POKEMON : Whats the state of the game? Old school player looking to catch up

[Rad1um]

Hello everyone!

Last time I played Pokemon it was Red, Blue, yellow and that was YEARS and I mean YEARS ago... I loved pokemon but most of all collecting was my passion.... as you can see :






Anyways fast forward to today, I bought myself a Nintendo 3DS XL and now im looking to jump back in... I see people online trading pokemon with each other. They give their "FC 4232349090" and I dont know exactly whats going on here. Has pokemon gone online now? I heard of PokemonGo but thats not even in beta yet..

Also I see people saying "clones are okay" what exactly is that? We can clone our own pokemon im assuming? And why are they just OKAY and not preferred?

Do you catch pokemon and its like an RNG thing or is it pvp?

Just looking to catch up so I can crack open my DSXL and do my thing..

Thanks for your time.

[Thelxi]

Damn those are some bigass pictures.

[Rad1um]

Damn those are some bigass pictures.

lol ah my bad.. ill shrink them

[Pendulous]

Kinda in the same boat. Gen 2 didn't intrigue me, but I have a 3DS now and kinda want to try a newer game. I've heard the grind is less...well, grindy, and XP share works. Also, TM's don't disappear after one use. I like these things.

[Dracbane]

Hello everyone!

Last time I played Pokemon it was Red, Blue, yellow and that was YEARS and I mean YEARS ago... I loved pokemon but most of all collecting was my passion.... as you can see :

Anyways fast forward to today, I bought myself a Nintendo 3DS XL and now im looking to jump back in... I see people online trading pokemon with each other. They give their "FC 4232349090" and I dont know exactly whats going on here. Has pokemon gone online now? I heard of PokemonGo but thats not even in beta yet..

Also I see people saying "clones are okay" what exactly is that? We can clone our own pokemon im assuming? And why are they just OKAY and not preferred?

Do you catch pokemon and its like an RNG thing or is it pvp?

Just looking to catch up so I can crack open my DSXL and do my thing..

Thanks for your time.

Personally, games are excellent. X & Y are mind blowing in terms of upgraded graphics and systems from old games. Still the same game it was back in red and blue. You catch pokemon and all that. The online part has come in the form of no longer needing the link cable and being close to people to trade and battle. You can do it via the wireless internet built into the system and it is world wide. Game is still solo play, they just opened the ability to trade and battle up much further. They also hold tournaments and such like this. Just finished OmegaRuby and have a whole new love of the games. Best one so far imo.

[Dasir]

Hello everyone!

Last time I played Pokemon it was Red, Blue, yellow and that was YEARS and I mean YEARS ago... I loved pokemon but most of all collecting was my passion.... as you can see :

[snip]

Anyways fast forward to today, I bought myself a Nintendo 3DS XL and now im looking to jump back in... I see people online trading pokemon with each other. They give their "FC 4232349090" and I dont know exactly whats going on here. Has pokemon gone online now? I heard of PokemonGo but thats not even in beta yet..

Also I see people saying "clones are okay" what exactly is that? We can clone our own pokemon im assuming? And why are they just OKAY and not preferred?

Do you catch pokemon and its like an RNG thing or is it pvp?

Just looking to catch up so I can crack open my DSXL and do my thing..

Thanks for your time.

Pokemon trading can be done online through either the GTS (Global Trade Station) or by using the PSS (Player Search System, new in X,Y,Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby). The friend codes are used to register people as friends so that they show up on the PSS in game and can then be contacted for trades or battling. The GTS is a system where you put in a single pokemon and specify another pokemon that you want in return, if someone has the pokemon that you want and also desires the pokemon that you are offering then they can trade. The GTS is not very effective, but it can be useful for certain things.
The cloning thing is a result of allowing trades wirelessly. It's possible to interrupt the trade by disconnecting in such a way that the pokemon being traded ends up on both systems. Some people see this as cheating or otherwise underhanded so it's generally considered polite to let people know if you're okey with cloning or not. There's also hacked pokemon, but that's another discussion.

