Little things you like about Pokémon

You say that, but the Burmy line feels like an early attempt at the "every Pokémon needs a gimmick" trend. Like, if they were made today, there'd be an entire trailer dedicated to their evolution gimmick and people in the comments would argue about how good they'll be.
I end up thinking of Wormadam as closer to something like having a Gmax form: the promotional gimmick of gen 4 as a whole was form differences, and Wormadam happens to interact with that concept more than usual (by not having it be purely visual).
 
You say that, but the Burmy line feels like an early attempt at the "every Pokémon needs a gimmick" trend. Like, if they were made today, there'd be an entire trailer dedicated to their evolution gimmick and people in the comments would argue about how good they'll be.
I'm not denying that Burmy was a gimmick pokemon, though

Just that on the "usability scale" it slid more towards "bad" than "not bad", that it's more designed around collecting them, & that I'd still mark it above Gen 3's dregs (of usability)
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/game/legends-arceus

I know that it was more or less a sure thing considering the entire nature of the game but I nonetheless can't help but find the way PLA reorganized the DPPt Pokedex and how it was ordered to be really satisfying. The cross-gen evos they only decided to include in Platinum aren't just awkwardly tacked on after Manaphy anymore, and other re-shufflings to paint a better picture of where things with the new additions snugly included in this calculus just makes it feel even more methodical. This is the Pokedex that more than any other I like to open up and pore over every so often.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/game/legends-arceus

I know that it was more or less a sure thing considering the entire nature of the game but I nonetheless can't help but find the way PLA reorganized the DPPt Pokedex and how it was ordered to be really satisfying. The cross-gen evos they only decided to include in Platinum aren't just awkwardly tacked on after Manaphy anymore, and other re-shufflings to paint a better picture of where things with the new additions snugly included in this calculus just makes it feel even more methodical. This is the Pokedex that more than any other I like to open up and pore over every so often.
This is a good take on this and kind of where I'm at. I previously described PLA's dex ordering as messy but honestly the more I look at it the more I like it, even if there are a couple of decisions I take issue with.

But thinking it over (and especially since I just had to complete the OG Sinnoh Dex a few days ago) it honestly just makes the Sinnoh Dex (from both DP and Plat) look so janky by comparison. Outside of some issues with the placement of Pokemon in DP and the question of why some but not all of the cross-gen evos were included, the new Pokemon in it aren't even ordered in a way which feels logical. It'd be like if they did an updated Kanto Dex that incorporated all the cross-gens but instead of placing them with their evolutionary relatives just plonked them all after Mew so that it looked like

-#149: Dragonite
-#150: Mewtwo
-#151: Mew
-#152: Bellossom
-#153: Igglybuff
-#154: Cleffa
-#155: Crobat
-#156: Politoed
-#157: Pichu
-#158: Slowking

...and so on.

So yeah, Hisui dex>Sinnoh dex for sure
 
Hisui dex takes after post-gen 4 dexes of approximately ordering based on where you encounter them, with a few exceptions here & there, so it's not too surprising especially since there were significant drops from the original sinnoh dex to begin with.

DP sort of had this too, it's just Platinum was the first time they expanded the Pokedex so it's clear they went through bizarre growing pains.

e: Actually running through them all in my head, Gen 3 did this too so it's really just Platinum that really faceplanted here.
 
Fun fact all 386 Pokemon in Gen III have a Hoenn Pokedex number, it's just that any beyond Deoxys could only be seen in the Hoenn games via obtaining any the missing Gen I and Gen II Pokemon without unlocking the National Dex in the process(Possible, but at this point you'd have to do it by intentionally not trading with certain games), and even then it's only listed in their status screen. Basically, all of the Gen I and Gen II Pokemon not already listed in the Hoenn dex before Deoxys are just lazily tacked on in National Dex order after #202, so you end up with stuff like Scyther and Scizor not being anywhere near eachother in the Pokedex.
 
Gen 4 introduced Stealth Rock, a move that massively punishes the previously-immune-to-entry-hazards Flying-types.

Gen 4 also introduced Roost, a widely distributed recovery move among Flying-types that makes Flying one of only two types where the vast majority of its members have recovery, the other being Grass and Synthesis.

I don't think this is a coincidence.
 
Gen 4 introduced Stealth Rock, a move that massively punishes the previously-immune-to-entry-hazards Flying-types.

Gen 4 also introduced Roost, a widely distributed recovery move among Flying-types that makes Flying one of only two types where the vast majority of its members have recovery, the other being Grass and Synthesis.

I don't think this is a coincidence.
Gen 8 introduced Heavy Duty Boots, a item that helps pokemon vulnerable to entry hazards and most notably sometimes taking 50% damage from just Stealth Rock.

Gen 8 also significantly diminished the distribution of Roost, a formerly widely distributed recovery move among Flying-types and otherwise aviary-based Pokemon, now only available to Pokemon that learn it innately or via egg-move.

A coincidence? I think not.
 
I also consider U-turn being released alongside Stealth Rock and mainly available to Bug and Flying types to have been intentional.

U-turn, along with Volt Switch and Regenerator, has not recived reduced distribution to compensate for Heavy-Duty boots.
hmm
 
Gen 8 also significantly diminished the distribution of Roost, a formerly widely distributed recovery move among Flying-types and otherwise aviary-based Pokemon, now only available to Pokemon that learn it innately or via egg-move.
I saw a theory that the Galarian Birds don't learn Roost because they're always migrating and don't stop and stay in one place for long.
 
