Lurker > Evillordexdeath

Gall posted...

I can see why they started making the legendary on the cover actually relevant to the plot in later games. It's pretty weird that you get Ho-oh by having it randomly summoned by some magical Eevee girls. Though most of what's happened so far has also been pretty weird.

Yeah, it's definitely weird. I think they were trying to sort make Ho-oh more plot relevant in line with the newer games. In the original Gold, you just get the Rainbow Wing from the Chairman of the radio tower and then take it up to the bell tower and find Ho-oh chilling there, and the Kimono girls are just five trainers you can fight when you first get to Ecruteak. I kind of liked that, though. I'm not really sure how I feel about the sense of destiny that comes from the mystical Kimono girls scouting your character in this game. I like the idea that your player character is just some random kid in Pokmon.

ctesjbuvf posted...

You might have said this, but do you plan on playing through Kanto and Mt. Silver too?

Yes, I will be playing through those. I feel like this game isn't really complete until you beat Red.

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Dylan went back to the Pokmon Center and added Ho-oh to his party. He walked around with it for a little while, hoping it would turn some heads, but no one commented on it. They just talked about the happenings at the light house or which Pokmon could be found nearby. In the end, he decided to take on the Pokmon League without Sol or Deus. That would be more sporting. He flew back to New Bark town and had Leviathan surf and waterfall for him. After a long path full of tough trainers, he made it to Victory Road. He stopped and rested in a woman's house before going in, though he was a little suspicious about sleeping in the same room as a stranger. After he left, he checked his bag to make sure she hadn't stolen anything.

There were no trainers on Victory Road, just a lot of boulders and rock-type Pokmon. He had his Seadra lead the way for most of it, and then switched to Teddy to let him gain some experience, though that made the Golbat a much bigger annoyance.

At the end of the Road, Morris caught up to him and challenged him again. He had a full team of six now, but Dylan won without losing any Pokmon. Romeo dealt with Sneasel and Magneton, Teddy brought down Feraligatr with one Petal Dance, Kadabra and Haunter were no match for Ivan, and Sawyer took down Golbat. After the battle, Morris decided that Lance had been right and he needed to love his Pokmon more, and that was why he kept losing. Dylan didn't really think that was his problem. If he had been giving the advice, he would've just told Morris to switch his Pokmon and use items more often.

For his final preparations, he found a trainer to help him evolve Leviathan to Kingdra (which meant a trip back to Mt. Mortar for a Dragon Scale,) and revisited the Goldenrod department store for a Focus Blast TM, which he gave to Romeo. He had also taught Thunder to Sawyer and Blizzard to Leviathan. Now there was nothing left to do except challenge the Pokmon League.

Pokdex: 166 seen/82 caught

Team:
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 36
Sawyer (Gengar) lv. 39
Leviathan (Kingdra) lv. 39
Isis (Nidoqueen) lv. 30
Teddy (Meganium) lv. 38
Romeo (Typhlosion) lv. 37


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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

The man leading the new Team Rocket was named Archer. He used a fire-dog called Houndour and its evolved form, both of which made easy prey for Leviathan's Surf. Once defeated, he agreed to disband Team Rocket for a second time. Giovanni never appeared. It was impossible to tell if he had even heard the message. It made Dylan a little sad. Reviving Team Rocket was someone's dream. A lot of them were doing it out of love for their old leader, or so it seemed. But it had to be done.

He took some time to catch Pokmon he had missed before, such as Sentret, Hoppip, and Mareep, and explored some of the areas that his new HMs had opened up, particularly the extended Ruins of Alph, where he found a Pokmon named Natu. When he caught it, the Pokdex announced that it was flying-psychic, and his heart lept for joy. He named it Cassandra.

There was only one gym left in Johto, east of Mahogony Town. To get there he had to travel through a cold cave called Ice Path, which required a lot of skating on the slippery surface of the ice. He fell over a few times. The gym in Blackthorn City just beyond used dragon types, who were weak to the ice types native to the Path, which made the choice of location seem a little strange. The trainers mostly used Dragonair, which Sawyer could outspeed and one-shot, and Seadra, which was a poor match for Teddy, who evolved partway through the gym. The leader, Clair, made a good challenge. Her Dragonair knew lots of different elemental attacks and she followed up with an extremely powerful Kingdra packing Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse. In the end, Gengar turned out to be even stronger. Clair refused to admit defeat and insisted that Dylan head into the dragon cave past town, where he caught a rare Dratini, which was a struggle. It was too low level to attack with any of his Pokmon, so he had to poison it, but its ability shed skin repeatedly cured it. He called it Smaug.

The cave's elder asked him a few questions about how he felt toward Pokmon, and seemed pleased with his answers. It was this guy who finally convinced Clair to hand over the last badge, but she apologized and gave Dylan a TM for Dragon Pulse. He liked her.

Professor Elm called him and said he'd received something interesting. It turned out to be a Master Ball, which was guaranteed to catch any Pokmon. Dylan was eager to try it out and tracked down Raikou, which he immediately threw the Master Ball at and caught. He had already used Thor and felt that the only sufficiently impressive name left for it was Deus. It had weak moves.

There were five Kimono Girls in Ecruteak City. He had encountered them in various places as he traveled. They called him now and challenged him to a gauntlet of battles, but not before embarrassing Morris by beating him easily. They used high-level Eevee evolutions. The Jolteon and Umbreon were especially tenacious. Dylan had to use a lot of items to get by. Once he had won, the girls asked him to come up to the local Bell Tower. He felt a little nervous about going to meet a group of girls on his own. It turned out they had some kind of mystical power and wanted to summon a legendary bird Pokmon called Ho-oh for him to fight. Ho-oh was an incredible thing to behold. It was massive, beautiful, and mighty. Its wings looked like they were ablaze with fiery rainbows, and it seemed to have some kind of deep wisdom. The girls speculated that it had been looking for someone like Dylan.

Ho-oh had devastating Fire type attacks in Fire Blast and Sacred Fire. Each of these was powerful enough to take down his Seadra in one hit at half damage. Its only other offensive move was psychic type, so he had Romeo tank the fire attacks until they ran out of PP and then switched to Ivan and threw Pok balls like mad. Finally, one of them stuck. It was an exhilarating feeling. He knew that this was the greatest thing he had ever accomplished, and probably ever would. He even got to apply a nickname to this god-like being. He called it Sol.

Pokdex: 151 seen/78 Caught

Team:
Sawyer (Gengar) lv. 38
Romeo (Typloshion) lv.36
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 32
Leviathan (Seadra) lv. 33
Teddy (Meganium) lv. 33
Cedric (Noctowl) lv. 30

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Up to Blackthorn City now. I feel like not a lot has happened, so I'll wait until tomorrow to post a longer update.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Thanks for the birthday wishes, guys.

ZenOfThunder posted...

Happy 25th birthday ExDeath!! By the time you're done with this topic I'll be wishing you a happy 30th birthday.

Yes, I look forward to it. "Five years well spent," I'll say.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Wait you're YOUNGER than me? I'm also 25.

I like to think you're surprised at this because I seem so wise and mature, but I guess it's more because you're used to being the baby of board 8, right?

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The gym leader in Mahogany Town was an older man named Pryce, and he had been raising Pokmon for decades. It was intimidating - in all those years, he must have learned far more about Pokmon than Dylan could hope to equal. Dylan still won easily. Romeo's super-effective Fire Blast was just strong enough to take down Pryce's Piloswine in one hit, and Sawyer easily dealt with his Dewgong.

There were only two possible explanations: either Pryce had gone easy on him or Dylan was extremely talented. He had just started with Pokmon two weeks ago! There were some things that seemed so obvious but almost no one else would do: carrying a full team of six, for example, or using a variety of types. In either case, it was a nice feeling to be good at something.

With his new Gym badge and the whirlpool HM Lance had gifted to him, he could finally explore the whirl islands. He caught a Horsea there and named it Leviathan. He also returned to the Lake of Rage for a Flaafy, which he named Thor.

