Doctor Birch, or, How I Learned to Stop Hating On, and Love, Generation III

In this week’s Looking Forward, I saw that some at BulbaGarden’s forums had misinterpreted me as condemning Generation III within my article. I feel I should do a short piece to clarify what I meant, and my feelings on the third generation of Pokémon. I know I used the word ‘mistake’ often in the article. However, I meant that these were no mistakes in the games themselves.

With about seven years of hindsight, I view the third generation as a very important, if not perhaps the most important era of the franchise since Generation I. Originally; I was temporarily driven away from the franchise by Ruby and Sapphire. I was one of the many children bitter about having to start over, not having my beloved monsters from my Blue version I had demolished Johto with to decimate Hoenn. I was too young to know what effort values, natures, and individual values were. I looked at things from a purely aesthetic standpoint, and all my twelve-year-old eyes saw were the animations from Crystal gone, the day and night cycle eliminated, and many of my favorite Pokémon seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth.

FireRed and LeafGreen pulled me back in again, and by the time Emerald came around, I was a dedicated fan again. I came to love Generation III before it came to a close. Now, I recognize it as one of the most important eras of the franchise with understanding of its many revolutionary advancements.

Love the Generation III, my friends, love it.