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Sorry to be the proofreader again, but do you mean Gen 9 (Paldea) shinies, Galar (Gen 8) shinies, or Galar Shinies which you want to hunt in Paldea but can't due to this distinguishing problem?
Uggggghhh I didn't even notice that I wrote Galar. To clarify hopefully once and far all, Iwas talking about Paldea's shinies, I just can't get Roman numerals right. Gonna try to use actual numbers when I write "Gen [whatever]" from now on I think.
But to expand on what I meant, on Home's GTS the icons are so small that I find myself squinting at them to try and distinguish whether they're shiny or not. Pokemon that typify this annoying trend:
Ceruledge
Charcadet
Armarouge
Maushold
Tandemaus
Frigibax
Arctibax
Iron Moth
And as R_N said there are more than a few Gen 8 shinies that have the same issue.
Honestly, fuck shiny Combat Tauros. Thanks to the lighting engine, the regular and shiny literally look exactly the same if Tauros is in shade. When I was hunting that shiny, I legitimately lost track of how many times I got tricked into thinking the bull was shiny because of the lighting. It and other cases made me actively hate the dynamic lighting in these games.
Can they at least stick to shades that don’t match natural lighting conditions?
I've been playing Emerald again recently to prepare to maybe actually beat the Battle Frontier by counterteaming that damn Double Team Snorlax (itself an annoyance; I hope whoever designed that set gets hemorrhoids any time they eat their favorite food) but I just realized that May bursting in after beating Wallace would have been a perfect opportunity to pull a reverse Blue. You're the one who got there first, and your rival is the one who's gonna immediately try to knock you back down.
To put that in perspective, Golbat has a higher BST than Swoobat. Swoobat is fast, but Golbat can take hits slightly better and its preferred offense stat is higher than Swoobat's... oh, and of course it can evolve into Crobat who is faster and stronger. If they were just going to have it be a 2-stage, Swoobat needed to have a BST nearing 500 and upping its Special stats; 67/57/55/77/55/114//425 to 67/50/55/114/95/114//495. Oh, and better Abilities would also help (give it back Heart Stamp, boost its power to 75, and give it the Ability Serene Grace ).
So there's a number of Pokemon that only get one ability.
Usually it makes sense.
(...)
And there's a lot of things to pick at within those for various reasons, the one Pokemon I keep coming back to......is Stunfisk-G
Why does it only have Mimicry? Mimicking its surroundings stuff is obviously part of its design, but it's not really a gimmick that it would have to have.
While we’re talking about G-Stunfisk, why is Snap Trap a move that Stunfisk only gets STAB on in one of the four Terrains? Weird enough that it’s not just a Steel-type move to begin with considering the concept (an iron bear trap), but then they don’t even make it change type to match Stunfisk’s Mimicry type à la Weather Ball?
Stunfisk-G feels like a Pokemon that had a gimmick planned for, scrapped, and they never got back to redesigning it. Like, I can SORTA see how they could have potentially make it a gimmick: Stunfisk-G would be a pure Ground & Snap Trap would be a Ground-type and work like a combination of what it does now (trapping), Shell Trap (higher Powered Move that's triggered by opponent first making physical contact), and Weather Ball (if a Terrain is active it'll change Type (along with Stunfisk-G) and double in power). It's a bit complicated, which is maybe why they scrapped the idea... of course in typical GF fashion they didn't then go back to redo Stunfisk-G.
Speaking of Propeller Tail, Buizel and Floatzel have an empty ability slot and tails that are literally propellers. Why didn't they get Propeller Tail?
Stall's Japanese name is Adodashi. It's specific definition is "Waiting to see one's opponent's move before doing anything". Its a term often associated with the rock-paper-scissors as something a cheater would do to win. How does this relate back to Sableye? It's Japanese name is Yamirami which comes from "yami" (darkness) and "yabunirami" (cross-eyed sight, squint) or "nirami" (glare). And Sableye's lore is that, since it lives in complete darkness on a diet solely of gemstones, its eyes have turned to gemstones. So I think it having Stall is meant to be a joke, it's a Pokemon who likely can't see good (nor does it have to chase down its meals) thus in-battle it first needs the opponent to move for it to know where they are.
This one I sorta understand; Snorlax doesn't take a short nap, it goes into a deep sleep. HOWEVER that doesn't mean Munchlax can't learn Slack Off, fits with its design better and of course when it evolves you'll then have a Slack Off Snorlax.
