|
Update 62: Take Good Care of [JAPANESE TEXT] As I was blowing experience candy on getting Snuggles and BartonWright (still the best name for Kubfu in the thread  ) up to snuff, I abruptly realized The Golux had spent honest-to-God real people money on getting me a temporary Online Pass, and there’s no way I couldn’t reward them appropriately for blowing actual currency on an Internet let us play. So in honor of their sacrifice, I’ve devoted the bulk of this update to exploring this game’s online content.  The first thing I noticed after connecting was a parade of randos in equally stupid bike getups cruising around the island, visiting Berry trees and hitting up Dens. If you go up and talk to them, they’ll give you a little automatic response and some item, usually the sort of thing you can get off a tree or find on the ground in the area. The game only has so many responses to give, so I noticed a lot of these people seem to be waking up in the morning with items in their pockets they don’t remember putting there. I like to imagine they all regularly pull a John Mulaney and somehow found those items while blackout drunk. Tragically, either none of them have Pokémon following them around or (more likely) the game doesn’t register them on my console. I noticed a few players clipping straight through poor Zamazenta. Not that they’re special on that; I’m not sure how Zamazenta’s model interacts with the outside world, since it seems to sometimes have collision physics and sometimes let wild Pokémon waltz through. You also have a couple options you can use to trade Pokémon over the Internet; the boring, reliable, good option of trading Pokémon with people you know…    Or you can sacrifice Sporkle to the altar of Surprise Trade for a Goddamn Caterpie  . You initiate the process by selecting a Pokémon and offering it up to the whims of the Internet; the game will search for trade partners in the background as you do your thing and let you know when it’s found the match, giving you the above animation and letting you see whether you were the one being scammed or not. For me, it was actually a pretty even split. To celebrate the almost 3 month anniversary of the start of this LP, I traded away a lot of old Pokémon; Woolooloo, for instance, went for Escadrill’s unevolved form, that weird bug I caught in like Update 4 went for a Metapod, and Bartholomew, the Yamper I caught on Route 2, went for an honest-to-God Charmander. But my personal favorite?   I mean, in fairness, that Magikarp was level 40, so it’s not as big an insult as it looks, but, yeah. If I didn’t have all of its types covered between Mr. Blobby and Zamazenta, I’d definitely put this thing straight on my team. I think I’ll ask you guys to come up with a name for it anyway, just in case. E: Didn't notice it was level one  .But that’s just one feature. The one I was most interested in? Team battles at Dens. Maybe it was just me, but the moment I activated the Pass the number of active Dens seemed to at least double, probably more. Those active dens almost always had at least a couple people crowding around them, presumably either waiting to start a fight or halfway through one. Naturally, the first thing I tried to do was join in.  And then I failed to connect and got booted from the fight. This happened multiple times; I just couldn’t seem to sign up for anybody else’s pending fights (though I managed to get it to work the next day). I had a similar experience in other people’s camps.   While you could visit NPC camps already, once you’re online you can visit the camps random players set up and interact with their Pokémon. In theory, you could also cook with them, but in a couple different camps I tried to initiate curry making with them only to sit there waiting for like 20 minutes. I’m not sure what I was doing wrong.  Setting up my own Den battles and waiting for other players to join worked just fine, though. Look at that Kyogre; I see somebody’s been playing Alpha Sapphire. I fondly remember wrecking poo poo with my Kyogre back in Gen 3, even though the fact that I always chose the Water starter made it kind of redundant. It’s like meeting an old friend. Worth noting: you only get three minutes of wait time before the game starts the battle automatically. If you haven’t filled out all four Trainer spots by then, it subs in NPCs to make up the difference.  Taking human Trainers along in these fights changes them from grindingly difficult to generally piss-easy; unlike NPC Trainers, humans are actually smart enough to throw out powerful Pokémon and exploit Type advantages. The only problem with all this? As long as it’s active, the game lags atrociously. Well, in fairness, it isn’t that bad compared to a lot of online games, but I hadn’t realized how smooth the gameplay was until it started stuttering. Between that and my desire not to have my screenshots photobombed by random chucklefucks in ugly-rear end bike uniforms, I may spend most of my time with it off . I’ll check in from time to time to milk the system’s a little more, though.   Speaking of which, I know I haven’t covered even half of what I can do with a functioning Pass. That’s because most of those feature direct interactions with other players or friends, and since I But enough mechanics. Let’s get back to the plot, and by that I mean different mechanics.  Right now, our job is jacking up our Kubfu’s Affection high enough to convince our master we’ve formed an eternal bond with another cloud of ones and zeros. To speed this up, the game offers a series of viewing sites that massively boost its Affection as long as your Kubfu’s following you around when you talk to them.  It’s entirely possible to farm Affection for it in the traditional manner, the game doesn’t care, but why wouldn’t you make use of this shortcut? Unless you get sick of tracking down students, they can be hard to find.  In another gambit to get us to explore the island, each student is hidden away in some hard-to-reach location that requires some delving just to find. Once you locate one…      …They have you stare out at some local vista, which apparently is just delightful to our kickbear. Of the four places you can visit…  … Some of them are genuinely impressive. Others…  … Not so much. It took me maybe 20 minutes to find them all, much of which I spent investigating other things.  Such as the second coming of the gigantic Wailord. Who knows how that works.  Oh hey, a Starmie! This was Misty’s signature Pokémon all the way back in the first season of the anime; she was the first of the endless cycle of love interests Ash cycles past in that show. Is she still around? I don’t know. I remember buying a CD (remember those?) with a bunch of PokéAnime-inspired songs on it, half soundtrack and half something like a tribute album; one of them featured a female singer who was supposed to be Misty despite sounding nothing like her singing about being a tsundere, culminating in her stumbling just before breaking out the big L-word and winding to a close. Fakeedit: I found it on Bulbapedia in like five minutes despite thinking it was lost forever. People may have short memories, but the Internet sure doesn’t. drat, that was the first Pokémon soundtrack released in English all the way back in 1999. I wouldn’t say that makes me feel OLD, per se, but it sure makes me aware of my mortality.  