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Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

Part 5: Dewford Island

Dewford Town




Dewford Town/Muro Town: A tiny island in the blue sea.
From dew and ford, and muro (Temple juniper) or mu (martial arts) and ro (dew).

It's Dewford time, there's a fair amount to explore on this island, so let's get started with the various denizens.



Fishing? Sounds like a great use of my time!

I hear you, and I like what you're saying! I'll give you one of my fishing RODS.



First, you want to face the water, then use the ROD. Focus your mind... if you get a bite, pull on the ROD. Sometimes you can snag something immediately, but with bigger catches, you need to time the pulls on your ROD to haul them in.



We'll do a bit of fishing later, but for now, I smell items inside this house.



Oh, I can see your eyes twinkling! You appreciate my dazzling style! Oh, you're a delight! Here you go, I want you to have it!



It's a marvelous SCARF that will go with almost all POKEMON!

Replacing both the Pink Bow and the Polkadot Bow, the Silk Scarf boosts Normal moves by 10%. It's alright. There are other scarves in this game, which we'll see later.



Listen, have you heard about this new "MISTAKE NAP"? That's right! Of course you know! I mean, sheesh,"MISTAKE NAP"... it's the hottest thing in cool! Wherever you're from, "MISTAKE NAP" is the biggest happening thing, right?

Right!



While not the most hilarious Trendy Saying (tm) I've seen, it's still pretty good. The trendy phrase can be changed every now and then and will appear in other people's games when you mix records. It effects exactly one thing in the game and it's something I'm not looking forward to in the slightest.



I had a Mistake Nap last night, it was pretty great, but I did leave my lamp on. When was the last time you had a Mistake Nap?



The results... terrible, like you needed to ask. But I was delighted that ROXANNE would even let me challenge her! You wouldn't believe how much more I admire her! I'm going to really focus and work! I'd better go!

Like in Gen 2, you'll get randomly called by those you've registered in the Pokenav about all kinds of, uh, interesting stuff about them by people I totally remember who they are. Anyway, it's just fluff in this game since registering people doesn't actually do anything in this game aside from rematches, there aren't special items, or swarms to be notified about, which is a missed opportunity.



Alright, fishing. Siiiiiiigh. Instead of just getting a bite and that's that, now you play a little minigame where you press A when you get a bite. If you fail, the Pokemon gets away, if you succeed, you either hook it, or have to do it multiple more times. It's annoying and I don't like it.



As always, you can catch Magikarp with the Old Rod. It's as useless as ever.



You can also catch Tentacool with the Old Rod, though unlike Gen 2 there aren't a variety of Pokemon you can catch with the Old Rod, it's just Magikarp and Tentacool, with one exception later down the road.



All that's left in this town is the Gym, which we'll go to in just a moment, might as well explore what's to the north at least.

Route 106



What if my ROD hooks a big one while I'm in the washroom? I just can't go...




Cool Pickup.



There's only a couple Fishermen out here, but might as well get as much training as we can before the Gym, it's gonna be a tricky one.




You agree with me, right?



Obviously there's more to do on the route when we can Surf, but at least there's a cave.

Granite Cave



It'll be tough trying to explore. That guy who came by earlier... STEVEN, I think it was. He knew how to use FLASH, so he ought to be all right, but... well, for us HIKERS, helping out those that we meet is our motto. Here you go, I'll pass this on to you.



It lights up even the inky darkness of caves. But, to use it, you need the GYM BADGE from DEWFORD's POKEMON GYM.



While Flash is a garbage HM that really doesn't deserve the moveslot, Ranmaru won't be running out of space any time soon, so he can have it. Anyway, now it's Gym time.

Pokemon Gym



WHO SAID THAT???

DEWFORD's GYM LEADER BRAWLY commands FIGHTING-type POKEMON. Going against him with NORMAL-type POKEMON is asking for trouble. FIGHTING POKEMON will lay a serious smack down on NORMAL POKEMON, so be careful! What's worse, the GYM is as dark as the ocean floor. But it will get brighter after defeating the TRAINERS in your way. Hey, okay, go for it!



I still don't know who this is. Is Jim Gui challenging me to a battle?





