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It's interesting how they suggest Wiglett's "unrelatedness" through having a completely different cry and abilities from Diglett, perhaps it'll even have an entirely different stat spread. Like, what if it's a slow special attacker instead of a fast physical attacker? Who knows.
Also the Ed Sheeran thing is confusing but funny because I like to think they saw the completely voiceless Piers concert and decided to go in the exact opposite direction
It's interesting how they suggest Wiglett's "unrelatedness" through having a completely different cry and abilities from Diglett, perhaps it'll even have an entirely different stat spread. Like, what if it's a slow special attacker instead of a fast physical attacker? Who knows.
Well as far as Wiglett specifically goes, the design does just look like same as Diglett, quick and frail. However I do agree that the evo can really be anything.
GF has once again surprised me (and likely many others). Okay, sure, I've said this for Paldean Wooper and probably for a few other Regional Variants, but here's the thing: Wiglett is not Paldean Diglett. Infact (Normal) Diglett are native to Paldea, instead GF looks to be experimenting with the idea of Pokemon which have had convergent evolution (evolving similar body plans but are not related, like fish & marine mammals having similar body shapes or how birds & bats both developed powered flight). And I can see why, instead of a mole, Wiglett is based on a Garden Eel (even being its species category), thus would be strange to be a Paldean Diglett as it would mean it would have gone from a mammal to a fish. Curious if this is just a once/once in a while thing or is a new tool GF is going to use to reuse old Pokemon designs but add new twists to them, except they're not actually filling a spot in the Dex instead of it being an alternate form.
So, let's look at this scientifically. For Diglett and Wiglett to be convergent evolution species, that means this body plan and its parts must be desirable for both subterranean and underwater living.
Submerge Body: The trait the Diglett family is most famous for and now the Wiglett family. The most obvious advantage of having their body submerged is that it lets them hide easily and quickly, Diglett because its skin is sensitive to the sun (and main food source are roots and roots vegetables) and Wiglett because its skittish (it also keeps Wiglett anchored where it is so doesn't need to spend energy flapping its fins to keep itself from being washed away; it may also help in feeding but we need to know what its diet is like).
Body Shape: The main difference between the two. Being a mole and a garden eel, they (should) have different body parts. Diglett shouldn't be much bigger than what we're seeing and be a clawed quadruped; Wiglett should just be a long tube, garden eels have lost their fins because of their sedentary lifestyle. Even though Wiglett isn't a Diglett Regional Form, it still continues the tradition of GF taking a concept we knew and flipping on its head: Diglett we know there's a simple body which has feet underneath we never see, but Wiglett should just be a very long body and the mystery is more how long is it. Both bodies are also appropriate adapted to their maneuverability: Diglett's stout body likely places its legs close to on another letting it dig super fast; Wiglett can stretch out its body to either get a good look around or reach whatever their food source is from their burrow, and if they sense danger or want to move the slender body easily slides through the sand.
Eyes: Diglett's eyes would be adapted to seeing in the dark whether it is underground or at night. Because its likely not using its eyes as its main sensory organ, they're small. However, to compensate, they're likely very light sensitive so though they don't rely on them, when there is light it can use it to better get the sense of its surroundings. Now Wiglett would likely use its eyes more than Diglett, but at the same time because it prefers to stay in one place its eyes also aren't its main sensory organ as, depending where it anchors, it could hamper its sight range. Plus, being it can be either underwater or poking above the surface, its eyes are likely adapted to take into the account of the refraction of the surface so it's not putting its head into a dangerous placement. Eyes look the same, but serving and having different functions.
Nose: The main sensory organ, however for one of them not in the way you think. And that one is Diglett! While I'm sure Diglett would rely on a sense of smell more than its sight, scents don't really travel through the ground so would only affect the tunnels they're in and possibly attaching if close enough. Instead Diglett's nose would also likely have seismic sensitivity, able to sense the shockwaves which do travel through the ground and knowing which direction they came from and how far away. Wiglett in comparison is pretty basic, using its nose to smell 60 feet around it keeping a nostril out for danger (or maybe its next meal). Not sure if Wiglett would have anything additional going on with its nose, if it did would be a minor seismic sense but this time adapted to shockwaves travelling through the water.|
Color: The second and final main difference between the two, their colors are appropriate for their environment. Diglett is brown to disguise itself in the dirt & mud; Wiglett is white to disguise itself in the white sand of the beaches and shores it lives in.