On our way back to Mustard, we pass a cutscene featuring Honey ruminating on something. If we ask her about it…    Of course you do! You’re such a pro at all this, Gloria! I’ll have you know that the Watt business is positively booming right now around here. They say that those who hold the most Watts hold the key to success! But both my darling hubby and my son are more the indoor types, you know? And it’s pretty hard for me to collect that many Watts all on my own… If you ever happen to have some Watts to spare, Gloria, I’d be glad to take them! Oh, but I wouldn’t ask you to give them to me and not get anything in return! This would be a business transaction, of course. I’ll reward you for your generosity!By giving her pretty substantial Watt donations we can have the dojo upgraded with various services. The first…   … Yeah. But we also get a PC and a vending machine that sells sodas and such for rock-bottom prices. I can’t imagine getting an overwhelming amount of use out of all this, but I have tens of thousands of Watts burning a hole in my pocket and I have no idea what else I would spend it on. So now we have a hairdresser, a PC, and a vending machine. …     Kubfu’s really become more confident. How wonderful! I daresay I think you’re both ready. Follow me, you two.  …   Now then, Gloria! And Kubfu! If you want to become stronger… there are special training grounds just for Kubfu!    Kubfu’s fighting style will change depending on the tower you choose... And the types it gets will change as well! Think carefully! Each tower’s five stories tall, and each floor has a tough opponent waiting for you.  Remember, we need a name for that Charmander and that Honedge (unless someone can translate that Japanese name). Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Jan 19, 2021 |
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 04:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 20:51 |
|
|
The Honedge's current name is Hitotsuki... which is the Japanese equivalent of 'Honedge'. Someone was breeding Aegislash and decided to trade this one away.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 04:26
|
|
|
While that Kyogre definitely could be from Alpha Sapphire, it could also have been obtained in the Crown Tundra, or in Pokemon Go. Or, for that matter, someone could've moved it all the way from original Sapphire or Emerald. I don't think the game will let you nickname that Honedge either, sadly. I think this came up earlier in the thread, the name rater lets you rename pokemon from other trainers, but only if it thinks they've never been given a nickname before. But it only recognises that for pokemon in the same language as your game. (This gets even sillier: it wouldn't let me rename my Spanish Scorbunny. Scorbunny's name in Spanish is... Scorbunny.) The real reward for giving watts to Honey is her trading card, and the opportunity to battle her. The requirements get really absurd though. It's really easy to get loads of watts, though, if you find Digging Pa and give him Armourite Ore, with some luck he can give you tens to hundreds of thousands of watts every go.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 04:44
|
|
|
Honedge is great, it's a pokemon whose middle stage can really use an Eviolite and remain strong, since the gimmick of Aegislash can be rough to work with.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 05:14
|
|
|
Yeah it takes like a million watts to get the last significant reward and 3.28 million to get the absolute last one... It's honestly kind of a thing to sink your watts into since you can get way too many. I don't blame you for not wanting to see the ugly bike suits and random people all over everywhere and playing with internet off most of the time, but it's really nice to have the ability to get help.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 07:32
|
|
|
Yeah, you can't rename the sword, the game is for some stupid reason unable to rename anything that uses a different alphabet in its current name. That makes no sense whatsoever, but so it goes. Unofficially though we should obviously name it Excalibur. There are too many good nickname possibilities for Charmander, honestly. Explopyro posted:But it only recognises that for pokemon in the same language as your game. (This gets even sillier: it wouldn't let me rename my Spanish Scorbunny. Scorbunny's name in Spanish is... Scorbunny.) I think that Scorbunny might have been renamed in the past or something, I haven't had a problem renaming any foreign Pokemon as long as the name still uses the Roman alphabet. Thanks for showing off the online stuff, OP. Good to see I'm not missing out on anything. I wasn't even aware that there was an online multiplayer feature in the Wild Area, though I'm sure some random NPC attempted to explain it to me at some point.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2021 10:06
|
|
|
Two announcements: First of all, for the second part of the multiplayer I need actual people instead of faceless randos. To that end, I cordially invite interested threadgoers with the appropriate equipment to PM me so we can set up a date and time. I’m thinking sometime this weekend. The Golux, you have an automatic place if you want one, but I’d like two other people so we can experience a double-double battle. Second of all:  from here on out this post contains minor spoilers . We are currently approaching the end of the Isle of Armor and staring down the Crown Tundra. Here’s the thing: Gloria’s story as currently planned only runs up to Calyrex. I know there’s plenty of other stuff to do PS: [img]https://lpix.org/3931582/2021012017452900_s[1].jpg[/img] 
Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Jan 21, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 02:54
|
|
|
Roger that, I will assemble my numbers. I already PMed you my friend code which is not needed but might be helpful. Most of the story stuff in crown tundra is reactions to having caught the mons so you can prolly skip over most of it; the very last (technically postgame) bit might tie into the galar particles stuff but it also doesn't really lead to anything except having more stuff to catch, so it's not that... narrative? I'm sure you could do something interesting storywise with the birds and the regis if you wanted to but it would probably be making up more reasons/stakes for the stuff that happens.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 03:23
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:(hint: it has an X in the title)
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 06:26
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:Here’s the thing: Gloria’s story as currently planned only runs up to Calyrex. I know there’s plenty of other stuff to do That makes sense to me. I burned out on the Crown Tundra about the same point, up to Calyrex mostly ties up the story and after that it's mostly just catching stuff I don't really care about (I already have the handful of legendaries I like). Also Remalle posted:...is it Pokemon X? I really, really, really hope it is. Gen 6 was ridiculously rushed and underdeveloped to the point that it genuinely feels unfinished... but drat if it's not just plain fun. The story is disappointing but the games are genuinely enjoyable to play.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 09:41
