[First Impressions] Pokémon X and Y

I've not been on a gaming hiatus by any means, but I have been setting up new Xbox One and Wii systems, gathering up some new games for review, and then actually playing those games so I had some things to say. So new content will be coming soon (Story of Seasons just came out, for example; I've almost finished Sunset Overdrive for Xbox One; I've been playing Destiny on the weekends; Tamriel Unlimited is out soon; and I still need to play more Inquisition).

For now, though, I'd like to revisit Pokémon X and Y.

I originally bought my 3DS system solely because X and Y were coming out and for me, they were the must-have that made me bite the bullet and buy a 3DS.

I ended up not playing them very much. I played 30 hours, but somehow ended up with only two badges, and I burnt out. I've now restarted, with a much more select team (see my post on ORAS for how I ported over all my Pokémon so I could restart). I have a few stumbling blocks that prevent me from really getting into X and Y. The new list of Pokémon is kind of alien to me, and I don't want to just use the same Pokémon all over again. So this time, I'm trying out training some new Pokémon. I'm taking advantage of the EXP Share as much as I can let myself. I would really like to actually finish a Pokémon game for the first time since... well, before Black and White, actually.

A Quilladin named Teddy was my Starter and choice for Grass type this time around. He's a bit troll-looking, but has a good amount of power, and makes a pretty cheery travelling companion.

My choice for next permanent-training Pokémon was a bit harder, since I always capture a Flying type next for the permanent part of my team. Having both Pidgey-- yes, one of my favorite Pokémon-- and the adorable firebird that is Fletchling, made the choice difficult. But I've trained at least twenty Pidgey over the course of my life (they were once part of a breeding project for me), and this is only my second Fletchling, so I found a cute little girl that I named Arrow.

Besides that, I'm currently rocking a Psyduck (I've wanted a Golduck since Red, but somehow never managed to get one), a Rhyhorn, Mienfoo, and a Helioptile. (I'm not sure about the Helioptile.)

I like the Pokémon well enough, but I'm still not really drawn into the game. Like always, I'm compelled to train the Pokémon, but something about the layout of the towns irritates me-- maybe the metropolis setting?-- and I haven't really liked the Pokémon well enough to search out every one in each area to capture.

I'll have more thoughts on it later. Perhaps I still need to get back into the Pokémon groove. However, Etrian Mystery Dungeon and Story of Seasons were just released, and I have lots to do there as well!

Ah, the gaming life.

[First Impressions] Pokémon Omega Ruby, P1

Oh hey, it's that time again. You're going cross-eyed, you're practically glued to the screen of your handheld-- yup, the new Pokémon game is out, and this time, it's Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.

My two favorite Pokémon games were Silver/Gold and Sapphire/Ruby. I loved those games. I played the shit out of those games. I did intense breeding experiments in Sapphire/Ruby, which is one of the reasons that I'm so unhappy they changed Mauville's layout - too many loading screens in the hub town right next to the Day Care Center, and also it's just stupid looking, like a giant mall. Silver/Gold I was just flat out in love with. I still remember entering the forest at night and seeing my first HootHoot. It was magical.

I'm just getting back from the volcanic wastes of Fallarbor and need to go pursue my next Gym Badge at Lavaridge. I've reached the point where I'm about ready to murder if I don't get Fly ASAP. I'd kill to have a decent Electric Pokémon on my team, since I refuse to use that ridiculous Cosplay Pikachu. (Seriously, what the hell is wrong with that thing?) Fortunately, Flannery, the Gym Leader of Lavaridge, uses Fire Pokémon, which is going to be fairly easy, given that two of my Pokémon in my current team are part Water, and only one of the rest are weak against Fire.

