ORAS Experiences

[Codraroll]

So now that I'm finished both games, SR'ed all the Legendaries multiple times and gotten what I needed I'm kind of...deflated.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Hoenn in 3D, I liked reliving the story and seeing how they changed it a little. Delta episode was a great conclusion to the game.

I am bummed about the no Battle Frontier thing, but not out of any sense of nostalgia but rather.... boredom. I played the Maison to death in X&Y already and was hoping for something different.

I don't like to repeat myself...

...no, wait, who am I fooling, of course I do...

...but I think this sensation you feel has sort of been planned out. It's just that you've gone through ORAS too quickly, you weren't meant to reach this point until summer, at least. But you, and players in general, were meant to get tired of ORAS, just as they were meant to get tired of XY. Repetitive postgame, lack of daily events or think you can progress in, a rather small sidequest, a feeling that you've "done it all", and a desire for something new, exciting and better to pop up. Cue the announcement of "XY2", which offers more fun and makes ORAS look dated and boring in comparison (just as XY did in comparison to ORAS when the latter was the new and interesting thing and XY had been played through and Kalos had been explored a dullion times already).

In a way, GameFreak has us all hooked and they provide us with sub-quality stuff so we'll be more eager for our next fix, and buy the next games without hesitation since they objectively appear to be so much better than the game we've played to death.

Contrast the ORAS postgame with, say, BW2, which had several major battles that could be repeated daily, Join Avenue which gave you a sense of progression as stores levelled up (and all the Items you could ever desire), the PWT, PokéStar Studios, White Treehollow / Black Skyscraper, Funfest missions/Unova Link (can't remember which term was used), AND of course a Battle Whatever, this time in form of a subway. There you have a game that was meant to last for a while, to keep players entertained while a new generation was in development. Could GameFreak have done the same for XY? Of course, but then ORAS wouldn't feel as "fresh" in comparison, since XY wouldn't have grown that "stale" yet. Could they have done it in ORAS? Of course, but then "XY2" won't feel as "fresh" in comparison. Will they do it for "XY2"? Probably, since the inclusion of new Pokémon, moves, mechanics and an entirely new region in the next-generation games will make them seem fresh and new regardless of how bare-bones they turn out to be. Might as well have the fans rave about the current games being the "best thing ever" for a little longer while that new generation is in development, that way the buzz about them on the Internet will die down slower over the extended development period. Making a game fun and non-repetitive doesn't necessarily take much effort, but by doing so you raise the bar for what fans will look for in the next game.

 

[Kurona]

HOOPA IS HERE AND IT'S OFFICIAL ARTWORK IS WEIRD AF

It is, of course, the star of the new movie which is now revealed to be released in Summer 2015 and will be named The Archdjinn of Rings: Hoopa

In addition to that, a shiny Rayquaza will be distributed at the World Hobby Fair between January 18 and February 8. It is Level 70 and knows the moves Dragon Pulse, Thunder, Twister, and Extreme Speed. Why no V-create; why

Oh and uh code for shell armour samurott released woo

 

[R_N]

Well the artwork on the left is just the variant art
the art in the middle is the vanilla art

Kind of surprised they revealed it already. Usually the new pokemon is shown in February, iirc

 

[Hulavuta]

I noticed this on my playthrough but never talked about it: that man at the entrance to cycling road who says "Mauville no kaze... Wind of Mauville... the girl at reception used to cycle so fast that people gave her that name." I just love little things like this put into the game; Cyptic Background Reference for those of you who like TVTropes.

The receptionist lady doesn't say anything special, and it has absolutely zero effect on the actual story of the game but it's incredibly cool. Just a little line like that that really fuels your imagination and make you think in-depth about NPCs that you would usually pass by without giving a second thought. She was a legend, but she's acting just like a normal receptionist. Is she just being humble, or maybe something happened to make her put those days behind her? The way the guy speaks of her seems kind of sad, like perhaps she got injured and couldn't cycle anymore. Speaking of the guy, why does he just stand there all day and stare at her? Is he in love with her or something? Personally I think he was a big fan and admirer of hers and is really disappointed with how things turned out.

