Video Game Progress Thread

[IceBug]

I figure this will be a good way to keep track of each other's gaming accomplishments.

Rules:

3 posts per user, one to post your own progress chart, another to make comments on the others, and a third to make comments on other's comments. Edit your posts as necessary. Additional posts will be deleted, unless it's Jake, of course. This is in order to prevent the thread from becoming clogged up. NO SPAM, STAY ON TOPIC!

Enjoy!

[Dreamaniaccomic]

Great idea, Andrew! Good job on your other activities here; I admit, I'm a little irresponsible as far as site maintenence goes.

Video game progress for myself:
For Pokemon, I finished EV Training (and leveling up, and finding the proper moves for,) my first team, listed as follows:
Lucario (Lucona), Mixed Sweeper
Gardevoir (Kirly), Special Tank (Sp. Atk + Sp. Def)
Tyranitar (Quote), Physical Tank
Glaceon (Starlight), Special Sweeper
Sceptile (Spruce), Physical Sweeper w. a little Special mixed in.
Camerupt (Broiler), Plastic Cannon (Not as fragile as a glass cannon, but she wont hold up under continuous attacks.)

I've got a few other team ideas to work on, which I may post later.

As for Platinum, well, I'm saving up for it, but it will definitely be awhile before I can afford it. Minimum time, two weeks, unless I get lucky doing shoveling work tomorrow.

Edits (March 27, 2009): After thinking about the structure a bit, Andrew's first rule doesn't mesh well with the forum's format. By the finite and petty authority invested in me, I declare that each person may post as they wish, but the posts MUST obey the on-topic post requirements: Progress Charts, Comments on those charts, or comments on comments. Anything else will be deleted or moved.

[XIVcaliber]

You has no walls, Jake. How can you defend with no walls?

So, game progress, eh?

Well, I got Platinum and have all eight badges. I owned the E4 with the help of my Diamond team. I still need to get the National Dex, but that will be done by tonight. I have a team done, finally.

Slashe(Weavile) Physical sweeper, what else?
Vesacies(Gallade) Not necessarily a sweeper, he's more of a physical hard-hitter.
Metarosso(Scizor) Phyiscal sweeper.
Cradds(Cradily) All-around wall and special attacker.
Rolldozer(Donphan) Physical tank.
Magnum(Sharpedo) Revenge killer.

Edit on March 27th, 2009 (later)

Sinnoh Pokedex DONE. Now, to tutor some Pokemon.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

Jake's Response Post

To XIVCaliber: I currently have no walls because my first team is based on my baseline videogame strategy: ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK. The longer I play a game, the farther I move from this beserker philosiphy to a more sophisticated strategy.

2nd XIVCaliber Response: NO FAIR I WAS GOING TO USE A MAGMORTAR. Not that I really care, so don't worry about it. Now I just have to try and find a different special sweeper for my next team.

[XIVcaliber]

Elliot's Response Post:

To Dreamaniac: I see. Walls are important. And I just realized I need more special attackers. Oh well, I have Magnezone, Houndoom, and Magmortar on the way.

2nd Dreamaniac: Oh. I can use other Pokemon if you'd like, I mean, if you were gonna use it, go ahead. I have no problem with switching to another Fire-type. Like I said, Houndoom. Or Magcargo. You'd be surprised at the power of that snail.

[XIVcaliber]

Okay okay, jeez. Bold text can really make it sound important, eh?

Platinum Progress:

National dex acquired! Sweet! Now, to tutor some Pokemon-What's this? A Dunsparce swarm? Should I go for it?

[Dreamaniaccomic]

(Forgive me for getting slightly off topic)
NO!! You might make Mark mad, and you have NO IDEA what happens when Mark actually gets angry! He might send out Fluffy the Aggron!

[XIVcaliber]

I'm really not too scared about some Aggron.

Platinum Progress:

Well, I have 250 Pokemon seen in the National Dex now, but I don't want to start EV training just yet. I want to go around and explore the variety of new plot twists that Platinum has to offer after the main game. In four words: Onward to Stark Mountain!

[Dreamaniaccomic]

Those plot twists are one of the primary reasons I want this game BADLY. The other being I can get a Gallade before I get the national dex.
And if Fluffy doesn't scare you, keep in mind Mark still has that Aerodactyl that can use Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Thunder Fang, AND Crunch all at the same time.

[XIVcaliber]

...Now that's something to be concerned about.

