Criticisms of ORAS: Do you agree? (Please see first post)

[Almonds]

Criticizing ORAS for getting spoiled about Delta Episode is bs. The only thing I knew from the Corocoro leaks was that there was a new character and Rayquaza and nothing much else. A lot of people had asked for spoiler tags and a lot of members had been considerate about keeping any excess information to themselves or at least posting warning messages. If you were still spoiled, either you were that one unfortunate person who happened to come across an unspoiler-tagged post (which is just bad luck and not something to criticize ORAS for), or you have been searching through every single place, clicking on all the tags and following the hackers data updates - that's pretty much your own fault.

No mention of Wally rematches being stuck behind something most people wont achieve?

I'm surprised this isn't mentioned. It took me a million tries to unlock Wally rematches, and I had to go through a heck of a lot of trades, ask for advice, and look up smogon out of desperation and it still took a lot of time. It was the most horrible way to execute the rival battles. Not everyone is gung-ho about getting a fifty-streak win in the battle facility, and not everyone is a competitive player.

 

[HyruleAlpha]

I truly enjoyed the game, but after reading all of that, I can't help but to think if my enjoyment was purely nostalgia.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Those that complain about a lack of BF need to realize that OR/AS are remakes of Ruby and Sapphire versions, not Emerald.

That didn't stop them from putting Crystal elements into HG/SS despite being remakes of Gold and Silver, so I don't see why they couldn't put in aspects of Emerald in the games.

Anyway, there are a few points in that list that I disagree with. The DexNavi is one of the best features introduced in these games and I instantly loved it after I started using it. It gives players access to Pokemon with egg moves and hidden abilities earlier on in the game, which can be quite useful if you want to make a team as soon as possible and use them throughout the storyline as I do. Most of the Contest complaints feel a bit minor. Sure, the changes that they made cause Contests to be easier, but I'm fine with that when I could never get pass Super rank in the original games. Berry blending was also pretty boring from what I remember. Changing the Sky Pillar challenge was fine by me too since that was also more tedious than anything. I don't care about finding out players' secret base teams are either. I don't remember any spoilers for the Delta Episode, so I don't understand that one.

Other than that, I agree with most of these points. No Mega Flygon and no Battle Frontier are always going to be my main big problems with these games. I wish that they had a few Mega Pokemon saved to reveal after the games came out instead of showing all of them beforehand. Team Magma and Team Aqua were much easier than before, but I could say the same thing about Team Flare, which I have, so I think it's the result of that decision to make the teams and Gyms easier in general. No Gym Leader was definitely a bad choice and copying the Battle Mansion instead of the Battle Frontier was such a disappointment. The Safari Zone was also pretty dull. I really do have fun playing these games. In spite of these problems, I'd say that they're more fun than X/Y, especially when there's stuff to actually do post-E4, but they still have some pretty big flaws of their own.

 

[Alpha Sapphire May]

Meant to post this yesterday, but the forum changed during that process, and it didn't feel right to post this on April Fools anyway. Really long post again by me, sorry, but nonetheless, if you want my summary, I disagreed with the entirety of the opinions laid out. Well there was some truth to it, but none of that really bothered me and I feel no one else, or very few, should be bothered by it. This feels like a flimsy list of barely notable issues, and it feels like the writer is just arguing for the sake of arguing. I guess my ORAS bias is kicking in again, so I'll just agree to disagree for the most part.

Just open the part most relevant to you; I warn you that I wrote too much... It's all in a spoiler tag for convenience, even the list itself is long.

Spoiler

Battle Frontier

Spoiler

I've already stated why the BF was not implemented in another thread; in short, it would have been too much development time for a large area the majority of us would not of cared about/ made the most of. I'll admit that I do miss the frontier, since I did spend much of my time in there (about a couple hundred hours), but it's not like I really needed to see it again; I could just as easily play it on Emerald. The BF implementation in HGSS made me not want to see the place again every generation, and I would rather have them mix it up a bit with more useful features like Secret Base Battles, Contests, etc.

Having the Battle Frontier in their arsenal also means that they have a useful tool to use in the coming years. Should we theoretically assume that this generation will continue, The Battle Frontier would be something nice to introduce, no? I mean, quite often most of the final iteration of games suffer from a sort of third game syndrome: with anything and everything pretty much accounted for in the generation, the final game has almost nothing to offer. For example, one could easily complete the Pokedex before Emerald came out and most of the move tutors were done already in FRLG, so Emerald would have been found redundant if not for the Battle Frontier. Sure it added some other stuff, but for the most part, if not for the frontier, Emerald would be no better than RS themselves. The same kind of thing happens with HGSS too, but unfortunately, all of the features were taken: move tutors, Battle Frontier, and even all of the new Pokemon and forms (like Arceus and Giratina) were already accounted for, so all HGSS had to offer was some extraneous aesthetic features, like Walking Pokemon and perhaps if one does not have the Gen III games legends (and if you really want to count it, we get Whirlpool and some egg moves). Having the Battle Frontier means that the new game, or perhaps DLC, can have something more to offer.

Trainer Customization

Spoiler

I think I've also established why customization would not be favorable in ORAS: it would ruin the integrity of the characters I loved. Also nitpicking but "e-easily?" and "c-c-copy-pasted?" I don't think it could have been viably done so without screwing up the characters badly like I said and would end up like another HGSS situation where they replaced a previous PC. There are definitely some other issues but I'll leave it at that.

Framerate

Spoiler

Sure it's not Gen III grade framerate, but it's still better than say Gen IV. I wouldn't say that it makes the game so miserable unplayable and if it wasn't for this I wouldn't have noticed any complaining about it. Sure hoards mess things up a bit, but one will not encounter these much except on purpose for the most part. Also updates within a generation are rare, and while it could have been done, I think that time was better spent on other activities anyway. It's not like we were expecting a big change in the core anyway.

GB Sounds

Spoiler

Sure its missing, but unlike GSC, RSE are more accessibly playable. I honestly would rather hear the new remixes in the new game and go back to the originals if I needed to hear the RSE soundtrack; not to mention the RSE tracks would feel somewhat out of place for me (not sure on the reason, but I just feel that way). Also we were given more access to the soundtrack via iTunes etc. so its not like it would be difficult to hear the music anyway.

3D

Spoiler

This didn't bother me too much, especially since my eyes are so bad that I don't have a good sense of depth perception anyway, but even with that in mind, XY didn't use this anyway, and as a part of its core, it stayed true to those games. Sure we could have had more, but honestly, this feels more like a minor upgrade more than anything.

