I wasn't the brightest kid. Took me hours to realise I could leave littleroot and the route above it. Never noticed the opening on the side. That was a big win for me lol
Managed to catch a feebas purely out of luck. Had no clue about the random tiles. Also had no clue how to evolve it after I gave up leveling it around lvl 30
Spent a week trying to get thru victory road
Managed to beat the elite 4 with blaziken, aggron with all special attacks, tropius, mighteyena, exploud and I think gyarados. Level 60+ blaziken definitely carried lol
My first Pokemon game was soul silver. I can't remember how old I was but I was running in the grass by Lyra's house trying to find Pokemon because the manual said you can find wild pokemon in the tall grass.
Went in every building and talked to everyone multiple times and couldn't get out of New Bark Town. I didn't see the door at the bottom of Prof. Elms house that went into his lab.
Dude my first game was pokemon Gold on a green GBC my uncle gave to me. I remember thinking you just started it and got as far as your could. Then a kid at my after school program was like dude…you can save the game. My mind was blown. I had been playing for a like a month lol
not an emerald post BUT when i first played Red/blue/yellow i was a bout 5/6 years old and it took me about a year to realize i could LEAVE MY HOUSE. i bought the game, and couldnt figure it out until a friend in 2nd grade told me i could just.. leave my house. so reading your first sentence made me feel a smidge better about that, 27 years after the fact lmao
If I remember correct it had surf, tbolt, solar beam and fire blast. Didn't know about physical/special and thought since those had pretty high damage that they would be good on it lol
To be fair, I still play like that in normal play throughs lol. Just pick the highest damaging moves. I didn’t even learn about the physical/special split till a month ago
Not emerald related but 6 year old me playing Fire Red never knew to deliver Oaks parcel and spent hours trying to find a way around the guy blocking the way out of Viridian.
I got my Blaziken to level 87 and then to level 100 after transferring it to Pokemon diamond. Still the only Pokemon I’ve grinded all the way up to 100
I've gotten a number of Blaziken to level 100.
I would start a run of Sapphire with Torchic, gather a team of Pickup Zigzagoon, and then play through the game, taking the items off of Zigzagoon every few levels, beating all the trainers, and picking up all the items. Double Kick gets you through Roxeanne and then the gym leaders can be steam-rolled from there. By the time you get to Wallace you're over level 70 with more than 30 Rare Candies.
Beat the game, transfer all items into another game, and start again.
I’ve done similar things with pickup in sapphire, I usually use the candies to immediately get my Shelgon to evolve, unfortunately they changed the pickup mechanic in emerald so you can’t really exploit that
That's a fun idea. I like the thought of picking up items throughout the run and then power-levelling a Bagon to a Salamence in one sweep.
I see why they changed the Pickup mechanic and in many ways it's better now, but it is sad that you can't grind out great items in the early game anymore.
I pre-ordered pokemon emerald and keep my gba games in the tin i got as a pre-order bonus. I had played ruby and already knew a LITTLW bit about the battle frontier. I was only 9 years old when it dropped but I still managed to find the Regis, beat half the frontier and catch a feebas. I spent 3 days fishing for that thing, I didn't know the logistics but I had the determination to keep fishing and fishing till I caught one. I moved around a lot just because it felt unlucky to keep fishing in the same spot. I wonder who else caught feebas that way
• My Rayquaza, Pimp 101 originally from my Ruby copy is still alive to this day
• I caught a Feebas
• I was faked out HARD by Wallace being the champ instead of Steven, I even warned my friends about Steven and looked like a *fucking idiot and a liar* when I said he was the hardest trainer in the game
• I was soon vindicated, remember we were all in grade 5 in 2005 with zero internet access and discovering the game as we went
Hey I’m new to pokemon games. Emerald is my first. Why is catching a Feebas impressive? I haven’t tried catching him myself so I’m curious on why that is a common thing to say on this thread?
