After the
XC2 mishap, I felt like I needed a lighter game to unwind and get back on track; and that's how I found myself picking up
UltraMoon, which had been sitting in my collection for a couple of weeks. I unfortunately got the pair too late to get my greedy paws on the exclusive Dawn Rockruff, so I had to make do with the next best thing: Popplio, a.k.a. the last Alolan Starter I had to run solo with. I was lucky enough to snatch a female Popplio (can't help but think that Popplio's looks would have called for an exceptional reversal of the usual female/male Starter ratio); but woe is me, that female Popplio boasted a Sassy Nature —
again!!! However, I was not in the mood to indulge in more RNG galore, and I decided to grind and bear it and run with the Popplio fate had granted me, hoping that overleveling would take care of matters on the long run.
As it turned out, there was definitely no need to worry about Popplio&evos' performance. The Alolan sea lion is simply one of the best Water Starters I've ever handled — on par with my beloved
Piplup — and he's the most efficient and kick-ass of the Alolan Starters by a
very long shot. Popplio's Move pool definitely makes the most of his sky-high Sp.Attack: nearly all the offensive Moves he can learn are Special Moves, and ridiculously powerful ones at that; that makes him a pure special attacker, and a ridiculously good one at that. My Move quartet was pretty much set during the game's second half, with Moonblast (Fairy), Ice Beam (Ice), Energy Ball (Grass — a Water 'Mon wielding a Grass Move, how broken is that??) and signature Move Sparkling Aria (Water): all insanely destructive Special Moves with a power in the 90s and beyond. Popplio's Move pool is also nicely diverse, with Moves that can take care of a wide variety of 'Mons; in fact, Ice and Fairy Moves alone can wipe out most of the Alolan fauna. Also, I've never encountered a 'Mon with so many Moves that can target several opponents. I swear that at one point in the game,
all of my four Moves were multi-targeting Moves — quite handy in Trials, indeed.
Talking about Trials, the order in which they unfold is definitely in favour of Popplio, with little to no Typing roadblocks along the way. Not that it would change anything, mind you: the Popplio line, and more specifically final form Primarina, is so ludicrously overpowered that running solo with them entirely annihilates
Ultra Sun&Moon's famed ramped-up difficulty and makes the games feel as plain sailing as
X&Y. I can count on literally half the fingers of one hand the number of times I've used a stat-boosting item over the course of my entire run, none of these times including an Elite Four battle — as a matter of fact, I pretty much one-shot my way through the Elite Four. Long story short, Popplio is one of the most broken Starters I've ever had the pleasure of cruising with, and you should definitely choose him if you want an easy ride.
I was initially planning to tackle a single Alolan solo run; however,
US&M's revamped 'Mon distribution made me change my mind faster than you can say "Gee, that 'Mon is super-duper cute and I've never run solo with it!" As a result, I have a couple more
US&M solo runs lined up, and I'm going to tackle at least one or two of them in the upcoming days. Stay tuned for more
Pokemon goodness, dear fellow gamers; and as usual, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
I recently finished Alpha Sapphire; finally! (I really don't like Hoenn). So I can finally try out Sun and Moon. I did a short test run and the battle lag isn't terrible in my old 3DS at all. It's probably worse in Totem battles, but I tried 2 vs 2 battles and it was okay. If I don't end up getting a new 2DS XL, I'll still play these games.
ReplyDelete(plus, I'm still hoping for a pokemon stars on switch)
Thing is, I heard Ultra Sun and Moon is almost exactly like Sun and Moon, story and all, with only a few things added. Considering how different B&W2 were from the originals, this huge stepback makes me mad. So in your opinion, is it worth it to even play the originals at all, or should I just skip to the ultra versions?
Oh boy, that's really a tricky question. Guess the answer depends on what you expect from that instalment and what you value the most in a Pokemon entry.