Just tiny little throwaway lines like these make this world so much bigger. You can see there are a whole bunch of people in the Pokemon world all doing their own things.

 

[R_N]

I noticed this on my playthrough but never talked about it: that man at the entrance to cycling road who says "Mauville no kaze... Wind of Mauville... the girl at reception used to cycle so fast that people gave her that name." I just love little things like this put into the game; Cyptic Background Reference for those of you who like TVTropes.

The receptionist lady doesn't say anything special, and it has absolutely zero effect on the actual story of the game but it's incredibly cool. Just a little line like that that really fuels your imagination and make you think in-depth about NPCs that you would usually pass by without giving a second thought. She was a legend, but she's acting just like a normal receptionist. Is she just being humble, or maybe something happened to make her put those days behind her? The way the guy speaks of her seems kind of sad, like perhaps she got injured and couldn't cycle anymore. Speaking of the guy, why does he just stand there all day and stare at her? Is he in love with her or something? Personally I think he was a big fan and admirer of hers and is really disappointed with how things turned out.

Just tiny little throwaway lines like these make this world so much bigger. You can see there are a whole bunch of people in the Pokemon world all doing their own things.

Going through Sea Mauville was wonderful for this

there is SO MUCH flavor text about all kinds of things that went on, relating to like 3 or 4 different characters

 

[mcFlareon]

Finally had time to post thoughts about the game. Very satisfied, a great game with lots of strong points with a few things that could be better.

Firstly some team notes:

Hide

-Getting Omega Ruby and having Camerupt tear through the sea routes with Desolate Land is such a satisfying experience. What x4 Water weakness? Also Simple Numel Growth boosts under sun conditions during Flannery's battle also left a big smile on my face.
-Manectric made for surprisingly effective Paraflincher, which really helped with the Deoxys battle.
-MegaSceptile just looks really badass and makes a great combination with Discharge Manectric in double battles to get the Lightningrod boost. Giga Drain is really worth delaying Treecko's evolution.
-I always wanted to use Zangoose and managed to get a Jolly Toxic Boost one which tore through the Elite Four with the poison status Life Orb Facade (okay maybe I cheated a beat by getting a Golbat to use Poison Fang beforehand but hey if you have the ability might as well use it). Made for a great False Swiper but quite frail.
-Mega Altaria's typing is just too good especially against Drake and Zinnia that it was worth searching all those time for a Hyper Voice Swablu (which at least gave it a Normal STAB during that period).
-Adaptability Crawdaunt wrecks things. Didn't have the patience to find an Aqua Jet one but settled for Superpower which I barely used. I hate the Surfing DexNav mechanics with a passion because of this. Crabhammer is really powerful.

I have to say ORAS really made me love Hoenn much more than I did before, it was one of my lesser favourite regions but the new graphics really made everything make sense and more beautiful again. Shout out to the route with the puddles- the reflections of the stars and Meteor Falls are one of the most beautiful areas I've seen. Also love little details like Go-googles or kneeling in some houses to talk to NPCs. Diving was breathtaking and soaring is a really fun feature and a great way to incorporate and expand the Mirage Island idea from the original RS games.

I loved the gym redesigns- Flannery and Tate and Liza had the best revamps. Love the red leaves, hot water and fire type juxtaposition and the levitating puzzle was a very welcome change to the now overused spinning tiles. Roxanne's gym was pretty cute and much grander for a 1st gym and Winona also had a very fitting gym background. Also, I love how we see the leaders outside the gym like HGSS again, with small tidbits like the twins on a shopping spree at Lilycove and Roxanne trying to plead for fossils from the maniac in Fallarbor Town. Haven't seen all of them yet but digging the character expansion.

One thing I noticed after talking to them again after the Pokemon League is their dialogue kept hinting at rematches so it's a real crying shame there was no rematch feature at all, I would hope those would be a standard thing now these days. Such a tease.

Super Secret bases are awesome and it's real fun decorating and seeing other people's bases. I wish there were more options like having a full team but all in all very enjoyable. I just wanted the befriended trainers didn't have default teams at least so it could feel like a real gym.

