More Pokemons
I find it a little odd to write so much about a series I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of. I guess I have no other outlet. Anyway I "beat the game" so I'll recap my team as it stands now. I'll also be kind and put in a break this time. Some slight spoilers as well.
Serperior - Not much new to say here. Normally late in the game I outfit my Pokemon with all attacks, but in Serperior's case I let it hold onto Coil, which turned out to be pretty useful in one event. But I can't help but feel a little disappointed it's just a basic grass type in the end, with more or less the same moves another grass starter would know at this point in the game. I think you should really feel attached to your starter. In the original Pokemon I never got rid of Charizard, and not so much because it was an awesome dragon but because it was my starter. It would not even occur to me to replace it (as much as I liked Magmar too). But even though I think Serperior looks pretty cool, I don't feel a great need to hold onto it. I'd rather try out something more interesting like a Ferrothorn.
Krookodile - More bread and butter. Outside of having an interesting type combination, this guy just hits hard and gets the job done. Though, again, the ground and dark dual typing does come with a lot of weaknesses. Not sure what a good replacement would be, Excadril maybe? Golurk is pretty neat too. The ground types overall just seem to have too many weaknesses though, which I guess is the trade off for being able to learn Earthquake.
Crustle - I was glad I could stick it out with this one. I'm not a huge fan of bugs but he was good support against a number of dark and psychic Pokemon because of their bizarre weakness to bug. Also, for some reason this Pokemon in particular was pretty adept at dodging attacks, which is funny considering its general size and shape. But it does suck that, being a part rock type, he's also weak to rock. There are actually a handful of dual type Pokemon that become weak to one of their types, I feel it's a little unprecedented. I may work on someone else, since there are a number of other interesting rock types. I also wish it'd learn something better than Rock Slide... gotta find that Stone Edge TM. I also kept this guy with Stealth Rock, which admittedly would be more useful in PvP battles.
Mienshao - A friend caught me a Mienfoo, so I decided to replace Sawk. And even though I can't say it performed any better, it sure did level the hell up fast being a traded Pokemon. I keep forgetting that's a thing. But it works well, and looks awesome. Because it has a higher SP attack than most fighting types there are some interesting things I'd like to try with it. I also need to make it learn U-turn, since I passed it the first time. It's a pretty off move for this Pokemon to know but it has some good uses in retrospect. I just wish it didn't have such crappy HP. Wonder if I just got a bad nature in that regard. I named it Xiu Mei, which to the best of my very limited knowledge of Chinese means "beautiful plum," but it probably really means disco giraffe or something.
Swana - I was considering replacing this with Tynamo, and raising that up to have some interesting attributes, but I really decided to hang onto Swana just for the sake of having Fly. Swana was also useful in breaking up some of the awful shared weaknesses my team had (although it contributed to my tremendous rock weakness), so that was helpful too. But otherwise, I don't think Swana is that great. I taught it scald because Bubble Beam was the last water type attack it'd ever learn! Sheesh. Might try raising that fossil turtle next. Oddly enough I have no Pokemon that can use Surf.
Chandelure - This is what I ended up replacing Victini with. Back when I was complaining about there not being any real interesting fire types, I forgot about this one. A friend also recommended it because it has crazy high SP attack. Unfortunately it's butt slow, which made it hard to set up things like using Will-o-Wisp, then hitting with Hex. I actually didn't want to evolve Lampent so soon, but I really hit a road block when I got to the Elite Four, so I hastily evolved it and taught it Shadow Ball. This did also help its speed, so I suppose it's for the better. I might outfit it with Energy Ball and see how that works, though if I keep Hex and Shadow Ball, it won't have any actual fire attacks.
Anyway, commenting on the last parts of the game, HOLY CRAP THE ELITE FOUR SUCK. I've only ever played the first and fourth generations besides this, but I don't ever remember the Elite Four being so damn evil. The ironic thing is they're actually "weaker" compared to other Elite Fours. But their Pokemon all know moves meant to counter any kind of common setup you might use. Like in the past, sure, there'd be some little twists, like the fighting guy having a Pokmeon that knows all the elemental punches. But the fighting guy in this game, he has four regular fighting type Pokemon that ALL know Stone Edge. I mean come ON. And the dark type guy had a Bisharp with a move set that countered my entire team. It was just ridiculous.
