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Let's be silly and name our new centipede Milli.
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May 24, 2020 03:16
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| # ? May 8, 2024 22:34 |
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Munna is one of the great examples of re-imagining Gen 1 pokemon. It's pretty obviously inspired by Drowzee, but it's an independent interpretation of the same idea. Also, it looks like your grandma's throw pillow, and that's just great. (I did not know about the incense burners, which makes more sense.) I'm glad to hear about our next teammate, whose ultimate evolution is one of my top favorite designs in this gen.
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May 24, 2020 03:24
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Solumin posted:Munna is one of the great examples of re-imagining Gen 1 pokemon. It's pretty obviously inspired by Drowzee, but it's an independent interpretation of the same idea. Also, it looks like your grandma's throw pillow, and that's just great. (I did not know about the incense burners, which makes more sense.) I’m suddenly reminded of that one NPC in Gen 1 who said there should be a pink Pokémon with flowers on it!
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May 24, 2020 03:34
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I love woobat & its evolution so so much and wish so badly it was more generally useful. In my first run I kept it through about Skyla, but by that point I just had to gently put it in the box and only used it for Fly purposes. If only Simple was a normal ability instead of a Hidden Ability. DOuble boosted Calm Minds & Amnesia would be fun to play with in-game
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May 24, 2020 03:35
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Bailey is a name for a boy or a girl!
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May 24, 2020 04:49
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Ah yes, Team Plasma battle theme, one of the best drat songs in the Pokemon franchise. Seriously, if you missed that link, click it, it's a treat. Unbelievable how they did pull out all the stops for this gen with the music.
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May 24, 2020 05:04
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Ah, my favorite generation. B/W rekindled my slightly waning love for Pokémon back when they came out. I really, really loved getting to meet all new mons and not knowing how they'd perform. I keep hoping GF does something like it again.
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May 24, 2020 07:29
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Aren't there a couple of other encounters in that bit of grass where you caught the pigeon? I thought that's where the pony in the striped pyjamas and the EXP pinata show up for the first time. Then again it's been a long time since I played so maybe I'm thinking of something else entirely. The summaries of pokemon catches here show another reason why I'm not fond of this gen. Almost everything you catch will either be good at some far distant time or would be good if only it was allowed to have decent moves. You're facing a long depressing slog of things constantly dying to a stiff breeze while doing chip damage until you reach the magic tipping point where your team becomes actually usable.
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May 24, 2020 08:55
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I feel bad for Pidove. Being sandwiched between Staraptor and Talonflame it would always look like a lackluster early bird in comparison. But its stats are actually decent so it could have been at least good for a playthrough similar to Swellow - if it could actually use its attack. Instead it may just be worse to use than Pigeot and Noctowl. AradoBalanga posted:Let's be silly and name our new centipede Milli. I'm in full agreement here.
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May 24, 2020 17:43
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Unfezant is the Flareon of birds It's one of the only birds in the series that didn't get Brave Bird until gen 8. And not even naturally or egg move, as a TR. The poor thing doesn't even get Wing Attack, having to rely on when you get the Aerial Ace TM.
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May 24, 2020 18:34
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AradoBalanga posted:Let's be silly and name our new centipede Milli. I third this
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May 24, 2020 18:40
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AradoBalanga posted:Let's be silly and name our new centipede Milli. 
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May 24, 2020 18:53
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Black Robe posted:
Oh yeah gen v has the big issue of "the level curve is absolute shite" across the board. Stuff either evolves or gets necessary or signature moves wayyyyyyyyy too late to be ever relevant to 75% of the players and the remaining 25% just hacked in mons for online play anyway. They dropped the ball on this hard. This is why most people say this is one of the hardest generations, but a lot if people see it as a positive. It's a mixed bag for sure. I think the late movesets and evolutions are here so people don't abuse HA mons but those were also almost impossible to get. Lots weird decisions here in this game.
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May 24, 2020 19:32
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Black Robe posted:The summaries of pokemon catches here show another reason why I'm not fond of this gen. Almost everything you catch will either be good at some far distant time or would be good if only it was allowed to have decent moves. You're facing a long depressing slog of things constantly dying to a stiff breeze while doing chip damage until you reach the magic tipping point where your team becomes actually usable. I think that a part of this is that TMs were also made reusable in this gen. So you don't need to rely as much on what a Mon learns via level-up when you can use various TM moves as stopgaps. In earlier gens, there was more consideration involved since it was likely that a TM for a specific move was all you would be getting without trading. And some of the TMs you do get can be really good and can have a place on most of the Pokemon on a specific team. Skyla's gym TM comes to mind. And for the centipede, I say name it Pedi. For every single foot it has.
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May 24, 2020 20:45
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I think it's a side effect of infinite use tms. In gen 1 sure everything had dire level up lists, but bubblebeam rocked when you got it and you had thunderbolt crop up in your early 20s. For better or worse, in order to avoid your team having nothing but flamethrower, thunderbolt and the like that stuff is relegated to the post game and you get nothing standout from the mid tier level up moves.
