Competitive Pokemon is NOT a Chess Game
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Just a short, sloppy video essay where I probably could have communicated some points much better.
#pokemon
#competitivepokemon
#smogon
#vgc
#yokaiwatch
#chess
#chessgame
#rockpaperscissors
Nice vid.
I've compared Pokemon to Chess occasionally, mostly when talking about the aspect of Resource management. Identifying which Pokemon you need to preserve and some of the Macro decision making can feel a bit like Chess sometimes.
Obviously directly comparing the game to Chess is silly cause Pokemon has simultaneous turns and hidden info, but in Chess both players have the same tools and move one after the other.
Pokemon has some RPS situations which can come down to pure guesses but there's also Risk Reward, sometimes you could make a play that results in a huge advantage but if you guess wrong you Lose a Pokemon or something.
Maybe your opponent assumes you won't take that risk depending on the game state, maybe you're already at an advantage so you're less likely to make a High risk play. Or if you're in a disadvantage you could assume that the enemy wants to make more High risk plays to claw back into the game and that can inform your decision making.
There's more moving parts than just simple RPS interactions in Pokemon, you're not always gonna be in a position where you can Make an RPS play that results in an advantage for you there's plenty of Neutral situations and Slow progress. And when there are Guesses there's many factors that can inform what choice you end up making.
Generally when there's situations that force 1 dimensional Guesses that are straight up RPS, that's a sign of an unbalanced metagame or overpowered Pokemon forcing that interaction. Gen 5 OU has suffered from this a lot over the years for e.g
Also Chess is a perfect game/a game where both players have full knowledge of with players moves on the board, while Pokemon doesn't have that info given to you, and also moves that have 85 or 90 accuracy are really common, so there is also luck involved, which isnt even in chess. So the rock paper scissors idea actually works really well here
Team preview "kinda" gives you an idea of what to expect from the opponent but that just removes alot of freedom to play in an actually unpredictable way since you can see certain builds a mile away unless you're bluffing, which is just RPS psychology.
As for luck, hope you like a side of coin tosses with your RPS!
@@DrCoeloCephalo Well VGC and singles are far less reliant on luck than all TCG games even non-Pokemon ones that's for sure.
@@minnayuan2591 Is it, though? As I recall, there was one player in SM VGC whom had a relatively unique team among all the cookie cutter stuff and lost his match because of pure RNG.
@@DrCoeloCephalo It's not to say it never happens, but as a whole there is far more things in your control or your opponents control than in any tcgs. Also many tcg games are determined literally by a die roll/coin flip, so yeah.
@@minnayuan2591 The same could be said about RPS since you don't know what they will pick but can still psychologically force them into an option. The same could also be said fir games like Poker but at the end of day, both games are arguably more balanced because you know what the full deck is on both sides sorta like Pokemon team preview where you get a general idea and yet can still exploit psychology by bluffing your sets. The fact remains you don't have to worry about a full house or a scissors randomly missing against paper or getting randomly crit on your play for no reason and you end up losing.
Even just taking a short look between ykw3 and Mainline pokemon is a no question as to which game resembles chess (or any board game) more
Imagine if chess had 2 squares. One for the opponent piece and one for yours. Lol.
Competitive Pokémon isn't like chess, because chess is actually good.
"What do you MEAN my Pawn pieces can't get a random crit or random miss! That adds depth and makes it interesting!!!"
@@DrCoeloCephalo "What do you MEAN I can't turn my Bishop into a Shadow Mega Gigantamax Bishop?!"
“What do you MEAN my Rook can’t set rocks/spikes/toxic spikes that last forever and force chip on the opposing pieces?!”
“What do you mean my pieces can’t spam double team or minimize?! That adds depth and personality!”
“What do you mean i cant EV train my knights to move an extra square?!”
I’ve never heard Pokémon be compared to a chess game, and had I heard that I would’ve given that person a very confused look lol
They probably referring to the “battle of the minds” in terms of strategy vs having actual strategy in the game lol
Pokemon's meta and system favor Hyper Offense (hit hard and fast) and bulky offense (hit hard and be able to take damage) as far as styles go. Both still require alot of RPS psychology so you can punch holes in the other player's team.
@@DrCoeloCephalo That just isn’t true, unless we’re talking singles (which shouldn’t be what we are evaluating as that isn’t the official rule set). Pokémon metas has had a consistent use of at least 1-2 tanks per a team, which can even be seen in the 2022 world championships with Go Hirabara’s team consisting of yveltal and gastrodon.
