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kafus · 7 months

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i did some ridiculous technical BS in pokemon again

NOTE: not only is this post a very very long infodump from yours truly, it is also specifically an infodump involving a lot of pokemon glitches and exploits. even though i don't tamper with my games and everything achieved here can be done on original hardware with no hacking or what-have-you, some people still may consider this Cheating based on their own personal standards of legitimate gameplay. i ask that you please don't try to start arguments with me about pokemon legality and just take it all as an interesting technical infodump about gen 3 pokemon okay thank you <3

SO. i decided that before pokemon bank eventually shuts down one day in the probably-not-so-distant future and makes old gen transfer impossible, i need more ribbon master pokemon (AKA a pokemon with all the ribbons it can possibly receive from its gen of origin to the most recent gen it can transfer to) from gens 3 and 4. i've been meaning to ribbon master a pokemon from gen 3 based on my favorite singer, KAF (you don't need to know anything about kaf for this story whatsoever but you should check her out LMAO) and while musing over what pokemon would suit her best, it came to me.

FARIGIRAF IS JUST KAF'S FURSONA!! the monster teeth hoodie with the eyes. even has the dangly bits. like come on it's perfect. AND girafarig is obviously available in gen 3 so i could RM a kaf girafarig and then evolve her once i got to SV. Cool! Awesome! but here's the problem. I CAN'T SETTLE FOR JUST A NORMAL GIRAFARIG. I HAVE TO GO ALL OUT!!

i started brainstorming my ideal gen 3 kaf girafarig, and came to the following conclusions:

i obviously want the girafarig to be shiny. i mean come on

i want her to be a girl for obvious reasons, and gentle nature to match her personality. just because Armor Tail is better on Farigiraf i also want it to have girafarig's second ability, Early Bird. i'm not concerned with IVs because i think random IVs add flavor and that would add more tedium than i was already dealing with

i want her to be japanese language origin since kaf is a japanese singer (i can nickname her かふ that way too!)

i want the original trainer (OT) name to be PPさん (PP-san) in reference to the person who scouted out kaf's talent in the first place - he goes by Piedpiper online and my friends and i call him PP as a joke sometimes

i want the trainer ID to be 02018 because 2018 is kaf's debut year

since girafarig only spawns in gen 3 in the ruby/sapphire/emerald safari zone, i wanted to hatch a girafarig egg in firered/leafgreen for the kanto origin, which is impossible otherwise. FRLG are also really important games to me, leafgreen being the first pokemon game i ever owned or played, so that's a bonus

now you may be looking at this entire list and being like. What the fuck. how do you intend to shiny hunt girafarig with all of these hyperspecific parameters, especially in FRLG where the everstone passing nature doesn't exist and flame body doesn't even exist to hatch eggs faster. you will be doing that long after bank shuts down. and you're intending on doing this on original hardware too??? WELL. that's where ACE and RNG manipulation comes in babey. i am GOING to attempt to make this comprehensible even if you've never touched ACE or RNG manip in your life, even tangentially, but sorry if this is a bit of a mess it's pretty technical LOL. the rest of this post is going below a cut cause it Goes Places!!

ACE and RNG manipulation explained (kinda)

first off a quick overview of ACE, ACE stands for arbitrary code execution, which is the ability to run your own (arbitrary!) code within the game. this can be set up with a series of elaborate glitches, that break open the gen 3 pokemon games into letting you run your PC box names as code, enabling you to do pretty much anything you want. to be upfront, i'm not an expert on ACE - i understand it in an overarching conceptual sense and am able to follow ACE guides just fine, but i cannot write my own ACE code, which essentially requires you to know some GBA assembly. doesn't really matter for the purpose of this story though.

you can see an example of a tiny snippet of a larger ACE code with the PC box name below. it looks like gibberish but that's because every character used in the name corresponds to a specific internal value, which when all run together, is code!

i need ACE in FRLG because resetting for, or RNG manipulating (more on that in a moment), trainer ID (and secret ID, also more on that later) is pretty much impossible. ACE will allow me to change my TID to 02018 by essentially just telling the game to do so with my PC boxes. this requires me to set up ACE in emerald first since that's the only game with a viable entrypoint, and then use emerald ACE to make glitch pokemon that can activate ACE in FRLG when traded over.

as for RNG manipulation, that's a bit more straightforward, especially if you've ever watched a speedrun of... pretty much anything with random chance in it. games with random chance are not actually fully random because computers can't really be fully random, and in the older pokemon games with unencrypted and less advanced RNG (random number generator) algorithms, this is pretty easy to exploit.

this is a heavy simplification, but whenever you encounter a wild pokemon in RSE or FRLG, the amount of frames that have passed since the game was turned on are compared to a number that was generated upon boot, called the RNG seed. if you've ever played minecraft you can compare this to world seeds - the pokemon RNG seed determines all possible wild encounters in that play session in a similar fashion as minecraft determining the infinite terrain layout. this comparison determines every aspect of an encountered pokemon; its species, nature, IVs, and so on. so, if you were able to time your wild encounter (or any other type of pokemon encounter) down to the 1/60th of a second frame, you can get the game to spit out whatever pokemon you want at you! you just need a bit of typically invisible information first - the RNG seed, and if you're RNGing a shiny, your secret ID aka SID, which is like an invisible second trainer ID generated alongside your TID that is paired up with the TID and compared against any pokemon you encounter to determine if it should be shiny or not. both of these things can be figured out without hacking or tampering with games/save files.

the most common program used for all things RNG manipulation is called pokefinder and you can see an example of it spitting out what shinies are available on hoenn's first route in the first 100000 frames of the game being on with an RNG seed of 0 and my old TID/SID combo below. it's pretty damn cool to me tbh, i love RNG manipulation and i'm way more versed on it/experienced than i am with ACE

