Uh, when I got to that part I wanted to smack the surfer dude out of Marlon. His dialogue felt like it was written for the original Black & White's Team Plasma. For them you can argue their vision of freeing all Pokemon is extreme, but at the same time they have the point that on the surface it looks like Pokemon are slaves to humans. However, that isn't the Team Plasma we're talking about here, we're talking about Neo Team Plasma, a spinoff of Team Plasma who dropped the charade and started following Ghetsis and his world conquering plans. They are villains through and through, they steal Pokemon with purpose of their own use, they plan on taking over the world, they FROZE AN ENTIRE CITY!
Probably my least favorite gym leader. Not for his design or his battle (although his battle is pretty weak for a final gym, 3 pokemon and all of them super slow and no coverage moves for electric or grass types) but for Route 21.
So in Black2/White2 you meet up with him on Route 21 where he lowers the bridge onto the Plasma Frigate. Then he bails like a chump because professionalism ain't his style. No it's cool Marlon, it's not like all the other gym leaders tried to stop these guys in the last game. Oh wait!
But being a lazy work-dodging bum is one thing, but then he has to try to guilt trip you about fighting Team Plasma. So after postulating that as an ocean boy a maniac going around in a giant flying boat with nazi-esque troops isn't really his problem, he then questions you on if Team Plasma is bad or not.
"Hey, friends! Team Plasma's not botherin' me. They could be up to no good for reals, and... It's not my style to go around decidin' Team Plasma's bad without thinkin' 'bout it just 'cause everyone says so!"
As an isolated set piece this is supposed to be leading up to the climax of rival Hugh's character arc, as his single-minded agenda to defeat Team Plasma and get his sister's Purrloin back has been a bit sketchy.
But in context of the full story, this is after this same frigate totally froze an entire city in ice. I'M PRETTY SURE THESE GUYS ARE EVIL YOU LAZY JERK. YOU ARE THE WORST GYM LEADER EVER, AND THAT INCLUDES GIOVANNI AND MALVA!
People that have seen me around the forums know I've got a bit of a beef with Gen5's storytelling and Marlon here's the perfect microcosim for everything wrong with it: empty platitudes given devoid of the context surrounding them. I can't feel anything here if Marlon's saying one thing when the rest of the story is saying something else, it's not insightful it's just stupid.
I'd rant more, but thankfully Marlon's time in the story is brief. So that's why he's just a little annoyance rather than a big one (like say Zinnia for example).
Just finished reading all of that, and I think there's nothing more to be said.I think we covered the problem with Zinnia a while back.
The nature lock was annoying as I was all too ready to Synchronize natures with it (despite myself not remembering it was possible because it won't be able to breed) and the moment it turned out to be Hardy I said "screw it" and pick the first one that turned up (after confirming it was a nature lock by trying again).So after picking up the Ash's Pikachu, (Alola cap for me, figured I'd get it on the last day of the event) I find myself just a little annoyed that it doesn't have three guaranteed IV's when freaking Cos-Play Pikachu in OR/AS did IIRC, and that it's apparently nature-locked to Hardy.
I mean, it is a Pikachu, and it can't hold a Light Ball and Pikashium Z at the same time so anything other than the one-time nuke is going to hit like wet tissue paper, but...
But wouldn't it be impossible to Synch anyway because it's received through Mystery Gift? I was prepared to sit there and at least aim for Timid, (and Hyper Train Special Attack and Speed if they weren't perfect later) but after a couple of resets all resulting in Hardy I just saved and shoved it in the PC.The nature lock was annoying as I was all too ready to Synchronize natures with it (despite myself not remembering it was possible because it won't be able to breed) and the moment it turned out to be Hardy I said "screw it" and pick the first one that turned up (after confirming it was a nature lock by trying again).
Isn't Stoutland faster for turning in circles? Also the fact you can easily hatch eggs in batches of six and send eggs directly to the PC so you have six more ready to go makes breeding much more efficient this gen. Checking IVs is also much easier since you can look at them at a glance while storing them in the PC. All of this can be done one handed too since you don't have to use buttons and circle pad at the same time.let's talk about breeding in sun/moon.
most of the opinions i've seen here are about the same–"this sucks...wait i can run in circles here! awesome!"–which was my initial response as well. but the more mons i breed, the more backwards it seems to me compared to other games.
man i appreciate the concept of breeding but imo its only purpose should be getting egg moves and stuff. that doesn't take long and it's kinda cool. iv breeding is not cool. i think that a whole new system is the way to go, like it would be lit if they added a poke pelago island for iv increasing.
- you have to be continuously holding down b and moving the circle pad. not only is this bad for both (my b button is starting to stick), it means you can't even just put a coin under the circle pad and let it go by itself. this means that sun and moon's breeding area was (debatably) worse than xy's. this is a pretty monumental achievement. also why are the two things on opposite sides of the 3ds like i feel lucky to have big hands
- you have to press a different button to get past the "oh?" screen. why is this a thing. this basically just takes away any kind of multitasking you could hope to accomplish while breeding and instead you're forced to look at the screen every 10 seconds
- it takes steps (and dismounting tauros) to get eggs and check stats. i am aware of how petty this sounds (and i appreciate the step up from oras's npc judge) but still it's been 7 generations man!!!
- the music. they somehow transcended not only oras's "choose your own based on your mood/preferences" but also xy's "meh it's lumiose city nothing special" to create the horror that is tauros music. this is the kind of stuff that leads to clickbait articles about kids going insane playing pokemon.
next up i'm going to rant about the pokemon rumble series (in particular the one i have, rumble blast) but idk if i've done that one already.
