Game Review: Pokémon Emerald

 

Where do I even begin when it comes to talking about Pokémon Emerald? Objectively it’s a phenomenal game, packed tight with tons of content to lose away many, many hours of your life to. However, there’s a subjective link I have with this game which defines it as one of my all-time favourite video game experiences and that comes from my history of playing it. As a kid I would spend a lot of time on holiday with my grandparents in their caravan by the coast or in holiday parks. While each time the experience would feel notably different, there was one consistent element to every venture with them. That element was my transparent Game Boy Advance and the copy of Pokémon Emerald which a friend had gifted me.  I would play that game over and over on every trip, each time running new teams to see if I could beat the story with a new set up. That game became a pivotal anchor of my memories of some truly blissful moments with my grandparents who I miss very much. That objective quality mixed in with the sentimental resonance the game has with me, made revisiting it this year all the more pleasant an experience. 

Released in Japan in 2004 and worldwide in 2005, Pokémon Emerald serves as the final generation three release in the series on Game Boy Advance. Following the franchise’s early tradition of a third more refined entry in the generation, Emerald adapts the stories of both Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and re-works them to incorporate both of their individual narratives along with a plethora of new features and additions in this definitive version. Along with these revisions and enhancements in the gameplay and presentation, Rayquaza the master of the ancient legendary trio of Hoenn is presented as this titles mascot as a result of his integration into this version’s new narrative. To this date Emerald serves as one of the Game Boy Advances highest selling games with a total number of 6.32 million units sold by the 2007 fiscal year. To put it into perspective, this game’s total value surpasses that of an actual Emerald the size of Neptune! So, in light of the massive sales numbers and critical reception, let’s drive into what makes this game such a standout in many a Pokémon fans eyes.

The narrative of Pokémon Emerald takes place in the Hoenn region. This region is notable for its large expanse of water and tropical climate. Your player character, who’s default name is Brendan or May depending on which gender you pick has just moved to the region with your family. Fresh out of the delivery van, you have a chance encounter with Professor Birch, a scientist who serves as the region’s habitat and distribution expert. After saving him from a close encounter with a wild Pokémon, he gifts you a starter Pokémon of your choosing and tasks you with going out and exploring the region to fill up your Pokédex. Along your journey you will encounter your rival for the game who serves as Professor Birches daughter/son (depending on which gender you choose.) and have a number of battles with them. After meeting your father Norman at the Petalburg City gym, he advises you to also compete against the gym leaders of Hoenn and attempt to become the regions champion. On top of these two goals, you also come to meet Team Aqua and Team Magma along your travels. These rival teams are each out to revive a legendary Pokémon who they believe will help them achieve their goals of expanding the land or sea respectively. You are tasked with stopping each of these nefarious teams before their actions result in the ultimate destruction of Hoenn if both Kyogre and Groudon are awakened and collide with one another.

The definitive aspect of the game’s narrative is that it ties both Ruby and Sapphire’s plot together and delivers the best of both games while presenting additional flavors to appreciate. In the original Ruby and Sapphire versions, you only ever encounter one of the evil teams and their respective legendary. Your goal was to either stop Team Magma from raising Groudon or Team Aqua from raise Kyogre. In Emerald’s case it gives you the mission of stopping both, as it acknowledges the clear clash of elements within the rivalry the stems between Kyogre and Groudon; tying these two separate narratives together in a really clever fashion. On an additional note, while the narrative behind competing against the gyms and the Elite 4 of this region doesn’t really differ, one new aspect to your journey across the region comes in the form of Scott. Scott is a man you bump into regularly along your adventure and he takes note of your impressive battling skills. During the end-game portion of Emerald, Scott is revealed to be the creator of the Battle Frontier. Once you become the regions champion, your battling skills are further put to the test in the Frontier as you will be expected to take on some of the toughest competitions to grace the Pokémon games up to that point.  I like how the game smartly teases you with the inclusion of the Battle Frontier with Scott’s many appearances throughout this game, as he is constantly taking notice of your ability to battle and it makes him consider you a viable option to take on his tournament once he see’s you become a champion.

