#she has a nihilego as her ace

[un-welcome]

Dumb lil design for my sona for an AU roleplay I'm doing with @saberrslime

The outfit is styled off of Nihilego and typical Aether Foundation wear, seeing that she was an Aether Foundation Employee before Rainbow Rocket swept in.

Team:

Buzzwole - Lvl 55

Kartana - Lvl 56

Blacephalon - Lvl 54

Xurkitree - Lvl 57

Nihilego - Lvl 59 (ace) [shiny]

[heretodefyfate]

gosh, seeing people happily discussing about their OCs make me want to show my OCs too but then i realized i still have not make any "official" art of them and their background details are still being worked on

[oceandirtcountry]

Cookiescross Pokémon AU stuff

Salem, leader of the evil team, is horribly mutating Pokémon into abominations known as Grimm. These Pokémon are untamable, feral, and only listen to her and a select few.

Ruby Rose: A young girl setting out on her Pokémon journey. She obtains a Scizor from Ben as her first Pokémon as Ozpin’s starter that was meant for her ran away. She eventually finds it and adds it to her team.

Ruby just wants to become the best trainer around, the champion rank of the champion ranks. But with new trouble popping up throughout the Remnant region, it’s gonna be pretty hard to do something like that.

Ben is assigned to tag along her entire journey, much to his dismay.

The team I have planned for her is:

Scizor (Basically her crescent rose)

Inteleon (High caliber sniper mon)

Roserade (It used to be Summer’s Pokémon.)

Salamence (Caught from a Bagon, signifies Ruby’s wish to “fly” and become a great Pokémon trainer. Shelgon evolved into a Salamence when the two’s ideals lined up into one, during a fight against Cinder, as Ruby wished to be stronger and Shelgon wished to fly to save her.)

Alcremie (obligatory little guy)

She eventually picks up a legendary to add to her team to stop Salem, being Zygarde, both determined to bring balance back to Remnant.

Ben Tennyson: An ex-champion ranked trainer, Ben is an oddball with an unknown history. Somehow, he threw away his prodigious champion rank, earned when he was Ten, to disappear for five years, whereabouts unknown.

He’s matured since then, but Ruby finds it odd that she’s never seen him fight—until one fateful encounter with Tyrian leaves her team on the brink of toxic damage, and Ben brings out a powerhouse even Ozpin didn’t know he had.

Ben’s team:

Deoxys (basically the Omnitrix. A Pokémon that’s been with him since he was ten, and helped him defeat eight gyms and become a champion ranker. But it mysteriously disappeared when he was twelve, leading to Ozpin and everyone else assuming Ben no longer had this Pokémon on him.)

Xurkitree (Feedback, basically. A Pokémon he lost in a showdown against a corrupted Rotom, which practically absorbed the Xurkitree’s ball into its body. Sensing Ben’s presence later on, Xurkitree broke out of its chains to assist Ben once more.)

Buzzswole (Four Arms. One of Ben’s ace Pokémon, and sees the most use in battles due to its astounding strength.)

Nihilego (Ghostfreak. A wild encounter with this Pokémon left Ben traumatised as a kid, but after encountering it again, hurt, in Ultra Space, Ben tended to its wounds and added it to his team.)

Kartana (Wildvine. Ben’s wild card, Kartana uses the surprise factor of even being on the field to absolutely go to town on opponent teams, cutting them up before they even have the chance to react.)

Rayquaza (Sensing great power from a trainer, Rayquaza faced Ben in a battle atop Sky Tower. It took all his Pokémon, but Deoxys trumped the big lizard, and Rayquaza agreed to join Ben’s team.)

Rex Salazar: Rex did not want to become a Pokémon trainer. But after a Grimm attack on his home town, or a scientific facility made to study those Grimm, Rex joins Ben and Ruby on their adventure to make things right.

Rex suffers from memory loss, so he hopes that his journey with Ben and Ruby will help jog some of those.

Rex’s team:

Ambipom (Bobo. This Ambipom can actually talk—and was basically Rex’s only companion in the facility. A result of some of the facility’s experimentation left this Pokémon with boosted intelligence—and a love for being sarcastic, apparently.)

Tinkaton (Big, massive, hammer. This Tinkaton has been observed to change its hammer based on the situation, having gone from hammer to sword to fists before. Rex is still unsure why it does this, and it feels a little extra to keep switching, no?)

Sceptile (One of Agent Six’s team members, who he sent to watch Rex to ensure his safety. It’s a stark contrast to the rest of Rex’s team, as it fights with a certain rhythm and discipline.)

Randy Cunningham: A chosen trainer, having the ability to empathise with his Pokémon and truly understand their emotions. Randy was selected from years upon years of trained Pokémon to be the final trainer to carry on the legendary “Ninja” title.

Randy doesn’t really understand as to why it was him to be chosen, and he joins the main three after accidentally flubbing a battle and realising he might need more help.

Randy’s team:

Ogerpon (The ninja mask, Ogerpon is adaptable and the most friendly of Randy’s passed-down Pokémon. Often switching masks to turn the tide of battle. When Randy eventually unlocks “Ninja Zen”, an ancient art that basically allows him to be on the same wavelength as his Pokémon, Ogerpon dons the Ninja Mask and becomes a Fighting/Grass type.)

Greninja (A Pokémon that has been with the First ninja. It’s honestly surprised as to why Randy was chosen as its trainer, since he’s a little bit…different from the rest of the Ninjas. It’s stunningly powerful, but only if Cunningham understands what to tell it. When in Ninja Zen, it adopts a form similar to ash greninja.)

Accelgor (A speed demon that Randy is still unsure how to control. It’s erratic and barely listens to him.)

