Pokemon Sun and Moon. W00t, or something.

[Dragonite]

New pokemon generation. Yes, They are called that. Don't make weird faces.

Starters are revealed with English names and uh, the revealed legendary looks like a fusion between Virizon and Dialga. It's that due to personal circumstances I'm rather spacy at the news , but I have to admit I'm slowly getting exited as I type/

[Dragonite]

[youtube]4bIrWryFc7A[/youtube]

I like what they with with the animation there, It's 2d in a 3d manner or something? It looks really unique, although I'm getting flash game vibes from it.

The bird legendary looks like Giratina. It looks like it's intentional then.

[Dragonite]

Also, it's seemingly taking place in Poke-France.

[HPD]

so basically it's going to be the exact same thing all over again

i dunno, i lost interest around diamond/pearl

[Treedweller]

It's not just the repetition, but I'm tired of the EV system because it punishes you for using your in-game pokemon how you'd like with unwanted and difficult-to-erase stat gains. And the obscurity that is the IV/breeding/legendary systems, yuck. Quit making me a slave to a random number generator, Nintendo.

3D ain't gonna fix nothin'.

[Dragonite]

EV's I don't as much anymore since I'm using them, although we still need a free reset-all method... IV's though, I discovered 3 of them will always be random whatever you do. They have been fixing it at a snails pace, but I wouldn't mind a revamp. They have been increasily generous ever since Platinium with improvements. The absolute zero point was DP in hindsight.

Also, seems like HPD(?) fixed the youtube link, I barely use the feature, and I still needed to look up the instructions again >_> Thanks.

[monkymeet]

IT HAS A PRINCESS MONONOKE LEGENDARY.

SOLD.

[onewaystreet]

I'm just surprised it took this long to be announced.

I probably won't get it although I probably will be getting a 3DS post-graduation

[DieselPheonix]

In before UGH POKEMON.

I am not sure how the different versions thing has managed to stay viable from a business standpoint. The answer is probably just "BECAUSE POKEMON," but some numbers would be nice. For example, if the versions took place in different regions, which would account for discrepancies between monster distribution, I suspect a lot more people would be satisfied.

[Alecat]

The clips look promising, the overhauls to the visuals actually look significant this time round. Hm.

[Xenesis]

might as well wait for pokemon z

Yeah, the third version is always the best. Has been true since GSC.

[DieselPheonix]

It has been brought to my attention that X, Y, and Z would denote three dimensional space which is fitting because these are the first generation titles to be fully (?) 3D.

Also, there has been a ridiculous amount of art produced already. Here are a few:

[HPD]

your links are borked

[RadioShadow]

so basically it's going to be the exact same thing all over again

i dunno, i lost interest around diamond/pearl

This. Honestly, the Pokémon (am I the only one that actually puts é in the name?) look worse and worse as they come.

Plus using "mode 7" isn't really 3D. Plus in some cases, it can look ugly. Just look at Advance Wars: Dual Strike.

[Dragonite]

AWDS suffered on all fronts in not properly updating the old resources used, mostly the field and music. I don't really had a issue with the battles other then some odd zooming.

Although this is the 3ds which can handle more 3d then N64-with-nicer-colour-palette. For battles, it mostly depends how they protect the pacing(hello DP), and handle differing sizes. I demand wailord vs joltik videos.

That aside, lots of people seem to have quit with DP. I can understand that though. The game did lay some of a foundation for pokemon DS, but aside from the shiny new things the gameplay wasn't up to par compared what the DS fully could do, and what the pokemon gameplay can offer(HM nightmares, bland visuals, poor pokemon selection) . White 2 is better in everything and fixed most of the stagnant gameplay, except(for those who care)the core formula, and some of the deeper RNG issues. Yet a DS phat can still run it. RS vs emerald holds up better. My point being? Once again, I can see why at that time people got bored, but the thought of having DP as a yardstick is just (fanboy alert) disturbing to think of for me.

[Xenesis]

Having played through them, DP was really, really weak.

I was personally impressed with how much more enjoyable Pokemon New York was. Certainly had better pokemon designs than Gen4, anyway.

[Terragent]

I dunno, I really enjoyed playing through Diamond. I felt like I had a lot more freedom to just move around the world than I'd had in Gen 1 and Gen 3. More freedom than Gen 2, as well, but then I hadn't actually played the Gen 2 games back then.

[Dragonite]

I loved DP at the time(save the HMs), but I always enjoy the basic pokemon experience in a irrationally fantastic way. I don't exactly know why, aside from that I enjoy that the story literally is supposed to be a fun trip instead of dominantly heroic affairs.

Yet, I haven't done a full playthrough since spring 2008. I created a file for my cousin to occasionally play in the summer. As some might remember I was in bad shape between that and platinum coming out, which as I ranted about before, was the start of GF slowly atoning for their sins. Platinum took out the worst bits, but still suffers for DP's problems. HGSS was really polished with it's visuals and sound effects, but suffered a bit from it's source game's faults(sparse pokemon selection).

