Review #211: Pokemon Omega Ruby

 Hoenn is back... oh god.

 You knew it was coming. Everybody and their dogs knew that the Hoenn remake was coming. Usually regarded as one of the weakest installments, alongside Gen IV, for some reason, now it turns out it's everyone's favorite generation, go figure. But I'm not like them. I've never been particularly fond of Hoenn(I am a fan of Sinnoh however, by the by), so I wasn't really looking forwards to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but I wasn't planning on skipping it either!

 The story is... the same as in every other Pokemon game, you, a kid, are entrusted with a Pokemon out of three possible species, and it's your goal in life to become The Pokemon Champion, by gathering all 8 badges and defeating the Elite 4, while dealing with a crime organization that has evil plans. You can also dabble into collecting the 700 plus creatures, if you will. That said, the story does have some charm and some of the series' first, for instance, you have two rivals, albeit one later decides that he or she can't stand up to you and challenges you with discovering more 'mons, while you get to see the other one grow from a timid boy into a fully fledged Pokemon trainer. Depending on which version you got, the bad guys will be either Team Magma or Team Aqua, in my case, Omega Ruby, Team Aqua aided you in defeating Team Magma. Their involvement is... it's there. I mean, it's hard to be afraid of impending doom when you can leisure take the time to challenge Pokemon Gyms instead of trying to stop these guys, lest not we forget that their leader is an absolute clown and his lackeys lack any kind of intimidation. To be fair, this is a kid's game, so I shouldn't be expecting a Shin Megami Tensei-type storyline, but I didn't care for it. New to the Remake is Episode Delta, which is a weird retelling of Pokemon Emerald. Kinda. This is a bit more interesting, and it kinda confirms that there's two alternate time-lines, one in which Mega Evolution wasn't discovered and one in which it was.

 There's no use in explaining how Pokemon works, everybody knows by now and it's not changing any time soon, so I'd rather write about the game features. Customization is gone, and it sucks. The developers explained it by claiming that they want each region to feel unique. Sure, buddy, that's why the whole Pokemon Amie was ripped straight outta X and Y, why it's always 8 Gym leaders, always some Crime Organization with a silly name that gets in your way, always an Elite 4 and a champion. Removing features is the way to make each region feel unique, it really is. I hate you Gamefreak. Why remove fun features like Seasons, Trainer Customization, Secret Bases(After Gen III) and the such just because? On the other hand, Secret Bases are back. Secret Bases are customizable areas that can be furnished with, well, furniture, dolls, posters and even trainers for visitors to challenge. Creating a room is fun, if limited, and it's a feature that I've missed, even though Gen IV's underground was a pretty neat alternate take on the concept. A neat touch is that the map now tells you if your Secret Base is in the area you are in, which is a godsend as I would always forget where my base was in Ruby!

 HMs are back, as usual, but they are a bit overwhelming this time around. You'll have to make use of: Flash, Cut, Strength, Break Stone, Secret Power(To make bases), Surf, Dive, Waterfall and Fly. It translates into a ton of useless moves that are required to get through the game. Worst part? They are mostly obstacles with no substance. There's a block in the way, and you need strength to push it. It'd be better if there were more Puzzles revolving the use of these instead of simply obstacles. Obstacles that reset every time you leave the area, so that you need to carry your useless HM Slaves if you plan on going back again on foot. That said, there's a new feature, and in my opinion, what they should've done with every other HM, Soar. Later in the game you get the Eon Flute that allows you to summon Latios, it doesn't even matter if you released him, he will come back and allow you to take into the skies. The getting onto Latios animation does get a bit dull after a while, and it can't be skipped, but soaring through the air is very fun and let's you free a slot on your roster, so that you don't need Fly anymore. This is what they should've done with every other HM. Even better, you can drop off almost anywhere you want, instead of just Towns.

