#ponytas ratio

[roz-jins]

as i said 💥bOoM💥 Ponyturine

[meganuzlockediary]

Pokemon Diamond! The road to Hearthome!

March 19th

So next up is another scary galactic fight against Jupiter!

The grunts pose no threat and Shello's psychic hidden power is coming in clutch against the zubats. There is a kadabra trainer in here that I remember a similar trainer in HG causing me trouble with this. I refuse to make mistakes and send in Bibarel my most expendable but also with headbutt a pretty highly attacking move. Its quickly over.

Next up is Jupiter. She fortunately only has a Zubat and skuntank the risk however here are that this zubat has giga drain so can do some hefty damage to shellos and skuntank is obviously a bit of beast with both screech and the high crit hit ratio nightslash!

Hence I lead with Beautifly. She can take a wing attack and has some recovery. So she gets a gust in taking a wing attack. Then I go Stun spore as I can easily take another wing attack. I use morning sun to heal and the zubat is stuck in paralysis allowing me to outspeed and beat the zubat on full health! Perfect! Next is Skuntank. Beautifly can do very little here so its a quick stun spore then switch into Monferno! Monferno gets poisoned as he comes in but the stun spore is crippling from then. 2 Flame plate boosted flame wheels is all that is needed to win. I can now breath a sigh of relief.

Next, comes a mini catching spree. I catch a Gastly from the old chataeu (this guarantees a murkrow in the lost tower), A meditite from route 211, a stunky from route 206 and psyduck from route 208. While I do really want to use stunky as it is rare in other games I actually wanted a bronzor as this guarantees a gible encounter in wayward cave! However my luck did not help. I did think I could then just try and get one in Mt. Coronet but its not found on the first floor! That means I will have to wait until I have surf to get the encounter and it still won't be guaranteed due to Clefairy and Chimecho. So I use repels to get through Mt Coronet and come out the other side ready for Hearthome City!

So far all these pokemon have been boxed. Medicham is outclassed by infernape as is psyduck by gastrodon and stunky by honchkrow. So for now I'm only using the OG 4!

Now for the sneakiest ambush in all pokemon games! I remember this getting me when I was a kid and my team not being healed and I thought it was so unfair. Today I was prepared. My team is significantly more levelled.

First is Starly so I bring in Bibarel. A simple headbutt does the job bringing in Roselia. I switch into Monferno to counter and he gets stun spore. Fortunately flamewheel one shots so I'm not worried. He then brings out prinplup so I bring in beautifly who now has mega drain! This is a 3HKO but Beutifly stays in like a champ. He's honestly been near essential this run. She's really going to be needed for Wake and Maylene. Finally is Ponyta which is easily solved by shellos.

A nice easy section. I am stopping here because now I get a choice of route I wanna take. Obviously I need to go to solaceon first but once that's done I can choose to start with either Wake or Maylene. Wake may be useful as I can avoid that horrible double battle infront of veilstone city.

Badges won: 42

Pokemon used: 105?

Pokemon Defeated: 23

[inprogresspokemon]

Help me name Ponyta!

While there are many in-progress Pokemon that still need to be named, some of you have noticed that the Ponyta line has gone unnamed for a long time. There's a few reasons for that, and I'd love to hear your opinions to get past my internal roadblocks and get this line finally named. I'm gonna walk you through my issues:

Besides my genuine struggle of deciding between so many good suggestions, my first issue (pre-Galarian Ponyta), was that a lot of the names used gendered horse terms, which I felt wasn't great for a line with a 50/50 gender ratio.

Some of my favorite suggestions from the initial batch of names:

Flamare (flame + mare (adult female horse))

Tindertrott (tinder + trot)

Embolt/Charcolt (ember/char + colt (male foal))

Equyre (equine + pyre)

Charfoal (charcoal + foal (baby horse)) - good solution to the gendered term issue but charcoal isn't really related to this line.

Gallopony (gallop + pony) - not gendered, but repeats "pony"

Gallopyre (gallop + pyre)

Sprinticorn (sprint + unicorn)

Broncoal (bronco (wild/untrained horse) + coal) - similar issue to Charfoal

All are really good-sounding names, but they either have the gendered term issue, or reference (char)coal, which ultimately I don’t feel is relevant enough to the line to warrant having it in the name.

Once I got to Galarian Ponyta, it finally occurred to me that the majority of the earlier suggestions involved fire terminology, which makes sense, but that Ponyta and Rapidash actually don't reference their fire-type at all in their names, so avoiding a fire reference actually makes more sense with the existing naming scheme and with the Galarian line in mind.

Some favorites from the second batch of names:

Trotfoot (trot + foot, rhymes with 'hotfoot')

Equiprance (equine + prance),

Coltinder (colt + tinder)

Coalter (colt + coal + canter)

Speequine (speed + equine)

Gallaprance (gallop + prance + galivant)

Marevoulous (mare + marvelous)

With all those points in mind, what do you think?

