Thoughts on ORAS, and the current state of Pokemon games?

[GTMippey]

Just curious as to what people are thinking about the newest Pokemon games, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

I'm loving it so far. I've just beaten the Elite 4 and the champion and am now about to start all the post-game stuff. Gen 6 has been the gen that got me right into Pokemon, and now I don't think I could go back to earlier games.

I've played through every gen so far, and all the way up to gen 5 would usually finish the main story and get both overwhelmed and bored by the post-game, purely because of how cumbersome it was to trade between versions, and how obscure things like EV training seemed. But now with the advent of Pokemon Bank and all the features in the 3DS games that allow quick trading and training, I think Pokemon has never been better or easier to get into.

I know some purists might hate the EXP Share, but I think the current way it's used is one of the best things to ever come to the series. I don't mind grinding usually, but I found that once you hit the 7th gym and need to spend hours grinding every individual Pokemon to be ready for the end game then it usually got pretty monotonous and dull.

So what do all you Escapists think?

 

[suntt123]

I think they should put some way to register version exclusive legends on pokedexes like they did in D/P where there was a book with the other legendary's picture. But then again, it's not needed to unlock the national dex anymore (just an item that increases the odds of getting eggs), but it would still be nice. Pokemon games are about as good as they've ever been, but with considerably more QoL fixes (asks if you want to use another repel after old one expires, can buy dozen moomoo milks, Breeding mechanics changes, online play, etc).

If I have any complaint it's that they make you need 1000 secret base flags to unlock Garchomp's mega stone, which I find slightly unreasonable (I guess it's easier to accomplish in Japan where everyone and their mother can street pass you more flags)... Speaking of, is there a secret base QR code sharing thing around here?

 

[Scarim Coral]

I think my passion for the franchise is starting to wear thin or rather that there are other better games to played at the moment than Pokemon ORAS (I playing little on it at the moment as I am spending more time on other games to play).

I will say that the Pokenav is a good time saver but only by a little (sure it can let me hunt for a specific Pokemon but it is still RNG by getting the said specific Pokemon but with good natures and ability)!

The remake may be an improvement in some way but it also still restricted by its original form (exp share is the same as X and Y but there is no healer near the entrace to the route/ cave or etc).

I think the franchise need another juice to bring it back to life again other than the 3d graphic and the mega forms, maybe a change in the mechanic (I fed up the need of using HM to advance the story or rather that a HM shouldn't take up the four move slots).

 

[Hero of Lime]

I would agree that despite the popular idea that there are too many Pokemon, or that the series's mechanics have changed so much, the new games are incredibly easy to get into. I would also agree that the series has gotten only better despite the common feeling that new Pokemon are all lousy, or that the series is stagnant.

Admittedly I don't enjoy the exp share, though I would turn it on if you can control which Pokemon use its effects, rather than just having everyone get experience. I like leveling my team up with the help of lucky eggs, because I like to cycle through each Pokemon on my team in a specific way.

I probably enjoy ORAS more than X and Y, and still loved X and Y! As it stands, Black and White are still my favorite Pokemon games, and I probably don't see that changing until they get remade many years from now.

 

[wooty]

I stopped at Yellow....yes Yellow. My interest in the Pokemon world died once they expanded it into these new weird Pokemon that just seem out of place to me.

Not played ORAS at all, but I'm already annoyed with it. The sheer amount of pictures (up to 20 a day) from friends that are appearing on my news feed each day of Pokemon in hats and dresses and shit like that makes me wonder where it all went wrong.

 

[Alex Baas]

Sapphire was my first video game ever so I am mighty attached to that game. I put over 500 hours into that game. I have been enjoying AS greatly so far, though I think that putting the game into 3d shrunk the world. Secret bases seem so small now and I feel I have lost the precision of movement that I once had. I am still pissed that I needed a mach bike to catch a freaking Aron in the Granite Cave. I like the Super Training and how they more or less handled the EXP share, though would like to be able to program in exemptions as has been stated. I like the small things that they added to make the game more accessible and I love ignoring them.

