SPOILERS! Mysteries and Conspiracies of Pokemon

Going off something brought up in another thread by adman2, why are the Natures named the way they are? Some notable ones:

Hardy (robust; capable of enduring difficult conditions) = Neutral Nature
Lonely (sad because one has no friends or company) = +Atk, -Def
Bold (showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous) = +Def, -Atk
Impish (inclined to do slightly naughty things for fun; mischievous) = +Def, -SpA
Jolly (happy and cheerful) = +Spd, -SpA
Modest (unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one's abilities or achievements) = +SpA, -Atk
Mild (gentle and not easily provoked) = +SpA, -Def
Bashful (reluctant to draw attention to oneself; shy) = Neutral Nature
Quiet (making little or no noise) = +SpA, -Spd
Sassy (lively, bold, and full of spirit; cheeky) = +SpD, -Spd
Quirky (characterized by peculiar or unexpected traits) = Neutral Nature

Not to mention some Natures are words that mean the same thing though can have very different if no opposite stat modifications:

Brave (+Atk, -Spd), Bold (+Def, -Atk)
Naughty (+Atk, -SpD), Impish (+Def, -SpA)
Relaxed (+Def, -Spd), Lax (+Def, -SpD), Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
Timid (+Spd, -Atk), Bashful (Neutral Nature)
Hasty (+Spd, -Def), Rash (+SpA, -SpD)
Mild (+Spa, -Def), Gentle (+SpD, -Def)

Now granted, we have some which fit their modification, but that's like only half of them. Feels like they just made a list of personalities and randomly assigned modifications to them.
 
Not to mention some Natures are words that mean the same thing though can have very different if no opposite stat modifications:

Brave (+Atk, -Spd), Bold (+Def, -Atk)

Surprisingly enough, there is a difference between being bold and being brave. Being Bold doesn't implies risk but doesn't imply danger, whereas Bravery means standing in the face of fear. The difference probably translates as to why Bold Pokemon have higher defence and lower attack. Bold pokemon, as the pokemon description, are willing to take risk which is why they have high defence, allowing them to take those risks. They are confident which it lowers attack. You can spin the same thing for Brave, but I have no clue about the dropping Special Defense part
 
Brave Drops speed, not special defense. I can understand the confusion though, with the way it was formatted in the post (Spd means Speed and SpD means Special Defense).

I have no clue how else to shorten Special Attack and Special Defense to three or less letters. I guess I could just do SA and SD.
 
Going, going, Gorochu!
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A recent interview with designer Atsuko Nishida for the Japanese media source Yomiuri revealed the secret origins of everyone's beloved yellow electric rodent, Pikachu.

And besides an enlightening look at the design process, we also learned that Raichu was meant to have another evolution, the fanged and horned Gorochu, probably based on Japanese legends of Oni and Raijin. Artist depection of the unknown Gorochu seen above (not official artwork).

You can read the full interview here:

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/0...olution-called-gorochu-large-fangs-two-horns/
 
Going, going, Gorochu!
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A recent interview with designer Atsuko Nishida for the Japanese media source Yomiuri revealed the secret origins of everyone's beloved yellow electric rodent, Pikachu.

And besides an enlightening look at the design process, we also learned that Raichu was meant to have another evolution, the fanged and horned Gorochu, probably based on Japanese legends of Oni and Raijin. Artist depection of the unknown Gorochu seen above (not official artwork).

You can read the full interview here:

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/05/0...olution-called-gorochu-large-fangs-two-horns/

A quick summary for anyone who don't want to read the whole thing:

1. Originally the game only had "tough" monster designs, but the development team also suggested adding "cute" monsters in too. However, with the three main designers being male, they decided to hire a woman designer to make some cute monsters: Atsuko Nishida.
2. She was requested to an Electric-type with two evolution stages. She made a creature using pixel art (sadly lost to time) that looked like a daifuku with ears. You couldn't distinguish which was the head or body. It didn't have its famous cheek pouches but it did have the dark ear tips.
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(A random image of what possibly the proto-Pikachu looked like)
3. Nishida named it "Pikachu". "Pika" part was obvious, but she didn't quite remember why she added the "chu" part. But that eventually was the reason the design was changed to look more like a mouse.
4. Koji Nishino (famous for being the inspiration for Snorlax) was the one who asked Nishida to make Pikachu "cuter", he did it several times to the point it frustrated Nishida. But didn't take long for Pikachu to come into form.
5. Despite being the "electric mouse", a lot of Pikachu's design are taken from squirrels. Nishida was into squirrels at the time. Squirrels stored nuts in their cheeks so Pikachu stored electricity in its cheek (to give a visual representation it was charging up). Squirrels have fluffy tails so Pikachu has a long and wide tail (made into a zigzag to look like a lightning bolt). The back stripes were added since you saw a Pokemon's back while battling and its back looked "lonely" without anything on it.
6. Pikachu's low encounter rate was due to Koji Nishino liking it so much he sort of wanted to hide it so not many players used it. The low rarity only made players wanted it more so the plan backfired.
7. Since the Game Boy didn't have color, they focused on making Pikachu's simple to understand via its round shape and "color" balance. It wasn't until the Super Famicon's "Super Game Boy" adapter was released that Pikachu was given it's body color (yellow because that's the color associated with electricity).
8. As mentioned above, Pikachu had a 2nd stage: Gorochu ("Goru" being the Japanese sound for thunder). Had fangs and horns but was removed due to game balance.
9. When the number of Pokemon was coming together they had a poll for the most popular Pokemon and apparently Pikachu was the most popular.
10. Sugimori never expected to hear Pikachu say its name in the anime (though the same is probably true for all the Pokemon which say their name). But when they heard Pikachu's voice actresses, Ikue Otani, performance she immediately had their approval.
11. They're surprise to see Pikachu's popularity around the world, thinking its cuteness was "jut for Japanese".
12. To Nishida, Pikachu is a "one and only". FUN FACT: While Nishida worked on a batch of other Pokemon (notably the Eeveelutions), she never worked on any of the other Pikaclones, though she did help with Alolan Raichu (it was the only Gen VII Pokemon she was known to have worked on). Though, she did design Munna and Minccino so maybe Pikachu may not be as "one and only" as she says.
13. Clefairy was Sugimori's attempt at a "cute" Pokemon.

There was also something about Pokemon GO:

Originally we were making it into a simple game that can be played by a broad age group of players, but it’s true that it is difficult to reach people who don’t play video games or own any gaming devices. I thought that it was amazing that thanks to Pokémon GO we were even able to reach people in middle school and high school. It was surprising, even to us. I believe it was able to reach so many people thanks to the simple characters and how easy it is to grasp.

... So this is telling. First off, they were surprised it was able to reach people in middle school and high school? You mean that wasn't the age demographic they were aiming for? Also, simple characters? It was popular because it was Pokemon and used the Gen I Pokemon. GF, you can't be that disconnected from the real world, right?

Anyway, Gorochu design for Mega Riachu?
 
GF, you can't be that disconnected from the real world, right?
315111 everybody! we'll be right back with John Hanke, Joshua Wittenkeller and Wanda the Fairy right after this messages



here's an easily overlooked mystery; just how long do pokemon journeys last?
In gen I its ambiguos, we only know we "seemed to have matured" afterwards but it might have been from a few months to a few years looking at Red and Blue's spites, in gen V we go back to living with our mom after our journey (yes even if we become movie stars) so maybe a few months up to a year, and in gen VII it was maybe 3 months at most, we're certainly still 11 at the end of it
 
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... wwwhy
Probably a joke on the developer's part, as you can never catch Kadabra in Yellow. (At least to my knowledge)

I guess an actual explanation would follow along the lines of smart people naturally gravitating to other briliant scholars (i.e Kadabra being attracted to joining you if it sense that there are more of its kind with you)
 
Because Gen I's code is held together by rubber bands, paper clips, and bubble gum. Why does it do it? Because it makes the game happy. Even if GF realized it they probably wouldn't fix it as it's super minor and trying to would make the game throw a hissy fit (aka glitch out, crash, and/or just not work).
I could understand if it was just a weird thing that happened in Gen 1 - but not only is Kadabra the only Pokémon this has ever happened to, it is specific to Yellow and not RGB.
 
I could understand if it was just a weird thing that happened in Gen 1 - but not only is Kadabra the only Pokémon this has ever happened to, it is specific to Yellow and not RGB.
You have to remember that in Red and Blue, there was the Missingno glitch that could be triggered by the old man that was fixed in Yellow.
Presumably, the programmers had to rewrite some of the code in the game for the other wild counters besides Missingno that you could get from this glitch, probably messing up Kadabra in the process. Then the programmers probably left it in as an oversight, or because fixing it would cause more glitches, and because it is rather minor
 
I could understand if it was just a weird thing that happened in Gen 1 - but not only is Kadabra the only Pokémon this has ever happened to, it is specific to Yellow and not RGB.
Is because of Kinesis which you could only get from wild Kadabra and even tough the data for the move is in all games, you can only get wild Kadabra in Yellow, they wanted to show off the move and probably broke something when they actually made it available
 
It occured to me that, in Gen IV lore, Cresselia was supposed to be a mythical being whose influence could repel Darkrai.
Then, why is Cresselia a Psychic-type while Darkrai is a Dark-type?
I get that Cress is "otherworldly" and that's often associated with the Psychic type, and Darkrai is evil (sort of?) and that's the Dark type for you, but still, Darkrai would be able to eat Cress for breakfast in a showdown.

