(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[HelenTheHero]

Ohhhh, found out about the filter so that it only shows offers for Pokemon you have.

Back to main topic... who else is slightly angry about the fact that Pikachu gets it's own tail/head/whateveryoucallthose for when they are in the grass? I know Zigzagoon get's it too, but Nintendo... can't we just stop with all the Pikachu hype?

 

[Detective Barricade]

Ohhhh, found out about the filter so that it only shows offers for Pokemon you have.

Back to main topic... who else is slightly angry about the fact that Pikachu gets it's own tail/head/whateveryoucallthose for when they are in the grass? I know Zigzagoon get's it too, but Nintendo... can't we just stop with all the Pikachu hype?

Poochyena, Skitty, and Ralts also have it, and Pikachu will forever get the special treatment as it is the mascot for the franchise. Personally I don't really care, I'm paying closer attention to the Pokemon I've got on the DexNav's cry and silhouette when I get close enough. And most I'd be hunting down I make sure I have their Pokedex entry so I can try to DexNav them on command. Still don't like the message, "It couldn't be found nearby. Try again later!" How is it fun to run into that message over and over?

 

[Pikachu315111]

I haven't had much trouble at all getting HA Pokemon off GTS. You can easily disable all the "special Pokemon" requests from showing up, people are usually good about labeling HA Pokemon (especially since it's usually the selling point,) and I can always find a couple of people offering lvl 1s for a fair-ish trade. You just have to know what "tier" you'll likely have to pony up for the specific HA Pokemon.

Edit: just tested it. Looked on the GTS for a Dratini, lvl 1-10, no special Pokemon, found a Japanese guy offering one for a lvl 1-10 Cubone, and the offer had a bunch of writing that wasn't repetitive (Can't read Japanese). I had one lying around from Wonder Trading spitbacks, so I made the trade. Hidden ability, Extremespeed, and three other egg moves. Give the GTS a chance before you bash it. And Wonder Trade off all your breeding rejects and you will usually have a good core of random mons to trade off. Just watch out for the ones claiming 6 IVs. They're usually lying.

Double edit: if you act now, there's a promising candidate asking for a Scatterbug.

I'm not bashing the GTS, its very useful and a welcome feature to the franchise. I'm just pointing out from my experience some problems with it.

I actually used to use the GTS to trade for a whole batch of Scatterbug/Spewpa when I was trying to complete my Vivillon collection. Its pretty easy to just put one up on the GTS asking for another one and get it traded fairly quickly. Sadly after about a hundred or attempts I think I got ALL the Vivillon I'd be able to get, those who have a rare pattern don't seem to want to trade their Scatterbug/Spewpa, instead rather asking for Legendaries for their rare Vivillon. Smart on their part, though sadly it probably means I won't be getting those patterns. Oh well, at least I have the special Vivillon patterns.

Ohhhh, found out about the filter so that it only shows offers for Pokemon you have.

Back to main topic... who else is slightly angry about the fact that Pikachu gets it's own tail/head/whateveryoucallthose for when they are in the grass? I know Zigzagoon get's it too, but Nintendo... can't we just stop with all the Pikachu hype?

That doesn't really bother me, as you said some other Pokemon also got their tails detailed (if I had to guess maybe they wanted all Pokemon to have a specific part of them appear out of the grass but probably realized how daunting a task that was/ran out of time so decided to generalize all the later route catches (as its mainly the early routes that have a detailed part)).

What about the Pikachu worship that bothers me in Cosplay Pikachu. Okay, I get you wanted a Pokemon to show off the Pokemon Contests with it being back and all; but you couldn't have maybe found a Gen III Pokemon? Of course you could say this isn't new, in Gen IV we got a special Pichu with a spiky ear (and while its stats still sucked and could never evolve, I think it had pretty good Pokeathlon stats). But that was for HGSS and Pichu was a Gen II Pokemon so it fit in well without being that noticeable. But here? Now looking through the Gen III Pokemon I can't really pick out one which I would give alternate costumes too... which is why I kind of wished they just let us put on some simple clothing on all out Pokemon. Bows, hats, ribbons, earrings, sunglasses, pretty much what they did for the Pokemon Musicals in Gen V. Sure they probably wouldn't get special moves, but then again maybe have there be a way for Pokemon that win contests to get special moves. Like after winning a Content that Pokemon gets special access to a Move Tutor who can teach them moves that are for the Contest Condition they have a Ribbon for. And of course the clothes your Pokemon is wearing can help sway the crowd in your favor, thus how the two connect as you'll need some clothes to win Contests to have that Pokemon be able to gain access to that Move Tutor.

