Recent games are extremely generous with money, which i assume is the devs' way of giving you money for clothes.
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
Yeah, the economy of these games is it's own whole mess. Healing items are cheap relative to the money you get even in early games, because you're supposed to spend healing items to get through dungeons/caves. But people don't use those items for various reasons, so you end up with a lot of money in the hands of the players.
This means that anything that's supposed to be a real power spike, like TMs, need to be stupidly expensive so that players can't just buy all. But then anything else that's supposed to be "purchasable but limited" needs similar pricing, or else you run into issues. And if players are going to be buying both clothes and TMs, then the devs need to give them even more money, which means that someone who ignores customization breaks the game further, while someone who really wants a specific outfit literally can't afford anything else.
This means that anything that's supposed to be a real power spike, like TMs, need to be stupidly expensive so that players can't just buy all. But then anything else that's supposed to be "purchasable but limited" needs similar pricing, or else you run into issues. And if players are going to be buying both clothes and TMs, then the devs need to give them even more money, which means that someone who ignores customization breaks the game further, while someone who really wants a specific outfit literally can't afford anything else.
I think it's fine that it offers a choice of "you can spend a lot of money on things that don't matter, or spend it on things that do matter", while also giving you an outlet for your cash reserves when you're done.
Another currency type just feels excessive and probably be separately grindy.
Another currency type just feels excessive and probably be separately grindy.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
>There is an entire side location that is an interactive riff on Hollywood and shows films being made in the Pokemon world
>There is also a major character, a champion no less who's a famous movie star
>These two entities are not in the same game
This may sound like me bitching about Kalos again, but honestly nah I'm mostly gonna blame BW2 here. I truly believe Diantha should've debuted in that game as a thematically relevant next-gen teaser. They could've even kept her Gardevoir!
>There is also a major character, a champion no less who's a famous movie star
>These two entities are not in the same game
This may sound like me bitching about Kalos again, but honestly nah I'm mostly gonna blame BW2 here. I truly believe Diantha should've debuted in that game as a thematically relevant next-gen teaser. They could've even kept her Gardevoir!
Gen 5 was also the gen where a Frontier Brain from the previous gen became an Elite 4 member (despite no obvious connection between the two regions), so it wouldn't be too out of place for a character in Gen 5 to become the champion of Gen 6.
My favorite follow up was someone noting that for a franchise based on bug catching and fighting, they sure don't respect them.
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I don’t see why would Fairy resists Bug to begin with, and even with actual reasons, Bug is having an already bad offensive match-up.
My favorite follow up was noting that for a franchise based on bug catching and fighting, they sure don't respect them.
Doesn’t help that Fairy went from “looking busted but ultimately just great” to being cracked for all the wrong reasons.
Things that been on my mind with type that resist Fairy is that the reason why Fire type resist Fairy.
My favorite follow up was someone noting that for a franchise based on bug catching and fighting, they sure don't respect them.
It's only because they don't want hecking Mega Charizard X and Blaziken to not weak to Fairy. I have no other reasonable answer.
Today I became the latest sucker to think they found a Shiny Sentret in Gen III, only to realize that the normal sprite is actually gold and not brown (y'know, like a Sentret should be.) God damnit.
I caught him anyway out of pity. You poor thing, you didn't deserve that.
I caught him anyway out of pity. You poor thing, you didn't deserve that.
Fairy is kind of a "nature energy" and trickery type, and fire is known for just... indiscriminately going through nature. Fire isn't really going to care if you're pretending to be nice when you're actually devious, it's going to keep burning anyway.
I believe Fire is a traditional repellant of fairies, alongside cold iron, hence their weakness to Steel. Poison being a weakness could be a reference to nature spirits being weakened by pollution and environmental destruction. Coincidental, Fire, Steel, and Poison are all elements closely related to European Dragons (Fire-Breathing, Poisonous fumes and blood, Scales and Claws sharper than Steel), so Western Dragons aren't totally helpless against fairies. Just don't ask why Fairies have a vendetta against Asian Dragons, especially since most Asiatic Dragons are nature spirits themselves.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
So after using Ducklett a while ago on Pokemon White, I've started to really take to this Pokemon. It's cuter than I first gave it credit for, learns several uncommon or unconventional moves, has a surprisingly nice shiny, and while Swanna isn't a top-tier mon by any means it's certainly competent enough to get by. It's one of those mons Dexit makes you appreciate more for having lost them, though it's pretty common in Pokemon Go where I live at the moment.
