Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context YMMV / PokemonRubyAndSapphire

Go To

1%%
2%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
3%%
4
5----
6
7[[YMMV/{{Pokemon}} Back to main Pokémon YMMV page]]
8
9----
10
11[[foldercontrol]]
12
13[[folder:Gen III: Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald]]
14* {{Adorkable}}:
15** May tends to become flustered at times when she's the rival, usually after she's said something embarrassing.
16** Wally is very shy, polite, and awkward.
17** Flannery's attempts to sound tough and seem intimidating land her as this. The remakes make it even more apparent, with the updated graphics giving her the chance to look as adorably goofy as she sounds.
18** Steven, who has a ''list of favorite rocks''.
19* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The third generation of games came out after the initial ''Pokémon'' craze had died down and the franchise suffered its first slump, with many believing the series would soon be discontinued. Some of the more vocal detractors claimed that ''Ruby and Sapphire'' was just a desperate attempt by Nintendo and Game Freak to wring as much money as they could from a [[FranchiseZombie dying franchise]]. Junichi Masuda, the games' director, saw the decline in ''Pokémon'''s popularity and feared the games would fail so much that he actually had nightmares about it. Thankfully, the games went on to become the Game Boy Advance's highest-selling titles, although they did sell less than the previous two generations.
20* AntiClimaxBoss:
21** One of the more noted weaknesses of this set of games is that both the rival (Brendan/May, who doesn't fully evolve his/her starter and is the only one who can't be battled infinitely) and the Aqua/Magma Leaders (who only use a mere three Pokémon, all of them being ones that ''every one'' of their grunts use) are really pathetic compared to the rivals and Leaders in the rest of the series. Averted in the remakes, where the rival does fully evolve his/her starter and the final rival battle is fought after the credits roll, has a team on par with the Elite Four, and has access to Mega Evolution.
22** Champion Wallace in ''Emerald''. Unlike the original final boss Steven, who uses a diverse set of Pokémon types, Wallace falls to PoorPredictableRock and specializes in the same type as another Gym Leader in the region; and even then, you get a lot of practice fighting Water-types thanks to Team Aqua and the Surf-heavy late-game routes.
23** 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, but even then, his team is made up of slow {{Glass Cannon}}s which are easily taken out before they can do much. 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.
24* [[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames Awesome Bosses]]:
25** 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 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.
26** Steven himself. In contrast to the rest of the Elite Four, he really tries to cover his weaknesses through coverage moves and secondary typings of his Pokémon. Just because Steel and Rock — his two types of choice — share some common weaknesses in Ground and Fighting doesn't mean you can just spam a few powerful moves and call it a day. His Pokémon are very bulky, so even super-effective moves are not guaranteed to take out his Pokémon in one hit. What's more, he will alternate between hitting you with hard hitting moves like Earthquake and moves that slow you down like Confuse Ray or Reflect/Light Screen.
27* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: See the [[AwesomeMusic/{{Pokemon}} series page for the trope]].
28* BreatherBoss:
29** Brawly in ''Sapphire'' and ''Emerald'' is easy to deal with if you catch a Sableye in Granite Cave, since it is immune to most of his team's attacks. Sableye also has Night Shade, a FixedDamageAttack that completely ignores the Defense boost of his SignatureMove ([[StatusBuff Bulk Up]]) and Meditite's Reflect.
30** Wattson can be this if you bring a Ground-type or chose Mudkip, due to two of his Pokémon (specifically, his Magnemite and Magneton) having a quadruple weakness to Ground.
31** Tate and Liza in ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' are some of the easiest Gym Leaders in the series. They have two mediocre Pokémon, Lunatone and Solrock, that can easily be defeated with Surf — a move you have to know to even get there. Since they're fought in a double battle, and Surf is a HerdHittingAttack, they have the dubious honor of being the only Gym Leaders that can be defeated in ''one turn.'' 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.
32** 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.
33* BrokenBase: [[BrokenBase/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
34* CasualCompetitiveConflict: Website/{{Smogon}} launched about a year after ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire''[='=]s release, though the conflict didn't really take off until ''Diamond'' and ''Pearl'' when [=TPCi=] started doing the official VGC Tournaments.
35* CommonKnowledge:
36** Hoenn's infamous "trumpets" are actually French horns. Even people who know this will still refer to them as trumpets because more people recognize that instrument and [[InherentlyFunnyWords the word is easier to use in memes]].
37** The white thing on Brendan's head is commonly mistaken for his hair. It's actually a hat, with his actual hair being brown. His [[https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/f/f1/Omega_Ruby_Alpha_Sapphire_Brendan.png official art in the remakes]] has his hair more clearly visible.
38* CriticalDissonance: The original ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' received very positive reviews just upon release. The fandom was much more polarized for many reasons, and still is to a great extent.
39* DemonicSpiders:
40** Although not hard to run away from, Whismur can do a lot of damage with Uproar. If you're not careful, it can result in a couple Pokémon fainting.
41** Trapinch usually have Arena Trap, which means you can't switch out or run unless your active Pokémon's a Flying-type or has Levitate. (And even then, Flying-types have its Rock-type attacks to fear.) It also has a ''colossal'' attack stat at a base of ''100'', which is also ''the very same amount as its final evolution'' — suffice to say, not many unevolved/not fully evolved Pokémon will be able to tank many hits from that monster, and anything weak to Ground-type moves will almost certainly go down in one hit. The Pokémon you open with is the Pokémon that lives or faints. If you're just trying to pass through the desert, and you weren't really thinking about your lead Pokémon, and you come across a Trapinch...
42* DisappointingLastLevel: The last quarter of the game infamously requires an immense amount of Surfing, and it doesn't help that there are virtually no distinguishing features or landmarks to help you navigate. Hope you like [[GoddamnedBats Tentacool and Wingull]]. Fortunately, the water routes are easier to traverse in the remakes. Made even worse by the 8th Gym Leader, a Water-type specialist. Even worse in ''Emerald'' as the 8th Gym Leader is promoted to Champion while ''still'' being a Water-type specialist, and a less interesting other Water-type specialist is placed at his old position while Team Aqua gets most of the villain spotlight there as well. If you picked the Grass-type starter or you picked up a Lotad or Shroomish early on and Electrike for the water routes, you were probably playing on autopilot by the end.
43* DracoInLeatherPants: Sure, Archie and Maxie were some of the least openly-evil villain bosses to begin with, but some fans go even further and remove any traces of responsibility for their crimes from them. And then there's their underlings, who get this treatment as well despite being [[PsychoSupporter Psycho Supporters]] or [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkasses]].
44* EnsembleDarkhorse: [[EnsembleDarkhorse/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
45* FandomRivalry: With ''Franchise/YuGiOh''. In between the second and third generations of ''Pokemon'', ''Yu-Gi-Oh''[='=]s anime and card game grew extremely popular and began to eat away at the former's fanbase. Many video game analysts believe that the reason ''Ruby and Sapphire'' had lower sales than its predecessors was due to older fans having drifted towards ''Yu-Gi-Oh''.
46* FanNickname:
47** Latias and Latios are known as "the Lati Twins," "the Latis," or "Lati@s" when referred to collectively.
48** Kyogre has been called [[PurposelyOverpowered "The King of Ubers"]] for a long time due to being considered one of the most powerful Pokémon ever created.
49** Deoxys' Normal Forme is called Deoxys-N or Deo-N, Attack Forme is called Deoxys-A or Deo-A, Defense Forme is called Deoxys-D or Deo-D, and Speed Forme is called Deoxys-S or Deo-S.
50** May doesn't have a canonical last name, but she's sometimes called "May Maple" to create ThemeNaming with Brendan, whose full name is "Brendan Birch" if he's TheRival and May is the PlayerCharacter.
51* FanPreferredCouple: [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction Skitty and Wailord.]]
52* FashionVictimVillain: The Team Magma Grunts with their horned hoods.
53* FoeYayShipping:
54** Shelly seems to flirt with you no matter ''what'' your gender is.
55** Maxie with Archie, as well as the player in ''Emerald''.
56** Seviper and Zangoose can breed, despite being enemies.
57* FranchiseOriginalSin: [[FranchiseOriginalSin/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
58* GameBreaker: Surf in double battles. Unlike Earthquake, Surf isn't a double-edge sword it would become in Generation IV and onwards, meaning that during double-battles, the Pokémon you have that uses it in doubles won't accidentally knock out its partner.
59* GoddamnedBats:
60** All of the enemies in the desert in Route 111 can be this, especially when combined with the perpetual sandstorm in that area and the fact that ''all'' of them have accuracy-reducing moves.