Current Battling Team:

Ricardo (Marshtomp, L23)
Ability: Torrent

Bide
Mud Shot
Water Gun
Mud Bomb

I've never used Swampert before, so picking Mudkip as my starter was a new experience for me. I was very impressed by how the Water/Ground combo played out, meaning that he is completely immune to Electricity-- color me impressed! I will probably leave him as my Water choice for the game, but I'm not convinced yet. His current attacks deal some damage while also draining stats, which can be an interesting play-style.

Sinatra (Nuzleaf, L21)
Ability: Early Bird

Beat Up
Razor Wind
Growth
Razor Leaf

I had Sapphire originally, so getting access to Seedot/Nuzleaf/Shiftry couldn't have made me happier. I immediately fell in love when I started using this little guy. His Beat Up move deals a decent amount of damage, despite taking a long time since it has to hit 6 times. Razor Wind and Razor Leaf are both great moves as well, and overall, Sinatra deals a decent amount of straight damage. I'm still trying to pick my parties for both first and second run-throughs on the Elite 4, but I like this guy so much I might build one party or the other around him entirely.

Lucille (Kirlia)
Ability: Trace

Heal Pulse
Magical Leaf
Confusion
Double Team

Here's the thing. I prefer Kadabra/Alakazam. Don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but this Kirlia was a bitch and a half to raise. It dies one shot most of the time, and isn't quite powerful enough to one-hit KO, which is what you need in a Psychic. The Heal Pulse is only useful in Doubles and it can't heal itself, but Lucille is always the one that needs the healing, since it's so weak. I think it could make a great Doubles Pokémon, if its partner has a move that can draw attacks away from it (essentially making it a healer/magic unit guarded by a tank). Unless some things change, I can't see taking this one with  me to the League. (Note for later-- if I can get a Riolu and breed it to a male Clefairy with Follow Me, I could use Riolu as the tank; chance of male Clefairy is 1:4)

Gable (Mightyena, L22)
Ability: Quick Feet

Fire Fang
Howl
Snarl
Bite

I've always loved Mightyena. Mightyena was part of the breeding program I ran in the original Sapphire/Ruby. I have some grudges against this particular Mightyena, since I neglected leveling it, and then had a tough time and just expected it to rock with opponents the same level or higher than itself. That might be part of my problem with my Kirlia as well. This Mightyena, Gable, has served me well, since it had Fire Fang when I caught it. Fire moves are damn hard to come by, and I don't know what I would have done sometimes without it.

Makit (Hariyama)
Ability: Guts

Force Palm
Vital Throw
Fake Out
Arm Thrust

I can't say I've ever used Hariyama. I had a Torchic in the originals for my fighting type, and when I don't have Torchic, Machop tends to be my go-to. Hariyama is great, though. Makit is an in-game trade, meaning it gets a nice boost for EXP, and Mariyama has one of the highest HP stats in the game. Fighting Pokémon require a lot of strategy and planning to use, since all of their attacks are fighting moves that do damage based on different things (the weight of your opponent, your own weight, whether you go first or last, etc). I really like using them for this reason. Definitely taking this one with me to end-game.

007 (Wingull, L23)
Ability: Keen Eye

Water Pulse
Air Cutter
Supersonic
Wing Attack

This is the fun thing about sneaking in ORAS (Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire): you can occasionally get a dud. This happened a few times for me, actually, before I figured out how the DexNav feature worked. I would normally use the pure Flying Taillow, since it's the first Flying type you can catch. Pidgey is my preference, and I love Starly as well, but in this game, it would be Taillow. Instead, the Taillow I caught had no offensive moves, meaning I had to level it way slower than my other Pokémon, and Wingull ended up way outstripping it. Water Pulse is a great attack with a Confused side-effect, Supersonic can aid that confusion, and Wing Attack is a great Flying move. This one is going to stick with me for a while until I find my perfect Zubat. Pelipper is unfortunately too slow to be adequate in the long-run, but I am pretty fond of 007 regardless. I expect to drop it shortly after I gain access to Fly, and can easily train a lower-level Pokémon up, potentially Skarmory.

