Anonymous asks:

Do you think evasiveness and accuracy should be actual stats rather than just background stats that are the same for every pokemon unless altered in-battle by some sort of move.

I’m going to go with “no.”

Partly this is because I think the game is just better with ‘safe’ attack options, stuff you can always rely on to hit, which wouldn’t be possible with accuracy and evasion as base stats. Mostly, though, it’s because this would make risk/reward calculations impossible and utterly invalidate a lot of the strategic thinking involved in the game. Think about it. If accuracy and evasion are base stats, then both will have EVs and IVs associated with them, and there’s no way you can know how much effort an opponent’s Pokémon has invested in accuracy or evasion. With most of the other stats you can often make a rough estimate after seeing an attack or two, because if you know approximately how much damage your Pokémon tend to deal or take from different opponents (which you can get a feel for by spending time in the Battle Subway or whatever), you can say things like “well, that’s a lot more than I’d expect; he must have trained very heavily in special attack.” For accuracy and evasion, though, a single hit or miss tells you nothing; you’d probably need to observe one Pokémon over several battles. This being the case, not only can you no longer be sure an attack will hit, you can’t even know how likely an attack is to hit! There is no longer any such thing as a calculated risk under those circumstances, and I just don’t think that’s an improvement.

EDIT: I suppose it might be nice to add a level factor to the equation that determines whether attacks hit or miss, so that Pokémon of high levels are more likely to dodge attacks from Pokémon of low levels, and so forth, but I’m not totally sure about the actual value of doing that – and it would make AI opponents who rely on their inflated levels to compensate for their lack of effort training, like the Elite Four, incredibly frustrating.

What party members have you used throughout Final Fantasy?

I tend to swap them in and out. Is that weird? I sort of get the impression that the designers didn’t expect a lot of people to play like that, because the materia system makes switching party members on a regular basis a huge pain.

Oh, except for Yuffie. I never used Yuffie much because I have irrational hatred for her.

Anonymous asks:

I’ve recently noticed that the way GameFreak hands out moves is often… skewed. They will deprive a Pokemon of a move that fits its flavour perfectly, while giving another move to another Pokemon because HEY, WHY NOT? For example contrast Blissey learning Stealth Rock(WTF?) to Ninjask not learning ExtremeSpeed(His speed is all they talk about in the dex; I would have thought giving him a mlve that requires, y’know, SPEED would be a no- brainer). Thoughts?

Ninjask lacking Extremespeed is actually something I can get behind, since all Extremespeed really does is allow a Pokémon to move first – something Ninjask can almost always do on his own anyway. In general, though… Here’s an old rant which might amuse you. Continue reading “Anonymous asks:” →

Anonymous asks:

Wow, really loving all your articles and posts! That’s awesome that you like the Grass type; they don’t get enough love. But I gotta know: what’s your opinion on the Ground type in general? For the longest time it’s been my favorite (but that might be nostalgia talking since I used to love Sandshrew when I was 8). Now that I’ve looked over some of your posts about Pokemon designs….I do notice Ground has a lot of rather generic looking desert animals with no particular extraordinary powers, lol

Ground… Ground is sort of odd because, aside from Normal, it’s the element with the fewest proper defining characteristics. Many of them are either subterranean or desert creatures – and let us note that these are two extremely different things, and that there is really no reason to clump them together while separating Rock. This seems to be the deal for most Ground-type attacks, but not all Ground Pokémon are anything like this. What, for instance, makes Marowak a Ground-type? What makes Garchomp a Ground-type, other than having the Sand Veil ability (which is shared by Cacturne)? What makes Nidoking and Nidoqueen Ground-types? You mention Sandshrew, and I think perhaps it is worth noting that, as of his introduction in Red and Blue, Sandshrew never actually learned any Ground attacks on his own – Sand Attack being considered a Normal-type attack at the time, which really makes you wonder why they labelled Sandshrew a Ground-type in the first place. In Gold and Silver, of course, Sand Attack became Ground-type, but the newly introduced Sandstorm was a Rock-type attack, and has been ever since. The first Sand Stream Pokémon, Tyranitar, was a Rock-type also. Sort of makes you wonder why other sand Pokémon, and the sand-based attacks introduced in Ruby and Sapphire, didn’t follow suit. The only thing I can think of that they all have in common is that they live on the ground, and even that goes out the window when you encounter bloody Gligar and his nonsensical Ground/Flying type. It might be instructive, furthermore, to question why Kangaskhan, Dunsparce and Stoutland, to name a few, are not Ground-types.

I’m honestly not sure Ground really needs to be a type at all. It has very little in the way of thematic unity or purpose, and if I had been doing this ten years ago I might have suggested eliminating it entirely and splitting all of its belongings between Rock and Normal (although this would happen at the price of making Normal even larger and more nebulous than it is already). You asked for my opinion on the Ground type, and I suppose I’ve given it… I don’t really ‘get’ it. This is not to say that individual Ground-type Pokémon are poorly designed; some of them are, of course, but others are amazing. It’s just that the type as a whole is such a vague and, frankly, poorly thought-out idea that they don’t really have anything in common as a group. Is it really necessary to have two ‘miscellaneous’ types?

Anonymous asks:

If you could change one thing about Garbodor- other than the fact he exists- that would make you like him more, what would you do? For example, give him more moves, better stats, and evolution…

I have one major problem with Garbodor.

Well, two major problems.

…okay, three major problems.

