Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl | NSW | Nov 19th 2021

Been doing quite a bit of digging in the underground too, not come across one Shiny or Dusk stone yet, nevermind a Fossil If I’m going for a complete Sinnoh dex I can just trade in and out (alongside a Ditto for breeding of course) I’m going to need 2 of each fossil in my saves on Pearl and Diamond. Hope they don’t drag their feet too much with implementing Home integration.

Piplup is so cute

Exp Share is a broken feature

Piplup

I really like all of the Sinnoh starters though, this was the last generation where I’d actually struggle to pick an outright personal favourite, most days Piplup would edge it but I really enjoy using Turtwig and Chimchar (best fire/fighting combo starter too) as well.

Going to be doing gym 6 when I next get in this and then going to Iron Island to get my Riolu egg. Actually considering using Palkia as my late game dragon type for a change as well, failing that I’d have Garchomp and Palkia which seems a little over the top

Piplup

Turtwig

Chimchar

Turtwig is the only one with a good final evolution though

Gen IV has a lot of designs which are spoiled by being too "lumpy". Torterra is a great concept with awful execution. It's way overdesigned - it doesn't need the spikes or the segmentation. It should just be a big tortoise with a huge tree growing on its shell.

I don't particularly like Empoleon but I think it's the best looking final evolution of the three. I agree the Chimchar line is just awful.

Edd wrote:Feels like there's something weird with the controls in this game but I don't know if it's the game, the tiny joycon stick or just me. I'm constantly bumping into nothing or struggling to get into gaps which are only one tile wide. Not a massive issue but still annoying in caves and such when every step trying to get past a rock is a chance of a wild encounter. I guess it's a result of this hybrid between the 360 movement from the recent games to the 4-way directional movement from the originals.

I'd probably use the D-pad if you could use the running shoes with it. Or did I miss that instruction as well?

There's definitely something seriously messed up with how they've implemented this, as partial movement with the 360 controls to avoid moving a full tile seems to be a big source of the various glitches and out-of-bounds exploits that are everywhere in BDSP. The main example I can think of is being able to softlock your game in Snowpoint Gym by not moving the full tiles you're meant to which messes with the ice momentum and leaves you stuck in places you shouldn't be able to get to.

Speaking of exploits, speedrunners are having a whale of a time with them:

twitter.com/GhostsSoup/status/1464044404122001412

site23 wrote:Gen IV has a lot of designs which are spoiled by being too "lumpy". Torterra is a great concept with awful execution. It's way overdesigned - it doesn't need the spikes or the segmentation. It should just be a big tortoise with a huge tree growing on its shell.

Probably fair but

+ great concept
+ very cool in Detective Pikachu
+ very cute in New Pokemon Snap

No!!!!! Stop being enthusiastic about a Pokemon I don't like!!!!!

Stop getting Pokémon wrong!

Honestly though I can’t talk from the sounds of it, as I really think Infernape is a better fire/fighting starter than Blaziken and Emboar (I think this might be common opinion though?).

Hexx wrote:Piplup is so cute

Exp Share is a broken feature

That's the thing - it's not broken.

Every JRPG under the sun gives EXP to all your party in a battle. It eliminates the slow, tedium of swapping your first Pokémon in and out of battle to get EXP. It makes levelling up weaker monsters much less painful.

The problem is, they just need to adjust the difficulty to account for EXP share. Give trainers higher levels, more varied teams and more Pokémon. A lot of the trainers in the game don't really need more than one type to wipe them.

I agree about the Gen 4 designs being lump and overdesigned. I always felt that way. It doesn't help that they added loads of evolutions to existing monsters, which generally means you have to add something or make it bigger.

The recent games have much strong designers for the newer ones I reckon. I always felt Gen 3 and 4 were the weakest for the new Pokémon, whereas with Sword and Shield, I like how they are tie in to Galar/the UK. There's usually an interesting reason behind most of the Galar Pokémon.

Also, I always pick the water starter anyway, but Piplup is clearly the best starter here. Mudkip is the only one where I had to nope out and go for Treeko, and I still feel guilty about that.

Every Tweet Ever wrote:No!!!!! Stop being enthusiastic about a {add concept as relevant} I don't like!!!!!

Robbo-92 wrote:Been doing quite a bit of digging in the underground too, not come across one Shiny or Dusk stone yet, nevermind a Fossil If I’m going for a complete Sinnoh dex I can just trade in and out (alongside a Ditto for breeding of course) I’m going to need 2 of each fossil in my saves on Pearl and Diamond. Hope they don’t drag their feet too much with implementing Home integration.

youll find dusk stones just lying around in certain chambers

site23 wrote:No!!!!! Stop being enthusiastic about a Pokemon I don't like!!!!!

Sorry!

Robbo-92 wrote:Stop getting Pokémon wrong!

Honestly though I can’t talk from the sounds of it, as I really think Infernape is a better fire/fighting starter than Blaziken and Emboar (I think this might be common opinion though?).

