#i still hate swsh starters more

[sirilampo]

which of the new starters is your favorite? have you seen the leaks for the final evolutions?

I HAVE! I HATE THEM :)

Ok not all i just wish fuecoco's evo had a double chin and then he would be perfect~

The other two are... expected but still bad

The other two are... expected but still bad

it baffles me that with infernape, the animal closer to humans than any other, they managed to stay smh animalistic but now?? If they insist on making everything human-like at the very least give it an animal stance yknow?

Also I may have set myself for dissapointment with sprig's evo cause i kept imaginig a small pierrot/harlequin cat rather than that thing that I would otherwise loved had that design gone for a HUMAN instead

[salsaseth]

After hearing my friend, James bring it up in a call, we started watching Lily Orchard's video about Pokemon to see all the bad takes in it.

When she starts playing the DS games, she uses a mod to smooth out the aliasing and uncap the game's framerate to 60. And gah damn does it look fuckin bad. Even worse is during the 3D games where she uses another mod to smooth out the 3D models and it looks like peeled oranges. Unnaturally smooth. But it does get funny when she talks about the game running like garbage when she's fucked with the game's logic. Like no shit, it's running at a framerate it was never meant for.

Something really funny also begins in the DS games. I don't know why, but she replaces one of the starters with Ralts, cuz she's got some favoritism for Gardevoir. All well and good, but you know, Ralts is weak as shit until it learns confusion and it's still frail. So it gets its ass kicked all the way until it evolves into Gardevoir. But because of how much asskicking it receives, and I swear this is true, she suspects the game is artificially raising the strength of the enemy pokemon, as a way to explain for why's she losing.

Almost as if the game is designed to use a stronger than average pokemon to get you through the early game. ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) Still, I don't fully understand why she refuses to use the regular starters. Especially when you can catch Ralts and Kirlia for most of the games. save for black and white. Speaking of.

One takeaway I've had from listening to it is what she says is more revealing about herself than what is intentional. The most telling thing is when she's going off about the Black and White characters for speaking about their ideals and opinions. I mean, she mashes through that with the A button (VISUAL NOVEL HATER SPOTTED), so it's when she's paying attention. I don't know if she just doesn't know what the game is supposed to be going for, or if she's just purposefully ignorant for the sake of contrarianism, but the game's themes are about truth and ideals. The truth is out there, but the ideals we have shape our perspective of the truth. Even Cheren, who represents the truth, is still shaped his ideal. It's a little more deeper than, 'Characters excited that they all have opinions,' but what do i know?

She rails against these characters, N in particular for having opinions and speaking them out. Meanwhile in X&Y, which its cast and characters are there to mostly stroke the character's dick, she vastly praises and prefers these characters to the ones in B&W. Hmmm. Characters that have opinions and speak them out are hated, while those that don't and heap praise on her are loved. I wonder if this says anything about her?

The video gets pretty boring the longer it goes on. The hot take well starts drying up and it quickly becomes a bad screenshot let's play. "Then I did this, and then I did that!"

That's all I got to report. Besides the shoehorning in of lefty takes. I don't know if it's because she's not funny or if she wields everything with as much subtlety as anvil-nunchuks, but when there's an opportunity to make a joke with a leftist-slant, it's as heavy handed as a Titan's ballsack and as funny as stale bread. I'm a leftist bastard myself, but every time the jokes were shoehorned in, I'm like, "The funny? Where is it?!" Especially when it was about Looker and Nanu. I get not liking the police, but this isn't the time or place for it. Leave the jokes to the professionals. Like my friend Plate. Several unemployment jokes were made at Lily's expense, and each one was funnier than the last.

I'll report back if there's anything worth commenting on. Me and the friends got to the end of Sun and Moon, so we have SwSh and SV left.

And if you had time to read this 'post', Lily, I think you had time to 'post' your resume to get a job ;D ;D ;D

[lepoppeta]

REVIEWING MAINLINE POKEMON GAMES (Gen3 - Gen9)

I'm bored - let's review my favourite game franchise! I wrote this in a bit of a whirlwind, so please excuse any typos or odd wording! If I find anything I will fix it as time goes on.

I will not be including Legends Arcues or Let's Go! in this line-up.

WARNING: I rag on Gen4 (DPP and HGSS) a fair amount in this review. If you have a lot of love and nostalgia for Gen4, that's great! I'm not attacking you personally! Please don't spend your time writing angry paragraphs in the comments about why I'm wrong! You will not change my mind!

#1. BLACK / WHITE - Unova is probably my favourite region (which hurts to say; I'm a Hoenn girl, born and bred). It has so many of my favourite Pokemon in its 'dex (Chandelure, Krookodile, Volcarona, need I go on?); it has one of my favourite rivals (Bianca); it presents an interesting, open-ended moral dilemma within the Pokemon universe that doesn't really have a good answer; it has great music; it has a ton of memorable characters.

Also - unlimited TMs? Uhh... yes please! Gen5 introduced something that took some of the hoarding anxiety out of Pokemon and I will forever sing its praises for that.

Weird side note, but I loved the UI for BW; that weird monochrome high-tech display with the futuristic computer-like noises whenever you pressed a button or touched the screen really 'scratched my brain good', y'know?

#2. X / Y - If Unova is my favourite region, then Gen6 has to be my favourite generation from a mechanical perspective. I love both Pokemon Amie and the Super Training functions, both for their game-breaking, anime-esque battle mechanics and also because I was able to understand and actually access competitive battling for the first time due to the continuation of Gen5's unlimited TM system and the Super Training App's progress bar.

Mega Evolution will always be my favourite battle mechanic - the idea was so cool when it was first announced and I had a ton of fun with it while playing for the first time. It's so badass. And you know what? I really don't mind the change to the EXP Share. I got used to it very quickly and even when I had it turned out I still found the game to be a bit difficult in some places.

Also... don't hate me... but I kind of like Lysandre as a villain. I know, I know, many people don't, but I have a soft spot for antagonists whose whole mantra seems to be 'good intentions but they went too far'. Team Flare themselves are kind cringe though, I won't lie.

#3. EMERALD - I am so, so thankful Emerald was my first ever Pokemon game. I'm so thankful that I chose Mudkip as my starter; I couldn't have asked for a better partner as I fumbled through the game for the first time at the tender age of 9.

Emerald holds so many dear memories for me. It's soundtrack is, in my humble opinion, the best GameFreak has produced, from the beautiful, waltzing Surf theme to the encroaching terror of Victory Road. Steven was also my very first fictional crush and remains as such (sue me).

I will admit that where Emerald (and Hoenn in general) looses out is that, outside of Steven Stone (and possibly also Norman), none of the boss characters feel particularly memorable. Emerald also simply suffers from the lack of QOL improvements that later generations have. Strangely, I find it much faster to play than any of the Gen4 games.

#4. SWORD / SHIELD - This game used to rank much lower, but I've grown to appreciate it a lot more within the past few months.

I will be honest: I like it less for what it is as a product and more for how creative it's caused me to be when thinking about worldbuilding within the Pokemon universe. The Gym Challenge narrative switch-up was an interesting and refreshing shake-up for the series; the rivals and boss characters were memorable. The Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLCs are also great fun.

SWSH introduced the Box Link, which has been the best change the series has made alongside unlimited-use TMs and the Ride Pager in Gen7.

That being said, SWSH also half-removes the unlimited TM mechanic, which was frustrating. I'm also not a big fan of raid-style fights in any video game - I find them to be very stressful and needlessly hard. Gigantamaxing I also found to be a really weak battle mechanic. SWSH also has the weakest starter set for me. Inteleon is my favourite, of course, but it's the best of a bad lot.

#5. OMEGARUBY / ALPHASAPPHIRE - In my opinion this is the best remake that GameFreak has done (outside of two glaring issues). The characters have had a much-needed redesign; dialogue and story beats have been updated; the feel of the original game is still there alongside the QOL improvements from XY and Gen6 as a whole.

The aforementioned 'glaring issues' are as follows: the Battle Frontier is missing, and the fact that the games are based off of Ruby and Sapphire and not Emerald. And no, that isn't just the nostalgia talking; plenty of other people I've noticed have made similar comments about this game and also BDSP (which we'll get to later)

I wouldn't be so bothered by the Battle Frontier being gone (because the original RS didn't have it either) if GameFreak hadn't decided to put that little sign near the Battle Maison that said "Battle Frontier under construction". It felt like a nasty cop-out and it actually put me off of replaying the game for years, right up until I successfully Nuzlocked it.