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May 24, 2020 22:09
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Maybe I just lucked out in most of my squad (or, perhaps, I'm just played pokemon too much), but even with the horrid evolution levels and some Pokemon's long stretches of mediocre results since everyoen's on about the same playing field it kind of evens out. Outside of situations like Woobat or Pidove, who is sadly just never good, most pokemon felt like they got something that kept them relevant. Roggenrola, for example. Sturdy keeps it around surprisingly long and I kept Rock Blast till endgame. Venipede & Sewaddle kinda suck early game but even at their coccoon stage they start coming out of their shell (s..so to speak). The second & third gym's areas in particular, all of them pull their weight in their own way. I'd say things get more dicey when we start getting to the last leg of pokemon in the region where some real questionable decisions start being made.
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May 25, 2020 02:28
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And also just with how the game is set up, a ton of the dudes just dont play nice with other games in the series and really shouldn't be bothered with.
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May 25, 2020 02:34
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Throwing out the name Poiser, specially for a female with poison point. Alternatively, Poisorse as it's essentially a poisonous horse at it's peak
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May 25, 2020 05:06
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Voting's wound down and Milli is the winner! Sure I could wait a bit longer, but there's still plenty more to come.
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May 25, 2020 17:05
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Part 4: The Curator Route 3 Spring  We've still got a chunk of route left, so let's fight some Patrat or Purrloin or whatever these trainers have.     Woah, a new Pokemon, what are the chances? Blitzle is an interesting Pokemon due to starting off well enough, despite leaning physical, it can use special attacks pretty effectively and gets some interesting coverage in Flame Charge early. However for most of the game your most reliable STAB will be Spark or, uh, Stomp, which is the first time I think I've said that. And it has to be a mixed attacker due to getting gently caress all for coverage, with Pursuit being its only other option, TMs do very little until evolution. It also falls over if a Ground type looks at it while not being able to do too much in return.   I was so overwhelmed by your greatness that I forgot everything I learned! I need to keep my wits during a battle.   That dark grass over there... every now and again, two Pokemon will pop out at the same time. In other words, you have to be careful in the darker grass. I'm heading on to Nacrene City. "depending on their Trainer's style."  Tristan can only Lick so many times before getting bodied by Gust so best to switch.    I feel sorry for Pokemon when they lose because their Trainer lacks skill... a Trainer has a huge responsibility. Strong Wild Pokemon  On the one Pokemon I didn't want to faint! So darker grass is a cool feature, but won't really see much use. Pokemon in the darker grass are higher level and lets you get into as many wild double battles as you want, though like Gen 4 you can only throw the ball as your first action at the last Pokemon standing. Wild Pokemon have the same encounter rate between the two grasses, but come at higher levels, 2 in earlygame, 5 in lategame, making them useful if you want to add them to your team or evolve them faster. And of course double battles let you encounter twice as many mons so it is useful searching.   "Its mane shines when it discharges electricity. They use their flashing manes to communicate with one another." Thankfully this section isn't long so I don't have to go back far to revive Corazon.   Least there's no grass for kids to walk through to school.   The only way Purrloin can get STAB rn is through Assist, lol movesets!  I'm mastering the lesson in three dimensions by experiencing it like this!    Thank you for not using a Rock move.  I know all kinds of things! Like if you walk through swaying tall grass, you might find a cool Pokemon!  Hey like one of these!      Ah, the exp pinata, the main reason I'm using more than 6 Pokemon is because it's relatively easy to grind up, even if it's not particularly necessary. One thing I haven't mentioned is how exp now scales to level, so it's really easy to train low level Pokemon. It's just not that noticable until you get your first badge and can get rustling grass, resulting in finding Audino in basically every grass patch in the region. Experience yield is no longer capped at 255, with Audino reaching 390! Chansey has 395, while Blissey has 608 for comparison. Audino go as high as level 50 so you can easily level up anything you want, even if you're above its level. Oh? ...you want to know how it works in battle? Suuuuuuuuuure. Because the developers intend you to fight so many Audino, its movepool reflects that, sure you can teach it basically any TM you want, though you won't get far with those base stats, hoo boy! Its level up movepool also doesn't help, its best STAB is Pound until Secret Power at 20 and lategame Audino really want to help you with Heal Pulse, After You and Simple Beam, so Take Down is the best you'll get until the end of the game. Without TMs, it has no way of hitting Ghost types and will get Double-Edge at 50 specifically so you can knock it out faster. You could catch one, but man, think about the exp you just wasted!  "It touches others with the feelers on its ears, using the sound of their heartbeats to tell how they are feeling." Oof that hurts to do, but I've got to catch at least one! Still, this will be useful in getting a team member up to speed, or some lategame evolving if I don't want to hack in Rare Candy for some reason. Anyway, let's see what else is in the rustling grass!   "It is very intelligent and calm. Being exposed to lots of sunlight makes its movements swifter."   "It fights using the scalchop on its stomach. In response to an attack, it retaliates immediately by slashing." Like these! Okay so I hacked these in, but there are an interesting variety of Pokemon we can catch through the rustling grass, such as Musharna in the Dreamyard, seriously! Since most of the time they're a 5% encounter, I've decided not to bother with the rare evolutions, but there will be a fair few rustling encounters we'll get!  Gate. Nacrene City    Give your Pokemon a Chesto Berry to hold. Then, if it ever falls asleep, it will wake up immediately. Oh, and another piece of advice--Nacrene City's Gym Leader uses Normal types. If you have a Fighting-type Pokemon, it might give you a big advantage. Net Balls are always nice to have, let's explore a new city.  Nacrene City: A Pearl of a Place" From nacreous clouds, polar clouds, iridescent due to nitric acid, and derived from nacre, the material of pearls. Shippou City: Shippou is the Seven Treasures. From 七宝文 shippō-mon, a pattern of interlocking circles, 七宝 shippō, Saptaratna, the seven treasures referenced in Buddhist texts, which are gold, silver, crystal, pearl, agate, coral and lapis lazuli, and 七宝焼 shippō-yaki, cloisonné, an ancient technique of decorating metalwork objects.  Lots of fancy apartments here that cost a fortune and are freezing in the winter, perfect to set up my gaming space, complete with greenscreen and memorabilia shelves.   Maybe one day I'll use these... nahhhhhhh   Wow! Coooooool! You collect Pokemon! OK! I'll help you. Which Pokemon did you choose at the beginning of your journey? Do you have Tepig? You have Tepig! Then I will give you this! When you let your Pokemon hold it, it can raise the power of Fire-type moves! A lot of items have effects when Pokemon hold them, so try to find them! Well, work hard to fill up your Pokedex! Good luck!Definitely worth picking Tepig up for a nice chunk of cash. Not that we'll really need it, but I guess we can hold it.   Slowly but surely we're collecting all we need to tackle the second Gym, mainly because Normal Gyms are usually hard as gently caress. Nacrene City Accordion Little more overpowering than other instruments we've seen so far, but still good.  Even I found this glitch when I first got this game... bought it right after school... played it while I was waiting for the bus... man that was a decade ago.   Our cafe has a special on Wednesdays! Here, have a Soda Pop! Enjoy the taste of our speciality!  I think this is the first time I've gotten the house special, what can I say, don't tend to remember Wednesdays.    But I'm stuck now... I just can't come up with a good design. I've been thinking about Decor so great that it will appear in a dream...Well that's obviously for the Dream World, RIP, you can get various Decor to, well, decorate your Dream House and after connecting with the Dream World, Loblolly designs 1 new Decor for you to unlock each day when you next use Game Sync. This includes the Design Table, Design Stool, Flower Vase, Cuddle Rug and Wall Poster.      There will be more notable Decor to talk about later, otherwise it's mostly whatever.   What the gently caress are you talking about?   That's it for the city, I think we're ready, so it's Gym time! The One Who is Captivated by Equations GAH   The truths of Pokemon inside Pokeballs. The ideals of how Trainers should be. And a future where Pokemon have become perfect... What the gently caress are you talking about? Huh. I expected more from you. Now pay attention. My friends and I will test you to see if you can see this future, too. N Battle  It's N again, he's picked up some new mons since we last saw him.  We'll have this move for a while...      Evenin' eyebrows, Tympole is a good Water alternative if Oshawott didn't shake your fancy, it starts off pretty drat good with early Bubblebeam and Mud Shot and evolves somewhat early to use the latter as STAB. It'll also learn Uproar shortly before evolving and Muddy Water shortly after, so it remains pretty good throughout. It has some physical issues, but with equal attacking stats its impressive special moves it learns through level keep it perfectly competitive. When it gets TMs and later moves like Drain Punch it really starts to shine, but it's great even before then. Its overall bland stats don't mean it'll rock the world and it also really doesn't like Grass moves, as fragile as it is.      Not gonna attack? Well okay then. Timburr is Unovan Machop, but has enough interesting distinctions, such as early Rock Throw! This means it's not reliant on Rock Tomb for coverage like so many before it, though the best Fighting move it'll get for a loooooong time is Wake-Up Slap, which is perfectly passable. It'll learn Chip Away for passable Normal coverage, but otherwise Poison Jab is as varied as you get from TMs, still if that's all you need it for, then it'll do you great. Needs to be traded for the fullest potential, but even Gurdurr rocks enough Atk to outclass some of your other physical attacks, at the expense of its other stats. It'll definitely be slow, but hit hards when it counts, especially for some upcoming fights.  