#Let’s Go is the only way I get to experience Gen 1 as a game because Gen 3 was before my time

[quibbs126]

Something I was thinking about, we want Gen 5 remakes, sure, but like, after that…do the games after really need to be remade? Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Gen 6 onwards are a bit too modern to really need a remake

[somneasims]

"EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER" Legacy Challenge

Welcome to the Emotional Rollercoaster Legacy Challenge! This is a 10-generation challenge based around a handful of emotions your sims can experience in-game! This challenge is inspired by the Not So Berry Challenge created by @lilsimsie and @alwaysimming, but I tried to make each generation a new unique challenge! 

Basic Rules:

You may play on whichever lifespan you’d like! The shorter the lifespan, the harder the challenge, but it’s totally up to you!

The heirs do not necessarily need to match the color of their generation (hair, makeup, clothes, etc) but it can definitely be fun to add that touch if you so desire!

The heir can be any gender, any birth order, and can be biological or adopted, unless specified by the generation rules

Money cheats may be used at your discretion (you want it to be fun for you!) however I recommend not using money cheats for gen 1 as it will cheat your aspiration.

Mods are allowed (again, it’s all about being fun for YOU!)

You may live wherever you’d like unless otherwise specified in the generations rules

You must complete both the aspiration and career of the heir unless stated otherwise, you must also complete all the tasks listed for each generation

(If you don’t own all the packs required for the challenge, feel free to change up the requirements to fit the packs you DO have)

If you give this challenge a try and want to share, tag your posts with #erclegacy, and be sure to tag me on Instagram and/or Twitter/X (@/somneasims)! I’d love to see your progress!

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Generation One: Angry

You've got big goals. You've always dreamed of making a name for yourself in the corporate world, and you're not afraid to step on anyone who tries to get in your way. There's no time for relationships or a family, not that you like kids anyway. Everyone else just gets in the way. Too bad you're incredibly fertile and not the greatest at birth control. You're prone to casual hookups that often lead to undesired consequences. But that's just a minor bump in the road! Let's be honest, you're not going to let a few accidental offspring stand in the way of your success.

Traits: Hates Children, Hot Headed, Ambitious Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy Career: Business

Rules:

Have a child with at least 3 different sims

Reach the top of the business career and complete the Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration

Max the logic and charisma skills 

Hire a butler to care for the children (have little to no relationship with your kids)

Never get married 

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Generation Two: Focused

All you've ever wanted in life is approval from your parent(s). Success in life seems to be important to them, so from a young age, that's been your main focus. You throw yourself into school, determined to get the highest grades. You don't go out with friends on the weekends, in fact, you don’t really have any friends to hang out with even if you wanted to. The only real friends you have are your siblings and your servo. You graduate top of your class (duh!) and go on to get a Law degree in post secondary, but even being a lawyer isn't enough to earn the love you so desperately want from your parent(s). Eventually you come to accept that you’ll never gain your parents approval, and learn to find love in different places. You vow to never let your own children feel the same way you did.

Traits: Perfectionist, Genius, Overachiever Aspiration: Academic Career: Law

Rules:

Be your highschool valedictorian

Max the logic, research & debate, and robotics skills

Build a Servo to join your family and have max relationship with them

Have no close relationships growing up, other than your siblings and servo

Complete a university degree (distinguished preferred) 

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Generation Three: Happy

If there’s one thing in life that makes you happy, it’s your family. You’re literally obsessed with them (and why wouldn’t you be? They’re absolutely perfect!) You support your children in everything they do. You never miss a soccer game or ballet recital, you’re always the first to volunteer for fundraisers and bake sales, and you’re the go-to parent when your kids need help with their homework. From their first steps, to their high school graduation, you’re determined to document your children's every important milestone so that everyone else can see how perfect they are. There’s nothing more important to you than your family, and as long as they’re happy, you’re happy.

Traits: Cheerful, Good, Family-Oriented Aspiration: Big Happy Family Career: Education

Rules:

Max the parenting, photography, and baking skills

Marry a sim who already has at least 1 child

Have triplets (you may use cheats for this) (You may also have more children if you so desire)

Volunteer with your family every saturday

Collect photos of your children at all their life stages and important events, and display these in your home

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Generation Four: Confident

The world revolves around you, and anyone who doesn't see that is wrong. From the moment you could form a thought in your head, you knew you were meant to be a star. The spotlight has always loved you just as much as you've loved it. You strongly believe that any publicity is good publicity, as long as your name is in the headline. Everything you do is for fame, including your marriage to another celebrity superstar. Too bad they're not at all your type, but who cares, it's all for show, right? As long as the public loves you and they don't find out about your secret love affair, nothing could go wrong!

Traits: Self-Assured, Self-Absorbed, Cringe Aspiration: World-Famous Celebrity Career: Actor

Rules:

Max the acting, dancing, singing and Charisma skills. Reach level 8 in at least 1 instrument skill

Reach Celebrity Level 5 (Global Superstar)

Marry another famous sim (for the publicity) but get caught cheating with your real lover

Have only 1 child

Win a Starlight Accolade

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Generation Five: Embarrassed

You've always hated being the center of attention. Growing up, your whole life was documented in the media, thanks to your celebrity parents. You've had your every move scrutinized by the public, every personal and embarrassing moment shared online for the world to see. It's no wonder you now avoid any form of media that might have something to say about you. When you finally come of age, you choose to disappear from the public eye. You move into a tiny home in the middle of nowhere and vow that you'll never subject your children to the dangers of modern media. You earn your money only by selling whatever you can grow, harvest, or make on your farm, and enjoy spending much of your time outdoors. Who needs all that technology anyways? You're completely self-sufficient off-the-grid.

Traits: Loves the Outdoors, Socially Awkward, Unflirty Aspiration: Country Caretaker Career: Self-Employed

Rules:

Must live in an "off the grid" tiny home (can be tier 1, 2 or 3) from young adulthood on

Max the Gardening, Fabrication, Herbalism, and flower arranging skills

Have 10 Children 

Adopt at least 1 llama, cow, goat or sheep

Have no electronics in your home (other than your cell phone since we can't seem to get rid of that) - no TV’s, no radios, no computers etc. 

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Generation Six: Flirty

As one of 10 kids, you've always felt like a little bit of an afterthought in your home. With so many siblings, it's hard to get a word in at the best of times. Nobody really notices when you skip your garden chores in favor of a good romance novel. You just really love love, and you can’t help but dream of your own fairytale ending. When you aren’t reading (or daydreaming), you enjoy cooking for your friends and family. As a young adult, you turn your passion for cooking into a career and open your own restaurant. But just when it seems like you might be close to achieving your fairytale life, a failed engagement leaves you questioning everything you’ve ever known about love. Maybe you’ve wasted all this time searching for your perfect match, when your true happy ending was right in front of you all along.

Traits: Romantic, Foodie, Bookworm Aspiration: Soulmate Career: Culinary

Rules:

Max the cooking, gourmet cooking, and mixology skills

Own a 5 star restaurant 

Have a failed engagement

Marry your childhood best friend

Adopt at least one child

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Generation Seven: Energized

Your whole life, you've been a ball of energy. Sitting still is just simply not an option for you. From the sports field to the ski slopes, you're always on the go. Adventure calls your name around every corner. Some might even call you a bit of a daredevil. There's very little that you fear, which honestly proves to be quite handy in your career field (but shhh, that's a secret). Few people can keep up with your spunk, but those who do hold a special place in your heart. You've got goals as high as the tallest mountain, and nothing is going to stop you from reaching your peak.

Traits: Active, Adventurous, Bro Aspiration: Extreme Sports Enthusiast Career: Secret Agent

Rules:

Join the football or cheerleading team in high school and reach the max level (if you have HSY)

When you become a young adult, move to Mt. Komorebi (to be close to the slopes)

Max the fitness and rock climbing skills

Max at least one of either the Skiing or Snowboarding skills (or both if you want)

Reach the peak of Mt. Komorebi

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Generation Eight: Sad

You're nothing like your parents. Where they're energetic and optimistic, you're tired and gloomy. You can’t quite figure out how others can be so happy while you’re so sad. As you grow up, the things you used to enjoy no longer hold your interest, and you realize that you don’t have much in common with your childhood friends. You try to find new interests and goals, and take a crack at going to university, but still, nothing feels right. The same goes for your romantic relationships, that just never quite seem to work out for you. You’ve always had a passion for writing, and you enjoy playing video games, so eventually you decide to try to lean into those hobbies. This decision leads you down a brand new path, with new friends and new opportunities, and the belief that maybe, just maybe, your life may not end up as sad as you once thought it would be.

Traits: Gloomy, Loner, Geek Aspiration: Bestselling Author Career: Tech guru

Rules:

Have multiple close friends as a child, but lose touch with all but 1 as a teen. Make 3 new close friends as a young adult who all live in different cities (worlds)

Enroll in University but drop out after 1 semester. Do this 2x, changing your major each time (never complete a degree)

Must live in your parent(s) basement until you are an adult (or until they pass away)

Have a partner cheat on you

Max the video gaming, programming and writing skills

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Generation Nine: Playful

Life's a party, and your only goal is to live it to the fullest. If you're not having a good time, then what's the point? Why waste your time with boring things like school or chores when you could be out partying with your friends? You're determined to have as many friends as possible, and that includes everyone on the internet. You thrive on likes and follows and adore making fun content for your fans online. Like, share, and subscribe!

