Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
That's why everyone has a different opinion, because to you it looks like a battery but to me it looks like it's wearing pants. Nothing wrong with that, just a matter of taste.
Exactly, and everyone has different philosophies when it comes to how the members of an evolutionary line should connect to each other aesthetically. Do Shinx’s differences from Luxio and Luxray distract from the overall theme of the line, with a contrived attempt at cuteness sacrificing the coolness of the concept, or do they reinforce the theme by having Shinx ‘grow up’ into the fearsome lion?
If I’m being honest though, the idea that Shinx looks like it’s wearing pants just makes it even cuter to me.
Hey having a personal bias for your favorite pokemon is no shame
but why would you ever have your favorite pokemon suffer mascot syndrome? Er, that is to say the trend for mascot characters to be stripped of the interesting traits that got them there in order to have broader appeal, making them boring. Basically what happened to Mickey Mouse.
Well, until recently in Mickey's case
Still weep, as pikachu dies a little each day so that other pokemon may live.
swing low sweet chariot coming for to carry me home
But since you brought up Shinx... I've never really liked it's design. Sure Luxio and Luxray look cool but Shinx could really use more dark blue/black to it's color palate ASAP. Plus those big eyes and big ears
View attachment 89929
I dunno, it's always looked like a monkey crossed with a Powerpuff girl to me, instead of the lion it's supposed to be.
Again Luxray is cool though, mostly for correcting all those flaws. That and I like the striped socks effect on it's front legs.
Also, hi! I'm alive again, sorry for the 3-month break.
I heart Eevee too <3
3-month break? I had a 20 month break boi get on my level
My unpopular opinion is that these new Alola forms are pretty cool. They're mostly a re-skinning of some mons, but the type change and climate differences imo make it interesting and more realistic (in a good way)
My unpopular opinion is that these new Alola forms are pretty cool. They're mostly a re-skinning of some mons, but the type change and climate differences imo make it interesting and more realistic (in a good way)
I mean, with the exception of Alolan-Persian who is literally an in-bred freak, I don't think many people would really disagree with you. They're all either on par with, or better than their Kanto counterparts in terms of design.
The real issue with the Alolan's is that most aren't really an improvement over the older version, or in some cases, even worse in terms of typing, moves, and stats. For a new idea that is supposed to bring these Pokemon back into relevancy in some way without falling back to the Megas, most of them are mediocre. With the exception of Alolan Ninetails and Alolan Marowak, I haven't seen any of the others regularly in combat. And Alolan Marowak is only popular beacuse of what he counters, which is a slippery slope (once the counters are no longer prevalent, A-Marowak becomes irrelevant). So while I like most of the new Alolans and how they were designed, they kind of just fail miserably.
I mean, with the exception of Alolan-Persian who is literally an in-bred freak, I don't think many people would really disagree with you. They're all either on par with, or better than their Kanto counterparts in terms of design.
The real issue with the Alolan's is that most aren't really an improvement over the older version, or in some cases, even worse in terms of typing, moves, and stats. For a new idea that is supposed to bring these Pokemon back into relevancy in some way without falling back to the Megas, most of them are mediocre. With the exception of Alolan Ninetails and Alolan Marowak, I haven't seen any of the others regularly in combat. And Alolan Marowak is only popular beacuse of what he counters, which is a slippery slope (once the counters are no longer prevalent, A-Marowak becomes irrelevant). So while I like most of the new Alolans and how they were designed, they kind of just fail miserably.
Alola Persian is hilarious still. Also A-Exeggutor, A-Golem, A-Sandslash and Blonde- A-Dugtrio ftw (the last one is ironical btw, I feel that some GF graphic designer was drunk when he made that design)
I love Dedenne. I get why people don't like it because it's pretty generic even for a PikaClone but it's just so adorable on another level than the other PikaClones except for Mimikyu who is equally as adorbs.
The real issue with the Alolan's is that most aren't really an improvement over the older version, or in some cases, even worse in terms of typing, moves, and stats. For a new idea that is supposed to bring these Pokemon back into relevancy in some way without falling back to the Megas, most of them are mediocre. With the exception of Alolan Ninetails and Alolan Marowak, I haven't seen any of the others regularly in combat. And Alolan Marowak is only popular beacuse of what he counters, which is a slippery slope (once the counters are no longer prevalent, A-Marowak becomes irrelevant). So while I like most of the new Alolans and how they were designed, they kind of just fail miserably.
