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Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
It's because of the skirt and slippers, wasn't it?
Hitmonchan: It's not a skirt and slippers, guys! It's a gi I have tied at my waist to not get in the way of my punches and a pair of loafers cause they help with my footing!
Pokemon Stadium 2 is my favorite Pokemon game and what I like about it that Trainers have multiple introduction, victory and defeat quotes. Not to mention the unique in Battle Quotes when status happens or they use a signature move.
For example, look at these Whitney quotes
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Whitney/Quotes#Pok.C3.A9mon_Stadium_2
Meanwhile in your normal playthrough, not including Gen 8 since I don't play them, non of the trainers say anything when they win, unless they are on the Battle Tree, Frontier or something.
I feel these quotes can pump you up to retry the challenge, tho I guess it can discourage newcomers to try again if implemented poorly.
For example, look at these Whitney quotes
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Whitney/Quotes#Pok.C3.A9mon_Stadium_2
Meanwhile in your normal playthrough, not including Gen 8 since I don't play them, non of the trainers say anything when they win, unless they are on the Battle Tree, Frontier or something.
I feel these quotes can pump you up to retry the challenge, tho I guess it can discourage newcomers to try again if implemented poorly.
I am a fan of the Crown Tundra giving you the choice between the new titans and the horses. Version exclusivity is outdated and really shouldn’t exits and personally I’d prefer if it didn’t exist at all. While it sucks that you still can’t have both of either Pokémon, I’ll take this over the alternative in practice as it allows you to actually choose what you want, though it does mean that if you regret your choice you’ll have to get the other one though that shouldn’t be so hard due to the fact their they are opposites and people will be looking for their other half. It also got rid of that dumb rule that you need to have two of a lesser legendary to get the trio master (e.g Tornadus + Thundurus = Landorous).
Hard disagree. Trading and "looking for your other half" is one of the three pillars Pokemon was built on, and while being able to choose your favorite works for legendaries like the titans and horses like you said (also the lati twins in Emerald) it doesn't really work for the dozen or so regular Pokemon that are exclusive to one version or the other.
I think what ZB7 meant is that he much prefers the SwSh system (you can only get one, but you get to choose which) compared to the "regular" version exclusive system where it's already decided which legendary you are going to have.
I'm somewhat in-between, I agree that the trading component should stay for the series (even though I both can't be arsed trading myself & it's detrimental for people who don't have friends that also play to trade with), but I as well much prefer the SwSh system of letting you decide which of the paired legendaries you get.
...though I'll say, I suspect the main reason for the "choice" is the fact that these were in DLCs, and you wouldn't have been able to know beforehand if "shield got Spectrier, sword got Glacier", and you would have felt punished for no reason if the version you picked at start ended up not having the (yet unrevealed) legendary you wanted later on.
Also probably why despite there being legendary version exclusives in dens, you are also able to fight them in random online battles and even "save" them to fight them again if you want to shiny hunt when you find a legendary that isnt in your version.
Most spin-offs go with the Pokémon Heroes route that each Latios and Latias pairing to appear is a pair of siblings.
Kind of like Purple Kecleon in the first two Mystery Dungeon games in that it's all traced back to their first appearance in official media.
I think it's literally as simple as that all females are Latias and all males are Latios. The pair in the fourth movie are siblings, but it's stated in dex entries that the species are not unique and that multiple members exist, so they almost certainly breed. There's no reason to think that, say, the Latis we catch in-game have any particular relation to each other.
Piggybacking off this, one thing I really like about Zacian and Zamazenta is that Zacian is female and Zamazenta is male. Thinking about swords and shields abstractly, you'd expect the former to be male because the qualities of a sword are those we typically associate with masculinity - hardness, aggression, sharpness, and so on - and of course in fiction it's usually men wielding swords. Contrarily, the qualities of a shield seem more suited to things that we typically consider to be feminine - caution, control, and defensiveness. So it's a neat twist to make Zacian female and Zamazenta male. To be honest nothing about their Crowned forms really screams male or female to me, but you can kind of see it more with the Hero forms.
I personally find this interesting because I typically opt for the "blue" game of whichever pair we get (Sapphire, LeafGreen, Pearl, SoulSilver, Y, Shield - I broke the trend in Alola by opting for Sun) and the "blue" mascot, imo, more often than not has female overtones by looking more sleek and elegant while their counterpart looks tough and solid - Palkia, Lugia, Kyogre, Blastoise, and Lunala all conform to this idea in varying degrees. Though this isn't set in stone and Game Freak haven't been shy of mixing up the pattern with recent games - Reshiram looks deliberately feminine in contrast to Zekrom (perhaps not coincidentally, I opted for Black in Gen V) and Xerneas, while not hugely feminine IMO, looks less "tough" than Yveltal does and I remember a lot of people being put off by the way it looked.
I'm still bummed we didn't get a shield-lion and a sword-unicorn, but this is one thing I can appreciate about the duo we got in Gen VIII.
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Do keep in mind that the Latios and Latias sibling pair we saw in the Pokemon Heroes movie were confirmed to have a father, albeit deceased. So while we often see a brother/sister pair of Latios/Latias in many media, the fact that there are multiples of them combined with the fact that we also see one instance of a pair having a known parent means that the likely scenario is that different Latis of unrelated families breed and there are multiple families of Latias/Latios. Sometimes there could be multiple Lati siblings in one family for all we know: we just happen to see instances where a single Latias and a single Latios stemmed from the same parents.
