Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
Gotta say I'm thoroughly enjoying reading all the posts across various sites about people getting fucked up by Maylene
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Pokemon BDSP Playthrough Discussion
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
Berry Planting is in the game. I'm guessing they felt it was redundant with the Marking Map?
Is weird they didn't bother keeping it & the move tester, redundancy or no, though. Considering, you know. Rest of the game.
Honestly for me the most frustrating part of affection is probably the extra exp boost.
Like at least with the other battle bonuses, that's annoying and I'd rather they weren't there, but it's just a chance of going off. A looming specter but isure fuck it at this point why not. Given time I can rationalize it as just "the game has a big crit rate weird anyway" and whatever.
but that extra exp on top of it all...
well whatever guess i'll see when those bonuses start kicking in for me and start groaning then.
Like at least with the other battle bonuses, that's annoying and I'd rather they weren't there, but it's just a chance of going off. A looming specter but isure fuck it at this point why not. Given time I can rationalize it as just "the game has a big crit rate weird anyway" and whatever.
but that extra exp on top of it all...
well whatever guess i'll see when those bonuses start kicking in for me and start groaning then.
Siddharth -
Noir -
Mazarine -
Hestia -
Uumuu -
Raspberry -
i have no-lifed this game. s/o to May for helping me evolve my alakazam/scizor
Pokemon Diamond was my introduction into this incredible franchise 15 years ago; consequently, it holds an incredibly special place in my heart even if it had its wealth of flaws and a cheesy story to bat. Going into this, I was not forcing myself to be in an overly critical mindset because, simply put, I wanted to re-experience a childhood game in a new lens. I'm happy to say these remakes delivered.
Main Gameplay:
The battles were fun, plain and simple, with a challenge curve very similar to B2W2's challenge mode giving it a much more dynamic feel on a battle-to-battle basis. There are a lot of battles that really threw me off, as I chose to go in blind to the trainer battles. There were numerous wipeouts and even tricky situations where I was forced to strategize and position deliberately even if I first-tried them. The decision to optimize EVs and IVs really helped naturally augment the difficulty factor and compensate for otherwise rigid Pokemon structures we tend to see with the boss characters; I felt there was a much greater emphasis on smart positioning and strategic value which really helped make it feel more like an actual, thoughtful exchange and not just a menial back-and-forth. The Gym Leaders were pretty solid standalone bosses (especially Maylene and Fantina), however I would like to give a special shoutout to The Elite 4 (fuck you Flint) + Cynthia being a really nasty gauntlet I had to play through a few times to fully conquer, and actually beating them felt super rewarding considering how absolutely juiced up they were. Even if I was challenging myself by omitting in-battle items and using set mode, I had an incredibly powerful composition as you can tell by my champion screenshot that also boasted Baton Pass support, so I do think that levels out.
The pacing was... shockingly not as bad, somehow? I think it really helped that the healthbar reductions were sped up, making battles go by a lot faster, and the Grand Underground adds some nice buffers by adding layers of exploration to make the experience feel less monotonous as you go along. The trainers also being juiced up made it so several of the battles felt less back-and-forth and kept you more in the moment, though admittedly many casual Route trainer encounters still do suffer from that problem at its core.
Forced permanent Exp. Share is a very controversial thing I do not like, however I do think a team-based Exp. Share did help the pacing a lot by mitigating menial grinding sessions that, in my eyes, really hurt the base game's pacing due to how tedious grinding in Gens 4/5 is. It was also definitely far from game-ruining since they seemed to actively curve the Exp. Share's experience growth, and this did complement the juiced trainer battles by making them more easily accessible for casual players. This being said, I do not and never will see the purpose in forcing the user to use it, and it does trivialize some parts of the game where the level ranges tend to oscillate, so I do see that as a double-edged sword despite not being as bad as we thought it would be. Forced affection also added some caveats that eased the game, but not really to a debilitating extent whatsoever. For me it was definitely more of a “get owned” sort of interaction than anything else, since I’d be planning to 2hko or sack something anyway, though given I played with harder difficulty settings maybe this is more impactful with in-battle items and free switches?
The Other Things
The remixes were amazing; I enjoyed every single rendition and was brought to tears by numerous tracks. There are countless atmospheric, yet gorgeous reduxes that caught the atmosphere of their respective locations/battles really well. Standouts are Snowpoint City (pretty much all of the towns honestly), Mt. Coronet, Eterna Forest, the Lakes, and the Team Galactic leimotif. The aesthetics were really nice too in general, but the rain routes were pretty putrid in comparison, and the more constant, saturated lighting in-battle was a bit jarring in locations where dynamic lighting tends to be a bit more important.
The Grand Underground is a giant thing that really stands out in comparison to the base versions, and I can certainly say it adds a much more dynamic layer to the base games' underground by taking solid advantage of modern systems' expanded online capabilities, adding numerous areas with super interesting catalogs of Pokemon, and of course helping to remedy the major issues brought about by the base games' infamously terrible type distribution. I wound up spending several hours in the Grand Underground playing with the addictive mining system, searching new areas to find some crazy new Pokemon you couldn't find in the base game, and of course digging up only spheres thanks to my abysmal luck. I haven't even dabbled with making a hidden base yet, but based on what I've seen the personalization options probably could be a lot better.