Bw felt like a reboot to most people, and with the HM's being niche and the battles being fast, the faults are roughy at the RSE level. That, and the game finally releases some of the choking traditions. BW2 can actuallly not be considered a full sequel(that would be a new generation), but staying with the same region, which not being bound the orginal plot allowed them to go nuts with new locations, a ton of pokemon, and general niche polish.

What I hope they realize with XY(not even leaving out any letters here..), is that such major polish needs to be done in the first place. DP could have been close to BW2 if they took a lot more time thinking ''what can we fix and improve, what would the perfect game be?''. DP was pathethic in that regard. Core generation updates were good, but save the bag and battle controls, the rest was barebones and stagnant.

Not sure how much they will succeed. It must have been in development since BW, and the lack of a remake means more effort for XY. I gladly accept a 6 month delay to make all the details work out, to be honest.

However, the beta seems to have leaked. Nobody emulated 3ds here yet to my knownledge, but still, what has been found is claimed to be good. pokemonxandy.blogspot.com was the source, and I've seen 2 screens. Anyone who's a daredevil? >_>

[Dragonite]

Double post, where did the delete button go..

[Pkdragon]

I didn't like Diamond and Pearl, and consider it my least favorite generation. Mostly because of pacing issues, and my least favorite generation of new pokemon (though, to be fair, I then looked back at gold and silver and realized it had a lot of flaws too, I just didn't notice it at the time). I didn't quit the series there, but it marked the end of me buying the games day one, and buying multiple versions in the same generation. I still haven't bought Black and White 2. Just not interested.

I dunno, I wish I could recapture the spirit of playing pokemon those initial times as a child, when every pokemon was new and unique and I wasn't jaded and bored of the battle system. Unfortunately, I think part of the original charm was the distinctly lo-fi graphics, so even fire red and leaf green, with all their genuinely great updates, fail to quite capture the spirit of the original games for me.

[Xenesis]

I think my biggest problems with DP were threefold. The game ran ungodly slow (especially coming from the GBA games where everything runs like clockwork on crack in comparsion), the pokemon selection was incredibly evolution focused (which meant that the pokemon selection was relatively slim, they just made everything more awesome) and the fact that you needed about five HMs to get anywhere half the time.

BW1 was a bit slim in terms of selection, but they did the 're-do the original 150 with a new region thing' so it can be forgiven a bit more. Comparatively, BW2 is great, you can find just about anything you want. It's almost like playing something like Emerald 386.

[DieselPheonix]

Hmm, seems my old image hosting options are drying up.

I don't care much for Pokemon's narrative or aesthetics as much as the gameplay experience which has developed incredibly slowly. Triple and rotation battles are nothing but fluff compared to the special split. Of course, they can't change things too much too often or else it isn't Pokemon, but that's for the company to wrestle with.

The general attitude towards 6th generation appears to be cautiously optimistic. Interesting what a graphics overhaul can do.

[Dragonite]

It would be nice if happyness raising was more complex and actually gave your pokemon a boost. Right now it feels so bland, especially because when you need it for a evo, you're going to avoid leveling up to much. Aside from that, the game needs more defensive options. I prefer offense,but stall is greatly outclassed if one presumes good teams and even skills. 120+ attack is commonplace now.

Back to XY, there are rumors that the starters are dark,psychic, and fighting as well, bases on the grass one and Fennekin using what looked like a dark and psychic move, and froakie's move has a chance of being fighting in the new animation style. I seriously wonder how their evolutions will turn out. A edgy squirrel, a elegant psychic kitsune-ish fox, and a wise fighting frog? Yes please.

[daisy]

I'm getting too old for Pokemon. It was good, but I was also 13.

The series is getting like Final Fantasy - it just won't fudge die. I enjoyed the first couple of gens, and R/S was alright. After that they obviously started running out of ideas.

[McTool]

To be fair on FF: Versus looks like it might be worthwhile if it ever comes out, and XIII and XIII-2 are not awful if you don't go in with the expectation that they will be THE GREATEST JRPG EVER.

[daisy]

Got bored at VII. Bear in mind that I hate the JRPG genre as a whole. Adventure games with stats.

[DieselPheonix]

Also, completely unreasonable random drops.

[Treedweller]

Really? Thirteen-year-old Treed thought that FFX was the flashiest, best-told JRPG story ever, and the sphere grid was an original metaphor for levelling.

Adult Treed could never play through FFX without cringing at the voices or clumsy symbolism the designers to call a story. (The monster's name is Sin. Uh huh.) But even today, I think it's seriously cool that Yuna's rejection of the summoner cycle purposely subverts the Judeo-Christian logic of masochistic sacrifice. It tears apart a Christian assumption (areligious decadence needs to be held off with hard work, sacrifice, and compromise) that would otherwise make feeding Sin with summoners seem 'natural' to Westerners. It's a surprisingly sophisticated sentiment for an old game, and FFX's unexplained steampunk soap-opera setting still lights up my imaginative impulses.

I can't speak for other FFs, but FFX and X-2 get unjustly shat over by gamers when they're fun games with merits shadowed by the limitations of the early PS2 era. The decline didn't start until after XII, my dear, but I haven't really played those games.

