#it depends if i like the gsc shiny | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pochapal · 2 years

Note

Is Pokemon Emerald better than Pokemon ORAS? If so, why?

caveat before going in that i literally haven't played oras since they first came out in 2014 so whatever i say about them may be fuzzy and inaccurate

anyway i think depending on how you play pokemon games and what you want out of them will affect how much you prefer one over the other. emerald is very much a classic challenging pokemon game that makes the best of all the gen 3 mechanics whereas oras is in this weird place where if you take advantage of the modern gen mechanics the game becomes super easy. like if you're gonna be doing a super chill casual run i don't think there's much of a notable difference other than oras having the gen 6 exp share for training and levelling? which i wouldn't know about since i've never played a pokemon game with the partywide exp share on so yeah. i need to replay oras before committing here but i will say emerald holds up as remarkably fair if tough despite a couple badly aged gen 3 oddities (limited bag space, strange mid game level jumps) sticking out here and there.

storywise oras owing to the fact that they are modern and integrated with the more fully-realized gen 6 lore makes them much more fleshed out and cohesive than emerald. emerald's whole thing is super impressive for the time but scratch the surface and it's pretty clear it's just a tougher sapphire version with a few remixed elements. the rayquaza cutscene is #iconic but it really doesn't compare to the delta episode (i think. again, haven't touched oras in almost a decade) as a narrative experience.

in terms of extra content i can now say i have actually Done the battle frontier for real rather than getting a few stages in and giving up when i replayed emerald last december. anyway it's...not bad? some of the more gimmicky facilities are a little weird (thinking of the one where the battle moves are automatically decided based on a pokemon's nature but the correlation between nature boosted stat and offensive/defensive strategy is kind of wonky) but compared to the tougher modern meta a lot of the gen 3 frontier facilities aren't too bad to come to grips with - only tough part is trying to get decent items and moves for viable strategies if you're playing legit and not just genning in what you need. oras meanwhile...obviously does not have any of that but it does have those little legendary micro side stories and was pretty good for national dex hunting iirc (i do remember dex nav chaining for a zorua and shiny hunting one of the wormhole legendaries for a good while which was fun) so like. guess it depends on if you favor battling or pokemon catching for your postgame material on that one.

anyway recency and nostalgia bias are both in favor of emerald for me but i literally only played oras once so it's up there as probably the games i'm least familiar with - my only real impression of oras is that they were inferior remake experiences to hgss but that isn't relevant to an oras vs emerald discussion. i will say i don't think you can play one and forego the other unlike rgb/frlg and gsc/hgss. like. oras is probably on a par with emerald but idk if one can be called definitively better than the other.

anyway moral of the story is that i should definitely get to replaying oras asap.

#anonymous

2 notes · View notes

1358456 · 2 years

Text

Random Shiny

Every now and then, I hear some streamer or otherwise talk about Pokemon stuff, and talk about how they only ever found one or two shiny Pokemon in their entire Pokemon career. And every time I have to wonder if they’re being serious. I have... what, 48 random shiny Pokemon in my shiny boxes in Ultra Moon?

Maybe I’m the anomaly. My friends certainly think so. My first Platinum version gave me around 20 random encounter shiny Pokemon. Including the time when I ran into TWO random shinies in one day. One of them used Explosion, but that’s besides the point. And since I do know how to RNG abuse, I have to emphasize on RANDOM encounters, which do not include: RNG (duh), GSC/HGSS Red Gyarados, MM attempt result, event, etc. The only RNG shiny that technically should belong in that box is my shiny Thundurus from White version. Anyone who knows how roamer RNG works in BW would know how ridiculously hard it is to get the target frame in the first try.

And the 48 ish shiny Pokemon (with 4 non-shiny placeholders of FAILED shiny captures) only include the random encounter shinies from Generation III and onwards. In Gold and Silver, I ran into... Tentacruel, Rapidash, Ursaring, Donphan, Nidorina, Zubat... I almost had half of a box (20 back then), but I don’t remember what others I had. I ran into so many random shinies that I can’t even keep track of all of them.