[First Impressions] Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo

As you can see, the model for Orlando (the avatar) is actually smaller than the others, since he's 10.

After receiving access to the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Demo, I promptly took a bevy of pictures and videos.

Updated May.

The demo was actually very bad. Not that the game will be bad, but there wasn't very much in it that make it worth playing. Content is dull, linear, and repetitive. You are a boy named Orlando who is helping Steven out with some Magma/Aqua problems in Mossdeep. There are a couple battles. You see the updated May and Magma/Aqua uniforms, and Aqua has some pretty hilarious dialogue about how the girl's costume is great because do you see her midriff?! That's about it.

The updates you are told about are the cut-scene around flying, where you get great aerial views; the PokéNav showing an updating news feed on your bottom screen; the new Primal Reversion aspect of Mega Evolution; and the Stealthy feature where you can do a stealthy walk to sneak up to Pokémon by slowly creeping forward with the left analog stick. The most interesting information was actually in the cutscene after you beat the demo, which shows interesting-looking Pokémon battles and Secret Bases, which is no doubt going to be great given the wireless features on the 3DS. It also looks like what your Pokémon is wearing will appear in Pokémon battles as well? There was a lot of really great stuff that the demo just didn't give you access to.

It did, however, do the job of convincing me to preorder Omega Ruby, so as of today, I will officially have it on preorder! I am excited, and Aqua/Magma is one of my favorite teams. Look forward to my play-through at the end of November!

Something I do hope they implement: the ability to skip through battle animations and maybe the flying animation. Battles were very boring considering they didn't require much strategy in the demo, and I couldn't skip through it.

HEADDESK HEADDESK HEADDESK

Head, meet desk. Desk, meet head. Why, precisely, is the DS so crap for wireless? I try on the public internet hotspot-- it connects, but fails mid connection and dies. I try on another public internet hotspot. Same problem. After cringing and hesitating, I shell out an extra five bucks to get a special adapter for home. Same problem! I fiddle with the settings on the DS. Oh my god, no longer the same problem. Now, a different problem. Error 52100. I hear tell of disabling firewalls. I disable my firewall. I repeat that, I disable my firewall. I feel violated now, and it still didn't work. Still, Error 52100. DS, I hate you now. I WANT MY LIBERTY PASS!

Pokémon White: Day Seven

Since I've posted last, my number of badges has gone from two to five. I am a badge-winning machine! I'm outside of Mistralton City, prior to earning the Jet Badge. Basically, I'm training and trying to rein in my utter hatred of slogging through anymore tough terrain. @_@ Too much gaming in too little time.

I've also managed to net myself a Zorua! Due to my frequent GameStop trips, I transferred over a Shiny legendary with the Relocation machine in Castelia and captured Zoroark in Lostlorn Forest. The first thing I did, of course, was breed away so that I could get Zorua, since it's an adorable black fox. I was tempted to name it Naruto, but didn't. Maybe next time.

A whole bunch of Pokémon have evolved by this point. Ianto (name from Torchwood; could not resist given "Sewing Pokémon" and Ianto's claim that his father was a master tailor) is now a Leavanny. Jane evolved into an Unfezant, and Hammer is a Simisear. Lara also evolved, into Liepard; Dupin evolved into Swoobat; Morgan evolved into Watchog. I think that, fortunately, wraps it up.

Current party:

Dupin - Swoobat, L32
Rose - Munna, L26
Sherlock - Servine, L29
Jin - Timburr, L24
Morgan - Watchog, L25
Moriarty - Panpour, L24

Pokémon White: Day Three

I've FINALLY made it to Castelia City, and I have two words for you: Skyarrow Bridge. The bridge provides a gorgeous view; it's obviously extant only to show off the new world's scope, graphics, and camera work. It's awesome. I unfortunately didn't get much else done, but my current party is set up for me to go into the Battle Tower and get ready for the gym.

