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rannum posted:Her introductory episode has her going nuts over Ash's turtwig, get hella enjoyment out of Cacnea using pinmissile on her, gets her head bitten off by Carnivine and praises it all the while That sounds in line with what I remember.
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Jun 26, 2019 22:57
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Blueberry Pancakes posted:I haven't seen much of Sinnoh, but I remember being impressed how Ash seemed more competent as a trainer than in previous seasons. Particularly in the Pokemon League where he counters a Darkrai by teaching his Heracross Sleep Talk so it could get off a surprise Megahorn. Too bad he wasn't allowed to win that fight. I feel like that the world might implode if Ash was ever allowed to win a league. Orange Islands excluded because, you know, FILLER. And that's not even getting into the whole "GS" Ball crap that literally was never completed as a plot point.
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Jun 27, 2019 00:51
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Part 15: Left Angle Oh. There he is.   I've half a mind to pulverize you with my Pokemon! But I have to be on my qay to the lake ASAP! So, you're lucky! I'm out! All right, do I make myself clear? Don't you dare follow me! It would take a scientific genius to make something like this... therefore, our boss, who made this, is a scientific mechanical genius! Graw! You were eavesdropping! I was just thinking out loud! But I'm not going to waste my energy knocking you around... With this baby here there's not much we can't blow up. I wonder what they have planned for this? Graw! You were eavesdropping! I was just thinking out loud! You're a persistent pest... I'm getting tired of running away... but I'm not going to waste my energy knocking you around... Looker Encounter   The cargo that the Team Galactic brought is worrisome, so I have come. ...you say the cargo, it was a bomb? And there was an explosion? The explosion was at the Great Marsh? Furthermore, you are pursuing a man... a man with funny bowl-cut hair. In an outfit that is very strange? In other words, that is the Team Galactic! Oh, no, no, no! How did I miss it? Ah, Looker, this time you have made a mistake of the ages! The man, who I have seen running away, he was the bearer of the bomb! Ach! This will not do! Wait! Wait, I say! Valor Lakefront Day I am interviewing the people to see if they have seen anyone suspicious. I would like your assistance. Go search outside, if you will. The suspect, he may have already slipped away ahead unnoticed. ...why am I running like this anyway?! That new world... the new universe that our boss was talking about... it's making me giddy thinking about it... when we use this thing... Gweh! You were eavesdropping! I was only talking to myself! You're persistent, too... I'm pooped out from all the running... but, I'm not... going to battle you... The lake's within sight... you leave me no choice... my Pokemon will KO you...  Need to build stamina my man.  I'll have to give this to the Commander... I wish... I got to use it at the lake...  We're getting all kinds of distractions today.   I came to research the folklore about the lake, but... well, it doesn't appear as if the lake is open to the public now. Have you heard the folklore about it? They say there is an island inside the lake. And inside that island is a mirage of a Pokemon. No one must enter the chamber of that Pokemon... oh, that's right! I had to talk to you about something else... Barry Encounter  Huh? Is this your older sister? No? She isn't? Oh, OK. That explosion at the Great Marsh? It wasn't anything serious. Mr. Wake told me to tell you that. But that Team Galactic... wow! Are they out of control or what? Next time I see them, I'll teach them a lesson they won't forget! See you around! He's more impatient than he is energetic, isn't he? So, getting back to what I started saying earlier. Have you seen the group of PSYDUCK on Route 210? Yes, that's right. By the cafe on Route 210. You've seen that group of PSYDUCK huddled with their heads in their, uh, hands...? Anyway, what you should do is use this medicine on the PSYDUCK. You're working on a Pokedex, so it would be worthwhile for you.  I hope you get to meet every kind of Pokemon there is to see. It may help you with the secret of the mirage Pokemon. See you later! Route 212 Day Well wasn't that fun? We've got a long route ahead of us enroute to the Psyduck, so let's get stuck in.     This place would've been alright training if the Gym was too much, but I wasn't worried.   I told you last night, no!   A huge variety of Pokemon live in the Great Marsh. You see, countless years ago, this whole area was under the sea.    All right, Team Aqua.   Could be deadly in the rain, but Skulletor doesn't care.   I want to show off my pretty parasol, but it will get dirty in the rain. Oh, such a big dilemma!    Plenty of crap in the crap.   Ah, an Ace Trainer, let's see your strong team.    Even if a battle gets heated, don't break branches off trees or anything.Oh wait, you're the opposite of an Ace Trainer. Best of luck with your work, but corporations are destroying the planet regardless, so oh well!   In DP, this house let you trade 10 of each colour shard for the corresponding weather TM, so red for Sunny Day, blue for Rain Dance, yellow for Sandstorm and green for Hail, which can all be found otherwise, even in DP. Thankfully shards are much more useful in this game, letting you learn a wide variety of moves, though it's pretty drat expensive, requiring 8 total shards across various colours to learn them. Sure, you can get an infinite amount in the Underground, but it's still a chore to grind.   Not all Pokemon can get equal variety, but Thunderpunch on Skulletor is very tempting. We'll find enough random shards across the game to maybe get 2 moves, but it'll depend on the cost. I have a few in mind, but that'll come later.   Not all of them are hits, but there's still a lot of good moves here you can't get anywhere else. There's three tutors around the region, but the second one is pretty meh, while the third one is, of course, postgame, so these moves are your best options to help many Pokemon that struggle for coverage because Game Freak are idiots and also poopy heads.   