Pokémon games just got a lot less weird

It was the data miner who discovered that Pokérus is not in it Scarlet Pokemon And the Violet. On its own, it’s a small detail. But it’s part of a trend Pokemon Games in general: As time goes by, it gets a lot less weird.

The strange virus needs some explanation. Introduced again in Generation Two, Pokérus had less than a one in 20,000 chance of hitting a Pokémon. (By comparison, a shiny Pokemon, which is specifically famous for being rare, has a 1 in 4,000 chance of spawning.)

To understand how, though, you also need to understand voltage values, or EVs. Defeating an opponent in battle rewards between one and three EVs in a given situation. But EVs are not explained properly in the game and are rarely ever mentioned. This is because they don’t really affect the average player. Battle a wide variety of Pokémon and you’ll grow your own in a balanced, if slightly mysterious way.

When things get competitive, electric vehicles become a useful tool. For example, each Pokemon has its own physical and special attack stats. But their moves can only fall into one of these categories, and individual Pokemon usually have a natural affinity for one or the other. Pokemon can’t max out EVs per stat, so competitive trainers will focus on gaining EVs in only one form of attack to avoid splitting them up unnecessarily.

Pokémon infected with Pokérus are used to obtain multipliers of EVs, greatly speeding up the process. Players who want to legitimately obtain the strongest possible Pokémon deliberately infect their battle mates with Pokeros before training them. Far from being an extremely rare occurrence, trading, sharing and propagating pokeros between players has become a part of the grind.

Their removal does not have a significant material impact on the game. Pokérus was a specialized mechanic that affected a specialized group of players. The average player will probably never run into it, and even if they hit 1 in 20,000 chances, they probably won’t notice any benefit. But for competitive gamers, games have steadily offered more and more ways to get strong teams, including easier EV training. And players who want high-level battles don’t necessarily need to spend time and effort breeding and training powerful monsters in the first place: many use tools like Pokemon encounter To simply simulate things.

But the now-defunct Pokérus story reflects a shift in Pokemon Games in general. when it first appeared, Pokemon It was something strange and mysterious. Rumors spread about red And the blue, from claims that Mio can be found hidden under a truck to the idea that anyone who heard the music of Lavender Town would die. And behind the rumors were real strange moments. You can use your fishing rod on gnomes like they’re floating on water, some characters can disappear and allow you to chain-break, and crippled Pokemon like MissingNo don’t chase cartridges.

when He went And the silver That came up and Pokérus was introduced, and it fell into the same category — a strange, almost impossible to reproduce, potentially frightening thing that could happen without warning or any real explanation. But with time, the Internet, and data mining, it finally became a thing. The exact proportions of its occurrence have been revealed, along with its mechanisms and uses. It became a honed style for those who wanted it and a bit of trivia for everyone else.

The same can be said for many PokemonLong lasting abnormalities. For example, the aforementioned shiny touches were rare and obscure recolors that, again, most players won’t see during casual play. If they did, they might not understand what was going on, or it might become a symbol of exceptional luck to show off to friends. Nowadays, there are quite a few techniques, tricks, and farming methods to get glitter. You still need luck, but a little bit of it. It has mostly been replaced by persistence and brute force.

The existence of these mills, and the people loyal to them, in turn, led to changes in the quality of life to reduce it. Eggs used to be a weird surprise that you would sometimes find if you left your Pokémon at the daycare center. But as eggs became central to many evolving mechanisms, including breeding competitive Pokémon and obtaining shine, it became easier and easier to obtain them. in a carmine And the VioletSpawning and hatching eggs takes minutes if you have the right sandwich powers and can be done right from your picnic.

The same is true for friendship, which is a mechanism that causes certain Pokémon to evolve. No luck, but it’s only vaguely hinted at in most games, with one NPC somewhere in the world giving broad responses as a hint. Without a clear understanding of how it works, a Pokemon that suddenly evolves after you’ve had it for a while and used it a lot is quite a surprise. But now it’s easy to find out exactly online How do To raise the level of friendship, it seems PokemonThe creators responded in turn, making it a lot easier overall. in a carmine And the VioletJust a few sandwiches might do the trick. It might come as a surprise, but only because of how quickly it happened. There is no longer any need to wait, travel, battle, and truly get close to your Pokemon.

I enjoyed carmine And the Violet A lot, but missing out on the sheer weirdness and delightful surprises of games is a shame — and not something I think the Pokémon Company could easily avoid. After all, it was the data miner who discovered that Pokérus is not in them Scarlet Pokemon And the Violet. All of the games’ secrets will be spilled within days of their release, and people will start optimizing for anything that has even a small chance of showing up, from whites to glitter.

But this is no longer true of Pokérus. It’s not clear exactly why it was removed, but it’s already completely changed from the first iteration – not mechanically but socially. Where it was once strange, unexpected, and inexplicable, it was and so much more PokemonIt has become a popular concept and can be easily exploited.