Pokémon All-Stars: A Graphic Design Project

New Year's Resolutions. You pretty much know how that goes. Everyone claims something they'd like to improve on the next year and by mid-January you forget about it. Rather than something productive like staying fit or eating well, I chose to improve my graphic design skills. I don't consider myself artistic, so this was a challenge to disprove a preconceived notion I had about myself. With that goal in mind, I came up with a project to complete: Use Canva to make a design for all of my favorite Pokémon.

Originally, I gave myself a grace period to complete these 55 by the end of the year. But then, quarantine hit. While quarantine prevented me from traveling to Salt Lake City for VGC Regionals, it did give me plenty of time to work on this project. And lo and behold, I completed it within three months and had time to make a bonus design! Making these designs was a process of learning and growing with a skill, overcoming obstacles to reinvigorate creativity, and celebrating something I loved in a way I didn't think was possible before. Without further ado, check them out:

Slurpuff

My first design! I browsed through some Canva templates, found this one, and changed the colors and shape placement a bit. 

Alakazam

Rather than base this on Alakazam's color scheme, I chose purple to evoke a psychic feel. The eyes, spoons, sparkles, and dots are also arranged in a clock-like fashion.

Roserade

Roserade's original design was very convoluted with random flowers everywhere. After getting feedback from a friend, I found a way to incorporate the rose and masquerade theme. The end result was much cleaner!

Primarina

There isn't much to Primarina's design -- bubbles and the pink/blue color scheme matched her, so I went with it.

Sabeleye

The background kind of reminds me of 101 Dalmatians or the part in Be Our Guest where the utensils are dancing on different lines. Definitely a whimsical background for sure!

Serperior

I really enjoyed how the plants and flowers act like a picture frame for Serperior.

Copperajah

This one also had plenty of background noise initially, but I cut that out after getting feedback from a friend. The word below Copperajah is Tamil for steel.

Dragapult

This is one I revisited throughout the project. Tempted to go back and make the triangles a solid fill.

Rotom

Kind of wanted to make a pseudo Where's Waldo look with this one. Applying the individual lightning bolts to each ghost took work! After this, I took a break from this project until quarantine.

Tyranitar

The first design I completed during quarantine. This is where I challenged myself to not overthink things and just go with what I felt worked. Paid off for sure -- the clean yet jagged design really shows off Tyranitar's power.

Ursaring

While very simple, this grew to be one of my favorite designs. The idea was just to continue the circle pattern on Ursaring's belly. Almost looks like a tshirt design!

Crabominable

I wanted to convey both the tropical setting of Alola and the cold areas Crabominable inhabits. The cooler background, white palm trees, and white waves were meant to bring that to life.

Jellicent

This took a very long time to complete. The idea was to have Jellicent seem very below the surface, which was a challenge at first. The waves up top were the trickiest part since it was harder to mask colors in Canva.

Corsola

This was when I first fell in love with gradients. The theme behind Corsola's design was having her reflect on her past self.

Azumarill

I found a bubble illustration on Canva, threw on a pink background, and bam! I especially like how the bubbles almost look like the evolution animation in Generation III.

Drifblim

Originally I wanted to add more to Drifblim's design, but kept it simple to make a more clean look. It almost has a Seussical feel to it!

Orbeetle

Originally, the words "hypnosis" and "space" came to mind when thinking about Orbeetle, so I tried to incorporate both in this design.

Heliolisk

Heliolisk are found in arid climates, so brought a little desert flair to this design.

Venusaur

Still not 100% sure if the dots coming out of Venusaur's flower was the best move, but the intent was to show Venusaur charging up a Solar Beam.

Excadrill

I wanted to mimic the scars on Excadrill's body with this design. While they're not the exact shape, I like how it's almost as if it's tearing through the canvas.

Rillaboom

Creating Rillaboom's drum was MURDER! I'd rather not talk about the 2+ hours sunk into it. At the very least, the end design turned out well, and I like the music theme accompanied by the earth brown tones.

Electivire

Originally I had giant lightning bolts in the back, but keeping it simple won out again. The stripes also has a baseball uniform feel to them!

Espeon

I like gradients and I like sparkles. That's pretty much how this design came to be.

