How did Japanese children, with no way to run calcs and no knowledge of the existence of BSTs and other internal systems, figure out what the best Pokemon and strategies were for the first-ever tournament?
>>58760063They quite literally didn't and only very few kids used more than just two braincells to actually team building
Good old trial and error.
>>58760063Probably autists whose first instinct was to raise every pokemon and were able to identify which ones performed consistently or were just really good in some way
>>58760063It's not that hard to look at the mons you already have around a certain level, determine which ones have the best overall stats, and then just go with those for a tournament. Like that's just straightforward.I'm sure that's not the only thing people did then, like there must be plenty of smarter/more strategic options, but I think just checking the stats of what you already have seems like an obvious Step 1.
>>58760065Most of them were using the same mons that are considered OU today, they use mons casuals wouldn't touch like the trade-only Jynx and knew things the average casual don't such as starters being competitively shit even though their starters had to be their strongest mons at the time, so it was more than just a few kids who figured out things still relevant to this day
I remember the old strategy guides telling you about such things
>>58760063Just raise every Pokemon to the same level and then compare stats easy.Natures didn't even exist back then and it would be easy to figure out there was at least some hidden mechanics influencing stats but nobody was tryharding IVs and EVs back then.It's also intuitive even now. You can just tell from looking at them that Tauros would have high atk and Starmie would have high special
I believe the first day of Nintendo Cup was June 14 97.Nintendo's guide for RGB was first published Jan 97. It includes a movedex detailing secondary effects, and lists base stats for every species. It doesn't detail level up moves, it only lists the levels when new moves are learned. It only catalogues visible overworld items, not the invisible ones. Just a vague reminder that invisible items might be found in underground passages.Enix's RGB Pokedex was first published February 97 and lists every level up move, as well as base stats for Mew. In November 97 they published a dedicated Movedex that details every move's effects with a complete table for species that learn by level up and TM. There were also lots of unofficial guides at the time, so there were plenty of resources readily available. The early strategies that saw heavy use were easy to intuit. It was obvious that freeze was broken, and even without hard date, Blizzard's higher % chance of freezing was the kind of thing you could intuit on vibes alone. Even if a player assumed it had the same chance as Ice Beam, most were comfortable trading accuracy for base power. Critical hits and OHKOs being tied to speed were also easy to intuit. In the 97 cup Electrode and Tauros both rose to the top quickly. Persian saw a lot of early use by American players for the same reason, you didn't need to datamine the game to realize it was hitting crits 100% of the time
>>58760317>t doesn't detail level up moves, it only lists the levels when new moves are learnedScrap that, I only now realized the level up moves are listed in Nintendo's guide. You just have to refer back to the move appendix. But that just furthers the point that all this info was officially published and accessible prior to Nintendo Cup 97.
>>58760317Thank you for the deep dive analysis anon. I only checked the Zukan guide from '96 via archive.org which only had movesets but no base stats. Now I'm curious if there are any records of unofficial tournaments before '97, before these stats were published.Btw are those your own copies of the sacred texts?
>>58760345Yep. I don't have any GB books from 96, but I have some more general/TCG focused books from the era, as well as some GS material
>>58760360Cool collection anon, hope you can get the rest before they become scalpbait. Sometimes I wish I could understand Japanese and temporarily forget everything I know about Pokemon so I could play Red/Green with a fresh mind and see how much metagame knowledge I can intuit out of that experience.
>>58760345>>58760360some more goodies I have on hand. ShoPro published "Pikachu Always With Me" from late 98 is a treasure trove of early JP merch. Cat for scale
>>58760377I don't need all the rectangles on my shelf, I just like having access to reference material. Been meaning to scan and share all this stuff. Backlog woes. Who needs 1st edition Charizard when you can corner the market and control the supply of vintage Japanese Pikachu toothbrushes.
>>58760386It's always funny to me how a surprising number of merch manufacturers back then mistook the lighting on Pikachu's RG Sugimori art as it having a white mouth.
>>58760063Japanese children know how to read
>>58760063>>58760223outside of the strategy books people are posting, it all came from the people who lived and breathed Pokémon being surrounded by large friend groups who also lived and breathed Pokémon. Their time spent theorizing was shortened and made more efficient because it was constantly sandwiches between observational data and everybody trying to be top dog so trial and errors and upsets were greatly accelerated. If a kid came in and fucked things up with Jynx, syddenly everybody is bringing in a Jynx alongside potential Jyynx counters the next day
>>58760386I'm not Japanese so why does this make me so nostalgic?
>>58760388I don't think they mistook it for a white patch, otherwise you'd see plush and print merch with the same quirk. More an issue of cheap mass produced product attempting to replicate subtle water colour effects. Even Tomy didn't nail the look for every single figure. It seems like the style guide shifted away from Sugi to the OEM anime style by 98, although a bunch of the toys rebadged by Hasbro and sold stateside came from that pre-anime/early anime period.
>>58760427memories of a time when mass market Pokemon merch was whimsical and weird and wasn't limited to 6 product categories that all use the same stock art assets. Back when there were 100 licensees all selling Pokemon junk. Now it's a few master licensees selling junk and a dozen luxury brands Memories of a time when you could buy a Pokemon desk for your square backpack yellow helmet wearing schoolboy. We've lost our way.
>>58760446Merch featuring the anime art (now Dream World art) always felt cheap and soulless to meWish there were more merch based on (old) Sugimori art
>>58760466Yeah, and it didn't help that early anime stock art was plastered on all English merch. There are some great pieces and merch done by OEM artists, but barely any of it left Japan. There are dozens of these fantastic pieces that were sold as posters, file folders, note books etc. Some are surprisingly off model, but in a refreshing way. You would never see stuff like this made today
>>58760484OLM* fucking autocorrect
