By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

[Armando]

[ame=http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54402]Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver to be released in Japan in Fall 2009 - Smogon Community[/ame]

The news is about 2 weeks old but in case some of you haven't heard, well, what the title says. Since Generation I was re-released in the form of LeafGreen and FireRed, releasing HeartGold/SoulSilver means that every generation of Pokemon games will be able to trade with all the others in some way (Advance games can send stuff to DS.)

For those too lazy to check the link above, go to Pokebeach.com and scroll down to see magazine scans. Although the game will allow the player to pick a female character, it won't be Crystal; an all-new character has been designed just for this.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

Oh boy. Now THESE are some games I'm going to buy. And I'm bringing over my Uber Arcanine from Pearl as well >_>

[Armando]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

lolFireType.

Just kidding. I've been known to use a 6 Clefable team.

[DakAttack]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

I can't believe people still play pokemon.

[Armando]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

You probably never realized they were good games in the first place.

[hexx]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

Wow, think ill be getting a DS now ^_^

[DakAttack]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

I played 'em. Though, after realizing that the second batch of pokemon they came up with were either retarded looking or copied from Monster Rancher, I felt I had to quit.

Just like I don't read Dr. Seuss anymore, I don't play Pokemon.

[Armando]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

Ruby/Sapphire's the one with the retarded looking ones. That aside, the VS aspect of it is still pretty strong and is the main reason I keep coming back to the series.

[Ameroth]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

Just like I don't read Dr. Seuss anymore

Too bad. Seuss was a fucking genius. Or had lots of acid.

I'm of the opinion that it was both.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

The Gold/Silver installments were by far the ones I liked the most. Only reason I don't play far into the newer ones is because they don't hold up well to Gold/Silver. I'll totally be getting this, I just would need an old Fire Red GBA cart and a older DS.

Or they could just re-release Fire Red/Leaf Green on DSiWare, I suppose.

Also never liked most Pokemon games after Silver because (1) Trading back and forth became a fuss and (2) they ruined my fun with Psychic types. I know it was for the sake of balance, but I liked owning all with MewTwo and Allakazam.

Also, if you think Pokemon is kid's stuff on a gameplay level - Game Freak drew quite a bit of inspiration for its style of play from the Shin Megami Tensei series. Difference is SMT was always more darkly themed and emphasized no trade element with other players, but rather a single player experience with stories often driven by the player's decisions. Both franchise offer up some of the greatest amount of customization you could hope for, Pokemon breeding is just a little too tedious for my liking.

So Armando might wish to give some SMT games a spin, Devil Survivor hits next month on DS, its a strategy RPG spin on the series.

All in all, I like RPGs that do a bit more with the beastiary than make you kill them one after the other. Pokemon and SMT let you turn enemies into powerful allies. Also why I like Beastmaster in FFXI and Enchanter in Everquest.

[Armando]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

(2) they ruined my fun with Psychic types. I know it was for the sake of balance, but I liked owning all with MewTwo and Allakazam.

Mewtwo is still uber, and Alakazam is actually still in OU (Overused, highest tier before Uber aka banned from standard play.) Psychic as a type is still very competitive, unlike types such as Grass, Fire, and Ice, which suffer from some rather unfortunate weaknesses and resistances.

I've had Shin Megami Tensei and Persona on my list of series I need to get into, but that list is still quite big. Still, I'll look into it, thanks for the heads-up.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

SMT shares ground with Pokemon on family Types and what's called fusion (its like breeding except you take two parent demon that will be lost in the fusion, but the resulting demon carries on certain traits, plus the process is instant). The fusion element is rough around the edges on earlier installments, but has become more informative about what passive traits and abilities you can pass on - particularly with Persona 4 and Devil Summoner 2. I imagine Devil Survivor will also see the benefit of an enhanced fusion system like those games.

Only downside to fusion is that sometimes it will fail. This can go one of two ways - either you'll get an unexpected demon with traits it may not be normally meant to have (which can be cool) or you'll get a Slime, which are like Dittos only useless and weak to practically any type of magic damage.

Pokemon breeding is the side venture for getting rare pokemon or ones with certain traits you want them to have without having to use up a consumable HM (or was it TM, I think TMs were reusable depending on the Type of Pokemon). Fusion is a core element of SMT and its something you do A LOT of since each game has its fair share of tiers to work through.

Another thing in common: Pokemon are stored on PCs, in the earliest installments of SMT, you stored away demons that way as well.

