#or if i make a pokemon fangame but lol i dont need nintendos lawyers in my life for trying to tell me morally weird shit

[axolotlsauce]

You know what, let's talk about palworld. I dont have anything else going on until 9:40.

One of the biggest talking points I see brought up with this game is the unoriginality. And uh... yeah. I'm yet to see a pal that doesn't have a DIRECT analogue to one or two pokemon. That said that is without playing the game, but still.

Now, I don't actually give a fuck about the integrity of pokemon's copyright. And you know what, I don't think most people who are bringing this up do either. People aren't "white-knighting" for the billion-dollar company, I think they're mostly just pointing out that it's pretty lame for a pokemon clone to have such unoriginal designs. (I think. I haven't personally seen every individual tweet about palworld.)

I mean, even ROBOPON had original designs. (Even if that meant that one of them had to be a toilet.)

Same goes for heavy-hitting pokemon-likes like Yo-Kai Watch, and the ones that are borderline fan-games like Coromon. A lot of the fun comes from the original creature designs. Everything I see of Palworld looks like they wanted to have the real pokemon, but had to do some legally distinct homework-copying. It reminds me of Watchmen, where Alan Moore wanted to use DC comics characters, but had to use "analogues" of them instead.

There's also a lot of unoriginality from what I've seen of the gameplay. The world looks very "generic open world," and a lot of the Juice of this game seems to be a bunch of other popular games kinda... conflated. That said, it's a little ironic to be complaining about unoriginality when everyone else has already pointed out that it's unoriginal... or is it fitting? who knows.

Also one of them is yellow totoro. How Wacky.

A lot of people also seem to take issue with the, uh... edge, of this game. Now while "Pokemon with GUNS" absolutely sounds like something an insecure teenager would come up with after being told by their schoolfriends that pokemon is for babies, I welcome it honestly. First-Person-Shooter gameplay is a pretty cool addition to make to this genre. That said, some other elements kinda seem like they were implimented by someone trying to look cool in front of a 14-year-old. But uh, I can't really comment on that, since the internet can't be trusted, and I haven't played the game. Can you actually sell peoples' body parts in this game? I don't know if I trust that random article I saw.

Part 29: THE POKEMON KILLER??????

no.

Do you guys remember Yo-Kai Watch? remember when that was a big deal? How many of you even knew that the series had a 3rd and 4th game? Probably a statistically unlikely number of you, because this is a website full of cool nerds. That said, it's pretty clear to see that most people do NOT remember the LAST big pokemon killer.

Also, nintendo isn't gonna sue. The developers aren't formally marketing it as "pokemon with guns," no aspect of the gameplay was patented by gamefreak, and while derivative, the pals are juuuust barely distinct enough to not infringe any copyrights. I think. I'm no copyright lawyer, this is just how I see it. The pokemon company hasn't ever, to my knowledge, gone after anything that was derivative of pokemon unless it was something like a fangame that was directly using their IP. (Ironically, the type of game that impacts their profits the LEAST.... sigh...)

And you know what, while Palworld isn't gonna kill pokemon... I think nothing but good can come from letting the pokemon company think that it WILL. Because let's be real here, if ANY series needs some competition, it's pokemon. SOMEBODY has to force them to get their shit together.

And yeah, as dubious as I am about palworld... I can't lie. It looks SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than pokemon violet. (Both graphically, and just, uh, in general.) And you know what, I would still say that even WITHOUT gen 9's crazy technical issues.

"Nintendo will NEVERRR ALLOW THIS ON SWITCH LOL!!!!"

Have you seen the shit they WILL allow on switch? Go on the eshop right now. Scroll past enough hentai games, and you'll probably also see at least one legally-distinct pokemon fangame like nexomon, coromon or temtem. Why would nintendo not allow such a hotly-selling game on their platform. If the game is going to make bank either way, why would they NOT choose the option that means THEY GET A CUT OF THE PROFITS? Something that, by this logic, they would think that they're owed to begin with? I get that nintendo and the pokemon company tend to be counter-intuitive and stubborn, but I think we can trust them to do the thing that makes them More Money.

Overall: Palworld is... interesting. A lot of aspects of it are VERY uninspired, but I can't see it doing anything but good. Even if you hate it on principle (the old "Digimon Sucks!" Syndrome), at the very least it can serve as a lesson to actual pokemon.

