Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

So I am super excited. I found out yesterday that select theaters in my area will be showing Metallica's S&M 2 concert at them which happens to be my favorite band of all time. I quickly checked a theater in my area and found some for $15!!! So In will be going to that this October a few days before my birthday too. I am super excited!!!

@Tasuki what about an activation program on the disc that automatically unpacks the codes and then automatically adds the DLC to your download cue this way the codes can't be stolen NOR would they have a use by date and it would still link them to the initial account they was used on meaning they was still a one time use item and thus can't be shared through the used games market (which i'm assuming is one of the main reasons they do it, it's kind of like online passes

that and they are also lazy)

@FullbringIchigo it's probably also cheaper to use slips of paper with codes on them then discs. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the base game discs are just discs that they have left over from the initial print so they just print out a slip with codes and call it a day.

@Tasuki they are trust me, i brought the Royal Edition of FFXV on XB1 and the game disc is literally the original release and i know this because not only does the disc have the original copyright date on it AND not only did it look the same as the day one PS4 disc (bar the console specific branding of course) but when i first installed and played it my XB1 internet adapter was broken so i couldn't update it and it was the original vanilla release

Seeing as I have nothing left to say about Sword and Shield @Ralizah and it's gonna purely be a recollection of my thoughts on Pokémon White I'm putting my response here so I don't derail the switch thread (Incidently I forgot to mention I saw your post about the Alexa stuff in the movie thread the other night before Tasuki edited it and I thought it was adorable... Excellent choice of colour with red by the way!)

As for Pokémon White. It was four... maybe three years ago I played it for the first time. I'd heard about it's critical reputation and despite my uninterest in the Pokes I'd seen I decided to try it out. Admittedly the finer details really escape me as I played it only once and then got rid of it... but I'll try my best so forgive me if I've got something wrong.

• For starters... I didn't really like the starters. Tepig's line is incredibly garish and ghastly, Snivy is pretty meh and so is Oshawott really (Which is a downright shame as a lover of all the water starters before and after this)
• The plot. I'm sure it's only like an hour in when you see that public speech from Ghetis (Or however it's spelt) and I was intrigued by Team Plasma Cut to an hour later with the two grunts kicking the pokemon in the forest and I instantly dismissed them as just another team rocket expy just with good publicity (at the moment). Completely ruined any chance of taking them seriously and knew the leader was totally evil and just lying to N. N's niavity to the whole situation just made me roll my eyes too
• The rivals. I can't remember the names of them... But after the second time I encountered them they became rather predictable on when I was suppose to expect them. One on the route to a new city, the other whilst leaving or something.

Whilst you know you'll always fight the rival of any pokémon game at the start and end... usually inbetween you'll have no idea when they'll pop up. But yeah... these two I just seemed to know every time and it seemed to be way too frequent as well.

• It felt like the longest pokemon game I'd played. And yet it was actually one of the quickest I'd ever beaten a pokemon game. It might be due to the fact I didn't care much for any the pokemon designs in the slightest and I just stuck with one team rather then switching things up as I went along.

Looking through the pokes from gen 5 there's about 15 or so I like. Lilligant and Whimsicott being the only ones that I do really like and remember.

• Didn't like how the trainers/gym leaders/elite four had pitiful amounts of pokemon either. Plus the elite four choosing thing, only four pokes and no increased level between the four meant it wasn't really a challenge in the slightest

Heh... Sorry if that sounds more like a rant... Wasn't supposed to be but I just really didn't get along with it in the slightest 😅

I never want to not like a game... But White completely and utterly dissapointed me on pretty much every level.

X&Y had a lot of problems too but I liked a bunch more of the pokemon (Especially my Froggy Boi Greninja) and I actually liked Xerneas too compared to Zekrom and Reishram (sp?) who just looked rather generic.

