I suppose I'll say a little about the third generation as a whole, and I guess I'll make that a habit from here on out since the legendaries are going to be lumped in a single page anyway. The third generation was perhaps one of the biggest overhauls that the franchise has ever seen, other than perhaps the jump from the fifth to sixth generation... although that was allayed with a more stable engine and the existence of the 'Pokemon Bank' transfer software. The jump from Gold/Silver to Ruby/Sapphire was... rough. I wasn't there during the earliest stages of the third generation, but boy, the jump from the quality of graphics of the Game Boy Color to the crisp sprites of the Game Boy Advanced was mind-blowing. The artwork in the games had a quality boost, too, so the creatures in the game actually did look like how they looked in official guidebooks, manga and anime, whereas for the first two generations it's more hit-and-miss.
The third generation also expanded in the complexity and scope of its pokemon designs, actually delivering on a mostly-new region instead of functioning as an expansion pack the way the second generation did, which honestly is the way to go in my opinion, giving the third generation a firmer sense of identity and allowing the designs to stand on their own. The third generation also expanded on a lot of concepts that the second generation did -- like weather, which played such a huge part in the third generation's lore, overworld and gimmicks that people like to forget that weather mechanics was actually introduced in the second one.
We also got to see a lot of wacky experimentation in this generation. Lots of new type combinations, far more dragons, steels and ghosts, and some weird evolutionary methods (Shedinja and Milotic being the standout ones), but at the same time there's something that makes the third generation onwards distinctly... off compared to the first two. Part of it is because everything from the third generation onwards was designed by multiple artists, which, for better or for worse perhaps led to the larger diversity, while at the same time perhaps leading to the 'cluttered' and 'toy-like' designs of these pokemon... which is a fair commentary. And perhaps to the anger of many, the third generation dumbed down somme of the mechanics of the second generation, eliminating 'headbutt trees' and the clock/calendar mechanic other than how it affects Eevee's evolution. It's a bit of a work in progress as the diving mechanic would be eliminated by the time of the fourth, and we'll see a bunch of differing game mechanics rotate in and out.
Still, I love the third generation as much as I do the first, and in fact sometimes even more -- the third generation might be less iconic, but they had such a strong conceptual basis on multiple fronts that while the first generation might feel a bit more cohesive, the third always felt more colourful and interesting.
Thanks for keeping up with me throughout the first three generations, and after this bunch of golems and weather gods, next week we'll hop over to Sinnoh!
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#377-379: Regirock, Regice & Registeel
- Types: Rock [Regirock], Ice [Regice], Steel [Registeel]
- Japanese names: Rejirokku, Rejiaisu, Rejisuchiru
- Categories: Rock Peak [Regirock], Iceberg [Regice], Iron [Registeel]
The 'trio' in this generation is a stark, stark contrast to the Legendary Birds and Legendary Beasts of the first and second generation, and honestly, these poor things get such a bad rap (the 'legendary trashbins' or something along those lines were one of their more popular nicknames online) for being crappy in battle. I've made my love for the Regis apparent in a previous article, but I've always liked them a lot. Instead of going with yet another obvious and repetitive trio of the electric/fire/ice (or water) elements, Hoenn's elemental trio are ones of Rock, Ice and Steel, a reference to the stone age, ice age and steel age. Oh, and instead of godlike birds and mammals, these are artificial golems, playing into the lore of some sort of ancient civilization co-existing and even binding these massive golems. And yes, the Regis are adapted on golems on Hebrew culture, not to be confused with Golem, evolution of Geodude. The actual mythological golems are statues of clay or mud brought to life for a specific purpose, some form of magical robot that will follow its master's orders, although sometimes golems do go rogue.
The Regi trio takes the robotic undertones of golems and runs headlong with it, by making these three behave like robots, speaking with bleep-bloops in the anime and manga, and never really displaying much emotion. The way to get them is also insanely difficult and honestly a bit too difficult to properly do without some help. See, the original Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire games came with a handbook with Braille letters. If you dive at a specific spot in a current-ridden route, you'll come across the 'Sealed Chamber', where you'll have to follow the Braille instructions, among which requires you to have a Wailord and Relicanth on specific slots in your party. After doing so, you'll hear the 'sounds of locks being unlocked' or something dramatic like that, with the tablets in that underwater chamber noting that the ancient people "sealed it" because they were afraid of "its power". Very cool!
