tbf anime lusamine and usum lusamine are not nearly that close. anime lusamine is much... nicer ig? the anime is more interested in the nihilego interactions and her memory loss-weird redemption arc. usum leaves that open ended as we dont actually see lusamine being a better person and rather just being lucid enough to seek a path of recovery with lillie
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tbf anime lusamine and usum lusamine are not nearly that close. anime lusamine is much... nicer ig? the anime is more interested in the nihilego interactions and her memory loss-weird redemption arc. usum leaves that open ended as we dont actually see lusamine being a better person and rather just being lucid enough to seek a path of recovery with lillie
I don't treat the Legends games as core series games. Yes, the Hisui additions did make their way into Scarlet/Violet, but Legends: Arceus (and thus the upcoming Legends: Z-A) are much starkly different from the rest of their ilk, particularly in how battling works, that the experience I have in most other Pokémon games with the traditional battle system doesn't translate well to games like them.
If introducing a new species of Pokemon classified a game as main series, Pokemon GO would be a main series game due to Meltan.
I’m gonna push back on this a bit because while Platinum makes it clear that he’s just conning Team Galactic, it’s not in the sense that he doesn’t genuinely believe in what he says — he’s conning them in the sense that he’s allowing them think they will have any part in the world he plans to create, because allowing them to believe that makes them useful to him. But he still scales Mount Coronet to summon and shackle the gods to do his bidding to remake the world.
If anything, I’d say his ideology is more genuine in Platinum. Not that I have a problem with genocidal ideologues being revealed to be short-sighted hypocritical morons (hell, my favorite Pokémon villain is Lysandre largely for that reason), but I think it makes sense that Cyrus is so convinced of his unique perspective of the fundamentally flawed human spirit that the only person he trusts to remain truly committed to enlightened stoicism for eternity is himself, rather than himself and the bowlcut army.
Nope.
He even devolves into a cliche sputtering rant after his defeat in Platinum but not in DP. He's just straight-up less authentic in that game.
Honestly I think it's better that way. He hasn't given up, but even though he wants a world without spirit and claims to be an embodiment of what that is, in actuality he's not. When things end in a way that make it clear that his plan can't work, he breaks down in anger and futile, useless emotion.
It's because part of the message of the game is that the pieces that make up "spirit" are essential parts of all living things, including humanity. And even if Cyrus tries to pretend otherwise, he's still just human. He was never right.
And literally all of this worked better when it was understated and merely implied in the first version of the game, rather than beaten over the player's head.
And despite Platinum being as subtle as a brick about that, it somehow missed the opportunity to point out that the Distortion World basically is the perfect strife-free domain that Cyrus is looking for, so he may as well just chill in there for the rest of his days.
A sputtering rant in which he vents his frustration and is self-aware enough to acknowledge that he himself is an inescapably flawed being according to his own ideals. If spirit is a fundamental component of the universe, which is why he wishes to dismantle the universe as it is, then he himself must have an inherently flawed spirit as well, and he blames his outburst on this fact:
“Silence! Enough of your blathering! That's how you justify spirit as something worthwhile?! That is merely humans hoping, deluding themselves that they are happy and safe! The emotions roiling inside me... Rage, hatred, frustration... These ugly emotions arise because of my own incomplete spirit! ...Enough. We will never see eye to eye. This, I promise you. I will break the secrets of the world. With that knowledge, I will create my own complete and perfect world. One day, you will awaken to a world of my creation. A world without spirit.”
This is a guy who is deeply hurt and dissatisfied with himself, but who identifies the cause of that dissatisfaction as something external that can simply be cut out of the equation, and so he strives to do exactly that in order to obtain a kind of inner peace. Until then, he tries to act like an emotionless machine because intentionally numbing himself hurts less than feeling what he really feels, but when pushed to the edge, those repressed feelings all come spewing out. In other words, he is a flawed person with actual, human responses to the world and to his own complex emotions. It’s not just that he truly believes in his ideology, but that he has an actual reason for believing in his ideology, that makes him a more fully realized and “authentic” character than DP Cyrus, who believes that that the human spirit is weak and incomplete because… idk he just does?
