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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Yessssssssss, my wallet is prepared.
Hyper Voice Sylveon would be great!
Ok Sap Sipper might be too much in making it a monstrosity with pretty much no weakness, but someone has to get Drizzle to balance out the auto-weather that is biased to Sun by 1 summoner, unless you want like Mega Quagsire?
Or you know, Sand Stream would be kinda cool on the mudfish…
Huh, looks like they’re finally making it. This should be interesting with the new mechanics
And make it like a beefier trapinch with arena trap please
Mega Latias, Latios, and Blaziken set up a WHOLE lot of red flags once it comes to Hoenn and the npcs didn’t help either.
I’m not surprised really but I would love to visit Hoenn in 3d, it’s one of my favorite regions. Think of all of the features like contests and secret bases and vs seeker.
Also count on Hoenn Dex for VGC 2015.
Possible solution to the tutor dilemma could be just make tutor moves able to be passed down via breeding after each tutor game release. This would allow them to include new tutor moves that would be relevant to developing the metagame for that game and when the next game is released just include majority of those tutor moves into the pokemon’s respective egg move lists. This would allows them to a. Include new tutor moves each time and b. making them passable via breeding (esp. with new breeding mechanics) will keep the pentagon and c. people won’t be forced to buy a past gen game just for old move tutor moves because they can pass through breeding.
Other than that, really excited for this game. I had to forgive GF for a lot of things they could’ve done better in XY, but it’s understandable since it was practical the prototype baby, but now they really have no excuse but to make an over-the-top masterpiece.
I’m gonna laugh when the new megas have unhelpful stats and abilities. Mega Metagross gets +50 SAtk and Clutz.
Whoa there Mr. After-the-fact-conspiracy guy. You must be a psychic type
Not sure if this is a thing or not but…
After Hawlucha I wouldn’t be shocked anymore.
Mega Metagross is all I could hope for this. Also VGC15 not to be restricted to the Hoenn dex.
I would prefer it if VGC15 was restricted to Hoenn dex since I (and others on this site) have just recently gotten into competitive pokemon. I’d be at great disadvantage if others could use pokemon from past generations because I would have to learn about dozens of past legendaries AND acquire them somehow. Restricting pokemon to the those native to the game seems fairer overall.
You’re only putting yourself at a disadvantage if you choose to not learn whatever the format is. You not wanting to learn about new mons or whatever isn’t a good reason to justify a limited rule set. Just because newer players will have to learn to play with new things doesn’t make it “unfair.”
On topic: can this game come out already?
The main things I want from these games are a Grass/Dragon Mega Sceptile, and the music remastered in all its trumpet glory.
I’m ok with learning new things, it’s just a problem to get those pokemon (as I stated above). Why should someone have to spend more money to buy older games, grind through it, and RNG it just to get be able to compete with others on the latest installment in the series? That doesn’t sound fair to me.
I was only willing to try VGC 14 because of the Kalos clause since it was a level playing field. If not for that then I highly doubt I would have spent almost 600 hours of my life breeding/grinding/etc. if I had no chance competing with older generation legendaries. I would have focused my time somewhere else like Halo (though it’s pretty dead right now) or other competitive games.
Don’t take this comment the wrong way, I just want you to see where I am coming from.
I can’t be the only one freaking out
Hoping we get some tutors back, and the gems. I just really hope they don’t switch back to Legendaries being allowed in VGC, not a fan. The prospect of getting some new megas is also nice, hopefully some things that help check Mega Kang.
Been there, did that, http://nuggetbridge.com/breeding/pprnging-fourth-gen-pokemon/ Please understand that by “unfair”, you really mean “I don’t want to.” Perfectly legitimate reason, but also irrelevant — it’s a fair bet that the blue-pentagon rule will continue, and that it effectively means “no RNGed-then-Pokebanked ‘mons”. Any legendaries used competitively will almost certainly have to be originally from 3DS-only games.
I can’t be the only one freaking out. Sapphire was the first game I played. However, to be honest, I wasn’t really shocked when I saw this announcement. My heart wasn’t pounding like it was for X and Y. I feel it is a bit too early. X and Y isn’t close to getting old for me yet.
Again, it’s not that I don’t want to, I can’t. Please don’t make assumptions.Literally the only game I have for my 2DS (which I bought because it was the cheapest DS) is X.
I believe my reason is “perfectly legitimate”: not everyone can afford to buy the older games just to get some old pokemon off of it.
More to this point, the cost-of-entry for new players would be a lot higher as a result and would deter new people from becoming competitive players. For example, anyone that wants to play Halo/Call of Duty/LoL/etc. competitively doesn’t have to buy a past iteration in the series to get some weapon in order to compete with long-standing players: that would punish the newcomers and benefit the older players. I wouldn’t consider any of those games “competitive” if they had such a system in place since older players could always beat new ones.
Those games are competitive because players are able to use what they have to the best of their abilities and everyone has access to everything.
If I’m not mistaken, even the Trading Card Game doesn’t allow cards to be reused after a certain number of years.
Let’s not forget that transferring Pokemon from XY to OR/AS is now quick and easy with Pokebank. Plus all the Pokemon breed now are either going to still be viable for VGC 2015, or if it is Hoenn only they can become potential Parents with Egg moves.
For any competitive game you’re going to need to put work into it. Breeding Pokemon or ranking up online for better weapons for the competitive edge. There is no “unfair” there is just someone being lazy and wanting stuff handed to them. Don’t want to? Don’t have to. Just don’t expect to win Worlds.
