#I love pokemon especially the third generation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

avpdvoidspace · 2 months

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Since you've mentioned a couple of times having comorbid OCPD, would you mind explaining more about the effect that disorder has on you? Out of every PD, it's the one I never find people talking about. Due to that, and the diagnostic criteria itself being (as ever) exasperatingly superficial and vague, It's hard to know where to even look for information about it..!

Sure. I agree that it's very difficult to find information about ocpd online. I guess I could categorize my experience with ocpd into three categories: things that are absolutely recognized symptoms of ocpd, things that overlap with other obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders (like things more traditionally thought of as OCD symptoms), and things that I have to assume come from ocpd because they seem to but I don't know if they're universal because I don't see other people talking about having ocpd. So in terms of things that are definitely ocpd experiences: I really don't feel safe or comfortable in situations I don't have at least some control over. I need to control my space, my food, who is around me, etc to feel safe. This also applies to my time and schedule. I get very agitated when it's interrupted, even if I don't show it. I tend to plan my day's activities pretty rigidly and it stresses me out when I'm not able to follow through. I also have very rigid ways I like to do things, and it stresses me out if I have to do something with someone else's method or if someone in my apartment does something differently to how I would do it, especially things like eating without washing hands first, not taking shoes off before coming in, etc. I try to keep this kind of thing in check because I don't want to be controlling or obnoxious, but it causes me a lot of stress internally. This has been very difficult when I've had a job and I'm being told to do things a particular way but it's not MY way. It's also difficult when I'm intentionally trying to push myself to try a different method for, say, drawing something. Even though I'm making the choice, I'm breaking my method and it feels extremely Wrong. The next category is overlap with other obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders. I definitely get intrusive thoughts and the anxiety inducing spiral of 'something bad will happen if I don't have the tv volume set to an odd number' and 'I feel compelled to make sure my foot touches to the floor in a very certain way right now for Reasons'. I also have health anxiety that gets worse if I try to engage in reassurance seeking behavior (but this only started after I got diagnosed with a chronic illness, so it could be a combination of ocpd and trauma). But you can apply the mechanics of health anxiety to other things that pop into my head to frighten me with no basis in reality that start the reassurance seeking/me becoming more convinced the terrible thing is true cycle. Then the third category, which is random things I think are ocpd but who knows because there aren't a lot of other people out there talking about their personal experiences with it: I like recording things. Every day, I write the weather conditions down in a notebook. I also have very rigid records of my drawing time and draw with a stopwatch going to make sure I'm keeping track and write everything in a notepad++ file like so

I get extremely stressed out if anything gets in the way of this process! You could say my life kind of revolves around this actually. I've actually drawn at least an hour a day for about a decade (knock on wood...), and I track it every day. In general, I have a lot of fun creating methods and systems to follow rigidly. It's like a game even. Maybe why I like playing games with a lot of organization/time management... Love giving myself a list of tasks and completing them. Speaking of games, I love Pokemon Legends Arceus because it is essentially a checklist simulator. Also, I experience something similar to special interests but maybe not exactly the same. I wouldn't say hyperfixations either because they're not fleeting. They're very enduring. I wish I could explain more about how they're unique from either special interests (in the autistic meaning of the phrase) and hyperfixations (like with ADHD), but it's kind of hard to explain without feeling like I'm explaining it poorly. And last, something that could go in either this category or the second because it's something I've heard people diagnosed with OCD talk about experiencing is I have a weird thing with my memory where my visual/auditory memory are weirdly strongly connected. So if I'm listening to something while drawing, if I listen to it again, I can 'see' what I was drawing at the time. If I look at the drawing, I'll remember the part of the audiobook or whatever I was listening to. It's to the point that if I was listening to an audiobook while playing a certain video game, hearing the audiobook again will make me crave playing the video game really intensely! It's like I can see exactly where I was in the game as if I was playing it right now. Anyway, I hope that was helpful. I tried to include everything I could think of. My life is very rigid, but I guess if there's one more thing I could say about that, it's that the rigidity excites me and feels like it lights up my brain with feel-good chemicals. I think having ocpd is like a combination of extreme anxiety and the ability to create fun engaging activities all by myself and with very few resources.

#ocpd #obsessive compulsive personality disorder

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pyromaniac-cyndaquil · 2 years

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'Nemona isn't an interesting rival/character, her only personality is battling' is a take I can understand pre area zero, but I don't get how anyone can reach the credits and still think that, tbh. My opinion of her SKYROCKETED during the final arc, I think she's tied for my favourite character now.

Spoilers for the endgame, but I'm gonna rant about why Nemona is amazing and far more than people give her credit for:

Nemona has a happy life. Her parents love her, she's from a successful and wealthy family, she's top of her classes and student council president and is pretty well liked - all things that very much work as narrative foils to Penny and Arven.

As such though, it means she's not got deep rooted trauma or fear or conflict to work through as much as the others - but not every character needs this kinda thing. Nemona still develops and has a fleshed out personality - it's just not thrown in your face quite as much as it is with Arven.

She's very obviously some form of neurodivergent to start with - battling is clearly her hyperfixation, and she desperately wants to share that with her friends. The thought of a good fight sends her blood boiling in a good way, and one isn't enough! She needs another battle - no - twenty!

(side note: ppl acting like she's weird/yandere/monika ddlc for always wanting to battle the mc is wild. During the team star battle she's just put out, and saying she's the only one they need to battle is bc she wanted a third battle right as they entered the city and mc needed a break, but now they're up and battling again. She's also not fixated on battling them specifically - just people in general. She's hyped for the idea of mc becoming a worthy rival, that's all!)

She's a very understanding and patient rival, which is kind of ironic with how quickly she rushes into things and doesn't always think things through. She wants to make sure she's getting into a fair fight, especially if she knows her opponent is less experienced. Once she realises she got overexcited and terastillised her pokemon before the protag had an orb of their own, she immediately rushes to the school to pull some strings so they'll be on even footing again next time.

She's absolutely AWESTRUCK by the idea of fighting giant monsters. She's living the dream in area zero. The thought of other people fighting giant monsters makes them the coolest people in the world to her and she sees it as an honour.

A lot of her tactlessness comes in at this point - hearing her friends talk about painful memories and sheer terror involving big scary pokemon just has her excitedly hoping she can meet and battle whatever pokemon it was. She seems to struggle a lot to piece together tone and body language to figure out what's appropriate to say, but it's very obviously not meant maliciously and may even be her roundabout way of trying to help... It's clearly not what the others want nor need to hear, but I definitely think there's more to it than just 'OOOOH COOL SCARY THING':

Nemona is FIERCELY protective. She knows she's strong and she isn't afraid of anything that's happening here. She knows if anything were to happen, she's got the confidence to take on anything and keep her friends safe.

Arven's having a crisis from a lot of extremely painful memories he has of area zero. Penny is feeling pretty jumpy at everything and desperately trying to figure out what the hell happened down here. The protag is worried for their friends AND they're torn up about not knowing what's wrong with Koraidon/Miraidon. Nemona is being strong for all of them. She can show them she's not scared and that she's ready for everything. Hell, she promised to protect them all so. Many times. If she treats this like a fun group outing, maybe it'll become one.

Any time bickering starts in area zero, she tries her best to get them all to calm down and get along again - misunderstandings happen! She's overly optimistic for the dragon 'family reunion' and doesn't even register that it's not a positive one because she wants to see the best in everyone. Sure, that's a trait that could get her into trouble, but she has her friends to drag her head out of the clouds. (Note that she still stood protectively over Koraidon/Miraidon the entire time the other one was approaching, though. Regardless of her words she was still picking up on the danger there.)

She sees how down everyone is once they get out of the crater and her immediate reaction is to coax them all into going home the long way and making it into an adventure. Mc and Penny are generally feeling down and Arven and Koraidon/Miraidon have been through. So much. She wants to get the group laughing and smiling together again, to remind them that they have reasons to smile again, and that they are loved.

Nemona may not have a big deep tragic backstory, but she's the heart of the group. She's their light.

#pokemon #nemona #champion nemona #pokémon scarvio #pokemon sv spoilers #I'm not sure how well i got my thoughts across here but!!!! i wanted to share!#nemona is. so so good #she's such a sweetheart she's trying her best she just wants her friends to be happy!!!!!#i wasnt sure what i thought at first bc she's hardly present in victory road but!!!! i think she's my favourite rival now!#also I'm not autistic or anything myself so like.#if anyone has any corrections/things they think need changing when i mentioned nemona's neurodivergency pls let me know #pyro's thoughts

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sometipsygnostalgic · 11 months

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"Why is Alola so hated?"

Someone asked this question on Reddit.

