Seasons

[V Faction]

I would change the clock too.

Which is a pretty bad outlook to have when you think about it. The games aren't even out yet and already a core feature is going to be bypassed.

This was always my fear with seasons. How can they make them appealing enough to let players experience them normally when they already adjust the clock for things like Bug-Catching or day-exclusive Pokemon?

The answer is of course to make the changes not all that drastic, but why bother with seasons then at all if that's the case?

Maybe Game Freak has a secret up their sleeve.

 

[Coach]

I'm really glad to see seasons in the games now, adds a whole new degree of realism. I can't wait to see what it affects in-game. Maybe encounter rates, or even evolution?

 

[loudpipes]

1 per day is too fast. Even 1 per week is a bit fast, IMO. If it's not a real-world timeframe (eg. takes a full year to go through them all), then 1 per month is probably a reasonable alternative. I hope there's some real-world weather option, as well; allowing the in-game weather to match your real-world location's weather at that particular time.

I'm not sure whether I think that's absolutely brilliant or slightly silly.

 

[RudolphMilotic]

All I know is there needs to be some smart decisions made in length of time. A normal season is WAY too long. Even the gimmick with the HGSS Safari Zone, where you had to leave certain items on the field for a number of days to get specific Pokemon, was a challenge. And even that didn't go beyond 2 months at the most I believe. They can't make that same mistake

In fact, the number of days you have to wait to make a certain Pokémon species appear on a given Safari Zone area depends on the number of items of each kind you put off; for example, if you place only 8 Rock objects in the Mountain area, you'll have to wait 230 days to make Metang show up.

 

[Tsuness]

It really doesn't matter how long they make the seasons, if something is different (ie. Encounter Rates), I'm gonna change my DS's clock so that I can do what I want to do. I'd rather they just leave it as is and have it run off of the DS's clock.

 

[spoinkoal]

sounds neat. i'm beating only the encounter rate will change but only outside. like for Teddiursa and Ursaring we won't find them outside during winter but will find them in a cave but will all have an angry personality since they're grouchy from being woken up. bug and grass would be harder to find during winter too.

 

[WTFNinja]

In my opinion, I don't care too much if the seasons affect Pokemon rates. Sure, I think it'd be cool to see certain Pokemon appearing more/less/not at all in certain seasons, but to me, I mainly want the seasons for the actual looks of the places. I'm fine with seasons being solely for visual effects, to be honest. Someone earlier said it could affect the trainers that appeared as well. I'd want that, too. 'Cause I don't foresee a couple of bikers riding around on a snow-covered route. Or something.

As for the time it takes to switch seasons, has anyone suggested 2 weeks? Not as fast as a day or a week, but it doesn't take as long as a month. I personally think two weeks would be a perfect amount, so less people would resort to switching the clock.

On the matter of a Pokemon or device to change the seasons, I guess that'd be fine after the E4, or something. If it's story-integrated in that Team Plasma is causing the seasons to be screwed up or whatever, then once you beat them, you can get whatever object it is causing it.

Continuing on, I also like the idea of random weather. But maybe, other than the occasional snow shower in winter, I think weather should be seen in the cities, rather than just the routes.

And, finally, someone before said something about holidays. While I think it's highly unlikely, it would be cool to see some holidays like a Halloween-like day where ghost and dark Pokemon are at an abundance.

Those are just my opinions. Feel free to criticize and whatnot.

 

[Cabaret]

In my opinion, I don't care too much if the seasons affect Pokemon rates. Sure, I think it'd be cool to see certain Pokemon appearing more/less/not at all in certain seasons, but to me, I mainly want the seasons for the actual looks of the places. I'm fine with seasons being solely for visual effects, to be honest. Someone earlier said it could affect the trainers that appeared as well. I'd want that, too. 'Cause I don't foresee a couple of bikers riding around on a snow-covered route. Or something.