Snorlax

Thought it'd be whimsical to make a sort of patterned background for Snorlax! Making the background was actually pretty simple -- a manner of copying + pasting the previous row of fruit and shifting them slightly.

Vespiquen

At this point, I felt confident creating my own backgrounds -- the honeycomb design was fun to make! If you've ever played Capcom vs. SNK 2, it has sort of that vibe to it too. Even threw in some red hexagons for an additional pop of color.

Latios

The song Soaring Illusions came to mind when working on this, so I attempted to incorporate what it'd be like to soar with Latios over Hoenn through the night sky.

Ho-Oh

I originally thought Ho-Oh would have had one of the more grand designs. However, the simplicity really brings out Ho-Oh's elegance. A nice bonus is that the gradient used also fits Heartgold's box art!

Hitmontop

Originally, I had no idea which Pokémon would receive this design! Replicating the animation of Superpower and Close Combat, Hitmontop seemed to be the perfect choice to smack in the middle of this.

Nidoqueen

Fitting enough, the base design was from a Canva theme called "Girl Power". The paint-like scratches almost has an earth-tone to it, and the color scheme is a nice contrast since it's Nidoking's.

Galvantula

Galvantula is an electric spider, so I wanted to showcase that without just throwing lightning bolts everywhere. Plus, the dark blue/purple tones give off a Static Shock feel to them!

Volcarona

I was unsure at first what to do with Volcarona. Originally wanted to incorporate the sun but in a more powerful way than using an illustration, so I came up with this. Also has a binary sunset feel to it if you're a fan of Star Wars.

Grimmsnarl

There were so many directions I could have taken with Grimmsnarl -- I honestly blanked and just replicated his colors. The outer colors are also Grimmsnarl's shiny colors, which are the inverse of his normal form.

Scizor

After working with Scizor, I got my second wind with coming up with designs. Scizor was the first Pokemon I put on a platform, and I especially liked how the circles on Scizor's mandibles were changed into spotlights. Reminded me a bit of the Pokémon World Tournament in Black and White 2.

Greninja

Originally, I wanted Greninja to have appeared to have just landed on the scene to fight bad guys like a ninja would. When coming up who the opponents would be, Charizard and Lucario came to mind and then I thought "wait aren't all three in Smash?!" So yeah, this then became a nod to Smash Bros.

Darmanitan

Darmanitan's design was based off the Old Relic and the episode of the anime where Ash encounters one in a bell tower. Not my favorite design, but I appreciate I tried something new with this one.

Pidgeot

The idea of "sky" and "speed" came to mind when thinking of Pidgeot, so I used the colors of its headfeathers for the diagonal lines and the blue from Mega Pidgeot as the background.

Clefable

For Clefable, I was inspired by both Mt. Moon and the McDowell Mountains, the mountain range I drive towards on the way back home from work.

Butterfree

Butterfree's design was inspired by the episode "Bye Bye Butterfree" and the purple sparkles by the powder moves Butterfree tends to know. 

Raticate

Raticate's design was pretty tricky cause I initially tried to make this a grassy green look. Ultimately, the more autumn design fit well, and it reminded me a bit of Ecruteak City in Johto.

Gastrodon

I personally am not a fan of my design for Gastrodon. Tried to convey a swamp-like environment, but I hit a wall in creativity. Still, I appreciated the attempt behind this.

Eelektross

I was slowly recovering from my creative block at this point. Definitely room for improvement, but it wasn't a total mess like Gastrodon's. The gradient circles were meant to highlight Eelektross's inner claw.

Houndoom

I originally didn't intend Houndoom's to be creepy, but here we are. It almost has a Halloween feel to it. I also matched Houndoom's face with the line in the middle to make it a bit more intimidating.

Shiftry

The phrase "Voice of the Wicked Forest" came to mind when making Shiftry's design, so I used dark greens and blacks for a menacing look. Shifty's leaf hands also have the power to create hurricanes, so it was fun incorporating a sort of wind theme to this as well.

Staraptor

With Pidgeot being speed, Staraptor was more about power. The triangle end point mimics Staraptor's headfeathers and has a sort of power theme to it. Originally, this whole design was inverse! I turned it upside down and voila.

Mudsdale

At the time, I was watching the Sun and Moon series on Netflix and rewatching some of my old battles from VGC 2017. With that, both the move High Horsepower and Tectonic Rage came to mind, so I wanted to incorporate that in Mudsdale's design. Funny enough, the horseshoes are just U's I put dots on!

