[SPOILERS] Episode 5 Story Discussions

[Ravuri1]

Sorry for starting a new topic. I usually don't post stuff here, but I have become active recently to escape from all this lockdown and 2020 shit going on. I have just finished episode 5. I first played desolation about two years ago when I completed a run of Pokemon Reborn and was searching for similar games (I did not like rejuvenation, so please don't hate me for that). I stumbled upon a post in reddit that said that rejuvenation and desolation were the best games to play, if you were looking for a game like reborn, but desolation did not receive any update from many months and people were considering the project to be dead. I thought to give the game a shot even though there was the possibility of not seeing an update in the future. 

 

I really took a liking to the game. The beginning was very fresh, considering that reborn and rejuvenation start in a polluted urban setting. After the battle with Kuiki and our encounter with Shiv, I was hooked and decided to finish the game but the real plot point that got me hooked was Tristan. The end of episode 4 kept me wanting for more and I started checking the forums regularly for any updates. It took a long time, but yeah we finally got episode 5. Desolation has the best soundtrack of any fangames I have ever played. I think new mega forms were added which were not there in E4 I guess which were also awesome. I liked the ideas like a credit system which would cause different players to end up with different pokemons, items even though they played through the same sidequests and would also help in increasing the replay value I guess, The manor being the center of all operations and essential shopping, and the sidequests, which are not just a means to getting credits or new mons; The sidequests themselves have a great story like:

 

Spoiler

Some sidequests give you more insight into things and can change the storyline. How the Rangers' quest connect to Black Foxes, Crescent and Shiv. A convenience mechanic like the Grid system is actually used in the story connecting the Jinx Guild and Black Foxes.

 

Episode 5 was very good. The new artwork is really amazing and adds so much to story and characters. The story was definitely worth the wait (the ending especially) and I am so sad that I finished it too soon and now have to wait for episode 6. 

 

The things I did not like is that I felt the battles were made easier after Tristan. I remember struggling with Scarlett in Blackview and getting my ass whopped in the Amelia/Nova battle in Celia. Surprisingly I found those battles easy in my replay of episode 5. I found the episode 5 exclusive battles also to be easy. I don't know if I got better at playing these games or the devs intentionally reduced the difficulty. I also hate Blackview City and Celia North too. I felt that the all the one piece memes about zoro getting lost can be attributed to the mc in Blackview and Celia North lol. 

 

There are somethings in the story I would like to discuss...

 

Spoiler

 

1. So, from the end of episode 5, Shiv, Amelia and Nova are pawns of Darkrai at the beginning of the game and try to distort our perception of what is reality and what is the dream world so that we can help them bring Darkrai to Ayrith. I still have no idea who/what Kuiki/Keegan is?
2. How much of Shiv, Amelia, Nova's story about the Onyx stone is true or was it just a false premise to lead us to Darkrai?
3. Is Tristan an illusion of Darkrai or was the actual normal gym leader trapped by darkrai all that time ago and is being used to again lure us into helping Darkrai?
4. What happened to the Moltres leading to Darkrai's world thingy and there was supposed to be a gym leader who had to pick us up in the clouds? She is never mentioned or is still not present in the game yet.
5. I am still not clear on goals of Black Foxes or Crescent. If Lilith's aim is to stop Darkrai from coming to Ayrith, then how does taking over cities help that or is there something I am missing here.
6. What do you think of the cave in the South side of the Dreamscape. Any guess on the inscription and was it made by the same people who could escape from Dreamscape. Rosetta mentions some people haaving dreams about Odis village. I think these are the people that were able to escape maybe.

 

I might have misunderstood things and I am very much ready to discuss the plot of desolation.

 

 

 

Sorry for such a long post.

 

[Suzuki]

1. I don't really have an answer, i got kinda confused, but I think you mean Aurora, not Amelia. In one of Aurora's flashback we find out that Kuiki, lived in Addenfall and regularly visited the twins' masion, as Shiv was trying to expand his influence (?) or sth along those lines.
3. I think Tristan is real, it din't even occure to me to doubt that. The reason people in Ayrith think he is dead, is because time in Ayrith passes a lot faster than in the Dreamscape (Rosetta mentions the opposite though, that people that had dreams of Odis village, felt like they spent a whole lifetime there). I assume he "woke up" in the Dreamscape not a long time ago, but it's already been like 5 years in Ayrith. I don't understand why they don't consider him as just missing though, instead of dead.

