Re: General Discussion Mark II

[NebulaGregarZX]

No, no... Sword Art Online got another game. If .hack got another game, that'd be front-and-center news. CC2 is too busy with all the Naruto games for that, and I just asked last week about any recent .hack stuff. Sorry to get your hopes up.

[Cremator of the Sky]

If .hack got another game, that'd be front-and-center news.

Actually, I hate to inform you all of this but there have been a few .hack games that have come out in the last... five-six years or so. The thing is, they've never left Japan. Why? Who knows, I guess because it's always been a niche series over here if anything and they don't want to take the risk anymore. After all, the game industry has changed quite a lot since the G.U. series was released (for reference, Redemption was released in 2007) over here. I've noticed several of my favorite niches beginning to change like the Warriors franchise is now just becoming sub-only.

For those who want a more detailed explanation about a certain lesser MMO based series and why it is terrible (even Haar provided an ample summary I feel it is still necessary to link this) : https://youtu.be/3uON7ANNOi4

[Zeldaman2.0]

@Haar: I've actually had that happen to me way too often, and after getting pissy about it I actually googled if there was a solution... and it turns out there is! I have a Chrome (and I think it exists on Firefox too) extension called "Backspace means Backspace". Any time you hit BSpace it will throw up a notification asking you if you meant to navigate with it. It's hella handy, and you can still use Alt + Left Arrow Key to navigate that way. Just helps mostly with typing.

And yeah, starting to see why people hate SAO.

[Cremator of the Sky]

And yeah, starting to see why people hate SAO.

You want to know what's funny? The guy who wrote SAO hates it too, because now he's being forced to write more of it when he wants to do other stuff.

[Haar_Dragon]

The irony is absolutely biting. And I don't know whether it hurts or tickles.

Also, I did a check just because, turns out the add-on in Firefox is just called "Disable Backspace Navigation." So I won't be having that problem again!

[khfreak358]

So, I don't know if any of you guys follow this channel, but given that it's KH-related, I figured I'd mention this here: I made into a GamersJoint video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Y8TanVZ_Y


Apart from the two donations from me seen in the video, also worth noting is that during the bit where he headbangs to Hold on to You, I was actually the one who requested he play that on stream. Just thought I'd throw this up here.

[Zeldaman2.0]

So a lot of people are like "man this thing sucks" whenever they don't like something, but they rarely provide actual or accurate reasons for it being bad, but instead provide reasons why they don't like something. In an effort to talk about something I feel needs improvement, and for a personal motivation to just get typing and keep typing for replies, I'd like to talk about something near and dear to me, and where I think it can improve in a modern-day setting.

Pokemon, in this day and age, sucks. While it may have been feasible for us as kids to grow up close together and trade Pokemon on the playground, after school, or by meeting up with friends, in today's society this is far less likely to happen. With Pokemon's main playerbase having grown along with them over the years, and in a society where, frankly, anti-social activities have become more commonplace and with no guarantee, even back then, that you would have the necessary things to trade, the formula, I feel, definitely needs a change.

Firstly: gimmick capture rates. I'm more referring to things that have more or less been in nearly every generation. Pokemon that run on first turn, in the wild or in a Safari Zone, not even counting the Legendary Dogs. These Pokemon interestingly have an overall lower catch rate (mostly in Safari Zone, but wilds like Phanpy or Abra who run also can) than some legendaries! Given how hard it can be to even just find these encounters, and coupled with lower catch rates, it becomes increasingly harder to catch them. Take Kangaskhan for example! In Blue and Red, you had about a 4% encounter rate at best, coupled with a 6% catch rate on top of that. Given how the Safari Zone works, if you throw a Rock, it will always run, but even if you didn't, the odds for it running are still about 2 in 3 of it running! I'm not saying it shouldn't be fun to do so, but if it's nearly impossible to catch something like this, it drains the fun and becomes a chore for those wanting to complete it.

Secondly: Dex Completion. Remember how I said there were gimmicky capture rates? There's also the matter of levelling a lot of pokemon so that they can evolve, as not all pokemon have all of their evolutions as wild pokemon. Assuming around 50 pokemon, on average, need to be levelled up to their final evolution in the game (from whatever stage that might be), not even counting trades and all that, from, let's say, level 20 to 37, in the Medium-Slow group, for each of these? It would require, in Gen VI with its Exp. Share, 15 trips through the Elite 4 and Champion. And that's just for those 50, not counting previous generations or trading pokemon forward or even getting baby pokemon of each of those, and again, some of these you'd still have to trade, even with unique items attached to them! Either due to space limitations or money whoring, they simply cannot and do not have a game anymore where you can truly "Catch 'Em All".