Bronzong

Bronzong was pretty tricky at first, but I went for a representation of both the moves Trick Room and Gravity. Originally I had red sparkles on this design as well, but that was a bit overkill.

Heracross

I honestly had no idea what to do with Heracross at first! Followed the KISS acronym (keep it simple, stupid) and ended up with something pretty decent. Also like how there's a "cross" theme going on!

Celebi

I was inspired to make Celebi's design right after watching an episode of Sun and Moon where Celebi transports Ash and Torracat to the past. The circle is like a "time portal" of sorts, and the forest has become quite different in the future. Really enjoy how this design almost tells a story!

Luxray

Luxray was originally inspired by this card from Next Destinies. He almost has a Batman look to him guarding over the city at night! And the windows even light up to form an X. Took a bit to get what I wanted with this design, but I liked the end result.

Lanturn

There was a design with waves and I though "that's pretty cute!" So I was moving Lanturn around the frame and forgot to put her in front of one set of waves and this happened. It was kind of a cool 3D effect to have her pop from the waves, so I kept it. Classic example of a happy little accident.

Empoleon

Empoleon was inspired by the card art for Dark Explorers, which proved tricky at first. I tried to make some sort of "steel" design, but that got away from his penguin look. I then tried to bring in a royal look, but that got a bit messy. But then it hit me -- why not combine the royal theme and penguin aspect? So there it is: iceberg crown in the back! I then shifted the darker steel tones to the bottom to make the design cleaner.

Aurorus

It took me a bit to finally finish Aurorus. Initially, I wanted to bring about an aurora borealis-inspired design, but that became Clefable's as I continued work on it. I then was inspired by her sails to make a gradient, and the diamonds as the background was a nice touch. 

Decidueye

Taking a bit of inspiration from Houndoom and Shiftry, I made a line in the middle with the orange section. The trees on the top and bottom also look like arrows. 

Tangrowth

Originally, I tried to make Tangrowth's design based on this -- the ball of energy from Call of Legends was a bit too much to replicate. I remember Tangrowth becoming one of my favorite Pokémon was because of a silly reason, so instead I went that route. It's almost as if Tangrowth is cutting through part of the pink line!

Typhlosion

You know I had to save my favorite for last! The color scheme is based on Lance's battle background in Heartgold, and I made the Pokéball using three separate circles and a line. The golden-yellow line follows the contour of Typhlosion's face to make it stand out a bit.

BONUS: Retro Typhlosion

With plenty of extra time, I made this quick homage to where it all started -- the Game Boy Pocket. Finishing this was a moment of triumph and a culmination of everything I learned throughout this process.

Extending Role Empathy

It's always interesting seeing how life has so many parallels. You might have heard recently that Pokémon Sword and Shield are getting expansion passes. For one thing, it's exciting that the Galar adventures are still continuing! But it was the announcement that they're bringing back over 200+ Pokemon for these expansions that made me think. The #BringBackNationalDex movement, which started after E3 2019, still continues to this day. Reflecting on the hashtag movement, it reminded me of something that happened at work.

It is I, Business Professional Pikachu

*Note: Specific names, times, and details are omitted for privacy purposes.

A team at work introduced a new policy that would benefit our entire department. There were a lot of different key players that made this happen -- over a long timeline, there were many drafts and approvals that had to be made to implement it. Simply put, it took considerable work to make this change. Throughout that time, there were criticisms and complaints about an issue this policy directly improved on. When everything was all set and done, I remember speaking to someone on that team and them feeling dejected -- it was disheartening to hear complaints despite them tirelessly working on a solution behind the scenes. While criticism certainly is fair, it hurt seeing a lack of role empathy towards a friend of mine.

When looking at the many comments behind #BringBackNationalDex, I'd imagine the team at Game Freak might have felt the same way -- they certainly must have been working on the DLC even before the hashtag existed. They must have felt dejected seeing the same complaints over and over again despite the fact that they were addressing the core of the criticism behind the scenes. This isn't to say that the criticism was wrong, but there certainly was room from other users of this hashtag to be more empathetic.