At least Gyarados doesn't get STAB for a while, due to the rain and all. But still have a Gyarados answer.     Endless Gyarados.   This music sounds weird if there wasn't any rain!    If you know of any ladies that like fishing, help me reel 'em in!  A bit of a balancing act, but only this way leads to anything.   Oh goody, future happiness evolutions. Pretty similar to how it was when we kinda used it in Colosseum, but we have to wait for Eevee to learn Bite before it evolves, which is easy enough. At least you also get Assurance, which will be pretty strong considering how slow you are, but you'll be lacking in other physical options, but not really have the stats to use your various special TMs. The only interesting stall move you get is Toxic and Double Team, so probably not hugely interesting compared to the other evolutions.  Now we're talking! I say, OHKOing it. Bite is no longer special, so losing that coverage move stings, but at least your only special move until the relearner is, uh, Grass Knot? Well you'll get Psybeam and Shadow Ball pretty quickly and eventually get the Psychic TM, but when it gets going, it gets going. Just depends on if you want to wait that long.   Oh, what have we here? That's a Pokedex! It records Pokemon data upon sight? I've never seen one before! I heard you can move the sun or moon icon to check the Pokemon habitat map by time of day!  Oh yeah, Policemen are a thing from Gen 2. I change the time later, but he's so out of the way compared to the other policemen, I didn't even bother recording the fight! He was a riveting fight, I'm sure you know, but all of them have a Hoothoot and Machop around here.   That won't save you.     Ahem, moving swiftly on.   If only you knew how bad things really are.   On a lighter note, gently caress Rock Tomb.    Oh hey it's another one. Guess how long it'll be until we see the last one? Leafeon definitely has some problems with physical moves, that's not a surprise, since it'll rely on Eevee getting Bite until you can relearn Razor Leaf. Still, it'll be strong enough and take a few hits to be pretty dependable. Return and Synthesis and even Aerial Ace and X-Scissor are good options, since anything better, like Seed Bomb or Leaf Blade, are either postgame tutors, or learned at level 71. Hmm. And since you can get it shortly after obtaining Eevee, it comes just in time for the Water Gym. Probably one of the best times to use it, so give it a shot if you haven't.    I love how natural it is here. I wish I could live out here. Listen, people and Pokemon, we're all a part of Mother Nature.  This route just never ends. We're out of the rain, but I can't believe it's time for the guillotines already. Ah, I'm merely joking, it's always time for guillotines.   At least they leave behind tons of stuff since they live in absolute excess!     Cool Seals, still guillotine.   Alright either there's some power creep going on, or we really need another team member.   Rich people like me don't fight. Oh, no. My Pokemon is worn out. I'd better let it sleep it off in the bed I had sent from overseas. Oh! How terrible of you... You... you must have one fantastic teacher to be so good.  Let's explore the mansion, do I even want to know who lives here?   The garden is open for all visitors to enjoy. However, please beware--wild Pokemon may appear in the garden. If he's got a lot in the back, then this is getting similar to some of my hentai.   To ease your childhood mind, there is nothing back here. Just the child labour camp. Government standard, you understand.   There's a lot for me to be proud of inside, and outside, of this home... but what makes me the most proud is my trophy garden in the back! Why bother traveling afar when Pokemon are attracted by my garden? They come to me in hopes of seeing the garden! You're welcome to join them and marvel at my garden! "Trainers."Putting a lot of stock into this even if it's not very impressive. Yet.  Aww, but vandalism is good!   MANAPHY: An extremely rare Pokemon that has never been seen, let along captured, in Sinnoh.  Well here's a sneak peek at something I won't be going over for a while... mainly because 1234567890num hasn't finished their Ranger 1 LP yet. But even after we've met up irl to trade Manaphy over, and maybe catch a movie, wanna see the new Spiderman after all, there's still more to go over even then. Regardless, we still need to "see" it to complete the Pokedex, though that wasn't the case in DP, even though it was still in the regional dex.  Of course it wasn't a good move. They never offer anything useful to society.  Alright, let's see what this magical garden offers. It doesn't look much, but by not investing in this area, he keeps expenditure low and helps his offshore accounts evade taxes.   More catchable babies, always nice to see.   And then the parent. And that's it, just two new mons. Aside from showing how amazing Quick Balls are, there's really not much to this area, but we shall return. Pikachu is the mascot, exciting, I know, but we already have the means to evolve it, so once it gets Thunderbolt at 26, give it the ol' stone down the throat. At least I think that's how it all works.   Ah geez, what time is it?  Let's not question that.  If you put this on a caught Pokemon, it warms up to you faster. I'll share one with you, so give it a try.  Had to wait quite a while in DP before you could start tackling those happiness evolutions.  Alright, alright, I get the hint. Now let's sidetrack into something completely different.  Here, you may challenge the mansion's pride--the five Trainer maids. The challenge is to beat all five of us in a row without a break. In addition to beating us, if you can beat us in a specific number of turns, there will be a special gift. And now... The 5-Maid Knockout Exact-Turn Attack Challenge! Uh. I mean, I'll give it a shot.     If we can take out 5 Clefairy in one shot, then we should be good.   Well you can probably guess how this will go. This is a new addition, as DP just had the maid blocking you from their sweatshop or whatever garbage human rights violation rich people exploit for profit.   