Very happy with the music, a lot of the themes really stood out like the Regis, Zinnia's, Rival and Elite Four theme. Special mention to Archie/Maxie battle theme (and the final battle background is a real sight to see). I actually think Steven's theme didn't feel as epic, but I understand what they did to the theme and made it feel more modern and kind of..metallic/electronic?

Also space Deoxys battle was epic with the whole triangle callback intro. That Deoxys theme was a real highlight and I lucked out with that whole sequence by having a Hasty Rayquaza and Naive Deoxys first try. Not bad for such a very long cutscene..I do wish there were more save points for soft-resetting or at least a skip cutscene scene. That's one of the downfalls for some scenes in the game where it takes SO long just to see what nature pokemon you get. *coughLati@scough* The other region starters was also annoying with this problem as soon as you leave the house.

UI/mechanic-wise, I really love the way that there's more options to use Fly using the AreaNav. Getting to Amie/Super Training/PSS was so annoying though with the extra step. DexNav is simply the best feature they added to ORAS, so fun getting to use pokemon with Egg moves that I found myself running out of money early on and spending way too much time finding DexNav mons even before getting to the next city (so many pokemon I wanted to use!). Water/caves are annoying though. Funnily had an early game fail when I almost lost to a Fell Stinger Surskit with only Treecko on my team.

I also felt this was the best designed Pokedex in terms of UI, I love checking the attacking animations while rotating the Pokemon model as soon as I capture a new pokemon. The mini Sugimori artworks are also very nice, especially with the Megas. There's also a cool feature where you can check the heights of Pokemon all in a row in Pokedex order as they slide sideways along the screen which makes for some surprising height realisations. You can also toggle between Mega forms in this feature and the Dex as a whole.

I do wish, just as a personal wishlist that they brought back those eyecatches from FRLG/HGSS when you enter a forest/dungeon. The one in HGSS in particular was genius since there was always a pokemon in the artwork no matter what time of day, I hoped that could've been a standard for remakes. But hey, ORAS already had such a big graphical upgrade I can forgive that.

 

[Kurona]

Way back in Firered and Leafgreen, there's a lone Black Belt training on one of the Sevii Islands. Talk to him, and you get a quote for your fame checker -- "Even Bruno, he trained with a fellow by the name of Brawly before."
And now, today in ORAS, I went to check out the TV having just beaten the E4 again, and it talks about Brawly moving to Hoenn from Kanto.
I love this game.

 

[hypno28]

Way back in Firered and Leafgreen, there's a lone Black Belt training on one of the Sevii Islands. Talk to him, and you get a quote for your fame checker -- "Even Bruno, he trained with a fellow by the name of Brawly before."
And now, today in ORAS, I went to check out the TV having just beaten the E4 again, and it talks about Brawly moving to Hoenn from Kanto.
I love this game.

I mean, that's cool, but it's pretty minor. The "worldbuilding" is extremely lacking and without detail for the most part.

 

[Kittttten]

Just saying, the part where Courtney/Matt turns evil and tries to blow up the world..... well, let's just say it made me like Courtney a little bit less.

 

[Detective Barricade]

Just saying, the part where Courtney/Matt turns evil and tries to blow up the world..... well, let's just say it made me like Courtney a little bit less.

I liked Courtney less with each SR of my Latios. Oh, and the whole "*slurp*" part. I'm pretty sure I'm still having nightmares over it... that, and the whole creating the abomination known as Mr. Bonds.

 

[R_N]

I mean, that's cool, but it's pretty minor. The "worldbuilding" is extremely lacking and without detail for the most part.

I like it when it's minor, at least when it comes to assorted characters
just little bits of character interaction going on in the background, or through optional flavor text and so on.

and the whole creating the abomination known as Mr. Bonds.

But then you have this and I am just filled with questions.
Literally everything about that event was just fascinating on a level of "is this happening?? why??? what????"
who was responsible. Was this in the great Pokemon Character Bible at gamefreak. will the next game shed light on the mysterious bonding brothers

 

[hypno28]

I like it when it's minor, at least when it comes to assorted characters
just little bits of character interaction going on in the background, or through optional flavor text and so on.