Console systems and PC’s cost a lot more than a 3ds and a game. Not to mention getting a good headset. If there’s one thing this gen did it was make it a lot easier to obtain pokemon and subsequently breed competitive ones. Although it’s been said I also highly doubt they’ll include any pokemon in the vgc 15 rules that can’t be obtained in kalos or alpha and omega. And if I’m wrong you’ll just have to learn how to use pokecheck….
While Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald weren’t my first games in the series (Blue Version #TurnUp), I still love them dearly, as they were such a huge leap forward from Gold/Silver/Crystal in terms of graphics, largely. I still remember my brother and I at the game section of Walmart after they came out, begging our parents to buy us each a copy. The amount of nostalgia his throwing me around like a tornado and I love it.
I’m pretty hyped for this
I better start farming my X version for master balls so I can SR for perfect IVs on the Lati’s and any other non-regularly banned legends for VGC15 that might show up in the game (barring they don’t remove the 3 guaranteed perfect IVs on legends). I suppose I’ll also SR for a perfect Kyogre for dem Water Spout shenanigans.
Also, what is the general consensus on the box art? I have heard a lot of people saying they are mega forms, but I’m more inclined to think they are just design retcons
I predict that Parental Bond will be nerfed to do x1.0001 damage and only receive a move’s secondary effects twice, but ORAS will bring back a Seismic Toss move tutor so that Mom can now 2HKO the majority of the metagame without fear of burns and Intimidate! Yay!
I wonder how much expansion in Hoenn will be. I really want it to be much larger than the Sevii Islands in FRLG, so that we have access to more legendaries than weren’t found in the original RS + what’s in Kalos now so that the region won’t feel so cramped. Plus the 2015 ruleset beyond Fall regionals. Hmm. I’m a newbie so I don’t know why the precedent is, so I’m going to guess that it’ll be ORAS Dex exclusive, but Pokemon originating from XY will be allowed as long as they’re in the Dex. We only have one good move tutor so far (Pledges are ehhh), and with the Internet the way it is now, people who never played XY won’t really be at a disadvantage, as they can simply trade their Dragon to someone to teach it Draco. Really, speaking for next year’s format only, the only thing I really want are more legendaries + a better way to handle Kangaskhan. Of course, I do not want Kyogre to be legal, and having move tutors + new megas will be more than ok too.
As far as the in game goes, wow, I couldn’t be more excited. Secret Bases plus the Battle Frontier could be back. The latter also gives me a sense of closure because I never actually got gold in any of the facilities. :/ Also, KYOGRE + GROUDON SOOTOPOLIS BATTLE IN 3D omg so good.
That came off as really rude to me
If I didn’t want to compete I wouldn’t have spent around 600 hours breeding pokemon this generation. I wouldn’t count myself as lazy. Lazy would be me using cloned pokemon.
But you can do a lot more, competitively, on a console/PC. Besides, I bought my xbox years ago and for entertainment purposes (play with friends, good games, etc).
Looking at Pokecheck, I’m assuming it’s somewhat cheaty? I rather not use any sort of cheating tools. If I’m going to win, I want to win fair and square (with a bit of hax too).
(I won’t be continuing this discussion further, it’s not appropriate given the theme of the thread)
Let’s get back on topic, we’re detracting the joys that have come with this announcement
If we get new megas I’d really like to see something else get protean. It’s a really interesting ability, and not just from an offensive stand point. I messed around with Kecleon for a while using it as a support mon. The ability to change ones type to dodge attacks or abuse resistances is obviously really useful, and I wouldn’t complain of something else less offensively oriented got it.
Looking at Groudon and Kyogre’s make over, I’m going to say Mega Groudon and Mega Kyogre, as well as Mega Rayquaza, are happening.
Furthermore, I’m going to predict the Red, Blue, and Jade orbs will be revealed to be Groudonite, Kyogrite, and Rayquazite.
His “smart-alec” comment was simply informing you that you were wrong. No need to spit fire at him for it; in fact, I completely agree with him. It’s like you’re calling HeartGold and SoulSilver generation V. Try being less condescending.
Sorry, I’m just a bit jaded with people saying a 6 IV Ditto is cheating because it saves time and such so I took a similar defense. Kudos for not using cloned Pokemon either. I’m with you on that, mainly because I want to nickname all my own Pokemon so I do them all myself.
PowerSaves are out making things shiny. I only use traded things to breed nowadays because then I’m 100% sure they are legal. More time involved? Yes. Nothing wrong with potentially hacked parents though.
And like I said, there is a pretty good chance the Pokemon allowed in VGC 2014 will stay. Let’s face it, the game has not been out a year yet. It would be a poor business move if GF decided only the remake game’s Pokemon are allowed. Also the special rated season is moving towards National Dex, so that may be a hint. Hopefully they ban box legends and such still as well just so it doesn’t get too crazy. (But who am I to call crazy. I still bring random stuff to double battles so not like that’s going to change). Just keep the Pentagon rule and maybe rework move tutors.
I’m super pumped about Secret Bases. I’m thinking they may not be included, but if they are chances are they will be reworked so people don’t override them with different FCs and such. Maybe have a specific “base” area like woods/caves/islands and have them generate semi-randomly depending on the FC (like the Friend Safari types). When a Pokemon uses Secret Power, you are teleported to your base and can “see” your friends bases nearby like a 3D extralink with WiFi.
Also defensive Mega Evolutions please, and more support style Mega Evos.
Remember farming soot? I hope they do something new with that. Give me some glass ornaments for my base or combine the soot with shards to make colored glass gems (as they are nerfed). Or Glass Pokeballs. I’m crazy about breeding matching Pokeballs. Let’s get some new special ones!
Oh there is so much that could be done!