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 What's Pokemon Zeta? Last year, Double Negative played a fangame called Pokémon Insurgence. Despite warnings that it wasn't good, Insurgence turned out to have a lot to love, and the thread warmed up to it pretty quickly. Maybe this positive reception is because DN cut out the most tedious parts of the game for a screenshot LP. Maybe it's because the LP was concurrent with one for Pokémon Reborn, the worst game ever created by a human.  Whatever the case may be, it turns out that Insurgence isn't the first Pokémon fangame developed by TheSuzerain. Sometime before 2013, he made Zeta and Omicron. I'll be playing Zeta; differences between versions amount to different Pokemon being available at different times, different villain teams, and maybe some other things I don't know. We'll get into them. Are you qualified? I'm even less qualified than Double Negative because I've barely played this game! That's right, it's a blind LP, and I'm relying on the game's wiki, Bulbapedia, maybe some other websites, and the expertise of all of you. You even get to suggest Pokémon and nicknames!... to an extent. I'm also posting this LP on the LP Beach forum, and they've had a good headstart on voting. I'm planning on limiting my options to make the game more interesting, so voting choices are first come, first served. Spoilers? Nope! Don't discuss or hint at anything that hasn't happened in the story yet, or mechanics exclusive to Pokémon Zeta or Omicron. Feel free to discuss game mechanics of the general Pokémon franchise and anything related to Insurgence, though. I assume everyone here is familiar with all of that anyway. Updates:                   
Solitair fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Aug 29, 2022 |
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Aug 6, 2020 22:59
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    Fonts folder in Control Panel. I already did this before I started recording, and the game is still warning me about this. It did make a difference; before I copied the fonts the game had unpixellated text that looked awful when contrasted with the rest of the Gen 3 aesthetic. But hey, I fixed it at the price of my text capture software not working on this game!   I'll be turning the text speed to insane. I'm a fast reader and I'd rather do it at my own pace. Everything else is fine.    This is a prerecorded message. It is only to be opened in case of emergency.It will also raise more questions than if Oak had just talked to you at the start of the story, as we'll soon see. My Name is Professor Oak. People call me the Pokémon Professor.  You can also press V to quicksave, F to toggle autosave, and S to toggle autorun.I'm sure autosave will come in handy when I'm trying to capture legendaries. Autorun will actually be helpful most of the time.  Beginning prerecorded message. Many different people live here, all with different worldviews and beliefs. Some people desire goodness and altruism. But, some people also value fame and power over anything else. You are about to take a trip through this world. At times, obstacles will stand in your way. By solving puzzles and with clever thinking, these can be over come. At other times, others may challenge you to a battle. By overcoming such hurdles, you can attain success and power of your own. Through your journey, we hope you gain personal growth and learn from the opinions of others. That is the most important objective of this quest, whether or not you succeed. This reads like the "What is an RPG!?" section at the start of every tabletop game rulebook ever made, and I don't know why it's here. One would assume that Zeta/Omicron is for people who already know how to play a Pokémon game.   Here and probably nowhere else we have one of the sick sprite animations from Black and White. People and Pokémon live together by supporting each other. Some people play with Pokémon, some battle with them. But some people abuse them for power. That is why you are here today.     As janky as this game can be sometimes, it's nice to just use a keyboard instead of hunt-and-pecking on a touch screen or d-pad.   What kind of challenge run would you prefer?  Here you're supposed to use the mouse to check which modes you want to toggle. I'll explain what they all do: -Nuzlocke is that thing you've probably heard of and the only lasting legacy the TV show Lost has left on the world. This mode makes it impossible to revive fainted Pokémon and forces you to nickname them. Normally a Nuzlocke run also limits you to the first Pokémon you encounter in each area, but I guess the Z/O team couldn't make that work and is using the honor system. In Insurgence the mode turns off and lets you play normally when your last Pokémon faints, but the Z/O wiki doesn't specify if this is true here and I'm not inclined to find out. -Randomized scrambles up all of the wild and trainer Pokémon you encounter, hitting up an RNG that excludes the few Fakemon this game has and possibly also the Gen 6 ones. These were the only two modes available before the 1.4 patch. -PP Challenge prevents you from recharging lost uses of your moves at the Pokémon Center. Either you get lucky finding Ethers and the like or your buddies become a lot more disposable. -Solo Run allows you to choose any basic non-legendary at the start of the game to be your only battler, and locks any Pokémon you catch in the PC until you give up or finish the Vesryn region storyline. -Mystery Challenge hides the sprites and names of any Pokémon you haven't caught and registered in the Pokédex yet. You can also give this particular challenge up whenever you want. -Non-Technical Challegne prevents you from using TMs, which probably cuts your competitive options in half. -Anti-ante Challenge keeps you from getting money from trainers. Your only income is from selling items. -Bravery Challenge prevents you from fleeing battles. Repels are even more valuable if you're doing this. For what it's worth Insurgence also has: -Wonder Challenge, which immediately trades away every Pokémon you get for something someone else playing the game just caught. -Ironman Challenge, which deletes your save when you white out after losing a battle. I just want to play the game, so all of these options will go unchecked.    This sounds like a terrible idea. Of COURSE I'm picking yes.  Team Asgard has attacked Nyasa Town, leaving few survivors. The remaining citizens are being transferred to Zarivar Town through the Escape Route. Emergency Pokémon are available in the Escape Route for those who want to help stop Team Asgard. Thank you for watching this prerecorded message. When did we have time to watch this if we're evacuating the town?   This woman comes up the ladder.   Go! Lucario! Go find... Wilson. Tell him the time for cowardice is over. Tell him to redeem himself.Does that mean your Lucario can talk?  Lu-carrio! Use ExtremeSpeed! Lu-carrio!He vanishes in a flash, and the woman walks up to Kate.  They're out there. They won't stop until they get what they want. Kate, you're growing up. I think you're ready for your first Pokémon. You may as well take one. Perhaps, if Team Asgard is ever stopped, you might become a better trainer than I ever was! I only wish I knew why they came after Nyasa Town...  Aria, we need you to help fend them off! Oh no! ...Kate. I love you. Be safe.Oak steps aside and lets her leave the cave.  desperate measures. As a Professor, I'm supposed to give you a Pokémon and start you on your journey. But as a friend of your family... ever met. It's not that I doubt you, of course. You're surprisingly mature for your age.Probably because she doesn't talk. Follow me. I'll take you to get your Pokémon.      It will be your companion for the rest of your life.  Okay, interesting choice for starter Pokémon. I had this whole spiel ready criticizing the game for gating the starters' final evolutions behind items and trading. That and the fact that their base stat totals in the canon games differ a whole lot more than different starters usually do made me think I was in for a rough ride However, a quick check of the Z/O wiki left me unable to find any mention of the Magmarizer and Dragon Scale, which only exist to evolve Magmar and Seadra. This makes me sure that the evolution requirements for these Pokémon, and possibly their base stats, have been changed. We'll see how that works out. In the meantime I'm picking the cool one.    Team Asgard sound like some primitive screwheads to me.  You truly are your mother's child. Amazing. I must be off. I will be waiting for you in my Lab in Zarivar Town. Just continue through the cave, you can't miss it. We're doing a more lo-fi version of the Heart Gold/Soul Silver walking Pokémon mechanic. It's no Amie, but it'll do.    The speech tail appeared when this hiker was walking across the stone bridge and didn't catch up with him.  Snub-snub! My name's Jeremy. I'm an intern in the Professor's Lab. The Professor asked me to give you these!  If you see a wild Pokémon, such as in the tall grass or a cave, then you can throw a Pokéball to catch it! You'll have to weaken it first though. A Pokémon is easiest to catch when it is low on HP, and has a status effect like being asleep or frozen.In most games we get to see the NPC catching something themselves and it takes more time to get through this tutorial. I don't know if the devs skipped this out of consideration or if they didn't know how to do it like the canon games do. I like the change, though.  There are many different kinds of Pokéball. Some of them will catch Pokémon more easily. about I show you how to be a trainer? Let's have a battle!  It's been a while, but I don't remember the Gen 3 battle transitions being this elaborate.    I think you know what all those buttons do.  Since Snubbull cut our attack stat in half, we'll be using Ember, which runs on a different stat.   Boomstick's Attack fell! Again, not affecting Ember. The battle continues until I win.  Kate got 160 Pokébucks for winning!  Anyways, come visit Snubbull and me in the Professor's Lab ok? Lets go, Snubbull! Snub-snub!  "He's a different color, so he got bullied by all the other Mudkips... But I love him just the way he is!" Aww! What trainer wouldn't like a shiny starter?  again, aren't they? Here. This will help.  "That POTION will heal your Pokémon even in the middle of a battle!"  ok? I thought we couldn't steal other trainers' Pokémon.  walking to increase your pace! Time to smash that autorun button!  Day and night cycles are here, not that it affects much of anything. Also hope you didn't forget anything in the Escape Route, because the ledge is a one-way trip.  Here's Zarivar Town. Every town in the Vesryn region is named after a real-world lake or river.  personally, since our Mystery Gift service has had issues lately. Pokémon Zeta and Omicron used to have online features and exclusive Pokémon. They're gone now. Mystery Gift was one of those features, so we're just going to get everything that was offered on it right now.  It'll be a while before we have access to Aerodactyl or a Mega Ring.   The Cinnabar Ticket, Medical License and License Template are also going on the mantle.  