#i want them to never to legends unova but instead make it so every new legends game they hit a random unova char with time displacement

[mamanbou]

love that Legends is a full on series because now its just gonna be like every couple years one region's fans get a free perpetual angst fanart generator in the form of its protag being ripped away from their time and all their loved ones by God itself

[zaptap]

i absolutely think we're due for unova remakes very soon, likely as the next game, but idk if they'll announce them before sv dlc is out of the way. seems like more of a pokemon day "this is what we're throwing out there this year" thing

seen people clinging to the idea that they do remakes every other gen but, so far, ALL first-time remakes (i.e. not lgpe) have happened 2 hardware generations after the originals

gb (rgby) to gba (frlg)

gbc (gsc) to ds (hgss)

gba (rse) to 3ds (oras)

ds (dpp and bwbw2) to switch (bdsp.... and _b_w?)

the ds was just when they started cramming 2 pokemon gens into one hardware gen so now that we're getting into ds remakes they'll probably happen every pokemon gen now

and if they continue having ilca or whoever churn out unambitious remakes then maybe game freak will keep putting legends games out around the same time.

arceus felt to me like it had pieces of what we've come to expect from pokemon remakes--the new stuff--so i think of it as being in a remake-adjacent category i'm calling a "reimagining." meanwhile bdsp avoided having much new stuff and instead provided an overly faithful recreation of the original games with graphical upgrades and gameplay modernizations and little else

are they going to do another ilca remake paired with a legends game? maybe. since legends was kind of an experiment, and succeeded, maybe they could try to work some elements into the actual remake this time. also after how glitchy bdsp was (more specifically, all the weird stuff they had to do with home compatibility to stop those Evil Cheaters) maybe they won't trust ilca with that again. or maybe they'll give them another chance, since game freak started out with a glitch-filled game too and maybe they've learned? idk

and what about bw2? so far they've been able to put things into the remakes to reflect things from the third versions (though bdsp really could've had a lot more from platinum) but how do you do an entire extra story with different protagonists and a 2 year time skip? they can't get away with just giving us bw2 outfits. $60 absolutely should cover both bw and bw2 in one, but i kind of doubt they'll do it. dlc maybe i guess? though that was a popular theory for platinum in bdsp that went nowhere, so who knows

alternatively i suppose they could release a bw remake as a single game and bw2 as another (remember how bdsp was found to be the same rom, just with a marker that determined the version? it would kind of make sense to do) but also that's kind of insane because you've never been expected to buy both games before, but in this scenario you'd have to to get the full experience. evil. too evil for tpci i think, but i suppose they could always get worse. i guess in that sense having a dual release of b+b2/w+w2 seems a bit more likely, dlc or not? if they don't almost entirely ignore bw2, that is

either way, i'm expecting unova soon. one week before black friday 2024 if tpci keeps insisting on their blatantly money-hungry release schedule they've been sticking pretty closely to for almost a decade now. would prefer they take more time, but i don't expect them to

........wait. i forgot. it actually might be johto's turn next. hgss is older than gen v, after all. whether that's going to be something with pokemon go elements mixed in again (isn't that game kind of on a decline now? idk) or something different, they might do something

so i guess 2024 johto, 2025 unova? wow idk. who give a shit tbh. point is both are probably somewhere on the horizon (though, unova is more certain i'd say since lgpe is just one game so we have no idea what kind of pattern those second-round remakes might take. maybe it was just a one-off)

anyway i've been wanting to replay gen v more and more for the past couple years but i haven't been able to make time for it yet. odds are i won't until at least when the remakes are coming. i replayed platinum shortly before bdsp released (actually started a couple months before it was announced...) and that was a mistake. bdsp was ok (though bad by pokemon standards) but it felt like playing the same game back to back except worse (very different from when i played ruby before oras, and yellow before lgpe). don't want to do that again so i guess i'll wait at this point

[punz4lyfe]

Wasted Plotential: Pokemon Journeys Beginning

While Pokemon Journeys has certainly proved to be quite unique when compared to other series in the Pokemon Anime, one thing that has particularly bugged me for a quite a while was the beginning. Now don’t get me wrong, the beginning isn’t “bad” in any way, it’s just that when looking at it, I just feel there could’ve been a bit more done to it. So for this post, I’ll be going over the first two episodes of Pokemon Journeys and what I would do to change them to make them stand out more. I would do a little more than that, but considering more important events happen in those episodes (such as the introduction of Galar and Goh’s capturing of Scorbunny), I think I’ll just leave it at the first two to keep things a little more simple. So without further ado, here we go.

Episode #1: Enter Pikachu!

