|
Post by noknuckles on Nov 22, 2014 23:51:16 GMT -4
Anyone get ORAS yet?
I'm just so happy to be playing a gen 3 game with updated mechanics (phys/special split on offensive moves in particular). Loved the gen 3 games but I find it hard to go back to them just because I forgot how phys/special attacks worked in gen 3 and before.
That shiny Beldum gift is crazy. I mean, stats+typing is one thing, but its starting move set is so powerful. I never played with Genesect in BW2 and never played with Celebi in XY. Can't imagine how gamebreaking those would have been (though I imagine Celebi would be pretty balanced about halfway into the game)
|
|
|
Post by Sai on Nov 23, 2014 19:17:30 GMT -4
I too am looking forward to the Physical/Special split coming over to Hoenn!
I haven't gotten it yet - still finishing up Pokemon Y, haha. That shiny Beldum is sooo tempting, but I somehow doubt I'm going to have a copy of the game before the event ends. Sort of crossing my finger that there's another ClubNintendo promotion that lets you snag them for free, which was how I got my copy of Y!
I'm most excited for the new flying feature, and the return to contests! And for nostalgia's sake I'm really excited to do some Secret Base designing now, especially since there are so many new features to play with. I gotta say, though, I'm a little apprehensive because of how, as we've discussed before, easy X/Y were. I'm not crazy about the idea of all of the features that made X/Y so easy being carried over the R/S. I suppose we'll see, though!
|
|
|
Post by noknuckles on Nov 23, 2014 22:53:18 GMT -4
I haven't really figured out the contests yet. I know in the future I want to try it out using Cinccino. Cinccino is so cute and I just imagine it being perfect for those contests.
The design your own gym aspect of secret bases should be really fun. People are already sharing Blissey exp farm gyms. I'm trying to think of some sort of a fun theme. Maybe a Nana themed gym. With titles like Scarlet Knight, Unbreakable and Eternal Blaze, I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to pull off. I'm not sure if you'd be able to see my mons' names if we share gyms, I gotta look into that later
EXP Share is in ORAS. I turned it off immediately. Actually I never played with it in XY since I had already heard how game breakingly easy the game was with it on. Without EXP Share, XY's difficulty was pretty typical for a Pokemon game. If you're worried about difficulty, maybe it's better if you missed the Beldum event. I don't think Beldum itself is game-breaking, but its starting moveset is basically end-game viable
|
|
|
Post by hot0rikun967 on Nov 26, 2014 0:33:21 GMT -4
Just beat ORAS, and it has officially replaced the originals as my favorite video games of all time. But nostalgia and bias aside, it has the best story of any Pokemon game. The post-game Delta Episode. Fantastic. Especially the last battle. Oh my gosh that'll make any long-time Pokemon fan excited.
I didn't even know about the gym-building aspect to be honest, but now I'm super excited about trying that! (Please make that Nana-themed gym. A+) The flying on Latias/Latios is so cool, too! It adds even more exploration to a region that always had the most to explore (diving...so good). Gah. Everything about these remakes is perfect. Oh, and MEGA GLALIE.
|
|
|
Post by Sai on Nov 27, 2014 0:08:56 GMT -4
^ You've already beaten it?! Damn, I'm still not even finished Y XD
I did always like the original R/S/E plot, even if some of Team Magma's/Aqua's logistics were... iffy. But they were definitely an exciting bunch of antagonists compared to Team Rocket, and I loved the whole apocalyptic feel once Groudon/Kyogre were awakened! That was incredibly fun and different for a Pokemon game at the time.
|
|
|
Post by noknuckles on Nov 29, 2014 14:22:29 GMT -4
Yeah, that was fast! I just got my 6th badge.
Mega Manectric is insanely good. I'm using two megas right now, deciding on a battle-by-battle basis which one I want to use. Heck I may even drop Sceptilite and just use Miracle Seed, using Mega Manectric full-time.
I loved Team Magma/Aqua, even though they made no sense as villains. Seeing Groudon and Kyogre fight just felt really grand, something you don't really get outside of the movies.
I liked Rocket after Gen 2 when they felt really pitiful. Rocket was kinda cool, but also kinda generic in Gen 1, but their pathetic-ness in Gen 2 really gave them character
|
|
|
Post by hot0rikun967 on Dec 2, 2014 20:04:54 GMT -4
Team Magma/Aqua definitely had terrible logic, but they began the trend of villainous teams with good intentions but reckless or otherwise foolish execution. I think Galactic had the "remake the world" mentality, and I did like them. Ghetsis and N were interesting characters despite Team Plasma being a little strange to deal with in a story that never really addresses the significance of its legendaries nor the repercussions of freedom of Pokemon.
