Pokémon

[Victin]

Which generation did the Sarcophagus come out in?

The lastest one.

Also, look at this

[RotavatoR]

OH MY ARCEUS
...that looks interesting

[TheJester]

OH MY ARCEUS
...that looks interesting

Now all they need to do is get rid of Ash and have this be the rest of their series. It makes more sense to me honestly. That, and the fact that ever since Diamond and Pearl, the series with Ash has become overdone and has dropped in quality. The idea of essentially rebooting the series but rebooting it by making off of the games would be a definite way to reclaim lost fans and attract a whole new wide audience.

[narrativedilettante]

- What music do you remember the most from any Pokémon game?

I don't know which version I played when I was a kid. I think it was red? But the music that I remember the most was the music in the spooky, ghost-filled town. It was too scary and I couldn't turn the sound on for that whole section of the game.

[RotavatoR]

- What music do you remember the most from any Pokémon game?

I don't know which version I played when I was a kid. I think it was red? But the music that I remember the most was the music in the spooky, ghost-filled town. It was too scary and I couldn't turn the sound on for that whole section of the game.

Yeah, that'd be Lavender Town. This music is infamous in the Pokémon community, there's a couple creepypastas about it. So you're not the only one who finds this scary
EDIT: A remake of Gold and Silver has a much more soothing version of the theme, which you might want to give a listen to ^^

[Rick Healey]

You know, when I went to pick up my shiny Dialga today, I realized that I never actually got to use the team that I built for VGC this year (that was right around when Zoë was born). Anyone with any 5th Gen game could throw down against it, and I could do singles or doubles.

Anyone want to brave it?

[Blurred_9L]

I replied on twitter yesterday, but just in case :p I'm in

[Rick Healey]

I missed this at the time - it was a busy week, involving a sick baby and visitors from out of town.

What times would be good for you?

[Blurred_9L]

Saturdays or sundays mostly, I have work and piles of homework to do every other day ._.

It might be a while though, I'll probably be busy the next 2 saturdays too

Also, I remember GU17 saying he could try too, you might want to ask him about it .

[ALoneFox]

My favorite Pokémon would have to be ditto. Just look at it's little face. Don't you want to give it a cuddle?
Tropius does have the best name, though.

[TheJester]

Not sure if you guys are into this. However, I have been playing it and I have had a lot of fun. Pokemon+MMO's, what's not to love?
http://pokemmo.eu/

[Adell]

Hey, so I figure I'll leave my friend code here for those of you who got the latest game. 0275-7083-4486

Keep in mind I haven't played this series since Silver, so I am mostly out of the loop on anything related to this series

[Blurred_9L]

By the time I get time to play again I'll be lagging way behind everyone, but anyway, here's mine too, just in case :p

0559-7779-2094

[Adell]

By the time I get time to play again I'll be lagging way behind everyone, but anyway, here's mine too, just in case :p

0559-7779-2094

Trust me dude with my work load I only get to play maybe 30 minutes a day tops, you won't be that far behind me

[Rick Healey]

Well, the 3DS uses a unified friend code system, so it's the same as it was for me and Mario Kart 7 -

3050-7798-6353

For the record, two shinies so far - Skitty and Mime Jr.

[Blurred_9L]

I guess trolling gives a +1 to Luck...

I usually don't play during the week days, Adell. I would die from procastinating if I did that. *exagerates*

[Rick Healey]

I guess trolling gives a +1 to Luck...

I'm not sure if I should say that reality warps around me, or that the devil looks out for his own...

[S_o_S]

For those of you who have X and Y and want my 3DS friend code: 2921-9082-8093

[Adell]

For those of you who have X and Y and want my 3DS friend code: 2921-9082-8093

Registered

[Krika]

Alright, so we've recorded up through the entirety of the Team Flare plotline on our LP, so I want to talk about plot in Pokémon mainstream games, how it fails, and what it does right. I will be warning you, I will be giving spoilers for X and Y, so avoid if you haven't played through them.

Team Flare had potential. They were a bit goofy, they were a bit silly, but they had potential. They had the odd goal of wanting to make Kalos beautiful, something that no other team had really done, and that was pretty interesting. They started out with pretty practical goals, like making money, which I could respect.

As it went on, we got the references to the ancient past, and the war with AZ and Lysandre, and that was pretty interesting. As Lysandre kept saying about the player character, it had a lot of potential. But having played through the climax of the plot, I found myself disappointed. For starters, I was about 5 levels overleveled on everybody without even trying to overlevel, and this is ignoring Pokémon-Amie, which is basically the only reason Joe has about 5 levels on me. That made most of the grunts not really threatening in their main hide-out, which made it more of a slog than anything else. This became especially apparent when you had to slog through 3 or 4 double battles against grunts that only had one pokemon each, with an NPC as your tag partner, which ended up as something of a slog.

Then it becomes apparent that Lysandre is essentially an Omnicidal Maniac, and while that is certainly an interesting reveal from the fairly affable trainer who wanted things to be beautiful, it was still somewhat cliche. And once again, I never really felt threatened by him. You actually fight him twice - first at the front of their lair, and then later on after you catch the legendary Pokémon. The first time...it's not a bad fight, but it doesn't really feel all that epic. Then, to get to the Legendary, you go through a bunch of mooks, none of whom feel threatening, and catch the Legendary.

