Pokémon X and Y

[Hermie]

I'm currently grinding for the Elite Four, is there a better way to do it than just killing stuff on Route 22?

[JonCole]

I'm currently grinding for the Elite Four, is there a better way to do it than just killing stuff on Route 22?

 

I always just spend all of my money and then run the Elite Four over the over again until I beat them. Whiting out really isn't a big deal if you have no money, and at the time you're fighting them the Elite Four are clearly the best XP return opportunities out there.

[Hermie]

Oh, I didn't even consider that. Gives me a chance to make sure I have the right counters too. Thanks for the tip!

[JonCole]

Oh, I didn't even consider that. Gives me a chance to make sure I have the right counters too. Thanks for the tip!

 

Oh, and if you really do require a decent number of runs to get through it, make sure you spend your money after each white out. The money rewards for beating Elite Four guys is pretty high and even halved they can subsidize some Full Restores and Revives for your eventual "real" Elite Four battle.

 

So, I spent a little time powering through the game last night and finally made it to the 3rd gym (only had 1 badge yesterday at lunch). This is super fun! I guess it's good that my only complaint is that there seems to be a ridiculously huge variety of Pokemon right from the start. I'm having a hard time settling on my team composition. If anything, it makes me keep a good two or three guys I'm not sure about in my party at all times and EXP Share means they evolve and help out my Pokedex. In this way, X&Y really feel unlike other Pokemon games where I felt that I was either focusing on the plot/progression, or I was focusing on my Pokedex. You can really be doing everything at once with far less friction than ever before.

 

Also, while powering through the game I watched the whole Pokemon Origins anime. Super nostalgic, heartbreaking (goddamn you Cubone) and actually made some sense regarding its tie-in with X&Y which I won't get spoilery about in case any of you want to watch it. Love that Green is just a huge, unabashed dick the whole time, too.

[RubixsQube]

I decided to cave in and buy Y the other day, and I just completed the second gym. It's pretty good! I decided to try out the wonder trade system, and eventually was traded a Fennekin (thanks, random Australian trainer!), which is nice, considering I started with a Froakie. The EXP Share is a bit overpowered, but it does mean that I'm more willing to try out interesting Pokemon that I normally wouldn't use (for instance, I've been heavily relying on Scraggy, which is a Pokemon I ignored in White or White 2). There is indeed, a huge variety of Pokemon early on, but I'm not someone who has to Catch Them All (I find the randomness of that aspect of the game to be pretty tough to stomach except in small doses), so it hasn't been too overwhelming. 

 

To admit to something weird, I first picked up a Pokemon game with HeartGold, at the insistence of my (now ex) girlfriend, who had played the games a bunch when she was younger and recognized how much better they are when played with other people you know. We went on to play HeartGold/SoulSilver to completion, as well as Black/White and Black 2/White 2. This is my first attempt at a Pokemon game after we broke up, and it's a little sad, maybe? It's been months, and everything was pretty amiable, but yeesh, I didn't expect that it would be Pokemon that would trigger relationship nostalgia! 

[dium]

Elite four defeated.

Now to start breeding a million things.

[tegan]

The update patch is available in the eShop! No more save bug.

 

Also, turns out Cafe Le Wow is the best way to make money. It costs 100,000 to participate but it doesn't take long and the rewards are massive.

[Henroid]

The update patch is available in the eShop! No more save bug.

 

Also, turns out Cafe Le Wow is the best way to make money. It costs 100,000 to participate but it doesn't take long and the rewards are massive.

I almost felt ripped off, because with the money amulet thing I only made 64k back from the battles.

 

Then I finally looked at the "big mushrooms" in my inventory and saw that they were for selling. Made like 150k from them.

[Twig]

Half the trades I try to make on GTS result in some failure that forces me to restart the entire game.