The thing is, even True Believers don’t believe in the things they do purely because it sounds good to them. They are people with their own desires, flaws, emotional responses, idiosyncrasies, experiences, relationships, and exposure to ideas and morals, all of which inform the choices they make to believe in what they do. DP Cyrus doesn’t have any of that, though, so literally all he is capable of doing is spouting impersonal, broad, baseless ideology. Nothing is ever really implied about him as a person; his personal perspective is so inscrutible in DP that he may as well be seeking to remake the world so that the sky is green instead of blue because he thinks that the sky being blue is why people can’t get along. Where does his belief actually come from? That’s the aspect that only Platinum takes time to address.
In addition to what has already been said: it's just really fun and satisfying to see supposedly stoic villains experience a massive crashout when their plans fall apart. They can no longer maintain the facade so the mask falls off and you get to see what they truly are: pathetic.
Just because it's cliché doesn't mean it's bad.
Just because it's cliché doesn't mean it's bad.
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One of the animated shorts implies just that.
That son of a gun actually got exactly what he wanted, but not in the way he wanted it.
Funny, I was just thinking about this because of a different game this morning.
A well-executed classic standard is something to be praised, not discarded.
It's just like food. You can go for perfect execution on traditional breakfast recipes, or you can be a pretentious prick and mix coffee with orange juice because of some artsy platitude like "This blend showcases the bitterness of the working adult as they must leave the comfort of their home to work, but also the sweetness of living to see one more day".
Sure, it's a beautiful sentiment, but once you drink that shit, you're going to think otherwise hella quick.
Of course, Cyrus should be mad at the player (and Giratina) running his pockets and foiling his plans right when he's supposed to have his new world at his fingertips. Who wouldn't? It wouldn't even be believable otherwise.
Anime Lusamine just flat out isn't a villain, even in the "well-intention-ed extremist" way that USUM tries to frame her behavior for the new Necrozma conflict. By all accounts she's not in the vein of Cyrus or Lysandre being reinterpretations for the same role, she's an outright different character meant to fill a different niche and with all her behaviors and actions rewritten in turn. Most tellingly, Lusamine does not WANT to leave things behind for Ultra Space, she is abducted as a result of protecting Lillie and recognizing that her (much less harsh and clearly unintentional in its wrongs) parenting has hurt her children. Compared to the ambiguity of the 3DS games, all of Lusamine's distinctly immoral behavior is laid on the Nihilego toxins influencing her brain, as she does not display behavior in line with it before or after the Mother Beast incident. Compare how Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre all very clearly share the same outline of "I am going to use my organization to capture a Legendary Pokemon and then forcibly bend/destroy the world and society to my desires" whether it's Palkia, Dialga, N's Zekrom/Reshiram, Kyurem, Xerneas/Yveltal, or Zygarde.
The reason people dislike USUM Lusamine is because she simply doesn't make any sense in the role she's now given. By most indications, she shares the same history of being an overly stifling mother, Lillie still has her Nihilego-esque outfit that was an expression of that control in Lusamine, Gladion being effectively disowned for freeing an abused Lab Animal, freezing a bunch of the Aether Paradise Pokemon,and working with a gang to kidnap her own kid for a plan that could potentially kill Nebby. Where SM framed all these as villainous actions that she was off her rocker for not recognizing as wrong, USUM puts her in a position of knowing what she's doing but doing it anyway to the point some actions don't make any sense andflat out don't forward her goals (Nihilego has nothing to do with the Necrozma conflict compared to her general UB obsession and it being the first live sighting in the plot). Anime Lusamine seems reasonably popular for what she is among the anime fandom, which tells me USUM's issue is not that she's different, but that she's terribly written: Pokemon antagonists are frequently straightforward, but rarely are they contradictory in their actions vs their goals.
I'm not sure how hot some of these takes are but here are mine:
1) in terms of design grass is the best type
2) Cynthia is not that hard (peak music tho)
3) Stall is super fun and engaging with a very high skill celling
4) Power creep is a good thing
5) Gen 5 OU is actually pretty fun
6) I like the design of the elemental monkeys (especially Simipour)
1) in terms of design grass is the best type
2) Cynthia is not that hard (peak music tho)
3) Stall is super fun and engaging with a very high skill celling
4) Power creep is a good thing
5) Gen 5 OU is actually pretty fun
6) I like the design of the elemental monkeys (especially Simipour)
Simipour is awesome.
1) Idk, some grasses are peak but tbf, every type design is usually good.
