ty_taurus

To be completely honest, I've never understood the charm of the starter Pokemon. It's kinda hard to explain... There are starters that I like, but I hate that they're starters, if that makes any sense. Like I don't want the games to force the same Grass, Fire, Water trio option on me every game, and for the games to act as if that is my spirit animal that will be my partner for the rest of my life. What if I want my special partner to be a Primeape? or a Donphan? or a Chimecho? Maybe I want to be an Ice-type trainer and have a Snover as my first partner. Most of my playthroughs in Pokemon, I drop my starter the second I catch something I like, and for the rest of the game, I pretend that was the Pokemon I received at the start of my journey. For a long time, I thought everyone else was the same--only keeping the starters if they liked those Pokemon more than the other hundreds of options. But time and time again, I see a lot of people referring to "that special Pokemon you began your journey with" and naturally that means it was a starter Pokemon. That being said... My Gen 1 Favorite is Wartortle. Wartortle is one of the Water-types I actually do like and wouldn't mind training if he wasn't a middle-stage Pokemon and thus "incomplete." I've never really liked Blastoise and am quite salty that the designers intentionally chose for squirtle to get this long, cloudy tail and ears, only to rip them off 16 levels later and shove two cannons that have no place being there into his shell. I wish the designers continued that design trend and Wartortle would've evolved into something with an even longer tail. Gen 2 is Meganium. Because Meganium is my favorite fully evolved starter, he is the worst starter in the entire game. Fate wouldn't have seen it happen any other way. I just like the simplicity of the design, and I really enjoy seeing various art of different Meganium forms. Seriously, looking up "Meganium Pokemon Variants" and you'll see a lot of cool ideas. Gen 3 is Marshtomp. Swampert's design got too grizzly for my liking, and I always found Marshtomp to be a great happy medium between Midkip's cuteness and Swampert's power. Again, Marshtomp is just an incomplete Swampert, though, because that's just how Pokemon was designed. I'm not as in love with Marshtomp, though, as I am with Wartortle. Gen 4 is Torterra. The other fully evolved starter I like, but less than Meganium. I love the bonsai design for Torterra and think it makes for such an interesting Pokemon design. Also like Meganium, there are a ton of cool concepts for Torterra variants with other trees and seasonal designs. Naturally, Torterra is also very low tier, but not as bad as Meganium. Be thankful I didn't like you more then Meganium, Torterra, or you'd be an even worse Pokemon. Gen 5 is Dewott. Like the other Water-type middle stages, Dewott has a great improvement from Oshawott, but then drives off left field to be what Samurott is. I guess I'm just a fan of happy mediums. Too bad they weren't designed to have anything advantages that their evolved forms don't have. Gen 6 is Braixen. I liked Braixen before Pokken was a thing. It would've been nice to see Fenniken's evolutionary family stay in the quadruped world like most of the fan art tried to predict, but GameFreak seems to have a vendetta against them, so I'm not sure we'll ever get a quadruped Fire starter. Even when we go to the horse or ram chinese zodiac inspirations in the future, I'm sure GameFreak will find a way to turn them into a cereal box mascot. Yeah, that's more about Incineroar, but Torracat isn't my favorite Gen 7 starter so this was really the only time to bring that up. Anyway, Braixen... I guess I just like that Braixen goes for the spell caster aesthetic in a way that doesn't take a shovel and bash you in the face with it like Delphox does. Gen 7 is Brionne. A lot of people were skeptical of Popplio, and while I wasn't in love, I liked the circus feel. Again, happy medium Brionne is able to pull of the circus performer aesthetic in a way that feels natural and simplistic. It's not like someone's screaming in your ear "LOOK AT ME, I'M AN OPERA SEAL-SIREN WITH A GENDER RATIO THAT WILL DEFY YOUR EXPECTATIONS!" like a certain seal Pokemon I could choose to name, but won't. (Hint: It's Walrein). Also, why did we get Sparkling Aria instead of a water balloon attack like Popplio and Brionne are supposed to use?

