i really like pokemon omega ruby and i think that's controversial to gen 3 elitists? i think the character redesigns in this game are some of my favorite in the series. it makes me wish that bdsp got even half the effort these games and hgss did. the most important change from emerald (making team aqua and magma actually distinct) is enough to make this the way i actually can sit through hoenn and enjoy it, and i kinda prefer the delta episode to what emerald did with rayquaza even if that's sacrilege or whatever. hoenn is also the absolute last region i would care to do battle facilities at, so that being cut doesn't really bother me. overall it's a good remake, especially if you don't really care for the changes that impacted less casual players, but even as someone who sinks hours into the battle facilities i really didnt mind.

In a bold affront to every "what your favorite Pokemon generation says about you" image, being born in time for my first Pokemon game to be Emerald does not make the third generation my favorite. It's actually one of my least favorite generations to revisit. I won't dwell on those reasons here, because this isn't my thoughts on Ruby, Sapphire, or Emerald. Instead, it's about Omega Ruby, probably the boldest and most distinct Pokemon remakes, and for that they're also my favorite remakes in the series.

While Omega Ruby is faithful enough to its predecessor to still be recognizable, it brings over a lot of QoL features from modern entries while taking active steps to fix some of the game's most egregious issues and making other changes to keep the experience fresh. Not every change is a total win; the new plot material (especially the Delta Episode) is needlessly wordy and poorly written, and while I appreciate the idea of newer Pokemon in the base game, they come too late to make much of an impact. Other additions such as the DexNav, soaring, and the revamp to secret bases more than make up for it though. They even tried to bandage the tedium of the endgame with faster surfing and way less encounters! It's... still just a bandage, but anything is appreciated.

The game obviously isn't perfect, and has a lot more room for improvement. Considering how apprehensive Pokemon as a series is to these sorts of changes, though, I'm appreciative of how much they were willing to tinker with in this game, and it was enough to substantially improve my opinion of Hoenn. In my eyes, remakes offer a lot more worth when they're willing to look back and make changes for the sake of improvement, instead of offering an experience that's faithful to a fault... and this is not a sentiment that would ever come back to haunt me within this series' future, surely!