The upside of them making three Fire/Fighting Starters in a row is that the designs got better with each iteration.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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The upside of them making three Fire/Fighting Starters in a row is that the designs got better with each iteration.
I will say it has the best shiny, by far:
But Infernape is the best designed overall and it's really not even close. Just look at this magnificent bastard with his fiery mane flowing in the wind:
Blaziken's awkward lookin' ass is bringing up the rear for sure:
The first Pokemon I ever said "doesn't look like a Pokemon" when I first saw it as a 10 year old in Ruby version. Even Combusken being shaped like a dick looked less offensive to me.
I will say it has the best shiny, by far:
But Infernape is the best designed overall and it's really not even close. Just look at this magnificent bastard with his fiery mane flowing in the wind:
Blaziken's awkward lookin' ass is bringing up the rear for sure:
The first Pokemon I ever said "doesn't look like a Pokemon" when I first saw it as a 10 year old in Ruby version. Even Combusken being shaped like a dick looked less offensive to me.
Maybe designed is the wrong word. If I didn't know any of them were Fire/Fighting, Emboar is the only one I'd think is a fighting type.
As someone who is a fan of Gen 6 and 7 I don't really care about Pokémon Z or XZ/YZ not existing. (nor have I ever)
I think ORAS were not just remakes of Ruby and Sapphire but the effective upper versions of X and Y, set in a different region. They significantly expanded on Kalos for remakes set in Hoenn and finished off the main lore XY tried to explain. They also had every Pokémon not in XY bar mythicals.
Zygarde's role in particular was able to be showcased in Sun and Moon. Probably in a better and more unique way than it would have if it had its own game in Kalos. I also see Gen 7 as direct sequels to Gen 6 for the many connections they have.
Additionally I'm glad Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were made instead to portray as one big finale of everything in the 3DS era and a celebration of what Pokémon was for the first 20 years. If these games were never made, this would have been missing. Yes one could argue it could have just been Sun/Moon DLC, but every single upper version was like this. Most of them were more egregiously similar to their previous installment and the pair that weren't (B2W2) had more significantly more egregious marketing tactics.
tl;dr: Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Sun/Moon fulfilled everything relevant that Pokémon Z would've realistically done so I don't really care that Pokémon Z was never made.
Lastly while I'm glad Zygarde-Complete made it over to Gen 7 I think it would have made Gen 6 Anything Goes and Gen 6 Pure Hackmons worse with its presence. Gen 7 metas handle Zygarde-Complete's presence a lot more thanks to the loss of Dark Void and the addition of Z-Moves.
Edit: A return to Kalos in the future is still something I'd welcome, w/e that is.
I think ORAS were not just remakes of Ruby and Sapphire but the effective upper versions of X and Y, set in a different region. They significantly expanded on Kalos for remakes set in Hoenn and finished off the main lore XY tried to explain. They also had every Pokémon not in XY bar mythicals.
Zygarde's role in particular was able to be showcased in Sun and Moon. Probably in a better and more unique way than it would have if it had its own game in Kalos. I also see Gen 7 as direct sequels to Gen 6 for the many connections they have.
Additionally I'm glad Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were made instead to portray as one big finale of everything in the 3DS era and a celebration of what Pokémon was for the first 20 years. If these games were never made, this would have been missing. Yes one could argue it could have just been Sun/Moon DLC, but every single upper version was like this. Most of them were more egregiously similar to their previous installment and the pair that weren't (B2W2) had more significantly more egregious marketing tactics.
tl;dr: Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and Sun/Moon fulfilled everything relevant that Pokémon Z would've realistically done so I don't really care that Pokémon Z was never made.
Edit: A return to Kalos in the future is still something I'd welcome, w/e that is.
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I think for me, the only thing I really feel like we missed out on by not having Z was a chance to battle the Kalos Gym Leaders/Elite Four with upgraded teams + Mega Evolutions. (Assuming that’s what they’d have done, but it seems like a no-brainer.) I also wouldn’t have minded getting a few new Megas on top of the ones that ORAS added.
