Yeah I love the little things like Hoppip/Igglybuff getting blown away - adds to the realism of the Pokemon.
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Little things you like about Pokémon
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Yeah I love the little things like Hoppip/Igglybuff getting blown away - adds to the realism of the Pokemon.
Two things about Pokémon Adventures.
The S/S chapter ended recently, and that reminded me of one thing I like about the manga which I have talked about before, but I want to mention it again. At the end of most of the chapters of the manga, there's a hint/reference towards the next chapter or generation. The S/S chapter had a big hint towards Gen 9 and ScaVio.
Credit to linehalt and Uncle/a/n Thoughts for the image.
This was really cool. It caught me off-guard since I haven't read Adventures a lot lately, I had completely forgotten that the manga tends to do this.
Regarding the S/S chapter on the whole, I think it was pretty good in the end. I found it a bit hard to follow due to irregular releases, even moreso since I had to wait for English scanlations, which were also very irregular this time around. The chapter made some changes to the story from the games, and as one of the few people who like the story of S/S, I can't say I approve of all of them. But it was still fine. It also mixed together the post-game story and both of the DLC stories with the main story. It felt a bit messy at times, but even it worked. I enjoyed it in the end. Many of the scenes in the manga reminded me of how it was when I played through Sword, which was great.
One of my favorite scenes in this chapter was in chapter 34, when the starters evolve into their final stages and use their signature moves to beat a group of squirrels. That was amazing.
The characters were great too, though I still wonder why they decided to make Marvin a main character, especially since they could just have used Hop instead... though Hop and the other rivals still got a fairly big role in the end, so it is all fine.
I don't think the S/S chapter is the best chapter of Adventures, but it was still good and a fun read. I'm looking forward to the ScaVio chapter... whenever it will be available in English.
The S/S chapter ended recently, and that reminded me of one thing I like about the manga which I have talked about before, but I want to mention it again. At the end of most of the chapters of the manga, there's a hint/reference towards the next chapter or generation. The S/S chapter had a big hint towards Gen 9 and ScaVio.
This was really cool. It caught me off-guard since I haven't read Adventures a lot lately, I had completely forgotten that the manga tends to do this.
Regarding the S/S chapter on the whole, I think it was pretty good in the end. I found it a bit hard to follow due to irregular releases, even moreso since I had to wait for English scanlations, which were also very irregular this time around. The chapter made some changes to the story from the games, and as one of the few people who like the story of S/S, I can't say I approve of all of them. But it was still fine. It also mixed together the post-game story and both of the DLC stories with the main story. It felt a bit messy at times, but even it worked. I enjoyed it in the end. Many of the scenes in the manga reminded me of how it was when I played through Sword, which was great.
One of my favorite scenes in this chapter was in chapter 34, when the starters evolve into their final stages and use their signature moves to beat a group of squirrels. That was amazing.
The characters were great too, though I still wonder why they decided to make Marvin a main character, especially since they could just have used Hop instead... though Hop and the other rivals still got a fairly big role in the end, so it is all fine.
I don't think the S/S chapter is the best chapter of Adventures, but it was still good and a fun read. I'm looking forward to the ScaVio chapter... whenever it will be available in English.
ORAS was super based for having Victory Road trainers use Pokemon outside of the Hoenn Dex since by then, you already have access to the National Dex.
BDSP was real for having Dawn use Anime Dawn's team as one of her final teams.
Shouldn't that Bellossom be a Pachirisu?
Though I did notice one of her other Final Teams has an Ambipom on it.
Did they even begin writing it in Japan?
Yes I saw some images of it on twitter because one of the MCs does the akira slide on Miraidon
Yknow after actually putting in the effort to make a PR Video in my recent Pokemon Y replay I think I finally understand why Game Freak is so keen on forcing tutorials for their side features. All this time I assumed it was this half-baked joke of a feature where you had like 3 poses and 2 backgrounds and could put your Pokemon in there if you wanted to get really fancy and that was about it. Except, actually, no, this is not even remotely the case.
Look at just how fucking granular you can get with these things. You can toggle everything from lighting to particle effects to posing on a second by second basis. Every aspect has multiple varied options, and you can unlock more by doing stuff around Lumiose City. You can give your player avatar whiskers.
It's hardly a substitute for professional editing software, but dang man it's at least as sophisticated as Alola Photo Club in USUM, maybe even a bit moreso. And because this is the one time Game Freak decided not to railroad you into giving an extra a try, it has been completely and utterly forgotten.
Look at just how fucking granular you can get with these things. You can toggle everything from lighting to particle effects to posing on a second by second basis. Every aspect has multiple varied options, and you can unlock more by doing stuff around Lumiose City. You can give your player avatar whiskers.
