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Update 13: Hoopa ex Machina Let's go into the northern highway to deal with that gang before we continue with the plot through the southern highway.  NPC: Get over here! Madoka approaches. NPC: Hey! Who said you could pass through here! This place belongs to us, the Black Emboar! It's like our Gym, kid!  Nah, this is a sidequest so there's probably a good reward for all of this.  NPC: I'll teach you to take the Black Emboar seriously! I'll pummel your pretty Pokemon right down to the ground! With relish!   All the members of the Black Emboar use various Poison-types plus a Tepig. They really aren't a big deal.   NPC: If you really want to pick a fight with the Black Emboar, go duke it out with our leader! He's somewhere in this tunnel!       Really not much to say here. Not much dialog, just a lot of fights.  NPC: We're the Black Emboar!     What I don't know if I've made clear enough is that although I haven't game over'd except for against bosses, there's a lot of attrition in this game. I'm almost constantly running back to the nearest heal point between fights because every 1-2 fights I have a Pokemon or two faint and I still can't buy Revives. I'm not sure if it's because of my choice of Pokemon being mostly frail ones or a symptom of the level curve in the game, but I can't imagine trying to Nuzlocke it, even on Vanilla.   My dude, I don't even have one Poison Gem. NPC: This Gem Family Member is disappointed.      Holy poo poo, finally.  Nibbles is now a lot more able to kill things in addition to finally getting some Dragon STAB in the form of Dual Chop.    No fights from these two, only dialog.   : This is the Black Emboar's ultimate paradise... A little pest like you has no business here...   : I'll show you what the guy who holds the Black Emboar together can really do!  James isn't really any different than his underlings other than that he has a Pignite instead of a Tepig and surprises you with an Alolan Grimer instead of the normal one. Ultimately, he's not a a big deal.   : Get a loaf of this... From now on, our team's name is going to be the Black Madoka! Yeah! We're taking on your rough and tough name! It's a wilder name for a wilder team! The Black Madoka! Gwa ha ha ha! That's awesome!Thanks? I guess?  : ... My bro? Geez, that punk never quits. Alright, as a favour to you for beatin' me, I'll go with you. : the Black Emboar! Brother: You mean everything to me. And I can't let you go down this path any longer!  : You keep sendin' these Trainers to harass me 'cause you're too scared to get your own hands dirty. This kid, Madoka's, got guts! Let me tell ya! No one has ever wrecked me as good as she did! I've even renamed the Black Emboar to the Black Madoka, after her! So it's time for a fresh start. The Black Madoka and I are movin' to Antisis City! I hear the old gang that used to run that join got run outta town. Terror Granbull, somethin' or other... Now that city is ripe for the pickin' by the Black Madoka! Gwa ha ha ha!  : who's so weak in my squad! Instead, I've decided to let Madoka join our ranks. : All members gotta have a Bike, so take this. In this cool fangame, the Bike is a motorcycle! All the better to become an organ donor with.  : You can press L to activate the turbo boost, or you can take it easy and pedal. Look us up if you ever come by Antisis City. We'll welcome you with open arms.James leaves.  Brother: I may have lied when I told you I hadn't heard from my brother. In truth, I knew he was the leader of the Black Emboar. I just thought you wouldn't have wanted to help if you knew you'd be going up against their leader. But now he's gone for good, and I'm left all alone... I feel so sheepish about this... Anyway, thank you for helping me. Please take this TM for your time.   Brother: worried about him.  Well, it was good to get the bike out of this. And the evolution for Nibbles.  Let's move on to the next town n-   : Grab her now!   : Tell me, girl, what's your name? ... Madoka, is it? At last, we finally meet. I am Zeph, the man behind the Shadows. I've been informed that you have trespassed in our laboratory and are aware of what we have created. This is unacceptable. If word of our experiments got out, it would be the end for us. Our secret must remain in the shadows until we have achieved our goals. Therefore, Ivory here will be giving you a little incentive for keeping your mouth shut.    Ivory is barely harder than a standard Grunt, and thus not really worth describing. She has a Misdreavus and a Kadabra, both of which are easily taken out by Betty using Bite. I've still included the video, though.   : How could you and Marlon both fail me? I thought you were stronger than this...  : We're not meant to be doing this kind of thing... : meaning of pain ourselves!  : Houndoom and I are more than capable of defeating her!He turns back to Madoka. : Time to suffer!   So the first time I did this fight, Zeph's Houndoom wiped my team. It's not like he vastly outleved me or anything, it's just that my team has a lot of babies on it and thus has no staying power.   Nibbles evolving helped a lot in this second attempt, because it gave him the ability to survive long enough to get a hit in and make that hit count.   He goes down, but with Sand Tomb still up and Houndoom on very low HP, it only takes one tap from my next Pokemon to take it out.    Ugh, heads he wins, tails, I lose.  : I could fight you over and over again until you're worn down, but that would be a waste of time. Fortunately, I have you surrounded, so you won't be able to reach for your Poke Balls again. This is a prime opportunity to get rid of you. It's too risky to leave you alive at this point.  