6th Gen How Does ORAS Measure Up With the Originals?

[Sopheria]

I thought they measured up quite well to the originals. They kept most everything the same, and the things that they did change I feel like they improved. The one thing that I didn't care for too much is they could have condensed the dialog a bit. Other than that, I'd say they improved on the originals quite well :)

 

[morrison]

I like how much more chracter the people have in the new version, from birch to Norman, to the rivals and the team. Although the contests are a lot easier I like them and the addition of a contest rival. The graphics are absolutely awesome and I like how the dexnav uses the old maps. Flying on Latias is pretty cool although it makes hoenn look quite small xD.

My gripes are just small things like the changed pokeblocks holder and mixer .

I also played emerald and can't believe why people would enjoy emerald more than this. I disliked the fact that in emerald contest were only held in lilycove and the battle frontier didnt have any special interest as i am not so much a battler type.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Eh, it's all subjective I guess. Particularly in regards to the level design and UI. All of the areas in Hoenn are exactly the same as in the originals except for Granite Cave, Sky Pillar, Victory Road, Mauville, and Sea Mauville. And I'm pretty sure that we can agree that Sea Mauville and Sky Pillar are better than their original versions (especially since the new Sky Pillar took out that ******** with the cracked floor/Mach Bike). I'm fine with the UI on both games.

I think people are focusing on the graphics and story more because, like you said, Pokemon is usually ass when it comes to those 2 things and those were improved a lot, so they're the most noticeable changes.

Though I find it a little odd that Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, which was made on and runs on older hardware, goes at nearly 60 fps while ORAS, which was made and runs on newer tech, is goin' at 30 fps.

But I think it's more than just the improved graphics/story that makes ORAS better than Ruby/Sapphire. ORAS has the updates to the game mechanics (move tutors, infinite use TMs, physical/special split, etc) that have come along since Gen III, it has new features like the DexNav and Soar, the availability of legendaries, and the Battle Resort/Battle Maison is better than the Battle Tower that R/S had. Little things like that. So compared to the original Ruby/Sapphire, ORAS seems a lot better.

How ORAS compares to Emerald though, idk. I never played Emerald.

On the Frame rate. There's this old interview I read about (haven't read the actual thing myself though) from Gen IV in which GF explains the FR drop between Gen III and IV as being in older to keep the models from collapsing/glitching. Though it's been two gens since IV and considering that Gen V was also on the DS one would've fought they would've found a way to keep it from doing so...


I have to say the Ai in these games was quite bad compared to pre-XY...there were several times I would've lost but the opposing Pokémon went ahead and used a status move instead of an attack...and the things were faster than my Pokémon too...and my mons were at red several times during such instances. I actually miss the Gen V AI. I guess though since GF is babying players now in days they couldn't keep it the same as in RS...nor did they make the teams as difficult as those in Emerald which were harder than RS'.
Still I like the additions it did have. Also the emotions. Also the practical canonization of Brendan x May (makes me look forward to what they may do with Dawn x Lucas as a couple. HgSs had some shipping between the player characters too but OrAs' were upped to eleven...)

 

[Pendraflare]

I never really had any problems with the frame rate here, except sometimes in the Sky Pillar when I would run into Golbat hordes.

As for the AI, i've had moments in every game where foes do insanely questionable things, and sometimes i'm starting to think that the foes will do more on that note when i'm considerably lower leveled than them. But I think XY's trainers and Elite Four/Champion actually were smarter than most foes i've came across, at least early in the game.

 

[Ephemeral Euphoria]

ORAS had potential but honestly, it fell flat when compared to the originals if you ask me. There are some good parts like having a crapton of legendaries to name a shining example but even that got boring after a while.

 

[sirboulevard]

On the Frame rate. There's this old interview I read about (haven't read the actual thing myself though) from Gen IV in which GF explains the FR drop between Gen III and IV as being in older to keep the models from collapsing/glitching. Though it's been two gens since IV and considering that Gen V was also on the DS one would've fought they would've found a way to keep it from doing so...


I have to say the Ai in these games was quite bad compared to pre-XY...there were several times I would've lost but the opposing Pokémon went ahead and used a status move instead of an attack...and the things were faster than my Pokémon too...and my mons were at red several times during such instances. I actually miss the Gen V AI. I guess though since GF is babying players now in days they couldn't keep it the same as in RS...nor did they make the teams as difficult as those in Emerald which were harder than RS'.
Still I like the additions it did have. Also the emotions. Also the practical canonization of Brendan x May (makes me look forward to what they may do with Dawn x Lucas as a couple. HgSs had some shipping between the player characters too but OrAs' were upped to eleven...)

I'd also like to add onto that, that the ORAS dev team (which is different from the X/Y Dev Team) didn't get a choice in the engine and UI stuff. While X&Y were designed for that engine, Team 2 and ORAS were handed it and also had the extra task of being given the region made for the highest frame rate of any Pokemon game. I think its fair to say the framerate and UI thing is something that they just had to deal with.