"Better than Blaziken" is a very low bar tbf

shy guy 64 wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:Been doing quite a bit of digging in the underground too, not come across one Shiny or Dusk stone yet, nevermind a Fossil If I’m going for a complete Sinnoh dex I can just trade in and out (alongside a Ditto for breeding of course) I’m going to need 2 of each fossil in my saves on Pearl and Diamond. Hope they don’t drag their feet too much with implementing Home integration.

youll find dusk stones just lying around in certain chambers

Do the items in chambers refresh each time you go back down into the underground? I’ve not really revisited any of the chambers so not sure.

OrangeRKN wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:Stop getting Pokémon wrong!

Honestly though I can’t talk from the sounds of it, as I really think Infernape is a better fire/fighting starter than Blaziken and Emboar (I think this might be common opinion though?).

"Better than Blaziken" is a very low bar tbf

Well I suppose

Robbo-92 wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:Been doing quite a bit of digging in the underground too, not come across one Shiny or Dusk stone yet, nevermind a Fossil If I’m going for a complete Sinnoh dex I can just trade in and out (alongside a Ditto for breeding of course) I’m going to need 2 of each fossil in my saves on Pearl and Diamond. Hope they don’t drag their feet too much with implementing Home integration.

youll find dusk stones just lying around in certain chambers

Do the items in chambers refresh each time you go back down into the underground? I’ve not really revisited any of the chambers so not sure.

I’m not sure I haven’t revisited any either

To actually add something relevant to a debate (for once):

I have a tinge of Old Person Jealousy witnessing you all play through and enjoy these games, though I'm not sure that translates to actually wanting to pick them up for myself.

Personally, Generation IV was somewhat formative. I had played every previous generation loads, and loved them, but (bar two or three notable exceptions) they had been the only handheld games that I had thought were worth spending time playing over "big screen" games. As a Nintendo kid, and given the backwards compatibility, each Game Boy upgrade resulted in me trading in the old console (so I could use store credit to get more games, obvs!) but I had also (for reasons I cannot now explain) traded in previous Pokemon games within the same generation when updated counterparts came along. So I traded in Blue once I'd moved onto Yellow; likewise Silver and Crystal, and later Ruby. Prior to Gen IV I'm not sure I owned two handheld Pokemon games simultaneously (which is completely mad now that I think about it, especially considering the hours I poured into Crystal in particular).

I was older when I got a DS, and a bit more reflective, though I initially played Diamond and was underwhelmed (and distracted by university) so traded that in also. It was only after I graduated and found myself with disposable time and income that I again dipped my toe into the Pokemon world. (I think by this time I was a confident enough human being to not feel the need to be "hidden" about my choice to play a game I'd been mocked in playgrounds about previously for being too childish.) I ended up with copies of Blue (played via GC), Emerald and Platinum, and coupled with a broadband connection to access Bulbapedia (which had previously been unthinkable and unavailable, and so I'd relied on now-mythical guides, as previously infamously alluded to elsewhere on GR) I built formidable teams with balanced movesets. Hours went into the games again.

Life went on, and I simply... didn't buy Black or White. No overt reason. I skipped the 3DS (and Wii U) entirely. I spent much less time playing games, and rarely bought new or current games (something that only changed with my getting a Switch, several years into its lifespan). But I retained a pretty good understanding of Generation IV - but it was my Generation IV. Platinum (and later HeartGold) were the pinnacle, but it didn't work without Pokemon transferred from Emerald too. Torterra and Togekiss were exceptional but the team wasn't complete without Milotic or Blaziken or Metagross.

I think that's why I'm not so bothered about these remakes. For one, they're not Platinum - just Diamond and Pearl. And I've already thought "meh" about Diamond in the past. With no Platinum content, and (for me) no influx of Gen III 'mon, I think Gen IV's weaknesses are more starkly revealed. I scrolled through the Pokedex online to see what possible teams I might wish to build on BD/SP... and nothing new stood out to me. I'd probably start Torterra again, but that's a bit... samey. And with Togekiss now a Fairy type, I struggled to build a six. The magic of this being my first "pro" Pokemon experience isn't the same. Sword brought me back to the franchise in a huge way. For others there were only a hundred or so new Pokemon; for me there were four Generations' worth, as well as massive gameplay improvements and balance changes. I've created five more viable teams of six Pokemon since beating the main quest with my first. I'm working on the seventh and eighth. I've read up on shiny hunting and mono type runs. I don't even play competitively or own the DLC but I'm at 130+ hours and counting. BDSP, since its announcement, just looks like... a step backwards.

And yet...

It's still Pokemon, isn't it? And now I'm back in the club, seeing everyone else play through these 'new' adventures is giving me smiling FOMO. I'm happy everyone's happy, but I can't yet tell if I want to join in, or am content to observe from afar, while continuing to dabble through Sword.

If you don’t want to join us, then I reckon you’d love the DLC for Sword and Shield if you’ve already put over 130 hours into it, well worth it in my opinion.

Buy it physically and if you don't like it, Pokémon games retain their value until the heat death of the universe anyway so just trade it in.

Just made it through Iron Island, got a Shiny Stone so now have a Roserade! Also got a Riolu who will be staying on my team for now. Now I’ve got to visit one of the lakes.

There's not many Fire Pokemon in this are there?
Got to second gym and now hunting down a fire - just seems to be Ponyta? (Eurgh)