I'm not really a fan of either design of Archie, to be honest. The original is so bland and characterless that just about any redesign was welcome in a remake, really; but what they went with was probably a bit too much in the other direction. A little too busy and too obvious with really weird little details (what are the yellow belt pieces? Why does he have a mini cape?) that distract from what could have been a good design.
Either way I find ORAS as a whole a lot more soulless than RSE, and that to me mostly comes down to RSE clearly pushing its capabilities to the limits in terms of what it could do with its tilesets and the GBA's limited graphics capabilities, compared to ORAS having a lot more power at its disposal and doing nothing truly interesting with it, instead opting for a very flat update to the region that at large adds nothing new and which doesn't really improve upon the original in any way beyond "it's 3D now". On a technical level, that tree sure is rendered in 3D and has more pixels and polygons going for it; and yet the 2D sprite consisting of maybe 60 pixels and 5 colours looks a lot more impressive to me.
There are exceptions, of course. As noted, Deoxys' entrance - and in fact the entirety of your little trip into space - stands out as very impressive and exciting, and a true testament to what they could have done with the rest of the game had they the commitment. And for all the criticism it drew for not being a full-fledged Frontier, the Battle Resort is a pretty interesting new area with a lot to do and a lot to explore, with a very pretty aesthetic to it. Mauville clearly had a lot of work put into it and is a unique idea for a settlement - an entire town being a set of flats, essentially - turning perhaps one of Hoenn's least notable towns into something with much more of its own identity to it, which I find a very good thing for this remake to do when Hoenn's MO with settlements was seemingly to have a unique idea to most of them. Mauville now stands alongside Fortree and Dewford as being much more memorable in its concept. Victory Road has similar things going for it.
It's difficult to come up with any other examples, though -- other new elements such as the updates to the Scorched Slab and the Abandoned Power Plant at first impress you with how much they've been changed, but then end up having little draw or visual interest in and of themselves beyond "this is a bit bigger now". Opportunities to improve upon setpieces like Seafloor Cavern or Mt. Chimney were either ignored of half-hearted in their attempts. I would struggle to tell you anything about any of the routes.
As I hope I've illustrated, it's a bit half and half... or perhaps 80/20. Areas like Victory Road and Mauville showcase a clear effort to improve upon what were some of the original's more forgettable and boring aspects, but much of the region that was left well-alone simply doesn't impress as much or breathe as much as its counterpart in the originals. This isn't helped by the continued problems of XY's 3D Pokémon Models which in far too many a case insist on being lifeless, uninspired and characterless in and of themselves; and that definitely doesn't help the experience. Ultimately I much favour replaying Emerald than going back to ORAS, but there's many things I can appreciate about the remake even if on the whole I feel it could have done with a lot more work.
Either way I find ORAS as a whole a lot more soulless than RSE, and that to me mostly comes down to RSE clearly pushing its capabilities to the limits in terms of what it could do with its tilesets and the GBA's limited graphics capabilities, compared to ORAS having a lot more power at its disposal and doing nothing truly interesting with it, instead opting for a very flat update to the region that at large adds nothing new and which doesn't really improve upon the original in any way beyond "it's 3D now". On a technical level, that tree sure is rendered in 3D and has more pixels and polygons going for it; and yet the 2D sprite consisting of maybe 60 pixels and 5 colours looks a lot more impressive to me.
There are exceptions, of course. As noted, Deoxys' entrance - and in fact the entirety of your little trip into space - stands out as very impressive and exciting, and a true testament to what they could have done with the rest of the game had they the commitment. And for all the criticism it drew for not being a full-fledged Frontier, the Battle Resort is a pretty interesting new area with a lot to do and a lot to explore, with a very pretty aesthetic to it. Mauville clearly had a lot of work put into it and is a unique idea for a settlement - an entire town being a set of flats, essentially - turning perhaps one of Hoenn's least notable towns into something with much more of its own identity to it, which I find a very good thing for this remake to do when Hoenn's MO with settlements was seemingly to have a unique idea to most of them. Mauville now stands alongside Fortree and Dewford as being much more memorable in its concept. Victory Road has similar things going for it.
It's difficult to come up with any other examples, though -- other new elements such as the updates to the Scorched Slab and the Abandoned Power Plant at first impress you with how much they've been changed, but then end up having little draw or visual interest in and of themselves beyond "this is a bit bigger now". Opportunities to improve upon setpieces like Seafloor Cavern or Mt. Chimney were either ignored of half-hearted in their attempts. I would struggle to tell you anything about any of the routes.
As I hope I've illustrated, it's a bit half and half... or perhaps 80/20. Areas like Victory Road and Mauville showcase a clear effort to improve upon what were some of the original's more forgettable and boring aspects, but much of the region that was left well-alone simply doesn't impress as much or breathe as much as its counterpart in the originals. This isn't helped by the continued problems of XY's 3D Pokémon Models which in far too many a case insist on being lifeless, uninspired and characterless in and of themselves; and that definitely doesn't help the experience. Ultimately I much favour replaying Emerald than going back to ORAS, but there's many things I can appreciate about the remake even if on the whole I feel it could have done with a lot more work.
