Little things you like about Pokémon

Kin+ak (✧∇✧) said:
Super duper inaccurate btw
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Is it though? The gen I and VII ones are kind of iffy but II, III, IV, and VI are pretty close to the mark. VIII is kind of there but equally it's the only one which feels solely like it's just got one Pokemon in mind (Mr Rime) while the others stay more generalised on some of the trends of their regions. And VI's is pretty dead-on when you consider the actual Audino design we got in that gen.


Also not a gripe at you solely but I hate when people respond "wrong" to something without bothering to elaborate why, it's the most insufferably boring contribution you can make to anything
 
QuentinQuonce said:
Is it though? The gen I and VII ones are kind of iffy but II, III, IV, and VI are pretty close to the mark. VIII is kind of there but equally it's the only one which feels solely like it's just got one Pokemon in mind (Mr Rime) while the others stay more generalised on some of the trends of their regions. And VI's is pretty dead-on when you consider the actual Audino design we got in that gen.


Also not a gripe at you solely but I hate when people respond "wrong" to something without bothering to elaborate why, it's the most insufferably boring contribution you can make to anything
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Gen 2 is the most out-of the blue thing in history of theorymoning,
Natural animal body? like the very animal Igglybuff, or bellossom, misdreavus n stuff.
These designs take design from existing mons in that generation and fuses the onto audino. that's absolute garbage. Like the drwings are not bad, but they're so inaccurate and pretending to be something they are not even close to being.
 
Kin+ak (✧∇✧) said:
Gen 2 is the most out-of the blue thing in history of theorymoning,
Natural animal body? like the very animal Igglybuff, or bellossom, misdreavus n stuff.
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Well obviously yeah these tropes aren't going to apply for every single Pokemon from a generation and I think it's incredibly bad faith to act like that was what this is saying. Even in a generation with very common design trends you're going to get outliers. Obviously if you're projecting how Audino would look in a different context you'd go with the type of designs which are similar - animals, pixies, fluffy stuff. I wouldn't look at Magnemite and think "yes, that's how I'd expect Audino to look in Gen I".

And Johto undeniably has overwhelmingly animal designs compared to other generations. You literally picked the handful which aren't - outside of those, Cleffa, Unown, Hoppip, Sunkern, Tyrogue, Smoochum, Elekid, and Celebi are the others and then that's about it. Basically every other gen II Pokemon is fairly straightforwardly an animal.

Kin+ak (✧∇✧) said:
These designs take design from existing mons in that generation and fuses the onto audino. that's absolute garbage.
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Well yeah, that's... the point. A lot of Johto Pokemon have orbs, a lot of Hoenn Pokemon have zigzag lines, a lot of Sinnoh Pokemon have jagged yellow stripes. I don't see what's so preposterous about the premise that if Audino had been designed a generation or two earlier it'd have the same traits.

Ironmage said:
The mismatch that stuck out to me is having the gen 1 style with round eyes rather than angular eyes. Maybe that's just because my thoughts of iconic gen 1 mons hits stuff like Voltorb and Geodude pretty fast.
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I think this is what I found off about the Gen I design. Looking back over the Kanto roster, they overwhelmingly have much simpler eyes than this one does. I'd kind of expect it to have eyes a bit more like Clefairy or Oddish.
 
I always loved how Gold Silver & Crystal felt like pseudo life-simulators

That statement might seem a bit weird, but like. The real time clock, daily events, and being able to phone trainers you fought really makes the world a lot more cozy. It feels... alive? Sorta the same vibe I get from old Animal Crossing games, but if it was on a Gameboy, which is just so interesting and intriguing to me, I love it!

First off, they introduced the berry trees that respawn daily, immediately giving you a reason to get on every day. Even if all the progress you make in a day is getting to Mr. Pokemon's house, you will have found at least 3 trees you can harvest for useful berries, which tapers off into you picking select beneficial berries every day that you play.
Getting to see different Pokemon depending on the time of day is a really cool concept, too! ...I just wish they had a few more nocturnal Pokemon, I feel like Hoothoot/Noctowl is found on pretty much every route at night lol

Then there's the events. Smaller things like the Lottery, Lapras on Fridays, Bug Catching Contest, shops in the Goldenrod Underground, Buenas Password, and even the Rival Rematch.
Tons of things for you to look forward to through the week that can benefit you in a number of ways! I feel like I'm forgetting a few daily & weekly events, but there are a TON for a GBC game. Sometimes I pour a majority of my play time doing these instead of doing the main story lol.

And theres also the Pokegear. I know its pretty divisive among fans, usually seem as an annoyance that causes you to get seemingly random & useless phone calls that generally waste your time, but I find getting to talk to trainers in the world makes it seem more cozy. They tell you all about their exploits, what they've done, how their Pokemon are. I generally find it cute, seeing their teams grow with every rematch is also really neat, it makes the world feel like people are growing alongside with the player.
I havent even mentioned the NPCs who call to give you free items, or warn you about swarms! People may find them annoying, but I always do my best to fill out my Pokegear with trainers who I think are cool.
I'm especially fond of juggler Irwin, he likes to call you after each gym badge to congratulate you on your victories and is generally pretty goofy in his calls.