TLDR; rng manipulation is essentially a frame perfect, speedrunning-adjacent trick to get the game to roll the RNG in your favor, including for perfect IVs or shininess. for reasons that will become clear later, this is much easier to do in emerald than any other gen 3 game, so i will be using emerald for the RNG manipulation of the girafarig egg

with ALL of that context out of the way, this was the gameplan:

play through a fresh file of japanese firered (i don't own japanese leafgreen, RIP) all the way through the postgame to unlock trading with hoenn with the name PPさん, not worrying about TID for now. the guide i was following did not have a code for changing name with ACE in japanese FRLG specifically, so i figured playing the game again real quick would be a better alternative to trying to teach myself assembly in an afternoon LOL

set up ACE in my new emerald file i completed recently

use ACE in emerald to generate the glitch pokemon needed to run ACE in FRLG and trade them over. finalize the setup process over in FRLG too

look up possible gentle, ability 2, female, and shiny egg frames, and pick one that looks good to RNG manipulate in emerald, noting its PID (an encounter-specific ID number, pretty much)

figure out what SID, when combined with a TID of 02018, will cause that egg frame to be shiny - that way when the egg is traded over and hatched in firered, it will be shiny

do the RNG in emerald, trade over the to-be-shiny egg to firered, and hatch it after changing the TID/SID with ACE appropriately!! bam female, gentle, early bird, shiny, JP origin girafarig with an OT of PPさん and a visible TID of 02018. Pog!!

to execute that gameplan would take me an entire day, though...

step 1: play through firered

ok gonna be honest this is the ONE part of this entire process that i did not play on original hardware. i wanted to get to the Cool Parts of this process so i decided to play through firered on emulator. absolutely terrible picture sorry but i do actually own japanese firered, so i could dump the game legally to my computer to use speedup in mGBA with a little device called the Joey JR which connects the cart to my computer by USB like so

after that it was pretty much a relatively normal playthrough but obviously with emulator speedup. i used solely my starter blastoise to, well, blast through the rest of the game LMAO. after just a couple of hours or so i was right before the elite four, which i completed while in the car after moving the save file back to my cartridge with the same device, since i had to leave the house to go to a doctor appointment. i tried to take pictures of me beating the game but the sun was not doing the photos any favors lol. blastoise ended up being level 76 by the end. was easy with surf and an ice beam TM from the game corner (i just bought the coins)

unfortunately beating the game isn't the only requirement for trading with the hoenn games, so i also had to complete the whole sevii islands postgame quest... which required me to have 60 registered owned entries in the pokedex, which i wasn't really doing while speeding through the game initially, so i had a lot of mons to catch. i was still out of the house at this point (and playing at normal speed lol) so i wasn't really taking pictures, but i did make a stop at the power plant to look for an electabuzz despite it being an inefficient 5% since i needed a spare anyways for my leafgreen file unrelated to this story lmao. took a pic of it since it took a while to show up. anyway soon enough the dex had 60+ entries! i've played FRLG so many times that the encounter locations are memorized in my mind... i did all of this with no googling asdfkasfd

at this point i got home and was able to do the ruby/sapphire postgame quest on emulator with speedup again, so it was pretty easy. moved the save back to cart and i was done with step 1! obviously this didn't actually take me 21 hours of playtime, that was the emulator speedup's fault loool. from here on out i didn't touch any emulators again!

step 2: set up ACE in emerald

ACE time! i've actually set up ACE in an old emerald file before but i wanted to do it again fresh. i was following a guide pretty much to a T so i'm actually going to skip over the details of some of the steps since you can read about those more in depth over at the guide i was using if you want

TLDR; you have to trade for the NPC trade pokemon, DOTS the seedot and PLUSES the plusle, then EV train DOTS a specific way. these EV values cause DOTS to turn into a glitch pokemon egg 0x0611 when corrupted with the pomeg glitch (more on that in a bit), which, when hatched, runs the PC box names as code, aka ACE! why does it work? if you really want to know, there's plenty of stuff online about it, i'm not the best person to ask haha

it's worth noting that volbeat is really annoying to capture in emerald as it's literally only available as a 1% in one patch of grass, so i caught an illumise instead and bred them until a volbeat hatched lol. was much more efficient

also lol "Take good care of DOTS!" sorry i will be corrupting your son into demonspawn that lets me wield godlike control over your universe

after getting the necessary NPC trade pokemon all ready and moving them into a specific pattern in box 2 (i cloned them with the emerald tower cloning glitch) i had to perform the pomeg glitch. this involves using a pomeg berry to decrease a pokemon's health to 0 without causing a whiteout. this is achieved by getting a pokemon with at least 8 HP EVs to 1 HP and then using the pomeg berry on it, decreasing the EVs and taking off a point of health in the process (it's slightly more steps than this but whatever). i decided to use the camerupt i had during my playthrough of the game for this purpose. just took him to fiery path to get poisoned and walked until he was on 1 HP and healed him with an antidote lol

by doing the pomeg glitch and entering a wild battle, the game gets a bit confused since all the pokemon in your party are fainted and just sends out some sort of glitch decamark pokemon. in this situation, after viewing my camerupt's summary in battle and exiting back out of the summary screen, i was able to corrupt the DOTS and PLUSES sitting in my PC by scrolling up above the usual limit of the party menu, which reaches into data used by the first two PC boxes and fucks them up, ending up with, assuming that i EV trained correctly, a glitched egg that is about to hatch in a nest ball named DOTS with pokerus. this will run ACE when hatched! (if you want more info on this corruption pomeg stuff, check out the bulbapedia article for glitzer popping. yes that's what they named it)

step 3: use emerald ACE to set up firered ACE

so once again you can find a lot more detail on this process over at the guide i was using, but the TLDR of the matter was, i needed to put a bunch of codes into my PC box names to generate a few different glitch mons. specifically, i needed a egg that would hatch into a crobat (yes, fully evolved lol) with a singular glitched out move, that when used in battle in firered, would cause ACE to happen similar to how hatching the corrupted DOTS egg causes ACE to happen in emerald. i also needed a specific buggy shiny umbreon and a very strange glitchy egg.

even though this step was mostly a lot of tedious typing on the gen 3 keyboard (+ i had to redo things once because i made a typo at one point in the process LOL) it was so much fun! the game breaks in so many ways that you would just... never see during normal gameplay and it makes for some really good pictures and whatnot

first of all, when you hatch the 0x0611 egg, it hatches into a decamark of varying colors, in the case of the picture below it's almost imperceptible because the whole sprite is just a black circle, blending in with the background (sorry for the quality on this one, it's a screencap of a video clip i took).

