#she’s one of my fav gym leaders

[leafylilpokemon]

11. Favorite gym leader?

Thanks for the ask! Dang that's definitely a tough one. I look up to and/or have become good friends with a few gym leaders throughout my travels, but if I had to pick a favourite....

I think Gardenia is who I personally look up to the most. I met her when I was traveling through Sinnoh a couple years ago. She showed me you can absolutely be a kick-ass grass type leader and allow your softer side to show through without compromising your reputation. If that makes sense? I aspire to be like her one day!

#not to mention she's like one of my biggest lady crushes shhhh #i really enjoy discussing gym leaders #maybe ill make a post or two talking about my fav leaders from each circuit ive done so far #asks #pokemon irl #pkmn irl #pokeblogging

[leggerefiore]

Hello!!! I’ve got a request for you!

Fem reader being asked to be a model/pin up in a photoshoot, and our fav twins, spaceman, and anyone of your choosing reacting to the photos? Bonus points if for a future photoshoot they are asked to model with reader because they are the only guy she’s comfortable being close to. 👀

I'm going to try my best with this but I apologise if it sucks

cw: suggestive but nothing explicit, fem reader

Minors DNI

characters: Ingo, Emmet, Cyrus, Larry

▲Ingo▼

● Ingo was not sure how he felt about the circumstance. Elesa said it would be fine as she would be there to monitor, but he felt anxious. Not for your looks, as he found beautiful beyond words, but he knew very well the public did not mince words when it came to rating an individual's looks. However, upon seeing the photos, he felt a bit mesmerised. The outfit was certainly not what he was expecting. You were sat provocatively on what was clearly a mock-up of one of the interiors of the subway trains. Your outfit was a strange imitation of his work uniform with a tight-fitting button-down and small blue tie paired with black shorts. He swallowed dryly as he stopped his mind from wandering. It was an appealing image.

● You could only laugh at the sight of Ingo's flustered expression and internal debate at seeing the picture. It was clear part of him that he wanted to scold you for the image of what appeared to be one of his trains and compliment how well it turned out. He let out a sigh in the end. “So that's why you asked for one of my hats,” Ingo realised, “Bravo – wonderful! But, please, don't start acting like Emmet does on the train.” Another laugh left you. He did seem to slip the print into his pocket, however, despite his apparent complaints. Perhaps he had some latent fantasies himself.

● The offer to pose with you next time does make him fluster even more. Pose with you? Next time? He blinked as he considered the thought. What would you even have him do? His heart raced, and his immediate reaction was to say no. He feels too embarrassed by the thought. While he might have been handsome, he certainly did not feel sexy. Plus, it would make such a mockery of himself and the Gear Station. Then you mention a mask.

● A picture of you posed with a Subway Boss “lookalike” does very well, even if it deeply flusters your modelling partner when he sees it. Ingo has it in one of his many photo albums. Usually, just glancing it is enough to fluster him and make Emmet wonder what he is looking at.

▽Emmet△

○ When Elesa suggested the idea to you, he had felt hesitant. Not that he did not see your appeal – he did, very clearly. The gym leader promised that she would be at your side throughout the whole process, yet he felt uncertain by the thought. Of course, your enthusiasm eventually bled over to him as he accepted it. Emmet felt impressed by the pictures, too, when you finally got them in. You were posed on a subway train set and dressed in a tight white button-down, a small blue tie, matching wear shorts, and one of his hats. He almost giggled at the silent claim. It was all quite provocative. There was a small piece of him that did not wish to let anyone else see you like that.

○ His eyes seemed to go to you as his grin shifted. Something stranger lurked just under the surface from his usual one. He clapped his hands and tilted his head. “Darrrling,” Emmet held out the “r” as he stepped closer to you. His eyes seemed to hold clear lust and became lidded. “Do you still have that verrrry cute costume? I have an idea,” he cooed. You could only nod. It seemed that you were both about to have an experience that his older brother would scold you both over. He dearly enjoyed that photo, needless to say.

○ An offer to join you at a photo session is met with immediate agreement. Then, him realising Ingo probably would not like his (well, their) face in such an image. A mask gets suggested, and Thalia styled one. He instantly was more invested. Especially when you said that he was the only man you felt close enough to do such a thing with. The thought of posing with you on the train styled set made him more giddy than it truly should. His slight drifting towards exhibition always got to him in the end.

○ The picture of you and the conductor does amazingly well, as the mask does not fail to hide your partner's clear enthusiasm as he poses with you. Emmet keeps it somewhere nearby to glance at a random and giggle. This disturbs Ingo mildly.

🌌Cyrus🛰

☄️ When he had heard mention trying out pin-up, he felt strange. Why? The was no clear logical reasoning for it, and he found it was useless. Your insistence eventually did give way to him, letting you do whatever. It was not like he could have stopped you anyway. The Galactic Boss took a glance at the finished shots that you had offered him with a slight curiosity stirring within him. You were posed by sitting on top of some kind of machinery with a mini-dress that an early sci-fi style to it. His eyes almost could not leave your legs as the skirt nearly pulled too far up. You winked at the viewer. He swallowed dryly and handed the picture back to you.

☄️ Cyrus would not like to admit how much he enjoyed the picture. The aesthetic you had chosen clearly was suited to fit his personal tastes, and he felt embarrassed by how you hit every little thing. Besides the machine under you, which he determined be some kind of old motor. “… Where did you find that?” he asked, partially wanting to see it with his own eyes. You told him it was just at the set. He almost seemed disappointed. Your gaze suddenly seemed to pierce him. Cyrus understood without you needing to say it for once. “You looked satisfactory,” the blue-haired man attempted a compliment. Your gaze worsened. That did sound like what he said about Saturn's recent programming feat. “… Lovely, then. Attractive. Alluring,” he tried again. You finally nodded with a sigh.

☄️ When you asked for him to pose with you for a shoot, he stared at you blankly. Him? Are you certain? While he did not feel as if he were unattractive, Cyrus did not appear like the material for such things. Your insistence was reinvigorated as you grabbed onto his arm. He stayed firm in his answer. Well, until you showed him the costume and told him the motor would be there. Suddenly, he was much more willing. A mask was used for any photos. He was still someone with a reputation, after all.

☄️ The strangely sci-fi themed photo of you and some alien captain does well somehow, despite the stiffness of your partner's poses. Cyrus keeps a copy in his office, surprisingly. A memory of the time he interrogated a set designer about where they obtained an antique motor.

💼Larry🏢

🍙 Honestly, he probably gave it little thought when you said that you were doing some kind of modelling. The salaryman barely can process most information after his work days and just nods half the time. Oh, Iono introduced you to a photographer? He personally can not handle her energy, but he respects that you managed to get along with her. Needless to say, Larry is startled by the photo prints that you offered him. The office set was plain as day from his nightmares, but you sat on the desk in some provocative pose that gave him pause. A white shirt with the buttons undone to just reveal your chest mixed with the tights and a pencil style skirt that hiked up to reveal the top of said tights.

🍙 Larry felt bewildered. Where? When? Why were you clearly supposed to be some kind of executive, judging by the key card in the shot? He blinked at you, did his empty stare, and went eerily still. You genuinely got worried that the image killed him in some way. His gaze then shifted on to you after he processed it. That kind of modelling, he understood. “… I usually don't like to mix work and pleasure,” he said simply, “You look good, though. The photograph and you both did excellent jobs.” You sighed. Sometimes, he talked like a walking business email. At least he clearly enjoyed it by how he kept it.

🍙 Your offer for him to join you for a shoot made him freeze again. Larry was not particularly known for being photogenic. It was slightly tempting, but when he considered how it might further conflict with his schedule. He sighed. The way you stared at him and told him that he was the only man that you would feel comfortable doing this with made him debate it more. Maybe he could try if he could get some time off. It is not a no, but it is also not really a yes. Which usually meant no with him, but perhaps there was hope.

🍙 The picture ended up being a strange perspective shot in the office with your partner not looking at the camera in his usual fashion. Larry ends up keeping the photo somewhere on him and glances at it sporadically. Rika and Geeta wonder just what it is but decide they are fine with it since it clearly motivates him to do more than his usual death march.

