To date, every trade I've asked for has come through, and always by a player in Tokyo or Osaka or somewhere in Japan. I've traded out Bidoofs and Zubats and Geodudes for a Turtwig, Piplup, Psyduck, Cranidos and a level 51 Skuntank. I am currently offering a level 3 Bidoof for a Chansey, which is my most aggressive request yet.
All of this online trading means that I've been walking back and forth between the GTS and Eterna City quite a bit. I can't wait for the Fly HM.
An old man gave me passage to the underground world, which is basically the Secret Bases from Ruby/Sapphire relegated to a Pac-Man maze. I think this is local-WiFi only (sucks), but you can check out other players' bases and play a weird little version of capture-the-flag... as well as set booby traps to keep others from taking your flag. Since the underground section takes place on the touchscreen (nice!), you can tap the walls to search for hidden gems, which opens up an odd little puzzle game. Unearth the gems and you can buy more decorations for your base. Interesting stuff - not as cool if this is truly local only - but can you even battle down there?
Longtime Pokemon Trainers will be excited to walk into Eterna City and see the ubiquitous Bike Shop. Of course, the place is empty and rumors persist of the proprietor somehow and somewhy kidnapped by Team Galactic, who have holed up in a mansion in the north end of town. The overgrown brush outside the mansion means you need to earn the Cut HM, however, and there's only one place to get that...
Jeez, did she even hit me?
Once you free the Bike Shop guy, guess what, you get a bike. Naturally there is a Cycling Road nearby that requires a bike, so it seems obvious that the next stop on the path to Pokemon Master will lie that way. Unless you're like me and you want to head back to Jubilife to see if the GTS paid out again.
Classic next-gen fumble: there is still only ONE item hotkey. You could always assign one of your cooler items (the bike, the VS Seeker, the watering can) to the SELECT button in previous games (as far back as Red/Blue/Yellow? I forget.) The Game Boy was always sort of button-challenged, so being able to map a single item to SELECT was very helpful. You'd think that the multiple buttons on the DS would have allowed the ability to map several items out to buttons, for even more helpfulness, but no such luck. You're stuck with choosing merely one item to attach to the Y button. What's SELECT doing again? Not a goddamn thing? Right.
Did anybody tell the devs that the DS has shoulder buttons?
And what's up with the "Move Pokemon" feature of the storage PC lacking stylus control? The hell?
But here's some good things:
The new Item Finder arrives in the form of a tappable Poketch app.
If you click any of the blue bike stands in any city, the game will ask if you want to switch to the bike.
I just received my absolute favorite item, the EXP.SHARE.
My sister picked up Pokemon Diamond this weekend, and found this unsettling tomfoolery going on at Wal-Mart:
That's taken directly from their Sunday circular, and my sister verified that indeed to be the in-store price. Wal-Mart is selling Pokemon Pearl and Diamond for $40, five bucks more than everywhere else in the country. What kind of dick move is that? Now, that's just the in-store price... if you order from their website it's $35 as normal, so make sure to ask for in-store pickup. I'd love to hear the story behind this unfair price hike, and I'd also love for Wal-Mart to be strangled in the night by a giant poisonous spider. (My sister wisely bought her Diamond from elsewhere.)
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Joe / 05.01.07 / 12:15PM
Got the Chansey. Unbelievable.
Juju / 05.01.07 / 02:35PM
Hiya Joe. Found your blog in my obsessive AC:WW days, read a lot of it every so often, and now I see you are into Pokemon, so I am compelled to reply! If only I can figure out how to RSS it onto my LiveJournal, then I'll be golden.
Anyway. Things that I'm a bit mystified about:
- Sheer lack of Fire Pokemon. In Diamond, you have like, 23487924972 Water Pokemon and like, Monferno and/or Ponyta, and that's about it. Huh?
- The fire starter's type being Fire/Fighting. I can't even train my Monferno in the wild where I am anymore, because EVERYTHING kills it. Piplup eventually being Water/Steel kind of makes me sad.
- The 1-button select thing. I usually switch it back and forth between bicycle and map (since I am directionally challenged in this new world, as well as the real one. WTF?) They could've made the B button another select button and use L or R as a Run button a la AC:WW.
- I can't figure out how to use the Itemfinder. Gyahh.
- In your video, your Staravia could've easily taken down that Turtwig. :)
- Walmart being evil. A sad panda is me. :(
Being as silly and competitive as I am, my team is basically being trained to be a balanced, non-legendary team. I got my butt kicked on Wifi by my friend, who I bought the game for, but is a gym and a half ahead/10 levels ahead of me because he has had more time to play and all his roommates have the game and are at Pal Park. PvP Pokemon is a completely different beast, kind of like what 5-card draw is to Texas Hold 'Em. During a battle, if his leadoff would be Torterra and mine Monferno in a scaled Lv. 50 battle, he'd have to switch out, and obviously, to my advantage, I'd have to switch out to a Pokemon I'd think would beat out whatever mystery Pokemon he'd be choosing. If anything, that sort of play style is what motivates me to finish the game.
