smmshopusq

[driftingballoons]

for pmd ask game, 2, 5 and 13? :DD

2. 2D style all the way! The sprites/2D style are really charming to me, and given that I started with that style, also has a nostalgic feeling :3 don’t get me wrong, the 3D style is great too, and the dungeons/scenery in particular are really nice, but I feel like the main issue is because of the mystery dungeon format itself. When everything is so much more detailed, things like the size discrepancy between pokemon look more…off in 3D. Like, having a first form look proportionally larger than the evolution bc they both occupy the same amount of space/the evolution is more detailed doesn’t look too funky when each character only has a limited amount of pixels, but when they’re a fully rendered model, it’s a bit weird. The other thing with the 3D version is some pokemon—especially those specifically designed in 2D—are just kinda ugly in 3D 😭

5. From gen 7, I could definitely picture rockruff, jangmo-o, and salandit as potential options! I’m also thinking maaaybe stufful, but somehow they seem more background character-ish to me. 

For gen 8, honestly didn’t feel like there were many candidates. Could imagine yamper, but could equally imagine them being a side character too. The other two I was considering would be wooloo (bc fan favorite) and clobbopus, just bc the latter has the little guy energy a partner needs.  

13. Pmd explorers: we need more background about the dark future. Replayed until the dialga fight fairly recently and oh my GOD we are desperately lacking in context/knowledge of the dark future. I think, if they ever were to do a remake, they could consider adding a special episode about hero’s life in the future, meeting grovyle, and the events that lead to them deciding to go back in time and save the world. It would be so interesting to learn more about the future we’re fighting to hard to destroy. And I’m wondering if that’s partly why we didn’t? Like if you knew more about it and saw the ways it didn’t 100% suck, maybe the idea of eliminating it and having everyone unmade would be a little more unsettling. New conspiracy: the plot was written by the Planetary Investigation Team, which, based on Grovyle’s description of them, sounded just a bit like a cult 😭 Nonetheless, I would’ve loved to meet them or literally ANY other pokemon in the future other than grovyle, dusknoir’s circle, and the feral pokemon. 

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @camberdraws

Hello! My name is Camber (any pronouns), and I’m a mixed media illustrator located in the southwestern United States. I love drawing everything, but I have a special interest in depicting strange creatures and environments, often accompanied by abstract imagery and mark-making. Professionally, I’ve worked creating concept art and 2D assets for museum exhibits, but currently, I am engaged full-time as a software developer and make standalone illustrations in my free time. I’ve been posting art on Tumblr since I was a teenager, and the site has been very welcoming towards my work to this very day!

Check out Camber’s interview below!

Did you originally have a background in art? If not, how did you start?

I’ve had an interest in drawing since I was barely sentient, but at thirteen years old I decided to become “serious” about art. I was all about reading tutorials and doing a ton of studies. I would tote my heavy instructional art books to school every single day (my poor back!) Despite all this, I decided to forgo art school in favor of a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at my local college. Alongside my major, I received a minor in Art Studio with a specialization in fine art, which totally changed my views on creating artwork and drastically changed my style.

How has your style developed over the years?

As mentioned previously, my style did a 180 after I studied under some very skilled fine art professors! As a kid, my drawings were very realism-heavy and inspired by video game concept art. I mostly worked digitally, too. During college, I was thrown for a loop when we were instructed to do strange things like, for example, make a bunch of marks on paper using pastel, WITHOUT looking, and then turn said marks into a finished piece of art! I quickly and deeply fell in love with abstract work, and especially appreciated images that are not easily parsed by the viewer. Since then, I’ve made it my goal to combine abstract mark-making with more representational subject matter.

What is one habit you find yourself doing a lot as an artist?

Hmmm, one habit I really enjoy as an artist is strictly tracking the amount of time I spend drawing! I currently work a full-time job wholly unrelated to art, so I have to be careful with my time if I want to spend enough hours drawing each week. I created a spreadsheet that allows you to enter the amount of minutes you’ve drawn each day and calculate how much drawing time you still need to reach your weekly goal (I aim for 20 hours a week.) Having such a clear, numbers-based objective keeps me motivated to work like nothing else!

Over the years as an artist, what were your biggest inspirations behind your creativity?

I know this is a common inspiration, but Hayao Miyazaki’s work has been rewiring my neurons since I was a child. Seemingly all of my artistic interests can be summed up by the movie Princess Mononoke: it has strange/abstract creature designs, a strong focus on nature and environmental storytelling, and a mix of dark and hopeful themes. Additionally, I’ve been deeply inspired by video game series such as Zelda, Okami, Pikmin, and Dark Souls. But arguably, none of these have influenced me more than Pokemon! I’ve been drawing Pokemon since I could barely hold a pencil, and I haven’t stopped since! I believe my love of designing creatures originated with my endless deluge of Pokemon fanart during my childhood.

What is a medium that you have always been intrigued by but would never use yourself?

I’ve always been fascinated by 3D mediums and am so tempted to try them out! Whether that’s 3D models created digitally or sculptures made from clay, I profoundly admire artists who have this skill. Oftentimes, it feels like I don’t have time to delve into a totally different artistic paradigm. However, I feel very strongly that learning new skills can enrich your current work. I should take that advice and someday give 3D mediums a shot!

What is a recent creative project that you are proud of?

I am in the process of creating an art book (a dream of mine!) and have been executing smaller drawings of concepts I find interesting from both a visual and storytelling standpoint. A recent drawing for said book is that of a snail made of ink with an ink bottle as a shell, and it went absolutely viral! I’ve never had an experience like this as an artist before and it has been spectacular! I was able to open a shop using my newly acquired art printer and sell many prints of my snail. Creating something original, directly stemming from my interests, and having that resonate with so many people has been unreal. I couldn’t ask for more as an artist!

What advice would you give to younger you about making art that’s personal or truthful to your own experiences?

I would tell my younger self to chill out and experiment more! I was so caught up in the idea that I needed to have a realistic style to be considered “good.” I also believed that technical skill was the only measure of how worthy my art was. That’s not to say technical skill doesn’t matter, but I now firmly believe the creativity and voice of your ideas far outweigh the skill of execution in terms of importance. Technical skills should elevate ideas, not the other way around. Once I began to revel in strange ideas and stories for my work, depicted oftentimes in odd styles or mediums, I truly found my voice as an artist.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

My peers here on Tumblr inspire me more than anything! Sharing my work with contemporaries and giving each other support brings me joy like no other, and keeps me motivated to continue creating. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them! @beetlestench, @theogm-art, @trustyalt, @ratwednesday, @phantom-nisnow, @svltart, @mintsdraws, @mothhh-hh, @jupiterweathers, @thesewispsofsmoke, @picoffee, @fetchiko, @kaisei-ink, and @pine-niidles just to name only a few!

Thanks for stopping by, Camber! If you haven’t seen their Meet the Artist piece, check it out here. For more of Camber’s work, follow their Tumblr, @camberdraws!

[doubleddenden]

Diving through the leaks from today (I have not slept yet) in regards to the cut gen 5, 4, and even 3 content has been such an adventure. I feel like I've discovered several more AUs in which 1 small decision could have had a ripple effect on the franchise for years to come.

Especially the gen 4 beta lore that was apparently dug up. Yall thought shit was religious now, they had a straight up PANTHEON planned. Not to mention it makes that church suddenly make sense- this wasn't just worshipping a Pokemon, this was literally a god with god like mythos. Like Arceus hatched from an egg in the middle of chaos at the beginning of time, his own egg shards became GIANTS that tried to kill him, and Arceus rapidly grew and beat them all. He made Dialga and Palkia to be his alter egos out of his own blood and to be God's of time and LIGHT, apparently, and Dialga and Palkia LOVED EACH OTHER- not hated and tried to kill each other, LOVED EACH OTHER. HAD CHILDREN. And assuming I read correctly, those two had the lake trio, who made the tree of life, destroyed it, and Rayquaza, Groudon, and Kyogre were born. In fact, Rayquaza may have been the shadow of ANOTHER POKEMON that became the pillar of the heavens?

