Let It Die, Pokemon, Nier, and Question Time | Ep.45
“Some would call it a food coma, I call it a vision.”
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pokemon moon
My Hopes for new Alola-Form Pokemon
Pokemon Sun and Moon have been doing a lot of interesting things with the series. Hyper Training, the potential replacement of gym leaders, and, most importantly, the Alola forms of specific Pokemon. So far, we have 5 confirmed Alola Pokemon: Alola Vulpix, Ninetales, Sandshrew, Sandslash, and Exeggutor. Obviously, these aren’t the only ones that are going to be in the game, and I thought it would be a cool idea to share potential new Alola forms for older Pokemon. I personally feel like doing this kind of thing to older Pokemon is a really cool idea, and breathes a lot of new life into the game by adding a certain level of realism. My big rule here is that I’m not just going to pick Pokemon I want to see re-typed. I’m choosing Pokemon that I feel would fit into the ecosystem Alola has going for it and how their new forms would fit into the area.
Fire/Rock-type Golem
Golem has always been a weird Pokemon for me. I’ve always wanted to like it, but felt no reason to. If we were to make its design a bit better and slap a fire typing onto it, I feel like I’d like it a lot more. Alola Golem (and by association, Geodude and Graveler) could be living around the tip of a volcano on the island, and being by the lava all this time has caused them to develop a fire typing to withstand the heat better. For aesthetics, I feel like it’d be a really simple change. Take all the grooves between rocks on Golem and fill them with flowing lava, and then make the rocks acting as his main body take on a darker color, closer to something like coal. The Alola Golem would basically have its stats flipped. Make it a special attacker, with high special defense as well. Regular Golem already gets access to Flamethrower and Fire Blast, so maybe Alola Golem can hold onto those moves and also learn Power Gem to seal the deal. It could get something like Flame Body as its ability or keep Sturdy, both work.
Grass/Fairy-type Bellossom
A lot of you may be thinking “but Dan, Bellossom is already doing a hula dance and has flowers in its hair, it’s already Hawaiian enough!” and you’d be right. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a regular Bellossom has already shown up in some sort of Sun and Moon trailer or image. But that won’t stop me from decking this thing out with even more flowers, changing its color scheme to make it brighter, and giving it a fairy typing which is honestly should have anyway. Way I see it, the Bellossom could be a more friendly Pokemon of the region, consistently interacting with humans, and as such, have been closer to the culture of Alola than in other regions. Because they’re more interactive with humans, they live closer to civilization, making them adapt to the life there as opposed to the wild. If Bellossom were to get a fairy typing, its decent defensive stats would actually be a lot more useful in battle, too.
Normal/Fire-type Mamoswine
Let me tell you, I love Mamoswine. I love its bulk, I love its typing, and I love its design. But wouldn’t it be super cool to see it as a fire-type? Alola has icy mountains, so you could still have the ice-type ones alongside the fire types. Mamoswine that went into the icy areas stayed as the ice/ground-types we know, but the ones that chose to stay in the more tropical parts of the area eventually developed into normal/fire-types. In order to survive the warmer climate, their thick coat of fur got thinner and thinner, and being in such high temperatures also gave them an affinity for the hot rather than the cold. The blue patch around their eyes is red now, too. In terms of new stats, Mamoswine’s defenses would be lower, but a little more evenly split, and its speed would be higher, as it doesn’t need to traverse mountainous landscapes anymore. Attack stat stays the same, too. For an ability, it could have Flash Fire or Defiant.
Adding any of these Pokemon, or any new Alola Pokemon, really, would be awesome.
But Drampa will always be the best.
