Commentary: 'Things I liked about OR' [pre-Elite 4]

[Chase]

Anything past this point could be considered a "spoiler". You have been warned.

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So, after being unexpectedly surprised, I was able to join in on the hype that is Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. It meant a whole lot to me because Generation III was the generation where I was most over the moon with Pokemon in general. One of my crowning pokemon (and possibly life) achievements was completing the National Pokedex in Ruby back in 2005. Naturally the announcement of these games last spring was exciting, but there were a few things that caused me, as a fan of the generation, to feel uneasy. The first promos that were released hinted at a "brand-new adventure", which alluded to something that...may actually NOT have been a remake at all. Knowing the maiden Gen 6 titles (X and Y) were significantly easier, I was worried about a crazy lowering in difficulty that may not have been alterable unless you committed to 'Locke challenge or some other silly mass restriction, all because out of all the generations I have played, Hoenn was the most difficult region to traverse and was the region I was consistently not prepared for.

After playing a game like Reborn, and being used to lots of water and puzzles that made you want to throw your GBA-SP out of a moving vehicle in frustration, I was afraid of what kind of changes GF would implement and knocked the game before I would even convince myself to try it.

Then it was gifted to me. As soon as I had it, that's when the hype train took off like a nuclear missile.

Ironically, the things I enjoyed the most, was how GF implemented the "new"....while still keeping the "old". It felt like the perfect pot of stew. I'll elaborate from here.

Character and Story Enhancement - I played Omega Ruby. This means that the iconic baddies in my game wore Red, and the box legendary was some red dinosaur lookin' thing that normally has a pitiful 4x weakness to water. (normally). This also meant that Archie, the leader of opposing team Aqua, was the token bad guy ally. Here's a few thoughts on Omega Ruby's key players, and how they have dramatically 'Wowed' me throughout this play-though...

Magma Leader Maxie - Maxie fits the ruthless evil genius stereotype in Ruby, but he 'owns' it in it's 3DS reprise. He refers to the player as merely 'child' and is quick to forget any mishaps when battling said player (as seen by his ridiculously adorable defeat pose) His quick reassurances and determination culminate in at first victorious glee, and then total disbelief when finding out his actions were actually quite devastating rather than helpful. His biggest selling point is his expressiveness, which I felt dramatically overshadowed, yet payed homage to, it's predecessor.

Magma Admins Tabitha and Courtney - Tabitha is a male. Got it? Good. His actual name is Tabitabi, and he is the second in command. He is portrayed in the remake as an ambitious admin who may have originally had hopes of taking over the entire team someday. Laughs a lot, and has the ego to back up his ambitiousness, yet is the most touching near the end, when it's he that tries to dissuade his superior from plunging the world into terrible heat and incoming destruction. Courtney gains a personality since the previous iteration of that game...and it's probably my favorite poke-personality in the entire series. She speaks sparsely, is mostly apathetic...until she is -more- than empathetic all of a sudden. You get hints of a previous or restrained "romantic" love for her boss, and even some "intrigue" in the player character, which results in her having one of the most unsettling scripts in the game.

Aqua Leader Archie - Archie is an absolute champion as the token ally. He refers to the player as "Little Scamp" (a somewhat pirate-y title) and admires their skills. He seems to be smarter than his scientist counter-part, and is ready to make reparations for the destruction the Aqua/Magma feud had caused.

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Fly-to-Route - Lookin' for Pokemon? Need to hit up a few previous trainers you saw were ready for a re-match? Don't have certain HM users on hand? Just pick a route through the Fly function. You'll fly to the route sign indicating the mid-way point of the route.

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Trainer's Eyes/Match Call - On your AreaNav interface, you will sometimes see an icon that depicts a stick figure wearing a ballcap with a poke ball. This icon takes you to what -was- the Trainer's Eyes interface on the old PokeNav 10 years ago, and it functions like Match Call, indicating that someone on the route you are on, is ready for a re-match. Yay, grinding and more money!

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Sneaking up on Hidden Ability/Rare Move Pokemon - The DexNav has a neat function of alerting you when a "hidden Pokemon" is nearby. If you see an "exclamation point" in the center of the magnifying glass, though, you should PROBABLY drop whatever you are doing and sneak up on the cause of the ping. You could either get a pokemon with a rare move (such as the tutorial Poochyena with Elemental/Matter Fang move) or even a Pokemon sporting it's Hidden Ability. NICE!

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Mega Evolution is fitted snugly and not overblown into the original story - You have a chance to pick up Mega Stones throughout your journey...but you don't even know that you're supposed to until you hear Maxie/Archie talk about Mega Evolution later in the game. Some stones can be found as you progress through map areas, giving you a couple of options before Steven finally equips you with a Mega Bracelet. The exposition is mostly centered around the Weather Duo and Primal Reversion, which makes sense because it's new story content spicing up an old dialogue. It was nice to see the "new norm" not dominate an "old" game, yet still find it's place.

