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Old 12-09-2013, 05:22 PM   #101
Talon87
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Originally Posted by Mercutio View Post
Talon, are you playing easy mode (the ridiculous exp share) or have you turned it off?
I turned it off on Route 09 (before the most recent Braixen blowup) specifically because I needed Braixen to quit gaining levels. Kept it turned off until Shalour City when I felt like multitasking bonding with Braixen and Talonflame and giving levels to Floette (then 28?) and Zigzagoon (then 24?). I'm not really looking for any bragging rights, so whether the item stays on or off entirely depends on my pragmatism. I'm very pragmatic with JRPGs; I hate waste. I turned the item off not for the challenge (what challenge!?) but for practical reasons.

I'm pretty confident that I could beat the remainder of the pre-E4 game with my current team (allowing for evolutions but no further levels or moves) given the EV training and given what I'm already witnessing. Unless Gym 8 is populated by gobs of Level 50s, I have no reason to disable Exp.Share "for the challenge" -- as there will still be no challenge. An EV trained Level 42 Delphox would roast a Level 50 NPCmon.
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Old 12-10-2013, 01:50 PM   #102
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Baa de Mer Ranch: So this was ridiculously adorable. Pointless, but ridiculously adorable. I think I rode around on the Skiddo for a good fifteen minutes, exploring every possible corner of the island, before dropping him back off at the farm and then challenging the trainers we'd headbutted ran past earlier.

Coumarine City: So I arrive here and -- no surprise -- this is clearly a Water town. So lemme guess: Water type gym leader, am I right?

The UnHoly EXP Trinity: So I go into the hotel, as is my habit to do -- explore everywhere, talk to everyone -- and what should I discover but a girl who decides to give me ... a Lucky Egg. Oh man. Ohhhhhhhhhh man. They know not who they're dealing with here! hahahaha

Not yet sure which item I should gratuitously place on Shiina: the Amulet Coin for more money I don't need? Or the Lucky Egg for more experience points I don't need? Probably the Amulet Coin, which is what it's been for now, since once I start actually spending money as a big spender my funds are going to disappear fast. Can't really ever have enough money in Pokémon. Not when you breed semi-competitively and would appreciate having unlimited access to vitamins at all times. But we'll see. We'll see.

Seriously though. EXP from not evolving (?). EXP from Pokémon-amie. EXP from a Lucky Egg. And that's without me having ever once touched those silly O-Powers! It seems like Nintendo forced Game Freak to guzzle down the Wii U Mario Bros. Kool-Aid everyone at Nintendo headquarters has been drinking: because good lord have they made it so that Pokémon has never been easier to have level advantage in. After the experience we had in Gen 5 where it became surprisingly difficult for the first time ever to keep far ahead of the level curve, it seems like Gen 6 has swung so far in the opposite direction that the pendulum's arm is about to snap right off.

Unwavering Emotions: So I ride the monorail to the southern half of the town and discover an NPC that Game Freak plopped there just to play you this. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Inside, I near about cried. Hugh is still the best rival in the history of the franchise, his character and story one of the most compelling and touching we've ever seen, and I don't think I'll ever forget the connection between him and this song. Hearing it instantly brings back memories of Nimbasa City and of the darkest moment in the Pokémon franchise nearer the end of the game. Yeah, just thinking about it now *is* starting to make the back of my throat sour and my eyes start to ever so slightly water. ^^; Man. Man. You asked me what the best song is I've heard in XY so far? This is the best song I've heard in XY so far. Too bad it's an import from another generation. :p ^^;

One thing that amazes me about this song is that it means something different to so many people. A lot of people associate with N. Some associate it with Bianca. Others associate with the Memory Link feature. I guess the song somehow failed to stand out to me on my BW1 playthrough, whereas it really, really stood out in my BW2 playthrough given what scenes it kept showing up in, so for me the connection with Hugh is what's strongest. But yeah. N, Hugh, Bianca: whomever you associate it with, this song is great. Nice pick, Game Freak. Now if only you'd give the protagonist an MP3 player with which she could listen to any of the songs in any of the main series games, that'd be great.

Coumarine Gym: So this was another of the game's paradoxically welcome-yet-unwelcome surprises. I was glad to be surprised by the gym's type: for such a Water-themed city to have a Grass gym leader, that was surprising. But I was disappointed that, flavorfully, the gym doesn't really seem to tie in to the town much at all. ^^; That's been the problem for much of the gyms so far. Santalune isn't really buggy. Cyllage is by no means the best-suited city in the game for rocks. Shalour doesn't exactly scream "Fighting" so much as it does mystical energy (and so Psychic, maybe?). And now we have Coumarine City and its Grass gym. I dunno. Like I say, I'm both pleased and displeased by this, neither angry nor thrilled.

So enough about the type: what about the gym itself and the man behind it? The gym was cute but slightly frustrating for a completionist like myself. I kept unintentionally going for the correct paths every time, which meant I then needed to back track and pursue all of the dead end paths in order to battle every single trainer in the gym. But that wasn't too bad, and soon enough I was standing before Ramos.

Ramos: I really liked what they did with him, minus the shears the excessive size of which makes Ramos look like he belongs in the Kokiri Forest. ^^; (Though maybe that was the point?) I thought it was a bit disappointing that the localization team clearly struggled with how best to translate the Japanese "old geezer" script and inadvertently ended up making Ramos sound a bit too much like an Englishman, Scotsman, or American of either descent. This is France, guys: while I can buy that Ramos might be a foreign national, I doubt that that was Game Freak's intent. ^^; You seriously had to force preservation of the old man dialogue at the expense of the image of his ethnic heritage? Well, whatever. I still liked him anyway, despite your best efforts to make me not.

I don't know what it is about the older gym leaders, but they always really fire up my imagination. I can't help but imagine what they were like in their youth and what other characters in the Pokémon universe they might have known. Ramos is isolated in far-off Kalos, but it's always fun to imagine the tie-in between characters like Oak, Blaine, Mr. Fuji, Agatha, and Pryce, and I definitely fancy the idea of Old Man Ramos having been visited once or twice in the past by some of our favorite older characters from PokéJapan or PokéAmerica.

