@TriforceBun

Yes, that means you're an old fart. In the old days, memorizing every last detail of a game (especially Pokemon) was exactly the thing to do, and was fun. I remember I had the whole darn strategy guide practically memorized, and could name off what Pokemon evolved into what at what level.

We are old men.

@-JKR-
I staunchly disagree with that, it doesn't make you an old fart if you don't want to sit in front of your computer doing google searches for pertinent information that could and should be available to you in-game. A lot of complex RPGs like Fire Emblem do a much better job than Pokemon at explaining it's systems. Little things like being able to pull up a type-chart and Pokedex in battle (as Xbob suggested) would make a massive difference in playability, as would things like a complete and detailed electronic manual. Other very simple things like having a map on the bottom screen would take a lot of frustration out of navigating the world, something you can bet your ass that Link Between Worlds has. Pokemon is needlessly obtuse and confusing due to poor design, it's a failure on behalf of the developers and designers, not the players for being "too old", even if I was 13 I wouldn't have patience for being forced to put down my 3DS and turning to sources of outside information constantly and consistently to do the simplest things that are never explained or explained poorly, and being lost because there's no map? That's not fun, never has been, I don't care how old you are.

Ever since someone posted the Type Matchup Chart I've taken a copy of it everywhere my 3DS goes. Part of me likes having to consult this crumpled page with each new battle, it feels old school. Then part of me thinks that Prof Sycamore should have given us this info at the start, I mean come on! But my main problem is that once you have the chart the game offers absolutely no challenge whatsoever. I think you guys mentioned this already but you're either guessing like crazy during battles and taking ages (pre-chart) or just trouncing everyone with one hit (post-chart).

I s'pose the real challenge is online... maybe I'll sqeeze a few battles in before Zelda Day. (Zelday?)

@Super_Conzo
Oh man I'm so pumped for Zelda day, my frothing demand demands that it be Zelda day right now!

Anyone have a Meowth for trade?

OK, the online battles are where it's at! Can some of you fine peeps add me...
4596-9544-8642
Let's rumble!

@-JKR- The difference between memorizing 151 Pokemon that were almost all easily identifiable (their type) by a quick glance and 718(!!) that are often designed specifically so you CAN'T guess their type (which is why just having a type chart can be useless if you don't know all the Pokemon) is astounding.

@Super_Conzo Adding you! Mine's 2019 9987 2854 (And Deathly still hasn't added me!)

I've played so much Pokemon that if I don't know the type of a Pokemon I experiment, which is what the game is designed for. If you don't know what type a Pokemon is try out different moves on it to see. Look at it's visuals to give yourself a hint then go off of that. Example: Hawlucha is obviously a Flying/Fighting type however Emboar looks like Fire/Dark. So you use Fighting on Emboar to see if you get a SE bonus. You don't so you try something else, rinse and repeat.

Then there is the complaint of now having an easy way to reference what a type is in a pinch. That I agree they should find a way to make it easier but the game has always been designed around experimentation and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

@Pokefreak911 The game is SO fucking not designed around "experimentation" online, that's total BS. Online everyone knows every single Pokemon by heart and if they don't they have a type chart and google at their fingertips, you can guarantee it. I have done 50+ online battles and have never, EVER been hit by an attack that wasn't supereffective.

There's not even fucking ranks or anything, I can't go into the "beginner" pool, I just have to hope the person I battle isn't a goddamned Pokemon maniac. The entire way the game babies you through the story and then expects you to fill in the blanks yourself when you go online is 100% indefensible. There's no excuse, there's no rationale, it's a bunch of poorly thought out nonsense made by people who just assume you're going to memorize all this bullshit without anyone telling you anything.

There's nowhere to go to "practice" and "experiment" offline because everything is TOO EASY. The game never, EVER prepares you for even the slightest hint of resistance from any trainer, it's so absurd that I can hardly fathom it.

@Super_Conzo
@Xbob42

Added you guys. My code is 0473-7920-6148

@Xbob42

Whatever, old man. I'll go chase those kids off your lawn for you.

@anon_mastermind Added!

@-JKR- I KEEL YOU!

I do have to say, despite a lot of ugly new Pokemon I hate, I am finding a lot that I love maybe just as much as some of the original ones in this version. Really digging some of the designs. Also Fletchling? Easily the greatest bird Pokemon ever made. Easily. I love it to pieces.

Is there any way in-game that you can figure out how to evolve Inkay? Because I thought I talked to everyone, and not a single person mentioned anything about having to hold the 3DS upside down to get Inkay to evolve, and that doesn't seem like something you could just figure out on your own either.

Oh, I also finally beat the Elite Four a couple of days ago. If I can juggle school and work stuff properly, I'll be starting on the post-game content soon.

@V_s ...Really? That's how you do it?? That just seems silly.

I think Xbob ruined this game for me...! Playing last night, I was just getting frustrated with the amount of stuff just left unexplained. For instance, I've been using Swirlix for the longest time and was eager to see it evolve. When going through my inventory, I noticed I had a "Whipped Dream" item that seemed to be right up his alley, so I equipped it on him and leveled up him while he held it. Nothing happened, so I checked online (yet again)--apparently you have to trade Swirlix WHILE holding the Whipped Dream to make him evolve. What? Why the heck is this so convoluted? Who would ever try that or figure it out on their own?

