Tag: Gamefreak

Yay! I am a Pokémon Princess: Pokémon Royal

Hear Ye Hear Ye, Princess Pinkie is here with a new Pokémon Post

My loyal guests and subjects, it is with the utmost delight that I am here to tell you about a Pokémon Fan Game that has eluded me for a while! I did not know of it’s existence until some sentai looking guy on YouTube told me this was among the best Pokémon fan games out there… he was not wrong!  Today I shall share my experience of the Pokémon Royal version with you!

Princess Pinkie in the Aristo Region

When I write this , I have only recently taken up the mantle of princess of Paradise Island , so I googled games in which you can be a princess. Not a lot came up, except for this super difficult Steam game with lots of stats and menus. I got bored and went looking for new Pokémon games to play!  Trough a YouTube Video I heard about Pokémon Royal! A game in which you play a princess.. or prince. As the youngest child of King Arthur and Queen Guinivere you are to embark on your very first pokémon journey… however this time.. if you win you do not just become the champion.. you the future king or queen! However for some strange reason, while you travel across the lands searching far and wide, something strange is happening, alternative forms of Pokémon show up.. not regional forms..but Pokémon from different times. It all seems to connect to a mysterious organisation named Team Knight! 

The Aristo Region features a classical Pokémon adventure, where you have to earn 8 gym badges, fight an evil team, can capture some legendaries here or there, and can capture pokémon from all 8 generations, as well as some counterparts for them of forgotten times. What’s more is the game isn’t as insanely hard as Pokémon Reborn, Insurgence or the likes, but instead ditches the “useless” stuff like worthless moves or “dead” abilities. It results in a fast paced Pokémon game that teaches you how to play at a semi-competitive level and think like a real trainer. The second gym already gives you Scald as a TM  which  is one of the best water type moves in the game and it really teaches you to keep a healthy balance between physical and special attackers, without feeling overly difficult.. it offers you plenty of variety but also shows you how a pokémon is properly kitted out.

The journey you take feels very much like Sword and Shield.. but from beginning to end basically let’s your monsters level from level 5 to right up to around 100 for the post game. When you get there though you are already around level 90.  The game throws you an exp share right away that works like the one in Pokémon Sword and Shield .. thus you can very easily get the team you want trough fairly minimum grinding Though keeping the challenge level of the orginal games with just a bit more oomph. The game features an original story that only uses Arthurian legend for namesake. Yes you will encounter Merlin, Morganna , Percival , Gallahad and Lancelot, but there is no magical sword there is no relation to the mythos .. it really is it’s own tale, that feels very Pokémon, not overly dark.. it completely feels like a legit pokémon game!  Which is nice for a change!  Fan games are either a lot darker or a lot sillier but this one gets the balance right.  Plus it does make me feel like a princess.

Pretty Princess, Silly Subjects

The game has been made by a fairly large group of people under the group of Norfolk Gaming.  They manage to create one of the best Pokémon regions I had the joy of playing trough. You bounce all across the map, unlock items to replace HM’s that willl grand you access to some part of the world but that path isn’t always in front of you. It really has puzzle elements and travel elements that remind me of Johto  and Hoenn and I mean that in the best way possible. We aren’t just walking circles, we trigger events that allow us to traverse a dynamic map! The battles are great , with trainers being much less bound to typings , unless it makes no sense otherwise (Swimmers due stick to water pokémon). The world feels alive, even bug catchers know to carry a pokémon that covers their weakness or so. 

As a result the game forces you to keep switching around in battles, healing items are a lot more sparce at least early in the game and revives aren’t available until after the fourth gym, which already is around the late level 30’s or early 40’s. This means the challenge isn’t so much in incredibly hard battles that constantly forces you to carry teams that are super effective against a specific type of trainer or gym leader, but rather invites you to build ONE team that covers everything and has some synergy amongst each other.. this is how I think Pokémon should be. I don’t enjoy those Kaizo roms. This makes you think.. yet still allows you to have fun and choose your own team…as long as it is at least semi functional. There aren’t much non functional Pokémon available anyway. No one would use shuckle for a game playthrough so why put it in the game… that’s this games motto and it makes  things great. The Temporal Pokémon, the special variants have super fun mechanics and puzzles are never a hassle so when it comes to your journey it’s such a delight.

For all the gameplay talent these developers had in their stable, they sincerely lacked pixel artists, their custom sprite work is  not good. When you see King Arthur for the first time you think… Oh boy.. this is gonna be a rough one… but no the game is great.. just the sprite work….and the name creativity I guess.   The third gym leader is a pirate, which for example uses Drake’s sprite.. but with a pirate head added to it.. but it doesn’t bland because colours aren’t adjusted. It just shows the creators aren’t sprite artists at all and at times it can really show compared to how polished the game is otherwise.  Most Temporal Pokémon are just recolours and they don’t always work.. with some great exceptions like my Hakomo’o!  Pink armored dragon yay!  But yes.. sprites can look a bit wonky and on area’s with special tiles the game can drop frames quite a bit. Which will be a constant reminder that this is a fan game, which is not a bad thing.. but some of these sprites would litterally take a minute or two to fix.. like Pirate Drake, or even King Arthur, he looks nothing like his back sprite or overworld variant.

Fit for a Queen

Like the models, the writing can be a bit hokey at times as well, plot twists are REALLY obvious and names of things are a bit to on the nose, no Morgana is not the leader of the evil team .. it’s still just names but seemingly innocent lines characters spout clearly show a hidden intention that is not revealed until much later.  There is a time travel element to this story that really reminded me of a movie about a time travelling prince, in fact the plot of this game is eerily similar to that movie.. but pokémonified.  It is not bad by any means but it is very by the numbers. It makes sense as a plot..but maybe it makes too much sense?! Every character has a counterpart it seems in the regular Pokémon world with your dad being a bit like the way Oak was originally intended and your brother being a Gary, even though his sprite is Hau… given how his mother and father look.. Hau did that happen *badum tsss quack*  While I point it out as a negative, this is really in line with how normal pokémon stories unfold though… and besides the lack of creativity here and there.. I really have no gripes with this game.

So much suddenly makes sense in this game, people actively mention that they would not like strangers in their house, but they welcome the Princess.. who may very well be their new queen, people are very friendly and helpful to you in this world as you are a somebody in this world.  So it’s not just.. “hey look a random 10 year old.. let’s give him a bike” .. no it’s OMA (Oh my Arceus)  the princess just walked into my bike store.. here have one of my bikes!  The whole Pokémon League and elite four thing is also much more a test to see if the Royal family is ready to defend the region! An elite four makes a lot more sense in a scenario like that.. as it is the gateway to a final tournament. People acknowledge that some parts of the world are more dangerous and have more dangerous pokémon so these areas are shielded from people who do not have enough badges, rather than them being locked because there is a sleeping pokemon in the way.

Areas and routes have much more a type bias with route 1 having bug and normal types, while route 2 may have some water pokémon and maybe some flying types.. The game starts you out with picking from a Dark, Fighting, Psychic core, with Zorua , Riolu and Espurr rather than the standard Grass Water Fire Core, which allows the routes to be more dynamic. Rather than hunting for random Pokémon you can hunt route 3 for a grass addition to your team, route 12 for a good ground type etc. This means you can build your party much , much more intentional with less clutter Pokémon. The Temporal Pokémon can diverge from these  biases though as do other event pokémon, which usually are good against upcoming gym leaders which makes exploring often worth your while as well, while the more generic pokémon you encounter often struggle against the gym leader.  For example when you cross the haunted forest, you’ll face the dark type gym leader next, when you travel through a rock Pokémon filled cave, you’ll fight the ground leader next.  However in case of the latter, you can find some event based water type pokémon by going off the beaten path!  I love this format! 

At the end of each track to a new town you encounter a repeatable trainer that can be challenged over and over again… so say you are stuck on the dark type leader you can go back to the route where you can find a lot of bugs or fighting pokémon, add it to your party then head back to the trainer right before the gym and repeat to make use of your exp share and level up your counter against said leader. Grinding can be knocked out within an hour that way meaning that even if you swap out your party a lot, you won’t end up putting THAT much time into grinding.. the game features a nifty speed up button that makes most grinding a matter of .. 30 minutes (provided you grind with at least some semblance of a plan).  I managed to beat the game in 5 evenings of playing with  the final stretch being a nice weekend day with a game I loved. This game has so many great ideas that it is worth picking up, and even if it doesn’t always stick to the landing of things it tries to achieve.. this game is a really great fit for any pokémon gamer who just wants another pokémon game! It might not be a Royal Flush.. but it is certainly a full house Queens over Kings!

Pokemon Top 5: Favourite Fire Types

This is it! The list that would kill my blog if it had still been just about Pokémon! After reading this list not a single pokémon fan will take me seriously anymore.. after reading this list the man with the long sleeved coats and the soft walls will come collect me! All because the fire type beats the steel type! No Charizard will not be on my list! I find him overrated and overused! It’s like you talk about Pokémon and there he is well not this time Charizard this post will not mention you……D’oowww friggin crabcakes!

