Wow 2nd gen
Feb. 9th, 2019 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marchionessofmustacheOK so I remember why I give so much flak to 2nd gen, and I think it's largely because the new Pokémon suck so bad. I guess it makes sense, since in a rush to create a sequel after the overwhelming popularity of the first game, they used a bunch of the rejected ideas from the first game and threw them together in a second game, instead of coming up with all-new designs.
Coming up with a team for this set has been gruelingly difficult. The themes are not even that strict:
Bakula - The adorable one
Maillet - The hulking one
Kobayashi - The dancing one
Donnelly - The sinister one
Rickman - The cool one
Baron - The sexy one
That's it. That's the entire criteria. Now, I'm trying to make a team using only newly-introduced Pokeys to the game, so all the old Pokes making a reappearance are out, unless they have a new evolution for this game and I'm using that as their final form.
We have ONE HUNDRED new Pokémon to choose from... and it was a HUGE struggle to come up with six things to fit into those loose categories. I finally decided on something after hours of stressing over it. And the team is going to be pretty horrible because most of the new Pokémon are terrible statistically anyway, being completely overshadowed by the first game's monsters. There's a few gems hidden in there, but even with those a lot of them favor competitive play and not the main campaign.
The even bigger struggle comes from the fact that there are now seven Hidden Machines, and we have to fit all of those moves on the team. This ended up meaning one Pokémon was chosen just because it could house three of these moves and barely fit the theme, something I'm sad about, but literally could find no other way to make this work. It's actually a Pokémon I've always wanted to try using, but it will be sad that it will just amount to an HM Slave and I won't be able to use it to its full potential...
And uh, even now I'm still not entirely sold on who I want to use for the RICKMAN namesake. I have two ideas. I think I'm actually going to go with the one I didn't think of first, because I've never actually used that Pokémon in a main campaign; only in competitive battles. Whereas when I last did a bug-only run in HeartGold, I used the first idea, so it would basically be using the same Pokémon I used then in the same type of environment.
Oh, and there are some Pokémon I wanted to use that are only available post-game. So that was even more annoying. This team REALLY is just thrown together crap and I'm really not that happy with it but this was really the best I could do.
So, with complaining aside, I did start the game enough to catch my "new starter" and level him up to L6 with the wild battles (so he's on the same level the original starter would have been) and now I can start the game. So let's talk about what I do like about this game, just from the first few minutes.
First of all, the graphics are greatly improved. Having not played the games back-to-back in a long time, I always thought the 2nd gen graphics were just reused assets from the first games with color thrown on them since they're on GBC now. This is not the case, however. While they still look super dated compared to new games, the graphics in Crystal Version are fantastic compared to the first game. There's so much more detail on even simple things like beds and dressers in the houses, even if they didn't have color. The Pokémon also look really nice, and having them in color is great, too. There's also a lot more animation and fluidity with the graphics overall, which is great.
Secondly, THE POKEGEAR. This has always been one of my favorite things about this game. It has a little phone and radio and stuff and is just overall really cute and a great idea. It's a real shame they didn't keep this idea for the rest of the series. The Pokémon Company has said before that the reason they remove distinct features like this from each game is because they want each game to feel very unique compared to the others when the core of the game is staying the same. So you can remember GSC as "the one with Pokegear" and other things like that. Anyway, I love the Pokegear idea, and that alone added a LOT to the game coming off the first one.
I'm already noticing so many little things that have been added to make the game more robust and interesting. We have trees that grow berries, Pokémon are able to hold items that affect them in battle, Pokémon have genders and can breed now... really cool stuff that really set the stage for the rest of the series. Even if the main game ends up being a slog, I'll have to admit that this generation was greatly important in the development of the series as a whole. Oh, and this is the first time you can play as a girl character!
So, our adventure has begun... welcome our first Pokémon to the team, our underpowered new starter...
