#Pokemon20

[Tasty]

Pokemon's turning 20 on February 27th! Looks like The Pokemon Company is planning a great year-long celebration.



pokemon20.com

- A new mythical Pokemon every month, from Mew to Meloetta (and more.)
- A New Nintendo 3DS™ bundle with two faceplates featuring original Sugimori art for Charizard and Blastoise. (Also with the Virtual Console versions of Red and Blue preinstalled.)
- A hashtag contest (#Pokemon20) for some undisclosed prize (probably a New Nintendo 3DS™ bundle.)



My little baby's all grown up.

[mormapope]

Which Pokemon is the sexiest?

[thisismyusername]

Which Pokemon is the sexiest?

Well, this escalated quickly.

Anyway, none of that is really appealing. It's nice they're doing monthly events, but honestly I haven't bought a Pokemon title since like Black/White 2. R/B/Y hitting the virtual console is nice, but it's not enough to make me go "OMG OMG OMG OMG I GOTTA HAVE THAT CHARIZARD FACEPLATE. OMG OMG OMG"/rebuy a 3DS when my 2DS is fine.

[Tasty]

Which Pokemon is the sexiest?

Don't know but the unsexiest is Froslass.

[Tasty]

Anyway, none of that is really appealing. It's nice they're doing monthly events, but honestly I haven't bought a Pokemon title since like Black/White 2.

I mean those games were three years ago so you're hardly lapsed or anything. The 3DS bundle is obviously for lapsed fans and the events are for current ones. Sounds like you're a lame-o in the middle

[thisismyusername]

Anyway, none of that is really appealing. It's nice they're doing monthly events, but honestly I haven't bought a Pokemon title since like Black/White 2.

I mean those games were three years ago so you're hardly lapsed or anything. The 3DS bundle is obviously for lapsed fans and the events are for current ones. Sounds like you're a lame-o in the middle

The faceplate is nice but not $200 dumping nice. I can emulate R/B/Y and do online trades, so them re-releasing it is nice but not OMG OMG OMG-worthy. The events being split by Nintendo Network and Gamestop is just general Nintendo bone-headedness.

I dunno, I expected more from the 20th anniversary than these. Honestly. Though if the trading card game is like the Magic reprints of the Black Lotus online, I could probably dump some cash into those for reprints of the WotC era.

[Tasty]

I actually think they are reprinting Base Set 1, or some of it. There's also a ton of new merchandise on the site.

[Tasty]

Also, as far as anniversary celebrations go, I think this is pretty damn good. Don't forget Pokemon GO and Pokken (for US) are out soon(-ish), and most people think Z will be out this year too.

So that's:

- Red, Blue, and Yellow on VC
- An exclusive 3DS bundle with two faceplates and two preinstalled VC games
- Every unobtainable-in-game legendary Pokemon EVER ('cept Diancie and Hoopa which just came out)
- A mainline game (Z)
- A mobile spinoff (GO)
- A fighting spinoff (Pokken)
- TCG "Generations" expansion with heavy Gen 1 and mythical Pokemon focus
- Shit-ton of branded "20th Anniversary" merch
- Hashtag contest

For comparison's sake, what series has done a better celebration? I can really only think of Zelda's 25th with Four Swords VC, Zelda symphony tour, gold Wiimote, and Skyward Sword, and even that gets docked for... well, Skyward Sword. Mario had the All-Stars SNES ROM as a retail Wii game. Sonic had Sonic Generations. Metroid had... nothing, lol.

Then you look at shit like DQ's 30th anniversary stream (look up Aeana's twitter) and it's just... sad.

Edit- Japan IS reprinting the first set of the TCG. No word on US but the whole Wizards of the Coast thing might make it hard.

[Mods Help]

That's petty good. For suikoden's 20th I drank a glass of rum and cried!

Be grateful your fave rpg series is popular and not a dead niche series.

[Tasty]

That's petty good. For suikoden's 20th I drank a glass of rum and cried!

