Topic: New to Pokemon which to buy ? Ruby/Sapphire or X/Y

They did. You get to battle May with her Pokemon fully evolved, and then you battle your TRUE rival in Victory Road with his own awesome theme and a destructive Mega.

This is extremely simple—ORAS. Though I'm not saying X and Y is bad per se, ORAS simply is superior in every way. The story is taken much more seriously and it's actually pretty good for a Pokémon game. The gameplay is definitely more fun, people do exaggerate on the "water" bits, it's really not bad at all, the environments in ORAS are much more varied, the game's pacing is easily better, and it's less linear (in a good way) so you can really try out any Pokémon you want. In response to difficulty comments, while X & Y was a walk in the park, ORAS is not hard by any means as they really do explain everything to you in helpful ways, and the features are simply more streamlined, and just more addictive (DexNav was one of the first features in a Pokémon game in over 10 years that really made me want to 'catch em all' while Soar is just awesome). The soundtrack for ORAS is definitely more inspiring and upbeat, with a lot of really nice catchy tunes, whilst X & Y don't really have very many memorable tracks. Then one has to take into consideration that ORAS is newer, so a lot of the things like Events, and online communities, are simply more prevalent in ORAS. Overall, ORAS is much more polished, has better gameplay elements, story, soundtrack, and is just more visually appealing than the rather bland visuals of X & Y.

If you're dead set on 3DS debuts, then ORAS. But its just one choice of a lesser evil otherwise

Only to pessimists like you. ORAS, at least, is the best entry in the series. RBY are outdated, GSC's post game combined with the main game equals about the same amount of time it takes to clear your average Pokemon game, meaning they have no REAL postgame. RSE were good aside from not being able to trade from the gameboy to gameboy advance. DPP were good in some areas, bad in others. BW had a good story, but began the whole "obvious linear quest" thing. B2W2 is basically the same thing save for some minor variations, and the story wasn't as gripping or deep. X and Y were... plagued by washed out color and were obviously rushed in almost every aspect. They were quite sloppy to say the least. ORAS starts the trend of having somewhat deep story meaning, a not so linear seeming region (for example: Unova and Kalos all basically wen't around in a circle), and also giving a lot of credit to the legendary Pokemon by tweaking the dialogue from the original games and making the whole situation seem dire and conclude rather nicely. Not to mention those cinematics and going into space. The Delta Episode was an amazing addition to the post game.

Charming. Those cinematics were sparely underutilised. The Delta Episode? Yeah that was good, despite its existence purely being there as a reasoning to not (should i say never) remake the definitive version in favour for the dual game greed. The game is much more casual & easier than its original (granted Black/White 2 alluded to this), the story was slightly tweaked to include a little bit of XY's best friends forever/roll your eyes hard aspect, mega evolution is a annoying fad that is present far too much, when the new ost trumps the remade ost (while similar, but not at all fitting) you know theres a problem...

I could go on and on but theres just no point. It has its moments and there are many intriguing features but ORAS does not even come close to the originals let alone come close to other Pokemon games.

I bet your pessimistic and analytical mindset makes you really fun at parties. Also, every gym leader at about Norman and after, as well as the Elite 4, all have their Pokemon leveled up HIGHER than they were in R/S/E. Also, the story doesn't involve X and Y's "friends forever" issue at all. The friendship between May and Brendon are shown the same way they were in the ORIGINAL games. The remade soundtrack sounds just as good if not better than the original one. Mega Evolution isn't a fad friend, it's a mechanic that has became a part of both Pokemon and the competitive scene. It seems you have a problem with change, and that's why you can't like these entries.

ORAS hasn't started any trend yet being the most recent game in the series (we won't know for sure ORAS' impact until after the next game or two) and it's not indicative of any sort of trend in the region design considering it was remake and the region was designed in an era where they didn't worship casuals and strip the entire game down for them. So you can bet that future regions will resemble Unova and Kalos more than Hoenn.

The thing is that ORAS has done very little for Hoenn and in some ways made it worse because of Game Freak's current "kids don't have time for video games" mentality. The storyline was improved, but that's about it, they did little for the region design, the post game, the regional dex, etc. And the content was actually worse in some ways due to them blatantly ignoring Emerald features.

But if you're going to ignore ORAS' flaws and label people "pessimists" for bringing up valid criticisms, go right ahead.

I ORAS has by far more pros than cons, but you wish to shove your bias down our throats. The person in question seeks to purchase one of these games, because unlike you, they have an open mind on what Pokemon can be. I'm guessing that you're one of the people upset that they didn't include the Battle Frontier, something not many people used, but the minority care about and whine about. Also, if they just decided to remake Emerald, why would you have any reason to trade with your friends, since you can get both version exclusive Pokemon? You sound like an anti-social elitist who wants everything to be a strategical game, and can't appreciate fun things or art. The very overworld of ORAS looks more beautiful than any Pokemon game ever made.

