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veryimportantsparkles · 1 year

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The story thus far...

Megan (me) has been going through some kind of midlife crisis, but it's for the midlife of the Pokemon franchise. There's a long and convoluted gameplan that won't be explained here because parts of it are stupid. In this stupid part, I replayed Sapphire on an extra cartridge we had for reasons, MOSTLY to get a Latias, but also to refresh my memory on the events of 3rd gen. This was a relatively simple project, compared to the three separate playthroughs I just did for Leaf Green. I did not saddle myself with nickname theme gimmicks nor did I train any unevolved starters up to level 60. There was also no necromancy this time, and none of my Pokemon were burdened with the legacy of their forefathers. Pretty straightforward.

This post is to commemorate the brave and mighty Pokemon who fought for the championship in this playthrough, the

~~✨Second Sapphire Gijinka Journey✨~~

Becky Fern is our valiant starter. She thought she could solo the entire game, and that was almost true. She kicked her way across Hoenn, stopping only to cower from Brendan's Swampert and various Psychic-types. As the starter, she was forced into a 'big sister' role for every Pokemon I caught, and she hated it. She thought level grinding with the Exp. Share was a waste of time. But although she'll never admit it, she needed these losers. And she's proud of them.

Eryn Fern was the first Pokemon I caught after starting the journey with Becky. Shroomish are found in the Petalburg Woods, so Becky spent the first few routes and towns as the only Pokemon in my party. She was so mad when her 'only child' status was revoked. But I wanted a Breloom, they're neat!

So, Breloom's moveset options hinge on knowing Spore, and in order to learn it you have to leave a Shroomish unevolved until level 54. So Eryn spent the entire journey with an Everstone on, only to evolve right before the championship fight. The poor guy has no self confidence because he was stuck in baby mode for so long. But he's strong. And he's lucky; Dynamic Punch has 50% accuracy, but somehow in the Elite Four battles he managed to land his hits every single time.

When I first caught Shina Nera Fern, I thought it would be cool to train a Shedinja. Unfortunately, either I'm managing her wrong or Nera just isn't very good at battling. But Shina, the Ninjask, has been a great fighter. Shina and Nera both are big fans of Becky, they're sort of like Becky's cheerleaders. But Shina considers herself a friendly rival to Becky, and aspires to become stronger than her hero. She did it too; I entered the Elite Four with everyone at level 55 and Shina was the first to level to 56, making her officially stronger than Becky.

Ambience Fern was caught around the same time I got Shina, but I wasn't sure at first if she'd stay on the team. She's actually got decent stats and kept up with the rest of the team. Eventually I got her Ice Beam and that provided important coverage against Flying-types, which Becky, Eryn, and Shina are all weak to. I gave her Flamethrower in between attempts at the Elite Four, and I think that was the change that got us the win.

Ambi's appearance and personality was built around her Whismur form and she's kept a lot of those affectations. She's a shy little pastel-wearing princess, even if she's a giant shoutmonster who shoots three different types of mouth laser. She is soft and she cares about her friends a lot.

Ponderous Fern was added to the team because I encountered a Spoink and thought, "oh neat, a Spoink." He beat Becky in that fight before I could capture him! He's a prodigy and Becky hates him. He and Eryn are buddies, they get to sit together at the scorned-by-Becky table. He's normally soft-spoken and agreeable but he'll be rude and sarcastic to Becky, usually because she instigates it.

Spoinks really like pearls, which they somehow steal from Clamperls despite the 0% overlap between those species' habitats. Even after evolving, Ponder keeps a collection of pearls that he can use as amplifiers for his psychic power. Over the course of our journey we were given the Blue Orb, a key item that awakens Kyogre. Ponder claimed it and he won't give it back. It's his favorite orb. It's a key item so he can't hold it (I checked), but he won't let it go.

And finally, we have Hanna World, our world pillar. Now, every time I have to reset a cartridge I take every Pokemon out of it first, but you're required to have one Pokemon on the file. They get deleted when you make a new save file, so I commemorate them by catching a new version in the new file. The old file in this cart had an OT named Hanna, and I left behind a level 15 unnamed female Spinda. When I encountered a level 15 female Spinda in the new file, she gained the name Hanna. She's a clown, I guess.

Every 'world sacrifice' Pokemon gets a design theme that stands out from the others. Prometheus got a toga, Fujiko got a kimono, and Hanna is a clown. Or maybe, Spindas are just like this? She's dizzy and wobbly and giggly and says a lot of ominous shit. She's great in battle, although sadly her role in the Elite Four was mostly to stall while I healed someone else. She's always a sacrifice of some kind. Is it poetic? Maybe not.

Anyways they beat the game! Good job, kids!

After their victory, we went after my original goal, the Latias that only appears in postgame. I Master Balled her the moment we got her to show up. To give the team a little more challenge and adventure, we went after the Regis and Rayquaza. With some vital assistance from Inari, Mola, and Dayo we got all our legendaries, and this cartridge is concluded.

My next playthrough is Alpha Sapphire, which I'm playing for the first time. The idea is that with regular Sapphire fresh in my memory I'll get the most out of the remake's changes. I've already started gijinka designs for that run! When the game is completed, that cartridge is the promised land for a bunch of my champions from various 3rd, 4th, and 5th gen games. But before their world gets overrun by level 100 turtles from beyond reality, the locals need to tell their story. It's coming, I'm up to Mossdeep and my main obstacle is getting sidetracked by Super Training and berry farming.

I made this post really big because I'mma blaze it! Hi, random tumblr users! Follow my sideblog Popkas for non-OC-focused Pokemon shitposts! Let's find out if there's a size limit for blazeable posts!!!

