10/10

File: 1452701752698.jpg (46KB, 1366x768px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 1366x768px

>the end of the story

>>30308617
No

>>30308617
xp share off and battle mode set is the best way to play, really makes the game difficult without grinding

File: 20141107165453-chill-out-7-office-relaxation-tips.jpg (69KB, 822x462px) Image search: [Google]

69KB, 822x462px

>>30308617
Mah nigga!
47 hours here and i'm still to meet with Lillie at Malie Library

>>30308617
People seem to hate the Exp. Share but I absolutely love it. Works wonders for post game when leveling and evolving Pokemon for the national dex. ONly reason I bothered with a living dex in XYORAS

I think I am over 80 hours in, and I just cleared Sophocles challenge. Although this is mainly due to being side-tracked and spending the majority of my play-time in Festival Plaza. I am trying to fill my entire plaza with dye shops.

File: 1479792413335.jpg (31KB, 379x359px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 379x359px

I'm at 67 hours and just got to the Altar of the Moone. Has been a good ride so far.

>>30310506
Look, the same anon that hates all his god damn life! Point and laugh!

I've put like 18 attempts into the champ and I still haven't beat him because I put in some autistic self-imposed rules.

Game is absolutely harder than any SMT game.

>>30310559
I did exactly that, and never caught wild pokemon unless it was for my team, so no extra exp.
Most challenging and fun pokemon game I've ever played.

>>30308740
Probably one of the most emotional endings in Pokemon for me. Besides RSE, but that's just because of personal reasons really.

File: its kekening.jpg (16KB, 292x257px) Image search: [Google]

16KB, 292x257px

>>30308617
>tfw if it wasn't for leaks, NOBODY would see Cosmoem evolving into the box legend

>>30308740
Finally free of that bitch. Best ending ever.

Too bad that there's nothing to do after she goes away.

>>30310506
Care to explain why, my good chum

>>30308617
>>challenge is great once you realize exp share IS the difficulty switch
This will objectively never be the case unless turning off the EXP share suddenly gives every trainer better AI and better pokemon

File: 1431484524111.png (377KB, 512x384px) Image search: [Google]

377KB, 512x384px

>>30308617
>EXP Share is the difficulty switch
Its merely to save on the grind time.

XY was still better

>>30308617
It's definitely the best main line pokemon game

>>30311132
you seem to be making the ridiculous claim that the level of your team has no impact on difficulty. Care to rephrase?

I do agree that better AI would be welcome though. Even if it was something like "optimal but with limited switching"

File: 1470101650827.png (129KB, 374x435px) Image search: [Google]

129KB, 374x435px

>>30312522
>XY was still better

>>30311132
A lot of the teams are still pretty decent, even if they only have 1-3 pokemon. With exp share off, they'll be over-leveled enough that they will actually provide a bit of a challenge as you go through. The movesets for a lot of trainers seems to be a lot better this time than in XY.

>>30312522
>saves time
>by multiplying exp gain by 3
>almost always results in your team being very over-leveled
>even worse in the games that don't have the BW exp curve
???

>>30311132
Dunno man, in SM I'm always around the same level as trainers are and it has quite the difficulty spikes here and there.
In XY I could be 10+ levels below and still do fine.
I even was 20 levels below Stevens M Metagross and still managed to beat him quite easily.

Agreed. It is so much fun! Challenge is there. All NPC's are relatable.

>>30314197
>BW exp curve
not the same guy but i still need to finish the gen 5 games, what is so great about the new exp curve?

>>30314306
You get less exp from beating lower leveled mons.

>>30314356
i see, so that means you will be less likely to have overleveled mons while making late game easier if you want to raise underleveled mons from scratch?

But lets say i am trying to raise a under leveled with the usual switching at the beginning of a battle, does the exp still divides equally or does most of it go to the under leveled mon?

>>30308617
Hau was an annoying faggot

>>30311132
Trainer pokemon have EVs and half decent movesets now, so yeah. Being lower leveled actually matters now.