Ever since ORAS was announced you were negative about it just to be negative about it. I saw each of your replies in the ORAS topic and quite frankly, even when people had a valid opposition to you, you would ignore their opposition and continue with your own personal bias. It's really annoying.

I would say ORAS was moste fun. Only part I did'nt like about it was how they used the word "super". But I still think it would be a great place to start your Pokémon adventure

So because I don't fit the narrowing audience that Game Freak is targeting, I'm closed minded? Yeah, OK.

A lot of peope did use it, but there's more to the issue than that. First of all, the Battle Frontier was heavily promoted when it was first introduced, so it's an important part of Hoenn. Leaving it out makes the game feel incomplete. But beyond that it reflects the stark difference in development practices between 3rd gen Game Freak and 6th gen Game Freak. 3rd gen Game Freak include a wide range of features to appeal to different types of gamers and gameplay styles. 6th gen Game Freak includes the least amount of content they can get away with and designs the games around the casuals only. So who's really the closed minded one?

I never said they should remake Emerald, they should've included Emerald elements in ORAS. HGSS did the same with Crystal elements, so naturally ORAS should've included some kind of Emerald elements (even if they couldn't have included everything due to storyline discrepancies).

Again with the ad hominems.

Look, I actually don't care about the strategic or competitive elements in the game. All I want is an expansive adventure with lots of places to explore, lots of things to do, and a reasonable difficulty.

Art isn't anywhere near as important as things like gameplay and design. Art is just art, it just makes things prettier to look at. It does little to change your experience. Beautiful overworlds don't make up for things like bad region design, a lack of gameplay content, or a narrow variety of Pokemon.

You remember things wrong then.

Difference between gen 3 and gen 6 gamefreak is that gen 6 gamefreak has over double the pokemon, completely different and more complicated game mechanics, a wide array of moves, a new system thats difficult to datamine let alone them code from scratch, and much more chrisp graphics rather than sprites a 10 year old can sit down and make. X/Y sucked, they mostly used it for testing out what they could do with the 3DS (as seen by random blaziken and mega eons in xy) but as far as blaming it for it's lack of content.. it's reasonable consituring they had little to work with being a next gen console, you can see they couldn't even fit much 3D in the game. They had to make every one of those pokemon models from scratch, past gens instead reused sprites or like I said, were easy to make since pixel art is nothing compared to meshes and animations.

Honestly, when you think about how much data and stored in these games, it's mind blowing. Programming every single animation for every single move and pokemon.. I always ask myself when they're going to run out of software space.

Anyway, my point is pokemon has reached a much more developed stage since earlier gens, back then gamefreak had room to add all this extra data people rarely used while instead now they're squeezing alot.. you can even notice a little lag with certain models and animations offline. Quit whining that pokemon has continued for more generations and it's finally starting to reach it's content limit. I don't know what gen is the last gen but I cannot picture them making 712 new models/sprites for the next gen alongside new animations, new moves, new pokemon, new megas, including the ability effects, items, I can go on forever just including stuff not in the overworld or adventure specific. (which as an RPG there is generally alot of time put into dialog and such) I'm not saying gen 6 is last but can you honestly tell me that doesn't get annoying and stale after awhile for the developer and programmers?

@MegaBeedrill Except the decrease in content is because of a perceived market shift, not the increase in data. The limitations they put on 6th gen's content are self-imposed.

Yes, I am casual, but tomorrow I may be hardcore, and you will still be a fool.

I liked ORAS a lot more than XY for actually changing pokemon in slight but meaningful ways (dex nav, decreased random encounter rate, especially on water). They're both worth playing if you like pokemon. The new graphics make them infinitely more tolerable than the black & white 1 & 2 money grab. Unless you hate turn based combat, that is. Alpha Sapphire was the first game I ever completed the pokedex in and I played it for about 50 hours longer than I did XY (both games are above the 100 hour mark the way I play).

I think past (mainline) pokemon games aren't worth playing now (unless you REALLY like pokemon) as a lot of them are kinda bad by today's standards. That said, I think XY and ORAS are worth a playthrough each if you are capable of enjoying pokemon at all.

