My Top 5 Hopes For Pokemon X and Y

Pokemon X and Y is out in 10 days, how exciting. I've heard that there's some people around the world getting their hands on a review copy, some of them even leaking some of the info bit by bit.

While that's all fine and dandy, some people don't really like spoilers. I'm not the type that refuse to look at spoilers, but I would like it if those people follow the rules they were given, and not reveal any info until the proper date. I heard that the official day for all info to break loose is Oct 4th, which is the day the reviewers who got the review copy to actually release their review of the game. So I wouldn't mind if any info revealed after that date since it's official.

Anyways, not the main point of the topic. While the leakers revealed stuff bit by bit, I still didn't see a whole lot in the game, which is good. So I can keep my hopes up on what they might have added in the game itself.

Here's my top 5 hopes for Pokemon X and Y (not in any order):

5. Pokemons Walking With You.

I really like the idea in Heart Gold and Soul Silver where the Pokemon in your first slot follows you wherever you go. It's really adorable (even though sometimes the Pokemon aren't, haha). And the fact that you get to interact with them makes it so nice, like you bonded with them a bit. 

It's sad that this feature did not appear in Gen V, which is strange. Considering how N was urging people not to keep their Pokemons in the Pokeballs, you would think that you could walk with your Pokemon right?

Since it is shown that you can ride certain Pokemon like Gogoat, I really do hope you can walk with them too. But even if you can't, I really wouldn't mind.

4. Easy Understanding of IVs.

I knew what were EVs and EV training since I learnt that sometime last December, but I never understood IVs. They just seemed so complex. Getting the perfect Pokemon is hard enough, but the fact that the game never really tells you directly what are your Pokemon's IVs makes it very confusing sometimes. I really respect those guys who play Pokemon competitively, cuz I never really understood how they were able to breed such perfect Pokemon and yet have such good skills at battling with people.

In X & Y they revealed this thing called 'Super Training', which seems like an easier way for EV training your Pokemon. I think this is a good idea, since EV training will take a while, but I would also like if they add some features to help people understand IVs better, or make people get perfect Pokemon a lot easier.

3. Awesome Streetpass Features.

I live in a country where there aren't many 3DS users, but we do have a community of 3DS users in my country. Sometimes (usually once a month), they will have this thing called a 'Streetpass Gathering', where people with 3DS would meet up and play some games like Mario Kart, Monster Hunter, and Animal Crossing.

Games like Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem has this Streetpass feature that lets you sent your team (in Fire Emblem) or you house (in Animal Crossing) to other 3DS users who have the game. I am 100% certain that Pokemon X & Y will have Streetpass functionality, but I do wonder what would it be, and how awesome will it be?

I would like it if they have this feature where you not only send your trainer card to others, but also your team. And you can have your Streetpass team (controlled by AI) fight with the opponent's team like how Pokemon battles are played in the Battle Tower/Subway/PWT. It would be even cooler if you could 'trade' one of your Pokemon for one of the Streetpasser's Pokemon, but I doubt that would happen. 

2. Special Outfits for Spotpass.

As we all know, we can dress up in Pokemon X and Y. So I guess it would be a no brainer for Nintendo to regularly release some special outfits to wear on Spotpass like Red's attire. Dressing up as your favourite characters in Pokemon would be really cool if they do release tons of outfits from Spotpass. Then we can see people dress as Gym Leaders, Champions, and even Evil Organizations from previous generations. 

I could imagine the sheer amount of people who would be wearing Red's outfit should they release it, or even a whole gang of people in Rocket's uniform when they group up in the union room. That would be so cool to see.

1. Version Exclusive Mega Forms for Certain Pokemons.

It was revealed a while ago that Mewtwo has two Mega forms, exclusive for each game. It has also been revealed from the Pokemon Origins OVA that was aired in Japan a few hours ago that Charizard also has version exclusive forms. And we see a lot of people cancelling their pre-orders for Pokemon Y in favour of a Fire/Dragon Charizard in Pokemon X ( and my decision to get Pokemon X doesn't seem like a bad idea anymore, in fact it just gets better and better). 

