(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Pikachu315111

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Actually, here's an idea: if its forced at least make it your first capture:

1. You meet up with the one who teaches you it (they give you some Poke Balls).
2. They tell you that when walking in tall grass you can encounter wild Pokemon and ask you to do so.
3. You encounter the wild Pokemon and they tell you to first weaken the Pokemon with an attack (which would be the weak Normal-type move that won't knock out the wild Pokemon even if it gets a Critical).
4. Then they'll have you toss a Poke Ball to capture it (they can chea here by make it a 100%).

The Pokemon you encounter is random based on the encounters on Route 1/whatever the area the tutorial is being done (just for those Nuzlocke players). But either way you get "rewarded" in the end of it by catching your Pokemon.
 
It's only one minute. Go grab a glass of water or something if it's so annoying. If it's possible to skip, some five year old is going to skip it and end up on their third gym with only a Bulbasaur because they don't know how to catch Pokemon.
So? Let them. Offer an option to repeat it instead, and the problem is solved. Any five year old who still won't get it is simply too dumb for the game.
 
There are more several problems than a 1 min tutorial
May be so, but that doesn't mean it isn't a problem.

Play Breath of the Wild to see how tutorials are done right. There are actually plenty, but all of them are completely 100% optional - AND they can still be done later if the player feels like it.
 
Alternatively, a short bit of dialogue. Like you get the Poké Balls and the person who says them says "Weaken a Pokémon, and then throw a Poké Ball to capture it!" Succinct and easy.
 
Forced tutorials are terrible but Pokémon is hardly the worst offender.

Anyway, random things that came to my head playing AS and feeling cranky:

Teammates name retcon
Back in Gen 3 these girls were named Sr. and Jr. because one was more experienced than the other. That is represented in-game having one use a Pokémon with higher levels than the other's and usually be also evolved or just plain stronger. Now they are Teammates and it just doesn't make sense because teammates implies being on the same level. The only explanation I can think of is the Senior/Junior thing was too Japanese for their Japanese game made by Japanese people in Japan set in a Japanese region technically, but then they could've used "Teacher & Pupil" or something like that instead. Not a huge deal but rather unneeded.

You got anime in my video games!
The anime references in the games just keep getting worse and worse, what with Ash-Greninja, giving Pikachu its anime voice, the Spanish translation for XY outright referencing Ash Ketchum by name and many more. I get the anime is the main advertisment for the games, but that doesn't mean its many manga for example should get excluded from getting love. Same for the spinoffs, only Ranger get barely acknowledged and THAT was in the anime too. Really feels like the anime is this epic amazing thing that needs to be everywhere.

GameFreak used Recycle!
This is kinda silly maybe, but I don't like how Gen 7 reuses the exact same poses from Gen 6 down to the flying failures like Gliding Salamence and Rocket Xatu not being fixed. One of the charms of each new Generation was seeing a new sprite and pose, and while I can understand reciclying the models from Gen 6 leaving them all in the same pose just makes Gen 7 look like Gen 6.5 in that regard. Change a few at the least, add some new animations, the works.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Forced tutorials are terrible but Pokémon is hardly the worst offender.

Anyway, random things that came to my head playing AS and feeling cranky:

Teammates name retcon
Back in Gen 3 these girls were named Sr. and Jr. because one was more experienced than the other. That is represented in-game having one use a Pokémon with higher levels than the other's and usually be also evolved or just plain stronger. Now they are Teammates and it just doesn't make sense because teammates implies being on the same level. The only explanation I can think of is the Senior/Junior thing was too Japanese for their Japanese game made by Japanese people in Japan set in a Japanese region technically, but then they could've used "Teacher & Pupil" or something like that instead. Not a huge deal but rather unneeded.

You got anime in my video games!
The anime references in the games just keep getting worse and worse, what with Ash-Greninja, giving Pikachu its anime voice, the Spanish translation for XY outright referencing Ash Ketchum by name and many more. I get the anime is the main advertisment for the games, but that doesn't mean its many manga for example should get excluded from getting love. Same for the spinoffs, only Ranger get barely acknowledged and THAT was in the anime too. Really feels like the anime is this epic amazing thing that needs to be everywhere.

