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darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght · 4 months

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Chapter 20- Part 1

Here we are again and…it’s still raining? After all this time? What, is the rain scripted to always be there for the sake of Cal’s fight? So he can do that Rainbow Road thing?

Well, regardless of that, it’s pretty clear Cal’s team relies on sunlight. Not only because of the boost given to Fire-type moves, but Solar Beam- which most fully-evolved Fire Pokémon can learn- fires off instantly in the sun. And that’s especially a problem because all three of Fire’s weaknesses- Water, Ground, and Rock- are weak to Grass. So…we just need to change the weather ourselves!

Rain Dance is probably the best choice- and I’ve got a Pokémon that can do the job quite well…

Now, Meteo isn’t the only Pokémon I’ve got that can naturally learn Rain Dance. The other would be Lake the Ducklett- however, Ducklett learns Rain Dance at Lv. 34, which is too close to the level cap (while we're not at the Gym battle) for my liking. Meteo is a more comfortable choice, he learns Rain Dance at Lv. 20.

Of course, I'm sure Cal’s team is gonna have some Electric moves to deal with any Water-types I try to use in the rain- I know Torkoal did- so some more Ground-type would be helpful. Fortunately, I've got more options for that now, it's not just Crater anymore!

So in the end, the team looks like this:

Meteo to set up rain and do Weather Ball shenanigans, Riptide for extra Water coverage (and because I always bring my partner), Ravine and Cobalt for resistances and Electric immunity, Crater for her own unique resistances, and Glare for some extra utility.

Now, I doubt Cal is going to have any Pokémon above that Lv. 34 Magmortar, so I'd say Lv. 33 is a good place to be. So, time for some more grinding!

(One partial grind session later-)

So anyways, this happened also-

Nice!

Oh, by the way- I've been doing my grinding against the Unown in the Grand Stairway, and not too long ago, I looked into that Field Effect Read-Out I saw last chapter. Initially, I just wanted to see when was the earliest place I could obtain it, and…imagine my shock when I saw I was intended to pick it up as early as after the second Badge! And imagine my further shock when this information was confirmed elaborated upon by one of the folks reading and commenting on this Let’s Play!

So I looked into it further as a result and…well, let me show you.

So that flavor text is more than just flavor, it turns out. It's a…hint? Of sorts? Well, just get into a wild Pokémon battle first.

Oh look, it's Cobalt's brethren! Too bad it has to die in the name of science!

If you'll recall, Magnitude is a move that can break up the crystals and change the Field- and that's exactly what I'm gonna have Cobalt do!

Yeah! So it turns out, out-of-battle environmental interactions are a thing in this game too! That's…great, cool, something else to keep in mind, alright-

Also, turns out those stairs that I thought were Rock Climb spots actually are just normal stairs, even if they look a little off. Which means we're free to take the Read-Out!

Awesome! Now with that quick errand out of the way, let's get back to training.

(Another partial grind session later-)

Okay, now this is a thing-

Sure, I guess we'll catch it, why not, Shiny’s a Shiny.

Ring because of the sound effect- like, ringing bells and such. Anyways-

(Yet more training later-)

Lemme tell you something. This training session…it was not easy, and it was not fun.

I used up almost all my medium Exp. Candies and my small Exp. Candies, fighting Unown could be tough because they might have a certain type of Hidden Power that Meteor, Ravine, and/or Cobalt were weak against, and the Grand Hall Trainers? There was only one of the three who was somewhat safe to train against, and even then he still had a Lv. 37 Pokémon- what happened to the balancing of those Trainers? Why do I keep running into these guys with Pokémon stronger than the current level cap? I assumed the balance and Trainer selection was based on which Gym you were at, but maybe not??

But even with all of that…I persisted, and in the end, the team now looks like this:

I gave Ravine and Cobalt Rawst Berries to make sure they can avoid getting burned- I don't want their Attack stats being hindered in any way for this.

So now, it's time for some sweet revenge! The first part of the battle is the same as before- lead with Riptide, switch to Crater to take the Electric Hidden Power, one-shot Torkoal with Earth Power.

And Magmortar is where we're gonna set up the rain. In comes Meteo!

Magmortar is probably charging up a Fire Punch, Meteo can take that due to being Fire-type at the moment. Which means Rain Dance goes up without issue!

Now, it's entirely possible Magmortar knows an Electric-type attack, likely Thunder Punch, so we'll swap to Ravine next.

Feint Attack…? Um- okay, Ravine can take that as well. In the meantime, she'll set up Stealth Rock just for-

Oh, well, okay then- rude. At least Stealth Rock is up for the rest of the battle. Plus, Ravine actually trained against a guy's Quilava at Grand Hall, so we're prepared for this! Rock Tomb should deal good damage and lower Quilava’s Speed for a follow-up!

…Oooor not…

Okay, new plan- Meteo! Water-types are just as effective and resistant to Ice!

Let's see how much Weather Ball does, huh-?

Oh, Quilava outspeeds? And its Hidden Power is also Electric-type? Okay-

Okay, note to self for another attempt- use Crater for the Quilava as well. I'm really getting tired of your bull, Cal!! This has to end eventually!!

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pokemon-teacology · 1 year

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Back home with my takeaway! I'm happy to report that the paldea paella is indeed as good as the original. The owners of the new place just moved from there which is neat. They have skwawkabilly to do their deliveries.

Anyway! I have some more thoughts on shiny Pokémon, this time on why they happen. Some folks think it's a genetic defect, others think it was less rare in the distant past, some think it's just Arceus and/or Mew fucking with us.

My current theory is that being shiny is like a built-in trait that comes from the first ever Pokémon ancestor. Not the two listed above, like the first non-legendary Pokémon, the first Pokémon that reproduced sexually, as in they needed a cell each from two different Pokémon to reproduce.

I was talking about it with a buddy of mine earlier while we were on shift at that Combee cafe and she likened it to being ginger, since it's got a similarly tiny chance of happening. She told me that being ginger was a trait shared by only 2% of the world. I didn't believe her until I looked it up, since I could think of about 10 people off of the top of my head that I knew well that were ginger. She reminded me that I'm Galar it's more likely to happen. But that it was kind of like being a shiny human.

Which at first I was like yeah kind of!

But then I thought about it more and actually no not at all

Being ginger is more common in white people of north and northwestern European descent, meaning it's more common in Galar, Kalos, Paldea, and a few other regions around there. it comes from a certain area and is very very rare in other races unless it's caused by some kind of random genetic mutation, such as albinism. The chances of ginger hair occurring in any person more than doubles from the global average in Galar alone, which is why there's so bloody many of them here. Being ginger is linked to your species (human), your skin colour, and where you're from.

But Pokémon all have exactly the same chance of being shiny. 1 in 4096.

You could also assume that Pokémon being shiny is another genetic defect caused by a mutation in DNA like chromosomal conditions or strange mutations in humans (e.g. humans born with tails or webbed feet even though our genes code to not have them)

But!!! Shiny colours are consistent within species! Every shiny umbreon has blue hoops, every shiny Abra is pale, every shiny Combee is the same dark acacia colour, every shiny dedenee is brown instead of orange! It's consistent within species.

So, since being shiny has the same chances throughout all Pokémon, and the colourings are consistent, it can't be genetic. Not in a way that's random, in any case. It's just weird to me that it's consistent in rarity. Surely the species that actively get rid of Pokémon who are shiny will have less shiny Pokémon since they reproduce less? But nope it's consistent with every single species without fail, and has been for several centuries. Heck, even the first ecological studies of shiny Pokémon back in the ancient times of hisui gives us similar numbers, around 1 in 4000 for each species observed, mostly bug types, they reproduce quick. The only Pokémon that can't really be shiny is legendaries since there's only one of each of them.

So, wild, crazy, out of control theory time.

I think that being shiny is a trait inherited from the first species of regular Pokémon for a specific purpose. I've got no fucking clue what that purpose is but that's my theory. Being shiny had an advantage way back when. Something deep in the DNA of Pokémon keeps the same exact chance if being shiny. There has to be a reason, something that gives shiny Pokémon an advantage, some kind of fail-save, too embedded in the very being of every Pokémon that it can't be bred out by slow-evolution.

It has to mean something.

That or it really is Mew just fucking with us.

#unreality #pkmn irl #pokemon irl #shiny pokemon theories #shiny theories #shiny pokemon #i also got churos with my takeaway theyre great #the mons got some curry between them too and i got them a shit ton of berries to munch on while we watch the rest of the tournament battles #im excited for this year too #paldea's two hours ahead of galar #so while most of the battles happen midday to mid-afternoon for galar #they happen anywhere from 2pm to 6pm in paldea #usually in the second half of that #so i get to watch them in real time #pretty sure Leon's finally giving his brother and the other kids their reccomendation letters this year so they can train #im sure hop might explode if he doesnt get his this year #the kid's 14 he's got to start some day #though he's been taking really good care of that wooloo he has #shes a sweet little thing #Gloria and Victor are probably going to head out too #i wonder what starters they'll choose #for kids that are so good with pokemon im surprised they havent caught their own yet #i guess theyre waiting for hop so they cab start tjeir journey together?#theyre good kids #they always have been #even as wee babbies #anyway #not important #i have a tournament to watch

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Oh yeah I forget you play Pokémon. What were your thoughts on the recent Pokémon Presents presentation, as well as the Sinnoh games we just had? (The Diamond and Pearl remakes plus Legends Arceus)

I don’t have enough of an opinion on the Presents just because I need more to make an opinion. The Grass starter is definitely my favorite though; something about the Fire one is putting me off and the Water one looks like a Ducklett and Wingull had a baby.

I didn’t touch the Diamond and Pearl remakes for multiple reasons. I’ve played through generation 4 so many times and I just had no interest in playing a 1-to-1 copy of it even with what was added to it.

Legends Arceus has been fun so far (I caught another random shiny between my last post and now and at this point I think the game is screwing with me; they’ve also all been Gen 4 Pokemon which was interesting), but there are some issues so far that make me think the game wasn’t polished up properly (for reference as to where I am, I’m up to the third Ride Pokemon):

- Climbing is borderline unplayable and I’m constantly frustrated by it. I’m aware of the exploit to help but it’s either not perfect or I haven’t perfected it. I’m always feeling either like, “I should be able to make this,” or, “my player character should be able to walk this on her own.” There was a particular spot in the third area that I felt like should be simple platforming, but the Ride Pokemon just doesn’t want to, and I only finally got up thanks to the second Ride Pokemon and some conveniently placed treasure as motivation (as he can “climb” better due to the speed increase of the motivator). Basically, slopes that look they should be easy end up being a gamble of me running/jumping blindly at it until it decides to let me up.

- There’s a quest to go around the region and find certain “static Pokemon” that I find fun, but their hitbox has been absolutely unfair to the point where I’ve wasted 20+ balls trying to catch a few of them (I reset but still). The light balls I wanted to use on all of them for consistency are either very broken in their hit box or I’m really unlucky, because most of my attempts plink off. As soon as I hit the Pokemon, it’s a guaranteed catch, but the game just doesn’t want me to have nice things.

-- (on a mini-tangent, there’s a hint to find one of them that feels intended to mislead you because the actual place the Pokemon is at isn’t where it implies it should be)

- Certain menuing seems broken. The way I sort my requests keeps resetting back to its standard even if it tells me I’m sorting the way I want (I’ve also passed over completely/grayed out missions before and they go back to not being grayed out for no reason (merely a visual glitch but still).

- Small issues with being noticed. Sometimes alpha Pokemon will “follow” after me while I’m hiding in grass, despite having not noticed me (with the “...”/”!” sign, sometimes I’ll still have the visual “noticed” warning on the top of the screen even though the music is chill and nothing’s happening, and so on.

- There’s an equivalent to Breath of the Wild’s “Bullet Time” mode, which is hampered by a difficulty to catch Pokemon partially submerged in water. Maybe I just haven’t practiced enough yet but I cannot do anything of value with it. Many a ball has been lost to the ocean.

- Speaking of catching, sometimes my Pokeball will just... plink off the Pokemon’s head entirely for no reason and I still don’t understand why (they haven’t noticed me and aren’t in a state in which the ball should). The game doesn’t hold you hand all the time but there are instances where I feel like it should’ve guided/instructed me better on why certain things happen..

- Cutscenes are still hampered by the usual “fade to black so something can happen off-screen” thing. In addition, there have been a few minor visual “glitches” that thankfully don’t bother me overall but are still there and proof of an unpolished game. The belt on the Karate Gi outfit glitched during a cutscene, some characters’ idle animations are clearly missing a frame of animation while others have this thing where they or parts of the clothes “snap” to a certain place in the animation (Choy, one of the people you buy items from, is a good example of this; I’m constantly distracted by that little white thing at his waist clicking/snapping back even though the animation should be smooth), I’ve had multiple occasions where the grass blowing in the wind has just given up and keeps flickering back and forth in its animation, and so on.

Granted, I have weird luck with “breaking” games but I feel like this isn’t all me. I can deal with the not-super-perfect visuals because I don’t really care about that and I am genuinely having an overall-positive experience, but there have just been a few too many times where I think to myself, “That definitely wasn’t supposed to happen.” There are multiple quality of life features that I approve of but the game does require some mental hurdles for me to get over whenever I sit down to play, as I know they’re all going to happen.

