Tag: QandA

If the games were more like the anime… in the sense that keeping a Pokemon from Evolving doesn’t hinder it statistically and that a Bulbasaur can actively compete against a full grown Venusaur and win as well as any other family, are there any Pokemon you’d choose to keep unevolved, or at least the first ones that come to mind? Also would you like it if the games gave you the option to not evolve your Pokemon but gain the stat growths of their evolutions instead?

Well, yes and no.  What I would like is for evolving a Pokémon to be a choice, which is how the anime presents it – but I don’t want an unevolved Pokémon to have all the same strengths and skills as an evolved Pokémon, because then you turn evolution into a purely aesthetic change and the idea itself loses a lot of its power.  Keeping a Pokémon unevolved when you could evolve it should have drawbacks, signficant ones – you’re giving up (or at least delaying the acquisition of) incredible abilities and, usually, greater physical strength – but it should also have benefits, I think.  The introduction of the Eviolite (although intended, I believe, to help the many late-evolving Pokémon of Black and White survive and contribute until they reach their final forms) already moves us in this direction, and we actually can see now certain Pokémon capable of competing with their own evolved forms – Chansey, for example, has far fewer viable attack options but with an Eviolite actually becomes tougher than Blissey, even accounting for Blissey’s free item slot for Leftovers, while Eviolite Dusclops is arguably just a better Pokémon than Dusknoir.  Porygon2 and Porygon-Z are harder to compare because they fill completely different roles anyway, but again, Porygon2 is arguably the stronger.  Vigoroth is a weird case, because Slaking is such a weird Pokémon, but again, he’s arguably better than his own evolved form.  The Eviolite allows defensive Pokémon to shine, but I think greater diversity is called for – new mechanisms to create unevolved Pokémon which are, perhaps, weaker than their evolved forms but more flexible, or alternatively less flexible but able to execute very specific strategies effectively (Light Ball Pikachu, Deep Sea Tooth Clamperl, and Eviolite Trapinch, anyone?)  The difficulty, of course, is in devising these mechanisms such that they don’t break the Pokémon who are already effective without evolving completely, like Dusclops and Chansey.  I haven’t gotten that far yet.  Must start on ideas.

This kind of thing could become really interesting when you look at Pokémon who change dramatically when they evolve – the one who comes immediately to mind for me is Exeggcute.  How might an Exeggcute be more effective in battle than an Exeggutor?  Superior reaction times, perhaps?  Tactical flexibility as a result of its multiple bodies?  And how to represent that without necessitating a radical departure from present game mechanics?  Tricky.  Some others that might present interesting puzzles include Munchlax, Dragonair, Eevee, Teddiursa, Shelgon and Pupitar, Murkrow, and perhaps Karrablast and Shelmet.

Are there any other monster-collecting series besides pokemon you enjoy, such as Monster Rancher, Shin Megami Tensei, or even the incredibly obscure Jade Cocoon? If so, how would you say they compare to Pokemon, in terms of style, atmosphere, and gameplay? (Non-video game series are also welcome, in which case you could cross out the gameplay comparison) It’d be really fascinating to hear your take on them.

Well… not really, no.  I hate to break it to you but I’m really just a Pokémon guy.  I think I’ve heard of Shin Megami Tensei, but I always thought it was, like, a manga about magical girl superheroes or something.

Um.  So yeah.

I used to watch Digimon as a kid.  That $#!t was legit.

So, pure hypothetical, but. Live action Pokemon movie. Just general thoughts on the issue, I know my friens and I discussed it for a laugh about a month ago, and the last question made me wonder what you thought?

*shrug* Well, live action movie versions of anime franchises often don’t turn out well (witness the widespread rage against Shayamalan’s Avatar: the Last Airbender adaptation).  Of course, there’s no reason it couldn’t be done well, but do we need that?  As I understand it, in Japan cartoons aren’t considered culturally or intellectually ‘inferior’ to live action as they regularly are in the West, which I think makes it unlikely that anyone is going to recognise a need for live action Pokémon any time soon.  Personally, I think they have a point.

How does poliwhirl/wrath eat? The pokedex makes such a song and dance about his intestines, but he lost his mouth when he evolved.

Well, personally I assume they do have mouths (at the centre of the spiral, since that’s where their Water Guns originate in the anime) but that they’ve become smaller and less obvious, so we can’t actually see them in the art and sprites.  Alternatively, they may adapt to absorb nutrients directly from the water around them, although this seems unlikely to me, since Poliwhirl is supposed to be more suited to life on land than Poliwag.