That said - I really wish they'd gone all in on the ugly ducking motif. It's clearly an intentional part of the design, but Ducklett isn't an ugly duckling. It's just a duckling. Swanna's nice and all, but it's not hyped up as a phenomenally beautiful Pokemon in the vein of Milotic. Unova's Water-types, by and large, are pretty underwhelming, but Ducklett could easily have been Unova's Magikarp and Feebas counterpart. This needn't even require any tweaking to its stats - it could just be seen as a pest that appears everywhere and is annoyingly common, yet takes some time and effort to evolve for a great payoff (perhaps using the Pretty Wing, which otherwise has no in-game purpose). In Gen VII (Swanna's last appearance), all the moves it learns by level are Water and Flying, without exception, and it learns no Fairy or Psychic moves other than Rest. Adding moves like Draining Kiss or Moonlight to its movepool would emphasise its beauty and grace in a pretty easy way, and give it more options to use in battle. But as it is, as much as I've come to like it, it's a Pokemon that feels like a wasted opportunity.
That said - I really wish they'd gone all in on the ugly ducking motif. It's clearly an intentional part of the design, but Ducklett isn't an ugly duckling. It's just a duckling. Swanna's nice and all, but it's not hyped up as a phenomenally beautiful Pokemon in the vein of Milotic. Unova's Water-types, by and large, are pretty underwhelming, but Ducklett could easily have been Unova's Magikarp and Feebas counterpart. This needn't even require any tweaking to its stats - it could just be seen as a pest that appears everywhere and is annoyingly common, yet takes some time and effort to evolve for a great payoff (perhaps using the Pretty Wing, which otherwise has no in-game purpose). In Gen VII (Swanna's last appearance), all the moves it learns by level are Water and Flying, without exception, and it learns no Fairy or Psychic moves other than Rest. Adding moves like Draining Kiss or Moonlight to its movepool would emphasise its beauty and grace in a pretty easy way, and give it more options to use in battle. But as it is, as much as I've come to like it, it's a Pokemon that feels like a wasted opportunity.
Maybe this is me being a bit petty or my logic working backwards, but something about Ice's type match ups bother me, namely a resistance it lacks, a weakness it has, and a SE Match-up I kind of question.
- Ground Neutral Hit: So many common Ground Type moves seem to have one of the following concepts to me: Shake the ground to generate force (Earthquake, Bulldoze), dig through the Earth or utilize a motion meant for such (Drill Run, Dig), and kicking up and weaponizing dirt or rocks in the ground (Precipice Blades, Mud Slap/Shot). Most of the time, Ice makes this harder to to, whether it's hard ice that's more resistant than normal soil, or melting/slush which adds a lot of weight and dampens impacts because of moisture softening. Like, try digging through typical soil compared to a sheet over Ice over it, it's going to make the job harder. Plus depending on the motion involved, stomping on mud can slow your feet, or ice can cause you to lose grip and balance. I feel like Ice would justify a Ground Resistance to match its SE Offensive match up.
- Rock SE Hit: This one is weird to me because it just seems to be based on "Heavy Rock break thing", but typically I find that with Ice forming sheets or otherwise thick coverage rather than small structures like Icicles or Snowballs, Rocks simply damage them the same as you would throwing them at anything else. Like, if you chuck a rock at a martial artist, it's probably going to hurt as much as a normal person (there's some discrepancy for like brick-house body builders, but usually the Superhuman Pokemon idea goes both ways for the attacker as much as the Defender); you can usually even damage a lot of metal structures, be it scratching or denting or what have you, with a rock, yet Steel always has an objective win over Rock (try swinging a sword at a stone and see what good that does). Rock being Strong on Ice just felt arbitrary to me because at most, what happens when Ice is hit with a Rock is "the same thing that happens to [almost] everything else".
- Fire Resisting Ice: This one is more the traditional JRPG nerd in me talking, but there's a degree of real life physics I would reference in this interaction as well. Fire hitting Ice makes natural sense, a concentrated heat attack -> Ice Structure melts and compromised. But Pokemon is a surprising outlier in the idea that Fire is Resistant to being hit by Ice attacks, even in the case of some RPG series like Final Fantasy where Ice/Water are often distinct elements. The logic I'd put forth is that a lot of Fire types are depicted as generating the Fire from something like a chemical reaction or some pseudo-magic in the body, which would mean biologically they could warm themselves back up but could be chilled about as dangerously without external heat: the incident in which Ash gained Charizard's trust/loyalty back was the result of spending an entire night treating it for Hypothermia after being frozen by a Poliwrath (albeit it did take a few water hits, but the Ice Beam Freeze was the big dramatic finish they put in focus). For Pokemon with more intrinsically Fire-y biology like Magcargo or Rapidash, Cold Air isn't necessarily friendly to a fire, as it can entail a front and breeze that can blow the fire out, moisture in the air, or simply Ice and Snow that would physically smother a fire faster than the heat would cause it to melt (ignoring that melting it to water would just cause that to drown/douse the Fire anyway). More subjectively I also just think this would make for some interesting offensive match up mind-games, since I don't think there are many cases where two types both hit each other super-effectively (Basically just Dragon and Ghost Mirrors, and like Gen 1 Bug vs Poison), so a Fire and Ice type staring each other down has a risk to consider on either side rather than always putting the latter on the backfoot.