DeleteAlthough the story unfolds roughly in the same way in both pairs, the actual narrative content differs significantly, with important NPCs being given completely different personalities and motivations. Sun/Moon's story is fairly developped, well-told and moving; on the other hand, it's really invasive and treats your Trainer as a mere side dish. Ultra Sun/Moon, on the other hand, lets your Trainer shine much more and cuts down NPCs' screen time. I'd say both stories are fairly interesting in their own right, and it's actually quite fascinating to see how GameFreak managed to give the narrative a completely different twist just by changing lines of dialogues and a couple of cutscenes.
Gameplay-wise, Ultra Sun/Moon is the better game overall, with prettier colours, better user interface and snappier battles. However, it also introduces even more unskippable tutorials, as well as two annoying skill-based minigames that you have to play at least once. Oh, and it locks Move Tutors and Legendaries behind those darn minigames. So... yeah. One step forward, one step back. For what it's worth, USM is also a tad harder than Sun/Moon.
USM is undeniably better on the postgame front. It offers a great bonus episode featuring villain teams from other games and old-school puzzles choke-full of teleporters and tiles; that bonus episode single-handedly makes the pair worth playing as far as I'm concerned. There seems to be much more postgame content in USM overall, although I didn't touch most of it.
Last but not least, the fauna is obviously a bit different between the two pairs. I obviously dig this as a solo runner, but even regular players could find some appeal there, as some formerly rare 'Mons have been made available in the wild in USM. For instance, you can catch wild Zoruas fairly early on, as well as high-level Larvestas (lv. 40-45) before the last Trials.
In a nutshell, both pairs have their strengths and weaknesses and are worth playing. How about purchasing one of each? ^^
Oh, I already have one of each; I have Moon and Ultra Sun. It's just with the plethora of games I have to play on 3DS alone, never mind with all my other consoles, I don't think it's worth playing 2 barely different versions of one game. Feels like a waste of time. I might go back and try the version I skip in later years, but certainly not before the switch Pokemon game comes out.
DeleteAs of now, I'm leaning towards Ultra; if the game's story is as invasive as I've heard it is, then my character better well be involved, or else it just adds insult to injury. I almost never use move tutors, and legendaries have been extremely boring to me since gen 6, so heh. Not sure if I care for the post game episode though; I didn't in Alpha Sapphire. Though in that game it was about legendaries, which I just said are boring to me, whereas in US&M it's about the villain teams I have affection for, so I might enjoy that. Personally I'd rather have a battle tower like in the old Pokemon Emerald and Platinum though :/
I guess it comes down to the mandatory skill based games, but the mantine surfing looks fun to be honest. Plus, if I hate it, I only have to do it once, so it's not too bad.
Laversta is a huge plus; my favourite bug Scolipede is only available in Sun&Moon though, but even then it's only through the boring island scan thingy. So I guess my centipede is just out of luck in this gen. No Venomoth either. Oh well, there's a few interesting bug types introduced in this gen, so I oughta try them out instead.
Thanks for your input! I'll go for Ultra Sun then, as soon as I'm finished with Ever Oasis that is. Shouldn't take too long, since I'm really enjoying that game and playing several hours of it a day. Or maybe after I'm done with Shin Megami Tensei IV; I've put that game off long enough since the story is meh for a MegaTen game from what I've heard, but SMT IV Apocalypse fixes it, so I gotta get through IV someday.
(gotta ignore how good the Strange Journey remake looks before that. Man the original on the DS is soooo good)
Well, have fun with your Ultra Sun run! I have a couple more posts about USM coming soon, so don't hesitate to drop a comment there to let me know how your run's going and what you think of the game. ^^
DeleteI certainly will! Especially since you have so much experience with gen. 7, whereas I have none.
DeleteMight take a while though; I'm searching for a better job and finishing a huge writing project I started a year ago. So gaming time has gone down a little.
BTW, did you play enough Ever Oasis to write a post about it? I remember you told me you were disappointed by it not really being an RPG, but I'm totally loving it! Granted, I completed ignored any info about the game; I just saw "3DS game, has cute animal people, certain purchase" so I had no expectations to disappoint. But I'd really like to know your further thoughts on it! Especially since I have a lot of gripes with it as well despite loving it.
