6th Gen ORAS

[VisionofMilotic]

Your thoughts on Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire?

How did you like it? Any high points you'd care to mention, or low?

If you played the original gen 3 titles then how, in your opinion, do the remakes measure up? Is ORAS the definitive Hoenn experience, does it pale in comparison to say Emerald? Inquiring Milotics want to know.
Here's what I think of it ^_^

Spoiler:

I personally am in love with Oras, which probably doesn't shock anyone. I think it captures the pastoral, intimate quality of the Hoenn region, give or take an instance or two-- Mauville city being an anamoly that seems more like Castelia or Lumiose city than the place it was intended to be, but generally I thought the games were attentive to recreating the experience of being back in Hoenn. Sometimes it may have been overly strict by removing some convenient features that a lot of us would be accustomed to by gen 6, like having the pokemart and pokémon center be one multiplex building, and trainer customisation, but in doing this it does at least contribute to maintaining a certain aesthetic of gen 3.

It had like 8 or 9 out of 10 of the features of Hoenn that I personally find memorable like the trick house, the glass workshop, contests, secret bases. I was a bit crestfallen about the Game Corner being shut down though, and don't see why they could not have at least given us another Voltorb Flip-like game as a compromise like they did in Heart Gold Soul Silver. I think the battle tents and the frontier should have come back too. Even though it was technically remaking Ruby and Sapphire, they could have still put it all in the remakes if they wanted, just as HGSS included content that was introduced specifically in Crystal, and not just from Gold and Silver.

Overall though, I still adored this game. It felt really nostalgic for me, yet at the same time managed to work the major XY mechanical changes of mega evolution into the story in a really interesting way in my opinion, and greatly expanded on the existing lore for the region around the weather trio that I always foud interesting. I also have always liked Hoenn characters, and I think ORAS adds some meaningful new dialogue, scenes and situations that flesh out the cast of characters much more, especially Steven Stone.

I think Emerald has a stronger main story than ORAS, and I think it's a more challenging game to play with the level curb, no broken exp share mechanics, trainer hill, the battle frontier and the final boss fight in meteor falls. Even just catching Pokemon requires more effort, the particular way you acquire and evolve Feebas and Milotic, lati twins being roamers, and still having a safari zone where the Pokemon have to be caught in safari balls and can run away. And I think all of this is good. Yet I really like what they did with the delta episode as a post game story in ORAS. I think what Oras may have lost in some of the available features and difficulty level in the post game, they made up for in my eyes by not just having an end game with things to do, but weaving it all together into a dramatic narrative, and I welcomed that as a pleasant change. Also liked being able to go soaring to mirage spots post game looking for legendaries and playing with the dexnav to shiny hunt and find pokémon outside the regional Dex, and hidden ability Pokemon, and have probably spent more hours in Omega Ruby than any of my other core series games.

I go back and forth on which Hoenn I prefer, because there are things that I like about both. But maybe I like Oras a wee bit more.

 

[Zeostar]

I have a heavy fondness for ORAS. Transitioning from being a kid to a teenager, we couldn't afford many games. So I completely missed out on Gen 4 and 5. ORAS released when I was 14, things were getting better for us and I was able to receive it as a Christmas present. It was one of the most fond memories I had ever had with a video game, the atmosphere felt unmatched and I was filled with joy for the entire game.

I do take some issue with the difficulty. I understand Pokemon games aren't meant to be difficult, but there's a fine line between being easy and being completely mind numbing. I would rather play Emerald for the sole reason that it will at-least require me to think at some points. I don't even have to switch into a type advantage in ORAS because I'm so vastly high leveled. When I can completely ignore a core mechanic and still destroy every opponent, there is an issue. I've taken the EXP share off and played on Set, the only challenging fight was Steven on the rematch.

 

[Inner Rhymes]

ORAS was my favourite game when it came to competitive play. My memory might be a bit foggy, but the fact that we had two day cares, especially the one in the post game battle facility area was really helpful.

 

[Raicheot]

If it wasn't for ORAS I wouldn't of fell in love with the Hoenn region, wasn't a huge fan of gen 3 when it came out as I loved gen 2 and didn't like the change at the time but after playing the gen 6 remakes I enjoy the trips to Hoenn when ever I play the games

 

[Bellsprout]

I like oras, but at the same time it's not what I had hoped. I like everything getting a fresh revamped look, I enjoyed the access to so many megas, flying with Latias/Latios was okay, Mauville City and Sea Mauville changes were for the better, and secret bases were a bit more fun this time around.

