Pokemon Uranium is not a very good game.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Pokemon Uranium is not a very good game.

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Oh, wonderful, an LP of a questionable, but shockingly thorough, Pokemon romhack! I had a great time reading the Pokemon Quartz LP in the archives, I look forward to the horrors that await us in this one.

Also, what is it about these romhacks that the "creator's self-insert professor" character always looks like a skeevy neckbeard? Between Baro and this joker, I'm noticing a pattern. You'd think at some point, somebody would have pointed it out, assuming more than one person worked on Uranium.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 04:13

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:53

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

On the topic of Sun/Moon being "easy", I think part of it has to do with series veterans not realizing that a lot of it comes from them. Like, I didn't have much trouble getting through the game, but I recognized that it's because I've played every game in the series. The games haven't been getting easier so much as all the longtime players have gotten better. That's why I've enjoyed the heavier story focus of the last couple generations, even if they're a little silly in places. Uranium seems to be trying to have a plot, as well, but what little we've seen so far doesn't look too good.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 22:08

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Commander Keene posted:

EarthBound does that, and still manages to be a good game.

What's neat is that Creatures Inc., one of the companies that works on the Pokemon series, was formerly Ape Inc., the main guys behind Earthbound.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

There's one free antidote as means to deal with posoin, the ailment, which costs a Pokemon 1/8th of its HP each turn. Raptorch resists pioson and Orchynx is straight immune, so I've got the raw deal when it comes to the final boss of route 1.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 23:56

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

ohmygorgon posted:

I'm curious to see which of the real Pokemon made it into the game. I'm guessing it will be the "cool" ones like Mewtwo, Garchomp, and Tyranitar, but maybe I'll be surprised.

I haven't checked to verify, but I'm going to tag this just in case my supposition is right, but let's be real, you know there's gonna be Eevee, because if you add an ORIGINAL TYPE DO NOT STEAL to your lovely Pokemon fangame, of course you're gonna make an Eeveelution of that type.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 17:49

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

GeneX posted:

Pokemon should not be dark and edgy, full stop.

Pokemon's always had some dark undertones just below the surface, between messed-up Pokedex entries and some of the sadder NPC chatter, and the last couple of gens have leaned a bit harder into it (Sun and Moon has some legit disturbing moments, in fact, by way of existential dread). But Game Freak makes it work because they're good at writing, and know how to make those dark moments gel with the more upbeat core of the franchise. Also I guess it's not really edgy, so much as it's just dark. The sort of "dark and edgy" it looks like Uranium is going for, based on that first cutscene, is closer to the juvenile, superficial kind that we all know from such gems as Shadow the Hedgehog, which I agree should be nowhere near a Pokemon game. Or any game.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 23:14

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

krisslanza posted:

You mean those casual Pokedex entries of Driftloon just kidnapping children and killing them?

Uh excuse me Drifloon doesn't kill them he drags them directly to the afterlife. Sort of like how in Monopoly you go straight to jail without passing Go. So there's just a bunch of alive kids stuck in the afterlife. I mean okay maybe they starve to death later but, whatever, details.

Also Sun and Moon gets way the hell darker than Colosseum and XD. It's not as edgy, but talk to anyone in one of the two graveyards, or do the Eevee sidequest in the post-game. poo poo gets morose.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2017 00:33

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

mandatory lesbian posted:

acknowledging death is dark for a pokemon game, said a bunch of people who never played gen 1 i guess

There's a difference between "I'm sad, my Pokemon's dead" and "You, yes you, playing this, are going to get old and die, just like these melancholy visions of faded glory, and like them, your significance to anyone outside your immediate circle of family and friends is likely to be momentary at best and extremely early compared to life expectancy, assuming you achieve anything at all, which is unlikely. Also people you thought of as important in your past have all but certainly forgotten you in return." Like, that's maybe an okay message for adults who already realize that and have managed to find effective distractions to avoid spending all their time screaming in horror, but this is a game that's still ostensibly for children. Granted, that's easily the most extreme example in the game, the rest falls more comfortably into the usual Pokemon mold of "some of these monsters are messed up, man", but it's a moment that's stuck with me.

flarp22 posted:

Probably my personal favorite out of the newer Pokedex entries.