The Regi trio takes the robotic undertones of golems and runs headlong with it, by making these three behave like robots, speaking with bleep-bloops in the anime and manga, and never really displaying much emotion. The way to get them is also insanely difficult and honestly a bit too difficult to properly do without some help. See, the original Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire games came with a handbook with Braille letters. If you dive at a specific spot in a current-ridden route, you'll come across the 'Sealed Chamber', where you'll have to follow the Braille instructions, among which requires you to have a Wailord and Relicanth on specific slots in your party. After doing so, you'll hear the 'sounds of locks being unlocked' or something dramatic like that, with the tablets in that underwater chamber noting that the ancient people "sealed it" because they were afraid of "its power". Very cool!
Regirock, Regice and Registeel themselves are found on these previously-doorless tombs, each surrounded by six other rocks, and, judging by the Ruin Maniacs around these tombs, are the locations of where whatever ancient civilization buried these golems in. And in each tomb, you need to do another Braille puzzle (sometimes ordering you to walk in a very specific direction, and another asking you to just use the HM Flash) to finally enter the hidden chamber where one of the golems is bound. This would be one of the most intricate ways to capture a legendary pokemon ever, and as disappointing as the Regis are, they are... insanely flavourful thanks to this. Even moreso when the fourth generation rolled along, and the identity of the mysterious "it" mentioned in the Braille markings (often thought to just be a mistranslation of singular/plural forms) ends up being the true master of the Regis -- the mighty Regigigas.
Regirock is always in the running for being my personal favourite out of the three for me, with a H-shaped set of Braille eyeballs, two club-like arms, a set of spikes made out of rocks jutting out of its back, and a patchwork body that works well with the lore that states that Regirock self-medicates by replacing missing chunks of its body with rocks it finds nearby.
Regirock is always in the running for being my personal favourite out of the three for me, with a H-shaped set of Braille eyeballs, two club-like arms, a set of spikes made out of rocks jutting out of its back, and a patchwork body that works well with the lore that states that Regirock self-medicates by replacing missing chunks of its body with rocks it finds nearby.
4/6.
The second member of the trio and the one that I always consider to be my favourite, Regice, is made entirely out of ice, and like Regirock, has cool club-arms and spikes made out of ice jutting out of its back. Its Braille eyes are in the shape of a plus, and it hovers on two tiny conical feet. It's a neat concept, a chunk of ice sculpted into a golem and given life, even if those hands and legs just look immensely impractical for actual hand and foot function. Good thing that Regice just mostly hovers around and shoots ice from its hands.
As a side-note... Regice is officially pronounced in English as REJ-ice thanks to how it's spelled, which is dumb. You should really pronounce it Re-Gi-Ice, because... well, I don't really have to explain it, yeah? The whole trio is just 'Regi' with their element stapled to the back of it. Aslo, Regice's English dub voice is the most pleasant thing to hear. Maybe it's because I've always liked ice monsters a bit better than rock monsters, but I think Regice is my favourite of the three. Depending on the day, though I might say it's Regirock.
5/6.
After how neatly inorganic Regirock and Regice looks, Registeel honestly looks just fucking weird. Its eyes are arranged in the same design as the rocks that form the golem's tombs, leading most to assume that Registeel is the 'boss' out of the three. Registeel's design is just alien-looking, with more defined arms, the way the center of its steel body slopes down into the black stuff... it's a design that, while probably my least favourite of the three, is one that I've ended up warming up towards over the years. The neat, smooth bulb of a main body and its weirdly flexible-looking arms growing on my over the years, and while as a kid I hated how it doesn't look like a proper, hard-jointed robot the way Metagross did, I've came to appreciate how alien this thing looks, being simultaneously metallic and looking far more organic compared to its two brothers. Add that to far more interesting details of having a hollow body and being made of a metal not found on earth, and Registeel ends up having the most unique dex entries compared to Rock and Ice. Also, just put all three of them next to each other, yeah? Regirock looks so chunky and blocky, Regice looks so angular yet symmetrical, and Registeel is just so rounded. Yet even without the unifying braille pattern thing, they still look like three parts of the same set while looking so very distinct from each other, in the same way that Kanto and Johto's respective legendary trios were.
