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StarTopic Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet |ST| Who You Callin' Paldea, Friend?

"Alright [player_character] it's time I introduce you to some of my heavier hitters!"

Sends out an overleveled Pawmi that should have evolved by now

Nemona, what are you doing, girl. I thought they said you were good at this.
 
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I've made a bunch of progress over the past couple of days. Starting taking on Team Star and handled two bases, defeated a third titan, and got my third gym badge!

I have a comfortable rotation of seven Pokémon at this point, with lots of evolutions juicing up my squad:
  • Samba the Quaxwell
  • Ballet the Dolliv
  • Boogie the Clodsire
  • Rumba the Naclstack
  • Baroque the Armarouge
  • Tango the Primeape
  • Disco the Kilowattrel
Playing with them in camp, seems like a lot of them love to take naps, but they also adore playing ball. And it seems like we got a little romance brewing - Disco and Samba had a baby Wattrel! I guess a Water/Fighting type and an Electric/Flying type can find love......

I'm still looking for an eight to round things out. Maybe a fairy type, or a steel type?
A fairy type or a steel type, you say? Whynotboth.jpg

Tinkatink is fun, even if it’s more defensive than I’d like it to be
 
"Alright [player_character] it's time I introduce you to some of my heavier hitters!"

Sends out an overleveled Pawmi that should have evolved by now

Nemona, what are you doing, girl. I thought they said you were good at this.
She's doing some fringe Eviolite tech, let her dream
 
"Alright [player_character] it's time I introduce you to some of my heavier hitters!"

Sends out an overleveled Pawmi that should have evolved by now

Nemona, what are you doing, girl. I thought they said you were good at this.
Maybe she's just patronizing you
 
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The online Tera Raid search system is... not good. It honestly would need a total overhaul to be good, but if they reduced the cooldown on refreshing the listings it might be more tolerable. As it is, spending 30 seconds to get a 'Could not join' message, knowing that the other listed raids probably filled up while you were trying to get into one is, well, exactly what I expect from Game Freak, to be honest.

Tera Raids themselves also seems kinda wonky? Even if I'm playing offline they seem to have weird desync issues, like the boss' health bar not depleting sometimes when I hit it with a move, or the game just taking me out of menus for 10 seconds while other stuff happens. I appreciate the snappiness of the raids compared to the intolerably slow SwSh raids, but sometimes these just seem chaotic.
 
Played for around 6 hours so far. Did 2 gyms, 2 titans, and 2 star team bases.

This version of the league is just ok so far, I'm glad that the gym challenge are still present, and continuing the idea of more dynamic music set by Unova and Galar is also a positive, but overall it lacks the presence or build up that Unova, Alola, and Galar do for their respective Pokemon League, bit let down on that after 2 really great ones back to back. Nemona is just ok.

The titans are basically the Totem fights from Alola, but without a little challenge before them, would have liked some form of dungeon or a trickier path to get to them, because on their own they aren't that tough and tbh easier than the Totems. I do like Arven so far tho, will probably be my highlight character of this region.

The team star stuff is good, I don't care for auto battling but is fun as a mini game before the main fight, I hope later ones have more Pokemon besides one and the car, overall they remind me of Team Skull, kind of similar backstories too, which is a good thing. Tho they don't really do anything besides hanging out in their bases, they are pretty much in a bubble, solely relying on the initial part with Penny before starting the game proper as the set up for why we have to deal with them at all.

The structure is basically splitting one main Pokemon story in 3 parts, I feel the issue with the non linearity here means that these stories cannot converge or interact with one another unlike any of the previous generations, and unless they surprise me more in one way or another, I don't think that shift might be worth it when Sun and Moon exists as a pretty complete story for those 3 segments.
 
It's opinion in the sense that he can't be sure if it really is the executive's fault or if Gamefreak themselves are fine with this schedule and output.
ah, if they mean developer = gamefreak as a unit I suppose

I interpreted it as in.. the developers, producers and executives who all work at game freak

I did not give the article a click to clarify tho lol
 
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The placement of the ominous stakes encroaches into terrible adventure game pixel hunt territory, definitely one of the worse uses of the open world in the game. But as a concept, it holds promise.
 
Realistically how long before we can expect a patch for some of these issues? A month? Six months? I have no grasp of how long it would take to fix any of this.
 
