Chase

(Spoilers for anyone who has yet to play Scarlet/Violet below. Read at your own risk. You have been warned here.) Moooooom, what do you MEAN I've done this for NINE generations now!? It's that time of the every couple of years where I randomly show up and spew some thoughts about the newest Pokemon title. Last time around, I played Brilliant Diamond so that I could reclaim the title of "Pokemon Master" and finally see what the heck made people so excited about Sinnoh in the ....2010s. Wow. We've seen some stuff since then guys. This time around, I was back on the hype train along with everyone else to see some -new- Pokemon. Today, I'm gonna give some thoughts about Paldea, it's people, it's Pokemon, and some remarks about Scarlet and Violet as entries into the series. I'm going to start with the bad things first... Guys, I survived Generation 1. I've seen ugly aesthetics in Pokemon. I'm -not- a graphics guy. That does -not- excuse S/V's optimization and performance issues. I was -definitely- more surprised Timmy Twoframes was in my class than I was Nemona. That cutscene of your first day in your homeroom is an absolute nightmare, and you see that kind of frame rate all over the game at various intervals. I'm more forgiving of things like poor draw distance in expansive overworld games - but one game I didn't review here was Legends: Arceus. PLA looks and runs a lot better than Violet did for me. The largest thing about this stuff though? Is that the game doesn't look finished because of it. It seems like Game Freak decided to intentionally tank frames so that the game would run stably enough to meet the holiday deadline. As you'll soon see, I would be just as happy with the product in February or a little later as I was here in November. other negative I want to talk about is that Set Mode was removed from the options. Which means that in order to add the slight difficulty of being unaware of your opponents' next Pokemon, you need to ignore the text prompt and then select "No" to emulate Set Mode at all. Retroactively discarding small things like this in later titles adds up over time, and there was no need to punish the loads of people who like the play the game at its hardest challenge. Lack of level scaling the further away from the academy you get once the Treasure Hunt begins is a somewhat minor gripe, because if trainers have a set team at set levels, that introduces what should be an "optimal" path for progression - which contrasts a bit with the whole "tackle the challenges in any order you'd like" vibe. They also have retained the passive level-locks for Pokemon obeying your commands, so if you wanted to do something like, I dunno, start with the Titan Pokemon path to fully unlock your travel capabilities, You'll need strong Pokemon to take on the later Titans, and thus, you'll have to take on some portion of the Gym Challenge to fully progress on the Titan path. Finally, the post-game loses some of its in-game battle challenge value (I.e. the Battle Tower or other generation equivalents.) - and replaces the rewards from such facilities with "Delibird Presents" (which, is in it of itself an awesome store where you can buy battle items for money throughout the journey or afterwards.) but does result in sort of "hoping" players are familiar with competitive strategies as opposed to suggesting them to you through some single-player gameplay. It -is- the internet age, so you could always look up how to be the best nowadays, but I did feel like I missed seeing how new Pokemon should be used in a competitive manner in game a little bit. Finally - the GOOD things. --- AGENCY. Paldea is -easily- the most non-linear Pokemon region by a country mile. It's basically laying over a traditional Pokemon experience on top of PLA's Hisui region, except better because the setting breaks between areas of the continent are gone too, making for one very large, seamless map. I mentioned above how the Titan path is the path that unlocks new travel capabilities. Doing so isn't necessary by any means, but if you really want to explore Paldea and vastly unlock your team composition options earlier in your playthrough than you might be used to, it's super nice and allows the player wide access to a ton of awesome Pokemon with plenty of game left to get good use of them. It's also nice to sort of pick and chose the EARLIER part of your Gym Challenge order. I'll give you my example. I picked Sprigitito as my starter because I figured others would go pick Fuecoco instead, and the two nearest Gyms to the academy are Bug and Grass. Fire beats both types, Water beats Bug, and Grass, just has to manage. But, because the game just lets you loose, I could choose to go East, fight the Giant Klawf and the Grass Gym first, even though I think the game's leveling nudges you Westward initially. I -think- this also holds up for the Electric and Normal gyms depending on if you -do- choose to engage in the other story paths or fight the totally optional trainer battles along the way. Topography kind of makes the Ice and Ghost gyms distant without assistance from unrestricted travel, and the Psychic gym seems to be the definitive "final gym" due to level scaling. CHARACTERS. Starting with the rival, Nemona has some pretty interesting gimmicks. She loves Pokemon battling ...maybe a little too much. She's a little possessive of the player. She's also a "Champion-ranked" Trainer who's (spoiler, again) "treasure" this term is finding a suitable rival that allows her to fight with all she has. It's kinda neat to have a mentor be genuinely happy with losing to you the whole way, and her antics got me to chuckle. She's definitely a breath of fresh air here, and I would say that even if I weren't someone who liked her personality due to the angle she takes. Arven, without spoiling anything, is the most compelling Pokemon NPC I've seen in a while. The game does him severe injustices, and he deserves a hug. Penny is.......Penny is fine. What's great about Penny is that Game Freak knows their audience. Penny, like her two colleagues above, is the friend at school who is involved in one of the story paths routinely. Process of elimination would indicate that she's a contact during the Team Star storyline. I don't -love- Team Star's continuation of new-school "evil organizations that are really just misunderstood good guys" thing, but the characters are heartwarming. Go to class. It unlocks some lovely school days shenanigans, relationships with instructors that feel fulfilling, useful rewards, a Galarian Meowth that thematically fits the purpose of the instructor who gives it to you (and is useful in Tera Raids), and details the background Legendery Pokemon path. The professors.....are worth the sticker price. Those two are...... pretty different from what we're used to. STORY. Best storytelling since Black and White. RATING: It's more fun than the game appears - don't let the many negative Internet personalities and articles burning this game into the ground over its faults fool you. 8/10. Play it.

