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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
A bit late on this but I get the issue with newer dexes feeling a bit crowded out by the old guys even if they're showcased in-game well. That said, I genuinely think there's no solution. Even post-dexit the backlog of legacy Pokemon has just gotten so freaking huge that even if they did another Unova-size jumbo roster it'd be outnumbered by previous mons 3:1 under the current "roughly 600ish guys in the game total after DLC" status quo, and that's assuming it never sees an increase. Ironically dexit has probably made the chances of them pulling another BW1 even slimmer: God knows what the reactions would be if the new crop were your only options other than maybe a very limited postgame oldies selection.
Maybe my imagination is just too limited, but yeah idk man. Something like Alola is probably the best they can do at this point: Still a lot of old Pokemon, but the brand new critters and regional forms almost all get some kind of special showcase in-game as bosses, major trainer aces, access to exclusive forms of the regional gimmick, etc. Dev time has nothing to do with this, it's just an inevitability of the series continuing for as long as it has.
Maybe my imagination is just too limited, but yeah idk man. Something like Alola is probably the best they can do at this point: Still a lot of old Pokemon, but the brand new critters and regional forms almost all get some kind of special showcase in-game as bosses, major trainer aces, access to exclusive forms of the regional gimmick, etc. Dev time has nothing to do with this, it's just an inevitability of the series continuing for as long as it has.
I make this point a lot whenever I criticise Kalos but Alola, imo, got the old/new balance right in that it's how you make them accessible.
Sure there's a large amount of old and new Pokemon available together in the grass (Route 1 does start to feel a little crowded in USUM particularly, but it's kind of masked by the fact that different grass patches have different spawns and tbh it's actually kind of cool to have so many different Pokemon available on Route freaking 1 - Munchlax, Rockruff, and Inkay? Yes please) but there's a bunch of Pokemon - mostly older, and a lot of them really good - which appear through diverse methods like ambush encounters, SOS battles, QR scanning. Thinking of Melemele Island specifically, for the most part the new Pokemon are just found through wild encounters: Crabrawler is the only one that springs to mind as being encountered solely through a special method (the berry piles). And generally the encounter rates are solid: Route 1 obviously varies but there's generally between a 40-60% chance of encountering a new Pokemon; in Hau'oli City it's a 40% chance (Alolan Grimer, Meowth, and either Yungoos or Rattata depending on the time of day), and even on Route 3 there's a 30% chance of finding a Cutiefly.
But this leaves you free to chase a lot of the specially-obtainable Pokemon if that's how you want to spend your time, which I often did. And I know some will disagree but personally when I first played SM the thought of getting that level 10 Salamence was incredibly exciting and I was very much willing to put the work in and suffer through a nearly hour-long SOS battle to eventually find it (I also just liked them generally for EV training, shiny hunting, breeding fodder, or exp farming in the case of Chansey/Blissey).
And I particularly loved Island Scan: it really made the seven Pokemon you'd get on each island feel special and worth the time it took to get them (side note, the QR scanner in general was a great feature, even if just to add new entries to your dex, and the fact that pretty much any QR on earth worked with it was a great catch: it's always amusing seeing what random species you get from it). I genuinely think it's one of the best encounter methods - there's a real sense of adventure and stakes when you've only got a limited time to find the Pokemon. Although I don't think it ever took me anywhere near an hour.
Either way, what with all the various options available to you, there's a massive diversity in terms of how you actually find the various Pokemon out in Alola, which made the world feel much more alive and richly detailed. Even fishing was much more interesting than previous games to me since getting a bubbling spot dramatically raises the chance of finding Pokemon which would otherwise be horribly rare. With that said, I've never really invested much time in fishing in X&Y/ORAS so can't speak to how much the system was improved from that, though I did like the detail of how fishing in impassible areas (like a spot surrounded by rocks) increased the chance of finding a Pokemon. But all this really added to my enjoyment of Sun/Moon, and made me actively want to complete the Pokedex by going out and catching things where I hadn't really bothered to do so in XY and ORAS (instead just importing Pokemon in bulk from Bank and mass trading over the GTS).
