#i need pokemon to bring back characters like they did in sun moon that was so cool ugh…��.. can we do this again please……

[randomminty]

hi!! you have super pretty art. if you’re taking requests, could you draw anabel (pokemon) from sun & moon?

Th coolest ever …..

[cubic-watermelon]

My big fat Pokemon rant:

Hey there lovelies, this is going to be a long rant about my thoughts on the state of the Pokemon games.

WARNING: Personal opinion ahead, proceed with caution!

I love Pokémon, if you can't tell, I'm basically a Poké-artist at this point. So it pains me to have to do this but I can't leave these feeling inside any longer. I feel like the last genuinely good Pokemon game was either Black and White 2 or X and Y. In gen 7 (Sun and Moon) the hand holding was absurd, I remember just wanting to play the games and was interrupted several times in the beginning of the games. But I could have excused that if not for the Ultra games... they're DLC for Sun and Moon at the full price of a new game and it bothers me that they did this...

this brings us to Scarlet and Violet, the broken, unfinished first open world games of Pokémon's history. Before this, gamefreak experimented with Legends Arceus, in my opinion the best recent pokémon experience. it has a lot of flaws, like not being able to play PVP matches, the lack of breeding and proper competitive training, the graphics, textures and, some times, lag.

It looked like a Gamecube game. People kept comparing it to TLOZ BOTW and why it couldn't look like it. Is the Switch too weak? NO! the switch showed time and time again that it can handle graphically complex and beautiful games, like monster hunter and dragon's dogma. So, is the Pokemon team this incompetent? Remember pokemon Let's go eevee and pikachu? say what you will about those games but they looked polished and beautiful!

Also, you could ride your own Pokemon. But yes, not the same type of game, so I can't compare. And hey, graphics aren't important and I had so much fun with Legends, I also never encountered any glitches besides the camera going through the floor.

Sword and shield are not amazing but at least they have some polish! no major glitches, fun game play, decent graphics... where they fail is in the areas we've learned to expect from pokemon, the character pop ins, the grass growing, the textures loading and in the animation department - If a character is going to do some "complicated" animations, the screen just fades to black, sound effects play, fades back with the character in a new place... It's 2023, those "animations" are inexcusable! Also the horrible and recycled character animations:

but that alone doesn't ruin the games, it's just that Pokemon is a BILLION dollar company! You'd think they could afford good animators. But I actually like Sword and Shield so let's talk about Scarlet and Violet. Man, where do I start with this. I mean, we've all seen the glitch compilations online, but I myself have only seen the regular going through the floor ones, but that's no excuse. the character animations are better (specially during cut scenes) but nothing to write home about. What really bugs me is the amount of lag that almost makes the game unplayable to me. if they weren't ready to make an open world game, they shouldn't have. if they needed more time, they should have delayed it.

the Pokemon and overworld characters keep popping in like in the previous games but it's somehow worse(?) you'd think Mesagoza wouldn't have lag because it´s closed off and has a loading screen but you'd be wrong. the towns and the ppl in them lost their souls, you can't go in the buildings and NPCs have nothing to say. The graphics are, somehow, worst than in sword, shield and legends! (legends had those texturing problems but was still very pretty).

Sure legends isn't a real open world game, but need I remind you BOTW runs on the same hardware?

And what other Open world and semi-open world games are there for the switch with much more complex graphics and textures that run without lag?

Meanwhile Scarlet and Violet here looking like a game from the 2000s

But one thing it did right was making the Pokemon textures better.

But if that's why the games are unfinished, I don't want them.

let's talk about the new gimmick now, the tera raid battles. they´re a mess, there´s nothing else to say.

The tera Pokemon are fine and a good addition but the raids are almost unplayable. I can't tell what's going on half the time! Sometimes my Pokemon disappears or goes through the floor. Sometimes no one moves for 5 minutes, the menu is gone, you can't input commands, everyone goes invisible, the tera mon is not there and then someone died 5 times, it's all over and I did nothing! WTF!

you know what I loved and was fun? Dynamax raids! Why not just do the same but with tera mons??? I´ll never know. who the fuck made these games? The B team? Probably the Z team!

If it sounds like I'm being too harsh, it's because I love Pokemon, but I hate this. I don't want this. I really like Scar/Vio's Story and characters but I could not enjoy this game the way I wanted. It's not a money issue! give your guys more time to make games!

And to finish things off, here's what I'dd add or fix:

- Let me mass release Pokemon in boxes! GOD!!! I do a lot of breeding! I need this! Pokemon Legends had it and it didn't had breeding WTF!!! - if your'e doing an open world RPG with a leveling system, please have level scaling! it's not hard to implement! I got lost, beat the gyms in the wrong order, the games overall was a cake walk. if your afraid it'll be too hard for the little babies just have - easy - medium - hard - difficulties! that should have been in the games by now! - Give me a reason to want to replay the league and play on the tournaments! by now I have full teams of competitive level 100 mons, but the tournaments keep the "high" levels of the late game and stops scaling them, so if I want to test out my teams, I can't. Also the prizes could be actually good! like battle items or mints or ability patches. Make the tournaments hard!!!! it's post game!!! it can be hard!!!! Also throw us a bone and add old characters participating in the tournaments like in Black and White 2! - why can't I see the meal power timer screen while camping? that's just weird! I want to know how much longer I have egg power on! why can't I see it!!! makes no sense! (also if you're making a sandwich beware of the tiny earthquakes that happen during the making of the sandwich... much polish) - for the shiny hunters: Legends did it right. There's an audible queue when a shiny spawns, a visual effect and they DO NOT despawn! Meanwhile here I am looking at a group of Flabébé like:

and if you look away for 3 seconds, it's GONE!!!

also can we talk about the random balls? yes, the ones that show up sometimes when you go inside rooms or during cut-scenes:

yeah, what's up with that???

What do I want for the future of Pokemon? Finished, polished fun games please. Also Megas, but Megas are controversial, I loved them. this is a minor thing but I'd like a proper character creator. Most of the ppl playing are adults and we can only play as 10 year olds... why cant I be a middle aged man with a full beard chasing pokemon around the world to be the very best?!

I'm done ranting! I think I said everything that was on my mind. I still love Pokemon, I'm gonna keep playing this broken ass game. Feel free to agree or disagree with me, and tell me how I cherry picked my examples XD I'd genuinely love to know your opinions on all of this.

Stop defending billion dollar corporations just because they give a product you love! sometimes they need to be called out on their bullshit.

Have a good one.

[themattress]

Observation: SuMo Doomed Team Rocket

A follow-up to this post.

OK, “doomed” is hyperbole and just a way to grab your attention. By and large, what I said in the previous post still holds true. Team Rocket is still in much better shape now than in the AG/DP days where their presence in every single episode wore out the characters’ welcome. However, something needs to be said about Team Rocket in the Sun & Moon anime series when compared to the following series that is known as Pokemon Journeys internationally.

In SuMo, as I have said before, Team Rocket miraculously returned to the highest quality of characterization possible for them; the same quality they had in the Original Series when their creator Takeshi Shudo was around. They were kept in a great status quo where they lived in a secret base in Alola, constructed above Bewear’s den. They were competent villains who always got rescued by Bewear upon failing rather than getting “blasted off”, while being successful legitimate business operators to fund their operations on the side. They had routine contact with Giovanni and a budding rivalry with his secretary Matori and her own special militarized Team Rocket sub-group. They got involved with interesting storylines such as conflicts with Team Skull, infiltrating the Aether Foundation, learning to master a Z Crystal, and doing their part to assist during the crisis with Necrozma. They had wonderful, fully fleshed out Pokemon companions whom they formed a tight familial bond with: Mimikyu, Mareanie, Bewear and Stufful. In general, Alola just seemed to bring out the best in them.

Unfortunately, this ended up posing a problem when taking them into Journeys. How were the writers going to be able to top all that material in SuMo? The answer ended up being...they couldn’t. Despite some unique points like their personal criminal lair and the gaccha machine that allowed them to use any number of random Pokemon, and some recurring plot threads early on like their attempt to harness the power of Dynamax and them being stalked by a Morpeko that eventually is caught by James, the more the series went on the less Team Rocket ended up appearing, and whenever they did appear their material was dictated by what was already done in the past rather than anything new. Don’t believe me? Just look:

It just ended up feeling like after over two decades, the well of inspiration had run dry for Team Rocket. In hindsight, this was evident as soon as the gaccha machine was introduced. SuMo had set such a high bar with the bond Team Rocket developed with their Pokemon that the writers found it too daunting to try reaching or surpassing it, leading to a device that allowed Team Rocket to use different Pokemon each episode and thus not develop bonds with any of them. Morpeko was the sole exception, and sure enough it ended up feeling pretty “meh” compared to the Alola Pokemon. At the end of Journeys, which was Team Rocket’s send-off as major characters alongside Ash and Pikachu, their final battle was a blend of their Nimbasa City Subway mission and Operation Tempest, both from Best Wishes, and their final plotline was an incredibly rushed and routine “the TRio splits up but gets back together” story; so routine in fact that Journeys already pulled one earlier! Atsuhiro Tomioka had no better ideas for how to bid farewell to Team Rocket beyond these reheated leftovers.

Their final appearance certainly wasn’t horrible or anything, but it was quite disappointing, especially in how marred it was by the last-minute Team Rocket break-up plot that could have been removed entirely and nothing would feel like it was missing. Team Rocket in the anime peaked as villains in Best Wishes, then as characters in Sun & Moon. There was honestly nowhere to go but down after that, and I guess we should feel grateful they were sent off before that downward spiral could progress to the point it became offensive to their legacy. Concluding their run at the end of Journeys, which used them sparingly, was the right call.

[otnesse]

Eh, I wouldn't really say she was THAT neglected during Johto. She actually had a fairly active Pokemon Goal of her own, one that's actually comparable to Ash's in a way. Water Pokemon Master. In fact, it was also in Johto that her goal actually got quite a bit of focus, such as that Whirl Cup thing. I'm even willing to bet that, had the writers actually retained Misty for Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and Galar, they definitely would have found ways to expand upon her goal. I know I would have in their position. It's really only Brock who actually DID get shafted during Johto (At least Misty actually FOCUSED on her goal, even if few and far between. Brock's breeding goal came up EXACTLY once during Johto, and that was when he ended up returning Suzie's Vulpix to her after that breeder expo). Even IF Misty did get stale in Johto, it's only to the degree of Ash himself (and yes, Ash himself ultimately DID get stale in Johto as well. Even moreso when they failed to actually EXPLAIN his Pokemon Master goal, and if anything, they ditched the whole "win a league" thing with how his Orange Islands win apparently didn't count towards him becoming a master). Besides, having watched most of Johto during the leadup to Diamond and Pearl on Cartoon Network a few years back, I fail to see how she was even remotely neglected. If anything, I actually noticed her doing a whole LOT of stuff in that saga. Might as well also add since the complaints against Togepi in regards to Misty were alluded to in there, I NEVER considered Togepi an instance of ruining her character. Actually, come to think of it, even at her worst during Kanto, pre-Togepi I mean, she NEVER came across as nearly as violent as people make her out to be (a few times from hearing them complain about Togepi, I wonder "are you thinking of Naru Narusegawa instead?"). In fact, Misty having a motherly nature to her was actually hinted at as early as her very first appearance with her expressing concern for Pikachu, which obviously occurred long before Togepi's egg was even discovered, much less hatched. All Togepi did was expand upon it, bring it out to the forefront. Not to mention if anything, I blame those guys and their complaints against Togepi (who wasn't even MEANT to battle in the first place. For goodness sakes, you needed to boost its happiness just to have it evolve into Togetic, with battles barely even factoring into it at all, not to mention even in the games its attacks were support-level at best) for how they really overpowered Ash and even the other leads' Pokemon to basically be almost mary sues and make the Gym Leaders look downright pathetic as a result (which is in fact one of my biggest complaints about Hoenn and how they handled the gym fights there [made even worse when this happened AFTER Misty was infamously forced into the gym by her sisters, which tastelessly implied she was going to be a punching bag as a result].).

As far as the Pokemon Contests goes, the fact that they ended up dropped like a bag of potatoes once Black and White pretty much dropped the concept altogether seemed to hint they were ultimately a one-off in the short term, not to mention the fact that they literally replaced May with Dawn just to have her do essentially the same thing just indicates they really didn't think very far ahead. So, really, if anything, the girls' Contest goals actually had the girls being of less overall importance if you ask me than Misty's goal (even less so when unlike Water Pokemon Master, which theoretically CAN be done in the games by beating the Elite 4 and Champion with a pure Water team, you literally can't unlock the ending by just doing Pokemon Contests in RSE or DPP). At least no one replaced Misty's goal when she left. Probably the closest we've gotten to an actual replacement is probably Lana, and she technically wasn't even a trainer yet due to Sun and Moon revamping the whole narrative style to essentially be a school series.

I definitely agree with you on ONE thing, though: Misty definitely was a massively beloved character, period. She wouldn't have gotten third place on that 20th anniversary poll leading up to the 20th pokemon movie if she wasn't (literally being beaten out by Brock and Serena, and I suspect the latter was more due to her being the then-most recent traveling companion, not counting the Sun & Moon cast.).

I notice a lot of people don't really care for Misty during Johto, claiming she "lost a lot of personality" or "Togepi kept her in the sidelines." How do you feel about that? Granted when Misty does get an ep in Johto centered around her it's usually good, but in a lot of the regular Johto fillers she's pretty inactive while Ash and the Johto filler characters get the focus. Misty/Brock were kinda sidelined just commenting on whatever Ash was doing in the episode. Do you feel she was neglected?

I think that a lot of people compare Misty to the other female companions, which if that's the case, then yes she absolutely feels neglected. But that was a very different era of the anime, where Ash was really the only one actively working towards a goal. Misty and Brock were gym leaders on a break, and their main purpose was to be support for Ash. By the time we made it to AG, contests were introduced, and then performances, so May, Dawn, and Serena all had their own goals. Even in Alola, the girls each had their own little subplots, as did Chloe in Journeys, even if hers was arguably the weakest of the bunch.

Misty was never really meant to get the same kind of attention, unfortunately. I find that a lot of the Misty-centric episodes are some of my favorites, however. She's a really interesting character and, in my opinion, has one of the most interesting backstories of all of Ash's friends. I think that goes to show that even without a specific goal, or receiving as much attention as Ash or the girls who came after her, Misty was loved by the anime staff and they did put care into her as a character.

[ayoalex]

No one asked but head canon that I have for some of the characters that shouldn't be a thing and I hope it never becomes canon.

Ruby:

- She's just a lamp at this point, it's good for practice tho

- Absolutely tried to adopted a Beowolf at one point in V4/V5 until Qrow made her stop.

- She can cook... Kinda she just know the basics. The only thing she knows to bake is cookies, like that's it.

- She listen to rock but her favorite band is One Direction.

- She may have cut herself way to many times while cleaning or maintaining Crescent Rose, she's still sad she didn't even got a cool scar put of it because of her aura.

- She once tried to cut her own hair in V4 and then gave up and just decided to wait till some actual decent hairdresser could do it for her.

- She doesn't know how to pronounce correctly some stuffs so she just call them "thingy"

- Tried to dyed her hair all red like Gerard Way... Yang didn't let her touch any hair products for 5y.

Weiss:

- Doesn't know how to drive a bicycle and at this point of her life she's just afraid of asking.

- "I don't cook, I don't clean"

- Later Yang taught her how to clean, so at least the dorm isn't as much of a disaster.

- "Yes I have a scar in my eye, no I'm not blind"

- The only fiction book she actually read was Sailor Moon manga and that's why she uses combat skirts.

- Her favorite character is Sailor Venus

- Ruby once showed her the anime and she just cried, cuz "goddamit there's way to many episodes Ruby".

- She fights everyone just for shit and giggles, she just enjoy the drama.

- She knows how to play the kazoo for some strange reason.

