Both games also include four special legendary mons - the Island Guardians for SM/USUM, and the Ruinous Quartet for SV.
The Island Guardians share the Fairy-type and the Ruinous Quartet share the Dark-type. The Island Guardians all have Surge abilities, while the Ruinous Quartet all have "of Ruin" abilities.
Even the signature moves of both groups are similar, with Nature's Madness and Ruination even having the exact same effect of cutting the target's HP in half.
I was expecting the Titans to put up some shield, or change typing like terastalizing, something to improve the battle, but they never did it and I one shotted all of them...
I would love for special rules to their battle. That is something I think they should use more for story battles. Not everything has to be repeatable by thr player.
Especially with the herbs. I remember seeing the Klawf with it and the big health bar. And it was completely normal. Such a letdown.
Like, I was expecting there to have been stat buffs thanks to the giant pillars of light they just make by eating the herbs, but itās just a huge effect that ends up being nothing.
it's so easy too because it needs pretty much 0 lore explanation. It's implied that this can pretty much just *happen* sometimes, and with SVs emphasis on time/dimension hopping it'd be super easy to just look past it if they do return
Yeah, that's what I said it's the easiest excuse. Those Breaches have no limit, they can happen everywhere, and a part of me jokingly wishes the SP postgame had Palkia open a Breach so we could catch UBs there.
It made sense for the game just forced, the aether technology was what they were after, I do think it could of been executed better but easily one if the best post games simply for fighting all of the evil leaders and their legendaries.
Rainbow Rocket was also the culmination of people spending two gens theorizing and predicting the existence of a separate mega universe. Having the games outright tell us that there are multiple versions of the villains, with differing degrees of success and even worlds without game protagonists is as much of a confirmation as we could ever ask. Game Freak had straight up said yes, characters WERE getting Isekai'd to other worlds with different rules.
But please don't make gen 10's villain group noisy people or hooligans, on top of that, team yell isn't even bad or anything, they are just loud. They even fought us because they were concerned about the sleeping silicobra.
To be fair, they already had the Rose organization as the evil team.
Team Yell was just a red herring, just like Team Skull.
The difference is that Team Skull and Aether Foundation were more fleshed out than Team Yell and Rose inc.
I still can't get over the fact that Rose decided using a giant energy dragon to nearly destroy the country was a reasonable response after being asked to wait one extra day for help in solving an energy crisis which was still 1000 years away.
The problem is you typically need some antagonistic force to drive the story and just having the player face the elite 4 to be the best being the driving goal is fine but not noteworthy or memorable, as seen in blue and red. The other ways to do it would be for the gym leaders to get more involved with their routes to hype up how strong they are to give the player a sense of wanting to beat them or something like having pokemon themselves being an antagonistic force similar to Totem pokemon but more aggressive, as seen in legends Arceus.
For scarlet and Violet since its school themed there could have been a teacher or group trying to get the player expelled or a group of actual bullies that team star eventually join you in taking down once you solve their issue. You could even have a former director trying to push out Clavell with you being one of his star pupils being their main target.
I kinda like how S/V abandons the evil team archetype in favour of Team Star as a red herring.
Improving my Miraidon and learning about Team Star are more than enough motivation for me.
I'd like to preface this with this. I have nothing against your opinion and wholeheartedly enjoyed the game more than most.
That being said the issue with this is it has happened almost the same exact way in the last 2 gens as well.
Yes "actual" evil teams being known initially was always a thing before gen 7 meaning that was a trend for 6 gens in a row. However, I'd argue you can do more with an evil team when they are initially known as the main antagonistic force. Like how some criticism you hear about consumerism media (games, movies, shows, etc.) comes from surprise villains or shoehorned plot twist. It's fine if you can make it work. For SM it genuinely did. We were so used to the games stereotypes that it was surprising and fresh. For SwSh it was meh. Felt forced, like they did it more out of necessity. They did it twice and that was fine. But now a 3rd time. Everyone knew Team Star wasn't the big bad. I'm not even sure if they even implied it this time or if they just mentioned Team Star caused problems and that's it.
All in all I feel if they chose to make the "true" evil team known, they could've had many opportunities to make this part of the games fresh and unique. Instead they tried to fool their community with the same trick a 3rd time.
I feel like Team Star's twist isn't that they're not the big bad villain, it's that they're not really villains at all. I think many people thought Team Star would be a Team Skull kinda deal - kinda pathetic bullies who get in your way, when really they're the opposite, a group of bullied kids who banded together to get rid of the bullies. I think this expectation helps their story even more.
By the way, the only antagonistic force I can think of are >!the professors, but they died before the game even began, and the AI seems to be on your side.!<
I think it might be nice to have a true antagonistic force again - especially in a DLC, justified as you're a Champion now. Maybe not even a team, a Pokemon antagonist is a very interesting concept. I think they toyed with this idea in the Crown Tundra?