Traits: Goofball, Party Animal, Dance Machine Aspiration: Friend of the World Career: Social Media

Rules:

Get Expelled from High School (you may choose to re-enroll or not, that's up to you!)

Max the charisma, mischief, and media production skills

Max either the DJ Mixing or Dancing skill (or both if you want)

Have 25 million followers

Host a social event every weekend and achieve gold in at least 5 different event types

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Generation Ten: Inspired

Everything in life has beauty, and you just can’t help but feel inspired by it all. Creativity flows through you like the blood in your veins and you can’t wait to show the world what you can create. As a teen, you graduate school early and move to the big city. You get a small apartment in the Arts District and make extra cash selling your paintings at street fairs, or by busking around town. As a young adult you decide to follow your dreams of becoming a musician, while still continuing to sell your artwork on the side. Whether it’s a paintbrush or a guitar pick in your hand, your fingers spew talent like magic. You’re proud of everything you create (as you should be), so you open a gallery to display your work and inspire future generations for years to come. 

Traits: Creative, Art Lover, Music Lover Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire Career: Entertainer

Rules:

If given the option, you must graduate high school early

Must move out as a teen and get an apartment in the Art District of San Myshuno

Max the painting, piano, guitar and violin skills

Keep every “masterpiece” you create

Open an art gallery to display your work (build a gallery in Build/Buy mode, or purchase a retail business to transform into a gallery)

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I've been working on this challenge for a while and am so excited to finally share it with you! I hope you all enjoy! xoxo @somneasims

[i-donot-forget]

New Gen, ep 1 y 2

Finally I had time for a "little" review! I'm late but better late than never. Like many, I had my expectations and I can say that, apart from 1 point that concerns me and that I will mention later. I am pleasantly surprised with the final product.

Let's start at the beginning and I want to say that I really like that they give us a full context about Ysaline's life and her family from the very first moment, it helps me to connect with her, unlike Candy who in ep 20 I think we just meet her parents. And like Ysaline, I'm ready to make the same mistakes again and even worse (Why go for 1 boss? if you can go for 2 😏)

The animations, I don't want to leave out the animations, from the changes of expression of our character in each dialogue, to the, at first weird but then not so weird, "camera close-ups", I loved them. Thomas peeking out from the side of the screen or when a route approaches us in the moments of the dates, are an extra touch that helped me to get more into the story.

Regarding the routes and characters in general I want to say that I find them nice, it is a varied group in personalities which is what interests me the most and I want to discover who have their own groups and who are besties (the scene where they all run into Devon's office is awesome). Now with the routes, from second 1 I declared myself Jason and Thomas route, which I tried to follow but to my surprise, just following my instinct I ended up on Devon and Jason's routes…. (by the way the new Cassy/Nath) The personalities of the routes are well defined and, at least in my experience with Devon and Jason I felt "chemistry" that with the others I didn't (and that's ok, I'm not looking to fall in love with everyone).

Now talking about plots, I feel they have a lot to draw from, and although I know that showing the Cosy Bear Cafe event would be very difficult due to the personalization of each player, I don't deny that I would like to see it in NG. I don't mind that some arcs may be cliche, as long as they take risks as they have been doing in MCLLL, I want to see controversial and/or sensitive topics!

And finally… my ONLY complaint, and more than a complaint is a concern, is the issue of the points and not the PA's, no, not at all, I made a very quick calculation and it's fine. But the gems is another thing, 2 per day + 7 on the last day of the month gives us between 65 and 67, if they release 1 episode every 2 months, well that's perfect, you have 130-134 gems for the episode. What's the "but" then? I'm a sl@t and I like to have special moments with more than one route… in this case 2, if it is 1 additional scene per route and each one costs 120 gems, in an episode I would have 240… so I would have to wait DOUBLE to play an episode my way, to my taste… Is it unforgivable? Not at all, it's a detail in fact, but if someone would read this, they could lower it a little… just a little, maybe to 100 and I wouldn't feel so devastated ☹️

Other than that, and to close. New Gen was a positive surprise, you can see the love that is in the game, in terms of gameplay, graphics, animations, etc, etc. 100/10 nothing to say, excellent work. I TRUST that this quality that reflects the growth of Beemoov as a company and MCL as a franchise, will be seen in the plot, in the arcs and in the development of the routes, which after all, is the most important thing for the players.

So thanks for reading ❤️ and see you early tomorrow morning at the office…

[frostfangalphabitch]

Yo, have you played older armored core games, which ones would you recommend, and how would you recommend one goes about playing those games?

I have played the older games! I adore this series, and it's been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. I started with Generation 3, so that's going to be my recommended starting point, but there are a few places you could start.

Here's the TL;DR: The games from Gens 1, 2, and 3 are good, Nexus and Last Raven are excellent. All of those use a very different energy system from AC6 which might take some getting used to. Gen 4 is also fantastic and has extremely fast-paced combat. Gen 5 isn't terrible but is not looked upon fondly, and these entries are kind of only half a game without the online features. Also, pirating is illegal! But if you already own the discs, you can get the images off Vimm's Lair.

As a rule, I'd suggest going from older to newer. The original game used L1 and R1 for looking up and down and didn't start using the second stick for look controls until Nexus, which is in the middle of Gen 3. With that in mind though, here's my general guide to the games.

Generation 1 (AC1, Project Phantasma, Master of Arena) is a decent starting point. The games are unforgiving but still play pretty solidly even now. If you're willing to go back to PS1 games and don't mind failing and starting over until you finally figure out how to pilot your tank-controls mech, Armored Core 1 is a great place to start. Generation 2 (AC2, 2: Another Age) is also pretty good and is where the games transitioned to PS2. The games are a little more forgiving than Gen 1. Mostly.

Generation 3 expands on the formula from the previous games with plenty of quality of life improvements and more parts. AC3 is the first entry in this generation, and Silent Line is basically an expansion for it. If you liked 3, you'll like Silent Line.

The games past Silent Line are considered Generation 3.5, and this is where the games really start to shine in my opinion. Nexus is the first game where they make use of the second stick for look controls, and they started experimenting with new mechanics as well.

Last Raven is my favorite game from gens 1-3 and probably my 2nd favorite overall after 6. This is the first game in the series that has branching paths and multiple endings. The story is really engaging and you need to get all 7 endings to really get the whole picture of what's going on. Now that I think about it, this is kind of a prototypical version of modern FromSoftware storytelling. The only problem with this game is that it is extremely difficult compared to previous games, even AC1, and they were fully expecting you to make use of the feature that lets you transfer your schematics and parts from Nexus or Nine Breaker. If you're looking for a challenge, this game is really great! It's tough but rewarding and a ton of fun. Under no circumstances should it be your first entry into the series, though.

Formula Front and Nine Breaker can be skipped. Nine Breaker felt like an inferior Master of Arena, and Formula Front is just... weird.

AC4 and 4 Answer are the first games on PS3/X360, and they shake things up a lot. Brand new parts, new guns, new mechanics. They're the first games where you can boost forever, and the gameplay is extremely fast, easily the fastest in the series. If you're good enough, you can move so fast your camera literally can't keep up. 4A is my third favorite game in the series, but the whole generation is worth playing.

Gen 5 (AC5 and Verdict Day) are... I mean they're fine. They have good mech designs, the core gameplay is still there, and they slowed the gameplay way down after Gen 4, but they also focused really hard on multiplayer, which is now dead unless you're lucky. A lot of the gameplay revolves around online missions, so they're kind of just half a game now.

As for how to play the games... Unfortunately, they weren't super popular in the West, so copies that exist go for more than new AAA games these days on eBay, especially with AC6 out. Now, despite how that sounds, I'm not gonna say you should emulate without a legit copy of your own, since that'd be illegal. You should also stay away from a place called Vimm's Lair. You can download the discs there, but only if you own the discs themselves! That said, if you do happen to have legit copies and want to emulate them on your PC, Duckstation, PCSX2, and RPCS3 will be able to run them. But ignore that sentence if you don't own the games legally!

Generation 5 won't emulate properly no matter what, though, so you really will have to buy a copy to play on your PS3 for those.

...Damn, I did not mean to write a post this long. Then again, AC is one of my special interests.

