Glen-i

I hate that I laughed at a picture of a damp corner.

Guys, just a heads up. People CAN see what you say on the sidebar if it's one of the most recent posts. Case in point... Why yes, LazyBoy. "Thanks Glen!" indeed. Please be considerate of how you word your reactions. Twitter posts, pictures, Youtube vids and quoting don't show on that sidebar, so use those all you like. If you must mention a specific title, consider using spoiler tags. Someone tell Hero-of-Time, he can't see my posts. And while I'm at it, please avoid tagging people in this thread, even if they've posted here before. Thanks for your co-operation. Discuss leaks responsibly.

OK, thanks for your patience guys. Here are the results from the past two weeks. 30th May 6th June Don't worry, his score doesn't effect any of yours, I'm only having a laugh. Anyway, here's the table after those two nights. We're heading up to the last few sessions before the mid year point, so scores will be reset next month and a winner for this half of the year will be declared. Next League Night: 13th June 8pm Room 1: @BowserBasher is host @BowserBasher @viceview51 @martinist @RedShell It's E3 this week! The Drama! The Excitement! The inevitable disappointment because that one rumour turned out to be a load of garbage! And most importantly, the anticipation of the dreaded "Pause for applause, no applause" The second most important thing though is that Ninty's E3 Direct will determine what characters you're able to use in this theme! Hopefully, Smash doesn't pull another "Everyone is here!" like last time... The characters will be determined by whether they show up during Nintendo's E3 Direct, NOT their Treehouse section afterwards. I'll be sure to update this thread after it airs, so if you can't watch it when it happens, make sure you catch up before checking here to avoid any potential spoilers. Sign up Now!

You know what? I forgot to remind people and it's been a shorter amount of time to vote, so I'm gonna delay the voting deadline by one day. Voting closes on the 9th of June Last chance for @RedShell, @Ike, @nekunando, @Hero-of-Time, @Gadwin, @Kaepora_Gaebora and @Vileplume2000 to get their votes in. I'm also gonna mention @LazyBoy, seeing as he showed interest. Remember to order your choices, otherwise, I'll assume the top listed game is number 1.

OK yeah, that connection means I'm done. Good games, y'all.

Why, Capsule, why!?

Hang on, I'm coming back. Gimme a minute.

Just a heads up that I'm opening a room in 40 minutes. I did Time last week, so I guess I'll go with Stock this time.

Yeah, I kinda agree with this. Even though the cover legendaries have only been side things in one game. (Gold/Silver)

Who likes highlight videos? Sure, you do. This first one focuses on matches I've had with this one kid who's probably better than me (He's player 1). Seriously, he's crazy good. Although there are a few three player matches thrown in there. And the next one is highlights from the past two weeks of N-E Smash. Expect some anti-climatic Stamina mode deaths! That thumbnail might be my best one yet.

I really liked Yooka-Laylee... It had flaws, sure, but I really enjoyed it. This looks pretty cool though.

Is that an RPG? You most certainly implied as such. Especially when you class it as the "laziest" way. When I get to a laptop, you are so getting a nerdy lecture on why thoughts like this... ...are nothing but misguided thoughts that completely miss what Pokémon games set out to do.

I'd argue that open-world design is lazier than handcrafting levels anyway. You're also dismissing how much work goes into designing each Pokémon. Because seriously, it's a lot. One Pokémon probably takes 5 times the amount of time and effort than the average RPG monster gets. Oh yeah, and I'm only talking about battles. If you take into account the extra stuff Pokémon animate for (Like Nintendog side mode, Pokémon Amie), it goes up even further. If adding 100 Pokémon is lazy, then there's no bloody hope for game designers. Because there's no way they can win if that's the bar. Those Pokémon models have to also work for any potential spin-off's that might happen as well. So they have to be pretty universal to boot. If you think that adding more Pokémon is lazy, and man, do I hate that false reasoning, then you completely miss the point of Pokémon. The Pokémon are the biggest reason for Pokémon. You stop adding new Pokémon for people to discover just so you can chase the latest open-world trend, then you kill Pokémon. The vast majority of people aren't always right. Focus testing like that kills creativity. It's a dangerous slope to go down. And some people like the surprise of not knowing what comes next.

