History YMMV / Pokemonrubyandsapphire

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Several Megas introduced in these pair of games did not get it as good as the others:
*** Mega Steelix is essentially Mega Aggron, except that its ability is almost completely useless and has an undesirable weakness to Water. While it's slightly bulkier, Mega Aggron has Filter to cushion super effective blows.
*** Mega Latios is so similar to normal Latios (same Speed stat, same ability, the damage output is nearly identical if normal is holding a Life Orb) that it's difficult to justify using the Mega slot on it and considered largely inferior because of it. If you're in a battle where [[GameBreaker Soul Dew]] is allowed, there's literally no reason to even consider the Mega since Soul Dew is a direct upgrade that makes Latios hit harder than ''Deoxys-A'' and has no opportunity cost.
*** Mega Audino has trouble functioning in Singles matches; it's a StoneWall that has difficulty keeping itself alive due to having to rely on the inefficient Wish + Protect combination for healing, being extremely passive, not having an ability (since Healer only works in Doubles/Triples), and getting a huge amount of competition from Clefable (who has 2 of the best abilities in the game, better defensive typing, can actually threaten the opposing team, and is not a Mega). In Doubles its role as a Cleric is borderline useless due to the more offensive nature of the format being more punishing to more passive Mons, while as a supporter the bulkier, non-Mega Cresselia already exists and can do literally everything you might want to use Mega Audino for (setting up Trick Room, buffing allies with Helping Hand, using Thunder Wave to spread Paralysis).
** On the opposite end of the spectrum from the above is Mega Rayquaza, who is considered to be even more [[GameBreaker disgustingly overpowered]] than Gen I Mewtwo. Unlike every other Mega Evolution, Rayquaza doesn't need to sacrifice its item slot to Mega Evolve, meaning it can boost its speed or offensive prowess (which is ''very'' high) with Choice items or a Life Orb. With Delta Stream removing a Flying-type's weaknesses, its initially crippling double weakness to Ice-type attacks is weakened as well, making it tough to take down if one lacks a strong Fairy-type. The closest thing to a {{nerf}} it's gotten so far is an inability to Mega Evolve ''and'' use a Z-Move. It's telling how strong it is when Website/{{Smogon}} made a tier with almost no rules ''just'' to contain this thing.
** Primal Groudon is another high-level Pokémon that earns players' ire. Thanks to its strength, versatility, and Desolate Land completely destroying Water-type moves and making Ground its only weakness, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome everyone and their grandmother uses it when they can]]. Unfortunately for Smogon, while it's almost completely broken in Ubers, it's not ''quite'' broken enough to be KickedUpstairs like Mega Rayquaza, having little reliable recovery and slow speed, so it sticks around.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** As noted on their character sheets, Archie and Maxie's plans in the original games had some holes in them. Archie wants to increase global sea levels by summoning torrential rains to flood the world, and thinks this is a good thing; Maxie wants to make Mt. Chimney erupt in order to expand the landmass, despite the volcano being in the middle of the continent (Team Aqua's plans for the volcano in ''Sapphire'' make even less sense, and don't even fit with their overall plan for Kyogre). Also, don't even get into how they plan to use a meteorite to somehow force an eruption/render it dormant. The remakes retcon that Team Aqua is an AnimalWrongsGroup who want to raise sea levels to return the world to nature, so they don't care about the destruction of land-based human cities, and the Mt. Chimney plan for both is retconned to them trying to harness the volcano's power to transform the meteorite into an artificial Mega Stone.
** Previous remakes had some issues when it came to certain evolution and trading methods. ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue FireRed and LeafGreen]]'' had it so that you were unable to obtain Pokémon that evolve via friendship[[note]] Crobat and Blissey[[/note]] or through trading with a held item[[note]]Steelix, Scizor, [=Porygon2=], and Kingdra[[/note]] until after obtaining the National Dex, in addition to preventing gamers from being able to trade with the original ''Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', and ''Emerald'' until completing a sidequest that's very late in the postgame. The games also lacked a day[=/=]night cycle, which meant no Umbreon or Espeon either. Adding to that is how ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', while fixing the issues [=FRLG=] had, had no access to location-based evolutions, which meant no Glaceon, Leafeon, Probopass or Magnezone. ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' allow all different evolution methods right from the start. [[note]]New Mauville is slightly tricky since it's the only specific location in the main game where you can evolve Nosepass and Magneton, but it cannot be accessed until the version legendary is defeated/captured. This requires one to save up Rare Candies and use them on either of the two Mons just outside the locked door.[[/note]]
** While not the [[OlderThanTheyThink first game to do this]], ''Ruby and Sapphire'' were the games that established the tradition of giving the starters secondary types, and more importantly, a moveset that allowed them to utilise their secondary type. Poor Treecko, however, remained pure Grass all throughout its evolution family. The Gen 6 remakes fix this by giving Sceptile a secondary type during its Mega Evolution... ''Dragon'' type. Sure enough, Sceptile gets to learn Dual Chop and has access to Dragon Claw via TM.
** The National Dex is unlocked prior to Victory Road. This allows the trainers in Victory Road to use Pokémon that they didn't have access to in the originals, and also allows the Elite Four to be a little ''less'' of an [[AntiClimaxBoss anti-climax]]. Similarly the rematch of the Elite Four is also well received since they all cover their weaknesses and use a ''much'' more diverse set of Pokémon.