Overall, it's still a bit unfair that they revealed Mega Charizard X and not reveal the fact on whether the other two Kanto starters will have version exclusive Mega forms or not. In fact, it's still a bit unfair that there is Mega Blaziken but no Mega Swampert or Sceptile in sight. 

While I'm pretty certain that other Megas like Absol and Ampharos won't be getting a version exclusive form, I would like it if the remaining Kanto starters would have it, and that all remaining starter Pokemon that has not have a Mega form have one (and version exclusive ones too) since starter Pokemons are usually the more 'special' Pokemon.

Anyways, this is just my hopes and ramblings on what I hope for in the new Pokemon game. I really hope that it lived up to it's hype. 10 more days for the release of the game that will dominate this October!

Why I prefer Pokemon Black/White even though Black 2 and White to is better.

I'll be honest with you. When Pokemon Black and White came out, it was really amazing. I thoroughly enjoy the game, the story, and the music. Then they decided to not a 'Yellow' or 'Crystal' version for this generation, and instead released Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, which are sequels set a few years after the events of Black and White.

Was B2/W2 good? Yeah, it had tons of additions, more Pokemon in the Unova Pokedex, and Pokemon from older games in it. But despite the advancements the game has made over B/W, I still prefer B/W. And here's my reasons.

Note: I do acknowledged that B2 and W2 are far better games with the sheer amount of content it has. It's more of a personal preference on why I prefer Black and White.

Also, spoilers.

1. The Story
When Pokemon Black and White came out, I felt that the story was quite amazing. Gym Leaders played a bigger role in the game compared to previous games as they also had other jobs to do. They even help you out on your journey when facing Team Plasma. You see them outside their gyms more often in the main story compared with other gym leaders (who you only see when you wanna fight them in a rematch post-game).
Also, you don't exactly fight the champion on your main story due to N interrupting the battle. Instead you face three battles without break where you catch the main Legendary of the game, face N, and then his backstabbing adopted father. This was very refreshing. You hardly see boss rushes like these where you can't reshuffle your team on who to go first (like a competitive battle).
Defeating this boss rush feels extremely satisfying, and the ending was someone bittersweet, but was quite awesome too.

Compared to B2 and W2, the story is still good. They did continue where it left off from B and W, but it just doesn't feel as nice as the former. Sure, you get a boss rush in the form of facing Kyurem followed by Ghetsis, but it doesn't feel the same compared with facing Reshiram/Zekrom, N, then Ghetsis.

2. The Ending Theme.
What I don't like about Pokemon is that whenever I beat the game, I am usually greeted by slow-paced music along with the main character cycling/running away. Sure that didn't happen in Heart Gold/ Soul Silver, and at least in R/S/E they showed you the Pokemon you've caught in your Pokedex in the ending, but I didn't really enjoyed it.
Pokemon Black and White on the other hand had their ending sequence extremely simple - A white or black background with scrolling text (with Reshiram or Zekrom being the White or Black in the background if this is the first time you watched the ending sequence). While there's nothing to watch, it's far from boring, as the theme playing is by far the best ending theme in the Pokemon main games ever. It's so fast paced, it's so amazing, it has a message saying 'it's not the end of your epic journey yet'. It is a great way to finish a great game.
Though I give props to Black 2 and White 2, for showing us, the players, that we didn't just simply teleported back home after entering the hall of fame, as the player gets congratulated by the Elite Four and Champion, and celebrated on his way back through all the towns he visited along with the Gym Leaders, ending with him running back to home to his mom (which is pretty sweet, in my opinion).