I agree that Return always felt a little off, particularly in the anime. However, I also don't like Return Favour because it feels too transactional. Also, most of the alternatives that make the positive feelings associated with the move more explicit feel a little weird and self-aggrandising for a trainer to issue as a command haha. I'd have gone with something like Endearment; it still feels abstract enough to not come across as a brag, but it conveys the vibe of the move well (and fits the 10-character limit of earlier games).
I think the idea is that you're supposed to be busy catching some Route 1 Pokemon (encouraged to do so by Cheren challenging you and Bianca in seeing who can catch the most Pokemon) she slips by you.
as a lil kid i remember seeing the episode where metapod beat pinsir by having too much defense too hurt him and i was like "why can't the game do that?" lmao.
To be fair, Pinsir didn't actually lose. The spikes on its horns just broke which left it little in way of doing serious damage. Which, in the way, you can say how the game works, a Metapod with a full +6 Harden would be able to wall Pinsir's hits for a bit, essentially having dulled its attack. Samurai was just stubborn and likely was annoyed Ash successfully defended his Metapod so wanted to show him what a "true" Metapod is like. As Misty says, both Ash and Samurai's heads are thicker than their Metapods.
because i got into the whole "catch a few and see who's best" thing my box fills up so quick and i'm always like "i know i won't use any of these but i hate releasing... FUUUU" lmao
I thought those were due to how color palettes worked on the Game Boy Color or some memory saving nonsense. Though I do unironically like a couple of them.
I thought those were due to how color palettes worked on the Game Boy Color or some memory saving nonsense. Though I do unironically like a couple of them.
I didn’t know what Shiny Sprigatito looked like but now i want one since it’s my two favorite colo(u)rs (teal and purple, it’s even my favorite shades of them)
Absolutely always thought this. Still annoyed that USUM didn't introduce a bunch of Alolan forms for Johto species like a lot of people expected they would. And that we never got a Let's Go Johto. And that the anime didn't bother going back to Johto like they did for Kanto. And that they never did anything with the GS Ball... sorry, what were we talking about?
Though let's not ignore recently Johto has been getting some love. Legends: Arceus oddly had a fixation of Johto and Unova, several of their Pokemon getting both regional variants and notably certain Johto mons getting further Evos. Scarlet & Violet then continued this trend making even more Johto (and, to a lesser extent, Unova) have more evos and a popular Johto mon got a Regional Variant.
Will they ever do a Let's Go Johto? Honestly I'm not sure and I'm actually leaning on no. Not that I would be against it (as long as they improved upon what they had in LGPE), but GF had made it pretty clear that we've entered a new era where they're more wanting to experiment than follow a formula. I would say Johto is the next past region to receive a game , but what that game will be who knows. Maybe we'll finally get that game where we play as a member of a villain team, starting out as a new Team Rocket recruit in Johto and experience the rise and fall of Team Rocket from inside the team but outside the events of the Gen I & II games. Or maybe they'll have a game concerning time travel as we go on an adventure with either Celebi or an artifact connected to Celebi and travel to past, modern, and future versions of Johto (ooh, or maybe we travel to a future that's a post-apocalypse Johto and we gotta use figure out what happened and how we can stop it; Celebi Trigger).
The gym leader rematches in Scarlet and Violet tick me off, and it's mostly down to the decision to force their Tera mons to keep the move they had to show off their Tera type in the initial battle.
Yeah, honestly the rematches should have had them use their official Paldea Signature Mon (Lokix for Katy, Veluza for Kofu, & Espartha for Tulip; I feel Larry using Dudunsparce even though its a cross gen evo feels just about right) and do same-type Tera. And then let us have a casual battle with the Elite Four members where they Tera one of their Pokemon outside of their Type Specialty.
Oh, and while we're at it, GIVE US A WAY TO REMATCH THEM! Seriously the Team Star Leaders can be challenged everyday, the Teachers are available to battle in a Tournament, but no way they could have us rematch the Pokemon League multiple times? We can't go to the Gym Buildings and make a request to battle the Gym Leader again? Hopefully the last DLC fixes this.
Every so often I see someone say "I thought Slugma/Skarmory/Chinchou was actually a Gen III Pokemon" or similar.
