I think in time you’ll appreciate that it’s actually crafted rather well - in particular that it is meant to hark back to Dragonair quite explicitly but if you look closer, you’ll see a few specific callbacks to Dratini as well.
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Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
There was also no field to configure a held item, and you have to expect those to be usable at some point (at least for Mega Stones, and if Z-Moves end up existing in the game they'll need it too). Even on Pokemon you import from Home, they won't be able to take items with them, so some way of originating the items within Champions.
i see mega dragonite is grounded in gouging fire's "stick some shit on its head and call it a day" design philosophy. insane fumble imo!
Yeah in the box screen they even have a held items button akin to moving held items in boxes. I totally forgot to mention that lol. So yeah that does make me think that maybe stuff like PP Ups are in some other menu or an unlock.
One thing's for certain: If you get all the DLC packs, you have Pokemon Friends with benefits (or, if you prefer, Pokemon Friends EX).
Unrelated to your post, but these two PC Boxes (specifically the UI and all that stuff) give me the same kind of vibes. I guess that checks out knowing who worked on this game. (Picture taken from Serebii)
Technically according to the Gen 3 decompilation the nature boosts are just stored as arrays determining which stat to buff and debuff, with the neutral natures being all 0s, so there's no mechanical implications other than their order.
https://github.com/pret/pokeemerald...e273afd1788a47ea318c885b5/src/pokemon.c#L1365
https://legends.pokemon.com/en-us/news/adventure
The Legends Z-A website has updated its adventure page as well, showing new screenshots of the Pokedex UI, move learning (similar UI to PLA, Tepig learns Ember at level 6), evolution, and details on obtaining Mega Stones through the Stone Emporium (which contains Evolution stones and "other related items") or trading Mega Shards at Quasartico.
The Presents's overview also showed a quest mechanic, with a hint at 20:10 before it was introduced of an earlier quest about surveying Wild Zone 9 at level 2 advanced by catching a Mawile. This seems like a pretty early point story-wise with the next shot showing the player advancing to rank Y, but the mid-30 levels feel like they fit about the midgame.
Mawile seems to evade damage from Earth Power mid-Double Team animation, potentially similar to Protect but without a successful protection message. Afterwards Crunch executes quickly before Numel's Lava Plume starting at about the same time. Crunch and Iron Defense are marked with the C+ icon while Double Team and Iron Head are not.
The Whirlpool TM is 20 BP (described as an AOE that causes continual damage) and noted to have a cooldown of 7 (seconds?) and is TM070. Before that the Fangs are received at levels 5-6-7, so light coverage seems to be available early in the track, depending on how much you pursue it I suppose.
Dragonite's moves are shown for a brief moment (22:23) as Focus Blast/Extreme Speed (C+)/Outrage/Draco Meteor. The confusion status is shown as a result of Outrage. The NPC Krookodile uses a C+ Crunch.
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Hate to be negative, but I personally wasn't that happy when Champions was revealed, and now probably even less so. I just cannot see a world where this game won't lead to an eventual DMCA of Showdown. Like call me crazy, but it's actually insane to me how confident some people online are about how Showdown won't get touched. "Oh but they have the agreement! Showdown Devs and TPC acknowledge each other!!!!" Let's be real, that doesn't mean shit. TPC is notorious for going after fangames and romhacks, why wouldn't they do the same for much bigger project that is quite literally a direct competitor to their brand-new game coming out. Hell, its pretty unlikely that Champions will come nearly as close to Showdown in terms of the metagames that can be played on it, and that's easily the best justification for them to take it down once Champions comes out. And what a loss that would be. Usage stats, lack of extensions, oldgen formats, other metagames, the OU-PU system practically being forced back to a viability tiering system, CAP metagame etc. At best, I could potentially see them adding RandBats, but even that is super doubtful. And yeah the animations are cool and flashy, but they'll inevitably drag out 6v6 battles to hell.
All this and they're being coy about how the game will be monetized? Victory Points can't be directly purchased with money, but that could easily mean anything from "The game is free but we'll have a battlepass that is effectively required to gain lots of victory points" to just having purchasing an in-game currency ala gems like in Clash of Clans and then using that to buy Victory Points. Bleh. I don't think that would happen, but I can't say its not an unreasonable fear.
And if they DMCA showdown, that will likely be that. The Pokemon fanbase is way too large and its competitive scene way too small for anyone to kick up a fuss to get TPC to listen. And even if there could be a controversy, the Pokemon fandom is like the worst at boycotting bad decisions. SV managed to be some of the best selling games, and they were literally unfinished. At best, I think you'd see some casuals shrug and say the decision is justified because Champions is a direct competitor or w.e. And even though Showdown is open-source, you still gotta pay for servers and have active devs, and I highly doubt that most of the main devs live in a country that doesn't respect copyright.
