>>37540244I'm criticizing Gen III's Pokédex because of how fractured it is across every game.
You can only obtain ~170 something Pokémon in Ruby or Sapphire without trading, one less in Ruby than in Sapphire because of finite Moon Stones. Through trading with each other, you can hit 200, though the Deep Sea Tooth and Deep Sea Scale are finite and a choice for whatever reason, on top of being a trade evolution item.
Colosseum took a year to come out after Ruby and Sapphire and added some Johto Pokémon, including Ho-Oh, but keep in mind you needed the adapter to connect to a GameCube, and you needed the bonus disc to get Jirachi in North America while Celebi was only obtainable in Japan.
FRLG was around 200 Pokémon with trading, but they never even made use of the Altered Cave, and Raikou, Entei, and Suicune were glitched and would permanently disappear after using Roar. And tied to your starter for whatever reason, so you could only get one.
Emerald had the Altered Cave Pokémon as Safari Zone additions, despite having the Altered Cave as well. You can only obtain about 230 some odd Pokémon in Emerald.
Eevee could not evolve into Espeon or Umbreon in FRLG since they didn't have time, and it couldn't be obtained in RSE. You had to trade from FRLG, Colosseum, or XD to get them. In addition, Emerald only has one true exclusive, being the Faraway Island Mew, an event exclusive that was never made available outside Japan. Events were entirely local things as Wi-Fi distributions weren't a thing, and you needed a cheating device otherwise. Trading still required a link cable, an additional accessory, or a Wireless Adapter, which at least came bundled with FRLG and worked with Emerald.
Compare that to DP where it's possible to get nearly 450 Pokémon without Pal Park. I'm pretty sure I can remember the Pokémon that required Pal Park at the time, namely the pre-Gen IV starters/Legendaries/Mythicals and Tangela, Tangrowth, and Tropius.
