Pokemon Megathread: I have very strong feelings about pokemons

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Pokemon Megathread: I have very strong feelings about pokemons

«‹›6 »

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Scorbunny is my precious friend

# ¿ Feb 28, 2019 02:42

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 11:23

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Somehow ended up with a wild Pokerus mon THAT I DIDN'T NOTICE.

Thankfully it didn't expire on me :getin:

# ¿ Mar 8, 2019 00:31

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Ada posted:

Flygon but its wings are shields.

Flygon but he's got a knight's hat on.

Flygon with a gun.

Strong avatar post combo

# ¿ Mar 9, 2019 06:09

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

galagazombie posted:

Alright that's it. I'm convinced the Alolans are playing a prank on me. Like how Amazonian and Pacific tribes make up fake traditions and stuff so they can laugh at the Anthropologists for believing them. Hala was all "Watch this Kukui, I'm going to convince this dumb tourist to wear this ridiculous outfit while riding a Tauros." And the Professor is all "No man tell him he has to do this ridiculous Ginyu Force routine to use a Z-Move, It'll be hilarious."

I'm going to be that guy in regards to this: you have to remember this is, at its core, a game for kids. Teaching kids to wear proper safety gear is, to me anyway, no joke.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2019 15:04

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

I mean, when the proper gear goes alongside �you can ride a bull and a flying fire breathing dragon�...

Yeah that's true.

I'm a bicyclist at heart (both in game and in real life :v:

)

# ¿ Apr 10, 2019 15:21

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

SuperKlaus posted:

When Weakness Policy says it's one-use, does it mean once per fight or once forever? 32 BP seems like a lot to pay for an item used precisely once.

Here's a spoiler for Sword and Shield: "I like kilts! They're comfy and easy to wear!"

Depends!

If you use it in an online battle or the battle tree, you'll get it back after it's been activated in battle after the battle (so if it activates and your pokemon swaps, you lose the item and the bonus).

If you use it outside of those areas, it's one use and gone forever.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2019 15:13

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ArmyOfMidgets posted:

Hit the credits again and beat Cynthia. Pokemon White is concluded.

It is the best game in the series. I want to say "gently caress, we gotta go back!" but we can't. We can get a game as good, sure, but we can't make Gen 5 again, a lot of elements are just locked in its time due to the franchise's continuous growth.

-The very first thing that struck with me when I started playing, something that ended up true for the entire game is the level design. The games are designed in one simple, but very strong philosophy: the critical path should be short, and a lot of content lies away from it.
Its early examples are pretty good, you can get the elemental monkey you need if you explore. Normal gym has fighting types near it just off the fence of the following route, and if you manage to miss that, the next story bit makes you take the side-path of a short, straight line forest. This design continues in almost every route, and I feel it is brought back to a near-poetic end in Plasma Castle, where you can just walk three straight lines and face the endgame... or you can go into each room and learn about the science of Plasma, how some members feel, how they view N, N's room, etc.
This design is the most fitting for Pokemon. Routes that newcomers can defeat without too much pressure, but also with large areas to reward exploration and curiosity. If you're stuck with a gym leader on the first half of the game, exploration will end up solving that.
The Swords of Justice also live by this concept, and it's great. They offer a good reflection to N, and they're so optional that this, my fourth playthrough, was the first time I actually looked for them.

-Items are also really tame. You're not finding nothing overly strong, not even leftovers, until beating the story. But you don't need them, you don't have, say, Dusclops or Togepi or Honhedge that are begging you for the evolution item that isn't anywhere to be found. I feel like you are given the exact amount of power you need for the story, and end up finding fairly useful stuff all over.

-The NPCs are really fun! Lots of nice folk that are just neat. The NY aspect making you see tons of foreigners is fun, and then there's some towns with full-on weirdos, like that post-game beach town that is only a family of rich goons. Or the bridge with people who love the bridge and bridge sandwiches, and a lady that lives with five loving patrats and runs over to the other bridge when you talk to her to host a patrat show. And then the couple that moves into her house wonders why it smells of patrat.
There's a ton of stuff they do that makes the world feel alive. Nimbasa city specially, with its stadiums, and ferris wheel, and fashion show, it's a wonderful city.

-The art design is stellar. For a sprite game from 2010 or so, it's really nice, dynamic, colorful, some pokemon have a ton of attitude. The cities are all distinct. The amount of trainer classes feels really vast compared to other entries.

