Pokemon Megathread: I have very strong feelings about pokemons

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Vinylshadow: Mar 20, 2017

indigi posted:

it�d be neat if there was some sort of narrative or gameplay mechanic to fix this. maybe you can�t bring the same team of 6 to each gym, you have to trade one out? that might piss people off.

but yeah it stinks that by late game my team is almost always fully set, there�s so many pokemon I never even considered using cause they only show up on the route outside the 8th gym or on victory road

e: maybe you start out only able to have a party of 4 or 5 and earn the final slot(s) by defeating Team X or earning all the badges? there�s GOT to be a way!

S&S gives you so many rare and exp candies that swapping in and raising up new team members is a breeze, though, so trying out new team members at any time's completely feasible

# ? Mar 4, 2022 07:22

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 08:31

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Vinylshadow posted:

S&S gives you so many rare and exp candies that swapping in and raising up new team members is a breeze, though, so trying out new team members at any time's completely feasible

in theory sure but I like my team. I�d be sad to put one of my lil dudes in a box before they get to be champs

# ? Mar 4, 2022 07:25

Flopsy: Mar 4, 2013

indigi posted:

in theory sure but I like my team. I�d be sad to put one of my lil dudes in a box before they get to be champs

Usually part of the challenge I give myself in a new game is exclusively making my team out of pokemon I'm keeping with me to the end game. I couldn't do it in Arceus though...just way too loving hard.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 08:52

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

I do the inverse, constantly swapping in new pok�mon to give them a chance to show their stuff, sometimes going back to a previous friend, if, say, a new friend has a disappointing evolution or something. Everyone who's done a tour of duty gets a place in the special friends box, though.

I also go into new games totally blind, so I have no idea what I'm missing out on until I either come across a potential new friend or fight it in a trainer battle, at which point the pok�dex will usually tell me where to find it.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 09:05

Flytrap: Apr 30, 2013

Flopsy posted:

Usually part of the challenge I give myself in a new game is exclusively making my team out of pokemon I'm keeping with me to the end game. I couldn't do it in Arceus though...just way too loving hard.

I should try something like this. I always passively try to fill my pokedex even if I know I'll never finish it. Might make the game a touch more challenging if I run around most of the game with 2 or 3 pokemon AND give me a use for heal balls.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 09:22

Flopsy: Mar 4, 2013

Zulily Zoetrope posted:

I do the inverse, constantly swapping in new pok�mon to give them a chance to show their stuff, sometimes going back to a previous friend, if, say, a new friend has a disappointing evolution or something. Everyone who's done a tour of duty gets a place in the special friends box, though.

I also go into new games totally blind, so I have no idea what I'm missing out on until I either come across a potential new friend or fight it in a trainer battle, at which point the pok�dex will usually tell me where to find it.

Oh man hard opposite on this end. If you couldn't tell by my little spiel before it flips all my autistic happy switches to obsessively research and carefully detail out plans for how I'm going to play the game in advance. Literally I get out a pen, paper and carefully make lists of pros and cons and the whole shebang.

This is why pokemon is really interesting to me. Everybody gets a different experience based on how they choose to approach the game. One thing I think that's a universal agreement though is a difficulty curve we can adjust. Getting my rear end beat repeatedly in Legends was refreshing as hell and i think i'm gonna miss that.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 09:41

Quantum Toast: Feb 13, 2012

GiantRockFromSpace posted:

If the north of PokeSpain isn't permanently raining 24/7 with Wingulls lunging at you 0/10, poo poo representation, won't buy.

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

I know reginal variants weren't a thing in gen five, but I can only imagine that an American themed reginal variant of Wingull would be flying/dark.

I can't speak for other countries, but American seagulls fear nothing and would steal steal a fry right from the mouth of God.

I'm a little disappointed that Galarian Wingulls weren't like that. I was just walking down the street in Llandudno once and a seagull tried to knock a bag right out of my hand.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 10:11

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

Flopsy posted:

Oh man hard opposite on this end. If you couldn't tell by my little spiel before it flips all my autistic happy switches to obsessively research and carefully detail out plans for how I'm going to play the game in advance. Literally I get out a pen, paper and carefully make lists of pros and cons and the whole shebang.