Contests

Spoiler

Well I'm sure that contests would be a pain otherwise for those who don't care much about them. I mean those who don't care could probably still avoid them, but making them more accessible is part of the game designers job. Why implement a feature no one cares about; accessibility gives those on the fence more of an incentive to have at it. Contests fanatics may complain, but it still makes things easier to get into. I haven't had the time to try them out yet, but I will, so I can't really offer much, but I can still understand this a bit.

Secret Base Teams

Spoiler

Isn't that the main purpose though, to surprise people. I mean I went into one hoping to grind a bit after many defeats by the Elite Four, and one team even gave me a challenge with a Mega Metagross. Surprise! I was also nearly defeated by some teams and it wouldn't have felt the same without it. One can see the teams online if we scan the QR codes anyway if one is searching for Blissey bases.

Difficulty

Spoiler

To tell you the truth, I don't think difficulty options are necessary, especially when we can make our own options like turning off the Exp. Share, which in itself is a hard mode, or by not healing like I did for my play. I don't think Megas for the gym leaders would have been the best option since when Mega evolution is presented, it is quite late in the game anyway, and at least it gives us a sense of power for a few chapters, until we reach the very end. I was also never over leveled, and Mega Evolutions are just optional tools we may or may not use (I didn't use them at all)

Gym Rematches

Spoiler

I'll admit this is a problem, but just a minor problem. Rematches are fun, but don't really add much to the game. It's often better to grind elsewhere (Elite Four or ORAS gives us the best Exp grinding option of all time in Secret Bases), and the character interactions are minimal. I get a kick out of them for maybe a couple of hours and them I'm done with them. They're not so easy to implement either as each and every one of them needs a new team, dialogue, and often a meeting place, though the gym could serve as that, and the rematches in XY were quite minimalistic anyway. Aslo we had some interactions with the Gym Leaders outside their Gyms, and even though it's minor, it's still something I guess. Again another relatively pointless feature; still somewhat sad it's gone, but it's not like I'm mad about it.

Sky Pillar

Spoiler

When it comes to the bike challenge or the cutscene, I'd take the cutscene in a heartbeat. The puzzle was certainly fun and all, and if it didn't exist before I would definitely pick it instead, but the cutscene brought something new to the table, and to me it was a nice way of climbing to the top of the Sky Pillar. It almost felt unreal in a way, similar to the way the bike puzzle first felt when I played through it, as I walked up what felt like a temple for Rayquaza. Not to mention it would be even more difficult to implement and reexperience the puzzle again since the Mach Bike is so easy to maneuver this time around.

Granite Cave

Spoiler

"Backtrack [for] Aron, Mawile, or Sableye?" I'd say that's the least of the problems. Sure it means no Sableye until after Brawly, but hey, it's not like we have never had to backtrack for our goods and services before. The real issue is that the cave is redone so that one does not really have to traverse it, but even so, this gives us a new hidden area to explore. It's not like it changed that much anyway, as I could recognize some rooms, and truly always felt more like an extra area rather than a dungeon.

Also note that ORAS had two things in mind when redoing the cave. For one, it was the site of lore for once, and it was certainly a nice way to introduce Steven. It really gave the place meaning in a way, and with it, Steven became even more important than ever, even if it is a minor conversation with him regarding the mural. Also it's the site where one battles Zinnia for the first time, giving it even more importance as a story driving tool.

Second, Flash was no longer a viable HM for blocking routes. I even went through the extra parts of the cave without it and came out okay. I mean one could theoretically try and go without Flash in RSE, but that would be much more difficult. One could argue that the line of Ruin Maniacs could have blocked some more of the dungeon aspects of it, but still, the mural was what they were looking for in the next room, and it seems to make more sense if they are standing right outside of the room that holds it. There could be other roadblocks as well but then things get a bit more complicated from here on out. (Sort of a shaky argument here but I think the first one before it holds up at least somewhat nicely).

Safari Zone

Spoiler

There's so many things wrong with this statement. For one, "pointless" is a strong word here. At least we can get never before seen Pokemon in here, giving us a diverse range of in game Pokemon to choose from. Sure it's no different from any other route, but at least there are plenty to choose from.

It also gives us a nice sense of exploration, which is what RSE had done, and what ORAS had emphasized. One cannot traverse the entire area with a single bike, giving it a sort of uniqueness as a "route" with hidden treasures and Pokemon. Also, I found some of the previous mechanics of Safari pretty awful as we had a counter and a chance to miss out on rare Pokemon and shinies as a result of the encounter mechanics (So many missed shinies…).

Also, a "Downgrade" from HGSS? It's another feature from HGSS that I hated, but I guess everyone else liked, as it always felt like a nuisance to deal with and I almost literally set foot in there once and never returned. Tried it out again on a later play through, and still didn't like it, so there must be something wrong here; I guess I already completed the Pokedex by this time, and it seems severely impractical to use for an in-game run. I know it's an "upgrade" in that it was never there before, but such a place should have been there in the first place, and if it did exist, it would have made HGSS's version seem so bad. It was worse off than any other Safari Zone I have seen but I guess that goes into subjectivity…

Mirage Tower

Spoiler

"No g-good r-reason?" Now that's something I don't understand. I feel it was implemented in Emerald for "no good reason" (sorry Emerald, still my favorite though) and it's just one less place to explore. Not to mention we got plenty of new places which easily make up for that in Mirage Islands, and these are still fully explorable even when they are fully harvested of their items, and thus we can enjoy them in the many visits to come. (Also, as a side note, what's with Hoenn and mirages?)

Berry Blending

Spoiler

Again with the "No good reasons." Like, what is this writer thinking. There is always a reason for something (sort of quote I just got from playing too much Phoenix Wright) and removing the minigame certainly had a purpose. I'm not sure what that was, but it made things a bit more convenient. Like the easier contests, removing the game made it a bit easier to get into the contests. No need to constantly play the game just to play contests anymore. Much of what has been said here has been said in the contest section, so I'll leave it at that.

Game Corner

Spoiler

I thought the way that they implemented the mini game in HGSS was just plain awful; not "decent". The game itself wasn't bad, I actually enjoyed it, but having to force it upon us to even get coins was definitely a bad idea. The game itself wasn't even a semi-efficient way of getting coins, and if the opportunity presented itself, I would have just bought the coins exclusively, and played the game just for fun. One of the reasons I found HGSS a hard game to play, and the reason I would just play Platinum instead, or move onto BW. I don't think there was anything they could do at this point in ORAS, other than what they did do. They could have put a game in there sure, but why not just put it somewhere else (like they probably did for contests; this is our mini game as far as that is concerned).

