So recently, I've been noticing a lot of discussion about the various types, such as the Psychic, Ice, Water, and Bug-types and whatnot, and how some types come across as stronger than others due to various factors, such as type matchups, moves, and whatnot.
But I'd like to steer the discussion topic of types in a different direction. Namely, how the types feel intended to be played in terms of gameplay design in tandem with flavor, especially from the perspective of Pokémon as a JRPG. Pokémon was, after all, conceived as a 90s JRPG first and foremost and still derives elements from those kinds of games, even if it's different in several ways (because it's supposed to be "baby's first RPG" basically).
Normal: Basic, non-elemental type. Usually has basic "physical/melee" attacks such as Tackle, Scratch, and Pound, and in general has mostly neutral hitting physical moves to deal basic damage.
Fire, Water, Grass, and Electric: Three "elemental" starter types, and another early game elemental type. They deal elemental damage and are mostly special-oriented. The first three have a triangle matchup. They basically represent the four basic elemental spells in a JRPG word. There are slight differences in how they're designed with their Pokémon:
- Fire is generally strongly offensively oriented with power. Most Pokémon have high offensive stats and are frail. Most moves are high powered and hit hard, and can be boosted by Sunny Day. Have the bonus of inflicting burn, which induces passive damage but also halves Attack.
- Water is good all around. It can serve both offense and defense and has moves catered to both, making it incredibly flexible and fluid (hah!).
- Grass focuses a bit more towards defense. Most are somewhat more defensively oriented, and have status/healing moves such as Leech Seed, Ingrain, and draining moves (Giga Drain), as well as the ability to spread status in the powder moves. Some can become more offensively oriented under sunlight via Chlorophyll and use Solar Beam or Solar Blade.
- Electric is about being fast and striking first. Most Pokémon of this sort are fast and frail. Moves can also paralyze, which slows the opponent down, emphasizing Electric's focus on speedy strikes.
Ice: A very, very weird type to say the least. Its type matchups scream "glass cannon" but its Pokémon for the most part are slow and bulky, creating a mismatch in many cases. It is also an elemental type for the most part that is dominantly specially oriented. It does, however, seem to revolve around luck and playing unconventionally. The hail or snow weather conditions either whittle an opponent down or boost Ice-type's physical defense and also enable to use of Aurora Veil to boost the team's defenses on both ends. Hail/snow can trigger abilities such as Snow Cloak (increases evasion) which can be annoying in tandem with Double Team, adding to the unconventional aspect, or Ice Body to heal HP, or Slush Rush to boost Speed. Most Ice-type moves are associated with the freeze status and have a chance to inflict it, but never 100%, adding to the game of chance Ice-types seem to bank on: they can occasionally completely incapacitate a Pokémon but are not guaranteed to do so. The move Sheer Cold, which is inaccurate but can land a KO, adds to the Ice-type's schtick of banking on chance.
Fighting: The "brute force" physical type, to put it bluntly. Most of its moves are straight up do heavy damage, and mostly physical, and most of its Pokémon are built as such as well. The moves are often powerful, focusing on raw power, but tend to be risky: Close Combat lowers both defensive stats, Superpower weakens the Pokémon with each consecutive use, High Jump Kick can punish the user if it misses, and so on and so forth. There are few special moves, with Aura Sphere and Focus Blast being the exceptions.
Poison: Predominantly focused on the status condition known as Poison. The moves involve inflicting the status, which whittles down a Pokémon's HP gradually, or Toxic, which induces passive damage that intensifies with each turn (bad poison). They also have some attacks that exploit Poison, such as Venoshock or Venom Drench, further revolving their identity around this status condition. Many Poison-types are defensively oriented, which reinforces this idea. Toxapex has the ability Merciless which guarantees critical hits on poisoned targets. While Poison-type moves can deal damage, their type matchups aren't stellar, and thus their value revolves around inflicting the poison status.