#pokemon x reader #ingo x reader #emmet x reader #cyrus x reader #larry x reader #pokemon/reader #pokemon ingo x reader #pokemon emmet x reader #pokemon cyrus x reader #pokemon larry x reader #ingo/reader #emmet/reader #cyrus/reader #larry/reader

[wolfsbanesparks]

Out of curiousity, what pokemon do you think The Marvel Family would have if they were pokemon trainers?

What a fun thought experiment!

I want to preface this by saying that I love pokemon, but I am by no means an expert, I love collecting pokemon way more than fighting with them so my concept of the team is a bit skewed lol. It might be cheating, but I think that it would be fun if they each had themed team like gym leaders do.

Billy: A part of me thinks that Billy should have an electric type team, but I also think it would be really funny if he had a team made up of entirely of Legendary pokemon. Like he just walks up with a team of godlike pokemon like it's nothing. So why not both?

So the team would be: Zapados, Thundurus, Raikou, Zekron, Tapu Koko, and Xurkitree

Mary: I can see her having a more balanced team to cover each other's weaknesses naturally. She would also have an all legendary team, just for the power move of it all. Her team would be powerful and smart, completely dominating.

Her team: Lugia, Latios, Latias, Lunala, Solgaleo,and (maybe an unrealistic choice) Mew

Freddy: i think it would be fitting for Freddy to have a flying type team. It just suits him. They'd be tough to beat and there will be a lot of mixed types, but all flying.

The team: Skarmory, Aerodactyl, Rayquaza, Dragonite, Gyrados, and Corviknight

Darla: Obviously she would be partial to fairy types. She is not as obsessed with being powerful as she is just building up her friendships with them, but that doesn't mean you should underestimate her!

Her team: Rapidash (Galarian form), Haltrene, Jigglypuff, Mimikyu, Sylveon, and Mawile

Eugene: He would be much more focused on optimizing his team, covering weaknesses, type-matching etc. So I think he would try to balance his team with mixed types you know?

His team: Lucario, Scizor, Bisharp, Magentron, Bronzorg, and Registeel

Pedro: He would have a rock type team I think. Very steady and down to earth but still very tough to beat in a fight. He would have his set team that he takes very good care of. (a lot of classic favs on this one)

His team: Golem, Onix, Tyranitar, Terrakion, Rhydon, and Crustle

I encourage everyone to tell me their own thoughts on who they might have on a team!

#ask me whatever you want y'all #shazam #billy batson #dc captain marvel #mary bromfield #mary batson #freddy freeman #darla dudley #eugene choi #pedro pena #pokemon #do these teams make sense? #IDK but these are pokemon I like and the types I think they might have as trainers #this was fun but I fully expect people who know more about pokemon to put together better/more fitting teams

[cyberkiss2uu]

good morning pokemon community umm. gymsona w other gym leaders i think match their vibe ^_^ do nottt ask me what gen any of these ppl are from dude i play pokemon pearl and cant even tell u who the gym leaders are in that. i opned the pokemon wiki and scrolled

anywho more info and stuff below break hehehehehehehhehehe

> this is all copypasted from when i talked ab it in a server LOL

ermm okie side note my only pkmn knowledge is like. pearl. so my bad :3 but the way i made the gym it kinda pushes how gyms traditionally work ... its more like a game show [because i always loved doing the little interviews thru pearl and the contests n stuff] where theres 8 contestants and they just bracket their way down to the final battle against the gym leader/host who is. me technically. but jamie crown is their name ^_^

one fun thing i thought of was because its a live show u wouldnt rlly be able to .. leave and go to the pokecenter and heal or buy items.. so ud have an option to heal between rounds at ur little podium :3 all with pokecenter certified tech or whatev of course !!

because its not gym members i realize it doesnt rlly lend itself towards being a typical gym since it would be ppl from all over coming to compete thinking emoji.. but it kinda works as a like. elite four minigame LOL idk :3 i didnt think ab it too hard

and then in terms of the team i chose

> starmie to fit a celestial theme i have going on w my friends hehe i originally had jirachi but that seems. unfair

> luxray .. my fav pokemon and i originally was going to do an electric gym

> meloetta coz her earpiece thing is vry similar to the og design's earpiece and semi inspired the earpiece now

> and tinkaton for being super cute and also like wat if she helped build and repair stuff... ik the dex entries mention tinkaton being a thief usually but . thats ok i support womens wrongs

and then real nerd alert ☝️ the outfit i just redesigned i think comes together sooo well im so happy w it. the collar being mirrored on the top of the boots, the vaguely sci-fi aesthetic taht i love w the wavy patterning kinda veering towards like 80s and that retro-futuristic look that i love.. the capelet kinda looking jester-y [i looove a good jester aesthetic] plus theyre very 80s. gameshow host personality LOL.. the star tie is super cute i think and the little luxray star shapes around and even in the eyes <333 idfk im just so happy w it its so cute and awesomeee

also the visual of jamie tellinf starmie to use surf in a densely packed room with a high concentration of electrical components on live television is sending me into a FIT because they ARE bimbo enough to do that

and also the design alt and the old outfit :3 the last one is just an outfit i found looking at rhythmic gymnastic leotards n went OH THATS SO JAMIE hehe.. the old design is so dear to me and i still rlly like it but i love this new one a lot ^_^ idk i think their design will change a lot regardless because being a game show host i think they would have lots of diff outfits as opposed to a uniform but.. pokemon logic u wear the same outfit for the rest of ur life

#gymsona #gym leader sona #pokesona #gym leader elesa #gym leader wallace #gym leader iono #gym leader nessa #pokemon #tinkaton #luxray #starmie #meloetta #jammy sona #pokemon fanart

[dizzyisdizzy]

You can only pick 8/18 pokemikus for gym leaders. Which ones.

Asking for my favs yeah? The coolerish Mikus are always at the top of my lists:

Dark (🥺)

Flying/Fighting/Ground

Normal/Psychic/Ghost/Fairy

Normal Miku is the final and strongest gym leader of course; the silly she wields is too powerful.

All the other Mikus have to hype her up after being defeated just for you to enter the gym and find her watching youtube shorts with her Chatot.

#dizzyisanswering

[goldensunset]

i’m not about to draw a minimum of twelve entire pictures but i wanna do this anyway (i guess i could just edit the images in there but that’s lame lol)

•my favorite gym leader is probably either tulip or clay! something about tulip i just always found very endearing and respectable and i love clay’s no-nonsense attitude and sheer strength. plus he gets bonus points for his daughter being lacey

•fav champion is clearly volo. like how could you not classify that as a champion fight. that was so freaking hard man. runner up goes to kieran though bc he was also really hard for me. but of course if we’re talking official true pokémon league champions then cynthia

•fav elite four member has gotta be lacey. i adore her. first time i’ve ever lost to the same opponent multiple times in a fair fight (aka being prepared and on-level). she’s sooo cute and fun! she also terrifies me severely

•favorite protagonist is akari no surprise there. la does such a good job of making it clearly important why the protag is the protag. it offers a legitimate in-universe explanation as to why this one child in particular is so much more powerful than all the others. out of place in time and space, literally chosen by a god… the way certain characters question her humanity, both in a good and evil way… it’s so good

•favorite rival… well pokémon fans use the term rival really loosely. it can mean any friend character that you battle for funsies even once. it can mean literal arch nemesis. idk. arven stole my heart with his story but i don’t consider him a rival like most people do so that goes to cheren. i love his story and he has also mopped the floor with me several times

•favorite antagonist is also volo next question. i’m sick in the head about him. n is a strong and clear second place obviously though. i’ve done enough rambling on here about them

•professor laventon is the guy ever he feels like he actually personally cares about akari so much. that’s her dad. the way he’s actively involved in plot stuff, he accompanies the team on field missions even when he really doesn’t need to… he’s always there. you see him a lot. and he’s clearly writing the pokédex entries himself and they’re absolute gold. but seeing as professor is also a broad term because they’ve been really breaking up the older tradition in recent games, i nominate director clavell as second place bc i respect the guy a lot. that old man (tm) enjoyer here

•fav battle facility leader… well. i don’t really have one bc i’ve done very little with the battle facilities in the two games i’ve played that had them lol. so i guess throwaway answer is ingo but mostly for pla reasons. actually i think he counts as a battle facility leader in pla with the daybreak update and i’ve done some of his stuff so he does in fact count for me

