← Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
We Played Pokemon Champions - Kinda Funny Gamescast!
00:55:20
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- [00:01]
Jake Deckard
Spring starts at the Home Depot and
- [00:02]
Greg Miller
we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season. Fire up the flavor with our wide variety of grills for under $300.
- [00:09]
Jake Deckard
Like the next grill 4 burner gas
- [00:11]
Greg Miller
grill that's perfect for hosting your spring cookout. Then set the scene and turn your outdoor space into the go to spot
- [00:17]
Jake Deckard
the patio sets for every budget.
- [00:19]
Greg Miller
Bring it this season with grills that
- [00:21]
Jake Deckard
deliver flavor and patios that set the
- [00:23]
Greg Miller
vibe from the Home Depot. Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot.
- [00:27]
Jake Deckard
Exclusions applies to homedepot.com Pricematch for details.
- [00:31]
Redfin Sponsor
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- [01:14]
Blessing Adioye
Protein is now at Starbucks and it's
- [01:16]
Jake Deckard
never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks.
- [01:37]
Tim Geddes
What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kinda Funny Games cast for Wednesday, March 25, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30 aka New York Game Awards nominated aka Jacket Poppy Blessing. Adioye Junior.
- [01:56]
Blessing Adioye
Good day, Greg.
- [01:57]
Tim Geddes
Good day to you.
- [01:57]
Blessing Adioye
How are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing?
- [01:59]
Tim Geddes
I am excellent. I want you to know, like, excellent. Oh, yeah, of course. I'm just here. Tim's here, of course. Formerly Forbes under 30 or 30. Now just Samir's father, Tim Geddes. Yes, we got Tim here and he's in a great shirt. But more importantly, I haven't told you yet that, you know, yesterday we previewed Tomodachi Life.
- [02:15]
Blessing Adioye
Right?
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Tim Geddes
I made you in the game. They knew that. But at one point me, who remained redacted, needed your name and I. They started calling you Poppy and I think you'll like it.
- [02:24]
Jake Deckard
Oh, that's cool.
- [02:24]
Tim Geddes
I love that. Exactly. And then joining the group from Gamespot is Jake Deckard. Hello.
- [02:30]
Jake Deckard
Hello.
- [02:30]
Tim Geddes
Thanks, Jake.
- [02:31]
Jake Deckard
Thanks for having me. An absolute pleasure to be here, especially
- [02:34]
Blessing Adioye
to talk about Pokemon.
- [02:35]
Tim Geddes
We love having you here to talk Pokemon. You know what I mean? Because you and Blessing. Got to go play Pokemon Champions.
- [02:39]
Jake Deckard
We did.
- [02:40]
Greg Miller
So jealous.
- [02:40]
Jake Deckard
We battled each other too.
- [02:41]
Blessing Adioye
We battled each other and like Jake
- [02:45]
Tim Geddes
Decker from Gamespot, it was one of the fun.
- [02:49]
Blessing Adioye
I loosely knew that Jake was into Pokemon competitive and then he reaffirmed it. When I asked him like, oh, how much are you looking forward to this? He's like, dude, I've been. This is something I've been waiting a long time for. I was like, damn. And then they ushered us into the room and they warned us. They're like, whoever you sit across from, that's the person you're going to battle. And I was like, Jake, get over here. Jake, we're going to battle.
- [03:08]
Tim Geddes
I can't wait to dive in. Jake, your preview on Gamespot is excellent if you want to go check it out. GameSpot.com title Pokemon Champions is something we've needed for a long time. I like this graph from it based on my limited hands on time with Champions. It's hard to say if it will be the end all, be all of turn based Pokemon battles. But what I can say is that Champions is something the Pokemon community has sorely needed for a long time. It shatters the barrier of entry for competitive Pokemon while keeping most of the depth intact. And it provides clear tutorials that onboard players into the more technical aspects of battling. Perhaps the best thing about it though is that you can obtain, train and battle with a new Pokemon in minutes. I want to know so much about this game. But first, of course, this is the kinda funny gamescast. Each and every weekday we run you through the biggest topics in video games. Whether they be previews, reviews, or just things we need to talk about. Of course, if you like that, be part of the show, watch live YouTube.com kindafunnygames where you can super chat your questions about Pokemon Champions so we can get those answered from our panel of experts. Of course, I am just the new voice of Pokemon. You guys know Pokemon Champions. And Tim is washed. Washed doesn't do shit.
- [04:16]
Blessing Adioye
Am I so lucky.
- [04:18]
Greg Miller
God, of course.
- [04:19]
Tim Geddes
Thank you to our Patreon producers who
- [04:20]
Jake Deckard
make the show happen.
- [04:21]
Tim Geddes
Patreon.com kindafunny thank you Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The Psalm Twining for now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper Report.
- [04:31]
Blessing Adioye
No topic of the show,
- [04:35]
Tim Geddes
but it's like back to back. It's so hard.
- [04:37]
Blessing Adioye
I know.
- [04:37]
Tim Geddes
Break the rhythm, you know what I mean? And I love it. Can we just bring the Roper Report here? No, do it here too.
- [04:43]
Blessing Adioye
I don't like that? No, my contract says I can only
- [04:45]
Greg Miller
do it for game sake.
- [04:46]
Tim Geddes
I appreciate that. Of course, your topic of the show is the Pokemon Champions preview. If you've been living under a rock, Nintendo's official description is battle with Pokemon against other players in the Pokemon Champions game. These single and double battles use familiar mechanics for from previous Pokemon series games such as Pokemon types, abilities and moves, enabling the rich and varied battle strategies you may already know and love. It is coming April 8th for the Nintendo Switch mobile devices later this year. What Nintendo continues to make a gigantic big deal about is that this will be the primary platform for the video game championships at all Play Pokemon Premiere events beginning with the Indianapolis regionals from May 29 through the 31st, ahead of its debut on the main Stage at the 2020 Pokemon World Championships in August. Where Timothy San Francisco. That's right.
- [05:36]
Greg Miller
Right here, baby. Can't wait.
- [05:38]
Tim Geddes
On top of all that, we'll get into this. But there is the base game and then there will be Pokemon Champions plus starter pack that'll launch on April 8th on the Nintendo Eshop. That includes the base game and additional in game bonuses that support early progression. I want to know how much you guys know about that. The pay to win out here for Champions I'm not a fan of. And of course, if you have Switch 2, the Switch 2 can look forward to an enhanced visual performance for Pokemon Champions by downloading a free update on April 8th. I've said everything I need to say to get all of this out there. Blessing. Yes, we sent you to Pokemon HQ up north. Yes, tell me about that up in
- [06:11]
Blessing Adioye
Bellevue, which is really cool. They didn't let us take any pictures except for in the, in the lobby area. But obviously Pokemon company, there's a lot more to the office that they're like, they're very secretive of. Right? Like, hey, don't even take selfies. Don't take any videos. Like if you want to take picture, you can take it by this Pikachu over here. But that was really cool. I feel like it's always. We go to video game studios all the time. But I feel like it's always cool when you go to something that's Nintendo because Nintendo. That feels like more of a rarity. That feels like more of a, oh, I might never come back here again. I gotta cherish it while I'm here. So that was fun. But yes, of course we got to go to check out Pokemon Champions and I think you set it up really well in so much of that. Specifically when you bring up in Jake's preview where Jake mentions it shatters the barrier of entry for poke for competitive Pokemon while keeping most of the depth intact. Right? That shattering the barrier of entry is the part that's most important for me because one of the reasons why I'm really happy to have Jake here is Jake is way more hardcore into Pokemon competitive. I am somebody who loves Pokemon and I am. I'm competitive, curious, you know what I mean? Like, I'm somebody who. I like the idea of getting into the hardcore aspects of it, but I feel like the Pokemon games have never really been about that. You know what I mean? Like, I'm playing Pokemon Leaf green right now, and I don't really have to think that hard about the movesets I have in Pokemon Leaf. Even as a kid, I came up playing so much Pokemon Stadiums 1 and 2, and those games did get hard. But, like, that's another one where it's like, I never really felt like that was, you know, putting me into that competitive PvP. Like, you know, I'm. I'm tournament ready style Pokemon player. And so.