Dragapult (Its a very kind Pokémon, the one which guided Randy on how to train its teammates in the first place. It’s got a motherly nature to it, probably because the two Dreepy on its head are its kids.)

Blake Belladona: A Faunus girl, shunned for their ancient connection to Pokémon and their pokemon-like body parts, even though most of them cannot use Pokémon moves. Blake is part Meowscarada, and excels at sleight of hand tricks.

After saving Ben and company from the White Fang, she’s originally surprised by the group’s lack of hostility toward her and her Faunus traits.

When they eventually go to see Weiss, the two break out in an argument, which eventually leads to Weiss discovering what exactly is happening in the mines.

Blake’s team:

Meowscarada (A pokemon she has a sort of link with. The two battle as if in sync, with Blake not needing to call out moves for the Pokémon to know exactly what she wants.)

Zoroak (A Pokémon gifted to her when she was a child. It can create illusions to hide Blake when she needs it, together with her Faunus traits, and hence comes in extremely useful.)

Crawdaunt (Schnasty lobster. After Blake nearly drowned, this Pokémon came to her aid, and has been at her side as a guardian angel of sorts ever since. It’s the one Pokémon that helped her buy time while she escaped from Adam. She eventually met up with it again, after her re-confrontation with the Tauros Faunus.)

Weiss Schnee: A snobbish, prideful heiress of Remnant’s most powerful company—Dust mining, which work like a mix of Z-crystals and type gems from the Gen 5 games (I’m still working on it)—and has a powerful team to boot.

After a near-death experience when Ruby and co. brought her into the mines, she realised exactly what her dad was doing to the poor Pokémon and Faunus workers, and well, she wasn’t happy.

Her dad took away her Pokémon, but one insisted on staying with her—the family’s most powerful mon,

Kingambit (The Arma Gigas. It’s the Schnee family’s famous Pokémon, prided for its strength and honour. While it used to be Winter’s Pokémon, it chose to tag along with Weiss on her journey.)

Weiss also later obtained her team back, with help from Randy, which consists of

Froslass (Saved her from falling during a ski trip in the mountains. Has stuck with her ever since.)

Delphox (Her starter from Professor Ozpin. She didn’t like it at first, but it grew on her.)

Appletun (Some weird lady gave her an apple, but it turns out that apple had an Applin inside! After eating the sickly sweet apple, it evolved into an Appletun that Weiss finds quite adorable.)

Yang Xiao-Long: A member of Raven Branwen’s tribe, Yang was raised to pride strong Pokémon over anything else. She didn’t even realise Ruby was her half-sister until much, much later, when she joined Ruby’s team for good.

Yang doesn’t like how controlling her mom is, and sometimes wished she’d been with her dad instead, even with her mom talking so much smack about Tai.

She eventually leaves the tribe when the whole group shows up to confront Raven about a kidnapped group of powerful Pokémon from their natural habitats, which is about when Ruby meets Bagon for the first time,

Yang’s team:

Infernape (Yang’s original Pokémon. It’s fast, it hits hard, but the two never formed a bond as Raven deemed it “useless”.)

Tyranitar (One of the two Pokémon that the tribe kidnapped. It chose to join Yang as a Larvitar as it found her to be a strong, destructive force, like its mother would have been.)

Garchomp (The other Pokémon the tribe kidnapped. It’s oddly meek for its species, and joined Yang as she seemed to be the friendliest person in the tribe.)

…Pawmot? (A Pokémon Yang picked up into the journey with Ruby and gang, which she found adorable. It’s more of a sign that she’s shedding the beliefs raven drilled into her head.)

[sh4tt3rg1rl]

So I had a thought.

Taocc as a Pokémon region.

Specifically, Dusk and Sun as the secret final bosses. It’s a double battle with a full team of 6 each. The player is allowed to bring in 12 Pokémon (since dusk and sun get a total of 12). And they use crazy stuff like legendaries and such. I’ve only really gotten a vague idea of Dusk’s team, but to give you an idea of the kind of challenge I’m talking about: she probably has a Nihilego and Cresselia with like…good moves and item combos. I’ve been trying to build her team to have a good range of defense, but Sun’s team would probably cover whatever defenses she doesn’t have. I imagine their aces would be a lunala and sogeleo, maybe.

Dusk keeps encouraging the player and Sun yells at her a bit for it lol.

I HAVE NEVER PLAYED POKEMON BUT THIS SOUNDS COOL

[nugget-gender]

DUDE TELL ME ABOUT THE POKEMON AU‼️‼️‼️‼️I love poekmon

oh man this takes me BACK

im gonna get off track here but my first project moon oc was a reimagining of an edgy pokemon oc i made when i was younger who had been spliced with a bunch of pokemon dna(mostly didnt come up except in some dietary restrictions and extra weakness/resilience to pokemon moves) but then i found PM and thought EOAH BODY HORROR and i gave him Nothing There corrosion. his name was Valo btw and his ace was a noivern named Oro

ANYWAY actual pokemon au time. finn uses fairy types not because he chooses to but because theyre very friendly to him. he has an outstandingly evil stall blissey aswell. his ace is a Sylveon with Pixilate to obliterate his enemies without fairy resistance(her name is Bubblegum)

Bubblegum(Sylveon)

Eggs(Blissey)

Toothpaste(Togekiss)

Burger(Shiny Shiinotic)

Death Metal(Mega Audino)

Pickpocket(Klefki)

Scarlett has a team of all very simple galar pokemon like. shes got an obstagoon, orbeetle, boltund. and then theres the gigantamax toxtricity

Pokeball(Obstagoon)

Net Ball(Orbeetle)

Nest Ball(Boltund)

Great Ball(Dubwool)

Ultra Ball(Corviknight)

