Corinne's Adventure

[jolteonjak]

I definitely need to follow those instructions. Thanks you two.

[Talon87]

Corinne! Meet my Döppelganger: I forgot to mention this yesterday! So yeah, this was a fun little surprise. First the trainer named Talon in BW1, now this Fairy Tale Girl in XY named Corinne ... definitely amusing.

The Kalos Pokémon League HQ: I really liked this. A natural evolution from what they did in Generation 5. It felt like a nice mix between a castle and a cathedral. Each of the six main chambers (central room, E4 northwest, E4 northeast, E4 southwest, E4 southeast, and the luminous final chamber) were pretty gorgeous, though I definitely had my preferences. (Malva's room for best room. Siebold's for second best minus the oddly spiky gears.)

Malva introduced herself to us in much the same way, I felt, that Flint did in Sinnoh. So I gathered that she was not meant to be fought first nor was she the boss of the Elite Four. So who then was the boss? And who then should I fight first if I want to do things in the "right order" and save the boss for last? I took a stab in the dark and fought them in the following order: northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. And so let's take a look at each of them in turn.

Wikstrom: First up was the Steel master, Wikstrom. I definitely hadn't expected this. Given the manner in which the person near the front entrance spoiled the types I could expect to find (thanks a lot, jackass! inb4peoplefreak that I'm accusing an NPC of spoilers hahahahaha), I had been expecting the "proper order" to be Water, Fire, Dragon, Steel or Water, Fire, Steel, Dragon. So I was surprised to see that Steel, arguably one of the toughest elements, was up first.

Wikstrom is as his name: a bit hard to take seriously but seems like a nice guy all the same. He's a bit over-the-top with the knight deal, but were it not for his dopey character design (that hair!) it would actually be really, really easy to envision Wikstrom as a bonafide knight of the realm (if we still have a Medieval-style system of government in Kalos) or else as a bonafide master swordsman of the modern era who happens to either descend from or else greatly admires (or both!) a great line of knights in Kalosian history.

This dual nature of Wikstrom's personality -- half-noble, half-dopey -- was nowhere clearer than in the words he said to me as I left: "Easy, child. You need not explain. It is no mystery to me why you came to me first. Nature herself has framed man as such a creature that any would choose to face their strongest enemy before all others. Now, to the elevator with you! It burns with a desire to hasten you on your way!" I was like, "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. ^^;" Those are some awfully proud words coming from a guy I just curbstomped 6-0 while deliberately seeking a challenge by using my Florges to do it.

Now, I say that I "curbstomped" him, but it has to be rightly said: Wikstrom and the other E4 members were actually the greatest challenge I've seen since Santalune City. Even bigger than Valerie technically. Because of my No Items policy during gym battles, and because of my OCD desire to want to beat certain E4 members with certain Pokémon, I actually ended up nearly losing three Pokémon before all was said and done. And the first of these was Talonflame, who during the fight with Wikstrom managed to wind up at around 48% HP (where she would remain for the remainder of the League challenge). A few others took hits as well, but I was able to heal people up with Florges' Wish. (No heal items. Wish is fine. Especially since I could demolish this entire league with just Shiina if I wanted to. -.-; )

But anyway, yeah, the score was 6-0 and most of the KOs came from Florges by the time I parted ways with Kalos's chosen knight.

Malva: So this girl was pretty awesome. Like I mentioned earlier, I got Flint vibes from Malva. She sort of seems like a hybrid of Lorelei, Flannery, and Flint, but mostly Flint I guess. She seemed like a cool lady and I was interested to see if her room was the one room I've been most looking forward to seeing all game long since I started playing: the room shown in the January 2013 trailer that shows a cathedral-looking room lighting up with two huge columns of fire.

Sure enough, that was Malva's room. So that +1'd her immediately. And then we start fighting and ...

This battle was Nagi's plus Boue's. While I had deliberately handicapped myself against Wikstrom, I recognized that "pride goeth before a fall" and I should probably try and take things a little bit more seriously if I wanted to 6-0 this without using any items. So Nagi took out the lion, the turtle, and the hawk while Boue took out the Chandelure in a mono e mono ghost duel. Thus, Malva was sadly a breeze ... but she was still a neat trainer! ^^;

Drasna: What do you get it if you take Miura Azusa as a child and have her raised by Dragon masters in Blackthorn City? You probably get Drasna. 'Cause that's what Drasna reminded me of: Miura Azusa reimagined as a Dragon-type master of 30.

As with the challenge against Malva, I decided to play it safe and lead off with Trixie. Also, Trixie hadn't seen much love for much of the game and I figured it was appropriate to let her truly shine here. But when Drasna sent out her lead Pokémon and Moonblast didn't do super-effective damage ... and then it fired back with a mighty Sludge Bomb ... I knew what was up. And I decided ... to stay and fight. Which wasn't too hard a decision considering I 2HKO'd the dragon anyway. ^^; I farmed Altaria for one WishPass, Wish-healed Florges herself a second time, and then finished Drasna off. Again, not too challenging for me but I could easily see her being a challenge for teams of equal level.