A minor thing that has irked me were the redesigns for Brendan/May and team aqua/magma. They just seemed unnecessary and for me personally they were worse than the originals. They added points in the game where you're stopped and cannot go further until completing whatever task. For example you have to defeat Winona in oras to even get to Lilycove. It also bothered me this game came right after x/y where we finally got the ability to customize our character and they just didn't bother to add it in this game. I thought the whole Delta episode and Zinnia was really cringe worthy. It's like they felt they had to explain or justify why things are different in oras compared to rse??? It's Pokemon... it's not that deep. Lastly, not adding in the battle frontier, when at the time so many people were excited for it was just so disappointing. I think even worse than not having it was replacing it with the battle maison. Personally I found the battle maison boring in xy to begin with never mind just copy/pasting it over into another game. I don't think it even suits Hoenn as the battle chatelaines are designed to be aristocrats in Europe.

So on one hand yes I like oras and I found it to be enjoyable, but I feel it fails to deliver what I was really hoping to get out of a remake and wastes time and energy on things I don't care about.

 

[Pokedream.su]

I liked them overall, but the new designs for some of the main characters took me out of it.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

personally, i haven't played them, it was my "i m tired of pokèmon, i m outta it" moment lol, but i have seen some of the gameplay. tbh i ve played original emerald and i think that as a third game it offers a different and better story, so in my opinion there should have been more emerald in ORAS but delta episode was overall appreciated, i guess. it's not a game I personally feel " I must play", i would have way more enjoyed a pokemon emerald remake. anyway, if let's go series is inspired by pokemon yellow, then i guess there could be a let's go hoenn game based on emerald. i hope, at least!

 

[Janp]

I love ORAS. Probably my favourite 3DS titles, because of how it took RS and made them into modern-ish games. It got HGSS treatment and it was awesome. Sadly, it was released at the start of GF fall. The games have longer and worse story, chibi characters are just as awful as in XY and some of the changes don't make a sense, like Battle Frontier. I remember I had a hard time finishing it for a first time, because it was basically just "press A, but everything takes a long time now and isn't as interesting as in RS", but once I did get past the story, I found myself in the great post-game. I love Battle Maison, soaring, Mirage Spots and everything they have too offer. This was also the first time I got deep in competitive gaming, which also add few hundreds of hours into my total playtime.

Now, I like to replay original RS, because I can do it on my computer with speed up function and don't have to suffer through some of the cutscenes and dialogues, but I'll always return to ORAS from time to time, because modern Hoenn has its own magic.

 

[Sydian]

i really like them. i wish i had more free time when they were new because i think i could have gotten more enjoyment out of them though bc there's so much content. i replaying OR last year and really had a great time. i guess my only complaint is that they run on the easy side, especially compared to the originals, but they have enough unique features and charms that they're fun on their own. really love the dexnav, i could play with that all day aha.

 

[Sheep]

Loved them. I know there were complaints, especially in regards to the Battle Tower, but I had a lot of fun playing anyway and made sure to try out every single piece of content. Loved contests, super-secret bases, shiny hunting/DexNav, training, exploring... was such a joy to me. RSE was my most-replayed gen though so I'm probably biased. But I loved this remake.

 

[Percy]

seeing hoenn in 3DS graphics was a pleasure. especially that eon flute, so much of my play time was me just looking around up there in the sky >.<

in comparison to the original titles, I would say the remakes did a good job, actually. I felt nostalgic all throughout. Of course, new mechanics & graphics obviously added some new feel so there's something. Its very good remakes, that's what I can say. If I could find time, I would replay it again.

 

[Mab]

Honestly they'll never have the charm of Emerald for me. But I do like them.

My biggest annoyance was that their one big chance to add a large chunk of new and cool content, the Delta Episode, ended up mostly being a back and forth fetch quest between areas you'd already been to. Fighting Deoxys at the end was cool, but it could have been much more of an expansion, e.g. adding Sevii Islands in FRLG.

 

[Megan]

Overall I enjoyed the remakes. I have a lot of nostalgia for the originals and as such trying to surpass them is too difficult of a task to accomplish anyway. The games did include a lot of stuff to make the games different enough, soaring, the primals and the delta episode, etc. which I really appreciated. I also got to actually make use of the Secret Bases which I couldn't in the originals due to lack of internet mechanics back then.

I still have some gripes with them, however. There's the usual "3D model animations are boring" which they still didn't fix and probably won't ever. The most annoying thing for me was the lack of character customization. Strangely, it's not necessarily the feature itself, but rather a consequence of its absence: everyone online looking like identical clones.

It's like they just copied the online interface from XY but forgot that character customization was necessary for it.