It's hardly a substitute for professional editing software, but dang man it's at least as sophisticated as Alola Photo Club in USUM, maybe even a bit moreso. And because this is the one time Game Freak decided not to railroad you into giving an extra a try, it has been completely and utterly forgotten.
https://www.serebii.net/music/projectvoltage/
The Hatsune Miku/Pokemon collab has art of Miku representing every day from September 4th representing each of the 18 types, and they already did two cool things.
Meloetta is the very first Pokemon Miku's paired with, which is a fairly obvious choice, especially knowing Shiny Meloetta bares a resemblance to Miku...
but interestingly is representing Psychic types instead of Normal, which are typically the first in these sort of lists. If I had to guess, Jigglypuff is going to be the Normal rep instead of the Fairy, because I'm also guessing Gardevoir's the Fairy rep.
The other cool thing is I just realized the last 3 generations in a row all had a common theme with a starter of each type.
We have a starter of each type that has a musical motif, and I swear nobody noticed. People were putting more enough into arguing whether Skeledirge counted as a bull than realizing it's the third starter in a row related to music.
Edit: I also want to appreciate the little shout outs to Psychic types and other small things with Miku's bag.
The Hatsune Miku/Pokemon collab has art of Miku representing every day from September 4th representing each of the 18 types, and they already did two cool things.
Meloetta is the very first Pokemon Miku's paired with, which is a fairly obvious choice, especially knowing Shiny Meloetta bares a resemblance to Miku...
but interestingly is representing Psychic types instead of Normal, which are typically the first in these sort of lists. If I had to guess, Jigglypuff is going to be the Normal rep instead of the Fairy, because I'm also guessing Gardevoir's the Fairy rep.
The other cool thing is I just realized the last 3 generations in a row all had a common theme with a starter of each type.
We have a starter of each type that has a musical motif, and I swear nobody noticed. People were putting more enough into arguing whether Skeledirge counted as a bull than realizing it's the third starter in a row related to music.
Edit: I also want to appreciate the little shout outs to Psychic types and other small things with Miku's bag.
Yesss the Mikus are great, what a fun promotion. I thought about posting about it in the news thread
The art is done by familiar artists too. Take helped with character design Gen 7-9 and Mizutani is pretty prolific in the series being a TCG illustrator, Pokemon & character designer, and drew the official artwork for an assortment of Gen 6-on trainers.
Assuming they keep the music motif I'm guessing...
Poison: Toxtricity (literally a rock star pokemon, bet the outfit would be a mix of both)
Dragon: Altaria (song bird, owned by Lessia a performer)
Dark: Obstagoon (the singer of the galar band)
Flying: Farfetch'd (for the same reason its in the promo image: llevan polka)
Normal: Jigglypuff (the og singer)
Fighting: I'm going to go with Hisuian Lilligant or Kommo-o. Both are explicitly based on performance, so it just depends on if they want to go with ballet or haka.
Ground: Someone from the Tympole line; Tympole in particular has a slight music note motif and the whole line is based on vibrating and stuff, so I think that's a good thing to work with
Rock: So I was going to say Roggenrola, because even in Japan the pun is basically "rock and roll", but I'm going to pivot into a reference like Farfetch'd and say Rhyperior, because it shoots out rocks. Perhaps black ones. Like Black Rock Shooter
Bug: Kricketune (Conductor)
Ghost: Misdreavus (or Mismagius). I always kind of associated Perish Song with Misdreavus more than other Pokemon; if they went with Mismagius I think it'd be cute to have an Iono crossover
Ice: Lapras. It got associated with Sing so much it got a gmax entirely based around it.
Fairy: Diancie. Twin tailed princess with an extravagant mega form I dunno. Just kind of fits. World is mine.
Steel: There's not really a performer here, so they could go with something "girly" like Mawile, Magearna or Tinkaton. This might just be a "go with someone cool" type deal, so maybe Lucario or Gholdengo.
Electric: Pikachu sung once. we're not escaping PIkachu.
Poison, Dark, Normal, Bug I agree are basically guaranteed.
Fighting: Hitmontop (Capoira)
Electric is definitely Rock Star Cosplay Pikachu
Flying: Chatot or Oricorio
Ghost: Alolan Marowak
Dragon: Either Kommo-O or Noivern
Steel: Bronzong
Ground...Nincada? They make a lot of noise IRL.
Ice is really hard. They may do some sort of Crystals-Sound motif, because otherwise all I can think of is Jynx and I'm pretty sure they want us to forget that mon exists.
