Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

[AnotherPleb]

Seriously, why did they get rid of that?!
I love hearing it, and just feeling that rush of, "did I just hear that?" I'll even use the screen record feature on the switch to review if it was a real shiny ping, or just me mishearing. And if it's real, I like the search afterward!

They can never carry on something useful unless they can paywall it in a DLC.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

That brings me to maybe a good question for you all; which generation was the most social one for you?

By ‘99 Pokémania had already waned

From what I recall, Gen 1 pokemania was still going strong -- at least in Burgerland anyway -- and Gen 2 was on the horizon. I think Gen 2 was already on in Japan (worldwide release wasn't a thing yet). Speaking of, I have a Beckett magazine (from 1999 or 2000) with pics of the Gen 2 mon sprites. Names are awkwardly transliterated from katakana.

 

[Metallic Blood]

black and white are 15
black 2 and white 2 are 13

This one is what hits me the most, because while I played Gen 1-4 games (sometimes it was just my friends/cousins lending me their DS for a while). It was Gen 5 that truly "clicked" with me. BW2 just feels like it was released yesterday honestly.

Mega Evolutions and Ultra Beasts being a decade old wasn't something I was expecting too. I still remember the absolute hypetrain behind them and how wonderful it was being online for leaks and forum discussions. I also remember how me and my highschool friends made tons of fake mega evo ideas, because the whole concept of "mega evolution" was just that awesome for an impressionable young teenager. (And as you can tell, I never watched Digimon)

 

[ToroidalBoat]

BW2 just feels like it was released yesterday honestly.

Pretty much same here. Gen 6 still feels new, and Gen 5 feels sorta new. All the new 'mons games from 7 and on feel really new. And yet S & V are already almost 3 years old.

 

[Archeops]

In Pokémon TCG news the next special set has been confirmed to be a dual set themed around Black and White and many cards in the set will be throwbacks, partial reprints, or direct reprints to cards found in BLW-era sets. Oh, and all 156 Unovan Pokémon will have an Illustrator Rare or Secret Illustrator Rare.

In addition to the above Reshiram ex and Zekrom ex will get a special BWR rarity card that are throwbacks to the first Full Art rares that they got in Black & White base set. Victini is also getting a promo card that matches the above cards but it’s a promo.

What also interesting is that TPCi is giving our version of these sets the same dual-set treatment they’re getting in Japan, a first for international audiences.

 

[The Cum Beast]

This one is what hits me the most, because while I played Gen 1-4 games (sometimes it was just my friends/cousins lending me their DS for a while). It was Gen 5 that truly "clicked" with me. BW2 just feels like it was released yesterday honestly.

For me it's gen 6. I remember being shocked by mega evolution and the at the time new pokemon models. I remember waiting for ORAS to come out, same with sun and moon. The last games I was genuinely excited for were the ultra games, and despite me liking them at the time, those have aged terribly in my opinion, to the point I think USUM are the most overrated pokemon games.

What Gamefreak was able to do over the last decade:
*ULTRA CHANGES

I want to talk about the ultra games for a moment since I mentioned them above, and i haven't had and opportunity to do so. The reason I think they're so overrated is that, unlike for example, the switch games or something like diamond and pearl, which do get rightfully criticized all the time. Most of the "mainstream" pokemon fans praise them for some reason, despite their problems. I actually like the few changes they did implement like an extended pokedex and harder battles, but if you don't care too much about those aspects, the ultra games are pretty much identical to the base sun and moon.

I'm pretty sure you can get the SM outfits in the ultra games, and if you wear them, you literally couldn't tell the two sets of games apart.

The other changes are either things that no one seriously cares about like mantine surfing, the ultra wormhole minigame, and the myriad of straight lines they call new locations. And they straight up remove certain story elements like most of lillie's story, lusamine being turned into an anti-hero for some reason, and the post-game looker missions, no other "third version" removes content this way. Even if they didn't want to make a b2w2 style sequel, they could have added new locations, new regional forms, maybe even more megas, you know, things that would be worth buying this game for. If they could double the size of unova, a region based on a single city, they could have done this for a region based on an entire US state.