Hey guys.....it's been a minute, huh? For most of you, you probably won't remember me - but for the few that do, one of the more infamous things about me was that I was a pretty big downer on Generation 4 - without fairly completing a Sinnoh region game before holding my bias. Well, thanks to I Love Computer Art (ILCA) and Game Freak's finally putting to rest this community's best meme (UNOVA REMAKES WHEN) - Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl released for Nintendo Switch. I own a Nintendo Switch. You guys see where this is going. Time to see if the hype in 2014 was legitimate or if I was right all along. THE REBORN IS STRONG IN THIS ONE It's pretty plain to see that Diamond and Pearl seemingly have the most evident roots in Pokemon Reborn's development. One of the most plainly used features for me in Reborn was the Explorer's Kit, which originated with this game's first iteration of the Grand Underground. However, what's even more notable is that BDSP has the same tendency to induce backtracking and the satisfying nooks and crannies of exploration that the Reborn region masks better with its varied terrains and locales. The immediate years after Diamond and Pearl must of been very exciting for this community as the game began to ramp up in development. The roots for the game - even today - seem very Sinnoh leaning when compared to other games. Feeling like Reborn is certainly not a bad thing for me, as I find Reborn to be pretty engaging. THE RIVAL IS BARRY OKAY ...sorry.... The only thing I knew about your childhood friend Barry was that he was eccentric prior to playing BD this year. *THUD*, "you'll owe me a bajillion pokedollars if you're late", the usual fluff. It does carry meaning - because Barry is a rival that uses his boundless energy to surge ahead of the player consistently throughout the journey, in the same way that Blue or Silver would often have to come back to the player in order to engage with them. When you combine Barry's enthusiasm and his always one-step-aheadism, you have yourself a rival that you might be inclined to wait for the shoe to drop. And it does at Lake Acuity when he fails to defeat Jupiter and prevent the Lake Spirit there from being taken. At least Barry managed to get up that damn snow slope quickly enough to make the attempt! From there, Barry becomes your standard endgame rival, recognizing the trainer that you are, and the steps he needs to slow down in order become like you. He's not my favorite rival, but he could be a whole lot worse. YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD BIBAREL The PokEtch's most used feature for -every- BDSP player is going to be the PokeRide feature that has been a constant since Alola and was retroactively fitted into this game by summoning (cutely enough) the traditional "HM slave" Pokemon lines of Bidoof and Starly. The effect that this has on the game is generally positive, because it allows your team of six to focus primarily on battling. Sinnoh is notorious for having a heavily HM-dependent Victory Road, and also is the region where you need to use a move slot on Defog to get through a couple areas. Sinnoh also has Pokemon that take quite a bit of developing in order to start finally feeling like powerhouses. For much of the game, you need to use those moveslots to hold whatever STAB moves you possibly can, because some of them are not bound to be all that great as it is. This is a rousing positive for a newer feature in the game. FAITHFUL IN SPITE OF ITSELF The main draw ILCA was going for was trying to reintroduce what made Sinnoh great in 2014 over re-imagining it, which caused quite a stir when the game was announced on that fateful Pokemon Presents with the classic top down style, samey-buildings, and admittedly-adorable chibi-like characters in the overworld that are very reminiscent of older Pokemon experiences. Thankfully, the graphics aren't the worst part of the games' sticking to their previous identities closer than other remakes have... The story elements are, and that's especially frustrating because there's a little game called Platinum out there that cleanly addresses these issues and Game Freak and ILCA had pre-existing material they could have reached for rather easily. Instead there are two concerns that the game leaves bare. Pacing and a very bland antagonist. Starting with Team Galactic, you have a bunch of mindless idiots committing crimes without having a clue what their leader wants to do. This isn't unique to Galactic, as Flare would essentially do the same thing later on, but again, this was fixed in Platinum with more expository scenes. The issue is further exposed when Cyrus doesn't particularly share moments with his team (which he does in Plat) nor does he get scenes to build up his motivations (which he also does in Plat). Diamond and Pearl Galactic sucked in 2007, and if it weren't for Platinum, they would suck now. Dealing with Galactic in the original games kinda either happened all at once, or didn't happen at all - and that's kinda frustrating because Galactic feels like they are literally everywhere in Sinnoh. You don't really feel like Galactic is doing anything of real consequence until they blow up a lake, and then from that point on you are blistering through the entirety of the Galactic drama in one fell swoop with Volkner, Victory Road, and the Elite Four feeling like a compulsory exercise in beating the game shortly after. Cynthia also feels a bit underutilized in this regard too (which, again, is fixed in Plat) - and while I do think all these pacing gaps help the presence of other characters, namely Barry and Dawn/Lucas, it doesn't really make the experience feel incredibly cohesive from a storytelling standpoint. THE POST GAME FEELS EXPANSIVE ENOUGH Keep in mind, this is my FIRST Sinnoh experience. Things like Ramanas Park, the Battle Zone, Pokemon Swarms, etc. feel like decent enough areas of post-completion time killing for me. After multiple generations of some battle tower thing being the feature to be, I'm happy with this one - although again. Platinum probably did it better - and it exists. ARE BDSP THE DEFINITIVE SINNOH EXPERIENCE No, that would be Platinum. However.... ITS IN WITH THE KIDS ... Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are excellent "modern" Pokemon remakes with just enough features that newer Pokemon fans have come to appreciate that they make for solid entry points into the Sinnoh experience, particularly because ILCA left so much of it unchanged from the 2007 originals. It has the right combination of new features such as finding roaming Pokemon in the Grand Underground, taking your PC with you on the go, and of course, your friendly neighborhood Bibarel that doesn't take up a spot on your team, and old feelings to remain true to what players in 2007 went through. "sinnoh fetuses" have themselves a game they can share with their children here. As for where it ranks on my now "complete" Pokemon experience? Sinnoh is very middle of the pack. The exploration that I didn't expect from constant backtracking was there, and if you put enough effort into raising your Pokemon, you can end up with some very cool teams here. It just doesn't have anything that made me overly excited about it like some other games did though.