It's pretty hardcore and confusing stuff. The giants stuff absolutely puts the Fighting Plate lore into perspective with its text "the power of giants fills this plate with power" or something.

I think it's pretty obvious why it was all cut or severely dumbed down, but it is actually very interesting to see that at some point, they were extremely dedicated to the world building of the franchise before they kinda said "fuck it it's whatever now."

On a mechanical end, it's also incredibly interesting. Gen 5 was almost the gen to introduce 3d models for players, apparently. I think it's pretty obvious why they went with an enhanced 2.5d approach, given the ds wasn't ready for much beyond ps1 graphics, but it's still incredible to think that was even a concept at the time.

And the lost beta Pokemon, oh my God. Gen 3 had a bunch that were eventually redesigned. Lickylicky in gen 4 almost made sense because it's body looked READY TO ROLL OUT! Archeops in gen 5 was almost cool af with some slightly different proportions. There's just a bunch that go completely unused.

And characters- yall, Team Galactic almost served cunt. Saturn almost was cool, and Mars and Jupiter would have DONE something to people. There's also in depth profiles on certain characters- Skyla was apparently modeled after Jennifer Lopez and was coded to be Hispanic. Each gen 5 gym leader had races assigned to each, and a real life inspiration behind each.

Even mechanics are talked about- a lot of scrapped ideas, such as one from Morimoto that was basically Pinkan Pokemon from Orange Islands but shifting your Pokemon's colors depending on the berries they ate. Masuda apparently had some reservations about following Pokemon- hence why it was so limited in DP and other games he directs.

It's information like this that really amazes me. So much of what could have been, so much info fans have theorized just kinda confirmed in some cases. I wish they'd talk about this stuff, because this is all genuinely interesting to see. Genuinely, I want to know the thought processes going on for some of these ideas and designs.

[arcsin27]

Fun Pokémon game idea: an ultimate journey where you go through every region

Obviously since it’d be one continuous journey there’d have to be rewrites to account for time gaps in the plot (how would the floundering team rocket plot work if you went from kanto to johto five minutes ago? etc) but it’s not meant to be a remake compilation, it’s a whole new thing. I mean it’d be great if a vast majority of it is the same but yeah it’d need a lot of tweaking

Also, to make sure the file size is small enough to fit every region and every pokemon, I think the entire game should be 2d like the first several gens, maybe even all pixel art with the grid based movement system. I think models and 3d animation might make the game very big and laggy. Plus, it’d make the first several regions feel very authentic while giving an interesting spin on later regions (how would 2d [sword shield region I forgot ;-;] work? Overworld Pokémon in the wild areas? Maybe they’d also be sprites wandering around?)

I know having later regions be essentially downgraded would bother a lot of people, so maybe that’s a bad idea, but idk I think it’d be interesting! I like the way 2d ones look and play anyways (when I miss Pokémon I go straight for sapphire and heartgold lol) so it’s probably just a personal preference but still

If there were to be a two version split thing, I thought it’d be best to call them something like warm and cool or heat and chill. Maybe even light and dark, or something about intense reds and blues. The dichotomies used in the past felt like they could easily fit that sort of split

Warm/heat/light/crimson/etc: red, gold, ruby, pearl, white, x, sun, sword, scarlet

Cool/chill/dark/ultramarine/etc: blue, silver, sapphire, diamond, black, y, moon, shield, violet

(…I’m not a pokemon expert, idk if those are in order or if I forgot one lmfao)

Idk, obviously I’m not a game developer or serious pokemon connoisseur, I just had this idea and thought it’d be cool!

[adobe-outdesign]

have you reviewed the meditite line?

Meditite is one of my favorite types of Pokemon, that being the weird creature that's vaguely humanoid but in a way that makes it really hard to describe easily. In this case, it's an onion-headed creature that has meditation as a theme, with two swirls on the sides of its head and a primarily blue body.

As a whole, while I like Medicham more, this design is pretty good. I like the shape of the head, especially with how perfectly the eyes interlock with it. Speaking of eyes, they have a very distinct look to them, as does the mouth.

My only real issue with Meditite is that the white around the waist looks a bit weird—maybe if the white just extended down the leg a bit more. Also, I do wish it resembled its evo more. There are a few small similarities—gray skin, flat doll-like eyes, weird head structure—but I feel like the resemblance could've been better. I think this mostly could've been fixed by just swapping out the blue for Medicham's pink.

The shiny basically does this, and it works perfectly (though I would still keep the skin the neutral gray).

Medicham is such a weird looking 'mon, but I've always found myself really liking it. Something about those giant-ass legs and skinny body just gives it a really neat shape, and it's the right combo of strange and elegant. The baggy "pants" have just the right amount of gold accents and markings on them, which are accented by the same colors and shapes being used on the head.

My one complaint here is that the head thing doesn't go around the back of the head, so it's just kind of stuck in the front.

The 3D model up top actually makes this worse, as the pink used to extend down the head to a degree back when sprites were being used. I guess they changed it to be more accurate to the official art, but frankly I'd rather it not line up one-to-one if the overall model looks better.

And Mega Medicham's also really good; by far my favorite of the line. A lot of megas struggle with just being the originals with Stuff(TM) added to their designs without rhyme or reason, but Mega Medicham's got a very clear theme with the addition of psychic arms, which are vaguely Buddist/Hindu-esq and also make sense for a partial fighting-type.

But the other thing that works about it is that it feels like it improves and expands upon Medicham's base design in just the right way without going overboard. The somewhat awkward head piece has been replaced with a more turban-like design, and the arms have gained two golden bands, which carry the color through the design better than the original. The sheer size of the legs has been reduced down without loosing their visual punch, and they've been given a more natural shape as well. A few extra layers of gold bands have been added above the "pants" along with a row of blue beads, which accent its new blue eyes. It's better balanced in both color and form.

Another little detail I like about it is that it also makes the entire line look better by harkening back to Meditite—note how the blue accents are the same color as Meditite's body, or how the white hat matches its head better, or how the gold bands on the arms are placed similarly to Meditiate's white stripes. Good stuff.

My only little nitpick is that the pink plume on the top of the head looks a bit odd. It's meant to match the three plumes on the base design, but I feel like you could've extended the middle piece above the gold center, then made that and the two on the sides pink to achieve a similar effect. That's minor, though.

Overall, I like this one a lot. Meditite's got a few coherency issues with the rest of the line but still manages to have a unique design that continues into Medicham. Mega Medicham expands on the theme and improves the overall design in a meaningful way. Good stuff all around.