I also think they if they didn't want to change that much they could have leaned into the "alternative universe" theme the base sun and moon had and made usum take place in a completly different alola, maybe an alola with gyms, or had more characters with different personalities, similar to what they tried to do with lusamine.

And a lot of people like to pretend the ultra games don't have the same pitfalls as the switch games but in my opinion they do. A 2-3 hour long post game mission, linear gameplay with very little post game content and replayability, artificially increasing the playtime by adding in all possible legenderies (technically oras started this, but in oras at least the legenderies are in obscure locations like sea mawvile, or the one random cave on route 119, or through new features like mirage caves or souring). So the ultra games are pretty much about as long as base sun and moon. They simply just didn't add enough.

I unironically think Let's go pikachu and eevee, the games that came right after usum, are better games. Since lets go at least gives kanto a new look and feel, improved npc team, and added gym and elite 4 rematches and normalized them on the switch games.

Also the 10 minute long festival plaza tutorial is mandatory in the ultra games since you need visit the battle facility there for rainbow rocket, just why?!

Unlike SwSh, SV, or even something like XY or DP, the ultra games don't get the criticism they deserve, especially since these games were panned on release. I just searched up "pokemon usum bad" there's a single video talking about usum's problems, at least one that has more than 100k views, which is why i felt like talking about them here. Like i said, at the time i really enjoyed them, in fact there the only games I've ever had both version of, it's just I find them overrated for how little they added to sun and moon, and it's criminal they didn't make a b2w2 style sequel that continued the actually decently interesting story of sun and moon.

I know this is a very long post but I just really felt like talking about my issues with usum.

 

[The Ultimate Ramotith]

I recently found that, when you build the Polished Crystal hack, the build process now shows how much free space the ROM has remaining.
The amount of remaining space is under 2%.

On another hack, I found a website that has Version 2.5.11 of Shockslayer's Pokémon Crystal Clear. Though the website i sketchy, the ROM appears legitimate.

https://visualboyadvance.org/gba-roms/pokemon-crystal-clear/

I decided to just upload the ROM file itself here.
By the by, I have not yet dewoked this hack.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I want to talk about the ultra games for a moment since I mentioned them above, and i haven't had and opportunity to do so. The reason I think they're so overrated is that, unlike for example, the switch games or something like diamond and pearl, which do get rightfully criticized all the time. Most of the "mainstream" pokemon fans praise them for some reason, despite their problems. I actually like the few changes they did implement like an extended pokedex and harder battles, but if you don't care too much about those aspects, the ultra games are pretty much identical to the base sun and moon.

The best change for me is actually more Pokemon: New UBs, more Legendaries, easier way to catch new Pokemon and infinite UBs(unlike in SM), more Z-Crystals and infinite Beast Balls. I didn't actually notice the game being harder, both are piss easy by classic game standards.

I'm pretty sure you can get the SM outfits in the ultra games, and if you wear them, you literally couldn't tell the two sets of games apart.

There is a few brand new outfits and these happen to be flashier than the ones in SM. Most people I saw playing the game in Festival Plaza had those outfits, too.

the ultra wormhole minigame

Nope, that one is generally liked and it's a fantastic way to catch Pokemon: Legendaries, UBs, and most importantly shinies. If you're any sort of collector, this alone made the game worthwhile over the original.

And a lot of people like to pretend the ultra games don't have the same pitfalls as the switch games but in my opinion they do. A 2-3 hour long post game mission, linear gameplay with very little post game content and replayability, artificially increasing the playtime by adding in all possible legenderies (technically oras started this, but in oras at least the legenderies are in obscure locations like sea mawvile, or the one random cave on route 119, or through new features like mirage caves or souring). So the ultra games are pretty much about as long as base sun and moon. They simply just didn't add enough.

As you said, this is an ORAS problem, Gen 7 games simply continued it.

I unironically think Let's go pikachu and eevee, the games that came right after usum, are better games. Since lets go at least gives kanto a new look and feel, improved npc team, and added gym and elite 4 rematches and normalized them on the switch games.

