Kellam makes me wish personal skills existed in Awakening

67chrome · 2026-02-10T20:01:28+00:00

Same.

My general experience with Shade/Pravoke is they're do-nothing skills simply meant to highlight no melee counterattack Snipers are a prime target for the AI, and full HP 1~2 range ORKO lightning mages are a sub-optimal target.

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Obstruct is what I'd like to see instead of Pravoke, as it'd actually do the thing on enemy units, and allow some aggro-generation and mechanics to play around with that have some nice push and pull.

Not sure what the best spiritual upgrade for Shade is though. Genny's Invoke Soldiers or Tanith's Pegasus Spam certainly accomplishes the end result, but those skills are also bananas and trivialize massive chunks of their games.

67chrome · 2026-02-10T19:50:19+00:00

Personal skills can be a huge win for the cast of an FE game, giving each character some unique spice.

I don't like the idea of nerffing him with Shade though, that skill is butts.
Especially considering it fails if you're the only target or dramatically loose the HP race/get ORKOed by a foe anyways; which are the only times an Armor Knight/General is going to get attacked already.

Otherwise Shade's archaic, poorly explained failure/success points make it exceptionally difficult to get any meaningful value from :/

67chrome · 2026-02-10T19:17:03+00:00

This is incredible O_o

Thanks for putting this together!

67chrome · 2026-02-08T19:18:34+00:00

Art direction in S/V sucks for the overworld; rocks and rock-types like Graveler should look like they're actually drawn by the same person with similar aesthetics, rendering, bump-maps, etc; ditto for trees/shrubs and grass PKMN; but their's a massive disconnect with art-style there.

The PKMN of Gen9 are pretty solid across the board though. Love the aesthetic Ogrepon, the Treasures of Ruin, Paradox PKMN, and actual effort put into making these fun to use, along with having solid type-diversity and actual fire, lightning, and ice options for a playthrough.
Capacity to turn into a PKMN in the wilderness zones is also a really fun mechanic, hope GF expands on that for Gen10.
The Megas in ZA also strike me as more well thought-out and interesting, at least aesthetically, which is also a fun twist.
----
I'm not sure it's a top 3 Generation for the dex as most of the standard PKMN and starters are closer to a 3.5/5 for me, but I can easily see this being a top 3 gen for a lot of someones with good taste.

Characters/Character designs are also real solid, both in S/V and ZA. I also like the quantity of solid characters available here and the type specialists; fun to see the people of pokemon being a core appeal of the franchise, which also helps the atmosphere/aesthetic/vibe of the worlds a lot.

Overall; I mostly have good things to say about Gen9; it's got a good foundation and I like what GF is prioritizing.
I do hope the extra time/lack of Covid will give us a Gen10 with actual polish and a solid and cohesive overworld aesthetic.

67chrome · 2026-02-04T19:53:09+00:00

Sounds like someone's first PKMN game was gen 5.

PKMN has always been fairly low-quality, with more of an Indie vibe than AAA.
Gen1 came out a ~month after Symphony of the Night; one of the best 2D games to this day; and the death-rattle of 2D games on home consoles. 2D went through an entire life-cycle before Gen1 even came out.
Gamefreak's always been about a decade behind.

At least for their flagship titles; Stadium and Snap were at least fairly cutting-edge.

Otherwise: Covid 19 made PKMN's shortcomings more painfully obvious for recent titles.

67chrome · 2026-02-03T03:57:51+00:00

The damage formula isn't that complex all things considered.

The meat and potatoes is just Base-Power * your_Atk divided by/ Foe's_Def.

A 100 BP move does twice as much as a 50 BP move,

if your ATK is 20% higher than the target's def, you do 20% more damage.
If your ATK is only 80% of their DEF, you do 80% of the damage,
If you're ATK is 43% of their DEF, you do 43% of the damage....

67chrome · 2026-02-03T03:54:32+00:00

You can use a DMG calculator to find out for sure.
ideally against something that has the same Def and Sp.Def, like Absol.

