Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions: Difference between revisions

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Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire

Pokémon Ruby Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター ルビー Pocket Monsters: Ruby) and Pokémon Sapphire Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター サファイア Pocket Monsters: Sapphire) are the first paired main series of Generation III games that are set in the Hoenn region. They were released in Japan on November 21, 2002, in North America on March 19, 2003, in Australia on April 3, 2003 and in Europe on November 14, 2003.

Like all paired games beforehand, Ruby and Sapphire were followed by a third version, Pokémon Emerald Version, two years later, and together became the best-selling Game Boy Advance games of all time.

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Connectivity

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire continued the tradition allowing players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges, this time via the Game Boy Advance Link Cable. Unlike previous games, Ruby and Sapphire were not backward compatible with Generations I and II. This prompted remakes of the original games, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. Trading between these games, Pokémon Colosseum, and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness and the third Hoenn-based game, Pokémon Emerald, is possible. These games are also the first to support linking between different language versions for trading and battling without risk of losing their saved games. If one person is trading with FireRed, LeafGreen or Emerald, the sprite is changed to either Brendan's or May's depending on the gender, it was changed on Emerald where a different sprite is used depending of the version being exchanged. However, some limitations still took place, which would not be removed until much later in Generation IV with Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Versions for the Nintendo DS.

While Generation III cannot trade directly with the Generation IV or Generation V games, a player's Pokémon may be permanently transferred to Generation IV via Pal Park, and some Generation III Pokémon can be found using the dual-slot mode. Pokémon from Generation III games can be transferred to Black and White via Poké Transfer by going through a Generation IV game.

Features

Gyms

There are eight Pokémon Gyms in Hoenn, each with their own type affiliation. The Gym Leaders are Roxanne (Rock), Brawly (Fighting), Wattson (Electric), Flannery (Fire), Norman (Normal), Winona (Flying), Tate and Liza (Psychic), and Wallace (Water).

Elite Four

Ruby and Sapphire introduced a brand new Elite Four syndicate, which is found in Ever Grande City. The Elite Trainers are Sidney (Dark), Phoebe (Ghost), Glacia (Ice), and Drake (Dragon); the Champion is Steven, who uses Steel-type Pokémon.

Pokémon

Like Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions before them, Ruby and Sapphire introduced many new Pokémon, with 135 new Pokémon released bringing the total to 386. However, Ruby and Sapphire are incompatible with previous games, due to the lack of communications between Game Boy and Game Boy Color games with Game Boy Advance games.

Regardless of version; trades must occur between players in order to complete their Pokédex without the use of cheats or glitches. Latios (Sapphire event only), Latias (Ruby event only), Jirachi and Deoxys are the only Generation III Pokémon in Ruby and Sapphire that must be acquired through outside means, such as attending Nintendo sponsored event, or using a cheating device. Other Pokémon, such as Bulbasaur, not featured in the Hoenn Pokédex must be traded from a Generation III game in which they are found.

Version-exclusives

Ruby 0273 Seedot Grass 0274 Nuzleaf Grass Dark 0275 Shiftry Grass Dark 0303 Mawile Steel 0335 Zangoose Normal 0338 Solrock Rock Psychic 0383 Groudon Ground 0381 Latios Dragon Psychic

Sapphire 0270 Lotad Water Grass 0271 Lombre Water Grass 0272 Ludicolo Water Grass 0302 Sableye Dark Ghost 0336 Seviper Poison 0337 Lunatone Rock Psychic 0382 Kyogre Water 0380 Latias Dragon Psychic

PokéNav

The PokéNav is received shortly after the beginning of the game from Mr. Stone. It has several functions which are used throughout the game. The PokéNav displays a map of Hoenn, the Condition of the player's Pokémon, and also has the feature Trainer's Eyes, which keeps data on various Trainers and alerts the player when the Trainers want rematches. The PokéNav also displays the Ribbons that a Pokémon has earned.

New Poké Balls

More specialized Poké Balls were introduced in these games. The Premier Ball is a commemorative Poké Ball, a Repeat Ball makes it easier to catch Pokémon that the player has already caught before, the Timer Ball makes catching Pokémon easier the more turns have passed in the battle, the Nest Ball makes lower-leveled Pokémon easier to catch, while the Net Ball makes Water and Bug Pokémon easier to catch. The Dive Ball has a high catch-rate with sea-dwelling Pokémon, and the Luxury Ball makes the captured Pokémon more comfortable and friendly to its Trainer much more quickly. These balls are sold at various Poké Marts throughout Hoenn.

Glitches

As with all Pokémon games, Ruby and Sapphire have a fair number of glitches. One of these is the infamous Berry glitch, which made most time based events, such as Berry growing, impossible after the game had been owned for a year, or played for over 100 hours. This glitch is able to be corrected, however, by downloading the Berry patch from either the Pokémon Colosseum bonus disc, or FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald. These games also host several glitch Pokémon, such as ?????????? or Bad Egg.

New features

Ruby and Sapphire introduced a number of features to the Pokémon video game franchise, many of which set a new standard for every game in the series that followed. Ruby and Sapphire expanded the Pokémon Storage System by adding a much more user-friendly graphical interface. The games also introduced individualized menu sprites for every Pokémon species. Weather conditions may be found on the field in some areas, which will activate the weather condition at the beginning of battle. A new weather condition, hail, has also been added.

