Anonymous asks:

Bunch of random thoughts on my favorite type, Poison? I think some simple tweaks, that also make logical sense, would make the type much more balanced: poison should be super effective on water(cause toxins affect aquatic animals more strongly), and the poison status effect should sharply lower special attack(analogous to burn). Maybe throw in effectiveness on bug and resistance to dark? Also, what do you think of the idea of a Poison/Fire legendary that creates oil spills and sets fire to them?

Poison, Poison, Poison…

Poison is underrated, I think. Like, everyone knows Poison attacks are terrible, but Poison as a type, defensively, is actually really good; just ask Weezing. Making all of those changes would make Poison much too strong, I think – but making it super-effective on Water types probably wouldn’t be too much, and it’s thematically appropriate. As for the poison status… well, thematically burns weaken your physical attacks because they make movement painful and make the affected parts of your body tender; I guess you might justify an equivalent special attack penalty from poison by claiming that the poison damages concentration or something? But I think thematically I would prefer just making all poison “toxic” to bump it up to the level of other status effects. For the attacks that currently cause that status (Toxic, Poison Fang, potentially Toxic Spikes), give them a head start on the damage ramping – start at 1/8 of the target’s HP on the first turn instead of 1/16. The legendary Pokémon could be interesting; I think I’d be inclined to see it as a sort of souped-up Muk, an avatar of industrial pollution, which potentially comes with some interesting territory to explore – if something is born out of toxic waste or oil spills, does that make it evil, or mean that it doesn’t have the same rights as other Pokémon? Does it spread pollution itself, or does it actually wipe out oil spills by burning them away, and what is its overall impact on the environment? Mechanically, what could also be neat there is a signature move along the lines of a Fire-type Venoshock – fire damage, with a bonus on poisoned targets (much stronger than Venoshock though, obviously).

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of Allerglen, the fanmade game Pokemon Ethereal Gates take on Darmanitan’s zen form. I think it’s much more useful, since it has high speed so it can actually get attacks in (And a staff member has promised future updates will buff its special attack)

I’m not familiar with Ethereal Gates, but just looking it up quickly now…

Doing Zen Mode this way does make a lot more sense – part of the reason it just doesn’t work for Darmanitan is because Zen Darmanitan is trying to be a tank when it inherently starts with less than 50% HP, which is something of a recipe for failure. Allerglen can take hits with its fairly solid initial defences and then strike back hard in Zen Mode. The trouble is that you still have only one moveset that you have to use to fill two different roles. Allerglen’s initial attack and special attack are sufficiently awful that it wants support moves like Stun Spore so it isn’t just wasting its time before Zen Mode activates, whereas once it’s in Zen Mode it wants Quiver Dance and as many special attacks as it can think of. It’s definitely more flexible, and Zen Mode sucks a lot less for this Pokémon than it does for Darmanitan (who is so much better off without this unique and interesting ability that it’s just not funny anymore) but I suspect the problems with the ability are a little more systemic than that…

Anonymous asks:

So I have this like, intense desire for there to be a poison/fairy type pokemon, since it’d be a good type combo and they’re my favorite types. But since fairy types are generally based off of mythical creatures/folk tales, I’m unsure of what the design could be. Also, fairy and poison types have clashing aesthetics, with fairies being cute and poisons being grotesque. Hopefully if they do make one it isn’t disgusting looking; as shallow as it is, I can’t stand ugly pokemon (weezing). Thoughts?

I think Fairy/Poison could be really interesting! Poison-types aren’t always grotesque (witness, for instance, Roserade, Nidoqueen, Seviper), and Fairy-types aren’t always cute (Granbull, Mawile), so I’m sure there’s room to meet in the middle on that one. And there’s plenty of room for poison in fairytale – what about the poisoned apple that the evil queen gives to Snow White? Or the association between fairies and poisonous mushrooms? I think a Fairy/Poison-type that acted as a sort of fungal counterpart to Flabébé, Floette and Florges would be really neat – a fairy whose body is covered in growths of mushrooms and toadstools, that contributes to the balance of nature by advancing decay. Or maybe a witch-like Pokémon that brews potions, some of them miraculous cures, others deadly toxins.

Anonymous asks:

Do you like Cherrim?

