Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

POKEMON RUBY AND SAPPHIRE

And now, we kick off Generation III of Pokemon with their original flagship games, Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire. This generation came with 135 new Pokemon, almost all of them completely new original lines, and kicked off probably the most spinoff series out of the entire franchise. The new games take place in Hoenn, based on the Kyushu region of Japan AKA those islands down on the southern end of Japan.

Your main protagonist this time is either Brendan or May, with the one you don't choose acting as your rival, neighbor, and child of the region's Professor Birch. You also gain a second rival this season with Wally, a sickly young boy who wants to become a Pokemon trainer and prove himself strong. Instead of Team Rocket this time, the region has two evil teams, Team Aqua and Team Magma, both based on radical environmentalist groups who'd been causing problems in the real world region at around that same point in time. They are led respectively by Archie and Maxie, with admins Matt and Shelly for Aqua and Tabitha and Courtney for Magma.

As for the gym leaders this time, we have Roxanne (Rock), Brawly (Fighting), Wattson (Electric), Flannery (Fire), your character's dad Norman (Normal), Winona (Flying), twins Tate & Liza (Psychic), and Wallace (Water). The elite four of the region are Sidney (Dark), Phoebe (Ghost), Glacia (Ice), and Drake (Dragon). Steven Stone, son of the CEO of the local Devon Corporation, is the champion, with a Steel specialty.

The cities of the region include your hometown Littleroot, Oldale, Petalburg, Rustboro, Dewford, Slateport, Mauville, Verdanturf, Fallarbor (which has ash falling from the sky), Lavaridge, Fortree (entirely made up of treehouses), Lilycove, Mossdeep, Sootopolis, and Pacifidlog (a community floating on the ocean). Evergrande City is also technically a city, but really its just where the Elite Four are. Other notable locations include the Petalburg Woods, Rusturf Tunnel, Granite Cave, New Mauville (basically a theme park of sorts built by Wattson), the volcano Mt. Chimney, the Cave of Origin, the Scorched Slab, the Safari Zone, the Seafloor Cavern (you can dive in this game now, by the way), the Abandoned Ship, the Sealed Chamber, the Southern Island, Meteor Falls, the Shoal Cave, Mt. Pyre, the Jagged Pass, Sky Pillar (where you find the legendary Rayquaza), the Island Cave, the Desert Ruins, the Ancient Tomb, and both teams' hideouts. As well as entirely too much water, if IGN do say so themselves.

That's really all we need to worry about with this blog, so here's what we've got:

Characters:

All new Pokemon

Trainer System:

Brendan

May

Wally

Professor Birch

Roxanne

Brawly

Wattson

Flannery

Norman

Winona

Tate & Liza

Wallace

Sidney

Phoebe

Glacia

Drake

Steven Stone

Archie

Maxie

Matt

Shelly

Tabitha

Courtney

Stages:

Littleroot Town

Oldale Town

Petalburg City

Rustboro City

Dewford Town

Slateport City

Mauville City

Verdanturf City

Fallarbor Town

Lavaridge Town

Fortree City

Lilycove City

Mossdeep City

Sootopolis City

Pacifidlog Town

Evergrande City

Petalburg Woods

New Mauville

Mt. Chimney

Cave of Origin

Safari Zone

Seafloor Cavern

Abandoned Ship

Meteor Falls

Mt. Pyre

Sky Pillar

Desert Ruins

Thanks for reading! Next up, with all these new Pokemon, we may need a Box to put them in.

Character Sheet: Pokemon Trainer

POKEMON TRAINER

Okay, first things first, this is how the roster system will work for this series. Each generation of Pokemon gets its own roster that you can cycle through. Outside of the Pokemon rosters, there will be at least one additional roster that will contain "non-Pokedex characters." This will include human characters like the three I'll be covering first, as well as Pokemon with distinct movesets that won't be covered in the roster (i.e. Pikachu Libre and Shadow Mewtwo from Pokken, if I deem them distinct enough). On top of that, there will also be the Trainer System, which will give you a list of notable trainers you can choose from, and then once you've picked them, you can then choose three Pokemon for them to use in the battle, while they stand in the back. The game will automatically assign you three, generally picked from the chosen trainer's canon teams, but you can choose to ignore that and pick your own. For now though, let's cover the three "non-dex" newcomers:

1. Pokemon Trainer

2. Card Player

3. Todd Snap

First, we'll have the Pokemon Trainer, generally representing your playable character in any given game, the color swaps allowing you to be any of them from Red to Kris to Hilda to Elio and so on. This moveset will pull from the trainer's actual displayed abilities in game outside of battles.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Poke Ball

The trainer will toss a Poke Ball at their opponent and trap them inside it for a while before they break out.

Side B: Bicycle

The trainer will hop on their bicycle and ride across the stage.

Up B: Fly

The trainer will release their HM Flier, typically the final form Regional Bird of their specific series (so Pidgeot for Red and Leaf), and then fly up while hanging from it.

Down B: HM

This could also be the Side B, with something like Potion as the Down B. Either way, the Trainer will release a Pokemon that will perform a standard HM move like Cut, Rock Smash, Surf, and so on. I figure they will have five and will cycle through them. The Pokemon in question will typically be a frequent user of that move from each generation (Red has Scyther for Cut, Ethan has Scizor, and so on).

Final Smash: Team Attack

The Trainer will release their full team, which will all attack at once.

Entrance: The trainer will step out of their starting house from their game.

Taunts: Up, the trainer will raise a Poke Ball into the air in triumph as if they just caught something. Side, the trainer will pull out and read their Pokedex. Down, the trainer will release a Pokemon and pet it like in the camping sections of later games. Secret taunt, a Pokedex entry perhaps?

Kirby Hat: Red's iconic hat

Kart: Their bicycle.

Special Move: Throwing a Poke Ball and trapping another racer inside it for a short time.

Spirit Battle: With six randomly selected Pokemon on Pokemon Stadium.

Victory Screen: The trainer will catch a Poke Ball and then raise it into the air in triumph.

Losing Screen: The trainer will do a defeated pose and turn away.

Color Swaps: Red, Leaf, Ethan, Kris, Lyra, Brendan, May, Lucas, Dawn, Hilbert, Hilda, Nate, Rosa, Calum, Serena, Elio, Selene, Chase, Elaine, Victor, Gloria, Rei, Akari, Florian, and Juliana. (Unless Chase/Elaine and Rei/Akari end up being different).

Thanks for reading! Next up, the Card Player shuffles his hand.