Next he flew back home. He showed Professor Elm the Togepi he had hatched all that time ago, and Elm gave him an item that prevented Pokmon from evolving in return. That didn't sound useful, but he was glad Elm was happy. Then he went to see his mom. They spent a long time talking about Dylan's adventures, Team Rocket, and what had gone on back home while he was gone. His mother cooked for him. She must have missed him, because she made Tauros meat meidum rare, just how he liked it. This made a wonderful change of base from Magikarp seared with fire blast. He spent the night in his room, playing Wii for a while and then lying in bed looking through his notebook. He wrote notes and drew doodles about the Slowpoke Well, the Burnt Tower, and the Rocket Base. He wanted to write something - a poem maybe - that captured the feelings of those places, but he was afraid it would just sound silly. He wrote the words "broken dreams" in the margin of one page.

It was the happiest night he'd spent in a long time. He thought about staying, at least for a little while. Idly, he turned on the radio with his Pokgear, and heard Team Rocket's transmission from the radio tower, which they had taken over. It was calling out to their old leader. There was something sad about that, but someone needed to stop them, and he decided it would be him. He went downstairs, said goodbye to his mom, and flew to Goldenrod city. He withdrew Teddy the Bayleef from the PC. He wanted to train it and take it to the Pokmon League, so that its original trainer would go the distance at least through his Pokmon.

In the underground, a Rocket Grunt was handing out uniforms, and mistook Dylan for a new recruit. Dylan went along with it for a disguise, but decided to wear his regular clothes underneath the costume. That was a little uncomfortable, but it turned out to be a good decision because as soon as entered the radio tower, Morris showed up, ranted as usual about weakness, and then tore Dylan's Rocket Uniform off him.

He made his way up the radio tower, back into the underground to rescue the CEO of the radio company in exchange for a keycard, and back up again. He fought that impersonation specialist Rocket admin, who only used Koffing and its evolved form, and Morris showed up to challenge him. It wasn't too tough. His Golbat was slower than Sawyer and fainted before it could try any confusion tactics, his Sneasel fell to one Fire Blast, and Feraligatr lost to confusion from Ivan followed by Shadow Balls from Sawyer. In general, his tactics here were to switch to Sawyer and KO with Shadow Ball whenever things seemed tricky. He focused on leveling up Leviathan until it finally evolved to Seadra. He still had a short climb upward to go.

Pokedex: 135 seen/68 caught

Team:
Teddy (Bayleef) lv. 20
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 31
Isis (Nidoqueen) lv. 29
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 29
Sawyer (Gengar) lv. 34
Leviathan (Seadra) lv. 32

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Final Fantasy VII

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Seymour is pretty much predetermined to get pushed all the way to top 5 or something unless a fluke happens.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Sephiroth

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

lol, didn't realize there was a rule change.

T.G. Cid

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Sephiroth

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Lena CH 6
Colm CH 6
Lethe CH 7
Tharja CH 3
Ryoma CH 5

Lena UN (11) 10
Lena UN (12) 2
Colm UN 4
Lethe UN (9) 8
Lethe UN (10) 3
Tharja UN 7
Ryoma UN 9

Lena has access to infinite range warp from the moment she joins, so that's just busted. She's is indeed also your only character who can use Hammerne, which is mainly used to spam warp even more. Her stats aren't actually good at all, but that's basically irrelevant given what her role is. She would be fine in FE12 if she had more than one turn of availability. There's not much to her character but what is there is alright.

Yeah, Colm pretty much just steals an energy ring. There isn't much point to training him for a promotion. He will always be sword-locked with low strength.

Lethe is really good in PoR. She transforms on turn 1 and then runs around the map with very high mov killing everything. She does fall off later on, but her stats when she joins are way ahead of most other units and will keep her going for a while. Cats transform back really fast in RD, her period of strength is much shorter, basically one or two maps, and she no longer transforms on turn 1 which means some faster maps can end while she's still getting ready. Her personality is kind of annoying at times but at least has an arc and connects to the themes of PoR. She's kind of like a less well-developed version of Jill in that game.

Tharja is a little better than Henry due to high speed and an earlier recruitment. Dark Mage is a good starting class in Awakening and lets her exploit Nosferatu straight away. I don't completely despise her character but it's definitely kind of lame.

Ryoma probably has the most impressive combat performance in fates. He's extremely deadly between high str/spd and a great personal weapon, swordmaster skills are really useful, and he has lots of methods of avoiding damage including high evade, frequent dual guards do to always countering twice and sometimes activating Astra, which builds up the gauge all the way, which compensates for his less impressive durability. I'm pretty indifferent towards his character though.


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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Today is my birthday. I'm 25 years old! My siblings came over to celebrate, which left me without much time for Pokemon. I only really played on the bus home from work this morning. I'll have to delay the next update another day.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Tetsuo vs. Kaneda

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Got carried away with another game today and didn't have much time for Pokemon. I beat Pryce and am up to the Rockets at the radio tower. Update tomorrow.

Pokedex: 126 seen/61 Caught.

Team:
Leviathan (Horsea) lv. 20
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 30
Isis (Nidoqueen) lv. 27
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 28
Sawyer (Gengar) lv. 32
Teddy (Bayleef) lv. 17

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Agrias
Ramza

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Sephiroth

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Ares CH 7
Rebecca CH 4
Genny CH 3
Ferdinand CH 6

Ares UN 7
Rebecca UN 2
Genny UN 8
Ferdinand UN 8
Leif UN (4) 9
Nanna UN (4) 8
Soren UN (10) 6
Astrid UN (10) 1
Marth UN (12) 8
Caeda UN (12) 8

Ares' offense is impeccable, but since his unique weapon is 1-range and his early durability isn't too great, he's more limited than the best units in terms of how many units he can kill in one turn. The basic setup for his character is good but perhaps a little under-explored.

Rebecca suffers from poor base stats and is stuck in the worst class in the game. As a character she's kind of generic.

Exploiting Genny's summon soldier ability is a core strategy in Echoes, with healing being a nice bonus.

Ferdinand is pretty good but doesn't reach the top tier of TH. His stats are good, he has a crest, and proficiency in axes and riding are nice.

Aside from the excellent post-promotion performance, Leif's early weakness can be mitigated a lot through inheritance. Last time I played I promoted him in early chapter 8 by giving him a silver sword and some stat rings and having him clean up most of the enemy reinforcements on his side of the map in chapter 7 while Nanna and Finn ran support.

Nanna is a mounted healer. She doesn't need to fight much, but can possibly pull some tricks with tools like the magic swords.

RD Soren is a little under-rated I feel. When he joins not many of your characters can 1-round enemies, and he can contribute pretty well by combining with people like Boyd and Gatrie for kills. Interestingly, he can hit his most important caps in stats like mag and spd very quickly and promote at level 10 - 12 without much loss, so he can start building staff ranks (though having arc sage start with like E staves is a huge kick in the teeth, lol) and occasionally nuking someone with Flare. He also joins with the weapon ranks to use all 3 types of siege tome, and passing Callil's Meteor to the Griel Mercs for him to play with is probably more practical than using it in her join chapter.

The only thing redeemable about Astrid is that she has high mov and canto, but being able to run away after shooting a guy for 1 damage isn't worth much.

Marth is definitely better in 12, capable of 1-rounding a lot of early enemies on some difficulties and gaining access to some nice exclusive goodies later on, including the binding shield for +2 for all stats. Falchion still comes disappointingly late, but this time it's one of your best options against the final boss.

Caeda is essentially the same unit as she was in Shadow Dragon, but the enemy types her wing spear destroys are way less common now and the enemy stats are higher to the point where her strength and defense can't get her as far.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

There was a massive red Gyarados at the center of the lake. Dylan surfed out (on Mantine this time) and prepared for a long fight. After weakening it with Sawyer's Night Shade and paralyzing with Stun Spore, he captured it with his very first Pok ball. It was almost disappointing. Since it was a big, unusually-colored sea creature, the obvious name for it was Moby.