- [07:47]
Tim Geddes
Can I interject too?
- [07:48]
Blessing Adioye
Go for it.
- [07:49]
Tim Geddes
As the new voice of Pokemon here. Happy to carry this crown, Tim, you know what I mean? You did a great job for a long time. I'm happy to be. I was quoting so many articles for the 30th anniversary. I'm the same thing. And if you remember, I got laughed at on our shows because I had done a Greg Ware. I was like, man, all of a sudden Violet's kicking my ass. Everyone's like, ah, it's Pokemon, you stupid idiot. And I was like, I've never had to think about matchups. I've never had to actually think about moves and strategies in any of the other Pokemons I've played to that.
- [08:12]
Blessing Adioye
Even, like, I remember there's a joke that Andy likes to talk about where, you know, you're creating your Pokemon moveset and like, you look at. At a growl and it's like, why do I have growl here? Like, take that out. Put in like a quick attack or like a flamethrower or something. You know, all my moves are. All my Pokemon are like offensive moves. Which is, you know, not the way that I think a true competitive game would work.
- [08:32]
Greg Miller
Right?
- [08:32]
Blessing Adioye
You want to have these moves, like protect or whatever it is that I don't really get to think about. And so Pokemon Champions has been exciting for me for the prospect of having an accessible way to play Pokemon competitively against people in a way that's official and it is just download and play. During our time with it, we got to play about an hour of Pokemon Champions. Started off with the tutorial that breaks down very basic mechanics. But like, it seems like there's some more intricate stuff that's in there that I'm excited to get into because again, like there are some mechanics I don't often think about. Right. Like things like Special Attack that I actually do think about sometimes. But like there's more depth there that I'm sure Jake would be able to get into. We did the tutorials, we then recruited Pokemon and then we battled. I had a fun time with it. I'm very much looking forward to this game coming out for basically the reasons of. I like the idea of having a way to just jump in and be able to battle Pokemon against each other. So I'm positive on the get go
- [09:33]
Jake Deckard
to jump in, you did miss an important step. We recruited Pokemon, trained them and then battled.
- [09:38]
Blessing Adioye
Yes.
- [09:39]
Jake Deckard
So traditionally if you wanted to do something like that, say Charizard, you know, you start with your charizard and you want to train it competitively. That could take hours, that could take an incredibly long time in order to get the stats how you want them in order to get the right IVs. If you're resetting to get the right nature. There's all these different grindy aspects that I would say like with newer releases it's gotten easier and easier. But if you're still not into competitive and you decide to get in with Scarlet and Violet, there's still hours and hours and hours of onboarding that you need to do. And that's not even counting like the money you might have to spend in order to get legendary Pokemon from the other game that you don't have and then play through the game in order to catch it. There's all these different steps that you need to go through before you can actually battle. And the other thing is too is like so you build your team, you go through all that work, you battle, you realize it doesn't work and then you can't just like there are ways they're getting better about ways to reset your stats and sort of change things around. But that still takes time and resources and energy. And the way that like Pokemon Champions seems to me is competitive Pokemon is, is like a full time job. Champions seems like it could be a part time job. That's a good way to put it. Which may sound really good way to put a lot more fun than a job. But there is a lot of time you need to invest in order to, like, fully understand how competitive works. And now obviously you don't need to like put, you know, you don't need to invest as much as some of these pro players in order to enjoy the competitive side. But I feel like to get that base knowledge and those base teams ready takes a lot.
- [11:09]
Blessing Adioye
Yes. I think that full time versus part time thing is such a really, really great way to put it. One of the things that I came out of this game thinking about was Magic Arena. Funny enough, right before this, we were
- [11:20]
Tim Geddes
talking about, you're awake if you're awake.
- [11:22]
Blessing Adioye
If I'm awake, I'm thinking about magic.
- [11:23]
Jake Deckard
Are you?
- [11:23]
Blessing Adioye
Right. But right before this, me and Jake were talking about magic. And Magic arena is a mobile PC title where you can just like get into matches, the gathering matches against people online. You collect cards, you play online. But it's a way, if you're just like trying to get into the competitive thing quicker online, that's the app for it. This feels like, in ways like it's Magic arena for Pokemon, where it's a way to recruit Pokemon or import them from Pokemon home. Build a team, make it easy, use your vp, which is kind of like the currency in the game. Those are your, I believe, victory points is what that stands for. Use that to adjust your skills and like, adjust your abilities and all that stuff and then go in there and battle Pokemon in ranked or unranked modes. Right. It feels very, like, straight to the point and straightforward in a way that I don't know is going to appeal to the large amount of Pokemon fans. Like, this feels like such a more niche Pokemon product. Which is funny because you think of battles as being one of the main things in Pokemon. But battles in a weird way can get hardcore. Like when I, when I battled against Jake, right. In my mind I'm like, all right, well, we recruited like four Pokemon. We're creating these teams of six. Right. Like, there's only so much that a hardcore player can do against me. Like, we're on the same thing.
- [12:35]
Tim Geddes
Did he just clown you out? I have to imagine he set up
- [12:38]
Jake Deckard
like Tailwind turn one and then just swept through everything. I felt bad.
- [12:42]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah. But it was fun though, because, like, for me, that was the proof of the pudding of, like, oh, if you're good at Pokemon, like, there is a such thing as, oh, you're fucking great at Pokemon. Like, you know what you're doing. But Jake, I'm curious to hear more of your top level thoughts, but I
- [12:55]
Jake Deckard
think to your point, I'm really curious to see how much of the audience actually wants to get invested in competitive Pokemon and this side of Pokemon. Like, yes, sure, it's much easier. And there are all these quality of life things and these, these, these things that make it more approachable. But, like, to your point, like, how many people actually want to get that invested into the competitive side?
- [13:16]
Greg Miller
I think a lot. I, I really, you know, I hope so. As a lifelong Pokemon fan and, and somebody that, like, has played these games, they're such a big part of my life. Like, I. Similar what bless is saying. It's like, I play these games, I. I catch them all. I. I do the battles, I know how to beat the games, but I don't know how to actually be good at the games. And it's always surprised me how much the games are not the games at all. They don't tell you all the stuff you're talking about, the setting up tailwind and all that. It's like, that's. They don't ever explain it. They don't explain IVs, they don't explain EVs, they don't explain how to explain,
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Jake Deckard
like, special physical attack splits.