So I was thinking a little about the moves that Pokemon could learn in past generations, whether via TM, tutor, or what-have-you, and was wondering if there's any plans to include those moves somewhere in Reborn? In the official games, you have to import those Pokemon from the older games which can be a fairly arduous task if you don't already have those games. Since Reborn isn't an official game, it's not like you can access the Pokemon Bank or anything. Maybe there could be a late-post game Move "Relearner" type character that can teach Pokemon previous generation moves for shards/scales? Maybe a Pokemon Psychic that can 'see into other worlds' and teach your Pokemon forbidden techniques? I could also think of some more interesting ways of including them like an NPC using Ultra Space, or some other shenanigans, to send your Pokemon into another history and come back with one of those moves. Although, this is very asset intensive and completely unnecessary, so I imagine this would not be the optimal solution. If there already is a way to do this, and I'm a completely oblivious fool, then disregard this .

I actually like the idea of an ice elemental that people shaped a frozen treat around. It reminds me of animal crackers or other snacks shaped like animals. It's really just Vanilluxe that's the problem. First of all, there's 0 reason for that straw to be there. It's just so blatantly meant to be ice cream that it just feels like a lazy design, not to mention that there's really no interesting change between Vanillish and Vanilluxe. It's just a second head and a straw. Maybe, when Vanillish evolve into Vanilluxe, the top half (the ice cream part) of their body becomes more translucent--more frozen but still cloudy-looking. They can emit a faint colorful glow which changes the color of their top half (as if changing flavors) to signal other Vanillite, Vanillish, and Vanilluxe for different reasons. Maybe red (strawberry) means danger, blue (blue raspberry) means there's food, or something like that? Would be a good enough reason to learn Signal Beam via Level instead of tutor. Edit: Also, I don't think all the Unova Pokemon are bad, hence why I used Scraggy and Scrafty as good examples. I do believe Unova suffers from being too big, and thus some designers were struggling to make some Pokemon that thematically and mechanically felt unique, especially for less common types like Ghost and Ice. Personally, I find Sinnoh to be the worst offender Pokedex-wise. That's mostly because I think it's a bad idea to just give an evolution to a Pokemon that's weak. If a Pokemon is weak, and you want to fix that, then change their stats, abilities, typing, or whatever. I'm glad they've abandoned that mentality after Sinnoh, though. There's a reason why we don't see them throwing in new Pokemon just to fix older ones.