3. The Pokemon.
The great thing about Black and White is that the Pokedex is filled with only Gen V Pokemon, meaning your journey in the game will feel like a fresh one since you will not encounter any familiar faces until you've beaten the game. It gives attention to some of the newer Pokemon, that are usually hated upon by older fans for several reasons. While I seem to notice that the design of Pokemon is starting to shift a little, with Pokemon somewhat resembling Digimon in certain ways, I don't really mind it one bit since I'm a fan of both series.
Also, Because of being unable to use older generation Pokemons, I had to use only Gen V Pokemons, and that made me realize that these Pokemons are kinda cool. In fact, a lot of my new favourites in Pokemon comes from Gen V like Haxorus (who reminds me of a Digimon), Serperior, and Excadrill (whose drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens).
That was the slight problem I had with Black 2 and White 2. Because I was able to use Pokemons from previous games, I really end up using them. Four of my six Pokemon in my final team was from an older generation (Gen I-II). It's not like I don't wanna use new Pokemons, it's the fact that if you give a users a way to access stuff they're familiar with (older Pokemon), they will use those stuff. I could have easily used Joltik instead of Mareep. But since you catch Mareep so early in the game, and the fact that I used Mareep in my Soul Silver file made me had an attachment to it, so I ended up using it.

4. The theme of the game.
The Sinnoh games' Team Galactic was really weird. I mean, I find the theme of the game really strange. They tried to one-up what they did in Hoenn (which was creating two organizations, one wanting to fill the landmass, and the other doing the exact opposite) by trying to make things even more epic with Poke-Gods and Time/Space distorting Pokemons. Yeah, on sheer scale, Team Galactic do seem really evil on trying to create a new world with the legendaries. But if you look at the bigger picture, it's kinda dumb. The grunts don't appear to be serious most of the time (despite world destroying being something rather serious), and Cyrus has so little charisma that it's a wonder how he recruited so many blue haired spacemen.

In B & W, we have N and a bunch of medieval armoured grunts called Team Plasma. What they did was they stopped trying to make the bad guys evil in a sense of the sheer scale of destruction they will cause, but make people think that the bad guys are more towards being misunderstood, with them talking about 'Pokemons should't be kept in Pokeballs'. Also, you can tell that they're serious about their motives, but somehow you feel like there's an ulterior motif by someone, but you can't figure out whom, until the final battle, where you found out that Ghetsis was evil by doing what he did to his adopted son N. They went for a more ideological approach instead of a 'destroy stuff with legendaries' approach, which I like.

While the Team Plasma in Black 2 are somewhat similar to Team Rocket in the older games and Team Aqua and Magma of Hoenn - being evil by trying to take over the region by using a legendary to change the landscape of the region (by freezing it). While having motives similar to previous evil organization, I do like it when you see Plasma members having conflicts, with some siding with N, and others with Ghetsis. You then realize that some people who joined Team Plasma in B and W really supported N's ideas, and they were caring to Pokemon. And that made Team Plasma a really great organization. However, the motives of Plasma has changed to something similar to that of older games, so it was an average experience to me, when facing Plasma.

In conclusion, I don't think Black 2 and White 2 is bad, it's just that Black and White made a bigger impact on me compared to their sequels. B2 and W2 made a lot of advancements that I do like (like asking you whether you wanna continue using a repel, that is just genius), but I guess I'm one of the very few who likes the older game better.

What I learnt from Apotheosis

Hooray for having less assignments now!

Haven't been posting much on the blog cuz I just got Shin Megami Tensei IV second hand (which is eating up a lot of my time), as well as Pokemon Black (which I'll be using to transfer Pokemons to GEN VI).

Anyways, back to Apotheosis. So on my previous posts I did mention that I learnt a lot of stuff from playing this map. And here's the stuff I learnt.

1. Hawkeye combined with Luna+ sucks ass.
I have not tried Lunatic or Lunatic+ yet (cuz I'm still playing my Hard/Classic playthrough). I know that in Lunatic+ whenever this skill combo appears, you have to restart the game since you have no chance of defeating the opponent. But in Apotheosis, while this skill indeed sucks, you can counter it (though it's hard). This skill combo really sucks cuz it hurts you a lot and that it always hits, and that I died from the Berserker boss that uses these skills multiple times because of it. But there are some important things that you have at your disposal to counter this stuff.

2. Optimal pairings are important in children characters too.
A lot of people say that it is important to pair the right parents together to get a better (or more versatile) child character. But I think in preparation for this map, you'll also need optimal pairings for children characters because pair ups are so important in this map. One example was my Lon'Qu! Inigo (Assassin) who got S-Support with Virion! Kjelle (Swordmaster). When Kjelle paired with Inigo along with the use of rallies and speed tonics, Inigo hit a Speed stat of 84, which is enough to double any opponent in this map (since the highest speed units in the map has a speed of 70, anything 75 or higher can double them).

3. Support skills are important in this map.
Pair ups are vital in Apotheosis. In order to maximize on this, your supporting characters should be equipped with Dual Guard+ (most importantly) and some with Dual Support+. These skills can help a lot against opponents with Hawkeyes that hits hard (like the aforementioned Berserker). I didn't have units with these skills (which made the map hard), only Laurent and Chrom had it (but I used Chrom as a convoy, so it's quite useless for him to have it, and Laurent was paired with Nah, and she hardly attacked as I used Laurent as  a support healer).

4. Galeforce is good (again).
One of the best skills in the game (and in some situations the most overrated of all the better skills) is Galeforce. While Galeforce is extremely useful for clearing a map of weak units ridiculously fast, or speeding your way to the boss, or even performing hit-and-runs against stronger enemies, it's greatest weakness is that if you fail to kill your opponent, you just wasted a skill slot as you can't move again. However, this skill is extremely good in Apotheosis as you would be prepared with max stats and paired up characters with stat boosts from rallies and you would be strong enough to defeat opponents and move again in this scenario. That being said there were occasions when the RNG didn't work in my favour and I didn't manage to kill the opponent to activate Galefore, and that Galeforce is not good for a Streetpass team (mostly cuz they can't pair up).

5. I didn't prepare enough Waste and Celica's Gale tomes.
Doubling an opponent is important in this map, and capitalizing your ability to outspeed your opponent with forged weapons is a must to complete this map. The best weapons to use in this map are weapons that allow you to attack four times if you double the enemy, so Brave weapons are essential in the map. However, I didn't prepare enough Celica's Gale and Waste (which are the Brave weapon versions for tomes), so my magic users (Owain, Noire, Laurent, and Brady), weren't able to capitalize on the kill. Fortunately Brady was paired with Cynthia who has Brave Lance and Bows, and Noire was paired with Yarne who has Brave Bows and Swords. Laurent was playing a support role, so it was okay I think.

6. I realized how useful Bows are again.
Don't get me wrong, Bows are good weapons for their ability to deal tripe damage to fliers. It's just that the Sniper and Bow Knight class (which are primary bow users) aren't the best classes in the game. However, in the hands of Gerome, Yarne, Inigo, and Cynthia, it really helped defeat the enemy fliers in one turn (even when they had Aegis+ with them), and Inigo was able to defeat Anna in a turn.

7. Mounted units are good, even though my main attacking force aren't mounted units.
Falcon Knights are extremely useful supporting units are they negate terrains and can use Staves (and Rally). Also, mounted units have great mobility and their some of their stats aren't that bad. The problem is I never use them for my attacking force (aka the children) because they have weakness. If you're able to defeat everyone in the area with mounted units then good for you. But if your units fail to kill that one Archer with Pavise+, you're screwed if you have a Flier nearby and Dual Guard did not trigger.

8. The best attacking skills in this map are Luna, Vengeance, and Astra.
Sol is still a top tier skill (especially against people with Counter), but if you almost always defeat the opponent in one turn with no damage received, then it's not that good. Ignis is okay, but it doesn't have a good damage output if you didn't max either Strength or Magic out (or if either one of those stats are your flaws). Aether is not really worth using, to be honest.
Luna is good in this map because it helps damage the opponent even more since they have Aegis+ and Pavise+. Vengeance is particularly useful against people with Hawkeye that deals a lot of damage since you'll be able to dish out the damage back to them if you're hit (it's even better if the Vengeance user is a Sorcerer with Nosferatu/Averssa's Night). And Astra, well, this is one godlike skill that enables you to deal a maximum of 28 hits to the opponent (Brave weapons on both paired units, Astra and Dual Strike triggered all the time), which will surely kill the enemy.

So yeah, Apotheosis Secret Path was one of the best experience I had with this game despite being tough. It is the best strategy experience you can get in Awakening. Even Normal Path is good too, since they also use different skill setups for the enemies that require you to think a bit more (but not to the extent of Secret Path, and you don't need the same amount of prep for Normal Path). Overall, this is one great DLC that you should buy if you have a stat capped team.

Pokemon, PSV TV, Skytrex, & Apotheosis.

So, I have not been posting stuff in a while cuz I'm busy (with assignments). I still have assignments now, but I'm not as busy as before.

For the past few weeks, some awesome stuff happened. So I'll summarize some of the stuff (note, I'm doing this on the top of my head, so I may miss some stuff)

Pokemon Direct, and more Poke Stuff:
Holy crap, you get to choose a Kanto Starter?! How awesome is that? And said starter can Mega Evolve too?! Mega Blastoise look so cool!!

Yeah, that was my reaction. Not really a big fan of the PokeBank thing for now, since I can't see myself catching so many Pokemon that I have to use it, but I may in the near future. Some may complain on the USD 5$ price tag, but I think it's reasonable.
While it is true that Pokemon data (in bits) will most likely not be a lot, and that you can store 3000 Pokemon. An estimation of this cloud storage service is that you pay 5$ to store about 5-10 Mb worth of Pokemon data (assuming that you fill all 3000 slots),  from that perspective, it does seem like a ripoff, but bear in mind that this cloud storage service may be used for future generations (which is a good thing), and seeing that so many people worldwide play Pokemon, there needs a maintenance fee for all the servers.

Oh, and Mega Mewtwo X rocks, glad I pre-ordered X. It's like, at the cost of not getting Yveltal as the mascot legendary, I get the more awesome looking Mega Mewtwo X, while they get Mega Mewtwo Y. Fair trade. Also, the fossil Pokemon looks cool too. And a poodle Pokemon that can be groomed, Simba's (I mean, Litleo's) evolution (which looks different depending on gender, similar to real lions) and that cat (?) Pokemon who's stats and movepool depends on its gender all looks cool.

Finally the 1st evolution of the starters were revealed. Do they look weird? Mostly, but it's okay. I don't think there is any 1st Evo Starter that looks good, all of them looks awkward and derpy in some way (like real teenagers, lol). One cool thing about their evo's is their names, possibly revealing what their final form may be (and what typing will it be).

Quiladin's name resembles Paladin, which (to me) is a mounted class that uses lances and swords (Fire Emblem reference). It's more to being a noble knight who may wield magic. From what I've gathered, Chespin and its evo has a Rock and Ground attack in his movepool. I'm hoping that when it is true that Quiladin will evolve into a more badass Paladin, he will have either Rock or Ground armour.

Braixen looks like a Mage, with that wand and stuff. While most starters gender ratio is skewed towards males, Braixen looks like a female Pokemon to me (maybe it's the colour, and the stick reminds me of a witch's stick instead of a magician's staff). While it has some Psychic moves, we may see the final evolution being a Fairy too.

Frogadier took a turn to be more badass. His name resembles Brigadier, which is a high ranking military person. While not the highest rank yet, I think his final form will give him a name which resembles the highest military rank (being evolved and all). He may get Fighting or Dark as his second typing, but we won't know this for now.

Ohhhhh, I almost forgot, you can customize outfits now!!!!!! I'm gonna like this a lot (LOL)!!

Yeah, other than that, that's all I can think of for Pokemon. Next up

PSV TV:
So, a strange announcement (like the 2DS), but it seems like a great idea. After all, most Vita games have the quality of a PS3 game right?

Well, this cheaper PSV lets you remote play the PS4 on another TV too, and you can play PSP games and PS1 games on it. All that at the cost of portability.

But the thing is that the controller that comes with PSV TV is the Dualshock 3 controller (the one for the PS3) and not the PS4 controller. Why is this a problem? Cuz some Vita games uses the touch screen, as in the front (and sometimes back) screen. Dualshock 3 doesn't have that, Dualshock 4 doesn't have that either, but it could be implemented on that small touch-sensitive area in between the analog sticks.

I dunno about you, but the Vita, while having some genuinely good original games, would be better off as a handheld, or it will defeat the purpose of having the Vita as a handheld, but that's just me. Nothing much to say here since I don't own a Vita. But with this PSV TV it will turn the tide of battle for sure, but I think there will be a cost. I mean, is the Vita how a console-handheld hybrid now? Will the increase in sales of the PSV TV cause game devs to make games less focus on the touch screen? Will those game devs also make more console oriented games for the Vita now? It's still hard to tell for now.

Next up, it's

Skytrex:
A few weeks back (on a Saturday), I went to this place called Skytrex. It's basically an obstacle course 20m above the ground in the rain forest. What you do is that equipped with safety gear, you climb up this ladder to the platform of a tree. You travel from one platform to another by completing an obstacle. Some of the obstacles are challenging, and some are easy.

Despite the assignments I had I still went for it because the last time I was there (which was 5 years ago), I enjoyed the experience with my cousins. Now, we're older, and they just opened a more challenging course. Problem is we couldn't find the time to go there together as a group. And I saw some club in my uni organizing this event, so I went away.

I never consider myself to be a fit person, and being there with guys who goes to the gym (or play sports), I felt a bit intimidated, and I think to myself 'I'm gonna suck at this tough course'. How wrong was I.

I was the first person in the entire group to start the course because the two guys in front of my dare not be the first to take up the challenge (and one of them is the rather muscular leader/organizer of the group. Some brave organizer he turned up to be). So I blazed through the place and completed it way faster than I expected. Was it tiring? Yeah, but it was very satisfying.

If you like extreme sports and in Malaysia, you should go try it. Even if you aren't an adrenaline junkie like me, you should go try it, it's very fun.

Lastly.

Apotheosis completed:
After grinding my team for a while, I decided that my team is ready to face the secret route of Apotheosis.
The 20 people I brought are:
Chrom (the convoy), Lissa & Cordelia (Main Healers), My Avatar, all 13 Children Characters, Olivia (Dancer), and two Rallybots.

Needless to say, I restarted a few times due to not being prepared. The first wave (Generals and Clerics) was easy and was completed in a turn to trigger the first wave of the secret path.

Secret Path (SP) 1 was easy. SP2 was easy too, even though the 70 speed Sniper and the Counter Snipers are a bit intimidating.

Funny story for SP3. I didn't know all my units were standing on the exact location where the Sorcerers will spawn. I had to devise a plan to kill them all in a turn or my supports will die. And I did. The general strategy I had for SP3 is to kill all in one turn.

SP4 was by far the toughest one. The Soldier, Snipers, and Tricksters are okay. But the ShadowGift Dark Fliers were annoying. Having such huge range with Hawkeye, I had to make sure my supports are not hit by them. But by far the most annoying units are the Hawkeye, Luna+, Aegis+, Counter, DragonSkin Berserkers. I died so many times from the boss because Dual Guard won't trigger. I had to resort to Nosferatu Sorcerers to weaken him.

SP5 wasn't as hard as SP4, but is still hard. Had to take down the Berserker henchmans with my Magic users. The Sorcerers weren't that tough, neither is the Snipers (since it's the same Snipers in SP2). Anna was surprisingly easy compared to the SP4 Berserker boss. I one-shot her with Inigo (Assassin) paired with Kjelle (Swordmaster), something I can't do with the SP4 boss. I had Inigo use a Bow to not get Countered, and he was able to defeat Anna pretty easily since he was able to outspeed her (Anna's speed is 70, my Inigo hit 84 after rallies and pairups), defeating her.