Pokemarts

Spoiler

I have a feeling that they were separated for more than just that reason, but I have no evidence so I'll leave it at that; I mean it seems like such a minor reason and the writer pointed it out, but they could have easily used XY PokeCenters, or maybe not. It's at least a way of mixing things up anyhow, and the separation was never an issue with me. Oftentimes, I found myself visiting a Pokemon Center or a Pokemart exclusively for only one of the things they had to offer anyway.

Anyways, "Many Things that were changed/removed for the worse" sounds a bit too drastic for me. It's what the article is about, but still, most of these things seem so minor that I forgot, or overlooked them. The word "many" is a massive standout here as I feel that there were many more things that made the game better. The writer seems to not give credit were credit is due, and gives me at least, a sense of distrust.

HMs

Spoiler

Actually I thought that HMs were handled quite nicely this time around, and I love how they emphasize exploration anyhow; like getting a new HM means more places we can go to, it's exciting in a way. Sure we have 8 but we can HM01 them down by a bit if we are smart about it.

Cut can be removed pretty much when we get to Lilycove since I don't think there are anymore trees
Fly can be removed using the Eon Flute (only post game really, but still useful)
Flash is almost completely unnecessary except for in Victory Road, and still one can see.
Waterfall is used once really, and there is a Pokemon Center at the top anyway.
Dive is used often for post game areas, but in game is not used that much.

Few HMs are actually necessary as you can see and if that still isn't convincing enough think of this. HMs are always meant to provide some opportunity cost to your team. They may be useless as in game moves, but on the other hand on the field, they are necessary to progress. They take up space, sure, but that means one has to be smarter of how one manages the team. There can be abuses like HM slaves and problems like not having the correct Pokemon for the move yes, but even so, it didn't feel so much an issue at least to me.

I feel that there is more to say, but I can't seem to find it today, so that will have to wait another day; unless there really is nothing and the little thing that's bothering me is really nothing.

Trick House

Spoiler

Another flaw I encountered, I'll admit, but I had some real fun figuring out some of these puzzles. The later ones are more difficult than any Gym Puzzle out there and I loved a good challenge for once. Sure maybe more would have benefitted it, but in all, it's meant to be a small little side quest, that for the most part, wasn't meant to mean much, but give us a nice time. I'm not sure if more puzzles is absolutely necessary, when I am happy with what I have.

Auto Run

Spoiler

I never really got the good feeling about these. I mean, auto run and Roller Skates were nice, but half the time they felt forgettable. I suppose auto running was really only implemented in HGSS since there was nothing else to put there, though realistically, one could have easily put the Pokegear there similar to the way DPPt used the touchscreen or the way ORAS has, even if it's just a map or a talk show playing. ORAS really had no room for that and would have made things more complicated, when all we have to do is hold a button or use the bike…

On the other hand, Roller Skates don't seem to fit really within Hoenn's environment. There are few roads and plenty of grass and sand that would make Skating impractical. Skating as a theme fit more within Kalos than it did Hoenn also for the general theme going on, as I can't really see too many Roller Skaters in Hoenn for some reason. Also it was removed in favor of Sneaking, which better fit Hoenn as Birch is a field researcher, which also feels like the better mechanic; Skating felt too extraneous at too many times, and I would rarely use it.

Delta Episode

Spoiler

How does one spoil oneself for the Delta Episode. I know it's story heavy, but a lot of what is in there can't really be spoiled per say. Unless for some reason one looks up the teams one battles throughout the Episode, I don't think one would really miss out by spoiling. Also, carrying out the task feels more tangible than reading, and as much as I can read about it, it still feels good the first time through. Hey, I've read plenty of spoilers on it on accident, and I still enjoyed it.

What is there to spoil by the way? Zinnia? Maybe, but she was on promotional artwork anyway, and no real source can give you all of the information on her sensibly anyway; one has to try out for oneself. The other world? That one isn't really a spoiler. Deoxys and Rayquaza? Not a spoiler either, and also in the artwork, but they made the Delta Episode feel worthwhile. Sure there's a story, but I think that it's the way it's told, rather than the content, that really got me going; may be different for other people though.

Also "pointless and boring" is really pushing it. I mean I liked the Delta Episode, but that's not my real problem here. It wasn't entirely pointless since we could capture both Deoxys and Rayquaza for completing it, and we also get more background on the characters, which can't really be spoiled per se, since the experience is really within the games; no amount of spoilers should be able to change this, I even cried the second time I played it since it still had that nice touch to it. "Boring" may be right from a certain POV, but even so, it felt like it had enough content to keep it going (Wallace battle, an Admin Battle, waves of Team Aqua/Magma members, interactions between characters like Steven and his dad, etc.)

Mega Evolution reveals

Spoiler

I admit this was a problem too, at first, but really it felt better when I played through the game. Sure there may be no more secrets as far as Megas go, but still, there was much more to the game than just Megas. Megas as of late are also the perfect marketing tool, so there was no surprise that they revealed all they had to get more customers. This also means no Megas were left in the shadows, underrepresented compared to their brethren, like in XY; sometimes I forget Megas like Banette, Houndoom etc. exist.

Compatibility

Spoiler

Well they have never introduced an update in the past, so there shouldn't be too much complaining. I mean, yeah they can patch now, but I think there would still be issues here. Those without Internet would be at a severe loss since they can pretty much no longer communicate with ORAS and those with the XY update. It's also a way of keeping the things in ORAS well, in ORAS, meaning one has to buy the game to appreciate the value of the new stuff. See more arguments in the Cosplay Pikachu section.

Mega Salamence

Spoiler

Sure this thing is OP, but at the same time this is nothing new. We have had RBY Mewtwo, RSE and onwards Kyogre/Groudon, DPPt Garchomp, and many legends, BW Speed Boost Blaziken, XY Kangaskhan and Aegislash etc. Things like Mega Kangaskhan can work in many environments as well as Mega Salamence can so Salamence is no more special than those listed above and others. Some like Audino may get the short end of the stick in some cases, but I suppose that's the way things work, with some Pokemon being weaker than others.

Cosplay Pikachu

Spoiler

These Pikachu are literally no different from other Pokemon introduced within a generation. We have Megas in ORAS, Black/White Kyurem in BW2, and Rotom forms, Giratina, and Shaymin in HGSS and Pt.

Online Contests

Spoiler

This would have been nice, but I don't know if they would have grown to be popular enough to get attention.

Also, the remake already does take pretty much "full advantage of modern technology" in many forms that the writer completely disregards. Sure it could have been better with this, but not by much.

Mega Evolutions trainers

Spoiler

Mega Evolution is meant to be an exclusive concept, held to few trainers. In game, things could get bad pretty fast if every other trainer used a mega. I've said why Gym Leaders can't really have them either in the Difficulty section, so take a look if you're interested.