This is why pokemon is really interesting to me. Everybody gets a different experience based on how they choose to approach the game. One thing I think that's a universal agreement though is a difficulty curve we can adjust. Getting my rear end beat repeatedly in Legends was refreshing as hell and i think i'm gonna miss that.

For me the highlights of Sword/Shield were seeing a Corviknight for the first time and instantly knowing I needed one of those for my team, and then realizing one of my team members happened to be a Corvisquire and realizing that everything was already right and just, as well as catching an Impidimp, having seen none of its evolutions in the wild, and knowing it was going to grow into something incredible. Sometimes evolutions disappoint, and that's the price of playing, but Grimmsnarl did not.

And yeah, agreed on adjustable difficulty in general, every game should have that, but I think it's something I care less about in pok�mon than in other games. If I have one mon who's just a monster capable of killing everything, I'll just keep it in reserve and only bring it out for the real difficult fights, which makes me feel like a gym leader. Lilligant was my ace in the hole for Legends and come to think of it, I don't think I ever lost a trainer battle in that game, which I didn't mind, because they often felt like I was cutting it close.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 10:38

Flopsy: Mar 4, 2013

Zulily Zoetrope posted:

For me the highlights of Sword/Shield were seeing a Corviknight for the first time and instantly knowing I needed one of those for my team, and then realizing one of my team members happened to be a Corvisquire and realizing that everything was already right and just, as well as catching an Impidimp, having seen none of its evolutions in the wild, and knowing it was going to grow into something incredible. Sometimes evolutions disappoint, and that's the price of playing, but Grimmsnarl did not.

And yeah, agreed on adjustable difficulty in general, every game should have that, but I think it's something I care less about in pok�mon than in other games. If I have one mon who's just a monster capable of killing everything, I'll just keep it in reserve and only bring it out for the real difficult fights, which makes me feel like a gym leader. Lilligant was my ace in the hole for Legends and come to think of it, I don't think I ever lost a trainer battle in that game, which I didn't mind, because they often felt like I was cutting it close.

To be fair the only challenging trainer battles were Kamado and Volo. Pokemon in that game are literally just set up to beat you like a rented mule. loving Arcanine wasn't the one that gave me PTSD it was Avalugg and his goddamn homing missiles. Genuinely did not know the top of the mountain was going to come off, scream in my face, and then put me through the pain games.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 11:22

Tiny Myers: Jul 29, 2021; say hello to my little friend

I really loved Clobbopus and I was so sad that I didn't like Grapploct half as much. Another example of wishing I had something to use pre evolutions on like contests. They feel like different Pokemon to me rather than being part of the same evolutionary line. I was surprised it's not Water/fighting, too, seemed like a strange choice to make it monotype fighting. You even encounter it in the water.

Re: Pokemon appearing so late that you can't use them, that's part of why Wonder Trade is nice. Sometimes you get traded something weird and late game like a Dreepy and you can breed it and use the egg baby on your team. I raised that little baby dragon all the way from level 1 to its final evolution :3:

Then it really struggled to do anything while fighting the champ :doh:

It's gotten better in postgame at least.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 13:03

The Bee: Nov 25, 2012; Making his way to the ring . . .
from Deep in the Jungle . . .

The Big Monkey!

I wonder what makes Pokemon stand out on the XP share regard compared to other RPGs, where if anything not sharing XP is considered outdated and inconvenient. Is it the fact that you're constantly catching Pokemon at different levels, so the XP share makes getting everyone to an equal level more frustrating? The fact that enemies are identical to allies + have a clearly displayed level makes it obvious when you're overleveled, as opposed to traditional rpgs that mask it more?

# ? Mar 4, 2022 14:59

wologar: Feb 11, 2014; නෝනාවරුනි

My biggest disappointment in Pokemon is still that Surskit (Water/Bug) evolves into Masquerain (Bug/Flying). Triple types when??

# ? Mar 4, 2022 15:04

Eiba: Jul 26, 2007

The Bee posted:

I wonder what makes Pokemon stand out on the XP share regard compared to other RPGs, where if anything not sharing XP is considered outdated and inconvenient. Is it the fact that you're constantly catching Pokemon at different levels, so the XP share makes getting everyone to an equal level more frustrating? The fact that enemies are identical to allies + have a clearly displayed level makes it obvious when you're overleveled, as opposed to traditional rpgs that mask it more?

