#at least the same level as HGSS

[kafus]

why 100%ing the pokeathlon in HGSS is one of the longest challenges in all of pokemon

ok so the pokeathlon right. the fun minigame collection in HGSS that is sort of but not really a replacement for sinnoh contests. one of the achievements you have to get to upgrade the HGSS trainer card to 5 stars is beating all 10 preset records for each minigame in the pokeathlon, and this is probably what it's most known for outside of just being a fun minigame collection. i think most people beat all the records if they're going for completion and call it a day but despite how easy it is to get that trainer card level, it's actually barely scraping the surface of what this game expects out of you for 100% completion. i genuinely think it's one of the most insane pokemon challenges in terms of the amount of grinding and for WHAT??? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING AAAAA

okay deep breath hear me out. all of the images in this post are pictures of one of my own HGSS files that i have been slowly working on 100% completing the pokeathlon in. i am not done yet and you will soon see why

in the basement of the pokeathlon, there are four rooms that get progressively unlocked as you play. the first one ("solidarity room") is there at default, then you unlock the "trust room" by winning a medal in all five courses at least once, then you unlock the "potential room" by winning a medal for all five courses on the same pokemon (AKA what is called a "medalist pokemon"), and then lastly you unlock the "friendship room" by beating all the preset 1st records, which also gets you the aforementioned trainer card level. each of these rooms is there to display various pokeathlon achievements and holy shit there are a lot of them that just get more crazy as you go further back in the rooms so BUCKLE UP

this is the solidarity room, aka the first room. very easy stuff, the only records down here are in the glass case and they show your highest collective score in each of the five pokeathlon courses. for 100% completion of this room you need to get a score of at least 450 in each course and you can tell you've done this when there are two trophy icons filled in next to each on the right hand side. a couple examples:

the only one in particular that took me more than one or two attempts to get the score i needed was the jump course for some reason and i have no idea why honestly, i think i just suck at lamp jump. on the other hand the skill course is extremely easy entirely because snow throw can be cheesed (video of me doing this here)

next up is the trust room. mainly it features the glass case that shows off every pokemon you've ever received a medal on and also totals how many full medalist pokemon you have, as shown below (i don't currently have any pokemon who AREN'T medalists here, but medalist pokemon are given the red ribbon on the bottom screen, so any non-medalist pokemon won't have that icon):

yes i have 73 medalist pokemon at the time of writing this post. don't worry about the trophies right now, we're going to talk about it later

despite the glass case being the main thing here, the flag, jersey, and golden shoes on the back wall aren't actually there at first. they show up for accomplishing certain things. from left to right you have to switch 200 times in any minigame that requires swapping mons, join the pokeathlon (not necessarily win) 50 times, and dash in any minigame where you flick the stylus to dash 5000 times. these numbers might sound kind of high but it's potatoes compared to later and if you're trying to 100% the pokeathlon these will just naturally show up here eventually without you even thinking about it

amusingly after you get them and interact with them, it doesn't actually tell you what you did to get them there lol. it's just like wow! those are yours! crazy!

next up, the potential room: yet another glass case and a couple of tables on the back for more golden items that appear as you achieve stuff. the glass case this time contains all the records for each individual minigame, including those 1st records you have to beat as i've mentioned a few times.

here are some of my records that i am not so subtly taking the opportunity to show off here lol. i have played so much pokeathlon that all of the 1st records are completely gone from the list, i've overwritten the entire list from each event LOL. on the bottom screen, 1st records you've beaten get a little ribbon on the event icon... but hold on, there's trophies too!

yes there's actually two records to beat for each event, the one that gives you the little trophy is called the mastery record and some of them, unlike the 1st records, are actually pretty damn difficult to achieve. circle push requires 60 points for example, which requires you to get a score of at least 60 - and the theoretical highest score you can get, aka a perfect score, is 66!! that's only 6 points off from perfect!! and don't even get me started on pennant capture, imo it's by far the hardest mastery record, it requires you to pick up 50 entire flags in one game and for a variety of reasons this is very difficult and required me to soft reset over and over doing attempts for multiple hours lol. the mastery records are really where i'm like, damn as a kid with undeveloped motor skills this would make me fucking explode (and it did when i was a child. it almost did even as an adult. fuck pennant capture)

oh yeah btw that "Link" button in the top right is specifically for local wireless playing pokeathlon with friends and there are zero achievements related to it, there's no preset records and no local play is required for completion. figured i'd mention lol

anyway as for the two things in the back, the first with the golden pokegear is for 100 first place wins overall and the one i don't have on the right side is for winning each individual minigame/event in first place... 50 times. 50 times each. there's 10 individual minigames, and some of them don't repeat on any other course, so you can start imagining just how many pokeathlon playthroughs this takes. this is getting ridiculous considering the amount of time investment needed but it Gets Worse!

ah yes the last room. the friendship room. it's cute, it has a statue of you and the last three pokemon you won the pokeathlon with, so you can go in with a team of 3 pokemon you care about and take a photo of your screen surrounded by statues of your favorite guys. here the mons are just random though lol

however there's more to this room and this is where the true insanity of the pokeathlon reveals itself. if you interact with your statue, you get this screen:

as you can see, all of the trophies from the previous rooms are totaled here! the collective trophies are the ones from getting a good score on each course from the solidarity room, the trust trophies are from the amount of medalist pokemon you have shown off in the trust room, the potential trophies are from all the 1st records and mastery records you've beaten in the trust room, and the friendship trophies... well those are actually obtained from the big point score on the top screen, of which you need a minimum of 4500 to get the 10th and final friendship trophy. this total is made up of the sum of all five course high scores, the highest score from each individual minigame (after converting to athlete points, AKA the currency earned), and one point per each medal shown off in the trust room, so five points for each medalist pokemon.

and that's the issue. medalist pokemon. you may have noticed that despite me having a whopping 73 medalist pokemon at the moment as well as getting every other trophy in the pokeathlon, i only have 6 of the 10 trust trophies. do you know how many medalist pokemon you need to 100% the pokeathlon and get that last trust trophy? 200 OF THEM.

let me break down why this is fucking ridiculous. so first of all i've been waiting to mention this until now, but medalist pokemon aren't actually logged by individual pokemon, they're logged by species. this means if you go in with a cyndaquil, and then go in with a different cyndaquil, winning medals on both cyndaquils does not count as more medals after you've already gotten them on that first cyndaquil once. this means that to even attempt getting 200 medalist pokemon, you have to OWN 200 individual pokemon species - as of gen 4 there were 493 pokemon in the national dex including mythicals and stuff; that's a little under half the entire fucking pokedex!! think of it this way, there's 30 pokemon per PC box, and assuming no duplicates, you would need to fill 6 and 2/3 PC boxes with different pokemon species.

pokedex requirement aside, let's break down how many times you have to play the pokeathlon minigames MINIMUM assuming you win first place every single time and don't ever bring repeat species on accident. it's math time babey

you need 200 medalist pokemon but you join the pokeathlon with a team of 3 pokemon at a time, so let's divide that by three and round upwards. 200 / 3 = 67 full medalist runs. for each medalist, you have to beat all 5 courses, so let's multiply 67 by 5 to get 335 total pokeathlon wins. but wait, each course has three minigames! so the total amount of minigames you have to play MINIMUM to get 200 medalist pokemon is 1005. and again, that's at minimum assuming you don't fuck anything up!! these minigames aren't exactly short either, they last 1-2 minutes each and this doesn't count spamming A through dialogue and menus, picking your pokemon each time before each course, watching the cutscene of points getting totaled at the end... 1-2 minutes might sound short but even if we take out all that time menuing and assuming every course is JUST 1 minute for math's sake, that's 1005 minutes - that's 16 hours and 45 minutes of JUST pokeathlon gameplay, and that is absolutely an underestimate.

as you can imagine as a person with chronic pain these minigames are kind of painful after a while and so i'm definitely going slow with this grind but i intend to have every trust trophy eventually. i'm not the first to do it but i've seen very few people online who have even wanted to make the attempt and i want to be able to look at that friendship trophy screen and feel accomplished. (i'm also going to get that last achievement in the potential room but if i don't have it somehow at the end of getting all these medalists i'll worry about it then)

side note i think it's really funny how there's something called the Supreme Cup which is just pokeathlon but harder and the only thing worth doing it for is extra athlete points for winning (300 instead of 100), there's literally 0 achievements tied to it lol

oh, and an aside about how ridiculous the pokeathlon is - the data cards. despite all my rambling here about all these different rooms with various achievements, there's actually even more pokeathlon data that is accessible... for a price.

the lady behind the counter here will sell you data cards for athlete points which let you view more personal pokeathlon data on the computer screen right next to her. the issue is some of these are really expensive, most of them 1000 points or more, which is a minimum of two full pokeathlon courses probably won at first place each. and there's also one card that costs 9999 for some fucking reason, it's the one that shows your total pokeathlon playtime, which i think is really funny. you also can't buy it right away, you have to buy most of the prior ones first. they really said ok here's your reward for grinding enough AP to buy all those data cards including this 9999 one: checking how much time you've wasted on getting here! in total getting all the data cards costs 39499 AP. just to view all your data!! if you get an average of 500 AP per pokeathlon course, that's a minimum of like 79 pokeathlon wins!!

i assume most people have never bought a data card much less all of them, like most people are going to use all that AP for purchasing evolution stones and heart scales from the main shop on the right, but it's kind of nutty how much data the pokeathlon actually saves. very minute stuff. since i've bought all of them, here's my current stats at the time of writing this:

anyways don't do this unless you have a lot of time on your hands to tediously replay the same minigames hundreds of times, and if you do for the love of god rest your wrists btw. these minigames were not built for my bones and they probably weren't for you eitherSFDKSFD

[thatoneguy031]

Hey! How would y'all like to hear another rambling from me?

So, for those that are aware of the Pokemon anime, you all know about this thing called Battle Bond.

For those that don't know: Battle Bond is a transformation that first debuted in XYZ, and was displayed when Ash and his newly-evolved Greninja's friendship reached it's maximum possible potency(No, I didn't stutter, I said potency), and resulted in a new transformation, creatively named Ash-Greninja(Or Satoshi-Gekkouga for those watching the sub).

