Little things you like about Pokémon

[Celever]

I really love Crystal. I really really do.

My first game was Silver and Crystal was a great upgrade on that - Suicune has always been my favourite Pokemon.

They only made one poor decision.

View attachment 617255

Where’d you go…?

The Mareep case specifically is one that I kinda understand. I probably wouldn’t make the decision myself, but I think it became clear quickly that everyone used a Mareep on their GS team. It’s rational to take it out of the third version in order to force players to use a different Pokémon instead, and balance popularity more, whether by forcing new Gen 2 players out of encountering it so they just get 6 other favourites, or making veterans get a 7th favourite.

3rd Version removing acess to Pokemon is so weird.
In Platinum you straight up can't get Murkrow or Misdreavous, and it's baffling to why they made it that way considering 2 important trainers feature their evolutions.

That Mareep sprite...

(Edited because I didn't realize an unposted reply from a day ago was still saved. My bad.)

……but this doesn’t abide by that logic at all. Murkrow and Misdreavus were rare night time spawns in only one area, and they’re the type of Pokémon that a lot of players will have missed on their first playthrough. Particularly with the Misdreavus line receiving a major role in the Sinnoh anime and therefore a presumable boost in popularity afterwards, these two certainly should’ve been included Platinum. They’re more so Pokémon that the average player would try to use on their second visit to Sinnoh.

Another Pokémon who feels just like that to me is Surskit. Surskit wasn’t included in Emerald at all, despite being extremely rare in RS. You probably miss it on a first casual playthrough, so removing it from the third version is a poor choice. Players are likelier to hunt for rare stuff to actually include on their team the second time around.

 

[Nokocchi]

Crystal may have took out some Gen II Pokemon that were in both Gold and Silver(Mareep, Remoraid, and Girafarig) but they allowed you to get both the Gold and Silver version exclusive Gen II Pokemon in one game, as well as making many Gen II Pokemon that were rare in GS much more easier to obtain. I think that's a fair trade. They didn't want to make Gold and Silver COMPLETELY useless, needed a reason for a Crystal owner to want to trade with the two older games. Mareep in particular is a good incentive. Emerald and Platinum do it a bit different(Emerald mix and matched Ruby/Sapphire version exclusives like Solrock and Seviper and Platinum just leaved them both out like with Stunky/Glameow and Murkrow/Misdreavus), they leave out Pokemon introduced in that Gen so that way there is a still a purpose to owning the original pair of games.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

3rd Version removing acess to Pokemon is so weird.
In Platinum you straight up can't get Murkrow or Misdreavous, and it's baffling to why they made it that way considering 2 important trainers feature their evolutions.

I mean, it's... just the abiding game logic. No game in the series has ever had all of its native Pokemon available in it (with the obvious exception of single titles like Colosseum, XD, and L:A). Yellow had its own version exclusives, as did Emerald.

It's not pleasant but it's been a part of the formula since day one. Significant trainers using Pokemon has very little to do with whether they'll be available for the player to catch, Blue uses Arcanine in both Red and Green and numerous trainers use Pokemon only accessible via trade like Gengar and Alakazam.

Yellow's missing Pokemon were at least ones which had some relevance, as they're mostly Pokemon Ash would have been unlikely to catch in the anime: Ekans, Koffing, and Meowth are obviously Team Rocket's Pokemon, while Weedle is a Pokemon Ash notably failed to catch in an early episode (though ironically he eventually went on to catch one in the Johto arc). Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar don't have much anime significance, but form a loosely-connected trio and Electabuzz/Magmar are exclusive to Red and Blue respectively, adding an extra layer of challenge since you'll need to trade with both versions.

I do sometimes wonder how much game balance was taken into account when removing Pokemon in third versions, though. Most paired versions do exclusivity with Pokemon of the same type so you've basically the same team options in each game - two Grass-types, two Fire-types etc - but, as people have pointed out, Mareep's loss in Crystal makes obtaining an Electric-type take much longer - if you don't get lucky with the Odd Egg and get a Pichu or Elekid, you either have to wait until after the third badge to catch a Magnemite on Route 38, a Chinchou or a Voltorb in Olivine, or else grind phone calls to get a Thunderstone to evolve your Eevee.

