I apologise to those 'machiners who are older than 30 here, but this weeks Big Question is aimed squarely at our younger contingent. Don't worry next week we will be back to ranting about comics. I think it will be about the worst superpower ever.
Considering that the new Pokemon games are coming out this Saturday, and considering its significance to certainly my generation, I thought we'd talk about some of the new stuff they're going to be introducing. However, first we need a question. So, what do you think of the changes they are making for this generation?
Warning, if you are avoiding any leaks before the release of the games, don't read on. However, I will not be discussing the unofficial leaks made since promotional copies of the games have been sent out last week.
Considering that Dragon is one of my favourite types, I'm a bit ambivalent on the new Fairy type. Saying that Dragon needed to be made less over-powered is a bit odd, as it's only super effective against it's self and only resisted by Steel, but considering that most Dragon type Pokemon are either Legendary or Pseudo-Legendary, I can sort of understand it (even though it would probably have been easier to just make more less powerful Dragon Types like Flygon or Altaria to bring the average down). I like the fact that it is weak against Poison, because Poison is a very underused type, despite its usefulness. I'm also glad that they've changed Steel's type effectiveness, because defensively Steel was majorly over-powered, considering a single type Steel Pokemon has more resistances than any dual type Pokemon. Now all we need is some Steel/ Poison type Pokemon or an easily accessible strong Steel or Poison type early on in the game, for those of us who like to start again from scratch each game to deal with those Fairy types (I will be majorly displeased if you can't get Steelix, Magnezone or Metagross in the game).
Moving on, I love the new Pokemon- Amie idea, considering this is basically what they've been doing in the anime since season one it's taken them long enough to get round to it. Same goes for customisable player characters, which I'm very excited about, because I tend to find myself getting board of the default look of the trainer.
Mega Evolution I'm not so keen on. Now, and don't hate on me for this, I always used to prefer Digimon to Pokemon. Sure I played the games and got the cards, but it was the anime I was really interested in at the time when this was all new and exciting (i.e. when I was a kid), and even the Pokemon anime seemed much more childish than the Digimon anime. Now, none of that is really relevant, it's just background, but Mega Evolution seems too close to Digimon for comfort to me. That was the BIG difference between the two when you were 10 and you really only knew Digimon through the anime and not the tamagochi things it was born out of. When Pokemon evolved they stayed evolved, when Digimon evolved they could change back (and they talked, which only Meowth could do back then), but now, when Pokemon evolve they stay evolved, except when they don't? Plus some of the Pokemon getting Mega Evolutions either A) Didn't need them because they were already O.P anyway (Charizard/ Garchomp I'm looking at you) or B) they would have been better off with normal evolutions (Mawile/ Absol, even Lucario). Having said that, and this is something we'll touch on later, I think the Mega Evolution designs are great, with a few exceptions. Garchomp now looks like he's been hit in the face with a hammer and it's knocked his teeth onto his chest. Venusaur hasn't changed at all and Mega Mewtwo X? I think that if they'd have mixed the two Mewtwo designs they could have had a really cool design, but instead we got headfins (which are ok, but I'm not too sure about the spoiler/ wing thing on his head) and weird flat feet and arm/ hip bulges. Either way, it'll be interesting to see what effect this has on the battling system in game and the storyline, I don't much care for competitive battling, so I don't care how this affects that. Oh yeah, before I forget, personal plea to Gamefreak here, can someone please fire the guy who thought Mega Kangaskhan was a better idea than doing what the fans wanted since Gen 1 and giving us a baby Kangaskhan and not just dumping the baby out the pouch for a little while in battle, I mean WHAT? (Sorry, I'm ok now).
Anyway. The new battling systems I'm pretty meh about. Sky battling only sounds like it could be fun in a flying type gym, but then you have Pokemon like Aerodactyl or Emolga who will wreck house. Hoard Encounters could be good if you can encounter hoards of Eevee (just imagine that), but otherwise, I tend to only catch one of each species so it just seems more effort for less reward. Plus after you attack you get beat on from every member of the hoard before you can attack again, which doesn't seem fair unless you are using MegaGarchomp or MegaMewtwo or something else ridiculously O.P, but I digress.
