POKEYMANS thread

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:32 am

So apparently the megastone for Mega-Blaziken is an event/DLC thing. This is bad in and of itself - firstly because Mega-Blaze is kind of rad (more Attack? Speed Boost ability? Where do I sign up?), and secondly because it means any other given megastone might be event-only.

On the other hand, they specifically called it out as being event/DLC-only. In other words, that's not the standard, and presumably most are just flat-out available.

Anyway it's my Birthday today and I got a gift card for EB, so I bought the new Mystery Dungeon one (it was that, actually *wait*, or get the latest Etrian Odyssey, which looks kind of cool, but they're all as hard as old balls and very frustrating). Instead of a personality test, it just lets you choose which one you are. YES I WILL BE AXEFACE THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

You get to be the Axeface dragon. Enough said.

The game itself is very similar to the other ones, but does look nicer, doesn't have the starvation mechanic, and has a gimmick where you can use the camera to detect circles (like an overhead of a teacup) to generate special dungeons. It's not "HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING", because it wouldn't be a Nintendo game if it were. It's pretty decent though, and it means I dusted off my 3ds for the first time since... leaving hospital at the start of the year.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Oct 03, 2013 2:39 pm

I have the original Mystery Dungeon (Red Rescue Team, if your curious). I love the game, despite it's many flaws (the stupid personality quiz, starvation mechanics, those motherfucking TRAPS, and low recruit rates for the more awesome Pokémon), and I still have manage to have lots of fun playing it.

In fact, I'm playing right this minute. I'm currently in Wyvern Hill trying to get HM Fly. Tough going normally, but not when your... HO-OH.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:11 am

I have Mystery Dungeon... Blue? for DS, and also Sky or Time or something for DS. I loved the hell out of that one and was so happy when Darkrai joined my team. We became BFFs.

The current one still has the "HA YOU ARE CONFUSE" traps, but they're actually rarer than the "You step here AND FIND A MEGALIXER" spots. And I've found all of like two MONSTER HOUSES (just as lethal as before if you don't have a sphere that disables all enemies in the room or teleports you to the exit stairs).

It also introduces special keys - in certain dungeons, if you have the [type] key, you will find the [type] door. If you unlock it, you get some treasure boxes and a tile that improves the rate at which your skills level up (in case you want your Fire Blast to get 100% accuracy). Also it has a bunch of high-ish level things - picture Axew, Tepig and Dunsparc wandering in and meeting a trio of Braviaries that are high enough level that all of the normal damage attacks do zero (so you use set damage like Dragon Rage).

So the new real risk is the special door rooms, because Braviary will murderise you. In the face. But it's a risk you get to decide to take.

Also, after you meet a pokemon in the dungeon for the first time? You can then go to Cincinno's Gift Shop and make a special gift for that type of pokemon. Then if you meet that pokemon type in the dungeons you can give the present and make friends more easily. Like a dating sim I guess.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 6:32 am

So someone has gotten a hold of a leaked copy of Pokemon X/Y or something, as my friend has been posting in game pictures, but if it were her, I think I'd know...

(large images warning)

So, we'll start with in-game Megyarados:

What is this I don't even...

Megaerodactyl

MEGENGAR!!!!

!!!

Megabomasnow

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 7:02 am

Awesome - I was aware that a couple of Canadian stores had released a few copies early (which I'm pretty sure means Nintendo is sending hit squads after them, with machineguns), but hadn't actually seen any of the leaked stuff. Seeing Megyarados and Megaerodactyl and Megengar makes me happy.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sat Oct 05, 2013 11:45 pm

Megengar looks like he's giving the double bird. I approve.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:45 pm

Now it can hide amongst the dandelions even more efficiently!