additionally, trying to scroll over the hatched decamark in the PC or viewing its summary screen will crash the game, so to get rid of it, it has to be moved to the front of your party in the party menu, and then you go to the PC to release it through the deposit menu. since the cursor just defaults to the first position of the party and you don't have to scroll over to it, it's possible to release it from here.

oh yes and the umbreon/other glitch egg? similarly screwy - actually after generating them, their sprites are glitched out until you reset the game, so they look like this. behold their nonsense summaries:

after i had all i needed to trade to FRLG, i cloned an extra set of them with the emerald tower glitch again just in case i messed something up and got to trading! here's me receiving them on the firered side:

and last but not least, i'm a little obsessed with the way the glitch move looks in FRLG on the hatched crobat, absolute nonsense:

i finalized setting up the FRLG ACE (check out the guide i linked earlier for more info) and put everything into their proper positions, but before i could actually execute any code... i needed to know what SID i was going for!

step 4 + 5: look up potential egg frames in emerald and find an SID

soo now for looking at potential girafarig eggs. instead of using the program pokefinder which i mentioned earlier, i used a program called pokenav egg rng tool, which is exactly what it sounds like, a tool specialized for rng manipulating eggs with the pokenav in emerald. using it, i was quickly able to generate a whole list of gentle, female, ability 2 (early bird) eggs, and i picked one that was around 1300 frames in since that made for quick resetting attempts, but not so quick that i could barely make my inputs in time. the one i picked was frame 1381. with a TID of 02018, the PID D2C5EF55 would be shiny with an SID of 14962, so i noted that for later in firered. (i figured this out using an old program called RNG Reporter which is what i'm familiar with but i don't recommend using lmao. it's the "Pandora's Box" feature of that software though if you happen to look it up)

i won't make an entire guide on how to do emerald egg RNG here because it's a lot of steps, but i might at some point because the most up to date method isn't super well documented. anyways, here's a very paraphrased version of the process (this is also assuming that you aren't dealing with "redraws", which i wasn't... like i said very paraphrased):

get a pokemon with the ability lightningrod in the front of your party (i used electrike) to make pokenav calls happen more frequently, and a pokemon with flame body or magma armor (i used slugma) to make eggs hatch faster

get a male and a female of the pokemon you want to hatch, in my case girafarig. if you were RNGing IVs, the parent's IVs would be relevant, but i am not RNGing IVs so i didn't care and just caught the first girafarig i could in the safari zone

an egg is attempted to be generated every 255 steps after the parents are deposited in the daycare together, so by timing the usage of a max repel in such a way, it's easy to save the game exactly 10 steps before an egg is generated. do this

using a timer such as eontimer, soft reset and try to take that last 10th step on your target frame. this will also trigger a pokenav call (or lack thereof) and by looking for the phone call you got in the call column of the egg rng tool and whether or not an egg generated at the daycare, you can tell what frame you hit. didn't hit your target? just soft reset and try again, calibrating the timer for your own human error. this can take a while since the timing is precise to 1/60th of a second

once you hit your target frame, woohoo you did it just take the egg and hatch it! if you're RNGing IVs you would actually save before taking the egg and then RNG the IVs separately but that's a whole different thing i'm not explaining here since i wasn't RNGing IVs

i've avoided mentioning it this entire time till now, but emerald is particularly easy to do rng manipulation in because due to a programming error, the rng seed is always 0 - all encounters are predictable and you don't have to dedicate a frame perfect input to getting the right seed, making emerald rng a matter of one frame perfect input instead of two (there ARE ways to get emerald to generate a proper rng seed but that's unrelated here). additionally, its pokenav system means you can see if you got the right egg BEFORE taking it and hatching it... doing egg RNG in any other gen 3 game is basically a death sentence due to multiple untelegraphed frame perfect inputs that have to be executed in a row, plus really long wait times due to hatching eggs on a slower bike without flame body. there's a reason i was not doing this on four island in frlg.

but yeah now i knew what egg frame i was going for and was all prepared to do the RNG, so now it was onto actually executing it all:

step 6: getting kaf girafarig babey!!

before doing the RNG manipulation in emerald, i needed to change my SID and TID in firered finally! this required me to run two different codes, one for SID and one for TID. it was actually pretty painless since the code is nearly identical for both, you just swap out the values of each ID and one character changes in one box name to decide whether you're changing TID or SID. you can find the list of codes i was referencing here.

i was saving my one allotted video clip in this post for changing the TID with the glitched crobat move though because LMAO

^ shoutout to my qpp @/spikyearr for this one i fucking chokedSKFDDSFK

anyway, after doing that i went through the process of the egg rng in emerald (unfortunately no pictures because it's kind of hard to take pics mid-rng) and actually saved before taking the egg so that i'd be able to soft reset after hatching it - i just needed to check to make sure it was gentle and everything, and then i could soft reset, take the egg again, bike around to decrease the egg cycles in emerald since hatching in firered is super slow, and then trade it off before hatching it to go be hatched in firered. i knew it wouldn't be shiny in emerald, so i wasn't concerned with that. it only took 40 or so minutes of attempts before i got her!

and then AT LAST after spending my ENTIRE DAY ON THIS SHIT (like 10x the amount of time on the ACE stuff for the TID instead of the actual RNG itself LOOOL) i just had to trade the egg to firered and hatch it and i was golden!!!!! AAAGH here she is next to my kaf plushies!!!

also a picture of her summary screen after being traded to my english leafgreen!! i am assuming this will be easier to read for most of the people reading this post LOL

THAT'S IT. POST OVER THIS WAS SO LONG. IF YOU MADE IT THROUGH MY RAMBLING GOOD JOB. I HIT THE PHOTO LIMIT HELP ME

anyways yeah i'm gonna be ribbon mastering her and idk i might post about the process as i go. not immediately though i have a platinum playthrough to finish teehee. also if any of this was interesting to you i highly recommend trying out RNG manipulation, it's a really fun way to play pokemon games! gen 5, BW specifically and not their sequels, is REALLY beginner friendly for RNG manipulation as the timing is a lot less precise. check it out, there's plenty of guides online!!