There was also one instance in an emulator Crystal version run. That time, I wanted to see how unfair the game would be if I pretty much started off with a Mew. So, using cheats, I used the code to run into wild Mew, and... the very first one was shiny. The others were not. As in, that shiny Mew was RANDOM ENCOUNTER. It’s not even that good. In GSC, shiny is dependent on IVs, and the possible IV spreads are garbage. So my attempts at getting a shiny Mew in Gold version was more for as a trophy than anything else.

Now, this may seem like “bragging about my insane luck”, but... remember, I only have said luck for stuff that doesn’t matter. Have you ever run into a shiny in the Battle Tower? Have you ever lost a game only because you missed Rock Slide 3 times in a row? Have you ever used Double Team 6 times, only to get hit by crit Zap Cannon immediately? Have you ever tried MM breeding, only for the shiny to come out after 2400 eggs, with that shiny having the WRONG DAMN ABILITY (can’t even use Ability Capsule, since I wanted the Hidden Ability)? Have you ever lost in the super multi battle in the Battle Tree, because your AI ally had THREE super-effective moves they could’ve been choice-locked into, but they picked the ONE that the opponent was immune to? Have you ever missed Flamethrower twice because the opponent had BRIGHTPOWDER, and then immediately nailed you with Thunder during Drought (50% chance)? Have you ever gotten hit by Ice Fang, and then froze, defrosted, and flinched all in the same turn?

... I think I would most definitely like all that crap to have NOT happened at the cost of not running into a single random encounter shiny. Heh. You know, if you just don’t find random shinies, then you wouldn’t find one in the Battle Tower. You wouldn’t find one that has Whirlwind. You wouldn’t find one that has Explosion. And you wouldn’t find one in a horde encounter, only to realize that the new move you used was a splash damage move. ... Did you know that Diancie’s Diamond Storm hits every target? Hehe. I’ve seen more random encounter shinies DIE than what a LOT of people find in their entire Pokemon career.

1 note · View note

harusha · 4 years

Note

What are your top pokemon games??

Official or fangame? I’ll just list both. I will say Pokemon Reborn is my top-rated overall if we combine both lists (with HGSS and Collesseum/XD following as 2 and 3 respectively.)

On Official, it’s

1. Heartgold/Soulsilver (My favorite region is Johto, and Ethan is my favorite Pokemon protagonist so…unsurprising. The games are still genuinely good though imo because of the massive amount of content and post-game and QoL stuff like following Pokemon, auto-run, etc.) I also love the nostalgic feeling of the region. Lance is also here, and I like him and his design a lot, not as much as Volkner though. Also Proton is here, and I love the dude so. Pedometer is included here.

2. Pokemon Colosseum/Pokemon XD; I include this together since they’re a duo set in terms of story. XD is the better one gameplay-wise because of the new additions of Shadow moves, more Pokemon choices, QoL changes like saving, etc. but Colosseum is the harder of the two games imo b/c of the sparsity of Pokemon–if you can play it on laptop, mod XD with Pokemon XG for massive QoL changes (Fairy Type, more shadow Pokemon, upped difficulty, etc.)

I like how this set tries new stuff and it honestly showcases how if you the Pokemon IP to a third-party, you end up with something that tries to be different and actually plays pretty well.

3. Pokemon BWBW2; included as a set because of joint story line. Honestly, I feel like BWBW2 are objectively the last great mainline series additions. Even if you didn’t care for the story, they at least tried with it and the rivals. You had the nice rival in Bianca and the “focused/ruder” rival in Cheren, and both encompassed the themes of the game (Truth with Bianca as she realizes her ineptness as a trainer and Ideals with Cheren who strives to overcome his boundaries and the player even if he never can). N is pretty awesome, and I think Ghetsis is a better Lusamine (sorry, idc for how Lusamine’s actions are brushed over and blamed on the space jellyfish). There’s a lot to enjoy in Unova imo.

Also massive post-game stuff like Join Avenue (which encourages one of the main tenets of Pokemon, interacting with others and trading; ex. “Magnemite Coil”), half the region opening up for Post-game (White Treehollow, Kyurem’s abode, etc.). The Legendaries also have home locations for the most part, and their items aren’t just given to you by random people. A lot of stuff to do that isn’t just breeding mindlessly for shinies (I mean I love doing that, but options ya know?) or online battle.

