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Old 05-04-2019, 09:13 AM   #431
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Default Paladog (meat using Darkdog playthrough) 1

This idea is dumb, so I like the challenge.
I pick the unit-strenghtening abilities instead of the obvious mana-centered build, because why not. Will give a full list later.
Also, will max the units before stepping further each time. This will be a bit convoluted as Darkdog has a lot of spells cast from food, but whatever.

Until clvl 12 I could max the chicken totem, and 10 point in Warry (it stuns the enemy in range at the moment for period).
Had to exp/itemhunt up for lvl 18 to clvl 16,and used in sum +5 food amulets, and a Flame Blade. Thor's Hammer ate too much mana, the Ice Sword didn't do enough damage.
NOTE: because Warcry is crappy, started to invest into Boar, when finished the level, had it on slvl 9.

At lvl 22 I had to rush and unlock the Whale to make my totems permanent. It's realy a problem the Boar can only have as much attack as the chickens, and the next two units are not attack unit, but a healer totem, and an instant spell. And the warcry is a lot useless. So I'll have to strech a bit as needed I think.Currently have 10 in Boar already as they can work as meat shield for a small time, while the chickens are ranged.

At lvl 2/11 could win wild combination what I have, but couldn't win by 3 star because of the hawaiian stone heads. This means I'll have to unlock and use the Blade skill already... The problem is for this, have to get an expanded food pool, which I got not amongst the options until now during clvl 24 (each lvlup gives you 3 random choice from the whole pool). So I'll have to go back lvling.

For lvl 2/11 needed chickens, lvl 1 Whale, lvl 9 Summon Blade.

2/18 done with 19 Warcry, 16 Boar, 10 Blade. (Equipment: +3 flame sword, +13 food)

3/6 was another wall. Had to unlock Earth Totem, and have 17 in Summon Blade (and luck) to succeed. Note for this: have 200 max food, whatis kinda important for buffer. base swordis +6, flame sword is +5. +16 food from jewelry.
Aside this my major strategy for this build is to put down zounds of chicken ASAP, support themwith 1-2 whale, and stand back. Works on ranged enemy levels too, only have to stand a bit further, so the enemy comes out of the cave and can be hit.

3/13 caused a lot of problem, but gave the advantage to buff up my skills.SummonBlade got maxed, Chicken, Warcry, Boar was already, Whale is 13, Earth Totem (Bull from now on) is 14.
This is one of the sucker-levels,wherethe time-limit for 3 stars are shortened.

For 3/19 I was worried lacking any real power on Darkdog itself. Despite this, I tried, and got ok until Isaw the end line. There I just panicked and started smashing buttons: summon allchicken, and some boar - the boar managed to very very slow the trojan horse, while Iswinged mindlessly behind the cover of a Bull. Also used Blade to eliminate threats. Darn, I'll never look back to this.

For 4/2 had to grind up again. Blade is maxed, whale 15 and bull are 18.

Crap. 4/5 seems beyond my attack capability. Will have to unlock Eagle.
When done whale was maxed, bull 19, fire eagle is 6. Btw, eagle DOES get healed by whale, only it has almost no HP (like third of chicken), so it is very voulnerable. And Idon't care it for the enemy being invincible. In a crowd chickens are invincible too.

To slow down the next trojan horse used boar, for damage used eagle. It requires to catch the rythm, but solvable. Don't mind the giant skeleton boss minion, let it pass. +19 food, +9 flame sword.

The fok? With 3:54 level 4/11 is still only 2 star worth! That's ridiculous!
And I don't even know how I achieved this. Seems I found two major problems with the units: the whales do not add up, and the eagle somehow gets hurt when stepping out of protection, and the whale only enough to keep its HP not dropping, but they can not regenerate them.
Well, taken some risks, all maxed, eagle 16, +25 food, managed to pass it for 3 stars.
NOTE: turns out the whales are just really shitty healers when it comes to the eagle. Have to keep 2 running simultenously to heal them proper. Seems they do add up after all.

For 5-13 had to start using the dragon totem. The spear skeletons are just too advanced. Not that it ment any trouble, eagle being already maxed out, and had some leftover gold for the purpose.
I wonder if I'll atall need the last skill with this one.

For 5-17 I needed lvl 8dragon totem. Or I was friggin lucky not needing more, or even the last skill. Those spammed footbal-zombies, and ghost-paladogs are friggin annoying.

5-22: had to lvl 15 dragon totem. No more was needed to finish the game.
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Old 12-04-2019, 09:27 AM   #432
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Default Might and Magic VII - challenge build

So, because why not, I planned the ultimate challenge setup. Well, unless you want to duplicate classes in your group, in what case I meh you. Go ahead and do a full monk party using only unarmed combat!