However at this point I learned to ignore anything specifically referencing Pikachu since, well, it's the mascot of the series of course you're going to see it around a lot. I notice when I see it, but as long as its not directly in my face unlike Cosplay Pikachu I'm okay with it since I mostly shrug it off and move on.

Still don't like the message, "It couldn't be found nearby. Try again later!" How is it fun to run into that message over and over?

Yeah that's a bit stupid. Maybe it meant it couldn't find a special one nearby? If they didn't want you abusing it so easily they could have made it so that it had to recharge after you break a chain, pretty much like the PokeRadar which it had essentially replaced. It would still be able to detect a Pokemon if one randomly pops up, its just the scanning feature which they can handwave away saying uses more power would need you to do 50 steps before using again.

 

[HelenTheHero]

What about the Pikachu worship that bothers me in Cosplay Pikachu. Okay, I get you wanted a Pokemon to show off the Pokemon Contests with it being back and all; but you couldn't have maybe found a Gen III Pokemon? Of course you could say this isn't new, in Gen IV we got a special Pichu with a spiky ear (and while its stats still sucked and could never evolve, I think it had pretty good Pokeathlon stats). But that was for HGSS and Pichu was a Gen II Pokemon so it fit in well without being that noticeable. But here? Now looking through the Gen III Pokemon I can't really pick out one which I would give alternate costumes too... which is why I kind of wished they just let us put on some simple clothing on all out Pokemon. Bows, hats, ribbons, earrings, sunglasses, pretty much what they did for the Pokemon Musicals in Gen V. Sure they probably wouldn't get special moves, but then again maybe have there be a way for Pokemon that win contests to get special moves. Like after winning a Content that Pokemon gets special access to a Move Tutor who can teach them moves that are for the Contest Condition they have a Ribbon for. And of course the clothes your Pokemon is wearing can help sway the crowd in your favor, thus how the two connect as you'll need some clothes to win Contests to have that Pokemon be able to gain access to that Move Tutor.

I think they really should of done this like in Diamond and Pearl. I remember for contests the first round was dressing up for Pokemon with fuzzballs and things to fit the category. They could of easily done this instead of having Pikachu have these alternate forms, it could just have some special items. Anyway... seeing Pokemon in outfits would be hilarious, I would love setting up my Aerodactyl with a fedora and sunglasses, while seeing people have say, Tyranitar, covered in bows and glitter. I guess they couldn't add this because of using 3D models and not sprites.

 

[Norne]

I think they really should of done this like in Diamond and Pearl. I remember for contests the first round was dressing up for Pokemon with fuzzballs and things to fit the category. They could of easily done this instead of having Pikachu have these alternate forms, it could just have some special items. Anyway... seeing Pokemon in outfits would be hilarious, I would love setting up my Aerodactyl with a fedora and sunglasses, while seeing people have say, Tyranitar, covered in bows and glitter. I guess they couldn't add this because of using 3D models and not sprites.

Nothing tops musical nice hat wailord.

 

[HelenTheHero]

I never got to that point in B2. :D

 

[Pikachu315111]

Nothing tops musical nice hat wailord.

Obligatory:

They're so f***ing majestic.

Also found this interesting thread and I now almost want them to release a hi-def version of the DS Pokemon games. I then thought about it for the Gen VI games and a thought occurred to me, maybe when they release XY2 they could have the New 3DS pay it hi-def while the normal 3DS/2DS can play it as we've been playing them now. That way they can push the New 3DS with the new Pokemon game without excluding all of those who don't want to/have the money to upgrade to the New 3DS.

 

[Caramel Prisoner]

It hugely annoys me that the Dex Nav Search function only works on things you have caught instead of things you have seen, which would have been much more useful. Basically forces you to catch some random specimen before you're allowed to use the tools the game gives you to look for good stuff.

 

[MikeAU]

It hugely annoys me that the Dex Nav Search function only works on things you have caught instead of things you have seen, which would have been much more useful. Basically forces you to catch some random specimen before you're allowed to use the tools the game gives you to look for good stuff.