Yeah, I'm implying there should be more.

 

[Zadocfish2]

Working through the game slowly. Shortly after Mauville, I realize that the EXP Share is killing my experience. I'll like the game better if I turn it off; it just sucks any semblance of challenge out of the game.

 

[Kurona]

You know, I don't usually watch Pokémon movies.

Hide

BUT THIS TIME I MIGHT HOLY JESUS CHRIST

ANYWAY... Corocoro revealed that the gift for prebooking the movie tickets is to be a distribution of the Pokémon, Arceus. This Arceus knows the moves Judgment, Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon and Earth Power while holding the Silk Scarf or a random one of its plates. It'll be obtainable by prebooking the tickets from March 7th to July 17th and redeemable instantly until August 31st. With the prebooking, you will also receive another legendary Pokémon out of the 6 revealed for the movie. The specific six you get one of are not known. These are redeemed from June 20th to August 31st.
Apparently the Shiny Rayquaza will also be distributed through Corocoro somehow. I'm not sure how; but let's hope it's a universal serial code like the Unova starters.

 

[cant say]

So I'm here with another in-game team / experiences post since I recently finished my second playthrough of Sapphire, this playthrough was somewhat rushed for reasons I'll explain later (basically I just wanted to be able to play the Maison and Battle Spot but whatever) but I was still able to enjoy the game quite a lot, and most of the battles were much better than my first run since my team was under-levelled the whole time due to me skipping most of the trainers to save time...

Sapphire 2.0 aka The Mega Run

So I wanted to start my file over again since I decided I wanted my Smogon username as my IGN instead of my irl name, and also so I could SR two of each (certain) legendaries. I restarted my save two days before the next Battle Spot comp was due to start and figured it would be cool since I could compete under the name 'cant say', little did I know you weren't able to mega evolve your 'mons over Wi-Fi if you haven't obtained the Mega Bracelet in-game (seems so obvious now), this lead to me speed running up to the Latias event in one day. You may be thinking 'but people can speedrun the entire game in a few hours!' to which I would simply reply; I suck.

I decided that I would use only things that could mega evolve (because I'm actually 12, please don't ban me) and also not use stuff that important AIs use, which really limited my team options (and I still overlapped). I wanted to use Pidgeot and Steelix but you can't catch Pidgeotto and Onix until after fighting Kyogre so they were out. I figured my final team would be Blaziken, Metagross (event), Gyarados, Alakazam, Manectric and Altaria, which you'd think would curbstomp the game, except I avoided nearly every battle that wasn't necessary.

Combusken and Beldum destroyed the early game for me, Beldum even became over-levelled and got KOd from not listening to my expert battling tactics, but Combusken was always there to pick up the pieces, so nothing noteworthy happened during the first two gyms. I fished up a Magikarp and caught it with the Great Ball I got from the Devon Guy, then went and tried to catch an Abra with a Luxury Ball, which was really hard because I couldn't stop it from Teleporting away, so I had to just throw a ball and hope it was caught first try. I wanted to DexNav it for a damaging egg move but got super bored and just caught a regular one. Since I had limited time, I had to use the Exp. Share since switch training both Magikarp and Abra would have SUCKED.

On my way to Mauville I wanted to catch an Electrike with Lightning Rod and Flameburst (or Ice Fang) and in a Quick Ball. Since you can't buy Quick Balls until later (Fallarbor maybe?) I had to grind the PGL Minecart game for some, which took AGES since I was getting unlucky and just getting Dusk Balls (seriously, I nearly gave up and caught it in one of those), then I had t o level up the search function to get a good one, which also took a long time. I saw Flame Burst pop up on the display and caught it straight away, only for it to have static u_u (LR + FB was gonna be my strat against Wattson). I ended up abusing my over-levelled Metang to get me my third badge and it was time to sprint to Meteor Falls to get my Swablu.

