Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl - Release 19th Nov 2021

[Worldie]

It may also just be that BDSP lack the functionality to properly duplicate the data that's associated with a Pokémon from another game.

It's not that it functionality to duplicate data associated to pokemon from another game, it's that the data isn't there in first place.

From what I understood, "other game data" is only stored on Home. It's not present in any of the 3 game (which makes sense from coding perspective, you'd have to patch all 3 games to include a bunch of useless data)

 

[Zowayix]

I did find this tweet

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1527394485050671104

but the follow up question from the guy anubis, basically asking the same thing you are, is talking with goes unanswered lol

TIL Nincada from BDSP can't enter SwSh either.

I have no idea how HOME works internally, but my theory is that it's because of the new game-specific-moveset saving mechanic and how it's stored on HOME servers + tied to the HOME tracker value, as that's the only relevant thing I can think of to why you aren't allowed to cross Nincada between games according to the tweet above. I can't picture an exact scenario on how this would work though if depositing Ninjask and Shedinja really does just reassign one tracker, but maybe you could possibly lose an egg move or something depending on how it works, while there would be no problem in the past because they could just keep the learned moveset the same.

My guess of a hypothetical situation:
Nincada spawns in SWSH with inherited egg moves and goes to HOME with tracker 1.
Nincada evolves in BDSP to Ninjask (1) and Shedinja (1).
Ninjask (1) gets sent back to SWSH with its tracker and moves as a Nincada intact.
Shedinja gets reassigned to tracker 2 when being placed into HOME.
Now either Shedinja loses all its SWSH history moves on reassignment and lose egg moves, or Shedinja gets the moves copied from tracker 1.
In the latter case, Ninjask could learn moves and re-store them in HOME under tracker 1, and then Shedinja could come back from BDSP and copy over Ninjask's latest moveset.

I guess you could test this in reality by hacking mons to have the same HOME tracker value from within SWSH and BDSP and seeing what happens. I feel like they would probably just treat the 'clone' as a fresh mon and give it blank data for convenience.

Interesting, this is definitely the most plausible hypothesis I've heard. Thanks!

This home tracker stuff gives me a headache.

So is it only tracking clones in gen 8 or does it account for past-gen identical clones?

Like say I cloned 2 identical mons via powersaves/pkhex in gen 7, does home actually track them as the same mon or 2 separate mons until they're cloned in gen 8 as well? I'm being told outside it'll track that.

I'm under the assumption gen7 - > gen8 they get assigned a tracker id for the first time and now that permanant ID will track any potential dupes done going forward (without editing the home tracker value as well).

How the HOME tracker works as of now:

• When a Pokemon enters HOME for the first time, HOME assigns it a unique tracking number.
• If you hack clone in Gen 7 then transfer to HOME, the two Pokemon (who have never touched HOME before) will receive their own unique numbers and won't be detected. The same should happen for Gen 8 for Pokemon who have never touched HOME yet (in fact, this pretty much happens legally with Max Raid Battles).
• If you deposit a Pokemon into HOME then withdraw, then hack clone, then re-deposit both, HOME will see two identical tracking numbers enter. This will be detected.
• If you deposit a Pokemon into HOME then withdraw, then hack clone, then edit one to change the tracking number, then re-deposit both, HOME will look at the tracking number of the edited Pokemon and look up at what point in the past did it assign this number. If HOME doesn't remember ever giving out this number to a Pokemon (extremely likely if you make one up at random), this will be detected. If HOME has given out this number at some point in the past, it is unknown what happens.

 

[Zowayix]

Unlikely to be relevant for competitive play, but BDSP internally uses a 256-pixel HP bar, rounding both up and down (edges untested). In handheld mode, it is displayed as 256 pixels. In docked mode, it is upscaled with artifacts to 384 pixels, making hypothetical pixel-counting unreliable because each 1-pixel change will show up as a 1- or 2-pixel gradient at the edge of the HP bar.

