SPOILERS! Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon News & Discussion

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Twice the amount of "scenarios", not story, if you translate it directly. Who knows what that means.
Scenario is Engrish for story.

I can understand disliking the emphasis on Gen 1 stuff so much... except that stuff from older gens do return all the time. A majority of the Megas were Gen 3, we got the Zygarde stuff in S/M, I've lost count of the amount of times Cynthia and Looker have shown up... the truth is that callbacks, references to and returns of elements from all previous gens do happen. It's just that it tends to happen to Gen 1 more, which, well, it's the first gen. Of course it'd get the most emphasis.
We only have more Gen 3 Megas because ORAS, without it it'd be more Gen 1 Megas. And Zygarde in SM feels like it was savaged from Z maybe.

And being first doesn't make you best. Kinda like how older Mario games had different end of stage goals every time but now it's always the flag because SMB1 had that and some players want something else.
 
Gen 1 being 'the best' isn't what's meant to be implied by that statement, though I can see why you'd think that. But, simply put... as the start of the franchise, it's by far the most popular, the one most people are a fan of and the one that - and this is the most important part here - most people are likely to recognise.
And that's the thing. In regards to Transformers, the average person is not likely to recognise Rodimus Prime or Fortress Maximus despite those being very important and very good characters in the mythos. They're going to recognise Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Starscream. In regards to Power Rangers, the average person is not likely to recognise the Red In Space Ranger or Mesogog from Dino Thunder despite these, once again, being important parts of their series and arguably pretty good characters in their own right. They're going to recognise the Red Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger, Rita Repulsa and the Dragonzord.
All of this is despite the fact that MMPR and Transformers' first gen are nowhere near the best those franchises have to offer. But when you're celebrating an anniversary of a franchise, then you revere when it started and what made it popular in the first place. You respect what started off that legacy and you see how far you've come. Is Gen 1 the best in the franchise? Personally, I'm not so sure; I think there are other games deserving of that title. But it's what started us off, it's what the common person off the street will know, and it's what will always be the most beloved. That's just how things work.
Probably got a bit muddled up at the end there - and, if I'm being honest, I'm partly making this post so I can mention Fortress Maximus on Smogon - but the point is that no matter its quality, Gen 1 is by far the most recognisable game and it has an extremely important place in Pokémon history by being its origin that arguably hasn't been matched since, no matter how much more I may prefer Colosseum or Platinum as games. So it is going to have a lot more emphasis in anniversaries whether one likes it or not. And heck, honestly? Team Rocket's return is well overdue. They're the closest thing to a main villain this franchise has, yet their last non-cameo appearance was over 8 years ago. In a remake.
Funny thing is, this is all despite that I'll be the first to be annoyed that all the Alola forms are Gen 1. Couldn't even give us Alola forms of Pokémon that evolve from Gen 1 'mon? Not even Crobat? You're gonna be that strict about it? C'mon, Game Freak...
 
I'm not disagreeing with any of the points being posted about why gen 1 gets more references, but people need to stop clinging onto the "anniversary" excuse. SM was the game for the 20th year. XY has just as many gen 1 references (if not more) 3 years earlier. USM is coming out a year later. An anniversary can't last for an entire generation; there are other reasons for those references to happen.
 
Actually.....that interview is wrong. It was disproven on Twitter, even Joe confirmed it (I'm following some threads right now about it, so).
https://twitter.com/ImRichTea/status/923193016709414913
https://twitter.com/ImRichTea/status/923192487254134784

According to this it is not wrong. Title is misleading but the interview was accurate.

And who at GF would think that Alolan forms would be a failure? I mean since all of them were from gen 1 it's gonna be received well of course. Their focus is all on Z moves, and apparently adding more Alolan forms to an "alternate universe" wouldn't make any sense. Adding more would also create merchandise. But nah, Dusk Lycanroc is much better than any alolan forms.
 
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Codraroll

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So can anyone actually explain why Team Rocket returning is a bad thing without using the word 'pandering', which has by this point been used so many times on the thread that it's pretty much lost all meaning? Because it really just feels like you're -immediately- jumping on any reference or comeback as bad.
Basically, it's this:
The pandering can be bad because GF might forgot how and why Team Rocket worked and just lower them to the level of other evil teams. I don't want to see TR trying to take over the world or some other silly crap when that was never their thing.
Team Rocket was the Pokémon Mafia. Bad guys, thugs who exploited Pokémon for profit. They were violent and harsh, hid their activities behind a semi-legitimate business, and they were successful. What made Team Rocket so great was that they were in the realm of plausibility. They had an iron grip on Kanto, made huge money, and succeeded in taking over a large company and even infiltrate the Indigo League. The player's role wasn't to thwart their plans for world domination, it was to loosen their grip on their home region.