Eh. Ambivalent. Cherrim shares Sunflora’s main flaw – namely, that she’s a Grass Pokémon whose most interesting characteristic (her love of and dependence on sunlight) is shared by… well, all Grass Pokémon. Now, in Cherrim’s case, Game Freak gave her a transformation gimmick so that her sun theme would actually matter and so that her dependence on sunlight would be more dramatic than that of other Grass-types, which is great. The trouble is that, because of that amazing Flower Gift ability, they felt they needed to smack her with a rare double dose of Grass Pokémon Don’t Get Nice Things in order to make absolutely sure she wouldn’t somehow be overpowered, and as a result Cherrim is beyond terrible (of course, Flower Gift applies to her partners as well, so I imagine in doubles and triples you must be able to make something out of her, with appropriate team composition). But I applaud the concept. Cherrim is basically Sunflora done right, if you ask me.

Anonymous asks:

You could maybe tie the Aphrodite Pokemon thing with encantados, Brazilian dolphins who take human shape, go to parties, and seduce women back to the water with them. Maybe throw in a mermaid/siren angle too? It’s deceptive and sometimes pretends to be a human. It can sing a beautiful song that’s lured sailors into wrecking their ships. Though this is just starting to sound like Mega Lapras or something of the sort.

Well, the thing is, at this point you’re doing a Pokémon based on the encantado, not on Aphrodite – which, to be honest, I think is sort of a better place to start anyway. The notion of Pokémon based on the Greek gods doesn’t really sit all that well with me, just because the whole point of the Greek gods is how human-like they are in their moods, desires and flaws. It’s really interesting from a cultural or theological perspective, but kind of “meh” as a basis for designing Pokémon. Or at least, that’s what I think.

Anonymous asks:

If Aphrodite were an important pkmn trainer (respected one, leader, champion, etc.) what would be her team and strategy? More over, how would you design an Aphrodite-based pokemon?

Well, “strategy,” in the vaguest possible sense of the word, would involve everything knowing Attract, and probably as many other delaying techniques as possible. Aphrodite is not a confrontational goddess – she “fights” in the Trojan War, for instance, but in her case “fighting” is more floating around doing vaguely protective motions towards heroes she likes, taking Paris out of the battle when he’s about to get murdered by Menelaus, that sort of thing. So lots of moves that heal, protect, delay, and so on. Milotic is obligatory, since she’s seen as an ideal of beauty in the Pokémon world, and the Milo- part of her name is thought to be in reference to the Venus de Milo. Cloyster makes a lot of sense, in reference to the famous Botticelli painting The Birth of Venus, which has her rising out of the ocean on a scallop shell. Sparrows and doves are sacred to Aphrodite, and probably the closest we’ve got to that is Pidove, but I’ll take a bit of artistic license and give her an Altaria. Swoobat, for the heart motif. Heatmor for her husband, Hephaistos, and a big scary Fighting-type, maybe Infernape, for her lover, Ares.

As for designing a Pokémon… to be honest I’m not particularly inspired by the idea of something directly “based” on a character normally depicted in human form; I don’t really think that allows you to do anything terribly interesting. Mechanically speaking, I think it would be really interesting to make a Pokémon that somehow tries to make Attract not suck, probably using custom abilities or moves; if I wanted to bring Aphrodite into that somehow I would probably do it by basing said Pokémon on one of her sacred animals – sparrow, dove, swan, dolphin, or maybe even her sacred plant, the myrtle, but I’m not sure that necessarily would add anything to the idea of a Pokémon that fights with infatuation.

Anonymous asks:

Why do Vanillite and Swirlix get bashed and raged at for being based off of food, but Exeggcute is given a free pass? Is it just because Exeggcute is from first gen?

Well, I think if you spend more than about two seconds considering it, you can come up with more convincing reasons. Like, I suspect people who dislike Swirlix and Vanillite are likely to be more turned off by them on the grounds that eggs are things that exist in nature, while ice cream and candyfloss are not. A sunny-side up Pokémon would probably suffer similar bad press (we’ll also gloss over the fact that in-universe sources actually describe Exeggcute clusters as being more like seeds than eggs anyway). Then there’s the fact that Exeggcute is actually interesting and quirky – they have the thing where they’re multiple bodies in a psychic link, and they evolve in a really weird direction, becoming a goddamn walking coconut tree. Vanillite… is an ice cream, has ice powers, and becomes a bigger ice cream. Personally I have no problem with Vanillite being a food Pokémon; I have a problem with the fact that Vanillite is just bloody dull. Swirlix less so; I’m okay with Swirlix, although I kinda think more could have been done with that idea. Exeggcute and Exeggutor are just a lot more interesting than both, I think (also, you have to admit, their English names are badass).