With this post we will be two-thirds into every pokémon typing so the rules should be clear by now. Only one entry per evolutionary line and I am free to pick my favorite but if I dislike the final evolution a pokemon might miss a nomination..because of all the steep competition Raboot and Scorbunny come to mind, but not because I dislike Cinderace, in fact I don’t mind him at all. I just REALLY dislike how little rhyme and reason there is to their evolution line. From a though kid with  a patch on his nose, into a ninja like, into a soccer player.  Now I know the ninja like look may be a soccer player warming up .. but I see a ninja and an edgy kid. So I can’t help but feel like “this doesn’t evolve into THAT when I see it. I would have loved to see Raboot somewhere else.. in the game..not as starter but like a thing of its own.. it doesn’t seem to fit Galar in the way I interpret it but I love the design I really want to see it in a more fitting line.

Secondly a pokémon has to fit a certain flavour for me to fit the typing. The fire type mostly has that covered for me. A weird one I do not really find a fire type is the pokémon Ironically named Talonflame…yet even with fire in the name and bright orange feathers I am not sold that it is a fire type. To me it’s a speedy hawk. With its ability Gale Wings I usually run it with Brave Bird anyway and run it more as a pure flying type.  The reason  I think this is is because it gets a primary typing change. It starts as Fletchinder who is a normal flying type like most birds. Yet when it evolves it’s primary typing gets changed. That doesn’t happen a whole lot and since the time I did actually pick it up I ran with a Fennekin I gave it a normal and flying moveset and that feeling stuck for me! I recognise it’s a Fire type.. but I rarely use it as such so to me it’s like all the other birds.

Nothing with a temporary form either, while I vastly prefer Primal Groudon over regular Groudon, a primal reversion is not a form you constantly have on your team You can choose not to give it the red ob and then Groudon will stay a ground type! I think this Pokémon should always have had the fire typing because of that it represents so I was really glad when Omega Ruby gave me what I had been asking for all those years! However, it only happens when you send it into battle so no this pokémon unfortunately will not be making my list.. unlike.. a pokémon I am sure will get me discredited as a pokémon fan. 

That’s right the most hated pokémon of all times, is in my top five favourites and no that is not a stunt for attention I really and genuinely like this pokémon. I like it so much that one of the first posts I made on my website was a promotion of this adorable simian.  No one shared love for it so now it is back with a vengeance! I honestly feel that everything deserves love so when I saw Simisear get so much hate I just could feel it weeping that nobody cared for it.. I heard it cry so I picked it up and realised..this isn’t so bad at all. In fact this a solid mixed attack, sure it isn’t all that special but I had a lot of fun with it. On Pokémon Showdown while doing random battles this pokémon also came up a lot for me and every  time I was happy.  I am like the patron of unloved pokémon .. I try them out and try to find the best in them and often I do and I had a blast with my sweet monkey! Who’s a good boy! Mamma Pinkie loves you even if no one in the world doesn’t!

Lorewise this pokémon isn’t particularly interesting but it has enough endearing info for me to fall in love with it more. This pokémon survives by keeping a flame within itself alive, for this it needs a lot of energy which it prefers to gets out of candy and other sweets. It reminds me so much of my OC Luma who is a near godlike creature who also needs lots of energy so she is a candy fanatic herself. Since it’s like a counter to your opponents starter and a static pokémon the pokemon fan titled “trash monkeys’  have a 87.5% chance to be male! Biologically speaking at least! I do not assume gender of course! Simisear evolves from Pansear once you expose it to a fire stone and it gains the ability to shake embers from it’s head and it sprays out fire from his tail once he is excited. The more excited this pokémon becomes the hotter it gets. So a happy little monkey is a hot little monkey!

Simisear has fairly low stats with his attack and special attack only being 98  aside from speed being at 101 the rest is all lower resulting in a fairly lackluster base stat total of 498. However Simisear gets a pretty decent moveset that can really surprise his opponents. Obviously you will want to run flamethrower or at least a powerful fire type move for same type attack bonus moves! Since it’s stats are fairly low you will want to run Nasty Plot to boosts it’s special attack!  Put on the move Focus Blast which provides Weakness covery against rock but also is a very powerful way to get around earth types and even most dragon types or anything resisting fire. Grass Knot is a great final move since all of his weaknesses usually are heavy and slow pokémon. Grass Knot deals damage based on the pokémons weight and it covers all three of it’s weaknesses so that is absolutely a great move to put on this  guy that kinda looks like Giorno Giovanna! So the best part is you can play Giorno’s theme when kicking ass with a pokémon people really can not stand! That is a win in my book!

The guy gal or otherwise who came up with the idea to make an Alolan Marowak based on a Hawaiian fire dancer should be given an award of some kind because oh my! While Cubone’s lore has always been super special Marowak always just was that  mother that just kinda got killed. I like it fine but the way it Alola treated it was amazing. One of my if not my favorite regional forms and and for those keeping track.. I really like alolan forms! It might not even be the last one we see in this format!  The hawaiian fire dancers that pay tribute to the dead alone would be enough to make it pretty special.. but they also had to give it the ghost time? Remember Marowak?! Well it’s still dead! Yet they did more with it.. you see.. this Marowak is not that pokémon that got killed.. it is actually that Cubone but it evolved.  There are  actual layers to this pokémon. And when it literally evolves an okay but sorta bland design into an almost identical looking one but better in every way with just some subtle tweaks and recolourations you know you are doing something right! , I can gush about how right this pokémon feels like me for ages and I think that is on it’s own a very powerful achievement.  For once I am not particularly  called back to my pokémon but how it fits in the entire pokémon world! Mad Props!

There is no Alolan Cubone, instead this Cubone is something that takes a different path. It’s mother was a regular , or an Alolan Marowak that got killed and Cubone this time took her bones instead of just her skull. However these bones were filled with regrets  of it’s mother of being unable to keep her child safe. Mother and child now sort of fuse into a spirit of vengeance where the former cubone functions as the body while it can manipulate the spirit of it’s mother into being flames that burn it’s targets.  With a burn that does not go away by applying water! Due to its nature and their familiarity with loss Alolan Marowak make graves for their fallen companions and honour their fallen by dancing for them, the graves consist out of little mounds of dirt. As a result of its loss it has a rivalry with the pokémon Mandibuzz, which is apparently responsible for it’s mother. Both Pokémon can be found in rocky mountainous areas, which is Marowaks habitat because it has trouble living in green environments on account of it’s fire abilities.  This calls back to the fact that cubone is the lonely Pokémon! This pokémon lives with its allies in relative isolation not to set the region ablaze. It’s lore keeps very much in mind where the pokémon came from as well as the region and I love it for it.

Alolan Marowak is much like his Kantonian counterpart a physically defensive pokémon.. as they share stats amongst each other it means their defence is the highest stat at 110 and both their offensive stats cap of at a mediocre 80. With a speed of 45  this thing is quite slow despite of its nimble dancing so it is not something you want to send in and take a hit from something it is weak against. I personally run the set with Willow Wisp.. a 100% burn guarantee move that halves your opponents physical attacks damage! Allowing it to maximise its own defences. Depending on your team set up this can be replaced by stealth rocks for entry hazards or sword dance for additional damage .. (if you have another way to burn them that would be great) you run it with its signature move Shadow Bone, which offers great same type attack bonus and as a ghost type move has some good coverage and the move Flare Blitz. THis move could be swapped out for Fire punch if you decide you rather have lighting immunity on your team with it’s lightning rod ability rather than Rockhead which prevents recoil damage. In my opinion Rock Head/Flare Blitz  is superior combination in general especially in regular gameplay moments as electric moves types usually do not want to swap into this pokémon because it knows Bone Club and Earthquake which should be your last move anyway. 

I always favoured Magmar over Charizard, because Charizard to be honest is my least favorite starter  of Gen I , I just like the other two better, since Growlithe never appeared in Pokémon Blue that meant my options were either Ponyta or Magmar when it came to a fire type. I could trade with my sister but she usually really liked Charizard and never ended up really catching fire types. At school I was a bit of a bullied kid so Growlithe was something I missed out on for quite a while. Not until a Pokémon event I visited would I get that one. So while I love Growlithe and Arcanine.. I never had the same bond with it as I had with Magmar.. my fire duck!  For those who are a bit familiar with me they know I love ducks!  Of course it doesn’t hurt that it has a pinkish shiny!  When my Lava duck got a trade tiem that evolved it into a super duck! I could not be happier! Magmar already had the previous two entries defeated in the stat department and now it got even better! A super artillery like fire duck that had some cool pairing with Electabuzz evolution as well! Sign me up!

