(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Codraroll]

Here's one that bothers me a lot: Game Freak (or maybe Nintendo in general) are really not that great at communicating with their fans, especially not their international ones. CoroCoro is a terrible way to distribute news, doubly so when the news have worldwide relevance (such as announcing new Pokémon or game features).

In an age where dev blogs can be found for pretty much every major game out there, and every studio worth their salt has a tumblr, social media presence or forums of their own, worldwide fans of the Pokémon games - the second best-selling franchise in the history of gaming, mind you - have to wait for some pirate to upload photographs of a Japan-exclusive glossy magazine for regular news. Unveiling stuff via magazines might have been fan-friendly and convenient in the eighties, but with such a worldwide audience, and considering the general shift in marketing trends in recent years, it's really archaic nowadays. Pokémon Sun and Moon might be among the best-selling handheld games in history, yet their early marketing is worse than that of a new roller coaster at a mid-size amusement park. The fact that the games have an audience outside of Japan at all seems to be considered an afterthought, since exclusivity for the domestic market is given such a high priority (it seems like a good two-thirds of all event Pokémon distributions take place in Japan) and they're usually told minor news well in advance of the rest of the world, despite there being an even larger international audience paying just as close attention to the Japanese info channels as the Japanese themselves are. We're impatiently waiting for CoroCoro every month, and the payoff is usually minor news of the kind that other game studios would distribute on their blogs.

By the time news hit the Internet in English, most people who care about them have known them for days already since we pick up the Japanese chatter. The only reasons anybody ever wait for English news is if translations are unclear (a steadily less frequent phenomenon since many Japanese fans also contribute to English-language fan sites nowadays), or in the case of Pokémon names.

OK, so Japan is Nintendo's and Game Freak's home market (and possibly biggest single market too). Well, the Japanese still use the Internet. Why use a magazine as the primary news source at all? CoroCoro is notorious for leaking early, to the degree that new issues are anticipated on the 11th every month rather than the 15th. That means there's very little official control of when news actually hit the Internet. The cat is let out of the bag early every single time, yet they keep insisting on only acknowledging news on the 15th with CoroCoro's official release. The system is so broken we've come to accept the flaws as a feature.

Mojang don't regulaly announce new Minecraft features on SVT1 kids shows three days before they put them on their website. You don't see Kerbal Space Program news in El Universal a week ahead of the Internet dev blogs. If new Angry Birds expansions are in development, you won't see the new design concepts revealed exclusively in Helsingin Sanomat. If that ever was the case, the news would spread worldwide within the hour, and the studios would never ever even try to pretend that their news are world exclusive when they repeated them online several days later. And they certainly wouldn't keep insisting to primarily use domestic channels when marketing worldwide news, and refusing to acknowledge them despite fans all over the world having known for days.


Yet Game Freak? Volcanion is hacked out of the game files within a month of XY's release, a week later every Pokémon fan in existence knows its name, typing, ability and design, yet the glossy-paper, Japan-only kids magazine insists they're revealing breaking news when they pretend it's a never-seen-before Pokémon... more than two years later. That's not just bad marketing, that's The Emperor's New Clothes style marketing. It's not even slow news, it's pretend news.

Big fail, Game Freak. Big, big fail. Thank Pete they've stopped revealing new games through CoroCoro, at least.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Hmm, now that GF have added the Ability to patch games, I wonder if its possible they can just patch in Event Pokemon without them being in the game first. Or if they do, at the very least only have the model but keep everything else about it empty and then have a patch which add its Type, Ability, Stats, Movepool, etc.. At least that way they can drum up some excitement when they reveal info about these Pokemon since we wouldn't know. Though of course we'll still have the issue of the Pokemon being released in Japan months before everywhere else.

