Man, at this point I've done practically everything EXCEPT the classes and other school events that aren't the Academy Ace tournament.
Apparently there was a multi-part story with the school nurse the developers intended you to get more of each time you returned to the school, but I got to experience it all at once.
If they wanted the school to be a place you keep revisiting they should have given you better reasons to come back often.
Man, at this point I've done practically everything EXCEPT the classes and other school events that aren't the Academy Ace tournament.
Apparently there was a multi-part story with the school nurse the developers intended you to get more of each time you returned to the school, but I got to experience it all at once.
If they wanted the school to be a place you keep revisiting they should have given you better reasons to come back often.
They don't make it clear but you get so candy for doing the classes so it's worth going back after every few gyms
The school is emblematic of one of my big design complaints about the game: there's a certain story/fantasy they were trying to sell but the designers seem to have been too afraid of putting restrains on the open world aspects to really sell it. Even if they don't require it, I think some reminders to check in at the school would have gone a long way towards making it flow better. There's nothing wrong with giving the players a lot of freedom but still snapping their eyeballs back to a critical path every now and then.
I think there were ways to make the school aspect fun but they didn't really accomplish it. I enjoyed getting to know the teachers, but the school lessons were rarely anything interesting. It would have been cool to decorate your dorm or have a mystery to solve in the school or something I don't know. I'm not a fan of minigames, but maybe some home ec or art class or Phys Ed games would have made it more rewarding.
It didn't help that the "school" was basically just a series of menus, with nothing really to explore.
I blame covid. It’s not like pokemon to NOT make you walk around a lot, and using a menu to zorp you to class seems like a “oh no we ran out of time” kludge.
Halos Nach TariffCan you blame me?I'm too famous.Registered Userregular
I actually quite enjoyed the little school stuff that's in there, I went back every couple of gym badges and that seemed to work out fine, all the little interactions with the teachers were pretty cute. I'd agree it feels like a time crunch thing though, I'd guess some of the school element stuff wound up getting cut.
It's kinda funny that they decided that the open world game should have a schooling backdrop, when a school year timetable with various field trips would've been the perfect excuse to keep things more on rails like the older games.
I actually quite enjoyed the little school stuff that's in there, I went back every couple of gym badges and that seemed to work out fine, all the little interactions with the teachers were pretty cute. I'd agree it feels like a time crunch thing though, I'd guess some of the school element stuff wound up getting cut.
It's kinda funny that they decided that the open world game should have a schooling backdrop, when a school year timetable with various field trips would've been the perfect excuse to keep things more on rails like the older games.
I like some aspects of the school, but a lot was done in a clunky way obviously. Still, the idea of having school classes that teach some of the game mechanics that aren't as obvious is a sound choice. There are a lot of mechanics veteran players take for granted that a newer player who is a child does not know of and having it taught via in-game school does make sense and feels intuitive. The classes just could really have been done better.
Still, I do enjoy a number of the teachers and wish they could have done more instead of being relegated to a few lectures and dialogue scenes.
I'm playing online ranked singles with the current team: Annihilape, Armarouge, Baxcalibur, Clodsire, Lokix, and Scovillain. I need to make some changes to advance in rank, but I'm not certain what.
Out of my entire team Scovillain is the only one I've not seen anyone have on their own teams, but the one I'm running has been surprisingly useful. It's unexpectedly fast, and I've trained it to have Attack just a bit higher than Special Attack so that it can run Seed Bomb/Zen Headbutt/Overheat/Leaf Storm and hit pretty hard with all of them. I could change to a defensive Tera type perhaps, but Tera-boosted Seed Bomb is pretty nice.
Clodsire is such a good boy; I've trained it in an atypical way to sacrifice Special Attack and Speed so it can take hits and hit back with more force than someone might expect. Yawn/Toxic Spikes/Earthquake/Megahorn is what I have going on him.
Baxcalibur is Choice Scarf'd and there to spam Glaive Rush. Simple.