Right now, my friends aren't strong enough to save all Pokemon. Maybe I can't solve the equation that will change the world. So, I need power... power enough to make anyone agree with me. The legendary Pokemon that, along with the hero, created the Unova region. It's my turn to become that hero--and you and I will be friends! ...aaaaaaaaanyway, it's Gym time!   Gimme like 8 updates.   Welcome! I'm Hawes, the assistant director. Since you were kind enough to visit, I'll give you a tour of the museum. There's a theory that it had an accident while it was flying around the world, and so it became a Fossil.Right.   Uh huh.  It was found near the desert, but other than the fact that it's old, it doesn't seem to have any value... we only display it because it's rather pretty to look at.Quite.  At the end of the Gym, a very strong and kind Gym Leader is waiting. By the way, the Gym Leader Lenora happens to be my wife!Nice.   Interesting things in this museum, now to ignore them for the rest of the game like all the other museums. Pokemon Gym  It has a great atmosphere, doesn't it? So... I will give this to you!  This is just between you and me... Normal-type Pokemon are weak against Fighting-type Pokemon. Around here, Fighting-type Pokemon show up around Pinwheel Forest. Now, I will explain about the Gym itself! In this Pokemon Gym, if you answer questions hidden in books, you can move forward. For your information, the first book is "Nice to Meet You, Pokemon." If you don't know where the book is, please ask anyone! I'll warn you now... I am strong because I spend the entire day either reading books or training Pokemon.  Hard hitter and boosts his Speed, Hamlet is only just getting started.  My first recommendation is a book called "Nice to Meet You, Pokemon." The bookshelves for children's books are close to the entrance.  Nice to Meet You, Pokemon: It's a fairy tale about a little boy who met a Pokemon for the first time in his life. He is with a small brown Pokemon. There is a memo between the pages...  I hid four memos in this library. Each of them has a question. Can you solve the questions and come find me? Now, this is the first question! Q: What is the first Pokemon you met in this Gym? The hint is... on a bookshelf in the middle row! Now try to find it! You've found a memo already, and you're looking for a book about Pokemon? Tee hee! In fact, I am also reading a book about Pokemon. It's about Tepig. Duh, yup! Tee hee! What a pity! The first Pokemon you met in this Gym was not Tepig! Try to remember the Pokemon you battled at the entrance of the Gym. There's a hint on the bookshelf to the left! The Biology of Patrat: It describes the biology of Patrat. They communicate with each other by movement of their tails. A Patrat raises its tail when it sees an enemy. There is a memo on the back cover... As I thought, that question was easy. Well, this is the second question! Q: Flame burns inside its body, and it gives off smoke from its head while it runs... what is this book? The hint is... somebody may be reading it.  Oh! Did you find the memo and come here to look for this book? I'm reading a book called "The Structure of a Locomotive." Is this book the correct answer? Oh! That is correct! "Flame burns inside its body, and it gives off smoke from its head while it runs." That's exactly how a locomotive looks! Well, I'll let you read this book. But, before that... it would be great for my research if we had a Pokemon battle.     Aye laddie, Herdier is perfectly good inbetween to the proper mustache dog. Take Down makes it pretty fragile, but it can get shored up by Intimidate, if you went for that option, while an early Crunch gives a nice power boost to breeze to an relatively early evolution, as far as this region goes. Otherwise nothing too notable about the path to Stoutland, the only other coverage you could really get is Rock Smash or, ugh, Rock Tomb, though Return is a great option to sidestep Take Down's recklessness.   Don't think I would've soloed that without the Burn, Herdier doesn't one shot Hamlet with Take Down, but it's real close! But hey, two levels, you know what that means!     Just in time, babyyyyyyy, though this was something I was gonna gun for regardless of Hamlet's level. After all, Lenora is super scary, so we need all the advantages we can.   This is a book about a locomotive. Flame burns inside its body, and it gives off smoke from its head while it runs by using steam power! There is a memo on the back cover... It's impressive you found this place! That's what I'd expect from a challenger like you! Well, this is the third question! Q: If you heat it up in a pot, it'll be delicious. What is this? The hint is on a bookshelf closer to the entrance than here! The answer's not Tepig. Clearly. Yeah. ...right? It describes sweets made by heating Berries in a pot. There are sweets called "Poffins" made from Berries in the faraway Sinnoh region, and Pokemon love them! There is a memo on the cover... Did you manage to get here without being tricked by the questions? Now, this is the last question! Q: From this bookshelf... move two backward, move one to the left, move two forward, move one to the right, and move one backward... now, where is it? The hint is... find it by yourself! OK. I'll give you the last question! "Can you challenge the Gym Leader if you win against me?" Tee hee! That is correct! Well, here we go, Trainer!  See, Tristan is barely able to hold his own, what a good Pokemon.   Giz a kiss luv  You'll meet the Gym Leader soon. This is the last book. Now! Read the last book! The Biology of Tepig: It describes the biology of Tepig. Flame burns inside its body, and it gives off flame from its nostrils. When it's not well, it can give off only smoke. There is a memo between the pages! You've managed to get here. Well done! You seem to have wisdom as well as strength! I look forward to our battle! Gym Leader Lenora  We're gonna need to go back and heal. While we do that, you should have enough experience to evolve your starter, so let's go over them, I hoped you're ready!    