Blake:

- She will never tell anyone but she onced read an hentai by accident at the age of 12 and since then she has a phobia of tentacles.

- Is a bad influence... Specially to Ruby.

- She once skipped an entire day of classes because she was sleepy, Weiss was really mad at her.

- "Men, I wish I had the money to buy that" Proceeds to hack the system so the company sends her shit for free

- Yang has to tell her she can't just continue doing illegal shits now that's she's at school and out of the White Fang.

- Sometimes she just look directly at Weiss eyes and just break some shits to make her upset.

- "Blake, isn't your abdomen too exposed on battle?" "I want them to know I'm hotter than them Illia"

- "High boots? Check. Skinny pants? Check. Fat ass? Check. Ok I'm ready to fuck shit up"

Yang:

- She loves every type of music but she only knows how to twerk with classic music.

- Knows every word of "Bet on it".

- Used to watch Turtle Ninjas and Michelangelo is her favorite.

- The hot lesbian weeb, geek, nerd and jock everyone loves.

- For some reason she knows ton shit of History and Philosophy.

- She once made an essay about High School Musical named "Sharpay Evans was the real victim."

- She is a fanatic of car/bike video games like Need for Speed, etc

- Absolutely loves GTA and she used to play with Velvet and Blake all the time in Beacon

- She and Nora once went outside on a stormy day to see if by Nora activating her semblance she could electrocuted Yang so she could activate her own semblance... It strangely worked.

- She can't really cook but she's an amazing baker... Tho she only bakes on Ruby's birthday

- She has a whole archives of blueprint of some motors, cars, bikes, weapons, etc.

- Yang and Blake just used to go to clubs or bars to bet money on some dudes in pool and blackjack knowing damn well Blake was an expert on both.

- Yang knows different instruments, her favorite song to play is the Wii Sports song

Jaune:

- He loves romantic movies, The Notebook always makes him cry

- He learned to play guitar to impress girls to make him look like a tough guy, now he just play acoustic covers of Britney Spears discography.

- Circus is a personal favorite of him.

- He knows how to dance, used to do ballet with his sisters and once a boyfriend of one of his sisters taught him hiphop

- Has a teddy bear that he brings everywhere with him.

Nora:

- Fav food is pancakes but she absolutely loves eating pizza

- She always gives strange ideas to Yang since she knows Yang is a closet nerd and geek.

- She saw Pokemon once and since then have tried to imitate Pikachu attacks.

- Power Ranger is her shit.

- Hot girl shit

- If Ruby is a lamp, then she's a charger.

Ren:

- He did tried to dyed his hair pink but didn't like the result so decided for just a part of his hair pink.

- Everyone things he's the normal one of the group until you listen to him in a deep discussion with Weiss about Sailor Moon.

- Him and Blake casually bond once because of tea and now they just recommend each other new teas they have tried.

- He absolutely loves cartoons, Samurai Jack is one of his fav.

- The emo kid that is also a sunshine.

Oscar:

- "I cook and I clean"

- He just think Yang is cool and it doesn't matter how much Weiss tries to make him stop thinking that Ruby just tells some cool story about Yang.

- "Sir, they are my found family, can you please take me back to them?"

- Loves talking with Blake, she's always giving him books recommendations and she's one of the few that don't strictly treat him like a kid.

- He tried playing video games with Ruby... Let just say he prefers spending time with Ren now.

- Knows every word of Short King Anthem, he sings the chorus while Weiss and Nora rap the other 2 verses.

- He watch Love Island religiously and even has the game in his scroll.

Bonus:

- Sun made a GC with only Illia and Yang on it so they could talk about Blake but he forgot they don't have international communications anymore.

- Coco and Yang and Blake used to go to the same gay bar.

- Summer used to curse when playing video games with Qrow and one day Ruby heard her. Since Ruby could barely talk she didn't cared until at dinner Ruby said "Fuck" In her tiny baby voice and that's the first word Ruby said... Also Qrow was banned of playing video games with the girls in the same room because Summer blamed him.

- Phyrra was a musical fanatic that she and Yang just watched a musical every Sunday.

[punz4lyfe]

Did I wake myself too early for this episode?

Yes. Yes, I did, but you know what? WORTH IT.

This entire episode from beginning to end was an absolute joy to watch. For every frame, I had the most dorky smile painted on my face that grew with each pure moment of this episode. Honestly speaking, this is probably my favorite episode of Journeys, just barely beating the Korrina and Riolu Egg episodes by a small margin. And now let’s go into my thoughts for this one:

1. It was a nice touch to showcase Goh’s introverted nature when in a new area that Ash himself is already well familiar with. He shows this Kukui, Burnet, Ash’s Pokemon, and all of Ash’s classmates. Heck, this nature is also showcased through Raboot and Sobble as well. Again, nice touch, especially since it’s been a while since this particular character trait has been focused on.

2. Kukui and Burnet’s baby. Kukui and Burnet’s baby!! First of, his name, Lei, is ADORABLE. Secondly, how loving he already was of Ash and Pikachu was just beyond pure. #AlolaSibsForever

3. I’ve said this already is many, MANY past posts, but Ash and Pikachu reuniting with Rowlet, Lycanroc, Incineroar, and Melmetal was absolutely heartwarming. From how they instantly went in for a hug to their expressions once they’re all together; beautiful. Positively beautiful. You can just feel the love! Oh, and it was kinda cute on how they instantly attached to Goh when they met him.

4. Bewear, Stufful, Mimikyu, Mareanie! Don’t walk off-frame now! We missed you all too!!

5. Lana meeting Goh via fishing line was a very nice callback to how Ash met her in the Sun and Moon series. More props to these nice touches.

6. Ash reuniting with Rotom Dex was amazing, especially his reaction to Rotom Phone like many of us were expecting.

7. The battle between Goh and Kiawe was an absolute curbstomp like we anticipated, but hey, awesome to see a Z-Move again! And Goh did not pull some kind plot-induced win this time like he did for the Karate Master and Flygon. Thank Arceus.

8. OMG the Lillie and Gladion moment!! Many of us thought their appearances would just be dumbed down to a flashback, but no! They had an actual scene to themselves showing us how they’re doing on their search for Mohn! I absolutely live for this and I hope we get more moments of this later on. (maybe their own little mini series hopefully please writers gimme more of this i need it)

While I adore this episode with my entire heart, there are a few problems I have with it, albeit, relatively minor ones that can honestly be summed down into nitpicks:

1. Ash’s Champion title was never mentioned. Like, at all. You would think it’d be a big deal because, well, y’know, Ash is the very first one. With Kiawe challenging Goh to find out if he’s worthy of being Ash’s friend, it would’ve been a great opportunity to at least slide that fact in, setting up the huge gap of experience between Ash and Goh which would then motivate Goh to improve on himself after he loses the battle. Oh well, maybe next time. (Title Defense episode maybeeeee?????)

2. I feel like there could’ve been more done with Ash’s Pokemon, both current and from Alola. As I’ve said in my predictions, since Ash bringing his entire current roster was leaked, I was anticipating some kind of cute greeting session between them and his Alola roster, especially since it could’ve been a nice 4-4 sort of thing. I’m not kidding when I say the picture above is the only frame of Ash’s Pokemon from both sides together, let alone Ash’s current roster appearing. Overall, I just feel there was some kind of missed opportunity with this.

3. While many loving faces obviously returned, there were also some strangely absent. Samson Oak, Kiawe’s Charizard, Burnet’s Munchlax, and even Lusamine in Lillie and Gladion’s moment.

4. I know there will likely be more Alola focused episodes, but I feel Goh could’ve caught at least one or two more mons in this episode. Just catching two, especially with all what Alola can bring in mind, just feels too small for him.

5. This kinda goes back to point 3, but WHERE’S TAPU KOKO?????? The dude is basically Ash’s second Alola father, so WHY AREN’T WE SEEING HIM GREET HIS TWO SONS????

6. I honestly feel Ash could’ve given a slight mention of Naganadel and Nebby instead of having the two completely forgotten about the entire episode, but hey, I’m sure we’ll see them again in future spisodes.

Again, these are just nitpicks on my part, and even with them in mind, I still adore this episode to a very over excessive amount. Fans of the Sun and Moon series will definitely get a huge kick out of this like I had, so if you haven’t seen it for yourself, please do! Okay back to sleep.

[game-boy-pocket]

Well, now that they're all finally out... my feelings on each of the new Smash Bros characters is this.

Inkling was inevitable. But that doesn't mean I wasn't thrilled to see them. Splatoon is a great new IP, though I personally worry about how similar the games seem to be 3 main entries in, but that's nothing to do with Smash. Fun to play but hard to learn. A- ( the minus is for no Octo alt ).

Ridley felt like he should have been inevitable, but was fighting against some pretty strong biases. But he finally made it and i'm very happy. I do think he could have been a tad bit bigger though. Even if they had to slow him down a bit. A

Simon very happy with this character, and honestly surprised he didn't get in sooner. Castlevania may not be as strongly associated with Nintendo as it used to be, but it's one of the first games that come to mind when you think of the NES as well as the SNES. He was in a TV show with Megaman and Pit for goodness sake. And I enjoy using him. A- ( minus is only for no chronicles alt )

Richter was a cool addition, if there was one other Belmnot to be added, i'm glad it's him... but I am more of a Simon guy. Side note, I wish they took the echo fighter character a little further. It seemed like branding clones as echo fighters is all it took to make people more accepting of the idea, only for them to just stop short of three or four new ones, and not even include super obvious ones like Shadow the Hedgehog or Blood Falcon. Anyway A- ( minus is for no symphony of the night alt )

King K. Rool being revealed was one of my top five Smash moments. Donkey Kong is not a neglected Nintendo franchise. But it has undergone some changes that long time fans don't care for, including the removal of the main antagonist, this guy, who has a gigantic personality. He's a very fun character and it's so good to see him come back ( pls appear in the next DK game pls pls pls ) He also happens to be very fun to play as. A++

Isabelle is where Smash reveals kind of started to lose me a bit. Animal crossing is a big series and all but I really felt like the one villager is all the game really needed to properly represent the entire series. You don't need a lot for Animal crossing. And the fact that Isabelle was a relatively new character, who seemingly snatched the role of series mascot from Tom Nook, well it kind of rubbed me a little wrong. She seemed unnecesary... but she is actually more fun to play as than villager, and she's cute. So I don't totally hate her. B

Incineroar was a poor way to end the base game lineup for me. Pokemon just isn't a very respectible series anymore in my eyes and Sun/Moon was the first game in the series that I found too boring to finish. Pokemon just doesn't excite me, and with each new announcement, I'm becoming actively disgusted by it. I would have loved a wrestler character in the game, but the fact that it had to be a pokemon kind sullied it for me. Yeah, I just can't pretend to like this inclusion even if it is a huge Nintendo IP. C-

Dark Samus is a character I am kind of indifferent too. I didn't think we needed her, but I think she's a cool addition to the game. A bit of a waste to make her an echo though, her abilities are very different from Samus in the games if I remember right, I honestly don't remember much of Metroid Prime besides the first one. Still, she's cool. B+

Daisy is an oddball for me. I know she is in Super Mario Land, but her main identity comes from the Mario Spinoff games, and I just don't play those games. They don't appeal to me. I like Mario platformers. And to me, if a character is in spinoffs almost exclusively, they don't count as core Mario cast members. And frankly it's a little odd to me that she's plucking turnips and summoning Toads. The citizens of Sarasaland are not Toads. And she wasn't in Mario 2... but she's not hurting anything I guess so B+, needed "Hi i'm Daisy" taunt.

Chrom is a Fire Emblem Lord alright. He's also an echo. So I don't care. C

Piranha Plant honestly felt like a little bit of an insult to me. I've always hated when Mario games start featuring low level mooks without names as playable characters in the Mario spinoffs while ignoring the likes of Wart, Tatanga, E. Gadd, or th extended DK/Wario cast or RPG characters. It's part of why I don't care about Mario spinoffs. That being said... it is, at the very least, extremely fun to play as. B-

Joker may very well be the most out of place character in this series. He's certainly one of them. Maybe I would feel different if I played Persona, but I don't. So to me he's like the worst thing they added to this game. D-

Hero felt like he should have been in Smash Bros before cloud did. Dragon Quest may not be as popular in the west as it should be. But it's definitely the most important and influential JRPG to the history of video games... that being said, I wish the DQ3 hero was the default costume. I really enjoy playing as him. A+

Banjo and Kazooie finally getting in is without a doubt my favorite moment in Smash History. Not even Sonic got me as hyped as they did. I wish there was a way to make younger fans see this character the way us old timers do without seeming like we're trying to force them to like him, but it is what it is. I love these guys and they're my most played character. A+++

Terry is a character i'm not familiar with. He just kind of looks like a bootleg Ken to me. I think they could have picked a better SNK rep. Metal Slug would have been nice, shooters are sorely under represented in Smash. Do we have anybody besides Samus representing shooters? And she barely qualifies. C

Byleth is a Fire Emblem Lord alright. But you know what, they're honestly the only FE character that feels like they're representing the gameplay of Fire Emblem particularly well while the others were just kind of generic sword slingers... that being said... was this the best way to end fighter pass 1? B-

Minmin was not a character on my Radar. I thought it would have been Springman or no Arms character at all... I am just happy ARMS made it in at all... but really, it should have been base game content. If only to support the new IP. A-

Steve was a character I was opposed to at first. I saw him as a rival to Banjo. And I also saw Minecraft as a dumb zoomer game. A joke. But people made compelling arguments for the importance of minecraft, how successful it is, I actually downloaded Minecraft on my Switch, played it, had a relaxing time, I still play it, and I was actually able to play with my friends who don't own Nintendo consoles. It has cross play. The cross play is really what won me over as it being really cool to have in Smash, as it really brought me together with friends. Steve is tough to use, but great fun, as long as it's against a computer. I can't fight humans for shit, hah. A- ( the minus is for that cursed short enderman alt )

Sephiroth rubbed me the wrong way. Another Final Fantasy character wouldn't have been so bad, but did it have to be another FFVI character??? Couldn't it have been something from before FF made the jump to total steampunk/sci-fi to better represent the series roots? He's fun to use but idk, I just take no joy in him... at least we got more FF music I guess. C-

Pyra/Mythra is a character I have zero opinion on. B ( for booba )

Kazuya is not a character i'm familiar with, and if there had to be another fighting game character, one from Namco, I feel like Soul Calibur should have been it. Bring the Link crossover back around. It seems Tekken has no presence on Nintendo as well... but whatever. I have no strong feelings. He's fun to combo with but I suck as him. B-

Sora makes me sad. I don't dislike Sora. He has a fun design. I like the idea of Kingdom Hearts... I just think the story of those games is very weird and dumb and confusing, so the games themselves are kind of overrated. I really think people only like it for the pretty character models and intricate costumes. I thought people liked it for the Disney stuff but I'm suprised to hear most KH fans seem to want more FF stuff and less Disney stuff??? The only thing that makes the game unique??? Should be dialed back??? That being said... I don't like Disney. It is an evil company. And Disney getting in bed with Nintendo makes me very anxious. D

[hayleyb100]

Light My Way, Part 6

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 the end

⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️   -It is a twisted story of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and a crossover of Pokemon SM and SWSH. -It features Hau and Kabu as the main characters. -Extremely angsty. -Everything is headcanon. -It isn’t spoiler-free.

"Oh my gosh, he is adorable!"

"He certainly is! Hi, precious!"

Hau was stunned to see two strangers waving hands with a smile. Kabu discussed with the psychologist, and she said Hau seemed well enough to introduce new people. So Kabu ended the cocooning period and introduced his most trustable people, Milo and Nessa. He pleaded in prior to keep some distance and wait for Hau to come to them since he isn't fully trusting of strangers. Milo and Nessa agreed, not knowing Hau would be such a lovely darling.