#3: Kabu I think I know for certain that Kabu is always going to remain in the top three, and despite my favorite type of the Elemental trio being Grass, Kabu is my favorite of the three Elemental Gym leaders, with Nessa being pretty cool and Milo being...well, typical. Kabu being a Hoenn expat is pretty cool to me, because while I am a Genwunner, Hoenn is going to have a special place in my heart because that was the region I started discovering how interesting Pokémon actually can be and was driven to "be the best like no one ever was" more in that region than in any other. The other thing though, is that Kabu's battle philosophy (which is found on his "rare" league card) was essentially to click an attacking move for the longest time, before eventually making way for merely complimentary utility, such as burning foes with Will-o-Wisp. DUDE. ME TOO. #2: Bede Yes, I KNOW that Bede technically doesn't ever have the opportunity to provide the player a Gym Badge, and thus may not be considered a legitimate answer on this list even though his story does conclude by taking up the position of Ballonlea (?) Leader from Opal. If that tickles your sensitivities, feel free to consider Kabu my second favorite Leader. I don't have any qualms with that. I really like how Bede is a pretty cool echo of Blue from the first generation, except his redemption story happens in real time through the power of ACTUALLY HAVING SPECTATORS AT MAJOR POKEMON SPORTING EVENTS man, Sw/Sh is a treat-....sorry, got off the rails there. Blue taking up Viridian's position after Giovanni vacates it feels fitting for one of Kanto's best trainers, and while the Fairy gym is pretty much found in the mid-point of the game, Bede takes Opal's opportunity as a chance to better himself after being humiliated by Oleana and his former caretaker, Chairman Rose. As much as you initially dislike him, you do kinda feel good for the guy - and I could see his sudden all-or-nothing throwdown before the Champion Cup being something fans of Pokémon battling find admirable in the moment. His story has all the right notes. The final selling point though, is his team. Bede manages to move from a predominately Psychic type team with a couple of Fairies mixed in to the reverse, a Fairy team with some Psychic dashed in for personality. He adapts without really letting go of the familiarity that leaves him a satisfying rival, which allows him to FEEL like a new Gym Leader to me. Rock on, Bede. #1: Raihan At first glance, Raihan is kind of goofy. Is he some kind of tongue-in-cheek commentary by GameFreak about "what the kids are into these days" by making him appear to be an Instagram influencer of some kind? Why does he look like he's going to start laughing maniacally for no reason? ..and then you recall a theme that the game hammers into your skull and how Raihan kind of fits the mold. The importance of rivalry and having friends to push you to be the very best. Raihan serves as the latest and strongest "rival" to the Galar region's champion, Leon. You see him take on the champ in an exhibition match as the game starts. Later on, the player is introduced to THEIR primary rival in Hop, who so happens to be Leon's younger brother. Leon then drops the hint that he wants Hop to have someone to push him and to call a rival, before it becomes evidently clear why you, "that neighbor kid", get a starter Pokémon too. The player is to Raihan, as Hop is to Leon. I can understand if that comparison doesn't strike a chord with others, because Galar does tend to keep its leaders somewhat contained to their own environments, with the only exception being Piers (who gets GREAT reception among fans and is certainly up there for me too.) Honerable mentions: Bea. S/O to the best type in all of 'Mons, and she's pretty cool looking. Nessa. Nessa looks pretty cool too, and her backstory, while not really resonating with me personally, is actually pretty compelling on its own, and seems a bit more detailed than half of the other leaders. Piers. You wanna make a good Gym Leader? Don't hide him from the rest of the game. Piers is a fantastic side-kick character.