Battle royal is cancer tho
>power items locked behind tryhard AI with max IV/EV

>>30314105
not him but Kalos had route 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5Z32axj-g

if there was 1 thing I remember from XY was route 8

File: smug pepe.gif (202KB, 148x150px) Image search: [Google]

202KB, 148x150px

>Exeggcute called for help!
>Exeggcute arrived!

>Exeggcute used Sleep Powder!
>Shelgon fell asleep
>Exeggcute used Worry Seed!
>Shelgon gained Insomnia
>Shelgon's Insomnia!
>Shelgon woke up!

>>30314197
>1-3 pokemon
That's about my only complaint with the game I hated seeing everyone have such few Pokemon especially boss characters and having people challenge you as champ with teams of 5.

>>30308617

It's one of the better first of a generation, but it still screams "buy the next version or"sequels" "

also the cutscenes are numerious. Theres only like three instances where SM actually let you play the game before shoving story donw your throat. And the distribution is ass. Oh what do you mean all of these pokemon are 1-5% encounter rates? Aren't you satisfied with Raticate/Gumshoos and Fearow on every other route?

>>30314534
I agree
This was what bugged me the most about this game

>>30314238
>In XY I could be 10+ levels below and still do fine.

I think that's because main-game trainers actually make use of EVs in SM. I think this may be a mainline series first? Needless to say this offers a HUGE difficulty increase. You no longer have a ridiculous handicap against everyone else.

Also fun fact: in ORAS standard trainers have both 0 IVs and 0 EVs on all their pokemon. I image it's the same for XY.

http://pastebin.com/vkaZNTra
http://pastebin.com/vkaZNTra

>>30311132
it's like you didn't notice the guy who tried to sneaky pebbles+red card spam or certain NPCs switching into NVE or not effective attacks

>>30314534
I have hated that one trend in the games, there's no reason why there aren't trainers with full teams of 5-6 pokemon outside of bosses/important trainers. GF should also give out items, berries, small shit more often just to make the in-game have a bit more variety to it.

Even without it, I still think that the difficulty was pretty nice with the exp share off.

>>30314465
I don't remember how the curve ends up ultimately working, but lower leveled mons get an experience multiplier proportional to the one that got defeated, and the higher leveled ones just end up getting a smaller portion of base experience anyway I think. I'm just bullshitting the stuff found in http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Experience#Example_.28Generation_V.29 but from my experience, it's kind of difficult to get more than 5 levels over the other trainers at the points you're at.

>>30314623
That's fucking sick
Makes me love SM even more.
I mean the pebbles red card trainer basically already surpassed everything in past gens but still.

>>30308617
>tfw 70 hours in and pretty much just got to the 4th island

>>30314623
>I think that's because main-game trainers actually make use of EVs in SM.
sauce on this? Those distributions on the bosses is actually really cool. I love the contrast, since that's a huge difference between a 0IV/EV trainer and one that has min/maxed stats like the Kahunas

>>30311132
>use harden twice
>Lass' Pokemon switches to using special attacks
Bunch of other examples but this is probably the best trainer AI we've had in a while.

>>30314623
fucked up. ORAS link: http://pastebin.com/KwYJxJ9c

>>30314623
Nanu's krookodile outsped my entire team and 1shot all of them, it was total horseshit when it outsped my higher leveled ninetales

>>30314639
talking out my ass how I think that is how it worked, after turning XP share on, all my leveled flatlined and lower leveled caught up to my higher levels, without them getting much stronger

>>30314524
XY had Noivern my top favorite pokemon and I can still admit it was fucking garbage especially compared with SM

>>30314750
That's the Kahuna for the 3rd island, right?
His persian did the same, thought my speedy rock dog would outspeed and nuke it with its Z power and I got swept hard by that guy.