Here's what Greninja looks like:

I'm sure that the Kalos Fans really like this big guy. Not that I blame 'em. He's really cool, it's no wonder why he's in Smash. Also, I'm pretty sure this is a screenshot from Journeys, but that's besides the point.

...And then there's Ash Greninja:

The man, the legend, the absolute gigachad. Like, he's just the embodiment of cool. Literally all that was added was sideburns(And a few sunburns), and my mans went from S1 Deku to Titan Luz on the Badass-o-Meter. The embodiment of cool, this rare Greninja wields a large shuriken on his back at all times, instead of having to constantly create new ones on his legs. This is the same pressurized water that is known to slice through metal, btw.

"That's cool and all, but what's your point in mentioning this?" you may be asking, and I'm getting to that. Greninja is the only known Pokemon with Battle Bond as an Ability. Well...

Why can't there be more?

Why is this frog the only Pokemon that can become a cooler version of itself?

There are a lot of Pokemon that could really benefit from Battle Bond, but I'll stick with just one for now, with tidbits of lore sprinkled here and there(Based on some headcannons that I've had, and I'll be taking some creative liberties). If this post makes its rounds(Also, when I come up with more Pokemon that could use Battle Bond), I'll add more Pokemon to the list, and I'm going to display how humans can play a bigger part in this whole shebang.

Feraligatr... We love it, at least a third of us had used one before, it's awesome, right? This Pokemon, like many others, needs a bit more love, and I think that this is a solid place to start. I don't have an image of my concept design on me right now(I drew the image already, but I'm having yet more technical issues), but I can provide a reason for this existing.

In my headcannon, Feraligatr is a Pokemon that has existed for a long, long time, dating at least to the first Ice Age. As a result, this Pokemon has spent a fair amount of time around humans, traveling with them when hunting was involved. Many humans would acknowledge this fact, and begin working with Feraligatrs as a result. A very small few would be able to connect to them on a closer level, and this would cause a change within the Pokemon, and some names that are completely accepting some revisions.

In this form, Feraligatr completely embraces its roots, and dawns a much thicker extra layer of scales in the color and shape of a pelt from another animal/Pokemon, similarly to Croconaw, along with extra padding across the limbs and tail, all of it functioning both for warmth and as a disguise. The spines running across it's back are a deep, blood-red and are much more jagged, as a way to continue attacking its opponents if/when its in a tough spot. To bait its opponents/prey into a false security, they will fake their own death while exposing the bright-red streaks on their torso. When they approach, the Feraligatr will suddenly leap up and clamp its prey with its jaws, waiting for their bodies to give in to blood loss/fatigue, where they will finish them off.

Amber Apex Feraligatr(Based on it's intended trainers to reawaken this form: Gold, or Ethan if you're a HGSS kinda person) will have sharper, longer claws, with the ability to reinforce them with ice or pressurized water at will, alongside being able to materialize ice anywhere in their field of vision, appropriately being given the Water/Ice typing.

The signature move it has is Glacier Barrier, an Ice-type move. It functions similarly to Protect, with a fun twist. If the opponent makes contact with the user while its in effect, it will give them frostbite, cutting their Speed stat while causing small, continuous damage over time. This effect remains in place until the user or the opponent switches out. If the move fails, the user becomes Frozen for two turns, unable to perform any action, not even being able to return to its Poke Ball in that time.

A busted move, but there's a clear-cut a reason not to spam it. That checks out, right?

Now, onto the humans, another big topic in this post.

It seemed kinda weird that the games mention that humans fight alongside Pokemon, with the anime literally confirming that... but don't ever show it happening. Like, I get that games like Pokken exist, and they're technically cannon, but that game in particular sorta relies on something similar to Battle Bond anyways.

Back to my main point, why can't humans have transformations, as well? I'm not saying like, physical changes to them or anything like Pokemon ReBurst(God, that manga feels like a fever dream, check it out sometime), but something like... aura manipulation. Pokemon like Lucario pretty much confirmed that aura can manifest in a physical state. Like, one you can touch, feel, and get whacked upside the head with. Better yet, it can take a form depending on the user's wants and/or needs.

So, it makes sense that, if their Pokemon is the only thing they can think about during combat, surely their aura would take the form of the Pokemon in question, especially if that Pokemon is their ace!

I'm guessing that it'd look something like Naruto's Kurama Link form(Or whatever it's called, I never really kept track with the series), but like, if someone hue-shifted the heck out of it.

I'm sorry if this looks awful, but this is the furthest my latent ability of Photoshop carries me, please don't flame me T-T

Obviously, it wouldn't always be blue. I always hated how the anime basically told you that all human auras were blue, yet Mystery Dungeon literally contradicts this. The color of the aura would based on the human's personality or, in rare cases where the Pokemon's aura overpowers their own, it would take on the color of the Pokemon's aura, or overall color scheme in some situations. If there are multiple colors, it'd be the two most prominent colors, the less dominant between the two simply being a highlight.

In many cases, it could function as a sort of failsafe if a Pokemon or human is in danger of dying, of course only triggering in that context if they've had the best of best of best friendships. And, with enough training, it could even be triggered on command! ...Well, kind of. It's more like the transformation would take less effort to both sense it arriving and activate, but it is overall near-impossible to really use whenever you want. Just... not impossible.

Something else that, while it might be a stretch, could also be really cool, is the idea of the human gaining the abilities of a Pokemon. Again, not physical alterations(At least, on the body itself), but you'd gain the skills and more "passive" abilities of your partner. For example, if you triggered the Bond Phenomenon with something like, I dunno... Samurott, or dare I say, Zacian, you'd gain their expert swordsmanship, meaning that you'd wanna carry a sword on you at all times just in case you need it. Another example of this would be something like Absol. If you were to activate the transformation with that Pokemon, you'd gain its future sight abilities(Something more like Sir Nighteye, if that helps).

And something else would be that you could help a Pokemon with the handling of a move. While we're speaking of Naruto anyway, let's use Noivern as an example(Naruto would totally be a Noivern, fight me). If a Noivern was using something like Shadow Ball, their Trainer would be able to help them keep it stable while using the Bond Phenomenon, since Noiverns aren't well-adept at using Ghost-type moves. They wouldn't be able to add anything to it, as humans obviously can't use moves like Pokemon, but their aura would be more than enough to keep the Shadow Ball in a spherical shape.

It would be pretty awesome, right? These were all the examples I could think of at the moment, but I'd love to hear some suggestions and other practicalities this transformation could have. Heck, I'd like to see some of your trainer OCs with a transformation like this, if your're willing to show me anything.

[leavingautumn13]

Do u like pokemon remakes

under the cut because i got longwinded.

tl;dr: yes, BUT.

i'm not opposed to the idea of remakes, but it depends on the remake. frlg and hgss were obviously necessary for people to have access to gen 1 and 2 pokemon in the advance generation. they also expanded on the original games in some way. we got the sevii isles in frlg, and eusine's suicune thing in hgss that i don't remember because i haven't played hgss in a hot minute.

i like oras for the same reason--we got more content than the original games (though i'm forever salty about the battle frontier not being added in the postgame), so they're not a pointless purchase.

bdsp, though, added nothing. i was extremely hyped for platinum-inspired delta episode-esque postgame and we got nada. in my heart, pla is the actual gen 4 remake. like, there's no point to playing brilliant diamond when i can bust out my old copy of pearl that i already paid 60 usd for, yknow?

my dream for a hypothetical bw remake is open world like sv, and expands on the story in some way (maybe pulling elements from bw2 in), and gives us access to more pokemon at least in the postgame. like, let me take the subway wherever in unova i want to go, and if i get my ass handed to me by a level 40 pokemon when i haven't hit the first gym yet. that's being a pokemon trainer baby! (lbr, i just want an open world game with public transportation you DON'T go through a loading screen for unless you like, WANT to.)

"wouldn't that affect a linear story like the one in bw" no, not necessarily--sv still had plot points in particular places, but you could do them in any order. just make it so the next plot point won't trigger until you've done the previous one and you can guide players through the route you'd like them to take while still giving them the option to take off into the wilderness like a madwoman because they absolutely have to have this one particular pokemon (which is something i definitely did in sv to get a tatsugiri before the second gym, and it was a blast. did she listen to me? not at ALL. was it worth it? HELL YES).

now--are pokemon remakes just another entry in the current zeitgeist of pointless remakes when the original is just fine? i mean, i'd argue yes if we didn't get more content than the original games had, so again i think it depends on the remake. there's also the issue of original copies of old pokemon games being difficult to find and way expensive when they are found. i mean, just a few years ago used copies of hgss were still going for 60 usd retail. so it's nice that remakes can introduce new or younger players to the stories that people who played the originals enjoyed while still remaining somewhat accessible.

that being said, i'm a huge advocate for people just playing emulators too. just be safe when you're downloading stuff off the internet, obviously.

[dalimoor]

So I did a shiny-only run in SoulSilver

I know, it's probably the dumbest thing I've ever done. But I saw SmallAnt's Shiny-only run and was like 'I want to try that'. My rules were:

-No catching Pokémon unless they were Shiny -No using non-Shiny Pokémon in battle -Must finish the game (all 16 Badges plus defeat Red) with a full team of six Shinies -Receiving non-shiny gift Pokémon is okay, because I needed them for HM purposes Tl;dr - I did it. If you want to know how many resets it took, I didn't count, because I was doing other things at the same time and kept losing count 🤣 So, the first thing to do was to get a starter. HGSS is great because you can see if your starter is Shiny even before you receive it. After resetting a bunch, I finally got one!

...And it's my least favourite of the Johto starters, but beggars can't be choosers. (Also, sorry about the shitty photos, I was playing on real hardware.)

Welcome to the team, Gatorade! So, I decided to go for static or gift Pokémon as it would make resetting for them easier, as SmallAnt did. My next choice was Sudowoodo. He actually came along the weekend I was staying with @runeandmoon for Hyper Japan, so she saw me get him in person!

As you can see, this was five days after starting the game. Not bad, huh? I named him OnTheRocks, and Croconaw was pleased this was no longer a solo run!

