yes both oso and yoshida and his new cowboy kitty wrestler gimmick thing

yoshida and osomatsu would legit kill each other if they were to ever meet bless them 💔 I’m keeping the ol shidder solely around karamatsu for his own well being

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "littencloud9 "?

oooh! GREAT QUESTION i’m gonna rec my beautiful clever amazing mutuals’ fics obviously. and some others. i mainly read jjk and bsd fics so that’s probably all this list will have haha 😭

(also littencloud9 comes from my fav pokémon litten, + cloud9 was TECHNICALLY inspired by the song cloud 9 by beach bunny! but it’s a cute phrase so i stuck them together LOL)

in no particular order,

—> sun comes streaming through the window (& i can't sleep anymore) by @that-was-anticlimactic

| bsd, gen, teen and up, ~21k, kenji & ada

| good morning to one of my fav fics EVER. i have never sobbed so hard reading something. corey is the queen of kenji fics and this one is no exception i LOVE how the dynamics with kenji and the rest were portrayed and how much of a family they were 🥹🫶 (i also love her other fics.. the kunichuu ones and the pyramid ones especially you guys should check them out 🔪)

—> though i burn, how could i fall? by @zukkaoru

| bsd, gen, teen and up, 8.6k, kunikidazai + kunikida & ranpo

| HFHSGDHSS. i am always obsessed with grace’s kunikida characterisation. ada president kunikida is something that can be so personal. and i love that he had people helping him through the stress even when he pushed them away. TEARS. (also check out their other fics she has lots lots and i really like the tachigin, aku siblings, and kunichuuzai ones 🫶)

—> we can plant a memory garden by @ryuvnosuke

| bsd gen, mature, 4.2k, kunikida & yosano (during the great war)

| sorry not sorry for continuously reccing gen fics in this ship-focused fandom. anyway HELLO?? the set-up of this fic is already so so interesting, and i adored yosano’s character here!! and the description of.. pretty much everything, was super chilling. it was such a fantastic read 🫶 (i also adore ela’s tachigin fics and sskk fics too. she gets akutagawa like no one else)

—> reading between the lines by @spliqi

| bsd, m/m, teen and up, 12.3k, shin soukoku

| did you guys know that im spliqi’s biggest fan actually. their sskk characterisation is legit my favourite thing EVER i am always cackling when reading her fics. this one is my fav especially because of how ridiculously stupid yet clever they are. and how they cannot confess like normal people. highly recommend!! 🤍

—> baby, drive slow by zonnie

| jjk, m/m, mature, 15.8k, itafushi

| i am a SUCKER for roadtrip AUs. this fic was so so fun and i loved yuuji the greenest flag ever. i also love zonnie’s other itfs works! also megumi and nobara’s dynamic in their fics are the best thing ever i am obsessed 💗💗

—> quiet quitting is easy when your boss has already held your funeral and you’re technically still legally dead by @gothicakvtagawa

| bsd, m/m, teen and up, 24.5k, shin soukoku

| the sskk writers in this fandom truly get it. this fic was SUCH a great ride, and i loved that other character’s povs (kunikida, sigma, chuuya etc) were explored! i always love post-canon fics so this was such a treat. and fukuzawa father of the YEAR award in this fic. overall lovely lovely fic, amazing characterisation, and fun flow!! (their other sskk fics are also GEMS check those out)

—> and all i loved, i loved alone by featherx

| bsd, m/m, mature, 121.6k, ranpoe

| i always wonder how user featherx is doing after dropping this BOMB of a fic. it explores poe’s life from the start and i LOVED EVERY SECOND. the descriptions of how his ability feels, meeting new people, meeting karl, meeting the guild members, his relationship with ranpo and so on. exploration of sexuality too. overall this fic reads like the bsd poe wikipedia to me because of how on point everything feels. LOVE it

—> i hope i die first by @amythecinnabunny

| bsd, m/m, teen and up, major character death, 28.7k, shin soukoku

| yeah… this fic sent me into spirals. i sobbed so hard i had to take bathroom breaks. the epilogue was truly the cherry on top. if you wanna break your heart this fic is for you (also love her other fics! esp the higuchi & the sheep series, and the babysitting series!)

—> here and where you are by cityboys

| jjk, m/m + gen, teen and up, 17.3k, itafushi + jjk first years trio

| okay. i cry pretty easily reading things. but this one. ohhhhh my god. this one legit had me ugly crying for a whole hour. this one destroyed me. megumi is my pookie we know this so reading this HEARTWRENCHING fic from his pov was just. ouuuugh. basically yuuji’s memories are erased and he goes back to being a normal boy. but megumi and nobara remember him. enough said. please read this i was genuinely devastated

—> hey son, i killed your daddy by missingnooo

| jjk, gen + m/m, teen and up, 5.6k, gojo & megumi (+ satosugu and itafushi)

| THIS FIC!!! gojo and megumi are surprisingly underrated in this fandom which is crazy cause they’re literally related guys. but this was an emotional rollercoaster and i was hooked every second. gojo’s character felt very true to the story idk how to explain it but it was amazing. i cried. highly recommend

-

THATS 10!! i only dared to tag my mutuals aksjfksbd but heres my fic recs. thank you for the ask! <33

Was talking to my boss about Legends Z-A and what starters we expect/want to see, and while I'm near undoubtedly wrong, here's my thought process:

As Legends Arceus did not use any Gen 4/Sinnoh starters, we can eliminate the Gen 6/Kalos starters entirely (Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie)

As LA did not use any Gen 8 starters, the most recent generation at the time, we can reasonably assume that ZA won't use the recent Gen 9 starters (Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxley)

For the sake of variety, it seems unlikely that generations that were represented among LA's starters will be revisited (Cyndaquil from Gen 2 knocks out Chikorita and Totodile; Oshawott from Gen 5 knocks out Snivy and Tepig, and Rowlet from Gen 7 knocks out Litten and Poplio); these are of course still possible, just less likely

With the return of Mega Evolutions, it seems unlikely that the starters that already received Megas will be returning with regional variants, as Game Freak will want to retain the established Megas. This eliminates all of the Gen 1 (Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle) and Gen 3 starters (Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip)

HOWEVER, this would only leave us with two viable generations; Gen 4, which they will near definitely do because they couldn't in LA, and Gen 8, for the same reason and because Rowlet sets the precedent that they are liable to draw from the second most recent generation

Because of the above, they need to take one starter from Gen 1 or 3; as Charizard had two distinct Mega Evolutions, X and Y, fans immediately started speculating on ZA's announcement that there would be a Mega Charizard Z, which would be very easily facilitated by Charmander being the exception to Rule 4

With Charmander as the Fire starter, we can eliminate Gen 4's Chimchar and Gen 8's Scorbunny

Between Gen 4's Piplup and Gen 8's Sobble, Piplup's royal inspirations line up the best with the France-inspired setting, and have made Piplup one of the more common picks among fans; this of course eliminates both Sobble and Gen 4's Turtwig

As the only Gen 8 starter remaining, Grookey becomes the Grass starter for ZA by default

TL;DR, because of precedents set by Legends Arceus and the context of Gen 6's gimmicks, the most likely starters for Legends Z-A seem to be Grookey, Charmander and Piplup

But if I got to choose based on my favorites, I'd do Turtwig, Scorbunny and Totodile (I would sadly skip Fuecoco to not double up on crocodilians)

Since you asked me. Who do you think will be in the Pokemon Legends Z-A starter line-up?

That's something that has been living in my mind rent free for the past few days.

It took me a while to have my guesses, but after so many videos and many things I researched, I have my own set of ideas.

(there are possible spoilers here below)

First things first, I want to say that, although it is possible that the final starters have new regional forms, it is equally, if not more, probably that the starters will instead have mega evolutions. Mega evolution is the most beloved mechanic and many people wanted more starters (besides Hoeen and Kanto) to get megas.

And since it has been rumored that Jynx will get a mega due to audio files found in pokemon home, probably more pokemon will be getting new megas.

The megas instead of regional forms makes so that the starters for Legends-Z are none else than... the regular Kalos starters.

Considering this is probably set after Legends Arceus, it is very possible that Lumiose reasearchers already have the means of capturing their own region starters.

Besides, Delphox and Chesnaught deserve some more attention. And, it was always a bit ironic the region of megas didn't have starters with one.

But, in case we have starters from other regions, my assumptions are.

Grass Starter: Snivy. I am 99% sure that, if we have starters from other regions, Snivy will be the grass one. Snivy was inspired by European Empires (like Emboar was inspired by Chinese and Samurott by japan), the fleur-de-lis and it is a pure grass type in it's final form. It can both get a regional form or mega with a secondary Dragon type.

Water type: Piplup. Besides being one of the most beloved water starters, Empoleon was inspired by Napoleon. Gamefreak would be fumbling bad. Since Empoleon already has two types, and is already very French, I think it would work best with a mega.

Fire Types

Torchic: Simple, the rooster is the symbol animal of France. Besides, since the starters will probably have megas instead of regional forms, having one of the starters with a known mega would probably be good advertisement for the game. (Mega Blaziken fans would be interested in buying the game and checking new evos).

Litten: Litten is a starter that has basically nothing to him. No mega, no gigantamax and so on... (just a Z-move, but, people don't care much about it). Since he basically has no fun gimmick. Game Freak could give him a new fun mega! They probably would keep his type, though...

