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What small/subtle/minor details do you like in older games?

Esserise

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The SwSh variant of this topic is full of so many neat observations, and Pokémon is such a replayed series that I feel like people are always finding new appreciation for elements that they might've glossed over originally. So I thought it'd be fun to keep that going with a place to note cool little additions and details in all prior games as well.

I'll start by talking about the Pokémon zodiac. Yes, this is a thing - it exists for the sole purpose of a TV featurette in the Black & White games. Sometimes, when you interact with a television in the game, you can tune in to a program that reports on the current month's horoscope, stating your fortune as well as an item that is considered lucky for you. This would be cute enough on its own, but additionally, there are 12 Pokémon that correspond to each of the traditional star signs, and I want to emphasize how clever these choices are:

Capricorn - the horned goat - Sawsbuck
Aquarius - the water-bearer - Simipour
Pisces - the fish - Alomomola
Aries - the ram - Whimsicott
Taurus - the bull - Bouffalant
Gemini - the twins - Klink
Cancer - the crab - Crustle
Leo - the lion - Braviary
Virgo - the maiden - Gothorita
Libra - the scales - Lampent
Scorpio - the scorpion - Scolipede
Sagittarius - the archer - Fraxure

Since Black & White predominantly featured entirely new Pokémon, this means that the choices for astrological "equivalents" were quite limited... and yet, so many of these not only work, but feel spot-on, or at least like very savvy riffs on the original signs.

There isn't a goat Pokémon in the 156 Unova species, but Sawsbuck has an emphasis on its horns, and both deer and goats belong to the same order (even-toed ungulates), so as approximations go, this is a fair choice.

Aquarius refers to a water-bearer, and Simipour fits that bill perfectly. According to the Pokédex, "The tuft on its head holds water. When the level runs low, it replenishes the tuft by siphoning up water with its tail." This was also a part of Simipour's character creation process according to Ken Sugimori, describing how the three monkeys prepare tea together - Simipour brings the water, Simisear heats it up, and Simisage provides the herbs.

There aren't many fish Pokémon in Unova - for the most part, your choices are Basculin and Alomomola. I can certainly see an argument for assigning Basculin to this sign, since it is usually depicted as two fish, but personally, I think the two Basculin's characterizations as very brutal and combative toward each other makes it feel a bit less appropriate for an astrological sign. Alomomola is more neutral, and I would say that the actual Pisces constellation shares a certain visual similarity to Alomomola. Normally, the idea is that each "branch" of the constellation is a separate fish, but flipping your perspective around accommodates Alomomola's form very neatly.

Whimsicott is a fairly obvious choice for the ram - although it lacks significant horns, its wooliness is partially based on a sheep according to Ken Sugimori, and rams are just male sheep, so there's a fairly direct link there.

Bouffalant as the bull is a very obvious decision. Next up, Klink, I think is quite clever - it has to embody the "twins" of the Gemini sign. Vanilluxe could have also worked in this context, but the two gears that comprise Klink are even more identical, and so are more clearly evocative of the idea.

There's not a traditional crab-based Pokémon in the Unova Dex, but Crustle is still a hermit crab, which is close enough to suggest the same idea. After that is Braviary, which is one of the more wild departures from the traditional animal... but is it really? Much like lions (which aren't represented in the Unova Dex; the closest you can get is probably Liepard, or Samurott if you want to make it a pun about sea lions), Braviary are seen as proud and valiant, and according to the Pokédex, they form close packs. Their "headdress" of feathers could also be said to resemble a mane. What's more is, if you look at the constellation of Leo, I would argue that it could quite easily be read as a bird, with the lion's "body" actually being the wing of a bird, and the hooked extension resembling a beak.

Gothorita as the "maiden" is another straightforward choice being based overtly on a female huimanoid. Especially since Virgo is also known as the virgin, Gothorita is probably a better choice than Gothitelle, as it being only the middle stage of the family suggests a degree of youth and innocence.