Cherish Ball(G-Max Toxtricity)

asera is silly and has pokemon of many types because she Likes Them. his main battle team however will most often be:

Artsy(Runerigus)

Jacket(Mimikyu)

Soup(Milotic)

Kicker(Mega Lopunny)

Berry(Scolipede)

Hugs(Nihilego)

Viktor is a self-professed Smart Guy. he has pokemon that help him in his daily life because 'its efficient' and also hes an absolute failure at catching any strong pokemon(he got lucky with an abra. Once)

1.21 Gigawatts/Watts(G-Max Pikachu)

[The entire bee movie script]/Script(Vespiquen)

Don't Make The Obvious Joke/Balls(Magcargo)

Water Bottle(Vaporeon)

Taxi(Alakazam)

Lexi(Yamask)

[crystalelemental]

Yesterday, I talked about my horrifically missed predictions in Masters from December of last year.  And what fun is it if I don’t do the same this year?  So now, here’s my hopes for new sync pairs in the 2023 year.

First Timers We’ll start off easy with the brand new characters to the game.  Like last year, but for real this time to avoid temping fate again, I’ll be putting forth five options I’m hopeful to see.

Drasna.  With Bertha now in, Drasna is the #1 hope.  And she is inevitable.  They added both Sinnoh and Hoenn CS, and now all that remains is Kalos.  And Paldea.  If Kalos loses out to Paldea, I will laugh.  And then cry because When Drasna?  Ideally, I want her with Dragalge, but I really love Noivern too, so there’s no failing here.  Just let her in.

Brassius.  “Wow, even more than Iono?”  Yeah dude.  Arboliva would be his ace, and he’d be general pool, which means general pool access to Grassy Terrain.  That’s good shit.  Also Brassius is super cool and I love him.

Iono.  But I also love this gremlin child and want her in the game too.  I actually kinda want Support.  I know that doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but given how Bellibolt works, the concept of taking damage to boost power seems ripe for Team Shout 9 and some new effect for potentially Moves Up Next at like a 30% rate when taking damage.  I do see Iono being one of those “PokeFair on arrival” types, but I could be wrong about that.

Anabel.  Specifically Gen 7′s version of Anabel, because Anabel and Looker are a set and they are currently separated and I’m not okay about it.  Let her in.  Mega Salamence, Raikou, whatever you want just get her in here.

Rika.  Dude, she mains Clodsire.  Come on.  That’s cool.  Clodsire is cool.  And having an option that’s potentially going to have Ground and Poison-type damage?  It’s like SS Giovanni but maybe cooler.  I’m on board.

Sygna Suits Ah, Sygna Suits.  With Cynthia revealing that actually you can have three of them if you want, there’s a high level of potential here.  But I’m mostly going to stick to “They don’t have any yet,” unless there’s something specific and really exciting I can think of.

Caitlin & Gothitelle.  It has to happen.  This is my most wanted thing in the game.  If it winds up as a seasonal, fine, but I really need to see this.  Gothitelle is her ace.  They gave her Reuniclus because at one point they must have expected an alt for her down the line.  Deliver the goods, DeNA.

Lusamine & Nihilego.  This.  This is the exception.  Because I am SCARED.  Anni Lillie is rerunning now.  Alola VA is, at an estimate, about 6 months away.  Archie and Maxie got rerun with their villain arc.  DO NOT DO THAT TO LUSAMINE.  I do not want to see just a rerun of Necrozma, who is now super outclassed by SS Steven.  I want a new thing, and it damned well better be Nihilego.  If they give it to Lillie...honestly I’d probably be okay because I really like Lillie, but it would be really annoying.

Darach & Gallade.  I really like Darach’s team, in terms of the thematics of always being like...super Butler-aligned designs.  Gallade in particular was a big hope, specifically as support, to provide for Caitlin’s base form.  I’d like to see that play out here.  I think a support Gallade, or shiny for if they want to SS Wally it, could be great.  I will, however, also accept Male Indeedee.

Kahili & Baile Oricorio.  I secretly like Kahili a lot, for a character who gets effectively no attention.  And I really like Oricorio, with at least three of its forms being really cool.  I am 100% on board for a Baile form Oricorio and Kahili alt.  I think it’d be great.  It would also be Fire. But this is what life is like now.

Glacia & Froslass.  I know it’s unlikely, but Glacia should get a Froslass alt.  We have Froslass as a BP pair, but it’s a known allowance that another unit can get it as well.  I think Glacia makes a solid amount of sense, given that this evolutionary line is her ace, and she deserves something.  Hoenn supports got blasted so hard, but Glacia feels way worse due to the whole 5* thing.  They did not need to do this to her.

Seasonals I’m including Special Costume here.  Basically, anything that’s limited in the way where it’s like once a year appearances.

Lisia.  I cannot tell you how hype the rumored leaks for New Years make me.  New Year Lisia would be to die for, and while I know full goddamned well it would be with Jirachi, that’s fine.  I’d prefer Meloetta, but...we know.  We all know.  I’m just desperate for Lisia to get an alt.  I like her, and I really like her hair, and I’d love for her to get an outfit I don’t hate.

Fantina.  Special Costume, for a contest lover type deal.  I’d specifically want Frillish.  It feels very cute, it saves Jellicent (whose design I like less) for Marlon if he gets anything ever, and would be great for me.

Cheryl.  Palentine’s.  Appletun.  Think about it.  She showed up in the first event, knows how to bake, is all about HP as the highest stat which Appletun has.  This is a slam dunk.

Gardenia.  Halloween.  Someone pointed out that each year, someone who appears in the Halloween event without an alt gets one the next year, and that this means this upcoming year is likely Gardenia or Lusamine.  I will obviously prefer Lusamine/Nihilego if it doesn’t happen with the Villain Arc, but assuming I get what I want there...nothing would be cooler than Gardenia/Trevenant.  It’s such a cool pair concept.

Alder.  Legitimately, I just think the guy deserves something, don’t expect a Sygna Suit for the villain arc, and his entire team is accounted for so they’d have to go outside of that, and seasonals tend to do that.  I don’t even particularly care what he gets, I just want him to get something.   Although as an alternative for the bonus round...

Summer Cynthia.  But specifically in an outfit similar to like Summer Lyra or Summer Hilda.  Just annihilate the hopes of the worst in the fanbase.

Master Fair Master Fairs have gone off the rails at this point, allowing multiple alts with the same effect, and the same character to have multiple effects.  This is mildly bananas, but I guess opens a lot of possibilities.  I’ll take a stab at three I’m anticipating.

Champion Dawn.  I feel like this one’s an inevitability.  Protagonists now have access to Champion alts, with Serena and Calem leading the pack.  Dawn is a known popular protagonist, who is like...destined for this.  I’m not even sure what I want.  Mesprit feels like an ideal, but I kinda feel like that might be the rumored New Year partnership, and like that, if nothing else, Calem and Serena got general Pokemon.

Lilllie & Magearna.  Lillie will absolutely get another Master Fair with the Villain Arc, and my hope is that she gets Magearna.  I don’t have any else I’d particularly want with Magearna, it carries on Lillie’s Ghost/Fairy-type trainer status, is a cute partnership, it doesn’t take away Nihilego from Lusamine, and DeNA gets to continue its love of slapping mythic legends into villain arcs just to have them around.  Everyone wins.

Geeta & Glimmora.  “I thought you didn’t like Geeta all that much?”  She came out kinda bland, not gonna lie.  But I like Glimmora, and most significantly?  I want to see what they do.  Because Geeta Tera-types to Rock, which is an objectively bad move.  Poison-type would make tremendously move sense for it on every level, but especially in this game.  And given DeNA’s fear of making Poison-types good because they already have that passive damage why do they need more, I’d want to see the first instance of a Master Fair worse off than Anni Steven.  Sometimes I just live for the thrill of things going badly.

BP I was so horribly wrong about last year, but surely this year nothing bad will happen.  I’ll predict four, since we only got four.

Roxanne.  Golem or Relicanth.  I can’t decide which I want more.  Golem has the emotional attachment of her talking about always having wanted to raise a Golem, while Relicanth as a fossil Pokemon is just fitting.

Clair & Dragonair.  It would be such a cool support pair.  I like Dragonair’s design better than Dragonite’s, and think that either BP or Lodge Clair should get Dragonair as her focus.

Gordie.  I need to be fair and include some guys here.  And we desperately need Galarian units to be free.  So my pick is Gordie.  Partially because Gordie’s a cool guy, and partially because Rock-types feel scarce and I’d like another.

Wikstrom.  I couldn’t bring myself to pick a BP unit for one of the Kalos male gym leaders.  So I’m picking from the E4 instead.  Wikstrom’s alright.  I’d be good with any of his team, but something about the idea of Klefki tickles me, so maybe that one.

Master BP I was even wronger about this, but now I’m on to them, so this should be easy.  I’ll predict two, since that’s how many we got.

MU & Raikou.  It just feels like it fits.  Like, Electric Teamwork and a Main Character theme skill just...fits with the Electric-type Archetype at its peak right now.  I’m not even sure it would need to do anything, either.  Not like Red or Ash have ever needed help.

Morgan & Virizion.  Her trio focus is the swords of Justice, and we already have Rock and Fighting accounted for, with Cobalion being with MU.  So the only logical connection is Grass Teamwork with Virizion.  Which works because I like Virizion a lot.  She could also get Latias with Dragon Teamwork and I’d be cool.  Basically, this would be hard to mess up.  Just...Morgan over Dana.  I don’t dislike Dana, but if I get to pick, you know?

Lodge Lodge is an exciting time.  We only get 12 of these units a year at current pace, which is...sobering.  It really does not look good for the characters I’m hoping for.  I’ll take a shot at five I’d really, really like to see.  I’m also going to try avoiding the obvious picks on my end, so I won’t mention Caitlin or Jasmine.

Steven & Skarmory.  I think it’s safe to say Steven is an inevitability.  I’m actually looking forward to his addition.  While I do ultimately want him to get Aggron, I’d rather that be with a different alt where it can mega evolve.  In this situation, I think Skarmory would be a cool pick.  I just love Skarmory, and it left a really big impression on me in Emerald.  It’s such a strong lead for a main game fight.

Lysandre.  I just think it’d be hilarious.  I don’t know if he’s actually popular, but like...Serena’s accounted for, and Kalos isn’t a popular place.  Calem and Diantha are the only two options that offer like any competition to this happening.  And I just think nothing would be funnier than antagonists in the Lodge.  Like...come on.  You know you’re curious.

Iris.  I’m really, really hopeful that Unova Act 2 comes with Lodge Iris, if nothing else.  I don’t even particularly care what she gets, I just want her to get the Lodge alt, because I feel like she deserves it.

Kris.  I don’t have a strong preference for what, I just want Kris to get more stuff.  I’m really happy this year focused on her, she deserves it.  Fantastic Sygna Suit, really cool Eevee alt despite all the trouble surrounding that focus, I just think she deserves a bit more than she gets.  Maybe with Dunsparce.  Or Dudunsparce.

Cyrus.  Okay, look.  There are too many options for this to happen.  At a minimum, Dawn.  But hear me out.  Lysandre was mentioned because I think he legitimately has a chance in his region, given that almost no one else exists that competes.  Cyrus is closer to that mark, but also infinitely funnier.  Lysandre is social.  Lysandre is charismatic.  Lysandre could hold a conversation and go on an outing and be a pleasant guest.  Cyrus cannot.  And you have no idea how much I want to see that in action with Lodge.  Just imagine it.

NPC Trainer Classes NPC Trainer Classes are one of the coolest new additions DeNA made.  I actually love these.  That said, I don’t tend to care all that much about the trainer models, so I’ll stick to like...three.

XY Female Ace Trainer.  Top pick, this design was so cute, I love her outfit and her hair and I would kill for this inclusion.

DPP Aroma Lady.  Aroma Lady was just a really pretty design in this gen.  I’m invested.

GSC Kimono Girls.  If they count here, which I imagine they do, this is where I’d want them.  Kimono Girls were so cool when I was a kid, I really want more of them.  I know the Eevee alts are happening, but listen.  They can do Eevee again.  No one will mind.

General Pool Sync Grid Expansions General pool  grid expansions rule.  They’ve consistently been fantastic, except for Glacia who bears the Hoenn Support Curse, and I’m really hyped to see more of these.  I’m going for a full five of them, but like...there are so many.

Caitlin.  I just want the best for Caitlin.  She’s a striker without a single multiplier anywhere in her kit.  If she doesn’t get full Brainpower benefits, heads are going to roll.  Just ramp up that damage.  I’m sorry, I love the idea of defensive striker, but it does not work.  We’ve tried.  It’s not successful without stupid levels of specific utility that she does not have.

Lisia.  Lisia is one of my most anticipated grid expansion for a few reasons.  One is, much like SS Leaf, she’s a utility unit with a lot of avenues for play.  Unlike Leaf, Lisia gets a normal expansion, and thus half cost, meaning Lisia has a much, much better chance of her expansion mattering.  Secondly, her grid expansion’s offensive needs are so hilariously obvious that you can fix the whole thing in two.  Towering Force, Tough Cookie.  Done.  That means she can have a nice blend of power and utility in the same set.  Finally, the transition of Mega Evolution means losing out on her AoE flinch rate, which is a rough time.  So the inclusion of utility tools that kick ass but she didn’t even have before, like a flinch on Dragon Pulse and removing weather on Defog to perfectly set up her sync nuke, is enticing.  Lisia has a metric ton to gain from an expansion, and I’m expecting big things.  Do not Glacia this.

Jasmine.  Jasmine’s a support, so I anticipate dramatic levels of failure.  Which is sad because Jasmine’s support feels pretty easily salvaged, you just have to pick which way to go.  On the one hand, recovery from Recuperation is huge, and that grid leaves 16 energy to work with, so you can just add special defense boosts for a better tanking set.  On the other, expanding on her offense buffing seems the way to go, as she currently only powers up defense with any reliability.  But then there’s also the fact that Jasmine’s slow as dirt, but has strong offensive capabilities somehow, so speed boosting wouldn’t be a terrible call either to work the meme build with Palentine’s Marnie.  She’s got a lot of options, and I’m very hopeful for something fun.

Dawn.  Dawn feels a bit like Jasmine, because of the defense buffing support designation, and the ability to spec into offense.  What kills me about Dawn is that if she had some self-buffing for crit, or her attack buffing wasn’t so slow and locked to getting hit, she’d honestly be pretty respectable in multiple ways.  Her best attribute is being super sturdy, and I’d like to see them play into some team support that also facilitates her surprisingly nice damage potential.

Gladion.  Gladion feels very much like a product of his time, similar to like...Anni Lillie, frankly.  “We gave them a really good utility tool, so time to dramatically limit everything else they can do.”  Gladion hits everything for super-effective damage, but critically misses out on significant multipliers or really all that much of value.  Worst of all, he can only change type once, meaning Gauntlets that change weaknesses tend to ruin him pretty badly.  Gladion feels like a very clear-cut fix.  Give him some multipliers, and a second shot at trainer move guaranteed to shift his typing a second time to keep on top of fights like Regirock, and he should be good to go.

Lusamine.  I lied, one more.  Bug-type damage is rare, Lusamine is another product of her time where really high offenses meant lackluster multipliers, but we get shit like SS Hilda now, so I feel like Lusamine deserves some raw firepower.  But what I do like is that there’s openings for utility.  Double drops on Lunge and Bug Buzz.  The AoE freeze on Blizzard.  Lusamine has some interesting potential.

PokeFair Sync Grid Expansions PokeFair expansions are a lot less hype to me because 5/5 and full energy cost tends to gimp their utility, but we’ll talk about five I’m looking forward to.

Diantha.  My top anticipated upgrade.  I really like Gardevoir, and I like Diantha a lot.  The upgrade feels very easy.  Gauge control, move damage multiplier.  I feel safe saying that, while they will 100% give her something like Brainpower to power up her sync, what she really wants is DPS.  Diantha’s Moonblast DPS is really strong, and I think granting it another multiplier on grid would be tremendous.

Steven.  Metagross is going to be an interesting one to me.  If it were a 3/5 style upgrade, I’d say no question it would be devastating.  But 5/5 and full cost means he may wind up losing Aggravation or Haymaker, significantly limiting his overall impact.  I’m dying to see it, because I’m dying to know if they make him worse.

Alder.  Alder feels like someone who can reasonably ignore his entire grid right now, and thus is the perfect kind of candidate for this expansion.  He’s likely going to be Raihan’d, where everything gets overwritten in a way that these six new tiles are better than the entire previous grid.

Lance.  I’m dying to know.  Like, isn’t everyone?  The man with Hyper Beam, whose limitation was not being able to buff a single stat?  That’s such a fascinating limitation that had to have been terrible even at the time.  I’m dying to know what they do.  They try self-sufficiency for stuff like this all the time, but he also doesn’t have multipliers on either sync or move damage.  Lance’s demands are through the roof, and there’s no possible way to fix all of it.  But god I want to see them try.

Gloria.  Similar to Alder, but way more real.  Gloria’s grid is downright bad.  They put all their eggs into the natural multiplier basket that no one likes.  She’s absolutely discarding the whole grid for whatever the new tools are.  All she really needs is damage, too.  I’m just so curious what they’ll aim for.  Especially since her self setup isn’t that great either.  Gloria feels desperately in need of help.

[akirakure]

in light of the new pokemon game, ive decided to compile who i think persona 5 characters would have on their team

Joker: meowscarada, umbreon, zoroark, darkrai, froslass?, mimikyu

Ryuji: alolan raichu, jolteon, boltund, riolu

Ann: delphox, flareon, gardevoir, lycanroc (midday), vulpix. i think she’d also have a nihilego if she could get one

Yusuke: alolan ninetales, glalie, smeargle, amaura

Makoto: aegislash, cryogonal, lucario, metagross

Futaba: rotom, porygon z, cofagrigus, poipole

Haru: tinkaton. thats it. thats her team

i dont like akechi enough to add him in but he would have a corviknight just because haru has a tinkaton. also corviknight matches him

i think joker, haru and makoto are naturally skilled trainers. haru comes first, then joker, then makoto. haru mostly because she builds strong bonds with her pokemon and they love her - not that the others dont.

joker’s bonds with his pokemon are just as strong, however he shows some favouritism towards his umbreon, who i think would be his ace. this might be some eevee bias, but i think he’d like eevee anyway, they almost match, him being a wildcards and eevee having so many evolutions!

though i do think joker has multiple teams of pokemon. he mainly uses dark types, as its similar to curse magic, however he also has teams that get as much coverage as possible. he’s versatile and knows how to work that into his battles

haru is a very stick to what she likes kind of trainer. she doesnt care about being strong, yet is exceptionally so anyway. realistically i think shed have a tinkaton, sylveon, gallade and a few others, but its 5am and i cant think of any more

makoto is the opposite, in she cares about being strong a lot, it being one of her downfalls. she does bond with her pokemon, though not nearly as much as everybody else as she’s training with them a lot. they get breaks a ton, though!

i think futaba would be the next strongest, she knows how to quickly calculate how a battle could go, though it sometimes leads to her becoming overwhelmed when it doesnt go a way she planned, which leads to her defeat quite a lot. she’s learned a lot from joker though, like how to bounce back from tough situations like that and is getting better

yusuke… isnt a battler. he has pokemon because he likes to make friends with them, or rather, they try to be friends with him and he doesnt exactly want it but wont say no to new friends. he regularly uses his pokemon as muses for his art pieces, which they never mind

i think ann would be relatively strong, though shes more focused on pokemon performances than battles. think serena from the xyz anime!

ryuji… tries his best! hes not amazing, but hes not the worst youll find. that doesnt stop him from challenging everyone who annoys him to a pokemon battle, and losing almost every time. i like to think he gets frustrated with this eventually, and asks joker for help, so they battle to find his weak points, which ends in a sweet moment and ryuji realising he needs to get his head straight instead of charging into battles recklessly

ive thought about this too much. goodnight

[dezbee2008]

My Pokemon Moon Adventures Part 27: Y’all Are Stupid (January 15, 2017)

Actual quote from the game, courtesy of Guzma

After finishing the final trial, we leave through the back for the Altar of the Moone, where Lillie, Hapu, and Mudsdale were waiting for us. Hapu mentioned that the trial at Vast Poni Canyon was the first one to be held in the region. After climbing a bunch of stairs, Lillie and I waited until the game automatically goes into night mode so that we can summon Lunala under the moon. She played the sun flute and I played the moon flute. Out of nowhere, Nebby (a Cosmoem) flew out of the bag (for the final time) and evolved again, this time into Lunala. Nebby (now a Lunala) transported us into the Ultra Space to confront Lusamine, but before we could do that, we see ya boi Guzma. He felt obviously defeated, explaining that catching the beasts was harder than he had imagined and that Lusamine is just fucked up. And that we’re all stupid.

Congratulations, Guzma, you played yourself.

It’s time once again for the thrilling conclusion of Dezbee’s Poorly Translated Theater, starring me, Lillie, Lusamine, and ya boi Guzma

Guzma: Alright, look. I’m bad. I’m supposed to be bad. The game’s storyline told me to be bad. Ain’t nobody told me that I gotta compete with Lusamine over badness. It’s obvious she got it down pat dry, but I’m sorry, Lillie, your mom is beyond crazy.

Lillie: Crazy or not, she’s going to see me again whether she likes it or not, whether she had sex with Nihilego or not...

Guzma: Crap, I don’t even want to talk about that.

Nihilego and Lusamine entered

Lusamine: Guzma, I finally did it. Gosh, it never felt so damn good. (sees me and Lillie) The fuck you doing here? Do you want to have sex with Nihilego too?

Lillie: Eww, mom. I’m 11. You don’t want me to contact the local news station because you want me to get freaky with a creature, do you?

Lusamine: Bitch, get the fuck outta here. You ain’t not putting me on no blast. This world is mine to play with, while you got yours.

Lillie: I see how it is. You’re giving in to Gamefreak’s demands of being a complete bitch so that you can suck Nihilego’s dick while his other one is penetrating your wormhole

Me: Jesus Christ, people, we have kids reading this shit.

Lusamine: Oh, Lillie, you ain’t not about to come into my paradise and run my business. I intend on staying here for life. I mean, you my daughter and all, but I got no room for your bitch ass.

Lillie: BULLSHIT! You ain’t not hot either, so what’s your point?

Lusamine: You calling me ugly?

Lillie: I ain’t calling you beautiful. Gladion and I ain’t no toys from a McDonalds Happy Meal. Pokemon like Nihilego aren’t objects either. I’m here to attempt to steal Nihilego away from you like I did with Cosmog, which by the way didn’t die, thank you very much. We niggas out here breathing and living. That’s why Dad left you for Poke Pelago because you a crazy ass hoe.

Lusamine: A ho? (omg, my daughter called me a hoe) But Dezyree? She has many more mons in her PCs

Me: Hey, don’t bring me into this, you know who’s taking care of those.

Lusamine: Oh. Okay, Lillie, you’re just as dangerous without having any sex. Dezyree, I will have to battle you just to defend Nihilego.

Me: That’s your mistake, lady. Be prepared to die again.

But Lusamine fused with Nihilego, plus all of her mons have aura surrounding them. This time it was Krystal vs Clefable, Sabrina vs Lilligant, Victoria vs Milotic, Free Hugs vs Mismagius, and Jason vs Bewear as Poli, I, Lillie, and Guzma ate popcorn

With all set and done, we busted the fusion and Lusamine falls down. Lillie ran to her and Lusamine became a loving mother again. We left the space to see Hapu and Mudsdale. Guzma placed Lusamine on Mudsdale and they left. Lillie and I stayed back to talk to Nebby again. Lillie knows what Nebby wants, but since she can’t provide it, I will be the one to step in.

Nebby, get in the ball, take 1: Quick Ball (fail)

Nebby, get in the ball, take 2: Ultra Ball (success). I named her Nebula, because Nebby is short for Nebula...

Finally Nanu came about and took us to the bottom on Mount Lanakila, where our main adventures end. With that, I will go ahead and take a few days off to train my mons (though at this point, they look ready but they all received new moves since the last training session so that they’ll be in tip top shape for Gladion, Hau, and the Elite 4 + Championship Battles

POKE PELAGO VISITORS:

wild female Wingull

wild male Kadabra

RuPaul (male Bruxish)

Frank (male Abra)

Mineral (Carbink)

Samantha (female Trumbeak)

Lynda (female Pichu)

Aquaman (male Wishiwashi)

Byamba (male Munchlax)

Tom (male Gastrodon

Picasso (male Smeargle)

Seth (male Goldeen)

Sandra (female Sandygast)

Tiana (female Tentacool)

Comet (Minior) *gave us a bean

Hank Hill (male Caterpie)

Tyler (male Tauros)

Willow (female Wailmer)

Finn (female Finneon)

Ivan (male Rockruff)

Whitney (female Miltank)

Paris (female Paras)

Katherine (female Torkoal)

Maxwell (male Growlithe)

Po (male Pancham)

Pipsqueak (female Alola Grimer)

Margaret (female Misdreavus)

Ruth (female Trubbish)

Brock (male Bonsly)

Maurice (male Magby)

Shelly (male Shellder)

Heather (female Murkrow)

Xmas Tree (female Phantump)

Adam (male Eevee)

Japanese Raticate (male)

Vulpix (female)

Edwin (male Sylveon)

Misty (female Psyduck)

David (male Slowpoke)

Gary (male Magikarp)

Steven (male Spearow)

Maggie (female Makuhita)

Gwendolyn (female Granbull)

Houdini (male Drowzee)

Wilhelm (male Wingull)

Kevin (male Klefki)

Jordan (male Poliwag)

ZYGARDE CELL COUNT: 48/100

NEW CAPTURES: Lunala (Nebula) *she ain’t leaving the bag now xD

TEAM UPDATE:

Krystal, female Mudsdale, level 56, High Horsepower, Earthquake, Heavy Slam, Rock Tomb

Jason, male Primarina, level 57, HP Grass, Sparkling Aria, Psychic, Moonblast

Free Hugs, male Bewear, level 56, Brick Break, Hammer Arm, Brutal Swing, Aerial Ace

Poli, female Oricorio (Pa’u), level 56, Aerial Ace, Revelation Dance, HP Grass, Air Cutter

Victoria, female Vikavolt, level 57, Thunderbolt, X-Scissor, Discharge, Flash Cannon

Sabrina, female Salazzle, level 56, Flamethrower, Leech Life, Dragon Pulse, Sludge Wave

[akashicrecordsgaming]

Alola, A-L-O-L-A Alola - Pokemon Sun & Moon

Well, it’s been long enough since SM came out that we should have all got our kneejerk reactions out of the way, and it’s been long enough that I’ve cleaned it out once and I’m starting it again (Shameimaru has too), so buckle up cause I’m gonna say some bad things about the sacred cow. Yep, that means spoilers too.

I don’t normally start with Narrative but good lord the pacing in this game is absolute garbage. It has probably the slowest start of any Pokemon game so far - the entire first island (of four) is just mind-numbingly slow and boring, with most of the game mechanics unavailable, and while being on rails early on isn’t unusual for a Pokemon game, it feels incredibly blatant in SM, to the point of being obnoxious due to the presentation. As the game continues, it looks like we’re going to reach a high point when a Nihilego busts into the Aether Facility, but then it just... continues being totally tepid. Then it looks like you’re going to reach another high point where Lusamine goes completely bonkers and fuses with the Mega Beast, except then you don’t actually fight her - you battle her exactly like you would a trainer, despite the fact that she’s just turned into pokemoncthulhu.

In general, SM’s plot feels pretty thin on the ground and schizophrenic. The world-building is really stellar, but there’s no sense of pressure, unlike the previous two games - there’s no big effects on the weather threatening to wipe everyone out, the villains haven’t managed to steal a march on you and build a doomsday laser or anything like that. In theory, you even go into fight Lusamine because you’re on a rescue mission.

On the positive side, the island challenge idea is a lot more interesting than gyms usually are (in part because the premise of a gym - that is, you’re dojo hunting, a practice that hearkens to Japanese jidaigeki and martial arts films, although it allegedly has its roots in real life - has become diluted over time), and they do a much better job than usual worldbuilding. Unlike previous regions, Alola really seems like a place where people live and have lives, rather than being a series of hubs to train your Pokemon in.

A spot I think might be an issue of real contention are Team Skull. On the one hand, they’re hilarious; on the other hand, while villain teams have always been pretty goofy (except arguably Team Rocket who are pretty worrying since they’re a legit mafia and sometimes undertake straight-up terrorist action), Team Skull are really hard to care about, which becomes a problem when the game sometimes expects you to drop what you’re doing and put them in their place, since the tone is pretty wobbly.

Overall, while SM deserves praise for actually mixing up the formula in a main-series game (which hasn’t been done before - all experimentations on the formula were relegated to side games), it’s obviously been a shaky process for them, and SM’s tone and pacing are wildly schizophrenic, which isn’t improved in the post-game (unlike ORAS’ amazing Delta Episode).

For Narrative, I give SM a 3 out of 5: it has a fantastic concept which is hampered by a schizophrenic execution, but the attention to detail elsewhere is spectacular.

I could talk about the Audio but being real here, I’d basically just be sharing my opinion of the soundtrack, without any real objective basis near or far. If you’re interested, that opinion is that it isn’t as good as XY or ORAS’ soundtracks, but it’s still a Pokemon soundtrack so it has great tunes and the audio quality is just fine.

Instead, let’s talk about the Technical side of things. Although the game essentially runs on the same engine as XY and ORAS, they’ve changed up the UI a bit, putting moves on the right and letting you see known type effectiveness against the target at a glance. You can also now check your move details straight from the combat menu, and tapping Y twice auto-applies your last-used item, which is great when you’re on a catching spree.

On the other hand, let’s not even freaking talk about the PSS replacement. Well, we will talk about it because otherwise there’s no point in having this site but jeez. You’re now only online when engaged in Festival Plaza (and then you have to go through a double-prompt to actually get online). Want to interact with a friend? You need them to also be on Festival Plaza, and online, at the same time as you, then refresh your guestlist until they turn up, then make them a VIP to guarantee you’ll be able to interact with them at all. Yes, you can make this easier by disabling other aspects of the system, but then you’re disabling other aspects of the system to get it to do something that should be simple, and overall it’s a huge step back from the XY/ORAS PSS system. Forget about pickup trading/battles - they’re gone.

I’m also going to have to dock the game for being really laggy when it wants to be. Apparently this isn’t a problem on the New 3DS but it was a big one whenever the effects got a bit interesting; my 2DS chugged like an autistic fratboy.

All things being equal, I’ll give SM a 3 for the Technical: it took some steps forward, and some steps back, and came out about average.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the Gameplay room first: I like Z-Moves. They’re a lot of fun, they add some surprise swing/comeback potential, and they generally don’t feel as incredibly powerful as Mega Evolutions in the previous two games have been. The little dances are also great, particularly since several of them incorporate actual hula choreography.

In terms of challenge, this game manages to be more challenging than ORAS or XY, largely because of Totem Pokemon: when they come in, their own take on Z-Power activates, giving them stat buffs, which helps to avoid the traditional problem with creating a challenge in a a boss fight in Pokemon; setting up has a big opportunity cost, in which time (because the AI doesn’t normally switch) the player can just swap to something more useful for hosing whatever the boss is trying to do. On top of that, several of the Totem bosses are dangerous picks to begin with: Totem Wishiwashi’s Schooling gives it incredible stats even before its Z-Power kicks in, Totem Mimikyu gets a free turn to do whatever it wants thanks to its unique ability... and then there’s Lusamine’s Clefable in her Cthulhu-Lusamine form, who is probably the hardest Pokemon in the game to get past. It’s not very threatening - it’s limited to Metronome (Shameimaru assures me it has Cosmic Power and STAB Moonblast but it used neither against me) - but even with a big level advantage and possibly a type advantage, it’s an incredible wall.

There’s also a sort-of-new gimmick regarding how most Ace Trainers now work: they won’t even look at you if you haven’t beaten everyone else on their route, but their fights all involve a clever tactic or a showcase of a game mechanic that wouldn’t be out of place in the competitive scene. The very first Ace Trainer, for example, runs a suicide lead with Stealth Rock and a Red Card to force you to start switching and taking entry damage, and it gets more interesting from there.

Unfortunately, the game does tend to fall into the same rut most Pokemon games do, but let’s be honest: if you’re old enough to be reading this site of your own volition you probably knew what you were getting into when you bought the game. It also revamps some older concepts, such as replacing the widely-disliked HM system with Ride Pokemon, which isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely a big step in the right direction. It’s a shame the Ride outfit looks so dorky though.

Oh, and I had a weird glitch when I fought Kukui: he broke all the rules and used two Z-Moves in succession, but that might be because my ailing 2DS was in sleep mode for like 18 hours between rounds, so I’m not weighting it as a Big Huge Bug.

For Gameplay, I’d rate it a 4: it’s definitely moving in the right direction and is a step up from previous Pokemon main-series games, but it’s still weighted down by a few flaws here and there.

Overall, SM represents a pretty bold new step for Pokemon, with an attempt for a main-series game to put its narrative front and center. That said, it’s clear that there’s a long way to go in terms of presentation and execution if they want to continue the trend in a fashion that will satisfy both brand-new players and franchise veterans.

And the awesome JoJoMon pictures is from this guy’s tumblr..