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Pokémon Sun and Moon Starters Revealed. Releases November 18th 2016.

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old?
Litten will be a Tiger. Mark my words.
 
I cannot abide by this slander. Mr. Mime is adorable and apart from a couple of botched Gen 1 sprites he always has been.

Give him a Mega in SuMo please.

B-but Senior Mime... Or Master Mime. Mime Sr. You get the idea. I do love Mr Mime though, you're right. <3

But seriously though, it feels like old pokemon outside of Eevee can't get evolutions anymore because of megas and I don't like it. I'm hoping this gen will show that's not the case.
 
That's fair enough, but for me chip damage is up there with silent protags in my 'least favourite game design paradigms' list.

The fact that it is so easy to return to a heal spot or stock up on an ocean's worth of items negates the chip damage approach of Pokemon anyway. If Pokemon was a game with limited resources, then I could see it utilized in an interesting way. But I don't ever think that will be the case so I'm all for the 'heal after every battle' approach [provided other aspects get rebalanced as well, like the amount of PP for moves].
 
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old?
Litten will be a Tiger. Mark my words.


What I wouldn't give for Rowlett to be the fastest starter Pokémon and good to great physical attacker.

Too much human clothes in the above pics but I like it. If Rowlett loses the flying typing by his last evolution what will it be replaced with? Phsycic? Dark?

Also, what would it's hidden ability be?
 
Looks good, and the owl is cute.

Now to list the should-be-realistic-but-sadly-aren't changes I'd love to see to get me excited for the game:
-Fully auto-heal your team after every trainer battle to make the game more difficult
-Change IVs so that each pokemon has the same amount of total IVs, randomly spread
-Allow an expensive / difficult-to-obtain method of redistributing IVs at end-game so that you don't have to feel like you need to abandon your precious starter for a better version
-Make EVs a front-end stat, easily accessible, and make it easy to delete EVs you don't want
-Less linearity in the second half of the game, and more exploration

Regarding the IVs, I'd have a 'genetic re-sequencing machine' that costs plenty of money and that you could only access if your monster has been involved in 300+ battles, possibly with a restricted number of uses (say 6). That would restrict it to your core team and from then on you'd need to breed to get the IVs you want.

I just really hate the fact that the monsters you initially use and catch end up being useless no matter what you do.

How would fully healing your team after every battle make the game more difficult???
 
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old?
Litten will be a Tiger. Mark my words.

I think that's the only Popplio fake evo I've seen so far that I liked. The hands could use a bit of work though. And face is a little too human-like.

Thinking about how Rowlet apparently attacks with "powerful kicks" a humanoid evolution seems quite likely for him too.

Everyone is banking on another shitty fire/fighting bipedal cat but tbh Litten is the only one I feel confident that won't stand up.
 
Because the game is currently designed around chip damage, which is what makes it so easy. Basically, the fact that the designers don't know how many monsters you have alive, or how much health they have at any point when you enter a battle means that the opponents are underlevelled, and each fight is easy. The challenge becomes surviving the chip damage from each fight, but items and just retreating to a pokecentre remove that easily. If the designer could assume you were entering each trainer battle with 6 monsters at full health, they could design far more interesting battles.

This is why the post-game battle frontier (or equivalent) is always where the best single player content is found - because it's the one place they do the auto-heal thing. It's the only time the battle system is really allowed to shine, and tragically it comes after you've beaten a 40+ hour game. Having battles of that post-game quality throughout the game would elevate the entire experience by about 10x.

And it's at that post-game point that your starter becomes useless in single-player. Obviously throughout most of the game that's not true. But post-game, it is.

Chip damage? I don't think I've ever played a RPG with chip damage. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I also haven't encountered a bunch of these underleveled trainers. In the case of Soul Silver I felt underleveled most of the time. If I just got auto-healed then shit no need for healing items or pokemon centers outside of grinding wild pokemon.That shit went from medium to hard to easy again. A lot of challenge came from being ambushed by trainers when I was low on health. Be scrambling trying to find doctors and shit. A good amount were also from unexpected triple and rotation battles where a specific type set up could cost you a black-out.
 
Yes, you miss out on the incredibly memorable trainer designs we've had in the past.

Also two of the starters look like shit. The owl is all right I suppose.

Look, it's fine if you don't consider them to be memorable to you personally, I don't like most of the recent male protagonists, but just keep in mind those protagonist designs are used in stuff like the anime and the manga series too, and they need to be usable for those purposes. Don't you think someone who's watched the XY anime seasons considers that game's female character, Serena, to be memorable?

I'm not saying there wouldn't be any way around this but it's clearly a thing they keep in mind when developing these games.
 
Chip damage? I don't think I've ever played a RPG with chip damage. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I also haven't encountered a bunch of these underleveled trainers. In the case of Soul Silver I felt underleveled most of the time. If I just got auto-healed then shit no need for healing items or pokemon centers outside of grinding wild pokemon.That shit went from medium to hard to easy again. A lot of challenge came from being ambushed by trainers when I was low on health. Be scrambling trying to find doctors and shit.
I think "chip damage" in this case is referring to losing small bits of health through repeated battles.

