Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Announced for November 2014 Release
Today, we received some surprising news about new games in the Pokémon franchise for release later this year in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. They are widely believed to be remakes of the third generation games which nobody expected at all. We have no information on the titles outside the release date which is planned for November 2014 as a worldwide release, much like Pokémon X and Y. Also like Pokémon X and Y, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International seem to have dropped the word “Version” from the titles of the games.
Nintendo says that, “Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire are a fresh take on Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire, which launched in 2003 and were fan-favorite hits on the Game Boy Advance system. The new titles promise to take players through a dramatic story within a spectacular new world.”
With a November 2014 release, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will not make it in time for the first Regional Championships of the VGC ’15 season in October. Like the VGC ’13 and VGC ’14 seasons, we expect to play using Pokémon X and Y at the fall regionals before switching to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire after mid-December. Keep in mind that the VGC ’15 season will be the first year we will hopefully have events on a regular basis if the current Premier Challenge pilot program pans out. It remains to be seen how long that Play! Pokémon decides is sufficient before sanctioned events switch to the new games.
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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I bet you were one of the guys who thought parental bond was a good idea too.
This is maybe a good time for a condescending reminder that this is still a competitive Pokemon site and not GameFAQs and I expect a couple people have very nearly incurred the wrath of some of the forum regulars in this thread.
Let’s all keep getting along ^___^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Move to off-topic?
Make good posts? ^____^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
People, I’m calling it: Mega-Castform. We need doze big ballz
Ok ok, sorry!
I’m really interested to see if these games will introduce new weather mechanics. The central theme of the original RS was harmony with nature and as such weather played a huge role. I realize they can’t really add any new types of weather as rain, hail, sun, and sun covers all the bases but maybe some new mechanics are due…any thoughts?
I’m really excited for this. I’m leaning more towards it being like BW2, where they revisit an already-explored region with (hopefully) move tutors as opposed to purely remaking the original RSE games, even if it is a short time after XY were released. Timeline-wise (if Gamefreak even really cares about that, which judging by the rest of the series, they do), it wouldn’t make sense to do a remake. iirc, XY referenced events from 5th gen, which happened after 4th gen…which happened after RSE. This might mean no Sapphire Birch for Sapphire Birch lol
It’ll be interesting to see Competitive Milotic (likely) being allowed next year to take down all those Intimidating Salamence. It’s got decent bulk, Recover, Ice Beam, Water typing, etc. Mega Sceptile and Mega Swampert are also really likely to show up.
It’s really hard to guess what ruleset they might have in store for VGC 2015 though. What we currently know as the Hoenn-dex might end up getting expanded significantly, similar to how the Unova Pokedex ended up getting expanded in BW2. Back when RSE were first released, there were a total of 386 Pokemon, with the Hoenn Dex having about 200–a significant amount of the existing Pokemon. But that’s a relatively small amount now. With so many Megas originating from outside Hoenn and since our “introductory VGC year” this gen is starting to wrap up, I’m guessing we’ll either have National dex akin to VGC 2012-2013 or an expanded Hoenn dex ruleset, maybe even with legendaries like Groudon and Kyogre thrown in to join Mewtwo.
Can’t wait to blow all my Pokedollars on clothes this November
EDIT: just realized how hilarious it is that Mega Charizard Y actually has a strong matchup against both Groudon and Kyogre.
Mega swampert?
Something worth commenting on with the prospect of tutors: it seems like we have a pretty consistent set of TMs now, which reduces a lot of the problems of needing to breed a Pokemon in a specific generation to get a specific move. I think we can all agree having complications with that in the past was not a good thing. I am hoping if we do get tutors, a similar lesson was learned with tutor moves and we end up with a fairly similar group of tutors every time a game with tutors is released, perhaps with a smaller amount in RS’s remake/relaunch that slowly increases in future games like TMs do. Ending up in a situation next gen where we have a bunch of Gen 6-only tutors like we did with Gen 3 and 4 during Gen 5 is not healthy for the game. Hopefully, with the slate having been wiped clean once, the situation will be managed more carefully this time.
