History VideoGame / PokemonRubyAndSapphire

** In the French translation of the games, Brawly says he was inspired from [[LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon staring at a Helix Fossil]] for days.

** [[LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed Pidgeotite is given to the player in the same room as a large, framed picture of an Omanyte.]]

%%* LargeHam: Several characters shout a lot, especially Trainers.

** Rayquaza has a much bigger role in these games other than a BonusBoss (in the case of ''Ruby and Sapphire'') or calming down Groudon and Kyogre (in the case of ''Emerald''); it's one of the focus Pokémon of the Delta Episode and capturing it is now mandatory.

* BonusBoss: Just like the end of ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', where the PlayerCharacter has to fight AZ at the very end, you fight your neighbor (Brendan or May) [[TheStinger after the credits]] in ORAS. And just like the fight with AZ, you don't have to win. This is handy for speedrunners.

* BonusBoss:
** Every Legendary that isn't already obtainable in ''X and Y'' or [[SecretCharacter event-exclusive]] can be encountered between both versions. Most are in Mirage Spots found via Soaring.
** If you order the Mauville Ramen Bowl in the Food Court and manage to defeat seven trainers in triple matches in one round apiece (''not'' an easy task) the eighth to challenge you is [[spoiler:Fare Prince Trencherman, the kid with the glasses who described the rules of the place to you]]. Subsequent clearings of the Ramen Bowl instead have you fight [[spoiler:Black Belt Banting, presumably the owner of the establishment you bought the bowl from]].
** The Battle Chantalunes from ''X and Y'' return, with the same teams and requirements to fight.
** It is possible to fight Wally again- he shows up after successfully beating the 50th consecutive battle in a Super line in the Battle Maison. While the first time you rematch him isn't too difficult (especially after beating the 50th consecutive battle), all subsequent encounters are ''seriously'' difficult. In fact, his team might be one of the best in the series in terms of team choices and strategy!
** When the player wins all five Master-Rank Contests, Lisia or Wallace (or even both at once) can compete against them in that contest.

* BonusBoss:
** The ruins containing Regirock, Regice, and Registeel will open up after completing specific requirements in the Sealed Chamber.
** Both Kyogre and Groudon appear in ''Emerald'' after beating the Elite Four, in caves that mysteriously appear and disappear on several routes.
** Rayquaza appears at Sky Pillar in all three games, with the point of availability being dependent on version. In ''Ruby and Sapphire'' it's strictly post-game, while in ''Emerald'' you can go grab it as soon as the fight between Kyogre and Groudon has been resolved.
** The Frontier Brains in ''Emerald''[='=]s Battle Frontier. Fighting them requires beating their facility twice without failure, and can be fought a second time (with a different team of {{Mons}}) by doing so again.
** Latias, Latios, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, and Deoxys can be found on special islands only accessible via Nintendo distribution items that were available for a limited time. Deoxys' forme is dependent on what game it is encountered in (Normal in ''Ruby and Sapphire'', Speed in ''Emerald''), while whether Latias or Latios are fought via this method is dependent on how the SchrodingersQuestion the player's Mom asks in ''Emerald'' was answered.
** [[spoiler:Steven can be found in a hidden room in Meteor Falls that opens up after beating the Elite Four in ''Emerald''. He's the strongest trainer in the game, and one of the strongest in the entire franchise.]]

* RecycledSoundtrack: The music for Archie and Maxie battle [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZobOoj9sz7I recycles some parts]] from Game Freak's older game ''Bushi Seiryuden''

* PortTown: Two in the series for the first time. There is the industrialized Slateport City and the more artsy Lilycove City.

* LuckBasedMission:
** [[BettingMiniGame The Game Corner]] in Mauville City, as per series tradition at this point.
** Mirage Island spawning near Pacifidlog Town. It's possible to slightly influence this based off of Dewford Town's trendy phrase, but still largely in the hands of the RandomNumberGod.
** In ''Emerald'', there's the Battle Pike and Battle Palace facilities in the Battle Frontier. In the Battle Pike the player gets 7 sets of three rooms to choose from. Based on the choice you may face a battle, a double battle, a particularly tough battle, nothing at all, free healing, have their {{Mons}} inflicted with status effects, or a room of random encounters. It's probably mercy that getting to Pike Queen Lucy only involves going through the place twice only. In the Battle Palace, the player has to let the AI decide how their team with act and hope it makes the right choices (though this can be influenced by each Pokémon's nature and current health).

