Actually playing through FireRed, Crystal, Emerald, Pearl, and Black. Plan is to do all the Elite Four battles in a row, culminating in N's Castle.
Also, I'm gonna put myself at odds with Silver right now and say Gen. III is my favorite generation (although I despise Gen. IV). Whoopsies!
Games I've Played Recently
-
Silver
- Shiny Pidgeot King
- Posts: 18079
- Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2004 9:25 pm
- Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
- Contact:
Re: Games I've Played Recently
The primary reason I loved B/W was actually because of the story. For the first time... Pokemon actually had a good storyline. It wasn't just, "I'm going to rule the world because I have Pokemon!" Oh sure, Ghetsis planned to rule the world using Pokemon, but he was much more subvert about it. Rather than just stating his intentions outright and violently dominating his opposition the way Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, and Cyrus all did, he more or less brainwashed his followers into thinking they were making the world a better place. Obvious social commentary about groups like PETA that get carried away and take themselves too seriously (keeping in mind, of course, that PETA has hated Pokemon since its launch). Being set in a region meant to represent America only makes it more obvious... Anyway, the story actually seemed to have a meaning behind it and the climax scene actually felt... climactic.
The world design this time around was interesting. So much US influence. But my God, there was so much to explore! That city was huge! And there are so many hidden areas - places blocked off until after you've cleared the game once that is, so much that you can legitimately go through the whole game a second time and find something new the whole way. Dungeons were pretty good All your standard Pokemon puzzles, a few fun tricks in the gyms at least. Never anything to difficult... A lot of them felt pretty long (nothing compared to those freaking water routes in gen 3 God I hated them so much), but they introduced the trainer types of Doctors and Nurses who would heal your Pokemon once you beat them - a free healing point so that the long dungeons didn't force you to use up all your items. Which was good, because for the first time ever in a Pokemon game... I actually had to carefully manage my money! Usually, you beat a few trainers and their pocket money is enough to keep you stocked on Full Restores and Ultra balls for months. But in Gen 5 I legitimately had to be careful with my cash at points and going out of my way for a Great Ball in one of those long dungeons didn't totally feel like a waste. It felt a bit more realistic that way and added to the depth, at least.
The OST this time around was pretty good, too. A little more variety than just Poke-trumpets! The little throwback to first Gen in the Zekrom/Reshiram battle song was very much appreciated and I found myself wishing they had a music room option somewhere in the game, since it's only used once and all. But no Pokemon game has ever had one of those... Oh, but the main selling point of this game's soundtrack over all others is those NPCs in certain towns that add another instrument. Like there was one town with a simple BGM, but there was a certain room there with a piano and a set of drums. If you talked to the NPCs there, they would then play the drums and piano respectively, adding a piano track and a percussion track to the town's song. Fun little Easter Eggs of sorts that would actually get you to properly listen to the BGM to notice what their instrument added. I feel bad for Black version owners though, Opelucid City in White Version was so much better, especially with the violin part added.
As for the Pokemon designs... I liked most of them. For the most part, I think they were pretty creative, and when you look at them as their own set and not in combination with the previously existing 500, there's a pretty good balance of each type (as opposed to, say, first gen, with only 3/150 being Ghost or Dragon types, or fourth gen with all of four new Fire types, three being the starter line and one being Heatran). As always, there's some that you just like sort of automatically, some that grow on you over time, and some that you think are just terrible and stupid. But that's how it always is. But this time, for a change of pace, they used a few designs created by a western member of Game Freak! ... oh. Maybe that wasn't a good idea after all.
As for other little features they added... Infared trading is much faster than expected, there's no need to save the game every time before trading, you don't need to run to a Pokemon Center to do it and you can freely trade from your PC. The C-Gear is wonderful and Nintendo should have done that a million years ago. The Entra link is a fun little thing, but I wish it wasn't so limited. I think the Dream World is a cool idea too, though it's missing the option to befriend people based on username... still haven't ever found Colly in there. Otherwise, fun little minigames, lots to do, I want a Techniloom so badly it hurts. Pokewalker is superior as far as peripherals go and I don't know why they removed it, though... Still have mixed feelings on TMs and endless use! Seems a little cheap to be able to endlessly teach Earthquake to whoever you want, but it's also a little cheap to only be able to teach it to one Pokemon ever without trading for another copy of the TM. Re-introducing Dive as an HM, didn't really miss having three water HMs but at least it isn't necessary to beat the game, also now I'm sure there's going to be a third gen remake because why else would you bring back something stupid like Dive. And the animated sprites is just a graphics gimmick so it doesn't influence gameplay value, but it does at least make battles more interesting to watch.