I will say I don't necessarily think any of these are things they should have done or that would help balance, since Ice as a type seems ostensibly designed as a Glass Cannon (good offensive profile balanced by a weak defensive one), whether or not GF designs that when designing a lot of actual Ice Pokemon. These just bothered me when I stopped to think about the types and how their bases could interact rather than just going with the type chart and concluding "it works like this since X is Super Effective on Y"
- Ground Neutral Hit: So many common Ground Type moves seem to have one of the following concepts to me: Shake the ground to generate force (Earthquake, Bulldoze), dig through the Earth or utilize a motion meant for such (Drill Run, Dig), and kicking up and weaponizing dirt or rocks in the ground (Precipice Blades, Mud Slap/Shot). Most of the time, Ice makes this harder to to, whether it's hard ice that's more resistant than normal soil, or melting/slush which adds a lot of weight and dampens impacts because of moisture softening. Like, try digging through typical soil compared to a sheet over Ice over it, it's going to make the job harder. Plus depending on the motion involved, stomping on mud can slow your feet, or ice can cause you to lose grip and balance. I feel like Ice would justify a Ground Resistance to match its SE Offensive match up.
- Rock SE Hit: This one is weird to me because it just seems to be based on "Heavy Rock break thing", but typically I find that with Ice forming sheets or otherwise thick coverage rather than small structures like Icicles or Snowballs, Rocks simply damage them the same as you would throwing them at anything else. Like, if you chuck a rock at a martial artist, it's probably going to hurt as much as a normal person (there's some discrepancy for like brick-house body builders, but usually the Superhuman Pokemon idea goes both ways for the attacker as much as the Defender); you can usually even damage a lot of metal structures, be it scratching or denting or what have you, with a rock, yet Steel always has an objective win over Rock (try swinging a sword at a stone and see what good that does). Rock being Strong on Ice just felt arbitrary to me because at most, what happens when Ice is hit with a Rock is "the same thing that happens to [almost] everything else".
- Fire Resisting Ice: This one is more the traditional JRPG nerd in me talking, but there's a degree of real life physics I would reference in this interaction as well. Fire hitting Ice makes natural sense, a concentrated heat attack -> Ice Structure melts and compromised. But Pokemon is a surprising outlier in the idea that Fire is Resistant to being hit by Ice attacks, even in the case of some RPG series like Final Fantasy where Ice/Water are often distinct elements. The logic I'd put forth is that a lot of Fire types are depicted as generating the Fire from something like a chemical reaction or some pseudo-magic in the body, which would mean biologically they could warm themselves back up but could be chilled about as dangerously without external heat: the incident in which Ash gained Charizard's trust/loyalty back was the result of spending an entire night treating it for Hypothermia after being frozen by a Poliwrath (albeit it did take a few water hits, but the Ice Beam Freeze was the big dramatic finish they put in focus). For Pokemon with more intrinsically Fire-y biology like Magcargo or Rapidash, Cold Air isn't necessarily friendly to a fire, as it can entail a front and breeze that can blow the fire out, moisture in the air, or simply Ice and Snow that would physically smother a fire faster than the heat would cause it to melt (ignoring that melting it to water would just cause that to drown/douse the Fire anyway). More subjectively I also just think this would make for some interesting offensive match up mind-games, since I don't think there are many cases where two types both hit each other super-effectively (Basically just Dragon and Ghost Mirrors, and like Gen 1 Bug vs Poison), so a Fire and Ice type staring each other down has a risk to consider on either side rather than always putting the latter on the backfoot.
I will say I don't necessarily think any of these are things they should have done or that would help balance, since Ice as a type seems ostensibly designed as a Glass Cannon (good offensive profile balanced by a weak defensive one), whether or not GF designs that when designing a lot of actual Ice Pokemon. These just bothered me when I stopped to think about the types and how their bases could interact rather than just going with the type chart and concluding "it works like this since X is Super Effective on Y"
In the case of Ash's Charizard that was in the Orange Islands aka Gen 1. Fire didn't resist Ice in Gen 1, that was a Gen 2+ thing.
We've discussed difficulty to death, but honestly, an AI with as simple instructions as "Hit the thing in front of you with the strongest move you have against it" would immediately provide a massive improvement. Even in the mid-gen titles when the games actually were "difficult".
I am pretty sure this is most of the AI who don't just default to random moves works, to the detriment of not using variable power moves because it doesnt see the "full strength" of the move.
To iterate, afaik the games have 3 "types" of AI right now, with most trainers usually having a variant of that (use whichever move hits hardest), wild pokemon generally having a literal "roll rand 4", and then there's the more advanced facility AI that we've been trying to ""decode"" for a decade and we managed to understand part of its workings in choosing status, offensive or being Florges2 and changing terrain every turn.
(It's also why as of recently GF has occasionally had trainers with less than 4 moves: in order to "force" the AI in a specific behaviour without needing to code a new AI altoghether. Can't fail to lock yourself in Scarfed Rock Slide if you only know Rock Slide...)