Actually, I don't Alolan Pokemon were meant to bring those Pokemon back into relevancy but rather just a clever way to bring back fan favorite Pokemon, put a new twist on them, and filling certain niches missing from the newer Pokemon. With each generation releasing less and less new Pokemon, they're going to need to fill those type gaps and just bring back an older gen Pokemon feels cheap and provides nothing new aside updating its movepool (and maybe Ability) moreso than other older Pokemon. Gen VI tried to mitigate this with Mega Evolution, but that was limited to what Pokemon they could do it with plus introduced a MASSIVE amount of power creep. However Regional Variant seems to be the solution they were looking for. It's not limited to what Pokemon it could be done with (infact, if they want, a Pokemon species can have multiple regional variants), since they're only slightly adjusting the stats there's no risk of a huge power creep, and since they're just a form you can have an entire team of regional variants if you'd like. So in that aspect, Regional Variants succeeded greatly. Sure, maybe the Alolan variants weren't outstanding, but they're just testing the waters. If they keep on with the Regional Variants I'm sure they'll get better at having them all be distinguishable from their original species, be it through notable stat differences, typing, or Abilities.
Actually, I don't Alolan Pokemon were meant to bring those Pokemon back into relevancy but rather just a clever way to bring back fan favorite Pokemon, put a new twist on them, and filling certain niches missing from the newer Pokemon. With each generation releasing less and less new Pokemon, they're going to need to fill those type gaps and just bring back an older gen Pokemon feels cheap and provides nothing new aside updating its movepool (and maybe Ability) moreso than other older Pokemon. Gen VI tried to mitigate this with Mega Evolution, but that was limited to what Pokemon they could do it with plus introduced a MASSIVE amount of power creep. However Regional Variant seems to be the solution they were looking for. It's not limited to what Pokemon it could be done with (infact, if they want, a Pokemon species can have multiple regional variants), since they're only slightly adjusting the stats there's no risk of a huge power creep, and since they're just a form you can have an entire team of regional variants if you'd like. So in that aspect, Regional Variants succeeded greatly. Sure, maybe the Alolan variants weren't outstanding, but they're just testing the waters. If they keep on with the Regional Variants I'm sure they'll get better at having them all be distinguishable from their original species, be it through notable stat differences, typing, or Abilities.
I used to think exactly this about Mega Evolutions, and apart from the power creep thing most of the arguments still hold true for Megas (and that is arguably an aspect that could be fixed with better game design). They demonstrated the capability of giving Pokémon two drastically different Megas too, meaning it would just be to slap a new Mega Stone on any old design to bring it back to relevancy (if not competitively, at least lore-wise). Megas were also pretty well-received by fans, once they had warmed up to them, and by the end of Gen VII people were eagerly anticipating more.
It didn't stop Game Freak from dropping the concept like a hot potato in favour of a Shiny New Toy in Gen VII. I agree that regional variants could be a good way to spruce up old designs in future generations, but I remain to be convinced that they will actually follow up on it, instead of dropping it for the Next Big Thing.
I used to think exactly this about Mega Evolutions, and apart from the power creep thing most of the arguments still hold true for Megas (and that is arguably an aspect that could be fixed with better game design). They demonstrated the capability of giving Pokémon two drastically different Megas too, meaning it would just be to slap a new Mega Stone on any old design to bring it back to relevancy (if not competitively, at least lore-wise). Megas were also pretty well-received by fans, once they had warmed up to them, and by the end of Gen VII people were eagerly anticipating more.
It didn't stop Game Freak from dropping the concept like a hot potato in favour of a Shiny New Toy in Gen VII. I agree that regional variants could be a good way to spruce up old designs in future generations, but I remain to be convinced that they will actually follow up on it, instead of dropping it for the Next Big Thing.
Ah, but did they drop Mega Evolutions for Regional Variants... or Z-Moves? Mechanically, it's Z-Moves they've replaced with Mega Evolutions, if any mechanic is up for the chop next gen to be replaced it would be Z-Moves because, aside from Signature Z-Moves, there's not much else to go with them.