[protosymphonette]

apparently I shouldn’t ask you your fallout 4 opinions? Now I want to ask you your fallout 4 opinions :)

i warned you about my fo4 opinions bro. i told you dog.

most of these are like. technical and story related. bee tee dubs

ok under cut because i have a lot to say and most of it is TOXIC because i LOVE TO COMPLAIN

listen. listen. i have a lot of feelings about this game. most of them aren't very good. so lets start with the ones that are mostly positive.

i think a thing fo4 did really well was the companions. a lot of their arcs are more realized than the other fo games (despite the fact that 2 of them don't even have full names, but i digress), they have more unique voicelines... and being able to romance them doesn't hurt either. honestly, half the reason i found myself willing to continue playing the game was getting all of the companion questlines and such. i also like how connected it was to fo3 character (like with li, maccready, maxson) and storywise (the institute, railroad, synths), made me feel Smart for getting the references. the way weapons... work? i guess is the best term? is also pretty decent- though the more advanced display hurts my eyes whenever i use energy weapons (which is always because they are the only guns worth using in any fo game)

i'll probably add more positives as i go, but- now time for parts of the game that i don't particularly enjoy... i don't like how many gameplay changes they made. like with the perks and special system (why would they change it. why remove skills?? why start all special stats at 1? the removal of skills really gets me; like, they were a more tangible and easier way to recognize what, well, SKILLS you had and just removing them entirely makes no sense) and the pip boy ui (WHY did they make holotapes go into general "misc" as opposed to having their own "notes" section??? you use holotapes like 40x more often in this game why. what the hell todd) the weapons and armor system irks me too, somewhat- the fact that once you progress to a point in the game in which you are like, unable to see if an armor/weapon is better than what you have because of all of the goddamn superfluous adjectival modifiers. i wish single piece armors were more practical- the mix-and-match nature of the new armor system is... i don't mean to be like, petty, but its Fugly. i know it's the wasteland but, DAMN, my guy's fit is trash! there are too many modifiers to armor, too, i feel. like, ballistic v energy v whatever damage resistance... all i want to know is if this thing is better than this thing, and you're tellin me it is SOMETIMES but not all the times? my iddy biddy pea brain came here to have FUN and SHOOT not to think about strategy in armor. tldr for my technical qualms with this game: they shouldn't have changed allat. it was great and fun as was.

storywise i don't... to put it succinctly, i don't like this game's story. it's boring to me. i don't necessarily care about my son, or my spouse, with the 5 minutes i spent with them during the tutorial and the "hey honey!" holotape you gave me is doing nothing to change that in any way. also, while on the subject of spouses, the game tries SO HARD to railroad (heh heh) you into being the male sole survivor- he NARRATES the damn intro ffs (and replacing the legend ron perlman is a crime which can never be forgiven) AND is a veteran (combat+power armor experience) and nora... is a lawyer? a job in which it would make no sense for her to already have power armor training or experience with weapons. (oatus the power armor ui is fucking ugly and gross too and i've literally never used it outside its introduction with the minutemen because of this) i think the fact that i don't give 2 shits about my son is why the institute is soooooo dry to me. like, why am i supposed to side with these assholes? because my son who is an old man is, what, their dad? or something? (also shaun being the gen 3 synths "father" and you being able to romance a whole slew of gen 3 synths is... weird, plainly put) also the factions are just boring to me. like no flavor at all. i don't want to bring up Beautiful Golden Child New Vegas (but i do) but like... obsidian did the "choose a faction" thing a whole helluva lot better. like i don't really give a shit at all about any of the stakes or factions within fo4 like even a little bit all i care about is my Guys who are my Friends and we Kill People Together.

also this is like very petty and opiniony but i don't like how good the graphics are i feel like fallout is a game franchise meant to look a little shitty

tldr; fallout 4 would be such a good game if it was a good game

[purplepxls]

TS4 Lepacy Challenge (or how TS4 finally got me) pt.1

Hi! [waving and brushing off cobwebs] How are you guys?

In short, during the time I was away from Tumblr, I basically lost all interest in playing Sims when I lost all my stuff. Over a decade of CC, poses. It became impossible to recreate everything, and TS4 didn't work for me. Until... I realized that every time I played TS4, I would download everything, all the DLCs, thousands of CCs, mods, and end up feeling lost and bored. With previous generations, I always played from the beginning, knowing everything that was native to the game, following the DLCs one after the other. So I thought about following a Legacy Challenge to try to experience this in a structured way. I wanted to experience TS4, to know every item in the game, its flaws (so I could later search for the mods that I really needed)

About the challenge

The one I'm following is this one (which is already outdated, but I'll keep going as long as I can).

I'll confess to you guys, I'm following it in a very low-profile way. I always imposed so many rules on my TS3 saves that this time I just wanted to have fun. So basically, I play vanilla (the only mods I have are maxis match skins and eyes that I downloaded around the 3rd generation). And to be completely honest, I LOVED the game's aesthetic like this! It was tough at first because I always used TS3 alpha, so it seemed overly cartoonish. But that's exactly why I fell in love when I realized how cute this game is! What I did was disable all the DLCs (here's how to do it) and I'm enabling the packs according to the challenge instructions. Sometimes I follow the recommendations of the generation, sometimes I don't. It all depends on whether I'm having fun with those tasks or not. I always try to use the objects, clothes, and hairstyles from the expansion/pack of the generation to have a real immersion in that theme and get to know everything that was made available new in that generation.

It's funny because with each generation, I get so excited about the new things I'll have! I look at all the objects, read about the expansions, and try to do everything I can. Some excite me more than others, especially themes that don't appeal to me much like supernatural ones. But I'll tell you more about it in the next posts. I also try to follow the wishes of the Sims whenever possible, to see where the game naturally takes me. Usually, the firstborns are the ones who continue the challenge. But sometimes other children steal the show. Also, in some generations, I simply have no patience for babies and adopt a child. I also use Sims from the gallery a lot, both for townies and to follow the generation (sometimes I have zero patience to raise a Sim, so I make my own rules!) I always try to let Sims get involved with townies unless it's not possible (or they're terrible and I'm not in the mood for a makeover). I play with normal Sim lifespan and full autonomy. Gen 1 - 3

Gen 1: Base Game Gen 2: Outdoor Retreat Gen 3: Get to Work (Part 1) + Luxury Party stuff Unfortunately - or fortunately - when I started, I was having so much fun that I forgot to take photos!

In Gen 1, I couldn't reach the top of the comedian career, and I was surprised by how much there is to do with just the base game. Maybe I've always seen the game in a biased way, I admit.

In the first generation, there was a lot of family drama and fights because of the hot-headed and goofball matriarch. That bitch even stole her daughter's boyfriend, which left me IN SHOCK. An abusive relationship between mother and daughter, major drama!

Gen 2 was kind of boring; that camping pack is pretty disappointing. It's all very shallow and hard to get into, plus it feels kinda "stuck," I can't really explain it. But it was cool to develop the freelance writer career and write about all the traumas her mom caused (yeah, the storyteller never rests). And being a good loner, I loved taking her to Granite Falls for the whole weekend in a cabin writing.

As expected, she met a guy dressed as a bear at the camp and married him. He was the total lumberjack cliché. They lived happily ever after!

Gen 3, I realized the goals for this generation were impossible. I tried doing the bakery and being a detective and failed miserably. My sim was always tired, with no time for anything (missing a mod to slow down the game). I spent more time renovating Magnolia Promenade than playing. I was excited about the next generation. Gen 4 - Get to Work (Part 2) + Perfect Patio stuff

Here, I think the challenge really started for me. This is where I started to get attached to the characters. I completely ignored the generation's instructions and focused on the detective career. Terrible graphics settings and no time for decoration. This crazy lady got involved with Don Lothario and had TWINS. Their relationship was kinda messed up, but he turned out to be a great dad. Over time, he was so in love with her. They got married, she reached the top of the detective career, and he was a great stay-at-home dad and trophy hubby.

They bought a lovely house in Oasis Springs with a gorgeous patio. That boy there won me over. He was super curious and interested in computers. He was already programming from a young age. He was the chosen one.

Gen 5: Spa Day

I kinda skipped that one, I confess. I was too attached to my sims. What I did was, after retiring, my sim and Don Lothario became regulars at the spa, making use of all the services whenever possible, and hitting the gym, of course.

Gen 6: Get Together + Romantic Garden stuff

The heir moved to Windenburg to live his life as a IT worker.

Fell in love with Cintia Behr at the first party and ended up completing the generation recommendations with her. DJ and painting skills. He made a lot of money programming.

Don Lothario passed away from old age a bit later, and he got a call from his mom inviting him to the park. When they arrived, they just chilled, watching the clouds and chatting. I thought it was pretty sweet!

Their first kid was a cutie! And sticking to the generation's rules, I I made him grow up with cooking skills and traits.

They had two kids and lived in Cintia's house in downtown Windenburg. What a BEAUTIFUL city! I'm totally in love with it! Gen 7: Dine Out + Cool Kitchen stuff

The heir was like 100% into the cooking career his whole life.Never had any interest in other sims. Maybe it was trauma? 'Cause when he was a teen, his dad got involved with Hugo Villareal, and his mom died of rage when she found out (D-R-A-M-A). Dad moved out, and he had to raise his sister all by himself. Poor boy. But he forgave his dad after a while. His sister, though, never did.

I loved his sister! Totally rebellious, snobby, and sassy. The only person in the world she liked was her brother, and because of her troublemaker teenage personality, I downloaded the Basemental Drugs mod and it was a blast. Skipping school in the afternoons to drink and smoke with friends. Her brother didn't have any kids, and she was too precious not to be the heir.

Gen 8: City Living + Bowling Night stuff

Well, that snobby girl grew up and, as expected, became a food critic, partly thanks to her brother's influence (I mean, growing up eating the finest cuisine out there, you can't settle for any crap, right?). She fell in love at the Romance Festival just like the script said and had a cute little boy. I still had Basemental installed, and sometimes she and her wife would smoke a joint. Then one random day, her wife got BUSTED for carrying weed. I didn't know about those settings, and it was awful! The kid grew up without one of his moms, and it was super sad. Luckily, when she became elderly, she got out of jail and they lived their last days in peace. I uninstalled it right after. San Myshuno is pretty cute but kinda small :( But I'm really into the urban vibe, so I'll definitely come back to rebuild the city at some point.

I'll continue in the next post ;)

[grayblacklight]

So, minor spoiler for the scar and violent dlc-

Did Geeta seriously show up once, basically admit that her league is useless in any serious situation, force a child to relive a traumatic experience, and contribute absolutely nothing else to the plot? Because that's what it looked like to me.