Thirdly: Trading and Game-Exclusives. This is where I'm really frustrated by the series. Not only do they expect you to try and trade for evolution and the like, some Pokemon are simply missing! Taking that into consideration, think of this: they truly expect you to not just buy the other game, or know of someone who has it, but you physically can't do it without having another system of some kind, as using Poke Bank for this won't trigger the evolutions. Overall, it's double the cost, and forces people who have lacking Wi-Fi, or few friends with the games, etc, to simply go without or buy multiple systems and games to have something they might potentially want.

So what are my solutions? I think some of you might agree with these, and I gained the ideas from some hacks I've played (Like Randomizers and an MMO).

1. Keep game-exclusives, but only until the post-game. Once the post-game happens? Equal out the differences between the two games and have the "exclusives" appear. Like in Red and Blue again. Either Bellsprout or Oddish appear north of Cerulean, so after you beat your rival the Champion, have them appear in equal, but reduced, amounts. So for instance, if they both had 14% beforehand, have both appear, but at 7% now.

2. Allow "trade-backs" in game or allow evolution to instead happen while holding a held item at a certain level OR use an expensive, one-time item WHILE they're holding their "trade" item. Let these also be available post-game so that you can still use and train up the Pokemon beforehand before trading. There's increasingly little reason to put out people just to get something that they want in the game, much less require someone to spend money on the other system and game. Instead, make certain story or other events exclusive to one game or the other.

TL;DR: pokemon rage

[Haar_Dragon]

I feel the pain, man. Growing up, I never knew anyone I could trade with. Hell, even now, my friends don't care about 'dex completion, so I'm just abusing the GTS with Vivillon. I always hated the version-exclusive content, and while they've said they would rather you trade with each other than buy the other game, no sane company would say "Hey, want 100%? Buy more shit."

That being said, though, I think saying it "sucks" is a bit of an overstatement, and various things have, over the years, gotten much better. People bitch and moan about the likes of Garbodor and Vanillite as designs, to which I say, "So I'm guessing you really liked Grimer and Muk, then." Every game thus far has worked to improve the shortcomings of the one before it. Gold and Silver removed most of the overwhelming number of glitches and introduced two types meant to balance out Psychic (which was absurdly broken), Ruby and Sapphire introduced Abilities so that one electric-type might have more situational use than another or somesuch, Diamond and Pearl introduced the Physical-Special Split, Black and White improved the writing dramatically, and X and Y introduced new mechanics, another balancing type, and put more focus on old pokemon rather than just "oh hey, well, now there's another Pidgey clone and another early-game mammal."

I've come to like the games more in recent years, ever since I finally got around to Black and White, and you really can't say they're not putting any effort into accomodating the people who don't know anyone else who plays the game. Why else would they introduce the GTS? I know you said not everybody has reliable Wi-Fi (Even mine is pretty unstable most of the time), but honestly, most people do, to the point where the number of people who play pokemon and don't have internet is probably less than 1% of players.

Now, all that said, I do agree with most of your points. Trade evolutions are frustrating (or would be if I didn't have two 3DSes and both X and OR) and stupid, and then there are some cryptic evolutions like Inkay-->Malamar (hold the 3DS upside-down, are you fucking serious?) and Pancham-->Pangoro (Why would I have a Dark-type if I'm trying to evolve something into a Dark-type...?). And Version-exclusive content is annoying, especially version-exclusive items, like Mega Stones in X/Y. There should be an alternative, like how in Gen V, they gave Feebas an alternative evolution method due to Contest Stats not being a thing, except that was also a trade evolution. And yeah, I honestly think that maybe Poke Bank should trigger trade evolutions.

BUT. I don't think that's grounds to say the games suck. Every game improves on the last (except, arguably, Diamond/Pearl's utterly awful save-times), so each game plays better than the one before it, and the writing has been improving significantly, with Black and White standing out in particular. So yes, pokemon is exceptionally flawed (I've gone on long rants about event-pokemon), but they are still very good games.

...That being said, Devil Survivor is a much more realistic take on monster-capturing and you should all play it.

[Cremator of the Sky]

You know, as someone who has been analyzing the franchise and writing an article about it's decline I often wonder in its finishing stages if there's anything else to add. Having spent weeks in thought and having conversations with my friends, I feel the need to make it as good as I can. So when I saw these two posts I thought "Maybe there's something here that I might have overlooked." I couldn't have been any further from the truth when I thought that before reading anything either of you said. This the third attempt I have made at writing a response... because the last two weren't compositions that would be suitable for this site/would be impossible for me to type without sounding like a livid elitist jerkoff.

