|
Bounce is a jumping move and Bruce is a rabbity Pokemon. There's the explanation. e: there's an update towards the bottom of the previous page. AweStriker fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Dec 7, 2020 |
![]() |
|
![]()
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 22:23 |
|
Obstagoon was my MVP. It learns a hell of a lot of coverage moves and as you just saw has the stats to tank even a 4x super effective hit as well as hitting back pretty hard. Plus it's a giant punk rock dire badger. What's not to love? The shiny is hilarious as well.
|
![]() |
|
I'm quite pleased to see Piers actually put on a decent showing here, because so far every time I've fought him I've been disappointed to find him a pushover (and the fact he telegraphs what he's going to do in the dialogue doesn't really help him, although I like it as characterisation). A lot of that comes down to individual team composition though. Still, I wish they'd let his Malamar have Superpower, it'd learn that in two levels naturally and it'd let Contrary actually do something (okay, I'm biased, Contrary is one of my favourite abilities, it just seems a shame that Piers specifically calls out that he's using it but doesn't actually have a way to take advantage).
|
![]() |
|
Piers is a wonderful character and, if we're not counting Elite Four, or the previous generation's Kahunas, Piers is the first Dark-Type Gym Leader in the entire series. That in itself is huge, and then to give him an extra gimmick of being the only Major League Gym leader who doesn't Dynamax, but can still compete on even footing with the other Gym Leaders despite that? Piers is really good.
|
![]() |
|
Explopyro posted:I'm quite pleased to see Piers actually put on a decent showing here, because so far every time I've fought him I've been disappointed to find him a pushover (and the fact he telegraphs what he's going to do in the dialogue doesn't really help him, although I like it as characterisation). A lot of that comes down to individual team composition though. For all that it isn't great design, I kind of feel like that's intentional and thematic? As legitimately good as he is, he's gotten so exhausted of being a Gym Leader that he's turned his fights into spectacles divorced from his actual personality, and - all together now - The Gym Challenge Is About Having Fun, so he sucks. Well, except for this single time I fought him. Quackles posted:Honestly, I don't think I could actually play SwSh after this. This has been too fun. That's a huge compliment, but I do recommend this game to anyone who owns a Switch and is willing to put up its flaws. It's legitimately fun! You just have to fulfill an arbitrary number of criteria to customize it to your playstyle first ![]() That said, I just found myself a Gyarados and its leering at me from my screen as we speak. Name ideas?
|
![]() |
|
Lindworm The game's fun, but it definitely feels like a step down from SuMo which feels like the most genuinely lived-in region.
|
![]() |
|
I like Piers, he's got a great design. It's a little strange that there's such a focus on him being a vocalist in a game without voice acting, though? I'm fine with them not doing voice acting, but it's weird for them to draw attention to it the way they do. I wonder if that was deliberate, or cut for time? (If you haven't seen it for yourself, watch the first ~30 seconds of this video.) Falconier111 posted:That said, I just found myself a Gyarados and its leering at me from my screen as we speak. Name ideas?
|
![]() |
|
Blaziken386 posted:I like Piers, he's got a great design. It's a little strange that there's such a focus on him being a vocalist in a game without voice acting, though? I'm fine with them not doing voice acting, but it's weird for them to draw attention to it the way they do. I wonder if that was deliberate, or cut for time? You know, I debated making note of that in the update, but I felt it would kill the pacing and the mood. Judging by the lyrics we hear later, that might have been a good thing ![]()
|
![]() |
|
Falconier111 posted:
The terror of the seas shall have a name that strikes fear into the eyes of many, such as SkulKraken
|
![]() |
|
Falconier111 posted:You know, I debated making note of that in the update, but I felt it would kill the pacing and the mood. Judging by the lyrics we hear later, that might have been a good thing What makes it especially weird is that Roxie pulled the same rock-star gimmick about 7 years earlier. And her Gym Theme? Has an audible singer in it.
|
![]() |
|
Even if they didn't want to spring the money for voice acting, they could have gotten a lot of mileage out of either the right MIDI font or even just text blips.
