To be fair they were kind of sort of causing a lot of trouble for them and making themselves public.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
ORAS Experiences
- Thread starter Codraroll
- Start date
Just finished going through the Team Magma base in Lilycove, and I must say I think it (and probably the Team Aqua counterpart) is the best-designed villainous lair so far. Okay, the battles are total pushovers, and as usual there are no toilets to be seen anywhere, but the lair has a somewhat logical layout, there are offices showing the mundane side of Evil Teaming, there are labs, the "Magma Suit" is teased, and there even is a test chamber for it (with aptly labelled buttons at the control panel). It even has a vending machine.
Speaking of vending machines, the game seems to almost be designed with them in mind. You bump into them everywhere, even in Brawly's Gym, Mt. Chimney, they are in Mauville, at the Ferry terminals in Slateport and Lilycove, at the Weather Institute, at the Safari Zone entrance...
If I ever play through OR again, or if I get AS, I think I'll do the "Vending Machine challenge". That is, no healing at Pokémon Centres, PP restoration can only be done with Leppa Berries, HP restoration can only be done with drinks bought from Vending Machines. Additionally, since nobody likes lukewarm soda, the drinks have to be consumed on the spot (you may sit down on a bench next to the machine, though). Before you leave off at Mr. Briney you can heal using mom's home-brewed soda in Littleroot Town, but once you spot the first vending machine, you open your eyes to the real stuff and may not go back to mom before beating the Elite Four (after which you've presumably been sent away for rehab).
Anybody in for it?
Speaking of vending machines, the game seems to almost be designed with them in mind. You bump into them everywhere, even in Brawly's Gym, Mt. Chimney, they are in Mauville, at the Ferry terminals in Slateport and Lilycove, at the Weather Institute, at the Safari Zone entrance...
If I ever play through OR again, or if I get AS, I think I'll do the "Vending Machine challenge". That is, no healing at Pokémon Centres, PP restoration can only be done with Leppa Berries, HP restoration can only be done with drinks bought from Vending Machines. Additionally, since nobody likes lukewarm soda, the drinks have to be consumed on the spot (you may sit down on a bench next to the machine, though). Before you leave off at Mr. Briney you can heal using mom's home-brewed soda in Littleroot Town, but once you spot the first vending machine, you open your eyes to the real stuff and may not go back to mom before beating the Elite Four (after which you've presumably been sent away for rehab).
Anybody in for it?
That's an awesome idea, totally great combining it with the "Middle Evolution or lower" challenge I am going to do (for example, no blaziken only combusken)... I already have lotsa Everstones on XY.
This sounds like a challenge to me :D
So what do you do for things like Mawile and Absol? And for that matter would those sorts of things be your only allowed Megas?
... I have an easy explanation: I call it the "Eviolite" Run. I think that clears it up: Only Mons which get the powerboost of eviolite are allowed. Pikachu and Cubone have a purpose.
(Special Note: Every Megavolution makes runs to easy)
My brother is using Torchic (of all things) right now as an example for this run, he is at Gym 3
By the way, does anyone NOT like Wally? He's supposed to be a feel-good story, but the way I look at him is: he catches a ralts on the first try while I search for hours in the same block of grass, he pretends to be all sweet and helpful, but does he help me against the bad guys! Nope. He's just hanging out in Victory Road so he could ambush me before I could heal.
That was just in R/S/E. And now in ORAS, he has time to put together an OP Smogon team and enjoy Battle Resort, after I had to search around Hoenn for meteorites, get his keystone back from a crazy lady, and risk my life going to space to save the world.
There are reddit threads lamenting how awful it is to beat Wally after he works so hard. For me, I laugh in his face after I destroy his Mega Gallade. Yes, I'm heartless and you can judge.
That was just in R/S/E. And now in ORAS, he has time to put together an OP Smogon team and enjoy Battle Resort, after I had to search around Hoenn for meteorites, get his keystone back from a crazy lady, and risk my life going to space to save the world.
There are reddit threads lamenting how awful it is to beat Wally after he works so hard. For me, I laugh in his face after I destroy his Mega Gallade. Yes, I'm heartless and you can judge.
A Smogon team wouldn't load up Roserade with Poison Jab and Petal Blizzard, which don't use its Special Attack stat...
Belle that pretty much is just an expansion of why I feel your rival/Wally is more or less disconnected. That, or they're too focused on their own endeavors to really get involved in whatever you're doing (which to be honest, kinda makes them look worse in a sense, lol...). He's the kind of guy that's actually stronger than what he really is, but you can't really blame him against types like Zinnia who are probably stronger than him anyway so at least he tried, maybe?
It's not like they ignore you on purpose or anything in moments of crisis, at least, I hope not. :x
It's not like they ignore you on purpose or anything in moments of crisis, at least, I hope not. :x
So I've been watching a certain let's player doing a nuzlocke, and in his latest episode he used the dexnav... very very shamelessly.
Like he found a taillow with it at first, but seeing it had no egg move decided not to go battle it. The next two finds were Skitty so he decided not to go for them.
What I'm wondering is does this give nuzlockers too much power and choice and how much the dexnav should be limited? I think it has the opportunity to make nuzlockes a little more interesting but I don't think you should be allowed to just pick and choose.
Like he found a taillow with it at first, but seeing it had no egg move decided not to go battle it. The next two finds were Skitty so he decided not to go for them.