There’s not really much to change in the first episode. Pikachu’s backstory is fine as it is, as well as Goh and Chloe’s side of the plot as it properly introduces their characters and distinct personalities. Ash, however, is on another story.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but Ash is really treated like a joke throughout the first episode. Sure, this is way before the canon plot of the series even begun where he has shown to be much more capable and competent once he gets older, but seriously, first episode and you’re gonna write him off as a joke even when he just won his first regional league in the present? C’mon.

Anyways, just like in the episode proper, Ash wakes up too late to properly Professor Oak’s Summer Camp. He tries to leave the house in his pajamas, but this time, he is stopped by Delia, not wanting her son to humiliate himself in public. While he argues a bit at first, he soon relents and sulks back up to his room. To pass time, Ash sadly scrolls through a small booklet filled with pictures of Pokemon. Delia notices her son’s miserable state, so she walks back down to the first floor and the scene ends with her picking up a phone, dialing in Professor Oak’s number.

When the episode focuses back on Ash, he is still upset in his room for having to miss Oak’s Summer Camp. That is, until his mother comes back from downstairs to tell him some good news: Professor Oak will be having another Summer Camp session within the next few weeks and she had already signed her son up for it via a message she left on Oak’s phone from her previous phone call. The news excites Ash and Delia quickly reminds him to wake up early next time and never try to walk through Pallet Town in his pajamas. Ash eagerly ensures her that he would never be caught running around in his pajamas in public (which we, as the audience, knows that’s a blatant lie) and he grabs a random bandana from his drawers and proclaims it as a good luck charm to help him make it to the next session on-time, with the bandana being the same one he will give to Serena. With his vigor restored, Ash’s backstory part of this episode ends with him looking through the Pokemon booklet again, wondering to himself the many Pokemon he could come across at camp, such as Poliwag or Rapidash, a reference to the times he saw those Pokemon in flashbacks from the Diamond & Pearl and XYZ series.

With these minor changes, the episode’s narrative is hardly changed, Ash is treated with a bit more respect, and the some continuity of other flashback shown in previous series is established.

Episode #2: Legend? Go! Friends? Go!

Here’s when the changes really pick up.

At the beginning of the episode when it shows Ash’s many accomplishments from his past adventures, alongside that shot, we also get a little flashback montage of some of Ash’s most proudest battles, with those battles being against the likes of Lt. Surge, Drake, Gary, Noland, Spenser, Brandon, Paul, Trip, Sawyer, Alain, Gladion, and Kukui, usually showcasing his more iconic mons, such as Pikachu, Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape, Oshawott, Greninja, Hawlucha, Rowlet, Lycanroc, and Torracat. I mean, if the manga wasn’t afraid to showcase Ash’s old mons, I don’t see why the anime itself would be.

When Ash makes it to Oak’s Lab, instead of with only having Pikachu in his party, Ash goes to the ranch to withdraw 5 Pokemon. It honestly doesn’t make sense for Ash to only have Pikachu alone in his party when he’s not going on any big and particular adventure at the moment. Since he’s most likely been at Kanto for a hot minute and since we all know that Ash treasures all of his Pokemon, it would honestly make a lot of sense for Ash to rotate 5 random Pokemon every day from Oak’s ranch when he’s not traveling in order to keep every his mons in tip-top shape and show that he still loves being by their side. Otherwise, it kinda just makes Pikachu’s little tantrum later down Journeys look even more OOC and inconsiderate as it already is. Anyways, since he will attending a Kanto-related celebration, the 5 mons Ash brings with him are Bulbasaur, Charizard, Kingler, Muk, and Tauros, promising Bulbasaur he will return him to Oak’s Lab as soon as he can in order to ensure Bulbasaur’s peacekeeping duties. He also has Bulbasaur out of his Pokeball for the time being, giving Ash’s iconic and first-ever grass-type some more screen time.

Ash, Delia, Mimey, and Oak make it to the lab and that’s when Ash comes across Cerise’s Yamper. Instead of pulling an incredibly OOC moment by invading a clearly defensive Pokemon’s space, Ash simply just keeps his distance while gently beckoning the unfamiliar mon to come to him for a pet. Yamper is, of course, distrustful, but after some reassurance from Pikachu and Bulbasaur, Yamper soon approaches Ash and happily allows the trainer to pet him while making friends with his two outside mons as well. Yamper soon suddenly jumps back up to its feet to run past Ash and return to Chloe’s side, setting up for an awkward introduction instead of Chloe being an inconsiderate jerk by leaving a person her Pokemon clearly has attacked left stranded alone without even calling for help or checking on him. Ash asks her if Yamper’s her Pokemon and she just says “no”. Ash then tries to introduce himself, Pikachu, and Bulbasaur, but Chloe, not wanting much to do with the sudden stranger, simply walks right past them to return home, with the only thing she says being a subtle, but polite “excuse me”.

