Not sure if the best place to put this, but god, some of the commentary on this is just insufferable. Not really here. Here's been fine. It's more specifically on Reddit or Youtube comments. Yeah, I know, it should be taken as a given they would be bad, but still. There is just such a snobbish hatred of this and people who are fine with it it's unreal. And it's not so much about the game. It's the contempt towards people who are generally excited by this saying they like slop, they have no standards, they have shit in their eyes, all because they are generally fine with how the game looks. Honestly it's probably a sign to just log off and ignore the community, but it just sucks that I can't really delve into fandom about things I enjoy without having to wade through a sea of negativity and abuse because "they have standards." Gamers and Gamer culture was a mistake.
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Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
>Fire/Fighting Blaziken in RSE
>Fire/Fighting Infernape in DPP
>Fire/Fighting Emboar in BW
>Fire/Ghost Typhlosion in PLA
>Fire/Ghost Skeledirge in SV
this pig is gonna die bruh
>Fire/Fighting Infernape in DPP
>Fire/Fighting Emboar in BW
>Fire/Ghost Typhlosion in PLA
>Fire/Ghost Skeledirge in SV
this pig is gonna die bruh
Regarding the Pokwdex, now that people have spotted Mega Sableye and in adittion to the luttle insights by other users, I think it's safe to assume we are indeed getting all Megas and their lines, and that alongside the Kalos originals make for a quite interesting dex. Still hoping the focus on new stuff isn't exclusively on Megas and we get proper evolutions and specially legendaries because Arceus knows Kalos needs more of these.
(Admitedly, with Hoopa sheanigans we could still get the Hoenn trio, the Latis and maybe some lesser ones like the Musketeers again or the speculated Tapus which would be decent...but I want more norse inspired Kalos originals)
I guess it does depend if they want to close/follow up on XY's plot points or focus on brand new plot with just some chatacters returning but without being a very obvious sequel if that makes sense. While I would prefer the former, it could potentially alienate new players who don't have a 3ds so both ways seem fair to me.
If Dexio and Sina show up I fully expect them talking about how Zygarde was in Alola.
o̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶ G̶F̶ i̶s̶ j̶u̶s̶t̶ r̶u̶s̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶o̶ r̶e̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ s̶o̶ p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ s̶t̶o̶p̶ a̶s̶k̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ F̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ U̶n̶o̶v̶a̶ o̶n̶ B̶B̶,̶ n̶o̶w̶ Z̶ a̶n̶d̶ J̶o̶h̶t̶o̶,̶ t̶h̶e̶n̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ w̶i̶l̶l̶ o̶n̶l̶y̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ H̶o̶e̶n̶n̶ l̶e̶f̶t̶ w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ w̶i̶l̶l̶ w̶r̶a̶p̶ u̶p̶ b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶ g̶e̶n̶ 1̶0̶ K̶a̶n̶t̶o̶ r̶e̶m̶a̶k̶e̶
Also, why the hell are the rival characters just "the cooler other protagonist"?
May and Brendan in sambles rn
(Admitedly, with Hoopa sheanigans we could still get the Hoenn trio, the Latis and maybe some lesser ones like the Musketeers again or the speculated Tapus which would be decent...but I want more norse inspired Kalos originals)
I would be genuinely surprised if AZ is the only returning character. Specially when Malva is right there.
I guess it does depend if they want to close/follow up on XY's plot points or focus on brand new plot with just some chatacters returning but without being a very obvious sequel if that makes sense. While I would prefer the former, it could potentially alienate new players who don't have a 3ds so both ways seem fair to me.
If Dexio and Sina show up I fully expect them talking about how Zygarde was in Alola.
I was about to agree because other than looking awesome (then again not hard to top Paldea on that) I didn't notice any similarities but after seeing the full artwork...yeah, for once I kinda see it? Extremely superficial likeness, but they are indeed the only other protags they could look like. God the theories about this being Johto in disguise are not gonna ever stop are they?
o̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶ G̶F̶ i̶s̶ j̶u̶s̶t̶ r̶u̶s̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶o̶ r̶e̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ s̶o̶ p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ s̶t̶o̶p̶ a̶s̶k̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ F̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ U̶n̶o̶v̶a̶ o̶n̶ B̶B̶,̶ n̶o̶w̶ Z̶ a̶n̶d̶ J̶o̶h̶t̶o̶,̶ t̶h̶e̶n̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ w̶i̶l̶l̶ o̶n̶l̶y̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ H̶o̶e̶n̶n̶ l̶e̶f̶t̶ w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ w̶i̶l̶l̶ w̶r̶a̶p̶ u̶p̶ b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶ g̶e̶n̶ 1̶0̶ K̶a̶n̶t̶o̶ r̶e̶m̶a̶k̶e̶
Also, why the hell are the rival characters just "the cooler other protagonist"?
