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Pokemon Legends - Arceus - 28th Jan 2022 *Official Content Only*
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
It's a little alarming that they've apparently gone extinct since the Hisui period
but agreed, very cool!Relatedly, with Wyrdeer and Basculegion, is this the first time we've gotten completely new non-restricted (by which I mean, neither legendary nor mythical nor Ultra Beast) species in the middle of a generation? (I'm counting out Megas and the regional forms since the species is already known, despite what new shenanigans they've gotten up to.)
Don't tempt fate like that, otherwise the reveal of Bug/Flying Hisuian Mandibuzz is practically guaranteed
Joke is on you cause it'll be normal flying
Well, to be fair, that was also true last time
I look at Wyrdeer and Basculegion and i do not see "traditional cross-gen evolutions" I see "it's regional evolutions, again"
They underlined the connection to the Hisui region specifically in how they evolve and were shown alongside the two more "traditional" regional variants.
Wouldn't surprise me if there's specifically Hisui Stantler and Hisui Basculin like how Sirfetch'd comes from Galarian Farfetch'd
Yep, it is!
Joke is on you cause it'll be normal flying
I can just see the Pokédex entry now: "In the lush, calm environment of the Hisui region, Mandibuzz has shed its dark attributes"
On an entirely separate matter:
Which surely means that the resemblance (physical and name-wise) between Cyllene and Cyrus can't be coincidental, no?
Considering it's an ancestor, it's more of the opposite: that Mandibuzz became <insert whatever> and acquired dark typing.
(obviously this is just a meme response, but in the end a change of behavior or nocturnality can easily justify acquiring a dark type , in same way as it was done for Alolan rats and Galarian zigzagoon)
Now that we have two new Pokémon and Calyrex was number 898, we've officially hit 900 Pokémon species in total. 1000, here we come!
As for the new faces, will Basculegion will have a Blue-Striped Form like Basculin does? Hisuian Growlithe appears to be more based on shisa than regular Growlithe is, hence why its Rock-type and them guarding territory in pairs. I'm interested in seeing how additional forms and evolutions continue the feudal Japanese theme.
As for the new faces, will Basculegion will have a Blue-Striped Form like Basculin does? Hisuian Growlithe appears to be more based on shisa than regular Growlithe is, hence why its Rock-type and them guarding territory in pairs. I'm interested in seeing how additional forms and evolutions continue the feudal Japanese theme.
Regardless if Basculegion turned out to be a regional evolution or not - it looked so much like original Red-Striped Basculin for one so we can’t be sure - going from generic fish to a Water / Ghost soul-eating water-dwelling menace is a massive upgrade.
All the more reason for me to want to see what new Hisuian forms and Hisuian evolutions (traditional or through Hisuian form) are there gonna be!
Those aren't new pokemon, though. Mime Jr can evolve into Galarian Mr Mime but only Galarian Mr Mime can evolve into Mr Rime.
This applies to all 6 of the cross-gen evolutions introduced.
Normal Yamask cannot evolve into Runerigus
Normal Linoone cannot evolve into Obstagoon
Normal Meowth cannot evolve into Perrserker
Normal Corsola cannot evolve into Cursola
Normal Farfetch'd cannot evolve into Sirfetch'd
the trailer said:
Sure sounds to me like it's specific environmental factors in play.
Basculegion's visual resemblance to normal Basculin doesn't mean much when Yamask-G is literally just Yamask but with some purple and a different stone tied to it. Hypothetical Basculin-H could easily just have some slightly different markings on it, or have an entirely different back end that's replaced by the ghostly cloud-like shape upon evolution.
Unrelated to any of this but man Wyrdeer feels way more like Stantler-H than it does a Stantler evolution. Even when the SWSH regional evolutions clearly took a lot from who they evolve from (Perrserker and Mr Rime in particular) they still felt more "distinct".
Also now that we have regional variants/evolutions confirmed I'm like 99.9% sure that there are either going to be Hisuian forms of Decidueye, Typhlosion, and Samurott or Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott will get new branched evolutions. Just seems to line up too perfectly IMO
Isn't decidueye Ghost-type because hooded owls are extinct? That would further support there being a decidueye-H with a different type.