4. Pokemon Conquest; Fire Emblem (or more accurately, Nobunaga’s ambition) meets Pokemon. I like turn-based grid tactic games, and this one’s actually pretty fun. You’re encouraged to roam around and give people different Pokemon to see which ones they’re compatible with. Also another example of what can be done if Pokemon is given to a another developer.

5. Pokemon Explores of Sky (and to a lesser extent since it’s the base, Time/Darkness); you can swap this with Colloseum/XD, BWBW2 or Pokemon Conquest depending on if you prefer Pokemon’s style of play, tactics games, or dungeon crawlers. I like this one since the story’s actually pretty good, the difficulty’s nice, and especially the post-game dungeons and content.

6. Pokemon Platinum and Diamond+Pearl to a lesser extent– the region that actually has a reasonably difficult Elite Four and champion. I love the additions they have like distortion world, the melancholic feel you get at times in the Chateau area and snowfields, and the post-game Battle Frontier. However, the games run so slow without Drayano’s mods. In terms of husbandos, Volkner’s pretty nice as well, and he’s pretty high-tier for me. Cynthia’s here as well, so I guess she counts since she’s a feature every time she shows up.

7. Pokemon FRLG-The definite version of Kanto for me. Sevii Islands, callbacks (callforwards?) to the Johto games with the Rocket Admins, decent difficulty and ability to sequence break somewhat, etc. It gives new experiences for those who’ve played the OG versions, but doesn’t change them drastically. The “you can’t evolve anything outside of the OG 151 before post-game” is stupid though. Lance is here as well, but his half Dragonite/Dragonair team annoys me b/c of how repetitive it is, but product of the time as well and the HGSS first battle had that as well but at least they’re all evolved.

8. Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team-I like this one since the story’s still good and incorporates the idea of a human being transported to a Pokemon world, but I just feel like Sky’s gameplay improvements and portraits for everyone trumps this one. I like Gengar a lot and his team. I also think the difficulty on this one (depending on starter and partner) is fairly good at times (The Moltres fight is actually pretty difficult if you don’t have Pikachu or a water type partner).

9. Pokemon Emerald and to a lesser extent Ruby/Sapphire–Battle Frontier, Scott and Smeargle cave (ie. post-game content), beautiful promotional artwork (including ORAS’s), fairly difficult battles at time if you aren’t prepared/going in blind with no excessive grinding (2nd May battle, Flannery, etc.), hidden secrets like Regis and Secret Bases. However, the latter half is so boring with the excessive surfing and lackluster variety. Steven’s here, and he’s a dreamboat even with the sprite graphics.

10. Pokemon Channel and Hey you, Pikachu!-Weird I know. This would be higher if I didn’t think this was a niche pick. It’s just really relaxing, and I want another one, especially if you can get more Pokemon to raise. It’s a lot more fun once you play it. I like exploring with Pikachu and it offers a look into the world of Pokemon as a non-trainer. I really want another one tbh.

11. Pokemon Rangers series (Ranked from favorite to lowest; Shadows of Almia–>OG–>Guardian Signs; all are good but that’s my preference) The gameplay is actually pretty fun, and I wish we got another one. They could use Joycons as a styler. Spencer, Sven, and Lunick are also pretty cute

12. Pokken Tournament- What battles should feel like in mainline if they injected millions of dollars into the mainline, so unrealistic expectation. I think Pokken is a decent fighting game. The moves are nice, and the music is good. This can go lower if you don’t care for fighting games.

13. Pokemon Battle Revolution and Stadium games-They’re mostly battle simulators with some mini-games. The animations are actually pretty lively and fun compared to SWSH’s. I would like to rank this higher, but there is no story mode sadly. It’s great if you want to see what Pokemon would look like in-scale.

14. Pokemon X/Y-I think these are actually pretty nice if only for the fact there isn’t excessive handholding; it’s there but it doesn’t force me to put down the game out of boredom. The outfits are genuinely pretty cute. However, the rivals are ridiculously terrible, difficulty is either too low or unbalanced if you use/turn off exp. share. Let’s put ORAS here as well b/c I think the lack of Battle Frontier and mediocre post-game, getting Lati@s early, etc. drops it down from Emerald. The PSS system is amazing though.

15. Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Pinball series-Yeah, I’ve played these. Trozei’s actually pretty cool as a match-3 game, and pinball is pinball. You also get slightly more lore into the Pokemon world with Lucy Fleetfoot. I like match-3 and pinball so very much a YMMV. Pop Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon here as well. Idk, they just lack the magic of the first two entries.

16. Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Dash, all the other spin-offs I didn’t talk about-they all offer something fun, but I just wish it was either updated for modern times and not released again (like with Snap) or a bit more (in the case of Detective Pikachu and Pokepark series). Pop Puzzle League games here as well. I like them, but they aren’t much besides Tetris games. Same goes for the Pokemon Trading Card games; they’re nice, but not super great imo.

???. Pokemon Box/Ranch/all the other storage games and stuff like Dream Radar-Idk what you’d want me to say since they’re storage space or gimmick games to catch HA Pokemon. You do get Extremespeed Zigzagoon which I love since the little buggers are very adorable.

Bottom Tier. Pokemon SM and USUM. I hate these games. They’re cash grabs (more so than usual) with being $40 a piece and the updated versions being barely changed (and actually feeling like what should have been released first). Incredibly handholding, areas feel half-baked, lacks areas to explore for the most part, Lillie is kinda annoying for me tbh (which hurts because you’re supposed to feel for her and the game’s story hinges on that), and the player is an actual detriment to what they’re trying to achieve story-wise. A big shame b/c Alola is a pretty region and Team Skull is great in concept, but execution is awful. Stated as someone who has bought all 4 versions to keep, and 2 extras for gifting.

Absolute Bottom Tier- Pokemon Masters, incredibly terrible mobage game coming from someone who plays FGO, FEH, etc. lack of meaningful content, grinding but meaningless b/c of said lack of content (ex. FGO gates you with mats but it makes you feel like you’re growing with your servants and offers a story and events to compensate; basically, a sense of achievement). CO-OP is pretty bad when you can just hop over to GBF or something if you want guilds and group content. I’m still gonna wait for Ethan and Volkner to appear though.

Unrated-OG RBGY and OG GSC (the remakes are superior outside of nostalgia factor imo so I think it’d be unfair for them to take a spot), LGPE (didn’t buy them b/c pricing but the colors are vibrant and I love that), SWSH (didn’t buy them because I have opinions on the cuts and stuff and price point doesn’t look appealing for what’s offered), Pokemon Mini (these were included with Pokemon Channel), Magikarp Jump+Duel (Duel was a cash grab and Magikarp Jump is cute but no real opinion on it), Pokemon Go (weird spot where I like it, but I don’t live in an area with safe walking areas so very much area-dependent), Arcade games (I don’t live in Japan for that), Perdue Farm games (they’re flash games made to promote so…), Pokemon Rumble (enjoyable but not memorable for me imo) etc.

Fangames-

1. Pokemon Reborn-150+ hours of content, visible themes that permeate the story and characters, beautiful spritework for some of the areas, intuitive usage of TMs/HMs and some logic (ex. Field Effects that emulate anime battling in turn-based rpg such as Corrosive Field; using Rock Smash to break the glass in some areas to solve puzzles, etc.), actual difficulty that hinges on how much you understand Pokemon (ex. IVs, stats, EVs, etc.) that’s fair but still difficult, puzzles and rewards for exploring and coming back to areas, etc. Fantastic game that I wish Gamefreak had attempted to emulate (perhaps not the darker themes but the ambition basically). Has some kinks with the revolving door of characters and such but still fantastic. Also offers custom shiny sprites, custom egg sprites, and online play like Wonder Trade and battling.

2. Pokemon Rocket Edition-Not done but I think this is a fantastic hack so far story-wise and how it implements its mechanics. You’re a Rocket Grunt, but you aren’t OP. It deals with the politics behind Kanto and Team Rocket. Still being worked on.

3. Pokemon Viridian Version-Another “play as a Rocket” game. Funny yet still can be serious; it takes the tone of the anime and understands when to be serious and when to not be. It feels like it would fit into the canon tone-wise, and deconstructs the “it’s cool to be a Rocket!” thing.

4. Pokemon Gaia-Excellent and a huge callback to classic Pokemon in story. It’s an OG region and offers a lot to do.

5. Drayano hacks- QoL updates but his work actually adds a lot to the games+new events.

Anyways, that’s my list. There’s a lot of Pokemon content, but this is how I feel for the most part.

#long post #i will say Piers is high tier husbando though

7 notes · View notes