Little things you like about Pokémon

[bdt2002]

Historically there’s always been a trend towards newer Pokémon regions for said regions to not be as popular with the people that didn’t grow up with them. My own childhood always felt all over the place- at one moment I’m playing the Ranger games, another I’m in Unova for not one but two original releases, and another time entirely In hoping back and forth between Sinnoh and Johto. I was 11 when Kalos first released in X & Y so I feel like that deserves a mention, too, as would Hoenn a year after that. My point I’m trying to make is, when people say that “this is the region I grew up with”, I always felt a little lost in the crowd. Form my perspective it looked like everyone else had something or a couple of things they could bond over. Being a fan of a specific region was never something that was actively gate-kept, but speaking as someone that grew up doing a lot of region-hopping, for the longest time all I wanted was just to feel like I fit in with any of these so-called “fan groups”.

But honestly? Maybe it’s better things turned out that way. Getting to experience so many different kinds of Pokémon games in such a short time span (roughly from 2011 to 2016 if I had to put numbers on this kind of thing) ultimately helped teach me at a younger age to go into things with an open mind. Nowadays I struggle heavily with decision making, and it’s harder for me to sit down and play something for a longer period of time, but I can appreciate that the overall flavor of these fictional locations feels as unique from one another with each region having at least one thing I think it does the best out of all of them.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

That meta-ass attack name

 

[R_N]

View attachment 770487

That meta-ass attack name

Reminds me of the DP anime that had the "B Button League" who were all about keeping their Pokemon (Feebas & Magikarp in particular) unevolved

 

[bdt2002]

View attachment 770487

That meta-ass attack name

On the subject of both Spiritomb and this thread in general, one thing I always liked about it was its Shadows of Almia appearance:

The boss fights in these games generally don’t incorporate the background into the actual captures in any meaningful ways that effect gameplay that often, but Spiritomb is unique in that you have to use your Beyblade Styler to draw loops around the stationary Odd Keystones used as minor obstacles. Spiritomb cannot become detached from these, but it can teleport between them and use a different attack depending on which direction it’s facing in. Running into one of the Odd Keystones won’t damage you, granted, but it will interrupt your loop combo and I did think it was a neat way to add in a Pokémon that may have otherwise not really been a good fit for these games.

 

[CynicalGiant]

Replayability is often something fans care about more than developers can, because most gamers simply do not finish games they start, often by a majority or supermajority of a game's given playerbase.

I truly appreciate just how replayable Pokemon as a series is, and how simply just using a different pokemon can change how your playthru feels and encounters play out. It's my favorite part of the series when I really think about it. Not just with the team variety but also that the games really aren't that long for an rpg. 15-30 hours is like a third or a fourth of the other big rpg franchises out there like SMT, Persona, LAD, DQ, etc.,

Anyway, now I'm on my like 10th or whatever number playthru of Pokemon BW1 since we passed the 15th anniversary in Japan lol.

 

[RocketSurgery]

In the original XY series all of the mega-evolving Pokemon had goofy ways of wearing their mega stones. e.g., Alain's Charizard's necklace and Steven's metagross' ankle bracelet.

While these two kept their trinkets in Pokemon Journeys, I like how every other mega-evolution since the XY series just gives up and has the mega stone appear out of nowhere during the evolution sequence:

Spoilered if anyone cares about Horizons spoilers I guess

Spoiler

Thankfully with z-moves they didn't bother having the Pokemon hold the z-crystal from the get-go, and since dynamax and terastallization don't have held items it wasn't an issue for those.

 

[bdt2002]

Hey. You, over there. Want to have your mind blown by something that’s been hidden in plain sight for almost three decades?



You see these two Pokémon? Notice how unlike the Legendary duos that came after them, there isn’t a third member? Yeah, well, I lied. Players of Pokémon Stadium 2 may already be aware of this, granted, but it turns out that, in a way, Johto’s “third Legendary” is…



Mewtwo? Huh. But it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Kanto and Johto are tied closer together (story wise and literally) than any other pair of regions, and quite frankly I wish they’d do this again at some point. Just to name some of the similarities these Pokémon have: Lugia’s typing could be seen as a combination of Mewtwo’s and Ho-Oh’s, similar to the Eeveelutions these three have the same number values for their base stats and are just distributed differently, they’re found at Level 70 in the postgames of Gen 1 and Gen 2 respectively (HeartGold & SoulSilver even gives you all three in one version for the only time in any game so far!), and while it’s not exactly one-for-one, Mewtwo tends to learn its moves at right around the same levels that Lugia and Ho-Oh do, especially in Gens 2 and 3 where the numbers are a perfect match.