GameFreak used Recycle!
This is kinda silly maybe, but I don't like how Gen 7 reuses the exact same poses from Gen 6 down to the flying failures like Gliding Salamence and Rocket Xatu not being fixed. One of the charms of each new Generation was seeing a new sprite and pose, and while I can understand reciclying the models from Gen 6 leaving them all in the same pose just makes Gen 7 look like Gen 6.5 in that regard. Change a few at the least, add some new animations, the works.
Teammates: Oh, didn't realize they changed it. I still keep calling them Sr & Jr. Don't know why they changed it. If it was for localization reasons (even though it was already localized, their Japanese name is Senpai and Kohai; not too different from a concept of a senior and junior though context makes an important difference), there's a ton of words that could be used to better define their relationship. For Senior they could have gone with Tutor or Mentor (teacher makes the senior sound a bit too old) while Junior could have gone with Pupil, Novice, Undergrad, etc..

Anime References: Yeah, like there have been references to the anime before but it wasn't really anything direct like Ash-Greninja. I'm fine with concepts introduced in the anime being brought into the games... but I'd like to leave the characters separate.

Recycled Animation: That could partly be due to having to rush Sun & Moon out. Being how fast they're turning out USUM who knows if they'll edit any animations as well. Sadly, I think they may go with the motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Wish they would fix the doofier looking animations (especially for Flying-types since a lot were done because of Sky Battles which they decided was a lost cause), but if there's nothing wrong with it we might be stuck with them as they just get textures update.
 
Can't say I see the problem in Anime references myself considering even with Ash-Greninja they're still very minor. Hell, you can't even get Ash-Greninja with the main game alone.
 
Can't say I see the problem in Anime references myself considering even with Ash-Greninja they're still very minor. Hell, you can't even get Ash-Greninja with the main game alone.
There's also Ash-Pikachu and its many forms, plus one more for USUM sounds like. Anyway the thing is more the anime gets all these nods from the main games but the manga adaptations and the game spinoffs are almost never acknowledged. Makes it seem like the anime is just "better" than those.

Just make Articzapmolt usable. Sure it'll be most likely Normal/Flying and suck, but still!
 
Lets talk about Archeops.


As soon as Unova's pokedex was released, I instantly took a liking to our ancient friend. Carracosta was pretty cool I guess, but who cares about some turtle when you could have a Velociraptor?? It just has such a badass design. I remember walking all the way back to Nacrene City right after getting the Plume Fossil just so I could use this beast ASAP.

And its badassery doesn't end at its design. It has MONSTEROUS stats for a fossil pokemon. Boasting 140/112/110 offenses and a 567 BST, it rivals psudeo legendaries. Get Acrobatics+Eartquake+Rock slide and proceed to solo the game. All in all, the flying dino was set for greatness and fan-favouritsm, unfortunaltey...

...Where Archeops fails as a Pokemon is its god awful ability, Defeatist, condeming it into a life of mediocrity. An ability with absolutley no thematic relevance whatsoever and putting Archeops into Slaking and Regigigas territory. Two other great mons with huge potential, shafted by gimmicky, anti-fun abilities.

Regigigas, the master of the legendary golems, puller of continents. Some say he is still slowly lumbering out of the depths of PU to this day.

And to rub salt in Archeop's oh so deep wounds, GF comes out with this monstrosity...


Poor Archeops, his unfulfilled dreams of super stardom drove him absoultey bonkers. Barely able to keep afloat and legs hoplessly dangling around :(
 
As soon as Unova's pokedex was released, I instantly took a liking to our ancient friend. Carracosta was pretty cool I guess, but who cares about some turtle when you could have a Velociraptor?? It just has such a badass design. I remember walking all the way back to Nacrene City right after getting the Plume Fossil just so I could use this beast ASAP.
You know Archeops is probably based on a Microraptor and a Archaeopteyx, right? I mean, sure, Velociraptors had feathers, but unless they were jumping off a cliff (even then, I think we would just call that "falling with style"), they're never going to fly with them.

Also Carracosta 4 Lyfie! :P. Access to Shell Smash, 3 solid abilities, and decent typing, it has far more diversity in how you can use him than most other fossil Pokemon... what's not to love!
 
Lets talk about Archeops.


