Paging Dr. Footstep

[Bikini Miltank]

Recently I've been investigating Dr. Footstep, checking out the various responses that different Pokémon give when brought to him. There are eight different categories of Pokémon, each of which will give one of five different responses, depending on their happiness. There's also an additional 'voiceless' category who never produce a verbal response.

My aim is this: to categorise each and every Pokémon in the game, based on their responses. The full list could then be added to the 'pedia. If I were just doing this alone, it would take a long time, but if others pitched in we could do it very quickly. So, if you have your game sat nearby and wouldn't mind testing the Pokémon you have to hand, I'd be very grateful.

My user page lists the categories and responses, plus the Pokémon I've been able to test so far, and has a separate list of those that are still needed. Please feel free to either edit my page with your findings, or put them on my talk page. If you're adding to the list directly, I'd appreciate it if you'd also remove the species you've tested from my 'testing needed' list, just so we know where we're up to.

Each species need only be tested once, so I'm hoping that with a number of different people contributing, we'll have full lists very quickly. If there are any questions, ask away here or on my talk page.

 

[Naya Rivera]

In my opinion, this seems pointless to categorise each and every Pokémon based on their responses by Dr. Footstep because of the huge hastle and just way too pointless. (Edit) Though it does seem good to put it on Dr. Footstep's page rather than make categories.

 

[MAGNEDETH]

we already have all of his sayings.

 

[Jioruji Derako]

we already have all of his sayings.

However, we don't have a list of which Pokémon fits into which category.

part of me wants to do this for the sake of completeness in game info. My other half agrees with BoredPikachu on the point that it's not really information we really need.

Of course, perfectly fine if you want to work on a list in your userspace, so long as yourself and anyone else working on it can keep the edit count down.

Geo - a.k.a. Jioruji Derako

 

[Myles Grey]

I wonder where this is stored in the data structure...

I do think this is a good idea, for completeness. Once it's done in my opinoin it should be added to the infobox for each species and have a List of Pokémon by Dr. Footstep Responses, or something of the like.

 

[TTEchidna]

List of Pokémon by Dr. Footstep group, perhaps. Evofamilies seem to preserve the response group, so at least that's straightforward.

We could probably put it on the infobox, but I would be against having it actually in the box and displayed. The box would just make it easier to autocategorize.

 

[Myles Grey]

They don't always preserve it though. e.g. Poliwag and -whirl are cute and -wrath is tough.

 

[Bikini Miltank]

Yeah, it's fairly common for the response to change when a Pokémon evolves: a lot of unevolved forms seem to be 'cute' while the evolved forms are 'tough'.

To clarify, I realise this is a fairly obscure thing to be looking for, but it's something we don't have that's easy (although not exactly quick) to find. I'm not suggesting that this data be put into every Pokémon's article, but it would fit well either on the Dr. Footstep page or in its own article, if it's considered important enough to have one.

Also, while it takes a while to find these in any great number, the 'testing needed' list has just halved in the space of a few hours thanks to two contributors.

I do think these responses give some fun insights, especially when a Pokémon is found to be in a category I wasn't expecting. Vespiquen is cute? Gastrodon is scary? There's also an obvious gender split in some cases, where most otherwise similar male/female pairs (such as Latios/Latias, Nidorino/Nidorina and Volbeat/Illumise) will be split between 'tough' and 'cute'.

...which leads me to wonder if there are actual names for these categories stored away in the game code.

Anyway, I would appreciate thoughts on what to do with this data when it's all compiled. I'm thinking a table if it gets its own article, or keeping it as a simple list if it goes on the Dr. Footstep page.

 

[electAbuzzzz]

I would actually think a table on Dr. Footstep's page would be best.

 

[TTEchidna]

Hm, true. But we don't wanna extend his page too far.

 

[Bikini Miltank]

That was my concern - that a table (of the kind used in lists of Pokémon by 'dex number and so forth) would be five times bigger than the rest of the article, despite relating only to one aspect of it. I think a table would probably look lovely, but it might make more sense to make it on a separate page and link to it, if that's the route we're going down.

By my count, only 56 Pokémon remain untested. I probably won't be able to test any more imminently because I'm now bogged down in breeding Absol, so I'd appreciate any help in mopping up the stragglers.