As a final note, Josiah... yes, the Running Shoes were a great idea. But you spent half the game surfing anyway, and they didn't improve your water speed at all!
The world design this time around was interesting. So much US influence. But my God, there was so much to explore! That city was huge! And there are so many hidden areas - places blocked off until after you've cleared the game once that is, so much that you can legitimately go through the whole game a second time and find something new the whole way. Dungeons were pretty good All your standard Pokemon puzzles, a few fun tricks in the gyms at least. Never anything to difficult... A lot of them felt pretty long (nothing compared to those freaking water routes in gen 3 God I hated them so much), but they introduced the trainer types of Doctors and Nurses who would heal your Pokemon once you beat them - a free healing point so that the long dungeons didn't force you to use up all your items. Which was good, because for the first time ever in a Pokemon game... I actually had to carefully manage my money! Usually, you beat a few trainers and their pocket money is enough to keep you stocked on Full Restores and Ultra balls for months. But in Gen 5 I legitimately had to be careful with my cash at points and going out of my way for a Great Ball in one of those long dungeons didn't totally feel like a waste. It felt a bit more realistic that way and added to the depth, at least.
The OST this time around was pretty good, too. A little more variety than just Poke-trumpets! The little throwback to first Gen in the Zekrom/Reshiram battle song was very much appreciated and I found myself wishing they had a music room option somewhere in the game, since it's only used once and all. But no Pokemon game has ever had one of those... Oh, but the main selling point of this game's soundtrack over all others is those NPCs in certain towns that add another instrument. Like there was one town with a simple BGM, but there was a certain room there with a piano and a set of drums. If you talked to the NPCs there, they would then play the drums and piano respectively, adding a piano track and a percussion track to the town's song. Fun little Easter Eggs of sorts that would actually get you to properly listen to the BGM to notice what their instrument added. I feel bad for Black version owners though, Opelucid City in White Version was so much better, especially with the violin part added.
As for the Pokemon designs... I liked most of them. For the most part, I think they were pretty creative, and when you look at them as their own set and not in combination with the previously existing 500, there's a pretty good balance of each type (as opposed to, say, first gen, with only 3/150 being Ghost or Dragon types, or fourth gen with all of four new Fire types, three being the starter line and one being Heatran). As always, there's some that you just like sort of automatically, some that grow on you over time, and some that you think are just terrible and stupid. But that's how it always is. But this time, for a change of pace, they used a few designs created by a western member of Game Freak! ... oh. Maybe that wasn't a good idea after all.
As for other little features they added... Infared trading is much faster than expected, there's no need to save the game every time before trading, you don't need to run to a Pokemon Center to do it and you can freely trade from your PC. The C-Gear is wonderful and Nintendo should have done that a million years ago. The Entra link is a fun little thing, but I wish it wasn't so limited. I think the Dream World is a cool idea too, though it's missing the option to befriend people based on username... still haven't ever found Colly in there. Otherwise, fun little minigames, lots to do, I want a Techniloom so badly it hurts. Pokewalker is superior as far as peripherals go and I don't know why they removed it, though... Still have mixed feelings on TMs and endless use! Seems a little cheap to be able to endlessly teach Earthquake to whoever you want, but it's also a little cheap to only be able to teach it to one Pokemon ever without trading for another copy of the TM. Re-introducing Dive as an HM, didn't really miss having three water HMs but at least it isn't necessary to beat the game, also now I'm sure there's going to be a third gen remake because why else would you bring back something stupid like Dive. And the animated sprites is just a graphics gimmick so it doesn't influence gameplay value, but it does at least make battles more interesting to watch.
As a final note, Josiah... yes, the Running Shoes were a great idea. But you spent half the game surfing anyway, and they didn't improve your water speed at all!
"Irregardless" and "Over exaggerated" are NEVER CORRECT EVER because they are redundant
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
-
Metalheadz
- Pokémon Master
- Posts: 6799
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 10:11 am
- Location: In your closet
Re: Games I've Played Recently
I cannot comment on the terrorist team of B/W since I haven't actually played the game.
While I don't deny the fact the B/W is much more realistic at all, sometimes I feel it destroys the spirit of the game, that is simplicity. Typical RPG games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts are expected to have more casual NPC's, but having it in Pokemon seems a little awkward. It is the first time Nintendo's trying that, so I can't blame them. As for the money part, while it does seem more like real life, there are those players who don't necessarily want to play competitively, but try to beat the entire game, and the old money system was to their advantage. Larger bundles of items such as potions, repels, vitamins, even Pokeballs are all needed in great numbers to become a better player or get further in the game.