A man with spiky red hair was standing on the shore when he returned, alongside a cute, almost goofy-looking dragon Pokmon. He said his name was Lance and then congratulated Dylan on taking down Moby Dick. They decided to go deal with the Rocket Base together. Lance wasn't like Kurt: he actually helped. His Pokmon was called Dragonite and it was fearsome.

It was a lot less scary fighting Rockets now that he knew they would only fight his Pokmon. They used swarm tactics. There were Persian statues with hidden cameras that would summon a few grunts. Dylan started tripping them on purpose for the easy EXP.

Morris appeared in the middle of the base, and talked about how Lance had beaten him and given him a lecture on the need for love in Pokmon. He was angry that he lost to someone like that. They didn't battle this time - Morris must have been content with losing once in a day.

One strange man dressed up as Giovanni, who was apparently the old Rocket leader, and tried to imitate his voice. He had a pet Murkrow which was much better than him at impressions, which was handy because Dylan needed his voice to get through the base's security system. The Murkrow's imitation was good enough.

There was another Rocket Executive guarding the generator for the radio signal that was supposedly causing all those problems at the lake of rage. She talked for a while about how Giovanni was missing but she assumed he would approve of what she was doing. Dylan and Lance worked together to beat her, which was a nice chance to see Dragonite in action. It mostly used fly. Then, with all the guards out of the way, they shut off the generator.

Pokdex: 120 seen/54 caught

Team:
Cupid (Weepinbell) lv. 28
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 28
Cedric (Noctowl) lv. 29
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 29
Isis (Nidorina) lv. 28
Sawyer (Gengar) lv. 30

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Ramza

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Dylan met an anonymous trainer, who helped him trade to evolve Sawyer into Gengar. The evolution made him ultra-powerful, capable of taking down most opponents with a single Shadow Ball. The trainer also gave him three Pokmon from a trainer named Ronald:

Andrew (Sandslash) lv. 23
Abe (Pidgeotto) lv. 18
Teddy (Bayleef) lv. 17

There was a letter attached to the Bayleef, which read as follows:

Hello!
My name is Ronald, and I'm a beginner Pokmon trainer. I've had a few adventures already, but I think I've reached my limit. I just can't beat Whitney. I've tried so many times, but she's just too strong. It's not fair to my Pokmon for me to keep letting them get hurt like this, and I know there are lots of trainers much stronger than Whitney, so this must not be my calling. I'm going back home to figure out what to do with my life. If you're reading this, I hope you will take good care of my Pokmon.

Dylan read the letter over a few times. There was something about it that struck him, and it took him a while to realize what it was: this kid used to have a dream, but now that dream was dead. He left the Pokmon in the PC.

He made his way through Mt. Mortar, catching a Machop and naming it Gilgamesh, and onto Mahogany town, which was said to be the home of ninja. He wanted to see a ninja, but as he asked around town it became clear that if there were any, they were in hiding. Team Rocket were in town, though. They had set up a phony souvenir shop and were doing something with a radio antenna disguised in a tree. He tried to challenge them to a battle, but they denied that they were Team Rocket, so he didn't know what else to do. He headed north, and a thick rain started to fall as he stepped onto the Lake of Rage.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Morris was waiting in Olivine City. They didn't fight this time - he just complained that the Gym leader was away taking care of a sick Pokmon, called her weak, and walked away.

There was a caf in this town.The second he saw it, Dylan felt an intense feeling of excitement. He sprinted to the front door.The joy faded an instant later when he luarned the caf exclusively sold seafood. He decided to order what they called Magikarp la meunire out of curiosity regarding who it compared to his own cooking. It incorporated butter and flour, but there was no masking the distinct taste of Magikarp. He struggled to finish the meal.

The city's lighthouse doubled as a popular training spot. He took the chance to catch Isis up to speed by battling the trainers there. One particularly annoying guy named Theo used five Pidgey. In the light room, a girl named Jasmine was nursing a sick Ampharos back to health. She asked him to travel to Cianwood city across the lake, where a pharmacy would give him some medicine. None of his strong Pokmon could learn surf, so he withdrew the Wooper he had caught ages ago to do the job. It wasn't very comfortable hanging off the tiny Pokmon as it swam along. Nearly his entire body was submerged, and his clothes were soaked when he got to the shore in Cianwood, which left him cold although it was a warm summer day. He had to admit he was impressed the Wooper even had the strength to do it. He gathered some old driftwood and asked Romeo to start a fire, but its Fire Blast incinerated the wood in an instant, leaving only ash.

The man at the pharmacy seemed concerned about the lighthouse Pokmon and didn't charge Dylan. A man gave him a rare Pokmon called Shuckle and told him to return it later. He wasn't sure he would.

Suicune was standing on the island. As Dylan approached, it stood still for a moment, almost as if observing him. Then it turned and ran across the water at alarming speed. Eusine arrived and talked about how beautiful Suicune was. Dylan was inclined to agree. Eusine observed that Suicune seemed impressed by Dylan and challenged him to a battle, to try and win the Pokmon's favor. That didn't seem very reasonable, but Dylan made sure to win just in case. The guy had a super-fast Electrode with Thunder, but his other two Pokmon, a Drowzee and Haunter, were completely defenseless against Ivan.

Before he made the trip back, he challenged the Cianwood gym. He left Ivan behind since it was a fighting type gym, and replaced him with a Mantine that had given him a struggle when he tried to capture it. Cupid had hurt itself in confusion five times in a row trying to use sleep powder, to the point where it had to switch out to avoid fainting. The gym leader's name was Chuck and he obssessively trained his body under an artificial waterfall. Dylan had to shut the system off to get his attention. Chuck's Primeape never tried to attack, but it used double team until taking it down was too obnoxious. Dylan resorted to having Sawyer use curse, which left him low enough in health that Poliwrath's surf brought it down. The Poliwrath had a long struggle with Cedric, whose confusion took around 15 turns to bring it down with Chuck using Hyper Potions. The Poliwrath would often fail with Focus Punch, but that presented a threat that denied Cedric the chance to use roost. To boost the owl's chances, he had his other Pokmon paralyze and confuse the Poliwrath. Chuck was a weird guy, but Dylan respected his dedication.

Outside the gym, a woman gave him an HM for Fly, which would let him quickly travel to any town he had visited. He didn't really want to teach it to Cedric, so he tried a Pidgey instead. He had to hang onto its leg as they flew. It was a terrifying experience. He would have to catch some larger Pokmon.

Jasmine accepted the medicine and it worked wonders. The Pokmon got better right away and the lighthouse lit up again. Jasmine went back to her gym. Dylan liked her. He was impressed by how much she did for that Pokmon. He just wished she put up more of a fight. His Quilava took all her Pokmon down in no time with Fire Blast. Steelix took two hits, but used Sandstorm on its only turn.

He happened upon Raikou in the wild. It stood there crackling with immense electrical energy, proud and fierce. He was afraid of it. He imagined it would make short work of his Pokmon and then attack him. He threw a Pok ball at it and watched it effortlessly break free. It glared at him for a moment, then ran away. It vanished beyond the horizon before he had a chance to blink.


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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

BetrayedTangy posted...

I really like how in depth you went with the Eevee names. Hell even just the nicknames in general. I've tried to do them several times, but end up just hating them and resort to going back to their default names.

Thanks! I've had that experience too. If I go back to my old Pokemon games and read the few nicknames I do have on my Pokemon, I feel really embarrassed by them. I guess that naming them after characters from existing stories has helped, for me.

Gall posted...

Now I know Im early but I feel like playing an entirely different space-based sequel from 2010.

Poor Samara, always near the bottom. I'd agree that characterization is the main strength of the game, followed by the world-building which I thought was mostly solid. Have fun with Galaxy 2! Or Starcraft 2, or Halo: Reach, whichever it actually is.

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I played for a while and beat the next 2 Gym leaders tonight. I'll have to write the update out properly tomorrow, because I'm heading off for an overtime shift at work.