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Oct 08, 2013 2:54 am

So there's also a Megardevoir, and she has a very puffy dress. Also, Gardevoir (Mega and otherwise) is Fairy-Psychic. Also confirmed changes: Azurill and Marill gain the Fairy type in addition to Water/Normal, the bulldog one is now either Fairy or Fairy Normal, Cleffairy is Fairy/Normal, and Jigglypuff is either Fairy or Fairy Normal. It's possible that +- are Fairy Electric.

Megadactyl gets Tough Claws - the "my physical contact moves do more damage" ability also seen on the Dragon/Fire Megacharizard.

Clawncher evolves into Clawitzer, and the clawcannon is basically its entire body at that point. Skrelp evolves into a bigger Poison/Dragon. Fennekin's final evolution is Fire/Psychic (FINALLY a Fire type that doesn't end up Fire-Fighting!), and the water one ends up as Water/Dark, and is a ninja. That's pretty cool, but it's not the fire one.

Also, for a nice change, the first gym is Bug, and half of the gyms are awesome for a Fire trainer. That said, the second one is Rock, and it's possible you might only have your starter and shitty normal, flying and bug ones at that stage. Hopefully that's not the case.

There are a bunch of Abilities described as Auras, which affect the whole field, generally altering the power of certain move types (similar to the weather ones I guess). There's also a move or ability that inverts all auras, and there are abilities that change the typing of your Normal moves (one for Fairy, one for Ice, so far). Also there's a move that is both Flying and Fighting type - presumably you gain STAB if you're either one (and if there's a Fighting/Flying type that exists, I imagine it doesn't double-up), and no idea how it works for resistance/weakness. There's also an Ice move that is nonetheless super effective against water.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 1:14 am

Something about Mystery Dungeon I forgot to ask: Can you play as different Pokémon after the main story, like in MD Red/Blue? I always loved that feature. It's so awesome to just go through life as Mewtwo or Ho-Oh, saying to other people, "This may come as a bitter shock to you, but I'm too awesome to give any fucks about your life's story."

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:00 am

(Quick note on Mega-Evolutions: people are doing this in the leaked copies, so obviously it's not DLC for all of them. Apparently you can find mega-stones by rock smashing and such.)

Mystery Dungeon: pfft, what do you mean, after? Very early in the game, after you register your team, you can just Save and go to "meanwhile..." where you pick a team of four from your collection, with one as the leader, and you can do the normal base stuff and wander off on missions, but the main plot doesn't move forward. I'm enjoying doing this with Cottonnee, Croagunk etc. that the shared XP means my main team (Axeface, Crackling, Virizion, Klink) has been elevated a couple of times.

So yeah, you can just flat-out do that pretty much as you please well before the end of the game. And you can still wander around and chat with everyone you've press-ganged into joining your team.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:39 am

Ooh, goody. The only thing that could make the new Mystery Dungeon better is if they had more than just five playable characters, and if more than half of them were the stupid Gen V starters.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 4:00 am

Oh, well you're SOL there. Your starting choices are Water Starter 5, Fire Starter 5, Grass Starter 5, Pikachu and AXEW. So obviously you choose Axew, that's a no-brainer. I then went for Crackling because Fire -> Ice -> Dragon, but seriously, it's much of a muchness. If you could double up, I probably would have gone Double Axew.

As for whom you can befriend, honestly it looks pretty sparse compared to previous games. I blame the use of polygons over sprites. You can recruit:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/683850-poke ... section668

I know that's still pretty decently sized, but if you consider how many are not on that list (and yes, I'm just bitter that Celebi, Dratini, Sneasel, Mawile and Buizel aren't on there), it's a bit of a letdown.

And you can only have a team of four wandering about at any given time. I'd still recommend it, but 5Gen has indeed poisoned it by existing. If anything, I feel you should blame 5Gen itself for this. The fact that there are zero humans (other than the player character, on a technicality) means your least favourite NPCs won't show up, at least. I won't blame anyone for getting sick of THE DRAMA with Emolga, Virizion and Dunsparc though.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:03 pm

So wait, you can't recruit every single Pokémon like in Red/Blue? That sucks. Oh, well. At least you can still get Ho-Oh. And I guess getting Meloetta isn't too bad either.