This is useful right now, though. We could all use a little change.  Now we're getting to the good stuff!       hard!  invasion? Can't blame you.   You're just not cool enough, yknow? Calling people "urchin" as a kid is the height of coolness.  other kids like me... You're too good for them.  and...   Hey wassup it's ya boi! I'm using custom sprites for this guy made by Polahhhbear on Reddit, because the default sprites are identical to Leaf/Blue/Green/Gary from Fire Red and Leaf Green.  The game gave me one more chance to make him stop saying "swag," which from what I can tell is all of what this option does.  I take the Potion out like with every other Pokémon game that lets you store items in the PC. Still no inventory limits, though.   He's a great kid! Sweet, kind and caring! Out of touch parents never change.   Its really fun to say!  Enough beating around the bush. This update's long enough as it is, and we haven't even been playing for ten minutes.  Lets get down to business. I'm not entirely sure where your MOM is, but I'm planning to meet up with her later. She's out recruiting allies to help fight against Team Asgard. I'll see if I can keep you in contact with her. In the meantime, I need a favour. with me. Can you go fetch him for me? I would appreciate it. Talking to him again...  There's somebody who wants to be my assistant there.  Oh, I see you choose Magby! Here, this Pokémon may be helpful for you to have. Because Z/O players can no longer trade for starters, we now have opportunities to get the two we didn't pick. While we won't get the chance to obtain the one which is weak against my choice for a while...  ...we get the other one almost immediately.   Get out of hee right now or I'll— H-Huh? The Professor wants to see me?   him. He was the guy who trained Aria, the legendary Champion! Oh, what I would give to meet Aria, or even her kid, Kate.  Er... That is to say, your Mom has swag! I'm going to be your Rival from now on, ok? Let's go then! I'm going to be the swaggiest trainer of all time! Go! I'll meet you over there. And let me tell you that— about how you got a Pokémon already. He said he'll give me one too! I can't believe it! My own Pokémon!  My... swag... Pokémon? Yeah... Yes... yes you can. Go pick the one that suits you best. Hmm...! ...I pick this one! As usual, he picks the one that beats our starter. You and I, Kate... we'll battle soon enough. Trust me.I have four Pokémon to your one. Wait until you have the chance to catch up. I'm out of here, losers!  Here, I've got something else for you.  more Pokémon you find, the more data it will have. Try to make it your goal to fill out the entire Pokedex!  My intern, Jeremy, gave you some Pokéballs, right? Good! If you need anymore, they're for sale at the Pokémart. plan to do next. There's a chance lives are at stake here, Kate! I would suggest heading south to Superior Town. Not only is there a Gym there, but I've been getting records of Asgard activity around that area. So go do your MOM proud!There's a few places between us and that gym, so let's see Pokémon we have available: Starters (pick two) Bellsprout Magby Horsea Zarivar Town Hawlucha Noibat Route 301 Caterpie Pidgey Rattata Wurmple Starly Naragex Forest Beedrill (1%) Paras Hoothoot Ledyba Pineco Shroomish Kricketot Petilil Naragex Forest (headbutt) Mankey Hoppip (5%) Ferroseed Wonder Cave Machop Geodude Onix (2%) Cubone Whismur Makuhita Roggenrola Unown Superior City Munchlax (trade for Beedrill) If anyone has suggestions for my team, include names Pokémon with a sentence or two on why I should use them, and maybe a funny nickname, too. I think this game uses Gen 5 errata, even with some of the mons being from Gen 6. NEXT TIME: the game's first non-Escape Route.  The intro shows an animated Lucario instead of a Zoroark, and the bad guys are Team Olympus instead of Team Asgard.
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Aug 6, 2020 23:06
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Here's what I picked up at the Beach's request: Beeach the Beedrill Duo the Hoothoot Catharsis the Mankey Tochinoshi the Makuhita O'Hara the Petilil Breloomish the Shroomish and here's what I decided to get myself: The four mons I got in the first update BadRats the Rattata Fiddlestix the Kricketot TrishUna the Ledyba Rarity the Onix DethLetter the Unown Secret the Whismur I'm gonna get that Munchlax later, too. That leaves about eleven mons I'm leaving alone. I'm willing to pick up a couple more if any of you want to nominate them, but I won't be able to get them until after the second gym. Solitair fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Aug 6, 2020 23:10
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Are the banners in the OP supposed to be clickable? I think you have bad HTML there
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Aug 7, 2020 01:35
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Are the banners in the OP supposed to be clickable? I think you have bad HTML there Yeah, they are. I'm gonna edit them now, and add the later ones when I get more updates ready.
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Aug 7, 2020 02:29
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I take it this game does not have the physical/special split?
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Aug 7, 2020 05:04
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SirSamVimes posted:I take it this game does not have the physical/special split? No, it does. It's using mechanics from gen 5, and the split was introduced in gen 4.
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Aug 7, 2020 12:20
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 Before we go on, I should check out our usual utilities, the Pokémon Center and the PokéMart.  If you beat all of them, you can face the Elite Four! Same deal as most regions, then.  That's so cool!  two trainers are just so cool! I haven't played that far ahead, but I know that fanservice and references to canon games will be coming pretty hard.  I'm on my break now. I'm gonna be charitable and assume he meant beating the grunt in a Pokémon battle.   grass without Pokémon attacking you left and right!   With no badges, our selection is very limited. We can't even get Repels like that guy suggested.  Route 305 is north of Zarivar Town, but we can't do anything with it yet.  Before we proceed to Route 301, I'll show our starting team's stats. I'll keep doing this when I can remember to.    Like in Insurgence, we can see our EVs and IVs directly. I'm a bit worried about Boomstick's offensive capability, but there might be ways around that.         Jeez, that's not bad at all.  This movelist, on the other hand, needs a lot of work.  Do I even need to list the trainer memo pages? I've been doing it to show their natures, but I doubt that'd tell you anything you wouldn't get from looking at IVs.   Dangit, these are better than Boomstick's. I know what starter I chose, game. Don't make me change my mind.  If you don't know their types, Boomstick is mono-Fire, MuchaLucha is Fighting/Flying, GetTurnt is Flying/Dragon and Hollyhock is mono-Water.  No sooner do we step down Route 301 than the first in a line of jabronis steps up.   He doesn't even wait for all the Pokéballs to load in before sending someone out.  Bug-types are weak to Fire attacks, and they're a common sight in the rosters of trainers on this route. I'll let you fill in the blanks.  They don't use Bug-types all the time, of course. We should get an answer for every type down the road, but for now I'll just slug it out and train Boomstick in the art of war.  And MuchaLucha, since the Pidgey got Boomstick pretty bad.   I rushed back to the center before talking to him again.   They're definitely not as bad as they used to be.  I could really use one of those antidotes I'm not allowed to buy right now.  Some Bug Pokémon, however, will never be viable.  Dude, just get a Heracross or something else that can pack a punch. There's a gym leader in Vesryn who could give you pointers.    Weedle is one of the many basic Pokémon in this game that you can only obtain by breeding their evolved forms. As someone who prefers to keep only one of each fully-evolved Pokémon, I've never been sure about what to do with the spares I'd have to breed to get a full Pokédex.      We're continuing in the Pokémon tradition of having a forest bisect an otherwise normal route, and the Insurgence tradition of having both ends of a transition point lead south.  The people standing in the open are not trainers.  Being full of Grass and Bug mons, this place poses no real threat to Boomstick.  Not where I'd set up a home, but I guess it takes all kinds.    In every city, the strongers trainers will band together to make a Gym. The strongest of these is called a Gym Leader. Only powerful trainers can challenge a Gym Leader. I'm operating under "fake it 'til you make it" principles. It's easy when you have a famous mom. Hmm... ...would you like to back that up? I still have a Pokémon from my days as a trainer. Well then, lets go at it, shall we? I don't know how much of this is Essentials or RPGMaker, but there are a lot of neat battle transitions in this game.  MuchaLucha makes quick work of it.  I bet it wasn't even a top-percentage Rattata.  That's fine. And take this, for good measure.  A Great Ball is special because it has a higher catch rate than a Pokeball! If there's a Pokémon you want really badly... Well, this will make it easier to catch!I have a very specific use for this in mind.  It's here that I realize that I might want to give someone the Amulet Coin to make some money off other trainers. Oops.  "They say it lives in the shrine of this very forest. It brings peace to all the Pokémon of the forest. I hope we'll see it again, however. They say it left the forest long ago."  I'm trying to track down a rare Pokémon! In a couple of updates I'll be right there with him.  Honestly, I kind of wish I had a pair handy. It gets hot outside this time of year.  Flying is good against fighting... Maybe I could catch something on Route 301? In a normal game this would be great advice. In this game, it still helps, but... we'll see when we get to Devon.  Remember berries? I remember berries. In Soul Silver I can take my berry trees with me! No such luck in Zeta, but from what I can tell there's no need (or way) to water your plants before they bear fruit.  You must be a trainer! I'm in this forest trying to catch one myself... Maybe when I get one, we can have a battle? You're lucky you're in an area where everything has a high catch rate.  she's worried about someone? Not what I'd expect to see in this habitat, but okay, I'll put a pin in this Pokémon.  Put a pin in this, too. I've got a feeling I can do something with it someday.  I'm not here! Please... Don't tell anyone I was here! I'll teach one of your Pokémon headbutt! Yeah!   Let's give it to Boomstick. Why not?  Sure. We'll leave you to whatever existential horror you're dealing with.   One more short strip of Route 301, before we pass into...   A town better than the last one, if its name is anything to go by. Next time, we'll see what makes it so good, and also actually catch Pokémon.