61*** Sandshrew have high Defense and an evasion boost in the sandstorm, they can increase both advantages, ''and'' they can poison your Pokémon. If you aren't fielding a Pokémon immune to the sandstorm damage, they can go from this trope to outright DemonicSpiders after a Sand Attack or two.
62*** Baltoy frequently Selfdestruct as the first move in combat, and if that fails, they may attempt to confuse your Pokémon.
63*** Cacnea have the same evasion boost as Sandshrew in a sandstorm (as well as Sand Attack) and can pile Leech Seed on that.
64*** Trapinch are the least offensive, but they can become this with their Arena Trap Ability if you're trying to flee the area and limp back to a place to heal.
65** And of course, Zubat/Golbat and Tentacool/Tentacruel return to fulfill their role for caves and for surfing. Wingull and Pelipper make their debut as the worst of both worlds — speedy confusion-spammers on the sea — in a game that involves a ''lot'' of surfing.
66* GoodBadBugs:
67** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMk0Z8i0JY0 In the Japanese version, it's possible to Surf on dry land by using the side-jump on the Acro Bike to go north or south into a tile adjacent to a water tile and pressing A at the right time to bring up the Surf prompt.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IadUK-a-5nE You can use this to get into Fortree City Gym without the Devon Scope]], though you'll need to have a Pokémon with Fly or Teleport on you after fighting Winona to prevent the game from becoming {{Unwinnable}}.
68** The [[https://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.
69** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SepV3AIF4VQ If Thief or Covet are used to knock out an opponent that is holding an item and has the ability Sticky Hold, the sprite of the Pokémon that was knocked out will stay on the field until the fight ends or the screen is changed]].
70** The [[https://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.]]
71** Because Wally's Catch Tutorial uses the same random encounter mechanic as the player's, it's possible for Wally's Ralts to also be Shiny. Unfortunately, since the remainder of his battles are scripted, this Ralts doesn't get to stay shiny.
72*** In addition, it's also possible for Wally to knock the Ralts out. Similarly to the above example, the game proceeds as if the Ralts had been caught.
73** The English versions have three trainers who can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awUZNb1rrJo walk through walls and up ledges to battle you.]]
74* GrowingTheBeard:
75** One feature that ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' introduced that all the other main games following it has to the point of being indispensable is the menu-sprite-based box system. In previous games, the box system was very clunky: when your box was full, you couldn't catch any new Pokémon until you physically changed the box yourself. ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' completely overhauled the way boxed Pokémon were represented. You can now see all the Pokémon in a given box, arrange them however you want to, and even change the wallpaper to however you want it to look. At least three different ''Pokémon'' "games" (more like applications) are based solely on storing Pokémon in this manner (''Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire'', ''VideoGame/MyPokemonRanch'', and ''Pokémon Bank'').
76** The introduction of Abilities (and, to a lesser extent, [[MinMaxing Natures]]) added a new layer of depth to battling and let many Pokémon differentiate themselves from those that previously [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed them]] and/or [[TookALevelInBadass take a level in badass]].
77** 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.
78* HilariousInHindsight: [[HilariousInHindsight/{{Pokemon}} Check the main page.]]
79* ItsTheSameSoItSucks:
80** Nothing has changed for Dark- and Steel-types in this generation; Dark-type moves are assigned to Special Attack, yet the ones introduced in this generation are mostly physically-inclined, while any Steel-types that don't have claws, tail, or wings are unable to utilize their Steel STAB aside from the possible Hidden Power. It wasn't until the [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl next generation]] that those two types finally showed their true strength, with the Physical/Special split and more reliable STAB moves for them.
81** A lot of initial complaints about the game were that they cut out so much of the Pokédex 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.
82* JunkRare: See the series' sub-page [[JunkRare/{{Pokemon}} here]].
83* 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 boss of the two, thanks mainly to having a more diverse team. In addition, even when he is no longer the Champion in ''Emerald'', Steven can still be battled against in the post-game as a {{Superboss}}, with his team's level being much higher than Wallace's, and thus Steven's reputation as a MemeticBadass was reinforced.
84* MemeticMolester:
85** "Hohoho! I like kid TRAINERS! Let's have a good one!" [[note]]Said by a Kindler on Route 119, who only appears in ''Emerald'' and can be fought in a double battle.[[/note]]
86** The Trick Master. Each time you enter the Trick House (assuming a new challenge is available); you're told that you're being watched, and have to find his hiding place. The large number of trainers apparently lost and trapped within the puzzles doesn't help.
87** Steven Stone gets labelled as this (alongside his other ''Memetic'' reputation above) — to some degree — due to his numerous interactions with the young protagonist.
88* MemeticMutation:
89** so i herd u liek mudkipz.
90** [[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. Often, hordes of [[GoddamnedBats Tentacool and Wingull]] will be playing the trumpets. This got even more mileage when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI8Es6AxRrQ the Trumpet Boy meme became a thing.]]
91** Rich Boy Winston, an early-game trainer who can ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill use a Full Restore on a Level 7 Zigzagoon]]'', is a common subject of jokes among the fandom. He still does so in the remakes.
92** [[VideoGameRemake Hoenn Confirmed!]]
93** HotSkittyOnWailordAction.
94** The rarity of Shiny Ralts is so memetic, there is artwork depicting Shiny Ralts as a bit of a {{troll}}.
95** “The way I see it, Kyogre is surrounded. What’s underneath the ocean? That’s right, more earth.”[[note]]This line gets used to poke fun at the comically one-sided-seeming battle between Kyogre and Groudon in ''Emerald''.[[/note]]
96* MisBlamed: The one thing fans seem to remember to blame Creator/GameFreak for rather than Creator/{{Nintendo}} in the Pokémon games is the inability to transfer Pokémon from the first two generations' games to ''Ruby and Sapphire'' onward. However, this is — coincidentally enough — the one complaint that the company had no control over — the Platform/GameBoyAdvance wouldn't allow interaction with the Platform/GameBoy and Platform/GameBoyColor games ''at all'', even if they wanted to make it possible.
97* {{Moe}}: Wally causes this reaction for his rather cute design, being an ill boy, and acting pretty shy when you first meet him. His design in the remakes makes him even more adorable.
98* {{Narm}}: The big confrontation between Kyogre and Groudon in ''Emerald'' has Groudon on a rock just big enough for it to stand on in the middle of the ocean as it's raining, making it seem comically one-sided in Kyogre's favor.
99* OlderThanTheyThink:
100** Species aside, Milotic is the first ShoutOut to ''The Ugly Duckling'', long before [[Characters/PokemonGenerationVFamilies Ducklett/Swanna]].
101** Hoenn's Elite Four theme is iconic among fans for the section with repeated clapping, which sounded like an early attempt at using audience participation sounds as part of the BGM. With ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield,'' Game Freak finally had the technology to fully implement crowd sounds for its major battle themes.
102* PopularityPolynomial: These games were received just fine at first, but they fell out of favor rapidly, and Hoenn in general became ignored for many years. When the long-requested remakes were finally made, however, the Hoenn region, its human characters, and its Pokémon got a massive resurgence in popularity, probably even more popular than before. At the time of their release, ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' were polarizing for making significant changes to the game mechanics and for only a handful of earlier Pokémon being available without trading with then-unreleased titles. Most fans these days appreciate the games and Game Freak for understandably changing the often slapdash code of the previous generations into something more manageable, while introducing new mechanics that improved battles, and only wished that the other design flaws could be fixed by a remake. Thankfully, many fans rejoiced when the news came that remakes were made, ''Pokémon Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''.
103* ReplacementScrappy:
104** 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.
105** 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 Pokémon, Kingdra, was already the ace Pokémon of the 8th Gym Leader of the past generation, and was much more annoying to deal with than Wallace's Milotic.
106** 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 Pokémon to get them, most people saw Teams Aqua and Magma's objectives confusing and nonsensical.
107* RootingForTheEmpire: The Hoenn region is so infamous for its water that many fans have made jokes about Team Magma maybe having a point about expanding the land mass. At the least, they believe Magma has a more understandable motive than Aqua because human society would benefit more from increased land mass over increased water mass.
108* SacredCow: ''Pokémon Emerald'' is this for some fans, to the point that one of the biggest criticisms of ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' is that they follow the original pair, and thus diverge from there instead of building on ''Emerald'', not to mention lacking the Battle Frontier. The exception is that most fans prefer Steven as the Champion over Wallace, for the reasons outlined in ReplacementScrappy above.