- [13:51]
Blessing Adioye
Exactly.
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Jake Deckard
And like pretty much any game, they just don't explain. They don't explain it. So important.
- [13:56]
Greg Miller
And, and so I, I've never really been into the. The VGC side of it in that way because of how daunting it all was. But the closest I got was with Scarlet and Violet this generation, because I got so into that game and I did everything that game had to offer, including a lot of the raids. And the raids were incredibly, yes, difficult. Like they were. It's like the hardest things I've ever done in a Pokemon game by far. And you had to ev.
- [14:23]
Jake Deckard
Train, right? You had. Train. Had to like, what is it?
- [14:26]
Greg Miller
Showbell for all that stuff, Helping Hand and all this. It's like I started playing Pokemon, a level I've never played, and it, it made me realize I just, I knew, oh, IVs, EVs. I don't really know what they were, but I knew they were a thing. I learned Wave Dashing Smash. You know what I mean?
- [14:40]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah, exactly right? And like, I remember when. I remember learning about Wave Dashing the Smash, like maybe five years ago and being like, whoa, that's a thing. And last week when we went to Bellevue, that's when I learned what an IV was. I had never heard of an iv.
- [14:51]
Tim Geddes
So I want to stop then, because I don't know what an IV is. I don't know what's going on. And my question, before you take it even just to top level, did the tutorials teach you or did Jake teach you? Like what? Like, what did the game.
- [15:02]
Blessing Adioye
So the way they set it up, we didn't actually get to play through all the tutorials. There were like four specific tutorials they wanted us to play. And honestly, they're basic. They were.
- [15:09]
Tim Geddes
They brain dead.
- [15:10]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah. They were like, this is how you Pokemon battle. And I'm like, brother, I'm here. I didn't need to do this. Like, honestly, I wish they put us into some more of the advanced, advanced stuff. And so it was from Jake that I was hearing about IVs. We should make it clear IVs aren't in the game. Which was a big deal for Jake.
- [15:25]
Jake Deckard
Yeah, that is. That is a question I asked, thinking I wouldn't get an answer because the competitive side has been so, like, up in arms about whether or not IVs
- [15:32]
Tim Geddes
will be in the game.
- [15:32]
Jake Deckard
So it'll ask. And the director straight up said, they're not in there. But for those who don't know, IVs are basically like stats that a Pokemon is born with that affect. I don't know if they necessarily affect its growth, but they kind of affect the stat spread in a way. And basically what this would do is it makes it so, like, you know, say we both have a Hawlucha. One of your favorites. I know, right?
- [15:56]
Tim Geddes
Of course.
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Jake Deckard
And I have a higher attack IV than you. Even though they're the same level, maybe they have the same EVs. We're using the same move. Mine would still do a little more damage because of that.
- [16:07]
Tim Geddes
Okay.
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Jake Deckard
So it basically makes the same Pokemon slightly different in order to kind of make Pokemon feel different. And for a long time, these stats were mostly hidden. Like, in older games, players would have to, like, do tests in order to see what those IVs are.
- [16:21]
Tim Geddes
The scientific research, of course, later games
- [16:23]
Jake Deckard
have actually introduced, like, whether or not these are good. However, they don't even give number values. They'll just say, this IV is best thing, right? Yeah, they'll say, this is best. This is no good. And, you know, fans, of course, know what that means number wise, but you don't have those numbers. I went on that whole rant to say they're gone Enchanted, which is kind of going to be controversial, I think. But I think it's the right move, I think.
- [16:48]
Greg Miller
Okay, so with my experience with the raids. Right. That opened my eyes to these IVs, these EVs, how to even Train them. The, the hyper training bottle caps. Like all this stuff that like would you believe was in a Pokemon game. It's like you have to do so much stuff that they. The game not only doesn't explain to you, it's so convoluted. Like the way to train your Pokemon to get to the level to be able to be competitive. It is a game to itself. You need to look at wikis, you need to follow all of these things that like really blew my mind. And then you get into it. And then the strategies, if you. Once you train them, I'm going into these race, I'm just getting my ass kicked. You need to do teamwork. You need to understand how your moves are affecting. I say all this to say I get to the point that for the first time, IVs, EVs, natures, abilities, these things all matter to me.
- [17:35]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah.
- [17:36]
Greg Miller
Can you explain all of those things like just in one sentence? What's an IV? What's an Eevee? What's an ability?
- [17:43]
Jake Deckard
So as I said, IVs are stats Pokemon are born with. EVs are stats that are gained by training throughout the game. Another way to make each Pokemon kind of feel different despite being the same species. Natures determine like what stats they will grow more efficiently in. And usually there's a trade off. So there's one stat it'll grow more efficiently and there's one it won't. Famous ones are like, I think Adamant, which increases attack and decreases special attack. So if you have an attacker Pokemon, you'd want to give them that. I might be wrong on the exact stat there of what that does. And then what else was it natures? Natures. Oh no.
- [18:20]
Blessing Adioye
I just. Ability.
- [18:21]
Jake Deckard
Ability. And then abilities are like, they're like passive. They're like passive abilities. But the thing is, is most Pokemon have more than one. Actually, I think every Pokemon has more than one. And some have secret abilities which before could only be gotten through like very convoluted ways. Now there's items that actually let you change ability. But still that would cost a lot of polka dollars, which would mean you have to grind out money in order to make that happen. I think I got everything.
- [18:51]
Blessing Adioye
Shout out the IV stands for individual value. And then somebody in chat says EV stands for effort. Okay.
- [18:57]
Jake Deckard
Yeah. And so to get even more into it. So the way effort values work in traditional Pokemon games, that there's 512 effort values in total. A stack can have 256 or 252. I think technically 252, I think, is what it can have.
- [19:13]
Tim Geddes
I love this, by the way.
- [19:14]
Jake Deckard
And four, I love how deep this goes. Four EVs equal one stat point, because it couldn't just be an even amount. It had to be this. In Pokemon Champions, you just have, I think, 66 stats that you can divide, and each one equals one point in that step.
- [19:28]
Tim Geddes
Okay, okay.
- [19:28]
Jake Deckard
So it gets rid of this whole convoluted sort of system. And all these are represented with number values because in the games, in the mainline games, they are not represented. There's a little graph, and, you know, you've maxed it when it sparkles. But if you want to do more complicated spreads, like, say you want, like, summon attack, summon speed, you want summon defense, summon this. You just have to, like, keep track of the math as you're giving them vitamins or you're equipping something.
- [19:54]
Blessing Adioye
Can we call Jake? Kind of funny Pokemon Professor.
- [19:58]
Tim Geddes
Get him a lab coat.
- [19:59]
Blessing Adioye
For sure.
- [19:59]
Jake Deckard
All right, next time. Next time I'll bring the lab coat.