Screw it, I was gonna do this eventually, here's every problem I have with the not-so-grand champion of Paldea/ school chairwoman, major spoilers for the game under the readmore:

1. Absolutely botched the entire team star situation, and PROBABLY also partially responsible for it. Remember, the Clavel was going to be forced to expel every member of Team Star despite clearly wanting to take some other form of action, or at the very least have more information on them - yet only after overhearing Penny did he step in, and by sending Clive in his place at that. If his hands were tied, that implies that Geeta didn't authorize any other forms of action. We also find that the bases are NOT difficult to raid- so it begs the question. Why didn't she even send any of the gym leaders? At the absolute least, the bases were close enough to a gym that the nearest leader would have noticed on their own. Hell, the bug and ghost gyms are close to a star base they would have a type advantage against (dark and fighting, respectively), and they had roadblocks that were likely causing problems for said gym leaders. It's almost like she WANTS to just expel them... Well, here's the thing.

Two years earlier, the school faculty had all resigned out of shame (or fired, in the VP's case), all the bullies fled by either dropping out or transferring, but nothing was said about the school board. Moreover, no effort was made to replace the records after the vice principal erased them.

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but it does seem like Geeta was trying to sweep the situation under the rug herself - I mean, it certainly wouldn't be a good look for school she is in charge of, and all remaining witnesses are now loyal to one conveniently troublesome group. All she had to do was wait just long enough that this mass expulsion wouldn't seem related to the previous incident, and bam! No more loose ends that could be followed back to her own failures. Granted, if someone did the math and saw that every student and faculty from that year had left in one way or another it might have come back to bite her, but considering that she can't even count how many of her pokemon have fainted I doubt that math is something she considers very often.

Theorizing aside, she then proceeded to punish Penny for cleaning up the mess. Oh, sure, it's phrased to sound like she's letting her off easy, but think about for 3 seconds and you get child labor, and Penny was already helping with the community service anyways-and saving area zero, for that matter. Speaking of...

2. (The rest of these won't be as long or crazy as my first point I promise) Geeta sure does talk about dealing with the area zero situation not ever take any actual action, huh. Closest she gets is sending the player character back in for another round - against their will, if need be- and I'm pretty sure that just ended up causing everything that went wrong in the first place.

3. Also, the water gym was literally right next to the rampaging, titan paradox version exclusive ground type, and apparently doesn't even know about it. Reminder in gen 5 when the gym leaders said they OBVIOUSLY couldn't stand by while Team Plasma was causing trouble? Honestly, the pokémon league getting involved in the plot has been a thing since GEN 2, was retconned into Kanto, even Stick and Stone does it. This is basically the first time the local pokemon league wasn't involved with the plot in a substantial way since GEN 6, but kalos only has a plot in anime anyway (Plus, Malva gives them a potential excuse).

4. Geeta suck at pokemon, actually. She doesn't figure her team order OR a good use for her terra until the dlc, and even then she's still using avalugg. Rika says you won't find a mightier champion, but she's clearly just saying that because she has too because she knows that everyone knows that's a lie. We already found a mightier champion and her name is Nemona/ Cynthia/ Iris/ ECT.

5. And yes, of course, Geeta is a terrible boss. Even outside of her being a little too willing to use child labor, the majority of the gym leaders paint her in a bad light, Grusha goes so far as to call her cruel and fears for his job. She forced Larry to use flying types, and made Katy go super easy on every challenger (she SHOULD have implemented level scaling). And let me be clear, she has a TODDLER in the elite four, she can barely throw a PokeBall. Granted, that toddler is a better trainer than Geeta, but that's still a TON of responsibility to put on a four-year-old that's going to have a negative impact on her in the long run.

Geeta is the true villain of Scar and Violent that we never get to stop.

[simgerale]

Any tips on sticking with a legacy? It's amazing to me you have Sims from 2016!

ooh!! i know many people struggle with sticking to their sim families, but i will try to give my most relevant advice!

✨ miranda’s tips and tricks ✨

for me, I can only stick with sims that i am connected to. this means creating a backstory (or actively playing through a story i’ve made for them), giving them real personalities outside of sim traits, and figuring out what their favorite hobbies and interests are! it’s important to me that i don’t limit my creativity to in-game things, even if that means i can only imagine that a sim does a certain activity (or pose them doing it)! you’ll get bored real fast if you decide that they have to fit a mold.

with each generation, i’m trying to do something different and new. The easiest way to get lost in the motions is to do something repetitive! sure, there can be a lot of similarities from one gen to the next, but variation is key! [Ex #1: gen 1 had two kids, gen 2 had three kids, and now gen 3 has one kid] [Ex #2: vibes have been quite different. Gen 1 was more gameplay, gen 2 was full of spicy drama, gen 3 has been about finding oneself amidst relationships + enjoying the little things]

On that same note, I want romance in each generation. And as a hopeless romantic, i have used a different trope every time! It keeps things interesting while also playing to cheesy cliches that everyone can’t help but enjoy. you could also have the ‘no romance but sleeps around’ generation to shake things up [gen 1: forbidden love except not forbidden, just frowned upon at the time] [gen 2: best friends become lovers but with a SLOW burn] [gen 3: fake lovers to real lovers]

using gameplay outcomes to help further your legacy helps. i know the game is lacking…. Take it from me as someone who owns only 10% of the packs lol. but I try my best to let the game decide on some things while guiding it in other areas! your sim is actually bad at something you thought they’d be good at? cool that could change their career! your sim suddenly wants to have another baby and it isn’t planned? up to you, but it could open up lots of opportunities! your game killed off a parent too soon? rip but maybe you can use that for your heir’s personality development lol

if you’re intimidated by following certain guidelines, you don’t have to! I’ve set my own (can’t age up the heirs to see what they’ll look like, can’t travel to worlds that would realistically be too far away for every day activities, try your best to have family events/holidays)

my final tips go hand in hand: take your time and only play when it’s enjoyable. if the fact that i still have a sim from late 2016 isn’t hint enough, i can tell you that I’ve only played my legacy when I absolutely wanted to. if i wasn’t feeling it, i didn’t bother because i wouldn’t have enjoyed myself! this meant that i would go periods without playing (and posting), but i can speak from experience when I say that it has been for the best!!!

all of this is to say… everybody is different! what works for me may not work for you. overall, do what makes you have fun. as long as it is isn’t hurting other people, you’re doing great 😌

[klptmnia]

well. i’m eight months late but i finally got around to this!!

gaius comes equipped with locktouch when he’s first recruited, that’s just a thief thing. i don’t need to explain that the thief can obviously pick locks. however, given the backstory i gave him, there’s no way he wouldn’t have more right from the get-go. those select few are lethality, vantage, pass, and less expectedly, focus. over the course of the game, more specifically, in the second half, lucky seven comes into play as well.

lethality — allows the user to instantly kill a selected enemy unit

self-explanatory; whether he likes it or not, and despite not being an actual assassin, gaius is a skilled killer. even without taking his experience as a part-time assassin into account, he learned from chief which parts of the body made someone bleed out fastest. if the situation calls for it, he knows exactly what to do and where to strike.

vantage — when the user's HP is ≤50%, they will always be able to attack first during the enemy's turn

since the game's inheritance system passes skills down to the second generation, i refuse to believe first gens didn’t learn skills in a similar way. hence, the skill vantage. while his father perfected it by letting enemies underestimate him before striking them down when they least expected it, gaius' version isn’t exactly a skill as much as it is a habit. it’s not strategy-based, it’s more about sheer desperation. when he's that close to death, there's no planning involved, he simply attacks any enemy that gets too close before they ever get the chance to do the same.

lucky seven – increases hit rate and avoid by +20 until the 7th turn / pass — user can pass through tiles occupied by enemy units

these two especially are a package deal in the later half of the game's events. while he could easily slip through enemy lines undetected and silently take people out before joining the shepherds, he only perfected that skill even more so afterwards, once he made the upgrade from thief to trickster.

focus — critical +10 when no allies are within a 3 tile radius

much like vantage, focus is another “inherited” skill, this time from his mother's side. when she was alive, she preferred healing over combat, but that didn't mean she couldn't hold her own. when by herself, there were few distractions, and it made it easier to concentrate on attacking in the most efficient way, and gaius picked up that habit from her. admittedly, she used magic and he doesn't ( not offensively, anyway ) but it works about the same.

all in all, it just means he works best when he’s alone and does his best work right when the fighting first starts, especially before enemies even know he’s there, as one would expect. you’d think that this particular set of skills would make him a great fit for the assassin class instead, but 1) he already hates doing that sort of thing, he doesn’t want to flaunt that around, and 2) since he charges in alone quite often, getting hurt and having no backup is going to happen at some point, he’s accepted that. so, knowing how to heal himself if things go wrong + having the pass skill knowing how to slip through enemy lines while retreating is very convenient. being a trickster doesn’t mean he’s any less of a force to be reckoned with, it just means he’s careful and cautious enough to keep himself alive as long as possible. he may not care much for his own life, but by that point, he knows he has people that do care. as long as it’s for the sake of someone else, he’ll do everything he can to keep himself alive.

[witchyspiritsims]

Hellooooo, anyone out there remember me? It’s been almost a year since I’ve used this tumblr last - and over a year since I decided to start it.

As a bit of an explanation, I lost the Blackwood and AHC save files. Actually, I lost ALL my save files except some I’d backed up like three months prior or something. I’m not sure what happened but I put new CC into my game and when I started it up next just. Everything was wiped. I lost motivation after that and pretty much quit Sims 4. I switched to Sims 2 and really had a lot of fun!