Siebold: Neither Siebold's character design nor his dialogue suggest that he's the boss of the Elite Four. In fact, if I had to pick a boss out of any of the four we saw, it'd be kind of tough. Probably anybody except poor Wikstrom. ^^; But I can see Siebold being the boss I suppose for one reason: youthful prodigy. While Malva's young too, I feel like Siebold might've been intended more to be the group's best. And while Drasna can boast both seniority and the classic Dragon type, I feel like her Azusa-like personality is there to make clear to players that she isn't the leader of this group of four. Whether it's Siebold or not, I dunno, but I guess I can neither claim that I know for a fact that it is him nor that I know for a fact that it isn't him.

Siebold basically felt like he made amends for the joke that Wallace was (as a Water-type master in the League HQ), sporting not only Gyarados but also Starmie. This was the first time I'd seen Starmie's Gen 6 sprite animation. I'll admit: I'm a bit disappointed in how artificial / cartoonish it looks. (I think it's because they went for such a pale shade of purple.) But aside from that, it looks good! Starmie is as Starmie does!

Too bad this was Boue's chance to shine and she was allowed to lay waste to three Pokémon in a row with Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball before I called her back for Trixie, allowing the garden Pokémon one last brouhaha with which to shine: I figured the barnacle was Water/Rock and went for a Petal Dance. Not sure whether I was right or not, but I do know one thing: it was super effective and the thing's HP dropped like a brick. ^^;

And so, with everyone having gotten a shot at an Elite Four member except for Shiina and poor Ziggy, it was time to spoil my girl rotten by letting her take on ... the entirety of ... the Champion's team.

Diantha: I'm just going to come out and say it: Diantha is inferior to Cynthia. Looks. Fashion. Team. Everything. With that out of the way, let's focus on the rest of the package that is Diantha.

I was honestly kind of disappointed that Diantha was the Champion. When I first met her, I could've sworn that she introduced herself to us as an Ice-type trainer, a gym leader, or both. When it was confirmed that the Ice gym had been saved for last, I assumed it was because Diantha was there waiting for me. (Which is all the more reason I was surprised to discover that some man named Wulfric was Snowbelle City's Gym Leader.) Diantha looks Ice. Diantha also looks like a gym leader or a member of the Elite Four. She doesn't really look like a Champion to me. So ... that was disappointing.

What was less disappointing, and what I think could've been a lot, lot richer had it been better developed, was Diantha's dialogue which further cements this idea that she is in or has been in a relationship with Professor Sycamore. The way she talks about him makes it sound like he's either a) a guy who was friend-zoned following a period of dating or else b) a man she is currently engaged in some sort of relationship with. Whether it's A or B, who knows. But I think it makes for an interesting triangle with Sycamore, Lysandre, and Diantha. Because:

• Sycamore clearly cares about Lysandre. His feelings on Diantha are less clear to me.
• Lysandre greatly admires Sycamore. He also admires Diantha and considers her beauty to be peerless.
• Diantha speaks of Sycamore like he's a dear old friend ... but there's something else to her words which hint at a more intimate relationship than that, past or present. As for Lysandre, it's pretty clear that she rebuffs his advances (as witnessed in the early café scene), though to what degree she likes or dislikes Lysandre is unclear.

So we have the makings for this interesting little love triangle here. Diantha, once in love (and possibly still in love) with Sycamore. Lysandre, possibly in love with Diantha but recognizes her feelings (past or present) for Sycamore and admires his mentor too greatly to tread farther. And Sycamore, who ... who ... man, they really needed to develop him a bit more! ^^; I feel like they're holding out on us adult players.

Anyway, yes: what little character development Diantha's dialogue did give us was much appreciated.

As for her team, it was okay. Like I mentioned above, it wasn't as impressive as Cynthia's. But to be fair, I think Cynthia's had one of the best teams of any Champion or pseudo-Champion. (I think I'd place only Red [GSC] or Ghetsis [BW1] higher.) Definitely better than Alder's. Definitely, definitely better than Wallace's. And while I do love Steven Stone, I'd say Cynthia edges him out too. Her team just oozes class, power, and OU usability. It's great. So perhaps it's not fair to compare Diantha with Cynthia (as I indicated early on I wanted to try to avoid doing ^^; ). Let's compare her with Alder and {BW2's Champion}.

Diantha only really has one Pokémon that I would say doesn't belong on the Champion's team, and that's Hawlucha. We already saw it on Korrina's. What's more, it doesn't seem very impressive to me. Everything else Diantha has boils down to:

• fossil Pokémon, which fans always love
• Pumpkaboo's evolution, with Pumpkaboo being something I'm very interested in
• Goodra, the surprise of which is spoiled by the bridge fight with Shauna but which is still this game's probable Dragonite and thus well-suited to this fight
• Gardevoir, which Mega Evolves for the first time ever in the game in none other than this fight. Very fitting.