I really need to think more about Tera Type. Just today I've run into a Tera Ghost Garganacl with Curse and Recover, as well as a Tera Fairy Volcarona with Tera Blast and Leech Life.
Maybe I can find a weird niche for my Tera Dragon Florges...
Hexmage-PA on
0
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I think there were ways to make the school aspect fun but they didn't really accomplish it. I enjoyed getting to know the teachers, but the school lessons were rarely anything interesting. It would have been cool to decorate your dorm or have a mystery to solve in the school or something I don't know. I'm not a fan of minigames, but maybe some home ec or art class or Phys Ed games would have made it more rewarding.
To be honest, I think what the school is *supposed* to do is a good idea. It's basically an advanced tutorial on some of the more complicated topics that new players might not know about (shiny rates, type effectiveness actual numbers, how to get premier balls, etc). But it's literally never advertised as such. You have to explore it yourself and find this out. I feel like a little signposting would have gone a long way here. And then it's also sort of this middle ground where players who know this stuff are missing out on some rewards if they don't participate (i.e. Galarian Meowth most significantly, but also fast travel points to the four shrines and some other stuff) and it's sort of boring for those players to have to do that just to get those rewards which are exclusive to the classes. (TBH I still haven't done like 3 of the classes)
Also fuck that math teacher and her trick questions. There's always one teacher like that. "Here, let me give you a math problem that teaches wrong math!"
Okay, I'll admit that the Biology class just got a laugh out of me. The instructor is talking about different ways Pokémon can evolve, and begins specifically mentioning how Primeape evolves in Annihilape before being cut-off by the school bell.
For those unaware, someone wrote in one of Primeape's Pokédex entries that it can get so angry it dies. Scarlet and Violet introduce Rage Fist, a move that causes Primeape to evolve if it is used 20 times without taking the Primeape to a Pokémon Center for healing. As Rage Fist has less than twenty uses, the player has to use an item to restore usage of Rage Fist so Primeape can keep using it. Then it "evolves" from a Fighting type to a Fighting/Ghost type called Annihilape.
So basically the people who make these games added lore about how Primeape can die if it gets too angry, then later made an evolution of Primeape that depends on the player enabling the Primeape to use Rage Fist until it "evolves", then included a character who is set to tell a classroom of kids how to kill their Primeapes before being interrupted.
The Pokémon games, unlike the tie-in show, love to just tease us with how the entire premise of the game is deeply morally questionable to the point of introducing a Pokémon you canonically can only get from enabling its own death.
Okay, I'll admit that the Biology class just got a laugh out of me. The instructor is talking about different ways Pokémon can evolve, and begins specifically mentioning how Primeape evolves in Annihilape before being cut-off by the school bell.
For those unaware, someone wrote in one of Primeape's Pokédex entries that it can get so angry it dies. Scarlet and Violet introduce Rage Fist, a move that causes Primeape to evolve if it is used 20 times without taking the Primeape to a Pokémon Center for healing. As Rage Fist has less than twenty uses, the player has to use an item to restore usage of Rage Fist so Primeape can keep using it. Then it "evolves" from a Fighting type to a Fighting/Ghost type called Annihilape.
So basically the people who make these games added lore about how Primeape can die if it gets too angry, then later made an evolution of Primeape that depends on the player enabling the Primeape to use Rage Fist until it "evolves", then included a character who is set to tell a classroom of kids how to kill their Primeapes before being interrupted.
No, there's no requirement about not visiting a pokemon center. It just has to use it 20 times. A fun trick I was told for that? Go fight some level 2 lechonks at the start of the game, because it still counts even if it whiffs because of typing. And then you can burn through the PP much faster because not leaving battle, less animations, etc.
Okay, I'll admit that the Biology class just got a laugh out of me. The instructor is talking about different ways Pokémon can evolve, and begins specifically mentioning how Primeape evolves in Annihilape before being cut-off by the school bell.
