Post by mataeus on Aug 9, 2014 2:54:12 GMT -5
At the moment I'm playing Pokemon Leaf Green on my GBA emulator on my phone. It's a generation III game that's a remake of the original Gen I Green. My other half is playing Fire Red (you can work that out yourselves there 
) on her emulator, and the emulator allows you to link up using wifi or direct connection, so we can trade 
Although the games have cute graphics and are family friendly, the RPG elements are deep beyond belief. For those who've never tried one, it's traditional JRPG fare, but you put your Pokemon into battle instead of fighting yourself. It's always against other Pokemon, either random encounters or against other NPC Pokemon trainers.
They have the usual stats of attack, defence, SP attack and defence (basically magic attack / defence), speed, etc. But it's a lot deeper than that. In fact, they're a lot deeper that 'regular' JRPGs.
When you fight a random encounter, you can whittle your enemy down to little health, then use a 'Pokeball' item to snare it. This will now become one of yours to level up and fight with. In the field, you can carry six Pokemon around with you and you have to store the rest on a PC (storage chest).
Although most battles are 1:1, you can switch out your Pokemon for one of the other five you may have with you, depending on the foe your fighting. It's random dice rolls with a dose of Rock Paper Scissors, as different elemental attacks and techniques have varying effects against different Pokemon, who themselves are aligned in different ways.
Pokemon can, as of the Generation III titles (the GBA ones), be aligned: Dark, Rock, Psychic, Fighting, Grass, Ghost, Ice, Ground, Electric, Posion, Dragon, Normal, Steel, Flying, Fire, Water or Bug.
So you can see, a lot more than the usual 'Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Dark, Light' that you usually get in JRPGs.
But that's not it. For extra depth, when you catch a Pokemon in the field, it gets given a hidden stat that determines it's nature! Think your Squirtle will be the same as the next one? Think again... Now, on top of the Pokemon set types above, your creature also will be one of the following: Hardy, Lonely, Brave, Adamant, Naughty, Bold, Docile, Relaxed, Impish, Lax, Timid, Hasty, Serious, Jolly, Naive, Modest, Mild, Quiet, Bashful, Rash, Calm, Gentle, Sassy, Careful or Quirky.
The Pokemon's nature affects two of it's statistics and how they grow, increasing one by 10% and decreasing another by the same amount. As you can imagine, as Pokemon can level up to 100, over time this can have a serious effect on how he grows. So, you've got Charmander (who's a Fire Pokemon), and normally you'd be using his Ember attack on Grass enemies because Fire is their weakness. But YOUR Charmander is Impish, which means over time his Defense will raise higher than normal and his SP Attack will raise lower than normal; as a result, you may have a better time building him into a Tank than a Fireball thrower.
You think we're already deeper than your average JRPG? Well you've also got the fact that the Pokemon's Nature also affects their favourite flavour . As the game goes on, you can get a berry pouch for your pack (where your items are stored), and from the games Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire onwards, you can grow your own berry farm. There are dozens of berries, and they all have different effects on Pokemon, but they'll only be effected efficiently if it eats a berry it likes. Flavours include Spicy, Sour, Sweet, Dry and Bitter. The berry may have a temporary effect, such as acting like a potion to heal your Pokemon, or you can actually give your Pokemon items to hold, including berries, which they'll hang on to and it will affect how they fare in battle.
So your Impish Charmander who you're tanking likes Sour but hates Dry, meaning you could give him a Salac Berry to hold, which raises his speed in an emergency hit point drop...
Deeper still, you can plant those berries instead, and they'll mature into trees that will bear more of the same berry over time (you have to set a clock at the beginning of the game when you start playing to the actual time).
Those berries can also be cooked, or crushed into powder for other effects still...
You can also breed your Pokemon. Each one will be either Male or Female when you catch it, and they can be bred and will lay eggs, which hatch into new Pokemon that inherits traits and even combat moves from it's parents.
They can be named and nurtured by you, used in battle, levelled, evolved, traded to other players...
As a Pokemon levels up, it will become more independent, and will occasionally disobey moves or do something differently in battle. This can be countered by your character fighting Pokemon battles in Gyms, and earning badges when they win that shows how good a trainer they are, each badge allowing you more control over your Pokemon.
Occasionally a Pokemon will attempt to evolve when it levels, transforming it into a different Pokemon based on the original one. You can cancel this if you like to allow you to continue to level your favourite creature. You're also not restricted to one of each type - catch a hundred Pikachu's if you so wish, as long as you have room in your 'storage chest'.
If you trade for a high level Pokemon with another player, as it has been raised and nurtured by someone else, it will disobey you a lot until it's hidden Friendship stat raises, which goes up in the background as you spend time carrying it around and using it in fights.
The most impressive thing about all of this, is that what I've described above is on the Game Boy Advance. Those features have been refined and improved since, through generations of DS and 3DS games, and the Pokemon now number roughly 700 species, all carefully interwoven into the stat and nature systems snd balanced into the game.
So, believe me when I say the Pokemon games are probably the most advanced and complex, yet family friendly and accessible JRPGs in existence.
For those who have never delved deep into a game, you just see furry creatures fighting each other and cute top down graphics. But for those in the know, it's a deep experience wrapped in bucket loads of charm. It's funny, witty, adorable to look at and there's no death or destruction, but it's the most satisfying JRPG you can ever hope to play.
I wouldn't go back further than the Game Boy Advance Generation III ones though, as they rewrote and defined the rules and mechanics above. The Game Boy Colour ones are much simpler in nature.
