[Gen 6] Adventure in modern Hoenn

[_confused_piplup_]

Since I haven't played a Hoenn game since 2011, I decided to play Alpha Sapphire, one of the games of the series that I skipped back in the days. Now the only game I haven't played from Emerald is Sun/Moon, but I don't plan to play it at some point.
Alpha Sapphire is a really good remake, that still has some elements that made me think "wait, what?" and that I'll discuss later, but in general I really enjoyed it and omg that was soooooo emotional. The game caught my true attention and I couldn't stop playing. It's my fourth day today and I am now about to start Delta episode, that seems REALLY interesting. I have many things to say and to speculate on, but I'll keep my thoughts for my last post, after the Delta episode.

The first day I got till the fourth gym. I always choose the water type starter but this time I felt kinda awful because Swampert is REALLY strong in third gen games and obviously in these remakes. So, the game was fast and easy for my first day. Also, my mudkip I guess, had pokerus lol, so it was spread to all of my team.

The second day, I continued the game and I got till the last part of the last gym. Again, the game was pretty fast and really easy. I didn't have to use items at all. My team was a bit unbalanced because Swampert was too OP, so I mainly used him for all the battles. Exp share was on obviously.

The third day, yesterday, is when I ended the game. And wow that was quite a surprising day lol. I haven't changed my team and I didn't really even plan it, because I couldn't remember the gym leaders and the elite four, so I went quite random on my team, just looking for general coverage. During this run my team has always been the same, but with the last gym I gave a better chance to RU tier, my Manectric, who was really helpful. Then I continue my game till the League and that's where things become really interesting. It was actually really hard. I decided not to use mega evolution during the whole game and till Drake I kinda managed not to use it. However my team was like 10 levels under the elite four and even with many items, I was really struggling. I saved the game in the wrong spot. My idea was to go trial and error on Drake to see how to effectively surpass him. To do that I had to revive and give potions to kinda all my pokemon and I saved after that. This was a huge error because I had few items left and I couldn't really elaborate a good strategy. My problem was his last pokemon Kingdra, because Swampert could do very few damage to him, I needed Manectric, who was seriously under level and couldn't really resist the moves. So, I decided to loose against Drake, buy some more items and start again. I started again, soon using mega and actually it got very very easy. I could beat the elite four really easily and loosing just like two or three pokemon maybe. Then I got to the champion and tbh it wasn't so hard, except for Cradily. My team didn't really have amazing moves to kill Cradily. Also, Swampert could ve really hurt from giga absorb, but OP, my Crobat, with Acrobatics made very good damage and I eventually managed to get past that. THe rest of the battle was really easy because a big part of Champion's team suffers from Swampert: Aggron, Armaldo, Claydol and even Mega-Metagross. So, that was quite an easy sweep, except for Cradily, as I said. Angie became Champion and the ending part was really emotional, I basically cried for the music and the scenes and even Brendan was kinda sweet and so that's kinda where I left, but the DElta episode preview seems really amazing.

The team that beat the League is:

MUDKIP: My Swampert. The name is a honor to the pokemon mystery dungeon series that started in gen 3 and I have always been categorized as a mudkip in red rescue team and explorers of sky. The name I gave to the mudkip i have been in these games was MUDKIP.

OP: My Crobat. idk if it's just me, but every single time I choose to use zubat and its line in my runs, it's always so incredibly strong. Also, since I always choose the water type, flying/poison is an amazing combination for coverage. But in general Crobat was OP, at least in my runs in gen 3, gen 4 and gen 5.

Rock Smash: My Linoone. Honestly, I hate having Hms slaves, I prefer to plan my team and equally distribute the HMs and it often works. Indeed my Linoone wasn't such a slave, he only had rock smash bascially, but i never used him in battle, so the name came quite easily, Actually Linoone is probably stronger that what someone may think and he actually helped me in the League to heal the rest of the team and for repositioning.

