XY&Z

XY-sequels title speculation... part IV?
It's amazing that we're still discussing this and no announcement has been made all year.

However there is some solid hinting towards what might be the actual titles for the sequels now. And it's not any of the guesses I've made in my previous posts.

It's not going to be a single Z-version, a single XYZ-version, a straightforward pair of X2&Y2, a stylish XZ&YZ, and of course neither will it be any Delta Emerald shenanigans.

#1 upcoming Anime season title:

#2 Gamefreak registered the trademark XY&Z

Note, specifically Gamefreak owns the trademark, not Pokémon in general or the Anime companies.

The "&" is so deliberate and curious, that I think it's a safe bet to say now that it'll be Pokémon XY and Pokémon Z as the paired sequels to XY. Simple as that.

How would this work?

Who would be the two mascots?

For Pokemon Z it's easy with the Perfect-Zygarde reveal:

But what about Pokemon XY?

Something has struck me as odd ever since XY came out and we got to know the stats of the new Pokémon:

All counterpart mascot-legendaries so far have had their stats shuffled around to make them differ (Kyogre is a special/physical-swapped Groudon, same with Reshiram/Zekrom, Dialga and Palkia are more complex etc.).

But Xerneas' and Yveltals base stats are identical.

...meanwhile 50%Zygarde does something completely unrelated to their distributions.

Perhaps Xerneas and Yveltal are much more related than we think and they will somehow merge into a single powerful monstrosity that will be equivalent to Zygardes perfect form?

In other news: Junichi Masuda appearing on "Pokénchi"

Masuda revealed via twitter that they finished recording the episode for the 15th of November. This is the new sunday-show that replaced Pokemon-Get on TokyoTV a few weeks ago. So we may find out soon what they're up to.

I expect Corocoro-leaks the week before to have the same information already, and since they've been doing reveals and everything globally, it wouldn't be surprising if they announced the games out of the blue on the official site even before Corocoro manages to leak, and then have the magazine and the show give soemthing more detailed pos-tannouncement information.

Of course the final chapter of the Mega evolution specials is coming up 29th of October (and features Zygardes new forms as its main point), so that might be the time.

Also noteworthy, the date of the special coincides with an investors meeting for Nintendo (like the one that happened a few days before ORAS were revealed).

Pseudo-evolutions?

Apart from all kinds of unique forms, whether just aesthetic variations or diverse interchangeable ones with competitive consequences, or ones activated through special triggers with backstories..

The most recent big twist we've seen are Mega evolutions. Special temporary evolutions that allow Pokémon who have (supposedly) reached the final stage in their evolutionary line, to surpass this limit and become even stronger, with the magical power of friendship or whatever~

(along with Primal Reversion, which is technically Mega evolution with a different prefix and a different "trigger/backstory") And no doubt, we will see more of these in the future.

But could there be another "evolution" concept which would catch everyone by surprise if implemented?

Well...remember the mascot of the franchise? Everyones favourite and/or most disliked Pokémon, Pikachu. What I'm getting at, is that there is one further group of Pokémon that Gamefreak might throw into the spotlight sometime in the future: NFE-Pokemon (not fully evolved).

It could very well be the case, that more fans consider some NFE Pokémon as their favourite, than one would expect.

Let's say a new evolution-twist was to be added, specifically to include (but not necessarily be limited to) NFE-Pokémon, it would then logically follow that these Pokémon would keep the design mostly identical (since the look is the whole point of keeping a Pokémon forever unevolved in the first place).

So, imagine a Pokémon, I'll pick Dragonair as my example. What if, instead of evolving regularly at Lv.55 into a Dragonite, which changes its look quite drastically, you could instead strengthen your friendship bla bla, and have Dragonair undergo a new form of permanent evolution that would make it:

• stronger (say anywhere from +80 to +180 added to their base stats depending on the Pokémon)
• while retaining most of its familiar look (some interesting detail "added", perhaps a colour altered)
• gain a unique and fitting prefix
• get the chance to learn a new signature move
• in some cases have its type changed
• in some cases gaining a different ability.