[comic-the-adventurer]

Species name: Lapras

Type: Water/Ice/Psychic

Gender ratio: 50% Female, 50% unknown gender

Technicals: Regional form. Hunted by assumably that spinoff Team Rocket (Contact Professor Willow or Blanche for more details). Type up for reconsideration; it's ice-typed abilities seem limited. Fairy-type in DNA. Reacts strangely around Galarian Ponyta but not so much around Galarian Rapidash??

Report:

While they look oddly coloured, it seems the purple is a regional trait. In fact, it seems BLUE Lapras are the equivalent of "shiny" Lapras, here in the Outer Regions.

In other news, the circle-and-line pattern on Laptas' fins light up in white from time to time. We are still investigating what causes this. It reminds me of Porygon.

Nevertheless, hunters and pokemon-stealers seem to be very interested Outer Region Lapras. Blanche has been devoting themself to stopping Lapras extinction, as so have the other two leaders though albeit to a lessor effort.

Signed,

Professor Mirror and assistants

---

This gift post is okay to rb!

@plztumb1rhelpmegetoveranxiety Soo you said you like Lapras >:]? I& made this for you ehehe 👉👈. Slightly redesigning Pokemon is hella fun omg >:D /g

@namelessbaron I& also drew and edited uhhh- what's her name-- Vivian 😅? Yea, I& drew Vivian riding the Lapras cuz why not xD

[radramblog]

On the origins of Shiny Pokémon

Shiny Pokémon are a quirk of the franchise that has blossomed into a huge part of the Pokémon fandom, to the point where content creators (streamers, mostly) have built careers on spending hours and hours hunting for them.

Considering the humble origins of the concept, it’s kind of a surprise how we got here, frankly.

Shiny Pokémon were introduced in the series' second generation, in Gold and Silver. These were the first games in the series to be in colour, basic as the palettes were, and the developers thought that having variations in a species’ colour, kind of like albinism, would be an interesting idea to use this new technology. At least, I assume that’s what happened, I obviously wasn’t there. There wasn’t originally an official term for Shinies, though “Alternate colour” or “rare” were in some of the earlier games- the first official use of “Shiny” was in a promotional TCG card in 2009. Interestingly, Gold and Silver (but not Crystal) were actually playable on an original Game Boy, albeit in greyscale, which is why the twinkle animation and sound effect that gives the phenomenon its name were added in the first place.

The addition of the Red Gyarados plotline was kind of a genius way of introducing the concept to the player and fanbase. After all, the phenomena are typically extremely rare at 1/8192 per Pokémon encounter, and I believe only one very missable NPC alludes to them in the entire game. It’s quite possible that without all the fuss about the Red Gyarados and the Lake of Rage plot in general, Shinies would have been the subject of the same schoolyard rumours that surrounded the early generations, like “Pikablu” (Marill leaking before its official introduction) or the Pokegods.

I know I didn’t know what a Shiny was when I first encountered one. Sure didn’t catch it either, though I know I was trying to. It was a Ponyta, in Fire Red, and it was on the path up to Mt. Ember who’s name I’ve forgotten. I definitely spent a long time running around after accidentally KO’ing it in order to find this “Blue flame Ponyta” again, to no luck.

The introduction of shinies in Gen II led to some interesting quirks in their original iteration, considering the jank of early gen Pokémon. Shininess, like many other things that generation, were determined by IVs, a calculation that would later be replaced by an individualized “personality value” for each Pokémon. A Gen II (or Gen I, if trading is used) Pokémon will be Shiny if its IVs are all 10 except for Attack (2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, or 15) and HP (which is calculated from the remainder), which ironically means the aesthetic bonus that’s not supposed to have an in-game function actually is a result of largely above-average stats. This calculation comes with a few other quirks resulting from other things attached to IV calculations- they can only have a Hidden Power of Grass or Dragon with 49 or 69 power, any species that has a 7:1 male:female ratio such as the starters or Eevee cannot produce a female shiny (Gender is determined by Attack IV, and those species only are female with a 0 or 1 Attack), and, perhaps ironically, only the I and V Unown variants can be Shiny.

That’s a lot of bullshit trivia, isn’t it!

Both in and out of the actual games, it would be a while before Shinies were properly recognized and further integrated into the canon of Pokémon. A few TCG cards featured them, along with a rule in which you could only have one in your deck- I’m not sure how powerful they actually were, but the rarity was at least accurately represented. A handful of trainers in Firered/Leafgreen’s Trainer Tower have them by default, the first (and, I think, only? (nope just checked there’s one guy in Gen VII)) NPC trainers guaranteed to have a Shiny in the games. As well, the Celebi event in Heartgold/Soulsilver would feature a Shiny Pichu, the first guaranteed Shiny since the original Gold/Silver (it also has the Red Gyarados, being a remake), and that generation would feature the series’s first method of increasing the encounter rate with the Poké Radar (as well as the Masuda breeding method), but beyond this, the odds were still and always 1/8192.

