franchise
uranium
diamond
silver
ultra sun
insurgence
sage
brown
prism
todo:
franchise
- fangames
ultra sun
- nostalgia
- stupidity
- region
- story
silver
- region
- story
- music
uranium
- faves
- story
- region
insurgence
- faves
- story
- region
diamond
- story
- region
- gameplay
sage
- faves
- story
- region
- development
brown
- story
- region
prism
- story
- region
it's been a long time coming but i've finally braved starting my pokemon shrine
pokemon is such a massive media juggernaut and is a core part of the current cultural zeitgeist -
i've come across so many other pokemon shrines whilst browsing other websites and there's so much content official and fanmade which would be impossible to sift through in entirety.
suffice it to say it has a massive reach and appeal which has touched a large proportion of the world.
i came fairly late to the party (this seems to be a trend lol) with my first real exposure being some pokemon trading cards from a promotional pack included with a magazine.
if i recall correctly i got a drifloon, murkrow and a swirlix - i thought the designs were really neat and they're honestly still up there for me.
although this didn't really get me into the tcg by any means.
unfortunately i traded them for a bunch of energy and supporter cards because it sounded like a good trade (since i've never actually played it wasn't).
however i did end up getting some more later from packs handed out at the detective pikachu screenings.
i think i really started to get exposed to it when pokemon go launched and literally all my peers started playing.
honestly i never was and still aren't that enamored by pokemon go - it's a neat idea but mobile games in general are a whole other can of worms.
however it did end up getting me to watch the pokemon anime because my aunt had just let us on her netflix account and xyz was being promoted on there.
well that's where my personal pokemania really started i suppose.
it's widely agreed that xyz is where the anime peaked and it holds up ridiculously well.
i watched it twice during that period and have rewatched my favourite episodes many times since.
i'll probably rave about it in another section because holy crap is it good.
i followed the anime all the way until horizons since later gens have been losing me a bit (i'll go over that too)
once i had a 3ds i was finally able to play ultra sun and get really stuck into the games.
following that came silver on my dad's gameboy, diamond also on the 3ds (both from ebay) and the world of fangames and romhacks.
i have watched a ridiculous amount of pokemon youtube videos since.
some channels like the aura guardian, bird keeper toby and dobbs i believe have stopped posting but gnoggin and mandjtv have continued to churn stuff out.
recently i also started watching some competitive poketubers like wolfeyvgc, freezai and xbell which has definitely opened my eyes far more to how involved the metagame is.
i did the two most popular favourite pokemon finders and ended up with these results from
dragonflycave
and this table from
cajunavenger
which is honestly pretty accurate :p
the pokemon anime has always had so much potential
primarily it serves to introduce the new cast of creatures which came in the newest generation
and showcase what makes them unique, be it their personality, ecology, traits or lore.
somebody can then get attached to them and buy their merch.
the show absolutely excels at this intended purpose and has really made many pokemon far more endearing to me
which otherwise would not have been if i were to only seen them in the games.
however it does have to be said that these tend to be episodes which don't serve the story i.e filler.
the story tends to be a retelling of the story of the associated games, however the newer series have deviated from this.
it did seem a bit limiting and formulaic to just structure around gym badge collection and a big finale at the end
however it let the story have a lot more cohesion whilst still allowing for side adventures.
newer seasons are increasingly episodic in nature, with fewer multi-episode arcs which seems to be a trend for kids shows these days.
not to say the stories are bad by any means - many characters are very beloved and the writers and animators can really pull out the stops when it counts.
but i think the coolest part of the anime is the battling.
since the series takes place in the pokemon world there's no reason to follow the restrictions of battling in the games
so some really creative strategies, interactions and maneuvers can be done.
when done well this can really make a battle memorable and will have you rewatching many more times,
although many will unfortunately play out in a standard way.
with that said though, the only series that i have watched are half of indigo league, xyz, sun and moon and journeys.
to be honest i think i spoiled myself for the others by watching xyz first (it had just finished airing) because xyz is unanimously peak pokemon anime.
the strategies in each major battle combined with a fun cast, really well executed zygarde and greninja plot and phenomenal animation blows everything else completely out the water.
from what i've heard they were able to make the last seasons so good because of the extra time used in the development of omega ruby and alpha sapphire.
see what happens when you spend time on projects gamefreak?