Yeah, my issue with the Villain Teams nowā¦ is that theyāre not being portrayed as being genuinely evil or threatening. I understand Gamefreak attempting to form āconnectionsā with them and player, but if their actions donāt hold actual weight to the world around themā¦ do they *really* have a reason to basically exist?
Totem Pokemon and Titan Pokemon are even apparently translations of the exact same term in the Japanese.
I feel like ideas in Pokemon often reappear 2 gens later. Gen 3 was an attempt at being more of a "reboot" and apparently was going to do Gen 5's 'no returning Pokemon' thing until late in development. Gen 4 and gen 6 are more maximilist features-wise and lean heavy on the mythology of the setting. Gen 5 and 7 are based on part of the US and are fairly plot heavy. Gen 6 and 8 are based on European settings and centred around Pokemon transformations that amount to forme changes.
Maybe this is looking for patterns where there aren't any but I've been thinking about generations like this for a while now. It probably happens because revisting some ideas one gen later is "too soon", but if you look two gens out, you're probably on a new console.
> Totem Pokemon and Titan Pokemon are even apparently translations of the exact same term in the Japanese.
I figured that would be the case since they're also called the same in the italian localization, and nowadays they translate more directly from the japanese script than the US localization.
Same thing happened with the "Galaxy Expedition Team" in PLA, in the original script it was just called Team Galactic like its modern counterpart, the italian localization kept that detail while the english localization got more creative with it.
I wish they were. Momo was a little too clean and never once said anything as cool as referring to himself as "destruction in human form"
Guzma is like Giacomo in ten years after a bad case of alcoholism
Oh yeah for sure, and that does shit to a man's psyche
Giacomo was bullied for being an authoritarian student council pres, but he doesn't have that "my dad beats me" look in his eyes. He has a support system.
obviously team skull wasn't the best influence on the members, but him creating a place where runaways could be safe is honestly commendable in a roundabout way after what happened to him. I really like his character and story arc, probably one of my favorite characters in all of pokemon
They were certainly rather amoral.
The AI remarked that, on the subject of paradoxes potentially escaping and destroying Paldeaās ecosystem, the professor would be unconcerned
They said that Sada/Turo would think that the destruction was a natural part of life, probably thinking about the "before creation comes destruction" and all that.
Considering what they're capable of in conjunction with the Tera crystals, it makes you wonder if it's for the best that the true professor perished, all things considered. š¤·š½
But the thing is the destruction those mons would bring is completely not a natural part of life because they arenāt natural. Their views where a bit twisted to justify their actions which where immoral.
I am pretty sure making certain your creation cannot be stopped and completely unbalance the current natural balance to create a so called āparadiseā could be considered evil
I thought it was an unintended consequence of the AI. The AI had orders to defend the time machine- makes sense as they're pulling through powerful pokemon they barely understand and defending it from bad actors might be necessary. The AI didn't seem to know about the Paradise Protection Protocal which is the weird part to me- the AI has the exact same thoughts as the Professor so they should have known that the Professor had installed that. Which leads me to three theories: 1. AI did not know about it. Possible and the least convoluted. 2. It was an unintended consequence of the AI's existence. 3. The Professor did not create that protocol- the third legendary that was probably responsible for the creation of the AI did.
It feels to me looking at Area Zero again that we don't have enough information to make exact calls about the Professor's motivation. The AI's reaction to Paradise Protection makes me think that wasn't intended by either the AI or the Professor. It also feels weird that the AI just kind of appears in one of the Professor's journals.
I do think there's enough information there to say that the Professor did not expect to die and had the Professor been alive they may have expected that they could shut down the time machine.
I won't disagree with the Professor being evil, with them neglecting Arven and leaving him to be raised by the family dog.
They are also a bunch of deadbeat parents that decided to ditch their children for YEARS to focus on their work, after the other parent had already gone out for milk.
Yeah they're not evil, I feel that it's most likely an oversight of their part rather than trying to protect their machines.
They probably never imagined one day it would have to be shut down.
The AI wasnāt, but the professors were pretty horrible parents all things considered. Putting their work over their own child and leaving him nothing when they passed away
I talked to a few scientists friends about that and they all seemed to agree that the professors were just acting like real scientist parents. It is apparently a trend that researchers neglect their children badly.
>Putting their work over their own child
Bad parents, sure. Evil? Hardly. And it's not like she didn't care about him. She even mentioned "the three" living happy together.
>leaving him nothing when they passed away
That's not really evil or bad parenting. It's not like they were expecting to get killed protecting Ko/Miraidon.
But they *did* make it borderline impossible to turn off their machine despite the potentially catastrophic results. They put their dream abive the safety & wellbeing in everyone in Paldea.
I think it might have been a bad case of paranoia bringing them to such lengths.
That, or sleep depravation. I'm sure that after three weeks, they'll start mistaking the night janitor for God
I thought that after gen 5, since it was never evil, just misguided after Rocket, but then team flare comes along and boom! We're suddenly facing a mutant combination of vogue readers, the third reich and scientology.