All images courtesy of Bulbapedia
Potential Builds for the New Pokemon
In the past few months, competitive Pokemon has started to take over my life. I have yet to get into VGC, but I’ve been spending a lot of time playing the Smogon style on Pokemon Showdown. As a result, all of these new Pokemon announcements have been really making me excited to see what I could do with team building potential for Pokemon Sun and Moon. And after the newest announcement from earlier this week, with a few new Pokemon to work with, I want to make a few predictions on how I think they’ll play, along with a basic build idea for them. Keep in mind, I’m not the best at competitive Pokemon right now, as I’ve only been playing for about 2 months, but I feel like I know enough about the game and the way Pokemon work to give a good prediction. Just as a disclaimer: For the sake of keeping this article not stupidly long, I’m not going to do predictions for ALL of the Pokemon; just my favorites so far. Also, I’m assuming all of these Pokemon will have stats to make it into OU, just to make things easier to work with. No exact numbers, just generalizations like “really good” and “horrible”.
Mudsdale
Okay, so can we just talk about the Pokemon that the Assault Vest has been waiting for its whole life? Mudsdale’s new ability is Stamina, which increases its defense every time it’s hit by an attack. Judging from its ability, its Ground typing, and the fact that its design looks relatively bulky, I’ll say that Mudsdale is going to be a physical tank. If you look at its description on the Pokemon website, it says that, “Its legs are coated in protective mud, and the weight of this coating increases the force of its kicks. One kick, and a car is a pile of scrap!” So this obviously means it’s going to have a high attack stat. Or, hopefully, anyway. Judging from its ability and how the site talks about its power and stamina. Now, I don’t know if stamina translates into defenses or HP or both, but I’m betting on both. I believe HP and defense will be its highest stats, with attack coming in next. I’d be willing to bet its sp. def is, uh… Competent, with speed and sp. attack being its lowest stats.
For a potential build, let’s make it a bulky physical attacker. I would give this thing Stamina as its ability, and an Assault Vest for the item. Invest max EVs into HP, and then invest in defense and attack, with preference on defense. For its nature, make it either Impish (+def, -sp. atk) or Careful (+sp. def, -sp. atk) depending on how much “just in case” survivability you want to give it with sp. attacks. Being a ground type, it has access to Earthquake, which is a no-brainer choice. For other moves, I’d say give him Drain Punch (hey he may not have hands but that doesn’t stop Togekiss) for staying power, Grass Knot for coverage, and Stone Edge for another strong move.
Salandit
Now onto this cute little guy, Salandit. It’s adorable, and since I already love Krookodile, I love its concept. It’s got a poison/fire typing, which is a type I’ve been wanting to see for a while now. Unlike Mudsdale, we don’t have as much information from Salandit’s description to make as accurate a guess, but I’m going to try to make one to the best of my ability. Also, I’m pretty sure this thing is going to evolve, so let’s also assume that I’m talking about its final evolution, whatever that may be. Its information on the site says that “Salandit is not a very powerful Pokémon, but its cunning nature allows it to battle fiercely by throwing its opponents off balance.” This implies to me that its stats are gonna be something along the lines of a stall-y, utility kind of Pokemon. Its attack and sp. attack will likely be its weakest stats, with speed being its highest. I can’t really say anything else for stats because of how little the description gives away, but for the sake of a build let’s assume it’s got good sp. def, decent defense, and decent HP. Its ability is Corrosion, which enables it to poison literally any Pokemon, even steel- and poison-types.
I’d say the best way to make Salandit work would be a stall build, specifically, Toxic stall. EV investment varies on what its stats get, obviously, but let’s assume its high speed stat will be high enough that you don’t really need to invest in it for what it does. Focus max EVs into HP, and spread the rest out between defense and sp. def, giving more to sp. def. When it comes to this kind of layout, I prefer spreading it like so: 252 HP/80 def/172 sp. def. The investment into both allows for more well-roundedness without sacrificing bulk. Give it a Timid (+spe, -atk) nature just to guarantee it’ll outspeed most enemies. If it ends up that way regardless of nature, make it Calm (+sp. def, -atk). For moves, we wanna go for some lame play. Give it Toxic, Sludge Bomb/Wave, Recover/Slack Off/etc., and Roar/Dragon Tail. Toxic because Toxic, Sludge Bomb/Wave so Taunt doesn’t destroy it, a recovery move for staying power, and Roar/Dragon Tail to prevent your opponent from setting up on it. For items, Leftovers. If it doesn’t get access to a recovery move, give it the good ol’ Resto Chesto.