So yeah. When I think about it like that, Diantha's team is actually pretty good. (And beats the pants off of poor Alder's!) But sadly, there were two things which kind of killed it for me.

First, that we saw most of these things already. Random Victory Road people had the fossils' final forms. Shauna had Goodra. Gardevoir (neglecting the Mega Forme) is quite common. And Hawlucha's Hawlucha. Only Pumpkaboo's evolution and Gardevoir's Mega Forme were new. While even Cynthia suffered similar problems (Gastrodon, Lucario), enough was still new (Spiritomb, Garchomp) or exciting (Milotic, Togekiss) to get me really pumped. I didn't get pumped with Diantha's team sadly.

Second, remember what I said: this was Shiina's hour. This was Shiina's chance to shine. My Level 89 fire fox witch proved to be far, far too much for Diantha to handle. Nearly everything was OHKO'd, whether by Flamethrower, whether by Psychic, whether by Psyshock, or whether by Shadow Ball. There was one point in the battle (I forget where) where Diantha and I got into in a Full Restore war where I would keep bringing her down to the red and she would keep using Full Restore at the top of the next turn, but I only entertained the game twice like this before I let her heal, used a less-suitable attack, reduced her to the upper yellow, and then KO'd her at the top of the next turn. Other than that one hiccup, I believe Shiina OHKO'd everybody ...

... except Mega Gardevoir. IIRC, this elegant lady who ballooned into a pregnancy gown ballroom gown managed to eat a Shadow Ball, fire one of her own back at me, prove herself capable of 2HKOing me ... but ultimately died to Shiina. Come to think of it, though, perhaps Mega Gardevoir was the Pokémon I got into the Full Restore with. I can't remember. I feel like that happened earlier in the fight though.

Mega Gardevoir: So I mentioned her above. What are my thoughts on Mega Gardevoir? Well, I've gotta say: like a lot of the Mega Evolution designs, I'm not super sold on Gardevoir's. It's okay, I guess, but I feel like it's in the valley between "adequately extreme" and "adequately conservative". She doesn't look that different from regular Gardevoir ... and where she does look different is the kind of difference that makes me feel like saying, "Go back. You had it right before. " I dunno. Maybe that sentiment will change as I try her out for myself (which I am sure to do). We'll see.

If I'm remembering right that Gardevoir was the one who Shiina, at Level 89, couldn't manage to OHKO using Shadow Ball, then I think that speaks to Mega Gardevoir's impressive SpDef. I'm not sure to what extent the League's Pokémon were assigned EVs or in what manner they were assigned, but I'm going to assume that Mega Gardevoir didn't have more than 100 SpDef EVs, suggesting that she'd be even better with a more SpDef-heavy, HP-heavy investment. Though that's not the route I intend to go. ^^; But I'm just saying. Impressively good special defense if a Level 89 @ 252 SpAtk @ 80 base power @ 2x damage from type effectiveness isn't OHKOing you.

The Hall of Records: I like how the record card is a circular ribbon which rotates, showing each of your teammates one at a time. A gripe I've had with past cards was how small Pokémon in the back could be obscured by large Pokémon in front. Another was how the team roster order wasn't necessarily a good L-to-R order for forming rows for photography purposes. Having a circular roster where you only see one at a time addresses this. Not sure if this is how it shows up from the PC though as I have yet to check.

The Parade: This was cool though unexpected. I know that BW2 ended in a somewhat similar way with the fireworks show, but that felt like more of a celebration of my ascension as the new Champion than it did of my taking down Team Plasma. This was a full-blown parade in downtown Paris right by the Arc de Triomphe. This was some Star Wars - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace shit we had going on here. Kinda embarrassing but I guess kinda appropriate too given that I did quite literally help to save the world. And then ...

Battling AZ: This was an interesting little surprise. I feel like the way they segued into it was kind of awkward, but it felt pretty cool to be invited to battle the ancient king of Kalos by the man himself.

I feel like there was a majorly missed opportunity here though: the makeup of AZ's team. I mean, this is a 3,000-year old giant who once upon a time ruled Kalos as its king, right? What has the game been hammering home this entire time?

Originally Posted by Furfrou's PokéDex entry

Historically, in the Kalos region, these Pokémon were the designated guardians of the king.

Originally Posted by Aegislash's PokéDex entries

Generations of kings were attended by these Pokémon, which used their spectral power to manipulate and control people and Pokémon.

Apparently, it can detect the innate qualities of leadership. According to legend, whoever it recognizes is destined to become king.

C'mon, guys. You couldn't have made it any easier for yourselves had you tried. Give AZ an Aegislash, give AZ a Furfrou, and let us witness with our own two eyes courtesy of his team's makeup that he is indeed the ancient king. Seriously hoping that they fix this in Pokémon Z (should we get Z and should Z be an Emerald-style game) or in Pokémon XY2 (should we get XY2 and should AZ show up there again and have Pokémon he uses in battle).