Meditite would usually be a throwaway Pokemon if not for its ability, like Marill. Also like Marill, its Pure Power ability means its Psychic STAB isn't affected, though it has its Fighting STAB to fall back on, which it can use very effectively. That is what I would like to say if it learned a single Fighting move until level 32. However, it can use any physical move very effectively until then and when it does learn Hi Jump Kick, it absolutely annihilates anything in its way. Unless it misses. It will never use its Psychic STAB particularly well, alas.

Pure Power is like Huge Power except it's called Pure Power. The Meditite line can make much much better use of this ability due to have a physical STAB, which the Marill line (except Azurill lol) lacks. Medicham also has 10 more Attack than Azumarill, so it can get to a pretty staggering 480 Attack. That's pretty impressive considering Deoxys-Attack has a max of 504. So yeah, these abilities are pretty nuts. If you're curious, Mega Mawile has 678 max Attack.




Every time we beat a trainer our vision circle gets slightly larger. It's difficult to notice in Emerald since there's quite a few trainers in this Gym, compared to the 3 in RS. Another reason why Emerald is better, more trainers!



There's not much reason to screenshot where I'm going like this, just gotta find some trainers.




Oh this is gonna be good.



Detect can gently caress off.





As far as evolution moves go, Grovyle gets the short stick with Fury Cutter, though it's not a bad option considering you have Absorb and Bullet Seed as your other moves. Things will become fantastic when Leaf Blade is obtained at level 29, but it is a rough road until then. Also by evolving you've missed out on Mega Drain. Oh... no? Still, until it gets stronger, it needs TMs, or lots of Fury Cutter hits, whichever works.



Oh cock. Now a kicking chicken, Combusken starts with the pretty neat Double Kick, giving it an 66BP move from the get go, which ain't too bad. It then also gets Peck immediately after. Then... nothing until it evolves again, which is a bit rubbish, let's be honest. A lot of the Fighting and Fire TMs are a bit far off, but maybe you can try your luck with Focus Punch? Like Grovyle, Combusken has a rough start, but when it evolves and learns the good stuff, then it's a force. Until then it kinda sucks.



This big fishy is also alright, starting with Mud Shot, which is a fine Ground move, though you will be waiting a while for Earthquake. Like with the others, it really doesn't get much, but Take Down will give that extra boost of power. Still, it's a Water type, so Surf and Ice Beam are the main draws that the others really don't get, but that's still a little while. Also being really weak to Grass can be a problem, but this fish is prime to wreck the next few Gym Leaders. Overall, there's still no bad choice, they're all as meh as each other until they reach their final forms.



Mud Shot is a pretty nice Ground move with 55BP, 15PP and 95% accuracy that lowers the opponent's Speed by one stage, which is always appreciated. This is gonna be the best move Marshtomp will get for a while, which shows just how good it'll be. It's gonna be rough.



I'm getting mixed signals here.



Alright, I can kinda see where I'm going now, let's head left.




Slowly but surely the circle is getting bigger.






A big ol' punching bag, Makuhita doesn't have the raw power of Meditite... or the Speed... or the typing... it does at least have a lot of HP, which is good cause you'll be using Vital Throw at lot, which requires you to go last. Aside from that though, it really doesn't learn much aside from, uh, Smellingsalt? Well that's not good. It needs some TM help and a lot of HP recovery, cause you don't want to rely on Arm Thrust. It will have a massive HP stat, but its defenses kinda let it down. I think that's the point though.

Thick Fat reduces Fire and Ice damage by 50%, or more specifically the opponent's Special Attack stat is reduced by 50% during calculation. How interesting. It basically results in the same thing.



We've faced a lot of punchmans, but not the punchman, wonder where he's at?




Well he's definitely not here. With this new level, what will Ranmaru learn?



Hrm. Actually kinda useful, as you'll see later.



One day I'll become a GYM LEADER... no, I'll become the POKEMON LEAGUE CHAMPION!



Ah, there he is. Alright, hopefully I'm ready for this.



I've been churned in the rough waves of these parts, and I've grown tough in the pitch-black cave! So you wanted to challenge me? Let me see what you're made of!

VS Gym Leader :siren: VS Gym Leader Brawly :siren:




Brawly/Touki: A big wave in fighting
From brawl (big surprise there), and tōki (Japanese herb) or tōki (fighting spirit).






This battle is super tough if you don't have something to deal a lot of damage, but thankfully Ranmaru is gonna be super helpful in this battle.



Getting Brawly to waste his Super Potions is great, since it's a full heal for all of his Pokemon.