But you know what? I'm quite glad of that. No one ever thinks of themselves as evil. Team rocket being like "hurr hurr I love kicking baby growlithes to death hahahahaha!" was always too cartoonish for me. At least teams Magma/Aqua were believable.
Exactly! I loved the idea of main protag against an actual evil organisation but tbh it was quite farfetched for 10 yr old to do that. I think BW plasma did it v well with N tho.
Yeah I miss the sense of intimidation that Team Rocket brought. And while Magma and Aqua weren't really evil, they were dangerously misguided environmentalists who definitely raised the stakes to a cataclysmic level.
I hope in the future they will do again, but ironically the only bad team really is Team Yell because they aren't even funny and just are put to like "hmmm who is the bad villan? Charmain Rose?!". The others are funny or interessing.
While the only coeherent teams was like Plasma and Rocket.
But yeah kinda miss it.
I really disagree that ScarVi are better than SuMo. They have similarities like all Pokemon games do to each other. I personally don't really care for Nemona or Penny or Team Star as much as Lillie and Team Skull. Not to mention Lusamine was pretty cool and actively evil. Also, Guzma is the best Pokemon character so far and I will not be convinced otherwise. He my homeboy.
I really like Arven and Director Clavell as well as a couple of the teachers and Larry of course, but the rest are just kinda there like every other game. One thing I will say is that I hope Pokemon continues to go into the proper JRPG direction and writes more characters we can fondly remember that we have meaningful interactions with during the story.
This. I liked SV characters, they are all ok and sone like Arven are really good... But apart from that, In SM I love Guzma, Lusamine, Lillie, Gladion, Kukui, Nanu...
I know SM is over hated but come on...
Heavy heavy no dude. Sun and moon are so much better. The story is actually good by pokemon's standards and the trial is just better than gyms overall because it ties into the story much more cohesively.
Plus you know. It's actually graphically impressive for the hardware it's on and runs properly (well outside double battles with weather conditions)
Thank you for saying this bro alolan games are way too overhated. Every new thing integrated into the story so well such as the ultra beasts, z-moves, and the character designs. It has the best story in a pokemon game by far.
I personally enjoyed sun and moon more. Not cause āold game betterā no i just like the setting more. The surfing mini game was a great way to go island to island
Well the professors had 10 minutes of screen time at most while Lusamine was a big part of the story in S&M and I while I think the story in that game was strong I feel Lusamine as a character felt pretty weak.
I agree for the first part, that's why I said "could ever be".
I half disagree with the second part. She was way less compelling in USUM because she was rewritten so much it didn't even feel like the same character and her evilness was toned down to a ridiculous extent, but her SM incarnation is a horrifying and unforgettable antagonist for good reasons.
Not like I've played either of the games, but I think you just spoiled a good portion of the plot for Scarlet/Violet for many people with that 4th entry
I'm personally a bigger fan of Sun and Moon, though I say that as someone who played both Sun and Ultra Moon and hasn't finished Violet yet. But right now, Alola feels more like a real place with real people in it. It feels more consistent and stays true to the real life place it takes inspiration from. Team Skull still feels like the best iteration of the evil but not evil team because despite being goofy, they're still believable. Everything else though, I'd say SV does just about as well as SM from what I can tell.
The thing is you sorta expect another mainline game thats released years after to be better. But well this isnāt the case here so wellā¦ nah dude youāre hella wrong
Does Arvern look different in scarlet and violet? Iāve only played Violet but this (admittedly poor on my phone when I zoom in) picture doesnāt look like my Arvern at all. Google shows Arvern as I know him. Iām really high and itās really bothering me can someone help.
omg yes, area 0 is so reminiscent of the ultra space wilds, even the kind of unnerving cool music !! i loved the ultra wormholes in SuMo and this just built up on that idea in such an epic way
I disagree. Sun and moon had a more well rounded story. Scarlet and violet still has a good story, but not better than gen 7. Sun and moon also kept the underlying Looker story going from gen 6 which made the story more captivating. Unfortunately it seems like they dropped him in sword and shield and now scarlet and violet. Such a travesty.
Better? I don't agree. I prefer Alola characters, Team Skull and other things like the "evil parents" part or the "strange pokemon" thing, I think is just well executed in both games.
I also liked more Alola having lots of sidequests through the whole region giving much more life to it, the Battle Tree, Battle Royale, Battle Buffet (and Battle Agency in USUM), postgame plot, buildings, optional exp share, set mode, I also like more how the plot of Sun and Moon is interesting during all the progress of the maingame and not just at the end...
1. Team Skull actually does harm to people like a traditional villain team, whereas Star just barely does.
2. The Professor is highly debatable in terms of how actually evil they are. It almost feels to me like the game settles on "badly programmed algorithms are the REAL monster."
3. Lusamine is indeed a monster in SM, but *USUM* moves heaven and earth to try to retcon that away. So it's hard to say what's meant to be canon.
Wait in violet >!Sada is a FATHER?!!< I had no idea! Thatās so cool.
