Pokemon Refresh vs Pokemon Ami(e)

[Belldandy]

The principles are the same for both "engines": after X many hearts, you gain advantages in battle - extra CRIT, extra EXP, etc. - and your Pokemon behave differently towards you depending on the same gauge.

However, there are notable differences, such as the ability to open Pokemon Refresh immediately after defeating a wild Pokemon or a trainer. This allows you to progressively augment the number of hearts your Pokemon has, as it gives you the opportunity to use equipment to dry Pokemon, brush them, etc. while also allowing you to intermittently pet and feed your Pokemon.

These changes to me were crucial, as using Pokemon Ami(e) to increase affection in X&Y and ORAS was extremely tedious. It would take me hours to increase the affection of a Pokemon to maximum in Gen VI as I was forced to repeatedly play the yarn-bounce game to acquire poffins to feed my Pokemon. While at first, this was not an issue - I found it both cute and novel - it quickly became gimmicky and tedious. Pokemon Ami(e) was no longer a fun side-app to use.

The way Pokemon Refresh is set up, it allows you to progressively increase affection without it becoming tedious. The game prompts you for opportunities to use the engine in various ways that do not seem repetitive. (For now, the only thing I cannot figure out is how to procure enough of those beans, but even without beans, you still feel as though you are being productive with your time using the side-app.)

I was wondering whether you guys prefer Pokemon Refresh to Pokemon Ami(e) (or vice-versa), which changes you appreciate or disapprove of in the new engine, and how often you guys make use of the side-app in Gen VII. :)

 

[Ducolamia]

Personally I found Refresh to be so much better. Sure Pokemon-Amie was great, but it was not worth the tedious amount of effort needed to go through 3 tedious mini-games. The problem isn't that they weren't fun to do, it's just that it took so long to raise affection with them and to make it worse the games got boring after a small period of time. Also,screw that puzzle section, I could never complete it on time.

Pokemon Refresh does everything better in my honest opinion. No tedious mini games(I'll miss them, but not by that much) , the affection rate is better distributed than in the previous gens, status conditions are healed saving me an antidote or two, and best of all, the affection clause is near broken in Sun and Moon, arguably more than in X and Y. I absolutely love it.

Overall, they both have their ups and downs, but I think Refresh is the better system to follow through with

 

[Sydian]

I do prefer Refresh, definitely. You can easily catch a new addition up to your older Pokemon with the rainbow beans, and beans are so much easier to get than puffs. You had to play games for puffs which, while fun, got very monotonous and they weren't exactly all that quick to play through. Refresh is quicker and much less tedious, which I appreciate.

 

[Hikamaru]

I'm with Sydian. Refresh is superior due to not needing to play minigames constantly, plus with Poke Pelago it's easy to stock up on beans. Raising affection is also much easier thanks to Rainbow Poke Beans and certain types of malasada as well.

 

[Mawa]

I think the big difference between Pokemon Amie and Refresh: in Refresh the Pokemon don't ask you to make faces and got disappointed when your DS doesn't understood the face you made!

Spoiler:

 

[blue]

Refresh is just so much more enjoyable imo. It's loads easier to get Poké Beans, I always found it quite tedious replaying those minigames just to get the Poké Puffs. Not only that, but we also have the addition of grooming which can alleviate status ailments which is another great feature of Refresh! Overall, I just see Refresh being so much better than Amie.

 

[StormChatot]

Tbh Amie was just weird. Like you said it got really annoying after a while to collect those dessert things to feed your pokemon, and a lot of the mechanics were kinda strange, like that thing on the touch screen where you got to decorate the pokemon's living space... I have no idea whether that even did anything or not.

I love Refresh because acquiring beans is so simple (through Poke Pelago) and everything about it actually makes logical sense. The love meter can get kinda broken though, as I've seen pokemon use it to tank multiple hits in a row at 1 HP. Idk if that same feature was in XY or not but it can sure get OP really fast.

 

[MKC]

Amie was one of my favourite things on XY, but Refresh is way better. I love how it's so much more interactive this time around, rather than being on a weird bubbly background you can take your pokemon out of the Pokeball wherever you are to feed them and pet them, and that's a huge part of the immersion in these games! I loved just messing around petting my Pokemon while I was on Ultra Space, it's cool feeling they are actually there.

I also love how you can clean them and heal them after battles, even when they are affection is full I still clean them just because I like to do so, my Pokemon shall never be dirty!

The only thing It's missing is the face recognition thingy, I liked shaking my head and making kissy faces to my pokemon, but I understand why they removed it since it didn't work on dark environments.

 

[Belldandy]

I think the big difference between Pokemon Amie and Refresh: in Refresh the Pokemon don't ask you to make faces and got disappointed when your DS doesn't understood the face you made!

Spoiler:

This is another thing I forgot to mention, along with the "decorate your room" #feature# that StormChatot mentioned. I could never get the faces right, and then my Pokemon got sad. The camera controls were super poor in Pokemon Ami(e). The room decoration was just odd, too. Sure, you got more decorations to decorate with by giving Poffins to random passerby Pokemon, but it just didn't feel rewarding.