Okay so pokemon probably won't implement GUNS, but hopefully a wildly successful clone like this might give them the idea that they might actually have to TRY to make money in future. Or maybe they'll get it into their heads that they could make even MORE money if their pokemon games were also fresh, interesting, and... good.

Well all-in-all, while I probably won't be playing palworld anytime soon (and who knows if my curiosity will still be itching by the time it comes to a platform I actually own) I think its presence is more likely than not a net positive.

It's worth mentioning that I don't have, like, credibility... this is just my take on things. Why was it necessary to give my take? Because I'm so much cooler and more important than everyone else, obviously. But that doesn't mean that I know shit.

[isaacathom]

ok so heres the idea for the evil team. most of the time, the villainous teams are making a statement. their appearance means something very specific, its engineered. team flare, for instance, is flashy and attention grabbing, and youre supposed to give them all of your attention, that sort of thing. team plasma are dressed as medieval knights to support an idea of chivalry, of shining armour and good deeds, to make the public believe theyre the good guys.

so you take it a different way. a team that wants to act in the shadows, individual agents acting in harmony with the greater group but ultimately alone. calls late at night deep inside houses. innocent business trips and weekend holidays. its all sneaky.

but you still want to give them a recognisable design. something that does mark them out as a group, unified. so, you keep them mostly ordinary, but with a few key items that might cause a second glance, but without context just seem like some style trend youve just sorta missed. stuff like all of them having long coats and collars that can cover their faces. stuff like them all wearing scarfs even if its summer. stuff like the same coloured shirts. stuff that individually looks generic enough, but when all combined, looks a lil smth smth. stuff like fancy lapel badges and necklaces, a belt with too many filled pouches, a hood that seems to be up more often than not. and then, in an ideal world, there’d be minor variants within that team. like, say they all that a coat and a scarf and a lapel badge. some have long skirts, some have pants, some have a button up pale shirt and some have turtleneck dark shirts. one of them has a set of hair pins that matches the badge, another wears bright coloured leggings, like you just sorta vary it up. the whole point is they seem like ordinary people. you dont think hard about seeing them.

itd get different with the higher ups, and even people like the YT. They’d have a lil more insignia stuff, like itd be more obvious. maybe one higher up is a person with a hoodie that has the teams symbol on it. then the leader, whoever that is, probably has something more formal, like a suit with the logo, a tie with the logo, shit like that. looks like its business for them.

its basically a team of secret agents, almost like team plasma v2 except they arent ninja pirates with a flying fucking ship that shoots ice lasers. 

i just think itd be fun. there could even be an element of it being homemade, like some of the first grunts you encounter clearly handsewed their insignia on their shirt’s left breast and instead of lapel badges theyve got like, those cheap paper badges that you laminate in a circle and draw with texta? like theyre more ramshackle earnest. the higher up you get, the more professional it gets, and harder it becomes to spot them in a crowd because theyve tailored their Look Perfectly.

thatd be a way thered be a brief misdirect with YT. when you first meet them, they look nice and professional, though ofc their aggressive and try to tell you to go home and they probably wont let you leave town (until you beat the gym and cause a progression in the time force). but the grunts you encounter soon after, theyre so clearly members of an evil team but dont share any obvious elements with YT beyond like. dark colours, maybe. or, alternatively, the grunts are super heavy handed in how theyre clearly in the evil team, but YT just looks. like a normal person. a light coloured coat buttoned up but loose at the bottom, jeans, a scarf. just normal. but then as you progress later, and keep seeing YT (but not strictly in direct correlation to the team) and you fight the more sophisticated grunts, you notice the commonalities, the coats, the scarf.

thatd be kinda cool. like for a brief bit you might think YT is a gym leader or maybe even roaming E4 with an ego that manifests in telling people they arent worth shit. then when you notice the commonalities and connect th dots, its like OH its a fucking evil team admin. fuck there they go!

