#i haven't finished Pokémon arceus yet

[lucin-kun]

I can add Emmet from Pokémon Black and White into my kinlist

[waywardstation]

Hi, I hope you’re doing good in life. I wanted to ask out of curiosity, have you completed Legends Arceus? I don’t mean just get the end credits or battling arceus, but like have you done everything that could be like completed? I know “completed” is kind of a loose definition since what can be considered completed in a game is sometimes debatable and by how the player wants to define “completed.” In my case for example in Arceus, I did the whole story: the credits, the final battle with Arceus, and the daybreak update. I also filled every Pokédex entry, got the shiny charm, did all of the side quests including the ballon mini games and the path of solitude quests, got every crafting recipe, all the Hisuian poems and I won fifty battles in a row in the eternal battle reverie and got a special mark on my trainer card from Arceus for doing that. That’s my personal criteria for completing Arceus and I was wondering if you’d done the same. Before Arceus, I had never cared about doing things like completing the Pokédex or things like the battle facilities(mainly because I suck at competitive battling and am too lazy to do things like EV train), but Arceus was the first Pokémon game where I did any of that stuff. I loved the game so much that I actually wanted to and was willing to do stuff like that. I was curious if you’d done the same since you seem to love the game as much as I do.

Hey friend!! Wow what an accomplishment!! It certainly sounds like a lot so it's fantastic that you got through all of that!!

I have not finished PLA to these standards like you have, but I am SO CLOSE!!! I've done all of the above except for two things:

-Ingo's paths of solitude

-completing the eternal battle reverie

I really struggle with Ingo's paths of solitude; THEY'RE SO HARD!!! I've been doing my best with it but it's very slow going haha, Ingo really knows his battle techniques ;o;

And the 50 battles in a row, I simply haven't done yet as I was always concerned I'd never have enough time at once to do it, and I want to get it all done at once.

BUT YES! just the same as you, I've never been motivated to ever complete any pokemon game. But I'd found myself just naturally doing it with PLA since I've enjoyed playing it so much, so I just kept going. I'm not as far as you, but I'm almost there!!

What a fun question OP, thank you!! ^^

[melonthesprigatito]

I swear, sometimes Pokémon fan is one of the most emotionally draining fandoms to be in. Literally all I said that I never finished Fire Red and Leaf Green because I thought it was a little bit boring and almost immediately I get people biting my god damn head off.

The first guy.... what do they mean by "the OGs?" They can't be talking about FRLG because they aren't the OGs, Red and Blue are. Are they lumping ALL the old games together? Do they assume that because I thought FRLG was boring that I think ALL of the OG games are boring?? That couldn't be farther from the truth.

I love Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. I've played all three. I like Crystal more than Heart Gold and Soul Silver. I haven't played Red, Blue or Yellow so I don't have an opinion on them yet. Fire Red and Leaf Green are the only Gen 1-3 games I didn't enjoy yet this guy thinks I'm some "Noob that doesn't appreciate the Classics™". That's the vibe I get from from.

Also imagine unironically saying that someone needs to get therapy just because they don't love a video game 😭

The second guy.... jumps to the wrong conclusion almost immediately. Once again, lumping the "OGs" together. And thinking that I found FRLG boring because *checks notes* I found the puzzles to be difficult???? What???? I never mentioned puzzles at all??? If you must know, I found FRLG to be boring because it's pretty grindy. No Lucky Egg (that I'm aware of) and a high level curve (Level 5- Level 65). Lots of mindless running back and forth beating wild Pokémon to level up. The story is kinda bare bones. But that's okay, it's literally a remake of the first Pokémon game, telling a story wasn't their priority yet. I got Gen 5, 7, 8 (Legends Arceus specifically) and 9 to give me good stories. Gen 3 and 4 were good too, but Gen 5 was when they REALLY started flexing their writing skills.

And another thing... I know that guy was trying to defend me, even if it was misguided but they have this real condescending tone

Finally, the last sentence of the last guy. Holy Gatekeeping, Batman! How dare I enjoy the later generations (aka the ones I grew up with) more than "The OGs!" (aka the ones they grew up with). I hate how they imply that wanting to play USUM, SwSh and Scarlet/Violet over the "OGs" is a bad thing.

They're acting like I said that FRLG is an abomination, a trash fire, worst game ever, complete garbage but I DIDN'T SAY THAT????? I didn't even say that FRLG was BAD, it's not! I just said that I didn't have motivation to finish it!

I'm freaking AUTISTIC, I don't have motivation to finish A LOT of games! It's just unfortunate that Leaf Green was the Pokémon game that got hit with that! I finished Radical Red like 4 times, and it's basically the same game as Leaf Green, but harder and with more Pokémon (and an Audino Trainer to make grinding easier.)

[whoaffle]

I got asked about Defeated By A Mere Child...

I didn't want to go and answer the asks with a huge dump of text, so I decided to post this separately to whoever is interested in reading a bit more about my reasons for being in a hiatus.

There was more than only one factor that led me to the hiatus.

First of all: time. I graduated in 2019 from Language Arts course, but back in 2021 I started another course (Game Design), and I also got a job in 2022… So for the past 1 year and a half or so, I've been not only studying again, but working too, meaning that time has become scarce… And here I need to mention that DBAMC is not my only creative project, even though it is one of the only projects I ever managed to actually "put out there in the world", I guess… But with all the games I'd like to make, all the unfinished fanfictions in my AO3 (Including the DBAMC one!), all the other comics I still want to create (fancomics and original projects), drawings I still want to make, RPG campaings I'm playing (with sessions that I owe my friends), yada yada, DBAMC has become only one of thousands of things "in line", and yet another project that I keep thinking of and wishing to some day finish. Specially because the little free time I've got, at the end of the day, always ends up being consumed by playing Baldur's Gate or watching Youtube, simply because I'm too tired to produce actual content after a whole week of work (that's modern capitalism for you)…

All that aside, there are emotional factors related to it as well. (Sad Backstory Unlocked).

Jokes apart, I lost a dear relative around the time Legends Arceus was first around, and it was a difficult period for me, meaning I found it hard to keep up with the Pokémon franchise (and any other franchises to be fair). Pokémon released Legends, the Sinnoh remake, DLCs, and in the middle of all that I was still trying to successfully incorporate the characters from SwSh into my comics... I had no time and energy to look up the new content, couldn't play the games since I don't have a Switch, and just ended up stressed abouot not knowing the new content, thinking I should be working on it to keep up with the fandom for the sake of the comics - Now, I want to clarify, I created this problem myself, in my head, on my own (as one with anxiety does). No one from my followers ever pressured me to keep up with releases or anything, but I ended up turning it into a problem in my head and couldn't tackle it in a productive manner.

The fact that now ScaVio has also launched and I still haven't even touched anything from Legends or even the SwSh DLCs should explain how much I distanced myself from the new Pokémon content ever since, in part due to bad emotional associations with the loss I experienced, but also due to not liking how GameFreak / Nintendo have been managing the development of their games recently, AND also due to simple lack of time to go after anything other than "let me take a look at the new pokémon" (Tinkaton is my favorite Fairy Type ever, just in case anyone is interested).

Thing is, I couldn't keep up with the new content, as much as I love Pokémon and as much as I love all the content up to SwSh. The fact I couldn't keep up led to my anxiety acting up (plus emotional difficulties due to personal life stuff), leading to me deciding to take a break. Lack of time in general ended up becoming the main reason why the break hasn't ended yet, unfortunately.

So, all the context aside, am I gonna get back working on DBAMC content?

The short answer is: I don't know. I want to, but I don't know if I'll manage. I do want to do it, eventually.

I still have no idea when I'll be able to work on comics again, being 100% honest. But there are two things I can tell:

First, it's not gonna happen before July 2024, because that's when I'm expecting to finish my graduation project. I'll still have to finish one or maybe more disciplines after that, but the most difficult part should be over by the middle of next year... Still, this is not a promise DBAMC will be back after I finish college. I'm just saying that it will certainly not happen before that.

Second is that, whenever I manage to get back, I have decided that I will not incorporate newer content in the comics, at least not so soon. This has to do with the reasons cited above, of course, but also has to do with all the complicated "logistics" that adding new characters to comics turned out to be (incorporating Rose and Piers was a lot harder than I expected, since I had to re-write and change already written scripts and change the order of comics and etc... I won't be able to do that again with even newer characters).

All that said, I have at least ONE good thing to say: I've been revisiting my written content in AO3, wanting to get back writing some projects, and that includes the prequel I wrote to my DBAMC comics! I've been wanting to at least publish the last two chapters so that the story can be complete! So this is something I am planning to do in January, if everything works out. :)

I understand that it's definitely not the news any old follower of the blog expected... But it's what I can do for now...