Then my laptop broke. It stopped charging unless the charger was in a very specific position. We thought it was the charger itself so we bought a new one. Turns out it was the charging port. Online it said it had most likely come away from the motherboard. It’s been months since and I’ve been without a computer of my own.

That said, I’ve been using my husband’s desktop and it’s been a whole new experience for me. I’ve only ever had laptops. When he let me put sims on his computer it was like a totally different game. The graphics looked better, it ran so smoothly, and I could finally use reshade!!! I was so excited and it’s really given me my spark back for sims. So much so that I started an actual legacy challenge - The Sims in Bloom challenge. I had started the AHC before, but I never got very far into it since I lost my saves soon after. The Sims in Bloom legacy helped me really see the appeal of legacy challenges and I got pretty far in it before I found the Whimsy Challenge. Then my attentions shifted to that because I fell so deeply in love with it that it was all I could think about sometimes lmao.

But now I’ve found a new challenge and can feel myself wanting to get my grubby little hands on it. I read through the Crybaby Whims legacy last night and just. Wanted to start it so bad. But I know it’ll be like my other ones - I’ll play it till I find something better and then abandon it. I don’t want that to happen to my Whimsy legacy and I most definitely dont want it to happen to this one if I start it. So I’ve been thinking of bringing this simblr back to life. Maybe having the Crybaby Whims save as my simblr save, and the Whimsy save as my personal? Since I’m already almost finished with generation 1?

I also have to think about how I’ll be able to manage it. My depression has made my energy cap at like 5%. I’ve lost irl friendships bc I just can’t manage surviving and communicating at the same time anymore. Would adding an active simblr to my plate again be a good idea? I’m not sure, but I know I want to try it. I have this whole idea of making a cast list for the Crybaby legacy and how the drama of the first gen will start and I’m excited to FINALLY play with a teen because I haven’t played a teen at ALL since HSY came out. So I think what I’m going to do is…. Just post when I feel like! I was never a big simblr to begin with so it isn’t like I have dozens of people anxiously awaiting my posts. Especially since I’ve taken such a large break. I think I’ll kind of have to build back up again. Either way I’m not going to put so much pressure on myself to post here, and I think I’ll only use my twitter to announce posts and maybe chat with people here or there. Definitely don’t plan on getting into debates with people about the state of the sims or ea.

That’s just what I’m thinking about, anyway! Im getting a desktop of my own soon, so I might not start anything until then. Then again I’ll have to transfer stuff anyway. What’s the harm of another save file??

[janichroma]

I know you're removing insane mode but I really hope you don't end up making normal mode too easy with that new blog post. I couldn't get into Reborn because the new update was so much easier compared to last time I played or at least have an options that player can choose an easy normal mode or the same difficult normal mode we've had

Sooo, there's a comment on the thread I posted that reads very similar to this, even misspelling "intense" mode as "insane". Of course, there's always the chance this is just another person (probably from rejuv-gen) who decided to waddle their way here and throw this at me. Regardless, I'm going to pretend this is the same person so that I can vent out my extreme frustration with people.

Very quickly, I want to ask, what is the point in sending this to me here, again? If you posted this in the thread already and you read my comments, then you know that I said I'm reading all responses! So! there can only be a few options, let's go through them together.

To be obnoxious.

You actually didn't read anything at all, or you disregarded what I said because you too are frustrated.

You reeeeeally wanted to make sure I read your opinion personally.

Okay! Which one is the correct answer here?

...

That's right! All the above.

I'm gonna make this crystal clear for everyone. I cannot, and will not bust my ass to make everyone happy with this game. I've tried and it doesn't work. It is simply out of my realm of possibility at this point. Not even the Pokemon Company themselves is capable of doing that.

---

Scenario 1:

Intense Mode exists: People yell at me because it's "unfair". Balance Team: *adjusts difficulty due to response* Result: Intense Mode players yell at me because I'm ruining their experience.

Scenario 2:

Sends out a Survey: People send in their comments about particular fights. Balance Team: *adjusts difficulty due to response* Result: More intense players yell at me because I'm responding to data.

Scenario 3: Specific Part of the game: People send me asks detailing why they don't think it's good or how it can be improved. Me: *Takes their criticism and apply it* Result: Omg Jan is redoing the game again lol! 🤪

---

That's sooo awesome. That's like, my favorite thing ever, actually. Wtf do you want from me?

I am one guy. A singular person. I am not here to fix Pokemon's innate mistakes.

It doesn't matter how this game's balance is modified. I will piss someone off somewhere and somehow. I've accepted that. All I can do is make the experience as healthy as possible, because as the head developer it's my job to do so. You guys have it easier. Eventually, through trials and tribulations you will win every battle you go through. But I am playing a game where I will always lose.

And lastly, while this isn't directed towards you specifically, I'm tired of people being bold enough to talk to me like they know me. We're not friends. I don't know you, you don't know me. I don't care if you think this isn't a pokemon game story wise, I don't care if you dont like where the story is going, I won't hurry up because you're impatient, and I don't care if you hate a certain character. Stop asking me about romance. Go complain somewhere else, I'm sick of it.

tl:dr - life sucks

[shuro]

this is a bit random but do you have any advice for someone who wants to try shiny hunting? ive always wanted to shiny hunt but idk anything about it and some tutorials are really confusing ;_;

oh i LOVE talking about shiny hunting do not ever worry about bothering me asking about it LOL

i totally get you on the confusing tutorials though! it definitely helps knowing someone who is experienced in it to help you figure out where to begin bc it's a very overwhelming hobby lol (esp if numbers stress you out. pointing to myself bc numbers stress me out)

under the cut bc i anticipate this being an essay

let's start by explaining the concept of full odds shiny hunting. full odds shiny hunting is where you take any measures necessary to keep the odds of a shiny appearing at the base rate.

in generations 1-5, these odds are 1/8192. in gens 6 and on, they are 1/4096.

particularly in the newer generations, the games include different mechanics and minigames where you can increase your shiny odds to as low as 1/100!

full odds shiny hunters do NOT use any of these mechanics to improve shiny odds.

people will hunt for full odds shinies for a variety of reasons. some people prefer it because it makes their shinies feel more special, others just like the journey and experience of finding that super rare shiny in the wild after several months or more of hunting.

a shiny is a shiny though so do not feel bad if you don't like full odds hunting! it's all about the journey finding your shiny, and the worth you assign to it at the end of the day! a full odds shiny is not inherently more valuable than one caught at 1/100 odds. it's about how much YOU cherish and appreciate your shiny catches! :]

a good gateway to full odds hunting at 1/8192 odds is definitely soft resetting for a shiny starter pokemon in heartgold/soulsilver. this is the only pokemon game where you can check if all three pokemon are shiny on the same screen, when you are picking out your starter! since you're essentially getting 3 encounters per soft reset, you have a better chance of finding a shiny starter.

i love hunting for starters bc then you get to play the rest of the game with your shiny too! and in hgss, it follows you around wherever you go :D

a good gateway for 1/4096 full odds hunting is horde encounters in XY/ORAS! catch a pokemon with the move Sweet Scent, then repeatedly have it use the move in tall grass. every time you use it, a horde of 5 pokemon will appear! again, since you're seeing more pokemon, the encounters seriously fly by.

now let's move onto reduced odds hunting!

starting in gen 5, shiny charm was introduced. shiny charm boosts your odds of finding a shiny by 3. (3/8192 or 3/4096) you receive shiny charm by completing your national pokedex in gens 5-6, and the regional pokedex in gens 7+. in bdsp however, you need to complete the national pokedex to get it.

shiny charm does NOT impact certain encounters, such as gift pokemon (the fossils in swsh and type:null in sumo/usum are examples of gift pokemon), dynamax or tera raid dens, traded pokemon and more.

also in bdsp, shiny charm literally only impacts bred pokemon for some reason??? so i don't recommend getting it bc it is a PAIN to receive and does literally nothing

certain methods will also increase your shiny odds as well though! (these will usually stack with shiny charm odds!)

USUM/SUMO:

sos chaining is by far the best and most popular way of shiny hunting for a lot of people. if you've played through those games, you know that wild pokemon can sometimes call for help, summoning another pokemon of their species or evolution line.

basically, if you let them keep calling for help in this manner, the more pokemon that appear, the better your shiny odds. the numbers are slightly different from the original sun/moon and ultra sun/ultra moon and for that reason i somewhat favor usum.

in ultra sun/ultra moon, you can get your odds to 1/315 without shiny charm or 1/273 with shiny charm after achieving a chain of 30 pokemon!

the method behind this one is simple. false swipe the starting pokemon, then use an adrenaline orb. then you just keep knocking out the pokemon that are summoned.

just be sure to either prepare the right team for sos chaining OR periodically replace the pokemon calling for help. bc it WILL run out of pp eventually and struggle to death.

MASUDA METHOD:

masuda method is a shiny hunting method introduced in gen 4! (dppt) it was coded by junichi masuda (hence the name), and has been a mechanic in all games since.

masuda method revolves around breeding pokemon. if you breed pokemon from two different games that were played in two different languages, the odds of a shiny pokemon being bred are increased to 1/683 without shiny charm, and i THINK 1/512 with shiny charm (in gen 6+)

if i bred a vulpix i caught myself in an english speaking game with a vulpix from game played in japanese, this would result in the masuda method lowering my shiny odds.

the most common way to perform this method is by obtaining a foreign ditto though bc ditto can breed with anything! (if you need help getting your hands on one lmk, i have my sources :eyes:)

there are also other methods in newer games, such as mass outbreaks in sv/arceus, chaining in swsh (it sucks tho dont recommend), chain fishing in gens 6+7, dexnav in ORAS, pokeradar in dppt and bdsp and dynamax adventures! (+ SO MANY more)

i think ive already written too much tho so lmk if you have any further question >:D

[pokemonratingblog]

My experience (& review of) Pokemon Crystal

As part of the entire gimmick of this page, I am replaying and ranking the pokemon games in order.