Continuing my example, a Dragonair could then pseudo-evolve (no idea what the process would actually be called) to... let's call it a "Majestic Dragonair", have the horn become a crown-like detail instead, its colouration become more intense, its stats increase from 

-61-84-65-70-70-70

to

-81-84-85-120-100-90

learn a unique new Dragon-type variation of "Quiver Dance" at Lv.55, and perhaps even become a Dragon/Water type.

The evolution would be permanent and it would never be able to evolve into a Dragonite.

But wait a second... what if they are already implementing this right now? (by now, especially for anyone who is aware of things hackers have found in XY a long time ago, it's obvious what I'll bring up)

Eternal Floette. Also known as AZs Floette, it is a special form of Floette that holds a drastically different flower. We have met it already in the final part of the main-story in XY, as AZs very old Partner-Pokémon.

From datamining, we also know that it is actually programmed into the games as a real Pokémon, and that unlike regular Floette, it has stats as high as a Florges (without being able to evolve into Florges) but distributed quite differently from it. It is also capable of learning a new move called "Light of Ruin" (which is like a special Fairy-type Volt-Tackle) which Florges also cannot learn...and so far there has been no way to actually obtain it.

So it might not be THAT unrealistic if sooner or later, we see a special stronger pseudo-evolution for all kinds of Pokémon like in this group-picture:

And of course the aforementioned Pikachu (if the design is done right, even the one in the Anime could finally cash-in on such a new twist, since it would still be a Pikachu, rather than becoming something else entirely).

While NFE Pokémon could be the focus, it would also be an opportunity for some fully-evolved ones to become a lot more viable than a simple Mega evolution would allow (since stat increase isn't fixed to +100), while at the same time not alienating its fans (since the core design stays the same), but no regular evolutions are in sight, like some examples included in the picture above.

Pokemon Z or what?

So with Perfect Zygarde revealed, does that mean we are getting just a single sequel to XY? The most obvious straightforward Z version?

I don't think so, for several reasons.

1. Perfect Zygarde does not resemble Z anymore.

Instead it now has more features that are reminiscent of Xerneas and Yveltal, particularly the X and Y-shape aspects. It has 4 spikes on it's "crown" and 4 X-symmetrical "shoulder-wings", but these wings are also flat and elongated like Yveltals, while also having a 5th one as a tail, which along with the wings coming out sideways form its shoulders combines makes a Y. The Z-shape we saw in its serpentine 50% forme is practically gone.

So this makes at least the point, that if there is to be a single version, it would much likelier be called Pokemon XYZ or even Pokemon XY2, rather than Pokemon Z.

2. Thousand Waves / Thousand Arrows

As before, there is still 2 counterpart moves that are Variations of Land's Wrath. Them being Variations implies that they would replace Land's Wrath one at a time (even moreso than Ice Burn/Freeze Shock replacing Glaciate), rather than learning them in addition to it (it would have 3 moves that are all Land's Wrath in terms of type, power, accuracy, targets, being physical, PP, just with different added effect).

Land's Wrath, an inferior version of Thousand Arrows/Waves

It could of course also be that the canine 10% Zygarde-form gets the Waves one while the perfect one gets the Arrows. But Waves is still superior to Land's Wrath, so it would be strange for the inferior form to learn it. Usually in Pokemon, inferior forms either learn the identical signature move, or lack just that in their learnset (Phione not learning Tail Glow and Heart Swap for example despite it's learnset being identical to Manaphys otherwise).

3. 6 game-origin markers for Pentagon-symbol

Long ago, while researching the game-data of XY, the guys at projectpokemon found that there is a special marker that each Pokemon can have, which is determined by the version the pokemon is encountered in and then causes the blue pentagon-symbol to show up in the status screen (also known as "Kalos-born"-symbol from before ORAS). So X uses a different value than Y, and if you look at the data of a Pokemon with the pentagon-symbol, you can tell what version it is from. They also found that there is a total of 6 different values that cause the pentagon-symbol. X and Y were the first two of course. When ORAS came out, it was confirmed that OR and AS use 2 more of those values... which leaves another 2 markers for generation 6. And that would make perfect sense if they intended to have 2 XY-sequel versions as the final games this generation.