#6. SCARLET / VIOLET - I have so many mixed feelings about this game that it pretty much ranks exactly in the middle of all of the games I've played. SV is plagued by its countless bugs and poorly executed open world, but its characters and story shine so brightly that it very nearly balances things out (the battle themes also slap). SV was also the first time where I felt like the main game was long enough and had enough resources to where I could truly experiment with my team; I rotated a selection of monsters out pretty much throughout the whole game, and I really appreciate SV for giving me that freedom.

Outside of the bugs, I also find the online raid battles to be stupidly difficult; I nearly drove myself to tears because of the Samurott raid that I'd worked so hard for and got nothing out of. I'm a very casual player for Pokemon, so it really bugged me that one of the few times I actually tried to do something a bit more competitively inclined of my own accord I was shot down repeatedly by an AI that was basically built to cheat.

This game also proved to me that GameFreak can't do a fully-open world properly, and I'm dreading the possibility of the next mainline game also being open world (and before you say anything - no, PLA is not open-world, it's open-pocket, and I wish that was the route that GameFreak went with because it worked so much better). I heard many people get irritated by SWSH heavily railroading you, but the game's environment was rich and beautiful despite its linearity. SV is big in a way that allows for GameFreak to boast about how big their dick game is and then not do anything with it: towns are separated by endless stretches of bland grass and rock; the towns themselves are lifeless props without any buildings to explore or interesting people to talk to; storefronts are reduced to a menu screen instead of having actual interiors.

Another irritation I have is that the game was marketed in a way that made it out to be that the player could do anything in any order they wanted, which ended up being untrue; Gyms and wild Pokemon don't level scale based on the number of Badges you have and one of the Titans (which, might I add, are just re-flavoured Totem Pokemon) is completely blocked off unless you've obtained the Herba Mystica that allows you to surf first.

Also that sandwich game looks atrocious. It's useful, sure, but... eugh.

#7. BLACK2 / WHITE2 - I've heard many people praise the ever-loving snot out of this game for being 'the best underrated Pokemon game ever made', but just like with HGSS... I'll have to disagree, if only from a personal basis. In my opinion, Black and White didn't need a sequel, and although this game isn't bad, it isn't exactly great.

I found B2W2 to be a regression of its predecessor. It turns a thought-provoking moral dilemma into the same-old 'I will wake this legendary Pokemon and unleash havoc upon the world and its idiots for wronging me'; Ghetsis is just a copy-paste of Cyrus to me. Too many times I found myself being railroaded by annoying extra content (Join Avenue, the Film Studio, etc.).

I also found the game to be a complete and total slog. BW is pretty grind-heavy, don't get me wrong, but it saves the majority of its heavy-handed level curves for the post game, where you don't have to feel as pressured by it.

GameFreak also completely got rid of Route 10, which had my favourite route track on it. That's just a personal gripe, though.

#8. PLATINUM - This was my first ever Nintendo DS game and also the first game I ever watched a walkthrough for on YouTube (shout-out to Marriland - you were a huge part of my childhood), so it holds some room in my heart, and it definitely ranks the highest out of all of the Gen4 games on this list. Unfortunately, like Emerald, it suffers from pre-Gen5 syndrome with a lack of QOL improvements (although it was a massive step up from the mess that was DP), and, like all Gen4 games, it's slow as hell.

I also ranked this game pretty low purely because of petty reasons. See, people talk about 'Gen Wunners' being annoying, but since I've never played Gen1-2 or have befriended people that have (I think I'm a little too young), I've never really had that problem. That being said, I think people who had Gen4 be their introduction to Pokemon are just as if not more annoying. I think it's got something to do with the fact that DP and Platinum had a lot of players that weren't Pokemon fans; I remember having friends in school that owned a copy of one of those three games and they'd never touched a Pokemon game before that and they wouldn't end up buying another game after. Platinum I think deserves the praise, but I'm not sure that the other Gen4 games do.

#9. SUN / MOON - Like SV, I have mixed feelings about the entirety of Gen7, but the negatives tend to outweigh the positives more often than not. The game isn't glitchy, but it's bogged down by numerous cutscenes and its inability to render a battle scene that contains more than one monster per side (something that Gen6 also struggles with). The Super Training app was also removed and the game suffers from having too many Alolan monsters be rare or inaccessible until very late in the game - something it shares with Johto.

The Z-move gimmick also feels like it was done it bad faith, especially after GameFreak started writing mega-evolution descriptions depicting the monsters in question to be in intense pain after XY and ORAS introduced the mechanic as something that could only be achieved by having a close bond between monster and trainer.

However, I do like the interesting take on the Gym system in this generation. The Totem monsters were genuinely challenging to fight, as well as other boss trainers.

#10. RUBY / SAPPHIRE - I don't have much to say about this once since it's just a worse Emerald, but there's still something I find about it to be oddly comforting.

#11. FIRERED / LEAFGREEN - I like Kanto's Pokedex quite a lot, but there's just something about it that I don't find particularly memorable and consider to be a bit of a chore (maybe because I've tried to Nuzlocke it too many times...?) I do appreciate it being a lot more interconnected than any other region listed, allowing more freedom concerning which Gyms to face next.

#12. ULTRASUN / ULTRAMOON - While the Ultra games fixed many issues concerning the accessibility of certain monsters and also introduced the Beach Point system, it also added even more cutscenes and, in my opinion, made the story worse; I loved having Lusamine be this batshit loony villainess, and yet that was recinded in favor of her having good intentions but getting too caught up in her goals to notice her declining behavior. Normally I like this sort of villain, but when we got the deliciously unhinged Lusamine as a first pass... I honestly liked that better. This feels like a cop-out.

This game, much like B2W2, is a total slog to get through. It feels immensly slow - it's the DP of the 3DS games.

#13. BRILLIANTDIAMOND / SHININGPEARL - This game leaves such a sour taste in my mouth. It really feels like GameFreak went: "Here's your Diamond and Pearl remake, are you fucking happy now?". It isn't like ORAS where the characters were revamped and QOL improvements from the rest of Gen8 were implemented; it's more like FRLG where the game is the same and all it received a fresh coat of paint, and even then I felt like FRLG was treated with more love and care than BDSP was.

There were improvements though, such as the ability to outright buy certain TMs from the Department Store and the wonderfully revamped Grand Unerground (I will admit I've had a lot of fun with the wild encounters there), but there's so much of this game that feels like getting spat in the face.

#14. HEARTGOLD / SOULSILVER - The game annoys the shit out of me because so many people seem to love it and I just... can't. Too much wasn't changed for ease of play - the level curve for wild Pokemon is far too low and the level curve from the E4 onwards is far too high. There aren't a lot of Johto Pokemon that are good, although there aren't many Johto Pokemon to begin with. The additions of some Gen4 evolutions helped a little, but some are blocked off until the post game (Honchkrow, Mismagius) and some are straight-up imposible (Magnezone) to acquire, which is very strange to me. Johto in general (and this matches up with BDSP's problem of being a remake but not adding in QOL improvements) is weirdly distributed, with Johto-introduced Pokemon such as Houndoom and Steelix only being available in the post-game, which I feel like defeats their purpose.

While by far the best-looking of the pixelated Pokemon games, it's as cumbersome as the rest of Gen4. And then there's that stupid Voltorb Flip game...

#15. DIAMOND / PEARL - There's not much I can say here, so I'll just sum it up by saying that Platinum is the only version of Sinnoh you really need to worry about. That being said, we wouldn't have Platinum without having DP, so... credit where credit is due?

[sugarsweets9987]

Silly rambles, feel free to read or not. Just thought posting.

Saw a post from someone about SWSH and how it's a little funny coming back to those games and remembering how people complained about them, only for SV to release even worse.

It just brought up a thought for me. SWSH is like XY to me. And I mean this as in you will NEVER catch me whining about them or talking shit about them. Those games, despite their respective flaws, are both incredibly special to me for incredibly different reasons. I'll talk about both of them now because I want to.

