3rd Gen Emerald's Safari Zone

[Pendraflare]

As opposed to most other Pokémon games, Emerald had an expansion to the Safari Zone that was provided after you had defeated Wallace and received the National Pokédex. This area is home to several Pokémon from Johto, such as Miltank, Houndour, Pineco and Mareep. Not many other Safari Zones did anything like this, although HGSS tried with the area expansion (and Platinum had stuff added after the National Dex was obtained there).

What did you think about the expansions? Was it something you didn't count on them doing? A nice change of pace and something to make it more varied? Discuss.

 

[Hiatus]

I definitely did like this change, yes.

In Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, exploring Safari Zone seemed to have been slightly... repetitive and boring, as there weren't much things to get a hold of once you visit this place around five or six times. Once you've captured all Pokémon from here, there aren't many reasons to go back to the place at all.

Emerald, however, had given us more reasons to be visiting, as we had more Pokémon unlocked (for capturing, that is) after defeating Elite Four and whatnot, as well as extra locations to look around and enjoy.

 

[JJ Styles]

Emerald's safari zone is one of the main reasons (out of a truckload and truckton of them) why Emerald still remains as my favorite Core series pokemon game.

Being able to get the Johto based pokemon was something quite rewarding after defeating Wallace and obtaining the National Pokedex since many of Johto's pokemon provided better options than some of Hoenn's, such as the Dark type Dog in Houndour/Houndoom to replace the common Poochyenas, etc.

Definitely something I didn't expect, and sadly isn't covered in the remakes, though of course the remakes had their own compensation of expanded wildlife within the said games.

 

[Stormerbuzz35]

Wow I didn't even know this to be honest. I pretty much caught the pokemon that where there to start with in Sapphire and in Emerald I totally neglected it. This was because I found out that no matter how hard I tried, I'd never finish the Hoenn Pokedex on my own and there was no point in trying to catch them all.

 

[Sun]

I'm definitely in for Emerald's Safari Zone. I love the addition of previous-Game Cube exclusive Pokémon. It makes collecting Pokémon easy.

Is it just me or were the Pokémon you find here kinda...underwhelming? I never had the urge to catch or use any of them at all. :(

:(

 

[Hikamaru]

It was unique to see a lot of Johto Pokemon obtainable in the Emerald Safari Zone, because there weren't many ways to obtain them in 3rd Gen before and it, along with Sevii Islands allowed easy completion of the Pokedex just by trading between the games.

 

[Pave Low]

I really like the Emerald Safari Zone. The Pokemon you can catch there aren't all available anywhere else in the game and it brang in previous-Gen Pokemon. The expansion after defeating Wallace was also nice, it made me want to go back and gave me some new Pokemon to tinker with after defeating the Champion.

 

[DraconianWing]

Emerald's Safari Zone is my favorite after the one in HG/SS. It gave you the chance to capture Pokemon that are otherwise unobtainable in RSE, and added to the group of post-game content that made the game more replayable. I always wanted to go there immediately after the Elite Four to catch the new Pokemon simply because they weren't in Ruby and Sapphire (this was during the time when I haven't played any game that's not in Hoenn). It would have been nicer to see this feature return in ORAS instead of overhauling the entire Zone; in my opinion the new zone is a bit annoying to navigate because it demanded the use of the bikes more.