BARON the Spinarak! This thing is FACKING WEAKSAUCE but should be a fun introductory challenge. This was the only Pokémon I didn't have trouble choosing for the theme, because gotdam that Ariados is hotttttt. Among all the garbage designs from this generation, Ariados really stands out, and is actually one of my all-time favorite Pokémon and admittedly the top of my 'sexy pokes' list. Because yeah I want to bang bugs because my brain is broken... (alliteration?!)
Anyway, thankfully Spinarak can be acquired right off the bat without having to battle any trainers, so I didn't even have to try to force an early-game Pokémon into the group, since this one was set in stone before we even got here.
I think we're actually going to be able to pick up one or two members VERY soon, so we'll have a nice little team built. Though everyone is going to be weak for a long time.
FUN FACT TIME: Crystal was the "special edition" game of the 2nd generation, succeeding Gold and Silver with more features and stuff. In the original Gold and Silver, Spinaraks were purple. In Crystal, they decided to change their color to green. They're one of a few Pokémon who have had their colors changed over the course of the series. Personally I like them either color. I also like the shiny version which is silver with purple highlights.
Also, a quick little note about gender: all our Pokémon are going to be male this time. Later, I will not care about gender, but this game is going to be rough enough with this weird-ass party I threw together, so we need all the help we can get. So why male? In this first game to introduce gender to the series, they decided to make female Pokémon weaker than male Pokémon. YUP.
Now, it's possible to get a female Pokémon with better stats than a male, but overall, females have limited potential. Similar to the IV system in later games, this game has a similar "base stat" system that is referred to as DV (to differentiate them from IV) where Pokémon have a modifier for each stat that ranges between 0 and 15. Male Pokémon, no matter what, will get to roll 0 to 15 for every stat. But female Pokémon, on the other hand, only get to roll like... between 0 and 6 and stuff (it's different depending on the Pokémon species; species that are primarily female get slightly higher caps, but still not the same full-15 cap as the males.)
So basically, male Pokémon are much more likely to be stronger unless you get really bad rolls, as female Pokémon are forced into bad rolls. And there's no way to tell what your DVs are, so we're going to go with all-male teams to ensure we at least have the best potential rolls we can have.
Also, let's talk about WORDS :D Talking about the word "potential" reminded be of the differences in fan names and official names. In the games, IVs are referred to as "Potential." So instead of saying your Pokémon has a Speed IV of 19, you'd say your Pokémon has 19 Potential in Speed. But you'll never hear of anyone saying "Potential" outside of the in-game characters because the system was fan-named back when it was not actually mentioned in the games.
But that makes me think of another term that was coined by the fanbase in this game: "Shiny." Now that the games are in color, there's a very rare chance you might find a Pokémon that is colored differently than normal. When this happens, the Pokémon will sparkle for a second when it appears to make sure you realize it's different and special, hence fans referring to them as "shiny" Pokémon. A similar Japanese fan term also brewed up meaning "sparkling" Pokémon.
This type of Pokémon was officially referred to as "Alt. Color" in the games for a few generations. But the overwhelming use of the fan terms led to later games actually adopting those terms -- in current games, shiny Pokémon are explicitly referred to as Shiny Pokémon, such as in the item Shiny Charm whose description reads that it increases the chance to find Shiny Pokémon.
So yeah, that's a lot of blathering about a game I played, like, 20 minutes of so far. But I hope to have a lot more commentary on this game as I'm going to be experiencing it from the beginning to end for the first time since it was new pretty much, and I'm experiencing it immediately after playing the first game. And this is a game I hold strong negative opinions toward, and I always like having those kinds of opinions shattered so I can learn to appreciate more things.