* LuckBasedMission: Mirage Spots that aren't [[SocializationBonus StreetPassed]] appear randomly at the start of the day, which can be a pain for OneHundredPercentCompletion since some have [=TMs=] and[=/=]or Evolution items (like the Razor Claw), and they all have rare foreign Pokémon. There is even a special Mirage Island that is ''only'' randomly generated that hides [[OlympusMons Cresselia]]!

The games took place in Hoenn, which is based on the Kyushu region of Japan rotated ninety degrees[[note]]Of course, since the world is round and we never see Hoenn on a map along with any other regions, this rotation doesn't matter much[[/note]]. The game begins with the player moving to their new home in Littleroot Town, and later saving the local Pokémon Professor, Birch, from a wild Pokémon. As thanks, he gives the player their own Pokémon, encouraging him/her to travel around the region and collect as much data on Hoenn's Pokémon as they can, much like Birch's child (and your rival) Brendan/May is doing.[[note]]Your rival is whichever player character you didn't pick at the beginning; if playing as May, Brendan is your rival, and vice versa.[[/note]]

These games may be the biggest case of OneGameForThePriceOfTwo in the franchise, as there is literally no way to legitimately collect all 386 Pokémon without aid from ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue FireRed]]'', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue LeafGreen]]'', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum Colosseum]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness XD]]'' (and oddly, only ''Ruby'' '''''or''''' ''Sapphire'', because ''Emerald'' has whatever Pokémon the other version lacks).[[note]]The UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance had backwards-compatibility for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, but its link cables were unable to connect the two systems; coupled with the aforementioned data structure redesign, there was no method for importing or trading Pokémon from ''Gold'', ''Silver'' or ''Crystal'' to ''Ruby'', ''Sapphire'' or ''Emerald''.[[/note]] The ''Red'' and ''Blue'' [[VideogameRemake remakes]] provided all 150 Kanto Pokémon and a small pool of Johto's, with ''Colosseum'' and ''XD'' having several from all three regions; together, they had all but the event-only Pokémon. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was during this generation that Nintendo stopped using "GottaCatchEmAll" as the franchise's slogan. Speaking of generations, the next one, Gen IV, starts with ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''.

On May 7, 2014, The Pokémon Company announced [[VideoGameRemake remakes]] for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, titled ''Pokémon Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''. Prior to their release, players could download a special demo version starting in mid-October 2014, which centered on Mossdeep Island. The games were released in November 2014 (Nov. 21 in most places, Nov. 28 in Europe), exactly twelve years after the originals' release in Japan. Groudon and Kyogre have newly-introduced "primal" forms[[note]]they have more intricate TronLines and prominent "omega" and "alpha" designs on their hands, respectively, and these TronLines now glow yellow and turquoise instead of blue and red, on top of straight-up glowing ''panels'' on their bodies[[/note]], which are depicted on the boxart, other Pokémon get Mega Evolutions, lots of features were added or upgraded, and a post-league scenario known as the Delta Episode was included. These games are part of the "Sixth Generation" of Pokémon games and are compatible with ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY''.

* AnimationBump: Inverted in the case of the Pokémon battle sprites, which went back to being static after ''Crystal'' introduced animated sprites. ''Emerald'' brought back the animated sprites, but they were only two frames as opposed to ''Crystal'''s full animations.

* TogglingSetpiecePuzzle: Alternating electrical currents in the Mauville City Gym. As the player's character makes their way to the leader, they not only have to challenge the local trainers but also toggle the electrical barriers by pressing switches. Namely, when a switch is pressed, the [[VisualPun current]] barriers turn off while others turn on, shifting the layout of the maze.

* LostWoods: Petalburg Woods. It also functions as the NoobCave of these games.

* FranchiseCodifier: ''Ruby and Sapphire'' started the trend of each game being set far away from the last, introduced abilities, and completely overhauled the way Pokémon's stats are calculated.

** It's very easy to miss the Master Ball in ''Ruby and Sapphire''. It's hidden in an optional room of Team Magma/Aqua's Lilycove hideout that's only accessible via a warp-tile puzzle, and the base closes up once you gain access to the Seafloor Cavern.

** You fight the non-Hoenn legendaries except Regigigas (as well as the Latias/Latios you get with the Eon Ticket in spite of being native to Hoenn) in an arena resembling pinkish dreamy clouds.