For those unaware, someone wrote in one of Primeape's Pokédex entries that it can get so angry it dies. Scarlet and Violet introduce Rage Fist, a move that causes Primeape to evolve if it is used 20 times without taking the Primeape to a Pokémon Center for healing. As Rage Fist has less than twenty uses, the player has to use an item to restore usage of Rage Fist so Primeape can keep using it. Then it "evolves" from a Fighting type to a Fighting/Ghost type called Annihilape.
So basically the people who make these games added lore about how Primeape can die if it gets too angry, then later made an evolution of Primeape that depends on the player enabling the Primeape to use Rage Fist until it "evolves", then included a character who is set to tell a classroom of kids how to kill their Primeapes before being interrupted.
No, there's no requirement about not visiting a pokemon center. It just has to use it 20 times. A fun trick I was told for that? Go fight some level 2 lechonks at the start of the game, because it still counts even if it whiffs because of typing. And then you can burn through the PP much faster because not leaving battle, less animations, etc.
Oh, I guess I read some misinfo on the "No Pokémon Center" thing.
Some are expressly, but some just have supernatural powers relating to ghosts like Hisuian Typhlosian. Then others just have ghost like qualities, like Jellicent is composed of enough liquid material it is effectively intangible. Then there’a Decidueye for some reason (yes, I know the theories he’s based off an extinct owl species or is very stealthy, but those seem tenuous at best).
Greninja raids are live. So far I've won three raids; strategy and raid info follows.
Greninja has Hydro Pump, Gunk Shot, Night Slash, and Ice Beam. This gives it neutral coverage against all Pokemon in the game and it can't be hard-walled on a single attacking stat either.
Greninja opens with a scripted Double Team and Toxic Spikes, meaning taking KOs is especially deadly. It will use additional Double Teams at various time barriers, along with Gunk Shot somewhere around half HP / half time bar.
Greninja has an early (in terms of the time bar) your-party stat reset, but that's the only one. Surviving the early phases of the raid means plenty of opportunity for setup afterward.
The Slowbro build from the Cinderace raid (high Def, Iron Defense / Nasty Plot / Stored Power / Slack Off) works here, but not as easily as with Cinderace. You'll need your party to be on the ball with Hang Tough and Heal Up while you Iron Defense to ride out the initial wave.
I created a Toxapex as a support unit for the Cinderace raid, which combines terrifically with Slowbro here. Chilling Water / Acid Spray / Recover / Fourth Move Irrelevant with high Defense means you easily tank everything Greninja can throw at you while making things easier for your team to handle. Open with Hang Tough and use Chilling Water to about -3 to neuter Greninja's physical moves (especially Night Slash, which is what it's going to be hitting your Slowbro with), then use Acid Spray. With some luck, your Slowbro should be online and ready to start using Stored Power by the sixth or seventh round, which should pick up the KO in one or two shots.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Greninja raids are live. So far I've won three raids; strategy and raid info follows.
Greninja has Hydro Pump, Gunk Shot, Night Slash, and Ice Beam. This gives it neutral coverage against all Pokemon in the game and it can't be hard-walled on a single attacking stat either.
Greninja opens with a scripted Double Team and Toxic Spikes, meaning taking KOs is especially deadly. It will use additional Double Teams at various time barriers, along with Gunk Shot somewhere around half HP / half time bar.
Greninja has an early (in terms of the time bar) your-party stat reset, but that's the only one. Surviving the early phases of the raid means plenty of opportunity for setup afterward.
The Slowbro build from the Cinderace raid (high Def, Iron Defense / Nasty Plot / Stored Power / Slack Off) works here, but not as easily as with Cinderace. You'll need your party to be on the ball with Hang Tough and Heal Up while you Iron Defense to ride out the initial wave.