I’m not really fussed about “missing” areas like the other power plants. Hell, for all we know, those weren’t ever meant to serve an actual purpose — even if they had been filled in, they might have just been little miscellaneous info pockets like the Lumiose Museum. Remember how only two of the “empty lots” from Sun & Moon turned out to have any sort of functionality? (Technically you could say it was three, but two of them are Photo Clubs with little differentiation, and either way, the point still stands. I mean, the empty lot in Seafolk didn’t get finished even with a second pass!)
Additionally, I (mostly) like the story of X & Y as it is, so I don’t share the usual view that it needs to be improved upon in any major way. I also detest the idea of “solving” the little minor mysteries that are sprinkled throughout Kalos (like the ghost girl or the “I’m going to get help” message at the train station), because I think such little details are vastly more fun when left open to interpretation.
All in all, a lot of the ideas that I’ve seen people pitch for a Z game either just sort of fall flat with me, or seem too pie-in-the-sky to have ever realistically happened (the fabled Southern Kalos subregion). I think any Z game would’ve been largely what one would expect from a typical Pokémon third version.
You know, something I’ve wondered about for a while is, how much of Zygarde’s form gimmick was determined prior to Gen 7? Because the fact that the datamined Gen 6 origin marks indicate that Z would’ve probably ended up as two versions like B2W2 or USUM makes me curious as to how they would have handled the mascots for those versions. Like, I’m sure that Zygarde would have played a role in such a game, but what if the mascots were like, Mega Xerneas and Mega Yveltal instead?
I say this because, if they’d already worked out that Zygarde was a composite of multiple smaller cells, then I could see a way that they could have retained some variation of the cell hunting quest within a slightly revised, but still broadly identical telling of X & Y’s bifurcated story. What if, much like in Sun & Moon, Dexio and Sina showed up early and, instead of babbling about Fairy types, handed you the Zygarde Cube and introduced you to the mystery of these strange little cells that have been discovered? After you collect 10, you can form a 10% Zygarde which you can add to your team. Then, as you keep progressing through a story that’s basically just X & Y again, you keep collecting cells. At the Team Flare climax, you’ve probably obtained 50 cells, and then the throughline continues into a Delta Episode-esque postgame story to tie up Zygarde’s connection to Kalos’s history? (ORAS basically did a version of this in microcosm with the Mt. Chimney meteorite.)
I know I may as well be writing fanfic at this point, but it’s only because I’m far less curious in imagining what the fandom’s platonic ideal of Z would look like, and more interested in what that game would probably have looked like when brought to you by the same studio that would go on to produce USUM a few years later. After all, we’re talking about a tertiary project that would’ve been assigned to Game Freak’s B-team of younger programmers while Sun & Moon were waist-deep in development. The result, I believe, would not have blown minds.
Seeing that Thousand Waves and Thousand Arrows existed in the coding of Gen VI(But were unobtainable), and Zygarde having the blank slate of a move known as Land's Wrath with the same Power, Accuracy, and PP as them makes me personally believe it would've gotten the Kyurem treatment of version exclusive forms(The nature of said forms however I can't even guess). Depending on the form, Land's Wrath becomes one of the Thousand Moves. I'm guessing Thousand Waves in the X version and Thousand Arrows in Y mostly so that way the latter can hit Yveltal in the invevitable story-based battle(I mean it was given an ability designed to counteract the ones of Xerneas and Yveltal).
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Alright, so that doesn't work.
Would undoing Stat changes if certain conditions were met be considered too OP? My basic thinking, being Normal-type could be considered the "Default" Type, maybe have a trait where they can return a decreased stat back to 0 if the following conditions are met: At the end of the turn, if this Pokemon has a decreased:
- Attack, by using a Physical Move that turn will gain back +1 Attack until back to 0.
- Defense, if it's not attacked by a Physical Move that turn gain back +1 Defense until back to 0.
- Special Attack, by using a Special Move that turn will gain back +1 Special Attack until back to 0.
- Special Defense, if it's not attacked by a Special Move that turn gain back +1 Special Defense until back to 0.
- Accuracy, if it doesn't miss using a Move that targets another Pokemon that turn will gain back +1 Accuracy until back to 0.
- Evasion, if it doesn't get hit by another Pokemon's move that turn will gain back +1 Evasion until back to 0.