Now this Meditite might look pretty intimidating, but a flawless strategy against it is to always attack it, every single turn. It never goes for its other attacks... aside from just then, which is the first time I've ever seen it do that.



If Focus Punch lands, you're getting knocked out. It's a 150BP move with 20PP and 100% accuracy that requires a tightening focus at the start of the turn.



If you're not damaged by an attack then the move will go off, otherwise you do nothing. It doesn't matter what you need to do against this Meditite, since its only attacking move is Focus Punch, never ever stop attacking, because HOLY poo poo, Pure Power, STAB Focus Punch and potential Bulk Up boosts are just ever so slightly mental together.



I also wasn't bothered by Light Screen, since it would fade before Brawly's final Pokemon.



This is also good. We need all we can get for the endgame.



But yeah, you can imagine what happens.



Okay, this Makuhita is super deadly compared to RS. If you got unlucky with Arm Thrust hits, then that would suck, but you could get lucky with that too. But in Emerald?



Vital Throw has 70BP, 10PP and will always hit, but has -1 priority. Holy poo poo this does a lot of damage. Arm Thrust, meanwhile has 15BP, 20PP and 100% accuracy that hits between 2-5 times, with an average of 3 times, so 45BP. Obviously not as deadly as Vital Throw.



Now you might think that the negative priority means it'll take a load of damage and you can get it low to take it out. Reversal says gently caress you to that. The lower Makuhita's HP, the more damage it'll do. Going from 20% health to 1% health boosts its power from 80 to 200, so it's a pretty crazy.



It also has a Sitrus Berry, which restores 30HP when you go below 50% health. That's a lot of health in the early game, but later on it's pretty naff.



I think I was just barely above the 10% health threshold, otherwise Nobunaga is a monster for taking a 150BP STAB attack with more than half health. So yeah, this fight is pretty easy, honestly. Well, if you can just blast Makuhita with strong attacks. If you can't win (cause this battle is super nasty for how early it is), then you can just skip this Gym battle and come back later, you don't need it for anything all that important. HOWEVER, there is one Pokemon nearby that you can find that will absolutely make this Gym a walk in the park. Trust me.



Whoah, wow! You made a much bigger splash than I expected! You swamped me! Okay, you've got me. Take this GYM BADGE!

Pokemon Gym

"trades, obey without question."

And, you'll be able to use the HM move FLASH outside of battle. If you'd like, use this TECHNICAL MACHINE, too.



It's a move that raises both ATTACK and DEFENSE stats.



I can see your talent becoming a giant wave to cause a storm of astonishment among TRAINERS one day!

Oh yeah, just in case Makuhita wasn't terrifying already, it can use Bulk Up, which has 20PP and raises the user's Attack and Defense by one stage. If you're using mostly physical attackers (very likely), then it becomes stronger and harder to kill. Super terrifying.



A potentially harrowing battle, but Ranmaru made things a LOT easier.

Granite Cave



Freesamples always cheers me up. Let's go find this Steven guy already.



There's a lot of cool Pokemon to find in this cave. Makuhita is one of them, but there are other super neat mons.



Is the game trying to tell me something? Well we don't need this.



Zubat is a super good answer against Brawly, resisting all of his attacks, though it can't do all that much in return.



Now in dark caves, this is your vision. It's pretty rough, but it's not the complete blackness of Gen 2. If you're patient (since this cave is super linear), then you could get through this area without Flash and not have to bother fighting Brawly.



Not using Flash in a screenshot LP seems a bit silly, so let's makes things a bit easier to see.



There's not much to this cave, this was the only side path, so it's real easy to find your way.



Further down we go.





This little gem goblin is a hard catch. It's typing means it has no weaknesses and it completely and utterly walls Brawly to make him a complete joke. But, uh, that's about it. Its stats are low and it doesn't learn any good moves until later, so for a while the best STAB move you'll have is Astonish. It still takes a lot of damage despite its typing due to having low HP, defenses and Speed. Just low everything, really, so it's not something to really bother with, unless you want to be annoying to Meditite.



Okay, relatively painless, which is good cause we've still got a lot left to catch.



Ah, just what I'm looking for!



poo poo. Turns out Mud Slap still kills it.



Goddammit



GODDAMMIT. Also we'll come back to these rocks later. Ugh.



