Tag: QandA

what was the first pokemon you got to lvl 100?

What part of “fourteen years” don’t you people understand?

Um… let me think.  Uh… It might have been on Silver, come to think of it; I’m not sure if I ever actually got a Pokémon that high on Blue until I came back to it in later years.  In which case it would probably have been… my Vileplume?  I had a Vileplume with Hyper Beam, just because I could; I remember that much.  Ah, childhood.

What was the first Pokemon you ever caught?

…good grief, that must have been almost fourteen years ago now.

…um, hang on…

Well, my starter was a Bulbasaur, but the first Pokémon I caught… um… Was it a Pidgey?  Or a Rattata?  I don’t think so… it might have been a Nidoran, actually, since they were available much earlier in the original Red and Blue than they are in Fire Red and Leaf Green.  Or was it a Caterpie?

Um… y’know, it’s been so long I honestly can’t remember.  On Silver the first Pokémon I caught was a Ledyba, on Sapphire it was Wurmple, on Diamond I’m pretty sure it was a Starly, and on Black it was a Lillipup, but Blue is just too far back for me.  Sorry!

What is your absolute LEAST favorite Pokemon, and why?

Hmm…

I am extremely tempted to say Probopass.

I already thought Nosepass was silly in Ruby and Sapphire, and then they went and compounded it by evolving him and adding the line “It controls three small units called Mini-Noses.”  Now, I know Nosepass and Probopass are based on moai statues, and I know that’s exactly the kind of cultural/mythological inspiration I normally like, but damnit, why did they have to decide that the best way to make an interesting Pokémon out of it was to give it a ginormous red magnetic nose!?  And that absurd moustache!?  And… and… mini-noses, for Athena’s sake!?

I just… urgh.  I give up.

How do you think the Cloud Nine ability works? I mean, only 3 evolution families get it and I’m not entirely sure why a Lickitung would block the effects of rain or what have you.

Well, I have a policy that I don’t try to explain individual moves or abilities on specific Pokémon unless they seem to be important parts of the Pokémon’s design, on the grounds that it’s just asking for trouble.  I think Cloud Nine is one of those powers that we just have to chalk up to “magic.”

But what kind of magic?

It’s interesting that it’s so exclusive – prior to the introduction of the Dream World, Cloud Nine was the signature ability of Psyduck and Golduck; the only other Pokémon who could block weather effects was Rayquaza, through his Air Lock power.  Cloud Nine appears to create an area of calm, neutral weather around the Pokémon using it; it makes a sort of intuitive sense that Altaria would have a power like this because 1) she’s a cloud Pokémon, and  2) a lot of her other characteristics and powers are related to calmness and serenity.  Golduck’s other ability is Damp, another ability related to enforcing calmness and shutting down chaotic powers, and Cloud Nine could explain Golduck’s famous strength as a swimmer (Sapphire version claims that even the stormiest of seas do not hinder him).  As for Lickilicky… I’m afraid I’m honestly not sure.  Lickitung and Lickilicky don’t have any other notable powers related to either calmness or weather.  I’ve always thought they were silly Pokémon anyway, so I’m not hugely bothered by that, but it does bug me, because normally when Game Freak give a rare move or ability to a Pokémon they have a clear reason in mind… I just can’t figure out what it is.

One of the biggest annoyances in the Pokemon games is being forced to teach a member of your party an HM move to progress, or get extra goodies, thus giving birth to the infamous HM slave. How I’d fix this is just allow HM field abilities to be used by pokemon who can learn them, as long as you have the HM and the gym badge that allows its use, with having to actually teach them the move to be completely optional. But if given the chance how would you fix it? (if different than my method)

Hell yes.

I could go into a long and detailed rant about why I don’t like the HM system, but since you agree with me anyway, I’ll spare you.

You’re quite right that the simplest answer would be to make the various field abilities into inherent characteristics of the Pokémon requiring no special training, a la Pokémon Ranger.  I have floated one other method in the past – I was trying to kill two birds with one stone and also make the Unown useful in the game, so I suggested the introduction of special tablets that could ‘seal’ sequences of Unown and then produce supernatural effects in keeping with the sequence used – so a tablet reading SWIM, for instance, would allow you to cross water.  Basically, you gain these abilities by capturing a large number of different Unown, something the games have always encouraged you to do but never adequately rewarded.