I can't really comment on the soundtrack, either. Though still, the original soundtrack from Gen 1 is a classic and I don't think it can be beaten.
I really didn't like the designs at all for the most part. Of course, every new generation will have strange-looking Pokemon and eventually grow on you, but B/W didn't do that for me much. Reshiram and Zekrom were fairly interesting, I thought.
Despite enjoying the 3rd generation, I didn't think the running shoes made that much difference. There was already a bicycle in the game, which I thought was already cool enough. :P
While I don't deny the fact the B/W is much more realistic at all, sometimes I feel it destroys the spirit of the game, that is simplicity. Typical RPG games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts are expected to have more casual NPC's, but having it in Pokemon seems a little awkward. It is the first time Nintendo's trying that, so I can't blame them. As for the money part, while it does seem more like real life, there are those players who don't necessarily want to play competitively, but try to beat the entire game, and the old money system was to their advantage. Larger bundles of items such as potions, repels, vitamins, even Pokeballs are all needed in great numbers to become a better player or get further in the game.
I can't really comment on the soundtrack, either. Though still, the original soundtrack from Gen 1 is a classic and I don't think it can be beaten.
I really didn't like the designs at all for the most part. Of course, every new generation will have strange-looking Pokemon and eventually grow on you, but B/W didn't do that for me much. Reshiram and Zekrom were fairly interesting, I thought.
Despite enjoying the 3rd generation, I didn't think the running shoes made that much difference. There was already a bicycle in the game, which I thought was already cool enough. :P
1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Trophy Case:
Trophy Case:
Re: Games I've Played Recently
What? I built up so much money during the course of my first playthrough I eventually just spent it on 500 Hyper Potions before the Elite Four.. 500. And I still had a fair amount left.Silver wrote:Which was good, because for the first time ever in a Pokemon game... I actually had to carefully manage my money!
This is a matter of pure taste. Both versions give off the 'final' vibe, but they do it in different ways: Black pumps you up for the challenge, while White focuses you on the challenge. Again, pure taste. I can't hate either one, nor can I prefer either one.Silver wrote:I feel bad for Black version owners though, Opelucid City in White Version was so much better, especially with the violin part added.
I'll have you know that the Vanillite line is probably my favorite new line.Silver wrote:But this time, for a change of pace, they used a few designs created by a western member of Game Freak! ... oh. Maybe that wasn't a good idea after all.
The glorious compromise? TMs don't refill PP anymore, so no cheating. I really think that was a good way to solve it.Silver wrote:Still have mixed feelings on TMs and endless use! Seems a little cheap to be able to endlessly teach Earthquake to whoever you want, but it's also a little cheap to only be able to teach it to one Pokemon ever without trading for another copy of the TM.
Surf in RSE is just as fast as running, which was respectably fast in RSE. Would you really want to surf at, say, the speed of the Mach Bike? Seems a little silly for those short ponds that appear in the game.Silver wrote:As a final note, Josiah... yes, the Running Shoes were a great idea. But you spent half the game surfing anyway, and they didn't improve your water speed at all!
And to not derail this completely, I've also been playing a lot of Sonic Adventure DX (the Steam version). Do you think I should go and post a "This is my Chao Garden" thread?
Re: Games I've Played Recently
R/S did have a few very long water routes. Surfing speed is pretty fast but you get into enough random battles that it slows things down (unless you stock up on Repels).
A couple comments on B/W...
The Music:
From a technical standpoint, B&W has the best soundtrack and the musicians in different towns are a nice touch. From a compositional standpoint... It's good but I'd personally give the nod to the music from R/B and G/S.
Healing and Difficulty:
B&W did feel a bit harder than previous games. The doctor/nuse NPCs were useful and just playing through the story never did leave me with enough money to amass a massive collection of healing items.
The Story:
B&W has the best story in any of the main series Pokémon games (possibly in any Pokémon)...but I wouldn't call it good either. The whole PETA thing Team Plasma has going is a very interesting idea, but they never develop it very much and, as it turns out, half of Team Plasma never really cared about that anyway. And the characters, while a little more developed than past games, still don't have all that depth. It's a step in the right direction, but I'm not going to impressed with the story in a Pokémon game unless they reach the same level as that of Pokémon Adventures.
Having not done most of the post game stuff, I'm pretty happy with B/W so far. It's got a lot to do, the areas are well designed, most of the new pokémon are decent, and there seems to be a pretty massive list of post game stuff. Plus the shortcut menu and C-Gear are really convenient. That said, the fact that you can only grow berries in the dream world is really annoying, the musicals lack the depth of the contests (not that I was ever seriously into the contests), and they should have kept pokémon walking. And I still wish they'd update the pokémon cries.