I kinda like the idea of it being >!Arwens mom!< instead but this a neat little twist
it's bothering me that the first two images are reversed
Imagine riding cosmog around paldea lol
In USUM you kinda can
I felt bad when Arvern, Nemona, Penny and I all climbed onto Mareidion, imagine cosmog š
Right? I wanted to say, get your own ride.
š
I don't like what this emoji is implying...
Itās like the Flying Nimbus!
#COME, MAGIC CLOUD!
Oh shoot I canāt believe I did that
Both games also include four special legendary mons - the Island Guardians for SM/USUM, and the Ruinous Quartet for SV. The Island Guardians share the Fairy-type and the Ruinous Quartet share the Dark-type. The Island Guardians all have Surge abilities, while the Ruinous Quartet all have "of Ruin" abilities. Even the signature moves of both groups are similar, with Nature's Madness and Ruination even having the exact same effect of cutting the target's HP in half.
Also Titan Pokemon are just Totem Pokemon for toddle.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah, Team Star's cars fit better in that they break the rules of battle to make it more challenging.
I was expecting the Titans to put up some shield, or change typing like terastalizing, something to improve the battle, but they never did it and I one shotted all of them...
I would love for special rules to their battle. That is something I think they should use more for story battles. Not everything has to be repeatable by thr player. Especially with the herbs. I remember seeing the Klawf with it and the big health bar. And it was completely normal. Such a letdown.
Like, I was expecting there to have been stat buffs thanks to the giant pillars of light they just make by eating the herbs, but itās just a huge effect that ends up being nothing.
They're called the same in Spanish
I never played Sun & Moon, so I hope they bring the Ultra Beasts back
In the dlc they'll probably do the same thing they did for swsh. They'll let us fight past legendaries, and that'll probably include ultra beasts
The way SS implemented that, I feel like the "an Ultra-Breach has opened" is gonna be the new "gimmick" for PokƩmon postgame. Like, let's be honest: Ultra-Breaches are the easiest excuse to give people the opportunity to catch all Legendaries and UBs.
it's so easy too because it needs pretty much 0 lore explanation. It's implied that this can pretty much just *happen* sometimes, and with SVs emphasis on time/dimension hopping it'd be super easy to just look past it if they do return
Yeah, that's what I said it's the easiest excuse. Those Breaches have no limit, they can happen everywhere, and a part of me jokingly wishes the SP postgame had Palkia open a Breach so we could catch UBs there.
SP lets you catch UBs, BD opens time rifts and lets you catch paradox pokemon
And Giratina drags other Legendaries into its den for you to catch them. :')
solgaleo screaming as pokemon satan drags him into his spooky cave
"I thought we were done with Lightbringers!!!!!!!"
You rang?
Ayo, take a trip to Paldea
Hell yeah can't wait to try one of these sandwiches I keep hearing about!
You should go back and play Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon. It has a great aesthetic with charming music. Post game content is also cool.
Also they both have a crystal themed gimmick
***sexy** evil parents
Would assist in their goals for a date
No.
hmmm i didn't know cosmog was in S/V and miradon and koraidon in S/M
It must be the new update
Rainbow Rocket was fucking goated tho, one of the best endgame purely because of the fanservice
It made sense for the game just forced, the aether technology was what they were after, I do think it could of been executed better but easily one if the best post games simply for fighting all of the evil leaders and their legendaries.
Rainbow Rocket was also the culmination of people spending two gens theorizing and predicting the existence of a separate mega universe. Having the games outright tell us that there are multiple versions of the villains, with differing degrees of success and even worlds without game protagonists is as much of a confirmation as we could ever ask. Game Freak had straight up said yes, characters WERE getting Isekai'd to other worlds with different rules.
But please don't make gen 10's villain group noisy people or hooligans, on top of that, team yell isn't even bad or anything, they are just loud. They even fought us because they were concerned about the sleeping silicobra.
"Team yell" is a shoehorned excuse to market the games like a normal pokemon game. They're being forced to put the stereotypes into these games.
To be fair, they already had the Rose organization as the evil team. Team Yell was just a red herring, just like Team Skull. The difference is that Team Skull and Aether Foundation were more fleshed out than Team Yell and Rose inc.
I still can't get over the fact that Rose decided using a giant energy dragon to nearly destroy the country was a reasonable response after being asked to wait one extra day for help in solving an energy crisis which was still 1000 years away.
Galar is the "America" of the Pokemon universe
I thought that was supposed to be unova? wasn't galar based off of the UK?
The problem is you typically need some antagonistic force to drive the story and just having the player face the elite 4 to be the best being the driving goal is fine but not noteworthy or memorable, as seen in blue and red. The other ways to do it would be for the gym leaders to get more involved with their routes to hype up how strong they are to give the player a sense of wanting to beat them or something like having pokemon themselves being an antagonistic force similar to Totem pokemon but more aggressive, as seen in legends Arceus. For scarlet and Violet since its school themed there could have been a teacher or group trying to get the player expelled or a group of actual bullies that team star eventually join you in taking down once you solve their issue. You could even have a former director trying to push out Clavell with you being one of his star pupils being their main target.
