#but watching a Pokémon battle in any of the games beyond black & white is so. So mehhhhh | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

voltimer · 3 years ago

Text

'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.

#voltimer longpost #pokemon #gsc #gen 2 #gold and silver #crystal #gen 4 #heartgold and soulsilver #analysis #hgss

23 notes · View notes

touhou-gensoudairantou · 4 years ago

Note

Can I get a fuckin uhhhhhh CommanderVideo moveset

(Dear Anon who requested this, I’m sorry I ignored this for so long, you really threw me a curveball and I struggled for so long on how I would even go about a fighter like this since I never really gave his games much thought before. However, upon doing research, I came to respect what these games have done for the Indie scene by being so bold with its aesthetic sense, and gaining so much attention with so much simple gameplay. I hope that my interpretation of what CV would be like in Smash does him justice. ...I swear to God, if CV is announced for real in Smash at E3 this year, I’m gonna shit an entire house. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this if you haven’t given up. -With love, Tsuki-Sennin.)

BIT.TRIP Presents... Gensou Dairantou Smash Bros.! Now Featuring CommanderVideo! (The Mysterious Voxel Hero Beyond Time)

(His appearance in this game would likely be a combination of his looks in BIT.TRIP Runner and Super Meat Boy.) Overview: The mysterious, psychedelic hero known as CommanderVideo. His appearance is simple, reminiscent of a long past and especially primitive era of games played on wooded consoles with only one joystick and button per controller. His past, on the other hand, is quite complicated. Enduring a journey of hardship and growth stretching from his youth in the brilliantly inventive BIT.TRIP BEAT all the way to his passing on in BIT.TRIP FLUX, CV took the Indie world by storm with challenging Atari-inspired rhythm and high-speed running games recognized by the Big N themselves, to the point where he was immortalized as a trophy in Smash 4! His hobbies likely include racquetball, jogging, and music. Much like Mr. Game and Watch, he’s a wafer-thin sprite acting in a three-dimensional space, which makes for a fascinating opponent to watch in battle. Get all those unfunny Among Us memes out of you at the door, then strap in for a... challenging, to say the least, concept fighter. As the battle goes on, he can accumulate lightning speeds and incredible attacking power from his MODEs, but be careful. Even a small misstep can cost you dearly with a hitbox as big as he is. He is only a man, but he is not alone. He is ready. Don’t lose your beat!

Intro Animation: CV popping out of the ground and running forward like he does in Runner, before slowing down.

Gimmick: MODEs are the mark of how well you’re doing in any given BIT.TRIP title, and as such it’d be carried over here. Landing multiple special attacks without getting hit will cause CV to MODE-Up from HYPER to MEGA, represented by him getting a Pink Core just above his fighter icon at the bottom of the screen and him gaining his signature technicolor trail behind him as he runs. That means the power of his attacks, and his movement speed will increase with each mode increase. Getting hit too many times will cause you to MODE-Down, which’ll naturally bring you back to normal. Screwing up too many times, however, will cause you to fall to NETHER MODE, and your attacks will do pitiful damage and slow your movement and non-special attacks to a snail’s pace until you get yourself together. However, you do gain a slight boost to your knockback resistance and overall damage is reduced, so you won’t get so severely punished for relatively minor damage. Fans of the Pokémon Archeops such as myself are no doubt jealous. If you can chain together massive combos however, you will be delighted by the speed and intensity of your attacks... but don’t run off the stage now, will you? If you get hit once in EXTRA or above, you’ll MODE-Down.

To put it simply, if NETHER’s speed is equal to Robin, then EXTRA and above are among the highest speed in the game. Got all that? Good, here’s an easy chart. NETHER <- (HYPER) -> MEGA -> SUPER -> ULTRA -> EXTRA -> GIGA -> META

Whew... Now let’s talk Specials. I uh... can’t really think about what kind of standard attacks or tilts our good Commander would have aside from some fairly standard stuff like uh... kicks, maybe reflecting beats into the opponents. His aerials would likely just be more of the same too.

His Dash Attack lets him run into the opponent with the Paddle acting as a shield like it does in Runner. And he’s got a fairly standard but strong slide attack for his Down Tilt!

However, his Smash attacks allow him to fire high-powered lasers. Just like the kind he uses in FATE. And they come with cameos too!

Up Smash: Junior Melchkin Shot. Fires thin lasers into the air only slightly stronger than CV’s Beat anti-air Up Tilt. However, the signal from his antenna also doubles as an attack, so you have two hitboxes to work with! Probably the attack you’ll get the least use out of, but hey!

Side Smash: Mr. Robotube Shot. Fires two streams of bullets in a sine wavelike pattern. It’s super strong and easily pierces through walls and opponents with ease.

Down Smash: CommandgirlVideo Shot. A pair of conical triple spread shots, each facing away from each other. This is a sweeping move that can easily knock a lightweight opponent off their feet. You can tell she’s a girl because she’s pink-ish... and in some games, happens to have boobies. Refreshingly, she’s not a love interest, so I appreciate that at least.

Neutral B: The Red Core. Unlike the Paddle, which is purely for defensive counters, the Red Core allows CV to destroy projectiles and attack with lasers! The Red Core’s lasers can nullify lesser projectiles, and it also has a lot of extra power.

Side B: The Paddle. A nameless icon from the ancient 8-bit era of gaming, the Paddle was a stalwart object of protection for the developing CV in his debut to the world, even guiding him to the afterlife in FLUX. It’s mostly for reflecting Beats, but in Smash it can reflect damn near any projectile that comes its way. It can also be maneuvered up and down by distance equivalent to CV’s height. However, it can be slashed or punched right through, so be careful.

Up B: Spring. CV bounces up on a spring straight out of Runner, going for a pretty high distance. Unlike Sonic’s Spring Jump, CV’s Spring remains in place no matter where on the screen he uses, but causes almost double the damage.

Down B: The Void. The namesake of VOID, in which you absorb black Beats while knocking away white ones. Here in Smash, it functions identically to Ness and Lucas’s PSI Magnet, although the recovery rate only half and the range is somewhat wider. It also does rather small damage.

Bomb: Beat-Clearing Bomb. This is a feature in CORE that allows you to remove Beats from the screen.

Final Smash: BIT.TRIP. CV calls upon the Paddle to slam down on up to three opponents, doing large starting damage

The opponents are taken through a montage of CV’s life, amping up from HYPER in BEAT all the way to META in FLUX as they are pelted by an onslaught of Beats doing chip damage from the games’ various playable entities, and guest attacks from fan-favorite characters like Mr. Robotube and CommandgirlVideo, before finally being reflected by an enormous version of the Paddle in FLUX, doing major knockback.

Victory Screens:

-CV and CommandgirlVideo grilling up a pair of sausages.

-CV posing alongside his Trophy from Smash 4 before jumping over it and looping around the screen.

-CV suddenly transforms into his 3D incarnation from Runner3, then runs around on screen.

Naturally, CV comes with all of his series’ absolute BANGER of an OST, so no need to worry about that.

Uhh... some of my favorites are Descent from BEAT, Exploration from CORE, Super-Ego from VOID, and Triumph from RUNNER.

Enjoy these tracks in the meantime, because I gotta get ready for E3 and plan this silly project of mine accordingly. Thank you for your time!

#bit.trip #touhou-gensoudairantou #super smash bros #super smash bros ultimate #commandervideo #moveset #whew...

11 notes · View notes

atlas-the-worldbuilder · 4 years ago

Text

Final thoughts on Pokemon Sword/Shield

So in case you weren’t aware (which is most of you, I’m sure), a few months ago I started a Pokemon Shield blind Nuzlocke Run. And recently, I completed the main portion of the Nuzlocke by defeating the Champion. Having played through the game, though, I thought I’d give my final thoughts on it as a Pokemon fan, a gamer, and as a storyteller.

The Story & Characters

In all honesty, I rather enjoyed the main story of this game. The Pokemon League has always been presented like a professional sport (at least in the anime/cartoon), so it’s fun to see the games taking that perspective and rolling with it. It felt like an actual tournament/championship, to compete for the title in an officially organized manner, rather than just running a gauntlet of preset combatants.

In addition, I liked how they incorporated both the gym leaders and our rivals into the league story as not only combatants, but also as individuals with their own lives and aspirations. Marnie and Team Yell are adorable, Hop is... mostly tolerable, thus far, but by far my favorite rival character has been Bede, the Psychic/Fairy trainer. His haughty and prideful demeanor make him a delight to defeat, and his arc is a wonderful story to see unfold. I’m really curious to see what he gets up to in the after-story! The Gym Leaders are also fun to meet and battle; the Pokemon games as a whole have been gradually attempting to give more and more character to each of the Gym Leaders you meet, beyond just trials to overcome on your journey to victory. And while I always have a soft spot for the Hoenn & Sinnoh gyms, I like that they opted to have the Gym Leaders return in place of having more Elite Four members to fight I only wish I could get more opportunities to get to know them better, cuz there’s some standout leaders from this batch which I truly enjoy!

My biggest complaint with Sword/Shield’s story, though, has been the “Heroic Quest” plotline which has become increasingly common these days. I like the character of Sonia the researcher, and Oleana is satisfying to watch lose, my biggest complaint has been the pacing of the plot; the first 2/3rd’s of the story are us teaming with Sonia to gradually get the backstory revealed to us, and then in the last half hour, right as the Tournament’s getting underway, all the villains suddenly crawl from beneath the floorboards and run amok while you have to chase them down! There didn’t feel like there was a proper buildup explaining why the villain wanted to summon the legendary Pokémon, especially one which we heard next to nothing about! This brings about an interesting idea, however... what if instead, they had completely forgone any Legendary-Summoning stories until after the league? Honestly, I was way more invested challenging the gyms and fighting the champion than I was stopping the literal POKEMON APOCALYPSE from happening... so what if for future games, they saved those for after you became champion? As a sort of test of your skills, to prove your worth to bear the mantle you have taken! Maybe it wouldn’t have meshed well, maybe they needed to show of the game mascot more, I dunno... it’s just my thoughts.

The GamePlay

THEY FINALLY LET US TURN OF THE GODS-FORSAKENED TUTORIALS!!! PRAISE THE ALL-FATHER!!!

Ahem... In all honesty, I think I’d grown a bit too used to the 2nd screen of the DS-series games, but after a couple days of getting used to the mono-screen style again, I am pleased to say I found it very easy to settle back into. Though there are still some features I wish would make a return (the HM moves as opposed to public transportation, poison’s effect while walking, wild double battles, etc.), there are alot of fun mechanics introduced and remedies to older problems that have been introduced!

I think one feature which hasn’t had much said about it is the introduction of the Poke-Jobs system; this system allows you to send your Pokémon out on timed “away missions” to gain both experience and items. In the old days, if you wanted to passively level your pokemon, the only real option you had without introducing a second player was the Daycare center, and they could only raise two pokemon at once... and you had to pay for it. With Poke-Jobs, though, I can send anywhere from 5-10 teammates out for whatever amount of time I want them to be out for, and then come back later to see them lively and with goodies to show for their work! At first, I didn’t think I’d get much use out of this system; I, like many players out there I’m sure, prefer to guide my pokemon’s training personally, honing their movesets and guiding their levelling and points the way I want from them. But as I progressed further in my Nuzlocke, and as my daily life became busier and busier, I found myself sending my backup teammates out on jobs to keep them on par with my main team. Given that the Move Deleter/Tutor and Name Rater are now services that have been rolled into the Pokemon Center, yet another good thing this series has done, I found it much easier to keep my reserve Pokemon prepared in case I needed a substitution. Some Nuzlocke “Purists” may call that taking the easy way out, but... frankly, I don’t have the willpower to do that much grinding. I’m here to play a game and have fun doing it, dammit.

The Wild Area is another thing I’ve wanted to see from Pokemon for a long time - taking more steps to make the regions seem like an open world, with vast sprawling environments full of pokemon and secrets to uncover. I’ll admit, though, the execution is... not entirely perfect. While open expanses are fun to explore, the Wild Area did seem a bit... flat to traverse. And while the weather mechanics translating into battle are fun to deal with, the same sets of wild pokemon appearing did start to wear me down. I think what the Wild Area really needed, in the long run, was a system similar to how Black/White/Black2/White2 did - having seasonal progression ingame, where different pokemon would show up during different seasons, making the different places unique and novel all over again throughout the year. And for the record, many of my gripes with the Wild Area were addressed in the Isle of Armor’s expansion island. VASTLY superior, and much more fun to navigate and traverse.

...I’ll openly admit this: I was not a fan of Mega Evolution when it was first introduced in X/Y. I felt it was fine enough to see Pokemon battling without power boosts or “digi-volving” or whatever you wanna call it. When Sun/Moon Introduced Z-Moves, it felt like a step in the right direction, but at the same time, I ended up not using it very often. If I had to have a power boost to my pokemon, I would want it something that couldn’t be used as a crutch when the going gets tough - something that has a limited usability, and offers benefits specific to the time it’s being used. I say this because I initially approached Dynamax the same way: as just another power boost to level the playing field and shake up the battle meta which I don’t keep track of. However, after barely surviving all 8 gym leaders without using a single dynamax pokemon, I decided to give it a chance: after having completed the Isle of Armor’s subplot and gaining access to the Max Soup, I fed it to my Toxtricity Spike, and started running dynamax raids. As I started using it more and more, I started gaining a certain appreciation for it that I hadn’t before; this was something written in to being a unique cultural effect! This literally is imagining Pokemon as Kaiju! And for the most part, it works! While I still feel mega-lvl-power-boosts in pokemon are a huge waste, at the very least I can say Dynamax didn’t leave me with too bad a taste in my mouth. I do hope, however, that Dynamax stays a Sword/Shield exclusive power; given it’s cultural importance in Galar, and how Mega-Evolution was in the previous generation, I think having power boosts specific to regions works better than having the same stuff used across the board for every meta onwards,

What Do I hope for the Future?

I can’t say for sure if they’ll release a sequel game for Sword/Shield, but if they do... I would want them to make these minor changes:

Hold off the Heroic plot for after the League plot; devote the main first half of the game to just the gyms and league story like was done here, and then save meeting uber-god-tier Pokémon for after you’ve claimed the title of Champion.

Having said that, fix the pacing of how the Eternatus/Darkest Day subplot feels as it’s being played out. Offer us more insight into Rose and Oleana’s mindsets as they go about their business, and give us more coherent exposition from our field trips with Prof. Sonia.

Fix how the Wild Area looks - give it more variations for each sub-region and offer more varieties of habitats, like in the Isle of Armor. Or, alternatively, try to implement a seasonal mechanic to make the same areas change over the year, opening new paths and new avenues to explore!

Let Bede defeat Oleana. Give my boy some closure.

Allow us to see and interact with the Gym Leaders outside of the gyms more. I had, like, barely 2 lines of dialogue with Nessa, and even less for Milo. Not asking for a whole lot, just a bit more to tie us into who they are as people. Piers is best big brother. <3

That’s all I had written for now. If y’all want a biography of my champion team for my Shield Nuzlocke, let me know, and I’ll scrap a post together! <3

#Pokemon #Pokemon Sword Shield #Demotivated Review #Video Game #Atlas the Worldbuilder #nobody's gonna care about this #but that's ok

11 notes · View notes

oops-prow-did-it-again · 4 years ago

Text

Pokémon Retold: Ultra Sun - Chapter 12 (Witch Hunt)

Pokémon Retold: Ultra Sun on FFN

Pokémon Retold: Ultra Sun on AO3

Pokémon Retold (series) on AO3

Child of Unova on AO3

Consider tipping/supporting/commissioning me on Patreon? :3

Heeey look I'm alive, though I'm gonna go dark for those 2 weeks after tomorrow, I'm sorryy

In other news, if you read my Black and Black 2 stories, you'll maybe remember that there was a dude named Taven in them. As I mentioned before, Taven is actually an OC from a friend of mine, ClumsyReaper. They've been writing out Taven's story in more detail over on Archive of Our Own under the title 'Child of Unova,' though their penname is also ClumsyReaper over there. Feel free to give it a read! Taven's story seems like it's going to take a more nuanced look on Pokemon White's version of events by focusing on worldbuilding more so than the events of the game, such as how the gym leaders and League function.