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Aug 7, 2020 21:04
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  The first thing I notice about Superior Town is that the lampposts cast dynamic shadows. That's mildly impressive, and I don't know how you'd do that in a gen 3 engine.  Devon, the powerful Fighting-type trainer!   Ooh, two shadows!  Perhaps a secret lies inside?  rainbow wings died here, a long time ago. If only we could turn back the clock... Weird. Maybe put a pin in this, too?  something in there, and has requested that nobody disturb him.  I'd need the HM Strength to push the boulder. Too bad I can't afford it. A guy in the Pokémon Battle Club is selling them for a million bucks a piece! Oh gently caress. The One Rock followed us from Reborn! Thankfully it won't take nearly as long to get rid of it this time. You might be surprised that Strength is the first HM we have access to, but we got Surf first in Insurgence.   I do like Snorlax a whole lot, but Beedrill is stupid rare right now and a reader wants me to use one, so it'll be a while before we can get a spare. "Oh, okay then."  I hate the sunshine so much! Was the pandemic this kid's monkey's paw wish?   Can you go to the Wonder Cave in the Northeast of our town and find the LEGEND RESEARCHER? He went in there with Devon a couple hours ago... ...could you go in there and tell him the shipment has arrived? He'll know what I'm talking about. That request clears off the pig blocking the cave entrance. We'll be inside shortly.  I need an antidote! ...oh. You don't have an antidote.    Your guess is as good as mine.  Can I ask you a question?  I figured it was best to answer honestly rather than minmax the choice or wait for a reader poll.  Wandering NPCs will just walk into my Pokémon. Rude. "Then you should take this!"  Don't worry, all of the options will be available later.  We gotta clear Wonder Cave to get our first badge and proceed.  It's at this point that I figure I should catch Pokémon, build my team and start fulfilling those reader requests.  Also figured I'd let more of my pals get some exercise and show them off. GetTurnt goes first.  Kate's lower half vanishes before we actually get in the weeds.  Here's the first one on the list. I've noticed that the sprites for Gen 6 mons, made by fans since the gen itself left sprite art behind, are a bit blockier than the other sprites.  Is this a purse or a duffel bag? I've always preferred backpacks, myself.  First try.   The reader referenced the Duolingo app, but my mind goes to Gundam Wing.     Not a Shroomish, not yet a Breloom.  Thin trees like this are for headbutting. It was kinda weird to play Soul Silver and headbutt every tree regardless of whether a Pokémon would come out.     Okay, this is an interesting ability. Since I hit this Mankey with a crit, its attack is just quadruple its normal value now.   Yikes! I'm glad you'll be on my side!     One trip to the Pokémon center later, I decide to give GetTurnt a break.  Lotta mixed feelings in this traveling party. Presumably this will change when everyone's friendship levels go up.   I also catch a couple mons that nobody wanted, for no particular reason.       Here's where I try the Pokédex for the first time. It's using National Dex numbering, so everything we've seen so far is all over the place.  Since I don't feel like thumbing through hundreds of blank pages, I switch to A-Z Mode. That'll keep things manageable for a while. Still miss the grid-based navigation of later games.  This one took a few minutes to show up.     Some Headbutt trees don't have anything, for some reason.  When I went to get more Poké Balls, I noticed that this store stocks Antidotes, unlike the last one.   "Wow! Thanks! I feel much better now! Take this in return!"  I'm pretty excited to use more TMs now that I'm in a game where they last forever. "That move will let you shoot powerful acids at your opponent!"  His color returns to normal after you get out of that conversation.   I haven't checked to see if the cut off entries can be scrolled through with the arrow keys yet. Sorry.  I would have called her Giorno if she was male.  Every so often, I get a double battle in the wild. I'd need to knock out one enemy if I wanted to catch the other, but I don't this time.  Man, I was all over the place when I recorded this. It took this long for me to remember to barge into all the houses.  I remember a bit of a stink being raised in the Insurgence thread when in-game characters started discussing things like out-of-game Smogonites. If any of you followed me over, find a belt to bite down on.  I was blissfully unaware of their existence until I started looking up Pokémon stuff online.  a lot of places, such as caves and dungeons. Perhaps you should try looking in the Wonder Cave next to our town? Long story short, IVs determine stat variations on an individual Pokémon beyond its base values. Each stone will let me maximize the IV of one stat on one mon.  ...but I'm worried that Drozwee's Mom forgot about it! Can you remind her for me? I could resolve this now, but I forgot. I'll do it in a couple of updates.   There's one of these hidden in every town with a gym. We get something for collecting all of them.   bucks! ... ...oh, you don't have a million bucks. Too bad! If you want to extort money out of people like a complete piece of poo poo, you have to be smarter about it than this, dude.  He lives near here, I think. The Rattata is chasing the Zigzagoon in circles on the table, representing a weird location to have a battle.  I want to battle as well! Geez, I hope it's either durable or cheap.  I would let you have a match, but those guys have been battling for 3 days straight! I don't know if they'll ever stop! Wow, are they using the Gen 2 meta?  Hah! Who needs her, anyways?  Snorlax is very strong! I have some bad news for you.    That took longer than I thought it would. I'll have to push Wonder Cave to next update.
