I went to 4 stores before I could get a copy because three were sold out. Now it may just have a realy high sell through rate but does the name Pokemon just mean huge sales no matter what?

It hasn't stayed one of Nintendo's most lucrative franchises for a long time for nothing.

In the TV show, is that kid still something like 10 years old?

EDIT: Fun fact from the Pokemon wikipedia:

The Vatican, however, has countered that the Pokémon trading card game and video games are "full of inventive imagination" and have no "harmful moral side effects".

'Twas the Vatican that defended Pokemon from the crazy garage preachers in the mid-'90s. Who knew?

EDIT 2: There's also a toy called "Monster in my Pocket" that sued Nintendo for infringement. The 12 year old still inside me is bawling with laughter.

@endaround: I'm not sure what sales are like, but I have a copy on preorder through Amazon that hasn't even shipped yet despite an estimated delivery date of this coming Monday.

@believer258: They started following other trainers that aren't Ash, although I think he has showed up in newer episodes...

I had no idea this game existed.

Conquest is super weird, it takes place in feudal Japan or something and you are a Warlord who have to unite all of the regions of Japan and in the end you will have to fight Nubonaga... or something like that.

Then it gets weirder when there are references to what happened in the games and that Mewtwo is in the game (after all Mewtwo is a genetically cloned version of Mew, and somehow he exists in feudal Japan?

@Village_Guy: You cannot question the logic of the Japanese. Somehow, they will always find a way for it to make sense, even if it still doesn't. Just accept it and move on.

I sure hope so, because they might bring it over to Europe if it sells well.

It has Pokemon on the box, of course it is.

Sounds like a hit to me!

I still have zero idea what Nobunaga's Ambition is. 

I went to 4 stores before I could get a copy because three were sold out. Now it may just have a realy high sell through rate but does the name Pokemon just mean huge sales no matter what?

@Milkman said:

I still have zero idea what Nobunaga's Ambition is.

The short answer is that it's a strategy game series with similarities to Civilization. Pick a faction and vie for control of Japan by using resources to build armies, negotiate alliances, research technology, and so on. I have one of the PS2 entries and it is very, very complex. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it yet and lose pretty handily.

@President_Barackbar: That is what the high sell through is about.

@endaround said:

I went to 4 stores before I could get a copy because three were sold out. Now it may just have a realy high sell through rate but does the name Pokemon just mean huge sales no matter what?

I went to 4 stores today and called 2 others and they were all out of stock (Walmart, Gamestop, Target, etc.) and the only retailer that had it online was Amazon and they only had 4 left in stock so I got it from there and it said the delviery date is between this Thursday and July 17th.

@blindisaac said:

@endaround said:

I went to 4 stores before I could get a copy because three were sold out. Now it may just have a realy high sell through rate but does the name Pokemon just mean huge sales no matter what?

I went to 4 stores today and called 2 others and they were all out of stock (Walmart, Gamestop, Target, etc.) and the only retailer that had it online was Amazon and they only had 4 left in stock so I got it from there and it said the delviery date is between this Thursday and July 17th.

Sounds like they weren't anticipating it to be this popular so they didn't have the stock.

@believer258 said:

It hasn't stayed one of Nintendo's most lucrative franchises for a long time for nothing.

In the TV show, is that kid still something like 10 years old?

EDIT: Fun fact from the Pokemon wikipedia:

The Vatican, however, has countered that the Pokémon trading card game and video games are "full of inventive imagination" and have no "harmful moral side effects".

'Twas the Vatican that defended Pokemon from the crazy garage preachers in the mid-'90s. Who knew?

EDIT 2: There's also a toy called "Monster in my Pocket" that sued Nintendo for infringement. The 12 year old still inside me is bawling with laughter.

The Vatican likes pokemon? FUCK POKEMON lol

@Hailinel said:

@Milkman said:

I still have zero idea what Nobunaga's Ambition is.

The short answer is that it's a strategy game series with similarities to Civilization. Pick a faction and vie for control of Japan by using resources to build armies, negotiate alliances, research technology, and so on. I have one of the PS2 entries and it is very, very complex. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it yet and lose pretty handily.

I've played a bit of Pokemon Conquest, and from what I've seen so far, they've stripped that complexity WAAAAAAAY down. Down to the point where each trainer has one pokemon that you can't change* (you get access to other pokemon by recruiting additional trainers), each pokemon only gets 1 set attack and 1 set "special" ability that never change*, and the pokemon don't seem to have levels** or gain experience.

*I would hope that there might be some point where evolution comes into play, but other than that, it looks like you can't mix things up.

**There is a percentage based "strength" stat that goes up and down representing how well the pokemon and trainer are working together, but that doesn't look like it reflects any long term increase in power.

But again, I am still only about an hour or two into the game, still in tutorial sections, so maybe things will open up later on. I wouldn't bet on it adding too much more complexity than it has now though, much less any kind of brutally intricate grand strategy elements. Only time will tell, I suppose.

@BBAlpert said:

@Hailinel said:

@Milkman said:

I still have zero idea what Nobunaga's Ambition is.

The short answer is that it's a strategy game series with similarities to Civilization. Pick a faction and vie for control of Japan by using resources to build armies, negotiate alliances, research technology, and so on. I have one of the PS2 entries and it is very, very complex. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it yet and lose pretty handily.