[Rad1um]

Pokemon trading can be done online through either the GTS (Global Trade Station) or by using the PSS (Player Search System, new in X,Y,Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby). The friend codes are used to register people as friends so that they show up on the PSS in game and can then be contacted for trades or battling. The GTS is a system where you put in a single pokemon and specify another pokemon that you want in return, if someone has the pokemon that you want and also desires the pokemon that you are offering then they can trade. The GTS is not very effective, but it can be useful for certain things.
The cloning thing is a result of allowing trades wirelessly. It's possible to interrupt the trade by disconnecting in such a way that the pokemon being traded ends up on both systems. Some people see this as cheating or otherwise underhanded so it's generally considered polite to let people know if you're okey with cloning or not. There's also hacked pokemon, but that's another discussion.

Please continue...

Can one tell if they're cloned? How do you hack pokemon and how can I protect myself from 'illegal' pokemon? Im not racist btw. I just love a pure race.

[Argarock]

I see people online trading pokemon with each other. They give their "FC 4232349090" and I dont know exactly whats going on here.

Has pokemon gone online now?

Also I see people saying "clones are okay" what exactly is that? We can clone our own pokemon im assuming? And why are they just OKAY and not preferred?

Do you catch pokemon and its like an RNG thing or is it pvp?

Just looking to catch up so I can crack open my DSXL and do my thing..

Thanks for your time.

1. FC stands for Friend Code, you can register friends on your DS and you will be able to see when your contacts are online and what games they're playing. (in pokemon you'll be able to open trades / start battles with your friends at almost any time in game)

2. pokemon online? almost. the latest handheld games ( generation 6 / pokemon X and Y / remakes of generation 3 --> Ruby and Sapphire
have online play built into them. the story mode is singleplayer offline like in red and blue, but you can trade and battle with people online.

3. there are bugs in the games that allow you to clone pokemon, some people are ok with getting cloned pokemon traded to them, despite knowing that the pokemon is "illegaly" (not native speaker, not sure what word I should have used) obtained.

4. yes, the core mechanics are identical to how it was in red and blue.

5. Go for it!

[Dasir]

Unfortunately there is no way to tell if a pokemon is a clone or not, or even if a pokemon has been cloned. Hacked pokemon are mostly in the same basket but there are certain things you can look for that can indicate a hacked pokemon. For example a shiny* legendary with perfect stats is unlikely to be a legit pokemon (still possible, just highly unlikely). More rarely there are pokemon that are obvious hacks, with abilities/attacks/stats that the pokemon is not normally able to have. I'm inclined to say that there's some sort of filter in the trading system as I've never seen an obviously hacked pokemon traded (I have acquired a number of "Likely hacked" pokemon from the GTS however). As long as it's possible for a pokemon to exist (legal stats, abilities, moves, etc), there's really no certain way to tell if it's legit or not.

*Shiny refers to the 1/4096 chance of a pokemon having different colors than normal.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Pokemon is still HUGELY popular, much to my surprise.
The 3ds games have come a LONG way in terms of tech and advances, but the true heart of the game is the fan-scene. There are literally hundreds of Fan games that are arguably better than the originals.
Most add much deeper story, much higher difficulty, entirely new (fake) pokemon, brand new regions, etc.

I would check out the vanilla games if thats your thing and also check out the fan scene. You'll fall back in love. I never thought a game (or genre of games in this case) would rival my passion for WoW but I honestly find myself playing just as much Pokemon as I do WoW.

[johnhoftb]

Here's an overview of all the changes since Gen 1. If I miss any, please fix.

Gen 2: New types: Steel and Dark, Held items, Special stat split into Special Attack and Special Defense

Gen 3: Abilities, anywhere from the useless (like Slow Start, which halves the Pokemon's stats for the first 5 turns or Truant which causes your Pokemon to skip every other turn) to powerful (the auto-weather abilities, Pure Power, which doubles the attack of a Pokemon)

Gen 4: physical/special Split, before Gen 4 whether a move used the attack or special attack was based off the type, but after Gen 4 every move is classified as either physical or special (Hyper Beam was physical pre-Gen 4 due to Normal being all physical, but is now consider special), evolutions based on area, Online trading and battling

