Steven is just better-written in general in Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. Well, everyone is, really; I actually think the villains benefit the most. To be honest, I feel Steven still comes across as more of an exposition-whore than anything else a lot of the time, but he’s at least a lot more emotive and determined. The scene in the epilogue between him and Wallace is nice too; it gives you a sense of the burden of being a Champion, and how the position isn’t all fun and games. Mostly what I like about Delta Episode specifically is just that Zinnia is such a cool character. She’s the one person in the game who knows exactly what’s going on from the start of the plot to the end, and that makes her choices and priorities very curious and interesting – her willingness to orchestrate the awakening of Kyogre/Groudon by Team Aqua/Magma in order to attract Rayquaza’s attention, and damn the risks; her absolute refusal to let Steven and Professor Cozmo try their own plan to stop the meteor; her lack of concern for her own life; whatever the deal is between her and that Whismur, Aster. She very much carries that chapter, I think.
What would I have done differently? Hmm. Well, two things jump out at me. One is that Zinnia is such a pushover in the final battle at the Dragonhark Altar, which is supposed to be the game’s last big challenge for you as a player – or, rather, not that Zinnia herself is a pushover, but that Mega Rayquaza is beyond ridiculous. If she somehow manages to defeat Rayquaza, Zinnia actually becomes very difficult, particularly her Mega Salamence, but given that Rayquaza is entirely capable of outrunning and one-shotting all of her Pokémon, that’s just not terribly likely. I would have maybe reduced its level to 60, or introduced some extra mechanic specific to this fight that would give Zinnia a chance to stop it – like, maybe because it’s Mega Evolved for the first time in a thousand years and needs time to get used to its power, Rayquaza is under some kind of Regigigas-style Slow Start effect during this one battle?
The other thing that kind of needs work is Deoxys, who just comes completely out of nowhere. Or… well, not out of nowhere, out of a meteor, which is where Deoxys is supposed to come from; the point is that, just after the big climactic cutscene where Rayquaza blows up the meteor, we have one more battle with this powerful legendary Pokémon who has nothing to do with anything. Could we have had… like… some foreshadowing of this? The meteor shower is apparently a regular thing that threatens the earth once every thousand years; does Deoxys have something to do with that? Why? And what does it have to do with Mega Evolution, which is apparently connected with the meteorites? Is Deoxys somehow the ultimate source of that power? What does any of this have to do with anything and why should we even care? I mean, I’m happy that Deoxys is no longer event-exclusive, but you have to admit that it was more than a little ham-fisted.
