Pokkén Tournament

[Codraroll]

The team who's working on Pokken's models need to work on the models for Gen VII as well...

I think GameFreak has tried to shy away from the "realistic" art style, as it seemed they had no idea what the various textures on the Pokémon looked like. For example, are Charizard leathery or covered in scales? Bulbasaur's skin, is it slimy like a poison dart frog, or rough like a plant stem? Do Jigglypuff have fur, or is their skin smooth like human skin? Too many design decisions, and having 800 + models to texture would require quite a lot of storage space too.

The result was, for some time, that Pokémon were created with as little texture detail as possible. Just look at the Pokémon models in SSBB, they all look like plastic toys, unnecessarily so compared to all the other trophies. Not too bad by themselves, but it creates a terrible dissonance with "realistic"-textured environments. Poképark Wii is another horrible offender. However, it seems like cel-shading is the future, at least for the main series games. That keeps the Pokémon low-detail and colourful, but still matching the art style of the environment. This match of environment and creature design is to me the main reason why XY and ORAS are the prettiest games in the Pokémon series.

For a spin-off game featuring fewer Pokémon, however, it might be feasible to try some high-res textures like they seem to do here. Time will tell if the experiment is repeated again some time in the future.

 

[noobcubed]

Talking about art styles, Machamp's skin looks sort of painted. I'm not sure that's what they should be going for. IMO make him even more hench and shiny with sweat. Okay that sounded wrong...

 

[Theorymon]

Ok I gotta go to class but holy shit

Suicune got confirmed playable in the stream O_O

Also Gardevoir and Pikachu are confirmed

 

[DHR-107]

Limi posted this in #Pokemon

I am at work, but if anyone did see the stream and could put up some more information I'd be thankful!

 

[Stef0w]

Managed to rush from school to home, so I didnt catch everything, but I did see most of the character being played.

Suicune was the coolest IMO, seems to be played like zoner, and I can safely say Aurora Beam has never looked this cool. Picture it's white "things" on it's back moving like bulbasaur's vine whip from the anime, and you have it's up-close fighting style.

Gardevoir also seemed pretty "zone-like", but nobody seemed to be able to play her very well, so Im not sure what else she/he could do. She appeared to use moon-blast as an aerial move in the air.

My biggest shock was honestly pikachu, the thing surprisingly mainly uses it's fists for attacking, with volt-tackle being an aerial launcher I think?, and thunder being a ranged attack that spawns from above.

Lucario and machamp plays pretty much exactly like most people expected, one beinga fast-as-shit dashing character, and machamp being a fairly slow grabber.

As of in general, snivy seems to be using leaf-storm when used as an assist, and lapras seems to use hydro pump, but snivy cancelled it out before it coud attack.

Every pokemon gets a similar shield to smash, althrough all of these pokemon do have access to protect already.

the assist pokemon are in "packs", where you pick one of two pokemon prior to the battle (lapras was paired up with snivy, emolga was paired with fennekin".

Cant say with certainty, but like in the games, each pokemon starts out with a HP number, so frailer pokemon might start out with less.

Might edit this post laster when I find out more, or remember anything :p

 

[Sweetstack]

 

[Pikachu315111]

Pikachu looking a bit like Longchu here...

Hide

Anyway certainly a few surprising picks. Wasn't expecting Suicune, though I guess they showed it to show that even quadrupeds are joining in the fight. Cool, and like with Mega Evolutions seems like a Pokemon's popularity is going to heavily play in whether they become playable or not (and thus, poor Raichu is snubbed again).

Anyway, here's a character trailer I can find showing off the Pokemon fighting:

EDIT: I believe I was just Shedinja'd by Sweetstack.

 

[warriorman222]

inb4 Shedinja

Oh no Phoenix shit all over again

 

[Stef0w]

Watching the stream, it's pretty clear that machamp has to have a larger pool of HP than lucario and pikachu, but Im not sure about the others.

 

[warriorman222]

Watching the stream, it's pretty clear that machamp has to have a larger pool of HP than lucario and pikachu, but Im not sure about the others.

Machamp has the most HP, but he's pretty much SSBB Ganondorf. No projectiles, no approach, strong but ridiculously slow, easy to combo, dies much earlier than his very high endurance should determine. Can never seem to get in on projectile spam, but if he does he will wreck you.

I hate the Speed v.s Power in fighting games. Power characters are OP at beginner levels because of scrub mentality causing no projectile spam or keeepwaway. Faster characters are better at a pro level because they cna actually land hits and get in. Projectiles just make it worse, the Characters without projectiles in any fighting game should be faster, or have a way of beating projectiles. Sonic is the perfect example of this (Not Yoshi. T. Yoshisaur MunchaKoopas is the example of a fighting game's BW Kyu-B. No weaknesses, so beating it makes you usually the better player), and as a result he's very good.