Physical bonus

Spoiler

What more do you need? The 3DS itself handles much of the tasks needed the previous bonuses gave us (Steps and Wireless communication) and really allows for much more with Streetpass for example, which I assume takes the role of the such. We also have external communication with the Global Link, although it is somewhat minor, it still adds as much to the game as those physical bonuses did.

Not to mention some early copies, or those from a certain distributor, offered some figures for buying the game; and they look really nice from my point of view, and I really wish I could have gotten my hands on one. Sure it was a limited time, but it was still a nice bonus. Technically HGSS had them too, but even still there were actual, nice bonuses out there.

Legends

Spoiler

Well with that many legends, it's really not that easy to find clever ways to put them all in nice places. I did like what they did with some of them, like with Heatran for an example. It's not like previous games with that many legends didn't do much with them either: much of the legends in HGSS or BW2 require little to no effort, and sometimes if there is effort, it can be tedious. All I really need are the legends in a place I can capture them.

TMs in Mirage Spots

Spoiler

This is of slight concern, but it really doesn't matter all that much. I mean, within a month, or two months at most, one could probably visit all of the mirage spots, which isn't so bad. It also gives a nice incentive to pick up the game every now and then to check things out, and see if you got a new place to explore or not. I get really happy when I see one I've never been to and go on to explore for a little bit; and I get even more excited when I find a ™.

DexNav

Spoiler

You know what else is "repetitive, grindy, and relies too much on the RNG to be innovative or interesting?" Encountering Pokemon without the Dexnav; have fun playing without it. Honestly, it made the concept of random encounters a bit more easier to deal with since not only can we search for previously found Pokemon, but we can look up stats, see if they have egg moves etc. thus we can avoid those we don't need. One can use it to simplify breeding if one cannot viably pass on egg moves to the target. We also have a unique way of obtaining items like the Lucky Egg, which is a big deal since I think we could only get one in XY. It may be relatively inferior to breeding, but it's certainly one of the better features out there, and better than what has been said. It even fills in for when breeding is impractical, such as in game.

One thing I almost forgot about, but is quite useful, is the fact that we can get hidden abilities from it. That is a great step forward in itself as we no longer need to search great lengths to find them. Sure trading is brought up, but it isn't always the most convenient way; sometimes I still can't find what I need online. No need to go to the GTS filled with impossible trade options, or ask around for some obscure hidden ability. Just keep using the DexNav until one shows up.

Dex Variety

Spoiler

Despite this being talked about constantly, I don't see this as such a major issue that absolutely needed fixing. We have enough Pokemon to choose from, as 200+ is actually a lot, and much of the Pokemon in there aren't entirely useless. Unlike some other games, this one does not have a severe Dex problem, like in HGSS while it had a large Dex, most of the Pokemon available were rare or useless in game (same goes for FRLG except it has a smaller dex), XY and BW2 had the problem of too many Pokemon in one Dex. We have a somewhat nice balance here even if it isn't ideal; it falls between two extremes. Sure it has problems like Phoebe and Glacia having duplicates, but for the most part, if one were to choose from 200 Pokemon, I think the way Hoenn did it in a nice way. Ideally we would have something like Platinum, or maybe BW, but it is not such a major problem.

Post Game Areas

Spoiler

The thing is, unlike Kanto, Hoenn isn't exactly starving for more areas to explore. Hoenn itself is larger than pretty much any other region out there, and there's plenty of side-quests to do. We have the Sea Mauville, Trick House, the optional routes like the desert, east of Slateport, and around Dewford, and more that pretty much fills in the purpose of the Sevii Islands if not then more so. We also have Mirage Spots to explore adding onto that, and with Soaring and Diving, if they count, we have more ways to go through Hoenn. Hoenn needed no add on to get better, and I'm sure that in creating these games, the developers took more effort into it.

Aqua and Magma Teams

Spoiler

Isn't this a problem with the series teams in general. I mean half the time these guys and gals are meant to be pawns for you to destroy, with plenty of them to keep on your toes. Sure their team variety has been a problem since Team Rocket, but I say I like the way they embrace their teams. The deadly Zubat line, the carnivorous Carvahna line, the fearsome Camurupt line (though Numel isn't that frightening at least it evolves into something that looks somewhat ferocious), the poisonous duo in Koffing and Grimer, and the lethal, but loyal, Mightyena line all seem to work perfectly for the team native to Hoenn. Think about letting them have something like a Skitty or something on board just won't fit, and I'd say, for the most part the grunts are meant to be all and the same anyway.

One of the really nasty things about these guys is the fact that they whittle down your partners' health to nothing more than anything else. They come at you with poison and confusion, messing up any attempt at getting to the boss, which is what they were meant to do. Twice, due to my no healing rule, I found myself in some pretty awful situations since I had few Pokemon left to fight the boss, whether it would be an Admin or the leader, and Archie happened to smash me since I was ill prepared for the fight. They are not meant to be equivalent to any other trainer on the road, and their real power comes from their number, as seen in the hoard battle, which, as a side note, can get really annoying if one does not have a spread move.

Mega Flygon

Spoiler

Mega Flygon? May as well ask for Mega Shiftry, Ludicolo, Mightyena, and Claydol while were at it. I know Flygon is more popular, but still, we don't need mega evolutions for all of the Hoenn Pokemon just yet, save some of them, especially some important ones, for later so we can spread out the taste.

I think this one is more of a joke than anything, but I'll answer it anyway. Plenty of Hoenn Pokemon already got their chance to shine and unlike most of the other Hoenn natives, Flygon was no one's signature. I mean we got Aarune, but he was new and feels like he shouldn't have such access to a greater power just like that, as he seems more interested in exploration more than training. I suppose Lisia got one, but Mega Evolutions are emphasized in contests, unlike in Secret Bases. I'm sure Game Freak knew that there couldn't be too many Hoenn Megas, so those were reserved for the more important ones, while we got Megas for other generations like Lopunny, Diancie, or Audino.

Also Flygon will most likely get his chance down the line. He's one of those popular Hoenn Pokemon, and leaving him without one would just not feel right. Same goes for Milotic as well, who ironically, and perhaps a bit suspiciously, is owned by a "future" champion. Hoenn sort of needs at least one, probably just one now that it has plenty, representative for the generation should a new set of megas come and these two are nice choices right? What I'm really worried about are some more obscure Hoenn Pokemon like my favorite Bug-type Beautifly, or my favorite regional bird Swellow. They still have a chance but I guess I will see.