It wasn’t until Generation V and Black and White that more effort was taken in the games to acknowledge Shiny Pokémon. This was the first time that the term was actually used inside the game, for one, and Shiny Hunters were given their first real tool in the Shiny Charm- a passive item available by completing the entire Pokédex that effectively triples the encounter rate and stacks with the aforementioned Masuda method (which was also slightly buffed).

This came at a cost, however- the Shiny Lock mechanic. This is an inbuilt feature in the encounter code that prevents certain species of Pokémon from ever generating as Shiny- in this game, that applies to Reshiram and Zekrom, the games’ cover legendaries, as well as the Mythical event Pokémon Victini and anything obtained through the Dream World feature. Shiny sprites for these species still existed in the game, effectively as failsafes, but nothing you could do in the game short of cheating/hacking would let you actually access them. This Lock feature would continue for every main series game that followed, though it would almost exclusively apply to Legendary Pokémon, and would often be taken off of them the generation later- and while I understand the inconsistency between a Pokémon's appearance in story cutscenes and actual battle would be awkward, it is still frustrating that such cool designs like Shiny Victini are completely unavailable.

It wasn’t all bad, though, since through some of these mechanics and the growing popularity of the franchise, more players were exposed to the idea of Shiny Pokémon. Black 2 and White 2 also had the games’ second and third Guaranteed Shinies in the form of a gift Gible or Dratini (depending on version) available through a postgame challenge and a Haxorus catchable in an area unlocked by completing the regional Pokédex. This was also when they were more exposed in other media- more TCG cards, their appearance in one of the movies (and the associated in-game events), etcetera.

Were it not for Generation V’s changes and additions, it’s very likely that Shiny Pokémon would be substantially more obscure than the popular huntable prize they are now. For better or for worse, I suppose. Probably better, ultimately, because they are pretty much just a fun thing to have around? I’m not sure how I feel about people spending hours upon hours for a slightly differently coloured mon (though I have done it a couple times), but it’s just a nice thing that exists for people. A little mystery to a series that’s so utterly picked apart, as it were.

[hilltopsunset]

4 Ways to Breathe New Life into the Pokémon Franchise

I love the Pokémon franchise. It’s because I love it that I truly want new installments of the game to feel meaningful, to make an impact, and to provide players with something new, different, and worth coming back for without relying on complexities that could turn away new players.

As I will talk about in a later blog post, Game Freak seems afraid to stretch Pokémon’s creative muscles any further; meaningful innovation has been petering out since the end of Generation IV in lieu of minigames like Pokémon Contests and Super Training alongside inconsequential time sinks like Secret Bases and Poké Pelago. While I do enjoy the inclusion of things to do outside the main storyline, these additional events and sidequests should not be the only significant additions to new generations of main-series Pokémon games.

The main attractions of recent generations have provided slight twists to gameplay with the addition of mega evolution and Z-moves, but these changes don’t fundamentally change or challenge the way players experience the game on a moment-to-moment basis. And despite the graphical and processing power of recent gaming devices, and even the long-awaited shift of the franchise to a main console, we are still getting the same low-effort and outdated battle animations we’ve been seeing since X and Y. We are continually denied a more genuine battle experience with Pokémon physically interacting with each other through animations that more appropriately suit each Pokémon’s unique identity.

So what can be done? Here’s a short but detailed list of 4 things I would like to see in a new Pokémon game, in no particular order of importance.

1.       Let the Player Character Be an Active Part of the Story

When has the player character ever been a consequential part of a Pokémon game? They never speak; they never have any personality whatsoever. They never experience any growth, regardless of NPC’s trying desperately to iterate how much the trainer has grown over the course of their journey. Certainly the Pokémon carried by the player character have some impact on the story, but the trainer?

Let them speak! Let the player character actually interact with NPCs in meaningful ways rather than just listening at all times. Give the trainer a personality of some sort. Don’t just slap a never-changing pleasant face onto the model regardless of tense, frightening, or sinister scenarios (I’m looking at you, Sun and Moon). 

Giving the player character a more active role in the story provides intrigue—as a player, it doesn’t feel compelling being pulled from one place to another; it’s not interesting when the only thing pushing me forward is NPCs telling me I need to get the gym badges, or stop Team Rocket. It would be much more interesting if the Player Character had some imperative reason to pursue these endeavors, rather than get involved simply because “it’s the right thing to do” or, worse, “it’s the ONLY thing to do.” I want to watch the character I’m controlling grow as a person and make choices that have positive or negative consequences on people they care about and the places they visit, rather than be a perpetual observer of events with no real stake in the game.

2.       Trainer Levels

Speaking of the player character, create a leveling system for them. There are so many possibilities for a system where the trainer more actively impacts gameplay. For instance, there could be a class system and each class can have unique skill trees that provide access to passive and/or active abilities that improve how the trainer interacts with the world throughout the game. It could be required to choose your path at the beginning of the game, or perhaps you can access them all throughout the game, but can only have one active at a time.