RU tier/Good Boi: My Manectric. I got it quite soon in the adventure because I knew I needed and electric type, but I didn't really use him and he wasn't so strong against the flying type gym. So Ru tier comes from the fact I rarely used him. However he redeemed himself for the last gym and since then I renamed him Good Boi cuz he did an AMAZING job. I gave him more trust and he was truly helpful even in the League. He paralyzed Mega Metagross with static, which was my hope. It wasn't a needed win condition, but that was really good. Truly a Good Boi <3

Metronome: My Exploud. Nothing to say, it's an amazing pokemon. My strategy with Metronome was to use Echoed Voice as much as I could and it was really strong. This strategy didn't really work at the League, but still made a very good job. The name comes from this move that uses "music" in some way and also the fact that it's repetitive like a metronome. Also, I found out that in English the item has the same name, so it was a good fit lol.

Euterpe: My Gardevoir. Gardevoir is one of my fav pokemon and I love its typing. It's hard to raise a ralts and evolve them to Gardevoir, especially in the original games. Exp share helped much and Euterpe has always been deadly to her opponents. I m really proud of her and obviously of my whole team. The name comes from a Greek Muse. Euterpe was believed to be the Muse of music and I have pic on my signature here where Gardevoir plays the violin, so it was a reference to my profile on this forum lol. Furthermore, in red rescue team, Gardevoir is the pokemon that guides MUDKIP in her dreams. The dreamy atmosphere and the role of guiding and inspiring someone to do things really seem connected to the figure of a Muse. So, the name was perfect.

Overall, I am so proud of my team, but I m not really proud of my run. I didn't want to use mega evolution at the end of the game and I also thought I could beat the League easily. But, oh well I didn't even know who the Elite four was, so I didn't plan anything at all. Knowing things made the second trial way easier. I am going to write another post about Delta Episode and another one, where I would like to draw my conclusions and some speculations. So far, I really enjoyed my adventure in Hoenn. Indeed it's not a case it's my second favorite generation :)

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Alright, so I ended the Delta Episode. WOW. There's so much to say, but I will probably keep everything for my last post, where I'll talk about my fast but very intense experience on this game. For now, I am really happy to say that the Delta Episode is one of my favorite parts of the remake. I mean, it's quite fast, sometimes annoying, but definitely the most interesting and the newest. Back in 2014 I decided not to buy the game because I was tired of pokemon games, but I also had doubts on how these remakes would compare to Emerald. I have always heard about the Delta Episode and I already knew what was it about. I just didn't know all the details. It was quite fun: the backtrack to Aqua Team's cave was quite boring and a little bit annoying, but at least they decided to make u follow a different path instead of the same. That's a really good thing.

About Zinnia, HUH...
I like her character, but I don't like her personality. I think it's one of the most interesting characters in the series, I mean not only for the lore but because GF was brave enough to make a character that is actually rude, even worse than the usual Evil Team's Boss. That's because she seems violent, straightforward and she acts superior every time, even with good characters. This is super annoying, and despite it might be just me, I think she's objectively an annoying character. But it's fine, because I like the idea of a character that stands between good and bad. The same is N, for example, even tho the cases are different and the characters are different.

About Rayquaza and Deoxys. I liked the battles, but they seemed quite easy. I mean, I caught both of them at my 3rd or 4th ultraball. Rayquaza was in red and asleep. but hey people I played Emerald. Kyogre in Emerald couldn't be caught after my 50th ultraball lol. Catching Groudon and Kyogre back in gen 3 was a nightmare. On the opposite, I m happy I could catch them really fast, so I could finish the episode really early.

Overall, the story was amazing, new and it gave something more to these remakes, but especially it made players remember that they didn't forget about Emerald. I mean, I have to rewatch some parts of the episode because I want to speculate more about the lore, but in general, something amazing about these games is that they added different things and they're all pretty cool and interesting. And that's y I have been saying for a whole year that BDSP are bad remakes...

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Ok, my last post, I guess, My idea is to rate my adventure in Hoenn with these remakes and talk about things that caught my interest. Teere are gonna be "spoilers" btw.

