Official Pokémon Sun and Moon (S&M) Thread

[Natirasha]

My team at endgame was

Tsareena/Primarina/Mismagius/Magnezone/Salazzle/Crabominable. I was happy with them mostly(Tsareena is amazing and I love her), but I think if I were to do it again with hindsight I'd cut Mismagius and Crabominable for some combination of Dhelmise/Pallososand/Muk-A.

[Natirasha]

I kinda want to get back into competitive once UU is established. Probably RU actually, but that'll be quite a while.

[Natirasha]

Pokemon peaked at gen 4+5

[Natirasha]

4>5>7>3>2>1>6

Kalos was offensively bad at literally everything, Platinum/HGSS were best in terms of game content, Unova best generation in terms of gameplay progression.

[Natirasha]

^ mostly.

Unova-only was actually a good design decision imo for BW, and if you go by the numbers Unova has the oddest distribution where most of the pokemon were either top tier designs(Stoutland line, Scolipede, Whimsicott+Liligant, Eelektross, Scrafty, Cofagrigus, Galvantula, Escavalier-Accelgor, Haxorus, Volcaronae, Bisharp were all great) but then it had a bunch of garbage designs(every single legend besides Meloetta/Genesect, 2/3 of the starters, Vanilluxe, Drudigon aka my least favorite design in all of pokemon, Heatmor, Sawk/Throh, the fucking monkeys).

But yeah Unova's game progression is flat-out unmatched. When you have pokemon like Bisharp and Hydreigon evolving in the mid-60s and you're still not in the post-game, you've done something right. Not to mentions they actually put effort into the storyline a little and they actually made Manhattan into an interesting region terrain-wise. BW2 fixed the few flaws there were in the game design and added a post-game, then they're pretty damn close to perfect. The only major knock I'd give on the generation is that Unova, despite being interesting, is just a big circle and more than every other gen it contributed to the stupid power creep with it's mons.

Kalos, however, was abysmal. The region has Unova's 'big circle' problem except the environments aren't interesting or distinctive. The in-game progression was a fucking mess with the level curve completely fucked at minimum(which only got compounded by Exp Share if used), there were major pacing issues in the region like a MAJOR gameplay gap between gyms 2->3, then like 4 gyms next to each other, even then you get so many powerful free pokemon it borders on comic(something only made worse in OR"Gives you a Lati@s less than halfway through the game"AS), mega-evolution wasn't designed around and only serves to make the easiest games in the series easier, there is literally zero postgame in any of the gen, mega-evolution as a concept was an awful terrible horrible gimmick idea that they had to roll back in SM(seriously read the dex entries in SM about megas), literally every single aspect of Aegislash(how you fuck up 'Haunted Sword pokemon' is beyond me), the billion loose threads in-game that are never explained or followed up on(or in the worst case shunted as a kinda-sorta-shitty-fetch-quest-cameo in Alola), the spiraling hellish labyrinth that is Lumiose City...The only things I can positively say about this gen is that some of the designs were cool(mostly named Dragalge and Goodra), trainer customization is good, Lysandre was cool(but is doomed to be overshadowed by our goddess Lusamine), and Fairy type is a godsend both competitively and personally. I didn't have any strong opinions on Hoenn the first time I played through it, and that held up in the return visit. The only thing I really remember from it is that I solo'd the majority of the game with MegAltaria and also too much water/10.

Thankfully Alola fixed most of those problems although I have my complaints with it, the big two being too many rails too little exploration, the underutilization of new pokemon/Alolan forms(an inordinate number of new pokemon have a 1% encounter rate or even worse in Dhelmise's case), and close to a third of the pokedex is legendaries. Also SOS battles kinda suck.

[Natirasha]

Poplio is the best starter in like 3 generations.

Also next gen needs Rock/Flying/Fighting as the side types. I wouldn't mind seeing a new Water/Fighting type, Fire/Rock, and Grass/Flying.

[Natirasha]

Even at 'peak badness' they were good lol.

[Natirasha]

My uncertainties in design lie in the fact that they are getting much more detailed. Like, it's kind of their prerogative now that they have better graphics and engines, but I miss the frillless designs of yonder days.

Take solace in the fact it'd be worse if they didn't scale back the intricateness of the designs post-Gen 5 since Youkai Watch started threatening their market share. Probably partly why mega-evos disappeared too in lieu of Z-Moves to sell toys to kids.

[Natirasha]

Dude I spent 2 fucking hours searching for a F!Salandit.

[Natirasha]

Type:Null is there with Rotom and Volcarona for me in that they're not specifically Legendary, but they're more legendary than other pokemon. Pseudo-legendary, if you will.

[Natirasha]

Larvesta evolves.

[Natirasha]

Poplio I think?