#pokemon #pokemon rse #rse #pokemon frlg #frlg #rng manipulation #arbitrary code execution #girafarig #ribbon mastering #kiki was here #kiki.txt #long post #kiki plays games

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cookieblobber · 2 months

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what the fuck | Y Pokémon Legends Z-A is an Xtremely Important Game

how

HOWWWWWW

EVERYONE THOUGHT THIS WASN'T EVER GONNA HAPPEN...THE FRANCHISE MOVED ON SO QUICKLY FROM GEN 6, XZ AND YZ WAS ALLEGEDLY CANNED WHEN 3 YEARS PASSED, ZYGARDE WAS SO HAPHAZARDLY FORCED INTO SUN AND MOON

WHAT DO YOU MEAN POKEMON Z IS A REAL TITLE????? IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE JUST A LEGEND (haha see what i did there), A PLAYGROUND RUMOR, LIKE POKEMON WATERBLUE, POKEMON GRAY, POKEMON DELTA EMERALD....ARE WE NOW GETTING SUPER MARIO 64 2 WITH A PLAYABLE LUIGI???? IS SONIC AVAILABLE IN SMASH MELEE NOW??????? IS MEW ABLE TO BE FOUND UNDER THE TRUCK???????

ALL THE RECENT RUMORS DEBATED ON GEN 2 OR GEN 5 REMAKES HAPPENING, SV DLC HINTED AT GEN 5, THE PRESENTATION THAT HAPPENED TODAY HINTED AT GEN 2, HOW WAS THIS NOT LEAKED PRIOR?!?!???!!?!?!?!!?!? AND IT'S A LEGENDS ENTRY!?!?!??!!?!?!?!??!?!?!?

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The fabled Pokémon Z

Backstory: After BW2 was made, Game Freak had to start working on X and Y. X and Y was the first mainline Pokémon games to fully be in 3D, but it also came with the cost of a potential "definitive version" not being possible. Now, I'm not too familiar with what Pokemon would do after Gen 4 (not cuz I wasn't interested, I just never had the money to keep up with this franchise fully), but from my knowledge over the years (and watching a bit of DYKG), there were plans for a "definitive version" being like Black and White's, where it's not just only an expansion of the two games, but it changes the story and characters so much that it's practically a sequel to the story that was already made.

They wanted to do similar with X and Y for this fabled "Z Version" possibly titled Pokemon XZ and YZ. Of course though, it never happened. What remains are the fact the anime calls itself “Pokémon XYZ” and having episodes involving Zygarde, the fact Zygarde and it’s whole ordeal got shifted into Sun and Moon, and two random new X and Y games hidden in the source code of X and Y. They would eventually get to do it again with Sun and Moon ala Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the DLCs for SWSH and SV would serve more as epilogues of the stories that came along (less full experiences worthy of being sequels and more so add-ons to the initial games), and that’s about it. X and Y…left in the dust, no expansion or anything….until now.

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Pokémon Legends - Awkward Position

Pokémon Legends was introduced with Pokémon Legends Arceus, and it looked to be the massive change up the franchise was desperately needing after how lackluster SWSH felt, showing that Game Freak does want to actually do greater things and take advantage of this new hardware (contrary to a lot of popular belief). Many agreed it was a little rough in some areas but, that barely mattered when the game just felt so refreshing and fun to play. A lot of worries still were afoot with this franchise, mainly if it will truly pave the wave for a new way to enjoy Pokémon.

Legends Arceus released on January, a month after the Diamond and Pearl remakes, which those games were clearly saved for holiday releases (and we all know holiday releases mean easy money from parents wanting to get gifts), so theoretically a lot of people into Pokémon or wanting to get a new Pokémon game for their child probably would’ve spent some money already on BDSP in time for Christmas. The game would also then…basically be forgotten as it would receive its last update next month and on top of that, the new generation of Pokémon was revealed for this holiday year (not to mention since both games were huge projects developed by Game Freak and BDSP was from ILCA, it only put the quality of SV into question).

You can guess after the release of SV, it made many skeptical about what’s next for the franchise. While SV offered some great ideas, Legends Arceus felt like it was truly a brand new foundation to look into for the franchise going forward, and it seemed like it did really well for what it was. As of right now it’s reached 14M sales, to put that into perspective: SWSH made 25M, theoretically both versions making around 12.5 each, so Legends Arceus may have made just as much, if not more, sales than a version exclusive title, which really shows how hyped people were to see what this game had to offer. So suddenly having the franchise move on from it, almost as if they weren’t confident in the game to begin with, it seemed a bit worrying.

Until now

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Pokémon Legends FUCKING Z-A

this is a real title. It is insane they pulled a Metroid and just revived a well known canceled name to make something completely new out of. I think what’s most wild is how not a single rumor or alleged insider ever hinted at this being a possibility, it was either claims of Gen 2 remakes ala Let’s Go style, or Gen 5 remakes because obligatory remakes of games from half of whatever generations we have now ago. I mean Gen 9 hinted at constant relations with Unova, especially in the game’s DLC iirc. And as we all saw, they kept teasing constant Gen 2 Pokémon and events in the Pokémon Presents, all to just throw a massive curve ball and introduce Gen 6. All those jokes about Paldea being based of Spain, being near France (which Kalos is based on) implying Gen 6 remakes were coming were just suddenly true I guess??? It’s almost as if within the team behind all this they made up the idea of Gen 2/5 remakes just to mess with potential leakers.

Now, confession: …I have yet to still play Legends Arceus. Again, not because I don’t want to, I just don’t have the money, so take some knowledge on gameplay and the like with a grain of salt if brought up 🥲. However, I am certain there’s still plenty of other stuff to bring up in other ways, starting with: What kinda game is this?

Many assumed if Legends was ever going to be a series, it was supposed to involve exploring past of a region. Many people making their “Legends Celebi” or “Legends Kyreum” mock-ups would believe it would give us an interesting look in what Johto/Unova respectively used to look like back then. Makes sense since speaking of legends as a word usually involves the past, what was widely believed long ago and the like. However, nothing about the trailer of Z seemed to imply this is supposed to be the ye olden days of Kalos, it all looks more like our times.