Whereas Kalos, for the most part, lacks this diversity. It's just "here's an area and there are 11 different Pokemon in the grass, good luck finding the one you want lmao" which I never found memorable or particularly engaging. Horde encounters aside, that is, but they're generally so elusive as to be nonexistent unless you deliberately trigger one, and the fact that the Pokemon you encounter tend to be much weaker than your current level didn't make them feel urgent or exciting - if there was a genuine chance I'd come away with my team in tatters that'd be cool, but ultimately they just end up being easy (if you have a spread move) or tediously long (if you don't). Occasionally there'd be a route with different-coloured patches of grass or something, but afaik this was only really relevant for Flabebe and you'd still mostly get the same pool of Pokemon on the rest of the route.
Even the postgame encounter methods weren't much of a draw. I've got a large amount of codes added on my 3DS but typically only use the Friend Safari if I'm breeding and need a particular Pokemon that's tediously difficult to find elsewhere or something. As for the Pokeradar, I don't believe I've ever even used it in XY and there's probably a good reason for that:
Bulbapedia said:
Sheer quantity is nice, but it's not everything. Alola just does much better work with its Pokemon than Kalos does. You could have a region of 700 Pokemon but you could make that manageable if you actually put some more thought into how they're all encountered than just "idk, shove them all in the grass and let the players worry about finding the one they want".
Regarding Pokémon distribution and availability in non-remakes past Gen 5, here are my short opinions, I'm not in the mood for writing anything longer.
X/Y: Excellent. The largest regional dex to date, with great variety. All regions are well represented, and I never felt that the Kalos Pokémon themselves were that hard to find. There are none that are downright rare, they are uncommon at best. And IIRC all of them are used on the team of some important trainer, the only exception being Florges. I really liked the diversity of the Kalos dex, it was always exciting to go to a new route to see what I would find there. It made it so much more fun to explore and play through the games. Special encounters were also really great here, always offering something different compared to what you would usually find.
S/M: Awful. Literally the polar opposite of X/Y since the variety was bad, and Kanto was massively overrepresented in the regional dex. I mean
this is absurd. While X/Y had more Kanto Pokémon in terms of raw numbers, it was less in terms of percentage, and to me, it felt less since the other regions were so strongly represented too. In S/M, it was completely obvious right from the start that the games had a high Kanto bias, the games didn't even bother hiding it. The diversity on the routes and areas is also really bad, with around 10 Pokémon lines being found almost everywhere, while many other Pokémon are rare. Most notably the Alola Pokémon themselves, quite a lot of them are uncommon or downright rare, full details here. When I play a new Pokémon game, I want to use and encounter new Pokémon, not have Kanto Pokémon spammed in my face every other encounter. This really bothered me when I played the Alola games. The special encounters were also really poorly handled in Gen 7 since even if you had a special encounter, you would mostly find the same Pokémon as in a regular encounter, which was extremely disappointing. Add in the awful SOS mechanics and the fact that some Pokémon were exclusive to them (at low encounter rates, no less), it became almost unenjoyable in the end. Having 150 less Pokémon than X/Y in the regional dex was also a mistake since it contributed to even less variety. The Island Scan was kind of cool but a bit complicated to use, I never used it during any of my in-game playthroughs.
US/UM: Better than S/M, but worse than X/Y. The Pokédex expansion helped, too bad they didn't fix the variety. Sadly, most of the issues from S/M remain in the end. This seems to be a very unpopular opinion, but I think the Alola games (S/M especially) failed in terms of diversity and showcasing their new Pokémon, while X/Y succeeded.
S/S: Similar to X/Y. Does a fairly good job at showcasing their new Pokémon, but it isn't perfect. Overworld encounters help a lot with encountering the Pokémon you want. The main issue is that some Pokémon are only found in specific parts of the wild area, and some are locked to specific weather conditions. But on the whole, these games had great variety and a solid regional dex, I rarely had any issues finding any of the Pokémon I wanted, new or old.
