Archeops BST is the same number with its Pokedex number
The question is, why the decision to have the Dex Number equal to BST? It is just out of Blue. Why don't they replace Klang with midgame BST 600 Legendary?
According to Bulbapedia, Archeops having 567 as its BST and National Dex number is a reference to the Dewey Decimal System (a library classification system), where 567.9 is the number for feathered dinosaurs.
And I think that’s a really cool reference.
And I think Archeops is really cool in general. It has an interesting design, and it can be good in battle as well. As long as you can keep its HP above 50%, it is really powerful. I have used it to great success on various teams, notably on my in-game team in White where it was a real powerhouse.
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This thread is supposed to be positive, yet it seems to have derailed into whining about bad abilities during the past few days. That is really sad to see. Yes, I know that we are the Pokémon fandom and that we always complain about everything, but I wish it could be kept out of this thread at least.
To spread some more positivity and (hopefully) get us back on track, I am going to post a bunch more things that I like.
Firstly, I like how Gen 7 & 8 didn’t introduce any new trade evolutions. This makes it is easier to obtain all of the new Pokémon if you only have one game, one system and nobody else to trade with. Though I guess the internet makes it easier than it was in the past. Either way, since there are quite many trade evos from Gen 1-6, I’m glad to see that they seem to have stopped (or at least slowed down) with making new ones in the two newest generations.
I have talked a lot about different art styles for Pokémon in various earlier posts here. I came up with one more thing I want to say regarding that. I really like the “new” style for the official Sugimori art, the digitally colored style that has been used since Gen 3. It is just so good. The art looks so clean and sleek, I love it. I think it is much better than the “old” style which was used during Gen 1-2. I remember when I was a kid and saw the official Sugimori art, I didn’t think it was very good. I preferred most other art styles that existed for Pokémon back then, such as the art used in the TCG which was done by various artists, and even images from the anime. But I have always liked the new Sugimori art style from Gen 3 and on. Looking back, I think Sugimori’s art had a quite rough start, but it got better after a while and that is something I strongly approve of!
I like how the Pokémon games on some occasions make use of different writing systems/alphabets than the standard alphabet. First, we have the completely original Unown alphabet. It has been used on a few occasions, notably in the Johto games. It isn’t super difficult to learn, and reading the Unown letters is fun once you know it. There’s also Braille, which Pokémon has made some good use of. Notably in the Hoenn games, but in some other games as well. I think it is really cool how they used it in the games. I had never heard of Braille before playing R/S, but I got to know about it thanks to playing those games. I think it is really cool how they used an alternate real-life writing system in Pokémon. I thought it was amazing when I played R/S/E and FR/LG as a kid. Sadly, I never really bothered deciphering most of the Braille text in those games (especially R/S/E), I just used guides to solve the puzzles and catch the Regis. However, I deciphered most of it in OR/AS, and it was really fun.
I like the gatekeepers in Gen 5. While many of them just give some tidbits about the surrounding area(s), some of them are really funny. For instance, there is one who has forgotten her uniform and has her regular clothes instead. Another is confused about Village Bridge. Is it a village that is a bridge, or a bridge that is a village, or both? And there’s one on Route 1 who mentions that the bulletin board isn’t working. It doesn’t get fixed in the two years that pass between B/W and B2/W2 either, I guess that fixing it has low priority since few people go out to the western parts of Route 1. Or something. Anyway, the gatekeepers in Gen 5 are my favorites in the series.
I thought about different battle strategies and came up with one specific strategy I really like to use: Speed control. Being faster than your opponent and getting to move first is always nice. One of my favorite moves to use for Speed control in Double/Triple battles in Battle Facilities is Tailwind. Doubling the Speed for your entire party for four turns is great. It allows Pokémon with an average Speed stat to get fast, while Pokémon that are already fast will get even faster! I have had great success with various Tailwind teams in the Battle Facilities in Gen 5-8.
Another move for Speed control that I really like is Trick Room. It is a really cool move in general, completely changing the Speed tiers so that slow Pokémon will move first while fast Pokémon will move last. I have always liked this move because of how unique it is. I really like how it gives slow Pokémon a way to shine. I have admittedly not used it as much as Tailwind, but I have used it to great success on three different teams in Generations 4, 6 and 7. Interestingly, using Trick Room against Tailwind teams is one of the best ways to screw them up! These moves are the opposites of each other in a way and that’s cool. I like both of them a lot.
Next, I want to talk about different areas and locations in Pokémon. A few years ago, I posted about some of my favorite areas in
this thread, but I decided to re-post some of them here along with some new ones.
