Yamato's thoughts and observations: translating games to realism

[Yamato-san]

Youkoso, ore no sure he (Welcome to my thread).

It's been a while since I've posted in fanfiction, but lately, I've noticed some interesting things which I felt I just had to share with everyone. As you all should be aware, the entire Pocket Monsters franchise originated from a video game. A program with very simple mechanics and functions, it nonetheless is a direct factor in the portrayal of Pokemon's abilities and their battle prowess. These simplified game mechanics can be translated into more realistic fiction a number of ways, from complex usage of real world physics, to simply using stats and turn-based battles exact as they exist in the games. With that said, I'd like to present some interesting things I've noticed concerning the games and how they could possibly translate (as well as a few opinions about them).

-with enough leveling, your Pokemon can take out things in the wild quite easily. Hell, you could even take out rock-types, including the massive Iwark, in just one or two hits, while using a disadvantageous normal-type attack. Even if it's a weak Pokemon like Caterpie or Koiking, it could accomplish such a feet by level 100. Now, think for a moment... a Pokemon is capable of taking out an 8.8 meter snake with a supposedly thick hide composed entirely out of rock merely by hitting it once or twice. With that in mind, it wouldn't be hard to picture this Pokemon easily being able to smash concrete, or even demolishing entire buildings with enough effort. No matter how small or weak it appears to be, it seems capable of pulling off some pretty tough s*** with enough EXP. Of course, this can apply to RPG stats in general (assuming, of course, all the other RPGs out there feature giant rock monsters and other things that appear difficult to take down), and while stats are intended to be a simple representation of your characters' strength and the ease in defeating certain enemies, it's nontheless very interesting when put in perspective like this. If one wished, they could make certain level 100 Pokemon appear as overpowered anime characters inflicting massive amounts of damage over a wide radius. The fact that they can alter the elements, and even change the weather, makes this all the less difficult to picture.

-certain attacks like Hyper Beam, Frenzy Plant, Blizzard, Fire Blast, etc. probably wouldn't suck as much in a realistic setting as they do in the games. Notice that in the anime, practically any attack is capable of missing, so things like Ice Beam wouldn't exactly have that 100% accuracy advantage over something like Blizzard (and Hyper Beam's recharge has hardly ever been brought up). Obviously, these attacks were only given such disadvantages to even them out and make the gameplay seem less broken. With that said, never hesitate to give your fic Pokemon movesets that you'd probably get laughed at for using in Netbattle. If it's powerful, it's powerful, and stuff like accuracy probably does little to concern you.

-speaking of attacks, I personally think it would be a good idea to represent the amount of power they use up. Now, in Pokemon, each attack is attributed by PP, an energy gauge specific to that particular attack. It's rather different from most conventional RPGs, in which MP affects how you'll use magical attacks in general. Personally, I'd say the conventional RPGs make more sense, using up energy for certain attacks should exhaust you in general. With that said, it may be a good idea to use the games to represent how much energy the attacks use up. If it's very powerful, with only 5 PP, obviously it should exhaust a large amount of your Pokemon's energy. Moves with 15 PP and higher could probably be used almost consecutively (it seems to be the case in the anime). Though, you probably don't need to be exact, like, a Pokemon can only use Hydro Pump 5-8 times in a battle, but you should indicate that such a powerful move took a lot out of the Pokemon. In battle, one could recover some bits of energy if they manage to find a safe spot to rest. With that in mind, 5 PP moves could be used several times in a single battle if played out correctly (alternatively, if you wanted to be dramatic, they could use such moves to the point of exhausting themselves to death).

I'll post some more later. In the mean time, any comments?

 

[The Big Al]

The game mechanics kind of lay the ground work for battles but it still leaves much to be desired. I'm of the camp that Accuracy/Evasion should visible stats that are different for each Pokemon. A Rhyhorn should not be as good dodging attacks as a Pikachu (or a Pikachu should not be as bad as a Rhyhorn in dodging attacks). And I work this into my storytelling.

I also agree Pokemon attacking should represented by a general drain in energy (though some attacks like the punches/kicks could cause weakening in specific parts of the body). And the more powerful attacks should be more taxing. I include Hyper Beam's delay and write it as the Pokemon catching it's breath.