The other thing is, they lock you in until you either beat all four of them or lose. But I figured there'd at least be a center inside, since I'm pretty sure in Platinum they let you take breaks between fights and recharge. Since I didn't realize that right away I stupidly saved inside the arena. And the ghost type chick wasn't too hard to beat, so I guess that gave me a sense of false confidence. I somehow managed to power through them though, after numerous attempts. Dark guy wasn't too bad once I got rid of his Bisharp. Fighting guy was INSANE because of four of my team having a weakness to rock or fight. But I realized I could toss Serperior in at the start and spam Coil to boost its stats, and that saved me. And the psychic chick, for the time, I can't remember why I had such a hard time with her. I think just because all her Pokemon know Psychic which hits really hard. But after I evolved Lampert, I looked over what she had and worked out a good strategy. But damn, the last battle was a joke compared to these guys.
And speaking of the last battle, holy crap at what a joke Team Plasma is. Easily the least interesting enemy group of the whole series. Just a bunch of cultists in dumb outfits who never have anything amusing to say. And not only are they super boring, their ambition makes no sense. Abusing and battling with Pokemon to make people quit abusing and battling with Pokemon? I guess there's some kind of intentional irony in there, but it's never interesting. Actually I will admit, the one guy kicking the Munna was pretty funny.
The ending also is pretty lame. I don't know what's worse, the fact you end the game without beating the champion and getting to see your Pokemon enter the hall of fame, or the fact the game expects us to like N by the end. Everything about N screams douchebag. At no point did I ever care about his incessant waxing over the rights of Pokemon, and truths vs ideals, blah blah blah. Yeah I get that's why it's the theme. Black and White. Yin and yang. But really, who cares? It's a game about having fantasy pets that breathe fire and magic. And really, this game and the past one have dripped with a ridiculously thick syrup of how much we're supposed to sit in awe at the miracle of Pokemon. Yes, people love their pets a lot, and I would sooner jump in front of a car for my dogs than any of you. But in these games now, it's like if you don't have a Pokemon your life is HOLLOW AND MEANINGLESS. Because ONLY WITH HAVING POKEMON CAN YOU UNDERSTAND TRUE HAPPINESS AND A COMPLETE EXISTENCE. Which is kind of a BS thing to expect of the entire human race. Keeping Pokemon around can't be cheap. And that's without considering the food, medicine, training tools, toys and fashion accessories. A lot of Pokemon are literally too big to move around your house feasibly. What do you do when your Dewott becomes a Samurott and can't move through the halls and doorways anymore? Where the hell would you keep an Onyx? In its Pokeball all of the time? That doesn't seem too kind.
Still, pretty good game. I really missing the underground mining game from fourth gen tho.
Serperior - Not much new to say here. Normally late in the game I outfit my Pokemon with all attacks, but in Serperior's case I let it hold onto Coil, which turned out to be pretty useful in one event. But I can't help but feel a little disappointed it's just a basic grass type in the end, with more or less the same moves another grass starter would know at this point in the game. I think you should really feel attached to your starter. In the original Pokemon I never got rid of Charizard, and not so much because it was an awesome dragon but because it was my starter. It would not even occur to me to replace it (as much as I liked Magmar too). But even though I think Serperior looks pretty cool, I don't feel a great need to hold onto it. I'd rather try out something more interesting like a Ferrothorn.
Krookodile - More bread and butter. Outside of having an interesting type combination, this guy just hits hard and gets the job done. Though, again, the ground and dark dual typing does come with a lot of weaknesses. Not sure what a good replacement would be, Excadril maybe? Golurk is pretty neat too. The ground types overall just seem to have too many weaknesses though, which I guess is the trade off for being able to learn Earthquake.
Crustle - I was glad I could stick it out with this one. I'm not a huge fan of bugs but he was good support against a number of dark and psychic Pokemon because of their bizarre weakness to bug. Also, for some reason this Pokemon in particular was pretty adept at dodging attacks, which is funny considering its general size and shape. But it does suck that, being a part rock type, he's also weak to rock. There are actually a handful of dual type Pokemon that become weak to one of their types, I feel it's a little unprecedented. I may work on someone else, since there are a number of other interesting rock types. I also wish it'd learn something better than Rock Slide... gotta find that Stone Edge TM. I also kept this guy with Stealth Rock, which admittedly would be more useful in PvP battles.
Mienshao - A friend caught me a Mienfoo, so I decided to replace Sawk. And even though I can't say it performed any better, it sure did level the hell up fast being a traded Pokemon. I keep forgetting that's a thing. But it works well, and looks awesome. Because it has a higher SP attack than most fighting types there are some interesting things I'd like to try with it. I also need to make it learn U-turn, since I passed it the first time. It's a pretty off move for this Pokemon to know but it has some good uses in retrospect. I just wish it didn't have such crappy HP. Wonder if I just got a bad nature in that regard. I named it Xiu Mei, which to the best of my very limited knowledge of Chinese means "beautiful plum," but it probably really means disco giraffe or something.