Okay, enough of the flavor, what do I actually think of it as a Pokemon? Being a Water-type, a pure one at that, means its entering an already packed field with strong contenders. Not helping is that I can only see it was a Special Attacker, possibly just using Diglett's stats but swapping Atk with SpA (though this would mean it would be pretty fast, a fragile speedster). Gooey is its best Ability, Rattled feeling a bit of a waste especially with it replacing either Arena Trap or Sand Veil (which makes more sense for Wiglett as it actually lives in sand rather then Diglett which lives in dirt). Now it's a guessing game whether its evolution is gonna be Wagtrio (which they were nice enough to provide an example of) or they'll think of a new twist (like maybe it makes a "sand hive" which have Wiglett's coming out of holes all around it)
I also like that already they're doing some world building by having it b Jacq's notes they used to identify it, fits with him being an expert in Pokemon biology and the Dex creator (it's more than what we've been told the Professors do!).
(EDIT: Really? No one posted the few hours between me making my post and catching up with all the comments? Alright, I guess I'll just edit this post with the comments)
I don't know what I should be feeling. Not shocked that the Japanese name is very literal , or that the translation team actually came up with a unique name not relating to its Japanese name!
Worst that Sandshrew's Japanese name is literally the English word "Sand".
ON top of that, it's Vulpix (who's Japanese name has no problem being an Ice-type) that gets a Pokedex entry which says people of Alola have a different name for it: Keokeo (which is the Hawaiian word for "White" or "Clear").
And while in real life all Regional Variants would probably be given different common names (like "Sandshrew" would become "Snowshrew" and "Vulpix" would become something like "Keokeo Vulpix"), they stuck with the "(Region adjectival form) + (Pokemon's name from debut region)".
Sandshrew family no longer are sandy, Mr. Mime isn't a mime, Zen Mode Darumaka isn't very zen, Yamask no longer wears a mask, Stunfisk no longer stuns, & the first part of the Legendary Birds don't match their Type.
I just will never be able to see it as anything other than the designers arbitrarily thinking its "different" so it should be a new Pokemon instead of a form.
It is a bit TOO on the nose. At the very last I think they could have changed the nose shape, maybe also put the eyes beside the nose instead of on top of it. People would still get it looks like Diglett.
Would like if there were big biology books in game (is a damn school setting after all) that would go in detail on how Wigglet come to be, as they aren't just the regional Digglet as regular Digglet didn't have to adapt, maybe it is somehow related to Digglet but thousands of years of natural evolution made the two groups distinct enough to be different species, maybe they had a common ancestor similar to bears and canines, or if they come from two completely different branches with Wigglet being an actual fish and Digglet a mammal (or they Pokémon equivalent).
While I would also like to see them do this for Pokemon in general, it's kind of funny how my previous post kind of addressed your questions without me knowing you asked them, lol. Guess we're all thinking the same thing "how does anything else in the Pokemon World just so happen to also resemble Diglett?".
considering pallosand is already an animate pile of sand, turning it into candy makes about as much sense as “sandshrew got lost on a mountain and is now an igloo”
Yes, BUT there is still a logic there. Sure its odd that Alolan Sandshrew's shell resembles an igloo, but that's just more GF having fun, the main point is that Sandshrew moved to the cold Alolan mountains and adapted to it by becoming Ice-types. It's still a hard-shelled quadruped mammal with sharp claws, its just that instead of adapted to digging through sand it does so in snow.
Turning the Sandyghast family into a candy castle would mean that a batch of Sandyghast moved or were taken away from the sandy beach and to an environment where the ground is covered in grain sugar, made a home there, and after several generations the new Sandyghast adapted to possessing the sugar grain... even though I highly doubt said sugar grain place may have seen bloody conflict. It's a bit of a stretch, just like expecting a mole to become a fish.
1. This seems like something planned out by GF who are pretty bad with making Pokemon lore but only releasing it in Japanese (or revealing important information to Japanese magazines). The only thing the Pokemon Company could really do was get a trailer ready to be released alongside the announcement for worldwide audiences who weren't aware of this side site.
2. Let's be real, they knew as soon as it was shown it was gonna spread across the fansites. Like it or not, viral marketing has become a standard marketing philosophy, the modern day version of "word to mouth".