Alright, so one that that irks me about many Pokemon designs, not just Gothitelle's or the rest of her Pokemon family, is that there doesn't seem to be that much thought put into the designs of many Pokemon. Gothitelle's whole thing is that she's based around gothic lolita fashion in the real world. This translates into an austere Pokemon with a peculiar biology that has supposedly inspired a fashion trend in the Pokemon world that mirrors gothic lolita. But what I want to know is: why do Gothitelle and her ilk look this way in the first place? I'll tell you now that there's no answer. They just do. It doesn't matter that it seems completely illogical or counterintuitive to survival in the wild, Gothitelle and her family members are large black blobs covered in bows because someone at GameFreak saw a photo of an anime girl in a black dress and said "Well, I have a quota to meet." Alright, maybe that's a bit harsh, but hear me out. First of all, I'm skeptical to take any amount of information from the Pokedex as an accurate depiction of what these creatures are capable of in the Pokemon world. The device has a notorious track record of making some seriously outrageous claims (No, Ponyta, there is no way you can clear all of Ayer's Rock in a single leap. If that were true, you wouldn't have a weaker Attack stat than Weezing, Ariados, Anorith, Swanna, and Axew, to name a few). That being said, I do think we can look at what the Pokedex does talk about and see why that information is believed to be true of those Pokemon. So what does Gothitelle's family have to offer? They can see the future... Cool, they have the power that most other Psychic Type Pokemon are also capable of and nothing else particularly interesting beyond that. Yes, there's also some astronomical tidbits in there with Gothorita, what with being powered by starlight, but that's not uncommon for other Psychic types either, or even non-Psychic types like Ledian. Supposedly, this lets Gothitelle see their trainer's death in the future, and is meant to explain why they're always so melancholic, but that doesn't explain why any wild Gothitelles would be so gloomy. Beyond that, Gothita's entries describe their bows as feelers meant to enhance their psychic abilities, but that still doesn't answer why they're shaped like that to begin with. If we compare this to another Pokemon designed around a modern aesthetic style: Scraggy and Scrafty, we get a very different picture. Yes, they're designed to look like they're wearing baggy pants and (in Scrafty's case) a hoodie. That being said, the reason why is actually explained in their Dex entries: They shed their skin and wear it like pants because its rubbery and can be used to absorb blows from rival Scraggies and Scrafties. When under attack, they pull up the skin to use as a barrier. This plays on a number of things: Their reptilian design, as reptiles shed their skin, their Dark/Fighting typing, as that explains their crass dispositions, and the fact that they fight over territories, something common in real world nature. So if that much thought can go into Scraggy and Scrafty, then why is Gothitelle just a Psychic Pokemon with generic psychic powers doing psychic things designed to look like a gothic lolita outfit for no particular reason? Here's where I propose my redesign concept: Gothita, Gothorita, and Gothitelle, the Psychic Pokemon that can't see. Gothita, Gothorita, and Gothitelle do not have eyes and can't see their surroundings. They use their psychic energy to conjure butterfly manifestations that flutter around the surrounding area and telepathically deliver information about all they touch to their host. Once Gothita, Gothorita, and Gothitelle are familiar with their environment, their butterfly manifestations rest on their bodies and look like bows from a distance. Gothita are only strong enough to produce one large psychic butterfly, and thus fixates on whatever that butterfly lands on. Gothorita's few butterfly manifestations are able to locate light from stars and allow Gothorita access to a mental map of the sky. She can then use the stars to direct herself. Gothitelle is able to conjure so many butterfly manifestations that flutter all around her surrounding location, sending her so much information about all that around her, that she's able to move about the environment and predict her opponents movements better that Pokemon with sight. This actually doesn't change much about these three Pokemon and are influenced by the few pieces of personality that each species currently has. I know this is a little intense of a rant, but it was a cool idea, at least I think, and I wanted to share it.

Eevee Squad Update (Yes, I'll be going through all the Eeveelutions) Vaporeon Jolteon Flareon Espeon Umbreon Leafeon Glaceon Sylveon Overall, I just wanted to throw in an update to give the eeveelutions a little modernization and specialization. A 10-point boost for each form gives a little extra oomph, and the changes in moves and abilities help gives them all the extra tools they really needed. I wanted to make sure each hidden ability was the better of the two, so that's why some of them had their current hidden ability switched to their normal ability: to make room for a really spectacular hidden one.

@Zander It's called having tact. You don't have to say things like "you suck" or "you're an idiot" to insult people. You could, for example, come in and assert your perspective in a way that belittles others for not knowing what you know, and making it seem as though you're better than them because you know. @SnowGlaceon Here's what I was playing around with last time: Chimecho @Kee Berry Levitate EVs: 128 HP / 252 Def / 128 SpD Bold - Stored Power - Dazzling Gleam - Recover - Calm Mind Ninetales-Alola @Light Clay Snow Warning EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe Timid - Freeze-Dry - Heal Bell - Nasty Plot - Aurora Veil Sableye @Sablenite Prankster / Magic Bounce EVs: 252 HP / 8 Def / 248 SpD Careful - Knock Off - Recover - Taunt - Will-o-Wisp Clefable @Choice Specs Magic Guard EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Bold - Moonblast - Trick - Soft-Boiled - Stealth Rocks Mantine @Leftovers Water Absorb EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD Calm - Scald - Toxic - Defog - Roost Volcarona @Fightinium Z Flame Body EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Modest - Fire Blast - Bug Buzz - Hidden Power [Fighting] - Quiver Dance It's kinda messy right now. I was playing around with a bunch of different things and was switching around a lot.

Chimecho didn't drop any stats. He received 10 points in HP, Defense, and Special Defense to a total of 30 additional points. If you're going to try and rudely trash someone's topic, at least do it with correct information.