Side note: This took many hours to reverse engineer from Youtube footage since I don't have BDSP, so I'm dumping all the math and logic here so it "doesn't go to waste" :P

Used footage of a Lv50 Blissey with max HP (362 HP), taking damage, and healing with Leftovers three times (from 172 -> 194 -> 216, and from 155 -> 177).

• The gradient visible at 1080p immediately throws all manual pixel counting out the window since finding original quality 720p footage is going to be almost impossible. Instead, this logic relies on reading adjacent HP values and seeing which ones correspond to a change in pixels.
• As much as I'd like to find screenshots of the same Lv50 Blissey at dozens of adjacent HP values, that isn't a realistic goal. Instead, the Leftovers healing animation can be used, with a major caveat.
• Whenever a Pokemon's HP changes (either direction) and the change is more than 21, the game seems to always display the animation in exactly 21 frames. For example, Blissey recovering 22 HP with Leftovers always shows 10 frames of +1 HP, 1 frame of +2 HP, and 10 frames of +1 HP.
• However, the game internally uses fractional HP while drawing the HP bar animation for this. As proof, the 1-frame change from 204 -> 206 HP causes 0 pixels to change, and the first change from 175 -> 176 HP changes at least 1 pixel while the second change from 175 -> 176 HP changes 0 pixels. These are both impossible without fractional HP. Specifically, the game is drawing a change of ²²⁄₂₁ HP per frame, and rounding when drawing the numbers.
• During the 172 -> 194 HP animation, there are 15 pixel changes instead of 21. These six HP changes don't change the pixels: 172 -> 173, 176 -> 177, 180 -> 181, 185 -> 186, 188 -> 189, 192 -> 193. Note the unevenness in the middle.
• During the 194 -> 216 HP animation, there are 16 pixel changes instead of 21. These five HP changes don't change the pixels: 196 -> 197, 200 -> 201, 204 -> 206, 209 -> 210, 213 -> 214.
• Because there are either 3 or 4 frames between each 0-pixel change, the HP bar's internal pixels must be between 2/3 and 3/4 of Blissey's HP (between 242 and 271). I tested all of these values, including whether to round always up/always down/both ways. A 256-pixel HP bar that rounds both ways was the only one that exactly matched all 43 frames of footage (the 11 frames that didn't change pixels and the 32 frames that did). It also matches the other change from 174¹⁹⁄₂₁ -> 175²⁰⁄₂₁ HP causing a change of 0 pixels.
• To cover the last possible hole, the game must be rounding only once, not twice (to a multiple of 1/362 and then again to a multiple of 1/256). If it rounded up to a multiple of 1/362, it would be impossible for the very first frame of examined footage (172 -> 173 HP) to change 0 pixels because 173¹⁄₂₁ would be ceiling'd to 174. If it rounded down to a multiple of 1/362, this would not match the second instance of 175 -> 176 HP changing 0 pixels (because those would've been floored to 174 and 175, which didn't appear as a 0-pixel change last time).

Hide

If you remember my deleted post from the SQSA thread incorrectly saying BDSP's HP bar was 205 pixels long, that's because I used this official image without double-checking how big it was. For some reason TPC Japan uploaded an official screenshot at 576p (80% of handheld mode), and 80% of 256 is 204.8.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the above tests also indicate that BDSP can report extra information with the yellow/green HP bar color. Both 180⁸⁄₂₁ and 181⁹⁄₂₁ HP round to 128 pixels out of 256, but the first one shows up as yellow while the second one shows up as green. A quick search for Belly Drum even HP footage confirms that exactly 50% HP shows up as yellow.

 

[Atrius97]

My theory is that it's because of the new game-specific-moveset saving mechanic and how it's stored on HOME servers + tied to the HOME tracker value...
I guess you could test this in reality by hacking mons to have the same HOME tracker value from within SWSH and BDSP and seeing what happens.

Just to confirm, I did exactly this, and took it a step further to verify just how poorly their checks are handled for clones with the same tracker value.

