Daily reminder that there's literally no reason for SV to not have the regular battle system.
Was there any doubt about this?
At most, AT MOST, maybe (just maybe) they'll find a way to incorporate the Strong & Agile Styles... but highly doubt it as the Styles essentially existed to give players an advantage against all the Wild Pokemon they would be battling, notably the Alphas. And the Alphas aren't going to exist cause they were a story mechanic. Thus I think Agile & Strong are also gonna be left behind, though likely replaced with a new Super Mechanic meant for use in a more structured competitive scene modern Pokemon takes place in.
The main innovation that Legends did and will be carried over, AT THE MOMENT, looks to be with the overworld, mainly with Pokemon interactions being a bit more dynamic. Now I'm also hoping that Legend's Battling aesthetics also carry over. Like, YES, the Pokemon are ACTUALLY making contact with one another (or close enough it's serviceable) and battles are taking place within the area that you're in and not a void dimension which sometimes matches where you were when the battle started. The former I don't see a problem with, though the latter may have issues concerning the Weather & Terrain moves (plus they would actually need to make spaces where battling can occur); we would also lose the dynamic camera angles that GF loved to do. They could maybe do a combination of the two, Wild Battles take place on the overworld while Trainer Battles (& other special battles like with the Legendary) we go into the "battle dimension" to allow for the more dynamic angles and more complex strategies.
the BW post game is literally the thing you complained about: the story is about finding the Sages who escaped
It does sound contradictory, though I can see how both views can be true.
spookysocialist likes that pretty much N's & Team Plasma's story essentially ends at the final battle against Champion/King N and then Ghetsis. It was the perfect ending... so then does the postgame feel like it needs to do cleanup and we're chasing around the Sages? Now this part takes place after Team Plasma has disbanded and N has gone off to do his global soul searching, so it's really not part of the main BW story just something that has a connection to it. And, in their defense, nothing does really happen with the Sage Hunt, you don't really learn anything more about Team Plasma nor the Sages themselves (doesn't even hint that Rood and Zinzolin will be coming back to play important roles). So, why is it here? It's something that just feels stapled on, giving "closure" to characters that only existed to serve a story purpose but nothing else.
Even though I agree BW's postgame story is meh, I personally do like them when they're done well or do something interesting. The most obvious would be XY's where you help Looker do at first what seemed like random investigations but things get more interesting, Emma is introduced, and Looker's true mission is revealed. Yes, it does once again have to do with cleanup of finding rogue Team Flare members, but I feel its better done as brings in the Emma angle. By the end you're no longer just looking for Team Flare members, you're trying to save Emma. And of the Team Flare members they did the two most interesting and gave them (or at least Xerosic) character development. Malva being a part of the Elite Four does mean her continuing freedom needs to be addressed (implied that, for helping Looker the player access the secret Flare Labs, Looker will expunge any evidence or her involvement with Team Flare giving her a clean slate). Xerosic could have also been like the Sages, just there to serve a story role, but by giving him character development of him growing to care about Emma which ultimately leads to turning himself in to clear Emma of any wrongdoing, they gave you a reason to care if not for Xerosic's case but for Emma's.
To sum up my thoughts on other postgame stories:
- ORAS "Delta Episode": Interesting idea but I didn't like Zinnia's character which put a damper on things when you're actually supposed to start "caring" about her. Aww, you lost someone important to you... what does that have to do with you stealing, insulting, and sometimes even beating up my friends and destroying what could have been our ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE WORLD from a meteor because of some kind of hypothetical ethical dilemma; you selfish b****.
- SM's "Ultra Beast Hunt": Was fine for what it was. A lot of "tell but don't show" with the actual encounters with the Ultra Beasts. Story had interesting elements but never really reached the potential it was hinting at (like all this stuff about Fallers and UBs being attracted to them would have had a stronger point if at the end Anabel, who would realize she was being given the run around, decided to go face Guzzlord on her own thus at the end its a race to save Anabel whose being pursued by a powerful UB she wasn't able to handle).
- USUM's "Episode R": Yes, it's pure nostalgia pandering, but I liked it. Wish they could have done a bit more with the other villain leaders (and some things they did with them felt kind of pointless like the Galactic Keycard and Lysandre's two buttons) but for the most part I found it a fun romp.
