Lurker > Calwings

Bump in case anyone else wanted to see how this playthrough ended. Also, looking back at the final battle, I wish I had done a crab vs. crab honor battle of my Crabrawler against Hau's Crabominable like I did against Hala's Crabrawler earlier in the playthrough. Oh well, too late now.

King
Jordan

They give this a deluxe edition with a physical switch cartridge, but couldn't give the 30th anniversary release of the original Fire Emblem NES game one and instead it just got a code for the digital version? Yeah, sure. Okay.

zinformant posted...

And, you never looked at Cutiefly or Crabrawler the same again. Insightful, engaging run with an appropriate blend of classic and new monsters.

I liked Cutiefly and Crabrawler even before this playthrough. The Pokemon I have a new appreciation for after this is actually Mudbray.

That final battle was very hectic and very difficult. Hau's lead Alolan Raichu only knows special moves and Quick Attack, so my initial plan was for Cutiefly to max out on Quiver Dances while Roosting off any damage it took and then sweep Hau's team. I got the 6 Quiver Dances, KO'd Alolan Raichu, then he sent out Incineroar... which survived my Cutefly's +6 Bug Buzz and then KO'd Cutiefly with its Z-move. So my sweep plans were out the window and I was panicking. I kept on fighting from there, and it was a close battle, but I ended up losing and had to reset. Since I knew the Cutiefly sweep wasn't possible, I had to re-evaluate my strategy.

It took me several more failed attempts for me to finally get the job done. I still led with Cutiefly to take out Alolan Raichu, then when Incineroar came out, I swapped in Mudbray, now holding the Eviolite to be the absolute bulkiest Pokemon on my team. It dented Incineroar with Earthquake, then took massive damage from Flare Blitz. Hau swapped out to Leafeon before I could take down Incineroar, but thanks to some clever maneuvering through Gastly putting Leafeon to sleep, I got Cutiefly in to hit Leafeon really hard with Bug Buzz. It barely missed the KO though, and he swapped to Crabominable. I got lucky with Stone Edge misses though, so Cutiefly managed to take down Crabominable while also setting up Reflect. Back out came the wounded Incineroar, and Mudbray was able to survive another hit and KO it thanks to Cutiefly's Reflect. Back out came the wounded Leafeon, and I had Crabrawler take it down. Out came Tauros, I sent out Magnemite, and thanks to some good luck from the Quick Claw and paralysis, Magnemite beat it with two Discharges and no damage taken. Hau's last Pokemon was Noivern, and it turned the luck back on me with two Dark Pulse flinches to KO Magnemite. But finally, after a long and grueling battle on my 9th attempt at the battle, it was my faithful starter Popplio who landed an Ice Beam on Noivern to finish the battle and make me the Pokemon League Champion!

https://iili.io/JrN6nnI.png

That was one hell of a finale. This playthrough is finally complete, and I think it was the toughest one I've done yet. Using a full team of 6 unevolved Pokemon actually felt tougher than soloing the game with 1 unevolved Pokemon because none of them ended up overleveled enough to actually make up the stat difference between them and the evolved Pokemon I was facing later in the game. But it was fun, and even with the additional condition of no items used in battle, it was never so difficult that it got frustrating, although this last battle came close.

And of course, thank you to anyone who read and followed along with this playthrough.

That one's pretty good, but my vote goes to one of these two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJcHQm-zA4Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hbv4s7m1s0

Lloyd
Spike

King
Jordan

Falcon
Kuwabara

Elite Four time! Since you can choose to fight the E4 in any order in this game, I decided to take on Acerola and her Ghost-types first since she was the one I was least confident about. I knew Gastly with Choice Specs would be my strongest damage option, but her Froslass outspeeds it and her Palossand and Dhelmise are fairly bulky, so I had to play cautiously. I led with Gastly and KO'd her lead Banette, then switched to Popplio to take on Palossand. Popplio survived a Giga Drain (with help from a Rindo Berry) and KO'd it with two Scalds. Then out came Froslass, who went down to a single Flash Cannon from Magnemite. I sent Popplio back out to dent Dhelmise with an Ice Beam, then Gastly finished off Dhelmise and lastly Drifblim to win that battle.

