5th Gen Floccesy Ranch: Swing Those Cowbells!

Floccesy Ranch might be one of the worst parts of the sequels. Yes, it has Herdier and yes it has adorable Mareep.

...but it's trying too hard. Think back to the Moo Moo farm in Johto. I can't be the only one that was SO memorised by cows just hanging out there, in the middle of the farm. You wanted that Nugget and you wanted to help that Miltank. In Kalos you got to ride Skiddo at a Skiddo farm which was literally one of the best experiences ever...

But in B2W2? You're not even trying to track down a stray Mareep. You're not trying to help one, or make it feel better, you don't gain anything from seeing a live Mareep... no. You're just searching for a missing Herdier. Not only does your 'friend/rival' keep reminding you that 'HEY I'M HERE' you encounter cute Pokemon over and over to the point that you don't even want to gain experience anymore. You just want to adopt them all. What's worse is that the Herdier held its own. It was perfectly fine. It would've ripped the Neo Team Plasma grunt to pieces if you got there any later (don't deny, it's true). You literally just wasted 10 minutes of weaving in and out of trees to get Frustration. I guess it's the most suitable TM for the situation, after all.

The even more frustrating thing is the music. It's literally this upbeat cowbell swinging song. It's nice for about a minute but after hearing it over and over you want to punch a wall. Can't Herdier have gotten lost in Route 10 instead? :( For the generation with the best music ever it literally has one of the most annoying tracks ever.

Now! With that said, do you agree that Floccesy Ranch was lacking in something? Did you prefer it to other Pokemon based farms or did it pale in comparison? How would've you made it better? Should've we been able to go for Mareep rides and totally ignore the fact that we could be electrocuted? How would've you made it more farm-like?

And most important: Did the music make you want to punch a bag of Trubbish too???

I actually really loved both the location and its music, haha! I can't really think of what would make it more farm-like, besides including more Pokémon than just Mareep and Herdier. I would've included some Pokémon like Miltank, Tauros, Ponyta and Spoink. Miltank's a cow, Tauros is a bull, Ponyta's a horse, and Spoink's a piggy (oink's in its name, heck!), so why not? Would've been cute to see a little Spoink bouncing around. <'3

The fact that I forgot about its existence till I saw this thread means something.

I actually really liked the Floccesy Ranch. The music was catchy, it had some really awesome Pokemon and I felt it was one of the best new areas that BW2 introduced.

Floccesy Ranch was pretty boring on the whole - felt like a pretty desperate area to act as a tutorial for the player whilst giving really mediocre rewards and a bunch of useless Pokémon you'd never want to see again in your life. It wasn't awful but it did contribute to BW2 being pretty dull sequels, for me at least.

Yeah I really didn't like that part of the game but at least it was a good place to grind before the first gym badge. You could also get Riolu there.

Flocessy Ranch wasn't my favorite thing, but at least it didn't make me throw my head against a wall. It was cute, for sure, and the ability to catch a Riolu and other cute Pokemon was great, but I found the whole scene pretty boring. Just another one of those early-game things that I wish I could skip.

Floccesy Ranch is to me, a more forgettable one of the new areas from the game but the fact there's some good Pokemon found there is what saves it from being outright terrible. The only issue is you can't really train well before the first Gym since you don't unlock wild Audino until after the first Gym.

How would you guys feel if it was opposite? Say you travelled through the east of Unova to the west, like in the original games. Like it was a post game area with stronger Pok?mon, would that change any of your opinions on either end of the scale?

Squirrel said:

Floccesy Ranch was pretty boring on the whole - felt like a pretty desperate area to act as a tutorial for the player whilst giving really mediocre rewards and a bunch of useless Pok?mon you'd never want to see again in your life. It wasn't awful but it did contribute to BW2 being pretty dull sequels, for me at least.

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Totally agree although Riolu doesn't really fit that mould. It's useful as - except against Roxie but it's one of the best early Pok?mon you can access in any games tbh.

Cinderizer said:

Hey, everyone has their own opinion, i personally loved the flocessy ranch and if i could re-do the scene, i would!

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I suppose they could have enhanced it a bit by getting you to do chores whenever you come back. That would entice people to return!

Blue said:

I actually really liked the Floccesy Ranch. The music was catchy, it had some really awesome Pokemon and I felt it was one of the best new areas that BW2 introduced.

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Catchy... interesting. I personally can't stand it. How do you compare that music to the rest of the game?

solivagant said:

The fact that I forgot about its existence till I saw this thread means something.

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I get you, the only reason I remember it is because it's my least favourite part :(

Flower said:

I actually really loved both the location and its music, haha! I can't really think of what would make it more farm-like, besides including more Pok?mon than just Mareep and Herdier. I would've included some Pok?mon like Miltank, Tauros, Ponyta and Spoink. Miltank's a cow, Tauros is a bull, Ponyta's a horse, and Spoink's a piggy (oink's in its name, heck!), so why not? Would've been cute to see a little Spoink bouncing around. <'3

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Idk i couldn't have seen Spoink there but the others definitely would have been cool. Maybe showing us Herdier rounding them up would have given it a bit more personality too. The Mareep are so not controlled lol