Well gently caress. This was expected, though Clefairy only learns Endure via TM... but all of them have this move. Specifically, they all have Metronome, Meteor Mash and Endure, so if you're really unlucky, this challenge might take you 10 turns minimum.     The first one also has Minimize, the second one has Sing, third has Encore, fourth has Swagger and the fifth has Bounce, so since the number of turns ranges between 5 and 12, you best get lucky on turn manipulation.     The extra exclamation point they add on starts seeming a bit sarcastic, especially if you've already missed your turn limit.   You have taken 5 turns up to now. The target is 5 turns.Cool.   That crit probably didn't matter. But there you go, I would've done this perfectly first try if it wasn't for that one Endure. This challenge is such bullshit.   Congratulations for your sweep. The targeted number of turns was 5. The number of turns you needed to defeat the maids was 6. Ooh... how disappointing for you. That said, you swept the five maids. That's plenty to be proud of! Please visit again tomorrow.I usually give this one try each time I play this game, don't get it, leave in annoyance and then forget to do it again, so I've never actually done the challenge. Well, what happens when you win? How splendid of you! You hit the target! For making the sweep in the targeted number of turns, a special gift! The chance to battle our very own prodigy, Master Liam/Lady Celeste! A Trainer would come here and pull me into a battle...? I never expected this, but I may as well enjoy it, don't you think? Oh my... you must show me how good you are for the ladies to call me out.It's random which trainer you fight, but they both have a Blissey, holding a RARE CANDY. Obviously you need to Thief that ASAP, especially since they know Fling. So it's a way to get "infinite" Rare Candy, even if it's not particularly useful. Good exp though. Too much for me! Wonderful! You're a marvel of a Trainer! Oh, I'll ask you not to pry into what I'm doing in the back of the mansion. This knowing wink is all you'll get out of me. Oh, dear me! Oh, my! My, my, my! Your technique was most enchanting. I will take my leave now. Giggle... Your splendor is authentic! Sweeping the floor with the five maids wasn't enough for you, oh no! Why, to think you would triumph over even our Master Liam/Lady Celeste! Please visit again tomorrow. We slept so long it's now between 2 and 3am and we can touch the statue. What a life I lead... Route 212 Night "I still go out on patrol."   Your toughness is too much! I'm in serious trouble!  We could've gotten Kirlia during the day, but it's slightly more common at night due to Hoothoot not taking all of the encounter rate.   How could this happen to meeeeeeeee, I've made my mistaaaaaaakes   You, for not bashing the fash.   You're not my dad! Well, actually you could be, I do latch on to any parental figure.   Oops, I'd better get back to my beat before the boss radios me...    Want some money? I bet you do, these two can be rematched and have a pretty easy team to fight, while giving $12000 a pop, so around $50000 with an Amulet Coin.    Hahaha! I was invited by the master of the Pokemon Mansion! He's promised to show me through his prized garden of Pokemon. Usually, I'll have matches with members of my social club.  Thankfully this is the last ACAB we'll have to fight for a while, since they were all equally weak.   Well I've talked to her more recently than most, but only because she had a secret life I didn't know about because I never asked!   I thiiiink this is the best indication you'll get of Munchlax trees. Nice try, it's still bullshit.  Nice little loop around, time to face Fantina! Ah, excuse me, I forget I'm not playing a garbage game. In any case, there's nothing in Hearthome... n-nothing at all! Solaceon is where it's at! Solaceon Town Night Now that's something I can do!   We haven't fought a new center fight in a while, so sure.   I don't know what I expected.   I need to find a way to get more into the character of a Pokemon... maybe I should get the Day Care to raise me?  Thanks! Let me get a closer look! ...I see, hmhm... right, right... that's it! Thank you! I can write a great article now! This is for your trouble. It's not much, but thanks!  You really came through for us! I hope you'll help us again tomorrow!  Uhhhh, let's catch some more Unown or whatever. I'm not putting something off, you're putting something off! But yes, 6 Unown can be found on each of the main floors, but in the side rooms, the other 20 Unown can be found, all at a 5% chance. If you think that sounds terrible, it is!  But we won't catch all of them, plenty of time for that. But we will catch enough to expand the Ruin Maniac Cave, which is 15 different letters, easy enough.    As you lengthen the cave, Hippopotas become more common, so it was easy enough to find one. Since we have the Earthquake TM, this mon will do just fine, though they also added Dig to its movepool so its best STAB move isn't Sand Tomb. But again, we have the TM of the best move in the game. Otherwise, it's not very impressive until it gets Crunch, and then evolution, but you can give it, ugh, Rock Tomb for a bit of coverage. But aside from Return and... Water Pulse?! this Pokemon doesn't do too much. Still, if you like endless, endless sand, and another great user of early Earthquake, then here's something hip for you.  Now they call me the Digging Maniac. I'll just go chipping away at the rock wall a little at a time. Do you know why? I'm a Ruin Maniac who is fascinated by the UNOWN and who also loves to dig!      ...alright fine, next time we'll do some contests or whatever. I'm sure it'll be a fun time.
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Jun 28, 2019 01:36
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Alright, we need to get our drat happy bird out of the Day Care. Maybe it'll be useful now, but we need to add it in eventually. So, what's Togetic's nickname? and since I don't like repeating Pokeballs, due to it being a gift/egg, what Pokeball should it have? You can vote for both, or either, or neither, I guess. Just keep it to standard balls we can buy, no Cherish or Master or anything like that.
