The Games We Played is a year end round up of thoughts about games we spent time with.

—
RJ
—

I swore to myself I would never touch a Pokémon game ever again since my experiences with Pokémon Y. It wasn’t a bad jRPG per say, but for once I felt that I was simply fatigued with the series that I hold dear to my heart. Then came Pokémon Omega Ruby.

The moment I saw that trailer of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, I was struck with awe. Seeing Groudon and Kyroge in 3D lit up memories of when I was a child playing the original Ruby & Sapphire. My first Pokémon game was Yellow, then I proceeded to get Crystal, but Sapphire (and Ruby & Emerald) is where I hold most of my memories with. I remember going to the library just to figure out the braille puzzle located in the game. It felt like I was truly immersed in an adventure doing that. Diving the seas of Hoenn just to reach a underwater cavern to unlock other ruins in the land was truly amazing. I remember busting out the link cables with friends right after school so we could have each others secret bases dot the map. It brought a smile to all of our faces. Those days were just filled with pure enjoyment. You just played them and had fun. No cynical thoughts, just who had a cooler looking roster.

Those thoughts continued to swirl inside my mind until launch. When the game was finally done downloading, I lit up with excitement as I booted the game up. At first I thought the incorporation of the 16-bit intro for the game was a cheap way to fuel my nostalgia, but once I got out of the truck, and heard the updated version of the theme of Littleroot Town, I told myself, “I’m back home”.

—
Omar
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If there’s one thing that Nintendo is good at it’s repackaging your childhood and selling it back to you. As a child, our family didn’t have much extra spending money, so when we finally received our first game system in the form of the Gameboy Advance we were ecstatic. Of course this also meant that our first Pokemon game would be Pokemon Ruby.

I’m not sure how I obtained a copy of that game, honestly but it was the first time I actually set foot into the world of Pokemon. Up to that point I’d been consuming the anime, movies, TCG, trainer handbook, videogame guidebooks, online Pokedexes, toys, shirts, bedsheets… 

After all that Pokemon Ruby was a bit of a moment for me. The secret bases, the environmental focused story, the Pokemon contests—despite the relatively static nature of it, Hoenn felt as real a place as the apartment we lived in. From there we’d go on to acquire Sapphire and Emerald (the first game I looked forward to so much I pre-ordered it). All three of those games would end up lost somewhere after a house fire, as well as the second GBA we used to transfer Pokemon between the games. 

After that lack of funds and waning interest meant I skipped most of the DS titles. When I finally came to Black & White I felt similar to RJ, I was just tired of it. Sure, Pokemon had a complex metagame and an ever increasing roster, but its combat lacked punch and its languid pace felt at odds with the ever increasing speed of life. I didn’t need to play another title in the series, I told myself.

I guess I was wrong. After putting it off for almost a month I finally ended up with a copy in my pocket. Revisting Hoenn reminded me of all the small details: the reflections of clouds in the bodies of water, the small vignettes and character moments, the play between earth and sea represented by Fortree City and Pacifidlog Town. I’ve not yet bought back into it, but Pokemon Omega Ruby is working its way back into my heart. Pokemon is finally threatening to bring back the warmth adulthood often seems to burn through, and I’m feeling alright about making myself vulnerable to it.