109* TheScrappy: [[TheScrappy/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
110* ScrappyMechanic:
111** The fishing mechanic as a whole was much more needlessly complicated than in the other generations:
112*** Previously and after, you would cast your line and wait a few seconds and either get a bite or don't. In this generation, there's a needlessly long series of button pushes that literally amounts to "Oh a bite! Oh a bite! Oh a bite! Oh a bite! Oh a bite! Oh a bite! Oh a bite! Oh a bite!" which is made even worse by the RandomNumberGod who chooses a number between 1 and 8 to decide how many seconds you needed to wait between a bite, potentially catching you off guard if you do so much as take your eyes off the screen for even ''one'' second. In short, fishing demanded absolute focus, thick patience, great luck, and plenty of time — [[TruthInTelevision kinda like how fishing works in real life, shockingly enough]] — but exactly none of that, especially of that manner and magnitude, would work well in a ''Pokémon game''.
113*** The Old Rod makes you go through this timing check only once per attempt. The Good Rod increases this to a max of three checks, and the Super Rod takes it all the way to a max of six checks. Have fun fishing with the Super Rod for that 15% chance of a Horsea!
114*** There are several routes where using the Super Rod reduces the types of Pokémon you can catch compared to the Good Rod.
115** Berry farming could be aggravating, since it lacked any means of finding where you planted your berries. Certain Berries (mostly the rare ones) also required that you ''must'' water the Berry plant during ''each'' stage of growth (not multiple watering during one specific growth stage); otherwise, your Berry yield when you harvest the plant will be exactly what you started with: one Berry. Even then, you have to wait up to three days just to pick up to a measly ''three'' berries. There's a reason why later generations greatly upped the maximum berry yield.
116** The Bicycle concept in itself. Switching Bikes requires the player to travel to Rydel's Cycles in Mauville City each time the player wishes to switch, as he/she is only allowed to take one kind of Bike (Mach Bike or Acro Bike) out at a time. Several puzzles also require a specific kind of Bike — the Mach Bike is used to navigate across muddy slopes and cracked tiles, while the Acro Bike is needed to traverse distinctive white rails and rocky platforms. Hoenn's Safari Zone is probably one of the best examples — one area requires the Mach Bike, while another requires the Acro Bike, meaning that the player can only visit one of them during a Safari Zone session. For ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', they essentially combined the two bikes into one by having two speed settings. The problem was solved in the remakes by making it possible to own both bikes at once. However, you need to talk to certain [=NPCs=] first before Rydel allows you to keep both bikes. One of them is in a post game-exclusive area.
117** 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 ''[=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]'' 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.
118** Out of ''Emerald''[='s=] Battle Frontier facilities, the Battle Palace is by far the most hated of the lot. You can't control your Pokémon, 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.
119** Trying to get the Eon Ticket legitimately in ''Emerald''. It's possible to do so without hacks, but it's an incredibly cumbersome process: because ''Emerald'' doesn't natively support the e-Reader peripheral, you need to scan the Eon Ticket's e-Reader card into a copy of ''Ruby'' or ''Sapphire'', then mix records with your copy of ''Emerald'' to transfer the item into the latter. Oh, and it turns out that the Eon Ticket can only be transferred from an ''RS'' cartridge five times or less, and this data is saved independently of your save file, so if you've bought a used copy of ''Ruby & Sapphire'' just to get an Eon Ticket into ''Emerald'', you have to hope to Arceus that nobody's transferred five Eon Tickets from it already.
120* 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 Pokémon, however, will commonly depict Gardevoir with a sizable bust, thick thighs and legs, and a large butt to go with it.
121* SignatureScene: The cutscene in ''Emerald'' where [[BigDamnHeroes Rayquaza intervenes to break up the fight between Kyogre and Groudon]], ending the weather crisis and saving the world. To this day, it is still one of the most fondly remembered cutscenes in the entire series.
122* SpecialEffectsFailure: The Pokémon animations in ''Emerald'' are considered lackluster even for its time period, with the animations being mostly limited to resizing the sprites, alongside rotating/flipping and glowing effects. It says something that ''Crystal's'' sprite animations were much more dynamic.
123* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The Team Magma / Aqua Grunt battle theme sounds like a variation of the Trainer battle from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''. Because of this, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7cyaC8Q1f8#t=5m12s Giant Enemy Spider meme]], in which Youtuber [=Jerma985=] beatboxed a Pokémon battle theme on the spot, led to viewers being divided on which it sounds more like the former or the latter.
124* ThatOneAttack: Flannery's Torkoal knows Attract, which will cause the target to not do anything 50% of the time if they are of the opposite gender. Since Torkoal is naturally bulky, it'll almost always be able to get one off and proceed to elongate the battle while you try to hit it unless you brought a female or genderless Rock-/Ground-/Water-type. Good luck if you wanted to use Mudkip, since they have a gender ratio of 7 males to 1 female!
125* ThatOneBoss:
126** Norman. This guy is only the fifth gym leader, yet he has ''two'' Slaking, which have the highest attack stat of any non-legendary Pokémon up to then and a ton of HP. Even though they can only attack every other turn, they are still capable of [=KOing=] a Pokémon in one hit depending on their defense. He also has a Vigoroth, which is less powerful but pretty fast, able to attack before most other Pokémon you probably own, and isn't crippled by Truant. Finally, all three Pokémon come equipped with Facade, an attack that ''doubles in power'' if the user is poisoned, burned, or paralyzed. Norman in ''Emerald'' isn't too shabby either. He may have replaced one of his Slaking with Spinda and Linoone, but those two can certainly be annoying in their own way; Spinda has Psybeam to cause trouble for your precious Fighting-types, while Linoone becomes a frightening GlassCannon if left unchecked with Belly Drum and its high speed. Fortunately, the fight is easier in the remakes, as you can use status ailments effectively without getting completely clobbered for it. However, their Retaliate can still potentially take down a Pokémon in the event that one of them goes down, assuming that you can survive their attacks otherwise. Let's just say that dad meant it when he said he won't hold back even when he's up against his own child.
127** 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 abilities. Alternatively, get the Dazzling Gleam TM from the Fairy Tale Girl on Route 123.
128** Tate and Liza in ''Emerald''. They're 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 Pokémon, 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.
129** 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.
130* ThatOneLevel:
131** Hoenn's Victory Road is generally regarded as the most tedious in the entire series due to the absurd 5 HM requirements necessary to get through the place quickly — (Waterfall and Flash are not required, but make it more convenient) — forcing players to replace one or two of their Pokémon with ones that know HM moves, thereby limiting their options against the local trainers. It is also the most challenging Victory Road to grind levels in, due to the majority of the Pokémon inside being either basic-stage[[labelnote:*]]Gives low experience points[[/labelnote]] — (frequently using [[SwitchOutMove Roar/Whirlwind]] to thereby deny you any experience points) — or just mostly [[LuckBasedMission Confuse Ray]]-happy [[GoddamnedBats Golbat]].
132** Though a tad bit easier in the remakes due to the Nintendo 3DS engine allowing diagonal movement, Wallace's Sootopolis Gym is full of ice tiles that must be walked upon in a specific path in order to get to the Gym Leader.
133** Dungeons containing puzzles involving steering the difficult-to-control Mach Bike. Rare, but frustrating.
134* ThatOneSidequest: Finding Feebas and evolving it into Milotic. You can read the full summary [[http://www.serebii.net/games/feebas.shtml here]], but in short, it involves hours and hours of systematic searching, [[ScrappyMechanic endless fishing]], finding/breeding a Feebas with the right nature once you've found a Feebas tile, and lots of Berry farming and Pokéblock making. At least it's easier than in [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV]] where the Feebas tiles get scrambled every day rather than by something reasonably under your control. Averted in the remakes, where Feebas can be found on any tiles (but has a lower encounter rate to compensate).
135* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: When originally released, there was no hint of a [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]] [[VideoGameRemake remake]], meaning that around 184 Pokémon were completely absent from the games. The only hint that they would return was their isolated data, which usually indicates event Pokémon. That, combined with a number of [[{{Expy}} expies]] for the missing Pokémon, the National Pokédex not being available from the start as it was in [[Videogame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Generation II]], replacements for Team Rocket, no way to return to Kanto or Johto, minimal time-based events, and an overall similar structure to [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]], led many fans to think the release of ''Ruby/Sapphire'' was a franchise reboot, and said fans were not happy.
136* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
137** While Wally is a very popular character, many fans believe his CharacterDevelopment needed more screentime to be fully appreciated by the audience. You only meet him a couple times during the early game and then you don't encounter him again until the very end of the game, meaning you only get to see him at the start and at the end of his character arc. People wish he had showed up more consistently throughout the whole game to follow his personal growth, and while the remakes do flesh out his personality and even give him some postgame screentime, they do nothing to fix the aforementioned issue.
138** More like a character type, but Surskit had a unique and useful Bug/Water-type[[note]]Bug is strong against Water's vulnerability to Grass. Water is strong against Bug's weakeness to Fire and Rock, [[IceMagicIsWater and learns Ice-type moves]] for Bug's Flying-type weakness.[[/note]] held back by the low stats that came with it being a first stage evolution. Then its evolution Masquerain lost that typing in lieu of the [[PowerupLetdown weak and uninspired]] [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Bug/Flying-type]]. It took until ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', over 13 years later, to get fully evolved Bug/Water-types that could utilize the type's potential.