As soon as Unova's pokedex was released, I instantly took a liking to our ancient friend. Carracosta was pretty cool I guess, but who cares about some turtle when you could have a Velociraptor?? It just has such a badass design. I remember walking all the way back to Nacrene City right after getting the Plume Fossil just so I could use this beast ASAP.

And its badassery doesn't end at its design. It has MONSTEROUS stats for a fossil pokemon. Boasting 140/112/110 offenses and a 567 BST, it rivals psudeo legendaries. Get Acrobatics+Eartquake+Rock slide and proceed to solo the game. All in all, the flying dino was set for greatness and fan-favouritsm, unfortunaltey...

...Where Archeops fails as a Pokemon is its god awful ability, Defeatist, condeming it into a life of mediocrity. An ability with absolutley no thematic relevance whatsoever and putting Archeops into Slaking and Regigigas territory. Two other great mons with huge potential, shafted by gimmicky, anti-fun abilities.

Regigigas, the master of the legendary golems, puller of continents. Some say he is still slowly lumbering out of the depths of PU to this day.

And to rub salt in Archeop's oh so deep wounds, GF comes out with this monstrosity...


Poor Archeops, his unfulfilled dreams of super stardom drove him absoultey bonkers. Barely able to keep afloat and legs hoplessly dangling around :(
Microraptors weren't exactly fliers, so it's normal that Archeops looks extremely awkward when trying to fly. Though they could have depicted it gliding, like Skarmory.

And I understand that its competitive capabilities are sad for such a cute 'mon. They could have changed the Defeatist range to work like Schooling...
 

Pikachu315111

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There's also Ash-Pikachu and its many forms, plus one more for USUM sounds like. Anyway the thing is more the anime gets all these nods from the main games but the manga adaptations and the game spinoffs are almost never acknowledged. Makes it seem like the anime is just "better" than those.

Just make Articzapmolt usable. Sure it'll be most likely Normal/Flying and suck, but still!
Well as Kurona pointed out with Ash-Greninja, the Ash-Pikachu are also Event exclusive. Also not sure what you mean about USUM, if you're talking about that Pikachu reserve looking area than I didn't see any anime reference there (Pikachu is the series mascot, granted that's due to the anime's popularity but that has LONG leaked into the games).

As for the lack of Manga representation, that could be due to two things: 1. The anime is just more well known and Ash is a unique character (yes, he's based on Red, but they don't dress alike or have the same facial features). 2. The manga follows the source material much more closely than the anime. They don't really have any unique characters and the characters are pretty close to their game counterpart (well, Gen III onwards). So there's less to pull from anything that's unique from it. Heck, a lot of the time the manga is trying to adapt to the changes the games made.

Not to say that the Manga doesn't have any influence/references. Remember, the manga was the first one to reveal that Silver was Giovanni's son. It wasn't until FireRed & LeafGreen where the games even hinted that was the case, and wouldn't be until HeartGold & SoulSilver confirmed it (and that was though an event). Don't know whether the popularity of the twist had GF decide to make it canon, GF told them Silver was Giovanni's son, or they made an educated guess.

If the games wanted to add more manga references I guess they could allude to the additional character traits the manga gave them. They could say that before the army Lt. Surge was a street thug, Sabrina was considered a menace as she would lash out with her powers if she didn't get her way as a teenager, have rumors of Koga being an assassin (references to their manga counterparts being villains as they were part of Team Rocket), and rumors Blaine may have been part of unethical experiments to create a powerful Pokemon (Blaine created Mewtwo in the manga). The Gen I Elite Four were all part of some extremist environmental group when they were younger; Loreli would freeze fishing boats/oil tankers, Bruno would wreck lumbering equipment, Agatha would scare construction crews, and Lance would intimidate/blackmail/extort businessmen until they were arrested/reeled in by the Pokemon League and convinced they could do more good and be considered heroes if they worked for them (a reference to the Gen I Elite Four originally being the main villains who wanted to kill humanity for the sake of Pokemon).

But no Zapmolcuno, though wouldn't mind an Eevee that could temporary evolve to its original three Eeveelutions.

Lets talk about Archeops.


As soon as Unova's pokedex was released, I instantly took a liking to our ancient friend. Carracosta was pretty cool I guess, but who cares about some turtle when you could have a Velociraptor?? It just has such a badass design. I remember walking all the way back to Nacrene City right after getting the Plume Fossil just so I could use this beast ASAP.