#doodles #pokemon #gijinkas #second sapphire gijinka journey #gpoy #becky #blaziken #eryn #breloom #shina #ninjask #ambience #exploud #ponderous #grumpig #hanna #spinda

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teamyellremade · 2 years

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i just remembered that, for my latest alpha sapphire playthrough, im pretty sure i decided for some reason i Needed to catch rayquaza and deoxys in luxury balls

which. that part of the delta episode has you fight zinnia, fight (and catch) rayquaza, then fight (and catch) deoxys in rapid succession all without the chance to save in between

i also had a limited stock of luxury balls on me bc theyre Expensive (so i couldnt just waste em all on rayquaza)

i also caught my zamazenta in a beast ball too though so.

#hey who gives a digit?

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moved-to-void-kissed · 3 years

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🌍 with your xenoblade 2 s/is ?

Ah, thank you for this, Clara!! ..I assume based on the question itself that you want me to explain how my XC2 self-inserts would interact with each other, so that's how I'll be answering these, but please let me know if you meant something different, haha

(question source: this post by hobgayblin)

..My answer got rather long so it’s going under the readmore if that’s alright.

Send me a self-insert of mine and 🌍 + a name or description – I’ll tell you how they might interact with a character or self-insert from a different series/universe/whatever just for fun - so, both Sapphire and Calanthe do canonically exist in the same time frame and interact with each other there, although I’m not actually sure when I want Calanthe to come in, since.. she and KOS-MOS originate from Xenosaga in my version of events and it would make sense for what happens in the Vault of Heroes to trigger their entry into Alrest, but then that’s pretty late in the game (to the point that as of the time of writing this we haven’t even gotten there in my playthrough, though I aim to reach it next time I stream).

Regardless, the two are fairly different in terms of character, with Sapphire being more energetic and determined whereas Calanthe is more introverted and very much feels in over her head with everything - but they get on well with each other from the start, since Sapphire is eager to help Calanthe adjust to things around Alrest. Sapphire would also think KOS-MOS is extremely cool and is eager to hear more about her from Calanthe, who in turn appreciates being given the opportunity to talk about how KOS-MOS works and what she does (..even if a lot of the technical aspects go directly over everyone else’s heads, but maybe they appreciate it more once they’ve been through all of the story areas. Or have Adenine in the party.)

When it comes to Aline, she was around 500 years before the main events of XC2, so.. her meeting the other two isn’t really something that could actually happen, although she is connected to Sapphire by virtue of being her biological ancestor! Despite this, I actually think she would get on slightly better with Calanthe than with Sapphire, since Sapphire might be a bit too energetic for her and she might feel bad that she doesn’t have the same confidence or drive as her, despite Aline being a Driver whereas Sapphire isn’t. ..I also don’t know how the whole Avalon situation would work out if they were to actually meet somehow, since.. they were Aline’s Blade, but by Sapphire’s time their Core Crystal sort of got destroyed and then amalgamated into her. Oops.

I hope that all that was alright! Thank you very much for sending this question in ^-^

#a call from the void #selfship #selfshipping #self‑insert: gem of garfont (sapphire)#self‑insert: in a world displaced (calanthe)#that tag is starting to fit less hmm #maybe i'll change it if I think of a better one #self‑insert: hope without courage (aline)#sorry this took so long #it's a bit rambly but yeah #hopefully it's okay #out of the inbox #selfship asks #clara tag!#long post #ask to tag #i really like this ask game #ah crumbs it's quarter to one in the morning #sorry if this makes no sense

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defeatedbyamerechild · 4 years

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So, I started playing Soul Silver, which I’m really liking so far (even tho I literally started EV training my Chikorita the moment I got her!) XD

I was wondering, what was your team in HGSS? And do you have any team suggestions? (I plan on having Meganium, Lanturn, Flareon, and a (hopefully shiny) Furret, but I don’t know what to do for my fifth and sixth Pokémon)

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Nice! SS is a really amazing game, I absolutely adore it! Also, whoa. EV training in game! I’ve never done that. haha! When I do EV training, it’s like… post-game stuff. I hardly ever do it though.

Welp… My team… Surprisingly, I did not plan a team when I played HGSS. I usually plan my teams with a team planner, I decide my pokémon and the moves for each of them and so on… But back when I played HGSS, for some reason, I didn’t. But I have the record of my first entry on the Hall of Fame!

(Excuse the weird graphics, my PC can’t run the emulator if I use normal graphics):

Panetony was my Ampharos, as you can see… But I also had a Crobat (named Cramberta), a Gengar (named Jabuticaio), my (at the time) lv.50 unevolved Wooper just because I love Wooper too much to evolve it to a Quagsire (named Sanduigor, just like my plush Wooper), my Entei, that I found in a freaking pond for some reason (named Mr. Burger) and my Dragonair that was on lv. 53 so hadn’t evolved yet (named Sashimeire). It was a weird team, I have to admit it, but guess I managed to win with them anyways, so that’s what matters.

Also, the names are all a mix of a food + a proper name (except for Mr. Burger), they use the food names in my native language, but most are similar or the same: Panetony = Panetone (panettone) + Tony. Cramberta = Cramberry (same) + Alberta. Jabuticaio = jabuticaba (jaboticaba or brazilian grapes) + Caio. Sanduigor = sanduíche (sandwich) + Igor. Sashimeire = Sashimi (same) + Meire. This is like, totally irrelevant. Sorry.

Usually when I plan my parties I try to choose Pokémon I love most but also that can cover most of the types in game. I usually use <<this planner>> because it shows you your type coverage (moves of each type that you have) and your overall resistance and weaknesses! ^^

This was my planning for when I played Pokémon Platinum for example (sorry it’s a bit messy):

And here’s my planning for when I played Alpha Sapphire:

(Some of what’s written is in Portuguese, but welp… Basically I had a planning for my Pokémon during the first part of the game and then the Pokémon that I could add later on (after the 4th and 5th gyms that is). I usually plan my moves too, as I said before, so that I can cover as many types as possible! ^^ I don’t usually care much about ev or iv because I don’t do competitive gaming, so just for the normal playthrough, it’s not necessary.

