Topic: Pokemon Z

That's why they made Pokemon Go. Now they're catering to mobile gamers and can leave the main series games to the core Pokemon fanbase. Whether or not Go will have an effect on the sales of main series games remains to be seen.

I get the feeling Z will be one of the last 3DS games with the 3DS successor taking over afterwards like the whole B2W2 followed by XY setup.

@Grumblevolcano: That's possible, but Black/White came out on the DS like a week or two before the 3DS launched, so it wouldn't surprise me if Gen 7 is still on 3DS.

I like how bolt_strike is already claiming an unconfirmed game to never be as good as a platinum when ORAS was pretty much better except for lack of battle frontier and better legendary encounters. I already look forward to this thread as it turns into the ORAS one..

@clvr Zygarde is considered to have one of the best designs pokemon came up with. The only complaint about zygarde was his mediocre movepool, and worthless ability that held him back from being actually usable. Also, if they reveal everything's form in the first game.. than why would we need a third installment anyway? Plot?

All "Z" has to do to be the perfect pokemon game, is add more scenery for wifi battles (like BW2), having a better story, Battle frontier to make up for ORAS's trolling models at battle resort, new areas, and add a good number of megas that actually affect the long term play online with more variety in teambuilding. (IF TALONFLAME GETS A MEGA I GIVE UP..)

Also, it looks like that "ashninja" has boomerangs in the concept art..

@MegaBeedrill: Please, we all know that will only last a little while and then Smogon will either ban them or they'll be in the lower tiers, earning you a lot of harassment for using them. PSS will still be filled with diehard Smogonites or kids with their Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza.

That being said, I do hope they can have Megas that add a little bit of variety. Also, I sincerely hope they leave some of the new Megas as a surprise and not reveal them all pre-launch.

@IceClimbers I gave up on smogon entirely, infact a lot of people are starting too now.

Smogon is literaly what ruined the franchise for us, it's impact on the games is a lot larger then one may think, evenually it has to crash. Amazing what a couple of macho CoD players can cause out grouping together to make a forum..

The way smogon will work, is they'll ban everything that's not so great, and leave everything that is absolutely broken and disgusting to play against (Banned aegislash but kept talonflame? and hoopa-u is still OU? Yeah smogon really needs a brain.)

@MegaBeedrill: Hoopa-U is still OU? LOL. It's worse than I thought.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't solve the harassment from those that treat Smogon like some sort of god. There's a reason guys like Shofu and Styles quit Pokemon for Smash.

@MegaBeedrill: I personally have never heard anyone claim Zygarde is one of the most visually appealing Pokémon ever and I'm not even sure why that would be the case. I think it looks ugly, you probably don't; it's all about taste, so at least don't try to justify your idea citing universal acclaim around his design.
About the forms, I'm not criticizing Game Freak for holding them back for the third installment, but for existing in the first place. The fact they hold them back is annoying since it's constantly retconning the previous games, but that isn't the point; the point is they look like afterthoughts, as if they realized the design sucked when it was already too late (again, I'm not dusputing on personal taste, but I think we can all agree Giratina is quite ugly and the Origin form is a step in the right direction). The other reason I don't like alternate forms is they are, in most cases, utterly unnecessary: just to make an example, did Keldeo really need an alternate form which is almost exactly like its normal one? My issue with AF is they look like a way to stuff new content when they're running out of ideas, rehashing already existing content for the sake of it.

"than why would we need a third installment anyway? Plot?" Are you saying third installments before Platinum (with Gen IV marking the start of alternate forms) don't have the right to exist just because they didn't introduce any new gimmicky form?
Personally, when I think about third installments I expect to see significant advances in terms of features (such as the Battle Frontier) rather than the (by now) usual, phoned-on new form for the Pokémon on the box.

Maybe a costume change similar to Picachu in ORAS?

@MegaBeedrill: My brother played a match online and the person threw a hissyfit that my brother wasn't using Smogon rules for a normal battle. So he had the battle time out as to not get a loss and or give my brother a win.

So this confirms a Pokemon Z game (due to the anime name). I personally love Zygarde's designs, but honestly the whole % thing just confuses me.
I have a feeling that Pokemon Z reveal is upcoming.

@clvr Your opinion is your opinion on the design, but personally along with others think otherwise. I won't try to dispute it as a fact.

"Are you saying third installments before Platinum (with Gen IV marking the start of alternate forms) don't have the right to exist just because they didn't introduce any new gimmicky form?
Personally, when I think about third installments I expect to see significant advances in terms of features (such as the Battle Frontier) rather than the (by now) usual, phoned-on new form for the Pokémon on the box."

The issue is the advances are ignorable, a player isn't going to make twenty playthroughs to appreciate the advances in how the game changes from the first installment. However players generally spend more time online than offline (unless shiny hunters), which would basically be the exact same before, pretty much making players spend 40 dollars just for a plot or expansion of the map they play for 2 days and then be done with it. Shaking up the larger proportion of the game that never ends (online) more than the "1 time playthrough" part of it changes things more drastically. Personally I would never buy Z if no new formes or megas were included.

@Kylo_Ren: I am sure gamefreak or the pokemon company will explain what the % thing is about soon.

Also random but does anyone know if we are getting a hoopa event anytime soon?

Yup, this is what I'm expecting. Would be awesome if you can dress up your starter a bit.

They probably will, and I hope it isn't something silly.

Hopefully soon. I want a hoopa.

Yeah I quit Smogon too. Haven't played Pokemon in a year now I think. Apparently they made it illegal to use weather summon abilities and weather boost abilities (swift swim) on the same team. I think I actually dropped my jaw when I saw that. I kind of understood Swift Swim back in gen 5, but now weather has been nerfed and they're banning the combination of ALL weather abilities. There's now literally no reason to use regular Venusaur over Mega among other unfortunate falls from OU like that. Screw Smogon.

@MegaBeedrill: well I guess we're just totally different Pokémon players then! re-reading my comments made me understand how "anti-new forms" I sound like, but it's not actaully like that. They, as well as Megas, are not bad per se; I just think they've become the current fad in the Pokémon franchise, and have ended up being overused and becoming stale pretty fast. What I blame Game Freaks for is not introducing them, but for being overreliant on them; heck, they even went as far as to introduce half the number of new Pokémons they used to in Gen VI! What I am addressing is Game Freak's lack of fresh, compelling ideas to propel the series forward, or at least that's how I perceive it.

@Retro_on_theGo: Wait what?! They banned weather summon abilities and weather boost abilities on the same team?! Like, in Gen 5 it made sense because the entire metagame was weather wars, but in Gen 6?! There's absolutely no reason for that. Not even in Ubers tier where there's Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon does it make sense because most of the Pokemon with abilities like Swift Swim aren't viable in that tier (Doubles/Triples format obviously).

Smogon unbanned Weather+Weather Abilities awhile ago in gen 6.

However weather in general is garbage as long as mega altaria, clefable, and mega venasaur are in the tier. It's easily stopped by ferrothorn, and sun in general is just bad since nothing in OU abuses sun, and everything that does (volcarona, venasaur) talonflame clicks the win- I mean brave bird button.

@DarthNocturnal: Yeah that was about how it was. I heard a story about Smogon people delaying battles in official Nintendo tournaments due to people not playing with Smogon rules.