Of course this really has nothing to do with the problem Codraroll talked about. Heck, as he pointed out even CoroCoro isn't giving any major game news anymore so maybe TPC/GF realized that, though they still want to give the magazine something, it's not really major. Upcoming anime stuff, new movie, info on the upcoming Event, pretty much stuff Japan is going to be getting months before the international audience. Then when they are releasing new game news they may also throw them a few new Pokemon, characters, and/or features (though said news will be put on the official website in a few days so it only exclusive for a while and the stuff put on the website might have more indepth information and pictures). Anyway the new norm for major game news seems to be through Nintendo Directs, either the general or its own personal direct (so far I think Pokemon is the only franchise that has had its own personal Directs). Still, lately TPC/GF don't seem so good communicating with fans, at least at the beginning when they reveal there's a new game. Like XY started out with showing a trailer! But than ORAS only had a title announcement, images of the Primals, and then that lackluster "sneak peek" trailer. And now we just have the titles. Now when they do start releasing news that's when the ball gets rolling, but before then in recent times it feels like they have nothing to show and just started making the games.

 

[Karxrida]

Awhile back we had this conversation about patching in Mons over on the TV Tropes forums, and somebody pointed out that it's not feasible due to how their data is stored. Apparently they all share a single file or something, so if Game Freak wanted to add anything new it would force players to redownload the entire thing (and it's like a 1 gigabyte?).

 

[Pikachu315111]

Awhile back we have this conversation about patching in Mons over on the TV Tropes forums, and somebody pointed out that it's not feasible due to how their data is stored. Apparently they all share a single file or something, so if Game Freak wanted to add anything new it would force players to redownload the entire thing (and it's like a 1 gigabyte?).

Figured it would be something like that. Would my second idea be possible then?

To be more detailed about it; they'd reserve the spots for them in the Pokedex, have their models in the game, and also their Signature Moves and/or Abilities if they have them. However everything else will be placeholder data. They won't have a name (or its name are question marks or a placeholder), Type will be Normal, Ability will be Pressure (generic Legendary Ability), base stats would all be set to 1, only move will be Splash learning no other moves through level up or TM, and have a blank/placeholder Dex description (and I'm sure other stuff I missed). The same for the Signature Moves and/or Abilities; they'll either have no name/question marks/placeholder name and no description, and the moves will be Normal-type (though otherwise they'd work as intended, though if they can have the moves not work until patched that would be suggestable). Then when it comes time to release it they make a patch (and remember, you need to have all patches to access online/Wifi) which edits the planned Event Pokemon with its proper name, Type, Ability, Base Stats, Movepool, Dex Description, etc. as well as doing the same for its Signature Move and/or Ability (give it its proper name, description, Type if its a Move, and activating it if they were able to have it not work). From how I'm imagining it that should work.

 

[TheRationalDove]

Yeah, I have to agree with the above comment about the CoroCoro leaks. I think having better International presswould be really appreciated for those of us outside of Japan and in a way that's not reliant on leaked images. Nintendo is very capable of doing good press, too. The trailers leading up to Smash 4's release were very good at revealing info in an exciting way while also allowing people all over to get the news. The direct videos are also great ways of informing us consumers about these upcoming releases/DLC. Things like that.

 

[Lady Vader]

While I agree about CoroCoro, I don't think that the event Pokémon should be patched it at all. See, I kinda like this odd quirk. There will be those who never notice the new Pokémon until it is released and then there are those who know about it in advance. It gives us something to look forward to. I enjoy that.

 

[Codraroll]

Hmm, now that GF have added the Ability to patch games, I wonder if its possible they can just patch in Event Pokemon without them being in the game first. Or if they do, at the very least only have the model but keep everything else about it empty and then have a patch which add its Type, Ability, Stats, Movepool, etc.. At least that way they can drum up some excitement when they reveal info about these Pokemon since we wouldn't know. Though of course we'll still have the issue of the Pokemon being released in Japan months before everywhere else.

I'm totally expecting them to do this at some point, but as said above the data structure of the 3DS makes that impractical as of now. It seems like they want to pretend the event legendaries are entirely new Pokémon whenever revealed, so storing them on the cart without accessibility isn't a very practical way to distribute them. Having them fully excluded from the games until it's time to reveal them seems like the ideal way to do it, but that's a move that will have to be planned in advance. Interestingly enough, making the game so it'll accept entirely new Pokémon inserted into it (a requirement for patching in Pokémon without any of their info being stored in the game beforehand) would theoretically allow fans to create and distribute Pokémon of their own, modding the game in ways that weren't ever intended by the designers.