So, this party would consist:
- knight, thief, monk, ranger. Prime factor was to eliminate all the super-cheesey spells, like invisibility, and town portal. Ranger still provides Water Walk, so could be changed to Paladin, but that's a good healer, strong fighter, and would mess with the balance of the party. Also, it has Protection From Magic, which means immunity to all conditions, so I'd just go with Ranger.
- evil party, because if I'm correct, good-doers at some quest has to use invisibility to avoid combat, and that'd be a nuisance.
- to spare need of skillpoints, and because the Loot The Emerald Island Dragon Trick, hire a scholar (ID item), and an alchemist (repair item).

Skills:
knight: spear, sword, plate, bow, merchant, learning, body building, arms master. Skillpoints in demand: 288 (more, if you don't hire alchemist)
thief: dagger, sword, leather, bow, merchant, learning, body building, arms master, disarm trap, alchemy. Skillpoints in demand: 279 (more, and less effective if not hire a scholar)
monk: unarmed, dodging, bow, learning, body building, arms master, spirit, mind, body. Skillpoints in demand: 270 + staff gm (dualwields with unarmed -don't ask)
ranger: axe, shield, chain, bow, merchant, learning, body building, arms master, perception, meditation, fire, water, air, earth, ID monster (Ik now it's a dump-skill). Skillpoints in demand: 261

Artifacts and relics:
knight: gibbet, puck, yoruba
thief: hareck's leather, old nick, corsair (this is why the character learns swords, otherwise go with two daggers)
monk: hand of the master, ania's selving
ranger: governor's armor, ghoulsbane (or amuck. Not sure which is twohanded), ulysses, kelebrim
~class independent: hermes' sandals, seven league boots, forge gauntlets (dwarf only, quest reward), lady's escort (female only), hero's belt (male only), cloak of the sheep (quest reward), twilight cloak (maybe), the perfect bow (quest reward, likely you're better off with a random magic bow)
Too bad of course there's that 13 artifact limit.


004.jpg

From the possible skills Emerald Island does not teach bow, or chain mail. Neither spear or staff, but those're twohanded option, which I don't need with this party. And while armor skills come with their respective basic item, I just love merchant to get ASAP.
Also remember: the dragonflies respawn, the things in the dungeon do not, so start the mayhem there. The next thing is to get merchant to everyone, hire a Scholar, buy membership of the magic guilds. One of the wells heals you - if you run out of charges, go to the training center and trian ONE character ONCE. If/When you have to money, learn armor skills. When you have no other remaining option left, go and defeat and loot the dragon, then buy all possible skills, spells and whatnot to finaly leave the island.
I don't get the wand from the competitor, because I did in my first game, and found it useless and annoying.



I might not be able to play this game though, as I feel I get computer sickness (aversion of sea-sickness)
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Old 19-04-2019, 11:12 AM   #433
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Default Might and Magic series party composition

1: the common agreement is, get 1 from everything, sex and race don't come to play, for the first 3 places put the melee fighters.
I don't like the sound of this game because the way of healing is by resting, and that has a random encounter chance, what practicaly means your party is executed.
Also, casting using gems sounds stupid.



2: I heared a lot of pre-plannig is demanded, because thereare things only men or women can hit... Sounds too much fuss.
Has a random time travel element (random is always bad), gem-casting... Not attractive by modern standards.


3: there appear skills, and sounds like resting is mostly fixed? Still heared start with the pre-made party like all the previous installments, because the game at the beginning is harsh, and because all the random numbers it is hard to create characters manualy.
Still uses the stupid gem-casting system.


4/5 (World of Xeen): this finaly looks like how they all should.
The race-advantages seem obvious, and judging the class descriptions there is a normal and an advanced version for all slots. Like Barbarian is an advananced but more restricted (aka. specialized) version of knight, rangers are modified druids, etc. Though I wouldn't pick ninja, because the only way to max out on thievery is using a Robber. Obviously for the same reason keep sorcerer/cleric in any party if you don't go for challenges.


6: there are ... not that many differences between the classes. Also, you gain a heckaton of spell points, and the spells are rock hard, so schoose paladin over knight.
Cleric and sorcerer in any group are obvious choice, and with metaknowledge and pre-planning you'll get light AND dark magic for them. Better for the most part make each specialize in one realm of those two though (make a chart of skill point which should invest in which).
Because of skill point limitations and strenght of the light/dark spells druid infinitely sucks, while Archer is an ok support character.
the mostcommon Challenge Party Build is knight/knight/knight/knight, because of the lack of spells entirely. Some tend to do a "let 3 character die" run, but I find that stupid beyond measure.
Advantage ofthe game is, it is hugh, and feels epic.