I wish that Ramos had been more of a challenge -- insert pity from Deebs and others here -- but that's okay. Can't be helped. It was nice seeing what he had though. Right from the get go, the old gardener surprised me with his Jumpluff. I was sorely tempted to let it get off at least one free attack, just so I could see it in action, but I decided against this since I didn't want to put up with the nuisance of paralysis should it decide to go for such a move. Next up was Gogoat. He looked a lot bulkier in the anime, which I think I prefer. Here he looks rather lean and mean. I guess that's fine. (Maybe Alexa's Gogoat just looked bulky because of the saddle and saddlebags she had strapped to him. *shrug*) I look forward to raising a Gogoat of my own at some point. Finally Ramos sent out Weepinbell. It was pretty clear to me from this choice that Gogoat must've been his ultimate but that he was forced to send it out early in a desperate bid to take out my Pokémon. Weepinbell went down without a fight and that was game.

Hologram from Lysandre: So on my way south to Route 13, I get a hologram from Lysandre. He implores me to consider dedicating myself towards the fight against ugliness but doesn't say much else. It seemed kind of random and weird for Lysandre to be sending me this message out of nowhere when my character hardly knows the man and the last time she saw him was the day they first met in Lumiose City, many weeks or even months ago.

Mourning the Loss of the XTransceiver: So it wasn't until I got this hologram that I realized something XY is missing, one of the several downgrades from BW2 I've spotted in the game. And that's how utterly inferior the hologram thing of Lysandre's is compared with Unova's XTransceivers.

First of all, I really enjoyed calling people in BW and BW2. It was fun to see their anime-style faces, even if the mouth movements were obviously just a generic animation meant to give the illusion of speech. In many ways, the XTransceiver was the ultimate version of an idea first introduced in Johto: the idea of NPCs telephoning you on occasion and you also being able to phone them back and hear any of a number of messages suited to where you were in the game at that time. I liked how in BW2 I could call Hugh and he'd say things that matched where I was in the game. Or how I could call my mom and she'd do the same thing.

You've got none of that here in XY. All you can do is look back at the holograms you've received from others. That's it. Putting aside how utterly they look like shit , I dislike that I can't place calls to others and get some scripted messages back. Those phone calls were fun, flavorful things which helped to maintain the illusion that we were on an adventure with actual people. Their absence contributes towards the breaking down of that illusion and reminds us that we're only playing a video game with lifeless NPCs.

All of this makes me pretty confident that if I go back and beat BW1 again and then if I beat XY here in a few days and I compare the ending credits that I am going to see different directors and/or producers listed for the game.

Route 13: When I first set foot on this route? I loved it. Nice look. Yay rails to play with. Oh cool new Pokémon. Oh wow lots of doors to explore. By the time I was done with this route, I fucking hated it. Yes, let's put gobs of enemies on the map that you frequently can't run away from or stall out. And let's give half of them Arena Trap. That's kind. Oh, and let's put five doors all over the map, on opposite ends, and make the player have to put up with this Pokémon minefield as he anal-retentively checks out each and every door with his pass key. And last but not least ... let's make it so that the only door his pass key can open is the first door he saw. Unbelievable. Probably the single most sadistic bit of game design I've seen yet in this game. Which sadistic fuck on the staff was laughing himself silly with this one, huh? Thanks for wasting fifteen to twenty minutes of my time, asshole. Next time, don't fucking put any doors like that there if you're not gonna let me open them. Better yet, do put them there (for flavorful reasons) but don't fucking litter the territory in-between with incessant inescapable fights.

Kalos Power Plant: Very cool. I got very strong Pokémon Colosseum vibes from this part of the game. The graphics, the music, all of it. It wasn't just the good things though: it was also the bad. Foremost amongst these was the fact that almost every opponent only had one or two Pokémon. (I think only one, maybe two, of the opponents had three Pokémon on their team. That was it.) I'm around 40 hours into my save file at this point, of which no less than 20 is pure, pure game advancement. In other words, I'm very probably entering into the home stretch right now, the final third of the game. And that means that there is no excuse for opponents like these at this point. Never mind that they're underleveled as fuck: we've been through this, and I'm not going to squarely lay the blame at your feet for this one. My main complaint is that you think it's acceptable to have Team Flare grunts who only have a single Mightyena or a single Houndoom and that's it. That's ridiculous. And if you think the grunts are ridiculous, just wait until you check out ...

The Team Flare Admins: I thought the nameless admin was cool. (Appropriately evil and/or douchebaggy and/or cool-looking for the part.) I wasn't so keen on the named scientist, Aliana, but whatever: "if Phoenix Wright gets to have Geordi LaForge's visor then SO DO WE! " I can practically hear Masuda pouting.

But never mind their looks: what about their teams? Ugh: dreadful! The admin has a single Houndoom. The scientist -- who is supposed to be a big deal, keep in mind -- has only her trusty Level 38 Mightyena with her. Her Level 38 Shittyena ... vs. my Level 52 Delphox. ^^; I don't care that Dark beats Psychic: I fire one Flamethrower at you and you're dead. (And she was. ) Even if my Delphox had been scaled down all the way to Level 38, and even if you took away all of its properly-trained EVs, I'm pretty confident that I would still be at least 2HKOing that weak wolf wanna-be from Hoenn. Seriously. Even Giovanni in Celadon City had three Pokémon with him. Onix, Rhyhorn, and Kangaskhan. And when you faced him at Silph Co. and his levels were in the upper 30s like Aliana's? He had four Pokémon! Nidorino, Rhyhorn, Kangaskhan, and Nidoqueen! What the hell, Aliana? What the hell? You're supposed to be a big deal in this organization and all you have is one Level 38 Route 1 crapmon?

Mightyena fans reading this:

Seriously, guys. This is unacceptable game design. A boss fight is supposed to feel rewarding. Putting aside my levels, I should not be seeing the boss have only a single Pokémon while her grunts earlier in the queue had two and sometimes three Pokémon of about the same level. C'mon, man. Either give Aliana a single Mightyena but make it truly mighty -- make it a goddamn Level 50 or something and deny the enemy A.I. permission to use healing items -- or else give her a second and third Pokémon and keep the levels right where they are, maybe ticked a liiiiiiitle bit down to account for the widdle kids who might otherwise find Aliana to be an insurmountable challenge lest they grind on Route 13 for hours on end. Anyway ...

