on third versions

[Mab]

Three times so far, Game Freak has released a third version in order to grab even more cash because we'll literally buy anything at this point add new features, polish up bugs, and sometimes add new Pokémon. We've had Crystal, Emerald and Platinum, though if you need me to tell you that you're not a big enough nerd. Moving on.

What's your favorite third version? Which one do you think made the most changes to its corresponding duo of games? What's your favorite change made in one of these third versions?

Additionally, does anyone know why we haven't seen one of these in the past few Generations? As far as I know there are a few theories, but nothing factual.

 

[Khoshi]

Love talking about stuff like this. Thanks, OP.

What's your favorite third version?
Definitely Platinum. It made Gen IV actually playable. As most people who experienced both D/P and Platinum know, Diamond and Pearl were infamously slow when it came to battles, dialogue and so on so forth. Platinum tried its best to fix most of those issues, and then improved on them with story changes, which I'll go onto in the next question. :v

Which one do you think made the most changes to its corresponding duo of games?
Platinum, in my opinion, did the most when it came to changes. It not only made Gen IV a hell of a lot faster, but it also included much more Pokemon, from 151 on D/P's native dex to 210 in the Platinum dex. Let's not forget more Fire-types beyond Ponyta line and your Fire type starter, Chimchar. That was something D/P flopped big on. Then there's the story changes, oh boy, the story in Platinum. I absolutely loved the Distortion World, Giratina, and the focus on the ambitions of Cyrus. There's also Cynthia, who actually gets involved in the story.

What's your favorite change made in one of these third versions?
Platinum again.


Just kidding. My favourite change has to be in Crystal, when they made the revolutionary change of adding a female playable character to the series, a thing you see in current day Sun/Moon, too. Helps that Kris is a bit of a looker, too.

 

[Sopheria]

It's hard for me to say what my favourite third version game is. It's a tie between Emerald and Platinum, honestly. Emerald really outdid itself with the introduction of the Battle Frontier as well as some slight (but needed) storyline changes to Team Aqua and Magma; having it focus on both of them instead of one vs the other. I'll be honest though: Battle Frontier was what made Emerald what it was for me. The fact that each facility was extremely unique in that you had to adhere to certain requirements to go through them was something I was (and still am) and huge fan of.

^ this. Emerald is my favorite for the very same reasons. It was great to see both Team Aqua and Team Magma take an equally large role in the story, and it really brought both halves of the story together quite nicely. And the Battle Frontier is easily my favorite aspect of Emerald and each subsequent game that it's appeared in (Emerald has the best Battle Frontier of all of them though, imo). It's given me so much replay value.

It's hard to theorize as to why exactly third versions haven't been a thing for the past few generations. I can understand why they never tended to sell as well as the original paired versions--despite the great new features and alterations they introduce, they do feel a little redundant when you've already played the first two. The sequels to Black and White were a great alternative to a third version in gen 5, but it's still pretty strange to me that they didn't do any thing at all for X and Y. Those games really needed a third version, or a continuation, or something, more so than any pair of games I've seen. So I'm still pretty convinced that one was originally planned, but just never ended up happening. One can only speculate though...I'd like to see sequels instead of third versions become the standard, so fingers crossed that we get Sun 2 and Moon 2 next :)

 

[Lunar]

Looking back on them, all the third versions were amazing imo and have been some of the best Pokemon games ever. My favourite has to be Emerald, it's my favourite Pokemon game and is more than just a video game to me. As for changes, Platinum does it for me, it wasn't just the features, but Platinum's engine was a massive improvement and made the game more enjoyable, not to mention the Giratina storyline. My favourite change however is the Battle Frontier in Emerald, it added hours of fun and was a wonderful relief from RS's awful post-game.

 

[blue]

I actually prefer the third version for each generation to their counterparts, so the formula sits right with me. It was nice to have a change up with gen V by having direct sequels rather than a third game and then with gen VI we had no third game at all by going straight into the remakes. I think for the current gen it would be nice to go back to the third game formula as it seems like there's a looot that they could do for a Sun & Moon third game. If the rumours for the Switch turn out to be legit then I'd be stoked for that!