- SwSd's "Royal Twins": What the f*** was that about? Two goobers with stupid haircuts don't like Sonia's book so decide to be both annoying and cause mass chaos & panic. And this is how we catch the Legendary Mascot of that version, no epic battle, no high stakes, we battle the mascot because the idiots made it go nuts and we're trying to protect them.
These all make sense, but they don’t explain why they all have keystones. I could envision 108 random malevolent souls coming together to make another Spiritomb, but this would mean that this routinely happens and somebody is always there to chase it down and seal it. Or you could say that the spirits require an Odd Keystone to serve as a focus of sorts, but that is completely contrary to the original lore.
Not sure if I'm missing something, but reading its
Pokedex descriptions brings some interesting facts to light.
Before Gen VIII, it actually never said the 108 spirits were evil. It said it was formed of 108 spirits. It said it was bound to a fissure in the Odd Keystone as punishment for misdeeds. But those two facts were always kept separate.
Then Sword's Dex entry added this nugget: "
Apparently there are some ill-natured spirits in the mix".
SOME, not all.
But WAIT! then Legends: Arceus brings up a contradiction: "
Writings tell that this Pokémon was born out of the assembly of five score and eight malevolent spirits". Of course you only get that after completing a lengthy side quest involving collecting 107 wisps for a mysterious girl. At the end of the side quest the girl is pretty much revealed to be one of the wisps and allows the player to encounter a Spiritomb. Now the little girl isn't malicious, infact she employs the players help seemingly out of desperation. In addition, once you've collected all 107 wisps, she mentions that she hopes the "traveler" would finally forgive her. Whose this "traveler"? Well Shield's dex entry actually reveals a little bit about that: "
All Spiritomb's mischief and misdeeds compelled a traveler to use a mysterious spell to bind Spiritomb to an odd keystone". So, if the little girl was Spiritomb, that would mean Spiritomb felt regretful for the misdeeds it done?
Anyway, what I'm getting is that the 108 spirits forming Spiritomb and it being sealed away are actually two different events. First the 108 spirits form together to form a legion ghost and start causing trouble (cause they're spirits, they got nothing better to do, especially if some of those spirits are troublemakers). Well, they're a major nuisance to the living, so legends go a mysterious traveler used a spell to bind one of them to an Odd Keystone. From there other people probably learned how to make the Odd Keystone and cast the spell, so anytime the 108 spirit beast formed they had someone seal it away.
Now jumping into theory, while the Keystone is used to seal away any random 108 spirits that may gather together, the Keystone itself could also maybe gather 108 spirits from the afterlife who were just looking for some action but weren't able to gather "naturally" with the another 107. So while one can find an ancient Keystone with a Spiritomb inside, one can also find/create an empty Keystone and use it to summon the 108 spirits to gather inside of it.
So, in that regard, maybe both Sword's and Legend's dex entries can be correct. A "natural" Spiritomb could have all 108 spirits be malevolent, though maybe ones which are "artificially" gathered only have a few bad mannered ones.
Each individual hand of a Binacle or Barbaracle is its own separate entity. That's not the cursed part. The cursed part is that Barbaracle's legs are sentient beings. These poor bastards have to carry around five other Binacle and two rocks for the rest of their lives. They don't seem to have eyes, but I think that works in their favor because otherwise their faces would be directly on the ground most of the time.
(Can you believe that there's no clip of this on Youtube?)
Anyway, jokes aside, I imagine Barbaracle functions similarly to
colonial organisms such as
hydrozoans. Each Binacle has now specialized and can't function without the others:
The head Binacle has likely become more intelligent, being in charge of directing the others to act as one, though at the cost of losing its personal mobility. It's also likely the only Binacle that eats and digests, then sharing the energy it gains with the other six Binacle so they can further focus on their roles.
The four serving as arms have likely learned to be more dexterous (even though oddly its only the face that has turned into a 5-finger hand) and also act as sentries giving the whole group the capability of 360 degree vision. What they lost was an eye as they now work in a group so only need a single eye, said single eye now likely being super developed.
Meanwhile the two serving as legs look to have become thicker and stronger, thus carrying the other 5 and the rocks being no problem and that's now their only concern. Obviously their major loss is their eyes, but what they likely gained instead was a heightened sense of touch (notably for vibrations), balance, and possibly hearing (maybe even able to do high frequency echolocation so that, in addition with sensing vibrations, allowing essentially recreate an image of its surroundings in their mind).