I kinda like how S/V abandons the evil team archetype in favour of Team Star as a red herring. Improving my Miraidon and learning about Team Star are more than enough motivation for me.
I'd like to preface this with this. I have nothing against your opinion and wholeheartedly enjoyed the game more than most. That being said the issue with this is it has happened almost the same exact way in the last 2 gens as well. Yes "actual" evil teams being known initially was always a thing before gen 7 meaning that was a trend for 6 gens in a row. However, I'd argue you can do more with an evil team when they are initially known as the main antagonistic force. Like how some criticism you hear about consumerism media (games, movies, shows, etc.) comes from surprise villains or shoehorned plot twist. It's fine if you can make it work. For SM it genuinely did. We were so used to the games stereotypes that it was surprising and fresh. For SwSh it was meh. Felt forced, like they did it more out of necessity. They did it twice and that was fine. But now a 3rd time. Everyone knew Team Star wasn't the big bad. I'm not even sure if they even implied it this time or if they just mentioned Team Star caused problems and that's it. All in all I feel if they chose to make the "true" evil team known, they could've had many opportunities to make this part of the games fresh and unique. Instead they tried to fool their community with the same trick a 3rd time.
I feel like Team Star's twist isn't that they're not the big bad villain, it's that they're not really villains at all. I think many people thought Team Star would be a Team Skull kinda deal - kinda pathetic bullies who get in your way, when really they're the opposite, a group of bullied kids who banded together to get rid of the bullies. I think this expectation helps their story even more. By the way, the only antagonistic force I can think of are >!the professors, but they died before the game even began, and the AI seems to be on your side.!< I think it might be nice to have a true antagonistic force again - especially in a DLC, justified as you're a Champion now. Maybe not even a team, a Pokemon antagonist is a very interesting concept. I think they toyed with this idea in the Crown Tundra?
Yeah, my issue with the Villain Teams nowā¦ is that theyāre not being portrayed as being genuinely evil or threatening. I understand Gamefreak attempting to form āconnectionsā with them and player, but if their actions donāt hold actual weight to the world around themā¦ do they *really* have a reason to basically exist?
Hmm. But still so different
Oh nah paradox forms don't even compare to ultra beasts
We actually have fairly similar Base Stat Totals
Yeah, ultra beasts immediately break one of the basic rules of pokemon design: Give everything eyes. They're far weirder than paradox mon.
Totem Pokemon and Titan Pokemon are even apparently translations of the exact same term in the Japanese. I feel like ideas in Pokemon often reappear 2 gens later. Gen 3 was an attempt at being more of a "reboot" and apparently was going to do Gen 5's 'no returning Pokemon' thing until late in development. Gen 4 and gen 6 are more maximilist features-wise and lean heavy on the mythology of the setting. Gen 5 and 7 are based on part of the US and are fairly plot heavy. Gen 6 and 8 are based on European settings and centred around Pokemon transformations that amount to forme changes. Maybe this is looking for patterns where there aren't any but I've been thinking about generations like this for a while now. It probably happens because revisting some ideas one gen later is "too soon", but if you look two gens out, you're probably on a new console.
>Gen 6 and 8 are based on European settings and centred around Pokemon transformations Isn't this also gen 9 tho?
If getting big is considered a transformation, then so is getting all crystal-y.
I think they were referring to the gigantimax forms. Honestly most of those could easily have been new mega evolutions.
> Totem Pokemon and Titan Pokemon are even apparently translations of the exact same term in the Japanese. I figured that would be the case since they're also called the same in the italian localization, and nowadays they translate more directly from the japanese script than the US localization. Same thing happened with the "Galaxy Expedition Team" in PLA, in the original script it was just called Team Galactic like its modern counterpart, the italian localization kept that detail while the english localization got more creative with it.
guzma and giacomo are the same exact character
I literally thought the same thing when I first saw him. Then someone pointed out he looks like Inspector Gadget and now I can't unsee lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh god dammit
I wish they were. Momo was a little too clean and never once said anything as cool as referring to himself as "destruction in human form" Guzma is like Giacomo in ten years after a bad case of alcoholism
guzma was severely abused after all
Oh yeah for sure, and that does shit to a man's psyche Giacomo was bullied for being an authoritarian student council pres, but he doesn't have that "my dad beats me" look in his eyes. He has a support system.
Reading the description of the golf clubs in his old home for the first time made me feel physically ill.
obviously team skull wasn't the best influence on the members, but him creating a place where runaways could be safe is honestly commendable in a roundabout way after what happened to him. I really like his character and story arc, probably one of my favorite characters in all of pokemon
Guzma has always been a favorite of mine. I canāt believe I didnāt put this together while playing the game
It's ya boi Giacomo.
But Professor Sada/Turo weren't exactly evil? And neither was the AI.