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The placement of the ominous stakes encroaches into terrible adventure game pixel hunt territory, definitely one of the worse uses of the open world in the game. But as a concept, it holds promise.
Not unlike the arceus wisps

but this time we don’t even get map markers…
 
Finished the main story of Violet

I genuinely think if not for the technical issues, this would be without question the best mainline Pokemon game. It's still everything I've wanted from a 3d Pokemon since I was a child.

Not unlike the arceus wisps

but this time we don’t even get map markers…
You do at least get map locations for the 4 gates if you do the teacher side quests, so it's not like you're blindly searching the whole map for them.
 
What do people think about Tera Types from a casual perspective? I think the mechanic has a lot of potential competitively, but so far I don't think there is enough of a "novelty" factor when compared to Megas and Dynamaxing to make it compelling during the campaign (can't speak to Z-moves since I didn't get far into SuMo). It's power is great especially if you take advantage of the 2x STAB increases, but I never feel the need to just pop one out just because or even feel particularly empowered doing so when I finally do. Part of that is the lack of distinct forms tied to the mechanic, but I also think it takes the worst parts of previous mechanics by limiting them to one use before needing to visit a Pokemon Center and also not really doing much to change the moves at your disposal. More than the other gimmicks, it also feels like you really need your Pokemon to have a diverse set of moves to really take advantage of it, whereas with Megas and Dynamaxing you can pop them off without any change in how you naturally feel like playing a Pokemon.

Because of all of this, I'm never excited when I come across a Tera Pokemon in the wild. It's clear they are being used as a replacement to Alpha Pokemon, but I have zero desire to just randomly catch Tera Pokemon. It doesn't feel worth to me to do at all if I'm not specifically hunting for a particular type combination/have an idea of what I want to work with. Feels like a mechanic conceptualized as a competitive feature first and foremost without much exploration on how to make it more attractive as a casual tool.
 
Oh the Ominous Stakes actually mean something? I thought they were just... there, lol.

How many are there? I've pulled out a few I think.
For people who don't want a more detailed explanation I'll tag it

The stakes are tied to catching 4 legendary pokemon. The history teacher if you do her academy side quest will add the location of the gates to your map. Each gate has 8 stakes that lock it.
 
For people who don't want a more detailed explanation I'll tag it

The stakes are tied to catching 4 legendary pokemon. The history teacher if you do her academy side quest will add the location of the gates to your map. Each gate has 8 stakes that lock it.
That's a kinda cool quest conceptually, but based on the comments in this thread it sounds like they bungle it completely in execution lol
 
That's a kinda cool quest conceptually, but based on the comments in this thread it sounds like they bungle it completely in execution lol
Yeah the quest either needs some kind of hot/cold mechanic to let players know they're looking in the right area, or a "path traveled" feature to see where in each region you've not been yet. I think just placing all the locations on the map would go too far the other way into making the side quest complete busy work.
 
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went ahead and beat the water gym

this may be a baby game but I am so bad at it lmfao
 
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When do evolutions get the fancy background vs just taking place in the open world? I saw a clip of someone evolving their starter in the classic rainbow void I haven’t seen in my game…
They will level up in the overworld if they're out of the Pokeball when they meet the criteria for evolving. So if they level up to the evolution level, but then you switch them out before the end of the battle, you'll get the void. Or you could use candies
 
map locations for the 4 gates if you do the teacher side quests
The pseudo-Social Link quests with the teachers is one of the more jarring elements in the game. Or I suppose it would be more accurate to say that while it makes sense given the story and setting, it clashes with the open world exploration gameplay. I think it would have been better if your teachers were also out in the world, helping out kids and doing their own independent studies.

What do people think about Tera Types from a casual perspective?
I've usually only used it to boost STAB, but there's been several times I also Terastalized to get rid of my type weaknesses. I like this mechanic more than Dynamax, which felt somewhat more mindless.

it sounds like they bungle it completely in execution
Not completely, but it could use some work. First, it would be great if pulled stakes were marked on the map, or at least have something in the overworld that indicates the stake has been pulled. Second, while some of the locations of the stakes are obvious if you look at the map, but there are some that are literally on random cliffsides or hills. Would be better to incorporate more subtle environmental clues. Maybe have Trainers talk about seeing the stakes and they tell you the general area to search in after you beat them. Or have the archaeology teacher make expeditions of her own and she'll drop riddles that give you hints on where to find the stakes.