Setup:​

SWSH Kirlia -> HOME (gained tracker value) -> SWSH -> cloned w/ tracker + evolved to Gallade and Gardevoir​

​

Test 1 (Different Species ID, same Evolution Stage):​

Clone Gallade -> HOME -> BDSP (gained BDSP moveset) -> HOME (BDSP moveset stored in HOME) -> SWSH​

Clone Gardevoir -> HOME -> BDSP, Gardevoir gains Gallade's moveset in BDSP​

​

Test 2: (Different Species ID, impossible reversion of Evolution Stage)​

Gardevoir with Gallade's moveset in BDSP -> HOME (BDSP moveset stored in HOME again) -> SWSH​

De-evolved clone SWSH Kirlia -> HOME -> BDSP, Kirlia gains Gallade's moveset in BDSP​

It appears that not only do they not reassign the tracker value if both clones are not present in HOME at the same moment, they also do not check if the Species ID matches what HOME "previously saw enter from another game". In the hypothetical scenario, you could even clone a Nincada and have it gain the moveset of a Shedinja or Ninjask.

If the same tracker value is found on Pokémon with certain immutable values changed, say altering the IVs, PID, etc. then it will indeed reassign the tracker values, but this test at the very least confirms it doesn't check for otherwise identical clones in the same "family tree".

As long as those clones with the same tracker value "take turns" entering HOME, and only enter from the game it "expects that Pokémon to enter HOME from", it literally doesn't care and will treat them all as the same Pokémon.

It only reassigns the tracker value and starts treating them as distinct individuals with their own copy of the HOME-stored data if multiple copies of the Pokémon with the same tracker are present in HOME at the same time.

Edit: I performed further tests and I do not believe this is the reason Nincada is blocked from moving between games, as Shedinja appears to instantly receive a new tracker the first time it enters HOME after evolving.

I would theorize it's more likely a redundant check to prevent you from bypassing BDSP's dupe checker with natural clones, because they already have a check in place to prevent this issue with Nincada that is completely separate from it being blocked from transferring between games.

If the last time HOME "saw" that tracker value was on a Nincada, and a Shedinja with that tracker enters HOME, it's instantly given a new tracker, (this happens when entering HOME, it's possible to observe HOME data via RAM read, and the tracker changes before it re-enters SWSH or BDSP). The matching Ninjask keeps the old Nincada tracker, and the Shedinja's new tracker remains static after the reassignment. The Shedinja's new tracker is issued even if the matching Ninjask does not enter HOME at the same time.

 

[Anubis]

It's not that it functionality to duplicate data associated to pokemon from another game, it's that the data isn't there in first place.

From what I understood, "other game data" is only stored on Home. It's not present in any of the 3 game (which makes sense from coding perspective, you'd have to patch all 3 games to include a bunch of useless data)

This is pretty much it. Seems like there's a lot of confusion about what is "core data" and what is "game-specific" data. This is documented now in PKHeX thanks to SciresM.

Here's the structure for core data: https://github.com/kwsch/PKHeX/blob/master/PKHeX.Core/PKM/HOME/GameDataCore.cs
Core data exists in every game. Ribbons, for example, are core data, so your ribbons do transfer across games, even if they don't show up (e.g. Twinkling Star in SWSH).

Each file here has the structure for extra game data: https://github.com/kwsch/PKHeX/tree/master/PKHeX.Core/PKM/HOME
PK8 = SWSH, PB8 = BDSP, PA8 = LA, PB7 = LGPE.
Met locations, egg hatch locations, moves, alpha flag, GVs, GMax, Sociability, TR flags, LA move shop flags, etc. are all considered game-specific data.

When your Pokemon enters a game, it's converted as core data + extra data for that game (either restored or freshly created). The creation of the extra data for a new game has a lot of extra considerations. For example, when BDSP and LA mons move to SWSH and get new extra data, their game version is set to SWSH (which is how the SWSH version marking shows up on them, and why you don't need to convert them for online play with the tower NPC), and their met locations are set to a magic value that makes them come from "far away place." Depending on the order you move Pokémon from game to game, you can sometimes break this because of how it creates the new extra data.

They technically could convert a gen 8 mon into LGPE format now with this if they wanted to...