I like to imagine that, for all the ominous implications, Gengar's just coming to give you a hug, because Gengar is cool and also my friend.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2017 00:56

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

chiasaur11 posted:

My favorite thing about that is how Dark is the weakness for ghosts. Like, the trick to beating a ghost is that they're complete suckers for Queensberry rules, and if you start going for eye gouges and the like, ghosts won't know what the gently caress.

I think it's more that in most spiritual mythology, evil and sinfulness weigh down the soul or otherwise cause some form of measurable harm. So I think the more unusual thing is getting bitten by a rat and suddenly feeling the flames of Hell beckoning.

Gyra_Solune posted:

Also I'm kinda sad the Dark type stopped being about being sneaky and cheaty and honorless and started being more I SHALL BLAST YOU WITH A LASER OF DARKNESS because that sorta stops making sense, like, it's obvious why Fighting types can lay the smack down on a sneaky bastard but what does that have to do with The Evil Dark Edgelord Of Nightmare Hell

Basically all of action anime works like this. Martial Artists defeat dudes with evil dark devil powers all the drat time. Or for a more directly pointed example, Ryu beating Akuma in Street Fighter, using his pure martial arts to overcome Akuma's borderline-demonic superpowers.

EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Feb 18, 2017

# ¿ Feb 18, 2017 01:22

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

So, is this game just going to completely waste the painfully obvious foreshadowing that Pokemon Rangers are secretly totally evil? Like, from OFS' commentary, it sounds like all the circlejerking about Pokemon Ranger is going to go basically nowhere, which is dumb, because the whole scene of "yes this magic top just shows Pokemon I'm their friend and isn't a mind control device at all no siree" would have been decent setup for them to be the bad guys.

And I'm really not surprised that Dunsparce is there, every gen has a handful of Pokemon that just never find their place and end up more or less forgotten, which means there's always gonna be some diehard fans who wish those particular Pokemon got more exposure, not even necessarily due to liking those specific Pokemon, but more because they don't want any of them to fall by the wayside. On top of that, Dunsparce's ability and move pool has earned it some genuine fans in the competitive scene. Those two groups, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume, make up roughly 100% of the Pokemon Uranium development team, so, now you know why Dunsparce is in the game.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2017 02:47

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

ohmygorgon posted:

That's true on all counts. I just find it funny that there seems to be a larger group of people who love Dunsparce (this thread has even shown as much). Meanwhile a couple of Pokemon introduced at the same time are largely ignored from everyone, including the diehard fans who want every obscure Pokemon to get a useful evolution (Stantler is always my go-to for Pokemon no one seems to like).

My go-to forgotten Pokemon is Farfetch'd. Is it just a duck? Sure. But it's a duck who is a master swordsman wielding a root vegetable. It's only natural that some Pokemon end up being, essentially, filler, there's only so much the devs can do to make Pokemon feel new and different. Since Gen VI, they've been doing a better job of differentiating Pokemon in terms of both design and gameplay, but they have the advantages of having a new Pokemon type to work with and no longer holding themselves to 100 new Pokemon each game (68 in Gen VI, 80 in Gen VII before Alola Forms). Geez, if they hadn't forced you to get to know them by making them the only Pokemon available, I'm pretty sure somewhere around half the Pokemon from Black and White would have been forgotten moments after the game released. 156 new Pokemon, and something like seventy of them were just new takes on old Pokemon concepts (like Foongus instead of Voltorb, and Audino instead of Chansey/Clefairy/Jigglypuff). From a design perspective, it was interesting to see all these "what if we did Pokemon over from scratch" ideas, but it didn't do a lot in terms of distinctiveness.