- Speed, if this Pokemon increases its Speed stat with a Move, Item, or Ability it'll reset Speed to 0 before the increase is applied.
There's a difference between outsmarting someone and being harmful to them. If just outsmarting them is enough to do SE damage, Fairy would be weak to Psychic-types. Outsmarting a Fairy just means you won't fall into their tricks (in Pokemon terms, be weak against them).
I saw that, I'm just making conversation. If anything, that's the statement I'm confirming with you about.
Who's saying metal isn't natural? Yeah, the metal we usually interact with has been processed, likely mixed with other metals, and manufactured, but it all comes from naturally forming ores we have to mine up. And being Pokemon is a fantasy world, they could make-up that isotopes of "flexible" metals and rocks exist which certain Pokemon have used as a substitute for skin and/or bones (or other body structures).
Funny enough, it still is. Look at several of the new Normal-types and you still see they learn a ton of Elemental Moves. Actually, look at the Gen VII and Gen VIII Normal-types (that are in SV) and you'll discover GF changed their mind about limiting their TM movepool and now they're suddenly just as versatile as all the other Normal-types!
I also sort of remembered that. I tried to look through the edit history to see when it was removed, but from what I can tell it looked to have been a series of edits. They slowly whittled down that introductory paragraph, getting rid of the general/opiniated information & moving battling info into the Offense/Defense subject and anything else interesting into Trivia.
While sad it's gone, I can understand why. As we moved on through the generations GF started introducing Pokemon which were exceptions to perceived established aspects of the Type. Bulba Staffers probably decided it would be too much trouble to keep on adjusting the introductory paragraph every time something which went against the established aspects was introduced. All Fighting-types were martial artists... until they were not. All Dragon-types are super fierce and super powerful... until they were not. Dark-types never had a concrete theme and they only kept introducing more as time went on. The only thing definite was the Type Match-ups and anything else could fit under Trivia, and that's what they did. For anything more specific, well, that's why the individual Pokemon pages exist to explain their behavior and habitat.
They took it from GO:
In the core games, when they have it walking, it's walking like a gorilla should be walking (Vigoroth walks the same way, and I think Slakoth is trying but buddy just wants to slump down and sleep):
Yeah
Totally not Fire/Fighting in some parallel universe. Totally don't learn a batch of Fighting-type Moves.
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Don't know if this is unpopular or not, but it's me rambling too much to be a simple off-hand reply as it started in another thread and I know nothing post-Gen 6 is a strictly-popular opinion anyway.
Me rambling about Kalos-onward Regional gimmicks.
The reason people miss Megas compared to later "Super" mechanics lies in them being more complex mechanically, which even on a surface level is more appealing to players because they can "fix" a Pokemon people like but that has fallen victim to Power Creep (or weren't that strong in the first place at all), as happened with, say, the Kanto Starters, Sableye, Gardevoir, etc. This is on top of the mechanic being designed explicitly around giving the Pokemon unique improvements or design changes, which can let them look higher quality/more personalized than the generic animations non-Unique Z-Moves and Max moves use. They don't immediately strike you with the same level of marketing cynicism even if they obviously serve the same purpose for merch.
Gigantamax and Signature Z-moves sort invoke the latter, but they inherently have to compete with the generic version (and in some cases may not be objective upgrades in the case of Sig Z-moves requiring a specific base move). They give a much more overt sense that they were slapdash throwing the unique instances together based on marketing power with the existing mechanic rather than having to look at and build on a specific facet of the Pokemon as Megas call for.
Megas were cool to a lot of people because they always brought this X-Factor of "oh man they could rework my favorite Pokemon to be viable" on top of the aesthetic appeal of a Super Form/Super move. Also it might be hindsight, but Megas feel a little less cynically distributed: Of the 48 Megas (excluding "Megas but not quite" like Primals and Ash-Greninja), 15 are Kanto, which is sizeable but still a minority, and only 1 is from the introducing Gen (2 if we count the plot important and more Unique Rayquaza) with gens 2-5 being 6/20/5/1. Despite Kanto-Pandering sentiment it's not the majority nor the most populous of the gimmick, so it does feel like there's a mix of marketing push and trying to lift obscure mons/favorites from other entries.