Okay, hard disagree there. I'm not going to go over why these games suck in great detail, but at the very least, the Ultra games are proper mainline titles. Let's Go games are watered down version of Yellow for either literal toddlers(that includes baby wordplay like "splishy splash" or "baddy bad" on top of nonexistent difficulty, even worse than with Gen 7 3DS titles) or for GO babies that never played a proper mainline title before. I will be very generous and merely call it a tech demo for Sword and Shield, since that was technically Gamefreak's first Switch title, as this would easily be the worst title in franchise's history if it was a mainline game, even worse than SwSh and SV.

Unlike SwSh, SV, or even something like XY or DP, the ultra games don't get the criticism they deserve, especially since these games were panned on release. I just searched up "pokemon usum bad" there's a single video talking about usum's problems, at least one that has more than 100k views, which is why i felt like talking about them here. Like i said, at the time i really enjoyed them, in fact there the only games I've ever had both version of, it's just I find them overrated for how little they added to sun and moon, and it's criminal they didn't make a b2w2 style sequel that continued the actually decently interesting story of sun and moon.

Objectively speaking, the worst problems Gen 7 had were it's linear hallways, it's piss easy difficulty and constant cutscenes. The former 2 were a big problem in Gen 6 and the latter started in ORAS specifically(note the added "story" that isn't there in RSE that nobody asked for or goes anywhere and the entirety of Delta Episode). All Gen 7 games are doing are following a trend/norm at the time, and much of the game otherwise is solid. Considering how bland XY was and how many were disappointed with ORAS, maybe there is some rose tinted shades there, but I very much had fun with the Alola titles. They were the last time Gamefreak actually tried doing something new and different, even if it didn't hit all the right notes, and it was the last time the game and it's world had any soul to it. Gens 8 and 9 felt very tired out and half-assed, you can tell nobody wanted to work on these games and did the bare minimal they needed, hell maybe even less than that. Gen 7 games were someone's passion project, even if the games went thru developmental hell and came out a mess. You're right that this wasn't a B2W2 styled sequel, but then again it wasn't advertised as such and I don't know anyone that thought it would be. Maybe they should have scrapped both Ultras and Let's Go and just made Sun/Moon 2, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

things that no one seriously cares about like mantine surfing

Gotta be real... USUM was so bland, I found Mantine Surfing to be more fun than the actual game.

 

[Computer God Autism]

I want to talk about the ultra games for a moment since I mentioned them above, and i haven't had and opportunity to do so. The reason I think they're so overrated is that, unlike for example, the switch games or something like diamond and pearl, which do get rightfully criticized all the time. Most of the "mainstream" pokemon fans praise them for some reason, despite their problems.

I think there are a few reasons they never received anywhere near the amount of criticism they deserve:

They were the last mainline games before Dexit; most of the scrutiny from that fell on XY for getting the ball rolling on feature loss and being the most obvious point of reference with the models defense, while USUM got to be seen as a heartfelt sendoff for old Pokemon that tried to expand the Pokedex. XY were already fairly criticized since they had a very obvious comparison with BW2 and older Gen 3/4 fans weren't happy with the way the series was going, so it was an easier target to boot.

The 'they just make the same game again' crowd is ironically easier to please than the people who did want the same game again. People who expected the games to get progressively better through iteration on the same formula actually have standards they expect out of Gamefreak (and with ORAS proving that XY wasn't an outlier that was out the window), but the former will clap like trained seals if you show off some gimmicks and dangle some Kanto nostalgia in front of them.

The Alola games tried to make the player care about the story through parasocial interactions and very forced memes. I personally didn't care for Alola's cast, but if you compare the amount of people who talk about it to Kalos' cast, it's obvious it worked. Since SM were very forgettable games and their story was just a zero calorie rehashing of elements from BW, most consider USUM better by default for adding what little it did and just carry over their investment from the better writing in SM.

Competitive autists don't really care as long as they can transfer their mons and use a Battle Tower analogue.

Alola has multiple things that explicitly catered to troons in the mid/late-10s.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Gotta be real... USUM was so bland, I found Mantine Surfing to be more fun than the actual game.

In general, there were some fun minigames. The Festival Plaza games were also fun, altho the economy there is completely scuffed. I have no clue how you're legit supposed to get the top tier facilities there normally, I only got everything I wanted thanks to a shitload of coins from community events and even then I didn't get all the top tier stuff thanks to RNG.

