Are you implying that *gasp* if they had a clue, they would have figured that turning the entire planet in a sunny wasteland / flooded ocean would indeed have pretty troublesome for humans and 80% of the living pokemon?
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Are you implying that *gasp* if they had a clue, they would have figured that turning the entire planet in a sunny wasteland / flooded ocean would indeed have pretty troublesome for humans and 80% of the living pokemon?
I love how the game not-so-subtly calls that out in their raids on the Slateport Museum and the Weather Institute.
Honestly this is all I need from any NPC trainer except maybe a rival. Anything else is just a bonus for me.
I'll take "why Game Zinnia doesn't work" for $800.
At least Lusamine was a bit better handled in SM, since the only possible "forgiveness" seems to come from her family, who are (reasonably) a bit bias towards wanting better for her.
That's basically true in USUM too. The others dont super care, it's more on Lillie (& Gladion, presumably) just like in SM.
This is true, but it's also worth noting that the Team Galactic of the games is depicted as a cult-like group. The cultists are drawn in by their leader's personality and grand cosmic rhetoric, and what he's actually doing ends up not being important to them. I don't think I entirely got it as a teen, but in hindsight it's an interesting approach to an "evil team".
The neat thing about Team Plasma is that, as BW2 makes very obvious, it has both types in it. A lot of the grunts are well-intentioned, but quite a few of them seemed to have joined just for the chance to steal Pokemon and generally cause trouble. I don't think it's ever made explicit whether any of the grunts know Ghetsis' plan, but it seems like some of them probably have some idea, or at least are interested in that kind of plan.
I don't remember XY ever really addressing this. In all seriousness, the grunts mostly just talk about how fashionable they are. I've posted before that I didn't think the sudden pivot from the silly grunts to Lysandre trying to be dark and serious really worked.
My impression of the Grunts in XY was that they were more on the cult(or MLM) side. They paid a lot of money to join in return for big promises about getting a brighter future and being a better class of person, and mostly used that as an excuse to be a dick to everyone who wasn't "smart enough" to get onboard with their "Beautiful new world". Lysandre's plan was probably known to the admins/scientists, but the average grunt is funding and muscle and knows nothing except what they learned from Lysandre's weekly pro-ecofascism seminars.
XY's weird because Lysandre's a public figure who's pretty up-front about his ideology and the good guys are just kinda wilfully ignorant about his obvious extremism. If you're being generous you could say that at least some of the Grunts must've joined Team Flare because they believed in Lysandre's vision (which was inevitably going to end in attempted genocide), even if he didn't lay out his exact plans.
The thing for me is that Team Flare primarily breaks because Lysandre being both a villain and their leader is treated as a twist despite being obvious to anyone who has seen a TV-Y7/PG story progression, and because of that "surprise" they just drop the reveal without much foreshadowing or reconciliation despite there being means to make the ideas work together.
I think SM did this significantly more smoothly with Team Skull and Aether/Lusamine, and I wonder if it was a response to Gen 6 issues directly or simply a similar idea that was handled better this time.
- Skull's ridiculousness/comically-small status is something the characters call attention to, and most of the altercations are on a scale that's pretty congruent with that reputation (compared to Flare managing things like hijacking a Pokeball Factory)
- While the opening gives the sense that something's amiss at Aether Paradise, most of the red flags shown during the main story center on Lusamine herself. Things like the tour to show their scale feel organic as a set-up for when Aether puts a much larger scale plan into action as something within their capability.
- Team Skull's ties to Aether are the twist moreso than the morality or plans of either, with Skull's role being the "small-scale" task of kidnapping Lillie and Nebby and handing them off to the bigger-bads, rather than the same goofy delinquent grunts being directly involved with capturing aliens and opening interdimensional rifts (something Guzma peaces out of the second he sees what he's actually getting into). The transition is the more logical shift from fighting small crooks to fighting bigger crooks who were using them for small jobs.
- Lusamine's end-game is a lot smaller in scope of collateral damage than Lysandre's (even ignoring the public announcement), so the player-primary response is similarly easier to swallow compared to Lysandre not seeing anyone like the Police or Looker, or even just Sycamore, showing up to challenge his plans.