Rock, I'm thinking Diancie. Again, crystals-sound, plus it's pretty and fun with art, which may be the most we can do.
I probably mentioned this before, but despite their being some complaints about the Pokemon in SV being unoriginal (which I can't exactly disagree with) I really love how most of the Pokemon in the Pokedex connect back to older generations. The Tinkaton and Corviknight dynamic is pretty popular, and put a greater spotlight on Corviknight which I like, but beyond that, the evolutions given to Pokemon like Bisharp, Dunsparce and Girafarig were a great way to connect these games back to previous generations (particularly in Kingambit's case since it connected it back to Gen 5 which had a dex that is uniquely isolated). The paradox Pokemon are the most extreme case of this. They are copies of existing Pokemon, but having alter-forms of fan favorites with juiced up stats is really awesome. I wouldn't be disappointed if this was the way they handled legendaries going forward.
What I really like about these connections to past regions is that it makes SV feel more like the first four gens, which which had similar connections with one another in terms of evolutionary lines. I.e. stuff like Scyther or Electabuzz got their evolution lines fleshed out in Johto and Sinnoh, Regi's had their trio master introduced in Sinnoh, etc. Starting from Gen 5 onward, it felt like the cohesion sort of died down outside of Megas and a few regional variants, which was a welcome addition, but I do prefer the way SV is handling it. The fact that Pokemon like Duraludon and Applin are getting new evolutions despite just being introduced is really awesome.
What I really like about these connections to past regions is that it makes SV feel more like the first four gens, which which had similar connections with one another in terms of evolutionary lines. I.e. stuff like Scyther or Electabuzz got their evolution lines fleshed out in Johto and Sinnoh, Regi's had their trio master introduced in Sinnoh, etc. Starting from Gen 5 onward, it felt like the cohesion sort of died down outside of Megas and a few regional variants, which was a welcome addition, but I do prefer the way SV is handling it. The fact that Pokemon like Duraludon and Applin are getting new evolutions despite just being introduced is really awesome.
So this music talk had me looking at Toxtricity and Punk Rock - something I had no idea of until now, Punk Rock also reduces damage from other sound based moves. Kinda neat.
Oh I really really hope they choose Jynx. I love her. I was very pleasantly surprised the line returned in the Gen 8 DLC.
Oh I really really hope they choose Jynx. I love her. I was very pleasantly surprised the line returned in the Gen 8 DLC.
They threw us a curve for electric. Go Rotom.
Love that this had not one, but two model sheets
Ah all my favorite electric types, like Jolteon, Helioptile, Electivire....mr Rime??
Was just thinking this the other day. IIRC Gen IV was the last time a Pokemon from the previous gen got an evolution*, which is... something that feels like it should happen more than it does? Pretty much all new evolutions in recent years have been older Pokemon and it's good to see those get some love but I feel like there's space to do both. I like both Duraludon and Applin a lot so I'm glad they were chosen for this.
*unless you count Gen VI giving Audino a Mega Evolution or Rowlet getting a different final form, but I'm talking proper straightforward evolutions
Well I mean it did happen a lot but
Gen 5 was entirely new Pokemon.
Gen 6 had one traditional evolution (Sylveon), was the smallest overall generation and likely put a lot of the design power into Megas. And with Megas there definitely seemed to be an idea of tryign to focus on "older" Pokemon which is why Audino was the only gen 5 pokemon to get one. Perhaps as a power thing? Felt the newer ones were fine?
Gen 7 also was entirely new pokemon (& regional forms, focused entirely on gen 1)
Gen 8 tipped their toes back into the idea of evolutions (+expanding who got regional forms) but still kept to the idea of maybe not dipping immediately into "recent" gens.
I still believe that a lot of design shifts post gen 4 were done as part of complaints about all the cross-gen evolutions at the time. So we went to an all-new generation for effectively 3 generations in a row where, except for Sylveon, any additions to old Pokemon were forms.
Then, when we finally get new evolutions again but they have a few caveats & are few in number per release. I suspect they finally realized people DID want the evolutions, and likely didn't find regional variants or special forms to be as fulfilling for that niche, but they're fine just doing less of them. And now they seem to be over their initial issue of immediately going to a prior generation....mostly, still have things like Paradoxes not moving past gen 5 (the closest is that 2 of them are based on mega evolutions). But you get the gist.
As much as I joked about Kalos & Alola in shambles, it wouldn't surprise me if the next (provided its not a BDSP situation) game had at least one evolution of each, sort of like how LA had our first gen 6 & 7 variants (even if 7 ONLY had Decidueye)
Well yeah, agree with all of this. I just meant that it's legitimately something where I sort of think "oh yeah, cross-gen evolutions, there's loads of those" and then realise oh wait, that concept sort of went on pause for a while. I get that there are reasons why each gen did or didn't do it.
