alexanderkrizak

[alexanderkrizak]

I'm going to make my own list of most desirable cities in the US, using zero data to back me up

Seattle

Boston

New York

Chicago

Minneapolis

Denver

Atlanta

DC

Philly

Miami

[alexanderkrizak]

Because sometimes you take a clockwise route around Paldea and poor Klawf suffers at the end for that.

me playing pokemon violet like

i like to imagine that my team would do exactly this every time my tinkaton would use gigaton hammer

[alexanderkrizak]

Alright, I haven't reblogged any of this tournament so far, but this time, I have to. Look, I love @yamujiburo's Hanamusa stuff as much as the next enby, and I truly wish it had ended up on the other side of the bracket so Hanamusa and Moonlily could have had a climatic showdown in the finals. But the third round is too early for one of the best ships in all of Pokémon history to go down. Please, vote for Selene/Lillie, and let the spark found on Exeggutor Island continue to light up our lives!

Besides, Moonlily is even supported by @yamujiburo herself!

Pokémon F/F Ship Tournament - Round 3, Matchup 2

[alexanderkrizak]

I'd heard that at some point during The Indigo Disk, I would have to use a Terarium-only team. So I decided to use that as an excuse to put together a team for the whole DLC, with a type that's hard to start a game with: Dragon! And here's pretty much the six Dragon Pokémon families that inhabit the Terarium: Haxorus, Flygon, Kingdra, Altaria, Archaludon, and Alolan Exeggutor!

[alexanderkrizak]

Going Bug in Shield freed up Fire for Pokémon Violet, instead of Dark forcing me to pick Sprigatito like I did in my first playthrough. So this was the rowdy crew that got me through the Elite Four and beyond: Skeledirge, Coalossal, Blaze Breed Tauros, Volcarona, Solarona (Paradox names are terrible and I won't use them) and Hearthflame Ogerpon.

[alexanderkrizak]

I had saved Fire for Pokémon Shield, one of two generations in the series where all the starters gain no secondary types, but a chat with @dareonclearwater convinced me to do Bug for this game instead. So Blipbug became my “starter,” eventually evolving into Orbeetle and joined by Golisopod, Centiskorch, Galvantula, Shedinja, and Frosmoth.

[alexanderkrizak]

I always avoided Pokémon Ultra Sun (and Moon) because I love Lusamine's villainy in the original Pokémon Sun and Moon and didn't want to see it diluted. But I heard there was a lot of good added content, so I went through with a Fairy team: Primarina, Ribombee, Whimsicott, Alolan Ninetales, Mawile, and returning champion Mimikyu.

[alexanderkrizak]

I'll confess, I got caught up in it too (just look at my bingo card), but in hindsight... why did we think there were going to be Unova remakes in the Pokémon Day announcements? Save for Kanto remakes (since Gen 1 is always special), Pokémon remakes have always been in the generation double the original. Heart Gold and Soul Silver came out in Gen 4, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out in Gen 6, and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl came out in Gen 8. It's the most reliable pattern in the franchise, and if it holds, we won't see Unova remakes until Gen 10 is underway.

[alexanderkrizak]

Pokémon Legends Z-A Starter Speculation

I got this into my head, so fine, let's cook. And we can repurpose this image that was used for a starter ranking meme recently.

Okay, so first of all, while you technically need two points of data to establish a trend, we can still try to extrapolate from the original Pokémon Legends Arceus.

PLA excluded the starters of the region it was set in, giving the player an opportunity to catch those starters in the wilds. PLA also excluded the starters of the current generation, probably to avoid overexposing them.

Speaking of Pokémon Legends Arceus, we're also quite obviously not going to have the same starter Pokémon as it had, so we'll have to say goodbye to two of the best starters ever created... and Oshawott.

Alright, now for something actually speculative... I believe that Game Freak will exclude Gen 1 and Gen 3 starters. Why? Mega Evolution. All six of them have Mega Evolutions, and I feel that Game Freak will want to give the Z-A starters all new Mega Evolutions. (Will said Mega Evolutions replace Kalosian forms for the starters? I'm gonna say yes, though that doesn't mean other Pokémon won't have Kalosian forms.)