I created a Toxapex as a support unit for the Cinderace raid, which combines terrifically with Slowbro here. Chilling Water / Acid Spray / Recover / Fourth Move Irrelevant with high Defense means you easily tank everything Greninja can throw at you while making things easier for your team to handle. Open with Hang Tough and use Chilling Water to about -3 to neuter Greninja's physical moves (especially Night Slash, which is what it's going to be hitting your Slowbro with), then use Acid Spray. With some luck, your Slowbro should be online and ready to start using Stored Power by the sixth or seventh round, which should pick up the KO in one or two shots.
I got Greninja on my second solo try, also with my Slowbro. But I gave it a Shell Bell and used Slack Off on turn 3 or 4, right before the stat reset. I'll have to try out your Toxapex in online matches
I one shot Greninja offline with my Cinderace Slowbro
There's a little luck involved of course, Night Shade crits will end you, and there's no getting around his double team spam except to hope.
By the time I'd used iron defence/nasty plot 3x each he had wiped our buffs and put his tera shield up. So I had to sit there for another 7 turns rebuffing/healing, then used 3 stored power to break through the shield and KO him.
+3
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I mean, I'd say a good majority of them are like, the tortured souls of dead children or something. Pokemon be dark
A Pokedex entry for Froslass says "When it finds humans or Pokémon it likes, it freezes them and takes them to its chilly den, where they become decorations." What if Mount Glaseado just had a few random caves full of frozen corpses?
I'd heard thus Greninja was tough, but I wasn't expecting its hydro pump to ignore my Clodsire's water absorb.
If it does it's stat reset it will negate your ability for a turn
Oh, that explains it. Well, I caught it now, so no worries!
I had a weird glitch at one point where my Clodsire actually turned facing my character and walked towards them a bit before turning back towards Greninja. I guess he just wanted to check in on how I was doing.
I was able to catch a Greninja on my second attempt. I was using Gastrodon who doesn't do much damage but takes hits really well.
Yeah this raid more than any others I don't think most people get how type matchups or Terratilizing work.
So many Azumarill.
Last night was a lot of watching people try to bring things like Charizard to the Greninja raid. The weird part was that the Charizard survived better than a Vaporeon in the same raid. I did get Greninja in my first attempt, and someone brought a support Swalot who gets Clear Smog to get rid of Double Team and also Mud-slap to turn the accuracy tables on Greninja.
+1
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
i liked x and y A LOT. i though sun and moon was a step down but was "ok". Sword and Shield was mostly fine. ScarVio has probably been the best story sans-academy. The Star, Dog, and gym stuff has all felt pretty dang good. The game needed to bake for another couple of months to work out the terrible bugs that exist but i'm glad i picked up the game.
The only main pokemon games I've ever disliked were Sun and Moon, but it has very little to do with anything but the SOS mechanic. I struggle to think of a game mechanic in any game that I loathe quite as much as that. Everything else was at least fine; Sword and Shield had some issues, but I liked it despite them. S/V has even more issues, and yet is even more enjoyable. Games are weird like that sometimes.
Of the main generation entry games since X&Y, my ranking is as follows:
1 - Scarlet & Violet
2 - Sun & Moon
3 - X & Y
4 - Sword & Shield
After the 'raidons this gen I'm curious what they'll do for the next game. Not having an equivalent in the next game will feel like a major step back.
Yeah, I'd say this is my ranking too. I like Sun & Moon better still (in terms of location and characters and stuff), but Scarlet & Violet is an objectively better game otherwise (honestly if not for the technical issues it *might* have even surpassed Sun & Moon for me).
Sword & Shield is the only one on this list I have yet to complete despite two separate attempts I just really, really hate a lot of things about it (but especially the wild area). I was so glad to see Scarlet & Violet basically go back on all the dumbass things I hated about Sw&Sh (like "Rawr this pokemon is too scary to catch because it's 2 levels higher, even though it's a Magikarp that only knows splash!!!" <- I will never not bitch about this bullshit...). I do want to beat it at some point, especially as I hear the DLC is actually good. But man it's hard to get the motivation :P
I know Arceus is not a main generation game but i feel it is close enough and I would put it at 3rd behind sun and moon because the story was just so good and the game was generally fun.
