Messing Around with Pokémon “Games”

I haven’t been playing a lot of games this week. All I have been doing is waiting for the new 2D Super Mario Bros. game to come out. Maybe because of the wait, I have just been killing time and not playing a lot of any game in particular. To be honest, what I have played the most these past couple of weeks are games that I don’t even consider to be games. But seeing as how this is just to kill time until the release of the big games next week (acknowledging the Spider-Man 2 fans), I figured let’s talk about this. So the main games are Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sleep. They are decent time killers on the way to work and easy enough to check in on once in a while. If I’m being honest, the only reason I am playing these games is because they have Pokémon included. The games themselves are fairly simplistic. To be honest, the Sudoku puzzles offered in the game are more challenging than what these games have to offer. Actually, first I should actually talk about what they are for those who are unaware.

Pokémon GO, as the name may suggest is an app where you can find and catch Pokémon as you walk around different areas and go to Pokéstops to gather items. Catching Pokémon is a lot simpler than in normal Pokémon games because you are basically just throwing Poké Balls in the hopes of catching them. It is kind of like the Safari Zone in some of the older games where you would encounter Pokémon and use items to try and catch Pokémon in a designated area with the fear they may run from you. The main difference is that once you run out of items, you can always find more. The best way to get items is to go to Pokéstops for more items. Personally, battling is very boring since all you do is tap your screen until there is only one left standing. Also, Pokémon have very limited movesets are require tons of candy to even be viable. The grind is real sometimes. At least I got some shinies though.

Pokémon Sleep is something I hesitate to really call a game since the main way to play it is not to play it. It’s all about having a good sleep schedule. That is not something that I have been great with as a long-time gamer, but I’m trying to make it work. Although the app seems to be a bit unforgiving sometimes with how it measures sleep. During the day, you just feed Snorlax so you can encounter more Pokémon while you sleep. Then you reset all your progress after each week except for your Pokémon’s levels and the food bonuses. It isn’t very riveting, but at least it actually has experience and leveling. even if leveling does take forever. Although pretty much every game takes a bit of a grind. At least I have some shinies.

You know, one thing I have noticed is that even though it isn’t super hard to find shiny Pokémon, it kind of feels more rewarding to find them in these games. Maybe it’s because they feel like how we used to hunt back in the day with random encounters. I guess maybe I just miss some of the old games you know. Even though these phone games have some flaws, I find them kind of addicting. So imagine how crazy it would be if we got some older games rereleased. Seriously Nintendo, just add the GBA Pokémon games on the Virtual Console already. I’m begging you. Or at least give us Mario Party 3. PLEASE. Have a good night y’all.

Some More Shiny Alphas (#3)

I might get more of these in the future so I might as well start numbering them. I managed to get a few more over the last few months and since I had nothing else to talk about, I figured I might as well give them a chance to shine. I will not be taking that pun back, just roll with it. Anyway, onto the next group.

So you might remember that gold Steelix at the end of the second post I did about shalphas. If not, just remember that golden colors look cool. Especially if the Pokémon is a shalpha. So imagine my surprise to find that the next day, I would run into another shalpha in the same area. Shiny Golem doesn’t have a metallic sheen like Steelix, but it still looks very nice. However, it seems that I might never get my original target shalpha at this rate. I have been going for that Luxray whenever I can to no avail. Oh well, can’t complain about a cool shalpha Pokémon.

Now this one is a bit interesting. You might see the picture below and think that I got a third yellow-colored shalpha Pokémon in the same area. That is not the case. This Mismagius was a bit of an accident. You see, a while back I had gotten careless when shiny hunting in this game and so I ended up failing some easy shiny Pokémon. One of these failures was a shiny Misdreavus. Now, I already had one, but I wanted a second one for its evolution Mismagius. So at one point in the Alabaster Icelands, there was a Misdreavus outbreak that was guaranteed to have a second wave. I thought it couldn’t hurt to try. So after catching all the Misdreavus with no luck, I found out the second phase was for alpha Mismagius. And the shalpha was the second one to spawn in. All that because I couldn’t catch a second Misdreavus. Still pretty cool though.

I did something kind of stupid. Now I had this idea a while back to have all of my Pokémon be shiny alpha Pokémon and have them be the same as my current team. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going so well with Luxray and I was getting impatient. So when I found a Staravia outbreak with a guaranteed second wave of alpha Staraptors, I decided to try doing the permutation method again. I would like to say that this wasn’t incredibly tedious to hunt. That would make me a liar. It took about forty permutations for one to finally shine. Thank goodness too, because if I had done all that for nothing, then I might have stopped playing altogether. What’s funny is the game seemed to have felt my suffering, so it gave me two of them. I guess that made it worth my time.