•for fav clan member i’m gonna say arezu i like her a lot. she tried doing the right thing in a very chaotic way and i respect her for her efforts. plus her design is cute and she gives great haircuts and her noble is adorable

•character from other media… well i’m obsessed with the way n is portrayed in pokespe. perfect blend between sad prettyboy and freak behavior. they just made everything so intense. and i love oshawott from poképark 2 with the way he’s trying so hard to be serious and cool but snivy keeps getting on his nerves lol. that’s the reason i chose oshawott in pla bc that was the only of those pokémon i recognized

•i’m classifying arven as miscellaneous bc like i said i don’t consider him a rival but MAN!! man… this guy just got shortchanged so many times but i’m glad he was able to get closure for his parents’ disappearance and death and that he can move on and just live his own life. also certified dog lover moment

•top fav character… yeah you all know it’s volo LOL. completely shrimp fried my brain. the absolute hyperactive high i was on when he revealed himself. made even more insane bc i had literally been spoiled that he was a twist villain but i had no other context so i was just waiting the whole game for him to be evil. imagine the sinking in my gut when the credits rolled and it didn’t happen i thought i’d been embarrassing myself the whole time but then the postgame punched me in the gut HARD. i thought he’d end up being like the sad sympathetic frenemy guy where you don’t really want to fight him but NOPE full on evil full on he was just using you. made even better by the context that he had been your biggest fan throughout the whole game while everyone else had been suspicious of you. i lost my entire mind. once again second place to n though

#pokémon #legends arceus #bw #sv #dppt

[kndrules]

Could u tell/show us more of ur hcs for Abby? She's always been one of my favs

YAH!! I really have to sit and think about this, because sometimes I have headcanons that I forget are Headcanons, you know what I mean?

(haha this turned out to be extremely long so I'm putting in a read more)

Okay- so I think her dad is originally Canadian and is half Cree. Since Cree is named after her voice actress, and her voice actress is named Cree because she is Cree, it makes perfect sense to me. Her dad was living in France for some kind of medical residency situation when he met her mom and they started their family. We know that Abby moved to the United States when she was a couple years old, like Nigel did. The only reason I can think that cree doesn't have a French accent would be that she tries really hard to fit in. But with one north American parent, she probably spent a decent amount of time in the states growing up too.

I think her family is a comfortable upper middle class. I haven't decided what I think her mom does for work. I have a very specific headcanon about her family having a nice finished basement that has gym equipment in it, cuz that's where Abby and wally work out together. Sector V will often have movie nights in Abby's basement too.

This is clear in canon, but she has a great relationship with her parents. Cree does too. Their family situation is complicated since the sisters have so much animosity towards each other but so much respect for their parents and their family in general

Abby IS fluent in French, the whole family is. They visit France to see family about once a year. Abby isn't close friends with Angeline, but because Angeline knows Creole French and has a girlfriend who lives in France, the two have kind of taught each other how to speak the others native dialect of French.

As an adult, Abby is going to start wearing glasses full time. This is a headcanon I forget to implement when I'm drawing her though 😅

In middle school and high school, Abby is an expert at floating around different social circles. She's tight with the popular kids but still has no issues being best friends with the nerds and weirdos (sector v, basically)

Her and Rachel end up becoming close, but in a way that still feels vaguely like a professional relationship. This is because they were both soopreme leaders at certain points and they both deal with a lot of social pressure. As adults, they have a new kind of professional relationship because they both become the core of Nigel's support system when he's in prison. Rachel becomes his lawyer as soon as she's able to and she works closely with Abby, since she's his best friend and a social worker (not HIS social worker, but she still brings her knowledge to his case)

After turning 13, Abby and Nigel become teen operatives. When Abby is soopreme leader, she abolishes decommissioning. In my adult AU, the divergence point is the teen-kid treaty from operation TREATY. Basically, the treaty goes well instead of...going horribly. As a result, the GKND doesn't target earth in the same way, and decommissioning becomes unnecessary. The hard line between kid and adult was a huge reason that "adulthood" was such a problem on earth. Wally, hoagie and Kuki stop being field operatives as teenagers (they still do some stuff for the knd, but to a lesser extent), whereas Abby and Nigel become a hardcore undercover duo.

Abby is very busy during her teen years. Shes in the top of her class and does a few extra curriculars. She also tutors Wally and is the biggest support he has in terms of school. She gets into a good college and pursues social work. I don't think she stays in that career forever though, because she needs to chill out at some point.

There's eventually a huge scandal regarding Father's business practices which culminates in his arrest. When this happens, the DCFDTL enter the foster care system and Abby takes on their case personally, feeling a sense of obligation to help them. As I've said before, I headcanon that the DCFDTL cannot age. At this point however, I haven't worked out the kinks yet, but they're able to start aging again. For reasons.

Abby has a tumultuous relationship with Henrietta in middle and high school that ends with a very messy break up. While I'm grad school, Abby and Hoagie become each others biggest support and hang out all the time, which is how their romantic relationship develops. They get married and have two kids, Naomi and Hogarth (Garth) the Third.

I HAVE MORE TO SAY BUT Y'KNOW WHAT...this is getting out of hand so I'm going to stop. If anyone has more specific questions about Abby feel free to ask!

#hahaha omg sorry

[the-drayster]

Fav Gym Leader of Each Region, and Why

Oh gosh that's a lot

Kanto- Blue, I think he's funny

Johto- I think I have to say Clair because otherwise she'll murder me in my sleep (It's Morty. He talks to ghosts)

Hoenn- Wallace, I'm bisexual

Sinnoh- Roark, he seems chill

Unova- Drayden and Iris, I bet you can't guess why

Kalos- Valerie, she scares me in an innate way that I don't understand

Alola- They don't have gym leaders so this one doesn't count

Galar- Raihan, Duraludon bros UNITE

Paldea- Grusha, I'm bisexual

#The Drayster Take #pokemon irl #pokeblogging #pokeblog rp #//He's bisexual guys

[elysia-nsimp]

Hi I have some silly TWST oc x Pokemon stuff I threw together a few days ago

So here’s the deal (I will make a potion that will turn you GAY got that? GA— /ref)

Every oc has a team of six Pokémon, can be from any generation, and each oc is allowed ONE legendary, mythical or ultra-beast (I didn’t end up needing this for the most part, but it is a rule I gave myself! I didn’t want to make their teams SUPER overpowered, but some of them would fit rlly well with those high status Pokemon so I allowed one per team)

All Pokemon in the team have to be around the same level, or at least close in level, so they function like gym leaders, elite four members, or champions do. They can’t pull a fast one on you by having mostly lvl 20 Pokemon and then pulling out a lvl 100 Pokemon. They also have to have REALISTIC teams.

Other than that, I gave myself free reign to do whatever with their teams.

Let’s start off with The Girlboss Herself, Comet! (These were thrown together in the middle of the night so please excuse the quality)

Lily (Sylveon) ♀

Lvl 37

Holding: nothing

Bite

Swift

Draining Kiss

Disarming Voice

Freya (Gardevior) ♀

Lvl 36

Holding: nothing

Double Team

Psybeam

Dazzling Gleam

Life Dew

Lunie (Lunatone)

Lvl 34

Holding: Leftovers

Moonblast

Moonlight

Phychic

Rock Throw

Meloetta

Lvl 35

Holding: Bright Powder

Sing

Shadow Ball

Swords Dance

Close Combat

Fleur (Floette) ♀

Lvl 35

Holding: Eviolite

Petal Blizzard

Wish

Giga Drain

Dazzling Gleam

Callista (Hatterene) ♀

Lvl 36

Holding: nothing

Psycho Cut

Healing Pulse

Dazzling Gleam

Dark Pulse

——

Most of Comet's Pokemon evolve via love and companionship, or are strongly tied to their trainers via love. Hatterene and Gardevoir, for example, are both extremely empathetic Pokemon. Gardevior's Pokedex entry suggests it will create a small black hole in order to protect its trainer, while Hatterene is incredibly sensitive to emotion and may lash out if the emotions around it are too strong.

Floette is famous for being the cause of war in Pokemon X and Y, while also being a little flower fairy (which has the same energy as Comet just being a sweet little space nerd but also being PRINCESS OF HELL in some AUs), while Meloetta is famous for its music that brings peace around it (correlated to her unique magic).