I guess this kinda ties into my general critique that Pokemon needs to do a lot more with its open world. Could probably start a whole thread about it hahaha.
 
gets into trainer battle with a guy with only one Pokémon, said Pokémon immediately uses self-destruct

That’s a bold strategy, there, my man
 
HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Guess who just caught a shiny Nacli. I was already using it's evolution on my team, so sorry Skip, you've been replaced.

I'm honestly surprised I even spotted the little guy. The brown part on its body is the same color as normal, and its so tiny

This was like the third time today I've gone "no way, is that a shiny?!?!?!?" except the first two times it was the just the lighting. For a second, I almost thought it was another false alarm lol
 
I think developing the knowledge of what each one looks like and having the a-ha moment of noticing something different would be fun and exciting, but the Pokémon are very small and the game probably isn't high enough resolution to justify it anyway
This is sort of a response to all of your posts on this, not this specific one, but here's a summary:

-Since Pokemon didn't previously appear in the overworld, you had to actually do into battle (or hatch an egg) to see a Pokemon at all.
-Some games - I believe specifically the 3DS ones? - introduced weirdly specific methods of raising the shiny encounter rate that would give some indication of a shiny from the overworld, but generally speaking you were already shiny hunting if you were seeing this.
-Upon entering battle with a shiny, there'd be a little animation/noise. Other than the palette difference, this was your only indication most of the time.

Part of the problem is that the system was originally designed with random encounters in mind. Now that we have overworld Pokemon on the Switch, the rules have changed, and Game Freak has yet to decide on a system.

-Let's Go showed shiny Pokemon with sparkles.

-Sword and Shield gave no indication prior to entering battle.

-Legends: Arceus returned to showing them in the overworld (pretty much necessarily, due to the lack of camera cuts when entering a battle and the fact that battling is optional entirely) with sparkles and a sound effect. I'm not sure if Let's Go had the sound, but it's very important in Arceus due to the free camera (as the sparkle can occur off-screen).

And now they seem settled on keeping them in the overworld but removed the obvious indicator. Presumably, this back and forth has been due to the change overworld Pokemon have in the perceived rarity of shinies. You're effectively churning through way  more encounters than in the pre-Switch days - and thus more likely to run into a shiny on sheer volume - and Game Freak appears to be trying to balance that without changing the shiny encounter rate directly. Anecdotally I'm seeing a crazy number of shiny Pokemon caught from these games, despite the fact that the rate is the same 1/4096 it's been since gen 6.

As for your suggestion on identifying them being part of the fun, I agree - but due to the way the Pokedex works, I understand why everyone wouldn't be happy about having to spot a subtle difference themselves when there's not even a reference to look at until after you've battled the shiny variant at least once.

There's also an accessibility component here. I wouldn't be shocked if a colorblind person who can't easily the difference between regular and shiny - say, Pikachu - would still want a shiny one.

Huuh why can't I evolve Basculin in this game? This is so dumb, now GF is gonna start restricting which pokémon can evolve in a game and which can't?
The form that evolves isn't in this game. But, as has been pointed out, it seems what happened in Hisui stays in Hisui, likely due to lore reasons.

"Alright [player_character] it's time I introduce you to some of my heavier hitters!"

Sends out an overleveled Pawmi that should have evolved by now

Nemona, what are you doing, girl. I thought they said you were good at this.
She's too busy battling to take her Pokemon for a walk, duh
 
Man this game will be my death. Told myself yesterday "OK, today evening, you're gonna beat the first Team Star boss to finally progess again!".

What actually happened: "Oh, i wonder what i find if i go this way? Oh, is that a Pokemon i haven't caught yet? Oh, another Tera-Raid den over there! Oh, a TM pickup on that cliff on the other side!"

AKA, i did not beat the first Team Star boss.

Tinkaton is a Corviknight bully, and as such has become my mortal enemy. That horrific Pokémon will never have a spot in my rotation.

To be fair, to be fair, it's likely, going by Tinkatinks dex entry, that Corviknight pre-evos were bullying them first. So it's sweet revenge. And i say this as a Corviknight fan.

gets into trainer battle with a guy with only one Pokémon, said Pokémon immediately uses self-destruct

That’s a bold strategy, there, my man

I hope this NPC was either names Leroy or Jenkins.
 