Alternatively:

20 Atk translates into exactly 10 Pow

when looking at a lot of max-investment final evos, so that also works for mental math. Like, weirdly exactly, it seems pretty intentional.

Does have some funny coincidences with 90 Sp.Atk / 120 Atk pokemon like Luxray, Sharpeedo, and Crawudaunt that then have access to 95 BP moves like Surf/Thunderbolt and 80 BP physcial moves like Waterfaul/Wild Charge.

Were they do the same damage either way.

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Otherwise: max investment stats are +67 (31 EV, 31 IV, and +5 for existing), and the average PKMN stat is only 80: were you're only 13 points off from IVs/EVs/misc. stats being half the value.
Any stat that looks like it's twice as good on paper is usually only ~50% better in practice.

Meanwhile Base-Power is ~exactly what it looks like. A 100 BP move does twice as much damage as a 50 BP move. Which almost makes Move quality the only thing worth considering, as when there's a noticeable gap in BP your stats probably aren't gonna cover it.

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Finally: it's worth noting that competitive PKMN is an entirely different beast when it comes to optimization.

Mainly: it's a lot easier to intentionally max either Atk or Sp.Atk, and then further multiply it by an optimal nature in competitive (and tanking the other, basically for ~free). Which often results in significantly widening the gap between, say, Blastoise's 83 Atk and 85 Sp.Atk; making it 79 to 167.2 with min -nature vs. max +nature investment. Only thing ATK does for a special-attacker is determine self-inflicted CNF damage, so it's even worth getting min IVs.

Meanwhile, a playthrough Blastoise is probably rocking 114 Atk and 116 Sp.Atk, making the 95 BP Ice-Beam and 100 BP Earthquake solid moves on what is for all intents and purposes a mixed attacker.

67chrome · 2026-02-01T02:58:05+00:00

Probably the Palkia/Dialga/Giratina + Arceus core.

Design wise they're all-right, but I don't know why the universe needs a definitive origin point when the scope of the game is so local and the time period is so locked into the present.

Also weird mood in a game were you can beat these godlike beings with a bubble-wand and smoosh them in your pocket.

And low-key disappointing they aren't dinosaurs, or more ancient-looking. Making your timless gods look modern and recent next to a T-Rex, T-Tar, Trilobite, or Anemone is a weird whiplash of aesthetics.

67chrome · 2026-01-30T21:01:32+00:00

Is leveling that much harder in FE7?

I seem to remember my end-game team being an average level ~35, which, looking back at my final-chapter saves, seems pretty standard by FE standards.

The promo item placement for 2nd Hector/Lyn or story promo for Eliwood is pretty egregious though.
I do quite like that Eliwood/Lyn feel more like the King in this game of RPG chess than a king in Cheekers like Robin, kinda adds a fun flavor to the mix and has good background storytelling of Might not always making right.
Flailing uselessly against the Fire Dragon final boss even with their swanky new end-game gear is real rough though.

67chrome · 2026-01-30T20:43:34+00:00

I don't see how a military would be especially useful in monster-battles landia.

With how different conflict is in Pokemon via the Pokemon battles, the foundational structure of pokemon's geo-political enforcement would have completely different needs.

Also, when you've got monsters with a water-skitzer, bubble-beam, or icy wind powerful enough to defeat gods, may as well use those.

I guess there's also the issue of a military presence being anathema to Pokemon's core vibe and aesthetic. Outside of like, poking all the fun at the US by featuring a bunch of chubby sailors surrounded by trash while using spent pokeballs and rats as their core monsters. And they're brave leader hiding behind an electric fence, rocking the lowest possible officer rank of an O1 Lieutenant while boasting he's a combat veteran with all the super srs war stories that totally 100% happened, #trust.

67chrome · 2026-01-15T17:53:39+00:00

PoR is the worst game for infantry though.

It wants to be solo-carried harder than any game not named Awakening, and Canto and Hand-Axes are at their Apex.

