Players
Pokemon is predominately a single player game that also allows for inter-player interaction that is both competitive and co-operative (depending on what it is you do with these other players). Since Pokemon is about collecting and battling, these are the main focal points of player interaction: you can fight your opponent in either 1v1 or 2v2 Pokemon fights (that's for the Pokemon, not the trainers) or trade with them to build your Pokemon collection. Heck, you can do both if you want. Players can also work together in areas like the Battle Frontier to try and take down NPC trainers in specific battles with certain rules.
Objectives and Goals
Holy crap, this one could be a while. I suppose the primary goal (the one the story gives you, anyway) of Pokemon HG/SS is to collect all 8 badges, defeat the Elite 4 in the Jhoto region, collect the other 8 badges in Kanto and then defeat Red, the Champion of the World. However, along the way, you can stop to do anything that your heart desires. Maybe you want to collect every single Pokemon and complete your Pokedex? Or maybe you just want to breed Pokemon and make a team filled with the cream of the crop? Maybe you hate battling/breeding and just want to race your Pokemon in the Pokeathlon? While some of these can't be fully achieved until end game, there is really nothing else limiting the player from doing what he or she wants at any given time (within the boundaries of the game world).
Resources
In Pokemon, there are a two categories of resources:
Surf vs. 4/0 Breloom: 275-324 (104.96 - 123.66%) – guaranteed OHKO
Surf vs. 0/4 Keldeo: 197-232 (60.99 - 71.82%) – guaranteed 2HKO
Surf vs. 56/0 Kyurem-B: 198-234 (48.88 - 57.77%) – guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Surf vs. 252/0 Politoed: 182-214 (47.39 - 55.72%) – guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Surf vs. 72/0 Latias: 144-171 (45.14 - 53.6%) – guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
(Calculations take from smogon.com for Gastrodon)
However, you can still enjoy Pokemon whether or not you know of the existence of these things - you can still use your favourite Pokemon with your favourite moves to battle. (Mind you, you might not win ever, but you still can). Or maybe you hate battling? Maybe you just wanna play Pokemon mini-games all day? Pokemon is ok with this too, and you still get in-game rewards for winning the Pokealthon.
Or you can just stay in the Battle Frontier and collect all the golden badges that each arena has - fighting hordes of NPCs with annoying Pokemon combos in a 3v3 fashion. Like, there is actually just SO MUCH. And it blends together perfectly, regardless of your skill level. Heck, the game lets you determine your skill level - you can delve as deep as you want to before you hit the bottom, the game won't punish you for not going as low as the next person. The only thing I would like to change is being able to see what an opponent has already sent out - it kinda sucks having to remember all 6 random Pokemon your opponent has.
None the less, Pokemon is an amazing game that has everything a strategy nut should love.
Resources
In Pokemon, there are a two categories of resources:
- Pokemon
- Type
- Nature
- Abilities
- Gender
- Moves
- Stats (Health, Attack, Defense, etc.)
- IV (Individual values)
- EV (Effort values)
- Items
- Held
- Usable
- Key
- Berries
- HM & TM
- Pokedollars
These are, effectively, the main resources of the game. Everything about the Pokemon is generated once the battle is initiated or when the Poke-egg is received, save for Effort values (we'll cover this in a bit). There are limitations to this (e.g. you'll never find a Water-type Pidgey), but for the most part, each Pokemon can be found with one of two abilities and various IVs in each stat ranging from 0-31. These stats are invisible and are applied to the base stats of the Pokemon. The IVs determine how good a particular Pokemon is in that stat (e.g. a Geodude with a Def IV of 31 is better than one with an IV of 10).
Now here's where it gets tricky: Pokemon gain Effort Values by gaining EXP from other Pokemon. Every 4 EVs gained in a stat gives a +1 boost to said stat. These stat boosts aren't seen until the Pokemon gains a level, which can result in seeing some huge numbers on leveling. (e.g. defeating 2 Luxio's gives you 4 EVs in Attack, which gives an additional +1 when you level up). A Pokemon can have a maximum of 510 EVs across all stats, with a max of 255 per stat.