May and Brendan in sambles rn
god please let us have good sinnoh remakes please
I'm seeing defense of Gen 8 now holy fuck i cannot be the only one who remembers the backlash those games got, the memes of "pokemon fans when they get exactly what they want" and "pokemon fans 6 years after a game was released" is so fitting rn
I don't want to whine about graphics too much but I think the issue is moreso not that the games graphics are "wii tier" or w/e the fuck fans who want the games to melt a PS5 want, but moreso htat they just... do not have a unique visual style at all. It's not that the graphics are bad or low quality or whatever, but there's no new personality. They stylistically are too close to SV to stand out. I really don't think it's that big an issue but it really does bring... yet another meme "pokemon fans when 3D and not 2D" my god
Here's where Hippowdon vs Talonflame likely takes place on the map.
Other damage ranges in the trailer:
Wild Flaaffy's ThunderShock does 4 damage to Chikorita. This is pretty much expected from a random wild without perfect IVs.
Lvl 15 0 SpA Flaaffy Thunder Shock vs. Lvl 15 0 HP / 0 SpD Chikorita: 5-6 (11.6 - 13.9%) -- possible 8HKO
Totodile does about more than half to Tepig with Water Gun. This one I could see if the enemy was set to be a bit weaker.
Lvl 10 0 SpA Totodile Water Gun vs. Lvl 10 0 HP / 0 SpD Tepig: 14-18 (38.8 - 50%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO
Lvl 10 0 SpA Totodile Water Gun vs. Lvl 10 0 HP 15 IVs / 0 SpD 15 IVs Tepig: 14-20 (41.1 - 58.8%) -- 88.7% chance to 2HKO
Mega Absol OHKOes a trainer's Altaria with Stone Edge. This one is the most questionable compared to a standard calc with no crit message, but there's always the possibility of unknown investment and the additional icon beside each move while mega evolved might imply some other buff involved.
Lvl 57 0 Atk Absol-Mega Stone Edge vs. Lvl 60 0 HP / 0 Def Altaria: 122-144 (68.5 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
More thoughts on the battle system and moves:
Currently I am kind of interested in Chikorita and possibly showing a more unique style as a projectile/support focused mon to differentiate itself. The initial trailer shows Leafage in action and the extended look shows Razor Leaf. My guess is that Leafage is more of a tracking projectile while Razor Leaf hits an extended area in front like Flamethrower. Chikorita's moveset also shows Disarming Voice (usually a perfect-accuracy spread move) and Leech Seed which could be interesting for damage over time.
Flaaffy's Thunder Shock doesn't quite seem to be quite the same as either projectile from what I can tell, as it animates the shock kind of spawns on top of Chikorita directly.
Totodile has Tackle/Water Gun/Leer/Bite. Notably Scratch seems to have been replaced with the all-purpose Tackle yet again, though I guess in this setting Scratch would be a similar close range attack like Bite while Tackle could be a dash. Water Gun seems to track a bit even while Tepig is moving.
The enemy Tepig uses Rollout in the extended trailer and Flame Wheel in the initial trailer. In both Totodile seems to dodge it by following the trainer's movements. The rival seems to have 2 mons as seen in the top of the screen. I picture Tepig will be mostly melee focused, though I also picture that for Totodile so that's why I'm interested in how Chikorita will lean.
Protect seems to be pretty viable to react to an attack's startup with, even from like point blank range, though I imagine Moonblast also takes a while to proc.
There seems to be a run/forfeit button with minus shown in the Lucario vs Spritzee battle.
Other moves that exist and my thoughts:
In the initial trailer, Mega Lucario seems to use Aura Sphere, Gardevoir shoots some purple ball that looks like the other Moonblast, and Mega Charizard X does a fire dash that seems like Flare Blitz.