For the record, I'm 33 years old, and I didn't play my first Pokemon game until this year .
~M~
) on her emulator, and the emulator allows you to link up using wifi or direct connection, so we can trade 
Although the games have cute graphics and are family friendly, the RPG elements are deep beyond belief. For those who've never tried one, it's traditional JRPG fare, but you put your Pokemon into battle instead of fighting yourself. It's always against other Pokemon, either random encounters or against other NPC Pokemon trainers.
They have the usual stats of attack, defence, SP attack and defence (basically magic attack / defence), speed, etc. But it's a lot deeper than that. In fact, they're a lot deeper that 'regular' JRPGs.
When you fight a random encounter, you can whittle your enemy down to little health, then use a 'Pokeball' item to snare it. This will now become one of yours to level up and fight with. In the field, you can carry six Pokemon around with you and you have to store the rest on a PC (storage chest).
Although most battles are 1:1, you can switch out your Pokemon for one of the other five you may have with you, depending on the foe your fighting. It's random dice rolls with a dose of Rock Paper Scissors, as different elemental attacks and techniques have varying effects against different Pokemon, who themselves are aligned in different ways.
Pokemon can, as of the Generation III titles (the GBA ones), be aligned: Dark, Rock, Psychic, Fighting, Grass, Ghost, Ice, Ground, Electric, Posion, Dragon, Normal, Steel, Flying, Fire, Water or Bug.
So you can see, a lot more than the usual 'Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Dark, Light' that you usually get in JRPGs.
But that's not it. For extra depth, when you catch a Pokemon in the field, it gets given a hidden stat that determines it's nature! Think your Squirtle will be the same as the next one? Think again... Now, on top of the Pokemon set types above, your creature also will be one of the following: Hardy, Lonely, Brave, Adamant, Naughty, Bold, Docile, Relaxed, Impish, Lax, Timid, Hasty, Serious, Jolly, Naive, Modest, Mild, Quiet, Bashful, Rash, Calm, Gentle, Sassy, Careful or Quirky.
The Pokemon's nature affects two of it's statistics and how they grow, increasing one by 10% and decreasing another by the same amount. As you can imagine, as Pokemon can level up to 100, over time this can have a serious effect on how he grows. So, you've got Charmander (who's a Fire Pokemon), and normally you'd be using his Ember attack on Grass enemies because Fire is their weakness. But YOUR Charmander is Impish, which means over time his Defense will raise higher than normal and his SP Attack will raise lower than normal; as a result, you may have a better time building him into a Tank than a Fireball thrower.
You think we're already deeper than your average JRPG? Well you've also got the fact that the Pokemon's Nature also affects their favourite flavour . As the game goes on, you can get a berry pouch for your pack (where your items are stored), and from the games Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire onwards, you can grow your own berry farm. There are dozens of berries, and they all have different effects on Pokemon, but they'll only be effected efficiently if it eats a berry it likes. Flavours include Spicy, Sour, Sweet, Dry and Bitter. The berry may have a temporary effect, such as acting like a potion to heal your Pokemon, or you can actually give your Pokemon items to hold, including berries, which they'll hang on to and it will affect how they fare in battle.
So your Impish Charmander who you're tanking likes Sour but hates Dry, meaning you could give him a Salac Berry to hold, which raises his speed in an emergency hit point drop...
Deeper still, you can plant those berries instead, and they'll mature into trees that will bear more of the same berry over time (you have to set a clock at the beginning of the game when you start playing to the actual time).
Those berries can also be cooked, or crushed into powder for other effects still...
You can also breed your Pokemon. Each one will be either Male or Female when you catch it, and they can be bred and will lay eggs, which hatch into new Pokemon that inherits traits and even combat moves from it's parents.
They can be named and nurtured by you, used in battle, levelled, evolved, traded to other players...
As a Pokemon levels up, it will become more independent, and will occasionally disobey moves or do something differently in battle. This can be countered by your character fighting Pokemon battles in Gyms, and earning badges when they win that shows how good a trainer they are, each badge allowing you more control over your Pokemon.
Occasionally a Pokemon will attempt to evolve when it levels, transforming it into a different Pokemon based on the original one. You can cancel this if you like to allow you to continue to level your favourite creature. You're also not restricted to one of each type - catch a hundred Pikachu's if you so wish, as long as you have room in your 'storage chest'.
If you trade for a high level Pokemon with another player, as it has been raised and nurtured by someone else, it will disobey you a lot until it's hidden Friendship stat raises, which goes up in the background as you spend time carrying it around and using it in fights.
The most impressive thing about all of this, is that what I've described above is on the Game Boy Advance. Those features have been refined and improved since, through generations of DS and 3DS games, and the Pokemon now number roughly 700 species, all carefully interwoven into the stat and nature systems snd balanced into the game.
So, believe me when I say the Pokemon games are probably the most advanced and complex, yet family friendly and accessible JRPGs in existence.
For those who have never delved deep into a game, you just see furry creatures fighting each other and cute top down graphics. But for those in the know, it's a deep experience wrapped in bucket loads of charm. It's funny, witty, adorable to look at and there's no death or destruction, but it's the most satisfying JRPG you can ever hope to play.
I wouldn't go back further than the Game Boy Advance Generation III ones though, as they rewrote and defined the rules and mechanics above. The Game Boy Colour ones are much simpler in nature.
For the record, I'm 33 years old, and I didn't play my first Pokemon game until this year .
~M~