[aquatark]

kind of randomly spurred post, but i was just wondering how many endless ocean fans knew about the development screenshots we have of the first game... so i figured i'd share them with you all, along with some light analysis for those interested in this game's development history!

so the development photos i'll be going into in this post were revealed to the public in 2014-2015, shared on the twitter account of ichiro mihara, the vice president of arika and series producer of the endless ocean games! nowadays, he mostly just posts food pics and pokemon go stuff... kinda living the dream ngl

below is the complete set of screenshots:

the most obvious difference here to most players would be creatures placed where they shouldn't be, such as the yellow boxfish in an atypical zoom, and the presence of false clown anemonefish in the abyss and ship's rest. while the boxfish photo i don't have any explanation for other than the creature moving around a little at some point in development, the anemonefish photos i have a more interesting explanation for!

we can use these photos, along with multiple other photos of clownfish in eo1 zooms taken during development (which are used on the plaques of eo2's aquarium), to deduce that this clownfish species was used as a test creature for zoom environments! i mean, it's pretty obvious they weren't intending for you to actually find clownfish in the depths... and due to their order in the game's internal d code life system, we can assume they were among the first zoom mode creatures to be added. it all lines up! though i'm glad the little guys don't have to suffer that insane water pressure anymore...

now, another big difference is the lack of water fog in most of these photos! it's especially obvious in the photos taken in zoom mode that this portion of the game had yet to be figured out at the point those photos were taken. for comparison, here's the yellow boxfish photo compared with a photo of the same staghorn coral zoom in the final game:

big difference, huh? this fog would be even stronger if i weren't using an emulator to take my photos - dolphin tends to skimp a little on the fog. but, this lines up with what we know about this game's development: during a post-release developer interview (which you can view translated into english here), they mentioned struggling to make this fog feel right - more oceanic than foggy feeling, and accurately changing with the player's current depth - and these photos illustrate that there was a time where fog in zoom mode spots was neglected entirely!

the screenshot of the open encyclopedia also has a lot of interesting differences from the final game. take a look here, comparing the same page:

(note that of course, the development photo was taken in japanese, while my screenshot is in english: "fish who live in the ocean" is actually what the deep sea section is called in the final japanese release... trust me, i checked)

so obviously, the layout of these pages is completely different! i imagine the details on these small fish would have been barely legible on the average person's tv at the time, so making them bigger was a good call. additionally, the encyclopedia used to be navigated using arrow buttons and a back button to exit! this back button is completely unused in the final game, probably just because it's redundant when in the final game, you can just press the b button to go back. three other small changes are that:

in the dev screenshot, the encyclopedia's page background is just a texture, as opposed to a 3d model as seen in the final game. this means it's likely the pages didn't flip like a real book does at this point.

the scientific names of the giant squid and the oarfish was altered.

there are no page numbers in the encyclopedia.

now, for a quick lightning round of smaller changes!

in the final game, there is only one place to find remoras: accompanied by the whale shark in entryway slope, in small numbers. this contrasts with the whale shark photo, in which way more remoras are seen surrounding it, and in an area deeper than entryway slope allows. since this photo was also an old promotional image, and we have footage of the game from previews around the same time, the most plausible explanation is that this whale shark was placed in the game's unused test stage (which i should also make a post about at some point lol).

the penguin photo was taken with an angle impossible in the final game, as was the polar bear photo and the starck's demoiselle photo.

also in the penguin photo, there are two hatches typically present on the deck of the gabbiano (one on either side of the mast), that are absent.

the water surrounding the gabbiano in the polar bear photo is a different color than in the final game.

the starck's demoiselle photo has a bright cyan water color in the background, which is never visible in the final game without camera hacks.

finally, one fun fact regarding the starck's demoiselle photo: it's actually used in-game, both in this game and in the sequel! in eo1, it can be found occasionally placed in the fake magazine spreads sent to the player for a C grade photo request, and in eo2, it is the photo used to represent "DIVING MAGAZINE" when viewing photo requests!

that's all of my rambling for now, i hope you found this interesting! if this kind of longpost is something you'd like to see more of in the future, let me know! i've got all sorts of topics in the chamber that i just need an excuse to write about lol

[asherthephoenix]

Oooh! Here's a question! What is one (1) headcanon you have for each reboot kiddo? (One for Priya, one for Bowie, and so on.)

Most of these I've had for awhile but thanks for helping me realize there were a few characters from this cast I never bothered to make hcs for lol. Some of these are gonna be sadder than others (I like making angst). TW FOR MENTIONS OF: Child neglect, transphobia, homophobia, the foster care system, child abuse, relationship abuse Caleb: Dumped Priya shortly after the season 2 finale when he realized they just weren't compatible and he'd rather just be friends (please let this be the case in s3🙏) Axel: She's related to Shawn and has a part time job as an instructor at the flower shop and fighting school. Years after the show she gets promoted to manager/class organizer

Nichelle: She's the daughter of the in-universe equivalent of someone like Beyonce or Will Smith, and so she got into acting as a baby.

Lauren: Her parents paid very, very little attention to her when she was a small child because they were preoccupied with their (full of illegal practices) circus buisness and Lauren was primarily raised by her older brother (who is 11 years older than her.) The computer was her babysitter a lot of the time and she got into creepypasta stuff at like age 4 Damien: He's trans ftm and was disowned by his parents after coming out, luckily he had a supportive aunt who took him in and allowed him to start HRT. He signed up for TD without hesitation or even bothering to look up what the show entailed when he heard he could win a million dollars because he knew he could use that money to A. repay his aunt for her kindness and B. afford top surgery

MK: Raised in the foster care system alongside her twin brother. She barely ever got anything for herself growing up and developed her klepto behavior after stealing her first video game and console (a 3DS and pokemon sun for anyone curious)

Raj: Figured out he was gay in middle school. Didn't want to come out because while he knew his immediate family would be supportive, his extended family overseas certainly wouldn't be. Needless to say his family cut contact with a lot of distant relatives after the show aired Wayne: He'd never actually had a girlfriend prior to being on TD. When the purple haired intern (who I hc started liking him after he helped her in the fear challenge) told him she had a crush on him she had to explain it very slowly several times over in order for him to understand what she meant Ripper: also had it rough growing up unfortunatley; he mentions at one point his parents dropped him a lot and told him that babies ruin everything so I don't think it's a stretch to say his parents were abusive. Axel was the first person who truly made him feel loved and accepted.

Zee: Uses perscription marijuana for anxiety. The soda is a clear metaphor for weed; while yes he drinks a lot of it normally since he probably wasn't allowed to use drugs (even perscription) on camera he seriously upped the amount of soda he drank as a sort of replacement

Chase: Was actually a decent person once upon a time and legitimatley did woo Emma over with actual charm. With time unfortunatley he started the youtube channel and once it took off the fame got to his head so he would do anything to make the next "viral video," including putting his GF's life in danger.

Emma: She used to be a model student- straight As, participated in a lot of extracirriculars, had a ton of friends, etc. All of that went down the drain when she used 90% of her time to work on the youtube channel. After breaking up with Chase (the second time) she went to therapy and is trying to become the great person she once was, but it's going to take quite a bit of time.

Julia: She first came out as queer for the sake of a pride month post/getting sponsorships from "queer friendly" brands but hadn't actually thought much about her sexuality at the time. Getting to know MK (and Bowie + the hockey bros) during TD made her realize she actually is a Lesbian, she wasn't lying like she thought she was. Millie: Developed a HUGE crush on Priya during s1. She first started gaining feelings around episode 6 or so but didn't quite process that it was a crush until she realized just how happy she was to have Priya back when she forgave her in the season 1 finale + how upset she would have been if she lost Priya. She cried herself to sleep after watching the season 2 livestream at the playa😭 Bowie: Was a huge brony when he was a kid and got into arguments about the show with grown men online in middle school Priya: After season 2, she was contacted by Courtney (who very reluctantly checked out the new seasons and was horrifed by Priya's situation) who offered to be her lawyer when suing her parents for the right to access the s1 prize money. They were sucessful and Priya moved in with Millie afterwards 😉

[dogtoling]

What is art fight? Do all you artists just. Punch in face

ok it's slightly better than that. As a quick introduction, Art Fight is a website with a yearly event that takes place every year in July. Very simply put, you make an account there, upload whatever OCs you have and want to display on there, and then just sit and wait around until July pops up. A week or so before the event starts, there is a theme reveal (this year the teams are Vampire and Werewolf), and people may choose a team to join, or be randomly assigned to a team after the event starts.