If you read everything... Wow. Thank you!

Happy new year, everyone!

[zealofchronos]

things i write !

this blog has a focus on "male character x reader" content.

my preferred reader is male reader, but i will also write for gender neutral reader as well. when it comes to nsfw content, i also have a preference on writing bottom reader. it says a lot about me but i'll leave it at that. ♡

simply put, i write mlm/nblm content.

i personally will not do:

female reader

female characters ( in a romantic context )

i hope you understand ♡

i am also a bit unsure on how to write trans reader, as i myself am not trans. i am more than willing to try however, but i do suggest you find other people who have a better understanding and are more willing to :)

i am also ok with writing mlm/nblm canon character ships, but would prefer to stick with content that includes the reader.

types of content! section a

these are some genres i will be writing here!

nsfw ( teehee. )

fluff

angst ( not as prominent, i am not too big on angst :') )

hurt/comfort

etc, i am open to a lot of things

however, there will be specific things i won't write.

strictly dark content ( some of the things i write may be on the lines of dark if it ever comes to it, but it won't be too deep and it will be tagged accordingly )

extreme kinks and/or fetishes.

y*ndere

pedophilia

beastiality

if you're unsure, please ask!

types of content ! section b

i will do my best to write the following:

short/long fics

my average writing for a one-shot styled fic will be approximately 1.8k-2k words. i haven't experimented writing longer fics yet, however, so the length for those may vary. these may take longer to write, considering i am crap at writing fics.

headcanons list

the length of headcanons will vary based on how many characters are included, the kind of headcanons and just how creative i am in general.

drabbles

shorter than an average short fic, will approximately be 500-1k words, give or take.

ramblings/brainrots

these will just be short blurbs. blorbo. mini stuff. probably a lot of it will be nsfw.

what i write for !

these are some of the things i'll write for, my fandoms basically!

genshin impact

every male chara is fair game! certain charas will be a bit tougher to write for certain content. please, feel free to ask beforehand!

honkai star rail

i'll write for most of the male characters! welt ♡♡, gepard, jing yuan ♡♡, blade, sampo, dan heng and any others.

obey me! shall we date?

all male charas are fair game! no luke ( nsfw/romantic content ) for obvious reasons.

nu:carnival

i prefer writing for dante, quincy, kuya AND eiden ( my faves! ) but am not against the others!

onmyōji

pokémon ( to a certain extent of my knowledge )

i've played legends arceus, shield, scarlet/violet!!

persona 5/royal/strikers

male charas are fair game! preferred ryuji tho, funny man.

jujutsu kaisen

nanami kento. and more of course, but i have an obsession with him, i need him...

and perhaps some others i will add soon!

requests how-to !

you now know what content i write, and the fandoms i'm apart of. you're free to request me to write according to what i've provided you here :)

first and foremost, i ask that you be as detailed as you'd like when requesting. it helps me get a better understanding of what you would like, and it will generally just help my thinking flow.

if you submit a vague idea, it will take a while longer for me to do, for obvious reasons. ^^

next, i have every right to refuse a request within my comfort. i will address it if you submit it anonymously, or send you a dm if you did not! i hope you understand when i do refuse. if you however cannot take no as an answer, i will block you.

if by chance, i somehow receive a lot of requests, i will close them accordingly! they will open again once i am done with clearing up whatever requests i need to finish! please refrain from sending in requests when i state that they are closed!

that's pretty much it for requests! i look forward to seeing what you have in mind!

[soultoken-archived]

BLOGROLL TIME !! most of these are not on the carrd blogroll linked in the pinned post, because i'm adding them there only when they are completely fixed and ready to go ( apart from the info page, because i usually need to roleplay a character for some time to understand where i want to bring them and write the bio ), but today i've been moving a bunch of blogs and taking decisions, so i figured that some of you might be interested in where to find me even if the blog isn't ready yet! some blogs are very new and some are 2019 relics - in general, if you see blogs without updated pinned posts, don't worry, they're still sideblogs of this one, i just need to update them!

most of the following blogs are sideblogs of soultoken; i eventually decided to still keep two separate dashboards for my own comfort, one where i go only when my friends' wakfu muses are awake ( risinglcgcnd ) and my scp foundation dash ( ukulclc, and its sideblogs insurgc and containprotocol ). the main blog is still specified in the list!

also, consider that there are blogs that i still haven't passed ( like tm1o, which will come, i just need to find the will to reorganize it ) and that i might still add some ( like a blog for cecil palmer, because i definitely want to roleplay him on his own separate blog. it's not already present just because i've been thinking of an url for him for two hours straight and couldn't find one ).

soultoken / canon divergent john constantine / main blog for the following codedparaiso / don't look unless you finished pokémon scavio! tapumana / canon divergent four tapus from pokémon sun&moon ecliidse / canon divergent nanu from pokémon sun&moon backstatiion / canon divergent ingo from legends: arceus truebeginnings / canon divergent, gen7 trainer red hcadquartcrs / human!verse centred skipper from madagascar crownhcart / multifandom multimuse cfjacks / handsome jack from the borderlands series derocca / paranormal investigator original character gcdhunter / monster hunter original character itchiing / monster original character

ukulclc / alto clef from the scp foundation / main blog for the following insurgc / chaos insurgency original character containprotocol / scp foundation multimuse

risinglcgcnd / tristepan from wakfu / main blog for the following coeurdeiop / wakfu multimuse

[doubleddenden]

Okay. I'm gonna do it. A full review of Scarlet and Violet where I break down everything good and bad I found with it. I'm not gonna hold back on either fronts, so there might be ranting and nitpicking and praise over the dumbest things.

If you disagree just scroll. I'm just a nobody and not worth arguing with. I'm making this, however, because we need real people's thoughts on this game since game reviewers are being paid to give it 8 or 9/10 while millions of players are pointing out the game crashing and game breaking glitches and rating as low as 3/10.

If a random nobody's opinion influences you, read on.

Now, more under the cut, and this may just be my lengthiest review yet:

I'm going to preface this by saying I have been a fan since gen 1, my first pokemon was Cyndaquil in Silver, my favorite game is Black 2, my least favorite game is BDSP, and my favorite pokemon is Corviknight. I loved pretty much every single pokemon game up until the Switch, where LGPE, base SwSh, and BDSP brought the franchise to absolute pathetic, soulless new lows- yet, Isle of Armor, Crown Tundra, and Legends Arceus renewed my love for the franchise.

That should tell you about the type of fan I am. You can trust I know what I'm talking about.

So how do I rate Scarlet and Violet? Basically I'd say that the best game in the franchise is being held back by... well, not being fucking finished. Bugs, glitches, clipping, slow downs- that's just on the programming angle btw. I still have things I dislike about it outside of those aspects.

Basically if it weren't for the glitches and if it were an actually finished game and not an over glorified beta/ desperate attempt to make that holiday cash, I could give it an easy and deserved 8 out of 10. But because of the very preventable errors that came from several companies deciding that the integrity of a game series much beloved by MILLIONS the world over was less important than lining their pockets, I have to give it a 5 until it's fixed.

That being said: I truly do enjoy the game. I really do. I think these truly could gave been my favorite games EVER if they just... just cared a little more.

Let's focus on the positives first:

The new Pokémon this gen are pretty great looking. Something I really disliked about Sword and Shield was that too many of their new Pokémon looked like canceled cartoons (Eiscue), scrapped Sly Cooper characters (Inteleon), non Pokémon like in general (Stonjourner), or just WAY TOO FUCKING HUMAN (Cinderace). Scarlet and Violet has designs that stretch across the board of being cool, cute, animal like, humanoid, and overall it's a very nice mix this go around. Even the humanoid ones look great because theyre just better designed and cool looking, and I can forgive the lack of natural or Pokémon aesthetics as long as it looks good- such as the case of Ceruledge, which looks so amazing to me despite definitely fitting in better in Megaman NT Warrior.

The starters I feel are way better than last gen and are just overall better quality than we've had in a long time- even though I didn't pick it, Skeledirge is the BEST fire starter we've had since Infernape, unless you count Hisuian Typhlosion. They're also way better balanced the likes we haven't seen since gen 4 with secondary types that actually allow them some wiggle room against their "stronger" rivals.

Not to mention the Pokémon have actual textures this go around that help make them look less plastic compared to past games. You'll see it in terms of fur or scales on some Pokémon- it's not perfect mind you, but it's a start! I think my favorite textures though are the Terrastilized textures. I LOVE Terrastilizing my Ceruledge to see that gorgeous red crystal wrap around it's ghostly blue flames.