I guess the one reason not to give AZ a Furfrou would be that it would color Floette's actions in a decidedly meaner light. "Why does AZ care so much about the Pokémon who abandoned him when loyal Furfrou stood by his side all this time?" But this is easily explained away when you remind children of the comparatively short life spans of dogs and consider that any Furfrou AZ would have with him today would likely be a dog who was only recently attracted to his aura, recognizing him as a kingly man, and deciding to protect him. It wouldn't have to be some 3,000-year old dog who had stuck by his side this entire time.

Anyway, the battle was fine, but of course what really stood out was ...

AZ's Floette: ... this scene. Quite possibly the most emotional scene in the history of the Pokémon franchise. Let me repeat that: quite possibly the most emotional scene in the history of the Pokémon franchise. Hooooooly shit. Hooooooooooooooooolyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy shit. I didn't cry ... but I'll be damned if I didn't tear up and feel like I should have been crying.

What was amazing about this scene wasn't the result -- which was somewhat expected, though I certainly didn't expect it to happen when it happened! -- but instead was the execution. The way she floats down from the sky like a feather, tantalizingly, out of reach for so long as he agonizingly stares up at her. The way he outstretches his giant arms and cups his massive paws together to receive her. The way he gently -- oh so gently -- just holds her there in his cupped hands, crying, repeating her name again and again ... just writing these words is making me emotional! And it's making me want to go back and beat the game right now so I can see this scene again! (Or maybe watch it on YouTube. We'll see.) And then the way the camera pans back out and up over the crowd, and we see the landmarks of downtown Paris, and then a Fletchling does a loop-the-loop very close to us and flies off screen ... it all felt like something taken straight out of a Disney film. (Speaking of Fletchling: nice touch having a Fletchling cinematically both open and close this game.)

Mind, this scene does have competition with the likes of BW2 (the climax of Hugh's search for Purrloin) and GSC (reaching the summit of Mt. Silver), but still: even if it's not *the* most emotional scene ever (and it may very well be), it is definitely in the Top 10.

Ending Credits: They were fine. A little long, but fine. I thought it was cute that the second of the two songs had accompanying lyrics that matched the meter of the song, but I was a little surprised and a little disappointed that Game Freak decided against hiring someone to record the lines and sing them. Even if it was only in one language, the choice would have been obvious -- French -- and you just pay that one person the one time and have them do a nice recording. I couldn't help but to notice though just how often the lyrics didn't line up between what the English said and what the French was saying. They were close for the most part, but there were a lot of frequent little differences. Almost certainly a consequence of trying to make the lyrics fit the melody.

Neither of the two songs particularly stood out to me. The first song seemed like something which might have stood out more in an earlier generation with 8-bit sound, but incidentally seemed unremarkable and generic when they went the extra mile and presented it to us already performed by a symphony orchestra (or synthesized equivalent). The second song, likewise, wasn't terribly memorable. Hoenn's ending theme song they were not. But they were fine enough.

What about the visuals? I liked the parchment notes. They had a distinct Galilean feel to them. Whether they were Clemont's, Sycamore's, Lysandre's, or somebody else's I have no clue. But it was neat seeing a variety of inventions there. I'll have to pay closer attention next time (I was too focused on the song lyrics this first go around) but I remember seeing what looked like notes for the roller blades being converted into inline ice skates. Or maybe that was just the roller blades without their wheels. ^^;

Final Team - 88 hours 22 minutes:

Shiina
Species: Delphox
Level: 89
Nature: Timid (+Spd/-Atk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Flamethrower / Psychic / Psyshock / Shadow Ball
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed / 5 HP / 1 Def

Feather
Species: Talonflame
Level: 85
Nature: Adamant (+Atk/-SpAtk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Flame Charge / Brave Bird / Steel Wing / Fly
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 6 HP

Trixie
Species: Florges
Level: 82
Nature: Sassy (+SpDef/-Spd)
Gender: female
Attacks: Moonblast / Petal Dance / Wish / Aromatherapy
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 SpDef / 6 HP

Ziggy III
Species: Linoone
Level: 80
Nature: Careful (+SpDef/-SpAtk)
Gender: male
Attacks: Covet / Slash / Cut / Belly Drum
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Speed / 6 HP

Nagi
Species: Blastoise
Level: 81
Nature: Calm (+SpDef/-Atk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Surf / Waterfall / Bite / Strength
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpDef / 6 Def

Boue
Species: Gengar
Level: 80
Nature: Timid (+Spd/-Atk)
Gender: female
Attacks: Thunderbolt / Sludge Bomb / Dazzling Gleam / Shadow Ball
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Speed / 6 HP

[Emi]

Congrats on beating the game Talon!