Blaze Dragon posted:

That'd be even more stupid, unneccesary EDGY. Rangers have already been shown as good in their entire series, saying "NO BUT THEY WERE ACTUALLY MIND CONTROLLING POKEMON" is really stupid.

That said if you're going to setup something as hard as this game is, at least do something with it. Have the Rangers be a part of the story beyond the protagonist's dad who is an already established character but completely OOC because EDGY.

That was more the point I was making, yeah. Like, I don't know or care about the Pokemon Ranger series, but having them all over the place for no reason with pointless scenes about how their stuff works, do something with them, narratively. Especially seeing as dad's a ranger, having the rangers be secretly evil, while dumb and pointlessly edgy, would be in keeping with the game's overall tone (i.e. dumb and pointlessly edgy), so it would be as close to good writing as one can get under the circumstances.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2017 03:29

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Crazy Achmed posted:

Heartgold/soulsilver of darkness

I was going to adapt a quote to make it Pokemon-style, but there weren't any keywords to replace in the best possible quote so here's this:

Joseph Conrad posted:

Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror � of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, � he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath � 'The horror! The horror!'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyQGjPO_47w&t=376s

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 09:02

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

HardDiskD posted:

Assuming they really based it off Par�, I really have to wonder why they they picked that state over Rio de Janeiro, considering that RJ has a coastline, actual mountains (so it would have saved them the trouble to paint inexplicable mountains in Par�) and, I think more importantly, has an actual nuclear power plant complex that they could base the story around.

Calling it now, that's where the guy helming the project, likely the same guy that blatantly inserted himself as Professor Baro 2.0, lives, and that's the sole reason it's the area being used.

By the way, since I've brought it up a couple times now and someone else mentioned Vietnamese Crystal, here's a quick link to the archive for Pokemon Quartz, in case Uranium isn't enough terrible Pokemon fangame for some people (also the Pokemon designs are much, much worse).

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 17:07

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

PBJ posted:

Character design chat

One thing to note is that due to the new trainer customization in Gen VI onwards, the player can go hatless, but the devs put a lot of effort into making sure your clothes still look distinctive compared to other trainers (well, non-unique ones, anyway), and I'd say it's your backpack/messenger bag (which can't be removed, only returned to a default design) becomes the visual touchstone. In fact, that's the other consistent feature of the default characters besides the headwear, is that they've all got some sort of backpack or messenger bag. It's the lack of either feature that really makes the Uranium PC indistinguishable from a generic trainer type. Like, before the LP started, if you'd told me that that's the Uranium version of the Youngster, I'd believe it.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

Fire/Fighting?

I like how the mascot for that blog isn't even Fire/Fighting (it's Fire/Dark). Also a lot of those designs are rad as hell and now I kind of want to see the RPG Maker Pokemon fangame that implements that Pokedex. Ultimate Pokemon Turbo Final Ultra HD Megamix Tag Tournament: The Third Challengers.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 06:25

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Commander Keene posted:

I like the concept of HMs, which is to say that I like the idea that Pokemon can do things outside of fighting. However, since ~~most~~ almost all HM moves are terrible to use in actual combat, even at the time you get them, and can only be removed by one person in the world, I think they seriously flubbed the execution. I think the best way to deal with HMs would have been to either: make them a fifth move that a Pokemon could learn, limiting each Pokemon to four combat powers and one utility power; or to eliminate HM moves and make the HMs an inherent part of the badge system, allowing any Pokemon who can learn the HM to use the power as long as you have the associated Gym Badge. Both systems benefit from making HMs non-combat, reducing screen clutter. This system can even work with some non-HM moves, like Teleport, Sweet Scent, or Flash (outside of Gen 1). Some Pokemon who start with a move useable outside of combat would either start with their "field move" slot filled, or would have extra "field moves". The current "rental Pokemon" system I hear they've implemented in Sun and Moon sounds like an acceptable alternative, but I feel like it would kill some of the immersion for me; suddenly I can't have my giant bird fly me around, but this other guy's giant bird can do it just fine? Meh.