Scorbunny: It turns out that soccer is really important to France. Besides, since he is pure fire, a secondary type could also help him out. I can imagine a Fire/Fairy mega or regional form with a magician theme (France has magicians, and magicians use rabbits for their tricks).

Last, but not least, wanted to state that this pokemon game is probably inspired by a renovation Paris went through beween 1852 and 1870. So, there might be something related to that period.

But, deep down, none of us can be sure of what starter we are going to have. All we can do is... wait and see...

Ok so I love my ice/grass rowlet designed a while back so much

Here it is for curious bystanders who have not seen it yet

So I think I eventually want to do the whole line and include it in my pokemon fan region! And that got me thinking of Legends Arceus which had a trio of random starters with regional variant final evos. So I think a trio would be fun! But dear wintery rowlet starts as a variant. So all three will have regional variants for every stage!

So the rules are, it keeps its core typing but adds/changes the secondary (Nomeran rowlet line will be grass/ice the whole line). They all have to be from different generations. Preferably not already have a regional variant.

SO

My ideas for the other two?

For water, totodile! I’m a habitual water-starter-chooser (although the last few gens have had me swaying to the grass side) so it was a little hard to narrow this down. Totodile and mudkip are frequently vying for my favorite water starter spot. But my little gator I think deserves more love. And a dragon typing!

So I don’t have a full design idea yet, but I’m feeling a water/dragon line and perhaps basing it on a spinosaurus (I just really want a spinosaurus in my region ok? So what if it’s an African fossil and it’s a North American region). It’s not a fossil or anything but we’ve had plenty of pokemon vaguely based on dinosaurs/creatures so it works!

For fire, scorbunny! Ok fire was hard for the opposite reason of water. There’s never really been a fire starter that’s fully stolen my heart. Charmander is a classic. I love torchic and litten but the final evos are just, ok. Fennekin was pretty cool. So like, I like a lot of them but love? But then I was bouncing ideas with my husband and we figured out the perfect parallel.

Cinderace is a soccer player! A…. Football player! What’s more perfect for a North American regional variant than a soccer playing bunny going into an American football playing bunny?! I’m thinking this variant would be fire/fighting (gasp! I know, giving a starter fire/fighting that didn’t even have it) Design will be trickier I think, but bulking it out a lot more will help. Was also toying with ground or rock as the secondary typing, but fighting just seems to fit for American football so that’s what I’m thinking of.

ANYWAY

I’m just on a huge pokemon and fakemon kick and wanted to share some ideas ^_^

Reviews of All Scrapped Spaceword Betas

Exactly what it says in the title. This is also for my reference, as I might redesign some of these later for funsies. 

I’m only including Pokemon that were 100% scrapped (we’re not here to argue what might have become what) and aren’t evos/pre-evos of existing Pokemon. Also, I’m using the English fan-translations for the names because I don’t speak Japanese.

Flambear/Volbear/Dynabear

Our original fire starter, and yeah, I can see why this was scrapped. For starters (heh), it looks more like a rodent that evolves into a lion than anything resembling a bear. And secondly... it doesn’t really have a clear focus, nor a memorable design. It’s just kind of a rodent-bear thing with flames tacked onto it. 

The best Pokes usually have a "catch” to them, and these guys lack that. For example, this got replaced by Cyndaquil, which has the concept of flaming spikes that form out of its back. That’s memorable. This, well, isn’t.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of focus/interesting design

Pokes to fill the void: Teddiursa and Ursaring are probably the closest in terms of being bears. Something about it also reminds me of Growlithe/Arcanine, probably because it’s a fluffy fire thing that evolves into a bigger fluffy fire thing with a mane and black markings.

Cruz/Aqua/Aquaria

This has the same problem as the Flambear line, just less extreme. It’s okay, being a little plesiosaur that evolves into a bigger plesiosaur, but it also lacks an interesting catch to it. The pearls are maybe something, but they’re not really emphasized, just kind of tacked on. Plus Dragonair kind of has the crystal neck ornaments on lock. And the horn. And the underbelly. And the water theme...

Whoops.

I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to a plesiosaur water starter in the future, but it would probably have to be completely redesigned.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of focus/interesting design; too similar to Dragonair

Pokes to fill the void: Dragonair, as mentioned above. If you want a plesiosaur, Lapras is always a thing.

Putting the rest under the cut for length.

Sunmola1/Anchorage/Grotess

This is one of the most chaotic beta evolutions out there, aside from beta Girafarig. I can see the resemblance between Sunmola1 and Anchorage to some extent--counter-shaded blue fish with two fins and a short body--but the anchor part of the evolution comes out of nowhere. Then it sporadically turns into a gulper eel, which has nothing to do with the previous two evolutions at all.

I’ve heard some people suggest that Sunmola1 basically gets dragged into the depths and turns into a deep-sea creature due to its anchor, which is a fantastic idea. However, if that’s what they were going for here it’s not really clear, and I think it could be executed much better.

Individually, Sumola1 is a little plain. Not terrible, but I think they could do something more interesting with the little head thing. Anchorage is memorable, but there’s something very un-Pokemonish about it. I think it’s just the fact that it’s basically cut in half--I keep expecting the backsprite to show its organs or something. Grotess is also a bit too plain.

It’s also worth noting that at some point, this was the evolutionary line, which is more consistent but much less interesting (save for the middle evo’s eyes, which are pretty great).

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of evolutionary consistency; some designs plain or not very fitting for Pokemon

Pokes to fill the void: Alomomola is a sunfish Pokemon. Sharpedo is a shark crossed with an object, and Grotess almost certainly became Huntail and Gorebyss.

Rinring/Bellboyant

These two... are pretty good. They have a simple catch--black cats with bells--and the designs are nicely executed and memorable.

If I had one complaint, it’s that they maybe seems a tad unfocused in the backend of things. They’re dark types, but have a bunch of “cutesy” moves, and it’s not clear why’d they be dark apart from being black cats. They seem to have a magical girl vibe (Bellboyant looks a bit like Luna from Sailor Moon, which is probably not a coincidence), which also has nothing to do with the bells or the dark theme. I do think that the designs themselves are fine though, and that if you just focused on the sound concept a hair more you’d have a pretty great Pokemon.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Not entirely sure, these definitely would’ve been popular. Might’ve just been a balancing thing, or it lost the dev popularity contest. 

Pokes to fill the void: Skitty kind of has the same vibe as Rinring. They also remind me a bit of the Meowth line, being cat Pokemon with metal attached to them. The Purrloin line takes over the “dark-type cat” aspect.

Bomseel

I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, it’s a very plain looking Pokemon. The idea of it balancing a fireball/bomb on its nose instead of a ball is clever and memorable enough... except that it’s dependent on it being on that pose. It can’t balance that 24/7, and once it stops all you’re left with is a plain sea lion with dark points.

However, it’s fire/water. The only fire/water we have right now is a legendary, so it would be sweet to have one that’s just a regular poke. So it’s not that the concept itself is bad, using a water-based animal and adding a fire type; it’s just more that the execution is lackluster. Give this guy a hook not related to the fireball and make the seal itself more interesting and I think you’d have something here.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of interesting design

Pokes to fill the void: Volcanion is our only fire/water Pokemon for now. In terms of seals/sea lions with a circus theme, Popplio is a decent enough match.

Tigrette/Electiger

Someone at Gamefreak hates tigerballs, because this line was planned for Gen 1, scrapped, then planned for Gen 2 and scrapped again. Which is strange, because while it’s not the best design it’s not bad either. It’s very very cute, and could definitely find an audience.

However, I’m not really sure what the premise is here. If it’s based on tiger clay bells, then it doesn’t really play into the bell theme much at all. And if it’s not... why is it so round? It’s not that the roundness is bad, but it would usually form the hook for this Pokemon, like it collects static electricity in its fur that makes it puff out or something. Maybe some dex descriptions would’ve made this clearer, who knows.

Also, Electiger is literally the exact same design as Tigrette, just bigger. It would either need a completely new final evolution or would need to show up as a single evo. 

While that sounds harsh, I do really like this design. Fix the evo, figure out/build on the hook of it being round or bell like, and maybe refine the markings a touch and it would be pretty perfect.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Not sure. Might’ve been too similar to Pikachu (both being yellow round electric type Pokemon with zig-zag tails, and og fat Pikachu was also very round). The need to rework the evolution also might’ve turned GameFreak off of it.

Pokes to fill the void: Spheal and Rowlet are both pleasantly round. Pikachu is cute and electric themed in a similar way. In terms of tigers, Raikou is also electric-type. The exact way the stripes are done here is also very similar to Litten.

Kurstraw/Pangshi

GameFreak. GameFreak, you are telling me that we almost had a voodoo-doll Pokemon based off of Ushi-no-Toki-Mairi that evolves into a fucking jiangshi panda?? You are killing me here.

A few interesting things to note here:

Kurstraw evolves at level 1. How? Why? No idea. It could just be a placeholder, but...

The fact that Kurstraw was set to have Curse as its signature move (then called “nail”) and that it only learned this move at level 100 makes it evolving at level 1 seem intentional.