In battle it works out, too- if Mewtwo is the offensive one of the three and Lugia’s the defensive wall, Ho-Oh’s that middle ground between the two archetypes while also having the best physical Attack of the three. What about lore? This is admittedly a bit more shaky since Mewtwo’s lore is directly tied to Mew, but maybe- and this is just a guess- they were going for some kind of “Science Vs. Religion” thing? I mean, it kind of tracks with Kanto’s focus on industrialism and technology and Johto’s focus on traditionalism and history. I don’t know. I just think this whole thing is pretty neat. I don’t feel like any of the other third Legendaries (especially Galar which technically has two of them in Eternatus and Calyrex) put this much thought into it.

 

[R_N]

Hey. You, over there. Want to have your mind blown by something that’s been hidden in plain sight for almost three decades?



You see these two Pokémon? Notice how unlike the Legendary duos that came after them, there isn’t a third member? Yeah, well, I lied. Players of Pokémon Stadium 2 may already be aware of this, granted, but it turns out that, in a way, Johto’s “third Legendary” is…



Mewtwo? Huh. But it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Kanto and Johto are tied closer together (story wise and literally) than any other pair of regions, and quite frankly I wish they’d do this again at some point. Just to name some of the similarities these Pokémon have: Lugia’s typing could be seen as a combination of Mewtwo’s and Ho-Oh’s, similar to the Eeveelutions these three have the same number values for their base stats and are just distributed differently, they’re found at Level 70 in the postgames of Gen 1 and Gen 2 respectively (HeartGold & SoulSilver even gives you all three in one version for the only time in any game so far!), and while it’s not exactly one-for-one, Mewtwo tends to learn its moves at right around the same levels that Lugia and Ho-Oh do, especially in Gens 2 and 3 where the numbers are a perfect match.

In battle it works out, too- if Mewtwo is the offensive one of the three and Lugia’s the defensive wall, Ho-Oh’s that middle ground between the two archetypes while also having the best physical Attack of the three. What about lore? This is admittedly a bit more shaky since Mewtwo’s lore is directly tied to Mew, but maybe- and this is just a guess- they were going for some kind of “Science Vs. Religion” thing? I mean, it kind of tracks with Kanto’s focus on industrialism and technology and Johto’s focus on traditionalism and history. I don’t know. I just think this whole thing is pretty neat. I don’t feel like any of the other third Legendaries (especially Galar which technically has two of them in Eternatus and Calyrex) put this much thought into it.

Yeah this feels like a big reach and trying to pull on a lot of superficial similarities to show how they're related when everything else about them is....not, that. And trying to position this assuredly unintentional thing as putting more thought into it than the later 3rd legends is a bit odd.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Hey. You, over there. Want to have your mind blown by something that’s been hidden in plain sight for almost three decades?



You see these two Pokémon? Notice how unlike the Legendary duos that came after them, there isn’t a third member? Yeah, well, I lied. Players of Pokémon Stadium 2 may already be aware of this, granted, but it turns out that, in a way, Johto’s “third Legendary” is…



Mewtwo? Huh. But it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Kanto and Johto are tied closer together (story wise and literally) than any other pair of regions, and quite frankly I wish they’d do this again at some point. Just to name some of the similarities these Pokémon have: Lugia’s typing could be seen as a combination of Mewtwo’s and Ho-Oh’s, similar to the Eeveelutions these three have the same number values for their base stats and are just distributed differently, they’re found at Level 70 in the postgames of Gen 1 and Gen 2 respectively (HeartGold & SoulSilver even gives you all three in one version for the only time in any game so far!), and while it’s not exactly one-for-one, Mewtwo tends to learn its moves at right around the same levels that Lugia and Ho-Oh do, especially in Gens 2 and 3 where the numbers are a perfect match.