I've yet to experience the post-game, but from what I've heard it's really good and really compounds the challenge factor you get with the main bosses in the main playthrough. You can expect me to give that a shot!
Conclusion
I had a lot of fun with this game. It was very HGSS-esque in the sense that it was faithful to the core structure and layout of the games, while reinvigorating the battles with modern mechanics and adding some new toys to enhance the experience. BDSP gave me a very laid-back, nostalgic experience while appealing to my older, more seasoned self by adding some new layers to play with. I would highly recommend giving it a shot if you're a Gen 4 veteran!!
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So clock meddling is confirmed to work for both?
Bless. I was looking forward to using Wormadam again now that it got Quiver Dance.
Oh, no, no, I didn't try to skip time. I mean that since I had failed to do so before I had to wait 24 hours before the Honey Trees remembered I had put Honey on them.
I am very dissapointed that, as far as I can tell, Tangela is natdex in this game. Team so far is Houndoom, Prinplup, Jirachi, and Staravia, notice the shared weakness? I distinctly remember being able to get it in the marsh in gen 4 but it looks like it got removed from the pool of mons in this game. In general this game actually kinda seems to lack ground resists outside of full immunities, makes me want to get a pinsir.
Tangela was in the Marsh in Platinum. It (& Tropius) weren't anywhere in DP.
And yeah it's real dumb to make it national dex only in the underground. There's really no reason not to make it and all the other platinum mons available during the main campaign.
I can't not see the Wow Bellsprout as a normal face emoji crying with a smile and open mouth
I just reached Hearthome. My Cherubi just got the "I know you can do it!" dialog (though no shaking or anything). I actually spoke with the happiness checker just sbefore this and interestingly my range would be 100-149
Meanwhile Jirachi, who i actually had boxed for a while when i was running all over the region, just got the "dozing" check in dialog so it's a bit further. Which again, surprises me.
Meanwhile, Vespiquen shows no signs of anything even though I walked a very long time with it because of those damn honey trees
And my Prinplup, who has been there since the start, seemingly has nothing??
Happiness: mysterious
Meanwhile Jirachi, who i actually had boxed for a while when i was running all over the region, just got the "dozing" check in dialog so it's a bit further. Which again, surprises me.
Meanwhile, Vespiquen shows no signs of anything even though I walked a very long time with it because of those damn honey trees
And my Prinplup, who has been there since the start, seemingly has nothing??
Happiness: mysterious
I've walked with my Houndoom for quite a while since he seems to be a miserable little asshole, and the best I've gotten out of him was "Houndoom looks satisfied!" when I talked to him while walking. No shakes, no bouncing, nothing.
I caught him in the Grand Underground before the 3rd gym, if that has any meaning or effect.
I caught him in the Grand Underground before the 3rd gym, if that has any meaning or effect.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
The Great Marsh can suck a fat one. Nothing I tried has worked when it comes to catching a single fucking Pokémon.
Throw Balls? Flees.
Throw Mud? Flees.
Throw Bait? Fucking flees.
No wonder Gen 4 was the last to include a Safari Game like this. It's been so long, I'd forgotten how much I hated this mechanic.
Throw Balls? Flees.
Throw Mud? Flees.
Throw Bait? Fucking flees.
No wonder Gen 4 was the last to include a Safari Game like this. It's been so long, I'd forgotten how much I hated this mechanic.
I really can't think of anything particular. I've got a pretty eclectic set of Pokemon by this point. Cherubi honestly shocks me because I am pretty sure it's died like 3 times.
I almost lose to her, but Lucario chose to use Bulk Up againt Pachirisu, giving me a free turn to use Nuzzle and kill it with Thunderbolt, eventually (as the next turn it coulnt move and after that used Screech for whatever reason, then a superpotion, then it couldnt move again, drain punch should have been ohko on my lv27 Pachi). I only had an Unown left (is not a nuzlock or anything similar, is just one of the two member of my rotating team that could survive a fighting move).
Cherubi has been in the lead for a while, but Vespiquen was around longer
"lead advantage" isn't a terrible idea, though I imagine it's intentional and not accidental if so.
The berry planting app was moved to the town map, it also shows the honey trees with mons.
Sounds like they really nerfed walking values by increasing the number of steps it takes to increase a point in happiness? Maybe to encourage the use of Amity Square?
Well he's a hellhound, were you expecting excitedly wagging tail & licks (which, if done by Houdoom, would burn you with a scar that'll never stop hurting or go away, so best off it doesn't do that).
Only ever throw Poke Balls. They'll flee whenever they feel like it, only this bait does it make it harder to catch, and throwing mud only makes them immediately run away before giving you a chance to throw the ball. Even if the ball fails at least you got a small chance of catching it.
This is oddly not the first masochist Cherubi I heard about.
How long had you have Vespiquen as the following Pokemon (if you ever did)?
What about Prinplup?
Did you have Cherubi out longer as a following Pokemon than either?
Dread it, run from it, Affection arrives all the same. 
To be clear: i am not using Following pokemon.
I am in Hearthome when I noticed the affection dialog during the fight with barry. I never did Amity Square or the Super Contests.
I see, interesting. Mind some more questions?
How long has Cherubi been leading your party compared to Vespiquen & Piplup/Prinplup?
How many more battles has it been in & how many times has it been knocked out compared to them?
What's it's level, how many items like potions have you used on it, & how many levels did it increase compared to them?