Regarding the Lati@s, I have always seen them as siblings. Not sure where I got that from, but that’s how I see them at least.
I like how we are now able to have multiple save files for the Pokémon games on the Switch, thanks to the console having the option for multiple user profiles with one save file per profile. I thought about this a bit further and realized that while this hasn’t been possible in previous main series games, it has been in some side games. In the Gamecube games Colosseum and XD, you can have multiple save files if you have multiple memory cards, as the save files for the games are locked to the memory card and not the game disc. I have three memory cards for my Gamecube and thus I have three save files for Colosseum and XD, having played through each game three times without the need to restart. A similar thing happens with PBR. IIRC it allowed you to have 4 save files on a single console, so that’s cool. Can’t speak for other side-games, but this is something I like about these three at least.
I really like Keldeo. It is one of my top three favorite mythicals, no contest. I think both of its forms are cool, but sadly, it feels like it has one of the most pointless form changes out of Pokémon with form changes.
However, one really cool thing about it is that in its sprites in B2/W2, Keldeo has two different poses for the sprites in its Resolute form. One for the idle sprite, and then a different one for the animated sprite. I think Keldeo is the only Pokémon in Gen 5 with this trait. So that’s cool.
Now, to what I really wanted to talk about. I really like the different battle styles that exist in Pokémon. Here are some of the ones I like the best and why I like them.
First of all, I really like Double battles. They are a lot of fun and offer many different strategies compared to Single battles. IMO, Double give lots of opportunities for more fun strategies! I think Double give a lot more opportunities for team support, and for support Pokémon in general. I find Speed-changing moves like Tailwind and Trick Room to be much more efficient in Double than in Single. At the same time, Double generally offers less opportunities for Pokémon with regular setup moves (such as Swords Dance, Calm Mind, etc.), which makes for an interesting change. Though these types of moves can still be used efficiently in Double, it just requires a more skill than in Single (from my experience, at least). When it comes to battling in Battle Facilities for Gen 4-8, I prefer Double over Single. I think it is easier to get an advantage over the opponent in Double, and as said, it offers a lot of different strategies compared to Single. I also feel that if you play efficiently, Double battles can go a lot faster to complete than Single battles.
That said, I think Double battles should be used more in-game. There was a thread about whether you would prefer if the in-game focused on Double over Single, and I thought about replying to it, but I ended up not doing so. The reason (and my answer) is that I’m honestly not sure if I would prefer the main game to be mostly focused on Double instead of Single. It was fun in Colosseum and XD, but those were games also quite different from the regular main series games. In the end, I think the best alternative would be if you could choose between Single and Double in the beginning of the game (and then change to the other style whenever you wanted to). But even so, I definitely think there should be more Double battles in the main games.
Next, we have Triple battles. This is actually my favorite battle style. I mostly battled at it in the Battle Maison in Gen 6, and it was a ton of fun! At first glance, it mostly looks like Double with 1 more Pokémon on the field, but I think it goes a lot deeper than that. Like in Double, there are a lot of strategies that are more effective in Triple compared to Single (or Double, for that matter). And in Battle Facilities, Triple is the only format for which you bring a full party of 6 Pokémon with you, which is really cool. That means that battles generally take longer to complete, but that’s okay since they are usually more fun. But like with Double, I think Triple battles could have been used more in-game. As it is now, most of my experience with them comes from the Battle Maison (and the PWT to an extent). Not so much from in-game battles in Gen 5. I also think Triple battles shouldn’t have been dropped in Gen 7. But there’s always the alternative to go back and do more of them at the PWT and the Maison!
Following Triple, we have Rotation battles, the other new battle style introduced in Gen 5. While I don’t like these as much as Double and Triple (I also consider Rotation to be my worst battle style), I still think they are pretty cool. They are essentially Single with a twist, but they offer the chance for many different strategies compared to Single. So that’s really cool. I like how you must prepare for at least six different scenarios on every turn. Will your opponent keep the Pokémon they currently have at the front, or will they rotate to a different one? And will you keep your current front Pokémon or rotate to one of the others you have? Or will one of you switch? Preparation is the key, and making a wrong move could cost you the battle! Which has happened to me many times…
I also liked the Battle Royals in Gen 7. Another fun and alternative battle style. Four Pokémon on the field, but all against each other! Which was inspired by the battles that the four Tapu take part in, so that’s really cool. I like this battle style because just like in Rotation, you must prepare for all possible scenarios and do your best to come up with the best possible strategy for every turn. You can’t just sit idly by, because if you do, the opponents will take all the points and one of them will win. But even if you attack, you can’t let the opponents defeat each other (or you, for that matter) because that also means you lose. You need to defeat the most opponents on your own, or you’ll lose.
Yes, I know that playing Battle Royals drops the FPS like crazy to the point that everything becomes super slow, you don’t need to tell me that (and it doesn’t matter that much to me either, I enjoyed them nonetheless).
Another somewhat different battle style which I like is Inverse battles. They only existed in Gen 6 and weren’t all that well-utilized, but I thought they were really cool. The idea of all type matchups becoming the complete opposite of how they regularly work was fantastic. It also removed all type immunities, which was very interesting. Inverse Battles really forced you to think about what move to use compared to in regular battles. I think they should have been used more though, because as it is now, they were very limited.