So quick recap: the "generational" gimmick for the TCG currently is "Pokemon V" which is just Pokemon EX (take 2 prize cards, inflated HP, stronger attacks) in a different hat

And the new set has one of the new V cards to be Unown



they don't be lying that Unown do be V




The other gimmick is "V STAR", which acts as an "evolution" to Pokemon V and let's see what that one lo--


yes good, perfect
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
So my housemate and her boyfriend have lately gotten into this show where extremely young Japanese children are filmed as they run errands, like delivering parcels or purchasing groceries.

Having children do tasks of this nature is apparently quite a normal occurrence in Japan, where people are notably a lot more blasé about child safety than most of the western world - as I understand it, it's not considered a big deal to leave young children in a house alone or to make infants walk to school on their own. This is generally because of a (whether real or perceived) lower general crime level, and probably much less fearmongering about child predators and serial killers than our news media. It's also seen as a good way to encourage independence and initiative.

And suddenly Pokemon makes sense to me in a whole new way. It's interesting because in the English translation of FRLG Daisy Oak has an added line when giving you the Town Map ("Grandpa asked you to run an errand? Gee, that's lazy of him.") which isn't present in the originals. I wonder if the change was made because to a western audience, a young child would be assumed to be reluctant or exasperated at being made to do a task for an adult. So much media that satirises or mocks Pokemon often focuses on the absurdity of children being sent out into the world on their own, but I'm betting that those jokes wouldn't quite work in Japan.
 
This is generally because of a (whether real or perceived) lower general crime level, and probably much less fearmongering about child predators and serial killers than our news media. It's also seen as a good way to encourage independence and initiative.
Afaik it's not so much a crime issue (the level of crime in Japan is comparable to the rest of the planet), but rather out of necessity. As (somewhat properly) portrayed in a lot of JRPGs (pokemon included in this case), due to how important the work culture is, parents in Japan tend to unfortunately be often either overloaded by work, or even actually be single parents (not necessarly separated, but if a father is called from work to move to another town, they will do it even if it means leaving his family behind).

As a direct consequences, children are more or less required to be able to be able to fend for themselves much earlier than in other western countries. That does include being able to go around alone running errands, or be able to handle housework or even cook simple things.

Due to this, they also tend to be a bit more able than normal in avoiding getting candies from strangers... though afaik expecially in bigger cities, child criminality isn't exactly rare, and it's one of the way the Yakuza does eventually get new blood.

As far as JRPGs go, from personal experience, both Persona and Yakuza series draw a very realistic description of this situation, which isn't surprising as both series are pretty big and take place in modern Japan.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
Afaik it's not so much a crime issue (the level of crime in Japan is comparable to the rest of the planet), but rather out of necessity. As (somewhat properly) portrayed in a lot of JRPGs (pokemon included in this case), due to how important the work culture is, parents in Japan tend to unfortunately be often either overloaded by work, or even actually be single parents (not necessarly separated, but if a father is called from work to move to another town, they will do it even if it means leaving his family behind).

As a direct consequences, children are more or less required to be able to be able to fend for themselves much earlier than in other western countries. That does include being able to go around alone running errands, or be able to handle housework or even cook simple things.

Due to this, they also tend to be a bit more able than normal in avoiding getting candies from strangers... though afaik expecially in bigger cities, child criminality isn't exactly rare, and it's one of the way the Yakuza does eventually get new blood.

As far as JRPGs go, from personal experience, both Persona and Yakuza series draw a very realistic description of this situation, which isn't surprising as both series are pretty big and take place in modern Japan.
That's a good bit of extra context, thanks.

With that said though it's interesting that while absent fathers are a frequent thing in Pokemon, the mothers never seem to do any work or be that busy. The mother in Sinnoh iirc is the only one who actually goes out and does things.
 
That's a good bit of extra context, thanks.

With that said though it's interesting that while absent fathers are a frequent thing in Pokemon, the mothers never seem to do any work or be that busy. The mother in Sinnoh iirc is the only one who actually goes out and does things.
The BW2 mom is underrated, since she used to journey around herself and you could call her and I think she'd sometimes be shown on different backgrounds.

That said never let it be said that stay at home moms are necessarily doing nothing, just the way games work means you're not going to come back and see them keeping the house running.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
True, I'd forgotten the BW2 mom and actually now you mention it I think the BW mom mentions a backstory of former travels too. The BW2 mom is a former Pokecentre nurse iirc?

The Johto games at least mention that the mother keeps busy with keeping the place clean and making food etc. But I replayed ORAS lately and it did strike me that the Hoenn mom has literally nothing to do but wait around for Norman not to be at work.
 
That's a good bit of extra context, thanks.

With that said though it's interesting that while absent fathers are a frequent thing in Pokemon, the mothers never seem to do any work or be that busy. The mother in Sinnoh iirc is the only one who actually goes out and does things.
If you want some more extra context, the parent-children relationship is also kinda weird in Japan, which is reflected in games, again pokemon included in this case.

Possibly due to a combination of the "respect-the-elder" focused culture and what I said above regarding parents often not having much time to spend with their children due to work, in japan there no such word or sentence to convey "I love you" to your parents or siblings, because the relationship often just becomes "i made you so i care for you" + "you made me so i respect you" and nothing more.
There's literally a bunch of social experiments about it on youtube .

TLDR: family-children relationship in Japan is really different from our western standards. What you see in videogames, while confusing and looking "very fictional", is unfortunately often realistic. In Pokemon you even have a case of "dad moved out for work" in generation 3 Norman, who also happens to be the only MC father ever showing up in the series.

I recall reading somewhere that one of the reasons Pokemon MC always only lives with their mom is that GF actually wanted to raise awareness of the issue, but I can't for my own good find the source, so take this with a grain of salt.
 
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