Due to my experience with pokemon mystery dungeon and also adversity to the other 2 choices, I went for the only reasonable option of Totodile. The naming scheme is pizza ingredients this time, so I named it "Pepperoni". I then did the Mr. Pokemon stuff and immediately caught a zubat, naming it "Sausage".

After some grinding I ended up in Violet City. Because of this, I trespassed into Bellsprout Tower. Zubat in hand, I sucked off a whole lot of bellsprout. Alas, I didn't have a big enough PP to suck them all off, so I had to go back to the pokemon center numerous times.

After successfully sucking off all of the bellsprout in the building, I decided to grind my zubat to lvl 12 (when it learns a move that isnt leech life) and challenge Falkner's gym. In the process of getting my zubat to a reasonable level, I also got my totodile to lvl 13, when it learns water gun. And let's just say… I didn't realize his ace was lvl 9. I won't blame the game for this because it was entirely my fault for not looking at the gym leader's levels. It was an easy win.

After that, I did the ruins of alph puzzle, saw some cool unown, and ended up back in violet city. I went through the cave, caught a geodude (who i named cheese), did the team fodder slowpoke quest, and entered the gym. Bugsy is really no different from a fodder trainer so I swept him with my geodude. Silver used a mix of good flinch rng and an unusually tanky lvl 14 zubat to give me some trouble so I ended up losing, but I won on the 2nd try.

Afterwards, I ended up in the ibex forest. which has lvl 5 pokemon. I'm once again starting to see why I hate gen 2 so much. I found a level 5 oddish and I'm willing to bring back the time honored tradition of having an oddish that knows cut. This time I'll actually use it though because this game probably won't be as easy as red and blue. I named it pineapple.

I reached goldenrod city. the home of whitney's infamous miltank that really isnt even that difficult. I went to route 35 to grind up my team to lvl 19/20. It was here my totodile evolved into croconaw. As for the whitney fight? As I said earlier, She was pretty easy. It's questionable how she has a reputation for being so difficult when all you need is anything that resists rollout/stomp (eg. any rock type) to win. I spent quite a bit wandering around aimlessly all confused before I realized I needed to talk to her again to get the badge because she's too busy crying about it. Amazing.

After obtaining the squirt bottle, I headed to route 26 to beat the shit out of a tree. I wanted to catch it but the geodude I have is already a rock type and I don't need two rock types.

I ended up in ecruteak city, one gym leader until the game truly opens up into the worst nonlinear experience of all time. I beat all 5 kimono girls because geodude is comically overpowered and shouldnt get magnitude as early as she does. Before fighting Morty, I decided to grind my team to around lvl 22-23. Why? because zubat evolves into golbat at that level and my zubat has bite to deal super effective damage. Though Morty's team consists of exclusively poison types and gen 2 was before the era of levitate, so i could probably sweep with geodude, I want to have a bit of fun with this gym.

I enter the burnt down tower in ecruteak and face my rival, silver, who I've affectionately named "Fuckwit". It was about the furthest you could get from a difficult fight because I have a golbat and he has a team that's very weak to golbat. The magnemite isnt an issue so long as I remember that I have a ground type. I then proceeded to fall and break both of my legs on the way down. I also met some cool dogs.

I enter morty's gym. It seems that he was taking notes from gen 1's gym leaders because he was a disgustingly easy fight. Literal clean sweep with golbat. Horrible gym leader. And to think that this guy is the 4th gym leader? that this guy is the halfway point for the Johto region? shameful.

Before leaving ecruteak, I got my surf HM and taught it to my croconaw for a powerful stab move (and the ability to reach the 5th gym leader, RNG god Chuck. After reaching olivine, I healed my pokemon, checked out the sick pokemon lighthouse (where my oddish evolved into gloom and geodude into graveler), and then once again began a voyage, setting sail to Chuck's RNG island for medicine and also the privilege of fighting a guy who spams hypnosis. I then had to go back to olivine city because the HMs are hidden in random ass spots in Johto. After that, I cleanly swept Chuck with my golbat, not taking a single hit of damage. This is because he did not have good rng. This gym sucked.

After my beautiful encounter with the divine goddess of luck, I fed the sick ampharos an unknown concoction and fought jasmine. Her ace was actually hard to beat. Certainly a hard fight, which is a pleasant surprise for a game as easy as this. I ended up losing the first try after her ace oneshot the only pokemon I had that was capable of taking care of a magnemite. Some lucky crit RNG made the 2nd try a breeze though.

I then proceeded to enter Mt. Mortar, AKA random encounter hell. In random encounter hell, my Golbat finally evolved into a Crobat, marking the first time i've ever used crobat in a pokemon game.

Afterwards, I entered Mahogany Town, home of the worst gym leader in Johto. A gym leader who's highest level pokemon is 4 levels lower than the previous gym leader's highest level pokemon. On my way to the lake of rage, I encountered Entei, who broke out of my balls and fled. Unfortunate but I probably wouldn't have used it anyways.

I then proceeded to the lake of rage with one goal in mind: kill the red gyarados :3. In fulfilling this goal, I have killed the red gyarados. I already have croconaw I don't need another physical water type with good all around stats. After meeting with lance, I went to the team fodder emporium to dispose of more lvl 16 zubats and grimers 6 badges into the game. Truly wonderful game design. This is actually where I dropped HGSS at when I first played it. Every time you pass a statue you have to fight 2-3 rocket grunts, each of which having about half a team of pokemon who are way lower level than they should be. Had it not been for god's gift of emulator speedup this game would be completely fucking unplayable. As much as I love lance this is easily the worst section of the game so far.

After going through team fodder hell, I was finally able to challenge the easiest gym in the game. My team has a poor matchup to ice though, with 3/4ths of them being weak to ice. This gym was actually decently difficult for me because of my team's poor matchup, but it still only took me 1 try. After the gym, my croconaw evolved into a feraligatr.

After this, I went to the ice cave. My goal? to catch a jynx. I want an ice type and I want a psychic type and I haven't used jynx before. Alas, it was nighttime so I got a sneasel instead. I don't mind using a sneasel, but the issue is that ice and dark are both special types. and sneasel has pitiful special attack. so I had to pass on both the jynx and sneasel. I still wanted a 5th team member, But I wasnt sure what I wanted.

It was at this point I realized I do not have the HM for fly. So I had to backtrack all the way to cianwood for the HM so I could teach it to my crobat.

I flew back to blackthorne only to realize I still need to defeat team rocket. Which is confusing because I thought I had already did that. But I had managed to completely miss wherever it was said that team rocket would be in the goldenrod radio tower. It's not the game's fault but I felt like I had to mention it.

I notice this random rocket executive has 6 pokemon. This is notable because no other trainer has had 6 pokemon yet, not even the gym leaders. However, the pokemon are all koffings, which is a shame. I was hoping for at least a semi-interesting fight.

I made my way to the underground area. This silver fight has 5 pokemon but one of them is a lvl 28 magnemite and another one is a sneasel. Thus, this silver fight was a major pushover. I like silver's character arc but there's been no story apart from it and a bunch of team fodder fights. This switch puzzle is unnecessarily complicated and confusing, and It's making this area feel more like a puzzle game than a pokemon game. Especially considering all the trainers in this area are terrible jokes.

I made my way to floor 3f of the radio tower to hopefully cap off the single most mind numbingly boring part of this game. I got swept by the last trainer because I got really shitty paralyze RNG because my crobat was paralyzed earlier so I had to do the fight again. Because I did the fight again I oneshot all 3 of his pokemon with my feraligatr's surf. Moving on.

I headed to Blackthorn to fight 3 dragonair clair because they couldnt bother giving the last gym leader anything interesting. The gym puzzle was one of the cooler ones, i'll admit. However, I literally just led crobat and did nothing but spam fly and won. She's literally the 8th gym leader. Why. Why couldnt they give her more pokemon. This game is mind numbingly boring so I was actually kinda hyped for this fight but ig not.

I did the dragon cave stuff and got a Dratini. I named it Anchovy. I'm starting to regret getting it because I know I'll have to grind it up to a usable level. fun.

I struggle to even figure out how to reach Kanto in the first place. I had to google it.

I reached victory road. My morale here is at 0. I just want to get to the elite 4 and get it over with because this shit sucks. I'll cover the rest of kanto in a seperate review because I'm not sure I can handle this slog too much longer. Or I wont at all. Depends on if I'm willing to give this game a second shot. But this review isn't over until I beat Lance so I'm looking forward to that.

I ran into silver in victory road. Unfortunately, this was seconds after a random graveler self destructed on my feraligatr. So I was basically going 3 pokemon against 6 here. I still won though because his team fucking sucks AYOOOO. No but seriously his team still has a golbat on it.

After an incredibly painstaking victory road grind to get my 5 pokemon to lvl 42-44, I was finally ready to challenge the elite four and champ. Will's 2nd xatu and exeggutor gave me some trouble, but he was easy apart from that. Koga was an incredibly easy fight, with a horrible team, mediocre typing, and a bunch of evasion-reliant movesets. Bruno was also incredibly easy, all his fighting types were fodder for my crobat and his onix is a very questionable choice. Karen was a very hard fight and lord knows that vileplume was utter hell to face. Also her strong pokemon weak pokemon quote is corny as hell.