Be grateful your fave rpg series is popular and not a dead niche series.

I always am. <3

[qq more]

For an anniversary year that's lacking a mainline game, this is sure far more exciting than anything for the franchise in the past 5 years.  (Though seriously, the anniversary stuff is pretty cool. I want a bunch of these things.)


Although if Pokemon Z happens... eh, XY was okay at best, better than the terribad Gen 5 games, so I can't say I would be excited for Z.

[Tasty]

the terribad Gen 5 games

[Mods Help]

black 2 was my first pokemon since blue and it sucked

x owns tho

[Tasty]

Should have gotten the first Black. Would have been a great reintroduction IMO.

I'm not sure what X did better except be blander and the most formulaic generation in the series.

[qq more]

Should have gotten the first Black. Would have been a great reintroduction IMO.

I'm not sure what X did better except be blander and the most formulaic generation in the series.

XY was bland and too formulaic, I agree but at least the pacing was 10x better than BW

also I seriously did not enjoy the Unova region... it was so boring and completely linear (its literally a circle!).


to be honest, BW didn't do anything that interesting either other than shoving a bad story down my throat. that game was just as formulaic, really.

[Tasty]

I thought it played with expectations pretty well, especially in regards to the story. Seeing the gym leaders actually get off their asses for once was amazing. It also made TMs infinite use which was great. The bridges and desert were cool. The experience system was tweaked to be a lot better. Seasons were a cool addition with day/night. The Dream World/Entranet was neat. The battle system was fast as fuck and the battle music changed when you were low on health instead of DING DING DING DING DING DING (kinda pissed Gen 6 dropped that.) And triple battles and rotation battles were a fun addition.

Fwiw I also thought the Gen 5 Pokemon were damn strong overall. Lots of my favorites. Gen 6 is down with Gen 3 for me personally but I understand that's all personal taste. And overall I loved the simplicity of only featuring those Pokemon for the main campaign and the motif of yin/yang and getting back to basics.

Btw Kanto was also a circle although there was some choice with Celadon/Fuschia/Saffron later in the game. But no region really comes close to the righteousness of Sinnoh. (GEN 4 REMAKES ARE NEXT AWWW YEAH #BELIEVE)

[Mods Help]

The only "generic" thing about XY I found were the rivals but I like that it's a twist and everyone else are nobody losers and you're Gary.

I think the presentation and difficulty spikes made for really interesting play.

Is it still worth playing GS remakes? Never played GS.

[Tasty]

I have no idea whether to recommend them to you or not.

I can only say that I think they're the best games in the series (by far.) I've put 865 hours in the Nintendo DS Pokemon games, and 376 of those were in SoulSilver alone. I could probably write an essay on why the game is so good.

[Mods Help]

First tell me why you don't think I would like it

[Tasty]

Let's start with why you didn't like Black 2.

(Not that it has anything to do with SoulSilver, I'm curious how you'd approach the game.)

[Mods Help]

Easy difficulty, meh 3d background graphics, bland presentation, boring game structure.

X had what I loved about Blue. I dunno, can't explain it. I quit halfway through Black 2, loved X. Haven't beaten it because I got side tracked with work.

[Tasty]

Then yeah, I don't know if I can recommend it. If you're interested in the overall series it's definitely required reading playing.

The great irony of the Pokemon series is that every generation is pretty samey for the most part, but that doesn't stop deeply divisive opinions from forming.

As far as your complaints of Black 2 compared to SoulSilver:

- All Pokemon games are easy in single-player outside the Battle Frontier (or the equivalent.)
- SoulSilver has an entirely 2D "style." There's lots of polygons but they're hard to notice. There's nothing like Castelia City or Sky Arrow Bridge where they're trying to get you to notice the 3D style. In my opinion, SoulSilver is the best-looking DS game.
- I can't think of anything bland in SoulSilver's style off the top of my head. It's a lovely, gorgeous game with lots of little touches. Ecruteak City? Sheeeiiiit. Lots of frantic energy and traditional Japanese motifs abound.
- Gold/Silver/Crystal and their remakes are the only games to significantly alter the entire structure of the games (for the better.) That's all I'll say about that, but just keep playing and trust me.