|
![]() |
|
Update 35: That Right? Marnie's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Audience: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We walk back out and get a TM from the guy at the desk before the screen shakes. ![]() Rando:… Things out! Oh, hey! You gave Piers a thrashing, didn’t you? You should head over there to help. Come on, then! I’ll show you the way. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Champion Leon's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST The moment we step out the (now open) entrance, we find Leon standing in the middle of the road. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Route 6 - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST Following his advice, I head over to Circhester and spend a little time clothes shopping, because why not? Also because it’s been a couple towns since last time. ![]() There we go. Then, I take the opportunity to go catch our party’s newest member. ![]() I’m a sucker for the classics. Magikarp were introduced all the way back in Gen 1 as a living example of the benefits of evolution. From what I remember (and I bet the thread can check me on this), Magikarp wasn’t actually that awful from a stats perspective, but the game went out of its way to insult and denigrate the poor thing. The Old Rod, your first fishing rod, was rigged up to only catch magikarp as an incentive to find better rods; the Pokémon’s signature move was (and is) Splash, a move that does nothing. Rumors would circulate that it manipulated catch rates or dodge rates; nope. Jack squat, your magikarp just flopped around for a turn. Even in later generations they went out of their way to make magikarp look as bad as possible; every generation of Pokémon includes magikarp, and nearly every time their Pokédex entry goes out of its way to insult them: Pokémon Red posted:In the distant past, it was somewhat stronger than the horribly weak descendants that exist today. Pokemon Silver posted:For no reason, it jumps and splashes about, making it easy for predators like Pidgeotto to catch it mid-jump. Pokémon X posted:It is virtually worthless in terms of both power and speed. It is the most weak and pathetic Pokémon in the world. Pokémon Black and White posted:A Magikarp living for many years can leap a mountain using Splash. The move remains useless, though. Pokemon Ruby posted:Magikarp is a pathetic excuse for a Pokémon that is only capable of flopping and splashing. This behavior prompted scientists to undertake research into it. It’s so terrible it’s the subject of scientific research ![]() Incidentally, there’s also a long-running debate among fans of the franchise on whether people eat Pokémon; while they are highly intelligent and emotionally human enough to make the idea uncomfortable, but, well, Pokémon are animals, and humans have a habit of eating those (there’s also some debate on whether Pokémon eat other Pokémon, but given just how many Pokédex entries mention preferred diets (see above), that’s a lot easier to settle). Last I checked, the consensus was it’s considered acceptable to eat SOME Pokémon at least, and according to episode 16 of the anime… ![]() … Magikarp is one of them. On the other hand, its evolved form is Gyarados, a flying sea serpent and consistently one of the most terrifying Pokémon you can get your hands on (outside of the double weakness to Electric you get from Water/Flying). It’s a brutal physical attacker with enough health to survive some major hits, and it access to some of the best moves in the game. It also has a place in history as (technically) the first Shiny Pokémon. Gen 1 didn’t have Shinies at all, so in order to introduce players to the concept, Gen 2 had a Shiny Gyrados show up as part of the plot a few hours in for you to catch. I caught it, of course, because it was a free Gyrados with a rare color scheme. Why wouldn’t I catch it? I did not, however, realize it represented something deeper, and I didn’t find out about Shinies in general until years later. I just thought it was unique ![]() I’ve only ever seen one other wild Shiny in person, a Tauros in Silver. I was in a hurry when I found it, so I just ran away. I don’t regret it. ![]() ![]() ![]() Yes, of course I kept Splash after evolving him. Why wouldn’t I? Anyway, after tooling around the map for a while, I realize that, instead of letting us take the rational route, the game wants us to actually head towards the danger zone like gormless shmucks. So I do that. Unfortunately. ![]() ![]() On the other side… Hop's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ... Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Dec 14, 2020 |
![]() |
|
No, Magikarp's stats are mostly garbage. Really good speed, okay physical defence, horrific everything else. It has an attack stat of TEN. And when your only damaging move is Tackle - if you live long enough to level up to fifteen to learn it - that just doesn't cut it. This generation broke with tradition by letting Magikarp learn Bounce and Hydro Pump by TM/TR, but it can't do anything with them. I believe the anime clarifies at some point that while they are edible, they're really bony and not worth the effort.
|
![]() |
|
Magikarp's TR learnset is purely due to a change in learnsets in general this Gen. If a Pokémon has, in the past, had access to a move in any possible way, however obscure, and said move still exists and is a TM or TR, that Pokémon has had it added to its learnset. In the case of Magikarp, several event distributions as well as HG/SS's PokéWalker had Bounce Magikarp available; more obscurely, a single event distribution in Japan only during BW era gave a Hydro Pump Magikarp, so badda bing, badda boom.