Overall, I've always had a huge, huge appreciation for these three, with the biggest points against them being how weirdly un-Pokemon they might look... but they at least look pretty pleasant, and a trio of alien-looking golem robots have always been something that appealed to me as a kid. Part of it is because of how badass they look adorning the card packs of the EX Hidden Legends TCG booster packs, but honestly? I've thought that this three are easily the most overlooked pokemon with such a fascinating backstory, being a lot more interesting compared to the bland, nondescript mass of details that plague the legendaries of the fourth and fifth generation.
3/6. #380-381: Latias & Latios
- Types: Dragon/Psychic
- Japanese names: Ratiasu, Ratiosu
- Categories: Eon [both; Infinity in Japanese]
As a kid, I LOVED these two. They're so sleek, so badass-looking, and it's clear that these two are designed to just grab attention and be marketable, being simultaneously adorable and badass. Over the years, I've gone from absolutely loving Latias to Latios to loathing them for being over-exposed and over-hyped, and then that hate looped back into a neat appreciation of this pair of psychic dragons.
Perhaps created because the company pre-empted how most kids prefer their badass animals compared to clunky mysterious golems, Latias and Latios harken back to the Legendary Beasts of the second generation, roaming around Hoenn after you beat the game, whereas the Regis functioned as the stationary legendaries on smaller dungeons the way that the Birds did. Latias is exclusive to Sapphire, and Latios is exclusive to Ruby, and the pair are siblings. Starring in the fifth pokemon movie, these two are also two of the first legendaries to appear in official fiction. And yet while I enjoy Pokemon Heroes a lot, I always feel that Latias and Latios really could've stood to have some sort of backstory beyond just being "the Eon Duo" and being vague and mysterious.
Latias and Latios are essentially the same pokemon, with a design that combines a dragon and a jet, and they're... unique? I really like how their arms can fold down into their body if they needed to fly, and I kinda like how their wings and... 'lower legs' are just stationary chunks. Their only difference is their gender, swapping the reds and blues around, and giving Latias a friendlier eye and Latios a sterner look. Their stats are swapped around a little, and Latias learns the move 'Mist Ball', which in fiction would allow her to become invisible by refracting light. Latios has the far cooler-sounding 'Luster Purge', a powerful psychic move. They're not a bad pair of designs, but the constant portrayal of them being part of a small herd always made me frown a little at their 'legendary' status. Still, I can't really be too negative about them -- they're honestly a neat addition to the pokemon family, and while I'm not as attached to them as I was before, I still count them as pokemon that I do like thanks to the simple coolness factor they possess.
4/6, admittedly more thanks to nostalgia.#382: Kyogre
- Type: Water
- Japanese name: Kaioga
- Category: Sea Basin
I am wholly biased in favour of the weather-legendaries of Hoenn, and honestly part of it is because they took a neat concept and did it first, something that the next couple of generations would kind of just copy. See, Kyogre and Groudon are the mascots of the Sapphire and Ruby versions respectively. They each possess opposing abilities -- Groudon is able to create a permanent 'Sunny Day' effect and its presence upon being awakened is to create landmasses and dry up the sea. Kyogre creates a permanent 'Rain Dance' effect, and its presence causes whirlpools and rainstorms to happen. And then, in the 'remastered' Emerald version, the third powerful legendary Rayquaza turns out to be the big brother that descends down to bitch-slap Kyogre and Groudon as the trio master. The simple idea of a sea monster and a land monster in constant conflict, and then a sky monster comes in to pull them apart, is pretty damn cool. Epic enough to serve as a plotline to threaten a region, and not too absurdly huge that it loses the concept of scale, something that future generations of pokemon and many other manga/anime series tend to do.
Kyogre is the massive powerful 'Sea Basin' pokemon, conceptually based on yet another Hebrew beast, the sea monster Leviathan. Instead of the more common interpretation of the leviathan as a dragon, Kyogre harkens back to the very first classic legends by being a giant whale. An orca, to be specific... and it always looks awesomely mean-looking. It has got these huge flippers, this stern expression under which it has a goofy whale-mouth and I've always been impressed by the dorsal fins and the tapering set of tails. It's mainly blue, but it's got red runic markings that run all over it... which I think strikes a neat balance of looking mystical while not over-designed, with many of the lines and runes actually moving in sync with Kyogre's basic whale anatomy. Due to Kyogre's fin-markings coincidentally resembling an "alpha" letter, it would end up as the genesis of its primal 'Alpha' form a decade later. Also, as a side-note, while officially a mere 4.5 meters long in the games, every single fictional appearance of Kyogre plays it up as a far, far larger kaiju-sized monster, and that's the mental image I have of Kyogre.