I think Tahko put it the best

They’re essentially remixing these games old themes in a fascinating new way. Usually when we see the inevitable Pokémon remakes every 2 generations, they’re obviously made with the intention to port an old almost barely accessible game to modern consoles (When Gen 3 came out, you couldn’t trade Gen 1/2 Pokémon. When Gen 4 came out, you couldn’t play GameBoy games in DS so you couldn’t migrate Pokémon with the GBA slot. When Gen 6 came out, GBA Pokémon games were not playable on 3DS). They have their own merits and reason to exist, they’re usually sorta reimaginings of these older experiences with a modern take on them with new features and such, and honestly that’s all they need to be: familiar, yet still new enough to be worth experiencing all over again.

These Legends games on the other hand seem to be attempts at revisiting these old regions and themes but put them in a completely new perspective/world and having a bigger focus on a possible legendary Pokémon that didn’t get enough time to shine. The reason why Pokémon Legends Arceus was all about time travel and the past wasn’t because “Legends means past,” rather Gen 4 had themes of time and space, so ofc it makes sense for this game based on Gen 4’s region to have a plot line involving well, time and space. Similar to how Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers, the PMD games that came out in Gen 4, were about time traveling and saving the future and the fabric of space and shit, Legends Arceus follows suite and is supposed to be viewed as if it’s an entry to the Gen 4 titles. Honestly, this is a really great thing, as while it’s nice to explore the lore or history of these different locations, it could get a little boring and possibility limiting if every Legends games was solely about Pokémon history and the like. It’s a concept worth revisiting sometimes, but not as the defining identity of the Legends series.

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The themes of Gen 6 seem to have a focus on Life and Death. It’s not easy right now to determine how exactly these concepts will be involved for Z, but seeing how this game will take place entirely within a massive more in-depth version of Lumiose City, the best I can assume is how there will be more focus in the lives of Pokémon in a more domesticated setting ala Ryme City from the Detective Pikachu series; the polar opposite to being out in the wild and seeing how feral and savage Pokémon can act towards humans back in Legends Arceus. The death side…is unknown, maybe I need to play the X and Y games to get a better idea 💀

Ah yes, I forgot, it was announced the main setting will be Lumiose City

And as shown in the trailer…it is definitely way larger than what X and Y initially had.

I’ve seen some people feel a little worried that this game will take place solely in this one city, as Pokémon is well known for having to travel setting to setting, and being stuck in one city could maybe make things feel boring with little variety in environment. But, if games like GTA and Yakuza can be city games so well beloved by many, I don’t think it’d be hard to pull off making a really compelling environment with just one city for Pokémon, it just needs to have interesting and varied landmarks, which shouldn’t be any different from practically any other Pokémon game ever, it’s just making a whole new region but surrounded constantly under this one city.

Again look at Detective Pikachu, specifically the movie, it’s whole setting was based on this one city, a lot of the plot was able to take off by exploring this city, and the climax and final battle took place in the city. I feel like they can really pull it off if they play their cards right and just make Lumiose this wonderful bustling town, and plus I’m sure there will be some parts of the region that will still offer open wild areas to find Pokémon and the like. Hell, the Pokémon themselves might carry everything if they make some really adorable or fun interactions, seeing them just living a calm lives with their trainers/human partners.

Again, a lot of this is still hard to discuss since we’re going off of simple city and title reveals, so we’ll have to further wait and see what else is planned here.

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There’s been claims too that they’re completely skipping over Gen 5 in the remake department, since again it seemed like it made the most sense to make Gen 5 remakes now due to SV hinting connections with it, but…….nah bro 💀. Everyone was out here sighing relief that they’re not gonna have ILCA butcher the Gen 5 games when, they’re probably just being saved for Gen 10 since again, this happens every 2 generations (minus the Gen 1 remakes).

To be honest though, even if ILCA is brought back for it or they once again don’t really attempt to make these Gen 5 remakes take advantage of new console hardware, like they don’t turn Unova into an entirely different region with open world setting and want to stay as close as possible to the original game’s layout and all…personally I wouldn’t mind it. Ever since the jump to home console, expectations and products of the mainline games have evolved significantly, they’re WAYYYY different from what Pokémon games actually looked like. At least back on the 3DS, games were still relatively linear, so being able to remake RSE in the way it is with the XY engine didn’t seem to out of place, it didn’t risk a whole lot. We now have more focus on open zone/world and shit, while something like Diamond and Pearl was more tile/grid based and really limiting; imo trying to remake DPPT in this sorta open zone type deal that the SWSH engine offered would’ve possibly compromised part of DPPT’s identity, some might argue that DPPT being compact and linear is what makes it enjoyable. Now, this isn’t to say BDSP was a massively faithful remake, it’s considered to be worse than the original games in many ways and a lot of it felt like they went way too far in trying to be “faithful” to the source material, they could’ve easily just made the game akin to Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. But again, some fans would’ve still been disappointed that it doesn’t seem like Gen 4 is getting some proper treatment in using the hardware and play style that the recent title now had to offer.

This is where the Legends series comes in, where one series of games can continue being considered faithful to what they’re based on, while the other can just do whatever the fuck they want with old material while also using what current hardware is capable of. BDSP and Legends Arceus were a great showcase of this sorta decision making, do you want the game that you easily recognize the moment you boot up (something more simple in power)? Or do you want the game that uses stuff you remember in whole new ways that it’s practically a completely new game (something that takes advantage of what kinds of games are possible now)? The same sorta deal might happen with the Gen 5 remakes.

Plus, I don’t think Black and White’s whole look can even be ruined, like I really think it’s impossible. BW aged pretty well due to its usage of 3D environments and camera angles and the like, so if this next faithful remake were just basically port the game and upscale the graphics and all, it would still look really great, if not better upon getting to see these 3D environments in HD. With the game already look great visually form the get-go, people won’t really have much problem with how the game looks as a lot of the 3D world environment would already be done for them. Does that make sense?