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Jun 28, 2019 01:38
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Eggbert, with a Heal Ball whoops didn't see the buy restriction
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Jun 28, 2019 02:00
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Hippopotas is one of those Pokemon I always want to use but the combination of availability (have to go out of your way for it here, have to use the safari zone post game in HGSS, post game/breed/DW in BW1, 2 & USUM, not in ORAS/SM) and having to go out of your way for the hidden ability (gen 5-on) to use it without sandstream annoyance. It's very cute, though. Also I've actually completed the Maid challenge once. It's not really worth it, as you can see, but it's...cute? It's such a weird thing, I wonder why they added it in. Just some intern did it in their off time or what
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Jun 28, 2019 03:14
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Oh actually here's a cute thing, there was a Hippopotas in the anime that showed up twice for some reason and it was loving adorable Its tail wagged like a dog, it rode around on ash's head, it had a yawn gimmick ("Mass Hip-Po-Sis!"), butch & cassidy were there  A real A+ pair of fillers, Ash should have caught it
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Jun 28, 2019 03:19
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Comet, Premier Ball
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Jun 28, 2019 03:30
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rannum posted:Oh actually here's a cute thing, there was a Hippopotas in the anime that showed up twice for some reason and it was loving adorable Would like to point out that Hippopotas weighs 49.5kg and Ash just carried him on his head like it was no big deal. Kid doesn't need to age when he's that strong.
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Jun 28, 2019 04:24
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I don't care about the nickname, but it must be in a Premier Ball. Gotta keep the color coordination game strong.
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Jun 28, 2019 05:17
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the best part of this route is the fact that the Vs. Seeker was still in this game, and that + rich old people + amulet coin = loving bonkers profit sadly, this is gen 4, and thus there's no clothing to buy with said money, but hey, it's there for togetic, I'm also gonna vote for the premier ball and also the nickname Huevo
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Jun 28, 2019 13:15
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I've always rolled either six or seven turns for the maid challenge. I had no idea there was that big a range or that it would routinely screw people over.
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Jun 28, 2019 13:22
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Votes so far! Eggbert: 1 Comet: 1 Huevo: 1 Premier Ball: 3 Heal Ball: 1 It's neck and neck between the nicknames, what a tightly contested choice! It also seems like you guys prefer colour co-ordination, even if Radium already has this ball, but hey, I go with what you guys want!
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Jun 29, 2019 14:12
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Kissinger Heal ball
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Jun 29, 2019 14:25
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Comet and Heal Ball!
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Jun 29, 2019 14:31
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Hippopotas is one of my absolute favorite Pokemon, which, uh, may not be too surprising. Eggbert, Heal Ball would be my picks.
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Jun 29, 2019 15:11
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Eggbert, Heal Ball
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Jun 29, 2019 15:28
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Let's give the Heal Ball an unexpected win from behind. Huevo works as the name for me.
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Jun 29, 2019 16:23
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Definitely Comet and Heal Ball!
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Jun 29, 2019 17:18
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Comet in a Dusk Ball
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Jun 29, 2019 17:53
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Blaze Dragon posted:Let's give the Heal Ball an unexpected win from behind. Huevo works as the name for me.
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Jun 29, 2019 19:28
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Kemix posted:Comet in a Dusk Ball
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Jun 29, 2019 20:09
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Huevo, Heal Ball
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Jun 29, 2019 21:09
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Blaziken386 posted:the best part of this route is the fact that the Vs. Seeker was still in this game, and that + rich old people + amulet coin = loving bonkers profit no doubles allowed
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Jun 30, 2019 00:01
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Part 16: Fun Dress-up With Some Boring Parts Contest Hall  Contests are back! They're not that interesting! We're doing them anyway! Representing Tough contests is Guinea Pig the Weast Gastrodon by Explopyro to see if combos exist in this mode like it did before. Spoilers, they either don't, or are super rare, but it doesn't actually matter regardless. I would also explain what each move does, but it also doesn't really matter much as we'll see later!   Next up is a beautiful tree thing, Cold Woody the Abomasnow by Buried Treasure. It also has 4 moves, one of which is kinda worthless, but like the submissions last time, you're able to pull through even if you pick moves at random, since every other round will carry you no problem!   Then we have a real smart pizza! As in, Pizza, the Wormadam by Zyxyz, with 4 exciting moves that do stuff or whatever. Actually some good choices, as we'll see later, but that's because there's only one real consistent strategy to the Appeal Round and that's the only one that matters, apparently!   Our cool cat is actually a bird, Weiss the Togekiss by The Golux with 4 more moves and... alright fine, I don't really remember what they do since they all kinda blend together, alright? Happy? Each mon is at least maxed out in the necessary stats because they need to be, so max in their stat, but also max in the adjacent stats, as well as maxed Sheen. All very important.   