Now, I'm all for the occasional OHKO from a devastating or well placed attack. It happens in Martial Arts, I don't see why it wouldn't happen in Pokemon. Though a Caterpie knocking out an Onix (despite what Creative Worlds says) in one or two hits is quite unrealistic.

 

[Yamato-san]

well as I said, I just find it all to be an interesting way to put RPG stats in perspective. I personally wouldn't intend to make Pokemon look that strong in my writings neither, and it is up to the writers whether they want to apply this or not. Just letting people know that if they do intend on sticking pretty strictly to the games (some writers actually do use stats, and from what I hear, Dragonfree managed to pull it off pretty well), it's not too inconceivable to make them appear like one of those nuclear-powered anime fighters that seem like they could bring forth the apocalypse at any moment.

I include Hyper Beam's delay and write it as the Pokemon catching it's breath.

You gotta admit, though, that would look pretty awkward with certain legendary Pokemon, among others. On the other hand, Hyper Beam could be largely represented by that Pokemon's strength and seem more devastating, and taxing to the user, as a result. Anyway, here's some more.

-while you obviously shouldn't be literal with stats in a story that invokes more realism, it doesn't hurt to use the gist of certain Pokemon's stats. For instance, you probably don't need to get into specifics about how Lizardon is faster than Pigeot, but you could emphasize the fact that Pigeot's speed is its best stat. Now gamewise, it's clearly outclassed by Oosubame. By "clearly", I mean it outranks Pigeot by a whole 34 base points, as opposed to Lizardon outclassing it by 9, so it would be safe to put Oosubame on a different level of speed entirely (and logically speaking, Oosubame's design looks like it was intended to be pretty swift). It also doesn't hurt to make Pigeot more round-about in all its other stats (its other stats are pretty close to its speed), therefor able to endure more hits than the majority of other flyers. And if a certain Pokemon is meant to be defensive rather than offensive, you should do so (though, if it's a legendary like Lugia, you may still be able to emphasize offense... gamewise, 90 attack power and a move like Aeroblast is nothing to laugh at), and if a Pokemon's meant to be a quick-striker with horrible defense, emphasize that such Pokemon should play evasively and try not to get hit (so much as one hit should take a LOT out of such a Pokemon, if not KO it). And in the case of under-evolved Pokemon, if you want them to still appear battle-competent, you could get away with just making them seem like a slightly weaker version of their evolved counterpart, with emphasis still on their highest stats (ex. a Pokemon with their highest stat being a base of 65 seems pretty low in the games, but in a realistic setting, they could nontheless be shown to be proficient in that area, though still lagging behind their evolution). All of this really puts a spin on the battles in your story, as opposed to the anime, which seems to just make practically every Pokemon hit hard and dodge fast.

-on that note, it probably doesn't hurt to showcase the secondary effect of certain attacks so long as you can manage to be creative about it. In my previous writings, I've portrayed Bubble to appear as foam, which sticks to the opponent and weighs them down (thus, lowering speed). This kinda goes hand in hand with what I said earlier about how certain attacks will probably seem more useful outside of the gaming environment (Teleport and String Shot, for instance... though, to be fair, they could still work into the simple programming should they just be given some different effect. String Shot being able to paralyze, for example).

-also on the first note, you're probably wondering exactly how you're supposed to portray a Pokemon's proficiency in a certain stat. Attack, defense, and speed should be pretty obvious. HP seems to represent endurance. Notice that huge, bulking (or just fat) Pokemon like Whaleou and Pukurin seem to have high HP in the games, possibly indicating that their large bodies store a lot of energy. Though, some of their defenses suck, but this could probably be attributed to how soft their bodies are (Whaleou is a float whale that only weighs about a small fraction the amount it should. I wouldn't be surprised if its body has a consistency similar to foam rubber, an easily penetrable defense... come to think of it, Colloseum/XD does make Whaleko appear to bounce up and down like a beach ball). As for the matter of special attack and special defense... traditionally in RPGs, there wasn't such a thing as "special" attacks, but rather "magic". In Pokemon, this "magic" still seems to hold true, with the special attacks seeming, for the most part, like mystical, elemental skills, attacks that're usually pure energy like beams and lightning (the split in the 4th generation only helps attribute to this fact). With that said, special attack should obviously be a proficiency in these elemental skills, but what about special defense? Well, again in traditional RPGs, defense against magic seemed to be represented by an "intelligence/wisdom" stat (though, on other occasions, intelligence represented magic attack power, possibly relating incantations to one's wisdom... the genre's really been quite inconsistent about it). How does wisdom affect defense against magic you ask? My guess is that the user maintains some kind of magical aura that protects against magic (but does nothing against physical strikes)... in the case of Pokemon, this aura could exist to help resist against the special skills, the energy beams and whatnot. Have you noticed that several of the mystical Pokemon seem to have high special defense? Hapinasu, Kyuukon, some ghosts and Psychic-types, etc. Though, certain fighting-types also have a high special defense (in which case, I guess they're creating an aura out of their chi or something).

