Emerald vs. Platinum?

[Sneazy Sneasel]

Which game do you think is better?

Spoiler

Spoiler

Platinum for me.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Platinum, how is this even a contest? Platinum expanded the Pokedex, gave the mascot a new form, and ended the Galactic story arc with a completely new area, while Emerald didn't make any changes of that scale.

 

[Fairy Ice Ricky]

Emerald for me. The RSE story arc was my favorite in the series, and obviously Emerald's slightly modified story makes the most sense since both Magma & Aqua are the baddies.

Speaking of, those Magma Grunt costumes were amazing and I always wanted one!

 

[Orion-Sama]

Both are fantastic games and among the best in the franchise. Platinum is marginally better, but that's because Diamond/Pearl had way more problems than Ruby/Sapphire ever did. Plus, Platinum piggybacks in features that were created in Emerald, so it isn't nowhere near as original. If anything, it vastly improves the Gym Leader rematch system, which was awful in Emerald, but it still uses the best of Emerald's features removed from the first pair to increase its appeal.

If anything, the two things that makes me iffy about Emerald are Wallace being the Champion and no rematches with Steven. For the rest, it's almost as good, and much more original as it actually brought two of the best features Platinum would piggyback on later. Plus, Platinum had the grating idea of giving Barry even more screen time, and that was terribad.

So yeah, both. They have about the same ups and downs.

 

[Muur]

I personally prefer Emerald, although been a long time since I've played Emerald. I just really loved the Battle Frontier and thought the one in Platinum was meh.

 

[pokefan548]

Emerald.
I kind of felt like D/P/P fell flat for it's hype.
+ Emerald nostalgia factor.

 

[MetroLSD]

Tougher gym leaders/E4 > Platinum

Better music > Emerald

Better legendaries > Platinum

Better villainous team> Platinum

Better champion> Platinum

Better region climate > Emerald

Better regional mythology > Platinum

Platinum outweighs Emerald for me so i'll vote Platinum.

 

[Team Gaara]

I'll say Platinum. For one, I've never played a hard copy of Ruby or Sapphire, so the whole "third version" thing wasn't really felt for me in that case; it was just Emerald.

Diamond to Platinum though was awesome! I loved the little changes the made to the story, the region itself, and I was obsessed with Dawn's Platinum outfit for a while.

Additionally, Platinum has the better Frontier in my opinion. Hoenn's always managed to piss me off, and I could only ever beat Lucy.

 

[TerraTF]

This is like asking people to choose between their favorite children. So I naturally picked both. Emerald started things that would continue onto Platinum and Platinum started things that would go onto other games.

 

[Typhlosionn]

Platinum. Nice graphics, better Pokémon.

 

[TwilightBlade]

Argh, such a hard decision. Both had the battle frontiers, which could entertain me for weeks. All three legendary mascots were obtainable and integrated within the plot. Both had upgraded the graphics, features, outfits of protagonists, national dex, and storyline. Yep, I'm voting for both.

 

[LavenderTownGhost]

Emerald. The plot was glorious. Coming from a Meteorology nut.

 

[Leggo]

I like both and I can't decide which one do I like more. Platinum came with new cool features and so did Emerald.

 

[Osprey]

Yeesh. Hard decision. Uh... On one hand, you have Emerald, which introduced the concept of the Third Game, a plot that focused on the third legend, the Battle Frontier, Gym Leader rematches, and re-introduced the moving sprites (ah the nostalgia).

Platinum drew on all of the concepts above, (ok except for the moving sprites part, seeing how that got to be the norm) but it did a tidier job with the changes to the Legendary climax. I'd say the Distortion World is a little bit more innovative than the same-old Sky Pillar and Sootopolis City, even if they had some color and design changes. It also helps that Platinum's Team wasn't a bunch of ridiculous nutjobs like Team Aqua or Magma. Giratina's Origin Forme was epic, to say the least. Its Altered Forme reminded me of a giraffe crossed with an insect, wearing a black and red-striped necktie and awkwardly small wings, so its evil serpentine transformation was welcome. And Origin Forme's battle theme takes the cake for the entire game.