Posts
Apparently there was a multi-part story with the school nurse the developers intended you to get more of each time you returned to the school, but I got to experience it all at once.
If they wanted the school to be a place you keep revisiting they should have given you better reasons to come back often.
The school is emblematic of one of my big design complaints about the game: there's a certain story/fantasy they were trying to sell but the designers seem to have been too afraid of putting restrains on the open world aspects to really sell it. Even if they don't require it, I think some reminders to check in at the school would have gone a long way towards making it flow better. There's nothing wrong with giving the players a lot of freedom but still snapping their eyeballs back to a critical path every now and then.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
I blame covid. It’s not like pokemon to NOT make you walk around a lot, and using a menu to zorp you to class seems like a “oh no we ran out of time” kludge.
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
It's kinda funny that they decided that the open world game should have a schooling backdrop, when a school year timetable with various field trips would've been the perfect excuse to keep things more on rails like the older games.
I like some aspects of the school, but a lot was done in a clunky way obviously. Still, the idea of having school classes that teach some of the game mechanics that aren't as obvious is a sound choice. There are a lot of mechanics veteran players take for granted that a newer player who is a child does not know of and having it taught via in-game school does make sense and feels intuitive. The classes just could really have been done better.
Still, I do enjoy a number of the teachers and wish they could have done more instead of being relegated to a few lectures and dialogue scenes.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Out of my entire team Scovillain is the only one I've not seen anyone have on their own teams, but the one I'm running has been surprisingly useful. It's unexpectedly fast, and I've trained it to have Attack just a bit higher than Special Attack so that it can run Seed Bomb/Zen Headbutt/Overheat/Leaf Storm and hit pretty hard with all of them. I could change to a defensive Tera type perhaps, but Tera-boosted Seed Bomb is pretty nice.
Clodsire is such a good boy; I've trained it in an atypical way to sacrifice Special Attack and Speed so it can take hits and hit back with more force than someone might expect. Yawn/Toxic Spikes/Earthquake/Megahorn is what I have going on him.
Baxcalibur is Choice Scarf'd and there to spam Glaive Rush. Simple.
I really need to think more about Tera Type. Just today I've run into a Tera Ghost Garganacl with Curse and Recover, as well as a Tera Fairy Volcarona with Tera Blast and Leech Life.
Maybe I can find a weird niche for my Tera Dragon Florges...
To be honest, I think what the school is *supposed* to do is a good idea. It's basically an advanced tutorial on some of the more complicated topics that new players might not know about (shiny rates, type effectiveness actual numbers, how to get premier balls, etc). But it's literally never advertised as such. You have to explore it yourself and find this out. I feel like a little signposting would have gone a long way here. And then it's also sort of this middle ground where players who know this stuff are missing out on some rewards if they don't participate (i.e. Galarian Meowth most significantly, but also fast travel points to the four shrines and some other stuff) and it's sort of boring for those players to have to do that just to get those rewards which are exclusive to the classes. (TBH I still haven't done like 3 of the classes)
Also fuck that math teacher and her trick questions. There's always one teacher like that. "Here, let me give you a math problem that teaches wrong math!"
For those unaware, someone wrote in one of Primeape's Pokédex entries that it can get so angry it dies. Scarlet and Violet introduce Rage Fist, a move that causes Primeape to evolve if it is used 20 times without taking the Primeape to a Pokémon Center for healing. As Rage Fist has less than twenty uses, the player has to use an item to restore usage of Rage Fist so Primeape can keep using it. Then it "evolves" from a Fighting type to a Fighting/Ghost type called Annihilape.
So basically the people who make these games added lore about how Primeape can die if it gets too angry, then later made an evolution of Primeape that depends on the player enabling the Primeape to use Rage Fist until it "evolves", then included a character who is set to tell a classroom of kids how to kill their Primeapes before being interrupted.