Can at least be happy for the VGC bros, but me personally, I'm not happy.
Also about the Mega Dragonite hate. I personally can't see it. I think most of the megas are literally just "the Pokemon but bigger/more shit on them". I don't think Mega Dragonite is any more egregious in that regard in comparison to say Mega Charizard Y which is literally Charizard with Spikes. Maybe I'm biased cuz I like the Nite tho.
All this and they're being coy about how the game will be monetized? Victory Points can't be directly purchased with money, but that could easily mean anything from "The game is free but we'll have a battlepass that is effectively required to gain lots of victory points" to just having purchasing an in-game currency ala gems like in Clash of Clans and then using that to buy Victory Points. Bleh. I don't think that would happen, but I can't say its not an unreasonable fear.
And if they DMCA showdown, that will likely be that. The Pokemon fanbase is way too large and its competitive scene way too small for anyone to kick up a fuss to get TPC to listen. And even if there could be a controversy, the Pokemon fandom is like the worst at boycotting bad decisions. SV managed to be some of the best selling games, and they were literally unfinished. At best, I think you'd see some casuals shrug and say the decision is justified because Champions is a direct competitor or w.e. And even though Showdown is open-source, you still gotta pay for servers and have active devs, and I highly doubt that most of the main devs live in a country that doesn't respect copyright.
Can at least be happy for the VGC bros, but me personally, I'm not happy.
Also about the Mega Dragonite hate. I personally can't see it. I think most of the megas are literally just "the Pokemon but bigger/more shit on them". I don't think Mega Dragonite is any more egregious in that regard in comparison to say Mega Charizard Y which is literally Charizard with Spikes. Maybe I'm biased cuz I like the Nite tho.
Interesting how the Mega Shards(?) are pink like Diancie. I don't think Diancie was ever explicitly tied to powering Mega Evolution lorewise like Terapagos was to Tera.The Legends Z-A website has updated its adventure page as well, showing new screenshots of the Pokedex UI, move learning, evolution, and details on obtaining Mega Stones through the Stone Emporium (which contains Evolution stones and "other related items") or trading Mega Shards at Quasartico.
Also just good for implying Diancie could be available to the game natively and not just as an event.
No shot they actually try to actively kill Showdown. PR disaster waiting to happen considering the subset of the audience they're trying to market this to. They'll probably go the Konami route and just ignore the fan sims while trying to make the official one as appealing as possible.
Gotta be real with you here, I can only imagine this kind of statement being a net negative on the quality of Pokémon discourse. If we get to a point where people are saying “Was this Pokémon generated with AI?” even though we know Game Freak have a whole team of experienced artists, we’re cooked.
“They’re running out of ideas” was always a lazy hyperbolic response to not liking Pokémon designs, but at least it wasn’t full-on conspiratorial…
Hell, Mega Dragonite ain’t even the first Pokémon to have a giant pair of wings sticking out of its head:
Would it be that big of a PR disaster? I kind of don't think so. Like yeah there will be people speaking out about the shutdown, but I fully expect the response to be something more akin to that of the response to "Free Melee" or smth like that. Like I fully envision most casuals going "Oh yeah, that's sad but what did they expect. Ofc they were going to take down Showdown cuz of Champions" in much the same manner that people were responding to FreeMelee when that occurred.
I definitely think Wolfe Glick and other big VGC creators would speak out about it, but would they commit to an active boycott of Champions? I don't think so (nor would I expect them too cuz its their career lol). Call me a doomer, but I just cannot see any active form of protest against a Showdown DMCA being sustained for very long especially when Gamefreak is providing a direct competitor. And yeah this game is targetted for VGC folks, but it's also targetted at casuals who want to do quick Pokemon battles on their phones, the type of person who is very unlikely to be invested in such a protest.
Also, I think TPC is uniquely more litigious than Konami in both Japan and America and has way less to lose from doing a DMCA given how more widespread and casual the Pokemon fanbase is in comparison to any of the Konami ones.
it can never just be "I don't like this design", it's always gotta be something insidious.
Not to mention Dragonair's wings extending out
Honestly first thing I thought of when I saw the giant headwings was the end of the second pikachu short, to the point where in my mind dragonair's wings from this scene were exactly as big and not just slightly larger
Wow I hate this game now
Yes I know we had this discourse already but I am seeing this again so I am hating it again
Level 13 Chikorita is shown with Tail Whip/Leafage/Razor Leaf/Disarming Voice. Most of these moves were seen before but Tail Whip is a new sight (and also new on Chikorita, who normally learns Growl instead.)