Video games, like many other industries, is a combination of art, science, and business. While we enjoy the artistic and technological advancements of games, as fans we often forget that companies have to keep business considerations in mind. The launch of limiting the Pokedex in Sword and Shield was a business decision to make sure these games could come out during the 2019 holiday season and give time for development of an extended post-game adventure. This isn't to say that criticizing this decision is unreasonable, but as consumers, there's room for us to seek to understand and extend role empathy.

The world needs more empathy.

New Journey, New Generation

Yes, I realize it's been over a year since my last blog post. And what's even more shocking is that I didn't write anything yet for such a big year! For one thing, this was the first year a live action Pokémon movie came to theaters. But most importantly, this year was the release of a new generation with Sword and Shield. Big moments for sure.

Big moments also kept me from writing as much as I'd like. The beginning of the year was quite busy with new projects at work, and then I made a big move when I packed up for Arizona and got a promotion alongside it. There have definitely been some highs and lows as well.

Did you know that the Orre Region is based on Arizona? You're welcome for that useless fact.

I love my new job and am very lucky to work with an awesome team, but I'd be lying if I said every day was easy. There are certainly challenges working with a team in two separate locations. And yeah, I greatly miss my friends and local places back home. But with those lows, there's always the positives: the team at my office give it their all in their work and I'm slowly getting used to things in the area. Sure, I would love to have my old friends and other comforts like favorite restaurants on this leg of my journey, but that's not how life works. In a way, that's kind of how Sword and Shield was for me.

As you might have heard by now, not every Pokémon is available in Sword and Shield, even if you wanted to transfer them from past games. This is certainly a low point for the titles, and it almost made me question buying it -- this isn't the first time I debated whether to buy a Pokémon game or not. But with that, there are a lot of high points. I was able to get a great setup to stream the main story and beat the whole thing on launch weekend. The Pokémon designs are SPOT ON (please look at Dreepy below for an example). And Max Raid battles have been a fun way for me to reconnect with distant friends. I haven't even scratched the surface on the music, ease of building a competitive team, exploring the wild area, and the sheer joy of trying on new outfits and customizing your trainer. Long story short, Sword and Shield are great titles in the series.

Dreepy is amazing and you can't my mind about that.

Like life, leaving friends behind can be tough -- it'd be perfect if you could bring everyone along for the ride with you. But even if you can't, there's still things to look forward to as the journey continues. While initially a challenge, I'm glad to have taken the dive both with my move to Arizona and the Galar region.

Change is inevitable, but life is always a grand adventure.

Ready, Set, Let's Go!

Let's a go, Pikachu!

 

 

That dumb joke aside, you probably heard of the new Pokémon games coming out for the Switch. Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee is a creative take on Pokémon Yellow and launches this fall. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you check out the trailer:

 

I totally understand if you need tissues -- I was crying too. Ever since promotion for the 20th anniversary, Pokémon's been on their A-game with trailers! It's all about adding that human element, you know? Anyways, how do I feel about Let's Go? It's a mixed bag.

 

Let's start off with the good! I've been playing Pokémon Go since it first came out and consistently do so. It's a great way to spend time while commuting to and from work, and there are a few people I know who still play. My collection of creatures has gotten pretty big since, so I'm excited transfer them over to Let's Go. Apparently, you can't send them back to Go, but that doesn't bother me.

 

The new artstyle for Kanto is also adorable! It might be the big eyes of the trainers or the more brighter tones, but gosh darn it, it works! Almost reminds me of a Kirby game with how happy-go-lucky the setting is.

 

And, probably my favorite feature, following Pokémon returns! I loved this feature in Yellow, HeartGold, and SoulSilver, so it's great that it's back -- makes you feel more connected with your partner. Plus, the fact you can dress up your partner Pikachu or Eevee. I'm going to burn all my in-game money on that.

 

Darn it, I want this outfit!

While I wish I only had good things to say, there are a few gripes I have. No, I'm not a vengeful Gengar using Grudge, but some features just don't click with me. For instance, battling is only reserved for trainer battles. The Pokémon Go gameplay of catching Pokémon is fine, but it's not as engaging as traditional battles. I understand the reasoning behind it (to appeal to more casual players), but I feel this was a step back from previously established mechanics that are easy enough to grasp.