I think SM did this significantly more smoothly with Team Skull and Aether/Lusamine, and I wonder if it was a response to Gen 6 issues directly or simply a similar idea that was handled better this time.
- Skull's ridiculousness/comically-small status is something the characters call attention to, and most of the altercations are on a scale that's pretty congruent with that reputation (compared to Flare managing things like hijacking a Pokeball Factory)
- While the opening gives the sense that something's amiss at Aether Paradise, most of the red flags shown during the main story center on Lusamine herself. Things like the tour to show their scale feel organic as a set-up for when Aether puts a much larger scale plan into action as something within their capability.
- Team Skull's ties to Aether are the twist moreso than the morality or plans of either, with Skull's role being the "small-scale" task of kidnapping Lillie and Nebby and handing them off to the bigger-bads, rather than the same goofy delinquent grunts being directly involved with capturing aliens and opening interdimensional rifts (something Guzma peaces out of the second he sees what he's actually getting into). The transition is the more logical shift from fighting small crooks to fighting bigger crooks who were using them for small jobs.
- Lusamine's end-game is a lot smaller in scope of collateral damage than Lysandre's (even ignoring the public announcement), so the player-primary response is similarly easier to swallow compared to Lysandre not seeing anyone like the Police or Looker, or even just Sycamore, showing up to challenge his plans.
Also Aether's hidden darkness is implied to be a separate, top secret segment and mostly, well, hidden. The "evil" aether members are probably ones specifically brought into the fold of that organization (and played up for comedy because damn it we made emotive models and you're going to see them). The organization at large is still shown to be genuine, and Wicke/Gladion (SM) and Lusamine (USUM) work towards making up for that dark debt post-climax.
It occurred to me the other day just how many fighting type bird Pokemon there are now. For a type that generally skews toward vaguely humanoid creatures, I thought it was fun that there turn out to be so many birds in the mix, edging out even fighting bear lines and non-human primate lines.
(plus
and 
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and ).
Buzzwole?
It occurred to me the other day just how many fighting type bird Pokemon there are now. For a type that generally skews toward vaguely humanoid creatures, I thought it was fun that there turn out to be so many birds in the mix, edging out even fighting bear lines and non-human primate lines.
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Buzzwole is a Mosquito.
Many of the Ultra Beasts have contradictory traits. A jellyfish made of glass, a beautiful cockroach, and in buzzwole's case, a large, strong mosquito.
Pheromosa also looks feminine (from a human POV) despite having long wings (a male cockroach trait), while Buzzwole looks masculine (from a human POV) while being able to suck blood (a female mosquito trait).
Returning to the initial point, perhaps Buzzwole could be replaced with Kommo-o. Not a bird, but very close.
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Just wait until Gen 10 where we get a Pheromosa "male" counterpart with wings that are like 6 meters, making Pheromosa's the short ones proportionally.
Little thing I like thinking about in Gen 8 (that has been memed about): Hatterene will rapidly approach and attack people who are loud or that it detects intense emotion from, while Blissey similarly sense and seeks out people experiencing intense sadness to share eggs and cheer them up. The resulting fandom memes about the two fighting are funny, and made me think a bit about who would win such a fight. The result isn't strictly what I'm posting, but I did like the idea of the Special Sponge defending you from an angry special attacker.
The bits about Blissey looking for people to share the eggs with retroactively makes sense of its compatibility with Teleport via Gen 1 Chansey TM.
They are trans icons, right there with my girl Sylveon. 10/10 design.
The "Furfrou economy" on Pokemon Home is extremely amusing. Just transferred a few Heart Trim Furfrou to Home from Pokemon Go and traded them for a Glastrier and a Spectrier.
Upon replaying Sword, I found out that you actually get a note of this the first time you enter the Wild Area in the game. No wonder I had forgotten that as I haven't played through the main story of the game since it was released.