The other Chikorita image from the last news update has it at Level 15 with Leech Seed instead.
Tepig learns Ember at level 6.
https://legends.pokemon.com/en-us/news/adventure-in-style
Scyther was mentioned in trailer text as the Furfrou trimmer, but the website shows it in person and claims "[by] practicing these cuts enough times, the Scyther at the shop will learn how to trim more difficult styles." The first 6 trims are shown as unlocked in the trailer, with at least La Reine/Kabuki/Pharaoh unavailable at that point.
The camera feature seems to be inheriting the filters and music/radio additions from SV's DLC as shown in the top left, as well as emotes/poses as seen.
Yes we also have these benches in Britain and it’s annoying to see them used in the game.
Wow I hate this game now
Yes I know we had this discourse already but I am seeing this again so I am hating it again
I'd say that the pre-order and launch sales have minimal connection with the actual polish of the game. That's at the point where the only things the public knows are what GF wants them to.
I don't know, there feels like there's quite a big difference between all of them.
Colress was never chased after. At the end of B2W2 I'd assume once Colress was done what he wanted to do at the P2 Lab he either sailed off on the Plasma Frigate or abandoned it to rid himself of any physical connection with Team Plasma. Likely the only thing that could incriminate him for crimes committed by Team Plasma is testimony by any grunts who were arrested, though it seemed like most if not all of them also escaped after Ghetsis was defeated. So at least for Colress he got away scot free. And when we see him again in Alola he still looks to be doing his own thing, like I'm still not completely sure if he's directly working with the Aether Foundation or is just visiting them as a fellow Pokemon scientist; eitherway he's likely not going to be staying in Alola long.
Zinzolin, Rood, and presumably the other Sages (not counting Ghetsis of course) willfully surrendered once Looker caught up to them and all likely plead they were tricked by Ghetsis into believing they were saving Pokemon. While they probably did serve some time, I can see them getting parole as they likely would have told all they knew about Ghetsis who Interpol would really want being the mastermind. The Sages we don't see probably went on to do some self-discovery in other Regions, Rood decided to stay in Unova and help the grunts serving for their crimes in Driftveil (under the watch of Clay), and finally Zinzolin grew a twisted curiosity about how the world would change under Team Plasma so joined Ghetsis again in B2W2. And at the end of that game, after learning what he wanted about the Abyssal Ruins, Zinzolin finally gives up on Team Plasma and vanishes to elsewhere.
As for Mable, she and the other Flare Scientists were fully aware of Lysandre's plans to commit GLOBAL genocide, willing and were using their knowledge & skills to obtain resources and create the machines needed to do this. And all throughout they were not the least bit sorry, infact they were pretty gleeful thinking they were going to be some of the last humans alive and immortal. We don't know what happened to them after Lysandre fires the Ultimate Weapon onto himself, it's presumed they all fled as we learn interpol was after members of Team Flare (and if Xerosic had any clue where they were he probably would have told them as part of his agreement with Looker to exonerate Emma; Malva may be the only member of Team Flare who got away likely due to her agreement with Looker). And now we've just learned that Mabel is the acting director of the Lumiose Lab. Now I'm not saying villain can't redeem themselves and obtain important positions, BUT last we saw of Mabel she was guilty of a super serious crime against humanity, Pokemon, & nature and showed no signs of remorse. She nor the other female Flare Scientists get a free pass.
So, I would just like for GF to include what happened between XY and LZA that Mabel went from convict-at-large to director (and possibly Professor replacement?) of Lumiose Lab.
I can understand being upset at a Pokemon design you've imagined looking cool and then GF creates it and its something ridiculous. It does indeed feel like as Pokemon gets older that GF's design philosophies for every new Gen starts to feel stretched out (especially because we now know they purposely try to ignore copying fanart to the extent that, even if the artist created a design in their own bubble, if a fan artist came up with a similar idea they'll likely veto the design especially if its for a popular Pokemon). However, I feel saying they used AI art is going a bridge too far. They're so concerned with not copying fanart, yet they're going to use a tool that searches the web for things like fanart to make a design? Doesn't make sense (sadly I can't say it's impossible or will never happen, I just hope & assume that at least the current Pokemon designers have dignity in what they can come up with on their own, even if I don't like it). And honestly, look up "Mega Dragonite" on Google, and you'll quickly see that if they had used AI to design it that it would be overdesigned as heck.