 

[Lady Vader]

Limi posted this in #Pokemon

I am at work, but if anyone did see the stream and could put up some more information I'd be thankful!

1) I can't believe Suicune will be in it.
2) That is ABSOLutely Beautifly.
I apologize for those puns.
Actually, I do have two problems with the model. The eyes and the mouth look like they were pasted on.

Pikachu looking a bit like Longchu here...

Hide

Anyway certainly a few surprising picks. Wasn't expecting Suicune, though I guess they showed it to show that even quadrupeds are joining in the fight. Cool, and like with Mega Evolutions seems like a Pokemon's popularity is going to heavily play in whether they become playable or not (and thus, poor Raichu is snubbed again).

Anyway, here's a character trailer I can find showing off the Pokemon fighting:

EDIT: I believe I was just Shedinja'd by Sweetstack.

This game looks like a lot of fun. I can see Pikachu being annoying to hit. Also, that was awesome/cute when Pikachu crossed his arms to seem tough.

Machamp has the most HP, but he's pretty much SSBB Ganondorf. No projectiles, no approach, strong but ridiculously slow, easy to combo, dies much earlier than his very high endurance should determine. Can never seem to get in on projectile spam, but if he does he will wreck you.

I hate the Speed v.s Power in fighting games. Power characters are OP at beginner levels because of scrub mentality causing no projectile spam or keeepwaway. Faster characters are better at a pro level because they cna actually land hits and get in. Projectiles just make it worse, the Characters without projectiles in any fighting game should be faster, or have a way of beating projectiles. Sonic is the perfect example of this (Not Yoshi. T. Yoshisaur MunchaKoopas is the example of a fighting game's BW Kyu-B. No weaknesses, so beating it makes you usually the better player), and as a result he's very good.

This sums up my playstyle in a way. I prefer fast characters to powerful characters in fighting games.

 

[Stef0w]

Machamp has the most HP, but he's pretty much SSBB Ganondorf. No projectiles, no approach, strong but ridiculously slow, easy to combo, dies much earlier than his very high endurance should determine. Can never seem to get in on projectile spam, but if he does he will wreck you.

I hate the Speed v.s Power in fighting games. Power characters are OP at beginner levels because of scrub mentality causing no projectile spam or keeepwaway. Faster characters are better at a pro level because they cna actually land hits and get in. Projectiles just make it worse, the Characters without projectiles in any fighting game should be faster, or have a way of beating projectiles. Sonic is the perfect example of this (Not Yoshi. T. Yoshisaur MunchaKoopas is the example of a fighting game's BW Kyu-B. No weaknesses, so beating it makes you usually the better player), and as a result he's very good.

Yeah, machamp does seem damn awful judging from his match against suicune, since he essentially got blown up before even being able to enter the fight. Lucario looked to be at the top of the pack tho, fast projectiles, good attacks, and better range than pikachu, who seems to be the second-best character right now.

 

[Sweetstack]

It's cool that there are Pokemon making cameos in the background of the stages. The ones I've spotted so far from each stage:

Chrom Town: Pidgey, Swanna, Heracross, Jumpluff, Miltank, Gible, Sawsbuck? Volcarona?, and another pokemon (that I can't quite make out) that looks like it's being chased by possibly Volcarona

Phos Volcano: Torkoal, Carbink, Slugma, Magcargo, Archeops, and a pokemon I coudn't make out that flew by near the entrance

 

[noobcubed]

Am I the only one here who is kind of irked that everyone's immediate response to this footage is to try and second-guess which characters are the best rather than to judge how the game itself is shaping up?

I guess you could argue that competitive balance makes-or-breaks a fighting game. Still I would argue at this stage in development characters' capabilities can and will be tweaked, and so it's way too early to be making judgements.

 

[Sweetstack]

The good thing about it going to arcades first is that any broken aspect that is found by the players can be fixed/removed through updates before a possible console release. Plus, the latest installment of the fighting series Harada is known for (Tekken) is pretty balanced. There are higher tiered and lower tiered characters but the gap wasn't that big.

 

[noobcubed]

I hate the Speed v.s Power in fighting games. Power characters are OP at beginner levels because of scrub mentality causing no projectile spam or keeepwaway. Faster characters are better at a pro level because they cna actually land hits and get in. Projectiles just make it worse, the Characters without projectiles in any fighting game should be faster, or have a way of beating projectiles. Sonic is the perfect example of this (Not Yoshi. T. Yoshisaur MunchaKoopas is the example of a fighting game's BW Kyu-B. No weaknesses, so beating it makes you usually the better player), and as a result he's very good.