Tbh some things seem kinda inconsistent at this point, beyond the point of just cracks in the dream. Hopefully we'll get some answers in episode 6, or maybe i also misunderstood some things. In general i highly enjoyed this episode, it was definetely worth all the anticipation.

[Ravuri1]

1 hour ago, Ichiru said:

1. I don't really have an answer, i got kinda confused, but I think you mean Aurora, not Amelia. In one of Aurora's flashback we find out that Kuiki, lived in Addenfall and regularly visited the twins' masion, as Shiv was trying to expand his influence (?) or sth along those lines.
3. I think Tristan is real, it din't even occure to me to doubt that. The reason people in Ayrith think he is dead, is because time in Ayrith passes a lot faster than in the Dreamscape (Rosetta mentions the opposite though, that people that had dreams of Odis village, felt like they spent a whole lifetime there). I assume he "woke up" in the Dreamscape not a long time ago, but it's already been like 5 years in Ayrith. I don't understand why they don't consider him as just missing though, instead of dead.

Tbh some things seem kinda inconsistent at this point, beyond the point of just cracks in the dream. Hopefully we'll get some answers in episode 6, or maybe i also misunderstood some things. In general i highly enjoyed this episode, it was definetely worth all the anticipation.

Is the Aurora's flashback you were referring to, the one in the archives? Yeah Tristan is still of a mystery to me, though and it is like the devs forgot about kuiki just like Shiv did lol. 

[Star Arcana]

I actually like the battle difficulty this time around; I was challenged but I could win without being super lucky or taking 1000 attempts to secure a strategy. Then again, I tend to play games for story and enjoyment, and while I like to be challenged, I'm not a fan of  constant crushing difficulty. Either way, just my 2 cents!

 

As for the story stuff

 

Spoiler

3. I agree with Suzuki about Tristan, which I feel is supported by that fact that telling him about the visions or not seemed to be an important choice. His reaction to option of telling him seemed pretty genuine as well, he even says in the dream, the twins were shady. I don't think a proxy would have pointed that out and would have worked harder to suppress your doubts . I was wrong about a few things this episode though, so I wouldn't be too shocked if I wasn't right about this. My character would be crushed though, she quite likes the guy, haha.

 

5. That's part of why I had a very hard time trusting Lilith's warnings my first time playing E5; her team in the dream (at this point anyway) are basically terrorists. How much of this is her doing is another matter, but yeah. Maybe she was building an army to fight Darkrai, but they went wayward at some point?

 

 

 

[Ravuri1]

13 hours ago, Star Arcana said:

3. I agree with Suzuki about Tristan, which I feel is supported by that fact that telling him about the visions or not seemed to be an important choice. His reaction to option of telling him seemed pretty genuine as well, he even says in the dream, the twins were shady. I don't think a proxy would have pointed that out and would have worked harder to suppress your doubts . I was wrong about a few things this episode though, so I wouldn't be too shocked if I wasn't right about this. My character would be crushed though, she quite likes the guy, haha.

Aah, I see. I opted not to tell Tristan about the visions. I then forgot to see what his reaction would be if I told him. Good to know how he reacts.

 

I would be ok with the difficulty if it was easy from the start, but it became very easy once Tristan's battle was done. I expected Garret's battle to be tough atleast, considering the fact that the player character spends most of his time in Celia with him and that is the battle most players would look forward to; but yeah, I felt a bit disappointed there. 

[firestrikex79]

9 hours ago, Ravuri1 said:

Aah, I see. I opted not to tell Tristan about the visions. I then forgot to see what his reaction would be if I told him. Good to know how he reacts.

 

I would be ok with the difficulty if it was easy from the start, but it became very easy once Tristan's battle was done. I expected Garret's battle to be tough atleast, considering the fact that the player character spends most of his time in Celia with him and that is the battle most players would look forward to; but yeah, I felt a bit disappointed there. 

