E3 Reveals Details on Primal Pokémon and Release Date for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
With Nintendo’s E3 Digital Event finished, we’ve learned more details for Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The most important to many will be the release date. After the first ever worldwide launch of a Pokémon game with X & Y, Nintendo has decided to keep to a relatively global release with all regions receiving Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the same month. However, they will not be doing a one day release like last time.
- Japan: November 21st, 2014
- North America: November 21st, 2014
- Australia & New Zealand: November 21st, 2014
- Europe: November 28th, 2014
As you can see, this will be after the first set of North American Regional Championships for the VGC ’15 season. This will give everyone one last chance to play a regional event with Pokémon X & Y before moving to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for the rest of the year. Some Premier Challenges may also happen before the release of the new games which might lead Europe into needing to keep up their X & Y skills as well if the pilot program is considered successful enough to continue on.
Primal Reversion
Groudon and Kyogre will undergo a transformation called Primal Reversion which is what happens when “Groudon and Kyogre reclaim their original power from nature’s energy and obtain even greater power than they already have.” The Pokémon Company International would lead us to believe that this is connected to Mega Evolution but not the same thing. This may lead to a new mechanic like the DNA Splicer in Pokémon Black Version 2 and White Version 2.
Both Pokémon become larger in their Primal form and their abilities “may get a boost.” Primal Groudon will be a Fire / Ground type and gain stronger Attack. Primal Kyogre will be a Water type and gain stronger Special Attack.
Mega Evolutions
Though Primal Reversion is a mechanic they will undoubtably focus on, there will be more Mega Evolutions as well in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. So far we know the following new Mega Evolutions will be in the game:
- Mega Sceptile (Lightning Rod) the Grass / Dragon type.
- Mega Blaziken (Speed Boost) the Fire / Fighting type
- Mega Swampert (Swift Swim) the Water / Ground type
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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24 Responses to E3 Reveals Details on Primal Pokémon and Release Date for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
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Kind of a disappointing E3 if this is all we get since we knew the starters’ Megas from Corocoro already (though it was pretty obvious they’d give it to the other two with Blaziken having one already) and Groudon/Kyogre were pretty obvious from the version covers, assuming Primal whateverlution still eats your Mega slot/item for the battle (otherwise I guess that’s pretty interesting).
Europe getting the game a week later is super uncool. I can see the “at least it isn’t months late like before Gen 6” reply already, but it was a big deal to get simultaneous releases in Gen 6, so screwing that up now… very unfortunate.
Pokémon wise, very disappointed. I guess Nintendo needed to focus more on other games and other audiences since Pokémon has always been successful. Hopefully these next few months will show new pokémon/moves/mechanics.
P.S. Mega Sceptile is awesome
Well, CoroCoro was a leak. Not sure why they keep thinking they can keep magazines relevant by giving them info to publish on time without having it leak through the printing process. It was supposed to be revealed to the world today then covered in CoroCoro for the children next week.
Honestly I thought that getting the game out to every region in the world on one day last time seemed like a lot of effort for little payoff so I’m not surprised to see it slip. I actually thought it would be more spread out through the month with Japan / North America / Europe + Australia so I’m surprised that Japan is getting it the same week as North America.
I was hoping we’d get a little more than this, but I’ve learned not to get my hopes up too much for E3 because something I look forward to is always disappointing. We’ve already seen the Megas, but at least we got a nice teaser and found out PrimalGroudon is now Fire/Ground, like fellow gen 3 mon, Camerupt.
I agree with Scott. I expected a brief gameplay like that, yes, showing a few in-game things but not a big surprise. Smash was the big thing in this Nintendo E3, we all knew it, but you always have that small hope… But hey, did you notice that new place in the new Hoenn official map artwork? ^
Also, I wish we can change clothes, because I don’t like anything about the new male character design. Ruby design was better imo.
Regarding the release date, I can’t understand why here in Europe we’ll have to wait a week for it. It’s not a matter of a week vs a month or whatever, but a matter of… equality? I agree, a week is nothing, and I’m not upset about that, but a lot of people (including me) thought after XY worlwide release it will be the same date release again with the next Pokémon games for every country in the world. Why do they hold over here then? Dunno…
The only time E3 has been huge for Pokémon has been X & Y as far as I remember. I can’t really remember them paying much attention to the series otherwise. Pokémon’s cycle is very different from their other franchises.
I would definitely agree it wasn’t surprising, but I guess that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Getting literally nothing, especially given the lack of other big news, was a bummer. At least they didn’t talk about TV for 45 minutes, I guess.
