Pokémon General

[NejinOniwa]

Thought it was time to stop flooding the Nuzlocke thread with random shit, so I made this...

Currently playing some Conquest on my DS. For those of you not in the know, Pokémon Conquest is a crossover with Nobunaga's Ambition, a strategy game series by Koei. And as unbelievable as the concept sounds, Pokémon + japanese warlords works STUPIDLY well. Imagine Final Fantasy Tactics, or Fire Emblem or something - except with pokemon. Very, very tasty.


So anyway, once you clear the main/first storyline (about 20 hours of gameplay or so I think that took) me there's somewhere about 40 more to be completed before you get to the FINAL mission, which is essentially the same as the first mission but in Hard Mode. Or more accurately - the first storyline is more like a very, very long tutorial, and when you get into the other missions you finally get to use some of the bigger strategic features like the Bank, to upgrade the structures in your kingdoms and whatnot; the final mission is then a replay of sorts of the first, except with no plot armor, railroading or sweet-talking whatsoever.

Liek.

Anyway, I'm doing my fourth mission now (first included), and things are starting up as usual. You get 4 or so Warriors (trainers partnered with pokémon, who each can use one in battle at a time under your command) and your Warlord, you start off upgrading your starting kingdom a bit, recruit some, train some, the stuff, and then you're expected to attack your neighbors and start your climbing on the ladder of world domination.

NORMALLY that involves a lot of microing and deciding what warriors to keep at home to protect your starting kingdom and whatnot, and hopefully managing to beat off any attackers that come your way.

Normally.

There is, however, a special piece of Equipment (those things get carried over throughout your Missions btw) that is known as the Guardian Charm. If its user is the last remaining pokémon on the field of his team, then he gets a massive - MASSIVE - boost to attack, defense, and movement range. Bear in mind there's no physical-special split in this game, so it doesn't restrict in that way either. There's also a Pokémon Ability called Last Bastion, which is essentially the same thing minus the range boost, that Charizard, Dragonite, Tyranitar and Bastiodon can get. AKA, three of the most fearsome tanky badass killers in the game, and a big steely dog.

Now I'm not sure if these two stack, and unfortunately I don't have any of those pokémon with that ability yet. What I DO have, however, is a Kadabra. Kadabra's attack move is Psybeam, which hits 3 squares in front of him and damages everything hit pretty hard, and can confuse. Kadabra is also an offensively specialized pokémon, with insanely an high attack stat.

Long story short, I walk in with my Kadabra and my Guardian Charm and nothing else, and completely annihilate the enemy teams despite being stupidly outnumbered.

It's a stupid strategy, but by Thor's hammer, it works.

[Chocofreak13]

by Thor's Banjo, i know this game! one or two of my mags did a review on it and mel has it, she couldn't stop raving about it a couple weeks ago.

i've heard from the reviews that it was aimed at kids more due to it's simpler nature, but they may have only reviewed the first mission. i can't imagine this completely appeals to kids since you have to, y'know, think. :\

[NejinOniwa]

HOLY SHIT WHY DO I FIND THIS SO CUTE.
Compare to Nobunaga's "older" form, which we see in pretty much any Sengoku game as Conqueror of Worlds/Japan/wherever:

Which is still fairly cute with a pikachu on his shoulder, but his younger form is fucking *SQUEE*
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME LOL
Is it just the charm of knowing "this guy will be an unstoppable conqueror of worlds in a few years but right now he's just a random nobody on the street" or something?
IDK.

Also this cracked me up.
http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1077565
http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1091202
HOLY FUCK DAT ZEKROM XD

[NejinOniwa]

Okay, honestly. Kazam-sweeping is like, the equivalent of taking your lvl 90 Mewtwo to take on Brock.

SO OP

[Chocofreak13]

really, you might consider talking to mel about this, especially if you get stuck somewhere on the way. she's gotta be like, half done by now. :\

[Simonorged]

I prefer the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.
I'm waiting for the new one.

[NejinOniwa]

So...

Pokemon BW anime series, episode N-008 that aired last week...

ASH GETS HIS CHARIZARD BACK!?
AFTER 10 FUCKING YEARS OR SOMETHING!?

ALL OF MY WHAT

[Chocofreak13]

this is why i stopped watching
they realize the show is failing so they bring back old favourites

what next, brock and misty (with her togepi) are back, and somehow managed to find ash's butterfree

[NejinOniwa]

Well, to be honest, I have no doubts that it keeps working with its intended viewer base...that is, kids.