But yeah, the sort of big event kind of feel that the Groudon and Kyogre scenarios brought were really well done for a Pokemon game at the time, and now that they're in 3d, they allow the player to truly feel immersed in the story. And seriously, that Delta Episode. I can not wait to read you guys' reactions to it.
Addressing the speed at which I finished the game, you must understand how long I've been waiting for this o__o AND MEGA GLALIE.
|
|
|
Post by noknuckles on Dec 4, 2014 19:33:08 GMT -4
Just finished the Delta episode. It was really awesome. More epic than the XY Looker quest, though I loooooved that too, just for completely different reasons.
ORAS is definitely my favourite Pokemon game. The changes and some of the dialogue in it was so good. It was definitely a worthy remake. First 4 gyms were pretty OK, but from the Norman fight onward, it became the best Pokemon experience I've had. Some things that they nailed: - Norman + Main character relationship - Wally was really cool. I think the rivalry thing coulda been fleshed out more, but I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out - Brendan's relationship with main character (I played as a girl, so if you played as a boy I guess it would be May)
Seriously, the Brendan relationship is my favourite aspect of the game. In BW and XY, they were going for a more friendship theme instead of rival theme. It was done kinda meh in those games, but I really connected with Brendan in ORAS. It felt like more than friendship. Not quite romance, but I think the connection is beyond friendship
Some of the lore changes, such as retconning XY's lore into Hoenn's story was amazing. Mega Evolution fits into ORAS story way better than XY.
Delta Episode SPOILERS DONT READ BELOW
I loved how it fleshes out the lore. Sootopolis, meteors, battles between Kyogre and Groudon etc. even including some of XY's story with the ultimate weapon. I was a little iffy on XY's story, but somehow the Delta Episode got me more engaged into XY's story than XY itself did. It leaves me hyped for XY's sequel (X2Y2, Z, whatever) which I guess is exactly what this quest is supposed to do.
The ending was amazing. Wallace at the Pokemon league, and OMG another amazing Brendan moment. The thing that blew me away the most was Steven mentioning a guy with a Charizard X. I was like "Whaaa wtf?!" and I had to look it up
|
|
|
Post by noknuckles on Dec 21, 2014 21:28:04 GMT -4
Not sure if I set it up properly, or whether I even have a team, but here's my secret base. Lemme know what you see (whether I have a team at all). Wanna play multi battles at some point?
|
|
|
Post by Sai on Dec 24, 2014 9:44:21 GMT -4
^ I spy a Nana song title! Awesome. I just read this review of ORAS, and I was curious as what you guys think about it since you've actually played the game: www.rpgamer.com/games/pokemon/pokemonoras/reviews/pokemonorasstrev1.htmlIt addresses especially the low challenge factor of recent Pokemon games, which we've been discussing. I'm curious though, what do you guys think would be a good solution for this problem?
|
|
|
Post by noknuckles on Dec 24, 2014 17:24:16 GMT -4
It's fair, even if I disagree with half of it.
A few major points in the review:
Storytelling
The story itself peaked in gen 5, but I think the storytelling in ORAS is better and more immersive. Games tend to have weak-ish stories; their strength is in immersion and world-building. The world-building is the biggest strength in ORAS, even if I do agree that the story is just kinda there. Gen 5 had a better story but I think Hoenn is far more immersive and the lore and characters are more interesting than Kalos. Story is kinda weak in Pokemon games, it's the lore around the regions that's interesting and I think ORAS reveals a lot of cool things about the lore to keep me interested in the Pokemon universe
Criticism is fair and accurate, though I feel it misses out on what makes the Pokemon world magical.
Lack of shake-up
We're mid-generation, of course they're not doing a big shake-up of game mechanics. It's been like this every generation, where the big changes are between generations, not during. People who want shake ups to the series should probably get one game per generation. I think the in-between generation games are more for people like me who can't get enough of Pokemon. It's been like this for almost 20 years, we know what to expect from mid-generation Pokemon games.
The "same old" argument would be fair in XY if you don't think that game did enough to shake up the old formula. Mega Evos were a shake up. The rest of the mechanics changes are basically balance patches for competitive play, which is kinda what XY felt like.
Interface being clunky
Fair. I didn't even find where the O-Powers menu was until around my 6th badge. Some of the new features are cool, but the interface is clunky. The bottom screen pausing the top screen thing that the reviewer talked about is annoying. I mean, I put up with it, but it's a good point
Looks
The reviewer thinks the region looks meh. I think it looks gorgeous. Purely subjective, but I just loooove how Hoenn looks
Difficulty
Agreed, game is easy. I found it easier than XY, though that may be because with the advent of a new generation, I want to try out all the new stuff so my team ends up being terrible. The low difficulty is definitely intentional, as GF wants to reach to as wide an audience as possible. A possible solution is to have a difficulty setting. Gen 5 did it, but it was poorly done. Self imposed challenges like Nuzlockes are probably the way to go (I've still never gotten past the 2nd gym in any Nuzlocke I've attempted, I'm that bad at them).
