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Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
As I was reflecting on Zen Mode yesterday, I realized that while Zen Mode Darmanitan was a failure, Game Freak took the lessons they learned from its failure and applied them to similar form-changing Pokemon in the future.
Aegislash swaps between forms much easier than Darmanitan, but it always starts in Shield form, so it can switch into attacks or tank a hit before attacking.
The most straight-forward adaptation of Zen Mode, as it's basically just "Zen Mode but also status immunity". Once again, first form is bulkier, which allows it to more easily set up Shell Smash.
A bit of a different spin on the idea, but you can think of Mimikyu as having twice as much health with a first form with exactly enough defenses to survive any attack on half (slightly below half in Gen 8). It's arbitrarily bulky.
Zygarde becomes bulkier when it gets below half similar to Zen Mode Darmanitan, but the form change never goes away, so it can heal with Leftovers or Rest and maintain its massive bulk. The base form (well, the 50% form anyway) is also very bulky in its own right, so it can easily get down to half health without getting KOed.
The second form is worse like with Zen Mode Darmanitan, but this time it's on purpose and the design leans into it.
A variation on Mimikyu, where it only has "arbitrary bulk" on the physical side, and can "heal" itself back up with Hail.
Really, the only time I think an in-battle form-changing Pokemon failed post gen-5 was ironically Galarian Darmanitan. For all the success they've had with form changers, they flubbed their attempt at redeeming Zen Mode. Though at least this time, it's more the fault of the alternative being absolutely nuts than anything fundamentally wrong with Zen Mode itself.
Aegislash swaps between forms much easier than Darmanitan, but it always starts in Shield form, so it can switch into attacks or tank a hit before attacking.
The most straight-forward adaptation of Zen Mode, as it's basically just "Zen Mode but also status immunity". Once again, first form is bulkier, which allows it to more easily set up Shell Smash.
A bit of a different spin on the idea, but you can think of Mimikyu as having twice as much health with a first form with exactly enough defenses to survive any attack on half (slightly below half in Gen 8). It's arbitrarily bulky.
Zygarde becomes bulkier when it gets below half similar to Zen Mode Darmanitan, but the form change never goes away, so it can heal with Leftovers or Rest and maintain its massive bulk. The base form (well, the 50% form anyway) is also very bulky in its own right, so it can easily get down to half health without getting KOed.
The second form is worse like with Zen Mode Darmanitan, but this time it's on purpose and the design leans into it.
A variation on Mimikyu, where it only has "arbitrary bulk" on the physical side, and can "heal" itself back up with Hail.
Really, the only time I think an in-battle form-changing Pokemon failed post gen-5 was ironically Galarian Darmanitan. For all the success they've had with form changers, they flubbed their attempt at redeeming Zen Mode. Though at least this time, it's more the fault of the alternative being absolutely nuts than anything fundamentally wrong with Zen Mode itself.
Tbh as far as Gdarm goes, from what I understood back when Gdarm was suspected, lot of people implied that Zen mode would have also been equally stupid due to insanely high speed and stab combo. Just as you said, Gorilla Tactic is so hilariously busted in singles that it overshadows it
Both pieces of official Sugimori art, it's Dream World art (or whatever we're calling it nowadays), its in-game sprites (full and mini), and its Gen 6+ model all show it with two lines dividing its tooth-masked mouth. Sounds to me like it's intended to have 3 giant buck teeth.
I'll even give Creatures and/or HAL credit because they show it opening its mouth, whereas Game Freak hasn't because they're cowards who realized its physiology makes no sense and don't want people to figure that out.
Agreed the physiology doesnt make much sense (and just because the mouth only shows 3 of them doesn't mean there's not more in the mouth, imo) but it would probably not but blunt buck teeth which is my real issueBoth pieces of official Sugimori art, it's Dream World art (or whatever we're calling it nowadays), its in-game sprites (full and mini), and its Gen 6+ model all show it with two lines dividing its tooth-masked mouth. Sounds to me like it's intended to have 3 giant buck teeth.
I'll even give Creatures and/or HAL credit because they show it opening its mouth, whereas Game Freak hasn't because they're cowards who realized its physiology makes no sense and don't want people to figure that out.
also if anything it should probably be an overbite but still have teeth underneath
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Jesus Christ, Colosseum/XD were so good it honestly sometimes makes me angry.
The title of that video bugs me though, because Unown in the current games… do have unique animations for each form…
What are you taking about? Every Stadium model and animation clearly outperforms current day stuffThe title of that video bugs me though, because Unown in the current games… do have unique animations for each form…
/s
remember when letters were animals?The title of that video bugs me though, because Unown in the current games… do have unique animations for each form…
Incidentally I do think on-model crobat is actually pretty cute.
Turns out no the only time they really did that was in Gen 3 & 4's animated sprites where it seems like they didn't even get a second frame of animation. Which, again, ehhh...fair. Unown's one of those Pokemon I feel they groan about every time they come up. If they ever have to fully redo all the models again I bet they put them off as long as possible.
yeah I remember catching all the unown (again...) and thinking it was cute that they did have different ways of floating around. I would have just assumed they would all have the same animation for each of them because its Unown and they had their new models/animations made alongside everyone else in gen 6.The title of that video bugs me though, because Unown in the current games… do have unique animations for each form…
Turns out no the only time they really did that was in Gen 3 & 4's animated sprites where it seems like they didn't even get a second frame of animation. Which, again, ehhh...fair. Unown's one of those Pokemon I feel they groan about every time they come up. If they ever have to fully redo all the models again I bet they put them off as long as possible.
Very small one: I like Cinderace's Signature Move in Pyro Ball. Given Libero and the statline, there's no need or even major benefit to something gimmicky or specific like Protean Greninja's Water Shuriken or Emboar's Heat Crash, while also being stronger than the Hoenn Starters' relatively Vanilla (former) signature moves. It's just a strong and accurate main STAB, which is really all a Pokemon like that needs for what it does.
Actually, in Red and Yellow, money is limited until the Elite 4 unless you have the Pay Day TM or use glitches. This can lead to unwinnable scenarios like, in Red, being broke before getting the Surf HM in the Safari Zone.
Bruh Venusaur and crobat look like eldritch abominations while still looking funny
Therapist: British Crobat isn't real, it can't hurt you.
British Crobat:
British Crobat:
This can't be real, there's no regional form of Crobat, Serebii and Bulbapedia told me it doesn't exist.
Gosh, the CGI cutscenes in modern Kirby have more artistic merit than a lot of CGI movies. I would pay to have them model a Pokémon game.
Yeah, back in the day my little brother somehow got into a situation in Yellow where he had no Poke Balls, basically no money, and only Pikachu at Brock.