Yeah, I definitely agree that the battles could be tougher. I don't even think Garret's battle had a field effect that gave his team an advantage. I understand that balancing was needed, but when I beat gym leaders on my first try, it feels wrong. I know it's supposed to be story orientated, but having some difficulty with the fights would be appreciated. I literally didn't have to retry any battles after the second gym. I think they said it was a pain to make it rejuvenation styled with different modes(intense/normal/easy), but maybe a community vote could be taken to show how many people appreciate a harder game. Other than difficulty, this game is definitely  amazing.

[BaratheonStag]

I also find myself asking who Kuiki/Keegan is. First, he is introduced as Shiv's brother and Shiv takes him away after his defeat. Where to? Later we find out Shiv and Aurora are actually siblings and Kuiki was just some kid who looked up to Shiv and that's it. as of now, he's just a footnote in Shiv's story/a plotline Caz decided to scrap/a prologue villain. But if that's all he is, i am dissatisfied.

[Zargerth]

I think the difficulty is fine. Some of the Gym Leaders actually gave me trouble - in fact, I think Aderyn was buffed. The last two were significantly easier, though. Then again, I was well-equipped to deal with them. It makes sense for them to be easier when you have a much larger pool of available Pokemon, items and a fast way to EV train your team. 

 

Spoiler

I think the lack of field effects suits Garret as a character. He's not one for gimmicks and whatnot. I could picture the fight taking place in the Fight Club, but then the field effect wouldn't do him many favors.

I also appreciate it when we have a Steel-type Gym Leader who's not throwing Excadrill or Scizor in your face.

 

In regards to the last bit of story we got with this episode, I was left wondering if:

Spoiler

at this point there is any reason to side with Shiv and Aurora. I sided with Shiv right from the start, so seeing him stab me in the back was a let-down. I'm also wondering if this is the end result regardless of whether you side with Shiv or Nova (do you get the scene where the twins lure you to Darkrai? Can you reject Darkrai?) At least I had enough insight to resist him. What happens if you lack insight? Devs / those of you who sided with Nova, feel free to enlighten me.

 

[Ravuri1]

7 minutes ago, Zargerth said:

at this point there is any reason to side with Shiv and Aurora. I sided with Shiv right from the start, so seeing him stab me in the back was a let-down. I'm also wondering if this is the end result regardless of whether you side with Shiv or Nova (do you get the scene where the twins lure you to Darkrai? Can you reject Darkrai?) At least I had enough insight to resist him. What happens if you lack insight? Devs / those of you who sided with Nova, feel free to enlighten me.

Spoiler

I feel that in the future, Shiv can change sides and come over to the Anti-Darkrai faction based on our relationship points with him. At present, I don't see any scope for Aurora changing sides though. Shiv says he feels something different in the last scene and his feelings for Nova are also intact I guess. I too sided with Shiv for my first run of the game. I will side with Nova if I do a rerun sometime in the future.

 

12 minutes ago, Zargerth said:

I think the difficulty is fine. Some of the Gym Leaders actually gave me trouble - in fact, I think Aderyn was buffed. The last two were significantly easier, though. Then again, I was well-equipped to deal with them. It makes sense for them to be easier when you have a much larger pool of available Pokemon, items and a fast way to EV train your team. 

I felt she was actually nerfed. I remember getting sucker punched to death by honchkrow during my E4 run. I might also be a shitty player then lol.

[Zargerth]

32 minutes ago, Ravuri1 said:

Spoiler

I feel that in the future, Shiv can change sides and come over to the Anti-Darkrai faction based on our relationship points with him. At present, I don't see any scope for Aurora changing sides though. Shiv says he feels something different in the last scene and his feelings for Nova are also intact I guess. I too sided with Shiv for my first run of the game. I will side with Nova if I do a rerun sometime in the future.

 

Spoiler

That could happen. Shiv and Aurora have had conflicts before, mostly when it comes to Nova. Is there any point in accumulating relationship points with Aurora specifically (I did that too back in Cellia and by offering to enter Shiv's dream), then, if she ends up manipulating you anyway? Most choices increase your relationship points with a character(s) and decrease with other(s), but frankly I don't recall that to be the case with this choice. If you buy into the twins' plan and accept Darkrai, you lose points with Nova and Garret. If you reject Darkrai, you don't lose any points with anyone, not even with the twins. In this regard I feel like the choice here is lop-sided. Maybe there's more to this. We'll eventually find out, I guess.

