soundtrack is lively and optimistic - enhancing the game's adventurous aesthetic and hell, the story might not be too much to write home about but it too has some interesting setpiece moments here and there and better yet - it doesn't insult your intelligence and insist upon itself at every given opportunity! Wow! What a novel idea! Next you'll tell me that this game had meaningful post-game content or something!

These games still looking so good today serves as a great microcosm of how well they still hold up in general. It's Pokemon Emerald, but it might just be evergreen. If you ever want to remember why Pokemon was so beloved, go back and play a game like this.

It's a fairly standard Pokémon game. Nothing really stuck out aside from it unfortunately being.. kind of a slog? There's so many long stretches of nothing but 50 back to back double battles just to have to backtrack again anyways because Wallace did child neglect on your ass and left you to deal with a demi-God battle happening on his front yard.

HM moves are such garbage cock ass and this game forces you to use all of them to get through Victory Road. That is something that is a minor annoyance in normal gameplay, but absolute torture in a Nuzlocke. Why did we live like this before?? I don't want to suffer anymore!!

The music is fine on it's own but listening to it on repeat literally gave me a migraine. I love me some trumpets, but the midi version of trumpets might as well have set ants loose into my brain for the same effect. I could not stand fighting Team Aqua/Magma because their song is like listening to dying cats, very fitting since they're all psychos anyways.

It's also completely UNPLAYABLE since you can't get Lickitung easily in this game, but it's still leagues above Sword/Shield. Rayquaza does slap cheeks red though.

Purely an amazing Pokemon game. While Red and Green started the franchise and Gold and Silver sorta expanded it, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald had evolved Pokemon to the point where it didn't just feel like some fad, it felt like a work of art. The gameplay is a lot more fun than Gen 1 and Gen 2 (with the addition of abilities, numerous new moves, and overall more challenge) and the graphics got a huge upgrade. There's also the much welcomed Battle Frontier (which includes the Battle Tower from Crystal, Ruby, and Sapphire,) which is a great way to introduce new content even after the main game's story has ended. Overall, one of my favorite Pokemon games.

• The physical/special attack split is so all over the place, so many compromises to have good builds (Absol 😵‍💫)

• Norman being the Champion would have made the story a bit better. Team Aqua and Magma do stink but it makes it funnier when they realize how much they screwed up by summoning Grou and Kyo and OF COURSE I have to go call their mom to stop them from fighting

• Gardevoir and Hariyama 💓💓💓

• There's a lot of water and I regret not getting Manectric

• You destroy a sick kid's hopes and dreams right at the end goal, what did GameFreak mean by that

This game is probably the worst of the third versions of Pokemon games. It doesn't add much content, although what it does add (both teams + Rayquaza) is a step up. However, it removes Steven as champion and opts to replace him with a grossly inferior trainer, and puts Steven in as a final boss a la Red in Johto. Personally, I think that change is a terrible one. Aside from those changes, this game is effectively Ruby/Sapphire, and still contains all their issues. The game is grossly imbalanced based almost exclusively on your starter, as is an apparent staple in the series. It lacks interesting fire types throughout, and has very few interesting water types. The lack of physical/special split is abhorrent in this generation specifically, as it introduced a multitude of fan-favorite Pokemon who cannot make use of STAB (and this isn't even taking movepools into account). The Elite Four grind is especially terrible in this game, as the third versions tend to upscale the "challenge" (meaning the levels of boss battles are higher and that's it). There are no trainers remotely near the level of the Elite Four, and Victory Road wild encounters are maxed at level 40, and all of them make grinding inconvenient and obnoxious. Ultimately, it's still a Pokemon game so you'll have fun at some point before remembering what a terrible grindfest and level-check it is (for me it was between gyms 4-7). Also, I caught a shiny Pelipper. 3/5.

Felizmente Pokémon está me surpreendendo a cada jogo, o Emerald é sem dúvidas até agora o melhor jogo dos 3 que eu joguei, pega todos os conceitos que o FIre Red e Heartgold não conseguiram fazer e trabalha e concerta de forma majestosa.

Cidades, Pokémons e ambientação é feito com extrema grandeza, a lore é sem dúvidas a parte principal desse jogo, nos apresentando 2 grupos principais, AQUA e MAGMA, que contem cada lider com sua personalidade e design único, cada um casando com a dualidade de reviver os Pokémons ancestrais, a história se desenvolve de maneira totalmente orgânica que é impossível ficar perdido, chegando na parte final que vem o grande charme com a luta entre os ancestrais que causam desastres pelo mundo, e no meio disso tudo nós despertamos o Rayquaza que da um ponto final aquela luta.

Emerald é sem dúvidas o melhor até agora.