Suggestions for improving game-specific Pokédex pages (mainly R/S/E), and Pokémon missing from Emerald Pokédex?

Question

Thanks to whoever made/maintains this website, I refer to it constantly especially the game-specific Pokédex pages!

Suggestion 1: Missing Pokémon? Today I noticed that there are some generation II Pokémon (such as Hoothoot, Mareep, Aipom) which I think can be found in certain areas of the safari zone in Emerald? These Pokémon aren't listed on the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Pokédex but since they can be legitimately obtained within Emerald, shouldn't they be?

(Note... I am actually playing Sapphire at the moment so my source for this info is er.. "a popular Pokémon wiki" page about the Hoenn safari zone. If you want me to post the location for this page here I'm happy to but I am concerned that my post would be deleted for linking to an external site. The name of the site is in some way related to Pokémon #001 ... I'm sure you know which I mean... But anyway if this information turns out to be incorrect then these Pokémon should not be added to the Pokédex, for obvious reasons.)

Suggestion 2: Tabs for the different games within the Pokédex? I also realised that there are Pokémon that you can catch in the safari zone in Emerald which you can't find there in Ruby or Sapphire (e.g. those listed above) and aside from the safari zone, similar to all the main series Pokémon games, aren't there Pokémon that you can only catch in Ruby and not Sapphire, and vice versa? Also I think that there are some Pokémon in Ruby and Sapphire which are missing from Emerald (e.g. Surskit, Meditite)?

I thought it would be helpful to keep the Pokédex displayed the same way that it is now (as I understand, it is a complete generation III Hoenn Pokédex, showing all the Pokémon that you can catch in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald?) but with an additional button or tab that filters by Pokémon that you can find in each game, for example a "Ruby" button or tab which then displays only the Pokémon you can find in Ruby, excluding those that found only in Sapphire or Emerald, etc.

Suggestion 3: If you thought suggestion 2 was a good idea, then this could be done for other generations of games too, e.g tabs to separate out Pokémon from Gold, Silver and Crystal within the relevant Pokédex? Ready for when I replay these games lol... (I like to look at your Pokedex at the beginning to see which Pokémon are in the game, to give me ideas for what I'd like in my party...) :)

Thank you for reading! Emmy

Answer 1

Hi, thanks for taking the time to post your suggestions! First, mentioning other sites is fine (as long as it's not spam/spyware/porn etc). Actually a lot of the answers in our main Q&A section reference Bulbapedia :)

Suggestion 1: The Pokedex shown for each game or set of games in the "local Pokedex" in that game. So it's exactly the same as what the game shows you. If you check your game you should find that Hoothoot, Mareep and Aipom are not listed in the local dex but are in the national dex.

Suggestion 2: Not a bad idea! We do have some pages listing the 'exclusive' Pokemon, e.g. here for Diamond/Pearl. We don't yet have general information pages for the first 3 generations (I am working on that though).

However, adding a way to show which Pokemon are exclusive on the regular Pokedex is a good idea, I may do that at some point. Same for suggestion 3 as well.

Comments

Thanks for replying! That is very interesting about the difference between the local and national pokedex. If this is the case then I agree that they should be left off the pokedex page for this game.

It would still be cool to have them mentioned somewhere though for people who are simply looking to see which Pokémon can be caught in the game.. For example, just knowing that you can catch Mareep in Emerald is interesting, and if for some reason Mareep is their favourite Pokémon or whatever, someone might like to include it in their party if they knew that it was there. Perhaps if you implemented suggestion 2, on the "Emerald" tab, at the bottom of the page there could be an additional section with a list of Pokémon which are catchable in the game but not listed in the local pokedex. :)

Thank you for all your hard work, pokemondb is an invaluable resource, especially for comparing Pokémon and move sets. I love that pokemondb has a very clean and uncluttered style, and the tables and tabs are concise, well organised and easy to read. I spend a lot less time scrolling about through pokemondb compared to other similar sites because everything is so easy to find, this is by far my favourite Pokémon reference site!

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Thanks for the kind words! I basically started this site to make information easier to view so it's always great to hear people who like that.

As for the pokedex, I checked into it and it turns out Pokemon like Mareep can only be caught after you have beaten the Elite 4, similar to the swarms in Diamond/Pearl. So you can't have Mareep in your team during the main game. However, at some point I think I will add a guide for which Pokemon can be caught in which games.

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Ah that's good to know! Yes I knew that those areas were unlocked after beating the Elite Four so I guess I was just being dense for a moment there and didn't put the two together. I think that it would be interesting to see a guide for which Pokémon can be caught in which games, I look forward to it :)