"I'm searching for a better job and finishing a huge writing project I started a year ago": good luck with that! I'm the type of gamer who just cannot play at all when I have to deal with important real-life issues, so I totally understand your position here. ^^
DeleteI played 5-6 hours of Ever Oasis, which would technically give me enough material to write about it. However, my feelings for the game were so tepid that I just didn't feel like it. Playing Ever Oasis bored me to tears, and the prospect of writing about it felt even more boring. Some games are just like that!
That being said, here's a quick rundown of my impressions about the game:
-I loved the graphics, but the chara design left me cold. I felt they were trying too hard to give characters a cutesy look, and it came across as cheesy and Disney-ish.
-I hated the music, which reminded me of the soundtrack of a bad adventure flick. I played with the sound off the whole time.
-I loved the fighting system, but really hated the ability system and the dungeon puzzles. Having to backtrack constantly to reexplore dungeons was more than I could bear - all the more so as, as far as I could see, the game didn't offer a marker system à la XC2 to keep track of inaccessible areas and allow you to revisit them later.
-The game was a bit too linear and restricted my freedom way too much for my taste. Maybe it gets better later for all I know, but I really couldn't stomach the arbitrary gameplay limitations I had to endure in the early stages.
Okay, so I finally finished ever Oasis, so here are my final opinions on it:
Delete-Recruiting citizens and seeing them open shops and do other things around the Oasis is extremely fun; it reminded me of the original digimon world, and the lack of such a feature is why I don't like the 3DS/PSP sequel to that game;
-The story, while nothing new in of itself, did make me care enough about the characters that I did become emotionally invested in the game.
-There's actually quite a meaty post game, with more residents to recruit, ultra hard dungeons, more festivals to throw and booths to max out.
-I didn't mind the music. Nothing memorable, but it did fit the desert theme and there are a few tunes I liked.
-I really enjoyed the character designs, minus the seedlings. I don't know why, but for the past 10 years human-animal characters have become extremely rare; I don't know if it's a consequence of the push for realistic graphics or because those characters are considered "furry bait" now, but I'm glad to see them slowly come back.
-The ability and exploration system truly was awful, but it never gets as bad as the dungeon for the second lumite; especially if you ignore extra treasure chests, and really, there's nothing ever too important in those.
-There's a limit to how many bloom booths you can have!! I'm sure they thought it would add some "strategic" value as the player has to figure out how to max them all while keeping all the citizens dependent on certain booths happy but they were so, SO wrong! It ruined the feeling of seeing the Oasis grow completely!
-Why can I only have one active sub-quest at all times? And why can I only activate quests in the oasis? Why must I even activate a quest that I already have all the items to fulfill, especially when the games automatically prompts me to deliver the items as soon as I activate it? This cumbersome quest system made me feel I was playing a game made in the 90's. Convenience is good Grezzo.
And that's it. Overall I really liked it; it was a game I felt I would have loved as a child. And I've had a really hard time finishing games this year, with only 32 tittles under my belt when I usually have 50 by now. So I was really grateful to find a game that I didn't have to make a chore to complete. I'd very much like to see a sequel on the switch that irons out all the issues and gives us all the races from the start (cause seriously, the last race you get the Langora/bunny peps IS SO GOOD! Honestly, the hardest thing about replaying this game will be knowing I have to spend half the game without one).
I don't know about you, but I really hated the way they handled the introduction sequence. So your homeland is destroyed, your brother is left for dead and you're lost in the desert, and yet your character gets on their feet the next morning as though nothing happened and gaily start building up a new oasis? Really? If the developers were not going to comment on the introduction's events and show the MC's reaction to said events, it would have been better to skip the intro entirely and let us start from scratch with no narrative.
DeleteAnd since I'm mentioning this, does the MC gets back to their homeland at the end, and is their brother still alive?