Saying that to say, my version of Taven is set in a different universe from his version - so you'll notice some key differences between them if you do check it out. You'll also notice some other cool parallels between his world and mine, too, such as the existence of certain characters. Anyway, it's not that long and you should check it out :)

——————

Waiting alone outside of the Verdant Cavern was far from comfortable for Lillie. She occasionally checked on Nebby in her bag, bouncing her leg impatiently as she waited for Elio, Hau, and Selene to finish with their trial (much to Nebby's vocal displeasure). Captain Ilima's trial was simple enough, not to mention Verdant Cavern wasn't that large, so she hoped that meant they would be done soon… Surveying the route just beyond the entrance to it, she could just make out the edge of a Pokémon Center, but otherwise, it was lush, grassy path with the odd berry tree dotting the landscape. She knew the cliff beyond the Pokémon Center overlooked the sea, but the scent of saltwater on the lively breeze was lost on her, as she had long since grown accustomed to it.

Of course, nothing seemed capable of going right for her, and so within just a few minutes, a familiar duo of Skull members crested the shallow hill leading to Verdant Cavern's entrance. She froze, and it seemed they initially intended to just keep walking, but one spotted her out the corner of his eye and gestured with a nod of his head in her direction. His buddy scoffed and rolled his shoulders, then started to walk away, as if totally uninterested in a confrontation with her. Lillie couldn't help but smirk, wondering if he had been the one she had sprayed… Truthfully, she didn't remember what he had looked like, not that there was really much information to go off, considering the masks and hats they wore. Ultimately, the first of the duo snatched his friend by the shoulder, steering him in her direction as he trotted over to her.

"What do you want?" Lillie icily asked once they were within earshot, her muscles taut and poised to act on a moment's notice. Although she personally just found the Skull grunts irritating on the worst of days, she had to brace herself in case they decided to exact some revenge for her actions the day before. She tried hard not to let perceptions blind her to what people were capable of. She had learned quite a while ago people could surprise one in the worst of ways.

Based on the first's voice, they were, in fact, the same grunts she had accosted the day before. "Ay, homie," the first joked upon his approach, "you in a better mood today?"

The other hung back decisively, mutinously shooting glares between his friend and Lillie. She had to admit, that made her smile some, a sinisterly fake smile. That was because they were amusing her, but truthfully, she didn't know why they had even taken such a shine to her the day before. Sure, she looked familiar to 'someone they had taken in,' but even then, what would they care? That was what put her so on edge about their approach the day before, and it was still bothering her then. Her smile wasn't the only fakeness going on. Indeed, she was certain their friendliness was as false as it came. It had to be.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better today," she taunted him. With a voice dripping in degrading sarcasm, she musingly asked, "Why? Are you boys not finished with little ole' me yet~?" At least most of the time, the Skull Gang seemed rather harmless. It was only their leader, Guzma, Lillie had heard one needed to be worried about. It wasn't like they knew about Nebby, and otherwise she wasn't packing any pokémon, so she wasn't fearing any thievery like the grunts were known to do. Of course, she didn't let that soften her guard; it was just all she could do to keep a lid on her nerves. She wouldn't hesitate to spray them both down or bolt into the Verdant Cavern for cover if need be, sacred trial ground be damned. Oh, she thought she was clever for already thinking ways out of her predicament before anything had even happened.

The first opened his mouth like he wanted to jeer at her again, but he and his friend abruptly tensed and then whipped their heads to look over their shoulders. "You see that?" he asked his friend in Alolan, sounding so different from the jesting tone he'd used seconds ago.

"See what? I heard somethin', but…"

"Look, see that bush? The hell was that?"

They both lowered their knees slightly, bent in a way that suggested they were ready to run, too. Their unease was contagious, as Lillie slowly slunk off her rock and craned her neck to look over their shoulders, feeling an almost primal need to group with the Skull men. Strength in numbers and all of that. For a breathless second, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, but just as she went to return to her rock and snidely call them a couple of scared Meowth, a horrifyingly familiar figure took shape inches away from the Skull grunts.

A gleaming, silver and navy suit that hid a surly man's expression beneath a set of opaque goggles materialized, gazing firmly at Lillie, and the two Skull grunts wasted no time in fleeing the scene, shouting to each other in panicked Alolan. Yet, just before vanishing over the hill, one of them paused to peer over his shoulder at her. His blue eyes were wide and fearful, but in the end, he jerked his head from side to side and bolted after his friend. Even as she locked up in terror, Lillie couldn't blame them for their cowardice. This wasn't their battle, and for people that could regularly be assaulted for daring to show their faces outside of Po Town, it wasn't like they didn't have reason to fear the man in his otherworldly getup… Still, she had to wonder why he had bothered to stop and look back at her at all…

Shaking her head vigorously to refocus her attention on the suited man ahead of her, Lillie narrowed her eyes at him. She recognized him right away, as well as his colleague who poked her head out from behind him. They were the same two people that had tried to assist the various Aether Foundation employees in capturing her during her original escape with Nebby. They were just as terrifying as she remembered, just as mysterious… and how on Earth had they just appeared like that from nowhere?!

"Did we scare them off, Dulse?" Zossie asked quizzically. Before Dulse had a chance to respond to her, she pouted and whined, "Aw, I don't mean to scare anybody!"

"Zossie, focus!" Dulse hissed at her, though he was staring squarely at Lillie. "Lillie Rae Aether, we need to discuss something with you immediately. We have wasted enough time trying to locate you on these islands through trial and error in pinpointing Cosmog's signature. We have no more time to waste."

Lillie took a step backward, chancing a rapid glance to the Verdant Cavern's entrance behind her. When she looked back on Dulse and Zossie, she found they had fanned out in front of her; Zossie, with her arms clasped deceivingly politely behind her back, smiled uncertainly, while Dulse had his arms planted firmly at his sides, what little she could see of his expression blank. Not that Lillie paid much mind to their body language, as she was searching for a way out of this confrontation with them. She didn't know what they were, what they wanted with Cosmog or the Aether Foundation, but she knew they were bad news. Her options then had dwindled down to just one: flee into the sacred Verdant Cavern.

"I can see you are distressed," Dulse commented flatly. The way his mouth move made Lillie falter for a moment. She had thought before that the pale, blue over their faces had been a bodysuit, but as she watched him speak… She realized that she could see into his mouth. Gaping in horror, she realized the pale blueness was just their skin. She whipped her gaze to Zossie, noticing she was the same. "Lillie Rae Aether, we do not wish any harm upon you. Cosmog is a potential harbinger of destruction to your world and ours, and so we must—"

"Shut up!" Lillie spat, bristling in almost feral fear. "I don't care! I don't care about what you or what my mother wants!" She was dimly aware of the way Zossie lunged forward to try to grab her bag as she whirled around to dart into the Verdant Cavern, running as fast as her feet would carry her. She heard Nebby mewl pathetically from within her bag as it bounced against her hip, but she didn't have the luxury of being kind to him in that moment.

Inside the cavern, she noticed that shafts of light occasionally penetrated the murkiness through holes in the ceiling, and that dens and fallen logs dotted the upward incline of the mossy, overgrown cave. It smelled musty, like a mix of saltwater and grass, and the floor was damp underfoot. Glancing fervently around to try to spot Elio, Hau, and Selene, she cursed under her breath when she heard the distant cry of a Gumshoos and deduced that they must have already descended into the Totem Gumshoos' den. Deciding that a hollowed-out cove beneath a fallen log would have to do, she scurried inside and wrenched open her bag. She immediately grabbed Nebby, holding him down, as she thrashed the rest of her bag's contents, letting out a puff of relieved air when she found her heavy duty repel spray. It was a special blend, made specifically by the Aether Foundation, that staved off wild pokémon no matter what pokémon the person was using. Part of their humanities initiative by making the world a safer place for non-trainers, she thought bitterly. It was a nice thought, but the knowledge that Aether had created it and would get credit for the patent was outright depressing, considering all she knew about them.

Squashing down her misgivings about it, she sprayed the repel, and apologetically frowned at Nebby as he recoiled from her grasp, flaring his little arms. "I'm sorry, I know, it smells bad and you really don't deserve this…" she mouthed at him, capping her spray, stuffing it in the bag, then zipping it shut once more. Sighing to herself, she realized she was trembling in fright, leaning her head back against the stony wall behind her. Closing her eyes and biting her lower lip, fighting off the nauseating wave of fear and despair, she whispered, "Neither of us deserve this…"

She hoped the rotten log in front of her would protect her from Dulse and Zossie's prying eyes.

--------------------

"Good Arceus on a stick, why is it so big and so mean?" Elio blustered as he backpedaled away from the oversized, glowing Gumshoos hissing at him and his Litten. They had been fighting it for quite a bit at that point, and it was still just as wily and furious as ever. Despite Elio's obvious uncertainty, his Litten looked completely unfazed and, in fact, invigorated by the opponent ahead of it. The dark fur of its back was puffed up and its eyes blazed intensely as it yowled back at the Gumshoos, undaunted. In fact, a faint red glow surrounded the Litten, bringing some light into the shadowy den. There were a few shafts of light coming from the roof to light up the mossy stone that surrounded them, but it was much, much darker there than it had been in the rest of the Verdant Cavern… "Uh… Litten, Ember… on the… Gumshoos, right?"

Hau was more reserved, ordering Popper to attack in Alolan. Selene found she couldn't quite make out where the words began or ended in his native tongue, due to the way he spoke so fluidly, not to mention how it sounded like he was almost… singing, with the melodic way the words rolled off his tongue. Still, it was obvious what he was asking Popper to do based on the attacks that it issued. This time, a simple Water Gun, based on the jet of water Popper blasted the Gumshoos with. After the Gumshoos reeled from the hit and furiously snapped its teeth after Popper in retaliation, Hau offered some crooning words of encouragement to his partner, pumping a fist excitedly. He almost acted like an entirely different person in battle.

Selene, on the other hand, was scrambling to try to find out what moves her Rowlet could use on her Rotom Dex. She knew Leafage was an option, but was there anything else it could use that would be useful? As she withdrew the device from her pocket, though, it wriggled free of her grasp and a robotic voice asked her what she wanted to know, the round, blue eyes of the Rotom blinking at her innocently. "What else can my Rowlet use?" Selene asked breathlessly, irritated that she couldn't just scroll through the device normally. Somehow, even though the Rotom Dex started spouting off move names at her, it felt as if it were slower. Elio's Litten bought her some time by firing off the Ember it had been building in its throat.

Although she had enjoyed her battle with Hau in Iki Town, she had to admit, facing this angry Gumshoos, easily twice her size and pulsing with an otherworldly glow, she was feeling anything but joy. It had dawned on her, as the battle progressed, and as the Gumshoos bellowed in a way that shook the walls and floor, that they had essentially loped their way into a wild pokémon's den unsure if they could actually defeat it or not. What would happen if they failed? Sure, Captain Ilima had said that, traditionally, challengers would have to wait a day to face the trial again, but why was that? Selene had thought before it was to give the pokémon in the trial a chance to rest, but now she was wondering if it was instead to ensure the challengers were okay and able to face the trial again… Her eyes locked onto the Gumshoos' sharp, jagged teeth protruding from its jaws, and she swallowed hard in the beginnings of a panic. How on Earth could anyone have faced this thing alone? she thought desperately. After a point, she just growled and shook her head, waving the Rotom Dex off, "Ugh, Rowlet, just use Leafage on it!"

As her Rowlet dove off her head and at the Gumshoos, its body cloaking in leaves and tendrils, a Yungoos scurried from the shadows around the edge of the den. Hau had Popper attack it so that Rowlet was uninterrupted, but when Rowlet did barrel into the Gumshoos, he bounced off hilariously like a soccer ball. Flailing his wings annoyedly, he caught himself before he hit the ground, all the while, the Gumshoos did little more than shake its head in irritation.

"Right," Selene almost laughed to herself, "I forgot that Rowlet doesn't seem all that attack-oriented…" Floundering for what to do next, she almost slumped in relief when the Gumshoos suddenly stood to its back legs and stepped a few paces back, twitching its head as if trying to hear something in the distance. The Yungoos at its side hissed and abruptly dove into a crevice in the rocks surrounding them, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Move!" Hau exclaimed suddenly, snatching Popper in his arms, and jumping to the far right of the cavern. Selene and Elio exchanged a bewildered look, and then followed, waving their arms for their Litten and Rowlet to come with. Almost as soon as they retreated, the Gumshoos crashed forward on all fours with a hefty thud against the floor, and scurried out of its den, down the hill that led back toward the main passage of the Verdant Cavern.

There was a short stretch of silence before Elio finally fractured it. "So, uh… what just happened? Did we win?" He and Selene both turned quizzical expressions on Hau. Elio's Litten hissed after the Gumshoos, but didn't give chase, while Selene's Rowlet reclaimed his throne atop her head and started to preen himself. She just rolled her eyes at him.

"What am I going to do with you?" Selene teasingly asked her Rowlet in Kantonian, scratching his side gingerly.

Focusing back on Hau, disturbed was the only way Selene could describe his face as he peered unblinkingly after where the Gumshoos had gone. Without answering them, he clutched Popper a little more tightly to his chest and then carefully picked his way forward, stepping lightly, like how Selene had seen pokémon in nature documentaries do when they were listening for a threat. It jarred her, almost, to see how instinctive his reaction and movements were… how practiced they were. Unnerved, she crept after him and whispered at last, "Hau…? What's going on…?"

He flinched and shushed her, then pressed forward some more before his shoulders slacked. "Sorry," he puffed, "Totem…" Frustrated, he snapped his fingers and couldn't seem to find the words to explain what he wanted to say. Suddenly, Selene's Rotom Dex zipped ahead of her and hovered between her and Hau.

"I can help!" it buzzed in a monotone statement, waving its little arms. "Hau! Just speak in Alolan, and then I'll translate!"

"You can do that?" Selene asked dubiously. "How…?" Then, she paused. Her mouth fell open. "Wait, wait, wait a second, are you just—did you just—are you speaking to me? Like, in my language, like you understand me?"

"You pick up a lot as a digital Ghost-type in this place," her Rotom retorted in an eerily playful tone. "And this thing's speaker lets me speak! I guess that's why it has that name…"

"I've never heard of Rotom talking even when they take over things that have speakers," Elio hoarsely muttered, barely above a whisper, reflecting Selene's shock. "So, what—"

"Well, who wants to yap to Kanto-Johto people that are gonna experiment on me for days?" Rotom taunted. "Anyway," the floating device whirled around to face Hau, "go on! What's going on with the Totem? Don't be shy! You look like you've seen a ghost!" Her Rotom then issued a few bzzrts! that sounded uncomfortably like laughter. Selene didn't know whether to be amazed at how intelligent the Rotom seemed to truly be, or whether to be horrified at learning it was possibly even more intelligent than her or any other human.