The AI is a little more complicated than that. If none of its moves result in a KO on whatever Pokemon you have on the field, or if only one move will result in a KO, most NPCs will use whichever move hits the hardest. However, if more than one move would result in a KO, the AI in most games will randomly pick between any move that might KO. This can result in some pretty unpredictable situations if you happen to end up with a Pokemon with low health against an opponent that has a lot of coverage.
I'm also pretty sure there's more than one kind of non-facility trainer AI, as some notable NPCs heavily prefer set-up moves over damaging ones (The first gym leader in both B/W and B2/W2 are good examples) while others will rarely use set-up moves at all, even if they have them available. I'm not really sure about the finer details of how that works, tohugh.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
From what I've read/seen, the AI also typically prioritises status moves if it can inflict a status (e.g. if it knows Thunder Wave and the opponent isn't paralysed) and likes to get a stat advantage if it knows a boosting move (i.e. it will use Agility until it outspeeds, or use Swords Dance until its Attack is higher than the foe's Defence).
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Story & Gameplay segregation. Their designs were made to match their lore and treated as separate Pokemon instead of part of a duo (likely because Cresselia is a Legendary and Darkrai is a Mythical, Darkrai when it was introduced may have just been seen as an add-on to Cresselia's lore rather both having been designed in tandem).
Typing: Psychic makes sense for Cresselia as it uses its innate power to ease the mind of people, particularly giving people who are asleep peaceful dreams. Meanwhile Dark for Darkrai depends on the interpretation which we've seen a few takes on. For the games we've mostly seen malicious/malevolent Darkrai which are acting villainous so it makes sense they're Dark. But then we have Darkrai like from the movie which are kind and just want to be left alone, not really "Evil" (which is the Dark-types Japanese name) but more misunderstood and it's not its fault it naturally gives people nightmares. Not to mention the Darkrai in the games could very well also be outliners, individuals who gave into lonely despair and decided if Arceus made it into a monster that gives nightmares it might as well act like it.
Lore Vs Gameplay: So how is it that Darkrai runs away from Cresselia despite the Type advantage? Well that only plays when the two are fighting each other, especially in a Trainer Battle. When Darkrai is around causing nightmares, Cresselia doesn't look for it and start battling, rather it likely appears and starts giving off good psychic vibes which counteract Darkrai's natural nightmare aura. These psychic vibes also likely make Darkrai feel uncomfortable causing it to flee as it was either just hiding and picked a bad spot or, if it was planning something sinister, that plan is now ruined as it would have likely involved nightmares which no one is experiencing now. So, what's the difference in battle? Cresselia likely uses up a lot of energy to create the good vibes which have a specific purpose; but in battle these good vibes are next to useless so it's not going to waste its energy to emanate. Darkrai, meanwhile, is there to fight; even if Cresselia sends out the good vibes, while it'll still feel unease from them, its can't really run away so stands its ground.
Movepool & Signatures: So now that we concluded that when battling Cresselia isn't really using its innate power but what it can naturally do as a psychic creature, notably one that is constantly hunted down for its wings, I think we get a better picture of why its movepool isn't as supportive you'd think it is or doesn't get a Signature which matches its innate good dream power.
In addition to him being good at handling Pokemon, I would assume another factor is that the Pearl Clan likely found him first. There is a clear sense of tribalism between the two clans with the Galaxy Team creating a third "tribe". With tribalism there's a lot of bias that everything your tribe does is right and everything the other tribes do should be scrutinize until proven right/good or wrong/bad. At the start of the game the player is essentially adopted into the Galaxy Team "tribe" hence Adaman and Irida being a bit skeptical of the player and their story & accomplishments at first. Meanwhile, with Ingo, the Pearl Clan found him, took him in, and upon seeing his Pokemon skills and him having no place to go adopted him into their tribe. Yes, in this sense Ingo is no different from the player except who found them, which at this time, is actually a major difference when it comes to loyalty and trust. The fact that, even after hearing your story, Irida didn't bring up Ingo until it was absolutely necessary shows Irida considers Ingo a member of the Pearl Clan thus its her duty to keep him safe as she would with any other member; this Galaxy Team stranger claiming to have the same story as Ingo is very suspicious and maybe a danger to Ingo so best to observe them herself before bringing in Ingo and revealing his story.
But then they would ruin the surprise of whether they did make a Regional Variant of the prevo. It's pretty much a case of having their cake and eating it too: they want to show off the cool new Pokemon but doing so means they can't keep it a surprise, so instead they keep it a guessing game whether the prevo is the same or a regional variant. And since people are arguing about it it keeps the new Pokemon which people are hyped for in active discussion longer which is what GF really wants.
Hmm, well let's see if we can't make both descriptions work:
Klink: It's essentially two mini-gears, so it's pretty much firing itself at the target. The first gear hits (saucer)), which then the second appearing on the opponent's other side to spin (grind). Once that damage is done, it likely uses electromagnetism to swing itself around so now the second one is hitting (saucer) and the first one comes in on the other end to spin (grind).
