What was best?

[Fair Verona]

I preferred Ruby's version exclusives. It brought us Shiftry, Zangoose, and Mawile. Plus, I preferred fighting Team Magma over team Aqua. I'm pretty neutral about the Mascots though, but if I had to pick, I would probably pick Groudon.

But Emerald is my favorite out of the three.

 

[Achrom25tic]

IDK...Sapphire, I guess, because I like Kyogre and the color blue? xD Not much difference to be honest.

 

[Dr. Buni]

Sapphire, because Kaiorga is one of the most cool looking legendaries out there.

And Team Aqua > Team Magma.

 

[bubbie]

Sapphire. Kyogre was and is still my favorite legendary.

 

[malickk]

According to me Ruby is better because i love this game this is very interesting game i mostly play this game.

 

[Wellspring Station]

I'm honestly pretty neutral, I like both games, but probably Ruby sheerly because it was my first Pokemon game. I prefer Kyogre too over Groudon, even though he's pretty cool.

 

[colours]

I'm going with Sapphire because I prefer Kyogre heavily over Groudon, but I like Team Magma's uniform a lot better than I do Team Aqua's. I just feel Team Aqua would look better without the bandana's, I guess.

 

[G50]

I like Sapphire much better than Ruby, the rain during Team Aqua's plot (since I use Swampert a ton), and Kyogre and Latios being available in that version. I also like Team Aqua's teams a whole lot better.

 

[SwifTer]

Saphire. I owned Saphire.

 

[King of KOTBC]

Well my vote goes to sapphire mainly for kyogre but the version exclusives for the most part i liked better the one thing ruby does have though is Zangoose!!!

 

[scrambled_togepi]

Sapphire. I like my Jet-plane dragons cute and fluffy. I also prefer most of the other version exclusives. Sadly I wasn't able to get Sapphire and was stuck with Groudon and Latios for several years.

 

[Karpi]

The difference for me is in the logic of the plot...

Team Magma wants to expand the land mass in order to increase land for humans to settle. Not bad, except that Hoenn is a coastal country so the sea level will never actually change from a drought, though the volcano plot could create marginally more land if the lava flows reached the ocean. They're better off clearcutting the jungle south of Fortree. Though a major point in their favor is the morally gray area of human expansion at the expense of nature.

Team Aqua wants to expand the oceans to increase the area for water pokemon to settle. The oceans are gigantic, so we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are talking about coastal pokemon such as Staryu who would love shallow water. Increased rainfall would not submerge Hoenn for the same reasons that Team Magma's Groudon plot wouldn't work, but Kyogre's rainfall would be at the expense of rainfall elsewhere, so they could in fact make Hoenn a more "wet" country with more marshes, wetlands, and whatnot. Their volcano plot, to cool it off, fill it with water, and make it a water pokemon habitat, is also logical and of a REASONABLE scale. This also covers a morally gray area, in that their goal isn't necessarily evil, and I feel like the characters overreact in the game (increased rainfall is the end of the world? Hoenn people don't even use most of the affected land for anything at all, and the sea level wouldn't rise to flood Slateport like they think).

These are pretty interesting plots, looking at it now, and could definitely be used as an inspiration for a mature game that could even combine some of these ideas. I don't really see a clear winner, though if you put a lot of weight on the Kyogre-Groudon conflict, Team Aqua wins there, but I think it's also important for people to fight against a team with Team Magma's goals just to think about what they're doing. Both games are good (I prefer the Sapphire exclusive pokemon, though. Ludicolo <3)

 

[GhostFingers]

Emerald was the best Hoenn game, but between R/S i vote Ruby. It's the one i own. It has Mawile, Solrock and one of the best normal-type pokemon ever Zangoose. I prefer Groudon over Kyogre and i like team Aqua so i enjoy beating team Magma. The only downside is no Lotad or Sableye (i just love that cute little demon)

 

[Twinkles the Marvel Horse]

Ruby. I've always had some weird love for Seedot and Groudon is my favorite legendary, period.