>>30314623
>Hau's Pokemon are all serious
They must have really been annoyed by him

>>30314729
more like, bullshit AI
>totem Kommo-o
>uses nothing but sky uppercut and protect
>switch to my Ninetales in an act of desperation
>switch into Kommo-o using flash cannon
>Ninetales fainted

>>30314750
>Nanu's krookodile
>Krokorok (Lv. 38) (Nature: Jolly)
>(Moves: Crunch/Assurance/Swagger/Earthquake)
>IVs: 31/31/15/15/15/31 EVs: 0/252/0/0/0/252

The more I look at this change the more fucking pleased I am. You not only no longer have a retarded handicap, but are disadvantaged because your opponents are optimized where you won't be.

For comparison, the fucking Elite Four in ORAS has 0 EVs + 25 IVs in every stat with a neutral nature.

>all these nerds forcing themself to prolong the game this much

25 hours for me and didn't even rush it. The hell were you fucks even doing?

>>30314833
Shit like this happened to me, too.

>Champion's Snorlax
>Body Slam spam against my Alolan Muk
>Poison stall it to about half way before Muk is in death range
>Decide to switch to Lycanroc, confident I'll be able to eat a Body Slam, hoping Brick Break will finish it
>Heavy Slam

Fuck off, video game.

File: he's fast.jpg (12KB, 320x225px) Image search: [Google]

12KB, 320x225px

>>30314855
>fighting nanu
>send out speedy the pebble dog expecting to outspeed/OHKO with brick break
>mfw he outspeeds me and OHKOs

>>30314869
Looked for Zygarde bits, TMs, did the Island Captain refights

File: wworld.jpg (50KB, 720x405px) Image search: [Google]

50KB, 720x405px

>>30308617
>mfw they turned EXP Share into a difficulty setting
Man, it was supposed to help pokemon who were ineffective in some patches of the game, like fire pokemon having to be benched during the Water Gym or something... not... this.

>>30310690
Anon it was pretty obvious from the beginning. Even if I hadn't seen the leaks I would have put two and two together

>all of them have some connection to space, Cosmog is a nebula, Cosmoem is a protostar, Solgaleo is the sun
>they all have that yellow bracing or whatever the fuck it is

You get the idea

>>30314869
I decided I wanted a snow warning vulpix with good IVs. Did some team restructuring at one point. Made serious effort to catch em all. Online functions. Doing some more post-game things during the main game.

>>30314869
There's this thing called "having fun"
You should try it sometimes

>>30314895
Pretty sure the snorlax is immune to poison
But everything here is a work of fiction I guess

Pokemon's story has always ranged from a 3 to a 7. Sun/Moon just seem to sit somewhere between Plat and Gen 3. Otherwise, Sun / Moon has taken the biggest knockback in the series in terms of gameplay features.

Actually I never thought of Exp. Share as difficulty switch, now that you've mentioned it, it kinda is.

Anyway, this Gen's Exp. Share is weird from Kalos' even, maybe it's the inner difficulty spike they implemented aside from having that item for us to use.

So AI trainers have good IV and max EV. So tell me why IV checker locked behind end game?
Why destiny knot and other power items are locked behind unfair BR grind?

>>30314995
why the fresh fuck would a snorlax be immune to poison?

>>30315056
Because they can have the ability Immunity?

>>30314995
I couldn't actually remember if I had burned it or poisoned it, put poison because I know for sure Muk was against it for a while. I just know I was stalling out with damage status.

>>30315107
well shit I've caught the downs. Thanks for the clarification

File: immunity.png (51KB, 1168x340px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 1168x340px

>>30315056
Because they can be immune to poison, get over it

Is the whole "turning off exp share makes the game challenging" thing just a meme?

I've been playing with exp. share off, no healing items, a full team of six since entering the second island, and besides having to use the poke center pretty frequently it's a breeze. I've literally lost one battle so far, the totem wishiwashi, and I beat it on my second try.

Does it get more difficult?

>>30315597
I'm currently doing a exp. share off, at the grass totem. Team only 1-2 levels below the boss, but holy shit, I've gotten my ass handed to me thrice.
Maybe I just need to catch up to the boss in levels.

>>30315597
Jumps on the third island and buys a jet on fourth.