[Torkoal Stu]

So Talon to ask you your own question, how does Gen 6 compare?

I'd be curious to hear your views~

I finally got a copy of X today so I'm super excited \o/

[jolteonjak]

Grats Talon.

[deoxys]

Let me just say, the lyrics in the credits made me very emotional because they really hit home hard to something I was going through at the time, so I did cry.

I was then taken aback by the fight with AZ and the cutscene that followed - and the emotional scene with Floette made me bawl very, very hard. Maybe I'm getting more sensitive as I get older, I don't know, but I agree - definitely the most emotional moment in Pokemon game history.

[big bad birtha]

Congratulations! I really enjoyed the parade scene after beating the elite four. It was really fulfilling.

[Talon87]

Thanks for all the congratulations. Wasn't expecting that. Kinda feels like I got my own IRL parade scene.

But now the "post-story" story begins. Until I complete that, I'll continue to avoid the official playthrough thread. There are still surprises for me to discover all on my own! The time for BulbaSereSmogPN intel is later.

Not gonna lie though: hoping I get early access to whatever store, facility, or charitous NPC that gives you the Power Items. 'Cause I can't wait to try and raise Jynx and Gardevoir!

[Jerichi]

Congrats! I'm glad you liked the game and were able to make it through largely spoiler-free.

There is one super-important breeding thing that was never mentioned in-game that I think you should be spoiled on; would you like to hear it or would you rather research it yourself?

[Talon87]

I'll pass on spoilers for now, please. I've a chance to discover whatever it is all on my own between now and the breeding attempts. If I've not discovered it by the time I am actually breeding Pokémon again and if it really isn't noted by any NPCs in the game at all, then that may be the time for shared knowledge from the community. For now, though, I'm still a-trailblazin'!

[Kindrindra]

Congrats, Talon!

To be honest, though I had correctly guessed who the Champion would be, I was hoping right up until I walked into her room that the Champion fight would be a double battle against Sycamore's assistants. ;;
That said, the Professor/Champion/Villain triangle was an interesting touch. I'd like to imagine that the three were traveling friends when they were younger much like Team Vaniville.
Also Malva is... A very interesting character. Very quite interesting. Speaking of, re-battling the E4 in differing orders is quite interesting, as they each have some very unique text depending on the order.

Have fun with the postgame! I know I did.

[jolteonjak]

Gonna post your FC now?

[Talon87]

Lumiose Station: After attending to my berries and routine boutique checks, I headed to Lumiose Station. Along the way, I ran into Zapdos and so I reset the game, losing one hour's worth of progress, since I didn't want his nature to be set by that encounter in case it would be shitty yet locked in by a future save. But I eventually made my way to the train station where I talked with Professor Sycamore and got the TMV pass.

Kiloude City: I was expecting more. ^^; Like, Diamond and Pearl Battle Frontier minimum more. What it has is likely enough for my competitive needs, but for post-story story needs it's pretty lacking.

Battle Maison: With entry-level Singles, I'd rather have five challenging battles which give out 5 BP apiece than twenty fairly monotonous battles that only give out 1-2 BP apiece, but this is still a huge step in the right direction: after "only" twenty battles, I had 48 BP, enough to buy one Choice Item or three Power Items. Nice. And then I get access to Super Singles where I actually get my requested degree of challenge and 2+ BP per battle? I'll probably be here a lot as I get the various items necessary for competitive play.

Mega Gengar is mega broken as a clutch safety. It was only ever outsped once in the regular Singles cup -- strangely enough by a Lumineon with +1 Speed from an Ominous Wind boost; no rain -- and has OHKO'd everything it's encountered there. In the Super Singles circuit, it was outsped by and OHKOed by a Choice Scarf Mr. Mime, along with the earlier team members also being KOed by Choice Scarf users and me thus experiencing my first loss there. But for the most part, Mega Gengar is still mega broken.

But it hadn't had to see much use until Super Singles: my lead, Delphox, and second up, Talonflame, have tended to knock out everything before Talonflame would die.

Update: Okay, so Super Singles is proving to be genuinely difficult, which is a great welcome challenge. It spams too much Choice Scarf and too much STAB Dark for my team of three glass cannons, two of which are weak to Dark, for me to be able to make it to the final boss. Hell: I haven't made it past the first ten battles yet! I may need to invest in some purchases like Life Orb and Choice Specs. Wasn't planning on it but it simply might be necessary.

Friend Safari: Haven't done this yet. But I did see just from asking the clerk to let me go on one what the deal here is. So let me go ahead and say ...

Friend Code: I've been asked for my Friend Code several times, so I'll go ahead and say it here: I resent that most people in the Friend Codes thread seem to only want one another's Friend Codes in order to maximize their Friend Safari options for Pokémon XY. I don't like adding strangers or other non-friends to a Friends List. UPN, Facebook, Twitter, ... the list goes on and on.