In battle it works out, too- if Mewtwo is the offensive one of the three and Lugia’s the defensive wall, Ho-Oh’s that middle ground between the two archetypes while also having the best physical Attack of the three. What about lore? This is admittedly a bit more shaky since Mewtwo’s lore is directly tied to Mew, but maybe- and this is just a guess- they were going for some kind of “Science Vs. Religion” thing? I mean, it kind of tracks with Kanto’s focus on industrialism and technology and Johto’s focus on traditionalism and history. I don’t know. I just think this whole thing is pretty neat. I don’t feel like any of the other third Legendaries (especially Galar which technically has two of them in Eternatus and Calyrex) put this much thought into it.

Or they just did the same thing they did with the starters and used Mewtwo's stats as a template, because other than filling the same basic gameplay role of "they're big legendaries" they have literally nothing to do with each other.

 

[Just A Seaking]

This is admittedly a bit more shaky since Mewtwo’s lore is directly tied to Mew, but maybe- and this is just a guess- they were going for some kind of “Science Vs. Religion” thing? I mean, it kind of tracks with Kanto’s focus on industrialism and technology and Johto’s focus on traditionalism and history. I don’t know. I just think this whole thing is pretty neat. I don’t feel like any of the other third Legendaries (especially Galar which technically has two of them in Eternatus and Calyrex) put this much thought into it.

I can see Ho-Oh and Lugia as deliberate thematic contrasts to Mewtwo - Mewtwo is a product of modern science, while Lugia and Ho-Oh are the subjects of Johto's legends and traditions passed down over time - but Ho-Oh and Lugia are already pretty disparate from each other as it stands. It's my understanding that Lugia was conceived not as a counterpart to Ho-Oh, but as Pokémon X for the second movie; it just ended up getting retrofitted into the role of Ho-Oh's counterpart. I can't really see Mewtwo as a member of this trio when it's not really a very cohesive duo as is.

 

[Bakugames]

despite not caring a lot about ho oh and lugia specifically, i do like that theyre legendary counterparts that arent literal counterparts, just parts of the same religious body of johto. closest we had since them was probably the bikes, they are past and future counterparts but other than that theyre just their own guys i guess. anyway i want less obvious duos and more vague connections (<- woman whos main pokemon region idea has obvious duos as the cover legends)

 

[R_N]

I do like that Lugia was the one that had its tower burned to the ground and it just dove into the ocean meanwhile the entire fall out with the beasts and seeing the best in humanity is associated with Ho-oh.

...also while double checking the lore there's this whole bit they added in HGSS, presumably because they realized Lugia probably could use some more stuff going on.

As explained in Pokémon SoulSilver, the Whirl Islands used to be one large island. At some point in time, there were two countries fighting over the island. Lugia, the guardian of the island, got upset and cast lightning bolts to tear the island into four pieces. It then disappeared into the deep end of the waterfall basin, longing for the invisible trust between people and Pokémon to manifest once more.

Lugia's really going through it

 

[bdt2002]

Yeah this feels like a big reach and trying to pull on a lot of superficial similarities to show how they're related when everything else about them is....not, that. And trying to position this assuredly unintentional thing as putting more thought into it than the later 3rd legends is a bit odd.

Or they just did the same thing they did with the starters and used Mewtwo's stats as a template, because other than filling the same basic gameplay role of "they're big legendaries" they have literally nothing to do with each other.

Oh, this is definitely a reach, I’ll admit that, especially since Celebi also fuels the “let’s reuse the same base stat numbers” argument. Besides having a lot of Psychic and Flying typings being shared between the two regions they really don’t have any connections between them at all- the Legendary Birds aren’t connected to the Legendary Beasts in any way for example. I think what I was trying to say with my original post about this that I… admittedly didn’t communicate well at all is that I kind of wish Game Freak did have some kind of lore connection when there wasn’t one.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

despite not caring a lot about ho oh and lugia specifically, i do like that theyre legendary counterparts that arent literal counterparts, just parts of the same religious body of johto. closest we had since them was probably the bikes, they are past and future counterparts but other than that theyre just their own guys i guess. anyway i want less obvious duos and more vague connections (<- woman whos main pokemon region idea has obvious duos as the cover legends)

Thinking about other legendary duos and Dialga and Palkia kind of fit the bill here, one is the embodiment of time and the other the embodiment of space but outside of that connection (and the general association of being created directly by Arceus) they never really felt particularly linked to me. Sure Cyrus brings them into conflict in Platinum but that's something he very much forces them into, the scenario in that game doesn't really give the impression that they would naturally butt heads if they happened to pass by each other in any other setting.