Of course, going back to the issue of them not wanting to accidentally copy fanart, I do feel Mega Dragonite is a victim of that. It's design is super plain, and if you look at Mega Dragonite fanart you'll notice that the idea of it having wings and a tail orb like Dragonair is a common idea among them. I wonder if what may have happened is that they too wanted to do the regaining of Dragonair's wings & orb(s), maybe made a more complicated design, but then compared it to fanart and stripped away details. And what was left was just a Dragonite with giant fluffy ear wings (which, while referencing Dragonair's wings, look distinctly different as all the fan artists had wings more resembling Dragonair's), a single giant pearl at the end of its tail (cause fan artists gave it a whole batch more), and slapped on some small wings on its shoulder & legs so its body changed in some "drastic" way (that no fan artist had done). Conceptually I argue its fine, but when you compare it to older Mega Pokemon there's this sense of "design simplification" (with a hint of "made by committee").
It's frustrating, and unless GF changes their minds we may see more of this in the future of them trying to zag where everyone else zigs. All I can say is that, though they now have "fanart police" on their backs, I trust the Pokemon designers still have plenty of great designs we'll see every gen. Either because it's just something no one thought to make a fanart for or they came up with a creative alternative, in the future as long as they make new Pokemon games/gens we'll no doubt get at least a handful of good looking Pokemon (or/and some which eventually grow on you). And, while we may not like it as much, we can at least feel happy that there's plenty of people who do like this Mega Dragonite design because it keeps the core aesthetic of Dragonite but adds a fun twist to it.
"I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to be somewhere in the game. Didn't think me appearing on a poster would cause anyone anger. I-I'll just go now.."
(Yes, I know they're talking about the bench, just couldn't help but notice the happy Machop in the poster above. It was either me commenting on that or the flat "window with flower pot" jpeg right next to the 3d model bench)
new furfrou trims soontm
Anistar City's sundial (which was used in XY's postgame mega stone collecting sidequest) has those specific crystals as well.
XY will forever feel to me like games that were made with a Z in mind, but then they realized 2016 was the 20th anniversary and had to get a new gen debutting then.
And again such a shame we're just seemingly not going to visit any of the notable kalos areas so presumably anything interesting happening elsewhere will just have to be brought up in passing
I really, really, really don’t understand the Pokemon fandom sometimes.
I have been here since Gen 1, I have wanted some Dragonite love since at least Gen 2!
Now it finally gets a Mega putting it at least in some terms on par with the other Mega dragons, it’s as if Game Freak stole your puppy, ran it over, brought it back to life in a sinister frankenstein fashion and you’ve just been forced to shoot it all over again. I do not get the hate or melodrama for the design, it’s a gorgeous coming together of Dragonair and Dratini in so many different ways and it just works.
Besides which, did it need to be a perfect design? Don’t we care more about the stats? How it works in game?
I mean come on, some of you claim Pokemon like Mega Sableye as your favourite mega! He’s not exactly an oil painting?
Game Freak are damned if they do, damned if they don’t…
I have been here since Gen 1, I have wanted some Dragonite love since at least Gen 2!
Now it finally gets a Mega putting it at least in some terms on par with the other Mega dragons, it’s as if Game Freak stole your puppy, ran it over, brought it back to life in a sinister frankenstein fashion and you’ve just been forced to shoot it all over again. I do not get the hate or melodrama for the design, it’s a gorgeous coming together of Dragonair and Dratini in so many different ways and it just works.
Besides which, did it need to be a perfect design? Don’t we care more about the stats? How it works in game?
I mean come on, some of you claim Pokemon like Mega Sableye as your favourite mega! He’s not exactly an oil painting?
Game Freak are damned if they do, damned if they don’t…
I think part of it is just the weird reactions to Pokemon Directs. We've been through how many of these, and yet it seems people constantly think there's gonna be some major announcement for every single one of them. The fandom has a habit of building up unrealistic expectations with little solid justification and then getting mad when they realize it won't be met. I'm not even talking about not liking what they saw but rather people being mad there isn't some new big spin off game or announcement for gen 10 or BW remakes. I mean we got an announcement for an amusement park, and some people are unhappy it's not a new PokePark video game. At some point you have to wonder what people are actually mad at.
Maybe it’s because I’m fast approaching my forties and probably nearing the halfway point and the slide down towards the sweet release of death but I am just taking every Pokemon Presents as a bit of a gift, it might be enjoyable, might not be, either way its still a bonus in my overall enjoyment of the fandom.
But this one - Mega Dragonite - made my year so far. Please GF/TPC/Ninty - announce the plush. For god’s sake announce the plush! XD
First responses to new Pokémon are always more intense. It cools off after a while.
I think people think they’re supposed to be big announcement blowouts like Nintendo Directs. I suppose the fact that they used to be called Pokémon Directs doesn’t help, but after this many rounds on the carousel, you’d think people would become familiar with the routine.