To make things more confusing, it almost seems like (and this is speculation on my part) GameFreak’s intention was to encourage players to not evolve this thing. Stats are comparable, Kurstraw only gets its signature move if you level it up to where it can’t evolve, and Kurstraw has the better moveset (getting frigging destiny bond at lv. 16, while Pangshi gets... splash (which. makes more sense when you consider it’s called “hop” in Japan but it’s still useless). If that was what they were aiming for, then that’s a really unique mechanic that would really make this poke stand out.

Design wise, Kurstraw is... well, it’s a doll with a nail rammed through it. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not very Pokemon-ish. Meanwhile, Pangshi is maybe a little too much like a Jianshi rather than being reminiscent of one, right down to the little hat. The pose, fangs, and panda colors (which resemble Jiangshi mandarin robes) are more than enough to get the hook across.

What I really love about these two are the expressions. They are just like, so dissonantly happy. Kurstraw is literally like

and Pangshi has the dead-eyed thousand-yard stare of Espurr, except unlike Espurr it looks completely and utter deranged. It looks like if this Pokemon ended up in Mystery Dungeon, it would respond to every question with “my favorite color is blood”. Amazing.

Possible reason for being scrapped: I think these two might’ve been scrapped just because they were too scary. I mean, it’s a voodoo doll impaled on a giant nail that evolves into a literal actual corpse. The implied violence was probably just a bit much for GameFreak.

The reason I think this is, beside the fact that they have fairly solid designs, good hooks, and all of their stats and moves in place, most beta Pokemon have had their premises revisited at some point. But we’ve really never gotten a voodoo doll Pokemon since this, and we definitely haven’t gotten any jiangshi Pokemon either, which suggests the problem lied in the very concept rather than the execution.

Pokes to fill the void: People say that Kurstraw was reworked into Banette, but if anyone Pokemon resembles it to be, it would actually be Mimikyu. They both have cloth bodies with drawn-on smiley faces that resemble something cuter than them and they both want to curse you for existing.

For Pangshi... well, there’s Pancham if you’re looking for tiny pandas. If you’re after a jiangshi though, you’re out of luck.

Wolfman/Warwolf

This Pokemon has a great hook. I mean, a Pokemon that wears a pelt that transforms it into a werewolf? Hell yeah. Not to mention it might be a reference to an obscure Nordic tale about people donning wolf pelts to turn into wolves for ten days.

Design wise, it... well, Wolfman looks almost exactly like Venonat. I’m not the only one who sees this, right?

That aside, I think the idea could be played up a little more. Wolfman is fine, save for its Venonat-ishness, but Warwolf doesn’t do much for me, basically just being a larger version with claws and fangs. If the idea is that it turns into a werewolf by wearing the pelt, what if its evolution looked somewhat like a wolf? Or better yet, the actually body of the thing changes to fill the wolf skin more, so it looks like its a part of it? That would really elevate this Pokemon to a new level.

Possible reason for being scrapped: I’d guess that it’s the same problem as Kurstraw and Pangshi--too scary. I mean, that is a dead pelt of some kind, which means that it killed and skinned some kind of Pokemon, and that’s not getting into questions of what Pokemon they got that from.

It’s also worth noting that when we did finally get a werewolf Pokemon via Lycanroc, it was minus the pelt concept.

Pokes to fill the void: Lycanroc as our werewolf Pokemon. In terms of design, Venonat is very similar as noted above. And something about it really reminds me of Snorunt, being little critters with glowing eyes that wear a cloak of some kind and live in the cold (this line was ice-type).

My thought process for making teams in Pokemon AUs are technically "Can this Pokémon reasonably get to this region as of the current generation?" but tbh I can justify anything through foreign tourists accidentally bringing along hitchhikers on their planes/boats or releasing Pokémon on vacation.

The first Pokémon someone has is the one I put the most thought into a backstory for. I personally don't think this has to be representative of the miraculous they use. Additionally, I feel like traditional starters aren't treated enough like the rarities they are in-game. I usually throw Eevee into the starter slots because it makes so much more sense. A single species to breed on a mass scale, variable but controllable in its development and evolution, popular and cute, and easy to bring wherever in their final evolution stages.

The rarity of starters is a place where you can throw in money as an issue, and economic backgrounds can also give you much-needed limitations in teambuilding to stop you from planning for an hour per character. Chloé gets to have an imported Piplup as one of her father's gifts when her mother leaves, and Nino starts with a Whismur but gets a Squirtle or Turtwig egg after DJing a rich person party. Alix gets a Scorbunny from Galar on the birthday before she goes off on her journey, and Kim gets an Eevee he evolves into a Vaporeon so he can have an excuse to keep up his swimming skills ("I'm definitely not counterpicking you, pipsqueak! It's just for bonding purposes!"). Kagami gets an Eevee through a starter program that she evolves to a Jolteon, but her family are master breeders of the Honedge evolution line, so she gets an extra starter. Emelie's disappearance leads to Adrien having nightmares, so Nathalie gets him a therapy Munna. Anarka works at the docks, and catches a runaway Litten she gives to Juleka. Marinette wants to get into fashion design, so her parents get her a Furfrou.

One of the ideas I had that I really liked was the animated Pokémon series being the in-universe equivalent of a live-action cop show. Alya becomes a fan of that and bargains her way into her mother getting a Pichu. (Just don't ask about the self-insert fanfiction where she replaces Ash and gets to romance all the female protagonists. Misty's aesthetic has to be someone's gay awakening, and I get to throw Alya into that crowd for funsies.)

From there, depending on how into battling I want the character, to be, I fill out their team to both cover various weak points and either have symbolic meaning or be something they'd like. Irony and breaking expectations is also fair game. I also put the miraculous-representing mons here if they're not that character's starter. Chloé gets a Kangaskhan and a Cutiefly, Adrien gets a Cubone and a Purrloin, Juleka gets a Toxel, and Golisopod looks like something from a horror movie so let's go with that,Kim gets a Chimchar and a Ralts to evolve to Gardevoir, Marinette gets a Blipbug and a- Ooh, if I give her a Glaceon and give Chloé a Leafeon they can be foils, throw an Eevee in for both of them, and while we're at it give Adrien a Doublade while Kagami goes full into Aegislash, we can give her a Dratini so she has a dragon from Kanto, Alya's enough of a nerd to willingly go for the 5 euro Magikarp deal so I can throw that in with Fennekin-

You get the point

Oh dope!!

At present, how I would rate the starters across the series.  Please note, anything above D-tier I like a whole lot.

S: Fennekin is unrivaled.  It is a fox.  I love it so much.

A: For my general favorite picks, just based on design of their base form.  The first five hold up, but Litten, despite being fantastic to me, drops off a cliff almost instantly.  It’s sad, really.  I want to like Incineroar, but it doesn’t work.  Sure hope Sprigatito doesn’t suffer that fate, because oh man do I love this baby kitty.

B: Also really strong favorites from their respective games, but maybe not as well liked as in A.  Usually this is just something about the design not being as gripping.  I love Chikorita, but its design just isn’t as interesting to me as Bulbasaur’s, you know?  Sobble was the easy favorite of Gen 8; shame about its final form too.

C: Usually not the favorite but objectively good.  I still really like Squirtle, Totodile, and the others here.  That’s kind of where I’m at with Fuecoco.  It’s solid, but definitely not the favorite here.

D: I start to not like it as well.  Usually this is more a matter of...I don’t like the type of animal it’s based on, or the design just isn’t appealing.  Grookey’s in that boat.  I don’t love it, because I’m just not a fan of monkey.  Rowlet and Charmander would generally be fine, I just find them uninspired.  Like, Charmander’s just a lizard with a flame on its tail? I guess it’s something but it’s not as unique as Bulbasaur, or generally cute as Squirtle to me.  Quaxly is here because its design just isn’t doing it for me.

F: I actively don’t like them.  Chimchar bugs me, I don’t like its evolution line.  I will fully admit that while Scorbunny isn’t that bad, I really don’t like it that much, and knowing what happens with it immediately upon evolution just tanks it.  Froakie is just cursed with original sin.  It’s not objectively bad in any way, but god fuck Greninja.  Second least favorite Pokemon after Lando-T, and its entire evolution line just makes me irritable.

More Thorough Thoughts on Mystery Dungeon Rescue DX Demo

Intro

When I was a kid, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series was peak hype. You could actually play as a Pokemon, going on adventures in randomly-changing environments so nothing is ever exactly the same. The story blew me away, surprising me with how emotional video games could be. And that was just the first game, as the second improved upon so many things.

Here we are again, remaking the first games. I’m really excited for people who never played Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue team to experience the story of the Ninetales curse for the first time. It’s a great story in a great game and it deserves to be seen by more people.

Graphics/Art Style

In addition, this game fixes something I never imagined would be fixed: the art style. When the Mystery Dungeon games transitioned to 3D, they lost the series’ original art style to be replaced with the generic cartoon art style every 3D cartoon game feels like it has. With these filters, it not only regains what the drawn graphics of the original imply, it recreates the concept art with its hatched shading and bold lines. Look at any screenshot of the game, and everything other than the Pokemon looks like a drawn picture, not a 3D environment. It is so pretty and it works so well.

Aside from the Pokemon, though. The filters make them fit in for the most part, but it is very clear that these 3D models (the same ones used in everything since Gen V - GameFreak, you taking notes?) are not made specifically for this game. It’s not bad that they stick out, since in a way, they should, but it does break the concept art look that everything else has.

