Pokémon Great to Hate

I used to like Farfetch'd in a totally un-ironic way. But the thing is, I didn't know the extent of its suckage until I actually researched it. Not totally my fault, since the official strategy guide for Red/Blue didn't even list base stats. Well, they sorta did, but it was on a really simple radial chart with no numbers that gave more of a general idea of a 'mons stats than just outright saying you were better off with a Pidgeotto. Dux kinda made up for it by being an in-game trade only so it leveled faster, but the knowledge of its crumminess tainted it forever.

Sorry, Farfetch'd fans. Some day it'll happen for him and he'll get the evo he needs. So keep up the 15 year mantra: "Maybe next gen, maybe next gen..."
I'm not really big on some mons getting evos. I mean, some turned out great, like Weavile, Gligar, etc., but some pokes just really seem good the way they are. I hate to say it, but what do you do with Farfetch'd? I like having several non-viable pokes. Without them, there wouldn't be any backdrop against which to judge powerful pokemon. If every poke became viable, that would be incredibly boring. That's why people don't like later gens, there's much less variety.
 

Celever

i am town
is a Community Contributor
I'm not really big on some mons getting evos. I mean, some turned out great, like Weavile, Gligar, etc., but some pokes just really seem good the way they are. I hate to say it, but what do you do with Farfetch'd? I like having several non-viable pokes. Without them, there wouldn't be any backdrop against which to judge powerful pokemon. If every poke became viable, that would be incredibly boring. That's why people don't like later gens, there's much less variety.
I can see where you're coming from, however if more Pokemon got evolutions that would be more variety, given the number of Pokemon. I get that my introducing more strong Pokemon other things will be made unviable etc. but strong Pokemon will be brought in anyway.

Besides, if you like Farfetch'd and want to use a stronger Farfetch'd then you should go for that. Don't forget that this is the non-competitive part of the site and should be treated that way.
 
I can see where you're coming from, however if more Pokemon got evolutions that would be more variety, given the number of Pokemon. I get that my introducing more strong Pokemon other things will be made unviable etc. but strong Pokemon will be brought in anyway.

Besides, if you like Farfetch'd and want to use a stronger Farfetch'd then you should go for that. Don't forget that this is the non-competitive part of the site and should be treated that way.
Yeah, I didn't mean variety in number or design, I meant variety as far as strength. Gen 1 seemed design-centric, and the later gens seem balance-centric.

And I've been here before, I know how the site works, I was actually referring to viability as far as ingame viability. I once took a Ledian through Silver, and that was a lot harder than taking Gyarados through Blue. It just seemed like there were less "Gyarados"-esque pokes in the earlier gens, but pokemon rolled out more and more to give every type different versions of the same thing. And while I like the fairy concept, I liked the times when nothing could touch dragon, that goes back to design preceding execution. Now GF starts with the idea, "we need something that equalizes Dragon", instead of letting the ideas flow. And I understand, Gen 1 didn't have anything to balance. That's why people like me that have been playing since day 1 sometimes resist change, we see how it comes about and we know its different than pokemon's roots. Not saying anything is wrong with that, I personally am looking forward to Y so much, I'm going to do no research at all (except to see what the starters turn into) and play the game completely blind, just saying that it is noticeably different.
 
Generally every Pokemon which get used to much in a tier. I try not to use those kind of Pokemon because I want to win with the 'lesser' ones. I can't really recall any Pokemon I specificly like though, those are in the lower tiers. (Sceptile & Honchkrow)
 

Flora

Yep, that tasted purple!
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
I used to like Hypno until I read its PokeDex...

Well to add more words, I liked to use it back in RBY as it actually had a good Special stat to use its Psychic-type attacks. Ever since the special split in second gen, Drowzee and Hypno are incapable of hurting anything.
 
I'm not really big on some mons getting evos. I mean, some turned out great, like Weavile, Gligar, etc., but some pokes just really seem good the way they are. I hate to say it, but what do you do with Farfetch'd? I like having several non-viable pokes. Without them, there wouldn't be any backdrop against which to judge powerful pokemon. If every poke became viable, that would be incredibly boring. That's why people don't like later gens, there's much less variety.
Your post reminds me of an article on sonichurricane.com (fighting game blog) that I can't find for the life of me. Allow me to jump into fighter mode here for a bit.

Basically it argued that Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, despite being considered the most balanced game in Capcom's "Vs." series, was also the most boring because there was no crazy broken characters to put it all in perspective. Meanwhile, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (a sequel further down the line) has a definitive top tier that almost play like they're from an entirely different game, but the whole thing ends up being much more fun as a result. You feel like a demigod when you play them, and feel more accomplished when you actually beat them. The hard line between which characters are good, which ones are really good, and which ones are terrible gives an extra meaning to each victory. Justin Wong defeating an entire 3-person team with one character at EVO would have been enough to make it a memorable match, but the fact that he did it with Cyclops, a character solidly in the middle, made it an awesome one.