4. 2 Versions automatically sell more than one

If Gamefreak finds even the slightest "reason" to do 2 versions, they will.

But the question remains. Given that Perfect Zygarde already embodies both Life (blue/Xerneas) and Death (red/Yveltal), what could possibly be on 2 box covers then?

Here are some possibilities:

• A second set of forms for Zygarde.

One part that seems imperfect about Perfect Zygarde to me, is that its design is dominated by black. Especially since the serpentine forme seemed to be quite equally and asymmetrically balanced between black and green. So what if there was a second set of forms? With the other perfect Zygarde also having red AND blue marks, but being a very different design and dominated by green colour?

There is even precedent for something like this happening. Mega Mewtwo. We were shown Mewtwos Mega evolution, we saw it battle Genesect in a Pokemon movie, and it was only almost a year later that we found out, that there is actually two Mega Mewtwos and the one we knew was just Mega Mewtwo Y.

Perhaps Perfect Zygarde 1 will be featured in the Mega special Act 4, but the movie will focus on the hypothetical other Perfect Zygarde we haven't seen yet.

• Even stronger than "perfect", version exclusive Zygarde forms.

A bit of a stretch considering that the one we know is already flat out called perfect.

• Intermediary "75%" stages between the 50% and the Perfect form.

This one is more realistic than the previous, because the known Perfect one would then be the ultimate one that you need an Item or other trigger from both games brought into one.

Kind of like, if instead of there not being an "original Dragon" at all in gen V, but were shown the "original Dragon" first and then got BW2 with Black/White Kyurem on the cover. Doing properly with Zygarde what they didn't with Kyurem.

• Mega/Primal Xerneas and Yveltal.

Still entirely possible that they would get some kind of new forms too, which would explain why Zygarde suddenly gets activated when it didn't the last time.

• some new form for AZ-Floette

That would cetrainly be unexpected, since it is already a special NPC-related variation of a Pokemon that is not even fully evolved, but who knows what Gamefreak could have planned for it that we would never see coming.

I would not have included this point if it wasn't for the Pokemon Marketing Director having said that "Flowers" are the near future of Pokemon.

Also, for some reason, the shiny form of Zygarde has the same colour palette as Florges. Coincidence or could this possibly somehow become relevant? Probably not..

AZs Floette is definitely going to play a role in the next game though, regardless of who makes it on the covers.

• An ORAS-sequel with a new Primal mascot.

Yeah.. I've fallen very low at this point.

But let's entertain the idea anyway. Generation 6 so far, has had 2 pairs of games. Each time red and blue. The logical completion of this set would be a pair of green games, each being a sequel to each pair.

It's also certainly not coincidence that both XY and ORAS feature mascots that threaten to cause huge imbalance to the ecosystem. And in both regions, there is a third legendary, which is green, is primarily a Dragon type, but having opposite secondary types of Flying and Ground.

Obviously if the "other green game" was a third Hoenn game centered around Rayquaza, it would not be an Emerald remake, it would have to be an actual sequel. And it also would not have Mega Rayquaza on the cover, but some new form for it instead, which would be even more powerful.

A primal Rayquaza? a Perfect Rayquaza? A Rayquaza that has Alpha and Omega symbols on it's body? A Primal Regigigas?? Yeah, told you this one was shaky.

As ridiculous as it sounds, right now is actually the only situation when it would be profitable for Gamefreak to release 2 completely different games simultaneously. Why?

Because both projects would be sequels, meaning neither had to be made from scratch (one is an altered XY-game the other an altered ORAS-game), so just a few places changed and added, and a new story thrown into the already existing regions.

But while they would be the most diverse pair of games so far, they would still both share many of the new features that would be added, so it's not like they would have to be handled like 2 completely different products.

They'd both get the Maison replaced by a full-blown long-awaited and teased at Battle Frontier. They'd both include the same third wave of new Mega evolutions. And they would both have featrues cross-over that players missed out on (Soaring and Contests in Kalos, Boutiques & Trainer customization in Hoenn). And the plots and characters could of course cross-over between the regions.