Next I decided to take on Kahili and her Flying-types, and here is where I started to make copious use of one specific move combo: Rest and Sleep Talk. I taught both to Magnemite, gave it the Eviolite, and brought it into the battle. The combo worked to keep Magnemite alive and let it KO her Braviary and Hawlucha, but then out came Mandibuzz who knows Bone Rush, so I switched to Popplio to take it down with two uses of Moonblast. I brought Magnemite back out to take down Toucannon, but then her Oricorio came out and KO'd Magnemite with a super effective Fire-type Revelation Dance, so I had Mudbray finish off the last bird with Rock Tomb.

For Olivia and her Rock-types, it was Crabrawler who would be rocking the Eviolite and the Rest + Sleep Talk combo, but it also had Bulk Up to increase its stats too. Crabrawler got set up to +5 Attack and +2 Defense (Armaldo kept getting Defense drops with Crush Claw to cancel out some of the Defense boosts) and swept her entire team. Probopass was annoying because it kept spamming Thunder Wave and surviving hits with Sturdy (including Olivia using multiple Full Restores on it) but even it wasn't much trouble.

Last but not least was Molayne and his Steel-types, and this time it was Mudbray's turn to use the Eviolite and Rest + Sleep Talk combo. It didn't have a boosting move like Magnemite's Charge Beam or Crabrawler's Bulk Up, but it had more than enough bulk (combined with its Stamina ability raising its Defense even higher) to survive the battle and sweep Molayne's team with Earthquake. I'm kind of surprised that I beat all of them on the first try, but the toughest is yet to come. I only have one battle left against Hau standing between me and becoming Pokemon League Champion, but I'm going to save and take a break before I go for it.

Bond
Lloyd

King
Jordan

Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

Then they took two in St Louis

The fact that the garbage-ass White Sox have only won a single road series all season and it was here in St. Louis just makes me weep. Why do both of my home teams suck this year?

legendarylemur posted...

Calm yourselves, cuz they just added animations to the activation of Sky Striker Mobilize Engage

NOBODY PANIC AAAAAAAAAAH

https://www.reddit.com/r/masterduel/comments/1cm5bxc/sound_the_alarms_engage_has_a_animation/

Holy shit that rocks

Let's go Panthers!

Raiden2909 posted...

Also, pointlessly shoving in a child generation felt like massive pandering since there was no reason for them aside from "children were popular in awakening" With the most BS excuse of them with the Hyperbolic time outworld's to justify them

Exactly. With Awakening, the next generation characters and the eugenics simulator aspect actually made perfect sense with the story's time travel plot. But with Fates, it's obvious that they just shoehorned it in because "people liked it last time so it'll help sell more" and then half-assed an explanation late in development.

Birthright has a decent story and mediocre gameplay, Conquest has amazing gameplay but an absolutely god-awful story, and Revelations attempted to balance between the two main routes but did a bad job and makes the worst parts of each one stand out more. I'd say maybe play Conquest if you really like Fire Emblem's core gameplay and are willing to tolerate or skip the story for it. Aside from that, don't bother with the Fates trio at all.

If you were interested in Fates for the "waifu and eugenics simulator" aspect, FE Awakening did that several times better, so go play that instead.

This play session, I went around the region grabbing some potentially useful items and TM's that I missed along the way, then I made the trip up Mt. Lanakila. I faced a bunch of trainers for more levels, including a messy battle with Gladion. I also passed by Necrozmas battered corpse along the way, chucked a Master Ball at it, and then shoved it into the PC. All I have left is the Pokemon League and then this playthrough is finished! Hopefully my team is good enough as it is and I don't have to do more training.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv62 Popplio*
Lv62 Magnemite*
Lv62 Cutiefly*
Lv62 Gastly*
Lv62 Crabrawler
Lv63 Mudbray*

There was one more cool moment I want to talk about. After I approached the Pokemon League gates and talked to Professor Kukui, there was a small cutscene of my starter Popplio coming out of its Pokeball and the two of us having a moment together, remembering how far weve come in this journey. This cutscene plays if your original starter Pokemon is in your party at this point, no matter what stage of evolution it is, but it doesnt play if your starter is in your PC or otherwise not in your possession, so people who box their starters don't see it. So I wonder just how many people have actually seen this cutscene with an unevolved starter rather than a fully evolved one...

https://iili.io/Jr0wrog.png

legendarylemur posted...