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Aug 9, 2020 17:09
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 The route through Wonder Cave alternates between the first floor, which has plenty of light...  ...and the basement, which does not.  The first part of the basement is pretty tight corridor that funnels me into a fight with this guy.    This does literally nothing in single battles.  MuchaLucha doesn't have a Flying-type move yet, but she will soon, especially after I send her after a bunch of trainers down here.     If a Makuhita is huge, does that mean it has huge guts?  There was supposed to be an "n" on the end, but I ran out of space.  Hey, speak of the devil. I throw out Tackle because it's strictly worse than a STAB move with the same PP.    Down to the yellow in one hit, all because I'm using the swapping method to give Duo some XP.  One Karate Chop later, Duo gets something that'll help catch more mons if I remember to use it.   Hah! Don't I wish! It's easier to forgive the game's lack of original art assets when it leans into that aspect of production.    Time for some quad damage!  Nice.   No quad damage, but still a good matchup for me.    natural habitats.    Riolu is mono-Fighting, so Flying attacks work wonders on it. I forget this fact next update!   Put a pin in that. I forget how many pins we're up to.  Hey, we have light now! It comes with a note that tells me that I can teach it to a Pokémon, as if I didn't know already. I'd say it's a reminder that you can use some TMs outside of battle without a badge requirement, but some TMs later also have a badge requirement.  This gal's got some empty move slots, might as well give it to her.  Not sure how to use this yet. I'll figure it out, possibly with some outside help.  Here's what Flash looks like. Not great, but better than nothing, I guess.  I take a break to swap out GetTurnt with O'Hara.  Wasn't expecting one of these to show up. I take the opportunity to catch it, since it might be a while before I get another one.    After half a minute of blanking on a nickname for a Pokémon I wasn't planning to catch, I put this down and figured it'd do.   Did the trainer sprite fail to load or is this meant to represent how stealthy ninjas are? You decide!    Godspeed, you strange man.   Second verse, same as the first.  Once we get Rock Climb and Rock Smash, we can spawn a shiny Unown here as many times as we want. In my case that would be zero times, since shiny Pokémon are otherwise so rare they're not worth seeking out.  If only I had the HM Strength!  girls!    Have you seen her?     It's not hard if you go back to the Pokémon Center a few times.    A few times plus one.    ...do you not have it anymore? Is it not the hat you're wearing?  likes boys at all. Being a Ranger is so complicated. Oh boy.    Boys like a lot of things. Sometimes you don't want to know what they like.   I dunno, man. I'm just here to bust open rocks. I may need you to bust it open, after all... Both the LEGEND RESEARCHER and Devon get exclamation marks in succession. Huh? It's warm! Well, whatever you're doing, it's working. Quick! Put your hand on the stone!  This time all three of us get them!   Unown is a gimmick Pokémon that only learns Hidden Power, a move with a type that changes depending on the user's IV. In this case it's a type that one-shots poor Hollyhock.  Uhhh uhhh uhhh you look healthy! Get out there!  This doesn't really narrow it down. Hidden Power could still be either Grass or Electric-type.  After a battle of attrition, I get my mark. This is your only chance to catch an Unown in the game for a long time.  This game doesn't have a bonus mode to keep track of all twenty-eight forms of Unown. I don't miss it; I always caught them in alphabetical order because the game wouldn't arrange them as such for me.   Unown only show themselves when there's great power about. You must have a bright future!Is this going to be one of those stories where my character is chosen by a legendary Pokémon for one reason or another? That happened to at least five people in Insurgence, and though my memory of the canon games is hazy, I heard they started doing this, too. It's not a dealbreaker per se, but I can't think of a way that twist would enhance my experience of the game in any way. Hey, why are you here, anyways? Oh, my package arrived! Excellent! I have to go. Kate, I think you should go to Fianga City. It's to the South-West of here. My friend, Wilson, has a laboratory there. I'd recommend you see him, I'm sure he'll be very interested in you.Hope this is what my mom wanted him to do, otherwise he and I are getting an earful.  You should come check out my Gym. I warn you though, I'm much harder to beat than an Unown!He's not kidding. ...I have to go. Kate, Devon, thanks for all your help. After you, Kate.Next time, I start grinding and stop loving around. Solitair fucked around with this message at 13:04 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Aug 10, 2020 00:29
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Solitair posted:Hope this is what my mom wanted him to do, otherwise he and I are getting an earful.
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Aug 10, 2020 05:35
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So far this doesn't seem too edgy and terrible (minus the fleeing for your life bit to kick off the game) I like that it builds in the optional challenge ways to play. Here's hoping that this doesn't go too deep into bullshit territory like "Uranium" I think it was. I think in that fan game one of the starter options was incapable of beating your first encounter and because it was a hard mode game that ended your run right there. IIRC it wasn't just tough to beat it was literally impossible unless RN-Jesus blessed you.
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Aug 10, 2020 16:52
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CzarChasm posted:Here's hoping that this doesn't go too deep into bullshit territory like "Uranium" I think it was. I think in that fan game one of the starter options was incapable of beating your first encounter and because it was a hard mode game that ended your run right there. IIRC it wasn't just tough to beat it was literally impossible unless RN-Jesus blessed you. I hate to be the  guy but it wasn't quite that bad. (I hate that I feel like I have to defend that game on this.) It was only a softlock if you specifically chose nuzlocke (i.e. permadeath) mode and lost, and it was still possible to win the fight with that starter (though the odds were against you, it was certainly possible; I haven't calculated the exact odds but I'd be surprised if you had lower than a 40% chance to win). If you didn't play on nuzlocke mode, there was absolutely no problem, just like the mainline pokemon games you were allowed to lose the first rival fight and keep going.It's still a pretty egregious failure that they didn't playtest enough to catch this, or think through the consequences of what would happen in that circumstance. The real flaw, I think, was implementing a mode that enforces nuzlocke rules when that challenge is a kludgy mess to start with, and works better as something you impose on yourself. Uranium isn't a great game and it has a lot of obnoxious flaws, but this one isn't quite as bad as the meme it seems to have turned into.
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Aug 10, 2020 20:23
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Pokemon games are kind of terrible to do permadeath-type runs on to begin with: random encounters give a pittance of exp, but level-equivalent encounters can KO units if the RNG doesn't swing your way, so either you play super conservative (and therefore boring) or your run ends 10 hours in because the dice just so happened to land on a big enough number to end your rear end. Then again I am more of a casual scrub so I prefer challenges like "trainer battles only", "forced rotation" (i.e. if something gets KOed, it goes into the box), "only one catch attempt per catch-able 'mon in the route", etc.
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Aug 10, 2020 21:12
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CzarChasm posted:So far this doesn't seem too edgy and terrible (minus the fleeing for your life bit to kick off the game) It didn't cause a game over, though; instead, if you were playing on the game's built in Nuzlocke mode, the first battle you got into outside the tutorial rival battle would either softlock or hard crash the game. Solitair posted:In Insurgence the mode turns off and lets you play normally when your last Pokémon faints, but the Z/O wiki doesn't specify if this is true here and I'm not inclined to find out.
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Aug 11, 2020 03:31
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 Before we get down to business, let's see what's in here now that this building is accessible.  I haven't been cleaning the lab lately. It's just one knocked-over plant. How long would it take to fix that? I've been out on field work... like the Unown mission you helped with, remember? ...well, I may have gotten a bit distracted. I'm studying this statue— I think it may be of a Legendary Pokémon! You can help if you want. I've been collecting scriptures and prophecies about Legendary Pokémon. My research is in the book on the table, if you want to check it out. Maybe you'll find a legendary Pokémon!  That's all we get out of the book. Maybe it got cut, or maybe it's all spoiler tags. Who knows?  Let's do this.  Well, listen up. At the far end of this Gym is Devon! Your goal is to make it across the Gym and defeat him in a battle! But hold on a minute! It won't be that easy! You're invisible! Yeah, it's not a glitch. The devs meant to do this. "Devon is a firm believer that you need to find yourself before you can fight others. Devon won't find you until you've found the four flowers and found yourself again. Best of luck!"  This isn't as annoying as you might think. Your lead Pokémon is always right behind you, and the camera centers itself on your position just like usual.   Don't think this means we can skip trainer battles, though.  Most of the Fighting-types you'll see in the gym are available in Wonder Cave.  Meditite is the only exception. Duo takes normal damage from Fighting-type attacks; the Flying resistance cancels out the Normal weakness.  My playstyle this update is far from optimal.    After the first trainer, I healed up and did a bit of training in Wonder Cave. Duo replaced Growl with Peck, giving him a STAB move that would make him worth bringing further into the gym.   Tricky to find flowers when you can't see yourself, isn't it? As I said, not really, unless Kate is now blind because light passes through her retinas now. Most fiction ignores that, though.  His team is the same as the last guy's.   He even says the same thing as the last guy!   If you leave the gym without beating Devon, you have to touch the flowers again when you get back.  