The Pokemon Topic

[nuclear death frog]

Seeing as Japan has such a rich Martial history, there's a significant association with the Fighting-type and "Heroes." Hence why Fighting is super-effective against the Dark-type (Evil-type in Japan.)

As Gym Leaders are supposed to be pillars of the community or something like that, I doubt that they'll ever be a Dark-type Gym.

Gens 2, 3, and 5 had native Dark-type Elite Four, and Gen 6 had a remake of the games from Gen 3 meaning there was a Dark-type Elite Four member. Four out of five generations is fairly compelling evidence that your theory does not mean much to GameFreak. Especially since in Japan the Elite four are called the Shitennou -- Four Heavenly Kings.

 

[Rising Dragon]

One way to handle the difficulty would be to have the gym leaders use full teams, and have all their 'mons scale to your level. That way you can never really overlevel and just utterly crush two or three pokemon for a badge.

 

[Altered Nova]

4) Enemy trainers with more pokemon. Seriously, the only trainers that ever carry a full team of six pokemon are always joke trainers with nothing but magikarp or something. I'm pretty sure the only legitimate trainer with a full team is the fucking champion. The gym leaders only use two or three, and even the elite four only have four pokemon each. Why does every other trainer in this game handicap themselves like that?

Most likely it's so you don't have to return to the Pokemon Center to heal after every couple of fights.  The gym leaders are TECHNICALLY designed to be fought right after numerous battles, though I'm pretty sure most people go back and heal right before fighting them.  And the Elite Four are the first fights of the endurance battle ending with the champion..

You mean this change would make moves like dig and teleport actually somewhat useful, and you might actually have to use some of those dozens of healing items in your inventory that you never need because the game is either too easy or there is a pokemon center only 30 seconds away? Sounds like an improvement to me.

 

[Contrabardus]

One way to handle the difficulty would be to have the gym leaders use full teams, and have all their 'mons scale to your level.  That way you can never really overlevel and just utterly crush two or three pokemon for a badge.

They could also bump the level of the Pokemon they're using and give them better optimized moves. Another thing to raise difficulty is to give mob trainers more Pokemon with a slight level bump. To do that, they'd have to lower the XP gain for winning battles as well, so players don't advance in level too quickly just because they're facing more Pokemon per battle. I'd keep wild Pokemon levels about the same though so players still need to train them to be competitive, nor would I bump up wild encounters.

Reducing the number of items you can carry would also make things harder. Like say being able to carry only 10-20 of each recovery and support item instead of stacks of 99. Less money earned per trainer battle would also be another way to handle it.

I'd love to see a difficulty setting for older players. It wouldn't be extremely difficult to do really.

Part of the reason it's so easy to curb stomp enemies, players are able to switch out Pokemon, and things like the XP item exist is the target age of the game. It's made to be easy so younger players can beat it. You've got to remember that Pokemon is targeted at 6-12 year old kids, and that it has to be easy enough that the lower end of that age spectrum can get through it. I think some of that age spectrum would appreciate a harder difficulty mode as well, but the games are meant to be easy even in Japan.

Pokemon is meant to be an introductory RPG, so naturally it's not intended to be difficult.

 

[nixofcyzerra]

X was sadly easy for me. Gym Leaders had a max of three Pokemon, and iirc the Elite Four only had 4 each.

Challenge mode on B2 was much better than X, but still not particularly difficult.

 

[TC_Hazard]

My pokemon wishlist:

1) Multiple save files.

2) Difficulty settings. Especially a hard mode for older players like me. I actually never finished X because the game was so damn easy that I got bored.

3) Revamped HM system. I'm tired of having to waste team slots on combat worthless HM slaves. Giving each pokemon a couple of extra field-exclusive move slots would probably be the best way to do it. They could also turn the HMs into key items, or buff them all to actually be good, competitive moves.

Higher difficulty will probably not happen outside things like the Battle Frontier. You could always try the fan games if you want a bit more of a challenge.