Agree partially with you here -- it's a cool feature but its like 'we're only going to let you use it once you've wasted time.' I don't see a reason to restrict access from the outset from an in-game perspective however I do believe there needs to be some sort of limit/split. Rather than having everything available (higher level, special move, etc) available. Perhaps they should allow for one or two criteria to be available until you've caught it but leave say the special moves for afterwards.

I'm a bit conflicted here -- whilst we will sit down and play these games in a world where prior to it being released we know so much about these games and access walk-through's, forum information etc. Maybe our desire to have more (and more, and more) right now is because we are used to so much being available? Perhaps its just me and the nostalgic view I have but I still remember in Pokemon Red reaching the safari and *finally* encountering/finding a random Kangaskahn(sp?) that I didn't know would even be there.

My biggest gripe and (ongoing) issue is a lack of difficulty. I mean how hard is it to get multi-battles, trainers with more than 4 (COMPETITIVE) pokemon? Encounter them randomly with mega-evolutions etc. I just feel lately (gen 5/6) i'm avoiding trainer battles after the first 2-3 in an area because it is the same (boring) monsters and is more time consuming than actually difficult. I can't remember the last time I actually blacked out, beyond an e4 run which i was severely under prepared for.

Overall, nothing really *new* from Gen VI annoyed me -- just a lack of progress, really. It feels like there is focus on mixing it up (feature-wise) however the difficulty is just not there.

 

[Detective Barricade]

It hugely annoys me that the Dex Nav Search function only works on things you have caught instead of things you have seen, which would have been much more useful. Basically forces you to catch some random specimen before you're allowed to use the tools the game gives you to look for good stuff.

It's annoying, yes, but I understand why it's this way. The DexNav is linked to your Pokedex, so in-game wise it makes sense you'd need a Pokemon's full Dex entry before you can search for more of its kind and maybe find ones at are more... unusual. (greater potential, holding rare items, +10 levels than the norm, has an egg move, and/or has its Hidden Ability) I think they wanted it as a reward for getting the Dex entry, I mean Pokemon in general has never been known for being challenging in-game. Hell, the community itself has had to come up with a myriad of self-imposed challenges such as Nuzlockes of all varieties, no healing items, no EXP, etc. to not be bored with the games in the franchise we love.

Agree partially with you here -- it's a cool feature but its like 'we're only going to let you use it once you've wasted time.' I don't see a reason to restrict access from the outset from an in-game perspective however I do believe there needs to be some sort of limit/split. Rather than having everything available (higher level, special move, etc) available. Perhaps they should allow for one or two criteria to be available until you've caught it but leave say the special moves for afterwards.

I'm a bit conflicted here -- whilst we will sit down and play these games in a world where prior to it being released we know so much about these games and access walk-through's, forum information etc. Maybe our desire to have more (and more, and more) right now is because we are used to so much being available? Perhaps its just me and the nostalgic view I have but I still remember in Pokemon Red reaching the safari and *finally* encountering/finding a random Kangaskahn(sp?) that I didn't know would even be there.

My biggest gripe and (ongoing) issue is a lack of difficulty. I mean how hard is it to get multi-battles, trainers with more than 4 (COMPETITIVE) pokemon? Encounter them randomly with mega-evolutions etc. I just feel lately (gen 5/6) i'm avoiding trainer battles after the first 2-3 in an area because it is the same (boring) monsters and is more time consuming than actually difficult. I can't remember the last time I actually blacked out, beyond an e4 run which i was severely under prepared for.

Overall, nothing really *new* from Gen VI annoyed me -- just a lack of progress, really. It feels like there is focus on mixing it up (feature-wise) however the difficulty is just not there.

We live in a world of instant gratification. Game Freak gave us several bones to make things easier this generation to get competitive Pokemon, yet we (in general) complain because it takes time. Discovering the RNG and how to take advantage of it to get what we wanted out of it in previous generation games may have spoiled us greatly...

As for the lack of difficulty, Pokemon has never been that difficult, and I doubt Game Freak has any interest in making it harder. Even if they did, it would only require a little more grinding/extra Rare Candies (hell even Super Training as tedious as it can be) for their efforts to be met with, "It's too easy!" The term competitive for in-game trainers seems silly, though. No EV's ever, and usually just their Pokemon's level up move pool. Not to mention the AI's tendency for moments of utter stupidity even in the Battle Maison. (weather wars with itself is a good example)

 

[Lady Vader]

We live in a world of instant gratification. Game Freak gave us several bones to make things easier this generation to get competitive Pokemon, yet we (in general) complain because it takes time. Discovering the RNG and how to take advantage of it to get what we wanted out of it in previous generation games may have spoiled us greatly...

