AuthorReborn

tbh I found Gible to be one of the most broken Pokemon in the game so far. It gets Sand Veil to abuse the entire Amon Desert, early game Dragon Rage, a decently fast evolution (in pseudo legend terms, at least), and a solid movepool. Just hold off on evolution until level 27 (normally evolves at 24) to grab Dragon Claw, give it the TM for Dig and maybe Rock Tomb, and you have a monster on your hands. Plus, this is Gen V we're talking about here, so Dragons are even more busted in Apex than they are in current generations. One Pokemon I would love to be able to justify using just because I adore it would be Larvesta, but knowing that the level cap will cripple it until who knows what build, I just can't find a viable reason to use it. Poor baby sun bug.

So, with all the recent buzz in the Community Fangame Recommendations thread about this game, it's really about time that we made a proper thread devoted to discussing it rather than simply clogging up the Recommendation thread Alilatias said she'd make this thread in the morning but that was half a week ago; I got tired of waiting and I decided I would just get it over with. So, without any further ado, let's just jump right into it. Let's see if any of this sounds familiar. Pokemon: Apex is an up-and-coming fan-game designed largely by one individual to create a more difficult and mature Pokemon Fangame. During the course of the game, there are mechanics put in place to prevent power leveling and the story is driven by the Protagonist's quest to rescue their kidnapped friend. Of course, if you've played most any fangame to any extent, this probably feels like a serious case of déjà vu and if you haven't, you're in a rather odd place, friend. However, the game itself does have its own traits, unique quirks, characters, environments, and shortcomings. That's what this thread is for. In this initial post, I'll just be going over some basic features, traits, and issues the game has. In-depth details will come later, although there is a limit as to how far I want the discussion to go without using spoiler tags simply because the main reason to play this game is the story and I would hate for it to be ruined for someone. Features/Traits/Issues: A way of limiting players and preventing them from simply creating an OP party early on to thrash the bosses with. Specifically, there is a mechanic which prevents the player's Pokemon from advancing beyond level 20 before the requisite achievement. Instead of the Common/Reverse Candy system we've come to accept, Apex simply turns experience off once the Pokemon hits the cap. At the end of the current release, the level cap is 30. Another component of this cap is the limitation of the player's party to a mere three Pokemon. Naturally, there is a way to progress beyond this cap, but that is currently unreachable in the present release. A plethora of hidden areas, rare encounters, and little sidequests to hunt for and enjoy. A male or female protagonist, based either on the creator, Nate, or the creator's girlfriend, Heather which would get real awkward if they broke up. Typical procedure, the other one will be your childhood friend, neighbor, and rival. Your player character speaks, often curses, and has a history of their own. No silent protagonist here. You have a Dad! But you don't have a Mom, tree based Professor, PokéDex or even access to Pokécenter. There are inns and you encounter a motherly figure later on, but that's the closest you'll get. No gyms, no HMs. There's a league competition that has been mentioned, but it doesn't seem relevant yet. All HM moves will be TMs later on and there are items fulfilling their roles. Some custom audio tracks and sounds. The creators intend to later increase this to a 100% Custom OST later on. Some custom tilesets. See above intentions. The trainer sprites are largely original. See above intentions. A solid, unique story with likable side characters. However, the beginning is rather slow. Ooky Spooky Villians with dark robes, no names, and no explained motivation so far. Rather literal plot devices. Really large maps, to the point where they are sometimes a true slog to get through. Generation V Mechanics, with certain changes. As an example, Ghost-type moves are now super-effective on Normal types. Largely coded and mapped by one person, so development can be slow. Certain old Pokemon have been revamped and buffed. Another feature which is still developing, but the creators intend to extend the treatment to all sorts of previously "meh" tier Pokemon. Currently, the only three Pokemon I know that have been buffed or fiddled with are the starters. Different starter choices in Cacnea, Baltoy, and Croagunk. Their stats and move pools have been adjusted to make them fill rather specific niches. Two different worlds, although I can't elaborate on that too much without heading into spoiler territory. Lots of little puzzles, with varying degrees of explanations, clarity, and assistance. Some are straightforward while others I still have no clue how I did them. Serious money, Pokeball, and party strength issues early on. You will only have one or two Pokeballs total for the first two areas, so you better pray to Helix you don't find a shiny. I would definitely advise looking at the wiki pages for the first few routes, seeing what Pokemon are around, and setting your heart on specific Pokemon to make sure you don't waste your Pokeballs before you find the 'mon you really wanted in your party. Most trainers are re-battleable, so EXP and Money are easier to obtain once you have a couple decent party members. You cannot save after beating the final boss of the current release due to story circumstances. That's about all I have to say for this initial post. The game is currently in Build 6.1, with a current level cap of 30 and party cap of 3. You can obtain the game on the creator's blog, http://apex.iamvishnu.net/. From there, you can also find links to the wiki in case you need a bit of party planning help or sidequest assistance or to the game's Discord server, where you can discuss your opinions with the creator personally (or as close as you can get over the internet). Feel free to suggest other points to be added to this post and let the discussion begin! I will update this post whenever there is the need or I remember to do so.

