So I thought I'd address a few of the stories that are circulating at the moment.
Nintendo announced a few months ago that they would be shutting down the wifi capabilities for the Nintendo Wii and DS games on May 20th. (today T_T) A sad day...(sort of)
I wasn't too upset when I heard this, despite collecting a lot of DS games that I never played when they first came out. Although I might miss out on some features, it is a move that makes sense business wise for Nintendo. In a time when many gaming companies are in quite difficult financial positions, they need to focus heavily on their new systems. The Wii U, Xbox One, Vita and PS4 are all struggling in different ways (in my opinion) and really haven't taken off the way the companies had hoped. Hopefully the new consoles can really take off soon. At the moment, I'm quite happy with my 3DS but I am looking to add a Wii U or Vita to my collection soon. PS4 probably eventually when FFXV releases.
There is a lot of confusion as to what will actually change today when the servers shut down. In terms of pokemon games, relevant to me at the moment, here is a good link, with a link inside to a nice image guide summarising the changes - Link
This brings me on to one of my criticisms of the 5th generation pokemon games. I think they just got too complicated in terms of gameplay mechanics. They were adding little things here and there, some good and some bad. But when you have to look up guides for how to use certain things, I think something has gone wrong. And thats for me, someone with hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours across the pokemon series. What will kids or newcomers think when they have options for Unova Link, Game Sync, Dream World, Mystery Gifts, PWT, Xtransceiver...and much more. Seriously, I actually don't know what a lot of those do. But perhaps its good that they decided to start things over a little bit with the 6th generation games, X and Y. I think things should remain as simplified as possible. You should be able to access stuff in game without connecting to the internet, linking previous games or using obscure gameplay mechanics. Think about RPGs, and you think sidequests where you just go somewhere in game, or talk to someone to start the quest. I reckon things should be more like that in Pokemon games.
So we shouldn't be prevented from transferring any existing pokemon by the shutdown, thankfully. I actually bought a pass to Pokemon Bank for a year yesterday. Its only £4.50 roughly, and it should be useful for moving my pokemon from the DS games to Pokemon X, which I should have done back when I got a free month's worth of Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter...
So back to my playthrough of Black 2, and I headed across to Lentimas Town, and Reversal Mountain, where I found a Drifblim (yay ^_^) and consider adding this to my team. Although I remember using one of these in my previous games as an ingame team member. I do really like the pokemon, but remember the movepool it has is a bit weak. It only learns a few Ghost moves, and I think I need more as my final team member. The ghost/flying typing is a good fit for my last tearm member, so if I need something similar, I consider the Drifblim (named Eschalot a la Bravely Default first airship) against a Sigilyph (something I missed when I first went through the Desert Resort.) Looking at their stats and moves, I decide to go find a Sigilyph and try that out. Its fairly rare (5 or 10%) but I get one eventually, and call it Horus. It definitely looks like an evolved Unown.
Working through the Strange House, I'm kind of intrigued by this place...the rooms change as you go through, and different places appear to become accessible. I kind of wonder how they are triggered...going between rooms I'm guessing. Either way, theres some cool pokemon and battles to beef up my team, especially Horus the Sigilyph, which needs grinding up from lv19 or whatever I caught it at -_- good old exp share!
The reason I've not posted this sooner is partially down to the amount of space between gyms, but also you get access to the first few legendaries, Cobalion and Virizion. The first one, Cobalion only took me 1 Ultra Ball on the first try to catch. The Virizion took a lot longer to get...anyway, now I have them, I can move on to the gym. I also changed my Growlithe "Ghost" over to a Litwick "Vorpal." I was liking the Growlithe, but it had limited typing of moves, and it was falling a little bit behind the team. I really like dual type pokemon to cover more types across the team.
My team before going into the gym: Samurott "Barioth" lv44, Krookodile "Terra" lv45, Sigilyph "Horus" lv45, Lucario "Genji lv44, Magnezone "Iron Giant" lv45, Litwick "Vorpal" lv38
Gym #7 - Dragon
This gym...I'm kind of scared about, as I don't have any Ice or Dragon type pokemon or attacks, so I won't be able to hit the opposing pokemon for any decent super effective damage, it'll come down to attacks that I think will hit strong anyway. I expect to make a lot of mistakes....
I really like the design of this place, it involves dragon statues that can be moved and rotated to eventually get to the top of the gym to challenge the leader.
The first trainer I find is straight ahead on the level that you enter the gym on. He has a Fraxure lv46..which is actually stronger than my team in terms of level. I start off with Barioth and go for Slash but it doesn't really do as much damage as I had hoped, so I go in to Iron Giant for Thunder Wave and Metronomed Electro Ball attacks. Two of these and it is finished off. Metronome is an item that boosts attacks if they are used consecutively, pretty nifty, and I thought I'd try it out as a held item on Magnezone.
The second trainer on the next level (on the west) apparently focuses on defense. He has a Fraxure lv45 and a Druddigon lv45. The first one, the Fraxure gave me some problems with Swagger, Substitute and Dual Chop, which almost took out Terra. Going up against the Druddigon, its more simple, but I took a lot of damage in return. The Druddigon has a Rough Skin ability, and a Rocky Helmet, both of which damage your pokemon as a kind of recoil from physical attacks. I stayed in against Druddigon to make use of the boost from Moxie and I nearly took it out, but the recoil and his attack finished Terra off. To test if I was right about the special attacks not activating either of the recoil abilities, I use surf with Barioth, and that finishes the Druddigon off. I was correct about it only being physical attacks that activate the recoil from Rough Skin and the Rocky Helmet.