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:(hint: it has an X in the title) Well, three things immediately come to mind. Pokemon X (which is... The most probable, and also contains my favorite pokemon of all time) Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX (Less probable, but still possible.) Pokken Tournament DX (I would assume it has a less than a 1% chance of probability, but I still like to give the game a shoutout.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 21:33
|
|
|
Or Xenoblade Chronicles X.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 21:43
|
|
|
Quackles posted:Or Xenoblade Chronicles X. Xenoanything, really.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 22:16
|
|
|
Update 63: The Essence of Water You know I’ve never seen any of the Rocky movies? I know they’re about Sylvester Stallone getting punched in the face and that one or more of them have a famous training montage. To get an idea of what the next 30 minutes of gameplay looked like, imagine that montage song on repeat in three different tabs out of sync; see, I needed to get BartonWright up to about level 70 for this next bit, but I’d forgotten how god-awful boring grinding could get in Pokémon games. You’d think I’d know better by now. I ended up grinding experience candies off Dens in multiplayer – let me tell you, that makes taking even the most powerful Dynamax Pokémon down a lot easier. I caught a Gigantamax Centiskorch! But yeah, it took me longer than I expected to get him all the way up to the recommended level. To celebrate my success, I finally ditched the dojo uniform and went back to my previous outfit. It’s not like Mustard cares (see: Avery). I would have incorporated parts of it into my outfit if it didn’t clash with absolutely everything. Oh well! … Tower of Waters - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST     Guard: It’s a training ground where Kubfu will learn the true essence of water. If you’ve raised Kubfu to at least Lv. 70, its training will go smoothly. (He says 30 if you came here earlier in the game  )Guard: Once you enter the tower, you won’t be able to leave until you best five opponents...or are defeated yourself. What’s more, the tower you didn’t choose will be closed to you forever.    NOW can I go into the pagoda?Guard: Yes. FINALLY.By the way, you are only allowed to enter a tower if Kubfu is the only Pokémon in your party. Anything else and they turn you away at the door. The game actually checks to see where your Kubfu is if it isn’t in your party; the script has lines for if you’ve left it in the Nursery or sent it out on a job. If you lost/released/traded yours away, the game acknowledges that and lets you climb the tower with a Pokémon of your choice. After shaming you. ...  First Student: Such is the great cycle of water... It will swallow you whole!        Both towers are endurance matches that pit you against four students, each of which has only one Pokémon. As befits the theme, all the Pokémon here are Water-types in the mid-to-upper 60s; most of the fights aren’t particularly notable other than that philosophy the students spout at you. After victory:  …  Second Student: Water is adaptable, changing form to match the opponent. Prepare to drown in its power!      After victory:  …  Third Student: Do you have the willpower to withstand the relentless torrent of my raindrops? After victory: Third Student: Each one of your raindrops hit like a Hydro Pump! …  Fourth Student: Water changes its form and even its name on a whim. Can you contain it? This fight. Unlike the previous fights in this tower, this fight is a bear.  Whirlpool here is one of those moves that does damage over time and this Poliwhirl isn’t shy about using it. Every Pokémon up to this point I’d taken down with Close Combat, a move that deals Looney Tunes damage in exchange for dropping your stats after. Unfortunately, Close Combat didn’t prove enough to knock it out and it ended up peeling off half Bart’s HP before I managed to put it down. Fortunately, I can use items and I immediately topped its health off after the fight, but, you know, had it got in a couple lucky shots, it would have floored poor Bart. After victory: Fourth Student:Impressive! You can now proceed to the top floor. He is waiting for you there. … Mustard's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST I figured you’d choose the Tower of Waters, so I decided to wait for you here.    It’s been a while since the last time I battled like this...but I think you can handle it!          Battle! Mustard [8-bit; VRC6] - Pokémon Sword and Shield (No list because all he has is a Kubfu.)         There’s something I wanted to draw attention to real quick. When I think of old martial arts masters suddenly kicking into gear and getting ready for a fight, I think of the first time anybody saw Master Roshi get serious.   There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s clearly pretty unrealistic. I know, I know, Dragon Ball? Unrealistic? Who’da thought? While it doesn’t detract from the scene, it does make it a bit comical due to how dramatic it is (which Dragon Ball was all about). But take a look at Mustard up there. He didn’t ‘roid out or anything after preparing for battle, but he’s still clearly physically fit in a way that strikes me as pretty realistic for an old man who’s still an active martial artist. I just really like that little touch. Anyway.   His Kubfu is 70 to my 71. This is going to be a close fight, but one I have a good chance of winning, right?  Wrong. It turns out Bart has a Quiet Nature, which slows its speed growth and accelerates Special Attack growth – it’s one of the worst possible Natures for a Kubfu, and it’s too late for me to go back and savescum for something better. I don’t think it’s possible for me to win with my current loadout. It beats Bart unconscious, I pay Mustard 60 bucks, and he kicks us out so we have to fight our way back up the tower AGAIN. At least I got some experience out of it. … Made it back up, eh? Ready to try again? That I am. But this time, I have a plan.  I figured out our greatest weakness, we turned it into a strength, and together we used it to turn the situation around.   What a team!       …  You have done well—very well indeed—in raising Kubfu to this level of strength! Leon was once my best student...a long time ago. He, too, attempted this trial… Now it is finally time for Kubfu to evolve.         Ha! You’ve certainly grown, haven’t you? And to think, not too long ago you would’ve run and hid behind me the moment you got scared!    …  So, uh, hi there. Evolution: quintuples your mass in one easy step! With a Water-typing and boosted stats, Bart’s finally ready to take his place in my team; with him around, I can finally dump poor Lindworm, who I’ve been tragically neglecting. Urshifus come in both Rapid Strike (Water) and Single Strike (Dark) flavors, but mechanically both subtypes are very much the same evolution. As far as I can tell from my research, they only differ mechanically in their movelists, where Water and Dark moves are switched out. I couldn’t say which which variation is better. I just chose Rapid Strike to round out my Type coverage. But let’s see what’s next on the docket…   PS: Quackles posted:Or Xenoblade Chronicles X. Closest so far.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 22:31