Lorewise Magmortar is the most boring pokémon on this list. It has basically one relevant pokédex entry and it states that it can shoot fireballs that are about 3600 degrees fahrenheit which are 2000 degrees in the real temperature of Celsius (1982 to be exact) and for those who say.. Go Fahrenheit.. I say Celsius scales to Kelvin.. it just has a different zero point.. and Kelvin is the absolute temp measurement.. so if you really want to nag ..sure then  Magmortar fires fireballs of 2255.15 degrees Kelvin which is the absolute best temperature measurement, there we go. But yeah other than those fireballs it doesn’t do a whole lot.. it body becomes a bit whiteish when it does that according to most Pokedex entries and it’s breath is boiling hot and can sizzle.. which is not strange if you consider that Magmar , it’s pre-evolution’s body temperature is already 1477.594 degrees Kelvin, which is 273.15 degrees more than it’s temperature in Celsius and it’s 2200 degrees of that weird one.|Obviously Sun and Moon had to make this pokedex lore a bit darker because that is what they did.! Apparently if Magmortar fires these balls in rapid succession it’s body becomes so hot that it begins to melt. Whatever it hits turns into a blackened shrunken , charred nothingness… so it prefers to kill its prey in other methods because there isn’t enough left to eat otherwise. Thanks Sun and Moon!

In combat Magmortar has many options , but let’s build a set that really capitalised on his amazing 125 special attack!  I think one of the best ways to use it to its maximum potential is to make it a Sunny Day user. This is a move that boosts up the power of fire moves and one should consider Heat Wave, Fire Blast or Flamethrower  with Heat Wave being your best option in my opinion but Fire Blast coming with a Higher Power but lower PP and Flamethrower coming with a better chance to burn etc.  Solar Beam should also be equipped. After Sunny Day it is a one turn move with 120 base power that hits all of Magmortars Weaknesses super effectively, with a base speed of 84.. I suggest putting some EV’s in speed and it will on average be the faster between those water rock or ground types. Psychic would be a great move for some further coverage against some Meta-dominating types and in Showdown where it can Dynamax psychic terrain grants some additional benefits. Spec it out like a semi-fast special sweeper and you will definitely bring some pain.

Darmanitan is easily one of the most unique fire types out there, based on A Daruma doll with some ape like features and an ability to turn into a statue that gains the psychic type as well as massive defensive an special attacking capabilities make it a super versatile monster. However it’s alternate ability makes it a powerhouse that can one shot so many things. There is just something to this pokémon that is incredibly appealing to me. It has this charisma. Whenever I see that Pokémon I go like! Yes that is a Pokémon I wanna use! It looks awesome. Even when a Daruma Doll pokémon is a weird thing to insert in a region based on America. In fact that is what made it even more appealing. Darmanitan and Darumaka stood out from Black and White to me.. and Darmanitan is probably my favorite Gen V Pokémon, though I really like Scrafty as well.. oh and Krookodile! It just feels so unique to me, those bushy eyebrows, those eyes, that sharp grin it is absolutely amazing. Visually except for Ho-Oh who already made a prior list maybe the most appealing fire type for me! So there is already a lot of love there! Yet i can’t even fully tell why.

Pokédex wise it’s more temperate stuff, but I can’t be bothered doing all the calculations again so let me just say it’s colder than Magmortars self melting fireballs and hotter than Magmar. While in it’s Apish  form it is said to have a power level.. equal to its temperature with a maximum 2500. While Power Level is never used in Pokémon.. 2500  equals abouts Two Raditz and a normal form Master Roshi. I know those sound weak but I bet they could punch the crap out of a shit ton of wildlife! While it’s unsure if this power level is anything remotely close to the one we see in Dragon Ball Z is unknown BUT it is given context in the pokedex.. as Darmantian can obliterate a Dump Truck with one single punch, which makes me thing the Two Raditz is fair comparison. Also I know PETA tried to make us feel bad for the Pokémon in this world but no one ever stood still at the dump trucks! I noticed how many dump trucks get destroyed by pokémon, is that why we never really see a lot of cars in the anime or in the games! Regardless all in all Mew chose a pretty shitty hiding place  back in Vermilion city! Perhaps it really wanted to get found and since it is the biological ancestor of all pokémon it made sure so many pokemon could find it and play with it? Hmmmm theories!

In combat Darmanitan can be a beast. While many people prefer to run the mixed Zen Mode set, the one where Darmanitan turns into a statue (which is other pokedex lore but they just say it turns hard and sharpens it’s mind so meh)  I prefer the Sheer Force version. Which boosts power of attacks by 30% but negates any secondary effect like a burn chance etc. Flare Blitz, Earthquake, Rock Slide and Hammer Arm  as moves give it a coverage against virtually everything, a life orb will make sure it hits so hard it just destroys everything in its path. It doesn’t take a lot of hits.. but to be honest that would not be fair.  With Dynamax being a thing letting this one grow and  use a few Max fighting moves to increase it’s already huge 140 base so now it arguably is even better, with the Dynamax Fire move putting up the sun to power your Flare Blitzes as well this can really be a sheer force to be reckoned with.

Cyndaquil is my favorite fire starter ever, without a shadow of about, I like torchic as well but Blaziken I found a bit.. undefinable or something I do not know! Cyndaquil is my favorite starter from my favorite Gen from my possibly favorite Region. Of  course it’s also the only one who is weak to Whitney’s Miltank so I cursed the living daylights of it as well  Though that was mostly the Miltank! Gold is the game I replayed the most times..except for Kanto based Rom Hacks maybe.. and while I ran Totodile twice and Chikorita once.. Cyndaquil I have chosen for a grand total of at least 5 times.  A feat only surpassed by a single starter and it’s not a fire type. I head a lot of Cyndaquils, bearing a lot of names and all of them I loved very much! The nick nameless one (I think it was the first but not fully sure)  was one I particularly held dear because it was the first pokémon I ever taught the move Return, which deals damage based on affection and through the power of our friendship we are a very strong pairing. I shall never  forget the good times I had with this mon and what it did for me!
Thank you for making my childhood and my adventures in Johto awesome.

Now lore wise this Pokémon has no Sun and Moon nor Ultra Sun and Moon Pokédex entries so it should be known that there are no real super dark descriptions on how it blows up innocent kids or something for the heck of it or how it’s burn victims scream in pain only livable for life if they are hoisted in a robotic suit that makes them sound like James Earl Jones. Instead it’s Pokédex entries are a testament of Typhlosion’s  power and it’s tantrum. The heat one of these fire starters emits is directly related to it’s rage!  At the peak of it’s rage it is so hot that anything it touches..or touches it.. immolates. Science shows that humans who allegedly self immolated have burned at a temperature of 1930 degrees Celsius or 2200 degrees Kelvin (Which translates to about 3500 degrees Fahrenheit).
Given that I think it is safe to assume that a Water Killed Crocodile or a Rock with arms probably have higher immolation temperatures it is safe to say this beasty is a big hot head.
It is so hot that it can create a shroud of heat. Heat Shimmers that are so intense it can actually hide behind it, from which it launches it’s secret technique! By rubbing it’s blazing  fur together it can create an explosive that are so powerful it can reduce everything to firey nothingness. So this means something has to be heated so much it gets undone on a molecular level. This basically only incurs in the sun. So even if we lowball Typhlosions explosion by using the suns outer layers it already can reach up to 5500 degrees Centigrade, 5770 degrees Kelvin and 10.000 degrees Fahrenheit, with the inner workings of the sun going up way higher going into the millions.  So pretty powerful either way.

Typhlosion is a mixed attacker, with it’s special attack at 109 base and it’s physical attack at 84.  While certainly not the best stats this does keep your opponent guessing. This creature is best when it comes equipped with a choice-item which is an items that boosts a stat (attack, special attack or speed for band, specs or scarf respectively) Physical sets usually run Earthquake (the most used move in this game ever) Fire Punch and Shadow Claw. Special sets use Eruption (which deals damage equal to your hp left.. so rather than boosting your attacking stat boosting your speed seems rather nifty, unless your opponent has a slow team. Flamethrower and Extra Sensory, the fourth move in both cases is a a case of covery and usually based on what type of team you run. Ice is usually a good shout out against Dragon Types. Typhlosion is one of those “it’s okay” in everything  type Pokémon so that does means it does not like to swap into opponents moves. Since a choice item locks you into a single move this requires your team to have a special and physical wall to exploit effectively. With Eruption it can hit hard and fast early game and take out a lot that doesn’t resist it but after it takes a hit when locked into Eruption it needs to be swapped out. If it faces something that resists the move it is locked in.. you need to swap it out.  This also means you will be very vulnerable to entry hazards like stealth rocks and spikes. So asides from having something that can tank damage you will want a Rapid Spinner or a defogger to remove hazards. So Choice item users really become the center of your team. As a result I do think Typhlosion is a little more advanced to use than some other entries.. but It keeps your opponents guessing and you should know by now how I feel about Mind games! My number1 pick for fire types is this  dedicated good boy!