Here’s a list of example possibilities:

Explorer: The explorer class specializes in travel, as well as tracking and catching new Pokémon—this tree can be subdivided into those paths: Travel, Tracking, and Catching. This tree provides skills that assist them in accessing otherwise inaccessible locations, increasing encounter rates with rare Pokémon, and specializing in different types of Poké balls to improve catch chances. Experience for this class is gained through catching Pokémon, encountering rare Pokémon, and exploring (walking in new places, finding treasure, accessing hidden areas, etc.).

Combatant: The combatant class excels at offensive battle prowess through its three branches: Type Affinity, Commands, and Reputation. This tree allows a trainer to specialize in certain Pokémon types (up to 2) to improve their STAB damage. Eventually, you can get a skill that provides STAB for your specialized types even for Pokémon not of those types! You gain access to in-battle shout commands that provide momentary buffs to your party, like improving damage, resisting a big attack, or improving critical hit ratio. A strong reputation will allow you to avoid battle even with trainers who have caught your eye; and in battle, an enemy Pokémon may flinch due to your intimidating presence. Experience is gained by knocking out Pokémon, winning battles, using moves of your type specialization, and issuing commands.

Breeder: The breeder focuses on developing deep relationships with their Pokémon. Skills of this class can be divided into the Breeding, Bonding, and Healing branches. Through this tree, trainers can hatch eggs more quickly, improve high IV chance from newborn Pokémon, develop friendship levels more quickly, etc. Bonding provides Pokémon with beneficial defensive capabilities during battle, like providing a chance to survive an attack that would otherwise bring HP to 0, and having a strong will to resist abnormal status effects like paralysis and confusion. A Breeder’s knowledge of caretaking allows for healing outside of battle, and can even teach Pokémon how to slowly recover in-battle. Experience is gained through hatching eggs, developing friendships with your Pokémon (through feeding/petting, etc.), participating in Contests/minigames, and having Pokémon in your party with whom you have developed a close relationship.

The establishment of a class system like this, where experience is gained through different means relevant to each class, incentivizes players to participate in those aspects of the game, and provides extra rewards for players who already want to get involved. It makes the trainer feel like a relevant and impactful part of the team, rather than a hollow vehicle strictly used to lug the real heroes—your team of Pokémon—from battle to battle.

And for those who think the inclusion of such a mechanic would trivialize the content, I have several suggestions: first, they could easily make the game content more difficult to compensate. Second, they could mitigate the strength of these class skills during key battles like Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Enemy Team (Rocket, Galaxy, etc.). Third, NPCs (especially the aforementioned key NPCs) could have access to these skills as well. Remember, I’m asking for significant changes, and this would provide something new, interesting, and impactful.

 3.       Battle Animations

Update them. It’s that simple. Let Blastoise shoot water out of his water cannons rather than out of his face. Let Scorbunny run up to its opponent and give it a nice kick! Get rid of the old, outdated animations of a drawn foot—we now have well-rendered 3D monsters on gaming systems capable of handling the graphical processing necessary for this to happen. Give each Pokémon a more unique identity with their animations; make them feel like they’re actually in a battle with one another. It’s time.

I acknowledge that providing significant animation updates for the 800+ models is an enormous undertaking that would require a massive amount of time and manpower to make possible. To this I say: spend the time doing that rather than developing Dynamax or whatever. Spend the time on more significant animation development instead of wasting that time on another gimmick that isn’t going to significantly impact gameplay anyway.

To be honest, this point alone would be enough to convince me to buy a new Pokémon game.

 4.       Populate the World with Pokémon

I know that the Let’s Go series and Sword/Shield did this a little bit, and while it certainly wasn’t executed perfectly, it was fun running around and actually seeing all the Pokémon that inhabit it. Spawn rates in both games were often a bit too high, resulting in cluttered areas. Adding aggressive Pokémon would further enhance the immersive experience—being required to sneak around certain stronger Pokémon could be a really fun mechanic and provide tension; it was a bit too easy to avoid Pokémon in Let’s Go and in the Wild Area. While it was nice to get through Mt. Moon without encountering a single Zubat, imagine instead running through a section of the cave with a trail of 15 Zubats on your tail? Make me work for it a little!

Ultimately, I want to see Pokémon behaving more naturally in their habitats, and not just in sections of the world that I can’t get to. I want to run into a Caterpie hanging from a tree, or a Fearow fishing for Goldeen, or a Pikachu grooming itself. I want to interrupt Pokémon from their lives, not run into a giant gaggle of automatons circling tiny areas for no reason.

So there it is: a look at just a few things Pokémon games could include to make things more interesting and breathe new life into an aging franchise. These changes would require work, but any new game should—I would hate to see Pokémon continue the troubling trend of easy and/or insignificant content when there is so much potential to do so much with what they have.