Amnesia/Roar/Stealth Rock/Heavy Slam on Hippowdon. Aside from Stealth Rock, these did not appear in Arceus. Haven't seen much of what buffs look like. Roar is kind of an interesting one to adapt and I feel like it might be a more generic stun or something. As mentioned, Stealth Rock seems to act as a damaging area on the field and doesn't quite disappear even when Talonflame runs into it with Flame Wheel and loses its HP (but does not faint).
Air Slash/Bug Buzz/Hurricane/Safeguard on Vivillon. Safeguard implies the existence of status effects or an equivalent and support moves still being a thing for the party.
Onix has Screech/Rock Slide/Sand Tomb/Dig and shows Rock Slide as targeting from above. Dig is kind of an interesting one too, PLA adapted Shadow Force as adding obscured/increasing evasion but I can imagine it getting kind of creative here. Sand Tomb I can see as a lasting damage area like Stealth Rock, though unlike Stealth Rock it does have a type effectiveness icon so maybe it could restrict movements. The enemy Pyroar uses Flamethrower a couple times, it lasts in front of it.
Mega Absol has Night Slash/Shadow Claw/Air Slash/Stone Edge, Stone Edge seems to be a pretty fast close range thing from the ground.
Charizard has Fire Spin/Flamethrower/Slash/Outrage, and we actually see a notification box that it mega evolved. Outrage seems very vertical to me. Fire Spin also has a type effectiveness icon, but I could also see it as being a trap type move.
Kangaskhan has Double-Edge/Power-Up Punch/Crunch/Bulldoze, and as mentioned Bulldoze is an AOE.
In the initial trailer the trainer does a dodge roll away from Pyroar's Flamethrower. This made me wonder how much the trainer affects things. Could you just hit the other trainer in a battle while they're on the field? Much to consider.
Overall looking at it closer I wonder how in control the combat will actually feel and how far you can engage with it when you're primarily controlling the trainer still, but so far Chikorita has still piqued my interest in terms of standing out with a niche. People might find it more intuitive to deal with than PLA action speed, maybe, and the battle messages being passive is at least already faster than having to progress through them. On the other hand, I've seen some talk about PVP already and I just see that as ending up like Sparking Zero but without the patches.
Mon swapping seems to be done with the d-pad, or at least represented with down/up arrows.
Also, the website doesn't list abilities for the starters so far, like PLA, which is a potential point against them.
Not just early; I'm fairly certain Disarming Voice is a brand new move on the Chikorita line period. I can see a Grass/Fairy Mega/regional form, too.
Feel disappointed based on my read through this thread. On Z:A, I was hoping for a focus on battles, but my reflexes suck and I was perfectly fine with the amount I used them in L:A. As I see it, most vidya games require me to have good reflexes and one thing that drew me to Pokemon was that I didn’t need to worry about that.
More importantly tho, I love Showdown because it allows me to play older generations online, in a format that has been cleaned up of things like evasion boosts and OHKO moves. I prefer older mechanics and movesets. And I feel like going to Champions I’m going to lose all that in favor of NatDex format with poor balancing issues where it won’t have the charm and appeal of Showdown.
As well as the hyper quick battle speed.
And even if Showdown doesn’t get DMCA’d, this will do the same thing that social media and Reddit did to Internet forums, steal their audience and cultural relevance over time to replace it with something worse.
More importantly tho, I love Showdown because it allows me to play older generations online, in a format that has been cleaned up of things like evasion boosts and OHKO moves. I prefer older mechanics and movesets. And I feel like going to Champions I’m going to lose all that in favor of NatDex format with poor balancing issues where it won’t have the charm and appeal of Showdown.
As well as the hyper quick battle speed.
And even if Showdown doesn’t get DMCA’d, this will do the same thing that social media and Reddit did to Internet forums, steal their audience and cultural relevance over time to replace it with something worse.
Nah but hang on did you guys hear some of the XY music remixes in the overview portion? Lumiose City is beautifully jazzy and the wild battle rendition is weirdly epic and grandiose
you heard it here first folx: mega evolving makes your pokemon GAY!!!!!!!!!View attachment 717503
The visibility varies but it looks like Mega Evolutions now have a faint rainbowy glow. Interesting visual touch, I dig it
yea this is a big concern for me -- showdown's support for oldgens/lower tiers/funky shit like pet mods is great & in the hypothetical scenario where gf kill it bc of champions... upsetting. anyway we're not there yet so i shall stop fretting. the key point here is that megas are gay and that's excellent
I can be negative ab the same games as Redditors, and was even negative itt a few minutes ago. But at the end of the day, what I’d like to think separates me from them, is that I can get excited about a new game and look for positives in it. Even tho I’d rate S/V and L:A worse than most of the 2d games, I can still talk about their positives and describe what they needed to do to fix my critiques. At worst I’d rate them C-tier!!
