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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

It's nice to go into a building with the familiar music and seeing trainers and Pokemon alike hanging out and resting. Having someone loitering around the stand doesn't scratch that itch. It's the same reason why traditional JRPG's still have inns instead of Healing Oblisks or whatever.

Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

But it's funny a pair of games from two decades ago might have predicted what will come with Generation X.

Mind you, I miss the centers. Pokemon is fast paced enough if you know what you're doing. Between not needing to grind and level curves being flattened out, I'm not really hurting for speed.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

Mind you, these games are for all intents and purposes non-canon. The Orre Region, Team Snagem as well have never been referenced in any mainline game (or even spinoff as far as I could find) and the team that made those two games weren't at all familiar with Pokemon when they were subcontracted out

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

And it shows. A lot of them look pretty dead-eyed. The healing machine seems to be even more self-service with a drawer you seem to pull out and close.

Y'know, in the Colosseum duology, the healing devices were free standing and entirely self-service. Only 2-ish towns with centers in the region.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

The healing machine is now self-service and, I guess, the nurse flips the on switch. With ZA, Kalos seems to have all but abolished the PokeMart worker and now the nurse is pulling double duty. Healing Pokemon in the middle of the night and selling them 300 Great Balls with 30 free Premier Balls.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

After all, why have an entire job for this? Starting with Gen V, the PokeMart ended up getting moved to inside the Center unless they were remaking a game that predated this. Starting with Scarlet and Violet, the entire thing seems to have been shifted to a small stand.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 5h

Another interesting evolution between Pokemon games is the streamlining and subsequent redundancy of the Nurse Joy character along with the Pokemon Center as a whole.

Back in the day, the healing machine was behind the counter and seemed to require at least some degree of finesse.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

If it sounds like I'm being overly critical about this, I'll clarify: I am not and I love this turn of events. I love it because it keeps the history of the Pokemon world more vibrant but I love it even more because it makes solid use of continual story telling.

Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

MGS3 is a prequel where we see the origin story of major bad guy Big Boss. Turns out in 1964, he saved the world in a covert mission. For the first four major Metal Gear games, this wasn't part of canon but after MGS3 came out, every MGS game heavily references it with critical plot points.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

And Kalos is running a full bore exhibit on Hisui with actual artifacts from the period and region on display. Hisui lives historically and it's great.

Wanna know what this kinda reminds me of? MGS3's relevance after it came out.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

But now Legends Arceus is made and part of the Pokemon canon. Now we run into people with a knowledge about the region. Professor Laventon is now being taught in classrooms (as he should be, making the first PokeDex).

Perrin has two Hisuian Growlithe as if her family breeds them.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

And, again, the framing during the time of Arceus was this was so so so far back that only historians would have a shred of knowledge about this place. This is the in-universe explanation as to why characters in Gen 4 weren't bringing up alpha Pokemon or the Diamond/Pearl clans.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

See, it's been so long since the days of Hisui, the region became far less harsh which meant Pokemon like Stantler and Ursaring not having the same intense environments that would encourage their evolution. Similarly, it seems Pokemon like Avalugg, Liligent and Braviary go extinct in the region.

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Z-Rune @zrune.bsky.social · 16h

I think its a little funny that when Legends Arceus came out, the concession about Hisui was the events of this game happened so long ago that much of it has been outright lost to history and that includes new Pokemon and forms.

But now both SV and ZA are running contrary to that and I love it.

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