Wesker's Report — Vaporeon

Vaporeon

"Oh hay thar Corphish!" "Yo (H)"

by KingK.Rool

Ah, so I get the honor of reviewing the first Eeveelution posted (despite MasterWarlord snatching up two unrequested reviews for Leafeon and Umbreon). But who cares right? The Eeveelutions are all about choice and, in every Pokemon game I’ve been given said choice, I’ve always chosen Vaporeon as my final decision. What can I say? There’s something just awesome about this loveable Eeveelution…let’s see if you captured it well in your moveset, shall we?

We’ll start off like my last review did with ORGANIZATION. Here’s something you’ve always shined at really and Vaporeon is no exception to this. While not over the top (like Ekans) or particularly flashy like some of your other sets, Vaporeon is all about readability. The simple layout, the order of the moves, all of it just breathes readability. The cool, almost refreshing aqua and seafoam green make the text here easy to see and understand as well as making it just generally look nice. Not only this but you’ve done a nice job of highlighting the key points of some attacks with another smooth color that, at a glance, blends in perfectly with the rest of the font but, upon closer reading, is actually quite easy to see as well. The only problem with this highlighting here however is that there’s quite a few moves that just have nothing. The down special for instance has what he looks like while dissolving yet a majority of the aerials have no notes highlighted at all.

Also as a random note, I’ve always found your sets incredibly easy to digest. Despite using some rather…unorthodox words at times (mewls, bauble, etc.) but not once does it feel forced like it would with many others (many of whom would be guilty of having their thesaurus nearby…). Not so much a commentary on Vaporeon as much as a commentary on your writing style in general, regardless, I approve of such vocabulary showboating. ;D

Should I really have expected a K.Rool set to have poor organization though? Silly me. Anyway, let’s continue on to the ever-important factor of ORIGINALITY. So what do we have with Vaporeon? A lot of water moves, that’s for sure (despite Vaporeon only being able to learn five Water type attacks in Gen. 1, trufax). So…where’s the Pokemon Syndrome here?! Gasp I…I believe everything here is fitting in character! Yes, you certainly did a good job of avoiding the whole “I have one move left to do, what’s a random move that I could slot in there?” effect many seem to have with Pokemon sets (yours truly included). So again, kudos on avoiding the deathly Pokemon Syndrome here (except maybe the Up Aerial but we -ALL- know how those can be ghastly to deal with…).

So what do we have in terms of originality here? We have a Pokemon that revolves around puddles…this reminds me very much of Hyatt…except Vaporeon isn’t coughing up blood puddles for the opponents to slip in thankfully (and he’s not causing dead birds to rain from the sky with them either…). So we have both the Up Special and Down Special that most notably work with the puddles, the former working to cloak him and aid with his recovery while the latter lets Vaporeon lurk stealthily beneath the water and surprise his foes (and you said you rewatched Jaws -AFTER- this, correct?). Then again, if I spent all night analyzing how many moves work in tandem with another move I’d be here for quite a while. Simply put, Vaporeon has a LOT of options for how to make his puddles and a LOT more with what to do with them.

Moving right a long to the magical land of DETAIL…this set is short. Really short. Is this a bad thing? No, of course not, made reading it even easier that it already would be from the organization. Basically the approach you took here is crystal clear; just enough detail to get it well into your head what the heck is going on with the move. While most of the moves are appropriately detailed (aka: you have knockback, damage percents, range on most of them) rarely do you mention priority on the moves. Some of the attacks are so underdetailed, it’s unclear what they actually do even; Aqua Jet for instance actually has the priority…but it has no damage percents and no knockback. Also, there’s no charged percents for any of the smashes or any real differences between charged and uncharged (except the down smash but that’s only for before the attack even begins really). So detail summed up; it’s there, mostly, but you’re missing a few key parts here and there.

BALANCE; the bane of Rool’s existance…I won’t be too hard her considering I know your stance on balance well. Nothing jumps out at me as painfully unbalanced or broken…my only concern is that there’s no mention anywhere (that I read at least…) of how many puddles can be out at once. I know they only last thirteen seconds each, but if Vaporeon can just keep creating them then hiding in them you could easily have a broken character here simply by being able to stall indefinitely. So maybe just clear that up; besides that, Vaporeon seems pretty well-balanced to me; good job there! And since there’s nowhere else to really put this; Vaporeon will trip, tripping (unfortunately) exists regardless of whether or not we want it to. Also one more thing; Vaporeon’s attack speed stat seems surprisingly low considering none of his attacks seem outlandishly slow (seriously, with a 4 it makes it seem like he’s Bowser front smashing everyone).

I’ll go into a quick RELEVANCE TO CHARACTER segment here just because I love Vaporeon. First of all; all of the attacks are incredibly fitting. Second of all, I must apologize for doubting you. When I first read the stats I was wondering why you made him a heavy-weight; then I went to check out trusty Bulbapedia to discover that Vaporeon is, surprisingly, the heaviest of the Eeveelutions. You taught me something I didn’t know about one of my favorite Water types (clap).

PLAYSTYLE! Sounds like Yaystyle cause we all love it, right? RIGHT? Okay, that was lame admittedly (it’s 3:05am, I’m a tad loopy, apologies) so let’s carry on. Overall playstyle seems to be this.

Make puddles.

2. Hide in puddles.

3. ?????

4. Profit!

While that may be a tad simple, it’s essentially what Vaporeon’s plan is; you harass your opponent, return to your puddle, mindgame them a bit, rack up some more damage and then go for the kill. Short, simple, straight the the point. I like it.

EXTRAS….ahaha no.

OVERALL, I -REALLY- liked this set. While most people seem to be going nuts over Espeon (who I personally didn’t like much…) and Umbreon, Vaporeon (just like in the Pokemon games) is my choice for one of, if not the strongest Eeveelutions you made. I’d easily put him up past all of them except maybe Umbreon. Many may disregard Vaporeon because he isn’t as flashy as the others or he doesn’t have some kind of wacky mechanic to really set him apart, but really, I like that most about him. I love how simple Vaporeon is and I love how…well, I love how Vaporeon this set is.

I will stand by my verdict that Vaporeon is my favorite of your Eeveelutions and will remain unchanged on this opinion regardless of what the others say. Vaporeon may have been your first one done/out, but it’s certainly not a case of first is the worst…on the contrary…on the contrary…

~MT