So instead, I leave these short videos, gifs, and images to be interpreted of my own reactions upon reading everything written here:
https://youtu.be/ztVMib1T4T4
https://youtu.be/LTMtRNkyGxQ
https://youtu.be/lG2kFXDPot8
https://youtu.be/MvBnP9t0gTg
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/221/738/1324621177001.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TrzRx.gif
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/126/314/3cd8a33a.png?1306264975

Oh, and this one specifically goes out to Haar's mention of the "writing getting better" with each new Pokemon game.
https://youtu.be/gFRylztSXvE

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go follow this gorilla's advice.
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/masonry/000/332/515/6a0.gif

Spoiler:

[Haar_Dragon]

Y'know, there's something about just blindly hating something that kinda rubs me the wrong way. I'll admit that there are problems with the series, no issues there. The fact that they just have blatant copies of previously obtainable pokemon, and hell, I'll even pick one from Gen V, which I cited as among my favorites: Roggenrola and Timburr are absolutely blatant copies of Geodude and Machop. So yeah, originality isn't always the most prevalent thing in the games. Fine.

But are you really saying the writing isn't improving? Like...really? Red and Blue's storylines were basically "Go here. Go there. Go to every town in the country. Now fight the elite four. And did we mention your former best friend is an asshole for no reason now?" Compare Gold and Silver, where they're at least trying for depth of character with Silver, even if it falls short until the remakes. Ruby and Sapphire were far more plot-focused, if a little silly (again, mostly fixed as of ORAS, and played up where it isn't). Diamond and Pearl weren't the greatest, but there were reasons your enemy team there were idiots, and while the main villain wasn't deep, he was certainly more competent.

And I'll admit just fine that X and Y were corny as hell. Like...yeah. They were super-corny. But I legitimately liked AZ, perhaps moreso than anyone else in the series not from Unova.

And that brings me to Generation V, the Unova Region, Black and White. And yes, Team Plasma were basically just Nintendo shitting on PETA. But the fact that they're hypocrites isn't bad writing, it's intentional. Several Grunts actually state outright that they don't care about their pokemon at all and they're just in it for kicks. And of course the fact that the Gym Leaders actually do something and have more personality than "Hi, I like rocks," that's definitely something. I could go deep into detail about N. I could mention the fact that his full name is stupid, and I could go on for quite a while about how much I like him as a character, but instead, I'll just mention that there are little bits and pieces scattered everywhere about him, and I find him to be quite an effective Anti-Villain. Ghetsis on the other hand, is the absolute worst kind of scum available to humanity, but not taken to cartoonish levels. I can see someone saying he's hard to take seriously as a result, but when you consider the fact that people like him actually exist, it gets to be slightly unnerving.

Regardless, it's nearly impossible to deny that every game is at least mechanically more balanced than the last, even if you dislike the writing, which I might add is purely a matter of opinion.

And need I remind you that we're talking about freaking Pokemon of all things? May I ask what is the problem with me enjoying the franchise, or at the very least thinking it isn't in a downward spiral? Why is it that my opinion on a series that's been running for twenty years now makes you "not want to live on this planet anymore?"

Through various conversations with you, I've come to the conclusion that you seem like a functional, rational human being, if rather cynical, but even so, such people are quite capable of actually citing evidence to their points, rather than ten-second clips that convey nothing more than shock and hate. So now that I have said my piece, twice even, I would like to ask that you explain what it is that makes you think that the series has gone downhill.

[Zeldaman2.0]

I apologize for the rather inciting remark of saying "it sucks", but to be fair I had literally spent upwards of 10k in the Safari Zone (at 500 bucks a pop, mind you) just looking for Safari exclusives. I gave up when it came time for Tauros and just used the Missingno. glitch since I didn't really have much time left to spend, especially since I had also just found out the "wireless" is just local wireless. That said, I do see a lot of your points, and if you'll notice, I didn't dump on the writing at all. I love the writing, love how the stories have finally solidified themselves now, I enjoy immensely how they brought the moral quandary of capturing genuinely sentient creatures to light. It was a good thing, and I feel that in the future they should have Team Plasma come back as a sort of Hero Force instead of a Villain team. Mostly because DAT PLASMA THEME THOUGH.

