It might just be my own bias considering all the trans people Ive known, but the venn diagram of trans people and pokemon fans is a circle
I'm not a pokemon fan!
I never in my life played pokemon. Is it really that good? Can you recommend whats the best to begin from?
Nooo. They coast on brand recognition. The best pokemon game thats released in over a decade is pokopia and thats just animal crossing with pikachus. The mainline games are dogwater ever since the DS
They are good games but I feel like their role is basically being for children as an intro to videogames kind of thing. The combat is mostly no-brainer decisions with no time limit spaced out by lots of long unskippable animations, most of the rest is similarly trivial, which is great for when the basics of navigating an interface and understanding what's going on are themselves a challenge and novelty to you. Trying to come back and play pokemon games as an adult though I found them too slow paced and boring.
You can start with Palworld
This is the most epic response that i did not expect! I guess i really should.
From what I hear from the most diehard Pokemon fans: No, the games are not good. They mostly just play them for nostalgia and perhaps Stockholm syndrome reasons.
So, if you didn't grow up with Pokemon as a kid, you'll likely find the games disappointing.
I would say most of them didn't survive the test of time, but platinum was immensely good for its time.
Have you never played Pokemon specifically, or never played creature collector games as a genre?
Pokemon has value in a competitive setting, and it's a well-known IP. As creature collector games, there are others with far better gameplay and storylines.
Which Pokemon game you get recommended will depend very heavily on the opinion of the person making the recommendation. Personally, I'd recommend HeartGold / SoulSilver or Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire as a great starting point, but they're older titles and don't have some of the bells and whistles of more recent ones.
If you just want to try a creature collector game in general and don't care about it being Pokemon specifically, I'd recommend Cassette Beasts, Temtem, Monster Hunter Stories, or Nexomon over Pokemon, but it's all personal preference.
I never played either of those. And i dont necesserally want to "play" the pokemon, as to get its lore and cultural meaning. While i could watch some hour long youtube lore documentaries or gameplay videos, i would rather experience this games myself.
If you don't specifically want to "play" the game, I'd suggest checking out the anime or maybe one of the movies
As far as it's place in culture and popularity: I'd say Pokemon is a toy company that happens to make video games. And sure, it did all start with a video game, but as the franchise expanded they jumped to a lot of different markets, and merch has always been a moneymaker.
Just like GI Joe and Transformers, I think the show was part of its marketing. It was on TV all the time when I was a kid, and I definitely knew people who got into the game after watching the show.
But y'know, video games are expensive to produce and in the 90s not everyone could afford the hardware to play them. So they got into the trading card space which was gaining popularity at the time. Anybody could afford a couple bucks to get some new cards, and trading cards were the original lootbox: a microtransaction moneymaking machine. Also the business model is essentially gambling for minors, and it's surprisingly easy to get kids hooked on bits of cardboard.
Those kids are all grown up now, and pokemon was a big part of their childhood. Nowadays I think they probably do largely trade on nostalgia. But even so, the characters are cute, and have huge appeal to children. There's always going to be a market for dolls and t-shirts
In that case, I'd just pick either HG/SS or OR/AS as noted above and play one of those 4 games. If you're just wholly unfamiliar with Pokemon: Each generation (i.e. new entry in the series) is divided into two different games. They're generally very similar but have a few small differences, including a few pokemon exclusive to that version. The original purpose was to encourage friends to trade pokemon with one another to complete their collections; nowadays I'd wager it's to encourage diehard fans to buy each game twice, more or less.
The two generations recommended above are broken into HeartGold / SoulSilver, which are updated remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver, and Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire, which are updated remakes of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Pick one of the two games in one of those two pairs and give it a try. If you enjoy it and want more, try one of the two games in the other pair.
Every generation is basically a standalone story and game map, you don't need to have played previous ones to get the full experience.
Is it possible to make a completely trans colored Pokémon team with no two Pokémon the same? Edit: fixed misspelling
Sylveon, Wigglytuff, Porygon2, Hatterene, Shiny Gardevoir, and Heart Topping Mint Cream Alcremie
Honorable mentions include: Flaaffy, Gligar, Corsola, Tapu Lele, Mew, and.. sigh Mr. Mime
As a non-pokemon fan, let me try.
Jiggly puff, Clefary, Vaporeon, Dragonita... the top/bottom half of Voltorb?
Hattrem also is trans pride flag colors like sylveon
Seel (its just a white seal)
With all love to Sylveon, this one is for Malpaca Pal :3
First time I've seen one of these that's just objectively true
Ikr? Do you think game freak knew?
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