139* ToughActToFollow:
140** ''Ruby and Sapphire'' set the bar for regional Champions by introducing Steven Stone, who has become one of the most popular Champions in the series among fans, due to having a diverse team, an endearing personality and an active role in the story for a Champion (which gets even further expanded in the remakes). Consequently, among the Champions from subsequent games, arguably only Cynthia from ''Diamond'', ''Pearl'' and ''Platinum'' is able to reach the same level of popularity as Steven, if not even more. While Blue and Lance, the Champions from the previous games, did have a diverse team, and tried to stop the villainous team respectively, it was Steven who really set up this standard.
141** Hoenn contests are quite popular in the fandom, to the point of other sidequests in future games being frequently compared to it.
142* UnconventionalLearningExperience: Obtaining the Regis requires the player to learn some Braille.
143* UnfortunateCharacterDesign:
144** Castform's very unfortunate "cloud" looks like testicles (or alternatively, breasts).
145** Lileep and Cradily have pink tentacles with darker pink ends surrounding their heads, which look like penises.
146** Combusken's overall shape is uncomfortably phallic. It does not help that it's based on a chicken (i.e. a cock).
147** Medicham's large, round knees with lighter-colored dots in the center look like a pair of breasts.
148* UnintentionallySympathetic: Fans interpreted Team Magma wanting to expand the land to create more habitat for Fire-type Pokémon, 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 Pokémon's sake. By contrast, Team Aqua expanding the seas for Water-type Pokémon was left alone, as by the time generation three came along people began to think there was an overabundance of Water-types, which had overtaken Poison-types to be the most common by a wide margin.
149* ViewerSpeciesConfusion: A lot of fans consider Poochyena and Mightyena to be dog or canine-based Pokémon 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 Pokémon", and have appearances inspired by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_hyena brown hyenas]].
150[[/folder]]
151
152[[folder:Gen VI: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]
153%% Do ''not'' move to main page. There was an edit war over this, and anyone trying to re-add this will be edit-banned by a moderator.
154* AccidentalInnuendo:
155** One of May's idle animations has her bending down, placing her hands on her knees, and stretching her back and leg muscles so they don't get stiff from standing in one spot, which makes it looks like she's ''[[http://33.media.tumblr.com/b09a5c076112b25402f9c05fa112d4ad/tumblr_nfiuik5bBN1tyzzt2o1_250.gif twerking]]''.
156** When examining the portals in some Mirage Spots, the game asks you if you want to "put your hand deep in the hole."
157** This excerpt from Courtney's speech before you fight her in the Magma Hideout:
158---> "...But... ...Now... ...I just... ...want to... ...With you... ...I want to... ...engage... ...You... ...I want to... ...analyze. Ahahaha. ♪"
159* {{Adorkable}}:
160** Brendan trades in his {{Tsundere}} tendencies from the original games for this instead. He's much friendlier toward the player, and stammers talking to her at times.
161** Maxie's dorkier qualities manage to sneak through in the very rare times he loses his composure. The best examples being [[http://66.media.tumblr.com/99732d85a847e54065568cb245ec20fc/tumblr_nfh00aMYRt1tfpu96o1_400.gif his losing animation]] and how he awkwardly doesn't know how to respond to Courtney's InelegantBlubbering at the end of the Delta Episode.
162** Courtney shows shades of this, especially when she gets flustered.
163* AlasPoorScrappy: The Game Corner has long been controversial among fans for being a LuckBasedMission and a blatant MoneySink. However, even some people who didn't like the Game Corner are sad that it was closed down, while the message that comes with this only makes it worse.
164--> "Thank you for all your support over the years. Good Game."
165* AntiClimaxBoss:
166** Archie and Maxie still get hit by this despite being given Mega Evolutions, as Sharpedo and Camerupt are still easy to one-shot when Mega Evolved.
167** Wallace becomes a cakewalk if you use either Primal Reversion. Primal Groudon's Water immunity and teaching it Solarbeam (located easily in the Safari Zone) lets it steamroll through through his entire Gym, while Primal Kyogre can abuse 100% accurate Thunders to one-shot everything except Whiscash (which can't take a Origin Pulse).
168** [[spoiler:Zinnia. In the second battle with her, she has her own unique battle theme and five powerful Dragon-types... which are all rendered moot due to the significantly higher-leveled Mega Rayquaza you obtained just before battling her. Dragon Ascent will oneshot her Goodra, Altaria, and Noivern while Dragon Pulse will take care of Tyrantrum and Mega Salamence. Even if you decide not to use Rayquaza, her team isn't anything special and will faint to Ice-type attacks just as fast. More so when you use any Fairy-type against her.]]
169** After the fight with [[spoiler:Zinnia]] you go into space to confront Deoxys. Unless you are trying to capture it right there (and don't use your Master Ball), which may take some time due to the low capture rate, the same uber-powerful Mega Rayquaza will just knock it out with just about any move in its arsenal. That is, if [[GlassCannon Deo]][[FragileSpeedster xys]] doesn't one-shot you first.
170** After beating the Elite Four and returning for a rematch, they get much higher leveled teams, better Pokémon, and Mega Evolutions, making them a significantly higher threat...except for Steven, who's ''worse''. Though his team has the second highest levels in the game (behind Wally's final team), likely to be 5-10 levels higher than the player even if they've been using the GameBreaker Exp. Share, it suffers heavily from PoorPredictableRock. Four of his team have the same common weakness: Water. None of them, with the exception of Aerodactyl, have any Electric or Grass moves, and on top of all that they're fairly slow, making it a cinch to sweep them with a Water Pokémon. On top of that, his strong fossil Pokémon are replaced by an Aerodactyl (which is still rather good) and a ''[[StoneWall Carbink]]'' with an ''offensive'' moveset!
171* BaseBreakingCharacter: [[BaseBreakingCharacter/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
172* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
173** Like in ''X and Y'', an event pops up if you have the Mythical Pokémon Diancie. It's similar to that event: two people want your Diancie for their master, then their master comes and lets you keep your Diancie. This is how you get Diancie's Mega Stone. It can feel even odder if you activate the event early enough; your character doesn't know anything about Mega Evolution, or possibly that it even exists!
174** On top of the Sky Pillar with Zinnia, she knocks you out. For no reason (except for allowing the next cutscene to be set at a specific time of day). She doesn't get anything out of it, and after she apologizes it isn't brought up again (barring the fans, who placed her instantly into MemeticMolester for it).
175** The Legendary Pokémon themselves. Though, downplayed, because of the implied explanation as to why all these dark portals are spawning all over Hoenn is that it is [[spoiler: Hoopa's doing, potentially in its new Unbound Forme.]] Though, they serve no story purpose, and only a handful of the dozens of them are hinted at by an NPC, like Flannery and Heatran, or Regigigas with a girl who gives a vague hint at Pacifidlog Town.
176** Deoxys' appearance. After Mega Rayquaza destroys the meteorite on a collision course with Earth, Deoxys pops out of it, battles the player, and is never mentioned again.
177** Looker's appearance in the game is this. [[spoiler: He randomly washes up on the beach at the Battle Resort with amnesia, and after being brought into a cabin gives the player a Mega Stone.]] Sounds like a set up for a sizable sidequest of some sort, right? Nope, nothing more ever comes of this incident. [[spoiler:The sudden appearance and amnesia]] ''may'' be explained by certain post-game reveals in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''... but it's still incredibly strange within ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire''' themselves.
178* BrokenBase: [[BrokenBase/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
179* CasualCompetitiveConflict:
180** As with all the more recent games, this is full swing among a chunk of the player base, but this time it gets referenced in-game, but from the competitive perspective. A man in the Battle Resort outright tells the player that in order to be the best Trainer, they may not always be able to use Pokémon they like - the ''exact opposite'' of what {{NPC}}s in the games usually say. The man's daughter even has a Garchomp, a Pokémon that has excelled in competitive battling since its introduction; she even ''explicitly says'' she borrowed it from him so she could do better.
181** Made even further notable after you win 50 straight matches in any given Super Battle in the Battle Maison. [[spoiler: Wally will appear in the Battle Maison and challenge the player, starting with a more powerful version of his team from Victory Road, but battle him again and he'll be rocking a team that looks like it was ripped straight from a Smogon OU match!]] He even thinks to himself between matches what changes he needs to make to his team to make it stronger.