For "Water 3" how about "Paleozoic"? That's the time range when multicellular life really got started in the water (resulting in the Cambrian explosion) which led to the first crustaceans, echinoderm, jellyfish, and coral that mostly make up Water 3 plus it also includes the Permian Period where animals were evolving to live more on land (thus Archen wouldn't be out of place).
I think you mean Water 2 for Fish. And for the Pokemon that are only in Water 2 that's fine... but then we have the likes of Octillery, Inkay, and Wailmer for some reason.
And of course it breaks out into science debates, soon we'll be arguing over what Wiglett's and Diglett's binomial nomenclature should be, one camp wanting to relate them in the slightest bit while the other half wanting to make it clear they're separate species.
Conceptually, vaudeville and Charlie Chaplin (specifically his famous character "The Tramp"). Pantomime and tap dancing were popular vaudeville acts, which also connects to Charlie Chaplin who's Tramp character was popular during the silent film era (where actors pantomime a lot of the time) and when sound was introduced added dance numbers (notably tap dancing as you could now hear the footwork and it was cheaper than playing music). So someone on GF decided if there was going to be a regional variant of Mr. Mime (called Barrier in Japan so they didn't have the name stigma) it would go from pantomiming to tap dancing (and get an evolution that looks like The Tramp).
But then came the question why it would give up pantomime. The answer? In Galar it had made its habitat in the colder part of the region. The ancestors of G-Mr. Mime probably gave up pantomiming cause the last thing you want to do in the cold is stand still (plus them shivering would ruin the act). So instead they picked up tap dancing to keep themselves warm, and they learned that as long as the ice was thick enough it made a really neat tapping sound so started manipulating ice. Generations later it dropped Psychic to became part Ice so it could just create a layer of ice on its shoes. They no longer dance to stay warm but because it became part of their species culture. Also they learned they could create barrier but stomping down hard to cause a sheet of ice to form so didn't need the supernatural powers to create an invisible energy wall.
This is just my headcanon, nothing has ever officially been stated, but I feel it makes the most sense.
I think ever since moving to 3D they no longer feel confined to the pixel space of sprites. It's like a kid who never tasted sugar before tastes some chocolate and goes on an ill-advised sugar binge.
So, is it just one of each Berry or an actual decent amount of them. These are all the basic status-healing berries which means, if you get a good amount of each one, you don't have to worry about getting the basic medicines or Full Heals for at least a little while (not to mention a Pokemon can hold the Berry to instantly heal itself of the condition while battling, which could come in handy if you know you're going up against an opponent that can give that status ailment).
Decent promotion if they give you a good number of them (let's make the bench mark like 10 each).
... BUT if it's only just one or like 5 each than once again a waste of time .
What face do you want Best Buy?
Since it's entirely a different species I like the English translators decided to bunk conventions and give it a (bit of a) unique name. It's still similar to Diglett, but its done in a more clever way even though they only changed one letter.
Meh. Much like the P25 songs, pretty much a generic song that sounds like they either whipped up or was something they had on the backburner they cleaned up. I'll give it credit that at the very least you could take some of the themes and relate it back to Pokemon (unlike the various love jams that P25 had).
Meanwhile we have got less famous musicians, like say Youtuber Il Niege, who has been making Pokemon-based songs which don't directly relate to the Pokemon but includes plenty of creative word play which indirectly relates back to it.
But no no, GF you keep on reaching out to these famous performers (that I can't really see Pokemon fans caring about, like did anyone really care about any of the performers for P25?) who you pay likely several hundreds of thousands to for a lackluster song cause, while they were hired to make a song for Pokemon, they have the ulterior goal of trying to make it palatable to their fans who aren't into Pokemon so they could reuse it if they want.
As a person who still gets hype seeing the swsh trailer that revealed Dynamax, im glad GF is putting more emphasis on vocal tracks.
Say what you want about gen 8 overall, but dont lie and say this trailet wasnt dripling with adrenline. Not to mention the best tracks in SWSH had vocals in the form of crowd chants and howling wolves.
Sheeran's "Celestial" sounds like he was originally making a somber love jam when Pokemon gave him a few thousand dollars, likely told him "make it about space" or something else relating to celestial, and slightly changed around the lyrics but not the music cause he's got other songs to write so he's not gonna waste too much time on a commission from a kid's video game.
I must ask though, it is really that surprising that I don't know who Ed Sheeran is before this?