ScaVio: I actually think these games did it the very best. High variety from all regions, but the new Pokémon still get a lot of the spotlight. Overworld encounters combined with having over 100 new Pokémon helped a lot. It is hard to explain, the variety and distribution just sort of felt right when I played Violet.
Here's how I rank the modern games when it comes to regional dexes, variety and showcasing their new Pokémon: ScaVio > X/Y & S/S > US/UM > S/M
X/Y: Excellent. The largest regional dex to date, with great variety. All regions are well represented, and I never felt that the Kalos Pokémon themselves were that hard to find. There are none that are downright rare, they are uncommon at best. And IIRC all of them are used on the team of some important trainer, the only exception being Florges. I really liked the diversity of the Kalos dex, it was always exciting to go to a new route to see what I would find there. It made it so much more fun to explore and play through the games. Special encounters were also really great here, always offering something different compared to what you would usually find.
S/M: Awful. Literally the polar opposite of X/Y since the variety was bad, and Kanto was massively overrepresented in the regional dex. I mean
this is absurd. While X/Y had more Kanto Pokémon in terms of raw numbers, it was less in terms of percentage, and to me, it felt less since the other regions were so strongly represented too. In S/M, it was completely obvious right from the start that the games had a high Kanto bias, the games didn't even bother hiding it. The diversity on the routes and areas is also really bad, with around 10 Pokémon lines being found almost everywhere, while many other Pokémon are rare. Most notably the Alola Pokémon themselves, quite a lot of them are uncommon or downright rare, full details here. When I play a new Pokémon game, I want to use and encounter new Pokémon, not have Kanto Pokémon spammed in my face every other encounter. This really bothered me when I played the Alola games. The special encounters were also really poorly handled in Gen 7 since even if you had a special encounter, you would mostly find the same Pokémon as in a regular encounter, which was extremely disappointing. Add in the awful SOS mechanics and the fact that some Pokémon were exclusive to them (at low encounter rates, no less), it became almost unenjoyable in the end. Having 150 less Pokémon than X/Y in the regional dex was also a mistake since it contributed to even less variety. The Island Scan was kind of cool but a bit complicated to use, I never used it during any of my in-game playthroughs.
US/UM: Better than S/M, but worse than X/Y. The Pokédex expansion helped, too bad they didn't fix the variety. Sadly, most of the issues from S/M remain in the end. This seems to be a very unpopular opinion, but I think the Alola games (S/M especially) failed in terms of diversity and showcasing their new Pokémon, while X/Y succeeded.
S/S: Similar to X/Y. Does a fairly good job at showcasing their new Pokémon, but it isn't perfect. Overworld encounters help a lot with encountering the Pokémon you want. The main issue is that some Pokémon are only found in specific parts of the wild area, and some are locked to specific weather conditions. But on the whole, these games had great variety and a solid regional dex, I rarely had any issues finding any of the Pokémon I wanted, new or old.
ScaVio: I actually think these games did it the very best. High variety from all regions, but the new Pokémon still get a lot of the spotlight. Overworld encounters combined with having over 100 new Pokémon helped a lot. It is hard to explain, the variety and distribution just sort of felt right when I played Violet.
Here's how I rank the modern games when it comes to regional dexes, variety and showcasing their new Pokémon: ScaVio > X/Y & S/S > US/UM > S/M
Heatproof is such an undercooked ability if you'll pardon the dismal pun.
Halving the damage from Fire isn't particularly impressive - surely it'd be better for it to confer a resistance to Fire? Thick Fat is a good ability on Snorlax because it actually does grant it a pseudo-resistance to Fire, but mechanically Heatproof is just "Thick Fat without the additional Ice resistance": all it does for Bronzong and Sinistcha is to turn Fire into a neutral hit, which isn't particularly helpful. And halving the damage from burns is stupid - how about preventing burns entirely? As it is there's not really any incentive for Bronzong to ever choose Heatproof over Levitate, and Hospitality is a far better choice in Doubles than Heatproof for Sinistcha. It's an ability that could definitely use a rework.
