(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Genuine_Angus_B33F]

Real-life crocodilians have bony armor plates under their scales for skin (technically they're scutes) which is actually pretty tough.

Feraligatr and Skeledirge have base 100 Defense. Somewhat accurate even if a little low for today's base stat standards.

Krookodile has base 70 Defense.

What.

I wonder if this is kind of a balancing concern. Considering Intimidate and a sizable base 95 HP, even 90 Defense would give it better effective bulk than Landorus-T, as well as every other Intimidate Pokemon in the game, while still being quite fast and also having the mixup of Moxie.

More importantly, your prayers already got answered. Krookodile got buffed to have 80 base Defense in Gen 6.

Real-life crocodilians have a very limited capacity for conjuring up elemental blasts or magic projectiles.

Krookodile and Feraligatr both have <80 base Special Attack. Somewhat accurate, if a little high compared to their real-life counterparts.

Skeledirge has base 110 Special Attack.

What.

This is just a silly joke but it's also such a bad faith interpretation of the above sentiment. There does tend to be a logical throughline with statspreads, and while lots of the logic is really boring and gamey stuff like "the defense and special defense are equal because it's simple and easy to understand" or "the total of the stats needs to hit a specific artifical number and this stat needs to be big / small enough to make that possible", it isn't a crazy thing to at least look at.

 

[Worldie]

We can't jump in the pokemon open world games (Currently only SV and technically Legends Arceus are the ones that are open world) hopefully Z-A will allow us to finally jump in celebration as we get this niche but fun feature ^^

Nonsense, it is well known that you're not allowed to jump in RPGs. That'd lead to the heat death of the universe. It's up there with the other 2 major rules, instant death if touching water with your elbow, and mandatory curry cooking minigame.

(Genshin doesnt count ok)

 

[R_N]

We can't jump in the pokemon open world games (Currently only SV and technically Legends Arceus are the ones that are open world) hopefully Z-A will allow us to finally jump in celebration as we get this niche but fun feature ^^

I'm guessing Pokemon will continue to give us some sort of ride Pokemon that can jump, and they want that to be the primary method of expanding our movement options, so I presume we're just going to be walking/running/leaping in Z-A as normal but Zygarde (or whoever we wind up riding) will be our method of jumping (among other things)

 

[Faux Focalors Furina]

(Genshin doesnt count ok)

I wasn't even thinking of that game what makes you think of that lol?

I'm guessing Pokemon will continue to give us some sort of ride Pokemon that can jump, and they want that to be the primary method of expanding our movement options, so I presume we're just going to be walking/running/leaping in Z-A as normal but Zygarde (or whoever we wind up riding) will be our method of jumping (among other things)

It's a shame that we can't do it ourselves but then again it kinda makes sense design-wise for this franchise specifically.

 

[Worldie]

I wasn't even thinking of that game what makes you think of that lol?

I don't know, maybe something about your name wink wink

 

[Bakugames]

pokemon sucks ass because i cant spam press the jump button to travel. what do you have against being whimsical gamefreak, do you hate whimsy

 

[Faux Focalors Furina]

pokemon sucks ass because i cant spam press the jump button to travel. what do you have against being whimsical gamefreak, do you hate whimsy

I know right? But to be honest GF wanted us to travel in our ride-pokemon ever since Legends Arceus (but sadly the jumping sucks so bad). I guess we go to go with holding down sprint. Luckily there's no stamina bar or something.

I don't know, maybe something about your name wink wink

(Trying not to get exposed challenge: IMPOSSIBLE)

 

[leafsaber47]

I wonder if this is kind of a balancing concern. Considering Intimidate and a sizable base 95 HP, even 90 Defense would give it better effective bulk than Landorus-T, as well as every other Intimidate Pokemon in the game, while still being quite fast and also having the mixup of Moxie.

More importantly, your prayers already got answered. Krookodile got buffed to have 80 base Defense in Gen 6.

Base 80 Defense is still a bit low and still less than I expect from a crocodilian Pokémon. I guess Krookodile scutes aren't diamond-hard and more like quartz-hard.

 

[Basedwell]

This is the most I've ever seen someone misunderstand a joke. Honestly impressive

Might i… also have been joking too?

 

[Ironmage]

Krook is clearly an oversized Gharial

Considering its JP name is effectively "evil gharial" (Waruvial), this is probably correct.