>>30315597
Are you also on Set?
Also, if you're familiar with the mechanics and actually wiped in a Pokemon campaign at all, even once, that's far above the standard difficulty.

It does ramp up though.

>>30308617
>tfw 114 hours
>just got to tapu village

i love this game so much

>>30315668

>Are you also on Set?

yes

>>30315663
>>30315649

okay. it's probably just because I'm early then.

and also some of my pokemon are traded so they level up faster than normal (but I only had one pokemon that was a higher level than totem wishiwashi).

>>30314994
Anon. Investing more hours =/= having fun. Or better said, fun is subjective. 25 hours for main story was more then enough for me to enjoy the game instead of slaping another 40 hours on pointless nothing

File: 1479973702578.png (121KB, 253x228px) Image search: [Google]

121KB, 253x228px

>>30314526
>30 S.O.S Chains later
>Still no HA Eggs

>>30315786
>(but I only had one pokemon that was a higher level than totem wishiwashi).
You're either overleveling or focusing one or two pokemon at the expense of the others. I was XP share off and went into that fight with a three level deficit across the board.

>>30315663
Hapu's fucking Mudsdale. Level 48 when you're just hitting early 40's, Heavy Slam/STAB Earthquake/Double Kick/Counter, IVs: 31/31/31/15/15/15 EVs: 0/252/252/0/0/0

Did anybody else notice that Mudsdale's weight is 2028.3 lbs? For reference, that's double fucking Snorlax's weight. Heavy Slam will always be 100+ power.

>>30314513
>Being fucking bad
I beat hyper rank regularly with random garbage you can catch anywhere without ev training, plus a topu koko.

Royal is all about being opportunistic with the kills and choosing the right target, you can win even if you have less points by the end of the match.

It felt difficult even with the exp share on. At no point was I overleveled and it was on the whole time.

>>30317459

playing with set makes it really easy to overlevel certain pokemon if you send them out often. and grinding without the exp share is a pain because you have to trick train really weak pokemon and do each one individually.

honestly compared to XY it seems like in Sun/Moon it was made so that you're actually supposed to use the exp share and still have a challenge. the "challenge" from turning off the exp share seems to be just making the game tedious rather than actually testing your skill.

>>30318407
It's a grinding game, anon. There is no skill other than ability to withstand the tedious shit.

>>30318407
The best way to approach it is to toggle exp share as needed.

I caught a lot of pokemon and some HA searching meant I fought a lot of wilds. This + exp share will make you overleveled. I turned it off come the third island and by the E4 I was lvl 50, which was just barely out of "gotta grind" territory. Skill was definitely tested.

And similarly I wouldn't object to not using set all the time. May be a bit of a waste vs. trash trainers, but it's great to have on during the real fights.

File: 1480132981185.png (116KB, 500x464px) Image search: [Google]

116KB, 500x464px

>>30317963
i feel the same way. i fought nearly every trainer i came across with exp share on and was still underlevelled for the big fights

yall must be fighting every wild pokemon you come across or somethin.

also Set style didnt really add much of a challenge IMO. once my important mon faints i just send out some bait and use one of my 50 revives

I like how folks have been wiping to different totems, or at least having much harder times.

Everyone raged about Lurantis, but I had no issues. Meanwhile Mimikyu slapped the fuck out of my team, bringing my incineroar down to 5 HP.

>>30319304

>use one of my 50 revives

>using revives

>using healing items at all

>>30319513
>he probably used more than 1 pokemon in his party

>>30308617
I agree, best Pokemon game.

I say that even though the starters are some of the worst ever conceived. I either go the owl or no starter each run.

>>30319474
opposite with me. Really depends on your team comp

>>30319474
depends on what mons you chose for your in game team, some totems have hard counters like

water absorb poliwag > wishiwashi
mudsbray > salazzle
salandit > lurantis

Also x-item + z-move can one shot a few totems like kommo-o even when underleveled

>want to bond with my mons in refresh
>don't want the exp bonus to gimp game difficulty

Truly suffering. I walked the WishiWashi trial with just my Dartrix, I thought this shit was meant to be hard?