** The kinds of Pokémon you can get are specifically arranged so that, with some trading between the various Generation VI games, you can complete the National Pokédex without having to import any Pokémon from previous generations despite this being possible through PokéTransport. Granted, you still need to do the latter in order to obtain Mythical Pokémon, though they still won't count towards your completion rate (save for [[spoiler:Deoxys]]).

** The player character still sets up the clock during the prologue. The game doesn't prompt you to enter the time, however, as the game uses the built-in 3DS clock for its time functions, and the player seemingly sets the clock automatically. The event does serve a purpose though, as it is only after setting the clock that the game actually starts using the built-in 3DS clock.

** A Team Aqua Grunt in Lillycove in ''Alpha Sapphire'' mentions wanting to take the [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction 101 Skitty she had and introduce them to the Wailmer in her parents' house]].

** Having an event Shiny Beldum (or one of its evolved forms) in your team unlocks dialogue such as Steven mentioning having fought Rayquaza alongside [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Alain a young male trainer with a black Charizard]].

* BrainyPig: This game introduced Spoink and Grumpig, two highly-intelligent Psychic-type pig pokemon who're themed around the proverb about "casting pearls before swine"- turning said pearls into literal pearls of wisdom carried around by the pokemon.

* CrutchCharacter: See the [[{{CrutchCharacter/Pokemon}} series' page here]].

** ''Emerald'' has the only instance where one of these can inflict Frozen, and it's technically an event, not a battle. In the Battle Pike, A Gentleman's Dusclops can run up and try to freeze your Pokemon with an "Ice Beam", although not dealing the damage of a regular one. The trainer claims it's easily startled due to its Timid nature.

** The Water-type Sootopolis Gym has all its trainers (excluding the gym leaders — the campy Wallace and Juan, who emphasizes the beauty, grace, and artistry of water, in Pokemon Emerald) as women. Most of the female trainers are of the "Beauty" Trainer Class and all their Pokémon are female as well.
** Most Water-Type moves fall under the "Beautiful" condition for Pokémon Contests.

* ForegoneVictory: After capturing Rayquaza, the only difference between winning and losing to [[spoiler:Zinnia]] is the XP and money you get. You're still advancing the plot no differently. In addition, Rayquaza is 8 levels higher than her strongest Pokemon and more than capable of one shotting her entire party once Mega Evolved, making the battle extremely lopsided in the player's favor.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** An oddity relating to the Pokédex is that Hoenn's regional Pokédex is the first one in the series to not have every Pokémon numbered. What makes this stand out is that instead of stopping at 202, every Pokémon is still included, just without new numbers (or any numbers at all, rather). The [=3DS=] remakes simply removed the unnumbered Pokémon from the Hoenn Pokédex.

* BonusBoss: Just like the end of ''VideoGame/PokemonXandY'', where the PlayerCharacter has to fight AZ at the very end, you fight your neighbor (Brendan or May) [[TheStinger after the credits]] in ORAS. And just like the fight with AZ, you don't have to win. This is handy for speedrunners.

* FlashyProtagonistsBlandExtras: Oddly, Hoenn has a large number of important characters with blue, purple, and even silver hair - more so than most other regions.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Oddly, Hoenn has a large number of important characters with blue, purple, and even silver hair - more so than most any other region.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hoenn_confirmed_4435.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[MemeticMutation HOENN CONFIRMED!]]]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1520048374081691000
%% Previous pic moved into examples folder per IP thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1413369944069776300

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemon_rse.png]]

* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: Like in the first game, players can create one themselves through Secret Bases, which can then be shared with other players. In particular, making a base with a full team of Blisseys all knowing nothing but Healing Wish, a move that [=KOs=] the user as long as it is not the last Pokémon left, is an effective and perfectly safe way to train weak Pokémon.

* CrutchCharacter: The Cosplay Pikachu that is awarded for completing your first contest. If obtained as soon as possible, she'll likely be at a higher level than any Pokémon in the party, and her special outfits means she can learn moves no other Pikachu can, which gives her excellent coverage. However, as the player progresses, the fact that Pikachu's stats are below mediocre in every single stat other than Speed means that she will quickly be outclassed and be little more than a novelty. Can be subverted if the player finds the Light Ball lying around on Route 120, which will make her hit about as hard as [[OlympusMons Rayquaza]] while holding it.