With all that said, I do want to offer a bit of praise—Sirfetch’d and Galarian Ponyta are pretty awesome, and Galarian Weezing is perfectly ridiculous. But I ask that you keep in mind what your money is telling Game Freak when you purchase their games: it tells them that you don’t mind the severe lack of innovation and improvement. It tells them you don’t mind Scorbunny hopping in place as a giant, orange, human foot strikes its opponent. It tells them that you’re willing to fund their copy/paste animations from 6 years ago, their uninspired gameplay updates, and their ever-increasing focus on gimmicks and minigames.

As for me, I will continue holding Pokémon to a higher standard and hoping that, eventually, Blastoise will fire water from his cannons.  

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Hatenna Family

856: Hatenna

What an adorable Kirby-enemy lookin lil dude! Hatenna is a cute lil monster that's little more than a head with feet and some hair that it seems to use as arms. So much hair that its eyes are covered over by its fringe, which is always a cute look. It also has a “tail” that resembles a little sleepers cap! Said tail apparently also acts as an emotion detector, and that it hates every second of it. It wants to stay as far away from feeling as possible. (Mood?)

857: Hattrem

Hattrem feels notably more typical though... not only growing a sudden body but also pulling the hair over its eyes. They really can't have a Pokemon remain “eyeless” for long, huh? It also SLIGHTLY switches gimmicks up by having its hat be made out of hair, which it also uses to stand on and even beats up anyone displaying strong emotions near it with its pigtails. Not even specifying “negative” or “positive” emotions. Just emotions.

It was also clear to me upon seeing this thing that we were in for another “Gardevoir.” And I was right, though it is an interesting inversion of the concept since Gardevoir is a design all about strong magical powers via emotional expression but this line is the exact opposite in that it wants to throw hands with anyone that so much as has a good day around it.

It's also once again running into this odd problem of the line starting out Psychic type but then becoming Psychic/Fairy. This line already feels like it aughta be Psychic/Fairy, or at least should've stayed mono-Psychic, but here it is being different. It all seems to be in service of the character Bede's development, given he starts out a stuck-up asshole who primarily uses Psychic types with Galarian Ponyta and Hattrem here as his “signature” Pokemon of sorts, only to then mellow out a little and become more of a Fairy type trainer, Rapidash and Hatterene reflecting that by going from Mono-Psychic to Psychic/Fairy. Eh, it's an interesting idea though I don't like the idea of entire Pokemon lines being designed to selfishly serve the development of a character ingame simply because stuff like this just comes off as an odd series of questions if you say, got into this series two more generations down the line, ended up really liking this line, but was curious about this typing oddity that was lost on you because you didn't know the context behind it.

Anyway, Hattrem definitely feels like another Pokemon that has its concept supersede its own design a bit. Hattrem feels a bit bland design-wise as much as I like the idea of a Psychic emotion-reader that hates being able to read emotions.

Personal Score: 6.5/10

858: Hatterene

Thankfully, Hatterene saves the line from being a generic Fae-creature line. It immediately has a cool visual in being a limbless curvy humanoid, but it's only constructed this body entirely out of its own hair!

Obviously it has the suggestion of its hair-like arms ending in claws not being its real arms, its true arms being those tiny lil slender sticks you can see even in its official art. But if you look closely, that facade extends into its legs as well! Its legs aren't actually that long, it's just standing on a gown made of its own hair again! This thing's a tiny little grey space-alien-lookin little fairy monster just disguising itself with its hair!

And of course, I like just about anything looking like a witch. With its pointy, large-brimmed hat combined with a little tentacle tassel that also acts as a claw it uses to beat up anybody for the usual reasons, it even merges the witch look with a bit of traditional “princess”, like it's the evil witch and the “damsel” at the same time. In any other context I probably would've groaned at the very idea of basing a monster on a damsel-in-distress in the first place, but this is at least an interesting subversion of it. It's a neat witch look, even if it still isn't the traditional, green-skinned, sickly-lookin, boil-covered witch design I'm STILL one to want.

It's overall a very neat way to incorporate the fairy typing as the typical “seemingly innocent, but watch out” type design. Very fun in a lot of places but with one irritating glaring flaw that I'll talk about in a minute...

G-Max Hatterene:

Of course, being the signature Pokemon of a major character grants you G-Max rights. Though Hatterene doesn't change much overall, mainly just changing the hat-tassels to just be three tentacle-like claws rather than one tentacle with a claw.

It also picks up a bigger “head” chamber, which seems like it more or less confirms that there's a “princess” angle going on here. Which is annoying in the same way I mentioned a minute ago but cool in another. Its head-chamber-hair seems to have some gaps in it, looking a bit like a cage. Given the imagery of Hatterene being a tiny gremlin creature in a big body of hair, Hatterene has made itself into a tower with a princess locked up at the top. In fact, it COULD be specifically a “Rapunzel” monster, given the whole long hair motif. Again, ANY other context and I would've been having a complete other discussion here, but it's hard to deny that a design like that pulled off with this amount of thoughtfulness and elegance is just plain neat and cool as hell.