8: ye, as this one is way easier to make the case than 7. The problem is twofold, aside the generaly poor design (what is mostly because rushed production). One: you start with 1 character, and have to pick the rest later, some of which are available very far in the game (especialy troll. you just get trolled by that). Two: you start in a heavily attacked area with constant, infinitely respawning, not weakling enemies, while firestormis even hailing on you. That sounds like you need a character with though skin and musclues RIGHT NOW. So start with troll, or you're most probably dead before taking three steps.

Also, the dragon while not a starter race (there are no classes anymore for some reason) is friggin overpowered with its no-mana AoE-attack and stuff.

The game is not entirely a waste, but is very straightforward, not fitting in the open world design of the series.



7: this has the most variations when it comes to party building.
The game itself is fun, but has SOME flaws. There is the problem of gaining Town Portal as bare minimum is very far in the story, because of a difficulty peak, what feels unusual after MM6. Then there is the Invisibility spell, what is while necessary, and narratively connected, just feels cheap. Then there is the first maybe third of the game where you'll face a ton of timed events, what just gets in the way constantly.
The preset party is probably the strongest, partly because spells are changed since MM6, so not that useful, and apaldins don't gain that much HP either. So a combination of cleric with knight is awesome, because the spell Shared Life is very overpower.
Sorcerer is again a powerhouse when it is not unconsious, and thief is like a glass cannon. Shields are no longer the best choice either, so dualwield for it and knight is advisable. Stealing is stupid though, not just because there's no indication of the chances, and always being a chance to get caught, but for the fact that MM7 shops don't have good stuff to sell unlike some MM6 shops. Also, that dragon is very much defeatable at the start,and you can loot it through your nose, and believe me, players do.
There is also the problem of advancing your skills, because the teachers are many times are behind difficulty peaks. So while certain classes seem viable alternatives on paper, like monks with their unarmed combat, they are a though choice to make because of that.
Archer pretty much don't have an advantage inany field, and Ranger is only there if you realy sruggle in the early phases.
And druid is just bad with all its lame promotionquests, bad weapon choice (youwant to give dagger to the thief, not the druid), lack of dark/light magic... Still ONCE picking it along the dark path is fun, for the dragon familiar. It does nothing (appears as an extra hireling if I recall correctly), but it's cool.
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Old 20-05-2019, 11:47 AM   #434
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Thought I'll give another chance to pokemon trying a later installment - the latest I found was Diamon. Then I found out it got rmeoved, or otherwise unaccessible.


Well, I tried Nintendo, I tried. But I can't make myself to like your products.
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Old 23-05-2019, 03:51 PM   #435
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Default Pokemon Gold

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!

----------

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.

----------

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.

-----------

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.


-------------


Well, with a lvl 40 (as average) team, beat it:


002.jpg


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).
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Old 26-05-2019, 08:02 PM   #436
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As there is only 1 pokemon game, I don't want to invest in them any more, but I can check out some reviews how the series changed.
And I do mean the game series.
The anime has nothing to do with the games' canon, or progress, or mostly anything.

So, there was red/green/yellow/blue/pikachu/eeevee/firered/leafgreen. It was a grindfest, but the idea was good considering the technical limitations, it even delivered for its time, I think. The definitive version is Red. Despite obviously Red starting with a picachu after all, the yellow version's protagonist is Yellow, k?

Gold/silver/crystal/heartgold/soulsilver added a daynight-cycle, threw out the overcomplicated and struggling puzzles, modified the pokemon pool, gave a real postgame (throwing a pokeball on a mon in gen 1 was a joke), unfortunately took away a lot of happening for the sake of time-related events. They also threw out the "cath 'em all" slogan, here you don't gain enough EXP to lvl up and lead through all form-changes your mons, and there are no quests to encourage you to, trading pokemon with NPCs also lacking. Although I preplanned to not catch the stupid mons to be honest. The definitive edition seems Crystal, purely for the full pool, as the story does not differ, and Suicune was made part of the story there.

Ruby/sapphire/platinum/omegaruby/alphasapphire I heared threw out the time-related jizz fortunately, and integrated both version of evil team. I feel this was a good idea, making the experience of the split games athand of the player (at least on paper, no idea how it went in real). They threw away the continuity with gen1-2, so it is a reboot so to say. The pool got mixed of course, won't mention this any more. The definitive edition is emerald story-wise, sounds a bit letdown they changed the champion's character for that though.
Here they also added some more stupid randomization of stats (I never looked at the stats), and ... pokemon food? I never give my team any consumables if I can avoid, so limiting my options there doesn't help your case. The double fights just give even more real life luck factor, so big nah.
The post-game sounds fun.

