Ok, so I found a later instalment, had to settle for this.
Man, this game is terrible. Not because it is bad, although it IS bad with its serious design flaws, but terrible because this is THE EXACT SAME GAME to the point of dialogues as the Red/Blue/Yellow versions. There is only 1 pokemon game, and many versions of it.
You want to build your own team? Fuck you, says the game, because you have very limited options.
The game is also very linear,youcan't just go around.
You also desperatly need meta-knowledge because of all the limitations.
There's no infinite money either, which for all random based games should be a must. Given that the items disappear after 1 use, this is again a crappy design.
Also, while this is supposedly a gen 2 game, two third you encounter early are gen1 pocket monsters. WHY?
The options for the crew is limited further by the available skills. I mean, why is it so hard to understand I want eg. an earth type with EARTH move?
There's also the vastly unfinished quest of the unowns.
The graphics is also the same as red/blue/green/yellow, only given some very ugly colouration.
Oh, and I didn't mention: there's a day-night cycle now! Ye, limit the accessibility of the already thin options further! That'll show 'em!
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Other problems here are:
- the game is way too simple, no backtrack, no fun
- some special moves are demanded very soon, so you either put in an HM-slave, or make the sacrifice. I use as starter chicorita, so I can do the sacrifice, lucky me (did not plan for this)
- there are some stupid local contest - on certain gamedays. I could care less keepinga tab on those
- there's a guy who makes free pokeballs. I have no idea what type of raw material does what, and I even forgot about the guy because it uses the daynight cycle toproduce the result, what is just stupid.
- half the game is actualy post-game. You heared right: you win the champion league, and you have an equal amount of game to play still. That's stupid. Well, betterthan going in some cave, and throwing the masterball on MU2...
With all the double-types, and limitations,and crap, I have no idea how good my team is. I currently use 4 pokemon, and carry a 5th in case of disaster: bayleef, machoke, graveler, pidgeot. I'll need an HM-slave to learn surf, because w/o the red gyarados the progress is blocked, and for that surf is demanded. That's stupid. And my surfer would be Sneazel, what is a gen 2 pokemon, but is in the post-game only, in the gen1 territory! That's just stupid.
My 5th pokemon will actualy be jynx, and the 6th against the elite4 likely after all the above crap the legendary mon. If I don't quit sooner of course.
Oh, the game notoriously strips you from your money too, and the ghost-gym just lubs to make all your pokemon sleep, then murder them. That's very stupid.
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So, the game is not even consequent. Not all items are one-times. The exp-share is continuous. But is an item which must be held. And it is also bugged, because it does not share exp if you only used 1 pokemon in the battel - then it multiplies the exp be 1.5. Genious. Oh,and itdoes not share exp for the whole group unlike gen1 games. No, it only shares between the fighter(s) and the holder!
Btw, found out umbreon is a thing here, so fok sneasel. But creating an umbreon is a pain in the arse.
Training my eevee diverted my attention, so my pidgey(ot) remained semi-low. Had to spice things up, and make it lvl 29 to beat the fighting gym on that island. Could have used just the stupid gyarados, but don't wanna. I'll probably suck, because that gyarados is overpovered again.
And that fokin' "friendship"-system is ultimately borken. Unless you get a friendship-ball, which I doubt appears in this game - ok, does, but fuck knows, and gaining it from all the acorns would mean a week or more doing nothing -you have just no chance. And if you are working with a shitty bought-in-the-shop pokemon, like eevee, then you're screwed for good to walk up-and-down for hours, doing nothing.
Ye, in theory you could go and level up your mon, but that'll ruin the gainable abilities, so fuck Nintendo.