Anyway, now we move on to the new Pokemon and I think I can safely sum up my feelings about this gen's Pokemon with just 3 words. Noivern. Tyrantrum. Malamar. I mean dude. Noivern, it's a £@*^%$! bat- dragon speaker thing, what's not to love. And we've finally got some proper dinosaur fossil Pokemon and I'm not talking those weird ones we got in Gen 4 (ok, Rampardos was pretty cool, but Bastiodon? As a dino fan, when they give us a Ceratopsian Pokemon, it had better be a Triceratops, not what ever the hell they eventually used). But now we get an awesome bad-ass T-Rex Pokemon, thank god for that. And then we have Malamar. Strange design, like the creepy weird look, love the type combination. Psychic/ Dark, it's unique and I'm all for unique type combo's. I could run down the rest of the Pokemon, but lets just say Chespin has fallen out of favour since it turned into a balloon, I'm waiting until final evo's are confirmed before deciding between Fennekin and Froakie, Xerneus seems more interesting to me than Yvetal (but both are pretty cool) and I like most of the new Pokemon except the new fairy types (excluding Xerneus and Sylveon). Honestly, I hope that Flabebe, Spritzee and Swirlix get half decent final evo's (I refuse to believe what I have seen are going to be final evo's), because otherwise I'm going to get my Steelix and get to work.
Anyway, that's my opinions, so lets hear yours.
Hey a new type isn’t a big deal to me, although I feel you about Dragon not really needing a counterpart, considering Ice was enough to absolutely wreck any of my non-legendary dragons thanks to their propensity for double-vulnerable secondary types. Ugh.
Apart from the more 3D immersive world you’ll be walking around and the full battle animation, I think I’m most excited for the alterations you can make to your little avatar. Most of all is the editing of skin/hair color. It seems like a trivial detail, but it’s nice to be able to have a non-white avatar for once 😀
I’m very excited for this game. Especially about the part about trainer customization, because I can FINALLY run around in a game with red hair, glasses, AND a beret, like I do in real life. The one part I’m kind of disappointed about is that Gen 6 is rumored to only have 69 new pokemon.
I’m alright with the Mega Evolutions. In my opinion, they’re not as close to Digimon as most people think, but then again, that’s my opinion. But I just finished watching the first 2 seasons of the Digimon anime, and I don’t see as many similarities between Pokemon and Digimon, especially in the main concept, as people who aren’t familiar with either one seem to believe.
Also, Honedge/Doublade/Aegislash. Nuff’ said.
I forgot one thing in my last comment: Mega-Ampharos’ stone must be L’Oreal.
I highly doubt they could only introduce 70 odd new Pokemon, unless they’ve really run out of ideas. Any leaks there have been have only showed 1 extra legendary (Z), so that’s at least a dozen more there. Plus they could be holding back a few for Z to give people an extra incentive to get it other than new forms and stuff.
The thing that really has bugged me about the similarity between Mega Evolution and Digivolution is the fact that Digimon has changed the Digivolution mechanics numerous times (DNA Digivolution, Bio-Merging, Spirit Evolution, Burst Evolution (which is basically Mega Evolution, exactly the same mechanic, only it happened 5 years ago) and Digi-Fusion, but Pokemon has stayed pretty much the same, only changing evolution inducing methods, but now they change it and in a way that (as I’ve already pointed out) is so similar to something Digimon have already done? Doesn’t feel right to me. Not that I’m accusing Gamefreak of ripping Bandai off, it’s just a bit odd.