Halving the damage from Fire isn't particularly impressive - surely it'd be better for it to confer a resistance to Fire? Thick Fat is a good ability on Snorlax because it actually does grant it a pseudo-resistance to Fire, but mechanically Heatproof is just "Thick Fat without the additional Ice resistance": all it does for Bronzong and Sinistcha is to turn Fire into a neutral hit, which isn't particularly helpful. And halving the damage from burns is stupid - how about preventing burns entirely? As it is there's not really any incentive for Bronzong to ever choose Heatproof over Levitate, and Hospitality is a far better choice in Doubles than Heatproof for Sinistcha. It's an ability that could definitely use a rework.
To add onto the gripes with Heatproof's borderline redundant existence: As of Gen 7 and after, the burn damage chip got reduced from 1/8 to 1/16 so the burn damage reduction perk of the ability almost feels even more useless (I am for the idea of it being upgraded to prevent burns but also like the potential niche of just not getting the attack drop/chip from Burns entirely so it can differentiate itself). It almost feels like the only reason Heatproof's shortcomings haven't been addressed to have some serviceable buff is solely because they're exclusive to two evolution families (and Rolycoly) and so there is no reason to further bother. But hey, they suddenly remembered Illuminate was a dead ability for 6 whole generations before giving it an in-battle use so it's entirely hopeless!
Imo, dexcut was Made top early on. Sure, powercreep exists and IS there, but 8G isnt not overwhelmingly powercrept. I mean, how powercrept is morpeko compared to mimikyu? How powercrept is barraskewda compared to toxapex? Dexcut will be necessary, but isnt yet.
bronzong should've had flash fire anyway to make its gimmick work properly* #justiceforbronzong
*before the type chart changes ruined it anyway, that is
Exactly! Why half-ass it? If you're going to make a Steel Pokemon that doesn't fear Fire-types, do it properly!
Seems like they just didn't want non-fire types to get fire immunities at the time. Flash Fire was the only one until Well-Baked Body iirc.
Honestly being "worse thick fat" doesn't bug me as much, same with other abilities that go through similar things (ie: Overcoat vs Magic Guard) since sometimes the flavor is fine or it does something else....but if we want abilities that really took its lunch we want to look at Water Bubble (resists fire, doubles your water damage, AND immune to burn) & Well-Baked Body (immune to all fire moves and gets +2 defense per hit; not immune to burn but may as well be) lol.
Honestly being "worse thick fat" doesn't bug me as much, same with other abilities that go through similar things (ie: Overcoat vs Magic Guard) since sometimes the flavor is fine or it does something else....but if we want abilities that really took its lunch we want to look at Water Bubble (resists fire, doubles your water damage, AND immune to burn) & Well-Baked Body (immune to all fire moves and gets +2 defense per hit; not immune to burn but may as well be) lol.
Underwhelming abilities are nothing new; for a lot of Pokemon with two it's like "here's the one you'll generally want and here's the other that's useful 1% of the time". There are very few circumstances in which Illuminate Starmie is the better choice over Natural Cure for instance.
wrt Bronzong though conceptually the dichotomy between Heatproof/Levitate feels more like the choice is one that's actually meant to give the player a strategic quandary. Remove your Ground weakness or remove your Fire weakness: which do you fear more? And that's something which might change based on your team and your overall strategy: if you're running a Rain team you'd fear Fire far less. Lanturn is the only other Pokemon I can think of offhand with the same predicament: it gets both Volt Absorb and Water Absorb and that's a genuine choice because Electric and Water are both common enough that you could make good use of both.
