Anonymous asks:

Do you think Poké Rides should continue to be a thing in future games and/or remakes? I personally think it would be super neat to see different Pokémon in different regions be used for the same purposes (namely, field traversal). Like in Kalos, Rhyhorn fills in the shoes of both Tauros and Mudsdale!

Sure. I think they’re a cool little immersive feature that shows how much people depend on their Pokémon, and using different Pokémon in different regions would be a neat way of showing the uniqueness of their cultures. What’s more, now that Game Freak seem to have finally forsworn the HM system (godawful clunky relic that it was), they probably have to keep doing it. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense to stop at this point.

Anonymous asks:

What are some Sinnoh locations you’re excited to see in 3D, when that comes? I’m personally excited for the three lakes, Floaroma (them flowers man), Sunyshore (considering what they did to Mauville in ORAS…), Stark Mountain (laaaavaaaa!), and of course the Arceus-damn Distortion World!

Y’know, other than the Distortion World I’m not sure anything really sticks out. I’d like to see what they’d do with the Gyms, though; some of the revamped Gyms from Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby were pretty cool, and it’d be nice to see, say, the Eterna and Pastoria Gyms get that treatment. Honestly though, I’m not super excited about anything that a Sinnoh remake would do, and once we get into the fourth generation I’m not sure updated graphics are a huge draw anymore; the originals hold up a lot better than the third generation games did.

Nakedviolentedpenguin asks:

What makes a society polytheistic or monotheistic? “When” is the point when a god is “created”? Does exist register of the specific starting of a cult to a god in a culture? Tradition has to begin at some point. Game freak is attempting to create a new generarion based in Greece. And they invite you to work in the plot/background/mythology as an expert. Would you leave your actual work to go with that (in case they are incompatible)? What things would you implement in that games? Game’s names?

1. I assume you’re not just looking for a definition of the words, but why some societies worship many gods and some worship one? No idea. I mean, the three major monotheistic world religions today (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) all come from the same place, so we don’t exactly have a large sample size. Also, all of them do recognise multiple divine beings that are lesser than the supreme god, some of which can be the focus of worship – Mediaeval Christians basically worshipped saints and archangels as minor gods, and don’t even get me started on this asshole, who is either a Catholic saint, the Devil, or an ancient Maya god… possibly all three. No one is quite sure. Continue reading “Nakedviolentedpenguin asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

Do you get the impression Gen VI was cut short? Looking back there’s a lot about it that seems unfinished. I’m not the first to think that Zygarde should have had its own game, but the Gen VI events for Diancie, Hoopa and Volcanion are really underwhelming; all they unlock in XY/ORAS is a bit of extra dialogue. Feels like a lot of wasted potential. The fact that Gen VII only has two event Pokemon (and hackers haven’t found a Marshadow event in S/M yet) makes me think this gen will be short too.

A little, yeah. Mostly what I think is strange is that they built such a unique subsystem for Zygarde with so many interesting little features, and then never really did anything with it. Clearly some of it was already planned when they produced X and Y; Thousand Arrows and Thousand Waves are both in the code for the generation VI games but were never made obtainable, and Zygarde’s Pokédex data hints at a really important role that it ought to have in the conflict of X and Y. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

Because Pokemon fans love their patterns, there’s obviously a lot of talk about potential Generation 4 remakes on the horizon. I reckon I could guess you opinions on that, but imagine if they did and replaced the Gyms with Totem Pokemon, what Gen IV pokemon do you think would make cool “boss” encounters for each type?

Well, I don’t think they would, though. I actually am coming around to the idea that there might be a fourth generation remake on the horizon as I move through Moon – there seem to be more than a few references to Sinnoh buried in the game, and I’m struck by how few Sinnoh Pokémon there are to be caught in Alola. But it doesn’t make any sense to force the Alolan system of trials and Totem Pokémon on Sinnoh; the whole point of that system is to be a cultural feature that’s specific to Alola. My bet is that Gym Leaders would be back for a Diamond/Pearl remake (I also, incidentally, doubt that generation VIII will feature trials and Totem Pokémon – I think it’s more likely that this is the beginning of a series of regions that all have their own culturally specific approaches). In any case, I think for the most part you’d simply be looking at the Pokémon that are already the partner Pokémon of each Gym Leader: Cranidos, Roserade, Lucario, etc.

