I'm back from exams.

Yeah, my exams are finally over.

It was okay I guess, I just hope I didn't do too bad (cuz I felt like I've been playing more video games this semester, even though I told myself not to).

Anyways, my plans immediately after the paper was to find out which one of my friends have plans to do something and just tag along with them. Problem with that plan was because only my Food Science friends end today (while my other friends who took other science degrees like Biotech and Biomedical Science all ended a week ago), so there wasn't many people to look about for plans to do after our exams.

Most of them were too tired from studying our final paper and wanted to just have a snack, then head home and relax, so that was what I did - I had lunch with two of my friends.

We went to eat outside the university compound so we head to one of our friend's car. While heading to the carpark we stumble upon one of our lecturers. He is one of the lecturers that taught us the unit Food Bioprocessing and Technology, which so happens to be our last paper.

Funny story,

So we were chatting with him on the questions he prepared for the exams (each lecturer prepared a number of questions for the paper based on what they taught us), and he was telling us how easy his questions is (provided we read is lecture materials). After chatting for a while, there was a short silence, and he looked at me, and asked me:

'Are you one of my students?'

Somewhat stunned that he doesn't recognize me, I said 'Yeah..'

'Oh.... Did you skip my class?'

'No', I said 'I was present in every one of your lectures except the first one (which was a mistake in my part during enrolling in the units)'

'Oh.... You sit at the back of the class, didn't you?'

'No, I sit in the middle (there were only 30+ students in a class that can fill a hundred, it's so empty that we have no choice but to sit in front since he asked us to).'

I realized (and I think he did too) that he didn't recognize me despite me being present in his class. I don't blame him though, not all lecturers remember their students faces since they have so many students. While the Food Science lecturers are starting to remember our faces more (since we ARE Food Science students), this lecturer is a sessional lecturer, meaning he's not teaching full time. It also could be due to the fact that he only asked questions to the same few people in his class, and I'm not one of those people, so I don't stand out.

I feel like I'm like a ghost in his class - a being which is present all the time in a room or area, but not detected by the presence of certain humans. If I didn't bump into him just now, he wouldn't know I existed at all, which is somewhat awesome?!

Anyways, after that I just went for lunch and head home a few hours later. The first thing I did when I got home was download the new DLC case in Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies.

I'm not sure if I posted about it before, but I've beaten the game within 3 days of it's release in the 3ds eShop. It's a really fantastic game that I'll be reviewing later. Seeing the DLC case being out on the last day of my exams got me really excited so I playing the DLC was the first thing on my to-do list when I got back.

You know what, it didn't disappoint. It's pretty good for a bonus case (as in it was well made, up to standard, and better than some of the cases in the main story). Beaten the game last night and I probably won't touch for a while.

So what's next? A review of the game Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies!

Quick Post

If you haven't notice by now, I don't really make much posts lately. It's due to exams and Pokemon.

Yeah, when I'm not spending time studying/revising, I'm playing Pokemon.

Currently, I've made what I called the 'Friends Team', I asked 5 of my friends on their favourite Pokemon, and make a team out of it (with the 6th Pokemon being my favourite). It consists of Jolteon, Charizard, Starmie, Metagross, Excadrill, and Garchomp. It did fairly well in Rating Battles (increasing my win rate to 50% in singles).

After that I went and breed a Kangaskhan. Keep in mind that most of the Pokemons I bred are not with perfect IVs (cuz I'm not that much of a fuss). As long as they have 3 or more perfect IVs, or an 'outstanding potential' evaluation from the judge, I'll keep them in my team.

That being said, I was able to breed a Fletchling with 5 perfect IVs today (HP, Atk, Def, SpDef, and Speed), that comes with the hidden ability Gale Wings and is Adamant natured. So I'm definitely using this guy on my team.

That's all for now, my last two papers are next week, so I have time to study for them.

I caught them all. Pokemon I mean. A simple guide to catch'em all.

I have completed the Kalos Pokedex!!!!!

It's by no means an easy task, but it's entirely possible. And I'm gonna teach you a few steps to follow on how to complete the Pokedex.

1. Beat the game fast.
Beating the game fast allows you to have access to Victory Road, which is a key area for leveling up hard to level-up Pokemons. By the time you beat the game, you would have access to the Friend Safari, which might help you complete the Kalos Pokedex (provided you have a good amount of friends). Also, you need the Battle Maison if you wanna get Sneasel and Gligar's evolution.