And "demon" is practically a generic term in the series, sometimes they're "Persona," too. But its a beastiary of mythological, religious and fantasy creatures found in literature and folklore. Sometimes even urban legends like Mothman (lesser-known Sasquatch type of "sighted" thing in America).

[Armando]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

Sounds pretty cool. Honestly I wish raising/breeding Pokemon weren't such a chore/timesink on the competitive level. I've mainly turned to a program which lets me hack my save file to create the Pokemon I want. I don't use it to create illegal combinations, just to cut down on the time it takes me to get a working team together. All my friends do it too so we try out new things against each other frequently. It's like a No Windower VS Windower kinda thing. EDIT: To clarify, I only do this for PVP. I still want to beat the story the old-fashioned way when I get Platinum and SoulSilver.

The thing Pokemon does have going for it though is customization. Although the game doesn't tell this to you (God knows why, it's rather important) each Pokemon can get up to 510 "effort values" spread across its stats, with no more than 255 in a single stat. At Level 100, every 4 EVs translates into +1 to that stat. You get EVs for a stat by fighting Pokemon that emphasize that stat (e.g. beating a Machop gives 1 Attack EV, beating a Machoke gives 2 and a Machamp gives 3.)

Pokemon can also have different "natures" (Bold, Brave, Careful, etc) which give +10% to a stat and -10% to another. They've also added a much wider variety of held items than just Leftovers, such as items that boost Attack, Special Attack or Speed by 50% but force you to repeat the same move, an item that lets you survive with 1 HP if you get OHKO'd from full health, an item that extend the duration of Reflect/Light Screen, and an item that increases all damage moves by 30% at the expense of 10% of your HP per attack.

By varying the EV spreads, nature, held item, and move set, a specific Pokemon can have radically differing performance and uses. Pokemon with many viable configurations will force the opponent to take a guess at how the Pokemon's been set up. Some seemingly unconventional sets can sometimes get the upper hand because of the opponent assuming you're running a more popular set - or because the opponent can't risk letting you perform X strategy, even if that's not what your Pokemon is actually made to do.

For instance, Heatran is a Fire/Steel Pokemon with monstrous Special Attack and average Speed. Most Heatran run Choice Scarf (Speed +50%, must repeat same move.) A Heatran with Choice Scarf will outrun most things. It's possible that your Heatran doesn't have a scarf after all, but if it does, there's a very high probability you can OHKO the opponent's Pokemon before it can attack. The opponent must then decide if he wants to risk it or switch out to something else. If he does switch, and your Heatran wasn't a Choice Scarfer, he's giving you a free turn to put up a Substitute or use Calm Mind (Special Attack + Special Defense up 1 stage i.e. 50%) which is also extremely dangerous. With a Substitute up, it doesn't matter what your opponent just sent out, he won't be able to kill you in one turn, and you already know what's out in the field and are free to choose the appropriate move. Alternatively, you could be using Choice Specs as your item (+50% Sp.Attack, must repeat the same move) and with a bit of prediction, absolutely decimate whatever he tried to send out with your buffed Special Attack.

In some cases you can also feign having a Choice item (the ones that boost a stat by 50%) by repeating the same move even though you don't have to, as long as your held item isn't something that gives you away like Leftovers or Life Orb since gaining/losing HP will pretty much give it away.

All of these mechanics should carry over into the Gold/Silver remakes.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

Gold and Silver are the only Pokemon games I have never played so I am quite interested in this remake.

I've mainly turned to a program which lets me hack my save file to create the Pokemon I want.

Yeah, I eventually resorted to this too. After spending 100+ hours trying to breed an Eevee with both a good nature and IV spread I died a little inside and swore to never waste my time with it again.

I haven't used Pokesav to hack my way through the game though, other than screwing around with a Sableye with Wonder Guard for a few minutes.

[Armando]

Re: By the way, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Remakes Confirmed

It hasn't taken me anywhere close to 100 hours to create the Pokemon I wanted through breeding but the time spent was certainly not trivial. In my opinion the biggest part of the whole competitive breeding equation is the inability to quickly and conveniently figure out your Pokemon's IVs (their genes, basically.) If you could figure that out quickly, the whole breeding process would go a lot faster.

I haven't used Pokesav to hack my way through the game though, other than screwing around with a Sableye with Wonder Guard for a few minutes.

Ahaha, nice. As for myself, my first Pokesav experiment was a shiny Magikarp called LAVOS with 255 EVs in all stats and attacks: Roar of Time, Spatial Rend, Judgment, and Doom Desire. It still sucked though.