However Regional Variants can be seen as a sort of spiritual successor to Mega Evolutions in terms of updating or adding a new spin to older Pokemon in order to include them back into the region dex with something new. And as I said, Regional Variants have the additional use of being use to fill gaps in needed types but GF not wanting to fully make a new Pokemon for it yet also not just wanting to fill it with older gen Pokemon having no new Pokemon (or form) to keep the players interested.
Because GF didn't feel like filling the multiple plotholes or answering the mysteries of XY and felt like giving us countless headaches trying to argue about what it is
If you want an actual reason: 20th Anniversary. If you were the Pokemon Company/Game Freak, what would you want for the 20th Anniversary? An updated version/sequel to the current Pokemon gen which will use mostly the same assets & grahpics and will not make as much money as the original paired games OR a completely new gen with a newer and stronger engine and graphics and will make a lot of money for not only being a new gen but be linked to the 20th Anniversary.
It stinks. There was a lot left unanswered in XY, we were getting hints of Z version (Zygarde's forms, anime's last season being "XYZ", etc, AZ's Floette being in the code with unique stats)... but the timing was wrong. Oh was it wrong, I'm actually now quite surprised as it feels like GF didn't plan ahead. Or did they think they were going to release Z as the 20th Anniversary game? If not, why didn't they make XY feel more complete, or maybe skip the Gen III remakes remake to do Z and save Gen III remakes for the year or so after the anniversary (would have also been a nice way to wrap up the 20th Anniversary, announcing the remake everyone was waiting for (remakes of games which were the gen when Pokemon was celebrating its 10th Anniversary)).
Personally I don't think it's just Pokemon XY that suffered from weird Gamefreak executive decisions, as they've been doing bizarre choices since 2014 or so. I could start to rant about it, but since UltraSun/UltraMoon are a part of that I will refrain... for now.
I would love for Gamefreak to do an interview about what happened in late summer/early fall of 2015 regarding the massive marketing spike and sudden drop of Zygarde and everything that happened post X/Y until the release of Sun/Moon, but for now that's quite the mystery.
Personally I don't think it's just Pokemon XY that suffered from weird Gamefreak executive decisions, as they've been doing bizarre choices since 2014 or so. I could start to rant about it, but since UltraSun/UltraMoon are a part of that I will refrain... for now.
I would love for Gamefreak to do an interview about what happened in late summer/early fall of 2015 regarding the massive marketing spike and sudden drop of Zygarde and everything that happened post X/Y until the release of Sun/Moon, but for now that's quite the mystery.
XY was released in 2013 tho. are you saying that GameFreak has made poor decisions after the release of gen6 or that gen6 was the start of it and they've stayed on a downhill slope since?
While probably something in the background was motivating it in 2013, I don't consider X/Y a part of the trend as I can't really say I saw the effects until 2014.
But I don't want to say Pokemon is on a "downhilll slope," that's exaggerating. It's more that Gamefreak has made some weird choices regarding the direction of the series like the removal of the Battle Frontier in ORAS, the lack of a follow-up to X/Y, and the super delayed marketing for UltraSun/UltraMoon. Then there was that interview a few weeks ago about what the series creators thought about the purpose and removal of Dexnav was for.
It's not that I feel the games overall quality have decreased, it's just I'm baffled about some decisions the past 4 years.
Some might say the pace at which they've been churning out games since Gen 5 is suspect, but I don't really know what to make of it yet. We'll see how Ultrasun/Ultramoon do.
While probably something in the background was motivating it in 2013, I don't consider X/Y a part of the trend as I can't really say I saw the effects until 2014.
But I don't want to say Pokemon is on a "downhilll slope," that's exaggerating. It's more that Gamefreak has made some weird choices regarding the direction of the series like the removal of the Battle Frontier in ORAS, the lack of a follow-up to X/Y, and the super delayed marketing for UltraSun/UltraMoon. Then there was that interview a few weeks ago about what the series creators thought about the purpose and removal of Dexnav was for.
It's not that I feel the games overall quality have decreased, it's just I'm baffled about some decisions the past 4 years.