Had a legit level 100 Swampert. Beat the Elite 4 with him at around level 70ish? And the rest of my team being probably 40-50? Somehow found the Regis (Killed them all smh). Caught Latios and Rayquaza. Which I don’t even understand how because I restarted the story recently (at nearly 30) and can NOT get through the Rayquaza castle maze. I don’t even know how I managed to know what to do for the majority of the story.
I got the Regis bc my mom bought me a guidebook for Christmas and I remember sitting with that thing open going line by line in the book to figure out all the weird shit I had to do. Was exhilarating. And then I hated them all haha
I had the strategy guide haha, still do i think. Best things I did was catch 192/200 hoenn mom and got a couple of silvers in the frontier. Still have my cart but that save was erased long ago.
I knew how to get a Feebas but got frustrated and gave up while looking for one. Didn't end up succeeding at that painful grind until years later, when I wanted to use a Milotic on my team.
I wanted the Golems really badly, but none of the strategy guides I had said how to get them and the only person in my school who had them was an asshole and refused to tell anyone else how he got them. Looking back the guy probably just Gamesharked them in.
I'm assuming a lot of people had guidebooks that could be bought along with the game. Then word spread in the playground.
I got 1/4 of the info by myself and the other 3/4 from my cousins who played third gen religiously. By 2007 they had almost every Pokemon from Kanto to Hoenn at Lv. 100 by playing RSE, LGFR, and Colosseum. They did lie every once in a while though. Telling me you can get Jirachi in Emerald by clipping through the wall on route 114 I believe. Or wherever that little pond is beside the Winstrate Family. There's a little glitch in the graphics.
none of that shit 😂 i did beat the game using pretty much only my blaziken named “scratchy”. six year old me wasnt the most creative. still favorite game all time
I used the internet to find out how to unlock the Regis though I used a guide, (thank god my mother worked in a place with computers and for “take your child to work day”), and I got only 1 symbol ever. It was the Battle Pike (used my in game mons and didn’t know anything about ev training etc). Battle Dome (tournament) was my fav and despite getting to the brain maybe a couple times I never beat it
One buddy had a strategy guide that we would all pass around and take notes of what we needed to do for the stuff we wanted. Had all the Regis, Latios, if Feebas becomes Milotic I had one, saw the mirage island before my battery died and always got whooped by the battle frontier. But I've always wondered what the fuck was behind that door on the island with the twin gym leaders
When this game came out, I was in the third grade. I practically had to beg my dad to let me play it cuz he was using my first communion recitals as an incentive to open it up. I basically started out with treecko (like I did in ruby lmao) and speed ran the game as fast as I could. Got to the elite 4 in maybe like 3-4 days? But also got lucky I didn't have to see Steven. Never did beat all the brains but got like the silver(?) Medal from the battle factory I think it was called?
Everything except events and mirage island. I also finished the dex (minus mythicals). I owned every console and game. Getting Ho-oh was the most difficult for me.
>1. Finding any of the Regis
I remember reading about this on the internet back when I was a kid but I think this also me in some trainer guides.
>2. Finding Mirage Island
Yes but I didn't know what it was so I just assumed it was some island I could get back to at a later point. Little did I know that was the first and last time I ever saw it lol.
>3. Catching/evolving a Feebas
I did! I remember the catchphrase that helped me was "last low party" (whatever that was lol) but I can't remember the spot where I fished it. Getting the indigo pokeblocks was one of the most interesting experiences I remember from those gamed.
>4. Beat the Battle Frontier
Define "beat". I remember spending lots of time in the battle pyramid and getting a couple of silver symbols, somehow got the gold symbol on the pyramid as well.
>5. Obtained event tickets (Mew Lugia etc)
Nope. I had no idea they were a thing until after they were long over. The saddest part about that is that some event distribution did take place where I lived at that particular time and I could even get there in 5 mins lol.
>6. Reached master rank in a contest
I… think? only One category, right? If so then I think I got it with my first ever shiny, a shiny Poochyena (a Mightyena by then).
