Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

[Tootsie Bear]

Whole bunch of Pokémon leaks, no pictures but info. Including final evo types and Weed Cat’s general shape.

Spoiler

View attachment 3378449

https://twitter.com/centroleaks/status/1535685145583407104

Don't tell me they plan on making Weed Cat's final evolution to look like a Digimon.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Don't tell me they plan on making Weed Cat's final evolution to look like a Digimon.
View attachment 3378479

 

[Archeops]

Just a heads-up for fellow Pokémon Go players, the Ultra Unlock Research Day is happening tomorrow (or today in some parts of the world). Here’s a nice visual guide by the PoGo community’s own LeekDuck.

As far as the Shiny rates for the Sinnoh fossil ‘mons are concerned I suspect that they’ll be 1/64.

Oh, and Niantic finally responded to the whinging and complaining that players doled out during Go Fest. Here’s a quote of the article-in-question if you don’t want to give the site a click.

Pokémon Go has been in a messy state from the perspective of fans for some time now, with the community openly criticizing several of Niantic’s decisions regarding reverting changes made during the pandemic, the pace at which new content is added to the game, and more. And, after a divisive two-day event for Pokémon Go Fest 2022, Niantic has responded to some fan complaints in an exclusive statement to Dot Esports.

Many of those issues were brought into the spotlight during the first stage of Go Fest 2022, where a larger number of players raised concerns about a lack of Shiny Pokémon encounters despite a boost being in effect and other visual errors impacting the experience.


Unfortunately, the statement by Niantic director Michael Steranka didn’t touch on much outside of those Shiny rate issues, missing several key points of contention within the community.

“We understand that for some Trainers, the biggest way they judge the quality of a Pokémon Go event is on how many Shiny Pokémon they catch,” Steranka said to Dot Esports. “We heard from Trainers who shared how lucky they were this year in terms of Shiny Pokémon caught, while others shared how their experience was the opposite. If Shiny Pokémon are too prevalent, it degrades the game in the long term.”


Steranka said that Niantic has heard a lot of feedback from players and is taking it into account while planning future events.

It is true that Shiny encounters are always based on luck regardless of the boosts put into place during an event. Still, when hundreds of players actively point out that they are encountering significantly fewer Shinies than the exact same style of event from 2021, something might be up. That’s not even considering the handful of bugs, such as Incense spawns disappearing in a visual glitch that also detracted from the event.

According to Steranka, Niantic views the entire event, ticketed or not, as a package that players will enjoy and not solely based on just one aspect.

“Pokémon Go Fest events are about coming together for a weekend of fun catching, raiding, battling, and exploring,” Steranka said. “Ideally, the totality of the content of a given event makes you feel like the event is a good value—the Special Research, the bundle of in-game items such as raid passes and Incense, the Global Challenges, the spawns, the storyline and so on.”

Even if Niantic abides by this methodology, the actual players who spent $14.99 to participate in the event, even if only a portion of them, are the ones who are speaking out. And that doesn’t even get into the continued negative feedback on changes to Community Day events, slow content rollout, and accessibility features like Incense effectiveness or Remote Raids.

The continued financial success of Pokémon Go, to the tune of the game surpassing over $6 billion in lifetime player spending, also has fans wondering about Niantic’s approach to providing content versus prioritizing profit. This is especially true heading into the physical Go Fest 2022 events and finale later this Summer.

Niantic did not respond to comments about those other areas of community feedback.

The overall response I’m seeing is that players feel that Niantic is trying to sweep this little “problem“ under the rug by only addressing the Shiny rate and leaving the rest of Go Fest’s issues quiet. My personal opinion is that, thanks to Go’s integration with HOME, TPC is paying very close attention to how these events affect the console games.

 

[Meat Target]

Someone fixed the internal battery in my old copy of Sapphire, and I've been binging.

Gen 3 was my first, and therefore my favorite. ORAS is a gayified mockery.

 

[Kuchipatchi]

ORAS is a gayified mockery.

Don't even get me started on ORAS. The only good thing to come out of that game was the flying feature. Flying around at night before bed is really nice, it's a shame they haven't brought back the flying feature. And no, Braviary in Arceus isn't the same as it has limitations.

 

[Archeops]

I picked up SwSh again after lord knows how long to breed some ‘mons for SV (and to give myself and a friend some VGC-suitable teams).

AFAICT two things that bother me are still present in the game: Trade-bots sending subtle hacks to unsuspecting players via Surprise Trade and and hacked Raid hosts popping up in the feed (made even worse by some of ‘em being blatant Discord/Twitch adverts). I really only have issues with the latter, the former can be an issue if you decide to be monumentally retarded and enter a tournament with said hacks but that’s easily fixed by using ‘em as breeding stock. I just wish that they’d be smart and send 6 IV Dittos as a different language or one that’s rarely played, English Dittos are largely useless to most players.

Someone fixed the internal battery in my old copy of Sapphire, and I've been binging.

Gen 3 was my first, and therefore my favorite. ORAS is a gayified mockery.

I have a copy of Sapphire that refuses to start up for some reason and a copy of Crystal that glitches out on start-up, I still need to find a way to fix those.