 

[doipy hooves]

Edit: I performed further tests and I do not believe this is the reason Nincada is blocked from moving between games, as Shedinja appears to instantly receive a new tracker the first time it enters HOME after evolving.

I would theorize it's more likely a redundant check to prevent you from bypassing BDSP's dupe checker with natural clones, because they already have a check in place to prevent this issue with Nincada that is completely separate from it being blocked from transferring between games.

If the last time HOME "saw" that tracker value was on a Nincada, and a Shedinja with that tracker enters HOME, it's instantly given a new tracker, (this happens when entering HOME, it's possible to observe HOME data via RAM read, and the tracker changes before it re-enters SWSH or BDSP). The matching Ninjask keeps the old Nincada tracker, and the Shedinja's new tracker remains static after the reassignment. The Shedinja's new tracker is issued even if the matching Ninjask does not enter HOME at the same time.

Wouldn't this still mean Shedinja would lose cross game-specific data if it was able to be transferred between games as a Nincada first? As it is now, Shedinja can only spawn from a Nincada that has never left its origin game, and so I assume it only needs to store/copy the local data that exists from the current game save to HOME servers as extra data before being assigned a new tracker. Interesting tests all around nonetheless.

 

[Atrius97]

Wouldn't this still mean Shedinja would lose cross game-specific data if it was able to be transferred between games as a Nincada first? As it is now, Shedinja can only spawn from a Nincada that has never left its origin game, and so I assume it only needs to store/copy the data that exists from the current game save before being assigned a new tracker. Interesting tests all around nonetheless.

Keep in mind that there's currently no alternative games Nincada can move between after arriving in HOME. Nincada arriving from Bank can only enter SWSH. SWSH Nincada can only re-enter SWSH, BDSP Nincada can only re-enter BDSP.

Ninjask and Shedinja arriving in HOME for the first time (from any source) without a tracker can move between games freely, and automatically both receive unique trackers.
Shedinja arriving in HOME with an existing tracker from when it was a Nincada instantly obtains a new tracker as well.

There's no way a Nincada could gain extra game data from a game other than the one they currently reside in, until they evolve in said game, so it's not possible for them to "lose that data". SWSH and BDSP both block Nincada from the opposite set of games from entering. Unless they break it when Scarlet/Violet, or some future game release, that isn't an issue.

 

[Anubis]

Wouldn't this still mean Shedinja would lose cross game-specific data if it was able to be transferred between games as a Nincada first? As it is now, Shedinja can only spawn from a Nincada that has never left its origin game, and so I assume it only needs to store/copy the local data that exists from the current game save to HOME servers as extra data before being assigned a new tracker. Interesting tests all around nonetheless.

If they use the same handling for duplicate trackers, no.

If I trade you a copy of my Pokémon and you put it in your HOME, it will get a new tracker plus all the original extra game data. I can then put the same copy of my Pokémon back in my HOME and it will still have the same tracker and extra data.

If I put both copies in my HOME, it errors, but if I put the first copy in, save, then put the second copy in, the second copy gets a new tracker with extra data intact just like how it would have given one to you if you had put it in your HOME.

I assume that all this handling of legitimate trackers is in case you got a Mon that was a clone in-game and you didn't know, so as long as it matches what the tracker expects, it quietly splits it into a second tracker.

 

[doipy hooves]

There's no way a Nincada could gain extra game data from a game other than the one they currently reside in, until they evolve in said game, so it's not possible for them to "lose that data". SWSH and BDSP both block Nincada from the opposite set of games from entering. Unless they break it when Scarlet/Violet, or some future game release, that isn't an issue.

This is why I'm wondering if blocking Nincada from having this extra data in HOME was the reason that it can't move between games.

If they use the same handling for duplicate trackers, no.

If I trade you a copy of my Pokémon and you put it in your HOME, it will get a new tracker plus all the original extra game data. I can then put the same copy of my Pokémon back in my HOME and it will still have the same tracker and extra data.