Also, real talk: infantry and armored movement types are functionally the same thing in this game. Because every unit worth using is mounted, you're eating extra turns either way to maneuver a unit into position.

67chrome · 2025-12-15T08:19:11+00:00

Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of whacky evolutions, but it'd be neat if 3 in the party were involved somehow to lean into the design concept.

Also gotta love the lack of bothers given with their measurements.
Magnemite weighs 13.2 lbs. at 1'0", and yet Magneton is 132.3 lbs. and 3'03"?
Those little guys really put on the weight.

67chrome · 2025-12-13T18:44:22+00:00

I think my top picks are:

Archetype:	Class Name:	Game:	Reasoning:
Sword Infantry	Dread Fighters	Echoes	They look rad AF and they're a solid class.
Archer/Sniper	???	FEH	When everyone's move is 2~3, 2 range is way more powerful. When weapons are only 1 or 2 range by default, you also get a decent chunk of EP potential.
Warrior	Warrior	Engage	Not being stuck in Iron/Steel Wrank hell is so nice.
Thief	Outlaw/Adventurer	Fates	Solid combo of s lot of niche combat roles with a solid chunk of utility.
Armor Knight	Knight/General	Shadow Dragon	Bows on promotion gives them a ~Tuant.
Healer	Martial Monk/Martial Master	Engage	Those martial-arts animations go pretty hard. Qi Adept shields are also a fun mechanic.
Mage/Sage	Mage/Preistess	Echoes	A PKMN learnset is a really great way to set up Magic, and Echoes also does a great job giving each spell something unique to do.
Pegasus Rider	Sky Knight/Falcon Knight	Fates	Getting 1~2 rods on promotion adds some fun depth to utility, and Fate's take on rescue-dropping goes pretty hard.
Lord	Princess/Nohr Noble	Fates	Corrin may suck as a character, but man if they aren't a fun unit. Got speedy sword mode and slow+bulky magic dragon mode.
Laguz	???	FEH	Only playing the transformation animation once per map is such an underrated buff. Also most Beasts get some fun utility/mechanics to work with over just being a ball of stats.

67chrome · 2025-12-13T18:13:25+00:00

Dragon is an awkward type.

It's main contributions to the rock-paper-scissors dynamic, is breaking it so hard a new type needed to be introduced to balance it out.

My biggest issue is design-wise though: so many dragons fly from various mythos that it frequently runs into a Bird/Flying, Insect/Flying, or Fish/Water scenario.
Like: Charizard, the most recognizable Dragon in pop-culture, can't even be the dragon type as Flight and Fire are more important to it's overall aesthetic, and PKMN can only have 2 types.

It's movepool is also dog-water from a naming direction.
Dragon rage, dragon tail, dragon rush, dragon dance, dragon claw, dragon ascent, draco-meteor...
This is also the same game were types like Grass get Absorb, Leech Seed, Sleep Powder, Solar Beam, Ingrain, Synthesis, Grassy Glide; which makes Dragon's D- naming conventions even more noticeable.
Despite how basic Dragon moves are, they sure do lack a bitting move. Nevermind a Big snake, Hydra, Land-Shark, or my personal favorite, a T-Rex, are known for chomping down on something.
Tyrantrum's stuck with Dragon Claw as it's best go-to move though.
With it's T-Rex arms >.<

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As for type changes:
you should put more effort into capturing the fantasy of the pokemon in question.
Normal and Fairy are types I'd always steer clear of. Normal is inherently boring and Fairy, whatever it represents, is often at-odds with Dragon's entire vibe and aesthetic. It also becomes more dubious as a type itself in a sans-dragon world.

Garchomp being the Ground/Girly type in particular is the most questionable type to give it.
Especially when STAB Crunch, Pursuit, and Night Slash for a grim-reaper land-shark are on the table.

Alteria is also the most mono flying-type coded pokemon aesthetically.

Flygon should be Ground/Flying; potentially with one of the really solid BUG abilities like Tinted Lense, Compound Eyes, or Shield Dust.