XY were my first ever pokemon games. I got Y for my 8th birthday (or that christmas), if I remember correctly, and my sibling had X. I loved playing those games. They introduced me to Pokémon as a franchise entirely, and I still hold those games very dearly despite how everyone talks about how shit they are. I find them wonderful and a really fun trip down memory lane. I seriously hate seeing people so constantly and consistently hate on these games because of how important they are to me, but I get that not everyone feels the same way. These games mean nothing to most people, but everything to me. I wish the games got a little more love.

Sword and Shield, on the other hand, means a lot to me in a different way. Lets start with the innocent fun stuff. I'm going to be honest with you all right here and now; I love Leon. Almost everything about him I love. He's a silly and fun champion who just wants everyone to have a good time. Plus he has a Dragapult. Based. I also love Raihan and Hop. Raihan is just. S+, no notes. I can't explain why I love Hop, but I really just do. His whole arc of wanting to be exactly like Leon, then realizing that's not what he truthfully wants out of life and instead deciding to research pokemon to become a professor instead is just. Super appealing to me! He also probably just gets bonus points for being Leon's brother anyways seeing as how Raihan and Leon are tied for my favorite characters from SWSH lol. Also, all 3 of the starters are awesome. I love all 3 of them. Zamazenta and Zacian are also cool legendaries :) Spectrier too.

Now. On a more personal level. My dad started to play switch games with me and loved to watch me play during the pandemic. We played Animal Crossing New Horizons, Diablo III, Ace Attorney (Trilogy and Chronicles) and Pokémon Shield together. In Shield, he would do whatever he could to get me a pokemon I wanted, especially shinies. I have so many shiny pokemon just thanks to him trading almost all day for me. Most of them are hacked, yes, but I don't care. It was really just the thought that mattered to me. I have a shiny Porygon Z named Jitters that he went above and beyond just to get me. Unfortunately, in 2021 he passed away due to Covid. These Pokémon are. More important to me than ever. Because they were some of the last gifts he got me before he passed. Jitters specifically will always mean the world to me. And I will always name a shiny Grimmsnarl "Mr. Legs" based off a joke I had with my dad about its gigantamax form.

Damn. Now I want to hunt a shiny Scorbunny and name it "Sparky" (one of my dad's nicknames) since that was his chosen starter. I think I'll go start that now.

If you read this. Why? But also. Thank you. Sometimes I just need to talk about this stuff. And why certain things mean so much to me. Anyways. See yall later. Maybe I'll reblog and update this post if I get my Scorbunny.

[flameraven]

Misc Thoughts on Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

-The opening was definitely slower than I'd like, I was a little bored, but once you get let out to explore the world it's really fun! Very similar to Legends: Arceus but much improved. Key detail: you can pick up items while mounted! This was really annoying to not be able to do in PLA.

-I've been pretty lucky and not run into any major glitches. Sometimes the background is a little wobbly but the overworld has run okay. I definitely noticed some major lag as the game tried to load each item when I was shopping. -The world is big and exciting but still feels awfully empty. The towns have these huge wide streets and giant houses, but there's not really anything to do in them. You can't even go inside NPCs houses, there's only the shops -I feel like they split up the clothing shops in the main city to make it seem bigger and more full, but it just made shopping inconvenient. What's the point of a giant castle/city if there's nothing THERE? -I'm still not thrilled with the school uniform but it's not as ugly as I feared. Still hoping that we get some real clothes post-game, or possibly as a DLC option. (Why does the new kid get to wear her Eevee hoodie and I can't??) -that school is definitely not ADA compliant, wtf are all those stairs -I'm enjoying riding around on my giant motorcycle dragon a lot more than I thought, and Koraidon running with his legs looks a lot less stupid than it did in the trailers (he tucks his tail in to make the back "wheel"! What a cool detail!). Cannot wait to climb up walls. -Your dragon making a catlike "Brrrp!" noise when you summon it is perfect, A+, 11/10 -I do find the map a bit hard to navigate, it can be hard to find the bridges to cross rivers and such and figure out how to get to different areas. -I really really wish we could mark places on the map like BotW! I found a cool glowy sword in the ground I couldn't reach, and I know I won't remember where it is later. -The variety of pokemon available and how many new pokemon you can find are really cool. I do like that they didn't show most of the new mons because it makes them more fun to discover. I think there's also a good balance of Pokemon spread out in the grass, sometimes they clump up, sometimes they're single, but it's not obvious "sections" the way SwSh Wild Areas were. -I love that the game is like 'BTW the crater is SUPER DANGEROUS, don't go there!!' so we all know where the plot is going to end up. Spoilers on Pokemon/Evolutions below:

-I got spoiled on the starter evos and... yeah honestly not a fan of the final forms. Giant spooky crocodile is okay but not as cool as the idea I had in my head, Grass Cat is just kind of boring and similar to Delphox, and Quaxly is just... WTF. I heard "fabulous" and "peacock" before I saw the images, and I think an actual peacock would have been cool, but instead we got... that. D: Nintendo, please stop with the anthro starter evos, they're not good. -Paldean Tentacool is a horror show, I hate it. X) -Pawmi is ADORABLE, I love him. Although the 2nd and 3rd evolutions are awfully similar, seems like it could have just been a 2-stage pokemon. There are SO MANY new pokemon I want to try out, though, I keep switching things in and out of my team, it's really fun. So far my team is: Clodsire, Azumarill, middle stage Fuecoco, Pawmot(? the third one), the tiny fire megaman, and the Flamingo, which is WAY stronger than I expected. Bulbapedia says it has a base attack of 115?! That's huge! Also working on evolving the little floaty psychic thing because apparently it becomes an ostrich?! There are a lot of new bird pokemon in this game, I approve. May need to do another run someday with an all-bird team.

[anonprotagging]

i trust your opinion on pokemon games more than basically anyone else on the internet. should i buy scarlet/violet. i really hate being so out of loop with the new gen, suddenly not recognising pokemon feels so bad :( but i also don’t really wanna buy the games? but i wanna play them. augh.

okay, so it's kind of hard to judge the story based on my run so far since I haven't even gotten to the first gym, but I think I've gotten a good enough grasp of the mechanics and stylization to offer some pros and cons! (under a cut to save people's dashes)

cons:

-This game is BUGGY. holy shit. I thought, okay, maybe people are just getting mad like they do with every game, but nope!

it's worse than swsh, and honestly it's nearly worse than gen 1 because at least gen 1's bugs were caused by, y'know, developers trying to optimize the hardware and assets, instead of using all the switch's power trying to render 12 billion things at once.

I got stuck in my own living room within 3 minutes, and within 2 minutes of reaching the first big city I got stuck inside a building corner and had to fly out of there.

npcs jitter around constantly, there are T-posing issues (nemona was t-posed until I got close to her, it was weird), if you catch any pokemon the camera clips through the floor so you can see the out-of-bounds of the game?? overall disconcerting but also a little funny.

-I miss the PLA controls so bad you have no idea lol. the button for dodging is now the button for sneaking??

you Can still bean pokemon over the head with a ball, even if it is just to start a battle, but the aiming controls are SUPER finnicky and won't work half the time if it's anything in the air or water. not a fan of that.

-you can change your clothes or look (except hair) at any time in the game! but the controls to find it are unintuitive unless you look it up or someone tells you (it's the left joycon's arrow buttons.) I'm sure there are more control issues like that that I haven't noticed yet too.

-no shiny sparkle sound in the overworld. also the textures are kind of... not conducive to seeing if pokemon are shiny? I killed a shiny igglybuff bc I didn't look at the screen when I started the battle to see the sparkle animation. :(

pro Or con depending on your preferences:

-I honestly don't think it's that much more handhold-y than swsh or gen 7 so far, tbh? after the opening starter bit and rival battle and a little bit of railroady plot (akin to the lillie spearow opening in gen 7), I was able to explore the whole first massive open-world section of the game with no hassle.

it might get worse later? I'm not sure. I don't think anything could be more railroady than the start of gen 7, which I love dearly despite all that, so it's not a big factor for me.

just make sure you go outside ASAP and get down the road to the place where you can start running BEFORE you explore the area around your house. it will save you so much frustration.

-there's sections inside the school with optional classes and whatnot, which I personally like? it's not quite like the hassle with gen 7's trainer school so much as it is like the school sections of Super Mystery Dungeon.

