Pokemon Z?

[recme]

Normally people use "greater than" signs rather than arrows so I thought your list was all kinds of backwards!

I just want you to know that your signs are backwards. Unless your favorite is Gen 4, that is

alright alright, ill correct them..! :p

[Zac]

gen 4 < gen 6 < gen 5 < gen 1 < gen 2 < gen 3

there could be some bias here, but i really liked the tropical feeling gen 3 gave off. it was really cool.

I hear this a lot but was it really like tropical at all?  Most of the mainland is like dense wooded area and way more foresty than jungly, and the islands are mostly rocky )one of the coastal islands in an ice cave for that matter) and the water and  deep sea floor lacks the kind of diversity that you really think of when you picture tropics 

If it's going for tropical it really only has like.. tropius and sharpedo as complementing elements 
sure hoenn is an island but, especially in the original games, it does an awful job at conveying anything tropical
I'd only call it tropical in the most literal sense, that its based on an area that actual exists in tropics

[Helmo]

I mean it has beaches but.. I never felt it was too tropical either. I remember all the dense forests more than anything.

I want the next pokemon games to take place in a more interesting locale, like Madagascar, New Zealand, Australia etc.

[TomGuycott]

How about a game that starts in a more frigid climate?

Northern Canadian Pokemon, ey?

Or Russian Pokemon.

[Helmo]

How about a game that starts in a more frigid climate?

Northern Canadian Pokemon, ey?

Or Russian Pokemon.

Why would you want that? Sinnoh had plenty of snow, Kalos had plenty of snow, and most animals found in snowy regions already have a pokemon based on them. Bear, deer, oxen, foxes, seals, walrus, etc.

That sounds really boring and all I can see are ice, water, and normal types coming from it...

New Zealand, Australia, and Madagascar have very unique wildlife due to their geographic locations.

Lemurs, Tenrecs, Giraffe weevils, are all very unique and could result in some great pokemon.

[TomGuycott]

I'd mainly want a Russian themed area for the chance to have a gym leader based on Soda Popinski.

Have Soda Popinski be the player's dad.

[Tellis]

Yeah I was about to say, that was pretty much Platinum, right? Like I understand people didn't play it but like... it honestly makes Sinnoh a way cooler (PUN TOTALLY INTENDED, NERDS) region in my eyes. I feel like it'd be more of the same. Also Kalos' snow areas sucked?

Personally I'd really love a region based on the Pacific Northwest/the area surrounding Seattle. I think they could do a lot with how diverse the whole state is with rain forests and beaches and many different islands (like Hoenn but not water forEVER) in the west and lots of desert and farmland and (though I'd worry that maybe the region being split down the middle by the Cascades would make it too similar to Sinnoh?) Though I'll freely admit it's because I'd love to see what they'd do with the area I grew up in...



As for the idea of a Pokemon Z... I genuinely don't care? If me thanking almost all of StarSock's posts here wasn't enough indication, I wasn't a big fan of Kalos! I don't know how but they somehow made France boring? Plus they took away a lot of cool things that BW2 added (not the least of which was Gym Leaders actually having character beyond "hey let's fight!!"). I'm not sure what they would add that could possibly get me hyped up about slogging through Kalos again other than maybe both INCREDIBLY expanded customization options and a massive post-game a la Battle Frontier but better. But... there's no way that's happening? I'm not counting on Z being X/Y's Platinum...

Oh, actually, if they made Lumiose suck way less, that'd be a lot of points towards Z as well. Color-code the city! Have a persistent map! Anything to make navigating that place less of a hellhole!

I'd mainly want a Russian themed area for the chance to have a gym leader based on Soda Popinski.

Have Soda Popinski be the player's dad.

I'd rather the player's mom be a gym leader before repeating the "your dad's a gym leader" rigmarole again.

[psychospacecow]

I think part of the reason why gen 6 has its quirks is because of the transition from 2D to 3D.

[NICKtendo DS]

I'd rather the player's mom be a gym leader before repeating the "your dad's a gym leader" rigmarole again.

You start the game.
Player character wakes up.
Player character walks down stairs.
It's a Gym, with the player character's Gym Leader mom just done beating some trainer kid.
Breakfast.
Mother brags about her position, making player character feel worthless.
Player character goes to Professor Treeforaname.
Player character gets starter Pokemon to prove him-/herself.
Mother is happily married to an old spin dial telephone.
Team <blank> does morally ambiguous stuff.
Head of Team <blank> is none other than dad! (Still an old spin dial telephone).