Anyway my thoughts on the Music Video: Just saw the video, nice music. But it’s very obvious they are just trying to sell merchandise. At the very beginning you see Pokeball toys and consoles. And all the Pokémon for the majority of the video are Gen 1, with the exception of Galar starters, who appear very briefly in the 1st movie parody. Yeah, this video is designed to sell toys and plushies.
So, is it just one of each Berry or an actual decent amount of them. These are all the basic status-healing berries which means, if you get a good amount of each one, you don't have to worry about getting the basic medicines or Full Heals for at least a little while (not to mention a Pokemon can hold the Berry to instantly heal itself of the condition while battling, which could come in handy if you know you're going up against an opponent that can give that status ailment).
Decent promotion if they give you a good number of them (let's make the bench mark like 10 each).
... BUT if it's only just one or like 5 each than once again a waste of time .
What face do you want Best Buy?
It seems like it's only one of each berry, though it does raise the question on how berries will work and if they will be renewable again, or if there will be anything else to make out of them.
The Luxury Ball and Soothe Bell set provides 10 Luxury Balls and 1 Soothe Bell, which is actually a pretty solid deal with a ball you usually get late and a held item that can last the whole game to form a combo to raise happiness easily. Bulbapedia says this is available via Amazon in the UK and I saw this on Walmart Canada's page as well.
The Refreshment Set consists of 5 of each vending machine drink. Bulbapedia also mentions this as being available via Amazon in the UK, but I didn't see it on their page.
Buying the digital version of the game from the eShop will provide an Adventure Set, notably providing uncommon items for a nice head start like Ethers, Rare Candy, and Nugget, and also being pretty much equal or better than the Healing Set except for the Antidotes. This has been on the Japanese website for a while and it seems like it was announced in English in August as well so I think I just missed it back then, but it's noted on the eShop page. I think this is a pretty generous set for being so accessible.
Speaking of the Japanese website, they also show that you can get a promo card for getting the physical version of the game.
What the actual fuck is their problem? Are TPCi genuinely such unbelievable cheapskates that they refuse to translate the actually good preorder bonuses Japan gets? Those motherfuckers get whole-ass artbooks while we're saddled with utterly embarrassing trash like the pathetic potion and berry quantities.
Tbh, yeah, like a lot. The guy is the biggest male popstar of the last five years
I really like Wiglett. I always liked the idea of some seemingly unrelated mons like Garchomp or Sharpedo sharing some kind of relation due to similarities in design. I think Wiglett establishes this idea officially
What the actual fuck is their problem? Are TPCi genuinely such unbelievable cheapskates that they refuse to translate the actually good preorder bonuses Japan gets? Those motherfuckers get whole-ass artbooks while we're saddled with utterly embarrassing trash like the pathetic potion and berry quantities.
In terms of big physical bonuses (you'll notice other retailers that get physical bonuses start going down in quality very fast and scream "we're making this merch anyway, so, here." )a lot of those tend to be tied to Pokemon Center, which has a much bigger presence in Japan. The English Side does usually offer a plush bonus or something, but probably not seen as worth bringing over stuff like the Artbook for whatever reason. Maybe a logistics issue, maybe a cost issue relative to what they'll sell, maybe the TPCi side of things didn't know about the artbook until a point where its like well, damn, we can't fucking translate that, finda publisher and get that whole printing process done now. I imagien a lot of the physical goods fall into the bin of there's just a totally different network of goods production.
The digital bonuses are by far more baffling. Japan's aren't even better, per say. They have the same digital download bonus, they have one to get one (1) set of normal speciality balls, they have one to get 100 pokeballs again...there's a backpack for the game floating around i guess.
They are just bizarrely hyper conservative on this on both sides of the pacific.
It might just be me, but I'm kind of glad they're not locking a bunch of rare or otherwise unobtainable items like Apriballs behind a preorder for once. Reminder: Outside of cloning them preordering was the only way to get them in BDSP (and even if you cloned them it still required you to get them from someone who did in order to do it in the first place.)
I like that it's just some extras of something that you can easily get more of in terms of in-game bonuses for pre-ordering.
It might just be me, but I'm kind of glad they're not locking a bunch of rare or otherwise unobtainable items like Apriballs behind a preorder for once. Reminder: Outside of cloning them preordering was the only way to get them in BDSP (and even if you cloned them it still required you to get them from someone who did in order to do it in the first place.)
I like that it's just some extras of something that you can easily get more of in terms of in-game bonuses for pre-ordering.