Robin and Batgirl: So after I defeat the nameless admin and Aliana, I run into Professor Sycamore's two aides. Only this time they're not dressed like they usually are. Instead they're wearing Mardi Gras masks and long scarves. They don't reveal who they are to Corinne but it seems kind of obvious. ^^; They're impressed with her prowess and suggest that Kalos could always use another hero. Then they head off, likely embarrassed by the fact that they were upstaged by a fifteen year-old girl who just began her Pokémon journey not too long ago.

So does this mean Professor Sycamore is Batman? Oh I do hope so. (No spoilers! :p)

Jake Marshall?: So I leave the power plant and press on south, heading for Lumiose City. And that's when I run into a very promising figure. He looks like he's either this region's Champion, Robin and Batgirl's boss, or both. (That would be pretty trippy if it were both. "Professor Sycamore is both Batman and the Champion? :o" ) For now, I'm going to go for him being the Champion. He doesn't seem like he matches this region -- he honestly seems as American Southwesternly themed as Alder was! -- but we'll see, we'll see. He mentions flowers and a sleeping legendary, so we'll see what the deal is there too. As always, no spoilers, please.

Lumiose City - North Side: And this is where I am in the game right now. I've explored very little so far. I talked to Shauna, went inside a cafe or two (including the Flares'), and am about to press a little further onward towards Prism Tower. Just a few final things and then we're done for this update.

Eevee Hunting: I spent a while on Route 10 trying to find a female Eevee. No luck. I ran into two males out of I don't even know how many wild encounters. I may try again later. Or I may just wait until I get a Ditto.

Disappintment with Dedenne: I ended up finally seeing my very first Dedenne. Excited to find out what route they're on, I went to the PokéDex and discovered that they're on a route I've already been to. But I also noticed ...

"Hey ... there's a Pokémon in the spot right next to Dedenne's. That ... that doesn't look like a Raidenchu. "

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* ... Game Freak went and invented yet another non-evolving Pikaclone. What the fuck. What the fuck, guys. Seriously? Seriously. You've been doing so well with this game aesthetically, but you're starting to drop the ball again and again and again as I set foot onto this final leg of the race. Seriously, guys? No evolution for Dedenne? What could have possibly made you think that fans are thrilled by the fact that Emolga doesn't have an evolution? What could have possibly made you think the same thing about Pachirisu? Plusle and Minun were bad enough! But then you went and did it again! Twice! And now three times! >_< Three times you've repeated your Hoenn sin! Four times you've done it in total! Plusle+Minun! Pachirisu! Emolga! And now Dedenne! What the fuck, guys!? What the fuck!?

*calming down* ... I guess this answers my question about whether I'd be adding the Fairy/Electric Raidenchu to my team as Team Member #6.

Flying in Gen 6: The problem with theatrical HMs is that they're pretty to watch the first time but annoying to have to sit through every time after that. Getting back to bbb's complaint about lazy and/or rushed programming, this feels like another example of that laziness. It's obviously a lot easier to spawn the 3D model standing on the ground in front of the Pokémon Center and transition in to that screen (which is what they did) instead of animating some 3-D model graphics which show the trainer riding in to her destination atop her mount and then alighting from it onto the ground. But it's not like they couldn't have done the latter either. In fact, for the very Fly montage they did end up going for, they still went and animated some custom 3-D modeling. So why not just do that with the cities instead? And speed the process up by a second or two? Whatever. Not an enormous deal.

Evolutions: Shiina has evolved from a Braixen into a Delphox. Nagi has evolved from a Wartortle into a Blastoise. Ziggy III has evolved from a Zigzagoon into a Linoone. And so of my team of five, that leaves only Floette not fully evolved.
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Old 12-10-2013, 05:50 PM   #103
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Can anyone confirm the best course of action for tipping the man in the Spooky House on Route 14? I last saved 30 minutes ago and would hate to lose all the captures in the swamp. However, I'd hate it even more if I was locked in to the wrong choice. I see some people saying that tipping him makes a certain Easter egg I've already seen become inaccessible. I see other people saying that not tipping him axes your shiny encounter rate. Neither one sounds legitimate, but I figured I'd ask you guys if you knew anything for sure.
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Old 12-10-2013, 06:09 PM   #104
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I don't think anyones figured out what tipping actually does. A lot of npcs request tips (not sure if you noticed). I just tip every time in the off chance it does help shiny rate or something. No idea about the easter egg, though.

Plus, it's not like gamefreak to make a one time thing permanently screw up your game (like losing easter eggs, etc).
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Old 12-10-2013, 06:48 PM   #105
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I personally think tipping increases your shiny encounter rate. I used to always tip just in case something happened and I came across two shiny Pokémon in random encounters before I even got all the badges. I've heard of people tipping and not seeing any shinies though so I could be wrong and I'm just astronomically lucky.
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Old 12-10-2013, 06:52 PM   #106
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Plus, it's not like gamefreak to make a one time thing permanently screw up your game (like losing easter eggs, etc).
How quickly he forgets.
  • Gens 1 thru 3: not allowing players a second chance at KO'd legendaries
  • Mostly older generations: creating stone evolutions and/or trade evolutions which learned zero new moves, so if you evolved too early then it sucks to be you
  • All generations: disallowing players from changing theirs or their rivals' nicknames once you choose
  • Most generations, including Gen 6: making you blindly choose your fossil
They've definitely gotten better about this sort of thing as time has gone on -- Gen 1 was the worst by far -- but I still don't put it past Game Freak to program some bullshit thing into the game that rewards one group of players while punishing another even though neither group had any idea whether what they were doing was good or not.

I had tipped the guy Ą100 originally. I went to the Pokémon Center and checked my captures. No good natures and very few good IVs (of those checked). Decided to reset my game, wait for more answers from you guys, and (barring any 100% solid answers) going ahead and tipping the guy Ą1,000. I'll be pissed if that locks me out of some legendary ghost thing, but whatever.
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Old 12-10-2013, 06:56 PM   #107
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Yes, and you can also miss the masterball in Sapphire (which is one thousand percent bullshit, fuck that game), but Game Freak has been much much better about it recently. The point I'm trying to make is making a choice fucking you over for something super not obvious. Especially for something super obtuse like this. Legends are one thing, tipping a guy in a house is another.

