So, uh... Hoenn.

[Sy Kage]

So I realised there wasn't a thread about this yet. Somehow.
So I'm putting it up.

Hoenn is one of the most popular generations of the series, and with its new remakes coming out really soon, it's achieving major fan-cred.
So?
What makes Hoenn such a good generation/region? Why do people love it so much? Is it the music? Is it the new Pokémon that were added? Was it the graphics? Or was it just your first Pokémon game and you look at it sentimentally?
Post it here! I, and many others want to know what makes Hoenn so good!

 

[Shiny Motley]

PEOPLE LOVE HOENN FOR THE TRUMPETS. Or whatever other brass instruments are being played throughout. Seriously, why isn't there a trumpet Pokemon that plays background music for you or something.

There's SO much about Hoenn I love, as it was my first region game-wise and what brought me back to the franchise. So many of the Pokemon in the region are great (I would list them but that would take waaaaay too long), along with the region itself. It was fun exploring the place and there were a lot of very interesting areas like the Regi caves, the Abandoned Ship, Shoal Cave, Meteor Falls, DIVING... not to mention almost all the towns and cities had very different aesthetics and environments, which I loved so much.

I also really enjoyed the contests in Hoenn, and making PokeBlocks. I know there were similar things in Sinnoh and I guess BW/BW2 had musicals, but they just never felt the same. I dunno, I just liked going through the contests and trying to get all the ribbons while also having my Pokemon displayed as cool pieces of art in the art museum in Lilycove. Speaking of Lilycove, my Secret Base was also really close to the city, and that was another thing I loved about Hoenn. Secret Bases were fun little additions, even if they didn't do much outside of eat up all my money (and time) for decorations.

The introduction of berry growing this gen was also fantastic. I was annoyed in FR/LG that I couldn't grow berries after I was so used to doing so in Sapphire. I dunno, it was just so much easier to make PokeBlocks and also other useful berries (EV-resetting berries anyone?), and the mechanic was kind of cute.

Many of the characters introduced were fun to interact with, too. Okay, so your so-called rival never got to evolve their starter to the final form, but you got to meet Wally, who probably has one of the better character development arcs throughout the entire franchise as he grows from sickly child to still-sickly-but-much-stronger badass, along with Steven, who I will continue to stand by being my favorite champion. I mean, he battled the evil team(s) with you a couple of times, and even double battles with you once! Okay fine, none of the other NPCs were all that interesting, ESPECIALLY the Gym Leaders, but eh. Wally and Steven almost more than make up for them in my opinion.

So yeah. Those are my reasons for loving Hoenn, and I can't wait to see what the region is like in the remakes. I'm way too hyped up for this!

 

[Linkachu]

I loved Hoenn because it wasn't Johto. :| *dodges bricks*

Jokes aside, that basically was the truth back in the day. While I started the franchise with Red & Blue and enjoyed Kanto because it was the first region, I wasn't a big fan of the Johto region. Large portions of Johto felt cramped and suffocating to me, and aside from the odd location - such as the Lake of Rage and Blackthorn City - I struggled to enjoy it as a whole. Then Gen 3 released and I was quickly taken in by Hoenn's size, environmental features (the desert, Meteor Falls, Mt. Chimney, etc.), and the massive ocean to explore both above and below. It felt like a breath of fresh air and I've loved the region ever since.

Pokemon-wise, I did end up loving numerous species that were added within Gen 3. Pokemon such as Breloom, Zangoose, Electrike/Manectric, Flygon, Camerupt, Armaldo, Metagross and Latios have remained in my top favourites for ages. As with every generation there are many Gen 3 Pokemon that I'm neutral on, and a handful that I'd flee from on sight (Claydol ), but it's likely still one of my favourite collections overall.

Then there was everything else... The music, berry growing, Secret Bases, Double battling, reflections in the large puddles, Fortree City, diving, Natures, and even Contests to an extent. I appreciated all of the big and little additions, just like I do with every generation. That being said, I had a ball abusing the Hoenn-style Secret Bases, love Double battling, and adored diving and exploring the Hoenn ocean floor, so those are definitely three highlights for me. Being able to exchange Secret Base data via StreetPass and QR codes is likely going to be a highlight of OR/AS for me as well.