The Grass and Water Gym Leader had to pull back with all their might from the temptation to squeeze hug the bean, upon Hau hiding behind Kabu from a fright. He hid and gazed up upon a beefy farmer and dazzling model. Kabu didn't tell them the whole story happened to Hau in Alola, as he didn't want them to pity his new boy.

"Now, now, remember what we promised?" Kabu smiled and restrained them from patting and squeeze hugging Hau.

As they planned over the phone, they sat in a circle and had teatime, sending a message to Hau that there are other strangers than Kabu who are safe. Hau peeked under the dining table to watch Nessa and Milo in turns, observing their every movement. They kept talking about the Gym Battles and Strategies, giving Hau time to adjust to them.

The way two Gym Leaders talk to Kabu friendly made Hau curious about them. He hesitantly and slowly approached.

He gazed at the two visitors with wondering eyes, and Milo and Nessa replied with smiles. When Hau approached Milo and clung onto his knee, he gave Hau gentle pats.

"Aw, not fair! How is he already more friendly to you?" when Nessa pouted, Kabu gave out a hearty laugh.

"Well, maybe he is feeling the big brother vibe."

Milo cuddles Hau in his arms, after getting a certain comfy expression. It felt cozy and safe.

"Aw, you are so cute." Milo wore another grin, and Hau followed. Kabu was so relieved. On the other hand, he was upset with others who made such a bright boy so dull.

"By the way... Is that your towel around his neck?" Nessa pointed at the towel around Hau's neck, which Kabu gave him to insulate. So many challengers in Kabu's Gym uses Max Geyser to make rain, making Kabu need for insulation which was the towel. Galar's temperature might be too cold for Hau who is from warm Alola. Plus, wearing the same towel as Kabu was a comfort to Hau. But it was too big that it constantly slid off.

"Yes, it is."

"Pfft, it's falling off! Let me fix that."

Nessa grabbed the towel and tied it prettily into a bow, just like a muffler around Hau's neck.

"There. It wouldn't slide off and insulate him much better!"

"Wow, you certainly are someone who knows fashion!" Milo smiled, as Hau was 10 times cuter.

"It looks much better. Thank you, Nessa."

"No problem!"

They all beamed, as Hau looked happy with a new muffler as well."Here, let me show you how to tie hair. His hair looks quite messy."

Nessa grabbed her spare hairband and hair clips from her handbag and tied back Hau's hair prettily.

"Oh, my. Hau looks much better like that. You should teach me how to do that."

Kabu looked with amazing eyes.

"Sure, Mr. Kabu!" Nessa nodded. Hau felt much more comfortable around such delightful atmosphere.

_________________________________

After finishing off the physical therapy to heal the aftermath of cold sleep, Milo invited Hau over to Turffield under Kabu's supervision. He said he wanted to give a surprise gift as well, for withstanding and finishing off the difficult physical therapy. Hau was amazed at gigantic Corviknight and Flying Taxi, and even more surprised at such a peaceful town. He sniffed the scent from grass fields and farms.

Milo was waiting for them, getting ready for farm work.

"You are suggesting Hau work on the farm?" Kabu's face was filled with immediate worries.

"Not the major works like plowing, of course!" Milo smiled.

"But I was thinking if he moves around the farm and play with pokemons, it would help him recover more!"

Milo persuaded, and Kabu accepted it.

Hau was looking at the two of them puzzled. Milo leads the two of them to his farm. Fluffy Wooloos rolled towards them, meeping and baaing.

"Would you like to pat them, Hau? They are very gentle."

Hau worked up his courage to pat one of the Wooloo. It was much easier since it was a pokemon. The Wooloo meeped happily, making Hau smile brighter.

"So cute..."

Kabu was thrilled to hear Hau's voice. Milo smiled along.

Together, the three of them fed Wooloos and played with them. Milo also showed him around the vegetable fields and gave him a freshly picked Pecha Berry to eat. He put the hat on Hau and gave him a ride on his shoulder too, like a big brother. Kabu was overjoyed to see his little boy bright as ever.

"Now, ready for your surprise?" Milo smiled at Hau, and he nodded.

"Ta-da!" Milo showed a cute little pokemon, who smelled sweet like an apple pie and wearing a bowtie on his neck.

Hau stood there with round eyes, doesn't know what to do.

"This pokemon is called an Appletun! I trust that you needed a friendly companion too since you're old enough to keep one."

"Tun!" Appletun wiggles its legs joyfully, to say hello to Hau.

Hau looked back to Kabu, and he nodded to approve. Kabu also thought a pokemon would help Hau dealing with his stress.

Hau carefully grabbed a hold of his first pokemon, which he never had a chance to get in Alola. Appletun nuzzled on Hau, rubbing on his sweet scent on his new master. Hau was chuffed to have a new partner.

"Thank you so much, Brother Milo..."

"Would you like to name him, Hau?" Kabu asked. Hau thought for a few moments but decided fairly quickly.

"Maybe... Lolli. since he smells sweet like a lollipop."

_____________________________________

"Hey, you made it! And with a cute pokemon too!"

Nessa welcomed Hau to Hulbury Town. Hau felt home, as it was near the beach. After looking at Hau getting so much better with Milo at Turffield Town, Kabu realized he should take him to different places to show him beautiful sceneries.

Nessa took Hau and Kabu to the boat and sailed towards the deep blue ocean. Hau felt the spray of water on his hand and warm sunshine on his face. Lolli was by his side too, enjoying the time. As Nessa showed Hau around the ocean and him happy, she smiled and whistled. With that, water pokemons swam towards the boat. Milotic nuzzled Hau and he giggled.

"Wow... You can call upon water pokemons?" Hau glittered his eyes.

"Most of them! I have been living in this town since so long ago, that I became friends with the pokemons!"

"So you are a mermaid, like Tapu Fini..." Hau smiled innocently, and Nessa blushes from the compliment.

"Aw shucks! You're making me blush. I wish I have a little bro like you!" Nessa beamed from ear to ear, as she cuddled the little boy. Kabu smiled along on the background.

_________________________________

As time passed, Milo and Nessa became great siblings to Hau. They regularly came to play with him and invited him over to their town and showed him around. Milo taught Hau how to catch a pokemon, and he helped Hau catch a Milcery near his village. Hau later evolved her to Alcremie using the clover sweet from cafe owner of Motorstocke, and named her Poppy, from lollipop as well. Milo also didn't forget to bring farm-fresh fruits and veggies to give Hau. Nessa bragged to her rival Sonia about having a little brother she could love. Lolli and Poppy too had fun with Hau outside the garden with camping toys Kabu taught how to use. With all that, Hau not only recovered physically but mentally as well. With his body getting better, he brightened up more and more.

But behind all that, was Kabu's hard work above all. Even when Hau made mistakes during the time when his body was recovering, he embraced it and encouraged him. When Hau was going through a painful process of physical therapy, he held his hand close and made him feel safe. He held Hau close when they go to sleep so that he doesn't get a nightmare about what happened back in Alola.

Kabu and Hau were bonding slowly as a family.

_____________________________________

"Aw, he is such a bean!" the Gym Trainer exclaimed, as Kabu introduced Hau to them.

"G, good afternoon..." Hau shyly greeted, which made Kabu upbeat. He was proud of how far Hau came, as he is talking to people without pleading.

"I am fostering him at the moment, so please be nice." Kabu requested, and one of the Gym Trainer immediately went on to another question.

"So, will he take over your title as the Gym Leader?"

Hau's face became stiff almost instantly. He did not know exactly what Gym Leader is, but considering all the trainers following Kabu and the gigantic stadium, it should be similar or even heavier duty than Kahuna. Hau's heart started to weigh down again. He thought he ran away from the pressure, but here he was again. And thinking back to all the turmoils he has been through with his family, he was desperate not to let it happen again. He didn't want to lose the joy he barely got.

"Now, now. Do not pressure the boy." Kabu frowned, but Hau couldn't hear it.

He decided. He decided not to fight his destiny. He pledged to become who others want him to be, thinking that would keep Kabu safe. He never want to repeat the same thing that happened to Tutu.

[atlas-the-worldbuilder]

Final thoughts on Pokemon Sword/Shield

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

The Story & Characters

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

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

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

The GamePlay

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

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

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

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

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

What Do I hope for the Future?

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

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

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

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

Let Bede defeat Oleana.  Give my boy some closure.

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

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

[duran-duran-less-official]

Pokemon Shield impressions (published after completing the game)

Just gonna take some notes here.

They really put a lot of effort into making the Galar region as aesthetically British as possible, but it still comes across as a Japanese tourist's understanding of what Britain is like. Dividing people into posh, condescending upper class accents and rough but friendly cockney accents would be one thing, but combining them within the same people does not work.

Can't believe "Hangry Mode" is the actual official term they're going with to describe a certain Pokemon's ability

Not to mention "Ice Face" and "Noice Face".

I get why the Gyms have a football aesthetic, because the English in particular tend to love football (that's "soccer" for Americans) more as a national sport than any other nation represented in the Pokemon franchise so far, although they probably still aren't quite as good at it as the French (or Kalos). In particular, I love the 2nd half of the Gym Leader theme, which takes the 1st half and turns it into a football fan-chant. What I don't get is why Galar also gets trains as the primary mode of transport, more so than any other Pokemon region. I say this because the UK train system sucks and I would even take the New South Wales train system over it.

I don't hate Dynamaxing as much as I thought I would. It's a bit rubbish as a strategy, because any given Dynamax can easily be countered by a stronger Dynamax, just as easily as if they were regular Pokemon - but the theme of battle as an exhibition, as a family sporting event, really works with it, because it culminates in a big showdown where all the pokemon you were battling with before are suddenly gigantic, and it's hard not to appreciate the well-timed cheers of the crowd.

In the metagame however, Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are cool as hell and can have all sorts of strategies built around them due to the surplus effects of the Max-moves (bringing weather, changing stats, etc.)

I have a weird feeling that as this game settles into my memory I'm going to rate it over X and Y AND Sun and Moon, though the latter is a fierce competition. Still a long way off the perfection of D/P/Pt, but what can you do. The really weird thing is, SwSh is doing a lot of things wrong that SuMo got right, yet the end result is just... more fun to play.

On that subject, a lot of things that should bug me just... don't. The linearity is less obnoxious than it was in SuMo. The support characters interrupt you all the time but less than in SuMo and they're more fun to talk to than most Pokemon NPCs. The broken bridges to prevent sequence breaking are less obnoxious because you can just be like, well I NEED to go to the designated plot point, I kinda WANT to go there anyway, and if I REALLY wanted to sequence break I could just go back to the open-world Wild Area and hilariously overlevel my Pokemon, and that's the only real sequence break worth doing in this genre of game.

The difficulty curve is a bit broken. I only maintained the challenge level by refusing to fight anything I didn't strictly have to, a small list populated by compulsory trainers and Pokemon I hadn't already caught. This meant that I was properly levelled for almost all Gym Challenges, and somewhat underleveled for the Championship. The latter was the only time I remember actually losing a fight.

I admit that it's annoying to be unable to turn off exp sharing, but I did a reasonable amount of catching and almost no grinding and I have to say, it was fun as heck to have the wild Pokemon's levels scale roughly with my own, in a franchise where every new party recruit has almost always needed hours of training up to get to where the rest of the party is. Often I found that I was plenty levelled enough to beat the gym challenge and my rival, only to find that the next wild encounter was higher level than half of my party. Adds a good amount of challenge.

The variety of Pokemon you can find in a given patch of grass continues to improve with every generation, and now they've added weather that affects which pokemon show up at all. I think that's brilliant. Kind of annoying but with the further drop in difficulty, actually finding all the pokemon (e.g., only appears 10% of the time in 2 places in specific weather) it's one of the only real challenges left for people who have been doing this song and dance for 20+ years.

Weather permitting render distance is pretty good for the environment, but pretty bad for wandering wild Pokemon. That's usually only a problem when you're going at full speed on your bike and suddenly your once-clear path is blocked by a humongous steel elephant, but in the late or post-game that's all of the time. It is also pretty funny though.

I like the new anti-frustration features like the improved IV checker, being able to access your PC at almost any time, and being able to relearn any forgotten move for free. But why did they have to get rid of Toxic as a TM??

It kinda sucks from a business standpoint but I do recommend getting the DLC. They're fun to explore and the shallowness of the narrative around them is more than adequately excused by the number of additional features they bring.

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Pichu Line

Ah, the main character. Let’s bitch about it! DESIGN: Pikachu is scientifically proven to be the perfect design. Simple but expressive, cute but cool, round and jagged, Pikachu is the the mascot for Pokemon because they knew they’d struck gold when they designed him. He’s some sort of rodent, but also some sort of lightning bolt, and there’s nothing out there that’s really like Pikachu. Sure, there’s other adorable mascots, but Pikachu is its own thing.

Raichu, then, is... good. Raichu is still cute. Raichu is still badass. Raichu has a soft but tough design that a lot of pokemon try for and only a few really perfect. However, Raichu is incomplete. It’s starting to become more but still feels so... small. And there’s a reason for this: It’s a middle form. The final evolution, Gorochu, got cut from Pokemon Red and Blue for space, and for reasons I will complain about shortly, never returned. While we don’t have full imagery for Gorochu, we know its back sprite, and vague descriptions of it, and it would’ve been the normal final form ‘angry badass’ style... Though fan interpretations still tend to make it rather cute. This isn’t really the place to talk about what could have been, but take a look HERE for a great interpretation of Gorochu. My point is just that Raichu wasn’t designed as a final form and you can kind of tell by looking at it.

Pichu... is a waste of time. Look, I get it, Pikachu’s cute, and breeding is showing up in the next game, so time to make babby Pikachu, but let’s be honest: Pichu’s not actually cuter than Pikachu, it’s just “less cool Pikachu.” It doesn’t look softer, it doesn’t look more huggable, and it sucks in Smash Brothers.  Also, the idea of a ‘baby pikachu’ is sort of silly when Pikachu’s already one of the smallest, weakest Pokemon there is. And I don’t say this to disparage it, but it’s a very early game pokemon that you find in the wild as low as level 3 or that you get as a starter. There’s no need for ‘pikachu but small.’ Pikachu’s already small.  Pichu shifts the potential line from “Pikachu, Raichu, Gorochu” to “Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu” and while I respect the idea of moves that it can only learn if raised as a Pichu,  the only one that mattered when it was introduced was Charm... So it was a really roundabout way to let your Raichu know Charm. At least Nasty Plot was added later. I don’t inherently mind the concept of the Pichu as the first form in the PIkachu line, and if it was well implemented in the games I could really respect it, but Pikachu has always been such and early game pokemon that Pichu feels entirely redundant to me.

And then there’s Alolan Raichu. Alolan Raichu is soft, round, golden brown, and looks like it’s fresh out of the oven. I just want to shove it in my mouth and OMNOMNOM. It’s soft, adorable, and yet because of its rounded edges and unique tail-surfing manuever it looks far more complete than Raichu ever did. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Kantonian Raichu- hell I used to date a Kantonian Raichu- but Alolan Raichu just looks so much more like it’s right in being its own thing.  I also love the idea of making a Surfing Raichu after Surfing Pikachu was a thing, and making it Psychic so it can surf on air instead of water is just a stroke of brilliance. I just love this fluffy pancake monster so much. EVOLUTIONS: Pichu can evolve twice, and has two final forms, but I have to say I think its method of doing so is a hot mess.  First off, Pichu only evolves into Pikachu via friendship with the trainer, but all baby Pikachu are Pichu, so how are there ANY Pikachu in the wild? At the very least why are there so many more wild Pikachu than Pichu? Friendship evolutions are great, but anything that needs Friendship to evolve should be RARE. And Friendship should really be the last stage of evolution, not the first. Pikachu to Raichu is a Thunder Stone, and sure. I have no problem with Stone Evolution. I do think we’ve got a few too many stones these days, and not enough evolutions for each, though. Thunderstone has been around since Red and Bue, and yet only evolved Pikachu and Eevee until Gen 5, which only added Eelektrik, and now in gen 8 it only gained two more Pokemon.  Hell, Fire Stone still only works on four pokemon, three of which are gen 1.... But this is about Pichu, and  Pikachu to Raichu with a Thunderstone is fine.

