I don't agree with you on this subject *as a whole*, I think if we can see a Pokemon in design we should be able to obtain it, but I think the idea of having more alluded to Pokemon like Ho-Oh in Ep 1 of the anime, Kyurem-Complete or just entirely unique Pokemon that we can't see? I think that'd be a cool way to tackle the concept of uncatchable Pokemon.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
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I understand being against uncatchable pokemon, i know im being pretty anti-concept with the franchise by this (mostly influenced by other monster catchers who have non-catcheables and also my own preferences in lore etc), but i think more mysterious pokemon we will never know about are extremely fun.
The fandom has an aversion to them, constantly begging for them to be revealed or whatever, but I think sometimes a concept is strongest when its something we'll never discover. The kyurem transformations are more interesting when you know they'll never be able to remake the original dragon again, that this half glued shell is the best we'll ever get. its something lost to time, being brought back by human ego and a pokemons desire/desperation
Unova ranks pretty low on my "Legends Region Wishlist" (assuming every game has to take place in the past, which ofc they don't have to but that's the general take) for this reason tbh. My analysis of each game's prospects is kinda like this:
Johto
Duh
Galar
I feel like we don't really get to see a lot of the legendary lore since so much of it takes place long ago and we just get like, idk I just think what we got was pretty boring LOL
Hoenn
Maybe we get more on the Draconids? What if we saw the birth of Mega Rayquaza? Also I feel like Hoenn as a region lends itself well to a less human-inhabited place
Paldea
There's a lot of stuff you could take with this region, but I think it's just too new for me to want a real deep dive right now. Still, an Area Zero Expedition team game literally writes itself.
Alola
Alola is a weird region in that it is both full of human landscaping yet also very... not? I can't imagine Alola itself would look very different or be an interesting transformation going back into the past. Plus a lot of the coolest lore kinda just takes place in the game.
Unova
I don't want to see Kyurem's complete form, but I think maybe something based on the Victini movie's clips of the past could be interesting.
Kanto
Please Stop
Honestly Platinum and XY are very similar games in that they have strong fundamentals that keep me from calling them anything below good but can't quite cross over into that next level because they are still too beholden to design choices that hadn't made sense since the Game Boy, mainly in regards to storytelling. "We wanna make our villains more dangerous and sinister than ever before, but this is a Pokemon game so they gotta be a side-gig to the gym challenge and resolved before the actual final boss!" "We got these extremely high concept legendaries who should be towering presences, but this is a Pokemon game so they gotta be Ultra Ball lotteries with wild Pidgey AI!" etc etc
In XY's case this is why even post-teraleak I still mostly don't care that we never got Z: Unless the plan was to do gigantic structural overhauls that no previous third version came close to these issues were baked into the cake. The only common complaint I also care about that would've been realistically fixable was the crummy boss design, and as R_N once said that seems intentional enough that they might've just not bothered.
To put all this another way, I put XY and Platinum on the same level because they are bogged down by lack of focus. The Unova games, SM/USUM and even SV were far more comfortable dumping tropes where needed to get the aesthetic, thematic and mechanical results they were looking for. One of the keys to Legends Arceus' success imo is plucking out the cool mystical/spiritual shit in Sinnoh and actually orienting the game around it while leaving the extraneous junk behind. I used to complain that there weren't enough towns and cities but writing Souring on Sinnoh made me realize "Oh huh wait I don't actually miss a lot of these places because they were Generic Pokemon Settlements for the most part". Is it a coincidence that they chose these regions as the first two settings for Legends games? Given my perspective on DPPt is pretty clearly a minority take yeah most likely, but hey I don't care it works out nicely on my end.
I will never unsee Lysandre as just being Cyrus 2.0 thanks to this parody, but even more shamefully, that plot in itself became a tired trope for villain motivation
Gen 8/9 tried changing it, but are way too sloppy in execution
You really gotta lighten up a bit, y'know. It ain't that serious.
Tell you what. Wii Sports is the OoT of the Wii era (Wii Sports Resort is BotW because the plane game is open-world).
And with that insightful post, we can all stop derailing the thread and go back to talking about things that are actually relevant.
Types should have exclusive moves, and TMs should be massively nerfed.
Let's be honest, there are way too many examples of moves that should never have been turned into TMs. Close Combat is a very obvious example of one.
The result is that types have been losing their identity. There should be more flavorful moves to help types to stand out more from one another.
Most status effects in this franchise are awfully designed.
Sleep has been banned in Gen 9, and it's not uncommon to see Amoonguss mucking up games in VGC.
The fact of the matter is that Sleep is straight-up unfun to play against. If you get hit with a sleep move, you usually have to hold that and switch out before you become setup food, or click buttons and hope RNG doesn't go out of its way to screw you over.
Freeze is straight up horrible. Frostbite was a major improvement just because it wasn't freeze. That's how bad things are.