Diamond/pearl/platinum: the definitive version is platinum? Well, the start was in gen 1-2 that "10 years Ash Katchum", and gen 3 "you saved me, here is a bioweapon, go fight terrorists", here found a mixed balance.
Sadly the double battles are still there. The strangest thing seems how the base motive for the enemy boss is changed from the games to the anime series.
The graphic is definitely updated.
The worst thing related sounds this gen games being slow. Slow walking, slow animations, slow story... Oh,and don't forgettocatch a beaver forHM-purposes they all say. Crap, it even has the real-time crap back

Black/white/black2/white2 - sounds a bit greedy, eh? Not just 1 merged version, but new versions of the originals? Can I take this as a sign of degradation? the franchise loosing its steam, hm?
The Enemy Team is not a shady organisation anymore. the gym-leaders have civil jobs too.
No optional areas, linear progress, to much story?

X/Y: too easy? still restricts on the main appeal, mega evolution forms?

Sun/moon: does not let you play. Feels like that Gorky17-look game with HoMM design, which had every turn every character blurped some randomness you had to click away to getdone with the turn...

...

pikachu/eevee: instant remote access to all cathced pokemon? new special hardware device restrictions to be able to play the game? Another gen1 remake? Leave me alone.

---------------

Yes, Black/White/black2/white2 were definitely cashgrabs. They tried to sell part 1-2 based purely on the story. Don't make me laugh.
There was also no improvement on the hardware. Seems every"generation" also ment a new console - except for this four. Lazy, lazy Nintendo.
So, I just found out b2/w2 are gen 5.5? b/w/b2/w2 are either not a new gen given no new console, or b2/w2 a completely new gen given their story is not identical to the original games...
b2/w2 seemed to even want to get rid of the "become a pokemon champion" theprotagonist simply fighting the local team of problem, showing no intention competing the traditional way according to bulbapedia.


PS: the b/w game(s) are the last existing on roms, and the next "two" generations exist on a new 3d-console,which of course no actualy 3d, but are using 3d textures. Well, Doom could do that, hack, even Wolfenstein could do that.
And to be honest, I'm nota fan of this 3D, makes seizing up the map pretty hard, and given the puzzle-mechanics you WANT to be able to see as much of the map as you can.
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Old 27-05-2019, 09:47 AM   #437
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Default even more pokemon

Just in case you want to know what moves are in demand for these games:

red/etc.:
1. cut (decent physical attack)
2. fly (this is fast travel)
3. surf (decent water attack)
4. strength (decent physical attack)
5. flash (decent chance to not get hit attack)

gold/etc.:
1. cut
2. fly
3. surf
4. strength
5. flash (in this game it never worked for me)
6. whirlpool (i think only for puzzles on water)
7. waterfall (i think only for puzzles on water)
8. rock smash (this is TM, ok rock move I think)
+1: some NPC said headbutt (I think regular fighting move) can be used to fish from trees. Did not try.
I suggest using a water HM-slave with surf + whirlpool + waterfall.
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Old 27-05-2019, 06:06 PM   #438
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Default pokemon emerald

Ok, I'm weak.

To make this run I needed yet another emulator. It lacks the ability of instant save, multiple save slots etc., so gives a "real pokemon experience" . Darn them. The one used for the gold lacks memory to run it stable unfortunately, but might use that for the League, as it can run...

So for Red used: VisualBoyAdvance Emulator 1.80-beta 3
For Gold used: GBE+ 1.2
For Emerald used: No$GBA 2.8d (crashes if you press B-button, can't properly create fog-effect, so looking for a substitute). UPDATE: 2.9d seems to have the same problem.

The graphic is updated to the level of Baldies, though the size of the game got noticeably bigger.

No real idea about my team. Seems there are no given away pokemons anymore, and the charts just didn't help (unless I want the exact same group as before).

You can't name your rival, and the basic story is: here is a bioweapon, now go and play outside, amongst murderous beasts!
It will be a weird experience if you chose female as your gender, and named yourself Pussy. Things like "now I understand why my dad has en eye for you", or "I bet you have easy way with all the pokemons" get weird second meaning.

The game feels now less of a handheld quartz-game than some jrpg, without the rpg part of course.
The real problem here is, you don't get quests, so when the story and fighting parts follow each other, they don't feel intervowen. Needs better pacing next time. Also, the intro sectionat the beggining is the most annoying thing since a long time.

