Gaming Pokemon Alpha Sapphire mini rant

[funnystory]

Overall this game was pretty decent I had a ton of late level 48s-52s. I made it all the way to the Elite Four. I suddenly figure out I have to beat 5 top trainers with no breaks(LOL). I could have attempted a 2 hour long battle but After playing the game for almost 15 hours straight it gets to the point where I just want to finish and be done with it.

Now I think its fair to say that I am not a pokemon fan, but still the game was half decent until I figure out that I have to grind out 15-20 levels just to see the ending of the game, to me that is complete blasphemy and a cheap way to extend the game.

Needless to say, I ended up using PkHex to add leveled up characters but it kinda ruined it for me that I couldnt do it myself, and my only option would be to set there grinding for hours lol. Any game where you need to grind is not really a game I enjoy. Anyways this was just my little rant to let go of some steam. Turn based RPGS are already not necessarily my thing but they can be very fun if done right,grinding has no place in the game experience whats so ever.

TLDR : Decent game, ruined by grinding at the end when essentially the game is already over.

 

[Adeka]

Unless you have the black/gold trainer card then your adventure is far from over

 

[HaloEffect17]

Decent game, ruined by grinding at the end when essentially the game is already over.

I can definitely understand your criticism for the Pokemon RPGs, or turn based RPGs in general -- many of which are plagued with excessive level grinding. However, I appreciate the remakes Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby as it was a nod to those who played the original games for the GBA and for the sake of gamers' nostalgia.

When overlooking the faults of Pokemon RPGs, however, I think many can commend its addictive catch/train/battle formula which was a staple for the series as a whole. I particularly like how the series has evolved through the recent 3DS titles and how it stays true to its roots. But nothing beats the originals.

 

[loco365]

I didn't really do any grinding of any kind, although I must admit that Omega Ruby players do have the storyline much easier. Once you get (Primal) Groudon, the 8th Gym is a fucking joke, and the Elite Four don't stand much of a chance either as long as you keep your party in decent shape.

I think the game redeemed itself though with the Delta Episode though because XY lacked any postgame whatsoever (Okay it had Looker's chapters but even those were rather dull, boring, and didn't last that long), even FRLG's Sevii Islands were a better postgame than XY ever had, and it was nice to actually have a bit of a storyline AFTER the Elite Four were finished.

 

[driverdis]

I was disappointed in the fact that the GB Sounds player that HG/SS had did not make a return as the GBA Sounds player.
I played HG on my AK2i rather than my cart as I was able to play the whole thing with GB Sounds right from the start via cheats

 

[Originality]

I don't remember how much grinding I did in the course of the game in the original Sapphire, but I know that the Elite Four didn't pose much of a challenge. Probably due to the fact that I was playing closely with a friend with Ruby and we kept trading and battling each other to see who had the better team.

 

[HaloEffect17]

I don't remember how much grinding I did in the course of the game in the original Sapphire, but I know that the Elite Four didn't pose much of a challenge. Probably due to the fact that I was playing closely with a friend with Ruby and we kept trading and battling each other to see who had the better team.

Yeah, I agree. The Elite Four was quite frankly a joke in Emerald.

 

[olshrimpeyes]

I didn't really do any grinding of any kind, although I must admit that Omega Ruby players do have the storyline much easier. Once you get (Primal) Groudon, the 8th Gym is a fucking joke, and the Elite Four don't stand much of a chance either as long as you keep your party in decent shape.

I think the game redeemed itself though with the Delta Episode though because XY lacked any postgame whatsoever (Okay it had Looker's chapters but even those were rather dull, boring, and didn't last that long), even FRLG's Sevii Islands were a better postgame than XY ever had, and it was nice to actually have a bit of a storyline AFTER the Elite Four were finished.

That's why I never put legendaries on my team. Just sucks all the fun out of it!

