Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

[Ashley]

In fairness there's a hell of a lot of Pokémon figures like this out there so I guess they just got one of the manufacturers to make some: 

https://www.tokyotoys.com/gaming/pokemon.html

[Julius]

A new Pokémon, Cyclizar, has been revealed in a trailer highlighting the game's competitive play (to tie in with World's):

 

[Ike]

Looks like it's ridable as well.

Edit: They look like NPCs so maybe not ridable by the player.

Shed Tail is an interesting move to switch in a Pokémon safely. The item that copies stats changes is interesting too.

[Glen-i]

Dude, Shed Tail is already going to see loads of use in competitive play! That's insanely good!

Covert Cloak is gonna be interesting too, as it totally shuts down Pokémon that rely on moves like Rock Slide and Scald to cripple the opponent.

And then there's Loaded Dice. I'm not certain that will make much of an impact. Unless you have something like Heracross, who can learn all sorts of multi hit moves, it's not gonna be super useful.

And Heracross already had its Mega to cover that tactic, but that's not an option anymore.

As for actual lore stuff, I wonder what the connection between Cyclizar (Which I'm immediately using on my team) and the cover legendaries are? Because, well, come on. It's not subtle.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

As for actual lore stuff, I wonder what the connection between Cyclizar (Which I'm immediately using on my team) and the cover legendaries are? Because, well, come on. It's not subtle.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Cyclizar too, an instant team member for sure! 

As for the connection, I think the official site gives us a couple of hints; the following is from Cyclizar's page:

Quote

A Pokémon That Lives with Humans

This Pokémon has lived in many households in the Paldea region since ancient times. It has a mild disposition, and people riding Cyclizar are a very common sight. It appears Cyclizar don't mind being ridden because the warmth of a rider helps stave off the cold.

A Body Optimized for Running

Cyclizar can sprint at over 70 mph while carrying a human. Its extremely hard head and thick, lithe tail are not only useful for maintaining balance and absorbing shocks while sprinting—they also provide effective ways to attack during battles.

I'm not sure if this is a legendary per se, because there are just a few things which make it seem like an everyday Pokémon to me: in the way they showed it off, the way it's talked about on the official site, and not hiding details for it like they are still doing for Koraidon and Miraidon. 

But I think it's the modern day incarnation of those Pokémon, if Koraidon is indeed a past variant/form and Miraidon is a future variant/form, and I think their relationship with humans is key to trying to figure out the relationship between these three. Koraidon seems very much untamed, though seemingly is tamed by humans at some point, considering its rideable; Cyclizar, I would guess, is what Koraidon evolved into (not in the literal Pokémon sense) after forming a relationship with humans over a long time.

To make it clear and more along the lines of "survival of the fittest" rather than going the Lamarck transmutation route (i.e. "the genetic variants/creatures with longer necks can reach taller trees with fruit on and so can remain nourished, whereas ones with shorter necks can't and die off" vs "we've been stretching our necks for generations trying to get to these damn fruit on these darn tall trees, and thus have evolved to have longer necks"), I imagine Cyclizar is a domesticated branch of Koraidon, and either the Koraidon died off, were hunted to extinction, went into hiding, whatever. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that they've chosen to highlight that it lives with humans, and also just so happens to be capable of attaining a speed - 70 mph - which is typically towards the top end of what you'd expect any human-controlled vehicle to be going legally (obviously there are exceptions, would be curious to know what the top speed allowed by the roads and law is in Portugal and Spain on roads which enable it). 

As for Miraidon, I would guess it necessitates a future need to go faster than even a Cyclizar can on a regular basis (don't think it's a coincidence that it clearly has some design quirks inspired by jets), potentially due to the globalisation of high speed air travel (or the future being a hellscape). 

Regardless, I think it's interesting that they seem to be going down the route with these three Pokémon of more directly commenting on the evolving relationship between creatures and humans. That's been the case in Pokémon in the past, sure, but if they are all linked - and I agree with Glen, I imagine they are - I'd like to think it's Game Freak and TPCi starting to crank up the heat a bit and start talking a bit more about things like extinction, symbiotic relationships, etc., in their games. 