Ground: Generally physically oriented, but has good special moves. Earthquake and Earth Power are both reasonably strong, but not exceptionally so, and are reliable and accurate. Earthquake also hits everyone on the field. They get by on type matchups, hitting 5 types super effectively, and one type (and one ability) being completely immune. This can be a liability if such Pokemon are the opponent, but an asset if it's the ally in Doubles or Triples, especially since Earthquake is a spread attack. Generally a reliable sort of type, with good and accurate moves. Defensively, they have an immunity to Electric, which stands out. Many Ground-types have a variety of statlines and builds and in general, the Ground-type thrives on being reliable and dependable.
Flying: At first, it was barely its own type, being latched onto birds and anything remotely capable of flight. It seems to be a "wind" oriented type when special, and a more general type when physical. Tailwind boosts the team's Speed for a bit, while Hurricane is a powerful wind-based Special Attack, albeit inaccurate. Air Slash and Air Cutter are moves on the special side, while on the physical side there's Aerial Ace, Acrobatics, Brave Bird, Sky Attack, etc. There isn't a particularly distinct identity other than largely being assigned to, well, birds.
Psychic: These Pokémon are dominantly specially-oriented, and seem to thrive less on raw power but being the "trap masters", using manipulation tactics to twist the tide of battle one way or the other, and require clever strategic play to get the most out of them. Psyshock targets physical defense, Future Sight is a delayed attacking move that strikes two turns later, Psychic Noise blocks healing, and the most general move, Psychic, has a chance of lowering Special Defense. They have a lot of status moves that reinforce this idea of more supportive field manipulation, such as Light Screen and Reflect to halve damage on either side of the spectrum, Trick Room to flip turn order (slower Pokemon get to strike first), Magic Room and Wonder Room which disable items and swap defensive stats in damage calculation respectively, and a variety of swap moves which revolve around switching abilities, power and defense boosts or stats, and whatnot. There are moves such as Heal Pulse which can heal allies in a Doubles or Triples setting, and Healing Wish which can fully heal an ally at the expense of the user. They are a variant of a "trickster" kind of playstyle, where they use psychic power to in a way manipulate the field and create traps, long-term plays, and team support.
Bug: The moves don't have much in flavor, aside from U-turn. The Pokémon on the other hand? They're either boring early game crutches like Butterfree and Beedrill, or they're hella strong like Scizor, Heracross, and the like. They have a decent range of attacks and have a few Speed lowering tricks: early game bugs can use String Shot to lower Speed, but then there's Sticky Web which lowers Speed upon entry.
Rock: Rock-types are an interesting bunch: they can be described as high risk, high reward in how they're designed and bank on both chance and picking their fights wisely, as they're either gonna stomp their opponent or be stomped themselves. Rock-types are usually slower and bulkier (with some exceptions) and have many resistances, but many weaknesses as well, meaning they're heavily matchup dependent: either they have an advantage and win, or have a disadvantage and lose. Rock-type moves tend to be inaccurate but rewarding: Stone Edge being the prime example, since it has a high critical hit ratio and solid BP, but has 80% accuracy, and these factors combined make it a game-of-chance move where it can either hit really hard, reasonably hard, or miss and backfire. Head Smash is a prime example, at 150 BP, 80 Accuracy, and half of its damage done being dealt as recoil to the user, emphasizing the risk vs reward aspect of the type. Rock Slide, Rock Tomb, and Rock Throw are lesser variants but still somewhat inaccurate: Rock Slide can hit both opponents in Doubles and have a chance to cause the opponents to flinch, but can also miss, and Rock Tomb lowers the opponent's Speed.
Ghost: Ghost-types tend to play a lot of tricks and fight unconventionally, focusing more on whittling the opponent down bit by bit as opposed to sheer force. Shadow Ball is a standard 80 BP move that has a chance to lower Special Defense, but there are status moves like Confuse Ray, Curse, Spite, and whatnot to play weird tactics. Phantom Force on the physical end involves the user disappearing then striking later, and it can bypass Protect (valuable in Doubles). They can also burn targets with Will-O-Wisp and hit hard with Hex on such targets. They're a very tricky sort of player.