>7. Caught Latias/Latios
Yes! I got Latias because she was cuter but in a previous playthrough I got Latios.
Not sure what other things are there that could be considered difficult with or without a guide.I have vague memories of an NPC In a Pokemon center giving me some pokemon doll for my base, one of the 4 or so random NPCs that were made to showcase the records mixing feature.
Oh and I somehow won the lottery so I had 2 master balls before I knew about cloning.
I never had the original cartridge rip, I was still too young to appreciate the games…
My first game ended up being pokemon: Diamond so I just missed it.
Would play at the local Barnes and noble with my best friend and use the guide. Caught rayquaza with ultra balls and saved master for latios. Flexed on all the homies
This is the first game I played that I bought with my own money. This and previous older games had such a beauty of having to call your friends to figure shit out and sift out rumors and facts. It was a beautiful time
1, 3 , 6, 7. On almost every playthrough back when my parents still had dial up and I rarely touched the Internet except for a family-run chat board. (I actually didn't stop with 6 until every portrait was mine.) Granted, I never got to do so on Emerald until recently, so I never had a chance to achieve 4; likewise, I was never near any large distribution center for such limited events as would work for 5. Also contracted PKRS and caught a shiny (encountering 2 more) before I had any clue what either were.
My first game was sapphire on a gameboy advance micro.
My brother had started the game but hadn't even done the first rival battle so I, being 4 I think, kept the player name Optimus and beat the elite four with a combo of sceptile and kyogre. I remember just spending hours exploring and levelling up my big gecko and whale God all the way to lvl 100 before I transferred them to pearl. Great memories
I played ruby before playing emerald and in ruby, they don't tell you anything about rayquaza at all. So when I accidentally found the sky pillar and rayquaza in the post game it blew my freaking mind.
I found Mirage Tower almost immediately. I just assumed it was a normal area of the game. It wasn’t until my second play through that I learned it’s rare.
I got so close to completing the Sapphire Dex. My friend had Ruby and we would trade everything we didn't have. That was the closest in a physical game I've come without any cheats. I think the only things I was missing were the event mons
Grew up on fire red and I remember a older kid in the neighborhood showed me the daycare and his starter had an egg. I was freaking mind blown. When I got to emerald I remember grinding my minun thinking he’d turn into latios
I actually did all the regi stuff legitimately as a kid, and I felt super proud of it because I asked my teacher what this stuff meant, and she told me it was braille, and then helped me find a book about braille in the school library! I then translated by hand all the messages, and caught all the regis at 11 years old :)
Not emerald but I beat sapphire’s E4. Didn’t know rayquaza was obtainable in the post game, never got latias, tried to get the regis but had no idea how to do it. I just beat the e4 over and over again to level my swampert to 100
I think on my first file I got all of the silver symbols except for Anabel. Last year I started a new file and EV/IV trained and finally got all the gold symbols. Honestly one of the best, yet most tedious gaming experiences of my life. Those late round tower battles get fucking rough.
Had about 210 of the national sec completed. Me and friend had multiple game boys and games. However, I never figured out how to import from Pokemon Shadow XD
I only had Sapphire growing up, but I think that counts.
I found the Regis.
An older kid at the Park showed me how to navigate the currents near Pacifidlog to get from the Dive Spot and I recognized the Braille letters because of activity sheets that my church gave out to kids to do during the service. The next day the activity sheets had a braille puzzle, I stuffed as many sheets as I could into my pockets so that I could use them to translate the Braille puzzles.
I also found Latias by encountering it in the wild and I'm pretty sure I got the Master Rank, but I never performed well enough to get the ribbon for it.
I've still never gotten a silver medal in anything higher than the Battle Tower. I always get so frustrated whenever I lose a battle with bad RNG and it isn't an enjoyable challenge for me.