@@mario22blue44
Pokemon designing its main game around a 1v1 and then making official competitive a completely different format is probably the stupidest game design decision out there. No other monster collector does this nonsense.
Yveltal is bulky offense which also just further proves my point.
Loking at the 2022 top 8:
Groudon - Bulky Offense
Zacian-Crowned - Hyper Offense
Calyrex-Shadow - Hyper Offense
Incineroar - Bulky Offense
Rillaboom - Bulky Offense
Thundurus - Hyper Offense
Those among others were in the top teams mind you. A single antimeta bulky monster like Gastrodon and 5 monsters that just prove my point. Just like VGC 2016 where the antimeta tank Bronzong didn't really stop players from using bulky offense Primal Groudon and Kyogre and hyper offensive Yveltal.
In YKW3 competitive, it's not uncommon to run 3 or even 4 monsters to run Shielding Soul to play defensively as a Tank on a team of 6. Simple math and ratios dictate that is a better balance between actual offense and defense.
Valid video ur channel is amazing I came for the Yokai watch reviews stayed for the fun pictures, memes, and awesome vibes much love bro
Thanks so much for the praise!
@@DrCoeloCephalo it’s deserved my friend
I always joke that ykw3 is like chess but i never thought it was an actual thing tbh
It is. Like unironically. The fact you have a board to move around and specialized pieces make it far more chesslike than Pokemon ever was.
@@DrCoeloCephalo yea, it totally makes sense now
I think what people meant by competitive Pokemon being chess is that both takes strategy and critical thinking to play.
Pokemon competitive was a afterthought especially with the elite 4 and champion in scarlet and violet.
competitive pokemon is a cope cause the main campaign of the games are boring
Yeah, and that in chess the opponent has equaly as strong pieces as you. While the pokemon with a specific typing can be considerd weaker
In some yokai that can be toxic in certain situations like sun God emna or time God emna but they can be counted if you think quick enough so they can't set up the board for total domination however if this was pokemon if you don't have the out your dead
Personally I preffer compare ykw3 comp with magic the gathering ,there isnt a grid or movement in it , but let me explain:both games are around build a deck/team which different cards/creatures for get a good sinergy, for example in both games you can build a deck/team around sacrifize creatures(like typhoid rats or Crummy mummy )and buff ally creatures with that (like cordial vampire or umbral enma).Also a very important part of building a deck/team is the color/tribe of your cards which give you important beneficts for use less color/tribes (in magic is easy to manage your mana, meanwhile in Yokai you get tribe bonus or even elite tribe bonus) but in exchange you are most limited in which creatures/cards you can use, so you need to found a balance between both things.The colors/tribes are related to some role or game style (for example both white and helpful are around healing and get life).I could also talk about the distinguised roles in the creatures(some tank, other buffs, other are sacrifices, other heal, other give you mana/soultimate, other can carry the game for some skills that let him get buffs in certain situations...) or how both games let you play with the probabilities (in Yokai with critics or precision, in magic deciding the number of cards that you are using or with the different mecanics around the deck of the blue color or cards that give you better results with dices like the barbarian class).Probably the biggest difference between both are how one use teams of six with only creatures and the other decks with more than 60 cards that can be spells, artifacts, creatures...;also the grid or how Yokai is more dinamic. Maybe I am wrong because I just play magic on a casual way, but I still enjoy the comparation.
(Obviusly this comparation is more about
Deck/team building)
That's actually pretty insightful.
I think the main reason people like comparing Pokemon to chess is because it's the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of examples of games without luck, something that many people really want Pokemon to be to the detriment of interesting strategies like Paraflinch and Moody. Even in those sorts of strategies, there are teambuilds and plays you can make in order to maximize your odds of winning
Funnily, while strategies like that are low-commitment and low-skill in Pokemon which leads to part of why they get banned from Singles formats, it's not hard to find games like Monster Sanctuary or Yo-Kai Watch 3 that have strategies that effectively accomplish the exact same idea of locking down your opponent from acting or boosting all your stats with methods that involve actual skill and teambuilding knowhow. The way strategies like that end up in Pokemon arguably just add a coin toss to your RPS game.
@@DrCoeloCephalo Sure, you can get success with paraflinch without much commitment, but you can get a lot more out of it if you build around it by spreading paralysis and removing bulky resists and priority. It's a strategy like any other and arguably more unique than a standard sweeper.
