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Weekly Article – What I Want in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

The faces of the games

There are things I would like to see in the remakes of Ruby and Sapphire, but I decided to withhold writing about it until the first batch of information is released. Now that they are done, now is the right time to put some ideas down.

To see my expectations, please take the time to read this article.

 

 
 

More Mega Evolutions, even for non-Hoenn Natives

We have already been introduced to four new Mega Evolutions, three of them being Hoenn natives. The fourth one is of course Mega Diancie, though its event status meant it is not bound by the need to be from Hoenn. Based on this, we can expect more Mega Evolutions from other Hoenn natives, probably Camerupt and Sharpedo for example (since they are the main Pokémon that Maxie and Archie used).

What would be a neat addition to these games is Mega Evolutions that aren’t Hoenn natives. Kalos’ Mega Evolutions are a different story, because while all the Pokémon that received them are Kalos-native, this is planned beforehand. This one was made when Mega Evolutions weren’t implemented, so the expansion would be most welcomed.

This comment is made because there is a distinct lack of Mega Evolutions for Generation 4 Pokémon, and none at all for Generation 5 ones. It’s surprising that the latter completely lacks any, since they have so many Pokémon to choose from. It could be a post-game item, where you are free to access a lot more things, in order to reduce interference with the main games.

 
 

New Pokémon for Important Trainers

We got a glimpse of what new Pokémon Hoenn’s Gym Leaders would have in the Pokémon World Tournament in Black 2 and White 2. It’s logical to see Steven with newer fossil Pokémon (Archeops), or for Flannery to possess Chandelure. That’s a good start, but let’s go further with this.

You see, not all trainers get the new Pokémon. The Elite Four of Hoenn do not have them, for one. Only Sidney’s team have variety, while the other have to resort to either identical Pokémon or Pokémon that aren’t fully-evolved to complement the fully-evolved ones (Glacia with Sealeo and Walrein, for example). Phoebe could use more Ghost-types to add to the team.

The Kalos Pokémon would need to be taken into account as well. We did see some of these Hoenn trainers with Unova Pokémon, but with a new Generation, some Kalos additions could be welcomed if it could be added.

The changing of the team is best done post-game where you do rematches with the trainers, because the preserving of the original experience is important to show what was originally done. After that, the new teams could come out.

 
 

Secret Bases using StreetPass and SpotPass

Secret Bases is a unique element that defined Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, since it gives more reason to connect with other players. I didn’t really took advantage of the Secret Base’s connectivity, so these new games would be a good start.

With the 3DS’s StreetPass and SpotPass features, doing this would be made easier because its wireless transfers, and in the case of SpotPass, remote transfers makes exchanging data more accessible. This would allow one to easily take advantage of the benefits of Secret Bases, mainly battling another player for rewards or as a challenge (though they are still dependent on the AI).

Perhaps the benefits of Secret Bases could be expanded so that it does more things. For example, one could leave some item to allow other players to collect, such as new furniture. The advantage of 3D could be used to make a more three-dimensional cave layout, such as slopes and top layers (for slides). The developers could even allow access to their Secret Bases for a limited time.

 
 

Online Contests

Another element that is unique to Hoenn is Contests. This type of contest is different from Sinnoh’s since it is simpler and easier to get into. With the addition to online, perhaps contests could take off as a metagame of its own.

In that regard, new strategies will be formed since we now have the benefit of the intellect of players. The movepool of every Pokémon matters more than ever, with larger ones having a more flexibility. On the bright side, more Pokémon are viable for contests since you can use the younger forms and still come out on top.

It would be too much work to be done, but if each Pokémon have certain base stats for each of the five categories (Cool, Cute, Smart, Tough and Beauty), there could be more variety as to how that Pokémon would perform, in order that movepool isn’t the sole determining factor on a Pokémon’s effectiveness.

 
 

Battle Frontier

In Emerald, the Battle Frontier was introduced. With seven different facilities, there is a lot to do. Some of them are easier to get into (Factory, Pike), but some are more challenging (Palace, Arena). Thing is, it was a lot of fun, which is why it would be wise to add it in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

With a new Battle Frontier, the possibility of new and old Move Tutors are there. Not only should there be tutors only found in Emerald (which would be very hard to access by now), there should be newer ones as well, such as Trick and Drill Run, and some new ones like Parabolic Charge and Electrify.

If possible, special guests like those from Unova and Kalos could visit the Battle Frontier in the same manner as the Pokémon World Tournament in the Battle Tower for a battle, or if they want, they could go to the Dome as well. Still, the most realistic thing I could see is that all the elements in Emerald is kept intact, so we might not see guest appearances after all (here’s hoping there are).

 
 

More Fairy-types

Of the suggestions I made here, this one is the least likely to happen, but it’s something I would really love to see. You see, I feel that the transition to Generation 6 didn’t convert a lot of Pokémon to Fairy-types, so I hope there could be more. I do hope it happens, as unlikely as it might happen.

More Fairy-types could be a good thing since they have a good defensive type. Moreover, there are some Pokémon that could fit the mould of a Fairy-types, such as Misdreavus and Audino.

 
 
 
 

So that wraps up my wants for the newest games. They are probably not really ambitious compared to some of the others, but that’s because I want to keep my expectations at a moderate level and not too high only to be disappointed later.

What are some of the things you want to see in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in November? Sound off in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have writing it.

Thanks for reading.


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