-Pokemon Roster is great. There's always a surprise with all these new 'mons, the distribution means you can find a new invaluable friend right around the corner. Some are essentially repeats, sure, but so many others have a ton of charm and attitude. Darmanitan, Golurk, literally all the bugs, Bisharp, Throh and Sawk, Excadrill, Scraggy, ah, just a ton of pokemon that are fun and sweet. Really gives a sense of discovery, fueled by the level design. Their late evolving levels means you can get pokemon pretty late and still become attached by seeing them Grow under you, rather htan just being a fully evolved thing that may fit your team.

-Battles are pretty good. The olde exp share system is really different; just going from gym to gym, whatever got to flex hard on one gym ends up taking a rest for a while and others catch up without it going ahead. Levels stay relatively low for a long while, and it's kinda fun. Rivals pop up at a good pace, they feel stronger each time and there's a couple of times they caught me offguard and made me worry my team was still beat up and not ready.

-The only negatives I think of is that the sixth gym's city, all the way up 'till defeating gym 7, is a chore. The gyms are pretty tame with the puzzle, the seventh one has such a limited roster you fight three ice cream trainers in a row, N and Cheren get involved but don't really do anything different from last time, both gyms are around "go to a tower, climb it, cutscene on top" and it's just a boring hour or two past the middle of the game.
The roster is also limiting; part of what makes that stretch of the game bad is that there's, maybe 4? pokemon to catch, none particularly useful for the flying or ice gym, but it shows up from time to time before that, just going to a route, seeing two pokemon and that's pretty much it. It works for the most part, but after seeing what a regional dex can do with 400ish 'mons, it can be disheartening.

-Story, ohhh man, here we go:
The story truly is deconstructed from its most basic premise. We all know about the "pokemon battles are cockfights, and cruel." part, but lets skip that for now: the eight gyms and elite 4 part is also put under contempt from the start. Every adult basically talks about it like going through summer camp. Just something you do as a kid. You can finish the pokedex, but outside of a feeling of "that's neat!" nobody seems to give a gently caress about it. Gym leaders are so much more than gym leaders. Everyone enforces a feeling of "it's the journey, not the destination" because it's all meaningless... it's an excuse for trainers to explore the land and find themselves.

Then we go over to peta, and... I like the answer people end up with. Most trainers are not like that, most people simply have a partner pokemon, most trainers aren't all about battle, and those with the experience of living battles more than others simply come to conclusions of how to improve life with pokemon, of listening more to pokemon. The Plasma spiel is lies, but gym leaders do take it and come to their own conclusions on how to improve when they are challenged like this. Communication and community are a huge part of the story.

Gym Leaders, god I love them so much. They are community leaders, they serve their cities and town, they run an important part of it (library, restaurant, airport, mine, etc) and they fight to protect the city itself against Plasma. They actively foil the evil team!!! They give lessons to the kids doing the challenge. They're great. In contrast, the Elite 4 are secluded to the northest point of the map, they really only talk about how good battles are, and do nothing even when the league is in danger. The gym leader is the part of the community, while the elite 4 is above it... and thus doesn't offer anything useful.

Cheren and Bianca. Cheren is much like the you who first played pokemon. Wants to be the best, doesn't question what's going on, just gotta be the strongest and catch them all. Meanwhile, Bianca is more about finding out what IS the region she's in, which of the side things are really fun. She immediately knows that the journey is something your parents asked of Juniper so you could go out in the world. She looks for purpose. They both find themselves during this whole adventure, and it's great seeing characters you could easily have played as during your time in the franchise.

Plasma is a great team. The grunts are a surprising mix of good-natured goons and just hooligans. Gives credence that this is a fairly large organization when there's so many different people. Then the upper staff of the six sages who offer wisdom to Ghetsis, in exchange for different things, different points of views on all sides. Ghetsis is an evil jerk, I love him, he's always just Barely keeping his evil laughter in check... and somehow that's the most convincing a villain has been in this whole IP (why does NO villain even attempt at hiding being evil????)

N... ahh, so many good things. Y'all know he's good. I love that you are the first step on his own journey and he grows alongside you, Cheren and Bianca. By seeing the world and other POVs, he can overcome the evil nurturing Ghetsis had done his whole life. Him only using pokemon from the areas he fights you in and then letting them go is great. The first time it happens is an amazing shock because if you are Ready for gym 2, you'll have a fighting type in the lead, and he'll come at you with the pidove. The pursuit of truth and dreams is the best "both sides are right" thing.

N thus looks into the future, meanwhile the Swords of Justice are stuck in the past. Yet it is you, living in the present that changes both of their minds and lets them interact with the world that is. Alder is similar, stuck in the pain of losing his partner. For all his talk about wandering and helping, he isn't as open to new ideas as the leaders, other adults dunk on him for not being present, and when you get to the post-game... a lot of trainers seem to be strong enough to be champs. And the dialogue between some E4 imply that the E4 does lose fairly often to challengers. Alder grew during the game. Never the sage he pretended to be.