--------------

walkthrough:
- start with sceptile. It is an ok pokemon, and grass isn't common around while water is. And fire sucks.
- get yourself a Ralts if you are lucky, or have the patience. It is psychic, so by definition is a good pokemon.
- get yourself a lotad too, and level it in random encounters to lvl 14. It'll be your prime HM-slave, not even needed to upp it to its final form. Give it when it comes Surf, Waterfall, Dive, and one more from strength/flash/rock smash. Make it rock smash Don't be too hasty giving it moves though, I have no idea when HM-remove will be available. Wouldn't want to waste such a good slave.
- get yourself a slakoth as third. With lotad -> lombre learning surf, flash, waterfall, dive and slakoth learning cut, strength, rock smash, you only need to teach fly to your permanent team, what is the Fast Travel function, soyou want it on you!
- try to avoid two trainers noticing you, because double battles are problematic.
- don't explore too much, the exp-share (doubles the exp as usual) is near
- passing the 2nd city get yourself a nincada. It'll serve as slave for a while, as it can learn cut (not mandatory for now), and flash (first demanded HM).
- on the way delivering the letter, in the cave capture yourself an aron. It is a good pokemon for fighting.
- after delivering the letter, GO BACK TO PETALTOWN for the exp-share! Now you can backtrack if you want cutting trees.
- the electric gym is a problem. The mons are too tough, and deal hugh damage. Oh,and don't even hope to outlevel the buggers. If gen2 (Gold/etc) had EXP-problems, this gen has even more. I have a lvl 22/20/20 team, and there's nothing else to do!
Ah, I see what's the problem: THE STARTER YOU'D'VE NEEDED IS MUDKIP. Fuck this shit.
NOTE: managed tofind the quicksave feature, so fuckyou Nintendo. With that could avoid the fucking shockwave where it was cruical, and the fucking random factors,and the fucking criticals. Made the voltorb selfdestruct as first move, then got rid of the 2nd enemy, then for the last two my strategy was to send out my sceptile screeching and fainting, then with enough weakened my mudshot could eliminate the enemies. That ment revive on sceptile to be able to do its stuff on manectric. There some Soda Pop for healing was necessary too.
What you actualy would need here is a bloody ground type. Big news: there are only fokin' two up to this point: mudkip, or nincada. If nincada evolves, you getfokin' screwed, just tellin'. And it doesn't get any ground move which you're looking for to cause any damage until lvl 31, and believe me, manectric can hurt you hard with its quickattack whatis normal type damage! And no, there is no TM (teachable move) in the game in ground element, so you're fucked in the arse without lube.
There might be SOMETHING though. An easter egg. Fok it, I go and check it out.
SUPERNOTE: Seriously, I sometimes wonder if people played these games. So, what I did was lvl up my nincada to 20, which made my aron to almost lvl 30 (during the gym-battle it became 30). Took like 1-2 hour grinding, but it did worth it. What is important here is you get Sedinja, the 1 HP pokemon.

Coorection: ok, there's Geodude. There are maybe halfa dozen gen1 mon reappearing, I just couldn't care for those.


Here is how the gym-battle goes:
#1 Voltorb: it has rollout, and can blow up. I had a lvl 20 Sableye to hold it up, but it actualy doesn't matter. If it gets hurt, especialy if it got healed by a potion, bring in aron because it'll selfdestrruct, and that hurts ca. everyone but aron. The problemhere it can do rollout, what is super effective on Sedinja.
#2 it's a midle-diff thingy which you are not allowed to touch. This later part is the problem, because if you touch it'll paralyze you,what you don't want. Aron can deal with it pretty good with mudshot. Will likely get healed by a potion, but it realy isn't the hard part.
#3 this is a magnemite. Start here with sceptile. If you chose torchic, that's your fault. If you have the mud-thingy, this whole conversation never comes up, move along. Do as many screech as you can. Let sceptile faint, or if aron has enough HP (heal in sceptile's turns)/you have ton of supplies, just switch pokemon. Simplest thing is to let sceptile faint, especialy if your team is around lvl20. Then mudshot the bugger. It hits hard, and has some nasty tricks, but you should be able to defeat it after the screeches.
Do NOT bring in Sedinja yet, because it has a tendency to counfuse yourt units, and that's lethal.
#4 this is where you bring in Sedinja. Manectric can't do squat against your bug-husk-mon. And despite nincada had 2 HM on it, the remaining 2 slots were good enough: screech and bug-fury.