-You know those attacks commands you're able to use in the games? In the anime, all those attacks seem to remain intact, apparently stated to be officially authorized by the Pokemon League. In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, they even managed to differentiate Tackle from a regular hit. However, did anyone consider that maybe, if Pokemon existed in a more realistic setting, that several of these attacks may not exist? Again, video games are simplistic programs, and several of these attacks are probably only there to give your games variety, to make sense of certain functions a Pokemon could be capable of, etc. all while staying restricted within the program's boundaries. I mean, honestly, if video games weren't limited, there's a whole ton of unconventional actions you could make your Pokemon do (particularly making use of the environment). Another thing that irks me about the whole issue is that several of these "techniques" seem like special things that need to be taught and memorized in order to use properly, almost like magic spells in conventional RPGs. I could understand this with certain moves (especially the majority of TMs, most special moves, as well as a number of physical moves), but does it really take much to ram into an opponent, withdraw into a shell, dig underground and pop back up, or have a bird either smack its wing at an opponent or peck it (or in the case of Fury Attack, peck it quickly multiple times)? Pokedex entries also make it seem like certain attacks should just come to a Pokemon naturally because their body is simply built for such a thing (Beedrill with Poison Stab, anyone? How about Kamex with Hydro Pump?). Also, several of those beginner attacks like Growl and Leer are hardly ever brought up in the anime, or other media for that matter, and unless you wanted to make Pokemon seem more mystical, I doubt such moves could do anything at all (as I said before, certain attacks were probably only programmed to make sense of the actions a Pokemon is capable of. But, being an RPG, they needed to incorporate some kind of effect. Otherwise, they just seem like a taunt, and taunts don't work as well in RPGs as they would in fighting games). Alternatively, you could work several of these as true techniques with enough creativity. For example, rather than having Faint Attack (the Japanese "Damashiuchi" can also translate to "Sneak Attack") simply be a sneak attack, you could probably borrow from Link's wolf form in Twilight Princess and have the Pokemon generate a dark field which robs the opponent of its senses and guarantees a hit through homing (it could also further add the dark element to the move). It may also be worth noting that certain "commands" could be on auto-pilot for that Pokemon in a realistic setting (ex. bug-types could always be dropping powder of some sort), but with that said, it's easily possible to make legendary Pokemon appear even more invincible than they already are due to the fact that most of them have Recovery (and if Recovery were automatic, I can imagine legendaries being like the Homonculi in Fullmetal Alchemist. That is, they have almost instantaneous regeneration powers).

 

[flyboy1308]

You should use mechanics like the delay after Hyper Beam, and strength with experience, but don't have the characters say- " I have much more attack power than so and so" Avoid mentioning levels, but take into a LOT of consideration the size and consistency of each Pokemon. It makes the battle seem more realistic if Zigzagoon doesn't really hurt Snorlax as much as it would to a Graveler.

 

[Yamato-san]

here's another thing I noticed on the thing about Pokemon attacks: the card game features Pokemon capable of several moves they're unable to in the video games. Some attacks are the same as the games but work differently to fit into the card game's mechanics, some are completely new, while some appeared in the card game before actually appearing in the video games (Ghos with Destiny Bond, anyone?). This is further evidence that Pokemon are capable of doing much more than they could within the limits of programming. For instance, Beedle is capable of using Fury Attack in the TCG (even though it's limited to Poison Sting and String Shot in the video games), and given what I've said before, it's not so hard to imagine when such a move only involves continually stabbing a sharp point.