After playing gen 3 for a couple months prior to this game, this almost made me feel nostalgic the most in comparison to other remakes like FireRed and HeartGold, since I've spent so much time in Hoenn and enjoyed the region a lot. With the jump to 3D and music transitioning outside of chiptune hits, Omega Ruby was such a treat to look at, both presentation and audio wise.

As a remake of Ruby and Sapphire, ORAS had changed so many features since that era with the many features added over the years, but also new elements to the story which is unique for a remake in Pokemon. Alongside seeing familiar characters and Pokemon returning in this game, we also have new faces like Zinnia and...oh, just Zinnia? Well, one new character. And we see her in the brand new post-game called the Delta Episode, which I'll get to in a second.

With X and Y being a hit back then, they also decided to add some functions from that game into this remake as well, with exp share functioning exactly how it did in Kalos. In the previous game, I stated that this wasn't that bad to me as I could easily balance out my team to avoid overlevelling. Well, throw that out of the window as I was 15 levels over with just my starter by the time I got to Mossdeep City, not because I wanted to use my starter being Swampert, but they still kept almost the same amount of HMs needed for your travels, which I cannot wait for them to scrap them later on, these are forever stupid to handle. As well as exp share being an easy mode, mega evolutions return as well, with some new ones found only in ORAS, such as Sharpedo, Garchomp, the Hoenn starters, the box art legendaries dubbed as Primal Reversions, and even Diancie got a mega too: the only mythical to ever have a mega form. I never really used these much unlike X and Y, since you get the mega bracelet after the Southern Island to get one of the Eon Pokemon 5 gyms later.

Yeah, that brings me to what else the remake offers. They added the Pokedex functions back from X and Y like Pokemon-Amie, Super Training, and the PSS, but they also added new functions like the PokeNav, which acts as a tracker for Pokemon in the area, beeping if you're near a wild one - making it easier to find some of the rarer Pokemon and even some with different moves. Later on, it allows you to find Pokemon outside of the Hoenn dex from Kanto to Kalos which is great, and became a very big help after I got to the post game for some of my favourites. Another thing they added was PokeBuzz which is basically the news feature, but it also incorporates StreetPass in this game, which I couldn't use unfortunately since it's 2024 and I have no one using StreetPass near me.

As of the post game itself, this was muuuuuch better compared to Kalos' post game. When becoming Champion, you hear about a meteoroid heading to Hoenn and you're thinking of some way to stop it while running into Zinnia, one of the Draconids who wishes to awaken Rayquaza to stop it. This was a really cool storyline near the end as it dives further into how Mega Evolution came into all of this and even adds context to the ancient war in Kalos. But you also get Deoxys as a reward for destroying the meteor which was a nice treat too, a space virus for free...how generous!

ORAS was so much fun to play through, although I kinda wished the HMs would've been gone in this game or at least shrunken down, but still holds up for a 3DS game 10 years later.

I’ll admit, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were my first ever experience of Hoenn. I played it when they released back in 2014, and I haven’t really played them since likely 2019. Since then, I’ve practically played every other Pokemon game out there, and I’ve played the other versions of Hoenn that exist, so ORAS has been a set of games I’ve been wanting to come back to for quite some time. I think ultimately I prefer Emerald, but I had a great time playing through Omega Ruby. As a remake of Ruby and Sapphire, it’s also really interesting too.

This is arguably the most changed remake of the Pokemon remakes out there, and I really like how they do things. One of the first obvious changes are the designs of major characters, especially the likes of Team Aqua and Magma members. And honestly this creates a whole new life and identity for Hoenn that I really love, the Team Magma and Aqua members feel like actual unique characters now, and Maxie and Archie’s ORAS designs are the ones I first think of. As well, major aspects of the story change, and incorporate aspects about Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion, which is really cool. It is an improvement on the story of Ruby and Sapphire, but I end up preferring Emerald’s story. Emerald more incorporates a feud between Aqua and Magma, while (since I played Omega Ruby,) Team Aqua feels more minor characters than I wish they would be. Of course, there’s also numerous changes that made perfect sense to include as well, since entire mechanics changed and altered since Generation 3. There’s an entirely new Pokemon type, the physical/special split exists, and there’s been numerous other tweaks to improve gameplay and convenience.

One of the biggest inclusions in ORAS that I greatly appreciate is that of the Dexnav. Being able to find Pokemon that appear in shaking grass, and being able to use the Dexnav to search for specific Pokemon. If you chain them more and more, you can find rarer Pokemon, having higher IVs, egg moves, even being able to find their hidden abilities. In fact for a good number of my team, I found them through using Dexnav, even though it was a bit of a struggle finding some good Pokemon. I also used the feature introduced in X/Y, Super Training, to train my Pokemon’s EVs as well. ORAS feels like one of the best games to hunt for decently strong Pokemon in, with the combination of both Dexnav and Super Training.

My journey through Omega Ruby was really fun. I found it particularly easy, the Exp. Share makes grinding absolutely unnecessary. I was overleveled early on, due to Dexnav hunting, but by the end of the game, since I didn’t fight as many trainers as I should, I ended up back on par with major battles. My team in the game was Sceptile, Masquerain, Exploud, Mawile, Sharpedo, and Banette. I was honestly surprised by Masquerain, it was a really helpful Pokemon, even into the Elite Four, and it was a surprising help against the Champion. As well, I was surprised by how much of a powerhouse Banette was, even though it was the last Pokemon I added into my party, it easily had the highest offensive stat, but ended up being the highest level Pokemon in my entire party. This was a really fun team that I crafted, and I’m glad I finally got to try Pokemon like Masquerain and Exploud for the first time.

I also am so happy that ORAS better incorporated Mega Pokemon into the main campaign itself. Pokemon XY, for all that I do enjoy those games, always frustrated me with the fact that practically 90% of all mega evolutions were locked to the postgame. In ORAS however, the Mega Stones can be obtained as you play through the game, scattered around Hoenn, meaning you can craft your team to include mega-evolving Pokemon. Mega Evolution does make things a bit more unbalanced though, there’s very few Mega Evolved Pokemon you have to fight, so your mega evolved Pokemon will like be at the advantage. Though that being said, Mega Evolution is so cool, I can’t really fault it.

While I do prefer Emerald when looking at the list of games that take place in Hoenn, I really like and appreciate ORAS. ORAS’ ending is such a beautiful thing, and it’s easily something I prefer over Emerald ending if anything. I’m glad I finally got around to playing ORAS again, I still really enjoy it, even if my preferences have changed. It’s such a unique remake compared to the other remakes out there, and I think it’s definitely worth playing at least once, just to see what it’s like.