The most relevant news for us is probably the release date — if it was a couple weeks sooner it’d be a lot better for NA Winter Regionals. Going to be a really quick turnaround getting on RS remakes in basically a month, assuming that ends up being the plan. Hopefully that ensures we don’t have to play Hoenndex at least!
I’m curious about the whole primal reversion mechanic. While it further supports my theory that the Red and Blue orbs (& Jade orb eventually) will serve as pseudo mega stones, I’m also wondering if it’s something that could be applied to other pokemon. Obviously there are a few other legendaries this could apply to, but pokemon that evolve through learning Ancientpower also seem likely canidates seeing as they too got more powerful by taking on more seemingly primal forms after evolution.
I expect them to use it once for Groudon and Kyogre and never again like with the DNA Splicer
I think it would have sense if, after the Primal Reversion, both Groudon and Kyogre got eternal weather again. That would be cool. Also, if Groudon gets Earth/Fire, Kyogre should get Water/Electric imo. But it seems Groudon will be the only one changing type.
I want to know two things about them: if they will be allowed in 2015 (I think they won’t, but still…), adn if that Primar Reversion will count as a Mega slot in your team. It seems so after watching some new pictures on twitter, but who knows xD
What else would you guys expect? 😛 And also Pokemon Get Star TV will feature more stuff in june 15 so no worries. The only thing that annoys me is the Europe date though 😡
Since it’s not a new generation like X/Y, the delay in release dates is not as big a deal IMO.
Just give us a Battle Frontier again. I especially miss some rental Pokemon action.
I can just prey we don’t get Hoenndex for Winter Regionals. Reminds me of a worse version of Kalos Dex, with some exceptions here and there.
Did anyone else notice that Sceptile’s Christmas tree is a missile? If you pause at the right time you can clearly see it’s missing during Sceptile’s Leaf Storm attack. It’s kinda neat (because there are RL lizards that lose and regrow their tails in certain situations), but I’m not sure how I feel about how much of an oddball they’re making Scep. xD Having Mawile is enough, we don’t need any more backwards Pokemon… Maybe he’ll turn around again for a couple attacks, though. Leaf Blade, for instance.
GAH.I was kinda out of the clue for the past few weeks so the mega evolutions thumbnail still came as a bit of a surprise (even with Mega Blaziken and all)
Right now I’m most torn over whether I want to choose Torchic again for nostalgia factor or go with Mudkip since everyone and their mother already has a Mega Blaziken.
Its probably safe to say its a remake with the return of Roxanne, Steven and May. Somewhat disappointed we might not get new Pokemon (especially fairy types for a while). Regardless, the graphics were jaw dropping and I’m so stoked to relive my first experience with Pokemon!!!! Sales-wise they’ve really been hitting the nostalgia factor home with Kanta starters and X&Y.
GAH.I was kinda out of the clue for the past few weeks so the mega evolutions thumbnail still came as a bit of a surprise (even with Mega Blaziken and all)
Right now I’m most torn over whether I want to choose Torchic again for nostalgia factor or go with Mudkip since everyone and their mother already has a Mega Blaziken.
Its probably safe to say its a remake with the return of Roxanne, Steven and May. Somewhat disappointed we might not get new Pokemon (especially fairy types for a while). Regardless, the graphics were jaw dropping and I’m so stoked to relive my first experience with Pokemon!!!! Sales-wise they’ve really been hitting the nostalgia factor home with Kanta starters and X&Y.
Well, it was safe to say it was a remake when they said it was a remake shortly after the original announcement
I know they’re different games, but I wonder if the Kyogre/Groudon primal reversions will be related in anyway to Primal Dialga from some of the Mystery Dungeon games… How, I’m not sure. I never played the Mystery Dungeon games.
I think we might get more info. I hope we do, because if all we get is a trailer and a release date I will be disappointed. :[
Those square puddles are not giving me any good feelings.
I think in the video, we saw Flannery’s gym. It was the one with the player falling through a trap door, as you could see steam coming off of the water around it, and trainers near by
I guarantee you it won’t be exclusive Hoenndex. What they’ll most likely do is continue labeling Pokemon born in Gen VI with pentagons (or a different shape in ORAS) and use that to determine what’s legal.
update for mega Sableye? just found this article and saw sableye’s debut yesterday seeing hes missing though this article is older
According to Pokemon’sExternal, Mega Swampert has Swift Swim, Mega Sceptile is part Dragon type and Mega Diancie has been released!