It does keep Super’s walking animations, too, unfortunately. They animated four-legged Pokemon very generically and it doesn’t look great. The originals had unique animations for every Pokemon, mainly because every Pokemon had unique sprites. Now the uniqueness is largely gone. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but I miss Skitty’s pounces as it wanders around town.

Changes from the Originals

The personality quiz will sometimes suggest Pokemon from the opposite gender compared to the original. I haven’t tested it thoroughly, but when I took it, I chose girl and it gave me the Pokemon that used to be male-exclusive for that personality trait.

And now you can choose your starter regardless of the test results. I like the best-of-both-worlds approach here. You can also choose Partner Pokemon that used to be exclusively Heroes in the original, so that’s very neat.

Dungeon mechanics have been updated to be an evolution of Super’s mechanics. The demo ends too early in the game for me to form a full opinion on this. So far, I haven’t noticed it change the difficulty, as moves didn’t really have Base Power in the original as far as I noticed, so Tackle was just as good as Slam. Better even, as it has more PP. Now, you start with better moves, but it doesn’t seem to make it all that much easier. It was already easy.

I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of “press A and the game chooses the best move for you to use,” but if you use Super’s move button combo, you can choose a move yourself, anyways. And there is a “do nothing” button combo, so I’ll just have to get used to using that rather than pressing A when I want to do nothing.

Overall, though, moves are handled a lot better than they were in the originals, at least on the accessing them front. Some people are upset about the lack of a Basic Attack, but I made my farewells when Gates to Infinity came out and made them useless. It makes Max Elixirs less useless.

Story-wise nothing has changed so far other than Diglett being introduced slightly earlier, while also making you a shortcut to the Pelipper Post Office. Not sure if that means more story additions are on the way (I hope so!) or if it’s just a convenience thing with an in-universe explanation.

Really small thing that bothers me, though, is that wandering NPCs in town have zero weight to them. In the originals, NPCs had set ranges and you couldn’t move them. Now, you so much as brush up against them and they slide away from you. Even Gates and Super did it the original way. It feels wrong and cheap the new way; at least in most games that let you move NPCs, you need to exert some force. As it is here, I try to talk to them and push them away in the process.

Conclusion?

As far as I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty excited. But there’s still more to talk about that I will under the cut! It involves mild spoilers found out through the game’s Help Menus.

Pokemon Availability

Here’s something that’s neutral-to-negative: all signs point to these games consisting of only Gens I-III, evolutions/pre-evolutions(?) of Gen I-III Pokemon, Megas and Primals of Gen I-III Pokemon, and Lucario. More than the original? Yes. But in this day and age, it’s not very many. We criticized Sword and Shield for cutting the cast, and even before the DLC those games have more than this game does.

I understand it as an artistic choice. It’s the same reason Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee only have Kanto Pokemon. But when I get a new Pokemon game, especially Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, I want to use Pokemon I’ve never used before in that context. And I’ll be shocked if any of the newcomers are available before the post-game.

And not even Alolan Formes are in. The game’s TMs indicate that this game was developed to release during Gen VII, but they didn’t even do the obvious and make the Ninetales that lives on an icy mountain ice-type.

Shiny Pokemon Exist

That’s all we know, but that’s really cool. Apparently the Friend Bow helps recruit them.

Exp. All

Something that started in Gates to Infinity and continued into Super Mystery Dungeon is the fact that every recruited Pokemon gains experience along with you, regardless if they are on the adventure or not.

They changed the name of Friend Areas to Rescue Camps, and one of the Rare Quality descriptions seems to indicate that Pokemon in Rescue Camps gain experience with you.

Unlike with the main series, I don’t really mind it. I find the game more fun when I’m bulldozing my way through everything than I do when I’m struggling. But that’s just me.

I can see this being a disappointment for some. It’d be nice to be able to turn this on or off, especially since it would be funny considering the main series took away that option. But I’m just speculating now.

IQ Replaced

Instead we have Rare Qualities, which it seems some Pokemon come with, but others can be obtained through gummis. Gummis now only come in two varieties rather than the type-based ones, and thus are likely a lot rarer. Likely. I’ve got a job sitting in my Accepted Jobs list that rewards one so maybe they’re not all that rare.

Absolute Mover has an equivalent, so that’s all I really care about here. If I can have a Caterpie that crashes through walls, I’m happy.

Six Additional Story Beats?

The original Red/Blue Rescue Team had 12 total story portraits on the loading screen. DX has 18. This could mean one of two things:

One, it could have more actual events in the story. This I’m hoping for, but...

Two, more of the game’s story could have portraits. The original only showed the Legendaries you encountered, but there’s important events that happen that don’t involve Legendaries. Plus not all of the post-game events had portraits.

So, I want to be excited, but at the same time, I can’t get my hopes up.

Conclusion

I’m still excited, but it’s not exactly what I wanted from another Mystery Dungeon game. The gameplay’s still fun, of course, and I’m excited to see the rest of the game in this beautiful artstyle, but I have to temper my expectations. This isn’t Gen VII Mystery Dungeon where I can play as a Litten, nor Gen VIII Mystery Dungeon where I can have a Sobble partner.

This is Gen III+. It’s the original but prettier and with new mechanics. I’ll definitely love it, but it won’t be what I was hoping for.

Mega’s 2019 Top Anime List

Another year of anime has come and gone. This year I ended up watching a lot less due to the over saturation of Isekai and light novel anime, but there was still plenty to enjoy. As usual I consider any show that ended this year as a contender to be on my list. This is simply my opinion and there will be spoilers below.

1) Pokemon Sun & Moon

Starting this list with a show I watched for 3 years, Pokemon Sun and Moon was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with the Pokemon anime. It took the best aspects of XY and added loose animation to the mix. Ash and friends have never had so much personality as each episode brought the characters to life in new ways with funny facial expressions. As an adaptation of the game, Pokemon SM did better in some areas compared to others. The trials were simplified or restructured to account for Ash’s classmates being trial captains in the game. While the Kahuna battles were spaced out very far apart in the anime. I always thought it was strange that in-between major story battles, Ash barely ever thought about the challenges.

The two major story highlights of the anime are Lusamine’s arc and the Pokemon League. Lusamine’s story was the main plot of SM and it played out almost exactly like the game. Her downfall to her Ultra Beasts obsession and then Lillie knocking some sense back into her mom is still an emotional highlight of the series. In any Pokemon anime, the Pokemon League is what brings meaning to Ash’s entire journey through the region. SM’s league is similar to the game where it’s the first league of the region. The rival pairings and matches were completely predictable, but it ended with two big surprises. First, Ash was actually allowed to win for once (matching your character becoming the first champion in the game), and secondly he had a full 6 v 6 match with Kukui. It spanned 3.5 episodes with Ash’s Litten completing its character arc by reaching its final form during the battle. It was a rare match where both parties are battling it out for fun and it ended with a flashy finale of two hype Z-moves. Pokemon SM will be remembered for its simplicity, yet ambitious approach in always showing something new week after week.

2) Mob Psycho 100 Season 2

Mob-Psycho continues where it left off in season 1. The main protagonists have come away from a battle with Claw and now daily life resumes. This season featured a love story, Reigen’s arc, deeper exploration into psychic powers, and the return of Claw. Just like in season 1, Mob continues to excel in two major areas. First is of course the animation. An average episode of Mob is literally that one stand-out episode of a one cour anime. Psychic power usage is often a reflection of emotions and they are animated in different ways depending on the characters thoughts in a particular scene. There were so many highlights this season that it would be impossible to list them all.

Mob’s second strength is the character writing. In season 1 Mob was a boy struggling to create his own identity. This season Mob actively tries to break out of his shell and become his own unique person. We see this through his efforts with the fitness club, again when he separates from Regien, and again as he shows everyone that having psychic powers is no substitute for personal growth or status. Mob is no longer a timid boy like he was at the start of the series. He can now stand on his own two feet and help others who are struggling to get up. Considering there is still a little more manga left to cover, I can only hope it gets one last season to finish out the story.

3) Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

In order to understand the appeal of Kaguya-Sama, just for a second imagine if Death Note was a romantic comedy. Both of the protagonists are locked into a battle of wits to outsmart the other in the events of daily life. The mere act of choosing a vacation spot, going somewhere, or giving an item to each other suddenly becomes a high stakes duel. Kaguya-sama follows Kaguya herself and Shirogane as they try to avoid being the first to admit their love for each other. The side characters only help to add wildcards to each battle such as Chika being able to change the tide of battle with a single phrase.

I enjoyed seeing how absurd each battle would become week after week. The presentation is simple, yet very effective in this anime. Resources were definitely allocated for use in certain places for maximum impact. The voice acting also helped a ton in selling just how important each battle was in the minds of the characters. Overall, the series knows how to play with your expectations. Some battles turn out as expected, some with a twist, and others end on some kind of middle ground. However, each battle brings them a little closer together. I can’t wait for the next season in April.

4) Run with the Wind

Almost all sports anime revolve around high school students trying to become as good as possible and win nationals before the 3rd years graduate. However, Run with the Wind takes a different approach to this formula. It focuses on a group of college students who, at the start at least, would rather do anything else than run. It takes about half of the show before our group of characters even get on the same page about running. I enjoyed how this anime put us into the heads of each character. Some have personal reasons for not wanting to run, while for others it was something trivial. However, by committing themselves to the team they each gained a new outlook on themselves and those around them. It was quite literally an uphill for the team to reach the level of success they got at the end. The final run brilliantly showed how each character learned from the experience and how the time they spent on the team was a positive life changing moment. Run with the Wind shows that it's never too late to try something new.

5) JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind

Jojo is back on the list after an extended break between parts 4 and 5. Compared to previous stories, Part 5 is most similar to part 3. There is a quest to clear and it involves the main group traveling across the land and defeating enemy stand users each step of the way. The differences between part 5 and its previous stories becoming apparent right away. First off, the protagonist is not a traditional Joestar. He is the son of Dio born from when he had Jonathan’s body. Secondly, the group of main characters are not exactly good guys. As mafia members they display a sense of unity, but lack the high integrity of previous Jojo characters. A connection they all share is being looked down upon in society, but placing a place in the world through Bucciarati’s squad.

The aspect that makes or breaks a JoJo story for me is usually the villain. I consider Diavolo to be the weakest of any villain across the various JoJo stories. During the early arcs of the story, Diavolo comes off as an interesting character. He has a mysterious personality and will clearly stop at nothing to keep his identity hidden, including killing his own daughter. The series then adds layer of complexity when we meet his alter ego Doppio. The two personalities are clearly distinctive, but the line between which one is charge can be murky. However, his character intrigue quickly comes crashing down as the final arc fully brings Diavolo into the limelight. The story comes down to who can control the stand arrow, which is a sharp contrast to previous villains who drove the final arc on the back of their eccentric personalities. While JoJo part 5 is still a good anime, it will always come near the bottom of my favorite JoJo parts.

The Year of High Profile Weekly Shonen Jump Anime Adaptations

As the 2016-17 hits from Weekly Shonen Jump have aged up, all of their anime dropped in succession this year. I am a huge fan of the magazine, so here’s a section with some quick thoughts of their anime.

The Promise Neverland - The anime changed the escape arc from a mental battle to a horror series. While animation is definitely better suited to playing with the idea of show don’t tell, the result ended up being telling the story through a different lens. While I appreciated the idea, I feel it came up short. The loss of Posuka Demizu’s art was another major blow to the mood they were trying to create.

Kimetsu no Yaiba - When the manga first began, I never imagined it would become a 1+ Million seller. Ufotable brought their top class digital effects to a manga that at a quick glance would make anyone think it would be the last series to get such treatment. The anime brought a lot to the table and greatly helped to bring the manga to life. It was a great experience from start to finish (episode 19 is a major highlight of the year). I’m looking forward to the upcoming film.

Dr. Stone - Compared to the other Jump anime this year, Dr. Stone’s animation and presentation stuck very close to the manga (if not even inferior to Boichi’s creative spreads at times). The aspect that sold this anime best was the voice cast. They brought so much life into the characters and conveyed the passion each one has for science and learning. I enjoyed seeing Senku create his inventions in animated form.

Bokuben - This might not exactly be considered “high-profile”, but I can’t help but find myself impressed by the anime week after week. It adds a few touches here and there to better tell a cohesive story and occasionally adds a scene or two. I appreciated the heart the anime brought to the series through the seiyuu. Introducing a new seiyuu unit from the cast was also a nice bonus as well.

Best OP/EDs of the year:

1) One Piece Opening 22 - The One Piece anime has changed dramatically under Tatsuya Nagamine. This opening is fast paced and filled with future story teases. It changes the format by cutting the op run time down to 2 minutes and includes clips of the episode. The final sequence of Luffy vs. Kaido always gets me hyped each to watch the episode each week. 

2) Mob Psycho II Opening - This opening feels like a natural continuation of the first season opening. It once again showcases how the show is full of creative animation and unusual characters.

3) Mix Opening 1- Mitsuru Adachi is known for his nuanced writing of giving characters the space to convey their thoughts. This opening fully shows these traits through its sequence of character shots that feel like a natural usage of his writing style. 

4) Kaguya-Sama Chika Ending - Cute song and amazing choreography. There’s a clear reason why this swept across the internet last winter

5) JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5 Opening 2 - Not only is Traitor’s Requiem a very cool name for a song for this part of the story, but the plot teases are perfectly timed in the song. The opening animation also kept on giving with the villain version and Giorno later recapturing the opening.

This brings 2019 to a close and another decade comes to an end. As my way of recapping the decade, here is a list of my top shows in each post I have made since I started posting them in 2014:

Space Brothers

Hunter x Hunter

Kill la Kill

Nisekoi

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3

Sore ga Seiyuu

Death Parade

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3 (Second Half)

Hibike Euphonium 

One Punch Man Season 1

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4

Mob Psycho 100 Season 1

Yuri on Ice

Konosuba Season 1

Sakamoto Desu Ga?

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Tsuki Ga Kirei

Re:Creators

Ero-manga Sensei

Owarimonogatari (the Monogatari series in general)

Hugtto Precure

A Place Further than the Universe

Yuru Camp

Dragonball Super

S.S.S.S. Gridman

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Litten Family

725: Litten

Moving onto our Fire Starter, we have a cute little cat Pokemon. While it's not topping the Espurr family for me, it's still one of the better off house-cat type of Pokemon. I like its bright yellow eyes with its grumpy visage. Really gives it a cat-like personality above most other cat Pokemon. Not to mention it's a good way to compliment the black and red color scheme.

One of the more fun features of this Pokemon is that it coughs up flaming hairballs. Hah! That's a fun way to give a fire-cat even more personality. I also love how when it uses special moves, it’s animated to have the fur on its back stand up. That’s a neat touch that totally wasn’t necessary, but is welcome either way. And of course, if you're still with us on the Fire-starters-are-zodiac-animals theme, it's quite clear where we're going from here given this little striped feline.

Personal Score: 8/10

Good kitty!

726: Torracat

Litten evolves rather predictably into some really standard middle-stage fare. It avoids the amusingly awkward aspect they're famous for unlike Dartrix, but I feel like that came at the expense of its personality. It does come with a little bonus of having a little “fire bell” that flares up and rings when it uses fire moves. Overally I'd say I still like Litten a little bit better though. While it makes sense why they shifted its personality to set up for its final evolution, I just like grumpy-cat over smug-cat. We already got a handful of smug cats! So Torracat ends up blending in with the crowd a little more.

Personal Score: 7/10

Still a nice little tiger-cat.

727: Incineroar

Oof.

Incineroar has understandably attracted a bit of ire among Fire-starter fans. A lot of them just want a non-humanoid Fire starter and want something a little more beastial or less Fire/Fighting looking. There's no real denying that even if Incineroar is actually a Fire/Dark type that it still looks very Fire/Fighting.

And design wise, I have a few grievances myself. Of course these muscly Pokemon like Machamp or Conkeldurr just tend to not be my cup of tea. That aside though, the main thing turning me off of its design are its hands. They're just a little too human-like, or at least are drawn awkwardly for hand-shaped paws. I would've rather they been four-fingered paw-hands, personally.

And had that just been all there was to Incineroar, I probably would've simply ended the review here with a 7/10 score and just chalked it up to not being my thing.

HOWEVER That isn't all there is to Incineroar!

It extends far beyond “a wrestling cat but we made it a Fire/Dark type instead.” Notice Incineroar's classification as a “Heel Pokemon.” A wrestling heel! AKA a designated “villain” character in professional wrestling. Heels in wrestling are meant to be big assholes in order to draw ire and disdain from their audience. What better way for a fully evolved Fire Starter to do this than to pose as yet another anthropomorphic Fire/Fighting Type?! But not fully satisfied with that, Incineroar itself goes whole-hog on the Heel personality aspect, not being above using cheap tricks and displaying unsportsmanlike behavior when it battles.

If anything, its recent inclusion in Smash Bros has only gotten me to like it even more. Arguably cramming it full of even more personality than in its original games with them making it so it'll pose for the crowd after every single successful hit on an opponent. What a BMing asshole!

All this lends sense to why it's Fire/Dark type rather than Fire/Fighting despite the wrestling theme. We've well established by now that Dark type is more like an “Asshole” type. What with most Dark moves, especially ones like “Sucker Punch” and “Beat Up” are based around cheap tactics and taking easy potshots at the opponent.

It’s even hilarious from a meta perspective. To wrap those whole “heel” angle in a bow, not only is it a cheap fighter in battle, but it was also effective in pissing the fanbase off for a while. Simply by just looking like it was gonna be yet another Fire/Fighting type, it has succeeded in its heel quota by making fans mad at it. Pretty bold of Gamefreak to design a Pokemon pretty much intentionally to be disliked. What makes it fantastic is that it’s designed with this “People are totally gonna hate this” mentality but they still made it tastefully well-designed in terms of looks.

And to add to the meta-ness, it got to fulfill its role twice. Once in getting leaked and making fans worry about its typing, and AGAIN when it got surprised-announced in Smash, crushing a famous too-good-to-be-true leak single-handedly.

But of course, as a wrestling character, Incineroar turns out to actually be a big hit with kids. And it loves getting attention from children, even though it'll never want to admit it. And that's just adorable. It’s just a big ol’ softie.

Personal Score: 9.5/10

Incineroar casually goes up two letter-grades by sheer force of golden personality alone.

Overall:

Another winner of a starter line so far! Which is a much better track record than most, eh?

