Shame about aftergame catching in Y and OR

[alexbobspoons]

So have now finished story modes on Y and OR Loved them!!
But, I do find myself a little dissapointed by the after-game pokemon catching. Aftergame content is good, but its the national pokedex catching that feels clumsy.

As I understand it, while you technically can catch em all... it is dependant upon:

Y (or X) : Friend Safari. If you have very few friends playing Pokemon your stuffed. Not a good thing is all the friend codes around this website yaya, but it seems a shame that in doing that, your one or two actual real-life friends will get burried under all the other friend codes and defeat the purpose of the actual friends online feature. Scrolling through to swap a pokemon with my wife just wont be as quick. Shame.

or

OR (or AS) : Special Islands: While a great idea, you only get one per day (eg 3 new pokeys) so its not quite enough to keep you busy on an evening. I gather having streetpass on helps with getting other islands, but seriously driving to work and back will likely not pass a single other 3DS with pokemon running and streetpass activated, so I am pretty much just going to be stuck on one island per day. I gather the general routes all get extra pokemon once the national dex is opened, but according to the official strategy guide it doesnt look like a particularly big slice of the overall collection.

So at this point it seems a bit dissapointing that collecting up a lot of the other pokemon with those games will need a waiting-game sat watching for a new island to pop, or flooding the 3DS with friend codes.
I know that there is also trading available, but to be honest I like the fun of catching them, not trading. I also have very little good stuff to trade.

The good thing, is that we have acquired all the earlier games, so catching em all should be made easier simply by getting them in all the different games and using the various transfer methods. But I just feel that shouldnt be necessary really.

Then again, maybe I have misinterpreted how the after game catching works and its more available than I have realised.

Still, awesome story modes!! Currently in the middle of Delta episode now Smile

Alex

 

[Sopheria]

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)

Y (or X) : Friend Safari. If you have very few friends playing Pokemon your stuffed. Not a good thing is all the friend codes around this website yaya, but it seems a shame that in doing that, your one or two actual real-life friends will get burried under all the other friend codes and defeat the purpose of the actual friends online feature. Scrolling through to swap a pokemon with my wife just wont be as quick. Shame.

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.

 

[Kaiyu]

I didn't have much of an issue with completing my national Pokédex. It took me three days. I was Wonder Trading a LOT and plus my sister had what I couldn't get from WT.

 

[alexbobspoons]

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 :)

 

[Ammako]

At least I'm glad everything is obtainable from within Gen. VI and you don't have to transfer anything from previous Gens.

 

[Sopheria]

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 :)

Ah, nope, you're not wrong :/ That's actually 100% correct.

Certain Pokémon are only available in X, certain ones are only available in Y, certain ones are only available in OR, and certain ones are only available in AS. So in order to complete the National Dex, you'd have to trade with at least one person with each of those games. You don't have to rely on getting the right Friend Safaris though, because to my knowledge, there's no Friend Safari Pokemon that can't be found elsewhere out in the wild in one of the four games.

 

[alexbobspoons]

to my knowledge, there's no Friend Safari Pokemon that can't be found elsewhere out in the wild in one of the four games.

Ah thats interesting and good.. does the same go for the mirage spots (not counting legendaries or version-specifics) or is there a bucket-load of general national-dex pokemon that are only available via mirage-spots or trading? (or earlier games transfers)

Thanks again :)

 

[Sopheria]

Ah thats interesting and good.. does the same go for the mirage spots (not counting legendaries or version-specifics) or is there a bucket-load of general national-dex pokemon that are only available via mirage-spots or trading? (or earlier games transfers)

Thanks again :)

There are a few that are only available at Mirage Spots. A few off the top of my head are Magby, Elekid, Persian, and Tynamo and all of the 1st, 4th, and 5th gen fossils. Also, most of the legendaries are found at Mirage Spots, but you can control which of those Mirage Spots appear by putting certain Pokémon in your party while soaring (except for Crescent Isle, which is random).

 

[VisualJae]

Trading is good. Socializing is good. Interacting with others is good. Spread the joy. Spread the fun.

I thank everyone who helped me fill out the blanks in my living Pokédex (mostly missed Events) and if I have the time on my hands, I like breeding what I have to help others fill out their needs.

 

[alexbobspoons]

Trading is good. Socializing is good. Interacting with others is good. Spread the joy. Spread the fun.

I thank everyone who helped me fill out the blanks in my living Pokédex (mostly missed Events) and if I have the time on my hands, I like breeding what I have to help others fill out their needs.

VisualJae:
While I agree socializing is good, thats not why I play Pokemon. I joined this website to socialize yes, but didnt buy the game to :)
Also, I dont particularly get anything out of trading, whereas the enjoyment from catching a Pokemon wild is great, so I would much rather capture than trade.

Sopheria:
Sadly, according to the ORAS official guidebook, there are only a fraction of Pokemon available in the wild outside of Mirage spots :( with many many standard Pokemon only available through trading and/or mirage spots :(
I do think thats a big shame for those not that interested in trading. One mirage spot per day is certainly better than zero, but not really enough for a lengthy hunting session.