Still, though... poo.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 11:58 pm

I know, it really is disappointing. And I have no idea if you have to wait until post-game before anyone can evolve, or if it happens normally, or if fuck you, you can't evolve. So far if I've had the opportunity I simply recruit the evolved forms as well as the junior forms.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Oct 13, 2013 3:30 am

Okay, so they totally can evolve, in the middle of dungeons, even. Just apparently not you or your buddy. I imagine that's a post-game thing like in the others. It really makes me want to add more eclectic stuff to pokemon d20, like generalising a bunch of morale things and effects together on a fluctuating mood scale (and then create Victini who can change it with V-WHEEEEEEEEL!), going through with a variety of Mega-Evolutions, putting the Fairy Type in...

I'd say more about what seems to be happening in X/Y, but honestly, I'd just be repeating it from serebii, so you can really just go there and tjeck things out. I think I'm going to get X rather than Y. But I'll need to do some kind of trading to get Houndoomite and Aggronite. And it's a shame to not get Megaheracross and Cloyster.

Anyway, the only way to bring pokemon forward from older games is via the Pokebank, which is a wifi service - and you pay $5/month (or possibly per year?) for that. Fuck them. In the ear.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Oct 13, 2013 5:26 am

Koumei wrote:Anyway, the only way to bring pokemon forward from older games is via the Pokebank, which is a wifi service - and you pay $5/month (or possibly per year?) for that. Fuck them. In the ear.

With a goddamned industrial drill.
Edit: Ok, so it's 500Y at the moment. It's also available as a free 30 day demo, and only stores Gen VI pokemon. However, when you download it onto your 3ds, you also get Poketransfer, which transfers Gen V pokemon and seems to be free. So.... Pokebank basically doesn't matter.

On the other hand...

That thing's called Zygarde. I think Pokemon Z is all but announced now.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:39 pm

Shrapnel wrote:or in fact no NPC that is in any way even remotely similar to any character from B/W/B2/W2

Hahahahaha, Shrapnel, you have to play X/Y. So I bought X, and well... there's an NPC who is probably the leader of Team Flare. He looks like the paedophile from 5Gen (Alden? Alder? Oldman?), except a bit older, and his deal is... he wanders around talking to young people saying how everyone should stay young forever.

That man needs to go on some kind of special registry.

Also, it's incredible just how many pokes you can catch early on. In the first route that actually has pokemon? (Note: you can already buy pokeballs, none of this "go to the next town first" shit) Pidgey, Fletchling, Bunnelby, Bidoof, Zigzagoon, and I think another, too. Even if you count Bunnelby and Bidoof as negatives (which you should), that's still good. The very next area is a forest with Caterpie, Weedle, Kakuna/Metapod (depends on version), Pikachu, the three monkeys, and that bug that's a ball of grass and crap that has different detritus on it depending on what area you're in.

And after the next town they go crazy - Azurill, Riolu, Flabebe, Budew, Dunsparce, Ralts, Combee, Ledyba, Skitty and the fire lion. You only have to beat one gym then go to the next city and you get handed your choice of 1Gen starter.

That part is good. And so much better than BW with their "Fuck you, you'll have our new pokemon AND NOTHING ELSE".

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 12:02 am

Riolu? Really? I mean.

Fuck. That IS a hell of a variety there.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 12:12 am

Yep. Incidentally, the first gym is Bug, but the leader leads with Surskrit (Water/Bug, with Bubble and Water Sport), so just going all-out with a fire type isn't an auto-win. You're probably best-off leading with Pikachu, or one of the birds if you levelled them up enough to get Gust or Peck. Then if Water Sport never came up (or ran out), you can switch in with Fennekin (or the fire monkey if you decided you wanted the ninja frog as your starter).