[Archive]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Direct Unleashes New Details

In the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Direct video presentation before the game launches exclusively for the Nintendo Switch system on December 7th, Nintendo blew the lid off of many new modes, fighters and gameplay features of the massive video game crossover event, including details about upcoming DLC. With the reveal of new fighters Ken from the Street Fighter series and Incineroar from the Pokémon franchise, all playable fighters at launch – all 74 of them! – have been unveiled. But more fighters, stages and music tracks will be coming in the form of DLC, which was also announced in the video presentation.

Watch the Nintendo Direct here: https://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct.

Nintendo also announced an incentive for fans to pre-purchase the digital version of the game (and avoid long lines and the holiday rush!). My Nintendo members who pre-purchase the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game in Nintendo eShop or on Nintendo.com will earn a bonus of 300, or double, Gold Points. This limited-time offer runs now through 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 6. The bonus points will be issued on the game’s launch day.   

“There are still elements of today’s presentation that hold a lot of secrets for players to discover, but with the launch of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate only a little more than a month away, this Nintendo Direct presentation is a final look at one of the most massive games Nintendo has ever produced,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “With so much to experience and discover in this game – and with a huge library of other games to choose from – we believe fans are going to be playing a lot of Nintendo Switch this holiday season.”

Some of the highlights revealed in the video include:

HadoKEN!: Hailing from the Street Fighter series, Ryu’s rival Ken joins the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster as an echo fighter. This Ken is based on his appearance in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. While he has some similar moves to Ryu, Ken is a slightly faster fighter and has a different shaped Hadoken.

Incineroar: The final fighter to join the battle in time for  the game’s launch is Incineroar, the advanced evolution of Litten, who made his first appearance in the Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon games. Incineroar uses pro-wrestling moves, culminating in an epic Final Smash called Max Malicious Moonsault, based on his Z-Move from the Pokémon games.     

Spirits: In the world of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, many video game characters lose their forms and become “spirits” that serve as a power-up of sorts for a player’s main playable fighter. There is a massive number of wildly different spirits, ranging from Chibi-Robo to Dr. Wily to Tails to Revolver Ocelot, with the giant list of characters going on and on. Players can equip primary and support spirits to power up or add additional abilities like speed or strength to their fighter during battles. Mixing and matching spirits will help players get the upper hand against certain opponents, adding quite a bit of strategy to battles. Equipping a spirit is similar to equipping a charm or accessory in an RPG. It’s a way for players to enjoy a massive amount of additional video game characters outside of selecting them as playable fighters.

Spirit Battles: The main way to acquire spirits is to win Spirit Battles. After winning a Spirit Battle, players will have to complete a roulette challenge to acquire that spirit.

Leveling Up Spirits: By battling with spirits by their side, players can level up spirits, giving them extra power and sometimes unlocking enhanced forms. The more leveled up and trained spirits are, the more powerful and useful they are.

Spirit Combinations: With an insane amount of spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, thousands of combinations can be formed. Players will be constantly surprised and excited by all the spirits that pop up in the game. Because players might collect an abundance of spirits, the game will offer recommendations for primary and support spirits, making the selection process a little bit easier.

DLC: New fighters, stages and music will be coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through the end of February 2020 in the form of paid DLC. For only $5.99, players can purchase one set, which includes a new playable fighter (not an Echo Fighter), a new stage and a variety of music tracks. By purchasing a Fighters Pass for $24.99, players will get access to five yet-to-be-announced sets, which is five new fighters, five stages and multiple music tracks, as they release. Players who purchase a Fighters Pass will also receive an in-game outfit based on Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 starting Dec. 7. Pre-purchasing the digital version of the game with the Fighters Pass in Nintendo eShop or on Nintendo.com before 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 6 will earn My Nintendo members 425 bonus Gold Points, or double the usual amount. The bonus points will be issued on the game’s launch day.

Early Purchase Bonus: Piranha Plant takes root! The iconic enemy from the Super Mario series is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for early purchasers. Players can purchase the digital version of the game or register their physical game card on a Nintendo Switch device by Jan. 31, 2019, to gain access to this new fighter when it is available around February 2019 at no additional cost. Piranha Plant, together with a new stage and music tracks, will be available for purchase as DLC in the future. Fans can pre-purchase the game and secure the Piranha Plant reward starting today!

New amiibo: All the new fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – including DLC! – will get their own amiibo figures. This includes Ken, Incineroar and Piranha Plant, as well as the recently announced Simon Belmont and King K. Rool. The currently scheduled release timing is as follows, with details about future figures on the way.

Adventure Mode: World of Light: There may not be a single-player adventure quite like Adventure Mode: Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but something has caused the numerous video game characters in the game to lose their bodies and transform into spirits. While today’s Nintendo Direct video provides some sneak peeks, Masahiro Sakurai, the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, wants to keep parts of this new adventure mode secret until the game launches…

Assist Trophies: In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, assist trophies do exactly what their name suggests – they assist players in battle! Each assist trophy is based on a recognizable video game character and unleashes a variety of different powers, both offensive and defensive. The total number of assist trophies in the game is 59, representing characters like Guile from the Street Fighter series, Isaac from the Golden Sun RPGs, the Fly Swatter from Mario Paint and Spring Man from ARMS.

Mii Fighters: When playing as a Mii Fighter, players can customize their outfits and voice options. Some new Mii Fighter outfits have also been added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Wireless and Online Play: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lets players battle together with friends and family members via local wireless* or online**. “For Fun” and “For Glory,” which existed in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, are no longer options. Instead, matchmaking is based on three factors: Preferred Rules, which lets players choose their rules for battle and pair up with others with similar preferences, Global Smash Power, an online leaderboard that pits players against others with a similar score, and Proximity, players who are close to each other geographically.

Two-Player Co-op: Two fighters are better than one! When playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online, two players can team up on one Nintendo Switch system online and take on other teams with the same setup.

Smartphone Features: With the Nintendo Switch Online app*** on smartphones, players can voice chat with others in battle arenas. A mobile service called Smash World is also being developed. Instead of focusing on stats, the new service allows players to post and watch videos, as well as other fun features. More details about the service will be revealed in the future.

Elite Smash: Once a player’s Global Smash Power is high enough, she or he will be invited to compete in elite in-game battles. These VIP matches are for the best of the best and offer some serious competition.

Smash Tag: Everyone who competes online will need to create a unique Smash Tag. By beating a fellow fighter, players will receive their Smash Tag to display on their profile. Collecting a bunch of Smash Tags is a great way to show off high-level Super Smash Bros. Ultimate accomplishments

Short Messages: Players can select pre-determined short messages, assign them to the control pad and send them to other players before and after battles. The game offers a wide selection of varied preset messages.

Spectator Mode: As in previous games, players can watch other players battle in Spectator Mode. Analyzing the battles of other players can be helpful in learning new strategies and techniques.

Background Matchmaking: Players can play other modes while they search for an online battle. Not every mode will be available while waiting, but it’s a great way for players to keep occupied between online battles.

Battle Arenas: Players can create custom battle arenas when playing online that allow them to compete against other players in a more intimate setting. In a battle arena, there are options to join a battle, wait in line or spectate.

Other Features: There is a wide variety of other modes and settings in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, including:

Early Hands-On Events: Fans can check the game’s site for information about a variety of upcoming hands-on events. At these special events, players will have the chance to choose from all 74 fighters.

Inkling, Ridley and Wolf – Dec. 7, 2018

King K. Rool, Ice Climbers and Piranha Plant – Feb. 15, 2019

Isabelle, Pichu, Ken, Young Link, Daisy – 2019          

               Help – Living in the easy-to-access dashboard, Help mode offers in-game guides and tips.

Mob Smash – This mode lets players battle an army of fighters on different stages. Players can even select the music tracks associated with a given stage that they want to listen to while battling.

Replay – Players can save replays of their battles and even create shareable videos from them.

Tips – This menu offers quick tips and tricks that players will see on loading screens. When viewing, the tips can be sorted by category or fighter.       

Challenges – By completing specific challenges, players earn in-game rewards. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the challenges are arranged to look like a comic book.

Battle Records – The Records menu tracks battle history, with the option to view battle data separately for online and offline play.

Shop – Players can redeem in-game currency for music tracks, spirits and a variety of different items.

Language Support – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate supports 11 different languages. Applicable fighter voices and names are specific to whatever language is selected.

Custom Balance – When battling against other players on the same system, players can adjust the strength of their fighters. This completely optional feature comes in handy if players want to adjust strength to ensure a fair fight.

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Originalshipping Prompt So i head cannon that red has really bad anxiety and he hates large crowds, so like what if one day while they're in alola a bunch of people recognize them and swarm them and they give red a panic attack and blue who is a very protective good boy is about to throw hands with them now , after he helps red through his panic attack

Wow I haven’t written anything OriginalShipping in so long let’s see how I do? 

“Wait, is that who I think it is?” 

“Who?”

“That guy! Look. Is that Red?”

“Red? Like the pokemon trainer Red?”

“Do you know of any other famous guys named Red?” 

Green grit his teeth together, his grip on Red’s hand tightening as the conversation behind the two of them floated to greet his ears. His eyes darted up to Red’s face, looking for any emotion in his usually even expression. 

If Red was listening in on the conversation taking place behind them, he didn’t express it. His eyes firmly remained upward, focused intently on the towering palm trees that gave them little shade and the wingulls currently nesting in them.

Green shook his head. He stepped closer to Red, their shoulders brushing. 