As for Gen 2 remakes ala Let’s Go Pichu and Togepi or whatever……………nah……nah that shit ain’t happening 💀

Let’s Go was made as a way for new fans from Pokémon GO (which came out a year prior and was widely successful) to be able to get into the rest of the franchise, with the Switch finally being out, it was a brand new beginning for a lot of fans. And ofc, it used Kanto cuz that’s what most people remember Pokémon for. I’m not sure what the point of Gen 2 remakes of the same style would be for, and as far as I know there isn’t much reason for Gen 2 to be relevant at the moment outside of certain Johto Pokémon making a somewhat noticeable appearance in the recent SV games. Sure, it could be argued it’s just like what I said earlier, it’s done to make these games that are not at all playable on a current console more available, but the usual remakes just seem like tradition at this point, Let’s Go remakes is still unknown if they’re necessary. Especially since yk…we have that one new feature of the Switch that allows us to play old retro games, and they’ve been allowing GB/GBC/GBA games to be playable as well……I’m just saying they could easily just work on there instead…

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With all that being said, why Gen 6? Besides I guess Kalos being next to Paldea according to their real world counterparts, there hasn’t been much brought up about Gen 6 lately. Just like Gen 2, it hasn’t had much relevance, and it’s not the next generation that needs a remake compared to Gen 5.

How I see it, I think it’s less about monetary business reasons/series synergy or tradition or whatever, and more of a symbolic reason.

Gen 6 felt like a missed opportunity according to many people. Now, sure you could say that for a lot of recent Pokémon games, but like I said earlier, at least they had their opportunities to expand their stories and lore and such. Gen 6…did not get that special treatment. It was the first 3D Pokémon game and it set some stuff up for possible expansion in the usual third version or sequel games, only for time constraints to get in the way. Hell, some people consider Gen 6 to be where Pokémon started to have its downfall, the whole “[franchise] had a rough transition into 3D”, due to the game lacking features and the like that Gen 5 had in spades, or being the start of showing how flawed the franchise is and how it’s starting to fumble trying to manage itself. Having to make brand new games with a whole new region, new set of designs, new gimmicks, everything that will be the identity of the franchise for the next 3 years, until they start over again? This plan was not started to seem viable anymore, especially when Gen 8 rolled around. And as of lately you see people stupidly suggesting Pokémon needs to return to 2D and only stay as a 2D franchise, cuz that’s totally a great mindset for a franchise.

To me, this is Game Freak feeling confident that they can manage this, they have more experience in how they want to create these titles with this new home console hardware and massive expectations. Gen 6 was the game that started a new era for Pokémon, it only makes sense to use that era defining title to prove this new formula of Pokémon is indeed a new series to dive into now, one that shows off what they’re capable of now that they’re not held back by being on portable consoles for another 20 years. This is them giving a game that deserved more attention a new look and the expansion it deserved, possibly a way bigger one than any other generations that came after.

Seeing how this game is being saved for 2025 (presumably for the Switch 2 or whatever), if this truly is being worked on for another year and a half, being saved for the next holiday season maybe, then I think this means the franchise is finally starting to slow down and take it’s time. However, only time will tell what’s in store for the franchise.

#pokemon #pokémon legends z a #Pokémon legends #game freak #Nintendo #Pokémon presents #Pokémon

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lepoppeta · 11 months

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Favorite Elite Four members of each region, GO GO GO

Buckle up, buttercup.

KANTO - LORELEI. I have a Pokemon Adventures manga from my elementary school years that showcases several stories from the Yellow arc. At one point, Yellow gets chased and later cornered by Lorelai of the Kanto Elite Four (who are, in fact, all villains in the Adventures manga, hell bent on killing humans who caused the suffering of Pokemon). Villain or not, Lorelai is memorable in both aesthetic and personality; I like her sexy businesswoman vibe, and "Lorelai" is just such a pretty name. Ice is also one of my favourite types, even if it is a touch frail.

(Runner up - Lance, but he doesn't really count so much anymore because he becomes Champion in the sequel Johto games).

JOHTO - KAREN. I'm not sure what GameFreak were going for with Karen's design, because she sure doesn't look like a Dark-type trainer, but I like her regardless. She's got the all-famous quote:

"Strong Pokemon, weak Pokemon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favourites."

... which I think really encompasses what Pokemon as a game is at least supposed to be (it was only successful in executing this I think in the most recent two or arguably three generations). Her Destiny Bond-Gengar is also a staple.

(Runner up - Will)

HOENN - GLACIA. When I was 9 and first taking on the Hoenn League in Emerald, I'm pretty sure Glacia gave me the most trouble due to her Hail strategies and also because her bulky Walrein was impossible for little old underleveled me to one-shot. Her outfit and overall vibe reminds me of an opera singer somewhat and I really like that. Also - more Ice types!

(Runner up - Sydney)

SINNOH - LUCIAN. I've always found Lucian to be much harder to beat than Cynthia, mostly due to his Bronzong and the fact that it's really hard to overlevel in the Sinnoh games (the later level jumps, especially in DP and BDSP, are kind of insane). I'm a big fan of calm, collected boss-types and Lucian definitely fits that bill.

(Runner Up - Aaron)

UNOVA - GRIMSLEY. I love Grimsley's energy so much; this lazy, aristocratic vibe he clings to. It's such a shame that he's got such an intense and detrimental gambling addiction (or at least he does until SM was released, I assume at that point he's in rehab) and what seems to be some sort of reliance on chance (maybe a sprinkling of OCD) but it's also what makes him so interesting. He was definitely the most intriguing of the Unova E4 for me.

(Runner up - Shauntal)

KALOS - DRASNA. I must say that I don't find the Kalos E4 to be particularly memorable as individuals (although the environment and build-up to fighting them is spot-on), so this was a little tough, but I'd have to ultimately pick Drasna as a favourite. She's just so nice to you! It's also nice to get another female Dragon specialist, and she's a heck of a lot more enjoyable than Claire ever was.

(Runner up - Wikstrom)

ALOLA - KAHILI. This one's a little weird because, at least to me, Kahili is the only member of the Alolan E4 (except for perhaps Molayne); all of the others (Hala, Olivia, Acerola) in my mind are temporary since this is the first League match.

Kahili is interesting in many ways; she's obviously a very serious person, she's a professional golfer (which I believe is a first for Pokemon), and she's the first Flying E4 specialist we ever got.

(Runner up - Molayne)

PALDEA - HASSEL. The man, the myth, the legend. There's no way I could complete this list without mentioned our dearly beloved bow-legged Dragon master. It helps that SV fleshes out pretty much every important adult NPC in the entire game, and it also helps that Hassel is one half of a whole ship that both I and @roxycake adore immensely. His history is out in the open for you to discover and yet still shrouded in a healthy layer of mystery. I wonder if anything new will be discovered when the DLC comes out later this year.