The Pokémon games, unlike the tie-in show, love to just tease us with how the entire premise of the game is deeply morally questionable to the point of introducing a Pokémon you canonically can only get from enabling its own death.
No, there's no requirement about not visiting a pokemon center. It just has to use it 20 times. A fun trick I was told for that? Go fight some level 2 lechonks at the start of the game, because it still counts even if it whiffs because of typing. And then you can burn through the PP much faster because not leaving battle, less animations, etc.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Oh, I guess I read some misinfo on the "No Pokémon Center" thing.
Still dies, though.
Greninja opens with a scripted Double Team and Toxic Spikes, meaning taking KOs is especially deadly. It will use additional Double Teams at various time barriers, along with Gunk Shot somewhere around half HP / half time bar.
Greninja has an early (in terms of the time bar) your-party stat reset, but that's the only one. Surviving the early phases of the raid means plenty of opportunity for setup afterward.
The Slowbro build from the Cinderace raid (high Def, Iron Defense / Nasty Plot / Stored Power / Slack Off) works here, but not as easily as with Cinderace. You'll need your party to be on the ball with Hang Tough and Heal Up while you Iron Defense to ride out the initial wave.
I created a Toxapex as a support unit for the Cinderace raid, which combines terrifically with Slowbro here. Chilling Water / Acid Spray / Recover / Fourth Move Irrelevant with high Defense means you easily tank everything Greninja can throw at you while making things easier for your team to handle. Open with Hang Tough and use Chilling Water to about -3 to neuter Greninja's physical moves (especially Night Slash, which is what it's going to be hitting your Slowbro with), then use Acid Spray. With some luck, your Slowbro should be online and ready to start using Stored Power by the sixth or seventh round, which should pick up the KO in one or two shots.
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
Admittedly no, though with Annihilape I'd argue what' I think is happening is heavily implied.
With Skeledirge I read that the bird spirit that accompanies him and is used during Torch Song is the reason it is a Ghost-type.
I got Greninja on my second solo try, also with my Slowbro. But I gave it a Shell Bell and used Slack Off on turn 3 or 4, right before the stat reset. I'll have to try out your Toxapex in online matches
Took 4 times to solo it because of crit hydropumps lol
There's a little luck involved of course, Night Shade crits will end you, and there's no getting around his double team spam except to hope.
By the time I'd used iron defence/nasty plot 3x each he had wiped our buffs and put his tera shield up. So I had to sit there for another 7 turns rebuffing/healing, then used 3 stored power to break through the shield and KO him.
I mean, I'd say a good majority of them are like, the tortured souls of dead children or something. Pokemon be dark
A Pokedex entry for Froslass says "When it finds humans or Pokémon it likes, it freezes them and takes them to its chilly den, where they become decorations." What if Mount Glaseado just had a few random caves full of frozen corpses?
Oh, that explains it. Well, I caught it now, so no worries!
I had a weird glitch at one point where my Clodsire actually turned facing my character and walked towards them a bit before turning back towards Greninja. I guess he just wanted to check in on how I was doing.
Last night was a lot of watching people try to bring things like Charizard to the Greninja raid. The weird part was that the Charizard survived better than a Vaporeon in the same raid. I did get Greninja in my first attempt, and someone brought a support Swalot who gets Clear Smog to get rid of Double Team and also Mud-slap to turn the accuracy tables on Greninja.
You're not alone!
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
1 - Scarlet & Violet
2 - Sun & Moon
3 - X & Y
4 - Sword & Shield
After the 'raidons this gen I'm curious what they'll do for the next game. Not having an equivalent in the next game will feel like a major step back.
Yeah, I'd say this is my ranking too. I like Sun & Moon better still (in terms of location and characters and stuff), but Scarlet & Violet is an objectively better game otherwise (honestly if not for the technical issues it *might* have even surpassed Sun & Moon for me).
Sword & Shield is the only one on this list I have yet to complete despite two separate attempts