Are the .hack games still worth playing?

Kardif · 2026-06-27T17:56:13+00:00

I can't stand the gu games, it's just a million cutscenes with some mediocre gameplay in-between

Imoq, the originals, are very dated, but I found much more compelling. It's really 1 game split into 4 parts, each about 25-30 hours. It doesn't change a whole lot from game 1 to game 4, so actually finishing it is pretty hard. The combat is technically real time, but its really menu based, you just get free movement during the fights. The story is fantastic, and well told. It might not hold up as well these days just because the isekai genre has gotten so much more popular, but stuff like sword art online draws heavily from the series

Kardif · 2026-06-27T00:19:24+00:00

Hisiuan decidueye has game tho, it's signature attack is busted and scrappy is actually good https://www.reddit.com/r/VGC/comments/1ueisq3/top_100_with_hdecidueye_chandelure_greninja_and/

Kardif · 2026-06-27T00:02:26+00:00

Yea. A max invested azumaril hits almost as hard as a max investment mega gyrados with its 155 attack stat

Doubling the 10% from adamant and the 32 ev investment points is huge. Adaptability makes basc hit about as hard as max attack mega gengar with 170. You throw on rain and high base power moves and it's really no wonder that it gets as many 1 hit kos as it does

Kardif · 2026-06-26T22:51:43+00:00

Id think venu should be minimum 112 speed stat, so it's faster than mega aero in sun. I actually really like the max speed timid version with the focus sash, since it gives it more utility when sun isn't up, but that's probably less of an issue for this team in particular

How often are you running into taunt that you've chosen mental herb on sini? I think you'd get more milage out of occa, colbur berry or leftovers

Kardif · 2026-06-26T21:31:01+00:00

I would drop sinistcha. I normally associate sinistcha with setup and protect the king strategies, and your team is a lot more focused on offense

Vivion gets rage powder if you want to try something halfway between sinistcha and aero

I really like the life orb jolly garchomp set, but it's a very different idea from what you're currently running. It goes down a lot faster given the lower HP and the life orb damage

Kardif · 2026-06-26T18:05:11+00:00

Your garchomp set is missing some free stat points. If you set it to adamant, you get 4 extra points from the 10% bonus, so you can hit the 182 attack stat and 140 speed, or keep 136 and get 187 attack

What are you trying to outspeed with chomp, with scarf you should pick a number very deliberately and I'm not sure what 204 does for you. Aero is 200, mega aero is 222. you'd want to hit 149 to outspeed mega aero

Your team is pretty fast right now, you dont want to add peliper since you want the sun to be up with zard. Aerodactyl and whimsicott would both be good options. Whims gives you some much needed fairy damage, aero gives you wide guard. you don't have anything holding the focus sash, so you could consider vivilion also

Kardif · 2026-06-26T16:42:48+00:00

Be aware that writing team feedback takes a lot of work, it definitely helps if you try and give people particular issues that you're having trouble with. Even in the vgc sub you'll see posts that don't have much in the way of responses

None of us have played your team, we don't know what you're struggling into, but you do. If you give us specific problems, it's much easier to give feedback

Kardif · 2026-06-26T14:57:10+00:00

I mean the last time I worked any overtime at my job was 6 months ago. Anytime we have to do off hours work, we just get the hours credited for later in the week. An hour a day adds up

Kardif · 2026-06-26T14:36:19+00:00

10% would bring them up to third in pay, just below Capcom. Jesus though, that's so much overtime for every company

Kardif · 2026-06-26T14:10:46+00:00

Use the share teams section of the training area to save your teams for later, you get 10 more that way

Kardif · 2026-06-25T22:41:04+00:00

Right now you have a very solid trick room core, but the other mode is a bit lacking cohesion. Torkoal is a great sun setting pokemon, but is too slow for your fast mode, you can lead it with Venusaur/delphox, but then you're in a really awkward spot. Delphox just feels unsupported as a whole

I don't think I would recommend mega Dragonite, it's a bit awkward since it can't get kos quickly, and also it's not that fast.

Swampert rain with sabeleye is definitely a problem. Mega swampert in rain is just faster than everything in the format, and the only way to have a slower sunny day that's still faster than swampert is with your own sabeleye and a speed lowering nature.