The last battle style I want to talk about is Sky battles. I think they are actually really awesome.
In Pokémon Adventures, at least. I said a while ago that I really like the X/Y Chapter, and one thing I think it does incredibly well is how it handles Sky battles. The manga expanded on the concept a bit, like with some specific mechanics that weren’t in the games. It also gave them a bit of background history as well. And I really liked the Sky battle between Y and Yvette, it is one of my favorite scenes/moments from the X/Y Chapter. But Sky battles were utilized quite well in other situations too, with how Y were training to become a Sky Trainer and used her Sky skills for several different things in various situations.
That said, I think Sky Battles were okay in the games too. Not the best, but still okay. I really think there should have been more to them, and that they should have been expanded on in the games following X/Y instead of being dropped completely.Insert the very common quote of “what if Z had existed?” here. Oh well. Better than nothing at least.
Ultimately, there are a lot of different battle styles that I like. While I wish they hadn’t been dropped one or two generations after their introduction, I still had lots of fun with them in the generations where they existed.
Lastly, another thing. I thought about this after seeing some recent discussions about Battle Frontiers (a subject for which the discussions never seem to end lol). I liked the Battle Frontiers in Emerald and Platinum, they were both tons of fun. But while Battle Frontiers have been absent in Gen 5-8, I don’t really mind. Because those generations have had replacements that I found satisfying enough. In addition to the standard Battle Facility, there has always been something to go along with it in every game with Battle Facilities past Gen 4. In Gen 5 & 6, there was the Battle Institute. B2/W2 also had the PWT and Black Tower/White Treehollow. In Gen 7, there was the Royal Battle Dome, US/UM also had the Battle Agency. In S/S, with the DLC, there is Restricted Sparring and Endless Dynamax Adventures. Ultimately, every generation since Gen 5 has always had something more in terms of Battle Facilities, and I like that a lot. Battle Frontiers are a thing of the past, but their spirit still lives on in the newer generations… or something. That’s how I feel, at least.
I like how we are now able to have multiple save files for the Pokémon games on the Switch, thanks to the console having the option for multiple user profiles with one save file per profile. I thought about this a bit further and realized that while this hasn’t been possible in previous main series games, it has been in some side games. In the Gamecube games Colosseum and XD, you can have multiple save files if you have multiple memory cards, as the save files for the games are locked to the memory card and not the game disc. I have three memory cards for my Gamecube and thus I have three save files for Colosseum and XD, having played through each game three times without the need to restart. A similar thing happens with PBR. IIRC it allowed you to have 4 save files on a single console, so that’s cool. Can’t speak for other side-games, but this is something I like about these three at least.
I really like Keldeo. It is one of my top three favorite mythicals, no contest. I think both of its forms are cool, but sadly, it feels like it has one of the most pointless form changes out of Pokémon with form changes.
However, one really cool thing about it is that in its sprites in B2/W2, Keldeo has two different poses for the sprites in its Resolute form. One for the idle sprite, and then a different one for the animated sprite. I think Keldeo is the only Pokémon in Gen 5 with this trait. So that’s cool.
Now, to what I really wanted to talk about. I really like the different battle styles that exist in Pokémon. Here are some of the ones I like the best and why I like them.
First of all, I really like Double battles. They are a lot of fun and offer many different strategies compared to Single battles. IMO, Double give lots of opportunities for more fun strategies! I think Double give a lot more opportunities for team support, and for support Pokémon in general. I find Speed-changing moves like Tailwind and Trick Room to be much more efficient in Double than in Single. At the same time, Double generally offers less opportunities for Pokémon with regular setup moves (such as Swords Dance, Calm Mind, etc.), which makes for an interesting change. Though these types of moves can still be used efficiently in Double, it just requires a more skill than in Single (from my experience, at least). When it comes to battling in Battle Facilities for Gen 4-8, I prefer Double over Single. I think it is easier to get an advantage over the opponent in Double, and as said, it offers a lot of different strategies compared to Single. I also feel that if you play efficiently, Double battles can go a lot faster to complete than Single battles.
That said, I think Double battles should be used more in-game. There was a thread about whether you would prefer if the in-game focused on Double over Single, and I thought about replying to it, but I ended up not doing so. The reason (and my answer) is that I’m honestly not sure if I would prefer the main game to be mostly focused on Double instead of Single. It was fun in Colosseum and XD, but those were games also quite different from the regular main series games. In the end, I think the best alternative would be if you could choose between Single and Double in the beginning of the game (and then change to the other style whenever you wanted to). But even so, I definitely think there should be more Double battles in the main games.
Next, we have Triple battles. This is actually my favorite battle style. I mostly battled at it in the Battle Maison in Gen 6, and it was a ton of fun! At first glance, it mostly looks like Double with 1 more Pokémon on the field, but I think it goes a lot deeper than that. Like in Double, there are a lot of strategies that are more effective in Triple compared to Single (or Double, for that matter). And in Battle Facilities, Triple is the only format for which you bring a full party of 6 Pokémon with you, which is really cool. That means that battles generally take longer to complete, but that’s okay since they are usually more fun. But like with Double, I think Triple battles could have been used more in-game. As it is now, most of my experience with them comes from the Battle Maison (and the PWT to an extent). Not so much from in-game battles in Gen 5. I also think Triple battles shouldn’t have been dropped in Gen 7. But there’s always the alternative to go back and do more of them at the PWT and the Maison!
