The MISSED POTENTIAL of the Battle Tent in Pokémon Emerald

Did you ever visit the Battle Tents in Pokémon Emerald?
Bug Catching Contest Video: • A Close Look at the Bu...
The Battle Tents were the precursor to the battle facilities seen at Pokémon Emerald's Battle Frontier.
There isn't too much to do with these tents and it seems the developers didn't think a lot about what to do with them.
I think there is a lot of missed potential with these battle tents. Join us to a discussion on one of Pokémon Emerald's most obscure game modes!
Consider supporting my Patreon:
patreon.com/TheGameCubicle
More places to find me!
Instagram: / thegamecubicle
TikTok: / thegamecubicle
#nintendo #pokemon #gameboy #pokemonemerald

[@JacktheRah]

This should be something the guy doing the Emerald Legacy Romhack should be looking into.

[@TheGameCubicle]

Agreed! Smithplayspokemon please improve the battle tents!

[@cameronlapp9306]

I played Emerald a bunch and never knew that the tents were different - I think I tried one once.

[@collidingwithmars]

I remember as a child I was way too stubborn to interface with these due to the limitations. I think still today in my mid 20s I’m still too stubborn. I wanna use MY mons hahaha

[@TheGameCubicle]

Exactly why the Battle Pike would have been a good choice! It doesn't limit your Pokémon (though it can be really hard and luck based at times lol)

[@DaenaMichelle]

Pokémon as a price could have even made shiny hunters use them, that'd been great. At least give us TMs that cannot be obtained anywhere else

[@weckar]

We lost the Contest Halls for THIS!?

[@TheGameCubicle]

Technically the contest halls were all combined into one building but the problem with that was you couldn't do contests until well after badge 6 in Emerald where as you could start contests as early as badge 3 in R/S. Not sure how I feel about the contest halls in different cities because it was kind of a pain to go around to each one if you were doing every rank in a row but the positive to that is the sense of progression throughout the game.

[@weckar]

@@TheGameCubicle it was a really neat side gig to gym badges, and it made them feel somewhat equal in value.

[@user-gg8tl5yt7d]

​@@TheGameCubicleconsidering you can immediately see the contest value of pokemon's moves, it's a huge waste to lock contests behind gym 6. I played Emerald first in gen 3 and it was baffling to me to see all the contest move data on my pokemon and have NO idea what it was for. I also wasted all my berries by the time I got to the pokeblock machines. In R/S, you find the first contest halls at almost the exact same point you find the daycare. This incentivises breeding pokemon for contests as well as battles! Much better design.

[@LordIvul]

Jokes on you, I used to spend hours at Battle Tents in Emerald. Especially loved the Slateport one. Before you ask 'why didn't you just go to Battle Factory if you liked rental so much?' Well, as a kid, I wasn't so lucky to own an authentic cartridge, I had one of those crappy bootleg cartridges that would delete your save data after entering Hall of Fame.

[@JustJulyo]

Pokemon Emerald had battle tents?! Lol

[@Chaoticus9]

I have a very vague memory of my Blaziken getting blasted by a Magikarp with Hydro Pump in one of these tents, Yet I don't even know if that even happened or not since I hear little to nothing about these tents.

[@TheGameCubicle]

No, that wouldn't have been possible. Magikarp knows normal moves here.

[@NJBization]

Well, it is technically impossible for Magikarp to learn hydro pump before sword and shield as technical records had yet to exist.

[@Chaoticus9]

@@NJBization Yea, Might have just been my child brain misremembering what the Pokémon was.

[@JacktheRah]

Good video! It has the right length. No beating around the bush just straight to the point(s).

[@TheGameCubicle]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@thecaveofcreatures1728]

I've always found the biggest flaw of the battle tents to be their disposability. After you unlock the real Battle Frontier in the post game, there's no reason to go back to these. I guess that's sort of the point since they act as primers, but in some ways this makes them more useless in the long run than the contest halls they replaced. An ambitious idea would have been to tweak their challenges in the post game to offer something different than the regular frontier.

[@user-gg8tl5yt7d]

Lol your critique is so on point. I started replaying sapphire recently, saw the multiple contest halls, and could not remember for the life of me what replaced them in Emerald 😂 i eventually settled on "they must have just left blank spaces" i utterly 100% forgot about the battle tents.