If I had to guess, I would say that this one is the one that I used first. But who can say for sure? /s

This generation, I've really gotten into building my own teams and testing them against the current metagame. Of course, without fail, I will always run into the most insane sets and people on Showdown. An example: I just wanted to test my Mono-Normal team against viable opponents, man. ...Feel free to share your own ridiculous Showdown stories here.

This GHB was a lot easier than the past few, but that's probably mostly because half of Zephiel's team is restricted to the painful Armor movement. It's easy enough to bait out the others and eliminate them, then pick off the knights with mage-dancer combos.

I will point out a couple of things here. Firstly, Rock has two very solid suicide leads in Bastiodon and Carbink, both of whom have access to Magic Coat and Stealth Rocks, letting Hardy set up hazards while preventing you from doing so effectively. Second, Cradily still exists and is very likely to be on his team, neutralizing your water attacks with Storm Drain. And I would say bring a strong fighting type, but I don't doubt that he will also have a Mega Aerodactyl to handle that weakness and obliterate it. Rock is a threatening as hell typing which can easily steamroll teams who expect to counter it with a single Pokemon. Just my thoughts on the matter, of course.

At your recommendation, ICSW, I picked up Apex the other day and started going through it. I must say, I quite like it. The atmosphere in the unique environments seems strangely serene despite tons of Pokemon battles occurring there. The Protagonist is just your average, everyday high school plucked from their life and placed in the land of Pokemon. Another neat little thing to note about the Pokemon availability is that the creator intends to revamp just about every fully evolved Pokemon to make them a little more viable. This is clear even from obtaining your starters, as Cacnea, Baltoy, and Croagunk all have improved base stats and learnsets. As an example, Baltoy now had more HP, Defense, Special Defense, and Special Attack at the cost of slightly lower speed. Plus, Baltoy now learns Recover by level-up to augment its bulk even further. All of the starters seem intriguing or interesting in their own ways, each having a different specialty with their new stats and moves. Baltoy is for defensive players, Cacnea for players who want to hit hard, and Croagunk for hitting fast. Ah yes, secret caves and hidden groves. In each area, once you reach the Pokemon world, there are 2 or 3 hidden areas only accessible by either paying close attention to the pixels on the walls to find the odd ones out or by doing what I do and just ramming myself into every wall tile until I find it. These hidden spaces offer incredibly valuable prizes to help you along early on, such as an Amulet Coin or a single Pokeball (which is important because normally you can't find these things until the second city so that you would be stuck with one Pokemon until then). Every area has one or two Pokemon who are quite strong that randomly appear, similar to Ralts in RSE/ORAS. These Pokemon are easily some of the best in the game atm and if you have the patience to wait for a 1% chance to find one, you can potentially gain a reliable ally in the long run. It is important to note that this game utilizes Generation V mechanics. Fairies don't exist, and Steel types are incredibly strong defensively. Also, Normal-types take Super Effective damage from Ghost moves, so those are no longer a switch in. All in all, while a little unpolished and small, given that this is only Alpha Build 5 (although the creator did recently say Build 6 would be out soon), the game seems like a fun one. The main story is unique from all the other fangames I've played to date which is a fair number, the characters seem quite genuine and natural, and there is certainly a fair amount of content to be discovered in the game so far. I would say that Apex is certainly a game to watch the progression and development of into a larger and, ultimately, unique fangame.

It is worth noting there is currently a series of quizzes on the offical FE Heroes (Japanese) twitter account taking place in the form of poll questions. Depending on how many questions are answered correctly (out of 15 total: 5 normal, 5 hard, 5 lunatic), all players of the game will receive up to 10 Orbs and 5000 feathers for free. If you have a twitter account, you may want to check it out and contribute to the effort. The normal and hard questions are already done and they just finished Lunatic Question #2 tonight.

Honestly, the red mages aren't exactly the best at the moment. A lot of the higher folks are presently using a Dancer (typically Ninian because availability), and Linde paired up, making red mages a little difficult to use at high levels. That's not to say that they are bad units by any means, I mean, heck, I've had my team torn through by Tharja more times than I can recall, but it is difficult to find a place for a squishy mage who is either neutral (other reds) or weak (blues) to the majority of the meta. For my mage options, I'm currently rocking Julia because she obliterates Ninian, Azura, and even some Olivias, typically in one round. There are some other viable mage options, like Robin, Nino, or Sanaki, but for the most part they just kinda weigh the party down since they need to be constantly sheltered. Most people just throw a dragon onto their team if they need to get past high Def foes since they are typically much bulkier and have useful buffs for allies and debuffs to apply to foes.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7randombattle-552683075 Furfrou is low-key a very solid Pokemon. It's fun to use on occasions like this one.