Pokémon Royal Sapphire Is Taking Us Back to Hoenn

The Gen III-era of Pokémon wasn’t the best by any means but it was pretty good, and Pokémon Emerald will always have a place in my heart.

For those who didn’t play Pokémon Emerald and played either Pokémon Ruby or Pokémon Sapphire though this one is for you, as the latter has been lovingly remade and expanded upon by fans.

The best part? You can play it for free right now as Pokémon Royal Sapphire has been released to the public.

You can catch a full trailer from the expansion’s creator ShckglyGongas on X but let me break down some of the changes and additions brought with this version of the game.

For starters, the starters! You’ll have three different starter ‘mon to choose from and while the original trio are obviously better this at least gives you some more variety early into your playthrough.

The story itself has also been expanded with Team Aqua having more cutscenes to flesh out their motivations, goals and characters.

Many changes have been made to the Pokémon themselves as well, with regional variants from the latest games ported backwards as well as changes to what ‘mon can be caught on certain routes, a feature I love.

Some quality-of-life improvements have also been made to modernise things a bit, like the Pokémarts selling Rare Candy, and some other changes to stats and such.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg though, there are plenty of other changes so if you want the full list check out the trailer on X, it’ll tell you everything.

Pokémon Royal Sapphire might not be the visual overhaul Pokémon Alpha Sapphire was but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth playing. It does what I’ve wanted Pokémon games to do for years and harken back to the old pixel style while keeping things modern, the best of both worlds.

You can try Pokémon Royal Sapphire for free now, and if you’re a fan of the Gen III games there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.