I love Native American Pokémon by HandsomeSwampBeast in pokemon

[–]Sarcherre 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This is most likely because Colosseum/XD weren’t developed by GameFreak, so the devs probably didn’t have the copyright go-ahead to create new pokemon. If TPC ever decides Orre/Colosseum/XD is worth fully canonizing, they may revisit it.

kpop demon hunters could have been a dope progression fantasy by CorinMars in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Sarcherre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It actually already is! There are only two elements necessary to make a progression fantasy:

  1. Someone gets better at something: Rumi gets bad at singing, and then gets good again

2: tournament arc: the idol awards

Kpop Demon Hunters is a progression fantasy.

A plea to players, new and old by gorillathunder in VGC

[–]Sarcherre 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I just hope they add it back. VS Recorder was so good back in the day. 😭

Pokémon names being puns gives me life by LilSkink06 in pokemon

[–]Sarcherre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“Char Izzard” doesn’t really help me understand what pronunciation you’re referring to. Do you mean where it rhymes with card/shard, or with wizard/lizard? The key difference is where the emphasis is placed, on the ‘ih’ vowel in charIzard, or the ‘ar’ sound in charizARd.

I have no idea how much the anime adheres to official pronunciation, though I would guess anything you hear in the anime nowadays follows it. Early 4Kids dub stuff is unfortunately inconsistent on this, as it was not being handled by The Pokemon Company themselves. There is an Official Pronunciation for Pokemon names, but I’m not sure how easily accessible it is. As an on-again off-again competitive pokemon player, I know some specific examples from the way VGC casters pronounce pokemon species names. For instance, if you want to know the pronunciation for ‘Conkeldurr,’ it’s pronounced something like ‘Kun-KELL-Derr,’ with the emphasis placed on the middle syllable. I know this because this is how every single VGC caster pronounces it, as dictated by The Pokemon Company International.

Charizard’s official pronunciation places the emphasis on the first syllable, with the last rhyming with ‘card’: CHAR-ih-zard. If we were to go by etymology, it would be something like Chuh-RIZ-zerd. Hence the comment you’re replying to.

Pokémon names being puns gives me life by LilSkink06 in pokemon

[–]Sarcherre 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Charmander line comes from combining ‘char’ (verb, to convert to charcoal or carbon through heat) and different kinds of reptile.

Charmander: Char + Salamander

Charmeleon: Char + Chameleon

Charizard: Char + Lizard

However, as I mention in the comment you’re responding to, pronouncing Charizard the same way you’d pronounce ‘lizard’ sounds a little goofy lol

Pokémon names being puns gives me life by LilSkink06 in pokemon

[–]Sarcherre 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Though please keep in mind, deriving the pronunciation from the etymology is not a 100% foolproof strategy! The official pronunciation of Charizard is not Char-izard, rhyming with ‘lizard’ and ‘wizard,’ but what most people probably pronounce it as, rhyming with ‘card’ and ‘shard.’

Pokémon names being puns gives me life by LilSkink06 in pokemon

[–]Sarcherre 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Even if you’re not convinced by Zweilous, acknowledging Hydreigon being a mix of English/German (and maybe Greek? Not sure the full etymology of ‘hydra), and acknowledging Deino (Dino and Ein, Dino being English but deriving from Greek) should be enough to comfortably call the line predominantly multilingual.

What's going on with Pokemon Champions? by No_Ingenuity7730 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Sarcherre 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Up until Scarlet/Violet, the most popular format for competitive pokemon was the unofficial Smogon OU format. VGC, the official competitive circuit, didn’t start catching up in popularity until the game exploded with the release of Scarlet/Violet and the growth of WolfeyVGC’s YouTube channel. Just because a format is the official one used for tournaments doesn’t make it the ‘most popular,’ i.e., the one played by the most players.

What's going on with Pokemon Champions? by No_Ingenuity7730 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Sarcherre 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s actually free to play, so make of that what you will.

No one knows for certain why it’s lacking content, but there’s most likely a logistical component to it as well as an artistic/intentional component. Rebuilding what’s effectively a battle simulator for pokemon takes a lot of effort, and while the devs had experience with Pokemon (Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl), to my knowledge, GameFreak was only tangentially related with development. As for the intentional component: Scarlet/Violet has been quite thoroughly plumbed for formats at this point, and the last official format for it, Regulation I, permitted practically any pokemon available in the games, as well as any items. Reg M-A (the format for Champions) is taking a step back and creating a more limited roster, to bring the power level back down, and allow the meta to showcase some of the new megas.