And its badassery doesn't end at its design. It has MONSTEROUS stats for a fossil pokemon. Boasting 140/112/110 offenses and a 567 BST, it rivals psudeo legendaries. Get Acrobatics+Eartquake+Rock slide and proceed to solo the game. All in all, the flying dino was set for greatness and fan-favouritsm, unfortunaltey...

...Where Archeops fails as a Pokemon is its god awful ability, Defeatist, condeming it into a life of mediocrity. An ability with absolutley no thematic relevance whatsoever and putting Archeops into Slaking and Regigigas territory. Two other great mons with huge potential, shafted by gimmicky, anti-fun abilities.

Regigigas, the master of the legendary golems, puller of continents. Some say he is still slowly lumbering out of the depths of PU to this day.

And to rub salt in Archeop's oh so deep wounds, GF comes out with this monstrosity...


Poor Archeops, his unfulfilled dreams of super stardom drove him absoultey bonkers. Barely able to keep afloat and legs hoplessly dangling around :(
Well at least in the main game it's decent since it's a glass cannon, but I do agree that Defeatist does feel out of place. Nothing about Archen or Archeops mention of a cowardly nature. Had it been called something like "Clipped Wings" at least it would make contextual sense.

I always thought the negative Abilities (Slow Start, Truant, Defeatist) should have an effect that gives you an option to work with/around the Ability. I would mention a few ideas, but that may go into wishlisting so I'll just end it there.

Like with a lot of Flying-type Pokemon, it was given a flying animation due to Sky Battles. Archeops more looks like a Pokemon who would rather be on the ground rather than flying. Or at least have it back in its Gen V pose where it looked threatening (but I can't imagine the wing flapping would look any better, it was not meant to be seen in 3D motion).

And as BlizzardHero said, it's more based on Archaeopteryx.
 

Deleted User 400951

Banned deucer.
Forced tutorials are terrible but Pokémon is hardly the worst offender.

Anyway, random things that came to my head playing AS and feeling cranky:

Teammates name retcon
Back in Gen 3 these girls were named Sr. and Jr. because one was more experienced than the other. That is represented in-game having one use a Pokémon with higher levels than the other's and usually be also evolved or just plain stronger. Now they are Teammates and it just doesn't make sense because teammates implies being on the same level. The only explanation I can think of is the Senior/Junior thing was too Japanese for their Japanese game made by Japanese people in Japan set in a Japanese region technically, but then they could've used "Teacher & Pupil" or something like that instead. Not a huge deal but rather unneeded.

You got anime in my video games!
The anime references in the games just keep getting worse and worse, what with Ash-Greninja, giving Pikachu its anime voice, the Spanish translation for XY outright referencing Ash Ketchum by name and many more. I get the anime is the main advertisment for the games, but that doesn't mean its many manga for example should get excluded from getting love. Same for the spinoffs, only Ranger get barely acknowledged and THAT was in the anime too. Really feels like the anime is this epic amazing thing that needs to be everywhere.

GameFreak used Recycle!
This is kinda silly maybe, but I don't like how Gen 7 reuses the exact same poses from Gen 6 down to the flying failures like Gliding Salamence and Rocket Xatu not being fixed. One of the charms of each new Generation was seeing a new sprite and pose, and while I can understand reciclying the models from Gen 6 leaving them all in the same pose just makes Gen 7 look like Gen 6.5 in that regard. Change a few at the least, add some new animations, the works.
I mean, while teammates can imply that they're on the same level that's not always the case. Most teams do have a person that is better than everyone else. In addition, a 1-2 level difference isn't going to be that much (though evolved is).
I am beginning to loathe the anime references though. I found Pikachu's new cry to be very cute for some time but now it's just annoying and it really doesn't give the games their own personality. Ash-Gren was just wrong imo and shouldn't have existed, and that's coming from someone who trained it instead of their starter.
What I really hate, however, is not letting dead characters lie. Yes, the Sinnoh and Unova fanboy is here to diss Looker and Colress (who is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE NPC). Honestly, Looker just feels a bit forced. While the Emma plotline was cool and fun, it was entirely unnecessary to add Looker into it. The ORAS inclusion was just stupid. As for BW1, I haven't played those yet so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And as for Colress, I mean, put something more than a cameo in SM if you're gonna use him, and if not, why bother? In addition, I think Samson Oak was very unneeded and was there just to appeal to genwunners.
I also hated the unfixed sprites. I wanted something bigger and better. However, as it is Gen 6 already stretched the 3DS to its limits. Much more would not be very good for performance.