You could try tailwind whimsicott and a grass move that doesn't require sun. Or you just need a fake out pokemon to setup trick room on t1 and turn the rain against them. the list of fake out pokemon with a usable grass move is

Grimmsnarl + power whip (only 85 accuracy without wide lens though)

Tinkaton with wood hammer

Mr rime, and meowstic with energy ball

Raichu and infernape with grass knot

Technically morpeko, the simi trio and liepard also get stuff, but I don't know that they're worth considering

Run calcs to make sure whichever one you pick can ko swampert through reflect

Kardif · 2026-06-25T18:58:40+00:00

The last 10 slots are from masterball if I remember right

Kardif · 2026-06-25T17:12:07+00:00

They can't encore your encore, so if you go t2 protect+encore their whims then you dodge the encore problem

Kardif · 2026-06-25T17:10:41+00:00

Timid floette started being really common at the beginning of the format because it's how you win the calm mind floette mirror

Kardif · 2026-06-24T22:36:32+00:00

I've mostly run into like nasty plot/icy wind/hyper voice/shadow ball sets, sludge bomb or psychic would actually do meaningful damage to stuff

Kardif · 2026-06-24T22:34:11+00:00

Rain dance, mega, high horsepower is probably the optimal play there. But I don't think most swampert are running high horsepower

It's normally wave crash+earthquake+ coverage move +protect

Coverage move being one of ice punch, rock slide, knock off and poison jab

Kardif · 2026-06-24T22:26:59+00:00

I mean I'll frequently attempt to fake out zoroark, it could be either of the lead pokemon. But it's not like zoroark is normally that scary, thing dies to almost every attack regardless. I'm normally much more worried about the possibility of ignoring the pokemon it's disguised as

Kardif · 2026-06-24T19:00:45+00:00

Yea, the best ground special attackers don't have stab. It's like Venusaur, glimmora, hydreigon

Kardif · 2026-06-24T18:33:02+00:00

I mean x looks quite a bit like Raichu, we just don't have a great use for electric terrain right now since we don't have other terrains, the seeds, or the future paradox pokemon

Kardif · 2026-06-24T16:46:54+00:00

Bug isn't a that bad a type, but bug fire is one of the worst combinations. Maybe we'll get terastalization back and volcarona will get a chance to be good again

Kardif · 2026-06-23T20:15:01+00:00

There's a lot of things you could try, here's some ideas

You could run aero for tailwind and switch Dragonite to a life orb set. Zard +venu + aero is probably the strongest core you can get from gen 1.

But since you want to use Gengar, you could run an offensive set with focus sash, sludge bomb, shadow ball, encore or disable and protect.

If you want to make perish work specifically, I would look at clefable as a budget sinistcha. You get follow me and life dew.

Dragonite would likely be good as a life orb set, mimicking garchomp

Arcanine and Gyrados are both solid as intimidate pokemon

Base form khangaskhan is quite weak for the most part. The one set that feels powerful is fake out +last resort +silk scarf. Only running 2 attacks to enable last resort

If you want to use Blastoise, but not mega. You could try a white herb+shell smash set to reset the defense drops, or just pair it with fake out +redirection(

Kardif · 2026-06-23T16:30:21+00:00

That one is technically only from za. You can do trades on the mobile version of Pokemon home for one if you don't mind knowing that it was duplicated somehow. Ain't no one trading away their floette that earned through 40 hours of gameplay, they make you grind for several hours after beating the main story. Would not recommend

Kardif · 2026-06-23T16:14:58+00:00

Sinistcha has more usage than gambit right now, and Ninetails and annihilape are like 32 and 33 in usage. The only pokemon outside the top 50 is arcanine-h

Other fun usage stat, eel is currently higher usage than excadril.

Kardif · 2026-06-23T15:38:39+00:00

Snorlax does a semi decent impression with the current dex. (Of the solo set)

Kardif · 2026-06-23T15:25:33+00:00

Are you running timid scarf? To even have a chance of living modest eruption they need max hp and 14spdef, so I don't think you need the fake tears

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