I totally agree, but the way I look at it, all Pokemon should at least have a chance to shine. Farfetch'd worked perfectly fine within the confines of his debut game - he had craptacular stats, but since he was an in-game trade only, he gained experience faster than anything else on your team to (mostly) make up for it. The problem is that ever since he's just been another run-of-the-mill wild catch with nothing redeeming about him except that he apparently tastes great basted and stuffed with bread crumbs. In other Pokemon media like the anime, manga, and TCG, which aren't limited by parameters like levels and hard stats, all 'mons have the potential to be champs with dedication and sufficient plot armor. I'm not saying they need to do away with any of that stuff, and there should still be different camps of "strong" and "weak" (in fact, I'd encourage that since I tend to flock to the underdogs and frankly a tiny water fowl with a stick should be generally frailer than a hulked-up dragon), but I don't see the need to have some 'mons like Dux be so obviously, unredeemably poopy. Make him able to actually win a fight, but make him work for it.
 
Garchomp was my original favorite because he was a landshark :3 . And then I ventured on to competitive battling for the first time. I boldly put together a team of Garchomp/Scizor/Kingdra/Metagross/Tyranitar/Sharpedo. I clicked the Find Battle button and...the "Garchomp is banned due to blah blah blah" message popped up. I was confused so I looked up this banning on the Internet. After reading for a few minutes I was like *bad poker face*: "I never liked Garchomp at all lol" Don't get me wrong, I still think he's cool, especially now that he's unbanned and stuff. I doubt he'll ever pop up as #1 favorite again, however.
 
Your post reminds me of an article on sonichurricane.com (fighting game blog) that I can't find for the life of me. Allow me to jump into fighter mode here for a bit.

Basically it argued that Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, despite being considered the most balanced game in Capcom's "Vs." series, was also the most boring because there was no crazy broken characters to put it all in perspective. Meanwhile, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (a sequel further down the line) has a definitive top tier that almost play like they're from an entirely different game, but the whole thing ends up being much more fun as a result. You feel like a demigod when you play them, and feel more accomplished when you actually beat them. The hard line between which characters are good, which ones are really good, and which ones are terrible gives an extra meaning to each victory. Justin Wong defeating an entire 3-person team with one character at EVO would have been enough to make it a memorable match, but the fact that he did it with Cyclops, a character solidly in the middle, made it an awesome one.

I totally agree, but the way I look at it, all Pokemon should at least have a chance to shine. Farfetch'd worked perfectly fine within the confines of his debut game - he had craptacular stats, but since he was an in-game trade only, he gained experience faster than anything else on your team to (mostly) make up for it. The problem is that ever since he's just been another run-of-the-mill wild catch with nothing redeeming about him except that he apparently tastes great basted and stuffed with bread crumbs. In other Pokemon media like the anime, manga, and TCG, which aren't limited by parameters like levels and hard stats, all 'mons have the potential to be champs with dedication and sufficient plot armor. I'm not saying they need to do away with any of that stuff, and there should still be different camps of "strong" and "weak" (in fact, I'd encourage that since I tend to flock to the underdogs and frankly a tiny water fowl with a stick should be generally frailer than a hulked-up dragon), but I don't see the need to have some 'mons like Dux be so obviously, unredeemably poopy. Make him able to actually win a fight, but make him work for it.
Well put, I must say. And that's kind of where I'm coming from. My biggest thing is that I don't want GF to say, "These mons are weaker, lets balance them." Because like you said, Farfetch'd shouldn't be able to go toe to toe with Dragonite and win every other time. However I do see what you're saying in that with enough training, it could happen. In silver, I got a Ledyba, thought it was cool when it evolved, and played through the game with that. Beating the game with a Ledian was fun, and after finding out how awful it really is, made it more fun. I don't know if I could do that in today's games.

The biggest problem is the power creep. Every generation has had mons with higher and higher stats. Now with 5th gen, there are base 147 stats on "regular" pokemon. by comparison, I agree, Farfetch'd is just unusable. To me, (and I apologize Farfetch'd) I guess the problem isn't really with the weaker mons, its with the progressively more powerful ones that are making the weaker ones more and more unusable.
 
When I was just getting back into Pokemon, I saw the Reshiram from the Next Destinies TCG set. At the time I thought it looked like a cross between Yugioh's Blue-Eyes White Dragon and an angel, making it became one of my favourite fifth gen Pokemon.

Seeing more official art of it, it looks a lot more like an angelic chicken than a dragon. It also looks like it would have a hard time standing upright, making it harder for me to take it seriously as a treat.
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
In Smogon Doubles, people over 1500 always have some method to kill off my Hydreigon first on top of everything else. :C
And it isn't a matter of whether I put it first or later in my team.

Also Gardevoir isn't that useful in Gen 5.
(But she will strike back in XY, won't she?)
 
I used to Love Hitmontop and Hitmonlee But as I have aged their designs are F*cking Stupid and I now prefer punching over kicking. Hitmonchan is the only one of the trio that has aged well.
 
I used to love Charizard and Blastoise, but they have both been horrible every time I've used them. Ironically I hated Venusaur until I tried it out, and it is now one of my favorite starters as well as Grass Pokémon.
 