I get that it bothers some people, to which I reply: why the heck didn't you jump ship in Generation 4? ORAS may have moments of slow, but its never at say Diamond and Pearl level (something the team had to fix for Platinum because it was so bad!).

In this case, Team 2 was given a region with little to no way to break the game up more (evidenced by the various route loading areas) due to the lack of gatehouses, a brand new engine that was suffering even on the game it was designed for (and ORAS, while running on it, was not what the engine was originally made for).

I really think, based on my own experiences with the game industry, that GameFreak got pressured by Nintendo to up their amount of Pokemon games because of Nintendo's financial crisis (at Nintendo's peak profits in the last ten years, which was during the Wii era (and Gen IV) we had a break between D/P and Platinum during which time the DPPt engine was fixed and optimized). I think if GF was given a year off to fix the engine, ORAS would have run much smooter.

As for my own personal opinion: I think ORAS fixed alot of what was wrong in Generation 3. I do miss the battle frontier, and Zinnia's a hit or miss character for me (I'm more interested in the topics she brings up, and it was nice to have some acknowledgement of pokemon faiths), but overall I enjoyed ORAS far more than I originally enjoyed RSE.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I'd also like to add onto that, that the ORAS dev team (which is different from the X/Y Dev Team) didn't get a choice in the engine and UI stuff. While X&Y were designed for that engine, Team 2 and ORAS were handed it and also had the extra task of being given the region made for the highest frame rate of any Pokemon game. I think its fair to say the framerate and UI thing is something that they just had to deal with.

I get that it bothers some people, to which I reply: why the heck didn't you jump ship in Generation 4? ORAS may have moments of slow, but its never at say Diamond and Pearl level (something the team had to fix for Platinum because it was so bad!).

In this case, Team 2 was given a region with little to no way to break the game up more (evidenced by the various route loading areas) due to the lack of gatehouses, a brand new engine that was suffering even on the game it was designed for (and ORAS, while running on it, was not what the engine was originally made for).

I really think, based on my own experiences with the game industry, that GameFreak got pressured by Nintendo to up their amount of Pokemon games because of Nintendo's financial crisis (at Nintendo's peak profits in the last ten years, which was during the Wii era (and Gen IV) we had a break between D/P and Platinum during which time the DPPt engine was fixed and optimized). I think if GF was given a year off to fix the engine, ORAS would have run much smooter.

As for my own personal opinion: I think ORAS fixed alot of what was wrong in Generation 3. I do miss the battle frontier, and Zinnia's a hit or miss character for me (I'm more interested in the topics she brings up, and it was nice to have some acknowledgement of pokemon faiths), but overall I enjoyed ORAS far more than I originally enjoyed RSE.

Oh for me the Framerate wasn't a bother this time, it felt smoother than XY's much like Pt is said to be smoother than DP, it's a thing that happens with the newest pair in new devices it seems.

 

[sirboulevard]

Oh for me the Framerate wasn't a bother this time, it felt smoother than XY's much like Pt is said to be smoother than DP, it's a thing that happens with the newest pair in new devices it seems.

I wasn't directly replying to you. More to pretty much everyone with that complaint. (You're post just had the best starting point).

But yeah its a thing in the industry as a whole.

 

[Crady]

Sorry if this is unrelated but I just got ORAS 3 days ago and,

my whole life, I thought Brendan or how ever you spell his name really had white hair. I never knew it was a hat. Oh. my. god.

 

[Captain Gizmo]

ORAS felt completely different from it's original version, which kept me playing for a while, but then after a while. I just lost interest. It's a good game but I prefer XY than ORAS. Although I do love the new systems implemented such as the slow walking for Pokemon chaining which was awesome.

BUT! The best part of ORAS was the character customization. Oh wait....

 

[Pendraflare]

I don't know if this is the place to post this, but...

You know, after a bit of playing i'm starting to think that this post-game isn't as much for me as I thought it was at first. Considering I already got the Maison trophies in X (all four of them) and failed in the Super Singles twice, and the fact that I still haven't learned the DexNav, I don't have as much motivation to fill the Pokédex, either. I have tons of stuff that I bred in X and feel like I should just transfer them over with Bank, but right now i'm not much in the mood to play at all. I mean, i've still only played it once, and have yet to touch Alpha Sapphire, and i'm sure I will soon, but for right now i'm not as consumed.

 

[Lauren92]

I don't know if this is the place to post this, but...

You know, after a bit of playing i'm starting to think that this post-game isn't as much for me as I thought it was at first. Considering I already got the Maison trophies in X (all four of them) and failed in the Super Singles twice, and the fact that I still haven't learned the DexNav, I don't have as much motivation to fill the Pokédex, either. I have tons of stuff that I bred in X and feel like I should just transfer them over with Bank, but right now i'm not much in the mood to play at all. I mean, i've still only played it once, and have yet to touch Alpha Sapphire, and i'm sure I will soon, but for right now i'm not as consumed.