|
![]() |
|
Magikarp has always been my favourite Pokemon purely for the whole swimming-up-the-waterfall snippet of folklore.
|
![]() |
|
Given real life carp are extremely boney - that tracks. It's one of the reasons why the Silver Carp is such a goddamn problem in the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, not only do those fuckers (which can get to over 20lbs in weight) fly out of the god drat water when disturbed, cracking the ribs, jaws and skulls of anyone unfortunate enough to be smack by them, and they're not even good for eating so it's hard to incentivize your average fisher to fish them out.
|
![]() |
|
Update 36: Do You Have Any Idea Just How High A Hurdle That Is?![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Sonia's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Professor Magnolia's Laboratory - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ----- Gym Lobby - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST Time for our very last gym. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And an encounter with the Ball Guy. We already grabbed their ball the first time we moved through town, so they doesn’t have anything new or useful to say. Tragic. ![]() One last bit of Gym trivia for the road. You see those little statues on pedestals? Those have marked Gym entrances since the beginning. What are they, Rhydons? Who knows! They are PokéStatues, and that’s all that counts. Final Gym Mix - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() I’ve alluded to this before, but there was a definite hierarchy of Types in Gen 1. Bug sat firmly at the bottom and was the only unambiguously bad Type (though it was possible to grind your Scyther or whatever until it kept up). From there, it gets a lot fuzzier; I’d say Normal was probably next, since its moves were generally unimpressive with a few glaring exceptions like Hyper Beam, but you can make arguments for or against most of them. In practice, Psychic was probably the single best for a variety of reasons, so much so they changed the entire Type calculus in the next generation in part to bring it under control. But I gather Dragon was ACTUALLY supposed to dominate. On the one hand, Dragon was weak to itself and to Ice without any other advantages, giving it few Typing opportunities. On the other, Dragon Pokémon and Dragon moves were some of the strongest in the game, and since Dragon and Ice moves were rather rare, many Dragon-types could just out-stat anything they went up against. The final member of the Elite Four, Lance, focused on the type, much to the dismay of some players (though I always got pasted by his Ghost-type predecessor, Agatha). Oh man is the thread going to school me on this. ![]() ![]() Raihan’s Gym has nothing to do with his preferred Type. Instead, it’s a series of fights with his three apprentices where its true gimmicks become apparent: double battles and weather effects. All of their teams have at least one Pokémon that breaks out a weather effect tailored to their two Pokémon. Unfortunately, they each have only two Pokémon, and so I just overpower them without trouble. And that’s the entire thing. Three Trainer battles ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The sandstorm does just a bit of damage every turn and boosts Ground-types, which Raihan has in spades. Briggs brings down that Flygon in one hit, but the Gigalith is far, far tougher. The latter also takes the opportunity to set up a trap: ![]() Stealth Rock damages any Pokémon on a team that switch out while it’s active. But there’s no end to its nonsense. After tanking a bunch of super-effective hits like a champ… ![]() … It manages to reduce Lindworm to one hit point, but since he managed to survive – ![]() MOTHERFUCKER. Alexander’s up next, and he takes out the Sandaconda only after it Paralyzes and hits Briggs with an unexpected Fire-type move. At this point, my party looks like this: ![]() Sometimes during Gym Battles, as the camera zooms around while you plan your moves, it will come to rest on random crowd members. It’s a relatively rare shot and it takes a while for it to show up, so I haven’t gone out of my way to grab a screenshot, but here you go. It’s kind of adorable ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We now have to go face-to-face with a skyscraper. Between the two of them, they knock out both Briggs and Alexander. ![]() This is the first time I remember seeing this option. But yeah, it’s Mr. Blobby and Bruce. Naturally, Stealth Rock badly injures both of them before they even get involved. But I have a secret weapon. So secret, in fact, I didn’t realize it would come into play when I set it up, since I taught Mr. Blobby Thunderbolt mostly for irony value. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … I… I THOUGHT it was a secret weapon. Steel’s metal, so it must conduct electricity right? WRONG. It’s strong against electricity and I just made a terrible mistake ![]() ![]() See that? Bruce just tried to use Low Kick. I missed the screenshot by a split second – I think the Switch screenshot button has a delay – but the game stops to tell me that Bruce just took a look at that thing and literally shook his head ![]() ![]() Fortunately, after wrecking Bruce, its Dynamax finally wears off and it goes back to normal (but not before KOing Baklava). The ever-reliable Mr. Blobby, for all his inability to deal much damage to it in one hit, just outlasts the Duraludon and brings home the win. ![]() Hey thread, what does the meta have to say about Drifblim? In both my playthroughs, they’ve been consistent MVPs. It’s pretty bonkers. ![]() ![]() Yep, that’s Raihan. I kind of like how he’s such an Instagram model AND a legitimately intimidating Trainer. Also how genuinely enthusiastic his Rotom seems about the whole thing. But doesn’t it make sense that a good Trainer and their Pokémon are so in sync? ![]() ![]() ![]() And our badge is complete. ![]() ![]() Gym Trainer: I look forward to seeing how you all do in battle! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Well that was a production. I waltzed in loaded for bear with Ice moves thinking that’d cinch victory for me. Ha ha, no. It’s at this point that it really becomes clear that I have no idea what I’m doing in this game. Granted, I am gradually learning, and at least in my first run I was so overleveled it didn’t really matter what I did so I had no opportunity to learn, but those are excuses, not explanations. I got my rear end kicked so hard it dropped the r from the word. Things I could have done better:
The funniest thing about this fight? It doesn’t feel like a surprise. In my first run, Melony was a surprise. In this run, Piers was a surprise. But I was expecting Leon’s chief rival to put up a much bigger fight, and that he did. At least Mr. Blobby remains completely terrifying. If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve lost that battle. But I won. Hooray ![]() Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Dec 14, 2020 |
![]() |
|
The other primary thing Dragon has going for it is a bevy of useful resistances; it resists Fire, Water, Grass, and Electric, which are all common types. That being said, your instinct to use Electric against Duraludon isn't entirely misplaced - Steel resists more than half of all types and Electric is one of the seven that does neutral damage or better to it (in its case, neutral; the others are Ghost, Dark, Water, Fighting, Ground, and Fire, the latter three of which are its actual weaknesses). I skipped Generation 6 where it was introduced, so we both probably didn't think of Dragon's newer third weakness: Fairy. As for pondering the mysteries, what is Raihan's excuse for having so few Dragon-type Pokemon? Sinnoh had a "Fire-type specialist" on its Elite Four but the entire region only had like two Fire-type Pokemon in it (its obligatory new Fire-type starter line and Kantonian Ponyta/Rapidash) but Galar has enough easier-to-obtain dragons that it really shouldn't have been a problem filling it out.
|
![]() |
|
![]() Fun fact: Before Fairy came along, Gen 5's Hydreigon (Dark/Dragon) had only Fighting, Bug, Ice, and Dragon weaknesses, and it hit like a truck. Of course, Ghetsis had an underleveled one...
|
![]() |
|
Honestly, I think Leon has more dragons on his team than Raihan... yeah, it's weird. I don't know why they didn't just make his theme explicitly weather, since that's what it is in practice, but I guess they didn't want to depart from the rhetoric of "gym leader has a type"? On types in gen 1 - Dragon was probably intended to be purposefully overpowered, but I don't think it really lived up to that until later generations: gen 1 had no damaging Dragon-type moves except Dragon Rage (which ignores the type chart and just does a constant 40), and the Ice weakness was crippling (and so many things could learn Ice Beam or Blizzard, and gen 1 had 90-accuracy Blizzard on top of that). And yes, Psychic was ludicrous, but interestingly if you look at the competitve metas Normal is probably the most dominant type with things like Tauros and Snorlax (I think perhaps because of the overpowered Psychics pushing Fighting types out, and then Normal had the bugged Hyper Beam, and Normal types got very good type coverage on top of that). I don't really think Normal was ever supposed to be amazing, but in practice the mechanics make it work out that way a lot of the time.
|
![]() |
|
Psychic was so ridiculous in Gen I - despite what the Anime had depicted, at the time Ghost-type moves had no effect on Psychic-type, Gen II removed that (as it was probably a bug) and introduced Dark-Type which had a weakness to fighting and Bug, and you can see the start of GameFreak trying to balance types.