 

Are you serious, Nintendo? How have they still not learned how to gracefully handle networking issues? ):

[tabacco]

So I bought the game (X) because I'd never played a Pokemon game before, and I was curious. Coming into the franchise with zero knowledge makes it really obvious that they're assuming their target audience is 100% players of past games in the franchise. I had to resort to Google to see what the difference between the two versions was, because it seems to just be an assumption that everyone knows that at this point. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm actually doing in the game, besides walking around in tall grass hoping to collect all of the kinds of Pokemon. Occasionally I'll run into NPCs and fight them, but all the battles seem to be really easy. Am I missing something here (Again, bearing in mind I've literally never seen a Pokemon game before)?

[Henroid]

Half the trades I try to make on GTS result in some failure that forces me to restart the entire game.

 

Are you serious, Nintendo? How have they still not learned how to gracefully handle networking issues? ):

It's definitely their Achilles heel. I heard that the Halloween theme to the eShop brought a new spooky feature - crashing when you exit pages on it.

 

As for Pokemon, I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying all the clothes before I get close to having that supposedly coupon that exists. And I still can't figure out this dang ol' "style" thing in the game.

[Henroid]

So I bought the game (X) because I'd never played a Pokemon game before, and I was curious. Coming into the franchise with zero knowledge makes it really obvious that they're assuming their target audience is 100% players of past games in the franchise. I had to resort to Google to see what the difference between the two versions was, because it seems to just be an assumption that everyone knows that at this point. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm actually doing in the game, besides walking around in tall grass hoping to collect all of the kinds of Pokemon. Occasionally I'll run into NPCs and fight them, but all the battles seem to be really easy. Am I missing something here (Again, bearing in mind I've literally never seen a Pokemon game before)?

 

Well, from my memory of playing Pokemon Blue a long time ago is sort of the same. Walking around in grass is how you get your random encounters for Pokemon, which you can catch. Being in different parts of the game makes different pokemon show up in the wild. The NPCs you're fighting (trainers of various sorts, from kids to pros) are your source of income for the moment (so don't go crazy spending money) (later in the game you get access to some ways to have infinite income sources).

 

You can have a team of six Pokemon with you on hand. You can think of it as "extra lives" if you want, though changing mid-battle has its uses.

 

Pokemon is essentially a JRPG when you're playing the singleplayer. But all the Pokemon you're catching and leveling are meant for the 'end-game,' which is pretty much the competitive part. You don't have to worry too much about power playing, especially if it's your first time. Pokemon is a series that was very much built up on being easy to learn (and beat), but being difficult to 'master.' Mostly what you have to worry about is learning what types affect other types (like Fire is strong against Ice and Grass but weak against Ground and Water, etc).

[dium]

Pokemon is a weird thing; it has a huge fan base of people of all ages who take it very seriously, but it's main target audience is still, ostensibly, young children. So every new pokemon game adds a bunch of new features that are mainly appreciated by the competitive scene, all of which are completely ignore-able if you just want to beat the elite four (the single player campaign, so to speak) because... the single player campaign is really easy.

 

Earlier games in the series had a difficulty spike towards the end of the game, leading up to the elite four (who are the final bosses of the game). For various reason (but primarily a new feature in the form of the experience-share item), this is not the case in X/Y. The game is easy, and remains easy, the whole way through... so if you're looking for the single player campaign to challenge you you're going to be disappointed. After the elite four there are some single player features that present actual challenges (like the battle maison, or whatever it's called this time). And of course, battles with real people, which is an all-or-nothing sort of rabbit hole you may or may not want to peer down.

 

If you want to try upping the difficulty just a bit, here's a tip: in the options, change the battle style from "SWITCH" to "SET". This removes the option to switch pokemon after you KO an opponent (although you can still sacrifice a move to switch things out). This is how multiplayer battles (and battles in the battle maison) work. This won't actually increase the difficulty by very much, unfortunately, because most trainers in the campaign all use the same type of pokemon (which is dumb). But it's something.