My experience can be summed up as, “The game is unpolished, but I’m having a lot of fun.”

#other: non ml talk #other: ask and answer

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shinyacademy · 4 years

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Is it Legit: Part 2

Today we’re going to look at a shiny Oranguru that was traded to me via Wonder Trade in Pokémon Sun. I’ve since moved him to Pokémon Shield which is risky business for a Pokémon of uncertain origin but I was fairly certain that he was the real deal (or close enough but we’ll get to that later). Since I wasn’t banned or suspended from Pokémon Bank or Pokémon Home, I can assume with confidence that my assumptions were correct. But how did I know?

Quick Note About Pokerus

Pokerus is often an indicator, or at least an orange flag, that a Pokémon has been hacked. However, it’s important to note what type of Pokerus. Active Pokerus is much more of an orange flag than latent Pokerus, which is what my Oranguru has.

Here’s my Dragapult who has active Pokerus, which means she could spread it to other Pokémon in the party with her. This is what hackers typically add to Pokémon because it’s more valuable to be able to spread Pokerus to other Pokémon. A quick note for those who don’t know, Pokerus is a rare but beneficial virus that Pokémon can suddenly develop or catch from other infected Pokémon.

In this case I exposed my Oranguru to Pokerus so there’s no worries either way. Now we’re going to go through the same steps in my last post to confirm his legitimacy.

1. Is it met on an impossible date?

It seems that bringing him to Galar has lost the date that he was captured on but it was not impossible.

2. Did it meet the OT in an impossible place?

Again, we’re not given a lot of information here but that’s ok. A lot of hacked Pokémon will say that they were met in a “fateful encounter”. This is reserved for event Pokémon and some wild Mythical Pokémon. Event Pokémon will often also state that they were an online present but not always.

3. Is it inside a Ball Combination that could not exist for the game the Pokémon came from?

No, Luxury balls are accessible in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

4. Was the Pokémon met at an illegal level?

I haven’t changed my Oranguru’s level so we can assume it was met somewhere around the level it’s at. However, shiny Oranguru who are caught by SOS chaining can be level 17 in Lush Jungle, so this makes sense.

5. Does it have perfect IVs?

As you can see, Oranguru’s IVs are less than impressive. If someone was chaining in hopes of finding a competitive ready Pokémon they would see this and be disappointed, which might explain why his original trainer decided to part with him in the first place.

6. Does it have an illegal moveset?

Pokémon Home has a feature where it will remove any moves from a Pokémon that are not legal for the game that it’s porting into (this is for game balance mostly because some legit moves are not supported in the newer games but it would also alter a hacked Pokémon’s moveset potentially). Oranguru kept all of his moves that he had in Alola though so he’s fine.

7. Does the Pokémon have the name of a streaming website or words that would normally be censored?

Nope! He’s just Oranguru.

Analyzing the Information

All signs point to Oranguru having been shiny hunted, probably via SOS chain, and then discarded for whatever reason (my guess is stats). We can only guess at the OT’s motives but nothing stands out as being suspicious for Oranguru.

Does that mean he’s legit?

People in the Pokémon community use the word “legit” to describe a Pokémon who definitely entered the game through legitimate means. What a lot of people don’t realize is there are no definitive ways to identify whether a Pokémon is legit or not outside of the knowledge of your own Pokémon that you get from your own games. Every time you do a high value trade with another trainer you are trusting that the Pokémon is legitimate (unless of course they are forthcoming about it being otherwise).

But I thought you said Oranguru isn’t hacked?

I don’t think he is based on our criteria and the fact that I wasn’t banned from using Pokémon services after putting him there. But he still could be cloned. A clone is a complete and perfect copy of an original Pokémon. Some streamers will utilize them to do mass giveaways and some people will utilize them to make multiple high value trades (after all, there are some Pokémon like Marshadow that sell for actual money). The thing is, you can identify if a Pokémon is hacked but there’s no way to identify a clone because it would just look like a normal Pokémon!

Should I worry about clones?

This is more of a personal opinion. Some people really agonize over whether their Pokémon are legit or not and some people don’t care. The only reason I care personally is because hacked Pokémon can get you banned from Pokémon services. Would I use those Pokémon? Probably not because I appreciate the value of working hard to achieve a desired result and it seems cheap to go into competitive with a hacked shiny. As for clones, why worry about something you can’t control? Maybe the Articuno I won in a contest recently is a clone? I’ll never know! But he makes me happy so why stress?

So Oranguru and my Articuno both fall into a class of Pokémon that people call “legal”, which means that they are accepted by Pokémon services as being okay for competitive and other services. Could they be legitimate too? Yes but we can’t prove that, so if I were thinking of trading either one I would need to list them as “legal” if I were communicating directly with the person I was trading with and not “legitimate” because I didn’t catch them myself.

If you are worried about clones you essentially cannot trade online with confidence, which will greatly limit your experience with Pokémon in general. So in my opinion: don’t stress out, play the game and have fun!

As a follow up to this post, soon I’ll be writing, “How to Navigate a High Value Trade.” Look out for that post in the future! Until then, happy hunting! ✨

#pokémon #shiny pokemon #shiny hunting #shiny pokémon #shinyhunters #pokemon #pokémon go #pokémon sword and shield #pokémon sun and moon #pokémon home

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pokeverse-amethyst · 3 years

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Sooooo… this is gonna be a long one, strap in. What follows is a metric ton of HCs about every single evil team and how they have worked themselves into every aspect of daily life, as to make them way more difficult to get rid off than just with a couple of arrests. Timeline wonkiness when trying to explain what likely happened first is to be expected, I’m playing fast and loose with all of this stuff. I might be way off topic in some regards but HECK HERE GOES. ~~~

TEAM ROCKET: This is pretty much of a no-brainer. What we have here is a classical mafia structure, and you just need to look at countries with extensive mafia presence to know that they are baked into every single fucking thing. Giovanni has worked years upon years to cement himself straight into Kanto and Johto, consequently making it impossible for any of the other teams to even THINK about gaining a foothold there. No further explanations necessary. ~~~ TEAM AQUA / TEAM MAGMA: This one is a bit of a more difficult one. But then again, let’s presume that most of the teams recruit a mixture of people who fully believe in the team’s message, who misunderstand the team’s message, and who see themselves in the team, but not necessarily in the message (so just looking for somewhere to belong and to gain some kind of direction). Oh, and monetary gain. Can’t forget that. So in the case of both Aqua and Magma? I like to believe it started out with Maxie and Archie working together on a plan to give nature back to Pokémon. Like, with trying to get more protected zones established, kinda like Fiore has them? But they were hitting resistance too often. Now I’m not saying that they were on the wrong track from the start or developed into what is basically eco-terrorists, but… they probably saw way too much bad shit happening to Pokémon around them. Maybe they heard what Team Rocket was doing to Pokémon in Johto and Kanto. Maybe they heard rumors about what Cyrus nearly accomplished, what Lysandre almost triggered, what Ghetsis managed to fuck up with his whole power play madness (TWICE, too!), what the Aether foundation might have had triggered if not for the intervention of a Legendary, what Rose made possible in the GALAR REGION of all places… Suffice to say, they probably felt like they needed to seriously up their game… to make sure that the other teams didn’t fuck up the world beyond repair before THEY could make the world a better place. The only thing that finally broke Archie and Maxie up though, was an inability to settle on what would be better. More landmass, more sea? What would be the gentler way of resetting humanity? Suffice to say, their vision might have attracted way too many who nudged them along. So TLDR: Archie and Maxie mostly reacted to what the other Team Bosses were doing and were helped along by Grunts/Admins that were way too into the whole “we will be the only humans deserving this new, shiny world”. They were numerous enough and determined enough to turn into a slightly terroristic group, but until the ultimate use of Kyogre/Groudon, they never really registered that much on Interpol’s radar. And when Interpol learned of them stealing a whole ass sub? It was already too late stopping them in their tracks in time. After all, Interpol had all the other regions to monitor as well… ~~~ TEAM GALACTIC: So. Charon doesn’t need much of a head canon fuckery. He just did it for the money, that much he stated openly. And Jupiter, Mars and Saturn? They all admitted openly to being along for the ride because they believed in Cyrus and the world being fucked up beyond repair, thus needing a good ol’ divine intervention from the whole-ass creation trio. But I don’t think any single one of them fully understood what Cyrus’s goal was. The commanders (that are not Charon) squarely fall into the category of “misunderstanding the ultimate purpose of the team”, as do all the Grunts. And as mentioned above with Team Aqua and Magma, Galactic probably saw some of the stuff that was happening around them and ultimately decided (and this is mostly for the Grunts and the Commanders) that Cyrus probably wasn’t so far off with the human spirit being incomplete. But they made one crucial mistake (pretty much the whole team, even Charon). They thought that Cyrus’s assertion over the incomplete nature of the human spirit was a reason for the man to believe in a world that should be made whole, not in wiping the whole fucking slate clean and going Tabula Rasa on the whole of creation. Much to the annoyance of everyone involved (and with that I mean the Creation Trio and the big boss of them), he actually went far enough to step on everything just to gain the power to control the legendaries. Also, time to unearth an already yoinked HC of mine that Giratina mostly retreated into the Distortion World to get some good alone time in, only to be disrupted by Cyrus bursting in. On that point also: time not really working all that clearly in the Distortion World. Kinda like Narnia rules, in as there is no fixed constant for time moving forward in either one or the other extreme. Sometimes, time will move forward extremely fast, other times, you spend years and years in the Distortion World and only a few seconds passed. After all, everything gets a bit… wobbly in there. But around the time Cyrus entered, Distortion World time became… more orderly. And that was what prompted Giratina to go VERY UNAMUSED ON HIS ASS. Think of it as time being influenced by what is thrown into the Distortion World. BACK to the Team, though. Galactic honest to Arceus believed that what they were doing would give the world a much needed boost… and were unpleasantly surprised when they were later on all shown that Cyrus wanted to go destruction and rebirth on the world. But that is not to say everyone was unhappy about this revelation. ~~~ TEAM PLASMA & NEO PLASMA: What easier time to convince disparate beliefs than with the apparent reason that they were just helping Pokémon that would have been unhappy in the care of their trainers? Wether the Grunts believed that the Pokémon should then consequently be released back into the wild or that they THEMSELVES deserved the Pokémon way more than others? What easier way to convince them of Plasma’s ideals? And there was no real discussion amongst the Grunts over this dichotomy. Sure, a few were disputing the one or the other stance, but most were still agreeing that the trainers they took the Pokémon from did NOT deserve them. No matter how pure their reasoning was. No matter how reality really looked like. Sure, they were removing Pokémon from some really nasty trainers? But on the greater scale of things, they mostly took Pokémon from trainers who they loved being with. And Ghetsis had his thumb on this a lot. See, Ghetsis didn’t want N to sway too much, before he finally met the protagonist. So Ghetsis made sure that only obviously abused Pokémon removed from trainers were brought to N. …why, no, this doesn’t mean at all that they were usually just from the outside. Ya think Ghetsis only had his main team? Dream on. ~~~ TEAM FLARE: What is there to say about Team Flare? They are basically a mix of the worst of the self-viewed elite of the region. There is entitlement to being viewed as the best of the best (and you can’t tell ‘em otherwise), there is doomsday fans who would do the whole shit with bunkering down and then fighting in an apocalyptic wasteland and fancying themselves new leaders in that changed world, there’s the ones who just think they will be able to surpass even Lysandre… What about the Admins of Flare? They half share Lysandre’s views of beauty. But mostly, they are in too deep to quit, and also half about relishing the fact that they get to work on something truly unique and devastating. They want this whole power thing to work out for them because some time in their lives, they might have felt like they were owed power and didn’t receive it. They were owed recognition and didn’t receive it. They want to be the new top of Kalos without working TOO hard for it. Without anything laying rocks in their path. Without any obstacles telling them that, no. They fucked up. ~~~ AETHER FOUNDATION: The moment Lusamine found out about the Ultra Dimension, she ostensibly was lost to her goal of getting her hands on the power to change the face of the world. And to preserve beauty. In many ways, her goal was similar to Lysandre… to a degree. The Aether Foundation is half staffed by people who truly believe that conservation work is the most important factor in the Pokémon World, to preserve some of the more endangered species around the world, and half staffed by people who truly believe that the Ultra Dimension holds answers to problems humanity might not even have recognized as such. This latter half was unpleasantly surprised when they started to learn the truth from the Ultra Dimension researchers. Finding out that Necrozma had destroyed the natural light of that world and was now the only source of more light for the city? That was a shock. But that didn’t necessarily mean that the Aether Foundation would have been broken up by that. Because honestly? The part of the conservation enthusiasts who were not deterred by the Ultra Dimension incident made the Foundation bloom beyond what it was possible to become. So in short: this foundation survived its leader far better than many others, and actually managed to get accepted. ~~~ MACRO COSMOS: This is the team that shocked their region with just how far their influence had gone. And that is to say that they existed at all, right under the noses of the region. Rose’s whole deal is a big part why Leon would later be plunged into a crisis of conscience, despite everyone assuring him that he had no way of knowing just how far Rose was willing to go to show the region how wrong it was to not immediately acquiesce to all that he envisioned for the future. The mere fact Rose was UNWILLING to wait what would at most have been half a day for Leon, to celebrate with the others after another big Champion Tournament? That was what sat so ill with many in the region. It wasn’t so much the message that Rose felt everyone had missed (that was actually just his version of events - most of the Macro Cosmos Grunts were attached to him solely for the reason of having privileges that none other had, and when they saw how he was acting, only the most dedicated few could ignore what was going on). So we are dealing with another team that was shocked how far the leader would go, but even more so than the Aether Foundation, the members scattered when Rose enacted the Darkest Day right out of nowhere. There is still worries that remains of Macro Cosmos could be out there, trying to bust Oleana and Rose out of prison and actually finding another way with which to scare Galar into complicity. How well that would even go is a whole different question… because the new champ is even stronger than Leon, and THAT is real fucking bad news for anyone who would want to establish themselves.

