#starts out as a magikarp- made fun of for being weak

[goldensunset]

i need to. do more kh x pokémon things

[cyberrat]

69th Batch Of Fics: 2nd Fill

Hanzo + Pokémon – CYOA interlude – Part ⅖ – Hanzo visits his Gyarados.

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Now that Hanzo has already checked up on two of his Pokémon, it feels kind of right to go and see what the others are up to. He has no idea where all of them went, but standing before the huge sign board pointing in all kinds of directions for various playgrounds and training facilities, he can at least have an educated guess where any of them might be.

He supposes he should see about Zeus first. Being a Gyarados he probably has quite a few people on edge, so he starts to make his way over to the pool area. The area of the spa facility is so humongous that he regrets not having rented himself a bike.

So walking it is while he takes in the scenery. It is mostly forest with the odd building planted here and there, seemingly dropped down at random. He is sure if he were to look at the whole thing from a bird’s eye view, it would make more sense to him, but as it is, he doesn’t really get it.

Not that the placement of the facilities is specially important; it’s about Pokémon relaxing and playing and having fun.

After a good hour of walking he only has to follow his ears toward the ever increasing sound of rushing water. Soon enough he starts to almost trip over various water Pokémon chasing around the edges of ponds appearing here and there. He’ll have to shoot a message to Lúcio to let him know about this area; he’s pretty sure his team would love it here as well.

Through the trees he can already spy a large man made lake with an artificial waterfall that is the source of the noise. He can also see Zeus splashing around in the middle of the lake, apparently unperturbed that all the other Pokémon give him a wide berth.

There are a few trainers gathered in groups as well, though Hanzo isn’t able to tell whether they are worried or simply talking amongst themselves. He does not want to simply assume anything, but after what he knows Zeus has been through as a Magikarp, and given the circumstances under which he rescued him, he finds himself a bit more tense than he would have liked.

Now that he is standing at the shore of the lake, watching him glide through the water like the giant water snake that he is, he realizes that he’s been worried about him more than any of his other Pokémon. More than Kikuri, even, despite her being infinitely more aggressive than his Gyarados.

He hadn’t been worried about him misbehaving, though. Hanzo finds himself looking about after all just to make sure there is no obvious animosity going on amidst the gathered humans, before he whistles sharply, just once.

Zeus does not pause in his swimming but he does lift his head some and peer around. Upon seeing Hanzo standing at the shore and waving with one hand, he immediately turns to make his way toward him, leaving a few Pokémon that couldn’t get away fast enough to be pulled along in his wake for a bit.

He stands himself half-way on the grassy shore right next to Hanzo, wiggling his fins at him in greeting.

Hanzo relaxes himself quite a bit at the sight. He reaches out, lightly rubbing the crest above Zeus’ eyes. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

Zeus’ whiskers tremble in reply to the question. Hanzo smiles a little. He crouches down in front of him and touches one of the deep scars scattered along his body. There are no scales there; just his skin feeling tough and leathery against Hanzo’s fingertips as his body has adapted to those weak spots.

“I am glad to see that. Don’t let anybody spoil it for you, you’re behaving perfectly well.”

Zeus is making a low rumbling sound; as if he were purring while he gets his face pet by his trainer.

Hanzo has to admit that he is quite humbled by Zeus’ general attitude toward him. Even as a Magikarp, after all that he had been through, he had been very trusting of Hanzo from the very beginning. Maybe he had been able to feel his new trainer’s intentions. As far as Hanzo has come to know him, he is a very sensitive Pokémon – level headed even after his evolution.

Hanzo smiles thinly and stands back up from his crouch slowly, bracing himself against Zeus’ nose as he does so.

“I did not mean to disturb you, my friend. Go back and play; we will see each other tomorrow morning… Stay safe.”

Gyarados turns his head slightly, staring at Hanzo with one of his large eyes. He rumbles after a moment, seemingly pleased with what he had seen, and presses his flat nose against his trainer’s chest in a brief show of affection.

It only occurs to Hanzo then just how big Zeus’ maw is; it would be easy for him to snatch him up and swallow him down in one choking gulp. There’s a small flutter of apprehension somewhere low in Hanzo’s stomach but he ignores it in favor of petting Zeus one last time before watching him turn and smoothly submerge beneath the water. His dark shadow looks ominous, moving back toward the middle of the lake where he reappears to slowly resume swimming in a circle.

Just like Hanzo had found him a few minutes ago.

He reaches up, fingers petting over Kikuri’s dry, feverishly hot back. She does not react one way or another; the heavy, limp way she rests around his neck tells him that she is deeply asleep.

It’s better that way; sleep has cured many a cold.

After another moment of hesitation, he turns and makes his way back toward the main path, throwing the other trainers milling about distrustful little glances. He feels as if their eyes are on him, judging him for letting a Gyarados out there unsupervised with their precious Pokémon. He ignores it. There’s nothing else he could do, after all.

“Now… where are the other two,” he mutters to himself, standing in front of the huge sign board, brow furrowed. He has a good idea where he might find King, but that place is pretty much at the very end of the facility.

“If I were a lazy Lycanroc, where would I be,” he murmurs under his breath before his gaze lands on the words ‘Pokémon Café’. “Ah. Yes. Of course.”

He rearranges his backpack, makes sure Kikuri is still very secure around his neck, then starts to make his way toward the café, wondering how this place could even afford something like it, given how many Pokémon lines are quite egregious eaters.

Well, maybe he would find out.

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Not that anyone asked (but seriously I’d LOVE for someone to talk to me about PokeSpe (just no spoilers past vol 13)) but since I made an offhand remark about my Top 5 favorite characters, it occurred to me that I actually DO have approximately 5 top favorite characters, and I’m procrastinating on work, so I’m gonna ramble

**just in case, note that a lot of this will revolve around my childhood experience with gender in a “I’m AFAB (and present-day me still identifies as a cis girl) but I don’t fit in with what media is telling me girls are like” way, a brief childhood feeling of homophobia, and probably general TMI about my opinions and emotions throughout my life, haha

1. Yellow

Okay, so, I was a little kid when Pokemon Adventures started coming out in English, back when manga was released as single-issue monthly comic books instead of complete volumes.  So I was rereading the same chapters over and over while anxiously awaiting the rest of the story (and wound up missing a bunch of issues anyway)

I enjoyed the RGB arc, I thought it was fun, but I didn’t LOVE the series until Yellow showed up.  At that age my ideal crush was “a cute boy my age who would be nice to me” and Yellow was presented to the reader as a cute boy my age who was sweet and kind and gentle, but also good in a fight, as all shounen protags must be.  Extra bonus points because they had just a few physically weak Pokémon and tried to fight battles in a way that minimized damage to their own and the opponent’s Pokémon, which meant they fought in a particularly smart and clever way.  And I was considered “smart” for being good at school, so being a SMART cute “boy” my age who would be nice to me, Yellow was PERFECT.  I mean, I loved the arc in general because of the clever battles, and the mystery of what had happened to Red, why these people were after Pikachu, why Yellow was so secretive about themself and their mission, etc was really engaging.  But also I adored Yellow as a character and partly in a “I wonder if ‘he’ would like me??” kind of way X’D  So to my tiny child self who didn’t even know it was possible to like-like someone of the same gender (because I hadn’t read Cardcaptor Sakura yet XD ), the reveal that Yellow was a “girl” was devastating—I had to cross out floating hearts on at least one drawing of us holding hands (scandalous!) and, while kind of stunned and shaken for a while, decided that what I’d felt all along was a deep, intense desire to be friends X’D (which probably wasn’t too far from the truth since I was pre-puberty and later turned out to be asexual)

(Also note that I never got the RGB issue that had the chapter where Red helps a little ‘girl’ capture a Rattata—later proven to be Yellow’s backstory—so the gender reveal really came out of nowhere for me.)

But anyways, I still love Yellow as a character for all the above reasons, without the crush aspects because I’m way older than them now.

Also when I reread the series ten years ago, I finally realized “wait, aside from surprising the reader, there’s no real plot reason for Yellow to pretend to be a ‘boy’ except that Green told ‘her’ to—so why did ‘she’ do it?”...and because at that time I didn’t even know that nonbinary genders existed, I decided it was cus they had low self-esteem and pretending to be a different person gave them courage (the same reading I had for Mulan at the time).  These days I’m more inclined to “yeah, I think Yellow’s nonbinary,” but that other interpretation was deeply relatable to me and only made me love Yellow even more.

2. Bill

Bill’s definitely a character I’ve grown to love more as an adult, since I’ve gone from seeing myself as “a protagonist doing cool things” to “a side character just living their life who hopefully gets to do something once in a while.”  But as a kid and now, I like him mostly for the slapstick and goofy expressions and the (early chapters Viz translations) outrageous accent  X’D  My brain desperately craves endorphins and the best way to get em is through a good laugh.

But also, I liked that he was introduced as a goofy character-of-the-week who got into ridiculous trouble and had to be rescued, but then kept being brought back, was slowly built up to be the “smart sidekick who explains things,” and eventually got to the point where he was participating in big battles (the Yellow finale on Cerise Island).  I rambled about this in the tags of another post, but I liked that he was a character who was “weak” without being “useless.”  As a kid who was good at school, I was obsessed with being good at things and had developed a black-and-white view of the world where either you were “strong/smart” or “weak/stupid” to the point that failing or just being not-so-good at anything was devastating (it still kind of is), because that meant I was actually “weak/stupid” when I was supposed to be “strong/smart.”  So it was kind of awesome that this guy who kept getting into trouble and having to be rescued—and didn’t even want to BE part of the final battle—managed to hold his own and get through it and help out instead of being a burden that dragged everyone down.  Seriously, he used a MAGIKARP effectively—the Pokémon everyone makes fun of for being “useless” and he used its one attack to save his life!

(Bonus points for all this happening in contrast to my devastating childhood experience of stanning The One Girl Character in every popular shounen series, waiting desperately for her to get to do something in battle, and then her one spotlight episode revolved around her struggling because she was so weak...not only was that actually happening to a boy for once, it was actually happening in a more satisfying/empowering way :’D )

3. Gold

I have extremely specific tastes when it comes to “the dumb shounen/action movie protag,” because as a kid I hated it when the main character was “dumb” because I was “smart” (re: good at school) and people who were “dumb” shouldn’t deserve to be the main character and have all the cool powers and save the world and stuff.  As an adult, I hate it when male characters are dumb and/or jerks but it’s treated as fine or even sexy(??) and the other characters fawn over them, and I generally still kind of hate it when characters who are dumb and/or jerks get the big important role when there’s a female character RIGHT THERE who’s more competent (and OF COURSE she has to wind up falling in love with him)

But anyway, I have extremely specific tastes, and Gold is it  X’D  He’s the perfect combination of “unshakably confident in his own stupid/egotistic views” and “treated as annoying and/or comic relief by the rest of the cast” with a bonus dash of actually being really clever in battle (so my inner child goes “Ah yes, technically, he is ’smart,’ and therefore...worthwhile“)  Making me laugh while also impressing me is like the key to my heart.

4. Crystal

I’m too lazy to look it up, but when Viz was publishing Pokemon Adventures as monthly comics, they must have switched to publishing it as trade paperbacks only and/or had a huge gap between the end of Yellow and the start of GSC, because for YEARS I’d thought Yellow was the end of the series and was shocked the first time I saw later volumes.  (My dad was buying us the monthly issues at the local comic store, and either they wouldn’t have ordered the trade paperbacks or he wouldn’t have thought to check those shelves.)

Anyway, that’s a long lead-in to the statement of “Crystal would automatically be my #1 or #2 if I’d read her arc as a kid.”  She’s a girl, she wears pants, she’s EXTREMELY smart (genius-level “book-smarts” about every Pokémon’s behaviors and weaknesses PLUS being clever in a battle), was tough as nails (she KICKED her Pokéballs!!), had no interest in romance or her appearance, AND had a short arc about losing her confidence and training herself back up to full power.  I would have KILLED for a character like that when I was a little girl being told that “girls don’t like action shows like Dragon Ball Z” (but I was a girl and I did???) and that girls were supposed to be pretty and obsessed with fashion and dating, and that girls were never the main character of action series, just side characters who either did nothing or got one chance to do something and were pathetically weak (see above, and/or Sakura’s fight against Ino (Naruto), those couple filler eps where Téa/Anzu played Duel Monsters (Yu-Gi-Oh), Videl getting pummeled by Spopovich (DBZ), etc).

So anyway, she’s awesome, she’s exactly the type of character I would’ve loved as a kid.  The only reason she’s behind Gold here is because at my age, “makes me laugh” > “the kind of main character I used to wish I could be”

5. Green (the girl trainer...I’m just too loyal to the Viz version to call her “Blue”...)

I’m trying not to rehash the same “I’m a girl but none of the girls in my shows/comics are like me!” childhood woes over and over, haha, but as much as I always enjoyed Green for being extremely clever and outsmarting the boys and being funny when she did so, she always lost points with me for being “pretty” and flirting to get her way, because that put her in the box of “girls are supposed to be pretty and desired by boys and obsessed with their appearance and romance” that was so foreign and disheartening to me as a kid.

But her staredown with Ho-oh at the end of the GSC arc TOTALLY got me.  As a sad adult with anxiety, watching characters who are absolutely terrified overcome their fear, watching characters who are completely beaten down struggle back to their feet and keep fighting, is like my ultimate power fantasy.  That sequence genuinely had me in tears.

Also her bond with Silver is super precious, especially since that’s like the first time in the series we’ve seen her be genuinely emotional and vulnerable with someone instead of teasing or manipulating them.

Honorable mention: Sapphire

I haven’t gotten up to R/S in my reread yet, and I only read that arc once over like a weekend ten years ago, but I’m pretty sure she’s gonna be a Top Fave cus again there’s that “I'm not like other girls!” childhood feel  (last time I’m saying it, I promise)

It’s a story arc where one protag wants to fight the gyms and the other protag wants to win the beauty contests, but the one who wants to fight the gyms is the girl!!  And she’s the typical “dumb but extremely good at fighting” shounen protag but she’s the girl!!  She’s feral and illiterate and a total tomboy and wins all her fights and she’s a GIRL!!!!

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Anyway, those are my kids and my dude and my probably way-too-personal reasons why.  If you wanna reblog, reply, or send an ask about your own faves...please

[positivepumpkin]

Working on Gomens Pokemon Au

So far I’ve got a few ideas on who has what pokemon and a basic premise/loose plot.

So, in this au there’s two teams ala ruby/saphire magma/aqua. The teams are Team Fallen and Team Risen. Both are bad dudes for different reasons. 

Team Fallen:

Similar to Team Snagem and Cipher, these guys are stealing pokemon and using them as weapons. They’re experimenting on them, trying to make them corrupt and frankly, devilish. The pokemon are, in a word, rabid. They’re violent and bloodthirsty enough to kill, instead of faint. They’ve also taken to experimenting on some of their human members in attempts to put the power of pokemon into them.  Team Risen:

Think they’re better than anyone else, when really they just use pokemon for their own gain. Very impersonal and cold towards pokemon, thinks of them as tools/status symbols/means to an end. They regularly recruit promising trainers to fight against Team Fallen.  Anthony J Crowley: 

Battling Team: Honchkrow, Houndoom, Milotic

Companion Pokemon: Budew (later Roselia)

When Crowley started out as a pokemon trainer he got a Snivy for his starter. While out exploring, looking to catch more pokemon, he came across a rabid zigzagoon. He didn’t know what was wrong with it, just that he wanted to catch it so he could take it to a Pokemon Centre. Things quickly went wrong when the zigzagoon turned out to be much stronger and knowing moves it shouldn’t. Snivy is quickly fainted, but the zigzagoon doesn’t stop. Desperate to save his pokemon, he tries to intervene himself, but is knocked out when the zigzagoon attacks him with U-Turn and flees. He wakes to find his Snivy dead.

Team Fallen finds him, having seen the corrupt zigzagoon, they kidnap him and indoctrinate him into their Team. It takes years before he gets another pokemon. A young Murkrow who fell from his nest and injured it’s wing. He takes care of it and nurses it back to health, but when he goes to release it, it stays. They train together, but Crowley doesn’t like to battle, always recalling his pokemon before they can faint, calling matches early. 

But now that he has a pokemon, Team Fallen starts sending him out to steal pokemon. Rather than steal them for Team Fallen, he rescues pokemon from bad situations. He picks up a Houndour that was kept chained up with a too tight collar and let outside 24/7. Crowley works with it, it’s touch and go for a long time, and Crowley still has scars from Bites and Embers, but it eventually becomes extremely loyal to him. It doesn’t let anyone touch it except for Crowley, and eventually Aziraphale.

The Feebas, he takes from a person who put it in a too-small bowl. The poor thing’s scales are dingy and it’s got anxiety from not being able to hide/move for so long. It takes a lot of pampering and working with, but eventually it’s scales shine once more and it evolves. Crowley is pleased/thrilled to bits, and excitingly tells it that it can be free, find itself a life in the ocean, but Milotic isn’t having it. 

The last pokemon he picks up, is a poor little Budew. It’s leaves have burn spots in them and the little guy is extremely skittish. It’s terrified of Crowley, who has to yell and curse and wrestle the plant pokemon into submission in order to tend to it. The Budew tries to sneak out one night to get away from this crazy human, and finds him talking to Hastur. Hastur, who wants Crowley to stop wasting his time with Budew and just, throw it out or let it die already. Crowley fiercely defends Budew, causing the little plant to become enamored with Crowley. When it’s all healed up, Crowley takes it back to the place he found it, hoping to find it’s family, but when he leaves, Budew follows. It can usually be seen following behind Crowley, occasionally bumping into his legs when Crowley stops walking. 

Aziraphale:

Aziraphale got a Swablu when he was real young, mostly by accident. He’d been sitting near a berry bush, when he saw a spot of cloud-down. He offered some of the berries he’d been idly snacking on and a tiny ball of floof hopped out and quickly ate some before retreating into the bush again. Several days of this, of Aziraphale visiting the bush and feeding the Swablu ended with it coming home with him one day. They’ve been inseparable ever since. 

His second pokemon is a Magikarp. Since he already had Swablu, he didn’t get a starter pokemon like other kids. He found the magikarp in the shallows of a river, flopping pathetically as other trainers made fun of it for being weak, daring the others to ‘waste a pokeball’ catching it. Aziraphale stood up and told them off, before catching the Magikarp himself. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with being weak, he thought Magikarp was a fine pokemon. After battling with Swablu and training, Magikarp evolves into Gyarados. Aziraphale regularly takes him to a pokemon pool, so he can play with other water types and stretch out, there he runs into a Milotic, and the two fall in love. (They try repeatedly to get their owners together)

His third pokemon is a Dedenne, whom he finds hiding in the walls of Team Risen’s base. The little mouse has been pilfering food, chewing through cables, sapping electricity from outlets, and just being a nuisance. Aziraphale thinks it’s adorable, with it’s round cheeks, stuffed with berries. He offers to take the pokemon as his own, instead of fainting it and releasing it like Gabriel wants. 

His last pokemon, he finds eating out of the Team Risen dumpster. It’s a Munchlax, just gorging itself on garbage. He thinks, no, this won’t do, and takes the pokemon inside for a proper meal. The Munchlax just, never leaves. 

[0poole]

An idea for a Poke-clone

So since Pokemon day just passed, I started to think about a kind of Poke-clone type of game/series of my own, since that seems to be an upcoming trend. I already thought up the base idea for my own Pokemon region before, and I’m not sure if I’ll eventually combine that idea with this one, but anyways…

The very broad idea is that it’s sort of the best of Pokemon, mixed with the best of Digimon, and I guess for fun’s sake we could say it’s sort of got a Bionicle flair to it a bit too. 

I feel like there are some conceptual pitfalls in Pokemon that they’ve sort of tried to step across over time, that obviously aren’t too big a deal but I can probably fix with this idea. The big one that hurts them in the real world is that, by the Pokemon being presented like animals or pets, it makes battles feel like some kind of unethical dog fighting at first glance. Obviously they make it seem like Pokemon have personalities and minds like humans, in that they do genuinely want to battle, and that they genuinely like and want to fight with their trainers, which is fair, but it also begs into question other things, like why they’d want to sit on the floor and eat brown pellets out of bowls instead of on plates with actual food like the humans. Also, it makes you wonder why they even want humans to tell them what to do. In the wild, they can clearly fight on their own, so why do they instantly do what humans say when they’re caught? I guess the assumption is that humans are better with strategy, but even better than Pokemon like Alakazam or Metagross, who are supposed to have superior intelligence? Also, when a Pokemon is given to another trainer, like in the opening of the Deoxys movie, why does it not do anything and wait for its new trainer to tell it what to do, even when it’s being bombarded with attacks, and with its trainer clearly frozen in shock? 

Also, back to the idea of catching, what makes the Pokemon want to obey the trainer? At first it almost seems like Pokeballs brainwash the Pokemon into liking whoever catches it, but what about Pokemon like Ash’s Charizard, who don't obey trainers? In the games it’s related to badges, but then why would any Pokemon obey a trainer without any badges? Do they just accept that it’s their lot in life to be caught by a human, and when that happens, you just obey them if you’re not good enough yourself? Obviously a decent amount of Pokemon just become friends with a human, and then they catch them just out of a formality. But, what about Go in the most recent season of the anime? He just catches anything he sees instantly, without much of a fight at all, and he has no badges, so how can he just instantly use anything he catches? Surely not every single Pokemon they come across just wants to bow down to him instantly. Obviously a lot of this lore stuff is just in the background, since the primary purpose is gameplay and whatnot, like Go just sort of representing the catching style of Pokemon Go, and with badges being a logical progression that keeps you from just using the strongest Pokemon traded from a friend and wiping the game clean. Still, even if you just accept it, it’d be nice to just not have to accept it, you know?

Then in terms of design, I kind of like the prospects of Digimon a bit more. Visually, though, I think Digimon are universally worse looking than Pokemon, but the fact that they seem more like friends than pets solves so many problems. First, that they’re made out to be actual sentient (sapient if you want to be pedantic about it) beings, instead of animals. This makes it so much easier to understand why they’d want to fight and protect their less-than-capable humans, and why they’d be willing to fight at all. They’d just understand it’s basically a sparring match or a sport. Also, it makes the humanoid designs so much easier to think about. When you see that classic image of Mimey sitting on the floor picking at the “Pokemon food” from a dog bowl alongside the rest of the Pokemon, it just doesn’t feel right. 

Also, what the hell are humans in this world? Why are Pokemon regarded as such special beings in the world? They always say “Welcome to the world of Pokemon” like they know of a different world full of non-Pokemon, and that Pokemon aren’t just animals. It almost made more sense in the first few seasons of the anime, where you’d just see some random fish swim alongside Magikarp or whatever. That made it clear that there are normal animals as well, showing that Pokemon are separate things entirely. But, now, they’ve retconned that, and I don’t think that was how the games worked in the first place at all. Then, the age-old question that all the Youtube game theorists try to answer: Are humans Pokemon? They sure seem resilient to Pokemon attacks, but don’t have any themselves, apart from like Tackle or whatever. It feels like animals were a thing way back when, but through natural selection the animals that developed supernatural power obviously became the dominant species, and over time the supernatural animals were called “Pokemon,” and humans with their technology/taming abilities managed to survive the onslaught of dangerous creatures by using them as protection from others. Then, I guess way down the line humans can’t keep up and die out, creating the Mystery Dungeon series, since it’s strange how the Pokemon there seem to know what humans are despite them never existing in the series. That, or maybe Mewtwo just fuses people with Pokemon like he did in the Detective Pikachu movie. 

Anyway, enough of me talking about stuff probably explained in the manga or whatever. Here’s the Poke-clone idea:

The creatures were there first, and at least most of them have human-level intelligence, if not higher-level intelligence. There are some supernatural animals around, alongside supernatural people and monsters, and there are 7 primary elements they can have: Earth, Fire, Water, Electricity, Air, Light, and Dark. Earth is basically Earth in Temtem, Fire/Water/Electricity/Air are all self-explanatory, Light is basically a more generalized Fairy type, and Dark is like Dark but with also including Ghost. These creatures can be born with any of these types, and can naturally wield them, getting better at it as they grow. But, these types can be combined using elemental essences, creating new types. Earth and Fire creates Metal (because smelting), Light and Earth creates Crystal (Again think Temtem, just can’t get enough of it) Water and Dark create Ice (because ice does feel different enough to be separated from water elementally imo) Fire and Water creates Air again (“steam” doesn’t feel special enough) and Electricity and Fire creates Plasma (basically generic magic). Chances are I’ll think of more combinations but whatever. There are different areas themed after these elements, and in these areas a specific element is boosted in power, so the “gym” equivalent will reside in these places, and “badges” will prove that you can defeat an element at its strongest level. Also, the areas that connect the main areas either double up types or use the secondary type which they combine into, so not all “gyms” would be super straightforward. 

Here’s where humans come in, though. They’re not just “humans.” They’re actually a species of these creatures called “Humans” (capital) and are mythical beings which did not originally exist on the world. Originally, it was just the other creatures. At that point, humans were only a myth spread around as myths do, and they were said to be creatures with the ability to combine every primary type and use them simultaneously, being the most powerful species of creature of them all. However, when they did magically appear on Earth, they seemed awfully weak. In fact, they couldn’t wield any element naturally, but could by using elemental essence, which is just normal for creatures. Some thought they just needed to be trained and grow like the rest of them, but others just saw the myths as being dramatic. It was especially troubling to see Humans grow and die of old age without being able to use that mythical power. Regardless, many Humans were highly respected, and many teams of these creatures would look to them for guidance during battle, even though there are many teams that don’t even have a Human on them. Humans, of course, are expected to battle alongside their teammates, even if they’re not quite as capable, because that’s how their society is expected to work. 

Over time, everyone sort of let go of the idea that Humans are somehow superior and they just became equals, although the trend of Humans advising a team stuck for the most part (partially because they can’t do much else, they wanted to feel inclusive). Even with their normal social standing, though, some creatures scoffed at them claiming they’re not even worth having on a team at all. Others tried their best to draw out the mythical Human power, sometimes by capturing and experimenting on them in less-than-ethical ways. Some of them claim it’s helping them draw out their full potential, but others unabashedly say that they want to harness the Human power for their own good.

So yeah, that’s basically the lore of the idea. I’ll probably think of a specific Pokemon-Digimon-Temtem-esque name equivalent for them eventually, but for now let’s just call everything a “creature.” 

The overall design prospects of the creatures are basically at the same level as Pokemon, where some of them are clearly inspired by animals but others are just general monsters/humanoids. I’m not entirely sure if I want them to all be intelligent or if some should still be animal-like in behavior, but the latter definitely makes more sense world-wise. The areas the creatures live in are built up using the elements they wield, obviously. I could imagine the general usage of the elements being more like Avatar in a way, but obviously with more than the base four elements.

As for the elements, any individual creature would start out in only one of the primary elements, and I guess if you beat a “gym” you’d get the essence for that gym element, essentially unlocking new types for your team. You can use each essence infinitely, and outside of battle the form of the creature you use it on would permanently change if it creates a secondary type (until you use another one). However, in a battle, you can switch them on the fly, and they will revert back to however they were before the battle. I’m also thinking that they could only be used on a creature if they create a secondary type, and I’d just add more of those in so it’s less limited, and so not every creature has the exact same potential, which would make recruiting different ones just pointless (although I can see it being useful for just choosing your favorite creatures to fight with, so no loss either way). Maybe the effects could just be timed in a battle. Also, secondary typed creatures would be a different form entirely. So, if an Earth creature was given Fire essence, they’d go from looking like they’re made of stone to being made of steel, etc and etc. Think of it sort of like character customization. For the Human you’d inevitably play as, I guess you could just change their hair/eye color depending on the essence, maybe add some special particle effects or light textures on the skin.

Thematically, this is more like a tag-team sport than a battle. In a 1v1 or 2v2 scenario, you’d tag out with your teammates, since the term “tag” makes for a good reminder that everyone involved is working at the same level as you pretty much. You could also name your team as well, making it even more sport-like. Also, instead of “capturing” teammates, you’d just recruit them, logically by proving yourself in a battle. Maybe you’d have to fight them only with you as a Human so it’s much better proof that you’re a worthy leader. It also opens the possibility to just talk with NPCs and recruit them that way. Maybe you could even recruit different Humans with different body types, and therefore different stats. I guess the trouble would be how you’d keep them all by your side at all times. Maybe there could be some Telefang-esque communication device you’d use to call in the specific members of your team you’d want in your battle.

Gameplay-wise, it would definitely be cool if it were a much more live battle like Kindred Fates, where you’re controlling the active creature and using their moves on the fly. It would also make for fun multiplayer battles, where you could even have a full team go against another all at once, in a sort of battle royale. Maybe even have a true BR. Even though visually I’d love for it to be like Pokken Tournament with the circular battlefield and movement (no switching, just normal movement all the time), I definitely think having super limited and easily understandable movesets is better for having multiple teammates. 

The main story of the game is sort of set out by the lore, too. Naturally it kind of has a “chosen one” protagonist who’d inevitably bring out the mythical Human power over the course of the story, with the people trying to capture you and stuff for that power being the evil team analog. Also, for those Pokemon fans anal about having an asshole rival, they could easily be a team of only creatures that doubts Human abilities. The “gyms” being for each type is pretty standard, and having combo “gyms” definitely makes things more challenging. Maybe you could enter the “league” at the end only once you get all the essences, and the secondary type “gyms” are just for a challenge. 

I’m not sure if I want the overall age of the world to be more modern, but there would definitely be certain areas that are more ancient-looking. That’s basically why I thought the idea was a little Bionicle-like, because they have super ancient-looking areas that are themed but also have a weirdly cool degree of technology in them. It’s a seriously cool aesthetic that I want more of, but I guess certain towns and cities could keep a modern structure (roads, buildings, shops, etc) but with drastically different building designs based on the relevant element. Surely with such crazy elemental powers they wouldn’t need crazy technological transportation, but maybe that would be for the Electric elemental cities. Surely some Humans would need something to be proud of.

Obviously the biggest selling point for Pokemon (at least for me) is the monster designs, so I’ll probably put some stuff together in the future. Right now I can see there being some sort of tall Metal knight-like lady character who carries their Human around like a baby. That is, it’d be her character, and not a thing of the species. Also, I drew a cute fur seal pup recently that could easily be worked into one of these creatures. Designing monsters is too fun as is so giving me a good reason to do it is just perfect.

Of course, as is common with ideas that literally were thought up yesterday this isn’t going to be a thing unless some millionaire game designer contacts me right after posting this so yeah, I’m just spitballing right now. Spitballing is fun, though.

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit’s Top Games of 2017 and Personal Game of the Year

2017 was a great year for gaming. Although the end of 2017 has a few people dubbing this “The year of the loot box” with games such as EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, Destiny II, and Call of Duty WWII, just to name a few, I don’t think we can encompass a whole year of amazing games, from a few outliers.

Unfortunately, for a lot of the great games that came out this year, I wasn’t able to play a lot of them because I didn’t own a PS4 or a Switch. I just recently acquired a PS4 and will be playing catch up on many of these great titles. So the games listed below are the ones that I personally played this year that I really enjoyed.

Mass Effect Andromeda

This will probably be odd to see this game on someone’s “best of” list when this title is going to be on a lot of “disappointed” or “worst of” lists. Personally, I enjoyed Andromeda. I will admit that on release there were some weird animations and the writing was a bit weak in some areas. However, even some of the greatest games with great stories, have some places where the writing in their story was a bit weak. Uncharted 4’s Nathan Drake’s brother that he just never talked about ever is a perfect example of this. Great game with an equally good story, just the sudden appearance of a brother felt shoehorned in and forced despite Sam actually being a good character in his own right.

Nonetheless, Mass Effect Andromeda’s environments were beautifully crafted and the combat was extremely fun. Being able to switch to a different class on the fly to have the necessary skills to fight different enemies adds another element of control during combat. I really enjoyed myself with this game and it’s disappointing that the majority was hung up on the first few hours of the game, rather than playing through the entire game to see it’s shining moments.

Doki Doki Literature Club

Although this psychological horror disguised as a cute visual novel takes a bit to get into, once it reveals it’s true self, the ride doesn’t stop. Without spoiling much, this game slowly and I mean SLOWLY pulls back the curtain to how truly messed up this game can be. The game’s twist is something that truly impacted me and it’s something I applaud this game in accomplishing. If you haven’t played this game yet, go in blind, don’t look anything up, it will make the scares and the twists, that much more impactful.

Fire Emblem Heroes

I had two mobile phone games that I played a lot of this year and Fire Emblem Heroes was one of them. Yes this is a more watered down version of Fire Emblem, but despite that, it’s still a really fun game and will require strategic thinking, especially if you try the higher difficulties. This game eat up quite a bit of my time in the February and March period. It’s also one of the few mobile games out there that gives you plenty of opportunities and chances to build your team and gain new units without succumbing to microtransactions and it was something that I really liked with this game.

Magikarp Jump

The second mobile game that came out this year that I played quite a bit. This in my opinion was the definition of a great mobile game. It’s a game you can play for a few minutes while waiting in line because of how easily you can start and stop a play session. The ability to play the game offline was also an awesome feature and once again you can go through this game without purchasing any microtransactions.

Cuphead

Although I never finished this game, the 1930s cartoon aesthetic of the game was truly unique for a video game. I also loved how the story was built with couch co-op in mind. Yes you can play this game solo, but it is clear that the ideal way to play this game is co-op with a friend. I also really liked the easiness of how co-op was handled. You can be playing a game and have a friend join you while your playing in the overworld and they can exit out just as easily. The difficulty of this game was also one of the key on the major points with this game and it’s no joke. Many gamers have compared the difficulty of the game to Dark Souls. Now, personally, I have never played Dark Souls so I can’t really say for sure because I never played Dark Souls. Something I hope to remedy in the future.

Horizon Zero Dawn

I’m actually currently playing this game and I have to say I am loving it so far. I definitely see why gamers and critics alike just can’t stop talking about this game. It features a strong female protagonist, it’s a sci-fi setting, it’s open-world, and you get to fight robot dinosaurs. On paper that sounds like a fantastic idea for a game and it really is. I will be doing a review of this game once I complete it. It may take me a bit because I bought the Complete edition which included all of the DLC for the game.

Sonic Mania

In celebration of Sonic’s 25th anniversary, Sega decided to release not just one but two Sonic games. This is a game that is a love letter to Sonic’s past and is appropriately priced. This is a must have for fans of the Blue Blur, especially for those that grew up playing Sonic during his golden days.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild

This is a game that really allows you to explore and experiment with its world and mechanics. To this day, many players are still finding neat things that you can do to where people are still saying “You can do that?” I can’t help but wonder what other mechanics and secrets are still to be uncovered. My favorite moment, although simple, is still something that I will always remember.

When I started the game I was wandering around the Great Plateau. I saw a small group of bokoblins at the bottom of a hill. I was at the top of the hill and next to me was a boulder. I pushed the boulder and it rolled down the hill crushing two of the three bokoblins. Simple, but something I’ll always remember.

Biscuit’s Game of the Year: Persona 5

This is my personal game of the year. This game not only made advancements into the turn-based RPG formula, but everything blended so well together. The menus, the interface, injecting personality into a silent protagonist, it’s a fantastic game. Completing the main story took me 101 hours and that was just going through the main story and doing some side quests and missions.

It also gives more of an emphasis on choice, not in a narrative perspective, but in a gameplay perspective. It’s something I think many people often forget when it comes to choices in gaming. It doesn’t just have to be only narrative choices to shape the story, it can be choices in gameplay to make things easier or harder during the journey. Do you increase your social stats to be able to increase your Confidant rank? Do you work a part-time job to have money for items and weapons? Do you hang out with a Confidant to increase their relationship to gain advantages in combat? All of that will shape how your gameplay experience will go and what advantages you’ll have throughout the game.

This is easily my favorite game of the year and is a definite must play. Even if you’ve never played any other Persona title, this is the game to play as it’s friendly to new players in the series.

I actually started playing Persona 3 right when Persona 5 came out and worked my to it. Also as some of you might know, my first review on this blog was Persona 3 and I marathoned the modern Persona games back to back to back.

[imaginegladions]

Scapegoat

Chapter 3: Parched for Penitence

Pairing: Gladion x Reader or Gladion x Moon if you prefer.

“Prisma’s trying to keep everyone from leaving the island.” Gladion said, ushering Hau and Lillie to Kukui’s lab where the fire hadn’t reached the island. “Some of Nanu’s informants from the International Police managed to trace her face here in time for us to evacuate everyone from the city to Ten Carat Hill but she’s destroyed the boats and jammed the signal of every Ride Gear on the island.”

He let them settle into their seats before continuing. “The center of the attack is in Hau’oli for now to scare people off but it’s moving closer to Iki Town with every passing moment.”

“Do you think this is… her?” Hau asked, fists curled in dismay.

Gladion looked at him, sensing the distraught in the usually cheerful man’s face. “It probably is, it’s almost the same as the reports on the Battle Tree incident.” Gladion recalled what he’d read in the report. “Raining fire from above. It must be that Delphox of hers.”

“This was her plan, then?” Lillie piped up from her seat. “This was what she kidnapped her, Blue, and Red for, right? That must mean that if she’s in the middle of this fire rain thing then they’re with her on the island!” She cheered.

There was an extended silence as both boys turned to regard Lillie.

Lillie frowned. “We are going after her, right?”

“You just got here, Lillie.” Hau tried to reason with her but she pushed forward.

“It’s taken me too long to come back. Too long before I felt strong enough to-” She choked on a sob and stared straight into her brother’s eyes with the passion she inherited from their mother. “I’m strong enough now to repay her. I know I am. Just let me try.” She whimpered, tears falling down her face in frustration.

This was exactly what she wanted, a way to repay you for all you’d done for her. And they weren’t letting her have it. “Let me show her how much it means to me.”

Gladion frowned, not because he was disappointed.

He knew exactly how Lillie felt. He’d had a lot of things he wanted to make up to you for. Hau had a lot of things he wanted to do to repay you. All three of you were indebted to you one way or another and you all cared for you.

For Arceus’ sake, Gladion loved you.

“I should go alone.” Gladion held his sister by the shoulders and pulled her in, his body shaking with rage and pain from your extended absence. “I’m the one who has these troublesome feelings. They should at least be useful.”

Lillie laughed, her arms surrounding him and pulling him closer to her. “We’ll deal with this Prisma character.” She said, finally letting go of him. “We’ll give you an opening, just save her.” She looked at him like she did when they were younger and more naïve and she still believed her older brother knew everything. “Save her and please tell her how you feel.”

Gladion laughed, his laughter making his muscles vibrate and lifting his mood. “How is mother?” He asked, looking out the window. The fire rain was still falling and moving to Iki Town, with luck, they’d catch sight of Prisma on her way there.

“Impatient.” Lillie smirked at the confused look on Gladion’s face. “Well, the story of the whole fiasco with the Beasts and Nebby is her favorite story.”

Gladion groans. “I knew it. I knew she’d be this obnoxious once she’s snapped out of it.” He turned around facing away from her to cover up the smile on his face.

“She likes her.” Lillie shrugs. Gladion doesn’t see it but he knows that she does. Maybe it’s a sibling thing. Sibling telepathy. “She thinks it’s good that someone can put your stubborn head to rights.”

Gladion whips around so fast his bangs almost poke him painfully in the eye. “I’m not that stubborn.”

“You just stubbornly insisted you’re not stubborn!” Hau cackled, patting Lillie on the shoulder like she’d achieved something worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. “Like I said, it’s pretty obvious.”

They both made a whipping motion.

Lillie pointed at her brother with a wink. “You’re whipped, big brother.”

With a sigh, he glares at the both of them and crosses his arms feeling like he was a kid again staring at you as you shamelessly entered his motel room with a look of pleasant surprise on your face. So, he does the only thing he can do. He lashes out.

“Get out.”

You wake from your drug induced stupor enough to watch Blue being wheeled out of the room. “Where-” You feel cold fingers on your shoulders and flinch away, eyes going to Prisma seated next to you.

Those hands weren’t friendly. They meant pain. They meant thunder and then suddenly, comply or disobey, a shock would run through your body making you twitch and scream and flail like a useless Magikarp.

It’d been a week. You wonder if Gladion has any idea where you are. If he has any leads.

Daydreaming is a sin, you remember Prisma saying when you leave one of your shock sessions. You hadn’t listened to her but you knew that she was trying to drill the fact of your inevitable submission to her will into your unwilling mind. She’d heard you, then. You’d gone weak and you were tired and you wanted to be saved. You wanted Gladion. And you’d said it, his name. You’d given her the key to your obedience.

And when had Gladion started being the meaning of comfort and safety to you? You don’t know. But, he’s- he’s the world to you. He’s the world and more.

If Prisma lays a finger on him, it would be you curling your fingers around her neck and squeezing.

Given long enough, she will use mind control on you. But, not now. Right now, Prisma has her psychic hold on Blue and she was going to use him.

“Shh, you take a rest. I have big plans for you.” She poked your nose and you shook your head side to side ignoring the dizziness attacking you. “But, for now I’ll have to start the fun. And like every beginning, it’s always the part where you discover the most things about people.” She smirked and took off her coat, looking at your prone form over your shoulder.

“I’m sure your little Mele Mele Island will welcome me with open arms!”

You thrash in your restraints and growl. “Don’t you touch them!” You scream, waking Red. But, you’re too far gone in the possibilities, in the visions of Mele Mele bathed in Red. Of your mother and Professor Kukui and Hala caught in her psychic control. I need to get out, I need to protect them, you mutter, tearing at your restraints with your nails and breaking your thumbs to try and free yourself.

“No!” Prisma tossed a Pokéball in the air and a Gothitelle emerged from it, securing your restraints and hitting you with a mild Confusion attack. “Get some rest.”

“I’ll kill you.” You murmur as your vision grows dark again. You grit your teeth and tilt your head up. If you were going back into the abyss, you’d make sure Prisma knows exactly who she’s dealing with and that your face as you make this threat – this promise – is the last that she sees before she sets Mele Mele ablaze. “If you even look at them wrong- if you touch them…”

“I’ll destroy you.” You growl. “And you’ll be nothing but ash when I’m through.”

A quake shook the house and all three of them ran out, watching as the fire rained down on Iki Town – long evacuated by Hau and Gladion – and stopped.

“It’s stopped.” Hau said, kind of stating the blatantly obvious at this point. “Why’s it stopped?” He asked, hands twitching to the Pokéballs at his waist.

Gladion pulled your Pokéballs from his own dark coat and stepped forward. “I don’t know.” Releasing your Silvally and his Silvally, he turned to Hau and Lillie with a grim frown.

Gladion’s team was strong, but yours was almost unbelievable.

Each one of them stayed by his side to receive orders and carried them out so quickly it was terrifying. It was like each of them wanted it to be done so that they could have you back sooner. He’s glad for their acceptance of him as their temporary trainer, a little hesitant when he first called all of them out. But, the wild Pokémon were so distraught by the fire raining from the sky earlier that they were lashing out with every twitch you three made while walking through the tall grass.

Your Pokémon dealt with them easily and cleared a path for all three of you to follow where the lines of the quakes were coming from and standing in front of the bridge leading to the Ruins of Conflict.

“This brings back memories.” Lillie rolled her sleeves up and smirked, pulling out a Pokéball.

Hau laughed, his Alolan Raichu floating about and around him eager to battle. “Good memories, of course.” He said, turning to Gladion for guidance. “What’s the plan?”

Gladion’s own Silvally stood next to him, giving his trainer an affirmative nod. “Be on your guard.” He said with a finality that implied they might not make it out of this one alive. “We don’t know what to expect so we need to anticipate everything. You both cover Prisma, I’ll deal with… whichever one of them is with her.”

“And if none of them are with her?” Hau asked, looking disturbingly serious.

“Then we take Prisma in.” Gladion started crossing the bridge, his shoes making ominous noises as he walked. “And we make her talk.”

It was dark again. You were so tired of the dark. So sick of this reality where every time you find a way out you are shoved back down.

“Rest.” You speak, to yourself if anything because you’ve tried before. Speaking doesn’t work, not in this world between consciousness and unconsciousness. “I just want to rest.” You say, but when the bright white light comes to answer your prayer you kick it far far away from you.

You might be tired but you aren’t about to die, not when Alola needs you now more than ever.

“I am their Champion.” You groan.

The abyss suddenly hummed with another presence probing and invading your space, trying to set up home in your mind. You pushed back against the force and it makes a distressed noise like you’d smacked it across the face.

“You are… untenable.” The voice said, eerily familiar sounding. “Your mind has traps.”

You don’t know what it means but whatever you were doing must have been working so you continue to push it back. “I’ll take it as a compliment. Who are you?” You ask.

A tinkling laughter echoes around you and sinks into your skin. “I am your ward, Lady Anastasia’s Gothitelle.” She stops laughing. “And you will be mine. In fact-”

You feel yourself losing control of your body, your hand coming up to slap you on the face. “What’s happening?” You ask yourself, trying to stop your hand and failing.

Gothitelle let out a shorter pleased laugh this time and you just know she is smiling. “All humans will be ours as Lady Anastasia is making sure of it”

Prisma smirked and waved an arm as Gladion and the rest arrived.

Gladion managed to bite back a growl. Of course she would anticipate their arrival. She was psychic. She was probably reading his mind now-

“So sorry to disappoint you but she isn’t here today.” Prisma giggled, tossing a Pokéball in the air. “And you brought a friend too! Such a shame.” She pouted, clicking her tongue. “Well, we’ll see if you stick around maybe you’ll see her.”

Hau’s Raichu hovered in front of her, stopping her from leaving.

“Oh, so cute.” Her face turned stony as she shifted her hand to the left sending Raichu sailing through the air and towards one of the large rocks. “Out of my way.”

“Raichu!” Hau ran for his Pokémon and Lillie ran forward.

Lillie tossed a Pokéball in the air, revealing a Glaceon. “Gladeon, go!” She shouted and her Glaceon – named apparently after Gladion – surged forward, managing to strike Prisma in the face.

The older woman slid back and glared at her, holding her cheek. “Very well.” She reached out again to her Delphox and the Pokémon lifted its arms to teleport something to them. “I’ll see all three of you soon, if you can survive that is.” She smirked, her and her Delphox disappearing. And in her place stood Blue.

[quality-chaos-and-other-qcs]

Just finished Shield

Aaaand now we have the news about the DLC stuff.  So, that’s a thing.

Some thoughts:

Positives

* Marnie is definitely the best of the ‘rival’ characters in this generation, both in terms of design and in terms of character.

* Sadly, that’s not because she’s a really excellent character- she’s alright, don’t get me wrong.  Just.... Bede is an arrogant jerk and.... that’s it.  Hop is an enthusiastic fool and.... that’s it.  There’s really not much character there.

* I like the variety in the gym leaders and other character designs.  It’s especially noteworthy that they’re definitely actual different ethnicities/phenotypes from one another- Kabu is clearly intended to be Japanese (Kantonian?  Whatever the equivalent in-universe is), Milo’s a big triangular goof, and off the top of my head I can’t recall seeing any characters in the Pokemon games ever who’re soft chubchub like Melony is.  The closest you get is the ‘middle-aged mom’ trainers from some of the earlier-gen games.

* THE WILD AREA OMFG

* Wow this game is British.  I don’t know if it’s just the translation or what, but it feels a lot more British than, for instance, the Unova region felt American or the Kalos region felt French.  Some of the pokemon really helped with this too.

* Corsola/Cursola.  Corsola has always been just a tad on the weak side to use reliably when you get to the late-game, so having an evolution for it is nice (even if it’s restricted to the Galrian version), and the relation to coral loss in the ocean works really well.

* Most of the Galarian variants in general, really.  Not only are there some really neat references but there are type-mix coverages and evolutions to things that needed them badly (cough farfetch’d cough) and so on.

* The ability to modify Natures and to Vitamin past 100 EP in a given stat.  The ability to play mostly casually but still be able to squeeze out some extra strength for battling with friends or overcome an unfortunate Nature or save a little time training Effort Values is great.

* HMs didn’t return.  I hope they never come back.  They never really bothered me too much- Surf, Strength, Fly, and to a lesser extent Rock Smash are all perfectly usable, Cut is alright as a backup move, though I have no use whatsoever for Flash, Defog, or Whirlpool- but it feels a lot better to have overworld use of PKMN moves be completely optional.

* Some of the visual design for the various areas is really great.  I loved the neon mushroom areas, for instance.

* Paid DLC rather than a third game or second set of games is a much, MUCH better way to go.  I think the only generation where it was really worth it was B/W, because it was a whole later storyline and you could do things like have the stuff you did in B/W affect B2/W2.  If you can’t do that level of development on the latter part of the generation, there’s no sense bothering with a whole extra game, nevermind two (looking at you, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon).

* Camping and making curry is fun.  I’d really like to also have the ability to interact one-on-one like in the Sun/Moon generation, but it’s fun nevertheless.

* All the Max stuff- from the Gigantamaxes on down- is generally pretty great, with one major and one minor exception.  I even like most of the derpy forms because of the references (Long Meowth is long, gen1 sprite Pikachu....).

* A lot of the stuff for the DLC looks great.  Galarian Zapdos may become the third Legendary ever that I like the design enough to actually use (the first two being Articuno and Terrakion.)

* TMs and TRs.  I love this.  This is really good.  So many moves that can be taught via them.  Keep this forever please.

* Team Yell is not trying to take over the region/world/universe/etc., nor working with the Head Villain.  They just really really like Marnie.  I like this.  Maybe we can start adding more Teams, both non-villainous and villainous, maybe even make it a mechanic or something, I don’t know.  Team Yell aren’t as fun as Team Skull, but I don’t think there’s an organization in the PKMN world at all that is more fun than Team Skull... nobody else will ever be your boy Guzma.

Negatives

* You can’t turn off the EXP Share effect.  I get it, you don’t want people to have to grind, but this doesn’t feel really like it was thought through- I finished the game and some of my team members who’d been on team for the whole game had only fought in maybe twenty or twenty-five battles outside the E4/Champion battles.  I really, really hate the permanent EXP Share and I want the ability to turn it off.  Having it is fine, I don’t care if anyone else uses it or not, but I want to be able to not.  Please can I turn it off?

* The major Max exception- the assortment of NPC assistants for Max Raids is awful.  It’s kind of hilarious to see a Magikarp actually use Hydro Pump, but the NPCs who team up with you are generally just awful.  They never Dynamax even if you don’t Dynamax at all, their move pools are really crummy, a lot of them get wiped out in one shot by Gigantamax ‘mon, making it incredibly difficult to capture Gigantamaxes without several friends in the room with you, when they don’t get oneshot it’s often because they were carrying Focus Sash and for no other reason, you’ll often get horrible random selections (every time I fight a Dynamax ghost I get that guy with the Throh and he literally can’t do anything at all).... the Dynamax Raid battle ally selection just wasn’t sufficiently refined.  You can do better than this, come on.

* The minor Max exception- Gigantamax Charizard.  FFS, why?  I get it, Charizard is kinda popular because dragon and because way back when the TCG started it was a heavy bomb in any Fire deck, but.... it just really rubs me wrong.  It’s the only starter from any gen to get a Gigantamax, and the work being done on Gigantamaxing the Sword/Shield starters for DLC barely makes up for it.  I’m tired of Pikachu- especially the voice clip it uses for a cry- but I’ll live with it because Pikachu’s the mascot.  But I’m SO FUKKIN TIRED of Charizard and only Charizard getting extra bennies.  I think I’m starting to actually hate Charizard.

* There’s only one Wild Area, it only connects three actual locations (two hub cities and a train station), and most of the routes are virtually just straight lines.  Next time, just make the entire region Wild Area please.

* Some weather types (and therefore some ‘mon, both Galarian and not) are not available until completing the storyline.  I don’t like this, and it doesn’t make sense to do it.  Cut that out.  I’m fine with locking the time of day to the storyline outside of the Wild Area until the storyline is complete, but the weather locking is dumb and bad.  Don’t do that again.

* The story is..... uh..... How to put this.  If the stories of all the Pokemon games were breakfast, the story of this game would be a scrambled egg sandwich with soggy limp bacon and burnt eggs on white bread that wasn’t even toasted.  It’s not completely bland, but it’s really, really limp and hasn’t been made the right way.  Honestly, I found most of it outright annoying.  Hop’s alright, but he doesn’t do anything- doesn’t even have a vague attempt at a character arc- a lot of what should have been exciting events either took place offscreen, were horribly bland, or came so far out of left field with so little explanation that I mostly just went ‘oh okay I guess I’m doing this now until I can get back to trying to become champion.’

* Player trainer is customizable, but no moreso than in Sun/Moon (I think maybe even less so?)  Where are the body types, Game Freak?  Where are the long skirts?  The kilts? Long hair for boys? Varied hairstyles? Why are there only three bangs options?  Only three eyelashes options?  The selection here is pitiful.

* OH YEAH THE LIE ABOUT REDOING THE MODELS AND THAT BEING WHY POKEMON WERE BEING CUT

Overall.... eh.  I’d give it a 6, maybe 6.5 out of 10?  If anyone likes Pokemon and hasn’t got Sword or Shield yet, I’d say wait until it’s on sale.  It’s not a full-price Pokemon title right now, and with the pass for the DLC set at $30 American, the overall pricing is... not okay.

They really should have taken the extra time on it, instead of shoving it out this winter.

[atrainernamedradish]

So I finally tried a Wonderlocke...

[Special thanks to a buddy of mine who I was chatting with online while doing the Wonderlocke who helped me recall some things I couldn’t go back and access about what had occurred in the Wonderlocke!]

(Technically this is my third attempt, but when USUM became a hassle to actually beat after my second attempt the third/final attempt was done in SUMO where I actually beat the game.)

My starter was a Cutiefly and made it to the very end upon me beating Kukui. Ribombee is a solid little Pokemon, and this was the first time upon replaying SUMO/USUM where I didn’t struggle with the Totem Lurantis battle.

Not gonna lie, the start of the locke was kinda scary... My first three Pokemon were bugs with Cutiefly being the only decent one. Things started looking up when I finally received a Pokerus Vullaby. Sadly, Vullaby died to Guzma’s Pinsir at Aether Paradise just three levels short of evolving. It was my own fault so I have no one to blame but myself.

It was touch and go up to that Guzma fight because of what I was getting in the Wonder Trade. From greatest to least is all the typings I had over all in this locke (I killed one encounter and missed out on two or three others).

Grass - 11

The grass member of my winning team of four was a Cradily. Early on in the locke I received a Lileep. Once I had Ancient Power and Giga Drain it finally pulled more than enough of it’s own weight!

Flying - 7

I had Vullaby for a while as stated earlier. Wingull eventually became its replacement once Vullaby tragically perished. I had Pelipper up till Kukui where Incineroar killed it off.

Water - 6

I went thru the trouble of getting a Feebas evolved only to have it die not long after in the Totem Salazzle battle. I’m still mad that Salazzle barely lived from that Waterium Z attack!

Milotic has a small replacement before Slowpoke in the form of a barely evolved Gyarados, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t taken out by a Roggenrola whom got turn 5 Rock Blast (-1 attack, mind you since Gyarados has Intimidate as its ability)! I pretty much rejected any other Magikarp I received after that since I didn’t want to deal with that rock weakness again. Hence why I was mostly reluctant to use Pelipper.

I had a Slowpoke afterwards that I went thru more trouble to evolve into Slowking only to find out Gladion’s Type: Null had X-Scissor then pursuit and screamed as it killed poor Slowking!

From there on I really didn’t have any water options... besides Wingull so I was forced to take it...

There just weren’t any water options and water is one of the three top typings that have a plethra of numbers!

Steel - 5

Mawile was a Pokemon that I was forced to sacrifice in the Totem Wishiwashi battle. It was either Mawile or the entire team... It’s sacrifice was not in vain.

Another good Pokemon that died first to a Pursuit, from a Fearow no less, was Bronzor who had been a solid replacement for Mawile up until that point.

Bug, Normal, Psychic, Rock - 5

Fire - 4

I had a Vulpix that sadly died in the Totem Salazzle battle as well. I forgot Vullaby had Rock Tomb so Vulpix died for my forgetfulness.

My eventually back up fire Pokemon came in the form of Incineroar who also filled the dark typing I needed after losing Vullaby. Unfortunately, and I could only laugh at my own forgetfulness again, Incineroar died to Stealth Rocks since it was at maybe a quarter of its health.

Electric - 4

The third of the four survivors of the locke was an Ampharos. It was the coverage and tank I desperately needed. There were some close calls, like in the Totem Mimikyu battle, but I’m glad I went for something familiar~

Fighting - 4

Dark - 3

My only other option to Litten was a Poocheyena, and as much as I love that Pokemon, I needed a fire type or a dual type dark Pokemon.

Fairy - 3

Ghost - 3

With the Totem Lurantis battle around the corner and the death of Vullaby fresh I wanted extra coverage. I wasn’t sure if Cutiefly would be evolved in time for the battle or if Lileep could take a hit from Lurantis. A Gastly was sent to me and that quelled my worry. Luckily for me Cutiefly did evolve and one-shoted the Lurantis~! Gastly evolved sooner than I expected and Haunter was immediately evolved as well~! There were some close calls, but Gengar was the 4th surviving member~

Dragon - 2

Ice - 0

Overall I had a fun experience doing this. I love Wonder Trading and it was finally time I did a Wonderlocke. What made this harder than it needed to be was the fact that like 40% of my trades were grass types. I didn’t have much coverage or when I did I was extremely forgetful! I plan to redo another Wonderlocke real soon and maybe I’ll give USUM another go. Let’s hope I can actually take out Totem Araquanid this time~

Overall deaths: 9; Mawile, Milotic, Vulpix, Bronzor, Gyarados, Slowking, Vullaby, Pelipper, and Incineroar.

Surviving Team Mates: 4

Ribombee [Pokerus]

Bug/Fairy

Female/66

Nature: Calm [ups Sp Def, lowers Attack]

Ability: Honey Gather

Held Item: Farium Z

Moveset: Roost, Dazzling Gleam, Psychic, Bug Buzz

Cradily [Pokerus]

Rock/Grass

Male/71

Nature: Timid [ups Speed, lowers Attack]

Ability: Suction Cups

Held Item: Big Root

Moveset: Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb, Brine, Ancient Power

Ampharos

Electric

Female/67

Nature: Modest [ups Sp Attack, lowers Attack]

Ability: Static

Held Item: Rockium Z

Moveset: Thunder Wave, Discharge, Power Gem, Dragon Pulse

Gengar [Pokerus]

Ghost/Poison

Male/64

Nature: Impish [ups Defense, lowers Sp Attack]

Ability: Cursed Body

Held Item: Poison Barb

Moveset: Hypnosis, Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, Dream Eater