For the fire gym they told all kinds of strategies - mine was simple. Lvl 35 aron's 2nd form headbutt first. Has enough HP to survive the first overheat, just patch up via potion or something when that happens. This gym again has thatbuggy fog-effect, but that's why maps on the net are for.

Until now the puzzles practicaly missing with the exception of the annoying mach-bike feature. The rival is mostly missing, actualy every character seem to do its own stuff just like you. It is a bit boring, but I get the concept. Also seem to have some daddy-issue.Btw,daddy isa cheater. His linoon knows a lvl 53 move...
His mons are no problem though, only slaking which has immense amount of HP. So I sent out Sableye to leer to the point of fainting, then brought back aron. That mon practicaly carried me throw all the game until now!
My crew is at lvl 20 or below, except the main three. Gardevoir reached its final form, aron and sceptile are working on that.

NOTE: if you need some reasoned grinding,don't forget that the first two lute might be ok to have. Justdon't use repel. Never use repel.

pros:
- no day/night cycle harassment to the player

cons:
- the AI just luves to abuse superstrong items, like healing its mons from 1 HP to max, just because it can.
- the extra content, like making that kid laugh, fishing feebas, and other crap are waaay to random to have any interrest aside the most hardcore.
- super low chance to capture pokemons. There are 3-5% capture chance, meaning 1:20 ball average for those!
- not registering all the pestering NPCs is impossible. Deleting their annyoing calls is impossible. Good news though: they don't call that often as in gen2.

neutral:
- seems I can't get the poison status. But life isn't easier, as instead regularly get paralyzed.
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Old 30-05-2019, 11:12 PM   #439
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Default pokemon emerald #2

Ok, who the heck is Steven?
There's the neighbour-guy who is kinda a rival, but more of a friend, and there's Wally (Monkey Island TM) who is a kinda mentored greenear. No idea about Steven.

With the Good Rod went and catched a Whailemer. A lvl 20 had both watergun and rollout what I looked for in case I'll use this mon. I have to start thinking of expanding my team, as my three sure start to all reach their evolution levels.
I catched quite a lotos interresting looking pokemon, just to be on the safe side, but I have no idea. There start to be too many stats. Previously it was enough to know the type, and a correction with double type, now the stats seem a bit important, and moves working with the team, and "nature", and all kinds of crappy minute detail, what'd madden an accountant even. The whole thing falls back to overleveling and button-smashing.

Oh, another excuse for grinding, though this'd've been best for the beggining: found only ONE trade-mon-NPC whowants a ralts for some negligable stuff. Still, if you need an excuse for grinding abit, there's that.

BIG CON:fishing was turned into a minigame. Finding a spot where you could actualy catch anything was a though call already, but now it is a blink-or-miss minigame, for what you have to press a series of buttons to start with. Also, betterrods don't necessarily make better options, as they can change the pool, cutting you from what you want. And the superrod comes way too late. The old rod still stinks though.

weird thing: the mimic-circle group is made by bug-users. In a place w/o any bug appearing...

annoying thing: certain parts of the game can only be reached by a specific type of bike. Given they are far away from the shop, and you can't fly until the endgame, walkthroughs should mention which to use when.
Until now the mach bike was needed in Dewford Town, and for/at the Mirage Tower. The acro bike only cames to play in route 119. No, you don't need special bike on Mt. Chimney.
These are all optional areas, but still.

Team Aqua is seriously stupid. I'd care for my business, but they blocked the way. From ONE direction. Not the way I'm coming from. And they don't let me pass. They are too stupid to win.

Btw, I swear for this game Ispent more time with charts than with the game itself. I start to come to the conclusion what I need is the "doubl" effectiveness chart, which tell what attack type is good against what being, then choose skills and units according to that. The type-comparsion charts only good to tell the type immunities.

Oh: decided that my remaining units will be: flygon (because it is immun to electric attacks, and can fly), sableye (because its immunities), and regice (because the ice department is lackluster).

After you get the Surf, you should go to the Flying Gym (#6), but before that goand surf through to Dewford Town with your weaker pokemons (maybe after you collect the first three flutes: blue, yellow and red as the enemy lvl is lower there). That provides good exp. My trapinch evolved there, so can learn fly.

GEN 2 MONS IN THE GAME:
- marill
- wobuffet
There are a couple of others, but only in the endgame, so who cares.
But there's a surprising amount (like two dozen) gen 1 mon too in the game. They arenot too relevant in encounters, but yes, they exist.

Beware, that if you want a cacleon, their number is limited (I think, because they are puzzle). So catch the first you come across. No idea why'd you want any unless filling the pokedex though.