#Big whopping HC post incoming #Dash Commentary: Musings in Primorvia #Primorvia's Voice [Mun]#The Mountains Hold Many Paths to Secrets [Headcanon]#This went on for longer than I expected #I have no idea where even half of this came from #If I accidentally rephrased something someone else HC'd before I'M SORRY I KINDA LOST TRACK WHERE WHAT MIGHT HAVE COME FROM #Anywho have an oggle at almost 2k words of RAMBLE

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sage-nebula · 4 years

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Hello! I know that it is not actually a pokemon type so to speak but I'm staring down an essay deadline with less than half the word count. Would you mind talking about your favourite pokemon that is a dog or canine? Like the pokemons that are also dogs? Does that make sense? Sorry I'm very sleep deprived right now. Thank you so much for always being such a lovely presence on my dash and I hope you have a brilliant day!

Thank you for the compliments, and I would be glad to talk about some of my favorite PokéCanines! I’ll talk about all of my favorite canine pokémon, though please do note that I am leaving out the Ecruteak Trio because it is hotly debated whether they are canines or not and I do not feel like getting into that tonight. (For the record, I feel that Entei is definitely canine, Raikou is feline, and Suicune is too hard to tell, but still, I don’t want to get into it, so I will leave it at that.)

Growlithe / Arcanine — Probably my favorite of the canines for personal, sentimental reasons. When I imagined my previous dog in the Pokémon world, I imagined her as a Growlithe who would evolve into an Arcanine, because the PokéWorld doesn’t have a sheltie pokémon and I felt that the fluff and warmth of Growlithe fit her best, along with the ‘Dex descriptions of them being very loyal and willing to do anything to protect their trainer. My previous dog was exactly like that. But I also feel that Arcanine would be just such a wonderful pokémon to be companions with because they are gigantic, fire-breathing fluffy puppies, and riding them across the countryside would be AMAZING. (Not that I live in the countryside, but I do live in the midwest, so the plains are everywhere and not hard to find.) They’re just so good.

Smeargle — Okay, I will admit, Smeargle loses some points for being bipedal. HOWEVER. They gain those points back by virtue of how cool they are! While they’re not very useful in battle, sadly, due to low stats and the like, Smeargle are cool because each Smeargle has a different color paint (it’s not really paint, more a bodily fluid they use like paint, but close enough), and that as they grow up they let other Smeargle that they are close put their pawprints on their back. (So in other words, Smeargle A let’s Smeargle B use Smeargle B’s ink to put Smeargle B’s pawprints on Smeargle A’s back.) The ‘Dex always says “comrades,” but listen . . . we know what it means when two Smeargle have each other’s pawprints on their back. They are in love.

Houndour / Houndoom — ACTUAL HELLHOUNDS, THEY ARE GREAT. True, the fact that their breath smells like sulfur is kind of gross, but their design and concept are so incredibly cool, and I also just absolutely love the mental image of a Houndour puppy having gigantic paws they have yet to grow into. It’s just the absolute cutest. I also like to imagine that my current dog would be a mixed-breed Houndour and Poochyena in the PokéWorld, so there’s that, too.

Flareon & Umbreon — Listen, some of the Eeveelutions look like felines, some of them look like canines, and others (such as Jolteon) make it really hard to tell. But I’m convinced that Flareon and Umbreon are both canines, and I love them both. FIRST of all, Flareon DOES NOT deserve the hate it gets. It is small and soft and so incredibly warm, it CAN be useful in battle, and most importantly, FLAREON WAS NOT THE FALSE PROPHET AND DID NOTHING WRONG, EVERYONE WHO HATED FLAREON DURING TPP SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. If you don’t know what I’m talking about there, you don’t need to know about it, but just know that Flareon had a lot of libel posted about it and it was completely unacceptable. As for Umbreon, Umbreon is the Eeveelution I connect with the most given that I am naturally nocturnal, and I love how its rings grow stronger depending on what phase the moon is in. Shiny Umbreon is also choice. They’re definitely the best two Eeveelutions (though Espeon is also up there, sorry Espeon, although Espeon is also one of the feline ones and so shouldn’t be discussed here anyway).

Poochyena / Mightyena — As discussed in another ask, technically hyenas are not canines (or felines), but I’m still going to include them here because the localization team at the very least thought that Poochyena looked like a puppy (“pooch”), hence its name. I LOVE these two. Although my Mightyena ended up underperforming in AlphaSapphire, I’ve always loved the scruffy look contrasted with how loving and puppylike they can be. Also, again, I like to think of my current dog as a mixed breed Houndour/Poochyena, so there’s that, too.

Absol — Absol is another contested one, but I always thought Absol looked canine to me, so I’m going to count it. Absol is wonderful because it not only has a super cool design (though could also benefit from a dual typing, I feel), but also because this is another poor baby who has had so much unfortunate slander spread about it. Absol just wants to help! Absol wants to warn people! And people decide that instead of being grateful, they want to blame the messenger!! Absol does not deserve this at all, and the world likewise does not deserve Absol. That is a fact.

Lillipup / Herdier / Stoutland — Before anyone says anything, NO, these are not shelties. Lillipup is more like a yorkshire terrier, and while Herdier and Stoutland seem like they could be herding dogs of some kind (it’s even in Herdier’s name), I can assure you they do not resemble shelties. More like they resemble oversized yorkies. REGARDLESS, I loved them. Lillipup is adorable, so is Herdier, and while Stoutland is less cute and more gruff, it is also an absolute BEAST. BW confused me because I always took Cheren down easily, but Bianca regularly fucked up my shit with her Stoutland. (And yet they tried to make Stoutland Cheren’s ace in the sequels, smh . . .) My Stoutland was also very reliable. Very good doggos, 10/10

Rockruff / Lycanroc — WOLVES!!! FINALLY WOLVES!!! oh my GOD I waited SEVEN GENERATIONS for this!! To be fair, when I was a child I mistook MIghtyena for a wolf because of the coloring and the fact that it looked like a canine, but as I got older I learned the truth and was back to being disappointed. And while the fact that this line is pure rock (which has a million weaknesses) is disappointing, and while I’m also not fond of Midnight Form being bipedal, I can forgive it because we finally have wolves AND ALSO Rockruff is adorable and perfect AND ALSO because so is Midday Form. Plus, despite rock-type having so many weaknesses, my Midday Lycanroc is pretty strong, so. It works out.

Yamper / Boltund — Okay, I will level with you: a corgi evolving into a greyhound is kind of weird. Also, I do question why they used yorkshire terriers in Unova when they should have saved them for Galar, and instead maybe had like, American bull terriers (a.k.a. pitbulls) in Unova instead (although I guess some could argue that Snubbul / Granbull are pitbulls, but I disagree, I think they look more like English bulldogs than pitbulls). Regardless though, anyone who says that Yamper is anything other than adorable does not have eyes (the puppy has a heart on its butt), and also they are the GOODEST of puppers in how they bring your pokéballs back to you. And while it took me a bit to get used to Boltund, my Boltund, Poppy, is AMAZING and love her very, very much. This line is great and I love them. ♥

Zacian & Zamazenta — FINALLY, SOME LEGENDARY WOLVES!! And not only are they legendary wolves, but one has a tuft of fur it can turn into a shield around its neck and the other CARRIES A SWORD IN ITS MOUTH, HOW BADASS IS THAT. I do get a little annoyed when people call them doggos when they are actually wolfos, but that doesn’t change how excited I was to have some legendary wolves at last, particularly ones dedicated to beating up hellspawn from space. I love them, they are beautiful, 10/10.

So those are my favorite canine pokémon!! If anyone disagrees with any of these pokémon being canines, I do not care and I do not want to fight about it, please do not send discourse my way. And as a final note, here are two lists of future canines / dog breeds I hope to see in future gens:

Dog Breeds: SHELTIES, miniature schnauzers, Italian greyhounds, German shepherds, Siberian huskies, dachshunds, shiba inu, some kind of spaniel, chihuahua (and it HAS to be fighting-type, it HAS to), and many others. You can never have too many doggos.

I also have to have one more final grievance at the fact that we didn’t get shelties in Galar either considering that sheltie is a nickname for shetland sheepdog, and this breed of dog ORIGINATED IN SCOTLAND, which at least part of Galar (particularly the Crown Tundra) was inspired by, ffs Game Freak why did you miss this opportunity.

Wild Canines: Maned wolves, African wolf, African wild dog, dingos, coyotes, and just more wolves in general, honestly. I would say more foxes too, but we already have several fox lines, and while I wouldn’t say no to them, I want to see more wolves get attention first.

Anyway, thanks for asking!! I love Pokémon and I love canines, so this was a fun ask!

#pokemon #bladeangelx

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sirspud · 3 years

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A Vulgar First Impression of Coromon

Playing Pokémon games recently has been something akin to hiring a fairy princess to perform for your daughter’s birthday parties. The first few times she came around were fun, she made all the kids laugh and play their games, but now the princess has grown lazy, idly watching YouTube while disinterestedly mumbling the same four or five lines she’s been spouting for the past twenty-three years. But you keep hiring her regardless, even though your daughter’s trying to point out that she’s not into princesses anymore because she’s pushing 30, and you’re starting to think she might not be worth three hundred bucks a visit. And she’s starting to smell.

So as the Pokémon community sits and waits for the Diamond and Pearl remakes, because what is Pokémon if not a prolonged exercise in nostalgia bait, some indie developers have been trying their hand at doing Pokémon, but properly this time. First came along TemTem, which was, “Like Pokémon but online”, and now there’s Coromon, which is “Like Pokémon” and that’s it.

I’ll admit, I was attracted to Coromon not because of any underlying nostalgia or a want to replay Pokemon, but because the devs put out a free demo for the game, which is a rarity in this modern age of Early Access and delayed release dates. Intrigued, I decided to take a closer look, to see which warts they cut off and which ones they allowed to fester.

The game starts with our protagonist waking up in a small town with his mother about to go get his OR HER first Pokémon. So far, so standard. But where Coromon differs is that you aren’t some apple-cheeked youngster with a criminally neglectful parent, but a college kid who’s been selected for a prestigious university that studies Pokémon – sorry – “Coromon”. And incidentally, Pokémon scores the first point for having a name that actually means something. They’re monstrous creatures that can be caught in a ball and put in your pocket – “Pocket”-“Monsters”. What the fuck does Coromon mean? Because Coro only has a meaning if it’s in Italian, and I’m pretty sure these things aren’t meant to be called “Choir Monsters!”

Anyway, a dude in a wheelchair who was apparently the guy in charge gives you a magic glove and tells you about these glowing elemental orbs, which are important for some reason I wasn’t clear on, and he sends you out on a journey to collect more by finding six elemental titans and – as far as I understood the process – murdering them and stealing their essence in the name of science.

We choose our first Pokémon from a choice between the fire-type, the water-type or the… ice type? And then, we set out on our journey to fight trainers, make new friends, and shuffle about in the grass for an hour because your gobblefrog isn’t level sixty-two yet.

The first thing that struck me about Choirmon is that it really isn’t being coy with its desire to ape Pokémon. Everything, right down to the statistics of each monster, is identical to the way Pokémon does things. The types have the same names, evolving is still called evolving, it even gives you berries and other items for your monsters to hold. You can battle monsters in the wild, blundering into tall grass to scare them out of hiding and capturing them after beating them into a bloody pulp, or you can battle monsters owned by other trainers in unregulated dog fights. So it isn’t trying to be like Pokémon, it is Pokémon. It stabbed Pokémon in an alleyway, cut off its skin and is now swanning about performing a perverted Face/Off act.

Now, I love Pokémon just as much as the next guy, but I’m no deluded fanboy. Pokémon is not perfect. In fact, it’s a game with a lot of flaws. And in its desire to imitate, Collectamon inherits a lot of the same problems that Pokémon does. Using items, for example, takes up an entire turn, and while this can be forgiven in a party-based RPG, where you have other actors to make up for the guy losing a turn, you can only put out one monster at a time, and using anything other than a healing item in the thick of battle just makes you an open target.

Trying to think strategically is also a lost cause, because again, it’s fucking Pokémon. The only strategy is “use whatever the opponent is weak to” or “mash attack until one of you dies”. And while you could argue that Pokémon’s strong point is its simplicity, it does mean that winning a fight is more a matter of patience than a matter of skill.

At time of writing, I’ve been playing the demo for 7 hours. An impressive run-time for a demo, to be sure, and that’s only up to the first boss. Incidentally, it’s in that area that we meet the evil team of this game, because Pokémon had evil teams, and so must we! I don’t even understand their motivation, or who these people even are! They’re presented to us as if we already know what their deal is and why we should hate them. All I know about them is their name and the fact that they like to hang around in caves. Pitch-black ones that you navigate by wandering around aimlessly getting lost in the samey-looking environments.