Quick note: the player character is again named THAAO and the psychopathic violent rival is again NICO. At least next two games' NICOs will be cool, friendly characters to balance out these screwed up NICOs from the first games lol. If I get that far. But I really enjoyed the first playthrough and am pretty hyped about this one, so maybe I'll keep it up~~
ETA: While I talked about how much I want to stick my dick in Ariados, I want to also mention that I do really, really love Spinarak, too. Look at this adorable little baby spidey:
Coming up with a team for this set has been gruelingly difficult. The themes are not even that strict:
Bakula - The adorable one
Maillet - The hulking one
Kobayashi - The dancing one
Donnelly - The sinister one
Rickman - The cool one
Baron - The sexy one
That's it. That's the entire criteria. Now, I'm trying to make a team using only newly-introduced Pokeys to the game, so all the old Pokes making a reappearance are out, unless they have a new evolution for this game and I'm using that as their final form.
We have ONE HUNDRED new Pokémon to choose from... and it was a HUGE struggle to come up with six things to fit into those loose categories. I finally decided on something after hours of stressing over it. And the team is going to be pretty horrible because most of the new Pokémon are terrible statistically anyway, being completely overshadowed by the first game's monsters. There's a few gems hidden in there, but even with those a lot of them favor competitive play and not the main campaign.
The even bigger struggle comes from the fact that there are now seven Hidden Machines, and we have to fit all of those moves on the team. This ended up meaning one Pokémon was chosen just because it could house three of these moves and barely fit the theme, something I'm sad about, but literally could find no other way to make this work. It's actually a Pokémon I've always wanted to try using, but it will be sad that it will just amount to an HM Slave and I won't be able to use it to its full potential...
And uh, even now I'm still not entirely sold on who I want to use for the RICKMAN namesake. I have two ideas. I think I'm actually going to go with the one I didn't think of first, because I've never actually used that Pokémon in a main campaign; only in competitive battles. Whereas when I last did a bug-only run in HeartGold, I used the first idea, so it would basically be using the same Pokémon I used then in the same type of environment.
Oh, and there are some Pokémon I wanted to use that are only available post-game. So that was even more annoying. This team REALLY is just thrown together crap and I'm really not that happy with it but this was really the best I could do.
So, with complaining aside, I did start the game enough to catch my "new starter" and level him up to L6 with the wild battles (so he's on the same level the original starter would have been) and now I can start the game. So let's talk about what I do like about this game, just from the first few minutes.
First of all, the graphics are greatly improved. Having not played the games back-to-back in a long time, I always thought the 2nd gen graphics were just reused assets from the first games with color thrown on them since they're on GBC now. This is not the case, however. While they still look super dated compared to new games, the graphics in Crystal Version are fantastic compared to the first game. There's so much more detail on even simple things like beds and dressers in the houses, even if they didn't have color. The Pokémon also look really nice, and having them in color is great, too. There's also a lot more animation and fluidity with the graphics overall, which is great.
Secondly, THE POKEGEAR. This has always been one of my favorite things about this game. It has a little phone and radio and stuff and is just overall really cute and a great idea. It's a real shame they didn't keep this idea for the rest of the series. The Pokémon Company has said before that the reason they remove distinct features like this from each game is because they want each game to feel very unique compared to the others when the core of the game is staying the same. So you can remember GSC as "the one with Pokegear" and other things like that. Anyway, I love the Pokegear idea, and that alone added a LOT to the game coming off the first one.
I'm already noticing so many little things that have been added to make the game more robust and interesting. We have trees that grow berries, Pokémon are able to hold items that affect them in battle, Pokémon have genders and can breed now... really cool stuff that really set the stage for the rest of the series. Even if the main game ends up being a slog, I'll have to admit that this generation was greatly important in the development of the series as a whole. Oh, and this is the first time you can play as a girl character!
So, our adventure has begun... welcome our first Pokémon to the team, our underpowered new starter...
BARON the Spinarak! This thing is FACKING WEAKSAUCE but should be a fun introductory challenge. This was the only Pokémon I didn't have trouble choosing for the theme, because gotdam that Ariados is hotttttt. Among all the garbage designs from this generation, Ariados really stands out, and is actually one of my all-time favorite Pokémon and admittedly the top of my 'sexy pokes' list. Because yeah I want to bang bugs because my brain is broken... (alliteration?!)