All evil teams since have followed the same Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain formula: "They wil use this legendary Pokémon to threaten the world!" Ever since Gen III, it has always been world domination, destroying the world, changing the world, the world in balance, and the evil team abusing the power of legendary Pokémon has always been in the centre. Lofty villains with lofty plans, and it always hinges on a player to save the world. The stakes are dialled up to max to make the story more epic ("and therefore better, right?"), but they have been stuck on the "max" setting since Gen III. It honestly doesn't feel grand any more, and it doesn't feel believeable. Everything is at stake every time, therefore nothing is.

Team Rocket weren't lofty. They were direct, they were believeable, they had street-level plans, and they managed to execute them. Team Galactic couldn't realize their dream of creating a new universe. Lysandre couldn't destroy the world. Ghetsis didn't freeze more than a small city. But Giovanni ran a criminal empire who answered his every command, had operations in every city in the region, made tons of money, and walked away a free man when finally convinced to step down.

I, for one, fear that Game Freak will bring in Team Rocket for the nostalgia, but drag them down to the same level as modern evil teams. More goofiness, a more lofty plot, less ruthlessness and less believeability. You could never trust a Team Flare grunt to tie his shoes, but a Team Rocket grunt could very plausibly give you a solid beating, steal your Pokémon, and throw you off the pier. That's the image of Team Rocket I want preserved, preferrably by not tampering with it.
 

Pikachu315111

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Kurona:
I generally agree, but just the timing isn't right. You're right, out of all the villain teams we've had Team Rocket is the most recognizable and out of all the villain teams is the most likely to return in some form. But not for USUM. As I said, we now have FOUR antagonist teams who are going to be fighting for story attention. Also the return of Team Rocket is a big thing, would have been worthy enough for its own story.

As for Gen I story being the "best", not by itself but if you combine it with Gen II's (and the Sevii Islands stuff) than maybe you'll have something. The rise and fall of a criminal organization and its struggles to come back, it can be a compelling story as two different generation of heroes stop it. Though that's still up to debate, I still would pick Gen V.

I'm not disagreeing with any of the points being posted about why gen 1 gets more references, but people need to stop clinging onto the "anniversary" excuse. SM was the game for the 20th year. XY has just as many gen 1 references (if not more) 3 years earlier. USM is coming out a year later. An anniversary can't last for an entire generation; there are other reasons for those references to happen.
And honestly a Pokemon Anniversary should be for the franchise as a WHOLE, not just Gen I (unless they're going to support the anniversary of every generation's release, which would be ludicrous).

No More Alolan Pokemon:
That's disappointing. I guess with them expanding the Pokedex and having all the necessary gaps filled they decided to just focus on new Ultra Beasts and maybe save other Regional Variants for future generations (where hopefully they aren't chaining themselves to Gen I).
 
[Team Rocket stuff]
I wish I could like this post a million times. I'm very afraid they're going to ruin Team Rocket in this game, and the developers' obliviousness to the reality that higher-stakes usually isn't actually more intense is very frustrating.

But...whatever. There's nothing we can do about it, and I'm just going to hope for the best and try to embrace whatever we end up getting for the sake of liking the games.
 
Those are the ace Pokemon of the villainous team of every core series region (with Team Magma apparently overriding Team Aqua for Hoenn's representative), right?

e: ninja'd
 
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Those are the ace Pokemon of the villainous team of every core series region (with Team Magma apparently overriding Team Aqua for Hoenn's representative), right?
I wouldn't call Weavile Cyrus's signature Pokemon - I'd say it's Honchkrow, but he does not feel like he has a signature Pokemon to begin with.
 
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Pikachu315111

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I wouldn't call Weavile Cyrus's signature Pokemon - I'd say it's Honchkrow, but he does not feel like he has a signature Pokemon to begin with.
Weavile was Cyrus's highest level Pokemon in all the Gen IV games.

Also Persian is Giovanni's "ace" Pokemon in the anime, his ace Pokemon in the games switches between Nidoking/Nidoqueen (and sometimes Rhydon or rather Rhyperior now).

Also Lysandre's strongest Pokemon was his Gyarados.
 
Weavile doesn't give a strong impression of being Cyrus's ace poke tho…… yeah it is the strongest, but somehow it lacked the iconic factor.
 
Weavile doesn't give a strong impression of being Cyrus's ace poke tho…… yeah it is the strongest, but somehow it lacked the iconic factor.
Because Cyrus's Iconicness came from himself, not his pokemon. He let his lackeys and admins take much of the spotlight and only intervened when absolutely neccessary. Plus he's kind of a sociopath so its not like he ha "My trusty Weavile!" moment. He's just...cold.

...and from a gameplay standpoint Weavile isnt rememberable because it makes for a very shitty in game boss mon. hard to cause problems for a team with one of the worst defensive typings in the game.
 
At this Team Rocket thing, I'm now indifferent, I suppose. It will depend on how they will execute it, but fears of them being dragged to stupidity is also there, as well as stealing others' spotlight. I'm hoping to learn more about Team Skull and Aether Foundation (we don't even know their founder, just "Lusamine's father".)
True, though, in one side they're most iconic due to being from the most memorable first generation and the most successful (at least compared to other generations, but then again, Plasma is also somewhat dangerous unlike the other joke teams), but in another side, we have been having so much Kantonian stuffs. While Alola has strong connection to Kanto, I'm afraid Alola itself will barely have any spotlight.
I'll just hope they somehow pull it off well that their quality outweigh the GenI overdose. Maybe if the leak is to be believed, they'll even evenly split the spotlight of other past teams so they have equal opportunity to be beaten by around 10 years old again this time with Nebby.