First of all, I really enjoyed the game and imo this remake kinda saves gen 6, that wasn't great at all with X and Y. Especially considering the story and lore part. My run on this game was fast, easy but intense and emotional. Pokemon Emerald wasn't my first game, but I bought it later and played it on my Nintendo DS Lite. It was 2010/2011 and I remember I fell in love with that game and I couldn't stop playing. After having played AS, I am happy to say that I got quite the same feeling and good nostalgia, but I also have to admit that Emerald story was quite better and imo more logic and realistic. ORAS story is good, but the Delta Episode was the best part. Anyway, I'm going to write about several parts of my adventure.

Hoenn region

AMAZING. My favorite region is still Sinnoh, but Hoenn definitely comes second. Each city has its own style and its really unique. The region is quite big, which is good and the path u have to follow in the region is not linear and I love it. Now, when it comes to ORAS, they didn't invent anything at all. It was all made in gen 3, they just transposed everything into gen 6 style and I liked that. Mauville City was reinvented and I loved it. In general, this remake is quite innovative and I like that. I also love how the region is divided into ground vs water. It's such a repetitive theme, that is really interesting. Groudon vs Kyogre, Team Magma vs Team Aqua and even the region is divided into the Western part that is mainly ground and the Western part that is basically water. Idk if it's a reference or not, but again, even without giving it a meaning, I love Hoenn's geography.

Too much water?

I am being honest here. No, it's not. I agree on the fact that there's a lot of water in Hoenn, but not to an extent that is "too much". Honestly, that's the most interesting and fun part of the game imo. All of Eastern Hoenn is basically water and there are many areas to explore and especially u can use Dive, which is the coolest HM ever. Now, I love water and water type pokemon, so my vision may be distorted by this, but I really think that the water part in Hoenn is fine and quite balanced. Something that I want to consider is: how frequent pokemon encounters were in water areas between gen 3 and these remakes. I don't remember really well, but playing these remakes, I wasn't really bothered by pokemon encounters in these big water areas. In gen 3 everything was different, therefore I guess that if pokemon encounters were more frequent, I would understand why people are kinda bothered by the too much water thing. However, I have never heard people taking this aspect into account.


The Remake

I think one of the things that should be discussed is the philosophy of these remakes. I won't lie, I liked them. much. These remakes are actual remakes, because they are innovative. The story was updated to gen 6. I mean, everything was updated to gen 6. I loved the idea of Primal Groudon/Kyogre and the Delta Episode. This is how this game compares to Emerald. See, as someone who has played Emerald, back in 2014 I was like "what are they adding to these games? Because Emerald was the "improved" version". Yes, Emerald story is still more logical and realistic to me, but thanks to how updated these games are, it felt like I was playing something different and today I feel like making a comparison between Emerald and ORAS is meaningless, because they are different. Also, the Delta Episode is there to say "hey, we didn't forget about Emerald". This is exactly the opposite way of thought of BDSP remakes and that's y I don't like them. Other than this, the game was easy. Like really easy. Sometimes, I came to the conclusion it's quite an unbalanced game. Mega evolution makes things easier and faster, but also how they basically gift u Latias/Latios with the mega stone. Now, I haven't used them during my run, but I guess it would have made the game easier. Now, I am talking about how the game is quite unbalanced, but what I m about to consider is actually present in original games too. First of all, choosing Swampert is the best option. I didn't really compare to other starters but Swampert's typing combination is too good in Hoenn. Indeed two gyms are rock and fire types. Then we have the electric type one, but Swampert is ground type as well, so it's still advantaged. Last but not least, the seventh gym. Psychic type but the two pokemon are Solrock and Lunatone, who are rock types as well. Teach surf to Swampert and u're done. About seventh gym, that's the other thing I didn't appreciate. The gym was really easy and u could basically skip all trainers, except the last one and the gym leaders are incredibly weak. Just two pokemon. I like the fact that u need to do a battle in doubles, but they're just too weak, which is weird especially since it is the seventh gym. The League is where I found the huge gap. The League is hard if u are under leveled and if u don't use mega.