|
|
|
Since I don't believe this LP goes into the backstory revealed on the Trainer Cards (that I know of/remember), I'd like to bring up something of Mustard's backstory, but I'll put it in spoilers just in case, and remove it if requested. Mustard was, many decades ago, the Fighting Gym Leader. 50 years before Sword and Shield, he became the Champion after defeating Opal (who, if you'll recall, has been the Fairy gym leader for 70 years now), overcoming a type-disadvantage to become Champion. He held onto that title for 18 years undefeated. That's longer than anyone before or since. It took the death of one of his partner Pokemon before his performance started to wane, and he retired when the Chairman at the time tried to have him win a rigged match. Mustard is pretty badass. EDIT: Not every day I get asked to *remove* spoiler tags! BlazetheInferno fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jan 22, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 22:55
|
|
|
BlazetheInferno posted:Since I don't believe this LP goes into the backstory revealed on the Trainer Cards (that I know of/remember), I'd like to bring up something of Mustard's backstory, but I'll put it in spoilers just in case, and remove it if requested. I only ask that you remove those spoiler tags  . At this point we’re so far into the game that it doesn’t matter what a card says, spoiler-wise. I MIGHT end up uploading all the trainer cards as an appendix or something but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 23:10
|
|
|
Competitively, Single Strike Urshifu is the better one since it recently got banned to Ubers due to being so overwhelming to actually resist. Dark/Fighting is a crazy good typing, y'all. They both see copious amounts of usage in VGC, depends which one you like the most. Also while you might not think them as such, Kubfu and Urshifu are Legendary Pokemon, same with Calyrex and both horses. The only reason I mention that is you might think they could be Mythicals in some way, Calyrex especially. But nope, Zarude is the only mythical so far. I imagine that'll change in the next Gen 8 games, whatever they'll be.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 00:41
|
|
|
Mustard is the best character. I'll admit I'm not terribly fond of the gimmicky battles where you have to use only Kubfu, but it works well enough, I guess? The final Kubfu vs Kubfu can be tricky regardless of the nature you have (well, unless you just overlevel a lot); there are a bunch of tricks that can work, though. Choice items are great (as we saw); I think I tended to use Counter, possibly with a Focus Sash. Both forms of Urshifu are pretty good (each form also has its own Gigantamax variant, btw); being able to bypass Protect (and, for Gigantamax Urshifu, Max Guard) is a powerful gimmick in the right circumstances. I don't know if one or the other is preferred in competitive. I think ending the LP at Calyrex makes a lot of sense; there's not a lot of story to work with in the rest of the Crown Tundra content. Don't burn yourself out trying to come up with something.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 00:51
|
|
|
Crosspeice posted:But nope, Zarude is the only mythical so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMlfQNuXFkU
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 00:53
|
|
|
This is some nice and good Pokemon charm, better with your additions still. I like the designs of Kubfu and Urshifu, there's much to expect of a Dark/Fighting bear and it delivers on the promise in my opinion. Are you doing FFX next LP, hmm?
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 01:29
|
|
|
Crosspeice posted:Competitively, Single Strike Urshifu is the better one since it recently got banned to Ubers due to being so overwhelming to actually resist. Dark/Fighting is a crazy good typing, y'all. Agreed, though I personally went Water because if you want Dark/Fighting, Pancham/Pangoro is available basically as soon as you step into the Wild Area. Serious Mr. Mustard was a surprisingly good fight. I did it at like 32, and while I can't remember the actual fight, I know it involved tactics I don't normally use. Maybe I used an X-up or defensive move. The rest of Isle of Armor is gonna be a surprise for me, because I'm dragging my feet on the Champion Cup. *checks* I'm in the dressing room, right before the Darkest Day event, and I kinda don't want to trigger that because level 60 everything in the Wild Area is silly. There's also a weird thing when replaying a game where you know you can forestall disaster indefinitely by just not progressing an event, and personally, if I knew I could prevent calamity by just wandering off and having a picnic, I absolutely would.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 01:39
|
|
|
BraveLittleToaster posted:This is some nice and good Pokemon charm, better with your additions still. I like the designs of Kubfu and Urshifu, there's much to expect of a Dark/Fighting bear and it delivers on the promise in my opinion. Ding ding ding! Dareon posted:There's also a weird thing when replaying a game where you know you can forestall disaster indefinitely by just not progressing an event, and personally, if I knew I could prevent calamity by just wandering off and having a picnic, I absolutely would. Not if I get a chance to take control of a dark god 
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 03:27
|
|
|
Yeah Mustard Srs Version is pretty cool, and I do like Kubfu and Urshifu a lot. Dark/Fighting is almost perfect coverage and IIRC they can learn iron head for fairies but there are two other fighting/dark pokemon and one of them is even a bear. Meanwhile, fighting/water is a little better defensively and it's only Poliwrath and Keldeo, who is mythical. Plus, your own opinions on the Dark Side I guess. Also, as the forms suggest, Single Strike's signature move is one big hit while Rapid Strike's hits three times; single strike's is just a tiny bit more powerful in exchange for not being able to break substitutes I guess?
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 07:59
|
|
|
As an aside, I absolutely encourage people to look up an actual video of at *least* his battle intro animation, because to be honest, screenshots do *not* do him justice. 100% a "Master Roshi just got serious" moment without the sudden swole.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 21:04
|
|
|
BlazetheInferno posted:As an aside, I absolutely encourage people to look up an actual video of at *least* his battle intro animation, because to be honest, screenshots do *not* do him justice. Hard agree after watching it just now (slight gameplay spoiler aside).