Emerald and Platinum's spread of missing Pokemon are a bit more forgiving - there's Grass-types aplenty so Roselia isn't a terrible loss, Meditite comes too late to be a problem, and odds are you didn't catch a Surskit in RS anyway. Though I recall there is a relative scarcity of Dark-types in Platinum since both Stunky and Murkrow are absent - Spiritomb is unobtainable in solo play, Drapion takes ages to evolve, and Sneasel comes very late. That basically leaves you with Houndour, which also comes relatively far into the game, or Umbreon which takes a lot of effort to evolve.

 

[Just A Seaking]

Tangentially related, but Crystal getting rid of Mareep is evil. Johto already lacks for type diversity and good team members as is, and you’re going to take away one of the only Electric options and one of the only decent Johto lines? Why?

The Odd Egg at least gives you a shot at Pichu or Elekid, but they still evolve into Kanto ‘mons and neither of them are guaranteed, nor are they available for Falkner.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Platinum seems to have deliberately removed two version-exclusive pairs from the availability pool so that both Diamond and Pearl still had mons exclusive to them specifically. Those two being the Misdreavus+Murkrow lines and the Glameow+Stunky lines. It kind of reeks similarity to how Yellow excluded Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar in that regard.

That said Honchkrow and Mismagius were somewhat big losses in Platinum imo, even if many don't use them, if only because they're actually quite good and underrated for a Sinnoh playthrough. What they bring to the table is unique among that roster and having a good Dark or Ghost-type is great for dealing with Psychic-types like Alakazam who are very ubiquitous in Sinnoh.

Tangentially related, but Crystal getting rid of Mareep is evil. Johto already lacks for type diversity and good team members as is, and you’re going to take away one of the only Electric options and one of the only decent Johto lines? Why?

The Odd Egg at least gives you a shot at Pichu or Elekid, but they still evolve into Kanto ‘mons and neither of them are guaranteed, nor are they available for Falkner.

To begin with I'm inclined to believe they want players to use a mix of Gen 2 Pokemon and Gen 1 Pokemon. Gen 2's roster is designed as something of an expansion and part of the original 151, not necessarily an entirely new roster in and of itself. Johto is directly west of Kanto and on the same landmass and the game throws a lot of Gen 1 Pokemon at you right off the bat, and they still want you to use things like Pidgey, Rattata, Butterfree+Beedrill, etc. as team members. Gen 2's design principle was rooted in it being a sequel and expansion of Gen 1, not a new thing. Gen 3 and Hoenn were the first formal soft reboot and the first region to have a completely independent and new roster that they want you to focus on.

If you don't rule out Gen 1 Pokemon from your teambuilding options your Electric-type options in Crystal are harder to get and available later but still workable. Pikachu and Electabuzz are perfectly valid teammates and are good Pokemon, and there's also Magnemite in Route 38 who evolves into Magneton who is genuinely quite good. And then there's Chinchou/Lanturn, which I haven't ever used but I do think can be a pretty decent teammate as it has the bonus of also being a Water-type.

 

[R_N]

The fun thing about everyone bringing up the Odd Egg was it wasn't even part of the design decisions. It's something only guaranteed in international copies; in Japan it was an event you could only get if you had the wireless adapter.

 

[ZB7]

Of all the Pokémon I used in Crystal, there was one good boy who surprised me the most and was the MVP of my team…

This guy.

Quagsire is a great team member. As a Wooper that can be caught just past Falkner’s gym, it learns Water Gun, Tail Whip and Slam by level 11, meaning it’s incredibly easy to get those moves before Bugsy. It served me really well, having a rock resistance and electric immunity whilst being able to fight back versus the common hiker’s Geodude and Onix.

I like how easily attainable Quagsire is before Whitney, who has her famous rollout Miltank. Being able to evolve it in the gym itself and then use it as a rock hard wall against something that may give many other Pokémon trouble was a godsend considering I only had a Quilava and Pidgeotto by this time.