|
![]() |
|
Leon's gym may be just as ![]() Anyways, if you're having this much trouble with Raihan, I can't wait to see the champion match. ![]() Explopyro posted:I don't really think Normal was ever supposed to be amazing, but in practice the mechanics make it work out that way a lot of the time. That being said, I almost never use normal types because a large majority of them look extremely boring, and that's a cardinal sin in a land full of cool poo poo
|
![]() |
|
AweStriker posted:As for pondering the mysteries, what is Raihan's excuse for having so few Dragon-type Pokemon? Sinnoh had a "Fire-type specialist" on its Elite Four but the entire region only had like two Fire-type Pokemon in it (its obligatory new Fire-type starter line and Kantonian Ponyta/Rapidash) but Galar has enough easier-to-obtain dragons that it really shouldn't have been a problem filling it out. It seems really Raihan's theme isn't Dragon, it's Weather, and his whole team is built to take advantage of Sandstorm. He'd probably have been better off as a ground-type specialist from the start! This whole section between Pierre and Raihan is the most glaring sign of cut content. There's nothing at all there. There's a plot beat about fighting off rampaging dynamaxes, but it's resolved off-screen; you're probably supposed to have some encounter with Rose here based on how the characters interact with him later. There isn't a new route to traverse on your way from Spikemuth to Hammerlocke. On top of that, Raihan doesn't have a gym challenge - he takes you to a different, already-modelled room and just throws a couple of trainers at you. This would make a lot more sense if there was supposed to be more of a dungeon around here. Fight through the rampaging pokemon, possibly face off in a boss battle against Rose or someone. It would balance out not having a route to get through. But I guess they didn't have the time to put more work into Hammerlocke.
|
![]() |
|
Robindaybird posted:Psychic was so ridiculous in Gen I - despite what the Anime had depicted, at the time Ghost-type moves had no effect on Psychic-type, Gen II removed that (as it was probably a bug) and introduced Dark-Type which had a weakness to fighting and Bug, and you can see the start of GameFreak trying to balance types. Pokémon Gen 1, everybody!
|
![]() |
|
I mean, even if it worked right Ghost was physical (Haunter has 50 Attack, Gengar has 65 Attack) and the only Ghost-type move that actually did damage was Lick. Which had, effectively, 30 power with STAB. It wouldn't have helped at all.
|
![]() |
|
AweStriker posted:That being said, your instinct to use Electric against Duraludon isn't entirely misplaced - Steel resists more than half of all types and Electric is one of the seven that does neutral damage or better to it (in its case, neutral; the others are Ghost, Dark, Water, Fighting, Ground, and Fire, the latter three of which are its actual weaknesses). Don’t give me too much credit, here. I honestly though Electric was strong against Steel because metal conducts electricity ![]() AradoBalanga posted:It was indeed a bug. As a result, the Ghastly line was treated by the in-game code as their secondary Poison typing (which Psychic is super effective against), making the whole line useless against the one thing they were meant to counter. Of course, there was still the Bug type to deal damage against Psychic, but the only 'mon who learned a Bug move and didn't have a secondary Poison typing to gently caress it over was...Jolteon with Pin Missile. Those games belong in a museum, because its almost impossible to use them without breaking them ![]() Blaziken386 posted:Leon's gym may be just as Experience candies ![]() In all seriousness, I haven’t really leveled up my team since Circhester. What I’m probably going to do is bump everyone up to 53 or so, pick out my team, and actually plan out my battles before going in to show the difference between my completely intentional sloppy play and a more measured approach. See if things go better.
|
![]() |
|
Your Ice type use wasn't foolish, as Sandaconda and Flygon are weak to it, Flygon extremely so, and Abomasnow even has the Grass typing to help punk Gigalith.
