Bevendre

New Japanese trailer for Sun and Moon showed off more than I expected including: 

• Riding on Tauros, Lapras, Sharpedo and Stoutland
  
• Trainer acting and posing in battle, possibly connected to Synchro evolution
• Synchro evolution possibly not changing a form or sprite, and just boosting stats or effectiveness, kind of like having max friendship from Amie
• Synchro possibly being usable with unevolved Pokemon
• An expanded Pokemon Amie function wherein you can groom Pokemon
• Several newly shown locales including an active volcano

More information is set to be shown on 7/16

Drampa:  Don’t you touch grandpa Falcor!  He is a precious fluffy noodle beast who definitely looks more draconic than a number of earlier Dragon types.  Sap Sipper is always a strange ability on a Dragon type, but always a good ability overall for teams with Grass trouble, especially if it has the moveset to take advantage of the Attack boost.  If Drampa is more specially focused its new ability Berserk sounds amazing, giving it an as yet unspecified boost to its Special Attack when below 50% health. Great potential and a lovable design.

Togedamaru:  Precious spiny derpball and what looks to be a new spin on the Pika-clone trope.  Togedamaru looks to be MUCH more defensive between its Steel typing and Iron Barbs ability, while also being offensively viable using Lightning Rod.  Also it sneezes and prickles up, which is adorable.

Charjabug/Vikavolt: More Bug/Electric types are very much welcome, and since these are the evolutions of Grubbin are likely available early on.  Charjabug’s Battery ability gives a boost to ally Pokemon’s Special Attack, making the bug-bus a potentially viable pupae Pokemon for the first time ever.  Then it evolves and becomes the Vikavolt, gains Levitate, and looks awesome.

Bruxish:  The only design that I’m really iffy on so far.  On one hand it looks gaudy as hell, on the other hand it’s a colorful and relatively complex design for a fish, and the setting is tropical.  There are some freaky looking and painfully colorful fish IRL, so I can’t really give Bruxish too much crap design-wise.  We haven’t gotten a Water/Psychic Pokemon in a while, and Strong Jaw is always a welcome ability so long as it has the right moveset.  Barring that it has the new ability Dazzling which prevents moves with a heightened priority from hitting.  Eat your heart out Prankster and Gale Wings users.

Cutiefly:  I want one.  I don’t care if it’s not good.  I don’t care if it evolves or not, though I’d love to see an evolution.  The little bugger is adorable, and it’s Bug/Fairy which we’ve yet to see.  Also it has Honey Gather which means Horde Battles are back, or special trees are returning.  Sinnoh confirmed.

Tapu Koko:  Tiki bird warrior.  I shouldn’t need to say anything more.  New ability that instantly makes the field Electric Terrain (No sleeping, and 50% Electric power boost) and a new move, Nature’s Madness that halves the opponent’s HP, coupled with its description as a guardian deity definitely hints towards legendary or pseudo-legendary status

Overall good designs, or at least designs that aren’t bad and are growing on me.  Can’t wait to see more.

Things from Sun and Moon I didn’t realize I wanted: Amiibo support.  Tap an Amiibo to unlock a themed trainer i.e Link, Samus, Mario, etc. to battle at a predetermined location.

Things that excite me from the new Sun/Moon trailer:

• New region being a chain of islands, so Surf will actually be used more than once
• Rotomdex
• Real time updating Town Map on the touch screen that marks places of interest
• Expanded character customization
• Solgaleo and Lunala
• That day/night cycle difference!
• That night cycle skybox.

Things that are possibly alluded to in the new Sun/Moon trailer:

• Possibly two rivals, Hau and Lillie (Hau was shown to choose the starter weak against yours)
• National Dex integration during main game through QR codes
• Second starter set?  Your initial starter is not given to you by Professor Kukui, or his assistant, and there are still 4 generations of starters without Megas
• MORE MEGAS
• Non-static Pokemon locations
• Day/Night variation in Pokemon locations and rarity

So much potential from Sun and Moon so far.  Can’t wait to see more.

Every generation of Pokemon adds or changes something in the core mechanics that fundamentally changes how things work.  Except for 5th gen.  5th gen didn’t really change anything except that TMs could work more than once.

A generation of Pokemon typically lasts between 2-4 years, and in a recent teaser for 2016′s movie a new Pokemon was spotted, so the potential for the 7th generation to release late next year is fairly high.  6th gen changed a LOT for the series, but as with every generation there are some ideas that didn’t make it in for one reason or another, and at least some of those will make it in to the next generation.  Personally, my list of top wants from the 7th generation include:

• A new region based in part around Central Europe with connections to Kalos, featuring a variety of locales and a massive lake that forms a sort of inland sea.
  
• 100+ new Pokemon, including a few, FEW normal evolutions of previous Pokemon.
  
• More Mega evolutions!
  
• More version exclusives, including new legendary water types in the inland sea i.e. a sea serpent in one game and kraken in the other
  
• Less constrictions on the Pokemon that might appear.  Make Pokemon likely to appear in certain areas, but include more unusual or rare Pokemon all over with small encounter percentages
• More gender/location dimorphism in Pokemon from previous generations and new Pokemon
• Less constrictions to where you can go and when, not a complete abandonment of the route formulas, but open things up more and let trainers explore!
• More trainer avatar customization
• An expanded Friend Safari
• A legitimately threatening enemy team
• A rival who is aggressive and competitive, more akin to Green/Gary and Silver than more recent rivals
• Starters that demonstrate two type triangles, as they did in 6th gen, but with secondary typing that works in inverse to their primary typing i.e. Grass/Steel, Fire/Fairy, Water/Fighting
• A post game that, with Friend Safari and version exclusives, allows access to all previous Pokemon outside of event exclusives

There’s more that I want in particular, but those tend to just be type combinations/Mega evolutions/types of Pokemon that I would like to see. 

Gamefreak hates Treeko.

Heads up!  If you have ORAS in the US, then you can get the Eon Ticket, allowing you to get Latias on Omega Ruby, and Latios on Alpha Sapphire by entering the code 2015LATIOSLATIAS into the code option of mystery gift.

Only available until March 2nd!

“New Pokemon games are too easy!  It’s bullshit!”

Actually, the new games are no less difficult than the old games.  The only difference is that mechanics changed to allow the grinding to not be as noticeable or necessary, especially after 5th gen hurt experience mechanics hard.  If you think 6th gen leveling is too easy there’s a simple fix: TURN OFF THE EXPERIENCE SHARE.