Dragon: One of the higher-end types, it's all about brute force with these guys. They are late-game monsters like legendaries, pseudo-legendaries, and whatnot, and have high stats and powerful moves such as Outrage, Draco Meteor, and whatnot that hit hard with sheer power, but with drawbacks. Dragon Dance boosts Attack and Speed, adding to this idea, and Dragon Cheer raises an ally's critical hit chances. Defensively, they resist all four elemental types which adds to their "late-game boss" flavor for in-game storyline playthroughs.
Dark: This type is predicated on fighting underhandedly, using all sorts of guile tactics to gain the upper hand and punish the opponent for playing predictably. Pursuit (RIP) does double damage to a fleeing target, Sucker Punch priority strikes an opponent about to attack with a relatively strong move, Foul Play uses the opponent's Attack stat (using strength against the opponent), Punishment scales with the opponent's stat boosts, Knock Off hits hard and removes held items, you name it. On the special side, Snarl weakens Special Attack of the opponent, and Dark Pulse can induce a chance to flinch. They're all about reading the opponent and punishing them accordingly: rather than direct might, they are predicated on the ability to assess the opponent and use their tactics against them and tricking, hiding, and deceiving.
Steel: The quintessential defensive type. Many resistances, immune to Poison (and thus cannot be worn down by Poison), and its Pokémon have high defensive stats. They're designed to take hits and live long. Offensively, the type is comparatively poor, as most Steel-types aren't intended to be offensively oriented, though there are some good moves here and there.
Fairy: Fairy seems to be the opposite of Dragon. Overall, it can be described as the "cleric" type. It has some good offensive moves like Moonblast (which is solid and reliable) and Play Rough, but the type isn't designed to be an offensive powerhouse. Rather, it's designed to be more defensive and supportive, especially since Play Rough and Moonblast have a chance to lower the opponent's offensive stats. Their status moves are more defense/support oriented as well, such as Misty Terrain, Flower Shield, and Floral Healing. They're more a team player, designed to support their allies, rather than the star of the show.
This is a rundown of my interpretation of each type in terms of gameplay design and whatnot, but feel free to discuss! Namely if there's other aspects of the 18 types that stand out, and where each type seems to excel and fall short! What do you think about how the 18 types have been designed overall?
But I'd like to steer the discussion topic of types in a different direction. Namely, how the types feel intended to be played in terms of gameplay design in tandem with flavor, especially from the perspective of Pokémon as a JRPG. Pokémon was, after all, conceived as a 90s JRPG first and foremost and still derives elements from those kinds of games, even if it's different in several ways (because it's supposed to be "baby's first RPG" basically).
Normal: Basic, non-elemental type. Usually has basic "physical/melee" attacks such as Tackle, Scratch, and Pound, and in general has mostly neutral hitting physical moves to deal basic damage.
Fire, Water, Grass, and Electric: Three "elemental" starter types, and another early game elemental type. They deal elemental damage and are mostly special-oriented. The first three have a triangle matchup. They basically represent the four basic elemental spells in a JRPG word. There are slight differences in how they're designed with their Pokémon:
- Fire is generally strongly offensively oriented with power. Most Pokémon have high offensive stats and are frail. Most moves are high powered and hit hard, and can be boosted by Sunny Day. Have the bonus of inflicting burn, which induces passive damage but also halves Attack.
- Water is good all around. It can serve both offense and defense and has moves catered to both, making it incredibly flexible and fluid (hah!).
- Grass focuses a bit more towards defense. Most are somewhat more defensively oriented, and have status/healing moves such as Leech Seed, Ingrain, and draining moves (Giga Drain), as well as the ability to spread status in the powder moves. Some can become more offensively oriented under sunlight via Chlorophyll and use Solar Beam or Solar Blade.
- Electric is about being fast and striking first. Most Pokémon of this sort are fast and frail. Moves can also paralyze, which slows the opponent down, emphasizing Electric's focus on speedy strikes.
