Pokémon Omega Ruby & Pokémon Alpha Sapphire

[Aneres11]

Urgh I really really want to play this but I'm keeping it back until Christmas day.

 

But I don't half wanna just boot this up and get stuck in!

It'll be a nice Christmas day play though!

[Mr_Master_X2]

So, I just got made aware of something mindblowing, if legit. Need to share it somewhere because it's making me lose my mind.

 

Ok, so someone noted a weird framed map in the south-eastern house in Dewford Town

 

Looks weird, right? Well someone on GameFAQs noticed it looked somewhat like this

 

This is a small version of a large map a friend & I made for my site's Pokéarth section (location database). It contains the main game regions Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, Hoenn, Sevii Islands as well as side game regions Orre (in north west, the big desert), Fiore, Almia and Oblivia. My friend made the DP versions of the other regions and I placed them together in a large map

 

Now, let's flip that

 

And resize it to match the image's size in Dewford as much as possible. Pixel resize rather than bilinear/bicubic resample to keep colour as much as possible

 

 

The resemblance is utterly uncanny. It's hard to dismiss this as a coincidence, and I am shocked. Going to investigate this further as there has to be a more logical explanation. If it is mine or based on mine, I am ecstatic and honoured that something I made will exist forever in a Pokémon game.

 

There's NO WAY that's just a coincidence, dude. As for whether they copied; depends. How did you come about the design? Did you just randomly place your regions or is the design based on specific mentions/references in the games? If it is the latter, then that's probably why they're almost the same except flipped. If you just placed them randomly thinking "looks good like that" then it's clearly a copy. At this point, Serebii, you have to accept your site is world recognised, no doubt people at GameFreak have visited your site many times. As to whether you view it as an honour or hit the "damn you bastards!" button, that is in your hands.

[Serebii]

Oh it's an honour, no doubt about that.

 

Also, the in-game references to Sinnoh ae contrary to how I place it. I had to lower it due to space reasons.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

The diving music in this game is just beautiful!

[Serebii]

ORAS have shipped 7.7 million units worldwide

 

Also, my map confirmed

[DriftKaiser]

Just wonder if my Latias is suitable?

Nature: Timid

Characteristic: Mischievous

HP: 97

ATK: 53

DEF: 68

SPATK: 80

SPDEF: 84

SPD: 88

 

EDIT: XY IV checker said it got 31IVs in HP, DEF, SPATK and SPD. Guess it's somewhat suitable haha

Edited December 4, 2014 by DriftKaiser

[EEVILMURRAY]

ORAS have shipped 7.7 million units worldwide

 

Also, my map confirmed

 

Time to demand some royalties.

 

 

Perhaps a concubine, the least Nintendo can do is get you some action.

[Guy]

Game is still a bit choppy, but damn, the presentation on this is stunning.

[Ike]

If I kill Kyorge then try to catch it later, can I still reset for nature/IVs when it respawns 6or do they get locked in?

[Glen-i]

If I kill Kyorge then try to catch it later, can I still reset for nature/IVs when it respawns 6or do they get locked in?

 

No, you're fine. I'm doing the same thing.

Except I'm getting a Groudon instead.

[Glen-i]

OK, so I've pretty much finished episode Delta, (I'm constantly resetting to get a good Rayquaza) and I feel it's time to give my overall views.

 

Omega Ruby has been a ridiculously hit and miss affair as far as Pokemon remakes go. Especially compared to FireRed and SoulSilver, which are both sublime.

 

The first thing I noticed is the amount of forced nostalgia I went through. Of course, nostalgia is to be expected, but seeing the game start with the exact same opening as the original GBA games was a bit questionable, that was only for a short time though, so I hoped it was just a one-off.

 

It wasn't.

 

This is one of my issues with this game. It just keeps hammering you with constant shouts of "HEY! THIS IS JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL! REMEMBER!?" and it rubs me the wrong way. Subtle nods are fine, but this is pretty blatant, even by Pokemon standards.

 

While I'm talking about things being forced. Someone in the translation team needs to be fired for putting memes into this. X and Y started this (A trainer in the battle maison says "I can haz battle?") and OR is even worse. "One does not simply walk into Victory Road"? Really!?

They're not funny and they only make the game age more.

 

For my play through, I did something similar to what I did for SoulSilver, I used Pokemon that didn't exist in the original. I'm glad I did, because almost every single trainer has exactly the same Pokemon as the original.

This is nothing but a bad thing. One of the great things about SoulSilver is that they mixed up the trainer lineups a bit. It helped make things feel fresh. Seeing the 7th gym use nothing but a crappy combo of Lunatone and Solrock made me sad. Even Emerald mixed it up more than this! There was no excuse.

