Tag: QandA

Another game that people sometimes mention alongside Pokemon is Digimon. Have you ever playe a Digimon game, and if you have, what are your thoughts about it?

You know, I never have.  I watched the show when I was a kid but I never actually played a Digimon game.  I don’t think they were ever as popular in New Zealand as the anime was.

What kind of games should I be thinking of here?  Are we talking about the Tamagotchi-style thingies that Digimon was originally based on, or the stuff that was developed later as spin-offs of the anime?  Seriously, if anyone wants to recommend something so I can go and grab an emulator, I’m all ears.  The anime had some really nice characterisation and, although I don’t have as much fun with the themes as I do in Pokémon, it’s a cool world to play with.

So, I just read an article on Bulbagarden’s Tumblr, explaining the speculation of two possible new types: the Love and Sound types. Their arguments include Xerneas-Yveltal = Artemis-Apollo (Greco-Roman mythology; right up your alley there!), Sylveon being released on Valentine’s Day, etc. If I could include the link here, I would :( Anywho, what do you make of it? I think it’s looking too much into things, but always love to hear your opinion!

Found it!

http://bulbagarden.tumblr.com/post/46036478839/yesterday-when-we-asked-on-twitter-and-facebook

I’m sorry to disappoint, but in general my opinion on these things is “it’s possible but I don’t think there’s sufficient evidence to decide either way.”  I honestly don’t understand why people get so invested in speculating about something we’re all going to find out in a few months anyway.  I agree with many of the points the authors make:

– Adding a new type with so many Pokémon in existence already would be difficult, but by no means impossible (if it were me doing this, I would want to make as many as half of the new Pokémon members of at least one of the new types).
– There are many existing Pokémon and moves that could become Love- or Sound-typed, mostly by stripping down Normal to a saner volume.
–  The choice of revealing Sylveon on Valentine’s day is interesting.

The reason I’m still not convinced is that the affirmative evidence basically comes down to “it’s not impossible and we don’t know what type Sylveon and Xerneas are.”  Also, speaking as a classicist, I think that linking Artemis, a goddess of chastity, with a hypothetical Love type is fundamentally absurd.  Furthermore, no actual evidence for the existence of a Sound type is presented here, let alone any evidence for identifying Yveltal as a member of it.

The authors are correct that Apollo is in one story associated with a satyr, Marsyas, in a music competition.  What they do not mention is that Apollo subsequently flayed him.

h t t p : / / i . i m g u r . c o m / m b P D Z 9 4 . j p g Opinions?

Well, it’s a little simplistic, and there are a number of specific points I disagree with, but I suppose my ultimate opinion is really just “sure, why not?”  Might write up a more thorough reflection on this later.

P.S. A clickable link for other readers (Tumblr, for some inane reason, forbids the use of links in questions) http://i.imgur.com/mbPDZ94.jpg

Well, there’s official news of a new pokemon that’s just been revealed that’s stated to appear in the next movie. One that’s either a new form of Mewtwo, or an entirely different pokemon that’s related to mewtwo in some way. Some even say it might be Mewtwo fused with either Mew or Genesect. What are your individual thoughts if its either one of these things?

Well, I don’t really like speculating on this stuff, because I just don’t see the point of that.  Any of those ideas could be used well or badly. None of them are ‘safe,’ and none of them really set off alarm bells in my head.  I like that they appear to be doing something new with an old Pokémon, especially one as iconic as Mewtwo, and the possibility that, after all these years, there really is going to be a Mewthree is, if nothing else, amusing.  If they plan to work with the idea of Mewtwo going back to the technology that created him and using it for his own ends, that could be interesting.  Not sure how else I’d do it.

This might fall inside the lines of “future game” business that you’ve mentioned and everyone’s been asking… but each generation has introduced lots of “new.” For this questions, I want to ask about new moves… Are there any new moves you’d like to see and explore with? I mean in a thematic perspective, like how adding team battles added team moves and such.

Well, I’m sure there’s room to keep adding more and weirder effects, though I’m not really very interested in that.  I’ve always been rather taken with the idea of signature moves, myself; that’s something I’d like to see more of.  A move that’s unique to a single Pokémon means it will always have something to offer that can’t be usurped, and it also emphasises that Pokémon’s particular powers.  Better chances to be awesome, combined with a closer meshing of flavour and game mechanics – that’s win-win as far as I’m concerned.  I think a lot of Pokémon could benefit from this sort of thing, but especially ones with very unusual skills, like Kecleon (who would be so much more relevant if he had an attack that changed type with him).  Worth special mention is Delibird, who has a signature move which only makes him weaker…

If you were put in charge of the next pokémon game, but still had to stick with the same general archetypes and framework as the past games, what sort of concepts and themes would you want to include?

