Pokémon Sapphire Version

I have owned a copy of Pokémon Sapphire on the GBA for years, but I got stuck grinding levels for the same battle both times I started it, and ultimately gave up on it. I still wanted to play through the Hoenn region, though, and with the modernizations of the sixth generation, I was planning to do so via Alpha Sapphire. It took a friend who lives abroad to get me to turn my attention back towards the original release. He's working on completing his Pokédex in FireRed, so I lent him my copy of Ruby and agreed to play through Sapphire so we could exchange version exclusives next time he's in town. It surprised me how quickly I got hooked on the game this time around, despite my poor past experiences and my interest in the remake. In fact, I only meant to play it in bits and prieces, but ended up blowing through the whole thing in about a week!

Pokémon Sapphire has all of the expected mainline Pokémon tropes, but I was surprised by how many additional gimmicks were stacked on top. FireRed is the only third-generation Pokémon game that I had beaten prior, and I had put a lot of time into it, so Sapphire's additions beyond the vanilla series formula from the Gen I remakes stood out quite a bit. What flummoxed me even more was the fact that the new features are almost entirely optional. I can think of multiple examples of the later games forcing me to try their additions at least once, but Sapphire was content with me checking them out on my own time.
 
I dabbled a bit with growing berries, I gave NPCs little catchphrases and headlines when they asked, and I even tried the Pokéblock minigame once, but it all felt really superfluous. I think if I had any interest in trying the Pokémon contests, I might have been more excited by it all, but I didn't touch those once. There were a few other things that I noticed and ignored, which did a lot for my enjoyment as I was allowed to focus just on the things I actually cared about. When I play Pokémon, I want to catch'em'all, and I want to battle. The story is important to me too, but I don't want it to be fluffed out unnecessarily. Sapphire is tuned to these preferences better than any of the modern games, and I was impressed by how much I enjoyed it. 

Normally I'd stick with a mainline Pokémon game after the credits rolled so I could tackle some of the post-game content and at least finish the regional Pokédex. I did choose to catch Rayquaza after becoming Pokémon League champion, but I didn't feel compelled to do anything else yet. Instead, I'll probably pick it up again once it's time to trade with my international friend. For now, I feel like I got way more out of Sapphire than I bargained for. I didn't plan for this to be my first true Hoenn adventure, but I truly enjoyed it, and I've actually had to stop myself from playing another two Hoenn games since beating it. I'm sure whichever game you choose to play will be a lot of fun, but for what I think is considered the most bare-bones Gen III experience, Sapphire was still great.
Although the game is no longer being distributed, you can learn more about it here (as of 1/25/25): https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon_Ruby_and_Sapphire_Versions

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