Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - Nintendo 3DS

This is a pretty long review. I summed up the entire thing in the very final, short paragraph. If you want to get specific then read the whole thing. Otherwise, just go straight to the bottom, and read the last paragraph.Before I get started, I should say that this is my first Pokemon game. Ever. Everybody always told me that Pokemon is amazing and all that but I never really believed them. I heard it so much that I decided to buckle down and try it.This game is pretty awesome. There is a lot to cover, so I'll try to make it brief. It starts off with you moving to another town, from who-knows-where. If it was mentioned, I forgot. You are next door neighbors to the Pokemon Professor dude, and he's pretty cool. So basically, you go to meet him and he's gone. Asking around a bit, he was on some route studying Pokemon. When you find him he is being chased by a Pokemon, so you choose your starter and fend the aggressive Pokemon off.From there, what you do is simple: you travel around the region, collecting more Pokemon, strengthening them, while collecting enough gym badges to enter the Pokemon league. Those are the absolute basics, there is a LOT more plot and all, but I don't want to ruin it for anybody. If you don't know what a gym badge is, I'll tell ya: there are gyms with strong Pokemon trainers as the leader. 8 to be exact. You go to the gym, challenge the trainer, and if you win you get a specific badge. You can only get one once. Each of the badges has some special abilities that you can use once you get them.There is a tad more to it than that, but you'll figure it out once you get playing. It isn't hard. There are different approaches to playing this game. Some people want to try and collect any and every Pokemon they ever come across. Even if they already have one of that kind. Some people want to get one of each. Some people want to get what ones they need and just ditch the rest. However you play is up to you. I personally don't ditch any, but I don't go for every single one either. If i don't have it, and I kinda want it, I'll try to get it.I have heard that in Pokemon X/Y, you customize your trainer. I haven't played either, although I plan to. Point is that there is no character customization to be had here.There are more things to do with your Pokemon than catch them and force them to fight, like this is some sort of animal fighting ring. There is a place in the menus called " Pokemon Amie". I have no clue what Amie means, but basically this is the place where you play with your Pokemon. You can pet them, certain areas of them make them angry. You can feed them, luckily you can't overfeed them. You can play mini games with them, like puzzle tiles for example. The more you do these things with them, the more affection they will have for you. Eventually, if they have enough affection, it can have some SERIOUS bonuses in battle. They can shake off negative status effects because they want to impress you or whatever. They can survive a hit that would normally would have made them faint, forcing you to throw out another Pokemon. Small things like that are more helpful than you would think.There is a super training place for your Pokemon next to the Pokemon Amie. I can't tell you much about it because I never use it.Then, there is online play.Online play allows you to do many things. You can battle people on your friends list. You can battle random people who are in the same area as you in the game (you don't see them). You can trade. The battle and trade things are pretty self explanatory, so I won't bother going into those, but there is one thing you should be aware of, which is Wonder Trade.Wonder Trade allows you to put up a Pokemon of your choosing. If you decide to trade it, THERE IS NO GOING BACK AT ALL FAIR WARNING. Once you choose the Pokemon you are going to trade, you are paired with another random person who is using Wonder Trade as well, and you trade Pokemon. You have no idea what it is going to be until you receive it. They keep whatever nickname the Original Trainer gave them, and there is no way to change them. Some of the names are obscene. I won't even name one because they get so bad, but honestly it is pretty rare that you get an obscene name. I've only ever come across it twice.There are some problems with Wonder Trade though. It is 100% random. There isn't anything like "Only Pokemon above lvl 50 will be counted" nothing like that. As a result, out of every 10 Wonder Trades you do, 9 will be a level 1 Pokemon that usually sucks. I didn't even know it was possible to get these Pokemon at level one. I think there might be a way to breed Pokemon but I have no clue. That's the only explanation I can come up with other than hacks. Consider yourself warned: Wonder Trade is not, in any way, wonderful.There is only really one other thing that I should mention before I end this review: trainers. They are everywhere. I mean everywhere. It's unbelievably annoying. Trainers are NPC characters that battle you. If you walk in front of them, or basically anywhere near them, a battle begins. It isn't like "would you like to battle? Yes/No" You walk in front of them and the battle begins. No joke. There is no way to tell if somebody is a trainer or not. Just