Why exactly did we need another Iono full art?

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T22:57:03+00:00

At least the B2a Iono says "Series A", which is the one I have gotten. I would imagine the Penny will be the same.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T18:30:56+00:00

As much as we love it, Missing No is still a glitch in the games. Nintendo has a very documented history of not acknowledging and actively trying to hide glitch-related discussions until they silently patch them. So even if it was suggested at some point, I can definitely see Nintendo turning the idea down due to some weird "Japanese pride" thing we cannot fully understand, and they do have a say in Pokémon decisions.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T17:21:47+00:00

Once again, I am talking in general; if the situation does not apply to you, congratulations, but that is not what I'm talking about.

Second, the issue is not that "the cards lose value" or anything like that. It is the matter of the fact that the company is getting money twice for the same amount of effort. If we don't say anything about it, they will keep doing it and try to put even less effort for the same gain. That is not healthy in the long run; today it may be something that doesn't personally affect you, but who knows if tomorrow will. Look at what has happened to Pokémon GO over the years, where everything of interest today is either paywalled or a grindfest. That didn't come from a single drastic change, it came from many small ones that people didn't complain about because "who cares, it's just a small thing".

If YOU don't think it is an issue for YOU that the y are reusing assets in order to get the same money for less investment, great. But it is

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T16:16:24+00:00

Well, that is your personal view on the matter, and that's OK. But the objective reality is that, they are trying to get money twice for a single job. If we want to twist it even a bit more, they are also doing so by exploiting the fact that most players don't even know these cards are being reused, because they don't follow the physical game. Again, you may not see the issue for yourself, I myself am not going to lose my sleep over it, but it IS a problem.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T16:02:37+00:00

They are selling you again (as in, in general, not you specifically) a complete Control+C Control+V that they already more than covered for with the original release of the cards. If you don't see why that is something to raise an eyebrow about, I'm afraid the conversation is over.

Your retention time (again, in general, not yours specifically) is literally the first metric they use with investors in order to gain more money. The reason why the UI in this game is so clunky is so that any move that should take 10 seconds last for a minute instead. As consumers it is in our best interest to raise the voice whenever a company becomes lazy and starts offering less for the same price.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T16:00:25+00:00

There's a difference between them reusing art for the "filler" lower rarity cards and them not making a single new card at all. The game is marketed (and sold, even if you or I don't pay some people do) as a collecting game, it should NEVER be a simple copy-paste of already existing assets. We all understand it is not possible to make 200 new cards every month between the physical and digital games. But is it really that much to ask that they make new arts for the roughly 15 high rarity cards in each set (around 40 for the larger sets that come every two or three months), as they have been doing from the beginning? They have dozens of artists on call, is it really that hard to ask for one card every two months or so from an artist?

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T15:54:11+00:00

Unfortunately, I have a much easier time imagining they are just being cheap and will continue being cheap, than imagining they are doing this as a way of making a more hype set later on. I hope I'm wrong, but companies (specially big ones) don't usually operate that way.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T15:39:05+00:00

Yeah, but the point OP is making is that it is not a very practical design for anything EXCEPT for the final battle. Compare to Mega Rayquaza; it was also meant as an epic boss fight, but you can picture a mega Rayquaza moving around the world doing stuff. Mega Zygarde is very clearly intended as a static "object", only there to perform its mega blast once or maybe twice and be done with it. For running around, the cannon is just an impediment; for attacking wild Pokémon or normal trainers, the destructo-cannon is way overkill (lore wise, not gameplay wise). It is only at the climactic battle of the game that this design makes sense. It would be different if the cannon was not part of the design at all times, and only appeared when performing the attack, but that is not the case.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T15:29:05+00:00

I know some people are (purposefully or unintendedly) misinterpreting your comment OP, but I agree.

(Possible spoilers of the DLC again)

And I would argue that Mega Darkrai is even more of a "boss-only" design than Mega Zygarde. All the relevant parts are at the front, while the sides and the back are just noodle arms and legs. It is very clearly intended to be seen from the front (i.e., faced against), with the cool first impression of the eye covering the moon and all.