Lunatone is the odd one out here, but it's because Lunatone is a Hoenn Pokemon (my fav region) and a space-themed Pokemon.

Most of her Pokémon have at least one healing most, and otherwise mostly have damaging moves. Comet is a healer, so that much makes sense, but she uses a lot of damaging move rather than setup due to her impulsivity and habit of reacting emotionally, rather than logically.

I’m gonna reblog this post with the other ones, just going on character at a time lol

#elysia has too many ocs #eely rambles #twst oc #twisted wonderland oc #cometyuusonya #twst x pokemon

[cavewolf]

chris' legitimate pokemon scarlet review broken down into categories for your viewing experience (spoilers duh)

CHARACTERS: love the guys in this game. all of team star are so delightful arven is great and nemona is a new fav rival. i wasn't expecting to like clavell as much as i did but he was super fun. gym leaders for what they are (they play very minor roles but thats just how pokemon is aside from bw1 where they show up at the team plasma castle) are super good i especially liked ryme she's awesome. i felt the character writing was a lot better than last gen and they balanced the 3 rivals a lot better tho this could partly just be because of the three split stories focusing on one each.

POKEMON DESIGNS: mixed bag. loved a lot of them like tinkaton the ancient paradox pokemon and tatsugiri. meowscarada quickly became one of my fav starters i love its design and personality. but some of them didn't really do it for me. especially the bugs

HUMAN DESIGNS: really nice. i'm glad pokemon is continuing to diversify the body types of its female cast. i love the women + girls in this game. mela, eri, geeta, sada, rika, katy (I LOVE HER!!!!) and ryme were especially standout designs for me. the guys have cool looks too. i like brassius' edgier take on a grass gym leader and atticus autism warrior!!!!!

STORY: really good. i'm not kidding like god damn. i loved it in this game. it's easily in the big leagues with sun/moon, the gen 5 arc and pla for me (though i just like pla because it's rehashed pmd lol). the starfall street plotline was cheesy but i loved it , i love to see autism friend groups. they're very sweet. path of legends has an excellent motivator in 'your buddy's dog is sick' and like FUCK dude i'm not letting this guys dogy die!!!! arven is a very sweet character so it's nice to help him out. victory road is more standard fare but i liked the new take on the elite 4 (the interview and there being multiple champions). but obviously the closing act really sells it for me. i've seen people say it makes less sense in scarlet because sada is caveman themed, but i honestly think this made it more interesting. if i was playing violet i wouldve been like ohh yeah of course the guy in the glowy robot space suit is an android but the juxtaposition between ancient and futuristic stuff in scarlet makes it more impactful imo. i like how a futuristic ai can only function with the power of ancient crystals, ties it into both games nicely. plus sada sacrificing herself is a little sadder since i doubt there's more chargers in dinosaur times than the far future (she's double DEAD dead). i'm also just a sucker for evil ai and glitch effects anyway

MUSIC: gooooooood!!! there's been some mixed reception on the gym leader theme but it grew on me. penny's theme is one of my favs but all of the team star related ones are good. the area zero theme is genuinely incredible

GAMEPLAY: it sure is a pokemon game. i had some performance issues mainly loading times before/after battles and after cutscenes. i crashed randomly once during the orthworm mission when i went into its tunnel but nothing to the extent i've seen online (not to say it didn't happen). for what it's worth, i was playing it in handheld. but the basic pokemon battle formula always entertains me. the new gimmick is pretty so i like it.

VISUALS: it absolutely could be better but it's not distractingly bad. it's more just servicable. the updated textures (and sometimes models!) of pokemon look good and the humans look good too. definitely improved some animations (but i missed gloria's unique little tiptoe animation downstairs from swsh). the environment flops a lot, especially when it's not in towns.

#i finished the postgame bit excluding legendaries like an hour ago so here's my 2 cents #i beat the main game with 5 pokemon because i thought i'd be able to get volcarona earlier T_T #my final team was meowscarada tinkaton bellibolt volcarona tatsugiri and farigiraf #bellibolt is busted for npc battles btw. i recommend

[kingsbride-a]

Pkmn swsh AU for Dianthus 💖 while I currently don't have any desire to play the new game, all the conversation around it made me wanna design her finally 😭💔 minor league gym leader and steel/fairy specialist, she wants to completely changed the image of steel types so everyone knows how cute they can be 💕 tho I gave her the cursola because corsola is one of my fav pkmn of all time and I have a shiny one in game 😭 and the diancie simply because I like it :~) team is subject to change tho!

I ship her with Avery and Klara in a similar way I do to Theseus and Asterius, where one relationship is without a doubt romantic and the other is "what going on here???! 🤨🤨🤨" 💘

( ... It's a little inconvenient that pkmn already has a Diantha but nothing to be done about that! )

#🖼️ | works of the thesean painter #Pkmn AU tag #<- I'll figure something out later #Usually I only insert Dia into the post game but.... #Swsh had a very... simple and kind of empty story so I might put her in the main #Swsh is one of my favs but it's entirely due to how memorable all the characters are! Anyways. #self insert #self insert oc #selfship community #black self ship #oc x canon

[insecateur]

I'm in philosophy class right now and I'm hella bored so quick question, who is/are your favorite character (s) in every generation ?

sorry anon you sent this while i was sleeping probably i hope your philosophy class went well 😭! i will do my best to answer this anyway

gen1: this one is tricky bc there are a lot of gen1 characters i like but i don't think there are any i rly have very strong feelings about excluding like... giovanni i guess. i like bill? in general the pc storage characters are kind of underrated (altho bill is probably the less underrated one of them all lmao)

gen2: in comparison this one is easy because it's EUSINE obviously. morty is also my favorite gym leader ever. i also like petrel a lot 👍 and lyra is my favorite protagonist!!!!!!!! she's so cute

gen3: okay my fav gen3 character is obviously prof birch but here are funny runner-ups: that duo that's always interviewing you in hoenn i was obsessed with these guys as a kid. the old guy with the wingull. i also rly like flannery

gen4: thorton :] prof rowan obviously . marley's design is cute. i probably don't need to name cyrus but i will anyway. i also like looker

gen5: caitlin (i guess she counts for gen4 also but i like her in gen5 better) grimsley is cool. drayden. the subway masters are fine but my interest in them has always been more aesthetic than anything else tbh

gen6: 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

gen7: guzma & plumeria. lusamine is good also. oh and faba. and prof kukui ofc

gen8: oleana is my swsh fave...... i love her so much... chairman rose also obvs. i also care hop. prof lavender counts as gen8 i think ???

gen9: i still haven't beaten it i'm sorry lmfao i like the chairwoman a lot tho (geeta?)

disclaimer i know some people will say technically petrel and lyra for example are gen4 and not gen2 but i think of generations by regions and don't rly consider remakes to be from another generation but feel free to move things around in your head if that bothers you i g

#la réponse d #i would probably name lysandre n shauna as my main gen6 faves honestly but i love so many characters

[irxnmaiden]

Pokémon Favourites!

repost, don’t reblog! 💕

FIRST GAME: Red. Infamously got stuck in Cerulean for almost a year bc I was a dumb kid and had no idea you had to enter someone’s house to leave lmao plus the ledges confused the fuck out of me, had NO idea what they were supposed to be

FAVOURITE SPINOFF GAME: Stadium 2, if that counts? As a true oldhead, I cannot express enough how much a slay that was to experience for the first time, everything looked so CRISP... plus being one of three siblings, it was nice having a game we could casually play - not to mention the minigames, which all slap to this day!

FAVOURITE EVIL TEAM: Aqua, hands down, because I have a thing for pirates and an entire world of water doesn’t seem too bad tbh. Not to mention, Archie is Daddy like c’mon now 🥴

FAVOURITE TEAM LEADER: Archie, but if we take away the thirst and I’m left to dehydrate, I’d say Giovanni for sure - he was legitimately ominous in the games, and the threat level felt more tangible and less... over-the-top (a diplomatic way to put it) than the other teams? I like realism when it comes to my villains, and shit felt super real

FAVOURITE STARTER: Squirtle, this is not an easy choice but it is the one I’ll make (shoutout to my second fav, Chikorita, which apparently is universally disliked? tasteless)

FAVOURITE BOX LEGENDARY: Lugia, they imo are one of the best designed Pokemon in the bunch and I adore their lore (evident by the lengths i will go for them to have a presence on this blog lol)

FAVOURITE POKEMON: my least favorite question but it is simple, Espeon! But Slowpoke, Dunsparce, Sableye, Jumpluff, and Scizor are also up there! love Gen II and III’s designs the most on average

FAVOURITE PROFESSOR: Oak for sure

FAVOURITE RIVAL: Hugh, bc I too would battle 8 gyms and take down an evil organization all bc they’d taken my sister’s cat. He was so real for that

FAVOURITE CHAMPION: Lance stan all day long, but we love Mr. Stone too!! 