What I'm wondering is does this give nuzlockers too much power and choice and how much the dexnav should be limited? I think it has the opportunity to make nuzlockes a little more interesting but I don't think you should be allowed to just pick and choose.
I honestly feel that the DexNav goes against the spirit of a Nuzlocke when you can do exactly what you described. Ultimately though, it's up to the player's choice how they treat it.
Wally is an atleast a realistic egoistic human: After he discoveres what he can do, only his team and himself matters. Pretty common human stuff in RL, except with less Pokemon of course
Edit: Nuzlockers can do whatever they want, where is the problem in people having fun? Or is it because of name labelling? If latter, isn't this simply a two rule run? Catch first thing you get in grass/cave on Route and relases the fainted mon.
So where is the problem?
Edit: Nuzlockers can do whatever they want, where is the problem in people having fun? Or is it because of name labelling? If latter, isn't this simply a two rule run? Catch first thing you get in grass/cave on Route and relases the fainted mon.
So where is the problem?
The problem is that essentially he's just throwing away what he first finds if he doesn't want it rather than catching it. He found a Skitty with the dexnav, said "Oh I don't like Skitty" and didn't engage in battle with it, which completely goes against the rule of a nuzlocke that states to catch the first thing in each area.
Please don't pull the "Where's the problem in people having fun" card, it's such an annoying and cheap way to get out of the rules.
But it is true....? Saying that this is a "card" doesn't make it go away(why a card anyway wtf)
Also DexNav simply allows you to have more control than in past games, where some people would use repels to get to a specific spot which gives you a higher encounter chance to get the mon you wish. Now you have an ingame way to encounter what you wish. Don't see the problem to be honest.
Isn't the whole point of the Nuzlocke to use stuff you wouldn't normally?
I think it's quite self-explanatory why the Dexnav notification should be seen as an encounter. Finding a Pokémon through Dexnav should require you to sneak up on that Pokémon and catch it, if you fail to sneak up to it, then you lost your chance for that route. This isn't to ruin the fun of a Nuzlocke, but it is supposed to be challenging and random, being able to choose which pokémon you encounter takes away the random factor, and therefore nullifies one of the main rules of a Nuzlocke. So avoiding a dexnav Pokémon is breaking one of the two rules, and then it's not a Nuzlocke challenge anymore.
Alternatively, if you encounter something else while sneaking up to it, then that's the one you can catch and nothing else, excluding shiny Pokemon and sometimes dupes.
Dudes, do you realize Wally never could even live his hometown due to its severe sickness? Why would he bother risking himself against Teams Aqua/Magma, he wants to explore the world lol
Ok I've been putting this off way too long, was going to wait until I had actually finished the game to post my thoughts but I'm stuck SRing Rayquaza so I guess I'll just post that later..
I absolutely loved this game.
There are so many things that I want to talk about but I don't really know where to start. I'll just type out what happened to me...
(warning: long)
And since this is my 1000th post, I may as well do a couple of shoutouts...
I absolutely loved this game.
There are so many things that I want to talk about but I don't really know where to start. I'll just type out what happened to me...
(warning: long)
So I've never really liked the whole 'start new game, get intro by Prof. that you've never met and wake up in your room' thing. I mean is this a dream? What exactly is going on? Can the Prof. see you? If so, how do they not know if you're a boy/girl etc... I think they nailed the intro for ORAS though. First off, you get the old-timey graphics that remind you you're playing a remake, then the camera pans out to show off a first-person view with you holding what looks like a GBA (omg this is a remake). They do away with the awkward conversation with the Prof. by making it that you're registering your info on your PokeNav after watching an intro video on it. Then you leave the truck after spending 10 minutes in there soaking in every second into the bright light of the open world (which didn't make sense because I was playing at night).
I played Sapphire religiously as a kid so I know all/most of the dialogue so I instinctively smash A before reminding myself to take it easy. After snapchatting several hilarious jokes involving the Machoke and the Mom to my friend it's time to check out my room. Sweet Snorlax doll /chair (oh what you can't even sit on it?), better go set the cloc... the DS set it for me? The future is now!
Ok skipping ahead, I pick Treecko and save Birch. I name my Treecko Bridgestone and head out to crush May, too bad I beat her so badly because the backdrop was beautiful. Now it's time to learn how to catch way overpowered pokemon via the DexNav! Too bad Bridgestone ohko'd the Poochyena with a crit, I heard it gets a good move or something.. I decide I need to catch something though but I still don't quite understand the DexNav so I catch Petros the Wingull in preparation for all the Flying/Surfing I have to do later. The cutscene with the Beautifly is a really nice touch as you walk into Petalburg! This is where I learn you can use the DexNav on overworld Pokemon, I really like this as it makes you feel like Ash checking out literally everything in the Anime haha
*fast forward through Wally catching Ralts etc*
Petalburg woods looks awesome, especially with the rays of light coming through between the trees. I decide to try out the DexNav again and OH SHIT a lv14 Slakoth! I really don't want to catch it but surely it will give some sweet exp. right? I legit would have lost to this thing if it weren't for Truant... I battle the Aqua Grunt and prepare myself for the sweet, sweet Great ball I've earned, except he gives me the Exp. Share..? I learned my lesson in Y so that thing gets turned off. I make my way to Rustboro to take on Roxanne. Even though grass beats rock, this battle always used to give me trouble somehow so I grind the gym traine... Mega Drain at lv14 gg Roxanne.
