Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire Remakes Announced, Water is Wet

Well, nobody saw this coming.

It was inevitable; Pokémon remakes are the kind of things you can just expect now, except that they've kind of ran on it a little fast because unless they release a 3DS successor in the next couple years (they better not) we'll see a Diamond/Pearl remake on 3DS or they'll just wait until the next handheld iteration.  Which will probably be a while away still.  Hopefully.  And then they'll have to wait a couple years later for an Black/White redo, which is really weird to think about right now, with Black/White (and their sequels) so fresh in the mind.

My point on this is more or less exactly where it was: This is not a bad thing, but Ruby/Sapphire was a bad Gen.

Instead of retreating that, I suppose I should talk about -other stuff- involved in it.  Everything is speculation, since Nintendo only saw fit to announce it with nothing accompanying it because that's great.  The idea is obvious that it'll be done in X/Y's visual style which will be nice, especially if they really trick out the perspectives again.  It'd definitely help give Hoenn a bit of a new feel and edge which it could do well with.  Not that the Hoenn region was bad, but a visual overhaul could -only- end well for it, is what I'm saying.  Which I guess is a backhanded compliment in a sense but oh well.

What's unfortunate about the speculation is that Nintendo unintentionally (I would imagine) added a lot of fuel to the fire with the scant couple sentences they decided to add to the reveal.  If there's anything I think of when a remake is announced, the phrases "An Epic New Adventure is Coming!" and "Explore a Dramatic New World!" are, you know, not....among them.  It seems unnecessary, but there are three potential reasons for it.

1. Mistranslation.  This one seems the least likely.  Nintendo is pretty good about localizing things, so imagining that the phrases should've been something that excludes "New" and instead goes for "Reimagined" and "Dramatically Altered World" or something of that nature seems like something that wouldn't have happened.
2. Misdirection.  "Well, it's a new adventure to someone!  And with the new camera angles, it's like a whole new world!"  Yeah, no.
3. New Content.  This one is probably it, honestly.  Fire Red and Leaf Green offered quite a lot of new content for the post-game, and they might be going that route with Ruby/Sapphire.  If they offer a new arc post-game of that sort (which would then alter the Elite Four as it did in FR/LG) then that would definitely be an Epic 'New' Adventure in a "Dramatic New" World.

Seeing some new post-game content to Ruby/Sapphire's remakes would be very nice, as Pokémon games in general have been lacking in Post-game for some time now.  Why that is, it's hard to tell, since that seems like the easiest thing to think about, but offering three or four towns of absolutely no consequence with nothing to do in them but serve as stopping points between catching new pokémon that are only held back for 'reasons' (as was the case with Black/White) does not a post-game make.  Of course, that's all poison in the well thanks to Gold/Silver which had the most robust area of post-game content by far, which has been the exception and not the standard.  That said, the wording means that it still won't be as rich as a full return to a former region, as the former regions are not 'New' for the same reasons that an improved Hoenn is not 'New'.  Hoping for something of bulk and substance, however, is about all I have.

I don't like myself for it, but I will be getting one of these games.  I -generally- get the first one of the pair, thus Omega Ruby, but....well, I just really like blue, so I might be grabbing Alpha Sapphire.  Either way, I'll be getting my Pokémon on again this November provided I don't have any other gaming to do.  Because I just might.  Okay, I definitely will and it'll be on my Vita.  But I can make Pokémon time.

hopefully the extra content entails tracking down Team Magma and Team Aqua and murdering them...in a Pokémon battle