This is the least realistic possibility of all of these of course.

New forms for Zygarde!

Corocoro October issue has finally leaked, and oh boy, got us some proper art of what was being teased at since June, and what we've been speculating about for almost 2 years now.

So basically it appears that Zygarde takes on semblence of different life-forms in different stages of power.

It starts off in the core of biology, as single-cell-creatures.
At 10% it already takes on the form of a more regular animal, in this case a dog.
At 50% it is the majestic looking serpentine design we already knew the whole time.
At 100%, it becomes a shadow overlord kaiju-mecha-perfect-cell monster! Which is supposedly stronger than Xerneas and Yveltal specifically (perhaps a hint at a conflinct between them in the climax of the XY-sequel/s as I've been speculating about before?)


Furthermore, the creatures picked for the designs seem to be based on (Norse mythology of course) Lokis children:
-Fenrir, the wolf
-Jörmungandr, the serpent
-Hel

Now what is Hel you wonder?

A "humanoid" goddess of the dead.

Often described as being half human and half blank (which explains the perfect forms humanoid posture, and Zygardes half-colored-design-aspect), or as half alive and half dead!

That is perfectly captured with the blue and red hexagonal patterns on it's "wings", as they represent Xerneas (the legendary of life) and Yveltal (the legendary of death)

(interestingly, the colors in that order happen to resemble the french flag, which is especially evident on its chest)

"Hel in a reading can represent a time of simultaneous endings and beginnings, the point at which the circle is completed. She can also indicate integrity, as opposites unite to form a stronger whole."

Perfect enough so far I would say.

The beginning and the end, at the same time. Those 2 were a big theme in ORAS, the alpha and omega. As well as the character AZ in XY, and Zinnia/Aster (the first and final letters), it's really tying all the elements together it seems.


There is also an interesting detail visible in the Anime-Poster. The spectrum-line on Perfect-Zygardes chest can actually open up to reveal 5 hexagons!

Considering that we have had 4 games so far in this generation, and both times it was shades of red and blue.. maybe the hexagons represent the four legendaries that bring imbalance to the ecosystem if they awaken?

With white in the center representing Zygarde itself? (as white hexagons are generally a feature of its design). But inluding Groudon and Kyogre, while excluding Rayquaza (although that did also happen to it in ORAS, being shove aside into a post-game quest) would be strange.

A Zygarde-Cell with an inactive core

But there is something else these 5 colored hexagons could represent...

Let's get back to one of Zygardes forms. The Cells. There is 2 kinds of those, ones that look like they're in a weak state, and ones that look lively.

A Zygarde-Cell with an active core

They look almost identical, both having a hexagon in their core, with the main difference being that the lively one has a red hexagon.

Could there be 5 Zygarde-"Cores"? Red, orange, white, cyan and blue.

I can certainly imagine the climax of the plot for the upcoming game to be a big battle between Xerneas and Yveltal or something of equal importance, that brings big "imbalance to the ecosystem", threatening to destroy the world. And we as the player having to go search for Zygarde.

But with the twist that we need to collect all of the Cores scattered in the region somewhere. Zygarde would then morph into a stronger and stronger creature with each Core that is gained, and finally into the Perfect Zygarde, with the 5 chest-hexagons representing the 5 Cores. All of this is pure speculation of course.

Southern Kalos is a high possibility for the game. Assuming it follows the same structure (coast-central-mountain), the Kalos pentagon symbol might change to something like this:

If that were the case, the obvious thing to do would be to have us look for one Core in each of them.

Can't wait for a proper Sugimori art instead of Anime-art, but I love where this is going.

I'll leave you with something I couldn't resist doing.

Baby Pokémon

The concept

Many fans forget that Riolu
 is also a baby-Pokémon

When Gold&Silver introduced new evolutions for existing Pokémon, they also naturally did the opposite, introducing new pre-evolutions for existing Pokémon. Gamefreak decided to go even a step further, making baby-Pokémon even more distinct by making them all unable to breed in those stages (which means that there can also be baby-Pokémon that are not necessarily new pre-evolutions for previous Pokémon, like is the case with Togepi and Riolu, who were both introduced along with their evolutionary-line).