Compare the 32 Gigantamax forms, in which 12 are Kanto Pokemon, 18 definitively Galar Pokemon, then 2 outliers with Garbodor and Melmetal (whose place is sticky since it's first sent to LGPE, featured in the Alolan anime, obtained from Go and Galar DLC where its Gigantamax debuted). This entire gimmick was selling Kanto Pokemon or the hot new Pokemon with one honestly random exception. It feels significantly more focused on the Super Form selling the mons than the Mons showcasing the hype new gimmick when employed this way, on top of it just being a slightly-different version of what is already the most boring Super Gimmick conceptually in Dynamax.
Z-Moves had this aspect to an extent but they were lesser in number and not quite as heavily emphasized by the game world: Z-moves and Crystals are tied to the Island Challenge/Guardians, but mostly in backstory snippets vs the Aether conflict, while Galar's entire World depends on Dynamax for Sport and Energy, with out-of-control Dynamax comprising the climax of both the main and postgame conflict. Mega Evolution was in a similar capacity for Gen 6, with The Ultimate Weapon creating the stones but Megas not themselves being the crux of Lysandre's Plan; ORAS gives them slightly more significance with Mega Rayquaza, but lorewise it behaves differently with the Meteorite and is mostly a power-up for flair on something Rayquaza has already been depicted as capable of (destroying Meteors and curbstomping Deoxys).
I think Terastal's handling is the best they've done with a post-Mega super-gimmick in that regard: the Mechanic is strong but not inherently overpowering (compare Dynamax completely ignoring 90% of mechanics that would slow it down); its in-universe role is acknowledged but clearly not the focus of the characters outside a local phenomena; the mechanic is completely generic so it is not in-itself being used to market popular mons rather than vice versa; it has applications for multiple playstyles and users without being an inherent "more winning" for the good mons (Defensive users like Skeledirge and Garg use it notably, compared to Z-moves being big nukes 90% of the time and the only Defensive-Dynamax use being "not getting stomped by the opponent's Dynamax", still usually on offense-focused Pokemon).
Ever since Gen 7 they've wanted to do "Generic" gimmicks, but until Terastal they clearly weren't willing to commit to totally generalizing them at the expense of "remember how cool [Charizard] is?" and thus had to do signature entries that stick out like a sore thumb on a basically anything besides the gimmick's "progenitor" like Necrozma/Tapus or Eternatus (whose Max form isn't usable and is more intended as a boss anyway). Megas basically represent the "specific/personalized" end of the gimmick spectrum compared to Terastal sitting at the "completely general" side of the scale, rather than the "nearly but not quite" spot in the middle for the other two gimmicks.
tl;dr Megas and Terastal good, Z-moves and Gigantamax dumb.
Me rambling about Kalos-onward Regional gimmicks.
The reason people miss Megas compared to later "Super" mechanics lies in them being more complex mechanically, which even on a surface level is more appealing to players because they can "fix" a Pokemon people like but that has fallen victim to Power Creep (or weren't that strong in the first place at all), as happened with, say, the Kanto Starters, Sableye, Gardevoir, etc. This is on top of the mechanic being designed explicitly around giving the Pokemon unique improvements or design changes, which can let them look higher quality/more personalized than the generic animations non-Unique Z-Moves and Max moves use. They don't immediately strike you with the same level of marketing cynicism even if they obviously serve the same purpose for merch.
Gigantamax and Signature Z-moves sort invoke the latter, but they inherently have to compete with the generic version (and in some cases may not be objective upgrades in the case of Sig Z-moves requiring a specific base move). They give a much more overt sense that they were slapdash throwing the unique instances together based on marketing power with the existing mechanic rather than having to look at and build on a specific facet of the Pokemon as Megas call for.
Megas were cool to a lot of people because they always brought this X-Factor of "oh man they could rework my favorite Pokemon to be viable" on top of the aesthetic appeal of a Super Form/Super move. Also it might be hindsight, but Megas feel a little less cynically distributed: Of the 48 Megas (excluding "Megas but not quite" like Primals and Ash-Greninja), 15 are Kanto, which is sizeable but still a minority, and only 1 is from the introducing Gen (2 if we count the plot important and more Unique Rayquaza) with gens 2-5 being 6/20/5/1. Despite Kanto-Pandering sentiment it's not the majority nor the most populous of the gimmick, so it does feel like there's a mix of marketing push and trying to lift obscure mons/favorites from other entries.