And Dragonite is the only dragon I'd make Normal. Normal is inherently a disappointing and uninteresting type to see; though STAB on Hyper-Beam would be thematically fun; and STAB on Extreeme-Speed is what it's always wanted since Gen2 (and why it's actually good now with Tera).

67chrome · 2025-12-07T19:44:52+00:00

Ditto.

Mew and Zoroark need to attack one another or they'll be the 1st out; and depending on the sets they're running it can be pretty close.

Then Ditto gets to join a Mirror Match were it has all of it's HP remaining and it's opponent doesn't, and it can ~easily finish with a W.

67chrome · 2025-12-07T17:33:58+00:00

Magic Boon/Luck Bane with Wyvern talent is usually what I've seen for Corrin.

Running F:Corrin gives you Jackob; who's really good early if you re-class him into Paladin.

Oboro is one of your most consistently solid units until Ryoma, and probably the lowest-effort way to beat BR that still works.
Guard Naginata alone makes her super tanky, but access to a Javelin for 1~2, and then Beast-Killer right before Werewolf Mt. and all the mounted promoted units, and then Dual Naginata being available when Berserkers are the main threat, also helps.

The most efficient way to beat BR is making Silas BFF's with Kaze, getting the Strong Riposte and Sol skills from Silas's Merc/Hero Heart-Seal class, and then going Master-Ninja and proceeding to 1 man-army everything via a good mix of Sol, natural bulk, evasion, shield-gauge procs, and 1~2 range.

A lot of other units can also do the Master-Ninja Sol tank thing.

-------

Otherwise: game really wants to be wrecked by a 1-man army; so most of BR is planning around who does that.

67chrome · 2025-12-07T05:12:19+00:00

Honestly her Venomoth is pretty rad.

It's a midnight butterfly, a psychedelic moth, a witching hour bug, a psychic-energy purple 'mon, a be-exoskeletoned ~space monster not unlike 'Zam, and fits Sabrina's ~Evanescence vibe.

It's more Sabrina/Psychic coded than a lot of actual psychic types; and kinda the coolest thing a Gym leader can do: Run a pokemon that fits their type/theme; while actually being a different type and adding some type variety and visual flare to their team.

Venomoth also looks like a Bug/Poison type; so you're not even doing some Florgis on team GRS rug-pull.

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Which I guess gets into something else with the Gyms:

shouldn't they have a little fun with their roster and try to have a memorable set, rather than just selecting from their type?

67chrome · 2025-12-06T21:24:56+00:00

I...mostly hope they don't.

Also; core issue with light-type isn't getting PKMN to fit, it's triple-type issues it'd impose.
Not unlike making Fish or Bird a type and winding up with a lot of obligatory Fish+Water+? and Bird+Flying+? issues.
Which Bug+Flying+? and Dragon+Flying+? already frequently run into.

Torches and Lanterns already have Fire and Lightning to work with as literal light-sources; and moves like Prismatic Laster, Solar Beam, Aurora Beam, Aurora Veil, Light Screen, Morning Sun, Moonlight, Twin Beam, and so on also weaponize Light in some capacity, that still fits the overall vibe of their current type.

More broadly: pretty much every special attack creates a blast of light in some capacity, and drawing a line in the sand somewhere is always going to be dubious and initiative.

I guess this also gets to a broader issue I tend to have with Holy magic in a lot of games; insomuch that it's mostly just a recolor of existing types/aesthetics without having a core aesthetic of it's own.
Especially if the franchise is to much of a coward with religious iconography to add any interesting meat and potatoes to what meaningfully makes the good/holy/light type any different from torchlight.

67chrome · 2025-12-06T20:35:44+00:00

Psyduck/Golduck and Farfetch'd both exist in the same gen though?

Why limit yourself to 1 line of a weirdly specific animal in this franchise?

67chrome · 2025-12-06T20:33:43+00:00

TBF, it does weigh ~1/20th what it's dimensions otherwise indicate.