>>30319602
if you started with grass then obviously the water trial is piss. Although I can't say it's exactly balanced since totem salazzle is a huge pushover.

>>30314465

Anyone that wasn't in the battle gets half the exp gained from the pokemon thst were in it.

I used exp share and it didn't do much for me, but I'm sure I could have thrown a level 1 pokemon into the start if a fight every time and got ridiculous exp all across my party.

>>30308617
>Forcing you to grind more often and more methodically is "more difficulty" and not just tedious busywork.
>The E4 was "no joke" despite Olivia literally dying 6-0 to a single Poliwrath with Bulk Up and Brick Break, the EXACT SAME STRATEGY that effortlessly takes her down the first time. Hala is a pushover if your team has two ghosts in it. Acerola dies to ghost and dark, which you probably have tons of if you aren't shit. Khalil is the only one that remotely poses a challenge, and only if you let her set up spikes too much and have too many grass/fighting types on your team. All 4 lose to decent item usage, and since the game shits money at you there's no reason except your own retardation to not be going into every E4 fight completely fresh.
>Presentation is "fantastic considering the hardware" despite the fact that literally everything drags and/or lags in varying degrees if pressed at all, including the FUCKING BOXES. Despite the gen clearly catering to double battles and the new battle royale mode, they both lag like crazy and multi-battles in the tree can have crazy desyncs with people that are less than 5 feet away from each other if weather conditions pop up.

I'll give you that the writing was top-notch in both character and story departments, but SM had a fuckton of technical and mechanical problems.

Also, stop pretending that grinding is at all related to difficulty. The AI is still reliant on movepool tricks and basic patterns that they teach you in Programming 101 courses to get shit done. The "route Kahunas" are decent because they show off weird tactics, but their AI isn't any different, it just showcases ways to use items and moves that casuals may not think to touch. Wasting more time to kick something's ass isn't making the game more difficult, it's just running up your game time.

>>30310586
>national dex

senpai...

>>30319837
>Forcing you to grind more often and more methodically is "more difficulty" and not just tedious busywork.

Not him but you don't need to grind at all buddy. What's with this idea that if you're switching the EXP Share off that you're suddenly grinding? The game doesn't force you to grind.

I played without the EXP Share progressed in the game normally, caught whichever Pokemon I wanted and fought the trainers as normal. There was no point in the game that I went out of my way to grind my Pokemon levels up and it was a good challenge(especially towards the end where you'll be 5-10 levels below).

>>30319602
Two hearts should be fine. Just toggle exp share to compensate. I'm this guy >>30318861 and spent most the game with 2 hearts minimum.

In fact, lvl 50 is REALLY pushing it for the E4. They're min/maxed as fuck after all. If I'm remembering right I may have only made it through thanks to a clutch "pokemon toughed it out" save, which is pretty bullshit but I didn't know what the hearts did ahead of time.

As per difficulty, this is about right >>30315663. Second island is trivial with the exception of a totem or two depending on your team composition.

>>30319837
game performance impressions will defer depending on the hardware played on. And where did you ever have to grind in this game? Unless you specially plan for it there's no way you're going to wipe 3 of the 4 E4 members. This would make for an interesting stawpoll actually

Agree 100% on your AI analysis.

> Wasting more time to kick something's ass isn't making the game more difficult, it's just running up your game time.
Not sold on this. A more numerically difficult opponent forces you to use your team as optimally as possible, which makes for a decent challenge. This game doesn't venture into "bullshit bullet sponge" territory with this approach, so I'm fine with it. Everything is fair.

my team is overleveled and I turned off the EXP share

idk what i did wrong but this game isn't that hard

>>30319513
Just play on Battle Style Set and suffer just switching you pokemon.