** This, in turn, made Juan this to Wallace: many people were turned off by the fact that he was another Water trainer instead of a specialist of another type, and thus he was seen as a less interesting copy of Wallace. Not helped that his ace Pokemon, Kingdra, was already the ace Pokemon of the 8th Gym Leader of the past generation, and was much more annoying to deal with than Wallace's Milotic.
** Teams Aqua and Magma were this to Team Rocket, which was kind of inevitable given how iconic Team Rocket is due not only being the very first criminal gang of the series, but having starred in two gens so far. Not helped by the fact that while Team Rocket was a fairly standard criminal organization who simply wanted money and power and had no qualms to exploit Pokemon to get them, most people saw Teams Aqua and Magma's objectives confusing and nonsensical.

* SelfFanservice: Gardevoir is a particular favorite among fans, but Gardevoir's natural physique is extremely lithe, including its legs that are hidden beneath the "dress". Fan-art of the Pokemon, however, will commonly depict Gardevoir with a sizable bust, thick thighs and legs, and a large butt to go with it.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Fans interpreted Team Magma wanting to expand the land to create more habitat for fire type Pokemon, which are rare. People tended to think this was a good idea, or at least an understandable motive, but the remakes made sure to hammer home the point that Team Magma is not working for Pokemon's sake. By constrast, Team Aqua expanding the seas for water type Pokemon was left alone, as by the time generation three came along people began to think there was an over abundance of water types, which had overtaken poison types to be the most common by a wide margin.

** The [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Dive_glitch Dive Glitch]] lets you resurface in areas you aren't supposed to by pressing B at the right time while entering a cave. You can use this to WalkOnWater or exit the boundaries of the map.

** The [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pomeg_glitch Pomeg Glitch]] in ''Emerald'' allows you to lower a Pokémon's HP value to 0 or a negative number by feeding it Pomeg Berries when it has low HP from not being fully healed. This can lead to several other glitches like automatically losing a fight, forcing an Egg into battle, or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdHRxG9jC0U making it so using Water Spout or Eruption on the opponent actually heals them]].

** Team Magma and Team Aqua. Many complained that their original motives were [[IdiotPlot fairly stupid]]. Now their motives are more fleshed-out, Team Magma are pro-human [[VisionaryVillain Visionary Villains]] while Team Aqua is an AnimalWrongsGroup. Aqua in particular actually has their buffoonery ''played up'' and made kind of endearing, though the lower-rank Magma guys get moments too.

* EightPointEight: IGN's infamous review of ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' was glowing with praise almost through the whole piece, with criticism only reserved for factors like too many required [=HMs=] and "[[MemeticMutation too much water]]", yet the game received a score of 7.8 / 10. This is ironic as "too much water" was one of the most prominent criticisms of the original game long before the review came out.

*** From the same review, "'''[[EightPointEight 7.8/10]]'''" has already become subject to jokes and mockery.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Courtney's official character profile describes her as highly intelligent, rarely speaks, and disinterested in most people and things except for a few special interests. Some fans have theorized that she might be on the autism spectrum.