The lance fight. I really, REALLY regret not having a 6th party member. This is a genuinely fun and interesting fight but my brain can't enjoy it because i'm too tired because of literally every fight before this one just being time wasting slop. It's 1 am and i've lost to lance an uncountable number of times.

Finally beat lance. Genuinely super great champion fight, like a beautiful cherry atop a mound of shit.

Here was my team:

POKEMON CRYSTAL MAIN GAME (no kanto excluding victory road/e4 & champ)

RATING: 6/10

PROS:

Great champion fight against lance

Solid early game

Lots of content

CONS:

Horrible region design

Horrible level scaling

Has multiple of the most boring sections I've ever had to deal with in a pokemon game

Horrible pokemon diversity

Easy as shit

Tons of content locked behind kanto postgame (such as evolution stones, pokemon like houndour, etc)

Genuinely just really fucking boring holy shit. I cant stress this enough. The hardest battle in this game is fighting sleep. I'd have died without emulator speedup.

[shoppncarticles]

BONUS: Gen 3 Oddities

So this is usually the time where, after the ‘dex for the generation has been concluded, it’s time to wrap it up all nice and pretty with a retrospective at the end. However, I realized when writing just how fundamentally weird this generation is, not only in terms of artstyle and how its overall aesthetics have grown separate from the first two generations, but also remembered the various complex mechanics and little oddities present in the games themselves, so wanted to write a whole article dedicated to some of the strangest things in these games themselves, rumors they gave way to, and more.

I know Gen 1 had its fair share of playground rumors and glitchy Pokemon that could definitely constitute their own similar article, and perhaps I will write one for them someday, but since I have more personal experience with Gen 3 I decided to save this kind of bonus article for this very moment.

Unlocking the Legendary Golems

I omitted this detail from the Legendary Golem review since I wanted to dedicate a piece of this article to it, but anyone who’s gone through the effort of catching the Regis in their original games knows the needless complexity I am about to discuss. As I’ll soon explain, excessive puzzles seem to be a hallmark of the trio at this point, with almost every one of their reappearances hinging on some absurd puzzle players need to just figure out in order to have the chance of capturing them.

So, in the original Ruby and Sapphire games, before even unlocking the caves where each golem is located (which are scattered around the entire map, without a proper guide as to where those even are, by the way) players need to dive into a hidden underwater cavern accessible only through one patch of ‘deep water’ in the middle of a lengthy water route. Said route is also plagued by intense currents, which means if you miss the current you have to go all the way back around to the start to try again.

This is just a third of the route, by the way, and that deep patch is only accessible through two tiles. Overshooting it just a little will make you hit currents pushing you past the patch you’re supposed to dive though.

Once you have managed to dive in that deep patch, and traversed the underwater cave it brings you through, you’re brought to a strange cavern filled with numerous stone slabs that all have writing on them, the only problem being each message on the stones are written in braille.

I’m not kidding. 

Luckily, when I was a kid there happened to be a braille-to-English translation book in my house, for whatever reason, and I was able to transcribe these messages.

Once you manage to do that, you’ll realize the messages want you to read them with Relicanth and Wailord in your party, in specific positions. Wailord isn’t too tough to find and train, but Relicanth, if you’ll remember, has a 1% encounter rate on only a few routes in the game. Thank god they didn’t ask you to get a Milotic.

Once you do that, the only thing the game will tell you is that doors seem to have opened somewhere, cluing you in that the various caves sprinkled around the map that hold the golems have opened. If you happened to notice their locations before on your travels, or see their names once inspecting the map, you’ll have to go visit them again.

…but then you’ll find that the entrance of the caves have opened, merely letting you into a small, empty chamber holding another braille message. The messages tell you how to open the inner doors and face the golems, and two of them aren’t that bad, merely telling you to move in a specific way and use one of the field HM moves your Pokemon are sure to know, but the one for Regice’s chamber has you wait motionless for two minutes. Moving at any point or even opening the menu will interrupt the invisible timer and make you have to restart.

Mirage Island

The Mirage Island is an obscure feature from Ruby/Sapphire that I doubt most players have gotten to experience because of how needlessly specific its requirements to see are, and how unimpressive the island itself is. Daily, speaking to a random old man NPC in one of the towns in-game will determine if you’ll be able to visit the Mirage Island that day, by generating two random byte values. These byte values have to match those of one of the internal ID values of one of the Pokemon currently in your party. Just to put in perspective how much of a random chance this is, even with a full party of 6 different Pokemon, this will only occur about 1/10000 of the time, more or less.

If by some miracle you do manage to get the Mirage Island to appear (which will only be present for the remainder of the day, mind you), visiting it will have you discover that the only thing to find on it are wild Wynauts (which the player can easily get otherwise via a gifted egg) and a Liechi berry, found nowhere else in the game. This is all the island is good for, but if you’re looking to have a full berry catalog or make gold Pokeblocks (Pokemon food made from berries in these games), this is the only way to do it.

Feebas Fishing

I already mentioned how tedious it is to find Feebas in its own article, but I’ll reiterate it here for good measure. Feebas can only be encountered on one route in the entire game, on six random tiles within said route, and which six tiles those are are randomly assigned at the start of each game file creation. To make matters worse, Feebas can only be encountered through fishing, not surfing through these tiles like you would walk through grass. This means you have to methodically check each tile with your fishing rod, hoping it’ll be a Feebas tile. By the way, each of those tiles only has a 50% chance to actually have you encounter a Feebas, meaning it’s possible for you to not even find it if you fish on the correct tile, say, four times in a row.

This is how long said route is, by the way. Feebas could be on any six of those water tiles, at random.

Faraway Island

While numerous event-exclusive items allow the player to visit islands far from the Hoenn region’s boundaries, like the one to Deoxys’s Birth Island, Faraway Island is by far the most enigmatic since it marks the only time in all of Pokemon history that Mew has been able to be encountered in the wild, and even then it consists of chasing the thing around a patch of tall grass in the island’s jungle.

 A worn and tattered sign is the only other thing of note, located on the shore of the island, and although the message is incomplete, many people have theorized this is where Mew calls home, and where it was first discovered and captured by the Kantonian scientists who created Mewtwo. Mew is all the island has to offer, and its restriction to a rare event item helps it feel that much more enigmatic and mysterious, like you’re really discovering something lost and forgotten by everyone else.

This feels like something out of a romhack, an unnatural part of the game that isn’t meant to be here. Don’t be fooled by the Uregistered Hypercam watermark, though, this is a very real secret hidden away in Pokemon Emerald. The only reason why you probably haven’t been there yourself is because it was locked behind limited-time event distribution.

I get why those events used to be, and still are a thing to an extent. Their limited availability windows are meant to make the secrets hidden behind them feel more mysterious and unknown, but the same thing was achieved more or less with the complexity of the Regi trio. Making the chance to see this stuff available for a limited time only in the real world seems a bit unfair in retrospect.

Altering Cave

Altering Cave was a location in Pokemon Emerald that would’ve allowed players to catch Pokemon not normally found in the game, through use of the obscure E-Reader add-on for the Gameboy Advance. However, due to the device’s obscurity and lack of distribution, the functionality of this cave has been lost to time, leaving the only Pokemon available inside it being… Zubat. While a cave full of Zubat is far from the most ominous and enigmatic thing the game has to offer, it does make you wonder why it’s there in the first place due to its apparent lack of usefulness.

Music

Yes, yes, music is extremely subjective, and I’m sure for those who did not grow up playing these games this will fail to resonate in the same way, but I still wanted to mention it.

Generation Three of Pokemon makes wildly impressive use of the Gameboy Advance sound chip, something that held a lot of other games back. Instead of being limited by the hardware, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald were able to take full advantage of what they were given and created some truly memorable and atmospheric tracks for the entirety of the game.

A lot of these tracks are highly effective at creating an air of mystery, intrigue, and uneasiness in a unique way I haven’t seen replicated in quite the same way in other games. Songs like the one above, as well as for Mt. Pyre’s Interior, Faraway Island, and Meteor Falls all paint pictures which carry complex emotions, often not sticking to just one feeling. It helps that each of the areas that accompany the songs are ones that are going to make players think about their histories and implications for the world. The one embedded in this post is what accompanies any cavern associated with the Regi trio, for example.

It may be entirely possible that I’m talking out of my ass here and all the thoughts I get from these songs are due to the nostalgia of having played these games at a young age, but the compositions seem very pleasant to the ear anyways. Plus, I just really love all the synths and compression inherent to this soundtrack.

Gen 3’s Fascination with Outer Space

Upon reflecting throughout these reviews, it became increasingly apparent to me that Gen 3 has an odd obsession with space. Pokemon didn’t stray away from making passing mention of outer space before, Clefairy being the obvious example, but creatures such as Starmie and even Grimer have their fair share of celestial oddness as well. Gen 3, however. revels in the cosmos to a much larger degree.

Several new Pokemon, such as Lunatone, Solrock, Claydol, and Deoxys all have some connection to astronomy in some fashion, and even more are implicated to be related in some way. Gardevoir, being a partial Fairy type, has an intrinsic connection to the moon, for example. The entire Beldum family seems tenuously connected as well, given Metang being found at impact craters similarly to Lunatone and Solrock. Claydol and Deoxys even make specific mention of mysterious laser beams from space being involved in their creation, bringing into question where these beams keep coming from. 