I guess it might be something that comes out of my first gen being II, which was so defined by cross-gen evolutions; I think I took it for granted at the time that every new generation would include a handful of evolutions of older Pokemon. Obviously Gen III then went light on them by only including two. Pretty sure I actually remember thinking that Gen IV's slew of evolutions was "back to normal".
I think it was mostly out of necessity or just the developers wanting to touch those old Pokemon lines, especially when some of those staff were probably around for when other forms or similar designs got cut. I wouldn't be surprised, at least. It may also have to do with Japanese player sentiment which I would have no idea about. If you go with the idea that it was simply the developers wanting to finish up old lines, they may have just simply not felt the need to for some gens, especially as there was maybe a cultural shift. Generation 5 was supposed to be a soft reboot, after all, then we went immediately to Megas and Regionals which are somewhat similar.
With the Gen 2 cross-evolutions, I could see a fair chunk of them maybe being GF recouping scrapped Gen 1 designs. Weren’t there something like 190 Pokémon designs at first and only 150 (+ Mew, however it factors into things) made the final cut?
In general, I think maybe GF just prefer to let designs settle for a while before revisiting them. Obviously it’s not a hardline thing, but even Gen 4’s cross-additions were limited to just a few for Gen 3, while Gens 1 and 2 got the lion’s share. I can imagine a number of reasons why this might be; maybe they want to give it a few years to see how a Pokémon pans out in terms of performance or popularity, maybe with some temporal distance it’s easier to think of ways that a Pokémon could be improved and revitalized (+ there’s more time for ideas for what that might look like to have percolated), or maybe they prefer to work with Pokémon that have had a longer impression on fans, for the nostalgia factor.
(Of course, it’s also kind of inevitable — unless you also continue to introduce new avenues for revisiting old designs such as Megas and regional forms — that as you check more and more older Pokémon off the to-do list, you’ll start to see more newer Pokémon getting attention. Like, the number of Gen 1 families that still haven’t received some kind of retroactive addition at this point is very low.)
In general, I think maybe GF just prefer to let designs settle for a while before revisiting them. Obviously it’s not a hardline thing, but even Gen 4’s cross-additions were limited to just a few for Gen 3, while Gens 1 and 2 got the lion’s share. I can imagine a number of reasons why this might be; maybe they want to give it a few years to see how a Pokémon pans out in terms of performance or popularity, maybe with some temporal distance it’s easier to think of ways that a Pokémon could be improved and revitalized (+ there’s more time for ideas for what that might look like to have percolated), or maybe they prefer to work with Pokémon that have had a longer impression on fans, for the nostalgia factor.
(Of course, it’s also kind of inevitable — unless you also continue to introduce new avenues for revisiting old designs such as Megas and regional forms — that as you check more and more older Pokémon off the to-do list, you’ll start to see more newer Pokémon getting attention. Like, the number of Gen 1 families that still haven’t received some kind of retroactive addition at this point is very low.)
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Judging by the dev timeline we can gleam both from the order of sprites and the literal timeline of dev builds, a number of cross-gen evos seem to be original springing from the idea of "what if these pokemon COULD evolve again".
Pre-evos dipped into the scrapped gen 1 well (Mikon, goldeen's pre-evo, I think Meowth's pre-evo, Puchicorn), but we didn't see eg Gorochu or the middle psyduck or whatever. There didn't seem to be a scrapped Scyther, Pinsir, Lickitung, etc gen 1 evolution; a lot of the scrapped gen 1 designs seemed to have been standalone, pre-evolutions, or entire cut lines.
FWIW the break down is Gen 1 got 9 (+3 pre-evos), Gen 2 got 8 (+2 pre-evos), Gen 3 got 5 (+2 pre-evos)
Honestly not that much fewer. If we want to split hairs you can count Porygon-Z as a Porygon2 evolution I guess (in terms of ordering, they consider this; they also consider Leafeon & Glaceon as coming from Espeon & Umbreon too, interestingly)
But probably not wrong; gen 3 did have immediate gen 2 connections but there was only 2 of them and both were pre-evos. Which honestly for as much as we complain about the gen 4 babies, I think Azurill & Wynaut are significantly more bizarre additions.
The Grand Underground is so good.
It could've used some toning down on the levels, especially pre-Gardenia, but it's SO good.
It could've used some toning down on the levels, especially pre-Gardenia, but it's SO good.