Sunday, October 6, 2013

Day 6: Changing of the guard... not!

As it turns out, the 69 figure I put forward yesterday is the one that's accurate, as there's no spot between Yveltal and Zygarde, our third cover legendary. You can learn Beta from it by equipping the Enemy Skill materia... sorry, that was just too easy. The name actually beginning in Z suggests a possible return to the deluxe version formula this gen, though I wouldn't call it just yet. In addition, runners make a return in this game, with Zapdos being found in the middle of nowhere. Oddly enough, it happened to rain when it was found.

So, 69 new Pokémon, plus events. How do I feel about that? I've had time to think it over, and quite frankly... I think this is a good idea, for two reasons. First, and most obvious, they didn't have to run their well of creativity dry, with the only dubious Pokémon being Klefki - I can forgive Doublade considering what it evolves into. This is as opposed to gen 5, where them being forced to make over 150 to make a Pokédex made entirely of new Pokémon gave us more than a few... questionable designs (though we also had some of the best ever, mind you).

On top of that, it's clear that much of the effort went into the mega evolutions, which (at least in theory) are meant to help out weaker Pokémon. I've always said that making less Pokémon, but focusing on making the existing ones better, was the way to go to make a more varied game. And aside from the fact that they gave some to the likes of Blaziken and Garchomp, that's the path they chose to go down, and it would be hypocritical of me to complain. So, thumbs up to Gamefreak for that.

Edit: Deleted due to obsolete information

Edit 2: Zygarde's ability, Aura Break, reverses the effect of Xerneas' and Yveltal's abilities. Whether the word "reverses" means canceling out, or outright causing them to weaken the moves they're supposed to boost, is still unknown. As for its stats, it appears relatively well rounded, except for physical defense which is much higher than the rest. Also, the thing's Dragon/Ground. Gamefreak sez: "We know Dragon is overpowered, but here, have yet another Dragon pseudo-legendary and yet another Dragon cover legendary!"

Speaking of typing, you know how I found it weird that Goodra is mono-Dragon? Well, Florges is mono-Fairy. Are you serious? The thing is bound to a flower, it evolves TWICE, and NEVER gains the Grass type?

Edit 3: Here's the REAL stat spread for Mega Mewtwo Y:

106 HP, 150 Atk, 70 Def, 194 SA, 120 SD, 140 Spd, for a total of 780

For reference purposes, the damage boost obtained through the SA increase is 20%, which is less than the Life Orb, BUT you don't have to deal with recoil, and you have extra special defense and speed. Shame about the defense drop, but fortunately for it ubers tend to revolve around special moves anyway.

Edit 4: Nothing new on the leak front, but I just wanted to share the fact that one of my regulars, who's trying to stay spoiler-free, basically ran into a picture of all the new Pokémon... on a pr0n site. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T INTRODUCE EXACTLY 69 NEW POKÉMON IN A GENERATION, GAMEFREAK.

Edit 5: Here's the most recent Kalos Dex update I could find (missing Audino, confirmed at #123 Central), as well as the newest portion of the National Dex.

Edit 6: Togekiss is now Fairy/Flying, as expected. This swaps a few weaknesses and resistances around, but the especially good news is that it now gets a much better secondary STAB type, and as a result could be a mainstay of the metagame once again should the Fairy type not be particularly stacked - and maybe even if it is.

20 comments:

  1. To be honest, I'm a bit ambivalent about there only being 70 new Pokemon. On the one hand, you're right; it's great to see great originality in the designs of the new pokemon. However, I would have liked real evolutions of existing pokemon (Farfetch'd and Jynx to name the two that pop into mind) and not just a whole bunch of Mega Evolutions. I guess, having not played the game yet, that I'm worried that mega evolutions will be more gimmicky and cool looking than actually useful (given the limit of 1 per team and the fact that they're not permanent), and screw pokemon that needed an evolution out of getting one. Of course I'm open to being pleasantly surprised. I guess time will tell.

    Anyway, I also wanted to thank you for compiling all the leaked information here; it's saved me from checking the internet using vague search terms every few hours. Have a good rest on your hiatus, and I look forward to seeing more Slowflake in the future :)

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    1. In all fairness, mega evolutions are basically meant to fulfill the same purpose DW abilities did last gen. The difference being, I never heard anyone say "this Pokémon needed an evolution, not a good DW ability!" Why do so many people seem to have this double standard without even realizing it? I have no idea.

      In addition, mega evolutions, unlike regular ones, can be given to stage 3 Pokémon and legendaries alike, and Arceus knows some of them need all the help they can get.

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    2. You do have a good point there, particularly on the Stage 3/Legendary front, but I think for me the key differences between DW abilities and Mega Evolutions are the fact that getting a new, usually awesome ability doesn't preclude a pokemon from being given a new evolution in a later generation, while I suspect that a non-third stage pokemon being given one will prevent it from ever evolving. True that assumption is based on little more than intuition, but I would be surprised if it were proved wrong.

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    3. That one interview said mega evolutions were meant to put Pokémon on par with legendaries, something I don't think they would've ever dared do with regular evolutions. What if Mawile turns out to be really good? Why would it have been better to just give it a regular evolution then?