So who is your favourite Fire Type?! Do you usually start out with Fire Types? I am a dedicated Grass starter myself.. I rarely start with fire types! How many of you will answer Charizard?! We will find out! Next week there we will take a break from this list to celebrate my blogs anniversary but the week after that we will be back with the water type! Now all this writing made me want to play with some fire!

Pokémon Top 5: My Favourite Steel Types

Rock gets beaten by steel! While Ice and Rock are arguably the worst typings in the game, Fairy , Steel and Dragon are commonly seen as the best . Mostly Fairy and Steel, where an  argument made for steel to be the absolute winner. So this must be an amazing list of pokémon right?! Well.. I don’t really like the steel type! It’s my least favorite type in the entire game..with some margin. So for the first time I had a hard time selecting Pokémon I actually like.

Now same rules as all my others lists apply but this one has one additional rule, but before we get there let’s discuss what we already know. Pokémon that were on a list before already can not be on this list before. Otherwise Magnemite and Lucario would be on this list.

I identify them by the type I most identify them with. Lucario I don’t find that steel like, and Magnezone’s evolution line was introduced in Gen I as a pure electric type.. hence I came to see it as electric. There is a pokémon on this list though that would have made the Rock Type list, if I did not see it more as a steel type as well so it can work both ways. If A pokémon doesn’t feel like a steel type to me at all it will not make this list either. Example and otherwise number 1 for this list Mawile! I love the Pokémon and I have used it as a steel type before.. I just don’t feel it is. Reading it’s lore I can get it but ask a random person to look at it’s picture and say what typing is that.. I bet you almost no one would ever call it a steel type. Jirachi for me is the same.

Another rule is that there is only one entry per evolution line, while i am free to pick my favorite of a line.. if the pokémon at one point becomes not fun for me to use or I find it ugly or stupid in terms of lore or whatever I have to deduct points. While I love Bulbasaur more than Venusaur I do not mind the big boy either.  Cufant however is an adorable cute elephant pokémon that really makes me go n’awww! I love how cute it is for a steel type and the typing really needed a cutie!  However it’s evolution and even worse it’s gigantamax are just square blocks of green metal with the trunk being a digging tool. It isn’t all that bad but a big missed opportunity to warm me up to the type a bit.

Temporary forms do not count as separate entries so was a pure rock type that only upon mega became steel it would not be allowed. However the steel type has no qualifiers as for that! It does have one extra rule though that no other type had before! I have to exclude pokémon I haven’t played a lot with yet. Perseker for example  is a pokémon I can really get behind, however I have no real grasp of its abilities or moves.. as opposed to Copperajah who is used by some major characters in the game. I have also dabbled with it in Pokémon Showdown.. Perserker however is a big unknown to me and I know it has gotten some love in the community and it does appeal to me.. so at best I can give it a mention.

The first time I nominate a basic pokémon while it possesses a stage 2 evolution, but not the last time. Aron and me go way back!  Way back when I was a kid that tried to fit in at school and never really did!  Pokémon no longer was hype and after Gen 2 it became a only for geeks kinda thing. So under pressure I did not buy the game. One day though trough my dad mentioning it..before I remembered I could emulate! I wasn’t allowed to buy Pokémon Ruby in stores because I should play more grown up games or do things with my friends in person so I wasn’t allowed to own an official version. On a day a school kid made me trip into lockers than threw his sandwhich meat on me I got at home feeling sad and misunderstood when I found a rom of Sapphire.. I could play the game…. but it was illegal. I decided that my mental health was more important to me then the legality issue and since I would have bought it if I could I figured let’s do this. I picked up a Torchick as my starter and decided not to capture anything else before the second gym.. and there I found Aron. Which I named Hummel. It was the first steel type I liked it was so cute!  It was pretty good and when it evolved at level 32 that was it.. Okay I still like Hummel.. but then it evolved again and it was actually really good!  Yay Hummel!

Lorewise it is pretty interesting as well..Aron to me is like a tiny steel dog, not bigger than the size of a poodle being about 40 centimeters tall  which is like 1 foot 4 or something and not that much longer. However it weighs about 60 kilograms and with the right ability even double. Double these weights is you measure in pounds and you know this is one heavy metal poodle.  Aron’s body is made by Iron and it sustains itself by eating metals and extracting stuff from it to grow/maintain its body! Aron is not very able to recognize what it eats though so at times it causes trouble for everyone by eating train tracks or tackling dump trucks , which it is able to take down.. before eating those as well. I like my pokémon clumsy or clunky and this sort of thing is my jam when it  comes to pokémon lore. Unfortunately my beloved steel baby has not been getting lore in Sun and Moon or we would have learned something about the horrible accidents it causes when eating cars or train tracks.. then again it does keep my baby innocent.

In the competitive scene Aron is a Little Cup Pokémon, one of the very first featured on here.. with the exception of Cubone being in there as well. Little cup is format where you duke it out with unevolved pokémon (that still can evolve)  with the exception of a handful of them for balancing reasons. There is also a catchable at level 5 rule but I am not sure how that work because  you can get later stuff as well. It excludes some evolving legendaries and such I am sure. Regardless Aron has two major uses in battle. You can use it to set up hazards like stealth rock and sand storm or it can be used as a physical sweeper. The physical sweeper set can be super fun since Aron has some serious power in that department when it comes to little cup. Using It’s ability Rock Head, Head Smash becomes an amazing move that allows it to trash anything weak to rock or even neutral to rock! Earthquake  is that move that you always put on a any ground type unless you do double battles and you add Iron Head for Same type attack bonus moves and flinch chances.  Aerial Ace for Weakness covery as Little cup fighting type pokémon prefer to set up using Belly Drum or Sword Dance and you got a solid set and a very useful and lovely Aron. Top it with A Choice Band a voila! A steel wrecking ball that is super cute!

I am one of those girls that really takes a shine to a pokémon when it gets hate. I want to show the little creatures that someone cares for them even if the world is being mean and cruel to them, and so I adopted a Klefki from a friend which was calling it stupid. I asked them to rename it Sesame for me before they send it over. Sesame and I quickly became great friends. I did not run fairy type moves on it as I had my sylveon! No Sesame was there to save my other guys! I really like it’s cry and it has some pink elements! I imagined Sesame was like Ash Charmander.. with its original trainer leaving it out to die.. not caring for it at all. It became a sort of thing for me to adopt people’s Klefki after that.  Due to the excellent friend system Pokémon X and Y had as well as some communities. I became a Klefki Mamma and it was fun..it did not help me with the game as I mostly kept an almost full  box of Klefki which I had to play with in Amie so they would at least get some love..but it was a fun side activity. Sesame eventually got replaced right before the pokémon league so I could focus a bit more on offence but it was the pokémon that made me like using defensive strategies.

Lorewise I am also very charmed by this pokémon too because it has gotten of of the silliest pokédex entries among this list. Klefki is a ring pokémon that uses the “horn” on it’s head to suck the ions out of metals. For no reason whatsoever it adores keys. It likes them so much that giving it one.. is like giving it the greatest gift in the world. It will be super happy, and while you can still use said key it will do everything it its might to keep those keys safe. Never will you have to worry anymore when you go inside a rollercoaster,  that you would lose the key, never will you lose a key anymore because it will never ever lose one!  You just ask it to lock something up for you or if it can help you open it and tadaa! Such a  pure an innocent little thing. It’s beyond beautiful. But that is not even the silly part what I love about it so much.. in Pokémon shield it was revealed that this pokémon likes keys SO much that it’s head had to look like a key as well! In other words it likes something so much, it became that in a way.. talk about mind over matter! I see a symbol of hope in it that people can be what they want to be if it truly makes them happy!

Klefki in competitive was pretty amazing for a while. Mostly as a Hazard of Barrier setter, but a particularly fun set I like to use is a Prankster set with Thunder Wave, Foul Play Torment and Flash Canon. It makes Klefi into a pesky little sweeper. Foul Play allows you to use your opponents physical stats instead of Klefki’s for damage calculation, Torment prevents opponents from using the same attack two times in a row and Thunder Wave paralyze your opponent and halves their speed.  This can result in a little mind game on when to swap out when to t-wave, when to foul play and so on that can make this set of keys give you a lot of battle field momentum. This is exactly my kind of pokémon! People get annoyed if they are being destroyed by a set of keys! Since Foul Play is a dark type move and not a lot of typings are resistant to that.. it really is fun to see Sesame and it’s friends take revenge on those who cast them aside! Mwhuahahaha!

