Probably. Doesnt that mean I have to do these inane mini games for hours on end for every pokemon to battle halfway decently?
You'd have to:
1. Come up with a strategy. This will affect your choice of pokemon and moves. For example, you could go for six powerful offensive pokemon, and try to KO your opponents with sheer firepower. This is commonly known as a "hyper offense" strategy. You could use defensive pokemon, and try to wear down your opponent through passive damage and entry hazards. This is commonly known as a "stall" strategy. You could try to control the weather, for example using rain in conjunction with the Swift Swim ability to boost your pokemon's speed, while also making water-type attacks more powerful. You could use the move Baton Pass to pass stat boosts onto a powerful sweeper. For example, a popular strategy is to use the move Shell Smash, which boosts Attack, Special Attack, and Speed by two stages, and then Baton Pass the boosts to a sweeper like Lucario.
2. Breed for optimal Individual Values, or IVs. This will probably be the most time-consuming part. You'd have to catch pokemon, figure out which ones have good IVs, and figure out how to breed them so that you can get all the ideal IVs onto one pokemon. If you also want to pass moves on to certain pokemon, it'll probably take place in this step too. Oh, in case you didn't know, IVs are values assigned to each stat of a pokemon, and affect how high it is at level 100. They go from 0 to 31. So, for example, a pokemon with an HP IV of 31 will have 31 more HP than the same pokemon with an HP IV of 0. So, depending on what role you want your pokemon to play, you'll want high IVs in certain stats. For example, if your pokemon is a physical attacker, ideally you'd want 31 IVs in attack, and preferably in speed too.
3. Train your pokemon to give them the right Effort Values, or EVs. Every pokemon, when defeated, gives your pokemon two things, experience and EVs. The EVs given by each pokemon is pre-set. For example, Rattata gives 1 speed EV when defeated. For every 4 EVs your pokemon gains, it gets 1 extra stat point at level 100. Each pokemon can accumulate 510 EVs at most in all stats, and can have no more than 252 in one individual stat. So, for example, a pokemon with 252 EVs in speed will have 63 more speed than the same pokemon with no EVs in speed. If this pokemon has already reached 252 EVs in speed, or has reached 510 overall, then fighting more Rattatas will only give experience, and no EVs. This means that you have a degree of freedom when it comes to your pokemon's stats. You can focus your EV training on the stats you want to be highest. So, for example, a physical attacker would probably have maxed EVs in attack and speed. EVs can also be gained from the mini-games, such as super training, but generally speaking fighting wild pokemon for EVs is more reliable, and usually faster.
4. Battle smart. When to use certain moves, when to switch, when to play mind games with your opponent, all of these must come from experience. The ability to predict your opponent's next move is often what distinguishes an average battler from a great one.
) and I'm thinking about getting Tales of the Abyss for my vacation travel, does it hold up as a Tales game well? Anyone played it?