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  2. ya know at first i was a bit upset at the low low number of new pokemon. then i remebered mega evolutions are also a thing and they will end up rounding out the number of new pokemon to somewhere in the triple digits. but im also hopeful for a nice ammount of mega pokemon. something like 50 or so different species. but i really shouldnt keep my hopes up.

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  3. The number doesn't really bug me. What seems problematic, though, is that they introduced the fairy type but from looks of it didn't bring in a (non-ubers) legendary or pseudo-legendary fairy--opting for yet another fucking dragon for pseudolegend--to have something competitively strong. A lot of the fairy types we see have questionable BSTs and the retcons mostly sucked to begin with. What's the point of a new type if Dragons can still 1-2HKO everything with non-dragon moves?

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    1. Hopefully the likes of Gardevoir,Slypheon and Azumarill can fight in OU or at least UU.

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    2. Whoa there, we have no idea how far the rabbit hole of retcons goes. It's clearly more than just Mr. Mime, Plusle, Minun and the ones we knew about beforehand. I mean, they introduced how many new fairies? About ten or so? They HAVE to have retconned enough to give us 40 or so total. Besides, remember that Steel and Dark took time to pick up steam as well, and aside from the sucky Magneton (since Magnet Pull didn't exist at the time) there were no retcons for either.

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    3. Yeah, they added Granbull :-/. I get what you are saying regarding retcons and while I agree that 40 species (at least 20 fully evolved) would be a good number to strive for, it's definitely a wait-and-see for the pokemon bank to show the full dex's worth. That said, my point on legends/pseudo-legends does stand. I mean look at the VGC scene, if it's not weather it's all legends and pseudolegends. Maybe there's enough changes with abilities and moves to counter such advantages but with regards to raw power my fear was and still is that the fairy type isn't doing anything to quell that. Yeah I know it took dark till gen IV to be usable (physical attackers with a special type and only one good monster that was part dark will do that), and steel well it was always useful but its role was more limited. But we know they dropped the ball on them then and you'd think they "learned their lessons". I know the type will be (hopefully) better in Gen VII as most types do (save for ice....which stands as evidence that this point is moot) but if it doesn't change the metagame now then it's another 3 years of dragon-dragon-dragon-steel-misc legend-wildcard teams (or drizzle teams).

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    4. Not to mention, Kanpachi pretty much rushed through the game, and may not be aware of all the retcons in the Kalos Dex yet. He focused almost exclusively on the new Pokémon.

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    5. Yeah I know. I mean I'm not worried about quantity, just the quality (let's face it, do Granbull/Wigglytuff/Plusle/Minun really become any more viable with the new fairy type? Sure Gardevoir does, especially with the mega-evolution and Azumarill might prove alright) and you figure the retcon choices will be limited to mono-types and many of the available candidates honestly weren't all that good to begin with nor will be good now, especially against a choiced/LO garchomp with earthquake. I feel the same way for a lot of types that seem that every generation nothing good is coming up (electric and poison especially), and I have a hard time believing that any possible retcons except a select few (Blissey?) are going to be earthshattering. Not crying catastrophe--believe me I had enough with the "it's not perfect(ly as I want it) therefore it sucks" crowd on forums--but just pointing out the flaws as I see them. Then again, that's the downside of commenting on this with as for now very incomplete information.

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  4. pseudo of the next generation evolving at lv 80

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  5. So knowing Game Greak's tendency it's a safe bet Mega Mewtwo X's Base Stats will be this

    HP: 106
    Atk: 194
    Def: 120
    Sa: 150
    Sd: 70
    Spd: 140

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    1. Let's just hope that it gets some Physical Moves. We already have big BST Pokémon like Kyurem-B in OU, we don't want another.

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    2. What, Psycho Cut/Zen Headbutt, EQ, Stone Edge, Aqua Tail, Drain Punch, Poison Jab, Aerial Ace, Fire Punch, Thunderpunch, and Ice Punch aren't enough? Do you want them to make Selfdestruct not XD exclusive?

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    3. Also, it's MEWTWO. To Mega Evolve you need base Mewtwo. It will never reach OU.

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  6. Well looks like there might be some good choices in retconning after all. According to the smogon forum for the leaks, one of the leakers confirmed togepi to now be pure fairy. This obviously means togekiss is fairy/flying :-) adds two weaknesses and two resistances with a switch of immunity but i think it's a worthwhile change (though it sucks for the normal/flying crowd that it no longer has a member but whatever). I think it might get some new life myself.

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  7. Do we know the legendary trio yet?

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    1. There's none. They brought back the legendary birds, it seems, but no new legendaries aside from the cover trio and possibly a few events.

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  8. Unless the events feature an Ice/Fairy, then my hopes of said Pokemon existing this Gen have been dashed. Of course, there are many other Pokemon and strategies I am interested in...Just hope I can transfer my Forces of Darkness. A good chunk of them were gotten via PokeCheck, and I already am prepared to replace my Blaziken with the Event one if the need arises. I prefer simulators, but it is nice to be prepared in case someone wants to do a battle that would be inconvenient to schedule on Showdown...

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