imo: watch it not get an official reveal, just have it show up a few times in other things and then the games come out.Impidimp can do another vanishing act for the next 2 months after pulling that off. I'm putting it on my 10 worst mons list.
imo: watch it not get an official reveal, just have it show up a few times in other things and then the games come out.Impidimp can do another vanishing act for the next 2 months after pulling that off. I'm putting it on my 10 worst mons list.
I see and understand where you're coming from now. I find it baffling they say they want us to decide the difficulty yet give us no way of making the opponent's stronger and, if "Party Experience" is always on, would make it hard to try and stay underleveled unless you ignore as many battles as possible (aka only catching Pokemon you want on your party and trainers you can't sneak past). Confusing yet they said they want to focus on competitive this time around yet things they can do in-game to give a competitive player some challenge they want they're outright refusing to do.Is the overleveling of pokemon that worries me 315111, sure there are ways around it but Gamefreak just stated that "make your own difficulty" is the way they want us to play the games, and by making the Exp. Share always on they just made playing with level limits far more annoying (which isn't difficulty, it's just, you know, annoying)
I had the same issue with "Dusk" Rockruff for USUM. I also always tried having the lowest level member in front of my party but since Rockruff was an event Pokemon it gained double experience and ended up being at least one level higher than the others in my party. I only ever sent it out against something it was super effective against (and usually if that was the second Pokemon the opponent sent out) just so I could use it. I don't recall having this issue with the other "Release Event" Pokemon like XY's Torchic or SM's Munchlax (I didn't use ORAS's Beldum because it was Shiny and so if I ever trained it I wanted to do it "right"). Rockruff is also in the Medium Fast group while Torchic is in Medium Slow and Munchlax is Slow, so that probably explains it.Here's the issue, though: Hawlucha was a traded Pokémon in the Medium Fast experience group. Pupitar is in the Slow group. The result was that Hawlucha would gain levels a lot faster than Pupitar did. Keeping them equal meant putting Pupitar at the front of the team most of the time, while Hawlucha rarely saw action at all.
Still no excuse to not put in difficulty levels. If they want the "average difficulty" to be how they design games now than fine, makes sense for those beginning to play Pokemon, but what about those experience players (be them a kid or adult) who are looking to face stronger trainers? It feels like they're so worried that a kid would accidentally select a higher difficulty setting and it'll put them off from Pokemon... which is kind of insulting to the kids. If you give them an option to switch difficulty in the options and inform them of being able to do that there should be no problem. And if the kid is too young to understand that, they're probably too young to be playing Pokemon. Only way a kid wouldn't understand switching difficulty is if they didn't read, and Pokemon games require a lot of reading (especially cutscenes that have no voice acting).For me, it's because at its core, Pokémon is still a game for 10-year old kids. That's why Ash is eternally 10. That's why this is the general age for Pokémon trainers. So even though there are lots of complicated things, they don't want paralysis by the excess of options for those kids.
They do think of competitive, obviously but we are never going to be their main focus.
And they keep including those Trainer Schools yet giving them either super basic information or just a place to battle a few trainers. If you're going to have a place called the Trainer School and also have all of these hidden mechanics you might as well have the Trainer School at least mention of their existence. Trainer School has so much potential for being a vital place for information and ways to help the trainer at the start of their journey yet they always do nothing with them aside being a "quick stop".GF purposefully withholds information about how the game works from all of its audience. If the games are supposed to be for 10 year olds, why did they implement the convoluted Ivs/Evs/Nature mechanic and kept it secret? It is basically the counterpart of athletes' genetic skills/training/attitude trifecta, mind you. Plus Egg Moves?
And I doubt that we could risk the younger audience suffer from paralysis by analysis if only a couple of in-game NPCs explained all of the above. Like, being more straightforward instead of stingy to sell guides (in a world where internet exists).
If a friend of mine and I, at 13, with no internet, managed to figure out how battle tower trainers' Walrein had Rock Slide and Earthquake (hello, breeding with Camerupt), anybody today could.