Pokedex: 110 seen/50 caught

Team:
Isis (Nidorina) lv. 22
Cupid (Weepinbell) lv. 27
Wooper lv. 6
Rattata lv. 4
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 22
Sawyer (Gengar) lv. 28

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Yeah, Giygas is arguably not evil at all. During the final battle in Earthbound he seems to be in constant pain and may even be asking to be friends with Ness. Ridley, on the other hand, is just a complete dick.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Ayra CH 6
Sue CH 6
Ross CH 8
Henry CH 5
Xander CH 3

Ayra UN 5
Sue UN 7
Ross UN 6
Henry UN 7
Xander UN 8

It really is true that not having a horse automatically makes a unit kind of crappy in FE4. Arya does have strong combat, but I would often leave her in the base anyway because there was no point in moving her every turn when every enemy would be dead by the time she reached them. What value their is to her character comes more from having interesting events around her than being compelling on her own.

Sue has high movement, the ability to help with trade and rescue chains via canto, and a good speed stat. Bow-users are a little better than usual in FE6 because the higher enemy stats favor focusing on strong enemies with multiple units rather than mowing everything down with javelins on enemy phase like you do in FE7 and 8. Effective damage from weapons like silver and brave bows are also helpful in the late game when enemy wyvern riders are plentiful.

Ross' hatchet and early join time help him get off the ground, and his promotion to pirate gives him a unique niche that means he's even used on highly optimized LTC runs. The endgame stats of FE8 trainees definitely aren't impressive enough to justify training them up from their wimpy start point, and apart from his access to Berserker he's effectively an inferior Garcia for this reason. I've always found him likable as a character, though.

Starting out as a Dark Mage is good news for Henry since it lets him exploit things like Vengeance and Nosferatu right away. Like everyone else in Awakening, his overall stat spread is quite good. Joining later than most first generation units is a slight downside though. He's no exception to the gimmick-centered characterization of Awakening but his gimmick is alright at least.

Xander is much less dominant than a character like Sigurd, Caineghis, or even Ryoma. On lunatic, there are bright bow adventures on his join map that can reliably KO him in one round. Still, he should consistently be one of the player's best combat units and having a strong 1-2 range personal weapon is a big plus in a game where Javelins inherently slow you down by 5 and can't double. He's definitely let down by Fates' abysmal writing.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Ramza

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

ctesjbuvf posted...

Loving the write-ups so far

Gall posted...

I like your description of the Pokemon world. It's dreamlike, full of weird little occurrences.

Thanks guys, that means a lot. I wasn't sure about approaching the game this way, so it's reassuring to know you're at least getting something out of it.
Gall posted...

Going to start wrapping up Mass Effect 2 with the squadmate tierlist, starting from the top.

I admit I was surprised to see Mordin high up on your list. It seems like we ultimately agree in our assessment of the strength of his character in terms of writing, at least. It's cool to see someone rank Thane first, I definitely thought he was a good character. Your list is a little less cookie-cutter than mine was I would say. Recruiting Legion earlier probably was worth it for some good dialog. Have you thought about looking up his scenes on Youtube or anything like that?

BetrayedTangy posted...

This is hilarious to think about. Monotype teams are fun, but just imagine attempting a playthrough with that particular team.

It might actually make for an interesting challenge run. Maybe you could get by with different elemental hidden powers on your Magnemites or something. It's definitely one of the common concepts in Pokmon that becomes funny when you think about it much though.

---

Since I wanted to breed Eevee, I realized it would make more sense to name my first one Fyodor, and then have it beget four sons to round out a full themed set of all the Evolutions that existed in Gen II based around my favorite Russian book, The Brothers Karamazov. Consider it a kind of retcon. I just took the Eevee straight to the name rater when I started playing today. The names will be assigned as follows:

Flareon: Dimitri (hot-headed = fire type)
Umbreon: Ivan (the most dark-minded)
Espeon: Alyosha (the "lighter" sibling to Ivan)
Vaporeon: Fyodor (What's left, lol)
Jolteon: Pavel (Good against Fyodor)

---

The man from the day care called Dylan and told him that his Pokmon had an egg. He went back to Goldenrod feeling pretty clever - until he learned that the day care lady had replaced Romeo's only fire type attack with defense curl. He had to spring for a Fire Blast TM to try and fix matters. He left Fyodor in the day care next and spent a while cycling up and down Goldenrod to hatch eggs, while the Eevee made more at an alarming rate. Soon he had five Eevee with matching names. He talked to people around town until he found someone interested in buying rare Pokmon and they set up a deal, but then he realized that he couldn't bring himself to part with any of his Pokmon. He called off the sale and went on with his journey.

It was Saturday, and there was a bug catching competition being held in the park. Dylan ran into a rare Pinsir, but an unwanted critical hit from Romeo's quick attack took in down when he was only trying to weaken it. That was so discouraging that he settled with a Venonat just for the new species and accepted a consolation prize.

Ecruteak was his kind of town. He especially liked how there was no immediate obstacle forcing him into a gym battle. He was free to go onto the next city, Olivine, whenever he pleased. He visited the city's houses and the dance studio, where a pink-haired Rocket grunt heckled the Kimono wearing dancer and then did his own dance. Everyone else in the building asked Dylan to make him stop by challenging him to Pokmon, but Dylan didn't really want to. He thought the Rocket Grunt's dance was funny. Eventually, he succumbed to the peer pressure. An older gentleman who watched the fight then gifted him the HM for Surf. A random hiker to the east of town bumped into him outside a cave and apologized with one for Strength. Now he could go almost anywhere, with just one catch - he needed more gym badges.

There was a burnt down old tower in Ecruteak. He stood outside and just looked at it for a while. He imagined how much work the builders must have put into it, and now all their effort was reduced to a shell that barely stood. No one told him what it had originally been used for, but he imagined it was something important.

He met Morris in the wreck. He was his usual self, ranting about power before challenging Dylan to a battle and making excuses when he lost. They both led with a Gastly, but by focusing on Night Shade Dylan's managed to win. Further down the tower were three big dogs. They ran away as soon as Dylan came close, and a strange man told him that one of them had been the legendary Pokmon Suicune, which he claimed to have spent years chasing. He must not have been very good at it.

Dylan was using three poison types, which made Psychic a problem. He spent a while training an Eevee to like him so that it would evolve into Umbreon, which was the rare dark type. Someone told him that his Pokmon would like him more if he spent a lot of time biking around town, so he tried that. It seemed to work. As he trained for the local Gym Leader, Sawyer evolved into Haunter and Cedric to Noctowl, which learned Confusion.

The Ecruteak gym was a good chance for Cedric to excel, since he was normal which made him resist Ghost attacks and his confusion was strong against Gastly due to its poison type. This strategy worked quite well until the lader Morty used his Gengar, which proved too much for Cedric. Ivan weakened it a little more and then Romeo came in to finish off with Fire Blast. Morty admitted defeat with surprising maturity and gave him the TM for Shadow Ball, which he immediately put to use.

Pokdex: 86 seen/40 caught

Team:

Cedric (Noctowl) lv. 25
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 26
Cupid (Weepinbell) lv. 22
Sawyer (Haunter) lv. 25
Ivan (Umbreon) lv. 17
Isis (Nidorina) lv. 19

Dylan's Pokmon analysis: Noctowl

Noctowl is really cool looking, but not very strong. It is normal flying, so it doesn't get the same type attack boost on the psychic attacks it learns. Its main strategy is to use hypnosis and then attack while the enemy sleeps, but one of its better attacking moves, Uproar, will just wake the enemy up. It doesn't seem to move fast or hit particularly hard, but its mental attacks are at least stronger than its beak. I wish there was some kind of Psychic and Flying Pokmon. I would probably train it.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Agrias
Ramza

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Wiegraf

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

In the Goldenrod City underground, a shop offered to give haircuts to Pokmon. Dylan asked them to give one to his Gastly as a joke, but they accepted the request and charged him anyway. He left feeling like he'd been had.

He caught a female Nidoran. He had heard she could into a ground-type called Nidoqueen, so he named her Isis.