For the event itself, the objective is to "attack" artists that are on the opposing team by drawing their OCs. Attacking people on the other team nets your team points, which are tallied at the end of the event. But to be honest I feel like no one cares about which team actually wins. That might be "the objective", but really the objective is doing gift art and trades largely with strangers on the internet and making their day, and maybe getting surprise art in return!

When you attack someone, people might attack you back by drawing your OC, which begins something called a revenge chain! So that's when you're doing art trades (for people who have never heard the term art trade before because i've realized deviantart isn't hip or mainstream anymore, an art trade is an occasion where two artists draw a thing for each other). Not everyone does revenges though and ESPECIALLY not chains, so the main draw of the event is gift art. In general expecting stuff back tends to set people up for disappointment, especially if attacking the same team. Drawing OCs from your own team counts as "friendly fire", and while your team still gets points for it, you get DRAMATICALLY less points than you would for drawing for the opposing team. Either way it is a thing that you CAN still do.

The amount of points you get from an attack depends on the medium (which include stuff that isn't just drawing!), level of finish and polish, the general complexity of the art, the amount of characters in the piece et cetera. You determine these categories yourself while posting your attack, so it can be a bit daunting if you're not sure on things.

Art Fight recently introduced tag search, which lets you tag your OCs with specific tags (for example, "splatoon", "furry", "pokemon" or whatever) and search for characters with those same tags if you have preferences on what you want to draw. It also has some nifty other things, like the ability to customize your profile sometimes to insane degrees if you want, the ability to set permissions for characters (what people are and are not allowed to do with them), a storage for hiding characters if you want to retire them for a specific year but don't want to delete and re-add them later, the ability to link stuff to character profiles such as their toyhouse or full reference sheets, fields for crediting artists for the design or art if you got it from somebody else... et cetera. It also has some achievements, if you're into that kind of stuff.

The barrier of entry is really kind of low and the event is very versatile - you can go the whole fight making pixel sprite attacks, you can do 3D models, you can do halfbodies, you could even just do sketches and call it a day and that's all very valid and usually always fun. Personally I find Art Fight really fun because not only do you get to pick characters to draw that you might never have seen otherwise, but also have a completely good excuse to draw other people's characters and make their day. I usually spend a lot of Art Fight trying out different art styles and dabbling in stuff I normally do less, and don't have much motivation to do with my own characters - for example, last year I did digital art, painting, pixel sprites, pixel animation, 3D modeling and 3D animation and yeah I wouldn't have done any of those without the Art Fight excuse of "yeah why not draw this guy's OC". So it's also a really good way to step out of what you usually do with your art, and try different styles or mediums just to see what it's about.

And of course, the most important tidbit: the site is always, and I mean always, EVERY year, down at the start of the event. Every year the first week of Art Fight the site is completely unusable. The good news is, you can join Art Fight even in the middle of the event, and joining the site doesn't require you to partake in every upcoming Art Fight or even to pick a team. You can simply spectate and not partake one year, then come back the next and pick a team. TL;DR it's fun.

[wyrdwulf]

I've been looking at Palworld discourse as I come across it because it's something that interests me in a few ways. Discussions of AI usage and of plagiarism in media affects artists, and I am a big Pokemon guy even if I am highly critical of the games and company practices rnow. I think there's a lot of valid reason not to support Palworld/studio that made it, and to criticize the game-- the dev being a huge fan of using AI in making games and Cryptobro is enough for me, tbh. But I also feel like there are some arguments and reactions being had about why the game is bad where there's like, validity to them to an extent, but that people are working on assumptions or being overly reactive in a way that muddies valid arguments that can and should be made? And I think overlooking that is. I dunno. Not helpful in trying to have conversations on what is and isn't bad form in making art.

One of the big things is the whole accusation that the monster designs in Palworld are AI generated. I will be perfectly upfront with my take-- based on comments and tweets made by the dev, (especially the one below) I really do suspect that AI could have been used to either make monster designs wholesale, or to 'help' the process along. However, there is no definitive proof of this. This has not been confirmed. But I see so many people spreading that 'fact' as if it is. And again, I really do suspect that could be the case, but like. It's not helpful to spread misinformation, even if it's for a cause that might be good. Both because misinfo is just generally harmful and because it can do so much harm to your argument when you include falsities or state conjecture as fact to people.

Side note-- I've been seeing now that there are claims that the Palworld models are either direct rips of or heavily copy Pokemon models. For that, too, I've already been seeing that the claims of them being full rips can be proven false, but that it is very arguable that there are some severe similarities between elements of certain models, etc. I'm no 3D modelling expert, so for me I really just want to take this information with a grain of salt and wait until I see definitive proof one way or another.

Another thing I've been thinking about is the claims of the monsters fully plagiarizing existing Pokemon... To start, there's a whole question of parody and what constitutes being fair parody versus just stealing which I feel could be debated here. From what I've seen, the game was kinda marketed as parody, and looking at for example the Salazzle clone, its description really seems like it's parodying Salazzle to me. But moving past that, I do really feel that some of the Palworld monster designs are blatantly ripping off Pokemon-- however, I think that it's like, WAY less than I see a lot of people asserting. I've seen some people arguing that the Palmons are legally distinct enough that none are ripoffs but like, c'mon--

I genuinely think someone who argues that this guy doesn't look like Luxray is lacking observational skills.

This is another one for me that like, yes, the silhouette and certain features are different enough to make it 'distinct', but I feel like anyone with pattern recognition should be able to see the colors and design elements being waay too similar here to be a coincidence.

Also, there are definitely designs that feel like mashups of multiple Pokemon features to me, like this guy feeling like it's got Meganium, Serperior, Lilligant, Goodra in it--

But then there are some that I see people using as examples of plagiarism where I'm just like. Brother. That's just Common JRPG Mob Design.

I'll just use this guy as my one example but like. Claims that this is just a Wooloo rip are wild to me. This looks like I can find it in like half of fantasy JRPGs. There's other examples like this where I'm just like... I get that because a good amount of these monsters ARE very likely ripoffs/inspired by existing Pokemon, people are trying to find the Pokemon 'in' each Palmon, but I feel like so many of the comparisons are stretches which can weaken genuine argument.

Also this is an aside but a very petty thing-- I'll be seeing people claim X palmon is a ripoff of Y Pokemon when there's a different Pokemon that feels like a better comparison, like this guy?

So much closer to the unreleased water starter line from gen 2 than Lapras. C'mooooon.

I guess tl;dr though, I think there are genuine issues about artistic integrity, plagiarism, possible AI use and such which should be discussed about this game, and again, the company's ties with AI and crypto are reason enough to not support them, but. I feel like when having these conversations it's best to critically think about what's proven fact and what's speculation, and to consider what's a strong argument for why it might suck and what's not.

[thebean-17]

🖤 - 𝖇𝖎𝖔 ???

Wanted to make a bio since I hope to possibly make some friends or talk with some cool people that share any of my interests.

First, you can call me Bean, I'm 21 so sometimes I might post things that are 18+. It's bound to happen so mdni. I go by any pronoun, so won't really care what you go with. I am just someone that likes a bunch of random shit, so my blog is a way of displaying that.

Check out my pronouns page if you're ever unsure: thebean_17

Things I do:

Play video games

Listen to music

Read & write

Play guitar & drums

Sing

Paint and do digital art

Practice paganism

Sometimes do 3D modelling

Watch movies & shows

Collect records, gothic stuff, bugs, bounties geeky stuff (Pokemon stuff, Yu-Gi-Yo cards, anime or hero figurines, and comic books)

Things I like:

🖤 I have a strong interest for horror, indie, action, thriller, fantasy, mystery, sci-fi, and adventure films and shows. I'm always on the lookout for something fresh and unique, whether it's a recent release or a classic from a different era and country.