First of all, I want to talk about Cerulean Cave. The one thing I like the most about this place is how the layout of it has changed between most games it has appeared in. It had one layout in the original Japanese R/G. Then it got a new layout in Japanese Blue, which was kept for the international R/B. After that, it got another new layout in Yellow. I think it is really is cool how it changed between every Gen 1 release. There are some minor design differences between them as well. And while the layouts are different between the three game installments, one very interesting thing is that despite that, the ladders are always located in the same spots. So that’s cool.
Like many other Kanto areas, Cerulean Cave wasn’t included in the ultra-industrialized Kanto we got in G/S/C. I think it would have been fun if it had been included but just as a small cave like Seafoam Islands. But I am fine with it being gone as well. It returned in FR/LG, now with the same layout as in Japanese R/G, but with an updated design. It then returned in HG/SS, once again with a new layout (and design). I couldn’t find a full map for LGP/E, but after skimming through a video walkthrough of Cerulean Cave in those games, it seems like the layout of it is similar to how it was in R/G and FR/LG (why not Yellow? Doesn’t matter though), but with some differences. Notably on 2F where it seems like the maze has been removed. Design-wise, it is similar to how it looked in HG/SS. Overall, I really like how Cerulean Cave has gone through so many different changes over the years, I don’t think that has happened for any other location in the series, at least not a cave/dungeon.
Another area I like is the Safari Zone in Hoenn. While I generally dislike the Safari Zones, or specifically the “Safari Game” they usually feature, I think the one in Hoenn has many good things to offer. All the Pokémon that can be found here are strictly from other Generations than Gen 3, which makes it feel exotic. The post-game extension in Emerald was pretty cool since it allowed you to catch some Johto Pokémon that were otherwise very hard to get in Gen 3 (or downright impossible if you didn’t have Colosseum or XD). In OR/AS, I really like the DexNav exclusives here. They are Kakuna, Pidgeotto and Buneary. Those are three Pokémon not native to Hoenn, each of them has an evolved form which got a new Mega Evolution in OR/AS. That’s really cool. I also like how they got rid of the whole “Safari Game” in OR/AS but still keeping the original atmosphere of the Safari Zone, that was great and I hope that’s how they will handle the Safari Zones in future remakes as well.
Now, to some other areas. Though this is more about the names of areas rather than the areas themselves (although I like them as well). I like the names of the various places in the wild areas in S/S. I always appreciate the situations where areas have proper names instead of just being named Route X. I thought it was great when it first happened with the Sevii Islands, and I like how they did the same thing for the wild areas. Some of the names in the main wild area reference Pokémon names, such as Lake Axewell, Axew’s Eye or Lake Miloch, which is neat. Lake of Outrage is also a cool nod to Lake of Rage in Johto. I like how many of the areas on the Isle of Armor references training and challenges, like Warm-Up Tunnel, Training Lowlands and Challenge Beach. Another thing I like is how several area names start with “Giant’s”, which can be viewed in different ways. It can either be seen as something that looks like it could be used by a Giant (like Giant’s Bed, Giant’s Cap, etc.) or it might be based on a legend of a Giant that used to live there? Or something. That was just something I thought about. Anyway, I like the names of the wild areas a lot.
I really like Village Bridge. It feels like a very unique location. It is a village and a bridge at the same time. As well as a place where you can meet wild Pokémon and fight trainers. I think it is my favorite of the bridges in Unova. And I love how you can change the music here by speaking to various NPCs. It feels really unique, the four NPCs each add different instruments/sounds. I especially like the one that add vocals. And you can choose exactly which ones you want to have active at the time, allowing you to set up the music here in many different variations, which is really cool.
Next, another Unova location I am very fond of. A specific location, rather than an entire city or route (or bridge). I really like the lookout in Aspertia City. I like Aspertia on the whole (it is my favorite starting Town or rather City in the series), but this place is definitely my favorite part of the city. It has a significant role in the beginning of B2/W2 since this is where you receive your starter and where you have the first battle against your rival. But I have always liked to come back here later on in the game as well. In fact, I always go here to look at the view from the lookout whenever I visit Aspertia. The view is just so magnificent. Standing there feels like watching over all of Unova, you have the whole region in front of you. It is where your journey begins, and it is nice to go back there once you have completed the game as well. I love it.
And now, finally, the big ones I really want to talk about.
I really like Black Tower and White Treehollow, collectively known as Unova’s Challenge. Those are without any doubt two of my favorite areas in the Pokémon series. Everything about them is amazing. Black Tower and Black City represents modern society, industrialization and technology, it really feels like a modern big city. White Treehollow and White Forest represents nature and a simpler life, giving a calm and relaxing atmosphere.
