i don't think ORAS removed a lot of interesting stuff from here, the only thing i miss were the amount of double battles that were deleted and battling wallace more than once. battle frontier is a pain in the a*s idk why people like it, only the pyramid, tower and factory felt rewarding the other half is rng hell
This review contains spoilers
Pokemon Emerald is very much a mixed bag for me. It wasn't the first game/generation I played but I have memories of my friends and people on the bus playing this and me watching. The story is interesting, with team magma and aqua trying to summon their respective legendaries to re-do the earth (essentially). Rayquaza comes down, beats the fuck out of the two of them, then you catch it and do the standard story. The evil teams in this game weren't too threatening or particularily interesting. Obviously their goals are flawed and it's funny when they realize how wrong they were. That being said, they were stereotypical villains. The map itself is somewhat generic and that IGN review is kind of right, I was annoyed with how much water there was. Otherwise though it was pretty standard. One thing I didn't enjoy and know I will continue to hate is the EXP grind. In later games the EXP share applies to your whole party, but here it's only the one holding it. While I understand some people would like this more (difficulty) I view it as tedious and annoying. I have to switch pokemon out to farm EXP and it just gets annoying and makes me not want to try new mons. This is also before the special/physical split, so there wasn't as many options. Overall, I don't regret playing this as I transferred the pokemon over to Platinum, but it definitely shows it's age and I wouldn't recommend playing through it unless you have nostalgia or it's your first time.
Si bien terminé el Modo Historia hace como 20 o 30 horas, Pokémon Emerald es un monstruo en términos de contenido. La Battle Frontier es enorme y bien podría tomarme otras 100 o 200 horas simplemente prepararme para ello y para vencer todos los escenarios. Es un gran juego y entiendo porqué mucha gente lo llama el mejor juego de Pokémon. No estoy del todo de acuerdo con eso, pero se queda cerca, muy cerca.
This was my first Pokémon game I played when I was 5 and I stole my cousins copy (sorry Paddy), so it was fun to revisit it.
I guess with the benefit of hindsight and seeing how much the franchise evolved, even during only its next generation, it was hard to not find myself missing QoL improvements I was so used to. Some moments felt very standard series stuff and a few times I was a bit stuck on how to continue but overall I had a good time. Think it was a combination of nostalgia and using cheats (thanks Delta!) that made my experience a solid thumbs up.
I guess with the benefit of hindsight and seeing how much the franchise evolved, even during only its next generation, it was hard to not find myself missing QoL improvements I was so used to. Some moments felt very standard series stuff and a few times I was a bit stuck on how to continue but overall I had a good time. Think it was a combination of nostalgia and using cheats (thanks Delta!) that made my experience a solid thumbs up.