Really, guys? You thought it’d be a good idea to preserve one of the shittiest areas in Pokémon? Actually, they follow it up with an even shittier level that plays like the gym leaders from the annoying puzzle gyms got together and tried to devise the most efficient backtracking machine, culminating in a game of Mastermind out of fucking nowhere.

Well, so far I’ve just been going on about how the game is the same as Pokémon. What’s different? Well, for a start, each monster has a well of stamina points that they spend to use their special abilities, limiting how many times you can use those moves before your monster has to have a little rest. So you have to weigh up whether or not you want to waste stamina using that really powerful move or whether you want to keep a steady pace with the weaker moves. Except, Pokémon already did that with each move having limited uses. So we haven’t gone anywhere. All we’ve done is paint the walls a different colour.

Erm… what else? Well, your character speaks for one thing, despite you being able to name them and customise them to your liking. I think we tried the talking player avatar thing back in Fallout 4, and it was just as unimmersive back then too. It means that you don’t really get to impose your own character on the avatar, because the avatar makes his OR HER own decisions without your input, accepting every single quest that gets handed to you without even flirting with a dialogue box because it means oh so much to them to help this random faceless NPC, whose unique name and appearance does nothing to make him feel any less forgettable.

…Ah, that’s something different. There’s a quest system. I’m not sure why. In an open world game, quest systems give the game a structure and a reason to explore the world. But, as we’ve established, Crackmon is Pokémon, and so progression is strictly linear. It’s hard to tell just how much it’ll impact the game, since it’s just a four-hour demo, but a quest system like this can easily turn into a to-do list of tedious tasks for rewards that you don’t need. One of the sidequests early on had me capture a pissweasel for some guy, only for the bloke’s mentor to smack him across the head and have him hand the pissweasel right back! This is the very definition of wasting my fucking time! The only reason I caught that pissweasel was for your quest, and I don’t want to deal with its incontinence issues!

Another way that Cloacamon tries to differentiate itself is though its Potential mechanic. Get this – whenever your pet cockcrab reaches a certain XP interval, you get to directly increase its stats by a total of 3 points, on top of the cockcrab’s normal stat increases, so you don’t have to muck around with effort values and breeding to optimise your stats. Each monster also has a “Potent” and “Perfect” form, with each form reaching these intervals sooner than the normal version of the cockcrab. So the game encourages you to abandon your monsters frequently, exchanging them for their shiny, better versions, which I would argue goes against the whole point of Pokémon. At its core, Pokémon is a game about going on a journey and creating a bond with your tag team of beasts, a bond which is impossible to form if you’re encouraged to chuck your friends in the bin the second you find their better, newer models.

I could go down my list of subtle differences, most of which are quality of life changes, like the ability to evolve mid-battle, or the ability to swap out different moves instead of permanently forgetting them, or the fact that you use HM moves yourself instead of teaching them to your Pokémon. But I’d rather finish this first impression by once again re-iterating that Cocaniumon is just Pokémon. It’s not writing any new rules, it’s not even reworking old ones, and it seems content to merely lie on its back and spin its wheels. And while you could argue that Pokémon’s formula doesn’t need to be changed, I would argue right back that not having the ambition to change has long been part of the fucking problem!

If all you want is more Pokémon but with less bullshit, then go ahead and give Coromon a try. Personally, I wasn’t motivated to continue playing past the first boss fight. Part of the problem was that I had no idea what I was ultimately working towards. Collect all the titan essences, so that we can research them! Research them for what? So we can finally uncover the mystery behind shitty Netflix sci-fi originals?

#why yes I do watch zero punctuation how could you tell #coromon #pokemon #review #comedy #first impressions #opinions #TRAGsoft #Freedom Games #that's a reference to the netflix movie The Titan by the way #god knows how many people I thought would get that

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professor-vanad · 4 years

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Submission: @min-haven-pokemon-sanctuary

Yo, you online? Ive had another pokemon arrive at the sanctuary that doesn’t appear in my ID equipment and I wasn’t able to recognize, and I reeeeally don’t feel like doing a bunch of research right now to try an ID them myself (or potentially make more problems for myself with asking internet weirdo’s for help).

Now so far, most of the pokemon that don’t show up in my old pc identification stuff are from places further from the kanto/jhoto area like Galar or Alola (like cutiefly, dracovish, and cramorant didn’t show up on the screen when they arrived at the sanctuary) Thanks to this stuff being like, at least 15 years old second hand gear barely refurbished from places like pokemon centers. (Basically one of those government recycling kind of programs where instead of tossing out the old gear they instead donate it to smaller pokemon hospitals, parks, sanctuaries and the like for free)

And you probably recognize that old nerd joke about how “almost all modern pokemon technology are influenced by proximity to the house of some guy named Bill” So apparently the older the stuff is, the closer the focus is on kanto or whatever.

You probably get my point. Anyway I figured you’d be able to ID them, so I snapped a picture of them here below.

They like holding hands. (So hopefully not poisonous, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take for this much of a sweetiepie)

Now they’re blue and moist, so I figure they’re probably a water type. So main things Ive got to know is the average height of the species (the sanctuary is specifically for small for their kind pokemon, we can’t take regular or larger than average ones) and if they’re saltwater pokemon or not. (We’re too far inland for housing salt water pokemon comfortably, and I’d have to contact some of the seaside reserves for a transfer)

Unless they’re another shiny or something like that sent here by one of Gordon’s fans from his male modeling days to try and “impress him” or something dumb like that, and aren’t supposed to be blue normally (the message sent with them did imply they were trying to get Gordons attention… ugh, so I’m hoping this isn’t another situation like that shiny pachurisu from awhile back). In which case I’d need more of a rundown about what kind of pokemon they are.

____________________

Hey uhm, I’m curious: how do you lot keep aquiring rare pokémon like this? Like Old Dude was one thing but... well, hold on, alright I should explain first.

That is a Phione, also called the Sea Drifter pokémon. Phione are native to Sinnoh, which explains why your database didn’t have them logged. You guessed right, they are water-type and according to academic sources, they average at around 1′04″ in height and roughly 6.8lbs. They’re usually found in the sea, specifically in warm waters. It’s very common for them to migrate far from home, as they follow the summer weather. They are very sensitive to their enviornment too so they detect those subtle changes in the water very quickly and easily. Otherwise, they have a reputation for being very social and amicable pokémon, even towards humans.

So the reason I’m asking how you (or whoever gave them to you) came by them is because Phione are extremely rare in the wild. As in mythical-class levels of rare (though it’s currently under dispute.)

That’s not to say that it’s impossible, there have been a handful of breeing programs set up for them in Sinnoh, but they are under very specific conservation protections. The protections themselves mostly comprise of tracking their migration patterns and evolution rates but also it also includes a strict no-catch policy. This is a pretty big program too. Because Phione and it’s evolved form Manaphy, drift so far, they can turn up anywhere, even here in Galar. As such, all our coastal towns are aware of these specific Phione and Manaphy and their research facilities keep an eye on them.

It’s worth looking into where this little guy came from - the Sinnoh Marine Biology Institute might be looking for them. I’d consider reaching out to them. Also, and I don’t want to speculate too much here, but it’s possible that there may be some underground breeding of Phione going on here. They’ve attracted that kind of attention in the past and it’s important that you get made aware of any health issues. Given their sensitivity, the SMBI avoid taking Phione from people, unless it’s necessary, so I reckon they would be willing to determine how suitable the sanctuary would be for Phione.

That’s all I have on Phione at the moment. Feel free to follow-up when you know more. Getting to hear about such a rare pokémon is pretty exciting.

#phione #min haven pokemon sanctuary #ask the prof #submission

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darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght · 2 months

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Chapter 30- Part 4

Well, there's that done, and now here's Shieldon’s Dex entry:

Now, the second to last encounter is…well, this I'm a bit miffed by. Remember two chapters ago, all those book excerpts? Well, there was one (1) last excerpt that I skipped because I didn't want to add more screenshots, I just didn't feel like it.

But it turns out!! You need to hear all four readings to get this next Pokémon!! SO HERE I GO-

Alright, last book, let's see what this is about finally.

Y…Yes, yes book, I know how energy transfer works, I took chemistry classes, I have a degree in the field-

Well, based on the laws of physics, the energy produced by the act of punching still gets transferred out of your fist. Some of it goes into the surrounding environment as heat or sound, but most of it gets absorbed back into your body, which can actually be kinda detrimental to your joints and muscles if not done in a safe-

We also call that Newton's Third Law-

Again, literally just chemistry, you can spin it in a spiritual way all you want, but I know what you really are!!

Anyways, now that Xera's gotten enlightenment from all four books, it's time to go back to…her.

Yeah, so I was right to guess she was important for some side quest, I was just wrong about what the side quest was.

But regardless! Meditite, that's cool! I named mine Asano (derived from Meditite’s Japanese name, which likely comes from the word asana), even though I forgot to screenshot it. Luckily, I remembered to grab the PokéDex entry:

Now, the final encounter is…not a static encounter, actually. It's a normal Pokémon found in the wild, but it's one that I just straight-up think would be a good fit for my Kiki team. And that Pokémon is…

A Sandygast! I noticed you could encounter them on Apophyll Beach, and- well, there's more to it than that, but I'll get to it in a bit. For now, let's just catch this-

Forgot to screenshot it again, but I named her Suna, which is the Japanese word for “sand” (砂).

Now, before I start theorycrafting, I noticed Asano knows Hidden Power, so just out of curiosity for what type his is-

Fascinating! Okay, onto proper teambuilding now…

So, I said I really wanted a Sandygast (soon to be Palossand), right? Well, there are three reasons for that. For one, she's part Ghost-type, so she's immune to Fighting-type moves outright. Second, her Ability:

On Ashen Beach, Sand Veil is activated immediately, so that should help her dodge other types of attacks.

Also, can I just- can I just talk about something that’s REALLY bothering me?

So, while I was looking for a Sandygast with Sand Veil (see, if I ran into a Sandygast, I would use Lake to hit it with a Water attack, and if its Defense and Sp. Defense got raised, I’d know it had Water Compaction, so I would run from that encounter and try again), I actually encountered a Shiny Sandygast. I didn’t catch it, didn’t have the Ability I wanted, but it did allow me to see that Pokémon Reborn also changed Sandygast’s Shiny, to this:

Which, in my opinion, is objectively worse than Sandygast’s actual Shiny. Sandygast’s canon Shiny is based on the phenomena of black sand, which is common on beaches near volcanoes, due to having basalt mixed in with the sand. So that’s a cool thing to base a Shiny on, and a logical decision for a Pokémon literally made of sand, not to mention the black coloring could arguably be seen as befitting Sandygast’s Ghost typing.

So what the heck is this? Slightly pale blue sand?? What?? Heck, if anything, I’d say black sand Sandygast is more fitting for the environment of the Rebon region and Apophyll Beach, because that beach is literally next to a volcano!! Where black sand beaches can happen in real life??

I don’t know why this is making me so mad, it’s just one (1) Shiny change, I’m certain no one else who’s played this game cares about this, definitely not to the extent that I do, but I just- gosh!!

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lilacslovers · 4 years

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wow the new concept art for the next gym leader in pokemon swsh looks neat /j

anyways heres what the numbers list!

1) Lilac’s Rotom Motorbike in Sparkling Black. (Shiny Rotom)

2) Her bike helmet along with her leather jacket for her Motorbike

3) Her electric guitar with Female Pikachu tail sticker.

4) She doesn’t get angry a lot, but has funny angry faces.

5) She does get very flustered easily (writing reads: Um...)

also heres some quotes she would say in the game (* ^ ω ^) (warning: really long....)

Introducing herself in the first battle:

“Hello there, Gym Challenger. I’m Lilac. You look like a very strong individual with very strong Pokémon, so I’ll be pushing your limits here today! No hard feelings though, right~ ♪ ?”

Upon sending out her final Pokémon:

“Down to my last already? You’re quite wonderful, you are!”

Upon activating Gigantamax:

“Well then, I guess I’ll have to be more tougher on you. It’s time to bring on the storm, my dear Pikachu!”

Upon using G-Max Volt Crash:

“I don’t mean to be such a brute to you, but you’ve left me no choice! G-Max Volt Crash will give you an electric shock!”

Upon being defeated:

“Hm... You’re fantastic, but... A loss like this can still hurt my heart...”

After being defeated:

“I’ve never seen more energy in a Pokémon team like yours!”

“I’m glad you were able to brace my team’s power. I think you’re going to go quite far.”

“Here’s the Electric Badge you’ve earned.”

“I can’t wait to see you on the big screens! I have high hopes for you and your team, and I know you’ll seize the opportunity to make headlines pretty soon. Now, take care out there!”

Wyndon Stadium (Champion Cup Locker Room):

“Hello once again! I knew you wouldn’t disappoint. But, to be honest, I can’t wait to put in my all when we get to battle again now, haha ♪ !”

Sordward and Shielbert Post-Game:

“P-Please stay back! You know, Electric-type Pokémon can get quite zappy when angered...”

“It’s horrendous though, Piers! I’ve managed to handle a couple Pokémon that have Dynamaxed... But the rest are just... too much!”