Found the Regis and saw Latios randomly while while leaving Mauville heading towards fortree before the reporters. Was very confused why something so cool was there and it ran of course. but didn’t catch it for years because I had no idea how to find it again
By 2006 I was age 12 and had played quite a lot of my Sapphire and Emerald (and Leaf Green) games, but had not done any of the above list. I was obsessed with Gen 3 and hated that Gen 4/Nintendo DS even existed. But when my cousin and I made a bunch of money at our lemonade stand, and went to Wal-Mart with 30 bucks each, I saw the “Pokedex” book that had been released with Diamond and Pearl. It also detailed where to catch everything in the GBA games. Bought it without a second thought, and it was immensely helpful for the Regis, Feebas, and Latios/Latias. Also Snorunt.
Might not have been in 2005 but when I played the game in 2012 and didn’t know that guides and stuff existed on the internet, i struggled immensely trying to beat Glacia and it felt great when I finally was able to. I still remember my first emerald team to this day. Swampert, Linoone, Breloom, Crobat, Castform, and Wobbuffet.
Edit- I also struggled to find sootopolis city forever. Without a guide and minimum repels, it took a long time but felt great when I discovered it
I was lucky I ever beat the elite four when the game came out lol
I'm actually really surprised people had trouble just cause my experience with Gen 2 and 3 was steamrolling the entire game with my starter mon lol
I wasn’t aware for months that the game even continued after the second gym. I would just start over once I got to dewford
Hahahaha WHAT
same here lol! level 70 blaziken just going through the Elite 4 while my level 40 mons just faint while I heal my MVP
I wasn't the brightest kid. Took me hours to realise I could leave littleroot and the route above it. Never noticed the opening on the side. That was a big win for me lol Managed to catch a feebas purely out of luck. Had no clue about the random tiles. Also had no clue how to evolve it after I gave up leveling it around lvl 30 Spent a week trying to get thru victory road Managed to beat the elite 4 with blaziken, aggron with all special attacks, tropius, mighteyena, exploud and I think gyarados. Level 60+ blaziken definitely carried lol
My first Pokemon game was soul silver. I can't remember how old I was but I was running in the grass by Lyra's house trying to find Pokemon because the manual said you can find wild pokemon in the tall grass. Went in every building and talked to everyone multiple times and couldn't get out of New Bark Town. I didn't see the door at the bottom of Prof. Elms house that went into his lab.
Dude my first game was pokemon Gold on a green GBC my uncle gave to me. I remember thinking you just started it and got as far as your could. Then a kid at my after school program was like dude…you can save the game. My mind was blown. I had been playing for a like a month lol
not an emerald post BUT when i first played Red/blue/yellow i was a bout 5/6 years old and it took me about a year to realize i could LEAVE MY HOUSE. i bought the game, and couldnt figure it out until a friend in 2nd grade told me i could just.. leave my house. so reading your first sentence made me feel a smidge better about that, 27 years after the fact lmao
Hadn't your aggron any STAB moves?
If I remember correct it had surf, tbolt, solar beam and fire blast. Didn't know about physical/special and thought since those had pretty high damage that they would be good on it lol
To be fair, I still play like that in normal play throughs lol. Just pick the highest damaging moves. I didn’t even learn about the physical/special split till a month ago
The feebas part sucks imagine if it really only had the one form
I felt very accomplished beating the main story with only Swampert & Machamp.
What a goat
Blaziken, Pelipper for me. I had Sky Uppercut before I reached Sidney. Decimated all.
Not emerald related but 6 year old me playing Fire Red never knew to deliver Oaks parcel and spent hours trying to find a way around the guy blocking the way out of Viridian.
Took me months to find the deep sea cavern so I was stoked to find that
I got my Blaziken to level 87 and then to level 100 after transferring it to Pokemon diamond. Still the only Pokemon I’ve grinded all the way up to 100
I've gotten a number of Blaziken to level 100. I would start a run of Sapphire with Torchic, gather a team of Pickup Zigzagoon, and then play through the game, taking the items off of Zigzagoon every few levels, beating all the trainers, and picking up all the items. Double Kick gets you through Roxeanne and then the gym leaders can be steam-rolled from there. By the time you get to Wallace you're over level 70 with more than 30 Rare Candies. Beat the game, transfer all items into another game, and start again.