FAVOURITE CHARACTER (if not already covered): SABRINAAAA no seriously she is my favorite and if i wasn’t drowning in muses, she’d make a reemergence. One of the only characters to interest me in game, manga, and anime. 

FAVOURITE STORY: tbh I consider Gen I and Gen II as one story, similar to BW/2. Those are tied for my favorites. The newest gen’s story is quickly rising the ranks, tho 

FAVOURITE MUSIC: Gen V was so superior, it’s hard to pick a favorite. But I love Iris’ Champion theme bc it reminds me of Rainbow Road...

FAVOURITE REGION OVERALL: Hoenn, or Unova - too close to call! Hoenn has the gorgeous scenery, Unova has all the excitement and tbh there’s something I love abt each town/city there. Both vibes are immaculate

#::🧚 ooc. #::🌻 dashgames.

[destiny-smasher]

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is a Damn Mess

Strap in lasses, lads, nonbinary finery, and everyone around and inbetween. This one's a doozy. I won't be describing any post-game/end-game details specifically, but I *will* be mentioning in vague terms some of the late game stuff, in case you're sensitive to spoilers.

This rant starts with things I liked (which it does have!), then goes full tilt into spicy rage. So avoid it if you're for whatever reason sensitive about an unfinished game being talked about like it's an unfinished game. Do not try starting some argument with me, these are my personal opinions and not a scored/professional review. Enjoy your game if you're enjoying it and ignore this grumpy 90's era gamer.

TLDR bullet points at the tail end for those that benefits.

So I've put in 16 hours into Pokemon Scarlet. Did like, 2/3 of the main story badge quests, I would say, caught a bunch of mons. Aaaaand I'm done with this game. I am not of the opinion that without the tech performance issues, it would magically be this super amazing Pokemon game. Personally, I'm just not impressed with it. And we'll get into why I just don't think it's a well designed or well made product or RPG.

But first, the things I liked, or even loved. Because there are definitely some things I did like and love about it, especially after checking out the story (I recently watched all of the main story scenes from where I'd gotten to the end credits).

Opponents have never had this amount of personality put into them. When stacked against other peers in the gaming landscape, it's still kind of laughable how limited these characters are in a lot of ways, but SV goes to further lengths than any previous game in giving opponent trainers and story characters specific designs, bits of life in their animation, and even some mid-battle dialogue, on top of some of them even having…more than single note to their personality! Crazy, I know. It does still feel a bit flat without voice acting (we'll touch on that later) but it is SOMETHING. Character models look much improved from Arceus, and they do much better and more interesting things with what story there is, for the most part -- the one area I will concede I think this game clearly beats Arceus in, objectively.

The music is inconsistent imo BUT the songs that are bops are great, and naturally they're reserved for fights. I blame Toby Fox for this and Sw/Sh having some truly fun tunes, but I'm sure the other people working on music are doing work. Pokemon has never had TERRIBLE music, it's always been at least good if not awesome, and at least the Switch games are pushing things somewhat forward. My favorite tracks in the game are probably the Gym Fight (the opening part with the brass, before the vocals kick in), the Star boss fights, Nemona's Battle Theme, which I love that we get a few variants of (reminds me of Marnie's theme, my fav from SwSh). And speaking of Nemona…

Nemona is probably the best character in the entire Pokemon franchise at this point, at least to me. I mostly write YA fiction, sometimes from a perspective of trying to sift through the silt of my youth and identify who I 'truly was' as a youth given how like half of my personality was stifled and suppressed. And Nemona's the first time a Pokemon character has felt like someone I would write myself, felt like someone who reminds me of why I like the things I like. She captures the essence of the gameplay of Pokemon into a passionate youth who walks a fine line between teaching the player the ropes while alluding to her being much better at fighting than she's letting on, all because she just loves doing it, loves growing and learning and being impressed by others doing the same. Pokemon games struggle with their rivals usually, and even their gym leaders, because they honestly aren't that great at Pokemon battling, usually? But with Nemona, they've found a clever solution to that issue: they can allude to her experience, but her context with your character is that she's 'senpai,' she's the older student teaching you, so naturally she's going to go easy on you. It's a shockingly elegant solution to a problem the franchise has basically always had.

Beyond this, she just has a cute, cool character design that's pretty recognizable despite wearing the generic school uniform (she at least squeezes some bits of uniqueness with her green highlights and arm guard). She's a bit of a one-track mind but within the world of Pokemon that honestly fits right in. I have some personal bias here that I tweeted about already, but I just really like her, and I love seeing a character so overtly passionate about battling and looking to your player character to grow to be a fitting rival to her. She specifically says this, but it's clear enough before that point -- and it's also funny how ironically BAD people in this world are at Pokemon battling, so honestly, can you blame her for being desperate for some real competish? She does still lay flatly on the side of being fully supportive of your character and not truly feeling like an actual rival, something the series seems honestly afraid of at this point for some reason. But at least there's context. She's adorable and I like her a lot, she reminds me of my younger self. And as someone whose favorite genre is fighting games? Her motivations totally speak to me. Even her intro animation to a battle feels like something out of a fighting game.

Nemona represents pursuing your passion and letting yourself LOVE the things you love, letting yourself get EXCITED about having new people in your life to share those things with, and I just love her so much for it. I didn't expect going into this game that I'd end up having such a strong emotional reaction to any of its characters but Nemona made me cry tears of happiness (literally right now, thinking about and writing this up after watching the ending of the Victory Road path) because I GET IT, girl. And she's going to help kids out there feel OK with pursuing their passions, pursuing bonds with others, pursuing mutual growth and self improvement, and that makes me extremely happy.

( - Continue Reading after the line break - )

Arven's story takes that well-tested shortcut of 'make audience feel sad for a dog,' but it's a plotline we've not really seen in the games, and it's great to have here even if it's a bit on the nose. It also gives his rough exterior at first some depth when you realize what he's trying to accomplish, and why, once you learn about his backstory. It's a sweet side story and I also liked how it tied into your movement abilities out in the field. And Penny's side plot…well, it's a little convoluted and undercooked but it is something different, as well, brushing against a pretty meaningful topic without ever diving deep enough to do much with it. And Penny herself is fun, with a great character design, with the Team Star members being certainly recognizable and just wacky in their very high-school-esque, over-the-top premises and personas.

The Star gang is amusing enough, Penny's role was not at all a surprise but that's fine because it just made sense and added up nicely. Penny as a character is great, too, it's actually refreshing having someone prominent in a Pokemon game who...just doesn't seem to love Pokemon the same way everyone else does? Who's jaded and cynical. I like that. Honestly, she looks a lot like my wife and shares a lot in common? (her name is even Jenny so, funny coincidence)

I also loved Car- I MEAN CLINT. What a fantastic character design/concept (yet again), just awesome and fun. Pokemon needs more of that -- just embracing the goofiness. And also just older characters who persist in the narrative without staying back in your home town or whatever. Moreso than any other Pokemon game before it, SV actually has what I'd say is the best cast of human characters. Now, without getting full on into the negatives just yet, bear in mind…this is still Pokemon as you know it. Very limited interactions, very basic scenes, bare minimum animations, no voice acting, barely any character development. It's still clearly going for the designs first and foremost, and they are varied and appealing, for sure. The 'Normal' type gym leader with his Nick Cage ass businessman schtick had me chuckling in a way no Pokemon game has made me react to an opponent trainer. Just seeing Gym Leaders being presented as PEOPLE who have…LIVES…and JOBS, with the Pokemon battling being like a side thing, or like a new job, that's such a huge change and it's refreshing.