Klang: It launches the faced mini-gear at the opponent first (saucer), and then sends in the faceless mini-gear as both to spin (grind) and also recall the faced mini-gear back onto the main body. However they purposely go into the wrong spots so that the faceless mini-gear must be sent at the opponent (saucer) and the faced mini-gear send to spin (grind) and to retrieve it which they then fit back to proper place.
Klinklang: First while charging the red gear it launches the faced mini-gear at the opponent (saucer). By this time the red gear is full charged and sends in the faceless mini-gear to do the spin (grind). Both return, but since the red gear still has power, the faceless mini-gear is sent flying back at the opponent (saucer). Using the last of the red gears charge, it sends the faced mini-gear to complete the spinning damage (grind) as both return to Klinklang and fit into their proper place now that the red gear isn't charging and flicking them.
Probably cause it makes no sense. Like, "die" in what sense? It's a freakin' gear. Like, "die" as it runs out of power to keep spinning? Well, can't you then just recharge it?
My two cents: Maybe they felt Basculegion's lore didn't make sense with how they setup the Red & Blue Basculin relation. If Red & Blue both existed in Husui, they would be fighting all the time each other for territory. This already splits the population in half. Now we gotta take into account how many Basculin are killed by the rival color which lowers the number of available Basculin even further. And then if they both "share" a breeding ground that means you got two rival groups trying to beat the other up the river, there being little cooperation even among Basculin of the same color as they're all too busy trying to outswim a rival color Basculin ahead and/or behind them. OR, it could just be that Red & Blue Basculin do not have a perilous journey to their breeding grounds like White-Stripe does, hence they don't need (or have the souls needed) to have a Basculegion evolution.
Basculegion can only exist in a Basculin population that works together. White-Stripe has no time for in-fighting like with Red & Blue, their breeding grounds up a river is dangerous and kills many of them. They need EVERY SINGLE individual that can make it up to the breeding ground, hence why the souls of the dead ones keep hanging on to give the living ones a boost with some evolving to Basculegion to contain all the souls. But you don't get possessed by souls who died a violent and meaningless death (for the individual soul as it never got to breed to continue its lineage) without their being residual anger, luckily its always aimed at would-be predators to assure the overall survival of the Basculin species.
Now, the question is, would White-Stripe still be gentle if introduced to bodies of water with populations of Red & Blue? And if it does remain gentle, how would Red & Blue react? It's a different colored Basculin, but it's posing no threat and when pressured give up so not much hostility is needed if any. Would they even be able to think of them being some kind of neutral party, not part of their school but are allowed to travel through their territories. Speaking of territories, would White even recognize there being territories or, since it views all Basculin as one, not understand thus act there is no boundary line (which can then go back to Red and Blue letting White be as it sees no territory hence isn't a danger of taking it). And then we throw Basculegion into this mess.
That too.
Eh, while Speed and Special Attack at first look like they have a theme, if you look at the others like Attack & Defense I think it's just a coincidence those turned out as they did. And even then, while Speed's Timid & Naive doesn't quite mesh with Hasty & Jolly and SpA's Rash doesn't match Modest, Mild, & Quiet.
I'm not sure how GF decided which emotion went to what Nature. I don't think it was just random cause I could somewhat see/justify certain Natures and how they would relate to the increase/decreased stat combo. So, with that said, let's see if maybe that could be the reason why the neutral Natures are organized as such:
Hardy (Attack): Hardy means you're very endurable... which makes it more sound like a Defense Nature. You know, let's go with that! Someone who is Hardy would likely be both able to give a punch and take a punch. But that's a double-edge sword, cause that just means they're not afraid to get hurt and over time during a fight that damage would build up and would start affecting how much pain they can give out. Or it could be going with the "strong but unskilled" logic where sure a Hardy Pokemon can hit hard but because it's so reckless it's not hitting as hard as it could be if it put some thought behind its swings.
Docile (Defense): Imagining sort of a pacifist ideology. If it had a choice it would choose not to fight back (doesn't mean it can't, it just sees no reason to fight when there are other peaceful options), meaning it would need to be physically durable at the very least incase someone does attack first. However, this physical durability it held back by it also possibly not bracing for attacks as it does not want to show hesitance in its convictions. Another way of looking at it could also be it being physically durable in some way (size, mass, shape, etc.) but it doesn't want to be moved from where it is so the potential durability is hindered with it taking hits it doesn't need.
Serious (Speed): Someone who is serious gets to the point of things with little to no sidetracking. I'm here, there's the goal, here's the straight line to the goal. Of course, this tunnel vision is also a weakness as it leaves no room for adapting when the situation isn't as straightforward. Your so focused following the straight line to the goal, you don't realize there's a metaphoric valley between you and it that requires some creative thinking to quickly get across that your serious mind just isn't made to consider so you take up taking even longer as doing things the long/hard way is the most clear way (but not the most efficient).