 

 

 

 

[BaratheonStag]

Spoiler

tbh, i have a hard time siding with anyone in here because no one here is sincere with you about their goals. Not Nova, not Shiv, not Lilith, not Aurora. So i winged it. I gave the stone to Shiv because he took care of Kuiki. During Shiv vs Aurora, i decided to protect Nova, because the way Shiv feels for her that strongly kind of reminds me of myself and someone important to me.  I told Aurora not to kill Nova because I felt sorry for both of them and Nova needed a chance at redeeming herself. I rejected Darkrai's offer because it gave off too many deal-with-the-devil vibes and it sent my Christian upbringing alarms into high alert. 

All that said, I feel the twins, Nova and Lilith need to be slapped in the face for being cryptic all the time.

 

[LightingZeno]

For those who asked what happens if you lack insight.

Spoiler

You die, Darkray takes your hand by force, he tells you the truth, and finally he said that if you had helped him voluntarily, he would have let you live, then he just throws you into the grid. Finally you see Nova and Lilith talking about how you were defeated because of your lack of will. Ironically, I think you get some green dialogues with Nova, which I think it doesn´t make much sense cause the game ends and in the screen it reads "Pokemon Desolation Bad Ending". It made me feel quite bad actually, I suck making decisions.

 

However, I think that the amount of insight you need depends on wheter you choose to help Nova or not. They tricked me and I ended up condemning Nova, so, in spite of having explored the whole house, it wasn't enough insight, so I ended up that way. I don´t know if people who are not a monster like me and did not condemn Nova need less insight in order to resist

I do not know if anyone can answer this, but:

Spoiler

What happensif you decided not to help Shiv in the conflict with Baron? I tried that possibility but I did not see the end cause the battle with Baron started and that was not the option I really wanted, I was just trying. Does he die?

 

[Ravuri1]

1 hour ago, LightingZeno said:

Spoiler

What happensif you decided not to help Shiv in the conflict with Baron? I tried that possibility but I did not see the end cause the battle with Baron started and that was not the option I really wanted, I was just trying. Does he die?

 

Spoiler

I don't think there is any change post the fight with Baron. Shiv doesn't die if you choose not to help him. The only thing that happens is you get a red dialogue from Shiv and have to face Baron in a single battle 

 

[Zargerth]

20 hours ago, LightingZeno said:

Spoiler

 

You die, Darkray takes your hand by force, he tells you the truth, and finally he said that if you had helped him voluntarily, he would have let you live, then he just throws you into the grid. Finally you see Nova and Lilith talking about how you were defeated because of your lack of will. Ironically, I think you get some green dialogues with Nova, which I think it doesn´t make much sense cause the game ends and in the screen it reads "Pokemon Desolation Bad Ending". It made me feel quite bad actually, I suck making decisions.

 

However, I think that the amount of insight you need depends on wheter you choose to help Nova or not. They tricked me and I ended up condemning Nova, so, in spite of having explored the whole house, it wasn't enough insight, so I ended up that way. I don´t know if people who are not a monster like me and did not condemn Nova need less insight in order to resist

 

 

Spoiler

Bad ending this early on? That's pretty awesome, actually. I didn't condemn Nova, I chose the third option - which I think is a secret option you can't unlock without talking to Rosetta even when Garret tells you not to. There are more sources of insight in Dreamscape, such as the mural in the cave, and a couple of books. One of them is in the western part, the other is readable when Booker asks you to find his books. Did you have insight from these as well?

 

[BaratheonStag]

On 7/13/2020 at 12:59 AM, LightingZeno said:

For those who asked what happens if you lack insight.

  Reveal hidden contents

You die, Darkray takes your hand by force, he tells you the truth, and finally he said that if you had helped him voluntarily, he would have let you live, then he just throws you into the grid. Finally you see Nova and Lilith talking about how you were defeated because of your lack of will. Ironically, I think you get some green dialogues with Nova, which I think it doesn´t make much sense cause the game ends and in the screen it reads "Pokemon Desolation Bad Ending". It made me feel quite bad actually, I suck making decisions.