-Lots of items to collect for Lots of things to unlock. I personally like this kind of thing (helps me explore every part of the map!)

-the pokemon designs. I thought most of them were ugly and weird when I looked them up, but in-game I think they're actually quite charming!!

-big!! this is my first Real open-world game and it's very big!! a little intimidating for me as a completionist but I'm also having fun with it!

-character customization. cute for the face, limited for the clothes (and hair imo). depends on how much that matters to you -- I would look up the accessories ahead of time to see if you can make do with them if you usually play with a specific look!

-team star. I know a lot of people love them, but for me they're just some weird little combo of team flare and team skull. I've only run into them once so it's hard to judge overall, but they're going to have to work Quite hard to earn my respect.

-I personally like the music! but it depends on your taste :o

-no voice acting

pros:

-the creatures can walk with you!! they're not very smart at battling without direction though. or following quickly. BUT still better than swsh and bdsp!!

-fast travel is unlocked from the START. (obv. only for places you've already been) and can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. getting clipped into a building wasn't too bad because I could just fly to the nearest pokecenter immediately.

-the landscape is very like PLA in terms of traversing it! there are some differences -- the MC can't climb up ledges as easily, and won't take damage when they jump off a cliff, but the best parts of the PLA maps are still here!

-hehe running away from the plot every time they say "Go here!" go brr

-boxes accessible at any time! for the first time ever! very cool!!

-if you're not so much into the story, there's an option to skip all cutscenes in the menu!

-uhhh... I guess this one's subjective too, but honestly?? I've been having fun with it!! more than with the start of SWSH, less than the start of ORAS or XY or SUMO, about on par with the start of USUM or HGSS?

overall thoughts from 6 hours of gameplay without reaching the first gym? (your results will vary lmao, I don't think most people take the time to grind up and explore Every Available Corner so much FKHSDJF)

I don't know if it's worth a full $60 in this economy, but I would pay a solid $54.99 (max) for it. I got the game as a christmas gift, but it's online right now for around $42-47 pre-owned!

I would say: if you can spare 40 bucks right now, go for it! that's a pretty good deal for a Switch game!

OR if you have any friends with the cartridge, borrow it from them for free to see if you like it!

[cephalomon]

some tier lists i made

if u have an angry opinion read beyond the read more before u reply to me

1. top 50 is in no particular order EXCEPT giratina, luxray, and typhlosion are 100% my top 3 favorite pokemon

2. i dont think i outright dislike any starters tbh, i just prefer some over others by a lot

3. i dont hate kanto i just find it a bit boring. probably bc it wasnt the first pkm game i ever played. i think it's cute and i respect it, but it's not my thing.

4. genuinely havent hated or even fully disliked any pokemon game ive played. the thing abt swsh and s/v is that they have some MAJOR issues that detract from replayablity and stuff. but theres still a lot to love in both of them

[cheemken]

what are the things you love and hate about all of the pokemon games you played?

Well now I can say I have played gens six and seven, but I haven't finished them yet so I'm just gonna post down what I like abt em so far hahah

I'm also adding the spin offs bc they're also pkmn games

Anyways under the cut hahah

Red/Blue/Yellow - honestly... I just liked that Pikachu can follow us on Yellow, wish they kept that feature all throughout each games, it only came back on HGSS, SwSh, BDSP, and ScVi. Also the fact I can get all three starters hahah

Starting from gen one

Crystal - Kris supremacy, the highlight of it really, also really dope we can visit another region post game

TCG for the GBC - it's fun, made me understand the card game a bit better back then hahah

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - HOENN SUPREMACY ough this is home in game form fr, this and BW/BW2, but more on this really hahaha it's cool the contests are cool actually, love the starters, they're the first starter trio where I liked all of them, love the characters, I love my son Wally so much, May/Brendan too, Wallace the true Hoenn Champion in my heart (Emerald bias), the best roster of mons, I could go on really

FireRed/LeafGreen - I mean.. idk. It's an improved version of gen one I'll tell you that but yeah

Platinum - Torterra, Garchomp, Riolu, and the contests (yes I liked the contests here too, the contests here low-key better than in gen 3 ngl)

HeartGold - love the pkmn following feature for real, it's so cute, it's dope, wish they added that in gen five hcnxnx

PMD Red/Blue Rescue Team - Red Rescue Team was my intro to pmd, fucked me up so much I had to use the HP cheat lmfaoooo but it's fun tho hahaha

PMD Explorers of Sky - changed me as a person, really dope, the characters are cool, I just hated Chatot at the start lmfao, but dude this game is so fuckin dope pls cndmdn the way Hero and Partner are so soft and I love how they're still together even post game they mean so much to me your honour🥹

White - my absolute beloved omfsssss everything's so cool okay everything abt it is so cool, love the characters man and the story too, dyou know how cool it was seeing all the Gym Leaders interact and fight Team Plasma, dude that blew my mind back then lmfaooo also c'mon the Tao Trio? You mean the greatest Legendary trio? Hahaha

Black 2 - same w White, it's so cool, everything's so fucking dope, plus PWT

Conquest - I like the art style lmfao

X - Diantha my beloved, also the pokemon petting thing I'm just sad it's a bit lag on my emulator but still I really love this feature hahaha

Ultra Sun - the starters, and the pokemon petting thing again hahah

Omega Ruby - look you already know how much I love Hoenn, plus this has mega evolution and it has the dexnav! Also the pokemon petting thing ofc lmfao also also love how they improved Magma and Aqua really idk I just cnmdnd god ORAS Team Magma and Aqua my beloveds jcdmdn

PMD Gates to Infinity - look I just know that Hydreigon isn't really the big bad guy okay and I'm so happy abt that bc it's usually the Dark/Ghost types that are villains in these games so it's a nice change that Hydreigon isn't a villain

Super Mystery Dungeon - man the scene from the start w Nuzleaf looking at the hero and the hero was giving him puppy eyes killed me okay it lives in my head rent free and I wanna draw smth abt it

Unite - ah yes, the moba game, anyways it's dope if you're winning lmfaooo also it's dope Gengar's there they should buff him actually, I think Hex and Sludge Bomb deserve buffs

TCG online/live - the online one was dope, I still miss my Zamazenta deck to this day

Masters EX - the lore chdmdnd they should add more Diantha lore please I am begging😭

Cafe Remix - it's cute, I love the art style of it hahah

-

Now for my gripes for all these lmfaooo

Red/Blue/Yellow - it's boring as hell. I don't like the fans of this one too, most just couldn't accept that people like the newer gens and they always shit on people if they don't like gen one

Crystal - other than not being able to get Mareep, nothing much, they do have a point w the level scaling tho

TCG for GBC - I mean tbf I understand why it's not mentioned much there's not much to it but it's still fun for killing time

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - how back breaking it was finding Feebas I honestly gave up, also what the fuck was that Regis mission man💀

FireRed/LeafGreen - same w RBY

Platinum - it wasn't a fun experience for me, it's slow as shit, and I'm pretty fucking sure majority of the people who like this game only likes Cynthia. Fr, no hate on Cynthia, she's a dope character, but she's like the Charizard of the pkmn characs really, she gets everything and is everywhere, how abt giving a chance to other Champions

HeartGold - a bit slow, but not DPPt slow at least, also again w the level scaling

PMD Red/Blue Rescue Team - this would've been so so dope if it weren't for the fact that after the story, Hero and Partner became nothing but normal recruits. Like all that buildup of Hero wanting to stay for Partner, and suddenly they're just like normal recruits, it sucks

PMD Explorers of Sky - Aegis Cave

White - idk but for me it's hard to level up in this game, also the fact the E4 didn't do much on screen, like I wanna know what they did during Plasma's attack

Black 2 - it's,, well it's how the previous characters interacted really, I wish there was more of it, I wanted to see the Gym Leaders interact w each other during the games, pls I wanted to see Bianca and Iris meeting at Castelia bc I know they met up there again please I just know it

Conquest - I think it's a skill issue on my bit but the gameplay was just so confusing for this one, and no I don't mean the battle gameplay, that I got, more on the,, recruiting bit and using of items and everything else—

X - I can't say it's easy just yet bc I really haven't made much progress so hey, for now I'm gonna say at how fucking long it takes when you get an item like dude why does it take so fucking long💀 also the lack of Diantha scenes, she deserves more, honestly she deserves so much better