That's fine in theory but in pracitce they are literally giving one single copy of 7 berries
berries that will likely be extremely common and, when you get them, will be in batches.
(Pure) Ground is dirt, Steel (& Ground) is volcanic rock, and Water is coral sand. I wonder what the -Igletts of other Types would use as their burrowing material.
Normal: Hm, hard to say, maybe clay?
Fighting: Concrete, little fighter builds its muscles by breaking through solid concrete (could maybe connect it to it being concrete made by Conkeldurr).
Flying: I know what you're thinking, and no, not gonna say smoke/clouds cause that's essentially copying Swablu's gimmick. So instead I'm going to say twigs, basically it'll be in a bird nest.
Poison: Sludge or pile of garbage.
Rock: Would gemstones be too tacky? I guess gravel would be fine.
Bug: It'll also make a nest, though with wax similar to beeswax.
Ghost: Nothing, it's a ghost so can just phase through any material. Infact it could just be coming out of a portal from afterlife just big enough to squeeze its head through.
Fire: Volcanic rock is taken, so how about something like ash or asphalt? Or maybe it's adapted to deserts so is that type of sand.
Grass: Wood shavings, moss, tangled roots; really depends on what they want to -Iglett to be like.
Electric: Silicon.
Psychic: Would soil with mushroom spores be too much? Joking (or at least semi-jokingly). Psychic is another tough one, if not going for anything "psychedelic", then instead maybe the material wouldn't matter but rather uses whatever its in to perform abacomancy (THOUGH it's mentioned that Jackson Pollock made a series of paintings based on abacomancy using his painting style, so maybe a paint-like substance?).
Ice: Permafrost.
Dragon: Embers burning blue fire/smoke.
Dark: Another where I don't think it'll use a specific material, I imagine this Diglett actually preferring to stay low to the ground covered over by something so it can do sneak attacks (ooh, or maybe have the top of its head resemble a Poke Ball and be a another Poke Ball mimic like Voltorb, Foongus, & Galarian Stunfisk).
Fairy: Pixie dust (it's magic, I don't have to explain it).
Nah, if you don't pay attention to pop(?) music I don't see how else you would have heard of him. Now, you might have heard some of his music played over stuff like commercials or in stores, but unless you look up the song that are played you wouldn't know the performer. His most famous songs would probably be "Photograph", "Thinking Out Loud", and "Shape of You". So if you heard any of those songs you've at least heard him before.
I'm sure they would be renewable, afterall they have an entire overworld now that needs filling and Berry plants would be a very handy thing to fill it with (especially if there's cooking like Arven seems to suggest).
But as KalosianPorygon said, would it be the Galar Berry Trees or something different? I think the days of planting Berries are long gone sadly, unless they give us something like the Berry Pots Key Item from HGSS or have like a special garden/greenhouse location like in XY. Now I would personally like to see the individual berry plants back just to see the the unique trees for each species made into 3d models, but I'm not holding my breath for that. My bet is that it probably is the Galar Berry Tree (they'll probably even make a new "Berry Guard" Pokemon like Crabrawler and Skwovet family, if they haven't already revealed it with Grafaiai), which I guess is at least serviceable. Though I'd also be perfectly fine with a compromise: instead of having the extremes of a tree for each species or a single Berry tree, how about a handful of trees each which grow a specific set of Berries. Heck, if they want to make it easy on themselves, they can make 8 trees based on the colors they separated most of the common Berries into for the Festival Plaza Dye Houses (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Dark Blue, Purple, &Pink), they just gotta assign the few common Berries they didn't include to a tree color; heck would go with the compass theme if they want to make a certain color tree more common in certain directions.
Also hopefully they'll have places where you can just buy Berries in bulk, or at least the "basic" ones that have the useful effects in battle. Like the Academy has a cafeteria; GF are you going to tell me a prestigious & world famous Pokemon Trainer Academy with a cafeteria wouldn't have the basic Berries most trainers would want stocked in bulk? Then again, I think we saw fruit stalls in Alola and Galar yet GF didn't think to make it so you could buy Berries from there, no, you had to get your Berries from the wild like you're a wild Pokemon (like I'm not complaining getting free berries, but I got money burning in my pocket through most of the adventure! Give me stuff to buy with it!).
You're telling me there's actually some GOOD/DECENT sets? They're actually capable of doing it?!... Let's look them:
Berry Set: Mulch. Like even 6 Full Heals would have been better.