I rarely get Pokemon mixed up with the generation they're from, but every time I try and use the Time Capsule I always seem to get caught out with a move I forgot didn't exist in RBY. Fair enough, Outrage and Perish Song are Gen II moves, but there are a bunch of Gen II moves that feel so "basic" in concept (Protect, Safeguard, Encore, Foresight, Endure, Baton Pass*) you'd be forgiven for thinking that they originated in Gen I.
Volbeat & Illumise I take a few seconds to remember whether they're Gen II or III. Don't know why, just their design feels more Johto to me even though they obviously are a pair for Double Battles.
And now for a rare aspect where Platinum is actually a downgrade over DP:
View attachment 562184
The recurring reporter NPC Kinsey uses Chatot in Diamond & Pearl. Not only is this fitting and cute but it's also a fun way to show off that Pokemon who is otherwise not associated with any other notable NPC. In Platinum this was changed to a series of multiple battles with Luxray and Drifblim, which are fine I guess but way more boring.
I'd go for something using the word "Wail", like I have an idea for a Ghost-type Sound move called Trembling Wail that's a Psywave copy (and obviously also a Sound Move).
It felt like they were building up to that.
First time you encounter an Ultra Beast you can only battle & defeat it (I forget the reason they don't let you throw a Poke Ball) before phasing out of the Pokemon World reality. Plus with the Totem Pokemon it feels like they have the whole "Wild Boss" Pokemon thing ready to go for them.
Than the moment happens, Lusamine released Ultra Beasts all around Alola before she enters the Ultra Wormhole she opened, closing just after Guzma runs in. There's now a moment there can be a lull in the story as we figure out our next move. A call is received from Hala, Olivia, and Nanu that unknown & dangerous Pokemon have appeared and everyone should stay inside. Thus the player has to revisit each island and help the Kahuna defeat an Ultra Beast (Buzzwole/Pheromosa on Melemele, Celesteele/Kartana on Akala, & Xurkitree on Maile).
From there we can return to the plot, the last Kahuna we help is concerned about Poni as it has no Kahuna so we're asked to go there. In addition that's when the Sun/Moon Flute is discovered in Lusamine's personal collection plus the legends of another on Exeggutor Island, though no one knows where it exactly is. Thus Lillie, in her new "Z-Form" clothes, goes with the player to Poni to investigate. That's when we encounter Hapu who is trying to prove herself by defeating a Nihilego. We help her, she becomes Kahuna, gives us our Grand Trial and thus permission to access Poni Canyon. Halfway through Poni Canyon we come across Mina who explains the Dragon Trial ahead is too dangerous and there's nothing ahead besides the Alter anyway. Your character "tells her" you're looking for the other Flute and she says she may know someone who may know. Your taken back to the Seafolk Village and learn the Captain knows about Exeggutor Island and he takes you & Lillie to get the Flute.
Back to the point of this response, skip ahead to the Mother Beast Lusamine battle which totally should have had her come out as her "last Pokemon". Would make the transition of the final scene feel a bit more smooth as we see Mother Beast Lusamine freaking out and about to attack Lillie until Nebby comes in and seperates Lusamine from the Nihilego.
Oh well, I guess we did eventually get our "Final Boss Totem" in the form of Ultra Necrozma in USUM.
God no. I'm pretty sure I said this back during the datamine era of SM when we only had pictures of the mons and people were theorizing this shit, but having shit you can't get fully goes against the spirit of the franchise to me.
You'd be able to catch them later, just for the main game they can be used as bosses since, unlike the other Pokemon, you wouldn't know what Type or Moves or Ability they have on your first playthrough. It would be like the Professor AI battle where they have an entire team of Paradox Pokemon who you likely don't know the Types of first time through (infact I think some Paradox mons don't show up until post game) so are just winging it.
That ain't skin flaps, that's muscle.
(This joke worked a bit better with the original Celebi pic I found... until I discovered it led to a NSFW Furry site)
I've been playing Emerald again recently to prepare to maybe actually beat the Battle Frontier by counterteaming that damn Double Team Snorlax (itself an annoyance; I hope whoever designed that set gets hemorrhoids any time they eat their favorite food) but I just realized that May bursting in after beating Wallace would have been a perfect opportunity to pull a reverse Blue. You're the one who got there first, and your rival is the one who's gonna immediately try to knock you back down.
But May/Brendan isn't a battler, it would more make sense if that was done with Wally. Instead of battling Wally just before the League, have it be May/Brendan deciding to test you (and also let you see the final form of their Starter). Than after you defeat Wallace have Wally burst in do to a reverse Blue.