Moving on, I headed to visit Bill in Goldenrod, as my next target was Eevee. He arrived sparkling four days later.

I nicknamed him 'Guinness' and eventually evolved him into an Umbreon. I'm naming all my Pokémon after drinks or drink-related things. After Eevee, I picked up the easiest catch in the game that required no resets...

...Seems a little too easy, doesn't it? This is Red Bull. I used her for a while, but eventually she was fully replaced by a more 'legit' Shiny and became just a HM slave. Our next proper team member was found in the Rocket Hideout.

Ramune the Voltorb! I forgot to take a photo of its status screen after catching it, but it was caught five days after I got Eevee. I didn't get another team member until after getting all eight Johto Badges. I was actually gunning for the Extreme Speed Dratini from the Dragon Master, but in the end, I changed my mind and went to the Game Corner instead. That way I was able to check five Dratini at once. It was probably a bad idea to change my mind half-way through, as this one took ten days to get.

Eventually, MonsterNRG arrived shining! We were so close to being done now! I could have just stopped here, as with Gyarados I did have six Pokémon, but where's the fun in that? Nope, I knew exactly who team member nuber six had to be...

LUGIA!!

Five days later, P. (Pink) Lemonade joined the party! Now I had my actual full team, it was time to challenge the Elite 4!

It was tough, because I was pretty underlevelled, but I did it.

How cool it was to see a full shiny team enter the Hall of Fame! Going around Kanto was a fairly breezy job, until I got to Red. I was badly, badly under-levelled for him, and it took forever, and a lot of healing items, but he too eventually went down.

I was too slow to catch the actual 'you defeated Red!' text when taking the photo 🤣

And there it was, my Shiny-only run of SoulSilver. I had a lot of fun, but I don't recommend anyone else doing this. I didn't count my resets, but I must've got extremely lucky, as I finished the run in barely a month. Now, what kind of run to do next...?

[perelka-l]

Do you have any HCs for how Archer interacts with the other execs?

I am of deep belief that those four really get along with each other and are quite a nice quartet, supportive of each other, surprisingly so for four of mobsters. Or maybe not so surprisingly?

Well, first thing is that all of them are united by their trust and adoration towards Giovanni, but there is plenty of yet unexplored ground in terms of what they think about each other.

In Pokemas, Ariana is the only one that mentions Archer and she claims to "allow" Archer to take the number two spot. So yeah, she's envious as heck, which tbh no wonder. Interestingly though I don't think before Pokemas it was ever said if they are equals but I liked the thought that they had the same level in organisation. Well. It kinda of broke a bit my perception of them as as much as I like her being envious, I want to think there a certain level of understanding between her and Archer, sharing same (or at least similar) job and difficulties.

As much as Ariana would want to surpass him, I don't think she would do anything malicious to Archer. It could be that she genuinely likes him (I see this one mostly platonically, even if they cough shared the Boss) or finds value in his leadership and would consider it damaging to TR if she were to get rid of him through more nefarious means... Or she can't resort to such means. After all, I don't think Boss would approve.

Now, as I look through lines, I also noticed that she does call Archer "interim boss" in HGSS, which would indeed hint at him being chosen/taking over and her allowing that. Respect? Yeah, I think that's also here. Now that I ponder on that, maybe they are Rivals? That actually would make a lot of sense.

Proton is a bit harder for me to consider. I once saw a nice hc that it could be Archer that recruited him and he is more eager to follow him in the first place, but at the same time if you read more into his dialogue snippets, he is very dedicated to Giovanni, to the point of proclaiming (in Pokemas) that he would follow Giovanni anyway, TR or no TR.

So, well. Considering that Proton is very eager to be perceived as cruel and untouchable, I would say his sense of loyalty mostly stems from TR providing him space to do whatever he wants and feeling useful for that. Tbh I kind of ignore Pokemas in this regard, because I don't really see him as a follower? I mean, yeah, he could respect Giovanni for what he is and represents, but it just matches better to him if he follows those that allow him to use what he can do to have a purpose aside from senseless violence. And I think he and Archer could make quite a nice combo, as Archer, first or second, could provide him that purpose.

But... OK, OOC Perelka moment coming up but I genuinely struggle to see them as a ship. As in, I can see why and how people would ship that, but personally that never activated my neurons much (feel free to prove me wrong :P) and I would angle towards more platonic stuff. Understanding of limits they would go for to achieve goals always being a neat start. Does it make sense? I am not sure.

Petrel is... kind of tricky. He is in TR but at the same time he isn't like. Entirely Evil. Or is he? He seems to lack Archer's coldness, Ariana's glee or Proton's dedication for evil, and yet. I think it's easy though to go for him as a joker and kind of a guy that would break the atmosphere, if that makes sense, a more sociable person--but I think it would clash a bit with Archer's professionalism. Archer would appreciate the amicality but he'd keep at least an elbow distance, partially for said professionalism and partially because Petrel is tricky and I have no doubts that he is very much a trickster. Will make you feel better in his presence, would make you trust him, would deceive you and manipulate you and you'd have no idea. That's kind of scary when you think about it.

That being said, he could use those social skills for good and be the glue sticking the whole group together. He seems like a guy that would don drag anyway, tbh he gives me heavy cisn't vibes. But that's a side note.

On a final note, they are coworkers, but I would assume closer ones than usual. There isn't much more than four of them that would understand what they go through during their job, so there is no-one else to share it with but the other three. I once saw a fantastic comic that showed four going drinking after job, salary man style. It was amazing, and I think that's how they roll.

[a-tale-of-legends]

For funsies,I did the Johto gym leaders teams in my au as if they were in the actual game!

First gym: Orchid

Second gym: Bugsy

Third gym: Whitney

Note: I'm honestly debating on whether or not to include her Clefairy since it's a fairy type now instead of normal. Also I think Furret would have been a good choice for her given it is a very cute pokemon, something that Whitney clearly leans towards.

Fourth gym: Morty

Literally the same as his canon team except he has a fucking misdreavus now. Like he should have had all along.

Fifth gym : Aiko

Note: Aiko is Chuck's niece in the Legendverse! Hence why she ended up taking over his gym.

Sixty Gym: Jasmine

Note: Forretress was Pineco that Bugsy gave her!

Seventh gym: Yumi

Note: Yumi is Pryce's grandson! I usually save the last pokemon for the gym leaders ace, but I think Mamoswine fits better. Both to connect Yumi to his grandson, and to properly give some Johto rep/ not feel too similar to Candice. I do think Froslass, formerly Snorunt, was one of his first pokemon.

8th gym leader:

Note: Clair has 2 dragonairs like she does in the games. So she ultimately has 5 pokemon. Why she has an Arbok? *Shrugs* I needed to space out the pokemon she uses, and Arbok is part of the dragon egg group that's within gen 1 and 2. Unless Clair decides to make her battles be double battles ( in which then she would only have 4 pokemon), then I don't see why not? Double Intimidate, who doesn't like that?

Some after thoughts: In GSC/HGSS, the player kinda had some freedom in choosing where to go after Morty's gym. Specifically with Jasmine and Pryce( I was going to include Chuck but Chuck is clearly meant to be the definitive 5th gym leader with a lower level cap compared to the other two). I still want that level of freedom for the players in this what if sequel to HGSS. That being said, I still want there to be proper leveling involved based on which gym leader you take first. Since, hopefully, Amphy isn't sick, challengers can choose to challenge either Aiko or Jasmine first. Yumi to an extent, but is definitely much more challenging. If you challenge Jasmine first, Aiko would then have a higher level cap, and vice versa with Aiko to Jasmine. Both of their level caps would be lower than Yumi's, but if a challenger feels confident enough, they could challenge Yumi before the other two. I'm not sure if the level cap for them would change, but if so, the ultimate goal is to make the player have some freedom when playing. At least in theory. I'm not a game developer, so I don't know how achievable this is. It's just a fun idea.

I might do the Johto elite 4 of my au later. I'm giving them some more range in pokemon cause why not.

[tuesdayscanons]

I hopped on the bandwagon even though I probably shouldn't have given how unbalanced this tier list is. (Games that I have no particular ranking for are in as close to chronological order as I can).

Starting with Nostalgia Tier—I haven't replayed these games (at least, not start to finish) since childhood, but I have fond memories of them. They're in chronological order (even though Platinum should be higher than DP for Giratina alone) because my memories are vague and it doesn't feel fair to rank them without having a fresh experience.

I Love It— Though I was initially nervous about pre-ordering it given my regret over buying Sword + DLC, I'm absolutely glad I gave Scarlet a chance. It's one of my favorite Pokémon games of all time—having the freedom to roam around, compelling characters that give me gender envy, a prehistoric motorcycle lizard who is my best friend...there's so much to love about it. Even if there's stuff I miss (like Pokémon Contests or Amie/Refresh), it doesn't feel as noticeably absent as other games. There's even mini-games in Scarlet, which I wasn't expecting—as in, mini-games you can do after post-game. It's no Pokéathelon, but I'm glad there's at least something there.

BDSP gets its own tier because I have complicated feelings about it. Do I wish I had something more, especially given my nostalgia for HGSS? Yes. Did I get some enjoyment out of it anyway, despite its flaws? Also yes. The tier is only so close to the top because I wanted it near Nostalgia tier, but it's not directly below it since I can't justify placing it higher than Scarlet.

If you asked me in 2017, Sun/Moon would be in "I Love It". Upon replaying it, the game was more of a slog than I remembered it being. I had to wait, like, an hour before I could even buy glasses! Scarlet gave me glasses for free! I'm still fond of the Sun/Moon characters, but I do not want to go through that tutorial again. X/Y is below it because I haven't gotten to play it until recently (went straight to Sun/Moon when I got my 3DS and getting X/Y wasn't a high priority). I moreso like the idea of what the game could've been than the game itself. I really like Amie too (which I found out about through Alpha Sapphire) and could totally see myself returning to the game just for Amie.

Alpha Sapphire is neutral for now because I have played it a little, but don't really remember anything from the playthrough. I could see myself potentially liking it.