I want a Nincada so I can get the all powerful Shedinja, maybe I'll take this opportunity to learn how the DexNav actually works. 5 minutes later I have a Nincada with Bug Buzz and a Tailow with Boomburst! Lucky I'm not using the Exp. Share, we wouldn't want the game to be too easy right, GF? I humiliate the Grunt in Rusturf Tunnel with my level 5 Nincada and head to Devon Corpto collect my reward they send you on a mission? Some thanks..
I marvel at some more graphical upgrades (mostly Mr. Briney's boat) on my way to Dewford. I go to Granite Cave to grind some more but there's a bunch of tools blocking an entrance (I thought we were done with this in BW) so I head for the gym. I never understood why Brawly's gym was so dark, is it because Granite Cave is nearby? In ORAS his gym is actually a gym which makes even less sense, normally those places are lit up like crazy so everyone can check themselves out in the mirror. I make my way to the back of the gym where the exercise equipment is and it's just treadmills and bikes, where's the bench press bruz? Brawly is as soft as his gym and Petros makes easy work of him. I head back to Granite Cave and find Steven, I make sure 3D is on full and take in the cave painting (which looks amazing!)
Moving on to Slateport, not much has changed here so I decide to check out the Contest Hall. They tell me I need a Contest Pass which can be found in town, I spend ages looking but get bored and decide to leave, only to be stopped by Lissia. I laugh every time she does that twerk dance thing (how is this in a kids game?) and send some more snapchats to my friend. I feel obligated to take part in a contest so I enter with Tailow (she's going to get boxed real soon, may as well give her something to do before that) who gets awarded coolest in show! This where we meet our next team member; Belle the Pikachu. I give her the blue dress to get Icicle Crash and move on
The Trick House is pretty cool, I have trouble finding the Trick Master because in these games you don't get the small flash of light hinting at where he is. I over-prepare for the battle with May since that one always gave me trouble. Bridgestone handles Wailmer (where does she catch this?) and slows Combusken down with Rock Tomb so Petros can get a 2hko, Shroomish goes down after missing Leech Seed. I make my way to Mauville and, holy shit, is this place big now! I check out every square inch before I show Wally he's still a scrub, I then send Nincada into Wattson's gym to Mud Slap our way to victory.
*fast forward to route 111*
I meet Aarune after leaving the Fiery Path. He ends most of his sentences with "___, see?" which in my head makes him sound like a 1920s gangster. I'm not interested in Secret Bases so I quickly made my way for route 113, this is probably my favourite route in the whole game! I was playing at night, and the background during battles was beautiful. You've got white ash-covered trees, with more ash falling from the starry night sky. I DexNav chained Skarmory for a while there just to enjoy the backdrop as much as I could, ended up with a nice Drill Peck Skarm that I didn't end up keeping very long. I quickly made my way to the next amazing piece of scenery; Meteor Falls. I was really happy to see that the layout hadn't been changed (unlike Granite Cave) and had just received a direct graphical upgrade. Long story short; saved Cozmo, battled team Aqua on Mt Chimney, went down to Lavaridge and whooped Flannery with Petros, I then trekked back to Petalburg to face Dad (stopping by Slateport to nickname my newly evolved Shedinja 'Cicarne' ('sick-are-knee', what my little brother used to call Cicadas) )
I honestly had to use some real battling tactics to beat Norman. Petros could swap between Protect+Water Pulse to beat the first Slaking, but he was too slow and weak to beat his Vigaroth (and I needed him alive for the last Slaking) so I switched in Cicarne to take the 140BP Retaliate, then switched in Bridgestone to Mega Drain him to death, brought Shedinja back in to take Slaking's Retaliate, and finished him off with Petros. GG Dad. I grabbed the Surf HM and headed for route 118 where I was met by Steven, when Latios came to pick us up I realised this must be where I get Latias! I wasn't prepared so I made Latios take me back so I could grab a Timid ralts, flew back and began the tedious task of SRing Latias...
After a good two days of destroying Matt's Sharpedo over and over, I finally had an ok Latias (scroll downshameless trade thread plug) which I named Zakuro. I kind of regretted spending that much time on it as it definitely distracted me from enjoying the game, but I'm also pretty happy to have a useable Latias with my OT (even though I'm going to play through again with a different OT so...). I was a little disappointed with the scenery of route 119, I was expecting something similar to the swampy route 14 in Kalos, with overhanging trees and stuff. The route is meant to be a rainforest but it's too open, I know it's because that's what it looks like in the originals but the technology was so limited then... Rant aside, I kicked Team Aqua out of the Weather Institute and picked up a Castform, I named it Giaan (channel 7 Melbourne weather girl) and it became my pseudo fire type. May surprised me with a battle before Fortree but I still whooped her. Belle was a beast against Winona with Spark + Icicle Crash.