Ice: A very, very weird type to say the least. Its type matchups scream "glass cannon" but its Pokémon for the most part are slow and bulky, creating a mismatch in many cases. It is also an elemental type for the most part that is dominantly specially oriented. It does, however, seem to revolve around luck and playing unconventionally. The hail or snow weather conditions either whittle an opponent down or boost Ice-type's physical defense and also enable to use of Aurora Veil to boost the team's defenses on both ends. Hail/snow can trigger abilities such as Snow Cloak (increases evasion) which can be annoying in tandem with Double Team, adding to the unconventional aspect, or Ice Body to heal HP, or Slush Rush to boost Speed. Most Ice-type moves are associated with the freeze status and have a chance to inflict it, but never 100%, adding to the game of chance Ice-types seem to bank on: they can occasionally completely incapacitate a Pokémon but are not guaranteed to do so. The move Sheer Cold, which is inaccurate but can land a KO, adds to the Ice-type's schtick of banking on chance.
Fighting: The "brute force" physical type, to put it bluntly. Most of its moves are straight up do heavy damage, and mostly physical, and most of its Pokémon are built as such as well. The moves are often powerful, focusing on raw power, but tend to be risky: Close Combat lowers both defensive stats, Superpower weakens the Pokémon with each consecutive use, High Jump Kick can punish the user if it misses, and so on and so forth. There are few special moves, with Aura Sphere and Focus Blast being the exceptions.
Poison: Predominantly focused on the status condition known as Poison. The moves involve inflicting the status, which whittles down a Pokémon's HP gradually, or Toxic, which induces passive damage that intensifies with each turn (bad poison). They also have some attacks that exploit Poison, such as Venoshock or Venom Drench, further revolving their identity around this status condition. Many Poison-types are defensively oriented, which reinforces this idea. Toxapex has the ability Merciless which guarantees critical hits on poisoned targets. While Poison-type moves can deal damage, their type matchups aren't stellar, and thus their value revolves around inflicting the poison status.
Ground: Generally physically oriented, but has good special moves. Earthquake and Earth Power are both reasonably strong, but not exceptionally so, and are reliable and accurate. Earthquake also hits everyone on the field. They get by on type matchups, hitting 5 types super effectively, and one type (and one ability) being completely immune. This can be a liability if such Pokemon are the opponent, but an asset if it's the ally in Doubles or Triples, especially since Earthquake is a spread attack. Generally a reliable sort of type, with good and accurate moves. Defensively, they have an immunity to Electric, which stands out. Many Ground-types have a variety of statlines and builds and in general, the Ground-type thrives on being reliable and dependable.
Flying: At first, it was barely its own type, being latched onto birds and anything remotely capable of flight. It seems to be a "wind" oriented type when special, and a more general type when physical. Tailwind boosts the team's Speed for a bit, while Hurricane is a powerful wind-based Special Attack, albeit inaccurate. Air Slash and Air Cutter are moves on the special side, while on the physical side there's Aerial Ace, Acrobatics, Brave Bird, Sky Attack, etc. There isn't a particularly distinct identity other than largely being assigned to, well, birds.
Psychic: These Pokémon are dominantly specially-oriented, and seem to thrive less on raw power but being the "trap masters", using manipulation tactics to twist the tide of battle one way or the other, and require clever strategic play to get the most out of them. Psyshock targets physical defense, Future Sight is a delayed attacking move that strikes two turns later, Psychic Noise blocks healing, and the most general move, Psychic, has a chance of lowering Special Defense. They have a lot of status moves that reinforce this idea of more supportive field manipulation, such as Light Screen and Reflect to halve damage on either side of the spectrum, Trick Room to flip turn order (slower Pokemon get to strike first), Magic Room and Wonder Room which disable items and swap defensive stats in damage calculation respectively, and a variety of swap moves which revolve around switching abilities, power and defense boosts or stats, and whatnot. There are moves such as Heal Pulse which can heal allies in a Doubles or Triples setting, and Healing Wish which can fully heal an ally at the expense of the user. They are a variant of a "trickster" kind of playstyle, where they use psychic power to in a way manipulate the field and create traps, long-term plays, and team support.