[Terragent]

The best thing about Final Fantasy X was Lord of the Rings: The Third Age.

I'm not even joking, that game was kickin' rad.

[Bonesy]

my chief complaint with ff13 is the "lack of control" ie only controlling one party member and being forced to basically run in a straight line the whole game

[Dragonite]

haven't played anything besides tactics, but what seems odd about XIII(-2) is that it has a odd hybryd between real-time and turn based. XIII-3 seems to be more real-time flavoured, but jury's out on that. The visuals of XIII also suffer a bit. Okay, it's HD all right, but the final boss fight is basically a few minutes of minor magical poofs and slashes on a static looking symbolism-overloaded boss,with a lot of numbers showing up. I know it's deeper if you play it but.. IX still manages to look a bit cooler besides being PS1.

[Linkman]

IX was probably the best of the playstation era, even if it still had some of the flaws of VIII.

I think I'd go VI > V > IV > IX > VII > I > the rest > VIII.

(and tactics is better than all of the above combined. The Playstation one, at least.)

[Dragonite]

still need to finish tactics. It's indeed very epic and well crafted, but.. I mentioned it before, I'm a job grinding addict. I'm now wondering if I should build up a few jobs or go on with the new chapter I'm in.(roughly after the first major monster boss) I always want to try out everything that looks good, and this game is just plain brilliant overkill in it's interbranching skill system. Its also epic to kill that dark knight traitor with a Flare from Ramza >_> I'm attempting a samurai/black magic build on him, but.. yeah, so much to unlock. :O Not bothering with the weirder jobs in my first playthrough though.


Also, I'm going off topic with my own topic. Oh well, we can always split it!

[Terragent]

I'd probably say that FFTA2 was actually the best of the Tactics titles; it gave you many more options and avoided both the "everyone's broken!" problem with Calculators from the original and the "Marche's broken!" problem from FFTA.

As far as the main games go, I don't think I could ever consider anything other than XII being top of the class. The battle system was beautifully refined and let you set up lots of clever little situations, the world was carefully crafted and had lots of nods to previous incarnations of Ivalice, and the characters were well-written and generally done quite subtly. The only thing that really counted against it for me was the hilarious gap between the end of the story and the postgame content; you could be primed and ready to lay the smackdown on the final boss and you'd still be nowhere near capable of tackling some of the zones that the superbosses were hiding in, much less the superbosses themselves.

VI gets second place from me, without a doubt. Probably the most endearing cast in the history of the series and a far more user-friendly approach to gameplay than any of the previous titles. Fantastic music, too.

I and II get some props for being madly ambitious for their time, VII handled the always-tricky transition to 3D but has not aged well, and I honestly don't really care one way or another about any of the others. Except IV. fudge IV and its constant remakes.

[bog2]

[quote="Treedweller"]Really? Thirteen-year-old Treed thought that FFX was the flashiest, best-told JRPG story ever, and the sphere grid was an original metaphor for levelling.

Adult Treed could never play through FFX without cringing at the voices or clumsy symbolism the designers to call a story. (The monster's name is Sin. Uh huh.) But even today, I think it's seriously cool that Yuna's rejection of the summoner cycle purposely subverts the Judeo-Christian logic of masochistic sacrifice. It tears apart a Christian assumption (areligious decadence needs to be held off with hard work, sacrifice, and compromise) that would otherwise make feeding Sin with summoners seem 'natural' to Westerners. It's a surprisingly sophisticated sentiment for an old game, and FFX's unexplained steampunk soap-opera setting still lights up my imaginative impulses.

I can't speak for other FFs, but FFX and X-2 get unjustly shat over by gamers when they're fun games with merits shadowed by the limitations of the early PS2 era. The decline didn't start until after XII, my dear, but I haven't really played those games.[/quote]

this is how i feel about pokemon.

13 year old bog thought pokemon was amazing and would spend hours playing and replaying R/B/Y G/S/C.

adult bog finds it, like all jrpgs, repetitive, boring and fudge childish after 1-2 badges.

and the dialogue. oh the fudge dialogue. HEY IM PROF OAK AND ALTHO IM A PROFESSOR I HAVE AN IQ OF 19 AND SAY DUMB STUFF.

[Dragonite]

Well, it is first and foremost, designed for children though. >_>

The difficulty is debatable though.. It's actually very easy to make a very difficult game out of it without changing mechanics at all ,especially with modern AI possibilities. They just opt not to because kids, aside from some postgame stuff.

[Sniffit II]

I just want to go round collecting mah pokeymans.

[daisy]

They call it "3D" but don't have 3d models.

lol.

[Twelve Boats]

yes it does

[Dragonite]

I mistook it for a 3d mimic at first, but it's just.. very stylish cell-shading. And they might even tweak it in the last months before release as well. Just.. the PCs are.. gah. >_> Hoping that you can change their clothing this time. Although I'm going crazy if the France theme is abused for another minigame.. Although this may be very well Fantina's home country by retcon.