I chose both. They're both the same concept. One was the original with loads of nostalgia stacked on, and the other was the improvement upon it.

 

[Phoenixon]

Although Hoenn is definitely my favourite region (Sinnoh is close second) I have to say I like Platinum better.

But it also depends on how you're comparing them. Since they're both third versions, you could compare how much better they are to their respective paired versions, like how many features each had, or how much they improved the storyline and stuff. (Like how @Bolt the Cat compared; them). I think, undoubtedly, in this case, Platinum is better, as it improved D/P much more than Emerald improved R/S.

When comparing the two games with each other directly, I think there are two points of views you can take. The first is comparing them together as if you don't know anything about them other than what you find in the games themselves. The second way is with knowing all they're background information, like the time they were release, hou much Pokemon there was at the time, hardware restrictions, etc.
For example, in the first case, you could argue that Platinum had better graphics that Emerald, so that's one point for Platinum. But taking into accound stuff like the hardware they were made on, in the second case, this would not be a very good argument. It would be like asking why a PS2 game has worse graphics than it's PS3 counterpart.

I think if you compare them directly in the first case, Platinum wins. But some arguments made in this case could be excused in the second case.
Like "Platinum only had better graphics because the DS was capable of more than the GBA." But honestly, these would be pretty lame arguments.

And it still doesn't take into the comparison with their comparisons to their paired version, in which I believe Platinum also won. So yeah. Platinum FTW.
I don't want to sound rude, but it seems some people chose Emerald over Platinum just cuz "Nostalgia", and I think that's a bad argument (if one could even call that an argument.)

 

[Farfetchd the Vigilante]

Platinum definitely had cool features, but In my opininon, Emeral wins.

It improved the battle scenes of RS, made a story different but familiar, added Battle Frontier, and a huge nostalgia rush for me.

 

[maneaterliongirafff1]

I like Emerald. It just has better post game play. Platinum BF was not nearly as challenging.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Although Hoenn is definitely my favourite region (Sinnoh is close second) I have to say I like Platinum better.

But it also depends on how you're comparing them. Since they're both third versions, you could compare how much better they are to their respective paired versions, like how many features each had, or how much they improved the storyline and stuff. (Like how @Bolt the Cat compared; them). I think, undoubtedly, in this case, Platinum is better, as it improved D/P much more than Emerald improved R/S.

When comparing the two games with each other directly, I think there are two points of views you can take. The first is comparing them together as if you don't know anything about them other than what you find in the games themselves. The second way is with knowing all they're background information, like the time they were release, hou much Pokemon there was at the time, hardware restrictions, etc.
For example, in the first case, you could argue that Platinum had better graphics that Emerald, so that's one point for Platinum. But taking into accound stuff like the hardware they were made on, in the second case, this would not be a very good argument. It would be like asking why a PS2 game has worse graphics than it's PS3 counterpart.

I think if you compare them directly in the first case, Platinum wins. But some arguments made in this case could be excused in the second case.
Like "Platinum only had better graphics because the DS was capable of more than the GBA." But honestly, these would be pretty lame arguments.

And it still doesn't take into the comparison with their comparisons to their paired version, in which I believe Platinum also won. So yeah. Platinum FTW.
I don't want to sound rude, but it seems some people chose Emerald over Platinum just cuz "Nostalgia", and I think that's a bad argument (if one could even call that an argument.)

I still think Platinum wins even if you compare them overall instead of what they did better than the initial paired versions. Platinum had better regional design, a better story, and much more to do than Emerald did.

 

[GhostFingers]

Platinum has more changes/additions to Sinnoh than Emerald does to Hoenn. It's a very tough choice though.

 

[Like_Fahrenheit]

I never played Diamond or Pearl, so I can't compare how Pt improved on them with Emerald on R/S. But despite that, I voted for Platinum. It's my favorite core series game. I think Sinnoh is an amazing region and there's just something (or everything) about the game that makes me like it so much.