Also, assuming those three are connected, I feel like this all but confirms what I think everyone thought: that Koraidon and Miraidon are Dragon types? Which would be neat, considering we haven't had a Dragon type on a main series cover since Gen V (well, outside of remakes -- thanks for ruining the streak BDSP!)! And also because it's the best/coolest type 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Julius

[Ashley]

Does anyone else think that these Pokémon with the fake wheel things just look like they have giant tumors?

[Glen-i]

13 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Does anyone else think that these Pokémon with the fake wheel things just look like they have giant tumors?

I mean, I kinda see it with Miraidon, but the other two look so much like wheels that I don't see it with them.

Another reason I'm happy to go with Scarlet.

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

and also just so happens to be capable of attaining a speed - 70 mph - which is typically the top end of what you'd expect any human-controlled vehicle to be going legally (obviously there are exceptions, would be curious to know what the top speed allowed by the roads and law is in Portugal and Spain on roads which enable it).

70 mph is roughly 120 km/h, which is the speed limit of highways around these parts.

Cars can generally go faster than that (rare to see one that can't reach 200 km/h), but they're made in France or Germany or whatever. So ask them about that nonsense.

[Julius]

13 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

70 mph is roughly 120 km/h, which is the speed limit of highways around these parts.

Ah cool, yeah that sounds about right. Over here it's 70 mph, pretty sure there are places across Europe (and much of the world) where there are going to be exceptions (such as the Autobahn in Germany), but was trying to get a general idea if that was also true over in Portugal (and Spain). 

17 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Cars can generally go faster than that (rare to see one that can't reach 200 km/h), but they're made in France or Germany or whatever. So ask them about that nonsense.

Oh yeah, for sure, there are pleeeeeeenty of cars which can go faster than that (I mean, I'm pretty sure they have to in order to be road legal, kind of have to if 70 mph is going to be the general maximum legal speed limit on motorways and the like!).

I don't know if it still stands, but last I checked an American company called SSC had a car (the Tuatara) which broke the speed record for a road legal car at 330 mph (which a quick Google search tells me is around 530 km/h). It's nuts and extremely excessive, but I love it (especially seeing as I've been reading about that car in magazines since I was a kid )

The main reason I was curious was just to feed into my hypothesis of Cyclizar's (man that's such a great name!) maximum speed being in line with a generally accepted maximum legal speed limit of 70 mph, kind of goes out the window a little if Portugal and Spain are on a mad one with some 90 mph roads but 70 mph seemingly being the limit over there as it is in much of the world means my hypothesis can still fly.

Yeah okay, the Pokémon world isn't exactly 1:1 with our own, but we know there are cars and pretty much every other real life vehicle in there, and especially given that this is a Pokémon with a wheel in its chest and which people ride around on, I'd guess that the 70 mph speed it can achieve wasn't plucked out of thin air and is more for Cyclizar to be comparable - and perhaps even used in the place of - cars and other vehicles in that fictional world.

Will it impact gameplay? I kind of doubt it. But, it would be kind of cool though if Koraidon had a lower max speed but a greater rate of acceleration (feeding into being untamed) compared with Cyclizar, who could offer a smoother ride! 

[Glen-i]

15 hours ago, Julius said:

But I think it's the modern day incarnation of those Pokémon, if Koraidon is indeed a past variant/form and Miraidon is a future variant/form, and I think their relationship with humans is key to trying to figure out the relationship between these three. Koraidon seems very much untamed, though seemingly is tamed by humans at some point, considering its rideable; Cyclizar, I would guess, is what Koraidon evolved into (not in the literal Pokémon sense) after forming a relationship with humans over a long time.

I'm on board with that theory. Especially with regional variants kick-starting the idea of actual evolution being explored in the series, it makes the most sense. And boy, Pokémon loves peddling the whole "Pokémon and humans benefit from working together" spiel.

17 hours ago, Ike said:

Looks like it's ridable as well.