The Calm Mind+Dazzling Gleam change might be a good idea along with that kee berry. I think that, along with a full investment in defense might make it harder to get countered. The added special attack would make steel types even less of an issue. I'll need to see how changing the EVs goes, I'm thinking of splitting Special Defense with HP in this situation, just because I'll be building Special Defense anyway with Calm Mind. I'll look into some Trick users too.

Alright, so first hear me out. I know that Chimecho's currently classified as PU, but I've recently fallen in love with the little wind chime. Those buffs he received in Sun and Moon are a lot bigger than he's been given credit for. He's also got a lot of options, but I've been experimenting with him in OU with a Cosmic Power/Stored Power build. Currently, my setup looks like this: Chimecho Bold / Levitate @Leftovers EVs: HP 252 / Def 44 / SDef 212 Stored Power Toxic Recover Cosmic Power I'm still testing out EVs, but trying to find a good balance that keeps me safe from being 2hit KOed by Knock Offs and Shadow Balls. The main strategy here is pretty clear: Build up Cosmic Powers to be unkillable, Recover when necessary, and smack things with a massive Stored Power. It's actually been quiet effective, but it's not without its counters. Toxic helps hit Dark Types where I can then either stall them out or swap if I'm not afraid of losing whatever boosts I might have. Mega Sableye is my biggest counter though. You'd think Taunt from other Pokemon would also be an issue, but because no one really expects to see a Chimecho in OU, no one has any clue what I'm up to before it's too late. Toxic can be problem, but I have one good support Pokemon thus far. Currently, my biggest ally is an Alola Ninetales with Light Clay, Aurora Veil and Heal Bell. The Veil is super helpful, and gives me a great opportunity to swap in since that, along with a Cosmic Power boost is usually enough to get the ball rolling before the screens wear out. He's a definite must on my team to make this strategy work. Beyond that, I'm finding my own Mega Sableye helps by spreading burns on steel types, especially Scizor, and reflecting nasty status moves that anyone tries to throw on Chimecho. Beyond that, though, I've been playing around with options like Clefable, Mantine, and some others, but I'm not super sold than any of them are what this team needs. Anyone have some good suggestions on what might be some much needed support to keep this team's momentum going?

I really love this fan art of Mega Girafarig, but I would design them differently than in the original creator's description: Mega Girafarig Normal/Psychic Ability: Duality The user attacks twice. The second attack hits for 50% base power and counts as the opposite damage category (Physical or Special) to the first attack. Example: If you use Psychic, a Special attack, the second attack will be treated as Physical and hit for 50% damage. HP 70 (+0) Attack 80 -> 105 (+25) Defense 65 -> 80 (+15) Special Attack 90 -> 105 (+15) Special Defense 65 -> 80 (+15) Speed 85 -> 115 (+30)

I tried finding information about the Gen II release, but I can't find any sources that point to January, or ones that reveal the CP levels of Pokemon. Everything I'm finding says May 2017 for Gen II, but I also can't find any articles from November or October.

Ooh, I thought it was confirmed for the summer. I suppose that changes things up a bit. Still though, I think events like that would've kept players into the game a lot more consistently, rather than flooding the gates with large events occasionally and having them die down again.

So how would you feel if, instead of expanding the Pokedex per Generation annually (which isn't guaranteed, but that what it looks like it might be like...) we had weekly/bi-weekly/monthly events that introduced a few new Pokemon based on theme, not Generation. Here are examples: Halloween (Already passed but for the sake of example) - Along with the increased encounter rates for Pokemon we saw, the game also introduced Murkrow, Honchkrow, Misdreavus, and Mismagius, and gave them Night only encounter rates after Halloween. Early November - Night and Day encounter Pack - Sentret, Furret, Ledyba, and Ledian as Day only encounters and Hoothoot, Noctowl, Spinarak, and Ariados as Night only encounters. Late November - Thanksgiving Celebration - Snorlax removed from eggs and Munchlax introduced, Lickitung nerf and Lickilicky introduced. First Week of December - Leading to the Holidays 1 - Chingling and Chimecho added. Second Week of December - Leading to the Holidays 2 - Deerling and Sawsbuck added. Third Week of December - Leading to the Holidays 3 - Snover and Abomasnow added. Fourth Week of December - Holiday Celebration - Delibird and Stantler added, and with them they bring new powerful Pokemon! Larvitar, Pupitar, and Tyrantiar added. Early January - New Year babies 1 - Pikachu, Clefairy, Jigglypuff, and Mr. Mime removed from eggs, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, and Mime Jr. added. Late January - New Year babies 2 - Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar removed from eggs, Smoochum, Elekid, and Magby added. Togepi and Togetic added. Early February - Valentines Day - Miltank and Luvdisc introduced. Increased encounter rates for these two along with Tauros, Smoochum, and Jynx. This is what I was thinking we could see if Pokemon GO was designed this way.