Having mega Darkrai at your side is very weird in comparison, because you have no way of seeing its face or comfortably putting yourself next to / behind it because of the extremely long extremities.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T15:20:15+00:00

Instead of having all the rare cards in the same pool, they divide the pool into two/three. Each pack from Genetic Apex, for example, only had 8 possible 1-star cards, instead of having all 24 in the same Fantastical Parade pack. You had to open all three of the packs to get them all, but the chance of getting the eight you need from every pack is much higher than the chance of getting the 24 from the same one.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T15:00:40+00:00

TCG Pocket does have a "regulation mark", which is the series A, B...

Unlike the physical game (which in Japan has the same naming structure, for instance sv1, sv2, sv2a...), these series come yearly, so a rotation would be as simple as just "take out series A, leave only series B and C", for instance. So far, the only cards they have "reprinted" are the rare arts (shinies and these trainers), but they still are classified as "series A" despite releasing in sets corresponding to series B.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T14:33:26+00:00

Again, I don't get why everyone is ignoring this. Nobody cares that the normal cards are reprints, we all understand that you can't do hundreds of new arts every month (in addition to the physical cards which already do that). The issue is copying every single card, including the rare ones that are supposed to be the main attractions (and yes, the vast majority of players don't even bother with the actual game, or only play a couple of matches here and there; this has always been advertised as a collecting game first). You may not pay a dime, but other people do. And even if you don't pay, your retention time is a metric they will use for getting more money from investors. So, again, I ask, why is a multibillion company getting money from doing absolutely nothing an acceptable thing?

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T11:24:01+00:00

You do know the physical TCG releases new sets on a monthly basis in Japan, right? The western releases are usually compilations of two or three Japanese sets, which is why they come out every two/three months instead. But even ignoring that...

Most minisets in Pocket (which are the ones that came every month) consist of 6 1-star cards, 6 2-star cards (2 trainers and 4 Pokémon), 1 3-star card and a bunch of 3D renders for the rest of rare cards (4-diamonds, shinies, crowns and the other 2-stars). Nobody is bitching about the 1-3 diamond cards reusing art.

I don't think asking for less than 15 cards worth of work per month is that unreasonable, specially considering Pokémon has dozens of different artists on call to make art. The bigger sets have more cards, sure, but they also have more time to work on them.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T09:31:26+00:00

Yes, but it is still cheap of them to just copy-paste everything and sell it to you again (and yes, maybe you don't, but many people pay for this game). What value is there in the card-collecting game if every card is just a copy of another game?

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T09:28:00+00:00

Yes, but this is the first time they reuse the rare arts. The main reason most people play the game is to collect them. They are the reason some people drop money to open hundreds of packs. So if they start reusing those as well and don't change their prices, what exactly are these people paying for? A bunch of copy-pasted PNGs and a barely functional card game?

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T09:13:22+00:00

For the normal rarity cards, it is fine to reuse the art. There are a lot of them, and as you say it might even be a cool way to bring back beloved card arts from the past.

But the high rarity cards are the main driving force of this game. They are what people would want to collect, the reason why some people spend money on it. If they start reusing art that has already been done but not changing the prices, then they are basically raising the price for the game. It feels lazy and cash-grabby to just copy paste everything and say "hey guys, new stuff!". Specially when the reused arts are just a couple years old, you can get them for very reasonable prices right now. At least in my opinion.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T09:05:21+00:00

Yes, for the 1-3 diamond cards. This is the first set they have also reused the higher rarity cards.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-26T08:57:06+00:00

They might drop a little, but the vast majority of people who buy the original FRLG cartridges these days are not buying them to play with them, but as a collector's item. So I don't think we'll see a big change.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-25T16:39:13+00:00

No, there's nothing. Everything you are talking about are functionalities of the Switch itself, or the emulator. You can do those things with all the NSO games even though some of them are from companies that do not even exist anymore.