The idea of a slumbering beast deep beneath a region being awoken by a dastardly team, and then proceeding to wreak absolute havoc by creating gigantic rainstorms, deluges and floods is just amazing, and shown amazingly well in the Pokemon Adventures manga (I maintain that the Hoenn arc, ending aside, is the pinnacle of epicness for that manga) and in the visuals for this Pokemon Generations short. Kyogre's a huge whale monster that brings the rain, and I'm a huge fan of it... even if I've been mis-pronouncing it as Kyo-grey throughout most of my life instead of Kai-oh-ger.
6/6. #383: Groudon
- Type: Ground
- Japanese name: Guradon
- Category: Continent
Kyogre's opposite number is Groudon. Groudon brings in the sunlight and dries up the sea with its presence, and it's a pure-Ground type instead of a Fire-type like everyone originally thought he was... he just lives in lava, yeah? Groudon is a massive, big tyrannosaur-like creature with red armour plates, spikes all over and these cool jagged edges on its head and tail, and it sleeps in a volcano. There's not really that much to talk about Groudon that I haven't already covered with Kyogre... although I've honestly always found Groudon to be a fair bit too cluttered for my liking. That's not to say that it isn't a bad design, but between the very weirdly-angled legs as well as its unwieldy arms and claws, it really is somewhat hard to really visualize Groudon really moving without looking silly and waddling around. Multiple appearances in anime and manga have gotten somewhat creative with this, taking some extra liberties with giving it extra joints or just playing up the Godzilla theme by having his mere presence be the threat as opposed to its moving around.
Where Kyogre is based on the leviathan, Groudon is based on the land monster behemoth, the leviathan's land counterpart in Hebrew mythology. However, this is far more loose of an interpretation compared to Kyogre. The behemoth tends to be portrayed as a hippo or an elephant. Groudon, clearly, is a Godzilla-style giant monster.
Groudon is pretty damn cool, and the favourite over Kyogre for the majority of my friends. And its head in particular is an amazingly well-designed dinosaur monster head... but overall I honestly prefer Kyogre over Groudon for how sleek Kyogre looks even with all those runes, and Groudon's definitely the most... "toy-like" out of the three Hoenn mascot legendaries. Not to say that I don't like Groudon, though. He's a pretty cool sunlight-bringing landmass-creating elemental dinosaur. I mean, I like him enough to give him an extra ball than the 3/5 that the design by itself probably deserves.
5/6. #384: Rayquaza
- Types: Dragon/Flying
- Japanese name: Rekkuza
- Category: Sky High
Rayquaza is the 'master' of the trio, being perhaps one of my favourite dragon designs, combining the reptilian head of a western dragon with the long, serpentine body and tiny limbs of an eastern dragon, wedging in pretty firmly in where pokemon as a franchise tends to have its best design aesthetic -- a combination of two art styles. Rayquaza's red tooth-lip things have always been weird, but I've always felt that Rayquaza's serpentine body, its cool fins that appear on segments, and the yellow runes that run down its body are all amazingly cool, marking this Dragon/Flying monster as being connected in some way to Groudon and Kyogre even before Emerald makes that connection official. I do find the weird jet-esque wings on Rayquaza to be a bit iffy, though... between Latias, Latios, Salamence, Flygon and Rayquaza, someone designing these dragons really had an airplane love going on, huh? Rayquaza himself perches atop the Sky Pillar, the only tower tall enough to reach the ozone layer where Rayquaza inhabits and feeds of.
Rayquaza sort of fits the role of Ziz from Hebrew mythology, but only from a flavour standpoint, because Ziz is a bird. Rayquaza, as you can see... is not a bird. While the concept of a 'sky beast, land beast and sea beast' might be similar to Hebrew mythology of a sort, Gamefreak's designers have incorporated such a strong weather theme and such distinctive designs into Rayquaza, Groudon and Kyogre that they are honestly their own thing.