Personal Score: 9/10

I get the hint I might sound preachy every time I've gone up to talk about this sort of thing but I feel like it needs pointing out that my loving a Pokemon once again comes with a really big “BUT”.

Since Gardevoir, we've gotten at least one traditionally “fem” coded Pokemon per generation, but recent generations have been different from the older ones. Can you guess what it is? No? Well, Gardevoir, Lopunny, and Gothitelle here have the usual 50/50 gender ratio, while Florges, Tsareena, and now Hatterene are given an arbitrary 100% female rate with no males of the species existing. We've gotten less and less fem-coded Pokemon that are allowed to be boys if you really want them to be. What's wrong with letting boys look traditionally pretty? The only exceptions seem to be Primarina and Sylveon, but those are hanging onto the pre-established gender-ratios of Starters and Eevee respectively.

Like, even looking past the more modern understanding of gender, it seems like a particularily unimaginative way to do animal gender. I've used this example in the past, but y'know ants? Pretty much ALL ants within a colony are females. The only male ants ever born come out seasonally for a “nuptial flight” where they meet with a queen-to-be and mate before, in most cases, dying immediately after. Yet Durant has the usual 50/50 gender ratio. I mean, I know Durant doesn't really do ant representation justice in general but it certainly doesn't help. Pokemon rarely ever gives biological justification for their somewhat arbitrary gender ratios (75% of Vulpixes are female for whatever reason?) but it makes me wonder if things like female Machoke or male Gardevoir would ever slide in modern Pokemon in favor of just giving them 100% male and 100% female ratings. Do you think male peacocks give a god-diddly-damn if they more fit the bill for traditionally feminine coding while the drab-looking females look a bit more traditionally “male”? Of course not. So why should Pokemon?

It's not enough for me to lower the score any; especially since I doubt Hatterene's lame gender ratio was decided by the artist that made it, but it's something I just wanted to bring light to since it’s mildly frustrated me every time it’s come up.

[Archive]

[dragonairlairgiveaways]

So the trailer showed us some available past-Pokemon but I wanna throw out a few more I hope appear in the region. Less about personal bias, and more to do with their origins and the region’s origins: 

Lapras - it’s inspired by plesiosaurs and the Loch Ness Monster 

Snubbull/Granbull - based on the British Bulldog as well as Cu Sith, a type of dog-like Fae from our folklore. 

Pidove line - Pigeons are EVERYWHERE here, and pheasants (like its evolutions) are common game birds in the UK. 

Mudbray/Mudsdale - okay so donkeys can be found in many countries but the Cyldesdale draft horse (which Mudsdale is based on) is a Scottish breed. 

Klefki - plays into British and Irish Fae folklore (Fae - specifically fairies - are often blamed for items such as keys going missing)

Houndour/Houndoom - based on Hellhounds BUT they work as representations of Black Shuck, a ghostly black dog from British folklore. 

Mareep line - aside from New Zealand, Wales has the highest ratio of sheep to people globally. Give us the sheep Pokemon. 

Wingull/Pelipper - Pelicans are typical rare vagrant visitors in the UK but seagulls? Oh my god, even inland you can’t escape them. They’re EVERYWHERE. 

Ponyta/Rapidash - Mostly for Rapidash and it being a unicorn, a creature in folklore as well as part of the royal court of arms. (it is also Scotland’s national animal)

Ducklett/Swanna - I mean... ducks everywhere here but more for Swanna, given ‘wild’ swans in the UK actually belong to the Queen (though she doesn’t enforce this beyond a certain stretch of the River Thames). 

Litleo/Pyroar - Obviously lions are not a native (or invasive) species, but there are the national animal of England and alongside the unicorn, part of the royal court of arms. 

Budew line - Whilst roses are found across the Northern Hemisphere in nature, they’re the nation flower of England and of course there is the classic ‘English Rose’ epithet. 

Bagon line - Salamence is as close to a typical western-style dragon as you can get. Also it’s partially red, which works as Wales’ national animal and flag symbol - the red dragon. 

Feel free to add on!

[pokefreakguide]

Master Dex Challenge Week 2:

This week I caught an additional 61 pokémon, bringing the grand total to 76/150 (excluding Mew and Partner Hat Pikachu)

I’m seeing now that, on mobile, none of the text posted with Week 1′s graphic. It shows up on desktop, but tumblr is hell, so If you want to read Week 1, I’ll put a navigation section at the end of this post.

This week was a big one because I reached the Safari Zone in Fuchsia. I’m still playing through Red, but I got as far as beating Blaine in Cinnabar!

Also, if anyone is interested, my team consists of Venusaur, Nidoqueen, Nidorino, Arbok, and Pigeot (only 5 right now)

Highlights:

I caught Tauros and wow. WOW. I do loads of Shiny hunting and all kinds of 6IV breeding etc but I’ve never had a task THIS tedious. I was not prepared for how frustrating and difficult this task was. 