@@munchrai6396 That MIGHT be true except Paraflinch much like a ton of other "unique" strategies in Pokemon ain't even good in meta. It's always been stereotyped as a strat that only low level players think is good and don't know how to deal with it since Magnezone alone among many other examples has existed for just as long as Paraflinch has.
@@DrCoeloCephalo Yeah, it's not great, but it's still fun to build around and it has more potential and more viable options than other gimmicks like Perish Song. It may have gotten worse after gen 7, but it wasn't entirely destroyed like Confusion was. Honestly, even Trick Room doesn't do that well in singles, only seeing occasional representation and constantly feeling underpowered. Then again, one of the big benefits of tiers is that strategies like this have a higher chance of succeeding in lower tiers where the competition is weaker and the support becomes more effective since Pokemon like Togedemaru, Alolan Persian and Whimsicott generally end up in lower tiers. Heck, even most Sticky Web users don't usually get higher than RU
@@munchrai6396 Fun is a really subjective and preferential concept. It is not universal. Different people have fun with different things for different reasons. From alot of my experience, many that don't get that also tend to be low level players or just people unwilling to play other games to find new things to have fun with. Plus, if that kind of thing is fun to someone then logically they should be able to have MORE fun with the long list of WAY better monster collectors where such strategies are actually consistent on top of having the actual variety and uniquenes such people claim they they want only with words.
Tiering is a fanmade band-aid. They are not official and are pretty much regulated by fans that ACTUALLY care about teambuild variety and balance because the game devs DON'T. Without them, you end up with things like the laughable mess that is Anything Goes which makes it plain as day how Pokemon truly is: unbalanced and ugly.
And Little Z took it personally
I really don’t get the comparison between them.
Pokemon isn’t that of strategy game.
It is, but not in a way like chess is.
I for example once in Pokémon sword and shield became a bit competitive and it’s really just feed your Pokémon with the Vitamines items and make their stats even better through the battle tower and ist tiring.
That’s the reason why I didn’t make any new team it costs to much and you have to grind a lot.
I have the special meowth which will, give you tons of money, but sometimes I am just lacking a certain attack for my team or a Pokémon really has a bad nature and bad stats, because of that I need to but items in to it.
It’s mostly about math and putting the most hours on your Pokémon.
This what I like more about chess.
There is no choice between your pieces every one has the same pieces and because that it’s mostly balanced.
I really don’t play chess that much, but I really am not good in the game even though I played competitive Pokémon.
So I think the comparison is wrong and the other way too.
Like a new player which has played chess will get wrecked, because they don’t know about the meta and eves and more .
Some of these make minimal difference, but it makes one.
There are also the items which can help you out and alter the flow of the battle.
Pokemon is complicate, but you easily find a way to destroy your enemies if some attacks and Pokémon aren’t banned.
Do you remember dracovish? This dunkleosteus could one shot most Pokémon if you choose a special item and the fact is.
It does double damage if it is first.
Now increase increase the speed eves and attack eves give it a nature which give it extra a strong attack then you have created a team sweeping monster.
I love this Pokémon, because it is one kinda forgotten sea creature, but it just was to op and there many more which mostly get banned, because they can easily sweep teams.
I like to make competitive Pokémon, but I am kinda just playing in a casual mode, because I don’t wanna get wrecked by some guy which spend 100 hours planing his team.
Chess is also pretty competitive, but there is no game destroying piece.
I think the queen is very strong, but she can’t just go around destroying every piece with out being at risk herself.
I don’t like this comparison, because you are comparing a rpg with Rock Paper Scissors elements and a tactical board game.
Also I kinda am not a big fan of how unfun it is to get good Pokémon.
Do many raids hope it has amazing stats and then feed it or let it faint many Pokémon and the give it the perfect moveset.
Pokemon's stat maxing system and grinding to get an optimal team to this day is still a joke compared to other monster collectors. It's why most players default to the fanmade simulation of Pokemon Showdown which of itself is not a praiseworthy aspect of the actual games. People only get an idea of how the meta is thanks to unofficial means because playing on cartridge sucks so hard.
Good point about how the queen is strong but not overpowered too. Cuz in competitive Pokemon, there are so many monsters that are just overly dominating in both Singles and Doubles. Smogon's unofficial Singles format bans stuff that requires almost no brains to make use of that otherwise destroy any actual need to be "strategic" since they rip most things in front of them to shreds and even in VGC Doubles, the 2016 format does not do the system any favors. Both formats have to ban alot of things or else you get next to no variety.