All leads to a journey where characters have storylines, emotional beats, everyone has something fairly meaningful to say. Because the story is about seeing others' points of views and growing thanks to that. About community coming together. Issues are solved in a team, not just by you getting a legnedary and kicking rear end. Heck, I said no to Zekrom and finished the game without him and it owned.

Post-game is great, battling Cynthia after becoming champ was a very good sendoff. Pokemon White is my favorite game and I hope this post isn't so huge it can't even post gently caress i gotta go to work

Sir, this is a Burger King Drive Thru

# ¿ Apr 20, 2019 15:23

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

thetoughestbean posted:

How strange that somebody would effort post about Pok�mon, here in the Pok�mon thread

It felt like a quote from elsewhere until I saw the posts on this page, that's all. Apologies.

iospace fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Apr 20, 2019

# ¿ Apr 20, 2019 18:10

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

I'm still convinced the champion will be the queen.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2019 19:38

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

I think I managed to avoid wipes in both RR runs, once with the Alolan Only and once with the Ghost Team.

How I survived with the Ghost Team I have no clue. Dark shits on it so hard.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2019 15:59

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

E2M2 posted:

It took me til a couple months ago to realize that the gen 1 birds were uno dos tres

# ¿ Apr 28, 2019 15:37

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

RatHat posted:

I had to catch 32 Ditto to find one with Adamant

At least they usually went down to 1-2 Ultra balls after being False Swiped and Spored.

Uh... if you're playing ultra sun or moon they gift you one.

# ¿ May 8, 2019 02:49

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ArmyOfMidgets posted:

I forgot how bad fake paris is. So bad in fact, that it looked like a nightmareish hall of mirrors of bad camera angles back in its first reveal even
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGs_F-jTCPU

Ultra sun/moon is a rerelease of Sun and Moon with changed plot at the end and a post-game dungeon. But the very start of the game is also streamlined because original Sun and Moon had like twenty minutes from starting a new save to even picking your starter.

It's funny how much more organic the cities and towns in SuMo/USUM feel now. It has the "random NPCs" of Gen 5, but they're also walking much slower and varied models.

# ¿ May 12, 2019 13:30

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Ruggington posted:

armored wooper

# ¿ Jun 5, 2019 13:54

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

corn on the cop posted:

wooloo

# ¿ Jun 5, 2019 16:47

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

SyntheticPolygon posted:

Nooooo.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2019 02:29

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ROFL Octopus posted:

even despite my complaints, i will still play this game and find it epic as hell

# ¿ Jun 15, 2019 02:48

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Blaziken386 posted:

Poke amie is required for affection, yes. Not for happiness evos or anything important, so if you don't want to, just skip it

I'm fond of using it in post-game for being able to get an EXP boost, or well, back when I was fussing around with Battle Tree to get them up to 50 quicker.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2019 14:02

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Happy Noodle Boy posted:

Food based pokemon are all garbage

Isn't Shuckle berry based?

# ¿ Jul 8, 2019 17:20

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ArmyOfMidgets posted:

Some-Stuff, the fansubber group, ran a poll when they started subbing sun and moon about japanese vs localized names. Sadly, the people chose the former.

E: they ugly but idk how to feel about pokemon getting preorder dlc costumes
https://twitter.com/SerebiiNet/status/1148547623839776769?s=19

The thing that stood out to me is the fact that only a right hand glove.

Lefties rarely get any respect :smith:

# ¿ Jul 9, 2019 14:24

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

How dare a company only require its employees work 40 hours a week in order to have a work/life balance.

This is probably the real cause, and why Animal Crossing is delayed, but they paid dearly with investors for stating it.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 15:21

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

indigi posted:

they could add more employees and keep 40 hour weeks. nobody wants devs to work themselves to death or depression

More devs = diminishing returns. It's not as simple as you think.

Saagonsa posted:

They could just not subject them to insane release date deadlines, that's also an option.

And before anyone throws out how the Pokemon anime makes that impossible, I'm talking about doing this long term, not just suddenly pushing back the game's release.

Or those deadlines could be set by someone else. Yes, I understand a lot of you are upset, but it was A. going to happen sooner or later, and B. let's be realistic here, it was either 1. working people to the bone, or 2. some features have to be dropped.

#2 there happens A LOT, but we generally don't hear about it happening. The big issue here is a feature that's getting dropped is, admittedly, a key feature, but it happened.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 15:34

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ArmyOfMidgets posted:

Apparently Sun and Moon had something crazy like 400 contractors.