Ultra Sun - have not finished this so no solid judgement but for now Imma say it's how tedious it is levelling up your mons and idk if it's a skill issue on my bit but like,,, do they really give off such a small amount of exp?? Idk, granted, my pkmn was a bit over levelled hahah

Omega Ruby - Granite Cave man I can't get Aron early on now ncmxnx

PMD Gates to Infinity - again, haven't progressed much so I don't really have a solid judgement for this

Super Mystery Dungeon - same w GTI

Unite - the abysmal matchmaking, the fact that ftp players don't have a way to get gems even if it's through events or missions, the devs thinking gem locking pkmn was a grand fucking idea, the way they can't balance their mons some are just too squishy and some are still strong despite the nerfs, also have I mentioned the matchmaking? Dude fr standard is either full of bots or I get matched w players who don't even know the objectives even if I'm telling them where to gather chxmxn

TCG online/live - live was honestly so so shit and a lot of players agree like even the cards aren't balanced Jesus Christ also it's lag as shit you can't even do anything most of the time and suddenly you lose also fun fact this game almost broke my fucking phone I almost couldn't exit the game and I had to forcefully reset my phone to save it lmfao

Masters EX - I haven't played this much yet for a solid judgement too but damn is the download time for this is slow as shit and fucking crashed on my tab. Also the lack of Diantha lore, pls they should add more abt Diantha she deserves it

Cafe Remix - idk ig it's the fact I'm broke and can't afford stuff in this game bc almost everything needs real money to get, I really thought this was an offline game at first hahah

[selenityshiroi]

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet thoughts after the first weekend of playing:

First some pros

Gameplay is super fun

Story is interesting so far (the gym challenge less so but the other two lines are great)

Mons are varied and plentiful

Encounters are good although it's a shame they still haven't consolidated battle text into one screen yet (multiple buffs should just be one prompt not several)

Pokemon models are amazing

Traversal, once you unlock a couple upgrades, is great

Deliberate encounter shiny hunting is the most fun it's ever been (I deliberately hunted Fidough and it took me a couple hours but doing Let's Go KOs to respawn the mons was so much better than random encounters)

The Sprigatito evolution line is one of my favourite starter lines ever. May even go to number one.

In fact a lot of the new mons are top tier

The music is fire

Seriously, get me that Tera Raid song please it's living rent free in my brain

Also Tera Raid battles are such a great improvement on the SwSh Raid Dens

Tera Forms are super interesting-not a competitive player but having fun with the mechanic

Miraidon is adorable and has cat like mannerisms like Toothless from HTTYD and I love my technodragon with my whole heart

Now for some cons

Performance is pretty yikes

It got a lot better after I followed some advice (moved the data from SD to console memory, forced the resolution to 720 instead of auto to prevent upscaling attempts) but it's still not fantastic

The mons are so small and get swallowed up in the grass which not only makes shiny hunting pretty headache inducing (especially without a shiny Sparkle or sound and with a lot of subtle shinies loosing even more distinction with lighting effects in play) but makes hunting in general pretty difficult

I had no crashes in the first two days but then it crashed three times on me within an hour last night

You don't get the school lessons...by going to the classrooms??? I didn't realise you had to ask at the front desk which means I didn't find them until I'd unlocked so many it took me an hour and a half to go through them. That being said...the lessons are actually not that bad-decent detailed information and presented well. I hear there are some things locked behind them, which is why I went after them, but even as a veteran I didn't get annoyed with them

Environment models are still bad but not distracting bad (like PLA tbh)

NPC models are both great (close up or in battle) or yikes (in passing when they have a slow framerate and look like PS2 polygons

Lack of outfit customisation is sad. I get it because of the school environment but I hope DLC gives us more freedom

Shops are super disappointing...a few basic model buildings would have been nice and also given the game a chance to dump all the loaded overworld data and start afresh on exiting (maybe? Not exactly a game developer here)

Things that aren't an issue to me but I know some people are probably taking issue with/benefit of the doubt stuff:

Quaxly's 3rd evo (haven't seen Fuecoco's line yet) is one where I took one look at it and thought 'Oh...I bet some people HATE that' but I think it's amazing and it redeemed Quaxly entirely for me lol

Limited dex: we know we're getting transfer only stuff later. We know we'll probably get DLC and more mons later. We do NOT need all 1000 mons in one game. I thing it's perfectly acceptable to have the entire National Dex available on one console (so hopefully between this, SwSh and BDSP/PLA all mons are available on Switch) without them being available in one game.

But they should have taken more time...we know why they don't. Pokemon is a franchise and the games are a cog in the wheel to generate new merchandise. That wheel needs to keep turning. If they can't turn out a polished product in the time given they should invest in more staff and developers rather than take longer.

I still...still wonder if Nintendo had intended to release a Switch Pro by now but were scuppered by the pandemic and the chip shortages. Was this game planned to be a next console release and that is why optimisation is so shoddy? Is that why Zelda TOTK has been delayed twice (since it doesn't have a merch schedule to prevent more time being spent on oprimisation)? Who knows.

[kibibarel]

HAVE YOU SEE THE PENGUIN WITH THE ICE CUBE FOR A HEAD ITS THE WORST THING IVE EVER SEEN

it’s……….it’s fine……………….

[torterragarden]

I see this complaint about sumo a lot, that it's Lillie's story instead of yours, and like that is very true it IS definitely Lillie's story, I just don't think that's necessarily a negative in the way people say it. I get what they mean tho. But I've seen people make similar complaints about swsh, saying that it's really Leon's story and I... don't really agree, swsh always felt to me like it belonged to the player and Hop. I do think Leon's role in the game is really interesting tho and I've thought a lot about the "it's Leon's story" complaint and why it's ALMOST right but still wrong lol

Leon really does give off Main Character energy which I think is very appropriate because he is meant to parallel the player, but I think the complaint can mostly be blamed on two specific parts of the game, one being the explosion in Hammerlocke, and the other being the second explosion later that also results in Dynamax Pokemon rampaging. These are both things that happen off screen. Both times Leon tells you "oh don't get involved in this, I'm champion I'll take care of it" and then he just goes off and handles it without you. yeah tbh I REALLY hate these parts. It's nice that Leon is trying to protect the kids, I like him for that, but I hate that it means I don't get to do anything while these exciting, plot important events are happening. They happen without me. And what makes it worse is that these two events? Supposed to be our build up to Rose being the villain, but because we don't get to see or be part of it, it kind of slips out of your mind as quickly as you hear about it, so Rose effectively gets no build up at all. And there's literally such an easy fix for this, you can still have Leon be like "no no let me take care of this" so he still gets to look heroic, but just have the player and Hop ignore him and investigate on their own anyway so we can actually see... anything. But anyway that's a whole other complaint lol the point is I do get why people feel like Leon is doing more in the story than them because. Well yeah, in these instances he is

And the kicker comes when Rose's plan is revealed, and it's to awaken Eternatus and make Leon catch it so it can be used as an infinite energy source. You know, the usual Pokemon villain nonsense, we've had dumber plots than this honestly lol. But yeah, Rose expects Leon to be the hero who cleans up his mess, and again this is more about Leon than it is about you, right? But the thing is, Leon tries to stop Eternatus and fails, he's incapacitated so you and Hop are forced to step in, you're the actual heroes here (with Zacian and Zamazenta) and despite how poorly this climax was built up to, I really like the idea here. You and Hop parallel Leon and Sonia but you also parallel the two heroes who stopped the Darkest Day originally and god it's so almost good lol. But yeah Leon isn't the hero in the end despite the feeling from everyone that he should have been

Leon is us, but he's a different version of us, a past version of us. I used to think it was pandering that his ace is Charizard, and like it is but it's pandering with a thematic purpose! Most of us started with gen 1 and like it or not Charizard IS the most popular gen 1 starter, Leon having one makes sense because he's us, just like his champion battle theme literally being the hall of fame theme remixed makes sense because he's us, but Leon's story is over, it's happened already. And you see this all throughout the game, you see it with Opal and Piers passing on their Gym Leader titles to Bede and Marnie, you see it with Hop studying to become a professor at the end, you see it with yourself taking Leon's crown and then Leon becoming chairman, it feels like we're seeing the end of all these characters' stories while ours is still happening. This WAS Leon's story, at one point in time, but his part is over and now it belongs to you and Hop