 

However, I should point out that victory Road and the Elite Four do use some of the newer Pokemon and those sections were a vast improvement for it. But it was a case of "Too little, too late"

 

I'm sure everyone knows this, but X/Y had a horrific frame rate which was only made worse when the 3D was on.

Omega Ruby is no better. Even having 2 Pokemon on the screen is enough to send the game into a sputtering fit.

Also the 3D implementation is still embarrassing. I know the 3DS can do better than this. I've played Smash Bros.

 

Episode Delta is a new side-story you play after seeing the credits.

And it is a complete and utter rip-off of Disaster: Day of Crisis.

You know, that quirky Wii game made by Monolith Soft that never released in America, but never got a petition to have it bought over there.

 

Let me lay down the story of one of these and you tell me if it's Disaster: Day of Crisis or Episode Delta.

 

"After the hero has foiled the plans of a criminal organisation and the credits have rolled, the world soon finds out that a massive meteor is going to hit the Earth. Naturally, panic ensues. But then, it's decided that they will find the being whose name begins with "Ray" and send him up into space to destroy it. Ray can handle it though, because he has stood in the face of Earthquakes and Tsunamis and has arised victorious. And despite the odds, he destroys the meteor and saves the world."

 

Did you guess? What I just described was Disaster: Day of Crisis. "Ray" is Raymond Bryce, the main character. Yes, he does get sent up to shoot a meteor to death. The only difference is Raymond is just a normal dude, while Rayquaza is a giant dragon.

Raymond is more badass than Rayquaza.

 

I don't think it's a bad thing that the two are so similar. I think it's quite funny and it's good evidence that someone in Game Freak was a fan of Disaster. It's a really fun game.

 

Finally, I want to address the music. As far as the music goes. It's great! The remixes are very well done...

...Mostly.

While the music for routes and towns are all done well. The battle music just falls flat. Most of the battle music just doesn't have the "oomph" I except these days.

I liked the Maxie/Archie remix, that was fantastic. Wally's new music might just be the most badass trainer theme in Pokemon history and Zinnia's music has a distinct Layton feel to it. But the rest of the music is just disappointing with Brendan and May's theme and the champions being decent.

It's just too weak for battle music. Especially compared to X/Y and Black/White.

 

Despite all that though. I'd be wrong to say this is a bad Pokemon game. But I wouldn't go so far to say it's a great Pokemon game either.

It's passable, and that's just not good enough for a remake.

If you've never played the originals, go for it. It's still solid, but as a massive Pokemon fan, I'm dissatisfied with what I got.

 

PROS

+ Great overworld music

+ Mauville City and Victory Road are fresh and interesting

+ Solid classic Pokemon gameplay

+ PokeNav is a great addition

+ Surfing is far more bearable

+ Soaring is the best new feature

+ Episode Delta is a hilarious nod to Disaster: Day of Crisis, intentional or not

+ Streetpass is implemented well

+ You get to ride a Groudon!

 

CONS

- Battle music is disappointing, to say the least

- Emerald's Battle Frontier is nowhere to be seen

- There aren't enough tweaks to the original layout to be exciting

- Gym leaders are based of the Ruby/Sapphire setups, making them utter jokes

- Atrocious frame rate in battle

- Still not full 3D

- Nostalgia card is played far too much

- Forced memes aren't remotely funny

- Too much water, Groudon disapproves

 

[Ike]

OK, so I've pretty much finished episode Delta, (I'm constantly resetting to get a good Rayquaza) and I feel it's time to give my overall views.

 

How is he for resetting? Any massive cut scenes? Beat the Elite 4 yesterday and currently preparing a Legendary catching team.

[Glen-i]

How is he for resetting? Any massive cut scenes? Beat the Elite 4 yesterday and currently preparing a Legendary catching team.

 

Rayquaza might just be the most time-wasting legendary I've ever tried to catch. I did it in the end. Adamant, 4 perfect IV's with Attack, Speed and 2 other stats that aren't Sp. Atk. Nicknamed it Raymond, as a nod to Disaster: Day of Crisis.

I'm gonna put how I did it in a spoiler tag for those who don't want to know how it plays out in Episode Delta.

(Although anyone who plans on getting legendaries with the right IV's and natures should probably give it a look anyway, I can't think of a better way to soft reset Rayquaza than this.)

 

So let me lay out the general process of the Ray-Ray segment:

 

1. Player reaches top of Sky Pillar

2. Cutscene introducing Rayquaza

3. Player activates battle (Save before you do so, it's the last chance you've got)

4. Rayquaza battle

5. Cutscene where Rayquaza learns new move, allowing it to Mega Evolve

6. Battle against an important trainer (This battle can't be lost so you can go back to the Poke Center and check it's nature, if you lose, you'll just go on to the next part)

7. Long cutscene with no dialogue, so you can't mash A to get through it faster.

8. Deoxys Battle

9. Around 5 minute long cutscene to end Episode Delta

10. Player is back in Littleroot and can now save.

 

After step 3, there is absolutely no opportunity to save until after you've fought Deoxys.

