Random: Pokémon Fans crunch the numbers to settle the Alpha Sapphire “Too Much Water” Debate

Back in 2014, IGNLike many stores, shared its reviews about Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. While the vast majority gave high praise to the 3DS remakes, IGN did lightly were more critical, giving them a 7.8/10 and noting that they had “too much water” (among other criticisms, of course).

In case you haven’t seen it forgotten in the years since, it’s fair to say that the water comment has become something of a running joke in the Pokémon community, with even The Pokémon Company itself mentioning it accordingly. way tweet earlier this year.

However, after a decade of ridicule, one fan took on the task of diving into the numbers and it turns out the claim is Technically right: 3DS remake DO contain “too much water” – at least, they contain significantly more than the original, you can form your own subjective opinion as to whether it is “too much” or not.

This is according to a recent report videotape from YouTuber Pokémon praise. In it, he brings up two water-related complaints from IGN’s review (“Hoenn is still genre-unbalanced, heavily water-oriented” and the surfing and diving scenes are “extremely dull in Alpha and Omega – a clear example of how some HMs are unnecessary”) and turn to cold, hard facts to test their legitimacy.

Get your red rope ready, guys, because it’s time to get involved. Starting with the first note on the game’s Water Type imbalance, praise takes a look at wild encounter rates and Trainer possession numbers and, well, criticism, uhh. .. contains water.

Using numbers from the Nuzloke damage calculator, the YouTuber concluded that Hoenn trainer battles typically rely more heavily on Water-type Pokémon, with 38.4% of all Trainers participating. ruby have at least one Water Type in their group, increasing to 43.9% of the time jade (vs. 23% of Red Fire and Green Leaves). On top of that, this area is generally more favorable for Water-type attacks, with you being 171% more likely to find a Hoenn Trainer that is weak to Water than a Hoenn trainer that resists it.

Furthermore, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire increase Water Type encounter rates on early game routes, with ackolade’s analysis showing Wingull’s encounter rate increasing from 10% to 20% on Route 103 and Marill’s increasing from 10% to 15% on Route 117 along with with other routes.

Still with us? Good. Now, let’s talk about the “extremely boring” surfing and diving scenes as well as the “superfluous HM” (which, I admit, is a more subjective opinion). Frankly yes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire do has a lot of HM, especially when compared to its predecessor, X&Y. According to the analysis, ‘ORAS’ has seven different HMs, only five of which are necessary to beat the game, while X & Y have five, only two of which are necessary.

As for the complaint about the “tedious” nature of these sequences, Ackolade’s analysis suggests otherwise. While boredom is completely subjective, the YouTube video demonstrates that water routes like 124 and 126 are in fact smaller in the remakes, and the player character can zip through them faster. Of course, if you found them boring in the original, the same applies in the remake, but the data suggests there have been at least some improvements here.

So there you have it, quite possibly the most in-depth analysis of a review comment we’ve ever seen. And, can you believe it, the complaints seem to be accepted… most of. Ackolade’s video goes into much more detail than what we have here, complete with all sorts of fancy graphics, so you should check out the full explanation at the top of this post if you’re interested.

We had more fun with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014, calling the games “a must-buy for any Poké fan” — but we’re sure those who Those of you who have read this far will have already chosen them.