The Damned

Reminder: If you haven't picked up the Munchlax from WiFi, you have two days left to do so. This is the Munchlax that comes with the Snorlium Z, which isn't found in-game at all, and learns a few interesting moves regular Munchlax don't.

I think you have to sync every day, not just at the end. That's what I've been doing. Well, we still get 217 coins, regardless.

Well, shit. We're only two days from the end of the current Global Mission, and we're not even at 430 000 out of 1 000 000. 11 days to get less than half way through. I can't tell if Nintendo seriously overestimated players , no one really knows about the events, or players just aren't able/willing to meet the requirements. Or maybe the collective player base is thinking that if we all fail enough over and over, Nintendo will just lower the goal to the point where we can't help but win.

I'd say it's the best game in the series since Gen 3 (and I love Gen 3). Each generation shakes things up a little, here and there. Like, gen 2 added two new types and held items, gen 3 added abilities and a better, more streamlined stat system, etc. But Sun and Moon had the biggest changes. Most of them were minors things on paper, but they change the game a lot in practice. Gone are HMs, replaced by pokémon you can summon instantly to perform the task the old HM would have done. This frees up a lot of move slots on multiple pokémon, so you can now carry a full team of battlers without having to sacrifice anything at all. Gyms are gone, and I'm kind of glad they did it this way. Replacing it with something other than more battles gives a good change of pace. Instead of fighting a Gym Leader that uses Fire or Rock or whatever type pokémon, you are given a task by a local trainer of importance, like gather certain items in a jungle, or take pictures of a rare pokémon. You still get to fight them at some point, but the short break from grinding and fighting is a nice change. Also, they removed the stiffer grid-based system, and replaced it with a true analog direction system instead. You can walk in any direction, take curved paths, start and stop easier... The Ultra Beasts quest post-game isn't too deep, but it give you a nice quest after the main game. You get to meet an old character or two from older games, the Ultra Beasts are kind of cool... Totem Pokémon battles are a good spike in difficulty. They're bigger and tougher than regular pokémon of the same kind, and they tend to have a single stat boost right at the start of battle that give you a good fight. I remember fighting a few and actually having a hard time with them. Wild pokémon can call other pokémon during battle to help them out. Suddenly, it's two on one, and they can get pretty sneaky. I almost lost to a double battle against some poison types. One would poison my team, the other would use a move that double damage when the target is poisoned, so even though I had a huge level advantage, I was getting my ass kicked! There are a few things that I wish had been kept. They could have cut the number of Ride Pokémon in half, and given more uses for the RotomDex (like making it your Item Finder instead of using Stoutland to sniff item out). But overall, it's a really good refresh on the series. I miss the Bicycle. The fastest Ride Pokémon requires constant holding down of the B button, and it's not exactly as fun. Smashing through rocks gets tiring after the hundredth time, and there's that slight delay when you have to change outfits and summon the pokémon to you. The same amount of time could just have you take a bicycle out from behind you and bam, no need for a silly helmet and bodysuit. But overall, it's definitely a big step up from gen 6. All the good stuff from before is kept, all the clunky bits are smoothed out, and all the new stuff is a nice change.