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'04 Revisited - Hoenn -was- indeed confirmed, and it was brought to life without getting too much of a face-lift. I almost cried at some of the old sights that were painted in a 3D world yet not significantly changed. This happened so much that the things GF -did- tamper with (Mauville) were aesthetically pleasing and added to the enchanting nostalgia trip while playing.

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Perfect amount of Reform - several functions were "changed" instead of scrapped, so that they fit with the story, and were not cast out or woefully clashed with other content. Sure, it was a remake, but it was -vastly- different without changing the experience. Perfect amount of spice.

[Deleted User]

I only have 4 badges so far, but I'll list mine here tomorrow, and update it as I progress through the game.

DexNav - This is by far my favorite thing so far, you can encounter pokemon with Hidden abilities, Egg Moves and see their potential much of time. Additionally you can spot pokemon with abnormally high levels for the area. Makes continuing to search for pokemon in a given area much more enjoyable than in games past as it feels like there is much more variety to it. It also has helped me being on a nuzlocke as I'm not completely blind as to which pokemon I get. It may be kind of cheating to do this in a Nuzlocke, but it's new so it can't be all that bad in that regard right?

The Match Call System - Making a return from the original R/S/E, this feature is the second best rematch system to only the Vs Seeker in my opinion. But it's FAR more realistic. I can't remember if rematched trainers in other games continue to scale based on how many badges you have, but I also love that. The format of the Match Call is much more easy to read and navigate through in this iteration of the game as well. You can also see what pokemon the opponent had the last time you battled them so you can tell if they're trainers you'd even want to rematch in the fist place. This, as a whole, is great for in game grinding and not forcing you to battle wild pokemon for hours on end.

Revamped Movesets - Some pokemon got access to moves they should have had for a LONG time coming. Others simply learned better moves at more reasonable levels. Either way it's a change I welcome with open arms. It also means less training for pokemon who want to breed for competitive battling. I'm shocked it took gamefreak so long to give Gyarados Crunch for example, especially with it's Mega Evolution being part Dark type. That's fixed now along with many others.

Secret Bases - I have not yet made my own secret base, but I have seen what can be done with them in this game and it is really exciting. Essentially being able to be your own Gym Leader? Sign me up right now! Now I can recognize my dreams of being a Ground Type Gym Leader and pound some scrubs into the dirt.

Storyline Fast Travel - This is so convenient, May or Brendan often times ask you if you would like to travel to X and it saves so much time especially considering all the HM's that have to be used in this game to navigate through the world. 'inb4 TooMuchWater/10'

[diana]

small nitpick; groudon only has a 2x weakness to water normally

some things i was really impressed with;

elite four- to say that the final five battles are pretty would be an understatement. the elite four building isn't pretty, it's absolutely gorgeous.

soaring- at a point in the story just before badge #8, steven hands you a little item called the eon flute, which allows you to fly on the back of your mega lati@s. this not only completely eliminates the need for Fly, but it's also a super nice view of above hoenn and really lets you see just how massive of a region it is.

more later b/c i'm super tired and just woke up

[Magus]

A little nickpick is that I don't like how easy the game is. All the E-4 have the potential to mega evolve, and it would be cool to see some of the gym leaders show off their favorite mons too. Also team Magma is just a bunch of pushovers in this game, I didn't use the EXP share this round through and I was still over leveled with minimal grinding. End of rant

Now what I love about the game is how pretty it is, all the places are so well done, and it nice just to sit and take it all in, and if I have to stop to take it all, the you know it is really good. The mega stones can be obtained at any time now, but some will not appear until after the game and delta episode are complete. "Too much water" is easily solved with repels and really isn't worth getting salty over. Lastly the Pokenav and the new sneaking is cool, and you get mons with some pretty cool moves.

[Nico Nico Nii~]

^The elite four can mega evolve after you beat them the first time, and mega salamence was a threat the second time i faced drake.

Also that grinding with them is great consider that they only show the animations for them the first time rather than all the times you challenge them, and they only say one sentence before/after battle which is nice.

also i love the scenery of every unique battlefield (gym leaders, underwater, meteor falls, etc..)

[Mikzal]

I was a bit sceptical to the DexNav sneaky thing to begin with, but now that I own the game I think it's one of the best new features in the game

[Maelstrom]

Why is torkoal so rare? Ran into it once, was about to catch it, but random crit killed it. And because you HAVE to have caught the pokemon at least once, I can't try to hunt it out with the pokenav.

Game doesn't want me to have my tank. =(