I kind of thought the reason they removed the Battle Frontier in ORAS was explained in the SM post game, where Anabel indicates that she's from a timeline where the Hoenn region had a Battle Frontier. This is telling us that she's from the timeline Emerald is from and not the one that ORAS takes place in. So there's one timeline with no megas and a Frontier and one timeline with megas and no Frontier, which (unpopular opinion) I thought was an interesting way to distinguish Pokemon's new multiple dimensions.
As far as the advertising for USUM goes, GameFreak has historically created a small window to promote sequels and remakes, and USUM's 5 and a half months is roughly the right amount of time if you go back to look at the archives for other followup games.
I kind of thought the reason they removed the Battle Frontier in ORAS was explained in the SM post game, where Anabel indicates that she's from a timeline where the Hoenn region had a Battle Frontier. This is telling us that she's from the timeline Emerald is from and not the one that ORAS takes place in. So there's one timeline with no megas and a Frontier and one timeline with megas and no Frontier, which (unpopular opinion) I thought was an interesting way to distinguish Pokemon's new multiple dimensions.
As far as the advertising for USUM goes, GameFreak has historically created a small window to promote sequels and remakes, and USUM's 5 and a half months is roughly the right amount of time if you go back to look at the archives for other followup games.
No, that's the story explanation not the reason. If Gamefreak wanted to they could have put the Battle Frontier in, it was a design choice.
Regarding the Ultrasun/Ultramoon marketing, it was a short time window to begin with but after the initial trailer there was a two month dead zone of no information until August 7th, and even then the information was pretty weak. I really don't feel they truly began hyping up the game until mid-September.
But Ultrasun/ultramoon have their own threads so I really don't want to get into that here.
No, that's the story explanation not the reason. If Gamefreak wanted to they could have put the Battle Frontier in, it was a design choice.
Regarding the Ultrasun/Ultramoon marketing, it was a short time window to begin with but after the initial trailer there was a two month dead zone of no information until August 7th, and even then the information was pretty weak. I really don't feel they truly began hyping up the game until mid-September.
But Ultrasun/ultramoon have their own threads so I really don't want to get into that here.
You can insinuate that the lack of a Battle Frontier was entirely a design choice that they scrambled to cover up, but really the Ultra Beast story would have made less sense if they used another character from a different generation in Anabel's place, or even a character that was included in ORAS to reinforce the whole split timeline thing they decided on. only gens 6 and 7 have had any bearing on that part of the expanded universe, and it would have required an extra couple steps of plothole-filling if they decided to throw someone like Dahlia from the Battle Arcade in to the Alola Region (as a random hypothetical replacement for Anabel).
It's probably not fun for the players, but it does make sense to keep recycling gen3 characters that saw no usage in ORAS for the sake of the expanded universe.
My unpopular opinion is that I enjoyed the ORAS postgame more than most of the other games'. Other than Black Tower, White Treehollow and the Battle Factory, I've never really cared for the super-hardcore battle facilities. Maybe it's because I've always been an ubers player, but not being able to use most of my favourites really grates, and I don't really enjoy using most OU staples.
I dont like that Game Freak tried to mimic different cultures in XY and Sun/Moon. It felt super forced and akward as hell in some parts, and honestly it didnt really affect the gamefeel and gameplay very well. France in XY welt like a tourist trip and Alola was filled with so many unnessary stuff too(nvm that gen 7 was a shitshow of a generation anyway). I would apriciate it a lot more if they went back to creating entire new worlds like they did till gen 5. I got no problem with were the game is located but please fill the map with your own ideas Game Freak.
They didn't include BF because Game Freak. I mean can you blame them? From 2009 to 2014 they pushed a yearly sequel release, two form 2010 to 2014, changing engines twice and adding and changing hundreds of features, sprites, new Pokemon, new forms, Pokemon Global Link from 5th and 6th Gen, hell I'm surprised they got XY the year after BW2, I know they were probably in development ever since BW released but it still seems too little time for over 1500 Pokemon sprites, a whole 3D overworld, way different movement mechanics, and all for a total of 11 games. They didn't include the Battle Frontier because it was waaay too much work for a project that may not be so well received, and I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for the 2015 hiatus was simply exhaustion
They didn't include the Battle Frontier because it was waaay too much work for a project that may not be so well received, and I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for the 2015 hiatus was simply exhaustion
It's not exactly not-well received, but just that it's underused. The Battle Facilities are for the competitive part of the playerbase, and we are a low percentage of Pokemon's playerbase. Hence, they got back to the basics and just have a Battle Tower-like feature (though I'd like to see Rental Pokemon features again).