Terrastilizing is also a pretty neat mechanic that doesn't really do too much besides change a Poke's type. I do miss some of the hyped designs of Megas and some Gmaxes, but we also didn't really need anything as complicated as those either. It works. It's not really my favorite and I'm not really a fan of silly hats, but I do like that it's pretty balanced overall.

Onto other things, let's get into the main draw: open world. Fans kept saying SwSh was open world- one Wild Area and several hallways in a very cramped and forced rail road progression do not make an open world. They said Legends Arceus was open world: a definite improvement, but you were still bound by progression to open sandboxes rather than them being a singular area.

This game is the real deal this time. Sure, levels aren't scaled with the player and you have to progress in the story to unlock certain Koraidon and Miraidon traversal abilities, but it really is a chance to do things how you want without annoying losers like Hop or Team Yell stopping you every 5 minutes to tell you you have to go left. I literally made my way to an area about level 40 to 45 while my team was around level 20 just so I could get items required to evolve my Ceruledge with just 2 badges- and I had more amazing times like this where I stumbled onto areas that were 10 to 15 levels higher than me and gave me thrilling challenges because of it.

An ice type gym leader, Grusha, actually gave me my first defeat in game in several years. Ice type. The glass cannons that go down if a feather touches them. And it was so satisfying to beat him not just by spamming A, but by actually requiring strategy and effective team work.

I encountered and CAUGHT a level 70 Terra Dragonite when I was still level 40 something, and definitely didn't have the badges to control it. But it was rewarding to just let me have a thrill like that! In SwSh, I could be 1 level shy and not be able to catch a Pokémon I can easily defeat because of its stupid system.

I think that the open world could have been done better and made more interesting, but for what it did, it did so, so fucking good. I love being hilariously unprepared for fights- it makes my victory much sweeter! I love being in areas I'm clearly not ready for and discovering weird things- I still am! And I'm in post game! I also love being presented with multiple routes I can take rather than 1 narrow hallway path- I could have gone to the Psychic gym town after getting the proper power ups for Miraidon, OR I could carefully map out and find a detour that let's me go another more accessible way.

It really does give me a sense of freedom I haven't felt from the games ever in my life like this. I sincerely hope that they don't abandon this style of world traversal, because this, I feel, is close to what I've always dreamed my ideal "BotW" Pokémon game would be. Close anyway. There's still leaps and bounds needed before I'm fully satisfied on that front, but it's a good start.

The stories in the game are also really fun and actually have effort put into them- I know I bash on SwSh a lot (and this won't be the last time because it was the last gen), but the fact they NAILED the ending and did not pull whatever tf Rose was up to was such a relief. Sure the gym challenge is pretty standard fair, but the Titan and Star stories were actually pretty neat. I genuinely thought Arven was going to be my least favorite character, but he ended up becoming one of my favorites because his motivations are very pure and understandable, and his background actually made me sympathize with him. I thought Team Star was just going to be another annoying Team Yell, but the fact that it wasn't even an evil team at all and the build up to the boss and reasonings for everything was actually very interesting and well handled- for Pokemon, anyway. And the final story? Suspenseful. I was literally on the edge of my seat. I actually cried a few times throughout Arven's story and the final one too.

And you know what? They somehow made me like an ass kissing weaker starter rival. All they had to do was sprinkle just enough yandere on Nemona to make her just a tad creepy and hilarious, and the dialogue options were GOLD. I even got attached to certain Pokémon like Miraidon, who really is just a large metal motorcycle doggo. It felt amazing watching him regain his strength and courage, and I finally care about a legendary as much as I do Nebby.

The photos of the badges are really fun, and I love that there's something for every type too. Maybe the gym leader was kinda eh, but the photos I have help keep it a memorable experience. The ending one especially had me smiling ear to ear.

As far as other things, I am glad to see they kept the move remember function from LA. It's so much simpler and easier than having to find a guy to do it for you, and that and the nicknames make sense anyway from an adventure stand point.

Another neat feature that isn't explained is the dex rewards. Not just from Jacq, but the pokedex itself will reward you for catching em all with more balls, items, etc. It's incredibly useful and motivating, and gives me a reason to capture all of those 300 Pokémon I already have

Lastly, the music- oh my god the music. Dynamic, diverse, fun! Explosive! Experimenting! I don't think there's a single track I dislike, and I still have Team Star's and the final boss battle stuck on loop in my head. The instruments sound like actual instruments this time and not just DS or 3ds holdover soundfonts like SwSh. Fuck it, I don't even like Ed Sheeran, but the song was still a lovely addition- still unclear how the lyrics fit, but it still sounded nice. Plus there's multiple fun wild pokemon themes.

And now that I've sung high praises... yep, time to absolutely tear the bitch apart. No mercy.

First, let's start with the things a patch will not fix:

Just like SwSh, a lot of things were removed.

Two options- Set and Battle Animations- were removed. I personally play with Set because I don't like having an unfair advantage, and I like the thrill of not knowing what's coming next. You could argue "lol just press B, stupid" but this is exactly the same issue that came with the forced EXP share in SwSh. "Just rotate your team" was the common phrase even by Ohmori, ignoring the bigger complaints- and although the EXP share is now somewhat balanced, I don't see how removing Set will ever benefit anyone, because now I always know what's coming next no matter what. I can't just ignore it either because my eyes do not work that way. Although I don't touch Battle Animations, I know plenty of people that like them off since battles can drag on with them on, and that's no exception here.

Although those are just two things so far, these things are just basic options in the settings menu. Now, most of Pokémon has been using the same system since around XY, with the biggest changes coming from LGPE and SwSh that bake in exp share. Moves are pretty much the same with a few exceptions, which means that the battle system is about the same too.

Why this matters is this: they *purposely* removed these features. This wasn't something just left out by accident, this was literally a purposeful choice. I can't personally see any reason this was done except to give a middle finger to certain people. I mean, SET especially. That's been a setting- not a feature, a SETTING since the gameboy days, and all it does is press B automatically on that front.

Now onto other things, they also removed a bunch of moves, abilities, and forms. Scald is now a signature move just for Volcanion instead of a convenient surf alternative. Greninja, while in the files, still has Battle Bonds, but the Ash Greninja transformation is gone. I really do not understand that because now it means the only games you can use it in are the Alola games. There's more obviously but I'd rather not list a book.

A big change was definitely the removal of actually being able to dress how we want. Disguise it as "lore appropriate" if you want, that doesn't really justify them SEVERELY limiting us to just 4 uniforms. Imo, only 1 looks good, and if you have Scarlet then you're stuck in that ATROCIOUS orange and white color scheme. Legends Arceus may not have had that much in terms of character customization besides period appropriate clothes, but there were options to experiment at the least. I'm just saying, it would have been nice to be able to mix and match and sort of defy dress code a little like Team Star does. Plus... I'm gonna be honest, I need someone to inform game freak that full length pants still exist and most of the world still has them. I hate exposed ankles and preppy shoes. It makes me look like a hipster dweeb.

As far as the rest, the "accessories" are pretty lukewarm tbh. I was expecting "accessories" to be like a hoodie underneath the uniform, some hair accessories, patches for clothes, etc, but it's really just an expanded gloves, shoes, hats, bags, and glasses option, like what SwSh had. Sure there's more on that front, like helmets, but with the four uniforms our options are still HARDLY unique.

I'm not going to forget the "most options we've ever had" for the face and hair, and honestly it still sucks. I found it very hard to find something that didn't outright make me look like a femboy or a small business lesbian. Nothing wrong if that's your vibe, but I prefer a vibe closer to the messy hair and boy options in SwSh. And don't get me wrong, it's great to be able to have all the same options girls do, but inclusion by omission isn't the way to go and more should be done on that front. Let boys wear skirts and short shorts and let girls have full length pants and boy hair cuts, and ffs let us have hair styles that aren't so... samey and plain. More eye options too, because I really do not like how our eyes look so big just to make us look even younger.

Imo the most likely reasons character customization is like this is either a time issue, a "lol its school so lore," issue they purposely set up to do less work, or they really, REALLY want to do away with CC all together and are using this as sort of a "soft" excuse to do it. "Oh, everyone hates it so they must not want it anymore lol" basically.

I have my nitpicks with the character design as well, but this is no longer about "things removed," and will be addressed in my nitpicks.

Now as for other things removed that affect actual gameplay, they removed the Shiny sparkle noise that was introduced in LA and made Shiny hunting much easier. I really don't understand this, especially considering some shinies like Cuphant and Garchomp are very hard to tell if they are shiny or not at a glance. This is doubly hard for Pokemon that are very small and hard to see without squinting. Another middle finger to fans of it? I really can't think of a reason except to artificially inflate the rarity of shinies again, and that's just shitty either way. One could argue that because of two separate teams, LA was the one that thought of it while it didn't come to the SV team- and yet the move relearning and free battle camera are exactly the same as LA. Therefore, there was a conscious decision, like Set, to remove it for reasons that are probably very stupid, dumb, and shouldn't have mattered when the jingle helped to identify one Garchomp from a shiny Garchomp and more.