Beyond that though, Quagsire is just decently bulky, decently strong, has a great typing, can get Headbutt and Ice Punch (or even the insanely hard to grind for Blizzard) before even leaving Goldenrod, and Surf before even Morty, giving it a high BP STAB move that despite Mr Sire having moderately low special attack, hits hard because many things can’t stand up to it again and again. Amnesia is also a surprisingly solid option for guarding against special attacking Pokémon that don’t hit the hardest immediately (and I used it to catch Suicune!) At level 35 it learns Earthquake, or around Claire’s Gym. It really rounds out everything Quag has and cements itself as an ace player on the team.

In the end, I loved using this Pokémon specifically in this region because everything is just right that makes Quagsire thrive in such a specific way where it’s just so fun to use. It doesn’t have as much of a gap between new options as other Pokémon I used such as Cyndaquil or Pidgey, both of whom have to wait until level 30~ to get STAB moves of *60* BP.

Using it also just generally raised my opinion of it, and I really like it now.

Love you Quag <3

 

[CPU]

Quagsire's generally low stats are probably supplemented by stat experience and badge boosts to make it more well-rounded.

Not knocking it for that, though; hard to argue with a great type combo, early accessibility, and a solid movepool that's rounded out by one of the best moves in Gen 2 (and it gets STAB on it!) in a game where Pokémon are lucky to get one good stab option.

 

[Leif98]

I want to praise Gen Vs Itemfinder and its item menus a bit.

I really like the idea of the Itemfinder/Dowsing Machine/whatever its called, searching for both normal and hidden items makes exploring more fun.
But in Gen 1-3 its really cumbersome, DPP you have to stop to use it (and DPP is already slow..), in HGSS you have to constantly out your finger on the touchscreen...
In Gen V it just works so well, you can use it all the time, having to close it for menuing doesn't matter since the Y-Select is so fast, and exploring is just a lot of fun. XY is really good too but it locks you out of the bike and in some areas you can't use it.

Gen Vs bag and item menus work really well and are just easy to navigate, the different bag sections were nicely separated, you could automatically sort for the first time (I believe) and you could even put different bag areas or Pokemon status pages on the Y-Select, so you could easily acess what you want. Compared to the previous games this was a big and noteworthy improvement when it came out, at least to me.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I really like what was done with the beast trio and the Celebi for their respective events in Black & White: uniquely, their status screens display different messages before and after activating the cutscenes to reflect their completion. This is a really cool little detail which gives their events a bit more significance - getting the "completed" screen feels much more like an accomplishment.

It does mean that they're "one-time use" though, which is annoying if you ever want to restart the games and unlock the events again.

(I also wonder if giving you a signpost in this way was related in any way to Game Freak's reasoning that "it would be too complicated" to release the Azure Flute, but maybe not)

 

[Magcargo]

I like how the Groudon you can catch in Scarlet and Violet comes with the Fire Tera Type. That's a really cool little detail that I'm glad they added.

Lugia also starts with the Water Tera type which is pretty cool.

 

[saberslasher11]

mega's existing. specifically mega blaziken.

 

[Coronis]

I like how Walking Wake was changed into a more aggressive offensive version of Suicune.

Gouging Fire is bulkier than Entei, but barely slower and just as strong offensively.

Raging Bolt did the reverse of Walking Wake basically, changing Raikou to a slow but powerful special attacker.

I’ve always loved Suicune (and always will) but it pleases me to see a version of it that’s more offensive.

 

[pika pal]

Airlifting this post I made in the "Annoy" thread for one positive point I made.

• Iron Hands I also think is kind of interesting. Most of the stat gains over Hariyama go into slight increases on their shared specialties (HP/ATK/DEF), but their actual kits affect a lot about how (well) they can leverage those traits.
  • Hands has a second STAB via Electric but in exchange gains a Ground Weakness that significantly counterbalances his Physical Bulk increase over Hariyama
  • Hariyama's ability access gives it some traits Hands would kill for: Guts lets it sort of ignore status effects even if not running an Orb to inflict it on itself, while Thick Fat gives it two pseudo-resistances that are for often-Special types, the side their statline struggles with
  • In essence, while Iron Hands is a more optimized stat spread, Hariyama has some unique traits that theoretically allow it to fill roles on a team that Hands cannot, which leaves it more room for consideration than most "you but better" Paradoxes left their counterparts.
  • Really good Pass