Time for the legendary entry on this list.. and yes it is a legendary and no I do not care it is also called a mythical. While it never really became a part of my journey this pokémon really is a bit of a spirit animal for me.. well not really a spirit animal as it is more of a homunculus pokemon somewhat ..but still .. it reminds me a bit from the owl Clash of the Titans (1981 version) that was a great animal companion and Magearna is no different. The combination of Metal and Princess as well as parts mechanical pokeball make it a cute addition to the line up, and one of the cuter artificial pokemon out there, along with Ditto and Porygon….hmm Artificial pokemon sure come in pink often enough! Guess people really know what is the best colour in the pokemon world.

Lorewise this pokemon is a bit of an odd one you see it’s body is not the pokemon, that little round sphere in the center is the pokemon and not even that, this monster is basically what is inside that sphere. It is best comparable to a Kinder Egg, its not the chocolat, its not the yellow container it’s the toy that is inside..oh and its also banned in some places. Magearna is one of the few pokemon that fully understands human speech, while it may seem like all pokemon can this is not actually true, I guess Ash super specific instructions were just a lucky shot. Mageaena can not just comprehend language though, it can also understand peoples emotions, train of thought and can  even feel their pain, so it is always willing to help! The monster was made as a gift for a princess who lived about 500 years ago, over time her colour faded away and we get the metally grey pokemon we see today.

As with all legendaries this pokemon is not really usable in any form of battle.. Where pure in game legendaries are usually based around one or two incredible stats, the event distributed legendaries, also known as mysticals  always get a more even stat distribution. Magearna’s highest stat is it’s special attack which with 130 is nothing to cry about but compared to the Mewtwo’s and Arceus’s and it’s other peers out there it isn’t really to much to write home about. However it shines through because of it’s typing Fairy Steel is an incredible typing that allows many defensive bonuses.  First of all it negates ALL the fairy type weaknesses. Fairies are weak to poison, which steel type is immune to so cant damage this soul at all, it’s weak to steel..and steel resists steel so that hits neutral now. Metal has three weaknesses, fighting, ground and fire. The fighting weakness gets resisted due to it’s fairy typing so it has only 2 weaknesses , 9 resistances and 2 immunities. That is some good typing.  Almost as good as Water Ground! As a result Magearna is very beginner friendly. It’s signature move Fleur Cannon is like a counterpart of the Draco Meteor move, high power but lowers its own stat after use.  The ability Soul Heart negates this drop a bit however.. so i’d say pick up a robot and soul today!

A crowd favorite along Lucario I am sure but only my penultimate steel type! Metagross is a Pseudo Legendary that is known as the signature pokémon of Champion Steven Stone. One of the trickier champions to beat. (Lance was such a weak champion) The pokémon looks amazing has a great moveset and it evolves early enough to use endgame (level 45) but late enough so it really does feel rewarding. However there is one flaw that keeps Metagross from the number one spot here. Beldum’s Catch Rate of 3. This means that a Beldum (or any of it’s evolutions) have a 1.6% chance to stay in their pokéballs if you throw it at a pokémon with no status condition and green health. This catch rate.. is shared with Mewtwo… this means that a Beldum is as hard to catch as a MEWTWO! So imagine chibi pinkie playing her game, encountering this weird fist shaped pokemon with an eye… that just doesnt want to stay in it’s friggin pokébal! I did not know it was a pseudo back then! I wasn’t even allowed to play this game so I played it in secret! I was like.. well fudge this pokémon! I am out! It took me until Omega Ruby until I got myself a Beldum.. A shiny one from an event! I loved it! I named it ..Hi Ho..because it was silver.

Hi Ho would grow up from a little stubby fist like, missile looking thing to a four legged tank/super computer with one of the most badass mega evolutions out there, ever. Metagross is formed by the fusion of two Metang, (the stage 1 form of the pokémon) while it’s mega evolution is A Metagross, A Metang and Two Beldum forming together. So in other words this is the combiner robot of the pokémon world. It has four separate brains which allow it to analyse things faster and  better than a super computer does. Meanwhile it is still incredibly strong as well. It has the strength to pin an enemy on the wall with it claws after which it will begin devouring them alive. It will also use it’s big brain to win the fights it is in, analyzing it’s optimal moves. Making this a fearsome foe. When it Mega evolves it gets even smarter and leaves behind any decency it might have had before, now dictated by cruel cold logic. Any means of victory is now allowed and thus its fighting style becomes so gruesome most people can only avert their eyes and wait for it’s battle to be over. If it senses it can not win a fight it will impale an enemy’s limb with itself and then self detonate. Ouch

Metagross is fairly universally run as physical sweeper, and with a base attack power of 135 that isn’t too surprising. It doesn’t get much better than that.  The moves you’ll want to put on this monster is Earthquake, Agility, Zen Headbutt and Meteor Mash.  Agility and Zen Headbutt can be adapted if your team  specifically requires anything else, like calm mind if you need it to tank out a few hits for reasons or Grass Knot if your team is weak to ground but over all Zen Headbutt, and Agility will allow you to sweep if Meteor Mash gets one or two attack boosts. Meteor Mash is almost it’s signature move, only learned by Jirachi, Clefairy, and Lucario otherwise, a 90 base power physical attack that can boost up your attack stat.  Agility once or twice can take care of it’s meh speed and as an item a life orb can give you more damage output.  It’s not to uncommon to run aforementioned explosion either to kill something completely dead if Metagross is about to die! It is one of those pokémon that pressures your opponent into making the right call.. mess up once or twice and this pokémon has all the cards it needs to wipe your entire opponents team of the board.

This sword and shield pokémon was obviously introduced in X and Y.. huh that seems weird now huh! However this pokémon quickly became my favorite steel type. I have never really liked wall Pokémon much .. for the simple reason that I never found a wall that was better than Chansey. While Chansey’s physical defence isn’t great I’d use something like Shuckle. A pink egg and a worm in a rock.. those clearly are the superior tanks. I always like to mess with people when playing pokémon.  I don’t play with the pro’s so people never expect that Dugtrio is one of the fastest Pokémon ever.. they do not expect Chansey can  take a Draco Meteor like nothing has even happened, no one suspects Shuckle to survive a normal gem explosion..but they sure do! When people make mistakes people play poorly.  Aegislash is one of those guess what’s coming next pokémon I love so much because it is both a sword and a shield! It’s either a sword resting in a shield or a sword wielding a shield.. guestimate what it does wrong and you will be sorry! Also I really like object pokémon apparently!

Aegislash begin their live as Honedge. Honedge become pokémon when a person on the battlefield dies. Their soul becomes entangled with the blade that kills them and and the sort gains a blue  cloth that it can use to attach itself to those who dare touch the hilt. It will then begin to drain their life force completely. It evolves when it fed on enough life force, usually draining several people completely and it becomes two blades, who communicate with telepathy to form deadly attacking patterns that slice their foes to ribbons. After evolving it they become attendants of kings in history. Their past has allowed them to judge those who possess leadership qualities, hanging around those who it deems destined to be king.  However it does not do this from an altruistic stance it possesses over might spectral powers that allows it to manipulate people and pokémon alike and they use these kings to create a kingdom of their liking. One kingdom was particularly mentioned with a powerful king wielding an Aegislash creating an amazing kingdom, eventually however the sword drained all his life away and the kingdom since quickly fell. Aren’t ghost pokedex entries the best?

Like Metagross , Aegislash has a fairly widely accepted build. That being it’s signature move King’s Shield, which is a form of Protect (a semi perfect shield move)  that negates all damage and lowers your opponent’s special attack. It should know Swords Dance to heighten it’s already high attack, and Shadow Sneak and Night Slash or Sacred Sword as it’s attacking moves. Shadow Sneak is a move that always goes first and is boosted by the same type attack bonus and Night Slash or Sacred Sword you slap on there depending on what type of team your opponents run for maximum damage. What makes this pokemon so fun to use though is its ability, Stance Change. With this it can go from defensive mode into offensive mode and vice versa. In defensive mode it’s defensive values are 150 and in blade mode it’s offensive stats are 150. With all it’s other stats being only 50 though it’s a one trick pony… well it’s a one trick pony twice to be exact. However this does keep pressure on your opponent, if you sent it in against a physical attacker, the fun begins! Since its secondary stats are super weak it is a pokémon that does require you to know who is physical and who is not so it is a bit on the more advanced side of things. Yet it is through all of it’s quirks that and the brain game that this pokemon is so fun to play!

Callum and the best Steel Type…that will kill him!

It was wonderful seeing so many steel types still have plushies! I would have been in trouble with how I handle my images otherwise! What is your Favourite Steel Type? Do you like this typing? Do you use it oftenly?! Can you guess which type is next? Let’s get those comments going! Now excuse me while I go feed my hair!

A Sunny Sunday: The Sunshine Blogger Award

It’s finally time! About a week ago we we nominated for the Sunshine Blogger award. With lots of social stuff I had to attend as some really sore muscles throughout the entire week it took me seven whole days to get to this.  Once more I would like to thank A Girl and her Anime for the nomination. I have handed the questions to reporter Pinkie Cherryblossom who will hold a short interview.