Something else removed is the ability to just catch without having to initiate battle. Maybe it's just a Legends thing, but I somehow find it tedious to have to initiate battle with every single Pokémon I want to catch now. It's not entirely unforgivable, but it does slog on having to toss, battle, toss, battle instead of having to battle when you're caught.

Lastly, and definitely the biggest thing to me: the removal of the permanent TM. Sword and Shield (if I have to praise that pile of shit ONE MORE FUCKING TIME) at least had permanent TMs AND TRs that function as old 1 use TMs. The TM system they have now, imo, is just tedious. I have absolutely better luck just finding a random TM on the ground or just going by my team's natural moveset than I do actually saving up for these TMs that hardly benefit any of my team. LA had a better system of just being able to purchase the move to be tutored without the bs materials required. Plus just... it's pretty brutal when you think about it. Disgusting in others. Why tf do I need an entire bag pocket dedicated to carrying Shinx fangs, Drowzee fur, Etc? Why am I hitting these poor creatures hard enough to knock out teeth? If anything, I fucking hate that we've regressed from Gen 5's BEST contribution to the franchise. The simpler solution would have been to have TRs of any move you've seen be made into a single use TR for a reduced price OR a permanent TM for a higher price.

Let's move away from things removed. Let's just talk about things that aren't right or that i just don't like or find slightly annoying. We're not hitting bug territory yet.

Wtf is this game's obsession with SANDWICHES??? Sandwich stores, sandwich ingredients, sandwich mini game, your dragon loves sandwiches, your school sells sandwiches, your friends and teachers and NPCs talk about sandwiches so often, even the last photo in the game HAS A SANDWICH STICKER! And the thing is, there are other dishes in the game such as rice balls or ice cream- but MOTHER FUCKING SANDWICHES ARE THE END ALL BE ALL IN PALDEA! EAT SANDWICH! CONSUME SANDWICH! INTAKE THE SANDWICH!

On a mechanics note, I think the food mechanic is okay I guess, but they don't explain that you're selecting ONE SERVING and not just that many pieces of ingredients to put on the sandwich. This ends with a sandwich that's like BRICKS OF BACON BACON BACON CHORRITO BACON HAM HAM HAM BACON CHEESE CHEESE BACON CHEESE BACON. Plus, as my friend pointed out, WHY are we dropping these pieces onto the bread instead of carefully placing them? Why is an ingredient lost to the god damn void if it lands ON OUR PLATE??? Do our pokemon snatch it like untrained dogs? And the bonuses are hardly worth it in the end- least of all for wonky and very low effort animation that sometimes just doesn't work!

Speaking of picnics, I hate that they delegated the breeding mechanics to the picnic. I'm guessing GF is wanting to get away from it because they don't want to admit pokemon fuck or something, but they lay eggs, that's a thing that's been around for over 20 years at this point, and it's time to just accept it. But anyway, what's in the game sucks because of the WAITING. At least with past iterations of Nursuries, I could just ride my bike around and see the NPC make a gesture to tell me my pokemon laid an egg, and if it's taking a while, I could just leave them for a while while I fucked off to do something else for a bit. Here, you gotta make a picnic and wait for that to load, you probably should box your other 4 pokemon so they don't breed by accident (btw you don't just deposit the two you want to breed, you have to make room yourself for it), then you have to WAIT in the very small confines of your picnic table. This is so tedious and BORING. I could have hatched several eggs in the time it took to get ONE egg.

How would I fix this? JUST COPY AND PASTE THE NURSURY! They copied and pasted attacks and stuff, so they can do it. Why do we have to reinvent the god damn wheel? Just slap it in there! OR! Better yet, stream line it to have it delegated to a menu in a special box in the PC. Sort of like a battle box, but just for breeding. You could also go so far as to include incubator space for your eggs so you don't have to rearrange your team every time it's time to hatch. Put a Flame Body pokemon or something in there with it to help them hatch faster or something and to allow multiple, seamless hatches.

Moving on, the day and night cycle. I don't particularly hate the idea of in game days and nights going by faster, but I think it's just inconvenient as of right now. LA once again did it best by having the option to sleep through certain parts of the day so you don't have to wait for nightfall. Oh hey, another pointlessly removed feature.

Now for some nitpicks:

I do not like the camera. It cannot decide where tf it wants to be in battle and zooms way too close while traveling.

This game is in DESPERATE need of voice acting. There's so many cutscenes that are awkward lip flapping and especially towards the end where the gang is just talking- I almost missed some of what they said because I didn't see the text pop up.

I hate how boring most of the gym leaders are here. I was hoping for some shenanigans at least with Iono outside her gym battle but nope

The character art style in 3d particularly is okay but I'd rather us go back to less Detective Pikachu and New Snap and more LA

I don't like how most buildings and shops are just menus now instead of letting us explore little areas

I still hate this inferior trading system. Stop trying to push Pokémon Home on us and bring back in game GTS dammit, you block heads. It wasn't good in LGPE, it wasn't good in SwSh, it wasn't good in BDSP, just give us back the fucking GTS so I can stop asking random people online for help. Trying to find a Quaxly is a nightmare (I am aware of the Austin John codes, that's not a good solution and although I appreciate his efforts, an artificial solution does not work). Everyone is offering Sprigatito for Sprigatito and it's annoying. The surprise Trade is also somehow slower and more tedious.

The main character design overall just feels weird, especially the default boy that looks like someone shoved their shota fetish in. Even then, they describe the academy as a place for all ages, but we're 12? Or something? You'd think this would be the prime of all times to allow us different body types to customize or something. Theres clearly older students as well going as far as grandmas.

The weather is just irritating tbh. Why is it raining in the canyon area constantly? Why does it always rain in the central city during import cutscenes and make the game lag more? Fuck you if you want to use fire types I guess, because it rains every 5 minutes

Some of the "new" Pokémon should just be new forms. Regional variants, Paradox forms- I'm sorry but I don't care that convergent evolution is a thing, that applies to Pokémon like Tauros and Bouffalant or Heracross and Pinser- white Diglett is just white Diglett and the Paradox Donphans are just Donphans. Also, Pawmo is a useless design because it's just Pawmi but slightly taller. Stop padding your dex with bullshit to meet a quota. The designs are cool mind you, implementation is not.

The map design could use work. There's some interesting locations but most are pretty plain looking. Some sprucing up by adding palm trees at beaches, beach goers, some areas with glowing pokemon and lights, flowers- more work needs done in the future.

Gliding does not need a timer. I want to glide for long distances without falling. I really don't understand why this was added because even Braviary didn't have this issue in LA.

Perhaps the biggest nitpick I have that is ultimately of no consequence whatsoever is the choice of ending song. Don't get me wrong, I think Celestial is a decent jingle and I personally have no beef with Ed Sheeran, but what does the song have ANYTHING to do with the game? Was it "written for Pokemon" or did Pokemon just so happen to buy a song that just so happened to be finished but not published at the time? I feel like reception would have been better if it were sung by singers with actual connections to the series, like the anime openings in general, or by well known poketubers or singers in general from YouTube that need way more exposure. Instead they paid out way more for a mid singer to make a decent song that doesn't match the theme of the game at all. Like seriously, why not have a song about the past and future or something? For that matter why Ed? Why not a Spanish singer for the Spain region? It just seems pretty fake for Pokemon as a company to keep getting these random celebrities that have nothing to do or say about the series at all until they're being paid to say OMG I LOVE POKÉMON PIKACHU IS MY FAVORITE. It's disingenuous basically. If Ed were like "oh yes I like pokemon, my favorite game is Platinum and my favorite Pokémon is Lucario" or "My favorite game is Black 2 and my favorite Pokémon is Slowpoke" or something, I'd be more inclined to believe the hype, but as it stands alongside all the other celebrities, it just screams fake fan.

Anyway, back to the game, I think that covers most of what I dislike that has nothing to do with glitches or performance. There's probably more, but for now this seems enough. Reminder that I still like the game, but I'm not going to hold back on what bothers me.

And now I talk about glitches and performance. Pretty much everyone and their grandma have, but it needs to be pointed out until it's fixed.

I'm going to list everything I HAVE PERSONALLY encountered. If you somehow haven't encountered a single thing anyone else is talking about, 1. You're lying, 2. You have and just don't realize it, and 3. You're some special miracle child that needs to go buy a lotto ticket because that is highly unlikely.