Sword/Shield has some interesting character designs/town designs, but it felt like a slog to get through. I was amazed when I first started playing because I hadn't seen an "HD" Pokémon game before, though that novelty wore off quickly. I don't really appreciate being chased by Pokémon more than twice my current level either.

LGPE seems like fun—I was considering getting it instead of Sword in 2021, but I thought it would've been better to play the new gen instead. I'm disappointed I missed out on an opportunity to ride on a Shiny Charizard. Seems childish, but the nostalgic factor (I loved the anime) is appealing for me.

Then there's the games I wasn't old enough to experience upon release—not sure if I'll play any of them (especially when some of them already have remakes that I currently own). I own a Ruby cartridge, but nothing to use it with.

USUM isn't appealing to me because I already played SM. The Ultra whatevers aren't worth paying $30-$40 for the same game with an even longer tutorial. As for Legends, it doesn't seem to have a lot going on tbh. Seeing PLA stans constantly shove it down other people's throats and act as if it's objectively superior to every mainline game completely turns me off from it. Not to mention, I already felt anxious in the Sword wild area. Having wild Pokémon attack me would make my anxiety worse.

[turboacek-blog]

Elements the main line Pokémon games can/should take from spin offs

Just my opinion and thoughts

Written before Scarlet and Violet's announcement just didn't fix some grammar and spelling errors lol

Due to their nature as spin-offs they can be looser with the rules of the world or expand on the world while still staying true to Pokémon as outside of maybe a few all Pokémon games can arguably all fit in the same world

And most of them outside of the gameplay offer something that makes them unique

So these are just ideas from each game that can maybe go to the main line games

Pokémon Snap/New Pokémon Snap:

Many of the games try to incorporate some aspect of photo taking such as HGSS with the camera guy that took a pic of you and your current party, Alola’s photo spots, etc

I think incorporating a photo mode in the next Pokémon Amie/Camp/etc. can go a long way for players

And with that, they can incorporate the social media thing they had in New Pokémon Snap into the games as well especially with the Sword and Shield trainer card maker as a basis for posts, sharing, and such

The last thing is Illumina Pokémon

Art: 

There are aspects of them that feel like they could go more in-depth with this idea and other times it just feels like a different shiny Pokémon, I think there’s something it could be used for maybe like Totem Pokémon and can have slightly higher stats or be used in Contests/etc I think they have nice designs and offer something visually more appealing than totems and alphas while not being almost completely different like shinies

Mystery Dungeon

Pokémon as the playing characters for stuff like the Poke Jobs in SwSh could work

One idea that I’m taking from Chuggaconroy

Video here 5:53 if the time stamp doesn’t work ends around 9:07

Essentially saying in Mystery Dungeon pre-evolved Pokémon are still useable the whole game as the evolution stat increase isn’t as big as in the main line games making evolving not as big of a deal as it really just matters what level you are and what moves you have

So having a way, an item, key item, etc that allows a Pokémon to have their evolved stats but keep their pre evolved appearance like Bulbasaur with the stats of Ivysaur or Venusaur. Similar to wearing a skin in video games. That way everyone kind of wins as many prefer their cuter or different stages and only evolved their Pokémon to beat the game. It sounds like such a big thing that it would be a mechanic like Mega evolution. But I think there’s someway that can make it so simple it won’t demand that much attention. As seen with another idea later

The unevolved “skin” can have some downside like Pikachu has Raichu stats except for HP for example kinda like the opposite of Dynamax making it better but not as good as just evolving regularly or like Chugga said it not being able to be used online or in competitive VS

And other things in Mystery dungeon that kind of got stuff in the main lines are based but that’s essentially the starting house or secret bases in the Hoenn games/underground in Sinnoh games having that feature be more permanent/recurring would be nice

Pokémon Unite

Holowear

All those costumes you’ve seen the Pokémon wear are called Holowear as explained in a comic it’s just a hologram projected on the Pokémon so it’s not in the way of movement and battling and weight, etc as it’s not there

Holowear gives the dress-up aspect of Pokémon people love as we have had examples like Cosplay Pikachu and with a lot of other examples like sunglasses Squirtle

Pokémon unite also just falls into the recurring category of having more to do with competitive Pokémon besides Pokémon trainer battles

Pokémon Go

Costumes similar to Holowear as a lot of the event Pokémon had some costumes only available in Pokémon Go that were cute or at least nice to have

Overworld, stuff like pokestops to get small rewards can be nice, and also stuff like confetti falling on Pokémon day is nice

Pokken Tournament

Shadow Pokémon, can also fall in the Pokémon Go and Colosseum/XD, I think outside of story reasons having corrupted Pokémon to purify can give a modern Legends Arceus alpha and noble Pokémon approach with a Shadow Mewtwo/Lugia as the last boss

Another shake-up of how to be competitive with Pokémon

Pokémon Café Remix

Another costume one but on a lesser scale as they’re like Pokémon Go’s

Cafe in the Pokémon games for Pokémon to get benefits for the Pokémon as most are just there for decoration and in SwSh can get some of the treats

Also can be a side job in some games you keep coming back to a place and it gets better/bigger the more you do it, like park avenue but on a café scale

Magikarp Jump

Patterns

Magikarp had so many different patterns and it makes sense as especially in the anime we see Pokémon with slight differences so stuff like that gives some more uniqueness to each Pokémon but is also limited so it won’t be a Spinda situation

Pokémon Masters Ex

Another one that can fall into more ways to be competitive with Pokémon and can also be a unique redux on triple battles and costumes but on the character

Past characters appearing, characters like Red, Rosa, etc having more character and speaking, etc is great and also makes me want them to be in more games as nice appearances kinda like in Sun and Moon with Cynthia Wally Red, etc but don’t always have to relegate to postgame or super bosses as having them on the story is nice

Sync moves and Unity attacks, very much like Z moves but for everyone can be a way to not make them Alola exclusives

Pokémon Ranger

Alternate ways to catch Pokemon, don’t have to be exactly like Ranger but I think getting them can be more story-driven ways that do not gift Pokemon just because plus they are optional 

[musiclovingmoth]

types of scientist each pkmn prof would be irl as seen by a biology major

1. professor oak

according to bulbapedia, oak concentrates on the relationships between humans and pokemon- seems like an animal behavior scientist and professor! definitely also a famous scicommer since he hosts a radio show across kanto and johto! probably the bill nye of the pokemon world at this point. what if he was this Friendly Science Man all the 90s-2000s kids knew and like 20 years later he goes on a late night show and delivers this swear-filled rant on the global biodiversity crisis and how people need to keep their meowths and liepards inside

2. professor elm

elm gives me HEAVY recent postdoc vibes. i love how his hgss artwork portrays him to be a klutz. he’s so busy and frazzled he forgets to eat. see my post about how like half the men in biology i know look like this man. it’s also fun seeing professors who have families of their own, i like hearing tidbits here and there about their spouses and children. the *lore.* i don’t think he’d be to the level of maes hughes but when he like squeezes in a tiny thing about his wife or kid during lecture or to other members of his lab people can’t help but be like aww. he just seems wholesome! since he’s credited with the discovery of pokemon eggs, he probably would study reproductive/evolutionary developmental biology (one of my fav subjects!).

3. professor birch

(disclaimer: i have not played rse/oras) the only thing i know about this guy off the top of my head is how you get to pick your starter only because he’s getting chased around by a poochyena in the field. i love this fieldwork mishap energy. look at him, he’s wearing sandals and shorts into TALL GRASS. himbo scientist vibes, even tho those things kind of conflict. according to bulbapedia, he specializes in... HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION?? oh my god also one of my loves. one of the phd students i work with who also kinda studies distribution once fell into a >6 ft soil pit doing field work. if birch is getting chased around by wild animals as a professor, i can only imagine the shit he got himself into as a grad student.

4. professor rowan

one of the oldest professors at the school, to the degree where everyone considers him an enigma and takes his classes at least partly out of curiosity as to what he’s like. most people say the same thing, which is that he seems really scary at first but basically he’s just grandpa! has office hours that somehow work for everyone and has a huge bowl of candy at his desk. if you go, he’ll encourage you to take some and he’ll probably also take and eat one during your meeting. as per bulbapedia, literal evolutionary biologist. i feel like all the pokemon professors are somewhat of of evolutionary biologists by their trades, which may make rowan the Big one out of all of them. maybe neil shubin-level famous...

5. professor juniper

ONE OF MY FAVS!! i love her energy so much. she also gives me recent postdoc vibes but i could also see her as the weird (in a good way!) and spunky pi (principal investigator, basically the research manager) of her own lab. definitely active on scitwitter where she keeps up with the latest papers and advocates on academic issues. specializing in the origins of pokemon sounds a lot like an evolutionary biologist to me, though again i feel like all the professors are to an extent because “evolving” is pokemon’s thing. probably also works a lot with extremely old fossils, maybe from around the cambrian. if so, that definitely makes her an invertebrates person, my favorite kind of person (the lab i work with is full of them and they’re all wonderful). ohh maybe she even does research on the jump from unicellularity to multicellularity! definitely a close colleague of rowan, maybe even a former student!

6. professor sycamore

god if this man ever did a guest lecture or visiting professorship at a foreign university (like in “america” vs. “france”) everyone would go fucking nuts. his classes would fill up instantly. he teaches like. an introductory course on cell bio and there’s a not-insignificant portion of students there who are upperclassmen. i don’t really remember much from xy but that letter he leaves as a young man to his future self is very nice, i think he’d be a very supportive advisor/mentor and would be great at encouraging underclassmen to take their time and pursue their dreams. studying mega evolution, an instantaneous temporary change, reminds me of phenotypic plasticity, which is when individual organisms can change physical form in response to environmental stimuli. a really cool topic!