Not the fighting game use of the term to describe a bit of damage going through a block.
 
That Popplio final stage... Looks kind of cool actually? It would be cool if it became a Water/Psychic type and used telekinesis to juggle bubbles around. I'd be fine with something that resembled that, honestly.
Cool concept, poor design. Something like Mega Alakazam with floating bubbles instead of spoons would be good, but I don't want them to overdo it with the clown thing. If Popplio doesn't go the Water/Fairy route, then this is definitely how I'd like him to go.
 
Hmm maybe Rowlet becomes Grass/Dark, Popplio Water/Psychic, and Litten Fire/
Fighting
Poison

Hopefully theyll just surprise us with all of them and not keep to any pattern
 
I think his idea is that they wouldnt balance the game around you having a team battling through a route, but per battle.

Eh. They'll literally never do this. Pokemon never was and never will be difficult, at least for the main quest. They want 4-5 year olds to be able to play and beat this thing.

Only way to get difficult is to self impose challenge yourself.
 
Im down for crazy wishlists

-Up to 6 Pokemon out (or 0 if you want) and traveling alongside you, using an improved version of the following AI from XY where they take a unique path and have specific animations and behaviors along the way. (stopping to smell flowers, taking their time and then catching up, trying to run ahead, etc.)

-No more HMs, everything is TMs, and while they all keep their overworld functionality, they are mostly replaced by field moves like Soar, Ride, Ferry, etc.

-I like the idea of an item that allows you change or train your IVs. Make it the most expensive item from the return of....

-Pokemon World Tournament Pt. II (now with online play and all kinds of other improvements)

-Unova via airport

-100x the amount of clothing and customization

-Play main Pokemon theme during every gym leaders last pokemon

-Way more music variation for battles in general

-SFX / Music Volume control split

-Make Pokemon Amie also an optional full-on Pokemon Tamagotchi simulator


Took out a few things but otherwise yes!

Especially the removal of HM's in favor of every TM or regular move having the same affect once you unlock a badge. But HM moves can still be TM's! I don't want to see Surf or Waterfall moves go away, I just don't want them to be the only move required to allow you to cross bodies of water.

Pokemon following you; having that feature come back would be amazing along with them running off and interacting with you and the world.

And exploring other regions is always a plus.

Those are by far the biggest features I want.

edit:
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old?
Litten will be a Tiger. Mark my words.

A carnival theme for starters would make a ton of sense. Popplio is the clown/juggler, Litten being the tiger that leaps through a ring of fire, and the Rowlet is the ringmaster.

Makes a ton of sense, I wonder if there will be a carnival area/tent in the game?
 
Eh. They'll literally never do this. Pokemon never was and never will be difficult, at least for the main quest. They want 4-5 year olds to be able to play and beat this thing.

Only way to get difficult is to self impose challenge yourself.

The romhacks add a good bit too. Though I found the bosses Soul Silver to be on its own.
 
To this day im mystified by the complexity of HGSS

In the final battle with Blue, he randomly came out to talk shit while he was on his last Pokemon, he had his Pidgeot use whirlwind, which brought out my Lugia, and he immediately came out and said something like "Maybe im the one whos about to get pwned..." or something like that. WTF that was so awesome
 
Did I see custom outfits in the trailer? If only we could get our lead to follow behind us like in HGSS.

I'm stoked though. I think I'm on team fire kitty. Though I usually go with water starters. That flying/grass combo just makes me afraid of anything cold.
 
As someone who only plays set battle, the "chip damage" works pretty fine and does lend some tension to trainer battles over a long route. That being said, I would not mind a per trainer battle design. But that doesn't seem to fit with the "adventure" concept. However, more trainers with competitive and strong movesets would be greatly appreciated. Surprise, take some notes from the Anime and have us fight evolved pokemon early.

Y'know it's really weird that I keep saying for the games to take notes from the anime. Maybe it's because the anime sells me much more on the pokemon world than the games do.
 
The fact that it is so easy to return to a heal spot or stock up on an ocean's worth of items negates the chip damage approach of Pokemon anyway. If Pokemon was a game with limited resources, then I could see it utilized in an interesting way. But I don't ever think that will be the case so I'm all for the 'heal after every battle' approach [provided other aspects get rebalanced as well, like the amount of PP for moves].
That's what PP is for. And nobody wants to use Escape Rope in the middle of a dungeon because that shit wastes time, provided the dungeon is long enough to matter.
 
Cool concept, poor design. Something like Mega Alakazam with floating bubbles instead of spoons would be good, but I don't want them to overdo it with the clown thing. If Popplio doesn't go the Water/Fairy route, then this is definitely how I'd like him to go.

Oh yeah, I mean I wouldn't want that exact design to make it in the game, as it's a bit rough. I do like the juggler clown idea though. I don't know why but for some reason I do get the vibe that the second and maybe third form might be balancing on a bubble or balancing a bubble on it's nose. A lot of sea lions can be trained to balance balls on their nose, and as some of the info stated that Popplio blows bubbles out of it's nose it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine that later forms would elaborate on or further develop the ability to balance bubbles in a similar fashion.
Like something like this for a middle form and then more of a psychic juggler type for a final form would be super cool, imo.