Now, what I have personally encountered while playing:

Slow downs- slowdowns to the point that it takes 20 seconds to finish a jump. Slow downs to the point that I feel like I'm trying to emulate X on my laptop. Slowdowns that drag on and on to the point that it's 3x slower than it should be.

Somehow the game works better in hand held- not by a lot, but better. This tells me that they probably didn't spend a lot of time optimizing it for docked mode and literally developed it for hand held.

The world flickers. You notice it a lot for far away locations but even indie games don't have this issue. Sometimes it flickers black or it flickers blue. It's so frequent that I really am convinced that the game wasn't finished.

Wall clipping. Pokémon sometimes spawn INSIDE walls. This makes hunting a specific one annoying or avoiding them annoying, as you're hugging a cave wall to get around a Diglett and WHOA WALL SALANDIT. It's jarring to say the least and is not only immersion breaking but super, super low quality. You'll especially notice it in those tube caves around the mines. If you're not careful you're liable to fall through the entire world.

Landmass... swelling??? I really don't know how to describe it, but there's areas where I guess land doesn't load in until you're RIGHT THERE like 20 yards away, and it makes rocks, islands, and mountains feel like they're inflating right before your eyes.

Falling forever. This... idk how this happens but it's happened a few times. You fall off a mountain or into a river, and instead of landing, your animation is locked into falling. You can't open any menus btw so you can't warp away. You just have to sit there and wait or restart and lose progress.

Black screen. My friend also experienced this, and it's just when the game won't load. No indication that it's loading, no timer or bar to indicate how far along we are, and it might just not load. I waited 8 minutes for a single cutscene to load one time out of curiosity when this happened to me. My friend ended up having to quit and reload.

The eating animations just don't work sometimes

My pokemon sometimes takes on the texture of a nearby building. It'd be cool if it were intentional, but it's not.

Pokemon clipping through the floor- especially noticeable in gym fights

Sometimes my pokemon won't fight in LG mode. It's not a shiny, because I swapped to a different pokemon and suddenly it's killing and mayhem again.

The PC. Just. Yeah. Takes forever to load one box, then if you go to another it has to load that one, and if you go back it has to load that one again. It makes organizing so fucking tedious.

Picnics take forever to load

Massive stuttering, especially while capturing. Yall know that clip of Psyduck being captured and the whole background unloads and reloads? Happened to me but in a different area all together.

And of course, game crashes. I had 3, one of which was after a HEAVY slow down.

And there's more of course out there. I personally haven't done co op yet, so I'm just curious how bad that is after everything I've seen online of Dick Wigletts and models just going crazy.

As far as non game breaking performance stuff I hate:

Draw distance is still stupidly low. Higher than SwSh, but I should not be seeing grass and trees growing before my eyes.

Low frame rate for objects in the same area. I'm sure we all know about our 10fps classmates, but this also affects Pokémon that are clearly loaded in but jutting around like action figures. Windmills are especially noticeable, not winding or just having abysmally low fps when very close to them. Honestly how do you fuck up a WINDMILL? Thats SUPPOSED to spin and be visible from a distance.

Reflections. Just... Game Freak, do you not know how reflections work? Because that's not it sweeties. At all. It's especially noticeable at the very pit of Area Zero.

My Switch gets VERY hot running this game. It has no issues with BotW or XBC2. It's not a model issue because of the low draw distance, and again, those games rendered way more complex objects at a distance in comparison. I'm reminded of how SwSh apparently fucked up Roku tvs at launch. Like wow, I was actually concerned for a bit. Game Freak just does not know how to optimize.

That's about all I can think of right now but I feel like I'm forgetting something.

All I can think of is what this game could of been. It could have been my favorite next to LA and BW2 if stupid fucking rich people in suits gave a damn about the game beyond their holiday cash in.

You can observe this from various angles, but this is my take on the issues present in the game:

The game reportedly took about 3 and a half years to make, starting production close to LA according to leaks and datamines. Most of us can agree that they should probably get about 5 or 6 years per game. We know GF works with multiple teams on a project: I theorize roughly 3. Team A is for new gens, Team B is for enhancements, and Team C is more of a fuck around team for games like Arceus or remakes. That's just on the Pokémon angle, because we know they have the Gear Project and like to work on other projects despite not having the manpower- because they really thought Little Town Heroes would be bigger than Pokémon. At the very least, it doesn't appear that we had a side project to blame for detracting from the main game like LTH did to SwSh.

But I'm going on a tangent. SV and LA clearly needed more time in the oven (and I'd argue more time debugging).

However, the belief is that GF is being bullied around by TPC and Nintendo to produce a new game every year and a new gen every 3 years to keep up with everything else going on around the franchise.

TCG

Anime

Manga

Plushies

Toys

Clothes

Merch

Music videos

And way more.

Each new gen serves as the spearhead for everything else the franchise does until the next gen- which for the last 9 years as of writing this has been consistently every 3 years.

In other words, the belief is that if Game Freak has to delay, TPC and Nintendo loses a LOT of money in delaying everything else and pisses off shareholders.

I somewhat buy into this theory, but I refuse to believe the people in charge of GF are being bullied into it. It's much more likely that someone in management, producing, and directing are writing checks their teams are struggling to cash. GF has a big turnover rate, and employees have described the environment as basically not being able to move up by merit alone while promotions go to people the higher ups like personally instead.

In other words, too many "yes men" are saying "yes we can make a huge game like Legends Arceus in 3 years. Oh, we also have to release a new mainline title? Yes, we can do that! No no no, don't worry, it'll be done by then!"

And again, this is just me guessing and theorizing and I by no means have inside information. However, this seems the most likely answer to me. Imo there was a significant drop in quality from one game to the next when we hit 3d, and especially in games directed by Ohmori where there's so many corners cut, he may as well be the antithesis to a Wendy's hamburger (their motto is no cut corners, hence the square patties- get the joke? Okay moving on). He's most likely not the sole person to blame here, but rather one of many "yes men" that do not want to give their higher ups a wrong answer.

I will say that LA (directed by Iwao of USUM fame) and SV are absolutely progressive for the franchise in so many ways, but most of the community agrees that they are not living up to their potential- and the sad thing is, they're probably already planning a Let's Go Johto game (like USUM, the words Let's Go! are directly in the game and there are many gold and silver items to buy) and eventually gen 10 to come out within the next 3 years already.

I could sit here and talk about or theorize all the ways they could give themselves more time, but the reality of it is this: pokemon is a product, not your neighbor you grew up with or the mom and pop shop you go to to support them, and they are definitely not indie (hasn't been since gen 3 I'd argue but I'm willing to push as far as gen 6). New gens especially are just commercials for merch for the rest of the franchise. No matter what, the games will make about 5 times their initial investments back- it literally sold 10 million copies in Japan in the first 3 days alone. Boycots don't work because it's literally too big to fail. Seriously, I saw a guy who literally went out of his way to collect multiple copies of each game from around the world for collection purposes- that alone gave TPC about $1k probably. Not to mention scalpers.

So the best thing people can do, imo, and especially reviewers, is to grade HARSHER on the games. The only way they'll learn is if there's enough back lash- remember dexit? That's how we got 250 pokemon added back in after the initial 400. Even if you love it, point out what could be better, no matter how small, and point out every glitch you encounter. They have to do something different for the next gen, because at this point the next gen will be even buggier on the next Nintendo console.

And again, I know nobody from GF reads this, but I'll say it anyway: NOW is the time to negotiate for more time. Not 2 months before release, NOW is while gen 10 is still in development. Push for 5 years minimum, and let some other studios fill in the gaps in the mean time. I know for damn sure a Colosseum 3 or a side game in a similar vein developed by another studio would more than keep me and the super fans occupied for a while.

But. Reviewing SV as they are now... 5/10 seems fair. Listen, I love the game and I think it is super duper ambitious and fun when it works- but the glitches and performance are so distracting that it breaks my immersion. The graphics are close to being good but NEED so much polish. Even with all of my nitpicks, I would have gladly given this an 8/10 if only it were FUCKING FINISHED.

But alas, it's not. It's released and I'm more than sure some business men who couldn't give a shit about the actual game or fans are saying it's perfect, but it's not finished. Several million people basically got a glorified beta game thinking they'd patch it day 1.