Difficulty settings would be a blessing. Just making the game easy might be suitable for the target audience of children, but it makes the more skilled players feel ostracized. Giving the player a choice allows all players of all skill levels to enjoy without needing to enforce custom made restrictions. Casual would be like X and Y, Competitive could be closer to what Reborn and similar fan games are like, and Normal can fall somewhere in between. Also, if a Gym Leader/Trial Captain is going to use only 3 Pokemon, shouldn't we be restricted to 3 as well? It should be an even fight. I'd also like for the games to allow Pokemon customization from a gameplay standpoint. We can play with EVs and IVs now, but let us permanently change Natures and Abilities as well, that way we can eliminate the breeding mechanics completely. Pokemon should be about raising the Pokemon you catch to be as strong as they can be, not breeding out imperfections like in a puppy mill. Breeding moves could be redistributed to Tutors. You could have NPCs called Nature Coaches. Once per day, you can train a Pokemon with them to help your Pokemon change it's nature. Leaving your Lax Weavile with the Adamant Coach will change it to Adamant. Then it's just about allowing Ability Capsules to work similarly to how they do in Reborn: a permanent change that includes hidden abilities.

I wan't to talk a little about the natures system. Right now, natures work by giving one stat a 10% increase while another gets a 10% decrease. The problem is that there are really only a couple useful natures for each individual Pokemon, and with a grand total of 25 natures, most wild Pokemon don't like the natures they are found with. There's also a big gap between with natures are useful at all, and which are completely useless no matter what Pokemon we're talking about. Let's break it down: Useful Natures - These are used on almost every Pokemon, but each Pokemon having a preference for only a few. Adamant / Jolly / Impish / Careful or / Modest / Timid / Bold / Calm - These natures have a penalty of either Attack or Special Attack. Realistically, Pokemon are only ever needing either four or five of their six stat: HP - Defense - Sp Defense - Speed and sometimes Attack OR Special Attack (never both). This is because one: with only four moves per Pokemon, there just isn't enough room for adequate Physical and Special coverage, and so the weaker of the two is usually ignored. And two: even if you could have enough room for a Physical and Special coverage set on a single Pokemon, you can only boost two stats all the way through EVs. You're better off boosting Speed for faster damage, or a defensive stat for more survivability. Situational Natures - These are useless to most Pokemon, however, there are a select few that can actually benefit from these. Brave / Quiet / Relaxed / Sassy The only Pokemon that want these kinds of natures are few and far between. They rely on strategies that benefit from being slower, such as using Trick Room. Useless Natures - These should never be used on any Pokemon ever Bashful / Docile / Hardy / Quirky / Serious But especially never these... Gentle / Hasty / Lax / Lonely / Mild / Naive / Naughty / Rash Here's the thing, I mentioned before how you only ever have four or five stats that are used in battle. Because there's always one completely unnecessary stat, there's no reason to take a neutral nature, because you're missing out on a major opportunity to boost one of your more useful stats. As for the 'especially never' aspect, these natures reduce either Defense or Sp Defense. You should never want to make yourself take even more damage when you could just penalize an unused Attack or Sp Attack stat. All that having been said, let's think of a solution. The idea is to create a set of natures that aren't so clearly unbalanced, and that multiple natures can be considered viable on any given Pokemon. A part of this also comes from restricting natures based on the Pokemon so that they are complimented by any nature they could possibly have. Here are several examples that I've come up with: (All of these apply per turn. Rash, for example, only kicks in if they have been attacked that turn.) Aggressive - Boosts Damage Dealt by 10% against slower Pokemon. Bold - Boosts Defense by 20% before this Pokemon has acted. Brave - Critical Hit Damage increases by 50%. Calm - Boosts Special Defense by 20% before this Pokemon has acted. Careful - Boosts Evasiveness by 20% when targeted by Status moves. Hasty - Boosts Speed by 15% when in critical health. Impish - Boosts Speed by 15% when using Status moves. Mild - Boosts Defense and Special Defense by 10% when using Status moves. Rash - Boosts Attack and Special Attack by 20% if this Pokemon took damage. There would have to be many more. Remember that Pokemon wouldn't have access to all natures. Shuckle, for example, couldn't be found with Hasty or Impish natures. Please share your thoughts. If you don't like this idea, please share your thoughts on what could be done to balance natures properly.

