General Pokemon Discussion Topic

[Pete]

exu said:

I did lose interest in Pokémon a while back, but if this game is heralded as "really rather good" then it may reignite my interest.

For some reason, I'm on a huge Pokemon rush, which resulted me in buying Ruby, FireRed and a link cable.
Don't be put off buying Pokemon because it's not "cool" anymore; the games themselves are still golden.

[Pombar]

I got Red, Yellow, and a cheap pirate copy of Gold pre-release (which was rubbish), and ended it there. I'm actually getting this one though. Importing's just such a hassle...

[Exu]

Oh no, it's not that, I just got bored of each game being basically the same, the only additions being things that I thought weren't really needed.

It's probably an ignorant view, but when I saw some of the system they use now in Colosseum, I was all "What the hell is going on here then?".

I mean, I preferred it when it was more basic, probably why my favourite game is Crystal, and second-fave is Yellow. 251 just felt right, to me.

Edit: ADDitions, not EDitions.

[madhair60]

Incidentally - Pokémon Ranger is fantastic.

[Pete]

madhair60 said:

Incidentally - Pokémon Ranger is fantastic.

I heard it was decent, kind of shallow, and it was filler in the Pokémon market?

[Alex]

A) It's a good game in general
B) It's only really shallow in that it doesn't have any multiplayerness to back it up - but there's plenty of single player action to make up for that. And you can only get Manaphy through Ranger.
C) It is essentially a filler game between Emerald and Diamond/Pearl - that was its original purpose - but it's easily the best of the other fillers, Link/Trozei and Mystery Dungeon.

It's worth going for, definitely.

[Shadic?]

The decision of Pearl or Diamond will be haunting me for the next week.

[rj]

I'm getting Diamond because it's bluish. I've always, always picked the bluish color versions.

I like blue.

[Pete]

mule said:

Pokemon Gold/Silver has been the best so far.

Seconded! ;D
Times of day FTW, yo! (And yes, I'm aware that D/P have this feature as well.)

[Alex]

G/S was my least favourite. The time feature, while a novel idea, ended up being a major pain in the ass for people who actually, y'know, had lives and the inclusion of Kanto in the game broke it. The levels for the Gym Leaders were off kilter to accomodate an extra 8 of them after the Elite 4, Johto had bits dropped from it to make way for Kanto (Originally, the Lake of Rage was a city and is where Pryce's gym was) and Kanto itself was done pretty badly in order to cram it in.

Not to mention the game wasn't very flexible team-wise - I found myself not really having a choice at having to have the same Pokemon on my team again and again just to get through the game - meaning I wasn't able to experiment as much.

There are upcoming (unconfirmed, but hinted at about a million times in both the anime and in Dimaond/Pearl itself) G/S remakes though - so it's possible we'll see everything fixed.

I'd hope so, because G/S was, in my opinion, the most gypped of the lot, and it'd be nice to play it in the way originally intended - ie, not a horribly broken frustrating game.

[Baxter]

azel said:

mule said:

Pokemon Gold/Silver has been the best so far.

Seconded! ;D
Times of day FTW, yo! (And yes, I'm aware that D/P have this feature as well.)

Third'd. The originals are still above and beyond my personal favourites, mainly due to the fact it kept me going for over a year (and, obviously, nostalgia), but technically speaking I thought G/S/C were the strongest of the bunch overall. One of those all-too-rare releases that actually manages to live up to the hype. The third generation, though solid, felt a bit underwhelming in comparison.

[Pete]

The only problem I had with G/S was that after a while, the battery that powered the clock wore down; I had a lv100 team, that I worked months for, and when I came back to it, it was all gone!

[ashurathecomic]

On a vaguely similar topic, how would everyone feel about a StC-O knockout tournament in a few weeks, for anyone with the game?

Got my copy on Friday. I'm lovin' it. Taking my time, though. 10 hours in and not at the 3rd gym yet.

--Ray

[Alex]

I didn't beat the Japanese game until about 50+ hours into it. It's definitely the longest game so far.

I'm obviously up for any tourneys anyone's willing to go for.

[Pete]

Yeah, I'd be up for it. It'd obviously have to be a while until I cab get a decent team together (which, knowing me, will be the team I'm using in my LeafGreen game, once I trade them over).