Saving right here is one of the two good decisions I make this update.  I'm the Gym Leader of Superior Town, and I use Fighting-types to fight my way to success! You don't have a chance!  For some reason, the Gym Leaders in this game have two sets of sprites, one smaller and blurrier than the other. The game chooses to pull up the crappy sprite, while I have chosen to use the good ones for my portraits. Here it is in full:   I don't know if it would be more effective to open with Hypnosis and get free hits on his Pokémon. I chose not to risk it.    Turns out playing a mon that didn't resist Fighting attacks was also pretty risky.  At this point I was counting on MuchaLucha, being a single-stage mon with better stats than any other Flying-type I had, to sweep the gym.   But Meditite is a good answer for a Flying/Fighting type.  I could have gotten lucky and hit it again, but MuchaLucha hurt herself instead, and I decided to restart the game.  More training in Wonder Cave ensued, but after a while I realized that while the Fighting-types in the gym were easy XP for my planned team, the Rock-types would be stumbling blocks.  While healing up, I do a bit of box organizing. BumSelects is for everything the thread requested I catch.  While the BestPalsBox is for mons I catch of my own volition. I won't use these as much.    He's going in the second box.  Soon I realized that Naragex Forest would be a much better place to train, because most things there are weak to Flying. Boomstick is in the regimen too, because of a misunderstanding on my part.  I guess it's better than Leer. It's a lot more aggravating to have your attacks miss than your mons taking more damage.  The other reason I settled on Naragex Forest is so that I'd still have a chance to fulfill the last thread request. Beedrill only has a 1% chance of spawning in the forest. There are easier ways to get it later, but the thread wanted it now and I wasn't sure how long it would be viable.  Boomstick still has Tackle, so it's got catching duty.  Turns out that has its own issues! I don't think Burn is a statust that increases catch rate. It just puts me on a time limit.  As soon as I got this Great Ball from the guy in the house, I knew what I'd be using it on.  GODDAMMIT  But I still had one chance...   ...and luck was on my side that day, barely.   Welcome to the team!  Turns out it had turned dark out while I was in the forest, as you'd guess from the Dusk Ball working so well. This update was recorded in the same session as the last three. The raw video is four hours long, half of which is for this update. I left in all the grinding because I wanted to catch Beedrill on camera, though I'll probably still include grinding highlights even when there's nothing left to catch.  Imagine my surprise when a second Beedrill jumped out at me!  Before I thought to check and see if I had any balls left (I didn't), I had MuchaLucha go aggro on it.  He never knew what hit him. That Munchlax trade will have to wait, but at least that was enough to push MuchaLucha to my goal.  After giving it a lot of thought and asking around, I decided to delete Detect, a 5PP move that's much more situational than a self-healing move.  Are the shadows always this way in double battles, or did they just get weird this one time?  GetTurnt finally learns a Flying-type move, for which I gladly ditch Leech Life. Maybe now I'll finally get some use out of him, I say knowingly.  410,757,864,530 dead Bug and Grass-types later, my team is at level 12 and I'm ready to beat Devon for real this time.   Oh hey, I actually tried Hypnosis that time!  It didn't last long, but I got out of one Karate Chop, at least.  Oh, right. Major trainers like Gym Leaders can use items. I'm not used to them doing so this early in the game.  He does it again when I switch out Duo! Thankfully I know that's the last item Devon has.   Two can play at that game.  Low Kick is an odd move that has a greater power against heavier Pokémon. Hawlucha weighs 21.5kg, so Low Kick has only 40 power.  It's a critical hit and it still barely scratches her.  Two Wing Attacks and it's done for.  Even with our levels, I didn't trust Hawlucha to handle a Psychic-type. Hope Duo can pick up the slack.  At first it looks dicey. I tried to Hypnotize him before he could pull off Bide, but it didn't take.  But the second Hypnosis hits!  He woke up immediately, but decided to buff himself instead of going for the kill.  Peck almost does the trick...  But just because Devon's out of healing doesn't mean his Pokémon are.  That was way too close.  Can you tell how I hosed up yet?  Here's the monkey wrench Riolu presents. Rock Throw is super-effective against Flying-types, the only broad solution we have against Fighting-types.  Boomstick takes it pretty hard, too.  I was already planning on lowering this guy's accuracy because of his high level, but this gives me even more reason to debuff.  But Boomstick can only get one off before he goes down.  I'd brought Boomstick along because Riolu's Steel typing would negate Fighting's weakness to Flying, so I'd have to hit it with one of Steel's weaknesses. I was counting on Fire to do the trick...  But it looked like I'd have to fight Fighting with Fighting.  Here's the problem: Riolu isn't actually Steel-type like its evolution, Lucario. It's mono-Fighting. I should have used Wing Attack instead of Karate Chop.  Thankfully, MuchaLucha is not weak to Rock Throw like the rest of my team, so it weathered Riolu's Quick Attack and took it down without hitting its weakness.    I'm obligated to give you this Discipline Badge. Oh, and you can have this TM too. None of his Pokémon actually use this move, but I'm not complaining. A Technical Machine, or a TM for short is a device that can teach your Pokémon a specific move. This TM will teach the move Brick Break. It's a fighting type move that can break through many defenses. I hope you find it helpful! We should battle again sometime! One down. We have some more options before the next gym: Route 302 Bulbasaur Clefairy Gastly Poochyena Shinx (5%) Old Rod Goldeen (Route 301) Magikarp (Route 302) Qwilfish (Route 302) Route 303 Spearow (day, 2%) Abra Drowzee (night) Zigzagoon* (day) Spoink (night) Bidoof (day) Patrat Midnight Way Diglett (5%) Nosepass Gible Axew Midnight Mansion External Murkrow Houndour Stunky Munna Zorua Onega Town Rotom (only one) Safari Zone 1 Venonat Exeggcute Rhyhorn Chansey (1%) Kangaskhan (1%) Scyther (4%) Pinsir (4%) Tauros (5%) Aipom Girafarig Heracross (5%) Cottonee If you want me to use any of these Pokémon in the short or long term, nominate them with a nickname in the thread. There are still a few types we don't have a clear answer for, but we can remedy that in short order. * I'm not entirely sure Zigzagoon isn't exclusive to Omicron. The wiki is inconclusive on this point. Solitair fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Sep 14, 2020 |
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Aug 12, 2020 01:00
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The Beach wanted me to get the following Pokémon: Poochyena Gible Rhyhorn Tauros Clefairy Gastly In addition to that, I've caught: Hoppip (available before the first gym but more common after) Shinx Goldeen Drowzee Axew Murkrow Munna Rotom Exeggcute Girafarig Cottonee That leaves twenty-six Pokémon from between the first and second gyms that I didn't pick up, but I will go back for no more than seven of them if this thread so desires. Solitair fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Aug 12, 2020 01:23
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Wait, Brick Break this early?! Oh, this is a fangame. The only pokemon who can use it is probably only available in postgame. And it's Dunsparce
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Aug 12, 2020 01:42
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I mean, Insurgence was made by the same devs and it was fairly good about giving you nice things, IIRC.
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Aug 12, 2020 01:46
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This game's spritework sure is something else. Between the Leaf recolour being too big for the Trainer Card, her sudden turning into a bad Dawn recolour for starting a battle, and the Gym Leader...well, it's not very impressive, to say the least.
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Aug 12, 2020 02:08
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 The last thing we need to proceed is the Strength HM itself. Remember the Hypno in Naragex Forest?  Once we know where her kid is, we can ease her worries.  Huh? She talked telepathically! What do you guys think about talking Pokémon? I'm on the fence about the whole idea.  safe. I was tempted to transcribe the color of her text, but decided against it after thinking it over.  Hmm... You require the HM ...and the man is overcharging? This is a favour I can do. I will be right back.We skip ahead in time, and...  There you go. I hope we are even now?There might be some questionable moral implications to what Hypno just did, but honestly, even if Kate didn't have an evil team to stop I still can't stand extortionists like the guy she stole it from.  Perhaps I should have looked harder into which of my pals could learn Strength, but I just settled on the little sumo.  As promised, I make a new box for mons that help me out in boss battles.  Having a new field ability means backtracking, but in this case that just means moving two boulders in Wonder Cave.  I'm still not quite sure what to do with these. I'm guessing I should do it soon, since this affects stat gains on level up. I'll probably use one on Boomstick's Special Attack.  Here's the real prize. The thing about HMs is that they're inconvenient; if you want to get around obstacles, you have to sacrifice a moveslot on one of your mons, and most of the HM moves suck in battle, too. Gen 7 phased them out completely, and from what I can tell not a single player misses them.  Zeta and Omicron's solution is to give you key items that do the move for you, so you don't need to swap out team members every time you need to cross the ocean or cut down a tree. The caveat is that in most cases, you need a mon with that move to access the equivalent item anyway, so Tochinoshin still needs a visit to the Move Deleter. Insurgence did this mechanic better, as is the case with most things about Insurgence. There might be a way around this, though: checking off the Solo Mode challenge (in which you're only allowed one mon) bundles every HM replacement item in the game with the Running Shoes. If I'd thought to do a Solo Run and forfeit after leaving the Escape Route, I'd have saved myself some trouble. Oh well.  Sadly, there is no replacement for having Flash.   Here's what happens if you have both ways to move boulders on you at the same time.  No thanks, I already have things covered. You're welcome, by the way.  Team Asgard was sighted down there! Looks like we'll be getting into trouble sooner than we anticipated.  