Following Triple, we have Rotation battles, the other new battle style introduced in Gen 5. While I don’t like these as much as Double and Triple (I also consider Rotation to be my worst battle style), I still think they are pretty cool. They are essentially Single with a twist, but they offer the chance for many different strategies compared to Single. So that’s really cool. I like how you must prepare for at least six different scenarios on every turn. Will your opponent keep the Pokémon they currently have at the front, or will they rotate to a different one? And will you keep your current front Pokémon or rotate to one of the others you have? Or will one of you switch? Preparation is the key, and making a wrong move could cost you the battle! Which has happened to me many times…
I also liked the Battle Royals in Gen 7. Another fun and alternative battle style. Four Pokémon on the field, but all against each other! Which was inspired by the battles that the four Tapu take part in, so that’s really cool. I like this battle style because just like in Rotation, you must prepare for all possible scenarios and do your best to come up with the best possible strategy for every turn. You can’t just sit idly by, because if you do, the opponents will take all the points and one of them will win. But even if you attack, you can’t let the opponents defeat each other (or you, for that matter) because that also means you lose. You need to defeat the most opponents on your own, or you’ll lose.
Yes, I know that playing Battle Royals drops the FPS like crazy to the point that everything becomes super slow, you don’t need to tell me that (and it doesn’t matter that much to me either, I enjoyed them nonetheless).
Another somewhat different battle style which I like is Inverse battles. They only existed in Gen 6 and weren’t all that well-utilized, but I thought they were really cool. The idea of all type matchups becoming the complete opposite of how they regularly work was fantastic. It also removed all type immunities, which was very interesting. Inverse Battles really forced you to think about what move to use compared to in regular battles. I think they should have been used more though, because as it is now, they were very limited.
The last battle style I want to talk about is Sky battles. I think they are actually really awesome.
In Pokémon Adventures, at least. I said a while ago that I really like the X/Y Chapter, and one thing I think it does incredibly well is how it handles Sky battles. The manga expanded on the concept a bit, like with some specific mechanics that weren’t in the games. It also gave them a bit of background history as well. And I really liked the Sky battle between Y and Yvette, it is one of my favorite scenes/moments from the X/Y Chapter. But Sky battles were utilized quite well in other situations too, with how Y were training to become a Sky Trainer and used her Sky skills for several different things in various situations.
That said, I think Sky Battles were okay in the games too. Not the best, but still okay. I really think there should have been more to them, and that they should have been expanded on in the games following X/Y instead of being dropped completely.
Ultimately, there are a lot of different battle styles that I like. While I wish they hadn’t been dropped one or two generations after their introduction, I still had lots of fun with them in the generations where they existed.
Lastly, another thing. I thought about this after seeing some recent discussions about Battle Frontiers (a subject for which the discussions never seem to end lol). I liked the Battle Frontiers in Emerald and Platinum, they were both tons of fun. But while Battle Frontiers have been absent in Gen 5-8, I don’t really mind. Because those generations have had replacements that I found satisfying enough. In addition to the standard Battle Facility, there has always been something to go along with it in every game with Battle Facilities past Gen 4. In Gen 5 & 6, there was the Battle Institute. B2/W2 also had the PWT and Black Tower/White Treehollow. In Gen 7, there was the Royal Battle Dome, US/UM also had the Battle Agency. In S/S, with the DLC, there is Restricted Sparring and Endless Dynamax Adventures. Ultimately, every generation since Gen 5 has always had something more in terms of Battle Facilities, and I like that a lot. Battle Frontiers are a thing of the past, but their spirit still lives on in the newer generations… or something. That’s how I feel, at least.
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5th movie. Also, in that movie it's mentioned Alto Mare is a place where Latios & Latias come to breed and we do hear about and "see" that the sibling Lati's father was also a Latios, which highly likely means their mother was a Latias.
If I had to guess, the Eon Duo are born as twins. They form family units but once the twins are able to defend themselves the mother & father leave or they leave the protection of their parents. Outside of breeding time the twins generally stick together if they can, but if something happens to one of them (like getting captured or one dies) the other can live perfectly fine on its own. Then when breeding time comes that's when they seek an unrelated Eon Duo of the opposite gender to have their own Lati twins with thus propagating the species.
Hence this is why we more often see Lati twins than Lati partners, breeding time is at most once a year if not once a few years so most of the time young Eon Duo are hanging out with their sibling. Also no clue after the child rearing phase do the parents stick together, go back to live with their sibling, or are now completely independent and seeks new partners each breeding time.
So before the February 26th utterly BTFO'd me and I was insisting that DP remakes were not going to happen one of my biggest pieces of evidence I clung to for dear life was that SWSH, unlike previous main series games preceding remakes, had seemingly 0 significant Sinnoh references or fanservice. DP had the opening TV broadcast of the Lake of Rage incident, a Jasmine cameo and many evolutions for Gen 2 Pokemon. XY likewise had a lot of Megas for Hoenn mons, including the gift Blaziken, as well as several references to the region via NPC dialogue. In comparison, it seemed to me for the longest time SWSH had nothing. No Gigantamax or Galarian forms, no Gen 4 character cameos, not even one reference to the region tucked away in a single obscure line. For the longest time after the reveal I was kinda stumped over this detail. Did I get too fixated on patterns? Was SWSH's development just so bad they couldn't even find the time to incorporate Sinnoh fanservice?
And that's when I realized...
It had been hiding in plain sight this whole time.
And that's when I realized...
It had been hiding in plain sight this whole time.
Crown Tundra not having the Sinnoh Fossils plus absolutely no Sinnoh Mythicals in SwSh were what made me suspicious.
That’s true! I saw their absence, especially the absence of Cranidos line and Shieldon line, as big red flags as if there are no Sinnoh games planned, these two lines and at least a few Sinnoh Mythicals will make in Crown Tundra update. It is like how Blaziken got a Mega Evolution as promotion in XY (early bird as one says it) but the other two fully evolved Hoenn starter, Sceptile and Swampert, didn’t get one until thankfully ORAS.
It is clear that the two Fossil lines and all Sinnoh mythicals, alongside the Sinnoh starters presumably, were held back in order to make their return in both BDSP and Legends: Arceus all the more significant. Especially Arceus, who have a whole new game named after it, greatly making up for its original DPP event being scrapped altogether.
While we're talking about remake/hints and patterns, this does tie into one thing I do like and a fun little pattern I noticed, whether it's intentional or not. But one thing I find funny about generations with remakes in them is the tendency for the base games of the generation to mimic/parallel the source games the remakes of that generation come from. Like for example, DPP had plenty of parallels to GSC even before HGSS came out, XY had parallels to RSE, and SWSH itself even has a few to DPP. Let me run down them, for instance
RSE parallels to RBY (Gen 3 to Gen 1):
- Not a whole lot here to start, but it's pretty basic.
- First Gym is a Rock-type Gym, third Gym is an Electric-type Gym. From there, there's also Fire, Psychic, and Water gyms albeit in different orders.
- Hoenn's Elite Four shares three types with Kanto's Elite Four. Ghost, Ice, and Dragon.
- Several Hoenn Pokemon are parallels to Kanto Pokemon. Wurmple is a combination of Caterpie and Weedle and its two branches, Beautifly and Dustox, are very much Butterfree and Beedrill. Salamence is very obviously Dragonite, right down to the typing. Lileep and Anorith are akin to Omanyte and Kabuto. Seel and Spheal are slightly alike in terms of typing and what animal they derive from. Corphish is akin to Krabby. Shroomish and Breloom are akin to Paras and Parasect.
- Much like in Kanto, RS Hoenn's post game is mainly unlocking one post-game dungeon where one Level 70 Legendary can be found (Mewtwo and Rayquaza, respectively), Hoenn's Sky Pillar is practically Kanto's Cerulean Cave.
DPP parallels to GSC (Gen 4 to Gen 2):
- Day/Night cycle is an integral part to both games, with Pokemon availability changing depending on whether it is Morning, Day, or Night.
- Both GSC and DPP introduced new evolutions to older Pokemon as well as baby pre-evolutions.
- Professor Elm and Professor Rowan are both specialists in Pokemon evolution and have associations with Professor Oak, one being his former student and another being his old colleague. So much so that Oak himself even appears in both the Johto and Sinnoh games.
- Lugia and Ho-oh, the cover legendaries of GS, share a Flying-type. Likewise, Dialga and Palkia, the cover legendaries of DP, share a Dragon-type.
- Sinnoh and Johto are both very mythology/legend focused, with the legends and myths of their legendaries being deeply integral to their respective regions' lore. Even the minor legendary trio of each, the lake guardians and the beasts, have ties to the major legendaries.
- A minor parallel, but both have an Ice-type Gym as their 7th Gym.
- Another minor parallel is that the third Gym's city in both Johto and Sinnoh has the Game Corner and the Department Store.
XY parallels to RSE (Gen 6 to Gen 3):
- The major legendary trios of Hoenn and Kalos parallel each other in many ways. Their color schemes are blue, red, and green. All three members of the respective trios have different typings from one another, with the blue legendary having a type advantage over the red legendary, and the two represent opposing forces. Meanwhile, the green "third" legendary functions as a mediator/balance between the other two, and is regarded as a guardian of their respective region, while Rayquaza and Zygarde both possess abilities that cancel/reverse the abilities of Kyogre/Groudon and Xerneas/Yveltal respectively.
- The player character you don't choose serves as one of your rivals in both the Hoenn and Kalos games. Just like how in RSE, Brendan or May will be one of your rivals and your neighbor, in XY Calem or Serena is both your neighbor and your main rival.
- Diantha's team in XY parallels Steven's team in RSE in many ways. Both lead their teams with a single-staged Flying-type, both use the two fossil Pokemon of their region, both use a pseudo-legendary (Goodra and Metagross are also slower and tankier), both have a Psychic-type Pokemon, and both have a team member who sets up Light Screen and Reflect.
- The 7th Gym in both Hoenn and Kalos is a Psychic-type Gym
- This is more of an anime parallel than a game parallel, but XY's anime draws a few to the AG anime. Namely the cast structure (Ash, girl companion based on playable character, Gym Leader cook, and little kid sibling). May and Serena have a number of similarities to each other in their character arcs. Ash gets the fast/frail attacker of the respective region's starters (Sceptile and Greninja), the girl gets the Fire starter, and the Gym Leader cook guy gets the cute one who is slower and tankier (Mudkip or Chespin).
- A slight allusion to the above, but the Kalos starters' stat spreads and roles draw a bit of parallel to those of Hoenn's starters, with the Grass and Water starter switching places. Greninja and Sceptile are both fast, yet frail, offensive attackers, Chesnaught and Swampert are both slow, bulky, and tanky, while Delphox and Blaziken are simple strong nukes.
SWSH parallels to DPP (Gen 8 to Gen 4):
- This is partially more of a pre-release thing, but the creation and implementation of Steel Beam in Gen 8 greatly parallels the creation and implementation of Draco Meteor in Gen 4. Both moves earned their names in CoroCoro fan contests prior to the releases of SwSh and DP, respectively, asking fans to name "the strongest Steel-type move" and "the strongest Dragon-type move" respectively. Their names in Japanese are both puns, with Steel Beam's name てっていこうせん (Tettei Kousen) literally translating to "All-Out Resistance" or "Do-or-Die", but also incorporating 鋼鉄 (kotetsu), which is "Steel", and 光線 (kousen), which is "Beam". As such, it can also be interpreted to mean "Beam of Steely Resolve". Meanwhile, Draco Meteor's name りゅうせいぐん (Ryuseigun) is literally "Meteor Shower", but also incorporates りゅう (ryu), which is "Dragon", hence the Dragon type. In-game, both moves are tutor-exclusive moves taught by a specific NPC, and require certain conditions to be taught. Every single Steel-type can learn Steel Beam, while every single Dragon-type can learn Draco Meteor. Both are incredibly high powered moves with 5 PP and a major drawback.
- Much like Sinnoh, Galar also introduced new evolutions to older Pokemon, albeit this time through regional forms.
- Dialga and Palkia, the cover legendaries of DP, share a Dragon-type. Likewise, Zacian and Zamazenta, SwSh's cover legendaries, share a Steel-type. Coincidentally, Dialga/Palkia's shared type aligns with Draco Meteor, and Zacian/Zamazenta's shared type aligns with Steel Beam.
- The release structure of Gen 8 parallels Gen 4 thus far. Gen 8 so far has been Base Games (Sword and Shield) followed up by an enhancement (DLC in IoA+CT), then a remake (Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl). This is exactly how Gen 4's release structure was, with the Base Games (Diamond and Pearl) followed up by the enhanced version (Platinum) then remakes (HeartGold and SoulSilver).
- The Wild Area in Galar mixes functions with Sinnoh's Mt. Coronet and Underground. It functions like the Underground in being a place where many players meet up and interact for certain tasks and you can see many other trainers online, and functions like Mt. Coronet in being a centerpiece of the region that connects several routes/towns in the region, being a place you'll visit multiple times on your adventure.
I'm probably looking a bit too deeply into things (I'm neurodivergent and I'm a sucker for catching "patterns") but it's a fun little tendency for generations with remakes to do with their base games. I know everyone looks for all the more "obvious" hints, but every remake generation has had its share of subtle hints in its base games pointing to the remake happening by paralleling/mimicking aspects of the source game that generation's remake came from.
RSE parallels to RBY (Gen 3 to Gen 1):
- Not a whole lot here to start, but it's pretty basic.
- First Gym is a Rock-type Gym, third Gym is an Electric-type Gym. From there, there's also Fire, Psychic, and Water gyms albeit in different orders.
- Hoenn's Elite Four shares three types with Kanto's Elite Four. Ghost, Ice, and Dragon.
- Several Hoenn Pokemon are parallels to Kanto Pokemon. Wurmple is a combination of Caterpie and Weedle and its two branches, Beautifly and Dustox, are very much Butterfree and Beedrill. Salamence is very obviously Dragonite, right down to the typing. Lileep and Anorith are akin to Omanyte and Kabuto. Seel and Spheal are slightly alike in terms of typing and what animal they derive from. Corphish is akin to Krabby. Shroomish and Breloom are akin to Paras and Parasect.
- Much like in Kanto, RS Hoenn's post game is mainly unlocking one post-game dungeon where one Level 70 Legendary can be found (Mewtwo and Rayquaza, respectively), Hoenn's Sky Pillar is practically Kanto's Cerulean Cave.
DPP parallels to GSC (Gen 4 to Gen 2):
- Day/Night cycle is an integral part to both games, with Pokemon availability changing depending on whether it is Morning, Day, or Night.
- Both GSC and DPP introduced new evolutions to older Pokemon as well as baby pre-evolutions.
- Professor Elm and Professor Rowan are both specialists in Pokemon evolution and have associations with Professor Oak, one being his former student and another being his old colleague. So much so that Oak himself even appears in both the Johto and Sinnoh games.
- Lugia and Ho-oh, the cover legendaries of GS, share a Flying-type. Likewise, Dialga and Palkia, the cover legendaries of DP, share a Dragon-type.
- Sinnoh and Johto are both very mythology/legend focused, with the legends and myths of their legendaries being deeply integral to their respective regions' lore. Even the minor legendary trio of each, the lake guardians and the beasts, have ties to the major legendaries.