A couple comments on B/W...
The Music:
From a technical standpoint, B&W has the best soundtrack and the musicians in different towns are a nice touch. From a compositional standpoint... It's good but I'd personally give the nod to the music from R/B and G/S.
Healing and Difficulty:
B&W did feel a bit harder than previous games. The doctor/nuse NPCs were useful and just playing through the story never did leave me with enough money to amass a massive collection of healing items.
The Story:
B&W has the best story in any of the main series Pokémon games (possibly in any Pokémon)...but I wouldn't call it good either. The whole PETA thing Team Plasma has going is a very interesting idea, but they never develop it very much and, as it turns out, half of Team Plasma never really cared about that anyway. And the characters, while a little more developed than past games, still don't have all that depth. It's a step in the right direction, but I'm not going to impressed with the story in a Pokémon game unless they reach the same level as that of Pokémon Adventures.
Having not done most of the post game stuff, I'm pretty happy with B/W so far. It's got a lot to do, the areas are well designed, most of the new pokémon are decent, and there seems to be a pretty massive list of post game stuff. Plus the shortcut menu and C-Gear are really convenient. That said, the fact that you can only grow berries in the dream world is really annoying, the musicals lack the depth of the contests (not that I was ever seriously into the contests), and they should have kept pokémon walking. And I still wish they'd update the pokémon cries.
-
Doodleshark
- Pokémon Master
- Posts: 5744
- Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 4:34 pm
- Location: Ottawa, Soviet Canuckistan
Re: Games I've Played Recently
I just completed the campaign for Resistance 3. It was much better than the second game, and while the gameplay still wasn't quite as good as the first, R3 easily had the best story and atmosphere of the series. My only major issue was a somewhat anticlimactic last level and ending, but that is easily overshadowed by all the awesomeness that came before.
Re: Games I've Played Recently
After over 60 hours, I'm finally done with Catherine (which I originally thought would only take me 20 or so). In the end, I gave up on Babel (the set of four super hard bonus stages). They're kinda fun, but the difficulty is rather insane and I could easily see it taking me another 20+ hours to complete them and I've got a lot of other games to play. So I watched the final cut-scene you can unlock on youtube on moved on. I was going to finally start Assassin's Creed 2, but picked up the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus collection last night and ended up starting that instead. Though, having played both games multiple times back on the PS2, it should only take me a week or two to finish.
-
Pikachu127
- Random Trainer
- Posts: 1811
- Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:19 pm
- Location: aaaargh
Re: Games I've Played Recently
Playing Knights of the Old Republic. Unfortunately, I am now a Star Wars nerd.
-
PoisonWing14
- Shiny Shedinja
- Posts: 5234
- Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:15 pm
- Location: Here, or a place other then There.
Re: Games I've Played Recently
*High-fives Pikachu* Good to know that there are others of my kind about.
I've mainly been playing MegaMan 1, 2, and 3 (on the 15th anneversiry collection). I'm stuck on Wily's castle in 1, Heatman's level in 2, and the yellow devil's room in 3. Arg.
I've mainly been playing MegaMan 1, 2, and 3 (on the 15th anneversiry collection). I'm stuck on Wily's castle in 1, Heatman's level in 2, and the yellow devil's room in 3. Arg.
~ Quotes n' Stuff ~
"I have to blow everything up! It's the only way to prove I'm not crazy!"
- Gordon Freeman, "Freeman's Mind" - Episode 29
"Remember: Not only does crime not pay, but you don't get a health plan, either."
- Nick Brick, Lego Island
"I have to blow everything up! It's the only way to prove I'm not crazy!"
- Gordon Freeman, "Freeman's Mind" - Episode 29
"Remember: Not only does crime not pay, but you don't get a health plan, either."
- Nick Brick, Lego Island
Re: Games I've Played Recently
You might want to check this site, Poison.
Re: Games I've Played Recently
Just started Fate/Extra, and as I'd expect from Nasu, he tosses you right into the world right before it's explained.
Enjoying it so far though.
Enjoying it so far though.
-
Silver
- Shiny Pidgeot King
- Posts: 18079
- Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2004 9:25 pm
- Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
- Contact:
Re: Games I've Played Recently
I've been actually playing TWEWY recently. I downloaded it a while ago because I was curious and never found a physical copy, played through the first week and got distracted by some other shiny new game... then eventually found and purchased the game. Didn't touch it for months. But now I did! And I'm going to actually beat it this time! Hopefully. If I ever get good at the whole "two screens at once" thing.