The original post:

"Other than too much dialogue what is the worst thing about Alola. Alola is my favorite Pokémon games and region for a multitude of reasons but all I hear about it is that it has too much dialogue. I can understand that but later titles have just as much dialogue especially in the beginning portions of the game. So why is such an issue in these games than any other in the series. Also you thought the GD games were dark, the Aether Family are very dark concept if you want to look into them. Anyways back on topic, why are Alola considered the worst games besides the dialogue of course"

I thought about this question and I ended up writing a lengthy reply, see below. For context I should mention that Sun and Moon were my favourite mainline stories:

"So everyone is mentioning USUM, but since I was around for the launch of the games, I may as well throw my hat into the ring and explain what went wrong:

Everyone was really excited for the games to come out, but there was generally something missing from them. Promotional material was overly vague.

When the original Sun and Moon came out they had the following issues:

The story was very handholdy. I am a GREAT FAN of the story mode, but I have never replayed these games because they are basically visual novels. If you were a Nuzlocker, someone who wanted to replay Pokemon games, or if you didn't like the story, then these versions would automatically become your least favourite because of how long it takes to reach each milestone. It's also easier than a lot of prior games, not as easy as Gen 6 or 8 but up there.

While the region is IMO one of the most cohesive, it's also one of the least expansive. The Alola Region is fucking tiny. There's not nearly as many side things to do as in generations 4 and 5, and the new things they put into the Alola games were a lot less fun gimmick-wise. I like that they abandon the grid system, it needed to go, but Pokemon team don't seem to work well in 3d.

The online multiplayer was total ass. Of course, the online only got WORSE From here on out. How you get worse than Festival Plaza is beyond me, but I think Gen 7 is definitely when Pokemon jumped from having the BEST multiplayer system on Nintendo systems in generation 6 to one of the worst. Personally I was also disappointed the Festival Plaza wasn't a bit more like the Wifi Plaza, which was already a broken terrible mess but at least had some minigames. It seemed to take the wrong inspiration from Wifi Plaza, and tragically Pokemon only went downhill with online compatibility after. Because while technically the online is more fun in gen 8 and 9, it doesn't work.

The games leaked before they came out. Everyone saw concept art of the starters' final evolutions and they were SO MAD that Litten became bipedal. But there were very few surprises in Sun and Moon for people who prowled the reddit, who also seemed to be the least excited about the games.

However, what I don't think you understand is how much LOVE they had. Of all the pokemon games I've been around for the release of, I think Sun and Moon were most unanimously loved. Everyone was talking about the story, and the incredible new designs of the alola pokemon, and yeah they were having a lot of trouble playing online, but people persisted.

When Ultra Sun and Moon came out, people were veeeeery disappointed for three key reasons:

This was a dual release "third version" instead of a sequel. Again, everyone LOVED the story of the original games, by this point it felt that the "third version" idea was dated, and people wanted a damn sequel with their favourite characters! I think BW2 set a very high bar for what the Pokemon team could offer, and unfortunately I don't think they ever met that bar again after they started making 3d games.

It was on the 3DS instead of the Switch. I was NEVER expecting USUM to be Switch games, I knew Pokemon team were not ready for Switch, but for some reason people expected Pokemon Stars to be a Switch game. Everyone was reaaaaally excited for Pokemon Switch after the console launched, but Pokemon has always belonged on the DS, and I felt it had more potential for growth on that console before moving up on the chain. Of course, after the negative reaction to USUM and the begging for Pokemon Switch, Game Freak HAD to start development on Let's Go and Sw/Sh.

The things they'd added into the game were not as impressive as the other Third Versions. Pokemon Emerald and Pokemon Platinum were objective improvements from the original, though I have some things to say about Emerald's pacing. I like the minigames from Ultra, I fell SO in love with the Camera mode!!! Spent so much time fucking around in it and still have a folder in my computer to this day. HOWEVER, the people still yearn for a Battle Frontier! The Battle Factory they put in USUM seems to be based on community, which was already a pain in the ass, and as you know, it's now impossible to play online with others, so RIP to that as well. I like the changes to the Battle Tree, I love Rainbow Rocket, but while Platinum and Emerald were NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS from the ground up, USUM only improved some of the battles and held down everything else with more, worse cutscenes.

The story was much worse than the original, choosing to cut and change content instead of improve upon what was there. The story of Platinum and Emerald doesn't come across as worse than DP and RS, but EVERYONE thinks the story for USUM is a downgrade. The reason for this is because if Lillie was the true protagonist of the games originally, the Ultra versions tried to cut her down, but only for a couple of her most important scenes. She and Lusamine basically have every scene intact except for their most important, climactic moments. It's like if instead of BW2, they made Pokemon Grey but it was split in half, and instead of being an evil fucko gunning for world domination, Ghetsis was trying to use the power of the two Dragons to stop Kyurem from freezing the world, except he still abused pokemon, and he still abused N from childhood, and N never showed up to become champion and N never realised the truth of pokemon or turned against his father. How terrible would that be?

No remakes or anything special at the end of the gen. For the past few generations we'd either had remakes or sequels, but Gen 7 released USUM and Let's Go. It's debatable whether the Lets Go games are part of gen 7, but I wouldn't consider them remakes the same way that HGSS or ORAS are, and they are CERTAINLY not a favourite with a hardcore Pokemon audience. At least Gen 8/9 had decent DLC and Legends Arceus as a halfhearted apology note, but unfortunately there was no swan song at the end of Generation 7.

I think ultimately that's what made people go from "Gen 7 could be the best yet" to "Gen 7 bad". The launch was very strong, but the followup was the poorest out of almost any gen.

My personal opinion of USUM is it is one of the best pokemon games for general battles, I think it would be a lot more fun to nuzlocke than the original Sun and Moon, but there's a lot of better pokemon games to replay than USUM, especially if you're taking modded into account. I think sun and moon were the most immersive out of the games I've played, at the very least because it had improvements like trainer models in battles without the uncanny as hell stuff you got in the next two gens. I remember the games fondly, even if I do feel bitter about the story changes."

I thought this reply was worth sharing on this blog. I put a lot of effort into it.

#pokemon #pokemon sun and moon #smusum #do they call it smusum

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pokemonunderdogtournament · 10 months

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From running these, does it seem like older Pokemon tend to be more popular versus newer ones, or is it any pokemons game? I feel like I tend to see older 'mons winning in matchups against newer ones the majority of the time, but that might be some sort of confirmation bias on my end.

Whew ok! Sorry this took me so long to reply to. This kinda caught me right at the start of the busy period, and I didn't want to give it a half-assed answer, especially because I wasn't really super sure if I was seeing any notable trends. (Most of the time I dedicate to maintaining this event is spent setting things up instead of reviewing data!)

Here are some rough and probably not precisely accurate numbers:

For my health I don't have the time to write out proper descriptions, so hopefully my discussion will be helpful enough, especially because it can be fairly easy to draw some inaccurate conclusions from this specifically because it uses a lot of hard numbers vs ratios.

You can find that down here ⬇ (readmored for scrollability)

First table:

Gen 2 and Gen 7 (!) are performing the strongest overall. Gen 9 and Gen 5 (!!) are performing the most poorly. I figure Gen 9 isn't faring too well for a multitude of reasons -- most notably, I think, people haven't really had time to grow attached to these guys yet. To speculate on Gen 5, I have a few theories. Gen 5 introduced a lot of new Pokemon, interest gets spread out (though I am surprised that age-group nostalgia isn't helping it more along here...). If I recall correctly, a lot of the designs were also quite heavily critiqued, though I've never paid much attention to that sort of commentary.

I'm honestly surprised that Gen 1 is that close to even, but then I don't think it helps that a lot of the less popular designs keep popping up to be repeatedly swept... The data set isn't large enough to avoid being easily influenced by various sub-tournaments haha.

Second table:

This one looks at each generation and how it compares to matches where it was paired with older generations. Earlier generation results are less helpful because, for instance, Gen 2 only has to contend with Gen 1, but Gen 8 has to contend with Gens 1-7... I wasn't sure how to break this up more properly, and I've already spent so much time on this 😅 I could probably figure it out with time but I don't want to keep this ask on hold for like 3 more months. I think it's interesting to see how notably well Gen 7 performs here, like it has a notable number of wins though it's dealing with 6 entire generations.

Anyway, more red in the ratios (basically, more instances where Pokemon of a given generation lost to older gens more than they won) supports the hypothesis.

Third table:

Basically the opposite of the above. More green means more generations that fared better against the generations after it. Gen 5 is the only one who doesn't have this, but it's even. It's won as many Gen 6-9 polls as it's lost

Gen 8 being the strongest here is a little funny, but it just means that Gen 8 has been performing super well when specifically placed in contrast to Gen 9. The fact that there are so few polls in this category probably is why the ratio can get so high at all though.