The second gym is apparently Fighting (with a Lucario). Not likely to be hard, but note that Lucario is Fighting/Steel, thus not actually weak against Flying or Psychic - you instead target Steel weaknesses. I'm wondering if all the gyms give their leader a dual-type to make people rethink the basic expectations? That would probably be wise.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:53 am

So it's totally fucking with you with the same philosophy from some of the starters from Gen 3 on.

I like how if you got Mudkip, you steamrolled the Electric gym with its evolution.

I may have to take the habit back up. Find myself a 2DS.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:09 am

Yeah, you should. Also, it uses polygons, but bascially does not use the actual 3D thing, because fuck that. This makes me happy. Some other things I genuinely like:

[*]You get to choose a nickname as well as a name, so your friends call you a different name from other people. I chose Mi'lord.
[*]You can sit on chairs! If you move up to a chair, you sit on it, and can then even stand up to the other side. Makes for easier navigation, and also means you can run up and pretend to be the CEO of the corporate office.
[*]The minigames ala HGSS and the "pat and feed your pokemon as it wanders about" aspect are sort of there too - they don't follow you on the actual map, but can jump about on the lower screen and then you can go into "Poke Amie" to scratch their ears and feed them pastries and play minigames. Also you can do training to raise their effort values via minigames/punching bags. No really, they've made it that easy.
[*]Customisation options. Aside from the 3 skin+hair colour options, when you wander about you can get different clothes (Hat, Accessory, Top, Pants (Dress counts as both of those at once as presumably is girls-only), Socks, Shoes), and you can also get your hair coloured and trimmed into different styles. You can even go and make little "I'm a model!" movies that have quite a lot of options, and wear all kinds of make-up for those.
[*]Woah, there are black people! Yes, you can have brown skin. So do a bunch of the people you meet. This is actually groundbreaking for pokemonNintendo.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:26 am

Koumei wrote:Woah, there are black people! Yes, you can have brown skin. So do a bunch of the people you meet. This is actually groundbreaking for pokemonNintendoJapan.

Fixed that for you.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:46 am

Yeah, that's actually more accurate.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:32 am

OK, so I have Megaman Pokemon X as well, so I'll throw in my own (counter?)points.

Koumei wrote:there's an NPC who is probably the leader of Team Flare. He looks like the paedophile from 5Gen (Alden? Alder? Oldman?), except a bit older, and his deal is... he wanders around talking to young people saying how everyone should stay young forever.
That man needs to go on some kind of special registry.

He's obviously the villain (unless they're trying to pull a Colress and he's not the actual leader of the region's criminal organization, just an asshole who associates with them).Either way, that's a step up from the region's pedophile being a "good guy".

That part is good. And so much better than BW with their "Fuck you, you'll have our new pokemon AND NOTHING ELSE".

In a cave just before the 2nd gym you can catch Kangaskhan and Ryhorns, so I have one of the latter on my team. You get really good Pokemon early on in general.

Koumei wrote:You're probably best-off leading with Pikachu, or one of the birds if you levelled them up enough to get Gust or Peck.

Actually, in X you can trade the generic Normal type that every generation has for a level 10 Farfech'd. It knows Aerial Ace. You kill Surskit with this.

The second gym is apparently Fighting (with a Lucario).

2nd is Rock, with the two Fossil Pokemon. 3rd is Fighting w/Lucario. It takes like 10 hours to get to the 3rd Gym, and like 8 to get to the 2nd.

Koumei wrote:The minigames ala HGSS and the "pat and feed your pokemon as it wanders about" aspect are sort of there too - they don't follow you on the actual map, but can jump about on the lower screen and then you can go into "Poke Amie" to scratch their ears and feed them pastries and play minigames.

I'd have gladly traded all that for fucking Walking Pokemon. Goddamnit do I miss Walking Pokemon.

[*]Customisation options. Aside from the 3 skin+hair colour options, when you wander about you can get different clothes.

