It's optional. And you can use status heals during battle, which NPCs sometimes do and it's annoying if you're relying on Toxapex to do damage.

The game needs a higher difficulty, but you can say that about every single Pokémon game. They really need a hard mode for Pokémon in the future. Keep the standard mode like the games are now but give us a hard mode with better AI, higher level Pokémon and better/more Pokémon on the teams of trainers. They should look at some of the best players in the online community to develop AI for their games. Give trainers teams that work well together instead of 5 Pokémon of one type. And you shouldn't be able to use healing items in hard mode (this goes for NPCs as well though).

You need to fix your sarcasm meter.

That'd be nice I guess, more options always better, but do they need it? Nah, the game provides plenty of challenge if you want it. You can set rules for yourself like nuzlocke to make the story harder. Assuming Sun/Moon has Battle Maison or equivalent, the endless mode is great fun trying to rack up a 200 win streak, and I wasn't even able to do it in X/Y. And of course, most notably is battling other players.

You can still use them in battle, which is when it's most important.. outside of battle is when you go to the nearest Pokemon Center anyways (or at least, that is what I do..)

I like how they make the game as difficult as you want it to be since it's completely optional if you feel it's unfair or broken :p

My Pokemon team is max in love with me, so I don't even need to heal status effects in battle, they do it themselves! I definitely feel that's unfair since it's a one-sided advantage, and that's exactly what I want! Anything to help get through the tutorial faster and get back to the point in the game where I have access to everything.

Well, now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday is over, what Nintendo purchases have you picked up, if any?

Though not what I wanted (Xenoblade X, Dragon Quest VII, Etrian Untold 2), I was able to pick up a few things myself

- Pokemon Moon ($1 off, but bundled with $5 eShop credit and SMB)
- TMS #FE $40 off
- 30th Ann. Mario Amiibo $6 off (had to get this since I wanted free shipping with #FE :/ )

Lot's of PR talk about the Switch lately..

EA:
“Nintendo has always been and will always be a very important partner in this industry. They have some of the best first party development studios in the world, and some of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world. We have announced publicly that we got a partnership with them on their new platform, the Switch, we haven’t talked in detail on what’s that about. You can imagine, as you heard, that a major game will be distributed on that platform.

We’re huge fans. We have a relationship that goes many decades back. They’ve had some difficult times as if recently obviously, but never, ever, ever discount Nintendo in this marketplace, and their ability to leverage their superb game development opportunities. Their intellectual properties, whether it’s Mario, whether it’s Zelda, whether it’s Metroid Prime, we could go on forever about what they can do… obviously Pokémon, we’ve seen more recently.

We’re gonna watch with interest and you can rest assured that EA, just like every major publisher, is in regular conversations with Nintendo.”

Take Two
"The folks at Nintendo are making a great effort to support third-party developers, we’re very optimistic on the Switch though we are not announcing anything specific today."

At this point, you are better off holding XCX until the Switch version comes, which will obviously be the superior version.

Peter Moore mentioning Metroid Prime when there hasn't been a new Metroid in 9 years seems a bit odd.
His choice of words seems a bit strange too.

You know, i wouldn't be surprised if EA is talking about a Nintendo IP, here.

Maybe i'm reading to much into this, but i would thought that EA would mention their franchises when talking about the game they are bringing to Switch.
That's what PR talk is all about, i think; Just listen to John Riccitiello speaking about Wii U and you'll see what i mean.

Probably so, but I've logged over 100 hours in Xenoblade X already so I won't be double dipping for the port, assuming there is one D:

oh wow D:

Is there a way to call people on the Wii U, or is it just through Miiverse?