Now, outside of the whole Pokemon IV/EV thing, there are held items and various TMs and HMs you can give to your Pokemon. The TMs and HMs contain moves that you can teach your Pokemon - however, each Pokemon can only know four moves at a time. Pokemon gain moves through leveling, by being bred with a parent who knows the move, or the aforementioned. There's also items you can give to your Pokemon that do different things; for example, Leftovers heals your Pokemon for 1/16 their maximum health every turn. Focus Sash prevents a Pokemon from being killed if they have full HP and are hit with a move that would've other wise killed them.
Finally, we'll talk about Natures - these are also determined at the inception of the Pokemon. Natures give a +10% to one stat and a -10% to the other. There are also 4 neutral natures that do nothing, and they are sad, and make me feel sad when I get them.
Whew. Now then, quick recap in which we will fictitiously train a Rattata to domination. So, we catch our Rattata in the wild - this one's nature is Jolly (+Spe/-SpA) and it has flawless IVs (31 in every stat). WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?! So, we've got our Ratty, now we build his move-pool. We want him to end with Facade, Sucker Punch, Protect and U-Turn. Sucker Punch is the only one we need to learn via level-up, and that will happen at level 19. The rest of the moves are all TM based - so we simply give Rattata the TMs whenever we want. The EV spread we're going for is 36 HP / 228 Atk / 180 Spe. This means we need to defeat 36 Slowpoke's (1 HP EV per), 114 Seaking's (2 Atk EVs per) and 180 Magikarp's/Rattata's (1 Spe EV per). (I chose these Pokemon based on the fact we're referring to HG/SS, and as you see, trading them to another 4th Gen game is way better than doing it in this one). If Rattata was holding a Macho Brace, he would gain double the EVs per kill, shortening the process even further. There are also other items called the Power Items that speed this up even further, but we shan't discuss these today. Lastly, what item to give him? Well, since we gave him Facade, we'll give him a Toxic Orb to hold. At the end of the first turn a Pokemon enters the battle on, the Pokemon will be infected by heavy poison, if they hold the Toxic Ord. Facade's base power doubles when the user is afflicted by a status. Rattata's ability, Guts, increases Attack by 50% when the user is afflicted by a status as well. So as you can see, we now have a very beefy Rattata - he's squishy and won't last long due to poison, but he makes for a great late game sweeper.
Rules and Mechanics
Once again, with a game so varied, there are numerous rules and mechanics based on what exactly is happening, but there are constant rules that are pretty much applied across all instances.
Constant Rules:
- A player can only carry 6 Pokemon at a time.
- Pokemon can only use certain items on their own - all other items must be applied by the trainer.
- Once a Pokemon's HP hits 0, the Pokemon faints and is unusable (said Pokemon can still perform HM moves on the over-world).
- If all of a trainer's Pokemon faint, then the player whites out to the nearest Pokemon Center.
- Pokemon have strengths and weakness based on their types.
- Pokemon can only know four moves at a time.
- Each Pokemon can only learn certain moves.
- Pokemon cannot exceed Level 100.
- Defeating another Pokemon in the wild or in an NPC trainer battle gives any Pokemon who was out during the time of the opposing Pokemon EXP.
Over-world Rules:
- Walking into tall grass (or around in caves/surfing on the water) means you can randomly encounter wild Pokemon (which types are specific to the area/method of encounter).
- You can talk to any other 'person' you see in-game.
- If an opposing trainer looks in your direction, you will fight them.
Battling NPC Rules:
- You may use items in place of using a move.
- You can switch Pokemon instead of using a move.
- If you beat the opponent, you get their money. If you lose, you lose half of your money.
Battling Another Player:
- You CANNOT use items on a Pokemon.
For mechanics, there are way to many to list... but off-hand, you got PokeCenters where you can heal your Pokemon, PokeMarts where you can buy things, HMs helping you explore the land, picking up items to increase your collection, tilling soil for Berries to grow... And it goes on and on.