Well, I guess I have to give Zeph props for doing what only Ghetsis in Black and White 2 ever had the balls to do, but it's still kind of on the pointless edge end of the scale.   : Houndoom! Pull back! Something's happening! : Grab her now before she gets away! Wheee!   Well thank  NPC: If that ain't the darndest thing I ever did see! A girl coming outta some magic porta! Where'd ya come from, girl? ... What's that? Ya were trying to get to Thundercap Mt. when all of a sudden ya were kidnapped! Hoooo weeee! That sure sounds scary, girl.   NPC: getting to Thundercap Mt. Ya see, part of the ceiling collapsed not long ago and blocked off the road! And unless you have the HM for Rock Smash, you'll be in a bit of a pickle gettin' through 'em. But... I'm guessin' ya don't, or ya wouldn't still be talkin' to me. In thatta case, a friend of mine in Blizzard City can help you out by givin' ya Rock Smash. So, take this HM to help yerself get to him.   NPC: Hoooo weeee! Well, an HM, or Hidden Machine, is a special type of move a Pokemon can use to remove obstacles. As long as an HM is in yer Cube, and ya have a Pokemon in your party capable of learning the HM, it can be used in the field, even if the Pokemon can't in battle! In other words, your Pokemon don't have to know the HM to use it. Ain't that convenient! Anyway, use that HM for Cut to get past that pesky tree blocking Valley Cave. The HM change is a good QoL feature, though not as good as not having to have a Pokemon capable of learning the HM in your party at all.  Next time, oh god so many routes and there's an Ice Gym at the end, isn't there. Bonus: Vs Ivory and Vs Zeph https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBXVLC8IrYU
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Jan 28, 2021 20:49
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For all that this is the edgy version, this has been a lot less edgy than other fangames I've seen.
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Jan 28, 2021 21:18
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I was going to mention this earlier when there was talk about friendship grinding and egg hatching, but I didn't know if it counted as a spoiler. This game does have a huge straight path for you to step grind on, it's just not directly outside the Daycare. The EBT pathways can get very long and there don't seem to be any wandering NPCs getting in the way of the road. That's where I went to hatch an Egg. As for the rest of the update, I'm surprised at how little difference there is between the edgy and non-edgy scripts. The encounter with Zeph and the gang leader are the same as in my playthrough from what I recall. Makes me wonder why they bothered with that whole thing in the first place. Even young kids wouldn't find anything overly objectionable so far (if you believe in the idea that young kids would be stumbling on this at all).
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Jan 28, 2021 21:20
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Okay, I do like the "right hand man" just turning to the boss after being chewed out and saying "This literally isn't what you pay me for". If it wasn't for him incinerating someone earlier, I could easily be led to believe that his minions just playact for his benefit while doing their actual work while he plays at being an evil mastermind. Hell, even the minion being taken to the lab to be experimented on becomes a far more entertaining mental image that way. "So... he wants us to experiment on you?" "Yup" "Uh..." *taps knee with a reflex hammer* "Oh my god, your leg kicked when I did that. There, I experimented on you. Let me get back to work now please."
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Jan 28, 2021 21:20
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In general this hack has enough edge that it is impossible not to notice but not enough edge to make it completely unbearable.
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Jan 28, 2021 21:24
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I think maybe the writers just aren't actually very good at being edgy  You have the big evil guy evilly threatening to kill us evilly. And then he immediately gives his pokemon medicine and tells it to feel better and then calls it back out of harm's way.
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Jan 28, 2021 21:42
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Eh. Honestly, starting to think the darker/grittier/edgier version of the story was just a required inclusion. "Pokemon fangames must include X amount of edge" or somesuch. Maybe there was an earlier version that didn't have the extra grit at all so some people groused until the dev put the option in.  E: S'pose I'm tryin to say that it doesn't feel like the dev(s) heart was in it for more than a little grit. Arcanuse fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jan 28, 2021 |
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Jan 28, 2021 21:51
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Oh hey, that biker gang segment was lifted almost directly from Black and White's Tubeline Bridge. Except there they're called the Black Empoleons and rename themselves after your lead Pokemon rather than the player character.
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Jan 28, 2021 23:38
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Epicmissingno posted:Oh hey, that biker gang segment was lifted almost directly from Black and White's Tubeline Bridge. Except there they're called the Black Empoleons and rename themselves after your lead Pokemon rather than the player character. I was trying to figure out why that seemed so familiar.