Rayquaza's just a legendary resting atop the Sky Pillar in Ruby and Sapphire, but just as Suicune got an extra role in Crystal, Rayquaza got an extra role in Emerald. You see, instead of the evil team awakening one legendary, in Emerald both evil teams wake Kyogre and Groudon up, forcing you, the protagonist, to seek the aid of Rayquaza, awakening it and having it fly all the way to Sootopolis to calm down its two siblings. Coincidentally, Rayquaza's ability, Air Lock, prevents Groudon and Kyogre's weather effects from occurring. The Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire remakes would expand upon Rayquaza's lore and tie it into the then-current mega evolution storyline, noting that Rayquaza is the first pokemon to ever achieve mega evolution (apparently because it noms on meteors), has a dragon clan that worships it, and is able to mega evolve without the aid of a mega stone... but we'll talk about Rayquaza's connections with mega evolution when we reach there. Whatever the case, though, Rayquaza is simply one of the most badass legendaries out there, being pretty fucking majestic. Oh, and its shiny form is black-and-gold. That's just awesome. Overall, as much as I'm going to complain about legnedaries in the future, I've always thought that between the Lati twins and the weather trio in Hoenn, the third generation has that neat balance between complexity and sleekness that future legendaries wouldn't quite reach that consistently. I like him.
6/6. - Types: Steel/Psychic
- Japanese name: Jirachi
- Category: Wish
The third generation has two 'mythical' pokemon, the term for event-exclusive legendary pokemon that you can only get from real-life events and unable to capture properly by just playing the game. The first of these mythical pokemon is Jirachi, who fills in the cute, pixie-esque legendary as Mew and Celebi before him. And Jirachi is... pretty dang cute! I'm genuinely not sure why he's Psychic/Steel, though. Psychic I get, because it's the type generally assigned to these powerful little fairies before the introduction of the actual Fairy-type, but Steel? Nothing in Jirachi really communicates Steel, and I honestly think that it's given the type just to be competitive and not be a fragile wreck like poor Celebi. Jirachi is the star of the movie Jirachi Wish-Maker, perhaps one of the more solid pokemon movie ever produced (and, if you've been paying attention, apparently a movie that really hit home to me as a kid). The legend of Jirachi really felt legendary -- this is a cute little godlike fairy that emerges from a rock every one thousand years, and hung around for a week (or, y'know, forever if you actually got a Jirachi in-game), being able to grant any wish written on the notes that hung from its head. It's sort of a combination of genie legends and, oh, something akin to the Dragon Balls.
Jirachi himself is based on the Japanese festival of Tanabata, also known as the 'Star Festival' in Japan, where one of the traditions is to write a wish on a strip of paper for good fortune. I've always loved how Jirachi communicates all this by having a head and those trailing tails (which themselves look like parts of traditional Japanese clothing) shaped like a cartoon star without being too obvious about it like Luvdisc.
More modern dex entries in ORAS notes that Jirachi is able to fight even while asleep, and sometimes those of pure heart will be able to awaken Jirachi from its sleep, helping to add some extra context to its weird thousand-year-slumber deal going on. Also a big fan of how Jirachi's cloth-like tails actually wrap around its body like baby wrappings.
I also really liked the fact that while Jirachi can grant simple wishes with the aid of its inherent psychic powers, for the most powerful wishes (bringing a fake Groudon to life in the movie; bringing a fake Kyogre to life in the manga) it has to tap into the power of its giant eye in its belly, drawing in mysterious power from a comet that passes through and coincides with Jirachi's awakening. Between all these details and the immensely interesting backstory given to Jirachi, I've always found him to be one of the more interesting of the 'pixie' legendaries, and actually do like him a fair bit.
4/6.#386: Deoxys
- Type: Psychic
- Japanese name: Deokishisu
- Category: DNA
Deoxys is one of the most insane concepts of pokemon out there, being a weird shapeshifting alien. No ambiguity of 'oh, this pokemon is seen when shooting stars about' like Starmie, Cleffa or Lunatone either. The pokedex straight-up tells us the origin story of Deoxys by telling us that it is the DNA of a space virus mutated by space radiation. It's such a drastic, sci-fi legendary in the vein of Mewtwo as compared to the more mystical 'golems of an ancient civilization' theme that the Regis have or 'sealed beasts of immense power' that the weather trio and Jirachi have. Deoxys is a space alien, and its design draws from the double strand shape of DNA, or, y'know, deoxyribonucleic acid, which Deoxys draws its name from. Tell you what -- I actually ended up memorizing what DNA stands for as a kid thanks to pokemon. Thanks, Deoxys!