[Mods Help]

Tbh it sounds worth recommending. The gif you posted above is simple but has charm to its graphics. Change to game structure is what I'd like. And while sp mode of Pokemon is easy, I still have to think about some things while playing x. Black 2 was just snoresville.

[qq more]

Kanto is not that much of a circle, it actually branches a bunch, unlike Unova. Unova is just so boringly structured as a simple circle. I could list what I didn't like about Gen 5 later, the game just did not really click for me and bored me.

(for the record, I didn't like XY much either, felt dissatisfied finishing the game. I really hope Gen 7 makes single player fun again because that's pretty much what I only play Pokemon for)


Also, seconding GSC/HGSS. Personally I'm a bigger fan of GSC because I just like the visual and music design much more. HGSS is a great remake though, it has a lot of cool new features. You can't go wrong with either game. GSC is one of my favorite games of all time.


EDIT: Something about the HGSS visuals don't look quite right to me. The character sprites look great, but the environment looks rather a bit unpolished and kinda messy? Doesn't help it's 2.5D so that also makes things look worse. I really felt Gen 3 was a much more nicer looking generation than the rest after it. (I'm also a pixel artist so I do kinda tend to be a bit picky )

[Tasty]

I like gen 4 much more than gen 3 visually. To each their own.

[thisismyusername]

Gen 4 looks better than Gen 5 in terms of world art-style.

Gen 3's looks bad in R/S/E. FR/LG isn't that bad with that art-style and kinda edges out over Gen 4's if you compare the two. But~

[Tasty]

Nah FrLg were ugly too. I prefer RBY to them, but the remakes to GSC.

[tiesto]

So my girlfriend beat her first turn-based RPG recently... Pokemon Yellow. Now I'm a bit jelly since for all the RPGs I've played I never beat any of the Pokemon series!

[qq more]

Gen 4 didn't look bad mind you, but it doesn't really look that sharp and the 2.5D effect ruins it. The battle scenes also had this super clean look to it. I much prefer that over Gen 5's awful Pokemons' "animations" though. Eugh.

I actually love the look of FRLG. Although it is a bit too clean and the color choice for grass was weird. I think Pokemon GSC has my favorite overall look, despite it being very limited to 8-bit hardware, it managed to pull things off near perfectly. Great color pallete, great pixel art, nothing too complex and nothing too simple either. Dunno, for some reason, GSC's art hit all the right notes to me.

[archie4208]

Where is the fucking Pokemon Z announcement? 

[Tasty]

Gen 4 didn't look bad mind you, but it doesn't really look that sharp and the 2.5D effect ruins it. The battle scenes also had this super clean look to it. I much prefer that over Gen 5's awful Pokemons' "animations" though. Eugh.

I love the 2.5D effect. Gen 3 looks so boring in comparison. The towns look sub-SNES to me.

And yeah, Gen 4 was the pinnacle of sprite battling. I thought the Gen 5 animations were neat but there's no denying they were ugly.

I expected to hate how Gen 6 battles looked since I was a hardcore sprite-defender leading up to it, but they actually managed to pull off the 3D transition really well (other than the near-constant 1-frame hitching.) Really well-done modeling work combined with what I think is some kind of cel-shading and it looks great. And it pulls off the Gen 5 dynamicism without the jagginess. I was expecting Pokemon Stadium but I got Wind Waker.

I actually love the look of FRLG. Although it is a bit too clean and the color choice for grass was weird. I think Pokemon GSC has my favorite overall look, despite it being very limited to 8-bit hardware, it managed to pull things off near perfectly. Great color pallete, great pixel art, nothing too complex and nothing too simple either. Dunno, for some reason, GSC's art hit all the right notes to me.

