I loved, loved, loved the originals. There was not a minute of enjoyment in the remakes for me. After my second time through, I decided to replay Emerald and Emerald is everything these remakes are not.
That's because ORAS are not Emerald remakes. They are Ruby/Sapphire only, with some extra Emerald enhancements here and there. They are not meant to be like Emerald remakes, though so you shouldn't judge them as what they are not meant to be.
ORAS opponent teams are barren. There are no gym leader rematches and there is no new battling facility. There is no way to battle Brendan/May after the final battle. Essentially, there is no point to training Pokémon for the meta game. If you are interested in competitive battling, you can easily EV train and level up, but with literally no change or novelty compared to XY.
Ok, just some thoughts on your points:
1. I think the reason why there are no gym leader rematches in ORAS, is because you can actually
BE A GYM LEADER IN ORAS. And it is the only game sofar, where you can create your own gym, set your own rules and also battle other real life gym leaders as well, by downloading up to 30 Bases with their own Gym Leaders and grunts. I think those, are meant to be the Gym Leader rematches of this game, and that's why "normal gym leader rematches" are not in the game.
And besides, we also have the Battle Resort type masters, which are basically just like normal gym leaders and could be countes as a direct substitute of those. And on top of that, we can face Gym Leader Wallace in Contests, so that's one gym leader we can actually rematch.
2. True, there is no new Battle facility in ORAS. But there was no new battle facility in HGSS either, as they just copy pasted the Platinum Battle Frontier, with no additions whatsoever. In fact, in HGSS, they didn't even bother to change the Multi Battle partners and you can only team up with the same Multi Battle partners from Platinum, which makes no sense at all. In ORAS, at least they bothered to give us new Multi Battle Partners: it's the first time ever where you can have a Villain Boss (Archie and Maxie) as a partner in a facility. It is also the first time you can have the Champion (Steve) as a partner in a facility. And we got brilliant remixes of the Battle Frontier overworld and Battle music!
3. You say there is no way to rematch Brendan/May after the final battle, but you couldn't rematch them in RSE either, if I remember correctly, am I correct?
But instead of rematching Brendan/May, in the postgame you can have them as Multi Battle partners in the Battle Maison Multi Battles. So you can still battle *with* them in ORAS and therefore they continue to be relevant after the main game. In RSE, they had absolutely no role in the postgame (correct me if Im wrong).
Also, you can rematch Wally, now in a challenging battle, unlike RSE. And now he is around lvl 80, and is the strongest in- game battle in the series.
Also, ORAS did change the Metagame, by adding 20 brand new Mega, and 2 brand new Primal Pokemon. In fact, it is the only remake to shake up the Meta Game, since HGSS and FRLG added ZERO new Pokemon.
The Delta Episode was new story, but it cost us the Sky Pillar puzzle which was one of the most memorable Pokémon hunts for me.
It didn't really cost us anything. The Sky Pillar looks majestic now, unlike in the original RSE, where it was just annoying. Also, as a side note, the Emerald theme when Rayquaza descends from the sky, is used in the Sky Pillar in ORAS, whereas in RSE, it just reused Chimney's track. So that's an other improvement from the originals.
I don't know if anyone else will agree with this, but I thought these games were particularly ugly. The Pokémon models were not new. The style of the current game engine and that of the Game Boy Advance did not come together. Many times my eyes felt sore.
Everything that Emerald added to the Aqua/Magma story line was discarded. So to have Aqua or Magma felt like half a story to anyone who played the Emerald story.
Gone is the Poké Block game, Game Corner, the safari aspect of the Safari Zone, the quest to catch Lati@s, with nothing to replace them. No new areas other than Soaring spots, which are not as fleshed out as the Sevii Islands or updated Kanto and Johto. A remake should have more, not less.
Whaaat!? ORAS is the best looking game sofar, and the Gen VI engine was beautifully blended with the GBA graphics style, imo.
And the Poke models were reused from XY, of course. Because 3D Pokemon models are meant to be reused. They are not like sprites, where you can modify them constantly.
About the story: I played Emerald many times (in fact, only Emerald, never the original RS) and ORAS doesn't feel like half a story to me at all. Just that your version Villain Team overcomes the opposite one, whereas in Emerald, they were tied. No big deal.
Also, story elements like the Villain Team taking over the Mossdeep Center, was Emerald exclusive, and it also happens in ORAS, during the Delta Episode.
Also:
- they probably saw the Pokeblock manking minigame as something that most of the new players these days would find enraging, and that's why it was simplified. It was replaced with a simpler process of pokeblock making.
- The Game Corner was closed due to the new anti gambling laws in Europe and the US. I am not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the anti gambling laws have reached Japan as well, not sure. So the kinda had to close the Game Corner. The other option was to have that Voltorb minigame like in HGSS, instead of the gambling games. Besides, the main prizes of the Casino were some cool TMs and the starter dolls. Since the TMs are now reusable, and the owner gives you the 3 starter dolls for free, there isn't much reason to have the Casino, don't you think? I will agree that we didn't get a substitute for the Casino, which is annoying, but we do have new minigames now (the Amie and Super Training minigames), don't you count those?
- the Lati@s quest does recieve a substitute. We get a new extra sidequest, and go to South Island to save Lati@s from Team Aqua/Magma. Less enraging and more entertaining imo.
How are we not getting a substitute for the Safari Zone minigame? DexNav says hi. It is a minigame of approaching the Pokemon, and occurs around the entire game, rather than be limited to the Safari Zone only. Therefore it is much bigger and better.
About new areas: you can't really expect a massive region like Hoenn, to add something like the Sevii Islands. Kanto needed it, because it is so small, but Hoenn is huge. And yet, we did get 38 new Mirage Spot Islands, 3 Secret Base Islands, 2 or 3 new underwater routes (with trainers underwater, something that RSE lacked) and of Course, Mauville City is now much much bigger.
To summarize, I think nostalgia is kinda distorting your perception of ORAS, but you can have your opinion, of course...