After healing up, I head back to the gym and take on the next trainer on the 2nd level. This guy focuses on offense, and leads with a lv45 Fraxure. I start off with Horus and aim to set up Reflect before attempting to fight his pokemon. He goes with Dragon Dance, which is not too nice to have to consider...I decide to go to Vorpal next, and try something new, Will o Wisp. He went for a second Dragon Dance as I switched in, and then something called Shadow Claw oneshotted Vorpal =( Iron Giant can try next.. I go for Flash Cannon and he went for a third Dragon Dance and then Spark to finish him off, while he used X-Scissor for fairly weak damage. His next pokemon is Druddigon lv45. Flash Cannon takes him down to around 25%, but the opponent hits back with Flamethrower, damaging Iron Giant quite heavily, down to 53/128. Knowing I can outspeed him, I go for a second Flash Cannon to beat the Druddigon.
I'm told that the next level involves a Triple Battle on the right and a Rotation Battle on the left. This should be fun (but difficult.) I go heal up and then tackle the next level of the gym. [I kind of haven't had time to sit with the computer and battle through the rest of the gym, so instead I did a bit of grinding instead]
The next battle is on the left, and its a rotation battle with a Druddigon lv44, Fraxure lv44 and Axew lv44. I've got a good plan for this one, and I aimed to start off with my Sigilyph, Horus. I figured Reflect would reduce damage from most of the opponent's teams, who have all seemed to be physical attackers so far. The opponent starts off with his Axew (rotating in) to use Taunt, and Horus outspeeds it to set up the Reflect. I go in to Iron Giant next, and Discharge, which does about 75% of the Axew's health. He uses Dragon Dance, but this doesn't worry me too much, as I can probably take a hit, but more than likely still outspeed Axew. Actually, I was wrong, but the Axew goes for another Dragon Dance, and my Electro Ball takes it out. 1 down in this battle, and no damage so far. The enemy rotates in Fraxure, Dragon Dances, and Discharge takes it down to 30% or so. Then he changes over to the Druddigon, which damages me a bit, and Discharge doesn't really do much against...I go in to Horus, and Psychic takes out the rest of his Fraxure's HP. I don't think I can do 75-80% of Druddigon's HP with Psychic or Fly, so I have the option to set up Reflect again. But I go for Psychic anyway, and we'll see...yep, it went down to around 20% Night Slash did almost half my health, and then my next attack, Psychic, finished off the Rotation Battle nicely.
I had a think about the triple battle before starting, and I think this strat should work quite nicely. The opponent has a team of 3, again, a Fraxure lv44, Druddigon lv44 and Axew lv44.
So it looks like this will work out like I had intended. I put Horus (Sigilyph) as the first in my team, then Terra (Krookodile) next, and the third is Iron Giant (Magnezone). I start off with Reflect as my choice from Horus, and Swagger on the Druddigon (it seemed bulkiest out of the previous battle) and Discharge from Iron Giant. I knew this attack hit all adjacent/opponent pokemon, and thats why I put Terra in the middle, as he would be hit normally, but his ground typing means he is immune from the friendly fire, whereas I'll be hitting 2 opponents, setting up status and a shield on my first turn, and then I can focus on finishing things up in the next few turns. Swagger confuses Druddigon, then the Reflect is set up, and finally from my three, Discharge. I get a paralyse on Druddigon, but the damage wasn't as heavy as I'd hoped. At the end of the rurn, I've got Fraxure and Druddigon down to around half, and Axew is untouched so far (Discharge only hit the nearest 2 opponents.) On the bad side, Axew and Fraxure both Dragon Danced on the first turn, upping speed and attack by one stage. Foul Play is an excellent move in this battle, as it can hit the Druddigon for high damage (due to the status) and wipe him out. Psychic from Horus takes out the Axew, and I get outspeeded by Fraxure, taking a Dragon Claw. Flash Cannon finishes this battle off.
The leader Drayden is up next, and he has three pokemon, starting off with Druddigon lv46. I put Horus in first to attempt to set up shields. Reflect sets up first, and Druddigon uses Revenge...if he is gonna use weak moves like this, I could stay in for a few turns. I stay in and use Psychic, taking off about 30% of his HP, but he uses Crunch and puts me down to 84/135 HP. At this point, I don't think I want to stay in, and change over to Terra and go for Crunch, almost finishing him off. But next turn he uses a Hyper Potion to heal Druddigon back to full. I thought I would go for an interesting combo of items on Krookodile (Terra), with the Metronome hoping to boost consecutive attacks that are the same, and hopefully Moxie activating if I can defeat pokemon. So I keep going with Crunch, and two-shot the Druddigon after the Hyper Potion. At this point, the Reflect has worn off, but I want to keep going with the boosts that Terra has, and I stay in against his next pokemon, a Flygon lv46. Crunch actually oneshots the Flygon, and this is way better than I thought the battle would go so far. His next pokemon is a nasty sounding Haxorus lv48. I go for crunch again though, and with the +2 attack from Moxie and whatever the Metronome gives, this manages to oneshot the Haxorus!
So thats the Legend Badge obtained, and there is just one remaining before the Elite 4.
Play Time - 101:47
Pokedex - Obtained: 99, Seen: 185
Gym Badges - 7
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