I think sea lions are super dope, which is why I'm speculating this hard, lmao.
 
That's what PP is for. And nobody wants to use Escape Rope in the middle of a dungeon because that shit wastes time, provided the dungeon is long enough to matter.

I don't think I've ever had an issue with PP anyway. Of course, I don't really use those 5PP either because they have so few uses.
 
B-but Senior Mime... Or Master Mime. Mime Sr. You get the idea. I do love Mr Mime though, you're right. <3

But seriously though, it feels like old pokemon outside of Eevee can't get evolutions anymore because of megas and I don't like it. I'm hoping this gen will show that's not the case.

A fellow comrade! Mr. Mime is my favorite pokemon, but this is largely due to how endearing the anime made him out to be when I was a lass.

I do agree with you there; there are quite a few pokes deserving of some permanent ol' evolutions and I'm hoping Game Freak decides to bless some of them. I like megas but if that's the only thing pre-Gen 6 pokemon are going to get it'll be sad. That's one of the things Sinnoh got right, even if some designs weren't met with universal praise.
 
I don't think I've ever had an issue with PP anyway. Of course, I don't really use those 5PP either because they have so few uses.
You're gonna run out of Water Gun and Vine Whip if trainers have 5 Geodudes in their team and the dungeon is reasonably long. It's not only a matter of PP, but also giving trainers Pokemon that give you a hard time, like moves or abilities that give statuses. Or Confuse Ray. Everybody loves Confuse Ray.
 
Eh. I don't like the idea of Rowlet becoming a humanoid, top hat toting man-bird ala Honchkrow. I just hope it becomes a larger barn owl and stays simple. *shrug*
 
The Abyss watchers are murdering me and its driving me crazy, i have never been stuck so long on one boss. I can manage phase one but phase two i fail at dodging right. Im sl 30 and use a plus 1 straight sword. Help me god
 
Eh. I don't like the idea of Rowlet becoming a humanoid, top hat toting man-bird ala Honchkrow. I just hope it becomes a larger barn owl and stays simple. *shrug*
Sounds boring as fuck
Also I don't expect ring master owl to be anywhere near as humanoid as that mockup. I expect the general shape to still be very much owl
 
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old?
Litten will be a Tiger. Mark my words.

This is literally what I envisioned. Its perfect and it fits all the types

Grass/ Flying
Fire/Ghost
Water/Fairy

You're gonna run out of Water Gun and Vine Whip if trainers have 5 Geodudes in their team and the dungeon is reasonably long. It's not only a matter of PP, but also giving trainers Pokemon that give you a hard time, like moves or abilities that give statuses. Or Confuse Ray. Everybody loves Confuse Ray.

Playing White, the most frustrating part of that game is fighting Watchog... Its a fuckin pain
 
I think his idea is that they wouldnt balance the game around you having a team battling through a route, but per battle.

Long term resource management is a staple of JRPGs, while the boss fights (in this case gym leaders) are a per battle thing.
 
I'd love the removal of HMs from the game. Replace that shit with over-world items.
I've wanted this for a while.

Surf: Raft
Dive: Scuba tank
Waterfall: Outboard motor for the raft
Cut: Machete or hatchet
Rock Smash: Rock hammer
Rock Climb: Grappling hook
Strength: Some sort of rock grease or a trowel
Flash: Lantern
Fly: Personal teleportation device using Silph Co's technology
 
You're gonna run out of Water Gun and Vine Whip if trainers have 5 Geodudes in their team and the dungeon is reasonably long. It's not only a matter of PP, but also giving trainers Pokemon that give you a hard time, like moves or abilities that give statuses. Or Confuse Ray. Everybody loves Confuse Ray.

Are you trying to convince me that I don't actually know what I've experienced? Water Gun/Vine Whip have 25PP, which is plenty unless you're only relying on those moves. Even moves with 10/15PP typically get by okay through dungeons because surely I have at least one other attack among my team that can also work.
 
The Abyss watchers are murdering me and its driving me crazy, i have never been stuck so long on one boss. I can manage phase one but phase two i fail at dodging right. Im sl 30 and use a plus 1 straight sword. Help me god

Yeah, catching Arceus would be a good way to get past that.
 
The Abyss watchers are murdering me and its driving me crazy, i have never been stuck so long on one boss. I can manage phase one but phase two i fail at dodging right. Im sl 30 and use a plus 1 straight sword. Help me god

You gotta take advantage of your Pikachu's I-Frames when you roll.
 
The Abyss watchers are murdering me and its driving me crazy, i have never been stuck so long on one boss. I can manage phase one but phase two i fail at dodging right. Im sl 30 and use a plus 1 straight sword. Help me god
Try Hyper Beam.

But real talk, just roll in and time your rolls you do it just before the attack hits you. Be aggressive, they stagger easily and you can use that to make them attack less. Also I'd recommend upgrading your weapon, you can easily reach +2 or +3 assuming it requires normal Titanite Shards.
 
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