I thought those were due to how color palettes worked on the Game Boy Color or some memory saving nonsense. Though I do unironically like a couple of them.
Pokemon DP having so many fisherman with a Gyarados.
Aside of Gyarados being a terrifying beast which even indirectly implied that People don't have one because it is hard to tame and a hassle to evolve Magikarp, Gyarados is also making the game experience even worse since all Gen 4 Gyarados have intimidate.
So every time to fight a fisherman with a Gyarados (which there are a lot) it takes several seconds just for intimidate to go off and your physical attackers take more time to deal with it than they would do usually.
The team variety in Gen 4 is already awful. There are so many trainers that have just 3 of the exact same Pokemon: 3 onix trainer, 3 bedew trainer, 3 bidoof trainer, 3 goldeen trainer, 3 gastly trainer...
Umbreon not having Toxic in its level-up movelist is a gripe of mine because that's clearly its intended playstyle as a bulky Pokémon with bad offensive stats. That and the Swagger + Foul Play combo.
That ain't skin flaps, that's muscle.
(This joke worked a bit better with the original Celebi pic I found... until I discovered it led to a NSFW Furry site)
Er, I think that prediction will be a failure to launch. As odd as this may sound at first, GF likes to make the Pokemon World feel more "grounded" in its world building. Like, the only really fantastical element in the Pokemon World are the Pokemon. But otherwise the environments and people feel like just normal depictions of the modern day real world (maybe a tad exaggerated at certain points but not unrealistically, well maybe except for people who have psychic powers but there's always going to be exceptions).
Now, would it be cool if they explored the idea like maybe setting a Pokemon game on a moon base colony? Sure, like we know there are Pokemon species who live on the moon, maybe some which haven't made a jump to the Pokemon World, plus would be interesting to see how Pokemon species brought up to the moon would adapt, but that sounds like a "final frontier" sort of game when they've made regions based on all of the most recognizable places in the real world.
Pokemon DP having so many fisherman with a Gyarados.
Aside of Gyarados being a terrifying beast which even indirectly implied that People don't have one because it is hard to tame and a hassle to evolve Magikarp, Gyarados is also making the game experience even worse since all Gen 4 Gyarados have intimidate.
So every time to fight a fisherman with a Gyarados (which there are a lot) it takes several seconds just for intimidate to go off and your physical attackers take more time to deal with it than they would do usually.
The team variety in Gen 4 is already awful. There are so many trainers that have just 3 of the exact same Pokemon: 3 onix trainer, 3 bedew trainer, 3 bidoof trainer, 3 goldeen trainer, 3 gastly trainer...
Yeah I think this is a problem with basically every generation up to about Gen V? The worst example of a Gyarados fisherman is actually this guy west of Pacifidlog in RSE, for example:
EDIT: and honestly it's not like they really 'fixed' it in later games. These days random trainer rosters are less same-y, but it's partly because the trainer density is way lower (to accommodate the buffed Exp Share that eventually became mandatory) and because most of them only have 1 or 2 Pokemon each anyway.
Now, would it be cool if they explored the idea like maybe setting a Pokemon game on a moon base colony? Sure, like we know there are Pokemon species who live on the moon, maybe some which haven't made a jump to the Pokemon World, plus would be interesting to see how Pokemon species brought up to the moon would adapt, but that sounds like a "final frontier" sort of game when they've made regions based on all of the most recognizable places in the real world.
Yeah I think this is a problem with basically every generation up to about Gen V? The worst example of a Gyarados fisherman is actually this guy west of Pacifidlog in RSE, for example: View attachment 568077
EDIT: and honestly it's not like they really 'fixed' it in later games. These days random trainer rosters are less same-y, but it's partly because the trainer density is way lower (to accommodate the buffed Exp Share that eventually became mandatory) and because most of them only have 1 or 2 Pokemon each anyway.
At least he evolves his Magikarp. Was debating listing them, but I figure you all can look for yourself. However I will call out the following:
RS's Roger & DP's Luc: So why one Gyarados and multiple overleveled Magikarp? I feel there's a story of regret there, of lost attention and too late to press the B button.