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Jan 29, 2021 00:12
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It took me a while to realise that too. I've also spent way too long asking myself the question of whether or not "Black Madoka" is just Homura. (I guess there are worse jokes my brain could have gone with... seriously, sticking "Black" in front of the character's name just isn't a good idea.)
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Jan 29, 2021 00:44
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Just think, they could have been the Black Marysues. ...actually, no that's not better. Never mind.
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Jan 29, 2021 00:54
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I do dislike it when fangames have the whole "you beat me but I have a million Max Revives, therefore I win!", uh like no, that's not how that works. Because if you bring that up then why doesn't every evil guy ever do that, it's a huge can of worms that the main series completely ignores because it's such a stupid thing to bring up. Also with the biker gang stuff, you only fight them Friday nights on the bridge, you only fight two of them, and the leader is just a generic sprite.
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Jan 29, 2021 01:06
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Crosspeice posted:I do dislike it when fangames have the whole "you beat me but I have a million Max Revives, therefore I win!", uh like no, that's not how that works. Because if you bring that up then why doesn't every evil guy ever do that, it's a huge can of worms that the main series completely ignores because it's such a stupid thing to bring up. Fan games love to do that. If it's a mechanic, then it has to be incorporated into the common knowledge of the world. Same thing with Master Balls that the evil team is currently using. Apparently Professor Log could just bulk order those from somewhere and have them shipped to a Pokemart in a different town. No security or protocols in place for a thing that should be heavily restricted/regulated. Like you said, that opens up a massive can of worms. It's already stupid as gently caress when the bad guys use their Pokemon to threaten/capture you despite you having stronger Pokemon that could wreck them, yet you don't because "the writer said so." Whenever you draw attention to this stuff in the narrative, you are just opening the door to an avalanche of follow up questions that you likely aren't prepared to answer. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Jan 29, 2021 |
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Jan 29, 2021 01:25
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Yeah, in the main games the only source of extra Masterballs is a literal lottery. You know, those things that in the real world give out millions of dollars? It can be guessed that there are so few because they are, to put it bluntly, horrifically expensive.
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Jan 29, 2021 03:36
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Crosspeice posted:I do dislike it when fangames have the whole "you beat me but I have a million Max Revives, therefore I win!", uh like no, that's not how that works. Because if you bring that up then why doesn't every evil guy ever do that, it's a huge can of worms that the main series completely ignores because it's such a stupid thing to bring up. It also just feels lovely any time a video game shoves you in front of a boss you're expected to beat, and then when you win you lose in the plot anyway. It just feels like your work has been undone. It's also a massive question of "well, what was the point of even having our regulated cockfight where the animals just faint" when you start trying to examine the plot. Why didn't Zeph just Incinerate us immediately? Why even have the show of a Pokemon battle?
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Jan 29, 2021 05:48
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hopeandjoy posted:It also just feels lovely any time a video game shoves you in front of a boss you're expected to beat, and then when you win you lose in the plot anyway. It just feels like your work has been undone. If your Pokémon game leads to asking those last two questions then something has gone wrong. The simple answer should be that it doesn't happen because it's not interesting and it's against the spirit of the game. Quibble about realism or setting or narrative or however you like it, but if you draw attention to it you are breaking the hypothetical player's willing suspension of disbelief. Because the scene as it played out was absolutely a huge failure, and it's an absolutely huge failure that keeps coming up in these fan games. And it's not even hard to figure out, if the player wins they should win. It's as simple as that, you beat the bad guys and even if they progressed their plot they should still stay "I'll get you next time PC, next time!" And run away because they lost. This is how Pokémon has done it before, the bad guys got whatever MacGuffin they were at the place for, but they had to flee and try again because you kicked the crap out of them. As for the items being in the narrative, it's cackhanded. The game probably didn't actually need to name drop the Master Balls as a thing, you could just say that they intercepted a shipment of valuable and rare Pokeballs the professor wanted for research or something and let the target audience (i.e. us) say to ourselves "oh those must be Master Balls". And then after we beat the evil team we get the last one and we get to keep it and that is your once per game guaranteed Master Ball. Clean and simple, no name dropping necessary, same effect on the storyline. Meanwhile those Max Revives? gently caress that poo poo. The bad guy goes "you even defeated Houndoom? Curse you trainer lady, don't think this means you've won! I'll get you next time!" And then they run away. Is it necessary for Hoopa to randomly pop in and teleport you somewhere? If so then it happens anyways because why not? It's not like it's in the established lore that Hoopa loves to screw around or something, oh wait. And if it happens, it resolutely should NOT happen to save you from the person you just beat.