Swana - I was considering replacing this with Tynamo, and raising that up to have some interesting attributes, but I really decided to hang onto Swana just for the sake of having Fly. Swana was also useful in breaking up some of the awful shared weaknesses my team had (although it contributed to my tremendous rock weakness), so that was helpful too. But otherwise, I don't think Swana is that great. I taught it scald because Bubble Beam was the last water type attack it'd ever learn! Sheesh. Might try raising that fossil turtle next. Oddly enough I have no Pokemon that can use Surf.
Chandelure - This is what I ended up replacing Victini with. Back when I was complaining about there not being any real interesting fire types, I forgot about this one. A friend also recommended it because it has crazy high SP attack. Unfortunately it's butt slow, which made it hard to set up things like using Will-o-Wisp, then hitting with Hex. I actually didn't want to evolve Lampent so soon, but I really hit a road block when I got to the Elite Four, so I hastily evolved it and taught it Shadow Ball. This did also help its speed, so I suppose it's for the better. I might outfit it with Energy Ball and see how that works, though if I keep Hex and Shadow Ball, it won't have any actual fire attacks.
Anyway, commenting on the last parts of the game, HOLY CRAP THE ELITE FOUR SUCK. I've only ever played the first and fourth generations besides this, but I don't ever remember the Elite Four being so damn evil. The ironic thing is they're actually "weaker" compared to other Elite Fours. But their Pokemon all know moves meant to counter any kind of common setup you might use. Like in the past, sure, there'd be some little twists, like the fighting guy having a Pokmeon that knows all the elemental punches. But the fighting guy in this game, he has four regular fighting type Pokemon that ALL know Stone Edge. I mean come ON. And the dark type guy had a Bisharp with a move set that countered my entire team. It was just ridiculous.
The other thing is, they lock you in until you either beat all four of them or lose. But I figured there'd at least be a center inside, since I'm pretty sure in Platinum they let you take breaks between fights and recharge. Since I didn't realize that right away I stupidly saved inside the arena. And the ghost type chick wasn't too hard to beat, so I guess that gave me a sense of false confidence. I somehow managed to power through them though, after numerous attempts. Dark guy wasn't too bad once I got rid of his Bisharp. Fighting guy was INSANE because of four of my team having a weakness to rock or fight. But I realized I could toss Serperior in at the start and spam Coil to boost its stats, and that saved me. And the psychic chick, for the time, I can't remember why I had such a hard time with her. I think just because all her Pokemon know Psychic which hits really hard. But after I evolved Lampert, I looked over what she had and worked out a good strategy. But damn, the last battle was a joke compared to these guys.
And speaking of the last battle, holy crap at what a joke Team Plasma is. Easily the least interesting enemy group of the whole series. Just a bunch of cultists in dumb outfits who never have anything amusing to say. And not only are they super boring, their ambition makes no sense. Abusing and battling with Pokemon to make people quit abusing and battling with Pokemon? I guess there's some kind of intentional irony in there, but it's never interesting. Actually I will admit, the one guy kicking the Munna was pretty funny.
The ending also is pretty lame. I don't know what's worse, the fact you end the game without beating the champion and getting to see your Pokemon enter the hall of fame, or the fact the game expects us to like N by the end. Everything about N screams douchebag. At no point did I ever care about his incessant waxing over the rights of Pokemon, and truths vs ideals, blah blah blah. Yeah I get that's why it's the theme. Black and White. Yin and yang. But really, who cares? It's a game about having fantasy pets that breathe fire and magic. And really, this game and the past one have dripped with a ridiculously thick syrup of how much we're supposed to sit in awe at the miracle of Pokemon. Yes, people love their pets a lot, and I would sooner jump in front of a car for my dogs than any of you. But in these games now, it's like if you don't have a Pokemon your life is HOLLOW AND MEANINGLESS. Because ONLY WITH HAVING POKEMON CAN YOU UNDERSTAND TRUE HAPPINESS AND A COMPLETE EXISTENCE. Which is kind of a BS thing to expect of the entire human race. Keeping Pokemon around can't be cheap. And that's without considering the food, medicine, training tools, toys and fashion accessories. A lot of Pokemon are literally too big to move around your house feasibly. What do you do when your Dewott becomes a Samurott and can't move through the halls and doorways anymore? Where the hell would you keep an Onyx? In its Pokeball all of the time? That doesn't seem too kind.
Still, pretty good game. I really missing the underground mining game from fourth gen tho.