Little things you like about Pokémon

[noobcubed]

This is the tragedy of competitive Pokemon though. All the limitless possibilities are boiled down to a handful of metagame staples. One player's Rocky Helmet Garchomp is totally identical to another's. It rather takes away from their individual personality because competitive Pokemon turns those Pokemon into mass-produced tools.

I get attached to in-game mons I use. I don't have that same feeling for competitive Pokemon - because I am using a specific Pokemon set, effectively a collection of ones and zeroes which is designed to beat someone else's ones and zeroes.

 

[Lady Vader]

This is the tragedy of competitive Pokemon though. All the limitless possibilities are boiled down to a handful of metagame staples. One player's Rocky Helmet Garchomp is totally identical to another's. It rather takes away from their individual personality because competitive Pokemon turns those Pokemon into mass-produced tools.

I get attached to in-game mons I use. I don't have that same feeling for competitive Pokemon - because I am using a specific Pokemon set, effectively a collection of ones and zeroes which is designed to beat someone else's ones and zeroes.

Which to me seems oddly limited. I love my competitive 'mons, probably more than any of my playthrough 'mons, not counting my original starter. Why? Well, I bred them. I was the first thing they say when they hatched. I helped them grow, get stronger. I was there every step of the way from a egg to a Level 100, fully trained badass. I mean, that's why I loved breeding my team before I ever even vaguely played competitively. They are my team and that's all that matters.

 

[Primal Ivysaur]

So as a warning this post will be very personal so here's a spoiler for those who don't like to read that sort of thing

Ranty super sappy post

So, I've been playing Pokemon for as long as I can remember, which is a very common occurrence here I know. But the thing is that recently I saw a video that made me realize why I still love Pokemon even to this day. it was this video:

This video reminded me of how Pokemon unified me and my step-brother. You see, like all step-siblings we had a hard time getting used to each other especially considering he was significantly older than me. However, the one thing that ended up bringing us together was a mutual love for Pokemon. My brother would teach me how to play the games since I wasn't able to read the text properly and in turn, I'd battle against him when I had a team put together. This video took me back to all of the moments I and my brother shared together and how much they mean to me. Ultimately, I think the reason I will always love Pokemon is because of how it brought me together with my family, and for that, I will always be grateful.

 

[sneaky.]

I like how pokemon games are getting cheaper, unlike other AAA titles which are reaching absolutely ridiculous prices.

I remember spending around $70AUD for Pokemon pearl in 2007. Last year, I bought alpha sapphire for only $52.

Thanks for being easy on my wallet, nintendo Pokemon. Other Nintendo games are still expensive as fuck.

 

[Kurona]

I like how pokemon games are getting cheaper, unlike other AAA titles which are reaching absolutely ridiculous prices.

I remember spending around $70AUD for Pokemon pearl in 2007. Last year, I bought alpha sapphire for only $52.

Thanks for being easy on my wallet, nintendo Pokemon. Other Nintendo games are still expensive as fuck.

That seems to be a region-exclusive thing, unfortunately. Here all the games are still £40, and at the local second-hand game store - which has, among other things, Mario Galaxy for £8 - all the Pokémon games including Gen 4 are £42.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

I like how pokemon games are getting cheaper, unlike other AAA titles which are reaching absolutely ridiculous prices.

I remember spending around $70AUD for Pokemon pearl in 2007. Last year, I bought alpha sapphire for only $52.

Thanks for being easy on my wallet, nintendo Pokemon. Other Nintendo games are still expensive as fuck.

Yeah, I'm calling shenanigans on this. Most Pokemon games have not gone down in price at Gamestop one bit. In fact HGSS went UP in price. So, either Australia is a land of backwards prices (in which case, see how much Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is being sold for. We may be able to make a profit) or the store you went to doesn't know prices.

 

[sneaky.]

Yeah, I'm calling shenanigans on this. Most Pokemon games have not gone down in price at Gamestop one bit. In fact HGSS went UP in price. So, either Australia is a land of backwards prices (in which case, see how much Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is being sold for. We may be able to make a profit) or the store you went to doesn't know prices.

I buy my Pokemon games from Big W which is kind of like the Australian equivalent of Best Buy/Walmart if that changes anything. They usually charge around $10 less than EB games (aussie gamestop). I do agree that older pokemon games are still expensive but that's just because they aren't regularly stocked anymore.
Also:

Other Nintendo games are still expensive as fuck.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

I buy my Pokemon games from Big W which is kind of like the Australian equivalent of Best Buy/Walmart if that changes anything. They usually charge around $10 less than EB games (aussie gamestop). I do agree that older pokemon games are still expensive but that's just because they aren't regularly stocked anymore.
Also:

Huh, I guess you're just lucky to have a store like that there. These are used games or new? I can see new games being cheaper because sometimes stores indiscriminately mark down prices of games without knowing how "in demand" they are

 

[cityscapes]

I found out about this a while ago:

Each weather inducing ability has exactly two users.
Drought: Groudon, Ninetales
Drizzle: Kyogre, Politoed
Snow Warning: Abomasnow, Aurorus
Sand Stream: Tyranitar, Hippowdon
Additionally, for each weather, one setter has an alternate form: Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Mega Tyranitar, Mega Abomasnow.