Generation Gap Average:

This one's a bit hard for me to explain but it basically is concerned with how much the earliest generations perform against the latest generations, but close-generation matches take a lot of weight out of the end result. Basically though a smaller number means that the Generations aren't AS stratified. There's enough love for newer Gens vs older ones. This number hovered much closer to 1 for most of the data gathering.

Idk if this is helpful, but here's the formula:

=AVERAGE(ARRAYFORMULA(IF(B2:B-A2:A<>0, B2:B-A2:A,)))

The A col lists the winners and the losers are in B, so it's literally just averaging the difference between the winner and the loser. The best conclusion we can draw from this is that there is a preference toward older generations. If there was a preference toward newer ones, the number would be negative.

Old/New:

Literally just the number of older generation wins divided by newer generation wins, which you can see right next to that, so yeah older Gens, relative to the other Gen in the poll, have quite a bit of a lead.

Other notes:

In more recent polls, voting is actually skewing more toward later generations, but at the start, which notably voted on starters, voting was HEAVILY skewed toward older generations vs newer ones. It was unfortunately because I noticed this that I ended up having to collect data from all the (relevant) polls because those trends pretty strongly impacted the results...

Anyway! I don't feel confident to make any conclusions outright, but now at least we have an idea of what the numbers look like right now! Lots can be gleaned from this.

#inquiries #apologies if i wrote something that doesn't make like . syntactical sense. i can't process words very well right now #so i can't reliably proof my own writing. rip.#on account of. having a truly shamefully small amount of sleep over the past hm. i guess week at this point

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spectator-moon · 9 months

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My thoughts on Martyn Secret life lore stream (Eyes and Ears AU)

first, Martyn why would you hurt me with that imagery? Poor scar ;-;

-I really like the idea of the logo being the pincer on the Watchers. Grian is a force of nature and should be represented as such

-I am of the personal belief that Jimmy did not break free from the canary curse, since he died right before Wither/Warden boss fight and the entire point of Canarys is to warn of danger

-slightly irralevently but I need to draw the Scar

-BOY do I love the idea of Gem being used as the Watchers new tool because of the Zombie outbreak (send Gem all the love for that skill!!!)

-love Gem being taken by Watchers in general, especially adding in her lore that in Empires she thought everybody was just roleplaying, so she came in thinking it was roleplay and got stuck.

-i also like the idea of Jimmy getting struck down because of the Watchers being confused by his "funeral" and once Lizzy dies, then going "wait no he's supposed to be dead hold on-" and striking him down immediately

-i need more ideas for art. Also references. Please more references proportions are awful

-"if given the right tools, how many seeds of chaos can {Gem} sow, and it turns out, she's a bloody good farmer." Good quote. Make art for quote

-negative emotions being ~spicy~

-martyn being the seperate party in the gang of winners

-the watchers pushed Jimmy off a ledge

-players still having that sense of connections and support (i.e. swapping out) despite being in murder games (also I love the idea that when the Listeners swap out players, the players get a choice, so it's all the much more heartbreaking)

-(personal headcanon that Ren was desperately hoping Martyn would recognize him in Tango's body)

-(personal headcanon that all players start new life series incredibly sore from being tensed as they fall, even though they're unconscious)

-(other personal headcanon that fragmented players i.e. life series players are the only ones who can see the fragments on other servers)

-Speakers maybe being part of a group which works as mercenarys (being paid in whatever currency they use to give players the task of helping each other) (speakers being true neutral)

-y'all imagine the cinematic beauty of the climax I want full animaticssss

-Grian couldn't cash in on success because he either isn't fully in, or because the Watchers are being petty

-the two watchers being the actually evil equivalent of Jesse and James from pokemon

-Grian has emotions about previous series absolutely stunning idea

-like the idea that Winners get to keep their emotions (hence Pearl and Tilly, Grian w/ Scar, etc)

-Fragement lore fragment lore fragment lore

-THE PLAYERS ALL HAVE FRAGMENTS AND I NEED TO CHECK THE POST WHERE EVERYONE PUT THEIR IDEAS FOR PLACES

-Martyn is furry (fragment dog collar) (very not serious)

-fragments appear as important moments from lore? (Can Scar just have a big ol' one where he got punched in the face by Grian from third life?) (I know they don't appear because final death but it was a generator of so much angst)

-autocorrect my beloathed. (Grian ≠ Groan)

-sometimes fragments become scars, and everybody gets confused because "this moment wasn't important I have no emotional attachment to this moment why is there a scar?"

-PLAYERS CANNOT REMEMBER THE EMOTION GOBBLING AND ARE JUST GENERALLY CONFUSED WHEN THEY HAVE AN EMOTIONAL REACTION TO SOMETHING SOMEBODY SAYS

-headcanon that the Watchers do a real shoddy job at emotion gobbling and often leave the memory, which can prompt an emotional reaction. Also, Watchers actively ignore certain negative moments in favour of those spawning more negative emotions (like a cobblestone generator but for negative emotions)

-datastream Martyn??? Please explain I have not the time to watch all the vods

-eeeee winner theory!!!!!

-we love Villain scar

-PEOPLE CAN SHATTER IF THEYRE TOO FRAGMENTED OH MY GODS PLEASE FANART AND FICS

-so wait if they get to watch how it ends does that mean they had to sit and watch Scar go insane???? That makes that sadder

-so without any knowledge of Datastream Martyn, can I suggest that mayhaps datastream means that literally Martyn leaps between worlds by moving through the literal data stream? I have seen references to a Doc, so maybe he and Martyn were experimenting and Martyn got stuck? I know something happened to Doc, probably bad given that the reference was 'yes the red stuff was definitely ketchup', so was it because of the knowledge he has gained? Again, never seen any data stream so take all of this with a grain of salt. I just like analysing stories and have read enough to be able to pick out plotlines fairly well.

-oooh lore comic i want to read that

-Secret Keeper is Watchers putting on a trench coat and going "yes yes no watchers here yes yes"

-imagine how invasive it would be to spawn in and just KNOW the rules, with no background for why or how you have that information. Boy that could be a cesspit for angst. Imagine the panic of that inserted information. (Grian has to calm somebody down fic???)

-new lore enjoyer, but I love this already.

-making a proper movie with this concept would be AMAZING

-players were kidnapped lmao

-Scott having that forewarning for Jimmy and Scar is a funny thought

-Listeners are oldest children fighting their middle siblings (Watchers) because Mom and Dad will blame them for the poor player hurt

Making a part two because this is so long already

#secret life #martyn inthelittlewood #lore #Secret life lore #grian #watchers #listeners #fragments #eaefragments

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unfortunatesal · 1 year

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The Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet fucking rules

So, I haven't mentioned this here, but I genuinely do like Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. It's... deeply flawed for sure. The game is a buggy mess, the level scaling (or lack thereof) is atrocious, the way random encounters are handled fucking sucks with you running into shit constantly and it's just. not very challenging.

But it has a huge, huge plus that to me, makes up for all of that, and it's one that I'm strongly biased towards. Though... it's technically two: the plot, and the characters.

Now, Pokemon has never been bad at character design, really. The characters are always endearing and cool and whatnot. But besides some exceptions like N and Bianca, they're never all that interesting, at least to me. They're not much more than pleasant. But Scarlet & Violet has *great* characters, it's by far its strongest suit. The gym leaders aren't anything deep, but they do have such distinct and memorable personalities that they just... stick with you. Maybe it's recency bias, but I could tell you that Katy is a sweet old lady, Brassuis is a massive theatre kid, Iono is an energetic vtuber, Kofu is a goofy uncle, Larry is a depressed businessman, Ryme is... I guess a rapper, honestly Ryme isn't that interesting imo, Tulip has extremely bad vibes and I do not want to be near her, and Grusha is a jaded cynical twink with PTSD. These are all great!

And those are characters from the "bad" storyline, the one with little to no narrative merit! The Team Star storyline absolutely rules and is just, genuinely really good and the way it slowly unpacks an unflods the actual reality of what Team Star is and what happened with them is just, wonderful. I love the direction it goes in and the message it conveys. And the herba mystica storyline is! Okay! It's fine! People seem to love it but I just think it's kind of okay. I will say that Arven's storyline is general is great, but it only really reached that point when you get to Area Zero which is a whole other thing and is also just, great.

And the rivals, or rival-like characters, are fantastic. I especially love Nemona who is an austistic yandere icon (but only yandere in the Pokemon sense, where Pokemon battles are everything and are considered an almost intimate experience at times in Scarlet & Violet as a whole???)

Nemona is absolutely my favourite rival, or *was*, until the Teal Mask DLC came along and introduced two rivals that, ahem, rivaled her. Both are just massive, massive hits in my book, and... I want to talk about why, because they have been living rent-free in my head and the yare 2 of the 3 elements that make the Teal Mask DLC so great, the third being Ogerpon herself, which I will get to later.