Drampa
THIS THING IS MY GODDAMN SPIRIT ANIMAL OH MY GOD
Uh… Aaaaaanway. I love Drampa. And I am absolutely using this thing on my team the moment I catch one. So let’s get into it. Drampa is a Normal/Dragon type with the ability Berserk, which raises its Sp. attack by one stage when its health drops below 50%. Along with this, its description says that “While Drampa is usually a very gentle Pokémon, it can fly into a rage if a child it cares for is hurt in some way. The Dragon Breath move that it fires off at such times is powerful enough to blow down buildings!” With this in mind, I’m going to assume its sp. atk will be its highest stat, probably with its sp. def and defense at second highest, with sp. def being a little bit higher than defense because of how calm and indifference he looks. Its attack will likely be abysmal, and speed and HP being okay.
As for a potential build, I’ll go for a bulky sp. attacker. Berserk now not only functions as an ability, but a good potential scare tactic because of how bulky Drampa is. It’ll be hard to OHKO or 2HKO. Give him Leftovers, and make him Calm (+sp. def, -atk) nature. For EVs, invest entirely into HP, and split the rest between sp. def and sp. atk, with preference to sp. atk to make Berserk more powerful. For moves, I’d run Draco Meteor, Recover/Slack Off, etc., Hyper Voice, and Fire Blast. Draco Meteor gets better use with Drampa because of Berserk making the drawback not as bad, a recovery move for staying power, Hyper Voice for your default STAB move, and Fire Blast for coverage.
Hopefully I (or you) will get to use at least similar builds to these when the actual game comes out. This generation has been on point so far with the Pokemon that have been released so far, and I’ve got a lot of hopes for the competitive scene once Pokemon Sun and Moon come out.
All images courtesy of the official website for Pokemon Sun and Moon.
My Hopes and Predictions for Pokemon Sun and Moon
As I’m sure we all know by now, Nintendo recently released a new trailer for Pokemon Sun and Moon–not only do we now have confirmation that the region is based on Hawaii, but we now also know who our new Professor is, his assistant, the names/types of the new legendaries, and the names of a few new characters. Perhaps the most surprising (in a good way) thing Nintendo announced was the Rotom Pokedex–something we’ve never seen anything even close to in previous Pokemon games. Despite this well of knowledge Nintendo has gifted us, there’s still plenty that we don’t know yet, and won’t know for some time–or at least until after E3 because Nintendo Treehouse said that they’ll be talking about Pokemon after E3. So without further ado, here are my predictions and hopes for Pokemon Sun and Moon:
Hala– the man in the yellow coat
Image courtesy of Daily.Pokecommunity
Although nothing was said about this man in the American trailer, the Japanese trailer states that his name is Hala. Although originally speculated to be the professor of this region (after all, the hala is another kind of tree native to Hawaii) we now know that Kukui is the Professor of this region. It’s also safe to assume that Hala won’t even be his assistant, as we know that will be Lillie’s role (and I’ll talk about what I think about her later.) My guess is that he’ll either be a “secret” (only for a short while) gym leader or a member of the Elite 4–possibly the champion, but I think it’s less likely. In previous Pokemon games, there’s almost always a gym leader or member of the Elite 4 that meets the trainer and helps them a few times before they face each other in battle. If nothing else, I’m sure he’ll be very relevant to the plot somehow–perhaps he knows what the evil team is doing and he tries to stop him? Maybe he has information, maybe even involvement with the legendary Pokemon? I’m guessing he’ll be one of the next few details about the game to be explained at least a little more since everyone else that’s been shown in the trailers has been given a name and a role.