What’s weird to me is that the way to get Alolan Raichu is still with a Thunderstone, but in Alola. I love regional variants, and when they’re a whole line like Rattata, that’s great, but it’s weird to me that Alolan Raichu is only available in Alola, and it seems like an oversight that’s already come to bite them in the ass as both Let’s Go and SwSh have had to include randos who will trade you Alolan Raichu for Kantonian Raichu.  You know what would’ve worked better?  Everything in its dex entry says the reason it evolves that way is because of too many pancakes. So why not a pancakes item that just happens to be much easier to get in Alola? Sure, it’s another new evolution item, but if every game’s going to have Alolan Raichu anyway, might as well. Or make it something like “Feed your Pikachu 10 Big Malasada.”  Of course, Alolan Pichu and Pikachu could’ve been an option, but that seems like going a bit crazy.

The availability to turn your Pikachu into an Electric type OR an Electric/Psychic type is great, but the fact that there’s no actual way to make the choice with a given Pikachu in a given game is a pain in the butt.

There’s also a Gigantimax Pikachu for SwSh players who have Let’s Go Pikachu save files, which is cute, but as it’s still using Pikachu stats, you’re better off with a Raichu.

TYPING:  Pure electric type’s actually a solid type to be. Resistant to flying, steel, and electric, only weak to ground, and STAB on electric moves is entirely decent.  Sure, ground types ruin your day entirely, but other than that you just have to watch out for grass and dragons resisting... but they’re not super-effective against Raichu so you just need coverage for that. 

Alolan Raichu’s typing is more wild. Four weaknesses, five resistances, two types of STAB. It can use Psychic against Ground types and Electricity against Dark types just fine, but it’s not exactly covering its own weaknesses. Still, it’s hardly a problem.

STATS:  You know, for all the people who think PIkachu’s so great, people don’t seem to realize that outside of Let’s Go, where it got a major stat inflation, Pikachu is not significantly than the other starter pokemon. In fact, it was weaker until it got a defense buff in gen 6.  With a stat total of 320, it’s just an early game pokemon, that even with Gigantimax, Light Ball, and all the other special Pikachu love, you should just evolve it. Yes, technically Light Ball gives it an attack and special attack higher than a Raichu (110 and 100 compared to 90 and 90 or 85 and 95) but the Raichu can more than make up for that with, say, a Life Orb, which brings its damage  up over Light Ball Pikachu’s while not bringing it’s defenses down nearly as far as Pikachu’s.

As a catch there, did you notice where I said 110 and 100? Pikachu has higher physical attack than special attack. And  Kantonian Raichu’s are equal to each other. You’d look at this thing and think it was a special attacker, but no, Pikachu was built to throw down.  Alolan Raichu does have the edge toward special, but not so much that it can’t use a physical attack if it wants to. 

Like most electric types, these boys are fast. Pikachu’s speed is a whopping 90, and Raichu’s is 110. 

Pichu is a pile of garbage with a stat total of a mere 205, which only compares favorably to Caterpie if you’re really impressed by Pichu going first. The only reason Pichu should exist is for use as a trash mob on first routes, but the only game that’s done that is Sun and Moon and even they made it super rare.

Raichu and Alolan Raichu have an overall stat total of 485, which is on the low end of good for end-game. They do have a lot of ‘redundant’ stat points in that they have both good physical and special attack and really don’t need both, but their attack stats and speed are high enough to compete, even if they’re rather frail.

ABILITIES: 

Kantonian Raichu (as well as Pichu and Pikachu) generally knows Static. Static is an entirely useful ability that gives a 30% chance to paraylze the enemy whenever they use an attack on Raichu that make contact. The problem with this ability is that most attacks that make contact are physical and physical defense is Raichu’s poorest stat.  It’s not a useless ability by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a 30% chance to work when things are going poorly for Raichu. Its Hidden Ability, Lightning Rod, is far more useful. LIghtning Rod grants full immunity to electric attacks, increases Raichu’s power if struck by an electric attack, and, in double battles, means that enemy electric attacks can only target Raichu (though this doesn’t stop multi-target electric attacks.)  In single battles, this ability is mostly used to switch Raichu into an electric attack, steal the stat boost while protecting another pokemon, and then start sweeping with a relatively potent special attacker. Despite Raichu’s equal attack stats, this is one of many reasons it tends to be used as a special attacker. In double battles, it’s even better. Setting a pokemon with Lightning Rod down next to a pokemon weak to electricity covers its weakness perfectly, and many battles have been won by pairing a Lightning Rod pokemon with Gyarados. Lightning Rod takes strategy to use, but any successful use of it can really swing a battle in your favor.

Alolan Raichu has a unique ability called Surge Surfer, which doubles its speed in Electric Terrain. As there are NO pokemon with more than twice Alolan Raichu’s speed, this means in Electric Terrain, Alolan Raichu will always go first if there’s no other effects in play. Now, actually getting Electric Terrain up can be difficult, but Max Lightning sets it up, Raichu can learn the move to create it by TM, and a few other pokemon can set it up just by existing, making it a lot more reliable in double battles.  MOVES: By virtue of being the main character, the Pichu line has a LOT of good moves.  Pichu learns Nasty Plot, which is the best reason to raise your own from an egg. As with Lightning Rod, Nasty Plot is a reason Raichu wants to use its special attacks more than its physical ones.... Which is a shame because a properly bred Pichu is the only thing that can learn Volt Tackle, a 120 Power, 100 accuracy electric move with recoil damage and a chance to paralyze.  So Kantonian Raichu just uses good old Thunderbolt as its electric attack. 

Alolan Raichu might want Thunderbolt as well, but if you are building for Electric Terrain, it has another option as well: Electro Ball. Electro Ball’s damage is based on how fast your pokemon is compared to the opponent, and with Surge Surfer it’s not difficult for an Alolan Raichu Electro Ball to have a base power of 120 or even hit its max of 150. 

Now that we’ve got our sweep setup (Nasty Plot or Electric Terrain) and our electric attack (Thunderbolt or Electro Ball) it’s time to look at what else these mice can do. 

Kantonian Raichu only gets a few non-electric special moves, none of which it learns naturally.  Surf and Grass Knot are both potent special attacks against the dreaded Ground-Type Pokemon, enabling Raichu to try sweeping right through them, with Grass Knot generally better against high-powered ground types. Focus Blast is a hell of a drug at 120 power, but 70% accuracy makes it incredibly unreliable. Volt Switch is a decent option for switching out, but once you set up a Nasty Plot sweeper you really don’t want to ever switch out.  Maybe take Surf AND Grass Knot so anything immune to Lightning Bolt knows you really mean business.

Alolan Raichu can get all the important special attacks Kantonian Raichu can, but is also a Psychic type. This means it can learn Psychic, but I’d actually suggest learning Psyshock over that. Against the majority of Pokemon, Thunderbolt or Electro Ball will do quite well after you’ve set up, and while Psyshock is slightly weaker than Psychic, it has the benefit of targeting SPecial Defense instead of Physical Defense. This means a Special Wall, like Blissey, won’t stop you cold.  This does work a lot better with Nasty Plot than Electric Terrain, of course, as Electric Terrain only boosts electric damage, but of course that’s the trade-off. Either way, still take Surf or Grass Knot. Gotta show those ground types whatfor.

Alolan Raichu has its own unique Z-Move, Stoked Sparksurfer, which is just a better version of Gigavolt Havoc, doing the same damage when used off Thunderbolt and paralyzing the target if it manages to survive. This is particularly powerful, but whether or not Z-Moves return will remain to be seen.

Pikachu also has two of its own unique Z-Moves, Catastropika and 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, but as Z-Crystals and Light Ball both take the item slot, using either of these moves means you’re back down to 55 attack and 50 special attack, and thus wasting everyone’s time even with a 210 power move. 

In Double Battles, Raichu gets even more utility. It can learn both Charm and Eerie Impulse, Fake out, Protect, Encore, Nuzzle, and all sorts of other solid moves for messing with an opponent. Interestingly, many of these attacks require it being a Pichu first... or at least they did. I think in SwSh you can just move relearn them even as a Raichu, making Pichu even more useless. Double Battles also let it take advantage of Thunder, which gains perfect accuracy in the rain, if your other pokemon is, say, a Pelipper with Drizzle or another water pokemon that really wants to hide behind Raichu’s Lightning Rod.

OVERALL: I love this stupid little thing and everything about it except for Pichu which is dumb and awful. I own multiple Pikachus and I like to hug them. Alolan Raichu is one of my favorite Pokemon ever. I used a Raichu back in Blue and her name was Amanda and I loved her bunches.  Raichu’s an entirely solid pokemon to just have in your lineup, but really shines in double battles as both Lightning Rod and Surge Surfer have more utility there, and Raichu can combine its utility with its ability to just end someone’s life with Thunderbolt. 

And in doubles you can even use Volt Tackle because it’s not like you’re going to Nasty Plot a special sweeper out of this marshmallow in 2v2.  You’re just gonna keep ruining an opponent’s ability to do stuff until you have an opening to hit with a 120 power electric attack. 

[daily-dose-of-imagines]

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Matchup ♥

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Hi!~ you can just call me Alex, please!~ I would like to be anon if that is ok lol the fandoms I want are A3!, Haikyuu!!, and Naruto! 🥰 SFW and NSFW is alright with me! 😉 whatever is comfortable lol

Alright so, intro info! I’m a Capricorn sun, Sagittarius moon and Virgo Ascendant. My modality is Cardinal 53%, Fixed 37%, Mutable 11%. My elements are Earth 51%, Water 36%, Fire 10% and Air 3%. My MBTI is INFJ. I’m also a HuffleClaw with a bit of Slytherin. I have was born with Turner Syndrome. I have ADHD, Autism, Anxiety and Depression. I am agender and I use they/them pronouns though she/her are alright since I’m used to those pronouns lol I am still exploring my sexuality, I am very open dating anyone of any gender so I would say I’m bi/panromantic, however I do strongly connect with the asexual spectrum since trust is a big deal for me lol

I had a coarctation or narrowing of the arota at 6 days old and was pronounced dead on the way to Children’s Hospital. I had open heart surgery soon afterwards. My grandmother was told that with all the mental health issues I could have due to TS, I could be super smart or I wouldn’t even be able to remember my own name. The doctor’s said I would be bad at math. My parents divorced when I was 10 and my little brother was 6. Both of them remarried, my dad once and our mol several times. Though, I won’t go more into that lol just to save you the details, our grandparents raised us and life was -is- really messy ahah

I’m currently going to college. I was supposed to graduate last semester, but I changed my major several times in the last 2 years lol 😂😂 I was a biology major and wanted to work in marine bio/ wildlife conservation and start my own rehab places for marine/terrestrial mammals. I am now a Middle School Education major with areas of concentration in science and language arts with a minor in TESL ( Teaching English as a Second Language). I want to teach English in Japan! 😊 As far as grade school, I always made As/Bs witout even trying and I loved to read, so much so that I got an award for it in 5th grade! I was quiet yet loud and super awkward as a kid 🤣🤣 I actually loved science a lot and even took AP courses until highschool because the teacher I would have taken in highschool was a really bad teacher who if he had family members and didn’t like them, he wouldn’t like you. He taught my father and his sister and didn’t like them, so least to say young and impressionable me noped out of that fast 😂😂

For a while, I wanted to be a Forensic Antropologist like Temeperance from Bones! 😊 however, we didn’t have a anthro major at my college, only chem lol so, when I started taking upper level courses, I quickly found I much prefer bio to chem 🤣🤣 I still dislike math as I have my whole life, but since I got to college, I’ve only made below a B in one math related course! 🥰

Ok sorry for a lot of random info 🤣🤣 onto other things! So, I’m very shy and quiet at first, but when I get comfortable around someone, that’s when the wierd comes out 🤣 I’m very passionate about education and science! I am a Christian and am very passionate about equality. I also firmly believe in redistributing millionare/billionares’ wealth.

I grew up watching anime and still love it to this day. I have strong connection with Japanese culture because anime was the gateway into learning about it and anime will always have a special place in my heart because of it! Japanese culture and really most if not all Asian cultures resonate with me because of the morals anime had taught me. I firmly believe in balance and hamrony with nature! I was introduced to kpop in middle school and have been a fan ever since lol 🤣 I also like pop/alternative music lol I like P!NK, Linkin Park, Adele and a few others lol

As I mention with wanting to be a marine biologist, I really love animals!~ 💕💜 my favs are otters, foxes, cats of all kinds, dogs, wolves, dolphins, and honey badgers! I currently have a Korat named Lila (li-lah like lilac) she is a very unique cat 🤣 she’s super curious and sorta a crackhead lol I did have a yorkie terrier named Sarah and a miniature schnauzer named Star, but since last June, we had to put both of them down 🥺 Sarah got cancer suddenly late last year and a few months ago Star had congestive heart failure. They were 13 and 14 respectively. They were amazing dogs! Sarah loved to swim and hunt little creatures and was the energetic one while Star was the grouchy old lady 🤣🤣

I also love anything fantasy/superhero! I love HP, LOTR, and Marvel! My fav genre of anime is shounen obvi lol 🤣Lol I also love learning other languages! I took French in highschool and two semester of Mandarin in college lol ( I need to brush up on both 🤣🤣) I am currently trying to learn Japanese! I wanna also learn Korean, Welsh, and Irish! I hope to go teach English in Japan via the JET program at my college! 🥰 I will more than likely stay in Japan after I stay the 5 max years through the JET program!

I also really love video games! I wanna play Persona 5 soo bad 🤣🤣 Horzon: Zero Dawn, the Legend of Zelda series, the Pokemon series and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are some of my favorites lol

Hmmm… what else to say? 🤣 I am typically the mom friend of the group ahaha oh! I am 4’9” and weigh 140 so I’m kinda chubby 😅 I am very self concious about my body. I have green eyes and I wear small, black rectangular glasses. I have moles and freckles all over my body. I have a dyed blonde bob with a brunnette undercut. I don’t have any piercings yet but I do have one tattoo on my inner left ankle!

I am stubborn, passionate, caring, empathetic, understanding, loving, loud, quiet, awkward, hyper, enthusiastic, curious, and I can procrastinate at times due to my ADHD lol I also love to have plans lol I like things to be organized and clean, but I don’t mind ‘organized chaos’ sometimes lol I am also very loyal to my friends. I prefer having a few super close friends than having tons of aquaintances.

Ok so dating lol um I’ve never actually dates anyone before 🙈 I’m also a virgin lol trust is a big issue for me, like aforementioned my parents divorce affected me a lot and I have a strained relationship with each of them due to the divorce and the events over the years afterwards. Plus, as a Capricorn, school/career is my main focus. I’m so busy with college and trying to figure myself out, I haven’t got time for dating ahaha so my irl soulmate will need to be a hell of a person and have the patience of a saint to deal with me 🤣

Even though I have never been in a relationship, out of curiousity and wanting to be knowledgeable, I have researched BDSM lol 😂 I am definitely not into slave/master, whipping, or anything super hardcore at all lol though, mild stuff like toys, handcuffs, spanking, biting, dirty talk, brat/tamer or daddy (mommy)/ little girl and blindfolds would be stuff I’m willing to try out lol basically, some light pain, toys and anything where I can be submissive and cast my cares away while still being able to be sassy/defiant suits me 🤣

Oh! For the purposes of this matchup, just male characters is fine lol like I said, I’m still trying to figure myself out so, for simplicities sake, assuming heteronorms is alright lol

Hmm as far as a type of guy I like, I can give you some anime examples 😂 Portgas D. Ace from One Piece, Itachi/Kakashi/Shikamaru from Naruto, Roy Mustang (also shoutout to Solf J. Kimblee as a guilty mention 🤣) from FMA!B, Kisuke Urahara from Bleach, Zuko/Sokka fron ATLA, Gintoki/Kamui/Takasugi/Shinpachi/Hijikata/Katsura from Gintama, Daisuke Kanbe from The Millionare Detective- Balance:Unlimited, Shinso Hitoshi/Shindo Yo from BNHA/MHA, Levi/Beel from Obey Me!, Itaru/Omi/Sakyo/Misuki/Tsuzuru/Kazunari/Banri from A3! And many more 🤣🤣 sorry for the long list lol basically to sum it up my type is kinda laid back, a lil perverted, confident, dominant, funny, teasing/flirty, caring, intellgent, mysterious, passionate and stubborn lol

Well, I hope that was enough info to get a good in depth matchup 🤣🤣 I feel like I gave too much but I wanna try to make it as detailed for y’all as possible so you can have an easier time with the matchup ahah thanks a lot, I love your blog and keep doing the good work you are doing! 🥰❤️💜💕 be sure to take care of yourselves and I hope y’all have a great weekend!! 🥰

( I apologize for sending it a second time, but there was some stuff I wanted to add that I forgot to mention until I after I sent in the first one 😭 again, I sincerely apologize!)