I’ve already used this Team Planner to write fanfiction too… Like, choose the teams and moves for the characters… This is what I had planned for Lucas’ team in a fanfic I was writing about Cyrus… That I pretty much abandoned but welp.. Here’s the team:

Overall resistances: (The planner has a color system to show you how balanced your defenses are).

Moves coverage:

ANYWAY! I’M TALKING TOO MUCH AS ALWAYS!!! But well, answering your question:

This is the type resistances of your team so far:

I think that a Steel type could add a lot to it, since it can balance that dark-red area on top, and Skarmory might be a good choice since it’s also a flying type and therefore won’t add another flying type weakness. The issue with Skarmory is that it’s a late-game pokémon… You can only get it on route 45, after Blackthorn. Still, since SS has a huge post-game, it’s worth investing on a strong team for the League + post-game in my opinion! ^^ This is how Skarmory would add to your team:

I mean, of couse, maybe you don’t like Skarmory much or wants something earlier in game, that’s fine too! ^^ I’m just saying what I would do considering how I usually make my teams and how I like to play. :)

The last Pokémon, I’d try to compensate the fighting and rock weaknesses, so I might choose a Nidoking (or Nidoqueen), which would result in this final chart:

You can get a Nidoran or Nidorino/Nidorina in the Johto Safari zone, in the Savanah area… I don’t recal if this is accessible early in game or not, though… From what I’ve seen in Bulbapedia, you can access the Safari right after you heal the ampharos in Olivine’s lighthouse, but I don’t know if you can catch a Nidoran just yet or if there’s something else to it, sorry… :/

Anyway!! I tried to come up with what I might pick as complementary Pokémon for the team you gave me, but this is just a suggestion. You don’t have to do that if you don’t like it! There sure are other ways to plan a team, this is just how I usually do it (when I do), but I’ve played on “improvise” before, just like my SS gamplay or my Pokémon Sun gameplay, and it works well. :) There’s this thing that Karen says when you beat her in the Elite Four that is very sweet and I really like it. Basically, she says one should battle with the Pokémon they love most, not the strongest ones, because there isn’t such a thing as “weak or strong Pokémon”. So yeah, even though I usually try to come up with balanced teams that have a good type-coverage, it’s really possible to win with any Pokémon you want! ^^

Sorry that this was so long! :3

#personal questions #I guess?#submission

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posthumanwanderings · 4 years

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here’s a very delayed write up about the PC-Engine aka TurboGrafx for its Japanese anniversary (October 30th 1987), the console that beat Nintendo and Sega out of the water in Japan but was virtually unknown in the west.

I’m certainly not alone on this, but my experiences with the PCE in the 90′s were near nonexistent. ok, I’ll just say nonexistent cause I never actually touched one back then : O however I’ll count gracing over GamePro magazines about this exotic (and super expensive) console and its games especially with the CD add on (I believe it was around $300+ and that’s not counting the money already dished out for the core system). knowing that Bonk and Bomberman still made it to Nintendo systems, I didn’t think I was missing much until I got a free Lords of Thunder VHS tape in the mail from I’m pretty sure GamePro or EGM. it was just a 7min tape interviewing peeps after they play it and of course game footage and I was blown away. no other system at the time could handle a game like that, and even the Sega CD version couldn’t do it justice (wondering why they even ported it to Sega CD tbh unless they knew there was no more hope for the Turbo in the west). around the time my brother and I picked up the Sega Saturn, I never thought about the PCE and those massive shmup and RPG titles I missed out on again, until a decade or so later...

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fast forward to 2007 when I bought my friend’s Wii that he already got tired of is when the PCE experience finally takes hold. getting high and playing Wii Sports was what enticed me and not knowing what game to pick up at first I went straight to Super Mario Galaxy. but it was the Wii’s Virtual Console shop that sold me as I was in my full blown nostalgia phase at the time wanting to revisit my oldschool gaming past, but also purchasing titles I never played before. alas, when I scrolled through the TurboGrafx-16 library, I not only got Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, but finally Lords of Thunder after seeing that VHS tape long ass time ago (which I forgot what it was even called and no one knew what I was talking about when I described to them a fantasy side scrolling shooter with metal music). the music, the unique style, the adrenaline inducing gameplay drew me in and made me get into the shmup genre more than I ever was prior. and then Rondo as well was a game changer, the 2nd Castlevania game I ever beat (the 1st being Super Castlevania IV) and simply one of the best soundtracks in the series.

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then, sometime around 2011 my best buddy @90scyberthriller helped me acquire a modded PC-Engine Duo at a good price and a HuCard TurboEverDrive to further expand the PCE experience. slap my wrist all you want for emulating, but when you want to play games such as Magical Chase or Sapphire which go for well over $300 for legit copy, I have no problem not supporting some rich ass nerd and instead just enjoy the games for what they are, not some collector item thing to show off on insta. now, for the big question... is it worth buying a PCE in the first place? yes.. if you mod it and get the TurboEverDrive which has probably gone up in price since I bought mine. also it doesn’t help if you HATE shmups or visual novels / RPG’s, since that’s what 90% of the PCE library consists of. I’m still discovering more about it myself, and having random playthroughs on another monitor inspires me to a degree for my backburner game project ideas for its bad ass intros and emphasis on cutscenes and other methods to really take you in the game. and that concludes the PHW’s PCE experience. if you have any memories or recent things to share about this unsung hero in gaming, please do so.

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#long post #pc-engine #pce #turbografx #turbo duo #game anniversary #text

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atrainernamedradish · 4 years

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Top 10 Favorite Pokemon

You’d think a top 10 for my favorite Pokemon of all times would be easy, but it has taken me quite a while with some soul searching to actually comprise this list together. While I feel as though most of this list is slightly unique compared to most top 10s, you will still find a few Pokemon in here on typical favorite lists.