This satisfies me in a way words cannot describe.

 

[Antihaxxer]

What about pre evo like Vulpix ?

 

[Durengardnit]

I found out about this a while ago:

Each weather inducing ability has exactly two users.
Drought: Groudon, Ninetales
Drizzle: Kyogre, Politoed
Snow Warning: Abomasnow, Aurorus
Sand Stream: Tyranitar, Hippowdon
Additionally, for each weather, one setter has an alternate form: Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Mega Tyranitar, Mega Abomasnow.

This satisfies me in a way words cannot describe.

Mega Charizard Y with its Drought ability completely ruins your system, though. Its existence simply bothers me because that means rain was the only weather ability that didn´t get a Mega Evolution setter.

 

[cityscapes]

Mega Charizard Y with its Drought ability completely ruins your system, though. Its existence simply bothers me because that means rain was the only weather ability that didn´t get a Mega Evolution setter.

What about pre evo like Vulpix ?

I can no longer sleep at night

 

[Antihaxxer]

Sorry ! Have fun this night :D

 

[Syogren]

I can no longer sleep at night

Well I mean Vulpix and Ninetails are from the same line. So you could have just said "One evolution family" and it still covers everything!

 

[Kurona]

Well I mean Vulpix and Ninetails are from the same line. So you could have just said "One evolution family" and it still covers everything!

Charizard Y.

I'm determined to not let him sleep

 

[Darth Manaphy]

Charizard Y.

I'm determined to not let him sleep

Sleep is for the weak anyways

 

[Syogren]

Charizard Y.

I'm determined to not let him sleep

Now see that's just because you're a meanie butt >:( JK love ya platonically <3


So in the idea of not making this a shitpost, one of the other things I like in pokemon is how so many of the messed up, weird, ugly looking designs, the ones where you wonder how it could even exist, are given to pokemon who, lorewise, are actual literal accidents that shouldn't exist.

I talked about this in the design thread, but examples of this are Garbodor, the Klink and Vanillite lines, and the Kyurem fusion forms. They look like they shouldn't exist, and what do you know, they actually legitimately shouldn't exist. Garbodor, Klink, and Vanillite all randomly spawned in their current forms from non-sentient matter. They look like they shouldn't survive, and honestly they'll probably go extinct after a few centuries. I love the idea that random stuff just casually becomes alive without warning every so often, and then just as suddenly goes back to not being alive. It's so...what's the word...fun? It's fun. You don't get to experience that in real life, so seeing it happen in fiction can be a fun time.

And of course the Kyurem fusion forms were literally forced into being by some a**hole, much like how Frankenstein created his monster and it just looked like the most unnatural thing possible. Because it was. Of course the Kyurem fusion forms aren't going to look unviable. They even are unviable competitively, at least compared to what their base stats would suggest.

They're all perf smols, I love them, they're my children. <3

 

[Cutefluffysheep]

I can no longer sleep at night

After looking at that avatar, I don't think I'll be sleeping much either :P

They even are unviable competitively, at least compared to what their base stats would suggest.

They are in ou and uber, which is pretty decent.

 

[Syogren]

They are in ou and uber, which is pretty decent.

Not decent for a pokemon with a BST just twenty points under the god of all pokemon. Then again...iunno. It feels a lot less powerful than it should be. Which feels like it makes sense.


Anyway I got another one.

I love how there's just so many spinoffs of Pokemon, and how they're basically all amazing.

I'm sure ever since the beginning people were thinking about how cool it would be to take away the humans of the Pokemon world and have it JUST be Pokemon interacting with each other. After all, we already have humans in the real world, the unique part is the Pokemon themselves. What would something like that be like?

Well guess what, you don't have to wonder about it, because we got it: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. And we don't just have one game, we have FOUR games. FOUR GAMES OF JUST POKEMON GOING ON ADVENTURES AND FORMING TEAMS AND OVERALL BEING COOL! You can say what you want about your personal gripes with the series or any of its particular games the third one, but the point is that you have a series like this. A series that takes the idea of Pokemon and interprets it differently.

But the spinoffs don't just end there, oh no. You've got so much more than that.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be one of those rangers that travel the world, make friends with the local Pokemon, have them help out, and release them back into the wild so they can keep doing whatever? Stop wondering. Pokemon Ranger will take care of that. Oh and there's like, you know, three games worth of that, so you're gonna be entertained for awhile.