I don't think there are any 100% solid answers because nobody has any idea. People speculate but I don't even really know what you're talking about.
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Old 12-10-2013, 07:03 PM   #108
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Tipping has been the subject of a fair amount of debate. Certainly if it has any effect whatsoever, no-one has been able to prove it - "evidence" has basically been along the lines of "hey I tipped this one guy and then I found a shiny shortly after!" and then when you ask you find out they always tip, and given how many opportunities there are in the game of course they had tipped shortly before they got lucky.

My bet is it's this generations version of B+down, but essentially no-one knows.
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Old 12-10-2013, 07:06 PM   #109
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I've just seen kids being kids claiming that you can find Mew under a truck and that ...

Theory 1: If you fail to tip the guy, it punishes you by diminishing your shiny encounter rate. (Some say it slashes it in half. Others that it floors it to 0.)

Theory 2: If you tip the guy Ą1,000, then it locks you out of an opportunity to get {some Pokémon I've never heard of so I quickly averted my gaze and have successfully long since forgotten the name}.

Theory 3: If you fail to tip the guy, then you'll run into Haunter very shortly afterwards.

Of these three threes I commonly found, #3 is total horseshit. (I ran into at least three Haunters before the house scene. I think he's an uncommon or else a "Common Rare" and some kids are just having bad luck finding one.) #2 is also likely garbage, reeking to high heaven of the Vermillion Harbor Mew Truck rumor. #1 I would've also thought was garbage except for the fact that it seems like half of the fandom has decided that tipping is what Masuda was alluding to when he claimed that he put a feature into the Gen 6 games to make it easier for us to encounter shinies.

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that I'm not going to miss out on a freebie Rotom or something if I opt to tip or not tip this guy. That's all. But it sounds like nobody knows so I'm going to keep on doing what I've done all game -- tip the guy. (All game long, I've only failed to tip one person -- Phil the Photo Guy in front of the Tower of Mastery, and that was only because I was mashing the A button and forgot about the tipping and that it defaults to "No." -_-; )
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Old 12-10-2013, 07:09 PM   #110
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If not tipping reduces your shiny rate it's certainly not to zero. I've not tipped at all and found a shiny Tentacool and [redacted].
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Old 12-10-2013, 09:43 PM   #111
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Prism Tower: This was the second pseudo-cinematic scene we had alone with Shauna. And this was the second time I saw it during the day rather than at night. And this was the second time that the scene was going for a "Aren't the lights pretty? " gimmick. Argh. Really wish I could've seen this at night ... but I guess that's what YouTube is for!

Lumiose Gym: The one thing I hate about riddle gyms is that they always force me to pick between my pride and my pragmatism. Do I answer hoenstly and breeze through the gym? Or do I deliberately answer all of the questions wrong so I can soak up that sweet, sweet EXP? And it turns out that even when I'm twenty levels ahead of the curve ... I go for the pragmatism. After all! What if there are new sightings for my PokéDex?

Sure enough, that's exactly what happened with Kalos's puzzle gym. From Lanturn and Ampharos to Raichu and Electrode, my Dex exploded with new sightings. However, maybe it was a bit too much. Because I ended up having to fight not three, not four, but twelve trainers before fighting Clemont. Ughghghghghghgh~! It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd been bam-bam-bam one after the other without any delay, but no! There was the whole rigamarole with "Into the elevator!" and "Out of the elevator!", constantly, and it ended up making this gym challenge take three to four times longer than it should have.

Clemont: He was fine, but boy if the anime hasn't changed him enough that I felt like the video game Clemont was a different person. The same in very many ways, but ... different when it comes right down to it. The video game Clemont seemed a lot more anti-social, whereas the anime's Clemont is just a socially awkward but highly extroverted nerd. Anime Clemont's eyes sparkle a happy blue through their lenses wheras Video Game Clemont's eyes are hidden behind opaque glasses that smack of the stereotypical über-nerd in Akiba culture. But in the end, Clemont is Clemont.

His team was fine. Emolga's cute, Magneton's a good Pokémon when it's not staring down the barrel of a fox witch's flamethrower , and his final Pokémon was a neato evolution of Helioptile. (Makes me wonder, given the coloration, if it's our very first Electric/Dark. Will have to find out. I'd be more optimistic if Bunnelby it didn't seem like Gen 6 is eager to create new Normal/* dual types ...) Like Ramos, though, Clemont pretty much fell in three hits -- well, four thanks to Magneton's ability.

Bonnie: This was the real surprise for me here. While I certainly didn't rule out the possibility of Bonnie being a canonical video game character, I didn't expect her to have the same major role in the video game that she does in the anime. I figured the anime had done with Bonnie what it did in Hoenn with May's younger brother Max. Was pleasantly surprised to see that, no in fact, Bonnie's every bit a part of the Lumiose Gym experience as Clemont is. Kinda cute.

While I had to sort of force the reading of it, you could pick up very faint hints in her final words to the female protagonist that mirror her behavior in the anime regarding attractive ladies and her older brother.

Professor Batman's a Traitor! I Knew It!: Hooooold your horses, there, cowboy. So, I get a holo message from Professor Sycamore and he invites me to meet him at Lysandre's cafe. And of course I'm all "Oh my god. :O Have they finally done it!? Have they finally gone and made the regional professor the villain!? HOLY SHIT!" But we go to the cafe and it turns out my imagination got the better of me. ^^;

What reality offered was actually another nice Lysandre scene. My only complaint was the eyeroll-inducingly cheesy bit about how Lysandre is a descendant of "the legendary king's younger brother". It's the sort of thing we see so often in fiction, where a modern villain descends from an ancient one while the modern hero descends from the ancient villain's family member. But that's just it: that wasn't the story Lysandre presented us with. :o If he's to be believed, which remains to be seen, Lysandre argues that the ancient king of Kalos was a bad man who all but destroyed the entire land to get what he wanted. And how's this for a plot twist: there are pretty obvious parallels between what Lysandre says the ancient king did and what we know Team Flare is up to now. So it strongly begs the question: is Lysandre just blind to the fact that he's becoming his great-great-great-[...]-great uncle? Or is he in fact not becoming his great-great-great-[...]-great uncle and we've unfairly judged Lysandre too soon? So yeah. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm expecting the worst (i.e. that Lysandre doesn't realize he's become his own nightmare) but hoping for the best (i.e. that Lysandre's actually a good guy. PLOT TWIST!). After all, if it's one thing Game Freak has been consistently good at doing to me this generation, it's been surprising me. Keep it up, guys! I've got my fingers crossed!