I imagine this would be the case more than all Pokemon getting the same EVs.Given they want to allow your in game team to be competitively viable, why are we assuming EV share mechanics at the moment? We have nothing near a confirmation for it on either end so both sides are arguing a hypothetical.
It looks like that would hurt... unless the badges moved. Wait, I know! After beating the Champion the badges stand up and you then wear it like a crown!Maybe you wear the ring, it's the space for your arm.
That's not a bad idea! It would certainly be a way in adding in those "Minor Gyms" without making them Gyms.I’ve thought about it a bit with this post in mind and remembered we’ve had a precedent for this type of between-gym competition before: Sabrina’s Gym and the Fighting Dojo in RBG and it’s sequels/remakes.
In those games, the Dojo is relegated to just an optional area of specialty trainers and your reward for beating all of them is a Pokémon. Maybe that’s how the Minor League will fare? A sort of generic loser’s building in a few towns (as opposed to a Stadium) where you fight a few trainers and the leader for a prize (a mon, tm, item, etc.)?
For those wondering, here is what Ohmori originally said and the correction provided by a GF representative:After looking at the original quotes in-depth, I unfortunately have to place the blame squarely on Game Freak here.
Fault I would say is on Ohmori's wording, not GameInformer. I think the biggest mistake was specifically mentioning there was 18 Gyms. Yes, 18 is the number of Types there are but unless GF has 18 Gyms planned that's an unnecessary detail. He should have said Galar has more than 8 Gyms and these Gyms compete with each other to see who gets in the Major League (who the player will face in the story for the Champion Cup) while others get placed in an unseen Minor League.Original Statement:
Correction:From an actual gameplay and experience perspective, there will be certain gym leaders that will be different depending on which version you’ve played. In terms of the setting itself, the background to the story is there’s like this Japanese-style J-1 and J-2, like minor league and major league kind of concept. There are 18 different types of gyms in the story, and depending on the version, which gyms are in the minor league and which gyms are in the major league are different. For example, in Sword, the fighting-type gym will be in the major league, but in Shield, the ghost type. The idea is that every year, the Galar region is playing and which gyms make it into the minor league versus the major league changes. Of course, as always, there’s a difference in the kinds of Pokémon you can encounter.
In the Galar region, Pokémon Gym Battles are popular sporting events, and the 18 different types of Gyms that exist in Galar contribute to the background setting of the story in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. In each game, Trainers must collect eight Gym Badges to complete the Gym Challenge and earn the opportunity to participate in the Champion Cup.
Over the course of the main story, Trainers will challenge eight Gyms, which are all in the Major League. Which Gyms appear in the Major League and Minor League will differ between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. For example, depending on the version of the game, Trainers will be able to challenge different Gym Leaders, such as Bea or Allister.
Each version will have eight Gyms and eight Gym Leaders that Trainers can battle for a traditional Gym Challenge experience that fans have enjoyed throughout the Pokémon video game series.
The interviewer was just trying to be "cute". The joke is that, since Aegislash has both a sword and shield, how can it be in either game as no matter what it has something which represents the other version.I wonder when this interview may have been conducted, as Aegislash does appear on that Dynamax camera site, so it’s in. Or maybe they’re being coy about returning Pokemon in general.
Interesting idea but they've made it clear you'll only be battling the 8 Major League Gyms during the main story. The Minor League will be bonus "Gyms" at best, or they may simply just exist as a lore thing only and we never see all 18 Gyms that are rumored to exist.Thinking of it a little more... we are thinking of gyms as the way they were until Gen VI... but what if Galarian gyms are more like the Alolan Island Challenge?
The Minor League gyms would be regular Trial Captains (think Ilima, who puts you a task and then battles you), and the Major League gyms would be the Grand Trials.
Technically, between Trials and Grand Trials, Gen VII had 12 mandatory specialists (counting the unsupervised Vast Poni Canyon trial as a specialist) before the Elite Four, so it's not like the series is still confined to 8.