Lillie
Image courtesy of Bulbapedia
There seems to be a big stir about her everywhere–she’s the professor’s assistant, but why are we only now seeing her? Why does she hate battling Pokemon? She looks so sweet–why the stern look on her official art? I predict that she’ll end up being an antagonist of some kind–probably related to whatever evil team this game has. Her profile explicitly states that she hates battling Pokemon and I’m sure that’s going to be crucial to these games. My guess is that this game’s evil team will either follow something close to Team Galactic’s “We’re liberating Pokemon!” idea, or that she’s actually a master Pokemon battler–perhaps to an extreme level that we’ve never seen in Pokemon. If that were the case, if she’s not on our trainer’s side (I highly doubt she’s on our side, her facade seems to innocent) she might be involved in extreme levels of Pokemon battling, to the point where she battles them to the death. Perhaps that’s what the evil team in this game is involved in, as well.
HMs as Key Items
Image courtesy of aminoapps
This one is all hope rather than prediction. Having HMs be key items rather than moves is something Pokemon fans have been wanting for a while. For anyone unfamiliar, let’s take Cut for instance: Not a particularly useful move in battle, right? But you need something with cut on it in case you run into a tree. What if instead of cut taking down the tree however, you’re given a pair of gardening shears–a key item–that will cut the tree down? And if you still want one of your Pokemon to learn cut it can be turned into a TM instead. This eliminates the need for HM slave Pokemon while still giving an option to people who want their Pokemon to learn the moves regardless. It would be incredibly convenient.
Starter Evolution Lines
Image courtesy of gameskinny
Before I go into detail on this one, I’d like to point out that I’m assuming all the “leaks” of their evolutions that we’ve seen thusfar are fake and I’ll continue to think that until we see confirmation, so you won’t hear me talk about any of them. Since that’s out of the way, here’s what I’m guessing is going to happen: Rowlett will retain its Grass/Flying typing throughout its entire line and will shift from looking really cute to more like a Noctowl on steroids in a pile of leaves and branches. Litten will almost certainly pick up a second type in its next evolution–judging purely by its design, it will likely be dark type or ghost type. Phantom cats exist in a fair number of Hawaiian folktales so I’m leaning towards fire/ghost. If that’s the case, it’s next few evolutions will take a more ghostly appearance until it eventually looks like one of the phantom cats. Popplio is harder to to make such a confident guess for since its design could go in many different directions at this point and its inspiration is from sea lions. I’m leaning toward that it will be water/fairy for two reasons though: 1. Fairy types being so new and well-liked, it would make sense for Popplio to eventually become half fairy for the sake of adding more fairy types to the dex. 2. Fairy-type Pokemon tend to be more playful, happy, and cute in the traditional sense–all of which Popplio is. Again though, it has a much simper and, for the sake of guessing evolutions, vague design so it could just as easily go in any other direction. After all, how many of us predicted Piplup to eventually become half-steel?
Mega Evolutions
Image courtesy of PokemonRubySapphire
We’ve seen the mega bracelets on the trainers in this game–mega evolutions are here to stay. As for what Pokemon we’ll see new megas for, I’m guessing we’ll see at least one of the following: Rotom (because of the Pokedex), Dragonite, Flygon, Lunatone, Solrock, Kingdra (because there are seahorses in Hawaii–I’ll admit, my reason for thinking this will happen is pretty flimsy, but I’m holding out hope.), Solgaleo, Lunala, Magmortar (because of Hawaii being famous for its volcanoes), Electevire (because if Magmortar gets a mega they’d give one to Electevire, too) the final evolutions of the starters, Milotic (honestly, I just think its design makes it look like it’s begging to megaevolve. Besides, given the setting, I’m sure that there’s gonna’ be at least 2 or 3 water Pokemon getting new megas since water Pokemon will certainly be particularly important in this game) Corsola, Tentacruel, Raichu. As for ones I simply just hope get mega evolutions but it seems more unlikely for them, the main one I’d like to see is megas for even one or two of the Eeveelutions just because they all look like they could evolve again–besides, Eevee being the evolution Pokemon, it would make sense. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if only Eevee received a mega evolution for that same reason. Some other unlikely hopes I have for mega evolutions are Dunsparce, Stunfisk, Arcanine, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Hitmonchan, Torkoal, Delibird, Sigilyph, and Hawlucha. All of them just look like they’re just waiting to evolve–besides, I’d love to see them all become more competitively viable choices.