It's an issue for me because you don't get to use all your pokemon. Your starter, the pokemon you have the strongest bond with? Well, by the time you're raising up your 6th pokemon, good luck ever finding a situation to send out your first guy, who's still a higher level than the rest of your team despite not having seen him for the last 10 levels of his growth.

It gets worse with variable growth rates. If one of your new guys has a slow growth rate, I hope you really like them because you'll have to use them every battle, while the rest of your friends just sit in your pocket.

Legends: Arceus is the first time I made peace with the system to any extent- sure my starter's level 70 while these guys I got in the last zone are still level 50. That's okay, level isn't that big a deal in Legends. Maybe I'll be able to take that mentality into the main game going forward- just let my pokemon's levels be vastly different. But still, even in Legends, I remember getting a level 15 Ralts when my pokemon were about level 30 and thinking that was cool because it would evolve into a Gardevoir when it caught up and that would all work out. Except by the time it was level 30, the rest of my team was level 40. I 'missed' their 30s. Barely used my Typhlosion or my Lefeon or Crobat or Kleavor once between level 30 and 40. And that still left a 10 level gap between my new guys who had just hit 30, and my old guys. That's when I decided to just give up on trying to have my newcomers keep up at all, and just let there be a 10 level gap, as long as everyone was evolved.

That feels bad and I wish I could have not done that to the rest of my pokemon when I was raising up one new one. I also have no idea why people say Legends: Arceus was difficult because I never once had an issue with a trainer battle after leveling up that Ralts. The game still expected me to be level 30, it seems, and I broke the curve entirely by training this one pokemon up the way I did.

Eiba fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Mar 4, 2022

# ? Mar 4, 2022 15:42

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

The Bee posted:

I wonder what makes Pokemon stand out on the XP share regard compared to other RPGs, where if anything not sharing XP is considered outdated and inconvenient. Is it the fact that you're constantly catching Pokemon at different levels, so the XP share makes getting everyone to an equal level more frustrating? The fact that enemies are identical to allies + have a clearly displayed level makes it obvious when you're overleveled, as opposed to traditional rpgs that mask it more?

the gameplay reason is because even if you use repels 100% of the time and just do trainer battles your team can and will quickly outlevel everything you have to fight until the champion, which makes gyms/villains/the E4 underwhelming and easy to beat and you don�t even have to do a second of thinking about team construction and coverages. then all of a sudden the champ has decent AI and a carefully balanced team and it�s actually difficult for a moment

the narrative reason is this dude was in a pokeball sleep the entire battle why did he get experience. in most RPGs your whole party will turn up to a battle so it makes sense everyone gets XP even if they just stood there

# ? Mar 4, 2022 15:44

Twelve by Pies: May 4, 2012; Again a very likpatous story

One of the cool things about playing Scarlet/Violet without having played SwSh is that inevitably I'll run into a Pokemon I haven't seen, say "This new Pokemon is so cool!" and 90% of the thread will be like "That's not a new one."

# ? Mar 4, 2022 15:49

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

cool

# ? Mar 4, 2022 15:50

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

https://twitter.com/pokekalos/status/1499687099376807937?s=21

New anime opening

Paul and Greninja are back.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:02

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; He's been tapping into Aunt May's bank account!
Didn't I kill him with a HELICOPTER?

The Bee posted:

I wonder what makes Pokemon stand out on the XP share regard compared to other RPGs, where if anything not sharing XP is considered outdated and inconvenient. Is it the fact that you're constantly catching Pokemon at different levels, so the XP share makes getting everyone to an equal level more frustrating? The fact that enemies are identical to allies + have a clearly displayed level makes it obvious when you're overleveled, as opposed to traditional rpgs that mask it more?