Edit: They look like NPCs so maybe not ridable by the player.

I wonder, what if a Cyclizar acts as a stand in for the cover legendary when you join another player in co-op?

It'd be kinda strange having 4 Koraidons running around the place at once. Doing that would sidestep that oddity nicely.

16 hours ago, Julius said:

Also, assuming those three are connected, I feel like this all but confirms what I think everyone thought: that Koraidon and Miraidon are Dragon types? Which would be neat, considering we haven't had a Dragon type on a main series cover since Gen V (well, outside of remakes -- thanks for ruining the streak BDSP!)! And also because it's the best/coolest type.

Best? Yeah, it's precisely why Fairy type had to be brought in, much to my Hat's despair.

Coolest? It's up there, but I'm more of a Ground kind of person. Loads of cool Pokémon that don't have to be mostly typecast into being reptiles.

Weirdly enough, I'm not much of a fan of Garchomp.

Anyway, if the cover legendaries are part Dragon, I hope they avoid Fire and Electric, Gen 5 already had those type combos covered. But looking at them, it's hard to think of anything more fitting. Although, I suppose they might be monotype (But with different movesets covering different types)? It's a possibility.

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I wonder, what if a Cyclizar acts as a stand in for the cover legendary when you join another player in co-op?

It'd be kinda strange having 4 Koraidons running around the place at once. Doing that would sidestep that oddity nicely.

We saw players in co-op riding around on a pair of Koraidon and a pair of Miraidon in the trailer we got a couple of weeks ago as part of the multiplayer section, so maybe not a stand-in in that particular case, unless plans have changed? (Timestamped to the relevant part)

I do think it could easily serve as a stand-in for the mascots up until whenever you get them, though! 

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Best? Yeah, it's precisely why Fairy type had to be brought in, much to my Hat's despair.

I remember being worried when Fairy type was first announced that it'd have a huge impact on using Dragon types casually, and even though I think on the competitive scene it has had its place as a strong counter to dragons and for things like field set-up (especially when first introduced), it hasn't really trickled down to casual play I'd say simply because the thing going for Dragon types a lot of the time is their combination of generally strong stats and great coverage. Just from a casual perspective, I don't think Fairy had nearly as much impact as Dark and Steel did back in the day from what I've read and understand about how things played out back then. 

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Coolest? It's up there, but I'm more of a Ground kind of person. Loads of cool Pokémon that don't have to be mostly typecast into being reptiles.

Yeah, I can totally see that. Nidoqueen/Nidoking, Rhydon, Wooper/Quagsire, Marshtomp/Swampert, the Flygon line, Claydol, Groudon, Garchomp...

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Weirdly enough, I'm not much of a fan of Garchomp.

Seriously though, how dare you! 

I'd need to sit down and properly think about what type would be my second favourite after Dragon, Ground is great, but I could also see it being Rock or Steel? Or Fighting...hmm. Yeah, I'll think about it! 

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Anyway, if the cover legendaries are part Dragon, I hope they avoid Fire and Electric, Gen 5 already had those type combos covered. But looking at them, it's hard to think of anything more fitting. Although, I suppose they might be monotype (But with different movesets covering different types)? It's a possibility.

Yeah, I think we talked about how much they remind us of Reshiram and Zekrom back during the initial reveal, so I'm with you in that I'd hope they don't go back to that type combo. A monotype with a clear focus on diverging movesets like you suggest would be really neat! 

I think Pokémon sometimes falls into this weird spot where some type of form/evolution/change more often than not has to result in a type change, but I think the idea of a monotype Pokémon which adapted to what was needed at the time (fire getting the ball rolling back in ancient times and electricity in the future) and will continue to do so would be pretty neat from a lore perspective too! 

[Glen-i]

51 minutes ago, Julius said:

Seriously though, how dare you! 

It's Dragon/Ground, stats are perfectly set to be an incredible sweeper, and it's some kind of shark, and yet, I just don't like it!