>>30319837
>The E4 was "no joke" despite Olivia literally dying 6-0 to a single Poliwrath with Bulk Up and Brick Break, the EXACT SAME STRATEGY that effortlessly takes her down the first time. Hala is a pushover if your team has two ghosts in it. Acerola dies to ghost and dark, which you probably have tons of if you aren't shit. Khalil is the only one that remotely poses a challenge, and only if you let her set up spikes too much and have too many grass/fighting types on your team.

What was your E4 team anyways? Difficultly discussions are always weird because this factor causes vastly different experiences.

>>30308617
>challenge is great once you realize exp share IS the difficulty switch. Jesus that elite 4 was no joke.
Doesn't make that much of a difference, the game and the elite four are piss easy
>Story is actually touching at the end.
It could have been better, but could have been worse
>Characters are well done
Some of them are. Hau, Llima, and a few others were not.
>Objectives are varied enough to keep things interesting
Yeah, but a lot of the time your hand is super glued to another person railroading you along.
>Side stuff like the Poke Pelago are fun
true
>presentation is fantastic considering the hardware
Could be better.

it's about an 8/10.

>>30320256
No Pokemon game has ever hard, these guys are all shitters.

File: 1479964711701.jpg (427KB, 1543x1360px) Image search: [Google]

427KB, 1543x1360px

>>30320371
>thinks that important parts of the game are shit
>8/10

And that is the reason why you never believe what someone on the internet says about video games.

I'm hating battle tree. I feel like I'm losing solely due to RNG. Getting paralyzed is an auto loss cause I never wears off and the game has no problem locking you 4 turns in a row

>>30320115
I did absolutely no planning for the E4. My siblings both managed to beat me to the League, but didn't tell me shit about the E4 until I was already fighting them, other than "Save before you go in", which I would've done anyway.

All I did was stock up to 10 Revives, 5 Max Potions, 5 Full Restores, 15 Hyper Potions, and just walked in with the party I had at that very moment. During the Olivia fight I also used 2 Awakenings that I happened to have lying around during my setup phase because her Relicanth kept spamming Yawn while I was trying to Bulk Up, but I didn't even eat into half of the items I'd prepared in advance otherwise.

The string of battles leading up to and including the second Guzma match and the first Lusamine fight were harder, and that's because I'd forgotten to stock up on Revives and didn't turn around to restock when I initially noticed this. That was my poor decision-making, not the game being hard.

>>30320278
As I mentioned above, I just walked in with the team I'd been nurturing through the story. I didn't do any breeding or EV training until postgame, and the only time I actually went out of my way to get a specific pokemon was for Skill Link Pikipek on the first island (which I ended up not using much anyway) and Starmie (which was underleveled the entire time and basically was just a Revive Pivot in actual fights).

My team was Mismagius, Decidueye, Demo Greninja, Poliwrath, Arcanine, and Starmie. The Greninja was slightly underleveled compared to the rest of the party because I forgot about him until I was almost done with the third island, and the Starmie was about 15 levels under par for its entire tenure. The Mismagius and Arcanine ended up having decent offensive IVs and the entire team had decent natures (nothing detrimental but nothing outstanding. I lucked out with the Mismagius, though).

Khalil gave me trouble because I kept switching in shit she hard countered, but I managed to pull through with 2-0.

>>30310661
The BW ending is actually the best bruh. Nothing can top that ending theme with N's farewell.

>>30314465
It divides it as you would expect (2 mons get half 3 get a third etc.) but then applies the scale modifier.
So, beating a level 30 mon by switching from your level 20 to your level 50 will give each "half" but the level 20 will get for example 1,000 exp where the 50 will get 500 exp

>>30315597
If you have lost already it's hard.
Don't be autistic.

>>30310586
People only hate the Exp Share in the context of the main story. When they bitch about it, they aren't thinking about post-game or competitive. Let GF take its recent functionality away one day and watch this board lose its shit.

Reminds me of the autists who bitched about the increased difficulty during the story.

>>30314869
Took me 48 hours of gameplay exploring the map and revisiting areas after getting new ride Pokémon in between story checkpoints. Exploring the map was fun this time around.