I digress. You mention people being upset over new Pokemon designs and yet, there's several that go unnoticed that I feel should have gotten more attention. Like Rotom for the "it's just a human object" argument. Cubchoo is a gross pokemon and I will never forgive it or Beartic for being snotty and drooly. There's also the fact that, pokemon for Pokemon, I believe Gen V comes ahead of Gen I for "Most new, original designs", if we exclude "blobs of whatever and things that look like just objects, as well as anything that's just a round ball with tiny arms/legs". So we'd exclude things like Garbodor and Chansey, etc, and Gen V still came ahead. I love all of those things. Mostly what I'm angry at is just the completionist side of things. The "you need to buy a second set of things just to finish this" mentality. Also I bought DeSu Overclocked on sale, gonna play it sometime this year.

[Cremator of the Sky]

You desire an explanation? I shall gladly provide. First off, my shock was from the fact that the issues brought up with Pokemon were about incredibly minor things such as version exclusives, trade evolutions, and dex completion (which to be fair is a major pain if you really want to set out about that) when there's much worse issues within the franchise. And for the record, I enjoy Pokemon. I have really enjoyed the franchise, but it seriously pains me to see it nowadays when compared to how it used to be.

Arguing Pokemon's originality in regards to the newer Pokemon is something that'll get a bit weird when you look back at some of the originals considering how really generic some of them like Pidgey and its line are. On the other hand, Trubbish for example stole credit for land pollution from Grimer to form some kind of pollution Pokemon trinity when Grimer had been noted to have affects upon land and sea. Really, its kind of a mess when arguing about it.

In regards to writing, Gens 1 and 2 were really simple and I liked that. You were just some kid out on an adventure to be the best around and no one was going to keep you down. And that was all, that was it. None of this "You're the chosen one destined to SAAAAAAVE THE WORLD" stuff that's been part of the main games ever since Gen 3. That goes against the original intentions of what Pokemon was supposed to be about, at least from what I remember hearing about a while ago. That's something I'll have to look up again.

In regards to Black and White, I'm glad you know about that too. That's also why I'm fond of them, as well as the fact they introduced the best villain ever, Ghetsis Harmonia. The dude is a complete monster and I love every little thing he does. And the less we speak of Teams Aqua, Magma, and Flare the better.

Also, hate to break it to you... but Gen 6 is a broken mess mechanics wise. Yes, I know about Gen 1 and how Psychics ruled, but that's almost a drop in the bucket compared to what Gen 6 did. The game was not ready for the two new things it introduced, Mega Evolutions and Super Training. Sure, you can argue you don't have to use them but the fact if you DO use them then congratulations nothing in the game will stand up to you. The fact only two other people use Mega Evolutions and the fact that Pokemon with maxed out EVs gained from Super Training will grant your mons higher stats than usual nothing in the solo game can just stand up to you. I mean Hell, if you took the Lucario Corrina, or whatever her name was, then congratulations you literally have the best Pokemon you could ever hope to achieve due to having a good moveset, a great ability, and the fact that Mega Lucario is super great.

I'm glad they introduced the Fairy type though, but that does not excuse my previous points. Not even by a long shot.

I should probably work on my messages so I don't come off as a berserker mad man half the time when it comes to this stuff. I mean I am sorry, I really don't mean it 90% of the time. Also yes ZM, play Overclocked. It's easily one of the best SMT games.

[Haar_Dragon]

Gen 6's maingame is pretty broken, yes. There's...actually very little doubt about that. And yes, I agree, Team Flare is awful and I hate them. I still think that they're written that way on purpose, but...they're annoying. Anyhow, I personally choose to view Super Training as a much easier, less tedious alternative to EV training, in that it's geared toward competitive play rather than casual, and a large number of Mega Evolutions (Charizard...) were only made so that older pokemon that were severely outclassed could keep up with newer ones that didn't have the same disadvantages. Also...Mega Lucario is so broken it got banned. As is Mega Kangaskhan, and Soul Dew Latios/as. And Legendary Pokemon as a whole. And Pseudo-legendaries. And Stealth Rock. The list goes on, balancing was a problem long, long before Gen 6. My point was that they're giving it an effort to fix it.