So? What should I care if the five year old isn't playing the game right? Gamers aren't entitled to tutorials, that's why they didn't exist in a lot of early games. The GSC tutorial was completely skippable and I have met no one in the world who bitches that because the GSC tutorial was skippable they beat the game with only a Croconaw. If you are a child and cannot figure out how to play a game unless it spends 20 minutes showing you how to play the game, that's your own fucking fault. People figured out way more obscure shit than that as kids without the game telling them what to do.
I fully agree with this. While I do know that they have to accommodate little kids who are playing, tutorials are beginning to become a problem. Honestly, just give an option. It's not GF's responsibility to ensure kids don't skip it, it's their own. And they can read saying "have you played pokemon before?" - after all, it does require basic reading ability to play. Oh, and not to mention that if you do accidentally skip it and you're stuck later on there's this thing called a search engine and you can, WOW, SEARCH IT UP! That's what I did when I was little to find out how to evolve my level 55 Machoke and if kids can't do it these days then IDK what society is anymore.

What's really becoming a problem, however, is the cutscenes. My god SO WHAT IF I CARE IF LILLIE HAS MEMORIES OF HER MOTHER? STOP F---ING REMINDING ME EVERY 5 SECONDS AND LET ME PLAY THE GAME! I don't want a new cut scene for every new area I enter and for every last thing that I do. If I wanted that I'd play an RPG with a real story like Final Fantasy. I think people are unfairly directing their rage to tutorials when they aren't the main problem, though they are a problem indeed. I think it's time we focused on cutscenes because while it's common to hate the cutscenes, GF doesn't seem to care and they aren't stopping.
 
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Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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What I really hate, however, is not letting dead characters lie. Yes, the Sinnoh and Unova fanboy is here to diss Looker and Colress (who is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE NPC). Honestly, Looker just feels a bit forced. While the Emma plotline was cool and fun, it was entirely unnecessary to add Looker into it. The ORAS inclusion was just stupid. As for BW1, I haven't played those yet so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And as for Colress, I mean, put something more than a cameo in SM if you're gonna use him, and if not, why bother? In addition, I think Samson Oak was very unneeded and was there just to appeal to genwunners.
Looker's cameo in BW isn't anything special. He first appears in your house post game at first disguised as your mother, tells you he's hunting the Plasma Sages, gives you the Super Rod for no reason (something the game even points out), and as you find each Sage he appears to arrest them and thank you. That's it. It's really nothing compared to his XY and SM role, honestly that could have been any member of the international police and nothing would have changed.
That said I liked it was Looker in XY and SM. While in BW his role was just a generic officer arresting the Sages, XY actually gave him character development. His cameo in ORAS was unneeded and felt both pandering and unsatisfying. Looker washes ashore with amnesia which sounds like it'll lead into a side plot but it goes no where and I don't think it has been connected to anything like his role in the International Police or the tragic Ultra Beast case mentioned in SM.
I like his appearance in SM, but that's also partly because he was also with other International Police agents. Had it been Looker alone, I would feel they're starting to pander (which they are to an extent). However with them introducing more International Police agents I'm hoping they can create a group of characters so they can cycle through them instead of keep using Looker. Like for Gen VIII I wouldn't mind if it was Anabel doing a solo mission or having another International Police agent.