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2021 00:55
|
|
|
Update 64: I Definitely Wouldn't Call It Very Sticky  I haven’t seen you in AGES!  I had a video call with you and Marnie two weeks ago. Semantics. But really, why are you here? If you were just here on holiday you would’ve let me know beforehand. Right. Sonia’s been frantic about some odd spikes in Galar radiation in remote regions all over the place lately.… Is this the sort of thing we should be getting involved in? No. Well, not like THAT. It’s not like every Den from Groudon’s End to John o’ Gogoats is going off all at once, most of it is down along the southern coast. We did get a few off readings from this archipelago, though. So that’s why I’m here.   But where’s the fun in mucking about in the mud? I was telling him he should stay here— at the dojo! I mean, it’d be loads easier than camping out for a long while, but wouldn’t I be in the way? Everybody’s welcome to wear out their welcome at the Master Dojo! Don’t be shy, my boy! Besides, we’re practically family already. You’re the little brother of our Leon, after all! I’ve never had mushrooms like they serve here anywhere else. I hope you don’t regret it, because I’m staying! … Punch bowl! Does he normally… You get used to it. Which reminds me, Gloria… The truth is the lovable rascal is capable of Gigantamaxing, too. But it’s a bit tricky, because it really can’t stand the taste of Max Mushrooms. So Max Soup is off the menu, unless you can make it more appealing to it. … Urshifu gobble up a bowl of Max Soup…       … and it has something to do with another Pokémon! Now I think I’ll let the two of you figure out just what it is. Give it a good think together! You’re on your own, kiddos! The world is your Cloyster, so get cracking! …Is this, uh, how your training usually goes? I’m pretty sure he’s just loving with me. But I’m a better Trainer now than I was when I came here, so you tell me. Gotta admit, though, I wasn’t expecting to run into members of the Kubfu line here. It came up in one of my textbooks. I swear, there was something about an unusual reaction to honey. But I don’t think honey-producing Pokémon are native to this area, so it’s probably something pretty similar that you can get elsewhere in the natural world. I bet he was talking about something Pokémon naturally produce! If we’re looking for those kinds of Pokémon, then I’d reckon there might be lots in a forest.  There’s one pretty close by actually, just past the marches north of here. Do you want me to take you there? Sounds right, mate. But really, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting to see you here. I just felt the need to go do something, you know? Spikemuth’s great and all, but I do need the occasional breather. I know we do good work, but it can get overwhelming. That reminds me, Marnie brought up, what was it, AEC? Right, Aberforth Energy Company, we named it after the Munethic name for the Spike. I never went into it with you before, it just got underway and I didn’t want to talk about anything before we had it pinned down. So, you know how Leon’s been breaking up MC and spinning off energy production divisions? Yeah? I’ve been working with Piers to set up our own energy company in Spikemuth. Basically, once a week I take Goch in and we kind of… Massage it, I guess, and produce a nice harvest of Galar particles. Then we send them off to plants around Muneth where they feed them into power lines or store them in batteries for good pay. See, since Piers and I don’t really need any more money than we’re already pulling in from our careers. We aren’t angling to make ourselves rich, so we aren’t cutting ourselves or management big cheques and we haven’t gone public either – we don’t need extra capital so we don’t need investors, and that means we don’t have shareholders breathing down our necks. We take most of the profits and donate them to local charities, anyway. Funny thing is, it turns out that we don’t just have basically a monopoly on the energy market in Muneth – local loyalty to a business that pays you well and sticks up for you, you know – but because we aren’t trying to drive up profits, we offer lower prices than lots of our competitors and that draw people in too…… … He wasn’t even Kantonian? Nope! Galarian born and bred. Chambers did study architecture over there, though, so I guess it could be worse. Anyway, he built both pagodas as gifts to one of the princesses at the time, but they were abandoned after the monarchy left. I’d heard somebody bought them up and restored them, but I was expecting some tarted-up borderline ruins rather than a functional dojo, you know? So THAT’S why you wanted to visit them, “princess-consort”. God, don’t remind me. I’m glad they renounced the throne and all, but you’d think they’d up and moved into Sawsbuckingham Palace based on how some of these people treat us. This one journo slipped up and actually called Marnie “Your Highness” in an interview a couple months back and she almost decked him. Then I pinned him in place with a lecture on autism until he tried to shut me up and talk to Marnie – and, blessing that she is, she picked up where I left off almost to the word. He gave up after a couple minutes. That was pretty funny. Meanwhile, I – oh look, we’re here. (Pretend this screenshot is me approaching Hop from the front. What you’re supposed to do is head straight from the dojo to the nearest entrance to the forest, where Hop is waiting for you. What I ACTUALLY did was take the long route around because I was more familiar with it, get lost for a couple minutes, and finally stumble onto him from behind.) So, this all looks like deciduous forest, which means, the best sources of Pokémon-edible glucose would probably be… Liligants and Applins. If I had to wager a guess, I bet that “special something” comes from one of them!  Like that one? It’s still pretty little... Maybe it got separated from its parents?   You really must be lost if you think I’m your mum! And now I’m stuck. OK…  The Forest of Focus is a god-awful maze full of dead ends and Berry trees. The only good thing about it is that I end up stumbling on several items and TMs just trying to get out. Fortunately…    We find the Pokémum in relatively short order. And we have to lead her all the way back, because what Pokémon really needs is escort missions.  Case in point: it’s only when I find my way back to Hop that I realize I have to babysit the Lilligant on the way back instead of counting on it following me  . So I have to go ALL THE WAY BACK, pick it up AGAIN, and inch my way back.    Hehe, looks like they’re both pretty happy to see each other.  Oh, look – it’s extending its stamen for us. Let me see…   I don’t think this is what you need, mate, but at least we did a good deed anyway. I can’t believe you just ate something straight off a Pokémon. Just imitating my professors. Biologists are all nutters, mate. Anyway, we should probably hunt down an Applin next.Cue more aimless wandering…   It rolls away.  This is rotten... I don’t see that Applin anywhere!  But I’m sure it went rolling off this way…   gently caress!It rolls away.  … What?  Hop, no – Gotcha!   I can’t believe you just did that! I dunno, maybe it’s just something they can only find back east… You know, if you’re done SAMPLING MY TAM O’ SHANTER, there IS a Combeehive on an island up north. I visited it while exploring the area. Maybe there’s a Vespiqueen we can get honey from there? I’m pretty sure they don’t do well in this climate. You’re still an undergraduate, what you know? More than you .… Up in the northern part of the map, there’s an island that looks a little bit like honeycomb. It’s called Honeycalm Island. You can probably guess what Pokémon are common there.   Laugh it up. But really, where d’you think the nest is? There, probably.  Huh? I borrowed a Power Spot Detector from Sonia, but why’s it going off now?   Uh, I can fairly say I wasn’t expecting this. Fortunately, even though we’re fighting a wild Dynamax Pokémon hiding in a natural object, the game treats it as a standard Dynamax battle. It goes down right quick.    As long as you don't TRY TO EAT IT first. Okay, look...Real proud of the Poképuns in this one 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2021 04:11