Alright, you got Leaf Tornado, hope you like that move cause it's all you'll get for a long time. Growth and Leech Seed can help Servine be a moderate attacker with Slam giving you something to work with later on. Leaf Blade at 32 is such a blessing, but that's still a long while away yet. If you were hoping for TMs to save you, well Return is as good as you're gonna get, it has some tools and will be just fine, but there are plenty other mons that will surpass it in no time.    FIRE/FIGHTING! How does this keep happening? Well it works to our benefit here, since Pignite hits drat hard, though Arm Thrust isn't exactly great. It can fix its middling Speed with Flame Charge to really start sweeping, but with Smog and Rollout as upcoming moves it really, uh, loving sucks without TMs, its high Atk stat basically carrying. It learns a wide variety of moves, but they're mostly lategame though some options like Bulldoze and Low Sweep will pop up before evolution. It only really does one thing, but maybe that's all you need.    Razor Shell in hand, crit the world. Dewott is relatively one note until later when you get better coverage, which I guess Revenge counts as, but Fury Cutter does not. Water Pulse gives you some utility as well as Aqua Jet just before evolving, but Scald will be the real prize, and hey maybe even Grass Knot? You're also waiting until you get Surf anyway and there's nothing else to really mention, so on we go.   "When its internal fire flares up, its movements grow sharper and faster. When in trouble, it emits smoke."  Let's see how this goes...  The director of the Nacrene Museum and the Nacrene Gym's Leader is me! Lenora! Well then, challenger, I'm going to research how you battle with the Pokemon you've so lovingly raised! Gym Leader Battle    Lenora: An Archeologist with Backbone From lore and orare, Latin for speak. Aloe: Natural-born mama  From aloe, the plant genus, but more specifically aloe vera, or true aloe, used for pharmaceutical purposes.   Well you did what you could Corazon, honestly the recoil was the most important part. Before we get to the scary Pokemon, we first need to get past this scary Pokemon. Your team is probably just starting to shape up, so here's a doggy to poo poo all over that with Take Down. Crisis in Battle  Tristan barely survives a hit, nice! Oh yeah this is the first time I can clearly show off the low health music. It's... alright, like it's cool when you first hear it but it kinda gets old fast, especially when it plays over better tracks. Interesting idea, but I'm glad they dropped it.   Alright, now for the actual threat! Leader's Last  Nice going, Purrloin! Because of STAB Retaliate, you need a sacrifice on the turn Watchog comes out, it'll one shot basically anything that isn't Roggenrola.      That was lucky, don't need to deal with its bullshit! Watchog is absolutely terrifying... in this battle alone. Being an early game boss is never great for long term viability, and hey it has less Atk than Pignite! That's not good. It can do some weird support with Hypnosis and Super Fang and will even learn Hyper Fang in like 12 levels, but while it has the TM freedom afforded to it by its typing, it'll never do anything all that amazing due to it capping out so low. Sure, you could solo the game with it, Pokemon is an easy game for babies, but that doesn't mean it's good! Just prepare for the Gym battle against it and then it won't trouble you again, there's nearby Fighting types to breeze you past this, Roggenrola earlier on, Chesto Berries from Cheren, and your starter should be evolved to at least tank some hits. You'll be just fine, I wasn't worried specifically because of Hamlet being such an easy counter, but Servine can take some hits and Growth past it, while Dewott can crit with Razor Shell and even Rock Smash with the nearby TM, easy peasy.  You're more than just talented... you're motivated! I salute you! Your fighting style is so enchanting. It is charming. You are a Pokemon Trainer worthy of receiving this Basic Badge!  If you have two Badges, traded Pokemon up to Lv. 30 will obey you. Here, I also want you to have this TM. Retaliate does a lot more damage if an ally fainted the turn before you use it. If you master the timing, you can defeat even strong opponents. Here Comes Trouble!  Team Plasma is threatening to steal some bones! What? What's going on?! Touya! You come, too!   I'm in charge now! Okay there's one thing about Lenora we need to bring up, as seen in her JP description. Surprise surprise, a bunch of middle aged nerdy Japanese men are pretty loving racist. Hmm, well, that's actually racist in itself, but you know what I mean! It wasn't out of malice, Lenora is a real cool character, but having your first black person in the series have artwork like this, it's a pretty poor start. Still, it's wonderful to see more representation, it was sorely lacking.  Oh! The Gym Badge!! Congratulations! So, the museum! Oh, no. What shall we do?! Plasma Encounter   We, Team Plasma, claim this museum's Dragon Skull in the name of Pokemon liberation! To show you we're serious, we'll steal it right before your eyes!  Ah dammit, my accuracy was reduced by 25%!  Oh! Oh! We have to go after them! Lenora loves that skull... Nacrene City This is a surprise visit! Are you suffering from artist's block again? Touya! This is Burgh. He may not look like it, but he's Castelia City's Gym Leader! ...eh? Just looking for a change of pace. Seems hectic or something around here. What's up? What's up?! Someone just walked away with an exhibit, that's what's up!  