Right now, the permanents so far in my team are Lv. 33 Monferno, Lv. 33 Kadabra, Lv. 33 Gyarados, and a Lv. 37 Luxray. Gyarados, now knowing moves of Dragon, Ice, and Water types, manages pretty well. Kadabra is slow, but that's easily fixed when I get around to training it soon. Luxray, with Lightning and Dark type moves, is pretty golden so far, although I worry about it being flexible later. Monferno is a tough sell for me, and I kind of think I'll be trying to import an older fire starter (if I even want to keep a Fire Pokemon in my final team). I gave it some off-type moves for sheer PvP surprise, like Shadow Claw (Ghost) and Aerial Ace (Flying).
I have a Lv. 21 Marshstomp that hatched from an egg, but also a Lv. 1 Piplup I got through the GTS, which I might train as my water one instead since it's final water/steel type-age. Surprisingly, from an American game, not from a Japanese game (unless some Nihonjin have an obsession with the name "Frank"). I have a Lv. 28 Onix that's currently getting the crap beaten out of him at this point in the game (I'm at 6 badges), and I very badly want a metal coat to evolve it soon. I also caught a Shiny Geodude that'd make a great addition to my party after he evolved a little.
Okay, uhh, I'll shut up now. :)
Joe / 05.02.07 / 03:15AM
I do have a Pearl Journal RSS setup: feed://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/pokemon_pearl_journal.xml
Haven't fire types been historically rather rare? My collection of Pokemon TCG cards certainly seems to agree. I think I have more Psychic-type cards than Fire-type!
The new Item Finder is cool. You just have to tap the screen and a radar blip shows which "square" has an item in it, if any are nearby.
And yeah, about the video. I'm actually a highly mediocre player, since I rarely think about matchup advantages unless they're obscenely obvious. Like, I'll field a Water-type against a Fire-type, or Flying-type against Bug-type, but anything else is a complete mystery. Especially when you start throwing the attacks' types into the mix!
Juju / 05.02.07 / 04:37PM
I'm not exactly sure why fire types are rare. It boggles my mind. If you look at an attack strength/weakness chart, fire is super effective against the following types: Ice, Grass, Bug, and Steel. Ice in most games has been historically rare in both Pokemon and moves (most strong Ice moves don't appear until pretty late in the game, and are usually housed by Dragon Pokemon save Jynx/Lapras until this game, really), so it's kind of a non-issue. Bug types don't really last in anything past a mediocre level because most bug types have low HP and poor design with too many weaknesses (Heracross being an exception). Steel is sort of a rare type even after being around for three generations, and Grass is grassy, and easily defeatable by any half-decent strong Flying move. Most Torterra trainers I've run into unanimously agree that Torterra's best move by far is Earthquake, a super-strong GROUND type move (also easily countered by any levitating Pokemon. I usually choose Gyarados in that situation) What? That just kind of bizarre, which is why I don't think Fire should be any rarer than any other starting type.
Back when I was a mini-Juju playing with her Pokeymans during downtime in eighth grade Robotics Team meetings, I started with a Squirtle, so maybe that's what caused my anti-Fire bias. I was easily able to build a 6-'mon team to work around my lack of a fire type.
What blows my mind, really, is how they gave the D/P water starter Water and Steel, and the fire starter Fire and Fighting. That gives the fire starter auto-weaknesses against Flying, Psychic, and Bug, easily the ENTIRE middle section of the game. Those AI trainers pull out Kadabras and Golbats like nobody's business, I tell ya! And it's super annoying.
Matchup types will save yourself a lot of headache and potions and money that you'll need for the Elite Four. Just Google a type chart and look at it every so often. I just started learning the difference between Attack and Sp. Attack and the like, so I'm not as hardcore as I could be, either. :)
And the best tip for healing is once you reach Veilstone City, take the time to purchase Fresh Water (heals for 50HP, $200) and Lemonade (heals for 80HP, $350). Since you can't clone money like in the older generation games, every penny counts! MooMoo Milk heals for 100 and is in some shack before Veilstone. The vending machines on the 5th floor may be super-tedious to purchase one at a time, but its worth it when Super Potions are $700. And sometimes you get lucky, and like with real vending machines, it'll drop two!
To date, every trade I've asked for has come through, and always by a player in Tokyo or Osaka or somewhere in Japan. I've traded out Bidoofs and Zubats and Geodudes for a Turtwig, Piplup, Psyduck, Cranidos and a level 51 Skuntank. I am currently offering a level 3 Bidoof for a Chansey, which is my most aggressive request yet.
Got the Chansey. Unbelievable.
Hiya Joe. Found your blog in my obsessive AC:WW days, read a lot of it every so often, and now I see you are into Pokemon, so I am compelled to reply! If only I can figure out how to RSS it onto my LiveJournal, then I'll be golden.
Anyway. Things that I'm a bit mystified about:
- Sheer lack of Fire Pokemon. In Diamond, you have like, 23487924972 Water Pokemon and like, Monferno and/or Ponyta, and that's about it. Huh?
- The fire starter's type being Fire/Fighting. I can't even train my Monferno in the wild where I am anymore, because EVERYTHING kills it. Piplup eventually being Water/Steel kind of makes me sad.