*fast forward to Mt. Pyre*
Not much has happened since my last gym battle. I checked out the Safari Zone which seemed ok, I much prefer the RSE Safari as this is one is a bit boring tbh.. I was pretty happy with my team so far as I reached Mt. Pyre, except for Giaan who sucked without weather up which meant I was constantly healing her from using Sunny Day turn one to beat things. I decided I would replace her with a Vulpix, but why settle for just any old Vulpix when you can DexNav a Drought one?? It took me about half an hour to do but I finally found one, I was hoping it would be a male so I could name it Andras (after Andras Fox, one of my favourite producers) but it was a girl, so I named it Andrea instead. I really lucked out on her, she came with Heat Wave, had great IVs and HP Electric. After following Team Aqua to their hideout (which is one of the coolest places in the game imo, particularly the entrance) I decided Andrea needed some grinding so I let her clean out the base by herself and high tailed it to Mossdeep. I chose to hold off evolving Andrea because she was crushing the water routes with Hidden Power and staying alive thanks to Drought, I had to backtrack to route 123 to find the Gyaradosite for the Mega Stone Guide I'm doing where she had an Epic battle against a Ninetales, after which I decided it was a good time to evolve her. Tate & Liza were easily taken care of thanks to Petros' Surf (Zakuro made a cameo appearance), it was then time to explore the ocean with Dive
By this time I was way behind schedule due to my Latias endeavors, as well as some irl stuff, so I was getting keen to power through the rest of the story and get my guides done. The Seafloor Cavern provided somewhere to grind Zakuro as she was sitting a good 10 levels below everyone else at this point. Cue Dragon Breath spam and a lot of dead Golbat + Aqua Grunts. Archie let Kyogre loose on the world (pretty cool cutscene) and I had to find my way to Sootopolis, while diving I found that there are underwater trainers and decided that the music that plays when you talk to them is my favourite in the game. I tried to explore Sootopolis but everyone had locked their doors to hide from the rain (wimps), on to the Cave of Origin it is then... After a long winded speech by several characters, it was decided that it was my job to stop Kyogre from drowning everyone. I don't understand why it was needed but I had to ride on Kyogre like a Dolphin at Sea World to get to the bottom of the trench(?) to battle it, instead of just doing business in the Cave of Origin. I'm not complaining though because that part was cool as fuck! I had Bridgestone ready (was going to troll Kyogre with Cicarne but decided mega evo vs primal would be ~cooler~), Kyogre does its big transformation, I mega evolve and click Leaf Blade, OHKO... Which is fine because I wanted to SR it later anyway. It felt weird not capturing Kyogre though, like the dialogue after the battle seemed awkward. Oh well, I don't have time for chit-chat, I want to be Champion already! I spend a few minutes finding the post-CoO mega stones, head to Sea Mauville (and spend a good while reading all the book and notes that tell the backstory. I really enjoyed it here. The whole place probably received the best upgrade with these new games imo) and finally make my way to Ever Grande
There are a couple of Ace Trainers wondering how to get up the waterfall, I thought I'd rub it in their stupid faces by commanding Zakuro to take me up right in front of them (oh yeah, Latias had to become a semi HM slave with Dive + Waterfall because I forgot Pelipper can't learn them, smh). I healed my Pokemon, made sure I had enough healing items and set out for the long journey through Victory Roa... Oh I'm through already? That was fast. At least Wally surprised me at the end (I knew he was coming, I just didn't know when) and put up a pretty good fight in the end. I mean, Mega Zakuro swept him but she was on really low health by the end of it so... Anyway, onto the final challenge, the Elite 4
Honestly, I was a little nervous for the Pokemon League as I hadn't specifically prepared my team for any of the members. That's ok though, right? It just means I might actually be challenged here. Well here's the battles:
Sidney:
Steven: (can't remember turn orders, or even if this is exactly what happened. I just know I won with just Bridgestone in the red...)
Bridgestone @ Sceptilite
Lv 57 - Naughty
- Leaf Blade
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
Petros @ Never-Melt Ice
Lv 51 - Bashful
- Fly
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Roost
Cicarne @ Focus Band
Lv 52 - Mild
- Shadow Snaek
- Dig
- Phantom Force
- Hone Claws
Belle @ Light Ball
Lv 52 - Naughty
- Wild Charge
- Icicle Crash
- Dig
- Flash (lol)
Zakuro @ Latiasite
Lv 48 - Timid
- Dragon Breath
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power
- Shadow Ball
Andrea @ Black Glasses
Lv 56 - Naughty
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Calm Mind
After that I watched the credits roll and reminisced as the game showed me which Pokemon were by my side at certain points in the game. Then May comes out of nowhere with a battle back at that gorgeous pond we first battled at. She nearly swept me with Mega Blaziken but Zakuro was able to come in and tank a Shadow Claw and KO... I also really loved the way the Delta Episode gets teased at the end of the credits. I've been playing through that now and it's fucking epic so far. I'm at Rayquaza at the moment and won't be advancing until RNGsus decides to give me a break. I have no idea what to expect next as I haven't spoiled myself yet apart from fighting Deoxys so I'm excited to move on and enjoy that, also so I can start all over again and play through with a different team (don't worry, I won't do a big write-up of that playthrough though haha. Unless I do a Let's Play or something... hmmm)
And that's basically my journey through Hoenn. I had been looking forward to these games since they were speculated years ago and had high hopes once it was officially announced, I really think GF did a great job combining elements of the old games to generate nostalgia, while putting a modern twist on the games, even if they are a bit easy. Bring on Pokemon Z imo
I played Sapphire religiously as a kid so I know all/most of the dialogue so I instinctively smash A before reminding myself to take it easy. After snapchatting several hilarious jokes involving the Machoke and the Mom to my friend it's time to check out my room. Sweet Snorlax doll /
Ok skipping ahead, I pick Treecko and save Birch. I name my Treecko Bridgestone and head out to crush May, too bad I beat her so badly because the backdrop was beautiful. Now it's time to learn how to catch way overpowered pokemon via the DexNav! Too bad Bridgestone ohko'd the Poochyena with a crit, I heard it gets a good move or something.. I decide I need to catch something though but I still don't quite understand the DexNav so I catch Petros the Wingull in preparation for all the Flying/Surfing I have to do later. The cutscene with the Beautifly is a really nice touch as you walk into Petalburg! This is where I learn you can use the DexNav on overworld Pokemon, I really like this as it makes you feel like Ash checking out literally everything in the Anime haha
*fast forward through Wally catching Ralts etc*
Petalburg woods looks awesome, especially with the rays of light coming through between the trees. I decide to try out the DexNav again and OH SHIT a lv14 Slakoth! I really don't want to catch it but surely it will give some sweet exp. right? I legit would have lost to this thing if it weren't for Truant... I battle the Aqua Grunt and prepare myself for the sweet, sweet Great ball I've earned, except he gives me the Exp. Share..? I learned my lesson in Y so that thing gets turned off. I make my way to Rustboro to take on Roxanne. Even though grass beats rock, this battle always used to give me trouble somehow so I grind the gym traine... Mega Drain at lv14 gg Roxanne.