Thank you Pinkie! Amelia  from A Girl And Her Anime came up with these questions so mad props to her! Would you kindly visit her blog? Since I said “Would you Kindly?”  it means you all are going to have to do it! She writes some pretty insightful stuff as well as some fun reviews. She seems like an amazing person that deserves more followers. Then again she might be an alien mastermind coming to earth trying to charm way to an otaku army, you never know. Yet what are the chances that two of those happen to have the exact same idea and even follow each others blog. So nevermind that I am sure she is awesome! Moving on!

The Sunshine Blogger award has some rules which I will post near the end. I’d say most of you by now have seen these post before now anyway so I am sure you know. Let’s get down to these questions Pinkie if you please take a seat I will ask us the questions Amelia came up with. Even though she tagged 11 bloggers the first question she came up with seems to be made JUST for us! So thank you for that one!
Question number one is…..!

If you were a Pokémon, what sort of Pokémon would you be?

I wish I could say I was a Sylveon..It’s all about love and that is really big for me, and with a lot of pink and cute ribbons it is totally my style. It’s a bit of my spirit animal. However my friends always call me Pancham, because it’s a Panda. It has become a meme on how pure my mind is, I never understand sex jokes, I never get inuendo and I am honestly not all that interested in the physical stuff to a point of not at all. To my friends amusement I always seem to miss any lewd moments as well. If we are watching an anime, the moment I get up there will be a risque scene, when I get back the scene is over.  When two friends are making out.. I get distracted by a butterfly passing outside and completely miss it. One night a friend was joking and asking ‘What if Pinkie does see something lewd? Will the universe explode?’ He wanted to put something on his tv but at that exact moment the batteries of his remote control were drained. That’s when I became the ultimate Panda. So my Pokémon would have to reflect that as well. I really do feel like I would be a fairy-type though so lets say I am a regional form Pancham that is a Fairy-Psychic type (A nice counter part to the dark-fightingy type, pangoro grows into)  also to reflect I really like Kawaii stuff but also to play mind games with people.I would have pixilate as an ability.. because I’d love to make normal stuff cute and I could still show my love throughout the move Return that way!
That is a move that deals more damage if the Pokémon loves it’s trainer a lot. If I like you well enough I will fight super hard for you, so it seems like a great fit.

Do  you play video games? If so what have you been playing recently?

Well will not cheese this one and say I have been playing Pokémon Let’s Go, Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Ultra Sun… I do but those are all like stuff I normally talk in this blog about. What I have been playing most recently is Ducktales Remastered. Ducks are some of my favorite animals. When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother what will I be? She sighed and just put on Disney. Ducktales was one of the first TV shows I ever loved. To this day I have fuzzy memories and I ADORE the 2017 remake. Because I was a total dojikko (a clumsy girl)   when I was young, because it would turn out there was something wrong with, I never really liked playing outside. It would always end up with me falling from or into something. If that didn’t happen I would get stuck somewhere. It was stressful. So my parents decided to buy me a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) with Super Mario Bros 3 and Ducktales as starting games. Mario 3 was nice, but I was in love with Ducktales. It was Shovel Knight, 25 years before Shovel Knight and it was the game that turned me into a gamer. Like a lot of games it has gotten a remake that I played with a friend once (at their place) but now it is being pulled of the market and going away for ever. So shout out to Kurtis for gifting me this one!

What is your favorite colour: Any particular reason why it’s your favorite?

Pinkie’s favorite colour is pink! I bet you didn’t see that one coming if you have ever been to my blog. Pink has a deeper meaning to me though then just being cute. I never grew up very girly, due to my faulty build the other girls and I grew apart, as my lack of grace resulted in me not really liking the stuff they liked and feeling happier with a controller in my hand. I could exert an amount of control over my actions in games I lacked in real life.  So I became a bit of a tomboy/loner/geek with teenage mutant ninja turtle shirts and the likes in an attempt to at least belong somewhere.. like being that girl that is one of the guys but who was never accepted as one either and a lot of bullying ensued .. mostly because I moved so weirdly . Itt took me many years to find that out and just around the time I was finally becoming me around when I was 22. I started to experiment with pink clothes. Around that same time I got very sick, my muscle issues seemed to tax my heart now as well. We didn’t exactly know what was wrong so I had to visit a lot of hospitals At the time I had a pink pyjama and pink bathrobes . In the hospital it’s not that hard for you to feel like just a number or patient X. I wasn’t at one ward each time I was at different places so it even felt more like that. It very much looked like there wasn’t going to be a future for me at all at that time which resulted in a bit of an existential crisis that I would die and no one would remember, that I would be a person that is truly gone straight away. Yet I got a bit better, a medicine was found that helped me greatly.  Doctors a lot more positive began to refer to me by my super pink look, calling me Pinkie. I developed a persona alongside it as a coping mechanism which turned out to be much closer to my actual core self.. but not as afraid and held back by the bullying i received in the past. It represented my repressed self, my true self and ever since that time I connect pink to the strength to be me the freedom to be me.

What is your favorite thing to do during summer?

Sorry about the long answers before this one! Amelia sure picked her questions neatly! There was a lot of stuff to tell.  My favorite thing to do during summer is stroll around on a boulevard on the late evening, the sun warming my muscles, the feeling of a vaction you can have while strolling through a place where everything seems to move just a tiny bit slower than it normally would, seeing that bit of heat distortion way ahead towards your destination. Just by the look of the sky being able to tell that tomorrow is going to be another great day The freedom and the level of comfort are great. Shall I go out with some friends for a drink? Shall I buy that cute purse in the window tomorrow. I love all those things , but that toasty summer stroll where everything is still possible is my favorite moment.

Ghibli is obviously very popular , but what movie do you think is the most overrated?

Honestly? I think all of them are at least a bit overrated. I do like them quite a lot but I do find some of them a bit overly artsy as well. They might impress me more than your average film, they might have the stronger messages behind them but I for one prefer to be entertained .
The Wind rises i saw in a premiere for example. With messages what we should not let technology pass us by and creative choices like having all engines be made by voice effects to make them sound more warm and personal is great. I sit there and nod my head going! Good Show that is impressive. When I watch the second Gurren Laggan movie I am not thinking , wow that’s impressive or  that is such a clever allegory. No when I watch that movie I am shouting at my screen. “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE” , extending my hand to help Giga drill break and in their first movie, when Simon and Kamina Gatai for the first time I am like kicking the floor in a giddy excitement. Ghibli can make me laugh, and it can make me cry but it can never take me on a real roller coaster of emotions. They feel like the Louvre museum of anime. Mad respect to the Louvre.. but when I am in Paris I much rather go to Disneyland

If you could travel back in time, when you travel and why?

Tokyo 1991. The Gameboy has just come out and Satoshi Tajiri will soon talk to Miyamoto about developing the link cable, during which they would talk about transferring insects. A concept that would  lead to development of Pokémon. I plan to go there and steal their pitch! So I can own the Pokémon IP, of course I would still entrust Game Freak with the idea after, but think of all the money I would have and I would be the princess or queen even of Pokémon. Sure I could help the world by altering a historic event but that’s boring!  I am going to be honest, I’d rather be rich than a hero, I deserve some good times as well.

As a the new leader of a country, what is the first law you introduce?

This is a hard one, I could spout some idealistic nonsense that is never going to happen anyway like ‘everyone’ is forced to love each other but this is not enforceable and it would  kill individuality if it works. No I would instead create the ‘my opinion’ law . It’s a harsh one as it would forbid any form of social influencing media from phrasing their opinions as facts.
‘People who can’t play Tracer should be shot … would be an illegal titel for your post. ‘I think people who can’t play Tracer should be shot’  would be fine. A lot of negativity in this world comes from big youtubers saying something is bad, convincing people their is only one correct opinion, if creates conflict and division. When we forbid people to claim their opinions as factual and make them say that this is only their opinion, it is much harsher to cause harm to anyone.  Don’t believe in a non-binary gender system? Saying “there is only males and females is hurtful’ hearing ‘In my opinion gender IS binary’ might be disappointing but is never hurtful. Both offender and offensee can realise there are two sides to this coin. We can learn to respect each others opinions because they are forced to be spoken out as such. A single opinion never has the power to change you, you can however choose to heed the opinion. So gone with the Count Dankula’s in this world and goodbye to “you are stupid and should die”  In my nation you’ll read “I think you are stupid and should die instead’ It already stings less, and over time maybe we can fix this weird ass Political Correct purgatory we are creating for ourselves.  and actually start being ourselves rather than our newly invented emblem or classical stereotype. If we know our enemies are just giving their opinon, we can hug them better.

Have you been reading anything lately?