I could probably ramble on much further but that gives some idea of why I loved Gen 3 and Hoenn. Naturally it wasn't all great, especially before FR/LG gave us access to the Pokemon R/S hadn't included and dealing with my Gens 1 and 2 teams being trapped on those games forever </3, but the good far outweighed the bad for me. Can't wait to play the remakes, too. ♥

 

[Psycho Monkey]

I know I've said this before whenever the topic comes up, but Gen II just about killed the franchise for me. I don't know if it was the tedium of level grinding in those games or what, but after beating Silver and Crystal I was pretty much done with Pokemon. I actually facepalmed when I heard new games were coming out. And yet it was seeing the box art of Ruby and Sapphire (mostly Sapphire) that drew me back in. Kyogre in all of its majestic beauty enamored me enough to pre-order both games though I eventually gave Ruby to my brother after he expressed interest in Groudon along with all of the new features I was reading off on the pre-order slip I got.

Actually playing Sapphire made me like the game more and more. Hoenn was completely separate from Kanto and Johto with no way to travel to those regions and there was no backwards compatibility with the previous games whatsoever. I know most people disliked that aspect but for me that was possibly my favorite. It was what truly made the games a fresh start for me. In fact, up until I fought Geodude in Roxanne's Gym I thought the games had nothing but new Pokemon with no old ones. For a time I decided I would only catch and raise the new ones since I had "already trained" the older ones. I outgrew that mentality by the time Emerald was out and I had the ability to complete the Pokedex. To this day Sapphire has the highest play time of all my games with over 500 hours.

The things I like about Hoenn itself are the region as a whole (it's just so beautiful with so many diverse ecosystems ♥), the way the populace interacts with nature, and the OST remains my favorite with so many amazing tracks like Route 113, Meteor Falls, Victory Road, Heavy Rain, Mt. Pyre, Battle Champion Steven Stone, etc. I also like the Darwinian evolution between Zangoose and Seviper where the latter's venom spurred the former to gradually develop Immunity over generations. The fact that Hoenn is the only region to thus far have tides and the ability to actually explore underwater is also a huge plus for me ♥ Hoenn is also responsible for my favorite Legendary, Kyogre, my favorite Champion, Steven Stone, and my favorite Gym Leader, Flannery. Too bad Infernape couldn't have been released a generation sooner ^^

Without a guide I would have never found Feebas or the Regis but that was also part of the fun. Well solving the Regi puzzle anyway. Feebas was just a pain in the ass to find >>

Beyond Sapphire, I also enjoyed much of the improvements brought on by Emerald. I liked how the two stories of Ruby and Sapphire were not only consolidated into one, but also built on with the battle at the Mossdeep Space Station, the battle between Kyogre and Groudon, and Rayquaza's descent (also a good track btw). I was a bit disappointed that Rayquaza couldn't then be caught at Lv.45 or 50 as it made Emerald the first Pokemon game where I didn't use the Version Mascot in my main team. I also liked the challenge presented by the Battle Frontier as opposed to the Battle Tower which didn't have any real goals to accomplish other than "try and earn these trophies for your Secret Base." The Battle Frontier gave me something more tangible to work for. My only complaint was how it violated its own competitive rules. I recall my last Pokemon getting KOed by an opponent's last Pokemon using Self-Destruct and in another battle using Perish Song and in both cases they were declared the winner. I also remember them putting my entire party to sleep at one point thus breaking the Sleep Clause. Hopefully that's fixed in ORAS >:/

Unfortunately, I can no longer call RSE my favorite Pokemon games of all time. That honor has officially been claimed by ORAS. Same goes for Gen III and Gen VI both because Gen VI contains ORAS and the innovations XY brought to the table.

