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[Oni Link 666]

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/podcast.the1upnetwork.com/flat/Retronauts/R030611.mp3

Jeremy Parish is joined by resident pokemaniacs Justin Haywald and Kat Bailey to discuss the history and mystery of Pokémon (though mostly they just shout at each other about a children's game while strangers listen in awkward silence)

Venusaur edition!

I had to go to the archived (dead) shows page to find the actual page on 1Up. They're keeping them on the old Retronauts page. I only found out this was out because I follow Parish on Twitter. Maybe they should put a link to this on the shows page?

They keep all the downloads here - http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3156908

Also, they call it Retronauts Live but you can't actually listen to it live, can you? I was looking for some UStream link or something on Friday and didn't see anything.

 

[Zzoram]

Will listen in light of Pokemon hype over Black and White.

 

[illadelph]

Perfect timing with this podcast as I'm just getting into White....will listen tomorrow

 

[Zzoram]

Hopefully they do an Active Time Babble on Pokemon Black/White in the near future too.

 

[Oni Link 666]

Jeremy sounds pretty negative on B&W. I've been playing it tonight I agree that it's pretty much the same thing again. I was really expecting more changes after reading that Iwata asks last week too. I still like the games though. I don't mind that they don't change a whole lot. Some games are fine like that. Pokémon and Dragon Quest can evolve at a snails pace for all I care. They're awesome games. I'd rather they stay the same than change so much they turn into something else I don't want to play like Final Fantasy.

 

[AKingNamedPaul]

Pretty terrible so far.

 

[Sleeping Badger]

Hopefully they do an Active Time Babble on Pokemon Black/White in the near future too.

Hopefully it's not just Kat blabbering on to herself again for 45 minutes.

 

[GhaleonQ]

Hopefully it's not just Kat blabbering on to herself again for 45 minutes.

She's quite good at doing it, though, so I don't see what the difference is.

 

[Curufinwe]

Yeah, she does fine on her own.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Pretty terrible so far.

 

[krae_man]

I was going to call in about the awesome next gen HD console Pokemon game that came out 3 and a half years ago

Spoiler

Folklore/Folksoul

.

 

[farnham]

kat bailey is in this ?

YES!! she is a real pokemon maniac judging from her past podcast/blog contributions.

She's quite good at doing it, though, so I don't see what the difference is.

i agree. kat monologues are somehow interesting

 

[illadelph]

It was alright, I was happy that a couple people called in about Pokemon Snap, I love that game.

 

[Katbot]

Hopefully it's not just Kat blabbering on to herself again for 45 minutes.

Yeah!

....

My goal is to eventually record a podcast with people who are into competitive battling. I'll probably contact some people at Smogon or something.

(I always enjoy talking about Pokemon Snap though)

 

[mujun]

I enjoyed this podcast even though I'm not a Pokemon fan by any means. I found Jeremy's snark particularly amusing

 

[john tv]

Black/White was a big letdown for me. The series has barely evolved at all over the past 15 years. It's kinda sad. :/

 

[Teknoman]

Black/White was a big letdown for me. The series has barely evolved at all over the past 15 years. It's kinda sad. :/

How so? The letdown part I mean. The much faster battles, TM improvements, the way the single player flows, soundtrack, new pokemon designs, and the graphic upgrades in general seem like a large step up from Diamond and Pearl.

 

[john tv]

How so? The letdown part I mean. The much faster battles, TM improvements, the way the single player flows, soundtrack, new pokemon designs, and the graphic upgrades in general seem like a large step up from Diamond and Pearl.

I played for about 10 hours (got to the big city area) and realized I just wasn't having fun. It's all so familiar, I mean right down to how you get running shoes at the start (which shouldn't be an option btw, it should be default - the game already moves at a snail's pace).

Just feels like they keep tacking on "new" features that were standard in other games years and years ago. There were games with faster battles and better monster animation than this in 1997.

The tag mode stuff was the only real innovation that interested me but it wasn't enough to keep me glued to the game. Maybe I'll give it another shot someday, but I'm kinda soured on Pokemon right now...

 

[Huff]

I played for about 10 hours (got to the big city area) and realized I just wasn't having fun. It's all so familiar, I mean right down to how you get running shoes at the start (which shouldn't be an option btw, it should be default - the game already moves at a snail's pace).

Just feels like they keep tacking on "new" features that were standard in other games years and years ago. There were games with faster battles and better monster animation than this in 1997.

The tag mode stuff was the only real innovation that interested me but it wasn't enough to keep me glued to the game. Maybe I'll give it another shot someday, but I'm kinda soured on Pokemon right now...