- [20:01]
Blessing Adioye
One of the things to really back into Pokemon Champions, the game, right? One of the things. Speaking about IVs, EVs, and specifically natures and abilities, one of the things that I was blown. Blown away by, you know, Jake talks about how this game kind of pares down a lot of, like, the time you need to put in, you can go into a train menu for these Pokemon and essentially, like, move the meters back and forth. You can, like, look at your Pokemon's move list and go, all right, I'm gonna take out Flamethrower. I'm gonna put in Ember, right? I'm gonna. Yeah. Basically choose from the list of moves that that Pokemon can learn. On the bottom left of that same menu, you can change the nature of your Pokemon so that your. Your stats can align in a specific way. You see the stat points, you can move those up, move those down, whether it be hp, Attack, Defense, Special, or speed. Right. And like in the abilities as well, you can go in there and choose a different ability for your Pokemon, and so you can tweak, mix, and match in seconds, as opposed to however long it takes.
- [20:57]
Greg Miller
Are you just allowed to do all of that, or do you need to get these victory points to be able to unlock the stuff, to be able to do that?
- [21:03]
Jake Deckard
So that's the thing I don't think we have a full grasp on. So you absolutely need to use your victory points in order to change, manipulate these sort of stats and moves. However, it's hard to say how much you get for Winning how much you get by completing missions. So I don't quite know how the whole economy of it works. I would say I don't.
- [21:20]
Blessing Adioye
I mean, that's one of the things that for an hour long preview, you know, that's impossible to kind of get a read on. And like, I think that's going to be one of the big factors on how people take to this game is how generous is it with the vp? Because VP is also used for recruiting Pokemon permanently. Oh, we got aggressor jacket for Jake.
- [21:38]
Tim Geddes
Stand up, stand up. Get in there. This is perfect.
- [21:40]
Greg Miller
I love it.
- [21:41]
Blessing Adioye
So VP again, your main currency, Chad
- [21:43]
Tim Geddes
already said it's Professor Jake from the spot region. So there we go. Pokemon Professor Jake is in the building.
- [21:48]
Blessing Adioye
Like VP is your main currency for like buying and purchasing things. Right. One of the main things you can do with with vp, along with all the stat stat adjustment and stuff, is recruit Pokemon permanently. So Pokemon recruitment. Interesting. In this game, you get one free recruitment a day. What happens is that you go to
- [22:05]
Jake Deckard
the recruitment 22 hours. Technically, I think. I don't know why. Yeah, they're like every 22 hours you get to recruit a new Pokemon.
- [22:11]
Tim Geddes
So weird.
- [22:11]
Jake Deckard
And I was like racking my brain trying to figure out why 22 hours. And I was like, I don't know, it's probably some way to like get more.
- [22:17]
Blessing Adioye
Like maybe it's like a global. We're trying to make it a. I don't know. That's a weird thing.
- [22:23]
Tim Geddes
How do we recruit?
- [22:24]
Blessing Adioye
So you go to the recruit menu. You get, you're hanging out. I forget the name of the character. But there's a character that's like welcome on in and it's like a farm kind of thing.
- [22:30]
Tim Geddes
Sure, sure, sure.
- [22:31]
Blessing Adioye
And then basically 10 Pokemon appear in a lineup. You can choose one of these Pokemon a day for free.
- [22:37]
Tim Geddes
Okay, okay.
- [22:38]
Blessing Adioye
That Pokemon is, is yours for a trial period. It's not yours permanently.
- [22:43]
Tim Geddes
Okay.
- [22:44]
Blessing Adioye
However, you can recruit Pokemon permanently by recruiting via your VP points, which is the same thing. You spend VP, you get these choices of 10 Pokemon, you choose one and that is actually now your Pokemon now. So that's one way that you can recruit Pokemon and add Pokemon to your team. The other way to do it would be to import Pokemon from Pokemon Home. And of course, games compatible with home. I assume the latest like Pokemon, Scarlet and Violet probably is compatible. I don't. Is. Is Zaw compatible?
- [23:10]
Jake Deckard
Not yet. Not yet.
- [23:10]
Blessing Adioye
Not yet.
- [23:11]
Tim Geddes
But it should be.
- [23:11]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah. And like Fire, Red, Leaf Green will eventually be compatible. So you put Those Pokemon in order
- [23:15]
Tim Geddes
they come in with their level or are they.
- [23:17]
Jake Deckard
Well, levels are just flat. So I think all the stats are based on level 50 Pokemon. So no matter what level you're throwing it in, it should be set to 50. All the stats.
- [23:26]
Tim Geddes
Oh, hell yeah.
- [23:26]
Blessing Adioye
Okay, great. Pokemon Go as well is compatible with home. So like you can import your home Pokemon in here and then from there. Yeah, you go in and train and make your team and like give them the items and do all that stuff. So that was one of the first things they showed us as well. Am I missing anything there for the recruitment stuff?
- [23:43]
Jake Deckard
I don't think so.
- [23:46]
Blessing Adioye
There's the starter pack. I know they talked about, Greg, that you had.
- [23:49]
Tim Geddes
Yeah. I was wondering what the upsell is upcharge, if we know anything like that on it.
- [23:52]
Blessing Adioye
I'm going to pull up the page because I actually haven't.
- [23:55]
Tim Geddes
So see, I have it. But for my page it just says not available. I don't know if there's some.
- [23:59]
Jake Deckard
So I think at the end of the trailer they released yesterday, the starter pack includes extra box space. It said like 50 plus extra box space. It includes some tickets that let you recruit Pokemon without using VP and some tickets to change stats and I think some like extra battle music. I don't think they've announced a price, at least in the United States. They have in Japan and I've seen people try to like convert the yen into the dollar to see how much it's going to cost. But I don't think that's very accurate given like how different Ark got it, you know, Like I wouldn't. I wouldn't take that as the one to one.
- [24:33]
Tim Geddes
Yeah.
- [24:34]
Greg Miller
Are all Pokemon created equal? Like getting rid of the IVs here. So if you have a Pikachu that you're recruiting from Champions versus a Pikachu that you are taking from home and putting in is essentially it's level 50. They're just like making everybody equal there. But could to Pikachu be different? Even if you make all the same
- [24:53]
Jake Deckard
stat changes, they should be the same still. I think so. Like no matter where you take it from, I'm pretty sure they will all be set to sort of the same level, same stats. I think their EVs might be different depending on how you train them in the game. And like their moves will be different, their abilities could be different, but in terms of like stats, they should be the same from what I understand.