OH BY THE WAY I WILL BE SPOILING THE TEAL MASK DLC SO IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN IT, DO NOT READ

So, the first notable rival is Carmine. And she definitely acts like a Pokemon rival in the classic, Gary / Silver, huge asshole kind of way. As soon as you meet her, she tells you to get the fuck out of her village and challenges you to a battle. She's kind of a dark Nemona in a sense, in that she takes the tsundere approach instead of the yandere approach. She totally doesn't love battling you or spending time with you or anything, obviously not! There is so much romantic tension between you and every single Scarlet & Violet rival and it fucking rules, especially since it manifests so differently for all 3 of them.

But... eventually, Carmen warms up to you, and you start getting along with her. She helps you out and becomes a reliable partner, and ends up having absolutely no qualms being friendly with you. The thing is, though... Carmen never stops being an asshole. She continues to be kind of a bitch throughout the entire story! She just becomes a bitch in a very endearing and likeable way, and directs that bitchiness in a productive, fun, and even helpful ways, and that's just wonderful. She's pretentious, quick to anger, looks down on everything and everyone, and I love her so fucking much

And then, there's Kieran, Carmen's litle brother and also my precious son. Kieran is kind of the opposite of Carmen. He doesn't seem like a rival at all. He's just a shy and nervous kid who clearly likes you a lot and wants to be friends and get along with you. Just a sweet little kid with anxiety! Extremely likeable, extremely endearing, you can't not love the kid

But then you learn he has a huge fixation with Ogerpon and other creatures that are demonized and treated as outcasts. Still endearing, but gives him a lot of depth! And, oh god, my boy has the BPD and he is absolutely FPing Ogerpon. He gets increasingly upset and incomfortable with you getting close to Ogerpon when he isn't able to, and starts sulking and running off, and man, I've been there. I know what it's like and I feel for Kieran so much.

This all comes to a head when you catch Ogerpon, and add her to your party, thus preventing Kieran from being close to the creature he loves and admires so much. After that, he starts to lose it, and becomes an extremely compelling rival who straddles the line between friend and antagonist. The cliffhanger ending suggests that he'll continue to spiral out of control for the next DLC and god, I am so here for it. I love his story arc so, so fucking much and I cannot wait to see what they do with it

And then, there's Ogerpon. Ogerpon is a precious little creature who was deeply wronged by the village, deomized and cast aside from the start. The mian antagonists of the arc, the Loyal 3, took advantage of her status as an outcast to kill her only friend and steal what was most precious to them, causing her to fight back, and be cast as the villain for centuries as a result. And. Fuck. I love Ogerpon so much. I love her story, I love the way it's resolved, I love how it ties into Kieran's character and the final fight against Ogerpon herself. I used to not know what to say when people told me what my favourite Pokemon is. Now, I know, and I'm so grateful fto the Teal Mask DLC for that.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #teal mask #pokemon dlc #carmine #kieran #ogerpon

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sonicasura · 2 months

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1/2

Kafka was like 12 at the oldest when his mom died. Of course it was a nightmare. We don't really know what age Kafka and Mina was when the first kaiju attacked their homes in canon, at least from what I remember. And given that the second in my au happened months after the first one he was nowhere near a teenager or adult when he lost his mom.

Though regadless of which verson I'd use, Kafka statys in touch with his dad for years. And visits when he can after his old man move to his grandparents place.

His dad always found it a bit akward that Kafka ended up working as a monster sweeper, given his family history. Know or not. But in this verson it actually helps his son greatly as Kafka needs a lot more food to fully function as a adult since his kaiju side is awake instead of dorment. Had it stayed dormant, Kafka would have not needed to eat kaiju meat he stole from his workplace at night every few weeks.

It was the same for his mom and Proto. While Proto found he loved human food, with some junk foods being his favorite. The old kaiju had to hunt other kaiju to properly get the needed nutrition and not bankrupt themself.

Akari was no different, even if she needed to eat less of the amount her dad needed being only 50/50. Kafka need even less, which helps greatly when he has to go and get said kaiju meat.

And yeah after the main events happened, a lot of stuff got filled in for Mina. She did give Kafka a good smack in the head for waiting this long to tell her the truth, but she understood his fears.

Awkward dose not even fit properly with how Soshiro feels about this all. He was infact the one who found out that No 8 was that welp in the old file after he did some digging with Okonogi. As both feld like they had seen the kaiju somewhere.

You can imagien when the two of them reported that No 8 had been spotted before main events as a little welp caused a bit of a mess. There was enough familities from the old pictures they had of Kafka's early form that there where little doubt that it was true.

Some of the seniors where happy to know that that meant no mama kaiju to protect him, since he's an adult now and they know his mom is dead. And feel dread when they realized said full grown welp is now the strongest kaiju know to mankind.

I'm not surprised at all that the entire kaiju side of his family had larger appetites. Only a Pokemon Trainer is equipped to deal with something on such a magnitude. Kafka munching on kaiju corpses when his coworkers are gone or aren't paying attention. It isn't uncommon for something to eat at the bodies so no one would suspect a thing.

Mina honestly would smack Kafka cause her friend really can't do things like this alone. She's just glad he managed to not get into trouble much earlier. Kafka is a Grade A disaster after all.

Soshiro and Okonogi have a lot of material to build their case on. Especially since the Third Division in general likes Kafka. (He's practically their heart similar to Mina.) Although his family line is definitely being monitored, even moreso if Kafka has kids down the line. Tiny had greatly amplified his kaiju blood thus the potency might be way more than 1/4 now.

Kafka feeling awkward in Riot mode honestly sounds funny. Bigger scarier No.8 acting more like s panicked kid cause Tiny just supersized his Kaiju form and the poor man is trying to calm the thing down while fighting Isao. "It's an idiotic old man, not a kaiju so fucking chill!"

Kafka swears he has an extra feral kid in his head than a mysterious body mate.

#sonicasura #sonicasura answers #asks #anonymous #kaiju no. 8 #kaiju no 8 #kaijuno.8 #kaijuno8 #kaiju number 8 #kn8 #monster no 8 #monster no. 8 #kafka hibino #hibino kafka #kaiju!kafka #kaiju kafka

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basedkikuenjoyer · 1 month

Text

25 years ago, very close to this day, a storm was brewing in my sleepy little town. A friend with a cool geeky older sister that introduced me to Sailor Moon had tuned me into a cool new Game Boy game last school term. One we played a lot over a Summer he was over at my place a lot. It didn't seem like much in the haze of N64 classics and I don't actually think I knew many people with a Game Boy around that time. When we started Third Grade though...Pokemania was in full bloom. I've been playing a bit lately and it made me nostalgic. Let's have fun with it, especially with the jittery OP schedule.

I love that I've gotten to be here for the full phenomenon. Like I said, the wave reached US shores when I was in 2nd grade but by the end of that year only a few of us knew about it and it seems like most kids discovered the show or the games over the Summer. The card game dropped around this point too, I remember it being around my September birthday. That shit was wild, but I understand why people thought it'd be a passing fad. Because I remember 2nd grade being really big on quickly passing toy fads. The games though. Yeah yeah, the early designs were iconic but the game was clearly unpolished compared to later releases...

That general wisdom is fair. But you know what I like about weird, pieced together with duct tape code of straight Red/Blue? The grit. Pokemon was still originally made in the 90s and it shows here, before it was a childhood mainstay attracting a lot of scrutiny. Because this was just some random Game Boy RPG at the time. So Kanto gets to have a little more edge to it. Not with world-shaking stakes, just because of standards. It never felt weird to have the gambling hall as a spotlight locale, genetic engineering gone wrong plots are one of those things that were big in the 90s but forgotten after. Team Rocket actually feels kinda like a gang, trainer types that don't fly today...also I still can never get over this one explicitly taking place in our world.

That last part is a big one to me. I'm not some old head who hates anything after Kanto. But there was a certain verisimilitude to it that was still there for Johto but just isn't there at all by now. One little thing Kanto does better than others is how there's usually a better logic to why the trainer types you see are on the routes they are. You can really see the Dragon Quest influence if you're a big fan of those like me, later gens primary influence is other Pokemon games. Is it simple today going back? Yeah. If you jumped on later just play the remakes. Fire Red/Leaf Green are great. But like any major series, there were certain elements here that did not continue with it. I'm always fascinated by those, and for Red/Blue to me it's that these games did not have quite the kiddy tone the franchise has a reputation for.

#Pokemon #Gen 1 #pokemon red and blue #Poke-Ponderings

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cryptidanathema · 7 months

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raihan

Why I like them: He's that guy that you THINK'S gonna be a total douche but is actually a really great guy once you get past first impressions. Liable to do something stupid trying to impress you. Dragon in human form. Canon fang haver. Brags about himself in the third person and should not be trusted with tapestries. Babygirl you need so much therapy /aff

Why I don’t: That hat that can't decide weather it's a sweatband or a beany. Seriously what is that thing on your head man

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Haven't watched any of his anime scenes tbh, kind of scared to after how dirty they did Leon. So I'll just use this section to show some love to the bit in Pokespe where he tries to take on Eternatus... himself. Not using a Pokemon.