But I also appreciate that the Friend Safari is currently the only legal way we have (since they shut down the Dream World [?]) to get Pokémon with hidden abilities without resorting to the importation of a) past legit captures or else b) Pokésav'd females. And I appreciate, from what I've seen (see section below), that you can only get two to three Pokémon per friend, making your odds of getting that one female you really, really need quite poor.

Given all of this, I've decided to share my Friend Code on personal request only. Common sense rules apply: don't bother asking if you're a stranger, we don't get along, etc. To put people's minds at ease, here is what my Friend Safari contains according to Kuno:

Spoiler: show

Pansear, Charmeleon, and Braixen

I'm pretty confident one of the 40+ regular members has one of each of these, so don't worry that you're missing out on good stuff if I tell you "No, sorry. :\" If anything, I'm the one likeliest to miss out on opportunities given my selective nature.

Friend Safari, Take 2: So I did end up doing this. First I tried out Loki's. Then I tried out Kuno's.

Loki doesn't own Pokémon XY, but he still showed up in my Friend Safari since he and I exchanged Friend Codes. He awards one lol Pokémon and one amazing Pokémon. I hate to spoil the surprise so I'll spoiler tag it:

Spoiler: show

Solar Power Sunkern and Chlorophyll Ivysaur. Take a wild guess which one's the amazing one.

Kuno was up next. First hit? Volbeat. Man, fuck Volbeat. That's so shitty. (Prankster Volbeat: ) Neeeeeext! Next up was Paras. Paaaaaaras!? D: Man, Kuno's Friend Safari sucks balls. So I began to worry for my friend. But as I crossed my fingers and the third Pokémon showed up ...

Spoiler: show

Moxie Heracross

... it was then that I knew that every single UPNer would be grateful towards Kuno for sharing his friend code with them. And then I looked at the Friend Codes thread and discovered that, like myself, Kuno hadn't shared his Friend Code with the public. Whoops. ^^;

Looker: Looker, a.k.a. Handsome-san, has quickly become one of my favorite recurring characters in the franchise. Maybe it's because he's officially a member of Interpol and I love that, that we have the Interpol in our franchise's universe. Maybe it's because of the roles he played in Platinum and BW1. Whatever it is, let me just say: I'm slightly torn on his cameo in XY. Why?

Pros: he's here; we get to team up with him fuck yeah

Cons: why is he looking for job postings like some ordinary gumshoe? ; why is he so comically dopey now? ; I'm not sure I like the idea of a child Champion doubling as an Interpol agent; why are his HQs in Paris instead of Lyon? ; and why is he all by himself instead of being at Interpol HQ with many other officers?

For me, the pros probably outweigh all of the cons except the dopeyness one. That one's niggling at me. But I do still like that they brought Looker here, and it seems like he's my surest bet to post-story story. Assuming he doesn't just have me go on item-based fetch quests, that is. We shall see! We shall see.

[Kindrindra]

Eh, wasn't Looker always kinda comically dopey? I certainly remember him being that way in Platinum, especially the first time you encounter him.

...That said, Looker is one of those characters who makes the fine line between 'fool' and 'genius' apparent, so.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Kindrindra

Eh, wasn't Looker always kinda comically dopey? I certainly remember him being that way in Platinum, especially the first time you encounter him.

...That said, Looker is one of those characters who makes the fine line between 'fool' and 'genius' apparent, so.

I honestly never played Platinum. My first video game exposure to him was in BW1 (where he seemed a lot more professional and badass than he's seeming here so far) while my first anime exposure to him was in the DPPt series where he likewise seemed pretty badass and serious, even if he did have something of a comical side to him. (The whole "lunch box" gag in DPPt with Team Rocket, for example.)

[dirkac]

Originally Posted by Talon87

I honestly never played Platinum. My first video game exposure to him was in BW1 (where he seemed a lot more professional and badass than he's seeming here so far) while my first anime exposure to him was in the DPPt series where he likewise seemed pretty badass and serious, even if he did have something of a comical side to him. (The whole "lunch box" gag in DPPt with Team Rocket, for example.)

Yeah, his Platinum self is more pronounced in XY than in BW, in which he essentially gets serious.

He did have serious moments, but he was for the most relatively dopey throughout Platinum, pronounced mainly in his non-climax appeaances such as him in the Game Corner or the first meeting.

[Kindrindra]

"*Justification for him being there*
...Ack, my streak is broken."


Anyway, to get back on topic, I think you'll find the missions quite entertaining. Especially one certain tourist. I'm literally giggling to myself over here while trying to avoid spoiling you.

[Emp]

No teasing! ^ Not that I know what you're reffering to, and I've recently finished the Looker missions.

Yeah I totally thought Looker was supposed to come off as incompetent. The fact he only appears to arrest the sages in BW after you’ve done all the hard work- and all I can remember in Platinum was when he’d be staking out in Team Galactic’s HQ or Mount Coronet but not actually doing anything. He didn't even get any "I'll hold em off" scenes like Lance in G/S. I don’t know, maybe he’s more of a Sherlock-type but I wouldn’t take him too seriously.