But these guys feel impossible to satisfy until the games look like real life or wtv and always have this whiny, neurotic tone like they’re about to throw a toaster in their bath and it’s gonna be Game Freak’s fault. To them Game Freak sucks because they didn’t include their favorite pokemon in the latest game, their favorite Pokemon isn’t absolutely GOATed, they have to grind or do anything to actually play the games, so on and so forth. The difference between there and here, is that it seems like we collectively like Pokemon wheras they use it for a platform to complain about pretty much every single thing about the games.
Showdown ain't going anywhere and this thing ain't gonna pick up too much track. Just look at Centro's post.
This "substitute" has a BIG price tag attached to it meanwhile showdown is free, they are trying to sell a "premium" simulator who you can't even use all the damn pokémon.
On a side note, I'm kinda curious as to what role Xerneas and Yveltal will play in this game, especially since as a single version game both of them will be here. In X and Y they didn't show up much outside of serving as a power-up for the ultimate weapon, but maybe here they'll play a more prominent role. How might they incorporate both of them into this game, especially if we'll end up meeting and battling both of them in some way or another. Zygarde is obviously gonna have a starring role but Xerneas and Yveltal ought to be incorporated in some way or another. For a game built around a redevelopment of a big city it would be interesting how the beings of life and destruction will end up being involved.
The safest guess is that both legendaries will play a similar role to what Dialga and Palkia played in Arceus.
They’ll be pissed off and their Life/Death powers will enhance this game’s version of Alpha Pokemon and special events. Then you go fight them in their new forms at Prism Tower.
Also the main villain is definitely gonna be Jett who uses them or Zygarde. Or maybe they get a new member based on Thor who ends up being the final boss (makes sense since Prism Tower is where the Electric gym is).
Here are my current predictions for returning characters from XY.
Notes:
-I don't think we're gonna see timeskip Calem/Serena as actual characters but their outfits are very likely to be character customization options. Either way I believe their designs will show up in some capacity for how iconic they are, Serena especially she's like the second most popular female protag only behind Dawn
-Popularity in regards to XY characters is very relative but all the people in that tier have reasonable fanbases and Valerie specifically gets First Fairy Specialist cred
-I love Drasna and Ramos but I don't think the odds are good for them. This fanbase is not fond of funny old men and women, unfortunately...
-If Lysandre comes back I hope he's just this rancid, decrepit immortal cyborg who's clearly lost it and is driven purely by hatred, having long since forgotten whatever noble intentions he might've had.
Everyone assuming Jett is going to be the twist villain because she's in charge of the company doing the Reconstruction for Lumiose, but is that any less likely than her just actually being a reasonable authority figure? Cyllene and Kamado were both in a similar "authority of the entire place" position, and neither was evil (Kamado having an antagonistic stint that was heavily criticized) compared to Volo, who the game couldn't possibly sign-post as suspicious harder. Preceding that is Rose, who again was criticized because his villain reveal made negative sense. Immediately succeeding that is SV with Geeta/Clavell all being good guys in authority, and the Professor who was kind of written off as a mad scientist and the muddy separation between the late Professor and their AI Doppleganger.
My point here being that Pokemon has almost always signposts their villain, intentionally or not, while their only outings with making it a "twist" have been so harshly criticized that there's no way they missed it. Even their "good at heart" villains very blatantly make their antagonist role clear early on (Lysandre's memed hard, N doesn't hide his affiliation with Plasma, Lusamine has the Nihilego and opening Aether stuff before the halfway mark, and Kieran's clearly not right in the head by halfway through Teal Mask). It just seems very rare they draw attention to one of the bad guys early in marketing without advertising as such, with even Sada/Turo being pretty out of focus beyond the "they exist" reveal presents.
My point here being that Pokemon has almost always signposts their villain, intentionally or not, while their only outings with making it a "twist" have been so harshly criticized that there's no way they missed it. Even their "good at heart" villains very blatantly make their antagonist role clear early on (Lysandre's memed hard, N doesn't hide his affiliation with Plasma, Lusamine has the Nihilego and opening Aether stuff before the halfway mark, and Kieran's clearly not right in the head by halfway through Teal Mask). It just seems very rare they draw attention to one of the bad guys early in marketing without advertising as such, with even Sada/Turo being pretty out of focus beyond the "they exist" reveal presents.