Finally got the Supreme Emblem and can equip it for bragging rights.

I did learn a lot of things from Apotheosis, and may talk about that in the next post. But for now, that's all.

The 2DS

So Nintendo just announced a price drop for the WiiU (now $50 cheaper), which is could considering the XB1 and PS4 are gonna be released during holiday season, and a console widely regarded as the weakest of the trio being priced this high will not be beneficial to Nintendo.

But enough about that. They also announced the Nintendo 2DS!

The 2DS is a flat handheld, no longer sporting the clam-shell design that the DS, DSi, 3DS, 3DSXL had. It plays all DS/DSi games and all 3DS games, but you can't enable the 3D features on the 2DS like you can on the 3DS.

Ever since they announce this 3DS alternative, I see a lot of butthurt coming from the internet. I'm here to try to not sound bias by presenting a few counter to the arguments going on online.

1. There's no hinges in this console like the 3DS. Instead, it's flat, and it's ugly as hell.

I do agree that the design of the 2DS is rather odd (it looks like a piece of toast to me), but you have to consider why they designed this console -it's for kids 7 and under (or around that age group).

One of the things that make the DS/3DS/GBASP flawed is the hinges, it breaks rather easily, especially in the hands of a child. It is especially flimsy in the DS era, and it's a sad sight to see children crying when their DS/3DS snapped and they can't play. The hinges are also one of the main reasons why parents are hesitant on getting the 3DS as they fear of it breaking (and not be able to get a refund, or something).

The 2DS is much sturdier and would be able to withstand mishandling by children, and it will most definitely get the support of parents.

Also, if you think that you're not a 'clumsy person' and would most likely take care of your 3DS well, you have to know that sometimes, shit happens and your 3DS breaks.

2. It's so big and bulky.

So is the 3DSXL, Vita, and whatever tablet you use. Most of the time when you carry a 3DS or a Vita, unless you have a really big pocket, you would keep the handheld in your bag, like you do with your tablet. So just do the same for the 2DS, what's the difference? Also, the 2DS isn't really that big if you compare it to your tablet, and it is very likely to be able to be handled by a 7-year old, let alone a grown man.

3. Why pay for a handheld that doesn't have 3D when you can already turn off your 3D anytime on the 3DS.

Simple, it's a cheaper alternative for people who wanna get a 3DS but can't afford it. It's not only priced at a low low price of $129.99, but it's also released on the same day as Pokemon X & Y, a kid-friendly mega-franchise. Imagine a parent walking in and getting both a 2DS and a copy of Pokemon for only $170, which is the price of a 3DS during the price cut. Isn't that a good deal?

4. No additional circle-pad pro/ Mono-audio

Again, the targeted user of this console are kids who aren't likely gonna play a lot of games that require an additional circle pad like Kid Icarus: Uprising or Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate. However, it's kinda sad that you can't use the CPP like you can on the 3DS/3DSXL, but I'm pretty sure they'll develop one soon.

Regarding the mono-audio, again, target user. They aren't likely gonna be able to differentiate mono and stereo. Plus, you can still use stereo when you plug in your earphones, and if you're the type of person who likes to listen to your 3DS game's music, you would most likely be listening through a headphone instead of listening through the speakers.

I guess that's all the problems I can address for now (and all I can think of). I am aware that the name '2DS' will cause a hell lot of confusion in the game shops when parents ask them why aren't there any 2DS games. But if you think about it, calling it a 3DS isn't a suitable name too, since it's not 3D enabled. They can't just call it the '3DS Flat (with no 3D)', so I do hope that the confusion in the name won't be too bad.

One thing cool about the 2DS was from what I observed. I noticed that it was flat, meaning like a tablet, and I thought to myself 'Nintendo is trying to compete with the tablet using industry, with the 2DS being flat like a tablet, but with buttons, and more suitable for slightly hardcore gaming'. A few hours later after that thought, they revealed that the 2DS is actually one screened, where the borders between them is just there to avoid confusion and all. The top screen is actually a touch screen like the bottom screen, only covered in some thick plastic, meaning....

