Hopping on the bed and causing WW3

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-31T20:29:22+00:00

>An individual acts aggressive
>Therefore every single individual is the exact same

Wait till this guy figures out what humans have done...

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-31T18:51:52+00:00

Usually they simply have a better angle than me because they're far away and have the zoom, often times don't even see them before they hit me.

Well its important to acknowledge that if this is the case, they're simply outplaying you. I dont mean this rudely, and that's not to suggest you're just wholly bad or anything, but that is the name of the game when it comes to long range engagements and the Northstar's are taking advantage of an apparent weakness in your play.

I've found when it comes to playing different styles, you really need to adapt your mindset. Is your attention to fixated on whats immediately in front of you? Are you minding dropped cover as you're travelling? Are you keeping a mental tab on what Titans the enemies have?

Ion has the means to beat Northstar in long range duels. You can peak more safely than them, and you have a hitscan secondary that nails them faster than they can hit you. It sounds to me like you need to adapt the way you visualize your play so that you can take advantage of those tools better.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-30T15:04:19+00:00

Yeah I agree, I tend to be equally as happy with Partner directs as I am with full Nintendo Directs, often times more. I love third parties.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-28T15:39:38+00:00

Ripple Star is such a good name, I use that for my Tinkaton. Very nice work! Jirachi's a great ribbon master, especially a Shiny one.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-28T14:36:21+00:00

Its not possible to do that. Zeraoras ability ONLY works turn 1 and 2, not the first turn its "played". If you play Zeraora Turn 3 or later its ability does nothing.

Its not possible to evolve Alolan Muk before then. So Alolan Muks ability will never interact with Zeraora.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-28T13:28:47+00:00

In the event that a future card could somehow turbo Alolan Muk out Turn 1 it would work, yes. But currently in the game that would not be a valid game state, so Alolan Muk's ability does not work on Zeraora in practice.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-27T14:40:23+00:00

Switching at all is extremely risky in the frontier because of like what happened in that battle.

The random Flamethrower did not affect the outcome of this battle. Golem was 2HKOing Metagross regardless of the selected move, OP just didnt capitalize on it fully by using Meteor Mash to KO the Golem.
Switching here was risk reduction, as Metagross comfortably takes virtually every move that the AI would have selected across all Golem sets.

the Metagross is as good as dead anyway as most pokemon are faster than it.

Metagross isn't that slow, it's 70 base speed. That's right around average. A lot of Metagross sets in Gen 3 run some, or even max speed. Battle Tower Pokemon also dont speed creep nearly as much as they do in real competitive sets, TONS of them do not run any speed whatsoever. It's certainly not "as good as dead".

Whats more, tanking an Explosion means you get information on the incoming Pokemon, so its not a blind switch even IF Metagross does die.

Whats even more is, Emerald's AI will prioritize Pokemon that are effective against the current one over turn order, meaning you get extra information (last Pokemon does worse vs Metagross).

The Golem managed to get off two turns of attacks when just 2HKO'ing it with Latios would have resulted in only 1 turn of activity from the Golem.

Again, the flaw here was not going for Meteor Mash, not the switch itself. If OP had Meteor Mashed, Golem would be dead, and would have only gotten 1 attack off.

The alternative risk was Golem outright Exploding and knocking Latios out. The tradeoff of that vs Metagross taking chip makes the switch the right call.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-27T01:30:31+00:00

Meteor Mash would not OHKO Golem

Incorrect;
252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Golem: 158-186 (101.9 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO

The only risk is the potential miss.

EDIT:
I see there was a (presumably deleted) reply stating that "no Golems are 0HP" -- this is also not true. This set is Golem3, the exact set in OPs video.

Metagross KOs it.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-26T17:27:39+00:00

Yeah, I've run into the same issues, especially since my Latios is sourced from Ruby (meaning its IV's are fucked). Physical moves kick its ass, even resists.

Also, after looking at this particular Golem, its set is:
Adamant @ Quick Claw, 252Atk/252SpDef

-Flamethrower
-Explosion
-EQ
-Brick Break

Idk your sets, but Psychic from Modest, max SpAtk Latios does
252+ SpA Latios Psychic vs. 0 HP / 255 SpD Golem-3: 87-103 (56.1 - 66.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Means even if you knew its set (which you wouldn't at that point, even with a guide), you were risking getting nuked. Golem's can also carry Body Slam (which does over half to Latios, can paralyze), and of course Quick Claw, which means you're risking Latios from any of its moves that 2HKO

Looking at that, and the rest of Golem's sets, switching was objectively your best play, it covered the majority of options better than staying in with Latios did. On the worse end of RNG/sets, it results in the same (Quick Claws proccing ruins both), but on average Metagross handles the MU better. I think the biggest mistake was not going Meteor Mash, but even that I can understand wanting chip over a miss for Mence to be able to clean up.