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As far as I can see the main problemwith these "games", is:
- there is no difficulty, only grinding
- 90-99% of the game you meet pathetic, negligable enemies who don't even count as filler
- sometimes you meet enemies the same level as all the other enemies, but they are 10 times tougher in every aspect than the others. And it's not about type advantage, or other bullshit, because you still have that by the charts
- oh yeah, these games heavily rely on serious amount of meta-knowlegde
- but the games don't come with a manual
- the games do not give you ANY informations about what to do. I mean how to win. I mean the stupid Elite Four and other final enemies. Given that the grinding is heavy, most of the exp comes from trainers you can't re-battle (where the average fight gives you 100 exp, a trainer-fight gives you 2,000 per pokemon!), it is realy shitty thing.
Comparsion of Red/etc. vs Gold/etc. Red has way more things to discover, and however annoying you do meet the rival at significant points, and crap.
On the other hand, Gold might have more reasonable puzzles.
Crap in Gold: one location of the transition houses (the bug garden's) takes away your bike. It's way better than Red/etc. which does this at each building of course, still, this is an oversight.
The Ice Path cave does not demand Flash. Another oversight.
Thias fokin' piece of shite gives you a lvl 20 ice stuff where your team is lvl 40, and the ice is the demanded type for the local gym. Just fok off game.
There's way too few EXP in the game, and let's mention you constantly have to use surf,and other crappy HM-moves, so likely can't go by full party mostof the times. Yes, there's anHM-remover NPC in the game, but itisn't as big a help as you can't just store your abilities in a pool, theyare a now-or-never offer at lvlups.
Oh man, Johto doesn't even has its own League. The League is again in Kanto. How lame. It is also fokin far away from anything, and there's nothing to grind you up aside pathetic lvl 10 wild mons, which feels like when South Park went WoW. So fok you game.
Yet another problem is, the game is highly luck-based, but w/o any pay-to-win variation even. Tostart with the legendaries, you either capture them as the first move (or have a fast pokemon which can make it sleep, and succeeds with it too, because those never hit 100%), or they are gone for good.
Then there's the fokin champion league. Every fight is practicaly a 1HKO match, and is randomised, and the things have such moves wich contradict all preparation - making the whole thing entirely luck-based.
Given the waypoint-system, distances, the number of fights and so on, your chance to win legit any of these game is negligable, maybe 2%, or less. Unless you seriously overlevel of course.
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Well, with a lvl 40 (as average) team, beat it:
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The team when going in, and when leaving:
graveler: lvl 38/39, magnitude, rock throw, rollout, strength
umbreon, the Dark Lord: 41/45, quick attack, tail whip, faint attack, bite
meganium: 41/41, cut, flash, razor leaf, body slam
jynx: 40/41, lick (removed atlevelup for body slam), lovely kiss (was absolutely vital to beat houndoom and charizard, very cheap move), powder snow, ice punch
pidgeott: 40/41, wing attack, fly, sand attack, quick attack (this is a good finisher in desperate situations)
machoke: 41/42, rock smash, leer, seismic toss, karate chop
Status moves in this game aside sleep are not worth it. From the enemy the confusion effect was used,and that's annoying. Some burn also happened, almost negligable. Poison happens too, but way less than in the first games, so that's almost ok.
Aside the mons items used in the final challenge: a lot of healing potions and superpotions. Actualy all that I found in the game. Around halfway found a nice mapping what was not that much needed, but helped find the hidden items (which I mostly did not use). With 1-2 superpotion (50 HP) exception allwere used before the last fight.
Had to revive twice: that Foretress obviously blew up, and the gengar made a "we both die" curse. My HP not being way too high, did not use max heal/hyper potions to replenish those, only normal potions.
To be honest, I'm somewhat proud.
But the post-game... I looked it up a Let'splay, and it is completly empty, like the Dargon Cave, that other cave, the Unown quests... These all feel unfinished.
The post-game only has empty streets, another set of gym-battles, and a final fight against the previous game's protagonist, who has stupidly high (ca. lvl 80) crew, so fok that I say. Sure, even w/ the empty streets that's a challenge for the grind-baring dedicetd people, but could have been for everyone if they'd give enough exp there. Also, the majority of the pokemons are not found in the story-mode (although if you want some stuff from the Victory Road you can grab them as soon as you have surf, but nah).