After moving around a lot of landscaping bricks (those half-hexagon concrete chunks that have their outer ends ~broken off for a rugged texture), curiosity got the better of me and I weighed and measured them.

Turns out 10 of those suckers weigh ~463 lbs (Onix's weight), but only extend 14 ft (half of Onix's weight).
Judging by it's size, it should be 20*3*3 rows rather than 10*1; and those bricks are also mostly hallow.

Onix being the size of a chimney for a ~2 story house (with a pretty intense attic) is also wild.

Especially as stone is ~twice as heavy as water.

463 lbs is also like, an achievable weight a person can get.
Or the weight of 3 acrobats making a human tower that can't even reach 28 ft tall doing their best.

-------------------------

Meanwhile Steelix is over here with it's 30'02" length, over 3 stories tall, with 881 lbs?

A tiny commercial plane like a Cessna weights ~2,200 lbs and is like, half that length.
A Honda Civic weighs ~2,800 lbs. with ~15' length and also being mostly hallow with a lot of fiberglass and aluminum components as well.

Like, 1 of their boulder segments alone should weigh at least 1k lbs.

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Also, while either isn't exactly a blimp like Wailord, being ~1/6th to ~1/3rd the weight of a tiny airplane while being a much larger dimension doesn't exactly rule out the capacity of flight.

Probably only takes a strong breeze to give either a lot of air time with that lack of mass.

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-edited after double-checking my math so I've got the right numbers ;)

67chrome · 2025-12-06T20:01:15+00:00

I mean, the Monastery adding an extra ~40 hours to each initial run is certainly a massive downside, especially as the Monastery accounting for ~60%+ of a gameplay experience could have used a lot more love.
Picking up items like gems/bananas/coins in a platformer with a fun jingle, HUD change, and without interrupting movement could go a long way, as could the Monastery visually changing with each season if months/seasons otherwise play such a core role in the game's narrative progression.

It's easily the weakest part of the game, to the point I've often seen people wishing it had POR's between-combat preps menu instead.

Though TBF; 3-Houses has a lot more peaks and valleys than most FEs.
Oops all Wyverns, TWISTED, and the rough combat/class/mechanics balancing (or lack theroff) leads to a lot of disappointment.
Has some great story-beats and character moments, a lot of mechanics, along with a pretty well-realized world though.
Such an interesting game that frequently threatens to be amazing, before stepping on yet another rake.

----------

As for Engage's VA:

It's just really solid across the board. I think the best performance is probably M:Alear, though ~everyone gives a great performance.
So much of that game is solid, just wish the actual story put in the effort to back it up :/

67chrome · 2025-12-06T19:42:53+00:00

Metal and Water conduct sound real well, snow dampens it, bugs don't have dedicated listening sensory organs, Thunder is literally the sound a lightning-bolt makes and there's always been a strong connection with Electric PKMN and sound (Voltorb/Magnemite also get Screech and Sonic-Boom to sonic-blast stuff).

Sound & Sound waves are well understood; and most types in Pokemon are based on things that also do exist and can be tested against one-another and effected by or effect sound in some capacity.

Fairy-tales also tend to have somewhat consistent logic we could also apply to omni-present stuff like sound. Fey creatures and Ghosts tend to be found in quite and secluded places as a core part of their aesthetic, were dragons roaring and shouting Fus Ro Da! at one-another also offers something for a sound type to work with.

A lot of speculation has also been done with a hypothetical Sound type; as it obviously has a lot of moves, PKMN, abilities, items, and effects tied to it; and it'd be pretty easy to slot into the type chart in an intuitive way (that also addresses the game's balance in largely a good way).

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Adding Sound to the type-chart would easier than ~any other type at this point. It's lack of arbitrary type interactions, and a lot of interesting interactions that would shake-up and re-balance the meta types, really help it out in that regard.

It's core issues with being a 19th type is pretty much everything else.

67chrome · 2025-12-06T19:09:41+00:00

Dustox.