That said, I also think of Krookodile as much more cabable of a defensive role than Feraligatr (Skeledirge beats them both by a wide margin). Krook has a good defensive ability, valuable immunities, and a few solid utility moves. Gatr has none of those.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

This is just a silly joke but it's also such a bad faith interpretation of the above sentiment. There does tend to be a logical throughline with statspreads, and while lots of the logic is really boring and gamey stuff like "the defense and special defense are equal because it's simple and easy to understand" or "the total of the stats needs to hit a specific artifical number and this stat needs to be big / small enough to make that possible", it isn't a crazy thing to at least look at.

I love finding parallels between stat spreads and real-life physiology! It just wouldn't occur to me to consider it an error or a failure of logic when there isn't an immediately obvious or straightforward relationship between the two.

There's a more interesting conversation that could be had about why Krookodile might have less impressive defensive stats. Maybe becoming more bipedal is a recent development in its evolutionary history and it hasn't patched up its soft exposed belly to compensate? Or perhaps the resources that could be used to strengthen its hide are instead devoted to its special eye membrane thing? The differences between Pokemon and their inspirations are just as compelling as their similarities.

 

[Bakugames]

i love biology but a lot of pokemon is also based on how yokai exist (even if theyre not yokai) so the answer can also genuinely be krookodile are so smug and see themselves as so intimidating they're not defending themselves well. literal skill issue

 

[Sonikku A]

Currently playing a Ruby romhack, Frigo Returns

Now this applies to vanilla RSE as well given it doesn't touch mons besides Articuno...

Why is Seedot line shit?

like here, let's compare it to a mon with worse attacking stats, a mon meant to be thrown away after early game

Nuzleaf has 0 grass stab in its level up movepool. Seedot straight up has 0 direct attacking moves besides Bide until Nature Power, which isn't that useful. Then Nuzleaf itself has only Fake Out around lvl 19, and then Feint Attack lvl 31

Dustox unironically outperforms Nuzleaf despite worse offensive stats. It handles Brawly's gym surprisingly well at lvl 15, while Nuzleaf gets one shot by Machop's Karate Chop at lvl 15.

Shroomish outperforms this acorn. Lotad outperforms this acorn. The Leaf stone Req to get Shiftry whose movepool is still horrendous is too much. It's better spent on getting a Vileplume. Same for Thief TM, it's better on Abra

Makes me sad too, Seedot line were one of the earliest lines concieved Gen 3 dev in Nov. 2001-Feb 2002

 

[R_N]

Honestly even Lotad & Lombre are just, bad. The best thing I can say about them is their defensive typing is better and you dont have to deal with Bide. And I was using them in Gen 6, where they had, like, an actual move pool to use. Much less gen 3.
And Lombre in Gen 3 has to wait even longer for its stone compared to Nuzleaf. You need dive for the Water Stone on the abandoned ship! Ludicolo isn't even that good a Pokemon to be worth the wait if you were using it this whole time!!

Utterly strange decisions with both these lines & evolution stones in general.

 

[Basedwell]

Currently playing a Ruby romhack, Frigo Returns

Now this applies to vanilla RSE as well given it doesn't touch mons besides Articuno...

Why is Seedot line shit?

like here, let's compare it to a mon with worse attacking stats, a mon meant to be thrown away after early game
View attachment 699609View attachment 699610

Nuzleaf has 0 grass stab in its level up movepool. Seedot straight up has 0 direct attacking moves besides Bide until Nature Power, which isn't that useful. Then Nuzleaf itself has only Fake Out around lvl 19, and then Feint Attack lvl 31

Dustox unironically outperforms Nuzleaf despite worse offensive stats. It handles Brawly's gym surprisingly well at lvl 15, while Nuzleaf gets one shot by Machop's Karate Chop at lvl 15.

Shroomish outperforms this acorn. Lotad outperforms this acorn. The Leaf stone Req to get Shiftry whose movepool is still horrendous is too much. It's better spent on getting a Vileplume. Same for Thief TM, it's better on Abra

Makes me sad too, Seedot line were one of the earliest lines concieved Gen 3 dev in Nov. 2001-Feb 2002

One thing no one really talks about, is that the new Gen 3 Pokemon suck ass overall. No one talks about 90 percent of them anymore, especially when you exclude the postgame exclusive Pokemon.

Hell, Dustox is less useful than Butterfree with Compound Eyes Sleep Powder.