One question though, could anyone tell me what the post game content is? My 8 year old self refuses to look it up telling me to do it word of mouth. Is the Battle Frontier from Emerald back? My brother had Emerald and let me play it for the Battle Frontier. The Emerald Battle Frontier had the most interesting battles IMO next to XD.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I don't like ORAS as much as I did X and Y. In some aspects, it feels like a step backward rather than an improvement. I sorely miss the trainer customization and I hope that decision was only to keep the spirit of the original Ruby and Sapphire and so returning in brand new installments from here on out.

That being said, I'm very happy with soar and the different surfing mechanics

Spoiler: anybody who brings Kyogre or Sharpedo into the water knows what Im talking about

It's mostly aesthetic, but I like it and I hope they expand on little things like that in the future.

I really don't like the use of street pass anywhere in this game. I don't like how it's the only way to get the eon ticket or the above mentioned 1000 secret base flags, not everywhere in the world is as densely populated as Japan. Some of these features are just better as a wi-fi distribution, or even spot pass.

I really hope they do something with HMs, the way they're handled feels archaic when other features[footnote]Soar which is basically fly without the need for an HM and 10x better[/footnote] are getting so much improvement and I'm getting tired of dedicating the only water Pokemon on my team to the role of HM slave, Starmie has so much more potential than that, but somebody has to take these moves if I want to travel anywhere.

------------------------------
I also noticed quite a few useless personal abilities. I gave my Skitty such a nice move set only to discover it couldn't make any super effective hits, because it has an ability called "Normalize" which changes the typing of all it's moves to normal. I can think of only one type of situation where this would be marginally useful[footnote]Teach it thunderwave, you can now paralyze ground types[/footnote] and half a dozen where it sucks [footnote]You're screwed against ghost types without the help of identify, you're not doing much damage against rock or steel types at all[/footnote].

It's not even like "Defeatist" The personal ability of Archeops, because at least Archeops is amazing as long as you keep it above fifty percent HP, Delcatty doesn't even get that benefit.

 

[K-lusive]

I stopped at Yellow....yes Yellow. My interest in the Pokemon world died once they expanded it into these new weird Pokemon that just seem out of place to me.

Not played ORAS at all, but I'm already annoyed with it. The sheer amount of pictures (up to 20 a day) from friends that are appearing on my news feed each day of Pokemon in hats and dresses and shit like that makes me wonder where it all went wrong.

For you; after yellow. For people who still enjoy pokemon despite you; somewhere in the future.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it 'went wrong' and if a flood of dressed-up pokemon on your feed annoys you (IMHO) it has more to do with your feed-settings or friends than with the game or franchise.

 

[wooty]

I stopped at Yellow....yes Yellow. My interest in the Pokemon world died once they expanded it into these new weird Pokemon that just seem out of place to me.

Not played ORAS at all, but I'm already annoyed with it. The sheer amount of pictures (up to 20 a day) from friends that are appearing on my news feed each day of Pokemon in hats and dresses and shit like that makes me wonder where it all went wrong.

For you; after yellow. For people who still enjoy pokemon despite you; somewhere in the future.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it 'went wrong' and if a flood of dressed-up pokemon on your feed annoys you (IMHO) it has more to do with your feed-settings or friends than with the game or franchise.

Hey, he asked for my opinion and there it is. Not got anything against Pokemon in the slightest, I've got a Pikachu plush toy proudly sat on my cars dashboard. I just didn't "feel" the new breed of Pokemon they brought out with Gold and Silver, as much as I tried. So for me, my interest in the franchise faded.

 

[Something Amyss]

Speaking of, is there a secret base QR code sharing thing around here?

There really should be if there isn't. Which reminds me, I should actually make a QR code.

The remake may be an improvement in some way but it also still restricted by its original form (exp share is the same as X and Y but there is no healer near the entrace to the route/ cave or etc).

There frequently is, though. Like, maybe not at every route/cave entrance (one would be really useful in that underwater cave), but with few exceptions, you rarely seem to be that far from a healer.