This was a common issue with the 3DS, I remember loads of stories of this happening when Super Smash Bros for 3DS came out (and some way back with Kid Icarus: Uprising).No joke, I was hatching eggs by riding Tauros around and my circle pad fell off.
I too did back-and-forth roads between the Heahea harbor and the Daycare. It kind of feels faster for some reason. I guess it's the fact you can do it without paying much attention.Gen 7 is pretty simple, with flame body the cycle is like 1/7 of the original value, and with Tauros dashing even lengthy eggs takes only 4 back-and-forth between the city road (yes I take a straight line instead of that spinning thing because I don't wanna destroy my 3ds).
It is for several reasons:I too did back-and-forth roads between the Heahea harbor and the Daycare. It kind of feels faster for some reason. I guess it's the fact you can do it without paying much attention.
Well, you only really have to concern yourself with IV's if you're aiming for Little Cup or need specific imperfect IV's this generation. I'm pretty sure Game Freak is against directly altering the IV's, but Hyper Training can make the stats act like they're flawless. Granted, you have to get the Pokemon to level 100 first, and that can be a bear to do...let's talk about breeding in sun/moon.
most of the opinions i've seen here are about the same–"this sucks...wait i can run in circles here! awesome!"–which was my initial response as well. but the more mons i breed, the more backwards it seems to me compared to other games.
man i appreciate the concept of breeding but imo its only purpose should be getting egg moves and stuff. that doesn't take long and it's kinda cool. iv breeding is not cool. i think that a whole new system is the way to go, like it would be lit if they added a poke pelago island for iv increasing.
- you have to be continuously holding down b and moving the circle pad. not only is this bad for both (my b button is starting to stick), it means you can't even just put a coin under the circle pad and let it go by itself. this means that sun and moon's breeding area was (debatably) worse than xy's. this is a pretty monumental achievement. also why are the two things on opposite sides of the 3ds like i feel lucky to have big hands
- you have to press a different button to get past the "oh?" screen. why is this a thing. this basically just takes away any kind of multitasking you could hope to accomplish while breeding and instead you're forced to look at the screen every 10 seconds
- it takes steps (and dismounting tauros) to get eggs and check stats. i am aware of how petty this sounds (and i appreciate the step up from oras's npc judge) but still it's been 7 generations man!!!
- the music. they somehow transcended not only oras's "choose your own based on your mood/preferences" but also xy's "meh it's lumiose city nothing special" to create the horror that is tauros music. this is the kind of stuff that leads to clickbait articles about kids going insane playing pokemon.
next up i'm going to rant about the pokemon rumble series (in particular the one i have, rumble blast) but idk if i've done that one already.
1. You can try running in a beeline in Hea hea city (as I mentioned before), and now you can stop worrying about wrecking your D-pad anymore. Combined with Tauros and flame body the efficiency is so insane that it is no way less efficient than XY, but somehow people are obsessed with spinning in circles like a maniac despite it doesn't offer any sort of special merits.let's talk about breeding in sun/moon.
most of the opinions i've seen here are about the same–"this sucks...wait i can run in circles here! awesome!"–which was my initial response as well. but the more mons i breed, the more backwards it seems to me compared to other games.
man i appreciate the concept of breeding but imo its only purpose should be getting egg moves and stuff. that doesn't take long and it's kinda cool. iv breeding is not cool. i think that a whole new system is the way to go, like it would be lit if they added a poke pelago island for iv increasing.
- you have to be continuously holding down b and moving the circle pad. not only is this bad for both (my b button is starting to stick), it means you can't even just put a coin under the circle pad and let it go by itself. this means that sun and moon's breeding area was (debatably) worse than xy's. this is a pretty monumental achievement. also why are the two things on opposite sides of the 3ds like i feel lucky to have big hands
- you have to press a different button to get past the "oh?" screen. why is this a thing. this basically just takes away any kind of multitasking you could hope to accomplish while breeding and instead you're forced to look at the screen every 10 seconds
- it takes steps (and dismounting tauros) to get eggs and check stats. i am aware of how petty this sounds (and i appreciate the step up from oras's npc judge) but still it's been 7 generations man!!!
- the music. they somehow transcended not only oras's "choose your own based on your mood/preferences" but also xy's "meh it's lumiose city nothing special" to create the horror that is tauros music. this is the kind of stuff that leads to clickbait articles about kids going insane playing pokemon.
next up i'm going to rant about the pokemon rumble series (in particular the one i have, rumble blast) but idk if i've done that one already.
Then again, this criticism can be made towards X/Y as well. It seems this is going to be the nature of the first set of main series games for new generations from now on. After all, why give players much of a post-game when clearly we'll buy the new games anyway? (not to mention having more to do than the previous games makes for very appealing incentive to buy the next set of games)One criticism that I heard about SM was there's little to do outside of battling.
It's correct.
Battles are fun for the chill fans but those looking for extra don't have much to do. Especially when you've battled every NPC in the game. There aren't any contests or Memory Link missions. There's no Dream World or Amie mini games. What we do have is Pelago, which is geared toward helping you battle stuff, and festival plaza, which isn't good enough if you ask me.
Two words: Franchise Mascot.Also I think it's kind of unfair for only Pikachu to have its anime cry and none of the other Pokemon. I can see why it would be hard to implement that for all of the Pokemon (a lot of voice-over data and voice recording from VAs would have to be done for that), but it's rather jarring for one Pokemon to say its name in game but everyone else having distinctive noises as cries because of the inconsistency. Especially if you intend on evolving Pikachu into Raichu.