|
|
|
Congrats on making this part seem a little less dumb! Though I'm pretty sure even in the actual game Mustard's mostly loving with you when it comes to forgetting about what Kubfu and Urshifu like to eat.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2021 07:19
|
|
|
quote:Ugh, there's a convoluted quest to figure out what should be completely obvious to any grade-school child. IT'S HONEY. BEARS LIKE HONEY. GO FIND SOME HONEY YOU DINGZUBAT. I have much the same issue with a quest in Crown Tundra. I will admit, having Hop, noted Pokemon biologist, claim the region isn't suitable for bees is probably a better idiot ball than whatever lack of explanation the game itself does. I figured the honey out for myself when Urshifu wouldn't eat the Max Soup and once I had the boike I noticed there were all these Combee and Max Dens all over Honeycalm Island. Flung a few Wishing Pieces in and got a Vespiquen to randomly drop Max Honey. Ip Bear still wouldn't eat the soup.  Also, just a note, digging up Diglett is a good thing to focus on if you do Armor early. My Alolan Marowak (Xiuhtehcutli, I couldn't think of an appropriate Welsh/Gaelic word) has been my MVP through basically everything. Even takes super-effectives to the face and only loses like a third of his HP. Possibly due to being anywhere from 5 to 20 levels above the opponent. The XP Charm really is kinda busted if you stick to a small team.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2021 07:30
|
|
|
Yeah, without your additions Hop really comes across as a complete and utter moron here. Though canon Hop has been a complete and utter moron all game, so  Mustard is blatantly loving with the player, yes. Falconier111 posted:
Can confirm. Most field biologists wouldn't hesitate before licking something as long as it had a semi-okay chance of not being toxic. Kenneth Williams? Is that you? Falconier111 posted:Real proud of the Poképuns in this one Yeah, fair, there were some good ones here. Also some terrible ones
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2021 09:55
|
|
|
Black Robe posted:Can confirm. Most field biologists wouldn't hesitate before licking something as long as it had a semi-okay chance of not being toxic. My high school has a massive set of windows facing a courtyard that birds regularly slam into at full speed, often breaking their necks. My best friend volunteered at the Field Museum for much of our time there and, knowing the Field could always use certain kinds of samples, one day he went into the courtyard, picked up a dead bird, and dropped it in his backpack - no container, no wrapping, no nothing, just a dead animal where his books used to go. When we found out about it, we immediately started hazing him about it. I saw his sister walking past and shouted out, “did you know your brother has a dead bird in his backpack?” I vividly remember her stopping, letting out a long, slow, quiet sigh, and walking off without looking over. He’s currently earning a PhD in evolutionary biology. E: Dareon posted:
Writing this update, especially that part of it, was honestly such a mind-numbing chore I didn't realize that massive hole in his logic until I was nearly done with the last part of this update. I'm glad I made him seem like less of an idiot, especially because, well, he's an undergraduate. I thought it was reasonable to assume he may not always know what he's talking about
Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jan 23, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2021 13:57
|
|
|
The bad news: I was too smart for my own good and ended up recording things in the wrong format and spending a couple hours this afternoon trying to get everything under control. And then realized my fix wouldn't work like 10 minutes ago. This next update is going to be missing a few images, though that the sort of thing you can find in any video of the events in question. The good news: I just completed my multiplayer exhibition with The Golux! I'll have plenty of screenshots to ladle into the update after the next one. I'd like to invite them to shill any projects they're working on in this space; they've worked to earn it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 03:09
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:The bad news: I was too smart for my own good and ended up recording things in the wrong format and spending a couple hours this afternoon trying to get everything under control. And then realized my fix wouldn't work like 10 minutes ago. This next update is going to be missing a few images, though that the sort of thing you can find in any video of the events in question. It was fun and I'm glad to help! I suppose I should probably plug Fragments of Silicon which is a podcast I'm on where we interview game developers and talk about video game related topics on wednesdays (9PM Eastern) and sometimes friday (11AM), and review games on sundays (8PM). Also archived on the main host's youtube channel here. I'm not head guy in charge but I do reviews of games we get on switch and participate in interviews and discussion.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 04:15
|
|
|
Update 65: My Heart Just Dancing in Anticipation Oh, and what is that sweet scent I detect... wafting through the air around you? Heh heh! That’d be the Max Honey that Urshifu loves to the max! We got our hands on a nice haul of it!   Hufufu! You did a real bang up job finding that Max Honey with hardly a hint from me! Very nicely done, Gloria! And our little Hop, too! Well, it’s been real, Gloria. But I think you’ve learned just about everything the Master Dojo has to teach you. Which means that you and I can finally have a proper battle—with absolutely no holding back! I won’t be pulling any punches this time, kiddo. …  We can now Gigantamax our Bart! Granted, we still have to go gather enough Max Mushrooms to get the soup up and running, but once we do…     … We get to see the fruit of our labor. It’s basically just a scaled up version of Surging Strike, Rapid Strike Urshifu’s signature move, which is why I never showed that off. But hey, Urshifu is a Gigantamax Legendary, you take what you can get.   …(Fun fact: in Sword, she says, Ah! No! What am I thinking?! Twisted, vindictive Klara is the only one for me!) But we’ve stalled enough, I think. We have someone waiting for us. …  Student:… I wish you the best of luck.  Heh heh heh! That’s what I want to hear! Then let’s mosey on over to the battleground!   … About how fortunate we were to have you join the dojo… Even if it was by mistake at first! I can’t thank you enough, Gloria! … dancing with anticipation!  