** Team Magma and Aqua's redesigns make them look like {{Nerd}}s and {{Dumb Jock}}s, respectively. This has led many people [[http://beanseller.tumblr.com/post/92406217883/team-aqua-is-still-better-than-team-magma to make fun of their stereotypes]], such as having Team Magma solve problematic equations, and to have Team Aqua solve their problems by doing manly (and sometimes stupid) things.

* {{Moe}}: Wally causes this reaction for his rather cute design, being an IllBoy, and acting pretty shy when you first meet him. His design in the remakes makes him even more adorable.

* ReplacementScrappy: Wallace replacing Steven as the Champion in ''Emerald'' is not very well-received, due to Steven's greater popularity, Wallace being generally considered to be the easier boss ''and'' being the Water-type Champion in a region already ''infamous'' for the large amount of water routes and Water-type Pokémon the later parts of the game contain — and comes after both a villainous team based around Water-types (not helped by Team Aqua getting more focus than Team Magma in ''Emerald'') and a Water-type Gym Leader. It does not help that despite no longer being the Champion in ''Emerald'', Steven still gets more screen time than Wallace and becomes a {{Superboss}} whom can be battled against in the post-game, with his team's level being much higher than Wallace's.

** On a meta-level, some fans who played the original were expecting a more-direct TimeSkip sequel that sets long after the original ''Ruby and Sapphire'' (akin to ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''), only to find out ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' were remakes with similar storylines they knew before, and even with some changes couldn't put off their frustration. Whenever ''Delta Episode'' could put off this flame is up for question.

** Norman. His gym type is Normal, and his signature Pokémon is Slaking. Slaking's gimmick is that it has some very ''very'' high stats (most notably, a monstrous 160 Attack stat which surpasses even ''legendary Pokémon'' like Groudon and Rayquaza) and can thus can take and give a ''lot'' of abuse before going down, at the expense of only being able to act every other turn due to its Ability. Thus, players were forced to take the cooldown into account along with the move Facade which discouraged you from simply trying to slow it down with a status ailment.

* VindicatedByHistory: ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' were fairly controversial when they were released -- see ToughActToFollow. People either liked or disliked the addition of Generation VI's [[AntiFrustrationFeatures quality-of-life features]], with some seeing them as unnecessary and [[ItsEasySoItSucks made the games very easy since the content was largely not balanced around their addition]]. Instead of incorporating more features from ''Emerald'', they incorporated more ''XY'' elements and also added many more original elements. Fast forward seven years, and as predicted, fans of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' started crawling out of the woodwork over ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'''s remakes proved to be more of a faithful remake to the point of copious ItsTheSameNowItSucks. Many of the quality-of-life improvements and new features in ''ORAS'' garnered more and more praise over time to the point that fans largely started considering them improved versions of ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and among the best 3D games in the series only behind ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: May for some fans due to getting a hair ribbon, even cuter poses, her chibi model interactions as a rival and getting a MagicalGirl-esque contest dress.

** The Battle Tower of ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' and especially the upgraded Battle Frontier of ''Emerald'' really solidified what players would come to expect from PostEndGameContent, after the first generation only featured [[BraggingRightsReward Mewtwo]] and the second generation had [[Superboss Red]]. An actual area where you could battle and justify grinding and building the perfect team really appealed to those fans who didn't have the option of battling against friends, which always seemed to be what the game intended for you to do after beating the story.

* FoeYay:

** [[FoeYay Brendan/Courtney]] shows up fairly often in fan artwork. This may be influenced by ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', where it's outright canon from her side. Not to mention Courtney's {{Yandere}} tinted interactions with the player character in the remakes.

* FoeYay:
** Matt has a good bit of it with Tabitha in the demo.

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Archie. His main ships are with [[BaddieFlattery you]], [[HoYay Matt]], [[FoeYay Maxie]], [[PerkyFemaleMinion and Shelly.]]

* VindicatedByHistory: ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' were fairly controversial when they were released -- see ToughActToFollow. People either liked or disliked the addition of Generation VI's [[AntiFrustrationFeatures quality-of-life features]], with some seeing them as unnecessary and [[ItsEasySoItSucks made the games very easy since the content was largely not balanced around their addition]]. Instead of incorporating more features from ''Emerald'', they incorporated more ''XY'' elements and also added many more original elements. Fast forward seven years, and as predicted, fans of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' started crawling out of the woodwork over ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'''s remakes proved to be more of a faithful remake to the point of copious ItsTheSameNowItSucks, with many of the quality-of-life improvements and new features in ''ORAS'' garnering more and more praise over time and painting them as, essentially, improved versions of ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY''.