Current party:

Hammer - Pansear, L19
Jane - Pidove, L18
Rose - Munna, L18
Jin - Timburr, L18
Moriarty - Panpour, L18
Lara - Purrloin, L17

Name origins this time: Hammer is from Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog and Captain Hammer. The Pan-monkeys are all named after arch-nemeses. Bilis is the Pansage I have; the name is a time-traveler from Torchwood.

Pokémon White: Day Two

The most astonishing thing about Pokémon White? TMs don't break! Finally, because that never made sense given they're supposed to be CDs or something. Also, when a Pokémon falls asleep, their eyes close. It's the little things that count.

I beat my second gym and am now back in the Pinwheel Forest, chasing after a dragon skull and Team Plasma. I sympathize so hard with Team Plasma. I keep comparing them with real life organizations and thinking that they're going a bit too far, but they've got good intentions. I think you're supposed to think that. In-game, everyone goes on about how Team Plasma really seem to believe what they're saying. I don't know. I hope the game doesn't cop out with an easy answer of right/wrong. Team Plasma is fighting for Pokémon rights, and that's cool.

I still haven't managed to find a decent Wi-Fi connection so that I can get a Liberty Pass. I am so amazingly bummed you would not believe.

Current Pokémon in my party--

Penelope - Herdier, L16
Anne - Audino, L15
Morgan - Patrat, L15
Moriarty - Panpour, L15
Dupin - Woobat, L15
Jane - Pidove, L13

This is the in-training party at the moment, so most of my higher levels are in storage following the gym battle. That includes Sherlock, my Snivy, who evolved into Servine, and is at L17; Lara, my Purrloin, who is at L17; as well as Rose, my Munna, and Jin, my Timburr, who are at L18.

New name origins you might not know: Dupin is from Poe's series of detective stories. Jane is from Jane Marple, Agatha Christie. Jin is Jin Kazama from Tekken Tag (and other Tekkens, of course). Other fighting types will be named after Tekken characters as well. Oh, and Morgan is Derek Morgan from Criminal Minds. He and Penelope were the first two I caught. I taught him Cut, so he'll be around off and on. I hate Patrat, but oh well. (He's weak too, to add insult to uglyness!)

Pokémon White: Day One

Pokémon White arrived today, a day earlier than the shipping estimate said it would! My utter joy is tamed only by the knowledge that I've gotten absolutely nothing done except a fairly good start on my game. I have homework!

I went against my own principles and I ordered from Amazon. Mostly, because I don't have a car and getting to GameStop is hard. @_@

Amazon is sending in envelopes now. I'm actually grateful; it's a pain to get rid of those boxes. Also, do you know how much fun it is to play a DS with bright blue nails? It tickles something deep inside me that I suspect is related to Harajaku Girls or some such thing. More likely, The World Ends With You and fashion warped my brain.

My current party is

Sherlock - Snivy, L15
Rose - Munna, L14
Penelope - Lillipup, L15
Moriarty - Panpour, L13
Anne - Audino, L13
Lara - Purrloin, L12

and I've made it to the Pinwheel Forest, prior to my 2nd gym badge. For the interested, my Pokémon are named after detectives or villains, largely. Sherlock and Moriarty are obvious-- Rose is after Rose Tyler from Doctor Who, Penelope is Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds, Anne is Anne Bradstreet from Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit, and Lara is from Tomb Raider.

First impressions: the graphics are impressive. The cities and buildings have such a sense of scope and depth. You get a sense of how big things actually are, which you never did in the previous games. The cut-scene is new, the story is chilling and almost adult. The Pokémon actually move during battle scenes, and the people-sprites are awesome now. Also, I have friends. Friends. In-game. That never happens in Pokémon. They have their own backgrounds and stories and families and I genuinely like them.