Bashful (Special Attack): Someone's that bashful would likely keep their distance in a fight, but that same bashfulness may make them hesitant to even attack. Similar to Hardy it sounds like it could be used for one of the defensive stats, but I think its Special Attack because Bashful doesn't just mean shy, but it also means not wanting to draw attention. You know who else doesn't like drawing attention? Snipers. Hunters. Assassins. Of course one of those being bashful isn't good, if not just a ridiculous image, cause they may either feel sympathy for who they're attacking or worried attacking would draw attention.
Quirky (Special Defense): Gonna start out with the decrease reasoning first, someone that's quirky is more likely to subject themselves to strange things if only to just see what happens. But in doing so they build up a resistance to the strangeness thus overall neutralizing the effect of the strangeness upon themselves. I'm imagining like a mad scientist who uses himself as a test subject for his strange radiation experiments only to become resistant to them over time thus can take stronger doses that would be otherwise bad for someone who isn't resistant.
In popular culture Fairies are often shown to essentially control, own and use bugs as humans would do with other animals. Not the greatest justification, but Faeries are a melding pot of classical and modern day fairy lore so you get strange things such as this and yet also that fairy are weak to cold iron.
A thing about Ice is that I think GF is mostly thinking about the every day kind of ice you see, pretty much ice cubes or the sheet of ice over a lake/pond. Of course ice is much more complicated then that, like Regice and Avalugg certainly should be operating on different element principles then Vanilluxe and Cryogonal. But that's probably something more of an Ability or Move to alter in the Pokemon World than the base Type Chart. Not to mention all Pokemon Types are likely running on some kind of different level of energy than their real world counterparts. However cold ice can get and its structure solidify, fire can increase to equally as hot needed to melt it & rocks can become harder, gain more mass, or have a unique ice-breaking structure to smash it.
Yeah, the Alpha Pokemon AI in Arceus: Legends just LOVE to do that with their wide covering moveset.
SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT:
So a recent discussion went on in the BDSP thread about differing opinions on Mythical Pokemon in-game that are locked behind having to own another game. The discussion got a bit heated so DHR-107 called it cause it honestly wasn't the thread to discuss it on. But before I read that post I had written out some of my own responses and opinions. Not wanting it to go to waste, I figure I'll post it here instead where it more fits. Don't worry, while I'm firmly on the side of "don't like locking Mythicals behind needing to have other games" I try not to get heated and instead present my views as detailed as possible as well as giving reasonable alternatives. Since it's a very long post I'm hiding it in a spoiler tag:
Well first, responding to Nokocchi, it has been discussed before that due to the Pokemon games allowing you to transfer Pokemon up from previous gens, things are a bit different concerning Pokemon when they do something like introduce a new mechanic or, in this case, implement a new event distribution which affects how the games are played.
Mechanic wise, let's take the super forms, specifically Mega Evolution. They've designed completely new Pokemon forms for it, made even more Mega Evos in the remake, had them carried over to the next gen... and then they decided to not use them except on special occasions.
"Well other games constantly switch up mechanics, like Mario and Zelda". Yes, many Mario and Zelda games do have a central mechanic they focus on which exist in that one game. But that's the thing, each game is isolated from one another; you can't bring a Mario from Galaxy into Odyssey or a Link from a Link Between Worlds into Breath of the Wild.
However, as I said, with Pokemon you're able to bring up one form a past gen into the new gen. So they introduced a new mechanic that radically changed how some Pokemon played, usually for the better, so when they decide to end it not only does that design go away but also rips away a valuable tool for that Pokemon's playstyle.
Some could say Z-Moves and Dynamax are in the same boat, but at least with those they were only around for one gen and they didn't make new designs for Pokemon. Unfortunately they didn't learn their lesson with Megas and did make new designs for the Gigantamax. At least Mega Evos have a chance of coming back in some form as they're just super power-ups, but they'll have a hard time finding reasons for ever bringing back the Gmax forms unless they severely shrink them down (which essentially would just make them Mega Evos with a different name... though then again that's what they did for the Primal Reversions and Battle Bond Greninja).
So, what about this new event distribution where they're locking Mythicals behind other Pokemon games?
Well, first off, this is a radical change from previously where the Mythicals were distributed usually via a free method. Connecting to the internet, having to go to a store to get a code card, Arceus forbid the freakin' newsletter. While yes those themselves had certain limitations, you weren't asked to just so happen to own another $60 game to get a Pokemon that previously would have just been an event giveaway.
