Quoted By:
Rushed development, incompetence with the 3DS and sky-high expectations from the precedent set by HGSS.
>oh boy, time to go to Dewford
>remember the view from Mr Briney's ship showing you what the route would be like if you came to explore it later
>>>it's just a fucking cutscene and you're at Dewford
>get to Route 113
>fuck yes, time to run around in ash-covered grass
>grass doesn't react when you run through it, ash collecting relegated to miserable piles around the area
>get to route 119
>fuck yeah, time for the route that made you slow down to immerse you in the Hoenn wilderness
>music is fucking great
>>>they couldn't be bothered to block you from riding your bike in the grass
>surfing around, trainers are actually surfing as well, cool as fuck
>time to climb a waterfall
>>>no waterfall animation, screen just transitions to you on the other side of the waterfall
>and transition zones ruining the seamless feel of Hoenn in general
I can't recall just how many times this happens in ORAS, you get immersed because they did some things right, and then you find one of the many, MANY places they cut corners and the whole thing fucking falls apart. In a way I feel the game even ackowledges this, there are story reasons for shit like no berry blener and gimped safari zone, like the devs were trying to apologize, but of course it can never really make up for it.
The quote from the game corner guy who had to shut it down really stuck with me, him talking about how times have changed. ORAS felt like it was acknodging there was no going back to the golden age of Pokemon and it's going to be very different from here on, especially with a remake that, despite the improved technology, ended up doing LESS than what RSE acheived for their time because of GF's apparent discomfort with the 3DS.
It's all very tragic. I feel like I should gather my thoughts about ORAS for a proper review.
