XY Primer: How Much Will We Know Pre-Release?

XY Primer

The sixth generation is upon us and Nintendo is cranking out all the gears to hype us up. The international release of all the games is remarkable for a series that would stick itself for months on end in the localization purgatory. So on the day before release date, just exactly how much of the game will we know? Unlike some articles in the past or in this very issue, I am going to take things from a different perspective. This generation will not be released and covered in the ways the past generations have been. Let's look back at what we will not have any more. For one thing:

No Japanese Name Shenanigans

We really need to stress how great it will be to have no more awkward moments of dealing with random Japanese names. This means weird jokes about the names, like Steelicks's legendary Mojonbo thread, won't come up again. Also, we won't be able to mock the new English names like Lickilicky after getting so used to the Japanese ones. Along with that we would also use different attack names from different translators at some points in the past. What this all means is that you won't know the Elite Four and all the Gym Leaders on whatever local FAQ/guide site you frequent.

What Mons Can We Expect to See Soon?

To work with this I'm going to be looking at all the older generations and see what was revealed before the Japanese release. This is all speculation at this point, but with the new Fairy-type expect to see one or two new 'mons, all the effectiveness information, and more attacks before the game drops. This didn't happen in G/S, but we should expect such a reveal with how much more information we have had compared to back then. After all, we really only knew about 11 Pokémon before the Japanese release of the second gen. Every generation has had its pre-game release film Pokémon and it's clear that Mewtwo's new forme has filled that role (Lugia, Lati twins, Lucario/Manaphy, and Zoroark respectively). Compared to the DS generations, we have not yet gone long without any newly revealed Pokémon: barely much more than a month. The time period between Weavile, Munchlax, and Mime Jr. to Manaphy was ten months, with monthly reveals for D/P starting in late June until the September release, for a total of 31 Pokémon before the games hit Japan. Comparatively, in BW there was only a three month period of announcing Zorua and Zoroark in March to the revealing of the new starters and B/W in May. Starting from that point there were a handful of releases every month until the September release. B/W released a total of 58 mons before the games dropped in Japan. So the monthly hype trend seems to be continuing. Assuming this trend continues of three or four Pokémon per month expect at least 45 Pokémon to find in your journey. Believe me, you will find them in-game, because the majority of Pokémon that are given pre-release status are ones you will easily encounter. While there may be the odd Excadrill that is shown before we crack open the games, practically everything you will see in the coming months will be NU-RU material—it's not going to be metagame defining things. Those gimmicks like Burmy and Cherrim once upon a time had speculation that they too could be overpowered. Cherrim would make sun teams the most overpowered they have ever seen and make weather more annoying than ever in gen 4!

How to Get Your Information

Sometimes we get a big hint that a new Pokémon will be shown in Japan somehow. Often this will be in the premier gaming magazine CoroCoro, which always seems to get the information first. For those of you who don't know, CoroCoro is a popular game and toy magazine that has showcased the Pokémon series since Blue Version. They do the toys, the cards, and the games. Nintendo has gotten much better now at releasing information on the same day or the day after CoroCoro now; prior to this, it could be months of us using the names Manafi or Rukario to identify these dear new legendaries. The other big Japanese source that always gets the first scoop is the official Pokémon variety show Pokémon Smash, or Pokémon Sunday before 2010. We tend to assume that there will be big news whenever they say a creator such as Junichi Masuda is going to appear. As a rule for the next few months, if CoroCoro has already revealed something new that Smash has not, that will be what is shown. It will be shown in the last ten minutes of the show. Don't waste your time watching a live-stream; it isn't worth it. If you haven't been to Japan or have not seen Japanese television and its method of advertisement, it will not be pleasant. During one live-stream I saw the same ad play three times in a row, some other ad, then the same one. The content of the show is worse—we all know about filler in anime and how bad it is. But this show doesn't even have a real plot; it exists to sell cards, toys, video games, and the franchise as a whole. During one particularly uneventful live-stream I saw the old episode of Ash catching a Charmander and then one absolutely freaky segment where grown men were dressed up as Pokémon and Trainers. Have you ever seen a jolly Japanese performer in a Pachirisu costume assault a cameraman from tall grass? I have and I relive it in my nightmares daily. The costume itself must have been the single adult-sized version of the Pachirisu Halloween costume that they never managed to sell. In the end it was the same reveal of four Pokémon as in CoroCoro. I vowed never again to waste that time watching this show I could barely understand. Instead, I decided to reset my Platinum to catch a shiny Giratina.

Case in point, from the time of writing this the latest episode's 'news' was this footage: "Pancham using Parting Shot on Conkeldurr"

Even when they do get the jump on something like the Mewtwo forme, which had been leaked long before the episode, you'll hear about it relatively quickly enough it won't cost you your Pokémon Fan Club card.

How Much Information

Do you see this withholding that is going on? We were barely told if Newtwo was a new Pokémon or a new form. We still don't know the types of the cover duo and it took months to reveal Sylveon's type. Heck, if they thought they could get away with hiding the types of the starters they would have done that too, although they did hide them entirely in silhouette before D/P was released. As a side point, don't try to draw what you think any silhouette Pokémon might look like if you don't want to be really embarrassed in a month or two. Everything that could possibly be important such as game-defining items, base stats, secret moves, move changes, new ability mechanics, and unreleased Pokémon won't be shown at all until a guidebook is released/leaked. Even if that does happen, it will take months to just confirm everything: guidebooks are a dying breed and even back in their day they were not the most reliable medium for intricate mechanics. This leads into my most important point:

Stop Your Pointless Speculations

Someone out there will congratulate themselves immensely for 'figuring out' Sylveon's base stat spread, and good for them, it's not like all the Eeveelutions share the same base stat numbers in one category or the other. Similarly, Mewtwo's new forme won't be much more broken than it already is; these are the same designers who pulled the non-change of Keldeo Resolute and the absolutely nominal changes of Deoxys to Deoxys-Attack.

The Aftermath

Generally, within the first week games have been broken open, all the TMs, hidden Pokémon, cool features. They were all ours to discover. This time things will be different in that the initial install base to find information will be much bigger. But there is a huge problem in that the 3DS hasn't been broken into the same way the DS and GBA were. Things like base stats, move mechanics, and new abilities will have to be tested. Heck, a ton of the old moves will also have to be retested because we've had weirdly random changes happen before to things like sleep. I for one will be checking Stealth Rock the moment I find the TM or tutor. So, getting the simulators to get a faithful gen 6 will take much longer than ever before. Our developers and researchers are the best people money doesn't pay for and they are going to need some new recruits. So instead of bemoaning that PS doesn't have the newest mons, do us all a favor and help out! Testing is always needed and all you need to do is drop $40 for the newest games to help with that. While I don't have a Researcher badge, I too was able to help with some minor move testing involving Pursuit and Baton Pass, and things as minor as TM learning for everyone will be a huge help.

Conclusion

These pre-release shenanigans just aren't as fun once you've been on the Internet for three of them I suppose. I was once like many of you, wild in my imagination. I thought Weavile would be a competent Pokémon that would be able to fight with the best of them. Learn from me, I am too late, save yourselves.

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