- [25:18]
Tim Geddes
I want to keep going with the preview. I want to get this super chat in. Remember, super chat on YouTube.com kindafunnygames Phil the Trucker says my first shift from casual Pokemon to entry level competitive was the card game on iOS and I'm excited to get into competitive battles outside of the card game and I think that's what's interesting. To the top of this, is it going to bring in more people? As I'm interested to go in here and learn Pokemon from a new perspective, I wonder if I will ever be good enough that if we're just sitting around here like playing if I'd actually be able to hang with anybody. But I'm excited to try. I'm excited to learn. I'm excited to at least do the tutorials and then take that information back to the other Pokemon games I play and try to do that against the computer and school their ass like I'm sure Jake does. But before we talk anymore, I want to remind everybody that we couldn't do this kind of amazing content and have cool lab coats on demand if you were supporting us with a Kinda Funny membership. Of course you can pick up a kinda funny membership YouTube.com kindafunnygames apple Spotify, patreon.com kindafunny and get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Way. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by patreon.com kinda funny yeah yeah yeah yeah. We'd love you to come give us $10 and get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me and get good karma because Patreon is the best place that gives us the best revenue share on the Kinda Funny subscription. But if that's not your style, we'd love it if you came over and signed up for for a free account. That's right, a free patreon.com kind to funny follow gets you the weekly schedule, access to Quips, Patreon's version of Twitter, and as an exclusive bonus, this Friday, March 27th, it gets you access to a live Greg Way that's right at 9:30am Pacific 30 minutes before kinda Funny games Daily, I'll go live, answer chats and record the day's Greg Way. Any free member can come ask me questions in the chat. What have you got to lose? Sign up for a free sub on patreon.com kindafunny and I'll see you Friday, March 27th on Patreon at 9:30am Pacific. Who else are you gonna talk to? A shoe?
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Greg Miller
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- [28:03]
Jake Deckard
Your little one grew three inches overnight.
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Blessing Adioye
Adorable.
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Jake Deckard
Also expensive. Sell their pint sized pieces on Depop and list them in minutes with no selling fees because somewhere a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kids will outgrow tomorrow and he's
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ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now.
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Jake Deckard
Consider your future growth Bird budget secured. Start selling on Depop where taste recognizes taste.
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Blessing Adioye
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- [30:05]
Tim Geddes
Tim.
- [30:06]
Greg Miller
Yes.
- [30:06]
Tim Geddes
What you got to say?
- [30:07]
Greg Miller
So all this VP stuff, a little concerning. We don't know the numbers, we don't know how much it's all going to cost. It sounds like it could get predatory pretty quickly. Just making assumptions here. But I'm a little concerned. Why wouldn't I just take my. My Pokemon from Pokemon Home and just put them in there, not worry about any of that?
- [30:22]
Tim Geddes
Good question.
- [30:23]
Jake Deckard
So you could totally do that. It seems so. As long as that Pokemon can be used in Pokemon Champions. Like we don't exactly know the roster Pokemon that'll be available on Champions Day.
- [30:34]
Tim Geddes
Did you see Hawlucha?
- [30:36]
Jake Deckard
I think Haylouch is one of the trailers be there. So I think like, yeah, I think that'll kind of be the equalizer with people who don't want to pay for all this sort of stuff. The thing is though, is Pokemon Home still cost money. So they're like getting you one way or another, right?
- [30:53]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah, yeah. One of the things to point out too, we did a group interview afterwards with the dev and I forget who it was that asked this. Jakey might know, but somebody asked about or somebody pointed out that, hey, the Pokemon that we're seeing in this game, they're all final evolution forms. Are there Pokemon that aren't that are like pre final evolution in here and they confirm, like right now they're final evolutions. They don't have that. Like maybe down the line more Pokemon get added and like it sounds like this is something that's going to be updated. It's a live service style thing. Right. But at launch. Yeah, like all these, or most of these at least are final evolution Pokemon, which I thought was really interesting. I think I just assumed that all the Pokemon were going to be available here and they're not.
- [31:35]
Greg Miller
Are there any non final evolution Pokemon that are competitively viable at all? Because isn't it just by definition, like their stats are better?
- [31:41]
Jake Deckard
Actually quite a few really, which is kind of interesting. So there is an item called Eviolite which basically powers up the defenses of an unevolved Pokemon. So people do some strange strategies. Like what was the Tentacruel from Scarlet? The Tentacool, Scarlet and Violet. Like people would give that an Eviolite and it would crush in certain formats. Right. Or I think a really famous one is like Chansey, if you give it to Chansey, becomes a brick wall because unevolved. So there are actually strategies from those unevolved Pokemon. But I kind of get why they may be leaving that out at launch only because that adds a bunch of extra mechanics Pokemon to the mix. Some that are kind of confusing. Like, I built a team around Murkrow with an Eviolite, and no one takes it seriously because it's a dumb little bird that just sweeps the team. Not sweeps the team, but sets up a team to sweep and cannot get knocked out.
- [32:39]
Greg Miller
Yeah, this is awesome.
- [32:42]
Jake Deckard
I'm a little bummed. I think I'm more bummed about the lack of unevolved Pokemon than the lack of IVs, because IVs can be a pain to manage and figure out and sort of get where you want it. Especially if you want Pokemon with like Zero Speed IV or Zero Attack IV can be an absolute pain. But, like, Eviolite is kind of straightforward. So I don't know. I like Mercuro. Mercro's awesome.
- [33:06]
Greg Miller
The IV conversation I know is a big debate. Already cutting through it. Let me ask you, is this something people are mad about because they've invested a lot of time in it and something's changing, or is it just like, hey, now we don't need to worry about something annoying? This is a good thing.
- [33:22]
Jake Deckard
So I think part of it is maybe the time investment, but I think it's more. So. There is a strategy that people use called Trick Room, and basically what it does is it makes the slowest Pokemon on the field attack first. So when people try to get Pokemon with Zero Attack iv, so they can assure that their Pokemon will attack before that same Pokemon with a High Attack iv. So I think what it'll do is you'll see less viability for Trick Room in general. To be fair, I didn't even see Trick Room when I was going through all the stuff. So I don't even know if Trick Room will be in it. So I think that could be an issue. There's also a move called Foul play, which I'm sure people are familiar with, but that takes the attack of a Pokemon and uses it against them. So a lot of times when you have a special attacker, you always want zero attack IVs, so your attack doesn't get used against you. So that gives a buff to foul play. There's, I'm sure, other minor cases, but I think those are kind of the two big ones that people are most worried about. But I think the meta will adapt to whatever that is, which I'm getting probably too into the thick of it, but I think the meta will adapt. I think best case scenario is that it'll make Pokemon that previously weren't viable because of their speed tier. Maybe more viable best case scenario, but I don't know, it's so hard to tell.
- [34:40]
Tim Geddes
Professor. In this vein, we have a super chat from C. Barry who says, Jake, are the, Are there any moves, abilities or changes you've seen that'll make a big splash for the high level competitive play also? Welcome back, Tim.
- [34:51]
Jake Deckard
I haven't seen moves in particular that are different. What I have seen actually Wolfie vgc, he's like one of the best Pokemon players, he pointed out because he was at a different event than us. You noticed that the PP has been changed a little bit.
- [35:08]
Blessing Adioye
I saw this.
- [35:09]
Greg Miller
Is it smaller PP or bigger pp?
- [35:11]
Jake Deckard
Smaller. Well, it depends on the, Depends on the move.
- [35:13]
Tim Geddes
Yeah. Does it work or no work?
- [35:16]
Blessing Adioye
I think one of the biggest ones he pointed out was for protect, which I think what went down from 16 to 8 or something like that, which is very, very big adjustment for a competitive Pokemon. And protect being a move that you're going to use a lot.
- [35:28]
Jake Deckard
Usually most your Pokemon will have protect.