GSC is great indeed. It felt very cohesive and distinct.

Where is the fucking Pokemon Z announcement? 

XY was first shown in January and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire were announced in like May (for a release just 6 months later.) Since Feb 27 is the anniversary date I imagine there'll be a direct around that time. They've already spoiled the box Pokemon (Zygarde 100% or whatever) in the last movie.

[qq more]

I didn't like Gen 6's visuals much. The 3D models was really weak (lots of jaggies and low polyness) except for the Pokemon (which they look great). If there is anything I can't stand about Gen 6's visual design though is how damn muted and pale the colors were. I heard ORAS fixed it a bit though.

[Tasty]

Oh yeah, I was just talking about battles. The overworld sucked and was the blandest in the series. Which is weird to say cause it's clearly French-inspired and I'm a huge Francophile. Gen 5 and 6 feel like transitions (5 is rougher but more bold, 6 much further along the transition but playing-it-safe.) I'm pretty confident in saying Gen 7 on NX will probably look really great.

[Tasty]

So my girlfriend beat her first turn-based RPG recently... Pokemon Yellow. Now I'm a bit jelly since for all the RPGs I've played I never beat any of the Pokemon series!

 

Dude you're like the bizarro-me. Pokemon is the only turn-based RPG series I've played.

I want to pick up DQ4-6 DS and 7-8 3DS though.

[qq more]

Yeah, I'm really hoping the NX handheld will provide much nicer visuals. Sub-gamecube level of power really held things back.

[Mods Help]

So my girlfriend beat her first turn-based RPG recently... Pokemon Yellow. Now I'm a bit jelly since for all the RPGs I've played I never beat any of the Pokemon series!

 

Dude you're like the bizarro-me. Pokemon is the only turn-based RPG series I've played.

I want to pick up DQ4-6 DS and 7-8 3DS though.

tiesto is an old man.

i'm pretty sure he was deep in high school or college age when pokemon came out.

[Tasty]

Yeah, I'm really hoping the NX handheld will provide much nicer visuals. Sub-gamecube level of power really held things back.

I don't really think that was the issue, it's just GF takes time to get adjusted to new hardware. RE Rev looks impeccable on the 3DS. XY's main problem was they tried to do "real" JRPG cutscenes but fell flat most of the time, especially with the dead-doll-eyes character models.

[Tasty]

Actually I take that back, I've also played Earthbound Zero and Final Fantasy 3 DS (the latter of which I hated so much I swore off other turn-based RPGs for like, five years.)

[qq more]

Yeah, I'm really hoping the NX handheld will provide much nicer visuals. Sub-gamecube level of power really held things back.

I don't really think that was the issue, it's just GF takes time to get adjusted to new hardware. RE Rev looks impeccable on the 3DS. XY's main problem was they tried to do "real" JRPG cutscenes but fell flat most of the time, especially with the dead-doll-eyes character models.

Yeah, true. Game Freak aren't exactly the most competent folks when it comes to optimizing their games.


By the way, the N3DS edition is up at Gamestop: http://www.gamestop.com/nintendo-3ds/consoles/new-nintendo-3ds-pokemon-20th-anniversary-edition/128198

[Mods Help]

Final Fantasy 3 DS is terrible and a horrible indicator of a turn based rpg.

[Tasty]

I was so excited for it too. :'(

[Mods Help]

ff3 isn't that good period. so many better games have reiterated it or even came before it (DQ3)

[demi]

Pokemon games never seem to go down in value and rely on nostalgia so they have good resale, that's why I buy them

[tiesto]

So my girlfriend beat her first turn-based RPG recently... Pokemon Yellow. Now I'm a bit jelly since for all the RPGs I've played I never beat any of the Pokemon series!

 

Dude you're like the bizarro-me. Pokemon is the only turn-based RPG series I've played.

I want to pick up DQ4-6 DS and 7-8 3DS though.

tiesto is an old man.

i'm pretty sure he was deep in high school or college age when pokemon came out.