Final Battle! (Mustard) ~ No Intro - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST (RECOMMENDED LISTENING)  Same Mustard animations as before here. As the thread has pointed out, you should probably look up the full animation, but I just discovered a new function on the Switch! The Switch can record videos! And I can convert those videos to gifs! I discovered it too late to get a solid shot of that G-Max move earlier and I’m not great at it yet, but it sure as gently caress is going to make uploading this stuff easier. Or so I thought. It turns out it produces massive videos that can’t be meaningfully compressed without running them through God knows how many processes. While there are ways to extract screenshots from those videos, it’s the sort of thing that screws up my archival system so badly it would delay this update way past when I’d like it to go up. So… We may be a bit scattershot on screenshots this update. Essentially, all the videos I took were of Mustard’s animations and Gigantamaxing, and you can look up all that in any video of anybody’s fight against him. Anyway, this is by far the hardest fight I’ve ever been in. See those double levels in the Pokémon list above? For most encounters on the Isle of Armor, the first level indicates what you’re facing if you come early and the second if you come after becoming Champion. In this case, the second only comes into play after you complete something I’m never going to touch in this LP; even if you started early, you still have to face a team in the 70s, higher than Leon’s team – and that’s when the last storyline fight on the Isle pitted you against a single level 30 Pokémon. It’s pretty extreme. Since I’m probably a better player than the AI just to start with, not only have I not leveled my team far enough to match it, but I’ve dragged along poor Snuggles, currently sitting at level 60.  We start out in trouble. Though Mr. Blobby’s Acrobatics is more than intense enough to put that Mienshao down, it gets off a Blaze Kick that knocks off more than half of his health. As a Ghost-type, he’s immune to Fighting moves, and Acrobatics is my ace in the hole against Mustard’s abundant Fighting-types; I’ll be taking pains to keep him alive as long as possible.   Lycanroc here is one of Mustard’s answers to Flying-types. It comes equipped with several powerful Rock-type moves, including one that always goes first, plus a Fairy move to round it out and offer a hidden counter to any Fighting-types you roll out to exploit that type weakness.  Presumably predicting I’ll be alternating Pokémon to exploit weaknesses, the Lycanroc uses a move that will damage any Pokémon that switch in before Bart Brick Breaks it into unconsciousness; as Mr. Blobby is my only counter for pure Fighting-types, I’m not exactly happy with this.  When he trots out his Corviknight I go ahead and make the sacrifice with Bruce, even though switching him in knocks off a solid 50 HP; I want to take these Pokémon DOWN, they’re tough enough to wreck me while I try to line up any complicated strategy and I’m probably going to need to sacrifice somebody in order to get his Urshifu under control later on.  God, I love how this Pokémon looks. It’s a glass cannon based around manipulating its stats and using them to fuel powerful attacks; one of its signature moves drains a third of its health to boost all of its stats, while another drains its Defense in exchange for a devastating Dragon-type move. Sword-only, tragically. In another instance of my genius as a player, I remembered that Eternatus was weak to Ground but forgot that that only applied because of its Poison typing. So I waste a turn hitting it with a Ground moves and letting it power itself up.  Bruce faints. Whoops. I’m at a bit of a loss here and have to take a second to restock; it outsped Bruce, which means it can outspeed anything I have, so I have to come up with something that can take a serious hit before retaliating. Fortunately, after using that stat-boosting move twice, it’s weak enough that anything I use against it will probably take it down. Unfortunately, between its boosted stats and Stealth Rock shaving off the HP of anything I throw in, I’m honestly not certain I have anything that can pull that off. I picked Bart for lack of a better option, and it immediately unleashes its most powerful move –   Affection came to my rescue, keeping Bart at one hit point when he otherwise would’ve fainted and letting him finish the job.  Luxray here is Mustard’s other answer to Flying-types, an Electric-type that also has a variety of other moves to help it fill roles in combat its allies can’t. Zamazenta takes it down with a couple of Digs  . So glad Steel isn’t weak to Electric. Pretend you see a picture of him about to send out his Urshifu here. There’s no way he won’t Gigantamax it after he throws it out, so I have a couple choices; keep Zamazenta out and use some of her moves, or switch her out for Bart and have him nail it with a Max Knuckle. I opt to keep her out to waste some of its Gigantamax turns and maybe take it down with some well-timed moves.  I had a couple options here; I could either use Revenge, which would do more damage if it was faster than me, or Behemoth Bash, which would do more damage if it was slower. I went with Behemoth Bash, which turned out to be the right move; it knocked off over half its health before the Urshifu could hit me. Neither it nor Zamazenta were able to finish off each other before the Dynamax wore off, though, and I realized a bit too late I’d missed my chance to record its G-Max move. Zamazenta put it down easy.  Despite its anticlimactic ending, that was one hell of a fight. As dumb as this DLC can get, I think it’s pretty obvious the devs were finally able to take their time to focus on something, and this fight shows a sort of focused design we just didn’t see from, say, Oleana or Rose. While I’m not the best analyst or strategist out there by far, from what I can see Mustard’s party is specifically designed to catch you by surprise, largely by surprising you with type counters there’s no way you could properly anticipate. And it does. I’m lucky I was able to plan ahead by reading up on his team; otherwise I may very well have lost. It’s easily one of my top four fights of the game, alongside Leon, Hop post-Zacian, and that one nightmare office duo back on Route 6. The apprentice surpasses her master… A true moment of pride for the master! It seems I will have to redo my own training from scratch!   You look utterly dashing, darling! Oh! But look at me getting all distracted... You were amazing, Gloria! Looks like we’ll need to have some Max Soup tonight to celebrate!  Well, um, how should I put this...? I thought mayhap I should offer my congratulations…  Look, I am ready to talk. I do need to vent, I believe. Can you find me later this evening?  Gloria! Sure thing, master.   … With that, the Isle of Armor’s storyline is complete. That doesn’t mean we’ve done everything there is to do here, however; there’s a whole challenge mode based around restricting your Pokémon to one type now available, and we could earn a fight with Honey and her frankly formidable team if we scrounged up enough Watts to fully upgrade the dojo. But I’m not going to bother with all that. The only thing left that I want to hit up here is just to the right.   