I could go on, but I have an entry on this subject planned for the… well, I don’t want to say ‘near’ future because that’s tempting fate, but… yes.

I think when they get to a really high number of Pokemon, perhaps after Pokemon X and Y, they might move to a new time period, maybe in the past or future, where many current Pokemon either don’t exist yet, or have become extinct depending on the time, then release a new Gen, kind of like starting from scratch. What do you think about the idea?

Do I think they’ll do it, or would I like it if they did?

If there’s one thing I know about Game Freak, it’s that they like to stick with what they know will work.  I doubt they would abandon their setting lightly.  Not to say that it’s impossible; they seem to have been very consciously trying to confound our expectations during the last generation or two (and, of course, in a spin-off game anything goes), but I think it’s unlikely.

Anyway, I’m biased, naturally; I’m a history guy, so I would very much like to see a Pokémon game set in the past.  I have always felt that Pokémon is a game about discovery and exploration, and the fifth generation, particularly the second pair of games, seem at times to be going out of their way to imply that there’s really not that much left to discover.  Setting a game in the past would get away from all that.  I also think it could be a great deal of fun to work around all the modern conveniences we’re used to from the newer games.  Fewer Pokémon Centres in the past – maybe you have to help set them up?  No PC storage system – carrier Pidgey?  Most Pokéballs are going to be made from Apricorns – gotta find a time and place to cultivate them and create more effective strains. Medicine?  Probably going to rely a lot on herbs and berries.  There’s a lot you could do with a game like that.

so someone already asked if there was a pokemon from the kanto region that you denied the right to exist and you said no or not really my question what is the worst kanto pokemon not one that doesn’t deserve to exist just one that strikes you as lame

For the benefit of other readers, this is in reference to this question:
http://pokemaniacal.tumblr.com/post/37543714121/im-probably-a-generic-question-asker-seeing-as-my 

I should probably clarify what I said on that topic, since I am a little worried you have gotten the wrong idea.  I don’t think the Kanto Pokémon are in any sense superior to those of later generations.  I certainly don’t think that all of them are well designed.  Indeed, I think several of them are in many ways quite poor.  However, for a variety of reasons, I don’t think you can necessarily judge them according to the same standard as the later additions, which makes them very difficult for me to deal with.

Anyway, since you asked…

I have an exceedingly low opinion of Krabby and Kingler.  So, these Pokémon are crabs?  Great; what do they do?  "Crab things.“  Um… anything else?  "No.  Why would they need to do anything else?”  Sandshrew and Sandslash, likewise, have always struck me as rather bland.  I suppose I would be remiss if I did not bring up Fearow, Pidgeot and their associated spawn, because although they have the advantage of being the first in the interminable lineage of generic bird Pokémon and therefore have a better claim to legitimacy than any of the rest, they’re still simply not that interesting when you compare them to the likes of Dodrio and Farfetch’d.  Raticate is perhaps worth consideration as possibly the only Pokémon in existence with absolutely no supernatural powers whatsoever; he’s just a really big rat.

The other annoying thing Red and Blue did was take some of the most obscure Pokémon in the game, the species you could only get one of, or only a few with great difficulty, and decide that they would be, absolutely without question, not worth it.  Farfetch’d is one (also a cool design cursed to have no useful skills at all), Lickitung another, Porygon probably the worst of all.

I could go on, but I’ve probably pissed off enough people already.

If gamefreak put you in charge of making the next game outside of the “Pokemon __ version” Gym-Badge seeking titles… what kind of game would you make?

People ask me this periodically.  I always wonder what sort of answer they’re expecting.  I mean, you do realise you’re talking to a guy who will spend three days writing a 2000-word essay on what Pokémon gender actually means?  Asking me “how would you do the next Pokémon game?” is liable to produce a small book.

I have been meaning to do this, though.  For quite some time, in fact.  I keep coming across other things that I want to do first but, damnit, enough!  It’s next on my list!  Just as soon as I finish narrating my journey through White 2.  I suppose with the oncoming release of X and Y, the topic is rather apropos, if nothing else.