I actually wasn't going to respond to this until I realized talking about ORAS is pretty fun, though I'm not sure why entirely. Honestly though I could cook up a list like this for any game really if I look hard enough, like the writer did. Much of what has been said is almost entirely pointless to the point of me almost writing them off, but I did a nice job of putting my thoughts out there anyway. Also holy Rayquaza this post is long.

In short terms what I'm trying to say is "Objection." Probably too much video games from me, and I'm also on a massive caffeine rush, so I guess I'm a bit crazy (not that I'm not crazy otherwise), but I hope my thoughts are at least a bit coherent. I think I've put more thought into this than the creator of this image did, but I'll let you be the judge. Also it's highly opinionated so my POV may not be the same for everyone.

This "article" seems to dwell too much on quantity rather than quality, and I feel I've ripped apart better arguments than this one. Honestly there were maybe 3 or 4 or less good ones in there, and at most 5 minor ones, but in all it feels like the writer is grasping here for some reason. Maybe he/she looked to some high standard that was not met, and truthfully those can never be met if one goes too much into the details, or looked too much into one problem that expanded into several sort of "fake" or "filler" problems to prove his/her case. Hey I've found myself laughing at some of these since they are so absurd; though maybe it's the way things are presented.

Sorry if I'm being too harsh, I'm not trying to be, but I may come off that way. I can redo some parts or remove them if necessary. I'm trying to defend my favorite game here, so I may have crossed some boundary.

Edit:

I truly enjoyed the game, but after reading all of that, I can't help but to think if my enjoyment was purely nostalgia.

That may be, but I'm pretty sure that if you loved RSE for what they truly were as you say, then I think it is still reasonable to love ORAS; no need to doubt yourself if the feeling you got was true for ORAS. Sure nostalgia may be a part of it, but as a whole, there is usually something fueling that nostalgia. There must be some reason why you loved RSE and I feel that ORAS did a great job of re-emphasizing what RSE stood for. Sure it may be that a lot of what ORAS had to offer came from RSE, but still, it brought them back for you to enjoy, and improved on much of them. For example, Secret Bases are easier to use with Streetpass and QR codes, Soaring brings the new dimension that fits well with the exploration in Hoenn, DexNav made it feel like one was out in the fields doing research, Magma and Aqua are as expressive toward their goals as ever, etc. ORAS brought these new things to the table to complement RSE, and thus those who love RSE should probably love ORAS, unless they truly did not love RSE in its entirety for example only loving RSE for the Battle Frontier.

 

[ange]

"The framerate issues are just as bad as X and Y with no improvement."

This one baffles me so much. It's on the verge of being embarrassing, honestly.

 

[HyruleAlpha]

Edit:

I truly enjoyed the game, but after reading all of that, I can't help but to think if my enjoyment was purely nostalgia.

That may be, but I'm pretty sure that if you loved RSE for what they truly were as you say, then I think it is still reasonable to love ORAS; no need to doubt yourself if the feeling you got was true for ORAS. Sure nostalgia may be a part of it, but as a whole, there is usually something fueling that nostalgia. There must be some reason why you loved RSE and I feel that ORAS did a great job of re-emphasizing what RSE stood for. Sure it may be that a lot of what ORAS had to offer came from RSE, but still, it brought them back for you to enjoy, and improved on much of them. For example, Secret Bases are easier to use with Streetpass and QR codes, Soaring brings the new dimension that fits well with the exploration in Hoenn, DexNav made it feel like one was out in the fields doing research, Magma and Aqua are as expressive toward their goals as ever, etc. ORAS brought these new things to the table to complement RSE, and thus those who love RSE should probably love ORAS, unless they truly did not love RSE in its entirety for example only loving RSE for the Battle Frontier.

Oh, no doubt. RSE was my favorite generation, mainly because I enjoyed the music and how it sounded. While nostalgia was the main factor that fueled my desire to play ORAS, I still felt satisfied. Nonetheless, the points that were listed can't go ignored. I thought they were good points, at least.

 

[GhostFingers]

It's basically someone trying to do this for the new games: (Included for those of you that may not have seen it.)

Spoiler

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Problems+with+gen+1+not+oc+just+interesting+read_cad9bb_3856475.jpg

Thing is, these new complaints come across as butthurt nitpicky details where the issues in gen I were real flaws.
Nerfed difficulty in battles/contests, no XY compatibility for new megas, and certain features removed are all bad, but not flat-out glitches.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Spoiler

I've already stated why the BF was not implemented in another thread; in short, it would have been too much development time for a large area the majority of us would not of cared about/ made the most of. I'll admit that I do miss the frontier, since I did spend much of my time in there (about a couple hundred hours), but it's not like I really needed to see it again; I could just as easily play it on Emerald. The BF implementation in HGSS made me not want to see the place again every generation, and I would rather have them mix it up a bit with more useful features like Secret Base Battles, Contests, etc.

Thing is though, the Battle Frontier is a major part of 3rd gen's history and marketing. The Battle Frontier was a huge deal when it was created, it was a major part of Emerald's marketing and it even got an entire season of promotion in the anime. Leaving the Frontier out is ignoring a huge part of 3rd gen's identity, as much as omitting Contests or Secret Bases. It doesn't feel complete as a remake without the Frontier.

Also, I don't buy that not enough people wanted it to justify making it. More like Game Freak didn't want it because they were lazy/wanted to casualize the game.

I think I've also established why customization would not be favorable in ORAS: it would ruin the integrity of the characters I loved. Also nitpicking but "e-easily?" and "c-c-copy-pasted?" I don't think it could have been viably done so without screwing up the characters badly like I said and would end up like another HGSS situation where they replaced a previous PC. There are definitely some other issues but I'll leave it at that.

Ruin the integrity? Hardly. You know what the nice thing about customization is? If you don't want it, you don't need to use it. But for everyone else, it gives people a way to make a unique avatar to identify themselves online. Frankly, this is something that's pretty much a necessity if they want to continue making an online system like the PSS.

Sure its missing, but unlike GSC, RSE are more accessibly playable.

Not by much. GBA compatibility has been long gone at this point.

I honestly would rather hear the new remixes in the new game and go back to the originals if I needed to hear the RSE soundtrack; not to mention the RSE tracks would feel somewhat out of place for me (not sure on the reason, but I just feel that way). Also we were given more access to the soundtrack via iTunes etc. so its not like it would be difficult to hear the music anyway.

And the remixes don't really sound that different anyway.