At the end of the month I'm gonna leave my workplace, one more time. It happens every year since I work for a tour operator for 8/9 months per year, then there's a long break before the next season. Last year I had a severe burnout in July which obviously ruined any "goodbye party" hypothesis, but I'm not that kind of person anyway.
August 30th will be a friday so I decided to offer a beer only to the closest colleagues (that's 30 of us in the office, too many for a collective goodbye) right at the end of my last working day.
It's 5 years now I'm into this routine and even if I work 150 kms away from home, my feelings still belong to my hometown.
To me, worktime has nothing to do with the "real life", the one in which I am myself and not a part of a mechanism ruled by others.

@andreoni79 I've always wondered how those who do seasonal work handle the gaps and so on. It must be very busy during the season. Are you away from home a lot?

@Rudy_Manchego I usually leave my hometown in december/january and come back in august/september. In these 8/9 months there's a lot of work to do, with also some 16hours working days... In one single day we can move around 1000 kids in Italy or abroad. We also sent 510 kids to London only on July 2nd. When we look for a new coaches company in the UK they always think we are joking when we say "there are 500 kids on 15 different flights coming this day. What can you offer us?" 😂
There's a lot of stress, but then I have three months in which I receive a good unemployment benefit. Finally I have time for my studies and writing!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I really, really liked how a lot of the people acted like... people... in B/W. Bianca's father not wanting her to go on a Pokemon adventure, for example. It's such a basic, humanizing thing, and I had always kind of wondered why the parents always seemed perfectly content to let their children wander a land filled with dangerous, borderlines supernatural animals and career criminals.

Team Plasma seems like a very organic part of the Pokemon universe. OF COURSE you would have a group concerned about the welfare of Pokemon. It also makes sense that an ostensibly benevolent organization would be rotten as you go higher in the ranks. I thought N was an interesting protagonist.

Overall, it's the most "JRPG-feeling" of the mainline Pokemon games. Which, I think, is a big reason why it's so contentious in the fandom: it feels very different from Pokemon games before or since.

If you didn't like the sort of linear, people-popping-up-all-the-time thing in B/W, I'd strongly advise against ever playing SuMo. Feels like you don't go five minutes without someone interrupting the flow of the game. Not to mention the game feels like it's running at 20fps most of the time, even on the New 3DS.

Oshawatt is actually my nephew's favorite Pokemon. While I'm not a fan of the evolutions, I always found Tepig to be adorable. No set of starters will ever match R/B/Y, but the starters in B/W are a solid second or third for me.

As a mom that's always really confused me... The anime did it pretty decently with Deliah always being pretty concerned about Ash's wellbeing whenever he called home (Or the plea she makes in the second film) and yet in the games they're always like "You're 12 or whatever now... Go make monsters fight each other and don't come back"

That's true... except like the first two grunts you meet are up to no good and as it turns out none of them believed the cause aside from N right?

I really don't remember though if that's the case but I definitely agree there should've been a team like that in the series. To me I think it's more of a missed opportunity, the reveal could've been done much better.

Never thought of it like that... That's very true. It's a darn whame it's my least favourite.

My poor 2DS is never getting any new games at this rate lol ... It's kinda neglected.

Eh Tepigs ok I suppose... The other two of it's line are pretty garish though.

I'll agree to R/B/Y having the best starters... But I'd have to give Hoenn second and then probably Kalos actually. I think I'm the only one who doesn't think Delphox's design sucks... I like the robe like fur and weird ear tufts 😅

I mean, I get it. The Pokemon Journey is that society's rite-of-passage for adolescents on the cusp of young adulthood. It's a powerful concept insofar as it taps into humanity's universal yearning for freedom, discovery, and adventure. But, even in a society where that sort of thing is the universal norm, you'd still have parents who weren't cool with the idea. So the introduction of that element brought a uniquely human element to the series.

But yeah, the original anime did do a good job of keeping Ash's mother in the picture, so to speak, and maintaining that important child/parent connection.

