I’m a little late on this, but I play in an environment where this is true(both because we have a set team for months and because we play on battle revolution), so I have a solid perception of how this affects the game(I also used to play on smogon so I know how the other way works too). It doesn’t really take any element of skill/prediction/mindgames out, but it does shift them. It massively shifts the idea of a lead, and it shifts the idea of a hidden sweeper, and if anything it makes odd/different sets on a pokemon even more surprising.
My take on the “team reveal” future:
It will shift, as tolore said, the idea of dedicated leads, hidden late game sweepers, etc
It may make choice pokemon who rely on moves with immunities, such as ground or fighting, easier to use because you’ll know right away that you have to get rid of their ghost before you can spam dynamic punch or whatever
It will relieve some of the pressure that gets worse with each gen: as they add more pokemon, items, and moves, it makes it more and more likely that games will be decided before they even happen by team choices, because you can’t really have a versatile enough team with only 6 pokemon that can deal with every style. If you can get an idea of what you’re dealing with beforehand, you can plan better
Predictions and such will be different. Still a game of limited information, but you have more information than you did before. This might actually ADD anxiety to your predictions. What you don’t know can’t fuck with your mind. But if you KNOW they have volt absorb/motor drive, it might make you pretty anxious when gyarados is out
Don’t think the game will be better or worse personally, definitely different. You’ll lose some wet and wild fun that comes from surprises, the game loses some level of depth that came from the concept of “scouting” your opponents team before you set up, but in exchange, team building and how you play your team becomes sort of more tactically and strategically consistent.
Are items revealed too? If not, you’ll still have to scout those, along with movesets.
If it’s anything like battle revolution then no.
Pokemon mechanics should be designed by David Sirlin the same way he made Kongai (play it before you knock it).
Ash looks younger in the new show, but so does everyone else. Professor Oak looks 35-ish. Ash’s mom looks like a teenager. 
And Ash’s new companion is a black chick? Intriguing. And progressive, for an anime.
Dr. B and Professor Oak are pimpin’ docs with questionable medical credentials.
There’s no way to tell what the items are. It just shows a little generic item icon next to the pokemon if it’s holding something.
i love the mole pokemon. its stats are pretty good too, i think it could potentially be an OU pokemon cause of its speed and typing
Three days since the last post? I am disappoint. :shake:
Smogon has released a successor to Shoddy Battle called Pokémon Lab. I can’t try it atm so someone else please tell me how it is.
it’s in beta so it has some problems but it looks better than shoddy and has doubles now!
Good to hear. Thanks! :china:
Sorry. Been too busy playing Black.
One thing cool I just realized about the game: aside from just one time immediately after the first gym where you need Cut, you don’t need to use any HMs to progress through the story. I mean, Fly is still useful, but the only other time you actually need to use any HM is to get to optional items and even then they’re aren’t too many of them.
Looking forward to see how Lab comes along.
Actually, you will require HM04 to get through a couple of dungeons.
whoever mentioned Doryuuzu, he gets Mold Breaker and STAB Earthquake :). Dude is just awesome, he alone beat five if my gym Leaders.
Differences and exclusives found so far in B/W:
LOL @ the cotton Pokemon and the white 8th Gym Leader exclusive to the the Black version.
Ha, no problem!
I’m glad you don’t need to use HMs too much in this game, although I’m going to transfer my HM slaves to the game.
Those exclusives look interesting, especially Black City/White Forest and Triple Battles/Rotation Battles. I was reading up on those type of battles and they look fun.
Can someone explain this Dream World thing to me? The only thing I could gather is it can give new abilities to Pokemons, which sounds great. Blaziken with Speed Boost sounds great. He’ll finally get out of Infernape’s shadow.
The fact that Dream World abilities can be bred is so awesome. WOOT!:woot:
Ah, you might be right since I’m not totally through the game yet. Still, the need for need for HM use is a lot lower than the last few games.
Just heard about this too, and that really is awesome.
I’m finally playing Generation 4. 4 of my pokemon died to Mismagius at Fantina’s gym. Her Duskull and Haunter went down easily, but that bitch ass Mismagius was hard to beat. The high base sp.attk and the fact it outsped everything on my team.
If it wasn’t for the Burn that Monferno inflicted I wouldn’t have won. After Starvia fainted the burn KO’d Mismagius. I was so lucky
I need to make adjustments half my current team is weak to psychic and 1/3 is weak to ghosts.
Maybe, maybe not. Speed Boost requires a setup whereas 'Nape can just come in swinging already - even if he doesn’t hit QUITE as hard.
Very sad to see Umbreon got NOTHING this Gen. Inner Focus, wtf?
Blissey (since you can easily get Happiny/Chansey in DPPt) with Toxic and Attract = lol Fantina
Make good use of entry hazards too. If it’s a playthrough, the CPU doesn’t really use hazard removals, so you should easily cheese it with Stealth Rock and stacked Spikes/Toxic Spikes.
Chansey isn’t available until the route east of Hearthome. I wouldn’t have been able to go there because there are people blocking the route for no apparent reason until I defeated her. How would I acquire toxic and attract early game? Unless I cheated or traded I couldn’t have done that.
Although that is good to know for future reference because you can rematch all the gym leaders.