Yeah, there's not much to this cave if you're not looking for Pokemon. Anyway, we need to chill on this floor for a minute.



FINALLY! Eventually we got the 27% chance.





This ironclad cutie laughs in your face when it comes to physical moves... aside from Fighting and Ground, obviously. Aside from that it is a terrifying wall with a good enough Attack to back itself up. While it learns no Rock moves through level up (ugh), Rock Tomb will have to do for, uh, the entire game. At least with Steel moves it has more of a choice. Unfortunately that choice is Iron Tail, but hey, we'll take what we get. It's obtained in a super bad place though, all trainers for a while are super bad for it to fight against and it cannot contribute against Brawly. Still, past that it's (mostly) alright, but for the love of god keep it away from Water. It also evolves super late and that sucks.



It's our third team member. Lairon is my 3rd favourite Pokemon so it and Mudkip were the two Pokemon that were locked in before I even started planning.



It's good to reference Pokemon's slightly-dead-but-not-really spinoff every now and then, but I didn't catch this before Brawly because it would've died instantly against everything. Sure, Meditite doesn't know any Fighting moves, but it would've just been a hassle coming down here to get an Aron at the level I want and then go back to the Gym.





If you thought that Sabeleye was bad then ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyy, Mawile just has no chance against Aron, especially since the only Steel type move it learns is... Hidden Power Steel. Holy guacamole. Its movepool isn't that bad, getting Crunch (which it can't use effectively), Sludge Bomb, Brick Break and, uh, Astonish? Well it's not brilliant, but it has some options if you want to use it for... some reason. Hey, if you need a Pokemon to pass Iron Defense boosts, then this is the one for you. God Iron Head cannot come soon enough for this poor thing.

Its abilities are great though. Hyper Cutter prevents its Attack from being lowered, aside from self inflicted drops AND removes grass in a 2-tile radius when using Cut in the overworld, instead of a 1-tile radius. Though Mawile (and Trapinch) cannot learn Cut. Anyway, Intimidate lowers the opponent's Attack by one stage when the user is sent out. It has the same overworld effect as Keen Eye, a 50% chance of preventing encounters if the Pokemon would be 5 levels or lower than the user. So yeah, Intimidate is probably the best ability, ever. Makes Mawile a bit more tanky so it can do... something.



Mawile is a Ruby exclusive while Sableye is Sapphire exclusive. Both of them are in this game, but Mawile is only obtainable at Victory Road. Uh, gently caress that, let's just get it now, who cares man. I can understand why Sableye was allowed to stay at before Brawly's Gym.



Alright, we've got every Pokemon here, so let's get the heck outta here.



I'm interested in rare stones, so I travel here and there. Oh? A LETTER for me?



You went through all this trouble to deliver that. I need to thank you. Let me see... I'll give you this TM. It contains my favorite move, STEEL WING.



If you keep training, you could even become the CHAMPION of the POKEMON LEAGUE one day. That's what I think. I know, since we've gotten to know each other, let's register one another in our POKENAVS.




He seemed like a real ironclad guy, know what I mean? Anyway, let's head back and see what our new team member is like.

Dewford Town



Well... it could be worse. I would've preferred Rock Head, but Sturdy could be handy. Also its nature is neutral, or more specifically, it boosts and lowers Defense. Not a huge deal, I'll use the first one I come across at the level I want, I'm not picky.



Now we can head to Slateport, but we'll be doing that next update. There's a few things I want to backtrack for, so back to Petalburg. Well, Rustboro.



Ooh, the Cheri tree is grown. Convenient.



I heard from BRAWLY that you're moving up through the ranks of TRAINERS at an incredible clip. Well, I'd rather not think that I can't beat you. I promise, I will shape up my GYM so that you may challenge us again. I hope you'll be looking forward to that occasion as much as me!



Neat. After like, I dunno, 200 steps after Brawly, Roxanne will call and register. Oh yeah, Gym Leader rematches are in this game later on down the line. It's pretty bad, but GF has never done a convenient easy way of rematching all the Gym Leaders. Both systems in Platinum and HGSS have their problems, but they're nothing compared to Emerald.

Rustboro City


"EXP Points from battle."

It will get EXP Points even if it didn't actually battle. I would say EXP.SHARE is quite useful for raising weak POKEMON.

Since my youth, I've immersed myself in work. Consequently, I'm not familiar with trends and that sort of thing. But do young people all want to be TRAINERS in the POKEMON LEAGUE?