Similarly, you’ll notice that I only have a male Scyther. I actually have 6 male Scythers because, for some reason, each one I transfer is male. I made sure to do my research and ensure that Gender Ratios from VC Red --> bank are Gen VII ratios. They are, but somehow my luck is SO BAD that I keep getting males. I gave up- I’m going to trade my Scyther to VC Gold/Silver and breed it then transfer SLEWS of Scythers up so they’re BOUND to have females.

I obtained three Dratini and, to save time, went ahead and transferred them to USUM to get Dragonair and Dragonite. I did this for Gyarados and Muk as well.

Got Chansey! This was actually crazy easy. Luck! 

Completed the Goldeen, Pidgey, Spearow, Oddish, Arcanine, Mankey, Venonat, Paras, Rattata, Ponyta, Grimer, Exeggcute, Koffing, and Dratini lines this week!

You’ll notice grimer/muk and rattata/raticate have spaces between them and that’s because the alolan forms will be placed in those spaces. I anticipate finishing with Red very soon! 

Also!!!! My queue for pokémon art posts is going to actually follow along with this challenge! :)

Links to weeks: 1 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 14 / 15 / 16/ 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41 / 42 / 43 / 44 / 45

Generation Overviews: I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII

[bizzarroteca]

Gold&Silver Demo - Storia di cose abbandonate

Correva l’anno 1997, la pecora Dolly veniva clonata, escono Harry Potter e One Piece e all’evento Nintendo Spaceworld ’97 veniva presentata, con un anticipo di due anni, la demo di Pokémon Gold & Silver.

Assieme a un giveaway di 100.000 Mew, i fan che partecipavano potevano giocare ai primi dieci minuti dei giochi.

La demo non presentava la scelta dello starter, ma era casuale quando si iniziava; Chickorita e Meganium sono arrivati fino a noi con lo stesso design, mentre l’evoluzione intermedia erba e gli starter fuoco ed acqua erano molto differenti:

Rispettivamente, gli starter erano Honooguma (“Fire Bear”) e Kurusu (“Cross”), mentre Chikorita era conosciuto come Happa (“Leaf”). Anche le mosse iniziali erano differenti dalla versione finale: Honooguma partiva con Graffio e Fulmisguardo, mentre Cyndaquil sebbene possa imparare la seconda mossa, non può imparare la prima; Kurusu iniziava con Azione, Ruggito e Pistolacqua, le prime due che non possono essere imparate da Totodile, il cui moveset iniziale, Graffio e Fulmisguardo, lo rendono più simile a Honooguma che non alla sua controparte acquatica; infine, Happa cominciava con Azione, Crescita e Parassiseme, due mosse che normalmente non impara salendo di livello (Crescita non la può imparare e Parassiseme è una mossa uovo).

Ritengo interessante puntualizzare che prima del leak della demo, la sola fotografia che si trovasse degli starter, scattata da un fan giapponese alla Next-Gen World Hobby Fair era questa:

Gli starter nella demo tenevano una bacca, e se la salute del Pokémon scendeva sotto al 50% veniva usata automaticamente, come adesso. Non sembra una cosa degna di nota, ma ricordiamoci che in Gen1 questa cosa non c’era, e per un fan che prova per la prima volta questa demo era un grande novità.

Inoltre, il personaggio aveva 5 Pokéball, 10 Pozioni, 10 Cura Totale, 1 Stimulus Orb, e 1 Fire-Up Orb; quando equipaggiate, la prima impediva occasionalmente che il Pokémon venisse addormentato, la seconda che andasse ko.

Ci sono effettivamente dei codici inutilizzati per gli oggetti nella versione finale, che si suppone siano rimasugli per queste fantomatiche sfere, i cui effetti sono stati riciclati per alcune bacche successivamente.

#14 Chi la tiene non può essere avvelenato #15 Chi la tiene non può essere scottato #16 Chi la tiene non può essere congelato #17 Chi la tiene non può essere addormentato #18 Chi la tiene non può essere paralizzato #19 Chi la tiene non può essere confuso

L’inizio dell’avventura, nella propria stanza, è rimasto praticamente identico, con l’aggiunta che se si interagiva col pc si poteva leggere una notizia su un Pokémon chiamato Yoroidori, di tipo Volante/Acciaio. Yoroidori letteralmente è “Armor Bird”, presumibilmente una prima versione di Skarmory (nome giapponese Eamundo, ed è effettivamente conosciuto come Pokémon Armuccello)

Possiamo vedere, dalle mappe inutilizzate dei giochi finali, una prima versione di Borgo Foglianova:

Interessante notare che la prima versione della prima città avesse un Centro Pokémon, mentre il laboratorio originalmente apparteneva al Professor Oak.