POKEMON ORAS

Pros:
-Vibrant and beautiful world
-A solid story that has atmosphere
-A friend that isn't annoying
-Wonderful character building for Wally
-An amazing postgame compared to past iterations
-You can catch a lot of Pokemon you couldn't in Mirage Spots
-Challenging Boss fights (as long as you don't over level yourself by grinding, and if you do, that's your fault)
-The catch rates for the legendary Pokemon (bar Rayquaza who has a 45) are challenging.
-You can control Latios/Latias as you fly accross hoenn
-Secret bases that you can customize yourself! (Make your own house, essentially)
-Features from X and Y like being able to interact with your Pokemon and feed it
-Breeding for competitive battling is a lot easier!
-Elite 4 is more challenging than it was before, and A LOT more challenging than X and Y
-Contests!
-Battle Resort
-Catch almost every Legendary Pokemon!
-more open feeling areas, and no grid based movement with the circle pad!
-Delta Episode, establishes lore and expands upon story elements! (Plus two legendary Pokemon, one of them you couldn't catch before)
-Going underwater!
-Surfing model for Kyogre!
-Surfing on Sharpedo gives you its specific model as well, and increases your speed through the water!
-The ocean has less of an encounter rate, meaning not so many Wingull and Tentacool!
-Surfing on Wailer also gives you its specific model!
-Dex Nav allows you to find rare pokemon with rare moves and potential!
-Gym leader pokemon levels spike up after you're halfway in the game, and are actually higher than they were in the original games.
-Wonder trade and you can easily get Pokemon from separate generations
-That Wally final battle theme
-That remixed Legendary Weather Trio theme tho
-Those cinematics tho
-Those camera angles tho
-That Victory roade theme tho

• That Steven Stone

Cons:
-No trainer customization
-Some people don't like the sea (There really isn't as much as they make it seem, and they're probably working for Team Magma)
-No battle frontier
-Lowered gym leader Pokemon levels at the beginning
-Hoenn exclusive Pokemon that are a part of the atmosphere but apparently some people think all of the Pokemon in the whole Pokemon universe should be available at the start of the game, even though that caused problems with X and Y and lead many of us to forget that there were any new Pokemon added at all because the
Pokemon fan base is weird like that. (After you beat the legendary Pokemon however, you non-hoenn pokemon start appearing in the wild in places, and mirage spots
help you build your pokedex up fast. Think of it as Friend Safari, except more Pokemon)
-Needs more Steven

Again, graphics are one of the least important aspects of a video game. I care more for things like region design, amount of content, and Pokemon selection, and both 6th gen games are weak in 2/3 of those (XY in region design and content and ORAS in content and Pokemon selection).

ORAS' post game is somewhat shallow. It's better than XY, but inferior to past games like Platinum, HGSS, and BW2.

Right, let's praise ORAS for doing the same thing that every other Pokemon game does. Also, ORAS is fairly light in terms of Pokemon, it has only 2/3 as many Pokemon as XY and less than even BW2.

The catch rates for legendaries have always been low.

No more than XY.

That's more a con than a pro.

The excitement of having so many legendaries in the game is brought down by the lack of lore and the general feeling of being shoehorned into the game.

Yawn.

Also yawn.

It's going to take more than that to fix the water routes. The water routes are still empty and somewhat confusing to navigate (although admittedly less difficult than the originals), and the distribution is still spammed with Tentacool and Wingull.

You forgot:

-Lack of explorable post game areas
-No gym leader rematches
-No Emerald features

Also, a lot of the cons outweigh the pros, most of the pros are minor aesthetic and storyline things whereas the cons are more significant content issues.

There is a huge middle ground between ORAS' dex and XY's dex. They don't need to double the size of the dex to the point where the 3rd gen Pokemon are drowned out, but they do need to fix the problems with distribution and type variety. There's a lot of areas that either have very few Pokemon or spam the same ones, and some types in the game don't even have enough Pokemon for a full team (see: Phoebe, Glacia, and Drake's rosters when you fight them the first time).

@Bolt_Strike So your deal is personal preference and you're just looking at everything negatively, as I had stated. Also, ever since generation 4, the catch rates of legendary Pokemon have all been 45, meaning they're easy to catch. In ORAS most legendary Pokemon are from 3-5 aside from the ones in the games mentioned in this post. It also seems that nothing is fun for you and your'e going to be negative about everything. I can understand why most people either ignore your posts in Pokemon discussions, or get fired up about them. You literally don't like anything that isn't the exact same as we've had, and can't appreciate the little details in games. If you want The Pokescrolls or Pokehunter, go somewhere else because your'e not going to get that from gamefreak.

Also:
-ORAS: Several new post game areas introduced with mirage spots, plus the Battle Resort.
-X and Y: Kiloude City
-Black/2 and White/2: Black City or White Forest
-Diamond/Pearl/Platinum: Battle Resort
-RSE: Battle Tower/Battle Frontier
-GSC: No post game considering the main story events and all the way up to Red take as long as your average Pokemon game's main story to reach as well as Johto and Kanto being rather small in these games.
-RBY: No new post game area. Yay.