And y'know what, I can understand why you'd like simple writing, but the fact remains that there was very little "writing" in Gen 1 and 2. Just go, fight a Gym Leader who doesn't say much more than that generic trainer in the woods twenty minutes ago, move on and occasionally fight the mafia. The only characters who...as far as I'm concerned, even qualify for the term, are your Rival and Giovanni. Maybe Oak, and maybe Fuji. But they're still very flat. In Johto, they did at least have the Whitney/Clair thing, but Elm definitely doesn't qualify as being present enough to be called a "character," and there's no Fuji, so really, they're only one up on Gen 1 in that regard. And it didn't improve in Gen 3 except for the presence of Steven, but regardless, I digress. My actual point is, while the stories of the games have gotten more complex than they really need to be, it lends itself very well to further development of characters who aren't Rivals or enemy Team leaders. Rowan is far more memorable than Birch, Clay did more to fight Plasma than Erika could have dreamed of doing against Rocket, and let's not forget that your rivals in Kalos are all consistently fighting Team Flare. As much of a joke as Team Flare are, it's still extremely gratifying to see someone other than you and two others tops, fighting against the main antagonists.

Dex completion is rather painful, yes, but...Vivillon can work absolute magic if you put it on GTS. I did agree that not everyone has that, but nobody seemed to disagree that the number is pitifully small. As for the Safari Zone, here's the trick: stand in a patch of grass and lightly tap the D-pad in a direction other than the one you're facing. If it works right, you should just turn in place, reactivate your encounter chance, and not use a step. Also, that is the reason they made it a normal area in more recent games. Because it's annoying.

And of course, there's the old generations being utterly broken. I didn't even need to bring up Psychic-type, but then there's the glitches, most of which are ridiculously easy to trigger. Focus Energy and Dire Hit were both broken and quartered your crit chance instead of raising it, and let's not forget the whole "twenty items of any description" thing. Like, the whole reason HMs are a gigantic pain in the ass to get rid of until a good 3/4 of the way through the game.

Wait...Cubchoo? I love Cubchoo. I'll admit I didn't realize Beartic was drooling and that's pretty gross, but Cubchoo looks like a teddy bear with a cold, I love it. And I didn't mind Rotom so much, on the grounds that it was only possessing a human object and its real form is actually just a surge. You want other new ones I don't like, there's Probopass for its dumb face, Magmortar for its being round and having massive lips, Electivire (to a faaaaaaar lesser extent) for being basically just fat Electabuzz, Eelektross for being an eel with arms, and a handful of others.

[Cremator of the Sky]

I really wholeheartedly believe that when the time came to make a villain team for X and Y everyone in GF decided to just half-ass it and make a terrible version of Team Plasma. Namely a team that was "lolz so RANDOM!" (be assured, I contracted five different diseases upon writing that satirical dialogue) while also trying to be a sophisticated threat... except Lysandre is Hypocrite Supreme and his higher ups clearly have no idea how to make a Pokemon team or even battle. Team Flare should be awarded though, never before have I seen a villainous organization that were not only terrible at face value, but even worse upon looking into their lore.

I feel I should note something Haar, I'm only SPECIFICALLY talking about solo game balancing. I really don't care about the competitive battling scene, don't have the time for it and my interest was killed long ago by a guy I used to know. I know the online community can and will do a good job at trying to balance itself, but GameFreak needs to do a better job of not breaking their games' single player content. Because you know, some people just like having a game to play by themselves. Because I'm not going to lie to you, if Sun and Moon are somehow worse than Gen 6 in that regard I'm going to accuse GameFreak of being the Nintendo equivalent to Activision and trying to make their games more based around multiplayer. Though I'm not going to lie, I have never known about any of the old glitches (aside from Missingno) so thus I never really used them.

Well you can HAVE a complex story without it having to be about saving the world. It just takes more effort and more lore establishing, which I certainly wouldn't mind. The problem I have with the plots of the Pokemon games starting at Gen 3 (and ignoring remakes) is that the games basically become "YOU'RE THE CHOSEN OOOOONE!1!!" You are destined for greatness and everyone else doesn't matter, they might as well not exist. And this came to a flying crescendo in Gen 6 when you acquired Mega Evolution. Why? Because you're the chosen one OBVIOUSLY, I mean who else in the game cares about Pokemon as much as you do? No one else, that's who!

I absolutely despise that trope in its entirety, but I'm not going to go on. I don't need to start channeling AM.

[Haar_Dragon]

Well with Lysandre, I've read that he's supposed to be insane. Like, realistically, certifiably insane. That said, I don't know any real people who fit that description, and I didn't get that from any official source, so it could easily have been people making excuses, and honestly, I'm not about to defend Team Flare for anything. Because really, more than anything else, they're just an annoyance, moreso than any other team in the franchise.