As for the time it takes to switch seasons, has anyone suggested 2 weeks? Not as fast as a day or a week, but it doesn't take as long as a month. I personally think two weeks would be a perfect amount, so less people would resort to switching the clock.

On the matter of a Pokemon or device to change the seasons, I guess that'd be fine after the E4, or something. If it's story-integrated in that Team Plasma is causing the seasons to be screwed up or whatever, then once you beat them, you can get whatever object it is causing it.

Continuing on, I also like the idea of random weather. But maybe, other than the occasional snow shower in winter, I think weather should be seen in the cities, rather than just the routes.

And, finally, someone before said something about holidays. While I think it's highly unlikely, it would be cool to see some holidays like a Halloween-like day where ghost and dark Pokemon are at an abundance.

Those are just my opinions. Feel free to criticize and whatnot.

I especially like the idea with weather being shown in the cities as well as the routes. And the halloween like day with the ghost pokemon sounds like a great idea.

on a side note, i think a pokemon that changes it's look and moves every time the season changes would be a good idea too.

 

[fate]

Even if it's merely a cosmetic change, I really, really like this idea. Was hoping to see winter in the trailer... but Fall looks nice already!

 

[dman_dustin]

Perhaps use of a legendary will allow you to change seasons at will?

While I don't have much of a positive opinion on the possibility of real time seasons, I do like agree with the legendary Pokemon changing seasons.

Too much like Zelda, who the hell cares? Sure we can't exactly travel through time but we do have time manipulation Pokemon, so why not a similar yet different weather manipulation Pokemon (since seasons aren't entirely related to weather).

And besides maybe the Pokemon isn't actually changing the season but creating a temporary setting where the purpose is to lure Season Exclusive Pokemon out in the opening. It could have some move that works outside of battle similar to "Fly, Surf, Rock Climb, etc." In battle it would actually change the weather effect (like from Sunny to Rainy, or Rainy to Snowy, or Snowy to a sandstorm (or foggy if you don't like the idea of a sandstorm being a weather condition), or perhaps some new weather effect, maybe even include a windy type weather, which is unusual when you think about, why don't we have a real windy "weather effect"?

Edit: That said considering they have this for the person's birthday (they put on the D.S.) I wouldn't mind Holiday Themes at the appropriate time. Like Halloween type theme or something, but I honestly doubt they would do that.

 

[FuzWuz]

If seasons change the appearance of the Routes and Cities I will be one happy customer. As far as going to say the best feature ever in a Pokémon game (blasphemy, I know).

I really want weather though, reasonable weather. Don't make it snow always in the winter for example. Sure the Routes and Cities will be covered with snow but don't make it snow all the time. I really can't judge the encounter rates because I have NO clue how that will work.

 

[Chocokat]

Animal Crossing has officially hit pokemon I like both games. Season's were not that weird in Animal crossing, so I can see it in Pokemon.

 

[Missingno. Master]

I could see there being a move tutor who teaches different moves based on the season.

Here's how I would imagine seasons to affect gameplay...

Spring:
The seasonal move tutor teaches Growth, except on certain holidays.
Overworld weather has a chance of being rain, which would carry over into battle.
On April 1st, Pokemon that can learn Trick by level-up have a higher chance of appearing in the wild, and a seasonal move tutor would teach Trick.
On the last Friday in April, tree-based Pokemon and their evolutionary relatives (Seedot, Exeggcute, Bonsly, etc.) would have higher encounter rates and/or would appear where they normally wouldn't, and the seasonal move tutor would teach Wood Hammer.

Summer:
The seasonal move tutor teaches Heat Wave.
Grass-types, Bug-types, and Fire-types have higher encounter rate.
Overworld weather has a chance of being intense sunlight, which would carry over into battle.
On July 4th, Wargle would have a vastly increased appearance rate.