Gen 5: Hidden abilities, before Gen 5 each Pokemon had one or two abilities, hidden abilities are much harder to get, but typically make a Pokemon much better than they were before

Gen 6: Horde battles, wild 1v5 battles with much lower level Pokemon, and they also have a chance of having hidden abilities, Fairy types, with some older Pokemon retroactively being given the type, Mega Evolutions, a one battle only evolution which requires a strong bond, a particular stone held by the Pokemon, and a Mega accessory held by you, which gives a Pokemon more stats, possible a new typing, and almost always a new ability, and other quality of life improvements like catching Pokemon giving experience, Exp. Share sharing 50% of the experience with all Pokemon on your team regardless of whether they battled or not, Super Training, train up IVs, and Pokemon-amie, a pet simulator which also gives some in-game benefits like more experience, and higher crit.

[Ramaloce]

Gen 1 eh? well I'll try to compile a list for you besides the obvious "THERE MOAR POKEMONZ NOW" Also I'll have links to the things i'm talking about.

1)New types, since Red Blue, 3 new types were added to the game. Dark, Steel and Fairy. With the 3 new types it really changed up some combos of pokemon. Also some of the old ones have been changed to the new types. Clefairy for example is now a fairy type.

2) Online play, this was already talked about for the most part already so i'll just touch on it. GTS overall kinda sucks most of the "trades" people have set there are: "their random pokemon, for your legendary". Though if you look hard enough sometimes you get lucky and find a trade for the pokemon you're looking for that you won't have to give legends for. Also currently their is no way to tell a clone from a legit (if their was then they would be banned from online trade/play already)

3) Breeding. Mostly self explanatory just from the name, you put a mommy and a daddy together in the daycare, out come eggs. (so you can get another eevee yay!) It can get more complicated then that if you want to "make" particular one (like passing on a "Egg Move"). It's recommended to try to make "perfect" pokemon if you want to battle (and win a majority of games) people online though.

4) Abilities. They are 'mostly' passive effects that each pokemon have that can be useful not only in battle but outside as well.

5)Mega Evolution. Yeah, that's a thing now. TL;DR for it is a temporary "extra evolution" granting more atk/def/speed then the previous form as well as sometimes new abilities. Their is a limit to 1 mega evolution (that will be aloud to mega evolve) per team.

6) The "Special" stat has been split into "Special Attack" and "Special Defense" You can think of it like "magic attack and magic defense" from RPGs. As well as moves depending on which move either uses the "Special attack/Special defense" or "attack/def" to determine the damage. The reason I point this out is because how it was determined what "atk" stat was used before was based on the attack type, for example all Normal type moves used "attack" no matter what, while all fire was "special".

7) Double/Triple/Rotation battles. Double and triple battles are self explanatory. Double 2v2, triple 3v3. Rotation is almost like triple battle but only one can be "active" at a time and you can "switch" to the other 2 you have on the "rotation platform" without taking up your turn to do so. Want more details look at the link.

8) Hold items, self explanatory. All pokemon can hold onto a item that can help in battle in some way (berries heal for example). Pokemon consuming a item to be used doesn't take up your turn in battle.

I think I covered a fair bit of the bigger changes, heres some links to some sites I use for pokemon info.
http://pokemondb.net/
http://www.serebii.net/
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page

Got anymore questions just ask.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The most important stuff:

You can now breed Pokemon together to get otherwise unobtainable abilities and move, as well as breed for the best stats possible.

Three new types have been added: The nefarious, trickster style Dark type, the ludicrously durable Steel type, and the pure anti-dragon Fairy type.

You can now battle with multiple Pokemon at once in a battle, in the form of Doubles (2v2), Triples (3v3), and Rotation (3v3 where only one of each side attacks at once).

And as said before, there is now online play. Note that the Official Pokemon Company hosts a monthly tournament welcome to all online, with gifts just for signing up. The tournament rules change each month so it's always exciting! Might want to try your hand at that (you get great items for new players such as Rare Candy - which allow you to level up Pokemon VERY QUICKLY - and special event Pokemon too).

