RPG Progress Report

[noiseredux]

I started playing Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire on 3DS last night because idk. I never been a big Pokemon fan or anything. I remember my first exposure to the phenomenon was a couple of friends had gotten obsessed with Red/Blue in my senior year of high school (1998) and had brought in their Game Boys to trade their little monsters. As a side note, this is kind of fascinating to think about - as I was leaving my GB in my backpack back then as well for spurts of Zelda: Link's Awakening in study hall or lunch. This was a full decade after the little handheld had launched! Anyway, for whatever reason I was too cool for Pokemon, but was reintroduced to them a year later when I girl was dating was obsessed with the TV show. She was a vegetarian but kept making me eat Happy Meals at McDonald's so I could get her the little Pokemon toys they were promoting at the time. Again, I was too cool.

Some years later when the DS entries in the series were all the rage, I decided I'd give the games a go. I settled on Pokemon: Yellow since it was a sort of refined take on the original Red/Blue games; plus it started you with Pikachu; plus the yellow cartridge was friggin' cute. And so I played it for a while on the Gamecube's Game Boy Player and I had a really good time. I had the official guide to ease me into things and I was impressed. And then that was it. My Pokemon curiosity had been satiated. I understood why folks liked the games, but had no interest in checking out others.

Until.

As you are probably well aware, there's a new Pokemon game on Nintendo Switch now. It just came out. And it's (virtually) a remake of Yellow. So I was PUMPED. I had a Pokemon game on pre-order, y'all! My wife thought that was weird, but I insisted I'd changer her mind once it came out and we could couch co-op it. Pokemon: Yellow! On the couch, or portable, but mostly on the couch! Like I originally played it. And then came the waggle. You can tell me all day that the motion controls are cool, or that if you play it handheld it kinda works. But dudes, once it was announced that I could not use the Pro controller on Pokemon: Let's Go, I cancelled my pre-order.

But with the game out on shelves, I still have an itch. Watching all those people playing it on kiosks at the Nintendo World Store last week really gave me an urge to catch some Pokemons. So I used some store credit and decided I'd order one of the 3DS entries. I figured one of those titles would be recent-ish enough to give me a feel for how the series has progressed. (I had originally intended to get the DS remake of Gold or Silver, but those prices!). I settled on Alpha Sapphire - a remake of one of the GBA games - because frankly, I thought that the colors in the title felt more mainline than X or Y or Sun or Moon. Plus, Sapphire is a shade of blue... so I don't know. I like blue.

I've only played a little over an hour so far, but I like it. The visuals are really lovely, actually. I started out with the Mud... ugh, I'm so bad with names. Seriously. In a game with hundreds of names, I'm not going to be good at telling you names. But he's the little green four-legged one that's a water Pokemon, y'know? And I leveled him up to 7 so far, and caught another level 5 wolf-looking one. I found a level 7 or 8 thing in the wild, but then forgot to catch him and knocked him out instead. Dammit. I need to remember to catch em! But yeah, having a good time so far. Seems like a good game to unwind with before bed.

[noiseredux]

Played s'more Alpha Sapphire, and I've got five Pokemons on my team now. I got the thingy that allows all of them to gain experience even if they don't battle, so that helps. They're all mostly around level 10 now, and a couple of them have evolved. I'm having a good time. Got my first badge, and have now made my way over to a little island.

[alienjesus]

Played s'more Alpha Sapphire, and I've got five Pokemons on my team now. I got the thingy that allows all of them to gain experience even if they don't battle, so that helps. They're all mostly around level 10 now, and a couple of them have evolved. I'm having a good time. Got my first badge, and have now made my way over to a little island.

Depending how challenging you want the game to be, it's worth mentioning that that experience share can also be turned off if you don't want to stomp your way past everything in the game. I had it off the whole game and was fairly appropriately levelled until near the end.

I always love to hear about people playing Pokémon though, especially if they are relatively inexperienced with the franchise. There's a lot of older gamers I think who are unwilling to give it a go,m perhaps because it was a craze with the kids way back when and they think they're too old for it.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Played s'more Alpha Sapphire, and I've got five Pokemons on my team now. I got the thingy that allows all of them to gain experience even if they don't battle, so that helps. They're all mostly around level 10 now, and a couple of them have evolved. I'm having a good time. Got my first badge, and have now made my way over to a little island.