That being said, and I fully acknowledge I am a pessimistic POS that assumes the worst in everything, so this is surprising coming from me: a patch is most likely coming. This is THE new gen game, meaning this is what's going to go for competitive and World tournaments. Rn there's exploits to make OKO moves like Sheer Cold have 100% accuracy and it's not due to an ability like No Gaurd. That, and it's pretty much guaranteed that they're going to add DLC to expand on the story- too much in the game is pointing to that. Nintendo also has been forced to give out refunds- pokemon seemingly being one of the few games that make them break their no refund policy, something I'm sure they're unhappy about as publisher. It is within their best interest and ours that, especially for gameplay and tournament purposes, they patch and finish on the performance end. Visuals will probably still be fucked, but even SwSh got patched eventually. This isn't a situation they can run from like LA, it's something they are probably required to fix. Hell, a sound designer from the game found out about the E4 music glitch, so I think they have to be aware.

But pessimism aside, I do want to thank the people at Game Freak that tried their best to create something incredible. Behind all the business politics and corners cut by higher ups, there are solid ideas all around, and an amazing, heart felt attempt at a story and pokemon designs once more. This is by no means directed at the assholes that inflicted crunch times or approved of releasing the game in this state mind you. Those people deserve to be fired and never allowed near the franchise again.

So yes. 5 out of 10 for now, fix the performance and it'd be an easy 8.

Hopes for the next game: I know I said that the open world was a good "start" for the franchise, but GF has this issue where every game has a mediocre but good "start" to something they hardly improve on.

Oh, the graphics in LGPE were bland but its a good start for the next game!

The Wild Area is boring and lifeless- but it's a good start for the next game!

The DLCs vastly improved on the exploration- it's a great start for the next game!

LA gave us so much freedom to explore- it's a great start for-

You see my point. SV gave a great start for open world exploration, but I just really want them to NAIL it for once. There's clearly someone on the inside that gives a shit- maybe not the higher ups, but there is someone that does. I want them to keep trying their best to improve on what we have.

That's another thing: let's try to not regress and try not to come up with another useless gimmick. I say the next gen or next game just needs to focus on improving what we have now instead of trying to come up with what comes after Terrastilizing.

Seriously, just polish the graphics, no new gimmicks, get the game working and prioritize optimization. Do what went right with SV and LA again. That's all we need.

As far as other things, maybe base the next region in Australia? Prime candidate for open world with lots and lots and LOTS of unique pokemon species. I don't want to see it for 5 years though because I want it to be rich with diverse biomes and exploration and better graphics.

And ffs just give us better character customization. This was piss poor.

And for the next game- which I sincerely hope isn't just LG Johto because I HATED LGPE- just go ahead and delay. We know you want to come out in 2 years, make it 3 instead.

Honestly just optimize SV, add updates and FREE DLC to it (seriously, they owe us), expand the story, maybe add in a couple of new quests and pokemon, do something with that unused area in the NE area of the map or add in something like the Canary Islands, or hell, past and future versions of the region we have now, and that will keep us occupied.

Just. Finish your god damn games. This is inexcusable of the world's richest franchise. Finish your fucking games. SV were so fun but they aren't finished. FINISH THE FUCKING GAME.

[mxstball]

The Presence

Friede was dead. Melony was avenged. Her new world was saved. Her homeworld was now safe to wander. Aside from Nyx and a few others, no longer did anyone in the main part of the family have to worry about their lives as they journeyed through the halls, and no longer did anyone need to enter this forsaken place.

Yet, as Melony ventured through the Ruined Kingdom's Sinnoh Region, she couldn't help but feel saddened at recent events. She remembered Friede as she used to be -- the kind and wise Creator that gave her so many chances in life. She remembered joining Friede's cause to coexist with people and Pokémon -- where Legendary was ordinary. Now, even though the cause continues through Heidi's actions, Melony couldn't help but wish Friede -- the old Friede -- was there to see it. 

She would have been so proud.

Melony ventured in her Turnback Cave and into her Distortion World. Usually, she would have been able to enter at any time, but the walk through Sinnoh felt necessary for her to remember her past. Nonetheless, through the darkness, a path of concrete and torii gates started to light its way as she ventured through. Initially, she seemed to venture aimlessly through the dark, but then she noticed something in the distance -- another set of lit gates was coming her way.

It was Hel -- her parallel self.

The two dragons met in the middle and bowed at each other as they exchanged pleasantries and recent happenings. After all, they haven't met up since before Friede's passing. They continued to walk and talk through the path.

"So, our True Form is not a Giratina at all?"

Melony shook her head. "While she is still a dragon, she does not seem to be truly a Giratina; however, it appears that she is able to obtain and… produce Giratina."

"That's fascinating. In retrospect, it would make some sense that she wouldn't be a Pokémon, all things considered. And the Arceus version of Hera, she called it… 'Helony'?"

Melony nodded. "I think it is a rather corny name, mixing our names together, but what more can one do without asking directly?"

The two laughed together. They both thought the name was a bad one, but it was funny nonetheless. 

Hel continued the conversation. "Anyway, if Hera, Heidi, and the Phenomenon--"

"--The Phenomenon?"

"Yes. That is what we call that Arceus that claims to be another version of Hera and Heidi."

"Ah. I see. Continue."

"Yes, well, if Hera, Heidi, and the Phenomenon are planning to speak with our true form together, maybe we should join them, too."

"Indeed. It would be nice at least to ensure that they do not land themselves in any trouble."

The two nodded and continued talking until they reached another area where the ground was a large, circular platform. The duo stood together as they looked around for their true form. They called it out to talk, hoping for answers.

That's when they would each sense the creature before them. It wasn't able to be seen, but its presence alone was felt all around them. The presence greeted them and asked for their request.

"We come to you for your permission." Melony answered. "The current Acting-Arceus of my world, the Shiny Latias of Hel's realm, and their Arceus companion wish to meet you. As such, we wish to have your blessing for such."

The presence pauses, but then requests to share Melony's memories. Perhaps it would be easier than asking a million questions.

"You have my permission." Melony nodded.

As Melony spoke, she had a strange feeling in her head. Although it was irritating at times, Melony had been used to the exchange by now. Not only that, but it was all over within a few seconds. Melony looked out towards the darkness, and then as the presence was busy, she turned to Hel--

--who was nowhere to be found.

"Hm? She was right there."

As the presence still processes, it tells Melony that it wished to speak to each of them separately. 

Melony nodded. "Very well."

The presence finished processing Melony's memories and spoke to Melony. It told Melony that everything that the Arceus had informed Heidi was true -- that even Melony's hypothesis that it was not a Pokémon at all was true. Still, while it was more than willing to meet them, it had a correction and a favor to make for Melony in return. After all, no blessing truly comes free.

"As you wish. What is the correction, and what is the favor?"

The correction: in its isolation, the True Form did have a separate name for itself. It wished for Melony to inform the girls of its real name:

"...Mona…?"

Yes.

"...Very well. And, as for the favor?"

…

[twinhood-2dot0]

Pokémon

Saying that Pokémon is a franchise very near and dear to my heart is a bit of an understatement. Pokémon Emerald was one of the first games I played, and the anime was probably my first anime. I'm pretty sure I've watched every Indigo League, Hoenn and XY(Z) episode, and I've played at least one of every single mainline Pokémon game. So I made a tier list because I can't think of a topic and I'm currently playing Scarlet and Violet so :P.

Get ready for some hot takes. Also, I know you won't find this interesting at all, but at this point I'm writing these more for myself so sorry :/.

S Tier

Pokemon Emerald was among my first Pokémon games along with Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen, so I look at them with extremely rose tinted lenses, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people grew up with them too so I don't think that's a very hot take. (Yes, I know it came out 2 years before I was born, but I never had a console, much less a Nintendo one, so I played the Gen 3 games in a browser. And plus, I think the remakes of Ruby and Sapphire, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are regarded as some of the best games?[citation needed].) Even so, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are still really awesome games. With Gen 1 and 2 games being very linked, with even the ability to travel to Kanto in the Johto games, RSE was sort of a soft reboot, introducing 135 new Pokémon, and very little repeats from older generations. It was also the game to introduce abilities, inherent traits to Pokémon that assist in battles or in other ways outside of battle, and separating the Special Attack and Special Defense stats completely, which had the unfortunate side effect of making transferring from Gen 1 and 2 games to Gen 3 games impossible, so they created FireRed and LeafGreen, the first generation games, remade for the GameBoy Advance, and Emerald, to introduce the rest of the Pokémon yet to be obtainable from the previous games. Emerald was basically an enhanced version of Ruby and Sapphire. A slightly different story involving both Team Aqua and Team Magma (basically, every Pokémon has an evil team, with different goals. In RSE, Team Aqua and Magma want to submerge the earth and create more land respectively), animated sprites, and the third of the Weather Trio, Rayquaza, gets a role in the main story. And the best thing from the Gen 3 games, the Pokémon.

The Gen 3 games gave us:

The cutest Pokémon ever

Some of the coolest grass types

KFC.