Last up is just the cutest darn thing, Mr. Fluffy the Darkrai by Toyotasomi no Miko that doesn't seem like it would work out, but Contests are very inclusive, you can use anything for anything, so long as it has the right moves. And they probably will, since there's really not much to it. Regardless, everyone is ready to go, with one exception.            Obviously we need to get the scarves, which, when held in the right contest, will give a nice boost in the Visual Round, and we'll need every single point we can possibly squeeze from it.   It's cool we get to dress up for these, however since nobody else does, we look hilariously out of place. Super Contest! Like the last Contest update, we'll do one Normal Rank contest, with Weiss the cool birb, just to lay out all the various aspects, before showing off two Great Rank and two Ultra Rank contests to show how those go, and then doing all the Master Ranks with everything we've learned.  The results will be announced at the end, so please bear with me! Let me introduce the contestants! We're early enough in that our opponents and their Pokemon don't really matter. However, the actual number of opponents is drastically reduced from last gen, and not a single regular opponent has an evolved Pokemon. Get used to seeing them.  Let's begin by having everyone get in proper attire for evaluations. Contestants, dress up your Pokemon for the Visual Competition! You have 60 seconds to dress up your Pokemon with Accessories. Match the theme and earn higher points! OK, our theme this time is... "The Natural"! The time limit is 60 seconds! You are allowed 5 Accessories! Contest Dress Up Alright, while we're showing off all the various Pokemon, there's a LOT to unpack here. Firstly, let's get this out of the way, considering how many Accessories you can get and how much emphasis is put on this part of the Contest, you don't get a lot of points for using the right Accessories for the theme given, it only accounts for a quarter of the total score. Also, each individual accessory has different stats for each theme, which have to be guessed, since the game never tells you these. So for this portion, especially in later rounds when you have a larger accessory limit, the best strategy is to pile on as many as possible and hope you picked the right ones.  Entry number 1! Sara! Sara has entered the Contest with Batty!  Try to guess the accessories by the silhouette! So depending on how well you matched the theme and how high your Condition and Sheen are will determine how many hearts you get from the audience, one heart is one point, with 11 being the maximum.     Great nicknames as always guys. The various combinations of accessories the AI uses is always the same for each contest rank, with it of course getting ridiculous later on with a higher limit. However, they never get that many points, since the theme is different, but the ones they use always stay the same, so this is a good way to get lots of points. Oh yeah, there's 12 themes total, but they unlocked through the ranks in groups of 3, with later ranks able to choose any theme that came before.  No surprise there. 8 of those hearts come from the sum of 3 combined factors: the Condition of the Contest's primary attribute, so 255, half of the Condition of the Contest's secondary attributes, so for Cool, that would be Beauty and Tough, and then half of the Pokemon's Sheen. The score is boosted by 10% when you're wearing the proper scarf, or 5% if it's the scarf for the adjacent category. These are super easy free points that, like before, will carry us a good while. As for the Dress Up portion? That gets you 3 additional hearts. All that work, just for just over a quarter of the points. Each Accessory has 3 ratings for each of the themes, High, Medium, or Low, resulting in 2, 1 or 0 points respectively. Getting above certain point thresholds results in more hearts for the audience, but due to the sheer number of accessories you can use in later ranks, so long as 75% of them are High, you'll get the maximum score. Of course, you have to look online like I did to even know what they have listed for each theme, and you only have 60 seconds regardless. Least you can slam that DS shut and get all the time you need. Also, Backdrops do nothing.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Normal Rank Dance AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHright then let's go over the worst part of Super Contests. I am just so, so awful at this round, mainly due to lack of practise, but also due to playing on mute while I watched speedruns or whatever for the earlier rounds.   The concept is pretty simple and the music is pretty bopping, you just need to follow the main dancer's steps in time with the beat. Now, you can use the dpad or face buttons instead of pressing the buttons on the touch screen, but I wanted to give myself a challenge and boy did I get it. The main thing is you're following along with the tempo and the Jigglypuff bouncing up and down and across the screen, not the actual music, which can get super distracting at times.   Each Pokemon gets a turn as the main dancer to perform 3 steps in Normal Rank and 4 steps in Great Rank on, with the main goal of being in tempo and using a variety of directions to trip up the backup dancers and have them make mistakes.  Alright, it's best to vary up your steps in line with the beat to get an Excellent rating and hype the audience up. Let's see how they do.  Hrm. You get 2 points for an Excellent, 1 point for Good, and 0 points for a Miss, totalling 48 points for 3 steps, or 64 points for 4 steps. That's quite the jump from the 11 max from the Visual Round, but don't worry about it.  Leading in points right now is Hikari! Can anyone turn things around in the Acting Competition? Super Contest! Okay, on to the actual meat and potatoes of this update, Pokemon are ordered by how many points they have, so it's always good to start first because as you can see, there's no Jam! It's a shame, I did like the raspberry flavour best. Haha. But a lot of moves have been changed around since last gen, and generally just smoothed into being pretty similar. There's now a lot more emphasis on bonus points, since you can't lose points in any way.   Obviously using first place moves while being in the point lead means it's a bunch of free points, but otherwise the only major difference is the 3 judges, which you choose.  "Voltage went up!"Performing the same type move as the Contest increases the voltage, so you can get a bunch of points that way. However, because of it being spread between 3 judges and the AI's... randomness, it's difficult to really match up. The other major problem is a lot of the same Pokemon are used in different categories, so they have pretty bad movepools that make it difficult to increase Voltage.   