Wow, there's a chance for a Master Ball every day. 1:100,000, but there is.
Fuck pokemon. #PokemonsR4Food

Now Mossdeep City: until now the puzzles were perfect. Hard, but not annoying. But this shitty island is in the middle of literaly nowhere. No border-rocks, no swimmer sign the way. Just who designed this??
Oh, fok whoever made the psy-gym double battle. I fortunately chose the right team to deal with this shite...
And the ALL Dive-area is covered with the bugged fog-effect, so I won't get those items.

TIP TO HELP DIVING WITH EMULATOR: dive down first, then immediately dive up. This makes you see the screen as intended. Immense help to get inside Team Aqua's hideout.

Tips on storing items:
The storage-system is weird at best. The main point is, you want to keep every item that has a special inventory place on you (like berry, TM/HM) because those places never fill up.
Second: you want every type of items in one big pile. So those you find multiply copies (potions etc.) you want to keep on yourself).

To get the the three Regi-mon: first fish yourself on route 129 while surfing a lvl 39- whailmer. I catched a lvl 38. Run away any encounter, don't want the grinding. Train this to lvl 40 to create a wailord. That'll need minimal grinding. Your other chance is same place, surfing, but thatonly has 1% chance for the right ... not-fish.

Get in route 124, and dive in the middle of west in the 1-hex spot. That place is filled with see-weed, aka. grass underwater, so you'll encounter wild pokemons. Relicamp is there. Let wailmer grind up here while hunting (if it runs out of moves, just give it the exp-shere which is no longer bigged in this game, aka. gives no extra exp).
Do the rest by the walkthrough on the net.

Capturing the legendaries (at least the regice) is even worse than a regular low catch-rate pokemon. 0.3% catch rate, no repeat chance w/o reloading, self destruct/flee possibility is just plain trollish. Even if you pull out 40 rounds and use aTimer Ball like I did, and the thing is at 1 HP, your chance's like 1:100, maybe.
TECHNICALY you could also go against Rayquaza at this point. It is lvl 70 though, so fok you hopes. Actualy, it is not that bad, if you have some ice-attack (Regice suffice), and some screech to lower its defences (my sceptile has it). Lower its HP,and wait until it puts itself in sleep. Yes, it can regenerate by sleeping. This is good for us now, because this gives immense bonuses to the catch-rate. And either way, it has double catch% than Regice.
PS: didn't went for the other regis, as they don't interrest me, but the other time don't want to waste them either, but can't bother catching them by reloading a lot.

Oh, aside the whole list of HMs, which are 8 in numbers, and all of it demanded at some point,you also need Dig as a 9th if you do the sidequests too.

The Victory Road is longer than anyone would imagine.

The last gym also has a trick in its purse: you MUST have surf on your party to get in. Stupidity on square.

My team when entering to the Elite Four: 50/50/50/49 (sceptile)/44 (don't realy care, because Sableye's prime purpose is to be immun and thus be safe -> important because of the ghost elite -> need lvl 50. Do NOT teach it shockwave TM 'cause its crappy stats! Teach that to gardevoir, so you have bigger puffer to avoid those stupid restoration potions). And if all else fails, I'll reload and swap in Rayquaza (lvl 70).
Also: grass is a pretty bad choice here as Milotic has too much HP AND knows ice attack, and wailord knows fokin hard ice attack! Obviously you were supposed to start with Mudkip, and bring electric pokemon in the team, and likely absol as your dark unit.
You absolutely need Ice Beam as an attack, and regice is a good user of it. Against Glaile you better have some steel move, so aron is a solid choice still. You need a psychic mon against tentacruel, and Gardevoir is a solid choice, which can do electric special attacks (buy the TM), and can make things sleep as last resort (60%, and can wake the next turn, but whatever, that's why saves are for). Kingdra is a big F U, try something that has some resistances at least against this overleveld piece of shit.


Ye, that's about the game.
For post-game you can overlevel in the Victory Road, and there's the Trick House's irrelevant last trick(s).
As single-player you can do the Battle Frontier (that was a good part of the anime), can get the other fossil (not instantenous, so counts as a bit of valid exp-grinding, can get all the remaining legendaries (any regis and rayquaza you didn't care, also groudon/kyogre), can beat up Steven yet again (who the heck is he?), can get a claydoland win every contest if you so much care, and that's it realisticly speaking.


PS: just to mess you with one more time, entering the Champion's room automaticaly starts the battle.
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Old 05-06-2019, 07:53 PM   #440
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Default Pokemon Platinum, or the death of a franchise

The interface is a definite improvement, don't mind me. Now you don't have to hassle to know what your TM/HMs do because every instance the game is telling you. The character cards are comfy. In the menus you still can't jump from top to bottom, but whatever. The graphic is definitely improved.