- [35:31]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah. And so stuff like that seems interesting. The mechanic, the unique mechanic they have here currently was was it Mega Evolutions. Right. Which they've shown off in the trailers and stuff. One of the questions that was asked during the group interview was could we get like cross gen mechanics? Could we get like a Mega Evolution versus a Gigantamax? And they did say that they're considering more mechanics outside of just Mega Evolution. Right. And so it seems like that's on the table, which is interesting.
- [36:00]
Jake Deckard
The announcement showed off terastalization, I think. But this was years ago, so I have to imagine terastalization will be in it at some point. But also that trailer showed like Omega fighting a terastalized Pokemon.
- [36:11]
Blessing Adioye
Pokemon.
- [36:11]
Greg Miller
And the bracelet. Right. And it had all the different gimmicks on it.
- [36:15]
Blessing Adioye
It's Omni something sick Omni watch. It's like something like that.
- [36:19]
Jake Deckard
Yeah. Omni Ring. Omni Ring.
- [36:21]
Blessing Adioye
I think is that sounds like some Green Lantern type.
- [36:23]
Tim Geddes
Yeah. Is this the trailer or is this just footage?
- [36:28]
Jake Deckard
I think this is footage, yeah.
- [36:29]
Tim Geddes
Cool. Just make sure.
- [36:30]
Greg Miller
Super weird question, but something I noticed was it looks like on your side you see your HP numbers and on their side it's a percentage.
- [36:38]
Blessing Adioye
Yes.
- [36:39]
Greg Miller
What's up with that?
- [36:41]
Jake Deckard
I, I, I think it's just so you have more information. You know, I think previously you don't actually see what number their, their HP is at. I think you just get the bar. I could be wrong and I think this is just extra information.
- [36:54]
Greg Miller
But like why is it different? Like, why is the percentage versus, like, the actual number?
- [36:58]
Blessing Adioye
I think their health is supposed to be, like, a mystery to you. As far as, like, what the actual number is.
- [37:02]
Jake Deckard
That'd be. My guess is just so you don't. You're not, you know, doing the math.
- [37:06]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah, you don't want to. Rain man was fun doing these doubles matches. So, like, that was one of the things where I was interested to see what Jake would choose when me and him went up against each other of, all right, are we gonna do singles or doubles? And you immediately were like, oh, yeah, let's do a doubles match. Right? And I overheard other people at their stations be like, oh, yeah, doubles is the way. Is doubles like, the competitive? Like, is that the. All right, this is the way to play.
- [37:26]
Jake Deckard
That's. That's sort of the standard. I mean, when they do the Champions or the. The Worlds in San Francisco, all the professionals are playing doubles. A lot of these different events are doubles. There are, like, side tournaments where they'll do singles. But I think singles is kind of interesting because it limits your potential and how Pokemon play off each other in a way that I wouldn't say waters down the experience, because I know there are some people who play singles that are just. They think about it in a completely different way, but for a majority of competitive players, they stick to doubles. I would encourage people who've, you know, been playing Pokemon for a long time, didn't really care much for doubles. Maybe if they pick up this and they want to get into competitive, I would just go right to doubles. I don't even think I'd spend too much time doing singles. Unless you're in it for that sort of Pokemon stadium vibe, where you just want to, like, get some Pokemon together with your friend and battle it out.
- [38:21]
Tim Geddes
Do you have any control over what your character looks like, or is it just you're tossed in?
- [38:26]
Jake Deckard
For our preview, we were just tossed in, but I did look at the wardrobe, and it seems like there are tons of options. There were no options to choose from in the build itself, but you could focus in on the hair, the glass. So I think there's going to be plenty of that.
- [38:41]
Tim Geddes
I'll be looking good as I lose every battle.
- [38:43]
Blessing Adioye
The overview trailer did mention you can use VP to buy items, like organic items for your trainer. There's also different pokeball throwing styles, which is really cool. And then also Violet and Scarlett had that, too. There's also unique battle music, which I thought was cool. When we battled, they had the traditional, like, Gen 1 style battle music. Yeah. Which got me hype and I was curious about that. One of the things I asked you was like, are there different stadiums that we could like, choose from? I didn't. They said they are. There are different arenas in the game, but they didn't really go into like how to choose them. So I don't know if they're mode specific or if there's. You end up having like an arena selection.
- [39:19]
Jake Deckard
But I mean, the one thing I did notice kind of on that is, you know, the tutorial had a different arena than the actual battles themselves.
- [39:26]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah.
- [39:26]
Jake Deckard
Yeah. I wonder if it's more mode specific.
- [39:28]
Blessing Adioye
I think it might be mode specific. Yeah.
- [39:29]
Greg Miller
Demon Hacker says, is there an announcer in this?
- [39:32]
Blessing Adioye
I don't believe I want to let that. I don't know.
- [39:35]
Jake Deckard
That is something that I can bring
- [39:37]
Blessing Adioye
up audio here just to be sure.
- [39:42]
Jake Deckard
I'm pretty sure.
- [39:43]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah. No, I don't remember there being an announcer.
- [39:44]
Greg Miller
I mean, it'd be crazy these days to like have that many dialogue.
- [39:49]
Tim Geddes
So many.
- [39:49]
Greg Miller
But, you know, it'd be worth it, though. That's the point of this.
- [39:52]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah. That's my thing is, you know, I'm coming into this as somebody who loved Pokemon Stadium and very obviously, like, it's this game. Oh, Mousehold. I love Mousehold. This game isn't Pokemon Stadium, but it does scratch the itch in a very interesting way. Like, it's Pokemon Stadium. If Pokemon Stadium was specifically locked in and focused on like, we want to usher in hardcore battles, we want to usher in PvP battles. Right. Pokemon Stadium had a lot more going on as far as. Yeah, the announcer, the minigame, different modes, minigames, gym leader, castle. Right. Like, Pokemon Stadium felt way more like a full fledged game, whereas this feels a bit more like a. Like a tool slash app. Like it is a game. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to insult it by saying it's not a game, it is a game, but it feels a bit more dialed in as far as what it wants to be and how it wants you to play it, which is we just want to find a way to have people battle each other in a way that's official and easy.
- [40:45]
Jake Deckard
Yeah. I also think too, something like champions, even if you're not really into the competitive side or this doesn't really interest you. I think it does have exciting implications for the future of Pokemon. Right. Because now that they have this battle simulator that in theory they will continue to update, continue to support, they can take more risks with how battles work in Future games. I mean, we saw it in Za where they switched to real time battles, which was cool. It was a nice change of pace. But I'd hope that they can really kind of just play around with how battles work, maybe try different styles, different ideas that, you know, you couldn't do in a mainline game normally because you might just be alienating a maybe not giant part of the community, but a important part of the community. Right. So I, yeah, I'm really curious to see where they go and like, you know, winds and waves. We hardly know anything other than that trailer. But I wonder if they're cooking up some like, different battle style.
- [41:38]
Blessing Adioye
It definitely brings me back. I remember talking, I think it was to Tim actually about this maybe last year or so. This is pre Pokemon Za and I think Tim brought up the idea of like they could, they could experiment with battles in like mainline Pokemon games. And like, I didn't believe it. Now I believe it. Right. Like, to Jake's point, this feels like them preserving what this is. And yeah, this opens up that potential of like, yeah, if Pokemon wins and waves is different. Like if you want traditional Pokemon battling, we got it right here in Pokemon Champions.