Before he could challenge the third gym, he had to find its leader, Whitney, and the radio station, and answer a quiz that she couldn't figure out, even though they were yes or no questions and they let you try as many times as you wanted. Her gym trainers all used normal types, which made it a good chance to train Isis, who knew double kick. She evolved to Nidorina before the battle and took care of Whitney's Clefairy. Against Miltank, he switched to Sawyer and had it use curse. Miltank's stomp and rollout took down Sawyer in short order, but with the curse applied Cupid could switch in and hold out until the Miltank fainted. Whitney started crying and he had to wait until she calmed down to get his badge and get out of this overwhelming city with its noise and bright lights. He wasn't going to miss Whitney, he was confident in that.

Up ahead a girl dared him to soak the weird tree that was blocking his path, which enraged it and made it attack. It turned out to be a Pokmon called Sudowoodo, which he caught. The girl thought it was funny, and gave him a packet of berries as a reward for amusing her. That thing could've hurt him if he didn't have strong Pokmon! He was convinced that town did strange things to people.

First he went back through Violet City to deliver the Spearow and its mail to a fat, sleepy man who paid him with a TM for the move Rest, which could put his own Pokmon to sleep. Maybe he should've just held onto the Spearow. He realized that he was close to home and now would be a good time to go visit, but decided just to go on.

In Ecruteak's Pokmon Center, he met Bill, the man who designed the Pokmon storage system on PC. Someone came by and told him it would be worth the trip to visit Bill at his home, and when he did so Bill gave him a rare Pokmon called Eevee. He named his Alyosha.

Dylan needed to come up with some ways to make money. He was tired of eating mainly Magikarp. He thought about writing some tips on Pokmon and seeing if anyone would pay for them. He had another idea: he had yet to see anyone else with a Cyndaquil, which made him think it was rare. Pokmon could lay eggs, and Ditto could transform into any Pokmon. He decided to leave Romeo and Ditto at the day care together and see what happened. If it worked, this would be one tip he wouldn't share with anyone else.

First excerpt of Dylan's Pokmon tips:

Today I battled a trainer who used three Magnemite and an Electrode. This is a terrible team because they're all the same type. If you went up against a Ground type with these Pokmon, what could you do? I see a lot of trainers use teams like this. It just doesn't work. You need multiple types so you can face different threats. Besides, it's boring for the other trainer. I don't want to just repeat the same moves I used on your last three Pokmon, so show some common courtesy.

Pokdex: 74 seen/33 caught

Team:
Sawyer (Gastly) lv. 20
Cedric (Hoothoot) lv. 18
Isis (Nidorina) lv. 18
Cupid (Weepinbell) lv. 21
Alyosha (Eevee) lv. 5

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Gaffgarion

---

I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

On Route 34, Dylan caught a strange Pokmon called Ditto, which could transform into a perfect replica of anything else. He thought it was kind of frightening - he imagined it impersonating his mother and then attacking him. He left it in the PC and then took his time to explore Goldenrod city. He spent a long time battling the trainers in the city's underground as well as the nearby routes. Everyone seemed to want him to have their phone numbers. The police were strangely jumpy and confrontational, which made him want to leave town.

The department store was the first place he had found that sold anything fit for human consumption. He bought a bottle of lemonade. The man at the bicycle shop gave him a free bike, on the grounds that it would help with advertising if he rode it around. Dylan didn't think that would work, but he took the bike.

There was a swaying tree blocking the way onward to Ecruteak City. A woman in the flower shop said she would give him a watering can that could somehow get rid of it if he managed to defeat the local gym leader. He decided to prepare a little more and then challenge her.

He caught a male Nidoran and called it Oedipus, which he thought was funny, and a security guard lent him a well-trained Spearow provided that he deliver the mail it was carrying to his friend.

The memory of the Slowpoke Well was still in his mind. The image of a Pokemon with its tail lopped off and bleeding was jarring to him. He had written down a few phrases like "the butcher's well, "the butcher's cove" and "Hell well" in his notebook. He crossed that last one out. He wanted to talk about it with someone and called up Liz, who babbled about her Nidoran and then hung up before he could get a word in. He deleted her phone number and decided to call his mom instead. He told her that he didn't know how people could do something like that. She told him that maybe it just showed how important whatever they were trying to accomplish was to them.

Pokdex: 59 seen/24 Caught

Team
Sawyer (Gastly) lv. 18
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 21
Cupid (Bellsprout) lv. 20
Cedric (Hoothoot) lv. 18
Rattata lv. 4
Kenya (Spearow) lv. 20

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Cactuar

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

On the outskirts of Azalea town, two men were fighting. One in a black uniform struck the other and sent him running, and then stood outside the town well blocking access. Dylan just walked past him.

He wanted to buy some water and something to eat, but the only store in town sold Pok balls and potions but nothing else. He ended up doing some work on the local kiln in exchange for a meal. The charcoal workers wouldn't tell him where they'd gotten it from.

Another black-uniformed man was blocking the way to the Gym, so Dylan decided to move on and tried to walk through Ilex Forest to the west. Eventually he found his way blocked by a small tree, which someone told him could be cut by a Pokmon whose trainer had the Azalea Gym Badge. He doubled back to town.

A local man named Kurt offered to help fight the black-clad gang, which he said were called Team Rocket. They had formally disbanded three years ago after a boy named Red (what kind of name was that?) had defeated them. They were in Azalea town cutting the tails off Slowpoke to sell, presumably to fund a rebuilt operation. Kurt successfully scared away the man guarding the well, but once Dylan reached the bottom of the ladder he found the man standing still and complaining of back pain. He insisted that Dylan fight the Rockets instead, which he was not enthusiastic about considering they were full-grown men and he was ten years old. Finally, he convinced himself to try - he didn't want to be stuck in this little town for the rest of his life. He went into the well, fully expecting the beating of his life, only to find that the Rockets challenged him to Pokmon with weak and untrained critters and then quietly left town when he won. He saw a Slowpoke with an intact tail wandering around and caught it just to keep it safe.

With the town settled down, Dylan was free to challenge the gym. He had heard it was a simple maze with a leader who specialized in the weak Fury Cutter move, but there must have been some renovations recently because instead he found a set of puzzles based around redirecting a mechanical spider by lowering strands of its rope web via levers. The gym leader was a kid named Bugsy who talked for a while about his studies before the battle. Dylan couldn't help but imagine him getting bullied at school. He used a Scyther with an impressive moveset of Leer, Focus Energy, and Quick Attack, but it went down easily to super-effective damage from Romeo's ember.

As he prepared to leave town, Morris walked in and challenged him to a battle, ranting both before and after about how he despised the weak. He seemed strangely curious about Team Rocket having been in town. This was a chance for Cupid to shine, easily taking down Morris' Croconaw with Vine Whip. Morris also used Zubat and Gastly, which tried annoying strategies with supersonic and hypnosis, but not to much success.

In Ilex forest, Dylan helped the charcoal guys deal with their disobedient Pokmon and they gave him the Cut HM as a reward. He caught an Oddish and a Paras, and then made his way to Goldenrod City.

Pokedex: 47 seen/21 caught

Team

Sawyer (Gastly) lv. 11
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 20
Cupid (Bellsprout) lv. 19
Cedric (Hoothoot) lv. 16
Rattata lv. 4
Slowpoke lv. 6

---

I really like the reworked Bugsy fight. He actually beat me the first time I tried by KOing Quilava with a quick attack crit after leer. The use of U-Turn is an interesting way to make his Metapod and Kakuna slightly less irrelevant. The change to the Farfetched capturing was also welcome, since the original method was kind of tedious.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Shadow of the Colossus

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Nanna CH 8
Lugh CH 10
Astrid CH 7
Robin (M) CH 2
Robin (F) CH 2
Takumi CH 5

Nanna UN 8
Lugh UN 6
Astrid UN 7
Robin UN 10
Takumi UN 6

Nanna is a mounted healer, which is always a good thing, and her unique Earth Sword gives her access to some interesting strategies. I'd say her characterization benefits a lot from the more serious tone and interesting events in Thracia.