I really like the challenge you are presented with here. It isn’t a real Battle Facility-type of challenge, but it is still not a total walk in the park either. It is more of a Battle Challenge, as I like to call it. You cannot use items (apart from hold items) and you have limited healing. While you can just bruteforce through everything with high-leveled Pokémon, it might not be a guaranteed win because of the limited healing. The levels towards the end are also very high, ending at 80 (or 85 if you are playing on Challenge Mode). While all trainers apart from the boss trainers only have 2 Pokémon and you can play on Shift Mode, it is still not always easy.
These places offer some other kinds of challenges as well. There are some rooms where you can use field moves or HMs (Surf, Flash, Cut and Strength) to make it easier or create a shortcut – but you are never
forced to use them. They can just be used to skip a trainer (or see where the trainer is, when it comes to Flash), to give you an alternative way of going through the room in question.
I like exploring the areas, looking for the Gate Trainer and then the room where the Boss Trainer is. It reminded me of the Battle Pyramid from Emerald since that place uses a similar concept. One other thing I like is how the areas are randomly generated. It is pretty unique as it doesn’t happen for that many other areas in the main series, the only ones I can think of are the Battle Pyramid and the Battle Pike in Emerald. The fact that the areas are randomly generated means that you can’t really prepare since you won’t know the layout until you enter the area. The doors to some rooms are open while some are locked, so you never know exactly how or where you should go. Both versions of Unova’s Challenge are also very large as they have 19 floors in total, which is cool.
Regarding trainers, most rooms offer you a choice if you want to battle the trainer(s) in the room or not. You can skip pretty much all trainers (except the Gate trainer and the Boss Trainer), but it might not be easy in all cases since many trainers run around and some require field moves in order to be skipped as I mentioned earlier.
Because of the many trainers and their levels (which get higher with each area), these places are excellent training spots. The levels of opposing Pokémon are between 74-77 for Area 10 in Normal Mode, and they go up to 80 when playing on Challenge Mode. In Area 10, there are a total of 96 trainers which you can battle (including the Boss Trainer), which means you can get a ton of experience if you beat all the trainers. You also earn money after beating the trainers, though you will lose all of it if you are defeated or retire instead of completing the Area.
One really cool thing is that the Pokémon belonging to the trainers in the areas all give EVs to specific stats. Which EVs they give depends on the trainer in question. The Pokémon used by the trainers in White Treehollow give EVs to either HP, Attack or Defense, while the Pokémon used by the trainers in Black Tower give EVs to Sp.att, Sp.def or Speed. So that’s cool. It means you can do a bit of EV-training as well if you just fight the correct trainers. I never knew this until just recently, it is really cool how there are so many hidden secrets to be found in Pokémon once you decide to look deeper at something.
I like how the names of the boss trainers (apart from Benga) follow an alphabetical pattern, going from A to J. A similar thing seems to happen regarding their Japanese names, so that’s cool. I don’t know Japanese but that’s what Bulbapedia said so I trust it to be correct.
Speaking of Boss trainers, I think Benga is a really cool character and a great final superboss for Unova’s Challenge. He is a fun and energetic guy, as well as the grandson of Alder. I think Alder’s battle theme suits Benga much better than Alder himself. His final team is also very high-leveled as his strongest Pokémon is at level 80 in Normal Mode, or 85 in Challenge Mode. This is very high for the series, only a small number of other trainers have Pokémon at this level or higher.
I like how the colors of the Areas change as you progress. Areas 1-2 are blue, Areas 3-5 are green, Areas 6-9 are yellow while Area 10 is red. Really cool.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, you also get a bunch of rewards for beating Unova’s Challenge. One of the most notable is that you get a shiny Pokémon when you beat Area 10 for the first time. You get a shiny Gible after beating Black Tower in Black 2, or a shiny Dratini after beating White Treehollow in White 2. This is one of the very few instances in the series outside of Events where you are guaranteed to get a shiny Pokémon. Like with the shiny Haxorus that can be found at Nature Preserve, I like how you have to accomplish something in order to get these shinies instead of just getting them without having to do anything special first.
You can also get a ton of medals for completing various things in Unova’s Challenge. Some of the most notable ones are the medals you get for beating Area 10 in both Black Tower and White Treehollow, or for beating 1000 trainers in total in Unova’s Challenge. The latter is not hard, but it takes a long time to get done and I personally thought it was a ton of fun. I kind of want to do it again. Makes me wish there was yet another Medal you could get for beating 2000 trainers in total.
You also unlock the ability to purchase various evolutionary items in Black City and White Forest after clearing more Areas in Unova’s Challenge. You can get most of the evolutionary stones, but some other evolutionary items as well. The ones sold in Black City are pretty expensive though! Fortunately, you can just use the money you got from Black Tower to buy them.