- [42:04]
Greg Miller
So this is going to be, I mean, obviously we're already talking about it, what they use at Worlds, but in addition to that, this is now going to be competitive Pokemon going forward. Are you are into competitive Pokemon? How does that function with like Scarlet and Violet? There's these seasons and that's going to continue with Champions. What, what's a season look like?
- [42:22]
Jake Deckard
I guess we don't entirely know what will be with Champions, but I would say with Pokemon, Scarlet and Violet, a lot of it just had to do with which Pokemon were allowed and weren't. So like some seasons they'd bring in Legendaries, some seasons they'd bring in banned Pokemon that you could use. And that would change team building, that would change out which Pokemon are viable. My guess with Champions is they will do something similar. But I have to imagine they'll also change out sort of the battle gimmick. Right. Like we're getting Megas at launch. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe the next season they bring back Terastalization or Z moves. I hope not. But like, you know, I guess it could happen.
- [42:59]
Greg Miller
They look cool.
- [43:00]
Jake Deckard
Yeah.
- [43:03]
Greg Miller
But so do you think that the changes are going to be more like season based in the sense of like, oh, we're promoting something so these Pokemon are like, the new movie's coming out so they're available or is it going to Be more like meta focused on.
- [43:16]
Jake Deckard
I could see it would be a bit of both, I think. You know, I. I think like when a new Pokemon games comes out and they add in 100 pokemon, I would fully predict them to do a season just highlighting the new that new decks and you can use all the Pokemon from Wind and Waves decks in order to make a team. And that's what people are working with that time. And then maybe another season there could be like this is all speculation, but maybe there's, you know, another Detective Pikachu movie coming out or something like that. And there's some exclusive, not exclusive Pokemon but some Pokemon themed around Detective Pikachu. But it's really hard to say because we don't even entirely know what the restrictions will be for this first inaugural season.
- [43:59]
Blessing Adioye
One of the things I want to shout out right, the game comes out officially in April 8th. Yes. It's coming to mobile later. One of the things I'm sad at is that sad about is that it's not coming to mobile alongside for sure. I'm you know, historically not somebody that's into playing games on my phone. However, Magic arena has changed me to where now I'm like Treadmill game. It's a dude. This is going to be my new treadmill game and I cannot wait for it for that. Like I can easily see see it taking over for that but. But I can't wait for this to come to mobile. I think that'll also kind of increase the reach dramatically as far as how many hands you can get this definitely
- [44:30]
Tim Geddes
in terms of installs, right?
- [44:31]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah.
- [44:31]
Tim Geddes
Come off the success of Pokemon Go and that for so many people that are the, you know, sleeper agent Pokemon fans that haven't done it forever. A free game to drop jump in.
- [44:40]
Blessing Adioye
Try a free game to battle Pokemon on your phone. I think that's going to speak to so many people. Coming back to the Greg, you're talking about like wanting to get into this right. As more of a casual.
- [44:50]
Tim Geddes
Yeah.
- [44:50]
Blessing Adioye
100% person who may learn something. Right. Like I think I'm right there with you. And one of the things they have here one is ranked, which I think is going to be good for us. Right. Hey, here's a way for us to play against people that are our skill level and so ranked is always great for that. They also have auto team creation to where your bank of Pokemon like you hit the auto team creation button and it'll make the best possible team for you. And so I think that'll be good for the me and use as well. Along with that. Oh, I had something else. I lost it. Oh. One of the things I wanted to talk about was the ui. I really like the UI of this video game. We Tim pointed out the percentages of, like, the health for the opposing team. But even when you're choosing your Pokemon, right, Like, you go in with that six and they'll show you what the other player's team is. And for doubles, you are choosing four Pokemon to go out with. And so, like, it's really cool being able to see the side by side and going, all right, I know they have Hawlucha Charizard XYZ thing. I'm gonna picking for each. Okay, I'm gonna go with this, this, this, and this. And you get in there and like, it all looks good. The art style of champions. I feel like modern Pokemon hasn't had my favorite art style, obviously, or I'm not gonna say obviously. It doesn't look bad is what I'll say. But, like, I wish Pokemon could look more flashy. I think it gets the job done. But the UI is something where I'm like, okay, I like how that looks, though. I think the UI looks. Looks nice.
- [46:11]
Jake Deckard
Yeah. There's some nice quality of life stuff in the UI too. Like now, like, for a while, Pokemon is denoted if something is if an attack is super effective or not very effective. But they have extra wordage to tell you if it's like four times effective versus two times effective or minus two times effective or I don't minus two times effective or minus four times effective, whatever. And there's also more descriptive moves. So, like, if you go to the menu and look at what a move does, it'll call out mechanics that, like, have been mechanics, but they don't really call out, like, even this boost ice type attacks by Pokemon by 50%. Normally they wouldn't have the 50%. They just say boost ice attacks, you know, so there's an extra level of transparency that I think is also really good that I think comes along with the ui.
- [46:59]
Blessing Adioye
I do also want to shout out the animations. Right. I like. I think when I talk about the look of it, I'm talking more so about the character models. But the animations, I think are good. I think it was Zap Cannon that I used. I was like, this is fucking sick.
- [47:10]
Jake Deckard
Or like, I think I used surf at one point against you. And it was just like the entire field was just like, yeah.
- [47:15]
Blessing Adioye
Which is like, flooded. Like, that's some of my favorite stuff of Pokemon stadium. When they would go super hard as far as what those animations were. And they're all unique, right?
- [47:23]
Greg Miller
Yes.
- [47:24]
Tim Geddes
So cool.
- [47:25]
Blessing Adioye
I just wish they had the announcer.
- [47:27]
Jake Deckard
No, I'm thinking about that now.
- [47:28]
Tim Geddes
Jake, I got another question for. I'm sorry, Professor, I got another question for you From Super Chats Spa 23 writes in and says, as a huge fan of the site Pokemon Showdown for battling parentheses, Jake will know. I'm curious if Champions has a random battle feature without team building.
- [47:45]
Jake Deckard
From what I could tell, I think the closest thing is what Blessing was talking about where you can like, auto build a team.
- [47:50]
Tim Geddes
Okay.
- [47:51]
Jake Deckard
But I don't think there's something quite like that. I don't know, maybe it's something that could be added, but it doesn't seem like there's a button where you can just like, all right, just give me six random Pokemon. And I want to try to make this work. And also to that point, I'm sure some people might be worried about like, well, are people still going to be using Showdown? I still think Showdown has its uses, which is basically a team builder. Essentially, it gives you all those tools. You can adjust everything to the minutia and test those teams out. I think that'll still be useful for people who really want to dig in and kind of pre team build before wasting their VP resources. Sure. So I think that'll still be useful for a lot of people as well.
- [48:34]
Blessing Adioye
Another thing I want to shout out, seems like this game is purely PvP. Like in the battle menu, I didn't really see an option for like, fighting against a bot. Now, of course, it's probably the thing of, like, why would you want to. But I always think the option is nice. Like in the battle menu. Right. It's ranked battles, casual battles, private battles, and online competitions.