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of Pearls, Nuggets, Mushrooms, and other material commodities in the game that exist only to be sold for ca$h?

Well, it’s not a Pokémon-specific phenomenon. The general video game term is “vendor trash” – items that serve as a way of giving extra money to the player without having actual physical coins etc. lying around in places that make no sense. In a lot of games these are things like the pelts of animals, or magical body parts of rare magical creatures. Obviously that’s no good for Pokémon, so instead we get nuggets. From an in-universe perspective, well, clearly these items are useless to us, but not necessarily to everyone. Nuggets are made of gold; pearls can likewise be used for jewellery. The mushrooms, we know from a chef who will buy them in Black and White, can be used in gourmet cooking. Rare bones, and the assortment of artefacts from the undersea Undella Ruins, all have tremendous scientific value. God only knows what comet shards can be used for.

Anonymous asks:

What are your thoughts on a potential Diamond and Pearl remake?

Eh. On the one hand, I sort of think there are better things Game Freak’s designers could spend their time on – the original Diamond and Pearl are basically fine, I feel. They hold up a lot better than the original Ruby and Sapphire did, anyway. On the other, I suppose I wouldn’t exactly be averse to seeing the writers tackle the cosmic Pokémon of generation IV again, take a fresh look at them, maybe play around a bit more with their roles in the Pokémon universe, and try to do something interesting with the way myths and legends work in shaping our understanding of their world. I guess that means I’m basically neutral on the idea.

Anonymous asks:

Now that Gen VI is over, which, in your opinion, has been the weakest/worst generation of the main series games so far? (Not counting VII) Conversely, which generation do you think was the best?

I’m not sure I do have an opinion on that. Like, obviously they’ve been improving over the course of the franchise’s lifetime, but just as obviously I’ll be lynched if I say that I and II were clearly the worst. Also they’re not uniformly better and worse at everything they do. Like, V in my opinion has the best story, but I was never wild about its Pokémon designs, IV made some really important changes to the game mechanics but does some kinda screwy things with the world-building, and III was basically decent all around but nothing really sticks out about it for me other than its unique musical style. It’s sort of difficult to say “right, this one was overall the best,” because how on earth do you compare things like that? VI was just pretty solid all around, I suppose, and I liked aspects of its general design philosophy, which makes me optimistic for when I check out VII.

The Philosophical Sheep asks:

In the fan-made game Pokemon Legends of the Arena, instead of 8 gyms and a champion, you fight in a series of tournaments to win the championship. Each tournament is in a different town, allowing the pokemon journey feel to remain in effect. Now, the game isn’t exactly good, but how would you feel about GameFreak using a similar concept in the official games?

So the tournaments sort of take the place of Pokémon Gyms in terms of the games’ structure? Could be interesting, and personally I like the idea of tinkering with the formula. I think this kind of format would be quite neat if it allowed you to explore what the Pokémon League is, how it works, and who its leaders are a bit more. There’s a lot of worldbuilding stuff in that area where Game Freak has always just kinda let us fill in the blanks.

Anonymous asks:

Game Freak often do event giveaways of Pokemon with special moves. What if they did the same thing, but with abilities? I.E. a Pikachu with an ability it couldn’t normally get (say Adaptability, for example) that it couldn’t pass on by breeding? I think this would make the games even more interesting, and be another way of giving older Pokemon access to newer abilities.

Eh… to be honest I’ve never really been fond of event-exclusive Pokémon; it annoys me when companies put things in their games that you can’t get by playing the game. I don’t quite see what those things add.