It's all pretty basic, but it means a lot to me. Its one of the main reasons I like coming back to GSC so much, the world never fails to captivate me. It really feels like the world is alive, and helps make me feel more immersed when I'm spending time in Johto. It's nice. :) Does anyone else feel this way??
I also love that DP/Ptt pretty much took GSCs daily events, and cranked it up to 11. I spend way too much time in my Platinum replays just focusing on the daily Pokemon Center fights, the Lakeside Resort fights, magazine sidequest, Sunnyshore City Bazzar, Mass Outbreaks, the Drifloon on Fridays, the lotto, etc. I mainly just wanted to gush about GSC in this post, but I figured bringing up DP/Ptts daily events was relevant bc theres no way they werent inspired by GSC lol
 
Suspicious Derivative said:
One really underappreciated feature I like is Evolution moves, introduced in Gen 7. They are a great way to make sure you don't miss out on a move that the evolved stage of the Pokémon learns, but the previous stage was unable to learn. Evolution moves are among the many minor QOL features I like in the newer generations.
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I also like that they made the Move Relearner freely available. It makes stone evolutions more viable because you don’t need to hold off forever to make sure you have the moves you want, and if you catch something really late-game you can still get that early move that’s good on it.
 
Convo in the unpopular opinions reminded me of this topic. idk the best place to put this but since its not an opinion per se and neither negative about pokemon it should go here.

When people talk about pokemania, they tend to assume it happened everywhere in almost the same way: people got a hold of the games and got funneled into the world of the tcg, anime, and all the merchandise that was created to feed onto this new boom.

But the thing is that I'm brazilian, and our pokemania was very different, smaller and fizzled out much faster. Handheld consoles were just as inaccessible as home ones, and so were the games. The few kids who did have them were upper class or straight up rich, but even TV access was tenuous depending on your area. Videogames would not explode until segas' consoles flooded the market at an accessible price + easy to edit and pirate for.

This means that it took until the anime reached the country that pokemon started becoming popular with kids. It was really popular, and the introduction of both official and bootleg pokemon cards also helped, as those were much easier to acquire and play with than videogames, but it wasn't a massive revolution. It was another popular kids show that they enjoyed and talked about, similar to saint seya, the 80s d&d animation, dragon ball and other shows. Merch also didnt pick up like it did in other countries: most of it was bootleg because official things were just really expensive or never made it here. Even if it did, it was concentrated on são paulo and other big states, not widely available.

After the first season of the anime ended, I think thats when pokémons popularity dwindled here, and pokemon became a bit more niche. It took easy internet access for pokemon to really explode again, with the access of roms and pokemon sites.

All of this is to say that, if the person youre talking about isn't a pokemon fan/actually engaged with pokemon, even if only back in the day to watch the anime, they'll probably be unable to recognize charizard. I think sonic is more popular than pokemon with laymen in here lol
 
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So this was another dumb meme I saw lately (my timeline seems to be giving me more Pokemon-related shitposts atm... which considering the way X is going, I ain't complaining about) but unironically I really feel like these (with maybe darker bodies) would have been phenomenal shiny colourings for this trio.

There are a couple of counterpart Pokemon whose shiny palettes reference each other (the Nidorans come to mind) and some regional forms take on their base form's colouration when they're shiny (Hisuian Decidueye and notably the three Galarian birds) but iirc there aren't any trios which swap their colours in this fashion, which is a pity. The Island Guardians are an example of a set for whom having similar shiny forms works well, but there are some groups, like the lake trio and the Regis, who have quite unremarkable shinies and imo would have been way more striking done this way.
 
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Despite my feelings on mascot designs and designs created to be super cute/cool, theres something about pikachu that I really respect as The Mascot of the franchise. Maybe its not a feature of the design itself and just my perception of it, but regardless i've had to face how much pikachu is iconic and hard to alter lately.

For context, i plan on starting a pokedex challenge, where I plan to draw all pokemon in the pokedex (eventually). I'm doing it differently than most, who prefer to start at bulbasaur and go in order. I want to do this in a more freeing manner, both for my own sanity and because I have the most fun analysing and changing designs than just drawing them as 1:1 fanart (I am able to though. i have drawn some really good kinda on model pikachus).

I decided to start my project with the pikachu line. Cute symbolism, how hard could it be? Well, not only did I forget I am not as good as doing mammalian designs, I forgot how heavy the weight of the lines iconic-ity would stress me out. My style is more realistic, but I don't like to take away all the whimsy of a pokemon and just draw them as a real animal. I want to at least keep the vibes, some sort of intention, even if its intention that /I/ like and not other people. So i didnt want to get rid of the pikachu vibe.