I really like when regions have lots of disparate groups of legendaries too though. Kalos is obviously quite minimalist on the legendary front but you've got the aura trio as a set, then Hoopa, Diancie, and Volcanion, none of whom have any real sort of connection to each other (I never saw that movie where Diancie and Xerneas are somehow connected). Best example would be Unova, where you've got the tao trio, the genies, the swords of justice, Meloetta is just off doing her own thing, Victini just exists in a bubble, and Genesect has no connection to much of anything else. And that's without Zorua and Zoroark who aren't legendary but are sort of treated as such by the games (being event-exclusive and having their own special location that's mysterious and not well-known). Quite a busy region really! Lot going on within its borders.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I like how Mega Chesnaught, Mega Delphox, and Mega Greninja double down on the RPG class flavor the Kalos starters embody, and not only double down on it design-wise but feel like "upgraded" versions of their classes.

Mega Chesnaught becomes even more heavily armored, and can also use a scepter, or some sort of axe/hammer, to smash opponents with, much like how heavy-armored warriors often use axes or hammers as their weapons. Mega Delphox doubles down on the Fennekin line's association with twigs and sticks, but has two "wands" unlike Braixen and Delphox which it also makes levitate using psychic power, and rides on a floating "broomstick" making it levitate, which makes it look a bit like a witch but also a warlock, since mages in RPG settings can and do often show the capacity to levitate in mid-air. Mega Greninja is upside down on a shuriken and trades stealth for more direct but speedy strikes, drawing opponents in with its appearance before charging in swiftly, like an assassin in a way. In general there's an "upgraded" feel to their flavor. Chesnaught goes from fighter->armored fighter, Delphox goes from mage->warlock, and Greninja goes from thief->assassin.

I think that's pretty damn cool.

 

[Magcargo]

I like how the indigo disk DLC also doubles as the Unova "remake" or re-imagining rather. In addition to taking place in Unova (although this is mostly flavor text I suppose), it also features a lot of relatives to prominent characters in Gen 5 - like Lacey & Drayton. The various biomes also feature landmarks that take influence from some of Unova's various areas like the Nature Preserve, Chargestone Cavern & Torchlit Labyrinth (which I think is based off of Reversal Mountain though I may be wrong). It was interesting seeing these areas interpreted in the new style. The Meloetta event in the game also blew me away - I didn't think they would go this hard by creating new music & new animations for Meloetta singing the song for an event that, lets be real, 99% of players will never see.

The Indigo Disk featuring Unova so prominently is part of the reason why the next game, ZA, is focused around Kalos rather than Unova. Its because we technically got our gen 5 revist with the SV DLC.

 

[R_N]

I like how the indigo disk DLC also doubles as the Unova "remake" or re-imagining rather. In addition to taking place in Unova (although this is mostly flavor text I suppose), it also features a lot of relatives to prominent characters in Gen 5 - like Lacey & Drayton. The various biomes also feature landmarks that take influence from some of Unova's various areas like the Nature Preserve, Chargestone Cavern & Torchlit Labyrinth (which I think is based off of Reversal Mountain though I may be wrong). It was interesting seeing these areas interpreted in the new style. The Meloetta event in the game also blew me away - I didn't think they would go this hard by creating new music & new animations for Meloetta singing the song for an event that, lets be real, 99% of players will never see.

The Indigo Disk featuring Unova so prominently is part of the reason why the next game, ZA, is focused around Kalos rather than Unova. Its because we technically got our gen 5 revist with the SV DLC.

relateded to that, I enjoy the other references put in. The savanna biome specifically feels like it draws from the Kanto safari zone while the beach biome calls to Alola down to referencing the demo of all things.


I also enjoy how the biome mixes in other regionals than just the Alola folks. Galarian slowpoke is a perfect fit for the beach and making Hisuian Qwilfish a frigid water dweller was a fun twist (& Kleavor in the mountain range I guess but the jerk should have been evolvable anyway so whatever); I hope Gen 10 decides to keep doing that kind of stuff.