If I put both copies in my HOME, it errors, but if I put the first copy in, save, then put the second copy in, the second copy gets a new tracker with extra data intact just like how it would have given one to you if you had put it in your HOME.

I assume that all this handling of legitimate trackers is in case you got a Mon that was a clone in-game and you didn't know, so as long as it matches what the tracker expects, it quietly splits it into a second tracker.

Does the same thing happen if the copy has extra game data on HOME already from a different game? It sounds like it may just be completely copied over to the new tracker and preserved when you deposit into the other game, based on the behaviour of the moves test above, which would allow Shedinja to gain Ninjask's moves instead if Nincada was freely moveable.

 

[Anubis]

Does the same thing happen if the copy has extra game data on HOME already from a different game? It sounds like it may just be completely copied over to the new tracker and preserved when you deposit into the other game, based on the behaviour of the moves test above, which would allow Shedinja to gain Ninjask's moves instead if Nincada was freely moveable.

I haven't tested this specifically, but I don't see any reason why someone with at least 2 games and HOME can't try it and tell us.

One test might be:
- Put a BDSP Nincada in HOME and back in BDSP.
- Evolve it (Ninjask and Shedinja should have the same tracker).
- Put the BDSP Ninjask in HOME -> SWSH, see what moves it has, teach it some moves, then put it back in HOME (this will update the SWSH extra data) and then BDSP.
- Put the BDSP Shedinja in HOME (Based on Atrius's tests, this should give it a new tracker, and we want to see how much extra data was copied from the original tracker used by Ninjask) -> SWSH (does it have fresh Shedinja moves or old Ninjask moves now?)

Another test might be:
- Put a BDSP Nincada in HOME and back in BDSP.
- Evolve it (Ninjask and Shedinja should have the same tracker).
- Level up the Shedinja if needed so the last 4 moves learned in SWSH are different from if it were a Nincada.
- Put the BDSP Shedinja in HOME -> SWSH (does it have fresh Shedinja moves or old Nincada moves?)

If Shedinja gets fresh move data in both cases, there is probably special handling where the first time Shedinja hits HOME with a tracker last seen on Nincada/Ninjask, it gets a new tracker with only the extra data for the game it entered from.

If Shedinja recovers either Nincada's or Ninjask's SWSH moves, the current system does not prevent it, so it would still be a bit weak to say that's the reasoning.

The specific case I tried was moving an LA mon to SWSH (where it does not retain the LA Pokeball), trading a clone away to a friend, and afterwards both copies regained the LA ball and data upon being placed back in our respective HOMEs and in LA.

EDIT: added a second test and explanations.

 

[doipy hooves]

I ended up testing this myself with the first test described above.

Nincada was caught in Eterna Forest with the Poke Radar at level 11 with Sand Attack, Scratch, Harden, and False Swipe.
I sent it to HOME and brought it back to BDSP, grinding it up in the underground and evolving at 20 to get Ninjask and Shedinja (who kept Nincada's nickname), learning all of Ninjask's level 20 moves (Screech/Fury Cutter/Double Team/False Swipe) and placing both in the box.
Ninjask had Scratch/Harden/False Swipe/Agility in Home's Sword POV and Sword itself, following Ninjask's learnset according to serebii.
I taught Ninjask Acrobatics, Air Slash, U-turn, and Screech as TRs that Shedinja cannot learn. Ninjask was moved from Sword to HOME and HOME to BDSP.
Moving Shedinja from BDSP to HOME and HOME to Sword gave it the fresh move data of Sand Attack, False Swipe, Harden, and Confuse Ray, as expected for a default Shedinja. Returning Shedinja to BDSP retained its original moveset (untouched from Nincada).

Overall it looks like HOME is applying the first case and is copying over Shedinja's BDSP moves only to a new home tracker to enter SWSH with fresh data, which works out fine because Nincada cannot originate from SWSH and have any past data (TRs/egg moves?) overwritten under the current restrictions.

On another note, Lewtwo on twitter found that some unusable moves in BDSP have unused/WIP animations, with the first thread going into more detail in general on the differences in move functionality depending on if it appeared in LGPE/SWSH, and noting Accelerock is an outlier among most moves not in base SWSH that don't have animations, and the second is about how Hyper Fang has a new unique animation from its past appearances.