🖤 I enjoy reading poetry, fantasy, history, biographies, gothic literature, classics, science fiction, thrillers, horror, dark romance, mythologies, occult works, and various non-fiction novels.

🖤 I really enjoy metal music ranging from black metal, nu-metal, gothic metal, deathcore, alt metal, prog, thrash metal, and doom metal. I enjoy other genres like emo, punk, folk, classical, jazz, R&B, EDM, shoegaze, rock, indie, psychedelic, prog, and tons more.

🖤 I like spirituality and philosophy, and things related to psychology. I feel like all of those sometimes intertwine with each other in some way or another. I do divination and like reading about stuff related to astrology, so a lot of occult-y stuff as well.

🖤 I like learning different languages like Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Latin, and Dutch.

🖤 I really enjoy DnD. I haven't been in many groups to make a DnD campaign last long though.

🖤 I enjoy playing video games like Baldur's Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Blasphemous, Hades, DOOM, the Elder Scrolls series, Hellblade, Witcher 3, FNF (Friday Night Funkin'), Minecraft, RuneScape, GTA series, Fallout series, Stardew Valley, Legend of Zelda (just like the entire series), Sims, Binding of Isaac, Assassin's Creed, and Terraria.

🖤 From time to time, I enjoy doing a bit of coding (mainly just for fun and practice).

🖤 - 𝖜𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖊𝖑𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖘𝖆𝖞? ???

If anyone wants to chat, feel free to reach out. I like the idea of only making new friends, especially anyone that shares my interests.

🖤 - 𝖒𝖞 𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘 ???

Blog 1. the-fire-within0 (my "low-effort" pagan blog)

Blog 2. skogjeger (my "high-effort" pagan blog)

[ask-obt]

A question for Woo. Would you enjoy an explorers DX getting revealed on the upcoming Pokemon Day?

// if this hypothetical proposes that this sort of explorers DX would be almost exactly the same in execution to rescue DX then I'd have to say................ no..............

before you bring out the pitchforks, let me explain myself. anyone who attends my streams or catches me in the wild in discord servers knows that I don't really like how the 3d games look. it's not as much a debate on "does pixel art or 3d models look better", but more "which style does chunsoft handle better", which I can sum up how I feel about in one screenshot

which is to say, my main problem with the 3D games is that the charm kinda got sucked straight out of them. it's true that pixel sprites have limitations- it's why we have portraits to more easily convey how characters are feeling, and your brain can fill in any missing details. but with 3D games, every aspect is able to be rendered out, and if you aren't going 100% all in, it's a lot more easy for the intended emotions to fall through. we have the ability to have pokemon emote like this now,

so why on earth is this the range that we're stuck with for PMD?

the simplest answer I can think of is that chunsoft is trying to apply the same strategy they used with sprites onto 3D models... which I think could work in theory, but not in the way they're applying it. as is, they don't have the models emote much and rely on portraits to carry the intended emotion through. the models also have some of the most stiff rigging I've seen in any game to date. I'm sure it has something to do with hardware limitations, but if that's the case I don't see why they couldn't create something that would fit their needs better like pokemon rumble's low poly models. well I know the answer is that they don't wanna actually render new 3D models for a PMD game and just use the library of models they got from gamefreak, but I like to think something like XY or ORAS's overworld models would make for a nicer looking game.

one pet peeve of mine is seeing folks praise DX for its unique look, which I think is true for the backgrounds!... but not really the models. I don't think putting an outline and paper texture overlay on the models is particularly revolutionary. it's a good direction to start, but far from peak aesthetic.

other problems I have with DX are how the main hub areas look (the grass for pokemon square is so blown out I have to play the game with lowered saturation and a darkened screen), and how the general UI looks in the dungeons. idk if it's because I'm neurodivergent or if it's just a "me" thing, but there's so much useless information being thrown at me at all times in a dungeon that it makes it really hard to focus on what's happening

I imagine this is mostly a side effect of losing the dual screen ability on the switch and I don't really have a proposed solution, but at least removing the text bubbles that come up every single time you get attacked or use a move would be a good start. maybe just save those for critical hits or smth idk, I don't really need to hear every single thought that comes out of my team.

I also think accessibility features like the auto-dungeon crawl feature are nice for those who want it, but it does feel a little overpowered by (seemingly) knowing exactly where the stairs are in a dungeon, which can take the exploration aspect out of playing the game. I'd also like the ability to disable that feature in a menu since I tend to misclick sometimes and accidentally activate things lmao

I just kinda tore into DX, but there are a few things I do like about it. the gummi system is vastly improved first of all (thank god I can stop grinding for one million gummis), and I think the dungeon environments are some of the best to come out of the series. I also think the models wearing scarves is super cute, I loved it in Super and am glad it made a return here. I'm sure there are other QOL features I'd like in theory but I kinda... didn't get very far in the game due to the aforementioned graphical and UI issues that felt like actual sandpaper to my brain.

if there was an explorers DX, I actually think one fun direction the series could take is something like pokemon cafe remix or paper mario, which is still the energy of a 2D game just using nice looking art assets instead of sprites. I just think a PMD game that looks like this could be really cute and charming...

and it'd probably be closer to chunsoft's wheelhouse since it'd take notes from how they put the sprite games together! just wishful thinking though. my current crack theory is that rescue DX was just to test the waters for how popular PMD still is and maybe to test out the engine on switch before releasing an original game, a la let's go pikachu/eevee to sword/shield. I doubt they'll make an explorers remake.

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS : Platinum Version

Game: Pokemon Platinum Version (September 13, 2008)

Console: Nintendo DS (Via emulation)

Another day, another Pokemon. After a really stressful and bad move. There was only one thing I wanted to do to destress: PLAY POKEMON PLATINUM!! So I did! And now I'm here to tell YOU what I thought about it!

That's all I got for an intro. So as always, this isn't a review! Just my thoughts on the game after beating it! If I ever talk about a game that interests you, regardless of my opinion, you owe it to yourself to PLAY THE GAME!!

AS ALWAYS, POKEMON PLATINUM SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Opening

So, much like Emerald last year, this is actually my first time playing through a Sinnoh region game! In a weird way I have a lot of nostalgia for DPP, while also having less nostalgia for it than RSE? For example, it's featured very prominently in Brawl. But like, I had barely seen any gameplay of these games before. But also, I played SoulSilver as a kid. So there is a connection there even if it's all over the place! I actually have a fond memory of picking my brother up from school and having him tell me that the new Pokemon generation would have a Monkey, Penguin, and Turtle starters... Crazy how time (and space) just seems to slip on like that. But there's no time (nor space) for that! Let's get right into Pokemon Platinum!

Stuff I liked

So... first off... This game is gorgeous. Seriously gorgeous. The music and sprites really hit a sensitive spot in my brain and heart and soul. Cause my first night playing I was almost moved to tears by how pretty it was! I'm not kidding! It just really got to me for some reason! I think having actual day / night cycle that line up with real life is so charming. Even if I did end up mostly playing at night it actually made me want to play at different times to day so I could see the changes and hear the different TOD music. The sprites are seriously legendary, GBA sprites might still be a personal favorite but I think Pokemon have never looked better than they do specifically in the DS Main Series games. I still kind of consider them to be the gold standard for how a lot of Pokemon look and tend to pull out DS era sprites as reference more than their official artwork lol. And not only that, but 3D Models are used in this pretty heavily for the first time in the series. And maybe it's just cause I'm a sucker for 2D sprites on 3D backdrops, but I think it looks great! Visually, I think hands down this is the best Pokemon thusfar.

Next up, the music. Oh it was so nice, I loved a lot of the town themes this time. They were all really relaxing and comforting (again maybe cause I mostly played at night lol) and my personal favorite theme was Route 209 which I think might be a super generic choice BUT IT'S GOOD!! In general DS Pokemon has a really nice and cute soundfont. Maybe I'm just nostaglic from HGSS but... I'dunno! I like it a lot!