 

However, I think that the amount of insight you need depends on wheter you choose to help Nova or not. They tricked me and I ended up condemning Nova, so, in spite of having explored the whole house, it wasn't enough insight, so I ended up that way. I don´t know if people who are not a monster like me and did not condemn Nova need less insight in order to resist

I do not know if anyone can answer this, but:

  Reveal hidden contents

What happensif you decided not to help Shiv in the conflict with Baron? I tried that possibility but I did not see the end cause the battle with Baron started and that was not the option I really wanted, I was just trying. Does he die?

 

Spoiler

how is insight measured anyway?

 

[Zargerth]

4 hours ago, BaratheonStag said:

Spoiler

how is insight measured anyway?

 

Spoiler

I don't think there is any visible metric for it. Every time you see red text saying something about curiosity (I don't remember the exact phrase, sorry!), you gain insight. I have not seen this happen outside of Dreamscape, and I don't know if insight plays any role in future events.

 

[LightingZeno]

On 7/13/2020 at 9:47 PM, Zargerth said:

  Hide contents

Bad ending this early on? That's pretty awesome, actually. I didn't condemn Nova, I chose the third option - which I think is a secret option you can't unlock without talking to Rosetta even when Garret tells you not to. There are more sources of insight in Dreamscape, such as the mural in the cave, and a couple of books. One of them is in the western part, the other is readable when Booker asks you to find his books. Did you have insight from these as well?

 

Spoiler

Well, what can I say I suppose I´m an expert when it comes to screwing things up hahaha. Yeah, I know that option, but they made me hate Nova so I sided with Aurora anyway. No, I did not have that insight, to be honest I was so nervous for the plot that I did not thought that insight could make such a big difference, and when I got the bad ending I had already saved my files in "Darkrays room" and I think there was not way out. Anyway I had to accept its super obviously malicious offer (I mean pacting with a Darkray is pretty obvious that you will end up fucked), in order to continue with the story. I was going to create a new file with diferent decisions and a diferent team anyway so it is not big deal.

 

[Mulligon]

I have a genuine question

 

Spoiler

I see people here saying the difficulty was free, and I genuinely don't understand why. I got bodied constantly.

Every npc has a perfect EV/IV pokemon with egg moves, tm moves, and high quality competitive items like choice scarfs and life orbs. Pokemon I should outspeed, I don't

(when fighting Lilith, her Excadrill outsped a jolly Flygon. It was not scarfed. Excadrill is NOT that fast. Speaking of the lilith fight, I got washed like a rug. Thank god for toxic spikes )

Every mon you fight has obnoxious coverage. You are stuck with LV up moves and trash tms. Half of my won battles are because of me getting lucky, bulk up speed boost Blaziken, Toxic spikes stall paired with endeavor Wishiwashi, and healing spam. What are your teams looking like, how much breeding have you guys done to the point of you easily getting through these battles first try? I love the story so SO much, but constantly getting dicked down made me feel sick. Any strategy I came up with would be immediately put down because I would get outsped and oneshot when I KNOW I shouldn't. I'm very suprised to hear people want the difficulty upped. I think it's fine just the way it is, no hate or anything to anyone.

 

[Anttya]

14 minutes ago, Mulligon said:

I have a genuine question

 

  Hide contents

I see people here saying the difficulty was free, and I genuinely don't understand why. I got bodied constantly.

Every npc has a perfect EV/IV pokemon with egg moves, tm moves, and high quality competitive items like choice scarfs and life orbs. Pokemon I should outspeed, I don't

(when fighting Lilith, her Excadrill outsped a jolly Flygon. It was not scarfed. Excadrill is NOT that fast. Speaking of the lilith fight, I got washed like a rug. Thank god for toxic spikes )

Every mon you fight has obnoxious coverage. You are stuck with LV up moves and trash tms. Half of my won battles are because of me getting lucky, bulk up speed boost Blaziken, Toxic spikes stall paired with endeavor Wishiwashi, and healing spam. What are your teams looking like, how much breeding have you guys done to the point of you easily getting through these battles first try? I love the story so SO much, but constantly getting dicked down made me feel sick. Any strategy I came up with would be immediately put down because I would get outsped and oneshot when I KNOW I shouldn't. I'm very suprised to hear people want the difficulty upped. I think it's fine just the way it is, no hate or anything to anyone.

