New Misty and Ericka coming:
Definitely characters I like, but I can't say I'm really hyped for them. Misty seems kind of over-designed and Erika (this is her
4th alt!) seems under-designed. Misty seems gimmicky and relies hard on evasion tanking. Erika seems solid so long as Sun is up, but I'm not sure if she's worth it if you already have Brendon or Selene.
The Fall Seasonals are looking very good at least. Caitlyn seems like another Top Support unit with Mega Sableye shenanigans. Morty beats himself for best physical Ghost user and AOE Burn is neat. Allister is probably late to the party for best new Ghost unit, very solid but Lillie & Lunala exists. It's hilarious we're finally getting Darach after well over a year.
Today has been a nostalgic day for me, or really a, "Dang, I feel old" kind of day:
Hard to believe it's already been 15 years since Pokemon Diamond and Pearl first released in Japan. It still feels like yesterday when I was following the release hype news on the week the games first released. They were the first Pokemon games I actively followed the pre-release information for, as well as the eventual release week news.
Happy 15th Anniversary to the games that started the 4th Generation of Pokemon, my favorite generation of Pokemon to this day!
Looking forward to playing BDSP in two months from now. It's sure going to be a nostalgic trip!
I still remember when DP was first announced back in 2004. I had recently discovered Serebii.net so learning about the greater Pokemon media franchise was still mind blowing for me at the time. Learning about Emerald, Deoxys, Munchlax, Pokemon Adventures continued after Yellow, anime episodes months in advance, etc.
I don't think Nintendo or Game Freak would allow what happened with DP's development cycle to happen again. While certainly not the scale of Bayonetta 3 or MP4, I don't think today's internet would take kindly to having to wait 2~3 years for a new Pokemon game to come out after having been announced that early. Gen 2 also took long, but only ~2 years as Gen 1 wasn't even out in NA/PAL in 1997 when announced.
The wait for it was rough but the trickles of information and expansion of spin off titles for Gen 3 were a great time waster. XD, Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, and Trozei were all solid spin offs. Munchlax & Bonsly appearing as teasers in XD I don't think would be allowed to happen again. Lucario was built up as the next big mascot Pokemon with the excellent Movie 8 and Mystery Dungeon cameo;
we didn't know it wasn't a Legendary until after DP launched!
Digging through the news section from that time brings back a lot of nostalgia. Datamining wasn't as big a thing just yet so internet sites were being updated in real time and using screen shots from a camera. I remember for several days I'd wake up before school and learn about 5-6 new Pokemon being discovered for almost a week straight. Serebii also got hacked around that time from what I now remember. lol