But it's not really a balanced choice in Bronzong's case because an immunity, let alone an immunity to an extremely common attacking type, is way more valuable than just reducing damage. Nine times out of ten Levitate is by far the superior choice. It's just disappointing they made a signature ability for it that's so bad.
wrt Bronzong though conceptually the dichotomy between Heatproof/Levitate feels more like the choice is one that's actually meant to give the player a strategic quandary. Remove your Ground weakness or remove your Fire weakness: which do you fear more? And that's something which might change based on your team and your overall strategy: if you're running a Rain team you'd fear Fire far less. Lanturn is the only other Pokemon I can think of offhand with the same predicament: it gets both Volt Absorb and Water Absorb and that's a genuine choice because Electric and Water are both common enough that you could make good use of both.
But it's not really a balanced choice in Bronzong's case because an immunity, let alone an immunity to an extremely common attacking type, is way more valuable than just reducing damage. Nine times out of ten Levitate is by far the superior choice. It's just disappointing they made a signature ability for it that's so bad.
There's a real possibility that the devs weren't thinking about having a strategic quandary when designing Bronzor and Bronzong. Since the inspiration for the line is a myth about a mirror that wouldn't melt down to be part of a bell, I could see them thinking of Heatproof as the flavour ability while Levitate is the mechanics Ability. From that perspective, Heatproof could be as bad as Illuminate as long as it got the idea across. I wonder if had Bronzong been created more recently, it would have a stronger Heatproof as its only main ability and Levitate restricted to HA.
That's not unique to them, though. There are plenty of abilities that have little or no utility in singles: Friend Guard, Healer, Stalwart, Receiver... and Plusle and Minun were literally designed to be used mostly in doubles. Making their abilities useful in singles would have gotten in the way of that.
The difference is you don't need ANOTHER user with the same or parallel ability to work. They're Doubles/Triple locked specifically, but not stuck being specific to another mon's specific ability
Plus/Minus meanwhile do, and neither Plusle/Minun are that bulky in debut even. At least post Gen 5 they improved ability distribution and buffed it so it doesn't need to be the opposite ability specifically, but it's still reliant on multiple abilities to function
It's like how Damp is useless 99% of the time cuz explosion moves are too high of a risk to be used, nor too common of a type of move. Other than Mystery Dungeon, but that's cheating
That said for your point, it is awkward how GF barely has Double battles, but keeps making abilities for it. So you'll rarely see its use at all. Commander suffers being barely seen in game despite it being for a specific duo mon interaction
The part about Plus and Minus that annoys me is that they made them identical in Gen 5 (as in, it doesn't matter which ability the ally as; if they have either you get the boost) while simultaneously introducing a Pokemon with both Plus and Minus in Klink.
Not only is the interaction between same vs different charges not the same electrodynamically (if they wanted to put in a unique interaction that the abilities would have with themselves like boosting Special Defense or something fine, but don't make it the same as the interaction with the opposite), but it ruined what I assume was supposed to be the gimmick of Klink having both. It was supposed to be a reference to how gears need to be spinning in opposite directions to work.
Not only is the interaction between same vs different charges not the same electrodynamically (if they wanted to put in a unique interaction that the abilities would have with themselves like boosting Special Defense or something fine, but don't make it the same as the interaction with the opposite), but it ruined what I assume was supposed to be the gimmick of Klink having both. It was supposed to be a reference to how gears need to be spinning in opposite directions to work.
I'll never understand why VGC is a doubles format.
The games are 99% singles, make it make sense GF
The games are 99% singles, make it make sense GF
Don't get me started on Plus and Minus. Plusle and Minun, of course, have awful stats and a standard Electric-limited movepool, but it's worse than that. Fundamentally, you want mons in Doubles that do different things and cover each other's weaknesses, and the two of them are nearly identical. It's an awful idea to pair them, which makes their main gimmick a trap.