They were the last mainline games before Dexit; most of the scrutiny from that fell on XY for getting the ball rolling on feature loss and being the most obvious point of reference with the models defense, while USUM got to be seen as a heartfelt sendoff for old Pokemon that tried to expand the Pokedex. XY were already fairly criticized since they had a very obvious comparison with BW2 and older Gen 3/4 fans weren't happy with the way the series was going, so it was an easier target to boot.

Bingo, the game now also gets a bonus retroactively for being the last "proper" title, therefore the most complete. You can't deny that.

The Alola games tried to make the player care about the story through parasocial interactions and very forced memes. I personally didn't care for Alola's cast, but if you compare the amount of people who talk about it to Kalos' cast, it's obvious it worked. Since SM were very forgettable games and their story was just a zero calorie rehashing of elements from BW, most consider USUM better by default for adding what little it did and just carry over their investment from the better writing in SM.

It's not about the story as much as it is the world and characters they build up. I honestly barely remember anyone from Gens 6 or 4, where as pretty much every single major character from SM is in some way significant or interesting. It's clear they had a vision for this region, vs "paris with pokemon but with a shitload of niggers too, also some war we're barely going to elaborate on" with XY. That fake aliens leak was unironically more interesting. The way the game handled it's progression is also interesting, I think it came the closest to recreating that feeling of being a kid on an adventure and conquering the strongest trainers in the land best since the original titles, with the island challenge angle being similar enough to the league challenge format of older games but just different enough to be a breath of fresh air. It helped that Team Skull were also just regular goons and not some souped up super villains like in the other games, made the game feel more grounded. Team Yell and the Galar soccer-like sports format of their gym challenge I also liked in Sword/Shield and probably the only aspects of the game I genuinely think are good, both taken directly or inspired from SM.

Alola has multiple things that explicitly catered to troons in the mid/late-10s.

Less to troons and more to gooners and waifu fags. Lillie pandering is the most obvious case.

 

[Abella]

They’ve gone all in on pandering to waifufags with SIRs because making them lottery cards takes in a lot more money than just the special rare Pokemon cards.

 

[Computer God Autism]

It's not about the story as much as it is the world and characters they build up. I honestly barely remember anyone from Gens 6 or 4, where as pretty much every single major character from SM is in some way significant or interesting.

World and characters are the story in a Pokemon game. The only mainline Pokemon games that have an actual story in the traditional sense of an RPG are BW, and arguably Kanto if you want to view Gary as the main antagonist. But that wasn't my point; my point was that doubling down on the characters paid off for Alola. I don't really like them but I can still remember which unfunny meme was spouted by which character.

conquering the strongest trainers in the land best since the original titles

SM literally had you skip Mina's trial because it had given up by that point, I'd take Platinum where the Gym Leaders and League actually do stuff any day.

made the game feel more grounded

These are the same games that definitively introduced alien civilizations and travelling to different dimensions and alternate realities through wormholes to mainline Pokemon.

Team Yell and the Galar soccer-like sports format of their gym challenge I also liked in Sword/Shield and probably the only aspects of the game I genuinely think are good, both taken directly or inspired from SM.

Team Yell and Team Skull are Snagem rejects, and just like Snagem are patsies for the actual antagonist. Here's a hot take; I want my villainous organizations in a setting with animal-youkai capable of channeling the elements and even altering the fabric of reality to have a bit more ambition than being antisocial, totally-just-misunderstood hooligans.Less to troons and more to gooners and waifu fags. Lillie pandering is the most obvious case.

Less to troons and more to gooners and waifu fags. Lillie pandering is the most obvious case.

Primarina and Ilima are blatant troon-bait, if I had to choose between them or Lillie and Lusamine waifufags I'd take the latter.

 

[30+GameOvers]

SM literally had you skip Mina's trial because it had given up by that point, I'd take Platinum where the Gym Leaders and League actually do stuff any day.

Pretty sure that was just cut content at play here, I remember they did do something with her in Ultras. If not, at least it's in her character, being lazy and easy going and all that. The game also didn't have a traditional Victory Road compared to other games, the canyon on that island is the closest thing to it. The actual "Victory Road" is a hallway, a bit more so than that in Ultra but a literal hallway in the original titles. I will take Vast Poni Canyon over yet another trial, if a choice comes down to that.
BTW I do enjoy the gym challenge format too, and would have preferred if you got to battle the island gym leaders as well. I just said that I like how the new island challenge format works, and changes things up just enough to work. I've made it clear that SM is an unfinished mess.