EDIT: On second thought, I'm pretty sure I recall that Accelerock was one of the rare moves that was still clickable but unavailable in base SWSH.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1555810235540979713

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1555886318697201664

 

[AztecCroc]

I ended up testing this myself with the first test described above.

Nincada was caught in Eterna Forest with the Poke Radar at level 11 with Sand Attack, Scratch, Harden, and False Swipe.
I sent it to HOME and brought it back to BDSP, grinding it up in the underground and evolving at 20 to get Ninjask and Shedinja (who kept Nincada's nickname), learning all of Ninjask's level 20 moves (Screech/Fury Cutter/Double Team/False Swipe) and placing both in the box.
Ninjask had Scratch/Harden/False Swipe/Agility in Home's Sword POV and Sword itself, following Ninjask's learnset according to serebii.
I taught Ninjask Acrobatics, Air Slash, U-turn, and Screech as TRs that Shedinja cannot learn. Ninjask was moved from Sword to HOME and HOME to BDSP.
Moving Shedinja from BDSP to HOME and HOME to Sword gave it the fresh move data of Sand Attack, False Swipe, Harden, and Confuse Ray, as expected for a default Shedinja. Returning Shedinja to BDSP retained its original moveset (untouched from Nincada).

Overall it looks like HOME is applying the first case and is copying over Shedinja's BDSP moves only to a new home tracker to enter SWSH with fresh data, which works out fine because Nincada cannot originate from SWSH and have any past data (TRs/egg moves?) overwritten under the current restrictions.

On another note, Lewtwo on twitter found that some unusable moves in BDSP have unused/WIP animations, with the first thread going into more detail in general on the differences in move functionality depending on if it appeared in LGPE/SWSH, and noting Accelerock is an outlier among most moves not in base SWSH that don't have animations, and the second is about how Hyper Fang has a new unique animation from its past appearances.

EDIT: On second thought, I'm pretty sure I recall that Accelerock was one of the rare moves that was still clickable but unavailable in base SWSH.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1555810235540979713

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1555886318697201664

Hyper Fang having an animation makes sense in SwSh it still has its proper description and nothing in SwSh could learn the move in Gen 7. Honestly it's always been wierd to me that they cut it.

 

[KaenSoul]

Guess who just won an award at Tokyo game show

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1570349295307755521

I'm not looking forward to the Unova remakes now!

 

[Pikachu315111]

Guess who just won an award at Tokyo game show

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1570349295307755521

I'm not looking forward to the Unova remakes now!

For anyone curious, BDSP won two awards: "Best Sales" and "Global Prize (Japanese Work).

For "Best Sales" this shouldn't be a surprise. Even though a remake, Pokemon game sales have been on an upswing as of late. XY did better than Gen V, SM did better than XY, SwSh did better than SM, and now BDSP did better than SwSh. If the pattern continues, next year SV will probably win another trophy.

As for "Global Prize (Japanese Work)", I think that means the best Japanese made game that did best globally. I say this because, yet again, Pokemon usually claims this award every year they have a game out.

So pretty much Pokemon just got trophies for their games selling really well. I guess all well and good for GF's financial worries, but doesn't really say anything about the games quality. Cause they didn't win best game, that went to Elden Ring. Best Design? Inscryption. And finally the various Excellence Awards: Resident Evil Village, Sky: Children of the Light, Tales of Arise, Lost Judgment, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

WAIT! Hold the phone. Would you look at that, Legends Arceus won an award of actual merit!

All that I'm reading from this, and hopefully GF will, is that the main series sells but if they want an award of substance they gotta actually try. It seems like, for GF and the Pokemon franchise, "Best Sales" is a gimme, there's nothing to learn from that award. THEY know the main series is the big seller, they don't need an award for that (heck, I'm surprised the Japan Game Show even has that category; our Game Awards don't). However Legends Arceus winning something shows them that they and the Pokemon franchise are capable of doing more. Now, if they don't want to slow down, maybe they should use all that money that got them the "Best Sales" award to hire more people!