I think the franchise need another juice to bring it back to life again other than the 3d graphic and the mega forms, maybe a change in the mechanic (I fed up the need of using HM to advance the story or rather that a HM shouldn't take up the four move slots).

While I agree on the HM slots, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with the formula and it seems to sell well.

Hey, he asked for my opinion and there it is.

He asked for the opinion on games you haven't played. That probably should have been the end of it.

I really don't like the use of street pass anywhere in this game. I don't like how it's the only way to get the eon ticket or the above mentioned 1000 secret base flags, not everywhere in the world is as densely populated as Japan. Some of these features are just better as a wi-fi distribution, or even spot pass.

There's a method to basically set up a WiFi hotspot to handle this, though I'm yet to get it to work.

 

[Hero of Lime]

One question though, could anyone tell me what the post game content is? My 8 year old self refuses to look it up telling me to do it word of mouth. Is the Battle Frontier from Emerald back? My brother had Emerald and let me play it for the Battle Frontier. The Emerald Battle Frontier had the most interesting battles IMO next to XD.

The battle frontier is not around unfortunately. However, there is a replacement in the post game that is just like the battle facility found in X and Y.

As for the rest of the post game content, there is the Delta episode involving Rayquaza, Deoxys, and a new character. It's a pretty cool event that you can look forward to.

There's also just about every legendary Pokemon that is available for capture that you can find near the end of the game. You can actually capture most of them before you beat the champion.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

There's also just about every legendary Pokemon that is available for capture that you can find near the end of the game. You can actually capture most of them before you beat the champion.

Not mew, which could be found in the original Emerald (with the help of a Nintendo event item)
I would like another mew. Mew is the best Pokemon and ORAS is automatically less without it.

 

[laggyteabag]

Ruby and Sapphire was kind of the end of the road for me when it came to Pokemon in the first place, and after that, no other pokemon game ever really interested me that much. Despite their success, you can really tell that the team behind Pokemon is really running on fumes right about now (hence the sudden emergence of mega evolutions). They're obviously going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for a while to get some more pokemon designs, but they are probably just going to milk the rereleases and mega evolutions for years to come regardless.

 

[Hero of Lime]

There's also just about every legendary Pokemon that is available for capture that you can find near the end of the game. You can actually capture most of them before you beat the champion.

Not mew, which could be found in the original Emerald (with the help of a Nintendo event item)
I would like another mew. Mew is the best Pokemon and ORAS is automatically less without it.

That is true, I guess I should say almost every non-event legendary Pokemon is available for capture. At least we finally have a way to catch Deoxys outside an event. Baby steps!

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I never actually played the originals, so it's all new to me. Anyway, I pre-trained my team on X so they should all be pretty boss soon (although I've noticed a couple of weaknesses in my team. Damnit!). The only thing Pokemon really needs for me is an egg incubator. X&Y feel very much like they're designed to just train up teams for multiplayer so it seems a little strange that hatching Pokemon is still a total ballache.

Ruby and Sapphire was kind of the end of the road for me when it came to Pokemon in the first place, and after that, no other pokemon game ever really interested me that much. Despite their success, you can really tell that the team behind Pokemon is really running on fumes right about now (hence the sudden emergence of mega evolutions). They're obviously going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for a while to get some more pokemon designs, but they are probably just going to milk the rereleases and mega evolutions for years to come regardless.

I stopped with the second gen and only got back in with X&Y- I think if I tried to start again with earlier gens (I bought Black 2 a little after and haven't finished it) it wouldn't have stuck, but X&Y are definitely new and different. There's plenty of change that I think gets overlooked by non-players because they only see the new Pokemon, but running out of new ideas for Pokemon isn't as important as refining the gameplay.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[ccggenius12]

I also noticed quite a few useless personal abilities. I gave my Skitty such a nice move set only to discover it couldn't make any super effective hits, because it has an ability called "Normalize" which changes the typing of all it's moves to normal. I can think of only one type of situation where this would be marginally useful[footnote]Teach it thunderwave, you can now paralyze ground types[/footnote] and half a dozen where it sucks [footnote]You're screwed against ghost types without the help of identify, you're not doing much damage against rock or steel types at all[/footnote].