These are the same games that definitively introduced alien civilizations and travelling to different dimensions and alternate realities through wormholes to mainline Pokemon.

True, doesn't change much. RBY also had MewTwo, for example, and glitch Pokemon like Missingno if you want to count them, along with other fantastical elements. Plus, UBs were always more like SCPs to me rather than aliens, it was Ultras that introduced the alien angle more with the Ultra Space Squad or whatever they were called. Either way, both feel more grounded than the games where you have to save the world from some villain of the week group, I guess GSC was also pretty grounded in that regard.

Team Yell and Team Skull are Snagem rejects, and just like Snagem are patsies for the actual antagonist. Here's a hot take; I want my villainous organizations in a setting with animal-youkai capable of channeling the elements and even altering the fabric of reality to have a bit more ambition than being antisocial, totally-just-misunderstood hooligans.

That's fine, I'm just stating my opinion. Villain groups were never anything special in these games and they don't amount to much, so I might as well just have them be regular goons since they are all they will ever be. Team Skull plays this trope straight, as nobody takes them seriously in the game and neither should they. I can never buy that Team Rocket are this scary group nobody is willing to stand against, when they're one step removed from being a mustache twirling cartoon character with dogshit Pokemon to boot(why didn't some half-decent trainer wipe out their HQ before you? They have literally no answer to a Ghost types before FRLG, one could wreck every single one of them minus Giovanni himself). Same goes for Magma/Aqua/Galactic/Plasma ect. who are just doofuses, nothing is done with them and their plans are retarded. I would agree with you if Gamefreak knew how to write proper villains or stories, but they can't, so simple characters and simple stories are their best. You're right in that the GC titles knew how to properly raise the stakes and give us a villainous group that was actually threatening, but we haven't seen anything like that in the mainline games. Even at their best, the writing is too stupid to take seriously and filled with plotholes, which I am not even getting into since these are games for kids and it doesn't matter. Again, why simple stories and villain groups are best in my opinion.

 

[Metallic Blood]

While we're talking about SM, can I just say that Gen 7 has overall my favorite Pokemon designs of all time? Not sure if that's a popular opinion or not, but I never hear anyone praising any of the pokemon besides Mimikyu (which to be fair, it's a solid gold design).

I even love the silly ones like Dhelmise and the ugly ones like Bruxish. The only stinker of the entire cast is Zeraora, which just looks like a Digimon reject to me.

Less to troons and more to gooners and waifu fags. Lillie pandering is the most obvious case.

It all went downhill when they made that one "dating sim" sidequest in BW2

Which I'm actually surprised they never brought anything like it back. I found it kinda cute, even though I accidentally skipped it and beat the main game... twice.

 

[30+GameOvers]

While we're talking about SM, can I just say that Gen 7 has overall my favorite Pokemon designs of all time? Not sure if that's a popular opinion or not, but I never hear anyone praising any of the pokemon besides Mimikyu (which to be fair, it's a solid gold design).

I even love the silly ones like Dhelmise and the ugly ones like Bruxish. The only stinker of the entire cast is Zeraora, which just looks like a Digimon reject to me.

You can usually tell at a glance which generation a Pokemon came from. The designs fell off and they became very generic starting with Gen 5 and especially in 6. If you didn't play these games, you wouldn't know where they came from or if it's even a real Pokemon. Gen 7 was the one that brought back unified, interesting designs and, in my opinion, made each area where you find a new Pokemon a highlight when you encounter them. Brought back a little of that excitement from Gen 1 or 2 when you got something new when you entered a new area. Regional variants didn't hurt either.
Gen 8 and 9 are just absolute dogshit, there is only 3 new designs from those eras I like: The new regional Zigzagoon line, Falinks and Houndstone. Everything else is a worse clone of something from the past or looks godawful. Meanwhile, pretty every single Pokemon from Gen 7 either spiced up it's encounter area or is genuinely a useful Pokemon for one reason or another. The Legenderies were also consistently good, every single Tapu is fantastic and each has their own use, where as all the box Legendaries + Necrozma are not only busted but look cool too. Gen 8 onwards has garbage Legendaries and like half of them are locked behind DLC at this point. Gen 6 had this problem too, altho with half of them being mythicals pretty much nobody would have unless they played that gen religiously. Zygarde was also a big disappointment, to the point where it got it's unique forms in Gen 7 and it's actual lore in the fucking anime, not the games.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