Comp Pokemon without RNG is still perfectly viable, and basically eliminates the argument of it
The rock paper scissors aspects and lack of true board control and movement compared to actual chess still remain.
If Yo-kai Watch 3 is like Chess and Pokémon is like Rock Paper Scissors, what does that make Yo-kai Watch 1 and 2?
Hmmm. Uno?
I have even seen some Pokemon fans claim that competitive Pokemon is more complex and complicated than chess, which is not even close. Chess is easy to learn but hard to master; it can take 5-10 years to become an expert in it due to the sheer amount of possible moves and combinations of strategies it has, in comparison to competitive pokemon were it's possible to become good at it in a few months. In addition, it's more skill-based than Pokemon since there is no hidden information, no guessing, and no luck involved in a chess game. It's pretty clear that they don't dive deeper into chess when making comparisons.
Pokemon's barrier for entry is pretty much non existant thanks to Pokemon Showdown and team pasting.
I think poker is a much more apt comparison
I actually don't have any counterarguments against that. You know someone in the game has a potential combo of cards (team preview) and have to be able to bluff and bluff hard to get ahead psychologically. So it's a pretty good comparison.
No no no it's more like hungry hungry hippos
The Pokemon Card game is more like chess than the video game
So…. Pokémon is just a more advanced Attack Of The Friday monsters card fight?
Never played that game but I hear it's quite nice. May have to see for myself or at least watch some gameplay.
I would compare competitive pokemon more with Poker opposed to Chess. A game of incomplete information with a lot of Variance.
Yeah, Poker is probably the best comparison especially with how VGC lets you completely see your opponent's now so it might as well be card counting.
Wow does nobody know about triple battles? Idk it was fun doing crazy strats like putting wonderguard on pokemon, using follow me to help make 1 pokemon op, heal pulsing across the map, wide guarding obvious aoe atk's, etc.
It is way more simple now but yeah, it sucks they removed it...
I KNOW about them but you can't really rely on a removed feature.
@@DrCoeloCephalo if only it were more popular then maybe it wouldn't have been removed
@@GamingTranceSeer Or maybe if Game Freak were actually good game devs.
freaking Yw3 is closer to chess than the 30+ years of pokemon
Pokémon was never trying to be like chess so I don’t know why your point is?
Smogon is seething
found you friend
"No spaces so not big like chess."
Not really the end-all-be-all. Knowing what each unit is capable of, combinations both popular and niche, and having multiple strategies to use within a limited number of units all requires hours on end to truly master each game. If your games come down to rochambeau, then you haven't done your due diligence beforehand, which is honestly understandable. Very few people have the time or will to dedicate to a game.
It kinda is because your formation is part of your strategy to win with each passing turn to get your opponent into a corner with a disadvantage. You don't have a formation in Pokemon. You just send out the piece with the advantage on one space like in RPS. You could even argue Pokemon is closer to the card game President with 2 people since you're whittling away each turn with no formation involve by just beating the better card in play in what could be done in a.
What you're describing with knowing what each unit does and having multiple strategies with specific combinations is not unique to Pokemon. Yo-Kai Watch 3 does this too with actually specialized pieces like chess, actual formations and boards players have to set up like chess and multiple pieces fighting on the board at once to target (BESIDES just a single target like RPS to beat) like chess.
@DrCoeloCephalo I'm not telling you to take down the vid. It's still funny. But there is positioning, which is why we see players switch out between mons. Either to conceal a weakness or to reveal a threat, it is very much similar to retreating with a bishop to discover check with a rook. Moving pieces along a board randomly will get you as far in chess as randomly switching does in pokemon.
@@SuperSupper2 I never took this as asking me to take the video down. I don't remove my vids for anyone but myself, so don't worry. I just like interacting with my audience. Like I already explained in the video, switching isn't like positioning. It's a basic RPG feature and Yo-Kai Watch 3 has switching as well and it involves WAY more commitment than it ever does in Pokemon due to how Wait Time works. On top of that, switching out is really not a positioning or formation thing. It's just going out to a better matchup i. e. swapping a rock for a paper or scissors. That point about a "surprise weakness" arguably fits more in line with YKW than Pokemon too since there's no team preview in that game. Not like you can get away with random movement again, because of how Wait Time works so even THAT part has more actual strategy around it. With that, there is an actual formation to take into account. With Pokemon, it there's just psychology. Watch the video again. See that image in the top right that explains the strategy and psychology to RPS? You're more or less doing that exact same thing with Pokemon switching. So of course you're not swapping out randomly. You're using strategy and bluffs to get the psychological edge in an RPS game. All the points you're trying to make were pretty much already covered in the video front to back.