* VindicatedByHistory: ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' were fairly controversial when they were released -- see ToughActToFollow. People either liked or disliked the addition of Generation VI's [[AntiFrustrationFeatures quality-of-life features]], with some seeing them as unnecessary and [[ItsEasySoItSucks made the games very easy since the content was largely not balanced around their addition]]. Instead of incorporating more features from ''Emerald'', they made up a lot of their own stuff, and incorporated more ''X and Y'' elements. Fast forward seven years, and as predicted, fans of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' started crawling out of the woodwork over ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'''s remakes proved to be more of a faithful remake.

** Liza and Tate in ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' are one of the easiest Gym Leaders in any game. They have two mediocre Pokémon that can easily be defeated with Surf, a move you have to know to even get there. They can do some damage if you let Solrock get a Solar Beam powered by Sunny Day in and it hits your Water-type, though. They become more of a proper challenge in ''Emerald'', packing Xatu and Claydol alongside their original Solrock and Lunatone, but oddly go right back to this in the remakes.
** The Elite Four is noticeably less challenging than in other games. Sidney's the only one who even ''tries'' to cover his weaknesses to Fighting and Bug. Phoebe and Glacia suffer ''hard'' from [[PoorPredictableRock Agatha Syndrome]] in which their Pokémon all come from one or two evolutionary families - meaning they all can be hard-countered by one type that can outspeed them. Even ''if'' Drake has two Pokémon that know Flamethrower, his Shelgon knows Rock Tomb, and the AI [[ArtificialBrilliance will use them]] if you have an ice type, all but one of his Pokémon have a double weakness to Ice.

** Tate and Liza are fairly easy in ''Ruby and Sapphire''. They only have two fairly weak Pokémon between them that are easily taken down by Surf, which is required to reach their Gym in the first place.
** Wallace as a Gym Leader in ''Ruby and Sapphire'' and his replacement in ''Emerald'', Juan. Their Pokémon are very unimpressive (they both lead with a '''[[JokeCharacter Luvdisc]]''' and the rest of their team bar [[MightyGlacier Milotic]]/[[JackOfAllStats Kingdra]] are pretty mediocre Mons) and all their Pokémon use Water Pulse (which is a TM move), a move whose power is fairly low at this point.

** The National Dex is unlocked prior to Victory Road. This allows the trainers in Victory Road to use Pokémon that they didn't have access to in the originals, and also allows the Elite Four to be a little ''less'' of an [[AntiClimaxBoss anti climax]]. Similarly the rematch of the Elite Four is also well received since they all cover their weaknesses and use a ''much'' more diverse set of Pokémon.

* WhatAnIdiot: Team Magma want to summon and control Groudon in the name of land expansion, while Team Aqua want to summon/control Kyogre in the name of sea expansion. Both teams ([[EvilVersusEvil who predictably do not get along]]) eventually discover that there are two orbs that can do so. One of the orbs is colored red, the other blue. Incidentally, Groudon is red in color, Kyogre blue.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Team Magma to make the obvious connection that they should use the Red Orb to summon/control Groudon; likewise, Team Aqua to make the equally obvious connection that they should use the Blue Orb to summon/control Kyogre.\\
'''Instead:''' Team Magma tries to summon/control Groudon with the ''Blue'' Orb, while Team Aqua tries to summon/control Kyogre with the ''Red'' Orb.\\
'''As a Result:''' The two teams summon Groudon and Kyogre... and completely fail to control them, resulting in Hoenn being subjected to terrible droughts and floods.\\
'''However:''' This is averted in the remakes, where they each use the correct orbs... only for Groudon/Kyogre to be too powerful to control anyway.

* WhatAnIdiot: [[spoiler:The Draconids knew ''a thousand years ahead of time'' that another meteor was going to come strike the planet, but didn't bother to tell anybody outside of their clan. This especially applies to Zinnia, who knew that the player, Steven, and Mossdeep's staff all had their own plan.]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubT2SHlePYc Water and trumpets]] get brought up whenever Hoenn is mentioned, given its notoriety for having a brassy soundtrack and heavy use of water routes. This got even more mileage when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI8Es6AxRrQ the Trumpet Boy meme became a thing.]]