Zygarde-Dog is literally running around and its cells are around.
That mon literally only shows up when things are about to hit the fan.
People are insufferable *and* stupid.
It's a Switch game, of course it doesn't look stunning. With that said, it does look adequate. Could it have better textures? Probably. But compared to Arceus' first gameplay trailer? Leaps and bounds over it.
Champion official sites:
https://champions.pokemon.com/en-us/
https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-video-games/pokemon-champions
Oh no everyone expected Rose to be evil from the get go, the real misfire on the community was also assuming Leon wasn't on the up & up.
Really we're batting a pretty low average on this, when you lay it all out like that, which is funny.
Jett definitely could just be a regular person, but like the main villain of several Pokemon games has been a CEO and all of them were the twist villain. It’s kind of expected.
Also there are subtle design elements in Jett’s character that hint at her being the villain. Like how she and Lysandre both have rings (hard to say but I’m struggling to find any other characters who have rings).
Also the logo of her company looks like the ultimate weapon from XY or some explosion.
this doesn't mean anything without a reliable source to back it up and centro is anything but reliable and a source
The Pyroar battle seems to take place in this bottom right segment of the map. The scene pans around enough to see the bridge.
I've noticed some white/blue meter around the minimap as well as a weather icon on the top that I'm not sure what it could be for, my guess was potentially a time of day indicator but it might be for some other progression. It seems to noticeably change in the scenes before and after the Flaaffy battle, and pulsates white afterwards.
I've noticed some white/blue meter around the minimap as well as a weather icon on the top that I'm not sure what it could be for, my guess was potentially a time of day indicator but it might be for some other progression. It seems to noticeably change in the scenes before and after the Flaaffy battle, and pulsates white afterwards.
Kalosian Emboar leaked
I like that after millennia of regretting his sins and finally reuniting with his old friend, AZ decided to... chill and run a hotel. Hey, even giant immortals can hang around the city and run a business, right? I'm glad that he's living his best life.
With how his fate in XY is left ambiguous, I'll actually be a little surprised if Lysandre doesn't come back as the secret mastermind behind another villain. It would be yet another source of "somehow Palpatine returned" jokes.
I would have liked a hint as to whether there's an A-Legendary or not, but since the A in the logo seems to be textured with the veins of a leaf, I feel like it would be plant-like if anything (and it would bring back all the theories of the Kalos legendaries being based on Yggdrasil's creatures, with A being Yggdrasil itself).
As for Champions, I think it's a smart idea to have a Home-connected battle simulator and I'm surprised it took until now for them to make one. It's a decent compromise for the games no longer having every Pokémon and it allows stuff like Megas and Terastal to stick around even when the main games no longer include them (Ultra Necrozma my beloved).
I think showdown will get shut down with Pokémon Champions coming out. This may be the end of Smogon as a whole.
I do not think pokemon champions will ban broken Pokémon or uncompetitive items / moves but maybe they'll have balance patches to help buff / nerf certain Pokémon more frequently. That said we will likely not see usage based tiers or community held suspect.
I think this will be very harmful to competitive pokemon as a whole.
I do not think pokemon champions will ban broken Pokémon or uncompetitive items / moves but maybe they'll have balance patches to help buff / nerf certain Pokémon more frequently. That said we will likely not see usage based tiers or community held suspect.
I think this will be very harmful to competitive pokemon as a whole.
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If Showdown was gonna be shutdown, they would have already DMCA’d Smogon before the announcement. It’d be hard to shut down Showdown anyways since its open source and anyone can just make their own.
With Tepig being a starter GF can finally rectify the original sin of no Unova Megas.
Even Konami didn't touch the fan sims for Yu-Gi-Oh! when they released Master Duel.
Killing Showdown would do irreparable damage to the official competitive community (VGC players use it for testing) and the overall goodwill of the community. There is no way Champions will have the same level of QoL unless GF finally gets that stick out of their ass when it comes to IV/EV transparency (or they just delete IVs like they should have done a decade ago).
Even Konami didn't touch the fan sims for Yu-Gi-Oh! when they released Master Duel.