In before Professor Batman is Lysandre's older brother. [/WHAT A TWEEEEEEEEST!]

Lumiose City - North Side: I get a holo message from Trevor asking me to meet him and the rest of the gang on Route 14. But they can wait. I have a city to explore! Highlights follow.

The 2F Hex Maniac: Up through now, I've been on something of a Pokémon fanart hiatus. I've looked for select things that I've sniper searched for (e.g. pictures of Gen 1-5 characters) but as far as generic searches for "ポケモン" on Pixiv go or whatnot, no, that hasn't happened for almost six months. But within days of XY's international release, even with my halted activities, I was still being exposed every two or three days to pictures -- even twenty-page illustrated comics! -- of this one particular character from XY: the Hex Maniac. I knew who she was because her name kept showing up (in Japanese or in English) right along with the pictures. So I didn't consider it much of a spoiler or anything. I just thought it rather weird. I was like, "Something must happen in Gen 6 that has got people freaking out about this Hex Maniac girl so much. Because it certainly isn't the bust that's got them all worked up ... " I didn't go snooping for answers because I didn't want to be spoiled any further. I figured I'll find out when I find out.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeell ... that day was today. haha Because here I am, exploring Lumiose North, when all of a sudden this happens. And I am like "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA? XD " And as if that weren't bad enough ...

Hotel Richissime: ... she's here too! XD Pretty crazy! So now I'm excited to figure out what the deal with her is. Had it been a one-time event, I would've pegged her for a legendary trigger or else just some very weird Easter egg. But since it seems to be the same person in both locations, I get the feeling that there's something special about this Lumiose City Hex Maniac. No spoilers on this until after the game! Thanks!

Route 14: All I'll say about the group meet-up is that Calem is surprisingly jerkish. ^^; "Yeah no thanks that idea is dumb SEE YA! *runs before anyone can make another suggestion for a group activity*"

The route was very cool. Nice and flavorful. Pokémon's struggled to do swamps in the past, but this one felt just right. Haunter's presence here felt very appropriate: I could see the area being Hallowe'en-themed.

Wild encounters included: Karrablast, Shelmet, Goomy, Quagsire, Haunter, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, and Skorupi. Maybe one or two others I'm forgetting as well. Of the ones listed, I caught everybody except for Haunter: I'd caught a Haunter originally, but I soft reset, remember? When I next saw Haunter in the swamp, I had an unlucky critical *shakes fist at Pokémon-amie* and KO'd the only Haunter I ran into that session. I'm planning to go back right now for Dex purposes, but whether I take the time to actually raise a Haunter or not is going to entirely depend on whether I'm phenomenally lucky and happen to get a Timid one with good Speed and SpAtk IVs. Otherwise, it's into PC Box 4 he or she will go.

Spooky House: I didn't think the guy's story was that bad, personally. No, it wasn't super scary or anything, but it wasn't awful either. Should he have asked us for money? Well, no! But that seems to be par for the Kalos course so I sure as hell wasn't going to hold it against him.

But because of Shauna's outburst and the way Game Freak drew particular attention to this tipping event, I figured that by not tipping the guy, maybe I might trigger an event with Rotom or something. Since that doesn't seem to be the case, and since it seems like tipping is probably better than not tipping, I soft reset and tipped the guy Ą1,000 as I normally would have. If that locks me out of stuff, well shit. Hopefully it doesn't.

Laverre City's Theme Song: Aha. So this is it. This has to be it. Shame on emp for having to squeeze out that babiest and teensy-tiniest of spoilers ("you haven't heard my favorite song yet"), but thanks to everyone for at least not saying what or where it was. I'll be quite shocked if this isn't what Emp was alluding to. Because while the opening eighteen seconds are nothing to write home about, it's the remainder of this song -- 0m18s to 1m04s -- which is GORGEOUS. It's like a magical inversion of Opelucid White that's every bit as worth celebrating. I have only one question: why the fuck did you make it so short, Game Freak, and WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU GIVE IT A PROPER LOOP-AROUND? The way it "transitions" from the end of the track to the beginning again is so painfully obvious that it damages the experience. I really hate being jerked like that so abruptly. Give the song a proper conclusion. And make the damn body three times longer than it currently is.

If this song isn't redone for Z / XY2 I'm going to be disappointed. XY's is fine, but I really want them to take what they have here and perfect it. It's so good as is, but it could be so much better.

So what about the rest of the city?

Laverre City: Cute town. Looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland, which works pretty perfectly for a fairy-themed town. Not gonna lie: I'm disappointed and confused by the fact that THE BIG SCARY INDUSTRIAL POKÉBALL FACTORY is right there at the top of the hill towering over this idyllic town. Seems really weird and ... kind of Roald Dahl-ish or Tim Burton-ish. (How about both? )

Kinda cute that some Hex Maniacs call this place home since it seems the fandom's so in love with the Gen 6 ones (and I'm starting to be too), but I also find it kind of confusing. I think of them as being more Psychic and Ghost, not Fairy. I'm wondering if this might be a result of Japanese biases regarding what it means to be a "fairy" and whether or not this falls under the domain of exorcists, paranormal specialists, etc.

I noticed that they boosted the Gen 5 pledge moves' power. Good. That was sorely needed, because man if those moves weren't dog shit before. At least now they'll see some use. Did I teach Shiina Fire Pledge or Nagi Water Pledge? No! But still. 80 power beats the pants off of 50 power. I actually look forward to using some of these moves in Double Battles some day alongside their partner moves. Will likely be fun and feel rewarding.

