• 2 months ago
Last year I looked at the Game Boy Pokemon games, and this year I am looking back at the Game Boy Advance games. From my first adventure into Hoenn to the Sevi Isles and the Battle Fronteer, Pokemon's Ruby, Sapphire, Leaf Green, Fire Red, and Emerald are all amazing games which have aged well.

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~~~Time Codes~~~

00:00 Chapters
00:27 Cleaning up games (16 Bit Store AD)
00:51 Intro
00:59 Borrowing Pokemon Sapphire
01:18 Pokemon Sapphire
05:58 Giving Back Sapphire
06:39 Getting Leaf Green
07:08 Pokemon Leaf Green
10:46 The long wait between Pokemon Games
11:45 Getting Pokemon Emerald
12:35 Pokemon Emerald
14:16 Hyper Inflation (of pokemon game prices)
15:13 Final Thoughts
16:17 Credits

#pokemon #pokemonruby #pokemonsapphire #gameboy #gameboyadvance #gba #gb #pokemonemerald #leafgreen #firered #retrospectives
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome! The last time I talked about Pokemon, I talked about my experience
00:07with Pokemon's blue and silver. While those games will always hold a special place in
00:13my heart, for me the Pokemon series only really started getting good on the Game Boy Advance.
00:19So join me as I take a look back at my experience with the third generation of Pokemon games.
00:27But before that, today's video is brought to you by us and the 16-Bit Store. Our display
00:32stands are designed to fit their games and systems perfectly, and I love using them to
00:38show off my Pokemon games and my Game Boy systems. If you want some, why not check them
00:44out today at 16BitStore.com or in the link in this video's description.
00:58While my introduction to Pokemon on the Game Boy Advance was with Pokemon Pinball Advance,
01:05even at the time I did consider this to be a bit of a side game. No, I didn't get to
01:10play my first real Pokemon game on the Game Boy Advance until sometime in the early 2000's
01:16when my old friend Daniel let me borrow his copy of Pokemon Sapphire for the summer. I've
01:24long since forgotten why he even let me borrow it, but I was and still am extremely appreciative.
01:34Starting up Sapphire has always hit me with a jolt of excitement, which I now see as nostalgic.
01:41Yeah, the intro isn't anything the right home about, but I just love this improved
01:48atmosphere this game creates. The music, the improved aesthetics really just shows
01:56just how restricted Pokemon was on the original Game Boy.
02:02And this theme of Pokemon games without limitations is easy to see in just the opening alone.
02:08There's a strong narrative here, and cool things happen, like you have a dad, and he's
02:13a gym leader. There's little cutscenes, like the local Pokemon professor getting attacked
02:18and the characters feeling a lot more flushed out, like your rival having just a fun personality
02:25who's there more to help their dad and to be friends with Pokemon and maybe be a budding
02:31researcher rather than just being the best trainer of all and trying to be better than
02:37you like every other game. I love the atmosphere that this game creates, and it even makes
02:46my choice of starter different from all the other games. At this point in time, when I've
02:53been playing Pokemon long enough that I just ended up choosing the water starter since
03:00it can learn ice moves and Gary's little Bulbasaur just gets destroyed because I can ice beam
03:05it in the face. But over the years, I've done so many playthroughs with this game that
03:11I've ended up loving all three of Hoenn's starters. I remember that my first starter
03:16though was Torchic since that's the one that Daniel used and I love its third evolution.
03:23But Treecko also has this really cool design, and Mudkip is always going to be my favorite
03:30especially being a water ground combo.
03:34But Hoenn does start showing his ages in a few weird places. The game is technically
03:39the first one with double battles, but outside of the Psychic Twins, I often forgot that
03:44it was here since it's so hidden. It's almost as if Game Freak wasn't entirely
03:49convinced that double battles was going to be received positively. Another aging issue
03:55here is coming from a future Pokemon game. The physical special split only came in Gen
04:024, so moves don't hit as hard as I would expect them to, especially moves like Earthquake.
04:11These are minor niggles though, especially for what is a 20 plus year old game. Pokemon
04:17Sci-Fi has this excellent balance of a good mix of battles, gems, exploration, story,
04:22and new Pokemon to discover around every corner. Yeah, there still isn't enough trainer battles
04:29to raise a full team of Pokemon by the time you hit the Elite Four, but the way battles
04:34are handled here is masterful. Even the act of re-battling a gym or your rival is always
04:42a treat.