I can't be 100% sure, but this is my bet on it. I don't know if 9th gen will be standard or not, but they for sure have an interest in transitioning from classic turn based combat to something akin to Final Fantasy X. Game Freak seems a bit burnt of the classic formula and it's common for RPG franchises to transition into aRPG or pseudo-aRPG combat systems. When you compare the remakes, which are suposeddly from the main series, with the invest they've put into Legends (spin off), it's clear.
Now, they can't just give you 9th Gen with a completely different combat systemm, that would be atrocious. But they can change your mind by presenting you an "ok" game from the main series, and then a much more sosphisticated Switch game that makes you thing "I hope Pokémon would be like this". They've even put new Pokémon on this, lol. The fact that I can get new Pokémon that doesn't exist in the correlative main series (DDPl remakes) but i can get them in Legends Arceus speaks for itself too.
This is exactly how they want their public to feels like.
This is by far the most intriguing part to me. As you mentioned, it very much reminded me of FFX, and that is probably a good thing, as for me personally, FFX has my favorite turn based battle system of any RPG.... at least when it comes to standard PvE play. And that is where I think things get interesting to think about. Pokemon, as its always been has been not just a standard PvE game. A huge amount of its popularity comes from its strength as a PvP game. That's why sites like this one even exist, after all. And as much as I love the FFX style gameplay, I do not think it is anywhere near as conducive for a competitive multiplayer game.
Now, if Legends is in fact just a single player game, then great, I see no issue. But it does make me wonder about the future of the series. They have basically treated it as if it is a main series game, but will people actually think of it as one if it plays so differently? And if so, can a main series game be anywhere near as successful without the classic competitive battle system the series has always had. I largely agree that I don't expect to see this come to future main line games, but then... I guess the question will be, what is a main line game?
Also, another think I have been thinking is that, what makes the FFX battle system work is something that Pokemon has never really done: let enemies play by different rules. While stats and other such things may be different between species, every Pokemon's mechanical parameters have always been within a certain set range, whether they are your Pokemon or an opponent. OHKOing enemies of appropriate levels is a totally normal thing, if you have the right moves and match up. With the ability to do agile and strong moves, I worry that unless they change up how enemy design works, you will end up in a situation where you can just use an "agile" stat boost or attack, get another turn, and then one shot with a "strong" move. I think they would need to do a lot to overhaul enemy design (or have a much greater change to the battle system, beyond just turn order) in order to make this a satisfying system.
I wonder if they are going to tell what happened to all the Basculin and others in Sinnoh, i get that Stantler cant evolve in modern environment but will there be a reason for Basculin to disapear from Sinnoh when it does fine in Unova?
Assuming everything goes as predicted and the "missing" pokemon get added to Sword and Shield in the free update, they can just go the same logic as fossil pokemon, aka went extinct and got brought back to life.
So likely you won't be able to evolve a Basculin in SwSh, but you'll be able to transfer a evolved one.
Alright, time for some battle mechanics speculation:
First off, there's a possibility that trainer vs trainer battles, especially PvP ones, don't exist. The initiative tracker doesn't seem designed for your opponent to be able to manipulate it on a turn-by-turn basis, and it would produce a significant information leak if there's any trainer-based effect that alters speed (i.e. the tracker could reasonably reveal nature/EVs/IVs/ability/item if they are present). Going off this, switching may not be a regular process.
Next, we have priority moves. Since it looks like you select moves when your turn comes up in the tracker, they can't be used to move before an opponent that normally would be capable of doing so. The easiest implementation for "this is fast" is that they have a low initiative cost to use, which is ironically opposite how they work in the main game (i.e. priority->no priority has a larger gap between attacks than no priority->no priority). Negative priority is however easy to implement as in the main games, they just need to have an initiative delay before they activate. Just having a large cost would still have stuff like counter overly hard to use and allow a fast Roar to immediately end all encounters (though since you are presumably taking a lot of encounters for the purpose of catching, this may not actually accomplish much). All of this is assuming these moves actually exist, which is admittedly not guaranteed.