Healing Set: Huh, well I guess that's fine. Odd it's Antidote instead of Full Heal but I suppose Poison is generally more common early game. The Revive is nice to have as early game you are likely to have a Pokemon faint in an important battle; though would be nice to have more than 1 but I guess that is considered too game breaking.
Luxury & Soothe Set: Pretty decent actually, especially for Pokemon who evolve with high friendship (also going to guess the high friendship bonuses will also be in the game so if you want the Pokemon you catch to break the game even earlier then here ya go). Aside that the Luxury Ball is a pretty fancy Poke Ball so also has some nice style points.
Refreshment Set: This makes the Healing Set look like a handful of Oran Berries. Like, if you know what you're doing, these could last you quite a bit as odd as it sounds. Heck, you may want to buy a few Potions just so you can save the Lemonades for mid-game if you find yourself using healing items often. Nothing phenomenal, which is why I made it half blue (neutral) and green (good), didn't feel right to make it all green like the Luxury & Soothe Set which gives you (useful) a non-consumable item, but certainly a leg up to some other offers we've seen.
Variety Ball Set: 2 of each is disappointing, but at least this is interesting. In addition to being Poke Balls which you could never have too many of, they're Poke Balls which have a different effect depending on the situation which could make some catches easier. Plus would give your team a tiny bit of visual flare as you throw them into battle. And being they're pushing that multiplayer feature, showing off to your friends is something to consider... though still just giving it a blue/green split. And of course its Japan only, us international players are too unworthy to have anything but normal Poke Balls until we prove ourselves in the game.
Adventure Set: THIS! Sure, all consumable items, but its at least in a way where I can see a player just starting out can consider getting this set feeling they have a leg up. 5 Full Heals cause early Paralysis and Sleep is also a thing, 3 Revives cause you're gonna catch more than 2 Pokemon, 3 Ether is a surprise and honestly probably won't be used but sells for a nice amount, Rare Candy cause a single level early game can make a difference, and finally the thing I keep saying they should give if they can't think of anything: Nugget for extra cash in your pocket. And of course, this is only if you order the DIGITAL version from the eShop. Well, SORRY for wanting a physical copy of your game, if you don't want us buying physical copies than you shouldn't be selling them! Still, its a pretty good set.
100 Poke Balls: Unless we need to catch multiple com mons to fill out dex information, we don't need that many Poke Balls. At least add in some Great and Ultra Balls. Of course can't say it's bad, but can say its neutral.
Speaking of the Japanese website, they also show that you can get a promo card for getting the physical version of the game.
Of course they are. Like, what do we have to do Pokemon Company? Did we have to make Yokai Watch more popular in the US than Pokemon to scare you into also giving us neat bonus stuff that you do with the Japanese?
Then again, maybe its a good thing they don't do this, cause I don't want the TCG scalpers going after the games too...
The English Side does usually offer a plush bonus or something, but probably not seen as worth bringing over stuff like the Artbook for whatever reason. Maybe a logistics issue, maybe a cost issue relative to what they'll sell, maybe the TPCi side of things didn't know about the artbook until a point where its like well, damn, we can't fucking translate that, finda publisher and get that whole printing process done now
Well for the artbook they could just offer a digital version if they can't do a physical version in time. Don't even got to physically translate it, just have it come with a text file with an English translation (would certainly save Dr. Lava some money).
It might just be me, but I'm kind of glad they're not locking a bunch of rare or otherwise unobtainable items like Apriballs behind a preorder for once.
Oh, I would never want them to lock exclusive items behind a preorder bonus (I also wouldn't want them to do it with customization options but at least the one in SV isn't that interesting... meanwhile the Platinum clothes in BDSP is TOTAL BS). Heck, if no one offered any preorder bonus items or it was only the eShop we wouldn't even be talking about this. But the reason we're talking about it is because most of the major retailers are offering a digital bonus sets... and they SUCK! They show so little imagination, offer so little worth that it's questionable whether taking the minute or two typing the code and receiving the "bonus" is even worth it. Like, the ones I gave green to above isn't because they're amazing, it's just that in relative to the bad ones they look "good" in comparison. Like, here are my thoughts on what a preorder bonus set of the normal items look like.
Well for the artbook they could just offer a digital version if they can't do a physical version in time. Don't even got to physically translate it, just have it come with a text file with an English translation (would certainly save Dr. Lava some money).