Have you seen the new trailer for the Genesect movie? It seems that they’re so shameless about how much Genesect copies Mewtwo that they actually decided to have Mewtwo appear in the movie. Now not even the new generation of fans will be fooled by such a rehash. XD How hilarious do you find this?

Honestly, I actually like that this is what they’re doing.  If you’ve got two very similar designs, then (in my opinion, anyway) the absolute worst thing you can do is avoid the issue, because then you’re just being lazy, everyone knows it, and you wind up with this irritating redundancy.  I think throwing the two into conflict, in order to accentuate their similarities, make a point of it, and also throw any differences into relief, is actually one of the best ways I can imagine of handling Genesect.

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?

How do you feel about pokemon forms? Like Shellos and Grastrodon. Do you think more pokemon should have various forms? I had this really cool idea of having Nidorans family come as possible ice/poison types if you found them in the north where they could’ve adapted to cold… and they’d be white with purple/blue points

I think they’re underused.  Pokémon is very good at celebrating the dramatic variety of life, and how vastly different one animal can be from anything else around it, but I think it could do more to look at the little differences, things like subspecies and regional variations.  I don’t think I’d really want to do things like make a whole bunch of different-typed variations of existing Pokémon; honestly part of me thinks it might be better to keep most form differences as a flavour thing (like Sawsbuck or Gastrodon, in contrast to Wormadam or Rotom) – and just let people have a bit of choice in their Pokémon that doesn’t have strategic ramifications for once.  I’d also like more use of gender differences, which reflects the often dramatic instances of sexual dimorphism we see in the real world.  Black and White have leaned towards having very few Pokémon with this kind of variation, but putting a lot into each one (Jellicent and Unfezant) – those are great, but I think it would be nice to have more, maybe with some minor differences in their skillsets (think Nidoking and Nidoqueen).

I’d like to draw attention also to Boltbeam’s Jaclant and Vegghoul, two fan-made Pokémon that make nice use of this kind of low-key variation.

I think I have an explanation for the Luxury Ball having a normal catch rate but making a Pokemon happy. The internal circuits are specifically designed to create a uniquely comfortable environment for whatever Pokemon gets caught in them. Thus, when a Pokemon gets sucked in, all it feels is the “default” environment. However, if it lets itself get caught, the internal circuits “read” the Pokemon’s preferences and arrange a uniquely satisfying environment for it.

(Note for readers: this question is in reference to an ongoing problem, raised by my belief that Pokémon can only be captured if they are willing to be partnered with humans and that the process of battling is more about winning a Pokémon’s respect than beating it into submission)

Well, it’s probably imagined to be something like that, yes, the reason that it doesn’t affect the capture effectiveness being that it works more slowly and can’t provide that nice environment instantly, while the Pokémon is being captured.  Working out what Luxury Balls seem to do isn’t the problem, though; the problem is working out why other Pokéballs don’t have the same effect on happiness – because presumably Ultra Balls work more effectively because they are more comfortable, all around, than Pokéballs, and Lure Balls are more comfortable for Water Pokémon specifically, and so on; they do the same thing as we imagine a Luxury Ball to be doing, only much faster since it’s all pre-set.  Maybe we could imagine that having a lesser effect on happiness, since the Pokéball isn’t ‘tailored’ (as it were) for the Pokémon, but surely it would still have some?

Of course, we could always revert to what would seem to be the default explanation, which is that Ultra Balls and the like introduce some element of compulsion into the whole business.  That does make perfect sense in itself; it’s more of a ‘is this the kind of theme we want our fiction to be portraying?’ question.

Here’s a mystery for you. Do you have any reasonable theories as to why every pokemon that can learn tms can also learn toxic? In the 1st generation games, when it was first given to you by Koga, he said it was some sort of secret technique that’s over 400 years old. Though I’m not sure what sort of ninja technique allows one to spew out a blob of incredibly poisonous goo, unless we’re getting into Naruto territory. It just kinda irks me is all.

Not really… I think you’re right to look to Koga’s description of Toxic; it is his signature move, after all.  The idea that ninjas use poison is also fairly uncontroversial.  Since it’s described as a ninja technique – that is, a technique used by human spies and assassins – I’d probably handwave it by saying that teaching Toxic to a Pokémon with no poison of its own involves teaching it to identify and gather parts of poisonous plants or mushrooms and somehow store them until they’re ready for use without actually suffering from their effects (maybe chewing two different components together creates the toxic effect, so you can keep them separate until the last minute and then spit them out as soon as they’re combined?).  I don’t know.  Something like that, anyway.  It probably varies from Pokémon to Pokémon.