Anyway, thankfully Spinarak can be acquired right off the bat without having to battle any trainers, so I didn't even have to try to force an early-game Pokémon into the group, since this one was set in stone before we even got here.
I think we're actually going to be able to pick up one or two members VERY soon, so we'll have a nice little team built. Though everyone is going to be weak for a long time.
FUN FACT TIME: Crystal was the "special edition" game of the 2nd generation, succeeding Gold and Silver with more features and stuff. In the original Gold and Silver, Spinaraks were purple. In Crystal, they decided to change their color to green. They're one of a few Pokémon who have had their colors changed over the course of the series. Personally I like them either color. I also like the shiny version which is silver with purple highlights.
Also, a quick little note about gender: all our Pokémon are going to be male this time. Later, I will not care about gender, but this game is going to be rough enough with this weird-ass party I threw together, so we need all the help we can get. So why male? In this first game to introduce gender to the series, they decided to make female Pokémon weaker than male Pokémon. YUP.
Now, it's possible to get a female Pokémon with better stats than a male, but overall, females have limited potential. Similar to the IV system in later games, this game has a similar "base stat" system that is referred to as DV (to differentiate them from IV) where Pokémon have a modifier for each stat that ranges between 0 and 15. Male Pokémon, no matter what, will get to roll 0 to 15 for every stat. But female Pokémon, on the other hand, only get to roll like... between 0 and 6 and stuff (it's different depending on the Pokémon species; species that are primarily female get slightly higher caps, but still not the same full-15 cap as the males.)
So basically, male Pokémon are much more likely to be stronger unless you get really bad rolls, as female Pokémon are forced into bad rolls. And there's no way to tell what your DVs are, so we're going to go with all-male teams to ensure we at least have the best potential rolls we can have.
Also, let's talk about WORDS :D Talking about the word "potential" reminded be of the differences in fan names and official names. In the games, IVs are referred to as "Potential." So instead of saying your Pokémon has a Speed IV of 19, you'd say your Pokémon has 19 Potential in Speed. But you'll never hear of anyone saying "Potential" outside of the in-game characters because the system was fan-named back when it was not actually mentioned in the games.
But that makes me think of another term that was coined by the fanbase in this game: "Shiny." Now that the games are in color, there's a very rare chance you might find a Pokémon that is colored differently than normal. When this happens, the Pokémon will sparkle for a second when it appears to make sure you realize it's different and special, hence fans referring to them as "shiny" Pokémon. A similar Japanese fan term also brewed up meaning "sparkling" Pokémon.
This type of Pokémon was officially referred to as "Alt. Color" in the games for a few generations. But the overwhelming use of the fan terms led to later games actually adopting those terms -- in current games, shiny Pokémon are explicitly referred to as Shiny Pokémon, such as in the item Shiny Charm whose description reads that it increases the chance to find Shiny Pokémon.
So yeah, that's a lot of blathering about a game I played, like, 20 minutes of so far. But I hope to have a lot more commentary on this game as I'm going to be experiencing it from the beginning to end for the first time since it was new pretty much, and I'm experiencing it immediately after playing the first game. And this is a game I hold strong negative opinions toward, and I always like having those kinds of opinions shattered so I can learn to appreciate more things.
Quick note: the player character is again named THAAO and the psychopathic violent rival is again NICO. At least next two games' NICOs will be cool, friendly characters to balance out these screwed up NICOs from the first games lol. If I get that far. But I really enjoyed the first playthrough and am pretty hyped about this one, so maybe I'll keep it up~~
ETA: While I talked about how much I want to stick my dick in Ariados, I want to also mention that I do really, really love Spinarak, too. Look at this adorable little baby spidey:
