Continuing from my
Last Post, let's finish what's on the
News page:
Region of Paldea:
Got the region's name finally, Paldea. Seen several suggestions of what its etymology is, most agree the "-aldea" part is from the Spanish word, well, "Aldea" which means "Village". Where the "P" comes from is where there's a few suggestions. "Pal" (as in a friend) is the surface level suggestion, though there's others like "Pueblo" which means "Town" (matching with Aldea's definition), "Paideia" which means "Education/Learning", and there's also "Pangea" to go with the past/future theme (technically "Pangea" is the name of the previous supercontinent but you get the point).
Adding my two cents, I decided to look up some Spanish anagrams of "Paldea". Most obvious in both English and Spanish is the word "Pedal", which could relate to the Mascot Legendaries being motorcycles (and maybe possibly one of the storylines?). Three other words which stand out to me is "Apelad/Apelda/Apela" which means "Appeal", "Pelada/Pelad/Pela" which means "Peeled", and "Palea/Pala" which means "Shovel".
I'll take a closer look at the map later since by not everyone else has and found the most interesting features (like where all the Gyms are).
"Treasure Hunt" & Three Stories:
Getting into the story, all trainers at the school will be given independent study assignment called the "Treasure Hunt" where you're sent out to the Paldea region to find something to accomplish. So, no Pokemon critics, my character isn't skipping school because it's something mom saw on TV/the Professor asked me to complete the Dex, I'm actually on a school assignment this time!
While the "Treasure Hunt" itself is vague, we are told there's three main stories that the player can participate in on and do in any order we like. However for right now we're only told one of them and it's of course the Pokemon League Challenge. Before looking into that though, we're POSSIBLY shown two things which relate to the other two. One image I can only explain as a hot rod delivery van with speakers on the side; with the Mascot Legendaries being motorcycles your ride around maybe one story involves traversing the region and maybe racing. The other image is the player and one of the friends/rivals(?) looking at a crystal flower; guessing this one is going to be about learning about the region, possibly helping the version exclusive Professor in your game.
Pokemon League Challenge, you know the deal: there's 8 Gyms. BUT, to stick with the open world theme, they're finally letting us challenge the Gyms in any order we want! We're told we can just challenge the Gyms as we come across them or purposely seek out the stronger Gym Leaders... which is a but odd suggestion. Like, sure, you can challenge the stronger Gyms first, but wouldn't the more logical suggestion be challenging the Gyms you have the advantage over first? Makes me curious if there's a reason you'd want to face the Gyms which for your would be a tougher challenge, like since you're battling them early they're not as strong thus not have to worry about later. I'm not going to speculate how they decided to do the Leveling progression, with the open nature it seems like having set levels may not be the way to go and have a way for the game to adapt the Gym Leader's Pokemon to be worthy challenges.
Interestingly they're calling the order we choose our own "Victory Road", which makes me wonder if there's no actual Victory Road? No final dungeon, which may make sense with how they seem to be handling the Pokemon League: Once we get all the Badges we're not challenging a Pokemon League per se but rather being allowed to take the "Champion Assessment". If we pass the assessment we're given the "Champion Rank", so it doesn't even sound like there's a singular Champion, as in a singular trainer who is considered the strongest in all of Paldea, this time around! The Champion Assessment is likely going to be a series of battles equivalent to the "Elite Four" & final "Champion" battle. But, sticking with the multiple stories feature, getting the Champion Rank is far from the end (unless you decide to make it the end).
Oh, and here's the symbol for the Pokemon League, I'm guessing it's shaped like the mountains we saw the Mascot Legendaries atop of?
Customization:
One last thing before moving onto the new Characters and Pokemon (I don't really have anything to say about the Union Circle, it's the multiplayer component and I guess I look forward to using it), they make a quick mention of some additional customization options: We can now change the shape of our eyes and mouths. I guess that's nice, not really the customization options which I think needed focusing on (like if you want our in-game character to more resemble us give us a more full range of skin colors; maybe let us slightly adjust height and weight; actually does anyone really make their in-game character look like them aside having the same skin color?).
Also it implies that, no matter what clothing we get, it's going to be some kind of school uniform. The trailers having all the characters stick to a school uniform wasn't just to stick to the school theme. It specifically mentions the base uniform has four styles, but I imagine different patterns and accessories that can be put over it like jackets will give the player some more room to customize. A bit disappointing, but school rules or school rules. Also, bottom pick hint of a photo mode?
CHARACTERS:
We got introduced to 5 new characters. Not going to go over what the site says about them, just gonna give my quick general opinions:
- Director Clavell: Poor guy is already being labelled as the twist villain, lol. I like that his blazer color changes with what Academy is in the game you go to (BTW nothing to really say about the Academies, at least not from what's shown on the site). Thought the Professor was going to be in charge of the school, like Clavell feels like they're splitting off something the Professors could have done and worried they may be spreading character roles thin. Like is he going to serve any significant role outside of the Academy after sending everyone off on the Treasure Hunt, and is it a role that couldn't been handled by another existing character?
- Jacq: Interesting that so far we've only seen a "Violet" version of Jacq, or does he just not have a "Scarlet" version (and there's another teacher who's wearing mostly orange). Unlike Clavell, Jacq feels like a needed character as the Professor isn't going to every student's homeroom teacher, if any at all. Though yet again Jacq takes something away from the Professors, he's the one who developed the Pokedex App for the Rotom Phone. Now I'm starting to wonder if it isn't Clavell who feels unnecessary but the Professors themselves. Clavell runs the school, Jacq developed the Pokedex, Professors what do YOU do at the school and in the game aside giving out the Starter (something which another character like Clavell could have handled)?
- Arven & Penny: Three stories means three friends/rivals. Nemona looks to be the rival for the Pokemon League Story; makes sense as she's a good battler. Arven is the friend/rival seen with the player looking at the crystal flower in the story that I speculate is about helping the Professors research Paldea's history (if they even do that); sounds fitting as he sounds & looks like someone who knows how to survive out in the wild (though is gonna need someone to bail him out when he angers a territorial Pokemon). That just leaves Penny and whatever story the hot rod delivery van is a part of; she's at least dressed the part of a "wild rebel" character though not quite the personality so we'll see what's that about (so are we taking bets that she's hiding a Legendary Pokemon in her Eevee backpack?).
- Grusha: How did it take this long to get an Ice-type Gym Leader, let alone Specialist, who is an athlete in a snow sport? We've had a scholar, old man, noblewoman, school girl, actor, sea captain, and celebrity mom... an odd list of Ice-type specialists with only a few having a weak connection to ice/cold. But better late then never I suppose. Looks to fit the part, hair certainly looks like you could snowboard off it. Now is he hiding his face behind his scarf because he's cold or is he hiding something, maybe something relating to him having retired from snowboarding? Or it could be a design gimmick where, once he gets fired up during a battle, he reveals his full "game" face.
POKEMON:
And that just leaves the new Pokemon... oh I wish. I think for right now I'll finish on my opinion of the Pokemon. I'll take a look at everyone's comments tomorrow (as well as comb through some additional stuff like the new trailer, map, GamExplain videos, and other little articles here and there).
- Paldean Wooper: Of all the Pokemon to get a skull-and-crossbones motif, Wooper was not on my radar. An interesting choice to say the least, especially since the decision to do this likely came from normal Wooper apparently covering itself with a poisonous film while on land which causes paralysis when touched (Wooper did get some Poisonous moves, including Toxic, via TM, with them adding Toxic to its movepool in Gen VII). It's simple with a few changes but enough to get the change across (and keep it looking cute, though you probably don't want to touch it anymore. I especially like making its belly stripes look like a spine & rib cage). However there's one major thing I noticed: even though it lost its Water-type it still retains Water Absorb, meaning despite being Ground-type it's not weak to Water! It's the only Pokemon with Water Absorb to have that distinction, pretty neat and adds a level of mind games... if for some reason you want to play one with Poison Point. Okay, maybe a better analysis would be it makes it a nice switch-in to Water-types. So question is does it still evolve into a Quagsire, and if it does then does that Quagsire evolve...
- Fidough: People who hate pun names are gonna hate this gen, lol. Also, are like all pastry & sweets Pokemon now Fairy-types? Okay, strange subcategory for Fairies, unless this is suppose to all lead up to a Tooth Fairy Pokemon. It's cute, its a puppy Pokemon so certainly going to evolve. Speculation is into a cocker spaniel or possibly pug. Though so far all the sweets-based Pokemon needed a gimmick to evolve: Swirlix needed a held item & traded, Milcery needed a held item & player to spin around in place at a certain time, so I can only assume Fidough is going to need a held item (maybe a roller that looks like a bone) and require the player to ride around on the Mascot Legendary when its hot out (but depending on whether you were on land, water, or flying will evolve it into a certain form, each based on a different breed of dog)!
- Cetitan: It wasn't until I checked the site did I learn what it was, a whale. That walks. Huh. Bulbapedia suggests it might be based on a modern Japanese cryptid (as in it was made up on a Japanese forum, similar to Slenderman) called a Ningen, an arctic creature that's all white and is just a head & two feet (and was reportedly "discovered" by a whale research ship. Works for me, otherwise I have no idea what its walking. Aside from that its also based on several arctic whales, the spikes possibly inspired by the Narwhal's tusk horn; which if true is disappointing as the Narwhal's tusk is pretty much a natural spear... and instead of working off that idea they shorten it to horn stubs *SIGH*.
HOLD ON A MOMENT! I just noticed it's height and weight. nearly 15 feet and 1,500 pounds?! That's longer/bigger than Dragonair, Palkia, normal Kyogre, Altered Girarina, & Zygarde Complete! And that's heavier than Heatran, Regigigas, Snorlax, Avalugg, Metagross, Zygarde Complete, Giratina, Copperajah, & Dialga! Meanwhile, this is how they presented it:
GF, you FAIL at perspective (okay, to be fair, upon closer look the right image does make it look out to be big, certainly bigger than a person... BUT not 15 feet and 1.5k pounds big).
But of course people aren't talking about the bizarre size & scale discrepancy. No, we're once again talking about how GF had made ANOTHER MIGHTY GLACIER ICE-TYPE. Slow, bulky, and of a Type that does NOT support that type of playstyle. Like, did the Sneasel family sign a contract where it can be the only speedy Ice-type? Oh wait, can't overlook Cetitan, a giant heavy whale walking on stubby feet, for some reason gets the Slush Rush Ability. Surely if they gave it that Ability it'll have a decent Speed stat, right? Ha, so the slowest fully evolved Pokemon to have Slush Rush is Beartic which is 50. BUT THERE'S MORE! The slowest Pokemon to have a Speed Doubling Ability goes to Sunflora who has Chlorophyll and a brisk Speed of 30. Why it makes Carracosta which has Swift Swim look like a speed demon with a Speed of 32. So, yeah, just having a Speed boosting Ability doesn't mean they're going to give it good Speed.
I guess it still looks neat. Guessing it either has a prevo or just doesn't evolve. I'm actually more learning toward the latter and that's because it's seemingly Grusha's Ace. My reasoning is that, since the Gyms can be battled in any order, at the very least for this gen where it's being done the first time (thus figuring out how to do a system to make the Gym's challenging), they would want the Gym Leader's Pokemon (or at least their Ace) to remain consistent as possible.
That's all from me for now, tomorrow I'll go through comments first so I can stop being like 10+ pages behind on what everyone else is chatting about.