I was hoping for something more like DQIX where you could get like 8 different hair and eye colors and the same in hairstyles. And different height options and face styles. (And all this in a DS game.) Although you couldn't change those later on, and couldn't pick skin color, you could choose to not wear a hat, and I think that counts for a lot in a game.

Koumei wrote:[*](Dress counts as both of those at once as presumably is girls-only))

This is the case, unfortunately (unless it turns out you can get the option later on like in Dragon Quest IX.) This is my other beef with the character customization, because I really wanted to make a crossdressing character (in this specific case I blame a certain character I played here, in addition to me always crossdressing my characters in video games if possible, and finally to Team Rocket in the anime, and I think some NPCs in the games. If it weren't already in the anime and the games I don't think I'd have cared as much, though.) So I legit started over my male character as a female and picked *male symbol* as my nickname. So sue me.

Maybe you've written about it already, but EXP is awarded for catching Pokemon in this game, and you also get an EXP share that works like a cross between Gen 2-5's item of the same name and Gen 1's EXP All. That shit is fucking amazing; I'm actually outleveling the opposition now (I'm right before my 3rd Gym.

Here's my list of good/bad points so far:

Bad Points
-There are no Walking Pokemon.
-The character customization is overall disappointing (mostly because Shrapnel was telling me that it would be the best thing ever. It is nice to be able to not be white, but other than that it's worse in every way than a DS title that came out years ago.)
-The plot looks like it's going to be stupid (although not Black/White level stupid) and there a lot of subplots, some of which are better than others, but none of which are good.
-There are 4 (!) companion characters, and they can get annoying (although not as bad as the ones from Black/White, at least so far.) And you can't name any of them (no idea why they got rid of this when it was in B2W2.)
-You can't give Pokemon "offensive" nicknames.
-The game is super slow-paced. It feels like an anime with too much filler.
-Game has another pedophile. Haven't they learned from Gen V? (But at least this time he's most probably a villain.)

Unsure Of
-It's ridiculously easy, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on your preferences (too easy is better than too hard though, at least to me.)
-The type changes and Fairy type. They should make the metagame fairly interesting, at the very least.
-Mega-Evolutions (they haven't shown up yet.)

Good Points
-The EXP system is super fucking awesomesauce. You can actually raise Pokemon you haven't been using to be on par with the rest of your team really quickly.
-Graphics are actually nice, especially given that it's the first 3D title in the main game series.
-You can actually get decent (both in coolness and in power) Pokemon from every region from really early on.
-Being able to play with your Pokemon can actually be pretty fun.
-TMs are still reusable.
-There are some genuinely funny in-jokes (like all Youngsters being obsessed with shorts, everyone lamenting how hard it is to find Pikachu, and one guy even says when defeated that your Pokemon's power levels are over 9000!)
-No rambling monologues; no morals mentioned (so far) other than the typical "make your Pokemon battle through the power of FRIENDSHIP and mature as a person because of it" that's literally been in every game.
-You can make the companion characters call you whatever you want.

Final (sort-of; I'm only 10 hours in) Verdict: While I might come off as being really harsh, this is a pretty good Pokemon game. If it stays at the quality it's been so far, it's probably the 2nd best game overall (first of course being Heart Gold/Soul Silver. Red/Blue have shitloads of nostalgia value for me but haven't aged well.)

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:00 am

I'd probably say the same, yeah. Now if this had directly followed BW, I would be singing its praises through a megaphone. But BW2 followed BW and was a vast improvement, so I can play this one and think "better than the previous, so far, this is nice".

And yeah, I was disappointed with the names. I had a lot of trouble catching Skitty of all things, because the first time I found it, I accidentally weakened it too much (on the few turns I could actually act past the infatuation). The second time, still difficult, but eventually grabbed it. I wanted to name it "DAMN CAT", but it didn't allow it.

It might be time to start experimenting and seeing which rude slang terms it has banned.