Eh, I don't think it's necessary. Having watched 12 hours of it now and it seems like it only exists to reveal Galarian Ponyta. If things don't change in the next 12 hours I think I'll have a rant ready...Would y'all like me to produce periodical updates on the dex count or save it all for one big post at stream's end?
Silly, those ARE Morelull. How do you think they sap your strength? It's radiation poisoning!Slightly concerned about that radioactive mushroom that looks like a Morelull.
It looks like they did add horns to Ponyta's design. My guess is that it's now one of three Types: Fire/Fairy, Fire/Ghost, or Fairy/Ghost; was originally leaning towards Fire/Fairy but seeing how it's "flames" burned I'm now thinking Fairy/Ghost. And now since the Galarian Ponyta has horns, in order to make Galarain Rapidash special they may have given it wings.It looks a bit like a shiny rapidash, which is an interesting. Wonder what type this thing will be?
Hmm, you know, the GS Spaceworld Demo revealed that among the many new Baby Pokemon originally planned they had one for Ponyta...For the little bit we can see, the horse pokemon definitely looks a lot smaller and more MLP-like than Ponyta.
I would not be surprised if Impidimp was the Pokemon's version of the trollface.Impidimp can do another vanishing act for the next 2 months after pulling that off. I'm putting it on my 10 worst mons list.
My Little Pony(ta)
What, don't you get hammered after participating in a sporting event? Seems pretty realistic to me.Why is the Pokemon Center a pub?
Why?.... I....
a pub is a bar Gamefreak! A bar! WHY IS YOUR PET HOSPITAL A BAR?!!!
...........
That... really doesn't sound good. Not even just the part about Masuda purposefully gimping Game Freak for the sake of comfort.Masuda's Mind:
Let's start off with what will no doubt become controversial. So, it's been revealed that GameFreak had indeed increased their staff from the reported 200 to about 1,000 (also counting outsourced work and translators) since working on a console game is a lot more work than a handheld. However, considering how big the Pokemon franchise is, GI asked if GF would like to expand further. So, here's a rough list of things Masuda said:
YIKES. I mean, wow, that's quite revealing information. And throughout explaining this even the GameInformer guys are saying this is the opposite of what fans and the community are thinking. And I gotta say, it does sound like Masuda is holding back GameFreak (and in turn the Pokemon franchise) purely out of personal preference based on what he's comfortable with.
- Masuda ideal team number is 20.
- Quoted saying "When you have a bigger team, there's too many branches on that tree".
- Wants to keep the team small because communicating is challenging on a development team. An example given was explaining the concept of Dynamax to a team of 30 people would be messy, complicated, and disastrous (though not sure if that was something Masuda said or the GI guys thinking up something on the quick).
- GF's mission is to keep the team as small as possible while still cranking out the games.
- Masuda is looked up as a "spiritual lead". It's his desire to keep the team small and sticking to their "indie" roots.
Now it's later discussed that Masuda has two "modes": Composer Mode and Director Mode. Director Mode is when he's, well, directing a team to make the games. However its Composer Mode that's the most interesting and may explain his way of thinking. Composer Mode is when he's writing music and when he's in this mode he says he's very poetic, like one time he wrote directions to Ohmori but he didn't understand any of it and Masuda says he wrote the directions when he was in "Composer Mode". So taking that into account it sounds like Masuda sort of want to run things like how he writes music: very controlled, doesn't need that many elements, and he does what he wants to do.
Let's move on because just thinking about this is making my head hurt.
"The Pokemon become huge for three turns, giving them a boost to their HP, and also turning their attacks into Max Moves, which are like Z moves but weaker and with secondary effects." It's not really THAT complicated.An example given was explaining the concept of Dynamax to a team of 30 people would be messy, complicated, and disastrous
I don't think team size is the issue, Masuda. You're just sh*t at communication in general.one time he wrote directions to Ohmori but he didn't understand any of it and Masuda says he wrote the directions when he was in "Composer Mode".