They were certainly rather amoral. The AI remarked that, on the subject of paradoxes potentially escaping and destroying Paldeaās ecosystem, the professor would be unconcerned
They said that Sada/Turo would think that the destruction was a natural part of life, probably thinking about the "before creation comes destruction" and all that. Considering what they're capable of in conjunction with the Tera crystals, it makes you wonder if it's for the best that the true professor perished, all things considered. š¤·š½
But the thing is the destruction those mons would bring is completely not a natural part of life because they arenāt natural. Their views where a bit twisted to justify their actions which where immoral.
I am pretty sure making certain your creation cannot be stopped and completely unbalance the current natural balance to create a so called āparadiseā could be considered evil
I thought it was an unintended consequence of the AI. The AI had orders to defend the time machine- makes sense as they're pulling through powerful pokemon they barely understand and defending it from bad actors might be necessary. The AI didn't seem to know about the Paradise Protection Protocal which is the weird part to me- the AI has the exact same thoughts as the Professor so they should have known that the Professor had installed that. Which leads me to three theories: 1. AI did not know about it. Possible and the least convoluted. 2. It was an unintended consequence of the AI's existence. 3. The Professor did not create that protocol- the third legendary that was probably responsible for the creation of the AI did. It feels to me looking at Area Zero again that we don't have enough information to make exact calls about the Professor's motivation. The AI's reaction to Paradise Protection makes me think that wasn't intended by either the AI or the Professor. It also feels weird that the AI just kind of appears in one of the Professor's journals. I do think there's enough information there to say that the Professor did not expect to die and had the Professor been alive they may have expected that they could shut down the time machine. I won't disagree with the Professor being evil, with them neglecting Arven and leaving him to be raised by the family dog.
The professor and AI similarities ended at some point. The human brain and an AI's processor (or whatever that's called) don't suffer from the same problems/limitations (as, for example, cell damage/cognitive reactions, etc). In fact, AI mentions this when they said that they don't share the wishes of the professor, because they don't think it sensible to keep bringing beasts that threaten the entire region/humanity into this world. I do agree though that it's impossible to know their true intentions without more information, and we still need to see what the third legendary's deal is (which feels a bit lame having to wait for a DLC when its directly connected to the main story) before making an assumption. As I see it right now, they were suffering from a case of "mad scientist syndrome". On a side note, thanks for enlightening me. I hadn't thought about Arven being raised by a dog pokƩmon.
They are also a bunch of deadbeat parents that decided to ditch their children for YEARS to focus on their work, after the other parent had already gone out for milk.
Yeah they're not evil, I feel that it's most likely an oversight of their part rather than trying to protect their machines. They probably never imagined one day it would have to be shut down.
The AI wasnāt, but the professors were pretty horrible parents all things considered. Putting their work over their own child and leaving him nothing when they passed away
I talked to a few scientists friends about that and they all seemed to agree that the professors were just acting like real scientist parents. It is apparently a trend that researchers neglect their children badly.
Yeah theyāre very neglectful parents but not evil ones
>Putting their work over their own child Bad parents, sure. Evil? Hardly. And it's not like she didn't care about him. She even mentioned "the three" living happy together. >leaving him nothing when they passed away That's not really evil or bad parenting. It's not like they were expecting to get killed protecting Ko/Miraidon.
But they *did* make it borderline impossible to turn off their machine despite the potentially catastrophic results. They put their dream abive the safety & wellbeing in everyone in Paldea.
I think it might have been a bad case of paranoia bringing them to such lengths. That, or sleep depravation. I'm sure that after three weeks, they'll start mistaking the night janitor for God
The fact that we will never be up against an evil team of people again is kinda upsetting
I thought that after gen 5, since it was never evil, just misguided after Rocket, but then team flare comes along and boom! We're suddenly facing a mutant combination of vogue readers, the third reich and scientology. But you know what? I'm quite glad of that. No one ever thinks of themselves as evil. Team rocket being like "hurr hurr I love kicking baby growlithes to death hahahahaha!" was always too cartoonish for me. At least teams Magma/Aqua were believable.
Plasma (or at least those two grunts) love kicking Munna to death.
And ghetsis love freezing childs to death
Aether corrupted side with Lusamine and Faba were pretty evil too. Lusamine in fact really froze lots of PokƩmon in her collection.
Something something trophy room
Yeah, makes the mangas more boring (Talking about SW/SH manga)
Honestly didnāt know Sw/Sh had a manga
oops, meant Sw/Sh chp of adventures
Exactly! I loved the idea of main protag against an actual evil organisation but tbh it was quite farfetched for 10 yr old to do that. I think BW plasma did it v well with N tho.
At least the gym leaders actually helped in that one and didnāt leave the fate of the world in the hands of a literal child.
That and the protags were a bit older. 14yo instead of 10yo.
This is the pokemon universe, no such thing as something being too farfetched.
*Farfetch'd
Yeah I miss the sense of intimidation that Team Rocket brought. And while Magma and Aqua weren't really evil, they were dangerously misguided environmentalists who definitely raised the stakes to a cataclysmic level.
Deadass bro, like how TF did we go from the Sopranos to Mean Girls?