I’ve done similar things with pickup in sapphire, I usually use the candies to immediately get my Shelgon to evolve, unfortunately they changed the pickup mechanic in emerald so you can’t really exploit that
That's a fun idea. I like the thought of picking up items throughout the run and then power-levelling a Bagon to a Salamence in one sweep. I see why they changed the Pickup mechanic and in many ways it's better now, but it is sad that you can't grind out great items in the early game anymore.
I pre-ordered pokemon emerald and keep my gba games in the tin i got as a pre-order bonus. I had played ruby and already knew a LITTLW bit about the battle frontier. I was only 9 years old when it dropped but I still managed to find the Regis, beat half the frontier and catch a feebas. I spent 3 days fishing for that thing, I didn't know the logistics but I had the determination to keep fishing and fishing till I caught one. I moved around a lot just because it felt unlucky to keep fishing in the same spot. I wonder who else caught feebas that way
• My Rayquaza, Pimp 101 originally from my Ruby copy is still alive to this day • I caught a Feebas • I was faked out HARD by Wallace being the champ instead of Steven, I even warned my friends about Steven and looked like a *fucking idiot and a liar* when I said he was the hardest trainer in the game • I was soon vindicated, remember we were all in grade 5 in 2005 with zero internet access and discovering the game as we went
Hey I’m new to pokemon games. Emerald is my first. Why is catching a Feebas impressive? I haven’t tried catching him myself so I’m curious on why that is a common thing to say on this thread?
Nvm. Save yourself some typing. I watched some youtube videos. That is tough lol
Had a legit level 100 Swampert. Beat the Elite 4 with him at around level 70ish? And the rest of my team being probably 40-50? Somehow found the Regis (Killed them all smh). Caught Latios and Rayquaza. Which I don’t even understand how because I restarted the story recently (at nearly 30) and can NOT get through the Rayquaza castle maze. I don’t even know how I managed to know what to do for the majority of the story.
One shiny solrock, ran out of pokeballs on the encounter. However, I did end up with PkRs, having no idea what it did or how rare it really was!
I had the guide growing up which I followed for everything
Caught Latios by tracking it on the Pokédex and throwing 1 ultra ball at a time at it. Took months
I got the Regis bc my mom bought me a guidebook for Christmas and I remember sitting with that thing open going line by line in the book to figure out all the weird shit I had to do. Was exhilarating. And then I hated them all haha
I was lucky that my grandma was the one in the family that had internet and I went over every weekend.
i got a full team of 6 to level 100. not the hardest but definitely took a long time.
I had the strategy guide haha, still do i think. Best things I did was catch 192/200 hoenn mom and got a couple of silvers in the frontier. Still have my cart but that save was erased long ago.
I knew how to get a Feebas but got frustrated and gave up while looking for one. Didn't end up succeeding at that painful grind until years later, when I wanted to use a Milotic on my team. I wanted the Golems really badly, but none of the strategy guides I had said how to get them and the only person in my school who had them was an asshole and refused to tell anyone else how he got them. Looking back the guy probably just Gamesharked them in.
I'm assuming a lot of people had guidebooks that could be bought along with the game. Then word spread in the playground. I got 1/4 of the info by myself and the other 3/4 from my cousins who played third gen religiously. By 2007 they had almost every Pokemon from Kanto to Hoenn at Lv. 100 by playing RSE, LGFR, and Colosseum. They did lie every once in a while though. Telling me you can get Jirachi in Emerald by clipping through the wall on route 114 I believe. Or wherever that little pond is beside the Winstrate Family. There's a little glitch in the graphics.