The 2DS is a 3DS tablet with buttons, and no 3D. Wow!

To end this 2DS post, here's a message to all butthurt gamers.

The 2DS is not meant for you and may not be meant for you. I know it's sad to not be able to buy a 3DS without the 3D unless you buy a 2DS, hopefully they'll create a new 2DS next time. Also, I think that the 2DS won't be a failure like the GameBoy Micro, but it won't be as successful as the 3DS. So, just deal with it, or I'll hunt you down with my axe.

eShop games

Having $46.50 of eShop credit left on my 3DS (which I'm saving for Ace Attorney 5), I can't help but have this feeling that even this amount of money is not enough to pay for the game and the DLCs that come with it (special outfits, whale chapter).

I'm guessing that I will be reloading an additional  $50 into my 3DS in the near future. While I know that is a lot of money pumped into the 3DS, I wanted to top up this much because I feel like downloading 2 eShop games, which are:

Bit Trip Saga

I don't really have any reason to buy this game, other than the fact that it will be on sale this September on the eShop, selling at $5(!) from $15, I heard that it's even more expensive before, at $40, so this game is quite a steal. All I know that this game is a rhythm platformer, I hope it's good.

Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Gonna get this game for free on Club Nintendo (yay!). Since the only LoZ game I played was a 3D one (OoT), I thought I would give a 2D Zelda game a try. If I like it, then I may get Link Between Worlds for the 3DS.

There's other games like the newly released SteamWorld Dig and Attack of the Friday Monsters that I might be interested in getting, but I'm still not sure about that.

As much as I don't really care about indie games (as of now), there is one particular game that I really do wanna play, and it's a shame that it's not on the 3DS, and that's

Yup, this super awesome flash-game looking, no combo needing, two-buttoned parody fighting game that is selling for $10 on Steam and PS3 and PS Vita. I really like the idea of a fighting game that is deconstructed to just the mind games, and that's Divekick for you. 

When I saw the game on a fighting game stream a year or two ago, it looked fun as hell, especially with the custom two-button arcade stick that they used. Now the game is out, and it looks fun as hell. I really hope it will be released on the 3DS, I'll download it without a second thought. 

Sure the graphics are unacceptable by many, but for a game that uses two buttons, it has a lot of depth to it, and it is a plus to have so many hilarious fighting game references to other fighting games, and to the fighting game community. 

Did I mention how awesome of a drinking game this will be?

Anyways, that's all I have to say. I dunno how many eShop games will I get, maybe more recommendations from friends will convince me to get other eShop tittles. 

3DS update 18.8.13

In anticipation of Ace Attorney 5 (and the very high likelihood of it being a digital-only release, dammit Capcom!), I have topped-up 50 USD worth of eshop credit to my 3DS.

And since my balance became $55.50, the first thing I bought was the last few Fire Emblem DLCs that I have not bought and was hesitant to buy due to lack of money. I bought Challenge pack and Apotheosis.

I have completed Apotheosis normal path. I didn't do much preparations, and I didn't change the skills of most of my units (even though it was necessary to do so in order to not suck in this map), and I didn't have all my units stat-capped, which resulted in 2 deaths (good thing I played casual). Needless to say, even with me thinking half of the time with below-par battle prep and completing the map with just 2 deaths, I'm pretty sure this map isn't that difficult for Normal Route. Secret Route on the other hand will be tough.

So, new gameplan for secret route. I need all my children characters stat-capped, money-grind more for more forged weapons, but more weapons and staves, train up my 2nd rally-bot Katarina (whom I got for completing Apotheosis normal path), bring Olivia in, change the skills of my team before entering the map, and most importantly of all, not letting any units die (cuz I'll be playing it seriously this time).

And while preparing for Apotheosis, I'll be attempting the 3 Challenge pack maps.

Yeah, that's all.