I still think both Colress and Grimsley were suppose to have a bigger story role but they decided to ditch that plan to focus on the newer characters. To sum up my theory:
Colress was going to be one of the top Aether Foundation scientists. His new outfit matches theirs, he's found near an Aether Foundation facility, plus he would have been the blue/cyan to Lusamine's yellow/Faba's green/Wicke's magenta. Also it felt odd during the Aether Foundation raid that Guzma was the last battle before Lusamine. Faba kept going on how he was "Aether Foundation's last defense" yet that wasn't true, it was Guzma. Also we had fought Guzma not so long ago in Po Town, we're fighting him again so soon? What I think the original plan might have been was having Colress be the one you fought to get access to the elevator than Faba would be the one you battled in front of the Aether House. It would also explain why in the cutscene where Lusamine initiates her plan they had Guzma running in as if it was suppose to be a surprise he's there even though we just fought him outside (why wouldn't he had gone inside with us if he was going to do so seconds later after us?).
I think Grimsley was originally going to be Ula'ula's Kahuna. So it just so happened Grimsley and Nanu both are Dark-type experts, are foreigners, and have a darker perspective on life and events going on? Also Grimsley looks like he's more on a retirement than on vacation with the robe he's wearing, having white splotches of hair, and his eyes looked tired. It looks like he moved to Alola rather then just visiting (note we never are told why he's in Alola, he's just there). In addition notice how all the other Poke Rides were given to you by either a Kahuna, Captain, or someone related to a Kahuna. Grimsley is the only Poke Ride giver who's not part of the Island Challenge, which makes you wonder why does he have the authority to give you the Poke Ride than.

Samson Oak was pretty pointless. He's honestly just their to be a joke about being the Alolan form of Professor Oak.

What's really becoming a problem, however, is the cutscenes. My god SO WHAT IF I CARE IF LILLIE HAS MEMORIES OF HER MOTHER? STOP F---ING REMINDING ME EVERY 5 SECONDS AND LET ME PLAY THE GAME! I don't want a new cut scene for every new area I enter and for every last thing that I do. If I wanted that I'd play an RPG with a real story like Final Fantasy. I think people are unfairly directing their rage to tutorials when they aren't the main problem, though they are a problem indeed. I think it's time we focused on cutscenes because while it's common to hate the cutscenes, GF doesn't seem to care and they aren't stopping.
I don't think its a bad idea to include a more developed story in my main Pokemon games. That said, they do need to work on cutscenes occurrence and breaks. Well, actually, I think BW did cutscenes well enough. They were decently placed far apart from one another, each one felt it moved the story along, and most importantly before the Legendary and final battles it let you SAVE. SM had a problem of the cutscenes happening often, sometimes mere minutes apart, and the cutscenes really didn't have that much to them or not any more had they combined a batch together. Also XY, ORAS, and SM got into the bad habit of putting long cutscenes before AND after choosing your Starter and the Legendary battle. Um, no, if this was any RPG that wouldn't be an issue but it is in Pokemon where a Pokemon can be good or bad depending on some random variables (IVs, Natures, sometimes even Abilities) you don't know until you check the Pokemon. If you didn't get a good Pokemon, most would like to reset (especially if its a Legendary) for a better one. The long cutscenes with no small breaks between to check & save feels like you're punishing the player for just wanting a good Pokemon. Now GF, if you really want to gun for that theatrical experience, maybe you should set the IVs, Natures, and Ability of the Starter/Legendary so that it would be exactly what we'd want so there's no need for us to restart. That or at least have a way for us to change a Pokemon's Nature, bad IVs and Ability is no longer a problem thanks to Hyper Training & Ability Capsule so it's just Nature that's the last major issue when it comes to catching Legendaries.
 
What's really becoming a problem, however, is the cutscenes. My god SO WHAT IF I CARE IF LILLIE HAS MEMORIES OF HER MOTHER? STOP F---ING REMINDING ME EVERY 5 SECONDS AND LET ME PLAY THE GAME! I don't want a new cut scene for every new area I enter and for every last thing that I do. If I wanted that I'd play an RPG with a real story like Final Fantasy. I think people are unfairly directing their rage to tutorials when they aren't the main problem, though they are a problem indeed. I think it's time we focused on cutscenes because while it's common to hate the cutscenes, GF doesn't seem to care and they aren't stopping.
If anything, Lillie is the problem here, not the cutscenes. Like, Sun and Moon's cutscenes could be easily summed up as "90% Lillie doing something completely irrelevant yet is given extreme focus (and other characters shilling on her for no reason); 5% filler; 5% plot".
 
BW had a lot of issues with scripted behaviour before pinwheel forest, after that it is more limited, if anything the weakest point in BW is the beginning due to the amount of forced encounters and NPC dialogue.

Cutscenes are a thing we only got post esmerald to be honest, scripted behaviour has been around since the beginning.
 