Effectively, it's due to legal restrictions in Alola, as far as flying goes. I recall some NPC chatter about Poke Rides saying that you can only ride a specially trained and licensed Pokemon for flying in Alolan airspace (to paraphrase), and that seems to apply to the other varieties of Poke Ride. It's not that you physically couldn't use the various HMs, it's that you're not allowed to.

EDIT: gently caress, beaten.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 09:01

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Mr. Vile posted:

To be fair, one of my real pet peeves about the later pokemon games is that they really dropped the ball on making it instantly apparent what type a given pokemon is. Take a glance at, say, Golem and you can tell that it's rock type. There are exceptions, but for the most part you can tell the typing from a glance at the sprite. In the later gens there are some sprites that I have absolutely no idea on, with Florges, Dhlemise and Fomantis/Lurantis being particularly bad offenders. And as for the ultra beasts, how is this grass type, this flying type and this a goddamn rock/poison type?

The Ultra Beasts are meant to feel otherworldly and wrong, so the hosed-up typings make sense there (if you want an explanation for the Rock type on Nihilego, it could be related to how some space aliens/extra-dimensional beings are depicted as silicon-based life to underscore their alien nature). As for the rest, sometimes it's given an explanation (Dhelmise is the seaweed around the anchor, not the anchor itself), sometimes it's not (the Flabebe line and Comfey look like they should have a Grass subtype, and Lurantis looks like it should be part Bug, but they aren't, for no real reason aside from gameplay).

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 00:31

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Mr. Vile posted:

The Ultra Beasts do seem to kind of make a point of having weird types for an "otherwordly" theme, but I feel like some kind of concession should have been made for gameplay reasons.

Besides, they already did that trick back in Gen 2 with Sudowoodo .

Dhelmise I can forgive because they do justify it in the dex entry with the anchor just being a thing the actual seaweed pokemon picked up, but again, that trick was fun the first time they pulled it with Sudowoodo. Having one deliberately misleading sprite is cute, especially when it has a punny name to go with it. Having a half a dozen of them just rubs me the wrong way.

After your first encounter with any Pokemon in Gen VII, the game tells you which moves have what effectiveness, it may be that the feature was implemented in part as a concession to players potentially confused by the visual design of a given Pokemon they're not familiar with. Really, there's a ton of Pokemon whose type or subtype isn't immediately obvious based on their visual design, and you need to consult the Pokedex for an explanation of how their looks lead to their type, and even then there's some designs that make no sense. Has there ever been an explanation for why Gyarados is part flying-type?

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 00:55

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

flarp22 posted:

I think I remember reading somewhere that it was because Game Freak didn't want to give it Dragon subtyping because it would be super hard to break in Gen 1, where there was no Dragon STAB to speak of, and Magikarp were EVERYWHERE. Or maybe that was a theory I latched onto.

Well, yeah, I get the gameplay justification, Gyarados-but-Dragon is a deeply irritating prospect, but most odd typings got a reason in the Pokedex at some point. Guess it just got grandfathered in.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 01:05

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Amidiri posted:

It flies, doesn't it?

No, not unless you count the generic floating above the ground during battle that all fish-like Pokemon do. The only Flying-type moves it can learn in the entire franchise are Hurricane and Bounce (and the latter only from a Move Tutor in Gen VI).

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 02:32

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

PoptartsNinja posted:

Fomantis and Lurantis are also loving adorable.

Instead of being orchid mantises, they're mantis orchids!

I love how Fomantis is basically krumping in its idle animation, it's fantastic.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 12:54

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

thefailtrain posted:

Mono-ghost has been tough for a while. Ghost types just pay so hard for their two immunities because so many of the Pokemon you'd use them on to take advantage of that get Crunch or other dark type moves.