7. professor kukui

another professor where everyone signs up to take his classes. i feel like his chill yet enthusiastic attitude make him a good candidate to teach gen bio for freshmen, he’d be a great communicator and also probably puts actual good memes in his lectures. i feel like on the about page of his class/professional website he’d have this professionally-done photo of the masked royal, not even one some other fan took at a match, and it would be captioned “i’m a big fan of the masked royal! check out this sick picture i got of him” and he’d just do such a terrible job of hiding the fact that it’s him. i think due to the rigors of academia, it would be a retired thing he used to do, but the new students all lose their minds when they find out about it. WHAT IF HE TOLD EVERYONE A SURPRISE GUEST LECTURER WAS COMING IN AND IT WAS JUST HIM AS THE MASKED ROYAL AND HE MADE A BIG DEAL OUT OF HOW “HE AND KUKUI ARE FRIENDS” BUT EVERYONE KNEW BUT STILL WENT WILD ANYWAY. an irl analog to studying pokemon attacks... maybe the specific defense/attack mechanisms of a specific group or species. he likes rockruff and lycanroc right? maybe he’s also a behavioral biologist who studies how wolves hunt in packs and how their sociality evolved.

8. professor magnolia

(disclaimer: i have not played swsh) since she studies dynamax, she might also study phenotypic plasticity. apparently her work on it was so influential it started the trend of using it in big flashy galarian stadium battles, so she probably travels to do guest lectures a lot and it’s a BIG DEAL wherever she goes! uhhh idk what “galar particles” are? sounds like molecular or cell biology. oh maybe she studies differences in metabolism between form changes and what physiologically changes to keep up those different structures.

[mountmortar]

Wait this is a Kanjoh blog, I thought it was a gremlin Kris and Silver healing blog? Got any Kanto hcs with the same level of brainrot you have for Johto? or a combo of the two under the name Indigo? :0

okay yes it IS that but given that kanto and johto are inseparable and i have a lot of love for the kantrio as well (and i reblog a lot of kanto content anyway) i figured i might as well move from a mostly-johto blog to a blend of the two. which is fine by me considering that you literally travel there in gsc anyway LMAO. but i do have some thoughts about the kantrio!! (and a lot of the indigo combo for the kantrio + johto punks but that's a whole other post lmao) here's a couple of them :)

okay first and foremost i think red CAN talk i don't think he's entirely mute and that's just from my observations of his game dialogue. it's just that in many scenarios he chooses not to! and building off of that i think he would know whatever sign language exists in the pokémon world as a result of that

in soooort of that same vein just based on his flavor text in rgby when he interacts with the bookshelves of scientific books in professor oak's lab he does express interest and excitement. so i think that he'd like to read those types of things! anything about pokémon pretty much. no matter the difficulty of the text. everyone assumes just because he's a hardcore trainer he doesn't really pay attention to scientific journals and then he gets caught reading the most dry-ass textbook ever with the unrestrained glee of a little kid. and good for him

i always thought it was reallyyyyy funny that blue went to go study in kalos because in rgby when he meets up with red on the s.s. anne he literally goes "bonjour!" and even though that was kind of a throwaway line it almost makes me think that maybe blue wanted to go to kalos for a WHILE. maybe he always wanted to visit or something and once he saw an opportunity to study there he sprang on it. and if it got him away from professor oak then that was just even better

blue's dialogue in silph co. always struck me as kind of interesting concerning his and red's friendship because. okay. at this point the relationship between blue and red is CLEARLY deteriorating with professor oak's favoritism being an implied factor of the cause. but blue's dialogue goes:

[before battle]

"What kept you RED? Hahaha! I thought you'd turn up if I waited here! I guess TEAM ROCKET slowed you down! Not that I care! I saw you in SAFFRON, so I decided to see if you got better!"

[after being beaten]

"Oh ho! So, you are ready for BOSS ROCKET!"

and that implies two things: one, that blue has been keeping an eye on red and his takedown of team rocket judging by the fact that he KNEW red would turn up at silph, and two, that (for all his bluster) that particular battle was a test on blue's part to make sure that red was ready to take on giovanni. like for all that their friendship was falling apart blue still very much cares about him!!! it's just that he's going through some shit because of prof. oak and taking it out on red as a result of it. and it may not be right, but sometimes that's just the way things are. and as gsc/hgss proved, he STILL cared about him. even enough to randomly call up the protag and start reminiscing about him out of nowhere. idk it's just!!! such an interesting little bit of dialogue to me

now leaf. leaf is a remake girl and while i HAVE played firered i played as red. however i do remember the dialogue of blue's that described (in this instance, because it's frlg-only) leaf as "a chatty gossip" and honestly i'm going to take that and roll with it. i think she could talk anyone's head off about anything at any given times. and given that she's a protagonist with protagonist genes i think that on at least one occasion she's run into a pole while doing so because she wasn't paying attention

in a universe where the three of them are all there i think that if there was anybody who could find red first it'd be leaf. because they would think along the same lines! they have that same protagonist brain! blue is too busy being saddened by the fact that red is gone but leaf. who IS an explorer who IS like red in so many ways. would take one look at mount silver and think. yeah. i think he's up there. but something something red convinces her not to tell blue because HE'S saddened about the state of their friendship and doesn't want blue to come up there and start yelling at him or something. leaf thinks they're idiots. you know how it goes

[voltimer]

'The Magic of Johto's Level Curve'

(or, 'a leisurely analysis of the singleplayer balance of Pokemon GSC and HGSS')

The Johto games - especially HeartGold and SoulSilver - seem to have a very good reputation. Some often put the aforementioned HGSS into their top 3 or describe it as the core Pokemon experience. I personally agree with this sentiment and HGSS is either #2 or #1 depending on my mood (it usually competes with Black 2 and White 2).

Despite all its praise though, there seems to be an incredibly consistent point raised against it: the level curve. I see it described as unbalanced, janky, and generally bad.

There are two main problems people tend to cite. First is the level progression in Johto itself, with Gyms 5, 6, and 7 not exactly being a smooth progression upwards and then Team Rocket's Archer and the 8th Gym having a notable level spike compared to those last three. Wild Pokemon levels are also usually a lot lower than the major boss fights they are ahead of, making raising new 'mons harder and grinding for boss fights longer. The other problem is Kanto, whose problems can essentially be said to take Johto's levelling issues and ramp them up. The jump from fighting Blue to the Elite Four rematches and Red is also very significant.

What I'm not going to do here is refute that the above isn't true - these level scaling inconsistencies are certainly present. It's also very different to the vast majority of main series entries, whose level curves are more linear and gradual. Gens 5 and 7 even have a feature which multiplies exp gain based on how much lower or higher you are than the Pokemon you defeat which in a way acts like a rubber band around each game's level curve, ensuring you can catch up easily but not go too overlevelled either. Playing GSC and HGSS when the rest of those entries are like that is a bit jarring. Pokemon is so well-known for having quite a formulaic design across its main series and when compared to that formula with regards to level progression and the like, the Johto games do seem a bit off-colour.

What I am going to do though is try to explain why this so-called bad level curve is at the very least not actually that bad, or, if I can convince you well enough, that the Johto games actually have a unique and (what I call) magical singleplayer game design not properly replicated in any other entry. It goes to the core essence of Pokemon's theming, and it fits with the fact that Johto's narrative also happens to put the most focus on those themes than the rest of the series.

When I say the core essence of theming, I mean the very basics of every Pokemon adventure: you, the player, leave home to go on a journey around your region, meeting various people and overcoming various challenges along the way together with your partner Pokemon. Challenges you overcome are all thanks to the bonds you share with your partners and how you raise them with love and care. As you get older, this is the sort of thing in Pokemon that you probably end up taking for granted. It's typical "power of friendship" stuff, and most people will tend to come to conclude through learning about the game mechanics that this sort of thing is superficial and that stats are all that matter in the end. The more modern Pokemon games also have such a big focus on larger-than-life stories with big climaxes featuring the box Legendaries that it's easy to lose this basic level, down-to-earth narrative theming.

Johto is significant for not having any larger-than-life aspects overshadowing its core. Instead, the core takes centre stage. There is no real overarching story besides your adventure. Team Rocket's antics take a sub-plot role but in the end act as a foil to your story, being one of the more major obstacles you overcome. Catching Ho-oh or Lugia is no cataclysm either, but rather a reward for your achievements throughout the game and thanks to your good and pure heart - recognised by the Legendary in question. Moments throughout the game like how you deal with the situation at the Lake of Rage, or the Dragon's Den trial where you're asked questions to test your ideals as a trainer (which, of course, you pass with flying colours) all contribute to this core as well.

The way Professor Oak congratulates you after defeating Lance ties the knot perfectly on the main campaign:

"Ah, <player>! It's been a long while. You certainly look more impressive. Your conquest of the League is just fantastic! Your dedication, love, and trust for your Pokémon made this happen. Your Pokémon were outstanding, too. Because they believed in you as a Trainer, they persevered. Congratulations, <player>!"

These are just examples of the main story events, though,and Johto has a lot more than that. The region is filled with things to do beside the main campaign - Berries/Apricorns, Pokegear calls, the Ruins of Alph and other optional caves, the Bug Catching Contest, and (in HGSS) the Pokeathlon and Safari Zone, just to name a few of the more notable ones. Tama Hero's review of Pokemon GSC talks a lot about this and it's well-worth a watch even beyond the section describing the games' breadth of side content.

Tama Hero also touches upon the supposed level scaling issue, and her response to the complaints is that there is a "sprinkling" of opportunities for small bits of exp gain throughout the game which should help you stay on track in most cases, and where you can't match levels, you can outplay your opponent.

I certainly agree with the latter. It always feels entirely possible to beat bosses at a level deficit throughout Johto. The Johto League is one of the key cases where you'll probably end up at level disadvantage, but I've consistently been able to defeat it with a team of lv 40s on average (so nearly 10 levels behind Lance's peak), and I'm pretty certain that my not-even-10-year-old self did so as well, even though it took me many, many attempts. From various people I've talked to and bits of let's plays I've seen over the years, this seems to be the common experience too. I think only a minority of people have had to grind to match Lance's levels in order to beat him at all. Granted, it might take you a couple of tries at that level disadvantage (or a great couple of tries more, like little ol' me), but that's surely not an unreasonable expectation. The concept of getting stuck at a difficult stage in a game could be called a universal one, and I think most people agree that it's always pretty satisfying to finally surmount a challenge like that. This can even be said about other Pokemon games - Kanto, Hoenn and Sinnoh also all have large level spikes at the end. In fact, at least when it comes to the end of the maingame, I'd argue Hoenn and Sinnoh have a larger level spike than Johto, but they're not considered impossible or anything

Regardless, though: it's certainly possible to win difficult battles in Pokemon at a level disadvantage. Tama Hero argues that the strategy required to do so isn't something the game teaches you very well, but I think this is a tad pessimistic. In the end I think that most wins will just come down to understanding of more fundamental skills that you've probably learned through the course of the game naturally - using type matchups (gyms are all type themed), using moves with stat changes (the earlygame is full of moves like Growl and Tail Whip), using status moves (no doubt you're going to see the effects of Paralysis and Burns throughout the game at least), and apt use of items (bosses always use potions and often use held items). Players also have more control over the battle than the enemy, with the default Switch mode and a huge amount more items available. It's true that the games don't teach you the deeper, untold mechanics very well, but learning about those only unlock even more ways to succeed for the numbers-minded veterans.

