Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

[Marche]

Not only is Pokémon still sponsoring the first intermission report for team USA's Olympic hockey games (this is an expensive sponsorship, where normally you'd get huge companies like car manufacturers and banks and insurance giants), but they also re-ran their normie-celebrity-filled Super Bowl ad in the highly-viewed slot immediately after the end of the period.
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I get that they have a big announcement coming in like two weeks, and that this is the point of advertizing.

But it's still really weird to me to see Pokémon presenting themselves like a credit card company or a luxury brand or an international airline, where the point of the ads is just to keep them in people's minds, just as the brand itself. As opposed to an ad where they're showing off a particular new product.
It's like they're trying to put themselves into that higher tier of companies. Not the "rich" companies, but the "elite" ones. The "accepted" ones. The ones with a certain globohomo normie gloss to them. The ones with the YouTube ads that are harder to skip. The ones that you almost "can't" criticize. Like they're up there in terms of normie prestige with shit like Boeing and Pfizer and MasterCard.

Did they finally look at their books and realize how big they actually were? Is this some cultural shift among leadership? Directive from Nintendo about how they should present themselves? Or does this signal some other change on the horizon?

The budget for the next game is going to be so ass in comparison.
Pokemon is the highest grossing multimedia franchise for a very good reason, they skip on paying for the actual game development.

 

[Level99Manchild]

I just want another Mewtwo event, he's the only Kanto Pokémon I don't have.

I don't know if I trust Niantic with a Mewtwo event after the last 3 events I experienced this year. The Kalos tour is coming up, and unless you're new or need mega points for something like the Primals, there's nothing to be excited about unless you bought the Kalos pass that gives you a shiny Diancie. There's Mega Malamar and Victreebell, but they're not worth the trouble from seeing their stats.

But it's still really weird to me to see Pokémon presenting themselves like a credit card company or a luxury brand or an international airline, where the point of the ads is just to keep them in people's minds, just as the brand itself. As opposed to an ad where they're showing off a particular new product.
It's like they're trying to put themselves into that higher tier of companies. Not the "rich" companies, but the "elite" ones. The "accepted" ones. The ones with a certain globohomo normie gloss to them. The ones with the YouTube ads that are harder to skip. The ones that you almost "can't" criticize. Like they're up there in terms of normie prestige with shit like Boeing and Pfizer and MasterCard.

@Grayback, it honestly makes me so sad seeing a company piss away its image so hard. They're speed running, going hyper corpo, and it's like watching someone you know die to drugs. The TCG is a wreck, the games are a shell, but here is eevee on an Olympic jumper. I hope it was worth it Nintendo/GF.

Go has been iffy since the Eternatus event, but this year's events have been train wrecks. The problem is only 10% of the franchise is really recognizable and popular. They still can't get anyone to like or care about the Paldean Pokemon, and it's probably one of the least popular regions (Gen 9 Pokemon are really bad). Teddiursa and Snubull are more or less the only Pokemon past gen 1 that are popular. Something needs to be as accessible as a Mastercard or Pfizer products to have that kind of status, and that's not the case for the TCG. Despite the shilling from the Media, Pokemon Horizons is still ass after 2 or 3 seasons, and word is it might be ending (probably for another shitty story with girlboss Lyko and DEI Roy).

Right now we're seeing more cracks in the wall like we saw the cracks with Nintendo and Disney. It's going to take time.

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

I tried watching Horizons whilst working out, fuck that show is so ass. They had so little faith in it that they had to shoehorn a Pikachu in a hat.

You watch them bring back mega evolution for gen 10.

 

[The Cum Beast]

Maybe the best way to fix this shit is to stop making shittymons with stupid gimmicks that no one would ever use in battle. Ever thought about that?