I’ve been reading the Pokémon Adventures Manga as well as a bit of Is This A Zombie?It’s been a while since I read an actual good book. I’ve been trying to read Dan Brown’s origin but I don’t have a lot of positive things to say about that one. I’ve also been reading the D&D 5th GM manual and player handbook a lot! Those are technically books.  Finally I have been reading all of your blogs, they are all amazing, yours is even a little better than that of my others readers but that is a secret between us two okay?

Tell us about your favourite film

I actually have two. My regular answer to what my favorite movie is would be.  Catch me if you can.   I love the story of the young con-artist pretending to be a pilot, lawyer and doctor. Dicaprio portrays Frank Abagnale perfectly.  Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent who is after him is done exceptionally well, I root for both sides I watch the movie. It’s such a compelling story with a great soundtrack, stellar acting and basically anything a girl can wish for in a good movie. It’s definitely my favorite good movie and if you haven’t seen it yet you should definitely check it out.

My REAL favourite movie however would have to be Tommy Wisseau’s the room. The BEST worst movie ever. It is such a cringeworthy watch each time, yet it has become so much more than just a film to me.  I crossplayed Wiseau, I met people because of the movie, I went to special theaters, I carry plastic spoons when I see it. Whenever I see a small dog I go “hi doggie” even if I actually speak dutch. It gave us jokes inside our group of friends. We are even considering organising “tommy con’ It will not be an actual convention, it will just be fans of the movie gathering in a park.. dressed in a suit, tossing american footballs around. For those who don’t know what the Room is? The Room tells the story about Johny, and all American man (with a bit of an accent) who gets cheated on by his wife when his promotion falls trough. There are some other plothooks like a mother in law with cancer, which is never addressed, a  young boys issues with drugs, which isn’t really addressed or rounded out, characters appearing and vanishing from thin air… and random people who don’t live there having sex on the couch. There is a lot of spoons hidden in the movie as well as well as tossing the football. it is atrociously bad and almost unwatchable and I love every minute of my own.. and the friends I watch it with suffering.  James Franco made a movie about how bad this movie is called the disaster artist and that one was just as great.  All the stories surrounding The Room, make it something greater.

Put your music on shuffle. What are the first three songs to play?

My father was a musician and he always tried to force his music onto me, I never rebelled much as a teen, but I kinda rebelled to music in general,. Now I mostly listen weeaboo music or geek music. I never play any pop music or anything.  So I will just share the last tracks I listened trough videos.   

And one bonus song! Because it started playing right after and I felt bad in leaving this one off!

If you were to suggest an anime I had to watch, what would you recommend?

Way too known to be a proper suggestion would be Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, it’s my favorite anime ever by a landslide. A giga drill breaker caused landslide, that one is just so friggin amazing I have to actively try not to soil myself in excitement. However because it’s that amazing I think everyone in the world already knows about it and follow the Gospel of Kamina and Simon so the thing I am gonna recommend is…..
Selector Infected Wixoss.

A slightly more obscure 2014 anime about cute girls battling with cards to get their wish granted.  If you win 3 card battles you get your wish granted, if you lose 3 you’ll lose your wish forever as well as the little buddy that dwells inside your main card.Yet no one knows the true and dark secrets about this card battle game. The anime starts out incredibly slow but once the story starts rolling you have an extremely dark story that brings Madoka and Yu-gi-oh together  in a grim tale. Do not expect a happily ever after when you start this one because this goes in the shadows, this isn’t cute girls playing a children’s card game… this is some serious doodoo. The characters are nice and though nothing to special they work and you pelted with a million of them . If you like Madoka, and if you like to a slower moving story filled with intrigue and mystery, with the pay off mostly in the later half of the series, then this is a series  you should watch.

The Nominees!

Now I have to nominated 11 others bloggers to answer my questions and hand them this award. Honestly tracking down he wants a nomination or who has been nominated has become way to much work so I just picked those who I really want to ask these questions  too and those who deserve a little sunshine. And the Nominees are!

I know this is 12 but I am pretty sure Mallow or someone on this list went on a hiatus. so it should be fine! Congrats guys! You have been nice for me, provided me some neat content, impressed me or all! of the above!

The Rules

Now there are 5 rules , with me completely ignoring one because I do promoting my stuff on others blogs.
Rule number 1 Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their site so people can visit their website.
(Feel free however to ignore my entire nomination if you don’t want to to the award thing. I mainly picked some blogs I liked and which I felt would answers my questions in a funny way, could use some love or I have really seen working hard on their blog in the past few weeks, you wont have seven years of bad luck or something for not doing it)
Rule Number 2:  Answer the 11 questions your nominator, that would be me, asked in your post.
Rule Number 3 : Nominate 11 others bloggers and write up 11 new questions for them to answer.
Rule Number 4: Notify the nominee by commenting about the nomination on one of their posts.  (I linked recent posts of everyone so you get a notification rather than me going of topic in your comment box)
Rule Number 5: Display the Sunshine Blogger logo and list the rules!
Now for my questions, I made them a bit harder than your regular “what is your favorite” anime.  Just to see what kind of folks you actually are . Have fun!

The Questions

1. Is your blogging personality true to yourself or have you made some changes in the way you present yourself?
2. If you HAD to choose between the following which option would you pick? -Grant everyone in the world one year of perfect happiness.  -Grant your best friend in the whole wide world a lifetime full of happiness? Motivate your answer.
3. Do you still have a childhood toy you kept? If not which one do you regret giving up?
4.What do you like LEAST about our lovely blogging community?
5. You have to swap two main characters from (anime) series around.. for example Naruto and Goku… who would you choose and which of the series would you want to watch more.
6. If I gave you 50 dollars , (US)  what would you buy from it? You HAVE to spend it.
7. You have to direct a tv commercial for yourself, how would it go?
8. You had some time and money to spare to make a commercial for ME, how would that go?
9. Ranger, Bard, Paladin, Fighter, Rogue  Wizard, Druid or Cleric! What would be your class, (not your favored D&D class) define yourself as one of these classes. 
10. If you are a trading game card, which trading card game would you be in and what would be your effect?.
11. If you could run any other blog site for a week? Which blog would you choose and why?

This finishes my biggest post so far!  Remember participation is by choice , no need to actually do this if you do not want!  Don’t want to participate in the sunshiny goodness, or did you not make my list? Let me get to know you and answer up to two of these in the comments .
Remember little monsters
I am not weird just very pink!
Until we read again.







The Most Hated Pokémon: Simisear

On “Mon-Days” we put a single Pokémon in the spotlight. Last edition was about my favorite Pokémon Sylveon, so this time we go the opposite route. Today we look at Simisear, the Pokémon, not me, but the world hates the most. Today however we are going to give it some love and attention. Pokémon have feelings too and all deserve some love and affection.

The Ballad of the Trash-Monkeys.
To understand Simisear, we are going to need to look at it’s pre-evolution and it’s little brothers first. The monkeys which oftenly get referred to as the trash-monkeys, Panpour , Pansear and Pansage were developed to resemble the Three Wise Monkeys. You know .. the See no Evil, hear no evil and speak no evil ones.
The origin of these monkey’s actual lies in the land of Pokémon, that’s right Kanto… I mean Japan. Over a door in the Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō these monkey were carved into stone by a man named Hidari Jingoro. Of course he carved plenty of other things in there as well, all meant to represent come stuff Confucius used to say. With the monkey’s said to represent the code of conduct and lifecycle for man. At this point I need to point out that in our western world the Monkey’s basically represent the opposite of what they mean in the East.
While in the east, speaking, hearing and seeing no evil is a good thing, in the West we see it as denying stuff , allowing evil to roam the world by not acknowledging it is there. In Japan and then likes, when you see no evil, it means your eye is not turned on vices, when you speak no evil, it means not speaking ill of anyone and when you hear no evil…well I guess you don’t have thin enough walls to hear your neighbours or something, maybe not listen to metal or something… take your pick. Here is where it gets interesting though, the Pan-Pal’s are monkey’s who FAILED at their wise Monkey’s counterpart. Pansage can be seen removing the mouth from his hand, Pansear can be seen putting a hand to his ear to listen, and Panpour is seen peering out, and is just squirting NOT closing its eyes. So while in the land of the rising sun, these monkey’s would be sinners, in our civilisation they should kinda be heroes, for standing up what is right. There you go, looks like those little rascals already got a little more interesting.