A pretty cute and interesting line. (Art by RoastedStix on DeviantArt. Although, I'd advise against searching up Gardevoir art. Some terrible people exist on the internet.)

Computer.

Okay, I'll refrain from flooding this post with images from just this game. But you get the point.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are the Gen 3 games remade for the 3DS, with 3D Pokémon and features added in from Gen 4-6, including, Mega Evolutions, basically beefed up cool looking fully-evolved Pokémon, like the 4th in the Sceptile line.

A Tier

Heart Gold and Soul Silver are remakes of the Gold and Silver Gen 2 games. Decent enough games, but the inclusion of walking Pokémon bumps it up significantly.

This is what I was trying to achieve when I accidentally released the Grovyle that I cried about. The Pokémon admittedly are kinda forgettable, except for Quilava who is one of my favourites.

And the level curve is terrible. I somehow didn't even evolve Quilava by the time I beat the Champion, and the Gym Leader levels are weird. Otherwise, pretty fun, along with the new features from Gen 3 and 4.

I haven't finished Legends Arceus yet because of my ancient laptop and inability to afford a Switch, but from what I played and heard and watched, looks pretty fun.

I put Black and White and its sequels in the B tier in the tier list, but I think they're A tier games. Stellar story that stands out a lot from the other pretty much cookie cutter stories, it goes over the morality of Poké Balls and owning Pokémon, and some of my favourite Pokémon. The Pokémon in Gen 5 doesn't seem to be very popular, but I love them.

These two starters are among my favourites, and picking one of them was so hard. I ended up picking Snivy in Black and Oshawott in White 2.

Huh, I just realised, the Oshawott line is one of two starter lines that go from biped to quadruped from all 27. I found a post analyzing the walking habits of every starter to predict what the Gen 9 starters would evolve into.

Ah, poor /u/RazarTuk, all your predictions were wrong.

A mole that's literally a excavation drill.

A literal Hydra with a little easter egg for people who know German numbers. Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon. (Art by SeleneEde on Deviant Art.)

Electric Zebra.

Alright uh I don't think I have the time to get into the rest so, I'll sign off with a hot take. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are not awful.

[lacefuneral]

I am guy name of Jay. See helpful playlist:

I enjoy video games (playing or watching streams/let's plays), making art (digital or traditional), taking photographs (film or digital), writing poems, voice acting, singing, colorizing black & white photos, video editing, gif making, reading books about queer history, archiving & collecting things, and running millions of sideblogs. I have a BFA w/ graphic design concentration and printmaking minor. Making art is physically painful for my body but I am trying to get back into it after long hiatus.

I am an annoying millennial and I have been on this website since 2011. I make frequent use of the block button. I enjoy reblogging images of creatures, shitposts, pastel items, old men, and such. I am an enjoyer of many things. Such as OFMD, Star Trek (TOS/TNG and a few other treks), Twin Peaks, Disco Elysium, Red Dwarf, HALYX (I run the @halyx archive!), Dune (the 1984 David Lynch film), Pokémon (mostly gen 1, PMD, and legends arceus), Animal Crossing (GC, NL, NH), Fallout (mostly NV, have played 3 & 4. Haven't finished 1 & 2 yet), Elder Scrolls (mostly Skyrim, some Oblivion, and Beyond Skyrim Bruma + the standalone Enderal game), TTRPGs (still new to the concept; I've played some one-shots and part of a DND campaign) and others. My favorite band is Tennis. I tag music I enjoy with #jay.mp3 on here.

I post music on soundcloud as Milkproxy. I also post some of them here with the #jay.midi tag.

These are the songs that are most important to me (not ranked):

I am a gay femme and exclusively T4T. Monogamous trans guys born 1993-1999 and live in Appalachia can try to court me. If they want. Just understand that I have the romantic disposition of a Victorian dandy or a skittish deer. Chaste and patient is the way to go. This blogger is romanceable.

I am also always trying to make friends in general so feel free to reach out regardless. I socialize a lot better in group settings than one-on-one but I will try! Just drop me a DM or smth, I will try to get back to you. Also feel free to invite me to Jackbox game nights, movie watch-alongs, and similar. :)

I'm disabled. I'm AuDHD (although I prefer to just call myself autistic), and have CPTSD, OCD, depression, anxiety, and severe chronic pain. I have also had two traumatic brain injuries, and this affects how I think/speak/type. I'm trying to press on though. smiles

NAVIGATION

[husbandomail-archive]

Honestly XY Megas is one of the all time Pokémon mechanics ever.I loved the fact megas was built of trust and love between the trainer and Pokémon.

I know a lot of people want them back(including me) but I don’t think they ever will unless we get a x and y remake which I would love.

I get you with the open world thing cuz I don’t people many if any open world game so sometimes my unfocused brain gets bored if I don’t have direct orders on what to do.

I don’t know if u played arcues but for me Im struggling to complete it idk why but I cuz cant lol so I hope I don’t for this game.

And yes the teams team skull and big bad guzma will all ways be favs becausw of the goofiness.HOWEVER how this was balanced out was with the Aeather paradise plot making it serious when need be and to show a more looming threats hiding underneath.

Team yell was so lazy I don’t even think they gave it more than a minutes thought.To me it was also like they wanted to replicate the vibe of team skull but failed miserably.So I hope they bring it back with this regional evil team and make them super evil again.

And with the badges thing I’m split to be honest. It does make sense for people to do it at different times seeing as they might live closer to that gym and it’s never stated to have an order(like you said with other trainers and brock)but to make it just makes the build up less important?Like I could go to the last first and takes away suspense.Idk to be fair you could do that in let’s go eevee I think?

(God my writing is everywhere lol)

I have a trainsona as well I just cant hack the children thing.it makes the game better imaginging I’m dealing with all this shit and it fun thinking of me and my Pokémon bonding lol.

I just hope the graphics are good and the world looks good instead of blocky.

Now I’m sorry for rambling lol.

I haven't finished Arceus yet either! I'm ruled by my hyperfixations, so when they switched I wasn't really able to keep playing, but now that I'm Back On Pokemon I'll probably get back to it lmao. a friend sent me a shiny Chimchar bc it was my first pokemon, so I'm really excited to have him lmao,, I've also seen plenty of spoilers by now and omg. Giratina is my favorite legendary, I Must See It Again

I get what you're saying about the gyms too! the final gym leaders always feel like strong obstacles bc you've already come so far, they're the last thing standing in your way,, I've felt that same way about the E4, since they've started letting us challenge them in any order? facing Lucian in Diamond definitely felt a lot more intense bc I HAD to fight my way through others to get to him, and I don't mind it in Unova bc it was the first time we could choose the order, but since then it's just been a lil bland imo. But maybe that's also just bc it's been constant too? I wouldn't mind alternating leagues, or being able to challenge them in any order on rematches.

speaking of evil teams and all that. I know very little will ever hit the personal level of "holy SHIT team rocket's boss is the LAST GYM LEADER," and "MY RIVAL IS THE SON OF TEAM ROCKET'S BOSS????" but. I'd love to have more of a personal relationship with the evil team? maybe a rival who gets sick of losing to you, so they join the villains? or a character like Colress, who's only with them for his own reasons and is still clearly interested in you too. again, I do adore N Harmonia, so I'm partial to his role in everything too lmao. a part of me is hoping that the professors end up involved, bc I think it would be super cool.

I do think SWSH had a lot of potential; Rose did have a point, but the story pacing was a total mess. like,, Galar's air is apparently so toxic that the poison-type Weezing gained a regional form to PURIFY the air, they could've done sooo much with the base ideas they have there.

most of this talking is just the Writer Brain I can't turn off though lmao, I love Pokemon more than basically anything and it's been a constant throughout my entire life; I'm beyond excited for these games and I can't WAIT

AND DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR RAMBLING, THAT'S MY LINE LMAO

[starblue2406]

My comment on chapter 6

@littlecarnet

Well, here goes my comment on chapter 6, just before chapter 7 Why did you post it here and up to this point? Because I barely finished the memes and only here I can comment this with memes.

About the new discovery... Well, objectively speaking, it was very good how you handled that discovery of our dear Arceus. It was not something treated with morbid curiosity but with delicacy and innocence.

I liked it a lot and it made me think about many things that I will talk about later.

Speaking more personally, the truth is that I died laughing when I read it, I'm sorry! I already have my head very contaminated with the memes that men do with that topic, and the meme above is the clear representation of that xD.