To tell you the truth, I don't think difficulty options are necessary, especially when we can make our own options like turning off the Exp. Share, which in itself is a hard mode, or by not healing like I did for my play. I don't think Megas for the gym leaders would have been the best option since when Mega evolution is presented, it is quite late in the game anyway, and at least it gives us a sense of power for a few chapters, until we reach the very end. I was also never over leveled, and Mega Evolutions are just optional tools we may or may not use (I didn't use them at all)

The main reason people want difficulty options is because the default difficulty has gone down, just turning off the Exp. Share isn't going to fix things. What we need is tougher AI, stronger/more Pokemon, and things of that nature. Although ORAS' gyms aren't in as bad a shape as the Unova and Kalos rosters, which have shortened rosters that any competent player can blow through in under a minute.

I'll admit this is a problem, but just a minor problem. Rematches are fun, but don't really add much to the game. It's often better to grind elsewhere (Elite Four or ORAS gives us the best Exp grinding option of all time in Secret Bases), and the character interactions are minimal. I get a kick out of them for maybe a couple of hours and them I'm done with them. They're not so easy to implement either as each and every one of them needs a new team, dialogue, and often a meeting place, though the gym could serve as that, and the rematches in XY were quite minimalistic anyway. Aslo we had some interactions with the Gym Leaders outside their Gyms, and even though it's minor, it's still something I guess. Again another relatively pointless feature; still somewhat sad it's gone, but it's not like I'm mad about it.

This kind of goes back to the problems with gym leader difficulty and team size. People want to be able to fight the gym leaders that have full teams.

There's so many things wrong with this statement. For one, "pointless" is a strong word here. At least we can get never before seen Pokemon in here, giving us a diverse range of in game Pokemon to choose from. Sure it's no different from any other route, but at least there are plenty to choose from.

It also gives us a nice sense of exploration, which is what RSE had done, and what ORAS had emphasized. One cannot traverse the entire area with a single bike, giving it a sort of uniqueness as a "route" with hidden treasures and Pokemon. Also, I found some of the previous mechanics of Safari pretty awful as we had a counter and a chance to miss out on rare Pokemon and shinies as a result of the encounter mechanics (So many missed shinies…).

But they can literally do all of that with other areas, so that doesn't save it from being pointless.

I thought the way that they implemented the mini game in HGSS was just plain awful; not "decent". The game itself wasn't bad, I actually enjoyed it, but having to force it upon us to even get coins was definitely a bad idea. The game itself wasn't even a semi-efficient way of getting coins, and if the opportunity presented itself, I would have just bought the coins exclusively, and played the game just for fun. One of the reasons I found HGSS a hard game to play, and the reason I would just play Platinum instead, or move onto BW. I don't think there was anything they could do at this point in ORAS, other than what they did do. They could have put a game in there sure, but why not just put it somewhere else (like they probably did for contests; this is our mini game as far as that is concerned).

I disagree. It was an improvement over the original Game Corner, which mainly required luck and reflexes, whereas Voltorb Flip required some degree of skill. And yeah, they could add the ability to buy coins, but it only takes about an hour to max out your Coin Case and buying coins is pretty much cheating anyway. At any rate, they should've at least put something there.

HMs are always meant to provide some opportunity cost to your team. They may be useless as in game moves, but on the other hand on the field, they are necessary to progress. They take up space, sure, but that means one has to be smarter of how one manages the team. There can be abuses like HM slaves and problems like not having the correct Pokemon for the move yes, but even so, it didn't feel so much an issue at least to me.

There's no real benefit to this though, it's little more than an annoyance.

I admit this was a problem too, at first, but really it felt better when I played through the game. Sure there may be no more secrets as far as Megas go, but still, there was much more to the game than just Megas. Megas as of late are also the perfect marketing tool, so there was no surprise that they revealed all they had to get more customers. This also means no Megas were left in the shadows, underrepresented compared to their brethren, like in XY; sometimes I forget Megas like Banette, Houndoom etc. exist.

And what did they keep secret before the game's release? The Battle Resort that was basically Not Kiloude City? Mega Evolutions weren't the only thing spoiled. There weren't a lot of major surprises to begin with. Everything, the characters, the new Mega Evolutions, all of the original side features, Soaring and Mirage Spots, almost everything about the game was spoiled.

Well with that many legends, it's really not that easy to find clever ways to put them all in nice places. I did like what they did with some of them, like with Heatran for an example. It's not like previous games with that many legends didn't do much with them either: much of the legends in HGSS or BW2 require little to no effort, and sometimes if there is effort, it can be tedious. All I really need are the legends in a place I can capture them.

And who said they needed that many legends? They had very few legends in XY which could've easily accommodated more, and we're likely to get a third set of 6th gen games that could've also accommodated some of those legends. This problem wasn't an inevitability, it was a result of poor planning of legendary distribution.

Despite this being talked about constantly, I don't see this as such a major issue that absolutely needed fixing. We have enough Pokemon to choose from, as 200+ is actually a lot, and much of the Pokemon in there aren't entirely useless.

200 Pokemon isn't enough to fill out a region as large as Hoenn, it's too many Pokemon spread out too thinly. I mean, I'm not saying that it should be like Kalos with 20 Pokemon in each area, but Hoenn's distribution is the opposite extreme, we have several areas which only have a handful of Pokemon (such as many of the areas around Mt. Chimney) and some areas with absolutely nothing unique (Rt. 123 comes to mind, having no unique Pokemon there makes it a near pointless route). It really gets bad with the late game water routes, which aside from Diving and post game DexNav Pokemon have absolutely nothing we haven't seen before and just spam the Tentacool and Wingull lines, making them a tedious annoyance. 200 Pokemon is NOT enough for a region of this size, it makes the rosters too repetitious and boring.

Unlike some other games, this one does not have a severe Dex problem, like in HGSS while it had a large Dex, most of the Pokemon available were rare or useless in game (same goes for FRLG except it has a smaller dex), XY and BW2 had the problem of too many Pokemon in one Dex. We have a somewhat nice balance here even if it isn't ideal; it falls between two extremes.

Having only a handful of Ice, Ghost, etc. isn't a severe problem? That's not really good balance. You should have at least enough Pokemon to form a monotype team for each type.

The thing is, unlike Kanto, Hoenn isn't exactly starving for more areas to explore. Hoenn itself is larger than pretty much any other region out there, and there's plenty of side-quests to do. We have the Sea Mauville, Trick House, the optional routes like the desert, east of Slateport, and around Dewford, and more that pretty much fills in the purpose of the Sevii Islands if not then more so.

You could make the same argument for Sinnoh, Sinnoh has a ton of optional areas to explore, and yet it still has more to offer in post game.

We also have Mirage Spots to explore adding onto that, and with Soaring and Diving, if they count, we have more ways to go through Hoenn. Hoenn needed no add on to get better, and I'm sure that in creating these games, the developers took more effort into it.

