A silly Pokemon roleplay idea

Yes, get in the fucking bag, Nebby!

(Spoilers for Pokemon Sun ahead, serious end of plot spoilers)

What if Lillie became a trainer down the line? What if she moved to Kanto with her convalescent (and quite probably necessarily amnesiac) mother?

Maybe that would make a cool roleplay run idea: to replay the series from Kanto to Kalos as Lillie on her own Pokemon journey. You'd have to use the Gen 1 remakes since the originals don't feature a female player character but upgrading to colour sprites can hardly be termed a hardship, unless you're my co-worker Dan who swears Pokemon Yellow is the best in the series and still totally holds up.

Still, whether as Lillie or a character of my own creation, the idea of playing the games in order appeals to me. I played the original game when it came out but after that I jumped all around the series after intervals of years. In fact, I've never played the Gen 2 and 5 games. I also have a naughty copy of the fan game Pokemon Uranium on my laptop just waiting for me to give it a try (another recommendation from Dan the Pokemaniac).

Just spitballing ideas here, really. I mean, aside from Gen 5 I do have all the games lying around and the only ones I've ever completed were Red and X. Might be interesting to create a character, Ash style, who would travel the different regions on a quest to become the best there ever was.

Maybe even have a rule (again, just an idea and rather based on the anime's approach) to never have the same Pokemon on your team in two different regions. I don't see this trainer having their own version of Pikachu, if only for the fact that other the internet informs me the only Pokemon to appear in every game are Zubat, Golduck, Magnemite and their evolutions. Pikachu, to my surprise, actually skips Gen 5.

If nothing else, completing X and getting as far as I have in Sun has made me appreciate that these games have pretty decent plots and I'd rather like to explore the evolution of the series the way more dedicated fans than me have: in order, from the start, with progressively cuter starters and progressively more insane final forms. 

Pokemon: The Legendary Quandary

Every time a pair of Pokemon games come out I choose which one to buy using a simple metric: which Legendary do I want more? Funny thing is, by the time I get to catching the thing I no longer want it. Sometimes I put it on my team, sometimes I don't but I never actually want to.

Take Pokemon Sun. I just got to the point where I get to catch Solgaleo and... I just don't want him. I beat him down, slap the Master Ball on him and then the 3DS asks me whether I want to add him to my party. I choose yes, mainly because the whole narrative of the last half hour has been guilting me into it and I look at my team as it asks me to choose which one will get boxed to make room.

And I just don't want to. “What kind of roleplaying is this?” I ask myself as I look at these six creatures I've dragged through hell in my quest to be the best that ever was.

There's Harvey, the Decidueye I raised from a little Rowlet who's been with me all the way across the Alola Region; Moira the Jolteon who joined me soon afterwards; my ultimate Flying-type tag team Scarlet the Talonflame and Knifeblock the Skarmory; Innsmouth the Mimkyu who took me hours to catch and has taken so many hits for the team; and, Bubbles the Araquanid who crunched his way through endless Fire, Dark and Psychic types.

I mean, in the cold light of day I'll admit Bubbles is my least favourite child of the crew but the little Water-Bug fellow's got type advantage all over the shop.

So, feeling like a monster because for once the Legendary is just a nice fellow who wants to travel, I press B and box the poor creature. An option, by the way, that dialogue indicates no one at Game Freak thought anyone would be heartless enough to choose.

At the end of the day, though, I value that the series basically allows you to play the team you want to play. Either by type advantage or over-levelling the opposition I don't think there are many bad combinations of teams. I still need to do my Sky Trainer roleplay run some day, probably as a rerun on Pokemon X since that's still, in my view, the most varied and interesting game in the series. 

The Curious Case of Mimikyu

The best Pokemon ever.

Every Pokemon game has a fake Pikachu, an Electric-type rodent of some sort that tries to repeat the winning formula of the original mascot. It never works. Don't get me wrong, some attempts have been better than others. Pachirisu looks awful, Dedenne is kind of sweet, and Emolga is my favourite Pokemon ever ever ever!!!

A football waiting to happen.

Togedemaru is the “official” knock-off Pikachu of this generation. Not the best design, not the worst, definitely no Emolga. The funny thing is, this game also features Mimikyu...

Don't you just want to tickle both his chins?

… who is a shy Ghost-Fairy type hiding inside a Pikachu costume and everyone loves it. Every Pokemon player on the internet, it seems, is united in their love of this little fellow. I'm right with them, Mimikyu was the only Pokemon I went into this game thinking I absolutely had to have one on my team.

This does not seem to be the intention. We were meant to find it creepy. The Ghost trial where it first appears presents it as a creeping terror luring people in by pretending to be a cute little Pikachu and its Pokedex entry reads like something out of Lovecraft: “It's actual appearance is unknown. A scholar who saw what was under its rag was overwhelmed by terror and died from the shock.” I called mine Innsmouth, by the way. Hell, the anime even has one willingly joining Team Rocket just because it wants to beat up Ash's Pikachu.

But people love the little guy in a way you just can't manufacture. After six generations of trying to replicate the Pikachu formula they finally hit on it by just creating a Pokemon that's literally pretending to be Pikachu and I find that hilarious. 

James caught Araquanid!

As predicted my Stufful did not last long as a party member. I like the design well enough, the whole stuffed bear thing is cute, but he resolutely refuses to learn anything useful as it is a Fighting-type that seems allergic to learning Fighting moves. Honestly, the only thing that kept him in my party as long as he was was the fact that nothing I caught looked that interesting to me.

Until Malie Gardens. Until the Araquanid.

Just look at this thing! Its a Water/Bug dual type which is a fantastic combination I don't think they've ever done before. I love Bug-types, they always look so cool, and the only other Water-types I'd managed to catch so far were a Wingull (hate what they evolve into) and a Magikarp (and I have had a Gyarados in so many of these games its now boring). So, yay, Water type!

Admittedly, a Water-type that will die whenever a Flying looks at it but a cool looking Water-type and that's what counts! 

A petty complaint about Pokemon Sun

Too tired to write about the UK Championship Tournament. We'll do that tomorrow, today we'll deal with some petty griping I've been holding onto since Christmas by way of filler.

I am, by and large, greatly enjoying Pokemon Sun. Yes, I was originally going to get Moon but on release day Moon sold out and I didn't want to wait. Idiot me, though, it turned out Alolan Sandshrews were Moon exclusive. Sandshrews are one of the my favourite Pokemon. What's more, the Alolan form is an Ice/Steel dual type rather instead of a Ground type.

I don't like Ground types.

My team at present, just starting the third island, stands as follows: my starter, Harvey the Dartrix; Scarlet the Fletchinder, an old favourite from Pokemon X; Moira the Jolteon; Slinky the Salandit; Pinky the Stufful (box-bound as soon as something better comes along); and, my MVP Rasputin the Raticate. By and large I am very much enjoying this game.

I do, however, have a complaint about the game not based on my impatience and version exclusivity.

Firstly: did the tutorial stage have to be the whole first island? I get that I've played a lot of these games (every version except Black/White, I believe) and that there are new players in every generation but... well, there are going to be players like me so why not design around that? Why not make the tutorials optional. I know how to use the Pokecentre, I know how to buy things and use Pokeballs.

Hell, in Pokemon X, I had four Pokemon in my team before that random kid taught me how to catch things. At this stage its just a time sink and I really think it could stand to be skippable.