Meh, I've seen much worse introductions, so it didn't bother me. I'm just glad it was over quickly. And as for the MC not reacting much, at least they emote a little as the story goes on; I've seen some spoilers for pokemon S&M and US&M story (because I really wanted to see if it was really the same thing) and those games are much worse. How can the MC keep the same dumb smile during the argument between Lusamine and Lillie, between many other moments? At least Ever Oasis is a more humble game; Pokemon is the biggest franchise on the 3DS and already doesn't give a shit about dumping framerate in exchange for stupid crap like seeing the other trainer, and yet, they couldn't emote the MC even a little bit? Even in the cash grab that is US&M? And in a game that stops you every 20 minutes for a cut scene?
DeleteYeah, I've seen worse. And my will to play gen.7 goes ever lower.
The brother thing is followed up on; the chaos took over his body and uses it for the final boss and a few cutscenes beforehand. It does lead to a BS moment on Esna's part, but let's just say she pays for it in the end, so I ended up forgiving it. Plus it was necessary for the plot and again, I've seen worse.
You do get a nice moment at the end when his ghost says goodbye to the MC. As for the homeland, since the brother and the water spirit there are dead, it's gone for good. None of the NPCs are seen again either, so they are presumed dead as well. However, thanks to a huge sacrifice, greenery finally returns to the desert and from then on, it's your Oasis that will become the center of the land. For one who enjoyed the Oasis development like myself, it was a decent ending. The settlements for the other races remain in the game though.
In my humble yet firm opinion, the Pokemon series should never have tried to dabble into complicated stories full of secondary characters. Although I love Sun&Moon, the narrative overload left a sour taste in my mouth on the long run; and now that the novelty of Alola has worn of, I'm definitely less eager to play those games again, because I know I'll have to sit through mountains of cutscenes and tutorials to get to the good stuff.
DeleteI think Pokemon could have dabbled in complicated stories; if it was any good at it, which it's not. I've watched the whole story, and it's basically the same thing as every other Pokemon story, only with 2000% more cutscenes. They even show two trainers battling in a cutscene to let you know battles are a thing. Are you kidding me? This is Pokemon, I don't need anything to show me that pokemon battles exist. Ugh.
DeleteI'm so sick and tired of the "some evil team abuses a legendary, oh noes, the end of the world naus!". First off, nobody cares about legendarily and mythical pokemon; there's so amny of them now that none of them matter. Second of all, they've been doing this for 5 generations now, and barring generation 5, they've never done it well. Mostly because they freaking refuse to show why the crisis is so bad; in Digimon Cyber Sleuth, you see the world change as the story progresses and do get to see some consequences. In Pokemon, everything stays the same, you just have 5 or more people yelling at you about how bad things are, and please follow this corridor to engage in a series of battles. Phew, glad that's over, everything is good again now.
The closest they got to showing actual consequences was in Ruby and Sapphire, where it begins to rain after the legendary is set free. Whoopee. In the end it doesn't actually change anything.
But I know Pokemon s capable of better, or otherwise the mystery dungeon series wouldn't exist! Explorers of sky is one of the most heartbreaking games ever! So, oh why, did they not try to make anything different in the generation that was supposed to change things up? At least go back to how generation 1 and 2 did things.
Digimon did it a lot better; not only are the plots in Cyber Sleuth, Hacker's Memory and even Next Order (which is not meant to have a story at all) much better and varied than what Pokemon has to offer, they're also done in VN format, so if you don't want to listen, just keep masking circle and X. And the monster digimon actually look intimidating; a plus for Digimon always having embraced ugly and creepy designs. It might have made them lose the monster wars in the early 2000's, but it's paying off now. When I go against Examon, I actually feel threatened. Generation 7 tried, but it's darn obvious they still can't commit to making a truly intimidating pokemon.