On the topic of those deeper, untold mechanics I also want to talk about something which Tama Hero doesn't mention at all - Effort Values, or EVs. Most of you reading will probably know about these by now, but for those who don't, EVs are hidden values which can increase a Pokemon's raw stats by a certain amount based on the other Pokemon they defeat. They were present in a slightly different form in Gens 1 and 2 in the form of "stat exp" but the premise was the same: your Pokemon grow twofold when you defeat Pokemon, by gaining visible exp for levelling up and visibly gaining stats every time that exp bar fills, but also by gaining stats little by little every time they defeat any Pokemon. Your Pokemon's EVs weren't visible to you in-game until Gen 6 with the Super Training graphic, and numerically weren't until Gen 7 where you can press X on the Pokemon's stat screen to show what are called "base stats".

EV optimisation is crucial to competitive play because the stat boosts they give are quite significant. Competitive players will "min-max" spreads, putting as much as possible into 2 stats to maximise strengths and not wasting any on stats they aren't making use of. In maingame playthroughs, though, EVs will usually end up being a balanced spread because you'll invetivably be facing a variety of Pokemon with different EV yields throughout the game. EVs can also be increased with the Vitamin items (Protein, Calcium, etc.) which you find a handful of throughout the game (and can buy at a premium) and can be used to manually raise EVs, though only to a certain point.

In Gens 3 and onward, a Pokemon can have up to 252 EVs in 1 stat, and 510 in total. At Lv 100, 4 EVs in a stat grant 1 point extra to it. For the singleplayer campaign the conditions are a bit different, but if we assume as a standard that by the Elite Four your EV total is maxed out and you have an even spread, your stats will all be up to 10 points higher than they would be without EVs. In Gens 1 and 2, you can actually max out all of a Pokemon's stat exp values but you're unlikely to cap them all for a good while beyond the maingame so we can consider them about the same as in the later gens for this.

But why is this important?

Firstly, the difference EVs make in the above scenario account for what is usually about 5 levels' worth of stats. Depending on your exact distribution, it could be a couple more or less levels' worth in each stat but the bottom line is that they make your Pokemon's strength higher than it may seem based on level alone.

This means that the wild Pokemon grinding that is criticised for being too tedious in Johto as a result of low levels is also better than it seems because even when you don't level up, you're gaining EVs for every one of those you defeat. The stagnant levels in the midgame of Johto also contribute more to your Pokemon's growth than it may seem from the slow level gain. The Pokegear rematches which you gain access to after defeating Team Rocket before Gym 8 may also be a little infrequent, but they also very often give you Vitamins afterwards to add to all of this.

Secondly is what seems to be a fairly unknown fact: in-game trainers do not have any EV spreads. Thanks to the work of speedrunners, we have exact data of enemy trainers' Pokemon to show this. Trainers do have IV spreads based on their "AI level" (more 'advanced' AI levels will have up to 30 IVs across the board) but the difference near-perfect IVs will have on their Pokemon is not as great as the combination of random IV spreads and relatively balanced EV spreads yours.

That 10 level deficit vs Lance is suddenly more like 5 in practice. Some of his Pokemon also happen to have pretty high stats naturally in Gyarados and the Dragonites, and the level deficit will still be slightly present, but once we factor in strategy again, you can abuse their type weaknesses and make good use of items, status and whatever else have you to swing the odds in your favour.

The only way you can find out anything about EVs in Johto is from a NPC in Blackthorn City who gives your Pokemon the Effort Ribbon if they have reached their total of 510, and the only practical way for a player without the technical knowledge to have achieved this is to have spent time throughout the game doing lots of little bits of training - in other words, putting in the effort - to have incidentally capped their Pokemon's EV total. It's only fitting that you find this NPC towards the end of the Johto campaign because it's likely that by this point a couple of your team members will be eligible for the ribbon.

This finally ties back to the point of core theming. EVs are an invisible stat giving your Pokemon an extra edge over their in-game opponents, or, at worst, one closing a gap in strength between them, as a result of all of the time you've spent raising those Pokemon throughout the game. In other words, EVs are essentially the statistical representation of the "dedication, love, and trust" you have for your Pokemon which gets you through seemingly difficult challenges. Levels, then, are only a surface representation of your Pokemon's strength: they create the feeling of an uphill battle, but you can win against the odds by believing in yourself and your partners. It's probably exactly what you thought as the naive and uncynical child playing through a Pokemon game for the first time, and probably one of the ways you made such fond memories of it. In hindsight, this is definitely how it was for me. It is a sort of magic, really.

There is still a big Red elephant in the room, and I do think that the level gap between the end of the Kanto Gyms and Red is maybe too hard to go and beat immediately after even with the power of EVs and such, but Red is by all means a superboss and final challenge of the Johto games, and I don't think it's unreasonable to have to grind for a while to build up for and to finally be able to take his team of Lv 80s on. The same can be said about the Elite Four Rematches in this game and others, Steven in Emerald, or that one Barry fight in Platinum if you do decide to beat the E4 rematches 20 times to make his levels nearly match Red's. If you're setting out to fight a superboss like this, the grind is part of the prerequesites. It's definitely still possible to beat someone like Red with a 10 or even 20 level deficit if you play well, though. I admit, I haven't beaten Red in a long time, but I have beaten Emerald Steven with a ~15 level gap before. Tama Hero also said she has beaten Red with a team of level 50s in Crystal in the review.

I said before that the other games in the series haven't replicated this sort of thing as well. Gen 5 was the beginning of a marked shift away from this design, with its overarching story-driven style and a change to exp gain which would honestly be incompatible with the level curve in Johto. Gen 6, whilst returning to the exp system without level deficit multipliers, saw different means of statistical representations of the 'dedication, love and trust' trio in Pokemon Amie, which can break the game almost as much as the Exp Share when enough Affection is built up. Gen 7 brings back Gen 5's exp system whilst retaining the Exp Share and Affection systems, and actually ends up even diverging from the EV design which went before by having in-game trainers and Totem Pokemon with competitive, min-maxed EV spreads from as early as the Trainer's School. Whilst I am yet to play Let's Go and Sword and Shield, their Exp system with a 'permanent Exp Share' of sorts makes it a huge amount different and from what I've seen and heard, overlevelling is quite easy despite the game being designed around the feature. I really hope that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl at least return to Gen 6's exp mechanics, or better, reunite us with the held-item version of the Exp Share which doesn't make me feel like I'm cheating whenever I use it.

Before I go too off-topic, though, I should probably return to the original thread of this post to make some concluding remarks. What can't be denied that the way GSC and HGSS are designed may not be for everyone. I know for sure that a lot of people prefer to be able to breeze through a Pokemon game at a brisk pace without many roadblocks, but as someone who in recent years has come to appreciate much slower-paced and immersive singleplayer Pokemon playthroughs, I can't help but love the way GSC and HGSS are designed in the way I've explained, or appreciate their unique identity amongst the rest of the series. Coming to think about this has also shed light on why I adored HeartGold as much as I did when I first played it way back 11 years ago. I poured hours and hours into the game, and as a result, its magical design put me under its spell.

_____________________________________________________________

Though I linked to the references I did use when they appeared, here they are again. Do check them out if they're of interest to you!

Tama Hero's GSC review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtMVKP2T6Y

speedrun.com trainer data for HGSS: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnhgss/guide/k2zij

speedrun.com trainer data for SuMo: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnsunmoon/guide/d2683

Tama Hero (YT) is one of the few people I know who actually makes longer-form Pokemon analysis content besides Aleczandxr (also YT), who whilst not being a 'PokeTuber' has made some brilliant analyses of storytelling through setting in Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, and just recently, Unova. I did not refer to them here but I can highly recommend their content, at least.

Thank you very much for reading to the very bottom here. This is my first time writing something like this and I appreciate it.

[ishibishie]

so last night i decided to play a bit of bdsp at my local game store who has the game, and i kinda wanna ramble about my first impressions of the game. i’ve only played it for about two hours so idk if it ramps up later but like.....

this game is kinda not fun.