P.S. :One thing I would like to add is a question and a complaint. If Arceus was supposed to have been in it for about an hour ... That means he did "it" while the shower head was open? Because if so, that means Arceus wasted a LOT of water. And yes, I understand the context and all but, no shit Arceus! There's a state in my country that has no water and this guy just spends it stupidly on that! XD

There, that's all I had to say. Something very "XD" and out of nowhere but I had to mention that, LOL.

Oh Delia's aunt, that was one of the funniest things in the whole story in my opinion. Very cool lady and all, but she's a little too intense xd.

I got a good laugh out of seeing Delia doing her best not to be on top but it wasn't worth it, now she even convinced her to have something with that guy who saved her life.

It seems to me that this lady watches Latin soap operas every afternoon, because she is that kind of person. What's more! I could tell she asks you if you've gotten a date yet at Christmas dinners xD.

But sure, I like that even she has an important role with a personality that to me is memorable. Maybe one day I'll deign to make a fanart based on how I imagine her.

That big walk in the festival was very nice, funny to imagine Arceus insisting with Delia about what she has the gift of aura, eating delicious food and seeing that charming town. All very nice, no reyeni moments and always on the way to the main story while the characters are growing up I like! I understand that in this kind of scenes it's easy to lose the way but very good! I like that everything goes according to a great plan! >:D

God, I can't imagine Arceus' face when he realized he became what he swore to destroy. He captured a random Pokémon (a Ditto) and it will be fun and interesting to see what happens with that, I mean, seeing Arceus dealing with this will be something very entertaining and I think that will end very well.

Okay, now let's talk a little bit about Cogita. She's a love as a person and as a grandmother (?). It's nice to see how Arceus can always count on her for anything, very cute indeed. Reminds me of my Russian Empire version of the contryhuman, both are loving and trying to guide their respective loved ones, thanks to his wisdom and experience of centuries (in the case of Cogita Thousands of years)

Only my Russian Empire is more of a dad than a grandpa jsjsjs.

It gives me a lot of intrigue, truth be told. I want to know more in detail her story, I want to know more about her history with Arceus and more from her regarding her relationship with Volo (Though most likely in chapter 7 you'll answer me some of this).

My god, I haven't played the pokemon legends Arceus game, but is Volo really that dangerous? What I've seen of him in the gameplays is that to me he's just religiously obsessed with Arceus and his vision of how the world should be. I thought Arceus would see him as a nutty guy who managed to make a mess out of that madness…. But now I see that here he's more like a VERY dangerous nutcase. I'M EXCITED FOR WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT WITH THIS VILLAIN!!!….

Arceus sure is sick of him, he doesn't even want to see him anymore. I'm sure his insanity and immortality made him very irritating for this god.

Bonus: This way the meme still looks funny, the actor's face from the original meme came out just the right way for this image. LOL

[missarchivistdoodles]

Happy birthday! As a gift here’s a free pass to recommend everyone that one book/movie/game/whatever you’re dying to talk about lol

POKEMON LEGENDS ARCEUS.

I have not had this much fun with a Pokémon game in YEARS OH MY GOD.

LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT HIM GO! HE GIVES NO FUCKS!

This is the BEST DAMN POKEMON GAME. I have spent over 30 hours in it so far (in two different game files - rushed through to finish the story, then restarted to actually take my time and enjoy it), and it is SO MUCH FUN. I hope there is DLC (paid or unpaid, doesn't matter to me), and that more games are made in this vein because oh my god, it's fantastic.

Also for any HORROR FANS out there, I'm reading The Last House on Needless Street and good god is it FANTASTIC. I highly recommend you check it out! Archive 81 on Netflix is really good too, haven't finished it yet so no spoilers, but I plan on watching the last few episodes this weekend/next week sometime.

And thank you for the birthday gift, @cormorantcolors!

[carronpatrick]

Yesss, I knew you'd get them! 😂😂😂

I need to get Animal Crossing! 😭 I'm currently playing Pokémon Violet and then I'll probably go back to Arceus after. 😅 I played all the releases growing up, so I love them! I never played Sonic growing up, I tended to watch my dad play SNES games like Mario and Donkey Kong and the Disney ones.

I don't think I've been to the theater in years. 😅 But I do love the Harry Potter movies and Studio Ghibli movies a ton!

Okay, I think I know what B99 is (Brooklyn 99?) but I will admit I don't know the other two, lmao. I've been on a rewatching the Survivor seasons kick lately. 😂 But I also love like Criminal Minds and lots of KDramas.

Animmeeeeeee! 🥰 I haven't seen most of those, lmfao. I'll have to add them to my list to watch!! Except SpyxFamily, I absolutely love that one too! I love like big series like Fairy Tail and Bleach and Inuyasha, too. Also stuff like Yona of the Dawn (😭 I wish they'd finish it!) and Fruits Basket! :3

Lmfao, that's such a mood. I usually read fanfics for like Dramione or like Monsta X/Stray Kids fics. But I also loooooove to read! My favorites are Scott Westerfeld books (except the Leviathan series, I haven't tried it yet), Mortal Instruments world books, and Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters world for a more spicy read. 😂 Though, I a bookshelf almost lining one wall of my room and have so many more I wanna get. 😂😂😂😭

Cotton candy definitely fits for you! You're light and sweet and just enough that it doesn't make everyone get sick but that they can all mesh well with you and enjoy life with you! :3 I used to say I'd be a Wonderball, which was an old 90s candy they don't really make the same anymore. 😂 Cause I'm one thing on the outside and then you open me up and I've still got a surprise inside!

I have nothing really exciting or productive to say, so enjoy these 90s memes. 😂

Wait! I also have questions if ya want em! What are your top 5 (or 3, or whatever you wanna! I'm just hoping to help your work time pass quicker and get to know you more, lol.) of each : video games, movies, TV shows, anime shows, and books!

Also, a personal favorite question of mine, lmfao, if you were a candy, which would you be and why? 🤍

y'know, this is even funnier cuz we're born in the same year lmAO

Video games: I don't play much games during my childhood but sonic was one of my fave during then. and now i'm playing animal crossing, pokemon unite and untitled goose game on my switch

Movies: hmmmmm i can't think of any rn cuz i've not been to the cinema for quite some time

TV shows: god when was the last time i watched TV. I'd be interested in B99, BBT, and uhhhhh TOH is my recent wanna watch

Anime! My language! : Haikyuu!! Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Psycho Pass, Koe no Katachi, and hmmmmmmm I'd say Spy x Family!

I'll skip books cuz all i've been reading are fanfictions hshshshshshshshs

Candy hmmm.... I'd go with marshmallow or cotton candy. Idk they just popped up in my head. What would you describe me as?

[sevarix-blogs]

aaaaaah the blorbo asks for a Pokémon game of your choosing (can be either human characters or Pokémon themselves)

(i know you sent another ask but i'm gonna do this one too)

I will do this for legends of arceus! even though i haven't finished it....

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

the player character. they legit just showed up in the past and are chillin with catching pokemon. (volo is also up there)

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

every single bidoof

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

ingo

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

Palina! I like how she treated the growlithes :)

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

i haven't played enough to discover this yet

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

MELLI >:(

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

MELLI >:( he is so mean omg

[renaerys]

Hi! I've just finished binge reading all your pokemon tamerverse fics and I thought I'd drop by and tell you I'm hooked. :) I know you're not writing for that fandom at the moment, but just wanted to let you know how awesome those stories are.

Your world building is the best I've ever seen in the pokemon fandom, and while I've always been a fan of the darker, grittier style of pokemon fics, yours have completely blown the others out the water. I honestly don't know how I can read any other pokemon fics now. You have ruined me. Congrats. :)

And what an incredible and unique idea the whole tamer thing is! I've been playing BDSP recently and even though you haven't done a fic set in sinnoh (yet...?) I'm still picturing the characters as various tamer types. The tie-ins with the manga, particularly in Triumvirate, are brilliant too - the manga is imo such an underrated version of the pokemon stories and it's good to see the earlier volumes getting some love.

(Also don't even get me started on the N chapter in Clash of Crowns - I've seen everyone else's comments on it and it turns out my reaction of simultaneously bawling my eyes out and wanting more isn't that uncommon. But yeah, that chapter utterly destroyed me. I'm now trying to find fluffy ferriswheelshipping fics. Please let me know if there's any you recommend.)

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Just wanted to let you know that those fics are still very much loved. I do hope you'll return to that fandom some day, but I totally get that sometimes people just move on, so no pressure!

Have an amazing day! :)

Thank you so much for this incredible message! It is truly an honor to know that there are people enjoying those old fics to this day, and I'm glad they bring you some joy and entertainment. I'm not done with Pokémon, still working on that Hoenn fic for a certainty, and the new Legends: Arceus game really hit me hard with Pokémon fever. I know those are fics that will always be there to revisit and update at some point.