When we were still working through the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief over Dexit, someone mentioned that game development teams are usually small. I just don’t think that 20 people is what anyone had in mind. Big Yikes.GameInformer Show - Pokemon Sword & Shield and Little Town Hero:
So, GameInformer has a podcast show called "GameInformer Show" where they talk about the games they're featuring in their magazine. Make sense, and I was ready to write it off as just re-stating everything we knew. Still, just incase they revealed some more info I decided to give it a quick listen. Boy, was I wrong to assume it wasn't going to tell us some new info that shed light on some things:
Masuda's Mind:
Let's start off with what will no doubt become controversial. So, it's been revealed that GameFreak had indeed increased their staff from the reported 200 to about 1,000 (also counting outsourced work and translators) since working on a console game is a lot more work than a handheld. However, considering how big the Pokemon franchise is, GI asked if GF would like to expand further. So, here's a rough list of things Masuda said:
YIKES. I mean, wow, that's quite revealing information. And throughout explaining this even the GameInformer guys are saying this is the opposite of what fans and the community are thinking. And I gotta say, it does sound like Masuda is holding back GameFreak (and in turn the Pokemon franchise) purely out of personal preference based on what he's comfortable with.
- Masuda ideal team number is 20.
- Quoted saying "When you have a bigger team, there's too many branches on that tree".
- Wants to keep the team small because communicating is challenging on a development team. An example given was explaining the concept of Dynamax to a team of 30 people would be messy, complicated, and disastrous (though not sure if that was something Masuda said or the GI guys thinking up something on the quick).
- GF's mission is to keep the team as small as possible while still cranking out the games.
- Masuda is looked up as a "spiritual lead". It's his desire to keep the team small and sticking to their "indie" roots.
Now it's later discussed that Masuda has two "modes": Composer Mode and Director Mode. Director Mode is when he's, well, directing a team to make the games. However its Composer Mode that's the most interesting and may explain his way of thinking. Composer Mode is when he's writing music and when he's in this mode he says he's very poetic, like one time he wrote directions to Ohmori but he didn't understand any of it and Masuda says he wrote the directions when he was in "Composer Mode". So taking that into account it sounds like Masuda sort of want to run things like how he writes music: very controlled, doesn't need that many elements, and he does what he wants to do.
Let's move on because just thinking about this is making my head hurt.
Designing Pokemon: Now it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that designing a Pokemon is treated as serious business. Designers can't just make a Pokemon, they have to explain every single design choice about the Pokemon. Examples include Scorbunny looks simple and easy to draw but took MANY iterations to reach that simplicity. James Turner had to explain why Vanillite was an ice cream Pokemon. To give Galarian Weezing a top hat they had to have a reason (which was it ate pollution and released purified air). Every claw and horn needed a reason to be part of a Pokemon's design.
"Party Experience" Always On?: GameInformer seems convinced that the "Party Experience" system is always on. Now, as we've seen with the 18 Gyms, they can be wrong on things. I'm holding onto Ohmori saying "it's on by default" as hope it can be turned off, but who knows if GI may have been told some additional information we haven't.
Wild Style: So seems like when GF said you could customize your style of play the Wild Area may be at least one place this can be done. It's explained you can either explore the Wild Area as much as you want or can just go straight to the next city and story part. This makes me wonder that, if you just keep going straight forward, they designed it so your party would be at an adequate level to face the challenges ahead. However, if you want to level-up your team or maybe find items that'll help you our you can explore the Wild Area for a bit. If true it's an interesting idea though, still, for trainers looking for a challenge BUT also want to explore they either need to know exactly where to go in the Wild Area to get what they want or are just out of luck.
Giga Vs Dyna: While they weren't told exact numbers, the percentage increase of Gigantamax is the same as Dynamax. The difference between the two is that, in addition to G-Max moves, Gigantamax Pokemon may have their stats adjusted differently and/or have different Abilities than their base form. So in theory a Pokemon which has a Gigantamax form isn't getting an advantage but rather just has an alternative choice. We'll see how true that turns out to be...
Best But Basic: GF want to make Sword & Shield the best Pokemon game but, since its the first core series console title, also wanted to go back to basics. That's why Gyms were brought back, hinting that Gyms may not be permanently back as we thought.