I don’t know your Toxtricity’s ability, but if it’s Punk Rock you may consider Throat Spray* as a held item for future endeavors. The spray boosts the user’s Special Attack one stage when using a sound based move, and Punk Rock also boosts sound based moves by 30% when used. Toxtricity learns Boomburst for this application, but also gets a signature move called Overdrive that also qualifies as a sound move - except its Electric type and STAB. *Throat Spray is found somewhere in Motostoke.

Man, its been....awhile. So - I've been here since '96, and when you've been playing as long as I have you definitely have "phases" of when a Pokemon game feels like it would be an enjoyable experience or feel like a chore. I have a feeling I'm going to really enjoy Sword/Shield (I'm going to pay for the double pack because I have no friends - but I AM an adult who is fortunate enough to make money) because of the time the release is falling. I am absolutely down for a Pokemon journey right now. --- Things I like so far: the Wild Area: From what seems to be out there, the WA is about the size of 1.5 LoZ:BotW areas - which is just a massive amount of space for what is essentially a randomly generated Pokemon sandbox. If there's hidden items or TMs out there as well as the WA-exclusive currency system that seems to be alluded too, it will really add to the value of the place beyond trying to give your team benchmarks against really strong Pokemon you wouldn't normally run into at certain points of your journey or looking for Gigantamax 'mons. I don't know which of the three starters I want to start with - and all three seem compelling according to potential leaks. Obviously not going to bother talking about things we DON'T know here - but earlier, when Sobble was still a possibility despite being a Water type (my least favorite type of the FWG triangle by far) it was telling that this game might be fun. Also, Sobble is VERY MUCH still in the running. The last time Water types really had a chance of me picking them? Gold/Silver/Crystal, in which Totodile seemed WAY cooler than the other two. Those were GameBoy Color titles. Team Yell and the obvious "this isn't really the bad guy organization" subtext - and even if my guess is wrong, I still love Yell's concept because of my next point. As a raving college football fanatic, having your team go into massive 100,000+ stadiums full of what are essentially Team Yell members will, at least by noise level, compare to Rocket levels of sinister for who you consider "the good guys" in that situation. They seem like a generally fun, if goofy, group. I think Team Skull aged quite nicely. The only issue I might understand is that Skull and Yell are coming in back-to-back generations. Galar is all about sports. - and this should excite not only the raving sports fanatic mentioned above, but people that really like Pokemon beyond the game franchise. The anime was ALWAYS about making battles massive sporting events, but the games seemed to fail to really make that fully realized. I've always appreciated Reborn's bleachers in gyms because it showed that it was very much possible to incorporate spectacle to the journey to being the best. I've always wondered how big a deal it was for our 10 year old protagonist to become Champion if nobody was watching it happen live on television and it really was just taking place in a dungeon-esque gauntlet of rooms cut off from the rest of the world. Glory is nothing if you don't have lots of people watching you obtain it. Things I'm not as big on that may dampen the experience if not reasonably explained in the lore. DynaGigantamaxing: Mega Evolution, at least through the 'dex entries that were assigned to megas, seemed to exist not only because of a strong bond with a trainer, but also added significant gravity to the Pokemon's health