Pokemon Emerald was the first main series Pokemon game I owned. I grew up with only home consoles as a younger child, so the only Pokemon games I had access to when the craze swept the nation where the ones on the N64. I logged hundreds of hours into those games, specifically Pokemon Stadium 2. I still have the cartridge. I'd seen every single episode of the anime up until Sinnoh, where my intrest in the show dwindled because Ash is a moron. All of this is to say that while Pokemon Emerald was the first Pokemon RPG I played and beat, I was as close to an expert as you could get well before beating Emerald. I knew every one of the 251 Pokemon stepping into Hoenn. After I got my GBA and beat Emerald, I went out and bought Pokemon Yellow and Pokemon Crystal. I beat both before they announced Fire Red and Leaf Green in the U.S.

The Hoenn region is my second favorite region in the franchise. I love the tropical setting. I love the mythos. I love the Pokemon design. I love the characters. The plot was the best the series had at the time. It was all great. It started what has become modern Pokemon. Every new Pokemon game builds upon the foundation started in the 3rd generation. But there have been improvements since those games. One of the most and least important started in Pokemon Black/White, with Lenora. Lenora (and Marshal) were the first important characters in the Pokemon franchise who where truely of african decent. I won't get into the reasons why Brock, Pheobe, and especially Iris are not black, but even these characters exemplify the new focus on diversity in modern Pokemon.

As a black person, I've never been offended by the lack of representation in these games, especially in the player characters. This is mostly because I've considered the player characters separate people, instead of an avatar for myself. I named Red Red, Ethan Ethan, Brendan Brendan, Lucas Lucas, Hilbert Hilbert, and Nate Nate. It's kind of like with Link. Aonuma wants him to be an avatar for the player, but for 90% of gamers who play Zelda, he will never be "the player." He is a protagonist named Link with a personality and traits seperate from the player, and that's okay. No dialog does not mean no personality.

So when the Unava region released, I was pleased to actually see ethnic variety in a Pokemon. I was even more pleased to learn about the sixth generation and the new change to Pokemon: character customization. "I could finally have my own journey" I told myself. I could finally be me in Pokemon.

I was wrong, though. I won't get into my issue with forcing players to play as a child when even Pokemon Battle Revolution, which is by all means a terrible Pokemon game with terrible customization options, had the good sense to have varying age models for both male and female while staying E rated. My real issue was with the skin, hair, and character model options. Like I said, I'm black. What I shouldn't have to say, but what Gamefreak didn't seem to get, is that being black is more than just a skin color just like there is more to being asian than eye shape or more to being white than skin color.

I felt insulted that there when I found out that there was only one "brown" skin tone option in the game. Not only are more than 90% of blacks darker than that, but Gamefreak already knows that, because they'd allready gotten it right with Lenora, Marshall, the break dancers, and all the 100 black characters the programed into X/Y. It was annoying enough staring into the eyes of challengers with skin darker than the options given to me, but that's not the worst offense. Like I said, being black is more than just a skin color. Now since they didn't allow customization of finer details like lip, nose, and eye shape, I let them pass on that. What they do allow though is customization of hair. Guess how many "black" hairstyles were available? I'll save you the trouble; none. Not one. The closest you could get to a hairstyle that wouldn't look completely retarded on a black person is the buzz cut. I have dreads. Some people have afros. How do miis have better customization options than Pokemon?

My last issue is model options. This wasn't an issue for me as I'm a lean guy, but I'm sure there were a lot of players out of the 12m who bought XY who aren't breakable tooth picks, yet this game had no option for differnet body shapes. This was similarly more insulting because there was a character in the game, Tierno, with a larger body shape. Gamefreak had the resourses. They simply couldn't be bothered.

But now we arrive back to Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Of all the changes we know so far, these are the ones that really stood out to me:

This drastic change in character design proves to me that Gamefreak is still striving for diversity. Still trying to be more inclusive. I think they failed in X/Y and I don't think that it being their "first attempt" is an alibi. I think that if costomization is included in OR/AS and it is as limited as in X/Y, they will fail worse. But I do think they're trying. I don't think it's good enough, but I do think it's good. Changing some of these characters was risky. I am personally going to miss that old ginger design for Shelly and would have preferred that, but if the trade off is greater ethnic difersity in the Pokemon world, even if it's just a small step, I can live with the disappointment.

I only hope that it will one day where I truely be my own Pokemon Master, dreads and all.

Oh god I always thought of team magma and aqua being gang fights. Now half of aqua is "brown".

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Oh God, those horrible ass character (re)designs...

That was an interesting read.

Don't have much to add really, I agree customization options should be deeper, and I think they will be next time

At least May still looks kinda OK!