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Hello Alex and thank you for submitting with us! And thank you for supporting us! I hope you enjoy the boys I paired you with!

>Admin 𝕋

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𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽...

I choose Kiba to be your Naruto boyfriend! when he first sees you, and how quiet and shy you are, Kiba will definitely want to bring your inner playfulness out! And when he sees that you do have some playfulness in you, he will see that you became comfortable enough around him that your inner weird came out! And that would really pull at Kiba’s heartstrings! Kiba will also find it fascinating that you like different types of culture, and how the world works via science and education! He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he will definitely appreciate how you think, since he wants harmony in the world too! He will love the fact that you love animals and he will love the fact that you want to be a marine biologist! Being an animal lover himself, he will marry you right on the spot, just for that!

Since you are the mom friend of the group, you can totally take care of Kiba! It might not be the best, but Kiba would really love and appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do stuff for him, even if he didn’t ask for it! He will love your buddy, it being curvy and easy to hold onto, if you know what I mean wink wink. He will find your little beauty marks to be charming and I see him poking your moles and freckles every so often when he is bored! And when you tell him that you want to get tattoos, hell yeah! He will want to be there for when you get your first one!

Kiba will love the fact that you are passionate about your studies, and you main focus is school and your career! He will love the fact that you are don’t want anyone to mess up your future, and where you want to go in life! He may be a bit on the impatient side, but when he is with you, he will understand the need for patience and why it is important! He will also love the fact that you are so loyal to your friends! He doesn’t want to date anybody who isn’t loyal or isn’t compassionate to the people around them, so that will definitely be a plus in your book!

For the spicy stuff, Kiba at first would not know what he is doing but once he figures it out, ho boy, you are in a for a treat! Biting, lots of biting, and him being just very dominant, wanting to please you and make you feel like you are on cloud nine! He will let you do what you want, if it means that you are going to like what you guys do in the bedroom! From the biting to the dirty talk, he is up for anything!

I choose Sakyo to be your A3! boyfriend! Sakyo will see your shy and quiet persona and think nothing much of it, but once you get comfortable around him, enough so that your inner weirdness comes out to play, he will be surprised that you were hiding such a fun and cheerful person away from him! He will also like the fact that you are passionate about science and education, since Sakyo himself is definitely one to go to science for something that can’t be explained, and he is one to like education too, since it gives you wisdom on subjects you didn’t know about before! He will love the fact that you love his culture so much, from the anime to the actual history of Japan. He will feel that you super educated on the subject, and will be appreciative of how much you love where he is from! 

Sakyo will find it adorable that you love animals, and he find it admirable that you want to become a marine biologist! It is a hard job, learning about all kinds of animals, and then discovering new ones! Yeah he will find it very impressive! And if you were to ever tell him that you want a dog or some kind of really cute animal, he will never able to say no to you! So you should use that to your advantage! As for video games, he isn’t one for the, but if you ever try to get him to play with you, he will have a hard time saying no! It will frustrate him though, that you’d keep beating him at all of them!

As for appearances, I feel Sakyo wouldn’t care about what you like, it’’s all about what is on the inside, and when he sees that you are a passionate, loving, caring, a mother figure to your friends, loyal to them, and empathetic to the people around you, he will just know that you are the person for him! Seriously, yeah he might like your curvy body, but what will really give make him like you is the fact that you are just a really nice person for people to be around! He will definitely understand the sentiment of having just a few close friends, than having like twenty acquaintances.

Sakyo will love the fact that you’d rather focus on your studies than have a boyfriend that could distract you from your future career! He would be glad to wait for you to accept him, until you are stable in your career and would be able to start dating you like he wants! And for a little spicy time, he would be a dominant as all hell. Like he would be so into dirty talk and taking you to heaven with his mouth. You might tell him you want to some like spanking and biting, and he might be into the biting, but the spanking makes him feel a little weird, so he might do it as often. But! If you ask, him he will have no reason to say no! So you better have fun with him!

I choose Iwaizumi as your Haikyuu boyfriend! Much like Sakyo, Iwaizumi will see you shy and timid demeanor and think nothing of it, and if anything, he will think it is kind of cute, but would have an inkling that you are more than you put out. And once Iwaizumi sees that, yes, you are more than shy, that you have your weird quirks and can be quite loud, he will find you even more cute, what with the way you act around him and not the others! He will find it so cute that you only act like that with him and nobody else! And much like Sakyo, he will find it awesome that you like his culture so much! From the anime to the language, and everything else! He would even offer to help you learn the language and such, to help you better understand his culture! Iwaizumi love the fact that you like superheroes and practically anything fantasy! I suspect that Iwaizumi also love Marvel and such! I also feel like Iwaizumi is extremely good at video games, so when he plays with you, make sure you try your best to win against him!

Iwaizumi will feel a bond with you being like the mom friend, since he has to constantly watch over Oikawa like he is his child! And for appearances, much like Kiba, I feel as though Iwaizumi will see your blemishes and your curvy body and think it is just uniquely you! Something that he associates with you alone! And the uniqueness will definitely get him to really like you! But I feel like he will really like girls in glasses so that is a definite plus for you!

Iwaizumi will love the fact, like the others, that you are a loving and caring person. Someone that is passionate and driven! And the fact that you have all your plans thought out and organized in your own way? Oh yeah, he would definitely like that! And the fact that you are so passionate about your future that you’d much rather focus on that instead of being in a relationship! He’d understand, would he hate that fact that he has to wait for you to be stable in your career? Yes, he wouldn’t like it one bit, but he wouldn’t leave you because of it! Will he wait for you? Most definitely!

For the spicy stuff, ahahahaha Iwaizumi. He is like. A dominant bottom, he’s okay with essentially whatever you want to do, as long you both are having a good time, and you guys are feeling good! As for the biting and the spanking and all the kinky things you want to try out, he’d be into it, he’d just wouldn’t know how to go about it, so it would be a learning experience for the both of you! In the end, Iwaizumi would be into a lot of things you guys tried! So beware what he has in store for you in the future!

[0poole]

The Best and Worst parts of past Pokemon games

I’ve watched ShayMay’s 7-hour analysis on Omega Ruby and as you’d expect it’s getting me to think about what are actually the best and worst parts of Pokemon in the past. I’m still glad he literally goes through the entire game going into both the good and the bad of the game, and I’m basically only bringing it up because of the sheer amount of effort put into it. Obviously the video was made before Sun and Moon came out so thankfully some of his quandaries have been solved, but still it’s interesting to see the on and off of certain things throughout the series. Most of the time it gets better as time goes on, but still, it feels like you could get an amazing Pokemon game just by piecing together the features of past games (even if you’d definitely need a few additions to get it perfect, if that’s even possible). 

To be honest I really am slowly falling out of favor with Sword and Shield, and it kind of makes me hope that Gamefreak can still get better. Even though the games sold like hotcakes, hopefully they have the heart to realize a ton of people didn’t really like the direction, even though it still isn’t “bad,” just worse than it feels like it should be. Even though bad direction can’t be remedied by other things, the fact that they are a multi-billion dollar franchise really makes it feel like they could afford to make it better, especially when past games did do what people wanted...

Since it’s the most relevant...

DLC/”Enhanced” Versions:

I will genuinely take DLC over “enhanced” versions any day. Even though you’d think a lot could be improved between the base versions and enhanced ones, that’s usually not the case. The only ones that truly changed the game were Black and White 2, since they were treated more like sequels. Even golden games like Platinum didn’t divert much, even if it is an objectively better version than Diamond and Pearl. Considering the games are now going to be a solid 60$ each, it would be even crazier to expect someone to buy the base and enhanced versions. Only paying 30$ for multiple expansions (at least two, could be more) with the content of said expansions being put out as a free update otherwise is a much better deal. The only people this hurts are the types who reasonably wait for the inevitable enhanced version and only buy that instead, since it’s always better, even if only a little. As far as I know, however, Pokemon is one of the only game franchises that releases enhanced versions of games soon after their release (as in, not years later when technology advances and they can profit off nostalgia), so really they’re just becoming more normal by doing this. 

Of course there’s the argument that there shouldn’t be any DLC or “enhanced” versions, and all the content of the game should be included in the base game. It would obviously be preferable to not pay for it, but as is painfully obvious, even the richest groups can still be money hungry. Considering they’re inevitably going to make one or the other, DLC is going to be the better choice overall because it’s much more expandable. You rarely got to see a substantial amount of content added on in the enhanced versions. If they made us pay 30$ for the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra separately, that would be crazy. But, since it’s 30$ for both, they could easily insert more bits alongside the rest of the Expansion Pass, maybe allowing them to carry a game for multiple years under less resources on their part compared to trying to make a whole new game. That way, maybe they can devote even more resources to future generations and remakes. That’s all just speculation though. I’m kind of impatient, writing all this before the day it releases and when we get more info for the future, so basically just take this as my opinion the whole time before the DLC came out.

Honestly, though, I almost always fall into the camp of gamers completely misrepresenting the concept of DLC, saying they just cut off some of the content and made you pay extra for it. A few bad apples really soured the bunch in this case, because, even though Sword and Shield did feel kind of lacking in some places, saying the Isle of Armor or Crown Tundra would’ve been a seamless part of the game no matter what is just obviously wrong. The games felt “complete” in the sense that it is all they wanted it to be, and it has a clear start and end. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s unfinished. Again, obviously it would be better if it was free/included already, but that’s just a given. 

In a similar vein…

Remakes:

Basically, I love the usual formula for remakes. I actually really liked ORAS, and I feel like it improved on so much, making me actually like Hoenn as a region. Even though I played them closer to when they game out, RSE feel like a slog compared to modern stuff, especially with the lack of the physical/special split. I can definitely feel some nostalgia for the originals still, but 90% of the time I go back to those games looking for nostalgia, getting bored by the time I get to Rustburo, and turning it off. As mentioned by Shaymay, there’s still a ton wrong with it, but I’d much rather play them all the way through compared to the originals. I do still want to force myself through them eventually, though.

Heartgold and Soulsilver are widely considered to be the best games in the whole franchise, so I don’t have to say much. I’m not a Johto nut so I’m not the best at selling it, but I will say it feels so much more colorful and polished visually than the rest of Gen 4. 

Firered and Leafgreen have the same problems that make me dislike RSE, but Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee are the strange cases that make the future so uncertain. I liked them for what they were, but I swear God if they do that one more time it’s going to make the fanbase erupt. The Let’s Go formula worked for Kanto because a lot of the people playing Go are people who knew the original games but not the newer ones, making Let’s Go a good entry point with mostly familiar territory and slightly dumbed down gameplay. It may work again if they do a Let’s Go in Johto, but if they do it for Sinnoh, since it’s the next one on the chopping block, it’s going to fall insanely flat. Barely anyone who only loves Go also seriously wants to play through Sinnoh. There’s little nostalgia there, and the nostalgia with Sinnoh resides in everyone else who loves the games as they are/as they originally were. Plus, people say they’re some of the hardest games, so dumbing them down ruins part of the appeal more. Since remakes pretty much entirely profit off of nostalgia (and partially from people wanting to experience a region without the limitations of its origins) they really need to just, you know, remake the game. Same deal as any Pokemon game, just with better (if you’d call it that) graphics and modern sensibilities. Considering all remakes (IMO) look better than their originals, I don’t think we have to worry an insane amount about them looking as iffy as SwSh. I don’t think they look THAT bad already, but I definitely think they’re some of the ugliest in the series. 

I will say that I do still want remakes to happen. I’m a sucker for nostalgia, and I love seeing graphically enhanced versions of past regions. Also, my favorite region is up next, so I really just want to see what happens. I’m a shill so it can’t make me hate the originals more. Or, you know, maybe that just makes me a normal, reasonable person...

Graphics:

Obviously we just want texture quality, model quality, etc. But, I think there’s something to be talked about with the overall art style.

I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda into the chibi-esque models of X/Y and ORAS. It did feel like it trivialized the more serious characters, like the villains and major legendaries, as they looked too cute, so it’s probably for the best if we stick to “normal” proportions. It felt weird when I first saw Sun and Moon, but I got used to it. I always wanted to make my character look as cute as possible so the chibi style helped with that, but I have gotten some good results from Sword and Shield. 

For character customization (if it even counts as “graphics”) I think Sword and Shield really hit the nail on the head. I’m kinda biased, because Moon and Ultra Moon had a really shitty shade of purple as their designated “purple” clothing, and SwSh really got my favorite shade of it right. I do think it’s great to have one style of clothing under different, generally standardized colors. But, I definitely think we need more body types. Like, one of the main reasons I play as a girl in games like this is that the boy character doesn’t even look like me anyway, so there’s really no good reason to play either. Even if it’s just one separate character option for each gender, like a Skinny male/”Round” male/Skinny female/”Round” female I’d be fine. Obviously I’d want some character sliders at some point, like pretty much every other game with character customization does, but I can settle for one more generation. The alts could even be more shoehorned rivals like in X/Y, so they basically have the design cut out for them.

One weird graphical thing I want brought back is the little circular platform your Pokemon lands on in a battle. For some reason, I really liked that. It does make the battle feel more in tune with the overall environment without it, but sometimes the battle fields look really bland and flat without it. I’d at least want the floor to be designed in a way to look like there are devoted spots for each Pokemon to stand on, even if it’s not a separate thing like in X/Y. It just feels more satisfying. Not really a big deal though, since I’ve been able to ignore it for this long.

The big thing is animations. I am getting extremely tired of the X/Y models. That’s 3 generations so far that use them, and some of them aren’t even good. I’ll never hesitate to drive this point into the ground, but I really wish Pokemon like Xatu, Charizard, Dragonite, and Salamence are permanently floating/flying in air. If it isn’t obvious, this is the way it is because of Sky Battles in X/Y, since they didn’t want to do extra work for the Pokemon permanently suspended in air. The problem is that those four Pokemon (and probably many others) really don’t feel like they are supposed to be in the air 24/7. According to their official art and sprites, they’re all on the ground. Xatu especially was made to look super tall and stout with its geometric wings flatly put on his torso, like the totem pole it’s supposed to be. In the air, it basically just hovers with his wings out, and for some reason it looks like there’s a large gust of wind keeping it afloat. It looks really weird. Salamence is also in the same boat, since its wings are so weird and not wing-like that making it constantly fly just looks so unnatural. Mega Salamence was at least designed to look like it’s supposed to be flying, but normal Salamence really should just rest on the ground. He’s too fat to be permanently lifted by his weird wings. Charizard and Dragonite aren’t as severe, since both are clearly shown to be otherwise super capable of flight, but they do feel better on their feet. I remember watching TyranitarTube’s series on one of the Extreme Randomizer hacks of the game, and in there somehow they made a Dragonite use it’s Amie/Refresh animation of sitting still on its feet in battle. It seriously felt so much better to look at, instead of this giant, poofy dragon being carried by its comically small wings. Basically, the way you should tell whether to keep them on the ground is based on the official art/sprites. That is the way the designers intended them to be depicted, so that’s the way they should be. Some exceptions that I’m actually fine with are pretty much all the regional birds, except Unfezant. They all look pretty decent flying, since flying’s basically all they do… Even Swellow, who has the same strange gust of wind as Xatu, feels more fitting like that because it seems so much more aerodynamic. 