in the moment it happened. While that's...morbid, it was at least additive to the overall background in which the annual "how can we change up competitive play this time" mechanic is explained. Z-Moves seemed to fall flat because of a bare narrative surrounding it in-universe - especially because it didn't alter the Pokemon's appearance in any way. So - my concern is that perhaps making your Pokemon inexplicably large is something that doesn't have much of a reasoning (outside of Affleck's info, which does have me hopeful) or weight to the decision. Game Freak seems to be going all in on these as their big game mechanic this generation, so I hope it has in-universe consequences that make it appealing for those like me, who somewhat DO care about things outside of competitive play.

See, I was tracking with you two weeks ago because I kind of thought that we would possibly get an April Direct within the remainder of Reggie's final two weeks working for the big N - and it was right around the time we started to see Best Buy leaking Smash Joker's render potentially in their advertisements. And now its April 15th - there wasn't a Direct earlier this week, and Reggie is closing up shop today. Furthermore, we're now only a week and a half away from more news about the Royal - and now supposedly Persona 5 "S"......which most people are thinking is a Switch port of the original release with a few Nintendo enhancements. Regarding this "P5S" - Atlus actually does have a website domain for it (p5s.jp) that seems like an official announcement when more news on whatever it is will show up - on the 25th - or the second day of the Persona concert. I think the assumption may have been in the Smash community that Version 3.0 was going to drop earlier in the month. Is it possible that Nintendo is waiting on Atlus to make their announcements first? Especially if there -IS- going to be a Switch port announced, and ESPECIALLY if part of Joker's data is information we shouldn't know about yet? - it would make sense. There's still time for 3.0 to be released in April after the fact. --- Some more news about the Royal isn't out yet because its not yet the 24th, but there has been some potential leaks as to who Royal-chan is. P5R is said to be an enhanced version of the original release, with a female protagonist option that isn't Royal-chan, and that has 20 hours of more playtime with Royal-chan as a central character in the new game's plot. That's pretty interesting, and if true, we don't know if Royal-chan is a Smash rep for Persona at all because it could her OR the new protagonist (and yes, still probably only the male Joker we already know about) depending on when Joker DOES find his way to Smash Bros.

It's not much of a sacrifice when an echo fighter is involved. Sorry Richter, everyone was really only asking for Simon, and I LIKE PAC-MAN, DAMN IT-... Titania/Aegislash would be fun. Not a super creative answer, but I think her taunts and King's Shield shenanigans would make her an interesting defensive swordfighter, even in a crowded field.

The first thing that comes to MY mind as to what an alternative story would look like - involves rescuing the OTHER Phantom Thieves (assuming she's not one in the main campaign) when Bad Ending AkiRen strikes a deal with Not-Igor after he is revealed to be Yaldaboath instead. However, it does kind of imply that the "Fridge horror' (or a potentially scary thought from an otherwise harmless story maneuver) would actually be plot and not just a thinking player's reaction. It just seems like Royal-chan makes a great anti-heroine if her trailer sequence isn't meant to hint at her being a FeMC. Someone who exists in a timeline where the Phantom Thieves (or just the ringleader) succumb to personal desire and are no better than the Palace rulers whose hearts they stole.