MZ

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Is it just me or is TPC running out of new moves to invent? I know the "way too many exclusive moves" thing has been done to death, but I'm looking at the few moves that aren't. Quite a few of them have really poor/weird distribution, and it really feels like they're running out of ideas due to how many moves were introduced so early on taking up all the creative space. Like the number of non-exclusive is insanely low so a decent percentage like Smart Strike, Burn Up, Lunge, Psychic Fangs and Brutal Swing mostly make sense (like some of them have definitely been laughed at but it has to do with competing with moves from earlier gens see: Psychic Fangs vs. Zen Headbutt) but some others are just painful. Spotlight goes to 1 line with follow me, spinda which looks like it could easily learn follow me, starmie and shiinotic. Is it just me or did they want Shiinotic to be better in VGC while not getting 2 exclusive moves? Stomping Tantrum might also have VGC applications with the frequency of protect, but it's literally only given to stuff with Earthquake because reasons. Speed Swap goes to Pheromosa, Alolachu, and Ribombee and you've already lost me given the random things that have stuff like Power Swap and Guard Split and whatever. However, the worst offender is easily Tearful Look, a move most people probably don't know exists. It lowers attack and special attack, was only given to Bonsly/Sudowoodo/Wishiwashi, directly competes with a ton of similar moves in concept, theme and effect (fake tears, play nice, noble roar), and I'm pretty sure it's only there so they can say Wishiwashi learns a gen 7 move. Now I'm not saying I want there to be practically no new non-exclusive moves every generation, but I'd rather they just own up to running out of ideas and not slap filler like this onto a couple of things and essentially fake their way to having less signature moves through stupid distribution.

On a side note, Noble Roar used to be signature to the Pyroar line but this gen they gave it to Solgaleo, Jangmo-o line and... Wailord??????? So noble
 

Deleted User 400951

Banned deucer.
Is it just me or is TPC running out of new moves to invent? I know the "way too many exclusive moves" thing has been done to death, but I'm looking at the few moves that aren't. Quite a few of them have really poor/weird distribution, and it really feels like they're running out of ideas due to how many moves were introduced so early on taking up all the creative space. Like the number of non-exclusive is insanely low so a decent percentage like Smart Strike, Burn Up, Lunge, Psychic Fangs and Brutal Swing mostly make sense (like some of them have definitely been laughed at but it has to do with competing with moves from earlier gens see: Psychic Fangs vs. Zen Headbutt) but some others are just painful. Spotlight goes to 1 line with follow me, spinda which looks like it could easily learn follow me, starmie and shiinotic. Is it just me or did they want Shiinotic to be better in VGC while not getting 2 exclusive moves? Stomping Tantrum might also have VGC applications with the frequency of protect, but it's literally only given to stuff with Earthquake because reasons. Speed Swap goes to Pheromosa, Alolachu, and Ribombee and you've already lost me given the random things that have stuff like Power Swap and Guard Split and whatever. However, the worst offender is easily Tearful Look, a move most people probably don't know exists. It lowers attack and special attack, was only given to Bonsly/Sudowoodo/Wishiwashi, directly competes with a ton of similar moves in concept, theme and effect (fake tears, play nice, noble roar), and I'm pretty sure it's only there so they can say Wishiwashi learns a gen 7 move. Now I'm not saying I want there to be practically no new non-exclusive moves every generation, but I'd rather they just own up to running out of ideas and not slap filler like this onto a couple of things and essentially fake their way to having less signature moves through stupid distribution.

On a side note, Noble Roar used to be signature to the Pyroar line but this gen they gave it to Solgaleo, Jangmo-o line and... Wailord??????? So noble
I'm going to have to agree with this. I mean, let's look at some examples of moves from Gen 1:
-Slash
-Surf
-Thunderbolt
-Body Slam
-Growl