Then come the problems.


The Current Evil Group is just like the previous: wants to destroy the world, because they are stupid. The fact that the writing is inconsistent doesn't help.
There is no other character in the game. Ok, there's a rival, and that annoying champion-woman-or-who, but their appearance is very irregular.
The intro sequence is darn annoying, every half second interrupting you with a cutscene.
The majority of the game has nothing to happen in it. The whole thing feels empty, not just because it is empty without any event, but because the maps became quite simple. No need for backtracking, you don't have to memorize stuff, just go ahead in those hugh fokin places (so use a premade map, else you'll grow beared, women too).


There are too many environment-interacting moves, and you never know which you'll need, what leads to metagaming. Especialy because even w/o Flash you can actualy see a bit of sorrounding here.


And I dunno, but till the first/first two Gyms got insane amount of exp, like to be lvl 20-25. After that the 3rd felt like I stopped, only got two/three lvl 28-30 mon.


Oh, and I'm still not sure about my party. First is, the guides don't prepare against psychic mons, and they somehow mostly missing? Fire mons also missing. Electric mons seems punny mostly,although midgame a couple appeared, but hardly the threat as before.


To be honest for the first 2 gyms you could go with chimchar, and that's it. For the next 2 you can use Rotom, which feels a lot like Sableye, but with more powerful moves, but it seems to cover what I'm missing from the guieds, so it seems a keeper.
On the other hand the selection is thin, but also the exp isn't that great when I compare to the opponents' level - I can barely keep above them only using like 3 mons. Planned more, but I practicaly dumped them not finding any use for them, while struggling finding exp to pull them to my main(s)' level.


And I think I have a hunch why the games' quality decline despite the obvious improvement on the technical side.
First: what are the pokemons? "Charizard" stuck in my head as it is "a dragon". Pidgey stucked because it is a bird. And so on. But what are these new mons? Just shiney shapes. I can point at them, but otherwise they are just "things".
Second: too much online-multiplayer-area-restricted content. There are the contests, gazillion items, dozens of pokemons, optional areas (Platinum has an entire second map under its WORLDMAP!), events, who-knows-what features, pokemon-food-mixing, special items, whatever - I either can't access, more often don't even care! I'd get them if they'd be available, but this way they just deminish the experience because they are there, but I (the player) don't even care!

Third: the game's mechanics became too complex. There are pokemon types, move-types, natures, abilities, hidden abilities, breeding, egg moves, EV, friendship, move set, TM options, HM options, move removal, competitive gaming, post-game content, various randomizations, player ID-number related stuff, loaction-related stuff, day-, hour-, week related contents, importing between generations and versions, double types, stats, genders, held items, consumables, permanent statboosts, hit chances, feeding, clothes,other accesories...
It becomes overwhelming just to list them. The players can noloinger reverse-engineer the effectiveness of stuff, and programing/coming up with the rules is even harder! So I wouldn't expect the company be able to create a refined game, and if they would be able, it would be for naught, because the users couldn't solve their puzzles! So the whole thing becomes "button mashing", thus becomes easy for anyone who pays half attention - just like how the fans of the games reacted. The games became simpler by becoming too complicated.

---------------


For platinum you can just see they almost threw out the concept of "create your own team" by the look of it. Here this:
- the obvious best starter is Chimchar (fire/fighting variant). This beats the first 2 gym, and the majority of the game anyway.
- use only this mon, and your level will just be good to beat everything in your way, and neither your type will cause any problem (aside some rare water attack, where you'll have to back to the PC, because pokemon is pc, and the selfdestructing geodudes - none complained for this move ever?). Then you bump into Rotom. Which is immediately lvl 20, and will beat the 3rd and 4th gym, and is just a great addition in every sense.
- then you'll get the chance in platinum only for a gabite -> garchomp, a "semi-legendary" dragon type. And yes, it is a great type and hugh strength again to your party. You know what you're missing still? A grass-type. And with just 4 mon you practicaly could beat the game in theory. For this you get an eevee, and super-soon compared to all other options to it, you can change it to Leafeon. Only problem: there are no physical grass moves for it, but you see the tendency.
- you even get a free flying type to move around: togepi -> togekiss.
- you still have one more place in the team, and you guess what, you get a FRIGGIN LEGENDARY to fill the role. Sure, you get it late, at lvl 1 - likely you'd've get it a couple of lvl higher originaly -, but it is a FREE LEGENDARY.


So, very interresting design we have here.
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