Favorite season/movie: See above

Favorite line: ...I'm just gonna put "Especially you, Piers! The way you battled me in the Champion Cup... You really had my Dynamax Pokémon up against the wall!" and apologize profusely. Yes for ship reasons but also the fact that the guy starts hitting on a new rival in the middle of a Dynamax Pokemon rampage just feels weirdly on-brand?

Favorite outfit: Shout out to that slightly douchey waistcoat ensemble with the Flygon shades from Masters...which he has a matching stupid, stupid hat for.

OTP: Raihan/Leon/Piers and Raihan/Piers both qualify. Leon just straight up hits the "you don't even have to Ship It, some characters having had sex is just objective truth" threshold and they're often really sweet together, I just have to throw an alt boy in there too to get into it because my brain craves them like a body craves air. And Piers...they get tragically few scenes together but the ones they do get are so weirdly charged? Like someone else said there's a certain "should we be watching this?" energy to them lol

Brotp: Leon also goes here, mostly because coming up for platonic explanations for the sheer depth of Raihan's brain rot in regards to that man leads to some FASCINATING relationship dynamics. I'm a big believer that romantic vs platonic indicates a relationship type rather than inherently implying a hierarchy of importance and these two are a great outlet for mentally rotating those themes. Also he and Gordie are fun in Masters, I like to think that they became friends while having shared sadboy time in the locker room.

Head Canon: Probably my biggest is that with the way there's some pretty depressing shit left unsaid about the way he views himself, the occasional signs of anger issues he shows, and how he's the only member of The Rivalcule you don't meet the family of, the guy did NOT have a good childhood. On a lighter note, the guy has absolutely dogshit music taste. Like we're talking Skrillex and below here. The fact Piers doesn't strangle him over it is testament to the depth of his affection.

Unpopular opinion: Don't really have one?

A wish: Gigantamax Archaludon whenever the Galar remakes come out in 10-15 years, he deserves to just summon a wholeass suspension bridge (that notably has a weather-related signature move at that). And, well, just more of him in general.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Same as Piers, please don't throw this man into spacetime GameFreak 🤞

5 words to best describe them: Selfie boy kinda worries me 😔

My nickname for them: Rai, Rai-Rai...💖🐉

#Ask game #gym leader raihan #Raihan #Pokemon Raihan #Raihan Pokemon #Shipping #Suggestive

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eriisaam · 16 days

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I saw your tags on that Cassette Beasts post, and you seem pretty knowledgeable on monster collecting games! Do you have any recommendations for someone who hasn’t ventured far outside the Pokemon umbrella? I’m excited to try Cassette Beasts, and I loved Moonstone Island and Ooblets which had monster collecting elements, and I don’t know if Slime Rancher counts as a monster collector but I LOVE Slime Rancher. Past that and Pokemon, I don’t know much about the monster collecting/taming genre, but I’d like to explore it more!

Yeah! I got some! And I'd argue Slime Rancher absolutely counts! I will also add too that Cassette Beasts, Ooblets and Slime Rancher are already great picks in themselves in the genre. (Though as you are already familiar with them, I'll skip them below, but they're definitely great games.)

Granted, I will preface that while I watched a lot of these games either in terms of Gym Leader Ed's coverage, people poking it, or release trailers and screenshots, I've been limited on time to play them in depth enough to talk about the gameplay or story aspects (with a handful of exceptions), but I'll try my best to help as much as I can! Ed, however, does go into more depth of games, follows news on dev updates (especially games still in development or early access), and sometimes he's done LPs of them outright, and he may still be best to get a more informed opinion on some of these, especially ones I hadn't been able to play myself.

The best part about the genre, especially lately, is that it's gotten more broad in terms of how the games play, how you collect and/or handle the monsters, and what other game they are inspired by and/or play similarly to (and whether or not said game is Pokemon). There's as many games that are the "yay, two cakes!" of Pokemon, just as there's many games who have monster-collecting elements but the gameplay is vastly far removed from it, so my recommendations will be split based on those criteria.

(It's also a pretty beefy list, so I'll put it under a read more)

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In terms of "yay, two cakes!" games (or games that play as close as possible to Pokemon):

===

The Nexomon series

Visually and gameplay-wise, Nexomon has a lot in common with the DS era of the pokemon games in sprite style, and Pokemon in general in combat. The series are turn-based battling with nexomon you catch and evolve, gym-leader-adjacents you battle, and stories directly tied to their legendary nexomon along the same vibe as earlier Pokemon game plots. Both games tend to frequently go on sale (and moreso on the switch) and while the second game improved a lot in some quality of life changes from the first game, the plot is a direct continuation of the first game and thus will spoil and/or assume you've already beaten the first game. There's also a third one in the works slated to take on an open world direction and full 3d instead.

===

Disc Creatures

Like Nexomon, Disc Creatures draws inspiration from a specific generation of Pokemon, but this time the gameboy and gameboy color era. Arguably, it looks and plays like a midway point between the VERY early pokemon games, as well as the Telefang games (better infamously known as the base games which were poorly translated and transformed into what we most-likely know them as Pokemon Diamond (not DPPlt) and Jade). You battle not only with a team of three creatures, but like Telefang, all of them take part in battle simultaneously (rather than a 1V1 fight). (Though unlike Telefang, you don't have to call them or wait on their arrival likewise). Although battles otherwise play out similarly like both respective games (turn-based move-picking battle), the creatures work on individual skill trees based on species.

===

Coromon

Coromon draws a lot of inspiration from pokemon, but takes a more 'spiritual sucessor' approach, rather than base it on any specific gen, and has a unique 2d pixel art style likewise. The gameplay sticks to the familiar battling style of you doing turn-based battles with your coromon, tame and train and evolve said mons, and not only find 'shiny' equivalents, but there's actually two (the base form is called 'standard' while the two other forms are 'potent' and 'perfect'), in addition to certain species also having skins (and said skins also differing slightly to still retain the distinct appearance of the base coromon being standard/potent/perfect, rather than obscure it). A key difference, however, is that in addition to the health of your coromon, you also need to pay attention to their stamina, which is adjacent to PP in pokemon, but universal across all moves, rather than individually-move-tied.

===

Monster Crown

I'll give this cautious optimistic recommendation though I'll explain why so in a moment. In the same way Coromon is more 'spiritual successor' than 'on the nose' like Nexomon in the GBA-DS era of Pokemon, Monster Crown is the same equivalent to Disc Creatures of being more 'spiritual successor' than (sort of) 'on the nose' to the GB-GBC era games like Disc Creatures. Also like how Disc Creatures isn't as closely tied to Pokemon like Nexomon or Coromon, and deviating in its own style or mixing it with Telefang otherwise, Monster Crown has an art style a bit closer to the GBC zelda games (and distinct from it even then), and a much different presentation for otherwise keeping to the 1v1 turn-based battle style familiar from Pokemon. That being said, I say 'cautiously optimistic' as while the devs seem to not only still be in semi-active works updating the game (but especially the PC version), the game does reportedly suffer from a lot of bugs, and I'm made aware too there's reports that the switch version of the game isn't as kept up-to-date on updates nearly as frequently as the PC/Steam version.

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In terms of games similar to pokemon, but with not-so-pokemon-esque mon designs:

===

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition

What were previously the first and second individual games of the Cyber Sleuth series had been combined to package both games in one file (that you can select either/or on bootup) in this version. Compared to a lot of the other Digimon games (some of which I'll bring down further below, just for now, put a pin on that), Cyber Sleuth (both games) feature a turn-based battle format that is a bit more along the lines of Pokemon's, give or take that you battle with three digimon in a party, and some moves vary between targetting one, or targetting multiple targets at once (so if you're familiar with 3v3 pokemon battles ala the 3DS era, this is very reminiscent of that). If you can forgive Digimon having monster designs swerving all manner of ways between 'cute like pokemon' to 'what the fuck is that thing?' to 'Is that a literal pile of shit?!' all the way up to either someone's fursona or 'that's a whole ass person', Digimon Cyber Sleuth is just comfortable enough not to be too wildly far off from how a Pokemon game plays, but also having its own distinct identity in how it handles battles and raising up your Digimon. One key takeaway, however, is that a digimon has a far wider branching path of evolution forms compared to Pokemon, and not all digimon may appear as 'connected' as like a pokemon's evolution family. That being said, even in-game, the game does hold your hand in giving you a hint of which digimon you can evolve (or digivolve rather) your current digimon into (and tells you outright what that digimon is, if you've already obtained one before), and outright tells you the conditions of how to evolve what into what-else.

