General

And now the rumours for Sylveon being of a new 'Fairy' type have increased.

The reason being, is that the same guy that leaked the entire Black/White Pokedex before the games came out (and was indeed correct), has said that Xerneas (the blue legendary stag), Sylveon, and Clefairy are Fairy type and that Yveltal (the red legendary bird/wyvern) is Dark/Flying. It's still unconfirmed of course, though the source is interesting considering his record.

Also, Sylveon's name meanings:

Japanese- Nymphia
French- Nymphali
(nymphs are nature spirits)

English & Italian- Sylveon
(could refer to sylphs, which are air elementals or fairies, or Sylvan, which refers to an association with the woods)

German- Feelinara
('Fee' means fairy apparently)

If we get a new nature/fey/fairy type it wouldn't be too unusual - we do have dragon and ghost types already, which are supernatural creatures.

And for those put off by the thought of fairies, don't forget that banshees are actually fairies, along with dullahans (headless horsemen) and redcaps who murder travellers and dye their hats with their victim's blood. They aren't all pleasant and sweet creatures, no. Think of the old kind of Brothers Grimm tales and you'll be in the right direction. How much of a sinister route they could go with some Fairy types, I don't know.

On the contrary, the game engine is better than ever. You can actually run indoors now, the engine is quicker, TM's are reusable(!), there's more sidequests and postgame stuff to playthrough, the type balance has been improved so Psychic doesn't roflstomp everything, and there's actually a decent lot of Bug, Dragon and Ghost types & moves now, amongst others.

Also Gen I had a Pokeball that evolves into a bigger Pokeball, a mole that becomes 3 moles, a magnet that becomes 3 magnets, and a pile of sludge that becomes a bigger pile of sludge, which doesn't help as arguments like these often pop up:



It also doesn't help that those who hate the newer Pokemon also have a habit of never having played the newer games, making it a case of Complaining About Shows(Games) You Don't Watch(Play). So all things considered, the argument's never held much water for me. *shrugs* Nostalgia can be a powerful thing... sometimes things have been better or worse than I remembered. All generations have their good and meh really. Personally my favourite is Gen III set in Hoenn. Basically this:

Yeah, the anime does have it's distinct problems. The only really positive thing I can think of is that Ash actually uses proper strategy now and wins his badges instead of "aim for the horn!" shenanigans, so he actually has learnt stuff which makes him much more tolerable, particularly showing the most competence during the Sinnoh saga.

Unfortunately where Ash got better, poor Brock got flanderized into becoming far worse and more one-dimensional where pretty much every episode he fell in love with a new female character, so it was a relief he finally left the show after Sinnoh.

Also it does drag since Ash never gets anywhere within the Pokemon Leagues so it's all a foregone conclusion, especially with the Sinnoh league where he got infamously got pulverized by Tobias with lolDarkrai of all things, which he barely overcame... and then got finished off by Latios right after. Yes, Ash was at the top of his game during this series, so they put in an overpowered way to finish him off.

People were hoping for a better turn out in the Unova league, as Ash actually got further with each tournament... but Ash actually did even worse and got beaten by Cameron, a trainer even dumber than he ever was (brought 5 pokemon to a six-on-six battle, thought he only needed seven badges to enter the Unova League, which he thought was taking place in Ecruteak City in Johto, geez), and who lost in the very next round, all of which just made the fans even more annoyed.

And he also used his Pokedex on Roxie's Koffing. After over 5 years of seeing James's Koffing/Weezing. Sigh. At least have another character check out what it is if they have to inform the new kids that badly. So yeah, I've always thought the anime needed a reboot for years now. Or at least better/new writers, considering they've slumped again after Sinnoh.

Yeah, they tried to explain it away with Zekrom zapping Pikachu and 'resetting' him though it's a rather weak excuse.



Hmm, that's actually a pretty decent justification for it. Something palatable that they could use anyway.



I'd have to check more on that (I heard about it), though it could simply be a new voice actor.

Okay! Bigger update, more new Pokemon/etc.

New trailer here!:

Pokemon X and Y will be set in the Kalos region, which is based on France. The big city in the center is Lumiose City, which is based on Paris, complete with tall tower.



Proper artwork of the playable characters:



For the first time it seems we can pick different skin tones and hair colours for them too:



New Pokemon! The panda one is Pancham, a Fighting type (Kung Fu Panda anyone? lol). The Japanese Robin one is Fletchling, a Normal/Flying type. The lizardy one is Helioptile, an Electric/Normal type. The goat one is Gogoat, a Grass type.



It would seem that you can ride Gogoat around Lumiose City as well - does this mean that we can ride other Pokemon too? And can we ride them elsewhere? We will see.



And lastly, the English box arts:

cant wait for these games

Fairy type is official.



That's right, all the speculation was correct, there is a new Pokemon type, Sylveon belongs to it, and it is the Fairy type. Not much is known about it so far, except that it is super-effective against Dragon. Think a fairy-magic enchanted sword used to slay a dragon I guess.



Just as Magnemite and Magneton were made into Electric/Steel types when Dark and Steel were introduced in Gen II, some older Pokemon are being remade as Fairy types also. Jigglypuff will be Normal/Fairy, Gardevoir will be Psychic/Fairy, and Marill will be Water/Fairy. There may be more of course but that's all the info they've released so far. Moves include Moonblast and Fairy Wind.



Also you can pet and feed Pokemon with the new Pokemon-amie feature too. Larger Pokemon like Snorlax take up both screens.



Other new Pokemon include Skrelp (Poison/Water), Clauncher (Water), and Fletchling's evolution Talonflame (Fire/Flying).



Also Vilvillon (Bug/Flying) and Noivern (Flying/Dragon).



Plus the lion cub, Litleo (Normal/Fire) and a tiny fairy clinging to a flower, Flabébé (Fairy).



youtube.com/watch

Plus, new types of battles! Horde Encounters are a new type of wild battle - 5 on 1. These may include Pokémon of multiple species rather than just one, too. Also Sky Battles, though only Flying-types and Levitators can participate in these.

Here's some more info since the last update.

Firstly, a new video from Masuda of Game Freak:

A new Steel/Ghost type Pokemon, it's a possessed sword called Honedge. And yes, it learns Swords Dance. It is said that it can use it's sash like an arm to grab things too.



Tierno, Trevor and Shauna are rivals, Alexa is a journalist, and Viola is the first gym leader, running a Bug type gym.



The protagonists are officially now known as Calem and Serena. They will also appear alongside you.

Unfortunately not. =/



Crap, yes, I forgot that, the whole Dream World will be shut down in Jan 2014 and the ability to customize stuff with it too, though some other features will shut down in October and December 2012 as well.

Serebii:


Also there's just been even MORE new updates, will add more in a bit:

The two legends!