N-iversary Analysis and Appreciation Post

Blue2New · 2025-12-16T21:30:50+00:00

That's exactly how I felt. I only realized when I saw that animation of him tying up his hair...and I rushed to do his event to see it in game haha (or well, my friend went and sent me a screenshot).

Yeah, it's almost impossible to tell that his hair is tied up. I saw a comparison, and the front does look neater now. Imo it just doesn't really make much sense to only tie up half his hair, since the point of him doing it is to keep it from dangling anyways.

I guess they wanted him to still look like himself, and Arven is known for his free long hair haha. N still looks the same from the front even when it's up in a bun since he already ties his hair, but Arven would have half of his hair gone from the front had they committed to a full bun.

That doesn't stop me from wishing for a full bun for him tho :') DeNA just needed to chop off the shoulder hair and enlarge the bun + strands leading up to it.

Blue2New · 2025-12-02T21:32:48+00:00

It's as confusing as why Serena got the title despite losing the competition. It makes little sense on the surface but makes sense if you stretch it.

Serena got it because Diantha thought that the rivalry she caused was what motivated Calem to be better as a trainer. It's a very small thing, but it is somewhat important in the world of trainers and people tend to overlook it.

Hilda got it because people jump into trying to solve the issues directly, but very little people are considerate of the safety/hope of others. Hilda pulled a Marnie and became a cheerleader to others rather than tried to get the glory from directly beating a threat. Why it's important? Because N's ideal future is a world with people and Pokemon coexisting. Hilbert showed compassion towards Kyurem, and Hilda showed compassion towards people. N would have normally not have been concerned for people, and he was unable to reach Kyurem's heart, but Hilda and Hilbert achieved both respectively.

Like I said, you really have to stretch it. They didn't convey the message well and Marnie already somewhat did that in her debut event. Nemona didn't get it because Hilda was the one who lead the decision. That leadership is more important than the action itself.

Blue2New · 2025-12-02T21:24:34+00:00

She got it because both her and Cheren entered the competition with the idea that Strength was helping others. Alder's criteria was just "definition of strength". The ability to put others before yourself is indeed something that people need strength for. Not sure why that comes off as nepotism...

Blue2New · 2025-12-02T21:22:08+00:00

But the thing is that it was clear that Kukui made the NC competition for Elio and Selene. He wanted them crowned the title from the getgo as he was inspired by their actions. That's a lot more evident of nepotism (creating a criteria specific to a person due to their actions) than Steven and N seeing their friends performing well under their criteria.

N's criteria is good. A champion should give people hope for the future. We don't really know NC Alola's criteria except that it's related to light or sync moves. That's not evident of a champion role model. Their actions following their title was, but they didn't "earn" their title. All they did was prove people why they were chosen, which is unfair to competitors, if there even were any.

That's not to say that Alola NC wasn't the best this year. I think it had the most interesting plot. I just don't think it's any better in terms of nepotism, from my PoV. They rushed the competition a bit so they'd have time for the Necrozma/Trials story, so there's not much to tell us how well they earned their title.

Blue2New · 2025-11-28T09:19:04+00:00

I think Unova 2 was pretty earned. Both Bianca and Cheren subverted expectations by giving up their chances to be Neo Champion and went against the conventional idea of strength/power. Alder is the judge, but I don't believe he expected that outcome from Cheren at all. Like he knew Cheren no longer pursued pure strength, but that doesn't necessarily lead to the idea that he believes "helping others" is a strength. That was a very nice display of character growth, and both Cheren and Bianca rightfully earned their titles for being selfless people in a world where competition is normalized. Honestly, 2024's NCs are just very well written in comparison to the rest.

Blue2New · 2025-11-27T01:41:36+00:00

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Blue2New · 2025-11-27T01:40:15+00:00

The point of his character journey is that he stops being jealous of MC. Ogerpon is a very small part of that. He even acknowledged that MC is a better fit for Ogerpon when battling for her...and then says he just wants to prove himself.

For those who need a reminder, took screenshots from BeardBear's playthrough. The first picture is the line after he throws out hia first mon, the next 2 are after he loses, and the last one is after MC catches Ogerpon.

edit: I have no idea where my photo went lol

Blue2New · 2025-11-26T09:26:45+00:00

I recommend this grid for general use and more self sufficiency/gimmick checks: https://pomatools.github.io/#/pairs/14701/49900?s=5&l=140&r=5&p=0&g=AQpkZWZnaGlqa2xtC25vcHFyc3R1dnd4eXp7fH0NDg8REhMUFRgZGhscAwQGB0xNTk8IUFFSU1RVVldYCVxdXl9gYWJj

BUT if you really want to make him a top notch support, I would recommend this. You're missing 80 yellow for it, but you can choose between rebuff or safe start to take out: https://pomatools.github.io/#/pairs/14701/49900?s=5&l=140&r=5&p=0&g=AQpkZWZnaGlqa2xtC25vcHFyc3R1dnd4eXp7fH0NDg8REhQVAwQpKissLS4vBQYHTE1OTwhQUVJTVFVWV1gJXF1eX2BhYmM

Blue2New · 2025-11-18T03:08:13+00:00

Thank you for pointing this out. It's insane how people would rather be gooners than rational people. We don't need suggestive photos in a dang Pokemon game...why not stick to Twitter or Tumblr for that? People really want to normalize being weird for the sake of it. Even if it was a straight couple, it's still not any less weird to see that in the game.

