One lunatic's love-hate relationship with the Pokémon franchise, and his addled musings on its rights, wrongs, ins and outs. Come one, come all, and indulge my delusions of grandeur as I inflict my opinions on anyone within shouting distance.
Based on your answer to the Ultra beast question, WHAT IS A POKÉMON??
Well, I think the Ultra Beasts (and Deoxys, for that matter) suggest that it’s not actually a biological distinction, or even anything scientific at all. I think they just call something a Pokémon if it can battle and take orders. Pokémon moves and types are categories invented by humans to describe what different creatures can do; they don’t necessarily indicate anything consistent about physiology. So it’s not clear whether Ultra Beasts are Pokémon or not, until someone catches one and uses it in a battle, and that fact is formally recognised by one or more Pokémon Leagues; after that, they definitely are. I suspect it’s almost more of a legal/rules issue than anything else.
I feel like that was a cop out answer on Looker, I’m curious in words what makes you hate him so much. Like I said, I’m indifferent, I personally don’t LIKE him but I don’t DISLIKE him, he’s just a thing that exists and persists at this point.
He’s just very very dumb and makes bad decisions with surprising regularity. Like, in X and Y, the whole plotline with Emma becoming part of Xerosic’s experiments as a guinea pig for the cyborg ninja suit happened right under his nose while he was basically acting as Emma’s guardian. He never achieves anything without the player’s help, is never particularly useful, and often doesn’t even provide much in the way of exposition. He’s been responsible for the deaths of at least one previous partner and possibly more, but somehow remains convinced he is brilliant at his job. He’s an irresponsible, incompetent, credulous git; I’m not sure what more justification I need.
I’m not sure it matters? Being considered “legendary” doesn’t really imply any particular status, and they don’t follow a consistent set of rules. But… sure. There are certainly legends about them in Alola, and they seem to have been unknown outside of those legends until fairly recently, so in that sense they are literally “legendary.” They aren’t one of a kind, but then again, neither are Heatran, Lati@s, Manaphy, etc. In game terms they certainly have stats commensurate with being called “legendary.” I think probably a much more interesting question is whether they are Pokémon or not, and as far as Game Freak is concerned the answer seems to be “yes,” but I suspect that this implies some less-than-straightforward further questions about what a Pokémon is.
Today’s Pokémon is Professor Kukui’s loyal partner, Rockruff, and his evolved form – or rather forms, as we’ll see – Lycanroc, the latest additions to Pokémon’s growing stable (or, uh… kennel) of dog Pokémon. Physically, Rockruff’s design is very straightforwardly based on a domestic dog, perhaps an Akita Inu (a large Japanese dog breed with a wolf-like countenance and a fluffy tail). Physically we’re looking at something quite close to Growlithe, with a different colour scheme and obviously very distinct powers, but very similar in terms of personality and behaviour. Rockruff’s most distinctive feature is a “collar” (or “ruff”?) of stones, which apparently has a social function – Rockruff greet each other by rubbing their stony collars on each other’s bodies. This little ritual apparently extends to their human friends as well, which can cause significant discomfort. Nonetheless, Rockruff is one of the Pokémon most favoured for beginners in the Alola region because they have a friendly and loyal disposition that makes them easy to train and command, and are also extremely tenacious in battle. In other words, they’re almost exactly like real dogs – energetic, devoted and affectionate to the point of being overbearing. A bit generic, slotting in alongside Growlithe and Lillipup almost unnoticed, but that’s sort of to be expected for the basic stage of an early-game Pokémon, and the Rock element is incorporated in a neat way with the “collar.” The meat of what this design is supposed to be doing comes with the evolved form: Lycanroc. Continue reading “Rockruff and Lycanroc”→
The fact that every pokémon, with few exceptions, can learn Toxic, Double Team, Protect, and Substitute leads me to the (fallacious) conclusion that all pokémon are ninjas. In a setting where their entire purpose is battling, well, I guess they are by a loose definition. If Joe & Mac are caveman ninjas, why not pokémon?
I don’t know who Joe and Mac are and I suspect I don’t give a $#!t
But, well, we explicitly know that Toxic is a ninja technique from Koga, and Double Team and Substitute (and Protect? Don’t know about that one) seem to be based on legendary ninja techniques. Perhaps more importantly, that makes them human techniques, which means Pokémon can do them regardless of which bull$#!t magical powers they happen to have, or even without necessarily having any bull$#!t magical powers at all.
I don’t know how true this is, or if you’ve heard of it before already, but the supposed reason why so many Alola Pokemon are slow was because Gamefreak wanted to focus on diversifying the Doubles competitive environment what with Trick Room being a huge thing.
Don’t know how we would determine how true it is without actually asking Game Freak about it, but that thought had occurred to me, and it makes sense. A lot of Pokémon in Sun and Moon (and for that matter X and Y) also have moves or abilities that seem most useful, or only useful, in multiple battles. Me, I’m one of those cranky old bastard trainers who still insists on seeing doubles as something of a sideshow, but I agree they seem to be doing their best to push it.
Do you think it’d be fun if, for some reason, they remade the gen 1 and 2 games again and they made regional variants for some of the new Pokémon? Or even a regional variant for some new Pokémon that got retyped to fairy as their original typing? Maybe a fairy/normal Clefairy that even has the original light pink color scheme way different from the much more vivid pink clefairy we have today.
I’m not sure what you mean by the “original light pink colour scheme” – Clefairy in generations VI and VII is a noticeably paler shade of pink than in II through IV (especially II, where the sprites would, I think, be best described as “shocking pink”). But as a general principle, I guess sure? I’m decidedly unconvinced by the idea of re-remaking generations I and II, but if you were going to do it, details like that would give the exercise some point.
Pokémaniacal 