"Well you don't get the game to get the Pokemon, you get the game because you want it; the Mythical is just a bonus". Very true, but from GF's perspective it's an excuse not having to do any additional event distributions for past Mythicals which they had to do in prior gens. Now, in GF's eyes, they only need to do distributions for at least the new Mythicals (because I'm pretty sure you'll have a problem if they locked a new Mythical behind having to own another game, right? And, if you do, why is this different for a past Mythical?). It's easy for many of us to overlook it as we likely have participated in enough events we have all the Mythicals by now, but for newcomers (especially younger players) this is actually a bigger hurdle then just having internet connection or going down to the closest game store; especially those who don't have disposable income. And, before you say it, look, some kids just may not have friends they can coordinate with so that they can swap around games to have save files for.
"Other games have done it". And what did those games unlock? Just bonus equipment or party member you can only use in that game? A secret boss battle or story campaign that, since it was locked behind owning another game, is completely separate from the main story? Certainly neat, but even if the game it unlocks something in will unlock something in a future title it won't be the same stuff. Meanwhile, in Pokemon, that Mythical can be transferred up to newer games making it alone a more valuable unlockable. And, since GF may also see this as having done an event distribution for that Pokemon, who knows when the next chance to get that Mythical may be, maybe not for the next couple of generations. Yes, theoretically as long as those games exist, especially in digital form, you can save up to get them later to not only experience the game but get those bonus unlocks for those Mythicals. But that's a batch of loops to jump through when they could have just distributed the Mythical online.
OR, they can have the other game unlock, but then at a certain time or maybe even at the very end of that game's cycle just do an event that unlocks that Pokemon for everyone. Those how had the required game just got to have it as an early bonus for having both required games.
OR, instead of locking much wanted Mythicals behind this paywall, make it another special Pokemon like a Shiny Legendary or a Pokemon with a special move or Hidden Ability.
Another suggestion: If you're just gonna have the Mythical in the game how about start demoting Mythicals to simple Legendary status. In one game they're a unlockable, but then in the next game they're included in the next Legendary Hunt with all the other Legendaries. Why not have Mew, Jirachi, Deoxys, and Keldeo (and if Legends count, all the Sinnoh Mythicals) join the others in Scarlet & Violet's Legendary Hunt (could even make them version exclusives)?
Timeframe: Yes, in this way it feels like these Pokemon will always be available... but if you really think about it not really. Think about this: what if there is a jump to the next gen console? Now, if someone who wants the Switch game unlocks cause they weren't playing then, needs to potentially add the purchase of a previous gen console to get them if they don't have the console. Which doesn't sound bad now because everyone has a Switch, but how long till it does? And once again not everyone has the disposable income to buy a new console outright, some may need to trade in their old console to get the new one. So now they need to hold off getting the new console and possibly new gen to be able to get the money needed to get the save files to get the unlocks, and very likely each day they need to wait the value of the previous console they're playing goes down meaning they would have to pay more then they would have originally to get the new console with a trade-in.
Time-based does suck especially since its artificially enforced and there's no reason not to keep the distribution always available (and some could be easily spoofed, especially the Gen IV ones), though they're also done during the height of the focus on that gen so everyone who is playing the game at that time has a higher chance of getting it no matter their financial situation.
Given On A Silver Platter: Um, the reason some of us are upset about this change is BECAUSE they've usually given us Mythicals on a silver platter. When before it was "Oh, I want that Mythical, better go online/to my local game store" now it's "Oh. I want that Mythical, wait, I need to buy an entire game to just get it?".
Let's take me for example. I don't want to buy Let's Go, and I don't want to buy BDSP. Now in SwSh I lost access to Gigantamax Pikachu & Eevee, but that was alright as they later gave them out. But since I don't want BDSP that now means I can't get Darkrai in Legends. However if I for some reason decide to buy BDSP, while I'll be able to get the Jirachi and Arceus, I won't be able to get the Mew (which is a bit rarer to get I notice) cause I don't own Let's Go (which itself had ways of getting Mew so having BDSP offering a Mew for having Let's Go feels a bit redundant). And if this trend continues what Mythical Pokemon would I be missing out on in Scarlet & Violet because I didn't want to get BDSP?
Version Exclusives: Mythicals aren't version exclusive. At most Legendaries are but with games now doing Legendary Hunts plus players replaying the game to get multiples (especially with the Switch having multiple profiles) plus them doing some events which gives out the other version Legendaries this isn't that big of an issue when compared to Mythicals that are traditionally only given out via events.
Dual Slots: Didn't offer Mythicals. It offered Pokemon you could get in those GBA games just saving the hassle of transferring them up.
Surfing Pikachu: It's only a Pikachu with Surf, which then could become a Raichu with Surf. While neat still doesn't quite equal up to a Mythical status. Plus they now like to give out Surfing and Flying Pikachu whenever they have an event surrounding the electric mouse mascot.
Lugia & Ho-Oh: Don't forget at the time they had the timed event to get them in Emerald and FRLG. This was also around that awkward time when, due to the GB being incompatible with the GBA, they couldn't do the normal transfer method so really had to find all sort of methods to give out the Gen I and especially Gen II Pokemon, both com mons and Legendaries. And finally when HGSS came out this was no longer an issue and hasn't been... until now with the closing of the 3DS eShop meaning now forming a cutoff at the Gen VI & VII games (gee GF, thanks for removing a direct method to transfer Pokemon up within the game and instead making it an app, the damage your short sightedness causes never ceases).