[jubilfetv]

talking about my problems with gen 8 pokemon design for no reason cause i feel like it

seeing those pokemon legends leaks has made me soooo apprehensive about future pokemon games and especially gen 9. cause while i think every gen is gonna have hits and misses (except gen 4 LOL im not even biased saying these cause dppt genuinely had some of THE best designs) with swsh and now pla im so. WHO is gamefreak hiring for these designs

like i hate to sound like a genwunner but at least with older pokemon designs, even if i didnt like them, they still looked like pokemon

like im not crazy about gurdurr but at least it still looks like. a pocket monster. and not whatever this new gen has been churning out. like look at these

its literally just a fucking squirrel like whats special about it. couldnt you have at least changed up the colours so its not literally just a squirrel from real life. hate these bitches

like at least do something interesting with it when its inspired from a real life animal LMAO?!?!?  greedunt you will never be pachirisu emolga etc

b4 i say anything else. i hate inteleon

biggest problem i have with the starters is that theyre either boring or they just suck. rillaboom is the  best one out of these but i dont like that it just has a drum LOL like its a gorilla u couldnt have leaned into the beating-chest thing instead of just giving it a drum?

scorbunny is THE most boring design. it just looks like someones furry character. thats not an insult but it doesnt even look like a pokemon. speaking of which why is everything so perfectly round? why is sobble so round why couldnt you have taken inspiration from real life lizards instead of just making it a generic boring cute design

cinderace is too anthro and i hate its anime eyes. didnt even put any effort into making it look like a creature that could plausibly exist in this universe cause it just looks like a guy inn a fursuit. speaking of which WHAT is with scorbunnys random yellow markings??? how would those even occur naturally in the wild. the colours is something else i have such a big issue with wrt gen 8 but ill get to that

and inteleon. literally the worst pokemon design in the entire franchise. was there really no other way to design a spy inspired lizard. why did you have to go the furbait bedroom eyes humanoid barely even a lizard creature route. UGLY!!!!!!!!!! fuck you inteleon

still mad we didnt get something like this instead. anyway comparing the gen8 starters with like, the gen2 or gen4 ones u really see where they started just going with boring cutesy designs instead of taking more inspo from the real life animals theyre inspired from. imagine totodile designed today... i dont wanna think about it

anyway even though i love impidimp it really showcases so many of the problems i have with these designs. theyre all obviously designed for modelling which isnt a BAD THING except that it seems to be the most simple modelling in existence. shapes are perfectly round or square and theres barely any interesting shapes

Like really.

also i hate this fucker for the same reason as skwovet/greedunt in that its literally just a regular penguin with an ice cube on its head. like WHY keep it the exact same colours as a normal penguin except for the random blue?! its not like youre limited to a certain palette

galar does have some really good designs though i wont pretend like it doesnt. toxtricity is one of my fav ever designs & i also love grimmsnarl (wish they kept it pink), corviknight, centiskorch, dragapult

anyway im gonna talk about the colours now. LOL. a big problem in these new designs is just the random colours slapped onto the pokemon without any effort to make them seem like natural markings OR something interesting for the design. like look at galarian slowpoke/slowbro compared to like croagunk

like the colours actually feel deliberate and LOOK good with each other. galarian slowpoke/bro just look like someone adding random colours in an attempt to make the design more visually interesting but it just looks like when im trying to work out an oc colour palette and start painting stuff over randomly. theres like. no thought behind it.

like with morgrem why the  random green lower body?? if its bc grimmsnarl’s green why not just keep regular grimmsnarl pink like the shiny??? it just feels random and doesnt blend well together. also WHAT the hell is up with its arms lol. also looking at it now they really could have played with  a hair tail thing where it looks like a devils tail. LOL. at least i like grimmsnarl

onto the pla leaks. ill get the ones i like out of the way first: h. growlithe, ursaluna, wyrdeer, basculegion, h. zorua/zoroark, h. braviary, h.voltorb. kleavor’s okay and i like typhlosion with its flames. decidueye couldve been worse. idk.  it looks better in action but i still prefer alolan decidueye

like no wonder they stopped showing us trailers LOL imagine a trailer of that hideous sneasel evo. it literally just looks like a stretched out sneasel. you will never be weavile

lilligant is boring considering its modern form

arcanine is fine i guess but i dont like the colours and theres like none of that stone guardian lion inspiration in there. hate to be that guy but literally all the fandesigns i saw were WAY better

samurott is boring. would look more interesting if they adjusted the colours and made the mustache black. ill probably choose it though just cause i want infernape on my team and will need a water type

h. electrode is boring as hell lol. why didnt they give it a mustache. voltorb is SO fun and then what. they just carved out electrodes eyes? YAWN

overqwil is fugly. sorry

avalugg is just like whatever

i like sliggoo/goodra’s typing but again theres just so much more you couldve done with it

new genie is um. well. its something. the turtle form i dont mind so much but i hate all the hearts and i dont like the colour palette

dialga and palkia are HORRIBLEEEEEE like 1) THROAT CANNON? WHAT WAS THE THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND THIS? 2) get rid of the circular things and palkia will look SO much better 3) ik they were going for a combined with arceus thing here or something whatever but it looks like shit. black/white kyurem>>>>>>>these bitches any day

anyway yeah. was the pitch Make them ugly and or boring as possible or something. cause these designs are so. 

id better not hear anything about a gen9 until at LEAST 2024 btw and they better hire some new designers cause i cant put up with this *acting like im not always gonna love pokemon*

[byakuyasdarling]

Ah yes, Pokémon rivals; my favourite topic

Warning: this list is massively biased. I (kinda jokingly) rag on every ‘Awful’ tier rival, so if you don’t want to here that, feel free to skip that explanation. I am pretty harsh with Marnie, I know a lot of people like her, so if you do like her PLEASE don’t read her section because I do not want to upset anyone. 

Also, I do ramble a bit how I like SWSH but they are my personal least favourite games (which is a hot take, I know), so if that would upset you please skip. Take care of yourselves <33

I created the politically correct ranking of Pokémon rivals (/j)

Anyway, epic explanation under the cut:

*if N was on this list he would fall under “Amazing”. Breath-taking story, breath-taking development, great theme songs, awesome character, fantastic team.

Why Blue is in S rank (very long explanation compared to the rest)

You cannot tell me Blue (or Green, or Gary, whatever you want to call the main Kanto rival) isn’t THE BEST RIVAL EVER. They got it SO RIGHT. He inspires hatred, AND sympathy. Literally, his grandad, the only living relative aside from his sister we even know about, loves you (the player) more than him and it’s kind of sad. 

Blue is great, he has a crappy pronunciation of ‘Bonjour’ (see Pokémon Masters), he says ‘smell ya later!’ he has class, swag, and is by no doubt the most challenging rival character. He is the only rival I never swept on a normal run. He is always demeaning you; he is always one step ahead all the way up until the champion battle where you finally beat him. AND HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OMG.

He still is arrogant and prideful, but respects people and wants to guide people to be better at Pokémon battling and thrives when he sees others succeeding - he doesn’t mind being ‘a former champion’. HECK HE’S SO COOL AND AMAZING. 

Also he has the best champion theme and encounter theme ever. Yes, he was a previous F/O so I am super biased; but so were 3 others on this list. 

Silver and Gladion

These two were my F/Os when I was much younger (around 12). They are great rivals with great development and story arcs. Plus, they have bopper encounter themes and battle themes. Gladion was my real introduction to the oc x canon community and inspired me to take drawing on as a hobby (as well as Lillie but I did not end up drawing her as much). 

Brendan, Cheren, Hugh, and Barry

When I was 10 playing Omega Ruby, I liked Brendan a lot (so... another past F/O... he’s the final one though). I dunno, he genuinely had a good friendship with that extra spice of rivalry with our character, May. I do not like friendly rivals (if my listing wasn’t obvious), but Brendan did it right. There was a lot of touching scenes with him and May *cough*cough* Delta Chapter *cough*cough* which really made me connect with him when I was 10. Now, Brendan and May are interchangeable depending on which one of them you pick to play as, so why have I ranked Bredan far above May? Better encounter and battle theme (yes, they have different instrumentation) and he gets the childhood crush pass.