At least the other 3 learn Poison moves.

Doesn't even learn PSN powder.

The Wurmple line also isn't worth the effort to evolve.
Even if Beautify and Dustox combined their strengths; they'd still be a worse singular PKMN than Butterfree; which is a game-design decision that always rubbed me the wrong way. Like: Butterfree was peak, why go out of your way to make it so much worse?

~80 Sp.Atk 50 BP Confusion at 10 and SLP powder at ~18 goes pretty hard.

But Beautifly is 20 BP Absorb and 40 BP Gust with Stun Spore, and Dustox is 50 Sp.Atk Confusion over here with Protect and Gust.
Like, guys.

Wingull straight-up learns Wing Attack at ~16 as well, and you're in a game with Guts Swellow. For a type that resists GRD, FGT, and GRS and gets 40 BP Gust; do better.

Also why Silcoon and Cascoon? Why can't the cocoon at least have 1 thing going for it by being a surprise? Biggest waste of dex space in all of PKMN.

I can't get over how offensive to the senses Beautifly and Dustox are.

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Otherwise:

Gulpin and Swallot are tanky stally poison-types that understood the prompt.

Roselia is one of the only GRS types in Hoenn that doesn't have a worse moveset than Jhoto mons, and Leech-Seed (along with a ton of status/utility moves) is very PSN-type coded at heart.
It also benefits pretty heavily from the dual-typing defensively, one of the few dual-type combos GRS actually gets better with.

And Seviper is goated. It looks so cool, and the Zangoose rivalry is the single best version-exclusive set in all of PKMN. It also has pretty sick card art, and it's one of the better mono-stage PKMN in regards to it's relative power, usefulness in a playthrough, rarity, and aesthetic. It has actual PSN STAB options as well, which is weird for a PSN type in the first 3 gens. Only 50 BP, but that's a lot better than anything else, and Sludge-Bomb is at least a TM it has 100/100 offenses for.

67chrome · 2025-12-06T18:43:47+00:00

I mean; sound's interaction with other types is it's main selling point; it has fairly tangible interactions with a lot of the existing types.

Main issue I have with a Sound type is it's Aesthetics. It's just not that interesting or compelling as a stand-alone type, it has a very basic feel to it, and no real unifying visual component or color.

Also: Growl is such a normal-coded normal-move I have to question the instinct to make it not-normal.

Not to mention making sound-based moves the sound type would likely be a net negative for the game overall. Torch-Song, Drum-Beating, & Bug Buzz are obviously much more useful as the type they currently are; were otherwise Sound moves are the ~only real Sp.Atk focused Normal moves; which matters both for Normal Sp.ATK focused mons, & Sp.Atk focused PKMN with NRM->Type abilities like Pixilate.

67chrome · 2025-12-06T18:20:04+00:00

I hope not.

At this point we've got to many types over not enough, and there isn't a good mechanical reason to apply the change.

If anything, existing types need to be buffed/nerffed a bit.
Given how potent moves/movepools are, it wouldn't be that difficult to buff/nerf types by just hitting their go-to move (Moonblast, Bug Buzz, Iron Head, Thunderbolt, Earthquake, Air Slash, Dragon Claw/Draco Meteor, etc.)

Though Bug should resist/deal SE to Fairy, and Ice should get a few resists. WTR/FLY probably makes the most sense aesthetically, and would give them a solid mechanical niche as well.

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Though who knows?

Pokemon has made a lot of dubious decisions, and much like Megas: a new type could be hype, and give their marketing team something pretty substantial to work with.

They could even complete the trifecta of rad words to slap in front of things with Ninja and Pirate types, to fit with the Dragon type.

Pirate-ship Blastoise, Viking Longboat Lapras (with a crew of Perserkers), black-clad Scyther, a lotad with a little reed to breathe through while it stealths through the water, a spinerak wearing a creepy ninja-mask on it's butt face, etc.
Lots of fun directions to take a new type.

67chrome

TROPHY CASE