|
![]() |
|
Update 37: The Train’s Waiting Professor Magnolia's Laboratory - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() As we head along to the train station, we pass crowds of cheering fans. It’s always good to know you’re appreciated ![]() Railway Station - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() … Route 10 - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Welcome to Route 10, where this Mr. Mime walks up to me and just stops a few feet away, staring. I honest-to-God thought it was some kind of event instead of a random encounter, so I walked up to it to interact with it. ![]() I caught it, of course. And then I promptly flew to the Wild Area. Up until this point I’ve been pretty deliberately avoiding leveling my Pokémon to preserve any sense of challenge and not researching major Trainers before I fight them ![]() Route 10 is completely disconnected from the rest of the map; the only way you can get there is by riding the train up. You can’t even fly up there. It’s a trainer gauntlet disguised as a Route that leads up a mountain pass; I counted the better part of a dozen Trainers there, the bulk of whom you have the fight to proceed. And they pull no punches. Most of the fights aren’t terribly interesting – there’s a reason I haven’t written them up – but their ‘mons are tough enough to wear your team down through sheer brute force. I actually had to stop and make camp a couple times set heal my Pokémon up. ![]() You also run into what I believe is the same camera crew you encountered just out of Turffield at the top of a slope. But once you give them the interview of their lives… Route 10 (Approaching Wyndon) - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() ![]() ![]() … You finally see your destination.
|
![]() |
|
Route 10 is definitely a little tame as far as Final Dungeons go. They've really cut back on the whole 'Victory Road' idea since...I want to say Gen 5 was the last set of games to really have one. I do miss some of the difficulty and puzzle elements that were found in those final stretches.
|
![]() |
|
Hunter Noventa posted:Route 10 is definitely a little tame as far as Final Dungeons go. They've really cut back on the whole 'Victory Road' idea since...I want to say Gen 5 was the last set of games to really have one. I can’t believe I missed my chance to talk about Victory Roads ![]()
|
![]() |
|
Hey, read through the whole thread in a couple days, great stuff. I'm replaying Shield again thanks to it (Going for a mono-Bug team, maybe with a minor in Poison or Dark). A few notes: -You are objectively wrong about Blipbug and Bewear. ![]() ![]() -At some point in the foreseeable future, wholesome same-sex relationships will stop being pleasantly surprising, but today is not that day. I'm also pleased with the autistic/ADHD representation as someone with minor autism/heavy ADHD. Although I do have to nitpick that if Hop does have ADHD (In canon or as you've represented), it's under strong control or was light to begin with, especially compared to the rival in... Platinum, I think? That kept dashing into and away from situations and couldn't think still long enough to develop workable plans. You don't need to change Hop's characterization further, I'm just noting it doesn't quite mesh. -Speaking of not quite meshing, I appreciate the rolling back of Rose's Saturday morning cartoon villainy, although you're doing so much of it I'm curious how much of his later dialogue you'll actually be using. And also the step back from the game's stance of "Big Important Plot is happening just over there! What? No, you can't see it, go play with your dog/spider/octopus." -You made repeated mentions of Hop and the Gym Leaders having special moves that they just didn't use, and thanks to the trainer AI, they'll never use those moves against a Pokemon that's resistant to the type. Maybe if you managed to PP stall them long enough, but that would only work for Hop and his starter's signature (Which could be Branch Poke or Ember, he does have those little lines in early battles), you'd still need a neutral/weak mon out for a Gym Leader's Dynamax. -My team tended to be just suboptimal enough that Gym Leaders and Hop were often significant hurdles ending in at least half my team down from the Fire gym onward. All the bugs and birds you find make Turffield a cakewalk, and I think my Yamper literally soloed Nessa. Made things feel more like an actual anime battle to go in with my type spread A team, about half of which were weak against the gym typing. -The dictation software you're using is a good idea (I think most Pokemon LPers copy from text dumps), but you really need to make a few more editing passes. It's readable, but there's moments where it takes a bit before I realize it's a software or pronunciation error. Amusingly, I'm fairly negative on video LPers who read the dialogue boxes out loud (Because most of them do so very poorly and only have one voice), but it feels fine in a screenshot LP. ![]() -As a fellow Gen-1er that only dabbled in the GBA games and didn't touch the 3DS at all, I too had a bit of trouble with Fairy types, especially the ones that were mono-Normal in earlier games. I didn't actually know their weaknesses until literally the first quiz fight in Opal's gym. There I just guessed based on traditional folkloric fairies not liking iron. Also I have the seemingly unique opinion that every gameplay and design iteration has been good or at least neutral (Barring version exclusives, which I didn't like then and still don't like now). Each gen has a bunch of great new mon designs and a handful of ones that fall flat (Usually including the new electric rodent). The only thing I actively dislike is Sw/Sh's reduced Pokedex, but I recognize they would have had a time including all 893. Mostly they put in too many Gen 1 mons for my taste, I was like "I've already used that one before!" -This is more on Arthurian legend than anything actually game-related, but the interesting thing I've always thought of was that the common perspective of knights in full plate on horseback could not have been accurate. Those were Middle to High Medieval innovations, a time when historical documentation was beginning to ramp up to the point where we know pretty well what was going on. Based on a single mention of an Artorius Rex in a Roman-era document, Camelot, if it ever existed, had to have been concurrent with or just after the fall of Rome. Also based on that time period, Lancelot could not have been that dude's name, because that's a French name, and French didn't exist until after the Norman invasion. *Even if you don't actively do focused EV training, raising a low-level mon (through actual battling, although money's such a non-issue you could probably stuff them full of steroids along with all the cocaine you're using to level them) makes it better pound-for-pound than an identical species caught fresh that day.