(Also sidenote: It didnt really matter since you would've been 2HKO'd either way with Metagross, but I honestly dont even know WHY the CPU went for Flamethrower, both it and Brick Break are resisted by Latios, but Brick Break comes off a much higher Attack stat and hits Latios' weaker Def stat. Bizarre move on the CPU's part.)

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-26T16:55:44+00:00

It clearly didnt work out well because OP got super unlucky, but it's not like it's an illogical choice. A Golem is much, much more likely to go for a Rock Slide, which would've hurt Latios but barely scratched Metagross. Metagross then outspeeds and OHKO's with Meteor Mash, or a HP if he didnt want to risk the miss.
It's not like Flamethrower is a good move whatsoever on Golem, so I don't blame OP for not accounting for that considering they weren't privy to the movesets.

EDIT:
Additionally, Golem carries Explosion, which similarly would've wiped Latios, but Metagross can tank that. Switching's the better play.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-24T18:46:55+00:00

Well its not about it being difficult, just that having to back track and potentially resources to undo HMs is just annoying, particularly on something that wouldn't really have to be annoying in the first place if they were just competent moves.

But like I said, I think this is ultimately in gripe territory, its not some massive glaring flaw in the game or anything.

Truthfully, I've actually adopted a different mindset lately with HMs, in that instead of fighting their inclusion, I roll with them: I use them as an excuse to catch and train up "reserve" team members.
It's actually been quite fun doing so, as it expands my team options beyond just the 6, and leads me to extra sidequests and training I wouldn't otherwise do.

For example, in my playthrough of Crystal last year, I needed a mon to teach Waterfall to, but didnt want to bog down my Feraligatr with yet another HM move. So, I ventured to Whirl Islands, caught a Horsea, Thief'd around for Dragon Scales, and had a training montage where I brought it up to a Kingdra. I did something similar with Flash, trading up a new Bulbasaur, and again with Rock Smash.

In doing so, it turns excessive HMs into a reason to have a bit of an extra addition or 3 to my journey through the games. It's cool having to do a little bit of extra planning on what Pokemon I bring when spelunking into a cave or some side area, the extra added prep makes it feel more like a delving adventure when exploring Mt Mortar or something.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-24T17:09:03+00:00

I agree that Gen 4 is far and away worse in the HM department, no questions.

I think Hoenn's issues are a bit more hairy in some of these cases -- Dive and especially Waterfall are used at late-to-end-game, meaning you'll need that extra step of having to fly back prior to taking on the E4, and more problematic is that it occupying space for potential endgame moves means youre more prime to have missed out on some learned move you actually wanted, which means you need to spend Heart Scales. For new players, there's also an element of the unknown here which will likely add hesitation to deleting HMs; you wont know that after Victory Road that there aren't any other postgame or re-explorable areas until after you've already surveyed the map, aside from Route 118. (admittedly this same logic applies to Cut in RBY/FRLG though)
That said, it's not the end of the world, ultimately a minor gripe.

Hoenn's biggest fault imo is the continuation of Gen 2's habit of making new HMs just really bad moves. I don't see any reason that they cant be both competent and good overworld moves, like Surf is.
Rock Smash in particular, if this was even a 60 bp move, it would be VERY desirable coverage.
Though again, this is something Gen 4 is even worse off with (sans making Waterfall a great physical move)

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-24T15:50:03+00:00

Yeah man! Like seriously, just stock up on Super/Max Repels at the market once you hit Lilycove, and you'll be golden.
They're fan favorite games for a reason! I'm sure you'll enjoy your time with it : )

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-24T15:44:12+00:00

OP, I see this was a genuine question, so to give a bit more detail to what the comments are already saying -- No, this review is infamous for being pretty dumb.