Alright, now this one was out of nowhere. Once again it is not the Luxray, but this was one of the shalphas I was hoping to get from this area. One day I was on the train and I was trying out a few runs to see if I could get something cool. Now I don’t know why I thought this would be a good idea since I couldn’t really hear the game and so I couldn’t notice the shiny sound. However, I thankfully have decent enough eyes to notice when the shalpha Clefable finally has green ears. I finally managed to acquire another shalpha from the same line as another. If I couldn’t get Luxray, I’m glad I got this at least.

This is the first time I have managed to get a static shalpha spawn in this area. I was surprised at how easy it was to notice. The blue on it really pops out at you. I ran into Shalpha Abomasnow while I was cruising back after checking an outbreak. This is why you always double-check the area before you leave. I wouldn’t say it is the one I want the most, but it is definitely a cool find. That brings us to the end of this batch.

I hope you enjoyed checking them out. Hopefully, I can get more of these sometime in the future. I probably will lay off permutations though. Those can get a bit draining. Have a good night!

Thoughts on S/V DLC (First Part)

So, I have gathered my thoughts on the DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. First off, I want to say that it was enjoyable. However, that is primarily because of some Pokémon they brought into the game. It was nice to actually have a reason to collect Pokémon again. It was also cool to have a new region to explore, even if it is a lot smaller and has fewer landmarks. Honestly, Pokémon is the main reason to get the DLC right now. It certainly isn’t for the story. Now storylines haven’t always been the strongest in Pokémon games so this may be seen as me reaching for the low-hanging fruit, but a lot of it is set up with no payoff. I am assuming that there will eventually be a payoff because of the cliffhanger the main storyline ends on, but I wish there was a better conclusion. When Pokémon Sword and Shield got DLC, they also split it into two parts. However, the two parts didn’t overlap with each other. So it was easier to judge each one on its own merits. Unfortunately, it seems like we won’t get a proper conclusion to certain character arcs until the second part of the DLC. I am going into spoiler territory here so be advised.

Okay, so the new characters are… not great. One is a whiny little boy and the other is a stuck-up girl. Most of the new Pokémon aren’t really that interesting either. The best one by far is Ogerpon. She is adorable and I love her. Her mask gimmick is interesting and she is just so great. There are a couple of side characters I like as well, such as Perrin who lets us play Pokémon Snap. There are some other things, but it mainly just helping and befriending Ogerpon, which is the only thing that matters. One of the dumb kids tries to battle you at every turn to try to prove something and ends up starting a villain arc. What is annoying is you are forced to lie to him and others to keep up story progression and it just weakens the impact. It just feels so cliché, and not in a fun way. Most of these problems could be resolved if characters just talked to each other, but it seems that’s too difficult. The good thing about Pokémon though is that since I never go into their stories with any expectations, I don’t really care if they are lacking. I’m just in it for the Pokémon. So, I will probably find some enjoyment in part two just for that reason alone. I’m just hoping they might surprise me is all. That’s all I will say for today.

To sum this all up, if you were on the fence about it, wait until the second DLC drops to make your decision, since I don’t think you can judge the package by this alone. See you next time.

More Gaming on Steam

Due to some friends who shall not be named, I had over one hundred dollars just sitting in my Steam Wallet collecting dust. In a virtual sense of course. After realizing that I was not collecting any interest, I figured I should probably actually use it on some games. So I went on a bit of a shopping spree and played a few games that I had heard about, but hadn’t ever played before. The first one I started out with is Phasmophobia.

If you know me, you know I don’t play scary games very often, but this game felt different from other horror games. The main goal of the game is not to lose your cool. I will not deny the fact that I get scared easily in these types of games. However, I feel as though many horror games are built solely to scare you. I am not saying this is bad. It is the nature of the genre. The thing is, I don’t find that fun. I would rather play a game where I am not just feeling tense the whole time. That is why I like the idea of Phasmophobia, where you need to do research into paranormal happenings and the tension increases over time. I may be afraid to go looking for ghosts, but it is the only way I am going to make any sort of living. I am not very good at the game yet, but I am slowly getting there. Maybe I will be able to take off the training wheels soon.