Since this is a top 10 some Pokemon had unfortunately to be cut. So here are my Honorable Mentions: Slurpuff, Rowlet, Furret, Leafeon, Bulbasaur, Maractus, Appletun, Vanillite, Girafarig, and Braixen.

Top 10 Favorite Pokemon:

10) Cradily

I’m not normally one for fossil Pokemon. Don’t get me wrong, I think reviving fossils is a cool concept with Gen VIII expanding on the idea of creating abominations against what nature intended, but other than that… the concept falls flat for me after that. Not to mention most of the fossil Pokemon designs don’t do much for me. However, the Cradily line has come a long to be that exception towards my general distaste for them.

I’d like to think it was the typing of grass that gave this old fossil the charm to win me over. My Sun Wonderlocke is also a big metagaming factor with Cradily having survived on the winning team that beat the challenge.

It’s got a unique typing and a weird design being the oddball on this top list, but it deserves its spot nonetheless.

9) Gogoat

Sometimes you just need a Pokemon that has a good design, a favorite typing, a decent move pool, and fun to use on a team to become someone’s favorite, and that’s exactly what this Pokemon did to earn its spot on this list. Plus, whenever I play XY I always wanna use one lol!

8) Roserade

Some might disagree with me, but giving Roselia a pre-evolution and evolution was one of the best things to ever happen to it. Roserade is just so cool yet so elegant all in one design. (Budew is hands down my favorite baby Pokemon, if anyone is curious~) I also have this weird fixation on roses so that’s another reason why I adore its design~

Every time I play in the Sinnoh games I almost always want to use one on my team. (Playing a Torterra playthrough and fighting that urge haha!)

And not only is it a solid grass type, but a poison one to boot!~

7) Ampharos

...speaking of Pokemon that I almost always wanna use when I’m in their native region…

Three Pokemon on this list are here from my fondness of them as a child/pre-teen with Ampharos being one of them. Ampharos is definitely an odd one for its typing: slower and bulkier despite being a pure electric type, which had a niche of being faster and fragile. Not to mention it’s a sheep that sheds and grows into a llama! So I guess you could say its oddness is what I find so charming about it~

6) Breloom

...and also speaking of childhood favorites that are charmingly odd…

Breloom’s design and typing makes no sense, unless you wanna count the fact that it looks like it has some kangaroo in there for the fighting part… *shrugs* and I couldn’t care less. I have no idea (besides the mushroom part) what this Pokemon is supposed to be and I love that! It’s just so useful and good and it’s almost always on my Hoenn team.

5) Eevee

There are people probably rolling their eyes and groaning in dismay, but I will forever stick by this Pokemon. When I was a kid I was obsessed with this Pokemon! I had to have anything Eevee I could get my grimey little mitts on! My mom even made me an Eevee costume for Halloween that I remember fondly to this day!~

I know Eevee has reached overrated status, but honestly, and not saying this because it’s on my top list or anything, but uh… Eevee actually has a good reason for being popular besides being those who are the mascot (Pikachu) or nostalgia (Charizard). It’s cute and versatile. Do you need a certain type on your team? An Eeveelution can almost always fill that missing spot. Plus one of Pokemon’s biggest gimmicks in evolution, which Eevee sells pretty well since that’s its claim to fame!

But I will admit that Eevee is on here for nostalgia purposes and not putting it on here wouldn’t have felt right.

(If the Let’s Go games hadn’t have been a thing then this list would have been starterless… go figure.)

4) Sawsbuck

This Pokemon was originally lower on the list till I really sat down to explain why it was on here. Normally I have a hard time pinpointing what I like in a Pokemon design, and I was thinking of what I liked so much about it had I finally have a Pokemon to sort of show that in.

What I like about Sawsbuck’s design is that it’s not just a normal deer. It’s a deer mixed with a tree and its seasonal cycles. I like that it has forms that tie into an in-game mechanic instead of just bloating up the dex that fit its typing. Its name sneakily hints at the form changes too, which is brillant! You can clearly tell what its typings are just by looking at it. Some might argue that the Normal typing not so much, but, and myself included before, I have met a few people who have mistakenly slapped that typing onto the likes of Gogoat because Normal is usually associated with animals. Not to mention deer are a huge problem in the country in which the region is based off of so that was a smart decision in kaing one for those games. Sawsbuck is also quite handy at tanking a lot of physical damage, especially when you’ve got moves like Leech Seed and Horn Leech on it. So I thoroughly enjoyed using one the first and only time I have (though I plan to use it again at some point).

I hope I’ve made sense with why this particular Pokemon qualifies as the example of my choices in choosing Pokemon.

(Oh and if anyone is curious… the Autumn one is my favorite aesthetically out of the four forms.)

3) Ludicolo

This goofy looking thing puts a smile on my face. Its idle animation is charming, and it makes me giggle when it shimmies in its attack animation. I don’t know what it is about this thing that I simply adore, but finally having since used one in my first playthrough of Alpha Sapphire I almost cannot be in Hoenn and not use one. Not to mention I love the dual typing of water/grass. It’s so handy and such a good combination~ Overall Ludicolo is *chuckles* an odd duck that makes me feel joy every time I see or use one.

2) Alcremie

This was THE Pokemon I was the most excited to use in Galar upon its reveal!~ It was already so cute being a part of a theme of Pokemon I simply love: food-based Pokemon, and then what does it do? It can turn into a giant fucking cake! Like holy shit…! And then down the line in another reveal trailer what was the first thing I immediately noticed; an alternative colored one! What’s what Game Freak? Different flavors of this thing? Sign me up!