It's more than personal preference. The areas they're focusing on aren't significantly better than they were before, and the areas they didn't are significantly worse. So the games are worse as a whole.

First of all, that was 5th gen. Second, that was only for mascots, all of the other legendaries had catch rates of 3 like normal.

Again, little positives don't make up for big negatives.

Again, you're thinking in terms of extremes when there's a middle ground. I simply want Game Freak to return to making games more like the 3rd and 4th gen games, I don't care if they're not Skyrim.

@Bolt_Strike
You're wrong. Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Xerneas, Yveltal also had catch rates of 45.
What I've said still stands true, and no matter how much you don't like the games, there are enough reasons for people who like Pokemon and aren't blinded by nostalgia to like them. The pros vastly outweigh the cons, the same can't be said for Diamond and Pearl, although Platinum redeems them. .

POKEMON ORAS

Pros:
-Vibrant and beautiful world
-A solid story that has atmosphere
-A friend that isn't annoying
-Wonderful character building for Wally
-An amazing postgame compared to past iterations
-You can catch a lot of Pokemon you couldn't in Mirage Spots
-Challenging Boss fights (as long as you don't over level yourself by grinding, and if you do, that's your fault)
-The catch rates for the legendary Pokemon (bar Rayquaza who has a 45) are challenging.
-You can control Latios/Latias as you fly accross hoenn
-Secret bases that you can customize yourself! (Make your own house, essentially)
-Features from X and Y like being able to interact with your Pokemon and feed it
-Breeding for competitive battling is a lot easier!
-Elite 4 is more challenging than it was before, and A LOT more challenging than X and Y
-Contests!
-Battle Resort
-Catch almost every Legendary Pokemon!
-more open feeling areas, and no grid based movement with the circle pad!
-Delta Episode, establishes lore and expands upon story elements! (Plus two legendary Pokemon, one of them you couldn't catch before)
-Going underwater!
-Surfing model for Kyogre!
-Surfing on Sharpedo gives you its specific model as well, and increases your speed through the water!
-The ocean has less of an encounter rate, meaning not so many Wingull and Tentacool!
-Surfing on Wailer also gives you its specific model!
-Dex Nav allows you to find rare pokemon with rare moves and potential!
-Gym leader pokemon levels spike up after you're halfway in the game, and are actually higher than they were in the original games.
-Wonder trade and you can easily get Pokemon from separate generations
-That Wally final battle theme
-That remixed Legendary Weather Trio theme tho
-Those cinematics tho
-Those camera angles tho
-That Victory roade theme tho
-That Steven Stone

Cons:
-No trainer customization
-Some people don't like the sea (There really isn't as much as they make it seem, and they're probably working for Team Magma)
-No battle frontier
-Lowered gym leader Pokemon levels at the beginning
-Hoenn exclusive Pokemon that are a part of the atmosphere but apparently some people think all of the Pokemon in the whole Pokemon universe should be available at the start of the game, even though that caused problems with X and Y and lead many of us to forget that there were any new Pokemon added at all because the
Pokemon fan base is weird like that. (After you beat the legendary Pokemon however, you non-hoenn pokemon start appearing in the wild in places, and mirage spots
help you build your pokedex up fast. Think of it as Friend Safari, except more Pokemon)
-Needs more Steven

And like I said, comparing the post games of ORAS and the others, this is what you get:
Also:
-ORAS: Several new post game areas introduced with mirage spots, plus the Battle Resort.
-X and Y: Kiloude City
-Black/2 and White/2: Black City or White Forest
-Diamond/Pearl/Platinum: Battle Resort
-RSE: Battle Tower/Battle Frontier
-GSC: No post game considering the main story events and all the way up to Red take as long as your average Pokemon game's main story to reach as well as Johto and Kanto being rather small in these games.
-RBY: No new post game area. Yay.

Yeah, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this. I can't see how anyone who's not a casual could possibly enjoy the direction this series has gone in since 5th gen.

Also, there is much more to the older post games than what you listed.

We were talking about "new areas" in the post games. Also, apparently the old Kyogre and Groudon had a catch rate of 5, while their primal forms have a catch rate of 3, like all legendary Pokemon before 3rd/4th gen. In 4th gen the main legendary Pokemon were 45, in 5th gen they were 45, and in X and Y they were 45.

I will agree to disagree, but I, as well as most of the open minded fanbase who are okay with change, okay with progress, and don't use nostalgia to cloud our views, know that ORAS were really good improvements over the originals, and amazing installments for generation 6. They have taken the series in a new direction that has a lot of potential.