Five Things I Thought About Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have been out for almost two weeks in North America and I’m still playing the games as much as I can trying to explore every nook and cranny of the new and improved Hoenn region. The game’s been a lot of fun and it’s no surprise that I’ve really enjoyed playing it. The following is a general review of the game that goes over five key things that I thought while I was playing the newest installments in the Pokémon series. Don’t worry, if you haven’t played the newest games yet, this “review” of sorts is free of any major spoilers.

1. The Graphics Are Wonderful

It’s funny how seamlessly Game Freak managed to transform the look and style of the R/S/E Hoenn in these new 3D games. If you played the original games, you’ll have no problem recognizing all of the familiar areas despite the graphical leap forward. Everything looks so classic, yet so new at the same time. Tiny details, like the waving of the grass, the Pokémon in the overworld, and the wide array of colors used to give life to the world really go a long way and fans of the older games will really appreciate it. Aside from just the overworld, though, the 3D trainer models look great and even better than they did in X and Y. Their movements and expressions are fluid and expressive and really add a lot to the experience. Speaking of the trainers…

2. Every Character Has a Distinct Personality

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire truly stand out in terms of character development. Each unique character you meet from your rival to the Elite 4 all have distinct and memorable personalities that are only enhanced by their expressive faces and movements. True standouts in this department are the previously flat characters of Courtney (she in particular I found to be both creepy and awesome at the same time), Tabitha, Matt, and Shelly. While the Magma/Aqua admins were never super memorable in R/S/E, they really stand out here. They not only have more interaction with the player and involvement in the story, but Game Freak really went out of their way to make each of them unique. The same can be said for your two rivals, Brendan/May and Wally, as well as the gym leaders. It’s unfortunate many of the gym leaders don’t do much but battle you, but even in the short time you see them, they make their impression. The gym leaders and Elite 4 also each get their own cinematic introduction that really helps get you hyped for each battle. Special props to the introduction and battle with Norman in particular which set the stage for your dramatic fight against him perfectly. I hope future games take as many steps as these ones did to help establish their characters because I think it’s something that fans young and old can appreciate.

December CoroCoro Scan Reveals New Information About Pokémon ORAS

Here we go again with what will likely be the last big batch of reveals about Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire before its release. The latest batch of CoroCoro scans from the December issue show off a bit more information about the games than we know before and likely this will be followed up by an official reveal in a few days. However, with the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire so close, I’ve decided to hide any news about the games behind the “Continue Reading” tab so that anyone choosing to remain spoiler-free can choose to do so. In addition, I’ve decided that the week prior to ORAS’ release I will not post any potential news about the game as I will likely be avoiding spoilers myself. As for my review on the game, you can expect that, as well as a review of Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, about 1-2 weeks following the release.

All right. Enough business. Click below if you’d like to hear about the latest reveals from the December CoroCoro Scan.

5 Mini-Thoughts About the Pokemon ORAS Special Demo

Well, the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Special Demo is out now, which means that many fans have gotten the chance to step foot into the new and improved Hoenn! Since this isn’t a full game by any stretch, I figured I just present my five thoughts about the demo in an abridged format. So, here it is, five things I thought about the ORAS Demo:

1. It’s nice to see Hoenn in 3D. At least, to see Mossdeep City in 3D. The beaches and trees in particular look really nice. And moving around in the game feels very fluid and smooth. Not to mention, the game felt like it ran faster than even X and Y, though I can’t say for certain it does. Random encounters certainly do start up fast, that’s for sure.

2. Mega Glalie and Mega Steelix are cool. Though the North American version of the demo didn’t feature Mega Steelix, what I’ve seen of it is pretty sweet. I mentioned these two in a prior post, so I won’t say much more on the topic, but getting to use Mega Glalie was fun (though the fact that it seemingly never closes its mouth is a little silly :P).

The Surprise Reveals from the ORAS Demo

Okay, so here’s the follow-up post to the last one. If you want to find out about the newest ORAS stuff from the demo, click the “Read More” button. If not, feel free to just check out my previous post for all of the other revealed information from today. After the demo’s official release in the U.S., I’ll post more freely about this information unless, of course, a trailer or something comes out instead between now and then. Anyway, click on in order to read about the latest reveals.

New ORAS Trailer, Offical Website Updates, and Much More!

This is a big day for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire news! Though we new a lot of this stuff already, there’s still plenty of new things to talk about, so let’s get started!

First off, here’s that trailer we expected to see! This video from Pokémon’s YouTube channel shows off everything from the latest CoroCoro scans including flying, the Pokénav Plus, Latios and Latias, and the new Megas. Though the Pokénav was known about for a couple days, I was waiting for this video to be released in order to share my thoughts on it. I really like it. I’m very relieved to see that so many familiar features from X and Y will be returning to these games as well. I honestly think things like Pokémon Amie, the PSS, and Super Training almost need to be included from here on out in some form or another in order for the games to feel complete.