Apart from that, I just wish they were at least a little different. I’m not super against the muted colors they have compared to the sprites, but I wouldn’t be against more saturation. Considering how much work was put into all the different animations of the battles, Refresh, and both walking AND running animations, I unfortunately don’t think they’re going to change any time soon unless they explicitly say they’re going to change them for quality improvement. I would say the Pokemon from Gen 6 up are still pretty fine, since they were more meant for 3D.

As for battles, one of my favorite Pokemon games is, in fact, Pokemon Battle Revolution on the Wii. Not only was it super Sinnoh-focused, but it had multiple body types (even if I still look like none of them) with character customization for all, and great graphics for the time. People always look to it after citing the lacking Double Kick animation from SwSh, saying how animated the models were and how they liked the Pokemon actually running up to their target when using a physical attack. I will say that the model quality for a lot of them were still kind of iffy, and that some of the animations were a little too much. Specifically Pidgeotto, who was on one of the rental cards, was super energetic so as to seem a bit crazy, and felt a bit low-poly for the otherwise high quality of the environments and humans. However, going back to such a formula would be extremely welcome. I’m totally fine with the Pokemon not running up to their targets, but I wouldn’t be mad to see it put in, especially since the walking and running animations are already in the game. They would need to be balanced in terms of speed, though, since some of the animations in PBR felt really, really slow with that animation in there. Plus, some moves just need speed, like Quick Attack. 

In terms of the move animations themselves, I do think some of the water effects in PBR felt too realistic compared to the rest of everything. Also, people say Double Kick looked bad in SwSh (like it ever looked good), but a hell of a lot of Fighting type animations in PBR were literally just the Pokemon walking up to their target, smacking them with nondescript flashes, and that’s it. So many of them could hardly be pieced apart depending on whether they were kicks, punches, or whatever. It would’ve been better either way if they put the physical move attack animation in for Double Kick, but PBR has its fair share of shitty move animations too. Moves like Seismic Toss looked fucking insane though, and I loved it. Seismic Toss specifically is the true test of move animation quality. 

Also, it’s kinda irrelevant to anything, but I could totally get down with the Announcer from PBR returning for major battles like Gym battles or League battles. He was so much fun, even if a bit repetitive. All you need for that is a setting to turn him off, and bam. He’s a true classic.

More generally, though, I think Sword and Shield is a seriously mixed bag of graphical quality. I give the SwSh haters a lot of flack, but the one thing I 100% agree with is the texture of the trees from the Wild Area. They are god awful, even if it was in a game a decade ago. I seriously don’t know how they messed that up, since you can download better bark textures for free on the internet. Surely someone at Gamefreak could’ve done better there. If this was just a random tree in the background of some random route, then who cares, right? But no, this is practically every single tree in the Wild Area, the biggest selling point for the region and the game, where you would always spend the most time. You see so many of these trees everywhere, and they look horrible. I also hate the look of the berry trees, since they don’t seem to use the same lighting effects as everything else (just a guess though), but even apart from that the batch of lighter leaves on top of the bottom ones just looks so artificial. It looks as if they dumped a sphere of leaves on top of another sphere of leaves, like it was ice cream. Maybe some trees in the real world look like that, but sometimes it’s an artist’s job to take what sucks about reality to make it better for fiction. 

On the other hand, I think locations like Motostoke look genuinely amazing. The brick textures are pretty good (compared to the tree), and all the colors and shapes of the place look really good. Also, when they go into full-on cutscene mode, the models, scenery, and everything else really shine. Obviously I’m not the king of all visual media, but it’s just weird to see that. It’s hard to compare to past games, because everything else was either 2D or on the 3DS, which wasn’t as powerful. Even though the Wii is definitely less powerful than the Switch, it doesn’t really count since there’s infinitely less content to worry about in PBR. Much more of the work could’ve gone into the graphics. Really, there doesn’t feel like there’s any excuse unless crunching is involved on the business side of things, which I really hope isn’t an issue for their sake. I would honestly love to see them announce that they’re taking a year or two off to devote themselves fully to a new generation, instead of trying to keep a yearly schedule. Something something Miyamoto quote something something.

Stylistically, it’s also a mixed bag, but at least this time it’s all just subjective. It feels like a lot of the game is meant to be somewhat blobbed together in some ways, like its a painting meant to be looked at from afar. It feels like there aren’t major outlines for things. Specifically with the Pokemon, they don’t have that outline they’ve had for the 2 generations before. It’s never been a big deal, and I really hate how low quality the outline made the models feel, so I don’t really know which style I want. Even though it’s still decent, I feel like most 3D models made to have a super notable outline on them look a little funky sometimes with it, so I don’t know if I want that, but without it they just don’t feel as solid. I really just don’t know there. 

Music:

It feels like, even if a franchise is kinda iffy, the music is still consistently top tier. Like, no one thinks Sonic games have objectively bad music, even if they don’t like it. If they do, they’re just wrong. Pokemon’s the same, so thankfully this isn’t a test of which past game had the highest quality music. I do think the Wild Battle theme in SwSh does feel like it has a weird melody, but that is super outclassed by universally acclaimed bangers like the Slumbering Weald, and the battle themes of Marnie, Bede, Oleana, and the Battle Tower. Those aren’t just the best the generation has to offer, they’re seriously amazing themes. 

Back in Gen 7, we have the Kahuna Battle, all themes of Team Skull and the Aether Foundation, Lillie’s theme, the Ultra Beasts (which might be more contentious but I like it) and Hau’oli City at night. In Gen 6, I at least liked the themes of Laverre City, Team Flare, and ESPECIALLY the Xerneas/Yveltal battle theme. Don’t even get me started about Pokemon Battle Revolution. I could go on and on, but I at least want to spotlight ORAS here because they knocked it out of the park with Archie and Maxie’s battle theme. It was the perfect drop, because the intro felt super muted and boring, and I was afraid they completely snubbed it, but the drop completely blew me away, and absolutely perfected the theme with the crazy trumpets Hoenn is known for. Also, Zinnia’s theme is amazing, as well as many other themes that are just improvements over the originals. The one thing I’m semi-iffy on is the Regi theme, an amazing theme for my favorite trio, but I never think anyone really makes it feel as lumbering and deep as it should, considering what it’s supposed to represent. The beat is arranged as it should, but it never feels punchy enough for me. 

I’m really just praising the music here. Frankly, I see no reason to think the music is getting any worse.

Difficulty/EXP Share:

They’re basically the same thing, at least according to Gamefreak.

I always keep the EXP share on, but I do think that making it a permanent addition to the game was a major mistake. As explained in Shaymay’s video, it actually increases the overall experience you gain in battle, at least before. That seems absurd to make a permanent addition (although they likely changed it in SwSh because of that). I honestly just use it because I’m not into a challenge in games, but it should definitely be optional, if for no other reason than to be a bootleg difficulty slider. However, What about the difference between the Gen 6+ version and previous versions?

I think it’s easy. Make it like pre-Gen 6, but give you multiple shares. So, if you want to train up two underleveled Pokemon, make it so you don’t have to swap it between them. That way, if you really want to just spread the EXP thin, you can give one to everyone you have, and that’s that. Also, I think it should perfectly split the EXP, not adding anything onto it. If everyone on your team has one and you get 120 EXP, that’s 20 EXP for everyone. Of course, I do actually love the mechanic of being able to switch the share holder in to give them a disproportionately larger amount of EXP compared to everyone else. It just doubles the effectiveness of switch training, and makes it better for when you want to train them up but specifically not the higher level Pokemon you’re using to fight.

Some part of me wants to keep my precious easy mode in, but then I realize… Just make actual difficulty differences. Just give us a choice. Even if it’s just a “How well do you know the Pokemon world?” with a “I know all about it/I’m a bit unsure” text box in the beginning. In the harder variant, tutorials will be skipped automatically, trainers will have higher AI, and better teams. However, I don’t think higher levels is a perfect foil, because that can just be beat with grinding, and grinding is boring. Also, I’d have to guess the main reason why Gamefreak didn’t do this in the first place is that trading Pokemon would differ a bit between difficulties with different level curves, although apart from it just sounding like a bad thing I’m struggling to think of a genuine reason why it is. But, for the sake of playing, grinding sucks. It’s not fun, and I honestly think you shouldn’t just bump up levels and call it difficulty, because you don’t actually need skill to beat a higher level, just a better level and maybe RNG. But, if you actually had to effectively train a team of more than six, with Pokemon you swap out depending on your opponent, you would actually need to think of how you play the game. I think the main reason Pokemon games are so easy is that you can basically choose whatever you want and do almost whatever and still win. Some fights, as far as my playstyle goes, are still decently challenging because I just choose what Pokemon I like and not as much what’s good (unless something genuinely just sucks), and those battles, even though I would probably get annoyed at losing over and over, feel so much more rewarding to beat. And, of course, that’s only like a few major fights. I’ve never had any real trouble with trainers. I only think I’ve had a bit of trouble with the elite trainers in Let’s Go because I always try to use my lowest level Pokemon first to level them up, and keep my team at completely even levels. If I always just switched in the foil to my opponent, which I inevitably had, I would almost never lose a single Pokemon, mostly because of the “switch” battle setting.

But of course that begs the question of Pokemon being balanced for children and inexperienced players. I know way too much about this game, so obviously it’s a piece of cake for me no matter what, and what I want is supposedly what would frustrate everyone else. But… again, just put in the choice. People can choose whether they want to be challenged, or if they just want to play Pokemon, and if they choose wrong that’s on them, not anyone else. They could just reset the game and try again on an easier difficulty. It’s crazy to have to vouch for this, since it’s a staple in pretty much every other game in existence. Even in my casual state, I want to play a harder Pokemon. I want to test myself. Online competition is a bit much for me, but the AI is too little. Even in me replaying Pearl right now, I’m trying to use weirder and weaker Pokemon than I usually use for difficulty, and even that game was mostly a cakewalk. I’m only stuck at the Elite Four because I was somehow super underleveled. In the generation where I experience the AI switching out the most, they still just do that at random and keep in certain Pokemon that get completely walled by what I have out, only for me to stall them to death. AI definitely should switch out (and I honestly can’t remember it happening once since Gen 5, if even then) so if anything, just give them a more solid switching ability. Considering we have the opportunity to switch in whatever we want when they are about to send out something, they really need to take advantage of the power of switching.

Gyms are a big piece of difficulty that falls apart 90% of the time. The gym puzzles are rarely hard, with only a few notable exceptions requiring major thought, like the Circhester, Snowbelle, Snowpoint, and Sootopolis gyms. See a pattern? Why the heck to Ice types/themes get the worst resistances yet the best gym puzzles? Otherwise, if you’re not just fighting trainers (which you were going to do anyway) you’re bashing your head against a wall until something sticks. The Trials of SM/USUM were universally a joke, and were it not for the Totem fight they would’ve actually made me mad by how easy they are, considering they had the opportunity to revamp the whole system and knock it out of the park.

As for the Gym Leader, assuming we have to stick with the idea that they can only use one type still, they really have to cover their bases. Like, a Water gym leader would really have to have Flying type moves or Pokemon to counteract the easy Grass weakness, or something. You can’t get to the top with just one single type and nothing else. I do kind of think a master with no specific type speciality should only be reserved for the Champion, since it makes them more special, and because it seems like any old trainer can become one if they beat the last one, meaning it’s illogical for too many of them to have one special type. I can appreciate the choice philosophies of the Gyms like Raihan and Volkner, and Flint of the Elite Four, where they do specialize in one type, but they have a lot of different Pokemon involved who only have moves of that type. It still feels consistent, but also more varied. Also, I love the 1v2 dynamic of Totem fight. Not only does it blatantly put you at a disadvantage, but since the battles aren’t explicitly type based, they can put together some seriously unique strategies, like the Sunny Day Castform partner to the Totem Lurantis. It’s literally the most basic plan you can formulate, but it sure as hell made that one of the hardest early boss fights in the series, at least for me. It was pretty good stuff. Too bad other bosses like the Ultra Necrozma fight was just kind of cheap, with a +1 to all stats and super high level… Better than nothing though.

Versions:

I get that it’s a staple of the franchise, but I really hate version exclusives/differences. They’re just dumb. Specifically the differences of Black 2 and White 2 pissed me off the most, because guess what? They did have difficulty options! But… they were version exclusive. Like White Kyurem more than Black Kyurem? Or, maybe Reuniclus is your favorite Pokemon? (not bitter) Well, too bad. You’re only allowed the expressly easier mode of the game, which you only unlock after beating it normally????? That’s just stupid. I’d sort of be okay with it if you unlocked easy mode after normal mode, then unlocking hard mode after beating easy mode (like how I thought it was before I looked it up), but limiting stuff like that is just ridiculous. I mean, it’s dumb to have to unlock an easy mode after beating the normal game to begin with. I’m honestly considering trying to beat easy mode without evolving any Pokemon though. Self-imposed difficulty is fun sometimes, but yeah…

Also, the differences of Sun and Moon also are dumb. Like playing in the day, but like Lunala more? Maybe Purple is your all-time favorite color and you want to wear it? Well, too bad. Go ahead and flip your 3DS’s internal clock around, messing up all other time based games you play. It’s a gimmick that transcends Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, and Dynamax.

Now, there’s a completely new problem: Some people bought the wrong expansion pass for their game. Because there were two versions, people literally just wasted money on absolutely nothing. To be fair, those people are blind idiots, but still. I really just want one version. Please.

The whole semi-in-grouping that happens when the version exclusive Pokemon are first revealed is kinda fun, but 90% of the time people have to settle for a few Pokemon they like and a few they don’t. For example, I bought Sword specifically because I like Zacian more, and the legendaries would be much harder to come by than other version exclusives. In the meanwhile, I preferred practically every other version exclusive over Sword’s, including but not limited to my boy Reuniclus. I don’t use old Pokemon in newer generations anyway, but it still sucks to have to choose like that.

It was obviously meant to give people much more to look for, since they physically can’t get some Pokemon, and have them interact with others to get them. The only problem is that we just have the Internet now. It doesn’t help to just ask someone online for a trade for a version exclusive. It’s just an extra stepping stone that really isn’t that fun to deal with.

I was originally going to say that the games/console cost more so less people would buy them, but considering SwSh absolutely knocked it out of the park, overselling even the highest selling games from the past, that’s clearly not an issue. My sister even bought Let’s Go Pikachu after buying Let’s Go Eevee for herself, since we both initially got Eevee. Thankfully she seems relatively into buying the games now, so we can coordinate and get different versions. That’s how I was able to complete my Pokedex for the first time in Sword (although obviously there’s less Pokemon to find). I think she even bought a separate Sword version for herself too… Is this what the average consumer is like?

Honestly all of this is just sort of subjective because really it’s not a big deal, but it would be so much less of a deal and make the games much more perfect and reasonable story wise if they just used one version. For example, Circhester is clearly an Ice-themed location, but in Sword you face a Rock gym leader, instead of the Ice one. And, the opposite is true in Stow-on-side, because Sword has the more logical gym with the boxing gloves punching you around and the tough city that feels as Fighting as Fighting could be without being a literal dojo. But, in Shield you face some Ghost kid. To be fair, I do like that version exclusivity is bleeding into some of the characters too, so if there is to be version exclusives at all let there be version exclusive characters, but it would just feel so much better to have it all sorted into one place. Also, to consider past installments, Ho-oh is clearly more important to the overall plot of the world than Lugia is, as shown by Ho-oh always being an important, mystical lore figure in the Anime and such, while Lugia is just like “Wow, there’s Lugia! So powerful!” Thankfully the plot didn’t entirely revolve around them, but it could’ve if they just focused on Ho-oh. 