===

Yo-Kai Watch series

Specifically, I played the first game, and will primarily describe that, but rather unfortunately as the first game was originally on the 3DS, and other than its (also 3DS) sequels, the series had a sharp phase-out of localized releases since then and are only somewhat floating the idea in the Switch era of going back to attempting localized releases again (and I'm not sure if they ever followed through or not). Nevertheless, Yo-Kai Watch is a series far and well more adored in Japan than internationally (it's right up there with Pokemon, Sanrio, and one of its inspos in Doraemon), and it takes what you're familiar with in both the Pokemon style of turn-based battling and the above mentioned Digimon approach, and makes it way more interactable and turn it on its head. For starters, you battle with a team of six yokai, but ALL OF THEM are utilized in battle, with three active at once, and the three others in the backrow. It heavily makes use of the touch screen, so rather than just click commands and make things go brr, the yokai will automatically attack whoever they feel like (although you can pin a specific target, and they'll all redirect to attack that target exclusively instead), but on top of that, while your yokai run on auto-pilot, you instead play a series of mini-games during battle where you can do, among other things: Heal your yokai of a status effect, rotate your yokai set so you can rotate which of your six is currently actively battle, and which ones retreat to the backrow (for you to tend to uninterrupted), use items pretty much on the fly like your typical pokemon heal items, or supercharge your yokai so they'll get to their supers quicker, the effects of which vary between yokai species. On top of that, many yokai evolve into different species, but many others can be fused together to make different species instead, and you primarily collect and swap out yokai in the form of medals you earn when befriending them post-battle (either by chance or scripted-gift otherwise). Yokai also vary on synergy in teambuilding, so if you have certain yokai combos active on the same (active) team, they may gain additional buffs from it.

If you can look past many of the yokai being... uh...

...interestingly designed... the story, the atmosphere, and the yokai and the way they react to the world and each other is incredibly 'sucked into a saturday morning cartoon' vibed and super engaged out of a lot of the monster taming/collecting games.

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In terms of games with creatures similar to Pokemon, but are based on different genres of games:

===

Palworld

Hear me out.

I know a lot of people have misgivings with this game. Some are warranted (there's certain mons a bit too on-the-nose to pokemon), but there's many, many other points that are bad-faith reaches at best (of the "person who thinks Renamon is a rip-off of Vulpix" variety), or outright wrong and long since debunked. I could (and had many times in the past) gone at length about many of these bad-faith points, but for the sake of not derailing the point here, that is best set for a different post entirely.

Palworld, contrary to what many would say, is not actually as joined-at-the-hip close to Pokemon as it seems, outside of the clear inspiration behind some of the design or design-direction thereof of the monsters (and for that matter clearly was inspired by other monster taming games such as Monster Rancher, which I'll discuss lower down, or even cutesy-aesthetic creatures in general like Story of Season's livestock or 90s anime design styles like My Neighbor Totoro). The monster designs aside, they actually lean more in familiarity sense of 'fakemon fangame romhack of a pokemon game' in style direction than 'just pokemon but recolored', and the more you surround yourself in pals, the more you get used to them just in a general sense.

The gameplay is actually much closer to Ark or open world explore-and-build games along the lines (some being similar to a lot of 3d farming or town-building games even), give or take a Breath-of-the-Wild coat of paint. (Worth noting, while a massively beefy game, it's also half the size of Ark proper.) You're pretty much turned loose into a massive open world, one that's surprisingly seamlessly interconnected that you can see far off with a depth a lot like Minecraft in some ways, and you can do whatever the hell you want from there: The world's your oyster. Although it does provide things for you to do (namely the gym-leader equivalent of the Battle Tower Leaders to face off, or certain landmarks that are also achievement-tied), you can do whatever you want with the pals you run into, and gradually craft your way into better and sturdier buildings, unlock more broader items, weapons, and upgraded variants, and get strong enough to challenge more varieties of pals. Although pals don't evolve (similar to Monster Rancher), some species do have different alt variants (usually a different color and element and with a different suffix), and all of them have a chance to have a 'lucky' variant spawn, where they'll glitter, make an audible noise (like Legends Arceus but more prolonged rather than sudden and brief), and they'll always have the Lucky trait, which gives them additional buffs. The pals each individually have different moves they learn either naturally or when given items, up to four traits (good, bad, or neutral) which can be passed down via breeding, and all of them specialize in a variety of different ways, so a pal not fit for battle might have a more utility use. I should also point out that contrary to its sales pitch or popular belief, cruelty is NOT the only option, and is actually far more beneficial (and in your face) about keeping your pals healthy, well tended to and cared for, and them eagerly rushing over to help you any time you try to work on something and then cheering for you after. Resources you would've also gotten in the 'crueler ways' can also be gotten peacefully simply by catching them.

===

Monster Sanctuary

Monster Sanctuary is a Metroidvania style game in terms of mobility around the map and how certain monsters play with it via field moves, but when otherwise caught in the battles themselves, it has a similar turn-based strategy of monsters taking turns trading picked moves and see what happens. Each battle works on a graded system where, ideally, when you complete a battle as quickly as possible with a lot of combos, you get a better grade, and in turn, better item yields for said grade. Instead of capturing monsters, you instead have a chance for a monster you fought to drop their egg, and said egg can be instantly hatched into your own copy of that monster. Each and every monster has a skill tree that can unlock different things from new moves, upgrades to preexisting moves, stat buffs, or certain effects applied to their moves in addition to any inherent abilities they may have. On top of that, certain monsters might have field moves that are useful for navigating your way through the map, including monsters who can activate certain levers, monsters who can hover/fly over gaps, monsters who can help you reach certain heights, and so on and so forth. Monster teams are also key, as carefully-built teams with good synergy can make huge combos, and consistently give you the best drops.

===

Digimon World series

Like I said above, Digimon dabbled on quite a number of games in its clumsy growing pains of finding its own identity. Its initial roots, Digimon World, has a lot in common with its original background as a Tamagotchi spin-off series prior to the anime Digimon Adventures being thereafter (incorrectly) labeled as a "Pokemon rip-off", and thereafter spiraling the Digimon franchise in all manner of weird directions (either loosely related to World like World Champions, semi-similar with Digimon World Dawn and Dusk, all the way up to the above Cyber Sleuth being entirely its own thing). The entirety of the World series (of which include entries like Next Order on steam) has you raise your digimon by assigning them into different facilities and/or training areas, usually, and these facilities can vary between either increasing more traditionally-used-for-battle stats (like their health, or their attack and defense), to outright increasing or decreasing their affinities (elements, in a way, which factor into evolution a lot). Compared to the above Cyber Sleuth where you have more control of when a digimon digivolves, into what, and outright tells you the requirements, World (but especially earlier games, or versions that lean heavily into V-Tamers, another series similar to the World series and is more identical to its Tamagotchi ancestor), leans into you getting more of a surprise when digimon grow dynamically and evolve on their own, based on various factors like whether or not you won/lost a certain number of battles, care mistakes or lack thereof, certain stats being at or above/below a certain point, or their highest affinity at the time, much like how Tamagotchi did. While I can't speak for how Next Order plays (between closer to World, closer to Cyber Sleuth, or a more balanced and in-control combination), the earlier you go back in the series, the closer it is to Tamagotchi's variant style.

===

Digimon Survive

And then there's this game which throws Digimon into a whole other secret third gameplay option. Digimon Survive is part visual novel, and part tactical RPG, so rather than be like a battle style ala Pokemon like Cyber Sleuth, or be a monster care sim like World, it leans heavily on being more like Fire Emblem in gameplay style, and takes everything about the way the digimon partners bond with their human tamers in the anime series, and takes it for a very dark ride instead. This time, instead of be a monster you raise into a gradual and widely-branching tree like Cyber Sleuth, or carefully meter your stats and care styles like World, not only will some digimon be unlocked either when certain criteria are met, or when you beat certain levels, but some digimon evolutions are exclusive to the different branches of the main storyline itself.

===

Monster Hunter Stories

Although the mainline games play very differently, and are more monster slaying than monster taming (with one almost-example, we'll get to that below), Monster Hunter Stories and its sequel take on a different approach of you raising and taming effectively smaller pet variants of the bosses of the mainline games, to use not only as riding mounts, but battle partners in a turn-based battle style RPG. You usually have an active party of three who take turns attacking each, and takes a much more different mood and atmosphere approach compared to the mainline games as a whole. Its worth noting, however, that although Steam does include both games, the switch version also offers amiibo support otherwise.