also, itd be fun if theres a slight branch. in the sense that, when you first encounter YT as a confirmed member of the evil team, heading a bit in a city, they dont tell you their name until after you beat them. as they go to leave, they tell you their name, and tell that to the older trainer whose been mentoring you. and you can just choose not to do that. you will encounter the older trainer, shortly after in fact (they dont walk in just after the guy leaves, you meet back up with them after you leave the building). and when the older trainer demands answers to what you were doing, you get the typical pokemon limited responses. you can say ‘i was fighting team [whatsit]’ or ‘i met that guy again’. you say you were just fighting team whatsit, he goes off in a rage about how he told you not to, blah blah. but if you say you fought THAT guy again, he pauses. what about him? then, w/o dialogue choosing, your trainer tells him who YT is, like their name and what they said. and the elite trainer stops. they tell you angrily you shouldnt have gone after team whatsit, but they sigh alot. its basically the same as the other branch, but with a lot of extra pauses and that additional YT mention at the start.

then, when you get to the scene where the elite trainer attempts to flee without you, the confrontation between them and YT will play out differently. if the elite trainer KNOWS thats YT, he’ll be composed if nervous, he’ll be begging for chances, he’ll be rationalising why he fled. if the elite trainer doesnt know its YT, that revelation will shake the fuck out of him, he’ll be a quivering wreck, overcome with the emotion of the fact that YT didnt die, but survived and wants to squarely kick him in the gut off the side of a skyscraper. or something. elito knowing YT is YT will be diplomatic. elito not knowing YT is YT will be emotional. i mean both would be but still. and itd slightly alter YT’s dialogue, they’d be angry at you if you didnt tell elito, but they’ll also be sadistically pleased that they get to see how elito feels. if you did tell elito, yt is actually more emotional, because elito prepared slightly for this confrontation and yt was caught off guard.

itd make slightly less changes later. like, end game. itd have some tiny dialogue changes before that. but like, after the villain story is wrapped. lets say that once you beat the villain and leave and go celebrate, YT comes and just socks elito square in the jaw. just because theyve wanted to for years. they make a speech about how his cowardice caused people to suffer. itd be pretty bitterly emotional for YT. but how THAT ends depends on the choice. like. if you told elito, YT would actually then offer elito their hand and help him back up off the ground, they’d make a sort of apology thats a bit stumbling and weak and full of digs, but itd be clear theyve thought about what elito said in this grunt gang bang and they want to put this behind them. if you DIDNT tell elito, YT will end his speech by spitting at elito and leaving. YT would show up later, possibly as part of post-game content, or maybe they fuck off into the ether like N does, idk.

it might also change elitos outcome. if they reconnect with YT and start making amends, theyd end up in a different place post game, maybe at YTs old home, talking to their parents, and theyd commit themselves further to not doing this again. if they dont connect with YT, theyd remain in their e4 villa or whatever, cowardly again, hiding from the outside.

the idea is that if YT reconnects, it affirms to the elite trainer that theyve at least slightly changed for the better, and that they can continue to improve. if they dont reconnect, they simply fall further into that anguish. fall of the wagon, as it were. the end of that story would be them resigning their elite post and simply fading from the news.

or SOMETHING like that. there could be more variables. the idea is that you can help YT and elito at least talk out their problems and help them reconcile what happened, help elito apologise for his awful behaviour and help YT sort of atone for the bad shit they did in seeking that apology (since, yknow, they sided with the villains and did some villainous shit while also pursuing that revenge). like you can basically mediate and help them at least start a dialogue. whether itd end well or even amicably between them would be debatable. but itd be better than the two of them never really getting that chance to talk it out, to just say what they thought and have it bubble inside them for years? yknow. hence why the non-reconnect ending is all bitter. it leaves elito a cowardly wreck. it leaves yt as someone who doesnt feel satisfied with their revenge and thus continues to exercise that aggression through villainy. its Bad End, buddy.

i mean itd be stupid if bad end was tied just to that one dialogue choice so it possible be possible to mention it at other points, like when elito is just standing around and doesnt have hyper fixed dialogue, you can approach them and youd get some minor options about stuff to say. dialogue choices, mother fuckers. like you approach him and you can ask how his day is, giving you basically a semi relevant thing about how he feels at that moment. and then youd have like, an advice one, like ‘got any advice’ and hed tell you something semi relevant. and then thered be the 3rd, unique option - ‘ive got something to tell you’ and that gives you the chance to tell him about YT if you picked the other option at the original dialogue. and maybe, just in general, that third option after you tell elito about YT would let you ask about YT and get a general backstory on the kid, expanded from what elito tells you in ‘vanilla’.

tl;dr i love this idea i love this shit godddddddddddddddd