What proceeded was madman scribbling to figure out how the hell to stylize this line. I have ommited all my research on pika, jerboa and hare anatomy, and I dont want this to be a #promo post, so much as a "look at me losing my mind" post. Ignore all the pokemon that arent pikachu this aint about them

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I have drawn more pikachu in this week than ive drawn any of my favorite pokemon in years. im going to have dreams about this fucking guy. and i still havent figured out what the fuck to do with raichu.

tl;dr: pikachus design is really strong mascot wise and will humble you if you dont come at it with some respect for its status. it might not be a design i enjoy per se but its doing its job really fucking well
 
I enjoy how varied a lot of the designs are, that so many designs elicit passionate dislike and passionate likes. It's always fun for me to watch or read someone's take on a favorite pokemon of mine and everything they list off for why they don't like it are exactly my reasons for why I like it.

There was a dudunsparce reaction compilation I saw where it started with a guy absolutely loving it and laughing followed by multiple reactions of people being dejected or angry. Funniest video for me as a Dunsparce fan, easily one of my top 10 favorite pokemon that I love because hes a little weirdo that turns into an even bigger weirdo.

I love that this series caters to so many fans and can create these moments. Beyond the rpg gameplay this is what keeps me involved in this series.
 
CynicalGiant said:
There was a dudunsparce reaction compilation I saw where it started with a guy absolutely loving it and laughing followed by multiple reactions of people being dejected or angry. Funniest video for me as a Dunsparce fan, easily one of my top 10 favorite pokemon that I love because hes a little weirdo that turns into an even bigger weirdo.
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To be fair, everyone knows that Dunsparce was already perfect, and the only way to make perfection was to just make the same but longer.
 
Worldie said:
To be fair, everyone knows that Dunsparce was already perfect, and the only way to make perfection was to just make the same but longer.
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yeah honestly I never liked the fan evolutions of dunsparce I saw over the years because they all felt like they weren't made by people that understood or appreciated the silly basis of dunsparce. so many of them just treated it like it was a feebas or magikarp that then turns into cool or beautiful dragon instead of weird snake bee cryptid

I felt seen by the pokemon anime having an entire episode about a town where every kid there is a big fan of dunsparce
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The Gen 2 version of the Whirl Islands has you ride down a massive waterfall on the path to Lugia's room. (In the HGSS version you walk.) I've always found that really fun and memorable, especially since it helps sell that you're super deep below the sea.

And while the Whirl Islands dungeon is a bit underdeveloped, I also appreciate how only one entrance takes you to Lugia. It's not a perfect implementation either due to all the whirlpools and whatnot, but I appreciate the effort.
 
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I would argue most (all?) of the ORAS redesigns of the human characters are sick and awesome. They both give more personality to many that were extremely generic -even if sometimes they are very drastic- and stay true to Pokemon style. It's sad we are probably never getting that again.

While we are talking Trainer designs, the ones in BW2 were also great because they make sense. You have some of them changing a lot, but most of the older people don't unless it's supposed to reflect their own big character changes like Ghetchis. Two years is a very long time for young people but for others they don't necessary mean huge changes in their lives. I like that. Not everyone getting a new design just because. I hope that ZA follows suit if they are bringing back more characters other than AZ.

QuentinQuonce said:
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An animation I actually really like: Aqua Breed Paldean Tauros' horns turning a fetching shade of blue. Hadn't ever seen this until today so it was a fun surprise, really like the way the colour looks on it.
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Blaze Breed also does it with its horns turning red, it happens inmediatly as they do their entrance animation. It's a neat detail and I honestly wish they were just like that 100% of the time, but I know the entire point of them was being hard to find/capture even in SV (before it was possible for them to show up in mass outbreaks). I should know, I got a shiny before they decided to show up in my first Scarlet playthrough.
 
Karxrida said:
The Gen 2 version of the Whirl Islands has you ride down a massive waterfall on the path to Lugia's room. (In the HGSS version you walk.) I've always found that really fun and memorable, especially since it helps sell that you're super deep below the sea.

And while the Whirl Islands dungeon is a bit underdeveloped, I also appreciate how only one entrance takes you to Lugia. It's not a perfect implementation either due to all the whirlpools and whatnot, but I appreciate the effort.
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Yeah, Whirl Islands is a pretty unique approach of a legendary dungeon, there's 4 entrances and if you know the correct one it's very quick to get through compared to Tin Tower. Not to mention that only trainers with the Whirlpool HM can get to these islands, which is given by Lance, and while the move sucks, this implies that only elite trainers and those who are close to Johto's old traditions can access this sacred place.
 
So I was thinking about Colosseum and XD due to the recent Switch 2 Direct announcing GameCube NSO with those games confirmed. That randomly got me thinking about Lunatone (since I used one on my very first XD playthrough), whose idle animation in those games is to rotate in a circle as if it was orbiting the earth. Solrock also has similar animation where it floats up and down to mimic the sun in the sky.
 
Two random things I was reminded of:
  1. It's cool that Aggron loses Rock when going Mega. It can make sense in-universe, and it gets rid of a 4× weakness. I really wish this concept was used more, could lead to many fun things, and it's neat that it has always been there even since the first Mega batch.
  2. Horizons showcasing Megaevolution for the first time was in a double Mega Lucario and Mega Sableye team up against Slaking. I know some people may have found it overkill or badly placed, but considering than in-universe battles are not in turns and that Slaking is as powerful as gods and similar behemoths in terms of BST, I actually like it. Good way to represent it as powerful without being overkill.
 
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