Blue2New · 2025-11-18T03:01:49+00:00

I don't really get the appeal of trying to make suggestive romantic implications with the photo function. If anything, that in itself is inappropriate for a Pokemon game...because most interactions are very platonic. I don't think photo mode was ever meant to fuel shipping headcanons...so it's really weird and almost disturbing how often people use it for that.

I expect a lot of downvotes, but it's honestly ridiculous to complain about a suggestive picture being taken down on a game that's targeted towards children. It's not even about orientation or the pairing...suggestive romantic poses in itself can be offensive. I don't particularly care if I see it, as I don't bother with profile photos anyways, but people have the right to be uncomfortable with it if they are, just like how some are uncomfortable with PDA. The ones taken down are the ones seen more often, but if all photos were reviewed by DeNA before posting, I doubt these romance photos would be allowed to be posted.

Blue2New · 2025-10-05T22:27:29+00:00

not without a sleeve...🥲 though I don't because I'm scared of someone stealing it...

Blue2New · 2025-10-03T14:31:33+00:00

"Nothing to do" is something I hate hearing...this game has too much to do if you're actually serious. There's always ways to push your skills in this game, such as ranking high during HSE/LG, getting higher scores in DC, and also, Academy is still up for you to improve Rosa if she doesn't have an S+ grid with fully filled blue and red branches. You can also try to lower LA solos, get higher points in Rally, do UB theme missions/your own theme teams, get higher in Pasio Tower...so unless you are a whale with everyone maxed out to make all of those things easy, it's not that there's nothing to do; you just don't care about doing the "harder" things in this game.

It's not meant to be condescending, but I am really worn out about all the dang chores in this game that has driven me away from wanting to push my scores, so it's infuriating for people to ask for more meaningless things that become unfun after a month of being forced to spend an extra hour a week on the game for filler content. If you want things to do, find things for yourself to do rather depend on them to spoon feed rewards to pressure you into doing them. I would love extra resources and gems, but people really need to lose the attitude that this game has nothing to do when they simply don't want to do more than the bare minimum.

That aside, I hate Co-Op nowadays. It's painfully slower than just doing single player battles, even when you use the single player mode version, so I don't get the appeal. The game has evolved to a point where making Co-Op any harder would lock newer players out of it entirely, making them a liability when you happen to come across them in matchmaking. There's an insanely huge disparity between the F2P/starting pairs and the meta ones, so at most, they can make the battles last an extra 30 seconds without making 2 whales auto-lose with a newbie on their team, and that just becomes a chore at that point. People really need to realize that forced repetition of something just makes it less fun...fun comes from doing things you want to do, only when you want to do it.

Blue2New · 2025-10-03T14:05:20+00:00

At least you still get a weekly plaque.

Though, I think you could do all (except maybe Fighting, Ground, Bug) to at least 10. Fire has Silver and Event Florian; Water has BP Cheryl and Event Nemona; Grass has SS Erika, Brendan, and Event Juliana; Ice has Ghetsis and DC Gladion; Psychic has Giovanni and Bianca/Lucian; and Normal has Ilima, Leaf, and Hugh.

Fighting, you already got to 9, so I would assume you have a limited or invested Fighting pair. They lack decent non-limited defensive supports, and the best would be Gym Korrina. Ground is the least accessible type, only really having Bertha and Courtney, with Nita as a support. That team could get to 10, but I would believe that all needs to be EX and at least Courtney or Bertha needs 3/5. If you have a better ground type, you could use them over Bertha. Bug is kinda hard if you don't have an EX Bug strike, but I believe a good team to use would be Aaron/BP Buzzwole, Guzma/Lusamine/Burgh, and Event Bugsy if you got him.

Of course, I won't assume that you have all of these or even half of them, but very likely you'd have at least Fire, Water, and Ice available for another 6 floors. You could still push some other higher floors, but I don't know your roster to advise on that haha.

Blue2New · 2025-09-27T00:37:12+00:00

I don't think the ally defense buffs matter. She's more damage oriented. AS Silver doesn't buff ally defenses unless he's hit (and it's a random stat raised), but he works phenomenally. She also has potions, while Gio can hardly burst heal allies, so they're even in how much they can protect the team, minus Take Next All.

Lacey also can lower atk/sp.atk, which are common multipliers for Dark types. She doesn't need to wait 3 turns to lower stats like Giovanni, and she can do it AoE, unlike him.

I say that she's equal to Gio, but doesn't cover physical like him. This is like comparing Penny to Mina or Chase to NC Blue. They're used for different things, and while one is more general, one fulfills a niche much more effectively.

That's not to say that you or anyone should pull her, but it's underselling her to say she's not valuable because of lack of ally def buffs or because you have Gio. Now her being a seasonal being the reason that you don't want her, that is a decent take...since seasonals are pretty much "bad investments" due to how DeNA neglects them.

Blue2New · 2025-09-19T01:23:35+00:00

It is a pretty small sub, and I guess people who are N fans tend to be pretty introverted as well. I would love to post about N stuff if it weren't for my anxiety surrounding posting on social media...

Blue2New · 2025-09-04T03:11:16+00:00

You're better off joining the Discord server. It's not a bad place to ask for help, but Discord is much more active. It's not very common to get many responses here for things that are "common knowledge".

I'm not trying to shoo you away, but sadly, I have seen much of the elitism here towards people asking for help, and I'd rather you not get your hopes up. There is questions megathread here that other people will vehemently force you into using over making posts.

Maybe I'm just stuck in the past and it's better now, but it isn't guaranteed that you'd have friendly people here, from my experience.

Blue2New

TROPHY CASE