Getting up north as quickly as possible was actually pretty easy as there are barely any forced battles. What wasn't easy was catching the Swablu I wanted. All I needed was Hyper Voice as an egg move so I could spam it in mega forme, the problem was that I was cycling around waiting for one to pop up on the DexNav but they just wouldn't! I spent wayyyyy longer than I wanted to and just caught one with 3 stars of potential (turned out to have 4 perfect IVs with the other 2 being 25+ but with a Gentle nature, lol). With that out of the way I went to smash Team Aqua up on the volcano so I could fight Flannery. I tried to use Gyarados as much as possible so he would elvel up and learn Aqua Tail but didn't realise it came at level 35, so I had to sweep her with Dragon Rage instead. The best part about this bit is that May teleports you to Petalburg which saved a heap of time..

Norman always sucks to battle since he spams those damn Slakings (and they all have Retaliate now), so I was gonna have to get crafty. What I did in the end wasn't really that crafty, I just switched Gyarados in a bunch of times to fire off Intimidate, and Metang's Steel typing to soak up the weaker hits, but I remember the battle being really good and coming down to the wire. Pretty sure 'Dos finished it off by himself with Dragon Rage (such a good move early game). Now it's Wally's turn to Teleport me to Mauville (thank you GF) and the last part of my semi-speedrun up to Latias.

By this time it's really late at night and I'm ultra tired. The Battle Spot comp is well underway (did I mention I didn't start the playthrough until the Sunday night, even though I actually restarted the save on like Thursday? Yeah that's because I didn't know I needed the Mega Bracelet..) so I'm keen to get this done and play a couple of battles before having a sleep and playing the rest of the battles in the morning. I did kinda want to SR for a good Latias, but since I didn't have time (and I have a pretty good Timid and Bold one already), I figured I wouldn't bother getting my Calm sync from Y and trying for an OK one, and just take the first one. Funny thing is, the first one I got was Calm with 31/31/30/28/18/31, so obviously not perfect but fine by me for a first try, no-sync catch! Now I was finally able to mega evolve my Blaziken in the Battle of Hoenn (here's the team if anyone's keen on looking, in the end my effort was barely worth it as I was only able to play a handful of games), I was way too tired to do anything so I figured I would sleep and play in the morning, except I slept until 10am and the thing finished at 11 :(

With that out of the way I figured I could relax and just enjoy the game a bit more. Now that I can mega evolve stuff (Manectric and Alakazam), battling was pretty easy. I cruised through to Fortree, learned none of my team members had a useful Hidden Power type (Manectric had Electric, lol), punched a Kecleon in the face and took on Winona. Since I play on set mode, Manectric was my main lead for most battles during the game with Volt Switch (and Intimidate if needed), so between that and cleaning out Winona's gym, he was starting to gain a few levels. But apart from him my team was starting to fall behind, when I did run into a trainer they would very often have higher-levelled 'mons than I did. That girl with the Milotic on route 120(?) nearly swept me since that thing was sooo bulky (Manectric died to Water Pulse confusion hax). I decided I needed to battle more and gain some much needed exp.

Mt. Pyre turned out to be the best place, Gyara just spammed Bite and quickly caught up. He was now my MVP as I rushed down route 123 to grab his mega stone for even more sweeping. Team Aqua hinted at the fact that they'd be going to their cave in Lilycove, and I looked at my team. Alakazam was seeing no love, he was barely out of the 20s and I was pretty sure he had never even mega evolved yet, so what better place to level him up than a place filled with dark types? Dazzling Gleam + Psychic was brutal (especially the former against that horde battle) and now he was the main 'mon. I'm statrting to see a trend here, I need to share the workload instead of just using one 'mon for a section of the game. The trouble was that I was now up to the water routes, and Manectric is already one of the higher-levelled party members. I figured that Metang should have a go since he can at least kill the millions of Tentacool with Zen Headbutt, and there probably won't be a time t use him until the E4 anyway (if that).