EDIT: Actually, I just noticed something, Behind them they have a poster with the award winners (for those wondering why Call of Duty is up there, it won "Global Price (Overseas Work)"). And, funny thing about it, Yuichi Ueda (Game Director of ILCA) is blocking the boxart for Legends Arceus! Either that was an accident (cause I'd imagine GF would want that game's boxart visible cause it won an award) or this was done on purpose by him and Masuda cause that was the Pokemon game they didn't work on that got an award worth something. Take your pick.

 

[R_N]

I don't think they're gonna take any real lessons one way or another on either of these games, if we're being fully honest.
They're probably happy the won the awards they did and that's about it.

Likewise no absolutely do not think he or Masuda purposely blocked Legends Arceus
we don't have to make everything a conspiracy theory

 

[Ironmage]

To vent some frustration, it feels like chasing trends and 'meaningful' awards got us into the position where the only game that retains the draws of the series is the one with the least effort put into it. If I wanted to muck about in a mostly empty field, there's plenty of other games for that. Why destroy your own very successful niche if not for the glory?

I just want to have a new game unambiguously worth playing by the time my Emerald cartridge finally gives out on me...

 

[Siggu]

To vent some frustration, it feels like chasing trends and 'meaningful' awards got us into the position where the only game that retains the draws of the series is the one with the least effort put into it. If I wanted to muck about in a mostly empty field, there's plenty of other games for that. Why destroy your own very successful niche if not for the glory?

I just want to have a new game unambiguously worth playing by the time my Emerald cartridge finally gives out on me...

Because "the same = bad; different = good" for some, when neither thing makes a game better or worse by itself.

I totally agree, but that's a matter for another thread.

 

[R_N]

I'm going to take the approach of they've been working on the same series for a billion years and do want to change and perhaps "evolve" the series from the perspective of someone in the pokemon factory and might legitimately have liked the open aspect of other games and legitimately wanted to apply it to Pokemon as an evolution of the series and probably as at least partially a response to the limited nature of some of the games (see also: them making the games more linear for a time, likely due to various feedback)

I don't think you chase this open world dragon across 3 games and a set of DLC if you were purely chasing trends (much less awards, which I highly doubt they were), even if you are plainly wearing your inspiration on your sleeve.

Like that can be frustrating, and not what you or I want out of the series, but I can easily see the sort of... "dev think" behind it.

 

[Rapti]

For my part, the fact that japanese gamers are also calling this bullshit is at least a good sign

Likewise no absolutely do not think he or Masuda purposely blocked Legends Arceus
we don't have to make everything a conspiracy theory

what?
no
this is an internet fanforum
we have to make everything a conspiracy theory



BDSP was actually made by alien reptiloids and if you play it on your Switch they'll steal your left socks and use them for unspeakable things
unspeakable things

 

[doipy hooves]

I beat Legends Arceus the other day which allowed me to get Arceus in Brilliant Diamond, so I decided to go for a shiny one because it was possible. The hunt went on for an hour before I decided to stop and look for a better way. In the end I RNG abused for the shiny Arceus based on this youtube guide on the blink method, though I had to make some adjustments with tips from the discord like starting to check blinks in Mt. Coronet and starting the timeline when closing the key item message and leaving the cave immediately.

It's like the DS RNG (which I haven't done) but instead of needing a secret ID and timing to load the game at a specific time, you just have to zoom in and record your character blinking to find your seed, which is pretty lenient in terms of camera quality. Overall it took some time to set up properly but it worked out pretty well.

EDIT: It was pretty painless too, only taking 2 attempts with one to figure out that blinking in Spear Pillar didn't work with being 30 seconds off and looking up some tips in their discord like using delays of 130 and 225. I hit B the first time to send it to the box instead of checking stats but I had my autosave off to retry, though I didn't save after turning off autosave the first time, so it's fortunate that I got the shiny so soon as there was a good chance of ruining it accidentally.