So, I've been looking through the official Pokémon Twitter account. So yeah, it seems like random encounters have been tweaked to work exclusive like the rare encounter mechanic in Gen 5. And caves work like they do in Let's GO I'm not happy. I like random encounters, keeps me on my toes and it makes caves and such more challenging to survive through because I fight everything along the way. Being able to see Pokémon just makes me want to run around them. Dragon Quest IX kinda conditioned me to do that. Which is fine for Dragon Quest, but for Pokémon? I suppose I could run through stuff with my eyes closed to simulate the feeling of random encounters, but that opens up a whole different batch of problems. Let's GO's ruining everything...

Well, Game Freak are notorious for introducing a new feature to Pokémon games only to drop them immediately in the next generation. So I wouldn't get too attached to the Wild Area idea anyway. Remember having a Pokédex that could catalogue every Pokémon? Or a huge battle facility that offered 7 different ways to test your battle skills? Or a feature that lets random people trade with you no matter where you are in the game? None of those were in Sun/Moon, despite being really good ideas. The key difference between Pokémon and the likes of Final Fantasy and Xenoblade are the Pokémon themselves. Balancing an RPG around 900-ish possible party members is a nightmare. Even having a minimum of 6 animations for each one is an excruciating amount of work. There has to be at least 400 moves in the game at this point as well. So you gotta make sure those all work as intended. And every gen sees some stat changes and moveset tweaks to older Pokémon as well. And that's before we get on to the human characters People often dunk on Game Freak for not having more ambition, when it's precisely their ambition that holds them back in the first place. Don't get me wrong, Xenoblade 1 and 2 have the perfect balance of open world and linear progression, but you can't apply that reasoning to a game as huge as Pokémon. See? That's exactly what I mean. Unreasonable expectations because other games have done so.

Yep, see you there.

The first trailer (and this one) literally had a random encounter happen on a handcrafted route. You were only kidding yourself if you thought the wild area was going to be nothing more than a side feature.

Hey there. We normally have it tonight, but I can't set it up this week, so we're moving it to tomorrow night 8pm.

I've almost 100% V myself, I should get back on that. Pretty sure it's just one boss in a certain amount of turns.

Yeah, I'd be up for that.

Still applies. Let's GO is a mainline game. Game Freak said so. The wild areas are a separate area from the usual routes. It seems like the traditional routes with random encounters are still there. Game Freak basically said "Why not both?" Also, I'm pretty sure in Let's GO, you could have multiple save files by using different Switch accounts. So there probably won't be a need to get both if you want that.

Yeah, sorry. Can't play games until Friday.

Nope, the catching mechanics in Let's GO was first.

Yo, Pokémon nerd here. Ready to answer your nerdy questions. Simply put, the Max Moves a Pokémon knows is determined by it's moveset before it gets huge. For example, in the picture above, Vine Whip would become Max Overgrowth because it's a Grass type attacking move. Meanwhile, Scratch becomes Max Strike, a normal attacking move. The reason why Max Guard appears twice is because that Grookey knows 2 status moves. (So, like, maybe Leer and Leech Seed) Status moves will become Max Guard. A similar thing happened in Sun/Moon when you had two different moves that both matched the Z-Crystal a Pokémon was holding.

I mean, they tried to evolve the formula with Sun/Moon, but sure. Anyway, some of my thoughts on the other stuff. Interesting that they showed off the Champion straight away. It's cool that him and the Rival seem to be of Indian origin. Very UK. Kinda indifferent to the Wild Area. Open world designs are boring, even if it is confined to one place. Now if it's a place that acts like an online hub and let's you see other trainers running around with who you can battle or trade, then I'll be interested. Raid Battles? Meh. It's cool, I suppose. Call me when Online Battle Frontier comes back. Now that was awesome co-op Pokémon action. Ewww, RotomDex is back... US/UM kinda soured me on RotomDex. Stupid thing would never shut up and just let me look at the map. Every time I booted up the game, it just had to remind me that I was the Alolan Champion. Gee, thanks, I didn't know I was decent at Pokémon, I've only been playing it for 20 years. So yeah, still kinda middling on the game. Nothing that really excites me. Well, other than Sobble. Sobble's coolio.