Next is Libra, the scales, to which Lampent has been assigned. This is another clever approximation in my opinion, as Lampent's symmetrical body shape does in fact resemble a traditional scale. It's very believable that people in the Pokémon world could have looked at the shape of the Libra constellation and drawn a comparison to Lampent instead. Also, to award some bonus points: The zodiac in Pokémon is actually simplified, so that each sign corresponds to one entire month, rather than a period of time that stretches over two months. Because of how they've sequenced this, Libra now corresponds to the whole of October rather than the first half of it, meaning that Halloween now falls under a sign that is represented by a Ghost-type Pokémon!

Then we have Scolipede for the scorpion. Again, there is no actual scorpion Pokémon in the Unova Dex... but Scolipede manages to evoke the same shape (albeit in reverse, with Scolipede's forward posture looking like a scorpion's upturned tail) while also retaining the expected Bug typing.

And lastly is Sagittarius, the archer, represented by Fraxure. This one is perhaps the biggest stretch, and yet I can still see their logic. I think Fraxure's head shape as generated by its wide tusks does resemble the basic form of a bow:
fraxurebow.png

Sagittarius is also a bit more complex than the other signs, as it is not just any old archer nor the tools by themselves - it is specifically a centaur wielding a bow and arrow. The shape of the constellation is thus very complicated, so I think it's understandable why whoever detailed this system within the context of Pokémon decided to just zero in on the bow and arrow aspect. Like I said before, using only the 156 Pokémon introduced in Black & White really limits your choices, and with that in mind, I think it's impressive (and also very lucky) how they managed to identify such plausible candidates for each of the signs within that small selection. I wouldn't expect that any of those Pokémon were commissioned with such a minor feature in mind, so a lot of this synergy feels extremely serendipitous.

(And for what it's worth, the lucky item for Sagittarius is a Poké Ball, which is designed for throwing over a distance - in a loose sense it is a projectile, like an arrow, so again, that feels on-theme. I'm not really well-versed enough in astrology to really say if and how the other lucky items correspond to their signs, though. This one just stood out to me.)
 
Never understood why they chose Braviary to represent Leo when Liepard was right there and would make alot more sense. Braviary symbolizing courage is cute and all but it doesn't make sense aesthetic-wise.

Anyway I loved the fact that you could see your Pokemon outside in the Day Care's corral in GSC. The remakes sorta ruined that by putting them in an indoor pen that prevented you from interacting with them while in there.
 
Never understood why they chose Braviary to represent Leo when Liepard was right there and would make alot more sense. Braviary symbolizing courage is cute and all but it doesn't make sense aesthetic-wise.

Anyway I loved the fact that you could see your Pokemon outside in the Day Care's corral in GSC. The remakes sorta ruined that by putting them in an indoor pen that prevented you from interacting with them while in there.

In astrology, Leos are bold, majestic and outspoken. Eagles and lions symbolize this, which is why they are used as icons of power and royalty in multiple cultures over the centuries.

Liepard’s whole thing is the fact that it’s underhanded and sneaky, while really not being all that powerful. Braviary makes a lot more sense as the representative of a Leo in the game.
 
The water lilies on bodies of water in HGSS. A lack of water detail in natural environments is an immersion-breaking bugbear of mine, and one that the Switch titles unfortunately suffered from.

It isn't so much detail as outright content, but GS is bursting at the seams with non-core 'stuff', and I don't just mean Kanto. I love the hidden beach outside Goldenrod, the items scattered in Violet City, the second floor of Slowpoke Well, and more - there's no legendaries or end-game species tucked away in these areas, it's just glorious exploration for the sake of it. It's like the designers finished their masterwork and just kept adding stuff.
 
In astrology, Leos are bold, majestic and outspoken. Eagles and lions symbolize this, which is why they are used as icons of power and royalty in multiple cultures over the centuries.

Liepard’s whole thing is the fact that it’s underhanded and sneaky, while really not being all that powerful. Braviary makes a lot more sense as the representative of a Leo in the game.