 

Spoiler

I personally didn't have that much trouble with the game with a team consisting of Pangoro, Gourgiest, Primarina, Toucannon, Vikavolt and Reuniclus. None were EV trained / bred, but I'd have at good nature, or at the very least neutral. For most of the game I had a Piloswine instead of Reuniclus and Charjabug so my team was relatively weak. I'd normally lose the first fight, but once I had insight on their moves, I'd win. In the end, having the proper coverage and resistances helped a lot, and since my team was bulky, I'd be able to take a move even if it was boosted by life orb.

 

[Mulligon]

9 minutes ago, Anttya said:

  Hide contents

I personally didn't have that much trouble with the game with a team consisting of Pangoro, Gourgiest, Primarina, Toucannon, Vikavolt and Reuniclus. None were EV trained / bred, but I'd have at good nature, or at the very least neutral. For most of the game I had a Piloswine instead of Reuniclus and Charjabug so my team was relatively weak. I'd normally lose the first fight, but once I had insight on their moves, I'd win. In the end, having the proper coverage and resistances helped a lot, and since my team was bulky, I'd be able to take a move even if it was boosted by life orb.

 

Spoiler

I mean...my team most of the game was Tangrowth, Wishiwashi, Flygon, Blaziken, Togekiss, and Aggron all of which served well and my pc is packed. (I wanted to use Vikavolt, but you obtain it so obnoxiously late in game, I quit training my charjabug. Why would they do that?)

Some of the gyms, the rival battles, that stupid lilith battle, and a few stray npcs would give me the most trouble. I also sometimes a Garbodor with Amnesia and Toxic spikes that LITERALLY carried me with those stupid fucking electric and fairy gyms. And lilith. That frosslass and excadrill can go to hell. Excadrill does not outspeed gengar in any universe.

 

Anyway, my deal is that EVERY pokemon you encounter just has annoyingly high tier movesets. EVERY one. This random trainer on the street has a Noivern with flamethrower, why? Can't someone just have a small slight weakness in their pokemon?

 

You can't tell me the electric gym's manectric didn't body you a few times. It didn't have to have hidden power ice. You can't tell me lilith or the fairy gym only took one try to beat. You can't tell me you didn't get one shot multiple times by a random boosted move.

It just ticks me off. I'm sorry for spewing so much salt, lol. I just got done playing the game and the lilith fight just pushed me over the edge. People want this game to be harder...?

 

[Anttya]

46 minutes ago, Mulligon said:

  Hide contents

I mean...my team most of the game was Tangrowth, Wishiwashi, Flygon, Blaziken, Togekiss, and Aggron all of which served well and my pc is packed. (I wanted to use Vikavolt, but you obtain it so obnoxiously late in game, I quit training my charjabug. Why would they do that?)

Some of the gyms, the rival battles, that stupid lilith battle, and a few stray npcs would give me the most trouble. I also sometimes a Garbodor with Amnesia and Toxic spikes that LITERALLY carried me with those stupid fucking electric and fairy gyms. And lilith. That frosslass and excadrill can go to hell. Excadrill does not outspeed gengar in any universe.

 

Anyway, my deal is that EVERY pokemon you encounter just has annoyingly high tier movesets. EVERY one. This random trainer on the street has a Noivern with flamethrower, why? Can't someone just have a small slight weakness in their pokemon?

 

You can't tell me the electric gym's manectric didn't body you a few times. It didn't have to have hidden power ice. You can't tell me lilith or the fairy gym only took one try to beat. You can't tell me you didn't get one shot multiple times by a random boosted move.

It just ticks me off. I'm sorry for spewing so much salt, lol. I just got done playing the game and the lilith fight just pushed me over the edge. People want this game to be harder...?

 

Spoiler

No worries haha. I exclusively trained a Thick Fat Piloswine for the Manetric and I had to cheese the Fairy Gym with an Endeavor Pyroar since her Primarina one shot my whole team with boosted Moonblasts. I totally get where you're coming from for sure.  

 

[firestrikex79]

2 hours ago, Mulligon said:

I have a genuine question

 

  Hide contents

I see people here saying the difficulty was free, and I genuinely don't understand why. I got bodied constantly.