 

[funnystory]

I guess its fair to say I am not really/ never was much of a pokemon fan. My first pokemon game was Pokemon Emerald I believe using a GBA emulator for the PSP(I owned a gba just never pokemon).I was pretty gassed by the 8 badge, game wasn't horrible but I almost wish I would of put the effort into Fire Emblem considering the reason I never gave it a shot was turn based. I liked the environment colors if that makes sense, My pokemon team was not well balanced/under leveled although an experienced pokemon player could have most likely beat the final four+the last boss with my pokemon(still would have been a really long match). I had memories of Sapphire and Ruby being all over nickelodeon/cartoon network back when they were released, so when they made a remake I kinda expected a pokemon Colosseum experience with alpha sapphire story line. I did have fun though until the final four, but IMHO I enjoyed pokemon Colosseum more.

With that being said, I was looking forward to catching squirtle/charizard(charmander)/Bayleaf only to find out later that they weren't a part of this game. Even in World of Warcraft they eliminated grinding so I expected the same for some odd reason, giving the gaming market today I was almost sure grinding was phased out. However, the game isn't necessarily made for USA/European consumer(same deal with JRPGS) so their are probably different priorities they have as far as the game goes.

 

[Zeriel]

"I think its fair to say that I am not a pokemon fan"
"After playing the game for almost 15 hours straight"

lol I'm afraid to ask about games that you are a fan of

 

[funnystory]

"I think its fair to say that I am not a pokemon fan"
"After playing the game for almost 15 hours straight"

lol I'm afraid to ask about games that you are a fan of

zelda,mario,halo are pretty much my go to games besides sports games. I only bought the 3ds for CFW

 

[gkoelho]

As a player who have played in every single generation since Pokémon red back on 90's decade i can assure to you:

You will only have to grind when u dont hv a proper team done to beat this guys, they will hit hard and u kinda must ha
ve a very well-balanced team. Training too much pokémon that share same weakness make your team overall survability a lot less efficient. Also u can buy Lots of hyper potions and revives from the market before entering the Elite Four hall, which will function as ur own mobile pokémon center.

 

[Fire_Slasher]

Huh weird, these remakes are the easiest pokemon games I have played, I barely did any grind and I breezed trough the E4. I'm not even kidding or trying to look cool, it was way too easy.

 

[codezer0]

The amount of grinding you need to do with the E4, especially with levelling some of the critters that need stupid high levels to evolve, makes it painful. I'm not kidding when I said that even with maxed experience boosting O Powers, it took me about four runs through the Elite 4 just to get a larvesta up to be able to evolve to a volcarona.

I would have done the whole "blissey bomb" secret base thing, if not for my 3DS camera being completely inoperable right now.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

Needless to say, I ended up using PkHex to add leveled up characters but it kinda ruined it for me that I couldnt do it myself, and my only option would be to set there grinding for hours lol. Any game where you need to grind is not really a game I enjoy. Anyways this was just my little rant to let go of some steam. Turn based RPGS are already not necessarily my thing but they can be very fun if done right,grinding has no place in the game experience whats so ever.

That's why I can't enjoy most rpg games. As youtuber Egoraptor said: "griding is not a difficult thing to do, but it creates the illusion of difficulty because it takes up your time".

To be completely honest, the leveling up and turn-based battle system are necessary in games like Pokémon, Earthbound or Final Fantasy. Without them, all you're left with is a half-decent graphic novel. The reason we get invested in the story in the first place is because the story is a reward, a change of pace after some time of shallow gameplay. It makes it seem like the story is something because we earned it.

Not that turn-based combat can't be interesting, but unfortunately most of the turn-based combat is used as a repetitive exercise that only requires you to press the same button a bunch of times... And not that there aren't good stories in rpg games, I particularly love ff7 story and universe, but I can't help but feel that the story itself wouldn't stand on its own in other more story-driven media.

 

[Scorpiopt]

Game's post game content is absolutely barren specially if you compare it to BW2
Even the originals had far more content than the remakes gamefreak proving once again their incompetent and lazy developers , hate the fact that my favorite franchise is in their hands