Stuff like Pokemon Insurgence is surprisingly good for something that's not an official game. Bonus points for dropping the need for HM Slaves entirely in favor of having Key Items that do the same stuff.

 

[Drawde]

You mean this change would make moves like dig and teleport actually somewhat useful, and you might actually have to use some of those dozens of healing items in your inventory that you never need because the game is either too easy or there is a pokemon center only 30 seconds away? Sounds like an improvement to me.

Constant backtracking isn't difficult, only annoying.  It's an anti-frustration feature.  Going back to heal during a gym challenge was easy in X/Y, just annoying.

Forcing you to use more healing items can work, as long as you remember a couple things:
  1:  How easy is it to heal EVERYTHING?  Running out of PP for your moves sends you back to the Pokemon Center, since most or all PP restoring items can't be bought.
  2:  How easy AND fun is it to get money, and what else do you need that money for, at all points in the game?  If players would rather spend five minutes backtracking to the closest healer after every fight than spend the time grinding money, there's a problem.  Same if that money is hard to get and needed for other things until right before the final boss.

Depending on how annoying it is to get the money to buy the healing items players might decide to backtrack instead.  And quit the game if all methods are too annoying.

Purely for example's purpose, let's say it takes five minutes to walk back to the dungeon/gym/whatever after teleporting out, with either nothing happening or constant random encounters that you can easily escape from.  There's ten required fights before the boss, and each requires full health to survive.  It requires 1,000 money to heal completely after every fight.  And the only repeatable method of gaining money is a slot machine that, while the odds are in your favor of winning, only averages 100 money a minute, barring the very rare jackpot.

So your only choice is spending about about an hour walking back while doing nothing, or pressing a button every so often for over an hour to earn the money to heal, just to beat one boss.  And there's usually more than one dungeon/gym/whatever per game.

These are the sort of things you have to figure out when designing a game.  You don't want the majority of your players quitting the game they paid money for before beating it, due to the annoying parts where you're not playing while still technically playing the game.  And no matter how fun some things can be in small amounts, they can get boring if done too often.

TLDR  Backtracking to heal is annoying if done too often or is too long, and paying for potions is annoying if you either spend too long grinding for money or need that money elsewhere.  And these points are different for every player.  All of which game designers have to figure out.

 

[Contrabardus]

[X-posted in Gaming News]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn25hijDL7c[/video]

Huh. A Grass/Flying type starter. That's interesting.

Willing to bet Litten evolves into a Dark/Fire type just based on his look.

 

[nuclear death frog]

The name of the region in English is Alola. This is definitely Hawaii as speculated.

Don't be too sure the Fire starter will end up Fire/Dark -- Tepig had plenty of black and was Fire/Fighting as it evolved.

I'm guessing the Grass starter will stay Grass/Flying all the way up.

Mid-November can't get here fast enough!

 

[Contrabardus]

The name of the region in English is Alola. This is definitely Hawaii as speculated.

Don't be too sure the Fire starter will end up Fire/Dark -- Tepig had plenty of black and was Fire/Fighting as it evolved.

I'm guessing the Grass starter will stay Grass/Flying all the way up.

Mid-November can't get here fast enough!

Tepig didn't look like he might evolve that way though. Litty's design seems like he might. It's not just the black, but they eye and the fact that he's a cat type. His design seems like he might is all, and given the theme of the games there's a decent chance he might evolve that way later. A dark type evolution for a starter seems like a good fit for Moon at least.

I'm not saying he will for sure, just that it seems like he might given his design. Pretty sure he won't end up a fighter type at least, might stay pure fire or something as well.

Don't know which starter I'm going with yet out of the bunch, only that it probably won't be the seal looking one. Litty looks cool, but I also like the sound of a flying grass type as a starter.

Looking forward to Nov myself, but I"m still not sure which version I'm going with yet. I probably won't get both unless there's a huge difference between the two beyond the legendary and some backgrounds. If I really like playing through whichever I get first I'll definitely nab the other.

 

[atlas_hugged]

[X-posted in Gaming News]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn25hijDL7c[/video]

Huh. A Grass/Flying type starter. That's interesting.

