Regarding Pokémon XY and Z.

It seems I may have pulled the trigger a bit early in my previous post regarding Pokémon XYZ.

Not long after I made the post; the Japanese Pokémon YouTube channel leaked the first trailer; and there is a lot crammed into just 30 seconds of footage.

While I still don't have all that much information to go on; I'll just take what I can get at this early point.

As expected, more footage is shown of the other Zygarde forms; with the one that I spent hours trying to catch in my X and Y games now referred to as "50% Zygarde". The green blobs have now been unveiled as the previously-mentioned "Cell form" and the "Core form" I forgot to mention last time. There is also the dog-like "10% form" and the "Perfect Form" that resembles a mecha that could easily give Golurk a run for its money.

I must also note; with some dismay, that Team Flare and Alan are indeed making their way into the mainline series. I still think that Flare needs to be distinguished in some way from Team Rocket; otherwise their portrayal would be redundant apart from Lysandre or possibly Malva. Personally, I thought their game portrayal was a massive step backwards from Team Plasma in terms of motivation and threat level (spoiler alert! at least the "ancient WMD" subplot kicks in) and harmed a lot of X and Y's potential; great games as they were.

As for Alan: I've spoken at length how his primary reason for existing is to give someone like me someone to relate to as an older fan. The problem is I personally don't consider Alan to be a relatable character; I consider Ash to be one. Sorry, Kensho Ono and Johnathan Silver: your voice acting is terrible and I never wanted to have someone like Alan representing me as an older fan.

At best, provided Alan isn't to prideful to keep walking at the end of that trailer; I imagine their dynamic could be handled similarly to Ash's repartee with Paul, and to a lesser extent, Trip.

While little is still known at this time; I still think XYZ could be an overall interesting series, especially with it possibly teasing a new mainline game for the 20th anniversary of the franchise in 2016.

With this; I shall work on fine-tuning my notes for my final installment of Origins Month, and mull over some options for one more recap before I go back to school. While I will be busy; I still have Halloween-related material planned for October, including plenty of words for Yo-Kai Watch. As a closing statement; I shall simply state that you try this test: between the characters I mentioned in this post, who would you personally want to have a battle with? For that matter, who could you stand talking to for more than a minute? I will let you know any further developments as they come. Bang.