And these two are...? Your friends? ... ... Bianca and Cheren... oh, I see. They're Trainers. OK, then. Let's split up and search. I'll head this way. Everyone! Cheren and Bianca, I want you to stay here at the museum. Burgh and Touya, you two search Pinwheel Forest. Got it? Burgh, you show the way! I'm counting on you, everyone! Uh-huh. You are... Touya, is it? Are you raring to round up our robbers? Oh! Oh, Touya! Take this with you! Fennel gave me this Dowsing Machine to give you. Now, what did she tell me? Um... you can use the Dowsing Machine to find places where items are hidden. So you can find stuff you can't even see! For now, all we need to do is protect the museum, right? Hey, wait for me! I think I'd better stay here, though. Please head to Pinwheel Forest and search very carefully! So I can't battle the Gym Leader because of Team Plasma, huh... what a bother. The Dowsing Machine is super good in this game, while you could use HGSS's version while moving, you had to basically glue your stylus to the bottom screen to make it work, this one moves all by itself. Of course, you have to close it if you want to use the menu, but using the Select menu can help avoid some of that. Since you can't register the Pokemon screen there's no way around that, but it's still super useful.  "Here, this might come in handy!"   It is super effective against Normal-type Pokemon, which Gym Leader Lenora likes!Thankfully we don't need to lug this move around anymore, only useful for the Gym, that's about it.  If they manage to scuttle off into the forest, we might have trouble. Next time, we will definitely head straight for Team Plasma and will absolutely not get distracted forty times along the way.
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May 29, 2020 23:32
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Side Notes 01: Experiencing Change Oh hey it's the fifth generation, apparently lots of things happened in this one, so let's go over some of the small and big changes, starting with one of the biggest changes, the experience formula, cause boy do I love these!  Well, starting off easy, huh? Some of this is similar to the previous generations, but this formula is used in Gen 5 and 7+ and has a scaling factor depending on the levels of the 2 Pokemon. Let's break it down. a is 1 if the fainted Pokemon is wild, 1.5 if the fainted Pokemon is owned by a Trainer, b is the base experience yield of the Pokemon, which is no longer capped at 255, letting other Pokemon aside from Audino and the Chansey line to give out lots of experience, such as legendaries having 300+. L is the level of the fainted Pokemon and s is for the Exp. Share, if a Pokemon is holding one, s is equal to twice the number of Pokémon that participated and have not fainted, when calculating the experience of a Pokémon that participated in battle, AND twice the number of Pokémon holding an Exp. Share, when calculating the experience of a Pokémon holding Exp. Share. Lp is the level of the victorious Pokemon, t is equal to 1 if the winning Pokemon's current owner is the OT and 1.5 otherwise, e is 1.5 if the Pokemon is holding a Lucky Egg, 1 otherwise and p is whether an Exp Pass Power is active, something we'll talk about later, and can even reduce exp points in a battle. They come in 3 stages, either boosting by 1.2x, 1.5x or 2x, or reducing by 0.8x, 0.66x or 0.5x. Overall it's not a massive formula change, all factors in flat experience gain are divided by 7.s, while that is clearly not the case in the scaling formula, having two separate multiplications that are then further increased by outside factors t, e and p. This means that experience gain can get wildly high, even above ONE MILLION if all the cards are lined up. This makes training Pokemon way easier, especially since each grassy patch has a friendly Audino ready to be beaten up. Next up is some changes to the good old PID. It still determines a fair chunk of stuff, but slowly but surely more and more about a Pokemon will no longer be determined by this, for whatever reason. First up is Ability, which is determined differently depending on whether the Pokemon is from Gen 5 or an earlier generation. If it is from the Poke Transfer, its ability, like in Gen 4, will remain the same until it's rechecked when evolved, after which it'll have the new ability if applicable. Any Pokemon like this sent ahead to Pokemon Bank via the Poke Transporter will have their Ability slot locked regardless of future evolution. Gen 5 Pokemon have their Ability determined by the lowest bit of the upper half of the PID, instead of the lower half, to determine Ability. A separate bit determines a Pokemon's Hidden Ability, with the PID bit being always set to even, as if it had a first slot Ability. Nature is no longer determined by the PID, instead a separate byte is used for which of the 25 Natures a Pokemon would get. People wanting to see Pokemon of a certain size is also no longer a thing, thank loving god, what an eldritch process that was. If an NPC does ask for something like that, it'll use Pokedex info or whatever. And of course since Aprijuice no longer exists, day to day performance is no longer calculated, again, thank god. Other smaller things have changed, such as the overall design of the game, kinda crazy to think this was the same system that has DP on it, day and night encounters are replaced by seasonal encounters, which might be worse but time changing is so easy to do it doesn't really matter. By the way, battles are way faster and smoother due to being 60 FPS instead of the standard 30 the games have been, a welcome change.