** A lot of initial complaints about the game were that they cut out so much of the Pokedex only to replace them with [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute inferior counterparts]], and that the type specialties of the Gym Leader and Elite Four followed too closely to the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue original games]], making the reaction simultaneously this and TheyChangedItNowItSucks (see below). This has lessened over the years as the [[VindicatedByHistory Hoenn Pokémon became popular in their own right]], and people would go on to complain about ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' and especially ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' doing a similar soft reboot with the Pokémon roster.

** The introduction of the Regional/National Pokédex split. While ''Gold, Silver and Crystal'' had a mix of older Pokémon in with newer ones, ''Ruby and Sapphire'' was extremely adamant that the player should stick to new Pokémon almost exclusively. Most older Pokémon simply couldn't be found anywhere (''Colosseum'' and ''Fire Red and Leaf Green'' wouldn't be released for another year or so), and trading between these games included a lot of arbitrary restrictions. By the time you could start trading over, the main game was over, so there was little point in even doing so beyond 100% completion and taking your favorites through some basic post-game content. The National Dex stuck around for subsequent generations, though the restrictions have lessened over time.
** Out of Emerald's Battle Frontier facilities, the Battle Palace is by far the most hated of the lot. You can't control your Pokemon, and instead they attack randomly based on their Nature. This makes it a pure LuckBasedMission where if you want to improve your odds, you may have to use a Pokémon with a sub-optimal Nature that contradicts its stats.

** Winona uses Flying-types, and her last Pokémon is an Altaria which knows the deadly combo of Earthquake and Dragon Dance, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which she can't learn at the level you fight her]], setting her up perfectly to sweep your entire team with powered-up Earthquake and STAB Aerial Ace techniques, the latter of which never misses. What's more baffling is the fact that Altaria even knows Earthquake, since it can only learn it via a TM, but in-game, the TM for that move isn't obtainable until much later. Because of this, if the player isn't aware of this, they'll be in for a rude awakening if they plan on using an Electric or Rock Pokémon to sweep through her gym, since Electric and Rock Pokémon can normally take out Flying Pokémon with ease, but they are both weak against Ground type moves. Plus, Altaria is part Dragon-type, neutralizing its weakness to Electric-type moves. Fortunately, it's easier in the remakes where you get access to Latias and Latios respectively, which can potentially exploit Altaria's Dragon weakness and is immune to Earthquake due to their abilites. Alternatively, get the Dazzling Gleam TM from the Fairy Tale Girl on Route 123.
** Tate and Liza in ''Emerald''. It's fought in a Double Battle, a brand-new mechanic not seen much prior to this fight, which requires much more strategy than Single Battles. In ''Ruby and Sapphire'', their team only consisted of two Pokémon (meaning you could, in theory, defeat them in one hit). These two Pokemon, incidentally, have a much stronger physical defense than most of the Psychic types you are used to fighting. This time around, however... You first need to fight through a [[SquishyWizard Xatu]] (which can either use Confuse Ray on your fighters or Calm Mind to jack up its stats, aside from flat-out attacking with Psychic) and a [[StoneWall Claydol]], which spams Earthquake and [=AncientPower=]. The best part? Earthquake hits everything on the field, but thanks to their team choices, ''you're'' the only one who will get hit by it. Then there's Solrock and Lunatone you have to deal with. Solrock will use Sunny Day to power up its Flamethrower, reduce the effectiveness of Water-type attacks against them and instantly use [=SolarBeam=], as well as attacking with Psychic, while Lunatone will put up Light Screen (Claydol knows it, too) to raise the opposing team's already high Special Defense, put you to sleep with Hypnosis, and do the same Calm Mind/Psychic combo as Xatu. The team is also prone to using moves (such as the aforementioned Claydol's Earthquake) that hit both of your Pokémon at once, raising the stakes that much higher.
** Juan from ''Emerald'' is really annoying to defeat primarily due to his Kingdra, similar to Clair from ''Videogame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''. Except his Kingdra is much harder to defeat. This is because not only is Kingdra hard on its own, since the only moves that are super effective against it are just other Dragon moves, but it knows Ice Beam, which will deal 4x damage to almost every Dragon type in the game, so having a Dragon Pokémon on your team is very risky. Other things that make it hard to defeat include it knowing Rest, while it's holding a Chesto Berry so that it can recover its health without Juan using a Full Restore right away. Similar to Clair's Kingdra knowing Smokescreen, it knows Double Team so that you will almost never be able to strike it if you allow it to use it, which is even worse than Clair because Smokescreen only affects a single Pokémon at a time while Double Team makes it hard for everyone to strike. One of the few saving graces is that it doesn't know Dragon Breath, a move that has a 30% chance of paralyzing the opponent and making them move last, being replaced with Water Pulse, a move that has a 30% chance of causing confusion which wears off after a few turns, and Rest replaces Hyper Beam from Clair's Kingdra. Basically, Juan's Kingdra is harder to defeat because its move combination makes it both offensive and tactical. On a smaller note, his Whiscash will be a pain to defeat due to being immune to Electric moves and being only weak to Grass moves, especially if he switches in-game so that electric moves won't do a thing.