If you guys haven't seen this, Josh used Soldier Dragons and Laundry Dragonmaid unironically in a Paleo deck and went like 20-1 or something crazy on Master rank

Sounds really interesting, but I'm not watching a 9-hour stream video.

Ezio
Lloyd

King
Jordan

Nice, good to hear you enjoyed it. I used to go to a lot more games, but the only game I've been to in the past few years is one of the games in Albert Pujols' last home series before he retired.

I voted Fukai Mori, but My Will is a very close second and they're all good overall. Also, they're not in the poll and they're not nearly as iconic, but Inuyasha: The Final Act and Yashahime had some great ending songs too. *be careful of spoilers in the visuals and comments if you haven't watched*

Final Act:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIWQQ-Ziib0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_E7wJU5KZc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu3xK_lk8o

Yashahime:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCJ5vufe5VY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnGq65usuVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinVMxklyR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qMs9C3guPQ

Final Act ED2 and Yashahime ED1 and ED3 are probably my favorites of these.

https://twitter.com/FarfaYGO/status/1786850888457347405
https://twitter.com/dabidabli/status/1786862468699983992

I think this joke has officially peaked

Bond

Ezio
Lloyd

https://i.imgur.com/rZnerMd.png

Mina's island trial gauntlet went well. The first battles against Mina herself and Ilima were pretty easy, but then Lana gave me the most trouble out of all of them. It took me a few tries to plan and maneuver around her Lanturn's Thunder Wave and Volt Absorb so I could beat her other two Pokemon. Kiawe was easy using a combination of Popplio and Magnemite to deal with his Arcanine and then Mudbray for the other two. I couldn't lead with Mudbray to solo the battle due to Arcanine's Intimidate. After that, Cutiefly set up Quiver Dance on Nanu's lead Sableye and then swept through all of his Dark-types, though that one took a couple of tries simply because Sableye kept getting annoying critical hits to KO Cutiefly while it was setting up.

The battle against Totem Ribombee was easier than I expected too. I led with Gastly and immediately had it use Curse on Ribombee while it used Quiver Dance, then it SOS-called a Pelipper. After Gastly was KO'd, I sent in Magnemite and used Discharge, which KOd the Pelipper and did a little bit of chip damage to Ribombee. Ribombee eventually succumbed to Curse but managed to SOS-call a Blissey into the battle before it went down. I switched to Crabrawler and rearranged the Blissey's face with Brick Break, so that's the last island trial done.

For the grand trial battle against Hapu and her Ground-types, I led off with Popplio (holding the Eviolite for this battle) and hit her Golurk with Scald as it set up Stealth Rock. I tried to get creative and use Encore to lock Golurk into Stealth Rock so I could switch to Cutiefly and set up, but Hapu was smart and also switched to Gastrodon. Cutiefly was only able to set up a single Quiver Dance before being taken down to very low health, so it KO'd Gastrodon and put a big dent in Mudsdale with Energy Ball before going down. Popplio finished off Mudsdale and Golurk with Scald, then took down her Flygon with a couple uses of Icy Wind to finish the battle and cap off the Island Challenge!

King
Jordan

ShadowElite86 posted...

I'm kinda looking forward to Assault Lily coming to global.

Same, I'm interested in trying that one out too.

Just based on the horses' names (which is all I know), I'd probably cheer for Epic Ride because it sounds funny, but that horse like like a 40-something-to-1 underdog and probably isn't going to win.

I'm still only playing Revue Starlight and D4DJ Groovy Mix, and nothing interesting is happening in either of them. Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel too if you want to count that as a gacha, but that has its own separate general.

Funkydog posted...

And Cal is retiring from the topics or CE?

I'm not just making these gacha general topics anymore. I'll still occasionally post in them, but considering how little there is for me to discuss about the games I'm playing, it'll be rare. If a new game launches that I want to try, then you might see me around more often.