VERY first impressions though: it was a shock that the game doesn’t run at 60 fps which looks incredibly jarring on the switch, and i still don’t like the chibi style. especially when the camera zooms in on them? it’s just zooming into no details and the crunchy face textures of these roblox characters. the battle backgrounds are admittly pretty in spots, but also in team galatic battles you’re just thrown into The Void(tm) which is....... very odd and breaks immersion. 

also why is nobody talking about the way the chibis move? you can move on a 360 plane but the npcs are stuck on a 4 way grid so they clunk and jank around to meet you by walking, stopping to take TWO full 90 degree turns, and walking again. god it looks SO bad. remember when oras let the npcs move diagonally which felt more natural than whatever the fuck bdsp is doing? REMEMBER WHEN ORAS LET YOU MOVE DIAGONALLY ON THE DPAD BUT BDSP LOCKS YOU TO THE 4 WAY GRID TOO ON DPAD HERE? this is by far my most gripiest gripe about the game’s presentation. it looks clunky and unpolished and i hate seeing these little lego people move and sway around. who thought this was okay?

and like i said. i was BORED playing this game. there was a certain magic that hgss/oras had to appeal to older players: that renewed sense of adventure. you went into the game knowing that things have changed, so you instictivly think, “oh boy! i wonder what new things the game has added on the next route/city? i can’t wait to see a new way to look at an old game!” which is WHY remakes are fun! but with bdsp..... it’s the same as diamond and pearl. there is NO childlike wonder of finding out new secrets about the world because the world is just as boring as it was in 2007. there’s nothing new to explore. as someone who was introduced to the game with pearl and still owns my copy, this game gives me no incentive to play the remake because they’re fundamentally the same fucking game. hgss? learn about friendship with pokemon by walking with them and doing all sorts of cool side modes/battling some tough opponents. oras? discover the secrets of primal reversion and hoenn and look at how hot steven is. bdsp? lol no have your fucking remakes you whiny gen 4 fans

at the end of the day, this is a pokemon game so it has to be at least SOME level of entertaining. but from these mere 2 hours of gameplay i’ve tried, these games have absolutely none of the magic that previous remakes had. instead of carefully handling our childhoods and enhancing them with new features, stories, and whatnot, bdsp is the bare minimum and feels like no love went into the project. IF i ever try to finish the game over time, i do not look forward to the process because it honestly crushes me to know that my childhood didn’t get the same level of respect the johto/hoenn fans did. bdsp is just. depressing

[sage-nebula]

How would you fix the team for the Johto gym leaders? They have probably the worst team in the series, Morty doesn't use Misdreavus...

Good lord, don’t I know it. As a Johtoan, it’s embarrassing. Also as a Johtoan I think a bigger concern should be granting Johto full independence from Kanto, i.e. no longer having to share an Elite Four and Champion with them, but that’s a different and much bigger issue to tackle.

The changes I would make (discounting levels because I don’t remotely feel like dealing with anything resembling math right now), with their aces bolded, would be:

Falkner: Hoothoot, Noctowl

Bugsy: Ledyba, Spinarak, Yanma

Whitney: Clefairy, Togetic, Miltank

Morty: Gastly, Haunter, Misdreavus, Gengar (GSC) / Mismagius (HGSS)

Chuck: Heracross, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop

Jasmine: Scizor, Skarmory, Steelix

Pryce: Delibird, Sneasel, Piloswine (GSC) Delibird, Sneasel, Weavile, Mamoswine (HGSS)

Clair: Dragonair, Kingdra, Dragonite

Basically, aside from the bad level scaling, the main issue with the Johto Gym Leaders is that—as you pointed out with your comment about Morty not having Misdreavus—barely any of them actually use Johto pokémon, despite this being the Johto region. And while we could go into meta about how this is yet another way to show that Johto doesn’t really have the independence from Kanto that it deserves (or go even further into meta territory by saying Game Freak did this to give representation to types that didn’t get represented in Gyms in Gen II), it’s still sad, because Johto has so many great pokémon that just don’t get the love they deserve. So I tried to represent that with reworked teams, with a few exceptions:

— Whitney still gets a Clefairy since her gym resembles a Clefairy, and also because Cleffa was introduced in Johto and thus has a reasonable tie back to it. Also, yes, I could have given her a Togekiss as well in HGSS, but giving her a Togekiss and her Miltank would be too much, I feel. Then again, her Miltank was a bit nerfed in HGSS, so maybe it would be fine, because it would let her uphold her reputation as a nightmarish Gym Leader? Hmmm . . .

— Morty still has to use the Gastly family because Misdreavus was the only ghost introduced in Gen II. Shameful. However, in the HGSS remakes, having his ace be Mismagius instead of Gengar would be feasible, so that change would be made.

— Likewise, the only fighting-types introduced in Gen II were Heracross, Tyrogue, and Hitmontop. Tyrogue is too weak for the 5th gym leader (and he should have more than just two pokémon too, jeez), so I decided to give him Heracross and then all of the Hitmon-lutions, with his ace being the Johto one.

— HGSS would do a lot of favors for Pryce given the evolutions of both Sneasel and Mamoswine that Gen IV added, so I made him two teams accordingly. That said, why did Masters give him Dewgong instead of Piloswine or Mamoswine? Don’t get me wrong, I love Dewgong, but while Pryce did have a Dewgong, Dewgong was not his ace in the games. Makes no sense.

— Clair faces the same issue as Morty, in that only one dragon-type was added to Gen II, and that was Kingdra. Although Kingdra being Clair’s ace gives her important differentiation between her and her cousin, the fact is that Dragonite outclasses Kingdra easily, so I feel that her ace should have been Dragonite instead of Kingdra. It would make things more challenging, too.

Obviously levels would still need to be adjusted, but those are the changes that I would make to the teams at least. Let the Johto Gym Leaders use Johto pokémon, ffs. And get Johto out of Kanto’s shadow, while you’re at it. Out of all the reasons, Johto has been shafted the most and it’s annoying. Johto Deserves Better 2k21.

[timegears-moved]

☕️ mmmm pokemon games specifically (not including spinoffs)

sorry this is late im terrible with actually answering asks. ill do this generation by generation. also this ended up very long because i have a lot of thoughts about pkmn.

gen one: okay so right off the bat im gonna say that i have a massive soft spot for gen one, considering blue was the first game i ever played. i do have a degree of nostalgia towards it which is why i can never be truly be harsh on these games. i know they're a mess of glitches and mechanics that make no fucking sense (seriously FUCK psychic types and everything they stand for) but it has a certain charm to it.

but even as a "kanto apologist" (which damien calls me) i can absolutely agree that the pandering is fucking abysmal. they're trying cater to a demographic who hasn't cared about pokemon in years and aren't going to pick up a new game just because charizard is in it. by doing this it feels like they're alienating the people who actually care, like "yeah ur support is nice but we want the genwunners to like us more than anything.

also on the topic of pandering is that their pandering is so half-assed too. all of this gen one content and not one shred of love for my boys victreebel or cloyster? bro i hate it here.

gen two: i dont really have that much to say here tbh. i have no fond memories of it at all considering i only played through gold once right before hgss came out. i can say that i appreciate all of the bullshit from gen one that it fixed but i have issues with johto as a region that ill elaborate on when i talk about the remakes.

gen three: honestly i never cared much for this gen. i played it quite a bit growing up but it's always been whatever for me. a lot of it just feels kind of.....bland for me. i really don't know what to say because it leaves me feeling conflicted. there's nothing bad about these games that sticks out like a sore thumb but they just don't do it for me, ya know?

i do appreciate frlg for shedding a much better light on kanto though.

gen four: okay so i'll fully admit that the sinnoh games are my childhood faves and are still my faves now but im not letting nostalgia completely cloud my judgement on this.

honestly? i think pokemon peaked with platinum. dp had their problems for sure and some of those still carried over to platinum but the scale in which platinum told its story feels so much grander than any pokemon game that came before or after it. i absolute adore the sinnoh mythos and i only want dp remakes just so it can get expanded upon, i could care less about any actually gameplay from it. ive said this before but you cannot make the god of pokemon and not do anything with it.

as for hgss, i have very mixed feelings about this one but not in the same way gen 3 made me feel because i do have genuine problems here. ive talked before about them but i just cannot stress how bad the level and pokemon distributions are. how the fuck can you make brand new pokemon for your johto region and not put them in fucking johto?

like these games are fine ig. i never cared about the walking pokemon mechanic but it literally feels like people only praise this game as the best because of that one thing that has no bearing on the actual game itself. you can like these games all you want, i still enjoy parts of them myself, but calling them the best is a huge reach.

gen five: right off the bat im gonna say that i do love the gen five games so nobody thinks im being overly critical or anything. i love the aesthetic of these games, i ADORE the pokemon here and they're some of the most fun pokemon games to play through. it's the story and characters (with the exception of n i will absolutely give credit where it is die there) that throw me for a loop.

i feel like whenever i praise the story or characters im just following the crowd here. i don't know if im just very stupid (i definitely am very stupid) or what but none of it felt as powerful as people claim it is for me personally. maybe i should just pay more attention but i honestly don't know. im definitely not saying theyre bad or anything i just in all hobestly dont get the (very sudden) hype.

uhhh i can't say much about bw2 because i haven't beaten it since it came out but i remember liking hugh and it made iris a champion so i remember them being good on those two things alone.

gen six: hohohohoho here we go. tbh i don't even know what i can say about xy that hasn't already been said. like gen one might be a huge mess looking back on it but at least it had character. xy introduced a few pokemon that i really liked and some amazing shiny hunting methods that should definitely return but that's the most i can say in terms of praise.

i dont think pokemon has ever gotten this boring before, and that's speaking as someone who clocked over 300 hours into my x save file. nothing has life (which in hindsight is ironic considering xerneas is the god of life) and i hate the way mega evolution was handled so much. i really don't know what else to say because everyone has already said what i want to but i think this has been pokemon's lowest point so far.

oras once again made hoenn complicated for me. they made hoenn somewhat interesting for me in a way that didnt capture me in the originals. i don't think they're stellar but ive seen people call these the worst ones and....why. i get that the originals are special to a lot of people and that they feel like oras did them injustice but honestly i would oras over the originals because they're just more fun for me.

gen seven: it made popplio. 10/10.

okay so i can understand why the very slow start and unskippable long cutscenes threw a lot of people off but i just don't understand so much of the hate it around other things. again i see people proclaiming it as the worst and you can see it as that from a gameplay element, but the story fucking slapped ass and i don't think amybody can or should deny that. maybe i just feel very passionately about them because they're very personal for me in helping me through a rough time in my life but i just also dont see why everybody is so mad at these games sometimes.

the fact that sm mean so much to me makes usum's entire existence hurt so much more. like wow i love abuse apologism: the game thank you sooooo much gamefreak! /s

aside from ultra wormhole jumping, my baby dusk lycanroc and the new ultra beasts i dont care for anything new usum brought. it feels like it back peddled so much by completely ruining lillie's character by attempting to make lusamine likable when the damage from the first games was already done. i hate usum they're the only pokemon games i can state that i hate. i don't know how you can take sm's well-done albeit flawed blueprints, take out everything that was good and only leave stuff that either doesn't matter or is actively harmful.

also let's go pikachu and eevee exist too idrc

gen eight: ive already spoken my piece on swsh but im gonna be more clear here. i dont think swsh is inherently bad and i can still have fun with them. i dont think the issue here lies with the cut pokedex. i could honestly care less about that and i always figured we would get to this point. the issue lies with nintendo and tpci pushing for yearly releases, forcing the devs to make yearly subpar games. i can think of so many ways they can remedy this situation: taking longer times between releases, hiring more staff at gamefreak or even splitting developments for different projects between multiple different studios. i hope that the reported low moral at gamefreak at swsh's releases is enough of a wake up call for change but that could just be me being optimistic.

i am SO sorry this ended up as long as it is but i have a lot of opinions and not enpugh willpower to keep my mouth shut

[crystalelemental]

If you would have to rank every pokemon generation, in what order would you put them?