Immediate Plans: Going to do some chores, like checking on my berries, checking on Pokémon I left in the daycare for the free levels, etc. Will probably fly back to Route 10 and try to get a female Eevee. This blobby dragon looks intriguing but his stats concern me; I might try to get him to evolve so I can see what his stats do at the second stage. Might give me a better idea for how he's meant to be used. (In before he's supposed to be a super-slow mixed sweeper with horrible defenses because yeah that'll work. ) As always -- no spoilers please. Thanks. Don't confuse my musings for some non-existent solicitation for information. If I want to know an answer, I will ask you about it point blank. ^^;
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Old 12-10-2013, 10:45 PM   #112
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Can anyone confirm the best course of action for tipping the man in the Spooky House on Route 14? I last saved 30 minutes ago and would hate to lose all the captures in the swamp. However, I'd hate it even more if I was locked in to the wrong choice. I see some people saying that tipping him makes a certain Easter egg I've already seen become inaccessible. I see other people saying that not tipping him axes your shiny encounter rate. Neither one sounds legitimate, but I figured I'd ask you guys if you knew anything for sure.
Time for you to spoil me. What's this about?
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Old 12-10-2013, 10:53 PM   #113
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Time for you to spoil me. What's this about?
It's the Hex Maniac who appears eerily and suddenly as you're about to disembark the elevator on the 2F of one of the buildings in Lumiose North. I provided a YouTube video of the scene in a link above; while I'd recommend not watching it if you know you haven't seen this for yourself yet, you can check it out to refresh your memory if you think you have.

One person had claimed that if you donate Ą1,000 to the Spooky House storyteller, the Lumiose Hex Maniac will no longer appear. I hope he's wrong. Should be easy enough to confirm later.
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Old 12-10-2013, 11:01 PM   #114
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Oh ok. Yah I saw that. People think she has another purpose. I know the area where you are contains things I skipped my first time through.
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Old 12-11-2013, 05:28 AM   #115
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I think you're getting a bit spoiler happy if you think me saying I liked a song you haven't heard yet is a spoiler :P
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Old 12-11-2013, 05:46 AM   #116
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I took out the bit about Goomy. Please don't mention it, even vaguely.

And yeah, I didn't even know she was in some other hotel. I just went to see her just now. I don't think you should worry about this kind of thing.
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Old 12-11-2013, 05:50 AM   #117
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Just saying, but pretty sure the second sighting is just a different Hex Maniac in general, not the same one.
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Old 12-11-2013, 07:10 AM   #118
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I took out the bit about Goomy. Please don't mention it, even vaguely
Sorry I read that early this morning and thought he was asking how it's supposed to be used
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Old 12-11-2013, 07:15 AM   #119
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Old 12-11-2013, 09:50 AM   #120
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I think you're getting a bit spoiler happy if you think me saying I liked a song you haven't heard yet is a spoiler :P
Have you ever had your experience with a movie altered because you went into it with expectations created by comments made by others who'd already seen it?
  • They say it sucked. You would've thought it okay but because you kept looking for the bad you kept finding it and so you left thinking it sucked too.
  • They say it sucked. You would've agreed with this assessment had you gone in blind, but because you'd already been primed to expect a bad movie, you left the theater feeling that the movie really wasn't so bad.
  • They say it was great. You would've thought it okay but because you kept looking for the good you kept finding it and so you left thinking it was great too.
  • They say it was great. You would've agreed with this assessment had you gone in blind, but because you'd already been primed to expect a great movie, you left the theater feeling that the movie wasn't nearly as good as people made it out to be.
This phenomenon is so common and so powerful that when I discuss the latest episode of a TV series, I won't even write "It was great! " or "Man did this week's episode suck " outside of a spoiler tag. All I do is say which episode I'll be discussing: the rest goes inside the tag.

Had you not said anything about there still being an excellent song waiting for me, my experience with it would've likely been different. Better or worse, that's hard to say. I tend to experience all four of the permutations listed above when people spoil that riches or horrors await me, so I can't really know whether I'd have noticed the song had I not been passively on the lookout for it and whether I'd have liked it more or less than I do currently.

Like I said: your spoiler is the absolutely tiniest of spoilers. It's so tiny that millions of otherwise considerate people do it every single day. Hell, we do it by sheer virtue of trying to sell people on a series! "You should watch this. It's good" or "You should watch this. I think you'd like it." But it still influences their final perception of the series' quality: and thus, yes, it is a spoiler. The tiniest of spoilers, but a spoiler all the same. Anything which takes away opportunities for surprise for the player/viewer -- anything which results in the build-up of expectations going in -- is strictly speaking a spoiler.

It's okay: I still like the song.
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Old 12-11-2013, 02:43 PM   #121
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False Swipe Honedge: Bit by bit my team is losing all of their crappier moves and I am running out of ways to capture wild Pokémon without just mashing the A button chucking dozens of PokéBalls at full-health creatures. So I decided to teach somebody False Swipe last night only to rediscover, to my dismay, that no one on the team can learn it. I then decided to go ahead and EV train a Honedge for the sole purpose of being a False Swiper who I can withdraw from the PC when needed. The Honedge I went for is Impish (which strikes me as a pretty great nature for the ghost sword) but it had a 0-4 IV in the Defense column and it had a 30 or 31 in the Speed column according to Veekun's stat calculator. So, with that in mind, I decided to go ahead and give it 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 6 HP, even though it's still slow as molasses, just to try and give it some leg up over low-level wild Pokémon who should hopefully not be faster than it once it gets up above Level 30. In other words, I knew I wasn't going to be using this thing competitively -- not with a 0-4 IV in Defense -- so I figured I may as well make it a dedicated Story Mode tool.

Swords Dance + Fury Cutter has proven surprisingly disappointing in how long it takes it to really rev up, but part of that may simply be because my Honedge is a) unevolved and b) at a relatively low level. Still, I find myself confounded by Fury Cutter's weakness given that it now starts at 40.

So who did I need Honedge for? Well ...

Eevee Troubles: I tried to find a female Eevee last night. After thirty minutes of searching, I ended up running into only one single Eevee -- and it was male. I caught it, of course, and it just so happens that it's Jolly, but iirc its IVs proved to not be the greatest. Also, I'm not really looking for a Leafeon at the moment. (If I raise an Eevee right now, it's going to be because I either want to go for Glaceon or Sylveon.)

Meet Boue: After this, I went to go get Haunter for Dex purposes. Since I happened to catch a female, I decided to try my luck and have her make a few eggs with a male Ralts of mine. And as fate would have it, the first two children were female Modest and female Timid. I ended up putting an Everstone on the Timid one and had her make some eggs of her own with her own father, hopeful that one of the children would have a speed stat of 7. (Mother's was 6.) None ended up having higher than a 6, despite being Timid, but I did end up going for a female Timid Gastly who at Level 10 had the highest speed of anybody and the second highest SpAtk. Couldn't think of a good name for a while but hit the mother lode when I decided to ask Google Translate what the French word for "sludge" was and it answered "Boue." Seems like a perfect fit for a Ghost/Poison Pokémon.

EV Training Boue: I know I said that I wasn't going to raise a Gengar until I got a 30 or 31 Timid with a great SpAtk ... but fuck it. I'm sick and tired of having only five Pokémon on the team and having to obsessive-compulsively make frequent pit stops at Pokémon Centers just to drop off my latest captures just because I don't want them gaining any undesirable EVs through Exp.Share. Even if Boue doesn't end up being a permanent keeper, at least I finally have my sixth EV trained Pokémon I can call upon.

Honedge:

Well, seventh ... but man if an Atk/Speed Honedge is sure not the way to go. (Not sure about competitive yet but at the very least for Story Mode I feel like a Honedge would sure love to have 252 Atk / 252 SpDef / 6 HP just to try and lend it some special defense. Because man does this girl fall like a brick when she takes special hits.)
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Old 12-11-2013, 03:37 PM   #122
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Thoughts on the Mega Evolution mechanic thus far? Or have you not really utilized it? I saw you have a Blastoise, so I'm curious to know if you've used the Blastoisenite Professor Sycamore gave you.
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Old 12-11-2013, 04:50 PM   #123
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Thoughts on the Mega Evolution mechanic thus far? Or have you not really utilized it? I saw you have a Blastoise, so I'm curious to know if you've used the Blastoisenite Professor Sycamore gave you.
If I haven't written about it before ...

Mega Evolution: When Gurkinn and Korrina tell the protagonist about Mega Evolution, they both stress time and again that it's not something every Pokémon can do, that it's not even something Pokémon need to do to be strong, that it's just an alternate path towards excellence, one which many trainers opt not to take. I feel like this conversation was a thinly-veiled message from Game Freak to all of the critics and haters about Mega Evolution. Which in and of itself is rather telling: that they felt the need to send us this message just goes to show how much they were aware that Mega Evolution would prove controversial.

Me personally, I still don't care for Mega Evolution. I recognize its competitive advantages, obviously. And it's pretty clear with Pokémon like Blastoise -- where there are virtually no demerits to Mega Evolving -- that you should never, ever stick with the old form, that the only reason you should stick with it is if somebody else on your team is already taking up your Mega Evolution slot. But all of my complaints from August/September about Mega Evolution still apply:
First, I don't care for fourth stages.

Second, I especially don't care for fourth stages where the cosmetic changes seem so friggin' marginal.

Third, I resent Game Freak for pursuing Mega Evolutions for creatures which really wanted and needed proper evolutions. Mega Mawile is a huge one on this list. What especially ticks me off here is that, by giving a Pokémon a Mega Evolution, Game Freak is pretty much putting their foot down and saying, "This creature is never going to get an authentic evolution, so drop it." Well fuck you, assholes.

Fourth, I resent Game Freak for gifting Mega Evolutions to Pokémon who have absolutely no business having them. Blaziken, Garchomp, and Scizor are three of the ones I know of from outside the game; and Aerodactyl and Gengar are two of the ones I know of from inside the game. None of these have any business getting a Mega Evolution. It's obscene.

Granted, I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers all the way up until I beat the game (pre- and post-E4 story elements), so maybe what I'm about to say is unfounded, but I feel like Game Freak is barking up the wrong tree by helping the strong get stronger while allowing most of the weak to remain right where they are. As the roster for Mega Evolutions is getting more and more fleshed out on my end, I'm more and more getting the impression that this was Game Freak's attempt to make many of the heroes of OU a bit more Übers viable. Obviously we've heard time and again from within the fandom that Game Freak doesn't give two shits about tiers or the fan-run competitive scene, but the Mega Evolutions roster I'm seeing seems to fly in the face of that. (If I see that Starmie, Blissey, and Gyarados have Mega Evolutions as well, then it's pretty much gg for that fan claim.)

Fifth, I'm not thrilled about the inevitable idea that, as we press forward, more and more Pokémon are sure to get Mega Evolutions. Which is going to end up making the entire exercise largely pointless since Mega Mawile, Mega Ampharos, and other UU/RU/NU Pokémon with Mega forms are already going to find themselves outclassed by Mega Blaziken (more like Mega Broke-iken, am I right?), Mega Garchomp, etc. Never mind that they're going to be completely worthless once everybody gets their scale-appropriate Mega Evolution. Unless you want me to believe that Mega Breloom is going to be inferior to Mega Mawile, that Mega Gyarados is going to be on par with Mega Ledian, etc.
I could probably think of more things to say, but this should be more than enough. The point is, I'm not thrilled with this newest canon addition to our franchise. I don't care for it flavor-wise and I don't care for its inevitable future competitively either. I would've much, much, much rather had Game Freak retype Pokémon then give them retyped Megas, have given them stat-boosted evolutions instead of giving them Megas, etc. The whole Megas thing feels like a very distasteful patch to a problem we could've solved in much more satisfying ways using the existing infrastructure of the series.

As for whether I've used it or not, I've taken advantage of the boost it gives Blastoise's defenses when I need to send her out and just chuck PokéBalls at something for ten minutes straight for lack of a Pokémon who can both deal baby damage and take big damage. (Now that I have a Level 19 Gastly, maybe this will be less relevant. *shrug*) While I'd like to say that I've enjoyed the offensive power it's given her, I haven't really noticed any difference. Nagi OHKOs everything as is; in fact, when I want her to kill things rather than wall them, I don't bother with Mega Evolution since that's just a waste of my time.

If I trade Boue the future Haunter to evolve her into a Gengar, I may toy around with the Gengarite I received from a Hex Maniac recently. But something tells me that that would be just as gratuitous as Nagi's. My starter is Level 59 right now with 252 EVs in SpAtk and Speed -- I'm not hurting for power. ^^;
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Old 12-11-2013, 06:09 PM   #124
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Your Delphox is Lvl 59? Jesus. I mean mine was levelling fast, too, all of my Pokemon were, but by Laverre town? Damn.