Story:

Pokemon has definitely had its fair share of dumb stories, which is excusable because it’s not actually the focus of the game, but it doesn’t hurt to have.

You obviously can’t talk story without talking about Black and White. Also, you really can’t talk a Pokemon story without talking about the evil Team in each game, because they’re basically the entire motor for plot. Still, though, Team Plasma is easily the best Team in the franchise for story purposes. The biggest thing is that they seem like the most reasonable team, making them seem like people who are just so into their ideals that it looks like a cult. Also, in B2W2, they actually split up into the friendly division of Plasma, where they actually carry out their goals of wanting Pokemon to be happy and free, while Neo-Plasma does all the Team Rocket-level shenanigans that mess everything up. Not only is it just reasonable, but it answers a question that comes with the overall concept of the franchise: How can Pokemon want to battle for the sake of humans, etc? It doesn’t make sense, and naturally someone in the world would take that to the extreme when they realized it. It also makes sense why the grunts are so hellbent on wreaking havoc around Unova, because they are each led to truly believe what they are doing is right for the world. Other villains like Archie and Cyrus are just like “humans are bad, let’s destroy them” which is like a lite version of this idea, but it feels almost too supervillain-y to take seriously, and the grunts just feel like henchmen. Plasma feels just real enough, with somewhat level-headed people like N making it seem like they’re almost not crazy. 

People always say Team Rocket is the best, but even though their motives are so simple enough so as to seem real and good story-wise, they do feel like they don’t really add anything to the overall idea of Pokemon. At the time it was just “Pokemon are strong so bad people can use strong Pokemon for bad” which makes sense, but really doesn’t feel like it extends beyond that. Don’t get me wrong, I would say they’re objectively second best (because subjectively Galactic is my #1) but I do think Plasma is better.

Since they’re the most recent, Team Yell is the most nothing out of this list. That only makes them second worst, above Team Flare, who felt like they were trying to do something big but fell flat. Team Yell as the resident “evil Team” feels weird, because they do almost nothing. They are only similar to Skull on the surface, that being all rough-and-tumble teenager types, as underneath them being a toxic fanbase is somewhat interesting, but they, again… just felt like nothing. The plot wasn’t even close by to them, like with Skull was, being tied in with the Aether Foundation. They’re just there to be goons and go away. At least they did lead to the first Dark type gym leader, but again… their leader is a Gym leader. We would’ve seen him no matter what he did, so it feels less interesting. I do want the Team to actually do something.

The problem is that, since Plasma already did good, how do you do something that’s original but still good? To be honest, I want it to involve Foundations, like a morally good alternative archetype to the evil Team. Our first run-in with a Foundation was led astray by a crazy leader, but it seems like they’re still good overall, so I at least want to see more of them. Maybe instead of the Team searching for world domination by using the box legendary, maybe you and the Foundation have to search for the box legendary so they can help you defeat the Team, who may or may not have the third/another legendary on their side, and you have to prove yourself to it to get it to trust you. Sort of like Sword and Shield, but more involved. Zacian and Zamazenta just sort of appear when things go bad, and that’s it. You just hear stories about them before that. That’s at least better structure-wise, although the motives and themes would still have to be dealt with. There are so many possibilities there it’s hard to choose. 

One thing, though: I definitely believe that Pokemon was never even close to an open world game, and people thinking the new games are too linear compared to the old ones just have rose tinted glasses on. Kanto had bad crossing over, where you’d sometimes find yourself severely overleveled when interacting with a story event, and beyond that all other games were pretty linear too, with only a few slight special, optional areas that aren’t involved with the plot. Of course, I still think the game would benefit from being open world. Some games don’t have to be open world, and that makes them feel sort of empty, but Pokemon as an idea is exactly perfect for that. They were toying with the idea a bit with the Wild Area, and I do think if they really went crazy with that idea it could be fun. Everyone always wants to compare it to Breath of the Wild, but I do love how seamless everything is in that game. Even with the enemies popping up out of the grass/flying down from the air/just romping in a set area like Pokemon would. Gym leaders could just use different teams based on how many badges you have, like how they imply it works in that Pokemon Origins series. Then, you might be able to scale up the Pokemon you can find too that way, like with the Wild Area. BotW’s story was very light, but if you just either use a quest system/map markers you can still manage a decent story in an open world. Plus, Pokemon has a ton of side quests anyways, like all the ghost quests they always seem to put in. You can literally “get” the quest, get distracted, and completely forget you were even doing any sort of quest because they don’t remind you in any way. Side quests could even get you extra doses of EXP for your team, giving them a use.

The Gimmick:

I don’t want every generation to have a gimmick. Ideas are severely limited in that front, and when everyone’s special, no one is. 

Mega Evolution was kinda cool, as it improved on old Pokemon without making them another part of an evolutionary chain. Also, it lets some Pokemon get different forms with entirely different strategies to them (even if they’re version exclusive…) But, as someone who plays Pokemon for the monster designs themselves, I actually kinda don’t like it. No, not because Mega designs are bad, but because they completely trump the designs they evolve from. For example, Mawile isn’t just “Mawile” anymore. It’s more of a “Not-mega Mawile.” It feels so much less complete now that it has a form on top of it that isn’t permanent. Same goes for starters like Sceptile, who feels kind of boring compared to its Mega. It always sucks when a Pokemon you like evolves into something you don’t like (Popplio for me) and you have to deal with the fact that, even if you like a Pokemon, you aren’t supposed to keep it like that, and it’s brought down because of it. I mean, I guess this is all just personal. Obviously it’s easy to like an early evolution, but it feels so much better to like a final evolution. Since Megas are both temporary in battle, not available outside of battle, and limited to the very late game usually, liking a Mega feels kinda pointless for in-game purposes, where you interact with your Pokemon the most. Plus, for Pokemon like Mawile, you’re using an “incomplete” Pokemon for as long as you don’t have the right Mega stone. It’s obviously fine when all your other Pokemon are incomplete as well, but yeah… Just kinda sucks sometimes. Plus, anything achieved by Mega Evolutions could just as easily be achieved by normal evolutions. The only issue is Pokemon like Beedrill not being able to evolve again, and Pokemon like the starters or legendaries who are already too good to get another stage. I feel like weak, 3rd stage Pokemon like Beedrill deserve that kind of treatment the most, but no one else. If they can evolve normally, evolve them normally, and if they’re already too good, just let them be.

Then there’s Z-moves, which solves one problem of Mega-Evolution: All Pokemon can get involved. No matter what, your Pokemon can unleash super cool but sometimes questionably named moves. And, apart from new animations, the special Z-moves aren’t so insanely preferable to the normal ones. It’s cool, but if every Pokemon gets to use them, it kinda gets old after a while. Also, it’s a one-time use, so if you fuck it up it’s wasted. It’s definitely not perfect, but I will say I love the special Z-move animations, mainly because it’s not just Pokemon doing stock animations for a quick little attack. They animated that Pokemon specifically for this attack, which is basically a cutscene, and it always looks better. It is a bit strange, though, that even though Z-moves are seemingly named after Zygarde, it doesn’t even get a special Z-move of its own. That dude really got the shaft when it comes to 3rd legend attention...

Now we have Dynamax and Gigantamax. I just want to say that, when it first was revealed that you can turn your Pokemon into Kaiju I was extremely hyped. More hyped than I had any right to be. Considering nothing else, Dynamax definitely is the winner in terms of visual concept. Not only does it just look cool, but I love how Gym stadiums are designed specifically to accommodate them. It’s a nice touch of worldbuilding (even though it’s basically necessary). Unfortunately… It’s easily the Jack of all trades, master of none in terms of gameplay. It’s like Mega Evolution in how you change the appearance and power of your Pokemon, and it’s like Z-moves because they have super powerful moves with special effects. Sounds alright I guess, but I really just wish they kept the previous two gimmicks instead of just making a new one that checks them both off. Also, Gigantamax actually annoys me. They try to make it seem like your Pokemon changes, but the vast majority of them either look worse or hardly change at all. Specifically, Copperaja looks like an absolute joke, even though normal Copperaja is one of my favorites of the region. But, ones like Hatterene, Corviknight, Garbodor, and Grimmsnarl hardly look any different at all. Even Appultun and Flapple have the exact same Gigantamax. Who cares? Even their moves have almost exactly the same animations as their type’s counterparts, with a slightly different particle effect. It’s so much less interesting than they make it seem, and it has all the problems of liking Megas over their base, but worse, since they’re more temporary and only allowed in certain areas. Plus, Gigantamax isn’t even a thing possible with all members of a single species. Obviously now they’re introducing a way to change that, but at that point why not just do it Mega style? It’s not even that much better, but there’s so much more work in it. It’s like less rare shinies. It did bring about a decent event in the games, those being the Max Raid Battles, which both have good rewards and good challenge to them. I don’t have friends so they suck for me, but with friends it looks awesome.

I feel like the worst part is that they probably are just going to retcon these gimmicks in the future, like they did with the Pokedex. It makes sense, but each thing was made to be such a massive deal in their respective regions, it feels lame that they’re just gone now. 

But, oh my god. You have no idea. Regional Variants are the best thing to happen to Pokemon since, I dunno, whatever. They’re amazing, and something that should never leave the franchise ever. Like a Kantonian form more than an Alolan form? Sure. It’s still there with all its power, it just has a different style in this region. That is not only biologically logical, but it brings back interest in a Pokemon without outclassing the classics. Plus, now it feels like every single Pokemon has a possibility to shine that is both permanent and preserving of the original. I just can’t get enough of it. Then Sword and Shield introduced the idea of Regional Evolutions, which can be both plain evolutions and split evolutions from the normal form like with Cofagrigus and Runerigus, meaning the possibilities are endless. Then, even further, regional LEGENDARIES. It doesn’t make sense lore-wise but who cares, the new birds look awesome as all hell and I actually like them now. It’s so perfect, I don’t want anything more than this in future games. I would kill for some Sinnoh variants of post-gen 4 Pokemon in the remakes. Hell, I hope Sinnoh gets revamped with a ton of different options across the later generations so it feels significantly different from the originals. 

As for things like Primal Reversion, I honestly don’t even know. It’s even less significant than Gigantamax, but since it has more interesting lore I’m sort of fine with it. I do hope they use it for other legends too, especially since Palkia and Dialga are just asking for it, with their respective orbs, and Dialga already having the “Primal” title elsewhere. And yes, I know he’s called “Dark Dialga” in Japanese. 

If I may be so bold, I think a neat gimmick that can be both unique, interesting, and completely alter the strategies of battle, would be some sort of temporary type inversion. That is, everything going out of and coming into the inverted Pokemon will have reverse effectiveness. It’s like the fringe little Inverse battle you can go through in X/Y, but turned into a mechanic that’s inserted into normal battles. Visually, it would give the Pokemon a negative look, as in inverting their colors and shading. I don’t see how this could single out certain Pokemon in a special way, like with a form change or anything, but maybe there could be one specific Pokemon that has an ability that does something special when it inverts. Maybe items could be made for a special use too. I was sort of half-using it for a fan region I’m half-devoted to that will likely not be a full fledged idea, but I do like it.

Roadblocks/HMs:

I’m entirely fine with the way things are now, where you just get the HMs as key items you use whenever you want, but I can sympathize with the small contingent of people who like using their Pokemon to traverse the world, instead of anything else. I definitely think anyone who prefers HMs beyond that reason is an absolute lunatic, but I think there is some sort of a point to be made, and I think a combo of Let's Go and Sun and Moon have the answer. It is so much more fun to ride your Pokemon around than it is to get a bike (and put on some seriously ugly clothing, mind you), and I think Let's Go with giving you the option to ride your Pokemon instead of using a bike is seriously fun. I used a Rapidash almost exclusively for that purpose in my run of that game. Who the hell wouldn’t want to ride a Rapidash, assuming you weren’t going to catch fire? Plus, it’s YOUR Rapidash. Ride Pokemon in Sun and Moon were still pretty good, because they served functions you wouldn’t normally expect from HMs, like Tauros being both your bike replacement and Rock Smash, while Stoutland is a dowsing rod. It does get a bit weird when you “ride” a Machamp just so it can push rocks for you, but it’s better than forcing you to teach one of your team members a normal type move at the very end of the game since you absolutely need it to move on, and having to keep it until you can fly back to the move deleter. Honestly, if you could just delete HMs on the fly, they would be so much more acceptable. Still would be worse than what we have now tho.

Basically, I think Pokemon should have inherent HM abilities in them. That is, every single Tauros you catch can smash rocks, and every single Machamp you catch can push rocks. Each Pokemon would either be capable or incapable of a task, and you only need that species to go through it. That way, you’re both using your own Pokemon, while also not limiting their moves. It also makes it easy to tell why birds like Starly shouldn’t be able to carry you and fly you around, while birds like Staraptor can. I also think any road blocks using Rock Smash or Cut should be entirely optional, and for secrets only. In order to make Fly a limited option, maybe only fully evolved Fly-logical Pokemon can use it, so you can’t just fly somewhere in the early game. But, another thing: if you can fly early, so what? It’s not like you get extra options, you only can go back to places you’ve already been to. Even though it doesn’t make sense logically, it’s a very fair piece of game design that really doesn’t have a super obvious reason why it’s limited to the middle few gyms. If you have a strong bird that can pick you up, you obviously worked enough to get some convenience. 

But then, what would be a roadblock to keep you from going too far? A horde of dancing men? Honestly, that’s just one of those things fixed by my open world idea. Maybe some areas can be super strong so as to tell you that you shouldn’t be there, and maybe implement the idea of the Wild Area where you can’t catch the strong-looking Pokemon, but apart from that make most of the world scale up with you. Surely some areas would be slightly higher leveled then the rest, though, for the sake of variety. The Wild area does get a bit stale when literally everything you encounter is exactly lvl 60. Obviously there could be some pointless story-focused roadblocks that only clear when you progress, because that is how it is in real life. You can’t just walk into some business’ office unless you have business there. Of course, you can’t exactly walk into random strangers’ houses either, but still. 

I do want to praise ORAS again because the Soar feature with the Latis was extremely cool. It was like Ride Pokemon but using the objectively coolest possible HM to control. If they sort of nerfed the Fly mechanic and made it so you did have to ride your Pokemon and fly them there like the Latis I wouldn't mind that at all. Although, surely some other people would...

Other Bits:

- I still think that, even though having every Pokemon in the game would be great, I think if it can improve the game elsewhere I wouldn’t mind them saving some space. The problem is that Sword and Shield really wasn’t the best way to suggest it would vastly improve anything. I’ve gone on ad nauseam elsewhere about that so bleh

- I love seeing Pokemon in the overworld. I do think it would benefit from the Let’s Go treatment, where you can at least see if a Pokemon is shiny or not. Either way, it gives them so much more personality, like how some charge head-first at you while some walk up and casually examine you.

- I don’t really care too much about Pokemon following you to be honest. It would obviously be preferred over the alternative, but I’m not gonna riot if it doesn’t happen. It did give a lot of personality I didn’t expect in Lets Go, like Bellsprout being so darn speedy.

- I could probably make a whole nother giant rant about the overall designs of Pokemon but needless to say I’m fine with it overall. I do sort of wish they’d do something else with the starters though, since I haven’t genuinely loved a starter since Gen 4. Honestly Chesnaught was pretty close, but I still get the urge to replace him with something more interesting. Outside of them, though, I think things are going good. Some are duds, but some are bangers like Corvinight, Grimmsnarl, Hatterene, Frosmoth, and a bunch of others which I could easily list but this is supposed to be succinct comments so

- There definitely has to be some sort of endgame content, but everyone already knows that. Seriously though, what if the colosseums from PBR become the replacement Battle Frontier? That would be dope. Although the normal Battle Frontier would be fine too, I guess…

- PBR PBR PBR. PBR is great for it’s realistic sizes of Pokemon. If you’re going to use full-size models of humans, the Pokemon should match. Or, at least make it a little more true to reality. Yes, Wailord is too damn small.