2) Unless its BDSP, yeah
3) Actually agree, feels like chess.
4) To an extent it can be, but it can also not be. Its not really a truly good or bad thing.
5) subjective, I like parts of it casually but trying to tryhard it just sounds hard
6) Eh, they are fine. Not the worst, but honestly, not really amazing
I forever cry that we didn't get Beta Chungus Simisear. Could have distinguished them a bit more and is just a way better design, plus put more stats into HP and decide if it's a Physical or Special Attacker instead of this unworkable Hybrid.
Mixed attackers have been in the toilet ever since Gen 3 implemented EVs instead of allowing for max stats like the first two gens.
The game has never recovered.
Strong agree.
Hmmm…it changed. But we are now looking at the same basic system being in place since Ruby/Sapphire, with just the mild change of physical/special split arguably making things more balanced.
Uh, no?
Like, yeah, some mixed attackers have been dogshit. But there have been pretty good examples of mixed attackers.
Infernape has been pretty good across most gens (besides gen 9).
Lucario was decent for a bit, fell off but it still can go mixed.
Iron Valiant is a recent example of a good mixed attacker, yes its got really amazing stats, but still an example.
Honchkrow uses its special attack to use stuff like Heat Wave (yes, it fell off hard this gen, but before then it was commonly around UUBL-RU ranking)
Houndoom I would consider a mixed attacker (it commonly used mixed sets) and its been used in most higher tiers.
Garchomp or some others you could use as mixed attacker examples since they did use both physical and special moves.
Blaziken commonly can use special attacks such as Overheat if it really wants to.
Toxicroak goes both physical and special, and that mon has done well despite its mediocre stats.
This is just a few. The thing is, mixed attackers are just not that common anymore. Gamefreak have been making less. Sure, there are pretty shitty mixed attackers (cacturne and to a lesser extent samurott), but its just like everything.
Also idk about the game has never recovered part btw. EVs are neither a downgrade or an upgrade, they are simply a sidegrade that changes the game. Some things benefit from it, some things don't.
The main thing people refer to as "mixed attackers are not viable" is that realistically speaking, even when a Pokemon has about even offensive stats, they don't use both.
Even things like Iron Valiant don't usually use both stats at once. Either they're full special with CM or Specs, or full physical, with the only real variation is occasionally throwing CC on the special set or Moonblast on the phys one to fish a KO on unsuspecting opponent (and they would much rather run Play Rough or the nonexistant good special fighting coverage anyway if they had those). And in VGC even less of a reason to run mixed since you don't have the option to fish for surprise KOs due to open team sheet.
The fact EVs exist and are limited mean you're generally encouraged to only invest in a single stat even if you have two viable ones, and the situations where the other is used are more related to matchup fishing or catching very specific threats that will be hit much harder than the main options because the movepool is just not good enough. Es, Garchomp doesn't run Flamethrower/Fireblast because it's a special attacker, it does cause the alternative is running Fire Fang which is SO BAD the uninvested special stat will hit harder.
What people expect off a so called "mixed attacker" is that they'd actually use both their stats as main purpose like some pokemon did in gen 1 and 2, but with how minmaxed Pokemon have become, that's just not a thing. Pretty much any pokemon who has mixed offenses would much rather have a single high stat and not have BST wasted in a stat they can't fully use.
I do not want Pokemon games to be harder.
I was replaying PLA and got to Arceus and got defeated 8 TIMES by it, and I was ready to break my Switch from the stress.
I play Pokemon to relax, not to be a tryhard. It's why I rarely play ROM Hacks, they are too just difficult for me. Plus I hate grinding, I prefer to PLAY THE GAME, not waste time leveling my team up.
I was replaying PLA and got to Arceus and got defeated 8 TIMES by it, and I was ready to break my Switch from the stress.
I play Pokemon to relax, not to be a tryhard. It's why I rarely play ROM Hacks, they are too just difficult for me. Plus I hate grinding, I prefer to PLAY THE GAME, not waste time leveling my team up.
It’s why the “set” option on the early games was so important, it gave choice that made the game artificially harder. Most of us gen wunners definitely played “set” for a lot of our lives!
Turning on the exp share or not is also an example of that helpful option for making the game easier/harder/etc.