 

Luckily, there's a specific way to make it more bearable:

 

1. You're going to need a Pokemon with synchronise that has the right nature, otherwise, you just won't know what nature Ray is until you finish Episode Delta. I'm sure you're getting one, but I'm just making sure.

2. Catch Rayquaza, this is really easy to do, because you have to catch it to proceed, so the catch rate is increased. 90% of the time, I used Capture Power Level 3 and one Quick Ball and caught it straight away. Just make sure your synchronise Pokemon doesn't faint, otherwise the synchronise trick won't work.

3. If you have a full team, you'll be asked to replace one of them with Ray. Whatever you do, do not replace the Pokemon with synchronise!

For some reason, this makes the synchronise trick not work. No idea why.

4. During the trainer battle afterwards, check Ray's stats, assuming the synchronise trick worked, you should be able to use an IV calculator to see if it's any good. If it's not, reset and go back to step 2. If you're happy, have Ray faint (Don't want it getting EP's you don't need, do we?) by using nothing but Dragon Dance and then continue on to step 4.

5. Beat the trainer, or lose, doesn't matter either way.

6. Run away from Deoxys, there's really no point to trying to catch it, as the chances of you getting one with a good nature (Ray is forced to the top of your party in this fight, so synchronise won't work) and the IV's you want are extremely low.

 

Don't worry, you can have a second chance to catch Deoxys after Episode Delta finishes. Just beat the Elite 4 again, go to the Mossdeep Space Center, you'll see a conversation with one of the scientists saying Deoxys is somewhere around Route 131.

Go to the top of Sky Pillar again, and it's there. Ready for you to soft reset your way to victory!

 

[Ike]

Sounds like a pain, like I thought. Might just transfer my perte t one from Emerald.

 

Been breeding Ralts but they all have trace, one of them is hold an ever stone to pass down its nature, does that affect which ability the baby has or am I extremely unlucky?

[Guy]

Received an EON ticket via Streetpass today, lucky lucky!

[S.C.G]

Received an EON ticket via Streetpass today, lucky lucky!

 

My brother just came back from his travels in London and he got an Eon ticket on the train on the way up!

 

So we street-passed today - first time its occurred in this household oddly enough - and I too am now the proud owner of an Eon ticket as well thanks to my bro.

 

Now I've just got to get far enough in the game to use it... only got three gym badges and just over ten hours on the clock... time to play the heck out of Alpha Sapphire! : peace:

[Glen-i]

Sounds like a pain, like I thought. Might just transfer my perte t one from Emerald.

 

Been breeding Ralts but they all have trace, one of them is hold an ever stone to pass down its nature, does that affect which ability the baby has or am I extremely unlucky?

 

It does affect the ability, I'm afraid. You're gonna have to do it the hard way.

I personally used the DexNav. Way easier. Just tap the Ralts icon when you're on that route you can find them and search for it.

Now I have 20 Ralts! 1 for every nature that affects stats.

[Ike]

It does affect the ability, I'm afraid. You're gonna have to do it the hard way.

I personally used the DexNav. Way easier. Just tap the Ralts icon when you're on that route you can find them and search for it.

Now I have 20 Ralts! 1 for every nature that affects stats.

 

Yeah, spent most of last night just catching Ralts. Was hoping to chain a shiny, but no luck.

[drahkon]

Does exp share reduce the amount of exp you get from defeating a Pokémon? Or do all Pokémon get the - let's call it - full amount of exp?

[Serebii]

Does exp share reduce the amount of exp you get from defeating a Pokémon? Or do all Pokémon get the - let's call it - full amount of exp?

It's no longer split.

 

If a Pokémon has been in battle, it'll get 100% of what would be gained

If it has not an EXP Share is on, it'll get 50%

[drahkon]

I see, thanks. Speeds up the Pokémon training immensely : peace:

 

So, this EON ticket everybody's talking about...can I only get it via Street Pass? I don't take my 3DS with me like...ever

[Serebii]

I see, thanks. Speeds up the Pokémon training immensely : peace:

 

So, this EON ticket everybody's talking about...can I only get it via Street Pass? I don't take my 3DS with me like...ever

Yeah it's only by StreetPass

[drahkon]

Yeah it's only by StreetPass

 

Meh. So I'll never be able to get that legendary Pokémon?

 

If so...what a stupid design choice

[Ike]

Meh. So I'll never be able to get that legendary Pokémon?

 

If so...what a stupid design choice

 

You might if you set up a homepass...

[drahkon]

You might if you set up a homepass...

 

Care to elaborate?