Lugh is a decent earlygame mage. His magic is a little low but he can still do substantial damage because enemy res tends to be poor, and his high speed makes it easier for him to start doubling compared to a lot of growth-based units. The +4 magic gain from Sage promotion also does him a lot of favors. Unfortunately staff rank takes forever to grow in FE6, which means he's likely to be stuck on E or D staves all game, but at least the extra healing utility helps. I don't really know why, but he's always been my favorite character in FE6 and I use him every time just because I like him so much.

Despite her low base stats and starting level, Paragon ensures that Astrid can quickly become a capable fighter, and she has the benefits of high move, canto even after attacking, and access to lances or axes post promotion. Her personality can feel a little typical and she's not one of the best characters in PoR, but she still gets fleshed out pretty substantially.

Robin is arguably the most overpowered character in the series. Unlike Seth or Sigurd, he can't annihilate every enemy when he joins, but his high growths, access to all classes, and fast leveling due to Veteran quickly get him to that point. The most efficient way to play Awakening is to feed Robin all the exp in the early maps and then just throw him into the middle of the enemy and mash the start button. Robin is actually even more broken as a girl due to Galeforce. The whole player self-insert that all the characters suck up to thing is lame, though.

Takumi has all the classic archer problems, but the extreme might of Fujin Yumi makes him useful for taking down Ninja in one hit and dealing with any pesky fliers. Fates on higher difficulties can be a little more player-phase based which helps his case somewhat, and promotion to Kinshi Knight gives him high move and ability to use lances, although being stuck at E rank makes him unlikely to ever become proficient with them. I like him better than some of the other Fates characters, because at least they were trying for complexity with him.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

ctesjbuvf posted...

Definitely use Gengar if you haven't before. It's very good. The physical/special split makes it a lot nicer for ingame playtroughs.

Yeah, I know it's a consistently powerful Pokmon in just about every generation. I think I've used Haunter a couple times on the Game Boy games, but didn't have the means to evolve it. That was over a decade ago in any case.

I can only say Detroit > Heavy Rain as far as ranking David Cage goes. I might play Beyond with a friend soon. That was also how I experienced Detroit. Beyond is generally considered to be the worst, but that could also make it the funniest.

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I'm gonna try out a more role-play based approach to my Pokmon write-ups. Tell me if it's too cringe-inducing.

Dylan woke up under the shade of a tree on Route 32. He was hungry and his arms ached from the confined bag he had slept in, but he got up quickly and cleaned up his makeshift campsite with a smile. He was looking forward to a day in the open air, making his way forward on his own.

He thought back to the day before, when he had won his first gym badge. It didn't excite him. When Prof. Elm had suggested that he take the gym challenge, he saw it as an excuse to leave home more than anything else. Faulkner was a funny character. He was so focused on his gym because his father had loved bird Pokmon. Didn't he have any desires of his own?

The first trainer he encountered was a girl named Liz, who used some kind of rat called a Nidoran. After the battle, she asked for his phone number. "Now this," thought Dylan "is why I became a Pokmon trainer."

Up ahead, he met a boy who used the male version of the same species - he and Liz were counterparts. Dylan tried to ask the kid if he had ever met Liz, but all he would say was "If you don't want to battle, just avoid eye contact."

At the Pokemon center, someone offered him a fishing rod. Dylan accepted and eagerly went to the bridge to try it out. All he could reel in was a pathetic little fish called Magikarp. He caught one anyway. Maybe he could cook it.

Union Cave made a nice change of scenery. It was pleasant to get out of the sun on a hot day, but most of the wild Pokmon were rock types easily dispatched by Cupid's vine whip and the only new Pokmon he caught was a Sandshrew. He was getting bored of rodents. Inside the cave walls he met a fat firebreather and a man in a t-shirt and a dinosaur costume, and he drew caricatures of both in his notebook.

He had spent so much time looking for Pokmon in Route 31 that his egg hatched. It was something called a Togepi. It knew a seemingly powerful move called Extrasensory, but Dylan was still not impressed with it and left it in the PC storage system. Prof. Elm kept calling him until he finally answered. He was excited about the hatched Egg and asked Dylan to come show him the Togepi, but New Bark Town was a long way back now and that wasn't happening any time soon. A kid named Joey also called him twice and told the same story about how his Rattata was above average for a rat.

He reached the end of the tunnel, and Azalea town was just ahead.

Current Stats:

Pokedex: 32 seen/17 caught

Team:

Cupid (Bellsprout) lv. 18
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 16
Cedric (Hoothoot) lv. 13
Sawyer (Gastly) lv. 3
Rattata lv. 4


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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Setzer
Sephiroth

---

I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Ramza
T.G. Cid

---

I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Shigeru Miyamoto

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Marth CH 8
Caeda CH 6
Innes CH 7
Ricken CH 3
Panne CH 5
Marth UN 5
Caeda UN 10
Innes UN 5
Ricken UN 4
Panne UN 7

Marth is stuck with swords, never promotes, and can't reclass, which are all bummers in Shadow Dragon. His high growths can eventually make him into a strong fighter even on higher difficulties, but with his wimpy bases it takes a long time, and it's more efficient to leave combat to other characters. His rapier can also be a little bit underwhelming. It is possible to forge it up to 1HKO range on a lot of enemies, but that is very expensive due to the low starting might. Unfortunately he only gets the Falchion for two chapters which are easy to skip. Shadow Dragon really does have good dialog writing, which serves to make him one of the best normal lords. He's also very pretty, apart from his Shadow Dragon portrait.

Caeda is the best unit in Shadow Dragon. Her exclusive Wing Spear and its higher might compared to rapier make an efficient option for killing the numerous cavaliers and armors in Shadow Dragon, which includes a lot of bosses. She cap-rams her speed super hard, which makes her effective damage boss killing a lot more effective than Marth's. Promotion to Dracoknight gives her huge boosts to strength and defense, her primary weak points. She can also make use of the Paladin class if there are too many bows around or she needs +2 speed. A higher-level Caeda can even reclass to Swordmaster to double and one round a fire dragon with a forged wyrmslayer. It's true that she's not nearly as ridiculous as Marcus, but I think she still justifies the perfect score, and I would say her relative lack of dominance is a testament to Shadow Dragon's above average balance and satisfying difficulty. She's a likable character and her recruitment dialogs really are funny.

Innes is a sniper. Everything else about him is good, but he's held back in a big way by his class. He might be a little less useful than FE7 Louise due to the lack of some of her unique niches, but he still makes an acceptable filler unit. His arrogant personality and relationships with other major characters do him favors as a character.

Since everyone has high growths and power-leveling options in Awakening, one of the biggest things that defines a bad unit is taking a long time to get going. A low speed base is especially bad, which makes Ricken one of the worst early-game units along with Virion. He can at least contribute with Elwind against fliers on his join chapter, even without investment. He's another Awakening character who mostly speaks in a single gimmick.

Panne has even higher growths than most other units, and can grow into a mighty Wyvern Lord with the investment of a second seal - she may be the second best candidate for an early one, behind Robin. Lack of access to Galeforce drags her down compared to Sumia or Cordelia, as do the doldrums of her starting class an E axes upon reclass. I'd say I like her better than a lot of others in Awakening, but she can still be a bit dull.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

BetrayedTangy posted...

Yeah Pokemon games are pretty notorious for being insanely expensive. I saw SoulSilver at a local game store for 100.

I will say though Gamestop has really improved with used games recently, especially online. They have sales pretty frequently too. DS games usually don't come with an actual case though, if that's important.

Amazon's DS prices in general are a bit wonky these days. I bought Dragon Quest IV and V for a like $40 a couple years back but now they're in the over 150 range too.

ctesjbuvf posted...

Diamond felt like a low point of the series to me. Mostly because of how slow it moves technically, but also just because it could use some more touch though. Platinum, however, is a high point, which shows how similar the games are, but also how important quality of life changes are.