At the simple touch, Red blinked and turned to give him a questioning look. 

Keeping his voice low and tight, Green said, “we should pop into a Pokemon Center or something. Uh, I just remembered I wanted to buy some beans. For my pokemon. Pokemon beans.” 

Red smiled at that. With his free hand, he dug into his pocket, and pulled out a handful of said beans. He presented them to Green.

“When did you even buy all of these? And why are you just telling me now?” 

Red laughed at Green’s expression and dumped the handful of beans into his hands. Caught within Red’s playful, glimmering stare and frozen by his electric smile, for a hot second, Green forgot about the two stragglers following them. 

That is, until, an unfamiliar finger prodded Red on the arm, pulling his gaze away from Green’s. 

A spark of anger shot through Green and he swung a glare to the pair of girls now staring at Red shiny-eyed. 

“Hello! Um, you’re Red, right? The famous pokemon trainer?” The shiny-eyed girl bounced on her toes, leaning closer to Red. “I heard you won not one, but two leagues! Is that true?”

“Of course it’s true!” the other girl cut in before Green could edge in a single word. The other girl rolled her eyes at her friend. “And you call yourself a fan!” 

“Oh, shut up!” the shiny-eyed girl giggled. She swung her eyes back toward Red. “Can I have your autograph, please? I am such a huge fan!” 

Red blinked at the two girls. He drew back from them, his head tilted to the side. With too much hesitation shaking his hand, he accepted a proffered pen from the other girl. 

Green couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Hey. You know he’s on vacation, right? So why don’t you two leave us alone and scram.” Green flicked his fingers at the two girls. He pulled his lips back from his teeth. “We came here to get away from people like you two.”

“Rude!” the other girl bit out angrily. “We’re not bothering anyone, and if he really wanted us to leave he’d tell us himself.” 

Green growled. 

“Besides,” the shiny-eyed girl cut in, “it’s just a quick autograph. It’s not like its a huge deal.”

“Except you’re bothering us. So scram before I make–”

A tug at his shirt halted his words. Green glanced over at Red, who now stared at him with piercing eyes.

But behind the intense look was something else; a dullness and resignation. Red’s hand still trembled. He shook his head.

Green didn’t get his meaning until a different voice arose. 

“Wait, that’s Red?”

“I didn’t even recognize him, wow!”

“Looks like he’s giving autographs too!” 

Before, where there had only been two overly-loud girls, two more women and a man joined. 

“I didn’t know you were battling here too! Can you sign my hat?”

“Hey, Red! How many trials have you passed yet? Are you gonna challenge the league?”

“Of course he’s going to challenge the league! He’s the best pokemon trainer in the world!”

“Well, I don’t think he’s the best best. Have you seen Cynthia and her garchomp?” 

As two swelled to five, and five to ten, and ten to fifteen, Green found himself dislodged from Red’s side. 

“Hey!” Green snarled. Red’s nervous expression and trembling lip disappeared from view as another man stepped in his line of sight. “Get out of the way, fatass! We’re here on vacation, so leave us alone!” 

“Stop pushing!” A different voice said to him. The intense eyes of a teenager tried to bore holes into Green’s skull. “If you want an autograph, you’re gonna have to wait, ‘cause I was here first.”

Green had to gather all his remaining dregs of sanity to avoid punching the child. “Like hell you were. Now get out of my wa–”

Before Green could finish yelling, a surprised yelp from one of the men caught Green by the ear. He whipped around. He nearly missed Red bursting from the ground that had gathered around him, all blabbering on and on about meeting him and wanting an autograph. 

“Hey! Red! Where are you going?” someone from the crowd asked. 

Green shook his head, a hard pit of dread settling at the bottom of his stomach. 

“Red!” Green yelled. Shoving past people, Green couldn’t hear what was shouted at his back as he pursued Red. 

Green nearly lost him several times as Red turned down alleyways and dodged large groups of tourists. Following the palm trees with the nesting wingulls, Green finally burst onto a lone street. 

Besides the wet chatter of the ocean and the calls of pokemon around him, Green heard not a single human voice.

He shattered the silence with a shout of his own. “Red? Where are you?”

Green paused, keeping his eyes narrowed as he scanned up the street. From the corner of his eye, Red watched as the top of a palm tree shake. 

Green sighed. Shaking his head, he approached the palm tree with the shaking leaves. Two wingulls circled ahead, cawing. 

“Red, how did you even get up there?” Green called out, cupping his hands around his mouth. With a huff, he called out his pidgeot. Mounting the pokemon, Green took to the skies. 

He found Red huddled at the top of the palm tree. A wild wingull sat in his lap. With his entire hand shaking, Red held out a palm full of beans toward it. The wild pokemon pecked at his exposed flesh in hunger for the treats, leaving little red marks in its wake. 

Green sighed. “Red,” he repeated.

At the sound of his voice so close, the wingull took to the skies and fled. Red didn’t raise his head to greet him, however. He kept his hat low over his eyes and his chin tucked into his chest. 

Green scooted forward on pidgeot. “C’mon, it’s gonna be okay. They’re all gone. It’s just me and you, alright? How about we go back to the hotel, how does that sound?”

The beans soared through the air as Red flung them. His hands clamped over his ears. He shook his head harder, trembling.

His rising, panicked breaths cut through the fat silence that hung in the air. Green bit his tongue to still his worry, his own panic now rising into his chest. 

Fumbling for his pokeballs, Green hesitated. All his usual pokemon were too big, too hungry for battle, for this particular moment. Discarding his usual team, Green instead turned toward his more recently caught pokemon. 

With a determined look burning in his eyes, Green called out a Litten he had been gifted when he had first arrived. The sleepy pokemon meowed at him, its apathetic eyes not showing even a single trace of curiosity.

Green hesitated. He didn’t usually speak to his pokemon directly besides giving them an order during battle or to feed them. Likewise, usually when Red got… bad, his pikachu was usually out to comfort him. 

But right now, pikachu was in its ball. And Green knew exactly what sort of comfort Red needed in moments such as these, and that sort of comfort wasn’t anything he could give. 

With a little nudge, Green placed the confused litten in Red’s lap. The sleepy pokemon, once touching a lap, collapsed into a curled heap. 

Red jumped at the touch, his breathing still heavy, his shoulders still trembling. But Green still saw a smile grace his face at the sight of his litten. With a single finger, Red gently traced the edge of litten’s ear. 

Litten’s ears twitched at the touch. As Red started to scratch its small head, the little pokemon began to purr. 

Green sighed in relief as he watched Red devote all his attention and energy into petting the little pokemon. 

“I’m going to be right under here, Red,” Green said, still uncertain if he should speak or not. “I won’t let anyone bother you, promise. Okay?”

Red’s eyes finally rose to meet Green’s. Though rimmed with red, not a single tear clung to his eyelashes. A small, thankful smile graced his lips and he gifted Green a single, thankful nod. 

Relieved, Green nodded back before lowering his pidgeot back to the ground and recalling it. 

Green remained under the palm arms crossed, eyes narrowed, the palm leaves shook again. His tensed, muscled shoulders didn’t fall lax until a single, now still, strong hand clasped his shoulder. 

From there, the two drifted back to the hotel, with Green filling the silence with his usual chatter as always. 

Welcome, Grookey, to the Honorable Fraternity of Under-Appreciated Starters

As Gita Jackson so aptly said on Kotaku, upon the reveal of the “Sword” and “Shield” starting Pokemon:

“People are already picking favorites. I love Scorbunny, though I also have a soft spot for Sobble. Grookey is also present.” Yes, if memes are indeed an expression of fan-love, it would seem that people are not overly “fauna” of the newest addition to the “grass type” family. But fear not, little guy; you are at least in good company. Here, submitted for your collective disapproval, are the most overlooked/undervalued starter Pokemon from each generation.

Gen 1: Bulbasaur

Having two brothers when the o.g. Pokemon released, we each, through no prior agreement or instruction, picked a different starter. The oldest picked Charmander, the youngest Squirtle. I, also the under-loved middle child, chose Bulbasaur. No regrets, but it always kinda bothered me that this meant I didn’t get to have my final evolution on the face of the game box. I knew that in Japan it was Blastoise who got the cold shoulder, but that did little to appease 12 year old Jeremy. Maybe the recent trend of pro-Bulbasaur Propaganda would have helped, although it’s a few decades late imho.

Gen 2: Cyndaquil

At first glance there are no clear losers, which might be part of the reason why this set is widely regarded as the best of all time. However, as teenagers, my brothers and I were always disappointed in final stage of the fire starter, Cyndaquil. For comparison, Croconaw becomes a bad-ass alligator, and Bayleef a flower-maned brontosaurus. But the forgettable Quilava just kinda stands up. If you think I’m exaggerating, imagine having clay sculptures of the middle evolutions, and realize how much less work it would take to reform it into Typhlosion. Kinda too easy, right?

Gen 3: Mudkip

There’s a reason only one of these evolution lines got snubbed by the Pokken Tournament organizers. You’ve got a gecko, a chicken, and a… what even is that, anyway? Turn out he’s based on an Axolotl, which is at the top of zero “favorite animal” checklists. No wonder, Urban Dictionary lists the phrase “So I Herd you Leik Mudkipz” as an insult.