Every npc has a perfect EV/IV pokemon with egg moves, tm moves, and high quality competitive items like choice scarfs and life orbs. Pokemon I should outspeed, I don't

(when fighting Lilith, her Excadrill outsped a jolly Flygon. It was not scarfed. Excadrill is NOT that fast. Speaking of the lilith fight, I got washed like a rug. Thank god for toxic spikes )

Every mon you fight has obnoxious coverage. You are stuck with LV up moves and trash tms. Half of my won battles are because of me getting lucky, bulk up speed boost Blaziken, Toxic spikes stall paired with endeavor Wishiwashi, and healing spam. What are your teams looking like, how much breeding have you guys done to the point of you easily getting through these battles first try? I love the story so SO much, but constantly getting dicked down made me feel sick. Any strategy I came up with would be immediately put down because I would get outsped and oneshot when I KNOW I shouldn't. I'm very suprised to hear people want the difficulty upped. I think it's fine just the way it is, no hate or anything to anyone.

 

If you've played reborn or rejuvenation intense/normal mode you will realize that the battles in desolation are significantly easier to the point where you can just brute force them. A lot of people complain about the electric gym but you have access to dragon dance+earthquake flygon. The galvantula has no response to your flygon so you can freely setup a clean sweep. Personally the fairy gym was super easy with contrary serperior and swords dance+poison jab gliscor. The reason it seems "easy", is because in other games like reborn and rejuvenation you start a gym with a sort of plan, but if it's your first blind run it will almost fail due to field, custom moves, or just unexpected movesets. However, in desolation all battles after aderyn literally took one try(and I'm by no means a "good player"). The main reason for this is powerful counter pokemon for every gym or just in general exist early on(I do like this feature though since we don't have to wait till the end of the game to find good pokemon). This should just be countered by competitive movesets and items. This isn't to say desolation is bad, the story is still amazing. Just wish we got a bit more of episode 4's difficulty. 

[Mulligon]

1 hour ago, firestrikex79 said:

If you've played reborn or rejuvenation intense/normal mode you will realize that the battles in desolation are significantly easier to the point where you can just brute force them. A lot of people complain about the electric gym but you have access to dragon dance+earthquake flygon. The galvantula has no response to your flygon so you can freely setup a clean sweep. Personally the fairy gym was super easy with contrary serperior and swords dance+poison jab gliscor. The reason it seems "easy", is because in other games like reborn and rejuvenation you start a gym with a sort of plan, but if it's your first blind run it will almost fail due to field, custom moves, or just unexpected movesets. However, in desolation all battles after aderyn literally took one try(and I'm by no means a "good player"). The main reason for this is powerful counter pokemon for every gym or just in general exist early on(I do like this feature though since we don't have to wait till the end of the game to find good pokemon). This should just be countered by competitive movesets and items. This isn't to say desolation is bad, the story is still amazing. Just wish we got a bit more of episode 4's difficulty. 

Spoiler

Tbh, the only reason Aderyn was so hard was because of her field effect. I wanted to set up rocks at first, but that was a no go.

I just said screw it, and bought a electrike. If her field wasn't such trash, she would be free. I don't think you can get rid of it.

 

I completely forgot that flygon got dragon dance, so that was pretty doofy of me I admit, lol. I think I was short on credits.

Also, I can see what you're coming from with the fairy gym, I just didn't have serp to help me (how does gliscor live a moonblast?). I guess the difficulty just depends on what pokemon you have available. I'm guilty of it myself, bulk up+ speed boost blaziken makes amelia look like a joke. Did you struggle anywhere, did you reset at least once? Did lilith give you a challenge at least? Because the battles do involve comp. movesets and items I assure you. Or maybe I just need to fix up my team, I dunno. I'm just kinda speaking from salt here, that final battle really traumatized me. Wishiwashi is a god.

 

 

 

 

[firestrikex79]

14 minutes ago, Mulligon said:

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Tbh, the only reason Aderyn was so hard was because of her field effect. I wanted to set up rocks at first, but that was a no go.

I just said screw it, and bought a electrike. If her field wasn't such trash, she would be free. I don't think you can get rid of it.