From its design, to its Gigantamax form, to its flavor forms, its shiny, and even the way you evolve it I just love everything about this Pokemon!~

(My only gripe is that if I want to Gigantamax one I have to go out of my fucking way to find one, and that irritates the fuck out of me! Not to mention two of its candy options are event exclusive, which is horse shit! But that’s just a personal gripe more than anything so don’t mind me…)

1) Aromatisse

This Pokemon is fat, pink and sassy, and I fucking LOVE it!~ It looks like someone tried to fuse a fuzzy perfume bottle with a cancan dancer, a flamingo, and a plague doctor mask, and we go this beautiful mess!~ I also love the fact that this thing is 50/50 on the gender scale so you could essentially have a drag queen on your team, which makes sense for its over-the-top design. I also love how it literally screams and whoops at you in its model cry. If it shows up you’ll see and hear it.

People talk about how cute its pre-evolution is and how they prefer it to Aromatisse, and honestly I’ve always felt the opposite of that. Spritzee is cute but Aromatisse is wonderful!~

It saddens me that my fandom will almost always put my favorite on the hated lists, but that’s how different opinions and tastes can be… *shrugs*

(I’m sure many of you are cringing seeing this as #1 and that’s okay lol!)

#cradily #gogoat #roserade #ampharos #breloom #sawsbuck #ludicolo #eevee #alcremie #aromatisse

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artikgato · 4 years

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2011 in review: Pokemon Black and White

Although these games came out on September 18, 2010 (and I did get a Japanese copy of White and play it on my not region-locked DS lite), they didn’t come out in the US until March 6th, 2011, so I’m counting them as my game of the year for 2011.

My experience with Black and White was very special. Like many people my age, I was obsessed with Pokemon from 1999 to 2001 when Red/Blue and Gold/Silver were coming out here in the west. I was in high school when Gold/Silver came out, and after that the fervor kind of died down. I was aware of Ruby/Sapphire when they came out, but didn’t have the means to buy a GBA at the time, and the same was true for Diamond/Pearl and the DS. A mystery gift-giver and HGSS got me back into Pokemon, but it was Black and White that really got me back into Pokemon. It was the first new generation since Gold/Silver that I got to be on the hype train for. It was the first one I was on the internet during and let me tell you, each new reveal of a Pokemon or character or location was a big hit of dopamine. I was hooked.

I had been into cosplay for years by then, of course, and I had done a couple of Pokemon cosplays but never anything serious. And then May’s Corocoro leaked and I saw the design for Touko/White/Hilda and went “I can make that in two weeks” and I did, and there’s a reason she was my favorite cosplay of 2010.

HGSS may have kick-started the decade for me and made the 2010s solidly the Decade of Pokemon, but Black and White really amped it up. I was at Anime Weekend Atlanta the weekend that they came out in Japan and one of the vendors just so happened to have a few copies, and I just so happened to have a non region-locked DS Lite to play it on. I knew enough Japanese to kind of grasp what was going on, and I had played Pokemon enough to be able to play blindfolded, so I played through the game entirely in Japanese and it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. I played until my battery was exhausted and the impatiently waited for it to recharge so I could keep playing. I’m sure I did other things that weekend, but once I got my hands on that Japanese copy of White, that’s all I wanted to think about.

I stumbled across new Pokemon and characters and locations, and I’ve been chasing those highs for years now. Sword and Shield came close, but only because I intentionally stayed off of the internet for three weeks to avoid spoilers.

Playing it in English was of course a lot of fun, too. I made all of the opposite choices in my copy of Black, including playing as the guy, picking Tepig instead of Oshawott, and trying to only use Pokemon I never picked up in my Japanese playthrough.

Like I said in my HGSS post, I understand why many people consider those games to be the best in the franchise, but Black and White absolutely are my favorites. Black and White have some of the best characters in the entire franchise. The main characters have great designs. Cheren and Bianca are great rivals. This gen gave us our first female professor! Sword and Shield may have been more dramatic about it, but this gen was the first time there were different gym leaders depending on the version with Iris and Drayden! We had iconic, memorable gym leaders and elite 4. And, of course, the VILLAINS. Ghetsis is one of the most iconic villains in the franchise, and EVERYBODY loves N. (And if you don’t like N, you can catch these hands.)

And speaking of N and Ghetsis, Black and White had THE best story in the franchise. What have the villain teams done since Black and White? NOTHING. Team Flare was a joke, Team Skull weren’t even evil, Aether Foundation wishes it had what Team Plasma had, and Team Yell barely did anything at all.

Unova is one of the most memorable regions in the game, with scenery so diverse it puts even SWSH to shame, and actual SEASONS! Black and White also had some of the best music in the series! I mean, just try to listen to the Team Plasma battle theme without ROCKING THE FUCK OUT. You CAN’T!

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This generation also gave me a whole new appreciation for bug types. Before Gen 5, if you had asked me my favorite type it would have been ice (because my favorite Pokemon always and forever is Articuno). And then Gamefreak blessed us with all of these:

No other generation has been this good to bug types. I was never a huge fan of bugs IRL before 2010. At best I thought butterflies and moths were pretty. After this game? I think beetles are CUTE. I love horseshoe crabs. I try not to squash spiders. I rescue crickets that have gotten into places they shouldn’t have. I LOVE butterflies and moths. ...I still hate ants a lot, but I’ve got to draw the line SOMEWHERE. Anyway I’ve been the bug-type gym leader in my local anime convention’s Pokemon League since 2011, and all because Unova brought it’s A-GAME.

But it’s not just bugs, there are a lot of AMAZING Pokemon in Generation 5. Anyone that doesn’t like Trubbish or Vanilluxe can CATCH THESE HANDS. And there were some real standouts in the Gen 5 dex. All three starters are amazing! The regional Pika-clone is a FLYING SQUIRREL. We got the Litwick line and the Deino line both in this gen. We got the ultimate good boy Stoutland! Whimsicott and Lilligant! KROOKODILE. Maractus! Zoroark! Gothitelle and Reuniclus! Jellicent! Ferrothorn! Golurk! Braviary and Mandibuzz! The Muskedeers! The tao trio! Meloetta! ICONIC.

