#for example I like to get lumineon on my team

[haveyouusedthispokemon]

Does having a Pokémon in your party count as using it on your team?

I personally only count them if I use them in battle, contests, or something of the like. So I wouldn’t count having a pokemon who just sits in the party and gains exp but doesn’t actually contribute (past moral support).

There are arguments to be made for HM/field move experts, breeding, and egg hatchers though. So ultimately, vote based on what feels most correct to you!

[elithesia-autem-danguarde]

Pokémon Month

Day 24: Raifort

Personal Opinion: Raifort is a very fun character, and I feel she’s one of the better examples of having fun with the teachers at their academy in regards to both design and personality. She’s a lot of fun to interact with and I would never be able to deny my interest in history as long as she was teaching the class.

What was kept: Raifort’s team is mostly pretty good the way it is, with five of her original six team members all getting to stay where they are without trouble. These are her Seviper, Grumpig, Zoroark, Lumineon, and Tera Gengar, who show a devious but beautiful side of the history-living teacher.

Substitutions/Replacements: With Scizor having found its place on Poppy’s team, Raifort instead comes to possess a more than a little aggressive Toedscruel, which ended up needing a place to go after it was replaced on someone else’s team. But I think it’s perfect for her, plus it offers more type diversity.

Favorite Sandwich: My chosen sandwich for Raifort is the Hamburger Patty Sandwich, which consists of of Hamburger, Onions, Watercress, Vinegar, Pepper, and Horseradish. A sandwich that holds nothing back in regards to its strong flavors and doesn’t rely much on the frivolous ingredients of the modern kitchen, which would likely make someone like Raifort very pleased.

Note: Art of Raifort made by VIKworks on Deviantart. https://www.deviantart.com/vikworks

[gorematchala]

With a little distance from the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, I feel like I can give a fair review without honeymooning it too much. My review of Pokémon Violet is that Breath of the Wild ruined video games.

My real objective stance on the game is that obviously it needed more time, but for what it is, the first run through the game is a very enjoyable experience. All the character and story stuff is really great, and this generation of Pokémon is honestly one of my favorites, and part of that is because their stats are all off the goop fucking insane. (except Spidops)

But my issue now is in the postgame. To be clear, everyone has been saying pokemon has no postgame since XY. This is a common whiny baby complaint from people who dont play other games. To date I have played 520 hours of Pokémon Shield, and almost 200 hours of PLA simply because I enjoy playing those games and hanging out with my little guys. This time around is a little different though.

The issue here is a problem with open world games that I've talked about in previous posts. Open world games are so gigantic that they cannot be curated the way a linear game can be. PLA escaped the open world curse by having multiple Monster Hunter Rise sized maps that feel like they were built more deliberately, and stay fresh for longer cuz when you get sick of one you can just move to another. There are 5 of them total. There's one big Paldea. So whats the issue with one big map vs a few little ones? Well the Paldea map is very impressive for its scale, and I do like it a lot, but the problem with big maps is that theres almost always nothing in them. They become so large that the only thing to do in them is see everything. So once you've seen everything there's nothing left to do. Pokémon held my attention for longer just by having Pokémon in the big map to find, but now that I've found them all traversing the map is tedious. And part of that is that Miraidon doesnt feel as good to control as the Noble Pokémon from PLA.

So with no map to explore, no items to find, no pokemon to track down, youre left with a few options. The Ace tournament, shiny hunting, or raids.

The Ace tournament is not difficult and it takes too long to be worth the money because you cant turn animations off. But the money would just be used to train Pokémon that I would only really need for raiding. Which we'll get to.

Shiny hunting requires too much attention because of the lack of a visual or sound effect. As a result it can be a little stressful, where in PLA I've found like actually 20 shinies in the past month, and half of them appeared behind me. I only knew they were there cuz they kept sparkling at me until I heard them. The more realistic lighting (coupled with lighting bugs) also makes telling certain shinies apart even more difficult. The other day I thought I saw a shiny Lumineon but it ended up just being the sunset turning it yellowish. And example of how games with art styles, again like PLA, are always better. The textured models of the Pokémon look really really good, but just adding scale textures and stuff in PLA and Snap was good enough as well.

So then you're left with raids. I actually like the active time raid idea, but much like my stance on open world games being inherently worse than less open world games, I think that FFXIII is the only game that ever had good ATB, and thats because in that game you can cancel the bar to use moves early. Youre not beholden to the flow of time. But its fine the raids are fun, EXCEPT, people are so unbelievably unfathomably incompetent that the raids are actually incompletable most of the time. People will bring Azumarill, or Iron Hands, or Sylveon to every single raid no matter what type the boss is. I had a group join me for a water Tera type Toxapex, a water POISON type, and our team consisted of me, two Azumarills, and a Sylveon. I went through 4 groups of people before doing it alone with computers and beating it. And thats how every single encounter has played out. But it takes so much longer solo that it isn't worth doing. This is an entire mechanic of the game that I expected to keep me playing which has now actively stopped me from playing because people online are so bad at video games.

But I wouldn't be relying on raids for content if the game didn't have to be Pokémon of the Wild. Just like I'd still be playing Elden Ring if it wasnt Breath of the Souls, and Sonic Frontiers couldve maybe focused on its plot and animations more if it didnt need to be Breath of the Sonic.

So in conclusion Pokémon Violet is a very good game that I will never replay. I'm excited for DLC to come and add more Pokémon because I do like the game and I love my Skeledirge and my Slither Wing, but I think I'm gonna mostly just keep playing PLA whenever I have a hankering for Pokémon in the future. I think for an open world game this is one of the best I've played, but I also really hope BotW2 bombs so we can get normal games out of Nintendo and Sega again

[pines-pokemon-headcanons]

(lass-alice): hey there!! just a curious trainer here. have you seen any instances of pokémon of the same type trusting each other more? is that a known thing or just coincidence? just asking because of all the sweeties on my team mimikyu and sylveon seem to get along the best.. that might just be a fairy type thing i guess?

It depends on the pokémon, actually, and what niches they fill in their ecosystems. In a single ecosystem, it makes sense for pokémon of the same type to stick together, because they tend to need the same habitats; water-types in a desert, for example, would live near one another (probably around an oasis) because they all need the same conditions to survive. However, certain water-types in other ecosystems prey on others, such as lumineon, which eat starmie. Electric rodent pokémon tend to be at odds with one another even in teams, because they both fill the same niche and eat the same food; however, most electric-types like being around one another because they can siphon electrical charge from each other. Basically, it depends on the individual pokémon.

In the case of your pokémon, however, it’s likely because of your sylveon. Eevee and their evolutions have a reputation for being friendly and getting along with almost every other pokémon; they have no natural predators and, depending on the eeveelution, can live in a variety of environments, so they are ideal companions for both humans and other pokémon. Mimikyu, meanwhile, tend to need a lot of attention and affection. As such, your mimikyu likely relies on your sylveon for those needs, since sylveon (even more so than other eeveelutions) willingly give attention and affection.