Pokemon Alpha Sapphire & Omega Ruby Review
-Not the Alpha of Pokemon games, but still pretty legendary.It's hard to play a Pokemon game without being transported back to a place in time where your life was easier. This makes it even harder to prevent nostalgia from making an appearance when judging games like Pokemon Alpha Sapphire & Omega Ruby critically. Fortunately, these two games are remakes, which means not only are they playing on your nostalgia (why else would you purchase a game you played 13 years ago?), but they are allowing it to run wild. Playing through these two games of the beloved Pokemon franchise allowed me to appreciate and understand the love I felt for them years ago, but it also showed me some problems that plagued the franchise in 2002.
For those who missed the game back in the day, or who are completely unaware of the existence of Pokemon games, Pokemon, at its core, is an RPG series. In these games, you're tasked with completing your Pokedex by collecting monsters known as Pokemon via Pokeballs, while obtaining 8 gyms badges throughout the region. You first must train your Pokemon team by battling wild Pokemon and trainers alike to obtain experience. This levels up your Pokemon and when you're ready, you can choose to take on a gym leader. Upon defeating these leaders, you will be given a gym badge. After obtaining all 8, you may challenge the Elite Four and become the Pokemon Champion (sounds awesome, right?). This is a formula followed in all main-line Pokemon games and like the rest of them, these games come with the story of either Team Magma (Omega Ruby) or Team Aqua (Alpha Sapphire) attempting to use the power of legendary Pokemon to completely change the region of Hoenn to align with their respective visions.
These two remakes stand as the first two of older games to receive the 3D remake treatment. We've played 3D Pokemon games before (Pokemon X and Y), but these are the first 3D remakes. When released originally as the third generation of Pokemon games, these two games made some large splashes in the by-and-by Pokemon formula. First, they added Abilities (essentially traits that add advantages, and sometimes disadvantages, to your Pokemon) and Natures (these dictate how a Pokemon's stats evolve as the Pokemon grows). These games also added Double Battles (which have now been overshadowed by Triple Battles) that allow for up to two Pokemon to battle on each side of the fight. With a story relying heavily on the topic of region land and sea, these games came with the addition of changing weather patterns and a unique layout of land, ranging from deserts, to beaches, to treetops, and more.
Playing these games as an excited 7-year-old back in 2002 granted me an extreme sense of wonder, awe, and a desperate need for continued exploration. Now, 13 years later in 2015, I can say that all those raw emotions are still there. With updated graphics and some layout changes, exploring Hoenn all over again felt like my first time. Meeting some of my favorite characters such as Wally or May in their new 3D character models, or encountering some of my favorite areas only to find that they had been completely over-hauled (for the better...wait til you get to Mauville), brought a warm and welcoming rush of happiness.
GameFreak also took care to utilize new features from recent additions to the franchise in these remakes. My personal favorite, Pokemon Amie, returns allowing you to pet, feed, and play games with all of your Hoenn favorites. With the return of features like Pokemon Amie comes the return of the incredibly useful Super Training and the Player Search System. All of this and more rests within your PokeNav Plus aka your menu screen on steroids, which sits tactically on the bottom screen of your 3DS. New features were added as well such as the DexNav application. This allows you to to see the level of nearby ears-popping-out-of-the-grass Pokemon as well as their ability and if you're lucky, rare moves. With this, collecting all the Pokemon and finding those ones perfect for breeding and EV training, has never been easier.
These remakes also come with an updated Berry system which includes berries that came in later entries in the series and with berries, one can't forget about Pokeblocks. Pokeblocks play into a section of the game that I usually dismiss which is the Beauty Contests. Although these aren't for me, I can see why they're present. Pokeblocks can be given to your Pokemon to raise it where it counts (in Beauty Contests), Coolness, Beauty, Cuteness, Cleverness and Toughness. While the original iterations of Sapphire and Ruby held their contests in a more standard manner, the remakes really embraced their Japanese roots by making each contest feel like a J-Pop concert, which might come off as odd for those not familiar with J-Pop. I will say, in a strange and unforeseen way, this change in contests compelled me to put a little more time into this section of the game than originally planned.
On the subject of changes, almost all changes were made to improve the game. What's unfortunate here is that some things that should've been tweaked, remain untouched. Made worse by the fact that recent Pokemon games have addressed these problems, it is a shame the developers overlooked some things. For example, even after dropping Flash as an HM (Hidden Machine, a move necessary to pass certain obstacles), these games still have 7 HMs. Compared to X and Y's 5 HMs, it's unfortunate that once again, players will have to waste a team slot on a Pokemon who only knows HMs. On top of that, the Hoenn region is filled with secret bases (cool, little bases that you can customize and invite other players into) that require you to use a move known as "Secret Power", aka another wasted move slot. With secret bases being such a fun side section of the game, you have to wonder why GameFreak didn't opt to remove the use of a move to reach your secret base.
You've heard this before but still, Hoenn remains imbalanced in terms of Pokemon types. This is noticeable especially with Water-Types which far outnumber every other type present in the game. To make matters worse, if you're playing Alpha Sapphire, Team Aqua (who you'll encounter often) almost exclusively uses Water-Types. Finding it tough to enter a battle without a water type on either side of the field, find an Electric-Type and love it deeply, because when your journey is over, it will certainly be your strongest and most experienced Pokemon. You must also get used to loving the open ocean because almost half the map is water, which means that quite often, you'll be surfing and diving (some HMs that will take up more move slots) throughout Hoenn's seas.
The only plus about all the water, is that it is beautiful. With these remakes comes the best main-line Pokemon graphics we've ever seen. The sky reflects on water puddles, the flowers sway, the waterfalls cascade, and the treetop bridges of Fortree City rumble with each step. It's easy to get lost in the gorgeous setting of Hoenn with Pokemon graphics this great.
Overall, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire & Omega Ruby might not be the greatest remakes, but they are certainly must-plays for any fan of the series. Being the most beautiful Pokemon games to date, with the most attention to in-world details, these are games I highly recommend to almost anyone who owns a 3DS. What GameFreak did well was re-introduce the series to any who put the cartridge in their 3DS, making it accessible to all. Unfortunately, what GameFreak didn't do well is even more apparent now that these games have been given the fresh remake treatment. Luckily, by some new additions to the game plus a post-game surprise, one can almost forgive them.
Final Score: 8 out 10.
This game isn't perfect but it is great and certainly worth your time.
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