2. Breed (a lot).
The thing about Kalos is that it's so big that you'll almost always find a new set of Pokemon in each route, which means that you're less likely to have encountered the pre-evolved form of the Pokemon at later routes (unless you find them in horde battles). So you'll most likely need a Ditto (found in the Pokemon Village at the 8th Gym) to breed all the evolved Pokemons. Also, breed your starters, they're high in value at the GTS at the moment, so you use them to get other starters as well.

3. Find a good place to train hard-to-train Pokemons.
Go to Coumarine City to get the Lucky Egg from the girl at the hotel by showing her a Pokemon with max happiness. You'll need it for pseudolegendaries that evolve pretty late. While there are many ways to level up your Pokemons like battling in restaurants or fighting the Elite 4 and Battle Chateau members, my training method of choice is to use Sweet Scent in Victory Road to fight Floatzel hordes (and using Earthquake/Petal Blizzard on them). A Floatzel horde gives 3.5k Exp, so that's pretty amazing for a wild Pokemon encounter.

4. Find a trading partner.
Find people who plays Y (if you play X) to get the version exclusives, or someone who uses different starters from you (GTS works for starters too), or people who used the other fossil Pokemon. You'll need someone who'll trade you their exclusives for yours, and someone who'll help you evolve Pokemons by trade.

5. Catch every Pokemon species you can find (duh).
Check on websites like Serebii to find out what Pokemon can be found in which location, and how to encounter the Pokemon as some Pokemons can only be found in horde battles. Also, check with gaming forms like Gamefaqs often if you have trouble finding certain Pokemon.

6. Be patient in catching the Legendary Bird
You'll encounter Articuno, Zapdos, or Moltres depending on which starter you choose. The problem with their encounters is that they'll flee straight away without giving you the chance to do anything. You'll have to try to increase you chance of encountering the bird in the wild. After several encounters, the bird will be residing in the Sea Shrine Cavern (that thing North of Coumarine City), and that's when you can fight it in a proper battle.

7. Make sure you hatch eggs the same time you raise your Pokemon's happiness
Pokemons like Golbat and Riolu only evolve by happiness. Make sure when you're hatching the eggs you got from the day care that you bring these Pokemons along for the ride to raise their happiness. That way, you could save time and money in increasing their happiness.

I guess that's all the advice I have at the moment. It's a good thing I completed the Pokedex now since my exams are coming soon. Also, I wanna focus on playing Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies too.

My Pokemon X Update:

If you have not noticed, I have not been making posts in a while. I not only have assignments to finish, but every moment I spent when I'm not doing my assignments I spend playing Pokemon X.

Now that every assignment for the semester is done, exams are coming soon. But I have some time to play and today, I'm gonna do a little quick update on what's going on in my Pokemon game.

So I've already beaten the game, now I'm just trying to complete all 3 Kalos Pokedex. It's kinda hard since you'll need to do trading and a lot of help from people with Pokemon Y, but so far, I've managed to own around 382 out of the 450+ Pokemon in the region, which is no small feat since some have to be trained, some needs breeding, and some needs to be traded.

How do I train the Pokemons is by using Sweet Scent to encounter a Floatzel horde as those are the highest exp. yielding wild Pokemon I can find. For catching them I use my Aegislash that has False Swipe and my Vileplume/Bellossom (I have both, and they're both awesome). I used Dittos for breeding (obviously, and bought those incense in Coumarine City for baby Pokes. There's still 70 more Pokemons two own before I complete the Pokedex and I hope that I can do it.

Today, I was also very, very fortunate to have encountered a Shiny Floatzel while training my Pokemons. It was the first ever shiny that I've encountered (apart from Red Gyrados).

Anyways, that's all the update I have.

Pokemon X - Thoughts

So, I got my game last Saturday. There was a launch party over here where I'm at. Over 100 people came to collect their copy of Pokemon X and/or Y, so I was able to get the achievement of 100 Streetpass tags in a day (yay!).

Enough about that, how about my experience with Pokemon X? It was fantastic. I chose Chespin because I had an affinity for Grass starters since Gen IV (Before that I was part of the Fire Starter Master Race). The plan was to beat the game as fast as possible so that I can unlock more stuff.

My original plan was to have a team of 6 Pokemon that are all Gen VI Pokemon. I knew I wanted Chespin, Amaura, Honedge, and Fletchling in my team, but I wasn't sure for the last two. In the end, I used the other starter (Squirtle) instead, and I caught a Goomy along the way. Was it a good team? Not really (In terms of competitive battling wise, or maybe it's cuz I suck), but it did the job.