Which sucks, because IF you do decide to run 2 electric types together, Plus and Minus aren't that great. 50% SPA for free sounds good, but this is Doubles, there's other ways to reach that goal. For example, Plusle's hidden ability is Lightning Rod. Pair it with any other mon with Discharge, and suddenly Plusle is getting a free 50% boost every turn, without the drawback of having a Minun on the field. And once you've done that, any other source of Lightning Rod is better than Plusle as well. You can run 2xRaichu and get all the (few) benefits of Plus+Minus, with a better stat spread and movepool, and still lose horribly because seriously you're running double Raichu.
Which sucks, because IF you do decide to run 2 electric types together, Plus and Minus aren't that great. 50% SPA for free sounds good, but this is Doubles, there's other ways to reach that goal. For example, Plusle's hidden ability is Lightning Rod. Pair it with any other mon with Discharge, and suddenly Plusle is getting a free 50% boost every turn, without the drawback of having a Minun on the field. And once you've done that, any other source of Lightning Rod is better than Plusle as well. You can run 2xRaichu and get all the (few) benefits of Plus+Minus, with a better stat spread and movepool, and still lose horribly because seriously you're running double Raichu.
plusle and minun and plus and minus were never made to be viable in any form. theyre little mascots of doubles, easy to slap in early game double battles foes and just meant to be cute. every plus/minus user has it because its a fun and cute flavor ability. theres no need to improve it either because unless its given some weird fangame buff, none of the ability havers are worth pairing together and have better abilities.
like idk it was an ability given to a pikaclone whos main concept is being cute and not particularly worth using until they decided pikaclones could be useful in gen 7, thats just how some mons go
like idk it was an ability given to a pikaclone whos main concept is being cute and not particularly worth using until they decided pikaclones could be useful in gen 7, thats just how some mons go
the fact that arm thrust has 15 bp. It's so random, as all other non-normal type (read: not abysmal) 2-5 multi-hit moves have 25 bp. I can sort of understand it being a design choice when Pokemon was primary an RPG game it fulfilling a weak early-game move niche, but now that pokemon has shifted towards being very much multiplayer-based it really should've been updated a la leech life. It'd help Breloom and Mega Heracross a lot at least.
So while I am excited about Pokemon Concierge getting new episodes...
I would be lying if I said the last episode of the first batch didn't leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, anyways, spoilers for Episode 4, Welcome To The Pokemon Resort!
While not the main issue with the episode, it does have a fairly obvious lesson that can be identified as soon as the main conflict of the episode is introduced, and while the first episode also had a fairly obvious lesson, it is the first episode, and we do need Haru to become more relaxed for her to do her job effectively and properly set the vibe of the series, which also helps the viewer get into the right mindspace for the series as well. That said, I do think it kind of detracts from the episode when your basically just waiting for the characters to come to the same realization you already figured out, and go through the motions of having their efforts not come to fruition.
That said, onto my MAIN issue with this episode.
On paper, this is a sweet ending, clearly meant to tug on the heartstrings. But in my opinion, it just falls completely flat, for a two reasons.
1. It completely circumvents the lesson of the episode. The whole point was that Shy Pikachu is not like other Pikachu. It's shy, reserved, and not as outgoing, vocal, or energetic as most other Pikachu. So just having it cry out like all the others just makes me ask why they even went through the whole song and dance of learning this lesson, only to throw it out. While I do think it's meant to be seen as a sweet moment, the cynical part of me, has another theory...
2. It really feels like a last minute add in so that Pikachu stays "on brand". The episode says it itself, Pikachu is iconic in universe for being outgoing, loud, and energetic. Things Shy Pikachu is not, it's quiet, reserved, and well, SHY. But that isn't the Pikachu Brand, not in universe, or IRL. The Pokemon Company is protective of their image, and while they have shown some daring in the past, they tend not to mess with Pikachu, it's the mascot after all. So having Shy Pikachu act like other Pikachu feels like a cynical addition meant to realign Shy Pikachu with the other Pikachu, the Pikachu brand.