And the whole world of Platinum continues my personal favorite things I've been really loving about this series. Technology, and each region having a specific theme that shapes the plot and legendaries. On the technology side, the Poketech RULES. I made basically no use of it, but it's super cute and I feel like I would have been IRRITATING pulling out Platinum for the calculator constantly as a kid lol. And getting to collect new apps for it was super cute. I really love seeing the technology upgrade in the world as the technology in real life upgrades, even when tech in Pokemon is so sci-fi, it's very connected to our real world technology. And of course this ties into the tech the consoles are on with this game having online and TOD stuff. It's just... SO COOL how these games actually use technology to make each game so fascinating and cool in a tech way?? Idk.

As for the theme. Kanto had science, Jhoto had Spirituality, Hoenn had Prehistory, Sinnoh seems to be deeply rooted in... I don't know how to put it. Creation? Existence? As this focused more on human origin and creation? It has some interesting religious stuff too, even featuring a church which is surprising for a Nintendo game lol. But the whole theme of the fabric of reality with Time and Space and Distortion was very cool. And an interesting theme to set the plot around with the villains going from being kinda Rocket-esc lowlifes to becoming full blown terrorists to having the most INSANE plan yet. With the highest stakes of ANY villain team so far. It's neat.

Speaking of that, I did think the distortion world was kinda cool. I was pleasantly surprised to have the chance to actually fight the Boxart legendary after I felt a little robbed of that in Emerald. It was a neat set piece and having that last tense showdown with Cyrus in this bizarre purple hellscape was exciting! In general, I would really like to see more boss fights against Pokemon that aren't controlled by a trainer in the main story.

Sinnoh in general, I quite liked. It felt oddly familiar to me in a way. I think because so much of it is comprised of forests and lakes? It felt like something you'd see down where I live. And it has some pretty interesting areas like the beach town where they use solar panels as roads??? Totally solar punk dude I LOVED that. Super cute NPCs with some nice Gym Leader designs (a lot of hot girls in this game Cynthia was so FINE), Dawn is one of the peak Pokemon protagonist designs. It's a nice region with a lot of nice areas and people to love.

But, most importantly. How about those Pokemon? This is what it always comes down to for me. I play these games FOR THE POKEMON. They're who I want to see! Honestly? I quite like the Sinnoh dex! As a kid I remember really hating a lot of the Pokemon in this region. But I think that was childish genwunner brain. It's a GREAT selection of Pokemon with some genuinely fascinating choices for monsters. A venus fly trap, a straight up portal. Some of my favorite Pokemon come from this region like Mismagius and Darkria. And, I think DPPT does an OKAY job with the distribution. I was able to meet a lot of new faces and ultimately build a team with a few Pokemon I really wanted. But it's not perfect. Let's jump into that next section to talk about some issues I had when catching Pokemon.

Stuff I didn't like

So, yeah, I built a nice team and caught a lot of Pokemon. The distribution isn't bad. But it's not... great? So, at the start you'll be catching new guys left and right. Buizel, Bidoof, Kricketot, Shellos, Shinx... And then for about half the game you'll kinda realize... You're STILL running into those same guys over and over and over! So you end up with most of the Pokemon you'll meet right out the gate. Yes that's not entirely true, and when you get to the snowy region the selection opens up more. But still you'll be fighting the same handful of Pokemon for a good chunk of the game. And for as much as I like the selection of Pokemon, a lot of them are kind of weird looking and never really grew on me. And I think they rely a little too much on evolutions of old Pokemon. A surprising amount of them are evolutions. And while some of the new forms are personal favorites like Mismagius and Mammoswine. Sometimes they just ruin a line with something like Rhyperior!!

Alright alright. So, for as much as I liked Platinum. It had a lot of really weird shortcomings in my opinion. A big one being, you may have noticed... I don't compliment the story pretty much at all. I think it's kind of weak overall. The game opens and the reason you get your starter feels really weak and rushed. Like it's all just kind of happening to you really quickly? And then the plot is sort of nothing for most of the game. Galactic is there and doing low level crimes... Looker is there and he do be looking. Your rival is there and he talks... But there's not much happening for a good portion of the game and it just kinda feels like, underwhelming? And then part way through Galactic become terrorists and the game goes from 0 to 100 out of NOWHERE! JUST YESTERDAY I WAS COINCIDENTALLY RUNNING INTO A GUY WHO GAVE ME A TURTLE NOW I HAVE TO GO TO AN ALTERNATE REALITY!? It's not bad exactly it just feels so... Odd to me.

Then the gameplay, I can't help but be disappointed about team battles. Emerald introduced 2v2 battles and even had one whole single team battle with a partner! Platinum has way more 2v2 team battles! One where you fight alongside a green haired baddie and one where you fight alongside a guy who looked like sir aaron from the Lucario movie! That's awesome! But, and I know this was an unrealistic expectation... My beautiful 3v3 battles... Why didn't it happen? Just one battle where I control 3 Pokemon? Or it's me and 2 other people fighting all at once? I want MORE interesting things playing on the traditional battle system! I know BW will have 2 rivals. But somethings telling me to not get my hopes up for 3 way battles.

And lastly. The difficulty. Dude. I don't know if it was just me, but this game was HARD. Like, easily the hardest Pokemon game thusfar. I don't know what happened! I feel like every single story fight was a massive roadblock where I just couldn't made any progress to save my life. Grinding felt slower than the last 3 games, and it really felt like no matter how much I grinded or how high a level I was. The gym leader's final Pokemon would be 10 levels lower than me and still wipe my entire team by spamming a single move. I hit these roadblocks CONSTANTLY. During EVERY major boss battle in the game. I'm not kidding. I genuinely have no idea what I was doing wrong! I'm not a team building expert but I never had EVERY boss be a total roadblock. And sadly, this kind of made the game a drag. I knew I'd had to grind like crazy and just pray for good luck during each fight because being overleveled didn't help, odds are I'd miss all my attacks and get wiped insantly. And it really sucked the air out of a lot of scenes for me.

Final Thoughts

Platinum is a very good game. I completely understand why so many people say it's their favorite. It is COOL! It's easily the prettiest looking, maybe one of my favorite soundtracks so far in the main series. It's got a great selection of Pokemon and is fun. But ultimately, I just can't help but feel like it's missing something. Like it just has a lot of shortcomings in important areas I needed it to not have shortcomings in. If that makes sense?

Let's take a look at that tier list:

I always feel like a bit of a crazy person when I put any of these games lower than Red. OBVIOUSLY they are objectively superior to Red in nearly every way. But ultimately, for everything Platinum does better. I think Red still beats it at distribution of Pokemon, it's story, and making good use of its characters and villains. I do think this game IS a step up, but it's just not personally my favorite I don't think. However, it's still a cool game and I'm very happy I played through it!

===

That's that! Lately I'm a little swamped with irl stuff and work lately but I really had an itch to write some afterthoughts today! There's so much I'm playing atm and still some games I need to write about and there's so many upcoming games I wanna try and so many games I have that I haven't played. But we'll get to it.

Also this is completely random, but I like to mess around with the content for a game in Smash Bros. when I beat its origin game. And while I always liked Spear Pillar, after playing Platinum, it is straight up one of my all time favorite stages. It RULES! So chaotic, so gorgeous, and the detail of the bottom layer being the underground mechanic? That's SO FUCKING COOL!! Genuinely a new favorite!

Next up is Black & White! Which I actually have tried before! But never beat. So I'll hopefully be fixing that... Sometimes soonish!

If you wanna see the cold ass crew for Platinum you can right here!