182* CommonKnowledge: The belief that Devon and Mauville were killing Pokémon to create Infinity Energy. It's actually said ingame to come from "deep sea minerals" which are implied to be Pokémon that were long dead and fossilized. If anything, the use of Infinity Energy is more of an allegory for fossil fuels.
183* ContestedSequel: Fans are divided on whether ''Emerald'' or ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' are the definitive Hoenn games, thanks to the latter games not reflecting most of the changes from ''Ruby and Sapphire'' in the former outside of a few {{Mythology Gag}}s. The merged storyline, ability to get all three mascot Legendaries, higher difficulty, rematchable Gym Leaders, and, of course, the Battle Frontier are cited in ''Emerald'''s favor, while the separate but expanded storylines, later-generation improvements, expanded Dex, improved Pokénav, Secret Bases and Contests, enormous selection of postgame starters and Legendaries and Soaring are seen as the better trade-off for ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' fans. With ''Emerald'' long being considered the best main series game by a good subsection of fans, whether the potential for ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' as a worthy successor to ''Emerald'' makes it a candidate for one of the best ''Pokémon'' games or not, ''especially'' after ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' was VindicatedByHistory, is [[BrokenBase a very divisive topic]].
184* CreepyAwesome:
185** [[spoiler:Deoxys]]. Its entrance is mostly the former (with a touch of the latter), while the battle itself that ensues is moreso the latter.
186** Courtney. She talks like a robot and fans love her for her pure unhinged-ness.
187* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Some fans have theorized that Courtney might be on the autism spectrum, as she is highly intelligent, rarely speaks, and is disinterested in most people and things except for a few special interests.
188* EnsembleDarkhorse: [[EnsembleDarkhorse/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
189* FanNickname:
190** The remakes are referred to as "ORAS" (pronounced "oar-as" or "auras"). Alternatively, "ROZA" in the Spanish regions, and "ROSA" in the French regions.
191** Some people call Mega Salamence "Nyoom Dragon" because of its somewhat silly appearance.
192** "[[Anime/YuGiOh Seto Kaiba]]" for Mega Gallade because of its BadassCape and Duel Disk-like arms.
193** Primal Groudon is sometimes called "P-Don" or "P-Donner".
194** The redesigned mall-like Mauville City is sometimes called "Mallville City".
195** [[http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/6/67/254Sceptile-Mega.png Mega Sceptile]] is also known as the "Christmas Dragon" due to its red and green color scheme and Christmas tree-like tail.
196* FanPreferredCouple:
197** Really, you'll be hard-pressed trying to find someone who ''doesn't'' ship [[HoYay Archie/Maxie]].
198** By extension, Matt/Tabitha and Shelly/Courtney, collectively known as [[PortmanteauCoupleName Maqua]].
199** Brendan/May was a pretty big one in the original games, and its popularity seems to have been acknowledged in the remakes, where [[PromotedToLoveInterest it's practically canon.]]
200** [[FoeYayShipping 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.
201** [[MoeCouplet Wally/May]] was a minor ship back in ''Ruby and Sapphire'', come the remakes and it started picking up steam, likely due to Wally's increased popularity as a character.
202* FoeYayShipping:
203** Matt has a good bit of it with Tabitha in the demo, including teasing him at any given oppurtunity.
204** Shelly and the player character. Same with Matt [[AmbiguouslyBi regardless of gender]].
205** "Once Courtney sets her interest on someone or something, she never gives up in pursuing it". And one of her 'interests' is ''you''.
206* FountainOfMemes:
207** 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]].
208---> I herd u leik murder!
209** Mega Slowbro almost immediately spawned tons of jokes concerning its appearance. Some of the more popular ones compare it to a spinning top (or a TabletopGame/{{Beyblade}}) or poking fun at how it shouldn't be able to keep itself upright.
210* GameBreaker:
211** The Exp. Share allows every Pokémon in your team to gain the experience whenever you win a battle, significantly cutting down on grinding.
212** Once you make it to the eastern half of Route 118, you and Steven are enlisted by Latias or Latios (depending on which version you are playing) on a plot-mandatory sidequest to Southern Island to defend their sibling from either Team Magma or Team Aqua. After a Multi Battle that you shouldn’t have ''any'' trouble winning at the point you’re currently at in the game, Latios or Latias will join your party, already equipped with their Mega Stone. You also get the Mega Bracelet from Steven after clearing the sidequest, enabling you to use Mega Evolution. With Mega Evolution already being a game-breaker in-game, you now have access to a Pokémon whose stats completely outclass next to every other Pokémon in the game ''in its base form'', AND can Mega Evolve to power up ''further''. The icing on the cake is that if you obtained the Eon Ticket from Streetpass, you can actually revisit Southern Island to catch the Eon sibling that you didn’t get from the sidequest. And with the ultra-diverse movepools that both Latias and Latios have, say goodbye to any and all challenge in the main story!
213** Mega Rayquaza has become infamous as one of the most broken Pokémon in the series. It not only has a ridiculously powerful new signature move in Dragon Ascent, but it can Mega Evolve ''without a Mega Stone'' -- it only needs to know that signature move. This lets it use another held item such as Life Orb, effectively making it an unencumbered '''800''' BST Pokémon. Furthermore, its ability Delta Stream cancels out its Flying-type weaknesses, halving its Ice weakness and removing the Rock weakness. Topping ''that'' is Dragon Dance[=/=]Swords Dance to skyrocket its already high Attack and Speed. Mega Rayquaza is so strong that it broke Website/{{Smogon}}'s tier system, because even in the "Uber" tier[[note]]it was previously an unofficial banlist of everything too strong for the "Overused" tier, the standard for the usage-based Smogon tiers, and not "really" a tier[[/note]], it could deal a OneHitKO to most of the OlympusMons with one turn of set-up or 2-hit KO anything else that survives its wrath with no significant retaliation. This forced the website not only to make a new metagame called "Anything Goes" with all restrictions and clauses they've previously enforced removed (with the exception of the Endless Battle Clause, which is ''solely'' because things like Funbro are intended to [[{{Troll}} piss people off]]), but to make Ubers into a full-blown tier. All because of Mega Rayquaza.
214** 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 Pokémon 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]].
215** The new [=DexNav=] app on the Touch screen. It lets you see what Pokémon are in the area, which ones you've already caught etc. It operates by Pokémon appearing on the overworld, like shaking grass in previous games. But that's not all it does. Every time you encounter a Pokémon, that relevant Pokémon's [=DexNav=] entry gains a level. As it gains levels you'll gain an increased chance to run into a member of that species that has egg moves or up to three perfect [=IVs=] or even Hidden Abilities. Imagine a Taillow with Brave Bird or a Poochyena with Play Rough before you even reach the first gym.
216** One notable Pokémon for the [=DexNav=] is Pelipper. A common occurrence while surfing, you can find them holding ''Lucky Eggs''. You know, that item that gives a Pokémon an experience boost like a traded Pokémon, that was barely available in the first four Gens because it was rarely found on the rare Chansey, while even recent Gens have only given you one? Just get a Pokémon with Covet or Thief (the latter of which you can get as a TM from an Aqua/Magma grunt early in the game), and in a bit of time, you'll be able to equip your entire team with Lucky Eggs!
217** After the player deals with the Primal Legendary, all non-Hoenn Pokémon in the game become available, including the numerous Legendaries the games boast. It's possible to fight the Elite Four with a team of level 50 legendaries (the same level as the weakest Elite Four member) without doing any trading.
218** Mega Evolutions in contests. They get extra points using maximum appeal over every other weakling that can't go Mega (unless it's Lisia). This is perhaps the only true area in the game where every Mega Evolution is really a real Game Breaker no matter who it is.
219** Secret Bases have been given more functionality in which you can now actually sleep in beds to fully heal your Pokémon. This can potentially reduce the difficulty of the [[CheckPointStarvation longer more challenging routes.]]
220** The Makuhita/Hariyama line is ''really'' too damn good for the player to help complete Hoenn's story; especially if the player gets it at the earliest point possible with the in-game trade to get it before the first badge, which in turn, gives the player an already powerful attack and health stat Pokémon better experience gain. To explain, apart from Elite Four Drake's dragons, the sumo Pokémon can do the following:
221*** Makes the 1st Rock gym an easy breeze. Serves as a good alternative in the 2nd Fighting gym. Destroys the 3rd gym's best Pokémon due to Magneton's secondary steel-type (plus having a Magnemite). A solid fighter against the 4th gym if Thick Fat is involved. Makes the 5th Normal gym an easy breeze, and can easily tank Slaking's powerful Retaliate due to Hariyama's high health stat. Serves as a possible alternative in the 6th Flying gym to take on Swellow or Skarmory due to their normal and steel secondary-types. Serves as a possible alternative in the 7th Psychic gym since both Lunatone and Solrock have a secondary rock-type. At worst, the AI will be smart enough to both use Psychic on Hariyama. Serves as a good alternative in the 8th Water gym.