Of course this really has nothing to do with the problem Codraroll talked about. Heck, as he pointed out even CoroCoro isn't giving any major game news anymore so maybe TPC/GF realized that, though they still want to give the magazine something, it's not really major. Upcoming anime stuff, new movie, info on the upcoming Event, pretty much stuff Japan is going to be getting months before the international audience. Then when they are releasing new game news they may also throw them a few new Pokemon, characters, and/or features (though said news will be put on the official website in a few days so it only exclusive for a while and the stuff put on the website might have more indepth information and pictures). Anyway the new norm for major game news seems to be through Nintendo Directs, either the general or its own personal direct (so far I think Pokemon is the only franchise that has had its own personal Directs). Still, lately TPC/GF don't seem so good communicating with fans, at least at the beginning when they reveal there's a new game. Like XY started out with showing a trailer! But than ORAS only had a title announcement, images of the Primals, and then that lackluster "sneak peek" trailer. And now we just have the titles. Now when they do start releasing news that's when the ball gets rolling, but before then in recent times it feels like they have nothing to show and just started making the games.

I appreciate that they've taken major news to the international audience, but the fans still follow minor news very closely too. Revealing new Pokémon is BIG stuff for everyone. If news are dropped in Japan, they'll find their ways to the rest of the world within minutes. There are relatively few Pokémon fans out there that don't follow the fan sites, and it's practically unheard of for anybody to follow official sites without following fan sites too. The Pokémon games have been all about building a community, since day one, where people all over the world trade, battle and talk about Pokémon. Yet Nintendo seems adamant to drop certain news in Japan days in advance of doing so worldwide. What's the point? Every fan that pays any attention will know the news from community translation of the Japanese news. When the official Pokémon sites drop the news later, everybody who read them will know already. Conversely, if a fan missed the announcement of Frogadier, Braixen and Quilladin in CoroCoro, he/she probably didn't see the official news sites revealing them either.

OK, I know they've taken to updating their international sites on the days of CoroCoro's release lately. New Pokémon are usually revealed worldwide online if they're in CoroCoro, on the same day CoroCoro hits the shelves. But that brings us back to CoroCoro being a terrible place to distribute news, since it notoriously leaks several days in advance. Sure as sunrise, CoroCoro's relevant contents will be known well before the official release date, spilling the beans ahead of time. Again and again. Yet they seem to be completely unwilling to do anything about it.

"But CRoll, the point is to give CoroCoro exclusivity!" I can hear you cry. That's the deal, the magazine gets to be first on the ball for small news. Anything wrong with that? Yes. Since the news will be dropped online as soon as the magazine is in stores, even in a leak-free world CoroCoro would only feature "exclusive" news for a few minutes. If you hesitate to buy it for an hour or so, you'll find the same news online for free. That deal doesn't give CoroCoro much of a selling point. Why insist on keeping the "CoroCoro first" rule when the news will go online as soon as the magazine is available for purchase anyway?

As such, the current news cycle is completely idiotic: News are sent to CoroCoro for printing, while a website is being prepared, featuring the same news in several languages. CoroCoro is printed. Fans get their hands on early copies, usually on the 11th each month, take pictures of them and upload to the Internet. Pokémon fans all over the world get their news from the fan sites, or friends who follow them. They're spread across social media, discussed widely in forums, and by sunset on the 12th there's hardly a Pokémon fan out there who doesn't know the news. Nintendo keeps quiet. The 13th day of the month, discussions have mostly settled, pictures are being analyzed in detail, text is being translated accurately, perhaps even clearer CoroCoro scans come in. On the 14th, CoroCoro's contents are old news already. On the 15th, Nintendo/TPCi finally opens their mouth, shouting "HEY GUYS! WE HAVE EXCITING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS FOR YOU! YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE!" The whole world knows it to be a lie, the official sites rarely offer anything that hasn't been known for days already. The entire fan base treat the official statements as an afterthought, which are only useful or exciting if they're clarifying or translating things that couldn't be known for certain from CoroCoro's analysis. By the time pokemon.com says anything, the festival is already over.

