5th Gen Gotta get them medals!

[Captain Gizmo]

In B2BW, we were introduced with a new little system called the Medals. Where you would get a certain medal for doing certain chores such as walking a certain amount of time, going to the Pokemon Center a certain amount of time and such. It was like a little achievement and another thing to do when you complete the Elite 4 (Unless you've completed most of it before the E4).

Did you like this new system? or not at all?

 

[Pendraflare]

YES. Very much.

This is one of the things I really enjoyed it for, because I feel it motivates you to do things in-game you probably wouldn't bother to otherwise, like beating the league with different typed teams, looking at random signs, or trying to complete the Tower/Treehollow under specific restrictions. I really like going after the goals they have here. Some of them will be unobtainable after the Wi-fi shutdown, but others are still kinda fun to get.

 

[Hikamaru]

I enjoyed this feature, it was pretty cool collecting medals for doing some fun tasks.

I managed to scoop a good load myself, and that was even without doing the complicated tasks like the monotype medals. While it kinda sucks the end of the Dream World and DS wi-fi support means some will be impossible to get (meaning no more 100% completionists here) they are still really fun to collect.

 

[Arlo]

I don't actually dislike it much, but I thought that from a pure design standpoint, it was probably the most poorly implemented feature of the games.

I don't need, or particularly want, a game to praise me for accomplishing mundane tasks, so "achievements" in games just don't appeal to me in general. However, it seems that there are many people who do want just that, and I've resigned myself to that fact. So all I ask of a game is that it implement achievements so that those who like them can easily collect them and those who don't like them can just as easily ignore them.

Fifth gen pokemon failed in that, simply because they chose, for whatever reason, to have that medal guy plunk himself down directly between the counter and the PC, so that he's always in the way. That means that even though I don't care about the medals, I still have to take the time to talk to him every time he shows up just to get him the hell out of the way. That's poor game design.

It's not a big deal - I'm not the sort of person to rage over poor game design, and I just deal with it since it's really only a minor annoyance. But it still is poor design - they could've made it much better simply, for instance, by having him stand on the other side of the counter - to the player's right instead of the player's left. Then the people who actually wanted to talk to him still could just as easily and the people who didn't want to talk to him could get to the PC without him being in the way.

 

[Elements1]

I though it was an awesome feature! The surprise when the medal dude shows up at the pokecenter is kinda a cool feeling and then it really shows and keeps track of your achievements that no other pokemon game has done before.

 

[Hiatus]

I honestly hadn't known that this feature existed, until much later in game when I finally decided to this person next to the counter at Pokémon Center. xD" When I talked, I wound up receiving about six to eight medals all at once, which was pretty surprising. Don't remember what they were for, though.

 

[Sheep]

Medals were super super awesome and I found myself constantly checking the Pokemon Center to see if the medal dude was there. I'm a huge collector, not just Pokedex-wise but with everything else as well, so it really gave me an incentive to go out and actually do other things besides catching/evolving in the game.

I miss it.

 

[Jellicent♀]

The medals were cute. I loved all of the Adventure and Entertainment medals. Wailord Watching is my favorite, and I make sure I get it every time I do a new playthrough. .u.

I didn't like how to have the Final Special Medal you were required to get ALL of the other medals, including the ones that required GTS and such (something that I didn't have access to at the time).

 

[Volcarona]

I like the medal system and I often checked what I had received, but I didn't go out of my way to fulfill their requirements. I'm fairly laid-back when it comes to collecting trophies in other video games.

 

[Imperator161]

I liked the medals, but I don't like the fact that some of them rely on access to things (e.g., Dream World, Wifi) that won't exist indefinitely. I tend to be a completionist (less so with gen 5, though, for whatever reason), and I find it discouraging that there are already several medals that I'll never be able to obtain. As a result, I feel less inspired to seek out the other medals than I ordinarily would.

That being said, I do like being rewarded for various tasks, and some of the medals were great ways to commemorate events I never would have paid attention to otherwise (e.g., riding a bike a certain number of times). Overall, I think it's a good system, but I think it should be refined to only include tasks that can be accomplished directly within the game itself.

 

[Pepperton]

I didn't like or dislike them. In the Pokemon Center adjacent to the Elite Four, the man gave me a gigantic amount of medals. I eventually got bored of clicking through the dialogue and went to do some chores before finally receiving all of them. I guess that's a testament to how much I payed attention to the feature in game. :]

 

[Altairis]

I don't think I ever payed attention to the medals until I accidentally talked to the guy really far into the game and I had to read through thousands of lines of dialogue because he gave me a ton of medals, haha. I was never inspired to get them all, though. Maybe I'll do it once when I restart the game :3

 

[Blake Belladonna]

I liked this system. It was like the typical in-game achievements you'd see in other games, like MMOs, etc. So it was quite a fresh sight to see in the games. I wish they'd continue this in the other games and further expand on it because it simply has tons of potential~ ^o^