 

[Bakugames]

loooove generation 3 but it sure loves to hide its own bad pokemon syndrome behind johto games. it has a higher % of good pokemon and i think a lot of the mons were made thinking that theyd be able to do the physical special split then and there iirc? but even then some of these movepools and stats are asinine.

honestly though, i feel like it took until gen 5 for the average dex to be 60% and more of winners, and until gen 6-7 where every mon -save the gimmicky guys - felt usable and nice to play with

 

[Sonikku A]

Yeah, it's partially why Gen 4 ons powercreep hit harder: 1-3 had a loooot of duds

Honestly that said, gets me how Bugs still are mostly shit playthrough wise. Gen 5 was an exception, same for Ribombee's speed/support and Lokix' tinted lens. But despite being objectively better than 1-4's sub 400-500 bst bugs, mid to late game mons later gens crushes it, same for the lack of resists. And no, the Ultrabeasts don't count, they're jacked on purpose and late game. Paradoxes are similar

Vivillon is mid still mad it stole Arbok's gimmick, Vikavolt and Arquanid despite attacking stats and type is slower than molasses, Orbeetle despite Gmax is suffering from lack of resists, Frosmoth is too slow and Quad 4x weak to fire, Spidops has literal Gen 1-4 bug tier stats wtf, and Rabsca despite Revival Blessing is way too slow again, with Pawmot taking the niche for revives

Centiscorch meanwhile is just weirdly overlooked, and Kleavor is in an awkward position of being from LA AND Scizor outclassing it

Honestly the fact Gen 6 dev was >< close to making Bug weak to Fairy show's GF's priority for the type to be attrocious

 

[Hugin]

Yeah, it's partially why Gen 4 ons powercreep hit harder: 1-3 had a loooot of duds

Honestly that said, gets me how Bugs still are mostly shit playthrough wise. Gen 5 was an exception, same for Ribombee's speed/support and Lokix' tinted lens. But despite being objectively better than 1-4's sub 400-500 bst bugs, mid to late game mons later gens crushes it, same for the lack of resists. And no, the Ultrabeasts don't count, they're jacked on purpose and late game. Paradoxes are similar

Vivillon is mid still mad it stole Arbok's gimmick, Vikavolt and Arquanid despite attacking stats and type is slower than molasses, Orbeetle despite Gmax is suffering from lack of resists, Frosmoth is too slow and Quad 4x weak to fire, Spidops has literal Gen 1-4 bug tier stats wtf, and Rabsca despite Revival Blessing is way too slow again, with Pawmot taking the niche for revives

Centiscorch meanwhile is just weirdly overlooked, and Kleavor is in an awkward position of being from LA AND Scizor outclassing it

Honestly the fact Gen 6 dev was >< close to making Bug weak to Fairy show's GF's priority for the type to be attrocious

Orbeetle is incredible in playthroughs, sorry. Specifically it's great in SwSh if you ban Dmax or otherwise are limiting yourself. Early dual screens is a godsend for surviving gym leaders. When it evolves to Orbeetle, suddenly a lot of support options beyond that open up, all on a mon with U-Turn. It's awful for route-clearing, don't get me wrong, but Galar made a point of bosses being able to hit hard, which makes utility mons actually useful, and it's an excellent utility mon.

Otherwise, yeah, there's just no good bugs available in playthroughs. There's god-tier bugs(Pheromosa, Buzzwole, Genesect, Slither Wing, Volcarona) but they're all unusable in-game.

 

[Bakugames]

this bug slander is crazy!! maybe the modern bugs wont clean route but all of them are completely useable. I've ran all of them in different teams or by themselves with no major issue.

vivillion is the weakest but everyone else has really good movepools, acceptable stats and places to use them in. vikavolt might be slow but it has decent phys def for a normal playthrough and a decent set of resistances that lets it come in and sweep house. araquanid offers even more good resistances and is a great phsyical attacker, and while it cant come in on rock types despite being a water type, rock is the easiest type to cover for in this game

orbeetle is cracked, especially with trs. centiskorch is a great pokemon that, no matter the game you picked, will be useful for quite a few of the following gyms (fighting, fairy, ice, dark) and can help clean routes pretty easily.

 

[Samtendo09]

I love finding parallels between stat spreads and real-life physiology! It just wouldn't occur to me to consider it an error or a failure of logic when there isn't an immediately obvious or straightforward relationship between the two.

There's a more interesting conversation that could be had about why Krookodile might have less impressive defensive stats. Maybe becoming more bipedal is a recent development in its evolutionary history and it hasn't patched up its soft exposed belly to compensate? Or perhaps the resources that could be used to strengthen its hide are instead devoted to its special eye membrane thing? The differences between Pokemon and their inspirations are just as compelling as their similarities.

There’s also a lore fact that Krookodile hide within the sand and, befitting it’s Dark-type, focus more on taking down their pray by surprise than just brute force compared to Feraligatr and Skeledirge. It’s Attack is also higher than Feraligatr and Skeledirge to focus on striking force at expanse of defensive approaches.