Holy poo poo we get the Exp Share real early compared to Gen 2 where it was just before the 7th Gym. It's gonna be super helpful in getting Wargreymon up to speed with the rest of the team while we're fighting trainers that he wouldn't be huge fans of.



I've got a cool peep with the perfect phrase for ya.



Oh, yes! She's laughing! Oh, I am as delighted as she! Thank you! Thanks to you, my darling WALDA laughed for me! Actually, I may not look all that special, but I'm one of DEVON CORPORATION's top researchers. So, how about I do something in return for you? I know, I'll add some new wallpaper patterns for the BOXES in the PC POKEMON Storage System. In the wallpaper pattern menu, select "FRIENDS." That will give you access to the new wallpaper patterns.



Ah, it's beautiful. This is the design Onmi created, which was voted for and what I'll be using for the rest of the LP. So getting Walda to laugh is just a way of inputting a code to get some sweet self designed wallpaper. So how the hell are you supposed to know about this? Well, there's the Japanese fansite Daisuki Club that has a few of these weird online code generators that unlock some cool stuff in Emerald and the Gen 4 games, it's where I got the various Eggs in HGSS, though since Daisuki Club is Japanese (and was closed for a while), filb.de is where you go for your code needs. There's a long rear end algorithm to determine how the code is made from what you designed, but even I'm uninterested in listing it out in a Side Notes. All to get some new wallpaper, from Walda Pepper's father! Eh? Ehhhhh? EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?



Thanks, DAD NORMAN



Alright, let's head off to Slateport, we've spent long enough on this island.



We'll be seeing all of this poo poo in like 10 updates or so.



And next time, it's Slateport City.

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Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

I've always done the cave before Brawly. Dude's just too tough, I'd rather get the exp first, and it's not like Flash is ever really needed, much less in Gen 3.

Plus I nearly always run Torchic so evolving into Combusken gives me an easy way to use Peck for Flying damage. Not like that does a lot...

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

Crosspeice posted:

While not the most hilarious Trendy Saying (tm) I've seen, it's still pretty good. The trendy phrase can be changed every now and then and will appear in other people's games when you mix records. It effects exactly one thing in the game and it's something I'm not looking forward to in the slightest.

And somehow this thing winds up not even being one of the worst things GameFreak ever put into a Pokemon game.

Solumin
Jan 11, 2013

Blaze Dragon posted:

I've always done the cave before Brawly. Dude's just too tough, I'd rather get the exp first, and it's not like Flash is ever really needed, much less in Gen 3.

Plus I nearly always run Torchic so evolving into Combusken gives me an easy way to use Peck for Flying damage. Not like that does a lot...

Same here, the XP is too useful.

Aron's line gets some nice buffs in later generations. Metal Sound (Steel-type Counter) in Gen IV, Heavy Slam (damage is based on user's weight relative to target's) and Autotomize (+2 Speed and cuts weight in half) in Gen V, and a Mega Evolution in Gen VI that boosts its already absurd Defense to 230.
Aron is designed around the Rock Head ability, which prevents recoil damage from most attacks. That means Take Down and Double Edge, which it learns but doesn't get STAB for, are suddenly risk-free. Even better, Aron gets Rock Head (150 base damage Rock-Type attack that gives 1/2 damage as recoil) as an Egg Move starting in Gen IV.

It's never going to be a top-tier pokemon, thanks to its typing. Fighting and Ground types are just way too popular. But it's definitely a great choice for the main story, and Aggron is my favorite pokemon.

Radio Free Kobold
Aug 11, 2012

"Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."




Sableye is a good goblin ok

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

Gen 3 darkness is the worst. The expanded field of vision with flash never felt like enough.

Haifisch
Nov 13, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender
I'm glad darkness is basically gone in recent gens, because it was always the most boring HM(and later TM) mechanic. Doesn't open up new areas, not involved in puzzles. Just a binary "do you feel like bumbling through here blind? y/n" check.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Brawly
His pokemon are maximum

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
I remember on my Alpha Sapphire playthrough, my Swampert and Beautifly were the only pokemon I used towards the end. I'm pretty sure they tackled the Elite 4 on their own, at the very least. Swampert's movepool leaves a little to be desired, though.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I remember on my Alpha Sapphire playthrough, my Swampert and Beautifly were the only pokemon I used towards the end. I'm pretty sure they tackled the Elite 4 on their own, at the very least. Swampert's movepool leaves a little to be desired, though.

