Here we have the 3rd Generation of Pokémon Games for the Nintendo handheld console. Sapphire and Ruby. Not a great deal has changed since the first generation and nor will it for the next six.
The game consists of you skuttling around a made-up Japanese island hunting creatures into servitude. The poor beings follow you on a long excursion of frequent and arduous battles with other trainers. Eventually culminating in your crowning as Pokémon master of masters of the universe! or some such.
The game is a heavily disguised version of more traditional Role-Playing Games. Rather than fighting yourself though, you thrust your hapless creatures in the role of ready cannon fodder. Carefully selecting moves against opponent types in an overly complex version of rock, paper scissors. Your minions evolve, change (sometimes unrecognisably from before) and learn completely new moves. The evolution of these little buddies is quite satisfying, and you soon become quite attached to a few of them. This quenches the dry grinding of multiple and very, very frequent clashes.
The purpose of this particular adventure is somewhat lost however. You want to be the very best, like no one ever was, for what purpose is never made clear though. In Sapphire there is a group of scallywags who want to cover almost all the earth with water, later to find it’s a bit too much. You (spoiler alert, but not really as you must have a story to spoil to have a spoiler), place an orb thing somewhere and poof it’s all sorted. Off you then trot to the fab 4, a stable of this game series. Defeat all these trainers without taking a breath and… the end. I know it’s a game for 8 year olds but honestly Peppa Pig regularly has a stronger story arc.
The battles feel more of chore here than in previous incarnations. Additionally, you have to manage Pokémon beings that are of two types instead of the more traditional one, say water and flying. In practise this just makes them more vulnerable to targeted attacks. Targeting is meant loosely as the AI is non-existent and characters seem to only randomise their moves and not their chosen combatants. Never do they seem to choose moves based on what you are doing or who you have chosen. Normally the layout of enemies at least encourages you to swap your team around to take advantage of you rivals weaknesses, but here you can simply keep using the same one or two, levelling them up so they overpower all they come up against, making training the rest of the team as much use as a Pikachu taking a swim.
Skipping ahead some 20 years, there now seems to be more Pokémon games then actual Pokémon. So, can I recommend this one? Not with the above issues plus the limited inventory slots and the inability to see how much you have of something while you’re in a shop. Issues solved in all later games, no, not unless you really have to catch / play them all.
Comments