There's only a handful of truly animated cutscenes in the game, which have that weird hollow feeling to them with literally no voice acting, but it's more than Pokemon games have really done before. The human characters actually look pretty good even up close, too, and do many of the Pokemon -- and touching on that, I think a lot of the new mon designs are great. GameFreak seems to have figured out hair physics, and HOO BOI do they make sure you know it with the many overdone, strange, wacky hairstyles in this game. And they also seem to have actually figured out mocap, from the looks of it -- during the brief actual cutscenes, the characters actually animated naturally and look pretty good (even if there's still a lotta rough edges in the presentation otherwise).

As for the story itself, it's again, pretty barebones, super basic, but still a noticeable step up than previous games. Like some degree of effort beyond the norm has gone into story this time, which I can appreciate, even if none of it reaches what is standard for other high profile JRPGs these days. Having multiple threads you progress at your own pace, and then tying them together is nice - and they do weave the main characters of all three together in a way that's simple but effective and organic. I have to wonder what they might have been able to do had they focused their energy into telling ONE story instead of three. Like having them more tightly threaded together to form one plotline, I mean. But what's here is at least more interesting than previous games I've played (I skipped the DS era but I hear people liked that era's worldbuilding). Even when I felt done with the game, I still looked up the story scenes I missed as I was just enough invested and curious to see what they did with them. Pokemon is, for better and for worse, squarely targeted at kids in its design and presentation, and I think what's here is certainly more substantial than what the series has done before, both in visual representation and the basic but relevant to kids plots it has going on.

I will say that after looking up the final hour of the game, I do get what all of the hub-bub around it is. My wife and I were literally talking about how a Pokemon game could be so awesome if it functioned more like a traditional RPG with actual party members, inter-party dialogue, that whole shebang, and while it's…extremely ROUGH in its execution due to the technical problems and lack of presentation, you can totally see a glimmer of this in Area Zero, and even what little is here is honestly pretty cool, interesting, and has a complete mini-story-arc going on. I want to play a full Pokemon game that has something more like this all the time, with multiple humans, each with their own teams to manage, even -- it'd make for a great spinoff imo, but what's here is…at least different, trying new things that actually have good ideas. GameFreak certainly seems to have lots of good ideas they are struggling to implement, yet they clearly are in over their heads on how to do it.

And on that note, that's it for the positives. You may have noticed I have barely talked about the gameplay, and predominantly have been talking about the characters, what bits of world-building there are, and story. That's because as a video game, I just found it really boring. Time to get nitty gritty on why I personally didn't even find a very engaging video game buried beneath all of the tech issues.

I will not dedicate much time to this game's inexcuseably poor optimization and tech issues. For a first party Nintendo game, this is a new low. I have never seen a Nintendo published game look and run this awfully, and I'm sure many have been startled, shocked, and disappointed by this. By now, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're well aware of these issues. I personally don't expect most of the problems to improve even with patches, in part because a lot of this stuff just isn't 'fixable' in a post-release sense, generally speaking, AND the companies involved have like zero incentive to meaningfully address or even explicitly acknowledge them. But it's a big deal, and I'm glad it's been talked about. Let's move on to the gameplay.

This is an "open world" game, yes. In a technical sense. In a barely functioning sense. But it is a far cry from understanding what makes for a compelling open world game, or even a modern, by-the-numbers one. It at least is attempting something, but bleh. It's so hollow. There's basically two types of open world games at this point. ones like Breath of the Wild or Outer Wilds that basically leave everything up to the player to decide where to go, what to do, and give them a vast array of unique locations, landmarks, and the like to pique their curiosity, with baked in interwoven systems that can be learned and mastered over time. Then, there are by-the-books open world games, with vast maps populated with a bajillion icons, a giant checklist of tasks to do with a trickle feed of rewards and a linear story to complete, where player experience/strength is measured more with numbers than knowledge. Pokemon Scar/Vi is neither of these types of games, really, but is trying/pretending to be both, and fails at capturing what either does well.

All it really has going for it, in my opinion, is the same old song and dance we've been doing for decades: the core Pokemon formula of discovering, catching, and raising teams of creatures to fight. It sure does do that, and in a more traditional way that Arceus, with the more traditional trappings and mechanics all accounted for, plus the obligatory time-consuming gimmicks. Even just some level balancing could've gone a LONG way to making the experience really feel more open-ended, and giving opponent trainers, especially gym leaders, some more bite, especially if they scaled their teams to how many badges you had (like the actual Pokemon lore) would have been awesome. But it wouldn't save a lifeless, boring husk of a world map from being oddly unpleasant to navigate back to the world, though, while it IS very good that they have opened up that world for us to explore more at our own pace, it's got major problems imo. Let's start with the map…'design?'

The world doesn't really have much design TO it, really. It's a series of pathways with hella empty space in-between, with lots of artificial divides that discourage exploration, locked behind the movement unlocks you complete in Arven's story (or maybe jumping backwards up a fucking hill because lol game's unfinished). It doesn't feel like one giant level laid out in themed zones, with environmental 'puzzles' to work through. It's just…a big mess of shapes. A giant circle of places to go to accomplish tasks -- and while you CAN technically do them in any order, you are basically punished for trying to do them outside of an intended order, due to the strict, linear levelling nature of Pokemon. Shit isn't designed or balanced around numbers-based combat in an open-ended scenario. Nothing seems to scale, at all, in any way. In Elden Ring or BOTW this is fine because you can use cleverness, strategy, items, summons, friends, WHATEVER, to tailor the experience, and when things are too easy it's usually still fun because it's a great measure of your character's growth, often due to overcoming things balanced against you to get that extra edge. You can summon your friends into Paldea which IS cool but what can you DO together? Those raid things? Which are boring, slow, and easy as fuck and the screens before/after take longer than actually playing them (which usually is just spamming your Super Effective move repeatedly when it's even functioning correctly). Trainers don't stop you in your tracks but what is the damn POINT of them, even? Everyone's got like one, MAYBE two monsters, and gym leaders don't seem to put up much of a fight at all, either. I GET hella kids will play this but that was true on GB and they had SOME more there.

In fact, backtrack to the GB games. I still distinctly remember exploring Mt. Moon for the first time. It was a maze. It was full of fucking Zubats and Geodudes, and trainers who had Pokemon my Fire starter and normal types struggled against. It was memorable as a challenge, as an environment to work through. Most Pokemon games have locations like that, at least in older gens. This game seems to be lacking in any of that despite the open world format being ripe for putting things like that in. I don't remember locations really, apart from a handful of small landmarks shrouded in buildings in the towns. I, uh, stumbled upon a neat cave tunnel one time, which had…some of the usual Pokemon you'd expect, maybe a TM or something, and that was basically it? Nowhere else in my 16 hours of playing felt like I had DISCOVERED anything, save for the single ominous glowy nail stuck in the ground I saw. And yet multiple times in Arceus I experienced at least a sense of discovery when I found a unique patch of land with a wisp to collect or an Alpha Pokemon tucked in a cranny somewhere you couldn't see from a distance, or a nice place to stock up on certain items, or a shiny Pokemon that made its presence VERY VISUALLY APPARENT the second it was on screen, from at least some amount of distance (rather than you tripped over it when it pops in three feet in front of you with a color so barely different from the norm you don't even recognize it as a shiny). I'm sorry, this world is mostly hollow, vapid, and boring for me to navigate, worsened by the performance issues really hampering things.

There are giant arrow signs pointing to where you can actually go because the world design doesn't make much sense. Ladders stuck into the side of rock faces because…no reason? They're just…there. They make no sense with the design of the landscape. Doesn't feel like a world. You can't rely on the map to figure out where to go sometimes due to the way things are laid out, too, with entrances to some of the northern regions being really obtuse. Towns stutter and chug as NPCs pop in and out and flicker, they don't really have anything interesting to say, anyway. Houses can't be entered, trainers aren't deliberately in wait for you but just…standing aimlessly around, waiting to be talked to - and of course they almost always have a single mon and that's it. There's barely any landmarks to get you curious to check something out, and on the rare occasion when something visually looks…"interesting" (read: different but ugly because this game can't render for shit), when you go to check it out, it's usually just…a big blah, nothing exciting. I will say that at least there DOES seem to be some kind of neat sidequest involving glowy nails stuck in the ground (presumably to unlock a mysterious Pokemon, I assume). THAT is something! Give us more of that! That is actually using your open world and Pokemon formatting to do something fun and interesting the old style of games wouldn't be able to do the same.