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Jan 29, 2021 06:09
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Omnicrom posted:If your Pokémon game leads to asking those last two questions then something has gone wrong. The simple answer should be that it doesn't happen because it's not interesting and it's against the spirit of the game. Quibble about realism or setting or narrative or however you like it, but if you draw attention to it you are breaking the hypothetical player's willing suspension of disbelief. Because the scene as it played out was absolutely a huge failure, and it's an absolutely huge failure that keeps coming up in these fan games. And it's not even hard to figure out, if the player wins they should win. It's as simple as that, you beat the bad guys and even if they progressed their plot they should still stay "I'll get you next time PC, next time!" And run away because they lost. This is how Pokémon has done it before, the bad guys got whatever MacGuffin they were at the place for, but they had to flee and try again because you kicked the crap out of them. I remember Insurgence being better about this than most fangames because there were so many villains whose plans you could foil. I think there were still a few pointless battles here and there, but I never really got frustrated with the way things played out. Oh, and Uranium solved the by not introducing a villain until the game was almost over. 
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Jan 29, 2021 08:01
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hopeandjoy posted:It also just feels lovely any time a video game shoves you in front of a boss you're expected to beat, and then when you win you lose in the plot anyway. It just feels like your work has been undone. That line of questioning is what leads down the Pokemon Reborn road, where you end up with "Why do we even bother with Pokemon at all?" We're already dangerously close to that point as it is with this game, considering that the player character just gets grabbed by the grunts and dragged to wherever the plot is happening, then gets teleported away afterward with the only battles being completely meaningless and arbitrary. Which brings up another thing. These games always have a point where the villains go "Don't even try to reach for your Pokemon/We've restrained you so you can't get to your Pokemon", but both the games and anime have long established that a person's Pokemon can and will pop out of their Pokeball on their own. It's a weird thing for these fan games to willfully ignore considering how eager they are to cram every other minor lore aspect of this franchise. Solitair posted:I remember Insurgence being better about this than most fangames because there were so many villains whose plans you could foil. I think there were still a few pointless battles here and there, but I never really got frustrated with the way things played out. I don't remember a whole lot about Insurgence, but I think you are right on that. I don't recall as many "Heads I win, tails you lose" moments there.
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Jan 30, 2021 13:28
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The canon games often do similar things, in all fairness. How many times do you run up to challenge an Evil Team Admin and beat them and any grunts they might have with them, only for them to then shrug and say they were just stalling for time so some other team goons could finish whatever they were doing, or for another admin to show up and say they've figured out this isn't where they were looking for anyway or that they've already collected the mcguffin, and then smugly teleport away and leave you pointlessly seething? It's just a lot more obvious when your villains are lampshading the fact that they could actually just kill you instead.
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Jan 30, 2021 14:50
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Black Robe posted:The canon games often do similar things, in all fairness. How many times do you run up to challenge an Evil Team Admin and beat them and any grunts they might have with them, only for them to then shrug and say they were just stalling for time so some other team goons could finish whatever they were doing, or for another admin to show up and say they've figured out this isn't where they were looking for anyway or that they've already collected the mcguffin, and then smugly teleport away and leave you pointlessly seething? It's just a lot more obvious when your villains are lampshading the fact that they could actually just kill you instead. Oh, they definitely do pull this, but fan games tend to use it more blatantly. There's a difference between "You beat us, but our grunts acquired the McGuffin while I was battling you" and "You beat us, but now I'm going to turn around and go take the McGuffin anyway while you sit there and watch, not doing anything." The first one is bullshit, but at least it makes a tiny bit of sense. It's liking robbing a bank and having one person go off to grab cash while the rest keep the cops at bay, versus the cops holding the robbers at gunpoint and them just proceeding to turn around and take all the cash before leaving while the cops stand around.
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Jan 30, 2021 15:02
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It feels like this one is more egregious than normal about it, because the villains succeed at what they want to do, then the player turns up, you beat them, then just straight up let them leave functionally victorious. Then the captive thing happens, you beat two of them, get told THAT didn't matter either... and then here's a deus ex machina to get you out of being captured. Almost the entirety of the past two major plot beats could be removed and nothing would actually meaningfully change.