(Runner up - Rika)

#answered ask #pokemon #elite four lorelei #elite four karen #elite four glacia #elite four lucian #elite four grimsley #elite four drasna #elite four kahili #elite four hassel

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riddlerosehearts · 1 year

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okay, so, let’s see if this cursed website will finally let me make a post about my thoughts on the scarlet and violet leaks now. gonna try and be as brief as i can because i’m still annoyed from typing this post out twice and losing it to the glitch earlier.

not really a big fan of any of the final starter evos at the moment. kinda bummed about it because SWSH was the first pokemon game ever where i purposely kept my starter in the second stage because i didn't like any of the finals, and it’s looking like this might be the second one--doesn't help that none of the first stages ever truly grew on me this time around either. the one that did grow on me the most was quaxly because of all the comparisons to donald duck and its final seems to a) have lost all of the donald duck vibes and b) be the one i like the least. HOWEVER i will admit that we’ve only seen sprites of both it and the middle evo and not proper in game images so i’ll wait to fully judge them until we can see it better. fuecoco’s is just sorta odd to me, i actually think it’s kinda cool but it doesn’t feel like a proper evolution of the middle stage imo and i think people who wanted fuecoco to stay goofy throughout its line may not be happy either?? sprigatito... well, i wanted a cool quadrupedal lynx but i knew in my heart that would never happen. however i saw several awesome fan concepts for a bipedal sprigatito evo that i would’ve liked and this one just sorta seems like delphox 2.0 although i admittedly like it better than delphox, i think. idk i guess i’m at least glad they didn’t do puss in boots for it since it seemed like most people only thought gamefreak would go that route because dreamworks made them think puss in boots is a spanish story in origin when it is not. also, it’s actually far less humanoid than i was expecting it to be. as i was typing this post the first time i realized that i actually do think i kinda like it, or at least i dislike it the least. maybe i will end up betraying quaxly to pick the grass kitty.

also i saw someone say the 3 starters have a circus theme but i... can’t... really see that right now?? like okay, sprigatito is a jester/magician, but fuecoco is supposedly “the singer pokemon” except i can’t remotely tell how it’s a singer or how that fits into a circus theme or what it’s supposed to be that would fit? its body shape just sorta makes it look like a pinata to me? and for quaxly’s evo, we just can’t hardly see what it looks like to begin with. all i can tell from the sprite is it seems to have a pirate hat and weirdly long legs, and we really need an in-game image before i can judge it properly. but anyway i just really hope me feeling so mixed about the starters isn’t a sign as to my feelings on the game lol, i wanna fully enjoy a new pokemon game again. on the bright side though, i’m very strongly considering getting some of these little guys on my team:

...oops this wasn’t really brief lol just way less well-structured and coherent than it was the first or second time i wrote it. but anyway. i really do hope at least one of the final evos manages to grow on me fully by the time the game comes out and if not that’s fine, i’ll probably just have a level 100 quaxly. ultimately it’s just the starter pokemon, it’s not a big deal, but i get attached to my starters and refuse to box them and i’m mostly just worried i’ll end up disliking SV since i disliked all of SWSH’s final evos for the starters for the first time ever and then also disliked the game. but i’m still very excited to be playing it with my friends!! also i love nacli's name, it's so clever for it being a rock salt pokemon.

#pokemon sv leaks #pokemon spoilers

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shrapnelstars · 1 year

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The absolute worst form of completionism I have is with pokemon, because a pokemon isn't considered fully completed for me until I have levelled it's final evolution to at least 50 with a self-sufficient moveset and minmaxxed stats. (This is a relaxing process, and I truly enjoy it.)

HOWEVER, doing this over the years is why I no longer feel compelled to catch a pokemon that I have caught before in a previous game. I'm at the point where I'm truly only missing whatever new mons have just been introduced. Right now, as of SV, I'm only missing Zarude, Zacian, Stonjourner, Koraidon, and the past paradoxes. (And the [redacted] that were found in the data that will be in the dlc.)

HOWEVER HOWEVER, this is why the dexcut is a massive point of contention for me. I wish they'd get off the fence and either have one master, non-subscription game where your collection up to that point can reside and you can battle bots with various rulesets infinitely, or fully commit to each gen only allowing new mons with no ability to transfer ever again. Either works for me at this point. Just give me a clear indication on what amount of effort I have to put into completing the dex.

They could also set up the dex so that even if old mons are included, a dex is considered complete if you catch every new mon/form introduced in that game. (Alola sort of did this.)

If they ever fully commit to PLA's highly accessible evolution methods and stat maxxing, then I will also have no issue with recatching mons every game or not being able to transfer. Catching, evolving, and raising were so fun and straightforward that I didn't feel like I needed to import my collection if I wanted to play with a specific mon.

I kind of get the feeling that if they removed a lot of the tedium, other players would have no issue starting from zero either, with the possible exception of shinies and sentimental mons from other people/points in their lives.

#stuff

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neon-moon-beam · 1 year

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I completed Violet yesterday. The following are my current opinions on the game overall.

[Major spoilers discussed]

Yikes. This game needed more time in development, but I don’t blame Gamefreak at all, Everyone knows they’re being crunched by corporate greed, and I hope all the bad reviews work in their favor for getting time to make the games they want to make.

I’m wondering now too, if SV’s overworld mechanics were done before PLA’s. and they weren’t able to go back and impliment them? PLA’s seemed much smoother, and there was more to do movement-wise, and the mechanic of being able to just throw a ball and possibly catch a Pokemon was probably the only good thing to come out of PLA in my opinion. Having PLA’s mechanics developed later would also explain why they were absent from SV.