So I just finished the events at the top of mt Valor and experienced the montage of cutscenes featured around the island. Now I woke up in the ship with no passengers with no explanation, no indication of where I'm meant to go, and I'm completely lost. Am I missing something? Was there something said that I missed? And where am I supposed to go?

Intense Mode Team Spotlight Going through Intense Mode, I wanted to create a few Pokemon Spotlights to showcase my team and how they've performed for me. The goal of this is to help anyone new to the game or looking to use Pokemon they might not ordinarily use. It's also to provoke some fun discussion for anyone else also using these Pokemon. Enough with the introductions though. Let's move onto today's team member: Winter - the Seel/Dewgong Male Gentle (+ Sp Def / - Def) Thick Fat IVs - 12 / 27 / 25 / 26 / 20 / 30 Winter is my second major team member for my blind run of Pokemon Rejuvenation acquired after a few hours of viciously gambling at the Voltorb flip, where I also earned enough coins for all three TMs, and my third team member whom I'll talk about another day. I chose to talk about Winter before my first major team member for no particular reason, but we'll be talking about her sometime too. Anyway, being a future Ice-type, Winter had access to some early Ice-Type attacks, primarily Icy Wind which was pretty helpful in the beginning of the game. A great example is how it decimated Ren's Murkrow in two hits. Also having access to Headbutt, I was able to pull of a lot of fun flinch/paralysis hax later when my strategy included paralyzing everything with another team member. Winter's dominance as an attacker was unfortunately short lived, as his low base stats for Attack and Special attack quickly caught up to him. Not only that, but he didn't get STAB on Icy Wind (and later Aurora Beam). Furthermore, he didn't even get a Water-Type attack until level 31, Aqua Jet, which had too low a base power to work with, and later Brine at level 33, which was still just a middle-of-the-pack attack. I ended up using an Exp Share to boost Winter through most of his levels in the 20s, and get him to evolve at level 34 into the glorious Dewgong. As a Dewgong, Winter gained a much needed boost in offensive and defensive power to make him capable of fighting again, but this was also a short lived victory. You see, while a Dewgong's stats aren't terrible, they're not offensively powerful. Attack and Special Attack sit at a base 70, which means you really need powerful attacks to do reliable damage, but poor Winter was stuck using Aurora Beam and Brine all the way to level 49 when he learned Aqua Tail (I skipped Dive). This means he was still trailing behind, as there weren't any good TMs for him to rely on. This was coincidentally around the time I acquired Surf as well. Finally, Winter has become a strong contender on my team, with Aqua Tail and Surf doing considerable damage to all things that don't resist it. I've just beaten Crawli, and looking forward to finally learning Ice Beam, where Winter can truly shine. Ultimately, Seel and Dewgong have a hard time in Rejuvenation due to the lack of TMs, as their level-up moveset takes such a long time to start getting powerful moves. On the bright side, Thick Fat makes Dewgong one of the few Ice-Types that can tank fire attacks like a boss. I've also held onto Rest, and am looking forward to getting the Rain Dance TM and switching Dewgong over to Hydration, where I can fully heal and let the rain cure my Sleep. This will be another major spike in Winter's power. Training a Seel from the beginning lets you hold onto Rest, whereas catching one later will have too high a level and will require breeding, so that's also something to think about. I mentioned that I skipped over Dive, but if you have Toxic Spikes support, Dive can actually be a good move to use for your Dewgong. Very few Pokemon learn Dive through level, and Dewgong is the only Ice-Type that does (level 45). Dive not only has decent power, but it allows you to skip an enemy's attack every time you use it while the toxic poison eats at their HP. Combining that with Hydration/Rest/Rain Dance, and you have a bulky Pokemon that can outlast the poison and your opponent. This concludes my Spotlight of Winter the Seel/Dewgong. Did that help any Seel lovers out there? Does anyone want to try using a Dewgong now? Share your thoughts below.