And yes, I do understand that, and I'm not into competitive play either, but that doesn't change the fact that Super Training was most likely designed as a tool for competitive players. But y'know what's really broken? Pokemon-Amie. Use it enough, and you start getting EXP bonuses, surviving lethal hits, shrugging off status ailments just because, and upping your crit rate. It's supposed to be because your Pokemon are willing to exert themselves more for you, but the fact that no other trainer in the world seems to use this system that everyone has in their pocket is nearly impossible to believe, and that it's actually disabled during online play and anything meant to emulate it (Battle Maison, etc) means it is exclusively single-player focused. Generation 6 was incredibly easy to step on and grind into dirt...okay yeah, the more I think about it, the less it seems single-player balanced, but I still don't dislike it, especially given that trying to go for Battle Facilities (or...just the Maison...) will still kick your ass to the moon.

I understand that complex plots not about saving the world exist, and that they take more effort, and I'm not against any of those things. It doesn't change the fact that more recent games are more complex than earlier ones. I would definitely appreciate a game that doesn't have you fighting a Legendary that you're forced to capture and use to defeat the leader of the villainous Team who was planning on using its power to destroy/remake/take over the region/world. I don't know about calling MC the "chosen one," though. Gen 3 you were kind of just the nearest person...and the only Trainer with any level of skill...in Gen 4 you weren't alone, and again you were kind of just the nearest person. Plus, given that you're with the League Champion at the time, it's entirely possible she would have been willing to step in if it looked like you were having trouble.

Gen 5...Technically, I guess, you were chosen by N. And Reshiram (assuming Black version because it's Black and White). And this one is actually incredibly hard for me to justify, even if there isn't any specific legend about Reshiram reviving and fighting Zekrom and whatever. Though I will say that it's not so much that everyone else doesn't matter so much as just that N likes you more. The climax even involves every Gym Leader except the Striaton Trio coming to back you up, all while your rivals are being helpful. They just send you forward because N likes you.

Gen 6...Not entirely, though definitely more so than previously. Like, when Xerneas/Yveltal awaken for you...and when your Mega Stone wakes up. That said, weren't Xerneas and Yveltal going to wake up anyway? And you're technically not the only person who can Mega Evolve. Korrina, Diantha, your Rival (eventually) and hell, even Lysandre (because...bonding?) do it too. It's just that apparently nobody else in Kalos gives a shit enough. That does explain the lack of Amie users, but while I could mention your rivals consistently being there...I'm not even going to pretend Tierno and Trevor exist, or that Serena or Shauna do anything more than the Gen 4 rivals.

So I do see your point, and I definitely don't much like the "only you matter" idea, I don't think it's as bad as it could be. It would be as bad as it could be, however, if there was specifically a myth mentioning the revival of anything (could be a giant evil cookie for all I care) and the presence of a person. Bonus anti-points if you get namedropped.

[Cremator of the Sky]

I've done a lot of looking into for Lysandre, so my criticisms and arguments can be as strong as possible, and never once as has insanity ever come up for his behavior. He's just a really badly written Nihilistic Narcissist who also due to bad writing is as much of a hypocrite as a certain man named Ronaldo.

Thank you for reminding me of Pokemon Amie, I completely forgot that existed because I never used it. I keep doing that apparently because a friend of mine had brought it up to me as well. And yeah, I know Super Training was probably made for the Competitive players and I'm glad Gamefreak decided to throw those guys a bone, as well as anyone else who wanted in but didn't want to go through the complete slog of it. Really, if Super Training was just something given to the player after beating the E4, my beef with it would be completely nonexistent, but oh well.

Mega Evolution and the fact almost no one else has it bothers the Hell out of me. In fact, the one good thing Lysandre even does is create a machine that basically emulates the Mega Stone watch or whatever its called allowing his Gyarados to go Mega. Are you really going to tell me in this Lighter and Softer SMT for kids franchise that no one else cares for their Pokemon as much as the player character and a couple named NPCs? ESPECIALLY when that's one of the themes of the franchise itself? Not even the Gyms Leaders or the Elite Four themselves have access to it and their probably the best examples of people who have great bonds with Pokemon. Maybe I should just stop thinking about it and just hope Gen 7 is better than Gen 6.

Don't even get me started on the rivals and how they haven't been great/notable since Silver. I could just go on for hours.

[Haar_Dragon]

Never said he was, only that I saw it from a source that may or may not be reliable. I guess I tend to be a little more lenient with the series since none of the villains are really any good except for N and Ghetsis. Giovanni is pretty good in Origins, though.