[@Jelly_shy_guy_man]

Wait there were more tents, I did not know that, but I hope they bring back some of these tents, I love post game content, so I hope they bring this back in general 10.

[@TheGameCubicle]

What's cool about the tents is that they are "post-game content" before the post-game. You get to try out the post-game content but with mid-game Pokémon!

[@Jelly_shy_guy_man]

@@TheGameCubicle yeah but I only played them in the post game

[@christiancinnabars1402]

In terms of the Level issue, they _definitely_ could have just snapped every Pokemon's level to 30 in the facilities. The rule of thumb for programming is that if they can alter numbers in one way and still remember the original value (i.e., lower all Pokemon higher than Level 30 to exactly Level 30, and then revert them back to normal afterwards), then they can alter numbers in _any_ way and still remember the original. Bumping up the levels of Pokemon lower than 30 to exactly 30 would have been just as easy of a task, yet was decided against for some reason or another. Be that laziness or trying to put lore accuracy over gameplay (Pokemon above Level 30 can easily be thought of as holding back, Pokemon below Level 30 would have a harder time explaining how they suddenly got stronger and then reverted after a bit), we'll never know.

[@TheGameCubicle]

Actually in gen 3 they don’t put levels lower either. I’m pretty sure there’s no point in the game where one of your Pokémon’s levels can change temporarily. Don’t know for sure if it was possible or just a creative restriction but it being impossible would be consistent with the design because your Pokémon never change levels.

[@Felipemelazzi]

I played COUNTLESS rounds in the first Battle Tent when I first discovered it. It helped me understand the strengths and weaknesses of the many new pkmns of gen3 =)

[@TheGameCubicle]

Exactly why it should be in every game!

[@BramLastname]

I distincly remember playing the factory tent because it was fun And the dojo tent because getting hyperpotions for easy battles was less time-consuming than rematching trainers for money, Granted the only reason I needed money was because I was trying to catch Houndour in the safari zone and failing miserably.

[@MrLucasmatta]

I kinda prefer the separate Contest Halls instead of the Battle Tents. Since I didn't play Ruby/Sapphire as a child, instead my first game was Emerald, I always found it weird to see in the anime May go through the Contests in different cities instead of just on Lilycove, until I found out that it how it was back in R/S. Also, I think the contest ribbons are a way better prize than a Hyper Potion.

[@church348]

Replacing the contest halls with battle tents was the biggest mistake gamefreak made with emerald.

[@billy_bear_cave8703]

Flaw 4. The question is, when has Nintendo ever cared about its customers?

[@stronlighter7852]

As a kid I used to play a lot with the battle tent in slateport city : I felt power full wouah this is what lvl 30 is! and I was rebooting my gameboy over and over in order to play with the galekid and sometimes machoke because they were powerful! It can even use take down what is that move? I take damage yes but damned the pokemon in front of me is doomed! I loved it! I kept playing of course and never finished the game at that time cause I was a kid and I had better moves and all but I still remember very much slateport city and its battle tent...... and that I was bricked wall by my rival right after that city and that that battle tent made me push my starter to evole into a swampert cause I didn't know how to pass that stupid fight with anything else than brute force...... AAAh memories

[@jesusarreola3169]

I definitely went in them, didnt spend alot of time in them but it definitely was a fun introduction to competitive formats

[@ximec.r.2643]

I actually liked the battle factory tent, the only reason I hated to use the tents was because I was forced to save my game before entering every single time. I don't know about others but that slight pause feels so wrong and forced. They could have just done away with it since even if you reset you don't have the option to save again in the middle so you would only reset to your last saving point. That forced save is definitely what killed it for me.

[@blazechaos212]

That's the purpose of the save, actually, if they didn't disable saves within the tents. Something messing up and softlocking might happen here

[@blazechaos212]

It's not really the technology. One factor is time constraint of the devs in releasing the game.

[@rotojakku]

I played emerald after sapphire and thought they were the beauty contest bullshit from sapphire and never went inside.

[@andleepfarooqui7874]

I remember the Battle tents and played in them i just struggled

[@BrennanTheContentWhisperer]

I always thought these were like pagents??

[@notthisyourlight]

Yeah these sucked...the prices where useless and the pokemon had the dumbest move set