Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

[Random]

Did I miss something? Is it just a thing that you catch the box legendary super early?

[Deathhappens]

AFAIK we don't even know if you catch it, per se, you just end up riding on it. It doesn't seem to be in the Pokemon section, now that you mention it.

[Skull]

Did I miss something? Is it just a thing that you catch the box legendary super early?

Curiously, the start of the picnic sequence has the player throw out seven PokéBalls so it may be something along the lines of you getting partnered with the legendary at the beginning of the game but they aren’t able to fight in battle for you until later, just serving as your ride buddy.

[Laserman]

Actually, I think with TMs going back to one use we might actually be netting negative improvements already.

It was like that in Sword and Shield with TRs and you were able to get plenty just fine. So I don't see the problem with just having TMs and them being that way now like they were before.

[Deathhappens]

Because reusable TMs were universally hailed as a neccesary evolution of the formula (as egg moves, abilities, megas/z moves and a plethora of new held items made battling much more complex) and removing that is a step back?

[pinetree]

Yeah but it was a necessary step back once they introduced multiplayer elements that need to have some continuous reward throughout the game's lifetime and that are still useful past the post game. Not a decision I appreciate but it hasn't been a problem so far.

[TomPen94]

I'm fine with TMs being single-use. It isn't an improvement per se but imo it doesn't make the game worse either.
It's just an "oh" change.

[Reign]

I prefer reusable TMs but since they're craftable now going back to single-use isn't really a big deal. It's not like the days where you'd only find one Thunderbolt TM for the entire game.

[Deathhappens]

It remains to be seen how much of a big deal it's gonna be (I foresee grinding in the near future) but the fact remains it didn't need to be.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah but it was a necessary step back once they introduced multiplayer elements that need to have some continuous reward throughout the game's lifetime and that are still useful past the post game. Not a decision I appreciate but it hasn't been a problem so far.

Then maybe introducing those mechanics was the problem to begin with? Not that they didn't have a plethora of rewards they could have used that would have primarily been important to multiplayer anyway (vitamins, caps, etc).

[Spinach]

I'd still rather click a water move five times instead of watching by the sidelines as the game plays itself.

Turn based JRPGs already play themselves, you're just replacing the tedium of press Surf to one shot wild Pokemon with pressing "go gettem" to one shot the wild Pokemon without having to sit through the battle transitions.

[pinetree]

You misunderstood me. I'm fine with adding it for wild encounters, my complaint is using it as the main mechanic of a "dungeon"

[Laserman]

I don't think they know how to do fun exploration anymore.

I'm pretty sure all the Gamefreak map designers died spontaneously after the release of B2W2 and they just decided to not hire anyone else. It's the only explanation.

I thought about this for a moment, and yeah...

I want something like past Victory Roads and the other caves and places like before to be in this game, I loved the puzzles and the exploring.

[Spinach]

You misunderstood me. I'm fine with adding it for wild encounters, my complaint is using it as the main mechanic of a "dungeon"

I don't think they view those team battle things as a dungeon. It looks like it's explicitly meant to be a gauntlet to see if your pokemon are sufficiently grinded up to autobattle through a ton of trash fodder consecutively. That said, the Pokemon "dungeon" is kind of a dead design thing anyway. Caves and gyms have been a bit of a joke for a hot minute already. I'm glad they at least have the balls to experiment with something a bit different. And no, I don't consider totems to have been different. They were still just high lvl Pokemon, they just came pre-loaded with stat boosts.

[pinetree]

It really is dead and that's the problem with the games but that's a different matter.

A few totems has actually interesting movesets and team synergies though. Personally I can't fathom favoring an auto-battle gauntlet over boss battles that had thought put into them. And now totems are back in this game but even those positives were apparently taken away so...
An auto-battle gauntlet would be fine as a side thing, but having one of the main objectives in the game be 'be over this level and then just look at the screen for a while' sucks.
I'm not expecting some stellar single-player battle experience here because Pokémon is shit at designing interesting battles and also a chidren's game, but this is just too braindead to ignore.

[Rafflesiac]

It looks like it's explicitly meant to be a gauntlet to see if your pokemon are sufficiently grinded up to autobattle through a ton of trash fodder consecutively.

EXP Share propaganda?

- - - Updated - - -

Thinking about it it reminds me of musou, but by all appearances skill-less.

[Spinach]

EXP Share propaganda?

- - - Updated - - -

Thinking about it it reminds me of musou, but by all appearances skill-less.

Musou is also skillless, it's a design goal. Anyway I don't have a strong opinion about the team challenge gauntlet thing. It looks kind of lame but really, lame has been the franchise's direction for a while. I assume there will still be traditional smash through normal grunt gameplay elsewhere. The purpose of the direct was to show what's new, so that's what was seen. It also still ends in a proper battle. And in all honesty, losing grunt spam is hardly a downgrade in game design. They usually have an incredibly shallow pokemon pool and are equivalent to wild Pokemon anyway, lol...

- - - Updated - - -

I specifically just like being able to gank wild Pokemon via autobattle. Let me throw my Pokemon Arceus style and hit the Pokemon in the back of the head to give mine some advantage in the autobattle algorithm while we're at it.

[Deathhappens]

They made a 14 minute trailer to show us every exciting new feature of a new mainline Pokemon game, and we got... autobattling?

Off to a stellar start, this one.
(I don't count TM crafting as a new feature since it's just the old gen 1 buying TMs at the shop "feature" with extra steps).

[Rafflesiac]

Wait, I just realized. If any Pokemon can have any Tera type, and Tera Blast or whatever it's called changes type to match that type, then didn't they just remake Hidden Power?

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder if Tera Blast (or whatever it's called) changes between Physical and Special like Shell Side Arm.

[pinetree]

Terrastalizing in general is Hidden Power mind games brought to a whole new level.

[Laserman]

I wonder if Tera Blast (or whatever it's called) changes between Physical and Special like Shell Side Arm.

It does.

Tera Blast inflicts damage using the Attack or Sp. Atk stat—whichever is higher for the user.​