What do you think is the worst in-game Pokemon of all time, counting any game that uses battling as its main mechanic? GSC Ledian? RBY Onix? EoS Phanpy? Whatever you think it is, you're probably wrong. Any Pokemon that has access to Struggle is leagues better than what I consider to be the worst in-game Pokemon in the entire franchise: Pokemon Conquest Musharna.
This is a Pokemon that uses Dream Eater as its only attack. It exists in a game where:
-there is a strict turn limit and 99% of the time, you lose when it hits 0
-slow Pokemon suffer an accuracy penalty, and Musharna is literally the 2nd slowest fully evolved Pokemon in the game
-any attack can potentially wake up a sleeping target, including Dream Eater
-most good units hit multiple tiles. Dream Eater is single target
-every Pokemon is a mono-attacker and it happens to be gen 5 so there are Dark-types everywhere. Also the most common Fighting-type family is part Dark, lol fuck you
-Struggle does not exist
The intended gameplay was that Musharna could send enemies to sleep with its ability, which has a certain chance to inflict sleep on a random nearby enemy each turn. And by a certain chance, I mean 10%. Or... you could bring its pre-evolved form Munna as a backup sleeper, except it's even slower than you, and it's using Hypnosis with base 60% accuracy that will be multiplied by whatever penalty it suffers from being that slow yeah you're not gonna do this.
In summary: you have a 10% chance to put an random nearby enemy to sleep, allowing you to use your only damaging move which does mediocre damage, has horrible accuracy, and might wake up the target immediately. This Pokemon is so bad that it is hysterically funny and nothing from the main series can remotely compare
This is a Pokemon that uses Dream Eater as its only attack. It exists in a game where:
-there is a strict turn limit and 99% of the time, you lose when it hits 0
-slow Pokemon suffer an accuracy penalty, and Musharna is literally the 2nd slowest fully evolved Pokemon in the game
-any attack can potentially wake up a sleeping target, including Dream Eater
-most good units hit multiple tiles. Dream Eater is single target
-every Pokemon is a mono-attacker and it happens to be gen 5 so there are Dark-types everywhere. Also the most common Fighting-type family is part Dark, lol fuck you
-Struggle does not exist
The intended gameplay was that Musharna could send enemies to sleep with its ability, which has a certain chance to inflict sleep on a random nearby enemy each turn. And by a certain chance, I mean 10%. Or... you could bring its pre-evolved form Munna as a backup sleeper, except it's even slower than you, and it's using Hypnosis with base 60% accuracy that will be multiplied by whatever penalty it suffers from being that slow yeah you're not gonna do this.
In summary: you have a 10% chance to put an random nearby enemy to sleep, allowing you to use your only damaging move which does mediocre damage, has horrible accuracy, and might wake up the target immediately. This Pokemon is so bad that it is hysterically funny and nothing from the main series can remotely compare
Thats an easy one. Unown in FRLG. Post-game, underleveled, bad type, bad stats, just one move. No matter how bad or hard to use things like Sunflora, Ditto, Wobba, Smeargle, or Ledian are, nothing compares to FRLG Unown. In other games its still Unown when present, but at least in GSC for example it comes early and you could get one with HP Rock or something
Pretty much. Lucario would have all the tools to go fully mixed, but on the other hand, why would it? Investing in a single stat allows it to hit much harder and frees up a slot for utility moves like Agility, Nasty Plot, SD...
And let's not forget the ever-present design of the slow, frail mixed attacker.
Note to any aspiring romhacker that might be reading this thread.
If your game requires grinding, you fucked up.
The thing about difficulty is that a lot of people overcorrect. Let's take SwSh's 5th Gym Leader for example. This is her lead, a Galarian Weezing.
When people overcorrect, they give it something like this:
That's where people have problems. There's a scale between "This lady has a Lv. 36 TACKLE Weezing with only three moves, and its strongest move is Sludge. Also, she gives you free stat boosts." and "This is a standard Smogon set. Just import it into PKNX."
Most people don't want to fucking EV grind and breed perfect IVs just to beat the game, that's stupid. But let's be real: is it really too much to ask for at least reasonable moves for its level and the players' options in Sword and Shield of all games?
I still maintain that Emerald Tate and Liza are the gold standard for good boss design in this franchise, and that game didn't even support EVs for non-Frontier trainers.