Hoenn is also the first region to have a scientific facility specifically focused on space exploration and research, which itself spawned several rumors of accessing and catching Jirachi and Deoxys without need of an external event, even involving traveling to the moon, somehow.

Numerous locations in Hoenn are also hotspots for meteor impacts, such as the picturesque Meteor Falls, which not only is dotted by craters both outside the caverns but also inside, somehow. It’s also in a single, tiny room tucked away in the back of Meteor Falls that players can encounter wild Bagon, their only location in the entire game. Good luck figuring that out, since the Pokedex will just mark the entirety of Meteor Falls as a possible Bagon habitat.

In addition is Sootopolis City, a gigantic impact crater in the middle of the ocean which formed a giant wall around the city later erected within it. Deep below Sootopolis City is also the Cave of Origin, a place where all life in the region is said to have originated, and where Kyogre and Groudon gain most of their power from. Make of that what you will. Both Meteor Falls and the Cave of Origin share the same music track as well, for what that’s worth.

Along with the rest of Gen 3’s aesthetics marking a sort of turning point for the series, this too would prove to be a large impact on the series’s focus with celestial themes and objects, and while later generations on compounded on these themes, Gen 3 still feels more mysterious in execution given how it ties together with the more vibrant and diverse region as a whole, as well as the changes brought forth by the new Pokemon designs as well. Before Gen 3, something like Deoxys was unheard of, but after Gen 3, it became more normalized.

Just picture the shock and awe felt by players who experienced Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald in their youth when the remakes would release, and actually feature an event in their climax where yes, the player can travel into space, shatter a meteorite, and fight and catch Deoxys who happened to be inside. It’s almost like the developers knew.

Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking, but it's that unearthly feeling that makes these older games and designs still stand out as something fresh and special in my mind that hasn’t been properly replicated since, barring Gen 4, which does get awfully close.

[Gen 3 Archive]

[sillykittyco]

I DUNNO THE LAYOUT IS JYST VERY CNFYSING AND I CANT FIGURE OUT WHAT IM SUPPOSED TO DO WITU THE DRAGONS..? LIKE DO I JUYST PLAY MINIGAMES AND FEED THEM OR..? /GEN /NM THERES JUTS NOT MUCH EXPLANATION

OK OK WHEN I FINISH THE OTHER PARTS I'LL REBLOG THIS W/ THEM BUT FOR NOW WE'LL FOCUS ON THE FIRST SECTION: CLAN.

This is the Flight Rising Main Menu! Here, you'll find links to almost everything there is to do. As you can see I have numbered a few things 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Today I will quickly explain 6 and then go into detail about 1, Clan.

6 is your food bar. If you keep all the dragons in your lair fed above 80% for 3 days you will get:

+5 gathering turns a day

1 gem each day

250 treasure per day

15% more experience battling in the Coliseum

Now that that's done, lets look into Clan!

When you click on clan, you will get something similar to this. I also have labeled this 1-6 for convenience. Let me explain what each thing is:

Nesting grounds! When you pair two dragons together, a male and female, you can get between 1-5 eggs. These eggs take 5 days to hatch. Each day you have to press an 'incubate' button in order to get them to hatch. When you press 'incubate' on the last day, you have to wait for the next day to hatch them. Also dragons do have a breeding cool down. This is a key feature in the game.

Dragons! This one I felt needed a diagram, as it has so many features.

There is a feed button(1). After gathering items and turning them into food points, you can feed your dragons in order to get the bonuses explained at the top of the page. There is a settings option(2):

In the settings you can get more lair space using treasure(1) which means you can hold more dragons. You can also buy tabs(2) which are used to store dragons(See: the tabs named 'Lair, Lore Hatchery, MBS, TBS'), you can add a description(3) of each tab for organization purposes, and you can move dragons to either a new tab(4) or the Hibernal Den(5).

The Hibernal Den(3 in Clan overview, 5 in Lair Settings) is an extra place to store dragons. It functions really the same as the lair, with a few changes. Once you put a dragon in the Hibernal Den and take it back out, it has a cooldown before it can go back in. Another thing is once a dragon is in the Hibernal Den, it cannot be fed, bred, bonded with familiars, traded via Crossroads, sold on the Auction House, put on a Coliseum team, or exalted. The upside to this is A) more space in lair, B) doesn't get 'hungry'/doesnt need to be fed. The final change is that more space in the hibernal den can either be achieved by gathering certain amounts of items, or paying with gems.

Now back to the basic lair, I do not need to explain number 5, the tabs, as those already have been explained. Number 4 is just the dragons in your lair. You click on it and you can see the dragon, give it a familiar, write a bio for it, dress it up, and more.

Now moving on to 3.

In the gathering area you can gather, dig, scavenge, etc 15 times(1). Now hunting, fishing, insect catching, and foraging are all ways to get food to feed your dragons(2, 2, 2, and 2.). Digging and scavenging give you different types of materials(3, 4), some only found in certain locations. You can also occasionally get money chests from digging.

I'm gonna get 4 and 6 out of the way because my hands are getting so tired. In 4:

you can write about what you do and stuff, you can see your friends, you can make posts in the forums, and you can see your recent activity(hatchlings and stuff).

Last but not least in the Clan section, is the Hoard.

Number 1 is the categorizing tabs, in each tab is the different things you get. Number 2 is how you switch between the hoard and the vault(hoard but shinier, i use it to shove extra money in there so i have both backup cash and to stop my bad spending habits.) 3 is when you select food(little boxes by the number of how much you have) or when you select all(5) you can convert the food to points and that is how you feed your dragons. Also if youve selected stuff you can put it in the vault(4)

I hope you're proud of yourself(i think something in my hand is broken from all this typing and working and stuff) (plus im not even done-) /silly /lh

[crystalelemental]

To give more of an idea on this tactics in Pokemon stuff, I’m gonna give some generalized examples I’ve kicked around for months, but never really drafted up a full, cohesive explanation to.  Hopefully it helps articulate my thoughts.

One thing Pokemon does well is the idea of type matchups, and presenting something just before a gym that’s designed to handle it.  Think way back to Gen 1: Misty is answered by Bellsprout and Oddish, Surge by Diglett, Blaine by the Water-types along the water routes you travel, etc.  This has been a pretty consistent thing with tons of examples, and thankfully, just as many examples of counterplay to those obvious counters.  The easiest one to point to is Elesa: you get Sandile in the route before Nimbasa, only for her lead to be Emolga, who answers you just as well.  I think that’s a good give and take.  Produce something that’s good against the gym’s central typing, but let the gym have particular counterplay against those would-be answers.

But this should be the early-game stuff, not the entire game.  It’s the basics.  Having an early gym that’s, say, Ground-type, with your early-game bird as a reasonable solution, is a good way to establish.  But you can also start establishing other mechanics like abilities, by having their team include something with Water Absorb, or a secondary typing like Bug to negate a Grass weakness and prevent sweeps.  Things that go beyond one-to-one matchups.  I think those need to be taught early, and sometimes they’re not taught at all.  Not to blast Gen 8, but it’s not until Opal, the fifth gym, that we have a team that can respond to their weaknesses in Mawile.  Structure early fights along these lines, but mid-game fights around more in-depth strategies.

For instance, one idea I’d love to see against a Bug-type leader is playing the status game.  Have them apply Toxic with something bulky that can heal.  Have them sleep with something that can boost.  Have them paralyze with a Flying-type that knows Air Slash.  Get nasty.  Teach how devastating application of status can really be, and make players want to experience it.

Then you pivot into them using that status against something else that’s a problem, like the Cofagrigus example.  Opponent mains a super bulky threat that can boost, and is nigh-unbreakable from an offensive perspective?  Status it.  Time for you to use your own Toxic.  This doesn’t work as well when your opponent can spam Full Restores, but I’m kinda in favor of removing those as it is.

To teach about field effects, have an Electric-type gym leader that can set Rain on entry, with their team packing Thunder, and their Rain setter with Volt Switch.  Their setter keeps leaving, coming back to re-apply as needed, but if you stay on top of adjusting the weather, especially with a Sunny Day TM found just before, you can make Thunder horribly inaccurate and clutch out an easier win.

Teach about entry hazards with a Dark-type opponent that can set up Spikes or Stealth Rock, maybe both, and have a super-powerful attacker like Bisharp with Sucker Punch to capitalize on weakened opponents.

I think there are a lot of methods to demonstrate these strategies, while also forcing players to approach things a bit more technically.  If your opponent is constantly throwing out status, maybe Safeguard is a good skill to have.  Maybe you do want Heal Bell somewhere.  If your opponent’s super bulky and boosts, maybe you do want Toxic or Leech Seed for passive damage.  If your foe thrives under weather, maybe you do want to be able to change it.  If hazards weaken you, and Sucker Punch punishes raw offense, maybe it’s worth having something like Substitute to block a hit, or Defog to remove those hazards.  Just...options that put pressure on players to engage with the systems and mechanics in play.

And a part of that is good dual-typing.  Crasher Wake’s a good example of how little it really needs to be: Gyarados and Quagsire cover the typical Grass and Electric weaknesses of the core type.  Very little to nothing can sweep his team offensively.  If he’d produced a gimmick that made his team more threatening, like boosting via Dragon Dance or Curse, he may have been able to seriously threaten a team that just relied on outspeeding and super-effective attacks.