TL;DR Iron Hands is a really cool "Min-Maxed original" Paradox because Hariyama's other traits still leave them niches over each other in the same role, even if in different tiers overall.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

delete the move earthquake out of existence, that's all I ask. reasoning: main cause of blaziken dying

Okay but this post made me chuckle because it made me remember how much I used to revere Earthquake

So, back when I first played Crystal, I mainlined HARD with my starter Cyndaquil. I had other Pokemon on my team, sure. But Cyndaquil took part in 90% of all battles and was grossly overlevelled to the point that I basically soloed the Elite Four with it, using the five other weaklings on my team as sacrificial lambs whenever Typhlosion fainted and I needed to use a Revive.

Anyway. Young as I was and thoroughly stupid, once I'd defeated the Elite Four I figured I'd go back and give the Battle Tower a proper go. I'd wrecked everyone with my mighty Typhlosion so far, I could do the same here, right? And because I've always reached for the stars I moronically chose to do level 100. With a Typhlosion many levels lower.

Oh, I managed a few KOs here and there. But always found myself coming up against that Piloswine. Oh, that dirty pig was the stuff of nightmares. Earthquake's animation and grinding noise terrified me, and it wrecked me every single time.

Imagine my sheer delight and joy when a friend told me Earthquake was actually in Victory Road, and I'd missed finding it! And my delight when I finally came across it and picked it up. The move description is so gloriously blunt and to-the-point:

"Tough but useless against Flying foes"

Wouldn't the series be so much more fun if all moves had a description like that? Pay Day: "makes you money, neat." Fury Cutter: "use it once, use it twice, use it seventy-six times." Horn Drill: "just kills stuff, except Ghosts."

 

[saberslasher11]

Okay but this post made me chuckle because it made me remember how much I used to revere Earthquake

So, back when I first played Crystal, I mainlined HARD with my starter Cyndaquil. I had other Pokemon on my team, sure. But Cyndaquil took part in 90% of all battles and was grossly overlevelled to the point that I basically soloed the Elite Four with it, using the five other weaklings on my team as sacrificial lambs whenever Typhlosion fainted and I needed to use a Revive.

Anyway. Young as I was and thoroughly stupid, once I'd defeated the Elite Four I figured I'd go back and give the Battle Tower a proper go. I'd wrecked everyone with my mighty Typhlosion so far, I could do the same here, right? And because I've always reached for the stars I moronically chose to do level 100. With a Typhlosion many levels lower.

Oh, I managed a few KOs here and there. But always found myself coming up against that Piloswine. Oh, that dirty pig was the stuff of nightmares. Earthquake's animation and grinding noise terrified me, and it wrecked me every single time.

Imagine my sheer delight and joy when a friend told me Earthquake was actually in Victory Road, and I'd missed finding it! And my delight when I finally came across it and picked it up. The move description is so gloriously blunt and to-the-point:

"Tough but useless against Flying foes"

Wouldn't the series be so much more fun if all moves had a description like that? Pay Day: "makes you money, neat." Fury Cutter: "use it once, use it twice, use it seventy-six times." Horn Drill: "just kills stuff, except Ghosts."

I remember when I first played ruby, I only used blaziken, like all my other pokemon were literally hm slaves, blaziken just soloed everything with ease. the only problem I had was state and liza so I picked up an absol for that but ditched it after I beat the gym. but competitively blaziken dies to earthquake a lot hence the complains

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Thinking about maybe doing a challenge run on HGSS in the near future, and one thing I really like from that game is the five-in-a-row battle against the Kimono Girls.

Silver complains about it being a really tough challenge when you meet him, and he's not wrong: they're at a pretty decent level for that point of the game (though they could be a little higher-levelled) and all of them have actually surprisingly really good movesets. There are a few other instances of you being forced to fight multiple foes in a row without a break, but they're usually counterweighted by the foes being weaker than average - there's that bit in Emerald where three Magma grunts take you on, but they're not terribly threatening - all three are significantly below the levels of the gym you've just beaten, and two of them use NFEs (see below).