I do hope we get tutors (or some additional TMs that serve the same function), though. Not having Icy Wind available in particular really hurts the control options in VGC and some other options like Tailwind, Electroweb, and even String Shot would be nice to have back, too. I’m actually hoping we don’t get Bug Bite back that way — given that it’s really only useful to Scizor, I’d rather the tutor isn’t “wasted” and Scyther just got it as an egg move.
Contests returning?…Wifi… Gamefreak pls
External Possible mega evolutions
I’m honestly hoping for Tutors. I really miss some of the moves, and well… Hyper Voice Sylveon needs to be legal.
Still I’m holding out for more Megas that can hopefully balance the power. Maybe more defense oriented Megas like how Venusaur was? That would be helpful considering most Megas seem to be straight up power with decent bulk. Sap Sipper MegaSwampert would be amazing, but also pretty broken considering its only weakness is grass and it’s pretty bulky as is. Another defense oriented ability would be okay. What about Hydration or Mold Breaker?
Yaaaaay!! Remakes!!!!!
Yesss I can’t wait!
Yesss I can’t wait!
I hope you’ll enjoy VGC ’15 being Pokémon Contests
Fantastic! Just fantastic!
Oh my god wow!!!
I feel like a 10 year old again
I woke up to a facebook notification and was pretty annoyed at first. After seeing that it was about the new games I ran to my computer like a happy 10 year old kid and was jumping up and down. #AlphaSapphire>OmegaRuby
Was Rayquaza banned in VGC ? Personally I’d love to use one given it’s ability.
Now that I am actually on my laptop I can give some proper input/hopes.
– Keep the customization trainer option, pokemon ami, HOARDS (please dont take this away from me), exp share.
– VGC using JUST hoenn dex (assuming new pokemon get added to the map like BW2 and XY), goodbye mega kanga pls?
– Missing Berries
– Missing Gems
– As many (or more) Move tutors than HGSS
– Battle Frontier
– DIVE DIVE DIVE. It was one of the most memorable things for me.
– Hidden Bases (will they even be able to maintain this? Or do you think it’ll be like the friend safari? And perhaps updates every time the person signs online)
– New Megas: Notably Flygon, Altaria, Sceptile, Swampurt, Milotic (given gyrados got one)
– Event Items to obtain event pokemon (like the tickets. Doubt it, but can hope )
I’d shut up if there is a mega metagross. Nuff’ said
Id use it on most of my teams
What’s wrong with Kyogre? All you have to do is give a politoed choice specs and assault vest, and then teach it how to overcome the move hindering effects of its two items, and bam, you have a DIY Kyogre.
Seriously though, if there is no mega metagross I will buy a copy of the game just so I can destroy it.
I did not see THAT one coming. Really hyped now. With a great game like ruby/sapphire as a foundation, there’s not a whole lot that could go wrong.
Huge move on nintendos part, they’re going all call of duty right now, and I’m not ashamed in the least to say that I like it.
I’m pretty hyped for the remake of the Battle Frontier.
Game Freak has been a bit lazy with updating movesets for Battle Subway/Maison, since they didn’t do anything to a lot of the movesets since BW 1. It sounds like it’s time for an update. I wonder if they’ll keep all 7 original facilities, or make some changes.
Please Remove Battle Palace.
I didn’t think we’d be seeing this so soon… But whatever, the hype train already left the station!
I’m so excited for a possible mega sceptile! Game freak please make him competitively viable, it would be amazing to use my favorite mon in vgc
I HATED using Dive with all my might but I’m super hyped for the game anyways. This is the game I played on most of my teenage years.
*prays to Arceus so I can see Mega Metagross* if Tyranitar got a Mega, anything can get it.
I hope we can see Steven again with a National dex Party.
I HATED using Dive with all my might but I’m super hyped for the game anyways. This is the game I played on most of my teenage years.
*prays to Arceus so I can see Mega Metagross* if Tyranitar got a Mega, anything can get it.
I hope we can see Steven again with a National dex Party.
Just give me Secret Bases, Battle Frontier, and Icy Wind and Helping Hand move tutors and I’ll be happy.