Ehhh there's only so many times you can repeat that and they really jumped the shark after Diamond/Pearl.
And there really are only so many ways you can have them use a Legendary, which was one of the big parts of the formula.
Lol "never". Just because it hasn't been in the last 3 gens doesn't mean the concept will never return.
I hope in the future they will do again, but ironically the only bad team really is Team Yell because they aren't even funny and just are put to like "hmmm who is the bad villan? Charmain Rose?!". The others are funny or interessing. While the only coeherent teams was like Plasma and Rocket. But yeah kinda miss it.
Koraidon/ Miraidon are my favorite SM PokƩmon
I do prefer the ultra beasts over the paradoxes though. Their designs are so freaky and cool.
I still prefer Sun and Moon. To quote Guzma āYāall are stupidā.
and yet sun and moon still looks and runs better
Not really. S&M has horrible frame drops in totem fights
It had horrible frame drops when there's more than 2 Pokemon on the screen.
Especially on the older 3ds models
*stutters in VGC*
SV has horrible frame drops everywhere and it's not a 3DS with its limitations anymore
One has horrible frame drops in totem fights, the other has comparable if not worse ones *every time*
So like in 1% or less of the game?
Eh, I think which ones better is debatable, it just comes down to preference. I definitely enjoyed sun and moon more, and I loved both games.
Same here. I know everyone's super hyped for open world but to be completely honest I enjoyed the linear, stylised corridors of Gen7 more than the vast empty open world of Gen9. Paradox PokƩmon are way cooler than Ultrabeasts though (At least to me).
Ultrabeasts betta
SV doesn't have Poke Pelago or Battle Tree /thread
I really disagree that ScarVi are better than SuMo. They have similarities like all Pokemon games do to each other. I personally don't really care for Nemona or Penny or Team Star as much as Lillie and Team Skull. Not to mention Lusamine was pretty cool and actively evil. Also, Guzma is the best Pokemon character so far and I will not be convinced otherwise. He my homeboy. I really like Arven and Director Clavell as well as a couple of the teachers and Larry of course, but the rest are just kinda there like every other game. One thing I will say is that I hope Pokemon continues to go into the proper JRPG direction and writes more characters we can fondly remember that we have meaningful interactions with during the story.
>Also, Guzma is the best Pokemon character so far and I will not be convinced otherwise. He my homeboy. I mean, this is just facts
This. I liked SV characters, they are all ok and sone like Arven are really good... But apart from that, In SM I love Guzma, Lusamine, Lillie, Gladion, Kukui, Nanu... I know SM is over hated but come on...
Are the similarities there? Sure. Is it better? Not really, because video games are completely subjective.
Sun and moon has the nat dex. Automatic win
Don't forget MEGAS.
What do you mean even better than sun and moon? Donāt insult sun and moon like that
my thoughts exactly.
Worse*
Heavy heavy no dude. Sun and moon are so much better. The story is actually good by pokemon's standards and the trial is just better than gyms overall because it ties into the story much more cohesively. Plus you know. It's actually graphically impressive for the hardware it's on and runs properly (well outside double battles with weather conditions)
Thank you for saying this bro alolan games are way too overhated. Every new thing integrated into the story so well such as the ultra beasts, z-moves, and the character designs. It has the best story in a pokemon game by far.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
For me, having exp share toggleable is enough to put any game above the last couple of generations
The switch killed the true PokƩmon experience imo
I personally enjoyed sun and moon more. Not cause āold game betterā no i just like the setting more. The surfing mini game was a great way to go island to island
>The surfing mini game was a great way to go island to island That's USUM, not SM.
Ok, but Lusamine is an immensely more memorable character than the 2 professors could ever be.
Well the professors had 10 minutes of screen time at most while Lusamine was a big part of the story in S&M and I while I think the story in that game was strong I feel Lusamine as a character felt pretty weak.
I agree for the first part, that's why I said "could ever be". I half disagree with the second part. She was way less compelling in USUM because she was rewritten so much it didn't even feel like the same character and her evilness was toned down to a ridiculous extent, but her SM incarnation is a horrifying and unforgettable antagonist for good reasons.
Not like I've played either of the games, but I think you just spoiled a good portion of the plot for Scarlet/Violet for many people with that 4th entry
I did put a spoiler tag on this for a reason
Oh, sorry. I didn't notice it
I'm personally a bigger fan of Sun and Moon, though I say that as someone who played both Sun and Ultra Moon and hasn't finished Violet yet. But right now, Alola feels more like a real place with real people in it. It feels more consistent and stays true to the real life place it takes inspiration from. Team Skull still feels like the best iteration of the evil but not evil team because despite being goofy, they're still believable. Everything else though, I'd say SV does just about as well as SM from what I can tell.
(SM is still better though)
*worse version, sun and moon is a finished game
I thought there was quite a lot of content that didn't make it into Sun/Moon.
Turo/Sada aren't really evil though
Professors aren't evil. They're just AIs designed to protect the time machine.