As for the lack of difficulty, Pokemon has never been that difficult, and I doubt Game Freak has any interest in making it harder. Even if they did, it would only require a little more grinding/extra Rare Candies (hell even Super Training as tedious as it can be) for their efforts to be met with, "It's too easy!" The term competitive for in-game trainers seems silly, though. No EV's ever, and usually just their Pokemon's level up move pool. Not to mention the AI's tendency for moments of utter stupidity even in the Battle Maison. (weather wars with itself is a good example)

Agreed on both points. I think some of us complain a little too much on IV generation when at least we have an official way. And yeah, Game Freak doesn't seem like they care too much about the difficulty in the games, though to be fair, they are technically aimed at kids. We just enjoy it.

 

[Detective Barricade]

Agreed on both points. I think some of us complain a little too much on IV generation when at least we have an official way. And yeah, Game Freak doesn't seem like they care too much about the difficulty in the games, though to be fair, they are technically aimed at kids. We just enjoy it.

And it technically makes it all the faster to get to the Battle facility of the game, and the IV judge to really help breed for competitive Pokemon either for competition with a live player or to see how long you last before inevitible hax brings your streak to a close in said Battle facility of the game. (why would someone want to breed for competitive Pokemon before this point?)

 

[Caramel Prisoner]

To clarify, I wasn't complaining because using Dex Nav to get competitive stuff/breeding material takes longer than it could have. I was complaining because ingame, I'd like the option to look for Pokemon I've seen once (for example, by battling a trainer) using the Search function and I can't do that.

 

[Detective Barricade]

To clarify, I wasn't complaining because using Dex Nav to get competitive stuff/breeding material takes longer than it could have. I was complaining because ingame, I'd like the option to look for Pokemon I've seen once (for example, by battling a trainer) using the Search function and I can't do that.

I'm still pretty sure Game Freak wanted players to need to catch the first one before they can search for others. (and in-universe, as it's tied to the Pokedex the DexNav probably needs the full data on a Pokemon to use the search function and try to locate more) Plus I've found some of the rare ones pop up on the DexNav on their own somewhat often. Especially Surskit and even Skarmory.

 

[Lady Vader]

I hate when the AI gets Protect and Wish. Cause it will do nothing but spam it. And it is annoying. Especially if it is a Sylveon since it will also have Heal Bell, meaning it is a royal pain to get rid off...especially if you accidentally lost your Excadrill earlier in the match.

 

[Detective Barricade]

I hate when the AI gets Protect and Wish. Cause it will do nothing but spam it. And it is annoying. Especially if it is a Sylveon since it will also have Heal Bell, meaning it is a royal pain to get rid off...especially if you accidentally lost your Excadrill earlier in the match.

So you're annoyed that the AI wasn't being a complete idiot in this match, then? Still, the AI having Protect/Detect to play with is annoying as they love to throw it up often and has almost suspiciously better odds of working when used in succession than if the player were to do it...

 

[Random Passerby]

1) In Sea Mauville, you can find a Wild Spiritomb (it's the only one in the game). Of course it had to know Memento, how dare they let you capture Spiritomb easily!
This is even worse if you really had no idea you would find a Spiritomb there and hadn't Saved beforehand. 10x worse if it is a Shiny or you are Soft-Resetting to get decent IVs and Natures.

Yes, I know you can get one off the GTS but it's still an unnecessary **** move on Game Freak's part to have a one-of-a-kind (without breeding) Pokemon kill itself.

2) BW Victory Road. It is infested with Durants who WILL hit you hard with Hustle-boosted Iron Head off Base 112 Attack. They also have a great Speed stat of 109 so you can't Run Away from them easily. Furthermore, as we all know, Steel / Bug only has 1 weakness and Durant still has a decent physical Defense stat. True, it has a bad Special Def stat but by then, it will most likely hit you with a Hustle-boosted strong move due to the aforementioned decent stats. Oh, and if you think it will perform well for you, think again since Hustle lowers your accuracy (but never seems to do so for the AI).

3) Wild Wobbuffet. I don't think I need to elaborate on why this is annoying.

 

[Fluke]

I'm disgusted by the way legendary Pokémon fall out of this ugly 'ring'. It's just SO extremely ugly and not epic.