Willing to bet Litten evolves into a Dark/Fire type just based on his look.

It's probably going to be grass/flying, water/ice, fire/fighting. 

It has the benefit of every starter being good against the other two starters in some way.

 

[nuclear death frog]

The secondary types being Flying, Fighting, and Rock in some order would be better than Flying Fighting Ice.

Flying resists Fighting and is weak to Rock
Fighting resists Rock and is weak to Flying
Rock resists Flying and is weak to Fighting

 

[atlas_hugged]

The secondary types being Flying, Fighting, and Rock in some order would be better than Flying Fighting Ice.

Flying resists Fighting and is weak to Rock
Fighting resists Rock and is weak to Flying
Rock resists Flying and is weak to Fighting

That works too.  I'm calling ice over rock because the water one looks like a walrus/seal, and ice fits into the typing (though obviously not as good as rock).

 

[nuclear death frog]

The following is not confirmed. There has, apparently, been a leak.

Rowlet final stage: Grass/Flying
Litten final stage: Fire/Ground
Popplio final stage: Water/Fighting

 

[nixofcyzerra]

Hmm... Rowlet final evo has a slight edge against the other two, due to having an immunity to ground from its secondary typing rather than just a resistance, but it would also have a 4x weakness to Ice, a pretty common offensive type. And Litten would be immune to Electric but have a 4x weakness to water...

But Popplio final evo would have the same number as weakness as Rowlet, but more than double the resistances. Might be my choice if the final form's looks improve.

No, wait, Ground isn't super-effective against Fighting. It's neutral. I guess Flying isn't super-effective against Ground either, but Flying's Immunity to ground does screw up the Rock-Paper-Scissors aspect.

 

[nuclear death frog]

Information on the box-art legendaries

Solgaleo is Sun's mascot. He is Psychic/Steel, the same two types as Jirachi, and Bronzor/Bronzong. He has a new ability called "Full Metal Body" which has the same effect as "Clear Body" and "White Smoke", i.e. the Pokemon's stats cannot be lowered by its opponent's moves or ability. Solgaleo also has a signature move called "Sunsteel Strike", which ignores its target's ability -- i.e. the move effectively has its own Mold Breaker effect.

Lunala is Moon's mascot. He is Psychic/Ghost, like Hoopa. He has a new ability called "Shadow Shield", which allows it to take less damage from a hit if it was at full HP, in other words the same effect as "Multiscale". Lunala has a signature attack called "Moongeist Beam" which ignores the target's ability just as Solgaleo's signature move does.

More information on the region, the professor, a couple of characters, and such can be found here. Player character pics included.
http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Sun_and_Moon_box_mascots,_characters_detailed

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I am disappointed by these, overall. I was hoping for originality in the legendary typings, but no. Their abilities, while new, are just clones of ones that already existed. A signature move with the effect of Mold Breaker is kind of cool, I guess, but that they both had to get one is just ... bleh.

Solgaleo's typing gives it four weaknesses (Fire, Ground, Ghost, Dark). It has nine resistances plus a Poison immunity, so if it has a good amount of bulk it could be threatening.
Lunala's typing is just bad though. Only two weaknesses, but both are doubled, with Ghost and Dark being bad types to take quadruple damage from. It is immune to Normal and Fighting, which is nice, but it only has two resistances, to Poison and Psychic. I foresee its competitive viability taking a big hit from that typing.

 

[Rising Dragon]

A lot of people are surprised by the lack of Fire typing on Solgaleo. That said, it's clearly the better choice between it and Lunala, from typing and ability alone.

 

[nuclear death frog]

More analysis. From the names of their signature moves, I am guessing that Solgaleo is mostly a physical attacker and that Lunala is a special attacker.

From the release video, "Sunsteel Strike" looks like a physical attack. Solgaleo used it on a Salamence and it KO'ed the Salamence in one shot, so it probably has a fair amount of power, or Solgaleo has really high Attack, or both.