However, unlike the evolutions, which get mixed reactions by fans as any regular Pokémon, these "baby Pokémon" often get instant dislike and are brushed aside as "pointless Pokémon" or some similar wording.

So, I realize that I am in the minority when I don't say that "baby Pokémon suck and shouldn't exist", but I am convinced that much of this talk is undeserved, rash and often hypocritical.

The looks

One complaint is that some (and out of 18, "some" isn't many) baby Pokémon don't add anything to the evolutionary-line of a Pokémon, being just smaller cuter versions of the already cute original. The prime example is probably Cleffa.

But that's not the rule. There are baby-Pokémon who do genuinely try to do something unique and fresh that makes their evolutionary line more interesting, meaning if they would have been released alongside the rest of their stages, no one would have an issue with their existence, as with Chingling for example:

They aren't all pre-evolutions of Pokémon who are already small and cute to begin with either. Some can be very deserved and make you wonder how come they weren't made initially already, for Pokémon like Snorlax:

Usefulness

Baby-Pokémon do tend to give access to one or two egg-moves or Level-up moves that a line doesn't have access to otherwise, but often, the moves they get aren't very important ones.

Pichu learns the very important set-up move
Nasty Plot if trained to Level 18
before being evolved to a Pikachu

Azurill for example can learn 7 egg-moves
that Marill does not

The more important aspect baby-Pokémon bring to the evolutionary line besides fleshing out the family design-wise and thematically, in my opinion, is early expanding accessibility. A Pokémon like Electabuzz and Magmar cannot show up in a game too early as an option for your in-game team, due to being relatively strong already, whereas their pre-evolutions Elekid and Magby make perfect candidates, adding some elemental options early on your journey, as was already the case in Black 2 and White 2, where they were version exclusive encounters in the Virbank complex around the second gym.

Pointless?

I've often seen baby-Pokémon called a "waste of dex-spots", as if their existence somehow prevented Gamefreak from adding other standalone possibly cooler designs. "Oh damn, we need to exclude this awesome Pokémon-design because the baby pokemon are taking up all the space we limited ourselves to" said no one at Gamefreak ever. That's just ridiculous.

Besides, so far, there is only 18 baby Pokémon so far (compared to 53 legendaries, 48 mega-evolutions, 35 cross-gen evolutions, 54 starter-Pokémon... at least they aren't outnumbered by eeveelutions...yet?), so it's not like the concept has been overdone, it has barely even scratched the surface!

If pre-evolutions are pointless, whatever anyones logic might be for thinking so, it is equally applicable to ALL not fully-evolved stages of ANY Pokémon in existence. If Smoochum is pointless, that would mean that Ralts and Kirlia are too.

Two of the weakest Pokémon in existence..

..including Kirlia, who has lower stats than Bonsly, despite being a middle stage.

If they would have simply put Ralts into the No-eggs egg-group, it would make for a better typical baby-Pokémon example than half of the actual baby-Pokémon.

Potential candidates

It's not like there aren't any Pokémon with potential for pre-evolutions.

A diverse selection of interesting candidates for pre-evolutions

Don't tell me you aren't curious about what at least a few of these Pokémons pre-evolutions would look like.

Unexpected twists!

There is one specific baby-Pokémon that deserves it's own mention: Tyrogue. Not only did it connect two separate but related Pokémon, Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, by being the pre-evolution of both (to this day still the most interesting evolutionary twist since Eevee), it even added a third alternate evolution to the family, Hitmontop.

There is even other counterparts that could be put into the spotlight with the same gimmick, from the popular Tauros-Miltank idea, the too obvious gen V Hitmon-homages Throh and Sawk, to other very similar counterparts like Pinsir and Heracross.

There is room for improvement.

I do have a few issues with how baby-Pokémon have been handled so far though. One thing most people are annoyed by is the fact that (9 of 18) half of them require high friendship to evolve. And while the idea makes perfect sense especially for the most baby-like ones (they need extra care to evolve), I feel like they should also make the Base friendship much higher than normal for baby-Pokémon so they don't take too long. Since the beginning of generation VI with XY, there has been an incentive added for why going through the tedious process of friendship-evolving a caught Budew might be worth doing over just catching a wild Roselia. Namely because baby-Pokémon always have 3 guaranteed perfect IVs, just like legendaries do, because they are all in the No-Eggs group.