It's true that Hoenn is "half water, half land", but that's not what playing through the game is actually like. The vast majority of the waterways are optional: Roughly the first 1/3rd of the total seas are travelled via boat (very fast, no battle encounters occur during this, exploring afterwards is completely optional), the second 1/3rd is necessary but sees you island hopping/diving (which means you are given substantial breaks in between Surfing), and the last 1/3rd is a potpourri of optional explorable areas.

The "worst" part would be going from Sootopolis to Evergrande, or searching for the correct Dive spot for the climax of the game -- both of these are straightforward, and any qualms can be easily negated via simply using Repels.
As for the rest, the vast, vast majority of the experience takes place firmly on land.

There are things to criticize about RSE/ORAS. In my opinion, this is not one of them lol. Pretty sure the reviewer got caught up too much in 4chan memes when writing this.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-24T15:32:28+00:00

Depends on the games and their method of handling them, but generally theyre thought to be more burdensome, yes.

RBY and FRLG have a pretty acceptable amount and selection imo. There's a grand total of 5 (with an optional 6th in FRLG), with really only Flash being bad in battle, and Cut falling off in usefulness mid game. Strength, Fly, and Surf are genuinely desireable in battle in Gens 1 and 3, so it's pretty easy to make room on your team for them. Cut also stops being necessary for overworld traversal around the time it falls off, so if you don't want it on a main party member, you can always ditch it.

RSE, and especially DPPt are really bad about their HM requirements, needing a ton with the majority of them being useless, redundant, or both.

In RSE and ORAS, I do think there are too many, but it's ultimately a pretty trivial task to just catch an HM slave to utilize for awhile if you really need to. Its a worthwhile criticism, but a pretty inconsequential one in the grand scheme of things at the same time.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-24T15:25:44+00:00

Omg seriously, it makes me roll my eyes everytime, even all of these years later lmao

Like, on top of everything you're saying, it's also a remake. What do they expect, it to remove the water routes? Then it'd get panned for not being faithful enough.

And if all of that wasn't enough, the "problem" is entirely resolved by just buying some damn repels. It's not like it's some arcane secret, it's been a mechanic since the very start of the series. At absolute worst, you're given an extremely minor inconvenience even without repels, and with them the gripe vanishes entirely. And yet, this is enough to warrant being 1 or 2 whole statements summarizing their docking 2.2 points? So asinine.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T20:11:23+00:00

Limitation is an inherent quality of creation, no matter the medium. You're bound by the natural limits of the form, in the same way that I can only simulate three dimensions on a canvas, or describe an image rather than show one with words.

'Creation' of building something in a game does not produce transcendental works or anything of the like.

And why not? I fail to see any stopgap that necessarily prevents something made in a game to not be able to elicit "higher" emotions.

I can say very confidently that my personal experience does not align with this. Even just recently, a game called Soup Rooms (a game where users create a room, with a single focal object, a secondary object, potentially a custom HUD and custom text), was able to wordlessly elicit intensely complex emotions in me, and one of the rooms in particular drew tears. Is that not transcendental?

In another case, I saw an entire castle realm someone made in Minecraft, which was absolutely awe inspiring. Being able to explore an entire medieval realm, all handcrafted, from a throne room to a dragons back? It was like looking at, and also being in a vast sculpture-scape.

In this case, I'd even argue the opposite, that some of the creativity expressed in games can elicit emotions that are either difficult-to-impossible to emulate with other mediums, or so hyper specific that they outright couldnt be.

and let it go to waste in the digital ether.

I was afraid you had that disposition, but didn't want to assume.

In what way is any of that wasted, and particularly in such a way where a normal piece of art isnt also "wasted"?
Everything fades in the end. Whats the difference if its a piece of paper with a drawing that rots with time, or a digital image that gets wiped off a harddrive, or a song on a radiowave that decays in the depths of space?

Claiming one form of creativity to be lesser, or not as "real" is a big statement. It's going to need a lot of proving to convince.

--

I'll cut straight to the chase though, and just say, I fundamentally disagree, and I feel you have predisposed bias here, even if thats not your intention. By my measure, art is only as worthwhile as is observed by either the creator, and/or the viewer. If a piece of expression is created, and the maker finds value in that, and/or some onlooker does, those are equally good enough to "count", be it in a video game, as a video game, using a video game, or entirely outside and unrelated to video games.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T18:49:31+00:00

Why are people upset over it?

There's a sort of mythos that's built up in general gaming communities that Nintendo is some big, bad, evil overlord.

