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Reviews VideoGame / Pokemon Ruby And Sapphire

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Spanks Since: Jan, 2015
04/20/2015 21:32:59 •••

A halfhearted remake that doesn't know what it wants to be.

Since 2009, Pokemon crawled out of it's 2000's Dork Age with Pokemon Platinum, a vastly improved remake of Diamond and Pearl, and the best one since Emerald.

Platinum was the breakthrough hit the series needed to get back on track, and Pokemon games since have reaped the rewards. Heart Gold and Soul Silver in 2010 were not merely great remakes of the Gen 2 games, but great games period. Black and White completely shifted the formula entirely, turning all the traditions and tropes the series became known for on it's head, and Black 2 and White 2 were great sequels that totally expanded the Unova region. The 2013 Pokemon games X and Y, brought the series into the third dimension, and was newstalgia done right. A perfect blend of Pokemon Past and Present.

In short, Pokemon games have been on an upswing. The franchise was soaring to new heights never before seen. Each new game brought something new and spectacular to the table.

Until this game.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, after their stellar predecessors, seem to be made on the quick and cheap just so Gamefreak could get the increasingly inevitable Gen 3 remakes out of the way. It's headscratching design choices making this one of more mediocre entries in the series.

This game doesn't know what it wants to be. A faithful remake of the original or an improvement, and it ends up being neither. If this game is going to add dumb bonuses like the Delta Emerald Episode, why is the Battle Frontier missing? Heart Gold and Soul Silver had it even though it wasn't in their original games. It gets worse when you learn the Frontier made it's DEBUT in Gen 3! So why isn't it here? You brought contests back. Why isn't THIS back?

Also, for some reason, as if Pokemon X and Y weren't easy enough games, ORAS just goes over the edge of mockery. There is not a single difficult battle in the entire game. Trainers, the Villain Team, the Gym Leaders, and even the Elite Four are mowed down effortlessly. Little to no strategy involved at all. Unless you have terrible luck, this game is total cruise control.

Besides access to some new legendaries, new Megas and Move Tutors, or you simply want to enjoy Hoenn again, there is really no good reason to play these games if you already have X and Y. Everything you can do here, you can do just as good if not better in X and Y.

BigKlingy Since: Apr, 2011
04/20/2015 00:00:00

I actually agree with a lot of the bad points you mentioned, but I still think these games are better than X and Y, which, to me, were nostalgia gone horribly wrong and the worst main versions since Diamond and Pearl.

I still think the plot and character improvements make this game worth playing. The evil teams are actually memorable now, unlike in the originals, and the Gym Leaders have a lot of character in their brief intros, far more than X and Y did.

I do wish it wasn't so easy though. (Admittedly, Hoenn was never a hard region to begin with. X and Y are actually pretty hard without thge Exp Share.) This can mostly be blamed on the HORRIBLE enemy AI in these games. It has virtually no logic to it and will often use moves that do nothing to you repeatedly, and forget when it has Super Effective moves. Steven's Mega Metagross should have been a challenge, but I destroyed it in both fights due to its AI spamming nothing but Giga Impact.


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