Our first badge unlocks a lot more items for purchase. Scroll down to find Burn Heal, Ice Heal, Escape Rope and Repel.  I just buy balls for now. Every ten Poké Balls purchased at once gets you a free Premier Ball, which looks different but functions the same as the Poké Ball.  Time to break them in. Our first catch was part of my Elite Four team in Diamond.   I probably won't use her much because of that, especially if someone in the threads has a liking for a different Electric-type.  This fight's a bit tedious, but I'll have my prize nonetheless.  More than a bit tedious, actually.   I forgot to teach this one Acid like the thread suggested. Give me time, I'll remember soon.  It's an exciting job!   That not very effective attack took off seven HP. I'm gambling a bit by putting up such low-level opponents against these trainers.  This time it paid off, giving Rarity two levels in one fight. Rage seems like a pretty bad deal, even when he has Harden to compare it with.  Please don't flirt with minors.     I also forgot that I was supposed to use the nickname given by a reader instead of my own here. Oops. I'll keep an eye out for the Name Rater.  At level 7, Tochinoshi gains a STAB move. It's not great, but it'll do.  Supa Hot Fire... I spit that. Two and a Half Men... I watch that!  Tochinoshi and Rarity get a few levels for enduring this stale meme.  You're also not funny.  It's alright so far, but I've seen better.    You remind me of someone... ...Someone I knew.Hoo boy. In case you don't recognize him, this is Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic and the main villain of Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. ......they say that this region is a haven for legendary Pokémon... His deal is that he's a creepy sociopath who wants to remake the world so that people have no "spirit" and they'll stop valuing feels over reals. While some legendaries were key to his plan, I'm pretty sure he was already a bad guy before he got the idea to use them. Don't pass the buck, dude.  own. Have a nice day. It's been over a decade since I beat Diamond, so I barely remember anything about Cyrus, but I'm pretty sure he never changed his mind about his goals, so I'm not sure what business he has giving Kate advice.  He walks off, bumps into another walking NPC, and resumes walking once they're able to phase through each other.   Only in other games.  Wow! You better learn how, then! Take this! It's pretty low quality, but it works like a charm! Just stand next to a water body and use it from your bag! Would you like to have a look?  He's right about Bulbasaur, but his other mon's a Pidgey and I think he'd be better off with a Starly instead.  Uproar seems counter-intuitive for a mon with Hypnosis to learn, but I'd rather have that than Foresight.  I didn't bring a good match for Pidgey, so Duo and MuchaLucha had to whittle it down the hard way.   My bug Pokémon!  Butterfree and Beedrill are steps up from the usual Bug Catcher fodder.    Whatever strangers on the internet tell me to.  For some reason I decided to switch around my mons a lot as I fought trainers on this route. It's here I decide to at least have a full team.  Of all time!  This guy gives us two Rattatas, and two memes, for the price of one.  One might even call them top-percentage.  "Holding down+B makes you capture Pokémon better, too!"  "I saw the Sugarhill Gang in their prime!"  I think the game's hinting that we, too, can have our own Bulbasaur if we so desire.  Ha! Get out of my LP, Dad!  You keep your dentures away from my Noibat, Ozzy.  Oh dear. Good thing Duo doesn't know Return.  I take a brief moment to go fishing. Key registration is a bit more robust than is possible on the canon games and their limited number of buttons.  It's up to luck whether anything bites. If so, confirm the bite to get in a fight. It might be timed, I dunno.  Eventually I land something that isn't a Magikarp.   That horn knocked Tochinoshi out cold, and his health bar was still green.  Back to Route 302.     After that catch, I decide to do some grinding. Vital Throw replaces Arm Thrust.  Rabies does not currently know a STAB move.  Hollyhock finally gets a good STAB move.  And with this team at level 10+, I'll be ready to tackle Route 303 next time.  Route 302 has Purrloin instead of Poochyena and Blitzle instead of Ponyta. Solitair fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Aug 12, 2020 02:51
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What's up with the broken character before the losing quotes? That doesn't happen in the actual games so I wonder how it happened here. Talking about broken characters, all your é are broken.
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Aug 12, 2020 03:23
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Blaze Dragon posted:This game's spritework sure is something else. Between the Leaf recolour being too big for the Trainer Card, her sudden turning into a bad Dawn recolour for starting a battle, and the Gym Leader...well, it's not very impressive, to say the least. Yeah, it's not great. I'll remind you that I'm using someone else's sprites for Jake. There are a few more third-party replacements that I'll be using, and they're a lot better than the examples you mentioned. Here's the good Devon sprite I mentioned earlier:  Edit: We're all caught up with the other thread, by the way. Next time will be a brand new update. Solitair fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Aug 12, 2020 |
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Aug 12, 2020 04:27
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   Route 303 technically branches, but there's only one viable path forward. We'll see where all three go.   To the west is Route 304. It's a dead end, even with Surf. There's one thing we can get later, but otherwise the encounter table is the same as Route 303 and this route doesn't have much going for it. I get the feeling most of it was dummied out of the game.  Here's the Daycare Center. I think this is the earliest I've seen access to a Daycare in any Pokémon game.  "I help take care of the precious Pokémon of trainers. Any Pokémon you'd like to have raised you can leave in my husband's care." For all the faults of TheSuzerain's fangames, I like that there's an elderly gay couple running the Daycare and it's no big deal.  Looks like they have plenty of business, too. Inside we have a Pidgey, Doduo, Poochyena and Giragarig, and the pen outside has a Cyndaquil, Blastoise and... Grovyle, I think? We don't need to use his services right now, though.    I thought that Rarity could tank all these birbs and take them out with Rock Throw. He almost made it, but with his accuracy lowered from the first Pidgey's Sand Attack, he was running out of PP and I decided to switch him out.  Here's me getting poor Rabies knocked out because I thought she could finish her off. Unfortunately she's slower and has a level disadvantage with no type advantage to offset it.  I don't think these broken character marks are going away anytime soon. I'd fix them if I knew how.    That's the problem with having two trainers double-team you out in the open.   I vaguely recall in Insurgence that there would be the occasional bastard trainer mixed in with all the speedbumps on basic routes. This feels like one of them.   So much for my Plan A.  Rabies couldn't do much but Sand Attack the Ponyta so it doesn't murder all of my team. After two turns she crumpled as well.  Here's how you actually use Helping Hand.  After the Growlithe, I get this easy choice.  This choice wasn't so easy.  These two have a good setup, but thankfully we now have our higher-level mons hitting the Ponyta before it can get off another Flame Wheel.  The Herdier is sturdier than I expected, but it doesn't hit nearly as hard.   The other ranger doesn't talk. Whatever the case, they make a good team.  Here's some rocky bits north of the woody bits.     This is the second thing off the beaten path. It's a simple maze made less simple by us being unable to view it all at once.  The interesting mons down this road make it much more worthwhile than Route 304. I didn't want to spend money on Repels, but Rabies is the next best thing.  Pin count +1. This one will take a while to come back to.   At the end of one maze, I find another.  It always rains outside Midnight Mansion. Sometimes the screen flashes with lightning. When I leave battle, it takes until another flash to see anything more than the rain effects.  All the weirdos and goth kids like to hang out here, too. Let's recruit some!      This one broke five balls and took down two of my team before he gave up.    gets defeated! Team Asgard has claimed whatever's inside this place, but their guard is tempting fate with this awfully specific condition. We'll be back.   Oh hey, it's the base form of that Pokémon everyone hypes up! I have a request for it to be my trump card.  HOLY loving poo poo!   Dragon Rage deals a guaranteed 40 damage, which is comically OP at this point in the game. My position is less than enviable, but I choose to press on regardless.     Luck really wasn't on my side that day. I also lost most of my balls, including the Great Ball I just picked up.  Pokémon from further harm. I think this is the first time I've ever blacked out since I played Silver as a kid. I thought I would lose much more money than this. Maybe losing to a trainer would hurt my wallet more, but I'm not going to find out if I can help it.  After my team gets patched up again, I decide to focus on something else for the time being.   My attempt to cheese this fight with Rabies is met with an attack on her accuracy.  Thus begins a ridiculous war of attrition.  Yeah, gently caress that.  Rabies does end up winning the battle, but only with a timely assist from O'Hara.  ...I was wrong?  I'm near you.   He just has a couple of normies.   This kid'll be in for a rude awakening before the decade's out.  oh my sides they ache  They say it's possessed!    That's not the type you need to worry about!  Here's some more berries. We'll get a good place to farm them momentarily, assuming I have time to kill doing that.  Well, that kinda sucked. Next time, we'll see what Onega Town—  Want to guess who already has two Gym Badges? You have two guesses, and the first one doesn't count! That's right! Me! Maybe I'll make a Gym! These Gyms are awful, anyways. ...(sighs contentedly)... What am I doing? You! Me! Lets go!   Ironically, the rival battle is far from the most painful I get into on this Route.  Technically he's not wrong.  His starter wouldn't stand a chance even if I let it stay awake.   ...Just pass. I've had enough of you anyways. As I was saying, next time we'll see what Onega Town has to offer. Route 303 has Blitzle instead of Rapidash, Pidove instead of Hoothoot, and Purrloin instead of Poochyena. Drowzee is Zeta-excusive on this route, whereas Spoink is much more common in Omicron. On Midnight Way, only Zeta has Nosepass and Gible, while Omicron has far more Diglett. Midnight Mansion has Purrloin instead of Poochyena.