- A minor parallel, but both have an Ice-type Gym as their 7th Gym.
- Another minor parallel is that the third Gym's city in both Johto and Sinnoh has the Game Corner and the Department Store.
XY parallels to RSE (Gen 6 to Gen 3):
- The major legendary trios of Hoenn and Kalos parallel each other in many ways. Their color schemes are blue, red, and green. All three members of the respective trios have different typings from one another, with the blue legendary having a type advantage over the red legendary, and the two represent opposing forces. Meanwhile, the green "third" legendary functions as a mediator/balance between the other two, and is regarded as a guardian of their respective region, while Rayquaza and Zygarde both possess abilities that cancel/reverse the abilities of Kyogre/Groudon and Xerneas/Yveltal respectively.
- The player character you don't choose serves as one of your rivals in both the Hoenn and Kalos games. Just like how in RSE, Brendan or May will be one of your rivals and your neighbor, in XY Calem or Serena is both your neighbor and your main rival.
- Diantha's team in XY parallels Steven's team in RSE in many ways. Both lead their teams with a single-staged Flying-type, both use the two fossil Pokemon of their region, both use a pseudo-legendary (Goodra and Metagross are also slower and tankier), both have a Psychic-type Pokemon, and both have a team member who sets up Light Screen and Reflect.
- The 7th Gym in both Hoenn and Kalos is a Psychic-type Gym
- This is more of an anime parallel than a game parallel, but XY's anime draws a few to the AG anime. Namely the cast structure (Ash, girl companion based on playable character, Gym Leader cook, and little kid sibling). May and Serena have a number of similarities to each other in their character arcs. Ash gets the fast/frail attacker of the respective region's starters (Sceptile and Greninja), the girl gets the Fire starter, and the Gym Leader cook guy gets the cute one who is slower and tankier (Mudkip or Chespin).
- A slight allusion to the above, but the Kalos starters' stat spreads and roles draw a bit of parallel to those of Hoenn's starters, with the Grass and Water starter switching places. Greninja and Sceptile are both fast, yet frail, offensive attackers, Chesnaught and Swampert are both slow, bulky, and tanky, while Delphox and Blaziken are simple strong nukes.
SWSH parallels to DPP (Gen 8 to Gen 4):
- This is partially more of a pre-release thing, but the creation and implementation of Steel Beam in Gen 8 greatly parallels the creation and implementation of Draco Meteor in Gen 4. Both moves earned their names in CoroCoro fan contests prior to the releases of SwSh and DP, respectively, asking fans to name "the strongest Steel-type move" and "the strongest Dragon-type move" respectively. Their names in Japanese are both puns, with Steel Beam's name てっていこうせん (Tettei Kousen) literally translating to "All-Out Resistance" or "Do-or-Die", but also incorporating 鋼鉄 (kotetsu), which is "Steel", and 光線 (kousen), which is "Beam". As such, it can also be interpreted to mean "Beam of Steely Resolve". Meanwhile, Draco Meteor's name りゅうせいぐん (Ryuseigun) is literally "Meteor Shower", but also incorporates りゅう (ryu), which is "Dragon", hence the Dragon type. In-game, both moves are tutor-exclusive moves taught by a specific NPC, and require certain conditions to be taught. Every single Steel-type can learn Steel Beam, while every single Dragon-type can learn Draco Meteor. Both are incredibly high powered moves with 5 PP and a major drawback.
- Much like Sinnoh, Galar also introduced new evolutions to older Pokemon, albeit this time through regional forms.
- Dialga and Palkia, the cover legendaries of DP, share a Dragon-type. Likewise, Zacian and Zamazenta, SwSh's cover legendaries, share a Steel-type. Coincidentally, Dialga/Palkia's shared type aligns with Draco Meteor, and Zacian/Zamazenta's shared type aligns with Steel Beam.
- The release structure of Gen 8 parallels Gen 4 thus far. Gen 8 so far has been Base Games (Sword and Shield) followed up by an enhancement (DLC in IoA+CT), then a remake (Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl). This is exactly how Gen 4's release structure was, with the Base Games (Diamond and Pearl) followed up by the enhanced version (Platinum) then remakes (HeartGold and SoulSilver).
- The Wild Area in Galar mixes functions with Sinnoh's Mt. Coronet and Underground. It functions like the Underground in being a place where many players meet up and interact for certain tasks and you can see many other trainers online, and functions like Mt. Coronet in being a centerpiece of the region that connects several routes/towns in the region, being a place you'll visit multiple times on your adventure.
I'm probably looking a bit too deeply into things (I'm neurodivergent and I'm a sucker for catching "patterns") but it's a fun little tendency for generations with remakes to do with their base games. I know everyone looks for all the more "obvious" hints, but every remake generation has had its share of subtle hints in its base games pointing to the remake happening by paralleling/mimicking aspects of the source game that generation's remake came from.
OMG! These are stunning. I know nothing about the tcg and yet I want that Espeon & Deoxys card. I’m used to not being super impressed by the Pokémon tcg art but Wow! The Espeon/Deoxys, Umbreon/Darkrai, and Sableye/Tyranitar especially are beautiful! (I would love to be pointed toward some other beautiful tcg art of Espeon And Milotic btw)
Four years ago, I learned that Roxie has freckles. All thanks to Pokémon Adventures, otherwise I would probably never have noticed them. And now, a few days ago, I got into a similar situation as I learned that Marnie wears black nail-polish. This was also thanks to Pokémon Adventures. Like with Roxie’s freckles, the black/white coloring in the manga made it very visible, I would never have noticed it otherwise.