I want a Nincada so I can get the all powerful Shedinja, maybe I'll take this opportunity to learn how the DexNav actually works. 5 minutes later I have a Nincada with Bug Buzz and a Tailow with Boomburst! Lucky I'm not using the Exp. Share, we wouldn't want the game to be too easy right, GF? I humiliate the Grunt in Rusturf Tunnel with my level 5 Nincada and head to Devon Corp
I marvel at some more graphical upgrades (mostly Mr. Briney's boat) on my way to Dewford. I go to Granite Cave to grind some more but there's a bunch of tools blocking an entrance (I thought we were done with this in BW) so I head for the gym. I never understood why Brawly's gym was so dark, is it because Granite Cave is nearby? In ORAS his gym is actually a gym which makes even less sense, normally those places are lit up like crazy so everyone can check themselves out in the mirror. I make my way to the back of the gym where the exercise equipment is and it's just treadmills and bikes, where's the bench press bruz? Brawly is as soft as his gym and Petros makes easy work of him. I head back to Granite Cave and find Steven, I make sure 3D is on full and take in the cave painting (which looks amazing!)
Moving on to Slateport, not much has changed here so I decide to check out the Contest Hall. They tell me I need a Contest Pass which can be found in town, I spend ages looking but get bored and decide to leave, only to be stopped by Lissia. I laugh every time she does that twerk dance thing (how is this in a kids game?) and send some more snapchats to my friend. I feel obligated to take part in a contest so I enter with Tailow (she's going to get boxed real soon, may as well give her something to do before that) who gets awarded coolest in show! This where we meet our next team member; Belle the Pikachu. I give her the blue dress to get Icicle Crash and move on
The Trick House is pretty cool, I have trouble finding the Trick Master because in these games you don't get the small flash of light hinting at where he is. I over-prepare for the battle with May since that one always gave me trouble. Bridgestone handles Wailmer (where does she catch this?) and slows Combusken down with Rock Tomb so Petros can get a 2hko, Shroomish goes down after missing Leech Seed. I make my way to Mauville and, holy shit, is this place big now! I check out every square inch before I show Wally he's still a scrub, I then send Nincada into Wattson's gym to Mud Slap our way to victory.
*fast forward to route 111*
I meet Aarune after leaving the Fiery Path. He ends most of his sentences with "___, see?" which in my head makes him sound like a 1920s gangster. I'm not interested in Secret Bases so I quickly made my way for route 113, this is probably my favourite route in the whole game! I was playing at night, and the background during battles was beautiful. You've got white ash-covered trees, with more ash falling from the starry night sky. I DexNav chained Skarmory for a while there just to enjoy the backdrop as much as I could, ended up with a nice Drill Peck Skarm that I didn't end up keeping very long. I quickly made my way to the next amazing piece of scenery; Meteor Falls. I was really happy to see that the layout hadn't been changed (unlike Granite Cave) and had just received a direct graphical upgrade. Long story short; saved Cozmo, battled team Aqua on Mt Chimney, went down to Lavaridge and whooped Flannery with Petros, I then trekked back to Petalburg to face Dad (stopping by Slateport to nickname my newly evolved Shedinja 'Cicarne' ('sick-are-knee', what my little brother used to call Cicadas) )
I honestly had to use some real battling tactics to beat Norman. Petros could swap between Protect+Water Pulse to beat the first Slaking, but he was too slow and weak to beat his Vigaroth (and I needed him alive for the last Slaking) so I switched in Cicarne to take the 140BP Retaliate, then switched in Bridgestone to Mega Drain him to death, brought Shedinja back in to take Slaking's Retaliate, and finished him off with Petros. GG Dad. I grabbed the Surf HM and headed for route 118 where I was met by Steven, when Latios came to pick us up I realised this must be where I get Latias! I wasn't prepared so I made Latios take me back so I could grab a Timid ralts, flew back and began the tedious task of SRing Latias...
