Topic: Pokemon Sword & Shield

@CanisWolfred I'm not sure if they're being humble, or Game Freak just doesn't want them to have the credit. It could also be that since XY/ORAS were essentially being made at the same time, ORAS somehow took priority when it came to crediting. The joint partnership and cooperation might also muddy who gets written credit as well.

On the topic of redoing 3D models. What's up with Hitmontop and his model? Why isn't he upside down, or rather, the right side up, as he has been in every game up until XY? That was his unique trait.

Probably to empathize his roots in capoeira with his idle animation.

It would probably look odd constantly spinning and balancing too. In the older 3d games it does.

Yeah, I know. And it looks a lot better than having him stand on his feet.

Yeah, before they had to choose an action pose for the sprite, and the stadium model seems to beaded on that.

In this current model they simply went for a more natural pose outside of attacks.

It's one of few big pose changes I don't really see as bad.

Interesting discussion about Hitmontop.
Let me introduce a new one:
I would like to know if Levitating Steelix is canon in the games.

For some reason the 3D games like to make it float.

I assume it's magnets. The mega evolution adds to it with the floaty bits.

Probably much easier to animate too. So they don’t have to worry about it clipping into the ground and such

Maybe it's like with fish pokemon and it's meant to represent it burrowing underground.

I always loved the fish Pokemon animations in desert environments. I always just assumed they were somehow swimming in the air. XD

It isn't, and it shouldn't be levitating.

This guy conceptualized a better Pokemon game than Gamefreak has made in decades.

Amazing what you can do when you actually try to think what a series is about and match the gameplay experience to that...

Anyone can talk the talk. There are dozens of spectacular ideas for Pokemon games around. Everyone and their mother, uncle, cousin, sister and ex-wife has their own idealized Pokemon game.

...That video is going to be in my recommendations for months...

@DarthNocturnal I have a love hate relationship with IVs because I like the idea but not the execution. In story, combined with natures, it's a nice aspect to give individual members of the same species more variety in their stats, just like how in the real world some people are smarter, stronger or faster. But in competitive play you need to be able to max everything out and you need to be able to do so without bending over backwards in breeding or grinding for super rare items that can only be used at level 100.

If it were up to me, I'd make hyper training something that can be done easily in the post game for just a small cost per stat and drop the level 100 requirement entirely. That way you only have to breed Pokemon for moves and nature - which is very very easy.

On topic of using the 3DS engine...it shouldn't be as hard as say, moving an engine from PS4 as both Switch and 3DS use ARM architectures. That alone is one hurdle of how instructions are read cleared. Sure it won't be a clean port but the first limitation is already passed.

As for flying Steelix...I mean...Wailord can fly even by our own laws of physics and Kyogre can canonically fly too.

Having replayed USUM like 4 or 5 times, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a story that so genuinely sucks the joy out of a Pokémon game like this one. Its terribly paced, so I can definitely see why people have grievances with the story. Regardless Pokemon stories are generally just terrible/mediocre as heck, so probably best not to continue forcing it into everyone’s face.

@-Green- absolutely agree. I've played through Sun in its entirety only once and going back is unbearable due to the lengthy dialogue, amounting to what is ultimately an underwhelming story.

I don't mind hefty dialogue on occasion (heck, I'm loving Persona 4 at the moment), but in the right context. In Pokemon? I'd rather be left to my own devices and not have a cutscene thrown my way every few minutes, or my route blocked by Pokemon X doing pointless thing Y.

I like good stories in RPGs, Pokemon included. I really like the story in B/W. SuMo interrupts the flow of the gameplay every couple of minutes, though. It's miserable.

@DarthNocturnal That's true, we don't know if they'll keep it. My hope is that they further improve it. Most notably ditching the level 100 requirement and instead just requiring full EV training first - and making the bottle cap items either easier to obtain, or ditching them entirely and just paying with BP or something like that.