Starter Pokemon for Pearl and Diamond revealed

[Tavrobel]

It's one of them new ones, kyon. Pay no mind to the "balance" and "de-ubering" that come after the 2nd gen.

[Maxico]

I remember an Umbreon (that's one of those crappy ones from Silver or something that nobody really knows about.

With Toxic, Confusion, Mean Look and Rest was the best thing ever.

It doesn't have any direct attacks, it just mean looks them so they can't change and takes a nap whenever they get an attack through.

Then they just tear themselfs apart.

It was brilliant.


But that's about as far as tactics got with me. I just had things with cool pictures and leveled them to the point at which they could thwap anything that got in their way.

[DK]

Yeah I never played anything after Gold and Silver. I tried to play Emerald and Sapphire but the ROMS either never worked or got some crap about the battery not working with the Emu, and I can't find a copy to buy, so yeah. That's my team from Pokemon Red, and I'm happy enough with it to know I can take anyone one with it on Red/Blue/Yellow and give them a run for their money.

[Toodleena]

I really wish I hadn't made that deal with myself to always choose the water Pokemon....
Now I want the grass one! But I must stay true to loving monkeys.... rats. This is hard.

[Polnareff]

I don't get the MM bashing, especially towards the newer games. The newer games, like Rockman ZX (yes, I have played this, at least the import anyway), Mega Man Battle Network 6, and Megaman X8 (well, okay, MMX8 is not technically new) kick ass. Plus every other game the MM series in question always changes, so you can't say that the series is being milked, now can you?

Now that I've played Mega Man defender once today I can quit.

But anyway, judging from that screenshot, it looks like Nintendo is reaching for old animals to stick new types on, which is kinda weird. Personally I'd like a more open-ended setup where you can pick what type of starter you want. It's not gonna break the game or anything if that's what Nintendo thinks.

How do I know? Well, I bred a bunch of Pokemon in FR, and got all these eggs, let them hatch, and went back to Pallet Town to see if it would in fact be easier to fight with any other type in the beginning but Fire/Water/Grass. It wasn't. In fact, it was harder. If Nintendo can find the balance like they did in a few of the earlier games then they won't have any problem broadening the range of starters.

[Hambone]

Okay...in my team,

I had a Blastoise, Jolteon, Mewtwo, Dragonite, Venusaur, and an Arcanine. All of which were at lvl. 100.

[Evastio]

I like the grass and water starters in Pearl and Diamond.

In Silver I used Nidoking, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Porygon2, Venusaur, and Blastoise.

In Leafgreen I used Nidoking, Tyranitar, Flygon, Aggron, Blastoise, and Venusaur.

I don't even know what a Flygon is, so I don't really care. :}

Click this link to see why Flygon is one of my favorite Pokemon.

[Kuzotz]

Why can't they just change the starting types..

Like have Ghost,Dragon,Rock.

[Tavrobel]

I'm not explainging it AGAIN; please refer to one of my previous posts. First off, Ghosts doesn't have any resistance or advantage over Dragon/Rock, Rock would wreck Dragon, and Dragon would have so high stats, that the game would be completely thrown off balance.

There's nothing else that they can change the starting types to without throwing off the beginning balance; why don't people understand this?

[Elite Lord Sigma]

I'll probably get the turtle. This may change if I don't like its evolutionary chain, though.

[ShunNakamura]

There's nothing else that they can change the starting types to without throwing off the beginning balance; why don't people understand this?

Because it doesn't? The common one being said of course is dark/fighting/psychic. Rock/paper/scisor setup. And starting as fighting could make the begining real fun if the early pokemon types were flying. You would have to work around it.

You mentioned early on types. First psychics don't have to be fast. For slow psychics you have Slowbro, Slowking, Wobbufet, Exeggcutor, Chimecho, Hypno, Lunatone, Solrock, Metagross, Claydol, Gardevoir, Medicham, and Grumpig who all below or at average speed(list is in order of slowest to fastest). Just for referance The unevolved Abra is 20 points faster then the fastest of the ones listed(and 120 faster then the slowest). Therefore the psychic would not have to be fast or even flimsy defensive wise.

Dark gets recked by physical attacks? True thier only weaknesses are on the physical side(bug and fighting). However, that doesn't mean physical attacks beat the crap out of dark. Take a look at Umbreon. That thing is a real pain to kill if it is set up right. Massive defense on both ends and good hp. You also got Tyranitar with the same physical defense and a bit more hp(though added weaknesses). It is just they don't give many dark types defenses, focusing them more on offense(sharpedo and cacturne being examples).

Other triangles are(in rock/paper/scisor(they all beat the other))- Ice/Rock/Ground(Ice is weak to rock and not strong vs it, rock is weak vs ground both ways, ground is weak to ice and not strong vs it), Steel/Ground/Ice(steel is weak vs ground, Ground is weak to ice, Ice is weak to steel).