After a good two days of destroying Matt's Sharpedo over and over, I finally had an ok Latias (scroll down
*fast forward to Mt. Pyre*
Not much has happened since my last gym battle. I checked out the Safari Zone which seemed ok, I much prefer the RSE Safari as this is one is a bit boring tbh.. I was pretty happy with my team so far as I reached Mt. Pyre, except for Giaan who sucked without weather up which meant I was constantly healing her from using Sunny Day turn one to beat things. I decided I would replace her with a Vulpix, but why settle for just any old Vulpix when you can DexNav a Drought one?? It took me about half an hour to do but I finally found one, I was hoping it would be a male so I could name it Andras (after Andras Fox, one of my favourite producers) but it was a girl, so I named it Andrea instead. I really lucked out on her, she came with Heat Wave, had great IVs and HP Electric. After following Team Aqua to their hideout (which is one of the coolest places in the game imo, particularly the entrance) I decided Andrea needed some grinding so I let her clean out the base by herself and high tailed it to Mossdeep. I chose to hold off evolving Andrea because she was crushing the water routes with Hidden Power and staying alive thanks to Drought, I had to backtrack to route 123 to find the Gyaradosite for the Mega Stone Guide I'm doing where she had an Epic battle against a Ninetales, after which I decided it was a good time to evolve her. Tate & Liza were easily taken care of thanks to Petros' Surf (Zakuro made a cameo appearance), it was then time to explore the ocean with Dive
By this time I was way behind schedule due to my Latias endeavors, as well as some irl stuff, so I was getting keen to power through the rest of the story and get my guides done. The Seafloor Cavern provided somewhere to grind Zakuro as she was sitting a good 10 levels below everyone else at this point. Cue Dragon Breath spam and a lot of dead Golbat + Aqua Grunts. Archie let Kyogre loose on the world (pretty cool cutscene) and I had to find my way to Sootopolis, while diving I found that there are underwater trainers and decided that the music that plays when you talk to them is my favourite in the game. I tried to explore Sootopolis but everyone had locked their doors to hide from the rain (wimps), on to the Cave of Origin it is then... After a long winded speech by several characters, it was decided that it was my job to stop Kyogre from drowning everyone. I don't understand why it was needed but I had to ride on Kyogre like a Dolphin at Sea World to get to the bottom of the trench(?) to battle it, instead of just doing business in the Cave of Origin. I'm not complaining though because that part was cool as fuck! I had Bridgestone ready (was going to troll Kyogre with Cicarne but decided mega evo vs primal would be ~cooler~), Kyogre does its big transformation, I mega evolve and click Leaf Blade, OHKO... Which is fine because I wanted to SR it later anyway. It felt weird not capturing Kyogre though, like the dialogue after the battle seemed awkward. Oh well, I don't have time for chit-chat, I want to be Champion already! I spend a few minutes finding the post-CoO mega stones, head to Sea Mauville (and spend a good while reading all the book and notes that tell the backstory. I really enjoyed it here. The whole place probably received the best upgrade with these new games imo) and finally make my way to Ever Grande
There are a couple of Ace Trainers wondering how to get up the waterfall, I thought I'd rub it in their stupid faces by commanding Zakuro to take me up right in front of them (oh yeah, Latias had to become a semi HM slave with Dive + Waterfall because I forgot Pelipper can't learn them, smh). I healed my Pokemon, made sure I had enough healing items and set out for the long journey through Victory Roa... Oh I'm through already? That was fast. At least Wally surprised me at the end (I knew he was coming, I just didn't know when) and put up a pretty good fight in the end. I mean, Mega Zakuro swept him but she was on really low health by the end of it so... Anyway, onto the final challenge, the Elite 4
Honestly, I was a little nervous for the Pokemon League as I hadn't specifically prepared my team for any of the members. That's ok though, right? It just means I might actually be challenged here. Well here's the battles:
Sidney:
- Sceptile VS Mightyena. Turn 1: I Swords Dance to mitigate the Intimidate drop, Mightyena Swaggers (Sceptile at +3)
- Turn 2: Sceptile mega evolves and fights through confusion to KO with X-Scissor
- Turn 3-6: Sceptile snaps out of confusion on turn 3 and sweeps.
- Andrea VS Duclops. Turn 1: I flinch with Dark Pulse and grab a 2hko!
- Turn 2: Sableye comes out and I Calm Mind, Sableye nearly ohkos with a crit Foul Play
- Turn 3: KO with Flamethrower
- Turn 4+5: KO with Dark Pulse
- Turn 6: Dark Pulse misses the OHKO by >10%. Dusknoir retaliates with Thunder Punch which leaves Andrea at 1HP!
- Turn 7: KO
- Andrea VS Glalie. Turn 1: KO with Flamethrower
- Turn 2: Walrein comes out and tanks a Solar Beam, he goes for Sheer Cold but misses(!!!)
- Turn 3: KO with Solar Beam
- Turn 4-6: KO with Flamethrower
- Petros VS Altaria. Turn 1: Petros tanks Dragon Pulse like a champ and OHKOs back with Ice Beam
- Turn 2: Salamence comes out. OK really not sure what to do here, haven't checked the moveset online, original Sapphire Salamence can't hurt Pelipper so I should be OK... oh he has Thunder Fang, GG.
- Turn 3: OK I guess I'll send Sceptile in, should I Swords Dance and hold off mega evolving (the right move) or should I mega evolve straight away and use Dragon Claw (the wrong move)? I chose the latter! I get some good damage but 'Mence KOs with Dragon Rush
- Turn 4: I'm only a little worried here. You're up Zakuro, finish him with Dragon Breath!