This makes it very hard for certain types to stand out.
Poison enjoys moves like Sludge Bomb having a 30% chance of putting their opponents on a timer, playing it to its strength as a defensive type while also giving it a solid STAB option. Meanwhile, Ice is stuck because anything with over 10% freeze chance is instantly a problem.
Y'know, I wonder how fucked the meta would be if Sleep could override a status like it already does for Rest
So like if say in Doubles, Opponent's Scald burns one of your mons, but then you potentially can use spore on your own mon to override it so you don't deal with the atk/hp cut. It's stupid, and Rest already is nigh universal, but it potentially means no status is permanent thanks to sleep. Effectively, an even more sleep centralized meta
Also what if poison cut the opponents special attack like burn before Frostbite?
So like if say in Doubles, Opponent's Scald burns one of your mons, but then you potentially can use spore on your own mon to override it so you don't deal with the atk/hp cut. It's stupid, and Rest already is nigh universal, but it potentially means no status is permanent thanks to sleep. Effectively, an even more sleep centralized meta
You only mention sleep and freeze as bad that is not most status effects because that is only two out of five. Besides hating on them is not even an unpopular opinion.
Focus Blast is supposed to hit 70% of the time, numbers are meaningless.
On the subject of Pokemon availability, I dislike how Legends Arceus showcases all their new Pokemon. It sounds cool in theory, but in reality it takes an element of discovery away because every new design is shoved in your face instead of well, discovering it yourself. That said some of the designs are among my favorites, although Hisuian Growlithe just randomly looks like shit lol.
After finally catching Celebi in Crystal VC I felt so excited, and it's a good reminder that scarcity makes Pokemon cooler. I'm planning to finally do that DSN hack to get the mythicals in (I tried once and couldn't get it going but I'll try again), and it's exciting because of the potential to use hard-to-find Pokemon. I feel differently about trade Pokemon because they're teased by including their normal forms in game which suck without the last evolution. Also, after finally getting access to another DS for a few hours last week, doing the trades took forever. Not that long for one trade, but doing any real numbers starts becoming time consuming.
As someone who got into the games as an adult, its a point of pride for me that I don't pick my favorite games based on the order I first played them in. With Legendaries tho, I can't lie, after 4-5th game, they just seem less exciting. It's an inherent result of adding more every generation, they start feeling cheaper. My favorites would probably be Gen 1 and 2s, because I like how they aesthetically fit into the plot. I do think the whole Roaming Pokemon works better in theory because it turns into a pain in the ass after the first time you do it, but it's cool in theory.
After playing more Pokemon and seeing plenty of Pokemon use the same moves a little worse, Legendaries do seem less interesting as well. As it turns out, when you give any level 70 Pokemon Psychic it can knock a lot of things out. One thing that I dislike about legendary pokemon being so readily available, is how they naturally dominate competitive and battle facility discourse when they don't play any real role in the game.
After finally catching Celebi in Crystal VC I felt so excited, and it's a good reminder that scarcity makes Pokemon cooler. I'm planning to finally do that DSN hack to get the mythicals in (I tried once and couldn't get it going but I'll try again), and it's exciting because of the potential to use hard-to-find Pokemon. I feel differently about trade Pokemon because they're teased by including their normal forms in game which suck without the last evolution. Also, after finally getting access to another DS for a few hours last week, doing the trades took forever. Not that long for one trade, but doing any real numbers starts becoming time consuming.
As someone who got into the games as an adult, its a point of pride for me that I don't pick my favorite games based on the order I first played them in. With Legendaries tho, I can't lie, after 4-5th game, they just seem less exciting. It's an inherent result of adding more every generation, they start feeling cheaper. My favorites would probably be Gen 1 and 2s, because I like how they aesthetically fit into the plot. I do think the whole Roaming Pokemon works better in theory because it turns into a pain in the ass after the first time you do it, but it's cool in theory.
After playing more Pokemon and seeing plenty of Pokemon use the same moves a little worse, Legendaries do seem less interesting as well. As it turns out, when you give any level 70 Pokemon Psychic it can knock a lot of things out. One thing that I dislike about legendary pokemon being so readily available, is how they naturally dominate competitive and battle facility discourse when they don't play any real role in the game.
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I recently went back to Legends Arceus in the hopes of picking up a the Hisuian shinies I had to add to my collection, and promptly ended up putting another 40 hours onto the game over the last month. Compared to SV, I'm just having a lot more fun with this game, between the different ways you have to approach different Pokemon and the checklist that ensures you actually have stuff to do after the main campaign.
Too bad the combat is really poorly thought out. I think most people agree that the combat is not the best aspect of this game, but it's only upon going back that I realized just how bad of a mechanic the style system really is. As in, I think this mechanic doesn't work with Pokemon on a fundamental level.