One of the other games I have been playing is Town of Salem II. I have always been interested in deception games. Unfortunately, I am not really that good at them. Thankfully, in this game, there is a random mode so I can work on knowing what roles are and figuring out how to lie. It is also helpful that people have actually been pretty nice in explaining how things work in the few sessions I’ve played. I have even won a few games so far. although this has largely been because of others not needing my help or because they didn’t pay attention to me. I’ll take what I can get though. The only problem is that games can take quite a long time. One game lasts for somewhere around fifteen minutes or so, and that can be quite troublesome to sit through when you die early.

The last game I played on Steam recently was a game called AK-xolotl. This game came out recently as one of the many ways to fill the void in our hearts for us not getting a true sequel to Enter the Gungeon. It is a bullet-hell rogue-lite where you play as a gun-wielding axolotl. A bizarre concept, but it doesn’t really matter as long as the game is fun. It controls just about the same as Enter the Gungeon does, but it does feel different because of the axolotls. While the gun varieties are not as insane as the ones from Enter the Gungeon, they still work just fine. The unique selling point is actually character customization. You can use food items to customize axolotls to have different builds so you can create ones that suit your playstyle and choice of weapon. It is a neat idea that can add some replay value to the game. I haven’t beaten it yet, but I don’t think it will take me longer than the time it took me to first complete Enter the Gungeon. Well, that’s all I will say for now since I probably just jinxed myself.

However, even with all these new games I still have more money in my Steam wallet. Well, that is a later problem. It’s time to get back to gaming before I start to get rusty. Next week I’ll probably talk about the SV DLC or something. Anyways, take care!

Another Update

So I have decided to move posts to Saturdays since my schedule doesn’t work as well for Fridays anymore. I will still try and manage to get them out weekly, but like always I will notify you all if something comes up. Hopefully, with this, I will now have time to focus more on actually typing these posts. Well, I guess I will see you tomorrow. If you are curious about what I will talk about, I will be mainly talking about the games I have been playing recently. Here is one of them. Look forward to it.

What a Crazy Week

This week was wild. That’s really all I want to say. At first, I was just playing some Steam games killing time before the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC came out. One thing that was good for killing time was the Mewtwo raid. Unfortunately, I did not enough Health Feathers to boost my Mew’s EVs. So once again I had to grind for them until I had enough to boost up my Mew to the appropriate level. Along the way, I found three shiny Pokémon I already had and realized I needed to move all of my shiny Pokémon to Pokémon Home before the DLC as well. Thankfully it only took three tries to capture Mewtwo after my grinding session was over. All that was left was to begin playing the DLC. I even took the day off for it. I was not prepared for what I was about to encounter. Spoilers for the first DLC starting right about now.

LOOK AT HOW PRECIOUS SHE IS!!!!!! I love this new Pokémon Ogerpon so much. It is so cute that I just can’t even deal with it. You have no idea how much fun I had with this. I have not been this invested in a Pokémon in a long time. The whole time I decided that if anything bad happened to this Pokémon after all that it had been through, the perpetrator would answer directly to me. You might know I don’t nickname my Pokémon. I do that so I don’t get too attached. However, in my heart her name is Fiona. If you have seen Shrek then you know why. I thought that this was going to be the highlight of my week. Then the next day happened.

I had no idea there was a Nintendo Direct the next day. I didn’t think there would be anything too crazy in it. The last Direct was pretty good and announced a lot of big titles. I thought they would probably chill out a little bit. It seemed they were just showcasing more of the games that they announced and elaborating on release dates. It was a pretty good showing of games. AND THEN… THIS HAPPENED.

I can’t. There is a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door coming out next year. We live in the best timeline. My life is complete. Nintendo, take my money. That is all. This is all I have ever wanted and that is all I will say except have a good night.

How to Get the Master Sword in the Oracle Games (Oracle of Seasons)

So I realized that I need to split this up into two parts. It was a bit too ambitious of me to try to do otherwise. This post is a guide to finding the Master Sword in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. This guide will assume that you have beaten The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and started a linked game for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. This is a general guide, but I will try to be as detailed as possible. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

The Master Sword is the third tier of your base sword. Your sword starts at tier 1. So that means you need to do three things. Find the sword, upgrade it once, and then upgrade it again using the secrets function. The first step is simple: you have the sword in your inventory once you start your adventure. After this, things get tricky.

Trading Side Quest

To secure one of the upgrades, you need to complete a trading sidequest between multiple different residents in the land of Holodrum. In order to begin this sidequest, you will need the item from the first dungeon and you will not be able to complete it until after the fifth dungeon. Here’s what you need to do.