“You lot want to help? Well... That’s alright, as long as you all stay careful around this one Pokémon in the pitch.”

“Alright! Everyone, let’s go and calm this little- I-I mean, quite big - Pokémon!”

After defeating Dynamax Jolteon:

“Ahaha, what a relief! Looks like the thunderclouds have drifted away from the stadium... and away from my mind as well!”

“Please don’t worry about the rest of the Pokémon in the stadium, I think they’re a lot more weaker than that one. My Trainers and I can handle those.”

“Hey, <player>? I know we’re gonna battle again someday, but if you need me for whatever else, call me! Oh, and all I really have to give is one of my League Cards, if you’re alright with that...”

After receiving her Rare League Card:

“Sorry for any troubles! I promise I’ll make it up one day to you lot! Thanks for helping little ol’ me here, haha...”

Wyndon Stadium (Champion Cup Rematch):

Before battle:

“Hehe, well look who it is! Make sure you’re on your toes, I’m not gonna stall around for anything, you know.”

Upon being defeated:

“You grin and bear just about everything... Your voltage is ever so high.”

After being defeated:

“How do I sustain such force like you do? I never wanna think that my team is weak...”

Isle of Armor Random Encounters:

First encounter:

“Oh! Why, hello! What a surprise to meet you here, <player>.”

“It’s always good to get some extra training in. That’s why me and Pikachu are practising our Electro Balls! Isn’t that right, Pikachu?”

If found in the Forest of Focus:

Clear weather:

“This place is so vast and empty... But, sometimes wild Pikachus like to come by mine! It’s a good thing they’re mostly friendly...”

Cloudy weather:

“Ah, the sun’s clouded over... Now, it’s quite cold... I would’ve worn a long-sleeved Electric Uniform shirt of mine, but I hate how tight the sleeves are...”

In foggy conditions:

“Oh, no! Not fog... Pikachu’s moves aren’t gonna be that effective in the fog! O-Oh well, we can always try practising again after the fog’s cleared up...”

In harsh sunlight:

“Ah...! Too bright, too bright! Pikachu, can you even see in this weather...?”

During rain or thunderstorms:

“The rain is very nice, but the loud crash of thunder can be too harsh... Pikachu seems to love it a lot though. Must give her the burst of energy she needs!”

During a sandstorm:

“In this sandstorm I can’t see a thing...! I would look around, but sand would end up in my eyes...”

If found by the Workout Sea:

“The cool water is just wonderful to soothe me and my Pokémon... Oh, did you know? Electric-type moves are super-effective against Water-type moves!”

If found in Brawlers’ Cave: (says one of these two quotes)

“Wow... It’s so dark in here! Pikachu, if we left you in here long enough, would you turn into a Morpeko?”

“This place makes me remember the time Gordie and I wandered about in some caves... He wanted me to see some Rock Pokémon, so I thought I would tag along! It was a great break away from work, to be fair...”

The Crown Tundra:

Wyndon Stadium (Galarian Star Tournament) (also where a lot of lilakuwa is bc its the only thing i can actually write (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)):

Compliments to other Trainers before battle:

Gordie

“Gordie, your battle style is impeccable. Let’s shock them with our abilities put together!”

Replies to other Trainers before battle:

Piers

“We’re like a little band! Except, you’re kinda a boring bandmate ‘cause you don’t do encores.”

Opal

“I-I’m not sure what the whole ‘pink’ metaphor means, but I’ll try my best to be ‘pink’ for you, Ms. Opal!”

Conversations in battle with other Trainers:

Allister

“You can do it, Allister, even if you feel like you can’t! Keep on pushing yourself!”

Piers

“Keep on singing, Piers! Let’s give them an electrifying performance!”

Replies to other Trainers in battle:

Gordie

“Ahahaha... Thanks for your kind words, Gordie! N-Now I’m kinda flustered...”

Opal

“Our Pokémon types are a very cute mix, Ms. Opal!”

Upon sending out her final Pokémon:

“My final Pokémon is just eager to show her power off to you!”

Upon activating Gigantamax in the Galarian Star Tournament:

“My Pikachu is all charged up! Show off your Gigantamax form, Pikachu!”

Upon being defeated in the Galarian Star Tournament:

“Another loss... I’m completely aghast.”

After being defeated in the Galarian Star Tournament:

“You completely cut off our circuit! Though, I suppose the good battle makes up for that...”

#self shipping #pokemon self insert #pokemon self ship #self ship community #s/i x f/o #lilac: pokemon self insert #lilakuwa #those cute eyes #oh god help me why did i do so many quotes oh g #self ship #s/i x canon #self insert

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jincherie · 5 years

Text

intermission • iii | moonchild

• ☽ — pairing: bts x reader • ☽ — genre: crack, fluff, angst, college/uni au • ☽ — words: 4.6k • ☽ — rating: sfw • ☽ — warnings: rabid old ladies and tree-climbing shenanigans • ☽ — notes: another intermission! this is my last part for now, miss zee will be writing the next two and then we will see my return!!!! but until then, please indulge us n show miss zee some love!! she works hard for it :’< also because with zee’s next chapter... we see a bit of a twist arise!

— posted; 09.06.2019

When the love letter you wrote and submitted as an assignment is leaked to the entirety of your university, it becomes a race against time to dispel rumours and convince the seven suspected muses of the poem that they aren’t the subject before anyone realises that you are the author. Easy, right? Well… maybe not as easy as you think.

— • masterlist | prev | intermission iii | next • —

— some time in first year —

The afternoon air is cool and the sun is a soft, comforting warmth against the exposed parts of Kim Namjoon’s skin, chasing away the slight bite of the cold that lingers in the breeze due the transitional season as he walks home. He’s just finished fulfilling his third ‘help wanted’ poster duty of the day, collecting the sheets, both handwritten and printed alike, from shopping mall billboards like Pokémon. He has a thick wad of them folded up and wedged in his back pocket (he’d forgotten his trusty messenger bag this morning that, despite being two snapped threads away from falling apart completely, has always managed to see him through the day) and a comparatively much smaller wad in his other back pocket, of the odd jobs his managed to complete through the week.

His rationale for being such an upstanding citizen and going out of his way to help anyone and everyone he can? Two things—experience, and references. He knows it’s a harsh world, and to succeed you have to prepare yourself as much as possible for everything to come. So when the time comes that he steps into the adult, working world after graduating… he doesn’t doubt he’s going to be one of the best prepared people they’ve ever seen.

Plus, sometimes the little old ladies and distraught pet owners he helped gave him a few dollars as a tip. Unnecessary and not something he asks for, but Namjoon isn’t one to turn away a gift when it could do wonders for his loose change jar. It satisfies him to see the little glass thing with a cork lid get fuller and fuller each weak. He blames the deep, primal part of his monkey brain that likes seeing a big collection of shiny objects like coins. It sparks joy, one could say.

The odd job he’s just completed was a little dryer than the rest, if he’s being honest. It was much simpler than the ad for it had made out— just helping some fellow uni student as clueless as him fix their broken toilet roll. All he had to do was find the screw that came out and the student gave him, like, a whole box of frozen chicken patties in return. Which… isn’t so bad but also, Namjoon considers himself an intellectual and while he may be bought by food he still longs for a mental challenge. So despite how usually he gets in about three a day, on a good day, but even thought this is his third one he’s still… hungry for more. He’s also hungry in the literal sense; the last job made him miss lunch and now his stomach is performing an acapella version of ‘feed me, feed me, you bastard’. A classic hit, one he is especially familiar with. He’ll have to rifle through the papers in his back pocket and suss out whether any of the posters seem the type to provide food for the help.

He’s still toying with the idea when he happens across an unexpected scenario that seems to have been dropped into his path by the fates themselves. Along one side of the footpath are suburban homes and their small front yards and cute little mailboxes, and to the other is the occasional tree and then the plain asphalt of the road. About a yard in front of him, just far enough that he can’t really see even with his glasses on, there seems to be a bit of a commotion occurring near one of the larger trees lining the street.

Excitement probably shouldn’t be his first reaction, but it is, and Namjoon hurries his long-legged gait so that he can reach the spectacle sooner. He doesn’t know what he looked like but walking like this, he feels a bit like those spiders with the tiny bodies and disproportionately long, spindly legs. And here he is, going to help out like the friendly neighbourhood spiderman. He slapped his thigh, eyes wide. He might be an iron man enthusiast at heart, but damn that’s a good line for his resume.

The closer Namjoon gets to the commotion he’d spotted from afar, the more he realises he might have hit jackpot. The source of the loud yelling and frantic movements seems to be a woman, a little on the elderly side, with her wild salt and pepper curls defying gravity in some places and clumping in others—it takes Namjoon a moment to realise that she’s actually attempted to tie her hair back and that’s why it looks a little bit deformed from the distance. As he draws closer, he notes that she looks a little unhinged. His reaction to such a thing should be caution, and he should feel wary, but all he can think is hell yes this woman clearly needs help and he is going to help her, damn it.

“Pudding, come down! Please! I’m sorry for calling you fat, Pudding! I didn’t mean it!”

As soon as he’s within earshot, he hears the woman sobbing hysterically as she claws at the thick trunk of the tree. She’s too small to reach the lowest hanging branch, and has taken to draping herself pitifully against the leaning trunk as she scrabbles against the bark with her nails. The woman wails, pitifully, voice piercing the air like a siren, or a banshee, “Pudding!”

Confused as he may be, he’s sure that as soon as he asks the lady what happened, he’ll be as clued in as possible. Namjoon clears his throat and composes himself, before stepping forward and speaking loud enough that the woman can hear him over her own loud weeping.

“Excuse me, ma’am, is everything alright? Do you require assistance of any kind?”

The lady spins around, a crazy glint in her eye, and belatedly, Namjoon begins to feel a little wary in addition to the wave of concern that seems to have caught up to him from where he left it in the dust.

“My pudding,” the woman wails, lurching and attaching herself to Namjoon like he is the tree she’d just been attempting to scale. Her nails dig into his arms, and the male is suddenly thankful for the long sleeves of his shirt and jacket protecting them from being punctured by her claws. “My pudding is stuck in the tree.”

A few beats of silence sound in Namjoon’s head, before finally a thought spawns into being. This woman…. Did she fling her dessert into the tree? God, it’s worse than he thought. He never expected to walk upon such a tragedy.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, ma’am,” Namjoon says, sincerely sympathetic. Being prone to trips and falls as he is, he has been victim many a times to accidentally flinging food all over the place. His heart goes out to her, his hands coming to pat her forearms with only a little hesitance (distantly, a part of him wonders if the crazed look in her eye is due to rabies, and the whiteness of what he assumes is snot all over her face and mouth makes him a little nervous). “Would you like help? I can get the pudding down from the tree, and then you can go on ea—”

“Oh, would you, dear?” the woman’s grip tightens like a vice as she cuts him off, wide, glassy eyes gleaming with hope. Is she starting to froth at the mouth a bit? Namjoon chooses to ignore that observation. “Please, please get him down. He’s the fat bastard on the second highest branch, and he -hic- must be so scared.”

Namjoon resists the instinct to make a face just barely— is she referring to her pudding as a he, and did she just call her pudding a fat bastard?— and instead follows the old woman’s shaking hand as it point to the top of the tree. Realisation slaps him in the face.

There, sitting right on the thickest part of the second highest branch near the trunk and somehow still managing to bow it, is both the fattest and the ugliest but most oddly endearing cat Namjoon has ever seen. At least, he thinks it’s a cat. It’s a cat until proven otherwise, he decides.

“Oh,” Namjoon says, staring at the cat. The cat stares back, and Namjoon gulps at the sudden goblin energy it seems to be radiating. “Pudding.”

The woman, still babbling incoherently while Namjoon creates a half-assed sort of mental plan for how to proceed and reach the top of the tree, starts shaking him slightly in her distress. Being a music major doesn’t prepare him for shit like this, he laments. This lady better have some food on the table for the trauma she’s currently inflicting.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get pudding.” He gingerly brushes her grip off him, surprised she let go with such little convincing, and makes his way to the trunk of the tree. The cat stares him down the entire time, lidded yellow eyes peering into the depths of his being and pulling out his innermost fears. Namjoon feels like this cat is the kind of thing you peer under your bed as a child and see balled up in the corner, hissing, with big fangs and ominous man-eating energy. This cat looks like the second Namjoon is within reach he’s going to claw his face off or eat his ears. A shiver rolls down his spine, but he pushes on. He’s going to climb this tree, make this cat his bitch, and bring it back down for the crazy old lady who has started breathing extra heavy the closer he gets to the tree. Distantly, one of his braincells knocks around and whispers that this feels like when Hansel and Gretel got tricked by a witch and her candy house— except in this situation the candy house is Namjoon’s incredible need for good references and experience. Annoyed at the errant brain cell, he flicks it away mentally and tries to think of a way up the tree when he reaches the base.

Well, he supposes he’s just gonna have to go up branch by branch and see which ones he can reach with his long noodle legs. He has to bring his foot up past his ear to clamber onto the first branch, and amongst the pain of essentially doing the splits he feels oddly proud of himself. Kim Namjoon; outstanding citizen, academic, genius music major, now gymnast. It has a nice ring to it. Perhaps he should consider broadening his horizons and extending his athleticism.