|
![]() |
|
Dareon posted:
A post like that preserves a proper response!
|
![]() |
|
By the way, you can fly to Route 10. I don't know if you have to interact with the guy there first, but you can use some dude's Pokémon camp as a Fly point. This is actually true for every camper's site in the game. I always talk to them while passing by because I'm not sure they unlock as Fly destinations if you simply run by them.
|
![]() |
|
Falconier111 posted:Just assume he got the same level of almost futuristically good care as Gloria, I guess. You know, I've seen Tumblr posts about people having Pokémon assist them with one disability or another - Psychic-type Pokémon were particularly mentioned in this context. Who knows what'd be possible in the Pokéverse? (Assuming the nosebleed and fainting issue is resolved when Pokémon work together with humans.)
|
![]() |
|
Alola made it pretty explicit there are assistant pokemon, though primarily for physical disabilities (Machamps helping people that can't walk being the more noticeable one)
|
![]() |
|
Quackles posted:You know, I've seen Tumblr posts about people having Pokémon assist them with one disability or another - Psychic-type Pokémon were particularly mentioned in this context. Who knows what'd be possible in the Pokéverse? (Assuming the nosebleed and fainting issue is resolved when Pokémon work together with humans.) For people with sensory issues, even something that would deaden sensation at appropriate times would make a massive difference. Many of the social issues related to autism emerge from being unable to properly perceive social interaction through a haze of too much or too little sensory information when young, leaving them behind the curve in developing social skills. A Pokémon able to reach in and normalize that intake would have a permanent positive effect on that kid’s life. Also, in case it wasn’t clear; the whole fainting thing is (in this universe) actually really rare and on the extreme end of what a Pokémon could do to a person’s brain; for the most part, the stuff they can do is temporary and largely harmless. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Dec 13, 2020 |
![]() |
|
Quackles posted:You know, I've seen Tumblr posts about people having Pokémon assist them with one disability or another - Psychic-type Pokémon were particularly mentioned in this context. Who knows what'd be possible in the Pokéverse? (Assuming the nosebleed and fainting issue is resolved when Pokémon work together with humans.) My personal headcanon is that the rival who has you help him catch a Ralts in one of the GBA games benefited as much from it being a Psychic-type boosting his confidence as from the societal "I am ten years old and have a Pokemon, my Rite of Manhood is complete."
|
![]() |
|
Falconier111 posted:For people with sensory issues, even something that would deaden sensation at appropriate times would make a massive difference. Many of the social issues related to autism emerge from being unable to properly perceive social interaction through a haze of too much or too little sensory information when young, leaving them behind the curve in developing social skills. A Pokémon able to reach in and normalize that intake would have a permanent positive effect on that kid’s life. I should probably note that it isn't always sensory overflow/underflow with autism. Sometimes it's just... seeing the things that people do and being unable to either recognize them as social cues or being unable to interpret their meaning. I imagine there'd need to be a different sort of assistance for that - some sort of help with interpretation? Falconier111 posted:Also, in case it wasn’t clear; the whole fainting thing is (in this universe) actually really rare and on the extreme end of what a Pokémon could do to a person’s brain; for the most part, the stuff they can do is temporary and largely harmless. Oh, good.