 

[Lady Vader]

So you're annoyed that the AI wasn't being a complete idiot in this match, then? Still, the AI having Protect/Detect to play with is annoying as they love to throw it up often and has almost suspiciously better odds of working when used in succession than if the player were to do it...

When a person is doing it, it is to wear the opponent down. When the AI does it, it is just not to die. They will just sit there and spam it without doing anything else. Hell, they spam Protect every two turns just cause they can.

 

[Detective Barricade]

1) In Sea Mauville, you can find a Wild Spiritomb (it's the only one in the game). Of course it had to know Memento, how dare they let you capture Spiritomb easily!
This is even worse if you really had no idea you would find a Spiritomb there and hadn't Saved beforehand. 10x worse if it is a Shiny or you are Soft-Resetting to get decent IVs and Natures.

Yes, I know you can get one off the GTS but it's still an unnecessary **** move on Game Freak's part to have a one-of-a-kind (without breeding) Pokemon kill itself.

2) BW Victory Road. It is infested with Durants who WILL hit you hard with Hustle-boosted Iron Head off Base 112 Attack. They also have a great Speed stat of 109 so you can't Run Away from them easily. Furthermore, as we all know, Steel / Bug only has 1 weakness and Durant still has a decent physical Defense stat. True, it has a bad Special Def stat but by then, it will most likely hit you with a Hustle-boosted strong move due to the aforementioned decent stats. Oh, and if you think it will perform well for you, think again since Hustle lowers your accuracy (but never seems to do so for the AI).

3) Wild Wobbuffet. I don't think I need to elaborate on why this is annoying.

Durant does well enough against the Elite Four in that game from what I've experienced, but yeah, fighting them isn't exactly fun. As for Wobbuffet... I'm just glad Ghost types can no longer be trapped by Shadow Tag.

 

[Random Passerby]

Durant does well enough against the Elite Four in that game from what I've experienced, but yeah, fighting them isn't exactly fun. As for Wobbuffet... I'm just glad Ghost types can no longer be trapped by Shadow Tag.

Maybe you had better luck than me then. Hustle seems to cause me to miss my attacks like 80% of the time instead of 20% as stated. This caused it to get hit hard by Special Attacks which almost OHKO it

 

[Cretacerus]

One thing I can't really understand is why they would link the Poke Transporter app to the fee-based Pokebank. I'm totally fine with them charging an annual fee for the Pokebank License, since it is in fact an additional service they are providing, but it's not acceptable to demand the same service fee from someone simply looking to transfer some BW mons into their Gen6 game. Paying 10 Euro just to keep your Pokemon on the recent games shouldn't be the case.
Couldn't they have just made Poke Transporter an independent app, which allows you to transfer Pokemon into your Gen6 box directly, instead of involving Pokebank into the procedure. That would be so much more convenient for all those people who have already purchased both games, but aren't willing to spend additional money on a feature they would otherwise never use..

 

[Detective Barricade]

One thing I can't really understand is why they would link the Poke Transporter app to the fee-based Pokebank. I'm totally fine with them charging an annual fee for the Pokebank License, since it is in fact an additional service they are providing, but it's not acceptable to demand the same service fee from someone simply looking to transfer some BW mons into their Gen6 game. Paying 10 Euro just to keep your Pokemon on the recent games shouldn't be the case.
Couldn't they have just made Poke Transporter an independent app, which allows you to transfer Pokemon into your Gen6 box directly, instead of involving Pokebank into the procedure. That would be so much more convenient for all those people who have already purchased both games, but aren't willing to spend additional money on a feature they would otherwise never use..

And how would they transfer everything in B/W(2)'s Box 1 directly to a gen 6 box if your gen 6 game is a physical copy that would need the same slot on the 3DS your gen 5 game is in currently? They'd need something as a holding spot for them until you can switch games to complete it, and the Transport box in PokeBank serves that purpose. Perhaps Game Freak already tried to not have to have PokeBank involved and instead have you use the 3DS and another 'DS' handheld console to transfer like they did for gen 4 -> 5, but it just wouldn't work and had to do it this way? We don't know.

 

[JES]

Maybe that is also what the free trial was for.

 

[Pikachu315111]

1) In Sea Mauville, you can find a Wild Spiritomb (it's the only one in the game). Of course it had to know Memento, how dare they let you capture Spiritomb easily!
This is even worse if you really had no idea you would find a Spiritomb there and hadn't Saved beforehand. 10x worse if it is a Shiny or you are Soft-Resetting to get decent IVs and Natures.