Not to mention, with Pokemon not only can't you skip fast because the game insists on playing out all the stupid animations (stupid forever smiling protagonist), but the camera feels like panning to every little thing. On a system that clearly can't handle it! At least Digimon is on the PS4 and Vita. Both games should allow you to skip cutscenes entirely, but I just replayed Next Order and mashing x in it is way faster than even in Pokemon X&Y.
I was so excited for generation 7, since they were finally changing things up. The trials look amazing! But everything else looks like a pain to get through while I try to actually play the game. No thanks!
Pokemon Switch better improve this. Or else my standing with Pokemon is in serious trouble. E3 can't come fast enough.
I really hate to rain on someone's parade, but I must warn you though: don't get to excited about the Trials, because the sad truth is that they suck overall.
DeleteSure, Trials make perfect sense from a narrative point of view, because it wouldn't make sense for an tiny archipelago nation like Alola to waste resources on building Gyms for the 2-3 kids that tackle the Island Challenge every year; but when it comes to gameplay, oh dear, do they fail to replicate the thrill of Gyms. Here are the main issues I have with Trials:
-They are painfully linear and on-rails, with every Trial unfolding in the exact same for every player. Gone is the agency of the Gyms, which allowed you to grind on Trainers or make a beeline for the Gym Leader.
-They hold your hand every step of the way and shove cutscenes down your throat, as though there were not enough of these already in the Gen VII games.
-They always pit you against two Pokemons in the final round, which is just purely unfair unless your lead 'Mon wields a multi-targeting move. Obviously you're going to be overpowered when you're going two against one, and you'll have to rely on luck a lot more than you'd wish.
-They won't let you exit midway to refurbish, which is something that was possible in Gyms. For all intents and purposes, each Trial is like a mini-Elite Four showdown.
-Last but not least, the tasks involved in Trials are often dead-boring; whether it be following wild 'Mons, taking pictures of them, fetching items or playing a 'spot the difference' game, they all feel like minigames for 5-years-olds and are not nearly as pleasant to tackle as the puzzles offered by the Gyms of old.
Fantastic. So all the changes they made was for the worse. And MORE cutscenes? Pointless quests to pad things out? Ughhh.
DeleteThe 3DS generation was so bad for pokemon overall compared to the DS. Even X&Y feels sorely lacking compared to generation 5 and Heartgold/Soulsilver. And what happened to all the spin-offs we used to get? No more rangers, conquest, pokepark...just mystery dungeon and even those went down the drain compared to explorers of sky. Maybe detective Pikachu is worth something?
Yep, sorry to disappoint since you wanted my thoughts on them as well, but I think I'm gonna put pokemon on the backburner and focus on SMTIV. Flawed as that game may be, it kept mostly-awesome gameplay and lead to a fantastic sequel.
Off topic, but just today I had an experience that lead me to realize I could die at any moment, so I shouldn't waste my life playing subpar games out of a sense of guilt over the money I spent. So I won't strive to complete games anymore, and I'm gonna go replay some favourites without any guilt and drop them just as fast, because seriously, life is awful. I don't need to make my hobby awful as well. And sad as it, Sun and Moon don't seem worth my time at all.
I also need to stop buying every game ever and just strive to buy the ones I really think I'll love; then my guilt over my backlog will probably alleviate some. I just hope I don't miss out on some gems like Ever Oasis.
"The 3DS generation was so bad for pokemon overall compared to the DS": a Pokemon Youtuber I follow, Silver League Networks, said roughly the same thing in a recent video. In his opinion, all the 3DS pokemon entries feel rushed and not polished enough; and although I love those games, I have to agree with that point of view. Give me the DS Pokemon games, or even the GBA ones, and I'll take them whole and won't change a thing about them; but give me the 3DS ones, and I can find a crap ton of things I'd like to change or get rid off entirely. I think that says it all.
Delete"So I won't strive to complete games anymore, and I'm gonna go replay some favourites without any guilt" / "I also need to stop buying every game ever and just strive to buy the ones I really think I'll love": a million times amen to that. I came to the exact same conclusion lately, although in a less dramatic fashion than you. Hope you're okay, by the way.