Looked up the Pokemon release date and yeah, it came out right after I started my senior year of school.

And FF3 DS sucks but the Famicom game is great.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I once bought a pokemon game, pokemon red, i guess thats 20 years ago

I had my fill, has the game evovled beyond that?

[qq more]

I once bought a pokemon game, pokemon red, i guess thats 20 years ago

I had my fill, has the game evovled beyond that?

Gold/Silver was the biggest leap the franchise ever had. I definitely recommend playing that one, still one of the best. HGSS is a great remake. Even though I'm the odd one that likes the original a bit more. lol


Other than that, Pokemon since then doesn't evolve a lot after each game (except for the metagame which changes a lot per gen from my understanding).

[Positive Touch]

it's still basically the same; a beginner-level rpg

[Cerveza mas fina]

Do you still fight 1 vs 1?  Or can you have a party of pokemon now that can heal each other etc?

[Tasty]

I once bought a pokemon game, pokemon red, i guess thats 20 years ago

I had my fill, has the game evovled beyond that?

Depends on what you mean by evolve. Every game has gym leaders, the Elite Four, a Rival or Rivals you battle a bunch, an evil Team to thwart, a tree-named Professor, fire/water/grass starters, etc.

The battle system is still rock-paper-scissors with types but there's been a ton of additions (three new types, hold items, abilities, natures, double battles, triple battles, rotation battles, etc.) Not to mention there's hundreds more moves and Pokemon so the mix-and-match has been multiplied exponentially.

qq is right that G/S were the biggest leap forward in the series, but each new generation has added and tweaked things to make them more of a pleasant experience each time (the biggest to my mind is infinite-use TMs in Gen 5.)

[Tasty]

Do you still fight 1 vs 1?  Or can you have a party of pokemon now that can heal each other etc?

Most battles in single-player are 1 vs. 1. However, there are some that are 2 vs. 2 or 3 vs. 3. And yes, in those battles there are healing and other stat-boost moves, as well as attacks which hit more than one Pokemon at a time (like Surf.)

Double battles (2 vs. 2) are the only officially-sanctioned format for tournaments run by The Pokemon Company, and have been for years and years. OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire have the most of these kinds of battles in single-player since they're remakes of the games which introduced them.

[Cerveza mas fina]

That actually sounds pretty cool,is there any story/plot nowafays?

[Tasty]

It's not Final Fantasy, but the benefit to that is that it isn't Final Fantasy.

All the plots are very simple and straightforward, with the exception of Black and White which are a slight cut above (but the story there is divisive, qq said earlier in the thread he hated it.) X and Y stepped up the presentation, with dynamic camera angles for cutscenes like most JRPGs have, but the execution isn't particularly compelling. X and Y did have a great post-game quest, but the main campaign was pretty standard.

In every game there's some cute moments and some funny moments and some touching moments (the ending of X and Y was pretty good there, I feel.) It's hit and miss. Pokemon isn't Earthbound or Dragon Quest when it comes to story, and it isn't trying to be.

At the very least, there's no waifus. Just you and your Pokemon trying to be the best.

[qq more]

New fighter confirmed for Pokken.

Also, online and LAN multiplayer (which is good for tournaments) is also confirmed.

[Tasty]

 

Curious how that even works.

[Tasty]

Pokken is out March 18th in the US and EU.

[qq more]

Pokken is out March 18th in the US and EU.

Nice. Got on board the moment they announced online mode.

[Phoenix Dark]

updated red/blue? I'm tempted...

[thisismyusername]

updated red/blue? I'm tempted...

If by update you mean "added things emulators have done for a decade." Then, yes.

I'm curious how they've redone Mew. Probably gonna make them an event and patch out that old memory glitch.

[Mods Help]

what did they update in red/blue/yellow

[Tasty]

what did they update in red/blue/yellow

Local trading (incompatible with XY/ORAS, obviously.) That's it as far as we know.