Every Pokemon generation after the second has had a new electric rodent Pokemon that is not in Pikachu's evolutionary line. Why is this? Is GameFreak merely trying to recapture the success of Pikachu each time? While that is probably part of it, I feel that there is more to it than that. I think most of the so-called "Pikaclones" is actually meant to show off something about the generation they are introduced in. For the purposes of this post, whether or not these Pokemon suck like a high-powered vacuum cleaner will be ignored.
Gen III: Plusle and Minun
So, the third Generation of Pokemon games introduced Double Battles and Abilities, among other things. Plusle and Minun's Abilities, "Plus" and "Minus" respectively, would only activate if Pokemon with both were out at the same time on the same side, which could only happen in a Double Battle. Later generations changed things around so that more Pokemon could have either "Plus" or "Minus", as well as making it so the Ability will activate if a Pokemon with either is teamed up with a Pokemon that has one or the other.
Gen IV: Pachirisu
Um...well, I said "most", didn't I? I mean, I guess learning Spark, a physical Electric-type move, counts, since Generation IV made it so a move being Physical or Special did not depend on the move's type?
Gen V: Emolga
So, Emolga was introduced in a Generation where GameFreak did some interesting things, such as emphasizing the story more than in previous Generations, only allowing the player to catch newly-introduced Pokemon until the post-game (until Black 2 and White 2, that is), and shoving plenty of features into a now-defunct Flash site. To reflect this, the "Pikaclone" of Black and White has a relatively unique type, Electric/Flying, which at the time was only shared by Zapdos, Fan-Rotom (as of that Generation), and Thundurus. Zapdos and Thundurus are Legendary Pokemon, and Rotom's non-Electric type can change, so Emolga was, and in fact still is, the only non-Legendary to be a dedicated Electric-Flying type. In a Generation that took a unique direction, the "Pikaclone" was, itself, rather unique.
Gen VI: Dedenne
One element Generation VI introduced was the Fairy type. Dedenne is part Fairy type. For some reason it did not get a Mega Evolution despite the mechanic being introduced here as well. It should be noted that the "Attempting to recapture the appeal of Pikachu" aspect of "Pikaclones" is plain as day here, as Dedenne looks very much like Pikachu did before it was redesigned.
Gen VII: Togedemaru
So, this is kind of a stretch, but, with one major exception, every Pokemon introduced in Generation VII has a low Speed stat compared to those of earlier Generations. The intent is arguably for Alolan Pokemon to be played with a more defensive playstyle, which is certainly shown with Togedemaru, an Electric-Steel hedgehog that learns the move Spiky Shield. While Togedemaru is not the first Pokemon to be able to know Spiky Shield, it is not exactly a common move.
So, as stated at the beginning of this post, most of the "Pikaclones" exist to show off something about a particular Generation. When the people at GameFreak want to point out something about a new Pokemon Generation, they'll probably make a Pokemon that happens to be an electric rodent in order to show it off.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Saturday, February 4, 2017
The Evolution of the Berries Mechanic in Pokemon
Last year was the 20th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise, and The Pokemon Company and Nintendo did many things in order to commemorate this, not the least of which was the release of the seventh generation of main series games, Pokemon Sun and Moon. Over the course of the history of the series, berries were introduced in the second generation games, Gold, Silver, and later Crystal, and the mechanic of growing them has been refined over the course of the rest of the series. And yes, I will be going over all of the generations in which berries were available, even the ones in recent memory. I'm going somewhere with that, trust me.
In Generation II, berries grew one at a time on very specific trees. In Generations III and IV, trees could be planted in patches of "soft, earthy soil(?!)" found throughout the region and harvested from to yield multiple berries. The remakes in those Generations, to account for the lack of "soft, earthy soil" in Kanto and Johto, used different mechanics. I, personally, never played Fire Red or Leaf Green, but it apparently had a post-game area known as the Berry Forst in which there was a regenerating supply of berries. In the Gen IV remakes of Gold and Silver,the player would use portable Berry Pots to grow berries and harvest them. This latter mechanic probably inspired how later generations of games would handle berry growing.