Hau suspiciously narrowed his eyes at the Rotom Dex, but begrudgingly started to speak, anyway. Once he was done, he stroked Popper's head and tensed even more when the Rotom Dex repeated his words in perfect Galarish. Selene might have thought his reaction was amusing if she didn't feel like reacting the same way.

"Totems only flee battles when their trial site needs guarding, so that means someone that shouldn't be within it is inside, or worse, the trial site is being damaged in some way!" With another bzzrt!, the Rotom Dex hovered close to Selene. "The Totem will only return to battle after it's protected the trial site!"

"What would mess with a trial site? Or… who?" Elio sounded much more concerned than Selene had expected. She had to stop from groaning as she soon figured out why. "I mean, Lillie was out there… Would Lillie coming inside do it? Why would she go inside, though?" He abruptly darted ahead of Hau (much to his chagrin), and worriedly glanced between him and Selene. "Would the Gumshoos hurt her if she went inside?"

Hau bit his lower lip and then looked down. After he mumbled something, Selene's Rotom Dex piped in with, "I don't know, he said! Zzzzrt!"

"Yeah, screw that. Something's wrong," Elio hissed. "C'mon, Macho, let's go!" With a wave at his Litten, he bounded down the slope leading back into Verdant Cavern's main passage. His Litten's fur fluffed out all over again and it raced after him.

"Macho?" Hau echoed the nickname. "What that mean?"

"Not important right now," Selene answered, perhaps more abrasively than she should have, but she was too busy scrambling after her brother to think too hard about how she spoke to Hau right then (though she had certainly internally rolled her eyes at the nickname since it seemed based on Lillie's taunting names that she would call Elio, and considering he hadn't used it yet in the battle, he must have just decided on the name). Totem or trial site or not, she was not about to let her brother throw himself at that behemoth of a Gumshoos on his own. Her Rowlet took flight once she started to run and flew at her side, flapping tiny, adorable wings rapidly to keep up with her as she skidded down the slope.

3 notes · View notes

savvyqueen18 · 5 years ago

Text

SilveeLocke|Let’s Go Eevee ZombieLocke|Pt. 1

This is currently being posted on an Amino, but I am posting it here in hopes of it reaching a bigger audience. I'm trying to make this story very appealing to the reader more than anything else, and as this is my first NuzLocke that I am doing AND making a story of I wanted to put in rules that would test fate and change the game. Like any other NuzLocke I suppose. Thank you, enjoy!

Here are my rules:

➺ No Duplicates Clause, so I cannot catch the same pokémon in a different area or it's evolution

➺ If I end up going further beyond a Route and I have not caught a pokémon I cannot go back and catch one

➺ Catches besides the first are to be counted as Exp Fodder since battles only occur with people

➺ Starter pokémon is Starter Locked for plot purposes (besides the fact that the Eevee/Pikachu in these games is SUPER OP so it's probs not gonna die anyway... but ur here for the story...)

➺ This is a ZombieLocke so these additional rules apply:

➻ Fainted Pokemon/Death: Any pokemon that faints is considered dead, and must be released or put in the Pokemon Storage System permanently (Exception: The New Life Rule, and The Sacrifice Rule)

➻ Nicknaming Pokémon: You must nickname all pokémon. This encourages bonds.

➻ The New Life: You are allowed 3 Revives during the whole run. This revive can be used at any point during the run. You are allowed to revive a fainted pokémon only immediately following their death. The penalty of reviving the pokémon is from that point you are only allowed to use 2 of its moves from its moveset. If the New Life pokémon wants to learn a new move you can only pick one of the two moves you picked as its usable moves to swap for the new one, and once a pokémon has been revived once it may not be revived again. You may not use 2 revives on the same pokémon.

➻ The Sacrifice: If a pokémon dies that you can't bear to part with you may use a randomized sacrifice to attempt to save it. Each pokémon in your party will be assigned a number between 1-6 (or however many pokes) in descending order from how they are organized. From there you must roll a die and whatever number it lands on is who will die in their stead. This cannot be undone! Whatever pokémon is chosen by the dice is gone even if it happens to be the same pokémon you tried to save. The sacrifice may only be attempted once.

♡♡♡

Part 1: Coincidence? I think not!

♡♡♡

> Next Part

>Meet Silviana

>Meet Xander

>Part 1 Cover Art

The morning sun beamed through the curtain striking the girl square in the face. With a groan, she pulled her fluffy covers over her.

Once again trying to drift off to sleep she thought about flying. Flying high over her home town of Pallet Town. She approached a cloud to land on it when the cloud burst with a loud BANG! She groaned again, the thumping sound of someone running upstairs filled her room and she peeked out of the blanket with one eye. A blurry dark shape came striding into her room.

"Oh come on Sil! You're STILL in bed?!"

She reached for her glasses to see her friend and neighbor, Xander, walking up to her bed. With one swift movement, he ripped the sheets off of her.

"Hey!" She grabbed the sheets once again and pulled herself into a ball of fluffy blanket mess.

"I don't want to be late getting my pokémon! Get up!"

She flung off the covers and rose from her bed, glaring daggers at the boy she said, "The only reason that I'm joining you is because you practically BEGGED me to join you!"

The voice of her mother came from down the hall, "Silviana Esperanza Ruiz! I hope you aren't fighting with Xander again. Xander why don't you come out of her room and both of you come down to enjoy breakfast?"

As soon as Silviana heard that, she turned and pushed Xander out of her bedroom.

"I can walk you know!" He said as he stumbled from her room.

"Not fast enough," and with a final shove she pushed him out and closed the door behind him. She slid down her door with a big sigh. After taking a moment to clear her thoughts, she went over to her closet. She had packed her bag about a week before when Xander first told her. Rechecking the leather bag she made sure she had all the necessities, then picked out a pair of shorts and a graphic tee.

She looked at her closet mirror as she did her hair up in a high ponytail. Double and even triple checking that she looked nice enough to meet a pokémon professor she hauled her bag onto her back and headed down to get breakfast.

As she rounded the corner to the kitchen, the first sight she saw was Xander shoveling pancakes into his mouth. Gasp! Mom made pancakes!... Sigh... Mom made pancakes... She quickly wiped the tears that were starting to form in her eyes and proceeded to make herself a plate.

She stopped when her mother gave her a big side hug, "Ooohh, I can't believe you are grown enough to go on your pokémon journey! Your brave enough to go younger than I did that's for sure," she finished with a smile and flipped the pancake in the pan.

"Thanks mom, but I could really do without the'I'm so happy for you, good luck' mushy stuff. I'm really just doing this for him," she pointed her fork at Xander and stabbed a piece of pancake.

"Okay, okay, I'll tone it down," she chuckled. She flopped another pancake onto the pile she was creating on the island. As Silviana took another bite of pancake her mother plopped a small box next to her as she sat down.

Silviana looked at the box, then at her mother, and back at the box. With one last look at her mother, her mother nudged her head towards the little box. Silviana took the little box carefully, she popped it open and inside of it rested a little black locket.

"It's got your dad and I's pictures in it," her mother carefully picked up the little locket, "and I made it into a bracelet, I know you don't like much jewellery." Mrs. Ruiz went to put it around Silviana's wrist and Silviana immediately pulled away.

"I'm not wearing that," Silviana said calmly.

Her mother sighed, "Of course, I'll just put it on your bag so it's safe," she gently clicked the bracelet around one of the straps on Silviana's backpack.

Silviana went back to eating her pancakes, they didn't taste as good now. After she finished three quarters of her pancake, she stood up and walked to the door.

"Hey where ya goin'?" Xander said with a mouthfull of pancake.

"You wanted to get a head start on this thing right?" Silviana said with sarcasm and a spin. She opened the door and waltzed right out.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Xander jumped from his seat, grabbing his bag from the ground and turned around to wave to Silviana's mom, "Bye Mrs. Ruiz! I'll be sure to make sure she doesn't get into trouble!"

Mrs. Ruiz chuckled, "Be safe!" She called out.

◇◇◇

Silviana let Xander run off ahead of her to the professor's lab. She would rather enjoy the peace that this morning brought before she got into whatever craziness Xander was going to put her through.

"Hey! No no! Give that back!"

A strange voice called to her left. From where she stood, she saw a small man with graying hair frantically grabbing at the tall grass. He had a white jacket on and was blocking the road that lead out of her small town.

"Woah!" A brown case came flying at him and and he was thrown backward.

With a gasp Silviana rushed over. She helped the old man up by the arm, she glanced over him again and realized the jacket was actually a lab coat. This is the professor?!

"I am probably getting too old for this, haha," he stood up and gave a greatful smile to Silviana, "Hello my dear, thank you for coming to help me. I was just on my way back from the pokémart when I got attacked by this eevee."

An eevee? What's that?

"Well then I suppose by the way you're dressed, you're probably one of the two new young trainers I'm supposed to give starters to!"

Silviana gave a silent nod and something caught her attention in the tall grass behind the professor. A brown blur shot out from the grass.

"Professor!" Silviana pushed the professor away and was hit by the brown blur. Closing her eyes and clutching her hands around the blur she tumbled back out of the tall grass. She landed on her backpack, still holding on tight, she peeked her eyes open and looked aghast when she saw that in her arms she held the little pokémon the professor told her about.

The pokémon shook its head ruffling its fur. It looked around then at Silviana with narrowed eyes.

"Uh... Hi there little fella? Oof!" The Eevee pushed off of her to propel itself over Silviana. Landing, and turning gracefully on the ground, it latched onto the golden chain of the locket Silviana's mom gave her.

"HEY! That's not yours!" Silviana turned to grab at it, but the little pokémon was too lithe for her bumbling movements. It dodged every attempt she tried to grab at it.

"My dear," she looked up to the professor stood next to her, "might I suggest another option?" Something clicked in his hand and it opened to reveal a pokéball.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" She took the ball from his hand.

He laughed, "Why throw it of course!" He gestured to the Eevee that was sitting on the ground now.

Silviana could have swore it had a smug look on its face. She scowled at it and underhandedly tossed the ball. It completely missed going right over the pokémon's head. The little pokémon in return flicked its ear in amusement.

Silviana growled, "Gimme another!" She turned to the professor holding one hand open.

Professor Oak smiled and graciously put two more pokéballs in her hands. Immediately Silviana threw them. One flew off to the right while the other flew over the head of the Eevee again. The little pokémon simply watched the pokéballs fly around and looked back at Silviana almost... smiling.

With more growls of frustration, she took two more of the pokéballs from Professor Oak. She wound up to throw the pokéballs simultaneously at the Eevee. They took a path straight toward it, but the little pokémon dodged them.

"UGH!" She threw two more, "Just get in the pokéball!" The Eevee jumped up toward one of the balls that flew toward it, with a flip, it pushed off the pokéball sending it flying back to Silviana. With a smack, it hit her straight in the face. Grunting she covered her face with both hands.

"VEE!"

Silviana peeked through her fingers just in time to see the second pokéball hit the little brown pokémon in the tail. In a red flash the creature was sucked into the little red ball. She slowly pulled her hands down.

The ball moved three separate times, but Silviana stayed where she was. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You can breathe now my dear, that means you caught it." The professor kindly said.

Silviana let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Walking over to the pokéball she carefully picked it up.

"Are you going to name it?" The professor asked after he had grabbed his belongings. He stopped in the grass where she had caught the Eevee and picked up the little trinket the pokémon had snagged, "I believe this is yours as well." He clipped it back onto her bag while Silviana continued to stare at the ball.

"What do I name it?" She looked confusedly at the professor.

The professor gave a chuckle, "Whatever you want to! It's your first pokémon, yes? Take your time," he patted her shoulder, "a name will come to you." He walked off toward the center of town, "But for now, we should head to the lab! I think your friend will be waiting for a special pokémon himself."

#zombielocke #silveelocke #pokemon #pokemonnuzlocke #pokemon nuzlocke #nuzlocke #let's go eevee #let's go pikachu #my writing

4 notes · View notes

foxune · 5 years ago

Photo

We’re at the end of the decade, and I saw a buddy do something similar a day or two ago, so I decided to look through the past 10 years of gaming and pick out what I’d say my favorite game of each year was. Note that I’m going by US release dates.

More details in the Read-More below:

2010- Super Mario Galaxy 2

Both of the Mario Galaxy games are pure masterpieces, but 2 still manages to be an improvement across the board. It expanded on pretty much everything that made the original great, and added great new features to the mix. Definitely my favorite game to ride Yoshi on, too!

2011- Pokémon Black & White

This year was probably the hardest to choose for.....namely because there wasn’t a whole lot of standouts. While I have trouble going back to the sprite-based Pokemon games at this point (they just feel kinda dead in comparison to the games from X/Y onward), this one stands out for having the best narrative in the series. It’s the only one where I actually cared about the human characters.

2012- Xenoblade Chronicles

Honestly, anyone who’s been following me for a while probably knew this one was going to be here. It’s a serious contender for the best JRPG of all time, in my opinion. While the graphics are a bit dated, literally everything else about Xenoblade Chronicles is borderline perfect. Great story, likeable party that all have their own part to play, massive world....

2013- Animal Crossing: New Leaf

This game was a huge part of my life throughout 2013, and I continued to play it sporadically for the better part of the decade. It felt like a huge step forward in the series, while remaining familiar enough that it didn’t feel too too different. Also, it was probably the funnest game to liveblog and watch other people blog about.

2014- Tomodachi Life

This is probably the weirdest pick of them all, but this is one of the most charming games I’ve ever played, and it’s one I find myself going back to constantly even though I think I’ve experienced almost all there is to see. It’s just super weird, funny, and genuinely touching at times. I don’t think there’s any game I want to see a sequel to more than this. Kinda says a lot that I put this above the likes of Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8.

2015- UNDERTALE

Memes aside, there’s not a lot I don’t like about this game. Top notch character design and dialog, really interesting and unique battle system, and an amazing soundtrack. A bit on the short side, but made up for that by providing really creative replay incentive. In fact, it goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide replay incentive. Definitely one of the best games of this decade as a whole, and an all-time great in the RPG genre.

2016- Starbound

Another weird pick, but this is the game that really got me into PC gaming as a whole, and the first game of its kind I actually tried (played it before Terraria, and I still have yet to try Minecraft). I also go back to it more often than any other PC game. Like 2011, 2016 wasn’t exactly a stacked year for me, either, but unlike 2011, this one was a bit of a no-brainer for me.

2017- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In my opinion, 2017 was one of the best years for gaming, period. This wasn’t an easy choice to make, with Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5 (in the west), and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 all having come out months apart. BOTW is truly special, though. So much to see and do, and practically infinite ways to go about doing it. Truly one of those games that really deserves every bit of praise it gets.

2018- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Honestly, this is probably my favorite game of all time, let alone in just 2018. It’s literally everything I ever wanted in past Smash games, and is a crossover of nearly all my favorite video game franchises. Helps that it’s insanely fun and has a ton of depth.

2019- Fire Emblem: Three Houses

This one’s kinda funny.....I honestly had zero interest in it whatsoever in the year or so leading up to release. It wasn’t until AFTER it came out that I got interested, after learning details about the plot and the characters themselves. It’s top notch as a game, and I really enjoy the narrative. It subverts expectations constantly and in ways that don’t feel forced. I really dig that.

