Approved Generic Urshifu form

[DrPumpkinz]

Urshifu has an interesting quirk, a bit like Silvally and Arceus, where its form is unknowable in team preview. However, unlike those two, Urishifu doesn't really have a "default" form. However, Showdown needs a default form, and Single Strike was chosen, leading team preview to list Urshifu's type as Fighting/Dark, and dubbing the forms "Urshifu" and "Urshifu-Rapid-Strike".

Creating a generic Urshifu form could knock out both the misleading team preview and ugly asymmetry of the names. I say "create a generic form" but internally I imagine it would actually go something like this:

1. Create a new Urshifu form named "Urshifu-Single-Strike"
2. Copy the data from "Urshifu" and put it into "Urshifu-Single-Strike"
3. Change "Urshifu" into a generic form

This generic Urshifu would have the Fighting/??? type. Like Missingno, CAPs, and Pokestars, this generic Urshifu will not appear in the team builder under most conditions, with Urshifu-Single-Strike taking its place. However, it will replace both Urshifu-Single-Strike and Urshifu-Rapid-Strike in team preview. Once the models get implemented, generic Urshifu would use its idle animation from the overworld.

Alternatively, if there's a way to have Fighting/??? and the overworld animation appear in team preview without creating a whole new form, that works too. It wouldn't fix the ugly name imbalance, but there are already plenty of instances of this (Lycanroc, Oricorio, Wormadam, cosmetic stuff like Gastrodon, etc.) so it's not that big of an issue.

 

[Plague von Karma]

I made a big reply to a Policy Review post about this as I believe it's a very big problem with the Pokemon's implementation at the moment. It provides unreliable information you shouldn't actually have access to (cartridge accuracy), consciously or not. As such, it makes Rapid-Strike a bigger surprise than Single-Strike, which shouldn't be a thing. You shouldn't have any idea which form Urshifu will be until it comes out of that Poke Ball. This is a problem that resulted from choosing to default to Single-Strike on Battle Sprites, something SwSh doesn't use in team preview. This hasn't really been an issue up until now.

I think Theorymon's suggestion to use the Out of Battle Model is an amazing idea for fixing this, as it's generic and doesn't really imply either form from what I can see.

I hope this can be done soon.

 

[Plague von Karma]

New models for the Gen 8 DLC Pokemon were added fairly recently, but Urshifu's Rapid Strike Style still has the misleading model in Team Preview. If anything, it's worse now considering how much more defined they are. I understand that Single Strike Style is by far the better one, and the one to expect, but this just furthers how much more misleading it is when you're faced with Rapid Strike Style. It also causes you to overprepare for Single Strike Style, rather than play with ambiguity like it's meant to.

I'm not sure if the overworld model Theorymon proposed is ripped or not, but if so, I maintain that it should be the replacement. No matter which you pick, it should always use this one here, which doesn't have the headdresses or "trousers" that define the two. Thus, ambiguity is retained, while PS's Team Preview system isn't compromised.

 

[dhelmise]

The misleading model is intentional in the same way that all Arceus (non-minisprite) forms appear as Normal type at preview. It would be the same with Zacian/Zamazenta and their crowned forms if their form mechanics weren't so stupid.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

The misleading model is intentional in the same way that all Arceus (non-minisprite) forms appear as Normal type at preview. It would be the same with Zacian/Zamazenta and their crowned forms if their form mechanics weren't so stupid.

Except unlike those, Urshifu doesn't have a default form.

 

[dhelmise]

Except unlike those, Urshifu doesn't have a default form.

If we go off of how game freak implements it, yes it does. Single Strike is the default form.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

If we go off of how game freak implements it, yes it does. Single Strike is the default form.

Under the hood, maybe, but for the user, no. Arceus and the dogs are unambiguously Normal/Fairy/Fighting Pokemon that get alternate forms depending on item. The only thing that would indicate Single or Rapid Strike Urshifu to be the default form is that someone at Game Freak arbitrarily decided to have Single be listed first and Rapid be listed second.

The Calyrex Riders are both alternate forms of base Calyrex, but Ice Rider is listed first. Does that mean that Ice Rider is somehow more default than Shadow Rider?

 

[dhelmise]

Under the hood, maybe, but for the user, no. Arceus and the dogs are unambiguously Normal/Fairy/Fighting Pokemon that get alternate forms depending on item. The only thing that would indicate Single or Rapid Strike Urshifu to be the default form is that someone at Game Freak arbitrarily decided to have Single be listed first and Rapid be listed second.

The Calyrex Riders are both alternate forms of base Calyrex, but Ice Rider is listed first. Does that mean that Ice Rider is somehow more default than Shadow Rider?

The rider point is moot because neither of those are the base forme and both are unaffected by team preview.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

The rider point is moot because neither of those are the base forme and both are unaffected by team preview.

The point I was trying to make is that what order forms are arbitrarily listed in means very little when it comes to user experience.

 

[DaWoblefet]

If someone can provide a generic Urshifu model from SwSh, we can implement it for Urshifu-*. Until someone does that, there's nothing we will do, since we're dependent on others providing sprites to make a change like this.

 

[Ehmcee]

With the ban of Urshifu-Single in Overused, could Urshifu-Rapid now be displayed at team preview since the possibility of being both of them is now null?

 

[DaWoblefet]

With the ban of Urshifu-Single in Overused, could Urshifu-Rapid now be displayed at team preview since the possibility of being both of them is now null?

No, because Urshifu is allowed in more than just OU (for example, VGC).

 

[Ehmcee]

No, because Urshifu is allowed in more than just OU (for example, VGC).

I meant in specifically the OU format, since the current implementation suggest that it could be urshifu-single.