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Aug 12, 2020 22:34
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Ok, the dragon rage rampage was kind of hilarious.
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Aug 12, 2020 23:45
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And that's why I suggested picking up a gible to keep for emergencies  I'm really not liking all the things you're putting pins in to come back for later. The way things are shaping up half this game is going to be backtracking. And there's not even a quest log to help you remember it all.
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Aug 13, 2020 11:39
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Black Robe posted:And that's why I suggested picking up a gible to keep for emergencies Most of them are just items and Pokémon we can't get right now. This was present to some degree in the canon games, but probably not to this extent.
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Aug 14, 2020 07:24
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  Alright, I'll give that one to you. That's a Diglett next to him, if you couldn't tell in the evening light.  Curious.  But then he got injured, and he works at the Gym now! You should go fight him! Hmm, what does this remind me of?   On second thought, hold off on Onega Town for now. I've got a score to settle.  Yes, I know it's technically not the same Gible, but this is the closest I'll get.  I try to play smarter and keep it from raging through my team.  It went off much better than I thought it would!    Oh, wow, I'm so happy and... ...I'm a failure aren't I? Nothing's stopping you from going on to bigger and better things! Unless you don't have another Pokémon to swap the Magikarp out with, in which case I guess you're screwed.  Gideon, the Gym Leader then! Unlike Devon, it's not very hard to find something that can get that advantage on Gideon.     I decide to hold off until I'm ready to go on a catching spree.  He even had an exhibit at our museum!  That doesn't make him any less of a Gym Leader, though! There's that deja vu again!   Sadly no art assets could convey this better than a text box. There's something here I ought to prepare for.  You gonna block the door so nobody stops you? No? It's working pretty well for the guy at Midnight Mansion.  Right now the only function of the Pokégear is to show you the region map. Yes, only now do we get a map. I'll show it later.  everywhere, and some legends even say that Shaymin once lived here. Alright, that's another pin. What are we up to, twelve? Twenty?  Ok! What is your name? Kate! What a lovely name.   Mostly because I didn't prepare before fighting him the first time.  Meditite tripped me up specifically because I'm using Hawlucha, but Riolu is specifically meant to trip you up. Hmmm... Interesting.  Yeah, I think he's just challenging enough to make a good first boss. He's not Faulkner from Gen 2, whom you can steamroll pretty easily, or Orion from Insurgence, who you have to grind too much to match. Oh! I'll have to give these answers back to HQ!  Here, have this!  Have a nice day!  My, that's a lot of berries. Shame about the complete lack of watering can, but I might try farming berries at a later date.  Some extra Pokémon lie beyond here. We'll come back later.  Gideon, the passionat Grass-type trainer!        I wish their parents would come home soon!   He's the best!  He's not wrong, though. A pigeon flies overhead as Kate contemplates the nature of her existence.    Starting from our home, we went east and started going clockwise to get to our current position. This map has a few inaccuracies beyond Route 304 not actually going to Yangtze Town across the sea.  Here's where that scientist told us to go.    Here's the second one. Nothing else in the house responds except...   The static is morphing into words!   Have you played a Pokémon game since 9/11? Do the words on screen mean anything to you? Then it shouldn't be too hard to answer this one. What? You are correct!  "No one can ever know that I was responsible for that Max Headroom airwave hijacking!"     This animation is pretty rad.  But the wild Rotom was too spoopy.    Oops. Time to reload. Thank God I didn't have autosave on when something like this can happen.  It took another reset and about ten minutes to catch it.   TV Tropes tells me this is a pretty OP choice for the early game, but since it just tried to murder Kate I'm not inclined to let it on my team right now.  Back in Midnight Way, I find another cutie.  I mean cutie in the LobCorp sense, of course.  Tochinoshi loses all SP and panics.  Let's try again. Tochinoshi can actually take one Dragon Rage and still go.  As always, O'Hara's Sleep Powder gives me some much-needed leeway.   I might change this nickname down the line as well. I'm not feeling it that much.  At least this one can't murder us all in six turns if he feels like it.  Not that much of a step up, as you can see.     This loving Gastly locked Tochinoshi into a battle where she couldn't hurt the enemy and toyed with her a bit instead of just finishing her off and letting me move on.  Let's stop putting this off. If you don't like how the Safari Zone works in these games, I sympathize.   before! In case you don't know, you're not allowed to actually battle. You can throw a rock, a bait, or a Safari Ball, and that's it.  We live in Fianga City. In theory, rocks make mons easier to catch and more likely to run away, while bait does the opposite. The attendant said that rocks would lower a mon's health, too.  Apparently, each Zone's Legendary is what attracts all the strange Pokémon there. You better believe I'll catch one! In practice, players don't bother with anything but the Safari Balls themselves. And yes, you read correctly, there are multiple Safari Zones in this game! Contrary to what this guy says, not all of them have legendaries, just a majority.  I don't think the main games have Safari Zones anymore. Can't say I'll miss them that much.  See? Pretty limiting, isn't it?  You never know how many chances you have with any given mon in this place.   Still, at least the Pokémon selection itself is pretty good, even if it doesn't quite justify the mechanics outlined above.    You also have a limit on how much you can walk before your safari ends. It's more than you think, but less than you'd hope.  find anywhere else!  I wasn't going to spoil where to find each legendary, but if the game wants to name one now, who am I to argue?   Stating things multiple times makes you right!   Someone got TheSuzerain so angry he predicted the existence of that one Spongebob meme.    Yeah, I'm not doing all that again for this guy, too.  Looking for Pokémon?  feminism and the economy? Let's see, trans people are the gender they say they are, most economists are liars, and the pursuit of equality is cool and good. Dunno about the post-mosternist bit, but that's okay; nobody does.       "Pushmipulyu" wouldn't fit.     Your safari game is over! I gotta go back in. The list demands it.  I just remembered how much trouble I had getting a Tauros. Let's see if getting it is my only goal this time in the Safari Zone. Note the Safari Ball counter.  Yep! This too me somewhere between forty minutes and an hour, I think.    Here's all the pals I got, some of which are not in fact Bum Selects.   That's a little better. Next time, we finally meet our villains. Solitair fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Sep 7, 2020 |
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Sep 7, 2020 01:38
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Do you have to face the legendaries with the Safari Zone rules too? Because that sounds horrible even for a fangame.
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Sep 7, 2020 04:32
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What would be worse, that or it being a wanderer again? Also I am rereading the Reborn LP thread and it is making this game look positively *charming*
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Sep 8, 2020 07:44
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Pokemon Reborn makes a turd that's been sitting in the sun for a week look charming. That game is a colossal failure on every level of "being a game" possible.
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Sep 8, 2020 08:11
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The Golux posted:What would be worse, that or it being a wanderer again? I wouldn't be making this LP if I hadn't read the Reborn thread (and the Insurgence, Uranium and Rejuvenation threads, too).
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Sep 8, 2020 09:42
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The Golux posted:Also I am rereading the Reborn LP thread Why? The world is on fire in multiple senses, why on earth would you willingly go bathe in more flaming garbage?
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Sep 8, 2020 09:44
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Black Robe posted:Why? The world is on fire in multiple senses, why on earth would you willingly go bathe in more flaming garbage? cuz it's funny! And honestly I think the jokes in this one are pretty charming anyway, on retrospect. I shouldn't blame EVERYTHING that seems good on being "in comparison to an abomination upon humanity."