It's decent as it is, but it simply doesn't have enough attraction as a series of its own to draw older viewers, really. Some of the movies can, but only some.

[Nichi]

I still feel that the anime was always rubbish. Well, some of the movies were good, and I did enjoy the series as a kid up until the Johto arc, but it lost me after a while; the Johto arc was simply painful to watch with so much stupid filler and the fact that Ash was still doing the same thing over and over.

As far as anime goes, Digimon has always beaten Pokemon. Granted, comparing the two honestly feels like comparing The Legend of Zelda to Hydlide :\

[NejinOniwa]

Well, it's more a case of Digimon firmly entrenching itself as catering to an older age group, as well as the series being much more important to their overall sales than is the case for Pokémon - which, like Mario, Metroid, Zelda or any other immortal Big N franchise, sells itself for the most part - and thus they throw more effort and money on it. Digimon I believe is more of a young teen series, unlike Pokémon which is decidedly for younger kids under 10 or so. Naturally, the former is more enjoyable to us oldlings in most cases.

It's like comparing Naruto and MLP. One is mostly a tool to sell merch (games), while the other is the primary work on its own and spawns a good number of merch as it goes along. The pokémon series literally have to switch out almost their entire cast every time a new game in a new region is released, since it has to stay up to date with the current merch. Meanwhile, Digimon enjoys the leisure of any other shonen action series...which is not much, granted, but a lot more than Pokémon does.

[Chocofreak13]

i hope you're saying that it's MLP that was made to sell merch, cause Naruto started as a manga and has a LOT richer history than you give it credit for. (just because you don't like something, doesn't mean it's crap story-wise).
and FYI, i've heard the Naruto games are good, but they really can't capture the whole of the series into a damn game. same goes for any one of the Big 3 Shonen series (or Big 4, if you count DB/DBZ).

as for Digimon, did you even watch the series? elabourate on this whole "leisure" thing you speak of; i simply don't understand what you mean. i believe the point you were trying to emphasize is that Digimon is a better ANIME series since that's what they put the focus on. Pokemon is a better GAME series since that's what they put THEIR focus on. as a result though, Digimon remains more memorable given that there's some attachment to it. with Pokemon, it gets recycled each season, so there's no attachment to be made, to the people or the pokemon. Digimon episodes also connect together, while Pokemon ones wrap up (95% of the time) within one episode. (here is where the Naruto vs MLP debate comes in, since Naruto episodes connect and MLP does not, outside of 2-parters.)

in this respect, yes, Pokemon is aimed at (and better for) a younger audience, but i think Digimon has a wider appeal simply because the anime series was made better. even in Japan it outshines pokemon, and does so by a longshot. Pokemon has been dragged out WAAAY too long, almost none of the episodes are plot-relevant anymore (being nothing but filler), and being too numerous for its own good (aren't they to like, 50something episodes in a single season?).

TL;DR: Pokemon anime sucks in comparison to Digimon simply because more thought was put into the Digimon anime rather than the Pokemon one. and nej, you'd better be saying that MLP is the merchwhore, cause Naruto sure as hell ain't.

[NejinOniwa]

>That's exactly what I was saying the whole time
>You're getting mad randomly at things again just because something you don't agree with could possibly have been implied if you take the entire argument backwards

For fuck's sake, K. Calm your shit. Read my post again and try to understand my point, instead of reading it thinking you already know my opinion. Who in their right mind would ever try and label Naruto as a merchwhore for something ELSE than the series itself (DVDs etc) anyway?

Imagine what would happen to the MLP fanbase if the entire cast was replaced, aside from, say, Twilight, Spike and Celestia (Ash, Pikachu and Oak). Yay, Twilight has to go on a PRINCESS TOUR and all the rest of the Mane 6 stay home in Ponyville! We see random parts of Equestria with random ponies nobody cares about! FUCK YEAH WE GON' SELL SO MUCH MORE MERCH NOW AIN'T THAT SWEE- oh, there goes the bronies.

OH WELL WE STILL HAVE 7-YEAR OLD GIRLS TO SELL SHIT TO, WHO CARES

Rinse and repeat for 17 years, and here we are.

[Chocofreak13]

ugh, so true. makes me glad the only pokemon anime i have is on VHS. ~__~;

[Nichi]

@Kari: Me too. I have some assorted old VHS tapes of first season episodes ^^