Mega Gyarados was really fun to use in Tate & Liza's gym, since everything would aim Psychic moves at normal Gyara, only to do nothing to mega Gyara, it really took me back to the old days of spamming Zoroark facading as Emboar in BW haha. Him + Metang made easy work of the twins and so I made my way to the Seafloor Cavern. This was Altaria's time to grind, and actually did a pretty good job. He really only had to avoid the Golbats / Muks but they were easily handled by Metang (who also needed training). I decided that since I missed out on Hyper Voice that I would instead just spam Echoed Voice instead, which was hilariously powerful after the first hit. If I was up to the 3rd / 4th hit and they sent out a Poison type, I would just use it again and it would usually KO! Of course this meant the 15PP got used up pretty quickly.. I was able to even out my party's levels pretty well by the end of it and went to take on Kyogre..

So I figured I could just mega evolve Manectric and take him out with Discharge, but he was outsped and OHKO'd by Origin Pulse, and since I did mega evolve him I couldn't just use Mega 'Dos to do it. Kyogre just seemed to keep selecting the right moves, it got Altaria with Ice Beam, Blaziken with another Origin Pulse, paralyzed Metang with Body Slam and haxed it to death with Origin Pulse. Alakazam managed to do some damage but also died, Gyarados was able to finish it off with Crunch though. It ended up being a pretty epic battle, especially considering that my over-levelled Sceptile OHKOd it on my previous playthrough... At least now I could just rush to Victory Road and wipe the E4.

Victory Road is was too easy in this game. It's way too short and the trainers suck. I finally evolve Metang into Metagross and decide to let him do all the work to celebrate, he even sweeps Wally. Now that I'm at the Pokemon League I can fly back to Lilycove and delete all the horrible HMs I had been running, Gyarados's moveset was Waterfall / Dive / Surf / Crunch for crying out loud! For some reason I decided that Altaria could keep Fly since it gives it Flying STAB, but it isn't needed to in hindsight it should have been Dragon Dance or Earthquake. I do forget to take Rock Smash off Metagross though which is annoying.

As for the E4, the battles are pretty interesting! I can't remember them in as much detail as last time so I'll just be brief. I tried to make Altaria sweep Sidney with Echoed Voice, but he was KO'd by Sharpedo's Poison Fang after confusion hax from Mightyena's Swagger, Blaziken was able to clean up though. Gyarados had no trouble sweeping Phoebe with Crunch, luckily Dusknoir is super weak so Thunder Punch couldn't KO, same as Sableye (it tanked a Waterfall). I used Manectric to sweep Glacia, Discharge + Flamethrower worked wonders here, luckily Walrein missed Sheer Cold! Drake was kinda tough, I wanted to do another Echoed Voice sweep but I got stopped at his Salamence (after first KOing his Altaria, Kingdra and a Flygon), Gyarados was able to come in and Ice Fang it and the second Flygon to death. Steven was one of the better AI battles I've had playing the series, which sucks because I can barely remember how it went down! I was too caught up in the moment, trying to figure out how I was going to win. My team was soooooo under-levelled (average of 45 compared to his 57) but I was mostly able to trade 1-for-1 until it came down to a fitting battle between his and my Metagross (or both of his Metagross? The OT is Steven after all...). Neither of us could touch each other since all our moves were resisted. I had to rely on Rock Smash (why didn't I swap it for Earthquake??) getting defense drops. Like I said, I have no idea how I did it, but I did!

And now, the team that made the Hall of Fame!

Harland
Lv. 44
- Blaze Kick
- Double Kick
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake

Named for Colonel Sanders for obvious reasons. This guy put in work the whole game, was always a higher level than everyone right up until the water routes.

Metagross
Lv. 47
- Bullet Punch
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Rock Smash (lol)

Would probably have named him Linux or something but Steven's OT stops that. I heard somewhere that this guy unlocks some special dialogue in the story like N's Zorua would but I didn't notice anything... The fourth moveslot was the rotating slot, it saw a bunch of moves like Rock Tomb, Power-up Punch and Bulldoze. Kinda sucks that he evolves so late so he was a Metang for the bulk of the story while the rest of its teammates were busy mega evolving...

