Mokong

Something new from Monolith would be awesome, even if it's not Xenoblade related. Would love more BotW2 and Bayonetta 3 info but they said it would focus on the first half of this year and I wouldn't expect them till near end of the year.... but a nice stinger at the end of the direct would be a nice surprise

Passed the MTA: Database Fundamentals Certificate exam today Now to update the CV and see if there's any junior level Database Admin jobs going near me... might also sign up the next course up in level.

That sounds like cowardly talk not hunter talk If you are trying to sneak up on a Rathalos and he spots you do you hop on your palamute and run till he loses you? No. You run at it with your SnS, slash with your sword and bash its head with your shield. Well here instead of having a switchaxe to run at Alpha's I've got 6 monsters in my pocket and they are very happy to see the Alpha.

I try to catch without a fight but I am sometimes not as stealthy

Starting to get a nice collection of Alphas now and starting to have them take over my team. Managed to catch the Alpha Infernape without a fight Replaced my regular sized Infernape with him. Now have 4 of my 6 as Alphas, Infernape, Alakazam, Golem, Luxray. Have a bunch of others but not feeling them as part of my team. Aside from Golem the others have been like for like replacements, with Golem replacing Rhyperior (so like for like typing ) Also anyone else loving the new Pokeball catch animations with the steam causing them to jump in the air? Small thing but def love it more than the ball just shaking on the ground. Especially love the critcal catch animation.

Ticking off side quests and got Manaphy and Phione (I may have googled what to do as I couldn't find any clues within the quest details unless I missed something entirely ) Also swapped out my Alakazam for an Alpha Alakazam.

Encountered my first Shiny!!!! And it was a shiny Growlithe Been stuck at Mission quest 11 (by stuck I mean side tracked with sode quests and getting distracted that I've not been doing story missions. Had a few outbreaks happen, was getting no shinies from them. Then as I was about yo continue story noticed a Growlithe outbreak started. Hoped over, started clearing them and then a tiny runt of the litter Shiny appeared Now to evolve or not evolve that is the question I have changed his name to "MadraLonrach", Irish for "Shiny Dog"

I believe you gotta turn the auto save off as soon as you see the shiny and then do a manual save. As that saves the game where it is including ghe shiny. I reckon if you left auto save on and KO'd the shiny by accident or it ran away that would trigger an autosave.

Ok one thing that is starting to annoy me (unless I have missed something), is being unable to travel between areas without having to first return to Jubilife Village! Am I seriously missing something? I can fast travel between camps and points of interest within the area that I am in but not to one in another area? Especially with how the map is. Like if I am in Crimson Mirelands and want to go to Obsidian Fieldlands, I gotta travel to the Village first then from there to Obsidian...but as Obsidian is between Crimson and the Village you have to imagine the character goes through Obsidian to get to Village just to go back to Obsidian Also I just evolved my starter to a Typhlosion. Despite trying to avoid spoilers I did find out the starters final form is a new Hisuian form. But I at least managed to avoid what it would look like. I loved Typhlosion back in Gold, thought he looked awesome, so was looking forward to what his new form might be. The new type he gets makes for an interesting combination with Fire that I thought would be cool.... But I gotta say I am unfortunately not feeling his new look His original look he was a badass angry fire badger, but this new look he looks dopey and bored. Just a vacant stare like he is uninterested. Even his flames look poorly designed. I still have him in my team for now as he is my highest level (37) but I found a Chimchar while ticking off side quests so have him in my team and unless my opinion of Typhlosion changes by time I get Infernape leveled up this will be the first game where I drop my starter before finishing the game and that will feel very odd.

Oh forgot to say, I LOVE that they added an item that can be used on Trade Evolution Pokemon as an alternative to actually trading them. Found a Link Cable item in one of those Distortion fields and evolved my Kadabra straight away And the Unnown puzzles seem like they will be fun to figure out. Only found A so far. Don't know why but always found it fun trying to read in Unown Reminds me of ironically reading Braille visually in Gold/Silver a bit. Took me awhile to find A though, don't know why but I was expecting he would be just floating easily visible not so well hidden

Ah yes, I forgot about that whole time traveller bit at the start.... think I intentionally forgot about it as it seemed so unnecessary. Like why can't you be a character from that ear's Kanto or Johto that moved to Hisui to join the Survey Corps. But other than that I am enjoying the rest of the story so far. (Up to calming Linnigant). One change that I am not liking however in the gameplay is when a Pokemon learns a new move and you only see a prompt that they learned a move but you aren't automatically shown what it is and the option to update moveset. You have to go into the menu manually to find out what it was. The similar change for Evolving I don't mind as you can have more control of when to evolve if you want to hold off for a bit instead of being forced to cancel it whenever you level up.