As stated in the video, Ally Switch is the closest possjble you have to actually changing your board formation like castling in Chess and funnily, VGC players hate it.
I actually think Pokemon is probably one of the most chess like games I've ever played, but not mechanically. It's moreso in the game flow. Both players start with all their resources and take turns removing the opponents. The game flow of an early game to a middle game where the goal is to remove as many of your opponent's strong tools as possible is something I've only really seen in chess and pokemon among the games I play.
No offense but do you actually play any other games? I ask cuz with the way you describe that is extremely generalizing, basic and super easy to apply to any other games like team FPS games where both playing teams want to get rid of Tanks and Heakers on the opposing team as soon as possible on top of the fact a description like that could apply to ANY other RPG, especially SRPGs where you rely more on board movement precisely like chess to remove key pieces.
@@DrCoeloCephalo I play smash and val at pretty respectable levels (I have an esports scholarship at my school) and play a number of other competitive games at high levels. I've come a game or two away from top cutting VGC regionals and am roughly like 1100 rated at chess so I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.
Board movement aside the flow is moreso what I think is similar. FPS games you lose access to options but either get them back (they respawn) or those tools aren't fully within your control (a teammate controls them). While pokemon is a hidden information game you're ultimately in control of every action of every pokemon under your control bar actions like taunt or torment. This means the game has "positions" that are played where you make decisions around the resource management surrounding the whole game field. Unlike a game like, say, starcraft or league there is no "building resources" phase either. You inherently start with your team at your most powerful, and then your position is slowly whittled down as more pokemon or pieces are slowly taken out of play. There is no gaining strength, just removal.
Additionally this can't really be compared to an RPG like Triangle Strategy or Fire Emblem because ultimately losing characters/units is a lose state. If you lose a unit in that game it's because you played poorly not because saccing something was the optimal decision in a position. I feel more like I'm playing chess playing Pokemon than Chess when playing tactical RPGs for this exact reason.
@@Spark31Gaming The official format doesn't even hide the info anymore with team sheets and even if it was, alot of it still just comes down to psychology and baiting. You lose the rock, paper or scissors from sacrificing if it's the best play to make if they don't have as good of matchup as what you have in the back or if you get psychologically baited into a bad switch, Protect at a bad time, etc.
It kind of can because just like chess, you can bait the opponent into trying to get into a position to try to take out a unit and then gang up on them with other surrounding pieces because of simple board movement.
These exact same broad statements could be made to YKW3 with far more positions to be played due to how Soultimates and Soultimate baiting work, lack of team preview to hide far more information, pieces being far more specialized like chess pieces, switching out pieces to make optimal sacrifices given your position, etc.
@@Spark31Gaming I also think another thing should be noted is how matchups tend to go. With chess, the pieces don't really have straight matchups. You can lose a queen to a pawn. With Pokemon, matchups tend to be far more one-sided just as they are in RPS. Checks, counters, coverage and all that. Corviknight and Skarmory would prefer to NOT be up against a Magnezone if they can help it otherwise you lose your Steel "rock" to the Electric "paper" when they have offensive Dragon and Ground "scissors" in the back. Heck, trapping of any kind just makes it all the more one-sided as Alakazam would prefer to not take Pursuit damage, stally monsters would prefer to not get stuck with Heatran's Magma Storm, Encore Wobbuffet and Mega Gengar can easily force the opponent into a situation where they hard lose to some setup sweeper or wallbreaker or just lose a valuable option to the trapper itself. Things like that where the opponent loses all control just make it easier to force them into a lose state, hence why they cause issues in Singles.
@@DrCoeloCephalo @DrCoeloCephalo As a fighting game player I'm intimately familiar with RPS interactions and would agree that that's the core difference between chess and pokemon ultimately (which can only be facilitated by the simultaneous action system). However, the point I'm trying to make is that the flow of "beginning game with all options available to an endgame with only the tools your opponent's play allowed you to keep" is something unique to chess and pokemon among all multiplayer games I've played. I know nothing about YKW3 because I haven't played it, but as far as I'm aware Yokai Watch is largely based on pokemon which would lead me to believe the same comparisons being made is still logically consistent. Whether or not information is hidden is irrelevant, just that the flow of options never increases. It only decreases, and to an extent the options that remain are decided by the opposing player's choices significantly earlier in the game.