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Sep 8, 2020 20:09
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 What a beautiful morning.  Kate won't let us progress until we beat Gideon and Team Asgard.  Which means it's time for another bit of grind.    Thought I'd snag something on Route 302, too.    You sure you don't want to block the door? That's working out great for the guy in front of Midnight Mansion.  Your loss.   As with Jake, I'm going to be using fan-made replacement sprites for Team Asgard's grunts and commanders, this time courtesy of Siveran. The default sprites for the grunts are just Team Rocket recolors.  The grunts here will only have one Pokémon each, usually this one.  Pawniard is Dark/Steel, so it's quad damage time!  This is the only loss quote they have, so I'll just skip over that for the rest of the museum.   Get out of my face!  I already fought a much scarier Riolu than this one.  Or not?  Thanks for taking one for the team, Duo.    archaeology! It's just a joke, bro!  I decided to try out one of my normies. Kesha is already starting to find her niche with Sing and Encore in her moveset.  You don't say? I haven't heard anything of the sort today.  One Pawniard later...  Where are the four Rocket brothers when you need them?   Here's something different.  Karrablast is Bug-type, so Duo should be able to handle it. Duo almost loses his place in the pecking order, though.     Of course its counterpart, Shelmet, isn't far behind.  It's quite a bit tankier than Karrablast, so it manages to give Duo another run for his money.  Sorry, who are you again?  Another Pawniard. It's "DrainWAP" spelled backwards!   The community seems to be pretty down on these multi-hit moves, so I figure I'd toss this one first.  I don't need you questioning my minmaxing choices, dude.    Probably shouldn't have sent Duo in at half health. Sorry!   I think it's safe to say there are too many grunts in here, even if they're giving me free experience.   Same basic weakness, but at least it's a different mon.    I am goon. I am without shame.   The higher-ups in Team Asgard also have replaced sprites. Meet Odin.  ... ... ... No, you say? Fine!     Here's what Freyja's sprites *used* to look like:     We've already seen the first two members of her team before.   She recognizes the utility of Hoothoot's Hypnosis move...   ...but can't take proper advantage of it.   I know that this guy will Counter Duo's attack, but don't trust my own Hypnosis enough not to fall for it.  This just isn't Duo's day, is it?  Boomstick doesn't last long, either, but it wore down the Riolu enough for Catharsis to finish him off.  I was hoping that Boomstick could be a good match for this one.  Beldum is Steel/Psychic, but thankfully only appears to know Take Down, so Catharsis isn't in that much trouble.   He can't quite win the damage race on his own, though.   So this is where Duo's luck went.  You just said that!  We have what we came for! The Time Caller! You have proven you are a threat to our cause. Watch as we catch a legendary Pokémon and become unstoppable! Asgard' rise to power! We just jump outside. No transition. Sableye, use the Time Caller! SABLEYE!  Wait... that was my pin. It's Shaymin! Amazing! The Time Caller was successful in calling Shaymin from another time! Now go, Master Ball! That was my pin! I called dibs, you bald bastard! Excellent! Shaymin is ours! The legendary Pokémon of purity! Soon, the most powerful Pokémon in the world will belong to us, and we will be unstoppable!  He won't even give me the courtesy of kicking my rear end. Pillaging my home and attacking my mom was one thing, but this is the last straw.  Or something like that. Gym time!  Still haven't remembered to teach OokiSpooki that Poison-type move that would come in handy for this gym. Thinking he couldn't get a weakness otherwise, I decide not to take him along.  On the other hand, I went through a lot of trouble to get my hands on Beeach, and now it's time for the payoff.   As is appropriate for a Grass-type gym, the Onega Town gym features a... teleport maze?  Our leader, Gideon, uses powerful grass-type Pokémon. If you want to beat him, Flying, Fire, Bug, Poison or Ice types should work! That's a lot of types! Be careful not to use Water, Ground or Rock types though. Grass is extra-strong against them! It's time to graze the grass!  oh that's not good  Just gonna skip ahead to me looking up the solution in the wiki. Nobody likes teleport mazes. If you think you do, you're wrong.  about teenager things...  If I can't even beat a kid, who am I as a Gym Leader? An actor? A person?What I was hinting at earlier with Gideon's backstory is that I've seen it before in Pokémon Reborn. The Ice-type leader, Serra, is a model who aged out of the business, and she isn't shy about letting you know it. She was one of the more tolerable Reborn characters, but still talked way too much like all the rest of them. Zeta/Omicron is structured much more like a canon game in the early stages, so we won't dwell on Gideon's angst for much longer. Overall, I'm not sure how I feel seeing this same character trait twice in different fangames. But you're young. Why am I boring you with the laments of an older man? Let's battle! Despite my ambivalence about his personality, I really like Gideon's character design. He looks like a cross between an old-timey professor and the Green Man archetype.  Uggh. Fine, here's the good sprite of him:   Yeah, there's no way in hell this is gonna work right now. Sorry, Beedrill fans.  Lacking the ability to nail us with a guaranteed coverage move, Gideon instead starts off with a status effect that Grass-types are wont to cause.  His Chikorita can also stall us out with Synthesis.  Speaking of status effects.  I didn't stock up on antidotes for this or any other battle. Usually I just buy balls to get new mons and fumble my way through battles.  The Chikorita stayed asleep longer than I expected, but less than I hoped. He beats Duo with his next attack.  gently caress it.  Gideon has four Potions, and uses his first one here. Will he have time for the rest of them?  Not that it makes any difference to MuchaLucha, who has to be wondering why Kate even bothers with other Pokémon at this point.   Come on, Boomstick. This is your time to shine. You can do this.  I start by laying out a DoT on Leafeon, since those have worked pretty well for me in the past.   We aren't done with status effects, though. Not by a longshot.  Here's the signature move of Gideon's latter two mons. It has a higher attack power on heavier opponents, so basically Low Kick with a different type.  Good thing Boomstick hasn't evolved yet.  Despite this healing, Boomstick's Ember wins out, and gets him more than a whole level of experience.  I decide to tempt fate once more. Maybe I thought MuchaLucha would get hit harder by Grass Knot, or maybe I just wanted someone else to have the spotlight this time.  Nature Power turns into a different attack based on the terrain. It can cover a bunch of different types that way, but the power of the resulting attack is always pretty high.  Since this counts as a building, we get a Normal-type move. Gideon might not be able to hit our weaknesses, but he can at least bypass our resistances.  At least you got one major victory under your belt.  The usual ringer cleans up after him.  Wait, what? How are you related to Erika?   Zeta's evolution animation puts our Pokémon in the spin cycle, or on one of those paint-spin-splatter thingies I used to see at the county fair.   Now we're cooking with gas.  That's fine. I must be slipping, I suppose. Take this, anyways.  And I suppose you deserve this, as well. This TM contains Grass Knot. It's a very special Grass move, as it has no set amount of power. Instead, it gets stronger the heavier your opponent weights. But don't expect that victory to be long-lived. Hey, look what happened to me. I went from a world-famous actor to a chump Gym Leader of Onega Town.Let's get out of here before he gets ready for his close-up.  Time for another list! The next gym is actually a bit farther off than usual, so our new cutoff point is halfway there. Here's what we have on offer: Shadow Path Dwebble Karrablast (5%) Shelmet (5%) Pawniard Fianga City Bellsprout Togepi Smeargle Zangoose Seviper Bonsly Route 306 Pikachu Poliwag Plusle Minun Good Rod Shellder (Zarivar Town) Krabby (Zarivar Town) Barboach (Zarivar Town) Finneon (Route 301) Mantyke (Route 302) Dratini (Safari Zone 1) Remoraid (Route 306) Route 307 Nidoran F (5%) Nidoran M (5%) Oddish Carvanha (Old Rod) Burmy Cherubi (Headbutt) Chatot Tranquill Timburr (Headbutt) Deerling Foongus (Headbutt) For the first time, this will be a simultaneous vote between SA and LP Beach. Recommend new team members (preferably with nicknames) and maybe I'll put them on my A-team. Also, we can only pick one of either Zangoose or Seviper, so even if you don't want to mainline either I could use a vote on which one to take. Freyja's Omicron counterpart is Athena, who has a Mienfoo instead of a Beldum and looks like this in the base game:    Echothethird's custom sprites for Olympus grunts (the same Team Rocket recolors as Asgard in the base game) and Athena:     
Solitair fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Sep 14, 2020 |
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Sep 14, 2020 13:00
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I really like the editted sprites here. They're made to actually resemble to some extent their namesakes, which is always super neat, and they look pretty unique. Can't say the same about the originals though.
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Sep 14, 2020 13:51
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Zangoose, named Bowie. And I don't have any real opinions about the rest... Carvanha evolves into a pretty rad Halfshark I guess.
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Sep 14, 2020 13:59
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those edited sprites are the bomb actually this whole region looks really cool, i like the central island and the big sea routes. get a Carvanha named Archie
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Sep 15, 2020 04:28
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The problem with multihit moves is that the best ones (barring a couple of signature moves I think) are power 25 and 100 accuracy... which means that most of the time they're the equivalent of power 50 or 75. Most of them are worse than that, and in fact most of them have lower accuracy too so they also have a chance of doing nothing.
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Sep 15, 2020 07:38
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:39 |
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The exception to this is the Mystery Dungeon series, where multi-hit moves are extremely destructive but also not so accurate to make up for it.
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Sep 15, 2020 13:35
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