It was very easy to see in some of the panels where she was talking to Hop in the latest chapter.
Credit to Espresso Scans for the images.
It is also visible in her official art, in-game model, and even in Twilight Wings! But I never noticed it before. It is just a very small detail that is easy to miss unless you look closely.
It can be seen in the TCG too, such as in this card:
I guess she uses black nail-polish because she is a Dark-type trainer, which is cool.
Anyway, what I wanted to say here is that I like how there are certain small details you might notice after a while instead of immediately. Nothing exclusive to Pokémon, but something that can happen regarding things in Pokémon.
Onto something else. One other thing I really like is how certain Move Tutor moves might not seem all that special in the generation they are introduced, but then end up getting a better role in the next generation. I think one of the best examples here is Hyper Voice. It first became a MT move in B2/W2. While it was a neat way to give a strong Special Normal-type move to various Pokémon, I never found it super notable. However, this changed in Gen 6. X/Y introduced three Abilities that changes Normal-type moves to other types: Pixilate, Refrigerate and Aerilate.
In X/Y, there were only two Pokémon with Pixilate: Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir. These two could also learn Hyper Voice from the Move Tutor in B2/W2. Which meant that if you transferred over an Eevee/Gardevoir with Hyper Voice from B2/W2 to X/Y, you could get a Sylveon/Mega Gardevoir with a stronger Fairy-type move than Moonblast, thanks to Hyper Voice getting a boost from Pixilate. I have always found this to be a really neat little detail, it definitely feels like something they had planned already back in B2/W2.
It was very easy to see in some of the panels where she was talking to Hop in the latest chapter.
Credit to Espresso Scans for the images.
It is also visible in her official art, in-game model, and even in Twilight Wings! But I never noticed it before. It is just a very small detail that is easy to miss unless you look closely.
It can be seen in the TCG too, such as in this card:
I guess she uses black nail-polish because she is a Dark-type trainer, which is cool.
Anyway, what I wanted to say here is that I like how there are certain small details you might notice after a while instead of immediately. Nothing exclusive to Pokémon, but something that can happen regarding things in Pokémon.
Onto something else. One other thing I really like is how certain Move Tutor moves might not seem all that special in the generation they are introduced, but then end up getting a better role in the next generation. I think one of the best examples here is Hyper Voice. It first became a MT move in B2/W2. While it was a neat way to give a strong Special Normal-type move to various Pokémon, I never found it super notable. However, this changed in Gen 6. X/Y introduced three Abilities that changes Normal-type moves to other types: Pixilate, Refrigerate and Aerilate.
In X/Y, there were only two Pokémon with Pixilate: Sylveon and Mega Gardevoir. These two could also learn Hyper Voice from the Move Tutor in B2/W2. Which meant that if you transferred over an Eevee/Gardevoir with Hyper Voice from B2/W2 to X/Y, you could get a Sylveon/Mega Gardevoir with a stronger Fairy-type move than Moonblast, thanks to Hyper Voice getting a boost from Pixilate. I have always found this to be a really neat little detail, it definitely feels like something they had planned already back in B2/W2.
Oh please, you don't need to look any further than the female Swimmers artwork to know the artists are getting out some pent-up sexual desires. :P
To be fair, the Japanese name of the trainer class is "Bikini Girl"(The Male Swimmer is Trunks Boy, and as a similar thing Youngster is Shorts Boy and Lass is Skirt Girl). That's also why the pre-battle and post-battle dialogue of all four of those trainer classes frequently brings up those parts of their designs.
I had no idea of this...it all makes sense now.
It wasn't until Ghetsis's USUM model did I realize that Ghetsis was likely half-paralyzed on his right side (we knew something was up with his right arm, but his USUM model revealed he can't lift the right side of his mouth hinting its the entire right side of his body that may be paralyzed).
Gen 1 and 2 not having version exclusive legendaries. Worse in BW because you want both Thundurus and Tornadus to get Landorus. Honestly I feel we should move away from version exclusivity already. People are teased to buy the same game twice for no good reason and the version differences are hardly worth it.
The games have enough stuff to encourage trading even without these things such as Shiny Pokemon, getting to find a rare item, good iv Pokemon etc.
The games have enough stuff to encourage trading even without these things such as Shiny Pokemon, getting to find a rare item, good iv Pokemon etc.
Gen II's way of doing version exclusivity with the legends is pretty interesting. You still get the opposing legendary in each game, but they'll just be an inferior version of themselves since they won't have their special move (and also Gust and Safeguard, but they won't be missed) and there's no move reminder (except on Stadium); Ho-Oh won't know Sacred Fire in Silver and Lugia won't know Aeroblast in Gold*. Obviously this wouldn't be possible in the modern titles unless they tweaked things so that each legendary was only able to learn its signature move in its own game.
Likewise Gen VII's method was pretty cool too. Restricting the evolution method was a bit harsh but you can still have the opposite mascot with your own ID number with a bit of effort. I quite liked that.
*while Crystal players missed out on both