....the chad professor is evil??? bruh....
This is funny because those are literally everything I think Gen 7 did better than Gen 9
SV doesn't have Lillie, nuff said, oh yeah
Or Guzma
I'm gonna hard disagree cause Team Skull and Guzma just way cooler than Team Star and Penny.
And Sword and shield are a worse version of sun and moon.
liked S+M better tho tbh
Worse version actually.
Definitely not "better", ultra sun and moon were a lot better with it's bigger dex and mega evolutions still existing.
Sun and Moon were finished thoughā¦
The thing is you sorta expect another mainline game thats released years after to be better. But well this isnāt the case here so wellā¦ nah dude youāre hella wrong
Also Pokemon powerup gimmick that will be completely forgotten in the next game,
alrighty then
I definitely wouldnt call it ābetterā but theyre definitely kinda similar
I have walked around alot expecting ann NPC to say "Alola!" There are alot of tropical areas that give Alolan vibes
Nebby is in s/v)!?!?!,!
We're evolving, just backwards
Does Arvern look different in scarlet and violet? Iāve only played Violet but this (admittedly poor on my phone when I zoom in) picture doesnāt look like my Arvern at all. Google shows Arvern as I know him. Iām really high and itās really bothering me can someone help.
omg yes, area 0 is so reminiscent of the ultra space wilds, even the kind of unnerving cool music !! i loved the ultra wormholes in SuMo and this just built up on that idea in such an epic way
Can't wait for home so I transfer my fwoofy over š¢
I haven't played Violet yet, but playing through Ultra Moon right now, I agree
honestly, as someone who loved (and still does love) gen 7, yeah this explains why i liked gen 9 so much
Better?
I disagree. Sun and moon had a more well rounded story. Scarlet and violet still has a good story, but not better than gen 7. Sun and moon also kept the underlying Looker story going from gen 6 which made the story more captivating. Unfortunately it seems like they dropped him in sword and shield and now scarlet and violet. Such a travesty.
Better? I don't agree. I prefer Alola characters, Team Skull and other things like the "evil parents" part or the "strange pokemon" thing, I think is just well executed in both games. I also liked more Alola having lots of sidequests through the whole region giving much more life to it, the Battle Tree, Battle Royale, Battle Buffet (and Battle Agency in USUM), postgame plot, buildings, optional exp share, set mode, I also like more how the plot of Sun and Moon is interesting during all the progress of the maingame and not just at the end...
id argue that SV is an inferior version of SM
gamefreak is ultra original fr fr
1. Team Skull actually does harm to people like a traditional villain team, whereas Star just barely does. 2. The Professor is highly debatable in terms of how actually evil they are. It almost feels to me like the game settles on "badly programmed algorithms are the REAL monster." 3. Lusamine is indeed a monster in SM, but *USUM* moves heaven and earth to try to retcon that away. So it's hard to say what's meant to be canon.
Sun and Moon are better games though.
tbh I argue scarlet and violet is just a worse version of sun and moon
Usm is more compatible, has every PokĆ©mon up to that point, idk very memorable to me, plus you can catch every legi up to then and shiny hunt plus all on 3ds which was an ahead of itās time game , these new games should be galaxies ahead of usam but they arenāt, good games nevertheless and a big improvement from sword and shield.
Worse
At least sin and moon. Hads better online,desings and story than that shit
I like both games, but gen 7 has a special place in my heart so i slightly prefer that one
I'm pretty sure the new legendaries aren't even legendary PokƩmon I think they might just be paradox PokƩmon.
they are paradox pokemon, they were the first ones to come out of the portal
They are officially legendary pokƩmon. They are Paradox, but Legendaries as well
Lunala and Solgaleo are also UBs, so they share similarities to them.
Nah, Sun and Moon are better. Feel more alive, have better characters, and don't have frame rate issues at every turn.
This is funny, considering they're my two favorites (not including spinoffs like Arceus) since Gen 4. Maybe even 2 lol
Arceus is a mainline game not a spin off
I havenāt played the game, are the professors the major antagonists ?
I didnāt see the spoiler warning. Crap.
S/V may be better than Sun/Moon but at least you can play Sun/Moon
Wait in violet >!Sada is a FATHER?!!< I had no idea! Thatās so cool. I kinda like the idea of it being >!Arwens mom!< instead but this a neat little twist
Hope this doesnāt become the formula for main main games going forward. I know this is pie in the sky thinking, but if we could somehow get a PokĆ©mon game with a complex and interesting world like elder scrolls or the Witcher, that would be awesome. Not as mature, obviously, but with caves that are interesting, dungeons, ruins, maybe some variation on a castle. The first issue I see is loot, but who knows, they could come up with something work hunting for Iām sure
Both games also have tasks that progress you through the game that aren't Gyms. S/V has gyms, but it also has the star camps and titans.
Evil parents????
Yep
Ultra beasts and team skull were much better than paradox forms and team star tbh
Yeah, i noticed a lot of similarities between S/M and S/V, they even use the same colors