Maybe it's just me, but despite Ghost being my favorite type, I've never been a fan of pure Ghosts. Their movesets usually leave something to be desired, and the only one with a particularly appealing visual design, at least for me, is Cofagrigus. The Ghost/Darks haven't really wowed me, either. But every other Ghost subtype results in pretty rad-looking Pokemon with really nice, satisfying move pools (it helps that Shadow Ball is a standard TM, also Sludge Bomb/Wave for my boy Gengar).

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 18:44

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Dr. Fetus posted:

Did the people who make the game hate humanity or something?

I had a friend who played FFXI, and every time he told me about it, there was always some new horrible dick move. Weapons that took literal real-life years to grind for, giant monsters appearing near newbies zones and murdering new players, content so punishing of any sort of creativity in making one's build that most people refused to team with anyone that didn't have a "correct" build, literally the only thing about the game that sounded the least bit appealing were the words "Final Fantasy", and given the series' reputation around that time, even that wasn't much of a selling point.

This is why I like Pokemon. I may miss some features when they're not brought back (like Super Training), and I may not be a fan of all the new features, but I can at least rest assured that Game Freak is genuinely trying to give the players a fun game that gives them the freedom to Pokemon the way they want to.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2017 17:55

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

DeafNote posted:

I'd submit that Bugtypes have been on the up and up ever since generation 4
though fairytypes lessened the need for them

There's a lot of really good Bug-types, though? Even before Gen IV, you had Scizor and Heracross as headliners (and Scyther and Pinsir before that, to an extent), and a lot of the fully-evolved bug-types were pretty good with a few TMs to shore up their movepools. Granted, they had to lean on their other types a little more back before X-Scissor and Bug Buzz existed (though Heracross had Megahorn), but they were good Pokemon in other respects. Unless you guys mean bugs are treated as a joke in-story, which is sometimes true (the consistently weakest trainer type is the Bug Catcher), but there have been several Bug-type gyms, at least.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2017 21:17

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

PoptartsNinja posted:

I was disappointed that Vivillon was the only new bug we got in Kalos but Gen VII made up for it by adding not one but two really good bug/water types in Araquanaut and Golisopod (I prefer Araquanaut because it's got a better ability) and the adorable and amazing dragon-slaying Bug/Fairy Ribombee.

Gotta say, Araquanid and Ribombee own super hard. Ribombee is in that beautiful sweet spot of being incredibly fast and having excellent Sp. Attack, like Alakazam, and Araquanid is a monster tank whose middling offense is made up for by its ability giving it super-STAB with Liquidate, the best physical Water-type move since Waterfall. I don't even like water-types, generally, but Araquanid is one of the few exceptions because it kicks all kinds of rear end.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2017 04:03

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

OneDeadman posted:

please don't forget my bug child Vika Viper, the slow Special murderbug

Vikavolt should have had Attack Order to properly emulate the Options from Gradius. It's even a bug-type move! It can learn basically anything else it might need to emulate features from the series. It learns Agility naturally for boosting, Charjabug gets Discharge for the spread beam, and it can be taught Protect and Charge Beam via TM for shield and power-up. Thunderbolt would be the laser, and Zap Cannon the smart bomb, so all in all every other major mechanic from Gradius is handled in some way.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2017 06:16

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

hopeandjoy posted:

I think that's the original Nuzlocke comic that spawned the challenge.

Here's a link for it, if that helps jog any memories.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2017 21:21

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Regalingualius posted:

Yyyyup, that's the one.

...How the gently caress did something so awful-looking ever get off the ground enough to create one of the most well-known challenges?

The answer to that question is usually "4chan took a shine to it" so I'm gonna guess that's what happened.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2017 21:45

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

get that OUT of my face posted:

Those items in Earthbound aren't close to necessary to complete the game.