Compare the 32 Gigantamax forms, in which 12 are Kanto Pokemon, 18 definitively Galar Pokemon, then 2 outliers with Garbodor and Melmetal (whose place is sticky since it's first sent to LGPE, featured in the Alolan anime, obtained from Go and Galar DLC where its Gigantamax debuted). This entire gimmick was selling Kanto Pokemon or the hot new Pokemon with one honestly random exception. It feels significantly more focused on the Super Form selling the mons than the Mons showcasing the hype new gimmick when employed this way, on top of it just being a slightly-different version of what is already the most boring Super Gimmick conceptually in Dynamax.
Z-Moves had this aspect to an extent but they were lesser in number and not quite as heavily emphasized by the game world: Z-moves and Crystals are tied to the Island Challenge/Guardians, but mostly in backstory snippets vs the Aether conflict, while Galar's entire World depends on Dynamax for Sport and Energy, with out-of-control Dynamax comprising the climax of both the main and postgame conflict. Mega Evolution was in a similar capacity for Gen 6, with The Ultimate Weapon creating the stones but Megas not themselves being the crux of Lysandre's Plan; ORAS gives them slightly more significance with Mega Rayquaza, but lorewise it behaves differently with the Meteorite and is mostly a power-up for flair on something Rayquaza has already been depicted as capable of (destroying Meteors and curbstomping Deoxys).
I think Terastal's handling is the best they've done with a post-Mega super-gimmick in that regard: the Mechanic is strong but not inherently overpowering (compare Dynamax completely ignoring 90% of mechanics that would slow it down); its in-universe role is acknowledged but clearly not the focus of the characters outside a local phenomena; the mechanic is completely generic so it is not in-itself being used to market popular mons rather than vice versa; it has applications for multiple playstyles and users without being an inherent "more winning" for the good mons (Defensive users like Skeledirge and Garg use it notably, compared to Z-moves being big nukes 90% of the time and the only Defensive-Dynamax use being "not getting stomped by the opponent's Dynamax", still usually on offense-focused Pokemon).
Ever since Gen 7 they've wanted to do "Generic" gimmicks, but until Terastal they clearly weren't willing to commit to totally generalizing them at the expense of "remember how cool [Charizard] is?" and thus had to do signature entries that stick out like a sore thumb on a basically anything besides the gimmick's "progenitor" like Necrozma/Tapus or Eternatus (whose Max form isn't usable and is more intended as a boss anyway). Megas basically represent the "specific/personalized" end of the gimmick spectrum compared to Terastal sitting at the "completely general" side of the scale, rather than the "nearly but not quite" spot in the middle for the other two gimmicks.
tl;dr Megas and Terastal good, Z-moves and Gigantamax dumb.
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I really like your overall analysis, but I feel compelled to quibble with this point a little bit. I think Megas mostly benefit from hindsight in this regard, as there definitely was a “Kanto pandering” sentiment from fans around Megas at first, what with the Gen 1 Starters getting Megas but not the Gen 6 Starters, and with two of those Gen 1 Pokémon getting two different Megas on top of that. They absolutely leaned into the whole “Remember how cool Charizard is?” shtick, seeing as how Venusaur and Blastoise each only got one Mega, while Charizard got an entirely separate, wish-fulfillment badass black dragon Mega that saw an entire animated special dedicated to its reveal. (Funny enough, signature Z-Moves passed Charizard right over.) And Kanto Pokémon did have the majority share of Mega distribution at first (in XY, the breakdown was 12/5/8/3, or 12/5/10/3 if you count the datamined Latis), but of course, that perception could only exist before ORAS were released, and wouldn’t be in most peoples’ minds today.