Having a unique appeal to a judge is very useful, with a lot of moves using it as an additional factor. With 3 judges and 4 Pokemon, there will always be a shared judge, but it's not a massive deal, and impossible to predict with the AI. It presents some interesting mindgames in linked contests, but no one played those, so it doesn't matter.   And of course these moves are still around. More important than ever since there's no Jam, so going first isn't a big deal anymore.   Now getting some points from your moves is all well and good, but you get extra depending on how many performed for a specific judge.   Always nice to have, but you just flip a coin whether someone else will also perform for them, there's no way to determine it beforehand.   And then if there's any additional move effects, they'll go here. It's definitely worth having the same judge as another Pokemon if you block them from this bonus, since they'll also get the unique judge bonus. Of course, the move has low appeal to account for that, but it can be very powerful. Regardless, since all moves have 0-4 base hearts, usually 7 is the max you can get after the judges and the various effects, which we'll see later.  Each heart you get earns you 10 points and since you can't lose hearts, the Appeal Round devolves into a heart arms race with your opponents, where you use the most consistent strategies each turn with little wiggle room, since anything you do to stray from that will result in them overtaking you, making it not worth it. You're right, that does sound a bit boring, but oh well!  The biggest change is the highest scoring Pokemon now go later, letting lower point Pokemon get the chance to pull off some sweet tricks, or get max Voltage. This only counts the score from the previous turn, so it's pretty easy to manipulate what position you're in if you have the right moves. The next biggest thing is you cannot perform the same move twice, so you have to have some variety. Some moves have the side effect of being used multiple times, but they have lower Appeal to compensate and so not worth it. If you don't get more than 3 hearts from a move, don't even bother with it, the only strategy is being consistent.   But as mentioned, the biggest problem is the random moves the AI have, so losing voltage happens way too often.   Doing well so far, but since there's only 4 rounds to appeal instead of 5, you should use the 3rd round to set up something big. Since you should start the 1st round up front, you should always have a move that gives you a 1st position bonus, but since you'll end up at the back for doing well, being able to do that again with a move like Extremespeed helps you be consistent.   And my strategy was about to work so drat well due to 4 voltage, but since Sparky performed a similar move after me, they get priority and I get lumped in 2nd place. That and 3rd place are deadzones where you're unable to perform the strategies you want, so try to avoid them.   No surprise there. At least we know the AI will trip over themselves trying to perform to Keira, so we'll go elsewhere. Important to note that Dexter will give +8 instead if you max Voltage, so it's usually worth performing for him, unless you can count on the AI as you push yourself to the front. Good luck with that.   That's a nice effect, but of course there's a bunch of moves that do the opposite, which we don't want to happen, since max voltage doesn't occur very much.  Which Pokemon will be crowned the winner? Let's announce the results! Results Result    As easy as that, though the Visual Round will be very helpful to stop the AI from catching up during the Dance Round. Anyway, the game is acting like that's the proper points from each round, but the actual result is scaled somewhat. Firstly, each Pokemon that won each round is given 33 points, with the other Pokemon given a score proportional to that score. Then each Pokemon that won each round is given 64 points, with the other Pokemon given a score proportional to that score. The final score is the sum of each Pokemon's scores from each of the competitions, so if you got 1st in each round, then you'd get 291 points.   Alright, that's 1 contest down. 19 to go.  Let's recognize our winner! Hikari's WEISS! Our winner is awarded the Cool Ribbon! We look forward to your next Contest challenge!  Oh right, we get accessories for beating contests. That accounts for the last 20, so now I can hack them in for some variety during Dress Up, the only entertaining part of contests. Great and Ultra Dance  Now to skip around a bunch and show off Cold Woody! The dance changes and it's a bit of a tricky one, but that's not the worst of them, oh no.  The awfulness of me being bad at this round is cushioned by how hilarious everyone is going to look as we get more and more accessories, now up to 10.   Another first move bonus, always nice. But performing for the same judge and immediately removing their voltage is just rude, my man.   Hrm. Thankfully we didn't all do the same judge, but it would've been nice if they had for one specific reason...   Cheri used Growth last round, which doubles what it'll get this round. This works for immediate bonuses you get from moves, so from being first or last, doubling that to 8 hearts, which is pretty nice. But of course, you're using up an entire round, so it's not really worth it.  Imagine if you actually got this to work? It doesn't happen, sorry. But imagine!   Some moves get you more points depending on your placement, so another reason to be at the back by scoring the most, or forcing yourself there.   And that's just the cherry on top. Really shouldn't write these when I'm hungry... anyway, onto the next Great contest!    I think I'm getting the hang of the dancing, but Pizza here has a great moveset! Shadow Ball is a lovely opener since of course we'll start in first.   And then we have Earth Power to use in the last position.   But of course, you're not always guaranteed to be in various positions, since the opponents could get lucky, or have strategies of their own. That's why you have these moves to set yourself up.  There we go, loving crushed it. Pizza has the best moveset out of everyone and will be smooth sailing for the rest of the way.   Now for the Ultra contests. Will the opponents get tougher? Well they're getting better and better at dancing, not that it's too easy to tell.   At least we don't have to be asleep to do this, but Metronome is pretty annoying. We're gonna be in the deadzone next turn, so we'd best think of something.  Seriously, why do these moves exist? Voltage is low enough when it's spread between 3 judges and everyone's moveset has all kinds of categories due to less competitors.   