===

Beastie Bay DX and Pocket Stables

I include these two games in the same note because both of them are made by Kairosoft and are two games of a loooong laundry list of themes Kairosoft explores. Both are pretty tiny, pretty chill and casual games (emphasis on casual), so while some might say it might be a bit too casual as to be boring, they're both very "play on your phone to pass time/run in the background" chill raising games that don't have a lot of the stress as a lot of the above games. Beastie Bay DX is a more focused monster-raising game, while Pocket Stables is a horse derby game with pet raising elements. Similar to a lot of Kairosoft's games, they usually have a tycoon approach to a lot of their different game themes, these two included, as you focus on building or placing facilities or buildings in an open space to various effects, sometimes comboing nearby buildings for added boosted effects, and gradually improving your creatures through where you send them out, what facilities you build, item use, and more.

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In terms of games with monster collection and/or training aspects, but not as a main focus:

===

Rune Factory series

By and large the Rune Factory series is a farming game first, along the lines of its siblings in Harvest Moon and/or Story of Seasons. But instead of buying and raising livestock, the livestock are monsters you fight, and depending on the game, so are some of the love interests. You have the ability to fight various monsters and different bosses, and the monsters may vary on various properties, be it to passively generate a certain craft resource (like a lot of the standard livestock in the mainline series), as mounts you can ride for faster transport, as powerful party members for battle, or as helpers who can automate the process of assisting you with chores throughout your farm. This is in addition to the townsfolk themselves, as some of the games (particularly the later ones) also can have you recruit different villagers in addition to the monsters.

===

Monster Hunter Rise

As mentioned above with Monster Hunter Stories, while the mainline games are more about hunting monsters like live prey or active threats, Rise is a slight exception in that it not only continues the trend of past and current games of allowing you to recruit the cat-looking palicoes (or felynes, they go by a few names throughout the series...) which can assist you with various different properties depending on their professions, but also the palimutes, large, rideable dogs who can help you travel faster and jump up certain landmarks. Both assist you in battle, but both have different pros and cons to them, and you might run into in-game generated ones who you can further collect to have more variety in different ones with different professions and coat colors/styles.

===

Meowjiro

Meowjiro is a fairly humble and down-to-earth pixel art game where your primary focus is being a convenience store cashier and employee. By day, you perform various different tasks and try to keep up with the store, including cleaning trash and water puddles, the evidence of a certain shiba inu's crimes, restock shelves when they get emptied, heat up food, prepare soft serves, and of course, ring up customers as they come in.

The mon-collecting aspect comes in the reason you work the grueling life of a one-man army konbini store owner: Your cat(s). At the end of the day, you come home to tiny pixelated cats, who always start off as kittens, and whom you can evolve into a variety of ways based on what you feed them. In addition, you can also spend your hard earned cash on different furniture to decorate your home, or certain perks to make the store job less grueling.

(That being said, as stressful and high-paced as the game is, failing a task only causes a minor pay deduction, not anything super punishing, so it's stressful, but not as stressful as a meaner game could've been.)

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Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

Hear me out.

Yes, it's a platformer game (or shooter game, or treasure-hunt game, depends on the level), and on the surface, it looks nothing like a mon game, nor plays like one.

However, the reason why it's mentioned here is moreso for a side game included in the game: The chao gardens.

SA2:B is a game that weaves both the main game and side game of Chao Gardens together pretty snuggly. You're provided 2 free chao in your default neutral garden, plus 2 more free eggs whenever you unlock the other two gardens after certain criteria are met. Chao are pure pet-raising, rather than strictly mon-levelling-and-raising, but they have a VERY dynamic approach in not just how they evolve, but the gradual ways they change depending on quite the variety of factors. These can include, but not limited to: The color and style of the egg they came out of (or combo of parents if bred), what animals you gave them (which you can collect animals and chaos drives in the main game to then give to these chao), what fruit you feed them (especially certain bought ones, not just the home-grown ones), and even which character you played as when tending to them all matter. They not only can evolve based on an alignment system, but also later dramatically evolve based on stat combinations you raised them on and which of their stats were the most pronounced. You can further also utilize them in either chao races, or chao karate (though the latter is semi-random in comparison to a typical mon battle game).

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Honorable Mention

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Monster Rancher series (and spinoff Kaiju Master)

An older series along the age of if not predating Pokemon and Digimon, Monster Rancher have mons who (most of the time) don't evolve, are pretty brutally punishing in how to unlock certain secrets or raise and train the best fighting-capable monster who can win all tournaments, and while its a very unique stand-out compared to Pokemon and Digimon, it's a pretty harsh game in terms of difficulty to get used to and jump in compared to the others. That being said, it's also time and again surprisingly detailed about the sheer depth in variety of alts for a given monster, how their genetics work in fusions (and fusions are a pretty detailed feature in this), and its signature quirk that makes it stand out is that the monster you get (when not buying whatever's in the store) are all randomized based on things you feed the game. The first few games can draw all manner of monsters based on what CDs you insert (the steam remake gets around this by merely letting you straight up look up what CD you want, be it game or audio CD otherwise, and gets around it through that), while later games carry on the spirit of the same gimmick ala the key words you type up, or drawings you put into it. The game is not exactly the friendliest in terms of difficulty, but if you aren't scared off by the challenge, nor how dopey a lot of the monster designs are, its worth a mention in its own right.

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As much as I was tempted to include other mentions, primarily games not released yet that's coming soon or in the works, I think I blew this post up with way too much words huh orz

#ask Erii #But also thanks for reading it #as beefy a read as this is #whoops

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adobe-outdesign · 2 years

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What do you think of cubone?

You really can't go wrong with Cubone. A little dinosaur-ish creature wearing a skull makes for an interesting visual and unique theme as-is, but the heartbreaking backstory is what really helps people remember this line, what with the whole "it constantly mourns its dead mother and wears her skull" thing it has going on.

Arguably this backstory doesn't make much sense when applied to the species as a whole, especially when you can obviously breed them without the mother dying, but the powerful imagery associated with this 'mon can't be beat. I think just fleshing out the lore behind it would help it a lot; maybe skulls are passed down through generations when one dies, thus explaining where the Cubones that have mothers get their helmets from.

Backstory aside, the design also looks solid; the skull has a good sense of shape and depth to it (also love the cracks, even if it's a bit weird that they're always in the same place), and a nice, neutral body to compliment it. I wouldn't have minded a bit of a darker brown for contrast, like the above art sports, but otherwise I have no real complaints.

Marowak has some really interesting lore behind it: basically, Cubone's grief makes it stronger, and when it comes to terms with its loss, it evolves:

It kind of adds a nice moral about accepting grief into an otherwise sad story, even if you still have to try not to question the "dead mom" thing too much.

Visually, it does the logical thing and fuses the skull with the head completely. I do kind of question it changing shape, given that it's supposed to be the skull Cubone wears, but it at least looks nice and streamlined.

I guess my one problem with Marowak is that it maybe looks a bit too similar to Cubone? They're not the same, obviously, but it feels like the concept could've been pushed more at this stage. Make it ground/ghost, make the underbelly look like rib markings, add a skeletal tail tip, that kind of thing. Really advance the skeleton motif it has going on.

Another option would've been for Cubone to not carry the bone club until it becomes Marowak, which would've done the same "advancement" idea with drastically changing anything. It's not bad as is or anything; just could've been pushed a bit more.

Thankfully, Alolan Marowak is one of those designs that comes in and does everything the original design doesn't.

First, the dark body and skull markings look great; they compliment the skull well and add some much-needed contrast. Meanwhile, the fire adds some nice pops of color. And not only does this Marowak add fire to the bone it carries, but it also has some great vertebrae markings on its back, going back what I was saying about Marowak pushing its visuals a bit more.

Combine all that with fire/ghost typing and a fire dancing theme going on with the bone, appropriate for the Hawaiian-based region it's from, and you have a pretty perfect regional that's honestly far better than the original in my opinion.

My sole nitpick with it is that for some reason the body way skinnier than on original Marowak, giving it a weird top-heavy appearance for no real reason. Also, while I'm not opposed to cutting pointless regional pre-evos, it does feel weird that regular Cubone drops ground in favor of fire and ghost typing out of nowhere, but that's beside the point.

So overall, Cubone is a adorably pitiful Pokemon with a great theme and solid design. Marowak is fine, but doesn't push its design as much as it could; Alolan Marowak makes up for that with a refreshing take that really breathes some new life into the design. Overall, a very solid line.

Also, final side note: the Gen 1 betas reveal that the theorized connection between Cubone and Kangaskhan was indeed real via a third evolutionary sprite, though exactly what the intention was lore-wise here is left ambiguous. It might have been interesting, but at the same time, I feel like it might've distracted from Cubone's own themes a bit by tossing a baby in there. Too hard to say without knowing the context.

#cubone #marowak #alolan marowak #pokemon #pokmeon reviews

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captainbobbin · 3 months

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Are there any media – games, books, movies, music etc. – that you loved as a child, that you can say shaped who you are as an adult?

Hard mode: you can't pick "Kingdom Hearts".