Even Arceus did this way better, with all kinds of little nooks and crannies with specific Pokemon hiding in wait, motivating you to check out the parts of the map you haven't been to. It wasn't super advanced, but it was something. Here, everything feels fucking RANDOM. Even items feel absolutely random, and near as I can tell, many of them literally are. There's some TMs that do seem "deliberately" placed but not in a way that generally feels rewarding to get to, and every other item literally feels randomly scattershot around, and often seems laggy to get picked up for some reason. Also, why is everything you pick up in a pokeball again? We finally ditched this shit in Arceus, where items are actually recognizeable out in the field, and make SENSE, and you combine them and use them in organic ways. The only crafting we have now is for TMs, which IS a cool idea, but I don't really like the execution since it entails 'parts' from specific Pokemon, whereas I think it'd have been better to give you a few options per TM, and/or types, or…something less finite and rigid, given just how many Pokemon exist. That's a minor complaint, it's really fine I suppose, but I already miss the much more beneficial item crafting of Arceus, which meant I valued every healing item and pokeball I used and stockpiled until the late game, where I felt rewarded for having made so much progress so as to not even worry about that stuff.

Not to mention from a tech spec the game can't even render an open world that functions properly. Shit pops in SO close to you. And it's not just a visual thing, it directly impacts the gameplay in a negative way. Your big dragonbike will trip on the smallest mon that popped in ten feet in front of you and whoops, you're stuck in a battle now. See a Pokemon you wanna fight but overshot where it is slightly? It despawns and guess what? It ain't comin' back because when something disappears it doesn't necessarily mean it's still there, it's probably just fuckin' gone now if it's a wild mon.

Briefly, let's touch on Tera types. Fun idea, on paper. In practice...just more nonsense than it's worth, tbh. And it's patently clear they wanted a fancy new visual gimmick without needing to actually render new mon designs so hey, slap a wonky texture and a hat on their head that makes things easily interchangeable. I will admit the idea of being able to swap a Pokemon's type temporarily is a great one, though, especially given just how pivotal type matchups are to the strategy and success of the mainline games, but the implementation here is...just kinda half-baked, in my mind. Not to mention the raids somehow being even worse than before, despite having some more interesting ideas. Like they're just WAY too difficult, or WAY too easy, and/or way too buggy/laggy.

There's a new cooking system, and unlike the curry system it's less engaging to do, much more finnicky, AND is just plain unclear. Like. Someone explain to me how the cooking system even functions, why it's useful, HOW and WHERE you can even see what food effects you currently have active and for how long. Big waste of time, not to mention how comically bad the foot eating animation is, on top of how finnicky the sandwich minigame itself is (psst, GameFreak, just…just add a SHADOW, you know? so we can see where the heck objects are going to land?)

Oh and there's a day-night cycle, but it's terrible. There's no in-game clock (just a vague symbol that changes, on your map, which is easy to miss to begin with). It's not based on real-world time. Lighting will SUDDENLY change from night to day, no inbetween, seemingly. This happens during big battles, cutscenes -- you'll start a boss fight in the day, end it at night, watch a cutscene in the day, and then suddenly it's night time when you're out of the cutscene. You cannot seem to fast-forward it or change it in any way, so if you want to catch something during a certain time of day, sucks to be you, I guess. Arceus did not have these problems, not any of them as I recall.

Which brings me to probably my biggest gripe with the gameplay: it's back to being pointlessly slow, boring to look at, and generally a terribly clunky sense of flow. Arceus was laughable amidst other AAA franchise peers but it at least got lots of quality of life things improved to make game flow FASTER and more seamlessly. In ScarVi, basically EVERYTHING Arceus did to somehow address Pokemon's awful pacing has been undone. Practically all of the same bullshit is here and accounted for when it comes to battles, using items, buying things, it's all clunky as hell. Want to buy multiple lemonades at a vending machine? Have fun scrolling the text and waiting for it every single time. A mon changes stats in a fight? Watch every single individual stat change animation in sequence, every time. Using an attack that hits multiple times? Watch the dinky little animation, then the HP decrease, every single time, and of course with pointless text boxes slowing things further. ANY time HP changes in any way, you have to sit and wait a second for the bar to change. Except, actually, not always -- seemingly at fucking random it just…won't show it sometimes?

Did a move miss? Cool, just don't bother animating it! Did a Pokemon dodge? No animation for that either. Can you run away? No animation for that, either, just an arbitrary "dunno, you couldn't escape for SOME REASON" Why. Why is this shit still a thing in a top selling RPG in 2022? Arceus also did most of this shit, too, and it's pretty dumb, to be frank. Just a QUICK little jump and rotation of a Pokemon model as the text tells you it missed, SOMETHING. And Arceus actually let you RUN AWAY by just…literally running. Not to mention how seamlessly it allowed you to switch Pokemon and use items, even out in the field, by letting you sort things and use item bars. Like modern video games do? None of that here. Hope you like sifting through like ten pockets of random shit to get whatever specific thing you need, then click on a mon, play a glaring sound effect they refuse to get rid of, then wait arbitrarily for it to do its thing, and get a text prompt telling you it did its thing. I know there's an 'auto heal' function on the menu, which IS something, at least? And you are picking up healing items a lot, which does show some degree of foresight (though again, feels more random than anything). But the clunky UI and beeping and booping and ALL of this fucking waiting for plain text scrolls to describe things that don't need describing and could be SHOWN with just super basic, quick animations…this isn't charming at this point, it doesn't feel deliberate -- it feels lazy.

Oh, hey, by the way, remember how an exciting addition to the past few entries has been customizing your character with different outfits and hairstyles? WELL FUCK YOU you don't GET to customize your character as much now. No new outfits to find. Nearly every damn store sells like 10 color variations of ONE thing, maybe two, and almost all of them are so boring and bland! Want to change your hair? Hope you don't like wearing hats, then, because for no good reason the game just DOESN'T let you wear hats with certain hairstyles! At all! Just can't be done I guess! They've never been EXTRA with the cosmetics but this is devolved BACKWARDS, not even from Arceus but from games BEFORE that one.

The game is just awfully inconsistent, all around. The feel, the presentation, the animation, the MUSIC, even just the textures on things…it all feels so hodgepodge. Arceus was light and muddy and didn't look very great usually but it was at least somehow consistent. And I get it, they're clearly commissioning and outsourcing a lot of stuff, but then if that's the case, why does so much still feel so shoddy? If you're gonna outsource, fucking OUTSOURCE -- you're POKEMON, the highest grossing media franchise on the planet. Hire voice actors, hire animators, hire people who know how to make games actually run on the Switch, hire people who know how to make these potentially cool building look GOOD, hire people who know how to apply natural looking textures and polygons to natural environments.

This lack of consistency just gets jarring, especially when stacked with camera wonkiness, framerate dips, etc. And of course you can't edit options anywhere for this shit. Find the loud 8-bit chimes every time you scroll text or use items annoying? Find some songs too repetitious? Too bad. You could completely turn the sound off, I guess?

And YES, I will bring up voice acting, because YES, a series THIS huge should fucking have SOMETHING, somewhere. Not literally everything needs VO, even though just some basic sounds would go a long way. But the CUTSCENES? With named characters who even by now actually somewhat animate? Why are they all muted? It was kind of cute on the Wii when they did it with Twilight Princess, a game that was actually oozing with detail and production (by Nintendo's standards then), and characters who animated in ways that made them genuinely interesting to look at. But here, it's like…I dunno? It just feels EMPTY. Like it feels like voiceover is missing, because...it literally is. If other RPGs that sell a FRACTION of the copies Pokemon does can have two or even MORE voiced languages, why are we getting literally nothing here? It's not a "stylistic choice," it's just boring. And if people don't want the VO then hey maybe let us mute JUST the VO -- that is, if you're capable of getting that to work. Arceus had its issues. It absolutely did. When that game released, I thought it was a new low for the series, production wise. How ironic, given how much worse this game is in that department. But Arceus had a strong sense of FLOW. It was so organic and fast-paced compared to other Pokemon games, filling out the dex was more enriching and involved, side quests contributed to an overall theme and focus, everything was streamlined, sped up and improved -- even the holy battle system was CHANGED in ways that made it faster and more interesting imo. I'm not saying you need to ditch this entire classic style formula, Legends can easily be its own side series, but DANG did ya'll drop the ball on picking up what inherent improvements it made and reverting back to the slower, boring stuff, INCLUDING releasing two versions.

