Glen-i

Nope, no new news. Just wanted to post a silly comic I chuckled at. Look, I like Tepig, but it will forever stand out here. Still baffles me they went with two Johto starters.

Considering that both Live A Live, and Dragon Quest III got voice acting, if this is the next HD-2D project, that means it's likely everyone will have official voices. That's gonna be weird after the amount of times I've played this. EDIT: Actually, this is the perfect time for this.

Yuji Horii after his "slip-up" The best leaker in the business! He also confirmed DQ7 and 8 English localisations during the 3DS era. I buy it!

What? Arcades?

Oof... Still, I hope it taught you to always scroll through your stones whenever you get a new Pokémon, just in case. And hey, could be worse. You could be the guy who had a male LV 50 Salandit during his first playthrough of Sun, and was wondering why the hell it wasn't evolving. Pssst. It's me, I'm that guy.

Oh man, that's one hell of a clutch save! Kudos!

This throws everyone off, and it's always hilarious! It's like how people genuinely believe that Slugma and Magcargo are from Ruby/Sapphire. Nope, it's from X/Y. You can get one in Sword/Shield, not to mention that the Champion of that game uses an Aegislash as well. That's probably the reason for the confusion.

Adding on to that unannounced thing, buying a game on your eShop wishlist now removes the game from your wishlist automatically. Long overdue, that.

Generation 6 (X/Y) isn't all Mega Evolutions. Most of it is, but there are a couple of more standard Pokémon that are also not allowed in OU. Here's one that I bet Game Freak wished they thought of two generations later. Aegislash is a Steel/Ghost Pokémon that was introduced in this generation. If you couldn't tell, it's a sword and shield, and that factors into it's playstyle, and also why it had to be banned. Yes, those are both Aegislash's stats. You see, this is one of those Pokémon with an ability that changes it's form. Stance Change: The Pokémon changes its form to Blade Forme when it uses an attack move, and changes to Shield Forme when it uses King's Shield. So Aegislash starts off in Shield Forme, and has the first, highly defensive, stats. When it uses any attacking move, it first changes into Blade Forme, getting the second, more offensive stats, and then attacks. This means that Aegislash's atrocious speed actually works in it's favour. Because the chances are, it'll go last, so it can tank an incoming hit with it's obscenely high defense, and then switch tact and hit stupidly hard afterwards. But here's where things get crazy! Aegislash also has a signature move called King's Shield. King's Shield works simlarly to the move Protect. Protect blocks any move used on that Pokémon for one turn, but can fail if used on successive turns. King's Shield works like that, except it can't block non-damaging moves (Like Thunder Wave), but if any Pokémon makes contact with Aegislash on the turn this is used, their Attack stat goes down two stages. And as the ability describes, also changes Aegislash into it's Shield Forme. The important thing to remember about moves like Protect and King's Shield is that they are "Priority Moves", meaning that they go first, even for Pokémon with low Speed stats. So Aegislash has a typical structure to battles. Take a hit in Shield Forme. Use an attacking move, while swapping to Blade Forme. On the next turn, use King's Shield to immediately swap back to Shield Forme and block any retaliatory attack, hopefully a contact one. Repeat until no-one wants to play with you anymore. This is clearly a Pokémon that was designed around Double Battles, because you have more options for playing around Aegislash, but if Aegislash is your only target, you have much less sway over the flow of battle. There are ways around this, mainly using Will o' Wisp to burn Aegislash when you predict that King's Shield will be used, but that runs the risk of a semi-decent player unexpectedly changing things up and gaining momentum. This means that the Gen 6 OU metagame became incredibly centralised around Aegislash. Everything revolved around it, and dealing with it. It was banned before Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire were released. In fact, even in the Doubles format, Game Freak thought Aegislash was too OP. You see, those stats I posted above aren't the current stats. In gen 8 (Sword/Shield), Aegislash's best stats in each form were lowered by 10, so they're 140 now. King's Shield was also nerfed, as it only lowers the opponent's Attack stat by one stage now. This, combined with general power creep means that Aegislash isn't even viable in Gen 8 OU. Ouch... Does that mean it's good in casual play? Yeah, provided you avoid Status moves, Aegislash will perform admirably. CPU opponents don't really know how to deal with the recurring shenanigans most Aegislash players will utilise. They also won't throw their 3DS at you when you do. Despite the nerfs in Gen 8, it can still do well on a casual playthrough.