 

I completely forgot that flygon got dragon dance, so that was pretty doofy of me I admit, lol. I think I was short on credits.

Also, I can see what you're coming from with the fairy gym, I just didn't have serp to help me (how does gliscor live a moonblast?). I guess the difficulty just depends on what pokemon you have available. I'm guilty of it myself, bulk up+ speed boost blaziken makes amelia look like a joke. Did you struggle anywhere, did you reset at least once? Did lilith give you a challenge at least? Because the battles do involve comp. movesets and items I assure you. Or maybe I just need to fix up my team, I dunno. I'm just kinda speaking from salt here, that final battle really traumatized me. Wishiwashi is a god.

 

 

 

 

My gliscor was ev trained(I just follow smogon :P) so it was 252 in hp and spdef so it can tank hits really easily. Also you get the toxic orb early, so tank gliscor with posion orb and swords dance is a really strong. Even if you didn't have serperior, you have access to roserade which is another really strong pokemon you get early on, or sheer force nidoking with sludge bomb. Serperior also swept the lilith fight(contrary is busted...one shot the umbreon). I also had a mega mighteyana which is a fun pokemon to use because if you get normal mighteyana to revenge kill a pokemon you get a moxie boost. Then you mega evolve and you sweep the rest. I definitely reset a lot for aderyn. But after Aderyn, all the other major battles were done on my first try(again not saying this is some god-level achievement, but saying there is room to grow for the difficulty level). Maybe if I do a second playthrough with a different team I can possibly get a better view on the difficulty(as I might have gotten lucky with my comp), but I was mainly just surprised to not have like 15+ resets to beat a major battle like the other games. I know people hate having to reset that much to win, but I think it forces some level of strategy and thought into when you play. When you beat everything on the first try it doesn't really feel like an achievement, but that's just my opinion. Were you ev-trained when you did these fights? If not, I can definitely see why the fights were difficult. My team for Lilith was: Serperior, Gliscor, Gengar, Mighteyana, Electivire, and Lycanroc. Not a well balanced team by any means, just pokemon I found fun to use. 

[Mulligon]

11 minutes ago, firestrikex79 said:

My gliscor was ev trained(I just follow smogon :P) so it was 252 in hp and spdef so it can tank hits really easily. Also you get the toxic orb early, so tank gliscor with posion orb and swords dance is a really strong. Even if you didn't have serperior, you have access to roserade which is another really strong pokemon you get early on, or sheer force nidoking with sludge bomb. Serperior also swept the lilith fight(contrary is busted...one shot the umbreon). I also had a mega mighteyana which is a fun pokemon to use because if you get normal mighteyana to revenge kill a pokemon you get a moxie boost. Then you mega evolve and you sweep the rest. I definitely reset a lot for aderyn. But after Aderyn, all the other major battles were done on my first try(again not saying this is some god-level achievement, but saying there is room to grow for the difficulty level). Maybe if I do a second playthrough with a different team I can possibly get a better view on the difficulty(as I might have gotten lucky with my comp), but I was mainly just surprised to not have like 15+ resets to beat a major battle like the other games. I know people hate having to reset that much to win, but I think it forces some level of strategy and thought into when you play. When you beat everything on the first try it doesn't really feel like an achievement, but that's just my opinion. Were you ev-trained when you did these fights? If not, I can definitely see why the fights were difficult. My team for Lilith was: Serperior, Gliscor, Gengar, Mighteyana, Electivire, and Lycanroc. Not a well balanced team by any means, just pokemon I found fun to use. 

 

I only really ev trained my main 6 pokemon but only a little, because I got tired and bored. I'm not exactly the patient type when it comes to training, so my other pokemon in the pc weren't doing too hot on the ev (some on the iv) side. I guess I might have to keep training a bit so my flygon doesn't get outsped by excadrills anymore. Ech. I would've if I wasn't stuck in the dreamscape.

 

Also you do have a good point with that strategy and thought line. I haven't used Garbodor at all before this game and it came in clutch multiple times. I also remember water sport surskit helping me out with the connor fight. Huh.

I just don't like getting washed like a rug 1,000 times, but it varies from person to person how difficulty goes, so it's all cool. I got my salt out lol