"Irregardless" and "Over exaggerated" are NEVER CORRECT EVER because they are redundant
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
Regardless means "without regard", and adding "ir" on the front actually makes it a double negative; exaggerate means "to overstate" so you're literally saying "over overstate."
Example: I can not exaggerate the importance of this fact enough, regardless of how often people ignore it.
Re: Games I've Played Recently
Two screen battling takes some getting used to, though it's quite awesome once you figure it out. I recommend following the light puck back and forth from screen to screen and focusing most of your attention on the screen it's in, at least at first. I think it took me most of the first week to get a good feel for it. Or, worst comes to worst, you could always put the top screen character on Auto. I hope you enjoy it, TWEWY is an amazing game and the first week is only the beginning...
As for me, today I'll be figuring out if I want to play through hard mode of Shadow of the Colossus HD (which I beat back on the PS2) or move on to my next game (either Kirby's Return to Dreamland (fun!) or Assassin's Creed 2 (I need to get caught up)).
As for me, today I'll be figuring out if I want to play through hard mode of Shadow of the Colossus HD (which I beat back on the PS2) or move on to my next game (either Kirby's Return to Dreamland (fun!) or Assassin's Creed 2 (I need to get caught up)).
Re: Games I've Played Recently
Out of all things I had to do in Fate/Extra, I had to choose the hardest servant to work with. Caster is pretty much the game's hard mode. She's fragile, which means she'll die if you make three wrong moves in a row. She's weak, so grinding takes longer than it should. Plus, it seems like I already screwed up on obtaining her Noble Phantasm.
So note to anyone who wishes to play it: do not pick Caster for your first play through.
Still enjoying it... but the time it takes to grind...
So note to anyone who wishes to play it: do not pick Caster for your first play through.
Still enjoying it... but the time it takes to grind...
Re: Games I've Played Recently
I read through the pre-order bonus magazine I got with Fate/Extra, which gave me a bit of an idea of the setting. It sounds pretty interesting and I'm really looking forward to starting it. As for servants, I'll be doing my first play through with Saber, just because.
My current game priority list:
Consoles:
Assassin's Creed II (currently playing)
AC Brotherhood
Kirby, Sonic, Zelda, Uncharted III, and AC Revalations in whatever order I feel like at the time.
This will be interrupted by FFXIII-2 if I don't get them all finished by the end of January.
After all that, I think I'll switch back to RPGs for a while.
Handhelds:
Pokemon Black post game content (still gotta finish it)
Fate/Extra
Professor Layton (if/when my copy ever arrives)
Super Mario 3D
Mario Kart
A Shin Megami Tensei game (I have a few to choose from)
I'm probably going to work some Project Diva 2nd in here and there as well, since I haven't finished unlocking things.
PC (now that I'm finally finished with all things Tsukihime):
Go! Go! Nippon! (Eh, it's supposed to be short and I'm curious.)
If the translation for Umineko gets finished soon it'll probably be next. Otherwise, I've got a tough choice between Aselia, Utawarerumono, and Koihime Musuo.
Finding time to play is going to be the problem. I'm hoping I can work through a lot of portable games over the holidays and I can usually find a bit of time each week for visual novels if I try but between work, projects, and holiday traveling I may end up falling further behind on the console games.
My current game priority list:
Consoles:
Assassin's Creed II (currently playing)
AC Brotherhood
Kirby, Sonic, Zelda, Uncharted III, and AC Revalations in whatever order I feel like at the time.
This will be interrupted by FFXIII-2 if I don't get them all finished by the end of January.
After all that, I think I'll switch back to RPGs for a while.
Handhelds:
Pokemon Black post game content (still gotta finish it)
Fate/Extra
Professor Layton (if/when my copy ever arrives)
Super Mario 3D
Mario Kart
A Shin Megami Tensei game (I have a few to choose from)
I'm probably going to work some Project Diva 2nd in here and there as well, since I haven't finished unlocking things.
PC (now that I'm finally finished with all things Tsukihime):
Go! Go! Nippon! (Eh, it's supposed to be short and I'm curious.)
If the translation for Umineko gets finished soon it'll probably be next. Otherwise, I've got a tough choice between Aselia, Utawarerumono, and Koihime Musuo.
Finding time to play is going to be the problem. I'm hoping I can work through a lot of portable games over the holidays and I can usually find a bit of time each week for visual novels if I try but between work, projects, and holiday traveling I may end up falling further behind on the console games.