Additionally, the flying looks really cool. And, am I wrong here in thinking that this is the first time they’ve showed us night time in these games? I’m not sure, but it might be. Nonetheless, it’ll be nice to finally see Hoenn with the day and night cycles it was noticeably lacking in Ruby and Sapphire.

More Megas, Flying, and New Ways to Encounter Legendaries Revealed for Pokémon ORAS!

Another set of CoroCoro scans this month have revealed even more awesome mega evolutions as well as some new information about the game. The new Megs that have been revealed are: Mega Beedrill, Mega Pidgeot, and Mega Latios and Latias. Mega Latios and Latias were discovered by hackers in Pokémon X and Y a long time ago and were speculated to be included in the upcoming games for a while now, but I’m glad to see they’re finally being revealed. They’re almost indistinguishable from each other, but nonetheless, they look pretty slick. I like that they’re purple, a mix of Latias’ red and Latios’ blue. Nice idea.

With these two particular Megas, though, it’s been revealed that you’ll be able to fly on them in the overworld an announcement I did not see coming at all. How cool is that? To make it even cooler, you’ll actually be able to fly on these Pokémon in order to encounter the Gen IV and Gen V legendaries, including Dialga, Palkia, Reshiram, and Zekrom. Supposedly, you’ll be able to encounter every non-event legendary in Gen VI. Wow, that’s pretty generous of them. I’m glad to see they’re making an effort to introduce these legendaries to new players as well as help us complete our Pokédexes without having to replay old games. Flying on Pokémon, however, especially the legendary duo of Latias and Latios sounds pretty exciting. This is like riding a Gogoat, but taken one step further.

Mega Rayquaza Revealed for Pokemon ORAS!

Sorry this is a bit late. My Internet has been out all day and this is the first chance I’ve had to post anything. Nevertheless, enjoy this trailer for Mega Rayquaza!

Mega Rayquaza, who supposedly Mega evolves differently than all other Pokemon, has the new ability Delta Stream that sounds really powerful. The official website explains that Delta Stream will cause all weather type moves and abilities to fail (wow, talk about powerful) and will cause all moves that would normally deal super effective damage to flying types to deal normal damage. What a powerful ability! Rayquaza also can know a move called Dragon Ascent, which, though it sounds like a Dragon move, is actually a super-powerful Flying type move. Sounds like Rayquaza is going to be incredibly powerful, fittingly enough for the way it looks. Talk about an intense design. Additionally, in some of the screenshots on the official website, Mega Rayquaza looks gigantic. Though its height and weight are marked as ??? for some reason, it’s obvious this thing is going to be massive both in strength and size.
I expected a Mega Evolution announcement today, but I’m surprised to see that the reveal was of Rayquaza, though I’m not disappointed. I expected Rayquaza to get a Primal Reversion form, though it’s said that the reason it’s Mega Evolving instead will be explained within the game’s story. The official website details the new legend regarding Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza. Check it out for yourself by clicking here. It’s interesting to see the changes they’ve made, and the similarities to the plot of Emerald are hard to ignore. Will this game borrow some elements from Emerald too? I certainly hope so, and I don’t think that’s too outlandish of an assumption at this point. I can’t wait to play the new games to find out.
Well, that about covers it for now. Smash Bros. for 3DS is released tomorrow and you can bet a “Five Things” style review similar to my post on Tomodachi Life will follow in a few days.

Until Then,

-The Nintendo Nerd

Pokemon ORAS Trailer Shows Off New Megas and Primal Form Abilities + Smash Bros. Release in Japan

As we’ve come to expect, just a couple days after the CoroCoro scans came out, the official Pokémon channel has released a brand new trailer for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire with almost the exact same information as the scans only with a bit more detail. Here’s a link to the trailer so you can see it for yourself!

The trailer clarified the actual ways the new abilities of the Primal forms of Kyogre and Groudon will work and boy do they sound devastating. Groudon’s ability- Desolate Land, as it is called in English, brings about Harsh Sunlight will stop all water attacks and it cannot be taken away by other weather effects while Kyogre’s Primordial Sea ability does just about the opposite by stopping fire attacks and preventing other weather moves from being used. Both legendaries also have a new exclusive move: Groudon has Precipice Blades and Kyogre has Origin Pulse. These moves sound and look powerful and these new abilities are waay stronger than I thought they’d be. These Pokemon are obviously very capable of shutting down just about any weather based team. I wonder if they’ll make any future banned lists. At first glance, Groudon’s ability seems to outshine Kyogre’s (pun intended) as his completely shuts down the type he was 4x weak to in his Primal form. Kyogre’s just blocks Fire types, which can be useful if utilized correctly, but seems to be less practical. We’ll just have to see, though.

The rest of trailer also shows of Rayquaza (saying he’s making his “debut” though he’s hardly new), Mega Camerupt, Mega Sharpedo, and Mega Gallade in action.