Seriously, who the fuck ever used Spinda?!
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Meh, not all pokemon have to have fully optimized stats, and using shitmon is fun for replays

Also, I don't usually pick the female avatar, but since it's SwSh and Galar is based on the Yookay:

 

[RybenZ999]

Thoughts on Origins? It's not bad I guess, but I found it kinda underwhelming. Mainly because it's way too short (4 episodes). We don't really see Red learn and grow as a trainer. All of that stuff just happens in the background. I would have preferred a full flegded series about Red's journey.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

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Fuck his guild.

PSMD's many flaws aside, the Expedition Society completely mogs Wigglytuff's guild. One group actually gets things done and helps you save the world, while the other treats you like their bitch and taxes you for the trouble. Fuck Wigglytuff and fuck Chatot.

Then again I have no problem using "bad" pokemon seriously... I'm the kind of guy that's used Delcatty competitively on more than one occasion and managed to get a victory.

Back in the Gen 7 days I used an Own Tempo Lilligant with Quiver Dance + Petal Dance in Smogon's AG for shits and giggles and it could actually nab a few KO's. You could get away with using a lot of shitmons in AG as long as you had a choice scarf Ditto in the back to copy your opponent's Mega Rayquaza.

 

[Grayback]

but since it's SwSh and Galar is based on the Yookay

Nuclear take: Sword and Shield have the best vibe of any mainline Pokémon game. Music, aesthetics, environment, details, feeling, all of it together. Unmatched.
I just wish that the rest of the game was good enough to keep up.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

Thoughts on Origins? It's not bad I guess, but I found it kinda underwhelming. Mainly because it's way too short (4 episodes). We don't really see Red learn and grow as a trainer. All of that stuff just happens in the background. I would have preferred a full flegded series about Red's journey.

It was neat at the time to see an anime adaptation more directly based on the original game, but yeah, examined as an actual story there's not really anything to take away. It's much too abridged and you only see Red use Charizard to win everything. It's basically just a nostalgia hit that ends in an ad for XY by showing off Mega Charizard X.

 

[Grayback]

Teddiursa and Snubull are more or less the only Pokemon past gen 1 that are popular.

Not only do I not agree that those two are even that popular, but there are tons of later-gen Pokémon that are hugely popular.
Lucario and Greninja are some examples that spring to mind, but whenever there are "who's your favorite Pokémon" polls, official or unofficial, there are a lot of newer Pokémon in there. I think that other metrics like merchandise sales back this up, too. Umbreon is usually in the top 10 or 20 of all-time favorites, for a better Gen 2 example.

Maybe Gen 1 Pokémon are disproportionately popular compared to how many pokédex slots they make up, but it's not a blowout.
Plus, it's still important to have jobbers in a roster like Pokémon's. You need the less-popular guys to give flavor to an in-game route, to be variety on an opposing trainer's team, to be alternative options so that every team isn't the same, or to be somebody's niche favorite Pokémon.

 

[Registration]

Thoughts on Origins? It's not bad I guess, but I found it kinda underwhelming. Mainly because it's way too short (4 episodes). We don't really see Red learn and grow as a trainer. All of that stuff just happens in the background. I would have preferred a full flegded series about Red's journey.

It was shit.

I Still dont understand why they don't adapt Special for once.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I don't get all the videos on the new megas competitively, seems like it will be the usual of only 3 being usable overall.

Which reminds me question I always wondered, are there any big competitions that aren't OU/Ubers? If not then what is the point of the billion tiers that are made for each new generation?

 

[Celebrate Nite]

what is the point of the billion tiers that are made for each new generation?

IMHO, there is no point

Did you know Gen1 now has a ZU tier (meaning "Zero Use". It's the lowest level below PU tier, which was supposed to be the last tier created)? I didn't know this until just recently, and it's the dumbest fucking thing ever, because they added NFE (Not Fully Evolved) pokemon into this tier.

(FYI, this is a 2025 tier list, but you get the gist of it)

I will always stand by the notion from decades ago that "Tiers Are 4 Queers".

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Lmao, not Pinsir.
Well, Onix is a piece of shit in Gen1.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

IMHO, there is no point

Did you know Gen1 now has a ZU tier (meaning "Zero Use". It's the lowest level below PU tier, which was supposed to be the last tier created)? I didn't know this until just recently, and it's the dumbest fucking thing ever, because they added NFE (Not Fully Evolved) pokemon into this tier.