Those are just two off the top of my head for the most part. Don't feel like studying a chart for ages.

[Old Manus]

POKEMON IS SERIOUS BUSINESS.

[Tavrobel]

Because it doesn't? The common one being said of course is dark/fighting/psychic. Rock/paper/scisor setup. And starting as fighting could make the begining real fun if the early pokemon types were flying. You would have to work around it.

You mentioned early on types. First psychics don't have to be fast. For slow psychics you have Slowbro, Slowking, Wobbufet, Exeggcutor, Chimecho, Hypno, Lunatone, Solrock, Metagross, Claydol, Gardevoir, Medicham, and Grumpig who all below or at average speed(list is in order of slowest to fastest). Just for referance The unevolved Abra is 20 points faster then the fastest of the ones listed(and 120 faster then the slowest). Therefore the psychic would not have to be fast or even flimsy defensive wise.

Dark gets recked by physical attacks? True thier only weaknesses are on the physical side(bug and fighting). However, that doesn't mean physical attacks beat the crap out of dark. Take a look at Umbreon. That thing is a real pain to kill if it is set up right. Massive defense on both ends and good hp. You also got Tyranitar with the same physical defense and a bit more hp(though added weaknesses). It is just they don't give many dark types defenses, focusing them more on offense(sharpedo and cacturne being examples).

Other triangles are(in rock/paper/scisor(they all beat the other))- Ice/Rock/Ground(Ice is weak to rock and not strong vs it, rock is weak vs ground both ways, ground is weak to ice and not strong vs it), Steel/Ground/Ice(steel is weak vs ground, Ground is weak to ice, Ice is weak to steel).

Those are just two off the top of my head for the most part. Don't feel like studying a chart for ages.

What you forget, is the concept of immunity. Darks are immune to Psychic. I don't see fire being x0 against water, nor do I see water x0 against grass. Being immune from Psychic and Ghost, while being effective against both is not rigged in their favor? Let's not even mention Daytime/Nighttime (which I will admit could be used in balancing, but Nighttime is ftw, unless you don't play Pokemon that often). They don't have to defend against ANYTHING because they have taken out the best (maybe not best, but rather, the most popular one) element. Unlike Ghost and Normal, both were mutually nullified, but it takes a Normal Pokemon an entire turn to allow them to damage Ghosts with Normal attacks; and that is not even all Normals.

Slow Psychics. Out of the lists I see so far, how many Slow Psychics have there been? Two? Less? I don't bring in defense, because it varies (wildly, sometimes) from each Psychic to Psychic (in the case of Slowbro, a very TIGHT defense, while Alakazam isn't quite the fan).

You mention a weakness against Bugs, but how many Bug attacks that do damage and are not Pokemon unique are there? Two? Three (the last time I checked). None of them do significant damage (or if you want to talk about the beginning, insignificant damage).

Ice does extra damage to Rock, Rock does extra damage to Ice
Rock is halved by Ground, Ground does extra to Rock
Ground does normal damage to Ice, Ice does extra damage to Ground

Steel does extra damage to Ice, Steel is halved by Ground
Ground does extra damage to Steel, Ground does normal damage to Ice
Ice does extra damage to Ground, Ice is halved by Steel


Fire does extra damage to Grass, Fire is halved by Water
Water does extra damage to Fire, Water is halved by Grass
Grass does extra damage to Water, Grass is halved by Fire

All in favor of Ice?
Yay.

Unfortunately, most Steels have high defense ratings. GG Ground.

See the difference? And unlike the other lements, the stats of the brginning three Pokemon (from Red/Blue/Green) are very similar, despite variations. They are also all special elements.

Let's not even bring Physical/Special attack type differentiations into this, Ground/Rock being physical, Ice being Special. I could also bring colors that represent each element, but that would be childish (but totally a factor to weigh in). Everyone likes staring at a screen for long periods of time. Those screens just happen to comprised of Red, Blue, and Green, not LightBlue, Brown, and DarkBrown.

[Skyblade]

Espeon, Umbreon, Alakazam, My Starter, Gengar, and Lapras.

Sableye's Dark/Ghost combination is one of the most powerful in the game, giving it immunities to Psychic, Fighting, and Normal attacks, and no true weaknesses (granted, Foresight can make it weak against fighting, but it wastes a turn). It's a shame its stats aren't that good.

I'm still hoping they'll come out with a Pokemon: Black version, where you can actually join Team Rocket/Aqua/Magma/Snag'em/Cipher and put your ultra powered Pokemon to good use (ie: gaining control of the organization, terrorizing people, and taking over the world). I've wanted a game like that since I first beat the original Nugget bridge and I wasn't allowed to say "yes" to the Team Rocket member.

[JKTrix]

Neither of these starters particularly jump out at me, but i'm not too worried. This game will have access to the entire Pokemon line (just like all the other Pokemon games have 'backwards compatible' monsters), so I'm guaranteed to have at least 150 Pokemon I'll like.