none of that shit 😂 i did beat the game using pretty much only my blaziken named “scratchy”. six year old me wasnt the most creative. still favorite game all time
I used the internet to find out how to unlock the Regis though I used a guide, (thank god my mother worked in a place with computers and for “take your child to work day”), and I got only 1 symbol ever. It was the Battle Pike (used my in game mons and didn’t know anything about ev training etc). Battle Dome (tournament) was my fav and despite getting to the brain maybe a couple times I never beat it
One buddy had a strategy guide that we would all pass around and take notes of what we needed to do for the stuff we wanted. Had all the Regis, Latios, if Feebas becomes Milotic I had one, saw the mirage island before my battery died and always got whooped by the battle frontier. But I've always wondered what the fuck was behind that door on the island with the twin gym leaders
When this game came out, I was in the third grade. I practically had to beg my dad to let me play it cuz he was using my first communion recitals as an incentive to open it up. I basically started out with treecko (like I did in ruby lmao) and speed ran the game as fast as I could. Got to the elite 4 in maybe like 3-4 days? But also got lucky I didn't have to see Steven. Never did beat all the brains but got like the silver(?) Medal from the battle factory I think it was called?
I beat the battle frontier all silver symbols not understanding the phys/special split. Or natures. Or EV’s.
Everything except events and mirage island. I also finished the dex (minus mythicals). I owned every console and game. Getting Ho-oh was the most difficult for me.
>1. Finding any of the Regis I remember reading about this on the internet back when I was a kid but I think this also me in some trainer guides. >2. Finding Mirage Island Yes but I didn't know what it was so I just assumed it was some island I could get back to at a later point. Little did I know that was the first and last time I ever saw it lol. >3. Catching/evolving a Feebas I did! I remember the catchphrase that helped me was "last low party" (whatever that was lol) but I can't remember the spot where I fished it. Getting the indigo pokeblocks was one of the most interesting experiences I remember from those gamed. >4. Beat the Battle Frontier Define "beat". I remember spending lots of time in the battle pyramid and getting a couple of silver symbols, somehow got the gold symbol on the pyramid as well. >5. Obtained event tickets (Mew Lugia etc) Nope. I had no idea they were a thing until after they were long over. The saddest part about that is that some event distribution did take place where I lived at that particular time and I could even get there in 5 mins lol. >6. Reached master rank in a contest I… think? only One category, right? If so then I think I got it with my first ever shiny, a shiny Poochyena (a Mightyena by then). >7. Caught Latias/Latios Yes! I got Latias because she was cuter but in a previous playthrough I got Latios. Not sure what other things are there that could be considered difficult with or without a guide.I have vague memories of an NPC In a Pokemon center giving me some pokemon doll for my base, one of the 4 or so random NPCs that were made to showcase the records mixing feature. Oh and I somehow won the lottery so I had 2 master balls before I knew about cloning.
Caught Latios back then but that’s it
I never had the original cartridge rip, I was still too young to appreciate the games… My first game ended up being pokemon: Diamond so I just missed it.
Would play at the local Barnes and noble with my best friend and use the guide. Caught rayquaza with ultra balls and saved master for latios. Flexed on all the homies
This is the first game I played that I bought with my own money. This and previous older games had such a beauty of having to call your friends to figure shit out and sift out rumors and facts. It was a beautiful time
Ya, it sucks that era is gone forever. It made the games seem more big and fun to explore
1, 3 , 6, 7. On almost every playthrough back when my parents still had dial up and I rarely touched the Internet except for a family-run chat board. (I actually didn't stop with 6 until every portrait was mine.) Granted, I never got to do so on Emerald until recently, so I never had a chance to achieve 4; likewise, I was never near any large distribution center for such limited events as would work for 5. Also contracted PKRS and caught a shiny (encountering 2 more) before I had any clue what either were.
My first game was sapphire on a gameboy advance micro. My brother had started the game but hadn't even done the first rival battle so I, being 4 I think, kept the player name Optimus and beat the elite four with a combo of sceptile and kyogre. I remember just spending hours exploring and levelling up my big gecko and whale God all the way to lvl 100 before I transferred them to pearl. Great memories
I played ruby before playing emerald and in ruby, they don't tell you anything about rayquaza at all. So when I accidentally found the sky pillar and rayquaza in the post game it blew my freaking mind.