I'll be honest, I think she's a FeMC because the difference between her and a normal Shujin Academy female student seems to just be her protagonist hair (which is GORGEOUS, sidenote.) - which contrasts with the other female confidants around her age (aside from Hifumi, who doesn't attend Shujin.) Ann pretty much wears street clothes and very loosely adheres to dress code, Makoto doesn't wear the blazer and opts or a vest instead. Haru seems to wear the PE uniform. LIke AkiRen (Joker), she wears the school uniform as it seems it should be worn -and- is rocking the turtleneck. There's also the way the trailer was shot. We're pretty accustomed to seeing the busy city square in Shibuya as a backdrop of Joker's. It's the place where he first sees the outline of Arsene, the inner self of his that yearns for rebellion. The location has significance for the protagonist - so it makes sense to draw comparisons based on the setting. --- However, I will concede, because I have to, that there is no definitive proof. It's odd that she's a first year student. It's odd that she doesn't seem to vouch for the PTs, and even Smash - with its odd leaked information - could use Royal-chan as a alt while still not being indicative of being Royal's protagonist (although, she'd HAVE to use an Arsene-like Persona if that's something Joker can do in Smash...right?) It's very possible she's the protagonist of an epilogue or alternative story - such as P3's 'The Answer'.

That is actually a pretty interesting point. One of the main themes the PTs have is struggling between busting down barriers people have by stealing the hearts of their oppressors... and stealing the hearts of high profile targets because it will increase their own renown. What that means is that in the beginning, the Phantom Thieves were really and truly "altruistic" - but if people depend on the Phantom Thieves too much the PTs were liable to lose that altruism's authenticity. For "Jane" to respond in a manner of "Yeah, helping others is cool and all, but each and every one of us should be benevolent to others instead of praising this vigilante group for doing so" is not only a creative diversion-y answer to someone like Akechi, but is also a meta statement IF "Jane" really is Joker. If it actually ISN'T Joker who is saying this, then "Jane" is being set up as a Makoto-esqe recurring foil to the Phantom Thieves in a unique way, by directly opposing the motivations of PhanSite operator and superPhan Mishima (who works hard in order to generate fame and hype for the group). That isn't disappointing either, because I think that's one of the game's best themes.

This is potentially not super newsworthy - but I don't see any mention of the first part of the titular meaning here on the forums yet. "Persona 5 R" is now officially "Persona 5: The Royal" and we will get more information on what seems to be the "Golden" or "FES" or whatever expanded edition of Persona 5 in exactly one month when the Super Persona Live Concert Event....Thing....happens. In The Royal's trailer, we see a new girl in a Shujin Academy uniform - black blazer included - standing in the middle of Shibuya looking up at the Phantom Thieves logo on the big video board. In the background, we hear a male interviewer, presumably Goro Akechi, ask a female voice about her opinion on the Phantom Thieves. Interestingly, she only goes so far as to assert that helping others is a good and noble deed, before saying she actually dislikes the Phantom Thieves and asserts that the task of helping others should fall on ones self. --- I would like to posit this character's identity as Joker. YES. THAT Joker. First, lets start with what the trailer itself gives us. The interview with presumably Akechi isn't totally unfounded to have been with a Female Joker, because a similar event takes place in original Persona 5 game. Joker isn't nearly as creative with his response as this female voice (presumably the redheaded ponytail girl the trailer lingers on) because of two reasons. The gameplay reason is that Persona protagonists speak in short one-liners, grunts, and exclamations and have their dialogue partners automatically respond to their chosen text options. The story reasoning however, is that Joker can only respond in the original game with options that range from sarcastic to full-on approval of the Phantom Thieves' actions. Here, the female voice's "dislike" could be interpreted as a measured response to keep Akechi off of her trail - seeing as she IS a Phantom Thief. And we know she's supposedly in Joker's position because JOKER is the one interviewed during the TV station field trip in the game - which mirrors the dialogue in the trailer. Her response is a bit lengthier than Joker's in the original game because its being voiced as opposed to selected from a text list, which allows her to craft a response that isn't robotic and can be wordier if need be. --- There are some strange differences however. This girl is a redhead with it done in a ponytail whereas Joker has a pretty awesome curly black mop and glasses. She also has a FIRST YEAR pin on her school uniform's lapel, where Male Joker is canonically a SECOND year student. I don't think these two discrepancies disqualify her as a potential female protagonist however. Persona 3's extended content edition had a female protagonist option that looked nothing like Minato did, so Atlus absolutely doesn't have to make their female protagonists merely genderbent by precedent. Finally, not all of the Phantom Thieves are in the same class, so P5R can place Female Joker with other classmates even if she is a first year student. --- Finally, there's the part where the second part of the title comes in. A dataminer named Dr. Hypercake found some odd things in Joker's files in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They noticed that Joker has a similar file composition as Robin, the Avatar unit from Fire Emblem: Awakening that can be either Male or Female in both FE:A as well as Smash. They found the files "JANE", "JACK", and within the "JANE" file they even discovered that there was room for a ponytail hairstyle somewhere in Joker's outfit kit. That didn't make ANY sense, because Joker doesn't ever sport a man-pony in any P5 game he's featured in, even if he can have extensions in the Dancing in Starlight dance spinoff. However, if Joker all of a sudden has a toggleable gender coming with a trailer for P5R in April dropping at right about the same time Joker is introduced as a Smash character - it makes complete sense for a ponytail-sporting female to be found in Joker's roster spot as an alternate costume. ....and that's exactly what we have. Persona 5 the Royal's next trailer with more information AND Joker's Smash debut are going to drop fairly close to one another in April. --- Of course, that's not "PROOF" by any means that this new redhead is the FEMC of P5. She could just as easily be an additional confidante (for the Aeon persona like Marie was in Golden) or some kind of antagonist based on her dialogue. What do you all think?