To summarize, Black and White are my favorite Pokemon games in the entire series (yes, even more than the Kanto games) and a strong contender for my favorite game(s) of the decade.

#arti's big 2010s retrospective #pokemon black and white #unova #generation 5

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ladala99 · 5 years

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Spyro Reignited Countdown - Skylanders: Superchargers (Console)

From the beginning of Skylanders, one of the common requests was for there to be a racing game. When it actually happened, people hated it.

Not me, though. There was nothing I didn’t love about this game. Aside from the fact that online was dead by the time I got it, since after the first game I waited until most of the figures were out before getting newer games.

Gameplay

Standard Skylanders fare, for the on-foot sections. Closer to Swap Force’s gameplay than Trap Team’s, which I liked.

But now there’s vehicle sections. The only mandatory ones are the Land sections, in which you drive around, sometimes racing, sometimes battling, always keeping an eye out for secrets. The Sea and Sky ones are extremely varied with many different styles of gameplay. You never know what to expect next!

The Gates

Yeah, Trap Team’s didn’t really work out. Now, Elemental Gates are gone completely, and we instead have Supercharger Gates. But these aren’t even in every level. The real replacement are the Land, Sea, and Sky areas.

So really, you just need to buy two $15 figures to finish the game. And it doesn’t matter whether you’ve played a Skylanders game before or not. And honestly, these figures add so much content to the game it’s worth it imo.

Old Figures vs. New Figures

Combat-wise, they’re pretty balanced aside from the bonuses Supercharger characters get when their specific vehicle is with them. Usefulness-wise... they’re also pretty equal because Supercharger gates hardly exist. And Supercharger characters really aren’t that special like previous special characters - they have no real gimmicks unto themselves.

The only real thing is that Superchargers get special quests just for them, and you get rewarded for completing these. But some of these quests require their specific vehicle, which does mean an additional purchase.

The Collectables

So, Hats, Skystones, Legendary Treasures, Winged Sapphires, and Soul Gems all exist, but they all come from RNG. The real hidden collectables are Epic Chests, which can contain any of these. They also come from Gifts and Wishstones.

In the vehicle sections, there’s Toolboxes instead, which give out vehicle parts.

All of these are weighted towards giving you bonuses for figures you already have, so it’s not nearly as scummy as it sounds.

They’re pretty much lootboxes before lootboxes were a big thing, but all earned in-game and often. I liked them, as it makes every playthrough different and rewards repeatedly playing levels. I can see how it’s baby’s first lootbox, though, and perhaps I should be more wary.

Lost Forever?

There’s one feature that’s just... gone.

At some point between the game coming out and me getting it, Activision added a daily rotation store that let you get paint jobs, stickers, and other aesthetic loot for your vehicle. This store uses a different currency: Gear Bits, and can either be grinded for or bought outright with real money. *gulp*

I never did anything with it because the Gear Bit grind was too much, the aesthetics did nothing, and I had already spent a ton on this series through the figures, let alone the cost of the games themselves!

But it’s gone now. You needed to access the servers to access the store, and you also needed to access the servers to access your purchased aesthetics. At some point or another, the servers were shut down. That means all of these aesthetics, grinded for or purchased, are gone forever. Poof. Like they never existed.

I thought for sure that they’d release a patch that made these aesthetics accessible offline once they shut down the servers, since these aesthetics were part of a downloaded update, but nope. And that’s the real scummiest part of this game.

Bosses

A lot of them are fought in your Land Vehicle, which is pretty fun. The ones that aren’t are standard Skylanders fare.

Also: Darkness is best boss in the series. You cannot convince me otherwise. Especially because I don’t remember the fight other than it being “awesome.”

Levels

Are really long again, but are broken up by the vehicle sections. Honestly I loved it. Don’t have much else to say about them.

Story

So uh, the story begins with Kaos already having won. He makes it impossible to transport the Skylanders into Skylands through normal methods. He imprisons all of the good guys from previous games. He destroys the Core of Light and summons The Darkness.

But, the good guys send these special vehicles to Earth, that have a Rift Drive, that allows your portal to work as long as the vehicle is present. Now to save your friends!

And then I forget the rest of the plot. I believe fourth-wall-breaking occurs as Kaos becomes aware you’re watching him in cutscenes. The Darkness betrays Kaos and Glumshanks is temporarily on your side if not Kaos too at some point.

I’m not doing it justice because I hardly remember anything but the coolest bits. Aside from the first game (maybe even alongside it?) it’s my favorite story in Skylanders. And it sort-of rehashes the first game by beginning the story with Kaos winning.

Unique in the Series?

Yep. Everything to do with the vehicles is unique. The next game only has the vehicles in a clone of the extra racing mode. It’s also the only Skylanders game where you need a particular type of figure on the portal to play, and thus need two figures on the portal at all times.

Conclusion

As someone who loves kart racers and gameplay variety, this was a blast to play. It’s really too bad that so many people hated it. This is the high point Skylanders should have ended on. Too bad there’s one more game.

#spyro #skylanders #skylanders superchargers #video game review #spyro reignited

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spiritgriffon · 7 years

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Rachael’s favorite Pokemon + Pokemon related things!

In preparation for Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, I figured I’d post a list of my favorite Pokemon, games & characters!

Blue or Red versions: Blue, Silver, Sapphire, Leaf Green, Diamond, Soul Silver, Black, Black 2, X, Alpha Sapphire, and Moon. I didn’t realize how consistent I was until just a couple or years ago lol

Favorite Main Game: Part of me is tempted to say Silver or Soul Silver, since it was not just my first Pokemon game, but my first game period (Mom bought me Silver & a GBA for Christmas and took me out to eat at Wendys. I can still pick out the booth we were sitting in. I got stuck in the bedroom bc we both thought the stairs were a bookshelf lol). It still holds a very special place in my heart but Black is the BEST. Pokemon has yet to outdo itself.