12 notes · View notes

rex-shadao · 6 years ago

Text

Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us Review

Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us

(Japanese Title: Everyone’s Story)

Review

There was an old statement from former Pokémon anime head writer, Takeshi Shudō, about Ash Ketchum (Satoshi). On his personal blog, he has claimed that Ash, as the main character aimed for children, could not be written as anything beyond the plain and simple stereotypical hero. And that to compensate for his vanilla personality, Ash needed to be surrounded by “fascinating villains and rivals” such as the Team Rocket trio. While I disagree with the notion that Ash Ketchum can’t be an interesting character by his own right, I find it to be the best method to tell further stories of Ash when nearly all of his character development has been done. The problem with Ash in recent Pokémon TV series and movies is that his early hotheaded and inexperienced personality, which made him a relatable character for many viewers, has all but phased out over time; in its place is the standard Shōnen stock hero. It makes sense for Ash to reach that stage in his character arc, but his personality is now more generic and thus less interesting to watch. So how would anyone tell an interesting story about Ash without regressing his character development he had earned over the past several years?

Enter the new director of this film, Tetsuo Yajima. Tetsuo Yajima had previously worked on the Pokémon anime as a Storyboard, Key Animation, and Episode Director since the Black and White series. But he didn’t rose to prominence until he was helmed as the Series Director of XY and XYZ. Under Yajima, the XY series did something unique with their approach of Ash Ketchum. Rather than just focusing from Ash’s perspective, the series explored on how Ash himself affects everyone around him; from his companions to his rivals to even the bystanders that otherwise have no impact on the main plot. As a result, we got an array of characters with their own quirks and storylines, and we could contrast all of them with Ash as the foil standard. This approach became the base foundation for the story of 21st movie and in my opinion, all the better for it. After all, it is everyone’s story, not just Ash’s.

The movie begins not with Ash and Pikachu, but with a new character Risa (Lisa). Unlike our main hero, Risa is not a Pokémon Trainer. She’s a former athlete runner who is tasked by her injured brother to go to Fula City’s Wind Festival celebration and catch a Pokémon for him. Shortly afterwards, we are introduced to a little girl named Margo (Largo) and her father Oliver, mayor of Fula City, leaving their mansion to prepare for the festival. And as we finally arrive to the city itself, it’s there we meet the rest of the ensembled cast. There is Callahan (Kagachi), a boastful braggart who lies about his achievements to his young niece Kelly; Toren (Torito), an insecure and timid scientist under pressure from his peers and scheduled presentation; And Harriet (Hisui), an old woman who hates Pokémon and wants to be left alone. And in the middle of this multi-introduction is Ash and Pikachu, who are closely followed by Team Rocket.

All of these characters have a distinct flaw that they must face and overcome as the movie progresses. The sole exception is Ash Ketchum. If you expect Ash to be some sort of immature idiot or a failure trainer, you are clearly not familiar with Yajima’s style. This Ash is an ideal trainer, an ace who easily gains the admiration of his peers and rivals for his skills, lessons and selfless heart. His character doesn’t change at all throughout the movie, but that is a good thing. It fixes a crucial problem that previous Pokémon movies have, where they would either focus too much on Ash at the expense of everyone else or simply shoehorn in stories where he is not needed. Having Ash be this supporting mentor figure allows the ensemble of new characters to take center and leave a lasting impression for the audience, while also making Ash integral to the overall story.

The characters themselves are all memorable despite being one-shot movie characters of the day. Risa’s clumsiness and naivety are funny to watch and a great contrast to Ash’s veteran persona, who has to teach her the ways of the Pokémon Trainer. Callahan wanting to impress his niece makes him a sympathetic character despite the fact the comeuppance for his dishonesty is well-deserved. Toren’s crippling shyness makes me wish he grew a spine already. Harriet trying to get away from a group of Pokémon that always follow her is absolutely hilarious, especially with that domineering voice. And Margo is like a younger version of Ash, such as protecting her befriended Pokémon in the same manner that Ash would do for any Pokémon. And although Margo has a lot in common with Callahan’s niece Kelly, there are distinguished traits to tell the two apart.

Though the characters’ arcs all start separately, they all intertwine with each other naturally and frequently; whether it be Risa getting wrong info from Callahan, Toren accidentally spilling a Pokémon attract chemical on Harriet or Ash protecting Margo from a bunch of kids selling lemons. Though there some stories that are more interesting to follow, like Callahan and his lying habits getting him into trouble, none of them overshadows the others. They all had their heroic moments in the spotlight, and I can easily recall each of the character’s story arc despite the film juggling all of them in the climax of the film. It does live up to title of the movie.

These intertwinements, along with a few Easter eggs and details in the background, help create a living, breathing environment that is Fula City. With such a down-to-earth premise compared to other Pokémon movies such as Pokémon 2000: The Power of One, world building is essential to the film’s strength to retain the audience’s interest in the movie. Take for instance the film’s handling of the featured Mythical Pokémon, Zeraora. Unlike most featured Pokémon in modern movies, Zeraora is kept hidden for the majority of the story until near the climax where it finally reveals itself. Its presence is only alluded to in historical events and urban legends told by various citizens ranging from small kids to government officials. Whereas most Pokémon movies would have an exposition book or expert to explain everything about their featured Pokémon to our heroes near the beginning, this movie holds off on the major exposition until near the end, after a gradual buildup of clues and hints given to the audience an idea of what the exposition is going to be. By that point, the audience is already immersed with the personal stories of the cast ensembled rather than the mandatory promotion of a Mythical Pokémon for kids to get. In fact, this is perhaps the first Pokémon movie where the marketing focus in on the human characters rather than the Mythical and Legendary Pokémon. It’s why I haven’t mentioned Lugia, the featured Legendary Pokémon of this film, at all up to this point despite being a central figure to the Wind Festival. Lugia is not essential to the plot.

Moving on to the action aspect, there’s not a lot of Pokémon battles in this movie as this is a character-driven story. But the battles that are shown are impressive. The audience that I was in awed and laughed during these sequences. The animation, camera perspective and sound effects are top-notch, especially when combined with a scenic background and realistic interaction with the environment. It’s like the battles featured in the XY series, only sharper and more fluid. Unlike the battles in the TV series and most movies, where Pokémon battles take place in a designated field area with the trainers in relative safe distance, Pokémon can hit their own trainers by sheer accident or cause destruction of property when on a rampage. It’s a sense of realism that hasn’t been seen since the opening of Pokémon 3: Spell of the Unown, and I hope it appears in future movies.

Voice acting-wise, the English dub is actually good at least by The Pokémon Company standards. This is perhaps Sarah Natochenny’s best work as Ash here, and the rest of the ensembled cast all sound natural and pleasant to here. The only characters that may sound off are Jessie, James and Meowth of the Team Rocket trio, but they are not in this movie that long and much of the problem I have is due to lingering nostalgia for Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, and Maddie Blaustein. Script-wise, some of the wordings are very cheesy, like Ash’s inspirational speech about “Pokémon Power” to a group of people far older than him during a crisis. But I can’t really fault the movie as this has been the standard message that told over and over again in nearly all of the Pokémon adaptations, including the Pokémon Origins mini-series from 2013. The only thing I wish is that they could find better words for Ash to say other than just “Pokémon Power.” For people who have grown fond for the Japanese dub, this competent dub production will help get you through the movie.

It’s also helped by the fact that the Japanese music score (which contains orchestrated music directly lifted from the games) is retained for this film after years of The Pokémon Company constantly replacing it with a US score for international releases since the start of the XY series. The Japanese score is pleasant to listen even for non-fans; and it has the added bonus for long-time Pokémon fans to identify music they had heard during their playthroughs of the Pokémon games.

All in all, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us is unlike any other Pokémon movie beforehand. It’s not an action blockbuster nor a blatant advertisement tie-in to GameFreak’s recently released game (though don’t get me wrong; Risa’s Eevee is a promotion for Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!). It could have gone for nostalgia, action hype or even over-the-top comedy for the movie direction. They would still entertain the audience regardless of critical scores. Instead, the film goes for a humble premise and focuses on the characters, their stories, and the world they live in. And that is what makes this movie one of the best the Pokémon franchise has to offer.

24 notes · View notes

gascon-en-exil · 7 years ago

Text

The interminable generation war of the Pokémon fandom is not something I’m inclined to wade into, not least because I am one of those strange individuals who play the games in part for their stories and worldbuilding. As reliably underwhelming as those attributes of any given game in this franchise may be, it’s nonetheless evident that Gamefreak puts some effort into elements of the franchise that aren’t competitive tournaments or Battle <name of building>s or gimmicky mini games. Sometimes.

As such, in the spirit of my modest contributions to the FE and Zelda fandoms on this blog and as further proof that I am capable of judging aspects of video games aside from the desirability and inferred sexual prowess (or lack thereof) of their men, here follows my current opinions on each of the regions of the main series...so nothing about Orre or those Ranger spin-offs or whatever. And yes - regions rather than generations, so the remakes will be grouped with their originals.

So. Very. Blaaaand. As with Archanea from Fire Emblem and the NES Zelda games I can respect the historical significance of the Kanto games; hell, unlike FE and Zelda I was actually following the series back when RBY were in their prime...and yet they are so unremarkable. Kanto feels utterly devoid of distinctive personality despite appearing in all of the first four generations, and even today there’s really nothing I can say about it beyond the relatively realistic villain team and the emphasis on modernization in contrast to Johto. Supposedly, anyway...it’s more like Kanto cares less about historical preservation which I suppose is probably the closest these games comes to commenting upon the real world inspiration for the region. Combine this with a contentious roster of Pokémon - some are great and still hold up today, some are meh, and almost all of them get disproportionate amounts of exposure and new toys in later generations, for better or worse - and an infamously loud fanbase wearing some very thick nostalgia goggles and you’ve got a setting I have no interest in revisiting. I absolutely wouldn’t put another round of remakes past GF, though

(But having the protagonist and his rival hook up in their later years was a nice twist.)

Not much more developed than its predecessor, but the Johto games benefit immensely from throwing in Kanto as a bonus (sort of) postgame region, both for the aforementioned contrast and for the additional content. Sure, the level curve is kind of screwy, the Pokémon could be better (Johto has my least favorite starter line-up, for instance), and Kanto feels half-formed in Gen II, but it’s not bad for what it is. I like that these games are set three years after the first ones, in that it conveys a sense of the passage of time - something that would only get more vague as the series progressed. I’m not much interested in the nods to Japanese culture and folklore strewn throughout Johto, but at least the region is identifiably Japanese. Also, the implementation of elements like a day/night cycle and days of the week appeal to me, even if in practice they’re more annoying than anything else. And I know the entire internet agrees with me, but HGSS did substantially more for Johto and Kanto than FRLG did for Kanto. That’s kind of sad, honestly.

While I’m bringing up remakes, I would however like to disagree with most of the internet and say that ORAS were good remakes - good enough to where I could actually finish Alpha Sapphire when the original left me so unimpressed that I actually stopped playing the series outside remakes until Gen VI. The beloved Battle Frontier (which doesn’t seem all that interesting? Someone explain the appeal of this thing to me) may be missing and you can’t re-challenge gym leaders and various other things you can only do in Emerald, but on the flip side the story development is much improved and better paced - yay for convenient cutscene warping - and the Delta Episode provides a decent postgame capstone. What’s more, Hoenn is absolutely beautiful in the remakes, looking as lush and tropical as it ought to and no longer bogged down with water routes that are a slog to traverse or much backtracking. Soaring is a wonderful addition as well that shows off the region and cuts down on HM usage, and the DexNav is excellent for reducing the tedium of catching them all (or some approximation thereof when stupid things like event legendaries and untradeable-on-GTS version exclusives still exist).

I haven’t even mentioned the villain teams. I know full well that Tumblr is ahead of me on this one, but they are so gay. I picked up the gayer version with Matt outright professing his love for men (somewhat ruined when you consider that he’s talking to a ten-year-old...ick), but via extensive research *ahem* I’ve learned that Omega Ruby has its moments too and that Teams Magma and Aqua are best enjoyed as a pair. Their goals may be patently stupid, but they all learn something at the end of the day and can go home and have an orgy together. I haven’t even mentioned the Steven/Wallace subtext one of my mutuals cued me into, which is sweet revenge indeed for Emerald fanboys whining for years about femme Wallace with his predictable team becoming champion in that game. It’s enough altogether for me to forgive the game for constantly teasing Brendan/May - because obligatory heterosexual romance doesn’t have to wait for a little thing like puberty.

The only region for which I can’t really give a full assessment. I started a playthrough of Platinum on emulator, but the game felt so slow and clunky that after the second gym (which I’ve read is an especially dull and pace-breaking stretch) I couldn’t bring myself to play any more. I’ve watched speedruns and video reviews of this game, and they’ve only confirmed my initial opinion and caused me to hope that most of Sinnoh’s copious issues will be addressed in the inevitable remakes. The over-reliance on HM slaves (poor Bidoof...), unintuitive region layout, periods of severe environmental slowdown in the form of marshlands and deep snow, and other factors do not appeal to me at all, and while I know Platinum fixed this particular problem I assume that the Diamond and Peal remakes will not have to contend with a limited roster as they did. The characters could do with some work as well: Barry seriously needs to calm down, I still don’t know how to feel about Fantina (will she be Kalosian? What about in the Japanese and French versions where she’s apparently from an English-speaking country?), and Cyrus really doesn’t work as the charismatic leader he’s built up to be. Say what you will about the Hoenn villain teams or Team Flare having idiotic goals, but at least I can say what those are. I still got nothing on Team Galactic caring about Prof. Rowan’s evolution research or stealing energy or what have you. Sinnoh is severely in need of a second - or third, I suppose - draft.

Confirming that Volkner and Flint are a couple would also be nice. Just throwing out ideas.

When I downloaded White and Black 2 for emulator I didn’t expect to be very impressed by these games. Unova is the MURICA FUCK YEAH region, as we all know, and I shouldn’t have to point out to my regular followers that that fact alone would be enough to unfavorably prejudice me against the place. And yet, in spite of that, it works for me. A big part of that is that Louisiana is absent from this loose celebration of the US as interpreted by Japan; there’s an oil baron dressed like a cowboy, a Californian or Hawaiian surfer bro, a gay (or straight hipster, hard to tell these days) artist with a loft gym in Castro the Village Castelia City, a Southern mammy for some casual racism that was actually too casual for international release, counterparts to Coney Island, Broadway, Hollywood, and American sports, and numerous Pokémon like the Trubbish and Vanillite* lines inspired by the shallow consumerism that passes for culture in the US, but nothing representing my own stubbornly French state. I’m actually warier about the bizarre attempts to insert bits of medieval and early modern Europe into the region via PETA-by-way-of-the-Knights-Templar (what) Team Plasma and the trio quartet of legendaries based on les Trois Mousquetaires. Did whoever came up with those not get the memo about where the series was going next?

With that said, although I’m not as enamored with N as some people his characterization was if nothing else a step up from anything that had come before. While Ghetsis and Plasma make no damn sense aesthetically until the sequels they are intimidating villains who raise serious questions about how humans treat Pokémon...that are naturally never considered in their full complexity because friendship or something. As I stated with Johto I do like the sequel model of region development since we get to see how Unova has changed over two years. I also appreciate the season mechanic that only appears in these games for lending some variety to the geography, though in execution it’s kind of a pain.

*But hey, I’m thankful at least that this is I think the only region that lets you catch (decent) Ice types before lategame. I will absolutely take the ice cream with a face.

Perfect, or rather just imperfect enough to perfectly capture the essence of France and its culture in this silly world of fantasy cockfighting. Unashamedly biased I may be, but as Kalos gets a lot of hate online I feel the need to push back against popular opinion a bit. X and Y were in my opinion the first games where GF really went all in on characterizing a region, because everything from the preoccupation with aesthetics (Character customization! Dog Furfrou grooming! Petting and pampering your Pokémon! Meticulously kept jardins à la française! Serious philosophical discussions on the fleeting nature of beauty! Team Flare...ok, never mind, they’re kind of dumb) to the discerning restaurant culture to the general ambivalence toward glorious and gloriously wasteful institutions like monarchy and their lavish châteaux feels so familiar to me. And how could I forget the Fairy type, a type tailor-made to vex the sort of posturing bro gamer sorts who somehow maintain their bro-ness while openly playing Pokémon. Could any region but Kalos have delivered that so beautifully? Well, now that I think about it, are the Japanese aware that the French are characterized as feminine in the English-speaking world? Regardless, I could go on, but this post is long enough as it is.