It's not even like "Defeatist" The personal ability of Archeops, because at least Archeops is amazing as long as you keep it above fifty percent HP, Delcatty doesn't even get that benefit.

You're not taking Same Type Attack Bonus into account. Skitty is a normal type, and by making all of its attacks normal type, they'll deal 1.5x damage. Sure, it's not the 2x you'd get from a super effective attack, but it's consistent, and straight better in situations where you wouldn't be inflicting a super effective hit.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I don't like the new exp share.
I never needed to grind and I ran from almost all wild pokemon. If you fight every trainer you should be fine for the endgame, but still have it be a slight challenge rather than just blasting through it.

Other than that though, yeah pokemon is still good. I would be so happy if they added a harder difficulty though. Perhaps Newgame+?

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

I also noticed quite a few useless personal abilities. I gave my Skitty such a nice move set only to discover it couldn't make any super effective hits, because it has an ability called "Normalize" which changes the typing of all it's moves to normal. I can think of only one type of situation where this would be marginally useful[footnote]Teach it thunderwave, you can now paralyze ground types[/footnote] and half a dozen where it sucks [footnote]You're screwed against ghost types without the help of identify, you're not doing much damage against rock or steel types at all[/footnote].

It's not even like "Defeatist" The personal ability of Archeops, because at least Archeops is amazing as long as you keep it above fifty percent HP, Delcatty doesn't even get that benefit.

You're not taking Same Type Attack Bonus into account. Skitty is a normal type, and by making all of its attacks normal type, they'll deal 1.5x damage. Sure, it's not the 2x you'd get from a super effective attack, but it's consistent, and straight better in situations where you wouldn't be inflicting a super effective hit.

I love me some skitty, that is my favorite pokemon of all time . And yes Normallize for Skitty is for more useful then Cute Charm (Or what ever it is).

 

[AH_EHUD]

I haven't beaten the new games yet I just beat Wallace at the time but I like it a lot. Its still not my favorite game in the series (The Generation 2 Remake is for the record) but there is a lot of improvements to some of the complaints I had with Generation 3 and X/Y. I think the new pokenav system is fun and a more interesting way to catch unique pokemon than wandering around trying to find a pokemon with a 1% encounter rate. Mega evolving is still uninteresting, I wish there was more too it than find an item but otherwise its not too bad and I like a lot of the new Megas look. I find it really entertaining that the new Pokedex is in the shape of a Gameboy Advance. Being able to catch all the legendaries is nice and having Latias use Soar makes me wish every flying type pokemon had that ability cause it makes the game fun to explore and I don't need to waste a move slot on Fly. Probably the best feature is that I can now instantly get pokemon from other games traded to me so I can use some of my favorite pokemon instead of being arbitrarily cut off from them like other games.

Just my opinion, but I think the New exp share makes the game way too easy and cheapens the game a bit. I played through X and Y and after beating the Elite 4 and Champion I would end up with level 65s and it just doesn't feel as satisfying as other generations. Part of what I found so fun about the games is you spend an hour or so leveling up your pokemon, investing time into them, then you go and beat the elite 4 or a gym leader to pay off that investment. When I didn't need to level grind at all the game just lacked any sort of excitement for me cause there was less for me to care about. Kind of an unfair example to explain my point but, Spending hours grinding to get up to a reasonable level and climbing up Mt. Silver in HG/SS to beat Red was way more satisfying than beating anyone in the Gen 6 games.

A minor and VERY personal complaint but am I the only one who doesn't like any of Rival/Gym Leader/Elite 4 music from gen 6? I usually play with the sound off but I always put in headphones and blast the awesome fight music before an important battle. These recent games's music just don't have the same feel as other games, like when I get into a Gym battle in Fire Red, Platinum or Soul Silver It feels exciting, epic and face paced (see the Kanto gym leaders in Heart Gold as an example) but when I'm facing a Kalos gym leader it feels uneventful. This Probably just me though.

Also if someone would be kind enough to send me a shiny Wooper that would be really nice of you