Storywise, it was disappointing that the bulk of it happens at the end. It was a pretty good story, not the best, but it had a lot of potential that the devs weren’t given time to work on. I felt I needed to know more overall earlier. Arven at least tells the player about Mabosstiff after the second Titan so you understand his motivation early. Penny wasn’t really fooling anyone, and Starfall Street seems like the best-paced storyline. I didn’t really like Nemona as much and needed to know more about her. In the first place, I needed information on why she was so desperate to have a rival. Personally, I didn’t care to be forced to do the Gym Challenge yet again, nor the fact that badges were necessary to be able to train Pokemon due to the leveling (which kept this from being a truly open world). I felt she was very pushy and at times inconsiderate of whether or not I wanted to battle her or even do the Gym Challenge in the first place. That storyline felt even more forced after becoming a Champion and battling her, with the slow, dramatic cutscenes that we did NOT get with Arven or Penny. I also needed to know more about Miraidon and why I should want to take it around with me and feed it sandwiches.

Getting the bulk of the story at the end didn’t feel like a big payoff either. It was sad and weird, to be honest, and really, I just hope that Turo’s AI finds happiness in the future and is able to cultivate his already forming separate identity from the person who programmed him, and that Arven can find closure. It was interesting to see that the AI was a better person than Turo actually was; despite having been programmed to protect the time machine at all costs, he knew it was harmful to Paldea and wanted to stop it, and didn’t want to hurt any of the kids. He even wondered if Turo really only cared about the time machine. He seemed to want to give closure to Arven, but only managed the most generic phrases a parent could say after not having seen their child in years (which also says something about Turo himself, given the AI only knows Arven from his memories), and tried to tell Arven that Turo had loved him, and understood why it wasn’t well-received by him. Every single thing Turo brought into the world, be it Arven, the Paradox Pokemon, or his AI, were all negatively impacted by his self-centered pursuit of time travel, and in typical fashion, he died and left those hurt by him to prevent more damage and clean up the mess he made of Area Zero and of them.

As far as other aspects of the game go, most of the characters are enjoyable. I think my favorite Gym Leaders are Ryme because she’s allowed to be older and cool, and I like her combo of being a rapper and a Ghost Type leader (with DJ G-Rave!), and Larry, because he’s just too damn relatable considering I was recently working two jobs and had nearly no time off in November (I chose to quit the worser of the two jobs and to take care of myself).

Geeta though...I just don’t like her. She’s the easiest Champion I ever fought and I’m wondering why she’s the Top Champion when people under her have put up more of a fight. She also doesn’t seem genuine at times, and I don’t like how she’s just pushing Penny into cyber security for the League. I get that Penny hacked the system and stole LP and this is part of community service, but it seems Geeta is trying very hard to steer Penny, who is like 12-14, towards working for her after graduation. Given that a few of the other Gym Leaders are uncomfortable around or outright dislike Geeta, that doesn’t seem like a good thing.

I felt that Paldea itself is fairly empty. I often found myself riding around aimlessly and picking up items when I wasn’t ready to progress the plot (half my team was unevolved so I had to overlevel them for every major battle). The League itself was devoid of any real design; fighting the Elite Four in the same, empty room was worse than the DP/BDSP Elite Four room designs. There were no additional sidequests, nothing to do except the plot, raids, and picnic. Even customizing the player character took a huge drop despite all the new options simply because you were stuck with one of four uniform variations, and I found that what I would have liked to wear often clashed horribly with the uniform.

i have found two shinies so far, without intentional meal effects or even the shiny charm, but this game could have seriously benefitted from the shiny spawn sound effect from PLA, which is another thing that makes me think PLA had its mechanics developed after SV’s.

The Tera Raids are...broken. At least twice now I have gone into a raid and had to reset because no menu ever came up for anyone to do anything. We all just stood there while the Terastallized Pokemon danced. Other times the Pokemon is allowed to attack when its HP is 0 (including kicking us all out of the cavern), or I will select an option only to have the game not respond at all, and I know it doesn’t respond because going off the Cheer menu, my character did not cheer and my Cheer count did not lower after the menu closed after I’d pressed A. I get that they were trying to speed raids up since Dynamax Raids in SwSh could take a really long time, but having everyone doing everything at the same time seems to be breaking the game.

The Sandwich mechanic is also broken; constant glitching of graphics, things not staying in place, the bread often falls off, I’ve hit A to place the bread just to have the game not respond for a second, then phase the bread out as though it fell off when it’s still being held, then flash white several times and skip the completion cutscene and go to me and my party eating. It’s not very fun when it seems like no matter what you do, the sandwich physics don’t work.

I’ve even found the game itself is not responsive when I press buttons. I go to open the menu and it lags so much I end up having a wild Pokemon run into me first (wild Pokemon running into you and staying phased into you while you talk to NPCs, forcing a battle as soon as the dialogue box closes is a hugely annoying problem). I’ve opened the menu only to have the game close it on me because Miraidon was sliding down the mountain, and apparently the game cannot pause during movement.

There’s a lot more I could say about bugs and glitches and the game itself not responding to buttons being pressed but everyone knows there’s a multitude of problems.

I found myself not really feeling anything for the new Pokemon. The only Paldean Pokemon on my main team is Sprigatito. Other than that I only really like Wo-Chien, Chein Pao seems interesting, and Tinkaton is growing on me. Nearly everything feels like a Fakemon and I want to cut the designers some slack, as we have about 1000 Pokemon now and there are new people designing them too so of course they’ll feel different, but somehow the difference here was more jarring than the object Pokemon of Gen 5 (for those who remember how many people complained about them as though Magnemite and Voltorb weren’t part of Gen 1).

I’m going to continue working on the current postgame content and the Dex and see if any updates patch some of the issues, and how I feel about the game later. Overall, it was probably the worst Pokemon game I have played that wasn’t a remake (looking at you, BDSP), and I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

All in all, the devs absolutely need more time to develop great games. Having three mainline games come out in one year has proven detrimental to them as well as fans; each game had its own distinct, yet serious issues that impacted a multitude of fans’ ability to fully enjoy the games. It’s not fair that they’re overworked and it’s not fair that the players keep getting games that are clearly unfinished, underdeveloped, or even just outsourced reskins of the originals. As a Pokemon fan since 1999, I wish there was something I could do to help the situation, but all I can think of is boycotting pre-orders and the release date, but I know that wouldn’t work as too many people would not want to do this and so there would be no impact on sales. Scarlet and Violet could have used even another 6 months of development; they did not need a holiday release and it’s baffling that they keep pushing for one every time when previous games were released at other times of the year. I sincerely hope the situation can improve for the devs, and for all of us who love Pokemon.

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