And as always, you can follow me on twitter to see what I'm playing right as I beat it!

That's all I got! Go out and play something you wanted to as a kid, but never got around to!

[blueberry-lemon]

hot take alert

I feel like we're in a weird space right now where a lot of stylized 3D-modeled games just.....don't look SUPER great visually? I think because they don't have the budget or the time or the processing power to pull off what would work better?

Like there's games that I LOVE how they look...like Mario Odyssey and Mario Wonder, or Kirby and the Forgotten Land, or Pikmin 3 and Pikmin 4, or Dragon Quest 11.

But then there's games like the new Dragon Quest Monsters, Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, Super Mario RPG Remake, Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, Detective Pikachu Returns, stuff like that...where stuff feels really off?

I genuinely wish that more publishers would start taking "make games in 2D again" as a genuine option for games that have lower budgets. Something about how the colors and lighting and such work for a lot of lower-budget games just makes me regret that they're 3D at all.

Big credit to games like A Hat In Time and Penny's Big Breakaway and Flock who feel like they accept their limitations and tackle an art design they can fully pull off.

Long story short I guess I just wish there were more AAA 2D games. There's still so much on the table that could be done with 2D.

[doubleddenden]

Today's beta content was heavy on the scrapped pokemon content for XY with some from BW and RS scratch pads.

However, the XY ones are astounding. I think anyone that's seen them on Twitter and keeps up with the beta content like I have will agree that these are literally the highest quality scrapped pokemon we've ever seen. Fully drawn and detailed- dunno about 3d models yet, there's still a lot left to find, but still- there's only a small handful, but they're all of incredible quality. Even concept art of Noibat is easy enough to see repurposed as a Future Paradox, I think.

Literally looking at some of them and all the other scrapped content for XY (they actually planned a rhyhorn racing mini game for example), and looking at how little we actually get for new pokedexes or what came after- we were robbed. Actually robbed.

Like yall there's a flamingo that serves cunt there. I think it's supposed to be beta Aromatise but it can be its own thing- it's what you think of when you think of an actual flamingo Pokemon. In gen 6. And look at fucking Flamigo in gen 9. Flamigo feels like a slap in the face looking at what we almost had. Like there's a downgrade and then there's THIS, man.

The others, especially the cassowary looking guy and peanut dinosaur guy, I need them so bad. Those are friends trapped in an alternative timeline.

Otherwise there's concept art for beta megas of the Kanto starters and Mewtwo. This was probably when they were getting a feel for what Mega Evolution was, during a time when they were considering it just a normal Evolution. Still, they look so ALIEN in such a cool and distinct way. Charizard Y has a gigachad chin, really pronounced bones and a tail that kinda has a furnace inside- it looked bulky, but the tail was sort of a thruster and it was almost more of a wyvern in some art. Venusaur ACTUALLY ALMOST LOOKED LIKE A FROG. Or toad. Whatever, the animal inspiration was actually clear. Blastoise is remarkably the least changed, but it's still a more bad ass take with a mustache sometimes. All 3 kind of resemble elders kf their species or mutations binded with something alien. I like the final results mind you, but god damn this is such a waste that we didn't get these somehow as Paradoxes or Bloodmoon type pokemon yknow? Like yeah Kanto pandering, but still, that's how cool they look to me.

The Mega Mewtwo concept is also really cool and I get why they're referred to as Mewthree and Mewfour in concept. One looks so fucking cool, like Mewtwo as a Xenomorph. The other is much closer go Y. Looking at this, I can certainly see how the alien plot theory could have happened and it would have made sense that Mewtwo went further because of it- yet there's no evidence of any alien plot line like that one theory posted way back. Not yet anyway. Mewtwo X is such a let down in comparison to Xenomorph Mewtwo imo.

Interestingly there does not seem to be any scrapped megas so far other than one who I won't say on the off chance it's added to ZA. Even in ORAS beta. Flygon isn't mentioned at all, which probably means it never even left the drawing table (or GF lied and it was simply never planned). God damn, art block hits like a bitch.

Regardless, this art is really incredible and I love the art style. I know Sugimori art is the series staple, but it would have been neat to try this for a bit imo.

I hope maybe more come up, but they've also started on Switch games, with Legends Arceus concept art and prototypes. For some reason Brock was their beta model, and there's concept art of Rei and Akari with slightly different hats and a slightly different Jubilife village. Otherwise there's not any Hisuian pokemon variants at this point, and it may have been planned to have the DP starters instead. Some pages seem like a pitch for it, and Legends Arceus is now a game far more important than most realize.

LA was pitched from the get go and it seems like they wanted to forgo DP remakes all together. The game was meant to be a foundation for how all future games in the franchise would grow and be a testing ground for a lot of new ideas to implement later on in the series, and to purposely draw in a different crowd than usual. I think that they accomplished that anyway, even if it's a bit unpolished graphics wise. Still, concept art for it's wilderness is incredibly detailed and gorgeous.

It'd be neat to find scrapped Pokemon for it, but I think there might not be much for it considering the type of game it is. There's a few fun mockup doodles of the Hisuian starters that make me laugh- literally ms paint type drawings of an angry bird, sassy hisuian Typhlosion, and an angry quadruped animal. Maybe they did want Hisuian starters, but concepts weren't made until they had a feel for the setting- which was originally envisioned 150 years ago instead of the proposed 200 fans made. Still, very close.

These betas keep giving, man. I don't even want ZA or Gen 10 leaks, I just wanna see more of this behind the scenes stuff. For concepts it's higher quality than most finalized artwork, and there's clearly a lot of detail that we don't ever get to see. It really puts into perspective how much effort goes into world building and Pokemon design behind the scene, and what's dumbed down for marketing.

[callmearcturus]

What made you choose the odin over other similar game boxes?

GREAT question because there are a LOT of options out there, I even did a big post about them a while ago when folks were curious.

I actually started out with a Retroid Pocket 2+ as my first device. I hugely enjoyed it, played a bunch of DS games on it as well as a lot of PSX games. I think the current iteration of it, the Retroid Pocket 3+, is an excellent pick if you want a midtier device. At this point, the RP3+ is like a Odin Lite Lite.

My issue with my RP2+ was that I really wanted the ability to stream games from my PC, because I am a pirate yo ho ho and I wanted access to that much more robust library. Also, my interest in the Dreamcast/Gamecube/PS2 console generation is at its peak right now and that's the library I want to play comfortably.

So when I got a bonus from work, I bit the fucking bullet and got the AYN Odin Lite, because it also happened to be like 50$ off at the time.

(Oooh, which it currently is right now too, go figure!)

For the curious, I loaded my RP2+ with literally as many games as I could stuff into the things and I gave it to a friend as a gift.

I was worried that I wouldn't use the Odin enough to justify the purchase..... but then I immediately put like 20 hours into Pokemon Unbound and I completed Persona 3 Portable. And then I used Parsec to play the entirety of Persona 4 Golden and I am now 80 hours into Persona 5 Royal. And now I might spin up a playthru of SMT4 or the PS2 version of SMT 3 Nocturne, unsure.

Here's the reasons I like the Odin, even though its one of the pricier devices you can get:

Yes, it costs 200USD for the Lite model. But the Lite model does pretty much everything the more expensive Base and Pro models do with minimal compromises. Also for 200USD, you get extremely good components, very comfortable professional feeling buttons and joysticks-- like, this thing feels slightly better than a Switch Lite, honest to god. Unless you wanna dual boot Windows, you don't need more than the Lite.

It has Wifi 6 so it streams like a fucking dream. If the Odin itself can't handle emulating a game but my computer can, I can play flawlessly from Parsec. As I mentioned before, a few weeks ago I was sitting in a cute coffee shop literally like 25 miles away but was playing Persona 5 via Parsec. It also works natively with Game Pass streaming perfectly.