It's not exactly not-well received, but just that it's underused. The Battle Facilities are for the competitive part of the playerbase, and we are a low percentage of Pokemon's playerbase. Hence, they got back to the basics and just have a Battle Tower-like feature (though I'd like to see Rental Pokemon features again).
Part of the reason I was hyped for the Battle Frontier is that with all the quality of life and competitive training bonuses Gen6 gave us it could have bridged the accessibility problem of the original frontier.
I mean, honestly the first frontier had potential but took way too much investment to get to the more fun parts, which has been a big problem with competitive Pokemon since inception (why else use online servers and team builders). So I was seriously excited to see if Gamefreak could polish it up to something easy to get into but challenging, exactly like what they did with the Battle Maison. It's a little sad that they squandered that.
The reason why GF is no longer wanted to do Battle Frontiers is because a majority if players didn't play them. Many players prefer normal battles so what's the point of including additional facilities that changes the battling rules if only a portion of the players will play them? So they're just sticking with the Battle Tower-like facilities. Sad, though understandable. B2W2 replaced it with the Pokemon World Tournament and the White Treehollow/Black Tower, XY replaced it with the Looker Missions, and ORAS replaced it with the Delta Episode. Now, Gen VI's replacements did feel less of an offer (ORAS not helping by saying the Battle Frontier is being built...) though ORAS also had the Legendary hunt. Still, those additional battling Facilities outside the Battle Tower, especially the popular ones like Rental Pokemon, I think are felt. You know, I wonder if they made the Battle Facilities have a multi-player feature or let us battle using their battling rules if the Battle Facilities may have had more life to it (at the very last let us play with Inverse Battles in pvp, I don't think they ever did).
What was for the reason getting rid of the DexNav? Of course that could be a question for a ton of features. I get both wanting to make a generation feel unique by keeping certain features limited to it as well as wanting to experiment with new features to make iconic for a new generation, but still there's some features I feel should carry over in some form. Like the O-Powers are being brought back via the Roto Loto items, surely they can expand upon another SM mechanic like Island Scan to also act like the DexNav.
I dont like that Game Freak tried to mimic different cultures in XY and Sun/Moon. It felt super forced and akward as hell in some parts, and honestly it didnt really affect the gamefeel and gameplay very well. France in XY welt like a tourist trip and Alola was filled with so many unnessary stuff too(nvm that gen 7 was a shitshow of a generation anyway). I would apriciate it a lot more if they went back to creating entire new worlds like they did till gen 5. I got no problem with were the game is located but please fill the map with your own ideas Game Freak.
Except they didn't create all new lands. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh are based on provinces from Japan. That said I can understand where you're coming from, while they included facsimiles of notable locations and some of the surface nuisances, you can tell that regions like Unova, Kalos, and Alola are more from a tourist point of view of New York, France (mainly Paris), and Hawaii. Understandable, GF and most of its developers are Japanese so of course they can make Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh feel organic while Unova, Kalos, and Alola they would have to do extra work for making some things feel artificial. Now they do communicate with their international branches and get input from them, but that only goes so far and really only during the planning phase, when implementing things change and they probably don't call up the other Pokemon Company branches to talk with them about the changes. In a way it also explains why Unova was a cultural mixing pot, and in Kalos and Alola your character just moved their: to hide lack of knowledge of the real world location the region is based on.
They probably don't want to just create their own fantasy region because it's boring/not challenging/not relatable. By basing a region off a real world location both the developers and players get to experience a taste of what unique things that real location has be it location, people, or the Pokemon referencing something. They also make it so people from that real world location the region is from have a sort of bond with the game. I'll admit, one reason why I like Gen V is because I'm from New York and I liked the nods here and there to it. Even if you're displeased with how the games presented the region feeling they watered the nuisances down in some places, that's still a unique bond you formed with the game since it was based on the place you live and wanted to see it done better.