Generation V's berry growing mechanic made use of the gen's very good idea to have several features rely on the Pokemon Dream World, a flash website which was shut down ages ago. It was impossible to grow berries in the Gen V games themselves. Instead, the player would need to go into the Dream World to plant and care for them. With the shutting down of the Pokemon Dream World, it is now impossible to grow berries in the Generation V Pokemon games, so, uh, excellent forward-thinking there, GameFreak.This did, however, carry over the idea of having all of the player's berry trees in one, relatively easy to access place.
The non-remake duo of Generation VI games, X and Y, had the Berry Fields, an easily-accessible location to grow berries in. It also greatly expanded the mechanics of berry tree raising to include stuff like mulching and weeds. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire pretty much went back to how things were in the original versions of the games as far as berries went, however.
And finally, the Generation VII games, Sun and Moon, make berry growing more convenient than ever. Early in the game's storyline, you unlock Poke Pelago, which can be accessed from any location (except for Festival Plaza) at any time (outside of battles or cutscenes, of course). One of the islands you can unlock for Poke Pelago, Isle Aplenny, lets you raise eighteen berry trees at once when fully expanded. This is a downgrade from the number that could be grown in X and Y's Berry Fields, but you can access Poke Pelago from the X button menu very conveniently.
In fact, "convenience" is the trend here. As you may have noticed, getting berries has become more convenient as the series went on, and this is not the only case of the Pokemon series becoming more convenient as it goes on. For example, ever since Generation V, Poke Marts have been merged with Pokemon Centers. Furthermore, TMs have become infinite-use, rather than being discarded after being used once. In Sun and Moon, Ride Pokemon have replaced HMs, thus finally removing the need to use "HM Slaves". The list of examples of this could go on and on.
In Generation II, berries grew one at a time on very specific trees. In Generations III and IV, trees could be planted in patches of "soft, earthy soil(?!)" found throughout the region and harvested from to yield multiple berries. The remakes in those Generations, to account for the lack of "soft, earthy soil" in Kanto and Johto, used different mechanics. I, personally, never played Fire Red or Leaf Green, but it apparently had a post-game area known as the Berry Forst in which there was a regenerating supply of berries. In the Gen IV remakes of Gold and Silver,the player would use portable Berry Pots to grow berries and harvest them. This latter mechanic probably inspired how later generations of games would handle berry growing.
Generation V's berry growing mechanic made use of the gen's very good idea to have several features rely on the Pokemon Dream World, a flash website which was shut down ages ago. It was impossible to grow berries in the Gen V games themselves. Instead, the player would need to go into the Dream World to plant and care for them. With the shutting down of the Pokemon Dream World, it is now impossible to grow berries in the Generation V Pokemon games, so, uh, excellent forward-thinking there, GameFreak.This did, however, carry over the idea of having all of the player's berry trees in one, relatively easy to access place.
The non-remake duo of Generation VI games, X and Y, had the Berry Fields, an easily-accessible location to grow berries in. It also greatly expanded the mechanics of berry tree raising to include stuff like mulching and weeds. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire pretty much went back to how things were in the original versions of the games as far as berries went, however.
And finally, the Generation VII games, Sun and Moon, make berry growing more convenient than ever. Early in the game's storyline, you unlock Poke Pelago, which can be accessed from any location (except for Festival Plaza) at any time (outside of battles or cutscenes, of course). One of the islands you can unlock for Poke Pelago, Isle Aplenny, lets you raise eighteen berry trees at once when fully expanded. This is a downgrade from the number that could be grown in X and Y's Berry Fields, but you can access Poke Pelago from the X button menu very conveniently.
In fact, "convenience" is the trend here. As you may have noticed, getting berries has become more convenient as the series went on, and this is not the only case of the Pokemon series becoming more convenient as it goes on. For example, ever since Generation V, Poke Marts have been merged with Pokemon Centers. Furthermore, TMs have become infinite-use, rather than being discarded after being used once. In Sun and Moon, Ride Pokemon have replaced HMs, thus finally removing the need to use "HM Slaves". The list of examples of this could go on and on.
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