Why do pre-made decks and random promos come in that shattered glass holo form now? It's awful. It's like saying "Oh...you just bought this so it's not as cool as pulling it." Not to mention they're ugly. Man, sometimes I wish the people who are behind this game would go back to the roots of the older sets.
Well, I personally really like the shattered glass effect on holos, it's much better than the BW and EP standard holos, which look horrible imo compared to the Japanese versions. I wish they would go back to the holos of HGSS sets, as they were quite nice.
I hate the B&W series holos as well. You can't top the traditional holo form...I don't know why they changed it. Not only is it boring, but they make the holos even MORE plain by rarely having any scenery in the image to speak of. B&W holos are pretty bleh.
There seems to be a trend towards more 'stock art' with static, unimaginative backgrounds in the game. It's improved with EP a little bit, but still a far cry from the nice-looking holo art from before. I actually prefer to get reverse holos for the holos in EP, just for the fact that they look much better.
I really like the holo effect they use on the promo cards, as it is similar to what they used in the original base set. I hope they think to use this in the future
I loved all the Ken Sugimori and Kent Kanesuna (butchered that probably) artwork from early DP sets like MT. Some of my favorite cards are from that set.
i dont necessarily mind the shatter holo. it isnt the greatest but neither are the BW regular holos. you stated that you liked the ones from earlier sets and how you didnt like how there was any scenery in the new ones. that sort of contradicts itself, look at clefairy from base set or chansy haha thats probably the most basic looking boring card ever.
None of the BW base set holos utilized "stock art" since none of them were illustrated by Ken Sugimori... but, yeah, 5ban Graphics's backgrounds are pretty underwhelming and just make the bad BW English holo patterns look even worse, IMO. :/
Speaking of shattered glass holo's (I LURVE THEM). I got a 2 Blastoise blisters. 1 was full awesome shattered glass and one only some parts of it would gleam in the light...very strange. If you don't turn it in the light it looks like a regular just UL Blastoise...
I personally love the shattered glass holo's. It's different from the boring holo's we have now. Your telling me you would want a Reshiram just standing there with weird holo behind it than have a better looking and vibrant card?
I personally love the shattered glass holo's. It's different from the boring holo's we have now. Your telling me you would want a Reshiram just standing there with weird holo behind it than have a better looking and vibrant card?
Really, the problem with the english variants is that the refraction isn't the greatest. Case in point:
I personally think it's brilliant they've gone and made a change. Galaxy was good but has been run since day 1 in Japan, and from Team Rocket until Platinum with the US. The US then swapped to a variant from Platinum which was more a Dust and Speckles holo which wasn't anywhere near as vibrant and often you had to flex the card unhealthily for it to really show up:
The Japanese ones have a higher refraction point, basically meaning they actually look really good in most-to-all lights and they compliment the card art nicely.
I don't have a photo but the shattered holo on the Japanese versions is very subdued... due to the fact that it has a glossy holo which means the entire card has a beautiful rainbow shard effect overlaid on it. They also covered the entire card instead of the illustration window.
In the end it's different strokes for different folks, but if it's what they're using it's what they're using. Bless them for trying to be like the JP releases with interesting holos, but it's poorly executed. I guess the tl;dr of this is don't buy the decks. Seriously, that's the only major place they're using that holo right now in the US, and it's totally avoidable unless you're a 100% collector.
I honestly would pay the extra dollar or maybe even 2 if they could make US's cards the same quality as the Japanese cards. They honestly look like garbage after going to worlds and seeing so many Japanese cards.
I honestly would pay the extra dollar or maybe even 2 if they could make US's cards the same quality as the Japanese cards. They honestly look like garbage after going to worlds and seeing so many Japanese cards.
Because we don't want to play with crud? It gives the English production lines bad names when their Holos come out all curved. Players have the most at stake there when we're forced to play with proxies instead of our holos. Besides, why not have them look the very best they can? Sure, it may be an aesthetic issue going on here, but compared to the Japanese cards, the quality is severely lower. Players and collectors don't deserve that.
At least you can't get disqualified for stacking if it was their own fault. If you don't like it, then send in a complaint. That's what I'd do if it honestly meant that much to me.
Players have the most at stake there when we're forced to play with proxies instead of our holos.
...because they'd be more expensive if made with better quality materials and effects?
Sure, it may be an aesthetic issue going on here, but compared to the Japanese cards, the quality is severely lower. Players and collectors don't deserve that.
I have no doubt some people wouldn't mind paying a little bit more. We've already seen some views in this thread with that.
I know for a fact some people have already complained and I'm glad to see Emerging Powers has definitely increased in previous quality and less issues have arose. I don't believe those people who did complain saw any other return from that, so point is moot.
Personally, I actually like the holo style from Base through Rocket the best. Rocket starts going towards the style they have now, but it still isn't quite the same. Then again, I like everything about them better from an aesthetic point of view, from the layout of the card to the actual picture. Then again, that might be partly sentimental as well. The backgrounds of the pictures (which were never really based around an actual setting, but rather the pokemon's behaviors, actions and/or typing) really popped with the card when holo and it made pulling holos really cool. Even then, though, the Japanese cards still looked better. Now, with the reverse holos being printed on everything it kind of takes away from the holo idea in general. "Oh cool, I pulled a holo! Oh, nevermind, it's just another holo caterpie." They took away the specialness from holo cards, and to be honest, I don't play with holos at all anymore, they look stupid now they just curve horribly and stack your deck. If you can't sleeve them almost immediately they almost lose all play value imo. I just down-trade everything I get for the same exact card, plus 1-2 dollars of something else.
As for shattered glass holos, I don't mind them one way or the other anyway more than regular holos/reverse holos, but I think the FA shattered glass style like the virizion posted a few posts above mine looks descent. If you could see it in real life and could see the shimmer effect I think it would actually look really cool.
Overall, the card quality in general has gone down considerably when you look at what it was in the past (not just the 1st few sets I like best) and what it is now. Primes and legends had beautiful artwork, but that's about it. Even the new reverse holo with the type embedded in it look bad imo, although it's a step in the right direction I guess. Cards should just focus on the pokemon themselves imo, and have less to do with the background.
And yes, I know the earlier sets had them just standing around in some cards, but it was the very beginning, cut them some slack.
edit: typo. fat fingers :|
Time for some scans!
Probably one of my (if not my) favorite holos from base set. You can hardly tell it in the picture, but he has extra sets of arms on both sides and when you flip the card around you see them go up and down. I miss stuff like this, where the creators/artists obviously put time into designing the cards to make them look special.
And everything wasn't always holo, which seperated them a bit. Ninetails has holographic fire behind it, and Jolteon has tiny holographic lightning coming from it's body (you can't see it in the scan), along with the bigger lightning.
There are more eyes you can't see in the scan of Hypno. Finally, there were some 'plain' holo, where everything was holo, like the Dragonite.