Back when I was a kid, Alakazam was the shit in Gen 1.

Then I thought about how stupid of a design he was given how limited his counterplay is, and thus began to hate him with a passion. Alakazam and all glass cannon special attackers like him are honestly the bane of competitive Pokemon. No other class of Pokemon so completely reduces the intelligence factor of competitive battling. This is especially true following Gen 4 with Hidden Power being purely a special type attack.
 
Scizor, Scizor, and Scizor again. Like, when I was watching the G1 toon, I LOVED Scyther. Thought it was the most boss thing ever. Then while I'd fallen off, I heard he evolved. I was pretty hyped about it. Unfortunately, I've been swept by like 20 scizors before I've even caught/hatched ONE. Doesn't help that my offline rival claims that Gardevoir is his "signature pokemon" but Scizor is always a mainstay on his team no matter how many times he changes up teams.

Now I have no desire to use him. Only to destroy him. A shame, cause I actually wanted to have him too.
 
I can see where you're coming from, however if more Pokemon got evolutions that would be more variety, given the number of Pokemon. I get that my introducing more strong Pokemon other things will be made unviable etc. but strong Pokemon will be brought in anyway.

Besides, if you like Farfetch'd and want to use a stronger Farfetch'd then you should go for that. Don't forget that this is the non-competitive part of the site and should be treated that way.
I agree with this, one-hundred percent, but I mostly play for fun rather than competition so my opinion is strongly biased. I'd love to see Corsola, Farfetch'd, and Dunsparce get evolutions. Gamefreak should really hire whoever did that Asian dragon-style Dunsparce evo for their art department.

On topic, I don't really like any of the Ubers, design-wise. When I was a kid, stuff like Mewtwo and Zapdos were amazing, but not anymore. "Loud" pokemon designs, with big hand cannons and such, just strike me as tacky IMO. Especially Excadrill. He's a great Pokemon for battles, but meh otherwise.
 
Last edited:
Is it weird that this has never happened to me? I don't recall ever really liking one particular Pokemon then later on not liking it. I mean, staraptor used to be my favorite Pokemon but it isn't anymore, but it's still in like my top 3 or 5. That's the best I can come up with...
 
Buizel and Floatzel for me. When I first played Diamond, I loved them but now... Eeeeehhh... I'm using a buizel in my Platinum run though, so I'll see if I can turn that around.
 
Venusaur for me. I don't know if it was because of its status as a gen one starter, its grass type, or the fact that Red from pk spe had one, but I loved it.
Now, I'd say it is a slightly above average design, but it is nothing special.
Heck, I loved it so much I was willing to trade an event skymin for him.
 
I used to love Pidgeot and always use it, and I was adamant that it was a really good pokemon due to its bulk and "power", better than Fearow and Dodrio, and even Swellow! I don't know what I was thinking! I should've learnt how bad it was ingame from having to wait until level 27 for Wing Attack. But then Diamond and people came out with Staraptor and showed me a real Bird Pokemon. It even looked cooler than Pidgeot, and learned Wing Attack as early as level 9!
 
Competitive play definitely ruined Espeon for me. I used one on my first playthrough of Gold many years ago, and I thought it was amazing with its high special attack and blazing speed (all you need for in-game really). Fast forward to 5th gen, I realize it's not as good as I thought it was. Unless it's on a baton pass team, I pretty much associate it with ladder trash because that'd what I'd say 90% of Espeon users I face are.

Now this is pretty hypocritical of me considering I love to use garbagemons semi-seriously. But at least I acknowledge they're garbagemons. My latest project was Lumineon in ubers and I'm knocking Espeon users in OU. lol. I just can't unassociate Espeon with trash; it's ruined for me forever.
 
Unfortunately, it was an Altaria. I used to love her in Ruby because she's a dragon type and her design was pretty. I then fought a couple of my friends and she was decimated in one hit multiple times. I'm trying to get back into using her, but I don't like her as much as I used to...
 

Celever

i am town
is a Community Contributor
Unfortunately, it was an Altaria. I used to love her in Ruby because she's a dragon type and her design was pretty. I then fought a couple of my friends and she was decimated in one hit multiple times. I'm trying to get back into using her, but I don't like her as much as I used to...
OI don't diss the albatross.

If you want to use her you should try and play NU; Altaria isn't up to scratch for OU, no where near actually, but Altaria is one of the premier Dragon-Type Pokemon of NU and is even usable in RU!
 
OI don't diss the albatross.

If you want to use her you should try and play NU; Altaria isn't up to scratch for OU, no where near actually, but Altaria is one of the premier Dragon-Type Pokemon of NU and is even usable in RU!
I guess :). I'm here to learn how to use Pokemon properly in a battle sense. I think that a majority of Pokemon are useful, but they have to be part of the right niche in order to show their magic :).
 
I used to have Raichu as my favourite electric type.

A combination of Electrike and Pikachu being lathered everywhere eventually led me to dislike him.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top