What do people think about Tera Types from a casual perspective? I think the mechanic has a lot of potential competitively, but so far I don't think there is enough of a "novelty" factor when compared to Megas and Dynamaxing to make it compelling during the campaign (can't speak to Z-moves since I didn't get far into SuMo). It's power is great especially if you take advantage of the 2x STAB increases, but I never feel the need to just pop one out just because or even feel particularly empowered doing so when I finally do. Part of that is the lack of distinct forms tied to the mechanic, but I also think it takes the worst parts of previous mechanics by limiting them to one use before needing to visit a Pokemon Center and also not really doing much to change the moves at your disposal. More than the other gimmicks, it also feels like you really need your Pokemon to have a diverse set of moves to really take advantage of it, whereas with Megas and Dynamaxing you can pop them off without any change in how you naturally feel like playing a Pokemon.

Because of all of this, I'm never excited when I come across a Tera Pokemon in the wild. It's clear they are being used as a replacement to Alpha Pokemon, but I have zero desire to just randomly catch Tera Pokemon. It doesn't feel worth to me to do at all if I'm not specifically hunting for a particular type combination/have an idea of what I want to work with. Feels like a mechanic conceptualized as a competitive feature first and foremost without much exploration on how to make it more attractive as a casual tool.
Prefer it over Dynamax and Z-moves/Megas for casual playthroughs I think, from a balance perspective at least. Less intrusive than Dynamax and less overpowered than mega evolving/using a z-move every battle to just blow everything away. Your opponents actually using it too helps, the 3DS titles were too easy if you didn't limit usage of their respective gimmick.

Competitive I'm not sure yet but needing 50 (lol) shards to change your tera type is a blunder on Gamefreak's part and combined with EV training being kinda shit again makes team building too much of a grind, which sucks because the best thing about SWSH entirely was how much they streamlined that aspect of the game.
 
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I feel like they still haven't truly gone open world, even after this. You're still basically funneled towards one of two gyms as your first. And lack of level scaling in combination with how out of the way some destinations are means that if you really want to do stuff significantly out of order, it has to be very intentional on your part. Ain't no one ending up in Montenevera as their first

Is picking Katy or Brassius first really any more nonlinear than picking your order between Sabrina and Koga, and whether to reach Fuchsia via east or west? Is skipping a gym in a town you pass through to do another one first really any more nonlinear than not fighting Misty when you go through Cerulean the first time, only to come back later? You're still forced to go through these towns since you don't get climbing until way later.

Granted this is an oversimplification. Mid to late game you can definitely branch off a bit more. But most people are probably gonna be going in roughly the same intended order, just because of how the locations are laid out. And I did do Tulip as my third gym and Katy as like my sixth lol. But I want a game where you truly just start in the middle of the region and can head off in any direction, with no cliff walls funneling you anywhere.
 
Gotta agree, the next game needs level scaling (or at least level range scaling) or something like different team setups with levels for at least any non-wild Pokemon fight.
 
I feel like they still haven't truly gone open world, even after this. You're still basically funneled towards one of two gyms as your first
I agree with your overall point, but in my experience most open world games implement some sort of gating for their main story beats, anyway. Even Breath of the Wild, one of the most nonlinear open worlds in the business, subtly funnels you into going to the Zora city first. But again, I agree with your overall point, I would love it if Pokemon got rid of the funnelling.

level range scaling
Definitely level range scaling for the wild Pokemon. So beginner areas would cap at level 16 or something (maybe pepper them with the occasional higher level beast). Then there should be level scaling for the gyms, ideally with differing team compositions per level.
----- ----- -----
I also just unsealed the evil snail. It will now become part of my main party.
 
I feel too many people continue to play Pokemon games like it's gens 1-5 with no modern exp system. Stop using the same 4-6 Pokemon the whole game. That was more of a necessity with the old game to avoid hours of grinding to catch up lower leveled Pokemon.
 
I don't know if it's because I'm playing with two teams but the game feels challenging when I'm exploring. Trainers and even wild pokémon aren't trivial at all, my pokémon get KO'd constantly (especially Wigglet, poor thing is weak).

It's just the story mandatory encounters that are super easy, but I can make peace with that. Children can steamroll the main path while I can have fun with more challenge when exploring.

Also I feel like it's hard to he overleveled because EXP I'd proportional to your level like in gen 5, and it feels very balanced. I think this is the first time the game feels balanced since they removed the EXP sharing toggle (LGPE also did if you ignored the candy system).
 
Watching some competitive folks test out teams and such ahead of Ranked opening up on December first.

There are a lot of weird display bugs and hangs in the online matches so far, so we might get a patch for some of that by December 1st, since they decided to delay Ranked release anyway.
 
