The fact that you need to trade between games is a little bit of a pain. But it's always been like that, unfortunately--it's actually a lot better than it used to be thanks to Wi-Fi and easy accessibility to other players via the PSS. I think this generation is a
lot better than gen 5, in which there was a big chunk of Pokémon that you could only obtain by transferring from previous generations. In this generation, they're all obtainable in at least one of 4 games. Not too bad, when you compare it to past generations. (I'm not a fan of having to wait on the Mirage Spots either though, but eh, it's incentive to get me to fire up the game every day)
I don't think you're really meant to depend on the Friend Safari to complete the National Dex. Since you can catch them all by the traditional means, i.e. trading between version exclusives, the Friend Safari strikes me as more of a "bonus" than a necessity--just a way to get high IV, Hidden Ability Pokémon as a reward for connecting with other people.
Thanks :)
But I thought that the phrasing of the fact all pokemon are obtainable within the four games is only true IF you use extensive-trading (not just version uniques), mirage spots and friend safari, isnt that right?
Friend safari: I had read that onece you open the national dex in X and Y, all the additional pokemon do not actually start appearing in the game, only the friend safari. So with XY you can only complete the national dex (as far as it goes for the version) by trading or hundreds of friends.
ORAS: Similarly, I had read that once you open the national dex in ORAS, the extra pokemon do start appearing in general areas but only a small percentage. So in ORAS you either need to rely on extensive-trading or hundreds of days of mirage spots.
It makes the phrase of being able to obtain all pokemon within the four games difficult to get your head around as a newbie.
If my understanding is right, then with ORAS/XY if you did zero trading and had zero friends, then you wouldnt be able to complete anywhere near the national dex just by playing normally, until you had waited out hundreds of days for many many mirage spots... is my understanding right there?
I know its better than before, I just think it can be confusing the amount you can actually catch within a base game without friends/trading/streetpass so the actually obtainable and the technically obtainable become quite different.
Confused newbie eeek.
I guess part of me is hoping somebody will reply and say I am wrong and that there are more random appearing pokemon from national dex than I am understanding. That would make me feel better :)