Most of them, I'll grant you, but shame on anyone who didn't get the Sword of Kings. :colbert:

# ¿ Feb 27, 2017 07:55

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Paul.Power posted:

Poison/Flying is pretty neat, you're immune to Ground (Smack Down shenanigans aside) and double-resist Grass, Bug and Fighting. Good speed and decent all-round other stats are nice, too, as is Gen 7's major buff to Leech Life.

The latter improvement is especially useful if, say, you've never really used Zubat before, but one or two are present in your ever-expanding collection of Pokemon you've been transferring upwards from one generation to the next for years, since the slight change of "Zubat gets Absorb as its first move, with Leech Life pushed way back" isn't an issue, so you suddenly have an endgame-quality attack on a Pokemon you'd conceivably use as part of a fresh, new team in whichever Gen VII game feels appropriate.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2017 09:32

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Schubalts posted:

Mister "Samus has a mole somewhere on her body and only I know where it is" Sakamoto.

To be fair on that point, in the original context, it seems it was just a joke line out of the Japanese strategy guide for Super Metroid, and not even the most objectionable of the various entries for "Secret of Samus that only I know". Here's some transcripts I was able to dig up, the lines about Samus, including the beauty mark thing, are in a sidebar on the right. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think first-person shooters were particularly well-regarded in Japan until recently, generally speaking, which may have contributed to Sakamoto's distaste for the Prime series. It's a shame, I liked Metroid Prime more than the main series.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 00:50

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Prime 1 totally nailed "what if you played Metroid from a first-person perspective." Environments, pacing, exploration, the whole bit, it's great. Prime 2 iterated on the concepts introduced in Prime 1, substantially refining the gameplay and generally improving quality of life, but IMO suffered in the environment department -- Light Aether is mostly brown and Dark Aether is mostly purple and they both end up being kind of repetitive. Prime 3 improved on the environments over Prime 2 (its Wrecked Ship analog was amazing), but gameplay-wise was structurally flawed, what with the constant checking in with GalFed, the fact that you were never more than five rooms from your ship, the more rigid (and frankly, predictable) plotting with multiple active characters, and the whole overdrive system.

I'd rank them 1 > 2 > 3 but I know plenty of people who like 2 more and I'm hard-pressed to say they're wrong.

Honestly, I didn't like having to manage ammo for my beam weapons in the sequels, it made me reticent to use anything other than the normal beam for anything that didn't expressly require one of the other beams. I think Prime 1 had the best overall design philosophy, and had the best balance between classic Metroid game mechanics and the FPS mechanics. I'd personally order it 1>3>2, I found a lot of the mechanics introduced in Echoes to be really annoying (like the constant damage in the dark world).

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 05:19

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Leal posted:

So uh.. hey wasn't Baro going to make another pokemon romhack?

I think Zorak mentions it at the end of the Quartz LP as being called Pokemon Marble. It supposedly looked pretty okay at the time.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 08:39

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

ImpAtom posted:

Nintendo doesn't hate Metroid or anything. It is that Metroid isn't a big seller. Even Prime, which sold well, wasn't that big. Donkey Kong Country Returns, which retro moved onto after Prime, sold more on its own than all the Prime games put together. Metroid is an influential series but that isn't the same as it being a big selling series by Nintendo standards.

For this same reason, if Awakening hadn't completely blown up the way it had, it was planned to be the final Fire Emblem game for the foreseeable future. Fire Emblem may have been largely responsible for the creation and codification of SRPGs as we know them today (along with, of all things, Banpresto's Super Robot Wars series, which came out around the same time), but the sales figures have never been great. This kinda goes for a lot of really good franchises, they're fantastic and influential, but they just don't sell. If they were making the sort of money they were back when the Wii launched, Nintendo could probably afford to make more niche appeal games with lukewarm sales, using the profits from the major releases to cover any losses, much like film studios do when they decide to greenlight passion projects and the like. However, support for the Wii U dried up very quickly, which has definitely affected which games they've prioritized.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 19:33

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

I like how the status screens clearly admit that Uranium is a game for Pokemon obsessives and basically nobody else. All those invisible numbers meant to ensure that every player's Pokemon wind up slightly different, even if they're the same level with the same moves, completely visible and in the open because it would otherwise be inconveniencing to competitive players.