I agreed with the differences between the Pokémon and their inspirations can be compelling, making Pokémon feeling like their own world. This may also help easing the justification on why a Pokémon has an unexpected type to possible survive against potential predators the type would be super effective against.

 

[Just A Seaking]

this bug slander is crazy!! maybe the modern bugs wont clean route but all of them are completely useable. I've ran all of them in different teams or by themselves with no major issue.

vivillion is the weakest but everyone else has really good movepools, acceptable stats and places to use them in.

Surprised to read that about Vivillon, because imo it’s the best in-game Bug to ever do it, bar none. Compound Eyes is just such an incredible ability - making Powders 97% accurate and raising the rate of held items is just so useful - but on top of that it has legitimately good stats for in-game, Quicer Dance, and two fantastic STABs in Bug Buzz and a relatively-accurate Hurricane. If a game has Vivillon, I use it, even if it’s not a core party member - Thief + Compound Eyes alone is enough to pull its weight.

That could be a playstyle thing since I try to do the regional Pokédex every time, but even outside of that context, Quicer Dance is just busted.

But yeah, in-game bugs have been consistently great since Gen 5, imo. Even Spidops has a few good match-ups here and there, or can set up Sticky Web against the AI Professors or something.

 

[Bakugames]

That could be a playstyle thing since I try to do the regional Pokédex every time, but even outside of that context, Quicer Dance is just busted.

honestly my main issue with vivillon is how long it takes to get going. its stats are not super good so until you get qd hurricane it doesn't do much imo, even with sleep powder compound eyes. Its also weirdly annoying to get? xy and sv have it early game so thats fine (though imo faces stiff competition with lokix for the bug type slot) but in gen 7 you need to do the island scan... and only in usum. completely absent in gen 8. bug/flying doesnt do it any favors either

 

[Sonikku A]

I was a bit harsh 12am brain, but modern bug is still mostly outclassed for monotypes than others

I still feel GF want it to be early route fodder, even if nowhere as bad as Gens 1-4. Nice that Orbeetle has a niche, varied playthrough styles are nice

Like, imagine Lokix with Swarm only. It'd be mid, not Gen 1-4 dogshit, just mid, and nowhere OU for niche with the 5 weaknesses. They seriously need to buff bug defensively just make it also resist dark, psychic, fairy, and remove fairy resisting, it'd be funny

Also I see you guys skipping Spidops, you fakers!

 

[Basedwell]

loooove generation 3 but it sure loves to hide its own bad pokemon syndrome behind johto games. it has a higher % of good pokemon and i think a lot of the mons were made thinking that theyd be able to do the physical special split then and there iirc? but even then some of these movepools and stats are asinine.

honestly though, i feel like it took until gen 5 for the average dex to be 60% and more of winners, and until gen 6-7 where every mon -save the gimmicky guys - felt usable and nice to play with

I feel like Gen 4 was in this weird space where some Pokemon directly benefited off the the Split, and improved movesets and abilities, but that improvement wasn’t made very consistently so there were a bunch of mons left in the dust against the increased power levels.

This difference was increased by the fact there were still one-use tms, and resources were hard to get.

Gen 4 also really screwed up the cross-gen evolution thing by hiding them all behind weird, difficult methods, and not making good designs or stronger pokemon. Like yeah, it rules at the end of every game now 30 percent of items are going to be an item for an evolution method for a singular Pokemon, this is both efficient and fun!!

I see what you’re saying with Gen 5. The power level does increase there, without feeling too overwhelming or making all Pokemon feel like they play the same. I personally think those games had the best balance.

 

[R_N]

I really loved Vivillon in my XY playthrough so I think a little can go a long way. And orbeetle was just plain good to use, now qualms there.

Also I see you guys skipping Spidops, you fakers!

now spidops, however
Why is its BST that low??

In the context of gen 9 the only other fully-evolved Pokemon it's higher than are All the gen 1-4 early game bugs (you will note that Vivillon has 411!), Delibird, and an assorted mix of gen 3 "this Pokemon is just bad by design" goobers like Delcatty or Mawile.

But OK whatever, I can deal with low BST if the distribution is ok. Many people have used Butterfree successfully and Vivillon on paper isn't that terrible, many middle stagers are lower than 404 and are serviceable and so on. Personally speaking I actually did find great use for ORAS-era regular Sabeleye even after getting the mega stone. Shiinotic only has 405 but leverages its typing & almost min/maxed stats
But they made it a defensive bug with sub-par attack and no speed. Which at least puts it above Ledian, the other defensive early game bug. But the defenses aren't THAT great and the HP isn't helping. If it at least had more stats to put into either the defensive stats & HP, or a little more attack, or heck even just something like Analytic....