Also as to the match up comments, I don't see how your weak pokemon clicking a move that kills a chipped counter on switch in is any different from a pawn taking a queen. You just have to set up the situation positionally to do that. Something, again, both games share.
You realize the man doesn't realize what he's talking about when he says singles is the main competitive mode
Edit: you realize the man knows even less than you tought when he says that you can't know about your opponents moves when with the 9th gen we had the revolutionary fact of all official tournaments being "open lists" (showing a list of all your pokemons, with all their natures, evs, moves, items and abilities to the opponent before the game)
Second edit: man, he really doesn't understand what reading the meta and having skill in teambuilding to counter it means huh
You realize the man doesn't know what he's talking about when the video NEVER ONCE said Singles is the main way to play competitive.
You realize the man doesn't know what he's talking about when open team sheets are an extremely new factor and VGC metas where the same arguments applyvhave existed BEFORE open team sheets was an added """feature""" and even then, it just makes the whole thing even more RPS cuz you know what the opponent's rock, paper and scissors are.
You realize the man has no idea what he is talking about when actually watching the video and understanding certain bits of context keeps him from making any actual counterarguments.
@@DrCoeloCephalo bro wdym you said that litterally 30 seconds into the video also about counterarguments, comparing pokemon to chess is not due to the nature of the chessboard that gives the same pieces to both the players but to the ability that both good pokemon and chess players must have to understand and read their opponent, figuring out their plans, which of your chess pieces they're most worried about, which one they're gonna go after first and which they think you're gonna go after first. The rng is for sure not cool but it's not such a big problem in tournament rules due to bo3, as even if it manages to somehow win you a game it reeeally rarely works twice in a row and even then, a really good player always prepares as if the worst situation was about to happen. What else, I think you said the number of pokemon is too big to keep all of them in mind. Yes, but how many of them are actually viable? There is always going to be a metagame, and if you manage to build a team that has answers to the current top 5 combos plus being good on its own then you're already in a good spot
Edit: about the open sheets making it more rps are you really serious? Now that you know there's no more bs tech and you can plan around a certain move, while this also eliminates said bs techs because there's no more surprise factor, making it a lot healtier and skill based
@@d_dstroyer0445
"With its USUAL 1v1 format."
That is NOT saying 1v1 is the MAIN competetive system. I'm not the one that designed a game around a 1v1 battle system and then made the comp format 2v2.
Team preview plus teamssheets pretty much nullifies that whole spiel since you can usually see plain as day what their plan is in black and white text and even without it, you just bait out their options psychologically RPS style.
Not really. The psychology factor RPS style is still there cuz you can still just bait what you plan to do. They may know you have Protect on a certain monsyer but they don't know if or when you are gonna use it. I never said anything about there being too many monsters. Heck, that doesn't even matter when so many of them do the exact same thing anyway due to the overlap issue I covered in another video so the point about the number that are viable is just self defeating cuz some are just better rocks, papers and scissors than others.
@@DrCoeloCephalo yeah but more than being an "RPS factor" the psychological side is actually the more similar to chess, just that since you're choosing moves at the same time you have to predict what they want to do while you do your move unlike chess where you have to see the possibilities on the board that you might be missing. It's a reasoning that goes like "okay, this is what they did last turn, so what are they gonna do now".
Also you mean that you... weren't talking about competitive 1v1 but the main games? Because the challenges in those is really understanding the ai, which is almost always gonna go for the most damaging move, and baiting it.
About overlap, there really are that much ways they can change pokemons, what are they gonna do when there's a thousand of them
@@d_dstroyer0445 Not really because it's just ultimately psychology like RPS cuz you can just bluff what you are gonna go for no different from how they know what your rock, paper and scissors are. That very example is EXACTLY the kind of psychology RPS uses so that's self-defeating. Watch the video again because that block of text in your quotes is just called the win-stay lose-shift strategy of RPS.
Not really because the AI is dumb as a brick unlike in other monster collectors. You don't really need to bait anything because you can just plow through with bulky offense and hyper offense and even if you did, baiting like that just again falls into RPS.
Did you forget how Scarlet and Violet has already passed 1000 monsters and they made many of the newer ones unique with more signature moves and signature Abilities? Not to mention there are a ton of ROM hacks out there that rebalance the game to make monsters more unique and far less trash thanks to fans and their efforts that actually care about the game. It CAN be done. They just don't care.