Doesn't TPCi see how completely broken this is? Worse still, it's been the norm for years. It makes them seem completely oblivious to the modern world, blind to the reality that their statements always come awfully late and are never paid attention to, largely thanks to a system they themselves insist on keeping. I don't know any other game company that keeps doing it like this. Everybody else have long since faced reality and moved into the current century, announcing their stuff in an orderly fashion so that people will pay more attention to the official news than the fan sites.

 

[Kurona]

So ORAS comes out. It has no Battle Frontier with only a copy-paste of XY's meager Battle Maison.
People get mad over this; over ORAS not having a full Battle Frontier like in Emerald. Some of us, however, are calmed by the fact that they save all the big things like this until the end of the Generation and so we might get it in Z.
Cue Pokémon Direct.
We're getting a new generation. With no Z in-between.
What's their excuse for leaving out the Battle Frontier.

 

[Death Phenomeno]

It makes them seem completely oblivious to the modern world, (…) largely thanks to a system they themselves insist on keeping. I don't know any other game company that keeps doing it like this. Everybody else have long since faced reality and moved into the current century (…)

I'm aware I'm taking this way out of context. But it made me remember the whole Dream World fiasco, when they were surprised that so many users were trying to access the service at the same time, and it made their servers crash.

Around 3 years later, PokéBank was launched and the exact same thing happened! Remember all the memes?

Sometimes, I wonder if they even know the size of the fanbase, despite having actual sales figures.

 

[Codraroll]

What's their excuse for leaving out the Battle Frontier.

I recall the excuse was actually posted here once, quoting an interview. If I recall correctly, they said something along the lines of "Most people nowadays move on to a different game after they've beat the main story. If we made a Battle Frontier, not many people would get to enjoy all it had to offer, they'd quit playing before exploring it all, so we decided not to spend the development time."

In a sense, I can see where they are coming from. I mean, how many people actually manage to collect the trophies from every battle facility out there? I consider myself a quite active fan, yet I haven't got a single trophy in XY or ORAS, and I think the last time I managed to beat a Facility boss was in HGSS' Battle Frontier. For every player who takes the time to defeat the bosses, there are easily a hundred that don't. Going toe-to-toe with the ruthless "one strike, you're out" mentality of the Battle Whatever, in addition to the sudden leap in the foe's Pokémon/moveset competence, is a very very large step up in difficulty compared to anything the game throws at you during the main story. Any casual player can beat the Elite Four, but taking on the Maison requires you to go relatively hardcore in terms of skill and patience.

That being said, BW2 managed to have an extensive post game without focusing on a Frontier-like setup, so I don't think the main problem with Gen VI is the lack of a Battle Frontier: It's that they didn't even bother to put a non-Frontier battle facility into ORAS. Black Skyscraper/White Treehollow were less ruthless battle facilities, with an actual end to strive for and a worthwhile reward if you got there. Join Avenue encouraged you to play every day, to reap the benefits and bountiful loot of levelled-up shops (although we did get a lesser version of this with the Secret Base pals). PokéStar Studios gave you a film career, tedious as it may have been. There was also the PWT, and BW1's Battle Subway for good measure. Game Freak have shown that they can make an excellent post-game if they try. The lack of a Battle Frontier doesn't bother me as much as it does others, but I'm annoyed that they didn't even try to give it a worthy replacement.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Looking through Key Items, I found an item that's disappointing they didn't include in ORAS: the GB Sounds. Well, it'll probably be renamed the GBA Sounds, but still it would have been nice to hear the original GBA music like we were able to do with the original GB music in HGSS.

 

[Gabe]

The lack of a Battle Frontier doesn't bother me as much as it does others, but I'm annoyed that they didn't even try to give it a worthy replacement.

What bothers me is why even mention it? If you're done with a feature and have no future plans for it why mention it at all?

 

[nameless90]

I really dislike the fact that some key items (such as the Old Rod and the Good Rod) becomes obsolete really fast (see the Super Rod). I think that some in other games (i.e. in The Legend of Zelda, but not always) a basic item is upgraded without taking another slot in the inventory.
I don't understand how a bag can store so many items between the bicycle (or even two in ORAS!), the HMs, MTs, berries, basic items and so on only in a bag! Do we have Mary Poppins' bag, maybe?