I don't think anyone would deny there was at least some level of Kanto bias in who got Megas (many of them kinda needed them anyway), but I think the prevailing point (and what I think pika pal is getting at) is that regardless, Megas still had a decently fair share of distribution among the generations: Johto and Hoenn still got a pretty good share of the pie in terms of Megas, and they even went and gave a few to some Sinnoh mons, even if one of them was Lucario. In that sense, while there was some Kanto bias, back when they gave Megas they still gave Megas to more old-gen mons than just Kanto. The breakdown of 12/5/8/3 in XY specifically doesn't give Kanto a significant edge in terms of distribution over the other generations that got Megas: Johto and Sinnoh had a smaller amount of Pokemon than Kanto did and they got a relatively decent share of Megas proportional to the number of mons each generation had. 8 Hoenn mons getting them in XY, 10 if you count the Latias, is a good proportion of Hoenn Megas for instance, relative to the 135 total mons Hoenn had, making it similar in proportion to Kanto which had 151 mons, same with Johto and Sinnoh which had 100 and 107 new mons (if you exclude cross-gen evos from Sinnoh's roster than it's even smaller).
Moreover, even then the Mega Evolutions were oftentimes a mere bonus. The Kanto starters got Megas, and Charizard did get 2 (I like Charizard so I personally don't mind it got 2 Megas, one of them being a Dragon-type which is my favorite type), but in-game they were more of a bonus than anything so they didn't stand out that much. Heck, as far as Megas you face as opponents in-game, most of them aren't Kanto Pokemon: Diantha the Champion had her ace as a Mega Gardevoir, and Gardevoir is a Gen 3 Pokemon. The Pokemon that introduces the player to the concept of Mega Evolution is Lucario, who is a Gen 4 Pokemon. Your rival's Mega in the post-game is a Mega Absol, who like Gardevoir is a Gen 3 Pokemon. The only Kanto Mega you face as an opponent is Gyarados from Lysandre, and that's Gyarados, not Charizard for instance.
And among the few Megas who were usable on an in-game playthrough, aside from Kanto trio and Lucario, you could use Mega Ampharos (Gen 2 mon) and Mega Abomasnow (Gen 4 mon) in-game.
Z-Moves and Gigantamax forms, instead of toning down on Kanto, chose to double down on Kanto pandering even harder to a point where the Kanto bias with signature Z-Moves and Gigantamax is even more notable. Signature Z-Moves were pretty much entirely given to Kanto mons barring the Alola starters in SM, even if the OG Kanto starter trio was skipped over, while only a select few Alola mons would get them later. Gigantamax was even more egregious, in that aside from the fact that the old-gen roster of mons who got G-Maxes was not only almost entirely Gen 1 mons, several Kanto mons ended up being aces of Galar Gym Leaders to show off G-Max. Bea and Allister had Machamp and Gengar respectively as aces. Melony has a Lapras as her ace. And of course the Charizard pandering was at its worst in SwSh because not only was Charizard the only one of the three to get a Gigantamax at all at first (Charizard may have gotten 2 Megas back in XY, but Venusaur and Blastoise still got Megas apiece from the get-go), they went as far as to make Charizard the Champion's ace Pokemon. Leon is basically a Charizard shill character to the max (even if I do like him a lot as a Champion and as a character). They gave a special G-Max form only to Charizard at first and then proceeded to make an entire character who served as a Charizard shill, and said character was also the Champion of the region.
Like yes, there's a bit of hindsight benefit there, but while Megas aren't totally innocent of Kanto bias they still gave love to Kanto in a relatively healthy manner while still throwing some bones to the other old generations at the time. Even ORAS threw some more bones to Johto, Sinnoh, and even one to a Gen 5 mon. Both games gave all the old generations a share of the pie in terms of Megas.
Z-Moves and G-Max on the other hand chose to double-down on Kanto bias completely to the point where the Kanto pandering with them is much, much more blatant. Especially since Alola and Galar as a whole chose to double down on Kanto pandering harder with Galar having its three most popular Pokemon in-universe be literally Kanto mons, many of its Gym Leaders and even its Champion have Gen 1 mons as their ace, the Champion in particular having Charizard as his ace, and meanwhile Alola has many of its HM ride mons literally be Kanto mons (yes, Charizard may not have gotten a signature Z-Move but it was used as the Fly bot in-universe in Alola), all of its regional forms back then (the other new concept Alola had) were from Gen 1, and the player character in the Alola games is literally from Kanto. So in those cases the Kanto pandering sticks out so much more because it comes at the complete expense of both other older regions and even Alola and Galar themselves in some ways.