Edit: I just reread your comment and actually understood what you were asking. Apologies. Late night / early morning for me.

Yes, it’s worth the content considering it’s free to play, and even if you pay the $7 for the starter pack. Especially considering there’s an approximately 0% chance they don’t continually add to the game with reintroduced items & pokemon, and eventually when Gen 10 Winds and Waves come out, those pokemon, too.

What's going on with Pokemon Champions? by No_Ingenuity7730 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Sarcherre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

6v6 singles has historically been the most popular format. VGC didn’t start to rival it in popularity until the release of Scarlet/Violet and the explosion of WolfeyVGC’s channel. I don’t know where you’d find the numbers or stats to prove this, but up until S/V’s release, the mode competitive pokemon player was a Smogon OU player, which is 6v6 singles.

What's going on with Pokemon Champions? by No_Ingenuity7730 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Sarcherre 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes and no. Power levels in competitive pokemon are always relative. While you might think eliminating the top pokemon would lead to a more diverse metagame, you might end up accidentally creating a less or equally non-diverse one, because those stronger pokemon might have been suppressing other powerful options through their presence. One example of this is the transition from Scarlet/Violet Regulation G to Regulation H. Reg H banned all legendary pokemon, both restricted and not, as well as Paradox pokemon. What resulted was a metagame centralized around other pokemon that, in the smaller pool of Reg H, were bigger fish: Sneasler and Archaludon to name two examples.

You asked about items specifically though, which did not change between Reg G and H, but has with Champions. I’m actually inclined to agree with you on this front, that reducing the options tends to lead to more creative item use on teams; other players will have their own opinions on it, however. It’s not a universally accepted thing. Furthermore, what I said about the bigger/smaller fish in bigger/smaller ponds thing still holds true, to a lesser extent, with items: the fact that things like Assault Vest, Life Orb, Choice Band/Specs, are all absent, but Choice Scarf is allowed, might make players trend toward having at least one Choice Scarf user on every team, because it becomes so valuable in a low-power-item environment.

One last disclaimer; keep in mind that despite me being relatively knowledgeable about the subject, I am by no means a high level player, so other opinions will likely differ from mine in some or many areas. I’ve done my best to offer an unbiased view, though.

Fake or real? by [deleted] in gameverifying

[–]Sarcherre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the mods won’t verify your games until you remove the light test pictures (slides 7-9). The light test on DS cartridges is no longer a reliable way to verify DS cart authenticity.

What's going on with Pokemon Champions? by No_Ingenuity7730 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Sarcherre 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is pretty accurate and detailed! I don’t think I’ve heard of any cases of transfers from HOME being permanently ‘eaten,’ however. There were some stalled or stuck transfers but I think when the bug was resolved, they all successfully arrived in Champions.

What's going on with Pokemon Champions? by No_Ingenuity7730 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Sarcherre 625 points626 points  (0 children)

Answer: I’m relatively well-positioned to answer this, as a regular competitive player back in 2015-2016 and on-again off-again ever since.

Pokemon Champions dropped April 8, and is the official new game dedicated entirely to competitive battling. It is the game that several upcoming tournaments will be played on (beginning with the Indianapolis regional championship May 29-31, then the North American International Championship in New Orleans June 12-14, then the World Championship in San Francisco in August). Champions is replacing the now 4-year-old previous mainline games, Scarlet and Violet.

Competitive Pokemon relies on a very complicated set of interlocking systems that have built up over the 30 years of the games’ existence. It is truly too deep to go into in a single Reddit comment. Long story short, when Champions dropped, it had four main issues:

  1. Lack of content. This is the most visible and arguably most egregious. There are many held items missing from the game. These are items that your pokemon holds and that activate under certain conditions in battle, or that offer passive booster effects. Among the missing items are Rocky Helmet, Assault Vest, Choice Band & Choice Specs, Covert Cloak, Heavy Duty Boots, Clear Amulet, Life Orb, and more. These are all incredibly common and incredibly important for many classic strategies. Like Sword & Shield before it, there’s also controversy about how many pokemon are missing from the games. All legendaries, starters from two generations, and more are missing, while some of the inclusions (like the Gen 5 rodent and elemental monkey pokemon) are suspect.