Last Resort is scored depending on our placement, so it's good enough here in 3rd place. But Tweety's Chatter is a pretty dangerous move since it gives alright Appeal that potentially gives it another +6 if choosing a unique judge.   Otherwise, still not having any trouble, even if the dance round is dragging my score down. Onto the final competitor!   So, are there combos in this game???  No, but I knew that from Normal rank. Oh well!   Still get some nice points, but as I wasn't really paying attention, I let little Chokkan there get max Voltage, which gave it barely enough points to win. It's fine, these are only 10 minutes long, it's not a big deal at all to restart! NOT AT ALL!!!  And then we crush it next round. I only kept the previous one in because I loved the outfit I gave Guinea Pig.  But we're finally here in the Master Rank. This is when I actually started paying attention and used all the right accessories to match the theme. I spent a bit too long placing the feathers exactly, so Weiss isn't as sharp as he could be, but since you have 3 seconds to place each of the 20 accessories, just slamming them all on without any care is the best method. Master Cool Dance I don't think I'll ever understand this round. In any case, in DP, Normal and Great had the Easy music, while Ultra and Master had the Hard music. Now only Normal has the Easy music, while Great and Ultra has the Hard music. So for Master, they created 5 new tracks depending on the category. Some of them are super tough, as we'll see later, but it's the one positive of the Dance round, every single track is popping.  Otherwise, not too worried here, Weiss is still able to open strongly.   You'd think the opponents would use more interesting Pokemon this far in, but nope, still the same ones over and over again, just covered in loads more accessories.   And there we go, it's just that easy. It's almost like there's not much strategy to the Appeal Round anymore due to all the various aspects of it being neutered into the ground.   Well wasn't that fun.   There's no painter to give you another ribbon, so 4 will have to do, but at least we have a portrait to commemorate the mediocre slog we've gone through. Master Beauty Dance  Definitely the toughest song, the tempo messes me up man.   Simple enough start, but our opponents don't seem to have many beautiful moves.   Seems no one was doing much of anything. Still, we were consistent and got a good chunk of points, so hey, we'll try for one last Sheer Cold.  Didn't work. Oh well.   What can I say, there's really not much to say anymore, everyone's doing great so far. Master Cute Dance  I was getting so close to the end, but even if they barely mattered to the overall score, the Dress-up portion was the brightest light in the gloomy waters of Super Contests.   Just keep being consistent, and since we were last, Frustration sealed it quite nicely! There's probably more to say, but whenever I review the footage of this stuff, I tend to lose steam towards the end.  Boy oh boy is the Visual Round saving my skin.   God this is amazing. Truly showing that you can use whatever you want!  But despite being the most consistent contestant, there was one problem Pizza faced.   That I am so loving dreadful at the Dance round. Chopper is an absolute menace since they use the same strategy as I do, manipulating positions to score the most points. Master Smart Dance  EVENTUALLY, something sticks. A real shame too, I'm proud of all the dress ups I did, but this is the one we keep.   All I need to do is do the same thing I've done plenty times before.  And would you look at that, I loving annihilated everyone. Sheesh.   Don't hold those losses against Pizza, they were all 3000 IQ moves, I'm sure. Master Tough Dance  Alright, the final contest. Boy am I glad this is nearly over.   We start off strong, then we Stockpile to then get a big score in the 3rd round.   Therefore making us last in the final round to maximize our score with Spit Up. Simple, really.   And there we go, all the ribbons! Aside from the various accessories that we got for winning, there's a couple other things for getting all 5 Master Rank ribbons.  Firstly, it's yet another star on our Trainer Card. That's right, between badges 2 and 3, you could get 2 stars. It'll obviously be a while before we get our next star, but it's real nice getting these in a much smoother progression... because of course I'll get them all.  Oh! How impressive! You've finally conquered the Master Rank of the Cute Contest! For a Trainer like you, I have just the thing! Our first stop with Mr. Goods will net us 5 cups we can display in our goon cave underground. Still plenty more things to get, but we didn't see everything to do with Contests. For starters, like in Emerald, you get some more competitors in the postgame, but instead of various Nat Dex Pokemon, it'll be important characters. We haven't met all of them, but Fantina, Johanna, your mom, and the Hearthome Center Nurse will all enter contests. I didn't fancy waiting until the postgame to do this, rather just get it over with, but it's pretty cool, even if, like all the others, their movesets are pretty poo poo. There were also a fair few move conditions that we didn't see. Some moves earn +2 if the Judge's Voltage goes up, while others earn +3 if the Pokemon that just went hit max Voltage. While some moves get more points the higher the Voltage, the opposite is also true, though those are rarer. There's also some rare moves that steals the Voltage of the Pokemon that just went, as well as some that earn +3 if two Pokemon raise the Voltage in a row. Finally, some moves have the increased Voltage be added to the score. There's a weird amount of conditions considering very few are actually useful.  And that's a wrap. Thank you to everyone who submitted, they were cool to use and had a variety of strategies, even if it's pretty easy to use the same moves over and over again. It was huge fun dressing them up! Overall, Super Contests are... fine. The added fluff isn't appreciated since it doesn't really add much, like the Dress-up, or actively detracts from the experience, like the Dancing, but I will admit I'm pretty bad at it, so don't take too much stock in it. The main problem is how the Appeal round is neutered so there's not much to it. With no jam and split judges, it feels like the only thing to do is just move into the right position and get bonus hearts from using those moves. It's not particularly exciting, but at least that's the worst side mode in this series. Right? RIGHT??? Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Jun 30, 2019 |
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Jun 30, 2019 16:56
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Voting is closed! Comet: 4 Huevo: 4 Eggbert: 3 Kissinger: 1 We've got the Heal Ball, but the first person who hasn't voted breaks the tie, we'll have our nickname!