Hmm...how to attempt to defend Fates but stay on topic-.....oh, I know Fire Emblem: Awakening Why THIS Fire Emblem for me? Because I got into Fire Emblem with Fire Emblem Fates - and I imagine many people above had at least played Awakening first. Meaning, I had to compare Awakening to Fates, where most do the opposite. The games I came into the series with draw much of their inspiration from this game - and I think many of the times those games tried to do what this one did right, it felt shoehorned or rushed. Having children, having a wide swathe of supports between characters that would reasonably meet for the first time while in the army they are currently in - all of THOSE experiences are definitively more enjoyable in Awakening...well, maybe not the supports, but that's the most subjective point here. Where Fates decides to go a different path from Awakening, it makes Awakening suffer from a retrospective view. When your first experience with Pair Up is that both you AND your enemy can use it, and then Awakening decides that's only something you can do - it feels madly overpowered in the earlier game. The only thing a magic user with Nosferatu has to worry about on the enemy phase is their weapon breaking - because Nos-tanks can single handedly break Awakening if the Second Seals didn't do that already. Map design was significantly less compelling than Conquest, a bit less than Revelation (although less painstakingly gimmicky in that route), and comparable at best to Birthright. It might have all been drops in the bucket compared to a small lake of Fates' issues - if Awakening's story was definitively better throughout. The Valm arc in the middle didn't feel all that significant and was a significant lull aside from giving Chrom the exalt role and Robin chances to go beserk in front of Lucina - none of which needed us to go on a campaign for. While the first and final acts of Awakening are definitely better than Fates - its not a completely ironclad story either - and for me, it was more easy to criticize than a trio of games that were introduced before it.

I think the point is that most moves that are based on sound seem to be normal type. Of course that doesn't mean that Grookey is going to end up a Grass/Normal type Pokémon - but if music is indeed a key aspect of its design than it does make it seem like a fair guess due to the nature of sound-based moves. The entire Popplio line is based on circus performance, while Primarina itself is really an allusion to a bard as the previous two generations have made their starters into the mold of traditional RPG classes. Kricketune is Bug type because it really is just a cricket. It doesn't necessarily use too many moves related to its music composition ability, and when it does use something like Sing and Perish Song, those moves are still Normal Type. Kricketune could have arguably been given the Bug/Normal dual-typing to account for its background, but that typing isn't that exciting. Chatot just straight up IS a Normal type Pokémon. Yes it has a Flying subtype, but lots of traditional looking avian Pokémon are Flying/Normal - and the sound-based moves it uses are Normal. --- I will agree with you on the Zodiac point though. Foxes and Meerkat/Prairie Dog-lie creatures are loosely connected to dogs and rats.