The story

I have much to say here. I am really mixed about this part because there are so many things to consider. It's also hard because there must be a distinction between the original story from gen 3 and what has been added in gen 6. Alright, I liked the idea of two evil teams in the same game that are also rivals, but I really don't see how just one of them should cause trouble to the main character. I said it before: how things go in Emerald seem more logical to me. Also, I am not really sure that these two teams' ideologies actually make sense. Maybe Magma Team's idea is better, but Team Aqua one is kinda bad. They want to use Kyogre to expand oceans and go back to a primordial state where pokemon and people were happier. It doesn't make much sense. First of all, who said people and pokemon were happier back in the days? Ok, let's suppose they actually were. Second question, how can u be so stupid to not realize that using Kyogre's powers will mean destroying many things? They also say that water type pokemon will have a larger habitat. True, but how about humans? Last but not least, how can u develop a fully working plan without considering that once Kyogre will be awake, they won't listen to ur orders? I mean, there are some things that just don't make much sense to me. Cyrus, for example, literally created the Red chain to use Dialga's and Palkia's powers. His plan was working, but then it didn't because of unexpected things happening. Team Magma, on the other hand, is almost the same, but their plan to make more land to control makes sense, because it's about humans gaining control over pokemon. Max would be the boss of the new world. What would Archie rule? Water lol.

But then we have the Delta Episode. I am so thankful to ORAS that they made it. Again, that's the innovative part of the game. This game is where the whole Multiverse thing began. During the story and especially in the post game there are several hints of Multiverse travels, but the thing is even clearer in the Delta Episode. Zinna talks about a Hoenn where mega evolution doesn't exist, which is clearly gen 3 games lol. This means every game we have been playing represents a Universe in the whole Multiverse. Gen 7, u didn't invent anything lol. Indeed the idea of opening a hole to another universe is how the scientists want to solve the meteorite issue.
In this episode we also meet Zinna, who is a very interesting character. She's annoying and rude at first and she always acts superior because well, she thinks she's the chosen one and she believes in destiny, therefore nothing can go wrong. I don't like her personality, because I am personally literally the opposite, but in general, that's the most annoying character I have ever found in a pokemon game. However, she's really interesting and she turns out to ba a sad character, because she always thought that she was the chosen one. She grew up knowing this, she had a tough life, while thinking she was the chosen one and in the end she was not. I won't lie, I am ot a fan of the Pokemon Evolutions series, but I have always loved the Episode dedicated to Hoenn. It was my favorite one and after having played the Delta Episode, it hits even harder. I recommend, if anyone is actually reading this lol, to watch that episode really carefully, because it's truly amazing and introspective. Last, but not least, the Delta Episode is a way to tell fans they didn't forget about Emerald and Rayquaza and as I have already said, this had to be done by Gf and I m happy they did it so wonderfully.

The little things

Remakes are really good at giving people nostalgia. The little things, at least in my case, have a high emotional and nostalgic value, so I am glad GF takes this into account. In gen 3 the little things that conquered my heart are mainly the secret bases and places, music, characters. Maybe few people actually care about secret bases, but they are definitely one of the ideas I appreciated the most in the whole series. Right in the middle of nowhere you can build ur secret base and personalize it. There are several hidden islands in these remakes where u can build a secret base. I don't remember if those existed in original games as well, but if they created just for ORAS, I am even happier because it means it is a feature that GF wanted to highlight in the game. I haven't tried contests yet, but they're really important as well.

Peeko and Mr Briney. OMG, they're so nice and cute lol. They are some of my fav characters and I am really affectionate to them. It's always been like that since I have played Emerald. The fact that they accompany us to different places makes me think of them as a guide, like he was some sort of grandpa. It's really nice. I mean, it's not a major character I guess, but still one of my fav ones. He sounds so nice and lovely.

Last but not least, music. Gen 3 music is my fav, after gen 4. Too much trumpets, they're not bad imo. I love gen 3 music, but I really loved how it was rearranged in these remakes. Music plays a really important role in a game and I really love most of the songs in these remakes.


Overall, it was an amazing experience. It mainly was intense and nostalgic and the game left me with the desire of replaying these games quite soon and to replay gen 3, especially Emerald.