Platinum Progress:

Hooray, I'm in Stark Mountain now. Buck is the exact same, though. Although I must admit that Platinum is quite possibly the greatest and most well-made Pokemon game ever created. Magnum is level 60 now. Guess his Attack score. 225, with mostly +4 and +5 gains during level up. I love his 31 IV in Attack.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

31 I.V?!
...
I can't compete with that... UNLESS I USE HEROIC WILLPOWER!!!!
*Tengan Toppen Gurren Lagann Theme Music Power Up!*

Oh yeah, and I have two badges now. Shut up, I'm actually ENJOYING the game instead of rushing through it like SOME people (ANDREW)

[XIVcaliber]

I know, I loves mai Scarfpedo.'

Two badges, eh? I played through the game legitimately, too. Well, until I got to the Elite Four. I was too lazy to train all my Pokemon to 50+, so I got Eric's help and transferred my team from Diamond. Things are going epic now.

Platinum Progress:

I beat the Hall Matron for the first time! Come to think of it, that's the first time I've ever beaten a Frontier brain. *is happy inside* Although, it was mostly dumb luck. She used Espeon, so Slashe cut right through her. Literally. With Night Slash. I also uploaded the video to Nintendo WFC. The video number is 26-39851-89613, so search it up on the Global Terminal if you want.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

My luck with finding Wi-Fi connections varies between "none" and "zero."
If you happen to know any public places with easy wifi access for games, please tell me!
I can't wait to try out my first team against you. If I'm lucky, I might even survive! Or win!
...
Yeah, right...

[XIVcaliber]

The Phillip S. Miller Library has wi-fi.
Other than that, I can't think of any other place...Well, my house.

Anyways, I love the Battle Frontier. Slashe continues to mutilate all challengers in the Battle Hall. Although, a Steelix caught me off guard with Gyro Ball, and I have to restart my streak. Oh well. More BP for me!

[IceBug]

Bite me Jake! I'm enjoying this game just fine.

Platinum:

I decided I would try to make this game difficult for me. Therefore, I decided to forgo using my starter or any of my Pearl team, and use UU-NU range pokes instead of OU beatsticks. However, I changed that to "Pokemon hard to find or hard to use". Also, I forbade myself for using Staraptor, Garchomp, or anything I used on my in-game team in Pearl (Luxray, Abomasnow, Lopunny (coughHMslavecough), two others...) Thus, I've come up with:

(all levels at time of posting)

Kricketune Lv. 53
Lumineon Lv. 52
Jolteon Lv. 48 (doesn't fit the theme of the team, but I love Jolteon, and couldn't pass it up)
Toxicroak Lv. 47
Alakazam Lv. 47
Gengar Lv. 47

No Fire moves, or Flying moves, or Rock moves, or Dragon moves, or Ice moves, or Grass moves, and most of my team is Ghost/Dark/Psychic...

At time of posting, I'm fighting Cynthia...is it just me or did they kick up the leaders in this game? Maybe because they gave the leader's trump cards good type coverage.

[IceBug]

<<<WARNING WALL-O-TEXT POKEMON WARSTORY>>>

Not wanting to get shown up by Elliot, I sat down and hammered out the Cynthia fight, and thus am probably not going to sleep tonight. I was finally victorious. and boy is it a warstory. As you can see above, my team is ever so slightly underleveled to take on 6 pokes with level ranges from 58-62. I brike down and decided to see what moves my guys could learn, given some of my hoarded Rare Candies (i.e. Pokecrack). So, Gengar learned Destiny Bond. Let the fun ensue...

...sorta. There is of course the matter of that infernal Garchomp of her's, which outspeeds everything on my team without trying. And of course, Gengar is, well, incredibly frail. After a number of attempts, I found that a healthy poisoning could do the trick. Enter Toxic TM and my Swift Swim RDLumineon (Rain Dance).