I kind of felt the same way for a while. I think, at least for me, it's because of getting a new game so soon. I'm not ungrateful in anyway, but usually we have much longer in between games and I kind of felt I had to "do over" a lot of the things I had just done in X and Y. Once I got myself to really start playing it though, it was back to business as usual lol

 

[Bellsprout]

I think if you want to just relive Hoenn but with megas then it's a great game and it's going to meet your needs. As someone who loved Hoenn and was looking not only to relive Hoenn, but to relive it with a challenge I was kinda disappointed. Maybe it's just because I'm older now, but it just seemed so easy. Like the gym leaders were incredibly easy and I don't remember them being such a breeze in the past. Tate and Liza especially were the weakest gym leaders imo and that was a disappointment since they're the 7th badge.

Also the post game was incredibly weak. I was expecting a full fledged battle frontier and I got the battle maison which was a really boring feature of the 6th gen imo.

 

[PeckanPie]

The difficulty was definitely lacking. These games were my favorite generation growing up, clocking hundreds of hours into each cartridge with multiple resets. I think they did the games enough justice though. Everything looks better, but feels just the same. The whole thing was a constant nostalgia trip.

 

[RaRa91]

Lots of valid criticisms in this thread!

My biggest critique was that ORAS didn't do enough to shake up the game and make it more flavorful where Pokemon are concerned. I knew exactly what wild Pokemon were going to show up in an area, and exactly what Pokemon trainers were going to use (for the most part). The new Pokemon post Cave of Origin given through the DexNav came wayyy too late to be of any use. Why would I grind up a level 10 Pokemon when I'm facing Pokemon in the high 30's to early 40's? Cmon GF! Even HGSS added more flavor in Pokemon options then that and it was also a remake made 4+ years ago!

That being said, I still did enjoy the game, but I'd rank X/Y better overall.

 

[sirboulevard]

I think if you want to just relive Hoenn but with megas then it's a great game and it's going to meet your needs. As someone who loved Hoenn and was looking not only to relive Hoenn, but to relive it with a challenge I was kinda disappointed. Maybe it's just because I'm older now, but it just seemed so easy. Like the gym leaders were incredibly easy and I don't remember them being such a breeze in the past. Tate and Liza especially were the weakest gym leaders imo and that was a disappointment since they're the 7th badge.

Also the post game was incredibly weak. I was expecting a full fledged battle frontier and I got the battle maison which was a really boring feature of the 6th gen imo.

I'd also like to point out, thats just part of growing up too. These games are alot harder when you're a 5-12 year old than a teenager or adult. Especially if you've been playing the games for that long. The games came out 12 years ago. That's almost as long as you were in grade school (13 years). Think about how much you learned in 12 years. The "it was too easy!" complaint isn't really valid in a series targetted at kids.

 

[Bellsprout]

I'd also like to point out, thats just part of growing up too. These games are alot harder when you're a 5-12 year old than a teenager or adult. Especially if you've been playing the games for that long. The games came out 12 years ago. That's almost as long as you were in grade school (13 years). Think about how much you learned in 12 years. The "it was too easy!" complaint isn't really valid in a series targetted at kids.

I know that's why I said maybe it's just because I'm older now. :(( I also feel like Pokemon now learn a lot more and a lot better moves when leveling up so you have more to work with. I just wish they had a challenge option.

 

[sirboulevard]

I know that's why I said maybe it's just because I'm older now. :(( I also feel like Pokemon now learn a lot more and a lot better moves when leveling up so you have more to work with. I just wish they had a challenge option.

Just going on my own experiences... that never ends well. "Challenge" modes usually ends up being a bunch of level increased artificially buffed NPCs. The NPCs in the Battle Maison are an example of how increased difficulty is usually. Lots of breaking of rules, artificially winning every coin toss, not being confined to the same rules as the player...

And I'm someone who uses weaker pokemon (in these games) or weapons/gear etc in gaming just to up my own difficulty. Self-Nerfing actually is alot more rewarding than what GameFreak could do.

 

[Hikamaru]

I recall the original Ruby & Sapphire being hard for me because I was only 11 when I played them, and now I'm playing the remakes at 22 and trust me I find myself breezing through this game while I struggled with the old games back then. It's all just me learning and getting more used to the mechanics through time, and we'll just have to get used to it.

Game Freak isn't making the games easier, it's just us getting smarter.

 

[Bellsprout]

Just going on my own experiences... that never ends well. "Challenge" modes usually ends up being a bunch of level increased artificially buffed NPCs. The NPCs in the Battle Maison are an example of how increased difficulty is usually. Lots of breaking of rules, artificially winning every coin toss, not being confined to the same rules as the player...

And I'm someone who uses weaker pokemon (in these games) or weapons/gear etc in gaming just to up my own difficulty. Self-Nerfing actually is alot more rewarding than what GameFreak could do.

They should change the way they approach challenge mode then. I think a lot of people would love a harder region. I don't see why it can't be done without breaking rules. I feel like the remakes should be harder as Pokemon has a lot of loyal fans who have grown up with it. I imagine most people who buy remakes played the older version when they were younger. It would be nice to see a more challenging remake for those who played so long ago.