Anonymous asks:

What would be your ideal worm–>cocoon–>some kind of winged thing line?

I don’t really have an “ideal” one, in the sense that there’s something in the back of my head that would work really well for it, but if you really wanted me to do the whole caterpillar/cocoon/butterfly thing, then I guess I think it would be really neat to do something with the Atlas moth. You know, this guy:

As it’s one of the biggest moths in the world, as well as named after the titan who holds up the sky, we have an excuse to do some somewhat unconventional things with it, like allow it to learn Fly and make it a big physical bruiser instead of special attack and support. Maybe have it punch things with six arms at once. I want to do something with the false snake heads on its wing tips too, but as tempting as it is, I worry that giving it actual snake heads that bite opponents is probably a bit too weird for something that traditionally would go in an early-game slot, and probably make the design too complicated and crowded. Possibly just give it the ability to use Glare and be done with it.

Atlas caterpillars and chrysalises aren’t all that exciting to look at, so it’s probably best to take a bit of artistic license with them, and fit them in with however the final form ends up looking.

Anonymous asks:

If you had the power to mind control Gamefreak employees while they’re brainstorming Pokemon ideas, what would you have them come up with?

Okay, let’s be clear on one thing here; if I had the power to mind-control Game Freak employees at any time at all, I would use it to make them wire all of their company’s money into my US bank account, then high-tail it to Acapulco and never be seen again. Just so that’s clear.

But aside from that, I would probably start by temporarily blocking out all memory of Pikachu and Pikachu’s popularity, because that is the only way I’m ever going to get them to stop making more goddamn cookie-cutter electric rodents. Then I would compel them to spend hours on end staring at Mediaeval European bestiaries. Then again, it’s possible they do that already. It would explain Murkrow startlingly well.

Seeing as you love Greek mythology, imagine for a moment that you create 1 Pokemon based around a character/monster/god/goddess in Greek mythology. Who or what do you pick?

This is actually really hard.

‘cause, like, it’d be easy to just write up a mythological monster as a Pokémon, or a whole bunch of them for that matter. It’s not actually creative, and for a lot of players it’s not introducing them to anything they haven’t already seen interpreted in all kinds of modern fiction, but it’s also really tempting because there’s so much low-hanging fruit that makes you think things like “yeah, it’d be really cool to catch and train a minotaur.” I think that’s probably why Game Freak stays away from classical mythology.

I actually did wind up thinking through a lotus fruit Pokémon in response to an unrelated question a couple of weeks ago, and you could have a look at that, but you asked me to pick something, so I should come up with something different. Hmmm… what if we tried to do something with the Graiai? You know, the three old blind chicks that Perseus is a total dick to? ’cause then you can do something with the one eye and the one tooth that the three of them have to share, you see – you can have one Pokémon, a humanoid Dark/Psychic-type or similar, that possesses terrible psychic powers but is also nearly helpless on its own because it’s blind and physically weak, then you can have a second Pokémon, maybe a Ghost-type or a Fairy-type or something, which is the eye, and it floats or hovers or something and maybe it has a major support focus, because it can’t fight very well on its own but it can see in total darkness and in all directions at once, and then you have a third one, which is the tooth, and it’s probably a Rock-type so you wind up with a sort of vaguely Bergmite-looking thing, and it’s blind too but it’s also big and tough and stupid and can crush up anything and eat it, so it doesn’t actually care. And all three of them have this weird-ass symbiotic relationship where they go around together and protect each other (I think they must live in caves or ravines or other dark places, since two of them are completely blind), and the main one, the humanoid, has two different evolutions that are triggered by having one of the other two in your party, like how Remoraid helps Mantyke to evolve, where it takes on the characteristics of the Pokémon that’s accompanying it, becoming either all-seeing, calculating and strategic or powerful, blunt and aggressive. Yeah. Yeah, let’s do something like that.