But these five make for a genuinely tough fight, which is all the harder for being five separate fights where you aren't given the option to switch Pokemon before starting. There aren't even really any abilities which activate once per battle you can make good use of here; Intimidate isn't helpful for most of the Eeveelutions, and you're unlikely to have a weather-setter with you.

Definitely the best change made to an opponent in-game in Johto: the sequence with the Rocket Grunt is fun, though he also could have had a better team. Then again: "a ludicrously underlevelled opponent" is practically a synonym for "the Johto region" at this point.

 

[DreamPrince]

3rd Version removing acess to Pokemon is so weird.
In Platinum you straight up can't get Murkrow or Misdreavous, and it's baffling to why they made it that way considering 2 important trainers feature their evolutions.

That Mareep sprite...

(Edited because I didn't realize an unposted reply from a day ago was still saved. My bad.)

Platinum seems to have deliberately removed two version-exclusive pairs from the availability pool so that both Diamond and Pearl still had mons exclusive to them specifically. Those two being the Misdreavus+Murkrow lines and the Glameow+Stunky lines. It kind of reeks similarity to how Yellow excluded Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar in that regard.

That said Honchkrow and Mismagius were somewhat big losses in Platinum imo, even if many don't use them, if only because they're actually quite good and underrated for a Sinnoh playthrough. What they bring to the table is unique among that roster and having a good Dark or Ghost-type is great for dealing with Psychic-types like Alakazam who are very ubiquitous in Sinnoh.

The one thing that irritates me about having both Murkrow and Misdreavus lines unavailable in Platinum is that Dusk Stone is useless in this game without trading. If it was to me, I would make it either Murkrow/Glameow or Misdreavus/Stunky unavalible in Platinum. What is particularly egregious is that the fact Glameow and Stunky are only obtainable in Pearl and Diamond respectively, meaning someone is going to have to buy those games, which is precisely the point.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I really like how the Savanna Biome in the Blueberry Terarium has its own Pride Rock in it, complete with a static male Pyroar standing atop of it watching over the land.

If you get it, you get it.

 

[bdt2002]

The one thing that irritates me about having both Murkrow and Misdreavus lines unavailable in Platinum is that Dusk Stone is useless in this game without trading. If it was to me, I would make it either Murkrow/Glameow or Misdreavus/Stunky unavalible in Platinum. What is particularly egregious is that the fact Glameow and Stunky are only obtainable in Pearl and Diamond respectively, meaning someone is going to have to buy those games, which is precisely the point.

I was going to post about this elsewhere, but since your post reminded me of this, I think there could have been a pretty easy solution to this. I only just thought of this, like, last night and it hindsight it makes absolutely no sense to me. With that being said, there could have been another Pokémon I think would fit well as a Dusk Stone evolution that is not only available in Platinum, but ended up being a trade evolution instead, one that requires a held item no less.



Please tell me I don’t need to explain this one.

 

[Nokocchi]

Please tell me I don’t need to explain this one.

That name logic only works in English. In most other languages, most importantly Japanese, neither have similar names ヨノワール(Yonoir) and やみのいし(Yami no Ishi/Dark Stone). They don't even share and common characters in Katakana

 

[CPU]

Hey, if the Shiny (Light) Stone can be used to evolve Pokémon that don't really have a particular connection with light, I don't see a problem with the Dark Stone being used to evolve a Pokémon that has a reasonable connection with physical, absense-of-light darkness.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Gothorita is another Pokemon I always think evolves with the Dusk Stone: it just looks like it should.

Which, if it were the case, would imply Reuniclus evolving with either the Dawn or Shiny Stone, I guess. The Shiny Stone seems like more of a fit for it.

 

[Yung Dramps]

I'm gonna do something a little ballsy and compliment something that hasn't actually happened yet.

Considering how SWSH and SV did things, Legends Z-A is almost certainly gonna have the NPC bosses who use Megas have full animations where they activate their key stone trinket of choice. That's gonna be pretty damn cool.

 

[Esserise]

That name logic only works in English. In most other languages, most importantly Japanese, neither have similar names ヨノワール(Yonoir) and やみのいし(Yami no Ishi/Dark Stone). They don't even share and common characters in Katakana

The name logic may not hold up, but they were still cooking with that idea regardless. Who wants another held item trade evo mon over a stone evo anyway?