So while I liked the episode for the most part, the ending just falls flat on it's face and betrays itself. If I had a chance to redo the ending I would have Shy Pikachu break out of it's shell a little to ask the other Pikachu to help it say good bye to Haru, either by getting them all to cry out to her, or maybe use their electrical abilities to send her a message of some kind. This way Shy Pikachu gets to stay shy, but start making progress on becoming more social.
But hey, maybe I'm thinking about it from the wrong perspective. And I am 100% looking forward to more Concierge.
I would be lying if I said the last episode of the first batch didn't leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, anyways, spoilers for Episode 4, Welcome To The Pokemon Resort!
The episode focuses around Haru and her Psyduck interacting with a young trainer and his Shy Pikachu, who are at the resort as part of a Pikachu fan meetup. The trainer wishes that his Shy Pikachu was more outgoing and energetic (like other Pikachu are) instead of being shy, and quiet. Over the course of a day Haru and Psyduck bring the trainer and his Shy Pikachu on various activities aimed at helping the Shy Pikachu to be more vocal. These all fail, and both Haru and the Trainer come to the realization that Shy Pikachu is fine as is, and does not need to match with the iconic image / sound that most other Pikachu share in.
While not the main issue with the episode, it does have a fairly obvious lesson that can be identified as soon as the main conflict of the episode is introduced, and while the first episode also had a fairly obvious lesson, it is the first episode, and we do need Haru to become more relaxed for her to do her job effectively and properly set the vibe of the series, which also helps the viewer get into the right mindspace for the series as well. That said, I do think it kind of detracts from the episode when your basically just waiting for the characters to come to the same realization you already figured out, and go through the motions of having their efforts not come to fruition.
That said, onto my MAIN issue with this episode.
After coming to the realization, the Trainer, his Shy Pikachu, and all of the other Pikachu fans & their Pikachu all get on the boat to leave, with the Trainer and Shy Pikachu saying their farewells, and getting a drawing that Haru made of him and Psyduck sleeping together, prompting it to finally get loud, and let lose it's iconic cry, bringing Haru to tears of joy as the boat sails off.
On paper, this is a sweet ending, clearly meant to tug on the heartstrings. But in my opinion, it just falls completely flat, for a two reasons.
1. It completely circumvents the lesson of the episode. The whole point was that Shy Pikachu is not like other Pikachu. It's shy, reserved, and not as outgoing, vocal, or energetic as most other Pikachu. So just having it cry out like all the others just makes me ask why they even went through the whole song and dance of learning this lesson, only to throw it out. While I do think it's meant to be seen as a sweet moment, the cynical part of me, has another theory...
2. It really feels like a last minute add in so that Pikachu stays "on brand". The episode says it itself, Pikachu is iconic in universe for being outgoing, loud, and energetic. Things Shy Pikachu is not, it's quiet, reserved, and well, SHY. But that isn't the Pikachu Brand, not in universe, or IRL. The Pokemon Company is protective of their image, and while they have shown some daring in the past, they tend not to mess with Pikachu, it's the mascot after all. So having Shy Pikachu act like other Pikachu feels like a cynical addition meant to realign Shy Pikachu with the other Pikachu, the Pikachu brand.
So while I liked the episode for the most part, the ending just falls flat on it's face and betrays itself. If I had a chance to redo the ending I would have Shy Pikachu break out of it's shell a little to ask the other Pikachu to help it say good bye to Haru, either by getting them all to cry out to her, or maybe use their electrical abilities to send her a message of some kind. This way Shy Pikachu gets to stay shy, but start making progress on becoming more social.
But hey, maybe I'm thinking about it from the wrong perspective. And I am 100% looking forward to more Concierge.
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i agree with this 100%. if you want to make plus and minus useful in some other way other than each other, fine, but then becoming funcrionally identical is horrible flavour.
also if i could turn back time and change one thing about pokémon, i would go to ruby/sapphire development and convince them double battles are silly. i don't even think they are, i just think "WELL vgc is the OFFICIAL format so NO thought should be spared for single battles whatsoever. i am VERY intelligent" discourse is maybe the most rancid aspect of the fandom lol