As I said before, Kalos isn’t entirely without flaw. Team Flare might be a hair less ridiculous than Team Galactic, but that isn’t saying much. The troupe of rivals, such as they are, aren’t much better, and others like Sycamore and most of the gym leaders are woefully underutilized. The Kalos Pokédex is overstuffed, and while I enjoy its subdivision into three regions that not-so-coincidentally recreate the Tricolore it is nevertheless a pain for those who like to fill up the Dex as they go along in a game. The developers were still clearly learning how to deal with the camera in a 3D space as is evident in certain areas like Lumiose, and certain features like the roller skates are awkward to use. Not the Exp Share, though - call me a lazy casual, but that thing makes team-building so much easier and actually incentivizes doing so rather than just relying on one overleveled Pokémon with good coverage to solo everything. Oh, and we never got a Pokémon Z, or more importantly an extension of the map that would include southern France. Poké-Gascogne, please, Game Freak.

Really, it’s hard for me to criticize X and Y because I quickly come back to everything I love about the place. I’m actually replaying X right now, inspired as I was by this project and lacking anything else to play before USUM comes out next month. Speaking of which...

I may not have any personal attachment to Hawaii, but I have to give GF serious props for taking the best gameplay and worldbuilding elements of Kalos and replicating them on an even greater scale. Alola is a vibrant and extensively-realized setting for a game, and I’m not even taking into account that we’ll be getting an AU version of it or something like that in the upcoming games. Sun and Moon fascinate on their own with their deep characterizations that touch on such surprisingly dark topics as child abuse (in a variety of forms) and the failure of community and, er, social programs, or whatever you’d call the Island Trial and the whole sending-ten-year-olds-out-to-enslave-wild-animals thing this universe has going on.

There aren’t really any duds in the cast, either: Kukui is drool-worthy, Guzma and the rest of Team Skull are thoroughly silly and also thoroughly sad, most of the kahunas and trial captains are entertaining in their own ways (special props go to Nanu, Kiawe and his hiker boyfriend, and Acerola the fallen aristocrat who’s entirely too perky about it), Lusamine is a demented mother figure so of course I find her compelling, and Hau...taught me what a malasada is? It’s basically a Portuguese beignet, from the sound of things. Lillie is the real star however, and I don’t understand why some fans criticize the games for making the story more about her than about the player character. One of the biggest drawbacks of silent protagonists, and especially silent protagonists that never emote, is that it’s difficult for them to be a part of character-driven storylines, and in a first for the series unless you count N in BW Sun and Moon are exactly that kind of story. Lillie gets a voice and a distinct place in the world and in the lives of the other major players in the narrative, and she has a development arc that follows along with but stands independent from the standard one followed by this protagonist and all others in this series. Meanwhile, the player character...is from Kanto, and is Kukui’s cousin, and Kukui is probably fucking their mother. That’s pretty much it.

I’m a little less enamored with the Ultra Beast plotline as it’s a little too sci-fi for me, and Aether’s presence and purpose in Alola feels unexplored, but there’s still a chance that USUM may woo me on either score. I’m fairly indifferent on the Mega Evolution vs. Z-Moves argument, and I can take or leave Alolan forms - except Ninetales *pets* - but SM made one substantial gameplay improvement I absolutely adore and will hate to see be removed from future games: ride Pokémon. No more HM slaves, yay! Compound that with surfing between islands and some new areas and they’ve sold me on the next games. If the story is as radically different as trailers seem to be promising I can only hope that it’ll be just as engaging as the first time around.

So, if I had to provide a tl;dr by dint of a simplified ranking, it’d probably go as such:

Kalos > Alola > Hoenn = Unova > Johto > Kanto = Sinnoh

I’d expect Sinnoh to get bumped up a few notches in remake form, but otherwise that’s about right.

#Pokémon #Pokémon regions #All of them #Partially a joke post #At least I had fun with it

5 notes · View notes

jewelwriter · 7 years ago

Text

My Two Coins: My argument on Defense

Disclaimer: "My Two Coins" are to be read as such, someone's two coins about the topic at hand. IF at any point you disagree with it or agree, remember they are just my coins about said topic and the value you have of it will differ from my own because of religion, upbringing, beliefs, and logic based on your own experiences. Do not assume my coins are the international equivalent for it may be considered of a lesser value in the bank of public exchange. Thank you.

“Why didn't you complain about the previous third versions/sequels/whatever that did the same thing? That shows you are biased against Gen VII.“

I’m saying it Once and I’m saying it again.... BIAS MY@$$!!!

Welcome ladies and gentlemen. You've found a wild Jewelwriter.

And I’ve been given this a lot lately with some of my more personal allies and I feel like I have got to defend myself once again. Though it’ll be in response to each of the criticism that I’ve been sent my way along with extra notes to go with my replies.

=1=

"The removal could be to like you stated, the Framerate is poor. It also doesn't help that they weren't even popular in the first place. You queue for a triple or rotation battle in previous generations and you can be sitting there for maybe 30-40 minutes? Think about it, the game is all 3d, that is a LOT of space being used up and compressed for code and other information."

The patience some people have is sad when I look at it. (Though makes me wish that my time would have been included for that) I've considered that 3d animation takes time but at times the Pokemon have vanished when attacks are used...trainer included. So it could have worked still to a degree. This is the most bendable of points since the programming isn't easy.

And I mean it as the Programming that probably is going to be a problem when trying to get certain things into a certain space but then again they had managed to do it before to fit a number of details into the game so it isn’t as easy to do but it is possible if by working edges to smooth them out.

=2=

"Super Training was bullshit and I never used it. The change of pace for Island Trials was due to the face Alolan didn't follow the rest of the world in the system. The Gen I pandering is to be excepted as the region is neighbors with Kanto. The Ultra Beasts were an interesting twist on Pokémon Legendaries/Mythicals And really, the whole story. I'm sorry to say this, but it sounds like she is bitching over spilled milk, crying because she wanted another dull Pokémon Game.”

Super Training wasn't bs because it honestly will tell you what EVs you are giving which is a lot more than what the islands are doing.

Doesn't excuse how they aren't as filling as the trainer battles and Gym battles. The fact would be one of the more filling battles that were given with the gyms was oddly a Gen 3 battle (the 7th one oddly...better known in Emerald for having 4 Pokemon to worry about.) so in a way I wasn't in as much a headache with the Gym system and more with the Trials.

I might as well see Mt Moon with how that seems to be that close to Kanto with all those Pokes. I mean there are other generations that deserve some love and barely got any (Gen 5 especially...I mean Audino for the only mega poke? And I could count nearly 19 of them before you get through half the islands.) so it would help to see more mon that isn't just restricted to Gen 1 remixes?

Cosmog was an interesting concept. The Ultra Beast had some promise, but the story was about LILLY and her mostly needing your help to find answers while you randomly get the story pointed to you instead of the main goal of it being on you when the boring part of her quest kicks in. Followed by Edgy the wannabe rival that tries to be the blue you wanted at the last minute when the Professor did a better job of that and he was more interested in seeing you grow out of anyone else. And that's on top of the fact that I accepted that Hau wasn't going to be the strong battler rival of the game. So excuse me for being factual on something that was done wrong and judged the game on its own before comparing it to the rest of the legacy which this is the weakest by far.

And how can one defend this one since they literally have you working around everyone else and barely have anyone really interested in you as a true trainer to watch grow sans the professor when you begin. Hau is the friendly fighter who’s just trying to grow beyond his Grandpa, Edge Prince Gladion is a last-minute fighter using an apparent god fighting Pokemon that apparently got a type power up stronger than yours. At least the professor fights you on your level of sorts. Ultra Beasts storyline kind of is left to the aftergame and barely anything really revealed about them. The only one that kind of gets development before you get it is Cosmog who kind of goes with you all over (though it tells you something when Lilly is able to carry Cosmoem) so it’s workable.

=3=

“Seriously, Sun and Moon got me back into series after the disappoint of X/Y. I liked the story, but at the same time, X/Y was just boring outside of it. Same old same old. I mean, I love it when you beat the champion and then the old King himself AZ appears and challenges you. It just seems she hates everything new they are trying to do."

I honestly felt more enlightened to Pokemon thanks to Black and White and X and Y felt like more the most completed revival of the series that people wanted out of the Black and White. And sure I understand there are risk and reward for trying something new but when the new fails it is time to call it out on THAT and at least wait to see if it gets better or worst. I'm kind of happy that you can hatch 19-24 eggs in one time, happy you can get rare items and stones to sell and use for your Pokemon to evolve, and I'm happy that they added more ways to battle with the Battle Royal and made it that you are the champion and are defending your belt against different trainers instead of just taking on the same foe again (Fun fact: for the mission of that sort I took it on and did it 5 times which I took on Hau, The Dragon Rocker, the Professor, Team Skull's former babysitter, and the kid on route 1. :P ) so excuse me for seeing the negatives outway the positives but when it is true... it is flipping true.

And I’m not kidding about it since I had to hunt for the reasons why I liked Gen 7 instead of finding it flowing out like a river of water. If Orre was more memorable than alola then there’s a problem.

=4=

"Platinum and Emerald were done in literally half of a year. And B2W2 had worse footing then Sun and Moon. If that is not a paste job, I dunno what is anymore. I'm just going to stand on my ground of that, a majority of the Pokémon Community is spoiled. I mean, look at Kirby games. Most of them are nearly similar in gameplay and theme but always get extreme praise. There is very little hate towards it, so why on God's Green Earth is Pokémon getting it?"

-.- (GOD that is so incorrect.) Time for a bit of a time check...

Gen 1: September 28th, 1998 Yellow: October 19th, 1999 ({=Unexpected here. Then again I was moving during this time.)

Gen 2: October 15th, 2000 Crystal: July 29th, 2001 ({= Here is under a year.)

Gen 3: March 17th, 2003 Emerald: May 1st, 2005

Gen 4: April 22nd, 2007 Platinum: March 22nd, 2009

Gen 5: March 6th, 2011 B2/W2: October 7th, 2012

Gen 6: October 12th, 2013 ({= I had to flinch at how short this date was.) ORAS: November 21st, 2014 ({= Only thing comparable for the time.)

Gen 7: November 18th, 2016 Ultra S/Ultra M: November 17th, 2017

They only did going under a year twice... and that's before the 3rd comes up. I'm one of the few that try to make my own Pokemon from the ground up and the only thing I hate worst than this generation is what is flipping going with Smogon so think of it like this: I might hate Gen 7 (Which might not change my mind when the newest of it comes out and I got to work with it.) but I rather play with that than step anywhere near Smogon at all costs. Sure competitive Pokemon is a mess but I would want that to grow and be more diverse than what I'm seeing from the worst of the community which is in that area of toddlers.

And I’m being truthful here. I REALLY despise Smogon with such a fury that it makes My gen 7 hate I got to look like a cake compared to a Snorlax dinner that is the fury I have for Smogon.

And that’s EACH and every counterpoint and I will still defend my argument to the end since it is under a year...and in a way, I expected more in a way from Game Freak, The Pokemon Company, and the people that know their history and support them. I might be one voice but after all the things that went wrong with this one I’ll be glad to get out of vacation mode in Pokemon. Write to me if you feel like I’m write, right, wrong, or mixed in some way. After all THIS is a text box.

As for me... this wild one runs away!

#m2c #pokemon gen 7 #rant #counter argument #lbc

2 notes · View notes

tigerlover16-uk · 8 years ago

Text

Anime I need to watch (May 2017 update)

... Yeah, I’m a day late with this because I never had the time to sit down and do it yesterday. It’s been a bit busy for me around here, so let’s just get started.

Luckily this one should be quick because honestly... I didn’t actually make much progress this month. Even though I keep meaning to get back to it, I still haven’t watched any more of Yu Yu Hakusho than I had last month, though I fully intend to catch up on it this month. Mostly I just kept getting distracted from it, especially since I got ahold of some DVD collections for other anime. Doesn’t help probably that I was re-watching the Frieza saga of DBZ for fun this month, plus some old movies like the first Yu-Gi-Oh film (I won’t give my thoughts on those since those are things I’d already seen before).

To count, I only watched 3 movies on my last list and I’m part way through 2 other series, Soul Eater and Fairy Tail, which I’ve been watching on DVD.

First off, continuing my catch up on the Pokémon movies was the duology Pokémon Black and White movies... which have probably the dumbest gimmick for a movie I’ve ever seen. Seriously, all the little differences here and there really don’t justify making two different versions of the exact same story. The games can get away with this because it’s been a tradition since the start and different versions give us different Pokémon to catch, but you can’t get away with this idea for movies where the story is the entire point.

And the story isn’t even very good. Honestly, I watched both versions and I still only have a vague recollection of what actually HAPPENED throughout half of these films. A lot of the stuff I do remember was pretty underwhelming. The battle between Reshiram and Zekrom was one of the most anti-climactic in the whole franchise and not even fun to watch for how short it is. Victini is cute, but doesn’t really offer anything that a bunch of other cute legendaries can’t offer in these movies. The climax was a bit dumb, and honestly it was just a dull, forgettable experience. I’m having trouble finding words to really describe these films, they were just lackluster.

And the sad thing is, I can’t seem to find the DVD’s for practically any of the other Pokémon movies that I still haven’t watched besides the most recent one that just got released in my country. So I haven’t watched any more Pokémon movies this month. Honestly looking around, I’m not even sure most of them even have UK dvds made for them, which would be a pain in the neck if that’s really the case. Luckily I do have the Kyurem movie now though, so expect my thoughts on that by the end of June. I just hope I can watch some of the other films by then.

And since I was feeling nostalgic for Naruto, I decided to finally check out some of the movies, starting with the first one Naruto: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. Which was awesome. Oh, it was nothing spectacular or amazing, feels like it would have been a fairly typical arc for the show in some ways. But as a movie it really works as a cool action movie that embodies the charm and spirit of the first half of Naruto. The production values are great, the action is good, there’s plenty of fun moments and Princess Koyuki was an interesting character. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking or up there with the best stories from the show, but it was a great film, I’d gladly watch it again. I can’t really remember if I had any issues with it, though I didn’t go in with a critical eye so who knows.

And then I also watched the first Shippuden movie. Kinda felt like a somewhat less good re-tread of the former film in some ways, honestly. Shion was a good character but I didn’t really like her as much as Koyuki, the villain was alright, and the story was pretty good, and it was nice to see Lee and Neji get some screen time. Though at the same time, it didn’t feel quite as enjoyable as Clash in the Land of Snow. But maybe that’s just me. I don’t remember quite as much from this movie as the first one though.

Also this month I ended up watching the first 48 episodes of Fairy Tail after buying the first two DVD collections, and honestly... I’m loving it so far. It starts off a bit meh with the first few episodes, but once it gets to the first real arc it’s a really good show. Kinda silly and stupid at times, but it’s pretty fun. The characters are likeable, I like the art and music, and really it’s just the kind of fun, kinda cheesy yet awesome show that I enjoy. I know it gets a lot of flack for being stupid, having overpowered characters, constantly hammering in the whole “Friendship is awesome” concept in really thick and having a laughable amount of fanservice, but honestly I don’t really find any of those to be an issue so far (And if I’m being honest, having watched some of Soul Eater straight after it, I think that show has more frequent and obnoxious fanservice at times, Fairy Tail doesn’t seem all THAT bad compared to several anime I’ve seen honestly. Though I hear the anime tones it down a lot, so what do I know?). But then again, I’m only 48 episodes in, so who knows.