Don't you think this is deliberate? If all of the characters were really hard to use well it would be pretty difficult for beginners to get into the game. This way you can have beginners slugging away at each other with the unpolished wrecking balls, while skilled players can dance around each other with the more refined characters. They are designed for different purposes. Is Super Smash Brothers any worse because none of the "For Glory" players use Ganondorf? No, even if you are one of those people who assigns far more value to beating someone else at a virtual contest in a virtual world than is objectively reasonable (and, by the way, we live in a world where success in some of these virtual contests translates into tangible, concrete, non-virtual money), then it makes no difference to you that Ganondorf is there, because you will never be using Ganondorf or playing against him. But it's still a good thing for the scrub that wants to play him when playing against other scrubs.

/rant over.

 

[DHR-107]

Here are the other renders for Pikachu and Gardevoir. Both look pretty awesome to be fair. Pikachu looks a bit "long" like other people have said. I'm really happy with the art direction they've taken with this game so far.

 

[Thund91]

I'm frackin loving this.

I hope Infernape makes it in.

Honestly not liking the overall choices, though. I know that Blaziken and Lucario are super popular and are fighting-types, but I feel like other Pokemon never get a chance to gain some attention.

I guess that's how you feel when your favorite Pokemon is Persian. It's never in anything.

 

[warriorman222]

Don't you think this is deliberate? If all of the characters were really hard to use well it would be pretty difficult for beginners to get into the game. This way you can have beginners slugging away at each other with the unpolished wrecking balls, while skilled players can dance around each other with the more refined characters. They are designed for different purposes. Is Super Smash Brothers any worse because none of the "For Glory" players use Ganondorf? No, even if you are one of those people who assigns far more value to beating someone else at a virtual contest in a virtual world than is objectively reasonable (and, by the way, we live in a world where success in some of these virtual contests translates into tangible, concrete, non-virtual money), then it makes no difference to you that Ganondorf is there, because you will never be using Ganondorf or playing against him. But it's still a good thing for the scrub that wants to play him when playing against other scrubs.

/rant over.

Except all the characters are generally easy to use. I don't mean that fast chars are pro, I mean that at pro levels Ganon is shit, and at beginner levels Ike is more broken than MK because range, power, and nobody knows how to dodge. But look at FG, Sonic Spin Dash spammers are everywhere, he's the fastest character, top tier, yet he's bigger noob bait than Little Mac. I mean that in every fighting game, stronger characters cannot get in, and therefore aside form lucky exceptions( Snake with nades, Sentinal A/S with brokenness, and Wario with aerial traction and speed), they suck at that higher level of play.

Worst part is, Smash is the one fighting game where huge hitboxes ar eso much better. But Sakurai is balancing the game around 1v1 and FFA, so eevn the bad characters are getting nerfed, and none of the heavies got buffed (in fact Bowser go the dumbest nerf in FG history, making you lose the game or a stock while letting the enemy recover safely, for landing a hard read. Ok wtf why not a tie?)

 

[Sweetstack]

Eevee and Frogadier have been added as support Pokemon: http://www.pokkentournament.jp/pdf/pokken_system.pdf

New Stage:

More Screenshots at test locations: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/01/30/84618.html

 

[jireh the provider]

Eevee and Frogadier have been added as support Pokemon:

New Stage:

More Screenshots at test locations: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/01/30/84618.html

I spot a Lugia watching the fight. From the design of the arena, a part of me sees it as a man made version of Manaphy's sea temple. So, any ideas as to what support pokemon could be added for the main fighters?

 

[Retro64]

For anyone still wondering how the game plays (probably everyone), Gematsu did an in depth write up on the gameplay.

http://gematsu.com/2015/02/pokken-tournament-location-test-gameplay-report

 

[Sweetstack]

 

[lucariomaster2]

Pokken Tournament is looking pretty darn sweet, I must say. The models look amazing for the most part (my only complaint is that Suicune's eyes are too cartoony), and I am intrigued by the gameplay. In particular, as an avid SSB player (though I'd get my ass kicked in competition), I'm excited that the controls will be similar because it will be easy for me to pick up and play, while it is still a new game with new mechanics. I can't really think of anything bad to say about it at this time.

Wait, it has my two favourite Pokemon, Lucario and Suicune? I swear, if Japan hogs this one for themselves...

 

[Karxrida]

The current Japanese release is just a test run, right? So when it's officially released we'll have more characters? Like Bisharp our lord and savoir Gen V and VI mons?