Another thing: I don't really like the split between the Acro bike and the Mach bike. Ok, you can get both, but why a basic bike is not upgraded later in the game in order to do both things? Too simple, maybe?

 

[TheRationalDove]

I think the Mach and Acro bike is meant to be a risk vs reward mechanic. It was a way to make player choose how they wanted to play without just having everything from the getgo. Whether it works isn't really something I think I can andwer. I personally never minded having to switch, but I can see how others may not be pleased. I think the idea of having your fishing rod updated would be a good idea, but I will also point out that the Old and Good Robs don't become obsolete if there are certain Pokemin that you want to catch. For example, Marikarps are ususally only availible via Old or Good fishing rod. Also, if you wanna do traditional EV training with lower leveled Pokemon, having access to level 5 Magikarps may be beneficial.

 

[nameless90]

I think the Mach and Acro bike is meant to be a risk vs reward mechanic. It was a way to make player choose how they wanted to play without just having everything from the getgo. Whether it works isn't really something I think I can andwer. I personally never minded having to switch, but I can see how others may not be pleased.

I dislike the split between the two bikes because if you want to fully explore Hoenn in ORAS, both of them available at once are necessary. I don't like many HMs for this reason: in what circumstances do you use Cut, Sub or Rock Smash? But, even though you normally won't use them, you have to have them both in your team. For example to have both Surf (which is very good) + Sub (which isn't the greatest thing but is workable) I run Ludicolo + Swampert (which, luckily, I really like and I will play even without the utility to carry HMs), but if you run something else you are forced to have a "HMS Slave" or to drop a move in somebody's moveset. Cut is a lame HMs in a game where Strenght exists (and has a better base power) and Rock Smash is underwhelming even with STAB. If you want to add HMs which forced you to drop a moveslot, try to make them worthy of the pain to carry them.

I think the idea of having your fishing rod updated would be a good idea, but I will also point out that the Old and Good Robs don't become obsolete if there are certain Pokemin that you want to catch. For example, Marikarps are ususally only availible via Old or Good fishing rod. Also, if you wanna do traditional EV training with lower leveled Pokemon, having access to level 5 Magikarps may be beneficial.

This "problem" should be easily fixed: when you click the key item "Rod", the emulator will open 3 windows named "Old", "Good" or "Super mode"; then, click the option you prefer and start fishing with this setting until you want to change. ===> only one slot occupied, but you can use it in three different ways.
Sometimes, is easy to fix problems.

 

[The_Emperor]

In regards to what was said a few pages ago, I think all moves should become TMs.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I really dislike the fact that some key items (such as the Old Rod and the Good Rod) becomes obsolete really fast (see the Super Rod). I think that some in other games (i.e. in The Legend of Zelda, but not always) a basic item is upgraded without taking another slot in the inventory.
I don't understand how a bag can store so many items between the bicycle (or even two in ORAS!), the HMs, MTs, berries, basic items and so on only in a bag! Do we have Mary Poppins' bag, maybe?

Another thing: I don't really like the split between the Acro bike and the Mach bike. Ok, you can get both, but why a basic bike is not upgraded later in the game in order to do both things? Too simple, maybe?

Well technically the Old, Good, and Super Rod have different catch ratios, so if you wanted to catch a more common Pokemon you could use the Old or Good Rod instead of the Super. Of course that's just a technicality and even GF realized that as there's a reason in recent games we only get the Super Rod (which they might as well as rename as just "Fishing Rod" if they're not going to have any other kind).

I always imagined that the bag utilized Poke Ball storing technology and stored items as just energy or we could turn them into capsules like in DBZ (and before you mention it, the Pokeball overworld object is just a representation of their being an item there, it's not actually a Pokeball containing an item but rather an easy to spot visual cue for the player to know "yes, that's an item". What the character sees if either the actual item or maybe an item capsule as I just suggested).

