So I discussed this with Rosa950 so if you see this Rosa, feel free to ignore all this.

I'm here to lay down my opinion. Hoenn is the worst Pokémon generation. Hands down. I can't even begin to describe how atrocious it is.

Let's see why.

1.) The New Mechanics Introduced Aren't The Greatest

What did Hoenn bring that was fun? Double battles.

And that's about it.

The other main mechanic they brought was just complete garbage.

Contests were so abstract and obscure and I can't begin to wrap my head around them. They were fixed later in Sinnoh, but in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, they were trash. Like the whole appeal and jamming and pokéblock grinding was insane. I can't believe anyone would ever actually do it feasibly.

Then of course there were other things that Game Freak didn't like and didn't introduce until way later. Like...two different bikes, for example?

Or how about the secret bases? Yknow, to try to get friends to play together, but was better executed with the underground in Sinnoh?

Or perhaps the extra tall grass that you couldn't ride your bike through anyway? Or the soot collecting? Or the tides of Shoal Cave and getting the Shoal Salt and Shoal Shells (that later became useless and only to be sold for mediocre prices)?

And my favorite: unlocking the Regis. You need like a Corsola and a Relicanth in your party and it's insane because you need to know Braille and it's like "why are you doing this to us, Game Freak?"

It's just too much. Way too much.

2.) Let's Play Through Some of the Gyms

Idk about you guys, but there's something very wrong with the gyms in Hoenn.

Let's first take a look at Winona. 5th gym. Flying Pokémon. She gives you Fly (an important TM in the early versions, rendered useless when the Eon Flute is invented).

Ooh! Let's fight her Altaria!

It's Dragon-Flying. Your starters and their STAB types all are weak to that (Grass, Water, Fire, Fighting and Ground).

PSH GT I snagged an Electrike and now I have a Manectric to sweep her team! I'd probably what you're thinking.

Just to mention this, her Altaria HAS EARTHQUAKE.

Now I can keep going. Norman? Your father? Has a Slaking. Besides legendary, mythic, and pseudo-legendary Pokémon...its got some of the highest base stats in the whole Pokémon world to date. And what? You have a Fighting type? Hariyama? Something that can take one hit and...that's about it? Or you're me and you can't trade to get that Machamp?

Just hope your Combusken survived it that far.

And don't get me started on Wattson.

Wattson has this Magneton. Okay, it's a Magneton. Electric-Steel, no problem right?

Well he's the third gym, so your Pokémon are maybe level 20ish and you're like I can take this guy on.

That's when you realize what he gives you when you win.

The TM for Shock Wave. A fairly strong Electric attack with a good amount of PP and MAX ACCURACY.

RIP Double Team Kirlia.

RIP Wingull/Pelipper/Taillow/Swellow.

What have you got left? Arm Thrusts from Makuhita?

Or you're me, who picked Treecko and now you can barely use Absorb.

There are a grand total of two ground-type Pokémon before Wattson.

One, Marshtomp (wow I picked Treecko. That's one out the window).

Two, Geodude (yeah, that's it).

So you're taking on something that's evolved, has a high Sp. Atk stat, and can hit you EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Do I even have to say any more?

3.) For every one good Pokémon, there's basically two bad ones

I'm dead serious.

See, if you take into account all the Pokémon introduced in Hoenn as a whole, you'll see what I mean.

So let's get ranting.

Double Battles were a fun mechanic that I personally enjoy from Hoenn. But the Pokémon they gave you weren't.

The bad part? The partners they give you. There were Pokémon "partners" with counterparts that R/S/E tried to convince you to use in Double Battles. Let's take a look:

Plusle & Minun: poor excuses of a Pikachu knockoff (every generation has them) and Hoenn decides to make TWO OF THEM (see, you've got Pichu, Pachirisu, Dedenne, etc. but at least they're halfway decent). And they suck. They're movepool is bad, and they're abilities even tried to make you use them in battles together (with Plus and Minus) so you could Earthquake the both of them and you'd be gone.

Volbeat & Illumise: they don't have any sort of helpful abilities. They're both pure bug and don't do anything good. They could've been Bug-Fire or Bug-Electric and that could've worked. We wouldn't have to wait for Galvantula for a Bug-Electric. Complete garbage.

Zangoose & Seviper: you can't even catch both of them in the same game. That's already bad. Normal and Poison? They don't have any sort of coherence for helping each other or anything.

But at least they look cool. They have that redeeming quality.

Lunatone & Solrock: sun and moon rocks. That's a good start.

Rock-Psychic? Both of them? Why couldn't Solrock be Rock-Fire or something? And the twins from Mossdeep don't even play them well either.

These two aren't even memorable in the first place. They're just so bland and they're garbage.

And then there's other pairs like Sableye/Mawile and Huntail/Gorebyss. But the first two were trash until decent hidden abilities came and mega evolutions (ofc Huntail/Gorebyss got neither of those, but that's the point).

Then there are just some Pokémon that just are plain trash. I'll highlight a few to keep you from dying.

Blaziken:

Now for all you out there that like Blaziken, let's take a look at its anatomy for one moment.

I personally like Combusken. He's a fighting chicken and that was cool to me.