Depending how challenging you want the game to be, it's worth mentioning that that experience share can also be turned off if you don't want to stomp your way past everything in the game. I had it off the whole game and was fairly appropriately levelled until near the end.

I always love to hear about people playing Pokémon though, especially if they are relatively inexperienced with the franchise. There's a lot of older gamers I think who are unwilling to give it a go,m perhaps because it was a craze with the kids way back when and they think they're too old for it.

I find it funny that some folks stick their nose up at pokemon, but there are some who are so fanatical for the series they actively want to keep everyone away from it.

I got into an argument about pokemon with a guy about how my 3 year old daughter is excited about pokemon let's go Pikachu and how she wants to play it with me and this guy outright said, "video games aren't for kids. They are for adults. Pokemon is for adults and should be taken more seriously because of it."

Some people are crazy.

[noiseredux]

okay so I'm definitely enjoying Alpha Sapphire way more than I figured I would. I had a busy night, but once I had downtime I plopped down on the couch. My wife put on Elf, and I went Poke-hunting. I beat the gym master on that little island town in the southwest of the map. Again - bad with names/too lazy to Google. So now I've got two badges. I found myself a fishing pole, and then headed off to another village to deliver some parts to a scientist working on some sea exploration thingy. The plot's... not really important to me here.

Before I left that town there was something about a Pokemon beauty contest that sounded awful silly to me. But I figured, eh, I'll see what it's about since I stumbled upon it. So I entered, won, and received a "Cosplay Pikachu," rounding out my party to a full six. I admit, I could have had a sixth hours ago, but I haven't been all that diligent about actually catching these things, haha. Anyway, as a dude whose previous Pokemon experience was having a blast with Yellow, it was really really awesome to get a Pikachu. And this little bastard's wearing a leather jacket, ha!

I'm not really sure where I'm headed next. Is there even a critical path of main 'quests' to complete or is it really just a matter of earning each badge in whatever I order I happen to do that?

[MrPopo]

Pokémon games are structured such that there's really only a single path to progress through (those branches on the world map are locked behind plot gates). Along that path there is a combination of you collecting badges as a way of proving yourself (and you need all eight to do the end game) and interacting with the villain team of the game. The only "skippable" content in that is in some versions you can just not do a gym and keep going, as the gym doesn't unlock an HM move or remove a plot gate. But I think all the DS and later stuff fixed any of that, so you just go on your path and do the things as they are presented to you.

[Arenegeth]

I've been banging my head on a wall in Dragon Quest XI for the last 5 days trying to get 'The Freeze' accolade in Slime Quest at the Casino. 5000 spins a day, which are mostly done afk since you can auto-do 100 at a time. Let's hope today is my lucky day (spoken like a true gambler).

This is one of my last accolades before I can set up my characters for Seed Farming so I can max out their stats.

Given that I spend way too much time on JRPG's this year and I got like 10 of them that I'm still working on, I'll probably won't start a new one next year for quite some time. Well maybe Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!...

[MrPopo]

Max statting DQ XI is only slightly less pointless than doing it in Xenogears, and just as long and tedious.

[Arenegeth]

Max statting DQ XI is only slightly less pointless than doing it in Xenogears, and just as long and tedious.

I'd say in this game is a lot more pointless than Xenogears, double for me since I've already killed everything in 6x Draconian and the vanilla game feels incredibly easy with those restrictions off.

But then again, what is the point in stat-maxing in any JRPG? I can't think of a single game I've done it in (or ones I haven't done it in) where it felt necessary in any way, in beating anything in the game. Is always done for the sake of completion.

And yes this is going to be a long process in a game I already spend more than 300 hours on (I estimate 200 hours minimum will be spend on Seed farming) but I've done similar things enough times now, to know to spread it out over a long period of time with a daily schedule, etcetera.

Of course that's if I ever get done with 'The Freeze' at the Casino, because it looks like a complete waste of time and sanity so far and is a completely random process.

[BoneSnapDeez]

And yes this is going to be a long process in a game I already spend more than 300 hours on (I estimate 200 hours minimum will be spend on Seed farming) but I've done similar things enough times now, to know to spread it out over a long period of time with a daily schedule, etcetera.

Dude...