Actually, there's something I've thought about for a while now. While it makes sense for the Pokemon brand to remain wholesome and family-oriented, I'm surprised, given how much of the fanbase for the series is probably 30+ at this point, that there's no attention paid to the 'life transition' aspect of the series. Pokemon, as a brand, has been a big part of a lot of people's lives from childhood. That, naturally, makes the brand one that possesses an exceptional amount of emotional clout for people. Why not, to some extent, produce some Pokemon media that highlights and (for lack of a better word) exploits this? What better way to play on the emotions of your consumers than to mirror their own life developments in your fictional media? Imagine a Pokemon game or movie or something that highlights the development of a character from childhood, when they first leave on their Pokemon adventure, to middle age, as they grow into their lives, settle down, and seek to share the world of Pokemon with their own children. This needn't even be the primary focus of whatever the piece of media happens to be, but they could maintain their child-oriented focus while connecting with their older fans in a powerful way. The brand is uniquely situated in such a way that it'd be perfect for this sort of thing, considering it'll be popular with both children today AND the children of yesteryear (who are now adults and parents), mirroring the central role Pokemon and the Pokemon Journey in that society.

Just rambling. Don't mind me. How old are your children, if you don't mind me asking?

They've always struck me as, in real world terms, a mix between Peta and Antifa, at least on the ground level. Like Peta, you have the radical commitment to changing how humans and animals (Pokemon) live and relate to one-another. Like Antifa, you have mostly younger people who feel like they're defending a moral cause, but that gets lost a bit as violence, questionable methods, and abuse of power get mixed into the fray.

Of course, I'm also operating on a decade old memory, so I could very well be wrong, but that's the impression I got from talking to various characters. I think most of the people on the ground probably genuinely believed in Plasma's cause of liberating Pokemon. The Bulbapedia wiki page on the team even specifically says that Ghetsis "exploited" the group toward his own ends, which, again, implies that the group wasn't originally corrupt, and that most of the people on the ground who were kept out of the loop probably meant well.

But, yeah, the entire Team Plasma storyline could absolutely have done better. But, as much as I like the series, the storytelling bar is pretty low overall, so I feel like Team Plasma brought something unique to the series, and were compelling in a way that the cartoon villains of other games never were.

I've heard B/W 2 were pretty good. I ought to see how those fair in comparison to the original B/W on the writing front at some point.

I can't sympathize. The 3DS has one of my all-time favorite game libraries, so I frequently find myself returning to it and playing smaller games that I never fully completed in the past (I'm actually almost done with Box-Boy, as a matter of fact), along with bigger games that I never picked up at the time.

Even having sold off a large chunk of my library in the past, I still own 50+ retail games and 100+ pieces of digital-only software (way more if you include VC releases). And there are still many, many games I want to buy for it.

Fennekin's evolutionary line is one of the best in the series. Braixen is VERY cute, and Delphox has a powerful, wizardy sort of look to it. I confess I can't stand Greninja, though, despite really liking Froakie. Chespin is cute, but its final evolutionary form is so different that it looks like it evolved from an entirely different type of Pokemon.

The best Pokemon from X/Y is Sylveon, though. That design is SO cute, and once it learns Moonblast, you can basically destroy anything in your path.

Psssssssssshhhhhh that wasn't rambling at all, that's a really good concept! I'd love to see that portrayed in the Pokémon media one way or another

My son's twenty one... My daughter's nineteen 😊

Well I'll look forward to reading your thoughts if you ever get round to it then

Oh it probably has a great library. I just don't seem to click with a handheld console as well as I used to. The fact the Switch has the docking feature though along with the handheldyness would probably help a long way to reinvigoriate my love with them if I ever get round to getting one... There's too many games I want just on PS4 at the moment though!

Joking! I actually didn't like Greninja at first myself at first... But eventually I grew to liking the design. As for Chespin I always saw him as a Horse Chestnut/Conker so... He turned out how I expected really.

Sylveon's pretty darn cute but Vaporeon is my fave Eevee-lution, followed by Glaceon.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I'm kind of the opposite RE: handheld vs consoles. I really dig being able to play wherever and whenever I get the time as opposed to having to stay in one spot for an extended period of time to play my games. It IS cool being able to play games on a big screen, but they just don't feel as accessible, so I inevitably end up spending a lot less time with my home consoles than I'd like.