The Mirage Spots don't add much exploration wise, you can traverse them in less than a minute. They don't really measure up to a full post game section like the Sevii Islands.

This "article" seems to dwell too much on quantity rather than quality, and I feel I've ripped apart better arguments than this one. Honestly there were maybe 3 or 4 or less good ones in there, and at most 5 minor ones, but in all it feels like the writer is grasping here for some reason. Maybe he/she looked to some high standard that was not met, and truthfully those can never be met if one goes too much into the details, or looked too much into one problem that expanded into several sort of "fake" or "filler" problems to prove his/her case. Hey I've found myself laughing at some of these since they are so absurd; though maybe it's the way things are presented.

It kind of is quantity, but the larger point here is that you can just tell that they cut corners everywhere in this game. And sure, a lot of these things might be minor, but they add up, and altogether what they removed outweighs what they added.

Thing is, these new complaints come across as butthurt nitpicky details where the issues in gen I were real flaws.
Nerfed difficulty in battles/contests, no XY compatibility for new megas, and certain features removed are all bad, but not flat-out glitches.

Well 1st gen was Game Freak's first game, so "full of glitches" isn't exactly surprising, and we haven't had games that glitchy since, so that's not exactly a fair comparison.

 

[Soki]

I agree with pretty much ever single point. It especially bothers me that HGSS had so much stuff added (walking pokemon, pokeathlon, battle frontier (I don't care it was copied, it was still there)), so I expected the same from ORAS. But the only thing upgraded about ORAS is the graphics and the inclusion of the Dexnav. And not only did the music hardly change, some towns still even share the exact same music, something that was fixed in HGSS.

As far as the Battle Frontier and Mirage Tower, those were in Emerald, and I guess considering these were remaking Sapphire and Ruby, they decided including it was unnecessary.

Those that complain about a lack of BF need to realize that OR/AS are remakes of Ruby and Sapphire versions, not Emerald.

Like I said in another thread; HGSS has lots of elements from Crystal and was still considered a remake of Gold/Silver, so why couldn't the same be done with ORAS?

I think I've also established why customization would not be favorable in ORAS: it would ruin the integrity of the characters I loved.

Because May's redesign totally did not ruin her integrity. Would've loved the option to at least be able to wear her RS/Emerald outfit.

To tell you the truth, I don't think difficulty options are necessary, especially when we can make our own options like turning off the Exp. Share, which in itself is a hard mode.

Wouldn't call that a hard mode, even without the Exp. Share this game is still ridiculously easy.

It was an improvement over the original Game Corner, which mainly required luck and reflexes, whereas Voltorb Flip required some degree of skill.

Thank you, finally someone that defends the HGSS game corner mini game! I always thought the 'regular' game corners were boring, the only thing you did was click and hope you're lucky. The mini game is an actual game and was way more fun imo. They didn't do anything with the ORAS game corner, which is just lazy.

Also, I see some people saying they don't care about knowing what Pokémon Secret Base trainers use, but I think what they meant is that you can't see what Pokémon you are using in your Secret Base. Which is kinda annoying, same as not being told how to put Pokémon on your Secret Base team. It would be nice if you could just choose them on your PC in the base.

 

[henrymidfields]

Compatibility

Well they have never introduced an update in the past, so there shouldn't be too much complaining. I mean, yeah they can patch now, but I think there would still be issues here. Those without Internet would be at a severe loss since they can pretty much no longer communicate with ORAS and those with the XY update. It's also a way of keeping the things in ORAS well, in ORAS, meaning one has to buy the game to appreciate the value of the new stuff.

Apples and oranges.

Firstly, Nintendo already has DLCs in their other franchises by the time Gen 6 started off. Whether it is Mario Kart 8, Fire Emblem Akaneia 2-Remake (DS) or Awakening (3DS).

Back then with DPPt/HGSS, there weren't as many of the extra Platinum features that were competitive-battling related, so there was much less reason to patch DP. As for BW1+2 was also fine too, because the extra features were more specifically related to BW2's story.

ORAS is more a problem when more of the stuff in ORAS is competitive-battle related. We could have the other Mega-Evolutions stones not just in ORAS but also in XY too.

Also note that it seems that you can't get event Pokémon in XY anymore, and compare this to Gen 5 where you can get all Gen 5 event Pokémon in BW1. You can get most event Pokémon in Gen 4 through Diamond and Pearl too. Link below:

Event Pokémon - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Thus, all of this make me question GF's decision, why XY should be cut off when there is much more reason for an update, and in terms of event Pokémon, there is a precedent already with DP/BW.

Finally, for those that don't have internet access, just have the cartridge sent to a Nintendo office and have that patched, like what happened with the Lumiose glitch in XY.

Frankly speaking, I'd rather buy the DLC and skip ORAS outright for my own reasons.

 

[jayrachi]

Like I said in another thread; HGSS has lots of elements from Crystal and was still considered a remake of Gold/Silver, so why couldn't the same be done with ORAS?

Like I said in that quote, I guess that the developers deemed it unnecessary. That entire post was about Nintendo's lack of consistency when it comes to new games in a series. ORAS has a lot of improvements, but for some reason also lacks improvements made beforehand in other games. It's like totally different people are working on each game even though that's not the case, and that is a little frustrating.

Masuda has officially commented on the lack of customisation in ORAS before, also. Don't expect trainer customisation for a long time, if ever.

“In terms of the customization of the trainer, that was really kind of a special thing for the Kalos region, which featured this kind of motif of France and really focused on this beauty and fashion aspect, which is why it was a prominent feature in that game. For this game, we’re focusing on adventuring elements, so we don’t have the actual free customization of the trainer, but you’ll see the items you use throughout the game visually represented; for example, when you’re underwater, you’ll have this little mouthpiece that lets you breathe. So there’s some cool stuff for how your trainer changes clothes and puts on accessories throughout the game.”
“It’s really meant to give unique traits of personalities to the different regions. So with the secret bases, for example, they’re really popular in the Hoenn region. Everything we come up with always tie back into the themes of the games we’re working on, so with the original Ruby and Sapphire we had the theme of richness or abundance, which is in the name of the region: The ‘Ho’ part means richness or abundance in Japanese, and ‘enn’ means bonds, like the bonds between people and their Pokémon, for example. So it’s just reflecting the theme of the individual regions.”

(source: No trainer customization in Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Game Freak keen on keeping random encounters - Nintendo Everything )

 

[Tyrfing]

I agree with a lot and disagree with a lot. There isn't much I can comment on except that they made a good point with the Cosplay Pikachu. If it ends up like the Spiky-Eared Pichu (which needs to be remade and released; it never should of appeared only to fade out of existence), I'll be somewhat mad since the CP got good moves.

