It's hard to know how to evaluate Pokemon Omega Ruby. It is the eleventh game in the world's most profitable franchise. It is a 2014 remake of a 2002 game. And it is a turn-of-the-century environmental narrative in a time of massive environmental upheaval. Each provides a different view on the conservative approach taken to create Omega Ruby.
Omega Ruby the 11th Iteration
As a series that is constantly (yet conservatively) iterating on its formula, Omega Ruby makes valuable refinements broadly focused on saving the player time. The DexNav eases Pokedex completion, in addition to making typically rare/inaccessible egg moves & hidden abilities available. A lategame key item makes quickly traveling across Hoenn fast & easy (while also opening up a few extra locations). The Mega Evolution mechanic is also better paced than X & Y, with a constant drip feed of new Mega Evolutions made available instead of saving nearly all of them for the end.
It's a strong iteration that takes no big swings, though that's not surprising - X & Y introduced a lot of major series changes (including full 3D graphics and the Fairy type). ORAS seems focused on refinement instead of innovation, and through that lens, it succeeds.
Omega Ruby the Remake
Comparing Omega Ruby to the original GBA title, "refinement instead of innovation" seems broadly fitting as well, with a few exceptions. Having already discussed the series' systems that have evolved since the original release in 2002, the two big elements left to examine are the setting and characters.
Hoenn's settlements divide evenly into three categories. The first is imaginative & memorable: the sunken crater city Sootopolis, the treetop town Fortree, the floating raft-town Pacifidlog. The second is passably distinct: the beach town Dewford, the bustling seaside market city Slateport, the overwhelmingly tan-grey Rustboro. The third is entirely forgettable: Oldale, Petalburg, Verdanturf, and Fallarbor Town are all collections of the same 4-6 buildings, one of which may have a distinct purpose (e.g. a gym, a contest center) in a green forest clearing - except Fallarbor, which is brown. All of these are about as they were in the original games, save Mauville - what, in the first game, was cleanly in the third category, and has been upgraded to somewhere between the first and second, turning it from a no-frills central hub pit stop into a futuristic urban complex, a mega-mall on the first floor and dense housing on the second. It's a nice change (likely spurred equally by the city's hub location and the need to fit in an assortment of accumulated series features) that makes the forgettable locations left untouched a tad bit more disappointing.
More care and attention, however, was put into the title's lead characters. The antagonists received visual redesigns, the champion has been turned from an enigmatic hermit to a central plot-driver, and the rival has several more chances to interject their thoughts & feelings. The jump to 3D has given many more chances for body language and visual flair: gym leaders and other major opponents strike poses, twirl the camera, and shift their facial expressions, adding more color to characters who still only have a few lines of text. While Groudon, the sole character on the box art and title screen, still has little screen time, the system's 3D capabilities are used in full cinematic effect.
Omega Ruby the Narrative
At their release, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire were the most story-intensive games in the series, and may still be the series' most politically relevant (though that remains a low bar to clear). Here, too, the remakes prioritize refinement over innovation - a predictably conservative yet nevertheless disappointing choice. A loose allegory for the Isahaya Bay project and its controversies was relevant in 2002. 12 years later, unlike ORAS's story, all the relevant issues have developed a lot.
By 2002, plans for the artificial Palm Jumeriah Dubai island had been announced. By 2014, residential homes and 28 hotels had been open. The island had been reportedly sinking, residents were complaining about the intense housing density, and water stagnation issues added more challenges. One of Omega Ruby's additions is the Battle Resort - a tropical island built to be "a paradise of Trainers: by Trainers and for Trainers." Its central feature is the Battle Maison Replica, a Parisian mansion for the Poke-elite. The real-world echoes of European island colonialism and, more aptly, tourism-centric terraforming projects, would be a salient point for the game's environmental themes, but all these ideas are predictably ignored. The Battle Maison is nothing more than a pretty endgame location, a vacation destination that exists outside of the narrative context as it exists outside of Hoenn's routes.
By 2002, the oceans were known to be warming, climate change was a scientific consensus, and some countries (notably not the US) began working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2014, climate change's pace was faster than expected, the Fukushima disaster buried hopes for nuclear power as a way forward, and natural disasters were getting worse due to climate change. 1 The original Ruby has Slateport's Oceanic Museum as a brief point of interest - an establishment with the tagline "The endless sea sustains all life." Omega Ruby's most relevant addition is Sea Mauville, a replacement of the abandoned ship from Ruby that resembles a ruined, partially-sunken oil rig. Sea Mauville was a research facility designed for extracting natural resources (and secretly researching harnessing "Pokemon bioenergy"). Once shuttered, it ended up accidentally functioning as an artificial reef, and it was turned into a nature preserve. It's an imaginative replacement, and a symbol of letting nature reclaim humanity's mechanisms of exploitation is not without value. It is, however, a very conservative gesture, remaining tight-lipped on the salient followup questions. How, when, by whom, and exactly why should the means of natural exploitation be turned into means of natural enrichment? Given the series' legacy, it would be absurd to expect the equivalent of "Pikachu Says Blow Up Oil Pipelines," but the addition stopping where it does feels so neutered that it ends up disappointingly unsubstantial.
In the dozen years between Ruby and its remake, climate change has turned from a "distant" threat to the status quo into a state of existential global decay - one that requires immediate, dramatic change of the status quo. The organizations dragging the environment out of balance are not outsider ecoterrorists like Team Magma or Team Aqua; they are the governments and corporations in power. Omega Ruby, however, does not acknowledge the way these issues have changed over time. The protagonist prevents the outsiders from seizing control nature, and in doing so preserves the status quo. Its centrism has curdled into conservatism, evocative of Reagan's neoliberal environmentalism: a "squandered opportunity" that neither steers hard towards nor away from the environmental issues it approaches.