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Feb 1, 2021 12:37
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Update 14: Backtracking and Evolutions Before I started recording for the next few updates, I spent a good 15 minutes driving up and down the KBT Highway to grind up Happiness on my team. There's a long straight line in there, no Trainers, and no wild Pokemon if you stay on the road. Still a pain in the rear end, but what else is new about Happiness evos in early game before you have access to Happiness berries or Massages.   Having Auto-HMs enabled allows you do just hit A to activate HMs without any dialog to mash through. It's nice.   Looks like we found that Hidden Grotto that Trainer Tips sign was talking about.    NPC: Another Trainer has discovered one of these hidden areas! I'm Ginger, by the way. I'm a Trainer, like you! Is this your first time here?  Yes, please.   NPC: Powerful Pokemon inhabit these dens, and once a day, you can fight for a chance to capture one in each den found around Borrius! These Pokemon are scary strong, so it's a good idea to pick the right partner to fight along side you. When you start the battle, you'll notice the Pokemon you're fighting looks very big. This is because of the phenomenon know as Dynamax. It will stay this way throughout the battle and can only be caught once it is defeated and returned to normal size.  NPC: areas, like this one. If you have mastered the power of Mega Evolution, you'll be able to Dynamax your Pokemon as well. Almost any Pokemon can Dynamax, but if a Pokemon holds a Mega Stone or Z-Crystal, it won't be able to. To Dynamax a Pokemon, hit Start when you see the red Dynamax symbol appear. If you choose to Dynamax your Pokemon, the effect will last for three turns. During this time period, each of your Pokemon's moves will be powered up into special variants known as Max Moves. These Max Moves are much more powerful than regular attacks, so make sure you use them to full effect while Dynamaxed! Yes, Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and Dynamax all exist in this game at the same time. At least Dynamax seems to be restricted to these raids... I don't know if Gigantamax exists, but since it wasn't mentioned (and also Megas exist) I assume not.  NPC: in place of your party Pokemon. Each row of the box is treated as its own team, so this will allow you to save up to 5 different preset teams.  NPC: Good luck in your fight! I'm looking forward to teaming up with you sometime!  Ginger actually has the best team to fight a Dark-type, so I'm teaming up with her now.   Raids work like other co-op Double Battles in this game. You can choose three of your Pokemon to use and your partner will also have three. The same loss and turn count rules apply as they do in SwSh.  Unlike SwSh raids, these are 2v1 Double Battles, not 4v1. You also obviously can't have a human player as your co-op partner, so you're at the whims of the AI. This is presumably helped by the fact your partners have multiple Pokemon and these don't include a Solrock.   It big.  These raids also have barriers pop up that attacks from non Dynamaxed Pokemon take one bar off of. I can see this getting really annoying in five star raids without the ability to do four attacks a turn.  I am underleveled for this raid, so it's not a shocker Sphearical goes down.    I used a Poke Ball because I was curious if the catch formulas from SwSh apply. The Murkrow broke out without a single shake, so it seems not. This presumably makes catching Pokemon from raids way more annoying since you only have one shot, can't status, and actually have to pay attention to catch rates.      The material rewards are good, but I still don't think I'll be doing much raiding, for all these reasons.   There's another trainer further down this path.   Bug Catchers sure are Bug Catchers.  NPC: Those indicate that there is a hidden pathway there.  At the end of the path is the TM for Bullet Seed. Not really useful for my team.  I hit the highway for some backtracking.  NPC: cracked open, and the sea water started flooding in! Because why would we get a day off?    From Dresco Town, I go through the Grim Woods to get to this part of Route 5 I couldn't access before.  Gee, thanks.  The Cheri Berry might be useful. Maybe.  I then drive over to Freezing Heights.       This exit indeed has that many ladders to go up and down. Every single time. It turns out there are no trees to cut here other than the one for accessing the highway period, so I return to Dresco Town.   There's this tree and this Quick Ball on Route 2.  And I find this cell in the Flower Paradise.  Right, back to the plot.  There was a tree here, but I Cut it before I started recording and it's Cut status actually persists for. Some reason.   Valley Cave is very short and also very boring.       If Fire Emblem Heroes has taught me anything, it's that this Gambler is right.  Money!  No encounters! But before I spray a Repel...  Holy crap. I don't know if the shiny rate was increased in this hack, but this is the first non-scripted shiny I've encountered in Pokemon since I was 10. I'm a little pissed that it's in a romhack so it can't be transferred to Home and only sort of counts.    I don't want to risk it, so I use my lone Dusk Ball.  I have no reason to use Moss, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity...      Ow.  Another cell.       Ironically, of all my friendship evolutions, Betty evolves first. I guess I can't be mad about an early Crobat though.  NPC: its affection for you will decrease.  Water Pulse is useful. A debate about it a bit, but I replace Sphearical's Brine with Water Pulse. It's a weaker move, but only a little, and it has more PP.       Rosa finally evolves. I missed learning Magical Leaf, but at least I didn't miss Giga Drain. I transfer the Soothe Bell to Penny.      Well, that sure was a cave. Next time, we continue the trek to Blizzard City.