Honestly so far it’s just a really fun, charming show. A little cliché and relying on some stereotypical shonen tropes, but honestly I don’t mind that sort of thing when the overall experience is an enjoyable one. I’ve got some more dvds in the post this week, so I’m happy to watch more of it. Honestly, Fairy Tail feels like the kind of crazy fun anime I’ve been looking for to pass the time with. I’d give my thoughts on the whole show, but honestly a lot actually happens in those 48 episodes, I probably wouldn’t be able to cover everything and this stupid update is already late, so I’ll just leave with those general thoughts and maybe go into more detail in a different post if anyone cares.

And as I mentioned I also watched the first 28 episodes of Soul Eater. I’ll save my overall thoughts for next month when I’ll have probably finished the whole thing, I’ll just say that for the most part it feels like a just above average anime with some really good elements, some weak points and it’s overall decent, but so far I don’t think it’s anything special.

Aaaaand... I guess that’s it for now. I didn’t watch nearly as much anime as in April, but I had a lot of other things going on this month (And I’ve still got plenty of stuff to sort out right now, especially with this stupid car of mine) and other shows to watch. I don’t really know how productive June is going to be, at the very least I plan to finish Soul Eater and hopefully Yu Yu Hakusho, or at least the next arc of it. I know I’ll be watching Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark side of Dimensions whenever it arrives in the post (I’m so excited to finally watch it), I’m going to watch at least one more Pokémon movie and 5 Centimetres per second. And definitely some more Fairy Tail. Other than that, it’s all a bit up in the air right now. I’m just going to try and sort out my personal life more than anything. So sorry if this update ended up short and skimping on details, I just don’t have as much to say. Looking forward to the next month of anime goodness though.

One Punch Man (Seen four episodes a while back, looks good)

Mobile Suit Gundam

Outlaw Star

Cowboy Bebop

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Data Squad

Digimon Fusion

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Sailor Moon (Watched the entire first season and was about halfway through season 2. Should really get back to watching the full series)

Sailor Moon Crystal

Yu Yu Hakusho (Up to episode 67)

Ranma 1 ½

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012-onwards series)

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Fullmetal Alchemist

One Piece

Astro Boy (Any series. I just want to be able to say I’ve watched something from this franchise).

Kill La Kill

Gurren Lagann

Fairy Tail (Up to episode 48)

Little Witch Academia

Tenchi Muyo!

Death Note

Yuri On Ice

Fist of the North Star

Soul Eater (Up to episode 28)

Code Geass

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma (I watched about 9 episode, need to catch up)

Your Lie in April

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mob Psycho 100

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Phoenix Wright anime

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Natsume’s Book of Friends

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Eureka 7

Black Cat

Black Shooter Rock

Gunbuster

Afro Samurai

Space Dandy

Vision of Escaflowne

magical girl lyrical nanoha

Shin Sekai Yori

Baccano

Cyborg 009

Gaogaigar

Danganronpa

Yo-Kai Watch

Pretty Cure

Future Boy Conan

Yona of the Dawn

Movies:

Your Name

Garden of Words

Paprika

Tokyo Godfathers

The Boy and the Beast

5 Centimeters per second

Millenium Actress

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Digimon Adventure Tri Movies

Yu-Gi-Oh: Bonds Beyond Time

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions

Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend awakened

Pokémon: Kyurem vs the sword of justice

Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

Pokémon: I Choose You

Ghost In The Shell

Memories

Perfect Blue

Naruto: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shuppuden: Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison

Naruto: Road to Ninja

Boruto Movie

Fairy Tail the movie: Phoenix Priestess

Fairy Tail the movie: Dragon Cry

Godzilla: Monster Planet

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

#anime #Naruto ninja clash in the land of snow #naruto shippuden the movie #pokemon the movie black and white #fairy tail #soul eater

2 notes · View notes

pokemaniacal · 8 years ago

Text

Pokémon Moon, Episode 7: In Which My Culinary Skills Are Pushed To Their Limit

Since the next Captain, Kiawe, is a Fire Pokémon specialist, he lives on a volcano. Because of course he does. Fire trainers don’t really ‘do’ subtlety. Wela Volcano, which is named for the Hawaiian word for heat or burning, and corresponds to Haleakala in the real world, looms over the northeast corner of Akala Island. Although many of its basalt flows are still glowing red from the last eruption, the volcano is perfectly safe – or at least, this is the claim made by the Seismic Sisters, a set of Alolan triplets who maintain tunnels that provide surprisingly easy access up and down its slopes. Among the hardy, fire-tolerant Pokémon that live there is a wily black lizard Pokémon called Salandit, a Fire/Poison-type, which nearly blows my Trumbeak out of the sky with Dragon Rage. I decide to retire my Butterfree and recruit one in her place (a female, which I’m told is important); that Dragon Rage is sure to come in handy as long as we’re still low-level.

The bare-chested Fire Captain is already waiting for me in the middle of a circular platform within the volcano crater itself. With him are three sinister-looking black Pokémon with bone staves, their tips glowing with spectral green fire. Wait… are those Marowak? As I stare quizzically at his Pokémon, Kiawe explains the terms of his trial. He and his Marowak are fire dancers in the ancient Alolan tradition. They will perform two dances for me, and my task is to discern the difference between them. “…that’s it?” I ask suspiciously. “No battle? No Totem Pokémon? What’s the catch?” Kiawe returns a sober frown. “Alolan fire dance is no trifling entertainment. It is a sophisticated union of art, worship and discipline, performed to honour Tapu Lele. The slightest change in position or tempo can alter the meaning of the entire dance. My trial will tax your powers of observation to their limit.” Duly chastened, I sit down cross-legged at the edge of the stage to watch. Kiawe nods solemnly and turns to his three Marowak. “Begin!” The Marowak march in a circle, spinning their flaming staves, then freeze in a set of coordinated poses. They hold their positions for a moment, then at a nod from Kiawe, spring into action once more. The motions and tempo seem identical, but when the dance stops, one of the Marowak is facing in a different direction than I remember from the first time. I point to it. “That one. That one’s stance is different.” Kiawe gasps – and the Marowak leaps right at me, spinning its staff once again. With a strangled, squawking yell, I summon my new Salandit and order her to open fire with Dragon Rage. Scorched by the brilliant energy, the Marowak soon kneels in submission. “Right,” I say, more than a little breathless. “Right, okay. Wrong answer. Do I get another try?” “No, no!” Kiawe stays hastily. “Marowak was so pleased by your right answer that it simply had to battle you!” The Marowak twirls its staff again and bows low. “Oh,” I say. “Oh. Okay. Sure.” So presumably the other two Marowak will challenge me in turn. “Onward to the second dance!” I watch the three Marowak closely as they run through their practiced motions. When I think I have them memorised, I nod to Kiawe, who commands the Marowak to repeat their dance. Again, I see no differences until the dance is almost ov- “BLAAAARGHAGHAH!” “AHHHH! What the-!” I flail my arms wildly and tumble backwards off the stage as a scruffy hiker leaps in front of me, shouting and making gruesome faces. “What the HELL, dude!? This is, like… a sacred quest thing, or… or something!” I squint at the Marowak, frozen in their final poses, but my concentration has been broken. Is… the one on the left holding its staff at a different angle? “Damn it, I couldn’t see the end of the dance properly,” I complain to Kiawe. “How am I supposed to-” The hiker, crouching on my right, starts chuckling. “You stay out of this!” I snap at him. “Just because you paid for the ‘authentic Alola experience’ doesn’t mean you get to be part of whatever- what- whatever…” I pause. Oh. Ohhhhh. Oh, this is ridiculous. I turn back to Kiawe, then point at the hiker. “It’s this idiot, isn’t it? He’s what was different about the second dance.” Kiawe looks startled. “You… you are correct! B-but how!?” I give him the most withering stare I can muster. “So… ‘ancient tradition’? ‘Sophisticated union of art and worship’? Really?” “Well…” Kiawe begins, slowly. “Alola’s booming tourist industry has been very good for the region. Tapu Lele looks kindly on visitors, and permits us to… uh… involve them in our rituals.” “…you know, this is gonna sound totally hypocritical of me… and it is… but I don’t even care: tourism has ruined this region,” I tell Kiawe flatly. He does his best to ignore me. “Uh, Kiawe, m’dude,” the hiker says. “Do I get to, uh…?” Kiawe smacks his palm to his forehead. “Go ahead…” he mutters.“Radical, dude!” the hiker shouts, then jumps to the centre of the stage, faces me, and calls a Magmar from a Pokéball. “We’re doing this? Really?” I sigh, and deploy my Salandit’s Dragon Rage once again to defeat the Magmar. Kiawe coughs. “My… hiker friend was so pleased by your right answer that he… simply had to battle you,” he says, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. “Onward to the final dance.” This time, the hiker actually leaps in amongst the Marowak near the end and joins in their movements. Kiawe lets me observe their final positions for a few moments, then commands the dance to begin again. Once more, I watch closely for any change. Then, moments from the end… “SALAAAA!” A huge black and pink lizard springs over the opposite edge of the volcano crater, lands in the middle of the dance, and flings its arms wide, with a grin and a wink. I half expect it to pull out a cane and a straw hat and start tap-dancing. I stare at the lizard, then at Kiawe, then back at the lizard. “…okay I’m just gonna fight this thing now.”

My opponent is a Salazzle, a weirdly salacious-looking evolved Salandit. My own Salandit is clearly outclassed, but she knows Dragon Rage and the Totem Salazzle seems not to; nor does the Salazzle minion that it summons. Unfortunately, the second Salazzle hits mine with a Torment to keep her from blasting the Totem Pokémon repeatedly, and we are forced to retreat. This thing is actually quite nasty. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I send in my Slowpoke and perform the wave-like dance motion that Lana taught me to activate her Z-Crystal. Slowpoke summons a terrible Hydro Vortex that sweeps up the Salazzle, batters it around, and throws it off the top of the mountain, wailing piteously as it falls. The little Salandit still has some tricks, though, hitting my Slowpoke with a cloud of Poison Gas and following up with a devastating Venoshock that knocks her out. I briefly pause to applaud its bravery, then send in my own Salandit to finish the job. Kiawe salutes me, and presents me with his Z-Crystal, known as the Firium-Z, several Quick Balls, and the ability to summon a new Pokémon with my ride pager: his Charizard. Charizard, like Latias and Latios in Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, replaces the Fly HM, and can take us to a variety of locations both inside and outside of towns and cities, including between Alola’s four islands… and beyond.

On the outskirts of Alola lies a chain of small islands known as the Poké Pelago. They are beyond the reach of any regular ferry routes (but not Charizard’s wings), and only one human appears to live there: a fellow with the uninspiring name of Mohn, who acts as their caretaker. Mohn is a cheerful hermit who seems to have gotten just a little too much sun over the years. He suffers from a crippling addiction to Pokébeans, and lives in a leaky, run-down wooden hut perched precariously atop a distressed-looking raft tethered just off the coast of Isle Abeens. Thanks to some suspicious technology of Mohn’s, trainers’ Pokémon can visit the islands whenever they like, warping directly there from… wherever it is Pokémon go while in a PC box. On my first visit to the Poké Pelago, Mohn promises that, if I help feed his Pokébean habit, he’ll get off his butt for an afternoon and develop some of the islands to make them more pleasant for Pokémon to visit. Mohn describes five islands to me, all with stupid names, and each suited for different activities: harvesting Pokébeans, growing berries, searching for treasure, training, and relaxing. Despite my… suspicions of Mohn, I find it hard not to love the Poké Pelago, because it embodies something I’ve wanted these games to have for a long time, namely some way of giving meaning to the 90% of your Pokémon who aren’t with you at any given moment. The notion that we’ve been leaving most of our Pokémon in internet limbo for weeks or months on end this whole time is easily one of the most troubling things about the series, and extremely difficult to reconcile with either the anime’s portrayal of Ash’s off-duty Pokémon or the games’ own attitude to Pokémon as friends and partners. This is a major item ticked off my long-term wishlist – and it does a bunch of useful stuff too.

Once my first visit to the Poké Pelago is finished and all my B-team Pokémon are getting settled in, I strike out along the northern coastal road for the location of Captain Mallow’s trial: the Lush Jungle. The road itself is unremarkable, but many of the people and Pokémon I meet give me pause for thought. The first is a truly odd creature called a Stufful. It… seems to be literally a soft toy. Its type is Normal/Fighting, it looks like a teddy bear with a smiling pink face, and its ability grants it damage reduction against contact moves but makes it weak to Fire, because it is made of stuffing. I am not sure whether I should be disturbed by it. Not far along the road, a sterile-looking white prefabricated structure houses some researchers from an organisation called the Aether Foundation, a syndicate of scientists and conservationists working to protect Pokémon from evildoers like Team Skull. I can’t argue with that, and it sounds like they do good work. Only… their uniforms… they look exactly like the people I saw chasing Lillie when I first came to Alola, whom I’d assumed were airport security apprehending a dangerous terrorist. Why would they have been after her and Nebby? There can only be one conclusion…

Lillie is definitely a member of Team Skull. Her professed fear of them is merely a smokescreen, to keep me from realising the truth about her. Her wickedness is without limit and beyond comprehension.

Down near the western end of the road is the entrance to a secluded valley, where a self-professed scientist is trying to begin the construction of a theme park filled with prehistoric Pokémon reanimated from fossil remains. Because that’s a project that’s never gone horribly wrong before and is guaranteed to have no negative consequences. “So… just out of curiosity, did Jurassic Poképark ever get released here in Alola?” I ask him casually. “Oh, absolutely! It’s one of my favourite movies of all time!” he enthuses. “Huh. Really?” “Yes indeed! I had to leave after the first half-hour, unfortunately, but it was truly inspiring! One of these days I’ll find the time to watch it the whole way through.” If I find any fossils, this guy should be able to resurrect them for me… although, to be honest, I’d almost prefer to brave the customs desk and take them back to Kanto to be examined by an actual scientist. The last stop before Mallow’s jungle is a motel with an attached Pokémon Centre. That weird, angsty Gladion kid appears to be staying here, but he is in no mood to talk, refusing to say anything but “get out.” I try to explain to him that, where I come from, wandering Pokémon trainers are usually allowed to enter any building or room freely, as a matter of simple courtesy, but he is unmoved. I divert my attention to the rocky shore below. Here, on the northwest coast of Akala Island, is the habitat of a weak and cowardly Pokémon called Wimpod, a Bug/Water-type with poor stats in everything but speed, no moves but Struggle Bug and Sand Attack, an ability that causes it to flee in terror from any battle when its health is low, and a propensity for eating rotten food. If I know Pokémon – which I do – Wimpod is bound to evolve into something downright terrifying, and who better to make it happen than me? Wimpod itself, unfortunately, has other ideas, and won’t battle me at all until I loop around to the far end of the beach to cut off its retreat from its burrow. I’m going to turn this Pokémon into an all-powerful terror whether it likes it or not!