Favorite Side Game: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon- Explorers of Sky! (SERIOUSLY GUYS THIS IS MY FAVORITE POKEMON GAME OUT OF ALL OF THEM EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY IT AAAAAAAAAA)

Favorite Generation: GEN 5 GUYS. GEN 5. Sinnoh is another one that means a lot to me bc Diamond was the first Pokemon game I ever beat (Way back in 2007!) but I LOVE GEN 5 SO MUCH.

Favorite song: Temporal Tower, Temporal Spire & the final boss theme for PMD:EoS! Though if I had to pick a top 5 from the main series, I guess;

1- Red/Lance

2- Zinnia

3- N’s Castle

4- Ghetsis (Black/White version)

5- Team Galactic Grunt (The Smash version especially)

Favorite Villainous Team: PLAZMAAAAAA!!!!! (tho. Galactic has a way better battle theme. The Brawl remix is still my jam all these years later- and part of the reason I love Lucario so much! Oh man, that intro in Subspace Emissary!)

Favorite Character: I bow before my Lord and Savior, N. I mean there’s a BUNCH I like (Silver, Green/Blue/Gary, Steven, Looker, Cheren, Guzma, Lillie, Gladion, AND ZINNIA, ESPECIALLY ZINNIA, are all great too! I love them all!) But N is like, an all-time fave for me outside of the Pokemon series too.

Favorite Anime-Only Character: Sir Aaron form Lucario & the Mystery of Mew! (I love Lucario. I love the Lucario man.)

Favorite Player Character: Hilda from Black/White! Out of all the main series games, it feels like she has the most personality, and I like her design the best. Though if we’re including side games, the avatar from any of the PMD games is a better character... by virtue of having any character at all. (I like the female avatar in Conquest a lot as well! Not a lot of personality, but she’s really cute!)

Favorite Gen 1 Pokemon: Lapras

Favorite Gen 2 Pokemon: Lugia

Favorite Gen 3 Pokemon: Absol

Favorite Gen 4 Pokemon: Lucario

Favorite Gen 5 Pokemon: Zoroark (tho Hydreigon is such a close second.)

Favorite Gen 6 Pokemon : Xerneas

Favorite Gen 7 Pokemon: Silvally

Favorite Starter: Typhlosion (I didn't really love them until I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but now they’re my go-to starter! Fun fact: I much prefer Quilava to either of it’s other evolutions. By like, a lot.)

And my favorite water & grass starters are Samurott and Decidueye~

Favorite Eeveelution: Umbreon! It’s a real shame it’s stats are so mediocre bc I love it lots

Favorite Legend: Lugia! (Tho Lunala and Dialga are really close. Dialga due to Diamond the Dialga being the first mascot legend I ever caught back in 2007 and Lunala bc Nebby is amazing and I love them.)

Favorite Mythical Pokemon: Jirachi (I remember watching Wish Maker back when it first came out and loving it except that Absol needed way more screen time. I never got quite as attached to Jirachi as I did Lugia from 2000 but they’re still my favorite mythical Pokemon by quite a bit)

Favorite Ultra Beast: Pheromosa (Why can’t I get one at a low enough level to use on my team during a playthrough rip)

Favorite Mega: MEGA ABSOL YO. (It made one of my old favorites actually viable to play AND IT’S SO GORGEOUS OH MY ARCEUS)

Favorite form variation: Alolan Ninetails/Vulpix!!! (I’ve loved Ninetails since Gen 1 but it just isn’t that useful of a Pokemon in game play normally. It’s still not the best BUT IT HAS THE BEST DESIGN SO I BRED ONE AND USED IT ON MY TEAM IN MOON FIGHT ME AND MY PRETTY FOX)

Favorite Pokemon Overall: Lucario!!!!! Ok, story time:

(under a cut bc it got a bit long)

It was 2010. I was a lonely, home schooled 13 year old, an only child with only one parent, and said parent owned and was the head chef in a struggling restaurant. I had exactly one friend- my best friend had moved away a short while ago and my home school group, including the teacher, absolutely hated me because I didn’t go to their church. Said singular friend is special needs and hadn’t been allowed to spend the day at a friend’s house without her parents ever.

Oh, and we had dial-up internet. The restaurant’s back room was close enough to someone with wifi down the block that I could watch Youtube during business hours, but none of my game systems could pick it up.

Life kinda sucked hard. But that’s not my point. BUT IT DID IT SUCKED SO BAD

Mom had helped me dig out my old Nintendo 64, so I had that, my Gamecube, Youtube, and my DS to entertain me for about 5 years. One day I’d decided to look up Smash videos- and there was a sequel! It had Princess Zelda from my favorite game, Ocarina of Time in it! So I bought Melee, and then I bought Twilight Princess when I found out that was a thing, and then my mom’s childhood friend took pity on me & bought me a Wii (I’m p sure I cried trying to thank him) and then I got Brawl!

So it’s 2010, and I go into brawl completely blind- the only characters I know are the Zelda ones, Pokemon Trainer/Pikachu, & the Mario characters from Mario 64. I start playing Subspace Emissary and even though I don’t know most of the characters it is awesome. So I get to the Ice type level- I know the Ice Climbers from Melee & Meta Knight from the old Kirby anime, and this awesome jackal ninja character shows up and oh my god it’s so cool!!!

And then the Pokemon music starts playing.

I think I screamed. I hadn’t evolved my Riolu that Riley gave me in Diamond, and it had been long enough since I’d beaten Cynthia that I’d forgotten Lucario existed. There has never been another Pokemon that I’ve seen in my entire life that made me go “WOW!!!” half as much as Lucario.

