Hi!
Ive been playing pokemon reborn since episode 8 and I've been off and on between updates. Last week I wanted to come back to it seeing that episode 18 has been released.
I made a new game because my old save was like from ep15 and I wanted to experience the changes with a fresh beginning.
But, while revisiting the game, I also thought id introduce the game to a friend (who liked pokemon but didn't play since gen5). I thought it would be fun to talk about the game while we both do our playthroughs. Oh~ how wrong was I
It was then, I remembered that Reborn wasn't like any other casual Pokemon games and that you can't just brute force your way through the game like the official games.
At, first he really liked the design of the game and also that you could start with any starter that you wanted. I could tell he was eager to play the game and try to catch them all.
But at some point, he was met with a wall. He was surprised to not find a lot of "good" pokemon in the early stage of the game. He seemed not knowing what to do when faced with an enemy that beat him more than once. I could sense that He felt frustrated with the game by the way he reacted when I told he couldn't grind just one pokemon to a really high level and wait to find "better pokemon" and that He had to find a strategy to win battles instead.
My friend kept getting angry with it and struggling to fight the bosses (AKA Pulses) and the gym leaders. I have never seen him in such distress without just giving up.
His first good challenge was Corey but his first real struggle was Shelly.
At first, he thought that his team was too weak (being around lvl 30s) so he leveled them the farthest he could to 35 but that wasn't still enough. About an afternoon of hearing his frustrations, I told him to copy his save and give it to me.
I noticed that he had a really good team and that it didn't seem to be as bad as he told me.
I then proceeded to beat Shelly with his team and showed him the end of the fight. I honestly just wanted to show him that he could do it and that it wasn't impossible like he claimed.
After that, he tried to beat her but again without success and called it for the night.
I don't know if that somewhat motivated him or made him more angry with the game but the next day he told me he had beat her.
I thought he hated the game but he didn't quit yet and is currently trying to beat Shade (similar struggle and feelings to the ones he showed with Shelly)
Any thoughts on how I could help him appreciate the game as I do? or at least any tips I should give him?
I feel that his struggle seem meaningless if he isn't enjoying the game.
Thanks~
Jiok
ps: he recently discovered "wonder trading" and started trying to get better pokemon that way (doesn't feel right to me but I guess its somewhat a game mechanic)
Update: He was able to beat Shade and he is now onto Kiki