** Gabby & Ty are also popular as you can see in forums and Youtube videos. Many players of the game loved battling the duo countless times. Fans have also claimed that they enjoy battling the two to level up their Pokémon and complete their Pokedex.

** The Exp. Share allows every pokemon in your team to gain the experience whenever you win a battle, significantly cutting down on grinding.

** Mega Salamence. It has nice offensive boosts (including a Special Attack boost that now makes running mixed or Special sets entirely feasible), a 20-point Speed boost (putting it among the most well- known fast Pokemon such as Alakazam and Sceptile), a godly ability (Aerilate, which gives a 1.3 boost (1.2 as of ''Sun and Moon'') to its Normal-converted-Flying type attacks, on top of STAB), and a '''50-point''' Defense boost. At 130 Defense, this makes it ''better than most dedicated walls''. Coupled with its existing tools, Mega Salamence can easily wipe out teams while shrugging off everything but Ice-type attacks. Smogon banned it from their OU tier in less than a month, and later from their Doubles format, a metagame with far fewer bans than OU[[note]]To put it in perspective, they haven't banned Mega Kangaskhan or Mega Gengar in Doubles[[/note]]. It has already thereafter made a name for itself as one of the single biggest terrors in [[PurposelyOverpowered Ubers]], considered on par with horrors like [[OlympusMons Xerneas and Arceus]].

** Secret Bases have been given more functionality in which you can now actually sleep in beds to fully heal your Pokemon. This can potentially reduce the difficulty of the [[CheckPointStarvation longer more challenging routes.]]

** Groudon and Kyogre aren't the first Primal Pokemon of the franchise. That honor goes to [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Primal Dialga]].

** The rival, May/Brendan, was widely regarded as one of the worst in the series, battle-wise, in the original games, since their starter never reaches its final form. In these games, not only do they have a more fleshed-out characterisation, but that complaint has been addressed: in Lilycove the Rival ''will'' use their fully evolved starter, and the rest of their team gets a big improvement too. [[spoiler: They also become the PostFinalBoss the first time you beat the game... and they use a Mega Evolution!]]

** Obtaining the Destiny Knot. The Destiny Knot is practically essential for breeding Pokemon with good [=IVs=], but the only way you can get it is by either re-matching the couple in Sea Mauville (who only have a 10% chance of giving it to you) or by winning a Master Rank contest (where you have a 1/21 chance of getting it).

* UnderusedGameMechanic: Horde Trainer Battles. Despite trailers hyping them a fair amount, there are only ''two'' of these in the entire game (once during the Team Magma/Aqua Hideout, and once during the Delta Episode), and neither are repeatable. They're also both extremely easy due to ConservationOfNinjutsu. (Sure you fight 5 Pokemon at once, but they're all around 20 levels lower than everything else at that point)

** A lot of initial complaints about the game were that they cut out so much of the Pokedex only to replace them with [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute inferior counterparts]], and that the type specialties of the Gym Leader and Elite Four followed too closely to the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue original games]], making the reaction simultaneously this and TheyChangedItNowItSucks (see below). This has lessened over the years as the [[VindicatedByHistory Hoenn Pokemon became popular in their own right]], and people would go on to complain about ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' and especially ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' doing a similar soft reboot with the Pokemon roster.

