Why do so many people hate gen III?

[ZeoViolet]

Hmmm....there were few disappointments to me outright for third-gen; I remember anxiously awaiting the day they came out so I could jump in and buy it quick! (such as was my enthusiasm....XD )

I was upset that we couldn't transfer our prized pokemon from the previous generations, and for a long time afterwards since I could see no alternative to get them, third gen is the last time I ever resorted to a cheat device. (I don't believe in stat hacking and other garbage like that.) I did it to obtain what I couldn't get otherwise. When Colosseum, XD, Fire Red, Leaf Green, etc, that problem was solved, and not long afterwards I could mostly retire those devices when I had such ready access to them across all games now. (Never used a device for fourth or fifth gen games. Don't need to.)

My other complaints were lack of things to do after beating the E4 and frequently getting lost on the water routes (not a problem after awhile though).

Overall, these games, like with all pokemon games I've played, never lost their sparkle; my interest has always been unflagging. They get periodic replays. If I do get tired all I have to do is lay them aside for a couple of months.

 

[Remorso]

I just beat LG, and I gotta say, Gen III is pretty nice.
My little sis, only 11 years, is playing Emerald again, and it's such a funny time watching her rage in sky pillar or whatever.

However in order of favorite it goes like this:
Gen IV, V, III, I, II.

 

[Almonds]

It's just like what everyone can assume - the kids who played Gen 1 and 2 grew up and grew out of pokemon by the time Gen 3 came out. And Gen 4 appeared just after they became adults.

 

[Shadow Victini]

I've only played the spin-offs of Gen. III- Ranger 1, Blue Rescue Team, and Colosseum.
They were all great games with interesting and unique characters.
Unfortunately, I can't give an opinion on R/S/E and FR/LG since I never played them.

 

[Almonds]

Maybe because the Hoenn Game Characters were never given enough spotlight in the anime? STEVEN?!!

 

[Ian D.]

I don't get it either. =/ I started the series with Gold version, and when I got my copy of Ruby when I was little... I was -ecstatic-. And I still own a copy of Emerald to this day, playing it regularly. Gen III was awesome. All of the generations up until this point have been rather cool, in my opinion.

But hey. *shrug* To each their own, I guess.

 

[Jirachi's Wish]

I actually liked Gen III, it being my favorite generation. It actually got me back into Pokemon since I was 5 when I first got into to Pokemon with the anime and Yellow. It was years later after the fad died out and I completely forgot about. It it was the day I went to rent a game and I saw R/S at the video store. I made so many connections to the previous Gens it was awesome especially since it was a new place but with some older pokemon thrown in. I'd have to say the more I got into Gen III the more I noticed how many more Pokemon there were between the Kanto and Hoenn dex sinced I missed out of Gen II except the anime. So this generation got me into the "Gotta catch 'em all!" mentality from here onwards trying to get all the Pokemon in the National Dex at the time by collecting all the games. I'd also like the mention how this Gen had created many new staples in the series with the Mascot Legendary trios, the Battle Frontier, Competitive Battling, etc. So all in all while this may be on the lower end of the scale in compairson to the other games its also an important part to the series in general.

 

[cherryzard]

i went through this phase where i absolutely hated generation III. i don't even remember my reasoning.

but i've been replaying emerald, and to be honest, i've fallen absolutely in love with the pokemon - they're all so colorful and different. however, i find the game itself to be rather boring. maybe it's because it was right after GSC, which had so much to offer in terms of gameplay, but i felt like (at least in ruby and sapphire) once you beat the elite four, there wasn't much else to do.

even so, i do enjoy generation III. all the new things they gave us - natures, graphics, and such a variety of climates - makes it very special. C:

 

[HaxorusRaxorus]

Gen 3 was okay. Sapphire is one of my favorties, and it did feel kinda short. But all the water routes and the unnecessary diving did get annoying.

 

[Almonds]

Gen 3 is awesome - It's because the anime writers messed up with AG that the games didn't shine as much. Look how much they neglected important features and characters in the games!! The anime and games go together - and they messed up with Hoenn features... sob sob

 

[Meyneth]

@Destiny Queen your just sad that Steven din;t get more spotlight.