Omega Ruby the 11th Iteration
As a series that is constantly (yet conservatively) iterating on its formula, Omega Ruby makes valuable refinements broadly focused on saving the player time. The DexNav eases Pokedex completion, in addition to making typically rare/inaccessible egg moves & hidden abilities available. A lategame key item makes quickly traveling across Hoenn fast & easy (while also opening up a few extra locations). The Mega Evolution mechanic is also better paced than X & Y, with a constant drip feed of new Mega Evolutions made available instead of saving nearly all of them for the end.
It's a strong iteration that takes no big swings, though that's not surprising - X & Y introduced a lot of major series changes (including full 3D graphics and the Fairy type). ORAS seems focused on refinement instead of innovation, and through that lens, it succeeds.
Omega Ruby the Remake
Comparing Omega Ruby to the original GBA title, "refinement instead of innovation" seems broadly fitting as well, with a few exceptions. Having already discussed the series' systems that have evolved since the original release in 2002, the two big elements left to examine are the setting and characters.
Hoenn's settlements divide evenly into three categories. The first is imaginative & memorable: the sunken crater city Sootopolis, the treetop town Fortree, the floating raft-town Pacifidlog. The second is passably distinct: the beach town Dewford, the bustling seaside market city Slateport, the overwhelmingly tan-grey Rustboro. The third is entirely forgettable: Oldale, Petalburg, Verdanturf, and Fallarbor Town are all collections of the same 4-6 buildings, one of which may have a distinct purpose (e.g. a gym, a contest center) in a green forest clearing - except Fallarbor, which is brown. All of these are about as they were in the original games, save Mauville - what, in the first game, was cleanly in the third category, and has been upgraded to somewhere between the first and second, turning it from a no-frills central hub pit stop into a futuristic urban complex, a mega-mall on the first floor and dense housing on the second. It's a nice change (likely spurred equally by the city's hub location and the need to fit in an assortment of accumulated series features) that makes the forgettable locations left untouched a tad bit more disappointing.
More care and attention, however, was put into the title's lead characters. The antagonists received visual redesigns, the champion has been turned from an enigmatic hermit to a central plot-driver, and the rival has several more chances to interject their thoughts & feelings. The jump to 3D has given many more chances for body language and visual flair: gym leaders and other major opponents strike poses, twirl the camera, and shift their facial expressions, adding more color to characters who still only have a few lines of text. While Groudon, the sole character on the box art and title screen, still has little screen time, the system's 3D capabilities are used in full cinematic effect.
Omega Ruby the Narrative
At their release, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire were the most story-intensive games in the series, and may still be the series' most politically relevant (though that remains a low bar to clear). Here, too, the remakes prioritize refinement over innovation - a predictably conservative yet nevertheless disappointing choice. A loose allegory for the Isahaya Bay project and its controversies was relevant in 2002. 12 years later, unlike ORAS's story, all the relevant issues have developed a lot.
By 2002, plans for the artificial Palm Jumeriah Dubai island had been announced. By 2014, residential homes and 28 hotels had been open. The island had been reportedly sinking, residents were complaining about the intense housing density, and water stagnation issues added more challenges. One of Omega Ruby's additions is the Battle Resort - a tropical island built to be "a paradise of Trainers: by Trainers and for Trainers." Its central feature is the Battle Maison Replica, a Parisian mansion for the Poke-elite. The real-world echoes of European island colonialism and, more aptly, tourism-centric terraforming projects, would be a salient point for the game's environmental themes, but all these ideas are predictably ignored. The Battle Maison is nothing more than a pretty endgame location, a vacation destination that exists outside of the narrative context as it exists outside of Hoenn's routes.
By 2002, the oceans were known to be warming, climate change was a scientific consensus, and some countries (notably not the US) began working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2014, climate change's pace was faster than expected, the Fukushima disaster buried hopes for nuclear power as a way forward, and natural disasters were getting worse due to climate change. 1 The original Ruby has Slateport's Oceanic Museum as a brief point of interest - an establishment with the tagline "The endless sea sustains all life." Omega Ruby's most relevant addition is Sea Mauville, a replacement of the abandoned ship from Ruby that resembles a ruined, partially-sunken oil rig. Sea Mauville was a research facility designed for extracting natural resources (and secretly researching harnessing "Pokemon bioenergy"). Once shuttered, it ended up accidentally functioning as an artificial reef, and it was turned into a nature preserve. It's an imaginative replacement, and a symbol of letting nature reclaim humanity's mechanisms of exploitation is not without value. It is, however, a very conservative gesture, remaining tight-lipped on the salient followup questions. How, when, by whom, and exactly why should the means of natural exploitation be turned into means of natural enrichment? Given the series' legacy, it would be absurd to expect the equivalent of "Pikachu Says Blow Up Oil Pipelines," but the addition stopping where it does feels so neutered that it ends up disappointingly unsubstantial.
In the dozen years between Ruby and its remake, climate change has turned from a "distant" threat to the status quo into a state of existential global decay - one that requires immediate, dramatic change of the status quo. The organizations dragging the environment out of balance are not outsider ecoterrorists like Team Magma or Team Aqua; they are the governments and corporations in power. Omega Ruby, however, does not acknowledge the way these issues have changed over time. The protagonist prevents the outsiders from seizing control nature, and in doing so preserves the status quo. Its centrism has curdled into conservatism, evocative of Reagan's neoliberal environmentalism: a "squandered opportunity" that neither steers hard towards nor away from the environmental issues it approaches.