- - - Updated - - -

As for the games themselves:

The original Gen 1 games have no current remake. HOWEVER, the Gen 2 remakes Heartgold & Soulsilver for DS include all of the Kanto region from Gen 1 in addition to remaking Gen 2.

As said above, Gen 2 has it's own remakes for the DS (DS games can be played on the 3DS and New 3DS XL), which includes the Gen 1 world.

Gen 3 just got it's own remake last year with Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. Considered to be the functionally best Pokemon game atm.

Gen 4 (Diamond and Pearl) will probably be getting a remake in about three years or so. Notable for lore-saavy Pokemon players, as it delves deep into the mythos of the Pokemon universe and has a heavy mysticism element (the power of the 'Aura', aka The Force).

Gen 5 (Black & White) has the most intriguing plot of all Pokemon games, exploring themes of idealism vs cyncisim, child abuse, romance, betrayal, and what it means to be a "Hero of Truth". Even got it's own story sequel, Black & White 2! If your in for the story, this is an absolute must play.

Gen 6, the current generation. Started off with X & Y (often abbreviated as just XY) with the big thing being Mega Evolution (a temporary form some Pokemon can ascend to during battle at the expense of their item slot, changing their types, stats, and abilities). Story wise, the game falls flat on it's face, so if you want the most of your $40 I would strongly urge you to pick up ORAS (Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire) as that has an arguably far more compelling plot and is the most complete feature wise. You can also catch pretty much all the legendaries from previous Pokemon games in ORAS, something you can't do in XY.

[Tommy T]

Hasn't been a good Pokemon game since HG/SS

X and Y are trash.
Omega / Alpha are trash.

Heart Gold / Soul Silver is master race.

[Pendulous]

Kinda what I figured Valyrian. I'll probably pick up Omega Ruby or Sapphire then.

[3DTyrant]

Alot has changed since R/B/Y, remember how we used to have 150 pokemon? Yeah, that's gone up, by just over 4 times that amount. Somewhere around about 718 pokemon now? In terms of gameplay, it's better now than the originals, new moves, types, weaknesses ect. You're able to trade with others via wifi, using Friend Codes (or abbreviated to FC), you can also battle by the same method, there's wonder trading (you send one pokemon to a stranger, they send one back).

[Eace]

I seriously suggest picking up X/Y and/or AS/OR. But do yourself a favor, and toggle Exp. Share off immediately when you get it. It makes the game so easy it's not even fun anymore.

(In the newer versions Exp. Share is a Key Item that you toggle on/off. It automatically grants a percentage of received EXP to every party Pokémon after you KO an opponent's Pokémon. The Pokémon that battled still gets the full blast, so it's like an improved version of the original Exp. All that we had in R/B/Y.)

[3DTyrant]

I seriously suggest picking up X/Y and/or AS/OR. But do yourself a favor, and toggle Exp. Share off immediately when you get it. It makes the game so easy it's not even fun anymore.

(In the newer versions Exp. Share is a Key Item that you toggle on/off. It automatically grants a percentage of received EXP to every party Pokémon after you KO an opponent's Pokémon. The Pokémon that battled still gets the full blast, so it's like an improved version of the original Exp. All that we had in R/B/Y.)

EXP. Share is fine for post-game play if you're just trying to level pokemon up to evolve for the pokedex or what not, but beyond that, I agree.

[Zeta333]

lol ah my bad.. ill shrink them

Psh, cant be to much of a fan cus i dont see those cards in number order.

But anywhoo go play the remakes of red and blue, then gold and silver, then ruby and saphire and then work your way up from there would be my best suggestion.

[Keile]

EXP. Share is fine for post-game play if you're just trying to level pokemon up to evolve for the pokedex or what not, but beyond that, I agree.

Eehh...I also use it to level up low level Pokes to catch up with my main team. I'll just take 2 Pokes with me (main one and the one to level) and turn XP share on so I can level that little guy up quickly. More efficient than just swapping him on first turn.

Other than that: Yes, I highly recommend keeping it off for the majority of your play through. So long as your team is already around the same level you will have a lot more fun if you swap manually and level them the old-fashioned way.