3rd Gen Braille

[vaporeon7]

Throughout the generation III games, Braille was used as a way of encoding instructions or messages for the player. So what did you think about the use of Braille in the games? Did you ever bother to learn any of it? Did you decipher any of the Braille or did you just use guides in order to know what to do? Discuss anything else you thought about Braille and its use in the games.

 

[Sydian]

Oh my gosh, I loved the Braille. I had the guide book, and it was so much fun decoding it to get to the Regis. They're my favorite legendary trio since you literally have to unlock them to get to them. It felt so mysterious and I wish they had done something similar with other trios. A legendary should be something you work for, and not just the ball chucking. Actually getting to it should be the hard, and fun part. The journey is always better than the destination, they say.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

If I hadn't had a strategy guide, 13-year-old me probably would have been furious at the Braille. Having said that, the strategy guide was a life-saver for things like that, as I would never have thought it was Braille.

Looking back on it, it actually seems like an ingenious coding device. Not too obscure but not ridiculously easy to unlock: in hind sight it was the perfect balance. And the code itself was really good as well. I agree with Syd above, that the journey is much more exciting than the destination, and though I have no real affection for the Regis, they were probably the most fun to actually obtain.

 

[Jellicent♀]

Heck yeah I liked it! Though, like Mr Cat Dog said, if I didn't have the guide, I probably would have hated it.

But I am a history nut. I love everything mythological, ancient, and love ruins. The Regi trio actually gave me the sense of mystery and mythology I feel that legendary Pokemon should have. They had a history to them, and each had their own ruins that they were located in. It was awesome. The braille was a cool-as-heck idea for them, too. It is how they communicated to the people who created them as well as with each other. It just really wrapped it all up in a big, pretty bow.

 

[psyanic]

Discovering them and getting to them was definitely the best part about catching the Regis. Too bad I never really figured out that it was braille until I did a project on Louis Braille, which was when I actually read the texts. I kind of wish I had a strategy guide so that I would have caught them sooner, but meh. At least it was fun.

 

[HaxingBH]

really nice side "quest"
i do enjoy single player games with "hidden" secrets/quests...

 

[RoosterHat]

I remember back in 5th grade my best friend drew up a chart that had all the braille letters and what they stood for. It lead to what's probably my favorite Legendary hunt in the entire series.

 

[Lateon]

In the back of the instruction manual for pokemon sapphire, it said something along the lines of "if you get stuck, it might be braille". Totally flew over my head until I got the strategy guide, though.

I loved that little sidequest, I wish there was more of them in the newer games. Part of the reason RSE is my favorite is because there was so much to it besides the main quest, and actual things to actually unlock instead of just beating the E4 and everything opening up.

 

[mikey]

It was a nice feature, got boring quick for me though.

 

[vaporeon7]

To answer myself:
I thought using Braille as a puzzle feature in the games was a pretty neat idea. To begin with, I had to rely on a Braille guide that was in a magazine thing that my friend had so that I could figure out what it all said. I made a copy of the Braille code and then kept using that. After a while, I did manage to learn what the letter T was in Braille and that ended up helping a lot. I have what you need to do memorised now, so it isn't much of a problem anymore.

 

[Ho-Oh]

I thought it was like a really mysterious add on. I didn't know what braille was so before that I was like, oh wow, this braille thing seems so fancy I wonder why nobody uses it anymore?! And... yeah, once I realised I was like "oh". It was a creative way to get the legendaries though! Back in those days I used the Internet to decode it, which'd be hmmm, early 2005? XD;

 

[The Zororoaster]

The Braille was awesome, it was an interesting quest and broke from the boring traditional. It made the Regi's seem so cool(too bad they sucked XD). It was kindof a revelation when I discovered it. Thank god for Internet guides! Pokemon needs more sidequests like the mysterious Braille, because that is the kind of thing that makes it an interesting game.

 

[Treecko]

The Braille was a neat idea because I actually learned Braille from trying to catch the Regis with it.

 

[SlitWeaver]

Eh...

As a little kid I had no idea it was Braille, but in time you figure these things out :P haha

Also, I thought the Braille was kind of a pointless feature to me. Yes it was "like a puzzle" but you don't see Nintendo using Braille in Zelda. :P Also, I hardly think a blind person would be writing all that stuff about Pokemon and creating puzzles for other blind people and I doubt a blind person would have made it that far in the Pokemon world :P In fact...are there any handicap people in Gen III and before...? I think I recall one in a wheelchair...

Yes, yes, I know it's just a game, and don't get me wrong, I love Pokemon, it was 50% of my childhood, but I just think it's a lame feature and a lame idea :P

 

[8bitSilence]

I had one friend who told me that he knew Braille and that he decoded the words in the games.
Later he gave me a hand drawn chart of Braille to decode it myself. I soon figured out that he had tricked me, because the Braille I translated with the chart read, "DX IU TRMRG".

About a year later I actually looked up a Braille chart and decoded it for real. It's an interesting puzzle, although a bit difficult for the 10 year old audience the games are aimed at.

 

[Altairis]

Oh my gosh, I loved the Braille. I had the guide book, and it was so much fun decoding it to get to the Regis. They're my favorite legendary trio since you literally have to unlock them to get to them. It felt so mysterious and I wish they had done something similar with other trios. A legendary should be something you work for, and not just the ball chucking. Actually getting to it should be the hard, and fun part. The journey is always better than the destination, they say.

This, exactly, basically what I was going to say. The fun part about any legendary is actually getting to it, feeling like you've finally found/unlocked it. (Rayquaza's tower, Mewtwo's cave, etc) The hard part shouldn't be selecting the Pokeball over and over again, it should actually be getting to it.

Instead of adding all these ridiculous forms in the new games Gamefreak should add more of a challenge to getting the Pokemon :/

 

[Flute]

I can't remember how old I was at the time, I think I was eight. (Fourteen now, I got Sapphire a week after it was released in Canada.) I had no idea what it was, and I frankly stumbled across it. I asked my mum and she told me it was Braille, so I did a quick Google search for a Braille decoding chart and decoded it myself. It was well worth it, one of my most memorable pokemon moments.

 

[Rivvon]

I thought braille was a brilliant addition. Besides the "adventurous," "mysterious," and "decoding" aspects, it added a more "real-world" element to Pokemon that I thought was fascinating. By the time I was done, I wondered to myself, "Who in the Pokemon world uses braille? Why? How did they learn braille when that is exclusive to us, to real people (as opposed to the previous form of writing, Unown)?"
It wasn't just another made-up form of writing--it was mysterious but decipherable because it was real.

 

[Manganum]

I'm not sure if it's just me, but all of my copies of Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald came with a little card with all the braille letters on it. Though, it's not like it made it much easier for me. I had to go and ask one of my friends about it, and when I heard that you had to have a Relicanth and Wailord in a certain order in your party, I was all "you're a liar, this is worse than the Pikablu rumours".

 

[Xebelleon]

Thought the braille done very well in Kanto's FireRed and LeafGreen for the bits involving the getting of the Rainbow Pass.