Pokemon Black & White, aka Gen 5. Coming to Japan in Fall 2010.

[Galactic Boss Cyrus]

Earlier today I started wondering if by changing core mechanics and workings of the game, they could mean using a capture method other than Poke Balls...

Basically, here's how the generations went:

1- Starting everything off
2- Expanding to what didn't get included
3- Putting strategy into the game
4- Making it stable

So, for Gen 5 perhaps Game Freak is going to want to flip battling upside down and change it all around. I've seen that happen with a lot of series. When it seems like there's nothing left to improve, everything gets changed and it often isn't well accepted or as good.

 

[Nintenfreak]

It could have something to do with how the story progresses. Which, honestly, I think I'd prefer over a rehaul which may make the older games obsolete. I've had my Swampert for seven years now, an I couldn't imagine playing without it in my party.

Of course if they do I'll get over it just as easily. It would still be annoying.

 

[Stellar]

I asked Aldaron what mechanics he thought might be added in the next generation and he said "more advanced terrain mechanics". I think this would be a pretty cool idea. It reminded me of terrain effects in the Megaman Battle Network series. There could exist different moves that change the terrain (such as Grass Stage, Water stage, Desert stage, etc.). Each of these fields could have varying effects on Pokemon of different types. Grass types could recover 6% HP each turn when on a Grass stage, Fire attacks would do double damage to opponents on a Grass stage but the stage would revert to normal after the attack because the Grass would be burnt, etc.

I realize I didn't develop it very much, but I think it would be a pretty cool addition. It might allow for new 'team styles' to develop based around terrains.

 

[haunter]

I hope none of those gets implemented. It would be extemely difficult to replicate those mechanics in a simulator and what about WiFi battles? If they were all stuck in "buildings" like they currently are, then these new mechanics would bring no innovation to the competitive aspect of the game.

 

[Stellar]

I'm guessing you missed the part of my post where I suggested moves that could change the terrain, much like Rain Dance or Sunny Day. Also, I highly doubt that Nintendo takes the difficulty of simulator replication into account during their design process.

 

[Nintenfreak]

Never seen the Pokemon Cartoon or Super Smash Brothers, have you Haunter? Simply put, the terrain could be changed for each battle in battle arenas by giant machines that you never really see, but are still relevant.

 

[haunter]

In fact I don't doubt about Nintendo's non interest into battle simulators, and my bad, I missed the "moves" part.

 

[Nintenfreak]

It wouldn't be a battle simulator. That's more like the Battle CDs in Pokemon XD. It'd be so that you entered a room with a particular terrain before you battled or they give you an animation of the terrain changing outside of battle.

In fact, you could even do a system like Mario Kart where each player votes for a particular terrain.

 

[Stellar]

Haunter was referring to the difficulty of implementing those mechanics into a non-official battle simulator like Shoddy Battle.

 

[supermarth64]

stellar, are you sure aldaron wasn't just talking about Megaman? :P

 

[Stellar]

I made all the Megaman references haha. Aldaron just said 'terrain mechanics'.

 

[T-major]

Alright, it seems most people either love the idea of hybrids, or despise it with a fury of a thousand suns. I get that. But Spiky-Eared Pichu got me to thinking.

1. What if Pokemon could have offspring that look like their parents to some degree? Maybe there's something special you have to do, but the offspring get special egg moves that neither parents have, like Spiky-Eared Pichu's Pain Split.

2. What if some of these special egg Pokemon had an alternate evolution path. I'm reminded how Cyndaquil was originally Honooguma, which looked like a Raichu on fire. Say they wanted to put that in the game somehow, so Pikachu Family mates with a Cyndaquil Family, and the resulting Pichu has burners on its back and can evolve into a completely different Pokemon instead of Raichu.

Would that be more acceptable than strict hybrids?

1 sounds like it could work.

2 is horrible and shouldn't see the light of day, ever. by the way, 2 is what a strict hybrid is; the direct combining of two Pokemon (Pikachu and Cyndaquil) and making some lame, unoriginal mash up of the two; basically making a sprite splice that the fandom does for fun already. yeah, it's cool if it's done well, but it should stay out of the games. and I don't care if they evolve into new different Pokemon. if they're going to be new anyways, just make them new Pokemon that you can catch...