Then he turns into Blaziken. His feet somehow magically turn into arms and fists. They would've worked better as the wings-with-claws of Combusken in my opinion.

And not to mention that thing on its head. Seriously what is it?

And also, it started the whole "Fire-Fighting" starter thing, and that's just more fuel to the fire (pun intended).

Wurmple:

Let's just let the horrible design of it slide. And the fact Beautifly and Dustox are trash.

Okay, Wurmple. You infested me all the way to Rustboro. I had to catch one of you.

Ooh, it evolved into Cascoon. There's Silcoon too? Gotta get another Wurmple...

Another Cascoon? Wtf????

Okay there's some ridiculous game mechanics people memorize for Pokémon. But probably the most ridiculous that people could memorize (and you shouldn't) is what determines what Wurmple evolves into.

Let's ask Bulbapedia...

...

The "personality value" of a Wurmple.

Yeah one of those extra mechanics I need to memorize. The personality values of Wurmple.

I rest my case.

Azurill:

Baby Pokémon in general suck. They have bad stats and basically take up space in a game.

Hoenn introduced a grand total of two baby Pokémon. One of them you get for a free from an egg. That, was Wynaut.

The other is Azurill. It's type Normal in R/S/E. You hafta hold this incense on a Marill/Azumarill to get one via breeding from HG/SS if memory serves.

And its sprite. Oh my gosh. It's so SAD. LOOK AT THE AZURILL SPRITES. 90% OF THEM ARE SAD.

(Fourth gen saved it. Sinnoh, you deserve more respect)

Luvdisc:

Serves one purpose and one purpose only. To farm for Heart Scales.

It has horrible stats except for speed. And let's give it Swift Swim so its speed is doubled in rain.

Any of its other stats could've used doubling Game Freak.

Gulpin/Swalot:

They're Pokémon based on...stomachs. Stomachs! They're living stomachs!

Okay so you're like "well Grimer is sludge."

Pokédex says Grimer was born via river sludge exposed to the moon's x-rays. Isn't that an awesome backstory to have? "I was born from being exposed to x-rays" has got to be one of the top percentage of awesome back stories.

Castform:

Weather Ball is too gimmicky. But that's not my main point.

Okay yknow sometimes when a Pokémon design sort of slips through the cracks of censorship filters? Like ooh look, Magmar has a butt on its head huehuehuehue.

I'm warning you now, it gets graphic from here on out. Stay away RedPandaWorld. Your innocence must stay.

Castform, normal form (yes, it's called its normal form), is literally a floating pair of testicles.

I just can't not see it. Like it's literally a sack hanging there. Look at it. Just look. It's there.

I can't. Please Game Freak. It can't get any worse.

Lileep/Cradily:

Yknow how I said it couldn't get any worse? Well...let's get to that later.

Kanto is the generation that introduced fossils. Omanyte, Omastar, Kabuto, Kabutops, and Aerodactyl were all awesome Pokémon they have a special place in my heart for rock Pokémon.

They didn't make any in Johto. It made me sad. Honestly.

Then Game Freak brought them back in Hoenn. Naturally the next train of thought would be well we did an ammonite and a horseshoe crab and a archaeopteryx. So naturally we'll do some dinosaurs.

What do we get? A bug. And a flower. A BUG AND A FLOWER.

Anorith/Armaldo are the least atrocious. They have stupid designs, stupid typing, stupid this and that. I'm surprised Steven even used one in his team. Steven, you're better than that.

But Lileep/Cradily? Takes the cake.

Okay, it's supposed to be like a sea anemone. That's fine. But we got fossils. What's the first thing we think of with flowers? A dinosaur! (We waited until Kalos for a T-Rex sheesh!)

But...remember my complaint about the censorship filter of Castform? Yknow, it being nonexistent?

Well take a look at Lileep. Just for a moment. I'll even give you a picture for all those online.

Its got these...tentacles. And what do those tentacles look like?

Yeah, your fossil? I'm just gonna say it now. Anyone who can't take it, just vote and skip the rest from here.

It's dicks. Dicks. Dicks. Dicks. Penises. Multiple ones. I can't un-see it. Like, you've got these pink protruding tentacles hanging from every inch of your Pokémon. And what color do you decide to color them? PINK? SERIOUSLY?

AND THE TIP IS A DARKER PINK. LIKE SERIOUSLY THIS IS JUST INSANE.

I can just imagine the artists conversation:

"Richard. Hey, Richard. Look at this. Look at this design."

"LOL. Look at ALL THE RICHARDS!"

"IT'S YOU!"

And it somehow makes it past the screening and into our Pokémon games as we know it. I seriously don't understand how a pair of testicles and multiple penises make it into R/S/E

In any case, the Pokémon are trash. Seriously. Probably less than 50% of the Pokémon are good or even worth mentioning.

If you haven't figured it out, Hoenn is the worst Pokémon region.

*clears throat* Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I hope I didn't scar anyone. If so, I apologize. I did warn you, but maybe I should've made it extra explicit.

Give me your thoughts too! Anyone else out there have strong opinions on their least favorite generation? Well by all means, rant.

Idk maybe I could make it a tag (Sounds like a lot of work tbh. I'll leave it to someone else to do).

I can't fathom what my comment feed will be like.

-GT