Now I have no basis for this at all, but compared to similar Dragon type Pokémon, such as Dragonite, it feels like Garchomp's entire reason for being is to be as cool as possible. There are no wrinkles to it. Dragonite has eye watering stats and is bloody terrifying when you first have Lance lynch one on you, but after that initial horror, it's actually weirdly cute. Kingdra is ugly as hell, but that makes it more interesting. Flygon is a cool mix of bug and dragon, despite not actually being Bug type. And while I thought Salamence was kinda boring, it got a Mega that made it a flying croissant, and I kind of love it now!

I guess I could say that Garchomp feels very focus tested. Lucario is in a similar boat. They're not that interesting.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Glen-i

[bob]

On 21/08/2022 at 9:09 PM, Jonnas said:

70 mph is roughly 120 km/h, which is the speed limit of highways around these parts.

Cars can generally go faster than that (rare to see one that can't reach 200 km/h), but they're made in France or Germany or whatever. So ask them about that nonsense.

What's the blue sign with "50" in it below the 120 speed limit ones, is that a minimum speed?

Quote

Fun fact: It can sprint at over 70 mph while carrying a human!

How much do we want to bet that it doesn't sprint at this speed in the game?

[Glen-i]

28 minutes ago, bob said:

How much do we want to bet that it doesn't sprint at this speed in the game?

It's about as likely as seeing a Pidgeot fly at Mach 2 speed.

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, bob said:

What's the blue sign with "50" in it below the 120 speed limit ones, is that a minimum speed?

Yup. 50 km/h is the minimum speed on our highways.

[Julius]

The official Pokémon Twitter account had been teasing a new Pokémon and location yesterday, seemingly based on the Painted Forest of Oma, located in Basque Country in Northern Spain...

Painted Forest of Oma

Quote

Oma forest is a work of art created by Agustin Ibarrola, a Basque sculptor and painter. The work is located in a forest near Kortezubi, in the natural reserve of Urdaibai. It is also known as the "painted forest". The work follows the modern art trend called “Land art”. Most of the trees are Monterey pines. (Source: Wikipedia) 

...and have just named the new Pokémon they were teasing as Grafaiai, I imagine derived from 'graffiti' and aye-aye? 

Well, either that or it's a funny Super Monkey Ball nod 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Julius

[bob]

If it's Portuguese and graffiti based, I'm guessing it'll be writing the word WASP literally everywhere.

[Julius]

Well, now we've got a doc-style video for Grafaiai which gives us a proper look at it:

 

[Dufniall]

It's almost as if they first wanted to do another Galarian Ponyta stream again but thought no, we can't do that to people again! I'd expected it to be more... Cuddly. And the paintings also work as traps for other Pokémon, so did he eat that Scatterbug?

[Julius]

14 minutes ago, Dufniall said:

It's almost as if they first wanted to do another Galarian Ponyta stream again but thought no, we can't do that to people again! I'd expected it to be more... Cuddly. And the paintings also work as traps for other Pokémon, so did he eat that Scatterbug?

Yep, that 24 hour Glimwood stream was abysmal, so glad that they're continuing with this doc-style stuff instead, more along the lines of the found footage they used to tease Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark last year which was also great. What I wouldn't give for a Planet Pokémon documentary! 

Heck, there was an excellent Ultra Beasts video for Pokémon GO last week which was also great, they've really tightened the ship on their marketing I feel over the last year or two:

As for Grafaiai...it's fingers give me the creeps 

UPDATE: and here's a look at Grafaiai in-game; 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Julius

[Ashley]

God the paint textures on that tree is very N64.

[MindFreak]

New trailer just dropped

Also new OLED comming:

 

[Glen-i]

Damn, that dock is nice! Joycons are nice too. If I had the money, I'd be all over that.

[Eddage]

We've come full circle, these are just Digimon 

Spoiler

Not that I'm complaining, they look awesome 

[MindFreak]

So the three different stories we can choose from are searching for Titans, going the Gym route, or taking down Team Star? 

The graphics in this trailer look awful. The models are very basic and the effects aren't very good. I hope this is just YouTube but I fear it's more general. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by MindFreak