Fall:
The seasonal move tutor teaches Leaf Storm, except on certain holidays.
On September 19th, all Water-types and Chatot would have higher encounter rates, NPCs would talk like pirates, and the seasonal move tutor would teach Night Slash.
On October 31st, Dark-types, Ghost-types, Koromori, and the Zubat line would have increased encounter rates, some NPCs would wear costumes, others would give you a Rare Candy, and the seasonal move tutor would teach Transform (wouldn't be compatible with too much, though).

Winter:
The seasonal move tutor teaches Ice Shard, except on certain holidays.
Ice-types have higher encounter rate.
Bug-types and Grass-types (except Snover and Abomasnow) have lower encounter rate.
Overworld weather has a chance of being snow, which would carry over into battle as hail.
Sections of water become frozen over and can be walked on; rare Ice-types would appear on these patches of ice.
On December 24th and December 25th, Delibird, Jynx, and Stantler have increased encounter rates, and the seasonal move tutor would teach Present and Leech Seed.
On December 31st and January 1st, the seasonal move tutor would teach Worry Seed.
On February 2nd, Diglett, Dugtrio, Minezuma, and Miruhoggu would have increased encounter rates, and the seasonal move tutor would teach Shadow Sneak.

Also, I can imagine another time/calendar based thing...

Mondays:
It becomes harder to raise the happiness of Purugly.
Frustration's base power doubles.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

@Missingno Master: It is Leech Seed whose Japanese name is Mistletoe Seed. Worry Seed is Worry Seed in Japanese version too.

 

[Zekurom]

Oh, here's an idea that's probably been said before.

Have a Pokemon with four different formes, one per season. They would be called the "Spring Forme", "Summer Forme", "Autumn Forme", and "Winter Forme" respectively, of course.

Other than that though, I'd rather they just change the artwork.

 

[Missingno. Master]

@Missingno Master: It is Leech Seed whose Japanese name is Mistletoe Seed. Worry Seed is Worry Seed in Japanese version too.

I didn't even know that. I put it as Worry Seed for New Year's because it gives the target Insomnia, because people stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

I didn't even know that. I put it as Worry Seed for New Year's because it gives the target Insomnia, because people stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve.

Oh, my bad XD.

 

[ShinyRiolu]

Ooh, new loophole to bring in new Eeveelutions! This makes that much more possible to me.

Personally, I can't think of anything I would of rather heard than that the new games would implement seasons.

As much as I would LOVE for more Eeveelutions, some of the only ones left have no relation to seasons (like Dragon, Ghost, Steel, ect). Unless Flareon, Leafeon, and Glaceon are able to evolve in the respective seasons, there will have to be another way for our beloved Eevee to evolve. I say Normal or Dragon evolution should be next.
(sorry if I've ruined the thread by going off topic there):sweatlol:
Continuously changing seasons sounds complicated, but it would be a refreshing change if they get the intervals just right.

Your answers for a Pokemon that can change the weather!!
#1. Casform with Weather Ball! The Weather Ball gets a Field effect specifically with Castform that allows you to randomly change the weather.
#2 Celebi with it's time travel abilities (didn't think this one quite through)

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

how do you know they didnt make it so if you change the DS date, the season will change, remember how if you changed the clock in D/Pt you couldnt transfer pokemon from R/S/E/FR/LG for a day? i imagine they implemented something like that to discourage people from doing this. One of the reasons why they might choose to implement seasons, is to get people to play the game for a longer time in order to get certain pokemon/evolve certain pokemon. I usally dont mess with my DS clock. i know waiting half a year to evolve an Eevee might be rediculous, but its a good concept, and im pretty sure Eevee would be the Pokemon they might choose to do this with. We just have to wait and see how it will play out

 

[shivafang]

or perhaps some new weather effect, maybe even include a windy type weather, which is unusual when you think about, why don't we have a real windy "weather effect"?

Sandstorm is basically a windy weather effect. A sandstorm is strong winds that whip up dirt, sand and rocks.

I have a feeling this is the way they are going to get Leafeon and Glaceon in this game. In GenIV it was location in gen V it'll be season (Winter for Glaceon and either Spring or Summer for Leafeon).