I was raised by my nan - I'd spend every single day helping her out around her house, working in her garden, cooking together, doing my homework, and then sitting with her and playing games; I would play and she would watch. For the most part it was N64-Gamecube era games. Things like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Wind Waker, and Sonic Adventure 2s Chao Garden were favourites for both of us, games that were chill and comfy and laid back, bright and colourful but had a nice sense of responsibility and progression. I remember very fondly the way that my nan would always like how the horses hooves sounded in HM:AWL and even though you said that I can't pick KH, she was the one who got me KH2 and watched me explore through it countless times. Banjo-Kazooie, Pokemon Snap, and Ocarina Of Time were also played a lot, and I hold them all very close to my heart haha. I still very much enjoy games designed to be relaxing, I love me some farm sims and I tend to get attached to specific characters regardless of their original media.

In terms of books, I am a big fan of Junji Ito's work, I have quite a few graphic novels and a collection of books, and growing up I was a very avid reader in general. I have a signed autograph from Micheal Morpurgo somewhere from when I was very young. I don't read as much as I used to to be honest, especially fiction, but that's because I spend so much time writing that I worry a lot about accidentally absorbing other people's ideas or words and stuff through reading :p Ito's structure and overarching sense of scale are super interesting to me and I really love how detailed and foreboding his work always is - and that despite being one of the biggest horror mangakas of all time he's actually just a sweet and chill little catdad guy lmaoooo

my taste in music and movies is so jacked, dude. I have the most bizarre sense of taste imaginable. I love terrible awful movies. I'm a big fan of monster movies, quite a lot of foreign films, shlocky action lmao; I have a degree in animation and enjoy a lot of art movies and character studies. I did my third year dissertation in how body horror in media is portrayed differently depending on its country of origin and I have a lot of passion for movies in general, I love discussing practical vs special effects, exploring background details and plot contingencies, character motivations etc. I do weekly movie nights with my chat and its my fave time of the week! I've always liked weird movies and I always end up going back to my faves

#ask meme

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catgirltoofies · 9 months

Text

related to previous reblog. the most important thing i have found about playing video games with too much free time is that they have to earn my time. i have a thousand games i can be playing, if yours happens to be the one i picked, then at least for a moment, if only for the novelty, I'm having fun with it. the moment the novelty wears off, or when i stop having fun, i stop playing and find something else. sometimes I'll keep playing for a bit every day and kinda wean off it, but when that happens it doesn't look good.

so, how do you retain my interest? there's a few ways.

first. novelty. i love new things. i love playing around with stuff i don't understand and figuring out how it works. that's important, however; i like figuring out how it works. once i understand it, it becomes a lot less interesting, and unfortunately my brain doesn't work in a way that lets me just allow things to go un-understood, i need to figure out why things work the way they do, unless the complexity is out of scope of my interest; eg i wouldn't bother trying to catalogue every planet in starfield, I'm not that interested in the game.

second. fun. if the game is fun i will play it. if the game is not fun i will not play it. obviously fun is subjective, and everyone has different amounts of fun with every activity. but fun is the reason i will play picross for hours, it's why I'll play tons of games that give me checklists to fill out (recent examples: pokemon legends arceus and power wash simulator) because i greatly enjoy filling out checklists. it's why i tend to lose interest in a lot of turn based games; the mechanics are simple enough that i grasp them quickly and the execution isn't very interesting once i know what's going on under the hood. little things that break up the mechanics and make them work a little differently, such as most of pokemon's gimmicks, are extremely interesting - for a time. once i find a meta, i stick with it. why would i do something worse for no benefit? the obvious exception to this would be challenge runs, which i tend to not be very interested in doing, because they're usually just "do the worse thing for the whole game". in the case of action and shooter games, i need to have weapon variety and enemy variety. there's a longer post i could make about the types of games, but out of scope for this one; in general, i need to have options and i need to have different potential challenges. if I'm just given a sword and basic attack, it doesn't matter how many enemies you put in front of me, they all die to my sword or are invulnerable. if I'm given a million different and unique guns, it doesn't matter when there's only three enemy types, my interest will only last as long as i keep trying new and mechanically unique weapons; that is to say, all full auto guns are functionally the same, they just differ in attack speed and damage output. give me a machine pistol at the start and an lmg at the end, they're used the same way. just changing the stats isn't mechanically unique.

third. story. obviously, a good story will hook me, as it would hook most people. and obviously, different people like different stories. once i get hooked on a story, i need to see it through, and that will keep me playing a game - it's why i finished starfield, it's why i finished horizon. at the same time, a mediocre story that doesn't hook me but gets in the way of me having more fun - such is the case with disgaea - tends to turn me off, because i don't particularly want to do the story i don't care about, especially - as is the case with disgaea - when I'm far more powerful than the story expects me to be.

fourth. replayability. this one is really complicated for me, as a lot of infinitely replayable games don't interest me, such as the entire roguelite genre, while a lot of infinitely replayable games do interest me, such as a large portion of the roguelike genre and most 4X games. i think, for me, the replayability comes from starting from nothing and building up to something great based on what's currently available on that run. this is the draw of the rogue derivatives, but roguelites tack on meta progression, so i can unlock items or characters or mechanics or whatever, but i really really really hate it when things are arbitrarily locked away from me. if I'm playing cataclysm and i see a gun store with a really cool rifle in the window, i know i probably can't get it just yet, until i find a hacksaw to break through the window, or a jackhammer or pickaxe to break through the wall, or a lockpick to get in through the back door, or some heavy bashing thing like a sledgehammer to break through the doors, and so on so forth. the important thing at that point i see it is that i know that i can get it, i just need to get some other key item first. with roguelites, i don't get that experience - unlockables are silhouetted behind arbitrary challenges, and then added to the random pool of items. that's not interesting. i don't want to kill fifty enemies with a certain damage type to unlock something i don't know the effect of. it's a checklist with no clear reward - it's a weapon, or an item, but what does it do? why would i want it over my current weapon which I've been using for the whole game so far? if i end up wasting my time doing the challenge to get something worse - which then reduces the odds I'll get a weapon i like more - that feels awful. it's a similar but different thing with 4X games; in those games, i have immediate access to a small pool of resources, and as i explore and expand, i gradually get more, and the resources i get in abundance inform how I'll grow my empire; this is especially noticeable in games such as the endless series, where unique resources tend to have two opposite paths, and you decide which path to follow depending on which resources you have greater access to. and, of course, it's different with every game, so i can't plan ahead knowing I'll have access to a particular material, or i need to specifically seek out that material if i really really want it and expand to them (or conquer over them) when they are revealed.

fifth. graphics. personally, i don't care about fancy graphics. i need to know what I'm looking at, i need to be able to reasonably interact with the world, and ideally i don't hate what I'm seeing. i tend to play roguelikes with tilesets so i can more easily understand what's what, and i don't much like the appearance of ascii, as pretty as it can be when done right. i like stylized graphics a lot - borderlands, team fortress 2, disgaea up to 5, pokemon up to gen 5 - they have particular styles that stand out and make me like them a lot. it's especially noticeable once those styles are uprooted - as in disgaea 6 and pokemon gen 6 - and the artists have to figure out how to emulate the old style with a new medium that just can't match the old style. i think so far pokemon still hasn't recovered from the switch to 3D models, but from what I've seen, they are actually starting to improve. a lot of gen 9 models look a lot better than the models in gen 6. one game series which i think has fully recovered - or, indeed, never failed - from the switch from 2D sprites to 3D models is dragon quest. dragon quest 11 looks fantastic, and the 3D models look incredible and just as stylised as the 2D sprites. even in dragon quest 9, on the DS, the models look incredible. according to a bit of research, the 2D->3D change happened in dragon quest 7, and even in that game the models looked great. the point I'm making here is, stylization and some intangible Thing makes graphics great, not realism; i refer to that intangible thing as soul, but it's what makes a particular game's appearance read as that game's. for example, you can look at the models of link in the 3D Zelda games, and as long as you have a bit of familiarity, you can instantly recognize which game he's from based solely on his model. the main exceptions are the sequel games which use a very similar model and the same stylization. when we get the next Zelda game, i bet it's going to be an entirely different style from all the prior 3D zeldas.

what's my point with all this? i dunno. there's a lot of potential in a lot of games, and there's always so much done so right, and most often the reason a game fails is because they did so many things so wrong. i predict the avatar game is going to flop because a lot of people are starting to get bored of the ubisoft formula, i expect it won't be mechanically interesting enough for me, and it's seventy fucking dollars. I'm probably gonna enjoy it once i get it on sale for like twenty bucks in a few months, because i still tend to like the ubisoft formula (checklist of towers to unlock and outposts to clear!) but it's gonna otherwise be pretty underwhelming. and I'll probably get bored before i finish it and play something more entertaining.

#video games #rant

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