PokéRogue -- not to be confused with the romhack Emerald Rogue -- is a distillation of the Pokémon experience. Choose a starting party, then fight consecutive battles until you are defeated.
Well, okay, there is an end, but classic mode is really long and filled with some nasty surprises. You won't win on your first try. Healing is limited and expensive, revival especially so, and there is no end to your foes.
Of course, you can catch new party members as you go, but your control over your party is very limited compared to most similar games. TMs are quite rare, so you mostly have to make do with level-up movesets. It's kind of nice to experience a Pokémon game where you don't get to (don't have to?) turn your six critters into hypercompetitive little machines. You start with access to all of the starters, but you can start later runs with anything you've ever caught or hatched (e.g. if you catch a Bibarel, you can start future runs with a Bidoof).
Here are my complaints about the game:
And, yes, I did win. The endgame is ridiculous. Here's my winning team:
Honorable mentions to Fur Coat Furfrou (Aggron just did your job better), Talonflame (resisted Fighting but was too frail for the resistance to matter), and Bronzong (you did your best until Porygon-Z showed up).
Anyway, I've been enjoying PokéRogue, and you just might enjoy it, too!
Well, okay, there is an end, but classic mode is really long and filled with some nasty surprises. You won't win on your first try. Healing is limited and expensive, revival especially so, and there is no end to your foes.
Of course, you can catch new party members as you go, but your control over your party is very limited compared to most similar games. TMs are quite rare, so you mostly have to make do with level-up movesets. It's kind of nice to experience a Pokémon game where you don't get to (don't have to?) turn your six critters into hypercompetitive little machines. You start with access to all of the starters, but you can start later runs with anything you've ever caught or hatched (e.g. if you catch a Bibarel, you can start future runs with a Bidoof).
Here are my complaints about the game:
- It's far too long. Classic mode ends at wave 200 with a level cap of 200, and the level-up movesets haven't been altered, so your progression is arrested about halfway through. The daily runs are much shorter at only 50 waves, but they're also harder because you can't buy healing.
- There is some grindy meta-progression. Catching or hatching grants you candies like in GO, and you can spend way too many of these to give permanent advantages to a species. Hatching can give you some ridiculous egg moves. I won classic mode on the back of an Aron with the egg move Shore Up (that's a 5 PP Recovery). The meta-progression is unnecessary, fortunately, but it does give significant advantages.
And, yes, I did win. The endgame is ridiculous. Here's my winning team:
- Rock Head Aggron with Shore Up, Double-Edge, Iron Head, and Rock Slide. Shore Up takes Aggron from middling to great. Even so, he saw much less play time later on because of...
- Archaludon with Breaking Swipe, Outrage, Flash Cannon, and Electro Shot. I didn't know this thing existed, but it's really good.
- Porygon-Z with Tri-Attack, Recover, Agility, and I think Hyper Beam. It was my latest catch -- I really needed a good special tank, and this guy fit the bill and then some.
- Lapras with Perish Song, Ice Beam, Water Pulse, and Hydro Pump. I started with Lapras and Aron, and Lapras was my special tank until she fell off in power and we started seeing way too many Electric-types.
- Reckless Obstagoon with Obstruct, Double-Edge, Night Slash, and Hone Claws. I didn't use this guy very much, but I would never have won the last battle without Obstruct. Reckless STAB Double-Edge is really good until you need to heal off the recoil damage, though.
- Conkeldurr with Revenge, Superpower, Stone Edge, and some fourth move. The important thing about Conkeldurr is that he's the only one on the team not weak to Fighting. I would've given half my team for a solid Ghost-type.
Honorable mentions to Fur Coat Furfrou (Aggron just did your job better), Talonflame (resisted Fighting but was too frail for the resistance to matter), and Bronzong (you did your best until Porygon-Z showed up).
Anyway, I've been enjoying PokéRogue, and you just might enjoy it, too!