Or have you ever been frustrated with how you can't steal the other trainers' Pokemon and have to resort to hacking the game in order to get them? Well first of all you're a meanie butt. Second of all you can do that while also being a good guy by playing Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness.

Or what you wanted to save pokemon that people had turned into perfect killing machines, and purify them back to their uncorrupted state? Well again, may I direct you to Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness? That's why you're the good guy in those games btw.

Or what if you wanted to rescue kidnapped Pokemon by sneaking into the bad guys' base and free them all? That would be Pokemon Trozei.

Or what if you didn't want to train your own Pokemon, but still wanted to battle? Maybe in some sort of arena with prechosen Pokemon to see how much stuff you can win? Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2, and Pokemon Battle Revolution will all scratch that itch.

Or what if you don't want to do any battling or adventuring, but still thought that Pokemon were cute and just wanted to like, chill with them? Well you've got Hey You Pikachu and Pokemon Channel for that.

Or what if you just, you know, hated actually interacting with Pokemon? What if you just wanted to explore the world and do nothing but take pictures of them from afar, and show off how cool your photos are?

Well, you could always just play Pokemon Snap.

Look at all of these spinoff games! Look at them! There's so many! And they're all so different! And yet they all do take off of the core idea of Pokemon. They're all very much Pokemon games. They just let you do different things than the core mainseries games. They all have a different twist. Sure not everyone is gonna like every spinoff, but for those who have wanted things like this...they're there. And you can get them. And you can play them. Aw ye.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Trailers were mentioned recently. I agree with everything SomewhatOddish said on the previous page, but I want to add a few things. One thing I really like about the Sun/Moon reveal trailer is how it builds up hype and suspense, then shows all previous first pairs before finally revealing the existence and names of the upcoming games at the end. The background music also goes completely silent for a slight moment, creating an even better feeling. I especially liked watching this trailer during the Pokemon Direct it was first shown in, it was a fantastic way for both Game Freak and the fans to celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Continuing in the topic of trailers. I love the animated trailers for B2/W2 and OR/AS. Everything about them is just awesome. They show events and features from the games but in a different way and it is just fantastic. I love the animation, the music, the characters, the Pokemon and events that are shown. I hope they'll do more of them for future games.

I recently caught a complete Unown collection in Omega Ruby, and while doing it, I noticed that every Unown letter has its own distinctive animation in 6th Gen. It feels like they made an effort to make every Unown unique when it comes to the animation, which made me happy to see.

I have also recently started catching legendaries in OR/AS, and one thing that made me happy were the Braille messages. I never bothered with deciphering them in the original Hoenn games, but I decided to do so this time around. Some of them were unexpectedly good. My favorite is the one in the Ancient Tomb, which reads: "Stand center. Aim to the sky with love and hope and time." I find that oddly poetic for a Pokemon game.

Finally, one small thing I like. The sound effect when you obtain a Mega Stone. It feels unique and special which goes very well with the Mega Stones as they are more than just a regular item.

 

[Taistelu]

I thought we weren't meant to discuss S/M stuff outside the S/M sub-forums...I mean you didn't spoil anything so I'm not 100% sure if it falls within the rules or not...anyway...

Yeah, the animated trailers are great. It would've been better if Unown was atleast semi-decent, so I would have a reason to go out and collect them.

 

[Kurona]

Yeah, we can't really discuss Gen 7 stuff. I think describing stuff in vague terms should be fine though, like maybe saying you like how constant the news has been or how you've liked every Gen 7 Pokémon so far. Just don't go into actually describing anything new.

 

[Oddish.]

There was also a really cute animated trailer for Gates To Infinity when it was about to come out. I don't think there's ever been an animated trailer for a spin-off game outside of that.

The animated trailers usually do a good job at showing off the Pokemon world, with good animation and dynamic fight scenes. I hope we get one for SM.

 

[Smuckem]

Accelgor's Gen VI standby animation (he looks behind him from each side). The animation itself isn't what catches my eye; it's that, from certain camera angles, it suddenly looks as if he's turning to face the player...an "inadvertent fourth wall moment", I call it.

 

[GoId]

1. I love how in Generation 2, some NPCs mention the events that happened 3 years ago [in RBGY], it's a minor detail, but i always found that awesome!

2. I like how Pikachu changes emotions troughout the game in Yellow. He's scared in the Pokémon Tower, he wears a bucket on his head when you're fishing, and he shows how much he likes you depending on how you treat him, etc. I really liked that feature!

3. When you headbutted trees in GSC, if you found a Hoothoot in the morning, it'd be asleep. I liked that minor detail!

EDIT: Minor text fixes.