The easiest problem is that he’s honestly just a terrible Pokémon. Probably best fixed by adding some stuff to his movepool (probably support stuff, like Taunt and Slack Off – heck, maybe we could even get away with Thunder Wave? He already gets Thunderbolt, and Thunder Wave might actually be useful) and raising his HP a few points. I should note that the addition of Drain Punch to Garbodor’s movepool via the B2W2 move tutors makes him significantly less terrible than when I first looked at him in ‘11, though he’s still not exactly good.

The second problem is that he’s conceptually very similar to Muk. So similar, in fact, that I was never actually able to pick out any differences. This is one of my pet peeves. Now, this is where you probably want to look at Bogleech’s Garbodor article; he argues that Garbodor completes a land/sea/sky triad with Muk and Weezing, which… I don’t really believe, to be honest, or at least I don’t think that’s what the designers intended because, frankly, I think if that were the case Garbodor would have earth-related abilities (hey, that gives us an excuse to lump Earthquake on him). I think Garbodor was intended to replace Muk and Weezing in Black and White, not to complement them. That would certainly be a good place to start, though. Aside from giving Garbodor earth-related powers, you could take some time to associate him with Muk and Weezing in some way other than merely having them in the same global franchise – set them up as rivals or something? I’m of the opinion that if you really must copy an earlier idea to a t, you should at least reference the fact that this is what you’re doing.

The last problem I have with Garbodor is sort of a stylistic thing. See, I think the knee-jerk reaction a lot of people have with Garbodor is that he’s dumb because he’s made out of trash, and this is not why I dislike him at all. I don’t really have any issue with Muk, and I think Trubbish was actually surprisingly well done. It’s more the ‘lobotomised chimpanzee’ look that bothers me. Muk has an air of menace about him. Garbodor has an air of ‘durrr…’

…let me tell you a story.

When I first encountered Garbodor, my thought was “that isn’t a Pokémon. They would never create anything that stupid.” Now, you believe I am exaggerating. You believe that, obviously, when I met Garbodor in the game, the fact that he was in the game clearly must have proven to me, beyond doubt, that he really was a Pokémon and that Game Freak did create him, and that however much I disliked him I had to deal with him.

You would be wrong.

You would be wrong because the first place I ever encountered Garbodor was this cartoon.

Since this was before I had ever actually played Black version, I interpreted this as sheer exaggeration – “oh, look at the new Pokémon; they’re so dumb that even this piece of shit would fit in just fine.” It honestly never occurred to me that this might be a real 5th-generation Pokémon I was looking at (the cartoon reached me without any explanatory caption, so I was deprived of that information). When I actually met Garbodor in Black, my surprise and dismay were epic in their scope (and I am a classicist by training; ‘epic’ is not a word I use lightly).

Let me say this one more time.

When I first encountered Garbodor, I sincerely believed he was a parody created by Genwunners to mock recent Pokémon designs.

Let that sink in.

Is it really any wonder I have a problem with him?

Anonymous asks:

Imagine that you have been hired to become a gym leader/elite four. You must have a team of one main type only, maybe with an extra pokemon of a different type added in there. What type would you choose, and what would your team be?

One main type only? Pssht. Bo-ring.

(If you really want to see my single-type team, take a look at this other question I answered this morning)

Personally, I think the whole single-type Gym deal is getting a bit old. I do believe Gyms should have unifying themes, and often a single type is a nice way of doing that, but I’d like to see some Gyms with more abstract themes, like the Viridian Gym of Heart Gold and Soul Silver, which is based around not a type but a move – Trick Room.

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Anonymous asks:

What would be your dream competitive pokemon team and why? Also what would be your ideal pleasure pokemon team ( just for fun)

[Disclaimer: this blog should not be your first port of call for competitive Pokémon advice, as I am a horrendous battler]

I’ve always said that, if there’s one Pokémon I’d want with me in a fight more than any other, it’s Starmie. Of course, Starmie doesn’t like Pursuit, so I need something to murder Dark-types, something like Breloom. I love Poison Heal Breloom, and Poison Heal Breloom loves me. I want a Porygon 2 in there, because Porygon 2 with an Eviolite pretty much counters everything, right? Let’s throw in a Dragon Dance Gyarados to ‘drop the hammer,’ as it were, and… what’s missing? Stealth Rock! Need something with Stealth Rock. Let’s use Bronzong for that.

Oh, and it just doesn’t look right if you don’t have a Dragonite. Bitches love Dragonite.

If I want a team just for fun, it’s going to be all Grass-types. This is because Grass-types are the best.

Vileplume gets in because Vileplume is my favourite Pokémon and can Stun Spore things like nobody’s business. Next is Whimsicott because Whimsicott is ridiculous and fun and a huge pain for your enemies. Ludicolo is important so I don’t get completely squashed by Fire- and Ice-types (yeah, like he’s really going to help) and Cradily is bizarre and awesome. Exeggutor is too slow to do much of anything, but packs a hell of a punch. I want to finish by sticking Virizion in there, because I need someone to clean up with Swords Dance, right?

Anonymous asks:

If the Creature Design department at Pokemon studios asked you to design a Pokemon, how would you proceed and what would your Pokemon be? Type(s), Attacks, Ability/Abilities, Bio, and maybe a picture or illustrative description?

Hmm.

Well, my usual position is that I wouldn’t.

I’m not against new Pokémon per se; I just think we have enough now that creating new Pokémon for the sake of having new Pokémon should no longer be a priority.

Still, you did ask…

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