Manaphy: Alright, that one you have a point with, though at the time it was an exception that proved the rule. Doesn't make it any better, but it was an isolated thing. And yeah, even then the one per cart thing was REALLY stupid and was never done again. At the very least the other Ranger titles also always offered a Manaphy so it was at least a consistent exception (sorta like how Meltan and Melmetal are exclusive to GO) and Manaphy was also a timed event for BDSP. Oh, and now you can just get a Manaphy in Legends: Arceus. So it took a while, but at least Manaphy is no longer an issue as it gone the way of Deoxys and Keldeo by becoming a widely available Mythical.
I'll give you that for Arceus, since its widely available in Legends, isn't that big of a deal. But what about those who don't want Let's Go but would have liked that BDSP Mew? What about those who didn't want BDSP but now can't get Legend's Darkrai? Two Pokemon which previously had just been an event distribution now locked away in a game they own because GF wants them to also buy another game which they don't want. And I've included alternatives around this: Have an event at the end of that game's cycle where they unlock all the game locked Pokemon, even if its only for a limited amount of time, so those who own the game at the moment can at the very least get them. But they didn't, and I doubt they're waiting for the end of the gen.
I do not want this to become the future of Mythical event distributions because, sure, they're now longer available, but the requirement has changed to "do it within this time limit of a few weeks" to "buy another $60 game", and I feel the latter one is more exclusive.
So they can battle each other? Also this wasn't an argument about version exclusives, it was about locking Mythicals behind a $60 paywall.
Except you only get one Mythical unless you're willing to replay the game over and over to get extra. And you're really only going to do that for friends you already know or are feeling extra charitable and look through Pokemon fan forums and reddit for a request board for those Pokemon.
Also, if GF really cared about the trading process, they would have the actual GTS in the game instead of mitigated to HOME.
If it's not a big deal, then why are you defending a predatory practice? I'm just asking to keep Mythicals free and distributed to as wide an audience as possible.
Geez, this argument got heated quickly.
I'm not sure if this would have been targeted at me had I been part of the discussion, though since it's targeted at someone who had the same views I'll give my take:
Nowadays Pokemon is a game I play to relieve stress, escape to a fantasy world where even a little kid can become the most strongest person ever (granted via control by an unseen force making all the decisions, though then again you're also supposed to put yourself in the kids position, going back to simpler times when the only thing you had to care about was hanging with friends, playing games,
Alright, so that's what Pokemon means to me. You may notice at no point I talked about event distribution theology, cause that has NOTHING to do with each other. Come now, you're saying someone who thinks as wide an audience as possible should be able to get a fun Pokemon without having to own a game they don't want is unhealthy? Look, I get we live in late stage capitalism, but relax:
AND as a paying customer I have the right to complain about these choices if I don't agree with them and see a possible bad outcome if GF decides for this to be the ONLY* method to distribute the older event Pokemon.
* Actually, let me quickly mention that, if they had normal Event Distributions via internet/code for Mythicals along with this, I would be fine with this. It would be an "okay, for this gen these older Mythicals were internet/code events and these older mythicals were unlock bonuses". And then next gen and future gens they keep mixing it up so all Mythicals would have a share as being an internet/code distribution and unlock bonus. But right there is the problem, GF is lazy, and its a business, and so if they see players are willingly letting the ONLY do unlock bonus events then they'll stop doing the internet/code distributions because why bother? A fun bonus for the players? Pfft, whoever heard of a children's video game series doing anything out of the kindness of their heart?
I'll be very blunt, I'm sorry but I feel like this is not a well written way to try to excuse the whole white striped thing. Even if the idea is supposed to be "they fight with eachother less so they dies less in battle and more in the travel upriver", it just really falls flat because its not like Red and Blue don't have large schools to travel upriver just because they fight eachother. Basculin's dex entries mention how it is aggressive to the point of dominating an entire lake's ecosystem, clearing out nearly every other species that isn't itself and Crawdaunt. This does not sound like the kind of species that would struggle to have numbers to survive just because they're fighting another school. It's never been implied that Basculin fighting one another makes it harder for them to survive so I sincerely doubt that the reason why white Stripe exists is because "there's less fighting so more fish survive to die upstream" when Basculin struggling to survive because of one another has never been aluded to before
As for the whole "how does White act near other Basculin and vice versa", I'll admit that it is something interesting to think about but also kind of makes not having Red/Blue in Legends kind of worse imo lol. Not only would it have been interesting to have a species with different overworld behaviour depending on its form, but also if we are to assume White is a neutral party, they'd have a perfect excuse to respectively make Adaman/Irida/Kamado use Blue/Red/White Basculins as paralels to how their clans interact