Oh, in a few weeks... I haven't got a copy. Once it's released over here, I'll be there.

[Pombar]

It'll be released here in like June/July. It's also cheaper if you import But I'm not importing, because as said before - HASSLE.

[The Stiv™]

I think I'll import soon...
In the meantime, got Ranger on its way to tide me over. 'Cos apparently, Ranger + D/P = SECRET HIDDEN EXTRAS.

[Turbocharge]

I'll consider buying this when it's released over here. I've never liked the policy of "add another 100 identical looking creatures into the game so we can remarket it" strategy, but damn, the games are addictive.

[Pitt]

doctoroak said:

pombar said:

Incidentally, Battle Revolution is only half a game if you don't have D/P (if that, even, there's no story mode in it), so get a DS Shaz. ^^

How much are they these days? Given that it's a quality investment, I wouldn't ming buying one, provided the prices are reasonable.

[Baron Canier]

£100

[Pitt]

Hmm. Some saving is obviously called for.

[Pete]

stiv said:

'Cos apparently, Ranger + D/P = SECRET HIDDEN EXTRAS.

Yep, a Manaphy egg, which is another "cute, but oh, so powerful" legendary. You can breed a Manaphy, but you'll get a Phione, which will never evolve.

faeros said:

£100

WHAT?! No, you can buy a second hand DS for about £40.

Well the American versions were out today, and some stores might sell it (e.g. Forbidden Planet). Shame I can't tell if it'll work with a European GBA game.

[Alex]

stiv said:

I think I'll import soon...
In the meantime, got Ranger on its way to tide me over. 'Cos apparently, Ranger + D/P = SECRET HIDDEN EXTRAS.

To be specific Ranger + Seekrit Code + D/P = Manaphy Egg, which can be transferred to D/P and hatched. You can also breed Manaphy with a Ditto (and only a ditto) to produce another Pokemon called Phione. Which is technically the offspring of Manaphy but doesn't evolve back into Manaphy.

So really, you can have as many Phione as you like and trade 'em off to any of your friends begging you for a Manaphy.

It has 20 less stat points in all stats compared to Manaphy (Manaphy is an even 100 across the board) and doesn't learn Manaphy's signature move, Heart Swap. So it's a bit of a Taiwanese Knockoff version of Manaphy but meh, by getting Ranger you can get two Pokemon in D/P so it's a fair enough deal - plus, a good game in the process.

Also, the process of adding new Pokemon isn't (just) for remarketing, it's also for expanding the battle strategies and the competitive field of the game. The competitive side of it would get extremely stale if they didn't introduce new Pokemon, attacks, abilities, battle mechanics and so on - and it's becoming increasingly evident that GameFreak is viewing the competitive players as highly regarded as they are the preteen fans of the cartoon and general merchandiseness that will make up the majority of the game sales as they seem to be focusing a lot on working on the competitive game a lot in every installation.

There was a crapload of features snuck into Emerald that only advanced players would A) know about and B) use and D/P has completely overhauled the battle system's internal mechanics with a an update to the Physical/Special system that now goes by the specific move as opposed to the type of the attack.

It might seem that every game is being pushed out just for money (and let's face it, with the fact that every Pokemon game will sell a million copies world wide at least [D/P actually is already over the 5 Million mark in Japan alone], it's not something you'd be surprised at), but a lot of work is put into making every game different to play, if not at a face-value level, then certainly at an advanced level.

[Ryan James]

I got my copy of Pearl today, so I'm gonna tell you my first impressions.
------
I'm a bit disappointed that the DS card isn't a special color like past Pokemon cartridges. The start up screen is the same with improved graphics. When Prof. Rowan asks you if you're a boy or girl, instead of being given a menu it has the female and male protagonists walking side by side and you click the one you want. You then get to name your rival. The overworld graphics have a nice 3D effect to them. The battle graphics look like the GBA games, however. You pick your starter pokemon in a manner similar to how you pick it in RSE. Since I'm familiar with Pokemon, I had already caught two pokemon when Dawn (the female protagonist) gave me the tutorial on how to catch pokemon. I'll write more later.

[Shadic?]

I thought it came out later in the week

[censored], I need some money.