04:44I also love this game's story. Team Magma and Aqua aren't just your traditional baddies
04:50whose misdeeds happen off screen and you're told about them after they've happened. You
04:55see them being jerks to everyone and everything, making their inevitable beatdown that much
05:02more satisfying, even if the story only really makes sense in Sapphire. Like, why is Groundon
05:10in the ocean? Why isn't he in the inevitable volcano that this region has? Hoenn is just
05:17such a cool region to explore with so much diversity, unique towns and villages, places
05:24to visit, and the best feature of any or every game, secret bases that you can call your
05:34own and copy over to your friends' bases and challenge them with. The world has all these
05:41nooks and crannies that I've spent years just discovering and exploring this game and learning
05:48all of the secrets. Even now, I'm still learning more, like actually solving the Braille challenge
05:56on my own.
05:59While future Pokemon games are certainly more polished than Ruby and Sapphire are, I really
06:03can't recommend these games enough. I loved them so much that at the end of the summer
06:10when Daniel asked me for his game back for an entire day, I tried my best not to give
06:16it back and keep it for myself. But eventually I remembered the Sage and Trainer advice of
06:23not dealing Pokemon and I did eventually give the game back before I went home that day.
06:31I do kinda feel like a jerk about doing this to Daniel and eventually, many years later,
06:36I did buy myself my own copy.
06:40While I loved Pokemon Sapphire, when I did give it back I was without a Pokemon GBA game
06:46again, and I wouldn't get one until a long while later when my local Professor Oak came
06:52up to me on what I think was my birthday and asked me what my favorite Pokemon was, Bulbasaur
06:59or Charmander. When I answered with Bulbasaur since Squirtle wasn't an option, she then
07:05proceeded to give me a box copy of Pokemon Leaf Green. Now I knew next to nothing about
07:13Leaf Green when she gave it to me, but based off of the Pokemon on the box and the real
07:20Professor Oak welcoming me to the world of Pokemon, I was pretty sure that this was just
07:27a remake of Pokemon's Red and Blue. The first remake that Game Freak made and boy, can I
07:34tell. On the one hand, this game is a 1-to-1 remake of the Game Boy Original, from the
07:41layout of the map to the dialogue used. On the other hand, it does have a ton of modern
07:48amenities that can be found in modern Pokemon games, from tutorials and basic features like
07:55rubbing. The issue was, at this point, Game Freak hadn't found a good balance between
08:02preserving the original experience and not frustrating the player. For example, to keep
08:11to the original, the game only lets you have access to the first 151 Pokemon, which is
08:17really cool. But you can't unlock the rest of them until after you beat the game and
08:24unlock the National Dex, which is fair enough. But for some reason, Game Freak decided if
08:31you have a Pokemon with a post-Gen 1 evolution, like for example, Gulpat, and you meet the
08:37requirements to evolve it, Gulpat will refuse to evolve until Professor Oak says so.
08:47On the other side of this lunacy, trading with Ruby and Sapphire is locked off until
08:53you get the National Dex, which kinda sucks. But the event to unlock trading is such a
08:59fun sequence that it's honestly a highlight for me during my recent playthrough. This
09:06juxtaposition is all throughout the game, and I feel that the main game kinda feels
09:13held back because of it. It feels like Game Freak really wanted to spoon-feed new trainers
09:21with all the tutorials and hand-holding, which weren't in the original game. It really
09:27slows down the whole experience. These gameplay decisions honestly made replaying LeafGreen
09:33just a bit harder than I was expecting. And this was probably the main subconscious reasons
09:40why I never replayed LeafGreen until now. But I am happy I did replay them since I forgot
09:48just how much fun the Sevii Isles are.