Hit up Viz.com, you'll find it. As for the other purpose of the thread... I have volumes 1 to 49 or Pokémon Special (Adventures in some parts of the world) sitting on my shelves. It's gotten less and less... well, I would say written, but they barely had a story in the first place. Ever since around half way through the Ruby and Sapphire arc, it's been more and more about showcasing whatever pokémon they haven't featured yet, and less about any of the gaps in the plot from the games. Which is sad, because even before that, it wasn't exactly a strong connection in the first place. It's been downhill at a slow, steady rate ever since, and I've pretty much stopped collecting it. Honestly, as I peruse the various scans and fan translations that are now readily available, I see less and less good manga. Even if you filter out the obvious softcore porn titles, you're still left with a lot of series that offer very little past panty shots and fan-service. The several hundred or so left from that vary from poorly written tropes-fests to marginally acceptable twists on the genre... which then end up having to focus more on action or sexy accidents involving the characters as they get more feedback from readers and editors. I used to like Yozakura Quartet, but after a while, they started inserting scenes where all the young girl characters were just... sitting around in their underwear for no reason. Seriously, they had no reason for it, there was no circumstance that would justify it. As more chapters came out, more and more of those scenes would appear, until they had one chapter where it was just every girl in the series in skimpy swimsuits in an apartment. I stopped after that. Meanwhile, Detective Conan hasn't really progressed much since 1994. Oh, they just missed another lead on the Black Organization. Damn, never saw that coming. Good thing another random murder mystery is happening right now to fill in the gap until the next minor incremental step towards the end! (Seriously though, someone is murdering at least one other person about every three or so days in this series. The graveyards must be triple-stacked at this point. That town is not big enough to support such a large, continuous population drain for that long! How are there any people left?) There are, however, a few good titles out there (for me at least, and isn't that the really important thing, here? ), like Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken. A guy dies and is reincarnated as a slime from a Dragon Quest-like world. Kind of funny, has some interesting takes on fantasy tropes and doesn't pander anywhere as much as other series these days. Lightly explores issues about discrimination against races, building communities into countries, sometimes has cool magic fights against monsters... Now, even though I find most of manga (and comic books) not worth the while, I still check them out every so often. You never know when you'll find something like All New Wolverine, starring Laura as... the all new Wolverine. I like her. She's funny. This one scene has her facing a bunch of random mutant kids trying to be tough, so she corners them in a parkade. One of them gets the bright idea to set her on fire to kill her. Nope. She's literally walking it off, laughing a bit. Angel swoops in, grabs her, and tosses her into a water fountain to put the flames out. She yells at him, and he can't understand why she's so mad. She tells him she had the situation completely in control. "But, you were on fire!" he says. Her reply? "That because the only thing scarier than a Wolverine is a Wolverine on FIRE!" Awesome. So, I'm still going to check everything out once in a while, because if I hadn't I never would have read that scene, and never would have gotten into the current line of Marvel comic books. I don't read most of them still, but I do check up on a few every month, just to see if they're any good.

I still got 57 minutes before it's 2017, so stop telling me what to do!

Update on the Global Mission! We're at 201 700 out of 1 000 000! That's a fifth of the way there, in five days. We only have 9 more days to get there, so everyone start spamming those QR codes! And don't forget to connect to the internet so your scans and captures and be counted towards the goal!

There's one last chance to get an Arceus on your XY and ORAS games. For North America, use the code ARCEUS20 and in Europe use the code ARCEUS2016 . If you got Arceus from the event earlier this year, you can't get this one, as it counts as the same giveaway. Event ends this Saturday, on New year's Eve.

There's a new Global Mission out. https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/information/48e2bb06-eb05-4a77-9044-6ebf157fff59 If we get 1 million island scans by the 9th, we all get 2017 Festival Coins (if you Game Synced to pokemon-gl.com with an account, you get double, 4034). If we don't, we all get 217 (434 with pgl account). Either way, that's a lot more than you can get from random FC farming. EDIT: For those wondering how to do this, simple instructions: Press X to get to the menu. Find "QR Scanner" (might be on the second page of the menu) The external camera will activate. Scan any QR codes, or use these ones for an easy 20 points at a time instead of taking ten 10-point scans. Once you get 100 points, press X to start Island Scan, and the game will "scan" the island and a random pokémon you normally can't find will appear. The top screen will tell you where it can be found. Go catch that pokémon, whatever and wherever it is. Repeat scanning and catching (you can only do two a day, though, either ten 10-point scans, or 5 20-points scans twice a day) Repeat each day until the 9th.

Well, considering that Missingno isn't a pokémon at all... In fandom, it may have some significance, but that's it.

Meloetta event is over in six or do hours. Last chance, everyone.

Hey. I'm going to suggest taking the first minute or so off. That part with the drums that ends at 0:17 doesn't really fit, either. Everything from 0:19 to 1:30 barely any different from the original version. But from 1:31 and on, it's pretty good. You build up from 1:30 to 2:08 nicely, covering the core theme, and then the poppier beats kick in, tempo goes up, it turns from kind of sad to happy and energetic. The short lull at 3:06 to 3:19 gives you a little break which helps prevent listening fatigue, then it goes into another build up, hovers at a plateau for while, giving you a chance to build up again for the crescendo at 4:23. From there to 5:27, it's a solid minute of fast beats. Cool down at 5:28 to the end seems a bit long, but then you throw in the same bit at the very beginning, and it doesn't fit. I get yo were trying to bookend the song with it, but I think it needs to be removed. Other than that, I'd say it's a pretty solid 7.5 out of 10, it just needs some minor tweaks and polish here and there. Could be an 8.5 with ease.