Gen 4: Chimchar

My first instinct was to go with Turtwig, as I feel his evolution line is the hardest for people to remember, but then I realized that Gen 4 was the origin of Fire/Fighting Fatigue. It’s now a running joke in the Pokemmunity that every fire starter will end as a yawn-inducing Fire/Fighting anime cliche, and it wasn’t until Infernape pulled off the hat trick in this generation that people really caught on/got salty. Thanks a lot, guys.

Gen 5: Oshawott/Tepig Can I be honest for a second? This is the only Gen in the series I never played, so I’m a little torn on this one and would love some feedback. Tepig definitely seemed to be the most boring design of the three (his name is one letter away from Tepid, for Christ’s sake), but I think Oshawott’s final evolution is kinda lost in the sands of time. I’m just ruling out Snivy because he was so beloved at his reveal that some, like Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft, still prefer his fan-given pseudonym, Smugleaf. I happen to agree.

Gen 6: Chespin Another tough call, but here’s my logic: Greninja is such a beloved ‘Mon that he plays major roles in both Smash Bros and the upcoming Detective Pikachu movie. I also eliminated Fennekin because of Japan’s endless love for foxes and Braixen’s endlessly adorable inclusion in Pokken Tournament. Chespin, as much as I thought his design was a breath of fresh air after way too many “flower dinosaurs,” just doesn’t have the clout. Plus, Louise Belcher wears it better.

Gen 7: Popplio

When Pokemon Sun and Moon were revealed, the disdain for this clown-seal was immediate and intense. People thought he looked too silly, too cute, too ugly; you name it. Furthermore, the devs faced actual backlash from the fandom, and responded to multiple interviews in which they were asked, “How does it feel to know people hate Popplio so much?”, making him the ultimate underdog/puppy-thing. At least his evolution line gets the last laugh by turning into a magical underwater opera singer. Litten’s final stage is so predictable and Bro-y it actually made my wife NOT pick the cat starter, which says a lot (trust me).

Gen 8: Grookey

Which of course, brings us to today, where this “curious, tricky bastard” rates a solid Shrug-and-a-half on the MEH scale. But don’t worry, little guy. You’ll always have a place on my team. My older brothers already picked the cooler ones anyway. :-P

Dissecting the Sword and Shield Starters

I can’t say much on the behalf of Pokemon fans, seeing as how I’ve only completely finished one Pokemon game.  But, upon seeing the new starters, I find myself unable to repress the desire to tear these starters to shreds.

Here is your warning now: if you like these new starters and will be offended by any form of criticism of them, turn back now.  Otherwise, continue reading as you please.

Shapes

The first thing any character designer will tell you is that the shapes that compose your characters is immensely important.  They create variety in their appearance, ensuring a lasting impression.  These starters completely neglect that common rule.  To further my point, here is a generation that does shapes well, Generation IV:

Every starter in this lineup has clear defining shapes, or at least shape.  The starters for S&S remind me of Fortnite skins. Each one is a circle on top of a roundish torso, with little to no defining features outside of their palette swaps.  The Generation IV use their shapes to their advantage, giving each starter personality. Speaking of personality...

Body Language

Answer me this: what discerning personality traits do the S&S starters exhibit? Happy maybe? News flash folks: happy isn’t a personality, that’s an emotion.  While a cheerful character can look happy, it’s important that not every character is cheerful.  Because, say it with me no: SAME EQUALS BORING!  There is no better example of body language than the Sun and Moon starters:

Popplio, with his large welcoming flippers who smiles gleefully, facing upright.  These features alone tell me Popplio is an energetic and charismatic Pokemon.  “But Maya? Rowlet is smiling too!” I hear you cry out! Yes, but Rowlet also is very reserved.  His wings are kept to his side with a blank expression on his face, his pupils simply staring out.  He’s very much a complacent Pokemon and not quite as energetic and buoyant as Popplio.  And Litten, the true outlier, has a near indiscernible mouth in this image.  His eyes are simply cast aside, analyzing and judging.  His stance is that of a true cat: nearly a blank slate, with a tail curiously flickering about.  All the S&S starters are happy go-lucky Pokemon. No hunched backs, strange looks, or open arms give off any hint of personality.  What a boring bunch.  But worse than boring, is messy.  And, boy are the S&S Starter designs messy.

Purpose and Clutter

With a lineup of the S&S starters in black and white, I would probably hesitantly tell you what type the Pokemon were.  Maybe Poison? Possibly Fire? It’s hard to tell because the designs have no purpose.  Here are some Pokemon designed with purpose, compared to the worst perpetrator:

(Sorry Tumblr formatting is being a bitch)

I wrote some notes highlighting what makes some elements great, and others extremely poor.  Litten, with little spikes of hair and whiskers, indicate he’s a fire type, since our minds naturally associate spikes with fire. He also features some line-cross pattern that makes him a little more interesting, but doesn't overpower the appearance. Charmander, a classic, is simply a lizard with a fire tail. How simple, yet so elegant and concise. The viewer can tell that Charmander is a lizard with fire powers.  Then we have Scorbunny.  Orange stripes.  Random, but okay, that’s unique.  Little tuffs of round spiky-ish hair.  That’s sorta like Litten’s spikes, but maybe a little to round.  BUT THEN THERE ARE THE SQUARES! Why in God’s name would you give Scorbunny, a fire type Pokemon, with an already messy design, SQUARES.  And the little mini boa?! Why?! There’s no reason.  And even if it doesn’t have reason, it doesn’t look good! Round shapes paired with such rigid lines makes no sense.  I will probably do a redesign of Scorbunny, but I’m too angry right now to do that.

All in all, the new S&S designs capture what I like least about some Pokemon designs: a lack of direction.  The designers are probably worn after designing how ever many of these damn things and it shows.  Ideas run short and you can only do Rowlet so many times.  You can only make a monkey with fire so many times. It’s easy to critique and edit these designs, but creating a Pokemon from scratch that is completely fresh... that’s not an easy task in the slightest.  I hope maybe some other new designs could revive the true heart of Pokemon, bringing life back to a beloved game series.

As for now, Maya Liz, signing off

Part 3, here we go. As before, pointing out issues with previous generations, but it’s Personal opinion, i’m not an expert, etc etc, Send an ask if you want me to talk about specific pokemon, and I’m happy to discuss any of these statements in depth if someone disagrees. I don’t mind the rowlet/litten line, but wasn’t a fan of popplio, not a lot bad to say about it though. Other than generally looking quite low effort, Yungoos/gumshoos are badly names and a terrible start to the generation. Grubbins evolutionary line went down faster than someone skydiving with a lead parachute, it doesn’t fit into pokemon, it fits digimons art style more. Crabrawler/crabominable as with last generations version, they feel like knock offs of krabby/corphish, and the generation would be better without them. Wishiwashi, bad name, knockoff remoraid, could be passable otherwise? generally low opinion of everything else up to Sandygast/palossand, at which point I bring up the issue with inanimate objects, it’s not just a bad design, it’s not what a pokemon represents. one is literally called “type: null”, which is where i draw the line at lazy naming conventions. At this point i give up, because i’m having trouble taking any of these new pokemon seriously, and would be happy if almost none of this generation existed, with a few exceptions A few honorable mentions that I wouldn’t mind keeping, mimikyu, pikipek’s line, morelull/shiinotic, and maybe cutiefly/ribombee. All the rest I could honestly do without as it feels like effort is at an all time low here. Now I’d be remiss not to mention the alolan varients given they were more of a focus than the new pokemon added, so I’ll also go over those. Some are silly, and some are actually pretty good designs, so I’ll cover most of them. Rattata/ratticate, I like it in theory, but the design leaves something to be desired. Raichu, ehhhhhhh, it’s beating a dead horse at this point, surfer pikachu has been done already. Sandshrew/sandslash, alright design, wish it could be named something different. Vulpix/ninetails, Actually like these ones. good job. Diglett/dugtrio, diglet, I like the idea of, dugtrio on the otherhand....why? just why? Meowth/persian, meowth isn’t too bad, but persian looks like it was drawn by a child, and not a particularly talented one at that. Geodude/graveller/golem, I would’ve been vaguely alright with these until they added what looks like eyebrows, hair, and a beard/mustache. Please stop added human like hair to pokemon, it just doesn’t fit. Grimer/muk, Interesting idea, Not sure about the colour scheme, but I don’t mind the concept. Exeggutor, amazing, 10/10 better than the original. also very worthy of it’s meme status, best thing to come out of this gen. Marowak, alright, but looks like they’re trying to make an already interesting pokemon too edgy. cubone/marowak had a great story in the kanto games, no need to push it to be something it’s not. That concludes most of the gen 5-7 pokemon, which seemed to go increasingly downhill with each generation. It’s just felt like the effort has been sucked from the games, between bad names, bad designs, mega evolutions, alolan forms(great concept, badly executed), Z-moves which generally feel tacky, and the switch to 3D, which hurt the art style in my opinion, it lost a lot of the appeal pokemon had for me as a kid. So far I like almost every new pokemon for sword and shield, except for the legendaries, and while I’m hesitant about the dynamax system, as it feels like they’re straying away from what makes pokemon, well... pokemon. With each generation the games seem to get easier, the designs and names get worse, and they add a new gimmicky was to evolve pokemon, or fight and it’s just slowly killing the series , sales have been on a steady downward trend, with only a boost with sun.moon, which I’d say came from the memes and the fact it had old pokemon again.