Well, considering the fact that Mega Stones and Key Stones are supposed to be pretty rare, it doesn't surprise me. What I don't get is, in ORAS, the E4 actually use Megas in their rematches. Were they holding back the first time? Doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose of having them be there? In any case, the fact remains that you can only find one of each Mega Stone, only at a certain time of day in X/Y (between 8 and 9 PM, because arbitrary limitations are the best...), and you can only see them while holding your Key Stone, I would imagine the number of users would be pretty limited. That said, OH BOY, HOW CONVENIENT THAT EVERYONE WHO HAS ONE IS A MAJOR CHARACTER! Like...there's you, Rival, Lysandre, and Champion. All very important people. How very...hm.

Oh, I will start everything. Blue/Green/Gary Oak has, in my opinion, never been succeeded. He was an absolute jerk every time, though the remakes played it as slightly more just ribbing (only slightly), and he made you want to win more than really anyone else since then has. Everyone else since Silver has been too friendly to actually care about beating them or not. It just makes me wish that you were allowed to lose rival battles, just so that if he beats you, it's for keeps, and you forever have that blemish on your save file.

Silver...I didn't like much in GSC. He just came off as a rambling idiot who would constantly talk about how much stronger he was than you and how power is everything. And then do the same thing, immediately after losing to you, and then call you weak as if you didn't just beat him. He's better in HGSS, where his development is a little more apparent, but in GSC, he was just a colossal moron, especially if you picked Totodile, leaving him with the worst-of-the-three-easily Meganium. Ice Fang, sucker.

As for everyone since then...May doesn't give a damn about anything, Barry is annoying, Dawn is useless (You let Team fucking Galactic take your pokedex.), Cheren and Bianca...are okay. Hugh wasn't awful, but he also wasn't much of a rival either. And of course, there's Gen 6's rivals, who are all very uninteresting and don't seem to have much in the way of drive. Much like May, except very slightly more emotional. Very slightly.

[Cremator of the Sky]

Yes they were and therefore yes that defeats the purpose of having them. I would say this is like how the Gym Leaders in Johto are capable of packing six roster teams of Pokemon all in their 50-60s, but those are the Gym Leaders, not the Elite Four who should be going all out and testing whoever they're fighting. I would say GF needs to rework the lore for Mega stones and Keystones, but that's really obvious at this point. Because you know who else should be using Mega Evolutions? The Gym Leaders.

Fun fact, you could actually lose a battle against both Blue AND Silver. And while I view Blue as the classic iconic rival that all rivals should be like, I feel Silver is his true successor in that regard. Hell, I feel Silver honestly surpasses Blue in some respects. While it's true Silver doesn't have a whole lot going for him in the beginning and he acts like a complete jackoff (as a good rival should) so you want to beat him next time. What Silver has over Blue is the fact he begins to change as a character somewhere near the end of the Johto section of G/S/C/HGSS thanks to Lance giving off a broken aesop. After you beat him in Victory Road, Silver can be found in Mt. Moon where he's really changed since the player last encountered him for starters he doesn't challenge the player to a battle out of malice like he did beforehand.

Upon losing at Mt. Moon, not only does Silver finally admit that he's lost, but also that he's going to keep training to become the most powerful trainer ever and he's going to do it with his Pokemon behind him recognizing them now as his partners. This shows in the rematches at the Indigo Plateau as his Golbat is now a Crobat. While the franchise has given Silver some other looks into his character as its gone on, just going off of G/S/C alone shows he has some of the best writing for the early entries. Now that isn't to say Blue hasn't had any, because after all by G/S/C he's shown to be more reflective ever since he lost to Red, yet he still maintains his arrogance (and is prominently beaten down for it).

And yeah, every rival following them has been too nice and honestly one-note. Brendan/May is just helping you out and wants to be friends, Wally is the archetype of so many Pokemon OCs (wimp kid with a Ralts/Gardevoir), Barry is a hyperactive moron, Bianca is a ditz, Cheren is a nerd who never really learns what Alder (the best Champion EVER) was trying to tell him, Hugh is generic, and the Gen 6 rivals are completely worthless and generic. I also hope Gen 7 fixes this.

[Haar_Dragon]

Oh right, the other thing I liked about Blue. The fact that he's now Kanto's eighth Gym as of GSC. Like...that's another thing that's great. After losing to Red, who he had considered himself as being above (...again, he should be allowed to win after you fight him in Oak's lab...) he's given a lesson by his grandfather on exactly why he lost. And his demeanor shows that he has at least somewhat taken it to heart, and he is slightly more humble, but not to the point of breaking character. Like "Let's see if you're really as good as you think you are" as opposed to "And now I'm going to wreck you because I'm good." And he seems to have accepted his level of strength, if his taking up the eighth Gym Leader position is anything to go by. Also, Viridian seems to be cursed...