It being 1v1 battles mostly does it. In an RPG with 6 party members, you'll usually have 3 or 4 active party members, so everyone being on pace is important. With Pokemon, you'll only have 1 active party member, so if, say, you're in an Ice type gym and your Fighting type pokemon is going to smash through, the challenge would come from it being underlevelled out of not getting used much directly before this dungeon, but nowadays it's more likely that it'll be overlevelled instead. And then there's just the overlevelling in general that makes it so you could even more easily just ride one guy for most of the game anyway.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:20

Space Cadet Omoly: Jan 15, 2014; ~Groovy~

Nodosaur posted:

https://twitter.com/pokekalos/status/1499687099376807937?s=21

New anime opening

Paul and Greninja are back.

Who's that person with the Gardevoir and the Bayleaf? I recognize basically everyone either from the games or via cultural osmosis even though I haven't watched the show in many years.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:29

Zuzie: Jun 30, 2005; I got this for a Ratatta on GTS.

wologar posted:

My biggest disappointment in Pokemon is still that Surskit (Water/Bug) evolves into Masquerain (Bug/Flying). Triple types when??

At this point this could be forgiven now that more Bug/Water Pokemon exist and they're stronger then a hypothetical Bug/Water Masquerain would have been back in Gen 3 (and Masquerain itself got a buff in stats where it now has the same stat total as Araquanid since they're counterparts in the Gen 7 games)

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:34

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; He's been tapping into Aunt May's bank account!
Didn't I kill him with a HELICOPTER?

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

Who's that person with the Gardevoir and the Bayleaf? I recognize basically everyone either from the games or via cultural osmosis even though I haven't watched the show in many years.

Go's friend from his backstory. IIRC Go's deal about not trusting people early on was because when he was like 6, he went on vacation to Johto and made a friend, Tokio, they were gonna go explore a place for Celebi, but Tokio never showed. Turns out them playing in the rain the first day caused him to get sick, then Tokio went to the same spot a year later, begged Celebi to take him back in time to fulfill his promise and when that didn't work he left a letter explaining everything and the two finally meet again in present time and become friends again.

And now we find out Tokio's a skilled trainer with a Gardervoir and will help with the elite Mew searching task force.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:36

Zuzie: Jun 30, 2005; I got this for a Ratatta on GTS.

Space Cadet Omoly posted:

Who's that person with the Gardevoir and the Bayleaf? I recognize basically everyone either from the games or via cultural osmosis even though I haven't watched the show in many years.

I think he's a childhood friend of Goh and was only introduced in like one episode so far.

EDIT: Beaten

That being said it really feels like they're actually going back to all the loose ends of previous Pokemon series and tying them up. They recently addressed why Butch and Cassidy stopped appearing in the anime for over 14 years and its because they're no longer a part of Team Rocket.

Zuzie fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Mar 4, 2022

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:38

Electric Phantasm: Apr 7, 2011; YOSPOS

Zuzie posted:

I think he's a childhood friend of Goh and was only introduced in like one episode so far.

EDIT: Beaten

That being said it really feels like they're actually going back to all the loose ends of previous Pokemon series and tying them up. They recently addressed why Butch and Cassidy stopped appearing in the anime for over 14 years and its because they're no longer a part of Team Rocket.

That's kinda neat, what are they doing now?

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:46

Zuzie: Jun 30, 2005; I got this for a Ratatta on GTS.

Electric Phantasm posted:

That's kinda neat, what are they doing now?

They went their separate ways and now Butch is running a bakery and Cassidy is running a cafe. Normal people stuff.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:50

chaosapiant: Oct 10, 2012; White Line Fever

Does Shining Pearl/Sparkly Diamond feature the same endgame/QOL stuff that was in Pok�mon Platinum?

# ? Mar 4, 2022 16:53

Electric Phantasm: Apr 7, 2011; YOSPOS

Zuzie posted:

They went their separate ways and now Butch is running a bakery and Cassidy is running a cafe. Normal people stuff.

Legitimately this is real sweet and cool.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 17:19

HackensackBackpack: Aug 20, 2007; Who needs a house out in Hackensack? Is that all you get for your money?

Twelve by Pies posted:

One of the cool things about playing Scarlet/Violet without having played SwSh is that inevitably I'll run into a Pokemon I haven't seen, say "This new Pokemon is so cool!" and 90% of the thread will be like "That's not a new one."