Even without streaming, this fucker is BEEFY. I personally love it for PSP games. Playing at 4x or 5x resolution makes the games look stunning.

My biggest problem with my CFW 3DS is the battery. I tend to play games for 4ish hours at a time, and then put the thing aside for a few days. With my 3DS, the thing will HAVE to be left plugged in or it will be dead by the next time I wanna play. This also means I can't just drop it into my bag to wait around for time to play, it'll inevitably be dead. My Vita and Odin can live in my bag for over a week before I have to worry about the battery. That is HUGE for me.

The Retroid Pocket 2+ very comfortably and ably played up to the DS and most Dreamcast games, but PSP was a crapshoot and even some PSX games weirdly could only run at x1, which was disappointing to me. The Odin Lite can play everything I want to play and as a bonus it can do what seems like half the 3DS library and about 40% of the PS2 library, which I would like to revisit.

Cracked devices and emulation are becoming a hobby of mine as everyone sans Microsoft works around the clock to make their enormous back catalogs fucking inaccessible. The fact the 3DS shop is closing soon pisses me off so much I can barely express it, I think that shit should be illegal. There are so many games and frankly works of art that are going to be completely inaccessible legally! FUCK THE ESA!

Point is, this stuff is important to me. I back up games I never intend to actually play on my external hard drive just in case. But out of all the devices I have played with, my favorites are easily the Odin and my cracked Vita. Both are miraculous, and I feel like I'm literally defeating my "hmmmmm what do I wanna play" indecision thanks to them.

That said, depending on your needs, I still think the Miyoo Mini and the Retroid Pocket 3+ (current iteration of Retroid) are excellent choices. As is a Vita! My god I love my Vita! I've never been a fan of any of the Anbernic devices and would avoid them.

[decamarks]

Hey there! First off I want to say I *adore* your art, you absolutely 1000% perfectly tap into the vibe and style of late 90's/early 00's 3D models in a way literally no one else does. I think about your art of your fake games' glitches (especially the forum post!!! it's. *perfect.*) all the time :)

And I've noticed how you're always very insightful and kind whenever you answer asks, so thank you for that!

If it's not too intrusive to ask, I was wondering how you went about finding a doctor to get your autism diagnosis? I've been pretty sure for a few years now that I'm on the spectrum, but I've never had a clue how to actually get tested/diagnosed. Especially since I'm an adult female too, and I've heard a ton about how autism is really overlooked/underdiagnosed for people like us.

But seeing that you were able to find someone who avoided all the common pitfalls and was able to actually help you made me want to reach out. I had been wanting to ask you this for a while (as you can probably tell based on what the question was haha) but I was too anxious to actually do it (still am, a bit ><). Again, feel free to ignore this part if it's too personal or you don't want to answer it for any reason!

It feels awkward to end an ask with that, so I'll bookend it with something I think you'll like: have you ever heard of trsrockin.com? It's an old fansite I used to visit religiously as a kid that talked about early Pokemon and Super Mario games and collectibles from them, as well as oddities like glitches from the aforementioned games, forgotten weird one-off SNES games, documenting fake/trick fanmade "cheats" for games, and bootleg merchandise.

It's one of if not the first public place (afaik) that MissingNo. and pals were discovered/talked about, and a little community came together to try and figure out why the glitch happened and what all the effects and variants of it were. Even you've been to trsrockin before and none of this is new info, I thought it would at least be a nice trip down memory lane :)

It's an old site that has since been taken down, and for some reason archive.org can't properly archive the full site/all its links. But luckily someone created a complete mirror of it! You can find it here: http://catfish.it.cx/trsrockin/trsrockin.com/index.html

AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! ;__; you're too kind... i know i haven't posted too much of my 3d work recently, but trust me, i have a LOT more of those faux-retro aesthetics in store with the game i've been working on... >=) i'm always so so happy to see other people appreciate janky ol' 3d graphics, LMFAO

also!! i've definitely heard of trsrockin eheehee... i was a bit too young to use it when it was in its prime (and also more of a bulbapedia enthusiast), but i've perused some archived pages before! old internet forums & fansites are just the best thing in the world...

ANYWAY: regarding your question! Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm the best person to give advice about this, because I feel like I kind of got my diagnosis by chance... Essentially: I started seeing a new therapist; she suggested I might be on the spectrum, I said, "Yeah maybe IDK"; I got a referral to an evaluator—and then an incredibly expensive diagnosis after a few months of waiting and testing.

My case differs in that I didn't really suspect being on the spectrum myself. Which seems a bit silly, considering I now realize I am... observably autistic. In abundance. But it was genuinely hard to puzzle out, what with all my other problems (particularly, severe misophonia, which can be REALLY hard to differentiate from general sensory sensitivity.) So about specifically seeking out a diagnosis, I unfortunately can't give a good answer. But I'm willing to talk about the rest, on the off-chance it ends up helpful! (Under the cut at least.)

I don't like to be too open about my Issues™ online—but I got a whole lot of them, and they used to be a lot worse than they are now, so I was stuck in that perpetual "adolescent with treatment-resistant depression" purgatory for, like... my entire adolescence! Because no one knew what the hell was wrong with me. I'm barely in adulthood now, but I'm extremely thankful to be broken out of that. Both the 'treatment-resistant depression' diagnoses AND the adolescence. Being told with authority that I, indeed, have an untreated case of mega-autism—and not an irreparably broken brain whose electrical activities zap SSRIs straight out of existence—is definitely relieving. And now I can confidently say shit like 'mega-autism', so like, wins all around.

About getting a diagnosis in general: in my case, I kind of needed one, because it would be not be feasible for me to go to school/work/exist without accommodations of some kind. (The evaluation I had was, in part, just to get a psychological report of any kind, since I desperately needed supporting documentation to request accommodations anywhere.) Otherwise, I'm honestly not sure if I'd bother?

On one hand, an official diagnosis is an incredibly affirming thing to have—especially if you didn't even suspect it before; things start making a lot of sense afterwards, LOL—but on the other hand, it is a tedious and kind of humiliating process. And possibly expensive.

And then, like you mentioned, there's the problem of some doctors being biased or plainly godawful at their job/poorly designed systems ruining everything for everyone. It's probably for incompetency on those ends that a diagnosis managed to elude me for nineteen years straight. (Vividly recalling the time my school had a counselor give me an impromptu autism evaluation, in which she concluded that I "didn't seem to have autism, but would probably get along really well with autistic people." WHATEVER THAT MEANT.) But! It's not impossible to get someone who knows what they're doing! I'd love to say otherwise, but I really did just stumble into a decent doctor... There's a lot of luck involved, and man. I did not get good RNG at first. (← I'M SORRY FOR BEING A GAMER.)

I went into the evaluation doubting I had it, and heavily doubting that I'd be diagnosed, but like... Hold on let me reach across your desk and slide you the answers to the autism test. The trick is to not even try to be normal, I think. Intermittently talk about CRT monitors, and how you like learning ciphers, and Pokemon glitches—or whatever else you're into. But those specifically worked for me! "Don't mask", is what I'm saying. (Really though, I think if you're answering everything to the best of your ability, properly administered tests done by a doctor who doesn't suck should be able to diagnosis you. If they don't, then the problem is something systemic, and far beyond anything I could reasonably give advice about...)

ANYWAY! (x2) I'm honestly not sure if any of this is particularly helpful, but if you decide to pursue it, I wish you luck with getting your diagnosis!! It's definitely a bit of a hellish thing to do—but dammit, if it's worth it to you, then it's definitely worth doing.

YOUR REWARD FOR READING THIS WHOLE POST IS: "Kinesin_walking.gif"

YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH