Phione finally allowed in a tournament?

After gen 6's first battle competition was announced yesterday, the official Korean site may have accidentally leaked the ruleset. It is as follows:

First, the battles are to be Double Battles and you can use any Pokémon in the National Pokédex, except Mewtwo, Xerneas, Yveltal or Zygarde, and you cannot use transferred Pokémon from previosu generations. All Pokémon will be made to be Level 30 in the competition. In addition to that, there's a new regulation included. In this competition, you can only have 20 battles per day, but if you participate in less than 20 in one day, you can make it up in another so if you make 15 battles in Day 1, then you can do 25 battles in Day 2. After the competition, there will be a survey on how it was run, running from February 28th to March 7th.

The key point here is that you can't use transferred Pokémon. Every Pokémon that's typically banned in tournaments HAS to be transferred, aside from the four mentioned.

To one notable exception: Phione.

Sure, you have to transfer over a Manaphy or a Phione, but then you can start breeding them and make Phiones to your heart's content. And as far as I can see, nothing in the rules prevents that. It's not Mewtwo, Xerneas, Yveltal or Zygarde, and it's the offspring of a transferred Pokémon, it's not a transferred Pokémon itself. Yay for loopholes! Now, the million dollar question: can you transfer a Manaphy egg into Pokémon Bank, then X or Y, effectively making it a Kalos-native Manaphy? It'd be so hilarious if that was the case and everyone in charge just missed that.

My best guess as to why they're so insistent on having Pokémon participating in tournaments be born or caught in Kalos is that to the best of our knowledge, there's no Pokésav or anything like that for gen 6 games, so any Pokémon that's from Kalos is pretty much guaranteed to be legitimate. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of completely preventing the use of any legendaries from gens 2 through 5, as well as Mew and... Unown. Yep, Unown is totally incapable of breeding, so there can be no such thing as a Kalos-native Unown. Some tutor-only moves are also a no-no.

Edit: Turns out the banlist was incomplete. The typical banlist is what's enforced here, so no Phione. Again.

Suspect test round 1: Deoxys-E, Genesect and Mega Lucario

I was wondering when the subject would come up, especially since it started to be a while since Mega Kangaskhan got shown the door, and here we are.

I think it's safe to say that Mega Lucario is going to get kicked out of OU without either of its feet touching the ground. Its stats would be perfectly okay to handle on their own, but then... well, let's just say whoever decided to give it Adaptability on top of that was smoking some heavy stuff. Sure, the less savvy people will just point out that it's very easy to revenge kill, but really, so is much of the stuff that's already in ubers. I'm not saying it's not a factor at all, I'm saying it shouldn't be THE factor. This thing murders stuff so hard it just shouldn't be allowed.

Genesect is a bit more complicated, and from what I've seen there doesn't appear to be a strong consensus one way or the other. Sure, it can't exploit rain to stay alive after a Fire attack anymore, but one thing to keep in mind is that the last time it was suspect tested, it didn't have Blaze Kick, it didn't have Extremespeed, and it didn't have Shift Gear. It didn't have any incentive to use its Steel moves either. Back then, the ol' scarfed U-Turn + tri-elemental set was bog standard prior to its ban, but now it's got such a huge case of four-moveslot syndrome that it can't handle all of its own awesomeness all at once. And that's a problem, because while Genesect has an answer for almost everything, it can't use all these answers at once. Naturally the best set remains the old standard, if only because it exploits Download better than any other, but... eh, this one'll be interesting to watch.

As for Deoxys-E, it happens to display impressive synergy with Mega Lucario, and as such it's normal that it's given a look at, but if there seems to be any consensus for this it's the "wait and see" approach. With Mega Lucario gone, will it still remain as dangerous? Of course it has a lot to offer, and will always be a powerful tool, but Mega Lucario's sheer destructive power and ability to put overwhelming pressure on everything is what makes Deoxys-E's (and, for that matter, Deoxys-LG's) hazards pay for themselves so well.

So, any thoughts on the matter?

Everything's fine, global warming is a myth.

I find that kind of discourse amusing. Amusing as in, it makes me want to skin a dog alive. Just because the most alarmist, extreme predictions (Arctic ice cap being completely melted in 2014 anyone?) were way off doesn't mean it suddenly doesn't exist. I can accept the notion of global warming not being observable to the same extent everywhere, but just personal experience, if nothing else, is enough to tell me that it's for real. Our winters are much warmer than they were when I was a kid, and even back then they were warmer than when my parents were kids themselves. I don't even need exact numbers to tell you that, which is scary.

What's especially sad is that the anti-global warming discourse lacks any kind of scientific rigor. Studies that show it exists are somehow always false because of this and that, yet studies that show it don't are always perfectly executed and thorough. As I said at the beginning, the opposite point of view isn't really excusable either - it's far more likely that the truth isn't as catastrophic as worst-case scenarios would have you believe, but not as encouraging as the other end of the spectrum suggests.

I was amused, a few years ago, to find out that the fossil fuel industry actually buys advertisement space/time in the United States, especially during the electoral season. I guarantee you this shit would never fly in Canada (or at least in Quebec), it would be an enormous scandal. And the fossil fuel industries know this, so they resort to alternate means of propaganda. For example, they have so-called "editorialists" write in major newspapers to try and discredit the notion of global warming. They're quite easy to identify: they only ever write on global warming, and nothing else, as if they had some sort of unholy fixation on the subject. Almost as if they were incapable of talking about current events, and had no opinion on anything but that. It's a lot more subtle than just saying "hi, I'm big oil, buy my shit", but anyone with a keen enough eye can detect these bullshit salesmen.

And that's yet another reason why you yourselves have to make a bit of critical thinking, and not let anyone spoonfeed you "truths" - one way or the other.

The quest for Nita: Get the glory or die trying (Updated)

Skarmory. That's what battle #38, the very first of the day, greets me with. Well, time to settle for three Hone Claws again. Fortunately it was stupid, spamming Brave Bird all over the place, so no phazing shenanigans. Battle #40 pitted me against a Tentacruel that Protected the first Entrainment, but not the second, choosing to kill Durant with Surf instead. Close call! Next!

And I almost lost it right there at battle #41, with the same scenario being repeated against a Medicham. If it had Pure Power, I pretty much lost right then and there, but it didn't, so I survived a HJK and nailed the second Entrainment.

Although battle #43 didn't prove to be dangerous, I just wanted to highlight it because Durant survived a Fire Punch from an Electivire with 5 HP. So I guess Smogon's running joke really was that accurate. Then battle #44 provided the first legendary sighting, a Regirock. It somewhat liked to use Curse, but it didn't do so enough to avoid being OHKOed. Zapdos and Latios immediately followed, and died quickly.

So did this session, because things needed to be done elsewhere. Only six battles left!

Edit: Nah, I couldn't put the 3DS down for long so close to the goal! Fortunately, the rest of the path to Nita was fairly easy, despite the masses of legendaries. On that note, seems like Veterans always have three, and the rest never have any. I don't know the exact point at which you can start running into Veterans, but my first one was the aforementioned #44.

Anyway, Nita. I was a nervous wreck by that point. One more battle, one more opportunity for everything to go horribly wrong. Even though I was frantically mashing the button through the dialogue, it felt like an eternity. Finally the battle began.

Battle Châtelaine Nita sent out Tornadus!

Fuck. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. All that was left was to choose Entrainment and pray. And after the longest, most painful fraction of a second in my gaming life...

Give Dallas the Stanley Cup this instant.

I mean it.

The quest for Nita: Climbing up the ladder

Day 2 started out a lot better than the previous one, with nothing special happening for a long time. It's worth noting, however, that battle #17 revealed something interesting about the AI - namely, its erraticness. Even in the face of a Blaziken, the opposing Starmie would not always go straight for Psychic, instead using the likes of Cosmic Power (don't worry, Heracross still mopped the floor with it) and even Reflect Type. Weird, I would've expected Psychic spam all day every day.

Battle #19 saw the opponent lead with a... Flame Orb Floatzel? Weird choice... anyway, this meant that I was on a timer to set up, so I could forget the six Hone Claws. I only had time for two before Floatzel died. The next Pokémon was just about the worst thing I could hope to see... Skarmory. The first Rock Blast just barely failed to get the kill, but the Brave Bird recoil finished it off. Luckily, the final opponent was Magnezone, so the lack of substitute (the first time it ever fell, mind you) didn't mean much.

On battle #22, I ran into a Muk that loved to use Acid Armor far too much. Worse, I knew it had Flamethrower, because that's what it instantly used on Durant. So, could my Mega Heracross withstand a Muk with quadruple defense, which only Rock Blast hit for neutral damage? Once again, I just barely fell short of the KO, which goes to show the sheer destructive power of Mega Heracross, and Poison Jab got rid of the substitute. The next opponents? Seismitoad and Excadrill. Next fight, please!

Battle #23 began with... a Skarmory roaring my Durant out immediately after the Entrainment. ARE YOU SERIOUS? At this point, I had no choice: I had to get a sub and three Hone Claws in. I managed to get them in, and considered going for more, but I felt getting greedy was going to get me killed. It was a good call, as three was more than enough for the remaining Aerodactyl and Klinklang.

Battle #27 turned the tables on me, with a leading Gallade that loved to use Protect on my Entrainments! In desperation, I switched to Heracross during an expected Protect, and considered not megavolving to make sure I'd be faster, but then I almost definitely wouldn't get the kill without Skill Link and a much lower attack stat. So I said "fuck it", megavolved, and still outsped Gallade and killed it comfortably with Pin Missile. The following Wailord had a Quick Claw, and nailed me with an Ice Beam, but it did just over a quarter damage. Bullet Seed took care of it, and Arm Thrust killed the Beartic that was left. I'll admit, I nearly had a panic attack on this one.

It would also be the last one (panic attack, that is, not battle) for today. The rest of this session went by without so much as a hiccup, and with 37 battles down I'm feeling confident I can do this, unlike yesterday where I avoided catastrophes right out of the gate. It's also worth noting that I haven't seen a single legendary yet, but they're probably going to start coming pretty soon.

The quest for Nita: The true test begins

(This is my second entry on this today. Check the previous one for all the details on the EV training session.)

Off to the Battle Maison we go!

I quickly noticed that even with the animations off, the battles took a while, between "Sylveon's Truant!" and "Blaziken's Speed Boost!" and everything else. Also important: one of these days I'm just going to switch instead of BPing. I need to wire that into my brain posthaste, as is the need to megavolve Heracross instead of picking a move in a hurry. I need to be PATIENT, above all else.

Anyway, the first little surprise came in battle #3, as an opposing Sceptile had a Focus Sash. Nothing major, but this whole build is meant to beat things like that, and the fact that it popped up as early as battle #3 suggests that this stuff is quite commonplace. Battle #4 featured a Charti Berry Crobat. Another perk I just realized: these berries now cut damage by 10% instead of the usual 50%. Even Mega Kangaskhan doesn't get a ratio this good, with "only" 33%.

Battle #5, on the other hand, revealed a weakness: Roar sails right past Protect. Fortunately, the Exploud that used it sent out Heracross, which can just megavolve, kill it with Arm Thrust, then switch right back to Durant. The following Mr. Mime wasn't exactly what I wanted to see, but fortunately Durant could survive its Psychic with over half its health left. I also realized at this point that I needed to give Blaziken's Protect some PP Ups, because I couldn't set up Hone Claws all the way through with the Protect PP I used up against Exploud. I took care of that after the fight.

Battle #7 started out with an Espeon. Frankly I didn't feel like tempting fate to see if it had Magic Bounce or Synchronize, so I smashed it with X-Scissor. It had a Focus Sash, and took the opportunity to set up a Calm Mind. FUCK. This was followed by a Yawn on the Truant turn. I took the bait and killed it with a second X-Scissor... even if it meant falling asleep. Next was Donphan. Can Mega Heracross take out this defensive titan with Bullet Seed? The Scary Face on the switch was not enough for it to outspeed Heracross afterwards, but Bullet Seed was just barely enough. Next was the fast but frail Tentacruel... which used Toxic Spikes. Game over. Phew, crisis averted.

The ninth opponent led with a Tauros that used Substitute on the first turn - just like that, Durant's Scarf just paid for itself. Thanks to it, if it's not a Prankster user, I can break through any kind of substitute. I started feeling a bit sleepy after the fight, so I called it a day. Now all I have to do is repeat that 41 more times, and the trainer card star's mine. It's not going to be easy though, with two close calls in the first nine fights. When I start fighting legendaries, including the dreaded Prankster Tornadus and Thundurus, I won't be given this much leeway...

The quest for Nita: The boring part

Turns out EV training these babies was more of a journey than I first thought. I'd gone to the Connecting Cave with the intention of primarily raising speed while making a bit of headway into HP, then erasing what Heracross gained in the latter. After all, Zubat was the speed dispenser in question, and we all know how common Zubat usually is. Well... for the first time in my life I found myself screaming at the game to give me more Zubats. Whismurs, Whismurs everywhere. So since THAT didn't work, I went to route 8, where Wingull and Taillow both give Speed. Things were going nicely, until it started raining. And as I soon found out, Sweet Scent DOESN'T WORK IN RAIN. Why, Gamefreak? I decided to move to route 11, with Stunky and Starly being the local speed EV dispensers, and I quickly got acquainted with one of the reasons why EV training with horde battles is so much better than Super Training.

I managed to complete the speed segment of my EV training there, and went back to the Connecting Cave to finish off HP. Then I tried going to route 19 to raise Heracross' attack, since both Arbok and Weepinbell give two attack EVs apiece before Pokérus... AND IT RAINED THERE TOO. I never told you the story of how painful evolving my Sliggoo was, especially since it stopped raining the millisecond before I triggered the random encounter that would've made it reach level 50, and it wasn't raining anywhere else... AND NOW IT'S RAINING ON HALF THE MAP. Super. So I went to route 20 and committed a Trevenant genocide.

After that it was a matter of raising all three to level 50, and since the Battle Château was stingy with the furisode girls today I decided to pay the E4 a visit (actually, two visits), since I had done barely any work towards the "beat the E4 x times" achievements. (Speaking of achievements, just breeding my team gave me both the Egg Elite and Egg Aficionado achievements, and for some stupid reason claiming your Discount Coupon counts as using a Pokémileage Club attraction, which gave me the corresponding achievement too.) So now everything's at level 50, which means I'm finally ready to do battle! I can't wait to see all the ingenious, frustrating ways the game will invent to screw me over...

Pokémon Bank returns to Japan

Because, you know, screw telling people anything ahead of time, let's just put it back on the eShop quietly and hope not enough people notice to clog our servers all over again! So now we wait for the rest of us to get it. I want to say we're getting it before the end of the week, considering what the initial release timeframe was, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were cutting corners a bit and giving it some time so that traffic in Japan slows down before just giving the damn thing to us already. See what you've done, Nintendo? Now no one can mention Pokémon Bank without getting cynical. This is your own fault for not taking into account what happened with the Dream World when it first opened. THE FUCKING DREAM WORLD didn't work right. What did you think would happen when you actually gave us something halfway decent?

The quest for Nita: Team complete!

My streak of bad luck had to end sometime, as I obtained a Speed Boost + Baton Pass Torchic with all four perfect IVs not long into today's session. So now that the breeding's over, the next part is the equally exciting EV training phase! Woohoo! I'll be going into the Connecting Cave for this, since most horde battles there give speed, which everyone needs, or HP, which Durant and Blaziken need. I'll be planting some Pomeg berries as well, since Heracross is probably going to end up collecting some HP EVs, and I only want to give it four. After all that's done, I'll still have to complete their movesets and raise them to level 50, which shouldn't be hard at all.

So, I guess I'll update you again when I'm ready to tackle the Battle Maison proper!

The quest for Nita: Chicken sausage factory

Just breeding a female Torchic with Speed Boost turned out to be a frustrating experience. Each newborn has a 12.5% chance of being female, and even after that it only has a 60% chance of coming with Speed Boost. The Jolly nature wasn't an issue, since I bred my Jolly Ditto with my original event Blaziken, but otherwise... that was dreadful. I managed to get a male Speed Boost Torchic with 31s in HP, defense, special defense and speed (the only four stats I'm going for here) BEFORE getting a female with Speed Boost. So that one didn't have Baton Pass, which was all it was missing. And even there, I needed to get to the third female to get one with Speed Boost. Then I bred that one with a Girafarig that knew Baton Pass, but those 31s from that father that had four of them found themselves diluted in these last few steps, as only the one in special defense survived.

The offspring that knew Baton Pass was male, and thankfully it had Speed Boost, but passing the latter meant I had to breed with Ditto until I got a Speed Boost + Baton Pass female. I eventually got one with perfect special defense and speed, and bred that with the aforementioned "perfect" male. And... I'm still looking. Lots of eggs have come and gone, and one of them had Baton Pass and all four perfect IVs... BUT IT HAD BLAZE. Goddammit. This is so painful.

You know, I could've taken the easy way out and used Ninjask instead, since it can run the exact same set. It learns Baton Pass by level up, Speed Boost is its regular ability and its gender ratio is 50-50. But I'm not doing that, because I have a hunch Blaziken's extra bulk (and yes, I'm praising Blaziken for its bulk, if you can believe that) will be helpful, especially in regards to the extra HP on its substitutes - in fact, I'm pretty sure many of the eggs I've hatched, even if they're not perfect, would still vastly outperform even a perfect Ninjask anyway.

The quest for Nita: RNJesus giveth, RNJesus taketh away

Well, that's two down, with a perfect Durant (again, except for special attack) newly hatched. However, unlike what you may be led to believe, the hardest part was not the breeding, but rather finding a Truant Durant to start with. It took me nearly two hours to find one, despite using a Sweet Scent Victreebel to trigger horde encounters on command. Seriously, I'm almost amazed I didn't find a single shiny, whether it's a Geodude, a Durant or even the one Heatmor I ran into. It felt THAT long. Anyway, after two hours of searching I FINALLY found one, and it was female, meaning I didn't have to breed it with a Ditto just to get a female with Truant without looking on route 18 for another two hours. Point is, if you can ever get DW abilities from both horde battles and the Friend Safari, ALWAYS go for the latter. Too bad this wasn't an option for Durant.

Anyway, this Durant didn't have any lucky 31s, though I didn't really expect it to. I paired it up with my quad-31 male Heracross from yesterday (which was Jolly with an Everstone, naturally), and the first egg I got was a female with 31s in defense, special defense and speed - thankfully it retained Truant, which it has a 60% chance of doing. So I put that one in the daycare along with that Ditto from yesterday that had perfect HP and attack, and after six eggs or so I got yet another female with Truant and 31s in HP, attack and defense. In order to maximize my chances, I then bred that one with the Heracross from before, and on my first egg I obtained a perfect male Durant.

So if you're keeping count, I now have two perfect Pokémon, and needed to hatch less than 20 eggs to do so. Next step might be the hardest, most notably due to the 7:1 gender ratio for Torchic. Basically, I need a female Jolly Torchic with Baton Pass to get started on the IV breeding process. Easier said than done - I'll review the whole process to make sure I do everything in the proper order. The nice part is that I don't need either attack or special attack, so when I get to the IV breeding part things will be a bit easier - except that, as I said before, it's tricky to get a good mother. And yes, it does feel horribly wrong to be making a Blaziken with no attacks... but it goes to show just how bloody good the thing is.

The quest for Nita: One down!

The first step in breeding perfect Pokémon is to catch a whole bunch of Dittos at the Friend Safari in order to get many combinations of perfect IVs. I caught 15 of them, then proceeded to breed one of them that had perfect defense, special defense and speed with my female Jolly Heracross (which knew Rock Blast to boot). I know it's going to be hard to believe, but the second egg I hatched had all three. So I bred that one with a Ditto with perfect HP and attack, and made five eggs. One of them had a different combination of three 31s, so I took that one and bred it with a Ditto that also had three 31s, including two in different stats (meaning both parents had 31 in defense).

The second egg was a perfect Heracross.

Since you're probably thinking you misread that, I'll type it again:

THE SECOND EGG WAS A PERFECT HERACROSS.

Sure, that's without factoring in special attack, but still, it means that I went from zero to five 31s in NINE EGGS. Unfortunately my perfect Heracross is female, meaning I can't use it for Durant, but I have a male that has 31 in HP, defense, special defense and speed, so it's not too bad.

Next up is Durant, which is going to be a little more complicated, since a female with a DW ability only has a 60% chance of passing it down to its offspring. This means that any female with Swarm or Hustle, no matter how good its IVs are, is useless as a replacement mother.

Introducing: Slowflake and the quest for Nita!

I'll be honest: I never gave the various battle facilities a really dedicated try, partly because of the lengthy process of building up an acceptable team, partly because of the horror stories of crushing defeats involving hax such as this. As such, I never really went for the trainer card stars involving massive winning streaks.

However, the release of Black and White 2 changed things, with the advent of Truant + Entrainment Durant. This baby can make setting up a breeze by first giving Truant to the opposing lead, then since the AI is too dumb to switch, you can switch to something else and alternate between Protect and your buff of choice (Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance and anything involving Speed Boost naturally being the best), throw in a substitute for good measure, then sweep. However, there were still two problems discouraging me from giving it a try even then: making perfect Pokémon being nigh impossible, and multi-hit moves being required to stop substitutes, Focus Sashes and Bands, Sturdy, etc.

Both these issues are a thing of the past in X and Y, with Mega Heracross and Mega Kangaskhan breaking through those aforementioned annoyances much more competently than Cinccino or Cloyster ever could, and many changes that include guaranteed 31s for everything caught in the Friend Safari (this includes Ditto), breeding DW abilities being made easier, Destiny Knot's new role in the breeding process, and so on. On top of that, Speed Boost Blaziken, by far the best candidate for the setup slot, is no longer as rare and valuable as it used to be, now that it's not restricted to one Japan-only distribution from three years ago. Therefore, I decided the time was right to make an honest attempt at this elusive trainer card star.

My team and additional comments after the jump.

Wanna do some science? Avoid Canada!

The Canadian scientific sector has taken a lot of hits since the Conservatives were elected in 2006, perhaps none as obvious as the fact that public scientific organizations can no longer communicate directly with the media without a nice old conservative governmental filter. And just how heavy is this unneeded bureaucracy that has all the looks of ideological censorship? Well... this says it all. (The author even felt generous and considered the response time in Canada to be 5 hours 40 minutes. I would've said four or five months considering the final entry in the Canadian timeline.)

Keep in mind, this was almost two years ago! It can't possibly have gotten better since then.

How long can it take to buy some extra servers?

Pokémon Bank has been offline for three weeks now, and we're still waiting for any kind of update, suggesting that it really won't be back any time soon. Now, as far as I know, the problem is that the hardware Nintendo had just didn't do the job. So how hard can it be for a big company like that to just get a better infrastructure and get it working quickly? I know dick all about computers, so maybe I'm just spouting misinformed nonsense, but I would've thought they were going to be ready to at least announce something by now. Unless their preparation for Bank's release was just THAT cataclysmic (as in, none)? *shudders* The worst part is that it's believable coming from Nintendo, who's really only doing the online thing begrudgingly (and it shows in many of their games, Brawl anyone?). Who's in charge of that particular department, Doge?

Edit: I forgot to mention, I'm not terribly worried that it'll never come back online, for the simple reason that the lucky Japanese gamers who managed to get it before it went down still have access to it. It would be a horrible move for Nintendo to keep it accessible only for a few lucky people in one country, especially with how much emphasis they're putting on worldwide releases now.

Even Gamefreak doesn't like the Battle Maison!

Really, think about it. Pokémon Bank gives BP for transferring Pokémon, and now the Pokémileage Club gives you evolution items like candy, many of which can only be found in the Battle Maison and are, in fact, the main reason you'd want to go there. So is there a point to it anymore? Mind you, I don't hate the Battle Maison, but still...

Who greenlighted the Battle Palace?

No, really. Who thought THIS was a good idea? Probably the same imbecile who came up with the Neon Colosseum, I bet.

The true challenge of AVGN Adventures

My brother gave me AVGN Adventures on Christmas, possibly in part as a joke, who knows. I know he has played it, however, or rather tried to play it, since he'd only beaten two levels the last time I talked to him about it; meanwhile, I beat the game a week or so ago, and intended to talk about it earlier, but other stuff got in the way. Anyway, the first thing one would tend to assume when thinking about an AVGN-based game would be, well, it's going to suck, because I'm expecting nothing but a mishmash of AVGN references with no quality gameplay.

Is this... the internet's rock bottom at long last?

No need for words from me. Just read this and weep.

Here's the problem with Playstation trophies

The HD remaster of FF10 came out in Japan recently, and after taking a look at the trophy lists... well, I was kind of annoyed. The game is home to some of the most notoriously difficult and grating sidequests in gaming history, and completing them gives you BRONZE trophies. Worst of all is the "Heartstrings" trophy, which is awarded upon viewing the "Underwater Date" scene. Anyone who survives this deserves their friggin' platinum trophy.

Joking aside, remember that chocobo race in the Calm Lands where you need to get a time of zero seconds in order to get the sigil for Tidus' ultimate weapon? Bronze trophy. Dodging 200 lightning bolts in a row in the Thunder Plains? Bronze trophy. Getting all the ultimate weapons, which requires these two plus many, many more painful sidequests? Silver trophy. Now it makes sense that it should be at least one rank higher than the individual sidequests, but there's a very good reason why getting all the ultimate weapons gives you a silver trophy and not a gold one: look at the objectives you need to meet to get the gold ones! Getting all Al Bhed primers should NOT be gold, I'll concede that much, but look at the rest. Beating the game - easy enough, but I'll let it slide, because hey, it's beating the game. Beat Nemesis. Fill out the entire sphere grid with all characters. Beat Penance. I like to think that these should easily rank above getting all the ultimate weapons, as painful as the latter is.

Which leads to my point: three ranks (barring the platinum trophies you get for getting all the other trophies) are simply not enough. At least developers have more leeway with Xbox achievements and the scores they're worth. (Steam achievements have no rank, so there's no intelligence being insulted at any point.) But if trophy A is clearly easier than trophy B (or even, in this case, contained within it), and trophy B is easier than trophy C, then trophy A should be bronze regardless of how painful it is, then B would be silver and C gold. Which leads to freak occurences such as what we're seeing here. No way is the legendary lightning dodging sidequest equal to finding a single Al Bhed primer, recruiting Rikku in the party, clearing the Besaid Cloister of Trials, or watching this or that cutscene (well, this IS FF10, home to the Tidus laughing scene and the underwater making out session, so scratch that last one).

It goes without saying that had this been a brand new game, the difficulty of these trophies would've been harder to gauge, but this is a game that came out 12 years ago and had ample time to build a reputation as a completionist's worst nightmare. If you want to get it when it gets its international release... remember, it's okay if you can't even get all the bronze trophies. And you're probably not getting that platinum trophy either way (though I bet you some people will, despite the ridiculous time investment needed for that), so don't let it bug you.

Hoopa to come before Volcanion?

It's something I just realized, but if you look at the screenshots I posted the other day, Hoopa comes before Volcanion in the Central Kalos Dex. So either they're fake, or Serebii screwed up the order when he accidentally leaked their existence. I know we're all looking forward to seeing Volcanion in action, but it looks like we may have to wait one more year than what we initially thought. Sucks.

More thoughts on the Carbink-Diancie connection

(Read the last entry if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

After suggesting a Phione-Manaphy sort of relationship for these two (the difference being Carbink can be found in normal gameplay), I took a look at Phione's and Manaphy's movepools to see what we could expect for Diancie. And... well... it's not pretty. Looking at the level-up lists, they're both identical, except for Manaphy getting Tail Glow, a quasi-signature move, and Heart Swap, a full-fledged signature move. The rest is all extra TMs. This means that barring a surprise, I'm expecting any move that's not a TM to be off-limits for Diancie. Since Diamond Storm is a physical move, the worst part is no Play Rough to complete its physical dual STAB - you'll have to make due with Moonblast if you want a Fairy move. Heck, it's not like it's all that much better in Carbink's offensive movepool otherwise - there's Power Gem, Return, Psychic, and that's about it.

Do you see the problem now? Diancie's meant to be exactly identical to Carbink, aside the fact that it can actually attack. And with such a terrible offensive movepool, let's just say it's not going to be a whole lot of an improvement. Hopefully Gamefreak took notice of that and gave Diancie a few extra TMs. Like Earthquake. And yes, I know with that stat spread Diancie's still going to be all about the defense anyway, with dual screens, Stealth Rock, Trick Room and other such moves. I'm just saying if Carbink is this bad, and Diancie retains the same terrible movepool bar Diamond Storm, extra attack isn't going to do jack. And that's just terrible.

Gen 6 event Pokémon signature moves found?

Question mark is essential, because until we get an official word it could turn out to be baloney. However, the screenshots look fairly convincing, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, someone managed to hack a Diancie, a Volcanion and a Hoopa on their team, don't ask me how but they did, and we got a preliminary look at their stats and signature moves. Remember, though, that we don't know the IVs and EVs on these Pokémon, just their natures.

First we have Diancie, who seems to have absolutely shitty HP and speed, passable attack stats and great defenses, with a seemingly solid signature move. Diamond Storm packs 100 power, 95 accuracy and an unknown chance to raise defense. Naturally, its worth largely hinges on the frequency of that random effect, since Diancie doesn't look like an offensive Pokémon all that much - even though it looks like both its attack stats could be base 100, since that 236 figure is exactly what a base 100 with perfect IVs and no EVs have. I wonder if I could try something like that on the other stats... more on this later.

Next there's Volcanion, which seems like a mixed bag in terms of stats, except for being quite slow as well. Its signature move is steam-based... what a surprise. Steam Eruption is a special Water move that boasts 110 power, 95 accuracy and a chance to burn. Once again, whether that chance is 10%, 50% or anything in between will greatly affect its usability, no doubt. One thing to note: I like how that "loop" of sorts on its back can separate into two steam shooters. Looks a lot cooler that way, that's for sure.

Finally there's Hoopa, who's clearly the most offense-based of the bunch, but yet again it's slow as ass - and look at that defense stat (with a boosted nature, no less). Ouch. Hyperspace Hole is another disappointment - it's a weaker Psychic that hits through Protect and Detect, and it looks as though it never misses, given that there's no number for accuracy. Now I'm sure it'll be useful in settings where Evasion Clause doesn't exist - no wait, that won't happen because event Pokémon are banned in these cases anyway. So Psychic and Psyshock could very well remain the more viable alternatives.

Anyway, can we pinpoint the stats on these guys with any kind of precision? Well... no. But here are rough estimates of what we could expect assuming those guys have perfect IVs and no EVs, as mentioned earlier, give or take a point or two:

Diancie: 40 HP, 100 Atk, 150 Def, 100 SA, 140 SD, 50 Spd
(HP is probably 50 and SD 150, read below)

Volcanion: 65 HP, 110 Atk, 120 Def, 120 SA, 90 SD, 75 Spd

Hoopa: 80 HP, 110 Atk, 50 Def, 140 SA, 130 SD, 70 Spd

These all add up to 580, whereas the standard for event Pokémon (Keldeo and Arceus aside) is 600, so it's unlikely that these are the real stats, especially since I did some rounding (not nearly enough to add up to a -20 point difference, though). Still, it's interesting to look at. For reference's sake, 580 is the BST for "trio" Pokémon (plus Keldeo), of which we've had none this generation. Maybe...?

Thanks to Looneyman for the tip.

Edit: It was theorized by many that Diancie would have a connection to Carbink somehow. Now look at the three non-signature moves this one has: Moonblast, Light Screen and Safeguard. These are the last three moves Carbink learns by level up. And since it's safe to assume I undershot Diancie's HP and SD by 10, this would mean it has the same stats as Carbink, aside from the higher attack and special attack. Were all these crazy theories about Carbink somehow evolving into Diancie... accurate? Or maybe we're getting a Phione/Manaphy relationship all over again?

Well we know what's NOT GameTrailers' GOTY

Because who crowns a game they've clearly never played?

(Note that they've changed the image since then, but I still think there's gonna be no huge spoiler involved here, just like in the game itself.)