Why do so many people hate gen III?

[Kaustic]

How could Gen IV be mediocre? It introduced the new Physical/Special split that made Pokemon such as Feraligatr and Absol useful, the first/second best female trainer, an underground mine that makes collecting stones and fossils easier, and a Pokeradar to makes EV training less tedious. Not to mention it helped gave more older gen Pokemon necessary evolutions (Togetic and Tangela were worthless until they've receive major upgrades). The only cons it had was the lack of diversity in electric and fire types, resulting in Volkner and Flint having a horrible team in DP.

I'm not knocking the mechanics. Just the games (D/P/Pt.) themselves. For Pokemon games, I feel they're mediocre. To me, they did not compare to any of the three generations that came before them, or the one that followed.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

How could Gen IV be mediocre? It introduced the new Physical/Special split that made Pokemon such as Feraligatr and Absol useful, the first/second best female trainer, an underground mine that makes collecting stones and fossils easier, and a Pokeradar to makes EV training less tedious. Not to mention it helped gave more older gen Pokemon necessary evolutions (Togetic and Tangela were worthless until they've receive major upgrades). The only cons it had was the lack of diversity in electric and fire types, resulting in Volkner and Flint having a horrible team in DP.

I'm not knocking the mechanics. Just the games (D/P/Pt.) themselves. For Pokemon games, I feel they're mediocre. To me, they did not compare to any of the three generations that came before them, or the one that followed.

Was Gen III your first game? If so, then that explains why.

 

[El_]

In terms of the games Hoenn was my favorite until Unova came, and I've been in the franchise since generation one hit america. The ONLY reason why I might favor the older gens anymore is out of pure nostalgia. I loved the nature theme of Hoenn and the new style makes it better and alot more original in my eyes than the older gens.

Like I said, I've been with Pokemon since gen 1 but I like the more original gens like 3 & 5 better. The hate against Hoenn is irrational if you aske me, I liked it and the story and feel of the games more than I did Sinnoh. (Though the anime of Sinnoh was definitely the best)

 

[Kaustic]

How could Gen IV be mediocre? It introduced the new Physical/Special split that made Pokemon such as Feraligatr and Absol useful, the first/second best female trainer, an underground mine that makes collecting stones and fossils easier, and a Pokeradar to makes EV training less tedious. Not to mention it helped gave more older gen Pokemon necessary evolutions (Togetic and Tangela were worthless until they've receive major upgrades). The only cons it had was the lack of diversity in electric and fire types, resulting in Volkner and Flint having a horrible team in DP.

I'm not knocking the mechanics. Just the games (D/P/Pt.) themselves. For Pokemon games, I feel they're mediocre. To me, they did not compare to any of the three generations that came before them, or the one that followed.

Was Gen III your first game? If so, then that explains why.

No. My first game was Pokemon Gold. I spent my childhood playing that, Red and Yellow. Though, I am fond of the third generation.

 

[Dragard]

I don't see how people could hate it. I've enjoyed every generation. They're all great games.

 

[PS3D]

Well, it was too late (should've been released maybe in late 2002) and was unfinished. There were GBA versions of Johto music in the ROM (possibly a test) but also a much-needed feature: the Time Capsule.

 

[Kaustic]

Well, it was too late (should've been released maybe in late 2002) and was unfinished. There were GBA versions of Johto music in the ROM (possibly a test) but also a much-needed feature: the Time Capsule.

They couldn't have really had something like the Time Capsule, given that the stat mechanics between the second generation and third generation are completely different.

 

[VirtualAnomaly]

I honestly don't hate Gen III. It may be due to the fact that to a lot of people, the Pokemon Contests seemed pointless at first, I dunno. Just speculating.

 

[PS3D]

Well, it was too late (should've been released maybe in late 2002) and was unfinished. There were GBA versions of Johto music in the ROM (possibly a test) but also a much-needed feature: the Time Capsule.

They couldn't have really had something like the Time Capsule, given that the stat mechanics between the second generation and third generation are completely different.

Debugging R/S has a 00 for "No Ability", which was possibly used for debugging purposes...or imported 'mon.

 

[Kaustic]

Well, it was too late (should've been released maybe in late 2002) and was unfinished. There were GBA versions of Johto music in the ROM (possibly a test) but also a much-needed feature: the Time Capsule.

They couldn't have really had something like the Time Capsule, given that the stat mechanics between the second generation and third generation are completely different.

Debugging R/S has a 00 for "No Ability", which was possibly used for debugging purposes...or imported 'mon.