Also - just want to say spot on about Mega Broke-iken. My friend EV trained one and battled me and almost completely wiped the floor with my team. It was complete bullshit. Brave Bird was OHKOing everything I sent out no matter what, and I was just utterly furious. It wasn't even a fair fight. It was just fucking stupid.
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Old 12-11-2013, 06:43 PM   #125
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For what it's worth, ordinary Blaziken is already plenty good. Were it not for the inherent unfairness of Speed Boost, he'd still likely be either OU or else UU but OU-serviceable. The fact that he could even manage in Übers in Gen 5 was proof enough of how good he was. But yes, Mega Blaziken is 100% Übers fodder. I imagine he'll cause a lot of rage and a lot of grief over there, but at least it won't be in OU. No: we just have to worry about all of the other nonsense Megas.

Since you're displaying shock at my level, I guess now's as good a time as any for a status update. I'm inside the Laverre Gym right now, having just defeated my first opponent (a furisode girl).

Current Team:

Shiina
Species: Delphox
Level: 60
Nature: Timid (+Spd/-Atk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Flamethrower / Flame Charge / Psyshock / Psychic
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed / 5 HP / 1 Def

Feather
Species: Talonflame
Level: 55
Nature: Adamant (+Atk/-SpAtk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Flame Charge / Acrobatics / Roost / Fly
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 6 HP

Trixie
Species: Floette
Level: 54
Nature: Sassy (+SpDef/-Spd)
Gender: female
Attacks: Moonblast / Petal Dance / Wish / Aromatherapy
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 SpDef / 6 HP

Ziggy III
Species: Linoone
Level: 50
Nature: Careful (+SpDef/-SpAtk)
Gender: male
Attacks: Covet / Cut / Slash / Flail
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 6 HP

Nagi
Species: Blastoise
Level: 54
Nature: Calm (+SpDef/-Atk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Surf / Iron Defense / Bite / Rock Smash
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpDef / 6 Def

Boue
Species: Gastly
Level: 22
Nature: Timid (+Spd/-Atk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Confuse Ray / Night Shade / Mean Look / Hypnosis
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed / 6 HP

Discussion of Gen 6 Experience Points ... Again: As you can see, I really, really, really don't need any more levels. ^^; Given the EV training these guys have, I can honestly say that I think I'm ready for the Elite Four, barring any surprises. Obviously part of this has to do with Exp.Share being turned on, but given how much Shiina has been in the lead for most of the game, I don't think that can really explain away her level. The other Pokémon's, maybe, but not Shiina's. What it comes down to, I think, is that Game Freak made it so that several different things can net you boosted experience in this game.

First, you get boosted experience if you do Pokémon-amie. I don't know what minimum affection is required to trigger this nor do I know if subsequent upgrades net you even further boosted experience gain. All I know is, my fully-evolved Pokémon are all gaining boosted experience from battles and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Pokémon-amie.

Second, you guys reported that Pokémon-amie or no Pokémon-amie, canceling evolution in Gen 6 has the quirky trade-off of snagging you extra experience points. It's been a long time since I've gotten to observe this for myself (since obviously my use of Pokémon-amie colors any data I can observe), but I think you guys are right as I believe I noticed Ziggy was gaining boosted experience before he'd gone into the Pokémon-amie module.

Third, there's that one guy who gives you O-Powers. I've never once used a single O-Power, so this is not what's contributed towards my own level situation. However, I have little doubt that one of the O-Powers probably functions like a Lucky Egg and promotes your experience point gains from battle. If a player were to use this in combination with the above, watch out!

Fourth, they gave us the Lucky Egg again as an in-story item. Granted, they delayed giving it to us until the sixth gym city, but still! Imagine taking all of the above ... and then adding the Lucky Egg on top of that.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = it's never been easier to gain levels than it is in Gen 6.

"So why do you leave Exp.Share turned on, Talon?": Like I explained before, I'm a highly pragmatic player when it comes to JRPGs. I really hate squandering experience points. It's only because my levels are already so enormous that you don't find me using the Lucky Egg or the O-Powers. And I was never after Pokémon-amie for the experience points either. That was something I didn't know about until after the fact. The only thing I've deliberately done is opted to leave Exp.Share on throughout most of the game. And the reason for that has been that it's admittedly allowed the game to be a little less tedious as far as keeping less-beloved members (like Trixie or Ziggy III) up to speed with more-beloved members (like Shiina or Feather). There's an obvious trade-off here and it's one I've been mindful of the entire playthrough, but so far I think I've done a good job of walking the line. The trade-off of course being, every minute not spent fighting with a Pokémon is a minute not spent bonding with that Pokémon. So for a player who claims he really values bonding, why would I be comfortable making use of Exp.Share?

The answer is pretty easy: Pokémon-Amie and the Battle Chateau. The former I find to be a fun break I can take in between traditional JRPG stretches of the game where it's just battle after battle after battle. The latter is a good way to keep my funds up so I can purchase the entire inventory of female clothes the game has to offer. Both are excellent opportunities to bust out some of my less-used Pokémon and have them kick ass.

There's also another relevant point to be made here: I tend to try and rotate who gets to kick ass in gym fights. Santalune was Shiina and Feather, back when they were tots. Cyllage was Trixie and maybe Nagi. Shalour was all Feather. Coumarine was all Shiina. Lumiose was also all Shiina, so for the time being she needs to share the spotlight some more. Right now challenging the Laverre Gym is Trixie. I feel like this is an excellent opportunity for her to shine, to prove that she's really a beloved member of Team Corinne (even if Talon's disappointed with her final form ^^; ). I also like the idea of a Fairy vs. Fairy throwdown between the gym leader and me. Might other people show up? Well sure. Boue'd be a good pick if I knew she was a permanent keeper and also if her levels were higher, but as it is I think she's too weak for me to be able to send out. Funny, that. ^^; Ziggy could participate but he's more of the team's packhorse, picking items up (sadly rarely ), using HM Cut, etc.

Anyway, long story short: if I felt I wasn't getting adequate bonding time in, then I'd totally turn off Exp.Share. But as it is, that's not the case right now. And so I'd rather leave it turned on and have the peace of mind that I've let no EXP go to waste.

But I admit: I may turn it off here in a second. 'Cause I sure would hate for the entire team to be Level 70+ and for the Elite Four to be such a joke. After the fun of encountering an actual challenge for once in BW1's Elite Four, it'd be a shame to lose that. We'll see.
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