Overall, the review's good. I disagree with half of it, but it does a fair job at presenting information and letting the reader decide if it's their cup of tea
|
|
|
Post by stranger on Jul 8, 2015 16:50:12 GMT -4
I've been playing a lot of pokemon lately! I love the dexnav system, it's such a great system and makes it really fun to hunt a certain pokemon. It also makes it more worth it to go in the grass, compared to in the past where I rarely revisited some areas honestly. However, cave and water dexnav is quite difficult to use for me. Even so, I caught 2 shiny eevees, shiny clefairy, and shiny swablu so far. I also got a shiny Eevee, shiny Ditto, and shiny Jigglypuff from XY's fun but frustrating PokeRadar. I LOVE the secret bases too. I got this little surprise just today!!! I'd love to add some of you on here too. We can maybe battle or trade, just PM me To answer Sai's question too, about the low challenge factor, I think that depends. The main story itself has a low challenge factor, yes. To be honest, I'm usually never impressed by the main story. It's usually a bit corny and very predictable. I thought the Delta Episode was pretty nice, though. I think the best way to combat this is a risk/reward system. Like...give a player 1.5x prize money if the player uses no healing items per battle, or x2 the experience if they only have 3 pokemon in their party. Those are random examples and I'm not saying those should be incorporated, but something like that. The difficulty should be kept low because of how young a lot of the players are, but at the same time, reward those that take greater risks. Or maybe include a score or rating system based on how well you do in battle. That sounds difficult, but it's done in a lot of games. Like Final Fantasy or even Mario. And again, depending on how well you do, you get certain rewards or even get to share the scores online. I think there's a lot of innovation possible, and I hope the developers continue to push the envelope. I think they bring a lot of small changes to keep the game from being boring but still keep it the same Pokemon we all know and love.
|
|
|
Post by Sai on Jul 24, 2015 15:47:29 GMT -4
I just started Alpha Sapphire not too long ago! :3 I'm really enjoying it so far - just got to Lavaridge. The secret bases are a lot of fun, and so perfect for this era of streetpassing and wifi.
The difficulty... yeah. It's still pretty much up to the player to set limitations to make the game more interesting, which is a little bit sad. Seriously, if I embraced all the features this game tries to push on you (EXP Share for the entire team, Wonder Trade, GTS) I'd have the most OP team right now. Sigh.
The idea of a risk & reward system is interesting, and not one I ever considered for Pokemon! Personally I just like the idea of a difficulty setting (that you have from the beginning of the game) that affects things like the levels of opposing Pokemon, trainer AI, the potency of healing items, etc.
|
|
|
Post by stranger on Jul 24, 2015 19:08:58 GMT -4
Make sure to get Diancie, Sai! You can get it from Mystery Gift until Monday, I think.
A difficulty setting would be a pretty easy thing to include. I would love for them to include it, because as is, I definitely wouldn't play both versions (or go through the story mode of both versions). They really don't make buying both versions really worth the investment, in my opinion.
Wonder Trade is such a neat little feature. You would expect to get only crappy pokemon, but you can get some shockers sometimes. That only usually happens when only Japanese players are on, though.
GTS needs a few major improvements, it's nice but too basic (and I'm surprised they don't even have a feature that shows you what pokemon people want, so you could fill requests for people).
|
|
|
Post by Sai on Jul 27, 2015 18:45:39 GMT -4
^ Ooooh, I'll definitely grab that Diancie. I don't think I'll use it since I tend to avoid using legendaries in my main team, but I'd love to have it nonetheless.
Wonder Trade is ridiculously addictive, and yeah, I've gotten some pretty great finds through it! It's kinda crazy the team you can build right from the get-go with Wonder Trade. Because of that, though, I limit myself to only using one WT Pokemon per game, and save it for something I'm really lacking (I might use it for a fire or dragon type in AS, since Hoenn doesn't offer much of either). I still Wonder Trade constantly just to see what I can get, though - so addictive xD; And for Pokemiles! ...Which is another feature that's honestly pretty cheap, haha.
I'm sure this has been done, but I'd love to start a file in which I catch 6 random Pokemon, WT them away, then use whatever I get as a team. It'd have some interesting results, I'm sure, and would be the closest to having a truly randomly generated team challenge.
I
|
|