See you tonight at 8pm. By the way, don't forget to update your Switch.

It's right there on the Home Menu. Just gotta apply your tongue to the screen. Tastes a lot better too! It's very cool that any account on the Switch can play a borrowed game. It means I don't need to be in proximity to DCubed's Switch to carry on with Nirvana Initiative (There's a reason he chose that game), I can just use UFA's.

He's right. It's terribad! Tales of Symphonia is @Ugh first aid's most favourite game of all time, and even she hates the sequel!

That second player was no bloody help. Everyone knows you stand behind the trap to lure it in!

No, you clearly cheated. You must have, because I was Samus, and any of us can tell you that Samus always wins. Samus not winning is just incorrect!

Time matches tonight. Custom stages from 7:30pm.

Sega probably should though. Still baffles me that Sonic Superstars was released so close to Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Oh, it's just like Clubhouse Games with that supplementary software people without the game can download to play local, except it works online! That's great! I do wonder if Hazelight in part inspired Nintendo to do the GameShare thing with Switch 2?

I kinda really want to play Split Fiction. Now, obviously, I know it's a co-op game, but how does it work when playing online? I vaguely remember hearing there's some way for someone to only need one copy, and their friend can still play? Possibly wrong about that. Would like to play that with someone here on Switch 2.

That bloody movement platform puzzle in Talus Cave might as well be the death knell for any Four Swords Run! Missing out on the Hero Key requirement by 23 Rupees is heartbreaking, though...

Started Sacred Stones, and in the first bloody chapter, Eirika already got beaned by an axe that only had a 25% chance to hit her! I'm already quoting this bloody comic! And that's dodgy pre-Shadows of Valentia hit percentage where it's fudged in your favour, so you know I got unlucky! EDIT: You see what I mean!? He had full HP at the start of that Enemy Phase! He only had to dodge one attack! This playthrough is cursed, I can feel it...

This is exactly it. Gold Coins you have expire a year after you got them, so you might as well use them all up on whatever digital purchase you make next.

Quick one to mention I played through Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin again, much like Order of Ecclesia, I played through one of the alternative character modes, called Richter Mode. Richter Belmont goes to tackle Dracula and his haunted fun castle with his handy-dandy whip and stuff he used in his previous game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But this time, he's brought along his greatest weapon yet. An 8 year old girl! Because Portrait of Ruin's whole schtick is having two characters to control, Richter brings along Maria Renard (Thanks for the name, Vampire Survivors!). Maria is stupid OP! Apparently, this is nothing weird, she seems to be well known for being really OP. She melts bosses with birds and dragons! Anyway, that's that. But with my newly acquired Metroidvania experience, I decided to revisit an entry from the Advance Collection that I dropped. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Titled as simply "Castlevania" in the EU, confusingly) is a GBA game developed by Konami in 2001. I played it on the Advance Collection that released in 2021. By the way, I forgot to take screenshots during this game. Just so you know. Nathan Graves tags along with Morris Baldwin, and his son, Hugh Baldwin, to go give Dracula a swift beatdown after getting ressurected for the... who knows how many times? Dracula gets rid of Nathan and Hugh by knocking them into a pit. Tried and true, but Dracula forgot that this is not an old-school style Castlevania game, so Nathan and Hugh are fine. Anyway, Nathan has a whip, so it's up to him to get back to Dracula and whip him. Whip him good. This game is weird compared to it's contempories. It's a Metroidvania, but Nathan controls incredibly stiff. Not quite as stiff as the NES Castlevania games, but it's not pleasant going back to this after playing 4 other titles with far smoother movement. A lot like the NES titles, Nathan also has sub-weapons like the cross, and holy water. The problem is, unlike Portrait of Ruin, Nathan can only hold one sub-weapon at a time, and you change which one you have by finding them in candles. It's a bit annoying, so I just ended up sticking with the cross for most of the game. The bosses aren't as good either. They're not very interesting, and a lot more attacks feel practically impossible to dodge with how awkward it is to move Nathan around (You have to double tap the D-Pad to make Nathan run). Shout out to the Dragon Zombies, by the way. Absolutely dreadful boss fight! That's all the space you're getting But I persevered, mostly because of a fun glitch that lets you use any combination of DSS Cards you like, even if you haven't got them yet. 20% more experience right from the start of the game? Yes please! Glad I got this one completed, but every other Metroidvania I've played is just flat out better. Circle of the Moon isn't a bad game, but it looks bad compared to those.