Stadium Feeling: There's no Battle Revolution-like announcer for the Gym matches, but the crowds will react to how the battle progresses such as cheering, chanting and signing.
Colorful Legends: The reason the Zacian & Zamazenta are named after colors is because Ohmori, following the "back to basics" thinking, wanted their names to follow the trend of early Pokemon titles being named after colors. In a way Pokemon Sword & Pokemon Shield is actually Pokemon Cyan & Pokemon Magenta. This may also mean there's no "Zallow" as this is just a thing for the Sword & Shield mascots.
Upcoming GameInformer Articles:
Little Town Hero:
- Screenshot of Maya files for the steampunk city (not even GI weren't told its name).
- Masuda talks about a potential Pokemon timeline.
- Highlights of Grookey, Scorbunny, & Sobble, talking about how they were made and important things about them that may hint toward their evolutions.
- Interview with James Turner (drawing his favorite Pokemon and talking about his history).
While GameInformer weren't allowed on the Sword & Shield development floor, GF was more than happy to show them the Little Town Hero development floor and tell them some history and trivia about the games development:
Concept Art Gallery:
- Started as a Gear Project and lead by a veteran Pokemon programmer of 20+ years.
- Little Town Hero was made for adults who didn't have much time for a full RPG. It has the highs and lows of an RPG game set in all one town.
- Is planned to be about 25 dollars!
- While right now being released on Switch, GF neither confirmed nor denied it could come to other consoles in the future.
- Toby Fox was brought in to make music by one of the other Pokemon composers Go Ichinose. Ichinose is a big fan of Undertale and had all the other GF staff play the game. The director joked how he's worried that the game's soundtrack would sell better than the game itself.
- Little Town Hero was actually being made before the Switch was announced.
Not much here so just giving some quick thoughts/jokes:
Dyanamax Poke Ball: Now interesting thing here relates to something we just learned about Dynamazing. It was said Dynamaxing isn't growing the Pokemon but rather it's a large projection of the Pokemon. While we weren't given details how this exactly work (GF may not even know themselves), this concept art maybe does. We see that when a Poke Ball is "Dynamaxed", it's split up into a grid, the pieces expand out, and is seemingly being held together by energy. So if this is anything to go by, the Pokemon might indeed be in the center of its Dynamaxed form as the energy around it is reflecting its appearance all around it.
Player's House: WOW. The level of detail here is crazy (insert joke about mom not having her own room). Though it's not surprising as it looks quite compact. Like is it odd that the player's room is attached to the living room (BTW, don't think we don't see that Switch console in our room)? Also it looks like the bathroom is a combined utility room as it has a washing machine. Final thing that stands out is in the living room is a pet bed, so does your family (or mom) have a Pokemon pet like previous games have had?
Other Quick things:
- Pokemon Center was designed after a PUB that Ohmori saw in the UK. (EDIT: Looks like Rapti beat me to this!)
- Gossifleur's design is based on a legend from the UK's Lake District that catching a floating cotton ball brings good luck.
- The idea of at least design direction for the Wild Area was inspired by a train ride that Ohmori was on in the UK.
- Infact a lot of this early artwork was drawn by Ohmori when he was in the UK for interviews for Sun & Moon (not USUM, the first Gen VII games).
Probably about as experinced as you in game design, but I disagree with the Ohmori statement.Well Ohmori is Masudas successor and he idolizes him, so even Masuda left his techniques would likely be copied. I know too little about game development to make any serious input, but maybe some people better than I can give it a whirl.
Have Pokémon Centres in the games ever really been hospitals though? I get that it’s kinda weird to mix food/drink service and any kind of medical care, but it’s not like there’s any need for sterility, nor are there ever any actual in-patients to consider when you just have a magic, near-instantaneous, universal healing console.Why is the Pokemon Center a pub?
Why?.... I....
a pub is a bar Gamefreak! A bar! WHY IS YOUR PET HOSPITAL A BAR?!!!
...........