Scaling the tree is actually much easier than he anticipated. None of the branches are too far or too high to reach, and he’s satisfied with the effortlessness this job has taken so far. This will look fantastic on his record— he can’t forget to get a written statement from the rabies lady.

Before he knows it, he’s come face to face with the cat. Up close, it radiates even more demonic goblin energy, and Namjoon feels his knees quake slightly in response. It doesn’t meow, doesn’t even growl, merely bares its teeth in greeting, and the male gulps. Alright, time to make this cat his bitch for a moment and save that old lady’s day.

“Hey puss,” Namjoon greets, a little rusty on his cat conversation etiquette. “Come here puss, here, tch tch.”

The cat, fearing neither god nor man, merely sits and looks at Namjoon as he makes kissy noises in an attempt to lure it. ‘You think you can control me?’ It feels as though the cat says to him, with its apathetic, golden-eyed stare, ‘I belong to no one, fool. I will perish before I move at your will.’

Alright, seems like he’s just gonna have to scoop him up and go. Hopefully his nature is a docile as the name Pudding implies and his intimidating outside is just a farce.

Namjoon leans against the trunk of the tree as he reaches for the cat and takes it into his arms successfully— it’s too fat to put up much of a fight, and for that the male is thankful, even if it now feels like he’s holding a boulder in his arms and they’re going to fall off if he doesn’t deposit it soon. What does that lady feed this cat?! Cement?!

Having secured the old lady’s bag, Namjoon directs his gaze downwards and goes to embark on the next step in the plan to climb the tree for the cat and then climb down with the cat— as expected, it’s time for the latter. Wait, speaking of—

A ladder? God he wishes he had one of those right now, because he’s just realised that he has no idea how to get down. The cat’s belly gives an almighty rumble and, expectedly, it throws Namjoon a little off balance. The old lady is calling out hoarsely several many feet below them, and Namjoon feels a little overwhelmed as he considers possibilities and analyses paths down.

Gulping, he makes a calculated decision— unfortunately, he was never that great at maths.

x x

An afternoon stroll through the streets surrounding your dorm is just what you need, some fresh air to sooth your tired, university student soul and refresh your mind.

At least, that’s what you decided like ten minutes ago. Currently, you’re not sharing the same sentiments as past-you so much. This is mostly due to the abundance of unhinged elderly and zombified youth that seem to have had the same idea as you and that are now milling about unchecked. You accidentally stepped off the footpath before and stepped maybe ten centimetres onto someone’s lawn. That someone happened to be a short, stout middle-aged couple that had matching outdated hairdos, and they were not happy about you ‘messing up their lawn’. Before embarking on this walk, you could have proudly said you’d never been chased down the street by some screaming woman with a broom before. Now though, you’re no longer a virgin to that particular experience. You’re not going home as the same woman you were when you left.

The street that you’ve just turned onto, on your journey back to your dorms, is remarkably less chaotic than the rest and you feel yourself letting out a breath of relief. Finally, you thought you were going to combust from the stress alone. As relieved as you are though, you don’t let down your guard; you’ve been burnt before, thank you very much.

Not even three houses down the street, your reservations are proven right. There is an elderly woman, who appears afflicted with a sickness of some sort if the fluids all over her face are anything to go by, who is sobbing and moping at the base of a tree in what you hope is her front yard. Confronted with the strange situation, a part of you instinctively wants to help her— the other part tells you to turn tail and go down another street because this could be one of those traps where they trick you with a crying child or old lady and then mug you, taking all your money and any candy still surviving in your pockets.

Ultimately, the more empathetic side of you wins out and you hesitantly begin to walk closer to the woman clawing at the tree and screaming about desserts.

“Uh, excuse me ma’am, are you o—”

You don’t even get to finish before there is a sudden series of snaps and cracks from the tree above you and a mass comes hurtling down from the foliage. You scream, the sheer blood-curdling nature making your throat ache, and just about shit yourself as you launch away. Where you stood, a shape smacks into the ground with a hearty thunk that shakes the earth a little beneath your feet. You were right, you’re about to get mugged!

“AHH FUCK WHAT THE FUCK FUCK OFF I KNOW KATANA!”

The mass on the ground groans and you blink, watching with absolute dumbfoundedness as it shifts and suddenly the fattest cat you’ve ever seen is parting from it and running towards the woman in hysterics by the base of the tree. For such an absolute unit, it moves fast, and barely a moment passes before the massive load of a cat is wrapped firmly in the old lady’s arms.

“Pudding,” she weeps into his coat, the cat pinning you and the lump at your feet with an ominous, dead-eyed stare over her shoulder. “Oh my sweet, fat bastard— don’t you ever do that again, okay? Oh my sweet baby—”

She turns, mumbling into the fur of her cat as she begins to depart from the tree and make her way back to the house that you presume to be hers. For a moment you forget about the lump at your feet, until you hear it let out a pathetic whimper.

“My reference and commendation…”

You let out another scream, for some reason not at all expecting it to speak words. When you look down, however, you instantly feel guilty.

The thing that fell from the tree was a man and he landed right on his ass.

“Oh wait holy shit are you okay?!” Now that you’re over your fear of being mugged, you run over to the man and pop a concerned squat next to his curled up form. “What the hell were you doing up there? Did you steal that crazy lady’s cat?!”

The male at your feet groaned, bereft. “No, I was helping her get the cat down. Holy shit, my buns…”

You turn your gaze to his heinie, realising that with how hard he hit the ground he very likely has broken something. God, now that you think about it, he could have broken his tailbone. You have a friend that did that in highschool— it wasn’t fun, and it wasn’t pretty. And the thought that this poor man who fell from the tree and scared the absolute shit out of you might have done the same… oh, you felt for him. He attempted to roll and let out a pathetic groan. Oh yeah, he definitely broke it.

“Wait, don’t move! I think you broke your tailbone when you fell! Don’t move too much.” You hurry to halt him, and all he can muster in response is another sad groan.

“God, I- I can’t see…” he dropped his head against the earth, eyes shut. “The light… it’s growing closer.”

“H-hang on!” You panic, hands flying into the air. “We need to get you help! We need to get you to a hospital! Please don’t go into the light!”

The male groans again, and you flounder— you have to get him to the ER! It’s more serious than you thought. Panicked, you scramble for a way to get him up and mobile. Finally, an idea occurs to you, and you survey the man’s lanky form to try and assess how well it’s going to work out. A grimace finds its way to your face.

You’re going to be so sore later.

x x

For forty minutes, you carried the long-limbed male on your back like nothing but a pack mule. Twenty minutes of that you spent walking, feeling like that Atlas bitch carrying the heaviest thing imaginable on your back and shoulders; and the other twenty was spent taking (read: waiting for) public transport. By the time you arrived to the hospital and got the man on your back checked in (you learned his name is actually Kim Namjoon and he’s a student, much like you), you felt as though at any second you were going to pass out. You still feel like that, actually, as you sit in the chair along the wall across from the male’s bed, which has the curtains drawn as the doctor inspects him, and attempt to recover. You’re sweaty, and gross, and desperately want a coffee. You even considered slipping some of the paper from the mysterious wad in his back pocket before you realised it isn’t money. You didn’t get to see what was on the papers, since you lost interest as soon as you realised it wasn’t cash.

You don’t get to lament too much about it before the curtains are being hauled back, a brightly smiling man greeting you; the doctor appears just as exuberant and overjoyed as when he first walked in.

“Well, good news and bad news!” he chirps, tucking his clipboard under his arm. His nametag reads Dr. Lee Minhyuk, and you can’t help but think that your new friend Sera would probably be frothing at the mouth at the mere sight of him. You catch sight of Namjoon adjusting himself on the bed behind the doctor, cheeks red.

You send the doctor a probing look, knowing he is waiting for a response. He beams, delighted at your acknowledgement.

“Good news first!” the Dr. Lee clicks his heels together before shifting his stance, gesturing his arm widely to Namjoon. “His tailbone is not broken! Thanks to the uneven distribution of his ass cheeks— ahem, sorry, his buttocks— all of the force of impact was absorbed by the, uh, dominant butt cheek, if you will. His tailbone is fine!”

Namjoon chokes behind him at the words that come out, and a part of you is mortified for him but the rest of you finds that too funny to even begin unpacking everything else yet. One of his ass cheeks really pulled a hard carry and did the lord’s work and absorbed all the impact. The power… A sigh of relief escapes you at the doctor’s words, though, and you go to speak up your relief when the doctor cuts you off.

“Whoops, actually I take that back! That’s the bad news— his tailbone isn’t broken, but it is bruised.” Dr Lee clicks his tongue, taking out his clipboard to scribble something short down. He then turns to Namjoon. “I kind of have to go— since you came in through the ER but this isn’t an actual emergency— but I’ll send a nurse in with directions for you on how to manage this, and after that you’ll be free to go. I recommend not climbing any more trees for a while! Also I hope you don’t sleep on your back, that might be a bit difficult like this.”

With that, he clicks his heels once more before saluting you both, and then he’s striding out of the room, off to tend to actual emergencies, you presume. You’d gotten an earful earlier for bringing him to the ER when it wasn’t a life-or-death emergency, but you stand by your decision.

There are a few long moments of silence in the time after the doctor leaves, and you decide to break it by standing and moving to the table beside his bed, where you’d left your phone like a fool. Avoiding his face (he’s still blushing so it’s a courtesy, but also because while sitting and waiting for the doctor you’d realised he really is quite good looking and your mind is having trouble associating that with the man who fell out of the tree earlier), you reach for the phone amongst the water cups and chocolate wrappers, from when he’d emptied his front pockets. He’s a nervous drinker and a hoarder, it seems.

“Wait,” His hand shoots out, long fingers wrapping around your wrist before you can grab your phone. Your heart jumps, perhaps in fright. You look to him with wide eyes. “I’m gonna need you to sign a non-disclosure about what you just heard.”

“I…” you give him a pained look. “Please, tell me you carry them with you at all times. Please. If you don’t tell me, I really might die.”

Namjoon lets out a great, big sigh, releasing your wrist somewhat petulantly. “I don’t… please hold your tongue until I can print some more.”

More? You’re having a field day with the implication that he has had instances where he’s needed to hand out non-disclosure agreements before, but he seems a little sombre. So instead of mocking him, as per your first instinct, you decide to try and make conversation. You know the nurse is coming soon, but you would feel bad leaving him alone until then. You feel like, having carried him on your back for miles and miles, almost an hour, you’ve really gotten closer and crossed the bridge from strangers to acquaintances.

“So…” you begin, tapping your fingers against your thighs. You search for another nearby chair before grabbing it and pulling it over, flopping down. “What do you study? Where?”

You feel like a new language learner asking questions using only the limited vocab you have, but Namjoon is unphased and answers as though you’d asked him something much more natural.

“CCU,” he says, fingers picking at the threads on his blanket, before he looks up to glance at you. “I’m a music major.”

Surprise filters through you at that, a noise of wonderment escaping before you can really stop it. “Oh! Hey, me too! I think you’re in one of the years above me, though, because I haven’t seen you in any of my classes before.”

Namjoon, who had been somewhat withdrawn and had put up a wall of sorts between you since entering the hospital and regaining control of himself (and a donut cushion to sit on), seems to do an absolute one-eighty at your words. “Oh, your major is music as well? Where are you specialising?”

You tell him with an eager smile, and he responds with one of his own. Just like that, the two of you fall into a conversation that comes much easier than anticipated, talking about your majors and music inside and outside of school. The nurse takes forever and you spend a good amount of time there, just talking to this upperclassmen who happened to fall out of a tree while you were walking past. Eventually, he confides in you about a rough draft of his, something he has really high hopes for. It’s a song called Moonchild, and it’s barely half done but he drums and beat boxes the rough rhythm out for you and you feel your cheeks heat in awe as you listen. That’s amazing, you can’t help but think, and it’s all him. You don’t think you’ve ever liked the demo of a song as much as you like that one.

The afternoon passes with the nurse eventually visiting, and all too soon you’re waiting with the long-legged noodle man at the drop-off and pick-up zone, watching with a note of sadness as a car pulls up and some mint-haired twink that looks vaguely familiar sticks his head out and calls for Namjoon. Namjoon thanks you for your help and bids you farewell, and then he’s climbing into the car with an abrupt wail of pain— he forgot to put his donut down first— before the doors shut and the car is pulling away, disappearing into the dusk and leaving you by your lonesome. You stand a few minutes, before letting out a huff and turning to leave yourself.

The whole way home, and throughout the rest of the week, you can’t help but think about the beautiful tune of moonchild and how it rings serenely through your mind when your thoughts quieten just enough. You hope you get to hear it again, someday; you hope you get to hear it when it’s finally completed and Namjoon’s name is on the credits.

— • masterlist | prev | intermission iii | next • —

{let us know what u think!! who are u rooting for?? who do u think is the muse?? hit us up!! & thank u for reading, btw!}

373 notes · View notes

smilingperformer · 5 years

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Pokémon Sword & Shield - Personal experiences, Part 1

About a week ago, I declared that I wanted to write down a critical post looking at my experiences with Sword & Shield, noting what I liked and what not. Considering the fact that I still haven’t completed the game (at around 37.5h mark and done with 6 out of 8 gyms), I’m gonna divide this post into two, where this first part focuses on gameplay, music and graphics, while the latter part, which I plan on writing next weekend, will focus on the story and character portrayal, including the trainer customisation, League Cards and Pokémon designs of this generation. Do note, these posts will contain spoilers for new, unrevealed Pokémon, so if you want to discover them yourself, I suggest you read this post at a later date! If not, then let’s get started! With a Charizard Pose!