The physical special split does a lot to help Swampert in ORAS. Though you're right his native learnpool is not great.

Kurieg fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Feb 17, 2018

rannum
Nov 3, 2012

God catching pokemon with a catch rate of 45 is a nightmare even in the best case scenario. It's way too low! Especially for pokemon like, well, this.


I used a Sableye in ORAS and, after 3 generations it was actually...pretty dang solid? I know, I was surprised too. It had actual stab to use and infinite use TMs available at reasonable times means it's always able to do SOMETHING. And you can get it in Prankster flavor if you're patient enough. Then you can mega evolve it for end game. It's been a while, but I think you can mega evolve it before the climax unlike Mawile.
Though, as a note,t he part of the cave where you can catch them doesn't open up until around mauville, so no getting them for Brawly.


also match call is garbage and i'd argue worse than the rematch system the original RS had, just because you could constantly reroll the rng by switching routes rather than fishing for phone calls

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

Solumin posted:

Aron's line gets some nice buffs in later generations. Metal Sound (Steel-type Counter) in Gen IV, Heavy Slam (damage is based on user's weight relative to target's) and Autotomize (+2 Speed and cuts weight in half) in Gen V, and a Mega Evolution in Gen VI that boosts its already absurd Defense to 230.
Aron is designed around the Rock Head ability, which prevents recoil damage from most attacks. That means Take Down and Double Edge, which it learns but doesn't get STAB for, are suddenly risk-free. Even better, Aron gets Rock Head (150 base damage Rock-Type attack that gives 1/2 damage as recoil) as an Egg Move starting in Gen IV.

It's never going to be a top-tier pokemon, thanks to its typing. Fighting and Ground types are just way too popular. But it's definitely a great choice for the main story, and Aggron is my favorite pokemon.
Agreed. Aron's line is not winning any popularity contests (with real world fans, mind), but if you want a solid defensive tank for Hoenn, go with the little metal dinosaur thingy. My only complaint is the same as Crosspiece, the little bugger evolves way too late and is weirdly spaced out for evolutions. Here, Wargreymon is level 12, so he has to wait 20 more levels to evolve to his next form, but then 10 levels later hits his final evolution. As a result, you have little time to get used to the Lairon form before the beefy final Aggron form walks in. If it was like say, the starter Pokemon (second stage around level 16-20, final stage around 35-40), I'd maybe be a little more forgiving. But other than that, Aron is a good Pokemon and I love it. And as you said, GameFreak gave it some love with additional and very good moves as we moved through the generations. Heavy Slam in Gen V on Aggron is extremely welcome as you'd have to basically be Snorlax to counter the added damage Aggron's own fat rear end contributes.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Swampert benefits from Avalanche, as I recall.

Thadius
Apr 2, 2010

ANGER HAS NEVER BEEN MORE MANLY THAN THIS
This is the first time I've found one of these threads while it was active. And I already have a question for the LP that I'm enjoying.

Will you be covering the remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as well?

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Thadius posted:

This is the first time I've found one of these threads while it was active. And I already have a question for the LP that I'm enjoying.

Will you be covering the remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as well?

Crosspeice would need to be able to record 3DS games to do that, and the methods to do that are extremely limited.

There is a 3DS emulator out there, but it's in its early stages.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
It is interesting that there's such a good matchup for Brawly in that cave... if you're willing to go long enough to get the chance to grab one.

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

If I had 3DS capture I would be LPing ORAS instead of Emerald, but this does work out a lot better, since I wouldn't be LPing the GBA games otherwise. I don't know if I'll have the disposable income for a 3DS capture for a real long time, though since I have an Elgato any Switch games would be simple enough.

Rip my XY and Gen 7 LPs.

Tactless Ogre
Oct 31, 2011

Crosspeice posted:




This ironclad cutie laughs in your face when it comes to physical moves... aside from Fighting and Ground, obviously. Aside from that it is a terrifying wall with a good enough Attack to back itself up. While it learns no Rock moves through level up (ugh), Rock Tomb will have to do for, uh, the entire game. At least with Steel moves it has more of a choice. Unfortunately that choice is Iron Tail, but hey, we'll take what we get. It's obtained in a super bad place though, all trainers for a while are super bad for it to fight against and it cannot contribute against Brawly. Still, past that it's (mostly) alright, but for the love of god keep it away from Water. It also evolves super late and that sucks.