assume that everybody is, because probably 90% of all other characters in the game are trainers you must battle. There is no way to escape the battle besides quitting the game. They like to stand next to doorways that you are required to get through to continue the game. There are very few that are avoidable. It gives you a lot of experience points, and aside from selling stuff it is the only way you can get money that I am aware of. But there are just SO MANY. You walk not even 10 steps, then BAM a trainer goes "nice weather for a picnic, huh?" and then a battle begins. They say the most random things for the start of a battle...To sum up, a nice game. Fun, lots of different styles of playing for different gamers. The only real downs to this game I can come up with are Wonder Trade and Trainer Battles. Wonder Trade is something that one can just ignore. The trainers are an annoyance, but the rest of the game is good enough that you are fine with having to battle them as long as you get to continue. They don't ruin the game, they just make it tedious.I would say 5 stars. It has it's negatives, like every game ever, but is has enough goods to outweigh the negatives.Update: A few days after completing the game. I have a few things to add. There is only one save file in this game. You can't have multiple, you can only have one. I found out about this thing called the Nuzlocke challenge and I really want to do it, but that would mean deleting my current save. Not only is it my first Pokemon game save ever, it also has a couple Pokemon in it that you can only possibly ever get once. Other than trading, there isn't any way to get a Diance after the event ended...that I know of. What's important is that if I deleted my save file, it would all be gone forever. The game saves onto the cartridge, not the SD card, so I couldn't copy the save to my computer. If there were two save files then that would be great. It would also allow you to try different methods of raising your Pokemon. There are many different ways to complete your goals in this game, but I can't try them without deleting precious mementos of extreme rarity. And one more thing: the rival of this game is the most annoying character ever. A lot of people love him, but I personally cannot stand him. My main problem is that he gets too sentimental whenever something happens. For instance, every time you battle him and win, this really dramatic music begins to play and he goes on a speech about how much you've helped him grow not only as a trainer, but as a person blablahblah it's annoying. And it only gets worse and lasts longer as you get further into the game. And he always wears pajamas. I personally would like a rival who gave me a reason to want to beat them. A good reason. Doing something that got in the way of completing something important, like taking the starter that you had already chosen and forcing you to pick another. Stealing a key item or whatever while you were busy. I don't know, something! All I think when I run into this guy is "Man, I just want to absolutely obliterate his Pokemon so he won't bother me anymore" I know he'll keep coming, but he's an annoyance. I want one that makes me think "ugh! I need to show this guy who's boss! I hope he battles me!" You know. And it wouldn't hurt to make the rival related to the story.Update: So it has been a while after I beat the Pokemon League for the first time. Decided I should add more things. I have owned this game for close to a month now, and I still haven't gotten even close to 100% completion. I recently have started going around visiting secret bases of fellow players, and it is pretty fun. You can add the owner of the secret base to your own if you want to, and they are available for battle once a day. They only use 3 pokemon, but they can be pretty difficult. It's good experience points and money if you want to train some of your Pokemon. There's those contest things, but I have no interest in them. Online battles are available, but I have heard about bad things happening to players who participate recently. I have been told that some people hack their cartridges or something, and make it so that if you online battle them, your save file is deleted. So, I am avoiding it like the plague. Then there is catching more Pokemon.The thing about the Pokemon catching part is that you really have to be into the "catch em' all!" slogan. To me, catching them all seems like too much of a chore, especially since there isn't even enough room on the game cart to hold all pokemon available in the game. Besides the fact that I don't think you get any items for getting them all. Not enough incentive for me. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it. For all I know, there may be some special item at the end of the long road. Or maybe you just enjoy catching as much stuff as possible. The fun factor of the post-game content really depends on what kind of player you are. I am the kind that won't do a tedious and painstaking task if it doesn't have some sort of reward at the end of it. Some players really just like to entirely do every single thing in the game just because they can, or for bragging rights. Whatever it is, you can still enjoy yourself once the main and secondary story end, because there is still lots to do.