Don't even get me started on ORAS. The only good thing to come out of that game was the flying feature. Flying around at night before bed is really nice, it's a shame they haven't brought back the flying feature. And no, Braviary in Arceus isn't the same as it has limitations.

If you’re going to blame the loss of features on something then blame it on Game Freak’s need to make every region feel “unique” in terms of features, just look at how many Twitter users are complaining about the lack of PLA-style catching in SV.

 

[Meat Target]

If you’re going to blame the loss of features on something then blame it on Game Freak’s need to make every region feel “unique” in terms of features, just look at how many Twitter users are complaining about the lack of PLA-style catching in SV.

It's not the loss of features that made ORAS trash. It's that they dumbed down everything and made it toddler-easy.

Catching Latios/Latias as part of the story? A free shiny Rayquaza for just purchasing? Every poke that's stronger than a roll of wet paper towels gets a Mega Evolution?

What's the point? Where's the challenge? Even my 12-year-old self would be insulted by how easy it is.

 

[Kuchipatchi]

It's not the loss of features that made ORAS trash. It's that they dumbed down everything and made it toddler-easy.

Catching Latios/Latias as part of the story? A free shiny Rayquaza for just purchasing? Every poke that's stronger than a roll of wet paper towels gets a Mega Evolution?

What's the point? Where's the challenge? Even my 12-year-old self would be insulted by how easy it is.

I remember getting absolutely lost after the submarine theft scene. I found the submarine but I thought it was a dead end so I looked ALL across Hoenn for the next scene. At some point, I was looking at the submarine again and I was too lazy to exit the cave to go back up only to find a new area. I was like, "OH MY GOSH! I'm in a new area!"

Do kids not have that same sense of adventure anymore? Do kids just play games to press A to win?

 

[Archeops]

It's not the loss of features that made ORAS trash. It's that they dumbed down everything and made it toddler-easy.

If you want to blame someone for that blame Game Freak, IIRC Masuda said that part of the reason for dumbing down ORAS (as well as replacing Emerald's Battle Frontier with XY's Battle Maison) was to keep kids' attention and compete with mobile games.

Catching Latios/Latias as part of the story?

This is something I can kind of understand from a design standpoint since it's meant be a quick way to give players access to soaring without frustrating the player via accidentally fainting Latios or Latias and having to reset (or undergo a scene that restarts the battle). That said, you still have access to soaring even after trading, transferring, or removing the Pokemon in question from your save file.

A free shiny Rayquaza for just purchasing?

This kind of thing (getting a special version of a highly-competitive Pokemon for free via an event) happens every now and then and I'm not too surprised by it nor am I going to complain about. It's worth noting that this specific Pokemon was given out to promote the Pokemon TCG's Ancient Origins set, where Shiny Mega Rayquaza pops up in the set as an Ultra-Rare card and as one of the Pokemon featured on the set's pack art.

Every poke that's stronger than a roll of wet paper towels gets a Mega Evolution?

Mega Evolution as a mechanic was a mostly-flawed concept from the start that really should've been given several more passes and edits before being approved. I do agree that there are some Pokemon that really didn't need Megas at the time (Like Lucario, Garchomp, pre-nerf Gengar, Blaziken, Salamence, Slowbro), some Pokemon needing them but should've been given a few more revisions (Kangaskhan, Mawile, Sableye) some that actually fixed their issues (Beedrill, Lopunny, Aerodactyl), and some that just kind of seem pointless (Abomasnow, Absol, Audino).

What's the point? Where's the challenge? Even my 12-year-old self would be insulted by how easy it is.

The point is to keep a continuous stream of younger players hooked to the IP while older players either stick around for parts of the IP (VGC, the TCG in general, teaching other players the ins-and-outs of the games) or they move on and live off of nostagia. It's a sad state that I, and hopefully other age-old Pokemon fans, have made peace with.

Could the mainline games give players some sort of post-story challenge? They could, we've seen it happen with PLA's post-game Volo battle and (sadly) BDSP's Gym Leader and E4 rematches. The problem is that Game Freak and TPC need to be willing to step out of the cut-and-paste bubble and actually shake things up. And if you ask me, it's almost as if they're afraid to do so thanks to the thorough bashing Gen V got.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave]

If you want to blame someone for that blame Game Freak, IIRC Masuda said that part of the reason for dumbing down ORAS (as well as replacing Emerald's Battle Frontier with XY's Battle Maison) was to keep kids' attention and compete with mobile games.

I’m honestly interested in what the next game after Scarlet and Violet does, now that Masuda isn’t directly involved with Game Freak anymore. Gen 9 will likely still have his fingerprints on it, but whatever comes after that’ll likely show if everyone at GF is just as retarded.

 

[SnowBall]

To be fair Masuda hasn’t directed a non remake game since XY. He basically spent the past decade being the scapegoat for many of the issues other people were responsible for like Ohmori.

 

[Rock Rock Hard Abs]

Oh Pokemon. How the mighty have turned into a poor shell it was. I got in via the 6th generation and enjoyed it heavily, but by Ultra Sun and Moon, it just stopped being interesting. I got Sword and Brilliant Diamond but the former I gave to my sister, and the other I just have under dust.
Shame, mostly I just seen what the games are now. The new titles look cool though.