“If I were put in charge of the next Pokémon game” is set to be the topic of my next major project once I get the rest of this playthrough journal out of the way.  In brief, though:

– I would really like to explore the possible variations on the relationship between humans and Pokémon a bit more, through a combination of subplots/side-quests and maybe expanded mechanics for the way players relate to individual Pokémon.  This could possibly tie into the ‘Pokémon liberation’ philosophies put forward by N and Ghetsis in Black and White; I would like to make that a major theme, but that might feel less like a new game and more like my take on Black and White, so maybe keeping that to the side is best.

– I have always been convinced that Pokémon is about exploration and discovery.  I would like to increase the direct relevance of the Pokédex quest (and, by extension, of learning more about individual species of Pokémon) to the way the story unfolds and the way we play the game.

– I think the responsibility that comes with power would be something Pokémon could do a lot with.  Pokémon games always end with the player becoming Champion, but your position and its importance are rarely acknowledged in-game.  Surely the most powerful trainer in the region has certain duties?  Obligations?  Or, if nothing else, personal goals which are furthered by this power?

If you had the opportunity to retcon anything in the pokemon games (you know, things like slowpoke’s evolution not actually depending on shellder, and the ridiculous incense-dependent baby pokemon) what would it be?

Well, there are a lot of evolution methods I’d want to play with; not just things like linking Slowpoke and Shellder somehow, but just stuff like tweaking a bunch of evolutionary levels, throwing in stones or taking them out, adjusting the degree of happiness required for certain Pokémon to evolve, etc.  Black and White, for instance, introduced a lot of Pokémon with really ridiculously high levels for evolution – apparently basing those levels on the points at which you first capture them in the game rather than on the relative power or rarity of the Pokémon in question, as previous games have.  This gives you absurd things like Rufflet and Vullaby evolving at level 54, Mienfoo at 50, or Pawniard at 52, when comparable Pokémon in previous games would be more likely to evolve in their high twenties to mid thirties, anything as high as 50 being previously reserved for Pokémon like Salamence and Dragonite.  I can understand the rationale for organising things this way – they don’t want you to catch these Pokémon and have them evolve almost immediately – but it results in them dragging their feet until the very end of the game, since other Pokémon have reached their final forms long ago. The reason I feel this is inappropriate is because it ties those Pokémon to specific stages of the game.  What if, in future games, designers want Rufflet or Mienfoo to be available early (for whatever reason)?  You’re faced with 30 or 40 levels of comparative uselessness on their part (it doesn’t help that they have no intermediate forms).  At least Magikarp gets it over with fairly quickly.  Slowpoke, Ponyta and Rhyhorn have to wait until 37, 40 and 42 respectively, and honestly I think anything more becomes unreasonable (and Rhyhorn, at least, is a lot stronger than most unevolved Pokémon).

Then there are a few Pokémon that are just weird – like Marill.  For Azurill to become friendly enough to evolve into Marill can easily take until level 16 or so… and then Marill evolves almost immediately into Azumarill at level 18.  I think that should really have been pushed up into the mid twenties when Azurill was released; thanks to Huge Power, Marill isn’t exactly a pushover anyway.  Alternatively, Azurill could be tweaked to evolve earlier (along with most of the other ‘baby’ Pokémon – stuff like Pichu and Igglybuff really should be evolving sooner than stuff like Eevee and Riolu).  I might also introduce a level requirement for the use of evolutionary stones (no level 2 Togekiss for you).  Take the Sun Stone and Moon Stone requirements away from Sunflora and Delcatty, so there can be a possibility of evolving them again if future designers should will it so, and maybe paste them onto someone else instead (it seems like it would make a lot of thematic sense for Gothorita to evolve into Gothitelle by using a Moon stone, for instance).  And for goodness’ sake, do something with Tyrogue’s ridiculous evolution method.  Attack > Defense —> Hitmonlee – fine.  Attack < Defense —> Hitmonchan – fine.  Attack = Defense —> Hitmontop – much harder for no good reason, and also makes no sense since Hitmontop is easily the most defensively-oriented of the lot.

And yes, why not get rid of the incense while we’re at it?  I understand the intent there; I get that they’re trying to maintain a degree of internal consistency between the games of different generations, but surely at some point we have to acknowledge that nobody actually cares?  No-one is really going to go up to Game Freak and demand an explanation as to why you couldn’t breed a Mime Jr. in Gold and Silver.  That’s what remakes are for!

Is there anything you would change about the gameplay mechanics if you could? Like would you want to add any other stats? Or maybe raise the amount of HP Pokemon get?

Well…

Can I just say “yes”?

I mean, not to either of those specifically, but just in general… yes.  If you gave me control of those games I would rip out their guts and replace them with special stardust.  To explain everything would take months.  Luckily, this is exactly what I plan to do once I finish my Black 2/White 2 playthrough story.