222*** Makes the Dark-type Elite Four trainer an easy breeze. Makes the Ghost-type Elite Four trainer an easy breeze, because Hariyama is capable of learning dark-type moves, such as Knock Off. Makes the Ice-type Elite Four trainer an easy breeze. Makes for a good alternative against the Hoenn Champion due to Steven Stone using Pokémon that have some Rock and Steel-typings apart from Claydol. But even for Claydol, you'll probably still be running Knock Off to use against it.
223* GoddamnedBats: The Geodude family are even more annoying now, since the Sturdy ability now lets them [[LastChanceHitPoint survive attacks that are powerful enough to knock it out in one hit]]. So unless you have multi hit moves, they will land a hit on you before going down, or even worse, use Selfdestruct or Explosion before you can knock it out.
224* GoddamnedBoss:
225** Deoxys. Before you encounter it, you have to sit through about ten minutes worth of cutscenes, capturing Rayquaza, a final trainer battle, and more cutscenes, all with no chance to save before the Deoxys encounter. Once you finally reach it, it buffs its normally paper-thin defenses to incredible heights using Cosmic Power and then continually heals itself using Recover. On top of that, it has the minimum catch rate. Fortunately, you can choose to knock it out or run away and come back later to catch it at a more convenient time.
226** Deoxys is also a problem on the reverse side, because Mega Rayquaza, as noted above in GameBreaker, can likely OHKO it no problem. The problem is trying to catch it then and there if you don't know you can catch it later or want to catch it with the epic atmosphere. You have to keep going through all of those cutscenes and battles over and over again if you take out Deoxys or, more likely, it takes itself out with Struggle after thawing out of Freeze no less than six times in the battle and still not catching even when frozen.
227* HarsherInHindsight:
228** In both the original games and the remakes, Phoebe's trainer message on her Trainer's Eye profile is "I wonder how my grandma is doing at Mt. Pyre". Unless you lose against the Elite Four, you're not going to see this until afterwards. You can run into her again at Mt. Pyre once you've beaten them - she'll be chatting with a ghost and might mention that you've left a good impression on her grandmother...[[FridgeHorror and the man who guards the orbs with his wife]] [[TearJerker is alone]].
229** In the remakes, Zinnia ''insists'' on not using the Link Cable to transport the massive meteor to another Universe (the one from the original games), because the people of ''that'' Hoenn might not be able to deal with it. She then smashes the device and forces you to come up with another solution. Come ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', where it is strongly implied that [[spoiler: the original universe's Hoenn, or at least its Battle Frontier, was attacked by the Ultra Beasts.]] [[labelnote: Note (contains spoilers)]]Many fans exaggerate this and believe that the Ultra Beasts have destroyed multiple universes, [[CommonKnowledge but such a thing is never stated]]. [[/labelnote]]
230* HilariousInHindsight: [[HilariousInHindsight/{{Pokemon}} Check the main page.]]
231* HighTierScrappy:
232** 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.
233** 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.
234* IKnewIt:
235** After ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' got remakes during Gens [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire III]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl IV]], respectively, fans have been predicting that the same thing would happen to the Hoenn games. Gen V [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite came]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 went]] with no Hoenn remakes, but ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' dropped several nods to the region (as well as several nods to every other region, remake or not), and on May 7, 2014, ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' were announced for the 3DS.
236** Just about ''everyone'' called Metagross getting a Mega Evolution, after it was revealed Steven had an interest in Mega Stones. Similarly, when it was revealed Maxie and Archie had Key Stones of their own, many had speculated that their signature Pokémon Camerupt and Sharpedo would receive Mega Evolutions. Come September, Mega Camerupt and Mega Sharpedo had indeed been confirmed.
237** With confirmation that the Hoenn Pokédex would be expanded to feature several Pokémon from Generation IV and beyond, namely evolutions of Hoenn Pokémon, practically everyone predicted that Gallade would replace Wally's Gardevoir, which was confirmed alongside Mega Gallade in September.
238** A lot of people suspected that Lisia was related to Wallace, due to both of them having similar color schemes and flamboyant personalities. Turns out Lisia is Wallace's niece.
239* ItsTheSameNowItSucks:
240** In a variation that mixes this with what's essentially a "They changed it ''back'', now it sucks!", many players saw the fact that the Gym Leaders' teams stick too close to their original iterations, to the exclusion of the improvements they had received in ''Emerald'', as a full downgrade. Especially Wattson not having his Manectric, and Tate and Liza going back to having only one Pokémon each.
241** In the post-game, the Battle Maison re-appears, in a new location known as the Battle Resort. While there are vague hints in game of the Battle Frontier being under construction, and the Multi Battle characters being replaced along with the ability to partner with people on your friend list [[spoiler:and Wally appearing as a secret opponent]], the Battle Maison uses the ''exact same battle artwork and 3D models as the ''X and Y'' one'' (though the dialogue is different); as if it's simply been copied and pasted. Even the Pokémon in the normal battles are the exact same! To a lot of fans, including the Maison as opposed to the Frontier, or even the ''Battle Tower'', is a very lazy move, especially when it looks so blatantly lifted from ''X and Y''. This has caused some debate on whether the absence of the Battle Frontier is enough to bring the games down despite all the other features and improvements.
242** With Pokémon-Amie and Super Training in which they did not even attempt to change a single thing. This would have been a good opportunity to add more Pokémon-Amie mini-games or at least try and fix the face-recognition issue that many players had, or even remove the [[ScrappyMechanic constant pop-ups on PSS that suggest you trade or battle with someone.]]
243* ItWasHisSled: Thanks in part to the nature of a previously [[PermanentlyMissableContent nigh-unobtainable]] Pokémon becoming catchable no matter the real life time period, most people know that Deoxys is the FinalBoss of the Delta Episode.
244* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Archie. His main ships are with [[BaddieFlattery you]], [[HoYay Matt]], [[FoeYayShipping Maxie]], [[PerkyFemaleMinion and Shelly.]]
245* LesYay:
246** If you play as May, Lisia will practically crush hard over you when she scouts you for the Contests.
247** Shelly also gets lines that potentially could be taken as this with May, and Courtney still acts like a {{Yandere}}.
248** There's also two girls locked in room 2 on Sea Mauville doing...something. The first girl is bewildered at how you got in despite the fact that she locked the door, and gives you the Room 6 Key to go away. She defends herself by claiming that she's busy "teaching the girl the difficulties of being a trainer!", while the other girl just blushes. The "Teammates" class trainers are often this, really. One of the earlier ones outright calls her partner cute.
249--->'''Girl 1''': I was teaching this girl how hard it is to be a trainer!\
250'''Girl 2''': *Blush*
251* LowTierLetdown: Several Megas introduced in these pair of games did not get it as good as the others:
252** 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.
253** 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.
254** 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).
255* MemeticBadass:
256** Mega Swampert may have skipped leg day, but he is already everybody's "bruh".
257** Mega Rayquaza. So badass that Smogon banned it from its unofficial ''Ubers'' ruleset. It's the Olympus Mon that even the other OlympusMons don't want to fight.
258---> '''Rayquaza:''' ''I came. I fucked Ubers up. [[ComicallyInvincibleHero I left.]]''
259* MemeticLoser: Mega Swampert, despite also being a MemeticBadass, is sometimes made fun of for "skipping leg day" due to having comically oversized arms but also ridiculously tiny legs.
260* MemeticMolester:
261** Zinnia, who knocks the player character out on top of Sky Pillar -- an action that fans quickly made NSFW assumptions about. Her sudden wide-eyed SlasherSmile in the overworld ''and'' during battle only reinforces this repuation.
262** Courtney, who seems ''incredibly'' fascinated with [[NoYay "analyzing"]] the player, has gathered this reputation.
263** The Bug Maniac trainer class for looking rather shady with their ScaryShinyGlasses and creepy SlasherSmile. It doesn't help that they are excitedly sweating and holding a large bug catching net.
264* MemeticMutation:
265** The general reaction to the announced remakes? '''"[[IKnewIt HOENN CONFIRMED!!1!]]"''' (Plus many mentions of [[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound the trumpets]].)
266** Mega Swampert: "Do you even lift, bro?" [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants It was a wimp before anchor arms. Now it's a jerk and everybody loves it]].
267** Wallace's {{Stripperific}} redesign has become a common topic to make jokes about.
268** Team Magma and Aqua's redesigns make them look like nerds 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.