It's odd that only Gen III and Gen IV experimented with Bikes and even then they both did different things. Gen III is the only gen with two bikes, one that went fast and another that was able to do tricks like wheelies and jumps. Gen IV have the normal bike two gears, third gear which had it act like a normal bike while fourth gear is faster (but less easy to control) and let you climb muddy slopes & jump further off ramps. Though you're right that it would have been nice in ORAS if they combined the two bikes into one and let us switch between the two like we were able to do in Gen IV.

FUN FACT: All Gen III games actually had all the bikes. RSE did have the normal Bicycle programmed in (probably was used to test the basic bike mechanic before they then decided to do the Acro & Mach Bike) and FRLG had both Acro and Mach Bike programmed in (since it was based off RSE), but they were inaccessible.

 

[JES]

I have a new one. Despite what I've heard, Synchronize doesn't do jack shit for event Pokémon you receive! Soft-resetting for Celebi should have been easy, but eventually, I got tired of only getting the right nature if it had IVs I didn't want, and settled with a Bold nature and 31 IVs in everything but Attack and Special Attack.

I agree with moves like Earthquake and Surf, but no so much Flamethrower (regular accuracy applies to perfect situations, evasion and accuracy changes aren't).

I disagree. Moves like Flamethrower and Ice Beam can just be used all over the field until it hits something. That's why it annoys me when moves like that miss. Just spray the whole damned battlefield!

 

[Slobroking]

HMs are the worst. I absolutely hate having to use a HM slave.

You should be able to perform Cut/Strength/etc as soon as you have those HMs in your bag and the required badge, without needing to teach those moves to your pokemon.

 

[Pikachu315111]

HMs are the worst. I absolutely hate having to use a HM slave.

You should be able to perform Cut/Strength/etc as soon as you have those HMs in your bag and the required badge, without needing to teach those moves to your pokemon.

Hmm, that's an idea, letting you use the move from the bag without permanently teaching it to your Pokemon. It would not only mean you won't need an HM slave (unless your party can't learn a certain TM you need to progress) but also doesn't require creation of a whole set of key items as many people think they should do. Expanding on that idea, maybe they could also allow other moves that are similar to the HM to do the same thing, like once you have the HM01 and the first Badge you can use Cut or maybe a version of the Slash moves to chop down shrubs.

 

[EJ190]

Starters being so obscenely elusive.
In any given Pokémon game, you tend to run into less than 5-7 trainers with the starters and it always bugs me.
Why don't more trainers have them?
Where does the regional professor get these mons from?
Why are we the only ones to receive these pokemon?
All these questions nag at me every time I play the games. And, I know the starters are there to encourage trading, but why doesn't GF create a post-game wild location for a few past gen starters...

 

[Hydrachomp]

Starters being so obscenely elusive.
In any given Pokémon game, you tend to run into less than 5-7 trainers with the starters and it always bugs me.
Why don't more trainers have them?
Where does the regional professor get these mons from?
Why are we the only ones to receive these pokemon?
All these questions nag at me every time I play the games. And, I know the starters are there to encourage trading, but why doesn't GF create a post-game wild location for a few past gen starters...

Well we have the Friend Safari for the Kanto and Kalos starters, but I certainly wouldn't mind walking into long grass and finding wild chickorita or snivy.

 

[EJ190]

Well we have the Friend Safari for the Kanto and Kalos starters, but I certainly wouldn't mind walking into long grass and finding wild chickorita or snivy.

Using a Friend safari to get a starter is no different than using WiFi or dream world or whatever.
It would be nice if there was a remote location in the region where, upon defeating a Pokemon breeder, you get a starter of your choice.

 

[Lady Vader]

Starters being so obscenely elusive.
In any given Pokémon game, you tend to run into less than 5-7 trainers with the starters and it always bugs me.
Why don't more trainers have them?
Where does the regional professor get these mons from?
Why are we the only ones to receive these pokemon?
All these questions nag at me every time I play the games. And, I know the starters are there to encourage trading, but why doesn't GF create a post-game wild location for a few past gen starters...

I would like to see more starters in random NPC teams. It would help to make the starters feel more of a part of the world.

 

[Antihaxxer]

Except in Platinum, did we fight trainers with starters except our rival ?