Abilities

Ruby and Sapphire introduced Abilities for each Pokémon, such as non Flying-type Pokémon being immune to Ground-type attacks, or a Pokémon's STAB attacks being boosted when their HP is low, even the ability to absorb certain attacks and recover HP or boost a stat. The introduction of Abilities added new depths of strategy to the battle system.

Natures

Ruby and Sapphire also introduced natures for Pokémon. Natures shift the stats (excluding HP) of Pokémon by subtracting 10% in one stat, and adding that 10% to another. For example, a Modest nature means 10% will be subtracted from the Attack stat of a Pokémon, and 10% will be added to the Special Attack stat. This mechanic allowed for levels of customization not previously seen.

Double Battles

Ruby and Sapphire are the games that introduced Double Battles. These types of battles are heavier on strategy than usual because each Trainer battles using two Pokémon at a time, so the Abilities and moves of all Pokémon on the field have to be considered.

Stat changes

The EV and IV systems were refined in Ruby and Sapphire, the maximum IV a stat could have was boosted from 15 to 31, and a Pokémon's gender was no longer determined by the IV of its attack stat, which made it possible to have female Pokémon with maximum attack IVs, something that hadn't been possible before. The EV system is altered from the former stat experience system, with all Pokémon giving 1, 2, or 3 effort points in one or more of the six stats after their defeat in battle, with a cap of 255 per stat and 510 overall. A Pokémon with 510 EVs will be awarded with the Effort Ribbon if it is shown to a girl in Slateport City.

Pokémon Contests

Ruby and Sapphire were the first in the series to offer a secondary means of interacting with Pokémon, in the form of Pokémon Contests. In Contests the goal is to show off the abilities of a Pokémon in the various categories (Beauty, Cool, Cute, Smart and Tough) after winning a Contest in a certain category the player and Pokémon advance to the next rank in that category (Normal, Super, Hyper, and Master). This also brought about the first confectionery goods that could be made by the player and fed to their Pokémon, Pokéblocks.

Ribbons

These games were also the first to offer Ribbons to the player's Pokémon for achieving various goals, or to commemorate special events in the game, including winning in Pokémon Contests, beating the Champion, and maxing out the EVs of a Pokémon.

Reception

Both games were well received, receiving perfect ratings from GamePro^[5] and Mainia.^[6] IGN rated the games at 9.5/10 and commented that they were a "wonderful GBA follow-up to the immense Game Boy blockbuster."^[7] However, some reviews criticized the repetitive nature of the games, with Eurogamer commenting that "apart from the occasional tense battle with a Gym Leader and the more sophisticated opponents later on in the game, the constant fighting and collecting mechanic gets very tired, very fast."^[8] Though, these are more criticisms of the series in general.

Ruby and Sapphire were the second and third best selling games of 2003 (with Pokémon Ruby selling more)^[9], and received an average score of 82% on Metacritic.^[10] With the versions combined, the games were the best selling title on the Game Boy Advance. If not, the title belongs to its third version Emerald.

Awards

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire got the 10th spot on IGN's top 25 Gameboy Advance Games of all time.^[11]

Trivia

• Along with Pokémon Emerald, these are the only Pokémon games to feature both parents for the main character.
• These are also the only main series games where the rival is never encountered with his/her starter in its final stage.
• These games were released in Japan on the third anniversary of the Japanese release of Pokémon Gold and Silver.
• Ruby and Sapphire were the first main series games in which Kanto is inaccessible.
• A special promotional coin featuring Groudon and Kyogre were available with American preorders of Ruby and Sapphire, respectively.
• Pre-release boxart for these games depicted the version name below the mascot Pokémon with the same font used in the Generation I and II games, with the "Gotta catch 'em all!" slogan present below the Pokémon logo. This was dropped for the final boxart, which features the version names directly below the Pokémon logo and in a different font, dropping the slogan entirely.
• These were the first Pokémon games to have a framerate of 60 fps. This change carried over to FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald. However, the framerate was downgraded to 30 fps in the Generation IV games.
• Due to the font used in the international versions, the marker for when a move is selected for usage in the battle screen differs from that of the Japanese version. Whereas the Japanese version uses an arrow to indicate the current selected move, like all later releases of the Generation III games would use, the international versions of Ruby and Sapphire utilize a red rectangle with the same purpose.
• The intro of Ruby and Sapphire differ slightly - Ruby features Brendan or May, depending on the gender chosen, riding a bike near forest and mountains, when Latios appears (and afterwards shows him or her battling against a Sharpedo and a Duskull), while Sapphire has instead Brendan or May riding a bike near ocean, with Latias appearing (and then, similarly to Ruby, he or she is engaged in a battle)

In other languages

Language Title Japanese ポケットモンスター ルビー・サファイア European French Pokémon Version Rubis et Version Saphir German Pokémon Rubin-Edition und Saphir-Edition Italian Pokémon Versione Rubino e Versione Zaffiro Korean 포켓몬스터 루비·사파이어* European Spanish Pokémon Edición Rubí y Edición Zafiro

See also

• Ruby and Sapphire walkthrough

References

Template:Main series

This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.