[teaveetamer]

Alright just for fun Ima rank my personal preferences when it comes to Pokemon gens.

1) Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald

Admittedly this might be a bit of nostalgia talking since these were the first games I really played as a kid, but idc I love them. Archie and Maxie are kind of ridiculous but Hoenn is such a wonderful region that’s interesting and intuitive to explore, the music is pretty kickass, and it’s full to the brim with Pokemon that I absolutely adore.

Main criticism: 7/10 Too Much Water (Also I was not the biggest fan of ORAS as remakes).

2) Black, White, Black 2, and White 2

I’ll admit I wasn’t too keen on these ones when they first came out, but now that they’ve had quite some time to sit I gotta say I love them. IMO this is the last Pokemon game that really took risks, what with having the largest cast of new ‘mons since Gen 1 (and Black and White actually forced you to use them). Admittedly some of the new ‘mons were a bit hit or miss, but with such a large cast there’s at least a lot of cool ones to choose from. I also really wish they’d revisit the sequel idea at some point, getting to explore Unova again from a different angle was truly something special.

Oh, and I’d say Team Plasma is probably, like, the least ridiculous of all the evil teams (barring maybe Rocket, since at least they’re just a gang without world ending aspirations). It honestly had some pretty interesting characters and character focus that I wish more Pokemon games would do.

Also I really liked PokeStar Studios. Sue me.

Main Criticism: A little too linear at points. I know they were trying to phase out HMs, but it did create a sort of annoying situation.

3) Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

Also perhaps a bit of nostalgia but Sinnoh is an excellent region. Another roster of kickass new pokemon, including some new evolutions to give some of the older ‘mons a bit of an upgrade. Another thing I really wish they’d revisit at some point. There’s also lots of neat little nooks and crannies to explore, and the series’s best rendition of pokemon contests. The little areas with the AI partners and forced double battles were also really cool, IMO.

Main criticism: Not enough new Fire Type ‘mons.

4) Gold, Silver, Crystal (+Heart Gold and Soul Silver)

Crystal was technically my first Pokemon game, though I was too young to really play it properly. I know HGSS are technically remakes but I don’t think I’d like the originals so much if they didn’t get such fantastic remakes. Everything about HGSS is absolutely amazing. Pokeathalon was a fun diversion from the main game, two regions in one game was amazing, and the cute little ‘mons following you around were amazing. Buuut if we go just by the original games then they’re definitely lower on the list, just by virtue of being older games without a lot of the little modernizing touches and QoL fixes we got down the line.

Main Criticism: I find the game generally enjoyable, it just didn’t really grab me like some of the higher games on this list did.

5) FireRed and LeafGreen (with a special shoutout to Let’s Go! Eevee)

I actually didn’t play the original RBY until I was an adult, but I think by now we all know those games were being held together with scotch tape and hope. Kanto, as the OG region, has a special place in a lot of people’s hearts but I just… can’t really get that into it anymore. I mean I enjoy it, but given GameFreak’s incessant need to throw the OG 151 into everything I’m just kind of bored of the region and the ‘mons that came with it.

I will say that the Let’s Go games really spiced things up with the visible map pokemon, following/ride pokemon, different catching system, boxlink letting you switch up your party on the fly, and the adorable as fuck little partner you get to have riding around on your shoulder the whole time. Not to mention the fun little post-game challenges for the completionists out there.

Main criticism: Overuse. Also Let’s Go only included the original 151, even though many gen 1 ‘mons got evolutions or pre-evolutions in future titles. Would have liked to have seen those carried over. Was also not a fan of the lack of breeding or GTS to make certain Pokemon easier to obtain.

6) Sword and Shield

Might just be recency bias, but I did really have a lot of fun with this game. A lot of the locations were really beautiful and I really hope they bring back a big, explorable wild area type thing in the future. It’s one of those things that Pokemon always should have had, but you don’t realize how good it is until you’ve got it. The new ‘mons were probably my favorite new cast introduced in the most recent three gens. Also the clothes perfectly captured my bum aesthetic and I appreciate.

Unfortunately this game loses a lot of points with me because of just how unfinished it is. The towns were woefully small and the story was pretty non-existent. It just screams of a game execs wanted to push out to reach a deadline.

Main Criticism: Obviously unfinished. Probably my least favorite collection of starters ever.

7) X and Y

Honestly the last two slots are pretty interchangeable for me, but I will say I had a lot more fun with X and Y than I did with Sun and Moon. Even if it’s not my favorite I have replayed it at least once, which is not an honor I can give to Sun and Moon.

That said… I just hated a lot of the things X and Y did. I hated megas (and how they were forcibly shoved into ORAS), I was not a huge fan of Fairy type, the rollerskates were fucking stupid, the story was dumb, and just like Sword and Shield there were a lot of “this is clearly unfinished” moments. Granted there were less than Sword and Shield, but they were definitely still there. This was also the first gen to start the “less than 100 new pokemon per gen” tradition.

I’ll also say that this is the first gen where “exclusions” started to become really noticeable. Newer gens always removed features from older gens, but it was usually small stuff or side stuff like contests or the pokeathalon. This time around they put in a whole ass core gameplay  feature (megas) only to completely remove them two gens later with very little explanation.

That said, Kalos was a really beautiful region on the whole. PokeParis is probably the best “massive city” that Pokemon has ever done.

A Random Compliment: They finally added sitting to a Pokemon game god bless.

8) Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon

Ridiculous amounts of handholding, small cast of new pokemon, very few Pokemon I was actually tempted to use, and a region I was very meh on. Island trials really didn’t interest me. IMO they didn’t do enough to mix up the formula, it was very much still a Pokemon Game going through the Pokemon Game motions, just with a slightly different coat of paint.

I also find the existence of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon insulting. X and Y were unfinished, but they didn’t then try to sell you the improved version one year after the release of the original at full price.

I know the existence of third versions is a bit controversial, but they didn’t bother me that much with Gens 1-4. Yellow was completely it’s own thing, and Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum were just improving on already extremely solid games. Sun and Moon made me feel like a beta tester. I was honestly so disgusted I’ve still never finished playing Ultra Sun to this day.

Biggest Fucking Criticism: They took away my ability to sit?! One gen after they introduced the magic of sitting?!

[kotekie]

Colress and redemption

A ramble by me here we mc go.

Key point that needs to be made really clear.

I am not talking about whether colress deserves to be redeemed. That is a different topic and I'm just focusing on how I find a colress redemption arc to be so gosh darn fascinating.

Secondly, this is focusing upon game Colress. Anime and manga not included.

Thirdly, I have not completed bw2 or sun and moon but I did do my best to research everything and I reread all his dialogue on bulbapedia before doing this ramble.

All clear? Okay let's go.

In my honest opinion Colress is an absolutely fascinating character to have a redemption arc and honestly skipping over it I find to be a crime.

Colress is a grey character. That's kinda his whole deal but let's be honest his shade of grey... is a bit darker considering bw2 events. Then again it is... difficult to write a purely grey character. Overall. He is a grey character.

He's not the typical character you would want to see a redemption arc for. Typically those types of characters have some kind of tragic element, I.e good character turned bad due to traumatic event. Usually they have someone to pull them back or try to help them become better.

Colress has no one.

The closest bond Colress has to anyone is Ghetsis and I'll get to him later.

Sure Colress works with people but he never really has any friends. Nor any family from what we see.

He is alone.

This is important because Colress is very influenced by certain people. Mainly, people whom he holds some kind of respect for.

No more is this evident then in Bw2. It's by his interactions with Ghetsis the plasma frigate incident happens. It's by his interactions with the bw2 protagonist that he starts to change and eventually disbands team plasma.

We even see the influence of the bw2 protagonist in alola. He referers to 'that trainer he once met' and he mentions that its bonds between humans and pokemon that draws out the full power between humans and pokemon as he had learnt in BW2. Yet even in Alola he is still doing pokemon fusion. Which is. Well. Not the best thing to put simply. Which, is a remnant of Ghetsis's influence.

Speaking of which.

I am not suggesting Colress and Ghetsis are friends. At all. What I am saying... is that Ghetsis is likely the closest thing Colress had to a friend.

I am not going to debate whether or not he actually despises Ghetsis but I will say that he does somewhat care for him. This comes from his line in ultra sun and moon where after yeeting RR Ghetsis back into his world he says "I can only hope that the taste of defeat will keep that Ghetsis out of trouble in his world" which if you think about it... That is a very odd thing to say about someone like Ghetsis unless on some level you care about them.

That's something sad I found about Colress. In game Ghetsis is probably the closest thing he has to a friend. Perhaps maybe the bw2 protag but it never seems to evolve into a friendship or develop to a deeper level then the one he has with Ghetsis and I'll explain why I think so later.

You could argue he cares about the ultra sumo protags and lillie but I would like to bring up the possibility that he only cares about them because they would be useful for his research. After all the protags can use z moves and gets a legendary. That would be useful to his research.

All in all... I think this leads to a key component about Colress. He doesn't understand bonds between people and pokemon beyond a very basic level. It's limited. No more is this clear then in his research.

He focuses in on power.

He says his theme of research is to draw out the true 'potential' in pokemon. Yet often he talks about drawing out a pokemons power.

You could argue that Colress is actually seeking to draw out the full power of pokemon not potential. I would like to bring up the possibility that he does mean potential but to him potential = power.

He has a narrow view on what potential means. Just like he has a narrow view on relationships.

He fails to see that a pokemons potential is not just power but the ability to change, grow, help others and so on.

With relationships, he thinks it about mutual trust. Trust is important but it's the groundwork. Work colleagues trust each other. Friendships go a bit beyond trust. Its loyalty, understanding and comfort, dedication and being able to be vulnerable around each other.

This also makes his bond between Ghetsis to me is quite sad.

We know that Colress prioritises his research above everything. It's kinda his whole thing. He works with people who will provide him with what he needs with his research.

Yet. He still Hope's that rr ghetsis doesn't get in trouble in his own world. A ghetsis that would provide no benefit to him yet he still doesn't want him to get into trouble. Colress cares about Ghetsis.

But as we know, Ghetsis is a manipulator and doesn't care about anyone but himself.

We know that Colress is influenced by the people he respects. Is it that far fetched that his warped views on pokemon potential and relationships came from his bond with Ghetsis? After all we do that Ghetsis's influence is still prevalent is sumo considering he willingly made a device for poke fusion. Again.

This is why I don't think he formed a friendship with the bw2 protag. If he did I don't think his views would be so narrow.

We see the potential. In bw2 he says when the player rebattles Colress that he is uncertain of where to go next but when he battles the protagonist the future seems clearer. If they had become friends he would have become better. He has the potential to become redeemed.

This is why I find the idea Colress having a redemption arc so fascinating. He has the potential to do so and surprisingly it easy.

He can become better. He just needs a better influence.

Yes I am saying the power of friendship can turn Colress its cheesy but there ya go.

I very much love the idea of a character learning to be good via the bonds they share with other people. Plus Colress's transformation wouldn't be quick it would be slow and take time. It's small acts that build up to make a massive change and personally I would love to read it tlajkssn.

But um ye.

Dats pretty much it.

Bonus: (abuse mention below)

I don't think Ghetsis abused Colress. Ghetsis is a tactical man. I agree he did likely abuse N but he would have done it in a way to brainwash N into thinking what he wanted him to think.

Ghetsis needs Colress's loyalty and it's really quite simple on how to do it. Fund his research.

However I do think that Ghetsis may want revenge. Colress is no longer useful so it's pretty much up in the air what he may do to him.

Also, Colress has never met N. N is the exact person Colress would want helping him in his research and Ghetsis would have known this. Having the two interact could prove disastrous to his plans as Colress would have told him that humans and pokemon can get along and N would've helped Colress in his research far more then Ghetsis ever could.

Also post bw N would have been the positive influence Colress would have needed to become redeemed just saying.

Sequel post:

Update post for story based on my analysis:

Edit: hey this is Koteki from the future just adding to a link to an analysis that helped fuel my own- I recommend you have a read through it cause it's very good. In these analysis I tried to keep it to my own thoughts but it was inspired by this analysis so here-

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13321335?view_adult=true

[mochasnake]

Seemingly unpopular opinion

And I sorta hate to say it but, I really like Sword and Shield.

I came into this game expecting to hate it and honestly sort of scared to because I've literally played every gen since the beginning. With all the hate toward this one I didn't expect it.

Sure, the direction you're given is a lot more linear than past games and the dialogue is a little weird (aka Leon and Sonia telling you to continue your Gym Challenge despite literal all hell breaks loose around you) but theres a lot of things I actually like about the game.

1. The Wild Area

I love that the game suggests you back track in order to grind since the Wild Area is more full and useful for grinding levels than the routes in the game.

I also love all of the spuratic weather patterns in the wild area so theres constantly different Pokemon in certain areas.

Despite Dexit, there's a good range of Pokemon to find in the game (not just in the Wild Area). I also like that they actually made some Pokemon new and old harder to find and under certain conditions so despite their only being 400 Pokemon, there will be a little more challenge catching them all.

Pokemon chasing you is also really funny.

2. Character

Hop. Hop is actually such a good rival. He's a breath of fresh air to me from the last few gens where the rivals had little to no character development (sorry Hau). Hop goes through a literal crisis through the game, albeit watered down since it's a kids game obviously. After being beaten by Bede and being dragged down by him, he questions if even really wants to go on anymore.

The gym leaders are such fun characters! As a Shield player I enjoyed shy Allistor and Opal is honestly hilarious. Again to contrast Sun and Moon where it felt like the island kahunas didn't have much character to them other than just being there. You even get cards with their backstories!

Leon and Sonia are awesome guides as well.

3. The Pokemon

I had some strong opinions about the Pokemon designs in this gen and as did a lot of people I feel. I complained and complained that a lot of these Pokemon didn't even look like Pokemon anymore. In all reality though, that isn't even the truth. I think people started complaining more and more progressively since Black and White, but since then everyone has gotten used to the look of them. These Pokemon aren't worse than any designs we have had before, the style is just changing. It always will be.

4. Complaints

I think one of the only complaints I have aren't even about the graphics or the scale of Pokemon or whatever (I'm a simple goat. I'm used to just using my imagination for sprites and I just appreciate they were able to bring them to life in 3D). It's the pacing of the story. I feel like it could've been slowed down a bit. There's so much I'm interested in, so much I wanna know. I wanna see the build up more clearly of Sonia collecting all the evidence for a solid theory on the Darkest Day and the heroes, I wanna see Hop questioning why he's doing the Gym Challenge, I wanna see Bede's slow descent into madness as he does everything to please Rose, and I wanna see Marnie questioning whether she should take her brother's place as the gym leader or not. I also just want to see more of the gym leaders! They're such interesting characters that seem like they have a lot to say, including to each other.

I haven't finished the game yet but these are just my thoughts as I near the end of the main game. I think this game is a lot better than people want to make it out to be and it kind of breaks my heart. I know tensions have been high and building between fans and Game Freak for a while, but we don't have to rip apart one of our favourite series' because it's not up to our huge and rising expectations. Do I think that Game Freak could have done better? Yes. But do I think the fans are at fault? Yes. No ones right in all of this drama. On one hand, Game Freak needs to build themselves up for a main console system and reevaluate their system of making games but on the other, fans need to be more understanding. I know we want the best for a game series we grew up on, but hostility isn't a way to go about this at all.

Sorry for the long post but I just thought I needed to say something about the game.

Tldr, Pokemon Sword and Shield aren't that bad of games.

PS, Unpopular opinion that Inteleon is a good Pokemon.