Pokemon Omega Ruby

Genre: Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Wireless, Online), Online Content Sharing

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Review:

Pokemon Omega Ruby, along with its counterpart Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, are the “x.5” remake games of “Generation 6” within the mainline Pokemon series. Released in 2014 on the Nintendo 3DS, these family-friendly Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPGs are remakes of Pokemon Sapphire and Pokemon Ruby, originally released on Game Boy Advance in 2003. These remakes incorporate visual and gameplay elements from more modern entries in the series, most notably the games that directly preceded these releases, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.

Naturally, the biggest change in the presentation is going to be the big change that Pokemon X and Pokemon Y introduced – fully re-worked 3D cel-shaded visuals. While not as impressive this time around (since this pair of games is basically just re-using work that was already done for the prior year’s games), but it makes for a significant upgrade all the same. In fact, the game highlights this change, with the intro sequence when starting the game making a fun tongue-in-cheek demonstration of just how much the visuals have changed in the decade-plus since 2003.

The music here also gets a nice touch-up, and the sound… well, once again, we still have somewhat simple, digitized sounds for the Pokemon themselves, and no voice for the human characters. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either.

When it comes to the gameplay… well, I’m pretty much going to copy-paste what I wrote for Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, because it’s much the same as what we saw in those games. The core mechanics of Pokemon catching, breeding, and battling haven’t changed much since the early days of the franchise, which is to say they’re extremely accessible while hiding surprising depth, but longtime players may feel a sense of “been there, done that”. Of course, by now I think most longtime players of the Pokemon franchise have grown accustomed to the series’ rigid adherence to the series’ typical structure.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby also bring over virtually all of the gameplay enhancements that Pokemon X and Y introduced – the addition of the new fairy type, the Wonder Trade feature that allows you to trade Pokemon with other players anonymously online, the Pokemon Amie “Virtual Pet”-style minigame, horde encounter battles, the “Super Training” feature, and the Mega Evolution mechanic (with new Mega Evolutions added into the mix as well).

When it comes to complaints, I do feel like this game is more stiff and rigid than X and Y were (no doubt because this is a remake of an older game). And of course… well, being a remake, this game just isn’t as revolutionary as X and Y were, and most of its great new features it lifts from those games.

However, given that my biggest complaints are basically, “it does a lot of stuff exactly like one of the best games on Nintendo 3DS”, it’s hard to see that as much of a complaint. Pokemon Omega Ruby (as well as its counterpart, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire) is still a superb Pokemon game, and one well worth getting. Just don’t expect to be impressed in the same way that Pokemon X and Y called for. This is an excellent game, even if it isn’t a groundbreaking one.

tl;dr – Pokemon Omega Ruby (as well as its counterpart, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire) is a phenomenal entry in the mainline Pokemon franchise of family-friendly Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPGs that updates and modernizes the visuals and gameplay, bringing them closer to what we saw in Pokemon X and Y. Of course, this is because it pretty much copies most of the advancements to the series that X and Y introduced, making this release less original and less impressive. However, despite this, it is still an outstanding Pokemon game, well worth getting if you’re a fan of the series who owns a Nintendo 3DS.

Grade: A-

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