I love me some Aggron myself, but there is no greater irony/sick sense of humor greater than Gamefreak's. Give a pokemon an amazing defensive stat and make it weak against two of the most common physical attributes in the game. You've got a physically defensive steel wall that can't take a punch to the face.

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Tactless Ogre posted:

I love me some Aggron myself, but there is no greater irony/sick sense of humor greater than Gamefreak's. Give a pokemon an amazing defensive stat and make it weak against two of the most common physical attributes in the game. You've got a physically defensive steel wall that can't take a punch to the face.

Also, make it highly vulnerable to the two type variants that dominate the story setting.

Aaron is my favorite gen 3 mon, but man does gen 3 hate it. I did a solo run with it and it was the only time I'd ever call one of those hard.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

Crosspeice posted:

If I had 3DS capture I would be LPing ORAS instead of Emerald, but this does work out a lot better, since I wouldn't be LPing the GBA games otherwise. I don't know if I'll have the disposable income for a 3DS capture for a real long time, though since I have an Elgato any Switch games would be simple enough.

Rip my XY and Gen 7 LPs.

You still have most of Gen 3 plus 4 and 5 to get through, and Gen 5 is two LPs on its own. By the time you get to XY Citra should be working near-perfectly. Though you are one hell of a fast worker...

Haifisch
Nov 13, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender

Tactless Ogre posted:

I love me some Aggron myself, but there is no greater irony/sick sense of humor greater than Gamefreak's. Give a pokemon an amazing defensive stat and make it weak against two of the most common physical attributes in the game. You've got a physically defensive steel wall that can't take a punch to the face.
That's basically Gamefreak's modus operandi with the rock type, too. Most of them are statted as slow and defensive, when the Rock type has a shitload of weaknesses & generally does better when statted as a fast glass cannon.

Of course they're going for what stats logically feel right(rocks are slow and tough) instead of what actually works well with the type, but still.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Haifisch posted:

That's basically Gamefreak's modus operandi with the rock type, too. Most of them are statted as slow and defensive, when the Rock type has a shitload of weaknesses & generally does better when statted as a fast glass cannon.

Of course they're going for what stats logically feel right(rocks are slow and tough) instead of what actually works well with the type, but still.

The first time I ever beat RBY, I did so with an Onix on my team that I blew loads of TMs on.

Then again, my winning team that game included a Butterfree I'd used the Psychic TM on and a Blastoise with surf, hydro pump, bubblebeam, and ice beam. I was not a smart kid.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Psychic on Butterfree isn't terrible, though it's not the ideal Pokemon to have it prior to Gen V.

Then again, I think most things that want Psychic can learn it via level-up, unless Gen I was dumb about that.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Psychic on Butterfree isn't terrible, though it's not the ideal Pokemon to have it prior to Gen V.

Then again, I think most things that want Psychic can learn it via level-up, unless Gen I was dumb about that.

Blastoise, Butterfree, Onix, Raichu, Persian, Flareon.

Mistakes were made.

IIRC, Persian was actually far and away the most reliable performer of that group and soloed Sabrina. STAB Slash in RBY backed by the RBY crit formula on a critter as fast as Persian made for a surprisingly solid critter.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Haifisch posted:

That's basically Gamefreak's modus operandi with the rock type, too. Most of them are statted as slow and defensive, when the Rock type has a shitload of weaknesses & generally does better when statted as a fast glass cannon.

Of course they're going for what stats logically feel right(rocks are slow and tough) instead of what actually works well with the type, but still.

Also because rocks are slow, all the rock moves have lovely accuracy. And there's only one decent Special Rock move, which has almost zero distribution.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!

Cythereal posted:

Blastoise, Butterfree, Onix, Raichu, Persian, Flareon.

Mistakes were made.

IIRC, Persian was actually far and away the most reliable performer of that group and soloed Sabrina. STAB Slash in RBY backed by the RBY crit formula on a critter as fast as Persian made for a surprisingly solid critter.

I can overlook most of those but...Flareon?

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I can overlook most of those but...Flareon?

I was in middle school and thought Flareon looked adorably fluffy and cute, okay?