That is just....that's just something companies don't do?? Art books generally don't get digital versions as-is and they'd definitely never give you an untranslated digital version with an accompanying, entirely separate english text file
That is just....that's just something companies don't do?? Art books generally don't get digital versions as-is and they'd definitely never give you an untranslated digital version with an accompanying, entirely separate english text file
Digital Artbooks are a thing, Elden Ring just had a Digital Artbook as one of its preorder bonuses. Other games which had digital art books include Horizon: Forbidden West, Dying Light 2, Persona 5 Strikers, Jedi Fall Order, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, Dead Island, and the upcoming Sonic Frontiers. It's such an easy thing to include.
Also, unless they have pages which go into deeper detail, aren't art books just generally the artwork with some captions below it? All the Trainer Concept art we have are like this: the artwork will have Japanese written on it, and below it would be translations of what the Japanese is saying. And even if there are some written paragraphs, is it that taboo for a digital version just to have a translation either on a attached text file or, if they want to be fancy, make it so a pop-up appears with the translation when you click on the page?
You presented a legitimate reason why they can't provide a physical artbook, I just suggested a workaround which I feel is perfectly plausible. Like, who's gonna complain? Let's be honest, an art book preorder wouldn't be for the young kids who just wanna play a Pokemon game (that is just a bonus for them) but rather the older fans who want to see the concepts & little details we may not see (which is especially notable for Pokemon as the concept art sometimes includes information they don't put in the game for some reason: For SwSh we had Milo having a younger brother, what Opal looked like when she was young, Bae in her school clothes, Melony and all her children, etc.).
Digital Artbooks are a thing, Elden Ring just had a Digital Artbook as one of its preorder bonuses. Other games which had digital art books include Horizon: Forbidden West, Dying Light 2, Persona 5 Strikers, Jedi Fall Order, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, Dead Island, and the upcoming Sonic Frontiers. It's such an easy thing to include.
Also, unless they have pages which go into deeper detail, aren't art books just generally the artwork with some captions below it? All the Trainer Concept art we have are like this: the artwork will have Japanese written on it, and below it would be translations of what the Japanese is saying. And even if there are some written paragraphs, is it that taboo for a digital version just to have a translation either on a attached text file or, if they want to be fancy, make it so a pop-up appears with the translation when you click on the page?
You presented a legitimate reason why they can't provide a physical artbook, I just suggested a workaround which I feel is perfectly plausible. Like, who's gonna complain? Let's be honest, an art book preorder wouldn't be for the young kids who just wanna play a Pokemon game (that is just a bonus for them) but rather the older fans who want to see the concepts & little details we may not see (which is especially notable for Pokemon as the concept art sometimes includes information they don't put in the game for some reason: For SwSh we had Milo having a younger brother, what Opal looked like when she was young, Bae in her school clothes, Melony and all her children, etc.).
Well the fact any companies doing digital artbooks is fascinating
but i also cant help noticing most of those are western and the only ones dabbling with it are sega (well i guess P5S is more on KT)
It being an easy thing does not seem to extend to everyone, much less Nintendo which keeps limiting them to pre order bonuses exclusively and not even selling the damn things later (not exclusive behavior to them, at least). Wouldn't surprise me if they see these things as overly premium...
Also yeah I kind of think there would be a taboo to just having a separate text file with translations. That's just, bizarre. Who would do that. Why. If you're translating them and having a pdf just go that extra step, i beg you. I feel like that's a harder sell than just the digital art book.
e: Western, sega and Elden Ring. kind of a big japanese one there!
To save money and time not needing an editor to replace the Japanese text. Though, if it only just test they could probably just have someone essentially paste over it so it looks like it's "on the page".
That wasn't a pre-order bonus though? That was just an event.
I would like them to stop putting customization options exclusively behind events though, but that's a different thing.
Yeah they’re trying out a new thing that looks like a regional form but isn’t one, like convergent or divergent evolution. That’s why its name is different.
It’s not a regional form because it’s a different species and a convergent evolution. Which is pretty odd since you could argue they have existed since Gen 3.
It’s not a regional form because it’s a different species and a convergent evolution. Which is pretty odd since you could argue they have existed since Gen 3.
, or that the translation team actually came up with a unique name not relating to its Japanese name! 
Decent promotion if they give you a good number of them (let's make the bench mark like 10 each).
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