Ash soon regroups with Oak and the rest of the episode plays on the same way up until the encounter with Lugia. When Ash tries to make his way to the Legendaries location, he has Charizard fly him to its location. The rough winds occurring as a byproduct of Lugia’s presence kinda messes up Charizard’s flight path, justifying Ash’s late arrival compared to other trainers. Upon arriving to Lugia’s location, Ash decides to watch from the side, marveled at both the Johto Legendary and the many powerful Pokemon used by the other trainers. When Lugia begins to take off, Ash gets back on Charizard to follow it, which Lugia, being a friendly mon, sees that Ash and his Pokemon mean no harm and happily flies alongside them. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is when Ash meets Goh.

Ash finds him holding onto Lugia’s tail for dear life, so he helps him onto Charizard’s back. Goh, seeing Ash, becomes a bit stargazed upon seeing a trainer about his age with such a powerful Pokemon as Charizard. Before any former introductions can be, Ash suddenly hears Charizard roar for him and he turns around to see Lugia looking right at him and Goh before slightly turning its backside towards them. While Goh is confused, Ash quickly gets the message that it wants to take them for a ride, so he takes Goh’s hand and leaps onto Lugia’s back with Pikachu while Bulbasaur stays behind on Charizard in order to keep an eye out for their trainer in case something goes wrong. At first, Goh is scared out of his mind until Ash ensures him that Lugia means no harm. The montage of Lugia soaring around with Ash and Goh plays the same for the most part, with a little comedic moment added in when Lugia takes its passengers underwater, causing Bulbasaur to panic before Charizard calms him down, knowing that Lugia is just having fun. Ash and Goh then introduce themselves to each other and once they are left at the flower field, Goh panics due to having no idea how to get home until Ash calmly ensures him that they could just ride Charizard.

The two return to the lab and as soon Charizard touches the ground, Goh collapses out of exhaustion and relief, given the fact that he’s never flown on a Lugia or Charizard before. Yamper greets both Ash and Pikachu in a friendly manner and then we go into Cerise recruiting Ash and Goh. He’s impressed at Goh’s footage and states to himself that he is indeed of some enthusiastic research assistants, which is when Oak steps to inform Cerise that Ash himself has already traveled through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola (which surprises both Goh and Chloe), so he could definitely be of some good use thanks to his previous adventures in those regions. Not only that, Delia also steps in to state how much of a strong trainer Ash is before whispering to Cerise’s ear that he’s Alola’s Champion. I would make a version where she says it out load for Goh and Chloe to hear, but for now, I think I’ll just leave it as a surprise in case the canon anime does that as well. With more than enough reason, Cerise recruits Ash and then, to Goh’s shock, does the same for him, noting that being an assistant could be beneficial to the beginning of his trainer career. The two boys are then introduced to their dorm room (with Ash humbly allowing Goh the top bunk instead of fighting over it like a 6-year old), Delia leaves Mimey with Ash to help take care of him, Ash gives his other 5 mons’ Pokeballs to Oak to return to the ranch since he now has a new adventure (and thus an actual reason to start from scratch with Pikachu again), and Delia and Oak then make their exit. While Delia still reminds Ash to eat healthy and brush his teeth (because that’s what moms do), she doesn’t ask Goh to watch over her son in my version, considering it would be stupid to say that since Ash is leagues above Goh and that’s why she left Mimey at the lab in the first place. Instead, it’s the other way around, with Oak asking Ash to watch over Goh, pointing out that he’s new which Ash promises, much to Goh’s embarrassment. And then the rest of the episode plays out the same way as it did originally. (seriously, what was this episode’s love for embarrassing Ash 24-7 like he’s Dan freaking Hibiki?)

Closing

It honestly really bugs me on how much Ash, the main character of the anime series, is treated like an utter joke throughout the first two episodes of Journeys. If it wasn’t for his past achievements being shown at the beginning of the second episode, one unfamiliar with his character could easily mistake him as just as much as a beginning as Goh and Chloe due to his constant immature behavior that leads him making mistakes that he should be more than smart to not do (invading Yamper’s space, arguing over a simple bunk, etc.), and sadly, this is kinda an overall issue for Journeys as a whole, but that’s another story. Ash just conquered the Alola League, he should be portrayed as a mature, yet fun-loving mentor, not someone who could easily pose as Goh’s younger brother behavior-wise or a kid Chloe has to babysit.