|
![]() |
|
Update 38: I Really Made It This update will be a lot shorter than most, because it was either split today’s update into two parts or post the longest update in this thread so far. Like, so long. Depending on how things go, you’ll probably see the second part/follow up update today or tomorrow. Wyndon - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST This one is another banger. I know you folks don’t listen to these because nobody noticed the gift I left for you in the Raihan fight, but I highly recommend you at least listen to the first few seconds. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And we are released to explore the greatest city in Galar. Well, what we can. It’s a pretty substantial city, but the game heavily implies there’s a lot more to it then we can see or visit ![]() ![]() Vitamins don’t just increase the stats of Pokémon, they modify how quickly those stats increase using a mechanic called effort values – essentially, beat Pokémon in combat and your Pokémon’s stats will increase slightly faster, though there’s a billion different factors and quirks in the system that I neither understand nor care to find out about. Vitamins here boost EVs for… Well, not for free, since they are hideously expensive, but they make stat gain a lot easier if used correctly. I will not be using them either correctly or incorrectly. ![]() Like other big cities, Wyndon has its own boutique, but holy ![]() ![]() … I’d eaten up almost half of it. ![]() ![]() This town is truly enormous, but its size is a little deceptive; it has more big open spaces than any city before it, but there isn’t much interesting to find compared to its predecessors. We do have this guy hiding in one of the townhouses, though… ![]() ![]() Before this fight, I genuinely didn’t think it was possible to fight one. I just thought they were flavor, but no. Oh well, they put up a pretty impressive flight for Pokémon substantially weaker than my team, but I beat them down regardless. As a reward, he gives us an item that lets us modify the type of a Pokémon I will probably never use. Thanks, buddy! ![]() By the way, before we continue our journey, this is the team I will be taking into the championship matches (healed up, of course). I THINK they have strong enough stats and type coverages to take me through to the end, especially factoring in level ups I get during the competition. But no plan survives contact with the enemy. Tournament Lobby (Locker Room) - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST ![]() Look at that – our very last encounter with everyone’s favorite item dispensary. ![]() He gives us a Dream Ball, which makes catching Pokémon with the Sleep status effect easier. So, probably not anything I'm going to use outside of a few very specific instances. But hey! He gave us the capstone in a long line of free stuff. Thank you, man ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() MC Grunt : We’ve been watching over your performance in the Gym Challenge. This is just a formality, of course, but I’ll need to check your Gym Badges, if you don’t mind. ![]() ![]() Tannoy: The Semifinals will be starting soon! Please head to the stadium pitch when you are ready. And with that, we’ve arrived at the finals. In older games, instead of the relatively brutal but still uncomplicated Route 10, to make your way to the Elite Four, you had to go through Victory Road. Though different Generations experimented with the concept, they were all long caves scattered with puzzles and powerful Trainers, one final endurance match before the mother of all endurance matches later on. Likewise, while there were also settlements of some kind outside of the entrance, they were always tiny (usually a Pokémon Center, a Pokémart, and maybe a couple other buildings) instead of metropoli. Even the Badges work slightly differently; while you still needed to present eight Badges, you needed to present them to a guard or police officer, and they were individual pins kept in a carrying case instead of different pieces of the same emblem. To me, this whole area feels just slightly unreal, not in a bad way, but a bit like walking through your room in a dream where you know your room isn’t arranged like that but it feels right anyway. There wasn’t anything like the Semifinals in the older games, either. In fact, rivals worked completely differently. Instead of being developed characters with their own arcs and agency, there were mostly just reflections of the main character. The very first rival, known to history as Blue (you named him at the start of the game, which meant you had a lot of people (including me) going up against DOUCHE for the rest of the game), was a bully who taunted you until you kicked the poo poo out of him. His heirs sometimes had story arcs of their own, but they didn’t stand out much. Apparently they started developing into proper characters found Gen 5, but they weren’t active participants in the story when my interest in Pokémon peaked. Now, though… Now they participate in the Semifinals.
|
![]() |
|
![]()
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 22:23 |
|
Literally every single Internet humor source that has even the slightest connection to Pokemon makes the same joke about how Professor Oak forgets the name of his own grandson and just goes with whatever your character tells him. And I will always love those. A thousand bucks (I'm treating Pokebucks as yen, and yen as roughly equivalent to cents, makes for a good enough exchange rate for anime) is probably about right for a trendy leather jacket from a London boutique. But you also noted something I was mildly annoyed by. There are only three clothing themes: Absolute milquetoast, twisted loving psychopath, and... soccer uniform. Mind you, punk is basically my jam, and I did come up with some interesting things using Steel/Poison/Psychic uniform parts with more normal clothing, but the lack of variety sort of grated on me after a while.
|
![]() |