[recme]

I think part of the reason why gen 6 has its quirks is because of the transition from 2D to 3D.

not really. i mean, it still has its top down perspective + the same battle mechanics. how did 3d affect the game, other than the whole lumiose city deal?

[Tellis]

Perspective + battle mechanics are not the only thing that affects the whole of development! I would say that development time was almost certainly affected by it being a fully 3D game, which is something that Game Freak had never done before! (keep in mind, Pokemon Stadium,Colosseum and Battle Revolution were all handled by different developers)

They had to create models for buildings, characters and Pokemon (and they didn't skimp on this; as all Pokemon have updated, if not brand new, models) which is something they didn't have to do before, not to mention it's their first venture onto the 3DS as a system, which explains a lot of the weird frame delays in battles with a lot of models + slowdown in menus. Diamond and Pearl also similarly suffered from being the first games on the DS, as there was massive slowdown in battle speed due to damage calculations and how they hadn't really optimized the game that well.

Now, that doesn't EXCUSE any of the flaws but it certainly provides a different perspective as to the game's weird design quirks. I mean, there's plenty of games on the 3DS with more models, more complicated models on screen at once that don't suffer the same slowdown issues (Smash Bros and Monster Hunter, for example) and they could have delayed the game to iron out the kinks (I mean, the worldwide release may have made them have to rush the game as well!). But like... doesn't change my opinion on the game as a whole.

[psychospacecow]

I think part of the reason why gen 6 has its quirks is because of the transition from 2D to 3D.

not really. i mean, it still has its top down perspective + the same battle mechanics. how did 3d affect the game, other than the whole lumiose city deal?

Well, this is coming from someone who really  doesn't know what they're talking about, but from my understanding, they would reuse or edit some Pokemon sprites between games, and the sheer amount of work involving making and animating all those pokemon would constitute a lot of the work.

---

Perspective + battle mechanics are not the only thing that affects the whole of development! I would say that development time was almost certainly affected by it being a fully 3D game, which is something that Game Freak had never done before! (keep in mind, Pokemon Stadium/Colosseum and Battle Revolution were all handled by different developers)

They had to create models for buildings, characters and Pokemon (and they didn't skimp on this as all Pokemon have updated, if not brand new, models) which is something they didn't have to do before, not to mention it's their first venture onto the 3DS as a system, which explains a lot of the weird frame delays in battles with a lot of models + slowdown in menus. Diamond and Pearl also similarly suffered from being the first games on the DS, as there was massive slowdown in battle speed due to damage calculations and how they hadn't really optimized the game that well.

Now, that doesn't EXCUSE any of the flaws but it certainly provides a different perspective as to the game's weird design quirks. I mean, there's plenty of games on the 3DS with more models, more complicated models on screen at once that don't suffer the same slowdown issues (Smash Bros and Monster Hunter, for example) and they could have delayed the game to iron out the kinks (I mean, the worldwide release may have made them have to rush the game as well!). But like... doesn't change my opinion on the game as a whole.

Tellis, your way of phrasing the things I'm trying to think of how to say are astounding.

[TomGuycott]

I'd mainly want a Russian themed area for the chance to have a gym leader based on Soda Popinski.

Have Soda Popinski be the player's dad.

I'd rather the player's mom be a gym leader before repeating the "your dad's a gym leader" rigmarole again.

X and Y went through the trouble of giving the mom a somewhat interesting backstory (I think she was a Pokemon racer), but to my knowledge they never really DID anything with that. I'd love to see them at least have her ride in some sort of story related element if they do this Z version.

[Tellis]

I think it's funny that you mention that, because like, now that I think about it... despite making a semi-big deal about that whole racer thing, she kind of didn't do that much compared to the moms of Gen IV and V!

The mother of BW's hero explicitly mentions going on a journey of her own, and the mother of BW2's hero used to work at a Pokemon Center and even remarks on knowing the BW hero's mom, iirc. And Johanna, the Gen IV mom, even has her own Pokemon whom she enters into Master Rank Pokemon Contests! Like, she actually LEAVES THE HOUSE.

Heck, even Gen II mum bought you stuff from time to time...

[Zac]

we had a plan for a pokemon game that took place in the heart of the US, like going down the Mississippi with vast fields of corn and wheat
I still think that'd make a cool setting