So, got all my TMs. Moved on to trying to get that pokédex filled in. Wonder Trade is sooo much better this gen. I've received a Mimikyu, who refuses to even show up in my game without dying from a slight breeze, as well as a few version exclusives. So much better. It seems faster, people re more willing to give away pokémon other than Yangoose over and over and over. And a reminder! The Meloetta event is over on the 24th. That's only about 24 hours from now. If you haven't gotten one by now, you're going to be hard pressed for one later.

And here I am still trying to get one alive. Damn pokémon team loves me so much, they keep critical hitting everything when I'm just trying to get it low enough to capture. Only two more TMs to get, and that's done.

Borderlands 3. Borderlands 2 is still one of my favorite games. I haven't played it since April, but that's because I have played it since I got it back in late 2012. That was about three years of steady constant play. And while many (including myself for a while) shit all over The Pre-Sequel, we were really doing it because, while it stands up on its own as a game, we were all comparing it to BL2, which was jsut a better game overall. Not exactly fair. Everyone was expecting BL3 to be announced at some point in 2015, but instead, we got Battleborn. And we all know that story. Enough said. We know that Gearbox was already doing pre-production work back in 2015 as the major work for BB was well under way. Come mid-2016, they officially announce that full development is underway. That gives about a two thirds of a year or so of work. Sadly, I doubt we'll even get a trailer before 2017 is over at this rate. One can still wish, though...

Luckily, Wonder Trade and GTS still work for XY and ORAS. So go ahead and try it on your Gen 6 games any way. you might even get something in return.

Oh! That reminds me, there's the (kind of, sorta, not really) annual Christmas Wonder Trade! Basically, ever since X and Y came out, there has been the Wonder Trade option, where you just randomly trade with someone else. They don't have to be on your Friends List or anything. The Christmas Wonder Trade is something that players have been self-organizing and doing each year. Simply trade away pokémon like spare starters, version exclusives, breeding rejects (damn! only one point away from perfect stats! NEXT!), or spare shinies you don't want. The new players will have a good chance at something rare or powerful, or just really cool! And since you can give Wonder Trade pokémon items to hold, you could send them with a spare Ultra Ball or Hyper potion, something that could help out with their game. Well, I mean,it will cost you a few pokémon here and there, but really, is that too much to ask? Just don't give them names like Hitlerfcuker, alright?

Two more things I'm really liking about gen 7. The first is that all TMs are eitehr free (you find them, you are given them) or easily purchasable in store (mostly from the right-side person at the PokéCenter store, or that one shop in Konikoni City). None of them are Battle Tree prizes that require lots of Battle Points to buy (Black and White did this, and I think I still never got a few of them). Second, the GTS is a lot more responsive to searches. I could find almost anything with ease, the A to Z and search functions are simpler and easy to use. No fiddling around with them. Also, it seems that people are a lot less demanding with trades on the GTS. I easily found and traded for level 1 female starters. Like, an hour later and I was done. That's awesome. Previous generations had that extra difficulty to get all the TMs and finish the pokédex, which added a lot of hours to the game. I'm just a bit concerned that with all this easier access to TM and pokémon, there may not be that much more to do now.

Oh. Forgot about this. Yeah, so it turns out that big announcement is... they're doing a short concert tour in Japan. Just Japan. Nowhere else. Translated: Well, it's nothing as big as the Zelda 25th concerts, or the Pokémon 20th year of stuff happening... but at least Kirby got more than Metroid did. I think there was a game with Metroid in the title?

OK, so I'm running into to some slight problems with my secret santa recipient. I may have to go with the backup plan of Steam wishlist fulfillment. I usually don't go that route unless they specifically state that's what they want. But my current endeavors are not working with me.