The good thing is that anime will probably get interesting now that they may be involved in the game itself. I certainly look forward to see Gladio (and maybe even Lilie, or even Lusamine if she doesn't fall ill) kicking their rear ends. Then again I haven't even heard of Team Skull for episodes either....
 
Because Cyrus's Iconicness came from himself, not his pokemon. He let his lackeys and admins take much of the spotlight and only intervened when absolutely neccessary. Plus he's kind of a sociopath so its not like he ha "My trusty Weavile!" moment. He's just...cold.

...and from a gameplay standpoint Weavile isnt rememberable because it makes for a very shitty in game boss mon. hard to cause problems for a team with one of the worst defensive typings in the game.
This is why Weavile actually works as his "main mon" Ice type fights tot eh icyness of his personality, and dark plays to his underhanded tactics towards getting what he wanted.
 
From the Famitsu interview, they cited Rotopon as the reason for this. Horde encounters were mainly for EV training anyway and have been made easier with SOS.
I had forgotten about sos battles doubling EVs so excuse my own ignorance. I still hope that they do something like the poke radar though.
 
I had forgotten about sos battles doubling EVs so excuse my own ignorance. I still hope that they do something like the poke radar though.
Yep, that was clutch, especially since it could net you Pokemon with egg moves to save you a bit of time with breeding (though breeding egg moves have been made easier too). It would make sense, after all, for Rotom to be able to find rarer Pokemon, anyway.
 

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True, but look at his hair and tell me that his favorite pokemon isnt his trusty Pyroar. It does help that there's an unspoken rule where the big bad's ace has to be from the same gen.
Gen VI was weird with that due to the introduction of Mega Evolutions. As you said, both the villain team boss's and Champion's signature and ace Pokemon are normally Pokemon of that generation. But with there being no Mega Evo for Gen VI Pokemon in XY, and obviously the villain team boss and Champion would have a Mega Pokemon, they were given ace Pokemon from previous gens with Mega Evolutions. Though as you noted, while Gyarados is his ace, Lysandre's signature is Pyroar. Though oddly this isn't the fact for Diantha, she doesn't have a second Pokemon from that gen you could consider an alternate signature Pokemon. *shrugs*

Cyrus Signature: Yeah, there's really no Pokemon which matches Cyrus design. Looking through the Gen IV Pokemon, the ones I could connect to him are Honchkrow (mob boss), Spiritomb (a representation of all that he hates), Weavile (cold and evil), and Magnezone (looks like a UFO).

You know, something is bothering me about that group of villain team boss's signature Pokemon. Mainly Giovanni's: Persian. Persian being Giovanni's signature Pokemon is only an anime thing, as I noted before, in the games and other media his signature is either Nidoqueen, Nidoking, or Rhydon to match his Ground-type specialization (even in Yellow it's only his strongest Pokemon for the first battle in the Rocket Hideout, and that's only because it's replacing his Kangaskhan from Red/Blue which was also his strongest Pokemon in that battle). And any game, manga, or other media that has him with a Persian is a reference to this.

"Well, general audience more relate Persian to Giovanni than his typical signature Pokemon". Yes, but still, this gets me to thinking how different anime Giovanni is to game Giovanni. Unlike game Giovanni, anime Giovanni is trying to take over the world. And considering we have Ash-Greninja and Ash Cap Pikachu... it made me wonder: what if they go full out with this and connect the anime directly to the games. What if this is all anime Giovanni's doing, he learns about the Ultra Wormhole and uses them along with the knowledge of the other villain teams from past regions thanks to the Rocket Trio report to gather the other villains and form Rainbow Rocket (rainbow because it's a combination of all the past villain teams). The reason he's in USUM is because it just so happens to be the first world he plans on taking over with Rainbow Rocket, a test before maybe doing so with the anime's world and others.

And of course this would be referenced in the anime eventually, as we see Giovanni getting the knowledge and using the Ultra Wormhole.

From there who knows what they will have planned next. Maybe we'll also get the Rocket Trio and Ash in the games. The anime could show us what's happening in the anime's world with Ash's companions having to deal with the fallout of the Ultra Wormhole use until a few episodes later Ash, Giovanni, and the Rocket Trio come back after their quick venture into the USUM's world. Would certainly be an interesting experiment.
 
It just crossed my mind that Persian is Giovanni's signature Pokemon in the anime.

And that SM and now USUM seems to have started to seriously translate things that were "anime parts" into the actual core games.

Guess which Pokemon got a Regional form which is also Dark Type, perfectly fitting a dark team theme?
Plz I'd forgotten about this travesty (it's design)
 
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