Pokémon Sapphire Version

aka: Pocket Monsters: Sapphire, Pokémon AGB, Pokémon: Edición Zafiro, Pokémon: Saphir-Edition, Pokémon: Version Saphir
Moby ID: 8460
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Description official descriptions

Pokémon is back for another round catching and training! You're the new guy (or girl) in Littleroot Town, and the newest generation of Pokémon trainers. Professor Birch sends you on your way in your journey, with one of your choice of 3 starter Pokémon. There's Treecko (A grass-type chameleon-like little guy) Torchic (a Fire-type bird) and Mudkip (a Water-type amphibious creature).

Now, you've got a whole new world to explore in Hoenn, with eight new gyms and two-on-two battles, opening up a whole new myriad of tactics! New items, new Pokémon (over 350!!), and a new Pokédex to boot too! And of course we have our new villains, the nefarious Team Aqua, who plan on submerging the world in water in order to call out the Legendary Kyogre!

Only one person can stop them and become the ultimate Pokémon Master... You!

Spellings

  • ポケットモンスター サファイア - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Game Boy Advance version)

97 People (75 developers, 22 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 49 ratings with 2 reviews)

Pokémon on the GBA! What could possibly go wrong!

The Good
It takes very long to complete! The main quest is easy and can be completed in 10-15 hours or so. The side-quests, however, will keep you entertained for weeks! Collecting all the critters, defeat all the contests (new feature) and defeat every single trainer will take weeks. Also because you need to link with Ruby, Fire Red and Leaf Green to catch 'em all! There are some cool new things such as 135 new pokémon (There are about 200 in Ruby and Sapphire but the rest is old and most cannot be caught without linking to the newer Fire Red and Leaf Green which will make altogether more than 380 pokémon! YAY!), instead of the cool day night effects in gold, silver and crystal, there are now weather effects that are perhaps even cooler. There are also the contests in which you can have your pokémon rated on coolness, beauty and more. Not very useful but it is fun. Off course there are some new items and you can make candy out off berries to make your pokemon happier and make them tougher in contests. Also you can make your own secret base which is just fun but not very important. You can buy furniture, at and more for it. Finally, for the best and most important, there are the double battles which makes 2 pokemon together take on 2 others. This makes cleverly use off the GBA's four player capabilities using a link cable for more multiplayer challenges. You can also send records to your friends and battle them in their secret base. The gameplay is just good and simple. Graphics are by far no Golden Sun or something like that but they are simple and clear an also very colorful. We can't blame the guys at Gamefreak for that because this game is so full of other neat stuff and the special effects are also looking fine. The replay value is as you can see here amazingly high.

The Bad
Not much. Only that you couldn't catch all the pokémon when it was first released but this is solved because of the Fire Red and Leaf Green versions and Pokémon Collosseum on the NGC which can all link with this game (and Ruby also off course).

The Bottom Line
Buy this! Super addictive! One of the greatest RPG's there are on the GBA! Another gem of Nintendo! I love this one just as every other pokémon game around. Both newbies ass well as veterans of the series will love this! It deserves the title of best selling GB series! If I have to rate this I'd give it a big fat 9.

Game Boy Advance · by Rensch (203) · 2004

Better than the other ones!

The Good
Pokemon Sapphire (and Ruby) have much better graphics than the other Pokemon games! (hint:this time it's on GBA) There are Pokemon Contests if you're not that good of a Trainer (or just feel like beating trainers in a new way!) Finally, we have new threats instead of just Team Rocket! (sorry Team Rocket fans) At one point on your adventure, you get to save the world! (and catch Kyroge!) All in all, it's a really good game.

The Bad
Actually, I didn't really find anything that bad about the game. I guess I'm just another Pokemon fan!

The Bottom Line
cue action movie music It's got: ACTION! ADVENTURE! STRATEGY! MORE OPTIONS! AND DID I METION BETTER GRAPHICS?

looks at her reflection in the clear blue water much better graphics! ^-^

Game Boy Advance · by truly_blue (2) · 2003

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Pokémon Sapphire appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Anime

The girl character in Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire became the basis for Haruka, one of the new characters to appear in the sixth anime series of Pocket Monsters: Pokémon Advance Generation. It was scheduled to debut in the U.S. in the fall of 2003, and Haruka's name was changed to May. Team Magma and Team Aqua were the subjects of several episodes in this series, and the boy character received a number of cameos.

Real-Time Clock Issues

Early production runs of Sapphire and Ruby contained a glitch in which the in-game clock would stop functioning properly after 366 days, causing daily events to freeze until another year had passed. Once the glitch was discovered, Nintendo released a patch that could be downloaded through communication with other Pokémon games or special demo stations. However, once the cartridge's internal battery runs dry, the in-game clock will stop working entirely until the battery is replaced, which will eventually cause the glitch to resurface in cartridges that experienced the original issue.

ROM Hacking

Pokémon Sapphire Version and its counterparts, Ruby and Emerald, have become popular games among ROM hackers, and are the focus of large and dedicated hacking communities. Several completed hacks have become well-known across the internet, and many specialized programs and scripts have been developed to assist ROM hackers for these titles.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – #7 Game Boy Advance Game of the Year (together with Pokémon Ruby Version)

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Related Games

Pokémon Ruby Version
Released 2002 on Game Boy Advance
Pokémon Emerald Version
Released 2004 on Game Boy Advance
Pokémon Pearl Version
Released 2006 on Nintendo DS
Pokémon Diamond Version
Released 2006 on Nintendo DS
Pokémon Platinum Version
Released 2008 on Nintendo DS
Pokémon Silver Version
Released 1999 on Game Boy Color, 2017 on Nintendo 3DS
Pokémon Black Version
Released 2010 on Nintendo DS
Pokémon White Version
Released 2010 on Nintendo DS
Pokémon Crystal Version
Released 2000 on Game Boy Color, 2018 on Nintendo 3DS

Related Sites +

  • Pokèmon Elite 2000
    A Pokèmon fan site good at covering the latest news about coming and existing Pokèmon games.
  • Psypokes
    An extremely good and comprehensive pokemon site that pretty much covers everything there is to know about the pokemon games and TGC.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8460
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Famine3h.

Additional contributors: Iris-chan, DarkDante, Yearman, Spag, LordRM, Dacobah, Patrick Bregger, Michael Cassidy, FatherJack, Harmony♡.

Game added February 20, 2003. Last modified March 10, 2024.