Gary Jr.
Lv. 46
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake

The name came from Gyara-dos > Gary dos > Gary 2 (the 2nd) > Gary Jr. lol... This thing is a machine, and easily a top tier 'mons once you get it to level 20. Intimidate makes him bulky AF, Bite and Dragon Rage do lots of damage early-game, and Aqua Tail, Ice Fang and Crunch come later. 10/10 would recommend

#2spoony4me
Lv. 43
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot

Yeah horrible name but like what else do you call it? This guy would also be good if used as a teams solo or 2nd mega but it was overshadowed by its teammates :( Early Alakazam was fun as hell though, he just monstered the early game.

ACdogeC
Lv. 47
- Discharge
- Flamethrower
- Volt Switch
- Hyper Beam

Another subpar nickname but I thought it was kinda funny. ACDC coz electricity (and badass rock band), just replace D with a timeless doge reference... This guy was probably MVP for the playthrough since Volt Switch is hella good when playing set mode. Trying for Flame Burst was useful but did stop me from using Blaziken as much as I thought I would. Did have Strength but Hyper Beam seemed more appropriate for the E4 run (also has no other moves smh)

Alister
Lv. 47
- Dragon Pulse
- Echoed Voice
- Fly
- Flamethrower

The name seems obvious coz of Altaria but Alister Wright is the name of the lead singer of Cloud Control, so cool little double meaning there. I was initially disappointed that I didn't get Hyper Voice but like I said earlier, Echoed Voice is fun as hell (and makes me want to try it in the Maison).

I ended up going on to do the Delta Episode again and decided that I kinda like Zinnia now (I sorta hated her before, she was so frustrating on my first run). I also managed to catch an Adamant Ray in a Dive Ball that I'm happy with and can now move onto what I've been looking forward to; The Maison and Battle Spot (hello VS Recorder!). I'm also really loving the contests, even though they are absurdly easy with your condition maxed. I'll probably get the ribbon effect for a bunch of my non-shiny 'mons now. I kinda wanted to do a Let's Play of this run, but I assumed an all-mega run would be boring, and I wouldn't have been able to do it well anyway since I ended up (semi) speedrunning half the story. Maybe if I ever get Ruby I'll do it!

 

[Detective Barricade]

I heard somewhere that this guy unlocks some special dialogue in the story like N's Zorua would but I didn't notice anything...

Steven's Beldum unlocks just a few minor pieces of dialogue. If I remember correctly, Mr. Stone will say something about it and Steven's note with the in-game Beldum left in his house has an otherwise unseen P.S. about his gift if his shiny Beldum is in your party at the time. I think Steven himself mentions it too during the rematch if it's used against him, but I haven't done that yet to know for certain. Pretty sure Serebii or Bulbapedia go over everything the event unlocks however.

 

[cant say]

Steven's Beldum unlocks just a few minor pieces of dialogue. If I remember correctly, Mr. Stone will say something about it and Steven's note with the in-game Beldum left in his house has an otherwise unseen P.S. about his gift if his shiny Beldum is in your party at the time. I think Steven himself mentions it too during the rematch if it's used against him, but I haven't done that yet to know for certain. Pretty sure Serebii or Bulbapedia go over everything the event unlocks however.

Oh I wish I had of thought to check Serebii, sure enough they have it...

Location: Rustboro City, Route 114, Mossdeep City

The Shiny Beldum distribution was live for the first two months of the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. If you take this Beldum, or its evolved form, to Mr. Stone in Rustboro City, he will be shocked and begin saying how it must be one of a kind and how sublime it is. He ends up saying that he wonders how it'd stand up to Steven's own Beldum

In addition to this, Steven Stone's letter about the Beldum you get given in the game also now mentions a second, special, Beldum that he sent you.

If you speak to Steven in Mossdeep City with it in your team during the Delta Episode, while he is in the Mossdeep Space Center, he will reference how it reminds him of a time he faced off against Rayquaza, teamed with a young man and his black Charizard, referencing the Mega Evolution anime special.

Finally, in Route 114, if you show it to the Fossil Maniac, he will mention how Steven travelled as far as Kalos in a hunt for this special Beldum.

The only one I've seen is the bit about the Black Charizard, but it just happened so naturally, I didn't think anything of it (also could have swarm it said that when I didn't have it in my last playthrough). I'm gonna have to go check out the Letter and also talk to Mr. Stone to finish it off and get closure, lol