And lastly, why in the fuck ARE we still doing this double version bullshit? It's not cute anymore. You're not doing anything meaningful with it. It's just there to boost sales. Cut it out. Another thing Arceus addressed, by the way, and ditched. Because it's pretty dumb. Give us meaningful choices, yes -- like our starters. Remember back in the day when that wasn't the ONLY choice you'd get that would limit what Pokemon you'd have? Give us more of that, if your real goal is to encourage players to trade. But it's not -- it's to arbitrarily sell more copies to the people who will double down JUST to…own the same fucking game twice. And we still fall for it.

And in the end, isn't that how we ended up here? Because we keep collectively giving GameFreak the benefit of the doubt. We keep cutting The Pokemon Company slack. We keep letting Nintendo off the hook when it comes to Pokemon, specifically, in a way no other franchise except KIND OF Sonic gets away with. Pokemon means the world to me. I got into writing fiction because of Pokemon. I treasure those early days of the franchise, and I still treasure the POTENTIAL it is brimming with, as new kids get into it in numbers untold of, and as kids who grew up with it are adults, hungry for more -- and yet does GameFreak acknowledge that a DECENT PORTION of its audience are adults? Nah.

"But it's made for kids." Miss me. Miss me with that tired ass excuse. It's old and stale and not applicable anymore. Kids don't deserve games that run like ass, held together by tape and string, with bare minimum presentation yet a premium price tag -- oh, and make that price tag DOUBLE for lots of folks due to the unnecesary dual-release thing. You know what other games came out this year that were made for kids, and even specifically on the Switch? Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Splatoon 3. Some recent TV shows made for kids? The Owl House, She-Ra, CentaurWorld. And they're all fucking great, well produced, well made, and all pieces of media adults can easily pick up and enjoy even if they're not the target audience. And at the end of the day, people of EVERY age deserve to enjoy things they love, and deserve GOOD, well made things that money is getting spent on.

This would be an entirely different conversation -- a non-existant one, really -- if GameFreak was actually an indie team, making actual indie games. You may have blinked and missed it, but they HAVE made indie games -- multiple by now. And they never seem to take off. Just throwing that out there. GameFreak seems to want to cling to some fantasy of being a plucky indie developer, yet insistent on trying to stretch their too few workers too thinly rushing out multiple things out the door (ScarVi and Arceus absolutely did not need to release in the SAME CALENDER YEAR). I'm sorry but when you're an "indie team" operating under the highest grossing media franchise on the planet, AND you want to be producing multiple games simultaneously, AND you want to try doing ambitious things, AND you don't want to (or more likely, don't GET to) take your time on them, AND you don't want to allocate the people, experience, resources necessary to get things to actually function properly, much less look and feel good? Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is what you get.

And it's not some anomaly. This was to be expected. We could all pretty much see this was where the franchise was going when Sword and Shield happened. And there's no reason for this trend not to continue at this rate, with record setting sale numbers in its opening days.

I love the potential of this world, and other franchises that have found success have been able to BLOSSOM in beautiful ways from that success, in this past decade specifically (even just the past 5 years). I really like many of the individual characters in this specific video game. I love seeing Pokemon games try to FINALLY mix things up in meaningful ways, it's long overdue.

But I'm probably just "too old" and "too grumpy" to appreciate the shoddy quality, repetitious and boring pacing, and overall lack of foresight or game design present in modern Pokemon games. Many will gobble this game up and enjoy it, and I am honestly really happy that can still happen even with the state this game is in. I was likewise able to enjoy Arceus more than any mainline Pokemon since Gen 2, even though the game felt like a glorified tech demo. The Pokemon formula just isn't enough for me anymore, and The Pokemon Company absolutely has all of the time, money, and resources they could want to make the games elevate to the standard of quality you'd expect from a brand that performs like Splatoon, like Mario, like Zelda, like Animal Crossing -- and a franchise that reels in adults to a kid's game in ways essentially no other franchise does. It's fucking weird how scared of quality production values the Pokemon games are in a lot of ways. Meanwhile, look at what Bandai Namco has been able to pull off when given the reigns: games that look and feel like actual modern video games, still kid-friendly, but also aware that adults like Pokemon, too. Why do actual Pokemon games seem terrified of this?

Dear GameFreak: Get over your indie complex. You don't get to pretend to be indie while selling more copies of a single game than every other indie game combined, and then do it AGAIN like 8 months later. Also? A Iot of the people who put you on the map -- people who were kids years ago -- aren't kids anymore. Stop pretending your entire audience is literal children, because many of them are not, and I'm sure you know it. But even if all of them were, you used to treat kids with more respect in how you designed and balanced stuff. Stop being afraid of that, I feel like most anyone picking up a damn Pokemon game in 2022 has some idea of what they're getting into.

Dear Pokemon Company: Let GameFreak fucking have TIME to make quality games. Give them proper resources, experienced programmers and artists, hire some actual writers maybe, voice actors. YOU HAVE SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY. Stop being greedy shits rushing more and more out the door just to keep growing when you are already so huge. Your games are suffering from it and it's embarrassing given how successful you are. You invest SO MUCH into animation, marketing, cards, merchandise, and the actual GAMES -- the part the MOST amount of your audience engages with the most deeply -- are getting starved for time and resources. What the fuck.

Dear Nintendo: Ya'll are fucking better than this. You may not always make smart business choices, or even MODERN game design choices (though you're starting to get your heads on with that, small steps at a time), but at LEAST you've always been known for QUALITY. This messy product is a notable low for you. You should be embarrassed that a game this ugly, buggy, stuttery, rushed, and unfinished got your stamp of approval. If I was you, I'd be rushing people in to help patch the issues, and sitting down with all parties involved to make sure this doesn't happen again.

I know the ownership/management of Pokemon games is this weird mishmash in a way no other Nintendo property quite deals with so I'm sure there's stuff going on behind the scenes we don't know. I'm just mad, I'm tired, I'm fed up of seeing a franchise SO FULL OF POTENTIAL get this treatment. Unless something substantially improves, I'm done with Pokemon -- and that doesn't matter to the corporations involved. But it sure makes me upset, personally, and I'm certain I can't be the only one.

I did not get to the end of Pokemon Scarlet.

GameFreak did not finish their damn game, so I don't see why I should, either.

TLDR;

+ Great character designs and new Mon designs + Actual splashes of genuine worldbuilding and personality + We are technically allowed to do what we want + Pokemon formula/numbers game is addictive -That addictive formula is like 25 years old ya'll, gotten stale -Technical issues are HELLA BAD but you know this -Game is just overall kinda ugly already, WITH terrible optimization -World is flat and empty, devoid of life or anything interesting -Gameplay is slow, repetitious, mind-numbing -Basically everything Arceus addressed/improved, this walks back on

#Pokemon #Pokemon Scarlet #Pokemon Violet #scarlet and violet #Pokemon SV #pokemon scarvi #pokemon scarlet and violet #Pokemon spoilers #rant #ramble #pokemon review #game review #pkmn

[catboy-dummy]

Oooh yes gen 5 is great!!! It’s super hard for me to pick one specific region as my favourite though since they all have amazing and unique stuff honestly!!! Also my trainer sona is originally from hoenn!! She’s travelling each region to learn about Pokémon and how they work in their environments and taking the gym challenge in each region to learn how people train and work with their Pokémon and all that stuff! Basically working towards becoming a professor!!! She’s gonna be the professor for my region :3!!!!!!! 💜

Same!! I have a huge soft spot for Johto so it’s really hard to pick a fav. Also ooo! Being a professor sounds really cool :D ! Mine is a gym leader :3

Being able to explore each region would be so fun!

#dummy answers #💜 anon #Pokémon talk is so fun! :3

[figurecollection]

i’d be curious to see what the world of pokémon figurines is like! gym leaders and the like, i mean, although the ones of actual pokémon are very cute

For sure, I have the ORAS May figure I got from a small anime shop a while ago and its so cute. I've been a HUGE Pokemon fan since 1999, so finally seeing affordable and cute figures of the game proragonists and human characters makes me so happy. The detail and painting on them is actually really good too considering the price. I really hope they do Kris since she's been my fav since I was really little

#notfigs #asks #reqs