The other thing that bothers me are all the Breeding Incenses that are required to be held by the parents to produce a newly introduced pre-evolution. I understand that this is for the sake of consistency, but it is not an elegant solution. For one thing, they prevent you from using other breeding-related held items (Everstone and Destiny Knot), and the other potential issue is that they're yet another set of extremely specific purpose Items that are piling up as the number increases... but actually, Mega stones
alone currently far overshadow any such items, and I wonder how they intend to clean that up. The solution should be viable for Incenses when they come up with one.


There is one more interesting thing worth contemplating in this topic,

Legendary pseudo-baby-Pokémon

More than likely, instantly, Phione comes to mind. It's not really clear what the reason for creating Phione was, other than for the sake of showing that pseudo-pre-evolutions are not completely out of the question for Legendary Pokémon. And it's actually neat that someone who has a Manaphy but cannot share it, has at least the gimmicky option of distributing as many weaker versions of it as they want.

Also, if the Manaphy you get happens to be complete garbage competitively, with Phione you can at least try to breed towards a better one. Although Phione really is too weak for that to be of interest.

But what if suddenly some of the Legendaries that are so powerful that they're usually banned just for their sheer stats would gain a pseudo-pre-evolution?

In those cases, weaker versions of unique and cool legendaries might actually allow them to be viable options for serious competitive battling in at least some form!

Here is some random examples:

100-120-120-150-100-90 ---> 80-100-100-130-80-70
100-120-120-150-100-90 ---> 80-100-80-130-100-70
100-120-120-150-100-90 ---> 86-70-110-70-134-90

They'd still have a stat-total higher than most regular Pokémon (560), which is 40 lower than pseudo-legendaries like Dragonite and Garchomp, and 20 lower than minor legends like Suicune and Tornadus.

I'd certainly be interested to see how that would turn out! And of course how those lesser versions of epic legendaries would look.

Closing

I'll end this post with a group picture of all baby Pokémon so far ;D

No seasons in Kalos... yet?

Personally, I loved the seasons in generation V. 

They added further replay value (the main one was the sheer number of new pokemon to try out and build your team with), since they only changed once per month.

Similar to the day/night-cycle it's a really nice touch that makes the region feel more alive.

Unfortunately, just like with the absence of the daily cycle in generation III (just after being introduced the generation before), the seasons have not returned for generation VI.

If you've travelled through Kalos in XY, you probably noticed 2 things regarding seasons:

• well, there aren't any obviously. The places are all aesthetically/thematically locked, like in every game besides BW/BW2
• there is parts of Kalos that feel like they embody a specific season nonetheless

And upon closer inspection, they even seem to be oriented in correct order, going clockwise around the region, just like the general progress of the story is headed.

Of course there is exceptions (the most summer-like town is probably Kiloude in the far south, and Snowbelle likely being snowy only due to the Abomasnows living there rather than the climate), but overall it is an interesting case nonetheless.

It makes me wonder... what if seasons were actually planned to be in XY, but put aside in order to hold the visual diversity of the region in place for the initial gen VI games? And if they were, could it be that this is something Gamefreak intended to deal with properly for the sequels, when they have time for details like these?

Their forms being dependant on seasons, Deerling and Sawsbucks got completely ignored too of course, but they could have been retconned to work like the Burmy forms if Kalos is meant to be fixed this way (so finishing a battle in the snowy places would change it to its Winter-form)... the fact they weren't handled this way could be a hint that Kalos is getting seasons in the sequels though.

However, given that this would be quite a bit of work for a rather minor and mostly aesthetical feature, the more realistic expectation is that we won't be seeing the season mechanic again for now (and if it means the developing time will be well spent on other things, like a whole new second half of the region popping up, or an amazing Battle Frontier etc., it will barely bother anyone).

But if they did decide to go down that route, reintroducing seasons in follow-up games could become a tradition, and a permanent solution to the unclear future of this game-mechanic.