FRLG's Wade: Okay, so I can pretend many of these Fisherman just so happen to catch the Magikarp at these Levels and just haven't been able to Level them up. But I can't pretend that when there's a Fisherman with a rematch team that's still all Magikarp. Wade is "the Magikarp Fisherman" who has 6 of them, first battle they're all Level 27, rematch they're all Level 47. He pressed the B button 120 times.
HGSS's Kyler: Yes, his Magikarp aren't at evo Level, but still man, seriously? At least level up the ones you used in the previous rematches.
BW's Mick & B2W2's Mack: When you make Wade look sane go seek help. Magikarp can't even be caught in the Wild in Unova... (Going to guess the two are related as both their English and Japanese names are similar)
This is very minor but it still irks me. In the classroom area of the Aspertia Gym in B2W2, there's an NPC who mentions that the only accessible Pokemon with an advantage against Normal-types are the Riolu found in Floccesy Ranch. Seems like a neat little hint for a kid who's struggling against Cheren (and at the very least it tells you about a 5% encounter that you might otherwise miss completely), but it doesn't work at all as advice for the first Gym.
Riolu realistically won't learn a Fighting-type attack before facing Cheren, especially if you go to catch one after talking to this NPC, since it needs to get to Level 15 to learn Force Palm (Cheren's ace is Level 13 in Normal Mode). Weirdly, Gen 4 and BW had it learn Force Palm at the much more reasonable Level 11, but they switched it with Feint in B2W2. Gen 5 overall is extremely rough for early-game grinding, between the dearth of trainers before each game's first Gym and the diminishing returns of the scaled exp system, compounded by wild Pokemon encounters that never exceed Level 7 (remember also that Audino encounters are locked behind getting your first badge).
To be clear, I'm aware that Riolu is still a competent choice to take on Cheren, mostly because Counter can be quite effective against him if timed right, but that's not a type advantage thing, nor is it a strategy that a struggling child can necessarily pull off.
What I find especially funny about this NPC is how much of a 180 it is from BW. The rest of their dialogue is something to the effect of "...if you go in with a Grass-, Fire-, or Water-type Pokemon, it'll be a simple test of strength!" which is fine on its own, but it clashes with BW's type advantage railroading and creates some unfortunate implications for anyone who loses to Cheren, without offering a feasible strategic solution.
Since writing this post, I've started a Challenge Mode run of White 2 and it's very noticeable how Challenge Mode has a disproportionate impact on the early game vs the late game, at least in terms of actual difficulty. What I didn't realise until looking up trainer data is that Challenge Mode just sets every Gym Leader and Elite Four member to have 30 IVs across the board on all their mons, in addition to changes in level, roster, and movesets. I was aware that Pokemon generally seemed bulkier and harder-hitting, but I didn't have a sense of the scale.
For the E4, this is a relatively minor change, since they have IVs of 24 in Normal Mode anyway, but Cheren's mons jump all the way up from IVs of 6, which explains why he often takes people by surprise. It means that the 'challenge' of Challenge Mode is heavily frontloaded (although the roster and movepool changes throughout are greatly appreciated). I also think it's a strong sign that this mode wasn't playtested all that much, and it exposes the devs' overreliance on gradually increasing IVs throughout the games to modulate difficulty and simulate the way the player's Pokemon naturally accumulate EVs.
I'm generally quite enthusiastic about Challenge Mode (it's the only way I'd opt to play B2W2). I like the way it expands Gym Leaders' teams, but I find it darkly funny that Iris is (I think?) the only one to outright swap a Pokemon in Challenge Mode rather than add one.
It's like the designers straight-up admitted "yeah, Druddigon isn't challenging, sorry. It sucks, we won't waste your time".
I'm generally quite enthusiastic about Challenge Mode (it's the only way I'd opt to play B2W2). I like the way it expands Gym Leaders' teams, but I find it darkly funny that Iris is (I think?) the only one to outright swap a Pokemon in Challenge Mode rather than add one.
It's like the designers straight-up admitted "yeah, Druddigon isn't challenging, sorry. It sucks, we won't waste your time".
Why the crap are so many of Gen IX's shinies practically indistinguishable from the regular forms? I'm missing a bunch of shinies from Paldea and it makes searching for them on Home's GTS borderline impossible.
God I absolutely loathe Armarouge and Ceruledge’s shiny colors. They could have easily made their colors swap with one another, a Purple Armarouge and orange Ceruledge would be perfection, or even making them a white and black knight respectively. But nah, just change the tiny flames on their eyes, that’s an excellent idea /s
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