[gingermintpepper]

Things About Leon

I guess I’m firmly in the Leon boat now so let’s do this. 

I’m pretty new to the Sword/Shield discourse(?) community (and wow, that feels weird to say) but I’ve been generally disinterested in SwSh as games until now and, to be fair, I am still largely neutral towards them. There are a couple things that have piqued my attention here and there, and by far, the biggest has been the Champion of the Galar Region Leon. 

Leon, to me, is absolutely fascinating. He’s young, not as young as Iris mind you, but young enough that when he became Champion he couldn’t have been older than 16. He made it to Champion in one shot. He’s never been beaten which means that he would’ve gotten to the top on his maiden journey. Leon seems to me, to be around N’s age (which is roughly 19) and that makes his design take on a lot of different meanings depending on how you look at it. 

I’m not overly fond of his clothes but they tell a good story--one of Leon not really being his own person or having the freedom to express his own desires and sense of self. And that slaps. 

Let’s start with the Sponsor Stickers. 

Leon’s cape is a huge literal red flag that he’s not his own person. He’s wearing a weighted reminder that he has sponsors, that he’s the face of multiple companies, that every action and word he makes or says has the power to change the course of his career based on how his sponsors feel on a given day about a given action. He has to keep up this larger than life persona constantly, has to keep mentioning his tag lines like his winning streak, his undefeatableness because that’s his brand. That’s what he represents. An paragon of Galar’s unconquerable strength in the battle ring.

Then we have his general design and hhhh

I just want to reiterate that there’s no way Leon isn’t young. He’s too close to Hop for there to be a considerable age difference between them and little pieces of himself like his snapback are markers of his age and his actual taste in fashion. That said, it looks like his main outfit was put together by three different sponsor companies and he doesn’t really have a choice in whether to wear them or not. In fact, I’m pretty sure Leon digs the clothes. 

They keep the attention in the right place. 

Leon’s not an unattractive guy (and by the looks of it, the majority of Pokefans agree with that assessment) but if he had become an icon/phenomenon/idol at such a tender age then with it comes a lot of creepy attention that Leon definitely would’ve felt uncomfortably with. Media, magazines, selfies, social coverage all of these things are huge in Galar and the image that Leon would’ve had superimposed on him by people who thought him hot/daddy af/any other number of deplorable terms you can probably think of would’ve had to be controlled really quickly if Leon wanted any chance of being treated like a person instead of a piece of meat. Being an overgrown kid, a show-off athlete type, a larger than life persona to fit the larger than life legend that his backers were crafting for him when he would’ve just been a kid who loved battling--that’s infinitely more comfortable. 

There’s like a million other things I can talk about too; Leon hiding just how sharp he is (see him being able to rattle off exactly how much Hop’s grown since he last saw him down to the inch just by eyeballing him for a sec), the amount of pressure that must come with an ‘Undefeatable’ moniker, the way he keeps pushing himself to be better and whether that’s to preserve his title or for the love of Pokemon training, hell if I know. My point is, I’d love to see Leon turn out to be a weird commentary on the fact that Champion is handed out so fast and loose. The Champion of a region carries with them the hopes and dreams of that region, and the image that Champion portrays is ultimately what ends up being sort of the identity of that region. It’s something that’s rang through for every region before and it’s something that rings through now. 

Green was the culmination of your story. A strong and personal beginning that imprinted itself on the heart with a strong and personal struggle to the top.  Lance was stern and intimidating. A cool fierce challenge that rang out and reminded the people of Kanto and Johto to keep moving forward in the face of dangerous times. Steven represented the relaxed ways of Hoenn along with its paradox of change, a man caught in a limbo between pursuing the things he loved and pursuing what would be best for the good of the region, ultimately choosing to follow his heart and pass the title onto his friend Wallace who represented the elegance and power of Hoenn’s many, many new features and styles of battle. Cynthia was the history and quiet mystery of Sinnoh, an observer who endeavoured to learn as much about her home as possible and who emblemized the strange yet iconic primordial strength of Sinnoh. Iris and Alder together represent death of the old and reinvention with the new. A precipice for Pokemon where Game Freak put to death many features to offer a new direction, a new, different path forward, a dichotomy of the old and modern like the two Unovas co-existing. Diantha was the newness of Kalos, old, enduring features going back to the roots of Pokemon married to the shiny, exciting step into the future. 

And Leon? Leon’s the gentleness and power of Galar, a humbleness that’s dressed and paraded and stretched into a new, efficient form; a caged majesty set to work at the feet of forces beyond himself. 