What about Natures? The IV/EV system? Abilities aren't the only change in mechanics between the older generations and the third generation. Meaning my point about the differences in game mechanics stands.

 

[PS3D]

Here's another bad feature of Generation III: the e-Reader. The e-Reader cards basically made it the first Pokémon game (and one of the first major Nintendo games, if not THE first) have DLC.

 

[Feralize]

I loved Gen III. The region was beautiful, the storyline was fun, it pioneered the HM Dive, the first Battle Frontier (and undoubtedly the best imo) debuted, and Game Freak actually were creative with making new Pokemon back then.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

Well, it was too late (should've been released maybe in late 2002) and was unfinished. There were GBA versions of Johto music in the ROM (possibly a test) but also a much-needed feature: the Time Capsule.

They couldn't have really had something like the Time Capsule, given that the stat mechanics between the second generation and third generation are completely different.

Debugging R/S has a 00 for "No Ability", which was possibly used for debugging purposes...or imported 'mon.

What about Natures? The IV/EV system? Abilities aren't the only change in mechanics between the older generations and the third generation. Meaning my point about the differences in game mechanics stands.

Adding to that, Abilities were not even a problem. Its easy enough to add an Ability to a transferred Pokemon but completely changing its Stat EXP (the predecessor of EVs) to EVs rehauling the IV system (which would cause a lot of Pokemon to chagne gender since gender was dependant on the attack IV ad not a completely different value) Those were the real problems.

 

[Xenidal]

I did not like Generation III at all. Some of my reasons were as follows:
- Pokémon's popularity died down before Generation III, so a lot of my friends who played the older games did not play Generation III, which made it impossible for me to trade / battle anyone (which was not a problem with the game itself, but it did take some of the fun out of it)
- No compatibility with previous games, not to mention completely new Pokémon... it didn't even feel like "Pokémon" anymore.
- Lots of new stuff just added... which could be a good thing... but again, it didn't feel like "Pokémon". Yes, a different region should have some differences, but it just seemed strange that everything established by the first two generations seemed to be completely changed by new stuff, which didn't even make sense to the timeline since this game took place during the time of Generation I, so none of this stuff should have been "new"
- The world was seemingly secluded from Johto / Kanto, and, given my previous point about all the new stuff, it felt as it it wasn't even happening in the same Universe
- The introduction of "Team Magma" and "Team Aqua" sounded really stupid at the time... I mean why are all these bad guy organizations called "Team _____"? It just sounded like a bad copy off of Team Rocket. Looking back on it, it wasn't so bad (since that seemed to become the naming convention), but it was bad at the time
- The bike thing was annoying (you had to keep trading your bike in everyime you wanted to get to certain areas)
- The graphics were worse. I mean, technically they were "improved", but they didn't fit the "Pokémon style" of Game Boy-styled sprites
- The story was weak... I mean, it was pretty much the same story as the other games, but at this point it just felt like a copy, lacking originality. And it certainly wasn't as epic
- The contests were completely pointless. They did add something else you could do in the game, but there was no real point to them. They weren't needed to beat the game... and it's not like you had the choice to be a Pokémon trainer or coordinator, since there was no way to beat the game by focusing on Contests and not being a trainer
- Braille?! It was fun to decode... but why braille?! It made no sense... why would an ancient civilization write messages in a modern language such as braille? Not to mention that because it was "real", no one even had to decypher anything and could just look up what the letters meant
- New Lengendary Pokémon were not nearly as cool as the old ones. Not to mention that in this region, the old ones didn't even seem to exist
- Lack of glitches... glitches were part of what made the first 2 generations so much fun, at least in my opinion.

Looking back on it, much of the features introduced in Generation III are the basis of new stuff in Generation IV and V that are considered good. I think that Generation III just received the backlash of breaking the trend, but once that stuff was established it didn't seem like such a bad idea afterall.
Anyway, I never used the e-Reader feature, but I actually thought that it was a nice touch. I mean, Nintendo came up with this new technology which could improve the game experience... why not use it?

 

[Kahlar]

I liked Hoenn, didn't care about the water (n fact, I loved exploring the water routes in the vain hope I'd reach one of the islands of the legendaries XD) and I loved colosseum and XD. I don't particularly mind the inclusion of more legendaries, since I really like their backstories and the challenge of capturing them. What I really didn't like at the time was the inability to transfer my old pokemon (It's not about curbstomping things, I kinda had a en emotional attachment to my gold team, since I grew up playing with them, I recreated it as soon as a I could in HeartGold) and the inability to visit the older regions. I really enjoyed the gamecube games and emerald, though, and when the GS remakes came out, all the problems I had were fixed, since now all regions were accessible and 'mons were transferable from any cartridge from gen III onwards.