 

[megalatias365]

The game corner is only removed because of limitations for video games that banned any kind of gambling.

 

[Bolt Strike]

The game corner is only removed because of limitations for video games that banned any kind of gambling.

Yeah, but that didn't stop HGSS from implementing a new mini game in its place. ORAS didn't replace the Game Corner with anything, they just flat out removed it.

 

[Soki]

Like I said in that quote, I guess that the developers deemed it unnecessary. That entire post was about Nintendo's lack of consistency when it comes to new games in a series. ORAS has a lot of improvements, but for some reason also lacks improvements made beforehand in other games. It's like totally different people are working on each game even though that's not the case, and that is a little frustrating.

Masuda has officially commented on the lack of customisation in ORAS before, also. Don't expect trainer customisation for a long time, if ever.

I wasn't talking about it lacking improvements made in other games (I'm used to that by now), I was talking about it lacking elements from Emerald for which a lot of people always give the excuse "but it's a remake of R/S!"

HGSS was a remake of G/S but still had lots of elements from Crystal, so that excuse is pretty invalid.

 

[jayrachi]

Like I said in that quote, I guess that the developers deemed it unnecessary. That entire post was about Nintendo's lack of consistency when it comes to new games in a series. ORAS has a lot of improvements, but for some reason also lacks improvements made beforehand in other games. It's like totally different people are working on each game even though that's not the case, and that is a little frustrating.

Masuda has officially commented on the lack of customisation in ORAS before, also. Don't expect trainer customisation for a long time, if ever.

I wasn't talking about it lacking improvements made in other games (I'm used to that by now), I was talking about it lacking elements from Emerald for which a lot of people always give the excuse "but it's a remake of R/S!"

HGSS was a remake of G/S but still had lots of elements from Crystal, so that excuse is pretty invalid.

I wasn't using it as an excuse. I find it similarly confusing and senseless lol.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

+ Battle Frontier: Painfully I agree. The big absent from the remakes.
- Trainer Customization: Maybe it would be cool, but I think I can live without that.
- Framerate: I think it's more a console issue, but I may be wrong. Has someone checked if the problems with certain animations (in doubles in tiples particularly) persist with the New 3DS?
- No GB sounds: I can live without that.

- No 3D outside: Again a hardware limitation. Maybe they could implement it, and then frame rate would be a real issue.
- Contests: I wonder if whoever made this critic reached master rank.
- I don't get the problem.

- Gym difficulty: Maybe Gym Leaders are easier, or maybe you see them easier because you played the game while being 10 years younger.
+ Leader rematches: I missed that too.
- Sky Pillar: I don't miss that damn bike challenge.

+ Granite cave changes: I agree with this too.
- Safari Zone: I don't see a real problem about it.

- Mirage Tower: Would have been cool, maybe, but not a terrible miss.
+ Berry Blender: Kinda missed it, not so much but I missed it.
- Game Corner: Unavoidable miss, due to legal reasons. Nothing to do about it.

- PokéCenter/Mart split: What was removed from them? I didn't notice.
- HMs: Maybe true, but I don't see how to avoid this issue for a remake. It's an intrinsic issue on the pre-gen 5 games.
+ Trick House: Another agree here. I passed the last one and then I was like "What? That was the last one?"

- Auto-run: Cool feature, but I already resigned it to be an HGSS exclusive
- Delta Episode spoilers: You spoil yourself as much as you want. It's not like we had to search for spoilers with a gun in the head.
+ All megas unveiled earlier: That's true, I waited for a late surprise until the end.

+ The lack of a patch for X/Y: I totally agree with this.
- Mega Salamence: Doesn't even make it for the top 12 in rated battles, what are you talking about? Actually, I'd change this point for the fact that the ORAS Megas failed on introducing a consistent competitor for M-Kanga, that stays in the center of the metagame.

- Cosplay Pikachu: You're not even forced to use it, I don't see the problem. Maybe just her inability to breed (not Cosplay Pikachus, but regular HA Pikachus), but breeding is too easy anyway to even complain about that and most of her moves aren't that important (although an Icicle Crash/Meteor Mash Raichu would be cool).
+ Contests online: I agree not having them is a mistake. A small one, but still a mistake.
- Few Mega users ingame: They are meant to be few, you genius. And yet, much more than X/Y. I'd expect the inverse indeed, being ORAS much earlier in the timeline.

- Physical bonus: Unnecessary.
- No exploration for legendaries: Because there are too many! Would take a hell of time. The mistake here, is not placing more of them in X/Y.
+ TM in mirage spots: Agree with this. I had to wait one month for Substitute. Even Cresselia's island appeared twice or thrice in the meantime.

- DexNav: I understand the DexNav as a way to get just the first Pokémon in the breed chain. Then you get the first (or first two), you start to breed. So the DexNav accomplishes, IMHO.
- Variety: True, but again, a remake issue.

+ No relevant postgame areas: I agree with this.
- Team Aqua/Magma: Not sure if I'm getting old, but I can't remember the last time a villain team was a real challenge for me.
- Mega Flygon: How not? Haven't you see the announcement?

Spoiler

The Pokémon community I belong to, has as internal joke that Rick Astley is Mega Flygon. :lol:

So, in short, I agree with less than a third of the points given.

 

[Apawn:p]

Needs to add Wifi loading is much slower than in XY, I can get on the GTS in the second people start popping up, but in ORAS going on the GTS takes 1-2 mins after
I do agree with all but Mega Flygon though.

 

[Bolt Strike]

- HMs: Maybe true, but I don't see how to avoid this issue for a remake. It's an intrinsic issue on the pre-gen 5 games.

In some areas, yes, but in others, it's perfectly avoidable. You're not going to get around using Surf and Dive a lot, but do we really need a Rock Smash boulder blocking Rt. 111 or the massive amount of HMs required for Seafloor Cavern and Victory Road?

- Variety: True, but again, a remake issue.

Also not inherent. There's nothing stopping them from adding Pokemon to the Hoenn Dex.

 

[Soki]

- Gym difficulty: Maybe Gym Leaders are easier, or maybe you see them easier because you played the game while being 10 years younger.

Four gym leaders have lower leveled (by 1 to even 3 levels) Pokémon than they had in the originals, so that they're easier is a fact. The last three gym leaders have higher leveled Pokémon, but you can beat Tate and Liza with one single Surf attack, so they don't really count as hard either.

Also, a few months before ORAS came out, I replayed Emerald and had quite some trouble with some of the gym leaders, something which I've never experienced with any of the ORAS gym leaders, beat most of them without taking a single hit myself. So it doesn't have much to do with experience.