As a disclaimer, the version I’ve been playing is Pokémon Sword, and as said above, the amount of time spent currently is around 37.5h.

Gameplay

Let’s start with the aspect that’s most important to the games, alright? So, how’s the gameplay in Sword & Shield? The battling system remains the same as previous games, meaning it’s turn-based, commanding attacks to your Pokémon. There’s not much to say to this aspect of the game, but I do love the improvements to the UI during the battling. Now that the series is back to one screen again (which happened first with Let’s Go), all the needed info has to be displayed in the same screen. If you ask me, it’s displayed nicely, and the UI style is very slick. The button mappings have changed for quick-selecting pokeballs and checking move-related info, so if you’re used to doing the R1 + a combo on checking move info, you’ll accidentally do the move instead. Happened to me a ton of times. But, since we have to consider that 3DS had less buttons for usage, new button mappings are fine.

The effects of Pokémon loving you during battle is still there, as in if you’ve been playing with your Pokémon a ton, battled with them and spent tons of time, they’ll start dodging attacks to your shout, curing poisonings and paralyses on their own without healing items, and get more experience. It does make the game easier, but I have found myself still struggling against some of the stronger type of Pokémon, even when my Pokémon has more levels. But that may be because I’ve tried switching out team every now and then to avoid being overly overleveled. And it’s been for the best!

Encountering wild Pokémon

First introduced in Let’s Go, Sword & Shield now lets you actually see the Pokémon catchable in the wild, making the world feel so much more alive. The grass encounters are still there, but instead of triggering random at your place, they’ll trigger nearby to you, and you can choose to either ignore or run into it. And from what I can tell, some Pokémon are only catchable in the grass patches. But I could be terribly wrong! The ways Pokémon react to you are different to the type of Pokémon you encounter, some examples being kind cheers from smaller Pokémon, some running into you at slower speed, some chasing after you and being faster than you, and some plain up teleporting away or running away from you as fast as possible. It’s such an awesome feat to see, and I have to note how much I love that Diglett and Dugtrio can actually be seen moving under the ground in fast speed, then coming up in another spot. It feels like such a huge improvement from how they moved in Let’s Go. Same with Rhyhorn, I love how they decide to charge at you, with no way to turn mid-ram! Meaning if you dodge, they miss. It’s such a nice way to show the wild Pokémon’s personality. This is why I ended up catching a certain Pikachu and making it my main Pikapal, despite wanting to get certain type. Because it kept coming at me, stopping to say “Pika~“, turning away in sadness, then turning back at me as I would approach it. It was so cute to see.

There are also fishing spots where you can encounter water type Pokémon, and they seem to appear in similar fashion as in Gen 7 games, but with less-obvious-looking spots. If you run into the spots, they’ll disappear, just like before. So go at them at walking speed! Speaking of which!

Controlling the character

Never have I enjoyed controlling my character’s movements in a Pokémon game before, as I have in Sword & Shield. Not only does the spinning have an awesome finishing pose involved now, you can also control the speed your character is moving at by the amount of tilt you do with your left stick. If you tilt it a tiny bit, you’ll be moving at a slow pace, and when doing this in a grass patch, you’ll be entering a sneaking mode, where your character will try to not make any sounds at any close-by Pokémon. It’s a feature that was last seen in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, and boy am I glad to see that feature return!

Now, if you tilt the controller more bit by bit, you’ll notice how the speed of your character increases gradually, and the animations transition smoothly when doing so. I don’t have a gif to show of you of this, but if you entered this post before playing the game, make sure to try it out! It may be minor, but to me it’s such an awesome feat, as I can now walk or run at any pace I want, and gives me more control on the character!

At some point during the story, you’ll gain access to a bike powered by your Rotom Phone, and it helps you move at a faster rate in the game, if that’s what you want to do. I myself opted to mostly walking, mainly using the bike in the Wild Area. Controlling the bike feels good, turns feeling natural and the bike never feels like it’s going out of control. The speed boost by pressing B makes you go extra fast, and you’ll be able to upgrade it up to tier 3 in the Wild Area. I haven’t found the upgrade yet for being able to go over the water, so I’m gonna assume that’s mostly post-game. Or I’ve just missed it somehow, and I have no idea how!

Side note: Shiny hunting

Now, from what I’ve read, despite Let’s Go letting you see the Shiny versions in the wild, Sword & Shield does not let you see them. You instead have to encounter the Pokémon and hope that it is indeed a shiny. I myself believe this was done by design choice, as to make the Shiny hunting still feel rewarding, instead of making you just stand on one spot after getting max chaining, hoping for one to appear. Like it was in Let’s Go. Thou, in Sword & Shield, it’s a whole new method. You only have to focus on encounting that one specific Pokémon for countless times, and at certain points of counters, the chances of encountering a shiny increases. This is all official info from The Pokémon website! And I believe the article also states that, the glowing Pokémon, which have chances of having better stats, egg moves and other cool stuff, also have higher chance of being a shiny.

You can also apparently do Chain fishing for increased shiny chances on the fishing spots, which is quite cool! The breeding method is still the same as far as I can tell, but there’s now also a chance for a different type of Shiny sparkle animation. If you get a square type sparkle, then congratulations, your Shiny is extra rare!

Berry farming

I find the berry farming in this game to be my absolute favourite form, as I myself didn’t find any appeal on farming the berries itself, often neglecting that aspect in previous games, and this doesn’t feel even close to the tedious pick-up animation chain Gen 7 games had whenever you were picking up the berries from the ground. But, knowing how my sister has been liking the discoveries of mutated berry farming, that seems to be gone, and I do find that kind of discovery not being there kinda sad. Maybe there’s something to this later in the game, I don’t know.

Gym Battles

The gym matches provide some extra challenge in throwing at us Dynamaxed and Gigantamaxed Pokémon, which I myself haven’t been able to one-shot. While being overleveled does make it easy to steamroll the first few Pokémon on Gym Leader’s team, the final Pokémon always Dynamaxes or Gigantamaxes, and it does make you wonder whether your Pokémon’s gonna survive the hit or not. I always look forward to seeing what kind of Pokémon is gonna get Gigantamaxed next, as after the first two gyms, the Gyms always have a Gigantamaxing Pokémon on their team. At least, from what I can tell.

Speaking of Gyms, the Gym Missions have so far been a ton of fun. While one of the wants you to herd a bunch of Wooloo to knock-down barriers, other one has you avoiding traps, being auditioned or spinning around like crazy. So far none of the Gym Missions have been the same, and it’s very refreshing! One of them was very easy to cheat on thou, provided you had the right type of Pokeballs with you, which does make me wish Game Freak had implemented some type of restriction on what type of Pokeball you can use during the mission. But, I guess they didn’t want to force you to use certain type. Since you could actually keep any Pokémon you catch during this Gym Mission.

PokeJobs

The new feature that pretty much replaces the PokePelago from Gen 7 games. And it’s very simple: the new Rotom-powered PC Box has the option to check out jobs for your Pokémon to do, and they usually have a description that states in a fancy manner of what type of Pokémon you send out for that specific job. The amount appears to vary from 3 to 10 at a time, and you can send them out for from couple hours to a whole day. Once your Pokémon return, they’ll gain tons of experience based on how long they were at the job, and how well it was done. Sometimes, one of the sent Pokémon will come back with items! It’s a nice way to get your boxed Pokémon up to proper levels, thou sending them out on these jobs also makes them unavailable to use during that time. Logical, but I myself sometimes accidentally sent out a Pokémon on a job for a whole day, then realising I needed them for the future battles. I can only blame myself for that. I do find it a teeny bit annoying how the Pokémon disappear from the Pokebox, meaning if you’re very precise about organizing it, it’ll become a mess. Unless one found a good way to make it less messy. I myself haven’t!

Camping with your Pokémon

Throughout the game, you’ll be able to camp out with the current Pokémon on your team, and play with them using different kinds of toys on your toybox. From what I can tell, playing with them can give them experience at the end of the session, so it’s a nice reward for spending time with them and making friends along the way. Petting is not longer possible thou, which makes the Amié and Refresh lover in me cry in sadness. But alas, if we consider the fact that this game is meant to be enjoyed both docked and handheld, the petting mechanic would be extra akward to do with a stick instead of touching the screen. So, I can understand why it had to go away. This game isn’t motion-based after all, like Let’s Go was. Seeing the Pokémon play with each other and become friends with each other is such a wonderful feat to see, so I feel like Refresh was replaced with a good counterpart. I’m happy with my current experiences with the camping, and look to see if there’s more to it.

Or whether another Pokémon will come to my screen the moment I camp out and just stare at me for few seconds. Gosh you’re too cute Wanpachi!

The Curry making

During the camping, you’ll also have the option to make curry, to which up to 4 players can join up together to make a delish dish to eat. The partner eating the dishes with you is the one who’s first positioned in your party, so make sure you switch it out from time to time to see how different Pokémon eat their dishes! Smaller ones have smaller, cute dishes, while fully evolved tend to eat a huge amount! Above screencap being my Inteleon’s dish.

How you cook is based on what incredients you’ll be using. First you’ll choose the base of the curry, which can vary from bread to noodles to leeks that may or may not be liked by SirFetch’d. Then, you’ll add berries. I’ve been trying out different kinds of combos, but so far I haven’t failed a single dish. But I’ve also yet to get a perfect dish done. I’m guessing the way you perform with the mini-game of spamming button A, totating the right stick at right pace and timing your final button A also contributes to this. So I need to practice some more! I’ve been doing it a ton, and find it awesome time-spender. It also has benefits on making the Pokémon in your party more friendly to you, gain experience, and, based on how well the curry was made, restore health and pp, also reviving fainted Pokémon. It’s a great, cheap way to get your Pokémon back up to speed. Unless you’re in the middle of a Gym Mission, then you’re not allowed to do that. Which is a good way to restrict your healing options and make them more challenging!

Wild Area

Now this is what I was most hyped about in this game. The Wild Area. After couple hours of playing the game, you’ll reach this huge, unlocked and fully explorable area, where you can encounter all kinds of Pokémon, varying from levels 10 to whopping 60s at least! It’s entirely possible that you can encounter higher level Pokémon as well, but I myself haven’t seen higher than 60 yet.

Exploring this area is quite a pleasure, as in addition to previously mentioned controls on your character, you can now also move your camera with the right stick. Which is a first in a main-line Pokémon game. I have also discovered, thanks to a NPC I’ve encountered, that you can zoom in and out with a click of stick button. This will help you see either closer or wider, depending on how you like it. I myself like switching between the modes depending on the situation!

There are tons of areas to explore in the Wild Area, and tons of stuff to collect as well. Each day, each sparkling collectable respawns, meaning this place is the perfect way to farm yourself cash. Also berries, there’s tons of berry trees in the Wild Area, which can also be found on traditional Pokémon-styled routes.

Wild Area is also where, if you connect to the internet with Nintendo Online membership and through the Y-comm, which is pretty much upgraded PSS system from Gen 6 games, you’ll be able to see other players around the world right beside you. It’s such an awesome feeling, and makes the Wild Area feel even more alive. However, this does jag up the performance a bit, and you may see your frames drop down for a bit before coming back up. It’s a shame, but as an MMO player who’s had to deal with worse, it’s.... manageble. Not ideal, but not the worst. The way the trainers just pop out with no cool entering animation feels akward thou, haha.

There’s also Rotom Rallies to do, trainer battles to find, treasure digging through two NPCs and findable trainers who trade up items for amounts of Watts, the Wild Area currency you’ll obtain from glowing Pokémon and red glowing nodes.

Max Raid Battles

As previously mentioned, in the Wild Area, you’ll be seeing red-glowing nodes around, sometimes sending out a long beam to the sky. This indicates that you can enter a Max Raid Battle, in which you can join with up to 3 other players to take down a stronger, bigger wild Pokémon. This is also the only way to encounter Gigantamaxing Pokémon, thou I cannot say for sure if it’s the only way to get yourself a Pokémon that can Gigantamax. I’m not that far in the game yet. But so far, these raids have been fun, although I’ve only ever managed to join up with one other player, with rest of the spots being filled with NPCs. Which sometimes have really weird choices of Pokémon partners (looking at you, trainer with Magikarp against Pumpkaboo!) Depending on the amount of stars, the Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed Pokémon may sometimes put up a barrier to slow down the process of taking it down. While the non-dynamaxed Pokémon on your team can then only take down the small, red-colored bars from the health bar, the Dynamaxed Pokémon can destroy the whole bar and do damage at the same time. I am not sure if it depends on type matchups or just works that way regardless of the move. But it does make the Dynamaxing feel worth the trouble!

The Gigantamaxed Pokémon seem to have way lower catch rate thou, and it really bums me to see the Pokémon run away after one catch try! God damn Gigantamaxed Sandaconda and Butterfree!