 

[Archeops]

To be fair Masuda hasn’t directed a non remake game since XY. He basically spent the past decade being the scapegoat for many of the issues other people were responsible for like Ohmori.

And there‘s the rub, he hasn’t directed a game in since then but he has shown up on the games’ staff role in some noticeable form (most often under producing role). With him leaving Game Freak and joining TPC‘s staff team as Chief Creative Fellow (whatever the hell that means) I can only hope that the mainline games get to the point where both newer and older players can find some joy in ‘em.

Oh Pokemon. How the mighty have turned into a poor shell it was. I got in via the 6th generation and enjoyed it heavily, but by Ultra Sun and Moon, it just stopped being interesting. I got Sword and Brilliant Diamond but the former I gave to my sister, and the other I just have under dust.
Shame, mostly I just seen what the games are now. The new titles look cool though.

If the explore page on Scarlet/Violet’s advertising site is any indication it appears that TPCi is hyping up how players will be able to explore the game’s world at their own pace and not be tied down by the plot. I personally don’t buy that outright, I suspect that it’ll be similar to how PLA handled its areas, you’ll be able to explore a large amount of the area normally but some areas will be “walled” off by something that you’ll get later in the game (and even then I’m sure some players will find a way to break that), the only difference is that it’ll be a proper open world rather than massive areas that you can choose to go to via a selection screen.

 

[negativlad]

If the explore page on Scarlet/Violet’s advertising site is any indication it appears that TPCi is hyping up how players will be able to explore the game’s world at their own pace and not be tied down by the plot. I personally don’t buy that outright, I suspect that it’ll be similar to how PLA handled its areas, you’ll be able to explore a large amount of the area normally but some areas will be “walled” off by something that you’ll get later in the game (and even then I’m sure some players will find a way to break that), the only difference is that it’ll be a proper open world rather than massive areas that you can choose to go to via a selection screen.

I feel like there’s been a trend in the last handful of years and across many Switch games to move to this sort of walled garden approach to level design and this won’t be any different. The linear path, random encounters days of the franchise are done (until the gen 5 remakes)

 

[Friendly Primarina]

 

[Creep3r]

Gen 2 just had a really stupid wild pokemon encounter level table and I can pin that a lot on the shape of the region - while it's nice to be wide open, that meant they had to balance it around someone heading right from Jasmine to Pryce. So a massive middle chunk of the game had pokemon hovering around those early levels - if you didn't know real early on what you wanted then it was hell catching up.

Then you have the disaster that's the Kanto encounter table - if I recall correctly, the only areas where you had pokemon in their 40s was the Mt. Silver area. And Red's team is all in the 70's.

Gen 3 onwards is where it started to get better, but I still feel like Gen 5 had the best level balance. Audino being so prevalent in that game sure helped there, but that generation had the best ability of keeping pokemon at the right levels.

I agree completely but I personally would've preferred to have the VS Seeker back over Audino spawns.

 

[NerdShamer]

you’ll be able to explore a large amount of the area normally but some areas will be “walled” off by something that you’ll get later in the game (and even then I’m sure some players will find a way to break that),

I won't be surprised if Scarlet & Violet will place an arbitrary barrier around certain cities or just bottleneck it with an bridge or an certain boat.

If not...Well, we have been locked out of the town's gym until you see an certain an event.

 

[Bunny Tracks]

Hot Take: The mainline Pokemon games were never challenging.

The only things that made them difficult growing up was the schizo leveling curve, not fully understanding the games' mechanics, and the fact that some of those mechanics just didn't work like the games, and anime said they were supposed to (looking at you, Gen 1 Ghost-types).

 

[Leaf Wage Slave]

Hot Take: The mainline Pokemon games were never challenging.

The only things that made them difficult growing up was the schizo leveling curve, not fully understanding the games' mechanics, and the fact that some of those mechanics just didn't work like the games, and anime said they were supposed to (looking at you, Gen 1 Ghost-types).

The only one that was challenging was the Original Gen 1 - partly because it was a brand new series so no one knew the mechanics, mostly because Red and Blue were held together by copious amounts of duct tape and were glitchy messes that’d make Bethesda proud. And even then, they weren’t that challenging - see literal Twitch Chat beating Pokémon, or any of the other X plays Pokémon videos out there.

I feel that at some point, people’ve forgotten that despite what autists like us or the competitive players think, Pokémon is first and foremost a Children’s Game - hell, I jokingly refer to it as Baby’s First RPG. Sure, the series coddles the player now more than ever, but considering how people seem to be getting more and more retarded by the year, I’m ambivalent at best about it. Just let me skip the goddamn tutorial’s and make a game that I don’t fall asleep playing through, and I’ll call it even

 

[NerdShamer]

Hot Take: The mainline Pokemon games were never challenging.

The only things that made them difficult growing up was the schizo leveling curve, not fully understanding the games' mechanics, and the fact that some of those mechanics just didn't work like the games, and anime said they were supposed to (looking at you, Gen 1 Ghost-types).

Here's the internet's counterpoint. (A)