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Jun 30, 2019 16:59
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Huevo needs to live up to the example set by Weiss
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Jun 30, 2019 17:20
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Crosspeice posted:max in their stat, but also max in the adjacent stats, as well as maxed Sheen. All very important.  quote:It's cool we get to dress up for these, however since nobody else does, we look hilariously out of place.  Carlosologist posted:Huevo needs to live up to the example set by Weiss 
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Jun 30, 2019 17:25
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Huevo it is, senorita!
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Jun 30, 2019 17:36
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These contests really hammer home that Game Freak designed them only as a thing to do with your friends for fun. Which I bet was great for all the Pokemon fans who lived in Tokyo!
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Jun 30, 2019 19:27
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I had no idea that Platinum added 5 unique tracks for the Master class dances  Crosspeice posted:It's not particularly exciting, but at least that's the worst side mode in this series. Right? RIGHT??? 
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Jun 30, 2019 21:44
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Well done  Thanks for doing the test for combos, too. It's disappointing, but at least now I guess we know why Bulbapedia removed them from the page. Still, Guinea Pig looked pretty spiffy in those outfits, and I'm glad she did well enough.It's always pretty amusing to me that the game doesn't care where you put the accessories. I mean, it makes sense, because figuring out what makes sense to go on what part of the Pokemon would take an awful lot of programming and still probably lead to a lot of unintuitive results... but it also means the game rewards you for just piling as many things on as possible. (Assuming you've memorised what goes with what theme, of course.) Given that, I'm actually pretty impressed you ended up with things that look decent! I like the idea of the multiple judges, in theory, at least for multiplayer. It seems to me like it's intended to create mind games, where you have to weigh the higher reward of certain judges with the risk that other players will also want to go after that, or maybe try to psych them out by faking and then breaking a pattern. It's almost Prisoner's Dilemma-ish, except since there are three judges and four players, at least one player is guaranteed to be penalised. I don't think it's the worst idea in the world, but in practice it doesn't end up being that strategic: the judges aren't different enough to make the decision interesting, so it's just a crap shoot and you're relying on luck as to what the other players do (especially when they're AI-controlled). It's interesting that the removal of Jam ends up making things so much less strategic, because in my opinion the best approach in gen 3 contests was just to ignore jamming and spam combos for maximum points. This is also related to the turn order change - "the highest scoring player goes last" would be an punishing win-more mechanic if Jam were still a thing, because you could use a move that jams everyone who moved before you and keep everyone from catching up to your early lead. Here, moving last ends up helping others catch up by making them more likely to get a "first to perform for that judge" bonus. Let's also remember that Hoenn contests had Nervousness too, which meant there were tradeoffs to going first (going first meant you were more vulnerable to Jam, but couldn't be made Nervous). There just aren't nearly as many ways to interact with the other contestants in this version. I don't know. I don't have much more to say about the changes from Contests to Super Contests, really. The Dress-Up and Dancing minigames seem like an attempt to make things more interactive, and less reliant on stats alone, but they're also just... not all that interesting, and whatever they add seems to get overshadowed by the changes to how moves work.
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Jul 1, 2019 01:30
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Explopyro posted:It's always pretty amusing to me that the game doesn't care where you put the accessories. I mean, it makes sense, because figuring out what makes sense to go on what part of the Pokemon would take an awful lot of programming and still probably lead to a lot of unintuitive results... which means if you want to win, you'd better pick up a mon that has defined arms and a head/neck and whatnot so that it's able to equip more accessories. You'll use a humanoid pokemon and you'll like it, things like gigalith are second class citizens, don'tcha know.
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Jul 1, 2019 02:24
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I'm planning on doing a Ribbon Master at some point (because I hate myself (also I want it to be shiny because I double hate myself)), it's good to know that the Platinum contests don't seem to be too much trouble. The Emerald contests will definitely be the hardest part from what I can tell. Other than, you know, the crushing realization that there's a solid chance my Ribbon Master wouldn't be welcome in Galar.
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Jul 1, 2019 06:21
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MissileWaster posted:I'm planning on doing a Ribbon Master at some point (because I hate myself (also I want it to be shiny because I double hate myself)), it's good to know that the Platinum contests don't seem to be too much trouble. The Emerald contests will definitely be the hardest part from what I can tell. Other than, you know, the crushing realization that there's a solid chance my Ribbon Master wouldn't be welcome in Galar. Is a Ribbon Master what this guy did? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnwd7Z_tNE
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Jul 1, 2019 16:35
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In addition to having pretty good moves for it, the thing I wanted to show off with Togekiss is that because it's asymmetrical, it faces the wrong way in contests because mirroring the backsprite would make it look wrong.
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Jul 3, 2019 21:05
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Mraagvpeine posted:Is a Ribbon Master what this guy did? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnwd7Z_tNE Yep. I was between a Starmie or a shiny Suicune, I've settled in on the Starmie for the possibility of it actually being in Sword/Shield. I may go back and do the shiny Suicune at some point because I'm insane or something.
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Jul 3, 2019 21:23
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The Golux posted:In addition to having pretty good moves for it, the thing I wanted to show off with Togekiss is that because it's asymmetrical, it faces the wrong way in contests because mirroring the backsprite would make it look wrong. Interesting, I never actually noticed that. Also it looks dumb, so they shouldn't have done that.
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Jul 6, 2019 03:23
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But good heavens
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Jul 6, 2019 03:23
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would you look at the SPACE and TIME
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Jul 6, 2019 03:23
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