After the First Dungeon

  • Light the Reader’s Torch: Once you have the Ember Seeds from the first dungeon you can head to a house in town with a man who is having trouble reading a book. If you use an ember seed to light the torch next to him, you will get the Cuccoodex.
  • Give the Cuccoodex to Malon: Right above the place where you were dancing with Din at the beginning of the game is where Malon lives. If you give her the Cuccoodex she will give you a Lon Lon Egg.
  • Give the Lon Lon Egg to Maple: If you randomly encounter Maple while holding onto the Lon Lon Egg, bumping into her will cause you to only drop that egg. Maple will take it and trade you a Ghastly Doll.

After the Second Dungeon

  • On your way to the swamp where the third dungeon resides, there will be a house that sits right before the entrance. If you enter that house, you will find a woman who will trade you an Iron Pot for your Ghastly Doll.

After the Third Dungeon

  • After acquiring Roc’s feather, head back to Subrosia using one of the two portals you used previously. Using the Roc’s feather you now have access to some parts in the Northwest of Subrosia. There will be a house in this area with a Subrosian standing outside of it. Inside the house, you can use the Iron Pot to get a helping of Lava Soup.
  • In the Northern Area of the Map, after you find the Zora Flippers and the Secret Tunnel, you can visit the Gorons. If you head to the top you will find that Biggoron ( yes that is its name) has a cold due to the bad weather. Giving it the Lava Soup will cure it of its cold and you will be given the Goron Vase as thanks.
  • If you head back to Sunken City, in the northwest corner there is a house at the top of a stairwell. If you enter this house you will find a vase enthusiast who needs one more vase for his collection to be complete. If you give him the Goron Vase, you will get a Fish.
  • Unfortunately, this is a bit of a detour, but at this point, you will have Gale Seeds so it isn’t all bad. If you head below the spot where you first fell from the sky in the prologue, you will find a man trying to get his cat out of a tree. If you give him the fish, he gets his cat down and gives you his megaphone for your assistance.
  • Now you need to head back to Sunken City and back up the mountain using the jump flower. There is a cave that is in front of you that you can go into. Once you do Malon’s father Talon will be sleeping. Use the Megaphone to wake him up and he’ll give you a mushroom before heading back home. At this point, I recommend finishing the fourth dungeon since it is the last time you need to come here.

After the Fourth Dungeon

  • Head to Sunken City one more time and change the weather to winter so you can enter the Witch’s Hut. If you give her the mushroom you found she will start making potions for sale and gives you a Wooden Bird.
  • After getting the Wooden Bird, if you head back to the starting town you will find a house with a clock on it. Go inside and hand it to the man there and he will give you some Engine Grease.
  • After exiting to the right of the town you can see a man next to a windmill. If you go to the top of the windmill and give him the Engine Grease he will use it to get the windmill to spin faster. As thanks, he will give you his Phonograph.

After the Fifth Dungeon

  • Once you have found the treasures and entered the Lost Woods there will be a place where there exists a single bush in the middle of the area with nothing else around it. If you burn it and enter into the stairwell beneath it you will find a Deku Scrub. If you play the phonograph for him he will tell you the path where the upgraded sword is hidden.

After you do all that, you can get one of the upgrades for the sword. I know it is a lot, but if you know what you are doing it isn’t too bad. Thankfully, the second upgrade is much easier to get.

How to Get the Second Upgrade

  • Go into the Hero’s Cave after you have beaten the third dungeon. Once you are there you should find a Zora in the second section that requires the Roc’s feather to clear. Talk to him and he will give you a secret to give to King Zora in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.
  • Boot up The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and talk to King Zora in the present time. He will ask you if you have a secret and then you can type in the secret the Zora gave you. He will then sharpen your sword. If you have already completed the trading sidequest in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, your sword will become the Master Sword. If not, it will become the Noble Sword. The king will then give you the secret for you to do the same in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.
  • Go inside the Deku Tree and talk to Farore, the Oracle of Secrets. Give the code King Zora gave you to her and she will directly upgrade your sword the way the king did. Depending on when you choose to do this your sword will either become the Noble Sword or the Master Sword.

See, I told you there were a lot fewer steps. Remember that you can get this second upgrade before entering the Lost Woods so you can become more powerful quickly. It doesn’t matter what order you get the upgrades in, so long as you get both eventually. That is just about everything you need to know about getting the Master Sword in this linked game. I will need to do a separate one for ages, but that probably won’t be until later. Hope you enjoy your new sword. Have a good night!