Cheren is cool, I just really like his character and his attempts to create a good strategy. He is really dedicated to what he loves and becomes a gym leader (like BLUE DID. Blue has it all, really). Plus, glasses are cute :) (he is the same age as me, I can legally say that even though that was an obvious nod to Byakuya but you never know what people will take out of context). 

Hugh is cool becomes he somewhat feels like an asshole rival, but at the same time, has a really soft side. Like, his whole motivation to be a good trainer is to save his sister’s Purrloin that was stolen by Team Plasma. He is a hero y’all. Also GREAT encounter and battle theme; huge thumbs up. 

Barry! My man! Overall, cool rival with a great team. He is the second hardest rival to me (but Blue is harder than him by a landslide still). He is really funny in both the games and the anime and despite being a bit more friendly, he still sparks a lot of rivalry with you. Plus, his dad is battle frontier brain Palmer! How awesome! He was also my first rival, so that’s something special to me too. 

Average Tier

I like Hau as a character, he feels like a genuine friend and how he develops with the main character and Lillie is really wholesome. It’s just - I dislike him as a rival, a lot. Easy fights, not the best encounter theme... just kind of there. I get why people consider Gladion as ‘the true rival’ of S and M because he really is. Hau is also a rival that chooses the starter WEAK to your starter like the gen 6 rivals (who I hate with my entire being). 

Wally had a bad-ass final battle theme song and moment. That’s literally the only reason he makes the average tier. If this was a ranking disregarding ORAS he is easily down in the ‘Awful’ tier. 

I like Pokémon Sword and Shield... except I just don’t like them as much as every other game (yes. I did play Pokémon Yellow and enjoyed it more, thank you). I know you all HATE that, but that is just my opinion - I think I have earned the right to say that after my almost 12 years of playing these games and being a VGC player for a few years. It has good characters and some cool Pokémon and yeah... gameplay? Lacklustre. I really do not know what went wrong outside of story. Somehow the competitive battle scene is not the fun it used to be. Dynamax bugs me, the lack of megas bugs me, the dex cut REALLY bugs me. I know I am not the only one who thought this game lacked the charm other Pokemon games have. Graphically though, it’s very nice for the most part.

I have gone way off-topic, but anyway, yeah. SWSH rivals make average because I like their characters (especially Hop’s development). Outside of that, not the best rivals.

May is cool for a lot of the reasons I discussed with Brendan.

Lacking Tier

I like Bianca’s whole deal with her dad and how Elesa has a nice moment to shine too - and that’s it. I know the whole theme of her team is friendship but I die inside every time I watch a Chandelure uses RETURN. It was cool she returned in BW2 I guess? I like how her battle theme matches her personality, but it isn’t anything to write home about. 

I like Calem a bit more than Serena but I do not want to pull another Brendan and May (even though I had some good reason to do that) and I’m going to put them here. Bad teams and not memorable in the slightest, Calem and Serena belong in this tier. 

Awful Tier

X and Y rivals amirite??? They just suck. They are annoying and they suck. They have 3 Pokémon in all final fights, really? At least Shauna is likeable in the anime. 

I hate Trace. But, he has one funny memory I have with my dad that makes him slightly better. We both named him ‘Blue’ since Blue is the actual Kanto rival, but then Blue showed up in LGPE... And then the two ‘Blues’ talked to each other and it was mildly amusing at the time. Anyway, he didn’t deserve Blue’s champion theme (which is even used for Blue in later games outside of his champion battle (BW2), THAT IS NOT TRACE’S THEME. Anyway, he is the gross friendly rival that attempted to fulfil the best rival’s shoes. Sorry Trace, bad luck my dude. 

I just never attached to Marnie I suppose, but I can understand that she is important to those who are invested in her. I am about to fully rag on Marnie, so please skip if that makes you upset. 

 I am going to hurt a lot of people when I said I never liked Marnie. She was always just... like why do people like her so much?? I feel like most people like her because she is ‘funny haha goth gf’ which, fair I suppose. I just think she is super lacking as a rival, she makes no real impression as an actual character, and I think if you removed her from the game it wouldn’t make a difference. Don’t want to be that guy, but I AM that guy right now. I suppose she has a cute design?? and that’s it. Again, I am really biased when it comes to SWSH and rivals, so I suppose she really got the short end of the stick with me.

[quartings]

For the first time in over 4 years, I'm not heartbroken at Pokemon.

People are 100% allowed to hate things though- I'm not gonna call anyone "entitled" for being mad about how condescending Gamefreak has been to children recently, or selling SwSh with half the content for 50% more money. But as for my thoughts on the games themselves...

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

The chibi style is a bit much but I don't hate it. I just hope they fix up the lighting a little bit. After all the stress I was having about how'd they'd adapt Sinnoh's grid maps, HMs, and even the DS bottom screen, I'm actually happy to see what is essentially a remaster as opposed to a Gamefreak-mandated remake.

But the most important question remains: Why should I play this instead of Platinum, one of the best Pokemon games ever?

I feel like people don't talk enough about how amazing of a remake Mystery Dungeon DX was- QOL updates, more dungeons, and cross-gen evolutions. Unlike what Gamefreak did with ORAS, Chunsoft took the original games and added more good things without removing other good things.

So I hope ILCA knows how important it is to have the Platinum dex expansion, boss teams, and BATTLE FRONTIER!!

Legends: Arceus

Wow. They finally figured out how to make a Switch game! Between this and Crown Tundra, I have a lot more confidence in how Gen 9 is gonna look and play now- especially since they're not doing annual releases anymore! I'm so glad they're outsourcing remakes to other studios so they can have more time and freedom to make newer, bolder projects! *Cries* I'm so happy we're back to 4-year gens...

I'm gonna paraphrase Shofu and say- the garbage framerate doesn't matter for now, don't worry. We don't even know if Ancient Sinnoh is gonna be Wild Area bland or Expansion Pass pretty!

The starter choice is kinda funky- unless they have snazzy new forms, I'm probably gonna ditch them for a Sinnoh starter the earliest chance I get, sorry. I love them all design-wise, but Cyndaquil is the only one I didn't feel was underpowered when using them in the past.

Most importantly- There's no box art for this game yet- we could very well get a new Arceus form! Especially since Mewtwo, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Zygarde, Necrozma, and most of the Galar Legends have beaten its stat total. And even if it's still regular Arceus on the boxart, it could still have a secret form, like Necrozma, Zacian, and Zamazenta.

It'll also be awesome to see if this is the exact moment we see Regigigas get bound and sealed in Snowpoint temple!

Extra thoughts:

But yeah! I think it could be really cool to get a fully-polished Gen 9 debut game with an expansion pass, have an outsourced Black and White remake, and then a sparkling-clear BW premake or B3W3!

I think the manga arc for Sinnoh remakes will be called Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but they'll mostly cover Arceus Legends content, be it through flashbacks or time travel.

I wonder if we'll get a big spinoff game to satisfy the late 2022 release slot!

[doubleddenden]

I'm gonna put this energy out into the universe and hope the Pokémon Company grows a soul to do it:

Pokemon Colosseum 3 and ports of Colo and XD instead of a rushed new gen ir remake this year (and yes I realize we might get Legends Arceus DLC but the Orre games aren't GF games)

Why Colo 3 and ports? Currently the games are only available on GameCube, and although TPC have done a pretty good job erasing it, Colosseum was the first 3D Pokémon game to actually have a story. That alone is reason enough.

However for practicality reasons, let's look at what Colosseum did for the franchise in gen 3 at the time:

At the time, only Ruby and Sapphire were released. Game Freak tried and failed to figure out a way to transfer Pokémon from the gen 2 games to gen 3. The Pokedex at the time was severely limited to 200 Pokémon in the Hoenn region, so unless you cheated, a lot of gen 2 Pokémon were off the table, even with FRLG and Emerald including some when they would come out

Enter Colosseum, which at the time was the only real sure fire way to get Pokémon like Umbreon, Espeon, the gen 2 starters, the legendary beasts of Johto, Mantine, Ampharos, Tyranitar, Togetic, so on and so forth.

At present, between SwSh, BDSP, and LA, we're short the rest of the gen 5 and all gen 6 starters, in addition to Mega Evolutions and Z Crystals, let alone Ultra Necrozma. I'm sure we're also short some gen 2, gen 3, gen 5, gen 6, and gen 7 Pokémon that currently cannot be obtained to any degree.