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(FYI, this is a 2025 tier list, but you get the gist of it)

I will always stand by the notion from decades ago that "Tiers Are 4 Queers".

There's another rarely played tier below RBY ZU called 7U, it's name taken from a different tier system that numbers the tiers instead of names like OU and UU, and it pretty much holds the Pokemon that too bad for even ZU. Its viability tier list looks like this (from 2022).


But then there's further "hypothetical" Gen 1 tiers under 7U which people have theorycrafted. There's 8U for the Pokemon who can't hack it in 7U, and then a purely hypothetical 9U for stuff even below that, and finally there's 10U, which consists of only a single possible team of six: Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, Kakuna, Magikarp, and Ditto. The meta consists of just wailing on each other with Tackle and Poison Sting while fishing for poison procs and crits.

 

[The Ultimate Ramotith]

I will always stand by the notion from decades ago that "Tiers Are 4 Queers".

How come? /sincere/

 

[Celebrate Nite]

How come? /sincere/

It's from an ancient Newgrounds flash animation collab.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

[Amelia]

No purple hair or British flag?

 

[The Cum Beast]

No purple hair or British flag?

Soon, I'm very early in the game still, ill do character customization eventually to make her lore accurate.

 

[M€￦]

What kind of animal / mythological creature / thing do you really want to see a Pokémon based on?

For me, it's the Virginia opossum.
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Dark / Fairy. Toothy, gormless smile. Bulging black eyes. Unique ability based around playing dead. Gimmie.

I'd say Raccoon. Dark/Ground Likes to rummage around in dumpsters and trash cans and will stare and growl when you approach it. Unique ability based around biting and rabies.

Funny enough, I think Mew and MewTwo look heavily like or are (probably) based on the hairless Sphinx cats, with Mew looking like a Spinx kitten and MewTwo even having their weird brow ridges or something on the forehead. I always thought that was kind of neat.

I think for a second pokemon I'd have one based on a cockroach, pure Bug type, with whatever special ability based around spreading disease.

They’ve been doing a lot to try to use the 30th anniversary as an opportunity to try to cash in heavily on millennial nostalgia. They’ve always pushed the first gen when it comes to merchandising, but they’ve really doubled down on it these last couple of years. It wouldn’t bug me so much if it wasn’t basically catering to people that haven’t played a game since 2001 and don’t really appreciate the franchise outside of “muh nostalgia”.

I would say that it's also likely that Gen One sold the best and is what most people still associate with being the 'face' of Pokemon, the other Gens coming out when they were older and putting that stuff away.

Wendigo with Ghost/Ice typing.

Sounds interesting, what would be it's starting mon and it's evolutions? I could see it being a former human like some of the other mons are said to be.

Werewolf with Dark/Fighting.

Wouldn't that be Lycanroc(sp?) It always gave me werewolf vibes.

The problem is only 10% of the franchise is really recognizable and popular. They still can't get anyone to like or care about the Paldean Pokemon, and it's probably one of the least popular regions (Gen 9 Pokemon are really bad).

Problem is, Pokemon is kind of failing at drawing new people in. The newer games are kind of crappy and Scarlet and Violet have made enough people kind of quit Pokemon or look to the older stuff. Plus Ninty is likely gatekeeping Gen 10 behind a $500+ paywall of a console with $70-80 games (not even including DLC!) and keycards, and charging $10 to 'improve' games for the S2. 10% of the games and franchise is going to be what people can care about and afford anymore, so watch it get even worse.

 

[starborn427614]

Nuclear take: Sword and Shield have the best vibe of any mainline Pokémon game. Music, aesthetics, environment, details, feeling, all of it together. Unmatched.
I just wish that the rest of the game was good enough to keep up.

It's a memorable region if nothing else. The fairy place, Wyndon, the town with the castle. Shame about the story and script but you can't have everything.