When you look at the gameplay behind Pokémon Emerald, its inherent system doesn’t deviate much from any of the prior generation 3 titles. In Emerald’s case though the number of Pokémon available for you to catch and train has been tweaked to both offer and remove some creatures from your experience. As you progress through the region you will encounter a large range of Pokémon, each with varying aspects of types and designs. The idea behind any Pokémon game is to catch and train the Pokémon of your choosing to help you overcome the challenges that lie ahead in the form of gyms and rival trainers. The variation in gym typing in this game often requires you to consider varying your own team up constantly to be ready for whatever challenges the game will throw at you. It’s an inviting set up in which you are required to constantly evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your team in order to keep proceeding. When it comes to combat, the battle system doesn’t really shift much in design within the entries of Generation 3. The Hoenn line of games do have a notable element in the form of it’s Double Battle system however. All throughout your journey across Hoenn you will face off against not just one trainer, but a pair of them at one singular time. This means you will have to pitch two of your Pokémon against theirs in one single battle. This system may seem simple on the surface but it actually adds a nice layer of complexity to the battles because you are having to account for additional factors in a battle with more than one Pokémon to face off against.

When it comes to exploration and navigation, even Emerald can’t help but suffer from it’s dated HM design. I noted this issue when I played FireRed last year, having the environment littered with obstacles to overcome isn’t bad; but requiring you to teach redundant HM moves to your Pokémon in order to do so is a hinderance. These moves don’t offer much leverage in a battle and just waste a move slot you could keep for better purposes. If you don’t want to teach these moves to your active team, you could always catch a Pokémon for the sole purposes of having it learn all the necessary HM moves. The issue with that though is you are sacrificing a slot in your active party to lug around a useless tool Pokémon. I don’t think the design is nearly as egregious as it was in FireRed’s case though. As the obstacles in Emeralds environments are entirely optional for the most part and often reward you with additional items and moves to use.  The Hoenn region in itself is a nicely varied region, with half of it being land and half of it being water, you are presented a fair amount of locations to explore; each with their own distinct range of Pokemon who inhabit them. I adore the way the locations in this game are designed to reflect the distinct balance this region has on an elemental level. The high land areas are filled with deserts and volcanic areas, which reflect the dominance that Groudon has on land mass. Yet a good portion of the region lies upon the sea, with island cities and towns littered all cross Kyogres domain.  I love it when developers use environmental design to further define elements of the narrative, it’s such a subtle aspect but it is appreciated.

It's not just the environmental design I adore in this game. I have been on record for noting the Generation 3 designs are some of my favorite Pokémon designs to date. There’s just something about the colorful and tropical imagery that’s incorporated into a lot of the designs of these creatures which make them all the most distinct in my eyes. There’s a whole range of Pokémon here which scream originality, some of my favorites include Swampert, Ludicolo, Gardevoir, Absol, Altaria and Sharpedo. I could list out so many more but those specific ones are the designs I always go to when I consider the best of the Generation 3 Pokémon.  On the audio front, the soundtrack of Emerald kicks so much ass as well. I love the use of trumpets in nearly all pieces of the soundtrack and you can honestly not beat the Elite 4 and Rival battle themes just for how hard they go at times.

I get Emerald isn’t a perfect game but, in my opinion, it comes pretty damn close. Its objective quality can be reviewed and analyzed by any fan but on a subjective basis I just adore this game so much. It was the right game for me at the right time in my childhood to just get lost in over and over. It anchors me to a much-missed aspect of my childhood and replaying it makes me yearn for those days once more. The days where a young kid was sitting inside a caravan with his grandparents, enjoying the summer days in peace with little to no problems except how to overcome the next big battle. For everything this game did for me, I can never ever look down on it; it truly is one of the best video games I’ve ever played.