I kind of agree and don’t agree with your Friend Code sentiment. I’d rather just have my UPN friends on it but I’d also love a safari with Togepi and some of my most useful (and most lucrative in terms of GTS fodder) safaris have come from complete strangers on Bulbagarden.

I do regret listing my FC on Bulbagarden though because I always get hounded by people wanting to add me because their favourite Pokémon is <retracted>

[Talon87]

O-Powers: So I've neglected these pretty much all game, in part because I snobbishly felt they were dumb overkill (and perhaps they still are! ) and in part because I sincerely didn't need to use any of the ones available to me during Story Mode. However, now that I've beaten the game, I find myself wondering just how much of an effect Catching Power Lv.3 would have on my legendary game -- especially since I tend to use Premier Balls on legendaries because of an old comment of Loki's. I also noticed that Kuno gifted me a Hatching Power Lv.3 once when we were both online ... but unfortunately for me, I wasn't hatching any eggs at the time and the benefit faded away after only three minutes, just like the Level 1 O-Powers do. (Lame. ^^; ) It also seems to be an O-Power I don't have yet, suggesting that there's at least one final place I need to find the Mr. O-Powers. Avoiding spoilers. Would like to figure this one out on my own.

In the meantime, though, I am wondering how many uses it takes to get an O-Power to go up to the next level. I feel like I've used some of these powers 10+ times on myself and gifted them to others 20+ times but they still haven't gone up to Level 2. And I can only imagine that the gap between Level 2 and Level 3 is larger than that between Level 1 and Level 2. Not really looking for an answer here either: while not a spoiler if you do, this is the sort of thing I figure will happen when it happens. I'm not in any insane rush for it or anything: it would just be nice if I had the Catching Power maxed out before I decide to try and get my Zapdos and other legendaries.

Croagunk Breeding: So, I've got an awful lot of frogs now. I'll probably be in the market to trade eventually. (To trade rejects of mine who would be good seeds for you if you're after a Toxicroak of your very own.) But for now, I'm putting my Croagunk breeding on hold. The reason being this: I've only been breeding them for the purpose of giving Jynx a male to bed so I can get a Smoochum with Nasty Plot. I'm not actually gunning for Croagunk/Toxicroak myself. He's only ever been a means to an end for me. And the thing is, until Pokémon Bank comes out, I'm not going to be able to have a Dry Skin Jynx be the mother. Sure: I could raise an Oblivious/Forewarn Jynx right now and then raise a second Jynx later. But I think I'd rather wait. It's only a few days/weeks away at this point. Hopefully. ¬¬;

Ralts Breeding: So I gravitated over to doing Ralts breeding. And as of this morning, I was actually really, really close to accomplishing my goal. I have a male Bold Ralts who has 31 SpAtk, 31 SpDef, and 30 Speed, for example, serving as the father for the current breeding experiments. (I would've been happy to raise him except his HP was a 1 and his Defense was a 12. -.-) While poring over Smogon's articles for Gardevoir (old and new alike) kinda sorta have me worried about the viability of a Bold variant, I think I'd still like to try it out.

Anyway, this brings us to the first of many questions I have for you guys ...

Diantha's Ralts: By pure coincidence, I just discovered this about ten minutes ago while running some errands in Lumiose City. Decided to look up what the situation is with the Ralts nature, ability, and so on. From what I have found, it seems like:

• the nature is fixed to Modest
• the ability is fixed to Synchronize (hmm )
• the IVs are random but two or three of them are 31s

Well, obviously I don't mind raising a Ralts received from Diantha. That's pretty cool. And obviously it's pretty easy to sit here and soft reset again and again until I get one that has the 31s in SpAtk, SpDef, and (if there's a third one) Speed. And obviously it's a little harder but not that much harder to keep on soft resetting until I get one with 31s in SpAtk, SpDef, and Speed and good stats in HP and Def. So none of those are my questions. Here's my question:

1. Is this what you guys were flipping your shit over when you kept insisting I wait until the post-E4 part of the game to raise a Ralts? If so, I gotta say that I think you guys majorly overreacted -- especially since the Ralts appears to be locked in to the second best of three possible abilities rather than the best, which would be Trace given things like Flash Fire, Magnet Pull, Swift Swim, etc -- but whatever.
2. Were you guys suggesting that I ought to wait so that I could raise this very Ralts? Or were you suggesting that I should wait because you wanted me to use this Ralts as a seed in breeding experiments given its two or three 31s?

I'm not sure that Diantha's Ralts would be the foundation for the ultimate Gardevoir anyway given that it's locked in as Modest (rather than Timid to win speed wars, Calm to be a quasi-SpDef wall, or Bold to try and patch up that pitiful HP+Def), but it would certainly be a fun nature to raise.