Then, Lysandre comes back in a frankly ridiculous-looking outfit with floating tentacle things, a visor, and a Mega Ring, in full blown Villainous Breakdown mode. He challenges you to a battle to get the Legendary back, but there isn't any sort of story thing to back this up - if he came in and somehow captured the Legendary in some containment field or some such thing then there'd be the tension that comes from such a battle, but because you've already caught the Legendary and either stuck it in your box or but it on your team, his threat to take it from you doesn't feel all that solid. And then his team....his team isn't all that impressive either. Again, I have not been trying to overlevel, but I was, and I took out his first three Pokémon in a single hit each. His Mega Gyarados was something of a more fitting boss, but my Chesnaught basically just tanked it, and it ended up killing itself with a confusion hit due to spamming Outrage. Now, I have not played Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum, but I have heard stories of Cyrus' Gyarados, and about how lethal it could be. Lysandre's Mega Gyarados should have been even harder, with better stats and a wider variety of moves to use, not to mention Dark-type STAB. It did not feel all that threatening at all, and then he (at least in my game) made a desperate ploy to activate his super-weapon to...give my character immortality? The hell? Once you get into the right mindset, that's hardly a bad thing - if anything, you could consider it an amazing gift. He doesn't consider it so, but that does nothing for your viewpoint.

While the whole sequence had some epic orchestral music like I have never heard in a Pokemon game, it overall fell pretty flat, in that I never really felt threatened or that they were dangerous. This has partly to due with what I outline above, but also had to do with where it was placed - this has all happened before the eighth gym. The high point of any Pokemon game, ever, is when you beat the Elite Four, and ascend to the title of Champion. Having a seperate plotline that has a climax that happens at an entirely different time...means that the time between the two points feels flat, neither descending action or rising action, but an awkward period between two entirely unrelated plot climax's. It feels more like you're cleaning up, going through the motions now, before we hit the Elite 4 and take them on. This seperation is I think one of the things that ruins the plot of these games.

Gen 1 wasn't quite as bad in this regard, since while you did defeat Team Rocket in Silph, you also had the showdown with Giovanni for your eighth badge, which gave it a nice closing feel to tie up the loose-hanging strings in a way that didn't interfere with the "To Be A Master Plot", since it was for your final Badge. Gen 2 failed in this regard, with the Team Rocket plot getting tied up before the eighth badge as well. Gen 3 I will admit to slight bias toward, but it did have more than an Excuse Plot evil team, and had suitably epic stakes for the conflict, but it still wrapped up in that awkward period between the seventh and eighth gym. Gen 4 had a stronger, more integrated plot, and an very epic final confrontation (especially in Platinum), but still wrapped up in the same period (again, this is from what I have seen of other playthroughs - I haven't personally played any of them).

Then we have Gen 5. Specifically Black and White. This, my friends, is the current shining example of how to make a Pokemon game have plot, and make it good. The main characters aren't flat, there are appropriately swerving reveals scattered throughout, and it has the "To-Be-A-Master Plot" and the game plot line up perfectly - the climax for both happens at the same point, giving the whole finale a awesome feel. It honestly feels like the action's been rising the entire game, and this is it - the final battle for both the title of Champion and to end Team Plasma's shenanigans. And even then you have Ghetsis's reveal, keeping you on your toes until the very end.

Black 2 and White 2 took a step back (I do admit that it would be hard to do as well as their predecessors did a second time), but they still did it very well. The plot was integrated well, and the climax of the plot happened between the last gym and the Elite Four for a change, reducing the amount of awkward hanging time between the two climax's. And while it did keep it's own plot nice and tight, it still felt like a sequel - you could see where the plot of the original games affected it, where the loose strings got brought back in. They might not have had quite the same epic feel as the originals, but they were still very worthy successors.

X and Y, on the other hand...felt like a step back. The "To-Be-A-Master Plot" and the Team Flare plot were essentially unintegrated, and felt much more like the more basic plots of Gens 1-3. I didn't have quite the same investment, non-main character (You, Serena/Calem, Shauna, Trevor, Tierno) people aside from AZ and Lysandre were essentially not there, and overall I didn't really get the same feel, explicit references to death and Pokemon participating in a massive war aside. It felt very much like they were stepping through the motions at this point, with the Grunts even lampshading the stupidity at times.

Quick recap, there's a point at which Lysandre reveals to the world that he's got the ancient weapon that he intends to use to wipe out the world, which kicks off the climax of that plot. This would have been much better served if it had happened right after you were crowned Champion, leading you to race off with your new responsibilities as Champion of the Kalos region to protect it. There isn't any awkward time between the two climax's, and you can have the epic final showdown - the Champion of the Kalos region vs. the leader of Team Flare. I mean, you get a parade after you become Champion, which is explicitly partly for beating Team Flare, which is after you've essentially left that plotline behind. AZ exists as a mysterious character, that while you find out what his backstory is, doesn't really do anything. Having him actually take a stand to prevent Lysandre from doing the same thing he did would be cool. And we just battle him after the parade, with a team much weaker than the Champion, so it's an inevitable curbstomp.

I felt let down by the plot here. The games were excellent, the mechanics were refined well, and it felt very natural and fun to play, but the plot was one of the weaker aspects of it.

Anyway. Rant over.

[Krika]

The next Elite 4 needs to be Normal, Grass, Fairy, Flying. With a Dark gym leader.

[Victin]

Updated Pokémon rap.

[Victin]

I know I was the last one to post, but I'll link you to this and this one. Sorry.

[Blurred_9L]

o.o And that's why I think Competitive Pokemon is completely broken

[Rick Healey]

Eh, not really. There are lots of ways to stop stupid moves like that; most people just aren't ready because they treat Pokemon as a game of "who can use a beat stick better?".