The idea that USUM is overrated seems weird to me. When I think the reception to it I mostly just think of /vp/ meming ULTRA CHANGES a bunch and being generally disappointed with it. It's also a pretty common complaint that the story is worse than base SM. It does have some improvement over SM with the available Pokemon and slightly harder trainers iirc, but I don't see people really talking about it as one of the better games that they replay often like Emerald, Platinum, HGSS, or B2W2.

I think it came the closest to recreating that feeling of being a kid on an adventure and conquering the strongest trainers in the land best since the original titles,

I like Sun/Moon and will defend it to a point, but this is actually something I don't think it did well. The whole way the island challenge is set up including having a bunch of guides acting like chaperones makes things feel kind patronizing, like you're a kid on a field trip rather than on an adventure. You needing put on safety gear when riding Pokemon adds to that feeling too, like Game Freak was worried kids where going to ride their horses without a helmet if the game didn't show proper safety.

I have a similar problem with XY too. The general way that game presents itself alongside how your friends act dragging you around to look at the sights makes it feel more like you're a tourist on vacation than someone going on an adventure.

While we're talking about SM, can I just say that Gen 7 has overall my favorite Pokemon designs of all time? Not sure if that's a popular opinion or not, but I never hear anyone praising any of the pokemon besides Mimikyu (which to be fair, it's a solid gold design).

I even love the silly ones like Dhelmise and the ugly ones like Bruxish. The only stinker of the entire cast is Zeraora, which just looks like a Digimon reject to me.

I like most of them. Even if the overall quality started going down with Gen 6, I feel like Pokemon designs only took a dive with Gen 8.
Zeraora seems like another blatant attempt to recreate Lucario's success, like Zoroark. But it's by far the lamest of the furbait group. I guess they half succeeded, since it doesn't seem very popular with most popular, but it's very popular with furries who want to fuck it.

Primarina and Ilima are blatant troon-bait

Imagine looking at a mermaid and immediately thinking of trannies lmao

 

[30+GameOvers]

I like Sun/Moon and will defend it to a point, but this is actually something I don't think it did well. The whole way the island challenge is set up including having a bunch of guides acting like chaperones makes things feel kind patronizing, like you're a kid on a field trip rather than on an adventure. You needing put on safety gear when riding Pokemon adds to that feeling too, like Game Freak was worried kids where going to ride their horses without a helmet if the game didn't show proper safety.

It does feel like a theme park ride, especially with the hallway design of the routes. Still, the idea is solid, but the execution is a bit off.

Zeraora seems like another blatant attempt to recreate Lucario's success, like Zoroark. But it's by far the lamest of the furbait group. I guess they half succeeded, since it doesn't seem very popular with most popular, but it's very popular with furries who want to fuck it.

I will never understand why they released that one at the ass end of Gen 7 when nobody was going to use it, instead of hinting at it and getting people hyped up for it to be in Gen 8. I have literally never used mine.

The idea that USUM is overrated seems weird to me. When I think the reception to it I mostly just think of /vp/ meming ULTRA CHANGES a bunch and being generally disappointed with it. It's also a pretty common complaint that the story is worse than base SM. It does have some improvement over SM with the available Pokemon and slightly harder trainers iirc, but I don't see people really talking about it as one of the better games that they replay often like Emerald, Platinum, HGSS, or B2W2.

It is mostly just /vp/ memeing, most people I know loved it.

 

[Metallic Blood]

Imagine looking at a mermaid and immediately thinking of trannies lmao

>87,5% male

And I mean, most Popplio fans that I met were usually flamboyant or part of the alphabet soup in some way, so idk, I can see it.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

playing card: color, rank, suit

pocketmon card: name, evolution, HP, type, retreat cost, weakness, resistance...

newer Yu-Gi-Oh card: tl;dr