Deficit (Day 74)

I'm getting into the tail end of Pokemon Y after having just acquired my sixth badge. I'm still enjoying the game but I'm somewhat disappointed with the lack of new Pokemon to try. A lot of the new Pokemon are actually really cool so I can't complain there, but there's only 69 new Pokemon in the roster. Pokemon Black/White debuted with 150 new Pokemon, for comparison. Apparently a lot of the fans didn't like that the Pokemon you encountered were all new, so they decided to go a different route with this generation. Personally, I liked the way B/W handled it better.

Still, a lot of the new Pokemon are indeed pretty cool. The Fairy type is thematically interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about the critters that fall under the category. I'm experimenting with using Florges, which essentially resembles a humanoid flower. I haven't decided how I feel about it yet, but its statistically strong so I'll give it a shot. If I can help it I want to try to stick with only Pokemon from the new generation; I feel like there are just enough new ones to choose from for two (or maybe three) playthroughs with just the new ones. Whether or not I'm willing to delete my save data to do that remains to be seen.

I guess I'll have to wait and see what kind of postgame stuff is available. I've always really liked the idea of playing against other people online but I haven't ever actually done it a whole lot. It might be a good idea for me to try it while the game is still super popular, especially since EV training is now much less tedious than before. In previous games you had to track down specific Pokemon to get EVs (effort values) that would raise your base stats. It was a painstaking, hours-long process for each individual Pokemon. You can now accomplish the same thing with some fairly easy minigames on the touch screen--or, if you prefer, you can do it the old-fashioned way.

Here's my current party:

• Timur the Chesnaught (Lv. 43 - Grass/Fighting)
• Mahin the Malamar (Lv. 42 - Dark/Psychic)
• Samira the Talonflame (Lv. 39 - Fire/Flying)
• Cordelia the Floette (Lv. 25 - Fairy)
• Erevu the Skrelp (Lv. 36 - Poison/Water)
• Siegfried the Doubledge (Lv. 42 - Steel/Ghost)

If I end up liking Florges, this'll probably be the lineup I use against the Elite Four. Assuming I can get a Ground-type move on one of these guys, it has perfect type coverage because Malamar already had Thunderbolt to use against Flying types. Chesnaught has the potential to learn some Ground moves but his kit seems really solid as it is. Leech Seed + Spiky Shield just seems too annoying to get rid of, and then he has Seed Bomb for Grass STAB and Low Sweep for Fighting STAB. Eventually I'll get more powerful STAB moves but that still leaves no room for Bulldoze or Earthquake.