I'm not sure how much they can actually change and still keep the mass appeal. It's a pretty simple game at first glance and I feel that Nintendo and Gamefreak understand that making it too complicated is going to lose the 8 - 10 year olds.

They would rather lose us than them. Given, I haven't played White yet (still in the package) but I don't my opinion will change. I haven't actually beaten one of the games in years because I get too bored with it. Around the sixth badge I stop playing to take a break and never become interested to play again. Haven't beaten pearl or SS because of this.

 

[Oni Link 666]

I played for about 10 hours (got to the big city area) and realized I just wasn't having fun. It's all so familiar, I mean right down to how you get running shoes at the start (which shouldn't be an option btw, it should be default - the game already moves at a snail's pace).

Just feels like they keep tacking on "new" features that were standard in other games years and years ago. There were games with faster battles and better monster animation than this in 1997.

The tag mode stuff was the only real innovation that interested me but it wasn't enough to keep me glued to the game. Maybe I'll give it another shot someday, but I'm kinda soured on Pokemon right now...

I agree that Pokemon hasn't changed a whole lot. You're posting this with a DQ avatar though. Why don't you feel the same about DQ? Has DQ really changed that much? I've only played a few of the DQ games but, I'd say their evolution is pretty comparable to Pokemon's.

 

[udivision]

I agree that Pokemon hasn't changed a whole lot. You're posting this with a DQ avatar though. Why don't you feel the same about DQ? Has DQ really changed that much? I've only played a few of the DQ games but, I'd say their evolution is pretty comparable to Pokemon's.

Because his avatar says "DQ has changed, Pokemon hasn't"

 

[Suzzopher]

Really enjoyed it. Disappointed in the lack of Black/White love as it's the first Pokemon I have bought since Pokemon Red.

 

[Zzoram]

Don't fix what ain't broke.

B/W do fix a lot of things like speeding up battles and inventory management stuff that needed work. I think the Pokemon formula is great though as it's accessible but has plenty of depth.

 

[A Link to the Past]

The argument that Parish makes that the game suggests you only use two Pokémon, it's clearly only for the beginning, and it's the right idea. If you throw filler into your party early on, you're just going to have a bunch of sacrifices that, even if you level them up some, you're only ultimately weakening your long-term Pokémon's potential.

 

[Jex]

I was hoping someone was going to ring in and ask about the Famicon disk system.

 

[Huff]

Really enjoyed it. Disappointed in the lack of Black/White love as it's the first Pokemon I have bought since Pokemon Red.

You're not burnt out on the formula. When you buy a game (or two) each pokemon gen with little to no gameplay change, it's like... why play this? I already have multiple times.

 

[Suzzopher]

You're not burnt out on the formula. When you buy a game (or two) each pokemon gen with little to no gameplay change, it's like... why play this? I already have multiple times.

Ah cool, so it's burn out rather than being a not so great game? That's cool. I haven't started it yet as it's in my queue, behind DQVI, TO and Radiant Historia.

 

[Huff]

Ah cool, so it's burn out rather than being a not so great game? That's cool. I haven't started it yet as it's in my queue, behind DQVI, TO and Radiant Historia.

It's burnt out while being annoyed at the small changes that barely make it different than the previous version. I haven't played Black/White yet, so maybe that will change.

 

[StuBurns]

In '99 there wasn't a franchise I liked more, now I struggle to think of one I loath more. People complain about Zelda and DQ not moving the needle enough with each iteration (and they don't), this is more like Madden, as Kat pointed out I believe. It's just the same thing every time. It's like a band where the first album was great, and with each release of practically the same record you saw through any semblance of creativity they ever had. Every time I get excited that the next one might provide something really fresh, that there might be a small number of well designed Pokemon that I have any sort of reaction to, they've failed every time.

Despite that, I enjoyed the episode, and although I don't favor the call in approach, it at least appears to be more enjoyable for Parish, he seems much more effervescent on these episodes.

 

[VGChampion]

I'll give it a listen. Justin's someone who I can either enjoy or dislike very easily on podcasts.

 

[Calcaneus]

I'm very early into Black, and even though I haven't played one since Gold I can already feel myself getting into the old Pokemon rhythm. Which I guess could be tiring if you followed each gen, I probably wouldn't be as excited for this game if I had played HeartGold last year and Platinum a few years before that. Since its been 8 or 9 years since I've played (or paid attention to) Pokemon, I'm really enjoying coming back to the series.

I would like them to change things up on the 3DS, if not, then I don't see myself following each release.

Oh, and Pokemon Snap is the one of the best goddamn N64 games ever. Equally because the game is amazing, and because the N64 was a terrible console.