For those of us that don't read Japanese: And various fan sites have combed over it, talked to contacts, blah blah blah. No one knows what's going to happen. Could be a simple thank you message to the fans, could be the announcement of all kinds of new games/events/merchandise... I'm glad they're doing something for Kirby. 2016 is the year of video game anniversaries, 5th to 35th. The year is almost over, and Kirby was almost completely ignored. Happy 25th, Kirby!

Do we know if it's just a one minute video that just says "here's the date", or is it going to be a longer video (ten or twenty minutes) with tons of info about everything?

I'm trying to dig up all the various fan-compiled stuff that shows all the little tricks and tips for the game. It's new enough that all this info may not be common knowledge. Here's a few I've found. http://imgur.com/a/Gu18x catching tips and trickscould be helpful until you can get your guys from XY/ORAS via PokéBank https://imgur.com/a/EFOqs QR codes for scanning. Super useful for filling up that meter to get Island Scan. I have seen a few others, but I'm always looking for more stuff like this. Any one else got some? Also: Really, you think?

Finally beat the Elite 4 last night. Now that I'm done with the main game, I do have some critiques. Poké Ride pokémon could have been trimmed down. I like the idea of ditching HMs, because it frees up your team and their move slots. Something that has been asked for since... like, gen 2? But I think they overdid it a bit with seven different pokémon to use, when half of that would work. Lapras is slower than Sharpedo, but lets you fish on the water. Sharpedo is only really there to smash rocks in the water, but is also a lot faster than Lapras. Why not just let Lapras smash rocks as well (as evidenced by the fat is can learn Rock Smash since gen 2) or let us fish while on Sharpedo (something we have been able to do since gen 3)? Combine both abilities into one pokémon. Or, alternatively, just don't have rocks in the water. Stoutland serves no purpose other than to replace the Itemfinder... which doesn't make sense. Poké Ride is about getting rid of HMs so your team is free to have full proper battling moves. Instead, have the Rotomdex act as the Itemfinder. It already can scan for things, so let it do that! Also, after the Elite 4, Rotomdex comments less and less, until he pretty much doesn't talk any more. He's just a map on the bottom screen. Give him the task of being the Itemfinder, and he's more useful again! Tauros is fast while charging, but can't cross rocky terrain. Mudsdale is slower but is the only thing that lets you cross rocky terrain. For that matter, why is rocky terrain even a thing? There is only one spot that requires yo to cross it, and the other places allow you to walk around it. So Mudsdale is kind of forced on us. As for Tauros? Weeeeellllll... Machamp should be the rock pusher and rock smasher. Machamp's pokédex entries and move pool (both the Strength and the Rock Smash HM/TM are in its pool) support this, as well as the various times in the game when you see Machamps doing stuff like breaking rocks. That just leaves Charizard as your flying ride... and that's perfectly fine. Char is the OG flyer! Four Ride Pokémon, four d-pad spots to assign them to. Simple and easy. After the Elite 4, it takes forever to get to the ending credits. Beating the Elite 4 was actually challenging. I spent a lot of time and healing items just barely getting through them, and then Professor Nippleshirt shows up and makes me wait even longer to get my sweet chair. Buuuuuut then I get twenty minutes of cut scenes and a forced battle I wasn't ready for when Lillie drags me to face Tapu whatever. I ended up running from the battle just so I could end it faster. Also, I spotted several items during those cut scenes, including a Zygarde part, which I could not get, even though I was only a few feet from them. I still haven't be able to find those exact spots because I can't remember where they were. They could have paced that out better. Poké Pelego is awesome and useful. You saw my shiny Staryu before. That's awesome. But now that I've gotten more beans and more pokémon, the other islands have unlocked and I've been able to start stockpiling all kinds of cool stuff. And it's pretty much automatic as long as you have beans, which you get for free by punching a beanstalk in the stem. Facial expressions are a nice touch. Seeing Lillie's fear and uncertainty gradually turn in to fierce determination made her very likable and human. But the player character needs more than just blankly staring. During some of the more dramatic moments, the camera would pan over to me, and I look like a smiling psychopath. Music is, once again, top notch. Already got the soundtrack downloaded. The new pokémon are pretty interesting and fun to use. I used a giant water-spider to suck the life-force out of everything that didn't drown from it spitting water down their throats. Final rating: pretty good / 10

Welp, Poké Pélego just paid for itself. http://imgur.com/llYcCRI