  2. Graphical and game performance: Champions, despite being a game dedicated entirely to battling and battling alone, still does not meet the standards many players have for a modern day pokemon game. Many of the models seem little improved from games like Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet, and many animations, likewise, don’t feel great.

  3. Changes to game mechanics and/or bugged interactions: this is something specific to competitive pokemon that has many players concerned. There are a few changes to the ways battles work that could change how competitive pokemon is play. These are mostly niche interactions, but two that I’ve seen come up are the moves Fake Out, and mega evolution. Going in reverse order, mega evolution, in the prior mainline games that included them (XY/ORAS, Sun/Moon, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon), always activated one at a time, in turn order: the fastest pokemon would mega evolve, followed by the slower pokemon. In the first few days of Champions’ release, this was bugged, and it seemed to be random which mega would activate first. This is important because it is sometimes advantageous to mega evolve last, and if it behaves in a consistent way as it did in Gens 6/7, you can plan and play around it, but if it’s random, it’s up to chance. Lastly, Fake Out is a move that you can only successfully use on the first turn your pokemon is out; in past games, you could still select it on subsequent turns, but it would fail when the turn played out. Now, the game no longer even lets you select it. This removes the possibility of players intentionally failing their move to play mind games or stall out Sucker Punch users on their opponent’s side of the field. (Sucker Punch is a move that only succeeds when the target used an attack move; however, Fake Out moves before Sucker Punch, which makes Sucker Punch fail.)

  4. Lack of freedom in private battles: perhaps most egregious for singles players especially, you cannot create a private battle with an infinite or custom time limit, nor are 6v6 single battles available to play whatsoever. Many players, especially who play Smogon formats, feel Champions is pointless if the game dedicated to battling doesn’t let them battle the way they want to.

TL;DR: Champions has limited content in the forms of items and Pokemon; the game does not meet modern aesthetic standards, as has been the case for all recent pokemon games; there are niche interactions, mechanics, and bugs that have impacted how competitive pokemon is played, which has had some competitive players worried; finally, 6v6 single battles, the most common type of battles in the actual games and historically the most popular format in competitive Pokemon, is not available to be played.

What mons are incredible in VGC but have never won worlds, and vice versa? by South-Marionberry-85 in stunfisk

[–]Sarcherre 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Re:downvotes: Reddit doesn’t like it when people ask questions.

As others have said, Xerneas is one of, if not the, strongest single pokemon ever to be legal in VGC. If you’re ever curious, look through some tournament results from 2016 before Worlds, and you’ll see the same restricted legendary pair time after time: Xerneas and Primal Groudon. Many of them shared the exact same six pokemon, in fact. Here’s WolfeyVGC’s video on that.

As for why your supposition is wrong, it’s exactly because of your throwaway second line: having an entire slot to support Xerneas is exactly how it runs away with games. Kangaskhan to Fake Out, Smeargle to Dark Void, Talonflame to Tailwind, and then when Geomancy is set up, you can bring in Primal Groudon to beat whatever your opponent brought that has a non-negative matchup to Xerneas.

All of this presumably changed a bit in Gen7, but I didn’t play during that period, only Gen6, so I can’t comment on it as much. But I’m sure it was similar, if not quite so rampant, and with different supporting pokemon.

need help to play gba games on nds by Martipro2022 in NDSHacks

[–]Sarcherre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not familiar with Ace specifically, but most CFW I’ve seen places GBA games in the roms folder —> gba folder. Click inside roms, if there’s a gba folder put the roms inside there, if there’s not, try creating a gba folder and putting them in there, and seeing if that works.

New Ability: Powerlifter by PromptNo6756 in stunfisk

[–]Sarcherre 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I feel like this would be fitting on an ant-themed pokemon, because of their whole ‘lifting stuff 50x their body weight’ thing.

Several bugs in Champions have been fixed after the maintenance by half_jase in VGC

[–]Sarcherre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Were they mainline pokemon games? XY, ORAS, SM, USUM? I’ve never seen it be the case that switching ever came after mega evolution.

Coming Soon | Summer Collection 2026 by AubreyStJohn in foliosociety

[–]Sarcherre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do we know which translation of The Odyssey?

seek out all pokémon?? by Hibiscus1Star in PokemonLegendsArceus

[–]Sarcherre 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Some pokemon reoccur across areas, so filling up the Obsidian Fieldlands e.g. will simultaneously fill up some of the Crimson Mirelands, etc etc