I don't remember what I even gave the stupid thing. Persian had slash and payday, Blastoise had ice beam and all the water moves, Butterfree had psychic and status effects, Raichu had thunderbolt and thunder wave, Onix had earthquake and maybe rock slide, but Flareon? I think he had fire blast, maybe?

Crosspeice
Aug 9, 2013

Hey now, Flareon in Gen 1 had 110 Sp.Atk and still had its 130 Attack, so it could use Hyper Beam pretty well.

Not that any of us actually knew about that stuff when we were younger.

FriskyBoat
Apr 23, 2011

Cythereal posted:

I was in middle school and thought Flareon looked adorably fluffy and cute, okay?

I don't remember what I even gave the stupid thing. Persian had slash and payday, Blastoise had ice beam and all the water moves, Butterfree had psychic and status effects, Raichu had thunderbolt and thunder wave, Onix had earthquake and maybe rock slide, but Flareon? I think he had fire blast, maybe?

Flareon is pretty cute tbqh

Probably better than how I played in gen , which was all Articuno all the time.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I can overlook most of those but...Flareon?

He wasn't great, but he was fine in Generation 1. Flareon had the highest special stat of all Fire types in gen 1 except for Moltres.

BrightWing
Apr 27, 2012

Yes, he is quite mad.
Oh yay my dumb suggestion won! :D

rannum
Nov 3, 2012

Haifisch posted:

That's basically Gamefreak's modus operandi with the rock type, too. Most of them are statted as slow and defensive, when the Rock type has a shitload of weaknesses & generally does better when statted as a fast glass cannon.

Of course they're going for what stats logically feel right(rocks are slow and tough) instead of what actually works well with the type, but still.

the only reason rock isn't put into the same tier of "god why, stop" as ice type is there are generally rock types that are good and rock has, like, resistances that can be relevant sometimes. And the sandstorm boost is nice.

Aesclepia
Dec 5, 2013
Next verse same as the first.

FriskyBoat posted:

Flareon is pretty cute tbqh

Probably better than how I played in gen , which was all Articuno all the time.

I know my first Gen 1 win came with Dragonite, Sandslash, Blastoise and idk what else. I liked the dragon.

And I love Flareon even though Game Freak doesn't.

rannum
Nov 3, 2012

Aesclepia posted:

I know my first Gen 1 win came with Dragonite, Sandslash, Blastoise and idk what else. I liked the dragon.

And I love Flareon even though Game Freak doesn't.

Hey now, it finally got Flare Blitz in gen 6!





I mean it didn't help but at least it got it!

magikid
Nov 4, 2006
Wielder of the Soup Spoon
I always figured Steel and Dark were introduced because Rock and Ghost weren't doing their jobs. And instead of rebalancing them they just added more into the fire because Gamefreak.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

magikid posted:

I always figured Steel and Dark were introduced because Rock and Ghost weren't doing their jobs. And instead of rebalancing them they just added more into the fire because Gamefreak.

And then they made steel into one of the most powerful defensive types and least resisted attack type.

And then lucario happened.

FriskyBoat
Apr 23, 2011

Kurieg posted:

And then they made steel into one of the most powerful defensive types and least resisted attack type.

And then lucario happened.

I still don't really understand why Lucario is a steel type.

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Kurieg posted:

And then they made steel into one of the most powerful defensive types and least resisted attack type.

And then lucario happened.

Only steel type I've ever used much is Skarmory. Drill Peck and Steel Wing, what else do you need? One was on my first successful GSC team.

SonicRulez
Aug 6, 2013

GOTTA GO FIST
Oh awesome, I've been waiting for your next Pokemon LP! Mawile strikes me as a dark type that's just very good at lying. Its general design, learning Crunch, and other tricky moves. Steel seems odd. Aron and Trapinch are two mons that I catch in every run of Hoenn and end up boxing before the end because they just take too long to get going.

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Radio Free Kobold
Aug 11, 2012

"Federal regulations mandate that at least 30% of our content must promote Reptilian or Draconic culture. This is DJ Scratch N' Sniff with the latest mermaid screeching on KBLD..."




Cythereal posted:

Only steel type I've ever used much is Skarmory. Drill Peck and Steel Wing, what else do you need? One was on my first successful GSC team.

Sky Drop and Stealth Rock to round it out. Pretend you're dropping ecoterrorists out of a helicopter.

Radio Free Kobold fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Feb 19, 2018

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