I've played a bit of Pokemon Conquest, and from what I've seen so far, they've stripped that complexity WAAAAAAAY down. Down to the point where each trainer has one pokemon that you can't change* (you get access to other pokemon by recruiting additional trainers), each pokemon only gets 1 set attack and 1 set "special" ability that never change*, and the pokemon don't seem to have levels** or gain experience.

*I would hope that there might be some point where evolution comes into play, but other than that, it looks like you can't mix things up.

**There is a percentage based "strength" stat that goes up and down representing how well the pokemon and trainer are working together, but that doesn't look like it reflects any long term increase in power.

But again, I am still only about an hour or two into the game, still in tutorial sections, so maybe things will open up later on. I wouldn't bet on it adding too much more complexity than it has now though, much less any kind of brutally intricate grand strategy elements. Only time will tell, I suppose.

After you conquer a few kingdoms and get out of the tutorial zone (I believe it's when you conquer Violight kingdom) you get the ability to start linking new pokemon with each of your commanders. I have somewhere around 20 commanders under my control now, each one of them with around 2-6 Pokemon on their individual teams. Evolution is also involved, and comes with all the usual weird flavors like evolutionary stones, happiness ratings, getting certain stats to a threshold and taking them to different nations when the requirements are met. Eevee has too many goddamned forms.

The Link percentage is actually pretty important, as it determines the maximum stats of that Pokemon working under that specific commander. You have no idea how pissed I was to find out that one of my soldiers maxed out their Ekans one attack point short of getting an Arbok.

Each commander has a specialty, a certain type or two of Pokemon that they link with the best, and finding the right ones is pretty much essential to making them effective. There are Perfect links for the unique warlords, and those are easy enough to find because they reach 100% at maximum.

It also seems like at least a few features are toned down in the main storyline, as I've yet to be invaded by an enemy kingdom despite constant warnings that it'll happen. That's a good thing, because I'm already swimming in numbers trying to keep my main offensive lineup effective. If I have to start worrying about getting sneak-attacked by some quiet kingdom off to the side, then I'm screwed.

I'll have more to say about it later, I imagine, but I will say that it got off to a slow start. I was almost going to give up on it until I got to recruit different Pokemon for each commander, but now I'm just busy thinking up what teams I need to crack the next nation in the way. Good times!

I finally got a copy yesterday (Last one in my area) after Amazon cancelled my order and I am about an hour and a half in and it is great. Its like a less complicated version of FF Tactics meets Pokemon.

@Hailinel said:

@Milkman said:

I still have zero idea what Nobunaga's Ambition is.

The short answer is that it's a strategy game series with similarities to Civilization. Pick a faction and vie for control of Japan by using resources to build armies, negotiate alliances, research technology, and so on. I have one of the PS2 entries and it is very, very complex. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it yet and lose pretty handily.

I've played a bit of Pokemon Conquest, and from what I've seen so far, they've stripped that complexity WAAAAAAAY down. Down to the point where each trainer has one pokemon that you can't change* (you get access to other pokemon by recruiting additional trainers), each pokemon only gets 1 set attack and 1 set "special" ability that never change*, and the pokemon don't seem to have levels** or gain experience.

*I would hope that there might be some point where evolution comes into play, but other than that, it looks like you can't mix things up.

**There is a percentage based "strength" stat that goes up and down representing how well the pokemon and trainer are working together, but that doesn't look like it reflects any long term increase in power.

But again, I am still only about an hour or two into the game, still in tutorial sections, so maybe things will open up later on. I wouldn't bet on it adding too much more complexity than it has now though, much less any kind of brutally intricate grand strategy elements. Only time will tell, I suppose.

@Make_Me_Mad: Alright, this makes me feel much better about continuing to play this game.

@Turambar said:

@BBAlpert said:

@Hailinel said:

@Milkman said:

I still have zero idea what Nobunaga's Ambition is.

The short answer is that it's a strategy game series with similarities to Civilization. Pick a faction and vie for control of Japan by using resources to build armies, negotiate alliances, research technology, and so on. I have one of the PS2 entries and it is very, very complex. I haven't been able to wrap my head around it yet and lose pretty handily.

I've played a bit of Pokemon Conquest, and from what I've seen so far, they've stripped that complexity WAAAAAAAY down. Down to the point where each trainer has one pokemon that you can't change* (you get access to other pokemon by recruiting additional trainers), each pokemon only gets 1 set attack and 1 set "special" ability that never change*, and the pokemon don't seem to have levels** or gain experience.

*I would hope that there might be some point where evolution comes into play, but other than that, it looks like you can't mix things up.

**There is a percentage based "strength" stat that goes up and down representing how well the pokemon and trainer are working together, but that doesn't look like it reflects any long term increase in power.

But again, I am still only about an hour or two into the game, still in tutorial sections, so maybe things will open up later on. I wouldn't bet on it adding too much more complexity than it has now though, much less any kind of brutally intricate grand strategy elements. Only time will tell, I suppose.

The complexity of commander/pokemon/kingdom management does go up. However, the actual tactics combat is about as simplified as they come, which is unfortunate.

I think it's to be expected, however, as the game is really meant to attract young audiences that may have never played a strategy RPG before.