The Legend of the Golden Beasts

I still have a few things I want to talk about before I dive into linked games. I figured I could do a few mini guides while I work more on exploring the linked games. I unfortunately don’t have as much time as I used to, so hopefully you can make do with these in the meantime. You may remember from a previous post that there was a hidden detail I never knew about in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons where you can get a special power after defeating the four golden beasts scattered throughout the land. Since they can be a bit difficult to find, I figured I would do a little guide on where they are, when you can get them, and what you can get for finding them.

The First Golden Beast (Summer)

Now before we start, I want to note that each golden beast only appears in one spot on the map during a specific season. The first of these unique creatures can be found right before you enter the third dungeon. To gain access to the third dungeon you need to find a portal to Subrosia which will allow you to get your hands on the attribute of summer for the Rod of Seasons. Once you obtain it, you can use the power of summer to access the third dungeon. However, this also gives you access to the first golden beast. If you make it summertime and head down to the area below the portal, you will find the first golden beast. Note that knocking it into a hole will not count.

The Second Golden Beast (Autumn)

The second golden beast can be encountered once you obtain the power of autumn, the final season you unlock. Once you have this power, head back to the second dungeon. The fastest way to do this is by using gale seeds to warp to the tree where you first get mystery seeds. Once you go up, use the tree stump to change the season to autumn. Then head left and you’ll find the second golden beast right outside the dungeon entrance.

The Third Golden Beast (Winter)

The third golden beast can be found on your way to the sixth dungeon. Once you find the four treasures and open the door to the ruins, you need to solve a quick puzzle to progress. In this area, there is a spot with two red enemies guarding a stairwell. If you change the weather to winter, a golden beast will now be guarding it too.

The Fourth Golden Beast (Spring)

The fourth and final golden beast can be found after you get the pirate ship out of the desert. Once you do this you will finally get access to a stump in this part of the map to change the season. By changing it to spring and heading back to the beach area by the Hero’s Cave, you will find the final golden beast on the right side.

The Final Reward

Now that you have slain all four beasts, you can claim your reward. Head to the stump closest to the first dungeon and change the season to summer. Right below the first dungeon is a stairwell that was hidden under the water. Head down the stairs and you’ll find an old man in gold robes. Talk to him and if you have defeated all four golden beasts he will award you with a special ring. Once you get it appraised it is revealed to be the Red Ring. Not only does it double your attack, but it also doesn’t lower your defense. So, it is actually a pretty useful reward. That is all for this little mini guide, stay tuned for next time. Have a good night!

Time for Some More Zelda

I finally finished The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. This wasn’t the linked version because I wanted to complete both games individually so I could properly see the differences between the versions. Also, I was too lazy to do the secret stuff yet. This game is definitely the more complicated of the two to traverse. Both of these games have two different maps to explore. The difference is traversing Subrosia is very different than traveling between past and present. Time traveling between two time periods is used as a basis for puzzles, which means you need to have a general understanding of both maps. The Rod of Seasons could only be used in specific spots in the overworld map for certain traversal puzzles, whereas time traveling is used to connect the two world maps of past and present and offers you new ways to traverse them. The mechanic isn’t perfect, but it is one of the best time mechanics in any Zelda game and I don’t say that lightly.

Just like the partner game, you can get a bunch of different upgrades to your character if you manage to search around for them. Some of them are a bit tricky to find, but they are all doable. One thing you will notice after playing both games is that the items you get are not the same between games. For instance, the boomerang has an upgradeable version called the Magical Boomerang in Oracle of Seasons which you need to finish the game. In Oracle of Ages, not only is the boomerang, not an upgradeable weapon, it isn’t even required to beat the game. It is an optional item that won’t get access to until over halfway through the game. The difference in treatment is insane. That isn’t the only case, but it is probably the most extreme case.

I will admit something. The reason I pushed this off to this week is because my game ended up losing a bunch of data and I didn’t have time to redo it all. I maybe could have done it, but since that meant doing Dungeon Seven again, I decided to call it and try again later. My justification is that this dungeon is like a miniature version of the Water Temple dungeon in Ocarina of Time. Yeah, they thought that the rising water levels mechanic was so good they added it back into this game. I was brain dead by the time I left and I forgot to save. I just wanted to apologize, but can you blame me.

Honestly, when comparing the two games it is hard to say which one is more enjoyable because even though I enjoy way more puzzle segments in Oracle of Ages, that game also has way more underwater sections than Oracle of Seasons. I could make a separate rant about the underwater controls in the second half of the game, but I won’t. I will just say that Oracle of Ages has the edge in puzzles and mechanics, while Oracle of Seasons has the edge in items and diversity. So, just play both. I’ll talk more about linked games at a later time. Who knows? See you next time.