Revisiting Kanto

Most fans assume the next set of "remakes" will be DP-remakes.

Time for a reality-check

Back when Red & Green were remade in the form of Fire Red & Leaf Green, RG were 8 years old. But those remakes are now 11 years old, meaning that the first remakes of the first games are the most outdated games ocne again LOL. So it's getting more and more absurd as this chain continues. Not to mention that generation 1 has the most nostalgia-milking value and would easily generate more profit than DP-remakes would.

Therefore, I think that a Kanto revisit is inevitable and probably coming earlier than any 4th generation remake.

Not this generation though (as XY-sequels are coming next to finish it, and because Kalos has enough generation-1 fanservice as it is), but perhaps after generation VII kicks off (maybe before that if they wanted generation 6 to stick around another year while making use of the 20th anniversary).

So this post is about how I would want a Kanto revisit handled, when it does come.

Remakes of remakes?

The concept sounds very depserate and uninspired. I was already hoping with ORAS that Gamefreak would not limit themselves as much as the previous remakes, but they decided to stick to the originals way too much for my taste, while throwing the Mega-evolution plot into the mix (kind of a contradiction).

With a Kanto revisit however, the chances of them considering to actually shake things around a bit should be quite higher, because they would have more justification for making such a game than if they seriously just remade a game that was already remade once before with a bunch of Megas thrown into the mix but otherwise no major overhaul.

So a new game featuring Kanto should take a lot more liberties than any remake we've seen before, or even be a proper sequel (like Black 2 and White 2).

Personally, I'd love to see a hybrid. On one side, it would be a retelling of RG, but approaching every part from scratch, ignoring any and all inconsistencies with the originals that might pop-up.

So while the overall map of the region would stay nearly identical, with perhaps a few new places showing up, the detailed designs of locations would be completely fresh. Making use of the newest graphics available, Cities/Towns would be redesigned, Routes and dungeons reinvented from scratch (Mt.Moon with a spiral design and an explorable summit, the Power-Plant like a maze explored from a personal perspective like Glittering Cave, Cerulean cave turning into the deepest and most diverse dungeon of any Pokemon game etc..), or places added that didn't even exist (an explorable volcano-dunegon on Cinabar, which would give not only the Slugma family a legit home, but finally also for Moltres).

Gold&Silver were basically direct sequels to Red&Green

There were originally 190 Pokémon designed for Red&Green, but a bunch of them were taken out and saved for the chance that the games become popular and sequels would be made (and yes they were all icnluded in generation 2 afterwards). So Gold and Silver were a direct tie-in that was meant to complement everything that generation I did. It was that region right next to Kanto, which is why it's Pokémon are still mostly the same, while the newer ones are more like exotic rarer species that you have to look harder for (at night, on trees, as swarms, by evolving old ones, breeding etc..).

Why am I bringing this up you might wonder.

Because considering the nature of generation 2, it would make perfect sense to integrate the neighbouring region of Johto into a Kanto-revisiting game, but this time with IT as the post-game region (rather than the other way around in GSC/HGSS).

So for example we find out that some generation 2 Pokemon were not just showing up in Kanto too, but sometimes even exclusive to Kanto (Houndour/Murkrow/Slugma..), so why not make use of these "updates" (it even adds a few Dark types to the regionaldex, which is nice considering that even Fairies would be present).

Kantodex 2.0

This isn't actually that important, as the Regionaldex might as well just be the nationaldex order with all of the cross-gen evolutions thrown in (FRLG completely kept them out for consistency, HGSS had a few of them that they couldn't keep out, but by ORAS, they simply included ALL the relevant cross-gen evos into the Hoenndex, so it's a given they'd all be in there from the start this time), but I enjoyed reordering a special Kantodex that included all gen I+II pokemon with the cross-gen evolutions in an order following the adventure more closely, less randomly all while attempting to stick similar or related Pokémon together where possible.

Gym-Leaders involved in the plot

The franchise has started to flesh out important characters and make them involved in the plot regarding legendaries and villains, so naturally that is one aspect that would also be brought into these hypothetical games.