 

Furthermore, mechanics for training are said to be kept more simple. This is disappointing, since variety in Pokémon battles comes from not only movepool diversity, but also how you train a Pokémon. An Arcanine could be physically bulky, mixed attacking, physically attacking, specially attacking, doubles support, the list goes on. Its stats could be further customized by EVs, giving more depth in how you train your Arcanine. A simplified training system would mean that Arcanine's versatility drops -- if there's no way to specifically train in Defense, it'll be harder to be physically bulky. We don't have full details yet, but elimination of generation mainstays like Abilities also takes away a Pokémon's uniqueness in battle style.

 

Probably the biggest offender for me is that Let's Go will only be limited to Generation 1 Pokémon. I wrote about this back in 2012, but Pokémon's strength is their huge catalogue of creatures they've made throughout the years. Limiting us to the original 151 takes away fan favorites from later games. What's more, apparently you can't transfer newer Pokémon to Let's Go! Hopefully, they're taking a page from FireRed and not letting you use newer Pokémon until after you defeat the Elite Four. But if that's not the case, it's a move that takes away from the inclusiveness and spirit of Pokémon games.

 

So yeah, a lot of thoughts with the new games. We still haven't scratched the surface with 2 player co-op, the Pokéball accessory, and the new Pokémon you can transfer to Go. Sure, there are some things holding me back from being all in with these titles, but I'm optimistic it'll all work out for the best. For now, let's go! 

 

 

The Ultra Pulls

Oh hey, another post about a children's card game! It's another pre-release so you know the drill: I spend $30, have fun playing a few games, and end up not taking any rare cards home. Or so I thought. Turns out, Ultra Prism had some ultra surprises for me (and I promise not to overuse the word "ultra").

After failing to catch an Omastar in a Pokémon Go raid, We got our deck boxes to open up our first four packs of cards. I carefully opened the booster pack, and to my surprise ...

Yep, that's a secret rare Glaceon GX card. Apparently, it's worth $80. It's safe to assume that I was freaking out. After so many pre-releases of common cards, I finally got something rare! This easily topped the full art Lugia EX during Ancient Origins. I showed a few people this card, and pretty much everyone played the "I'm going to runaway with your card" joke. It was annoying -- please don't do that. Unfortunately, I didn't get an Eevee in my packs, so I couldn't use Glaceon GX in the tournament. However, I did get some useful cards to play with.

If you read my last pre-release post, you might remember that you also get an evolution pack at every event. This time around, they made the evolution deck more cohesive with the promo card you got. For instance, I got a promo Lucario, so I had two sets of the Garchomp line and Cynthia to help combo with the Precognitive Aura ability. I hate Garchomp, but that's besides the point.

 

Pro: This combo works really well.
Con: Garchomp is stupid and I hate it.

What really made the deck scary was the addition of Darkrai Prism. Prism cards are a new mechanic introduced with the Ultra Prism set. You're only allowed one prism card with the same name (so I can't have two Darkrai Prism cards in the same deck), and they go to the Lost Zone when knocked out (not the usual discard pile). It'll be cool to see if the Lost Zone mechanic will be utilized like it was in the Heartgold/Soulsilver era.

Besides the awesome shininess, Darkrai Prism is a terror as soon as it hits the field. Not only does it get two dark energies from your hand when you put it on your bench, but it does a lot of damage and requires the opponent to flip two coins to wake up -- no wonder they limited it to one per deck! Darkrai Prism worked well with Lucario and Garchomp since Lucario could fish it out of your deck and Garchomp has free retreat cost for when you're ready to unleash a never-ending nightmare.

How can something so shiny be so evil?

So how did this deck fare? Eh, it did alright. I got off Darkrai Prism's attack often enough, but my opponent flipped two heads to immediately wake up! Every other time I used Abyssal Sleep, I knocked out the opponent. After winning two out of three matches, I got the final four packs and didn't pull anything noteworthy. Content with my Glaceon GX, I left ... I didn't want to deal with anyone trying to "runaway" with my card.

As this new set was heavily focused on Generation 4 Pokémon, I didn't get any Alola cards to cross off my list. But hey, I had fun! Plus, I might even build a Lucario/Garchomp deck? It's surprisingly cheap now that I have most of the tech cards needed to make it work. All in all, I had an ultra good time.