** Out of Emerald's Battle Frontier facilities, the Battle Palace is by far the most hated of the lot. You can't control your Pokemon, and instead they attack randomly based on their Nature. This makes it a pure LuckBasedMission where if you want to improve your odds, you may have to use a Pokemon with a sub-optimal Nature that contradicts its stats.

* ViewerSpeciesConfusion: A lot of fans consider Poochyena and Mightyena to be dog or canine-based Pokemon and are frequently thought of as wolves, when in fact, they're possibly based on hyenas, hence why they got half of their name from the word 'hyena', are known as the "Bite Pokemon", and have appearances inspired by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_hyena brown hyenas]].

** Previous remakes had some issues when it came to certain evolution and trading methods. ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue FireRed and LeafGreen]]'' had it so that you were unable to obtain Pokémon that evolve via friendship[[note]] Crobat and Blissey[[/note]] or through trading with a held item[[note]]Steelix, Scizor, [=Porygon2=], and Kingdra[[/note]] until after obtaining the National Dex, in addition to preventing gamers from being able to trade with the original ''Ruby'', ''Sapphire'', and ''Emerald'' until completing a sidequest that's very late in the postgame. The games also lacked a day[=/=]night cycle, which meant no Umbreon or Espeon either. Adding to that is how ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', while fixing the issues [=FRLG=] had, had no access to location-based evolutions, which meant no Glaceon, Leafeon, Probopass or Magnezone. ''[=OmegaRuby=]'' and ''[=AlphaSapphire=]'' allows all different evolution methods right from the start. [[note]]New Mauville is slightly tricky since it's the only specific location in the main game where you can evolve Nosepass and Magneton, but it cannot be accessed until the version legendary is defeated/captured. This requires one to save up Rare Candies and use them on either of the two Mons just outside the locked door.[[/note]]

** Gabby & Ty are also popular as you can see in forums and Youtube videos. Many players of the game loved battling the duo countless times. Fans have also claimed that they enjoy battling the two to level up their Pokemon and complete their Pokedex.

** Mega Swampert's super buff appearance has been subject to all kinds of memes, such as parodies of online "get buff quick" ads. It also gets paired up with [[Franchise/FireEmblem Ike]] and [[Videogame/SonicBoom Knuckles]].

** The Battle Tower of ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' and especially the upgraded Battle Frontier of ''Emerald'' really solidified what players would come to expect from PostEndGameContent, after the first generation only featured [[BraggingRightsReward Mewtwo]] and the second generation had [[BonusBoss Red]]. An actual area where you could battle and justify grinding and building the perfect team really appealed to those fans who didn't have the option of battling against friends, which always seemed to be what the game intended for you to do after beating the story.

* MemeticBadass: Steven Stone, as the Champion and FinalBoss, naturally fell into this. When ''Emerald'' came out and he was replaced by Wallace as the Champion, Steven was generally found to be the more difficult of the two — thanks mainly to having a more diverse team — and thus this reputation was reinforced. It helps that even when he is no longer the Champion in ''Emerald'', Steven can still be battled against in the post-game as a BonusBoss, with his team's level being much higher than Wallace's.

* ReplacementScrappy: Wallace replacing Steven as the Champion in ''Emerald'' is not very well-received, due to Steven's greater popularity, Wallace being generally considered an easier boss ''and'' being the Water-type Champion in a region already ''infamous'' for the large amount of water routes and Water-type Pokémon the later parts of the game contain — and comes after both a villainous team based around Water-types[[note]]which does not help that Team Aqua has more focus in ''Emerald''[[/note]] and a Water-type Gym Leader. It does not help that despite no longer being the Champion in ''Emerald'', Steven still gets more screen time than Wallace and becomes a BonusBoss in the post-game, with his team's level being much higher than Wallace's.

* VindicatedByHistory: ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' were fairly controversial when they released -- see ToughActToFollow. People either liked or disliked the addition of Generation VI's [[AntiFrustrationFeatures quality-of-life improvements]], with some seeing them as unnecessary and [[ItsEasySoItSucks made the games very easy since the content was largely not balanced around their addition]]. Instead of incorporating more features from ''Emerald'', they made up a lot of their own stuff, and incorporated more ''X and Y'' elements. Fast forward seven years, and as predicted, fans of ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' started crawling out of the woodwork over ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'''s remakes proved to be more of a faithful remake.