Some Gym-Leaders, E4-members would be joining in different parts of the Rocket-plot, while others would show up for other occasions. For example there could be a whole episode (akin to Delta episode in ORAS) dedicated about the origin of Mewtwo, and naturally Blaine and Giovanni would be involved in it. There could be a side-quest explaining Porygons existence too.

Mega Evolutions obviously

Looking at the amount of Kanto Megas introduced in XY and surprisingly even a few classic ones in ORAS, one wonders... is there even enough iconic Kanto/Johto Pokémon with Mega-potential left for a set of games set in those regions?

Some examples of Kanto/Johto Pokémon with Mega potential

Surprisingly, yes there are. There is Raichu, the final evolution of the franchises mascot, which still for some reason hasn't gotten a Mega yet, there is the original pseudo-legendary, Dragonite, which would be used for this opportunity the same way Gamefreak jumped on Salamence and Metagross for ORAS.

And if Mega evolution was mostly held off for the post-game, there won't ever be a more fitting moment for the Johto starters to join Kanto and Hoenn starters in the Mega department.

Cherry on top

Possible post-gameMegas
for important characters

After all this, adding a few noteworthy extras for the post-game, like Gym-Leader rematches (with Mega evolutions) in the good old Battle Dojo, making the S.S. Anne return after the credits as some kind of Battle-facility, and the aforementioned Origin Episode about Mew and Mewtwo, Johto legendaries (with the GS mascots both requiring their trio to unlock their dungeon respectively for once, and a Celebi encounter).. would probably make these games a huge success and a blast for EVERY variety of the Pokéfan in existence.

In conclusion

After thinking about this matter so thoroughly, I've grown to love the idea, and would be quite disappointed if next year we'd bear witness to an announcement of Re-remakes that turns out to be the same old copy&paste approach as the previous times....

"This one doesn't look like a Pokémon"

As soon as any amount of new Pokémon are revealed, whatever forum or community you experience it with, there is always someone who starts the "they don't look like Pokémon"-topic.

The thing is though... it happens every time (except at the beginning obviously) with every bunch of starters revealed, every set of cover-legends, every secret event legend, with new waves of mega evolutions etc.


I'm always flabbergasted when reading posts like those, because they either have no actual argument besides the assertion itself (which often happens to draw a line between whatever generation that person lost excitement in Pokémon at, ala "gen x were still cool, then it went downhill"), or the arguments are extremely flawed.

Yes it is literally trash, but it is also the cutest
and most thought through well balanced
living trash-monster design ever.

Often they would point out the weirder Pokémon, with a prime example being Trubbish. Now, when I first saw this Pokémon, I immediately loved it simply from realizing it will be the star of these topics, because it offers the most obvious pun ever: "it's literally trash".
Being a generation 5 Pokémon (a generation meant to show that Gamefreak can make fresh unique interesting designs even if they are direct homages to older pokémon, proving that even if they ever "ran out of ideas", that wouldn't stop them from making more Pokémon, but that's another of these topics), the hypocrisy is easy to point out however: one just has to realize Grimer is a thing, yet no one ever complained about it in that manner.

Taking a proper look at the vast number of Pokémon, it turns out that weird designs and concepts are actually quite common in the franchise and have always been part of it.


If pokémon only included generic animals with an element slapped on them, Or if they were only insects... or only dragon-like creatures, or only humanoid designs, only plants, only spirits etc. it would lose one of it's main aspects.
Instead the inspirations for the designs come from everywhere, with the result being that everyone finds some they like.

It's one of the aspects that give Pokémon so many levels of diversity.

I would argue that the designs usually picked on tend to be ones that are actually one of the more original and creative of them.

Pokémon would not be Pokémon without all the strange designs thrown into the mix.
Some fans like the cool badass dragon designs the most, some prefer the cute ones, some like ones because of particular themes, colors and details their designs combine, others like ones with darker or mysterious backstories... and some like the strange ones.

Personally, I embrace that whole spectrum and always find something likable about them and try to figure out what non-obvious interesting origin they might have.

So, keep expanding this colorful family Gamefreak :3