Uscendo da sinistra si entrava nell’erba alta, e la varietà di Pokémon era leggermente diversa.  I primi resoconti dei fan parlavano di Pidgey, Rattata, più dei Pokémon nuovi: uno era un topo d’acqua, che ora sappiamo essere Marill;

poi c’era una “doppia giraffa” di tipo Buio/Normale, una versione primordiale di Girafarig che poteva imparare Doppiocalcio; un Pokémon fiore di nome Sunny, versione precedente di Sunflora; una coccinalla, ovvero Ledyba;

c’era anche la versione iniziale di Hoppip, di nome Haneko (neko=gatto, mentre nella versione finale Hanecco, necco=radice), che continua la tendenza della prima generazione di ficcare orecchie da gatto ovunque.

In tutto ci sono tre aree: quella iniziale, una foresta e un ponte sull’acqua, alla fine del quale si trova il Rivale e la demo finisce. Si trova selvatico anche Ekans, mentre gli allenatori (con cui si deve parlare per far partire la sfida) hanno Paras, Venonat, Clefairy, Meowth e Slowking. In più, con passare del tempo, sarebbe arrivata la notte portando Hoothoot.

Molte cose sono cambiate dalle demo alle versioni finali, sia per le mosse che per i Pokémon, che per stranezze.

Innanzitutto, Veleno aveva un’efficacia di x0.5 contro Acciaio, invece di essere inefficace, e anche i Pokémon di tipo Veleno potevano essere avvelenati!Alcune mosse hanno proprio cambiato faccia, mentre altre sono state eliminate:

Morso era di tipo Normale.·

Visotruce abbassava la Difesa invece della Velocità.·

Panciamburo non causava danni a chi la usava

 Inizialmente si chiamava Bonebone Rock, usando delle lettere in katakana diverse per indicare le mazze d’osso di Cubone e Marowak.

Synchronize, di tipo Psico, funzionava come come Conversione; il nome è stato successivamente riciclato per l’abilità in Gen3.

Rock Head, tipo Roccia 90 per 10PP, era una testata e poteva far tentennare; il nome è stato poi riutilizzato per un’abilità.

Uproot, tipo Normale 30 per 10PP, flippava l’avversario.

Wind Rite, tipo Volante 40 per 10PP, aveva un alto tasso di critico, simile a Aerocolpo.

Water Sport, tipo Acqua 30 per 10PP, è stato riusato come nome in Gen3.

Strong Arm, tipo Acciaio 30 per 10PP, poteva aumentare l’attacco di chi la usava, simile a Meteorpugno

Bright Moss, Erba 10PP, illuminava i dintorni per aumentare la precisione delle mosse, poi riutilizzato come oggeto tenuto in Gen6 con tutt’altro effetto.

Bounce, Acqua 10PP, esattamente come Splash, poi riutilizzato in Gen3 con effetto simile a Volo.

Ora, finalmente, arriviamo ai Pokémon “nuovi”:

Sapere cos’è? L’EVOLUZIONE DI DITTO. Si evolve tenendo una Metalcoperta, e si chiama Animon. Il tipo è Normale, non ha mosse nuove e ha pure delle statistiche farlocche! In pratica, nella demo Animon non è altro che un Ditto a punta che urla.

I Pokémon baby d’altro canto sono molto carini:

* Mikon, baby Vulpix

* Monja, Tangela

* Gyopin, Goldeen

* Para, baby Paras

* Hināzu, baby Doduo

* Kōnya, baby Meowth

* Puchicorn, baby Ponyta

* Betobaby, baby Grimer

* Puddi, baby Growlithe

* Barririna, baby Mr. Mime

Penso che voi tutti sappiate o immaginiate qual è il mio preferito:

Questi sono Norowara e Kyonpan, di tipo Spettro. La particolarità è che Norowara si evolte in Kyonpan al livello 1.

Gatti gatti gatti, pupazzi e un finto Swinub.

Vorrei inoltre soffermarmi su questa specie di leone a palline. Altri non è che Porygon2, evoluzione di Porygon con l’Up-Grade. Il design fa riferimento a Pon de Lion, mascotte della catena Mister Donut. Che differenza con la versione definitiva, eh?

Un Leafeon (“Leafy”) primordiale.

I tre cani leggendari, parliamo dei tre cani leggendari.

Ci sono ancora altre particolarità di cui parlare, della mancanza di Lugia, di come ci siano alcuni Pokémon che hanno lo stesso problema della famiglia di Marill, dove da un’evoluzione a un’altra cambia la ratio tra maschi e femmine, di come la bici si muova alla velocità del personaggio, dello skateboard e delle su stranezze (di cui parlerò in futuro).

I fan non hanno perso tempo, non si smentiscono mai.

Source

Come ultima cosa, si trova uno sprite di Aerodactyl che probabilmente doveva essere nel video iniziale quando arriva Lapras ma che è stato tagliato. Povero Aerodactyl.

Per altre informazioni e per i Pokémon di cui non ho parlato qui vi rimando allo spreadsheet delle analisi e traduzioni e al link per scaricarvi la demo (in giapponese), basta un semplice emulatore per farla partire.

[roz-jins]

Ponytas Ratio