I'm sorry, I won't use "ultra" again!

Pokémon the Movie: I Don't Choose You

*This post may contain spoilers for the new movie. So yeah, spoiler alert.

You might be surprised to know that they're 20 main Pokémon movies. Crazy when you think about it since the Pokémon anime been around for about 20 years now -- that's a full fledged movie every year! Since the fourth movie featuring Celebi, we over in the Unova region ... I mean United States, rarely get Pokémon movies released in theaters. So when it was announced that Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You was getting a theatrical release for a limited time, I thought it'd be a nice treat to go. I casually mentioned it to my sister, and she wanted to go for her birthday. After all, we went to the first Pokémon movie in '99 for her birthday -- it'd be a nice full circle.

From random trailers and chatter online, I explained to my sister that this would be more-or-less an alternate take on Ash's original journey -- Brock and Misty wouldn't be in it, but Ash will do things like rescue a Charmander from a mean trainer and release his Butterfree. A little different than I expected, this movie was sort of new story but with random set pieces and moments in the show repeated. It felt too safe since it so heavily relied on nostalgia. For instance, Ash meets up with Verity, a sassy female Water-type trainer, and Sorrel, the medic and chef on the team. Doesn't this sound like Misty and Brock? I'm pretty sure they're just Misty and Brock but with most of their personality stripped away. Verity and Sorrel are so unforgettable, I had to look up their names on Serebii.net.

So on the right is ... you know, just forget it.

Like I said, Ash will go through many situations like he did in the show like letting go of Butterfree and saving Charmander. When we were first introduced to Charmander and the Pink Butterfree, my sister predicted what was going to happen next. It was clear that these moments were intentional to play on nostalgia. This movie was meant as the 20th anniversary celebration of the anime after all, so it made sense. However, events weren't always consistent. When Charmander evolved into Charmeleon, it was expected that Charmeleon wouldn't listen to Ash. However, this was never the case. It was surprising to see which moments were cherry picked for the movie.

With all Pokémon movies, we can talk about the plot of Ash being the "chosen one" or something and having to fight a legendary Pokémon or work with them to save the world. That's pretty much what this movie was about, and it honestly wasn't bad. However, the dialogue and pacing made this movie not land for either of us. There's a scene where Sorrel recounts a time when his family's Luxray died in the snow trying to protect him -- he couldn't make friends with Pokémon afterwards until he met Lucario. Ash's response? "That's awesome!" Really. That's awesome. Your friend just told you a deep and personal story about having the family Pokémon risk its life and dying, and you say that's awesome? Do you just not have any emotional intelligence? How about just keeping your mouth shut?!

With regards to pacing, the lore of the Pokémon Marshadow was pretty much rushed with the old professor's rash explanation literally in the last three minutes before the climax. I'm too lazy so I'm not going to look up the professor's name. And likewise, this movie was lazy to rely on telling rather than showing. And it did a terrible job telling cause my sister and I still were confused and had to piece it together! I told her that Marshadow attacked Ash because it didn't discriminate between humans, but I just made that up cause I wasn't sure. Don't tell her.

Stuck forever in the shadows.

And now, for the biggest reason why I don't choose this movie: Pikachu talks.

You've probably seen this scene floating around the Internet. Right when Ash and Pikachu are about to be obliterated by the Hyper Beams of like 6 Pokémon, Ash asks Pikachu to get in its Pokéball. Pikachu refuses, saying in the most annoying, squeaking voice that "it's because I always want to be with you." Laughter shouldn't be the response you have at the most emotional part of the movie. But yes, the entire theater abrupted in laughter. All the cringe aside, it felt that the movie was forcing itself to be emotional rather than let it happen naturally through a build up of plot. Like I mentioned, part of the explanation of the movie felt rushed, which made this scene just fall flat. Then there's this whole dream sequence of a world without Pokémon Ash goes through, and it's just weird and a lot to unpack.

Ultimately, there were a lot of missed opportunities to add context and drive real emotion. Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You relied more on nostalgia than building a plot, which made it a miss for both my sister and I. I don't really think much about Pokémon movies, but it was a bit disappointing since I was looking forward to this one. But hey, we had a fun time, and that's what counts. Besides, maybe the 21st movie won't be as bad? You really can't beat Keldeo ...

I'd rather not talk about it.