 

[rubinek]

Even if the keeped the stat system the same, GBA link cable was simply not compatibile with GB/GBC games and GF couldn't really do anything about it. So they took the chance and revamped the series - for the better, in my opinion.

 

[JAK]

Here's another bad feature of Generation III: the e-Reader. The e-Reader cards basically made it the first Pokémon game (and one of the first major Nintendo games, if not THE first) have DLC.

I'm pretty sure that Mew being event-only made Red and Green the first Pokemon games to have DLC.

 

[PS3D]

Here's another bad feature of Generation III: the e-Reader. The e-Reader cards basically made it the first Pokémon game (and one of the first major Nintendo games, if not THE first) have DLC.

I'm pretty sure that Mew being event-only made Red and Green the first Pokemon games to have DLC.

Yeah, but Mew could easily be acquired with GameShark, while the Berries (et al) were only on eCards. Generation III tried to make it so you couldn't even GameShark your way into catching 'em all (whether you had no friends or no life), using Bad Egg and all.


The other thing about Generation III is FR/LG, the "replacement" to not having compatibility with RBY. It was kind of re-introducing Pokémon to new players, but there were a lot of problems with that: sure they added in the truck as a nod to RBY, but there was no Missingno or Glitch City, or anything like that. Kids of that era (2004? 2005? 2006?) were really missing out. Then they made all sorts of silly censorship things (Gambler->Gamer), which made for non-sensical dialogue ("I'm a ramblin', gamin' dude"), but kept all the dialogue, which gets especially awkward in the Celadon City gym if playing as a girl.

 

[Envoy]

The other thing about Generation III is FR/LG, the "replacement" to not having compatibility with RBY. It was kind of re-introducing Pokémon to new players, but there were a lot of problems with that: sure they added in the truck as a nod to RBY, but there was no Missingno or Glitch City, or anything like that. Kids of that era (2004? 2005? 2006?) were really missing out. Then they made all sorts of silly censorship things (Gambler->Gamer), which made for non-sensical dialogue ("I'm a ramblin', gamin' dude"), but kept all the dialogue, which gets especially awkward in the Celadon City gym if playing as a girl.

Missigno was a glitch that was never meant to be in the games in the first place. It makes sense they didn't include it in the remakes.

My biggest issue with FrLg, and this is speaking retroactively, is the lack of story. Sure, the lack of story. Sure, no story was fine for Gen I (as the proverbial 'older brother,' Gen I can get a free pass on most things on the grounds that it was the game that GF started with. Basically, it was an experiment. They screwed up, realized what worked and what didn't, and took steps to improve for the next generations.)

The closest thing to an actual story (and not just an excuse plot like get all the badges/complete the pokedex) we had in Gen I was the Team Rocket thing, except they were barely a presence. They had no real plan of which to speak and so the stakes were extremely low. They were mostly just there. I complain a lot about the plot or Ruby and Sapphire (because it was extremely stupid) but at least the evil teams had a goal. It felt like there actually were real stakes in those games. When FrLg was released and we were taken back to the "barely no story" format, it just didn't work as well as it had back in Gen I because now we expected something more out of the games.

Those are my two cents anyway.

 

[Xenidal]

Yes, it makes sense that glitches were not included, but you have to admit, the glitches were very entertaining and removing them (well, not "removing" since they were never in the new code to begin with... but "not including them") did take away from the experience.
Personally, I think they should have put Mew under the truck. That would have been awesome. Because not only would it be a way to get Mew without an Event (which many people want), but it would definitely have brought up memories with the older players.

I do not at all believe that Generation I or its remakes had no story. They had just as much of a story as any of the other games, with the only difference being that the Legendary Pokémon (besides Mewtwo) had no role in the story. But it's exactly like the others in the sense that there is a kid who goes out to become a Pokémon trainer and has to win 8 badges and beat the Elite Four (and in Generation I you happened to also be collecting data for Prof. Oak). Team Rocket didn't have a goal like "take over the world", but they were definitely there as an organised crime organisation such as the mafia or something. In other words, they weren't just there for no reason... it's just that their reason for being there wasn't as extreme as the reason for the Teams in the newer games (which I don't see as a bad thing at all... it's less outrageous). And Team Rocket was in the game a lot... a few in Mt. Moon, one guy on Nugget Bridge, some guy standing outside a house in Cerulean City that the guy just stole a TM from, Silph Co., the tower, the casino, the destroyed Cinnabar Lab, not to mention that the Viridian City gym was run by Giovanni.