Still, the Pokémon could actually attack rather than just move around cutely. And why aren't the Pokémon voice-acted instead of mechanical sounding? Copyright issues? Panning in and out adds to the sense of depth and makes it look as if the Pokémon sprites are actually attacking when they're not. For some reason, though, when you look at your own Pokémon from behind, it's sort of grainy. I accept this in exchange for movement, though.

Why have my women been replaced with females?

Pokémon Black and White are officially out! My copy will be arriving tomorrow or the next day, and after that, I'll be doing daily updates of how virtual life is going. I can't wait!

I've been playing Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light for the past several days. I stopped right before the boss in Arbor and then had to make my way down out of the dungeon (tree-geon, since I was in a tree?) and get some fire-based weapons, since I'd forgotten them. Then, I was able to get to the snowy land up north on our map, hatched a dragon, and got really freaking annoyed that I had to play a math minigame over and over and over and over-- you can see where this is going-- until I was able to get the Beastmaster crown. ARGH! After a brief time with Jusqua again, sailing the oceans blue, I'm back with Yunita, trying to level her up into something useful, which is a trial.

One thing that really bugs me about 4 Heroes of Light: so, it's supposed to be a throwback to earlier games. Limited pack space, spells that you don't just learn without having the actual book for it, etc. But do the female characters have to be such twits? Aire is a princess. If she wasn't weaker than the other characters, I honestly would be angry, because she hasn't ever had to deal with that thing before. But Yunita is supposed to be Aire's bodyguard, and everyone ends up taking care of her because she's so completely hopeless. She should be stronger than she is, or at least more capable, and she isn't. So our two character models for women are this: a whiny, bratty, incredibly weak and spoiled princess, or a fretful, weak, annoying guard who couldn't distinguish her ass from a hole in the ground and who the other characters keep leaving because she's so annoying. The two male characters are annoying too, but at least they're capable and annoying.

...What? Seriously? NO decent female characters? What about FFX-2?! What about FFXIII? WHERE DID THE DECENT FEMALE CHARACTERS GO?! Why can't be throwback have updated female character roles?

*sigh*

At least Pokémon lets me choose my gender, and it doesn't affect anything in-game.

Okay, so I may have lied to you....

Okay, so I may have lied to you. I did not update about Dragon Age: Origins. I apologize. I am a horrible, horrible person. However, I bring good news for the Pokémon fans! ('Cause we all know that's where my mind has been at these last few days/weeks/months.)

Amazon has released this news regarding Victini:

Order and receive your game by April 10th to receive a special Liberty Pass via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection (broadband Internet access required), which will enable you to catch the never-before-seen Mythical Pokémon Victini the Victory Pokémon--the first Pokémon that’s Psychic- and Fire-type and cannot be obtained through normal game play

Note that I'm pretty sure you don't actually have to buy from Amazon to get this deal. I think you just have to log on to the Wi-Fi before April 10th. This means that, yes, we will be able to get Victini! SWEET! I'm so glad that the USA is getting these things now. Now, to figure out how to make my DS's Wi-Fi work for the first time ever

Maybe DAO later tonight? I offer this to you tentatively, but my homework is pretty light today.

Final Legendary News and Preorders

My gaming life recently has been surprisingly productive. I have two of the three Shiny Legendaries that GameStop gave out (DAMN YOU, Raikou, for escaping me!), and have actually managed to afford to preorder my copy of Pokémon White, by way of selling a textbook, which netted me enough to buy a book for a class and the ink I desperately need for my printer as well as my preorder.

I managed to play Dragon Age for a while last weekend, so news on that soon. I really need to get my butt in gear playing that, but seriously, 18 credits per semester! History classes! English classes! Severe money problems! Many other problems! @_@

Dragon Age post tomorrow, probably, since I have to study for a French test tonight.

Cheers!

Hardware Updates, Dragon Age, and Pokémon Event Reminder

Just as a reminder to everyone, Shiny Suicune is available in GameStops from now until February 6th (Sunday), so be there or be cubic! If you can, preorder your Pokémon Black or White from GameStop rather than Amazon-- Amazon is taking a lot of GameStop's business, and perhaps one day we might not have game stores anymore! HORRORS!