I like seamless battle transitions. They were great in L:A, but upon replaying Sword, I noticed that they already existed in S/S. The Gym Leader battles feature seamless transitions, and IIRC the same goes for the Champion and Tournament battles as well.
I really like the name Budew Drop Inn. This name is genius on so many levels. It manages to contain a Pokémon name, while also being a pun on dew drop and drop-in.
After watching the latest episode of Hisuian Snow, I realized two things about Zorua and Zoroark. Their Unovan forms are mostly black, while their Hisuian forms are mostly white. Nice nod to the Unova games. Another thing is that regular Zorua and Zoroark has partly red fur, it is replaced by blue for shiny Zorua and purple for shiny Zoroark. This is kept for their Hisuian forms as well. I like how they kept those colors for their Hisuian forms.
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I traded somewhat rare shinies from GO for Enarmorus and then traded for shinies that I wanted, such as Love Ball Shiny Ralts.
Yamper/Boltund's primary ability is nicely done. Yamper gets Ball Fetch, a gimmick ability that nevertheless might be useful in the early game when money is tight and an Ultra Ball breaking is a big deal. And it's a fun ability that tells you something about the mon. When it evolves, it loses the ability and gets something actually good(Strong Jaw). That's nice, it lets you keep the mon on your team without feeling like it's tied to the useless gimmick, and it's still something that fits with the "Playful dog" motif.
One thing I like about Mai’s clothing is that, intentionally or otherwise from the developers’ part, it have two Johto Pokémon that just happens to gain a new traditional (not exclusive to regional form) cross-gen evolution.
Little did we knew before Legends: Arceus’ release (or full leaks, depending on if you see them or not), the Ursaring on her right shoulder just happens to foreshadow Ursaluna as well. As Ursaring is servicable on it’s own, it’s not in a dire need of an evolution.
But as Ursaluna proved, even a perfectly servicable first-stage or second-stage Pokémon like Ursaring can become even better with a well-done cross-gen evolution. As to why Ursaluna worked so well, it’s already explained in this thread, but in short answer, it brought back the moon theming through forehead design and the evolution method.
And it just happens to be another pure Normal-type Johto Pokémon who receives an evolution that gives it an additional type, in this case, Ground for Ursaluna as to Psychic for Wyrdeer.
It’s such a nice foreshadowing detail that’s subtle enough to surprise people who would least expect it, myself included. Who knew I ended up liking an Ursaring evolution so much until now?
Before Legends: Arceus was released, we easily assumed that Stantler will not be Hisuian judging from her clothing (seen in her right leg), and it’s important since she’s the Warden that take care of Wyrdeer, Stantler’s new evolution. Her main Pokémon, Munchlax, is similar in that it’s an evolutionary expansion to a single-stage Normal-type, in this case a Baby Pokémon for the strong Snorlax.Little did we knew before Legends: Arceus’ release (or full leaks, depending on if you see them or not), the Ursaring on her right shoulder just happens to foreshadow Ursaluna as well. As Ursaring is servicable on it’s own, it’s not in a dire need of an evolution.
But as Ursaluna proved, even a perfectly servicable first-stage or second-stage Pokémon like Ursaring can become even better with a well-done cross-gen evolution. As to why Ursaluna worked so well, it’s already explained in this thread, but in short answer, it brought back the moon theming through forehead design and the evolution method.
And it just happens to be another pure Normal-type Johto Pokémon who receives an evolution that gives it an additional type, in this case, Ground for Ursaluna as to Psychic for Wyrdeer.
It’s such a nice foreshadowing detail that’s subtle enough to surprise people who would least expect it, myself included. Who knew I ended up liking an Ursaring evolution so much until now?
I thought it was interesting that all of the new pokemon in LA are dual typed.
AND every single regional form except for Basculin (who evolves into a dual type anyway) are dual typed
It's like they read the complaints about the weirdly single typed Pokemon in SWSH and course corrected. It's fun
AND every single regional form except for Basculin (who evolves into a dual type anyway) are dual typed
It's like they read the complaints about the weirdly single typed Pokemon in SWSH and course corrected. It's fun