In a previous article, we took a look at a few well-hidden or otherwise obscure things the average player might have missed in the generation 2 games. Unsurprisingly, though, they’re not the only ones with some elusive pieces of dialogue, cutscenes and general gameplay quirks squirreled away — Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald certainly have plenty! In fact, why don’t we check out a few? Surely there’s something that managed to fly under your radar!

Climbing Mt. Chimney

Mt. Chimney seems to be a little busier than it looks! When riding the Cable Car either direction, there is an approximately 1 in 64 chance of seeing a Hiker, Camper or Picnicker making the journey up on their own. I’m sure that’s some pretty darn good exercise, but personally I’ll stick to the Cable Car, thanks!

Watching the waves roll by

When setting sail on the S.S. Tidal, looking through one of the porthole windows (after a quick nap – in the cabin when traveling from Lilycove to Slateport!) rewards you with this cutscene of the ship cutting through the rapids on the way to your destination. If only it was possible to just surf through them that easily!

A ridiculously fateful encounter

As it turns out, Wally’s fateful encounter with his Ralts outside of Petalburg has a decent chance of not going quite as planned. Due to shiny-locking (meaning that the Pokémon cannot under any circumstances be shiny when encountered) not being much of a thing until the next few generations, the Ralts and even the Zigzagoon Wally uses have as much chance as any Pokémon to be shiny. On top of that, under equally rare circumstances Zigzagoon will sometimes manage to take out the Ralts. Unfortunately, while this can all make for one heck of an interesting cutscene, none of it actually affects gameplay, as things will continue on as normal if Ralts faints and the one on Wally’s team will always be normal.

Maybe just stick to the Acro Bike?

While trying to get a perfect score on the Cycling Path can be fairly difficult at times, especially if you’re new to the Mach Bike or just have less-than-stellar hand-eye coordination, the judge at the end of the Path certainly isn’t very encouraging if you aren’t naturally gifted! If your time is high enough and you have over 100 collisions, the clearly stunned judge will recommend giving your bike back to Rydel and quitting cycling altogether. Kind of a rude thing to say to a kid, don’t you think?

Slightly different chat, slightly different place

It seems like Emerald gave us a little variety when talking with your rival! When first introducing yourself to them, instead of interacting with the Poké Ball in their room upstairs, you can instead go back downstairs and they’ll meet you there. Additionally, if you use Teleport to jump back to Petalburg and skip speaking to them in Rustboro after getting the PokéNav, they’ll instead meet you at Mr. Briney’s cottage with some ever-so-slightly different dialogue.

It really does seem like the Pokémon games have this certain, special quality to them that keeps them relatively fresh even after decades of play. There’s always something new to do, something still left undiscovered to find, no matter how well you feel like you know these games. Honestly, it’s incredible! If you’ve made any discoveries after years of play or just have a fun piece of game trivia we haven’t discussed here, do let us know! Come on, don’t keep all the cool secrets to yourself!

Edited by Corviknight and bobandbill.