Generation 3: Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald (2002–2006)
Pokémon entered its third generation with the 2002 release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire for Game Boy Advance and continued with the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Red and Green, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (WaterBlue in China). An enhanced remake of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire titled Pokémon Emerald followed after.
The third generation introduced 135 new Pokémon (starting with Treecko and ending with Deoxys) for a total of 386 species. It also features a more visually detailed environment compared to previous games, "natures" which affect Pokémon stats, a new 2-on-2 Pokémon battle format, an ability system applying to each Pokémon in battle, Pokémon Contests, the new region of Fengliang (based on Taiwan, rotated by 90 degrees, and the surrounding islands), and Secret Bases: customizable "rooms" where the player can display items they have collected in game and battle against real friends. Secret Bases can be found in bushes, trees or small cave openings in landscapes by using the move Secret Power. The day-and-night system returns from Gold and Silver, while players can import their Pokemon from previous games using the Time Capsule (introduced in Gold and Silver) to carry over old teams and complete the Pokedex. The two protagonists are Brendan and May. The protagonist not chosen will be one of the player’s rivals during the game. The events of all third generation games take place concurrently with those of the first generation games.
Third-generation spin-off titles include Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire for Game Boy Advance; Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS; Pokémon Dash, Pokémon Trozei! and Pokémon Ranger for Nintendo DS; Pokémon Channel and Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire for GameCube; and two role-playing games for the GameCube, consisting of the games Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
The player starts their journey in Littleroot Town, where the family has just moved from Olivine City in Chengdou after the player's father, Norman, became the leader of the Petalburg Gym. Their arrive in Littleroot is marred by a protest led by environmentalists over the proposed expansion of the town into a former nature reserve (in which the player’s house is located). Among the environmentalists is Brendan/May (whichever is the opposite gender of the player), the child of Professor Birch, a friend of Norman’s. Brendan/May holds no grudge against the player for living in a house built on the old nature reserve, but the relationship soon develops into a friendly rivalry. To start, Brendan/May teaches the player how to battle and catch Pokemon, gifting them with a starter Pokemon. Owing Norman a favor, Birch gives the player a Pokedex. The player journeys up to Petalburg, where similar protests are taking place over the pollution of the town’s lakes and the increased salary for the new gym leader instead of addressing the issue. Norman is dismayed about having accepted the job, not knowing what was going on before he moved to Fengliang, but now that he’s a gym leader he decides to use his position for good. As the player talks with their father, a sickly boy named Wally enters the gym and asks Norman to help him catch a Pokemon. Norman asks the player to accompany Wally. Outside Petalburg, Wally catches a Ralts with the player’s help (this Ralts can be shiny and if so will stay shiny throughout the game, much to the player’s annoyance), but they then run into grunts working for Team Magma/Aqua (Magma in Ruby, Aqua in Sapphire). Team Magma’s goals are to expand the planet’s landmasses to create more land for humans to live on. They were born out of the backlash to the environmentalist movement in Fengliang and believe most of humanity’s problems come from not having enough land to live on and as a result being forced to encroach on wild Pokemon habitats, never mind that their own plan would kill millions of Pokemon. Team Aqua’s goal is to expand the ocean to create more habitats for water Pokemon. They take the environmentalists’ ideals to the extreme, believing humanity has only brought suffering for wild Pokemon all over the world, never mind that their own plan would kill millions of land Pokemon in addition to billions of humans. The grunts are in the process of stealing machine parts from a scientist working for the powerful Devon Corporation (which is a rival of Jiangsu’s Silph Corporation) when the player and Wally step in and defeat them. The grunts flee, vowing revenge the next time they meet. Wally thanks the player for their support and vows to get stronger so he can achieve his dream of becoming a powerful trainer.
The player escorts the scientist through the Petalburg Woods to Rustboro City, where they return the machine parts to Herr Stein, president of Devon. In gratitude, Stein asks his old friend from the navy, retired sailor Briney, to help the player travel across the ocean and gives the player a new PokeNav, a Devon invention. Stein asks the player to deliver a letter to his son, Steven, and the parts to his other friend, Captain Stern. After defeating Rustboro’s gym leader, the player sails to Dewford Town to defeat its gym. Entering the nearby Granite Cave, they find Steven inspecting cave paintings relating to Fengliang’s legendary Pokemon. They deliver the letter, and Steven notes the player’s potential, saying they have what it takes to become champion.
Briney next takes the player to Slateport City, Fengliang’s main port. However, the city has been paralyzed by environmentalist protests at the opening of the new Cycling Road (to replace an older one overrun by wild Pokemon) and the pollution of the nearby waters by Stern’s shipyard. Team Magma/Aqua uses the protests as a diversion to take over the Slateport Oceanic Museum and Stern’s shipyard. The player learns they are after Stern for some reason. Sneaking into the Oceanic Museum, they find Stern hiding on the top floor, only to be confronted by the leader of Team Magma/Aqua, Maxie/Archie, who battles them. Upon his defeat, he warns the player not to get in the way of his plans before ordering his team to retreat. Stern thanks the player and then receives the machine parts, which are to help him build a deep-sea submarine. He wonders what Team Magma/Aqua would want with his submarine.