I also watch Silver League Networks, though I haven't watched that particular video of his. I'll have to check it out. But it's true that the 3DS games are underwhelming to say the least...I mean, I had to take a two year break to finish Alpha Sapphire. I had to start 3 playthroughs to finish X. And I played half an hour of Ultra Sun to test the framerate on an old 3DS and I don't have the will to pick it back up again. That's not normal...
DeleteI'd say it's just because I'm becoming old for these games, but that's not true, since I still replay the DS games all the time. And you're relatively new to the series, so fatigue shouldn't have settled in yet. Not to mention I love the digimon games, Yokai Watch and even Moco Moco friends so I'm clearly not tired of monster raising games.
No, something is clearly wrong with Pokemon. I still maintain that if they still had so many good spin-offs as they had in the DS era, the franchise wouldn't be so tired out. But now all we have is mystery dungeon, trozei (mobile grind trash) and GO (worst mobile trash ever). The switch has montion controls so it'd be perfect to bring back pokepark, but instead we get a port of GO and even more fremium crap. Detective Pikachu and Pokken don't count since I seriously doubt we'll ever see sequels. I'm honestly worried for the series.
I'm physically okay, so don't worry. But thanks for asking! Hopefully things pick soon, but I'll take these lessons to heart. Finally started SMT IV today and I'm loving it. I don't care if I should be finishing Shadow Hearts 2, the grinding in that game has tired me out for now.
It's the video called "Five pros and cons of Ultra Sun & Moon". It's quite spoiler-free if I remember correctly, so you can watch it and get a better view of what to expect in US&M... If you ever play them, that is. :P
DeleteMy main issue with the 3DS entries is that they are too long, too hand-holdy and too full of fluff and gimmicks, and that makes solo runs more of a hassle than they should be. I can pick up and polish off old entries in a jiffy, getting my fill of solo Pokemon action; with the 3DS entries, on the other hand, I have to waste time watching cutscenes, petting my lone 'Mon for better performance in battle and higher friendship, going through tutorials, yadda yadda. I still haven't managed to wrap up a solo run of the 3DS entries in less than 20 hours, and that truly bothers me; because as far as I'm concerned, the ideal length for a Pokemon solo run is 15-ish hours. 20-25 hours is definitely too long and leaves me with lingering Pokemon fatigue more often than not.
That's true for most games when they transition to 2D from 3D though; compare 2D Zelda to 3D Zelda for one. There are some exceptions, like Sonic mostly feels as fast to play in 3D as he did in 2D, but I think that might just be because speed is an essential part of his identity.
DeleteMost of Pokemon's (and a lot of other game's) issues could be fixed if they just swallowed their pride and let us skip the cutscenes. Games are meant to be replayed, or used to before making never ending games with micro transactions became the norm, and no matter how good your story is, no one wants to sit through it 4-5 times. And if your story is crap like Pokemon's, then I don't want to sit through it even once. And tutorials should always be skip-able; no excuses.
At least SMT IV understands this, and has an awesome fast-forward button to boot.
"Let us skip the cutscenes" / "tutorials should always be skip-able": this, so much this. I would kill for skippable cutscenes and tutorials in the 3DS Pokemon games, especially Sun & Moon.
DeleteI don't wanna be that old fart grumbling that things were better before; but for me, gaming lost something essential when moving to 3D. This was the turning point when developers started pushing for more cinematic experiences and somehow forget what makes gaming unique, namely interactivity and player agency. That sorry trend has only gotten worse over time, and that's how we are now stuck with games that try to be both video games and movies and fail utterly at both. There you go, my two ranting cents of the day. ^^
This might be because of my own personal age, since I mostly remember the saturn and psx eras (though I did start gaming seriously extremely young), but I still think the ps1 and ps2 era was very good. I can certainly see how things started to change and how that turned some people away, but it had way too many good things to be seen as a loss in my books. There was a lot of variety in genres, cute 3D platfomers and JRPGs ruled the land, quirky games were everywhere. And some things, like the BS difficulty from the previous eras, was gone while not falling into patronizing hand-holding at the same time, so that was nice. And I just can't hate 3D when my favourite trilogy, Spyro the dragon, helped popularize it in the first place. Call it bias, but it's true.