Deoxys is a pure Psychic-type humanoid that looks both humanoid and alien at the same time, and I'm such a huge fan of its cool orange-and-blue colour scheme. Its main 'core' is the crystalline heart on his chest, and in its original 'Normal' form, it looks pretty cool. From the menacing eyes, to the huge thighs to the intertwined double helix tentacle arms to the flat horns, Deoxys looks like an alien. Oh, and at any time, it can turn its tentacles into a more humanoid set of hands, adding to the sheer creepiness of this psychic space alien, and various game sprites would alternate between giving Deoxys one human hand and one tentacly hand, or two tentacly hands.
Also, Deoxys's other three forms are all hideously min-maxed that it's not even funny. Speed, Attack and Defense form Deoxys all hold the record for the absolute highest stats on their respective stats that remain unchallenged until the mega evolutions came in the sixth generation, and for good reason. When specialized into such forms, Deoxys ends up sacrificing so much of its other stats.
Attack-Form Deoxys is perhaps the one that looks the closest to the regular form, but its tentacles have tapered off to sharp-pointed tentacles, and everything about it ends up looking like horns. From its head to its feet, and the way that its main body lacks the orange exoskeleton makes this look definitely far more threatening. Originally exclusive to the FireRed game, Attack Form Deoxys, as you can imagine, ends up being super popular for its potential to just blow through anything in its path with immense attacking capabilities. Deoxys has its own powerful signature move, called Psycho Boost, essentially a more powerful Psychic. I guess I have to note that in the original third-generation games, the alternate forms debuted with their respective games as they were released across the course of the generation, with the older games not having the sprites needed, so they just ended up displaying a normal-forme Deoxys. It also caused a bit of an uproar since this is the first time something is introduced in the games in the middle of the generation. Oh, how naive we were.
Defense-Form Deoxys is the reverse of everything that attack-form Deoxys is. Its legs are stumpier and blocker, its head essentially disappears into a hunchbacked chest, and its arms have tapered off into thick ribbon-like arms that ends up making this thing look like it's built to take hits. The Defense form was initially exclusive to LeafGreen.
My least favourite of the Deoxys forms is probably the Speed-form Deoxys, which isn't really that much of a damnation since I still like it a lot. It's got a weird elongated skull that sort of brings to mind a xenomorph, which fits with its "moving really fast" theme. It's shed a lot of its orange bits to seemingly be faster, and its tentacles are reduced to just two -- one orange and one blue. Speed-form Deoxys was initially exclusive to Emerald, and these forms are the first time when Nintendo debuted extra forms with newer games in a generation.
Deoxys is apparently so cool that Nintendo decided to give it to everyone in the sixth generation Hoenn remakes, marking the first time that a distribution-only mythical pokemon ends up being retconned into one you can get anytime as long as you play through the game. Deoxys is the star of his own movie, "Destiny Deoxys", which is actually a neat movie itself, as well as the main villain-slash-antagonist in the FireRed/LeafGreen arc of Pokemon Adventures, and in both movies it features Deoxys freely changing between its four forms in the middle of battle, as well as there being two Deoxys-es present. In the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games, Deoxys is located within the heart of a meteor coming down to Hoenn, and you have to ride a Rayquaza up to battle it in space.
Deoxys is pretty cool, and honestly the more I talk about Deoxys, the more I love it. And while I did complain a bit about the amount of legendaries in this generation, I think the third generation's cluster of ten perhaps ends up being the right balance of feeling like there's a fair amount to collect without overwhelming or underselling the uniqueness of a legendary pokemon. Deoxys is pretty cool, and we'll see in a couple of weeks whether I will feel the same about any other pokemon.
6/6. ___________________________________________________________________
Overall Hoenn is a pretty freaking solid generation, despite some of its flaws. The first, third and fifth contain many of my favourites by a huge, huge margin, and that's exactly because these generations were designed to be self-contained with their population (and maybe with the odd Zubat and Magikarp borrowed, but still) unlike the second, which was designed as an expansion pack of sorts, and the fourth, which feels like an elaborate expansion pack. Next week we're leaving the oceans of Hoenn and going to the mountain peaks of Sinnoh!
Overall Hoenn is a pretty freaking solid generation, despite some of its flaws. The first, third and fifth contain many of my favourites by a huge, huge margin, and that's exactly because these generations were designed to be self-contained with their population (and maybe with the odd Zubat and Magikarp borrowed, but still) unlike the second, which was designed as an expansion pack of sorts, and the fourth, which feels like an elaborate expansion pack. Next week we're leaving the oceans of Hoenn and going to the mountain peaks of Sinnoh!
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