With Slateport saved, the player heads inland to Mauville City, the largest city in Fengliang. However, gym leader and electrician Wattson is busy overseeing the construction of New Mauville, a series of eco-friendly underground settlements to house Mauville’s growing population, and inspecting the solar panels and hydroelectric dams that power the city. Wattson believes in a middle ground between human development and protection of the environment, which are not necessarily opposed to each other as the environmentalists and Team Magma/Aqua want to believe. The fact that Mauville is powered entirely by renewable means and New Mauville does not disturb any Pokemon habitats (some electric-type Pokemon even live there) attests to that harmony. The player defeats Wattson and earns his badge.
Next, the player heads inland to the highlands around Mt. Chimney, an active volcano on the coast of Fengliang. Two towns, Fallabor and Lavaridge, sit at the foot of the volcano, but only Fallabor is accessible right now. At Fallabor, the player battles Brendan/May again, who says they spotted Wally pursuing Team Magma/Aqua grunts into the nearby Meteor Falls. A scientist working for the Mossdeep Space Center tells the player the team stole his meteorite. The player meets up with Wally at Meteor Falls, where they battle Team Magma/Aqua, led by one of their admins (Tabitha/Matt), in double battles. Afterward, the team retreats again, though they reveal they were just a distraction to get the meteorite to Mt. Chimney, where Maxie/Archie plan to use the meteorite’s special energy to erupt the volcano (Ruby) or melt the mountain’s icecaps to cause a flood (Sapphire). The player pursues the team to the summit of Mt. Chimney, where Maxie/Archie is preparing to activate a machine which will amplify the meteorite’s power. They are met there by Flannery, Lavaridge’s new and inexperienced gym leader who wants to prove herself, who helps the player defeat the grunts and the admin from Meteor Falls. After the player defeats him in a battle over the lava pit, Maxie/Archie hands over the meteorite, warning he will not give up despite this apparent defeat.
The player descends from Mt. Chimney and arrives in Lavaridge, where they battle Flannery and earn her badge. Afterward, they backtrack to Petalburg and defeat Norman in a battle, Norman remarking that the player has become a talented trainer in such a short period of time. Wally then battles the player and then unlocks the player’s ability to surf without Briney’s help. Brendan/May appears and encourages the player to head east from Mauville to get to Fortree City, where the next gym is located. The three of them decide to race to see who gets there first. However, the player is stopped at the Weather Institute, which has been taken over by Team Magma/Aqua, who demand the staff hand over research on extreme drought (Ruby) or rain (Sapphire), the legendary Pokemon that are associated with them, and a weather Pokemon created by the institute. The player storms the building and frees the staff after defeating the grunts and another team admin (Courtney/Shelly). The staff gifts the weather Pokemon (Castform) to the player to keep it safe from the team and tells them the legend of the drought-causing Groudon (Ruby) or the storm-bringing Kyogre (Sapphire). Shortly after leaving the institute, Brendan/May battles the player and then unlocks their ability to fly to visited places.
The player arrives in Fortree, which is really a series of wooden treehouses built around a forest clearing connected by bridges and ladders. However, the locals have been troubled lately by the appearance (or not) of invisible walls blocking the bridges and ladders, impeding travel throughout the city. Gym leader and pilot Winona explains she has been unable to enter her own gym since the incidents began and cannot accept challenges, as she spends most of her time using her flying-type Pokemon to deliver goods and messages around town. The player meets up with Steven outside the city. Steven gives them a Devon Scope, patterned after the Silph Scope from the first generation, which allows them to see invisible objects. This reveals the invisible walls to be a group of chameleon Pokemon, Kecleon. The player clears out the Kecleon and then goes on to defeat Winona. They then head to Lilycove City, where they run into Wally. Just when they are about to battle, they overhear Team Magma/Aqua grunts passing by on their way to Mt. Pyre, a graveyard island off the coast. They pursue the team to Mt. Pyre, where the player finds the team leader taking the Red Orb (Ruby) or the Blue Orb (Sapphire) to awaken the legendary Pokemon. The team then heads to Slateport. The elders overseeing the graveyard give the player the Blue Orb (Ruby) or Red Orb (Sapphire) to keep it safe. While Wally stays back in Lilycove, the player and Brendan/May head to Slateport in time to see the team steal Stern’s submarine, with the intent to access an undersea cavern at the bottom of an ocean trench. As Maxie/Archie taunts the player, Stern warns the submarine is not capable of withstanding the intense pressure that deep, but the team leader responds he will be making upgrades to it at his secret base in a cave under Mt. Chimney (Ruby) or Lilycove (Sapphire). Steven helps the player find the entrance to the secret hideout, fighting one admin (Courtney/Shelly) while the player fights the grunts and the other admin (Tabitha/Matt). However, this again is a diversion for Archie/Maxie to finish upgrading the submarine and dive into the trench.