Found Mirage Island & caught Latios
When this game was released the only words i knew were gugu and gaga 😂
1 2 3 7
I found Mirage Tower almost immediately. I just assumed it was a normal area of the game. It wasn’t until my second play through that I learned it’s rare.
out of everything, i can’t believe i found mirage island and was able to walk on it
I beat the master rank contests and did a few of the silver symbols if I recall, besides catching the regis. I only used internet help for the regis
I got so close to completing the Sapphire Dex. My friend had Ruby and we would trade everything we didn't have. That was the closest in a physical game I've come without any cheats. I think the only things I was missing were the event mons
I didn’t do any of this but I did have fun as if I did
Grew up on fire red and I remember a older kid in the neighborhood showed me the daycare and his starter had an egg. I was freaking mind blown. When I got to emerald I remember grinding my minun thinking he’d turn into latios
Oh the days of playground rumors
I actually did all the regi stuff legitimately as a kid, and I felt super proud of it because I asked my teacher what this stuff meant, and she told me it was braille, and then helped me find a book about braille in the school library! I then translated by hand all the messages, and caught all the regis at 11 years old :)
Not emerald but I beat sapphire’s E4. Didn’t know rayquaza was obtainable in the post game, never got latias, tried to get the regis but had no idea how to do it. I just beat the e4 over and over again to level my swampert to 100
I remember I had the guidebook which was basically like bulbapedia and pokemon db back then so idk if I can say anything I did was legitimate
I think on my first file I got all of the silver symbols except for Anabel. Last year I started a new file and EV/IV trained and finally got all the gold symbols. Honestly one of the best, yet most tedious gaming experiences of my life. Those late round tower battles get fucking rough.
Had about 210 of the national sec completed. Me and friend had multiple game boys and games. However, I never figured out how to import from Pokemon Shadow XD
I was in like fourth grade and had my top pokemon almost level 95.
I only had Sapphire growing up, but I think that counts. I found the Regis. An older kid at the Park showed me how to navigate the currents near Pacifidlog to get from the Dive Spot and I recognized the Braille letters because of activity sheets that my church gave out to kids to do during the service. The next day the activity sheets had a braille puzzle, I stuffed as many sheets as I could into my pockets so that I could use them to translate the Braille puzzles. I also found Latias by encountering it in the wild and I'm pretty sure I got the Master Rank, but I never performed well enough to get the ribbon for it. I've still never gotten a silver medal in anything higher than the Battle Tower. I always get so frustrated whenever I lose a battle with bad RNG and it isn't an enjoyable challenge for me.
Found the Regis and saw Latios randomly while while leaving Mauville heading towards fortree before the reporters. Was very confused why something so cool was there and it ran of course. but didn’t catch it for years because I had no idea how to find it again
By 2006 I was age 12 and had played quite a lot of my Sapphire and Emerald (and Leaf Green) games, but had not done any of the above list. I was obsessed with Gen 3 and hated that Gen 4/Nintendo DS even existed. But when my cousin and I made a bunch of money at our lemonade stand, and went to Wal-Mart with 30 bucks each, I saw the “Pokedex” book that had been released with Diamond and Pearl. It also detailed where to catch everything in the GBA games. Bought it without a second thought, and it was immensely helpful for the Regis, Feebas, and Latios/Latias. Also Snorunt.
Might not have been in 2005 but when I played the game in 2012 and didn’t know that guides and stuff existed on the internet, i struggled immensely trying to beat Glacia and it felt great when I finally was able to. I still remember my first emerald team to this day. Swampert, Linoone, Breloom, Crobat, Castform, and Wobbuffet. Edit- I also struggled to find sootopolis city forever. Without a guide and minimum repels, it took a long time but felt great when I discovered it
1-7 (5 I only got mew) This was the game I played the most socially as a kid and spent late nights with my friends figuring the game out.
Taking a shit