Sinners to us, Wise to the Japanese
Heroes to us, Foolo the Japanese

Hearing a lot of evil
With this established, it’s already a bit more understable why these monkey’s get no love, but what makes Pansear and it’s evolution that much more hated? Does it really deserve the hate because it’s a bit of a fool in Japan? Heck no! Simisear might be looked at as a fool in Japan and that shines a bit trough in it’s design. He looks a bit derpy, and like it’s brother is prone to vices. So, part of our problem is we never really understood pansear and Simisear as westerners.  It’s hard to appreciate what you don’t know. Pinkie over here, must admit she kinda likes the design of simisear. Let’s for example compare it to the other fire type monkey.
Infernape is clearly based on Journey to the West’s Son Wukong, that’s kind of why he reminds you of Goku. Yet Infernape in my opinion , even though it’s a lovely Pokémon on its own, is the more faulty design of the two. Gen IV had a lot of “overly designed’ pocket monsters.  Simisear feels much closer to something you can keep as a pet, or use for battling then the beloved Gen IV starter with a hated typing. It’s design might be basic and a tad bland, sure but it actually feels like an animal you can befriend, play with and challenge a league with, Wukong the Pokemon to me just feels like a weapon. Sure it looks dopey, it’s not cool and might have a weird haircut, but it’s an animal.. it’s not Furfrou that we can groom,it’s meant to look dopey because it’s a foolish monkey. Besides, haven’t we looked past stupid hair before… and after. Simisear does not deserve the hate for it’s design.

We can love Simisear despite a bad hair day

It’s innocent!
‘Well, maybe we can hate Simisear then for being that fool, if the Pokédex says it’s an idiot, I don’t want it in my party!’ Of course it’s not an idiot in the Pokédex. Simisear and Pansear are some of the sweetest monkey’s out there. Pansear likes to collect fruit and uses its fire powers to lightly toast them to make them taste nicer, while Simisear is a hoarder and devourer of sweets. Like charmander Simisear has a little flame to keep alive. In case of our simian pal though that flame is inside itself. That little flame is fueled by sweetness. So can you really hate a monkey that just really loves to eat fruit and candies? In its very core it’s quite an innocent creature that is not made and build for battle, and once more that is reflected in it’s very being.

Keep that flame alive little one!

Sure it’s battle prowess is nothing to write home about,  you will not be able to use it in an extremely competitive situation…but neither are so many mons that don’t get the hate. Dunsparce is quite loved, and that has a lot lower usability. Sunflora is objectively the final evolution in the game and it’s not as much shit upon.  Flare Blitz, Grass Knot Life Orb or Focussed Simisear is not that bad to run. It even can be runned as a passable special attacker. It’s offensive stats are decent enough, and it’s speed is high enough to compensate for it’s subpar defences, certainly when choiced. However Simisear was never designed to be one of the competitive mon’s. The Monkey’s were much more of a crutch, to learn new players about type coverage early.  They were designed to take along on your Pokémon journey through Unova without having to care about IV’s , EV’s and the likes. You are given a little monkey friend to build a more solid team around your starter, and though Sycamore might have had a sweeter deal a generation later, I will always remember my first monkey friend, it was a Pansear and faced the elite four with me as a Simisear and I had absolutely zero qualms in using it. You can hate on a Pokémon for it not being cool, or for not being very useful, but by flat out hating a Pokémon just for hating it, you might tarnish someone’s fond memories of their first playthrough of a certain game. Do not take away the magic and remember: When you can only be bitter about this little monster, you might very well be killing a poor little monkey from the inside! Keep the flame alive, be sweet!
I love you Simisear!

Don’t be sad little monkey, Pinkie loves you!

So let’s try a little something to fuel that flame! Let’s keep Simisear alive, by saying something positive about the adorable monkey in the comments, tell your friends and keep the chain going! Let’s make a spirit-bomb of sweetness and love! Poképals, share your love, and stay pink!
Until we read again!

Theory: Galar-Gate

So people are very pissy about the National Dex not coming to Galar, though I understand the sentiment I do not think there is reason for concern just yet.
I have my own theory on why the Galar region won’t have a national dex, and the reason can be found in the system it’s being launched on. For the first time it’s a main title on a home console.. that is also portable… but  what did the home consoles bring us before?

Some trust please
First of all, let’s get this out in the open. I do NOT think this is the end for Pokémon and I do not think missing the national dex is of much concern to be,  in all honesty I am not that much of a dedicated battler, because IV and EV training to be honest is just to much of a hassle for me. So, what will the National Dex not being there for me change? Not that much..sure I cant bring some old favorites that I brought time and time again on some old adventures, but let’s be honest I haven’t used those in the main game part anyway, because they are to high level. It’s nice to collect them all, but honestly in preparation of a new gen, once we did it in Gen VII  where would be the challenge to do so in Gen VIII anyway it’s just a transfer circus. So I do not get what the fuss is all about. Nintendo already told you , you will be able to use your old friends in future games. So why should we all do the salty internet thing where we destroy something we love, just because we cant have it exactly the way we want it? I will not boycott this game ,if I want to battle them all, I will most likely be able to on Pokémon Showdown anyway. So big meh. Do we really think Nintendo will just turn it’s back on the competitive battling scene? As if! People make mistakes. Todd Howard made Fallout 76, Blizzard made Diablo Infinite.. or whatever it’s called, EA…… yeah well those are soul sucking evil leeches who do not understand whats gaming about anymore, but let’s be honest that also applies to a lot of gamers. Times change, decisions will be made and even if we do not always agree with them it doesn’t mean we have to storm or burn our favourite studio after one slip up.

The Return of an old friend
Now I trust Nintendo, they have made nothing but good decisions in my book, I trust the Pokémon company too, aside from the Detective Pikachu game I haven’t played a bad Pokémon game…well the minecraft thing sucked pretty hard.
Pokémon from the get go was always several games in one, there was the pet based RPG, where you train your pets and level them up to defeat the final boss. An element that is still very much intact. There was this almost collectable card game, where you had to trade with each other to collect them all, national dex or not .. that is still something we can do, albeit a bit more limited, and then there is large online battle community that uses the whole pool of Pokémon to battle each other. That one right now is damaged, we can not  play that the way we want anymore, and sure competitive battlers can be salty about that… but for everyone else..big friggin whoop. Now , how can we fix the battle problem… if only the main consoles had a franchise of their own that would allow is to transfer all our captured pokémons to pit them each other in an arena without the whole leveling thing and the RPG…..wait a minute!
Didn’t that console with the weird ass ufo controller do this type of thing in 1998?
Yes it did, would it make sense to make a dedicated battler game without bogging it down with an adventure you have to complete to get acces to your z-moves and mega evolutions.. or soon dynamax?. I think it would.I think it’s time for Pokémon Stadium Switch.

Just battling
Sure it sucks having to pay for most likely another full priced game for something that used to be included in the older games, but think about it this way, how much more awesome can they make battle animations when they don’t also have to render an entire world. How much more smooth will servers run if the battling happens on different ones then the new raids and trading? It makes perfect sense to me. We are living in a world where you have to pay for certain extra elements in games and where DLC is almost a requirement. So why not split a game of many elements into smaller more containable segments, it gives you much cleaner results for your analytics. How many people prefer the RPG? How many like battling more, in creating diversification and segregation , there is just so much more room for improvement without polarising the other side. ‘We want harder battles!’ Well making Pokémon harder will make it less likely to be bought by kids, thats a big part of the demographic, making it to easy  the exact same thing happens. But rather than mediate between the two.. why not satisfy both by creating two games. We don’t need story hybrids like Pokémon Coliseum anymore now that we got the main game on the console..we can go back to good old Pokémon Stadium, with variable difficulties and not a world filled with cheaty items and such.. just you and your Pokémon against other online players or stronger NPC’s then you’d encounter in the adventure.
Competitive battling will be ”behind a paywall” but on the other side in the future those who do not care about the RPG element and just wanna battle can also do so, but let’s be honest the real competitive battlers are the ones who buy all the games anyway, and there is virtually no competitive game  left anymore that is as cheap to play as it is for the casual player. In fighting games you will need to buy all DLC chars to understand them enough, shooter games without vanity items are very sparse, and in racers you basically HAVE to buy the new tracks if you ever want to be able to find a match at all.  So I truly feel that around november up to early 2020 we will get the announcement about the Pokémon Stadium format returning with ALL pokémon, being in a game where it will be actually relevant. Hopefully adding in some resources to make raising a competitive mon a bit easier, as in my opinion  there should be no need to hatch 400 eggs to get a decent Pokémon.It would allow us to focus on the new mons for just a while, like Nintendo said, it would make sense with the new Pokémon Home being a thing and it would also mean that what Nintendo said about your Pokémon being usable in future games would be true. I for one would love to see a dedicated battling game that doesn’t rely on weird mechanics like the festival plaza but just straight up connects you and yours friends for a battle. I will at least be cheering as loudly as if I was ‘some guy’ at a Bethesda E3 presentation if they do.

So I might be alone in this but I trust the Big N and the Pokemon Company, I would definitely buy Pokémon Stadium 3. I hope the franchise will make a lot of money in the futre and that the Switch Pokémon games will be very successful. After all I would really like a Gen IV remake that isn’t as slow as the original and if Stadium 3 ever becomes a thing, it might even rekindle my hope for Pokémon Snap 2! But before that day comes to pass , I ask you all to be nice to our Nintendo Overlord, be nice to your Pokémon you put in Home and most of all stay pink!
Untill we read Again.