My Pokemon Ranch - Parade

A nice thing about My Pokemon Ranch is that there are Toys that come in Toy Boxes.  The more you Expand your Ranch, the more Toy Boxes appear.  Everyday the Toys that come out of the Toy Boxes are different, and also random.  One Toy in particular seems to appear quite often.  It is a Flag, and it makes it so the holder can start a parade with the Pokemon they have brought to the Ranch.  It is really fun when you get a large amount of Pokemon and watch them walk around the Ranch with your Mii.

I know I have mentioned this earlier, but I find this game to be more relaxing than anything.  It is nice to just sit back and let the game go on its own.  Especially when its about Pokemon, I mean, who hasn't dreamed of being able to hang out with all your favorite Pokemon and play all day?  As a kid I spent a lot of time playing these games, and I still do.  Even though the games may change, and there will be countless new Pokemon, I still am quite happy that Pokemon is still going on today, and hopefully the young ones of today get the same joy I got from it.

My Pokemon Ranch - Shiny Pokemon and Appearance

Something I think is nice about My Pokemon Ranch is that when you Deposit your Pokemon, they show up as they are in the game, be it Shiny or with a Japanese name.  The funny thing is, that when I put that Ursaring into the game, Haley wanted to Trade me for it.  This is to be expected, since it is a Shiny Pokemon after all.  The odd thing is what she tried to Trade with.  She wanted to Trade my Shiny Ursaring, for a plain old Pikachu.  I still laugh about it, even to this day.

I got my Ursaring from Soul Silver one day, because I was trying so hard to level up my Lapras.  I was inside of some cave and battling there for a long time.  Then I was suddenly attacked by a green bear!  I was surprised because I never run into any Shiny Pokemon.  I got so nervous that I had been throwing all sorts of Pokeballs at it even though I had not lowered its HP that much, as I thought if I had knocked it out, it would never be seen again.  Well after a bunch of Ultra, Great and Poke Balls, I threw a Dusk Ball and caught it.  Now it is my best friend forever.

The Dialga has a different story.  When my Wife was playing Pokemon Pearl, she saw this Pokemon in the Pokedex.  When going to the Global Trade Station, which is located in Jubilife City, you can Trade for Pokemon you have already Seen.  My Wife put some generic Pokemon up as an offer, and waited for a long time, then one day she went to check on it.  Guess what she found waiting for her?  A nice, new, Japanese Dialga.  Isn't that a nice story?

My Pokemon Ranch - Ranch Expanding and Phione

Hello again!  As promised, I am going to discuss how to expand your Ranch!  It is rather simple actually, all you have to do is Deposit a certain number of Pokemon into the Ranch, and you are all set!  Originally, I thought that you had to fulfill Wanted Requests that Haley gives you, but that is not the case.  Those Requests are for you to fill up your Pokedex.  Each time you meet a requirement for the Expansion, Haley will come to you and inform you about the coming Expansion, as well as ask what kind of Pokemon you would like her to bring, to celebrate the event.  All Expansions happen on the Next Day.

There is however, a special Wanted Request that Haley gives you.  When you have Deposited 250 Pokemon into the Ranch, she will come to you asking for a certain Pokemon.  For my wife, it was a Leafeon.  Why is this different from the rest you ask?  Well, because Haley would like to Trade it for her Phione, which happens to be a really rare and hard to get Pokemon.  I find this to be awesome since I have never seen a Phione before in the other games, since I cannot go to any Pokemon Events at game stores.

You can check your Ranch's info from the BBS, which is located underneath the Connect To DS Option on the main menu.  From there you can also check what Pokemon Haley is searching for, for her Wanted Requests.

My Pokemon Ranch - Depositing and Withdrawing Pokemon

Okay, so now we are going to talk about one of the most important functions on My Pokemon Ranch.  This is known as Connect To DS.  You can see it on the main menu at the top left, right under Wii Menu.  When you select it a screen will come up informing you that if you delete your game on the DS and Start another one, you cannot receive the Pokemon you deposited from the game you had before.  The Pokemon can only be returned to the game that they were taken from.

After you start your Pokemon Diamond or Pearl game on your DS, you will come to a menu which has a few options.  Before you continue your journey, select Connect To Wii.  Afterwards this screen should come up showing that it is connecting to the DS.  

Once connected the Screen will show a little Blimp like object floating in the sky and a message letting you know that it connected.

After that, on your DS you can choose whether or not you wish to Deposit, or Withdraw Pokemon from the Ranch.  If you chose to Withdraw, a screen will come up showing all of the Pokemon inside the Ranch.

What you do with it is up to you.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot, at the beginning you can only have 20 Pokemon in the Ranch at a time.  It sucks, I know.  Fortunately, there is a way to increase this limit.  I will talk about that with you all next time,  see you around!

My Pokemon Ranch

I have decided on which game I wish to discuss with you all now.  It is called My Pokemon Ranch for the Wii. I purchased it today, in spite of one of my friend's sincerest warnings, for my wife because she really wanted to get the Mew from it.  It cost me 1000 Wii Points, which is 10 Euros, or 10 Dollars if you are in America.  Right now I know that this game connects to Pokemon Pearl and Diamond, which is cool because it is like a big storage box for all of your Pokemon.  Overall I feel that this game is interesting, though I think that it would be nice if there was an update to work with the later games.

The graphics aren't that impressive, as is the case with most Wii games.  It went with a 3D model style which is alright, but it makes some of the Pokemon look really deformed.  The music is alright, as far as I know there is only one track that plays, but its relaxing so it is bearable to listen to for long periods of time.  You can put up to 5 Miis in the ranch that interact with the Pokemon. It is entertaining, because the Pokemon often do things to the Miis, like chase them around the ranch while the Miis look terrified.

I will bring you more information soon about this game!

Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope - Farewell

Unfortunately, today is the day I have to give Star Ocean 4 back to the Library.  For those of you who don't know about this wonderful system, in Finland, the libraries carry video games!  You can check them out for 1 week at a time and if you want to keep it longer you can recheck it out for up to 3 weeks.  I find this to be amazing as I have very little funds and I wish to keep up with my hobby.

Its been an interesting experience and I hope that someday, if you all have time, you borrow it from a friend, or buy it used or new or whatever you do to get the game, and play it.  I wonder what my next game to play will be?  Since I have so many already, it is quite a difficult choice.  I think next time, I will choose a game for a different system.  I will talk to you all soon when I have made my decision!

Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope - Difficulty

Today, I started a new game on Star Ocean 4, because I realized there were things that I missed that I could no longer get anymore.  So I hit New Game on the Start Menu and it gave me some options on what Difficulty I would like to play on.  Originally I had started out on Galaxy mode, which is the game's normal difficulty.  Now that I have beaten the game, it allowed me to pick Universe mode.  I have to say that Galaxy mode was not that hard, until I reached the final area where I got my butt handed to me every 5 seconds by the enemies there.  Well I was in for some fun when I started my new journey.  It is very difficult now, because the Enemy's Rush Gauge fills up faster and they do slightly more damage.  I will add that I find this to be kind of fun because I hadn't had a decent challenge on the game for a while, and I am not adding the Secret Dungeon because that is just insane already.  Fortunately when you start a New Game, you keep the System Data, which has all the information on Monster Data, Weapon Data, Battle Trophies, and Ship Data.  So, if you want to get 100% you pretty much have to play the game again, or have some kind of guide with you in the first playthrough.