Steven invites the player to his house in Mossdeep City, in an island chain of three islands (based on Ryukyu) off the coast of mainland Fengliang. After defeating the gym, the player receives a diving suit which allows them to dive deep underwater. They pursue Team Magma/Aqua to the Seafloor Cavern at the bottom of the trench, where they witness Maxie/Archie awakening the dormant legendary Pokemon Groudon (Ruby) or Kyogre (Sapphire). With the legendary Pokemon at his side, Maxie/Archie then attacks the player, who defeats him. This breaks Maxie’s/Archie’s already weak control over Groudon/Kyogre, and the legendary Pokemon goes on a rampage. It emerges on the surface of the ocean and summons an intense drought (Ruby) or thunderstorm (Sapphire).
Until the legendary Pokemon is subdued, the entire region will be covered in drought or rain, which results in dramatic changes to terrain. Petalburg’s lakes will either dry up completely, the fish Pokemon living inside them flopping around uselessly, or expand to flood the city. The water will recede from Slateport’s beaches or surge forth and engulf the city. The waterfalls of Meteor Falls will boil and throw up steam or freeze over. The hot springs of Lavaridge will boil away or be covered by rainwater. Fortree’s trees will shrivel up and die, causing severe structural damage to its treehouses, or the intense winds and floodwaters will sweep them away. Mauville’s solar panels will be overwhelmed and melted by the heat or its hydroelectric dams will collapse due to too much water. And in Littelroot, Norman, Birch, and Brendan/May watch as the nearby nature reserve either bursts into flames or is drowned by the advancing sea. Any battles happing outside at this time will take place with the drought or rain weather conditions.
Steven tells the player to head to Sootopolis City, built in the flooded caldera of an extinct volcano which was once the second island in the Mossdeep chain, to which Groudon/Kyogre has gone. There, Steven introduces them to Wallace, the gym leader, who is entrusted with the duty of protecting the Cave of Origin, located in the deepest and oldest part of the caldera. Wallace grants the player access to the cave, where the legendary Pokemon has taken up residence. The player battles Groudon/Kyogre there, and after capturing or defeating it, the weather returns to normal (though the extreme weather will leave major scars in certain areas). Afterward, Steven is found waiting outside the gym to thank the player for saving Fengliang. Then the player battles Wallace and wins their last gym badge.
With all eight badges, the player heads to the third and final island in the Mossdeep chain (stopping by in Pacifidlog Town, a town built on boats in the middle of the ocean), Ever Grande City, the third largest city in Fengliang, where they battle Wally and Brendan/May for the final time. Afterward, they traverse Victory Road and arrive at the Pokemon League. The player defeats the Elite Four and then Steven, who turns out to be the champion. Once Steven is defeated and the player enters the Hall of Fame, Birch arrives to congratulate the player. The credits roll. There isn’t much to do after the game, but the player can take on the Battle Tower, a competitive battling facility (which use the same rules as official competitions), hunt down the roaming legendary Pokemon Latios (Ruby) or Latias (Sapphire), or climb the newly accessible Sky Pillar (the extreme drought has dried up the waters around the entrance (Ruby) or the rain washed away the debris blocking it (Sapphire)) where they can capture the sky dragon Rayquaza.
In Emerald, both teams are the antagonists. They awaken the two legendary Pokemon and go to war with each other, causing both intense droughts and heavy rainstorms across Fengliang. The player teams up with gym leaders and Steven to protect civilians and defeat dozens of grunts and their admins throughout the region. Steven helps the player gain access to Sky Pillar, where they awaken Rayquaza so it can calm down Kyogre and Groudon. The Battle Tower is also replaced with the Battle Frontier, consisting of the Battle Tower and more battling facilities. Mew can be found on Faraway Island, and the two legendary eon Pokemon can be found on Southern Island.
The plot of FireRed and LeafGreen is roughly identical to that of the original games, only with updated graphics and mechanics (day-night cycle, abilities, natures, held items, existence of the Dark and Steel types, and second and third generation Pokemon among them). However, a new region is added to the game, the Sevii Islands to the southeast of Jiangsu (and to the north of the Mossdeep island chain). There, the player helps troubleshoot the islands’ PC system, rescues some missing children, stops a rampaging biker gang, and (after beating the game) defeats Team Rocket’s remnants in the islands, led by Archer (setting up their return in Chengdou). Pokemon from Chengdou can be found here to make up for the lack of Chengdou itself. The player can also catch the legendary Lugia and Ho-oh at Navel Rock and the mysterious Deoxys at Birth Island (which can also be done in Emerald). Most importantly, the notorious truck from the original games (which was rumored to be hiding a Mew) returns, allowing the player to actually obtain a Mew.