Well, that about covers it, however I would like to mention that Super Smash Bros for the 3DS is out now in Japan and there is information about the game going around like mad. I anxiously await the release of the game in the U.S. in just a few weeks, and I know that many people are trying to avoid spoilers, including myself. Though I know quite a bit about the games already, I’m choosing to wait until the game is released fully to give my own thoughts and opinions about it. Also, I do not want to actively spoil the game for those who want to truly be surprised by the character roster, stages, secrets, and the like. Expect a review on the 3DS version of Smash Bros some time after the game’s release in North America and a post on any official news coming from either Nintendo or Sakurai himself.

Until Then,

The Nintendo Nerd

Pokémon ORAS-Mega Gallade, Mega Sharpedo, and Mega Camerupt!

The scans of the October issue of CoroCoro were released today and with them came some exciting new information about Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire! What news exactly? More Megas of course!

My absolute favorite Mega we’ve seen thus far is Mega Gallade. Gallade has been my personal favorite Pokémon since Gen IV, so I’m very excited to see it getting a Mega in these new games. And it looks so cool, too! That helmet and those coat tails look awesome. They make a nice complement to Mega Gardevoir. Not much is known about him yet stat wise or even type and ability wise, but that’ll likely change in the near future as more information comes to us.

We even get a chance to see the newly designed Wally with longer hair and a new coat. His signature Pokémon is, in fact, his Gallade. This means the player will likely still help him catch a Ralts at the beginning of the game. I just hope we see a little bit more of Wally than we did in the original Ruby and Sapphire. Will his Mega Stone factor into the plot at all? Everyone else with a Mega Stone seems to have some importance to the story, so it makes me wonder if his role has been expanded.

Thoughts on the Latest Pokémon ORAS Trailer- 9/4/14

So, another trailer for Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out from Japan today! It’s a trailer that shows off a lot of the main features for the game, and serves as a nice summary for everything we’ve seen so far. To be honest, there isn’t a lot of new material, but there were some interesting things to be seen in the trailer. Here’s a link to the trailer on PokéJungle.net. The times I mention below refer to that particular video.

Here are some of the things that I noticed:

• At 00:39- Is that Pacifidlog Town? It’s amazing how it looks both new and familiar.
• At 00:40- Wow! Diving looks amazing now! I love how the player is shown on an actual Wailmer as opposed to just the silhouette of one. I wonder if the Pokémon the overworld trainer is riding will change depending on what Pokémon is using Dive. I hope so, because it’ll be kind of weird if you’re diving on a Clamperl yet you’re somehow riding a Wailmer. Also, the Corsola in the background really adds to the atmosphere (can you battle it?). And is Brendan wearing goggles? Nice detail. Does that mean trainer customization is confirmed? 😛
• At 00:42-It’s funny that here Brendan isn’t wearing goggles, yet in the original games you needed to wear Go-Goggles to proceed in the desert.
• At 00:50- There’s that new School Boy design. Looks awesome. The artwork for the trainer classes was one of my favorite things about X and Y. Don’t they look so much more individualized than they ever used to?
• At 01:09- Brawly’s splash screen entrance looks cool. I like the colors and the movement.
• At 01:22- Is that Maxie’s battle entrance? I hope so because that looks amazing.
• At 01:25- And I suppose that would be Archie’s battle entrance, then. It’s nice, but I like Maxie’s better. (I’ve always been partial to Team Magma over Team Aqua, so maybe I’m a little bias).
• At 01:32- Pokéjungle states that here Maxie is explaining that Team Magma is interested in Mega Evolution too. It looks like the entire focus of the game has been altered a bit to count for Mega Evolution. I wonder how much it’ll affect the plot. This scene appears to take place in the museum in Slateport, so it appears major plot elements are still intact, but will they have a different meaning?
• At 01:34- There’s Meteor Falls and the scene of the teams confronting each other. Also, there’s Professor Cozmo. Too bad we can’t see his face in this shot.
• At 01:40- Here are our legendaries. They seem to be waking up. Or are they entering their Primal Reversion form? It’s hard to say.
• At 01:54- That’s a cool looking scene.
• At 02:16- The production value for the contests appears to have gone up.
• At 02:36- Our first look at Mt. Pyre.
• At 02:38- This appears to be Mossdeep City, considering the presence of the rocket in the background.
• At 02:39 and -2:41- Sootopolis and Wallace/Juan’s gym! But, unfortunately, no Wallace and/or Juan yet. It looks like the gym has a jungle theme now to go with the ice.
• At 02:44- A Pikachu tail in the grass? Will we be able to see some of the Pokémon we encounter in the grass? That’s a cool feature.
• At 02:56- This shot of Latios flying over Hoenn looks incredible.

So, that’s about it for my thoughts on the trailer. Seeing all of this only makes me more excited for the games. Is it November yet?

We’ll definitely be getting more news about these games later in the near future and I’ll be sure to post my thoughts and speculations when more information is revealed.

 

Until Then,

-The Nintendo Nerd