In related news, I have Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light now, which I got over Christmas. As soon as I have free time (LOL!) I will post a review of it (preview: it is awesome.) I will also be posting what will hopefully be daily updates on Dragon Age progress, though it might end up weekly. I haven't played it in forever, I.E. since my last post about it, but I'm in a computer-gaming mood, finally, so we're good to go.

The 3DS will be out relatively soon.... I'm interested in seeing in-store demonstrations, since so far I'm not impressed, simply because we have no clue what the graphics are going to be like. I don't think that can capture over videos, so in-store demonstrations are going to be the way to go on the 3DS. This probably means that a new version of the PSP will be out soon, so if you want to buy a PSP, I would hold off, since the price will probably drop dramatically pretty soon.

GameStop Promotion!

I just want to let everyone know that GameStop is having a promotional involving Shiny legendary Pokémon-- Entei, Suicune, and Raikou. The last one, Suicune, is only available until until February 6th, and Entei stops being available on January 23rd. I, unfortunately, missed Raikou, whose distribution stopped in the first week of January. Full information is available on GameStop's website. Getting at least one of the Shinies guarantees you access later on to Zoroark.

Excited for Black and White yet? My decision on White has been made, decided by the fact that Poochyena and Mightyena are exclusive to White.

Bad Sellers Update

As an update on my bad sellers experience with capricornmedia, he has said that he will refund me the money of the game and pay for the return shipping to him. I haven't been credited this yet, but I'll edit this post when I have gotten it back. The tracking says it should be to him today or tomorrow.

In related news, since I was cheated out of a Pokémon LeafGreen experience, I played Pokémon Diamond for most of my Thanksgiving break. I've found it really hard to make myself like this game, so I've never been able to finish it. I think that the key to my problem is just not catching Bidoof or Starly, the two pokémon that I despise that appear throughout the entire game. I chose to raise a Zubat as my flying pokémon, which is an... interesting experience. Zubat require a certain frame of mind to use, since confusing your opponent and making it hurt itself is often the best battles strategy, because your attack power-- for a long time, but not forever-- sucks.

More on that later if I manage to charge my DS.

Cheers!

@_@

Do NOT buy from capricornmedia on eBay. The copy of Pokémon LeafGreen was a bootleg copy. I wouldn't have minded that in the least if it didn't DELETE MY SAVE FILE AFTER FIVE HOURS! Die, capricornmedia, die! They were five hours of awesome! I was naming Pokémon after old mystery detectives. It was great. And the save file said it had been deleted.

Screw you, capricornmedia. I should have known better than to buy a game from eBay.

Bought Notice: Pokémon LeafGreen

So, I've been a major Pokémon freak ever since I was little. Pokémon Red was the first game I ever bought for the GameBoy. Heck, it was the first game I ever bought, ever. So I was sort of astonished to realize that the only time I never bought one of the two releases that GameFreak puts out, it was for the FireRed/LeafGreen remakes. The Pokémon games may disappoint in a lot of ways-- the fact that the sprites don't ever effing move and the attacks don't look like anything-- but I'm still a loyal fan. When Pokémon Black comes out in the US, I will be buying it immediately even if Nintendo was an asshole over that whole screenshot thing. (YOU SUCK, NINTENDO!)

Anyway, this is all coming up to the point of my post: I've been trolling eBay for a decent (and cheap) copy of LeafGreen, which was difficult since the game is hard to get complete anymore, with box, manual, and cartridge. I was finally planning on giving up and just getting the cartridge when, lo and behold, there was a copy with box, manual, and cartridge for a reasonable amount. I bought it immediately, because games that have become even semi-rare are a point of pride with me. Though how a Pokémon game-- or, at least a complete copy-- become semi-rare, I'll never know.

So, look for more info about that later.