Was he that way in GSC? I don't seem to remember that being the case. I seem to remember him being a condescending asshole 100% of the time, until the final confrontation when you knock some sense into him. HGSS, though, he seems more confused about why he lost, and increasingly so, until Lance gives him said broken aesop, at which point he starts to wise up a bit. As I recall, GSC Silver dismissed it as stupid rambling, and while this is quite some time ago, I seem to remember feeling like his final confrontation with you in GSC came off as more of a vow of revenge. But then again, I never fought him in rematches in the original, so I'm probably not the best guy to ask.

Anyway, point is, Silver has grown on me since I first played Gold in...I think middle school...? Some time around then. And yeah, further thought on the rivals tells me that most of the later ones...kinda suck. I'm glad they tried a friendly rivalry, but I don't think it worked very well. Cheren and Bianca are the best since then, because they have character traits other than "Hey, we're friends!" and "Who has time to count?!" The latter is an actual line from Barry, and it's pretty much the entire summary of his character. At least Gen V's rivals get some kind of development. Even if they are overshadowed by N, and I don't care what anyone says, N is your rival and Ghetsis is the Team Plasma Leader. I don't care if even the game disagrees with me on that one, because N just fits the rival position too well.

[Cremator of the Sky]

Yup, that's how Silver was in GSC. He did kind of dismiss it at first but after you beat him in Victory Road he actually begins to contemplate Lance's broken aesop and starts to take it to heart shortly after. I need to pick up a copy of SS and playthrough that again because I don't want to restart my copy of HG to play through the best game in the franchise (at this point in time hopefully). So yeah, Blue, Silver, and N are the best rivals ever because I totally agree with you that N is basically your Rival in B/W.

[Zeldaman2.0]

So I watched GATE a few weeks back. Holy fuck, what a good show. What a solid, really interesting show. The only complaints that I have is that some things only exist for a few episodes as a plot point and a couple characters are a little more useless than I'd like for them to be. And I can't even remember what either season's OP sounds like, or any music aside from one piece that's not intrinsically "from" the show. But the good far, FAR outweighs the bad with this one. There's a lot of nuance to the writing and it shows that the writers did a lot of homework into making the "modern military versus fantasy medieval military regime" thing work. Any character with any kind of above-average (speaking of which, most background characters have a similar level of detail to a lot of major characters themselves!) detail to them will have a name and several speaking lines, and will also have at least 2 or 3 episodes where they interact with others. Case in point, a girl that shows up in a fight in episode 6 is still somewhat relevant and gets attention in episode 14, shit like that, even though she was initially grouped together with a bunch of nobodies.

TL;DR I loved GATE so much I'll probably watch it again before I watch Gurren again. It's that good.

[Haar_Dragon]

On a similar note, because of having been told by a friend it doesn't hold up, as well as a certain internet reviewer, I've started going through the Teen Titans animated series again. I'm not sure in what way it doesn't hold up. Like...I'm only a little over halfway through the series, but it's been pretty solid so far, especially for a kids' show. Not to say it's as good as I remember it, but I definitely think it holds up well. And in fact, I've made a whole list of other cartoons I remember to go back and watch through, including Batman, Superman, maybe Justice League, Static Shock, probably the old Spiderman and X-Men cartoons, and some non-comic-related stuff like Jackie Chan Adventures and Xiaolin Showdown.

...I have a lot of cartoons to watch, holy crap.

[khfreak358]

Was that reviewer Linkara, by any chance?

[Haar_Dragon]

Indeed it was. I'm surprised you felt the need to ask, actually.

[khfreak358]

Eh, it was more of a guess. I hadn't heard him say that exactly, but I do recall, a few years ago, him saying something similar on Twitter to Vincent E.L., the guy who does his theme song. Vincent had said that he started watching the show and didn't entirely get the hype surrounding it, saying that Young Justice had a much stronger start. Lewis replied to it saying something along the lines of the show not getting really good until season 4, with some other "good-ish" seasons. At least, I think that's what he said. While I will concede with Vincent in that Young Justice does have a much better start, I heavily disagree with the fact that season 4 is where the show starts to get good. It's certainly the high point, yes, but I really enjoy all five seasons as far as overall story arcs go. But, hey, what do I know?

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