You like it? Heh. I thought you might be the type. This next part comes out in one long stream without a pause; the game just skips the button prompts until his rant is done. That’s Porygon, a Virtual Pokémon, in the flesh— Er...in the code. Just imagine, a being brought to life using the pinnacle of scientific capabilities, making it basically the ultimate crystallization of technological progress! It was designed ages ago now, which explains all its straight lines and angles. But that’s just what gives it that retro feeling enthusiasts can’t get enough of. And you can have it evolve into Porygon2 if you trade it with someone while Porygon’s holding an Upgrade. Its smooth, rounded design is top-notch, too! You get it? This Pokémon captures the entirety of human advancement and progress!He stops for a moment. … Er...so...anyway, you can have it. Hardly anyone ever beats Daddy at his full strength, after all. Cherish that Porygon. It’ll give you a better appreciation for human ingenuity if you do. And, Gloria…  I was watching some of your interviews. Are you really autistic, too? Yep.… Do you think I’ll ever be able to go outside for long periods of time? I’d love to say “yes” without reservation, but… I can’t do that in good conscience because I don’t know. What I can say is that I was a lot less functional than you are now when I was your age, so by that logic you’ll probably be more functional than me some day. When you first start to put your inventions on the market, get in contact with me and I’ll be your first investor, right? Ah, Porygon, one of the most infamous Pokémon in the franchise despite its otherwise innocuous nature. It first showed up all the way back in Red, where you had to spend a ridiculous amount of time at the slots in the local gambling hall to save up enough chips to buy it. But outside of the games… If you kept up with the controversy around Cyberpunk 2077, you may have heard how it accidentally induced seizures in several players; turns out, there is a specific pattern of flashing red-blue lights that causes seizures even in people not otherwise susceptible to them. Porygon’s debut episode in the anime also featured that flashing pattern, and the day it aired it caused dozens of children across Japan to suddenly seize up. The following controversy shook the entertainment industry and even made it across the ocean, to the point where they parodied it in the Simpsons; it’s never shown its face in the anime since beyond a few background shots. Beyond that, though, it’s just another Pokémon, albeit the first one to be created by humanity and one with an interesting trade mechanic. I’ll be covering that next update.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 05:23
|
|
|
Oh, that's where you get the Porygon, I kept finding its evolution items and- for gently caress's sake, it's another trade evolution. I hate those, because I have no friends. Although I'm particularly fond of the Karrablast/Shelmet trade evo. Also, that Porygon ban is weird, because the actual effect that caused seizures was produced by Pikachu.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 06:05
|
|
|
Huh, I never realized there was a free Porygon there, it's one of my favorite pokemon too, I had one blast through my copy of Soul Silver.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 06:12
|
|
|
The seizure flashes weren't even Porygon's fault, either, but they couldn't very well ban Pikachu... Versus Mustard (Serious) is definitely one of the better fights in the game. Honey's a good fight too but I don't mind you not wanting to scrounge up over a million watts to fight her... If you got the game physically, at least at launch, it came with a code for an item that you can throw into that big busted tower in the wild area and make it spawn a particular mon for you to raid against (possibly multiple times?). In Shield, you got a code for Jangmo-o, the first form of Kommo-o; in Sword, you got a code for Larvitar. That said, you can get other version exclusives by joining other peoples' raids for them sometimes, or by trading.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 06:17
|
|
|
Hunter Noventa posted:Huh, I never realized there was a free Porygon there, it's one of my favorite pokemon too, I had one blast through my copy of Soul Silver. Best part? The Cramomatic next to Hyde has the capacity to make both items it needs for evolution, so with the kinds of guides you can find on the internet, you can pull together everything you need to get it to Porygon-Z with the stuff you have on hand when you pick it up. Granted, that requires you having friends to trade with, but... The Golux posted:If you got the game physically, at least at launch, it came with a code for an item that you can throw into that big busted tower in the wild area and make it spawn a particular mon for you to raid against (possibly multiple times?). In Shield, you got a code for Jangmo-o, the first form of Kommo-o; in Sword, you got a code for Larvitar. That said, you can get other version exclusives by joining other peoples' raids for them sometimes, or by trading. Yeah, I picked up several Sword exclusives just wandering around with online on, surprise trading and helping with Dens. The fact that I found more Sword-exclusive Pokémon while online in Shield says a lot about how popular each version is.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 07:12
|
|
|
This is a great fight, and definitely one of the best-designed ones. They definitely managed to live up to the reputation they established for him. (And the music is fantastic. I listened to this battle music through most of my attempts at the Restricted Sparring thing too.) Of note is that Mustard will use whichever form of Urshifu the player didn't pick. There's definitely an imbalance in popularity between the versions; I think even Nintendo/GF/etc picked up on this fairly early, because a lot of the pokemon choices for event giveaways and Wild Area News etc have included more Shield exclusives. That said, with Pokemon Home and its GTS it's not too hard to get anything you want in either version. (Amusingly, Porygon and its evolutions were one of the most annoying for me to complete; they've made a lot of trade evolutions available in the wild, but not that one, and GTS trading doesn't cause things to evolve. At the time, I had to trade for the evolved forms directly; now, there's also the alternative of evolving it in Pokemon Go, if you play that, but still. Trade evolutions are a bad mechanic.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 15:01
|
|
|
Explopyro posted:That said, with Pokemon Home and its GTS it's not too hard to get anything you want in either version. (Amusingly, Porygon and its evolutions were one of the most annoying for me to complete; they've made a lot of trade evolutions available in the wild, but not that one, and GTS trading doesn't cause things to evolve. At the time, I had to trade for the evolved forms directly; now, there's also the alternative of evolving it in Pokemon Go, if you play that, but still. Trade evolutions are a bad mechanic.) But how will we force the children to socialize  ? Man, that is one OLD obsession for Gamefreak. For makers of a what is essentially a JRPG, they definitely take a  attitude towards non-social players; it’s a lot like how a lot of MMOs can be played solo at the cost of the bulk of their content.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 16:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 20:51 |
|
|
I've always felt like I got the wrong version whenever I encounter a version-exclusive. Mostly because I see a cool mon like Jangmo-o, think "I want that!" and am immediately disappointed to see "NOT YOUR VERSION." This is entirely fallacious, because I'm ignoring the cool mons I have that are exclusive to my version. I do, however, wish I could get fossils besides fricking Arctovish. Side note, I expected a lot of references to British culture. I did not expect a reference to their early approach to paleontology.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2021 16:39
|
|