 

[Neopolitan]

In addition to what everyone said, Hoenn had 2 pseudo legendaries, Salamence and Metagross. It also had 2 champions, like Unova, Steven and Wallace.

 

[AzureEdge]

There's not really much I can say about Hoenn, that hasn't been said already.
-I loved the Pokemon of Hoenn. I feel like they were the most unique compared to the rest. (Absol and Mightyeana)
-I also loved having a father, who actually didn't abandon you.
-Being in a truck was also amazing.
Beside those 3 reasons the only other thing I can come up with is diving. I spent hours looking for treasure underwater.

 

[Mr.Munchlax]

To be honest, I'm surprised how popular the Hoenn region, since when I was growing up it was anything but. Since I was part of the generation that were kids when Gen 1 came out, most of my peers considered Gen III the worst due to stuff like how you can't transfer your pokémon from the Gameboy games and all of the other stuff people complained about at the time. Plus, most of my classmates grew out of pokémon in general.

As for me, I kind of had a strong indifference about the Hoenn region. I admit that I loved the story and all of the features about, but since I was a little immature when the games first came out I focused more on stuff that people complained about and didn't truly see all of the great features R/S/E had to offer. In regards to the pokémon, there were a few that I absolutely loved such as Sceptile, but I had an indifference towards them in general as well based on how they looked in either their sprites or Sugimori artwork.

Now that I'm older and more observant, I now see all of the great features of the Hoenn region, & I've recently fallen in love with a few Gen III pokémon that I wasn't that big a fan of before such as Numel and Gulpin. It's still not my absolute favorite generation or region, but the region now has a special place in my heart &, like the rest of the world, I've started getting on the Hoenn hype train as more & more information on OR/AS started coming out. I admit this more than likely won't be as much of an epic nostalgic experience as Heart Gold & Soul Silver was for me, but this will be a nice trip down memory lane & it'll give me a chance to do things in the Hoenn region that I was never able to do with the original games

 

[pac_halo]

I loved Hoenn because it wasn't Johto. :| *dodges bricks*

*throws bricks*

Anyhow, I liked Hoenn because of it's great regional design. Half water, half land. (Although, water is just like a cave except Tentacool instead of Zubats) The story was great, focusing on two differing teams trying to achieve what they think will ultimately help the people and Pokemon. The legendaries featured in R/S/E had awesome mythologgy and the games had a great roster of Pokemon (Flygon and Gardevoir are my favorites).

So yeah. While it seems as though Im kinda copy-pasting, I'll say it now. R/S/E is flawed (Yes, G/S/C is too.).

Its contests were not my favorites. Yeah yeah, many people like them, I just don't. The side legends like the Regi's are sub par Pokemon and your rival is....well...horrible.

Don't hate me pweez.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Ahh, Hoenn, the tropical region. I do have reasons for liking the games, but the region itself. I love it because of how vibrant and colourful it was. All future games did it, but Hoenn pioneered it, it's where we saw the upgrade that saw the ground change from grass to sand, from plains to jungles, it was the first game that was able to give you the feel of travelling an extraordinary land. Like PM said, Johto, and by extension its predecessor, didn't have that feel, it was near difficult to tell when you were in one place or the next. Unless you knew the games well, you could look at a side-by-side comparison of Violet City and Ecruteak City, and struggle to tell the difference, they were very similar cities, both contextually and graphically. It was worse on the routes between these places, only specific ones like the ice cave and Azalea Forest really told you what kind of a place you were in. Hoenn however, started a trend, a trend where whatever route you walked, you could pay attention to the scenery and paint a picture in your mind of what it would look like if you were really there.

Now what I like most about hoenn itself, was its temperate climate. For good chunks of the game, you are travelling in places that should have you sweating like a sauna, places like the jungles surrounding Fortree City, the deserts north of Mauville City, and the Slateport Beaches. They are all colourful places that I look forward to seeing again.

also trumpets

 

[Eeveelution52]

I love Hoenn. Probably cause I own Sapphire. I like it's Pokemon, storyline, and it's legendaries.