HGSS are really good imo. Starting from Platinum and until Black 2 and White 2 are Pokmon perfection to me, where they really nailed the formula.

Yeah, I remember not liking Diamond as much when I first played it as a kid myself. The addition of Rock Climb and Defog was one thing that bugged me, because they made it difficult to have all the necessary HM moves around without sacrificing a lot of combat power. I've actually never finished Black, but it does seem to have made some smart adjustments to the gameplay, and from what I've played of Heartgold the same is true of that game, though I prefer the Gen II graphics and the extra cutscenes are a bit of a sticking point for me.

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I was essentially right outside Cherrygrove when I started today, so my first task was to make my way to Violet City. This meant walking through some tall grass where I found a lot of caterpie, battling the two trainers whose battle was blocking the way earlier,and then taking a phone call from Dylan's mom, who was slightly disappointed that he hadn't come home to say bye to her. I stopped to poke around the Dark Cave for a while and caught a Geodude and Zubat, though I don't intend to use either. What I am using for a little while is a Bellsprout. The obvious name for that Pokemon is Venus, but since mine was male I decided to go with Cupid instead. I caught a second Bellsprout to trade for the NPC-given Onix named Rocky. If you like Onix or its evolved form, this is a good idea for the benefits of extra EXP that traded Pokemon receive.

My next task was the tower of level 3 Bellsprout. Romeo knew ember and could make short work of everything there, but I used it as an opportunity to train Cedric instead. Unfortunately, he didn't learn peck until nearly all the Bellsprout were dealt with. While here, I caught a Gastly, and though I haven't invested any training into it yet I'm considering using it. I don't think I've ever had the chance to use a Gengar before. The first name I thought of for it was Hamlet, for Hamlet the first, but I wanted to diversify my references a little and called him Sawyer instead, for the story where Tom Sawyer was active at his own funeral. Between the tower's EXP and the gym trainer battles, I managed to evolve my Cyndaquil before I battled Faulkner, which made his Pigeotto easy enough to deal with. I took out his Pigey using Hoothoot with Hypnosis tactics, though the Hypnosis missed thrice in a row, so it would've been better just to peck it to death. Faulkner's signature move used to be mud slap, but in Heartgold he has the much more threatening roost, a healing move that temporarily removes the user's flying type (meaning it can also be used to reduce the damage of a rock, ice, or electric move.) This makes him more challenging but the rest of the game easier, since he also gives a TM for Roost now, and healing moves are generally quite good in Pokemon. I decided to use it on Cedric right away.

I found the HM for Rock Smash, gifted by an NPC, whose location I had actually forgotten, since it's been a while since I last played Gold. I taught it to a Rattata that I'm using as an "HM slave" and trained Cupid on the high-level Geodude you can find by breaking rocks.

In general, the most important traits a Pokemon needs are decent stats and a reliable attack move of the same type as themselves. Bellsprout is nice in that it begins with Vine Whip, while a lot of otherwise-good Pokemon like Mareep and especially Sandshrew struggle with only normal moves for a good while. This allowed the Bellsprout to take out much higher level Geodude on its own, sometimes netting two level-ups in a single fight. I also visited the Ruins of Alph and caught Unknown A and I.

Continuing south of Violet, I stepped onto Route 32, and had the good fortune to quickly catch a Wooper. That's another Pokemon that starts with Water Gun instead of tackle, and I like its evolved form, though I don't think I'll actually use it this time around.

Current stats:

Pokedex: 20 seen/14 caught

Current team:
Egg
Cupid (Bellsprout) lv. 9
Romeo (Quilava) lv. 14
Cedric (Hoothoot) lv. 10
Sawyer (Gastly) lv. 3
Rattata lv. 4


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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Setzer
Vincent

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Death Note 3

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

BetrayedTangy posted...

Very well said on Heavy Rain! It was no doubt influential and was definitely something unique back when it was released, but better games have since come out and really showed how flawed Heavy Rain was all along.

I have similar feelings about Pokemon. It's always hard to get a new adventure going, but it becomes pretty relaxing once you get past the intro. Also I'm sure you've already thought about this, but I've found the best way to keep Pokemon fresh is by crafting unique teams with Pokemon you haven't used before. It really helps you grow an attachment to them.

I think it's a combination of trying new teams and making sure to use Pokmon you really like. I spent a while thinking of which Pokmon to use before I started, so hoping that works out!

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This Pokmon game, of all things, has been the hardest game of the project to get my hands on thus far. I was unlucky that Heartgold and Soulsilver were the ones to ultimately make the bracket. If it had been Black/White or Sun/Moon, I could have simply played on the cartridges I already had lying around. X/Y and OR/AS are easily available on Nintendo's EShop. This game, though, I had to find. I picked Heartgold because I had Gold as a kid and I like Ho-Oh. Gen II is actually the early Pokemon game I know the least. I could tell you without consulting Bulbapedia that Red gets Bellsprout, Growlithe, and Psyduck while Blue gets Oddish, Vulpix, and Staryu, and like wise that Ruby has Mawile, Zangoose, Solrock to Sapphire's Sableye, Seviper, Lunatone, but I don't really know what the exclusives are in Gold and Silver. Murkrow in one and Misdrevious in the other?

Anyway, the whole situation collided with good old COVID-19, since my local game store was closed down for a while during the early days of this project. When it re-opened, eager gamers bought up so much of the used stock that they didn't have a copy of Red Dead Redemption, let alone any DS Pokmon games. On the day I was supposed to start ME2, I tested a certain method of playing this game, and immediately realized it would be a very inferior way of experiencing it, which would be unfair to myself, the game, and its seemingly numerous fans on Board 8. This left me with no recourse but to order the game online - and the cheapest Amazon price was $150! Were it not for this project, I would definitely have waited until I found it locally or a more reasonable price was posted (and as I type this, there is an Amazon listing for $50.) But since ME2 was drawing to a close and I knew Heavy Rain would be short, I bit the bullet. Let it be known as an expression of my dedication that I shelled out one hundred and fifty smackers for a bloody Pokemon game. Of course, the lesson of this experience is that I need to keep far ahead on my games purchases.

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For all that struggle, there was a distinct advantage to buying a proper DS cartridge of Pokmon: I can play it with an old friend. To this end, there came Ronald, an enthusiastic kid who picked Chikorita as his starter. He themed his Pokemon names around U.S. presidents, with his initial partner being Teddy. He made it to Goldenrod, traded his three Pokemon to my buddy, and then retired to spend more time with his stamp collection. I really just picked the name Ronald because I feel a certain whimsicality in the name. I wish I had saved it for my proper playthrough, because once I started playing with it I realized no other name would feel quite as right. I know that makes no sense.

My decision to play as a female Shepard might have given the impression that I'm one of those kids who plays the girl in Pokemon despite being a boy. Without meaning any disrespect to those kids, that's never really been me, but I especially wouldn't do that in this game, because I think the male player character in HeartGold looks way cooler than the girl. He probably has the best Pokmon-specific fashion sense out of any playable character in the series, even if he does wear his hat backward. This time around, I choose the name Dylan. I imagined the character as a sort of wannabe Bob Dylan who names his Pokemon via literary references. My friend likes Totodile so I picked Cyndaquil to complete the trio despite sharing a preference for the little gator. I named him Romeo. It seemed funny to go with a reference to a passionate lover because this Pokmon is eventually going to get bred like a prize stallion, since that is the only way to acquire more of the starter species. Fire starters are usually a good pick anyway because decent grass and water types are available early on but fire tends to show up late.