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Feb 1, 2021 18:32
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I continue to be cautiously optimistic about this game. I like the idea of combining the raids with the hidden grottoes, and being able to pick your partner is great. And now you have a green bat to go with your purple one 
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Feb 1, 2021 18:47
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hopeandjoy posted:
There's definitely been some adjustment to the Shiny rate. I caught a Shiny Shuppet before I even reached the first gym (It was my 3rd obtained Pokemon, although I don't use it in the team). Yeah, RNG and all that, but across every mainline Pokemon game and the 20 years or so it's been since GSC, I have only obtained 5 shinies (Cacturne, Ralts, Vulpix, and two others I can't remember). Also, after playing a bit more I am still eating a consistent 4-5 hits from every multi-hit move. There had to have been something done to the RNG. Unless I'm just going crazy. Black Robe posted:I continue to be cautiously optimistic about this game. I like the idea of combining the raids with the hidden grottoes, and being able to pick your partner is great. I have to say, I've been actually kind of impressed with this one so far. I like a lot of what I've seen and I have genuinely wanted to play it (I originally intended to only advance alongside the LP). That said, I'm still not convinced that there isn't going to be some super edgy twist coming.
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Feb 1, 2021 20:14
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My only shiny in a mainline game is still a shiny Psyduck in Diamond. I got PokeRus multiple times in Ruby when I was a kid though! ...never again since then though.
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Feb 1, 2021 21:22
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you joined a biker gang, this owns. i can't wait to see those guys again.
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Feb 1, 2021 21:58
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They coded in Raids I guess I can't fault them for effort. Maybe I'll have to play along as well.
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Feb 1, 2021 22:16
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Raids are identical to Radical Red, which convinces me that both hacks are using the same changes. Not sure which hack made them and then others used them, but they're insanely good. If Radical Red wasn't the source of this particular change, Gigantamaxes except Gengar and Charizard are Megas instead.
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Feb 2, 2021 00:16
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Blaze Dragon posted:Raids are identical to Radical Red, which convinces me that both hacks are using the same changes. Not sure which hack made them and then others used them, but they're insanely good. Both hacks are based off of the changes made in the Complete FireRed Expansion, which the creator of this hack did make (alongside another programmer).
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Feb 2, 2021 00:45
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mycelia posted:They coded in Raids A key aspect of fan games is making sure that every single feature GF has ever even tinkered with is crammed in the game somehow. Not that I think this is a bad thing, since there are a few features that have been in the mainline games which I wish had stuck around and I hate that GF is constantly picking which ones to use seemingly at random. But Dynamax is something that I don't think works in a 2D title like this. Dynamax is all about the spectacle of a Pokemon towering over the field and using powered up versions of moves. In a 2D game like this, it's just a 3-turn status buff (or a perma buff for raid bosses). I guess for the competitive minded people that's all Megas/Dynamax/Z-Moves are, but still. hopeandjoy posted:My only shiny in a mainline game is still a shiny Psyduck in Diamond. If it makes you feel any better, I've never seen PokeRus. I think it was through Insurgence that I finally looked it up and was like "Wait, that's a literal game mechanic that's been around since Gen 2? I thought it was stupid fan lingo."
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Feb 2, 2021 14:13
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I got in pokemon y somehow before hitting the first gym. I should go back and finish that game if I ever find my DS charger, I think I was right about to the elite 4.
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Feb 3, 2021 04:40
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So, I will say this. Gameplay-wise, playing this game on Vanilla isn't terrible. It's got a lot of neat convenience features, and just a lot of neat gameplay features in general. The gym puzzles can be frustrating, but they're different and present unique challenges to overcome. But the plot... I've just made the decision to stop playing this, and the plot is the reason. I'm sorry guys, but this is going to get so much worse. Not Reborn levels of bad, but still... so much worse. I can't say "It's gonna get worse before it gets better" because I don't know where the plot goes after the point I'm stopping at, so I don't really know if it DOES get better or not. I'll be watching this LP eagerly. I'll even chime in once it reaches the point that made me stop.