And now we're at a point where we are operating on 100% Pure Bullshit™. I think this'll be another set of incredibly popular starters, drawn once again from three different generations, and that they'll try to get a representative from every generation that wasn't represented in PLA but wasn't also disqualified for other reasons. Which does still mean one generation will get represented again.

So why do I think Game Freak will choose?

But what does everyone think? Have I made assumptions you find to be wildly off? Let me know how silly my speculation is, and we'll find out how wrong I am in 2025! (Or much sooner, actually, they'll reveal the actual starters sometime this year.)

[alexanderkrizak]

Brilliant Diamond may have said Steel loudly, but Pokémon Moon screams Ghost. A starter (Decidueye), one of the first regional variants (Alolan Marowak), a commentary on the series mascot (Mimikyu), the cover legendary (Lunala Nebby), and Palossand. Yep, Palossand.

The team was supposed to include Oricorio, an Alolan Pokémon with a gimmick that can change it to Ghost/Flying... but it turns out you can't get the Purple Nectar to change it to that type until after becoming Champion. So Drifblim, a Pokémon that was originally on my team just as filler, got to stay on for the Elite Four.

[alexanderkrizak]

You know, for once I actually saved my work as a project file instead of just the finished flattened image, so yes, I can make a blank template! Enjoy!

So I started making this last night, fully anticipating a stream on Pokémon Day but not realizing that the Pokémon Presents stream got announced the moment I finished my first draft of it. I present to all two of my followers... VOLTORB BINGO.

[alexanderkrizak]

So I started making this last night, fully anticipating a stream on Pokémon Day but not realizing that the Pokémon Presents stream got announced the moment I finished my first draft of it. I present to all two of my followers... VOLTORB BINGO.

[alexanderkrizak]

For Pokémon Y, I went with Psychic, with the twins Gallade and Gardevoir here joining Delphox, Malamar, Sigilyph, and Starmie in helping me take down Team Flare… and then so much more after. Seriously, after the Unova games and Uranium, I had forgotten how early the plot can end in these games.

[alexanderkrizak]

SWERVE! I didn't want to play too many games on my 3DS in a row, so I decided to throw my first playthrough of Pokémon Uranium into the mix. Plus this let me have a team of my favourite type, Electric, headed by my favourite Pokémon, Ampharos (who I found a shiny of!)

[alexanderkrizak]

Luckily, Pokémon Black 2 lets you reach the Hall of Fame in your first trip to the Elite Four, so while I’ll definitely partake in some of the postgame content, I can post Emboar here right now, representing his Fighting team of Lucario, Breloom, Scrafty, Heracross, and Terrakion.

(About that clear time: there is no way it took me longer to beat Black 2 the first time than it did for me to finish the postgame of White. I think there’s a bug where suspending the game during a battle keeps the game timer going.)

[alexanderkrizak]

And now the Champion screen only shows ONE Pokémon, so you can’t see Serperior’s grassy teammates Leavanny, Sawsbuck, Amoonguss, Ferrothorn, and Virizion. But more annoying is that clear time, because Pokémon White only gives you a Champion screen on the rematch! That is three times what my clear time for Brilliant Diamond was.

I seriously had to grind the entire postgame just to get my Pokémon strong enough, which just added to this already difficult run. Grass was... not the best option for Pokémon White, with a Bug, Flying, AND Ice gym and, oh, giving N a team-murdering Reshiram. But I got through it somehow.

[alexanderkrizak]

So the obvious type for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond is Steel, with a starter, a legendary, and a breakout that got into Smash all sharing the type. But… there’s not much else beyond that. So I got some help from the past (as well as a mythical I forgot I’d get).

(Oh, and I didn’t play this for two days nonstop without sleeping, don’t worry. I’ve been hopping between this and finishing things up in Pokémon Legends: Arceus ever since I beat Volo.)