This was me in Sword because I didn't play X/Y or Sun/Moon at all so there were tons of new dudes.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 18:20

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I just remembered that Mew is canonically from South America. that�s a weird idiosyncrasy they probably wish they�d never put in

# ? Mar 4, 2022 19:27

Space T Rex: Sep 15, 2007; Your title was so old it used HTML which isn't even allowed in titles anymore what the hell

indigi posted:

I just remembered that Mew is canonically from South America. that’s a weird idiosyncrasy they probably wish they’d never put in

Wasn't mew just first discovered in South America? I think it's kind of a whimsical dude that wanders around the globe not really being "from" any particular region, right? That's always been my impression.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 19:46

Electric Phantasm: Apr 7, 2011; YOSPOS

Mew just wants people to check out their spinning top.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 19:50

Flopsy: Mar 4, 2013

Space T Rex posted:

Wasn't mew just first discovered in South America? I think it's kind of a whimsical dude that wanders around the globe not really being "from" any particular region, right? That's always been my impression.

Am I wrong to assume in pokemon canon if Giratina is Satan that makes Mew Jesus? I mean...are they still going by the whole all other pokemon are descended from the divine fetus mon? Clearly Arceus and it's early creations don't count but--*shrugs*

# ? Mar 4, 2022 19:51

Nodosaur: Dec 23, 2014

I think we shouldn�t apply Western theocracy to the very Eastern-inspired creation myth that is Pokemon�s

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:02

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Space T Rex posted:

Wasn't mew just first discovered in South America? I think it's kind of a whimsical dude that wanders around the globe not really being "from" any particular region, right? That's always been my impression.

yeah but that still means it all takes place on Earth

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:15

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; He's been tapping into Aunt May's bank account!
Didn't I kill him with a HELICOPTER?

Flopsy posted:

Am I wrong to assume in pokemon canon if Giratina is Satan that makes Mew Jesus? I mean...are they still going by the whole all other pokemon are descended from the divine fetus mon? Clearly Arceus and it's early creations don't count but--*shrugs*

I do think they're referencing christian god for Arceus, but I wouldn't stretch it beyond Arceus, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina.

But if they did, then Mew would be Adam and Eevee.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:17

Shiroc: May 16, 2009; Sorry I'm late

End of Legends question: If I want to get Arceus, I need to have caught at least 1 of every other Pokemon in the Pokedex first?

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:19

MorningMoon: Dec 29, 2013; He's been tapping into Aunt May's bank account!
Didn't I kill him with a HELICOPTER?

Shiroc posted:

End of Legends question: If I want to get Arceus, I need to have caught at least 1 of every other Pokemon in the Pokedex first?

Correct, that's the only requirement.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:19

Zulily Zoetrope: Jun 1, 2011; Muldoon

To further confuse matters, while Palkia and Dialga represent the concepts of time and space, Giratina canonically is the representation of anti-matter. If anyone understands how that closes out the trio, I'm all ears.

indigi posted:

yeah but that still means it all takes place on Earth

That was always the case. Kanto is literally the name of the region of Japan on which gen 1 is based, they didn't get cute with the names until gen 2.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:23

The Bee: Nov 25, 2012; Making his way to the ring . . .
from Deep in the Jungle . . .

The Big Monkey!

quote:

A lot of answers.

That makes sense. I imagine if the XP share served more as a catchup mechanism and less like a constantly shifting goalpost for your team's level, and the game actually had a difficulty curve based around it, it'd be seen less unfavorably.

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:30

Xander B Coolridge: Sep 2, 2011

Zulily Zoetrope posted:

That was always the case. Kanto is literally the name of the region of Japan on which gen 1 is based, they didn't get cute with the names until gen 2.

Was Kanto called Kanto in gen 1? I don't remember learning the name until GSC

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:34

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 08:31

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Zulily Zoetrope posted:

To further confuse matters, while Palkia and Dialga represent the concepts of time and space, Giratina canonically is the representation of anti-matter. If anyone understands how that closes out the trio, I'm all ears.

That was always the case. Kanto is literally the name of the region of Japan on which gen 1 is based, they didn't get cute with the names until gen 2.

it was the case, but it isn�t any longer since the regions all just take inspiration from places on Real Earth instead of being actually set there. except that South America exists

# ? Mar 4, 2022 20:36

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