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Feb 16, 2021 01:50
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I realise this is almost certainly the best possible way to wrangle one of Sword and Shield's raid battles into this mangled and severely overclocked version of the Gen 3 engine, but that doesn't make it good and the devs would have been far better off spending their time elsewhere instead of forcing it in. Like writing, ..or finding a decent sprite artist for their Gym Leaders. Captain Fargle fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Feb 16, 2021 |
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Feb 16, 2021 07:47
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BlazetheInferno posted:So, I will say this. Gameplay-wise, playing this game on Vanilla isn't terrible. It's got a lot of neat convenience features, and just a lot of neat gameplay features in general. The gym puzzles can be frustrating, but they're different and present unique challenges to overcome. The main issue I've had with this game in terms of the main gameplay is that it seems like you reach a point where the difficulty just completely drops out from the game because you get too far ahead of the curve. The early game is very rough, even on the lowest difficulty. But I'm playing on "Difficult" and since Gym 2 I have been grossly over-leveled. I've been using repels a lot and not fully exploring every location, yet my team is still consistently 10+ levels above gym leaders and trainers. I think it might be the Exp Share being the updated version where the whole team gets Exp at all times. I'd be interested to see what the two highest difficulties are like, but you can't bump it up part-way through the game and there's no way in hell I'm starting over now and going through that first section again. As for what you found so bad that it got you to stop, that I don't know. I've stopped playing as well, but it's because I'm waiting for the LP to catch up. I've mostly just found the plot to be tame. A little eye-rolling, but not terrible. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Feb 16, 2021 |
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Feb 16, 2021 16:06
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Psycho Knight posted:The main issue I've had with this game in terms of the main gameplay is that it seems like you reach a point where the difficulty just completely drops out from the game because you get too far ahead of the curve. The early game is very rough, even on the lowest difficulty. But I'm playing on "Difficult" and since Gym 2 I have been grossly over-leveled. I've been using repels a lot and not fully exploring every location, yet my team is still consistently 10+ levels above gym leaders and trainers. I think it might be the Exp Share being the updated version where the whole team gets Exp at all times. I'm a little confused by this, actually. Are you sure you're on Difficult? Because it is actually impossible to be overlevelled against Gym Leaders, because they scale to your highest level, and generally have a pokemon or two that is scaled to be ABOVE your highest level on Difficult. That's the main thing the difficulty does, is Level Scaling to prevent you from just over-leveling everything. I won't give any details about their identity or team, but there is what I can only imagine is meant to be a "bonus boss" in the town with the third gym (just a bit above the third gym leader's level) who, in the Difficult setting, is coded to have their ace be five levels above you. (I feel comfortable giving this away because this is for the Difficult setting, which the LP is not playing on, and is thus not relevant information to hopeandjoy) As for the higher two difficulties, I know they start doing stuff like having more items attached to the Pokemon, and the whole "max of four items can be used in battle" in Expert, I can only imagine to sort of replicate how the Gym Leaders and such have a limited inventory of healing items, then Insane just straight-up bans you from using potions in-battle and had fully 100% hardcore minmaxed movesets and stats and stuff for the opponents. As for what got me to stop, like I said, I'm gonna be watching this LP, and once the LP shows the scene, I'll pipe up to confirm that "This is where I stopped". BlazetheInferno fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Feb 16, 2021 |
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Feb 16, 2021 21:35
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BlazetheInferno posted:I'm a little confused by this, actually. Are you sure you're on Difficult? Because it is actually impossible to be overlevelled against Gym Leaders, because they scale to your highest level, and generally have a pokemon or two that is scaled to be ABOVE your highest level on Difficult. That's the main thing the difficulty does, is Level Scaling to prevent you from just over-leveling everything. I won't give any details about their identity or team, but there is what I can only imagine is meant to be a "bonus boss" in the town with the third gym (just a bit above the third gym leader's level) who, in the Difficult setting, is coded to have their ace be five levels above you. (I feel comfortable giving this away because this is for the Difficult setting, which the LP is not playing on, and is thus not relevant information to hopeandjoy) I know I started on Difficult, because hopeandjoy went with Vanilla. Maybe I changed it at some point mid-game and don't remember? I'll have to check. I know that I have fought certain battles which were level scaled, although I can't mention them.
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Feb 16, 2021 23:41
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This LP has definitely put me off ever wanting to try this hack myself.
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Feb 18, 2021 01:12
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Unbound commits too many sins for me to give it a real shot, but compared to what I just went through, it's fine. So, recently I decided to put a bunch of pokemon fangames on a wheel, got some friends together, and spun em out for trip reports. I wound up with Pokemon Daybreak. Being a hardcore gamer man with skills, I decided to play on hard mode. Oh how foolish I was. Pokemon Daybreak is a singular step above Reborn, I could go on forever about every horrible thing involve in it, but I'll just encapsulate it by bringing up the moment that almost broke me. After defeating the 8th (of 10) gym, you have to join looker to go to the villain's hideout. What I didn't know is once you enter, you cannot leave, I mean... okay. It's not usual for Pokemon to limit you to an area (Only the E4 AFAIK), but we can deal with this, except... they didn't include a PC in there, this was to "prevent softlocking." But, since I was playing on Hard, I was level capped, and two of the party I'd brought with me was NOT prepared for a marathon dungeon. Cue 5 hours of me bashing my head against hyped competitive and statted weather teams in a game that decided that unlimited TMs was a problem, and a dev who bluntly says.  That his bad design in not letting you swap your party and locking you in until you finish his plot gauntlet is your fault. I did eventually luck my way through it, then beat the game, but holy poo poo it was worse than uranium and better than the bottom of the barrel. ...Sorry, I felt the need to get that out because it's still fresh. So yeah, Unbound, there's the elements of a good game here, but it's locked behind a dev who's technically sound, but unable to cross that threshold into mature enough to create something with a story.
