Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Brassius is a type of plant. Also a little baby with a steel type team and a weirdo art freak with a grass type team is wayyy funnier and more interesting

Edited by TheLuckOfTheClaws on Dec 3rd 2022 at 6:34:05 AM

In Japanese, the Gym Leaders et al have had plant names from the very beginning, that are occasionally also puns on their names (e.g. "Kasumi" literally means mist, but is also the Japanese name for baby's breath)

The localizations have tried to keep the plant names in recent games (e.g. Kiawe being a type of tree that's used for firewood and charcoal)

"We're in the Endgame now" OR "I'm finally going to Area Zero!". Now then I can see Arven getting in touch with Nemona, but how did he get Penny to come along?

oh Cavell introduced them

oh lovely Penny found the Christmas Crusader...that is actually thematic given the time of year, but still

Wild Iron Treads appears: "This is just like that titan pokemon!". Me bringing out Sancho, the actual ex-titan Iron Treads? nobody bats an eye. :P

and here I though we weren't able to catch the paradox pokemon until after beating Area 0

made it yo the alst station and caught Mecha Hydreigon, all that is left is Ttar and Mecha Galladevoir

oh, forgot about Mecha Hariyama

good thing Penny is chasing Iron hands with Nemonia, I don't think she could take the Robotic Reveal

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 3rd 2022 at 7:17:09 AM

I want to know what Poppy's deal is. How did she get to that position at such a young age?

Gota hand to Turo, bastard really is Batman tier with all the redundancies and Crazy preparedness. Oh well, time to put his obsessed soul to rest

Anime! This region really is just kind of crazy for that. The academy has students that range from what looks to be ages six through fifty-somthing, and they're all somehow on equal footing. This includes said six-year-olds wandering the roads on their own, and ending up where Poppy is.

Been doing more Charizards and had some cool comps:

• Maraidon, 2 Sylveons and my Azu - since the game is so buggy about the phase transition and loves letting Charizard snipe me before Rain Dance goes off, Maraidon was a hilarious form of Sunny Day cancellation insurance. If Rain Dance went off, then it wouldn't die. If I didn't get Rain Dance off, then Miraidon would probably die and Hadron would cancel Sunny Day upon respawn. The Sylveons were doing Hyper Beam stuff, so I was basically doing support stuff with Light Screen and Heal Cheers.
• Charizard, Sylveon, Gardevoire and my Azu - Charizard on Charizard violence is actually kind of clever. Because in Tera form, Charizard is still resisting all those fire attacks (unlike my Azu, who starts taking triple damage), and the enemy Charizard very rarely uses Tera Blast. So it was basically the allied Charizard and Sylveon doing damage while I supported. I think the Gardevoire was just attacking? Wasn't paying a ton of attention to it (all I know is that I definitely had to be the one to put up Light Screen).

It's prolly the most logical conclusion to letting Six year olds be pokemon trainers

In other news I finally beat Area Zero. I'm gonna return there tomorrow to get the remianing paradox mons. I want toask if if any Scarlet players here would be available for a Union Circle thing there and get Palifin evolved or catch the Violet exclusive Mons?

Wait: this game had debugging staff?

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 3rd 2022 at 7:48:46 AM

Hilariously enough, every single Charizard raid I hosted (as in I found the black crystal and set the raid up) was with randoms, and yet we managed to beat each one.

In contrast, a good portion of the Charizard raids I join end up failing, though sometimes I wonder if the lag had anything to do with us not doing well. Except maybe that one time someone brought a Koraidon into the raid, probably forgetting about Charizard's Solar Power.

Final thoughts: I think SV are a funhouse mirror reflection of XY quality wise. Both sets of games clearly had passion and ambition, but were hamstrung by crunch and rushing in different ways. For XY it runs well, but the story and setting ideas were clearly half baked. For SV, everything seems to be pretty fleshed out with the plot and setting, but as a trade off, there are obvious bugs.

I'd don't think either are as bad as say, Sonic 06, (though an argument could be made for XY having a similar "haunting" legacy), it certainly adds some interesting symbolism to Paldea bordering Kalos

As an aside, both sets also deal with the protagonist and their friends going on an adventure, but whereas that was the whole game in XY, in SV it is limited to Area Zero with the rest of that game up to that point feeling like a prelude to that.

I think SV would get some things on XY if only because DLC is more likely to happen than Pokemon Z, but YMMV on if they would offset the performance problems and bugs.