DeleteNo, the real bad part started in the PS3 era for a lot of reasons; graphics became everything, pretty much any genre that wasn't FPS fell to obscurity, and everything became connected online, which brought DLC, season passes, micro transactions...the single player games suffered a sudden and undignified death that we're only now starting to recover from. And we'll never get a complete experience anymore; patches and DLC for life, so says the industry.
Didn't help that Nintendo had their most awful consoles during that time, so the only company interested in giving us non-FPS games couldn't reach an audience. This is why I turned to handheld gaming; the DS, PSP, Vita and 3DS were the only bastions of hope for a while. But things are changing now, since development costs rose so high that most developers can't deliver the open-world multiplayer experience that apparently most gamers want, so they went back to doing more experimental stuff. The indie market is now a big part of the industry, and that helps a lot as well.
Of course, Nintendo is now also falling to the online BS as well. Did you hear that you can't trade pokemon anymore unless you pay for their awful online service? This just makes trade evolution pokemon even more garbage; now you can't even do the old trick of buying two systems and two copies, nope, an additional 40$ on top of that please.
If anything, it's online functionality that ruined gaming for me. And gaming critics, who I single-handedly blame for the patronizing tutorials and the non-skipable cutscenes. Just look a the whole cuphead debacle; they want a button to skip boss fights in a bullet hell game, seriously? The fact that the industry relies on metacritic scores that these clowns give out is laughable and worrisome at the same time.
Well, don't we all have tons of personal biases when it comes to which gaming eras and trends we deem best. ^^ The Saturn/PSOne gen was the one that drove me away from gaming for a really long time, so obviously I tend to see it as a harbinger of gaming doom.
Delete"Did you hear that you can't trade pokemon anymore unless you pay for their awful online service?": Really?! Buuuut, I traded 'mons locally between my copies of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon a mere couple of weeks ago... Do you mean that I cannot do that anymore? Now that would piss me off, because I had a couple of appetizing solo runs based on traded 'mons in the pipeline. :/
I meant with let's go Pikachu and Eevee, and any future games on devices that support Nintendo's online subscription model. The 3DS and older devices do not fall under that model, so the older games are safe. But forget it for any future entries, unless the backlash is huge, but I doubt it. Nintendo's online looks like a pathetic joke, and they don't have a lot of multiplayer games either, so their only way to compete is to pull crap like this.
DeleteTo each their own bias, but the saturn and PSX still had a good mix of old style games and new 3D ones; plus a lot of the biggest changes came to new genres like collectatons, whereas others mostly stayed the same but with new graphics, AKA most RPGs. It may have seemed for a while that 3D was the only style to be done anymore, with Mario, Zelda, Sonic, etc, all making the leap, but we know now all those big franchises would eventually offer 2D games again as well, so I really think you should give emulation the PSX a go; there's a lot of awesome RPGs that never made it out of there. Like Suikoden, for one.
*Breathing a giant sigh of relief* Sheesh, you had me worried for a second there. But yeah, that sucks. The Pokemon series was always based on exchange and co-op, and it stings to see Nintendo suddenly slap a paywall on that most crucial aspect of the series. But hey, they tested the waters with the Pokemon Bank, and fans took that change rather well; so why not take it a step further, hey? There's now a whole generation of gamers that deem perfectly normal to pay extra bucks for game features that should have been included day one, so better milk them to death, right? (*seething sarcasm*)
DeleteWell, you'll be happy to learn that I finally overcame my PSone revulsion after my stellar experience with the PSP and Vita; as a matter of fact, I even own a couple of PSone RPGs - including, funnily enough, Suikoden and Suikoden 2. ^^