And that’s how Lucario got to be my favorite Pokemon~

#Pokemon #Lucario #N #pokemon usum #character hate #in tags #I don't actually hate him I just don't have nice thing to say about him #I had a hard time coming up with a fave for gen 6???? I had to go into pokemon bank to find one #I love ORAS but #idk I think it has my least favorite pokemon of any gen #personal #XY is kinda sorta really my least favorite main series games #I don't really like anything about them other than Sycamore and the Looker missions #Lysandre kinda fell a little flat for me even #I want to like him but he's just... a bit too cartoony for me to take seriouly #and considering how his plan is legit the most dangerous of ALL the villains & I should be taking him the most s... yeah they screwed him up #*serious #My computer won't let me edit tags sorry guys

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bainhardt · 5 years

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#RibbonQuest2019 - Part 2: Hoenning Our Skills

Diving right back into Hoenn after only a short while away, I knew the first matter of business would be getting the two most important ribbons attached to my ducky friend as soon as possible: the Battle Tower ribbons. If I couldn’t accomplish this much, I wouldn’t have what it took for any of the challenges ahead of me. I steeled my resolve, and hit the books doing as much research as possible about overpowered Battle Tower teams.

Well, anyone who’s been in a similar situation knows where I’m going with this:

The good news is that I chose Latios as the Pokemon I saw on the TV, which meant I could capture it at level 40 and wouldn’t have to worry about keeping it at level 50 while EV training. The bad news was... absolutely everything else, and I mean everything.

For starters, I had already used my Master Ball playing through the game in the prep phase, to catch Rayquaza so I could breeze through the Elite Four. Rayquaza was actually a huge help clearing Mt. Battle in XD, so I don’t really regret that choice, but it meant getting Latios on my team was going to be hell.

On top of that, something I didn’t know on my main playthrough was that the Nature and other statistics for the Latios are locked in as soon as you watch that TV show - which meant I was stuck with whatever hand I got dealt.

My original plan was to try a Mean Look strategy in order to prevent the ever-frustrating turn 1 escape, but this ultimately failed because I didn’t know the Pokemon has to stay in battle for it to persist, and my Crobat was not going to be able to survive even one Luster Purge under any circumstances.

I was becoming too impatient to level a Wobuffet all the way up to 39 to try Shadow Tag, so I searched through my brain for any idea that could save me, anything at all that could help - and remembered my LeafGreen version. Of all my gen 3 carts, that was the only one that might possibly still have the Master Ball, as it had been a Nuzlocke file I’d lost at the Elite Four.

Sure enough, my hunch was right, and the Master Ball was waiting there for me... at a price. This file was a Nuzlocke as I said, and in addition, I’d never successfully beaten the Elite Four. Which meant...

It was a rough night. I’ll just leave it at that.

In the end, everything worked out, and my Latios turned out to be Mild, which isn’t ideal but is still way better than I could’ve gotten. And for good measure, I went and caught Latias too, just in case I needed the Soul Dew or another decent Battle Tower Pokemon.

Yes, I have the Eon Ticket from Nintendo Power, which I was able to Record Mix off of my Sapphire cart. You think I’d be attempting something like Ribbon Quest without a preposterous amount of stockpiled old video game garbage?

Next came EV training, which isn’t really interesting to talk about. Worth mentioning at this point is that my second Pokemon of choice was Metagross, raised off of the gift from Steven I SR’d until it was Adamant. Rounding off the party, I brought the free level 50 Salamence I’d captured and purified on XD, which I figured would be better than just about anything else I could get on such short notice.

Once my team was leveled up and outfitted with whatever items I could manage to get my hands on, I couldn’t put it off any longer - it was time to battle... and watch anime while battling. Because if this Battle Tower was anything like Battle Maison in XY/ORAS (which I played a lot of for fun), I knew I was in for a long haul of monotony and failure.

This guy was a favorite among my friends.

Kind of poetic. And a reminder of how screwed I’d be if I found myself needing to use Jin in any of these battles.

Anabel wasn’t too bad, especially compared to some of the teams that show up in 43-56... Yeesh.

All told, I probably put about 10 hours into Emerald Battle Tower, and I never made it to the final streak. Latios was putting in serious work, and Metagross was pretty damn strong once I cashed in for a Choice Band, but still I found myself growing desperate. Did I need a better third Pokemon? Did I need to change my strategy? Or did I just need that lucky perfect run?

In my research, I’d seen talk that the Ruby/Sapphire Battle Tower is easier than Emerald’s, and at this point, I was definitely willing to find out. Nothing to lose, right?

Ah shit, here we go again.

Thankfully, I managed to secure the Winning Ribbon here on my first attempt, but damn was it hard-fought. Oddly enough, my Sapphire cart had a suspended streak of either 21 or 28 to start with (hard to remember due to the item reward instead of BP), and getting to the final stretch was a cakewalk.

But the eighth streak for the ribbon, oh man... What a sudden brutal shift in difficulty. Some teams were definitely easier than others, but I would say about four of the battles were edge-of-my-seat affairs, and in the end I won by complete luck. Literally, the winning attack was a Meteor Mash into a +3 evasion Milotic right after it missed Blizzard; luck incarnate came through for me, and I couldn’t be more thankful after so many failed attempts.

If all this sounds like a lot of trouble for one ribbon, you’d be absolutely correct. Honestly, I’m still worried about earning the Victory Ribbon, but I’ll probably resort to a similar strategy of trying it on Emerald and then changing to Sapphire. And yes, that means grinding from level 60 to 100 for the switch. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.

That said, I’ve had my fill of Battle Tower for now, and the upside of that is there are over 20 other ribbons I can work on while I take a break. That means up next is getting Jin the Farfetch’d all dolled up in gaudy ribbons an bobs - we’re hitting our first round of Pokemon Contests!

#Jeffu plays Pokemon #RibbonQuest2019

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