Anonymous asks:

How would you design a Champion? I don’t mean in terms of visual design, but personal character and team composition. What kind of profession would they have (if any)? What would their personality be like? What type or theme would they specialize in (if any)? And, of course, what Pokémon would you give them?

Tricky.

Well, we’ve had a rival, a superhero, a geologist, a mythographer, an adventurer, a dragon princess, and an actress… what would I like to have next? Maybe… a politician, a leader? Someone whose philosophy revolves around responsibility, duty, and community? This champion is the mayor of a major city that the player visits on their journey. They’re not on the front lines of crises like Lance, Steven or Alder; instead they’re leading from behind, making sure everyone is where they need to be, when they need to be, protecting civilians from chaos, and taking charge in recovery efforts after disasters. In interactions with the player, they constantly stress the responsibility of Pokémon trainers to use their power and skills for the good of all, and challenge the player to think about how their journey is benefiting people and Pokémon other than themselves. In battle, this Champion’s Pokémon are all Normal-types (because Normal-types need some love), focusing on those that value protectiveness, loyalty or industry – Stoutland, Pyroar, Braviary, Diggersby (with Huge Power, of course) and Sawsbuck, with Mega Kangaskhan to cap it all off.

vikingboybilly asks:

Do you think it’s cool that they figured out how to send 1st generation pokémon to generation 7? Too bad it’s a decade too late for my Silver and Crystal buddies =(

Well, I would assume that this is something they planned for when they were putting together the 3DS versions of Red and Blue. So it’s not so much that they figured anything out, more that they had the opportunity to sidestep all of the problems that ever made it an issue in the first place. My understanding (and I’m vague on exactly how this works so take it with a grain of salt) is that the reason Pokémon couldn’t be transferred from II to III is because the earlier games stored Pokémon data in a different format to the later ones. So all they would have had to do for these new versions of Red and Blue is… not do that. There aren’t even any issues of hardware compatibility because they’re being released as 3DS apps and can be programmed to interface directly with Pokébank. So like… I think it was a good idea for marketing purposes, and it’s nice that we can do that, but it’s not like it would have been particularly difficult, as far as I am aware.

Anonymous asks:

I don’t know if you’ve looked closely at the screenshots from Pokemon Sun and Moon, but if you have what are your thoughts on the bird Pokemon they show. Do you think it will be another generic starter bird? Maybe a starter?

Okay so something you should understand about me is that I am a terrible, awful wet blanket when it comes to pre-release speculation. Like, pretty much anything that anyone says at this point, my reaction is “yeah but there is literally no way you can prove that so I don’t care.” Case in point, with that half-finished wireframe model we saw for a few seconds, I’m not even 100% convinced it wasn’t a Skarmory. I mean, it’s probably not because it looked like it had some kind of poofy headdress thing, but the first time I saw that trailer it honestly didn’t even occur to me that I might be looking at a new Pokémon at all. And even once we get that far, I just have zero interest in using such incredibly scanty information to make vague and poorly informed guesses about something that we’re just going to be straight up told in a few months anyway. I’m boring like that.

I much prefer making vague and poorly informed guesses about subjects that Game Freak is never going to give us more information about. That way I can never be definitively proven wrong! Muwhahahahaha!

vikingboybilly asks:

Pokémon Sun and Moon! I’m the first to put it in your question box! Now what on earth can this be? Why are we getting gen 7 before Vishnu/Zygarde’s game?

a) No you’re not, Billy; shut up.

b) Not a clue. If I had to guess, though, I would speculate that generation VII will be more closely tied to the story of generation VI than has been the case in previous games. It seems like the logical extension of what they did with Black and White 2, at any rate. This is not to say that they’re sequels in the sense that Black and White 2 were, but perhaps we might expect further involvement of the same characters, legendary Pokémon and plot elements that were prominent in generation VI. Of course, this is just a guess at something that we objectively do not have sufficient information to figure out with any confidence at this point.

Alternatively, it’s possible they’ve pulled a GS Ball and decided to just forget about Zygarde and hope no one notices.

Anonymous asks:

What do you think the Sun/Moon region will be like? The ad seems to play up the inclusion of Simplified Chinese, so maybe a province of China?

Not really sure – I mean, I think to say that they were “playing up” the inclusion of Chinese is rather a misreading of the ad; it seemed to me much more like they were showing off the number of languages rather than any one in particular, which is perfectly consistent with the way Pokémon has been explicitly emphasising its status as an international phenomenon for several years now. But I suppose it’s as good a guess as any. I’ve talked before about wanting to see a Pokémon region based on India, but China (or part of China) would be a good choice as well, for many of the same reasons. Chinese mythology might then produce a three-legged crow Pokémon for the sun and a rabbit Pokémon for the moon, so if you think China is a likely source of inspiration, watch for those.

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of the various Pokemon Champions? We know its a title of prestige but what do you think it functions as besides that? Like Lance is a secret agent, Steven is an archeologist, Diantha is a model/movie star, etc.

I did a series on all the champions a few years ago that goes into wayyyyy more depth than I could justify in answer to this question.

Find them here:
Blue, Lance, Steven, Wallace, Cynthia, Alder, Iris, Diantha

vikingboybilly asks:

I really really want your opinion of Undertale. Is it the antithesis of pokémon? Forcing pokémon into the subject matter will make you obligated to write about it.

Oh, FINE, but only because Undertale deserves to be talked about.

Note: if you haven’t played this game, then 1) you should seriously consider it because it is fantastic; in my opinion it pushes the current boundaries of what video games as a medium can accomplish, and it does that in maybe 6 hours of play time and with a $US 10 price tag, and 2) avoid spoilers like the plague; I mean it. As a corollary to 2), I’ll speak here in only the vaguest and most circumspect terms possible.

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Anonymous asks:

Would you ever consider dong reviews for Mega Evolutions like you did with the new Pokemon from Unoba and Kalos

Eh. To be honest with you I’m not really interested in individual Mega Evolutions, because I tend to be most interested in the way Pokémon fit into the world/environment/society/etc as species, and in the case of Mega Evolved Pokémon, much of the point is that they resolutely just don’t. As a general concept I think it’s worth rambling about at length – and I have – but at the moment something like that is not really on my radar at all.

vikingboybilly asks:

Why are non-sexual relationships named after Plato?

It comes from a bit in Plato’s Symposium where he has Socrates talk about there being two different kinds of love, one that stems from admiration of the body and leads the lover to loads and loads of awesome sex, and one that stems from admiration of the mind and leads the lover to self-improvement and contemplation of the divine (and of course because Plato is a philosopher he thinks the second kind is obviously superior). It’s actually sort of a misnomer, though, because the way Plato describes the second kind of love, it’s not sexual, but it kind of is romantic, and really a lot more specific than what we tend to mean when we talk about “Platonic love” in modern English.