Pokemon Refresh also has some interesting feedback that I don't remember in Pokemon Ami(e). My roommate was "petting" a Grimer in Refresh, and the hand went super slow and turned purple and gooey haha It's possible that that was also in Ami(e), but I never had a Grimer, so it was new to me for Gen VII.

 

[Sydian]

Pokemon Refresh also has some interesting feedback that I don't remember in Pokemon Ami(e). My roommate was "petting" a Grimer in Refresh, and the hand went super slow and turned purple and gooey haha It's possible that that was also in Ami(e), but I never had a Grimer, so it was new to me for Gen VII.

Oh no, Amie did that as well! You get some pretty funny stuff that way, actually. I went to pet my Regice and my hand froze over. I tried it multiple times bc I was laughing and my poor Regice just went ? at me and it was cute, but I felt bad I couldn't pet it, haha.

Totally forgot about making faces though ugh. Glad that got removed because I would often play in public between classes or something and lol. Don't want that happening while you're out in the open.

 

[Polar Spectrum]

On the one hand, I wanted to pet my adorable team and feed them food because reasons. On the other hand, it's almost like easy or casual mode with a focus band on every pokemon that activates so often, and not ever having to deal with status conditions outside battle was, perhaps too easy? Like poor antidote and paralyze heal etc. man.

I do like the concept though. I hope they keep this interactivity with your pokemon in all future games, whether they keep or discard the easy mode mechanics.

 

[Mawa]

.

Pokemon Refresh also has some interesting feedback that I don't remember in Pokemon Ami(e). My roommate was "petting" a Grimer in Refresh, and the hand went super slow and turned purple and gooey haha It's possible that that was also in Ami(e), but I never had a Grimer, so it was new to me for Gen VII.

Apparently you could on Amie too (but I didn't knew either), but I realized too that my Alola sandshrew's back freeze my hand!

 

[Seeka]

I think the minigames could've been implemented at the beginning of the game, where you go through pokebeans like god. But other than that I think Refresh is better, and the grooming kind of replaces the minigames as you're giving your pokemon extra affection they can't normally receive.

However, I feel like Ami was a more simpler version of what KH 3DS did.

 

[Starry Windy]

I think both Pokémon-Amie and Pokémon Refresh are good in their own ways, even though they are still based on same concept of how we take care of the Pokémon.

I think the plus point in Pokémon-Amie is that we can have fun with Pokémon with several mini-games. I enjoyed playing Tile Puzzle games to acquire more Poké Puffs, and kept doing this for hours whenever I started to play it.

On other hand, Pokémon Refresh are more focused on caring the Pokémon, to the point that sometimes the Care button pops up after the battle ends, where I can treat my Pokémon by grooming them, cleaning them and even getting rid of status ailments. This helps players to bond with Pokémon much more.

So, to sum it up, if you like to having fun with your Pokémon, I think Pokémon-Amie is suited for you. But if you wanted to care for your Pokémon, I think Pokémon Refresh might be much better choice.

(And it's my 7,000th post, too!)

 

[GamerTamer]

I liked Refresh more

 

[Rivvon]

Having Refresh accessible after (certain) battles and giving you the ability to clean your Pokémon made it a lot more encouraging to use. In that respect, it's safe to say that Refresh is clearly an upgrade from Amie.

But I will say, now that I've beat the game and there are little to no battles for me to partake in, I have no reason to use Refresh any more! At least in XY, I could have Amie open on the bottom screen to get Poké Puffs and background furniture, and then I could just play a mini-game for fun (yes, I did like those mini-games, especially the Berry one and Head-It).

So while I do think Refresh is a welcomed upgrade from Amie, I do wish they kept the mini-games so there's still a reason to open it up once you reach the post-game.

 

[Belldandy]

Apparently you could on Amie too (but I didn't knew either), but I realized too that my Alola sandshrew's back freeze my hand!

I knew about it for fire Pokemon (burning hand), but did not realize it was so in-depth haha

I played infinite Head-It to get poffins in X&Y. I think they could've kept minigames in but maybe in a different way. Having it in Refresh would've made it a bit cluttered imo.

 

[Bellsprout]

I like that refresh now speeds up the affection process and I can heal status ailments without buying anything. Eventually I did start ignoring it after battles because of how frequent it was becoming. In the end it's just a cute side feature so I'm glad I no longer have to spend so much time getting affections up and collecting treats.

 

[Somewhere_]

I never really went out of my way to Amie, so while I used Amie in longer bursts, I think in the aggregate I use Refresh more because its 1) convenient being after a battle 2) practical to heal pokemon 3) quicker

 

[Palmer-Granate]

I'd love to go back in time a few years and get in the faces of X/Y/AS/OR fans and out-right announce, "The Refresh system is gonna change how we deal w/ Affection and status recovery. When I got to using it after a while, I quickly became addicted, making sure I would hit those sweet 5 hearts per partner. Even beginners can quickly grasp this easy-to-use app and it certainly puts the 'fun' in function.