This review is useful for both Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as both are practically the same game, with only slight version differences. The version differences are explained in this article: [...]This is a must have game for any Pokemon fan. I have played every generation of Pokemon game (only main series titles) and I have to say this is the best experience so far. All of the best things that you remember are present, with updates added for smoother play. This modern take on the original Ruby and Sapphire is refreshingly nostalgic, with the addition of new game elements, making the entire experience feel new.This is not meant to be a full review ( here is a link for a full review: http://kotaku.com/pokemon-omega-ruby-and-alpha-sapphire-the-kotaku-revie-1659957634 ), but I will touch on some things.- The game is much more cinematic due to 3dBefore in Ruby in Sapphire (though then they were a major improvement to graphics), much was left to the imagination. In ORAS, you see things from angles you haven't seen before and animations are much better. This leads you to feel much more immersed in the story.- A much better map, utilizing spotpassBefore it was a chore to check on your berries. With this new map you can see when your berries are ready to be collected anywhere in the world. It will even tell you what berries you were growing. The same thing is true for trainers. This time around trainer's eye is much more user friendly, letting you know exactly when and where a trainer is ready. The best thing, you can fly directly to them. No more flying to just pokemon centers. Now you can fly directly to berry and trainer locations. Bases too! You can tell if the base features that can only be used once per day are ready and can fly directly to bases. However, if you are just wandering around, the map will still pop up a berry/base/trainer notification letting you know something is ready. Super useful tool while playing. With spotpass, if you pass a friend, their base information will automatically update in your game, allowing you to find their base in your world. In addition, if you are connected to the internet, you have many options to interact with players around the world.-Super training and affectionYou can now super train your pokemon. In addition to giving pokemon calcium and protein (and other stat boosting items) you can actually select what base stats you wish to improve on any given pokemon. You can also grow closer with your pokemon by playing games, feeding them, and petting them. Super training can lead to seriously strong pokemon, and affectionate pokemon will dodge attacks and even negate status affecting moves.-Experience sharingRemember when you move your experience share item around your party to boost to the level of your pokemon, always preventing them from holding that one good item. NO MORE. Experience share is now a key item that you can turn on and off, allowing all pokemon in your party to experience (no pun intended) the benefits without giving up an item slot.-Seamless inclusion of mega evolutionNot much more needs to be said, now you can mega evolve many 3rd generation pokemon. The already strong starters become seriously mean.-SO MUCH TO DOThis is not an understatement. After one of the best story lines imo, and the pokemon league, there is still so much to do. After you finish the pokemon league, an after story called the delta episode appears. But, even before that, you unlock one of the coolest features in the game. Using either Mega Latios or Latias you can soar around all of Hoenn. This is a beautiful game, but this part has to be the most beautiful feature to date in all of Pokemon. This is the realization of the childhood imagination of what it actually would like like soaring the sky on the back of a Pokemon. With this ability you can catch (between the two versions) every single legendary that has ever been in a Pokemon game. The amount of exploration you can do is immense, making this easily one of the largest games (as far as content) yet.-You will not be bored if you played Ruby and Sapphire and Emerald beforeI was personally worried that this would effectively be replaying a game generation I have already put hundreds of hours into. Not the case. Though the main story is the same, you remember the similarities with a smile instead of a bored gaze. The modern improvements are really that, improvements. When you play you will recall many "oh i wish....", because many of those wishes have frustration-solving improvements in ORAS. This was a remake made for players to recall the things they felt playing those games (personally my favorite, with johto and kento a close second and third of course), not simply to regurgitate material.Final thoughts:This is good. Very good. Hard to imagine good. This is so much more than any pokemon game before, which such a pleasant air of familiarity. If you ever played the original games, or played RSE, or are just completely new to the world of Pokemon, ORAS is for you. All the pleasant nostalgia with modern amenities that make it smoother, more enjoyable, and better than ever before. Definite buy.Should I buy both versions?While you need both versions to get all of the pokemon (there are time where you need two specific legendaries, one available in OR and one in AS just to unlock another legendary on your map), the ability of internet play gives you access to players around the world. The best case would be for you to get one version, and a friend to get another. There is so much content in one version alone (and the two are so similar), the other version would only a slave for getting all the pokemon. I doubt you would invest another proper play through. Since you can connect with many players for trading, I would recommend you only purchase one of the two versions.