Oh man, that’s easy.

Gen 4 is the best one, with Platinum standing at the very top.  I really like the mythology, and how legendary Pokemon all feel super significant.  I like the balance of the games, and how difficult gym leaders can be in Platinum, while never making it a matter of it being hard to keep up in terms of level.  And HGSS are fantastic remakes in their own right, so like...it’s the best generation.

Gen 5 is next.  I actually think I like Black/White 1 more than 2.  I like the idea of the region having a lot of new Pokemon, but that’s all you get the main campaign.  I think that’s way better than modern gens giving like 50 actually new Pokemon, pretending regional variants are important, and mostly filling the region with old faces.

Gen 3 is next.  I’m torn between Emerald or FRLG at the top.  I play FRLG more often, but Emerald’s a really great third game overall, so they’re both winners.  I like the open feeling of exploration, and that there’s basically no plot.  It’s probably the best generation for a pure gameplay experience, because it lacks the flaws of earlier generations, but hadn’t shifted into frequent, lengthy scenes as a focus yet.  Also I think Gen 3 had the best roster of new Pokemon.  There are so many winners.

Gen 2 gets the next slot, but I am willing to admit that’s mostly nostalgia.  Crystal reigns above the other two.  Crystal is the best third game in a generation.  You got all the legends of the region in one, it took away one of the roaming Pokemon as a new scene, added a ton of new Pokemon you can get early on, and...honestly I just have the best memories for Gen 2 stuff.  I’d also say that, for just the main game, stat experience was better than EVs.  One issue of the remakes of the first two gens is that the original gens were based on stat experience, so you could beat Red with like level 60 Pokemon no problem because of how much higher your stats could be.  Without that system, the remakes do demand a bit more grinding to keep pace, which is a mild problem.  Plus, EVs can be unwiedly, and you can train stats that you wind up never using in later generations.

Gen 7.  Despite ragging on modern gens really hard, I do like Gen 7 as a story.  And that’s pretty much what does it.  I don’t particularly love the new Pokemon, and certain evolutions drive me absolutely insane (why does Morelull become an alien baby in a diaper?  Why is Toucannon the final form of the adorable Pikipek?).  The boss battles also suck.  2v1 is a stupid idea to artificially create difficulty; Gens 3-5 did it so much better.  The Z-moves are stupid and have no real place here at all.  They’re the most trivial thing ever for the main game.  Also, USUM does drag it down super hard.  God those games were a ruination.

Gen 1.  Despite being incredibly dated, buggy, and kind of a disaster, I have a hard time hating on Gen 1.  Sometimes it’s nice to go back, and just not worry at all about natures, or gender of Pokemon, or anything.  It’s the purest experience, in that there’s nothing but the Pokemon and their moves.  Granted, it’s obnoxious that nothing learn anything ever, and because of how a counter to each gym is placed right near that gym it’s pretty much a solved game, but it’s not so bad.

Gen 6.  The first generation I’d say I dislike.  Your friends are the worst.  The new roster was pathetically small, and it started that awful trend.  Despite having the best gimmick of modern gens with Mega Evolution, it didn’t show up until post-game, except for the Gen 1 starters and Lucario.  It was by far the biggest culprit of Gen 1 pandering, offered almost nothing novel despite having some great designs in the new Pokemon, and made zero use of its new gimmick for the actual game and instead expected people to focus on it for post-game, which doesn’t exist and is just “Get into competitive,” which was made minimally easier.  I don’t like this game.  At all.

Gen 8.  But god I hate Gen 8.  Now, I do admit, the characters are not that bad.  I also admit that Dynamax is the best integrated mechanical gimmick for any of the modern games.  It actually matters.  Though Gigantamax is a fucking joke.  But honestly?  It’s boring.  Forced EXP Share means the game’s over in like 10 hours of play with no resistance.  The game gives wild Pokemon at your same level so you never have to invest anything to keep up.  The main game’s levels scale like shit, right up until the League, where they start rapidly inflating.  The Wild Area is a complete disaster, being open but completely empty, and having the myriad Pokemon you can find be completely randomized in like 12 different ways, with no player control.  Daily events are locked in hard, and you’re forced to save before everything, so soft resetting for something you want is outright impossible without mechanical exploitation on the level of manipulating the system’s sense of time.  The aesthetic of the region is awful, I hate the fact that everything is based in corporate sports jerseys, or the gross-looking counter-culture that is Team Yell, who’s a pathetic rip-off of Team Skull.  Honestly, that’s my biggest issue with characters here too.  Hop is just Hau but less interesting, with a hint of Bianca’s uncertainty about what he wants to do sprinkled in but for dumber reasons.  Hop sucks.  He’s a few traits from different rivals throughout the series but done worse.  Gen 8 is the first time I would say that a Pokemon game is outright unfun to play.  I’ve tried three times.  The first time was kinda boring, so I tried a second time hoping it would feel different.  It didn’t, but after a while I decided to try with Pokemon I liked from the region, but couldn’t make it past the first three gyms.  Gen 8 sucks, it’s absolutely the worst of the bunch.  Because as much as Gen 1 can feel painfully dated, and as much as Gen 6 can be obnoxious with its cast, at least they can still be fun to play.  Gen 8 has never once felt fun to play, which is the biggest condemnation of it I can imagine.  More than any graphical issue or complaint levied against it, the fact that it’s just not fun is way, way worse.

[1358456]

Review Response, May 3-9, 2020

I almost forgot about this, because I forgot that I updated Legacy, and that’s because there were so few reminders that I did update it.

Legacy #011

1)  "Wondering if it could feed on my depression" poor moon she's my favourite dexholder so it makes me sad seeing it and her called calling platinum sister made me ever sadder. I loved this chapter keep up the good work

Thank you. And yeah, poor Moon indeed. It seems that in every major story, the newest girl always goes through hell. Platinum in SA, Y in Destiny, and now Moon in Legacy?

2)  C'mon Sun...all you have to say is "those look nice" and leave it at that...not that hard. Poor Moon, though. The girl is getting tortured in so many ways. First what happened in Alola, now all the stuff she's having to do with building a team for vengeance, and finally straight up lying to Platinum. I wonder if those blue eyes are a mark of something more permanent... Hmm, a rampaging Hydreigon huh? I'm shocked they managed to stop that thing - its special attack stat is nothing to sneeze at. I really like this concept of Pokemon evolving too far too quickly to be easily controlled. As always, that extra dose of reality in your writing makes it so much better. At least all three of Y's dragons didn't evolve at the same time lol. Amazing chapter as always and can't wait for the next one~

Sun doesn’t know how to compliment properly. Haha. ... Prick.

Poor Moon again. She’s devoting herself for vengeance, pretty much discarding everything else. And even if she does get her revenge... she’ll be left hollow inside. Even lying to Platinum. What happens if Platinum finds out about the deception? Ohoho! Hehe. And beware of the eyes~!

Rampaging Hydreigon is pretty hard, but 125 Sp. Atk is, weirdly enough, the weakest. I mean, with the inevitable rampages of Garchomp (130 Atk), Salamence (135), Mega Salamence (145), and Mega Garchomp (170), Hydreigon’s rampage is going to seem pretty tame. Especially since Hydreigon was only using ranged attacks, and not things like Earthquake or Outrage.

Hehe. Can’t get a Pokemon to become too strong too quickly, or it goes mad with power. Kind of like how in the games if a Pokemon’s level is too high given your Gym Badges (or whatever the bullsh*t equivalent was in SM/USM), it won’t listen to you. Except... in the games, if the Pokemon’s OT is still you, it will listen. It only affects traded Pokemon. Which is why in my HGSS RNG runs, I rush to unlock trading, then trade over RNGed eggs of Pokemon that will hatch into shiny IV 31 all Pokemon in the new file, then I trade those back, EV and level them to like 60 something, trade them back, and they obey every word. So I once mauled Falkner with a level 68 Weavile. Hahaha.

Ahem. Anyways. Now, if you look at the forgotten Combat Prowess post from years back, Y had a secret detrimental effect. And it’s now been revealed with this chapter. Dragon Bloodrage. Once Y’s Dragons get really mad... she’s not going to be able to control them. Ohoho...

3)  I missed reading your stories! This was an amazing story and I just binge read it entirely haha. I love that cliff hanger, I'm excited to read how Platinum will react! It's been a long time since I've stumbled upon your stories and I have to admit, I was surprised to find out you continued to write them!Your stories really pushed me through my youth age and I just want to say thank you for everything :)

Aw, thank you! I have to admit, I’m surprised I’m still writing too. I’m surprised every day. Helped push you through the youth age? Huh. Well... if they helped, you’re welcome :)

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Amazing.

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Cycle #002

1)  God, I love Gold and Crystal's interactions. Sure they can be repetitive (like in the story) but the fact that they keep each other guessing and making each other want each other is too adorable. :) Great story, loved it!

... Cycle? Really? Huh. The MOST negatively received story of all time. Though I guess most of that came from people who don’t know how to read so they missed the “infinite” and “cycle” part of the title, The Infinite Cycle.

And Cycle is canon to Legacy. When Legacy started, it was like... Week 20 from the Cycle, so Legacy’s Gold is post-Cycle Gold. So he’s not even pretending to be an ass anymore.

Well, I’m glad you liked it. And be happy that they get a happy ending. I believe the Complete Headcanon Chronology post said that Crystal finally allows Gold to succeed in their little deal, thus the infinite cycle comes to an end.