 

[Camara]

I wouldn't like hybrids.
But the bug discuss raised something interesting in my mind: what about to distinguish primary and secondary types? I have no good idea to implement it, but it would give more fun and complexity.

 

[Javier5109]

is it just me or does that pokemon look like fire and dark......
bet its gonna know close combat

 

[cantab]

Looks more pure dark to me. If the red's making you think fire - fire would be a brighter, more orangey shade in most cases I think. The colours of Zoroark are actually quite similar to Darkrai's.

 

[Navykid]

Im wondering would take advantage of the DS microphone and implement a way for players to say moves during a battle verbally as they do in the anime.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Im wondering would take advantage of the DS microphone and implement a way for players to say moves during a battle verbally as they do in the anime.

That would suck. Imagine trying to battle in a public place. "SALAMENCE, DRACO METEOR!!! ....sorry everyone."

 

[Lou Cypher]

Heres a thought that I havent seen yet, what if Zoroark is Dark/PSYCHIC? If you think about it, Psychics are generally good at creating illusions, so it would fit Zoroark flavor-wise. Now before you say its a horrible typing to have, lets look at the pros and cons.
- Loses Dark's Fighting Weakness
- Has no weakness to Dark or Ghost like it would usually have
- Would end up with one X4 weakness - Bug
On the offensive side, Psychic would give Zoroark a secondary STAB to deal with Fighting types intending to crash his fun, and if he also has a fighting move, that would be all he needs.

The only true downsides would be that he wouldnt have many resists. In fact, would he even HAVE a resist? o.O

 

[Stylish Interval]

Immune to Psychic, but that's it.

 

[cantab]

I'm pretty sure he'll be pure Dark. Though I agree that Dark/Psychic could be a good typing. Depends on defenses really. With no resists, you either need to have the bulk to take a neutral hit, or be so frail that even if you did have resists you'd be KOed anyway.
I guess the presence of a strong Dark/Psychic would increase the use of bug attacks. It wouldn't like U-turn, and you might find more Scizor using other bug moves. If it was a dominant force like Scizor is now, then stuff would carry HP Bug just to deal with Dark/Psychic. And HP Bug, unlike Fire (that stuff carries for hitting Scizor), lets you run max speed.

 

[Kristy Haruka]

Well fuck you got us. But even then, Bug was a secondary typing, not primary.

D: I forgot about Skorupi -> Drapion.

I also forgot Swablu -> Altaria, which actually changes its primary typing. I guess they can do anything, its just not very common for a complete switchover through evolutions.

 

[CCM30]

Maybe Bug and Poison should be given many another resist or another advantage over another type. So people would actually something other than U-Turn or Toxic.

 

[Zuki]

D: I forgot about Skorupi -> Drapion.

I also forgot Swablu -> Altaria, which actually changes its primary typing. I guess they can do anything, its just not very common for a complete switchover through evolutions.

Swablu -> Altaria makes sense if you look at the flying type carefully and why there is no "pure" flying type. Swablu, a small cloud, could be considered a Normal pokemon and it also Flies. When it evolves, it gets Dragon like characteristics and it also Flies.

 

[Kristy Haruka]

Swablu -> Altaria makes sense if you look at the flying type carefully and why there is no "pure" flying type. Swablu, a small cloud, could be considered a Normal pokemon and it also Flies. When it evolves, it gets Dragon like characteristics and it also Flies.

What Dragon type characteristics? :P

But you're right. ^_^ I wonder why its so horrible to have a pure Flying type that isn't Arceus (who doesn't count, anyway)? I remember when we all thought Chatot would be the first pure Flyer...

 

[chaos 9]

I was under the impression that a pure flyer would be hard to implement because when it uses roost it would have no type :0. The best work arounds for that that I can fathom is making a new type: no type. No type pokemon could either be just neutural to everything, or could be their own cool new type that's immune to normal or somthing crazy like that.

Just my two cents on an interesting topic