- [48:52]
Jake Deckard
Yeah, I didn't see it either. And I think that might be one of the bigger missed opportunities if there's not bot battles. I think just giving a safer spot to test out teams. People who are learning can maybe try out some strategies against a bot rather than going into like an actual match with someone who is doing some crazy gimmick and you're just like, all right, well, this could work, but it's not going to work with whatever nonsense this player is doing. So I hope we see something like that. But I do think, like, you know, you're talking about, like, the fans of Stadium who might just want to like, do a Pokemon battle. Low stakes. I think having sort of bots would be very important. Yeah, but do you see it there.
- [49:32]
Greg Miller
Do you think there's going to be a home in this game for the people that despite this game being the new home of real competitive, that do just want to play competitive Pokemon the way that we did when we were kids? Like is that going to exist or do you think that those people are just not going to have a good time?
- [49:47]
Jake Deckard
Well, I mean there are private matches so you should still be able to like, you know, one on one and play with someone in the office. It's not all matchmaking based, so there is that aspect and I think, I think people get used out of that. But like, I don't know, like how often did you return to something like stadium over the years? Right. Like maybe not a whole lot. Yeah, just like you played. Yeah, I know I still play the
- [50:10]
Blessing Adioye
game, but I'm all, yeah, I was also a kid. It was one of my six games. So.
- [50:14]
Jake Deckard
Yeah, but, but I think that kind of like is my big question. Like this puts competitive Pokemon in a place where like anyone should be able to give it a shot and try. But I'm curious how many people may not actually want to go that deep and just kind of want to load it up and screw around.
- [50:30]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah, like, I know, I know because of what my personality is. Like I have more faith in me getting into it because I'm sticky when it comes to games that like want me to get sweaty. You know what I mean? Like I'm sticky when it's a magic arena or like a competitive game. But like a Greg.
- [50:42]
Greg Miller
Right.
- [50:42]
Blessing Adioye
Like I got fingers crossed that Greg's gonna be into it. But I could also see Greg being like, ah, shit, no, people are trying too hard in this thing. I'm bouncing off to the next thing.
- [50:50]
Tim Geddes
Yeah, I think that's, you know, my concern as well, that I'm gonna jump in and do the tutorials. But it'll be so much like Magic where you and I started. You and I fell in love with Magic on the exact same stream.
- [51:00]
Blessing Adioye
Yes.
- [51:00]
Tim Geddes
But then my real life got in the way. Right. Of being a dad and all that stuff. Whereas you were able to just commit to it.
- [51:06]
Blessing Adioye
Yeah.
- [51:06]
Tim Geddes
To where I can never play with you again because like I don't even remember I'd have to go tutorial.
- [51:09]
Blessing Adioye
I don't say that.
- [51:10]
Tim Geddes
Yeah. You know, and then. But so like for me being able to log in only do a PvP thing if I'm always ranked garbage, you know what I mean? Like I don't know where it'll be.
- [51:17]
Blessing Adioye
Like I almost went another, like another Mode or something in the game that is gonna be more sticky for a casual audience. But at that point, it's like, well, you could also just boot up Pkopi.
- [51:27]
Tim Geddes
That's my thing is like, I'll go do.
- [51:28]
Blessing Adioye
There's other Pokemon games.
- [51:29]
Tim Geddes
Yeah, I was gonna say I'd go, but I, you know, go play. Try to catch them all in Violet. Going that way.
- [51:34]
Jake Deckard
I definitely do also, like. Cause so I've been playing Pokemon since Red and Blue. Red was the first game I ever owned. So, you know, I have a lot of strong feelings towards the Pokemon series. And I remember third generation people were starting to talk about competitive, and I was like, this is something I want to get into. And I remember just looking at it and be like, no, no way. I am not going to do so. I do, like, you know, I think of, like, a younger generation who's really into Pokemon. They're playing the games and they see this competitive side. And I think Champions, though, will be a very good way to sort of get people interested in that and get a younger audience into competitive, which I think is super important for just the competitive scene. And, like, to be honest, there has been a ton of growth in the competitive scene. Like, we talked about Worlds coming to San Francisco. I think they were here, what, like, 11 years ago, and they, like, filled a ballroom in a hotel. And now it's like the Moscone Center, Chase Center. It's grown, like, exponentially. So I. I think there is a very real opportunity for this to, like, really blow up the scene. But I think for me, it still comes down to, like. Is that what a lot of the audience wants, though? I don't know.
- [52:49]
Tim Geddes
Well, we won't have to wait long to find out again. Pokemon Champions comes To the switch April 8, Mole devices later this year. You assume they're working with everybody. They possibly have to have it before Worlds on mobile, right?
- [53:05]
Blessing Adioye
Hopefully. I mean, maybe mobile or maybe Worlds is the debut. Yeah, the debut.
- [53:09]
Tim Geddes
Of course, it is August here in San Francisco. Worlds. We'll be covering it. We'll be there.
- [53:15]
Greg Miller
My gut tells me that the mobile version's finished. They just want people playing on Switch.
- [53:19]
Tim Geddes
Sure. You know, totally.
- [53:20]
Greg Miller
Like, I think. I think it'll be before Worlds for sure.
- [53:23]
Tim Geddes
Okay, well, Jake, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us today. Is there anything I didn't ask you to you guys, anything else you want you didn't talk about that you want to talk about?
- [53:30]
Jake Deckard
And I mean, one thing is we kind of mentioned it, but just to Reiterate, there has been stuff announced about like pricing and all the different models. There's the starter pack, there's season passes, there's like a monthly subscription or some sort of subscription. It seems we don't know how any of that works, at least on a monetary level. And I think that is sort of my big holdout. And I know we touched on it, but just to reiterate, I have no idea how that's going to work.
- [53:56]
Tim Geddes
Yeah, fair enough.
- [53:56]
Jake Deckard
That could really affect how I feel about it now.
- [53:59]
Blessing Adioye
I would say 100%.
- [54:00]
Tim Geddes
Well crazy that you will know in two weeks. You know they sent you there to play the damn thing and didn't give you any of that information. That's never a great sign. It's never a great sign for what their monetization strategy will be. But of course we'll be covering here on Games Daily. I'm sure when it comes up, of course you'll get a gamescast place of this. Hopefully a review to some degree. We'll see. But Jake, where can people keep up with you?
- [54:19]
Jake Deckard
Gamespot. Okay, yeah, Gamespot. I did a breakdown video, also the article that we referenced and then some other fun little social videos we got out of it. You can find me Jacob Deck on Instagram. That's all I use.
- [54:33]
Tim Geddes
Perfect. Well, thanks for making the time here everybody. Of course, thank you for making the time to hang out with us and hear about Pokemon Champions. Remember, of course, we're a live talk show network, meaning the shows rarely ever stop right after this. We're right into this stream. Can Nick and Mike keep another business afloat or will it fail is what they're wondering as they go back to their video store business in Retro Rewind. You can catch that stream later of course, if you're watching live Twitch, YouTube, of course, wherever you are, like subscribe, share. Remember we need you to pick up a kinda funny membership. Patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple Spotify get everything ad free. Get your daily dose of me. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a'@usaa.com bundle restrictions apply.