Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (Hoenn Remakes for the 3DS)

Gen 6's musical direction is all over the place at times.

But ORAS was a step up from X/Y at least.

Deoxys' music and cinematic totally makes up for it though.

edited 22nd Mar '15 9:32:54 PM by Karxrida

how does the designs for pokemon work at Gamefreak? Do people vote on it? Does a group of directors choose which ones are the cheapest to make? Does an artist get free reign on whatever they want to put in?

From what I understand, there are at least a dozen or so people who design Pokemon. Most are Japanese, but a couple are Korean Gamefreak employees and/or freelance artists, plus the British James Turner responsible for several of Gen 5's qurkier designs. The exact process of how a Pokemon goes from being a sketch in someoene's book to a merchandise driving force of nature isn't something they have documented anywhere as far as I know, but judging by how wild some of the designs are, I assume the team has a decent degree of freedom. Ken Sugimori seems to be the guy that finalizes each design and ensures they all fit the Pokemon aesthetic at least, since he's done the overwhelming majority of official images for the Pokemon themselves.

He used to do so for the humans, too, but that role's since been taken by some younger artist.

edited 22nd Mar '15 10:21:36 PM by Hashil

I think it's Ohmura who does it now.

Did some looking into it and apparently there's even a Polish guy helping out with at least the trainers http://suda51.wikia.com/wiki/Rafa%C5%82_Gosieniecki

He's listed under Trainer Graphic Design in X and Y's credits.

i wonder if we'll ever get another fan-mon like Gardevoir again.

Um... source? Bulbapedia has nothing about that.

Is the development team for Pokemon games considered small? I was surprised to learn that there were only eighteen people involved in the Pokemon design process for Gen 6, but I don't really know much about game development otherwise.

If you look up some of the artist's pages on Bulbapedia it'll tell you a few of the mons they were responsible for. Mana Ibe might be one of my favs. She created Haxorus, Stunfisk and Klefki.

So after way too long I finally finished Omega Ruby's postgame story arc. I guess looking back on it it was pretty short, but it felt like it was dragging on forever and I ended up taking a hiatus. On the whole the plot was pretty drab. It actually reminds me a lot of what I disliked about the character and plot writing of Black and White: pretentious characters lacking in substance talking a lot but saying surprisingly little, and plots that stayed in more or less the same place for a long time.

And now I'll have to fight the E4 again, since I blew my chance to get Deoxys (two wild Legendary battles in a row? Oy... though admittedly it was my fault for underestimating the power of Broken the Wonder Dragon - I think that's the first time I've ever oneshotted a Legendary ever).

At least I finally get access to the Battle Frontier Resort now.

Edit: Then again I'm seriously considering not saving and redoing the Rayquaza and Deoxys battles, just so I won't have to waste time training up a team to fight the E4 (unless the time ultimately comes where I want to).

edited 25th Mar '15 11:01:24 AM by KnownUnknown

I dealt with overkilling Rayquaza via Save Scumming immediately prior to the fight.

Then I threw a Master Ball at Deoxys because why don't you still have your Master Ball?

edited 25th Mar '15 11:00:55 AM by TobiasDrake

I actually don't remember what I did with my Master Ball, but I don't have it any more. I probably used it on Kyogre or something.

Surprisingly, when fighting Rayquaza it was kind of easy. I burned it (already a no-no) with my very Blaziken and then held it off despite being 15 levels lower, and it actually stayed in an Ultra Ball while in the yellow.

Wow. Burned a Legend and still got it. That's an accomplishment.

I learned back in Gen Wun that Legendary means save. Our legendaries were less forgiving of failure. I have had hilariously anticlimactic legend fights, though; most notably, catching Tornadus in a Quick Ball.

edited 25th Mar '15 11:47:08 AM by TobiasDrake

Rayquaza's catch rate was buffed for ORAS, so nabbing it while burned doesn't sound unlikely (especially since status increases success rate).

I didn't have my master ball because I gave it to one of my Pokémon specifically so I wouldn't use it too early.

Shows how well that worked.

You can't save between Rayquaza and Deoxys, only before. They're essentially a two man Boss Bonanza.

edited 25th Mar '15 11:30:11 PM by KnownUnknown

I have to admit I really didn't get the hype about the Delta Episode. Zinnia just seemed so annoying I was even having my character get annoyed with her and most of the time I was just breeding for a jolly Ralts to catch Rayquaza. Eventually I gave up and just finished it by catching Rayquaza in a Quick Ball the first turn in a critical capture and flying up to Deoxys... Only to catch it first turn in another Quick Ball.

Right. That's why I Save Scummed to capture Rayquaza, then just hucked the Master Ball at Deoxys.

That you cannot Save Scum Deoxys without rematching Rayquaza is irrelevant if you have the Master Ball on your person.

I really loved Zinnia and the Delta Episode. All dat plot. It was awesome.

I loved the concept and music of flying Rayquaza into space to battle Deoxys - even if it was a hilarious anticlimax when I Master Ball'd him - but it's also another instance in which I had to chuckle at the ages of Pokémon protagonists. Rayquaza taking a ten-year-old into space to punch out the Armageddon movie has a few touches of Adult Fear.

• "And then we never saw him/her again. I never got a straight answer on how we went from a sending children to train Pokemon to my child dying in space."

edited 26th Mar '15 9:05:39 AM by TobiasDrake

I personally loved the delta episode, it had the character depth I liked from XY and gen V, but was also quite an enjoyable adventure and was pretty funny at times. The only bit I didn't like was the heavily implied romance between may and brendan, I don't think the PC should ever have a canon relationship.

The character depth

from XY

elaborate?

Couldn't personally see Tierno's forest for the "I LYK DANZING" trees.

okay not all the character depth. I was referring mainly to the antivillains/antiheroes that gen V and XY had. I admit that some characters were just flat

I'm an unbelievably huge sucker for AZ, Emma, Looker, Zinnia, and N. Oh my god N. It's all those character-developed-plot-device character things that get me.

Zinnia came off as pretentious to me, but I liked the Looker arc. N was pretty good as well. Oh and AZ had good characterization and backstory, if not a bit underdeveloped.

edited 26th Mar '15 11:51:58 AM by BloatedCreeper