Also, paradoxically, the designs in this game are somehow better-drawn, and yet shittier than Baro's designs in Quartz. Like, with Baro, you could tell that some actual thought went into the designs, and if you completely overhauled the execution of some of them while retaining the basic idea, you might get a decent real Pokemon out of it. With the Uranium designs, I couldn't even imagine them making it far enough to be left on the cutting room floor, these are designs that one of the Game Freak concept artists would get halfway through drawing before shaking their head, crumpling it up, and tossing it in the trash.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 20:40

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

beru04 posted:

Aw yes, Ludicolo!

Which can only mean one thing

That link gave me exactly what I was expecting from it. Hau's battle theme from Gen VII is the only battle theme to even come close in quality.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 23:58

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

turn off the TV posted:

After doing more arduous research on the game's wiki I've learned that Barewl is the "iron sphere pokemon," while Tonemy is "poison ball pokemon," which means that there are at least two pokemon in the game that really just amount to "I'll make a ball." They both have different designers.

According to the wiki Tofurang is toxic, fur, and fang. It makes sense, since it is poison type, has fur, and also has teeth that debatebly could be called fangs. It's all accounted for.

What the hell Barewl is supposed to mean, on the other hand, is beyond even the wiki's understanding, so I imagine the only way to find out would be to ask the designer.

Keep in mind that English isn't the only language to consider when trying to decipher names here. It's likely that some of the designers hail from Europe and Latin America at the least, meaning names could be derived from any number of other languages and dialects thereof (like how many of the names in Quartz were taken from Castilian Spanish). Granted, the official English localizations of Pokemon draw somewhat on other languages, but usually in way that a non-speaker of those languages won't be confused about the general etymology of the name.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 02:34

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

serefin99 posted:

It's even worse if you look at the 'official art' or whatever.

So it's managing to rip off Dugtrio, Doduo, and Charizard. Impressive!

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

So, when I think bike songs, I think of one band, and one song they did.

OFSelects: Queen - I'm in Love With My Car

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 23:03

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

loquacius posted:

Two things that you'd think would both come up really quickly in playtesting

I think we've identified the problem. I doubt this was playtested, and if it were, I'm pretty sure the devs disregarded all negative feedback.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 22:03

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

No, no, it's not Garlic Kid, it's Garlic Boy.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 23:05

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Raitzeno posted:

Reminds me a little of Phantasy Star 3 when you put it like that...

It sort of speaks to the limitations the guys at Sega were dealing with at the time that they could program in an entire sequence of the king telling you you hosed up and to reset the game, but they couldn't just program it so you can't use an escapipe at that moment, or even making it so the shop only sells escapipes after you get out of the basement (or even just make it so you need to reach the second town to buy escapipes). I dunno, maybe they left it in intentionally as a little joke scene for the wiseasses who try it.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 01:02

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:53

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Mister Olympus posted:

Honestly this game suffers the most from sticking to pre-SM series traditions. Death to HMs.

Yeah, I'm very glad to see HMs gone, but I'm hoping the next Gen lets you swap Poke Rides for your own Pokemon, within a certain number of species, similar to how in Pokemon Stadium 2, you could get alternate Pokemon models in some of the minigames if you had the right Pokemon in your PC (like replacing Furret with Girafarig). Like, instead of Tauros, maybe you'd rather ride a Bouffalant or Gogoat, they could probably break rocks with their heads, too. I'd imagine having either a key item or new PC functionality for registering your Pokemon. I like that Sun/Moon gave a surprisingly logical explanation for why you're stuck with the preset Pokemon (they're specially-trained service Pokemon), but I really want the personal touch of using my own Pokemon to overcome obstacles.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 01:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Pokemon Uranium is not a very good game.

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