I'm not a fan of any card game format with fixed decks or over-restrictive deck building conditions. Master Duel's events where they implement a custom banlist to fit the theme of the event are pretty much the extent of what I can deal with when it comes to side formats that don't allow you full freedom. I don't like being forced to play a deck that I don't enjoy, and if Master Duel had a similar event (like some kind of loaner decks only format), I would straight-up skip the event even if it meant leaving gems unearned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CBctbw3c0s

By far the best part of the show. 6/10 decent anime, 11/10 metal as fuck OP

At least we know where Carmen Sandiego isn't going to be tomorrow

Falcon
Bond

Ezio
Lloyd

King
Jordan

https://www.mlb.com/news/marlins-trade-luis-arraez-padres

Being a Marlins fan is a never-ending nightmare

https://iili.io/JgmfPxS.png

More story stuff. Watching Nebby get SUCC'd by Necrozma was pretty wild. Anyways, first battle against Necrozma in its Dawn Wings form. I tried having Magnemite paralyze it, but it got outsped and KO'd by Moongeist Beam, a move which ignores abilities like Sturdy. I sent out Gastly, and I thought about whether a Shadow Ball (which would be double-super-effective on the Psychic/Ghost-type Dawn Wings) would be enough to knock it out. In the end, I decided to just use Destiny Bond instead, and thankfully Gastly outsped Necrozma without any speed drops being necessary. It got KO'd and took Necrozma down with it.

Next up was the battle against the beefed up Ultra Necrozma, who is level 60 (higher than my whole team) and starts the battle with +1 stage in all of its already massive stats. Like I said, I wanted to try and beat it without resorting to the Zorua Illusion strategy first. I put the Eviolite on Magnemite, I sent it out, I picked Thunder Wave, I prayed that it would survive a Photon Geyser, and it did! Necrozma easily KO'd Magnemite with a second attack, then I sent out Gastly. I picked Destiny Bond, but Necrozma was paralyzed and couldn't move. So I picked Destiny Bond again and... THE MOVE FAILED!?

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Destiny_Bond_(move)#Generation_VII

Destiny Bond will always fail if it was successfully executed on the previous turn.

Well, shit. All right, let's reset and try this again. Magnemite paralyzes Necrozma with Thunder Wave and then dies, I send out Gastly, pick Destiny Bond, and... NECROZMA ATTACKED FIRST THIS TIME!? Is it a speed tie, or does Necrozma not have set stats and its speed just happened to be slightly higher this time? Either way, I reset, but this time I used the 4 Rare Candies that I've found along the way to level up my Gastly and raise its speed some more. Finally, on the third attempt, the plan worked. Magnemite paralyzed Necrozma, then Gastly took it down with Destiny Bond. This was a bit annoying, but it feels more satisfying taking this big glowing bastard down with my main team than if I had brought out Zorua and cheesed it with Illusion. Even if the way I took it down with Destiny Bond is admittedly still pretty cheesy.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv55 Popplio*
Lv56 Magnemite*
Lv57 Cutiefly*
Lv59 Gastly*
Lv56 Crabrawler
Lv58 Mudbray*

Next up is Mina's trial, which is a long one. It's basically a gauntlet of trainer battles against previous trial captains, leading up to an annoying battle against a Totem Ribombee. After that, all I have left is the grand trial battle against the last island kahuna, the trip up Mt. Lanakila, and then the Pokemon League.

Falcon
Bond

Ezio
Lloyd

King
Jordan

zinformant posted...

I feel like most folks are overpowered come that Totem battle, but you really dived into the mechanics of it necessarily. Great fights. Bullet Punch Scizor is serious Diamond and Pearl era vibes.

Thank you. My Pokemon are several levels above the Totem Pokemon, so a normal team would be quite overpowered at this point. But the fact that I'm using unevolved Pokemon with lower base stats takes away the advantage that the higher levels give me, so I have to resort to more complicated strategies to win.

Also, I've decided that I'm going to try and beat Ultra Necrozma with my current team first before I resort to the Zorua Illusion strategy that I mentioned earlier to cheese it. Magnemite resists all of Ultra Necrozma's attacks, but its signature Photon Geyser attack ignores abilities like Sturdy. If Magnemite can't survive a resisted Photon Geyser with the Eviolite equipped, then nothing on my team can and I'll go get Zorua. But if it can survive a hit and get off a move, then I might be able to win and that would feel way more satisfying.