09:51The Sevii Isles are seven new playable islands with the level design and focus of Pokemon's
09:56Ruby and Sapphire, all without the need to have the story and eight gems woven and shoehorned
10:03into it. With secrets around every corner, a small plot around the remnants of Team Rocket,
10:09and so much just hidden and new content that it probably could have been the basis for
10:15its own Pokemon game, rather than being tacked on at the end of what was Blue. While I don't
10:23feel LeafGreen is as good as Ruby and Sapphire, it's not that bad of a game. And if you
10:31are given the opportunity to play this or Blue, LeafGreen is a much better experience
10:38and eventually, when the next generation of Pokemon games came out, you were able to bring
10:44your friends along with you.
10:47But as this was the only Game Boy Advance Pokemon at this time, I overplayed the crap
10:52out of it. I battled, I traded with friends, and I did almost everything I could in this
10:58game, including completing the Kanto Dex. However, I missed Hoenn so much and I really
11:05wanted to go back, and I was desperately looking for a copy of Ruby and Sapphire at every opportunity.
11:13But, I genuinely couldn't find it anywhere, and soon, I actually got myself a Nintendo
11:24DS, waiting until the next Pokemon game would come out for it. I remember my local Professor
11:33Roque was even so desperate to play the new Pokemon game that they ended up getting Trozei,
11:39thinking that it was it, and warned us newbies not to be fooled.
11:46So I continued waiting, and as the fortunes would have it, while I was looking at the
11:53last remnants of the Game Boy Advance games and my local Toys R Us one day, I saw a familiar
11:59face looking back at me. In between the late generation GBA shovelware, there was Rayquaza
12:07on the box of a Pokemon game called Emerald. A quick glance at the back showed me that
12:15this was another version of Ruby and Sapphire I just wasn't made aware of, but there was
12:22a Viper building and I had this cool green band on my hair. I was instantly sold and
12:30begged my mom to get the game for me, and soon I was playing what I do consider to be
12:39the best Pokemon game that I own.
12:43Starting this game up again after so long felt like coming back home. Sure, there was
12:48minor changes here and new characters there, but all of the beats were the same, right
12:55up until the contest hall, which were no longer contest halls. The gyms had new lineups,
13:02and my old tricks didn't work like they used to. Even the trick house was redesigned.
13:10And the random trainer battles could turn into a double battle if you happened to catch
13:15the wrong line of sight. In fact, there was so much double battles here, it was insane
13:23considering how hidden they were back in the original games.
13:28The changes aren't just minor too. The story was also improved. Team Magma's story was
13:34finally given the justice that it deserves, and now they had an underground volcano lair
13:40with Groundon in that volcano. And the resolution is resolved by Rayquaza.
13:48And the best part is, when you are done with the game, you have the battle frontier to
13:54look forward to. Even contests were made easier, with all of them happening in Lilycove City,
14:02rather than jumping from city to city like in Ruby and Sapphire. Emerald took everything
14:08that I loved with Sapphire and just made it better. It fixed most of my issues, and gave
14:15me more of what I wanted. It's just a shame that in the real world, this is almost impossible
14:25to get, thanks to its insane prices.
14:29And it is thanks to the modern Pokemon game pricing that makes recommending any of these
14:35titles very difficult. None of the Pokemon games were ever re-released on another platform
14:43as they are, and as a result their prices have hyperinflated, to such an insane degree
14:49that my advice is to save that money that you were going to spend on one of them, and
14:54spend it instead on a flash cart and find the game online for free. Yeah, piracy is
15:01illegal and I can't condone it. But even then, it's not like Game Freak, the Pokemon
15:06company or Nintendo will ever see a dime of the money that you are planning on spending
15:10on these scalped games. There was once a time where you could give Nintendo your money for
15:17Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, since they were remade on the 3DS. Not as well as Game Freak
15:24has remade a game before, but it's a downside better to whatever the heck happened to Pokemon
15:29Diamond and Pearl on the Switch.
15:33But if you really want to go through the sevy aisles with Leaf Green or Fire Red, then you
15:37are genuinely stuck with the Game Boy Advance games, which is genuinely a shame too, since
15:46all these games are honestly highlights of the series in my books and games which I feel
15:51that any Pokemon trader should have in their collections. I mean, they lasted us six years
16:01between the original release of Ruby and Sapphire and the eventual release of Pokemon Diamond
16:07and Pearl, which I will be discussing in the next video.
16:11So until then, thank you ever so much for listening, I hope you have yourself a good
16:15day, and as always, take care.

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