 

EDIT: w/r/t the game expecting you're already a fan because they don't explain anything: this generation actually explains more about how mechanics work than any previous generation, believe it or not. Earlier pokemon games told the player almost zilch about how anything works, and only gradually admitted the underlying mechanics of any of it (if they ever did). For this reason, the pokemon enthusiast fanbase is built around a culture of experimentation and data mining. It's very strange. I'm not going to try to defend it, I don't think it's defensible. I like it though.

[Hermie]

Yeah, I haven't played since gen 1, and it's kinda absurd how they spell out some mechanics very particularly, and some are just not adressed at all, leaving you as the player to research elsewhere.

 

It's definitely their Achilles heel. I heard that the Halloween theme to the eShop brought a new spooky feature - crashing when you exit pages on it.

 

As for Pokemon, I have a feeling I'm going to end up buying all the clothes before I get close to having that supposedly coupon that exists. And I still can't figure out this dang ol' "style" thing in the game.

 

Here's the link on style.

[Ucantalas]

http://www.p4rgaming.com/peta-member-traumatized-by-pokemon-sues-nintendo-for-emotional-distress/


EDIT: Nevermind, I should do some independant research before forwarding stupid articles.

[Twig]

I mean is that even real.

 

He apparently told her to “fuck off” as he was about to catch a Shiny Mr. Mime.

 

I know some people are insane, but C'MON.

 

In other news, I threw up a Bulbasaur on GTS asking for a Yveltal. Someone gave me one. Neat! Had on luck so far getting an Articuno, though. U: Now trying for another Yveltal, which I'll then trade for Articuno (and hopefully repeat for Zapdos).

[TheLastBaron]

Pretty sure it's a joke given that p4r articles are all jokes.

[juv3nal]

I ran across a pre-schooler who was really excited about his brand new magikarp. Which I proceeded to flatten. Spec Ops: The Line has nothing on this game in the making-the-player-feel-like-a-monster department.

[Merus]

So I bought the game (X) because I'd never played a Pokemon game before, and I was curious. Coming into the franchise with zero knowledge makes it really obvious that they're assuming their target audience is 100% players of past games in the franchise. I had to resort to Google to see what the difference between the two versions was, because it seems to just be an assumption that everyone knows that at this point. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm actually doing in the game, besides walking around in tall grass hoping to collect all of the kinds of Pokemon. Occasionally I'll run into NPCs and fight them, but all the battles seem to be really easy. Am I missing something here (Again, bearing in mind I've literally never seen a Pokemon game before)?

 

I think they put it in fine print on the back of the first box, but it was never referenced in-game.

[Dewar]

Storywise, the basic goal in Pokemon is to defeat the eight gym leaders that are spread across the world in different cities, get their badges, then head to the elite four, which are basically the best pokemon trainers in the world and the only real challenging part of the game. Weaved into that general framework, there's usually a story about a rival of some sort that shows up on occasion, as well as some evil pokemon organization (Team Rocket, Team Galaxy, etc.) that needs to be beaten.

So if you're asking what you need to be doing, the answer is pretty much always "make it to the next city, and beat the gym."

[Reyturner]

How formalized is the end game? I'm trucking through the PVE without much problem but I'm wondering how deep and structured the PVP is. I've heard the past games were basically 100% community driven with minimal support in game. Has that changed? 

[Ucantalas]

http://espurr.net/

[tegan]

I feel terrible for Espurr. From the Pokédex:

 

 

Restraint Pokemon

(in X:) The organ that emits its intense psychic power is sheltered by its ears to keep power from leaking out.

(in Y:) It has enough psychic energy to blast everything within 300 feet of itself, but it has no control over its power.

 

It looks like that because it's constantly trying to keep itself from murdering everyone.

 

 

[tabacco]

Eh, I decided to just sell the game. I don't think it's for me.

[Henroid]

Tegan that gif is the most incredible thing.