 

[nerdybirdy]

i absolutely love oras, personally. although i may be a biiiiiiit biased because it was my second ever pokemon game after my first being ultra moon. having a game that didn't seem to actively try to destroy me at every turn felt great xD

 

[colours]

i liked it at the time, but i feel like... the visuals didn't age well at all. i can't go back to anything gen 6 without feeling some way about how it looks, especially in comparison to gen 7/8. that's not to say that ORAS is ugly, it's just difficult for me to jump back into it because the change between it and gen 7/8 is just too jarring for me. @_@

that said though, i really appreciate what was done with it and i think soaring will be the most amazing feature incorporated into a pokemon game ever since the VS Seeker. i loved exploring and flying all over hoenn and finding different sorts of landmarks other than the traditional cities/towns to fly to. if anything, i really want this to return in the future, because flying in any other generation in comparison is simply boring and stale. this actually has personality to it and feels natural (in a pokemon sense), imo

also i know some people are getting tired of hearing "wahh battle frontier" but look, it was a not-insignificant part of my memories of gen 3 and i was disappointed not to see it this time around. R/S were decent for what they were, but i think the Emerald additions made gen 3 far more enjoyable, imo. at least the delta episode was interesting and fun to go through, even if we can't rematch Zinnia (which i'm... still rather salty about, tbh).

 

[ReKoil]

I really loved Soaring in the Sky, as well as the Delta Episode. Riding into space on Rayquaza's back to fight Deoxys was just amazing to me back when I played it for the first time ^.^ Easily one of, if not the, favorite Pokemon moment(s) in any of the games for me.

The game as a whole was close enough to the original too imo. Nothing too disturbing (the Mauville makeover did require some getting used to though lol). The game corner was never that interesting to me in the first place tbh, so I didn't really miss it.
The main thing I missed was seeing Groudon and Kyogre warring in Sootopolis as they were in Emerald. Would've loved seeing a graphically and mechanically updated version of that. I think it could've been a great cut-scene at least.

Didn't particularly care about the primal thing. Mainly because temporary stuff like this that's gone in a next generation of games usually doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Mario60866]

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are excellent; just they really needed the Battle Frontier from Emerald and allow six Pokemon in secret bases.

I feel like I really underappreciated ORAS because when I got my first 3ds the legitimacy filter on Poke Transporter took away some of my Pokemon (strangely some of which were 100% legitimate) and it felt so incomplete without some of the Pokemon I wanted to bring along with me to the next generation.

With those two upgrades they would be that much better. I still like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire a lot, however.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

I haven't played ORAS because I was in my "I m done with pokemon" time, so I skipped them. I remember some of the reasons I didn't buy those (not considering the fact I had sold my 3ds lol), were new Groudon and Kyogre forms that weren't bad, but they didn't really get me. Also, the fact that the story wouldn't be as good and complete as pokemon Emerald. Just feelings tho. Ik there's Delta episode which was generally quite appreciated and indeed I feel like at some point I should play ORAS. For the same reasons I dislike BDSP, but that's another story. I love Hoenn, but having played Emerald, it felt like a "complete game", so I had no reason to go back and play ruby and sapphire. I felt the same with ORAS. However I could be wrong. For example, I d never recommend someone not to play DP, after having played PT. I feel like you can truly understand the lore only if u played both games.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

I haven't played ORAS because I was in my "I m done with pokemon" time, so I skipped them. I remember some of the reasons I didn't buy those (not considering the fact I had sold my 3ds lol), were new Groudon and Kyogre forms that weren't bad, but they didn't really get me. Also, the fact that the story wouldn't be as good and complete as pokemon Emerald. Just feelings tho. Ik there's Delta episode which was generally quite appreciated and indeed I feel like at some point I should play ORAS. For the same reasons I dislike BDSP, but that's another story. I love Hoenn, but having played Emerald, it felt like a "complete game", so I had no reason to go back and play ruby and sapphire. I felt the same with ORAS. However I could be wrong. For example, I d never recommend someone not to play DP, after having played PT. I feel like you can truly understand the lore only if u played both games.

Update: I played ORAS and I loved it. The answer I give to how it compares to Emerald is that these remakes renewed gen 3 games imo. I have written a detailed post on how I felt with ORAS and I don't want to repeat myself, even because it was a hugely long post.

Spoiler:

However, I think that the Delta Episode is literally the part that Game Freak made, telling everyone "hey, we didn't forget about Emerald. We're gonna do something for that too". And I LOVED it. Honestly, this game made me feel the desire of replaying it as soon as possible. On the opposite, when it comes to the story, despite it's quite a new story, it still kinda doesn't make sense to me. I feel that Emerald represents how events would have really happened. Emerald story is more logical and realistic. But, however, on this I can't blame the remakes. That part of the game is based on the original games.

 

[Dr_Woodie]

I love the Dex Nav feature! Also horde encounters. So excited to shiny hunt them with best odds possible! completing my nat dex tonight 8D