I dare you to watch the raw episode with the auto-translate for english. The dialogue is hilarious. "Serena - Satoshi!" "Ash - Hit each. It became a clack." "Bonnie - But on the other hand, composer."

I don't think Aya's going to die, but what does it mean for people who hold the badge of a gym leader that has passed? Like if Julia suddenly exploded, would everyone who has her badge have that badge become invalid and thus need to challenger her replacement? Or would everyone who has already earned the badge from Julia get to keep it?

Not all Pokemon based on aquatic or semi-aquatic animals need to be Water-Type. Most have been because that's usually as far as Game Freak goes, but with the proper style and theme, you can very well justify other type-combinations under the sea. Stunfisk isn't the most glamorous example, but it is an example none-the-less.

Well abilities that negate Type-damage in exchange for boosts, such as Flash Fire or Storm Drain, prevent attack animations from happening in the first place. Instead, nothing plays, you see the ability activate, and it's effect occurs. With the trailer, not only does the Razor Shell animation play, but Sandygast is clearly showing the animation that it was just struck, and you hear the super-effective sound effect. Even if they changed failed attacks and attacks that miss to show the animation, I doubt that the target Pokemon would react.

Didn't think of that, actually. It still seems like a lot of work for a defense boost though, even if its a +2. Attack/Special Attack or Speed would've been much more threatening, though those wouldn't make sense based on the name of the ability. I think the idea of a Pokemon based on a sandcastle is a fun one, but I don't think the execution was that great. I mentioned this in another post, but I much prefer Pokemon who take their themes and use them to inspire design choices, like the Scraggy line using its dead skin as baggy pants and a hoodie. I just feel like Palossand is just a sandcastle with a face, and that disappoints me a bit.

I feel like Palossand is a bust Pokemon. Unless its stats are astronomical, the ability really does not compliment it at all. First, you have to take a super effective hit, which is going to hurt no matter what, and no one wants to switch into a super effective hit for just a defense boost. We even see that Shellder's Razor Shell takes sandygast down to about 1/3 HP. The defense boost isn't going to save it from another Razor Shell. Also consider that most Water-Type moves are special. There are quite a few physical Water-Types, but I feel like you're more likely to run into Scald users rather than Razor Shell or Waterfall. There might be some wildcard elements that could save Palossand, but things are looking pretty grim. As for Stufful, I'm curious about what its stats will look like as an un-evolved Pokemon. It looks pretty babyish, and thus might be on the low end of stats. But if it has something closer to a Pokemon like Ponyta or Sneasel, with its points in the high 300s - low 400s, it might be a powerful eviolite user. Halving contact moves with Fluffy, and all damage with eviolite could make it insanely bulky against physical attackers. We'll have to see.

This kinda thing is why I chose to ran HP EVs on more sweeper-esque Pokemon like my Furret. It's EVs aren't perfect yet, since I haven't returned for my EV berries in this play through, but I'll end up with 252 in attack for damage, and split the rest between HP and Speed, so I can outrun a few faster things as well as take hits better.

So the only Fire Emblem games I've gotten my hands on are Radiant Dawn, Awakening, and Fates. While it's not the most selective list, I've played all three numerous times and have some pretty well loved characters that I always use. 10. Owain/Odin (Awakening/Fates) 9. Micaiah (Radiant Dawn) 8. Silas (Fates) 7. Rolf (Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn) 6. Lyre (Radiant Dawn) 5. Keaton (Fates) 4. Maribelle (Awakening) 3. Henry (Awakening) 2. Hinata (Fates) 1. Donnel (Awakening)