269** [[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/11/18/pokemon-alpha-sapphire-and-omega-ruby-review IGN's review]] of ''[[{{Irony}} Alpha Sapphire]]'': "Too much water!"[[labelnote:Explanation]]The reviewer found the over-reliance on BrokenBridge map design had aged poorly. This was summarized at the bottom of the page as "Too much water", which was instantly mocked by the game's fans.[[/labelnote]] This has hilariously led them to be compared to Team Magma and their own anti-water campaign.
270*** Another common joke is that ''Groudon'' is the one who wrote the review, pissing Kyogre off.
271*** From the same review, "'''7.8/10'''" has already become subject to jokes and mockery.
272*** Saying "7.8/10. Too much X" where X is something that gets focus in a work is also popular.
273*** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' even put this meme into the Poké Finder's comments section.
274** Being such an absurd GameBreaker, Mega Rayquaza (see above) got the nickname [[IronicNickname "BALANCE DRAGON"]] and led to jokes about how bringing it down to standard tiers would instantly balance the {{Metagame}}.
275** Expect to see a lot of memes involving Flygon getting abused due to not having a Mega Evolution (e.g. Garchomp licking its tears, etc) or the way the Garchompite is obtained through Aarune.
276** Mega Sceptile's tail is a Christmas tree.
277* MisBlamed: Many fans are complaining about Gym Leaders supposedly being made easier since ''Emerald'', not realising that it was actually ''Emerald'' that made the Gym Leaders ''[[SequelDifficultySpike harder]]'' compared to the original ''Ruby and Sapphire'', which the remakes follow.
278* OlderThanTheyThink:
279** The concept of being able to fly in the skies freely was first introduced in ''VideoGame/PokemonRanger: Guardian Signs''. You could even summon either Latios or Latias to instantly go to the skies there.
280** The world being threatened by an oncoming meteor and needing Rayquaza to shatter it was a major story point in the first ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' game.
281** The Johto starters, Lugia and Ho-Oh are all made available along with other starters and legendaries during the late game/postgame, but they were previously obtainable in ''Emerald'' under very specific and difficult circumstances.
282** Groudon and Kyogre aren't the first Primal Pokémon of the franchise. That honor goes to [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Primal Dialga]] (though it's called Dark Dialga in Japanese).
283* ParanoiaFuel: Somehow, the newscasters featured in [=BuzzNav=] know almost ''everything'' about you. Though it's played a little softer when you realize that updating your [=BuzzNav=] is actually your character is sending his/her info to the station deliberately. After all, that's what you as the player are actually doing.
284* PopularityPolynomial: ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' were fairly controversial when they were released. 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 after ''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 ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' garnered more and more praise over time to the point that fans largely started considering them improved versions of ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' and some of the very few 3D mainline games to be near-universally praised by the hardcore fandom along with ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''. It helps that ''Pokémon Emerald'', long considered a SacredCow in the fandom, has dropped off in popularity over time, leading to many fans who label ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' as the definitive Hoenn games.
285* RemadeAndImproved: Despite complaints about several of the tracks, the score is this for a number of fans, particularly those who disliked the excessive brass usage in the original games. Of particular note are the Contest tracks, which have been overhauled in instrumentation, bass, and percussion, becoming ''really'' catchy SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.
286* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
287** 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 characterization, 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!]]
288** Team Magma and Team Aqua. Many complained that their original motives were fairly stupid. Now their motives are more fleshed-out, Team Magma are pro-human {{Visionary Villain}}s 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.
289** The Admins of both teams, who had next to no characterisation originally, bland designs and were pretty much EliteMooks at best. Now... well, just look at the EnsembleDarkhorse entries above.
290** Also, in the story quest, Voltorb/Electrode, which is now obtainable as soon as you get to Route 110. That, and coupled with the buffs it received throughout the generations makes it better than it was in the originals stats-wise.
291** Beedrill was often seen as a CrutchCharacter and only evolved from Weedle and Kakuna to get through the early stages of the game, suffering from low stats all around because a lot of the designated early available Pokémon are made weaker as a trade-off to being easy to catch. That all changed when it got its Mega Evolution, which beefed up its Attack and Speed stats to ''monstrous'' levels and gave it a fighting chance. The only real drawbacks are that its Special Attack is now a complete joke (not that Beedrill had much use for it anyway) and its unchanged HP, Defense and Special Defense leave it a GlassCannon.
292** While the cultural reference to Myth/JapaneseMythology is appreciated[[labelnote: *]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amano-Iwato It is inspired from a location the sun goddess Amaterasu shut herself up for a long time]][[/labelnote]], Scorched Slab is often derided in the originals for being a small cave containing nothing but the one-time use Sunny Day TM. The remakes turned it into a full-fledged dungeon containing valuables such as Charizardite Y and Heatran.
293** Ever since its debut in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', Serperior was mocked for being one of the weakest starter Pokémon in the series, even for in-game purposes. With ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', its Hidden Ability of Contrary was ''finally'' released as an event, causing it to become one of the ''strongest'' starters in the series in competitive play.
294* SalvagedGameplayMechanic:
295** 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 ''FireRed and LeafGreen'' 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]]
296** 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.
297** 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.
298* SalvagedStory: 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.
299* TheScrappy: [[TheScrappy/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
300* ScrappyMechanic:
301** While the ability to catch every non-event Legendary Pokémon not in ''X and Y'' is very convenient, there are some catches. First, some of the Legendary Pokémon can only be encountered if you have a set of Legendary Pokémon related to them (or some arbitrary attribute like maxed out [=EVs=]). Second, some of the Legendary Pokémon are version exclusive. Finally, some Legendary Pokémon can only be found if you have both version exclusives.[[note]]You can't get Giratina without Dialga and Palkia, you can't get Kyurem without Reshiram and Zekrom, and you can't get Landorus without Tornadus and Thundurus[[/note]] If you're aren't able to gain the others via trade, which will likely require you to give up one of your version exclusives, or have previous gen games to help you with your transfer, your only option is to have [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo both versions of the game]].
302** Arceus' Plates (except for the Iron Plate, which is held by the Beldum that Steven leaves you in the postgame) and the Orbs for the Spacetime Trio are hidden items underwater, and you can't use the Dowsing Machine to locate them. Have fun trying to get them all without a guide. The Scanner is similarly hidden in the basement of Sea Mauville, and you need this to catch Lugia or Ho-Oh and subsequently the Legendary Beasts.
303** Collecting volcanic ash in the original ''Ruby & Sapphire'' was relatively easy because every tile of coated grass that you went through was one unit of ash collected; you just needed lots of max repels to get tons of ash without ever being attacked. In ''Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire'', collecting volcanic ash is now changed to going through piles which give you between 5-15 grams. Combine this with the fact that there's only 7 piles means that you only collect between 35-105 grams per trip which is ''far less'' than what you could collect in the previous version (270 units per trip), requiring you to make many more trips than needed through Route 113.
304** The Search function of the [=DexNav=] when used indoors, in caves, or on the water. Instead of staying in one spot, the Pokémon that shows up will randomly hop around the area, making initiating a battle with them a pain because you can't just run up to their spot (you have to do the sneaking action, which makes you go slower). Nearby [=NPCs=] can also cause the Pokémon to flee since they're not sneaking, which can make encountering Pokémon in certain areas even more difficult if a Swimmer is nearby the spot the Pokémon decided to spawn. This is made worse when chaining encounters, as the Pokémon start to move much more quickly. Once you procure a chain of five and beyond, the Pokémon emerge for a single second each time and abscond after a mere 4-7 appearances. Since you need to sneak in order to battle them and they have a tendency to jump long distances, potentially not completely emerging for most attempts after the initial appearance, there is a very high chance that FailureIsTheOnlyOption.
305** Obtaining the Destiny Knot. The Destiny Knot is practically essential for breeding Pokémon 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).
306* SequelDifficultyDrop: The inclusion of the many AntiFrustrationFeatures, general mechanic changes like the physical[=/=]special split introduced in ''Diamond and Pearl'', Mega Evolution, and the new [=EXP=] Share make these games much easier than the originals. In addition, WordOfGod states that the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Battle Frontier was cut]] due to assumptions that it would be too challenging for most players.
307* SidetrackedByTheGoldenSaucer:
308** The [=DexNav=], a feature that shows what kind of Pokémon can be found in rustling grass and other areas. Since the Pokémon that can potentially be caught may have egg moves, rare items, great stats, or even Hidden Abilities, and the fact that finding more of the same Pokémon will level up the [=DexNav=] and increase the likelihood of getting better Pokémon, it can get extremely addictive.
309** Contests return, and they can be just as addictive as before.
310** Hunting down other player's Secret Bases and decorating your own can be very engrossing, especially if you're connected to the internet and can get a healthy stream of Bases from other online players.