Fight! Gengar uses Destiny Bond, Spiritomb uses Shadow Ball, both meet their doom. Next, Milotic. Send in Lumineon, which walls it completely, and a Revive later, I have my Gengar back. From previous battles I learned that I can lure Garchomp out by inflicting status on Milotic, so I try a Toxic, then follow it up with RD to make sure I have the speed necessary to destroy Chomp. Big mistake. Milotic's Surf is now hitting me for chunks of damage, and I waste ~4 Hyper Potions keeping it alive. Finally it is vanquished due to the Toxic, and I move on to Lucario. Switch in Gengar, and use Destiny Bond. Lucario uses Stone Edge. Miss. A wasted shot. I try again. Same circumstance. Once more, and finally Stone Edge hits, allowing my Gengar to drag the little steel jackal into the abyss. Roserade next. Switch in Toxicroak as Revive fodder, it dies to Extrasensory (see type coverage ^), and then Gengar lands a Destiny Bond to seal the deal. Now, it cometh: Garchomp. I switch in Lumineon, but if you've been counting, you know RD left a while ago. Switching, Reviving my Lumineon, and as luck would have it, thinking my now Lv. 53 Lumineon could sponge 1 hit to get off Toxic, Garchomp misses with Dragon Rush and I get my Toxic down. Come to find out next turn, my Lumineon would have died hard to Garchomp's attack. Thanks to Garchomp's Sitrus Berry, the Toxic poisoning is allowed to kill Garchomp without activating the "holycrapmytrumpcardisabouttodieFullRestore". Now all that's left is Togekiss. Now, facial expressions:

About to kill Garchomp:
Killed Garchomp:
Switching in Gengar: and
Realizing I have no more PP for Destiny Bond (count above, stupid Lucario...): and
Realizing I only have enough healing stuff for a little while:

Okay, so I figure I can do something else. I'm in panic mode, so I let Gengar die and send in Kricketune, which knows Perish Song. Click. Togekiss uses Air Slash. Pop! Now only Lumineon is left (somewhere in there Jolteon and Alakazam die, but I don't remeber where, probably while I'm trying to poison Garchomp). Now, seriously, the next 25 minutes of the fight was a stall war, my healing and revival items versus Togekiss and it's arsenal of painful special attacks. Exactly once, Air Slash misses, allowing me to use an Max Elixer on Gengar. Then, its a waiting game. I used every healing item I had, including some roots I had found, Sitrus Berries, and every single potion and Revive I had. I decide, what the heck, if I am going to die, I'm going down with Kricketune. Thus, I end up with Kricketune and Gengar, both with half of their max health. And Togekiss uses Aura Sphere. That's right, I stalled it out of Air Slashes and Shock Waves, and it decided to use Aura Sphere instead of the lethal Water Pulse, allowing my Kricketune to survive and provide a PP charged switch in for my Gengar, while leaving one poke alive to keep me standing after Gengar dies. Now I pray. Switch in Gengar. Togekiss used Aura Sphere. Never before have I been so glad to see "It doesn't effect Gengar..." appear on my screen. Destiny Bond, Togekiss uses Water Pulse, and, not a more fitting ending could be written, me with no more survival tools, the one effective attack Togekiss having set of Destiny Bond for the win, and my favorite team member, Kricketune, gaining a level at the conclusion. I shook through the credits with glee, thinking, "Wow, this makes up for the atrocious hax that kept me re-fighting all the Team Galactic bosses."

Fin.

Final Result:
Kricketune (female) Lv. 54
Lumineon (female) Lv. 53
Gengar (female) Lv. 51
Jolteon (male) Lv. 48
Alakazam (male) Lv. 47
Toxicroak (male) Lv. 47
Total Time: 43:50

Note: Seems all of my Male Pokemon were sacrifices, while all my Female's kicked butt when it came down to it. Silly!

Well, happy 5:10 am all. Great comic Jake, see you all in school in 2 hours.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

...
That was epic beyond all comprehension . I think it even deserves to be drawn by me in glorious detail . I'll find some time. I swear it!
My progress: Little to none. The togepi I got from Cynthia hatched, and my ralts evolved into a Kirlia, but I haven't even gotten to Hearthome. Also, I am finding that my little pichu, Thundere, is as fragile as finest china. And she still hasn't evolved into Pikachu, and thus I still end up NOT killing stuff in one hit and thus watching the poor thing faint from a tackle from a pokemon at the same level as herself.
*sigh*
Honestly, my progress is going to be VERY slow. It's school, and the comic, and other stuff, so don't bug me to mutch about it.

[IceBug]

Comments to all above Dreamaniac posts:

1. Your team is ground weak, but overall a good balance, if not a little on the offensive side. Sceptile, depending on how you built it, can make an excellent SubSeed wall, and Focus Punch makes it not too shabby attacking from behind that sub. Think Breloom with less Spore and attack power and more staying power and Speed. Camerupt is SLOW, be careful. It is actually decently bulky, but the type combo limits it's defensive prowess. Gardevoir makes an excellent crippler, with access to sleep, burn, and paralysis to keep foes guessing, and Wish for recovery. If yoou go the double status route, avoid the obvious Taunt users. If you built it with more Sp. Atk., disregard the above, though I suggest keeping one status move for shutting down sweepers (sleep for whatever, burn for permanent Physical attacker crippling, paralysis for faster sweepers and to annoy with full paralysis hax. T-Tar is solid, but for the love of god don't use him to tank. The prevalnce of Physical Bug and Fighting moves will break even the toughest defence when coupled with that weakness. Bulky Water types aren't your friend either, and flee at the sight of Infernape or, to a lesser extent, Blaziken. They will kill you. Glaceon is good, but make sure you try to get some good type coverage on it, and watch out for the aformentioned Infernape. Mix Lucario is fun, nuff said. I prefer the riskier SD Extremespeed Lucario, but the Mix sweeper fits the team. Also, think carefully about what your going to use as a lead. Speedy "suicide leads" will outright wreak the speed rating of this team, so come up with something to do about that (common ones are Aerodactyl and Azelf, counter accordingly). Not bad for a first try though!

2. Aggron are surprisingly non-smashy. They love to wall the UU enviroment onto infinity, but the attack stat and move options are meh.

3. Library Wi-Fi is free to use, and so is the school's, surprisingly (last time I checked...). Just duke it out at Anime Club! If you need help configuring Wi-Fi, don't be afraid to ask.

XIVcaliber comments:

1. Great team, and good job at the trumping of Platinum (way to use an elite Diamond-trained team, cheapo...but good on the badges). Does your Cradily run Sandstorm? If not, try it. Cradily doesn't die in Sandstorm. Just ask Jake to borrow Quote for a perma-storm. Yuck...
Band your Sharpedo. It doesn't need help in the speed department, and the BandPedo wreaks through bunches. Just a suggestion, though, I see where you're coming from.

2. Hoping to get through the rest of Sinnoh and reach the Frontier tonight. Meh, who needs sleep?

Also a quick update on IWBTG and Cave Story:

I will be doing a run for Ballos in a little bit. That ought to be fun. The Bowser/Wart/Wily fight still has me stuck, because even though I can beat it, the subsequent room always kills me. If I make it through that, the game gets a lot simpler until Mecha Birdo, because I've done that route before...

[Dreamaniaccomic]

1. This is going to shock you a bit, Andrew, so keep in mind my the newbish philosophy I had in mind when I created this team: ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK Hope I don't get killed inbetween all of those.
Movesets and Items:
Kirly: Psychic, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Thunder Bolt +Odd Incense
Lucona: Aura Sphere, Close Combat, Shadow Claw, Dragon Pulse +Lax Incense
Quote: Crunch, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Giga Impact +Wide Lens
Spruce: Leafblade, Solar Beam, X-Scissor, Sword Dance +Miracle Seed
Starlight: Icebeam, Hail, Sand Attack, Icy Wind +Icy Rock (Hail always lasts five turns)
Broiler: Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Solar Beam, Earth Power +Wise Glasses (Sp. Atk +10%)
Yeah, as a first team, you can clearly see how ridiculously attack oriented I am. Also, I haven't had the chance yet to get another Hail TM for Starlight, so it isn't totally complete. I hope to refine my strategy in future teams.

[XIVcaliber]

Platinum Progress:

I BEAT THE ARCADE STAR. I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF. Unfortunately, Darach in the Battle Castle caught me off guard with his Rock Slide knowing Empoleon, and I died the battle before I got to Palmer. After re-trying the Battle Hall, a friggin' Granbull knocked Slashe out with Stone Edge...*sigh* Oh well. I'm not even going to TRY the Battle Factory because I HATE that damn facility.

Comments on IceBug:

1: I seriously just gave up around Victory Road. Shut up, I'm lazy. My team throughout the game was Infernape, Staraptor, Luxray, Floatzel, and Gliscor. I know, OU'd as hell, but it all worked out. Yes, Cradily does have Sandstorm. In fact, during double battles, I use an INDESTRUCTIBLE Claydol/Cradily combo. Reflect, Sandstorm, and I'm good for pretty much anything. Oh, Claydol has Stealth Rock, too. No, I'm not Banding Sharpedo. If anything, he needs speed. He has a 31 IV in Attack and I really don't need to boost it anymore. Besides, how can I outspeed other Scarfers like Heracross without it? I've gotten good kills against Scarfers with Sharpedo before. My team really needs more special attackers, though. I'm really thinking Magmortar, because it's UU and awesome. Either that or Mix Flygon. What would you recommend?

2: The Battle Frontier isn't really something you can "finish up" in one night. It's an age-long ordeal. I'm hoarding BP so I can get a second set of Power Items.