One facet of the Gold/Silver intro that feels iconic to me is seeing your rival skulk outside Prof. Elm's lab and then him shoving the player away once noticed. Otherwise, it's the standard structure for the start of a Pokemon game - you get your starter, walk through some tall grass, fight your rival who only has a level 5 starter of the type yours is bad against, and then return and finally get Pok balls. This process is longer than ever in this game, because the path to Mr. Pokemon's house is a bit of a hike and Heartgold extracts whatever expedience the original game had - this is one of the most immediately apparent traits of the game, along with the very DS-oriented interface, which was mostly reverted by the time Black and White came around. Now whichever player character you didn't pick has a presence in the plot, meaning extra scenes, and tutorials like the old man showing you around Cherrygrove city and the capturing lessons are now mandatory. So it was a while before Dylan made his way back to his hometown and got a chance to name his rival. I wanted to call him Morrison, but the character limit forced me to reduce it to Morris, so it evokes the IT Crowd before The Doors. The prof suggested that Dylan visit his mother before starting his journey, but instead he was eager for some independence and left home in a hurry. I made a point of catching a Hoothoot, since I wanted to use it for a while, and suspended the literary references to name him Cedric, for one of the great video game owls. That was last night, when I didn't have the energy to write my Heavy Rain finisher, and with that task done I went to bed.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

T.G. Cid
Mustadio

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Ramza
Delita

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

After finishing Heavy Rain, I have an itch to move onto a game with interesting and involved gameplay. But instead of that, I'm just gonna move onto the next game on the list:

Pokmon Heartgold
Previous Experience with Pokmon: Played most generations, played the original Gold, never tried Heartgold
My Expectations for Pokmon Heartgold: A Pokemon game like any other.

I still post on GameFAQs, so it wouldn't take Norman Jayden to deduce that I played Pokmon growing up. In fact, I think Pokmon Yellow was the second game I ever owned myself, after the Game Boy Color port of Donkey Kong Country. I have fond memories of hunting down a copy of Blue whose battery save still worked as a schoolboy, and of battling with my friends on Ruby when one of us finally acquired a link cable. I've played every game in the first four generations multiple times over and completed Pokmon Moon a year or two back. People say that one is the worst, but I really couldn't tell you why.

There came a point when Pokmon lost its magic for me. I particularly remember playing through Diamond with Infernape, Gyarados, and Luxray, and destroying just about everything with the same two moves on each. I couldn't help but notice, after that, how the combat was shallow and repetitive and the difficulty too low to really be engaging.

But if it isn't magical anymore, that isn't to say Pokmon is unbearable to me. That playthrough of Diamond was not my last willing experience with Pokmon. I find it's a nice series to unwind with when I don't want to strain my mind much. My twenty-fifth birthday is ten days away, and the apparent milestone has made me feel nostalgic - and renewed interest in Pokmon has been a part of that. I've snuck in some time with Emerald, and some with Heartgold, since I started this project, and I'm looking forward to diving into the game in earnest.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Death Note 2

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Marcus CH 7
Nino CH 8
Soren CH 9
Hilda CH 5
Marcus UN 10
Nino UN 2
Soren UN 9
Hilda UN 7

Marcus is a slight step down from Sigurd, or even the likes of Seth, Titania, and FE10 Haar, but he's definitely the most useful character in FE10. He destroys absolutely everything for a long time after he joins, and the only real difficulty he'll ever come across is some trouble doubling later on with his low speed growth. I usually like the Jeigan-style characters in terms of personality and while Marcus is one of the less interesting ones he's still no exception.

Nino just isn't worth it. The amount of slow paced EXP feeding that it takes her to catch up with someone like Pent, for example, is hard to overstate - not to mention that the reward for getting her there is a sage with E staves. Once she finally is trained up, you only have a couple maps left to even make use of her! I do think her characterization is solid, with some touching moments based around her and a good dynamic with the more cynical Jaffar.

Soren is actually really good in Path of Radiance. After a slow start he becomes a speedy high magic Sage who can make great use of Physic staves for extra utility. PoR has strong character writing in general and Soren is pretty interesting with a good relationship with Ike and a personal story that relates to the overall themes of the game.

Hilda is solid with a strong stat spread, reasonably good personal skill, and axe proficiency to help her access some of the important classes. Her personality relies a bit too heavily on a single shtick for me to really like her.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Honestly the game just feels like an excuse to string together a series of setpieces.

Granted, you could say the same about most games, even more plot-driven ones like Metal Gear Solid, but for something sold as an interactive movie...

I've heard that Naughty Dog admit the Uncharted games are exactly that, but I think (not having played them much) that they at least have fewer plot holes than Heavy Rain.

Gall posted...

So here is part 1 of my final thoughts on Mass Effect 2. This part covers all the negative aspects of the game, which is a lot of stuff. I promise part 2 will be more positive.

For what it's worth, I think you did a good job summarizing the main problems with the game, and we agree on several, including the monotony of the shooting, how the "social boss fights" are undermined by the highlighted paragon/renegade options, and the small hubworlds. I didn't really touch on the lack of broader consequences for player choices in this thread, so I'm glad you brought it up.

BetrayedTangy posted...

Tbh Mass Effect kinda feels it's the skeleton of a Fallout game. It's a really cool universe with interesting characters, but your very limited in your exploration and interactions with characters.

The old Fallout games are miles ahead of Mass Effect in terms of RPG mechanics, sidequest structure, and individual areas, that's for sure. The more modern Fallout games do share the problem with ME's charm/intimidate unfortunately, since you can always pick the options with visible speech requirements.

ctesjbuvf posted...

I'm very positive that you got the best ending of Heavy Rain.

I quickly looked it up and I think you're right. Apparently Ethan can spare Scott if he arrives to the final confrontation alone, but that results in Ethan himself getting killed by the police.

Final Analysis: Heavy Rain

What I Thought of Heavy Rain: Funny, when it isn't merely boring
Would I play Heavy Rain again? Sure. I'm curious to play it in French, too.
Did it deserve to lose round 1? Absolutely.

It's easy to talk about how much Heavy Rain's reputation has tanked over the years. It seems like no one is prepared to defend it as a serious story any more. At the same time, its release began the rise of the "interactive drama" genre (for lack of a better term.) There are a few more games in the contest which could cite it as an influence, including The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, and possibly Night in the Woods, which I don't know much about but am looking forward to playing. That being said, all three of those examples easily surpass it by most accounts, and I would even argue that Cage's own Detroit, while utterly ridiculous in terms of plot and world-building, is significantly improved upon Heavy Rain.

Video game narrative doesn't meet a high standard of average quality, I have to admit, but I've played few games with more unbelievable character actions, poorly considered plot twists, and hilariously brute storytelling than Heavy Rain. This game maintains its own suspense by frequently contradicting itself, and for the sake of its divergent story paths a lot of scenes are just absurd. If Ethan or Scott fails to avoid police pursuit under the player's control, they will escape through insanely silly methods afterward. This doesn't just undermine the logic of the story, it also removes the impact of the different outcomes. Neither of the aforementioned things change the narrative - they just add extra scenes to get the plot back to its predetermined path.

What sets Detroit apart from this game is the dynamic between Connor and his partner Frank, which at its best is legitimately compelling and made me care about those two characters. Heavy Rain's characterization is about as shallow as it comes. Detroit at least had the decency to tell the player that Frank likes Jazz, but we learn nothing about the interests or dreams of Heavy Rain's Ethan. That character just spends the whole story getting the shit kicked out of him. His son Shaun is even worse - he's little more than an object designed to motivate the main character, which is all the kids in David Cage's stories ever really are.

I'd say it's best experienced with a friend, and best regarded as a source of unintentional comedy. The raw mechanics often conflict with the serious tone and thriller plot, because the player can willingly transform any of its characters into awkward, stumbling losers at any given time, and the resultant laughter is often more rewarding than taking the game seriously.

I found myself wishing for more substantial game mechanics. Much of the experience of Heavy Rain involves bumbling around waiting for enough time to pass that the game finally relents to progress, including such inane tasks as taking a shower, opening and closing the fridge, or going to the bathroom. Realistic perhaps, but the point of art is to remove the unnecessary and the uninteresting.

That isn't to say it has no good ideas. It directly involves the player in tasks like talking down a man with a gun, a situation where a player character is forced to mutilate himself, and an ethical dilemma about whether to kill a man to save a child. In those moments, Heavy Rain justifies itself as a video game, and gives some insight into how it became influential.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version

Death Note 1

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 5/129
Currently Playing: Pokemon HeartGold Version