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Mar 10, 2021 06:33
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Onmi posted:Pokemon Daybreak is a singular step above Reborn, 
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Mar 10, 2021 06:54
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I may be too harsh, but I also got softlocked for 5 loving hours because the dev is a trash man who can't make a good game. I'm sure the balance is entirely different on normal mode, but that's irrelevant because it's bad hard mode. Let's take a look at a few things, apologies hopeandjoy for slightly derailing your thread. Hard Mode completely changes the gym leaders pokemon let's take a look at the first gym leader, Flora. Flora runs a Ferroseed, a Roserade and a Cacnea, a pretty fair challenge as you just passed a route with Vulpix, Houndour and Tepig, and you had an Eeveelution of your choice from the games opening. There's also a forest just to the south with bug Pokemon, including Beedrill. In Hard Mode, she adds Liligant, Tangela and Staryu to the team, removing Cacnea and Ferroseed. Why the Staryu? Because Hard adds a hard counter to what should be sweepers. Still, the gym is basically walled by Beedrill, so it's fine. Gym 2, Rocco, the Rock Gym changes from Lunatone, Solrock and Riolu, to Lucario, Relicanth, Lunatone and Solrock, still, slightly okay, even with max EV's and IVs a life orb, 2 focus sashes and a berry. Then we hit gym 3, Taze and Taze can go and loving die. Taze packs a Raichu, Luxio, Chinchou and Ludicolo (again with the untyped counters), adding a Magnemite, 2 Life Orbs, Leftovers, a Focus Sash and Eviolite to add to the misery. Again, everything is maxed EV's and IV's, packing HP Ice or Ice Fang, and Scald, of course. Gym 4 is where the training wheels have officially come off this unfettered bullshit train. Maradith's water Gym goes from Gastrodon, Frillish, Gorebyss and Milotic, to dropping Frillish and Gorebyss, adding Tentacruel, Azumarril and SCIZOR. It should be noted for a game that is demanding you change your team for every gym, level caps you to stop you evolving and getting answers, and gives perfect IV's and EV's to every mon you fight, there is no dexnav or other features to get better statted pokemon, and EV training isn't available until after the 5th gym. And speaking of the 5th Gym, this is when the Gym trainers start to use Mega Evolution. When do you get access to Mega Evolution? Well, you'll get access to Mega Evolution around the 8th gym of 10. And it's very far out of your way. This creates a situation in fangame romhack difficulty, that is very similar to bulletsponge syndrome. A lot of games thing "Hard Mode" means "poo poo takes longer to die and you die quicker." rationalizing that the longer you have to make mistakes, the more mistakes you'll make, and thus the experience be harder. That's not the case, nothings changed but it becoming more tedious. My favourite hard mode ever has been the Kingdom Hearts series, because Critical does lower your HP and it does make enemies do more damage... but so do you and also you get like 50 new abilities specifically so you becoming even more of an unstoppable god. The idea there, is they're making the challenge but giving you tools to reward you with power. So you wanna throw Life Orb Bulky Water Smogon teams at me, that's fine... but let me have to tools to fight back. Why isn't there EV training in every town? Why is my selection of items so limited. You want me to not use items in battle, I'm okay with that, but then why did you decide that what actually every opponent needed was a max revive so boss battles were actually 6 on 7, and the 7 have more advantage than you. I eventually cheated my EV's for team members until I could just get to the grinding, which was actually totally well thought out and not bullshit. But the key is, is that in level capping me to "stop grinding" what they actually did was make me grind more, but in a different way. And that's the issue with these "difficulty modes" not that they're hard, but that... sure I can make a hard game to, the first trainer has a level 100 mewtwo, get past that bitch, oh so difficult. The story, now that I'm being more analytical? Nowhere near as bad as reborns, definitely not a miseryfest, but it's constantly negging you, putting you down by claiming your wins don't matter, having one-off rival battles that ambush you and throw utter horse poo poo teams at you. And the worst worst part... not keeping to the story on hard. So there's one boss in normal, who uses a Swampert, and apparently it's like 500 years old due to magic science or whatever. But I didn't know that until on Hard Mode it was brought up, because he doesn't USE Swampert on Hard.  He uses this nonsense with Mega Articuno
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Mar 10, 2021 07:22
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