Gen 7 is a great game
The Ultra Games weren't unnecessary and fun to replay through the region
The Ultra Games weren't unnecessary and fun to replay through the region
I think we already reached a point that GF realized they gone too far and ended up dialing back with the Kanto bias in base SV.
Yes, the Charmender line being the only Kanto starter being returning via transfer is a big deal in a bad way, but it’s not even the only of the trio, and so far the Charmender line got nothing new except a timed event this time; Cyndaquil line, Oshawott line and Rowlet line are also only line of their original starter trio that will be transferable, which is thanks to their final form having Hisuian form to begin with.
Tauros kind of clutching with three breeds of Paldean forms, but it does have real life basis of multiple species of bull in Spain. Other than that, the Kanto bias wasn’t really on-the-nose, and if anything, both Johto and Unova (moreso the former) managed to overshadow it in terms of new stuff throughout 2022.
- Kanto: Two new cross-gen evos, three lines of regional forms, and only two Paradox counterparts. It got compensation with two new convergent Pokémon based of Diglett line and Tentacool line, and about Paldean Tauros breeds I said earlier.
- Johto: A whopping four cross-gen evos (plus one for Hisuian Qwilfish and another for Paldean Wooper), four lines of regional forms, and five Paradox counterparts. That’s a lot!
- Unova: Only one new cross-gen evo (for a Pokémon we aren’t even expecting to get one), four lines regional forms, White-Stripe Basculin and Basculegion that are also considered a Hisuian form and regional evolution respectively by Pokémon TCG and other official medias, and four Paradox counterparts.
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USUM fixed my biggest problem with SM, which was that the UBs were too cool to not have any opportunity to use them ingame. If only they kept that lesson in mind when handling the Paradox mons in SV...
Best part is they're not even the final titans, so you still have opportunities to use them.
The Kanto pandering makes sense in Sun and Moon because they're anniversary games, but I'm now convinced that Leon's ace being Charizard was an elaborate joke. (Also, what are the three most popular Pokémon in Galar in-universe?)
Charizard, Gengar, and Machamp. This factoid comes up if you interact with the posters of those three on the wall of Hop’s bedroom.
Paradox mons. I used 3 UBs in my first USun playthrough.
Best part is they're not even the final titans, so you still have opportunities to use them.
Why was USM necessary ?
After watching Journeys I speculate that the Masters 8 and Ash retiring were put in mind when deciding Leon's ace.
I didn't say necessary, I said not unnecessary. They were fun games and also fixed some of the issues with the previous games and *should* have let GF develop the next games more (yeah idk what happened with sw/sh)
I mentioned this in another post, I am convinced giving Leon a Charizard to be beaten by Pikachu for the big win was SOMEBODY holding a grudge for Kanto's League (for reference, Ritchie's Pikachu from the infamous Charizard match-up is nicknamed "Leon" in the Japanese version)
Apologies for Double-Posting but it's been a day without a new one made and this doesn't fit with my last reply to edit in.
Koraidon running instead of "biking" is charming and a better animation than actually having him use Wheels. Cyclizar, the "present" counterpart to the Bikes, even moves the same way. Koraidon is also very Dinosaur-esque, and for all the Flintstones comparisons, the Feet-Powered Car thing was still just done with vehicles, rather than Koraidon clearly being a creature mount that would more accurately compare to the Appliances or "machinery" in that show's setting.
Also might just be me but Koraidon's running works better for a visual sense of momentum. Something about Miraidon's speed and how the wheels are animated make it feel slower than it actually is.
Koraidon running instead of "biking" is charming and a better animation than actually having him use Wheels. Cyclizar, the "present" counterpart to the Bikes, even moves the same way. Koraidon is also very Dinosaur-esque, and for all the Flintstones comparisons, the Feet-Powered Car thing was still just done with vehicles, rather than Koraidon clearly being a creature mount that would more accurately compare to the Appliances or "machinery" in that show's setting.
Also might just be me but Koraidon's running works better for a visual sense of momentum. Something about Miraidon's speed and how the wheels are animated make it feel slower than it actually is.