That said I do think it evens out to be So Okay, It's Average, par for the course for Pokemon. Make of that what you will.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 3rd 2022 at 8:04:26 AM

Honestly, that's arguably why people were more vocal about their frustrations for these entries. Other flagship franchises like Mario, Zelda and Kirby have gone out of their way to be more than So Okay, It's Average, despite only the former being arguably as big of a cash cow as Pokemon. So seeing the most successful franchise in the world only being "okay", when its peers have gone out and beyond, makes it less "okay" and more "disappointing".

Funnily enough Scarlet and Violet have a team of trainers you travel with much like X and Y.

But the latter are pretty bland and have no arcs,(Well except maybe Serena and Shauna) while the former are great and have meaningful arcs.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Dec 3rd 2022 at 12:21:55 PM

I've seen a few people bring a Chansey to the 'zard raid, with moves like Helping Hand, Skill Swap, and Light Screen

ED: Speaking of other regions IIRC it's mentioned that Penny is from Galar a couple of times, so I'm just wondering if we have anyone else from outside Paldea in the game? I do like that as the games get more regions they become more international.

Edited by asterism on Dec 3rd 2022 at 5:34:38 PM

I've seen a few Blisseys as well. I feel like the raid usually goes better with a Blissey support. Particularly since my Azu's built half and half. Play Rough and Belly Drum for if I end up doing damage, and then Rain Dance and Light screen for support. So no Helping Hand for the damage dealers if I end up being the support (I did used to run Hand and Dance, but after several fails in a row, I felt like not having Light Screen was a bigger detriment).

Hassel gives me German vibes, but it's just... vibes, nothing concrete.

Is she from Galar? My memory might be hazy, but I thought she was sent to Galar to study for a year before coming back.

She does use the word rubbish and other British slang though.

Penny was sent to Galar for a year and a half or so, but is never said to come from Galar, iirc. It's possible she picked up slightly on the local dialect during her oversea studies, though.

On the flipside, folks have been theorizing our playable character and their mother recently moved to Paldea from Galar, due to some of the latter's dialogue (like using "cuppa") and having a pet Skwovet.

One thing I liked a lot about Sun and Moon (which plenty of others apparently didn't like) was that it felt like you really were a traveling party with Lillie, Hau, and Kukui. Normally your journey is parallel to your rivals, but this time you were closer. Helped build camaraderie on what is normally a more lonely adventure. The main problem is how it did slow things down a lot. Area Zero felt like a direct response to those criticisms while still building on the concept. You have a proper party and actually feel like a group, but things aren't slowed down all that much, and if you hate being with others it only lasts an hour. There were trade-offs with both approaches, but I do hope future games have more group dynamics like them.

I enjoyed Sun and Moon.

Gameplay wise Ultra Moon was better but uhhh the plot feels so empty without Lillie's arc.

SM has the best story and cast pre-gen 9 IMO. Yes I even consider it better than BW's story.

I liked the additional stuff about Necrozma that Ultra Moon added, so the other changes to the story didn't bother me too much.

It also gave us that really awesome Pokémon Evolutions episode where we get to see Nebbie and Necrozma duke it out.

I absolutely hate SM's story because somehow the things you're doing are for others, in particular Lillie's. Why is she getting development on the things you do? That and the limited facial expression gives that terrible "anime pout face" on dire situations.

It's why I think the cast here are much better. They gel well more with your adventures since they're always present and they do things along with you.

a fun direction they could take is that she was magically/scientifically de-aged, similar to Purah in BOTW. especially since it's clear that she's been on the Elite Four for a while based on some of her comments.

more likely, she's just one of the many child trainers in the series. why? how? 乁⁠|⁠ ⁠･⁠ ⁠〰⁠ ⁠･⁠ ⁠|⁠ㄏ doesn't matter

Edited by EpicBleye on Dec 4th 2022 at 3:12:06 PM

Or maybe someone just decided, 'hey let's have a cute child be one of the Elite Four' and went with it?

Re: Story

Honestly I still think SM has the best story even after SV. SV's story is a solid second but SM has Lusamine's villain reveal and Lillie calling Lusamine out prior to the final fight with her whereas SV doesn't really have any scenes with those levels of impact in my opinion.

Re: Penny's nationality

She's explicitly from Galar. IT was said she was s4ent back home to Galar, not that she was just sent there.

Speaking of USUM, I was always disappointed that we could never truly ease the pain that Necrozma is in.