Pokémon General Thread

Re: Xenoverse: Just got past the first gym. Seems competent so far? Biggest complaint is that the lack of much documentation means I really don't know what to make of most of these pokemon. Also I assume that this was conceptualized between gen 6 and 7, because the entire concept of x-pokemon seems kind of silly these days

You get the dex shortly after the first gym, following the island sidequest IIRC.

I actually started over to do another run and chose the fire starter this time. First two gyms were definitely easier than first time. From what I read he's the best starter and fire/sound from my experience with Pyroar last playthrough is a great offensive typing.

I wish I knew where to get frustration TM as knowing it is how Reindear evolves but I'm not willing to wait for it to learn it naturally at level 44.

TBH I find it kinda annoying how added stuff like Fairy typing and steel's loss of resistances yet still keep annoying aspects of pre-gen 6 like electric types being able to get paralyzed and toxic being able to miss from poison types. Like either commit to gen 6 -> mechanics or don't. Not being able to add wild pokemon to your party is dumb too at this point but maybe it's because I'm playing classic mode that I can't do that.

Edited by Vertigo_High on Mar 3rd 2021 at 7:37:33 AM

Sounds interesting, but it also feels like it's happening a couple months too late - I was really itching for a fangame around january but now I've finally found some work again, more games to play came out, and I already spend most of my free time modding the shit out of Desolation or building it's wiki. Maybe I'll pick it up in a month of two when some of this slows down.

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Just played up to the first gym, and Xenoverse is actually pretty fun. It isn't bullshit hard, the fakemons are pretty decent, and the game actually runs well! Every other RPG maker Pokemon game I've tried ended up being inexplicably laggy and unresponsive, so it's nice to see this is actually playable.

I have to ask though, why is this doing limited-time mystery gifts? Dealing with that kind of shit is annoying enough with the main games, so why does a fan game need to copy a terrible idea like that?

I don't mean to say that as some kind of defense, but having worked with rpg maker for a while now, I can explain where it comes from : rpgmaker is just OLD. I'm like 90% sure it doesn't know what multithreading/multicores on a processor are for. That, and pokemon essentials was made by a guy whose priority was "replicate gen 3 down to how it worked on gba" rather than "make it run smooth".

You basically have to go out of your way to rework parts of the code to make it run decently. (Reborn has been getting pretty decent on that font lately, if I recall right) It's nice to hear xenovers actually gets this right.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 3rd 2021 at 9:06:02 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

I don't know how much of a difference this makes but I think pokemon essentials is also made to run on an older version of rpg maker, so if the software has improved at all since then it wouldn't be reflected in the tools you have to work with in Essentials.

yeah, it runs on rpg maker xp, and by extension so does every fangame, which is a build that is like 17 years old at this point.there's been a good 3-4 new versions of rpg maker ever since but since porting essentials to those games is also hell, the situation is just all around a mess.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 3rd 2021 at 9:19:26 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

One of the best changes about this game and something they hoenstly should add to the official ones are items dropping after battle if the wild pokemon you KO has one. Even better are pokemon using evolution items dropping those.

Hikaloo(the ice wolf) has a 5% chance of holding an ice stone which it uses to evolve. And since the move relearner is available all game for free, you can evolve it right away and have yourself a decently powerful ice type before the 2nd gym even! Though admittedly it won't be that great against the 2nd gym lol.

It's honestly really weird how random encounters never drop items in the actual games, especially since that mechanic is so common in your typical RPG.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

Just like it being FAR easier to run away that to restore PP. These games expect you to run away from most wild encounters.

I just wish pp up and pp max were more common. I haven't played swsh yet so I don't know if they finally made it easy to find/purchase.

see my completed Tangled (Varian) fanfic collection! https://archiveofourown.org/works/24467056/chapters/59049532

You can buy them with BP, though BP is hard to come by before you beat Leon.

Where there's life, there's hope.

You swim in BP if you have HOME tho.

It still makes no sense that they aren't common...

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

So which of the standard status effects do you think are most useful and why?

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."

Xenoverse... Got past the third gym, a ways into the cave afterward, gave up in disgust over being thrown into yet another giant fucking maze, but this time with omnipresent encounters^note Yes, yes, repels. I don't think you understand how large this area is. So I'm going to give my thoughts on it now, with the obvious caveat that there's a lot I haven't seen:

Edited by Hylarn on Mar 4th 2021 at 5:42:46 AM

I'm a pretty big fan of paralysis dropping the speed of the opponent. Thunder wave has been a pretty great helps through two of the fangales I played.

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Checked the Xenoverse dex and honestly? It ain’t half bad. Some of the regional forms are inspired, like the Chinese-dragon look on the Gengar or Electric-type Rapidash. There’s also quite a few fakemon I liked, more than I usually notice for these kinda things.

There’s also some where I like the concept but the artist couldn’t quite sell the idea. And yep, a sizeable chunk of the dex are overdesigned, cool-kid types. But overall, neat.

Edited by fillerdude on Mar 4th 2021 at 5:40:42 AM

I just came across the Meowth while stealing from a merchant. It's... certainly not my favourite incarnation of Meowth.

Also, I find it amusing that this Bremand thing has giant knife whiskers yet all the Pokedex cares about is its' love for music.

Ethers and Elixirs are also quite rare, and have never been stocked on shops.

The game doesn't expect you to waste your PP on wild Pokemon, despite what some players insist. I've been seeing people dreading BDSP because of now the Geodudes having working Sturdy and thus caves would take even longer to get past.

The fact that running away has no penalty whatsoever and is very easy to do, while recovering PP involves rare items or going back to a town, is telling of what the intention with wild Pokemon is.

I suppose that meantlaity is a result of runs where players wound up underleveled and thus curbstomped by a boss...or the paranoia of such a possibility happening (also doens't help that DP has a certain difficulty spike right when you reach Cynthea, in which case players might had felt like kicking themsleves for running away from encounters instead of using them to level grind). Which should had be accounted for with the gradual difficulty drops.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Mar 4th 2021 at 7:03:20 AM

killing wild encounters is about as fast as running, more profitable, and more reliable. I don't understand why you're so hung up on this

Erm, it isn't? The experience payoff is far lower than the one you get from defeating trainers, PP management becomes a thing, and the games are generally balanced towards defeating trainers being enough, with Amie/Refresh/Camp being overkill.

Going through a dungeon or the sea defeating every single wild Pokemon is just counterproductive.

Cynthia in DP was 10 levels beyond the first Elite 4 member, and her ace was tailored to utterly trounce the Uber you had. Champions are usually challengering in games where you don't choose the order you fight the Elite 4, as they keep increasing in level through the challenge.

Edited by Eriorguez on Mar 4th 2021 at 4:09:21 PM

Erm, it isn't? The experience payoff is far lower than the one you get from defeating trainers

...Yes, but these aren't mutually exclusive. Getting a little bit of experience from fighting is better than getting nothing from running

Like, I'm not going to argue that this is how people should play, it's generally best to have a few repels on hand, but fighting wild encounters isn't exactly some horrible, self-defeating decision

Also the vast majority of games expect you to kill everything you see. It's a behavior many players will have to unlearn

Edited by Hylarn on Mar 4th 2021 at 7:26:28 AM

That's what Undertale did after all.

Still, I agree with your points. Pokemon is all in all a game not designed with the same mind as most RP Gs in terms of random encounters, as, between them being how you recruit more members for your party, and the unusual approach to minor fights (running is very easy, and has almost no penalty whatsoever, but there is no attack command that doesn't waste "mana", and there is no readily accessible "mana" refils). "Choose your fights", rather than "kill everything".