Anyway, since I’ve posted this blog the final starter evo’s and some new Mega Evolutions have been officially revealed (although they’d been leaked last week). All of the final starter evo’s look good. Chesknight looks best, but it’s derpy 2nd stage puts me off. Delphox is ok, it could have been better, but its got the type combo we all wanted, Fire/ Psychic, so that’s a plus. Greninja is probably my fave (it’s a water type and water type is my fave type), I just wish that it didn’t have that stupid massive tongue, they should have just kept the bubbles. As for the new Mega Evo’s, design-wise only Mega Gengar is really a noticable improvement, which is saying something because Gengar was always a great design anyway. Aggron gets a good new ability but like Garchomp they’ve gone to town with the ugly stick on him and Tyranitar. And don’t get me started on mega Kangaskhan again.
One thing I forgot to say in the main blog, I wish they’d introduce another compatible Eeveelution to counterpart Sylveon like they have done in every other generation they’ve introduced Eeveelutions (preferably Dragon, but Poison or Steel haven’t been done yet and either would be interesting). Why haven’t you done so Gamefreak?
Well, he is worth it.
I would have loved a another Eeveelution. I would love to see what a Dragon-type Eeveelution would look like, but if they ever do a Ground-type, I’m naming it Lilac Rose.
1 word, and 1 word only:
YVELTAL.
Where to begin? i guess fairy-types. i love dragon types, Dragonite and Salamence are to be my go-to guys when i need more power. Dragon type moves may not have been strong against much, but they didn’t need to be. Dragons tend to learn earthquake and fire blast, so in competitive play they tend to take out the opposing steel type(s) then go to town with outrage (after a dragon dance boost, naturally). Fairy being super effective against dragon doesn’t mean anything, but their immunity is a big deal.
Second: Mega Evolution. It’s really form changes gone wild, and i am excited about a few of them (Absol has always been one of my favorites, and who doesn’t love Charizard?). They do have a down-side though: they have to hold a Mega Stone, which means they can’t use fan favorites like the leftovers, life orb, or choice items. It’s not a big deal in game, but in competitive play it will have an impact. Maybe not much of one, if the Mega Evos give a big enough boost, but we’ll have to see how the meta game develops (and i, for one, am looking forward to it).
i’ve heard about there only being 69 new Pokemon. This would be the first time a new generation has added less than 100 Pokemon. And 69 is a lot less. It seems a little disappointing, but it think the focus was on innovations, and particularly Mega Evolutions (if you count Mega Evolutions, we’ll easily crack 100).
As far as new Pokemon, the only thing that dissappoints me about Sylveon is that it’s an only child. Tyratrum is just amazing, and Noivern is up there too (i did mention i love dragon types). Chespin won me over a long time ago, and i’m still eager to raise the little guy, i was hoping to raise him without knowing what he’d evolve into, but when the final Evos were leaked, a friend posted them on my Facebook wall. Chesknight really is everything i’d hoped for. The knight, mage, and rouge motif is also really cool.
The other features are all pretty great, but seam minor to me. i’ve been playing Pokemon since 1998 and it’s not the add-ons that keep me coming back. Super Training seems cool, and i do look forward to customizing my trainer and riding Gogoat and Ryhorn, but i’m hear for one reason: To catch them is my real test. To train them is my cause.
Pokemon Why? indeed
Are you questioning why I’ve covered it or why a new game is being made? Because the answer to both questions is the same, because people still enjoy it and are still interested in it.
I remember playing Pokemon Red and Yellow I think it was on a Gameboy that also doubled as a weapon if you needed to throw it at someone since it was as big and heavy as a brick LOL now my daughter has one that is thin and lite with color and all kinds of other junk it can do.
I enjoyed playing Pokemon RBY back in the day. I think my interest in Pokemon changed about the time they switched voice actors for Ash, to someone that makes him sound like a fat kid with a perpetual mouthfull of cotton. Other than that, my “Pokemon, Why?” comment stems from it having grown into a corporate beast like Dragonball and Bleach: they just keep making new characters and stretching the franchise as far as they possibly can. Games, trading cards, new rules, new types, new features…I applaud the changes, but at least Bleach and DB knew (better late than never) when enough was too much.
PS: I guess I’m a Poke-hipster lol