At least they gave Cress Moonblast in Gen VI... at level 99 though. Good luck to any "younger" Cresselias out there...
 
It occured to me that, in Gen IV lore, Cresselia was supposed to be a mythical being whose influence could repel Darkrai.
Then, why is Cresselia a Psychic-type while Darkrai is a Dark-type?
I get that Cress is "otherworldly" and that's often associated with the Psychic type, and Darkrai is evil (sort of?) and that's the Dark type for you, but still, Darkrai would be able to eat Cress for breakfast in a showdown.

At least they gave Cress Moonblast in Gen VI... at level 99 though. Good luck to any "younger" Cresselias out there...

Well, that's far from the only legendary pairing that is blatantly mismatched.

However, I wonder why they didn't make Cresselia a Fairy-type in Gen VI given the extremely strong connections she has to the Moon. All Moon-based moves (bar Cresselia's Lunar Dance) are Fairy-type moves since that generation.
 
Well, that's far from the only legendary pairing that is blatantly mismatched.

However, I wonder why they didn't make Cresselia a Fairy-type in Gen VI given the extremely strong connections she has to the Moon. All Moon-based moves (bar Cresselia's Lunar Dance) are Fairy-type moves since that generation.

Cresselia also seems to provide good dreams in contrary to Darkrai who brings bad dreams and you'd think the nicer, pure-looking Fairy-types would fit the role of a bringer of good dreams in conjunction with Psychic which is also a good match as there is also another Pokemon that is Psychic-type and is connected to dreams: Musharna, but Cresselia I think is so much more fitting of a Fairy-typing also by appearance as well, it looks like a Pokemon that floats around the air majestically providing good dreams in a fairy-like manner.

The moon connection is also a really good point, I think most of us is confused why Cresselia still isn't a Fairy-type because it has many aspects befitting of it, but then again there are a lot of Pokemon that have the same, sad situation.
 
It occured to me that, in Gen IV lore, Cresselia was supposed to be a mythical being whose influence could repel Darkrai.
Then, why is Cresselia a Psychic-type while Darkrai is a Dark-type?
I get that Cress is "otherworldly" and that's often associated with the Psychic type, and Darkrai is evil (sort of?) and that's the Dark type for you, but still, Darkrai would be able to eat Cress for breakfast in a showdown.

At least they gave Cress Moonblast in Gen VI... at level 99 though. Good luck to any "younger" Cresselias out there...
I think we're taking the legend too seriously as they never said that Cresselia could beat up Darkrai, just that it could repel or reverse its bad dream effects.

And looking at it's level-up kit, it gets safeguard, psycho shift, moonlight, and of course it's signature move Lunar Dance, all moves centered around healing or preventing status effects. So Cresselia isn't meant to drive Darkrai away the way Rayquaza for example keeps Groudon and Kyogre in check, it's meant to stop the effects of bad dreams.
 
Cresselia also seems to provide good dreams in contrary to Darkrai who brings bad dreams and you'd think the nicer, pure-looking Fairy-types would fit the role of a bringer of good dreams in conjunction with Psychic which is also a good match as there is also another Pokemon that is Psychic-type and is connected to dreams: Musharna, but Cresselia I think is so much more fitting of a Fairy-typing also by appearance as well, it looks like a Pokemon that floats around the air majestically providing good dreams in a fairy-like manner.

The moon connection is also a really good point, I think most of us is confused why Cresselia still isn't a Fairy-type because it has many aspects befitting of it, but then again there are a lot of Pokemon that have the same, sad situation.
You guys seem to be under the impression that the Fairy type is supposed to be all sweet and pure, but I'm pretty sure that's not necessarily what Game Freak was going for with a good chunk of them. In-game, Cresselia is barely understood more than its bad dream-inducing counterpart Darkrai, almost never appearing before people. Rather hard to study an extremely elusive Pokemon.

Alternatively, Cresselia draws power from the crescent moon, which could be quite different from the full moon that's called for Moonlight and Moonblast.

Also, Musharna eat dreams just like Hypno, though tend to devour the unpleasant ones for the benefit of their friends rather than feasting on the sweet dreams of children. (though there are likely exceptions)
 
What does having your dream eaten fell like anyway? does it even like affect you?

I mean Dream Eater the move hurts the opponent somehow, but if that the case why is Hypno the only called out on eating dreams and Musharna isn't?
 
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