The Y-Comm

I don’t have screencaps to provide for this at this moment, but I’ve been using it quite a bit by now. As said before, it is basically a return to the style of PSS used during Generation 6, and you’ll be able to do Pokémon trades, league card trades and check out raid battles, while also request single, double and multi battles. One aspect from previous games is gone thou, and that’s the GTS feature. Yup. You can no longer put up a Pokémon to be traded for certain, specific Pokémon. Which is a huge bummer, considering how even I used this feature to help with completing the Pokedex in Ultra Moon. I don’t know what the reasoning could be for this, but I guess all I can do is speculate that Switch is not capable of this kind fo feature? I’m not able to say, I ain’t familiar with Switch backend capabilities. And I don’t remember if Let’s Go had GTS or not, but I’m guessing it didn’t. Otherwise, the Wonder Trade has been replaced with Surprise trades, which is basically the same, but this time happens in the background, without halting your progress with the game. Which is an awesome improvement to previous titles.

Quality of Life improvements

There has been a ton of QoL improvements done to this game, most notable ones being able to access the PC box at any time, which certain areas restricting the usages, like Gym Missions. You’re now also able to rename your Pokémon at any PokeCenter nearby you, also being able to make your Pokémon forget or remember a move at same place from the same guy. With no heart scale costs! No longer do you have to wait for almost-post-game to get your Steenee the move it should have learned already but somehow didn’t to be able to evolve to Tsareena, or run back at certain town to rename your Pokémon you either forgot to name or messed up naming. It all makes the game feel less inconvinient and more controllable.

TRs are also back from pre-gen 6 era (or is it pre-Gen 5?), which break after one usage. You can mostly obtain these during Max Raid Battles, so it gives you a great reason to keep doing those battles if you want more of certain type of TRs! Some are obtained while you do the story and explore the routes, so make sure to do that as well! There’s also now two different Pokémon Nurseries to put you Pokémon at, one being at Route 5, while other is located in the Wild Area. So, if you want, you can farm eggs at both of the locations.

You’re now also able to adjust audio settings for music, sound effects and what-not, thou it’s oddly behind finding a key item during the first big city, Motostoke. It’s possibly as a way to introduce this new feature, but it does feel a bit odd to make it an key item instead of making it a setting right away.

Music

Now that we’re done with the gameplay section, how’s the music? In short, it’s darn amazing! Each music so far has been a joy to listen, some of my personal favourites being Gym Leader Track (which changes dynamically based on whether your Pokémon fainted, beat the opponent or whether it’s the final round of the battle, it’s so cool!), Stow-on-side’s theme and the upper Wild Area’s tracks. Sonia’s theme is also such a pleasure to listen to, every time she appears in the story I just find myself not touching anything os I can listen to her track. I’ve yet to found a track that I’d find annoying, and so far this game’s OST has a high chance at being my favourite. Thou, Alola’s OST is still my top favourite, mainly because of Malie City, Ultra Necrozma and Gladion’s themes. Thou Marnie’s and Bede’s themes are awesome as heck as well! Especially the battles ones, thou the ones during their cutscenes are great as well! Lots of love can be heard from this soundtrack, and I can’t wait to hear more!

Graphics

To be able to talk about the Graphics, I’ve been playing the game on both docked and handheld modes. From what I can tell, this game looks absolutely stunning in the handheld mode, while during the docked mode, some of the shadows may look a tad bit jaggy and can flicker a bit while moving. It appears to happen in certain arears during the daytime, so it’s not that bad, but it’s still noticable. But aside from the shadows, the game looks amazing to play on a 23 inch TV, and also on 39 inch TV. The colors are such an eyecandy to watch, and I hardly find myself looking at something and being like “man, this looks so bad“. The trees in the Wild Area? Sure, the texture on most of those trees look akward, but I honestly don’t pay any attention to them? Because I’m mostly looking at the grass movements around walking Pokémon, how Pokémon feel like the belong to the same space, and how it just feels so nice. Say what you may about the graphics, this is the best looking Pokémon game up to date. Even if it’s not as gorgeus as Zelda franchise’s Breath of the Wild. It still looks good and appealing for my eyes as a Front-End Developer with graphics design studies behind as well. Could it use an improvement? Absolutely. Does it need it desperately? In my honest opinion, no. But I do hope the next game in line will look evenly or hopefully even better than this gorgeus game!

I will say thou, the drawing distance with trainers and Pokémon in this game is quite akward. It would appear to be around same distance as in most MMO lowest drawing distance setting, but it’s still noticable. I do understand this helps the game keep up better performance and not drop frames constantly (which has only happened to me in the Wild Area while connected to the internet), but maybe there’s something that could be done to improve the drawing distance in the future, to make the world feel way better? Only time will tell I guess.

Animations

The new animations added to the game look amazing, and your trainer character no longer looks like an emotionless, empty-staring character during cutscenes, but actually has a fitting face for the situation. At least, from what I can tell. The movements overall are smooth, and I haven’t seen too many jaggy model turning without any other movement on the legs or so. Maybe a bit with Pokémon, but not much with trainers. There are couple, but not overwhelmingly lot.

What is an awesome addition to the game thou, is the fact that there’s now visible lip syncing with character models, even with your trainer character, and the speed of the lip syncing is based on the text speed setting. I tried the fastest setting, and it made some of the cutscenes look SUPER akward, as the camera would do the movement as it is programmed, but the text was already done and the character at the cutscene is just turning around or being zoomed in and not moving their lips at all! It’s a bit akward, and hilarious! But this only happens in the fastest setting, as it works well with normal and slowest setting! So, make sure to not put on the fastest setting?

First impressions on story

You’ve reached the end of part one of my experiences with the game! To give of final thoughts, I’d like to say what my first impressions are on the story, now that I’m over the half-way point, at least from what I can tell. It’s been an interesting one so far, with the Gym Challenge feeling like where’s playing an actual Pokémon Anime season instead of just running from gym to gym. Each gym leader has character, current favourite being Opal from Ballonlea Stadium. And it’s totally not because of how obsessed she is with the color Pink, and how she just scouted out Bede out of nowhere. In addition to Gym Challenge, there’s also a mystery with the Dynamax being built on, and discovering the legend of the Darkest Day with Sonia, and the lore behind the heroes that saved Galar during the Darket Day long, long ago. There’s also the build-up with Bede collecting Wishing Stars for Chairman Rose, Hop having amazing character development arc with having an Ego that gets crushed during one point of the story.

While I’ve been so much distracted by the Wild Area and not having completed the story yet, it feels interesting and I always look forward to seeing what we’ll uncover of the legend next, and whether Chairman Rose is doing something shady in the background or not. At least his backstory has me worried. The start of the game’s story was such an awesome way to get the story going, and I look forward to seeing how we’ll be possibly(?) restoring Zacian to its game cover glory. As it did look kinda beat with all the scratches and ear being cut.

Thank you for reading this post guys! It took hours to write, and creating a new private twitter account to get these screenshots transfered. But I hope this was an enjoyable post to read! I’ll be writing my second post after I’ve finished the story and played the post-game for a bit, which could be next weekend, or could not be. Depends on how much further I’ll get during the next week, haha! Anywho. Until next time!

#pokemon #pokegames #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #discussions #swsh spoilers #gen 8 spoilers #long post

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mrslittletall · 4 years

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Don’t tell me where to go. Earlier I watched a video about the flaws in Pokémon Sun/Moon. One of them I heavily agreed with, that annoying red flag that indicates where you should go next. In an already very linear game. Imo, it is just unneccessary. I barely am able to explore the world and even when I am allowed to go exploring, sooner or later I have to go back to the part where the latest roadblock was. I probably haven’t forgotten about it, because I am stuck in a small area. Also, Rotom Dex is reminding me constantly where to go anyway. So why is there this red flag on the map? It’s pointless. Thinking about this, I started Trials of Mana to get the last spirit. The remake, not the original. And just like in Pokémon Sun/Moon, I got annoyed. There is always that glowing big star on the map, telling me where to go even though this game is as linear as Sun/Moon! The elfin elder told me to go the mana goddess statue in the northwest of the forest, I can press on minus and see a map with this exact same statue on it and still, a shiny glowing star points on it! It is unneccessary! I played the original, the original didn’t had a map, the map was also divided in screens because old game and guess what? I still was able to found this mana statue! In fact, even just two weeks ago because I like to play the original with my husband. Why are games so adamant to tell you where to go? Heck, even one of my favourite games, Okami, did it. Not often, but at a few points, mostly when you have to hurry (but actually have all the time in the world), a glowing red arrow shows in which direction you should run. This actually gets me out of the immersion. That giant red arrow doesn’t make any sense, especially when Okami normally never tells you where to go with a marker, you just can look into your log and normally get Issuns latest hint where to go, but you have to find out yourself just how to get there. And mostly, in this “hurry to a location” events you already know where the location is, because you have to run back to it! I am getting more and more annoyed by this... do the game developer think we gamers are stupid? That we can’t find our way? That we have trouble when there isn’t a giant marker on the map, especially in linear games? Alright, now let’s talk about Open World games. One example I play atm is Death Stranding. That game actually TELLS me where I need to go, BUT, while I know where I need to head, the way to the location isn’t clear at all. Often you can’t just cross in a straight line, the world is in your way and you are just a basic human without any superpowers (ok outside of the whole BT sensing thing and not being able to die thing), but you get the gist. The thing is, you have to go from point A to point B and have to figure out HOW you get there. Do you pack a bunch of ladders to scale the mountains in your way? Do you try to find a way around the mountains? Do you pack weapons to take out the MULE camp in your way or do you try to sneak through it? Do you try to avoid the timefall and the BTs or do you take them head on? You have a lot of choices in this game how to handle the situation and it is beautiful. Moreso, the game profits from its online features. When you are alone, you can see and use structures of other players, you can see signs that warn you and you can see footpathes that have been created by other players. It really makes it fun to reconnect the world and connect with the other players you never see but know are there. Alright, different game. Zelda Breath of the Wild. That game has a huge world. You are in a tutorial arena in the beginning, but after you got all your shieka stone apps, you are free to leave. And that is meant literally. Once you are done with the tutorial, BotW lets you do WHATEVER you want. You can literally go straight to Hyrule Castle and defeat Ganon and it is a common speedrunner thing. But you don’t have to defeat Ganon. The game gives you several objectives, like tame the titans or find the shrines or the memories. Now, the only thing that downright points to where to go are the titans and they are actually pretty easy to spot from a hight point, because they are HUGE. Everything else? Find it on your own. You get a sensor for shrine and you get quests for them. Nothing ever points to them with a marker, you have to solve the hints and find the shrine yourself. The same for the sidequest of the game. You get pointed to who gave you the quest, which is a good thing because it isn’t easy to remember where they were, but the actual quest? Read the text and figure out where to go. Normally it is near the quest giver, so just exploring a bit will help. And the memories! You have twelve photos and have to find the places they got shot at. So how do you find the needle in the haystack? There is this painter in each main town and a few stables and you can show him the photos, he then gives you a hint just where to search! I pretty much found every memory with his hints, I just needed to look up the last memory that wasn’t on the shieka stone because it had been three years since I visited that area and I forgot where it was (I still remembered that it existed, so iconic did it look). BotW gets praised a lot for his sense of freeness and I totally get why. Ok, now let me talk about the last games for now... Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro. When I started Dark Souls, I was really upset. Why? Not because the asylum demon crushed my sorry ass five times, not because I thought I had to beat him with the sword hilt, not because of the boulder trap that killed me. That game had no map! I would get so lost! I am HELPLESS without a map! To my surprise... I was completely fine without the map. Sure, in the beginning I got awfully lost and stumbled to the skeletons, but then I found the Undead Burg. I fought myself through it, explored, remembered where which enemy was when I was running back to Taurus the 20th time (I really struggled, ok?) and the gameworld... just made sense. It became a really aha-moment when the shortcuts clicked into place. Granted, the shortcuts aren’t a big part of the game anymore after the lordvessel, but the first half is beautifully done! Finding the shortcut back to Firelink, finding the back exit out of Blighttown, seeing how Anor Londo opens up, the shortcut in Sen’s Fortress, beautiful. That was what let me thought about Dark Souls as Metroidvania. That game is a Metroidvania. Sadly, Dark Souls 2 and 3 don’t have it as much anymore, especially Dark Souls 3 is a lot more linear, but still has loads of optional stuff to do for me and most importantly, never tells me where to go. Bloodborne is a lot like the first Dark Souls and also different. Bloodborne has a lot more areas that are disembodied, but they have that beauty of the Metroidvania in them. One of the most mind baffling things was finding the back entrance to Iosefka’s clinic... coming from the Forbidden Woods! And the finding out, HEY, that is that gate I saw at the start of the game and couldn’t open! Slowly, you open up Yharnam and even the other areas like the nightmares have cool shortcuts to find. It feels like your exploring got rewarded, that you don’t have to fight through all this enemies anymore, only a few, to get back to the boss. Now let me talk about the last game... Sekiro. This game opens up at a certain plot point and your only hints? You talk with Kuro and Emma and they tell you a few things they found out about. I was SO confused. I had no idea what they were talking about and where to go. So I decided to check the areas out they talked about and try to make sense of the riddles they told me. I couldn’t find a lot at first and went back often to listen to their riddles, until I just went full risque and jumped into a pit only to find out that this indeed had been the right solution! One by one, I found out how to find the other locations. The game never pointed them out for me, I followed the hints and found them myself. So, to conclude. Video games, please don’t tell me where to go.

#long post #gaming #video games

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