[michiru-k]

Top Ten worst video games

Hello.and welcome to another to Top Ten Tuesday! In this list, I will be counting down ten of the worst video games I’ve played. Keep in mind that these are my opinions, and that you really shouldn’t be offended by them. On with the list:

10-Super Mario RPG(SNES): There are good RPGS, and there are bad RPGs. Super Mario RPG happens to be one of the worst RPGs I’ve ever played.The characters are dull,the storyline has nothing going form it, and the enjpyment isn’t there. I like Mario games, but this game wasn’t a good Mario game. There are also too many non-Mario characters in the game. Where did that pink Jigglypuff knock-off come from? Where’d that ugly wooden puppet come from? Seriously-if you’re going to make a Mario RPG, at least have the decency to include all Mario characters in there instead of plopping non-Mario characters here and there.

9-PMD: Gates To Infinity(3DS): Now I always enjoy a good Pokemon game,but Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates To Infinity was nowhere near good. There’s too much focus on Unova pokemon,and the plot was rather weak. If you want to play a PMD game,skip this one and play PMD: Explorers of Sky or PMD: Blue Rescue Team instead.

8-Chrono Trigger(Snes): Another RPG that has forgettable characters and a weak storyline. It also suffers from that hideous Dragon Ball art style,and the plot drags on and on. Skip this one and play Legend of Zelda instead.

7-Walt Disney World racing(game console): As much as I love Walt Disney World, I hated this game. Why? Because it had unrecognizable OCs in it. No Mickey, no Dreamfinder or Figment, no Country Bears,etc. Just boring,forgettable characters that look like they were taken out of a really bad fanfiction. Want a racing game? Go with Mario Kart instead.

6-  Qix(arcade):There were a lot of cool arcade games in thev 80s,but Qix was one ofthe worst games ever! You had to draw squares to keep a little spark or something contained. That was it. What a BORING arcade game...I stuck with the better games such as Qbert,PacMan and Sinistar.

5-After Dark games(PC(: Games where sll you do is mow a lawn...play as some girl hopping on ledges...playing as some flying toaster...yeah...that’;s about it. None of the games were interesting, and none of them provided any entertainment value. I just stuck with the Sims.Speaking of the Sims...

4-Sims 3()PC) : Sims 1 was EXCELLANT. Sims 2 was good.Sims 3 was.....AWFUL! Bug after bug, glitch after glitch...lag after lag...game freeze after game freeze..crash after crash. Try to create your Sim? *FREEZE AND CRASH* Try to make your Sim walk to the door? *LAG LAG LAG*  Want your Sim to change clothes? *GLITCH*  Sims 3 not only suffered from constant lagging/freezing/glitching/crashing/lagging, but EVERY Sim had a fucking FAT FACE It didn’t matter if your Sim was skinny or how much you fooled with the facial sliders, every Sim would come out with a fat face. Seriously,EA?  If you want to play a REAL Sims game,just stick with Sims 1, Sims 2 or Sims 4.

3-Finalv Fantasy 8:  Yeah..this wasn’t a FF game....it was a boring military hack and slash game with bits and pieces of FF plunked in. The plot dragged on and on.....there were so many cut scenes that it practically becomes a movie, and we have to play some nobody’s boring backstory. Really? I don’t know of anyone who gives 2 fucks about Laguna’s backstory. It was so bad that I could’nt talk myself into finishing it,and I simply tossed it into the trash can.

2-Saga Frontier(game console): This RPG is 100 times worse that FF8 and Mario RPG combined. You NEVER knew where to go,because this game never gave you any story to work with, and all the characters are bland and forgettable. If you want a REAL RPG, go with FF 7 instead.

1 ET the game(Atari): This, folks,was the absolute WORST game of all time! Many of you probably probably heard about the game crash of the 80s? Well,meet the game that caused the crash. This game was so bad that EVERY single copy bought was returned and buried out in the New Mexico desert. You’re probably saying” But Ballora-a game can’t be THAT bad..” Well, it was. You played as ET who was trying to get back home, but the ground was riddled with deep pits for some weird reason, and you would always fall into one and never be able to get back out,causing you to die all alone at the bottom of the pit, Yeah,that’s how bad it was. Bad enough to cause a great video game industry crash.

Here are some dis-honorable mentions:

Bubbles(arcade)

Mortal kombat(snes/genesis/arcade)

Clay Fighters(Snes)

Final Fantrasy 2

Epic Mickey(game console)

Any of the Kingdom Hearts games

So what made your list of 10 worst video games? Tell me in the comments below.