I don't hated gen III I Like it a lot. It was my first gen

I think the main reason was that people couldn't trade their old pokemon, and if that happen to me then yes i would be ticked

 

[xyzman]

I've never owned a GBA (as opposed to GBC and DS), so naturally I had to play the game on emulator. So what pissed me off very much is no capability of trading (VBA with linking appeared 1 year after first Gen4 games) and lack of time based events (real-time clock appeared in VBA 1.7.2). Gameplay-wise, I hated the fact that you cannot have strongest pokemon because of new EV and nature system. As well as the metagame now becoming absurdly complicated: back in Gen2 time I didn't mind an occasional battle on GSBot, but with all those new berries, items, and pokemon mechanics it was not worth the time spent.

Though I like Gen3 the best because of great learning experience that reverse-engineering pokemon data provided. I was never good in ROM hacking as loadingNOW, though I can proudly say that I have assisted in determining what does every byte in Gen3 80-byte pokemon data structure work and have written a reliable R/S cheat code generator that was the granddaddy of current pokegen. Emerald was the most-played (as compared to all other Pokemon games) game for me as well.

Another cool thing about Gen3 was the community. Lack of decent multiplayer meant that people had to get along by means other than games themselves. The best memes and fads were invented during Gen3 years. Nowadays people are collaborating more (5gen game mechanics analysis project of Smogon, Pokegen and Pokecheck by ProjectPokemon people), but the feel is not exactly right.

From the point of gameplay depth Crystal (and its Gen4 HGSS remake) was the best for me, but Gen3 is the most special in terms of emotions. So I really don't understand why it is said that Gen3 was the most-hated: back in 2003 there was a lot more excitement and fun coming from people than right now, in Gen5 age.

 

[SirCraigMike]

Only reason I ever disliked Generation 3 was that I couldn't trade over my favorite, loved, and cherished pokemon; or their many children I made them have in Generation 2. After Fire Red and Leaf Green I lost all anger towards the gen but I still did enjoy it. I enjoyed it less than any other generation because all it had going for it was more Kanto in FR/LG and HG/SS easily delivered there.

 

[Shadow Victini]

You know, now that I think about it, around some websites, Gen. IV seems to get more hate than Gen. III.

 

[rubinek]

Haters gonna hate, generation III was amazing.

 

[Kaustic]

You know, now that I think about it, around some websites, Gen. IV seems to get more hate than Gen. III.

That's because aside from HG/SS, the fourth generation was mediocre.

The third generation was pretty solid, in my opinion. I'd say most of the hate is disgruntled older fans.

 

[Saiga]

You know, now that I think about it, around some websites, Gen. IV seems to get more hate than Gen. III.

That's because aside from HG/SS, the fourth generation was mediocre.

The third generation was pretty solid, in my opinion. I'd say most of the hate is disgruntled older fans.

That's not the reason. The quality of the generations is always subjective, and there is no single reason for the hate of any Generation, but many. Gen IV has as many different reason it is hated by some as Gen III.

 

[Almonds]

The popular theory here is that many pokemon fans were teenagers around when Gen3 came out. They weren't interested in pokemon as they were before....and after XDD

 

[Kaustic]

You know, now that I think about it, around some websites, Gen. IV seems to get more hate than Gen. III.

That's because aside from HG/SS, the fourth generation was mediocre.

The third generation was pretty solid, in my opinion. I'd say most of the hate is disgruntled older fans.

That's not the reason. The quality of the generations is always subjective, and there is no single reason for the hate of any Generation, but many. Gen IV has as many different reason it is hated by some as Gen III.

Of course personal opinion does play a part in that, yes. But as for why the hatred of the third generation is so particularly widespread, I'd say it's fair to mention that fans of the first two generations tend to, in my personal experience, dislike the third generation for having changed up the formula as drastically as it did (in addition to the Pokemon designs being changed up from what they were used to).

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

That's because aside from HG/SS, the fourth generation was mediocre.

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, terrible GTS, and the introduction to the most broken hazard move.