I didn't notice the abilities were gone. I guess I just assumed they were there The hold items kinda makes sense as this is meant to take place at a time when Pokemon were first becoming domesticated so nobody has taught to train them to hold stuff or realised they can? But from another point of view it was probably Game Freak trying to not make this feel like a mainline game so when they hopefully decide to use this as a base for Gen 9 they have things to add back in and know where to improve.

There's a free shiny Ponyta in a side quest I got in the village after calming Kleaver down.

On the pokemon voices discussion from further up, I'm fine with the tones....but I still can't believe they haven't given voices to the human characters. :'( The minimal music reminds me of BotW so it not been a issue so far. So far loving it, love the catching and battling. Loving being able to toss out a Pokemon to hit a tree or break some ore. Probably not too far into it, just beat Kleavers Warden and I think I need to gather food for him but that's where I left it.

Haven't played the game yet as working (from home), but my son been playing and he just came across a wild Shiny Bidooff!!! Sods law now says my game file has zero shinies

Might as well just bump this thread - Admin: nope, split it instead N-E is 24 years old today!!!!

Can I just say that was a joy to read

Cheers Ash for splitting it out into a new thread If I recall correctly I first discovered Cube-Europe, the day after the sites 3rd birthday which was just after it changed from N64-Europe to Cube-Europe I think. I remember I was trying to find info on a release date for the Gamecube typing in "Gamecube Europe release" into Google C-E was one of the top results, I actually thought it was an official Nintendo site for the first few weeks too

Great something new for me to try And I had Flash Shift once before Kraid and all. But I also had bombs and used those for the insta kill

And another run through done Think that is 6 now? Sub 3 hours on Normal mode I skipped the first EMMI, didn't sequence break the Phantom Cloak this time as I couldn't get the damn pseudo wave beam for it. I did the 2nd boss in sequence but sequence broke the Grapple Beam on route to the Morph Ball Bombs. And I skipped Drogyga. Shinesparked every boss and mini boss that I was able to. Even managed it on the cross bomb boss for first time. I will ad a note that I did reload from last check point a few times to manipulate the game clock if I messed up a boss or when trying to skip Drogyga. I probably won't be able to get much quicker than this unless I learn a sequence break for the Screw Attack. For now I will say those are beyond me... Especially the camera lock one. But will probably try sub 3 hours on Hard Mode next weekend I'm also very happy with this Speed Boost puzzle. First time getting it in one go from all the way back in the EMMI room Right after beating the EMMI

I love the EMMI zones haha. Anyway another weekend another Metroid Dread run done Went back to Normal mode first time since first got the game as wanted the achievements for it. Decided to try add some extra flavour by trying to do a number of sequence breaks. Learned how some of the pseudo wave beams work, managed to skip the first EMMI and went straight to the first boss for early Phantom Cloak Also managed to sequence break the Grapple Beam and Bombs...tried to skip the 2nd boss but without the Diffusion Beam there was a ceiling after Flash Shift that requires diffusion beam but couldn't pull off the pseudo wave beam on it. Reloaded so a save just after getting Bombs and went back to 2nd boss. I reckon this back track cost me some time. I did manage to skip the Drogyga boss though. Took me ages to get the pseudo wave beam on that wall (reloaded a few times to try keep time down :p) Also managed to sequence break the Space Jump...though I don't think there was any benefit to it as I still needed to get Storm Missle anyway and you would naturallybget Space Jump on way back from SM anyway. But was still fun to pull off Was hoping for sub 3 hour time, got 3 hours 22mins. Probably won't get too much faster unless I learn how to sequence break the Screw Attack, and the methods for that look beyond me .. especially the camera lock one and you have to memorize the route to the screw attack blind. How the speedrunners do that is amazing.

And done, sub 4 hours on Hard Mode is complete. 3 hours, 22 mins. Took a full hour off my last play. Think only way I could potentially go better now is if I learned all the sequence breaks the speed runners do, but that was would be a lot of effort Might go back to Normal mode for a sub 4 hour run there just to get the achievements for Normal mode as haven't played on normal since my first play. We'll see next week.

Especially the way the camera pans down. Like it is an extension bof the end fight cutscene. I seen vids of others using Shinespark on him but they did it from the left side hitting from the side. It still looks cool, but the extra camera pan you get from this positioning just adds to it. Again I love those little touches they have done.

And that is my 3rd play done. I swear I am having more fun with this game on every play Beat Hard mode in 4 hours 24 mins!!!! Holy frak didn't expect that. Sub 8 hours was a target with 4 a dream, getting so close, def think I can go sub 4 now. If I didn't take a wrong turn after I sequence broke the Morph Ball Bomb I likely could have gotten just under 4 hours. One thing I was loving on this run was ttying to Shinespark some bosses. Realised even if their boss room didn't have enough to charge a Shinespark some it was possible to do the run from previous room and you could Shinespark at start of fight. Tried to see could I Shinespark the final boss, there's def room to charge it in second phase of fight but I just couldn't hit with it. Every time I charged it I would love it from getting hit def be going for a sub 4 hour run next weekend