- Turn 5: Hmmm Kingdra, I should mega evolve. Wait, what do you mean I can't mega evolve?? Guess I'll go for the 2HKO with Dragon Breath
- Turn 6: I get the 2HKO but not without taking some good damage
- Turn 7: I forgot he has two Flygon left, if Zakuro goes down it's all up to Belle who has to hit Icicle Crash twice to win. Oh cool Zakuro OHKOd Flygon
- Turn 8: Oh cool she did it again
Steven: (can't remember turn orders, or even if this is exactly what happened. I just know I won with just Bridgestone in the red...)
- I switch out and give Skarm a free turn to set up Spikes.
- Andrea takes Skarm down to Sturdy and takes a weak Aerial Ace in return. Kept spamming Flamethrower to KO after Steven wastes a Full Restore
- Aggron comes out and I switch to Zakuro who takes big damage from Stone Edge. I use Hidden Power (ground) which knocks him to 1HP (thanks Sturdy), Aggron KOs back with Dragon Claw
- Petros goes out to revenge kill, is then met by Cradily. I don't have anything to get rid of this stupid plant thing so I use Ice Beam and hope for the best. Cradily uses Ancient Power and gets the stat boosts. I go for Roost to try and stall out Ancient Power but Cradily gets the KO anyway...
- Out of my 3 options I go for Cicarne, I was going to save him for Metagross but I figured I should try and stall Ancient Power out with Phantom Force so Andrea can come back in, too bad I'm slower so Cradily gets the swift KO. Andrea comes out, I don't want to risk dying to Ancient Power so I just go for Flamethrower and get the KO!
- Armaldo comes out and I go for Flamethrower again, it misses the KO and Armaldo gets the KO with Rock Blast
- I just have Bridgestone left now, I know Armaldo has X-Scissor but I can't kill it and Metagross without boosting. I go for Swords Dance and mega evolve and tank X-Scissor. I get the KO on the next turn
- Out comes Metagross and ofc it's going to mega evolve. It gets in a quick Bullet Punch which does a low amount of damage but looks like I'm close to KO range, I hit with Earthquake. Steven heals as I hit again, on the last turn he doesn't go for Bullet Punch(!!) allowing me to finish him off with Earthquake. I've done some loose damage calcs since the battle and still can't figure out how I survived all those hits...
Bridgestone @ Sceptilite
Lv 57 - Naughty
- Leaf Blade
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
Petros @ Never-Melt Ice
Lv 51 - Bashful
- Fly
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Roost
Cicarne @ Focus Band
Lv 52 - Mild
- Shadow Snaek
- Dig
- Phantom Force
- Hone Claws
Belle @ Light Ball
Lv 52 - Naughty
- Wild Charge
- Icicle Crash
- Dig
- Flash (lol)
Zakuro @ Latiasite
Lv 48 - Timid
- Dragon Breath
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power
- Shadow Ball
Andrea @ Black Glasses
Lv 56 - Naughty
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Calm Mind
After that I watched the credits roll and reminisced as the game showed me which Pokemon were by my side at certain points in the game. Then May comes out of nowhere with a battle back at that gorgeous pond we first battled at. She nearly swept me with Mega Blaziken but Zakuro was able to come in and tank a Shadow Claw and KO... I also really loved the way the Delta Episode gets teased at the end of the credits. I've been playing through that now and it's fucking epic so far. I'm at Rayquaza at the moment and won't be advancing until RNGsus decides to give me a break. I have no idea what to expect next as I haven't spoiled myself yet apart from fighting Deoxys so I'm excited to move on and enjoy that, also so I can start all over again and play through with a different team (don't worry, I won't do a big write-up of that playthrough though haha. Unless I do a Let's Play or something... hmmm)
And that's basically my journey through Hoenn. I had been looking forward to these games since they were speculated years ago and had high hopes once it was officially announced, I really think GF did a great job combining elements of the old games to generate nostalgia, while putting a modern twist on the games, even if they are a bit easy. Bring on Pokemon Z imo
And since this is my 1000th post, I may as well do a couple of shoutouts...
I don't really have a whole lot to say tbh. I joined here a while ago literally so I could post in the Scramble Challange thread, I offered a challange to someone and I don't even remember reading how they went, I also posted requesting my own but only got like one suggestion haha. Since then I've just sat around lurking, posting in a bunch of OI discussions, failing at the Subway etc.. It wasn't until the announcement of XY that I started to post more often. I pretty much limited myself to OI and it was pretty dead until all of a sudden there were thousands of people posting in the XY speculation discussion thread which in turn brought a lot of life to the rest of the forum. Once I started posting semi-regularly I began to venture into places like Wi-Fi and the (at the time) forgotten Battle Spot forum, both of which have really good communities. I never set out to make friends or have some sort of forum presence, but now there are several people whom I talk to regularly and I even got a badge ^_^ so hopefully that means I'm doing something right around here and I can continue to do whatever that is, lol. Anyway I may as well tag a few people that I like around here. Hulavuta (one of the best posters here, has been trying to get me on IRC for like a year, I went on for the first time last week), rufusdrumknott (for being an all around awesome friend, I'm still so annoyed I was busy/sick when you came to Melbourne), the Battle Spot team (Age of Kings, EnGarde, ethan06), Karxrida (for helping me massively with my threads recently, also a prolific OI poster), the guys in Wi-Fi (too many to tag but mostly Buckert / mostthe3rd for giving me Dittos lol) and the OI head honchos DHR-107, NoCheese, Codraroll (because ass-kissing for running the best subforum here). Thanks you guys for making me look forward to logging into this place every day (and ignore my family/gf irl because my phone gets sweet, sweet internet now)
That was a great read can't say, I enjoy the way you write, compared to "professional" fanfic writers
One of my favorite things about ORAS is a minuscule detail that most of you probably never noticed. When you have the DexNav open, the background image is always from the original games. This, along with other references to the past, is the kind of thing I love in a remake. One thing that does randomly annoy me is that you can't fly back to Southern Island even if you get the Eon Ticket, you have to use the ferry.