There are countless examples of this in the game, such as what V_s mentioned. It's like the game is trying to have puzzles or something, but it ends up just being some really obscure whatever. It would be rewarding if there was some sort of logic to it, or nifty NPC hint or whatever, but in my experience, a lot of things are just so obscure that you're forced to look them up, removing the point of having a "puzzle" to it in the first place. And if the game forces you to look all this stuff online, why not just have it all in-game, or at least a clever system of hints?

I do like several of the new Pokemon, at least. Fletchling and his ilk, Scatterbug and the evolutions (especially Spewpa), the Fairy types, Honedge and the Froakie line are all very cool. And the skates/bike/running thing is terrific--I love fast movement in games. Even the soundtrack has a clear focus and delivers a lot of nice tunes.

But...I dunno, I feel like I just can't get into Pokemon anymore at this point. I feel like I'm going through the motions with the generic towns and dungeons and bland, bland dialogue and story. The battles, for all their moves and creatures involved, really just boil down to "match type to win," making fights actually feel pretty brainless. I'm at the point where there are so many Pokemon it's sort of overwhelming and I don't feel like starting from scratch with new guys when I've already rotated out and neglected 90% of my caught Pokemon.

I have about 15 "main" pokemon I'm switching between, and with EXP share, leveling up is a breeze. Also as a side benefit, the game isn't stupid easy since all my pokemon are moderately leveled. I'm having a lot of fun training the purrfect team Now if only I could find out how to get a Meowth...! He's not even available on the GTS!

Looking stuff up has always been a big part of Pokemon for me, so I'm comfortable with the lack of explanation in XY. I'm not big into IV/EV training but I've been doing Super Training whenver possible, and keeping my Pokemon happy with Pokemon Amie.

@Xbob42
Yes there is. There is a place in Lumiose as well as the Battle Maison which is rather difficult and are perfect ways to get yourself ready for Online play.

@-JKR-@TriforceBun
X and Y have some of the best designs since Gen 2 IMO. Absolutely fantastic 'mons that look unique and 'cool' for the most time in a long time. Very few are crappy.

@Pokefreak911 I'll try those out. I think I tried out the Battle Station or whatever it's called in Lumiose and they just seemed to use cheesy ass gimmicks the whole time which I found quite distressing, but I suppose that's about what you should expect going online! "raise sp def and def to max, use rest any time you get even remotely low"

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

On that note I feel the series would massively benefit from PP resetting between every battle, and there being WAY LESS PP per move in the battle itself. That way you can't just cheese your way through a fight with the same move. (Earthquake is as OP as it has ever been, I see!)

Forcing players to switch up their playstyle and use a bigger variety of moves would go a long way towards getting rid of cheeseball flavor-of-the-month gimmicks and would make a battle of attrition, PP-wise, not HP-wise, (I have never, ever noticed an opposing trainer, online or off, go out of PP on a single move, even if they've used the same move for all 6 of my Pokemon, multiple times per Pokemon.) a viable strategy.

On top of that, they could make Pokemon "smarter," what I mean by that is a sort of diminishing returns system, if you use the same move over and over and over again, the Pokemon is able to "predict" that you're going to do it again and naturally avoid/lessen the damage, or at least have a higher chance to do so. A lot like stuns in an MMO, if you keep stunning someone over and over again, it's less effective each time.

In this manner, battles become more varied, more fun, and one-off gimmicks become much harder to use. It would also make teams that aren't absolutely perfect type-wise (Like mine, for example, 3 of mine are friggin' weak to Fire, that's on me... but THEY'RE SUCH AWESOME POKEMON!) a little (not a lot) more viable when fighting better type-sets. A bigger focus on micromanaging abilities and less on meta type matchups would be a lot more fun if you ask me.

All the Battle Institute has taught me so far is how goddamned busted the entire battle system for this game is. Unbelievable.

They might as well just make the subtitle of every Pokemon game: SPEED - THE ONLY STAT THAT MATTERS! Because none of the other stats seem to make a difference. If you move first, you get a one-hit KO no matter what ability you use! It's almost funny how poorly designed this shit is. Can you imagine ANY other turn-based game where you fought one-on-one (not a bunch of units or characters) and the majority of fights were resolved with one attack, whoever got to go first? It'd get the worst reviews of all time.

Oh! Except Rock Slide! I was doing some double battles (Which are infinitely more interesting than the god-awful single battles, at least I can set shit up in the same turn and use AOE abilities in really interesting ways, doubles and triples should be the default battle mode, singles are some of the worst turn-based gameplay I've ever encountered in any video game -- period.) and the enemy continually spammed Rock Slide. It made both my Pokemon flinch. EVERY SINGLE TURN. They literally spammed it the entire time. And they went first every time. Faster than my goddamn EV-speed-maxed Noivern with some weird ass fluffy clumsy ass looking bird.



I think it was one of these?

I dunno, the retarded way it flew just didn't make it seem like it should match my Noivern's speed. But whatever, fact is that I literally got stunlocked to death. Killed by Rock Slide as my Magneton (How do you evolve it in this version? It evolved by leveling in Black 2...) just flinched over and over as I tried to use Discharge, ONE DISCHARGE WOULD'VE WON ME THE FIGHT.

But apparently I need to fucking learn Rock Slide like right away because that wrecked me.

Also the Battle Institute is great! Because it shows how every fucking Pokemon in the universe has Rest + A Chesto Berry! Convenient! Also apparently Miltank is also faster than my Noivern. WEIRD.

REMEMBER GUYS,



IS FASTER THAN



I'm trying really, REALLY hard not to be irritated here, but it seems like they designed every little part of end-game battling (Which you spend an entire game NOT learning, what the FUCK?!) to specifically annoy me, to make me want to punch a monkey.