Jeri's Riddle: So now we move on to the second batch o' questions. You guys were all "Talon, there's something you can do at the end of the game that has to do with breeding that we don't think you're going to figure out on your own." I guess I'll go ahead and ask:

• Did it have anything to do with the Friend Safari?
• Does it have something to do with a change to one or more hold items' effects in breeding?

If it's neither of these and isn't killer, I'll keep trying to identify it on my own. If it is killer (and, like, I am stupidly wasting my time by not taking advantage of this feature), or if it does have to do with one of the two things I said above, then say so.

Staryu: So apparently Staryu is in Pokémon X only. -_-; Which makes getting one with a Timid nature and good IVs kinda sorta a bitch given that Staryu is genderless and thus can only breed with Ditto. I had been wondering about maybe trying for one with better IVs than either Altair (Ruby) or Kaisei (Emerald-->Pearl-->HeartGold) have, but it doesn't look like that's going to be easily possible now. If anyone has a decent Staryu seed (31 SpAtk, 31 Speed, Timid: pick two, though three'd be grand), I'd much appreciate the trade. Though really, I'm not in any rush: I can easily wait until Pokémon Bank comes back out and I can use its associated Transporter app to import various Staryu from earlier games.

Torchic: I haven't gotten my own event Torchic yet, but I did go ahead and download the event card to my gamepak and activate it. Have the delivery lady standing in my Pokémon Centers even as we speak.

[Schala]

On the Ralts: I doubt anyone was thinking about that when the told you to wait.

As for what is the reason:

Yes to both. The Friend Safari thing is either pretty easy to figure out with a little bit of playing around, or mentioned in game, so if you want to figure it out for yourself, I'll leave it at that. As for the mechanics involving a hold item, that one isn't mentioned in game and would be difficult to discover on your own, but is very helpful. Once again I'll stop there unless you explicitly say you want that spoiled.

[Talon87]

As far as the Friend Safari thing goes: does it have anything to do with IVs? I've already assumed that the Safarimon likely have good IVs, though from what I'm seeing they're certainly no 31/31/31/31/31/31 perfect seeds. It looks likelier that they have three, two, or just one guaranteed 31. But at least one seems likely from what I've observed, since I have seen some pretty wild stat swings between Safarimon of the same species and level.

As far as the item thing goes: well, I guess I'll ask these follow-up questions then and see if I can't figure the rest out on my own. Part One:

• Has an old item that had no effect in breeding since been given an effect?
• Has an old item which had an effect in breeding been tweaked?
• Has a new item been introduced and it has an effect on breeding?

Part Two:

• Does this have anything to do with introducing Hidden Abilities where before there were none? (For example, you make a Pokémon hold {Item X} and now the offspring have a chance of having the Hidden Ability rather than the normally-available abilities.)
• Does this have anything to do with ensuring certain stats get inherited? (For example, can we now have Mom and Dad each hold a Power Item and there's a 100% chance of both stats being passed down?)

Beyond that, I don't think I want to ask any further. If it's none of the above (or not rendered 100% clear by the above), I'll see if I can't figure it out on my own. Though hmm ... you describe it as "very helpful." Which makes me worry I'm wasting my time with each hour that goes by that I keep breeding using Gen 5 tactics ... ¬¬;

[Deebs]

It's an old item with a new effect and if you're not using it you are wasting your time.

[Talon87]

Making a face right now. lol

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm ... now I'm kinda sorely tempted to be insane and systematically test out each and every one of the old items. But there're god knows how many. Especially once you include PokéBalls and berries. That seems like lunacy. Hrmph. Hrmph-a-drmph-a-sdhudasuosdfiosdisdfi. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I am seriously so, so tempted to at least try this out with the classics i.e. the Gen 2 Items that are still around. Leftovers, King's Rock, Focus Band, etc. Even then there are so, so many items. (Sample list.) But man if I am not tempted.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh but why re-invent the wheel? Why rediscover fire? Is it really necessary? Is it really worth all of the dead ends? Hmm ...

The thrill of discovery vs. the agony of wasted time. Decisions, decisions ...

[Emi]

Honestly, no one knew about this item until a Tweet from one of the developers basically spelled it out for everyone. So, yeah, you can test it out but its likely you will ever find it out.

[Talon87]

I guess what I'm more pressed to know right now is whether Diantha's Ralts always gives 31s in SpAtk and Speed or not, and whether all six IVs are always the same or not. Because I just went to talk to her again and I got a Ralts who ... y'know, I think this is linkable: Veekun Stat Calculator spreadsheet link. Obviously I'd like to know if the six stats are all fixed or not since if they aren't then I'll likely keep if mine are on the upper end of those spectra (~29) but will reset if they're on the lower end (~14). Because seriously: if I just got a 29 Def / 31 SpAtk / 29 SpDef / 31 Speed Ralts, that would be pretty worth keeping. (Though darn it that the HP is possibly as low as an 11. :\)