Yes, I know you can get one off the GTS but it's still an unnecessary **** move on Game Freak's part to have a one-of-a-kind (without breeding) Pokemon kill itself.

2) BW Victory Road. It is infested with Durants who WILL hit you hard with Hustle-boosted Iron Head off Base 112 Attack. They also have a great Speed stat of 109 so you can't Run Away from them easily. Furthermore, as we all know, Steel / Bug only has 1 weakness and Durant still has a decent physical Defense stat. True, it has a bad Special Def stat but by then, it will most likely hit you with a Hustle-boosted strong move due to the aforementioned decent stats. Oh, and if you think it will perform well for you, think again since Hustle lowers your accuracy (but never seems to do so for the AI).

3) Wild Wobbuffet. I don't think I need to elaborate on why this is annoying.

1) I think it having Memento is actually a bit of an oversight. As you know, wild Pokemon will have the most recent moves it can learn via Leveling Up. Spiritomb is Level 50 and the last four moves it learns does indeed include Memento. Still annoying though, though that's why I had my Gardevoir learn Taunt whenever I went around catching Pokemon (also saved before initiating the event). Does this Spiritomb know its Hidden Ability?

2) It's a shame in BW you get the TM for Hone Claws post game otherwise that could have made a Hustle Pokemon a bit more useful.

3) Well obviously you're meant to catch one of these Wobbuffet and then use it against its kin to be able to run away from them. Run away from Shadow Tag with Shadow Tag (or a Ghost-type, or some of the other way to deal with Wobbuffet if you're afraid of it knocking out your Pokemon).

I'm disgusted by the way legendary Pokémon fall out of this ugly 'ring'. It's just SO extremely ugly and not epic.

I don't think it's suppose to be epic but rather a bit comedic. Hoopa is messing with them by teleporting them from their natural place in space and time and putting them into a battle against you. Just listen to the sound effects that are made when the Pokemon falls out of the ring, they're something you would hear in a cartoon.

Play Loony Tunes theme

Ain't I a stinker?

One thing I can't really understand is why they would link the Poke Transporter app to the fee-based Pokebank. I'm totally fine with them charging an annual fee for the Pokebank License, since it is in fact an additional service they are providing, but it's not acceptable to demand the same service fee from someone simply looking to transfer some BW mons into their Gen6 game. Paying 10 Euro just to keep your Pokemon on the recent games shouldn't be the case.
Couldn't they have just made Poke Transporter an independent app, which allows you to transfer Pokemon into your Gen6 box directly, instead of involving Pokebank into the procedure. That would be so much more convenient for all those people who have already purchased both games, but aren't willing to spend additional money on a feature they would otherwise never use..

I can understand why they can't directly transfer it into your game, but at the same time I do think maybe it should be able to store like a box's worth of Pokemon. Or maybe make it so that if you don't have an active PokeBank account you can still transfer Pokemon from your Gen V games into the PokeBank and withdraw them, you just aren't able to deposit any Pokemon into PokeBank from your Gen VI games. There were several ways they could have done this (here's another option: those with access to two 3DSs (like having a friend or family member with one) have them be able to directly transfer like you could do in previous generations. Now I'm NOT saying this should be the only way, but the option would be nice especially if they decide to stop supporting the ability to transfer Gen V Pokemon which they may very possibly do when Gen VII comes along).

And how would they transfer everything in B/W(2)'s Box 1 directly to a gen 6 box if your gen 6 game is a physical copy that would need the same slot on the 3DS your gen 5 game is in currently? They'd need something as a holding spot for them until you can switch games to complete it, and the Transport box in PokeBank serves that purpose. Perhaps Game Freak already tried to not have to have PokeBank involved and instead have you use the 3DS and another 'DS' handheld console to transfer like they did for gen 4 -> 5, but it just wouldn't work and had to do it this way? We don't know.

They didn't include any other option because they want to force people to get a PokeBank subscriptions. Sure its just 5 bucks, but if you're not going to use it its a waste of 5 bucks to the user and a drop in the bucket in GF's pocket they wouldn't otherwise have. Now they did provide a free trial month, but it was only for a limited time so only those who had the games (and internet access) when PokeBank was made available were able to transfer all their Pokemon over.