I literally said "aesthetic-wise"; I wasn't talking about what personalities the Unova zodiac Pokemon are supposed to represent.

And clearly Gamefreak weren't that concerned with the zodiac personality angle that much anyways since they selected things like Scolipede to represent Scorpio, even though a giant centipede looking thing has nothing to do with the stereotypical Scorpio personality traits, and it was obviously chosen because it's the next best thing to a scorpion that Gen 5 had. The same applies to Klink and Gemini; Klink was obviously chosen because its design is composed of two creatures and fits Gemini's twin theme visually, not because a gear represents Gemini's personality traits. So why should Leo be an exception?
 
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I miss event mythical Pokemon that you had to go and find in a secret location using an event item. I loved the challenge of catching them instead of them being handed to us through events without any real fanfare anymore.

Legend says people are still walking on that road to get a Shaymin.
 
The water lilies on bodies of water in HGSS. A lack of water detail in natural environments is an immersion-breaking bugbear of mine, and one that the Switch titles unfortunately suffered from.

It isn't so much detail as outright content, but GS is bursting at the seams with non-core 'stuff', and I don't just mean Kanto. I love the hidden beach outside Goldenrod, the items scattered in Violet City, the second floor of Slowpoke Well, and more - there's no legendaries or end-game species tucked away in these areas, it's just glorious exploration for the sake of it. It's like the designers finished their masterwork and just kept adding stuff.
Not to mention the change in the music when we approach, fountains and windmills in HGSS.
 
With all the Rotom-themed tech in recent years, why does Pokémon Masters have a Poryphone? We'll probably never get an official answer, but my theory is that it's to re-enforce that this takes place in the game continuity, not anime.
 
If there's one thing I love about FRLG is its Pokédex. Not the Pokémon themselves, but rather all these different classifications. It's definitely not perfect (I missed the search function so much), but I found it to be the most interesting Dex so far.

Speaking of Pokédexes, I also liked the skins from Gen 5. Customisation is always nice.
 
While playing Silver today, I was reminded of how cool it was when Pokemon actually used to shrink after using Minimize, and Pokemon using Transform retained their original colouration. I don't know whether the latter was an artistic choice or a graphical limitation but either way, it captured my imagination as a child. I liked seeing various Pokemon sprites with that purplish Ditto hue. I drew a comic strip once about a purple Cyndaquil that is actually a Ditto in disguise.

Pokemon that use Transform after using Metronome retain their colouration too. I ended up with a Togepi-coloured Pidgey today. I expect any Pokemon that Mew transforms into would be Mew-coloured.
 
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I've always been a fan of the Seals in Generation IV, as I loved the special animation effects they gave, and I was sad to see them go.
 
A minor thing I liked about B2W2 was that you could still battle the Shadow Triad after beating the league. In most games once you disband the antagonizing teams it'd be over, and there's no way to battle them again. The Shadow Triad not only keeps the VS Team Plasma music (which is one of my fav VS musics), but their motivation involves bringing Ghetsis back. So the player character is also checking in from time to time to make sure that doesn't happen story-wise.
 
Depending on how you look at things, this is the biggest or smallest part of any game, but I have a newfound love for the writing in FRLG. The NPCs feel snappy, witty, and almost mean at times. (Not talking about our rival here - just genuine NPCs who you only talk to once or twice.) I used to find it one of my least favorite Pokemon games, so when I came back to it, I was pleasantly surprised at the character and vibrancy the dialog gave it.
 
The ghost girl in Phoebe's E4 room is cool. (ORAS)

Sometimes reviews of your photos in the Poke pictures in S/M will say 7.8/10; Too much water. This is a reference to an infamous IGN review of ORAS.

A Mimikyu will sometimes appear at the Pikachu Park in US/UM.

Professor Birch gets chased by his wife, and asks the player to pick a Sinnoh starter to defend him. Apparently, he doesn't realizes it's his wife until the player picks the starter. His poor wife. (ORAS)
 
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