You also get one minor item every time you beat an area. Vitamins, Wings or EV-reducing berries, it depends on which area you beat. Not the biggest or best rewards ever, but they are useful when training Pokémon for competitive or semi-competitive teams, and it is better than nothing.
I also like how you can switch between both locations in the same game thanks to the Key system, as long as you have both keys. This is very unique as it is the only situation in the main series where you can swap one area for a completely different one, essentially giving you the ability to have one extra area in the games. It also gives you double the fun!
Next, let’s talk about the music in those places.
The entrance music for Black Tower is rather simple and calm, not very advanced or anything. But it feels very suitable for a big city, somehow. It is sort of fooling you in a way as it does not really make you prepared for what you are about to experience.
Because once you enter the real thing, the madness starts! Black Tower has one of my favorite music tracks in the whole series. I love everything about it. It is fast-paced with a fantastic melody, I love the instruments used here. I read somewhere that the genre is contemporary, but I’m not an expert on music genres myself so I don’t know if that is true. But the genre doesn’t matter, I love it anyway.
The entrance music to White Treehollow feels soothing and relaxing, suitable for a big tree in a forest. But at the same time, it contains a hint of something mysterious, which is neat.
The main theme follows the entrance theme in a similar pattern. It is calm and relaxing, running at a slower pace than the music in Black Tower. The hint of something mysterious is still there as well. Overall an excellent track that I really like as well, just not quite as much as the music in Black Tower.
Sorry for the short descriptions here, I always have a hard time explaining why I like music.
And that’s all about why I love Unova’s Challenge!
On a different note, today is October 12th. It has been 9 years since B2/W2 were first released in Europe. Happy anniversary to these fantastic games!
Today, it has also been 8 years since X/Y were released worldwide. Happy anniversary to those great games as well!
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Now, to something completely different. I have decided to take a break from the forums. It might not be super relevant to this thread, but I wanted to say it somewhere in case anyone is going to miss me. I have been planning this break for a long time, and it was originally going to start much earlier, but I have been delaying it for a long while. I have been working on this post for over 2 months, but I have been struggling to get it done and finding the time to work on it. Now, it is finally done, and it is time for my break to start. Better late than never!
I’m not sure about how long this break is going to last, but hopefully for a few months at least. The reason I am doing this is because lately, the forums have been feeling more like a chore and not something I enjoy spending time on. They have turned into a big time stealer, they have been taking time from other things I’d rather spend my time on. I have some other, more important things that I need to focus on right now, so I don’t really have that much time over for the forums at the moment. I have also been pretty stressed lately, and I believe the forums are a contributing factor behind that, sad as it feels to say.
My interest in Pokémon isn’t very high right now either. I have barely played Sword at all during the past four months, I have been forced to take a break from In Wonder due to the circumstances (and whenever I get back to it, there isn’t much left on it either way) and I am still unsure about getting SP and/or L:A. So on the whole, I feel that taking a break from the forums will only be for the best right now.
There’s another thing I want to say as well. Back when I joined Smogon 10 years ago after having lurked the site on and off since 2006, I never thought I would get this far. During my first 3 years here, I almost never posted anywhere. The reason being that I have never really been a competitive Pokémon player, and since Smogon is mostly about competitive battling, the forums aren't really for me. But then Orange Islands came into existance. I lurked here at first and then I eventually started posting as well. Since then, I have gotten active and posted quite a lot (by my own standards, if nothing else). This is my 467th post here on the forums, so I want to make it a bit special. Yes, I know that an even number would have been better, but whatever! I want to give a shout-out to my favorite members among the OI regulars and veterans:
Pikachu315111 Yung Dramps green_typhlosion ScraftyIsTheBest DreamPrince The Mind Electric DrumstickGaming Wukong Codraroll Imperial Magala ttr PokemonCrusader Noiptile SamuraiCelebi Total Clefairy ZettaiRyouiki Xaviere mertyville Ryota Mitarai Siggu Celever Samtendo09 bdt2002 Chadlad50 R_N Worldie Random Passerby jordanthejq12 lucariomaster2
And possibly others that I am forgetting. Thank you all for making Orange Islands a great place to discuss Pokémon!
This is my favorite thread here on the forums, so I want to give another shout-out to
Kurona for making it. It seems like you haven’t been very active here lately, but I hope you are doing well wherever you are.
Thanks everyone for all the great discussions we have had here at Orange Islands, and for the fun and good times. This is not farewell, just a goodbye. Once my life has calmed down a bit, I’ll be back. See you again in the future!