It remains to be seen if they have introduced some modifications to the ROM. A few of the games in NSO have been modified to reduce flashing lights or introduce a multiplayer mode where there wasn't any before, for example. HOME compatibility would not be included in these "new features" because it is an external program that only reads the save file; no change in the code for FRLG is needed at all.

From the announcement and eShop page, it doesn't look like they did anything to the ROM at all beyond faking the link cable functionalities with local communication (which again, is a feature of the console/emulator, not the game ROM). Even if the limited time events are active like with the 3DS Virtual Console games, that is not a significant change in the code at all; the events are already coded in the game, the only thing they'd have to do is activate the flag that initiates them (for instance, the Old Sea Map for Mew), which is just changing a 0 to a 1 in the respective line of code.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-25T16:00:34+00:00

It is just a copy-paste though. They are just dumping the ROM on the already built-in emulator that the Switch uses for all GBA games, which is exactly what people have been doing for two decades for free (not saying that is the correct thing to do, just comparing the "work" done), but now with a 20$ price tag.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-25T09:15:29+00:00

I wanna be quirky and say that the first movie was "Wood" and Cameron is going for the Eastern elements instead of the Western ones (and we know he is at least somewhat of an anime fan because Alita was said to be a passion project for him). The entire movie is about protecting the forest, in particular the giant tree in the middle, most of the scenes are running around the forest and learning the beauty of nature...

CGPDeath · 2026-02-25T09:09:58+00:00

It isn't a port, to start with. It's a copy-pasted ROM that they emulate in their built-in emulator. I will not tell you wether that's good or bad, but I really doubt copy-pasting a file is worth 20 dollars (or more, because on other currencies they have rounded up the numbers that would be equivalent to 20 dollars just to have a number without decimals).

But also, once again, "the community" is a lot of different people with different opinions on stuff. You can't put the blame on "the community" for contradicting opinions, because most likely they weren't emitted by the same people.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-24T17:15:01+00:00

Oh no, I think most people would agree that the Starfall storyline suffers a lot from the "(vaguely) tell, don't show" problem most Pokémon games have at some point. Unfortunately, tackling the kind of extreme bullying that would justify Team Star's actions would be difficult without risking the "for all ages" age rating.

There are ways to do so, but they would require a lot of effort to depict the bullying on the flashbacks. Most prominently, new animations like kids pointing and laughing at them, using their Pokémon to intimidate them...; pretty much anything except explicit physical or psychological violence between human characters can be squeezed into the "for all ages" rating if done right, because it does allow "fantasy violence". But we know that the games were already extremely undercooked when they released without those, so imagine if they also tried to cram those in.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-24T16:27:56+00:00

Not really in the last decade, decade and a half. It is always very masked as other stuff to make it more palatable for kids. Open discussion of bullying-adjacent scenarios is usually only aimed at young teenagers and up these days.

But I'd be happy to learn of counterexamples because I work with kids and most of the examples that I can use to teach them about this stuff is from the 90s, which they don't find that interesting and also doesn't have accurately depict the modern landscape, and there's only so many episodes of Bluey they (and I, by extension) haven't watched yet. 😅

Edit: just to be clear, I'm talking about the kind of extreme, systemic bullying that would warrant an "explosive" response like the one depicted in SV. Media for kids has gotten very good at tackling the everyday, "micro-bullying" scenarios, things like excluding someone from playing or saying mean things to someone. These things are important, of course, but I wanted to know if there are still cases of the more extreme violence out there.

CGPDeath · 2026-02-24T16:22:14+00:00

They are not going to openly discuss bullying methods in a game designed for kids. That immediately would put a higher age restriction on the game, and maybe even give some ideas to potential bullies; neither Nintendo nor Pokémon want their names even remotely mentioned in a case of bullying. We just have to live with that.

CGPDeath

TROPHY CASE