12 years ago, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire was released on the
Gameboy Advance and became two of the all-time best sellers for the console.
Since their release, fans of the Pokémon franchise have wanted a remake of
these beloved titles and earlier this year in May, Omega Ruby and Alpha
Sapphire were announced to an eagerly awaiting public.
But were they worth the wait?
Firstly the story,
To those familiar with the original Ruby & Sapphire, the
story of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire won’t surprise you with them largely being
remakes.
You are a kid who has just moved into the region of Hoenn
where your father has become a Gym leader. After meeting your neighbour
Brandon/May (depending on what gender you chose your character to be.) you meet
Professor Birch being chased by a Poochyena while out doing fieldwork and here
you chose your Pokémon and have your first battle.
From there you start on your Pokémon adventure and go out
into the world to catch and train Pokémon, earn Badges at various Gyms to prove
yourself as a trainer, challenge the Elite Four and the Champion while also
stopping either Team Aqua/Magma from realising their plans.
But there are some differences in these updated versions.
Like in X & Y, Mega Evolutions play a big part of the
narrative bringing an origin that was briefly touched on in the previous games by
tying in a type of evolution exclusive to the Hoenn legendaries Groudon and
Kyogre as being linked with Mega Evolutions.
Another addition is the Delta Episode which like the Looker Bureau
of X & Y adds a last chapter to the main story of the games while also tying
in some elements from Emerald. The Delta Episode also introduces us to Zinnia a
mysterious Draconid woman who holds the key to the Delta Episode’s storyline.
As a whole the Delta Episode carries a story worth caring about in Pokémon, and
the execution was way better than I expected and hope that Game Freak continue
this trend with any future additions like this.
One area where both these games excel in greatly is
character development by adding more in animation as well as changes in
dialogue making the cast more dynamic as a whole and adds to the more intricate
storytelling presented here in ORAS.
Onto the graphics,
The graphical bump to 3D that we saw in Pokémon X and Y is
here but I've been far more impressed with the world of Hoenn than I ever was
with the region of Kalos. Its art seems brighter and much more lively with its
locations feeling strangely more fresh than I would have thought given the age
of both Ruby and Sapphire. Many of Ruby and Sapphire's characters are now more
expressive and emotive and while that's often played up for laughs, it also
gave the entire cast a personality and style that they had lacked before in the
original games.
One part of these where the graphics are at their most
breathtaking is when call on Latios or Latias (depending what version you have)
and use the Soar ability. Soar allows you to ride said Pokémon in a
third-person perspective and fly to every corner of Hoenn even the islands you
couldn’t reach in the originals and the view of Hoenn while doing this is an
incredible thing to see and the freedom of movement you get will most likely
render the Fly HM pointless in the grand scheme of things.
Onto the music,
One of the reasons why the original Ruby and Sapphire stood
out from the previous games was its music. The approach that ORAS has with its
soundtrack is that it tries to be faithful while also trying to make it fit the
situation more. In general, the remixes capture the essence of the original
soundtrack, while amplifying the feeling, ambience, and tone of it. They add
charm to the world, and enrich the atmosphere, while preserving the feeling and
tone that the original tracks had.
That being said, every now and then, you'll run into some
tracks that sound off. The differences are really subtle so some of the added
tones detract from the melody and dilute the sharp feeling that the originals
had. The soundtrack overall is pretty outstanding here in ORAS.
Quickly onto the features of Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire,
A lot of the features are essentially a copy of the ones
seen in X & Y which makes sense because the four games shared development but
it would have been great if each had some degree of flare unique to X &
Y/ORAS design wise to differentiate from each other. The other problem is that
these features are hidden within the interface which leads to most players
forgetting they are even available in game to use.
The new addition of the DexNav makes it easier for trainers
looking for Pokémon with certain moves, stats and abilities they don’t normally
have and the inclusion of the PSS and its features improves on the restrictive
trading found in Ruby & Sapphire by integrating with the system used by X
& Y making for a smooth online experience either in trading or battling
with other players across the world which allows players to determine how they
want their experience in ORAS to be if that should just using the Pokémon only
in their respective versions making it closer to the originals or migrating
Pokémon via PokéBank to have an playthrough closer to that seen in X & Y
for a more customised team.
Another new feature fresh in ORAS is the extension to the
Fly HM which now allows players to access routes as well as towns and points of
interest like before in previous generations.
Now onto some drawbacks with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire,
The first thing is the story writing. What I mean by this is
parts of the story that worked in Ruby & Sapphire seemed dated in Omega
Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and one example of this shows when your character
meets his/her father Norman and some of the dialogue would suggest that Norman
is somewhat distant when read today which makes him as a character comes off as
not really interested and is more encouraging toward Wally a frail and shy
trainer just starting out who later becomes your rival alongside Brandon/May.
Next I’m touching on the HMs and the abundance of them. While
being necessary for exploring a diverse landscape like Hoenn, it’s a double
edge part of these being truly faithful remakes which means at least two
Pokémon in your party will each have 4 of the total 8 HMs for the sake of
progression through the game which will annoy some players.
On the plus side of the HM issue, the Pokémon Sharpedo has
now got a faster swimming speed when using Surf so traversing the water heavy
areas is much better if you feel that Hoenn has “too much water.”
The next issue is the lack of the Battle Frontier. Personally
like many others, I was surprised that the Battle Frontier wasn’t immediately
included in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire leaving only a model version of it
and saying it was coming soon seen during the post game giving the impression
that it would come later on via DLC.
Finally a personal issue I have with ORAS.
While I played from the beginning right through the first
five Gyms, it felt more like a tutorial instead of the challenging climb I
remembered from when I played the originals which disappointed me partly.
Onto my final thoughts,
I did have high standards for these remakes in how they
would be crafted and if they could improve on the older mechanics as well as the
storytelling and characters while improving on the games being remade enough to
justify having me and many others to play through them again.
In the past, Game Freak proved with Heart Gold & Soul Silver that remakes of older Pokémon games could do just that and I’m happy to say that Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire are overall winners in this regard.
From the introduction to the ending credits, Omega Ruby and
Alpha Sapphire are fantastic reintroductions to Hoenn for both players of the
originals and new players alike and while they are not perfect games, they did
hit the mark needed for remade titles and the strengths of the modern Pokémon
games have been used well to improve on the style that the originals had while
keeping the feeling of the game intact.
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