The game looks amazing and sounds amazing. However I did notice a drop in framerate during certain scenes in Pokemon battles (which is more obvious when 3D is turned on), but it didn't really bother me a bit. While the story was on a lighter note (compared to the great story that was on Gen V), it's not too bad. It had a proper conclusion, a great lore of the region, and Team Flare is an alright team, nearly as menacing as Team Rocket, slightly fanatical like Team Plasma, and not like the joke that is Team Galactic.

Travelling the region has never been so accessible in this game. You can walk, run, skate, and ride a bike in 8 directions, which is a new addition to Pokemon. It makes a lot of sense cuz this game is on the 3DS. which has the circle pad. Embarking on your journey has never been so fun.

Also, this is the first game where you're able to customize the player character. You can choose the character's skin tone from the very start (apart from gender, of course), and throughout the game, you'll find shops selling hats, accessories, bags, shirts, dresses and more. It just brings out the inner shopper in you. I spent around 400k Pokedollars on clothes alone, that's saying something. You could also change your hairstyle, hair colour, as well as the colour of your eyes using contact lens, giving tons of variation in each player's characters.

The region of Kalos is really beautiful, having plenty of landmarks across the region. From fountains, to palaces, to waterfalls, and to historical landmarks, this place has lots of it. Plus, you can take a picture of your character in those backgrounds using the camera options in the game, and post these pics online. You could also make a PR video and share it with other friends, and the PR video making procedure is very vast, and like clothing, every trainer could have a different PR video.

Everything in X and Y is faster and more accessible. When not connected to the internet, saving the game takes less than a second, which is a vast improvement from the Diamond and Pearl days, where saving could take up to 20 seconds or more. The Player Search System (PSS) is a pretty handy tool, allowing you to interact with players around the world anytime, anywhere (when connected online of course). Trading Pokemon has never been so easy in X and Y, and with the Wonder Trade, expect random stuff to happen when trading away your Pokemon. The PSS is a really amazing tool for trading with strangers, battling with them, or just giving shout outs.

You could also chat with people online with the Game Chat feature in the game. I was able to chat with my friends when trading and when battling, which is pretty nice. Chatting (with my internet connection) was alright, not many hiccups.

While X and Y are pretty amazing, there are some flaws to it. The most obvious argument people have is the design of the Pokemon. I don't find them horrible looking, but it's a matter of preference, and some didn't really like the newer Pokemon. Also, there were lack of new Pokemon in this game, with the total number of new Pokemon only being around 70. That being said, this number does not include the Mega Evolutions that older Pokemons got. Also, X and Y did a huge balance patch by including the Fairy type, which affected several old Pokemon (compared to Gold and Silver's Dark and Metal typing only affecting the Magnemite line from Gen I), so you could say it is justifiable for having so little Pokemon (or not).

Also, this game was rather easy. If you're thinking I'm saying this game is easy because of the Exp Share, you're partially right. The Exp Share does make your team levels way ahead of the opponents (which takes away the strategy of playing the game), but you can turn it off if you want to. The easiness of the game comes from the Gym Puzzles in my opinion. None of them remotely resemble a puzzle except for the last gym.

Another flaw in the game was the game breaking glitch in Luminose City. Apparently, saving the game in the city (but not inside buildings) cause your game to freeze when you load the save file, which may force you to restart your entire progress. It's a bit sad to see your save file go to waste in this city, but for me, I have always saved my games in the Pokemon centers (in the middle of the Pokeball logo) or in front of the Gym Leaders/Elite 4/Champions. So, to anyone not aware of this glitch, DO NOT SAVE OUTSIDE OF BUILDINGS IN LUMINOSE CITY.

Apart from the flaws, the game does place some really cool touches, like how you're able to see your Pokemon's sprite in the screen of the Pokemon center, how your character stretches himself if you go idle for too long, how the Zangoose horde will attack the sole Seviper in their horde before attacking you, and how the world map shows you surfing on an actual Lapras when you use Lapras for surf. There are a lot of little things in this game that makes the game awesome, and makes the Kalos region feel real. How every house in this game feels bigger, how each city/town has a hotel (being a beautiful region). The scale of the game is huge and alive.

Overall, if you're a fan of RPGs, and once loved the Pokemon series, you should give this game a go as it will not disappoint.

Haven't been blogging much cuz I was playing Pokemon X

And I just beaten it. My team was all Gen VI except for 1.

I used Goodra (Fio), Chesnaught (Yurnero), Talonflame (Soraruda), Aegislash (Falchion), Amaurus (Frosty), and Blastoise (Kamina).

Will post my full thoughts soon.

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!