311* StrawmanHasAPoint: During the Delta Episode, Zinnia destroys Cozmo's link cable meant to get rid of the incoming meteor on the basis that a different dimension (implied to be the original ''Ruby and Sapphire'') would be destroyed instead. Cozmo angrily retorts that Zinnia has no proof, which is entirely correct since she refuses to (or legitimately can't) provide evidence that she's right about the existence of sentient life in the other dimension, let alone that the meteor is guaranteed to cause it any damage. [[spoiler: ''Sun and Moon'' prove her entirely right, which makes it more confusing why she couldn't produce any evidence if she knew the truth about alternate realities.]]
312* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
313** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuXhbYGK19U The space theme]] has been compared to lots of anime opening songs with ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' and ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' songs being the most popular.
314** Some people have noticed the similarities between [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jQWyBu3THQ Zinnia's theme]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dy74NOzcS8 Gaur Plains]].
315* TaintedByThePreview: The remakes were getting a lot of flak for the rather abysmal marketing, which focused almost entirely on Mega Evolution and updated character designs, instead of other mechanics, character and story changes, and other improvements. Soaring wasn't revealed until shortly before the games were released, and [=DexNav=] was only revealed through some gamer reviews a week before the game's release. Fan opinion has mostly cooled down on the game, but the previews made the games look like Ruby and Sapphire, just with Megas.
316* TakeThatScrappy: The Safari Zone has long been hated by many for being an unfair LuckBasedMission, especially since some Pokémon can only be found in the Safari Zone. The remakes reveal that the owner tried to raise the price of admission, and promptly went bankrupt when people stopped coming to the Safari Zone.
317* ThatOneBoss: While Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are [[SequelDifficultyDrop much easier than the originals]], [[OlympusMons Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre]], on the other hand, are quite easily the nastiest legendary mascots you ever have to fight in the main series of video games. Their old abilities Drought and Drizzle have been replaced with [[PowerNullifier Desolate Land and Primordial Sea]], which are basically the former abilities on steroids. This is especially the case with Primal Groudon, as its ability makes it completely immune to any and all Water-type moves, and Primal Kyogre is no slacker either as Primordial Sea makes its already powerful Origin Pulse absolutely terrifying, and will tear off huge chunks of health from even Pokémon that resist it. And if you thought that catching them would be a piece of cake like with Reshiram and Zekrom as well as Xerneas and Yveltal in [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black/White]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY X/Y]]? Nope, because unlike those four, they have the typical ludicrously low Legendary catch rate of 3, which makes them nigh-uncatchable even at one health while afflicted with a status condition while you're using the best Poké Ball for the job. And even lowering their health is a chore in and of itself, as Primal Kyogre packs Aqua Ring to gradually restore its health while Primal Groudon has Rest to not only instantly restore its health completely, but also remove any status conditions as well. Many 3DS's have likely been smashed by furious players that succumb to the wrath of these ancient abominations.
318* ThatOneLevel: The fourth Trick House chamber contains no trainers, just a gauntlet of Strength puzzles. Many of them involve moving outside the site of the puzzles to move around obstacles, but the crux is one puzzle involving three blocks. If you move a bit too fast downwards between two of the blocks, you may wind up pushing the wrong block, making you unable to pass through and have to reset the entire room.
319* ThatOneSidequest:
320** To get Lucarionite, you have to beat every Master Rank Contest, and then beat Lisia in a contest. You can easily do this with a single Pokémon by feeding it Rainbow blocks to max out all its conditions, but learning the [=AI=] trainers strategies and patterns is something that takes doing a ton of contests and can sometimes be a crapshoot. Lisia herself can Mega-Evolve her Altaria to score more points if she gets the crowd to maximum excitement, and generally better setups than the other trainers, so even if you're a whiz at contests she can be tricky to outdo.
321** Getting the Garchompite requires you to capture 1000 Secret Base flags. You can only capture a base's flag once a day, so unless you have Secret Base Pals, getting all of those flags will take a long time.
322** To be able to rematch Wally with his improved team, you have to complete a 50-win streak at any Super Battle at the Battle Maison. This in and of itself requires a 20-win streak in normal battles, which is already very time-consuming (if very easy due to the computer's propensity to use [[JokeCharacter unevolved Mons]]), while the Super Battles are legitimately difficult due to the AI being smarter than the story trainers and using some strategies you'd expect from a RealLife tournament player.
323** Battling Fare Prince Trencherman requires you to defeat all 8 trainers of the Mauville Ramen Bowl battle in the food court in 8 turns. That's right, you have to beat each of them in one turn. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for several of them [[LuckBasedMission intentionally trying to waste your turns with luck-based strategies.]] The ''first'' opponent hits you with a Choice Scarfed Teeter Dance, confusing your entire field. The second uses three Simple (doubles stat boosts) Woobats with Double Team and holding Bright Powder. Miss once, and you've probably failed the run. And a third uses three Prankser Whimsicotts with Stun Spore, ensuring they Paralyze your Pokémon before you can do anything (and unless you have priority moves of your own, this tactic works ''regardless of how overleveled you are'') essentially giving each of your Pokémon a 25% chance of failing to move and thus, costing your run. And then the second last opponent uses ''three Imposter Ditto'', copying your party stats and all. Can you defeat ''your own Pokémon'' in one turn?
324* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Many of this remake's musical arrangements, especially the battle themes, got complaints to this effect:
325** The Elite Four remix in this game lacks the iconic clapping section, to the consternation of many fans. It didn't help that ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' already did a well-received remix that added in more claps to the beginning.
326** The rival theme and the Team Aqua/Team Magma Boss theme being slowed down wasn't very well received. The latter theme was also bashed for not sounding as dramatic or threatening as the original, especially at the end of the loop.
327** The Team Aqua/Team Magma theme originally had the blunt sound of a bell being struck three times halfway through the loop. The remake replaced this with much softer sounding instrumentation that gave off the feeling of something missing.
328** The Gym Leader theme straight up omitted a full sequence of notes at the end of the loop, which didn't go unnoticed by players.
329** The Deoxys Battle remix cuts out a number of countermelodies throughout the track, drawing complaints about sounding emptier than the original.
330** The Trick House arrangement is straight up missing notes in the lead organ due to them being out of the note range for the preset used in the track.
331* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
332** Unlike the ''[=HeartGold and SoulSilver=]'' remakes that implemented the chase after Suicune from ''Crystal'', ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' did not incorporate any of the unique plot developments from ''Emerald''. Meaning that the player never gets to face off against both Team Aqua and Team Magma, or get to challenge Hoenn's Battle Frontier.
333** In addition, the change in ''Emerald'' to have Team Magma's main headquarters within Mount Chimney to reach Groudon at the core of the volcano made a lot more sense from a world-building perspective than the original ''Ruby'' and ''Sapphire'' games where both Groudon and Kyogre are awoken in the underwater Seafloor Cavern, which sounds like something that would only make sense for Kyogre. The game remakes instead keep to the original games where both of the legendary Pokémon are woken up by their respective evil team in the Seafloor Cavern.
334* ToughActToFollow: ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'' ended up being this to ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl]]''. Many fans loved the changes and improvements made to the original Hoenn adventures, and those fans were hoping to see Sinnoh gets this kind of remakes. When the remakes for ''Diamond and Pearl'' were finally released, however, they quickly came under fire for multiple reasons: the chibified overworld style, the lack of many quality-of-life improvements and all Pokémon from later generations, the characters and most of the Sinnoh region looking exactly the same as in the originals, and the Sinnoh adventure is a near-identical presentation to ''Diamond and Pearl'' without any of the improvements from ''Platinum'' (as opposed to ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', which at least took ''some'' of the elements from ''Emerald'' in the post-game campaign) caused many to declare ItsTheSameSoItSucks. It did not help that ''Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl'' were the first core series ''Pokémon'' games to not be developed by Game Freak, as they were busy working on the much more ambitious ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''.
335* 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 five Pokémon at once, but they're all around 20 levels lower than everything else at that point).
336* UnexpectedCharacter: The final boss of the Delta Episode is [[spoiler:not Rayquaza, not Zinnia but Deoxys! This in itself is a surprise since a Mythical Pokémon has never been encountered outside Events]].
337* UnfortunateCharacterDesign:
338** [[http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/8/85/376Metagross-Mega.png/600px-376Metagross-Mega.png Mega Metagross]] has a spike in a rather peculiar location, opening itself up to sex jokes immediately.
339** [[http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/f/f3/373Salamence-Mega.png/600px-373Salamence-Mega.png Mega Salamence]]'s crescent-moon wings and its spiky head makes it resemble the [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/310U4bBTzPL._SY300_.jpg Islamic Crescent Moon and Star]].
340* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
341* ViewerGenderConfusion: Chaz's Machoke, Macherie, is a female. [[LadyLooksLikeADude This isn't obvious at first glance]], leading others to easily confuse it for being male.
342[[/folder]]

Top