Bug: The moves don't have much in flavor, aside from U-turn. The Pokémon on the other hand? They're either boring early game crutches like Butterfree and Beedrill, or they're hella strong like Scizor, Heracross, and the like. They have a decent range of attacks and have a few Speed lowering tricks: early game bugs can use String Shot to lower Speed, but then there's Sticky Web which lowers Speed upon entry.
Rock: Rock-types are an interesting bunch: they can be described as high risk, high reward in how they're designed and bank on both chance and picking their fights wisely, as they're either gonna stomp their opponent or be stomped themselves. Rock-types are usually slower and bulkier (with some exceptions) and have many resistances, but many weaknesses as well, meaning they're heavily matchup dependent: either they have an advantage and win, or have a disadvantage and lose. Rock-type moves tend to be inaccurate but rewarding: Stone Edge being the prime example, since it has a high critical hit ratio and solid BP, but has 80% accuracy, and these factors combined make it a game-of-chance move where it can either hit really hard, reasonably hard, or miss and backfire. Head Smash is a prime example, at 150 BP, 80 Accuracy, and half of its damage done being dealt as recoil to the user, emphasizing the risk vs reward aspect of the type. Rock Slide, Rock Tomb, and Rock Throw are lesser variants but still somewhat inaccurate: Rock Slide can hit both opponents in Doubles and have a chance to cause the opponents to flinch, but can also miss, and Rock Tomb lowers the opponent's Speed.
Ghost: Ghost-types tend to play a lot of tricks and fight unconventionally, focusing more on whittling the opponent down bit by bit as opposed to sheer force. Shadow Ball is a standard 80 BP move that has a chance to lower Special Defense, but there are status moves like Confuse Ray, Curse, Spite, and whatnot to play weird tactics. Phantom Force on the physical end involves the user disappearing then striking later, and it can bypass Protect (valuable in Doubles). They can also burn targets with Will-O-Wisp and hit hard with Hex on such targets. They're a very tricky sort of player.
Dragon: One of the higher-end types, it's all about brute force with these guys. They are late-game monsters like legendaries, pseudo-legendaries, and whatnot, and have high stats and powerful moves such as Outrage, Draco Meteor, and whatnot that hit hard with sheer power, but with drawbacks. Dragon Dance boosts Attack and Speed, adding to this idea, and Dragon Cheer raises an ally's critical hit chances. Defensively, they resist all four elemental types which adds to their "late-game boss" flavor for in-game storyline playthroughs.
Dark: This type is predicated on fighting underhandedly, using all sorts of guile tactics to gain the upper hand and punish the opponent for playing predictably. Pursuit (RIP) does double damage to a fleeing target, Sucker Punch priority strikes an opponent about to attack with a relatively strong move, Foul Play uses the opponent's Attack stat (using strength against the opponent), Punishment scales with the opponent's stat boosts, Knock Off hits hard and removes held items, you name it. On the special side, Snarl weakens Special Attack of the opponent, and Dark Pulse can induce a chance to flinch. They're all about reading the opponent and punishing them accordingly: rather than direct might, they are predicated on the ability to assess the opponent and use their tactics against them and tricking, hiding, and deceiving.
Steel: The quintessential defensive type. Many resistances, immune to Poison (and thus cannot be worn down by Poison), and its Pokémon have high defensive stats. They're designed to take hits and live long. Offensively, the type is comparatively poor, as most Steel-types aren't intended to be offensively oriented, though there are some good moves here and there.
Fairy: Fairy seems to be the opposite of Dragon. Overall, it can be described as the "cleric" type. It has some good offensive moves like Moonblast (which is solid and reliable) and Play Rough, but the type isn't designed to be an offensive powerhouse. Rather, it's designed to be more defensive and supportive, especially since Play Rough and Moonblast have a chance to lower the opponent's offensive stats. Their status moves are more defense/support oriented as well, such as Misty Terrain, Flower Shield, and Floral Healing. They're more a team player, designed to support their allies, rather than the star of the show.
This is a rundown of my interpretation of each type in terms of gameplay design and whatnot, but feel free to discuss! Namely if there's other aspects of the 18 types that stand out, and where each type seems to excel and fall short! What do you think about how the 18 types have been designed overall?