And yes, I did manage to legitimately get the Eon Ticket. I passed by only about the same 5-6 people every day for a few days and somehow got it. Yeah.
I unintentionally created a "super team" for my playthrough, which made the game really easy. Blaziken-Shiftry-Latios-Azumarill-Metagross-Exploud (later replaced by Diancie) is a force in-game. I won against Tate and Liza in one turn with a crit Leaf Blade and a Meteor Mash.
And holy hell the Delta Episode is epic. The fact that they remixed the Rayquaza cutscene theme from Emerald (my most-played game by far) with an organ and played it throughout Sky Pillar gave me chills. I'm leaving out any real spoilers in case not everyone reading this has beaten the game. I would also like to say that I am very relieved that they removed that dumb Mach Bike puzzle in Sky Pillar because it was just annoying and unnecessary.
*minor spoiler, you probably already know*
The thing that annoys me the most is that it is impossible to save directly before the Deoxys fight. My Deoxys struggled to death and my only option for getting one after that was the GTS. I had it coming though, because there was simply no way that I was going to get a critical capture on my first ball with Rayquaza (actually happened) and also have a successful Deoxys fight.
And yes, I did manage to legitimately get the Eon Ticket. I passed by only about the same 5-6 people every day for a few days and somehow got it. Yeah.
I unintentionally created a "super team" for my playthrough, which made the game really easy. Blaziken-Shiftry-Latios-Azumarill-Metagross-Exploud (later replaced by Diancie) is a force in-game. I won against Tate and Liza in one turn with a crit Leaf Blade and a Meteor Mash.
And holy hell the Delta Episode is epic. The fact that they remixed the Rayquaza cutscene theme from Emerald (my most-played game by far) with an organ and played it throughout Sky Pillar gave me chills. I'm leaving out any real spoilers in case not everyone reading this has beaten the game. I would also like to say that I am very relieved that they removed that dumb Mach Bike puzzle in Sky Pillar because it was just annoying and unnecessary.
*minor spoiler, you probably already know*
The thing that annoys me the most is that it is impossible to save directly before the Deoxys fight. My Deoxys struggled to death and my only option for getting one after that was the GTS. I had it coming though, because there was simply no way that I was going to get a critical capture on my first ball with Rayquaza (actually happened) and also have a successful Deoxys fight.
You can faint Deoxys and if you defeat the E4 one more time, it will respawn in the Sky Pillar.
I noticed that in the DexNav too, although in Sky Pillar, because of the damn breakable platforms!
Also I hope we can all agree that Pokemon needs a mature storyline for Wii U (like Colloseum or somethin)...man I really miss Stadium and Colloseum, ugh
Also I hope we can all agree that Pokemon needs a mature storyline for Wii U (like Colloseum or somethin)...man I really miss Stadium and Colloseum, ugh
YES. It can also be a way for us to get things not previously possible, or otherwise really hard to obtain, like Victini, or starters in balls besides Pokeballs, or fossilmons with their HAs
I just finished the Delta Episode a few days ago and I thought it was really interesting as far as post-game stories go. As far as I know this is pretty unique (similar to Mystery Dungeon as far as getting Rayquaza to blow up a meteor, although the circumstances and characters are quite different).
For the most part I found Zinnia to be incredibly annoying and very freaky as a character, and also very rude. I don't see why she couldn't just tell them about her plan with Rayquaza. Woulda saved them a whole lot of unnecessary stress. For the most part if the story got me to hate her it was good writing but I think it fails on one part which is that she is supposed to be the moral of the story in a way. The main point of the story (and most Pokemon stories honestly) was the bond between Pokemon and humans and working together to solve a problem. She'd be the "Cassandra Truth" that has the answer but is ignored...if she ever even tried to share it with anyone else. Instead she's just rude and condescending when people ask her if she has a better idea, and runs around behind peoples' backs to sabotage their plans and cause them a lot of unneeded stress. What an ape.
Everything else was cool though, I like how Wallace was involved in the story and that we got to see what Team Aqua/Magma was up to. The date scene and the ending were really cute and sweet.
For the most part I found Zinnia to be incredibly annoying and very freaky as a character, and also very rude. I don't see why she couldn't just tell them about her plan with Rayquaza. Woulda saved them a whole lot of unnecessary stress. For the most part if the story got me to hate her it was good writing but I think it fails on one part which is that she is supposed to be the moral of the story in a way. The main point of the story (and most Pokemon stories honestly) was the bond between Pokemon and humans and working together to solve a problem. She'd be the "Cassandra Truth" that has the answer but is ignored...if she ever even tried to share it with anyone else. Instead she's just rude and condescending when people ask her if she has a better idea, and runs around behind peoples' backs to sabotage their plans and cause them a lot of unneeded stress. What an ape.
Everything else was cool though, I like how Wallace was involved in the story and that we got to see what Team Aqua/Magma was up to. The date scene and the ending were really cute and sweet.