- The 1-button select thing. I usually switch it back and forth between bicycle and map (since I am directionally challenged in this new world, as well as the real one. WTF?) They could've made the B button another select button and use L or R as a Run button a la AC:WW.
- I can't figure out how to use the Itemfinder. Gyahh.
- In your video, your Staravia could've easily taken down that Turtwig. :)
- Walmart being evil. A sad panda is me. :(
Being as silly and competitive as I am, my team is basically being trained to be a balanced, non-legendary team. I got my butt kicked on Wifi by my friend, who I bought the game for, but is a gym and a half ahead/10 levels ahead of me because he has had more time to play and all his roommates have the game and are at Pal Park. PvP Pokemon is a completely different beast, kind of like what 5-card draw is to Texas Hold 'Em. During a battle, if his leadoff would be Torterra and mine Monferno in a scaled Lv. 50 battle, he'd have to switch out, and obviously, to my advantage, I'd have to switch out to a Pokemon I'd think would beat out whatever mystery Pokemon he'd be choosing. If anything, that sort of play style is what motivates me to finish the game.
Right now, the permanents so far in my team are Lv. 33 Monferno, Lv. 33 Kadabra, Lv. 33 Gyarados, and a Lv. 37 Luxray. Gyarados, now knowing moves of Dragon, Ice, and Water types, manages pretty well. Kadabra is slow, but that's easily fixed when I get around to training it soon. Luxray, with Lightning and Dark type moves, is pretty golden so far, although I worry about it being flexible later. Monferno is a tough sell for me, and I kind of think I'll be trying to import an older fire starter (if I even want to keep a Fire Pokemon in my final team). I gave it some off-type moves for sheer PvP surprise, like Shadow Claw (Ghost) and Aerial Ace (Flying).
I have a Lv. 21 Marshstomp that hatched from an egg, but also a Lv. 1 Piplup I got through the GTS, which I might train as my water one instead since it's final water/steel type-age. Surprisingly, from an American game, not from a Japanese game (unless some Nihonjin have an obsession with the name "Frank"). I have a Lv. 28 Onix that's currently getting the crap beaten out of him at this point in the game (I'm at 6 badges), and I very badly want a metal coat to evolve it soon. I also caught a Shiny Geodude that'd make a great addition to my party after he evolved a little.
Okay, uhh, I'll shut up now. :)
I do have a Pearl Journal RSS setup: feed://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/pokemon_pearl_journal.xml
Haven't fire types been historically rather rare? My collection of Pokemon TCG cards certainly seems to agree. I think I have more Psychic-type cards than Fire-type!
The new Item Finder is cool. You just have to tap the screen and a radar blip shows which "square" has an item in it, if any are nearby.
And yeah, about the video. I'm actually a highly mediocre player, since I rarely think about matchup advantages unless they're obscenely obvious. Like, I'll field a Water-type against a Fire-type, or Flying-type against Bug-type, but anything else is a complete mystery. Especially when you start throwing the attacks' types into the mix!
I'm not exactly sure why fire types are rare. It boggles my mind. If you look at an attack strength/weakness chart, fire is super effective against the following types: Ice, Grass, Bug, and Steel. Ice in most games has been historically rare in both Pokemon and moves (most strong Ice moves don't appear until pretty late in the game, and are usually housed by Dragon Pokemon save Jynx/Lapras until this game, really), so it's kind of a non-issue. Bug types don't really last in anything past a mediocre level because most bug types have low HP and poor design with too many weaknesses (Heracross being an exception). Steel is sort of a rare type even after being around for three generations, and Grass is grassy, and easily defeatable by any half-decent strong Flying move. Most Torterra trainers I've run into unanimously agree that Torterra's best move by far is Earthquake, a super-strong GROUND type move (also easily countered by any levitating Pokemon. I usually choose Gyarados in that situation) What? That just kind of bizarre, which is why I don't think Fire should be any rarer than any other starting type.
Back when I was a mini-Juju playing with her Pokeymans during downtime in eighth grade Robotics Team meetings, I started with a Squirtle, so maybe that's what caused my anti-Fire bias. I was easily able to build a 6-'mon team to work around my lack of a fire type.
What blows my mind, really, is how they gave the D/P water starter Water and Steel, and the fire starter Fire and Fighting. That gives the fire starter auto-weaknesses against Flying, Psychic, and Bug, easily the ENTIRE middle section of the game. Those AI trainers pull out Kadabras and Golbats like nobody's business, I tell ya! And it's super annoying.
Matchup types will save yourself a lot of headache and potions and money that you'll need for the Elite Four. Just Google a type chart and look at it every so often. I just started learning the difference between Attack and Sp. Attack and the like, so I'm not as hardcore as I could be, either. :)
And the best tip for healing is once you reach Veilstone City, take the time to purchase Fresh Water (heals for 50HP, $200) and Lemonade (heals for 80HP, $350). Since you can't clone money like in the older generation games, every penny counts! MooMoo Milk heals for 100 and is in some shack before Veilstone. The vending machines on the 5th floor may be super-tedious to purchase one at a time, but its worth it when Super Potions are $700. And sometimes you get lucky, and like with real vending machines, it'll drop two!