Pokemon BDSP Playthrough Discussion

So with two Pokémon left to catch, I've already got a team of 42 Pokémon to tackle on the Elite Four when I reach that place.

That will require me making seven teams of six Pokémon. And since I'm already spicing things up with an insane rotation that I don't know if I'll ever do again (depends on circumnstances after all), why not spice it up... and let a randomizer pick the teams for me?

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I smell a wide variety of difficulty between those picks. And interestingly starting harder.
 
Ramanas Park (I caught the Azelf without sleep, incidentally) is really......weird.

So first off there's still a bunch of unchanged dialog that makes way more sense with Pal Park because they talk about watching Pokemon from other regions running around and literally the only ones here are the ones in the caves that no one can actually see. But that's kind of whatever

The one that really gets me is there's seemingly new dialog that keeps talking about how there's a bunch of strong trainers that gather here, but the literal only NPC in the entire park is a worker. It feels like there were more plans for Ramanas than was implemented, like the area was meant to have trainers and wild pokemon roaming around.
 
OK so I pulled out my copy of diamond (one that was coming off an ancient scramble challenge so i get to see all the "first time" dialog), because I actually wanted to see how much of this dialog was changed. Very possible the "trainers" thing was there before, right?

And...mmm, well.
guy at the gate, the first time you talk to him is this
"This is where top-notch Trainers come to demonstrate their Pokemon-catching techniques to their peers." (thene recognizes you and everyone's excited to see a catching show)

And here he says: It’s also where top-notch Trainers gather from many different regions. You might say Ramanas roses attract those who are strong—now that’s what I call flower power!

Meanwhile, the boy
People come here nto only to see the Catching Show. We get to see rare & exotic Pokemon on top of the catches. The excitement gets me all jacked up!
is now
"The smell of Ramanas roses isn't the only selling point here--The people & Pokemon drawn from all over are spectacles in & of themselves, and those intriguing, enigmatic caves fill me with excitement!"

Like you could probably write this off as just weird edits but I dunno it's just...off to me. Like there was definitely meant to be more going on. The caves are distinctly mentioned separately from the roses and the general draw of the park. Also it's not like they weren't open to entirely new dialog, the father, daughter, guy who used to track score and woman excited to see the shows on the botto mfloor are all very different dialog.

We know that Ramanas wasnt ready for primetime to begin with...I'm really thinking plans were a lot more elaborate but when it became clear they couldn't finish it, they just pulled back and focused on the main draw (the Pokemon). Perhaps leader rematches & some wild encounters were planned for here, but they shuttled those off to the gyms so they could be accesseed by anyone who couldn't get the update while the underground continued to be the primary spot to get various Pokemon. The "trainers from all over" talk (Oak also mentions that and it's not present at all in his DP dialog) would still be a little odd considering the circumstances, but the sinnoh leaders would be a good fit for here with their new Pokemon, for example.
 
I DID IT! I BEAT CYNTHIA!!!

Man I've never faced a trainer as difficult as that. Even in Ultra Sun, what I thought was a pretty challenging Pokemon game, didn't have nearly as difficult trainers as Cynthia. But I'd definitely much rather have a harder fight than an easier one. I didn't feel nearly this excited when I beat Diantha, for example, so I hope Gamefreak doesn't go back to easier boss fights in Gen 9.

It took 4 tries, but I did it. My favorite part is how every team member contributed to the fight.

Torterra: Cucked Milotic with Bullet Seed on 2 HP after taking an Ice Beam to the face
Floatzel: Took care of Lucario with ease
Houndoom: Took care of Spiritomb since none of its moves could do anything
Gardevoir: Switched into Dragon Claw for free so I could full restore Staraptor
Staraptor: Took care of Roserade, and had the honors of killing Garchomp!
Rampardos: Moral support (I didn't use him)

That said, Staraptor is definitely the MVP of this run. Such a cool and powerful Pokemon. Can't take hits but can definitely give them.

I'm gonna begin the post game now. What I plan on doing is using a few different mons, specifically Typhlosion, Espeon, and Dragonite. Maybe Empoleon too.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. For all it's faults (the affection was kinda cheap at times) I think this is my favorite Pokemon game I've played so far. Also it's Friday in 2 hours, now I can get myself a Drifloon.
 
Now I see why Flint uses a Steelix, I keep running into Onix in Fire caves.

Anyway, when/how do I get access to National Dex mons in the Grand Underground? I beat the main game, is there anything else I need to do?
 
Is Super Luck bugged? I have used Thief on 25 Geodude's with a Super Luck Honchkrow and haven't gotten a single Everstone. Having a 20% chance of getting one per Geodude, surely I should've gotten one by now?
 
Is Super Luck bugged? I have used Thief on 25 Geodude's with a Super Luck Honchkrow and haven't gotten a single Everstone. Having a 20% chance of getting one per Geodude, surely I should've gotten one by now?
Dumb question I'm sure, but the honchkrow is in the lead right?

also where are you hunting? If it's the underground, maybe something's different (/wrong) there.
 
Yeah it's in the lead and I'm at Oreburgh Mine.
Hmmm yeah it could be bugged or unimplemented here.
Like I think the chance of not getting a 20% drop in 25 battles would be....like 1% or something? It's pretty low, not impossible but sure seems pretty improbable.
 
Alright, got the Sinnoh dex finished, unlocked the Natdex, and got myself a Typhlosion. Tomorrow I will get Espeon and Dragonite and begin post game adventures, starting with gym leader rematches. I've never really had a "post game team" but I think this will be something cool to try out, rather than just using literally anything I have like I normally do.
 
Is Super Luck bugged? I have used Thief on 25 Geodude's with a Super Luck Honchkrow and haven't gotten a single Everstone. Having a 20% chance of getting one per Geodude, surely I should've gotten one by now?
Probably not. I got an Electirizer Elekid after only 5 encounters having a Super Luck Murkrow in the front of my party, and those are the same odds as finding an Everstone Geodude under the same conditions. Weird as it is, I'm gonna say this is just your luck being astronomically shit.
 
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I caved and started the game last night. If they were gonna do a near 1:1 remake it should have been Platinum but whatever, here I am.

Kit the Kricketune and Bebe the Simple Bidoof with Work Up are eating the girls up (ironically Kit has a quiet nature hehe). The team stands at:
:Piplup::Kricketune::Bidoof::Starly::Zubat::Shinx:
After getting decimated by that schoolgirl's Abra. Embarrassing.

Random I know, but can someone who's unlocked the post game underground encounters trade me a Hoppip? Nothing specific, but ideally a female.
 
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As far as annoying gameplay loops for legendary pokemon go hunting for the mysterious shards isn't THAT high, since at least the minigame is fast & fun and you can stack it with hunting for OTHER items (& have it act as a heat sink for when you dont find the thing you're looking for) and pokemon and the shards have a more distinct use for buying TMs from hikers


But man, it sure is a lot of these damn things you have to find.

It's nice you can use 3 smalls or 1 L for any slate though, instead of varying prices and only one or the other.



Also it's pretty funny how the website is all " It’s unclear exactly how these slates can be obtained, so you’ll have to do some research as you explore the Sinnoh region. " when the answer is you literally just buy them, at the park's entrance counter, for shards you find underground in the post game.
 
So the website has this whole thing about spiritomb, but
If you’re unable to explore the Grand Underground with other players through your Nintendo Switch system’s online communication features, don’t worry!
The wording of its entire section implies you can, infact, speak with other players to increment Spiritomb's counter which....isn't this wrong? Didn't someone determine you can't actually speak with other players during an online session?
Maybe it has to be in one of those friend rooms?
 
So the website has this whole thing about spiritomb, but

The wording of its entire section implies you can, infact, speak with other players to increment Spiritomb's counter which....isn't this wrong? Didn't someone determine you can't actually speak with other players during an online session?
Maybe it has to be in one of those friend rooms?
In all my time trying for this thing, I never found a way to interact with other players in the Underground, with friends or otherwise. Mining with other players doesn't count for Spiritomb, entering their secret base doesn't work, even using the "Call" function while near another player yielded no results. My guess is it's something that was planned to be in the game, but didn't make the cut for some reason; I mean, this game's online is pretty barebones as-is, with link codes being barely functional and various online modes not even being done by release, so I wouldn't be surprised if the ability to interact with other players in the Underground was something that was planned at some point, but they just didn't have time for. Curiously, the website does specifically word the requirement for catching this thing as "Once you’ve finally spoken to 32 unique players or NPCs," so maybe it's a local-only feature currently? Because you definitely can't "speak" to other players in the Underground online as it stands.
That said, if there IS an easier way to get this thing at a reasonable point in the story, I will gladly take it on a future playthrough.
 
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I think someone said at some point before that, with local communication, you can interact with other players.
That's weird, though, because the page specifically draws attention to how people without Nintendo Switch Online can get Spiritomb, which would imply that you could in some way get Spiritomb by using the game's online features. I feel like it has to be something that was at least planned at some point, and I hope they add it in a patch later down the line, because they have a chance to make getting this thing not tedious as fuck for once and by GOD I'll be mad if they don't take it.
 

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