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May 29, 2020 23:33
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Ohhhh m ygod Lenora. When she's got her Apron slung over her shoulder, Lenora's design is probably one of my favorites in the series and she is a cool character but that design with the apron on is just so.... quote:[Character Designer Yusuke ] Ohmura: “If I was going to sum up Lenora with just a few words, I’d say she’s a mother with a lot of spirit. There was talk during Black & White’s development about wanting to focus on the inclusion of a multinational and multiracial vibe. So with that in mind, we came up with this black woman, and we’d received orders that she should have a strong sort of body type and some motherly qualities. So we added the apron when thinking about this motherly concept, but actually, the apron made Lenora give off the impression that she was just an average mom. So because she works as the head of the Nacrene Museum, discovering fossils and stuff like that, we tried incorporating elements of a kind of ‘work apron’ that could be useful in dealing with such a wild kind of job. We hadn’t had a Gym Leader that wears an apron before, so we figured that was another good reason to have Lenora wearing one.” Lenora's appearances in the anime actually had to be completely redrawn to remove the apron (some images here https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/isshu/bw015_apron01.html )and iirc all her appearances in stuff like Adventures has her with the arpon on for like a few panels tops before casting it aside. It's really confusing to me that they did not also edit the sprite here or in BW2.
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May 30, 2020 00:23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qrHgXg-cfc
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May 30, 2020 00:26
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I one hundred percent belief that the unfortunate implications of Lenora’s design is accidental because they weren’t aware of the idea of a mammy but HOO BOY is it awkward as gently caress. I think they’ve handled retconning it slightly better than recoloring Jynx purple before sending her to the Shadow Realm in subsequent non game media in recent years but it’s still yikes.
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May 30, 2020 01:14
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Honeeeeeeey, a bunch of dudes in funny costumes are being mean to me  Nerd
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May 30, 2020 01:39
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"Pokemon in the darker grass are higher level and lets you get into as many wild double battles as you want, though like Gen 4 you can only throw the ball as your first action at the last Pokemon standing" What does this mean? First action? So after fainting one pokemon you can't take your time to weaken the other before catching it, you have to do it immediately? Also, the dilemma of museums in Pokemon: to revive a fossil or exhibit it.
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May 30, 2020 08:22
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Carbon dioxide posted:"Pokemon in the darker grass are higher level and lets you get into as many wild double battles as you want, though like Gen 4 you can only throw the ball as your first action at the last Pokemon standing" For all this game maybe overtutorializes in the beginning, it really should have explained rustling grass at some point. When I played B&W, I still had the habit of training literally every single Pokemon, especially new ones, to see what they could do and if I was maybe missing a hidden gem. I did that with normal randos as usual, and found maybe 3 Audinos by accident. I also didn't get any of the cave dust cloud mons, missing out on some real powerhouses for quite some time. I think I realized that rustling grass is even a thing around the seventh badge, and was super pissed because I had wasted so much time before. I was even more pissed when I figured out that you can just bike next to a grass patch until one spot starts rustling, forcing an Audino (or rare encounter) every time. Also, one thing I find a little puzzling are the constant comments that the movesets are bad. I remember it being completely the other way round: coming off Gen 4, where some bug Pokemon never learned a bug attack, Tackle was less powerful, some mons never got a better STAB than a 60 BP attack, and you had one (1) use of a TM to maybe fix that, I was so, so happy to get attacks like Bug Bite at Level 12ish, Spark as the first electric move instead of the 20-BP-less (and not physical) Thundershock, have a decent 50 BP Tackle STAB for Normal types, and so on. Yes, there's often a bit of a lull in the mid-levels, but by that point you should have TMs to shore that up, and you can just toss them on so it's never been a big deal for me. I guess coming back from later gens with more power creep in play, it can be a little weird to praise the game for Spark or Bug Bite of all attacks, but one really has to see what came before; all these 60- and even soon 70-, 80-power attacks being on mons as early as Level 20 made battle so, so much quicker, on top of them running faster to begin with. It also made a lot of mons into glass cannons (hello Blitzle), but I prefer that to endless tank slugfests.
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May 30, 2020 09:01
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Simply Simon posted:For all this game maybe overtutorializes in the beginning, it really should have explained rustling grass at some point. I remember Cheren telling me about it. I assume this was added in B2/W2, I'm really bad at differentiating between them, which I recall leans even harder into the tutorial aspect despite it being an explicit sequel and the likelihood of a complete newbie starting with something specifically named as the second was astronomically low.
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May 30, 2020 09:22
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Tympole is a strangely rare mon up until generation 8. You can only find it in a single location while its evolutions are far more wide-spread and only a few trainers use the line (to make room for more water monkeys, I assume). Then the line went away almost completely for two generations only to be seen through the Friend Safari and the Dex-Navi which I don't think anyone uses to get team members. Kalos and Alola could have used a decent water/ground type but instead they got Whiscash and Quagsire, both of which aren't great fighters. Oh and a super late Gastrodon in Alola but at that point most teams will be set for a long time.