In comes Orre, which has a habit of giving love to under appreciated Pokémon, even in the same gen they debuted in, such as Walrein or Swalot in XD. A Colosseum 3 could give GF more time for their next project (which as fun as LA was, it needed more time in the oven), open up the door to give absent Pokémon some much needed love and representation, a more difficult challenge in the form of constant and strategic Double Battles and having to steal Pokémon from trainers, and revive a beloved cult classic in the series.

Since ILCA sucks/hasn't even finished BDSP by adding the wonder trading station yet (let alone fix the bugs), and most of the Genius Sonority team that worked on the Orre games were absorbed into Game Freak, they could pass the ball to BAMCO, who put a lot of amazing polish into the likes of Pokken Tournament and New Snap. They could provide that sweet polish and dip into edgy and gritty realism those games attempted.

However if for some reason that is asking too much, I would like to put something else out into the universe, and if God ain't a spiteful dick ass bitch of an asshole like he usually is, he'll make it happen:

Stadium 3/Battle Revolution 2 with Home connectivity.

Think about it, if you're a competent multi-player nerd (not me, I hate T Landorus), then you're currently stuck with the outdated meta currently restricted to you in SwSh or BDSP. If you have Pokémon in Home, the only game they can currently go to as of writing this is SwSh, and thats only if theyre in the game. And assuming they let you transfer to BDSP and LA, we're still left with a couple hundred Pokémon and forms trapped in jail basically.

A Stadium 3/Battle Revolution 2 could fix this by adding Home connectivity to let you use those mons trapped in Home. Doesn't even have to have that complex a story, it could be straight up battle facilities and multi-player and that would already do a big service to the Fandom at large. Have all Pokémon in, limit gimmicks to one per battle (one Mega, one Z Move, or one Gigantimax- no dynamax), and keep it strictly as a dream team multi-player or battle facility game that mimics a Battle Frontier, and most fans would be happy. Again, toss it to BAMCO and let's make it beautiful af.

To those saying it can't happen or it doesn't make sense: the anime already has this system established, so they have a basis. The models are all recycled anyway, so they could just pop em in there and give a bit of polish to some animations and moves. If they were to do it this way, they'd just need to update every once in a while with new Pokémon or forms introduced, and they'd be pretty solid on keeping the multi-player base alive and thriving for a good while. Update rules to limit over used Pokémon like T Landorus, Kyogre, or the Tapus now and then, and you'd be able to freshen up the meta now and then. Add in a World Tournament like from BW2 to battle past characters, and they could A. Mimic the anime's Tournament of Champions, and B. Keep things fun, fresh, and nostalgic, for arguably less work than a traditional new generation.

I'll be honest, I would happily take either or, and I think a side game in those veins is greatly needed. I don't want an incomplete and half assed new gen like gen 8, I don't want half assed remakes for gen 5, and LA is fun but I don't think DLC is a good substitute or substantial enough to give us those Pokémon we still can't use, let alone beefy enough to last the next two years.

They really, REALLY need to do this. I highly doubt they will, but with Pokémon Day coming up soon, I'm mustering as much energy as I can to at least get something like this out there.

[beakybirdsong]

Sigh okay it's Pokemon News Drop Day so I'm gonna make a quick appearance for initial thoughts. But uhhh they're not great lmao

So if you don't like debbie downers probably don't read this lol

Because I got a bit...edgy

But like...I actually *hate* that we're getting 3 different games and none of them look remotely...good, all for different reasons.

The D/P remakes, from what we've seen so far, just don't excite me in any way. My opinion could change going forward but for right now it looks like it might as well be a remastered port, which is...not really what I've come to expect from Pokemon remakes, even as someone who's generally become a huge pessimist over the years lmao. HGSS added Pokemon following, the Pokathalon, a customizable Safari Zone, team photos, polished bits of existing storyline (like awakening the legendaries or disguising yourself as a rocket), and I think even the Battle Frontier iirc. We got much less in ORAS, but the story was admittedly still polished up good from what it was, including a little post game romp where we could catch Deoxys, the DexNav, which was super fun to play around with, and additionally Mirage Islands, a bunch of minimaps in the region that changed every day, which you essentially could collect from others by playing online or using Streetpass and accessing BuzzNav. It was also the first game to let us really hunt a hoard of legendaries, some of which were hidden in really cool updated areas (lookin at you Sea Mauville).

My point of all this I guess is that if you're going to give us a trailer for DP remakes can you not make it look like...samey and bland lol?? I'm not saying there WONT be any new content, but I am saying that if there isn't then it just...is not gonna be worth the money that a Switch game costs. Especially after Swsh left such a bad taste in my mouth. Like H O N E S T L Y I'd probably be being a lot nicer right now if Swsh was like...a good game lmao but that shit still has bugs and even after two full DLC drops there's nothing to DO (outside of being a crazy person like me and hunting shiny legends in Dynamax Adventures).

NOT TO MENTION HOLY SHIT, the longer time goes on the less forgivable it gets that these characters are sooooo fucking static!!!! The whole *thud* thing worked fine back in the DS era because it was....yknow, the DS era, but it just looks so stupid over a decade later. You can't add any more movement than that?? Barry's static pose in battle is also just completely devoid of personality. I'd honestly be fine with the chibi style if they did something interesting with it. Which is my point ig. Please please pleeeaaassseeee do something interesting with these remakes. Give me a reason not to just play on an emulator, or hell. Dig out an old copy and play on the 3DS, which still supports DS games lmao.

Okay phew ANYWAY.

Idk if it's because I'm coming down off of that hot mess but Pokemon Legends is actually...kind of interesting in concept. Like it takes place in the past, neat. And it's """"open-world,"""" okay neat. And the starter options are remixed, neat (I have a lot of thoughts on that actually and they aren't bad but this isn't the time or place). And they clearly told the tree-renderers to get their fucking act together, but like...that's a good segue into the problem I'm having with it which is that it still just looks empty. And boring?? And I think what I'm getting hung up on is that part of my brain is like ooh cool but there's a much bigger part of my brain that's like "OK but WHY"

It's just so frustrating as a longtime Pokemon fan to look at these two games which are both set in Sinnoh and only seeing wasted potential. Why aren't we getting one really good Sinnoh game that could happen with a little more time and less spread-thin resources? One looks bad because it's static and underwhelming port of an otherwise big beautiful labyrinthine region and the other looks bad because it looks good in places but is otherwise is an empty looking world in the way that the Wild Area was. We could have all the good stuff in one package but why would they do that when they can double up on profits by shipping out two mediocre games?

Speaking of, the nastiest taste in my mouth by far was the fact that we're getting three new games at all. Other parts of first-party Nintendo are making a point to ask for understanding and delay releases because of the pandemic and it seems like Pokemon just isn't letting up. What kind of conditions and crunch are these developers working under while also dealing with the handicap of doing it all remotely?? Do they get to sleep and eat like Jesus fucking Christ. I know there's a studio name I don't recognize helping with the DP remakes but STILL. It's not worth it! It's not worth it! Make a better game later!!! Stop beating your own franchise and the people who make it half to death!! Getting even one new mainline Pokemon game a year is unrealistic and unsustainable and it needs to stop fucking yesterday!! Hell, I would cry tears of joy if we went a year with no new Pokemon news at all! That's how ugly this feels.

In an attempt not to end on a sour note I guess, Snap looks good enough to get. I'm curious to see how many courses there are, but the characters look endearing enough, and by nature of being an on-rails game the world feels alive because it's not an unrealistic ask to make it feel that way (they did it just fine on the N64, even with the technical limitations of the time). I would much prefer mainline Pokemon games veer away from this "open-world" direction they're going in and just focus on making their little segmented areas tighter and more immersive in terms of aesthetic and exploration and maybe like one or two static encounter mons with a bit of personality. But I'm getting carried back into the Mainline Game Bad Thoughts Zone and I don't wanna be there. So. Idk check out that Venusaur doing a cannonball! Instant serotonin. Hoping there will be some fun pokemon interactions you can apple into happening like Surfing Pikachu or the Jigglypuff concert. Snap looks fun. I like fun. This is fun. This is fine!!!!!!!