Hi Everyone,
I just got my copy of Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire(ORAS) Special Demo Version.
First Impressions:
Well as expected its very much similar with the original Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire only with completely redesign of the whole gameplay. So far the gameplay has been good but the annoying thing is that having to begin from the start screen after every adventure. But don’t worry your progress is saved. I was dumbfounded by the beauty of the game and very quickly got carried away into the adventure of the game. Every time you finish an adventure you will unlock new feature in the demo(up to 10 times). Will keep this post updated as I progress along though the demo.
Round 1 of Gameplay
You’ll first find yourself in Mossdeep City after having a ride on either Latios or Latias with some guy who also happens to be similar to the Mega Evolution Guru in the Kalos Region. You can try go into any building but unfortunately all of the are locked. We ended up going to the space centre to fight Team Magma but before that we select our first somewhat starter Pokemon. In other words, you choose from the second evolution of Hoenn Starters. It doesn’t really matter whom you choose as you will end up getting all the starters after finishing the first round. After battling Team Magma you can go on your first adventure after talking to the Evolution Guru(we call him that from now on)a.k.a Steven. We fly on Latios or Latias to some random place where we fight another 2 Team Magma grunts. Soon after, we enter a cave where our rival May needs our help, so naturally we battle another 2 Team Aqua Grunts. After battling, May will heal your Pokemon before moving on. As you approach the Admins of Team Aqua and Magma, the mega evolution guru will give you a mega bracelet, teach the most powerful move for respective starters and give the relevant mega stone. So into the battle we go, depending on your demo the mega evolution guru will either have a Galle or a Shiny Metagross that can both mega evolve. So naturally you trigger your mega evolution and beat the admins. After that, we follow the guru to some random grass spot where you will battle either a Glalie or a Shiny Metagross depending on your demo with the Poke Balls provided by the guru beforehand. After capturing the prized Pokemon. Your adventure will end and you’ll be brought back to the start screen. But wait, there’s more…..
Note: Your Pokemon will be reverted back to their original level , health and EXP Points once an adventure is over.
Round 2 Gameplay
If you now look through your party, you’ll notice that you have all the other starters(at final evolution and holding their respective mega stones). Talk to the guru, and go on an adventure to an island where you will battle trainers and then end the adventure there.
Round 3 Gameplay
In the third round of adventure, we end up on an island to help somebody or something who is lost on this island. After battling a few trainers, you will eventually find her and that ends our adventure for round 3.
Round 4 Gameplay
For this round, it turns out we are helping Steven(Guru) find a Poochyena on some island. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that if you move your analogue stick slowly the character will do stealth walk.
After a few seconds doing the stealth walk, you will eventually find it and that will end our adventure for this round.
Some Similarities
Round 5 Gameplay
Every time you finish an adventure, different faces will appear around Mossdeep City so just talk to them and listen to what they have to say. Some of them are weird. In this adventure, somebody is challenging us to a battle. I wonder who it could be? Well it turns out to be some expert guy called Timothy. After defeating him very quickly your adventure will end.
Round 6 Gameplay
In this round we are now searching for a Shroomish and basically that is it for the round.
So basically it repeats the second round until fifth round but slightly different if you continuously play. Will update if any changes.
Round 7 Gameplay
We are training sailors in their special training. Also looking out for any bonuses hidden in the area. So far haven’t found any yet.
Update: I’ve already played the demo 10 times and have been receiving numerous items to send to the full version of the game.
Update 2: The character will climb up or climb down the ladder automatically. You will just have to push once and the character will begin climbing to the top or climbing down to the bottom.
Update 3: Why is the character’s name Orlando???? I thought the character’s name was called Brendan. This resembles a slight change in the full version of gameplay.
Update 4: There are apparently people who are able to get secret missions in the gameplay. However I myself have been unable to get the secret mission to show up. If somebody have some tips please share in the comments below.
Update 5: I was able to get the 2nd Mission which will unlock more parts of Mossdeep City including Steven’s house. So it totally depends of the random number generator and also what day and time of day that you play the game. But before that I was constantly soft resetting the console to try and get Steven to say something different but he keeps saying the similar sentence in a loop. Only when I tried to play the game once today on 5/11/2014 at 5:30 PM, Steven finally said something else for once.
However there is rumours that you will receive something special if you play the demo every day so I we definitely be looking out for that.
Final Review:
So even though gameplay was short (well its a demo of course), it definitely brought back memories of Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald and how I was literally enjoying the adventures in the game so much that I was willing to go multiple rounds on the game no matter what people said about it. The redesign of the whole game experience definitely brought out the best of the GBA games even though many were complaining that there is nothing new to see and many parts were just copy and paste from the GBA versions as shown in the similarities screenshots above. The battle sequence has also taken advantage of the 3DS as compared to Pokemon X and Y which I definitely enjoy along with the remix of the battle music. The controls for the character has also been improved as I have noticed that it is a more realistic analog stick control compared to Pokemon X and Y which I tend to get frustrated with the character controls. This demo has proven that there is a lot more to see and do in the full version of the game this 21st November. So that wraps up my review for the Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Special Demo Version. If you have anything to comment, please leave them below. So take care and I’ll see you when I’m playing the full version of the game.
Final Score: 9.0/10