Game States
There are pretty much four MAIN game states to Pokemon:
- Over-world
- Battling
- Trading
- Menu
I say main, because you can tangent off into Pokealthon states or Mystery Gift states (which is kinda like a menu) but these are what I believe to be the heart of Pokemon. The Over-world state is where you traverse the world - go to different cities, breed Pokemon, battle NPC trainers, become the Elite 4 Champion, etc. The Battling state is any time you encounter a wild Pokemon or fight a trainer. The Trading state is active when trading a Pokemon with another player (there's a menu in which you can see both yours and your friends Pokemon and decide which ones you want). The Menu state refers to any time the main menu is opened to re-arrange your party Pokemon, check your items, save the game, etc. Since the Menu in this game resides on the bottom screen, you can use the touch screen to stay in the Over-world state but bring up a Menu (you then change states, but you don't have to sacrifice losing control over the top screen).
Information
Pokemon gives information to the player via NPC interaction (reading what they have to say) and by just playing the game. You'll learn strengths and weakness by testing out if it works - "Will this water move be super effective against a dual-type Rock-Grass?"
When battling, however, you can only see how many Pokemon the opponent has and whether the Pokemon has fainted or not (this is indicated by a dimmed out Pokeball as opposed to a lit-up one). Other than that, you have to wait until the Pokemon is sent out to see it. Even after it has been sent out, there is no screen to access what Pokemon an opponent has played and what they haven't, leaving you to memorize teams on the fly as each Pokemon is introduced. You can also see the opposing Pokemon's current health (not numerically, just by a color-coded bar) and whether that Pokemon has any status afflictions. Any buffs they receive to stats must be memorized by you the player, however, all stats are lost on a Pokemon switch out.
Sequencing:
Pokemon battles are sequenced so each Player inputs their move each turn at the same time. These moves are then carried out based on two factors: Priority and Pokemon's Speed. For example, switching out a Pokemon has higher priority than a Pokemon performing a move (unless that move is Pursuit). This means you will always switch Pokemon before an opponent performs their move. Moves like Quick Attack have +2 priority. This means, regardless of a Pokemon's Speed, Quick Attack will always go before the opponent (unless they use a move with even higher priority, such as Protect, or switch out their Pokemon, which has the highest).
Player Interaction:
As stated many times throughout this blog, Pokemon has player interaction, but in a very bizarre and limited format. To optimally trade/battle with people, you need to first get their Friend Code. Once both of you have each other's Friend Code, you can then decide to meet online through the internet or something, since there is no player-to-player contact through the game itself. Additionally, you can fight random people in 3v3 battles or trade for specific Pokemon with unknown people via the Global Trade Centre (found in-game).
Theme/Setting:
The theme of HG/SS is raising your Pokemon with love and care instead of whipping them into being the strongest. This point is driven throughout the whole game and then bludgeons you over the head with it right at the end of the game.
How do these systems come together to work?
Freakin. Wonderfully. While its not all roses, Pokemon can be a very enjoyable game. Since there is so much to do, you're never really forced to perform any one task. You can breed, you can collect, you can just battle... its all up to you. On top of this, you've got over 500 Pokemon to choose from and two regions to go back and forth between. They've really catered to gamers of all levels - this can be seen in the IV and EV aspect of the game.
Individual values and Effort values are (well, used to be) a hidden aspect of the Pokemon competitive scene that most players were unaware of if they haven't ventured off into the deep, dark Internet. Essentially, these stats are what the big boys use to calculate each and every single situation - no joke.
(Calculations take from smogon.com for Gastrodon)
However, you can still enjoy Pokemon whether or not you know of the existence of these things - you can still use your favourite Pokemon with your favourite moves to battle. (Mind you, you might not win ever, but you still can). Or maybe you hate battling? Maybe you just wanna play Pokemon mini-games all day? Pokemon is ok with this too, and you still get in-game rewards for winning the Pokealthon.
Or you can just stay in the Battle Frontier and collect all the golden badges that each arena has - fighting hordes of NPCs with annoying Pokemon combos in a 3v3 fashion. Like, there is actually just SO MUCH. And it blends together perfectly, regardless of your skill level. Heck, the game lets you determine your skill level - you can delve as deep as you want to before you hit the bottom, the game won't punish you for not going as low as the next person. The only thing I would like to change is being able to see what an opponent has already sent out - it kinda sucks having to remember all 6 random Pokemon your opponent has.
None the less, Pokemon is an amazing game that has everything a strategy nut should love.
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