From the release video, "Moongeist Beam" looks like a special attack. It KO'ed a Gengar in one shot, and was shown to do super-effective damage, which means it must be either Ghost, Dark, Psychic, or Ground type. I would hope it's a Ghost-type move considering its name. Gengar is pretty frail so unfortunately not much can be inferred about Lunala's power from this showing.

I was hoping for the box-art legendaries to be Fire/Fairy (Sun) and Dark/Fairy (Moon), both of which are good defensively and offensively, and neither of which exists yet. Sadly, we got what we're getting.

 

[nuclear death frog]

Some news about Zygarde, last of the XYZ trio:

Zygarde 10% form revealed to use the long-suspected signature moves, both Ground-type, Thousand Arrows and Thousand Waves

When at near-zero HP, Zygarde 10% form's ability "Swarm Change" kicks in, transforming Z into the Complete form and restoring what looks like about half the health meter. Can't tell exactly how much from the video.

Zygarde Complete has another possible signature move, Core Punisher. This move was used against a Garchomp. Specifics are unknown exactly how the move works.

All of the above content is for Pokémon Sun and Moon. Whether this obviates a possible Pokémon Z is unknown.
http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Zygarde_10%25_Forme,_Complete_Forme_revealed_for_Sun_and_Moon

 

[nuclear death frog]

Information about new Alola mons
http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/CoroCoro_reveals_new_Pok%C3%A9mon_Nekkoara,_Iwanko

Nekkoara (English name unknown): Normal-type based on a koala. It is known as the Dreaming Pokémon. New ability "Sure Sleeper" prevents all statuses other than sleep.

Iwanko (English name unknown): Rock-type based on a dog, debuted in an earlier video. It has the abilities "Keen Eye" and "Vital Spirit", neither of which is new. It is known as the Puppy Pokémon.

Pikipek (JPN: Tsutsukera) : Normal/Flying, Woodpecker Pokémon. Has the abilities "Keen Eye" and "Skill Link".

Yungoos (JPN: Yanguusu): Normal-type, likely based on a mongoose. Has the ability "Strong Jaw" and also a new one called "Stakeout" that lets it do double damage to mons which switch in mid-battle.

Grubbin (JPN: Agojimushi): Bug-type, known as the Larva Pokémon. Has the ability "Swarm".

More information in the article here.

 

[atlas_hugged]

Any confirmation on trading over the internet via wifi?

 

[nuclear death frog]

Nothing about trading is mentioned in these articles.

 

[Yorae Rasante]

But... is what you are asking any different from what was already done?

 

[nuclear death frog]

Seven new Pokemon revealed in a trailer
http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Seven_new_Pok%C3%A9mon_revealed_in_new_Sun_and_Moon_trailer

Tapu Koko (Electric/Fairy), new ability 'Electric Maker', which causes "Electric Terrain", one of the field effects introduced in X/Y. Can learn the new move "Wrath of Nature", which deals damage.

Denjimushi -> Kuwaganon (Bug/Electric line). Denji can learn "Spark", Kuwa can learn "Zap Cannon".

Jijiron (Normal/Dragon, unused typing). New ability 'Frenzy', which raises SpA under unconfirmed conditions, possibly upon being hit by a Dragon-type move. This mon can learn "Dragon Breath"

Hagigishiri (Water/Psychic). New ability 'Vivid Body', which might prevent it being attacked by Normal-type moves?

Aburi (Bug/Fairy, unused typing). Can learn the move "Fairy Wind".

Togedemaru (Electric/Steel). Ability 'Lightningrod'. New move "Discharge Strike" which deals damage.

Zygarde 50% Form now confirmed to have the same Ability as its 10% Form, an ability called 'Swarm Change', which transforms it to its Complete Form. Zygarde 50% Form confirmed to be able to use the attack "Thousand Arrows".

 

[mario_zx]

I've heard that Vivid body actually stops priority moves. Also all this Zygarde stuff makes me wonder just what were the plans for Pokemon Z because it is becoming clear that they were planning it before the 20th anniversary came along.