 Sneaking is new to the game too, by lightly tilting the analog nub you can sneak onto Pokemon that rear their heads over tall grass, water or earth, this lets you net Pokemon with rare moves and good IVS, which is pretty neat. There's also the Pokenav, that tells you when you have caught every possible Pokemon in an area, as well as which Pokemon you can catch in it. It's unfair to expect new mons out of a remake, but there's a whole bunch of new Mega evolutions, and most of them look pretty cool. Mauville has gotten completely redesigned into Mallville(Not official), and it's now a huge town, not unlike Lumiose City. I didn't mind it to be honest, but I can see how some die-hard gen III fans might, heck, one of the things I liked the most about Heart Gold and Soul Silver was just how loyal it was to the source material. Naturally, Pokemon Contests and Pokeblocks are back, if that's your thing, I certainly didn't care much for them. Oh, and there's also a Cosplay Pikachu that you can dress up and learn exclusive moves(Depending on the dress), which I wouldn't have a problem with if only it wasn't Pikachu who always gets the most attention, it's a bit jarring hearing him cry 'Pika' while every other 'mon shouts some garbled digital sounds.

 One thing to keep in mind is that this is a Ruby and Sapphire remake, so none of the Emerald features made it in, which is sure to disappoint a few, they even tease about it! At least we get X and Y's Battle Maison, Y'know, because each Region should feel unique(No, I'm not letting it go). There's quite a bunch of post-game content, mostly Legendary Pokemon Hunting, there's almost as many legendaries to catch as in Sinnoh, although some of the requisites may require a guide. Did you know that which member of the Spirit Trio you get depends on the time of the day? Azelf only has a hour-wide time window from 8 PM to 9PM, while the Legendary Dogs require you having Ho-Oh or Lugia, and which one appears depends on the time of an hour in which you are(X:00 - X:20 gets you Raikou, for instance). Speaking of time, there's a couple of daily activities, like the Mirage Spots where you can catch Pokemon from other Regions, which change daily, and the Battle Resort that let's you fight trainers for experience daily. It's pretty useful, since they have high level mons, but X and Y did it much better, since the Trainers Rotated all the time instead of daily, putting a time barrier on your training is a drag! There's some trainers that you can rebattle, but it's not quite as convenient. And that's the thing, X and Y made it so convenient and easy to train low level monsters, that it makes ORAS alternatives look bad.

 Since I mentioned X and Y, ORAS carries over some of the problems as well. The graphics are a bit too much for the game to handle, at least on the Vanilla 3DS, sometimes the FPS will drop during some camera angles, which doesn't affect gameplay at all, but don't even bother turning the 3D on as it will make battles run pretty poorly. There are still some lazy animations, like Double Kick, which still has the Pokemon jump in place instead of, well, kicking. And the Exp. Share is still a problem, I like that it grants experience to all your Mons, but you receive it TOO EARLY. I'd be OK with it if you got it right before Victory Road, but by the time I challenged the Elite 4, my starter was on the high 70s and the rest of my party on the high fifties, and I didn't have any kind of trouble dealing with their stronger teams on my second time around, not to mention that I didn't lose a single 'mon on my way through the 8 Pokemon Gyms. The updated Exp. Share is a good idea, but you get it too early which makes the game too easy. There's also the issue I had about the Pokemon types, as I said before, for the first 3 generations, knowing a Pokemon's type was as easy as looking at its color scheme, but new mons are a bit harder to figure out, there should be a way to check a Pokemon's typing during battle, at least during offline play, I can't remember the type of every single 700 plus monster, and it's silly to expect anybody to.

 The presentation didn't get any major updates from X and Y, and frankly, it didn't need to. That said, it's a bit... amusing to see the very same battle backgrounds from the last game, they could've at least updated the City background, but oh well. As for Hoenn itself... I don't like it much, but the Gyms are much better than before, both in design and looks, and the Elite 4 Chambers are a total knock out, blowing every other Elite 4 out of the water, can't wait to see how, if, they top them off. I never found Hoenn's soundtrack to be particularly noteworthy, and it still isn't, but the few new tunes, particularly Wally's Theme, are downright amazing. Every new tune is pure gold.

 At the end of the day, Pokemon is Pokemon, even at its worst(Generation 3) it's still fun to play. After playing the remake, Hoenn still remains as my least liked location, but at least now it's a bit more fun to go through. ORAS aren't as good as they could've been, but hey, Shiny Primal Groudon is badass.
 7.5 out of 10