So yeah, maybe dont loving poo poo out a yearly rpg and work conditions and quality will improve.

Got a source for it?

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 15:36

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Saagonsa posted:

...No poo poo? That's why I specified that it was someone else subjecting the devs to those deadlines? I don't see your point.

I don't see your point either. I'm saying Gamefreak may not have set those deadlines, but Nintendo by way of the board or somewhat. You don't specify who set those deadlines in your original post.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 15:38

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Saagonsa posted:

Yeah I'm not necessarily blaming Gamefreak here. I don't really have the hateboner for them that others seem to. I'm just saying that it didn't need to be this way and that really sucks.

How dare Nintendo treat their employees like humans then. It's damned if they do, damned if they dont. If they demand the full dex, then guess what, they overwork their employees. If they don't, nerds everywhere meltdown.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 15:41

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ArmyOfMidgets posted:

Just serebii joe

https://twitter.com/JoeMerrick/status/1150046240131944450?s=19

Could probs look at the sm credits which were pretty hefty

Anyway, at a game a year since 2014, im more inclined to believe GameFreak runs on crunch nowadays.

Alright.

I usually skip or don't pay attention to the credits so grain of salt on my end :v:

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 15:52

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

d3lness posted:

Pokemon CB will be awful since running ~~SAED spam~~ Ubers will be the only efficient way to play.

Don't doxx me

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 17:57

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ArmyOfMidgets posted:

Game Mewtwo isn't a clone, it's a clone dog.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 19:02

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Nodosaur posted:

Well a clone grown in a vat isn't a clone because it's an invention of science fiction. My point is more that by the rules the person was giving me, saying "that's how clones are made", Mewtwo isn't a clone.

In any case, Mewtwo is a mutant, not a clone, as far as the games go. He was born from a parent and, due to genetic mutations that were the result of the experiments performed on its parent, is effectively a new lifeform.

Even then, with all this, you'd think that, if the fact that Ditto were a product of this same experiment, they'd have had the diaries saying "Oh yeah, Mew popped out a bunch of metamorphous goo babies. poo poo's hosed up."

Found the ditto.

You can't fool me!

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 19:27

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Lazy_Liberal posted:

now hold the phone!! pidgeot is impressive!!!

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 19:40

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

ZenMasterBullshit posted:

Yeah it's amazing how bad it is.

IT even gets a mega that is still somehow trash.

Impressively bad bird.

Never in my life have I seen a worse take than this.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2019 19:44

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

TheKingofSprings posted:

Have you actually been to reddit lately?

People here have been mostly civil and reasonable about the entire thing.

Yeah, in my experience here and elsewhere on SA, it's a lot of attacking the arguments, not the poster.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 18:21

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Nodosaur posted:

I'm kind of loathe to give this place too much credit, on account someone tried to change my avatar this morning to imply I have a sexual relationship with Masuda.

I really, really hate that I have to do this and it's incredibly loving embarassing, but I have a history with sexual trauma that comes from being groomed, so if nothing else, I would hope whomever did that reconsiders it before doing it. It was very upsetting.

There is that :smith:

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 18:26

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Can we discuss actual stuff instead of getting mad at video games?

Thanks

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 21:39

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

less laughter posted:

Bibarel is banned from Ubers

Wait what, why?

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 22:29

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Vandar posted:

The Moody ability. There's a chance it can raise it's evasion.

Anything that can use Moody isn't allowed to use it in Smogon tiers.

Oh right, forgot about that.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 22:49

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Hmmm beating of dead horses

# ¿ Jul 16, 2019 05:24

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

berenzen posted:

Counterpoint: Voltorb/Electrode

You're not disproving it with those two.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2019 19:42

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Admiral Joeslop posted:

They should move and renumber all Pokemon so the babies and later evolutions are all together like they should be.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2019 21:17

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 11:23

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

The Skeleton King posted:

I don't care for realism in pokemon. I like the idea of a world where you can just do sport without having to sell out and be a walking billboard. I like the idea that people can do stuff because they like to do it and get paid because they are good at it, not because they let a corporation plaster their ugly logos all over and use their image for advertising. Sure its not real corporations, but its still gross to perpetuate the idea that sports cannot exist separately from corporations.

The problem is big sponsors and soccer unis (or football kits, depends on what you call them) are hand in hand (mostly because soccer doesn't bring in as much money as most other sports do, even in Europe), and given that the gym system in Galar borrows heavily from the Premier League, it makes sense from an aesthetic standpoint.

e: I'll poke Gigi Galli's brain for a take on this, for what it's worth

# ¿ Jul 18, 2019 01:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Pokemon Megathread: I have very strong feelings about pokemons

«‹›6 »