Now let's talk about status moves. The main games really don't have the granularity in status moves that would allow something like the style system to work, yet we can clearly see that you can use it with Calm Mind. I suppose hostile status moves could have their accuracy adjusted, but that still doesn't do anything with self-buffing or field effect moves. There's always the possibility that this wasn't thought through and Agile status is always the best option, but there's also the option that the granularity of statuses has increased. I'm conflicted on this idea. On one hand, I like the possibility of boosting or stacking previously useless effects so that they can be used. On the other, the fact that there are so many currently useless status moves means that the possibility of a lower floor concerns me.
First off, there's a possibility that trainer vs trainer battles, especially PvP ones, don't exist. The initiative tracker doesn't seem designed for your opponent to be able to manipulate it on a turn-by-turn basis, and it would produce a significant information leak if there's any trainer-based effect that alters speed (i.e. the tracker could reasonably reveal nature/EVs/IVs/ability/item if they are present). Going off this, switching may not be a regular process.
Next, we have priority moves. Since it looks like you select moves when your turn comes up in the tracker, they can't be used to move before an opponent that normally would be capable of doing so. The easiest implementation for "this is fast" is that they have a low initiative cost to use, which is ironically opposite how they work in the main game (i.e. priority->no priority has a larger gap between attacks than no priority->no priority). Negative priority is however easy to implement as in the main games, they just need to have an initiative delay before they activate. Just having a large cost would still have stuff like counter overly hard to use and allow a fast Roar to immediately end all encounters (though since you are presumably taking a lot of encounters for the purpose of catching, this may not actually accomplish much). All of this is assuming these moves actually exist, which is admittedly not guaranteed.
Now let's talk about status moves. The main games really don't have the granularity in status moves that would allow something like the style system to work, yet we can clearly see that you can use it with Calm Mind. I suppose hostile status moves could have their accuracy adjusted, but that still doesn't do anything with self-buffing or field effect moves. There's always the possibility that this wasn't thought through and Agile status is always the best option, but there's also the option that the granularity of statuses has increased. I'm conflicted on this idea. On one hand, I like the possibility of boosting or stacking previously useless effects so that they can be used. On the other, the fact that there are so many currently useless status moves means that the possibility of a lower floor concerns me.
Environmental changes due to the passage of time will be the easiest handwave. Basculins & Braviaries just stopped making the trip to sinnoh, for example. So Hisui Braviaries slowly phased out and Basculins had no reason to evolve into Basculegions, that kind of thing
One more thing that I noticed that may not be an intentional thing but whatever:
Is it just me, or do the two new battle styles seem to be inspired by Urshifu's two forms? We have a Strong style that focuses on defeating opponents in a single hit (Single Strike style) and an Agile style that makes your moves rapid-fire (Rapid Strike style). Maybe Kubfu and Urshifu have something to do with Hisui? Kubfu's bio on the SWSH site does say that it is not native to Galar and was originally from a "mountanious region"...
Is it just me, or do the two new battle styles seem to be inspired by Urshifu's two forms? We have a Strong style that focuses on defeating opponents in a single hit (Single Strike style) and an Agile style that makes your moves rapid-fire (Rapid Strike style). Maybe Kubfu and Urshifu have something to do with Hisui? Kubfu's bio on the SWSH site does say that it is not native to Galar and was originally from a "mountanious region"...
Would that really be a bad thing though?
This is meant to be a alternative game type so lack of PvP wouldn't exactly be a big deal, kinda like PMD doesnt have one. Sure it's meant to be compatible with Home, I guess, but that's just for competitive purpose pretty much.
They stated the actual tournaments and seasons will still be taking place on Sword and Shield, so there's a very high chance Arceus Legends will be a "single player only" game.
Yamask gets purple eyes and a different rock.
Like I said, Basculin-H could easily have different markings and a totally different back half that turns into the ghost clouds of basculegion