We’ve made a full circle around the volcano: the Lush Jungle where Captain Mallow makes her lair is just north of Brooklet Hill. The jungle and its mistress promise Grass-types, and that promise is music to my ears. It’s about time Alola gave me something worth bragging about when I get back to Kanto. We’ll just see whose Grass Pokémon are stronger when I blow a hole in your ceiling with my Grass-type Z-Crystal, won’t we, Erika? Next year’s Flower Power Grand Prix is mine, you smug, condescending little- “Oh, hello! Thanks for stopping by!” Mallow’s voice jolts me out of my reverie as she welcomes me to the jungle. She looks me up and down, smiles approvingly. “I knew it the first time I saw you and your team… You’ve chosen only the finest ingredients! That’s why I’m gonna make you help me- er, no! I mean, that’s why you should try my trial!” I sigh and try to give her a friendly smile. “Listen, if the trial is just, like, doing your laundry or whatever, I don’t mind. I’m sure you’re a busy girl, and I just want to tick all the boxes so Tapu Koko will get off my back.” “What? Oh, not at all! I hope I didn’t make you think- oh, dear. No, I just get a little overexcited sometimes. Trust me, my trial will be just as challenging as any of the others you’ve faced so far.” Mallow closes her eyes for a moment, breathes deeply, and then flings her arms wide and looks up into the lush canopy as though searching for inspiration. “Ah… the breath of the jungle…” she sighs rapturously, then suddenly turns her attention back to me and snaps her fingers. “I can tell just what today’s special should be! My personal specialty: the Mallow Special! I’m gonna need you to find four ingredients for me!” I blink a couple of times. “Wait… your trial is a cooking challenge?” “Yep!” She grins at me. “What were you expecting? Hope that’s not gonna be too tough for you!” “Oh… I think I’ll manage.” I’ve studied the local cuisines of every region I’ve visited (well, except Kalos… bunch of stuck-up food snobs refused to teach me a single thing after I dared to question whether a boiled bone was an acceptable restaurant dish, but Kalosian cooking is overrated anyway). This should be a piece of cake. Perhaps literally. “I’ll need… Mago Berries, Tiny Mushrooms, some Revival Herb, and a Miracle Seed!” Mallow continues, counting off on her fingers. I nod sagely as I consider the ingredients she’s specified. It’s an interesting combination of flavours. The odd sweet-and-bitter combination of the Mago Berry and Revival Herb has something in common with some old central Hoenn dishes I’m familiar with, while mushrooms are basically alien to the traditional Hoenn diet, but should ground the other flavours quite nicely. My guess is we’re going to boil it all into a sort of stew or broth. Mallow gives me a final piece of advice before I take off into the jungle: her Stoutland will be invaluable in finding the best ingredients.

Stoutland first leads me to a cluster of mushrooms, guarded by a slender mushroom Pokémon, Shiinotic, the evolved form of Morelull. My Trumbeak deals with it swiftly; then, as I rummage through the assorted fungi, Mallow shows up. “Ooh, a Tiny Mushroom! That’s great! There’s a secret to why they’re so popular with some people. You’ll have to try one to find out what it is!” Is… is she trying to get me into drugs? But actually, that gives me an idea. Mallow’s request for “Tiny Mushrooms” was pretty vague; there are a lot of different species in this small patch alone… I mean, she was probably talking about the Alolan shiitake, but there’s also some azure chanterelle, Pyroar’s mane, urchin Shaymin, and… oooohh… I spot a single pinkish, black-spotted toadstool on the edge of the patch. Could it be? The legendarily delicious Milktank’s glory cap, said to produce a soup so rich it would make a king weep? Hmm. Well. Unless it’s the equally rare lookalike, destroying Snubbull, in which case eating it would cause catastrophic organ failure.

…eh. What’s life without a little risk, right?

Continuing to follow Stoutland’s nose, I head into the northwest part of the jungle and come upon a grove of fruit trees. My Salandit dispatches the Fomantis guarding the trees, and I start picking Mago Berries. Then I keep going. Mago is nice, but we could get a more complex flavour by adding some Persim Berries too, and… oh my god are those Spelon Berries? I f&%#ing love Spelon Berries, and they’re a classic central Hoenn flavour; let’s take a handful of those… A few more Fomantis lurk in the grassy northern area where Stoutland and I go to search for Revival Herb. We should only need a tiny bit; the intense bitter flavour is what makes the dish, but even slightly too much could just as easily wreck it. I pull up a fistful of the rare herbs and sniff deeply. Wow this stuff is pungent. No wonder it wakes up fainted Pokémon. There’s an old family legend that my great-grandmother used so much Revival Herb in her cooking that the smell of her stew could actually raise the dead. Probably apocryphal, of course, but there must be some reason my family got kicked out of Lavender Town. One ingredient left… Miracle Seeds are packed with a veritable rainbow of nutrients, so they tend to get dug up and eaten by wild Pokémon unless they’re buried in spots that are very hard to get to – like under piles of crumbling boulders. Stoutland confirms the presence of something interesting under one such pile in the eastern part of the jungle, and with a little help from Hala’s Tauros, we’re able to smash it out of the way and dig up the precious seed hidden beneath. Time to get cooking.

“Great!” Mallow enthuses, when I confirm that I have everything. “Now that we’ve got all the ingredients, we just need…” “Sorry to keep you waiting,” calls out a voice from the entrance to the jungle. It’s the other Captains, Kiawe and Lana, who have brought their own… contributions to Mallow’s little culinary experiment. Kiawe’s Thick Club and Rare Bone, used to crush and mix the ingredients, should theoretically impart a little of their own flavour to the stew, and the Fresh Water that Lana has brought from Brooklet Hill is the purest around. Lana’s also brought a Rocky Helmet to mix it all in, which… y’know what, I feel like this is some kind of weird inside joke between the Captains that I’m never going to get, so I’ll just drop that one. I light a small fire, heat the water, and start grinding up my ingredients. As the stew begins to cook, a tantalising smell wafts through the jungle, and Mallow mentions, casually, that this should summon her Totem Pokémon. “…wait what?” I suddenly feel distinctly and disturbingly watched, and slowly turn around. “Luuuu-RAAAAAAAAN!” screams the huge orchid mantis behind me. “OH SWEET MOTHER OF MEW!” I scream back at it, frantically grabbing my Pikachu’s Pokéball. She knows Hidden Power: Ice, and this thing – Lurantis, the evolved form of Fomantis, as the Rotomdex unhelpfully explains while I continue screaming – is a Grass-type, so- “LU-RAAAN!” the Lurantis screeches, igniting a massive blade of radiant solar energy from the tip of its claw and slamming it down on my poor Pikachu’s head. Another screech summons a wild Trumbeak to its side. “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” I keep screaming, in hopes of confusing the Lurantis, as I call on my Salandit and perform the motions Kiawe taught me to activate the Fire-type Z-move, Inferno Overdrive. The Lurantis is injured, but not critically, and quickly heals itself with Synthesis… then keeps healing itself as its Trumbeak grinds down my Salandit. “THAT’S IT; NOW I’M MAD,” I shout, sending my Raticate to crush the Trumbeak. The Lurantis, more bemused than concerned, X-Scissors my Raticate, and then calls out again, summoning… a Castform. “…ohhhhhh $#!t,” I say to myself quietly. If that thing can take control of the weather, the Lurantis will be able to start spamming Solar Blade, and then I’m dead for sure. I back away from the Lurantis, grab Lana’s stew-filled helmet, and hold it out in front of me. “Lu-ran?” the Totem Pokémon asks. “Uh… here! Take it!” I shout, putting the helmet down on the ground and then diving for cover behind a boulder. The Lurantis sniffs cautiously at the stew, then begins gorging itself. I watch, heart pounding and fingers crossed. A few moments later, the Lurantis’ eyes widen, it stands bolt upright, turns bright red, begins venting steam from its ears, and starts running around in circles wailing. Moments after that, it stops abruptly, as though it had run into a glass wall, exhales a cloud of smoke, and then keels over, twitching. Mallow stares in abject shock. “…um… are you quite sure you got all those ingredients right?” I give her a nervous smile. “…you know, my great-grandmother always used to say cooking is more of an art than a science… and, uh… well, sometimes more of a gamble than an art…”

Ridiculous quote log:

“I want to make my Kadabra evolve! Friends! I need friends!” Listen, man, if that’s your only reason for wanting friends, you’re going to have a hard time making any.

“I guess I wasn’t able to make use of the potential energy of being in a high place.” Is this the Pokémon equivalent of “it’s over, Anakin; I have the high ground”?

“Research! Research! I will research the Pokémon!” …calm down, dude.

“So! What do you think of the largeness of my area?” …it’s great. Really great.

The team:

Tane the Dartrix Male, Timid nature, Overgrow ability Level 25 Tackle, Razor Leaf, Astonish, Pluck

Rhea the Trumbeak Female, Lax nature, Keen Eye ability Level 25 Pluck, Roost, Fury Attack, Rock Smash

Ashley the Pikachu Female, Timid nature, Static ability Level 24 Thundershock, Hidden Power (Ice), Nasty Plot, Thunder Wave

Hypatia the Slowpoke Female, Hardy nature, Own Tempo ability Level 24 Confusion, Yawn, Headbutt, Scald

Soot the Raticate Female, Hardy nature, Hustle ability Level 25 Crunch, Tail Whip, Hyper Fang, Focus Energy

Joanna the Salandit Female, Timid nature, Corrosion ability Level 24 Flame Burst, Sweet Scent, Dragon Rage, Smog

#pokemon moon playthrough #pokemon #alola #kiawe #mallow #mohn #salandit #salazzle #stufful #wimpod #shiinotic #lurantis #wela volcano #lush jungle

24 notes · View notes

cloudbatcave · 5 years ago

Text

I fly home and my mom asks me if I’m being kind to my Pokémon because she’s N 2.0 I guess.

...ah, shit, I need to pick someone to teach surf to.

But before that I visit juniper and she gives me false swipe, which might be handy.

She also gives me protect, which is less handy.

Ferroseed goes in, Tympole comes out, because one way or another I barely have any water types.

I need more since I don’t like Tympole’s weird human face at all.

I catch a Basculin, which took me 5 net balls, 4 great balls, and 3 ultra balls to snag this asshole. Why. Why was this stupid level 9 level fish so powerful?!

I hate this game sometimes.

I hate it more when I lose Mito to a Cinccino’s tail slap because it hit five times and one was a critical. I sigh. I sigh a lot.

There are Scraggy on this island, so I’m just going to catch one of them and evolve it because this is annoying.

There are Herdier too but one of my unofficial rules is that I can’t use repeats of Pokémon I’ve actively used in my party before. I can catch repeats of Pokémon I already have, but after they’ve fallen in battle I can’t use another of the same species.

After grabbing Lad, my new Scraggy, I head back.

“There is nothing of interest beyond here and the electric bulletin board has gone pitch black. Kind of refreshing, isn’t it?”

Okay, night vale resident who escaped into a Pokémon game, glad it floats your boat.

Found a guy with an egg but my party is full. Might be worth making the trip to a PC and back for that, I think that’s a Larvesta.

And Lad dies because I wasn’t paying attention. To an Emolga with acrobatics.

Cool.

Know what? Doesn’t count. Because If I’d been paying attention I would’ve switched him out.

I find waterfall, which I can’t use in the field now but will certainly come in handy later.

And then Fiend dies to a fucking Darmanitan using Flare Blitz.

[pinches nose]

Fine. Fine. Cool. It’s good. I’m not screaming inside at all.

Marty dies too! All I have now is Murderbot who is weak to fire, and Lad, who has 20 HP left.

Murderbot dies too and all I have is Lad against a simisage.

Yeah fuck it the Nuzlocke lite ends here because this is total bullshit, REVIVES IN BATTLE FOR EVERYONE.

I won’t use anyone I already deemed killed in previous fights but from now on no more fainting is death because THIS IS THE WORST.

I actually have to send out mar the murdered tranquill but only so I can revive more Pokémon to kill this simisage because it killed a revived fiend with one crit grass knot.

Thank god I didn’t follow the release rule!

And that I kept a few revives!

All my hate forever.

We take a break from play by play blogging as I beat the Icirrus gym, beat up Plasma grunts, use my Tranquill (now an Unfezant) even though it died because I just don’t care anymore, and go to the desert to beat up more Plasma grunts before going back to Icirrus.

I respect anyone who can get through a Nuzlocke. This did not go well for me. I gave it the ol’ college try but we’re just playing normally now.

Though it is also my first time ever doing one, and I did learn from the experience, so maybe if I tried it in an easier gen like 6 it would work.

Anyway, months pass, the world goes topsy-turvy, and here I am again.

I jump back into White and spend like five minutes just figuring out how to get out of Icirrus city because I am that tired.

As if by magic, right when I’m finally about to go onto the bridge to get to Opelucid, Bianca appears.

“As I’ve been traveling lately, I’ve been thinking about things.”

I’m gonna be nice. I’m gonna let you have that.

“Things like what I can do with my life, and what I want to do, but...”

Is looking at my watch too subtle? I am looking at my watch. It’s the finest fake Rolex a boy can buy.

“I’m thinking how cool it would be to be a model like Elesa.”

That’s...that sounds great. You do that.

“And then, how cool it would be to do research on Pokémon like Professor Juniper...”

We are standing in the rain so you can tell me this. This all could’ve been sent in a text I tastefully responded to with “k.”

“If that’s what I want to do, I’m gonna have to know a lot about pokemon.”

Bianca why. No sarcasm this time, just an honest question, why are you monologuing at me. I know Cheren is basically the worst, but if we’re being real here, I’m not a lot better. You need nicer friends.

“Sooooo...would you please battle me?”

You could’ve started with that and my clothes would be less wet! If I catch a cold it is your fault!

She full restores her stoutland but then I paralyze it and kill it anyway. That’s a perfect little microcosm for all our interactions so far, really.

“Chirae, you’re amazing!”

Honestly by this point I just feel bad about beating you so many times. Maybe N is getting to me with his mopey bullshit.

Oh she wants to give me something.

Better not be her fanfics.

Oh it’s her drug of choice, full restore.

Actually serious question: I wonder what effect it would have if a human ingested pokemon hp recovery items.

“In Castelia City, my precious pokemon was stolen by team plasma.”

What, really? What incredibly handsome devil got it back for you? I’ve never heard about this before.

“So I really, really understand!”

That makes one of us!

“If team plasma forces everyone to liberate their pokemon, there will be nothing but sad people!”

Probably? I don’t know.

Blah blah stop team plasma, don’t allow Pokémon who are loved to be stolen, buy eggs and milk.

“I think that’s the truth - or ideal - that you’ve been pursuing, Chirae...”

All I ever wanted was to go on an adventure but no one has ever once asked me if I want to be left in peace to do that.

“Oh dear, here I’ve come all this way and I’m afraid I’m bothering you when you’re going through so much.”

THAT REALIZATION WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT MORE HELPFUL LIKE TWENTY MINUTES AGO BUT THANKS.

“All I wanted was to help you relax, Chirae.”

Bianca. Bianca look at my face. Is the face of a relaxed man? Is this the face of someone who has NOT been rained on while you monologue about your future life choices? IS IT, BIANCA???

Okay. Okay. We’re good here. I had my moment.

“Knowing you, you’ll be fine! Definitely! You’ll totally be fine! I guarantee it!”

You’re trying so hard, and I want to appreciate it. I really do.

Bianca says a more awkward than usual goodbye and flounces.

Now I have to go back and heal and waltz out here again. Spiffy.

The tubeline bridge is cool but I see Worst Dad waiting for me at the end of it and his dumb ninjas make sure I can’t just walk around him.

Ghetsis congratulates me on getting the dark stone while I contemplate kicking him in the face.

Then his monologuing just turns generic villain and I tune it out.

He tells me there’s no way the legendary Pokémon will accept me as the hero and words cannot describe how little his opinion matters to me.