I mean, these are common-sense kind of things. Naturally they'd come up eventually. But GF is running out of these to work with. Now, they're going into weird, specific-y types of moves - like Tearful Look (which I never heard of until your post), Stomping Tantrum, etc.. This problem was in Gen 6 too - who tf knows what Parabolic Charge is? Or Eerie Impulse? Until it was used in-game I never knew the moves existed! The moves are a huge part of pokemon, and they give great diversity and differentiate it from other rpgs with the vast number available. I mean, Lunge, Tearul Look, Burn Up and a whole lot more could be given to more pokemon. If Gen 8 also has no new moves I'm afraid competitive will become stale and redundant, while it'll finally take its toll with in-game redundancy too. OFC I have like no detail rn because I'm rushed af but that's my opinion.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Is it just me or is TPC running out of new moves to invent? I know the "way too many exclusive moves" thing has been done to death, but I'm looking at the few moves that aren't. Quite a few of them have really poor/weird distribution, and it really feels like they're running out of ideas due to how many moves were introduced so early on taking up all the creative space. Like the number of non-exclusive is insanely low so a decent percentage like Smart Strike, Burn Up, Lunge, Psychic Fangs and Brutal Swing mostly make sense (like some of them have definitely been laughed at but it has to do with competing with moves from earlier gens see: Psychic Fangs vs. Zen Headbutt) but some others are just painful. Spotlight goes to 1 line with follow me, spinda which looks like it could easily learn follow me, starmie and shiinotic. Is it just me or did they want Shiinotic to be better in VGC while not getting 2 exclusive moves? Stomping Tantrum might also have VGC applications with the frequency of protect, but it's literally only given to stuff with Earthquake because reasons. Speed Swap goes to Pheromosa, Alolachu, and Ribombee and you've already lost me given the random things that have stuff like Power Swap and Guard Split and whatever. However, the worst offender is easily Tearful Look, a move most people probably don't know exists. It lowers attack and special attack, was only given to Bonsly/Sudowoodo/Wishiwashi, directly competes with a ton of similar moves in concept, theme and effect (fake tears, play nice, noble roar), and I'm pretty sure it's only there so they can say Wishiwashi learns a gen 7 move. Now I'm not saying I want there to be practically no new non-exclusive moves every generation, but I'd rather they just own up to running out of ideas and not slap filler like this onto a couple of things and essentially fake their way to having less signature moves through stupid distribution.

On a side note, Noble Roar used to be signature to the Pyroar line but this gen they gave it to Solgaleo, Jangmo-o line and... Wailord??????? So noble
I think the issue isn't they're running out of ideas but rather, after 7 gens, do we really need any more moves? Unlike Pokemon which can keep being made unique thanks to type combination, stats, Ability (especially a gimmicky Ability), and design; Moves really have reached a point where not much left is wanted. Yes, there are "gaps" for some moves but overall I'd say if they decided to stop making normal move (and focus on only creating signature moves) I doubt many would notice. Heck, if next gen they decided to focus on filling those gaps (making strong Special Rock, Physical Dark, Physical Ice, etc. with a wide distribution range) that would be a pretty decisive blow to new moves.

Of course, that's not to say there isn't anywhere else to go. Would you be surprised if I (the guy who maintains the What Isn't A Pokemon Yet Repository list) also have a list of Moves ideas as well (and yes, I also have one for Abilities, Items, and other stuff. Yes, I'm a sad and pathetic PokeNerd). And they're not just move clones (though many are, which is someplace they can go and have gone, especially if there's an Ability it can work off of), I have made moves with unique gimmicks. And if I can think of some stuff, you can bet well that GF can think of thousands if not ten of thousands more move ideas.

Also, this was the gen that introduced Z-Moves, there's 29 Z-Moves (technically 47 since the basic Z-Moves have a Special and Physical version) so they may have shifted focus on those which would take away creating new moves.

Also there is something we may need to keep in mind with new future moves: they probably will have gimmicks attached to me. Sometimes not major, but looking at the moves for Gen VI and VII, I can tell that GF seemed to be thinking normal damaging moves have reached their peak and now are making moves which can change up a pace of a game either a lot or in specific situations. I would list them but there's just too many, see for yourself.

Of course, the issue here is distribution. Gen VII new moves have TERRIBLE distribution, I have no idea what they're thinking. And it's not like they stuck to Pokemon in the Alolan Dex (which would have made more sense, infact if the issue for the distribution is they don't want to go through all the Pokemon maybe for the first paired games they should stick to Pokemon in the regional dex (and some outside if they want to) and then in the 3rd version distribute them to all the others). Take Laser Focus for example, it's only learnable by four Pokemon: Mewtwo (why?), Lucario, Kartana, & Marshadow. And no, it's Japanese name doesn't explain it any better as it's just called "Hone".
 

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