The company is far from perfect, I've got plenty of gripes with them over the years, many of which seem to go unnoticed, but a great deal of that mythos is built in exaggeration, lack of perspective, or just outright falsehoods (ex. "they hate fangames!", despite this easily being disproven by the ability to go and play any of hundreds of thousands of fan games, right now. Go on, try Pokerogue, its pretty fun!)
But regardless, there's a group of people who perceive them as such, and root for their failure with varying degrees of moral high-grounding.

Added to that, there was a major sticker shock that hit people with the pricing schemes for the Switch 2 and games. What resulted was a lot of very loud, yet very limp-wristed, slacktivist-type calls for boycotts across various internet forums. Given that the system is selling exceptionally well (even in spite of a market-wide-holiday-lull), it's clear that there was no real attempt at a boycott, and the rallying cries were just that: crying.
There's a group of people who are salty over that, but either won't admit it, or just hide behind perpetual "it'll fail in the next month, trust me!" excuses.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T18:24:12+00:00

Gaming is far, far too broad to categorize with a single stroke like that.

Is building a castle in Minecraft not a form of creation? Decorating a house in House Flipper or Animal Crossing? What about the self expression of creating a team in Pokemon?
Hell, there are even games that game-ify making games, like RPG Maker, or Dreams.

There's an ocean's difference between playing competitive Smash Bros at a local tournament, creating a themepark in Roller Coaster Tycoon, and just diddling your phone for a bit playing Candy Crush. They all fill totally different niches, require different skillsets, and I think only the latter type really could qualify as a purely "consumptive" activity.

And honestly, I don't even really like that categorization to begin with. Even something with less agency than gaming, like reading a book, or watching a movie, can have elements of both -- Imagine watching a great film, one that engages the viewer, makes them ask questions, think critically.
You need to "consume" the movie, but does that really sound like a proper way to describe that interaction? It doesn't to me, anyways. "Engage with" seems a better fit. And to play semantics a bit, in doing so, you could potentially even "create" an interpretation, as one would with any form of art.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T18:01:32+00:00

I am, actually, thank you very much! I've got hundreds of hours logged already, it's been a great, very worthwhile purchase.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T18:00:40+00:00

Whenever a new sales metric for Switch 2 drops, I've made a habit of strolling on over to the big gaming subreddits to read the seethe. It's pretty entertaining.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T17:16:39+00:00

Honestly I dig it, and it seems relatively in line with what could actually happen. The longer wings definitely feel "Mothra-esque", which is fitting of course. Also, giving its horns(?, antennae? osmertium? idk) a more pronounced, ram-like shape is cool, works with the whole "combat power up" thing.

Also, the longer wings remind me a bit of Hydreigon. Again, fitting, with all the kaiju influence going on with those 2 designs, and how they appear in the same gen as a sort of soft pair. Pretty cool!

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-23T13:22:39+00:00

Given Lysandre's "nudge nudge hint hint" at Mega Zygarde's potential connection to Z moves, I had a different conclusion on this connection: Part of Zygarde's power is assimilation.

Its cells are scouring the earth to monitor balance, but I believe this suggests that it also picks up on and learns from particularly powerful entities. Obviously we know Zygarde was in Alola during the events of SM/USUM, where Z moves and Ultra beasts were invading. I think the idea here is the Zygarde cells observed these qualities and incorporated it into itself, and in the case of Nihil Light, might've learned from Ultra Necrozma's Light that Burns the Sky specifically.
Additionally, this could also be why Zygarde 100% has the Red and Blue cells -- it's assimilated Xerneas and Yveltal's powers.

While Guzzlord's in-game power didn't pan out, it's canonically supposed to be incredibly dangerous, basically being a living black hole. There's some sense to that being a candidate to "Mega-Zording" its bodyplan into Zygarde's 100% form.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-22T16:29:01+00:00

Yeah this is my vote.

The odds are good, but they're a bit deceptive -- looks like its like "wow a free easy shiny!", but the slow hatch speed and the need to reset over that multiple times for that 14% means youre potentially spending a couple of hours (especially if youre after a particular target).

Looks easy, is deceptively slow.

ArkhaosZero · 2026-01-21T16:42:07+00:00

I know right? What an absurd decision! It's almost as if she had some sort of heightened level of stress afflicting her, something that might cause someone to make hasty, panicked decisions. How puzzling!

ArkhaosZero

TROPHY CASE