These ones are noticeably bigger then most other amiibos. Treehouse got them out and placed them next to the Smash Ryu and Ken ones, and it was immediately obvious.

So far, all of the Mega Evolutions that have shown up here have been for Pokémon that were already considered good, at least. These Pokémon are pretty good examples of Pokémon that likely got a Mega Evolution not because they needed it, but because they were popular. Not this next example, though. This one was rubbish before it got a Mega. Then it became far too good for the Singles meta. These are the kind of Megas that convince me that the mechanic has merit, and no gimmick since has come close. Because if everyone can use the power-up mechanic, what's the point of using bad Pokémon? As well as being exceptionally good, Mega Sableye also happens to be one of my favourite designs a Mega Pokémon has, it's very clever. No, everyone has already made the Zelda jokes, you aren't slick. Those stats are good, but not amazing. The low HP stat undermines the impressive bulk it has. However, Sableye's typing, Dark/Ghost, is arguably the best type combination in the series. It has one resistance (Poison), one weakness (The newly introduced Fairy type), and three immunities (Normal, Fighting, and Psychic)! This was usually let down by the only two Pokémon with this typing, Sableye and Spiritomb, being not very good. But Mega Sableye was just the shot in the arm it needed, because as well as having good stats, it also has a close-to-perfect ability for it. Magic Bounce: Reflects non-attacking moves used on the Pokémon back to the opponent. The Singles meta on Smogon features a lot of hazard setting moves. Moves such as Spikes or Stealth Rock that set up some kind of debuff that punishes any Pokémon that switches into battle for the rest of the fight. These count as non-attacking moves, so Mega Sableye will bounce those moves right back. This shuts down a lot of lead Pokémon. It's also a good example of how different the Doubles format can be. Because you don't have to target Mega Sableye in Doubles, Magic Bounce can be worked around. There's also a lot less switching mid-battle, because maintaining momentum is so important. As well as stopping status moves, Mega Sableye's main usage comes from destroying physical attackers. It does this through Will-o-Wisp (Inflicts Burn on the opponent), and Foul Play, a 95 power Dark move that uses the opponents Attack stat instead of your own, so Sableye's middling Attack stat doesn't matter. This also takes into account any moves the opponent used to boost their Attack stat, like Swords Dance, so you can't do the typical strategy of using a more passive, defensive Pokémon to boost the stats of your own Pokémon and punch through the defensive wall your opponent has sent out. This made it so that breaking down a stalling team became remarkably difficult, as Mega Sableye hard counters the two biggest threats to that kind of team. You need a very specific kind of Pokémon to deal with this, a Special Attacker that doesn't have to rely on status effects. Despite this, Mega Sableye would continue to run rampant in OU throughout the majority of the time it was available in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, it wasn't until the next generation (Sun/Moon) started that Smogon would finally ban the item that allowed Sableye to Mega Evolve to Ubers only. Naturally, Sableye fell back into irrelevancy once the Switch titles came out and dropped Mega Evolution. It'll be interesting to see if Mega Sableye can keep up with the kinda insane power creep that the latest generation has introduced once it returns in Pokémon Champions. Well, if it returns. It might not. Does that mean it's good in casual play? Not really? Defensive Pokémon tend to be more resource intensive on a casual playthrough, due to their more passive strategies. You're normally better off using a more offensive Pokémon, especially with Mega Evolutions.