I confess that, despite owning a Switch and not being a terribly monied person, I'm still eyeing the Switch Lite. The original system feels a bit large for a handheld, which is perfect when you're playing around the house, but on trips/work breaks/etc. it feels a bit overly large. I'm tentatively planning on preordering the Pokemon Switch Lite (I actually already have, but it obviously doesn't charge until Amazon ships it out).

But yes, the versatility of the Switch is one of the things that makes it appeal to so many people. I only use it in the dock when I'm playing with someone else or when a game just doesn't look good in handheld mode (looking at you, Xenoblade Chronicles 2!)

Oh, I'm back at DDS full-time. I spent three hours this morning... grinding Girimehkalas for macca and HP noises in the basement of Ajna Mansion.

I was never that keen on Pokemon Black/White. It was great that they were at least trying to do something different with the story, but it just never really clicked with me. It was also the point of the series where everything started feeling far too linear, and the rivals became too friendly and popping up everywhere.

On the other hand, I loved Pokemon Black 2/White 2. The story is arguably not as well written as in B1W1. In B2W2 it's just a generic bad guys trying to take over the world story. Even so, I really enjoyed the story in B2W2. The bad guys are more of a threat than usual, with them managing to freeze an entire town, and the big bad attempting to freeze or perhaps even kill the main character.

Plus, to me B2W2 feels like the last pokemon games where the developers went all in and tried to make the games as great as possible. There's some great side activities, such as the Pokestar Studios which involves filming movies while controlling the pokemon actors, the PWT which is a battle tournament that includes gym leaders and champions from all the past regions, and the Black Tower/White Treehollow which is other battle facilities where you have to battle trainers while trying to figure out how to ascend/descend. There's also various new areas to explore, and plenty of pokemon and legendaries in the world to capture.

Finally managed to pull yourself away from three houses ey @Ralizah ?

Who's in your party and why are ya grinding anyway? Vanilla run of just reaching the end ya shouldn't particularly need to grind. Though the final boss can be a bit tough without the bonus bosses being fought/high levels

That... sounds pretty darn neat actually @crimsontadpoles about Black/White 2! Thanks for the info

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Somewhat. 60 hours into my first playthrough, Three Houses is getting moved to secondary game status.

HP Noise sources are hard to come by, so I'm leaping at the opportunity to farm some. Also using this as an opportunity to work on some of my skills. MC is balanced physical/magic (slightly higher stats for strength, though), Gale is primarily magic, and Cielo handles healing, buffing, and debuffing (primarily; MC also has access to some decent debuffs). Right now I'm working to get Cielo to learn Lightning Resist, after which I'll be (grudgingly) dropping the coin for him to learn debilitate.

I don't NEED to do this to progress (DDS has actually been one of the easiest SMT games I've played so far), but it is fun to exploit a prime opportunity like this.

Ha ha sounds like you're really enjoying it @Ralizah

I actually stuck with Argilla and Heat in DDS for most of the game with my Serph being Magic and Endurance based. I do quite like Cielo and Gale as well though. The cast's pretty well rounded in my opinion.

I think DDS2 is a bit harder just by default and of course there's the hard difficulty option to boot

I've only got like an hour left of Code Veronica... So I might balance a bit of Crash Team Racing:Nitro Fueled, Starting Horizon: Zero Dawn and maybe start up up an PS1/PS2 RPG myself to balance it out & whilst I have the time off of work

So I have just found out that I need a new AC Unit for my house. So let's bring up my tally of what I need of the house.

2 bathrooms need remodeling
Kitchen needs remodeling
New Roof
New AC Unit

So pretty much I need a new house. Anyone who says they enjoy or want to own their own home is either crazy, stupid or both.

@Tasuki I’m getting the bathroom done in the next month or two, then need to think about the garden. I should google the infinite money cheat.

@Kidfried I'm the same with buying a house, all my family have and hassle me to get on the property ladder. But all they do is complain on how much money they have to spend on repairs and how long until they pay off their mortgage.