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May 30, 2020 11:48
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I really enjoy the way N uses constantly changing teams of Pokemon found in the nearest routes to where you are. I think it's an excellent way to do show don't tell. He abhors the idea of Pokemon trainers and keeping Pokemon in captivity, so rather than training up a standard team he befriends the Pokemon he can find nearby, and then releases them once he's done fighting you. Also just one more gen until Rock Tomb is a good move, you can do it!
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May 30, 2020 12:37
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werbear posted:Tympole is a strangely rare mon up until generation 8. You can only find it in a single location while its evolutions are far more wide-spread and only a few trainers use the line (to make room for more water monkeys, I assume). I honestly forgot the Tympole line existed - I remember playing this back in college, picking Oshawott as a starter, and thinking that water evolution lines were as rare in this game as fire-types were in Sinnoh. Granted, there are others down the road, it's just that there's not an absurd amount of water types clogging things up like there have been in the past games - about 7 different evolution lines, 3 of which are possible to not get without trading depending on your choices (Oshawott, Panpour, the yet-to-be-seen fossil)
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May 30, 2020 17:20
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Verant posted:I honestly forgot the Tympole line existed - I remember playing this back in college, picking Oshawott as a starter, and thinking that water evolution lines were as rare in this game as fire-types were in Sinnoh. Granted, there are others down the road, it's just that there's not an absurd amount of water types clogging things up like there have been in the past games - about 7 different evolution lines, 3 of which are possible to not get without trading depending on your choices (Oshawott, Panpour, the yet-to-be-seen fossil) The monkeys are actually rare encounters in shaking grass, so you can get all 3. You probably didnt know this because why would you want to catch another one?
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May 30, 2020 17:27
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Oh right, I forgot about that. I just...never bothered because it was honestly easier to nab them on the GTS than waste time getting grass to shake for the tiny chance that the missing monkey would pop out.
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May 30, 2020 17:35
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I honestly don't think I've ever even seen Tympole in 3D. It's a weird line for sure though, and honestly Tympole's design kinda creeps me out so I'm fine with it. It definitely is Gen 5's Glameow in terms of being unnecessarily rare though.
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May 30, 2020 19:44
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Was this the generation where they buffed the X-[stat] items?
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May 30, 2020 21:11
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What's wrong with her wearing an apron? Sorry if that's rude, I'm ignorant and when I tried googling it I mostly got advertisements for aprons aimed at black women. This gen looks really good. I stopped playing pokémon at the fourth generation, and I didn't particularly enjoy it- I assumed it would be a downward slope from there. All the pokémon so far in this game have looked awesome though and it sounds like they fixed the speed issue, the story and graphics direction look way better too.
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May 30, 2020 21:14
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Racial implications aside, Lenora's got a pretty decent design for their first real attempt at diversifying the region, even if they had to redo her art after the fact, plus she's got plenty of power as gym leader this early on...even if Watchog isn't exactly the best mon for that role. Also, requesting Minccino getting the nickname of Sweeps down the line if you're taking them.
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May 30, 2020 21:20
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Chatrapati posted:What's wrong with her wearing an apron? Sorry if that's rude, I'm ignorant and when I tried googling it I mostly got advertisements for aprons aimed at black women. I didn't know either, apparently it's a USA-specific slavery-related thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_archetype_in_the_United_States
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May 30, 2020 21:23
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Carbon dioxide posted:I didn't know either, apparently it's a USA-specific slavery-related thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_archetype_in_the_United_States Yeah, it's just an unfortunate combination of ideas- Pokemon's first black gym leader, wearing an artesanal apron with plenty of places to carry tools and keep dust and at least tries to look like something someone in her profession would wear (admittingly, a FIELD archaeologist would never wear something that'd be so uncomfortable lying on their front working as a heavy apron made to carry a bunch of lumpy tools, but one doing phase 2 or 3 off-site follow up work on the findings from a dig I could more easily see) is not the worst idea... Unless you're someone who lives in the United States and recognize her as having a lot of visual similarities to the traditional 19th century 'ideal' housekeeping slave. It's not even something I thought of when I first saw it, being someone who's assisted with archaeological work before and neither being black nor from the Southern U.S., I saw the professional lines first, but when someone pointed out the other thing she looked like, it became a lot harder to not cringe. It's still a visual image thrown around every so often in racist propaganda (usually as a call back to the 'good ol' days', with the unspoken implication that part of it is that black people were better off in 'happy' servitude) so yeah, it's a pretty problematic image even today. I don't fault a small video game company separated from the US by an ocean for not spotting it, and they've made some honest attempts to fix it before just ultimately burying the character once Black/White hit the rear-view. It's just... unfortunate.
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May 30, 2020 22:17
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| # ? May 8, 2024 22:34 |
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Yeah it's not something that ever occurred to me, I guess I just never took a good look at her character design. Though, I didn't know her JP description was 'Natural Born Mama'. That was just a bit... uhh
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May 30, 2020 23:07
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