pokemon has certainly made themselves a great formula
each set of new mainline games introduces a new region, new monsters tied to that region and some plot which the poor protagonist always gets trapped in.
during the plot you will catch pokemon, battle them with more and more powerful opponents, finish the plot and become champion.
essentially the series has stayed mechanically stale for decades
with the only exception being the battling mechanics which have constantly been evolving.
each game adds more items, moves and abilities along with major paradigm shifts.
johto added dark and steel, hoenn abilities and doubles, sinnoh the physical special split, unova ...team preview, kalos.
beyond that was the advent of the generational mechanic with megas, z-moves, dynamax and terastallisation
it's good that the battling has been constantly shifting to accomodate for the large competitive scene.
there's some real depth with the massive pool of possible strategies that accumulated over the years,
especially with the extra options that the official format (doubles) offers.
unfortunately in single battles the dominant strategy is stall due to the slower paced nature of that format due to less possible damage dealt per turn
however that just so happens to be the main format within the games which means that battles take longer are far less satisfying to win, especially with the extremely predictable ai.
people can try to compensate for this shortcoming and lack of difficulty in general with nuzlockes but i think this can tend to result in people playing extremely defensively and safely to avoid faints which i personally don't find that fun.
however only half of the games are even spent in battles (probably less if they battles were made less obnoxiously slow) -
the rest of the games involve running around the region, solving puzzles, doing minigames and talking to people.
these elements can range from extremely engaging to quite dull - the puzzles are often trivial and the minigames not great.
plus mandatory dialogue simply for replayability should be skippable/optional.
but the regions themselves often have a very rich culture woven into them
and exploring the locales and speaking to locals can give just that bit more worldbuilding.
i absolutely love the care shown in the pokemon's design and that probably the core of why i love the series.
pokemon, characters and locations are always meticulously designed and draw from a large host of inspirations such as mythology, nature and culture.
however the main reason i fell off the series is because that alone can't support an entire game,
especially with the prices they are selling the newer games at.
at any rate i think i've had enough of typical mainline pokemon anyway.
but this might be because the last one i played was diamond and that was to me the epitome of just following a formula,
especially with the ridiculously slow battles with health bars draining extremely slow plus the lack of platinum additions.
i know that they've finally started trying new approaches with scarlet and violet
but i think in trying to innovate on the overworld they lost what what i loved about it.
paldea is devoid of any culture apart from on a surface level.
i think that was mostly due to the ridiculously unfinished state of the game though
and that combined with it being a full price switch game, i really couldn't justify buying it.
i am sorely tempted by legends ZA though!
the battle system to me looks very intriguing and much more interactive and immersive.
plus i have a soft spot for kalos since the xyz anime took place there.
hopefully it'll have some good stuff in store and i'm hoping that one of my favourites might get a mega.
fingers crossed!
while i have some gripes with the stuff that pokemon puts out,
i'm always amazed by what fans make for free out of love for the franchise
it may be slightly telling for the formula that the development process for a 2D pokemon fan game
is so fast and accessible for a single person with pokemon essentials or rom hacking
i first got into fangames after watching tyranitartube start an insurgence nuzlocke and i followed suit minus the nuzlocke.
due to the extremely productive development, these games can balloon in scope to a ridiculous degree yet manage it quite well.
for example, insurgence has delta species, dungeons, caves and so many storylines spread through two regions.
i definitely haven't seen everything which is amazing to me.
i remember after finishing insurgence i kind of fished around relic castle (rest in peace) and found some fun ones
like attack on space station, mew and ditto which were short and sweet with some cool elements.
but i think i really got into it with uranium, the infamous banned fangame.
the designs and story are so good and it still has a cool community which make new mystery gift sprites very frequently.
i really hope angelure town gets made someday but from what i've heard it's kind of fell under.
there's also some games with really good demos that i hope continue development well.
sage and swirling seasons are so good and i'd really love them to be realised.
as far as i can tell they're both still going (source for sage is comment on youtube ost upload)
but the ones i played recently have been gameboy color romhacks!
i got a flash cartridge for it so have been enjoying getting some gameboy stuff off of itch as well.
the league has been beaten in pokemon brown (with some help from save editing) and prism
but prism post-game is proving difficult without the editing.
another one i've been really enjoying is pokemon black and white genesis which is a sequel to black and white 2!
i definitely want to talk about that one when i'm done with it (likely with some aid too) because it is top-notch