He tells me to search for some courage and then just walks away like the weird asshole he is.

I miss Giovanni. He just wanted money and power and didn’t bullshit about being better than everyone else. A simpler time.

#cloud plays white #bit shorter than usual but still

0 notes

recentanimenews · 7 years ago

Text

The Crunchyroll 2017 Holiday Gift Guide

Hello everyone and Season’s Greetings. My name is Peter Fobian, Associate Features Editor. We here at Crunchyroll know how hard it is to plan out holiday shopping for your friends, family, and loved ones, so we wanted to put together a handy gift guide for the anime-inclined! We’ve separated the gifts into several different sections for varying types of anime fans and included options for different budgets. Whether the person you’re shopping for loves Attack on Titan or Sailor Moon, we’ve got something for them on this list. Light up the fireplace, pour yourself a mug of good nog, and enjoy the Crunchyroll 2017 Holiday Gift Guide!

Gifts for the Shonen Fan

Martial arts, powerful psychic abilities, and Earth-shattering fight scenes—if the person you’re buying gifts for loves these things, here’s the section for you! Here are gifts for the people in your life who love shonen.

For fans of Dragon Ball Super, My Hero Academia, Yu Yu Hakusho

$:Dragon Ball VIZBIG Vol 1

Akira Toriyama’s groundbreaking manga set the stage for modern shonen and the international megahit Dragonball Z. A more light-hearted, simpler look at Goku's adventures with Bulma as a child. The VIZBIG editions of the series offer a lot for your dollar, collecting several volumes in omnibus with plus-size pages!

$$:Kakashi Military Hoodie

Perfect for running with your arms out behind you, the Kakashi Military Hoodie is great for the Naruto fan in your life who has cold arms. This type of gear is my favorite since it can be worn casually or as lowkey cosplay and acts as a conversation starter for fellow fans.

$$$:One Punch Man

Here we have the collected edition of one of the most popular shonen anime of the past few years, including all 12 episodes and 6 OVAs. One Punch Man’s comedy-heavy take on the superhero genre and amazing fight scenes demand blu-ray quality viewing as we all wait for season 2.

Gifts for the Shojo Fan

For fans of Sailor Moon, Blue Spring Ride, Glass Mask

Do you know someone who loves nothing more than love triangles and flurries of cherry blossoms? Does the sight of magical girl transformations make their heart flutter? Well we’ve got the perfect gifts for you to buy them!

$:Sailor Moon Socks

By the power of the moon, these socks will keep your toes warm during the winter. A perfect accessory for Usagi fans and a great way of buying someone socks for the holidays without the usual accompanying disappointment. With several different patterns, no one will be able to accuse you of using the same socks every day.

$$:CardCaptor Sakura Figure

With the approach of the Clear Card arc after nearly two decades of hiatus, it’s time to start gearing back up with Cardcaptor Sakura merchandise. Although the series is known for its myriad outfits courtesy of Sakura's best friend Tomoyo, nothing look is more iconic than Sakura in her trademark rollerblades.

$$$:Revolutionary Girl Utena

A genre-defining shojo title whose influence has reached well beyond the anime fandom. Revolutionary Girl Utena broke new ground when it aired in the late ’90s, and our friends at Nozomi are giving it a gorgeous box set fit for a prince. This gift is great for diehard fans, people who you know will fall in love with the series (everyone), and the rings make it perfect for finding your own rose bride.

Gifts for the Manga Reader

“Well, the anime was pretty good, but have you read the manga?” Here are some excellent gift choices for people who have always, always read the manga before watching the anime.

For fans who are reading a ton of manga that still haven't gotten anime adaptation.

$:The Promised Neverland

Although The Promised Neverland has been running in Weekly Shonen Jump for over a year, the first volume just made it to print in the United States this month. I won't ruin the twist, but there is more to this cute-looking series than meets the eye. If I had to provide one common title to compare it to I'd maybe say... 20th Century Boys?

$$:Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

An influential manga classic, this series was written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki himself. The Ghibli movie of the same name only gave you a taste of the greater story which has been collected in this beautiful 2-volume hardback box set. A seminal work and a must-have for manga collectors.

$$$:One Piece volume 1-23 box set

One of the most popular comics in the world, for good reason. One Piece has been running strong for 20 years and just keeps getting better! A perfect balance of action, hijinks, and some of the highest emotional highs of the genre. This set contains the first 23(!!!) volumes of the series and is a great starter pack for anyone looking to build out their collection. More of a briefcase than a box set, it's even got a carrying handle.

Gifts for the Anime Newbie

Anime is more popular than ever before, which means you probably know someone who is just getting started down the rabbit hole of anime fandom. Here are some presents to help you foster the growing anime fan in your life!

For fans who are dipping their toes in

$: Crunchyroll Membership

Is there any greater gift in the entire world than a Crunchyroll Premium membership? Access to one of the largest anime libraries in the Western hemisphere ad-free and a ton of digital manga—it’s never been easier to get into anime!

$$:Ghibli Bundle - Spirited Away/Princess Mononoke

Ghibli movies are some of the most well known anime to mainstream moviegoers and are responsible for bringing in more than their fair share of dedicated fans. Most of the people I talk to today got their start with either Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away. Now it's easy and affordable to buy them together!

$$$:Your name

Speaking of anime films that made it into the mainstream, Your name has become a global phenomenon and one of the most successful anime features of all time. The opus of science fiction romanticist, Makoto Shinkai is a perfect starting point for blossoming anime fans.

Gifts for the Arthouse Buff

We all have that one friend. You know the one: that person who has an encyclopedic knowledge of anime directors and a top 10 list of shows you’ve never heard of. Well I am that friend, so these gifts are objectively good choices for the arthouse buff in your life!

For fans of Bakemonogatari, The Tatami Galaxy, Yuri Kuma Arashi

$:In This Corner of the World

I'm gonna keep talking about anime films... While it didn’t make the bang that Your name did, In This Corner of the World was one of the best anime films of the same year. A painstakingly researched historic drama five years in the making from industry legend and Santa Claus of anime Masao Maruyama, anyone who loves anime or cinema in general should see this film.

$$:Only Yesterday

Isao Takahata is often overlooked in favor of Hayao Miyazaki, but his directorial work for Ghibli is just as important! Takahata’s 1991 film is a sensitive portrait of a young woman that reaches an impressive level of realism and depth.

$$$:Mob Psycho 100 Limited Edition

From the creator of One Punch Man, Mob Psycho is the Studio BONES given free reign to go wild over the visual medium. This series reached into the far corners of the medium trying out downright experimental animation techniques. It even comes with a spoon to practice your psychic abilities!

Gifts for the Horror Lover

Halloween may be months past, but it’s never a bad time for horror! While these gifts might not be for the faint-of-heart, anyone with a fondness for all things scary will be sure to love them!

For fans of Another, Shiki, Ghost-type Pokémon

$:Happiness

From Suzo Oshimi, the author of Flowers of Evil and Inside Mari, comes a vampire manga that is as horrific as it is beautiful. Tokyo Ghoul fans will find a familiar premise taken in a much darker and introspective direction.

$$:Tomie

Junji Ito’s works are being collected into beautiful black and white hardback editions and Tomie is one of his most famous, spawning a series of live-action films. This collected edition tells the story of its eponymous character, a mysterious and monstrous beauty.

$$$:When they Cry

Spread across three seasons, When They Cry is a master class in how to do horror right in anime. Suspense and body horror both used to their fullest for the entire series run is now available in one convenient package.

Gifts for the Figure Collector

Anime figures are one of the easiest ways to show your love for a favorite character! This year has seen plenty of great new collectibles, and here are three that are sure to delight the figure fan in your life!

For fans of Figmas, Nendoroids, and everything in between

$:My Hero Academia Pop! Vinyl Figure

Everyone’s favorite heroes in training plus the symbol of Piece, All-Might, available in Funko Pop! form! Cute, affordable, and, above all else, HEROIC. PLUS ULTRA!!

$$:Breath of the Wild Link Nendoroid

The newest entry in the Legend of Zelda series was hailed by critics and fans as the game of the year when it was first released, and now this version of Link is available as a Nendoroid! Be sure it check out the store page since nendroid never skimps on customizability and accessories!

$$$:Viktor Nikiforov

Yuri’s coach is immortalized in this beautifully realized figure! Viktor’s known for always surprising his fans and your loved one opening a gift to find this figure within will be no exception. A must-have for Yuri!!! on ICE fans. There's also a Yuri version to recreate their duet.

Gifts for the Gamer

There are anime fans and there are video game fans, but what to buy those who occupy the middle segment of this particular Venn Diagram? Don’t you worry, we’ve got you covered with these gifts that are sure to put please any anime-inclined gamers!

$:Battle Chef Brigade

Recent digital release for Windows and Nintendo Switch perfect for fans of everything from Food Wars! to Avatar: The Last Airbender. This charming game combines side-scrolling combat with a novel Puzzle Fighter-like cooking system. Hunt monsters and and use their parts to win cooking battles!

$$:Persona 5

One of the greatest videogames of what has turned out to be a stacked year for gaming. Persona 5 did a rare thing by living up to its own hype, delivering one of the most stylish games in recent history, including a great story with attractive characters and fun gameplay.

$$$:Dark Souls the Board Game

It’s the Dark Souls of board games! FROM may be finished with the franchise, but you can invade your friends homes to take on dangerous bosses as a group. It’s all the soul-crushing difficulty of the game except you’ve got a team at your back.

Gifs for the Fashionable Friend

$:All-Might Socks

Your feet are fine now. Why? BECAUSE I’M HERE. AHAHAHAHAHA.

...

Anyways these All-Might socks are really good.

$$:Yuri Katsuki sweatpants

Do you know someone who wants to dress like a professional figure skater while simultaneously harboring a passion for loungewear? These Yuri Katsuki Sweatpants would make a great gift for them! Perfect for lounging around the house and eating pork cutlet bowls.

$$$:Subaru Hoodie

This hoodie is perfect for the person in your life who is willing to try and fail and try again! It’s a gift your loved ones can enjoy again and again… and again… and again...

The holidays are drawing closer but there's still plenty of time to find the perfect gift. As a self-described anime and gift-giving expert, I'm confident this list has just what you need to end the year with a bang and cause the recipients of your gifts to spontaneously start conversations with others about what a great person you are when you're not around. Until next year, good shopping, good buying, and goodbye-ing...

---

Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

0 notes

rex-shadao · 8 years ago

Text

Why “Pokémon - I Choose You!” is the Greatest Episode of the Pokémon Anime, Part I: A Leap From The 8-Bit World

Imagine yourself as a young child in April 1st, 1997, watching television in a Japanese household. A new anime is about to make its debut on the channel. It opens with a black and white Game Boy screen featuring two monsters engaging in a turn-based battle with 8-bit music and sound effects. You recognize these two, from school playgrounds and your friend’s place. They were Pocket Monsters, from the games of the same name. In fact, this is the same opening you would see in Pocket Monsters: Red Version, featuring Gengar (ゲンガー Gangar) on the left, and Nidorino (ニドリーノ Nidorino) on the right.

But just as Nidorino is about make the jump (which is when Game Boy animation fades to the title screen), the camera suddenly goes around the two monsters in a dynamic arc shot, while the small screen grows to full television size, colors begin to fill in and the 8-bit music is replaced with an orchestra.

The scene pans out, revealing the outlines of a large sporting arena and then the stadium of huge crowds cheering for the match below.

If there was ever such a perfect introduction to the world of Pokémon, this is it. The Gengar and Nidorino battle always been the classic opening for Generation I, so much that various Pokémon adaptations, such as Pokémon Adventures, Pokémon Origins and Pokémon Generations, all emulate this scene as the prologue for the Kanto stories. But none have come to the original anime’s version, which hits all the right notes to hook the audience into Pokémon. In fact, it feels as if the anime scene was a composition of those aforementioned adaptations, taking the best aspects and making them somehow even grander, despite the fact that it came first.

Adventures is a straight adaptation of the FRLG version, where Gengar and Nidorino fight in a forest.

Origins features a lively animated battle shortly after Oak’s introduction, and it takes place in the a stadium broadcasted live for Red to watch on his television screen.

Generations faithfully mimics the opening in all its 8-bit Game Boy glory, not transitioning to colorful animation until after Pikachu gets caught in a Poké Ball.

But the Pokémon anime tops them all by its three segments and then some. The first segment depicts the battle as it would have looked in the original games, the second segment literally makes the battle leap into the field of colors and animation to show us what they would have looked like in our imaginations, and the third segment gives us a world far grander than what we are accustomed to see. A world that takes Pokémon battles seriously and professionally. And it doesn’t stop there.

Immediately after that phenomenal scene, the two Pokémon continue to fight, with the stadium announcer narrating their battle for the audience. For Pokémon fans, this fight sequence is fun to watch, even if you start nitpicking about type-effectiveness and color errors. But let’s forgive that for a moment as this is the first episode and it has yet to fully establish the rules of the game. If you have no idea about Pokémon or what they can do at all, this battle explains it all in visuals, with little to no dialogue save for the announcer commentating.

At, first Nidorino and Gengar are fighting the normal fight; tackling, jabbing and dodging each other like any other animal. Gengar clearly has the upper hand with its faster speed and more nimble agility. It jumps over Nidorino, turns around and wait... what’s this...!? Is Gengar emitting a hypnosis attack?

It is! And it successfully puts Nidorino to sleep. This is our first indication that Pokémon are not just some fantastical-looking creatures. They ARE fantastical creatures, capable of using special powers beyond our real-life comprehension.

But just when it seems the battle is all over, a red beam hits Nidorino, turning the sleeping Pokémon into energy before returning back from battlefield. Now this is interesting. Are Pokémon energy-based? Why is it being recalled in this manner?

That is immediately answered with this silhouette person. Many fans will recognize him as Bruno of the Elite Four, which would make Gengar’s trainer likely to be Agatha. But you don’t need to know this person to understand the this scene. It tells us many things.

The first is that humans participate in these Pokémon matches as well, likely being coaches for their Pokémon.

The second is that this human is not your average kid trainer from the games. He is clearly an adult, shirtless and muscular, and a defiance to the idea that Pokémon is just a kid’s game for young ten-year old boys. Here, Pokémon are serious business to everyone, even the adults.

The third observation is where Nidorino went. The red beam of light retreats back into a pocket-sized ball capsule known as the Poké Ball. It is this moment where we see how Pocket Monsters got its name.

Immediately after recalling his fallen Pokémon, the trainer throws another Poké Ball on the field. This is a team effort sport, where victory depends on the Pokémon hidden within these capsules. As the Poké Ball flies on to the stage, we get to observe just how big and diverse Pokémon can really get. The Poké Ball, small enough to fit inside a human’s hand, lands and...

...unleashes Onix, a Rock Snake Pokémon. And the largest Pokémon found in Generation I, being 8.8 meters long. This is just a taste of just what kind of Pokémon are out there. Onix towers Gengar like cobra over a small mouse, and it lunges for the attack. But Gengar’s speed and agility narrowly dodges the attack, reminding viewers that size does not always matter. And as this epic battle continues, the screen pans out, revealing it to be a television broadcast being watched by a young boy from Pallet Town...

Told through visual fighting animations rather than narrative monologue, these first few minutes of “Pokémon - I Choose You!” does its job well as the Establishing Series Moment for the Pokémon anime. While the tone, stories and battles may vary across the anime’s lifespan, the core elements featured by this first Pokémon battle still remain true to this very day. Next time, we’ll be taking a look at our main protagonist, Satoshi (Ash Ketchum) from Masara (Pallet) Town .

41 notes · View notes