I agree with your overall point, but in my experience most open world games implement some sort of gating for their main story beats, anyway. Even Breath of the Wild, one of the most nonlinear open worlds in the business, subtly funnels you into going to the Zora city first. But again, I agree with your overall point, I would love it if Pokemon got rid of the funnelling.
Breath of the Wild subconsciously urges you in that direction using a few tricks, sure, but there's literally nothing stopping you from going anywhere else first. Nothing can block you since you can climb anything.
 
With level scaling for trainer battles, you could always use set level ranges for wild Pokemon as the "roadblock", kinda like Xenoblade.

You can absolutely try to run around a lategame area with your lvl 6 starter, but may Arceus be with you if a lvl 85 Annihilape spots you. ^^
 
"Alright [player_character] it's time I introduce you to some of my heavier hitters!"

Sends out an overleveled Pawmi that should have evolved by now

Nemona, what are you doing, girl. I thought they said you were good at this.
It's kinda lame that Nemona is supposed to be a reigning champion who's already got an ultimate team, but we mostly just see her progress with her starting team. Imo she should've been more like Hop and swapped around the Pokémon that weren't her starter or Pawmi to give the impression that she's pulling stuff from her boxes
 
They need to adopt a variant of the level scaling system Fallout 76 had, where enemies that are higher level than you stay higher level, but if your level is higher than theirs it scales to your level.

I could see this being a pain for quick catching early game pokemon once you're higher level, though. So they might need to play with catch rate.
 
Um excuse me, I just foud a 5 star raid and was connecting to the internet and the den just disappeared?
 
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I could see this being a pain for quick catching early game pokemon once you're higher level, though
Just cap the levels in the beginner areas.

Imo she should've been more like Hop and swapped around the Pokémon that weren't her starter or Pawmi to give the impression that she's pulling stuff from her boxes
Oh yeah, I definitely agree with this, because it’s what I expected Nemona to do. I do still have to clear postgame so maybe there’s a Nemona rechallenge where she actually brings out a different team? Maybe?
 
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They need to adopt a variant of the level scaling system Fallout 76 had, where enemies that are higher level than you stay higher level, but if your level is higher than theirs it scales to your level.

I could see this being a pain for quick catching early game pokemon once you're higher level, though. So they might need to play with catch rate.
I wouldn't be opposed to a level scaling system for bosses and maybe overworld trainers but I don't think it makes sense for wild Pokémon. I'd like to see them mix in more low level unevolved Pokémon in late game areas and high level evolved Pokémon in early areas to give more of a reason to sequence break/take advantage of the open world
 
Watching some competitive folks test out teams and such ahead of Ranked opening up on December first.

There are a lot of weird display bugs and hangs in the online matches so far, so we might get a patch for some of that by December 1st, since they decided to delay Ranked release anyway.
I'm pretty confident this will get patched, I've been playing a bit here and there and weird visual bugs and connection issues in competitive games are common enough it'd show up for sure at tournaments broadcasted by TPC. I imagine getting that sorted out will be a priority for them.
 
Just a little rant over one complaint I see again and again and again at least get more popular since SwSh.

Just a head up, this is not a rant about any legitimate criticism again the whole "how Pokemon have little development time and could be better, etc", but just about one specific thing people like to say every time a new sales report comes out:
"nothing will change", "there is no reason GF will change", etc. things like this.

Pokemon SwSh sold 6m in 3 days (or 1 week): They said GF doesn't have reason to change, they gonna do the same shit again.
GF: Expand the Wild Area concept introduced in the base game that a lot of hardcore fans (and returning fans) love to the whole "island" in DLC
GF: Turn 90 decree and make Legend Arceus, introducing new mechanics and core gameplay loop involving more action like catching, dodging, etc., turning the whole game into several Wild Areas.

Pokemon LA sold 6.5m in 6 days: They said GF doesn't have reason to change, they gonna do the same shit again.
GF: Make a whole game an open world that fans want instead make another SwSh again because you know, GF has no reason to change

Pokemon SV sold 10m in 3 days: They said GF doesn't have reason to change, they gonna do the same shit again.
I wonder what GF will do next because you know, they have no reason to change...
 
Kilowattrel is pretty incredible for a mon that evolves at level 24. It utterly destroyed the water gym, was the first time in the game I've had a cakewalk gym battle (since I've mostly been underleveled and swapping out mons a lot)
 


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