1. Strong Style is basically pointless.
Even compared to most Pokemon games, Legends Arceus wants you to exclusively use super effective moves thanks to all those "Defeat with X type move" requirements. Once you have high level Pokemon, there is basically zero reason to ever use this. I'm already able to kill most Pokemon in one hit when I want, so the power boost tends to be largely unnecessary.
2. Agile Style is- marginally better.
Agile Style at least had the potential to be useful, as being able to sacrifice PP for speed is a mechanic that could be useful for Pokemon's combat style. You drop something like this in competitive, it would definitely leave a mark; in game, however, there's the small issue that your Pokemon naturally gets faster as you level up. Meaning that Agile Style also becomes useless for a lot of Pokemon at high levels.
3. Why?!
Obviously, I don't think the trade off with either style is really worth losing that PP, but that opportunity cost is actually a big problem. First, the Dex requires you to use certain moves a lot, so having to spam items or go back to camp to rest makes that process considerably more annoying. But more importantly: why in the actual hell does it still consume the extra PP when you miss?! When you consider what the game wants you to do, this is an indescribably stupid decision. A lot of the moves you want to use have low PP and/or lower accuracy, so wasting 2 PP for no benefit feels even more irritating than most usual Pokemon RNG. Have you seen how many times it wants you to use all these moves? Of course I'm going to try doubling up as much as possible! (Also I'm pretty sure the accuracy in this game is bugged since there's been several occasions where I repeatedly missed a 100% move despite not seeing any fog). All this penalty does is further disincentivize you from using the Styles.
I'm still having fun with Legends for the moment, but I'm not sure I'm gonna bother filling up all the combat achievements. It's not a great sign when the biggest reaction I have to give from interacting with this mechanic is "Thank God I don't have to do that anymore!" Trying to use the Styles just- actively makes the game less fun, and I am hoping that ZA ditches this mechanic entirely and chooses some other gimmick. Even if you did fix all the issues, they might end up being too good and become a formality that feels equally tedious to use. I'm simply not convinced there's a way to balance this idea to make it worthwhile without breaking the game.
Too bad the combat is really poorly thought out. I think most people agree that the combat is not the best aspect of this game, but it's only upon going back that I realized just how bad of a mechanic the style system really is. As in, I think this mechanic doesn't work with Pokemon on a fundamental level.
1. Strong Style is basically pointless.
Even compared to most Pokemon games, Legends Arceus wants you to exclusively use super effective moves thanks to all those "Defeat with X type move" requirements. Once you have high level Pokemon, there is basically zero reason to ever use this. I'm already able to kill most Pokemon in one hit when I want, so the power boost tends to be largely unnecessary.
2. Agile Style is- marginally better.
Agile Style at least had the potential to be useful, as being able to sacrifice PP for speed is a mechanic that could be useful for Pokemon's combat style. You drop something like this in competitive, it would definitely leave a mark; in game, however, there's the small issue that your Pokemon naturally gets faster as you level up. Meaning that Agile Style also becomes useless for a lot of Pokemon at high levels.
3. Why?!
Obviously, I don't think the trade off with either style is really worth losing that PP, but that opportunity cost is actually a big problem. First, the Dex requires you to use certain moves a lot, so having to spam items or go back to camp to rest makes that process considerably more annoying. But more importantly: why in the actual hell does it still consume the extra PP when you miss?! When you consider what the game wants you to do, this is an indescribably stupid decision. A lot of the moves you want to use have low PP and/or lower accuracy, so wasting 2 PP for no benefit feels even more irritating than most usual Pokemon RNG. Have you seen how many times it wants you to use all these moves? Of course I'm going to try doubling up as much as possible! (Also I'm pretty sure the accuracy in this game is bugged since there's been several occasions where I repeatedly missed a 100% move despite not seeing any fog). All this penalty does is further disincentivize you from using the Styles.
I'm still having fun with Legends for the moment, but I'm not sure I'm gonna bother filling up all the combat achievements. It's not a great sign when the biggest reaction I have to give from interacting with this mechanic is "Thank God I don't have to do that anymore!" Trying to use the Styles just- actively makes the game less fun, and I am hoping that ZA ditches this mechanic entirely and chooses some other gimmick. Even if you did fix all the issues, they might end up being too good and become a formality that feels equally tedious to use. I'm simply not convinced there's a way to balance this idea to make it worthwhile without breaking the game.
See I have a different perspective which is that Agile/Strong Style is super fucking broken and trivializes combat, along with it just being a boring basic ass system
Like okay. It takes PP. So what
I can literally teleport to like 3 camps at any time to fully heal at any time. If I have 20 PP for a move I can do this 10 times for free for that single move.
I see zero reason to not spam these almost every single attack
To add on to this, I wouldn't be surprised if moves like Close Combat or Earthquake received the Return/Scald treatment in future games
Because PP reduction happens before everything else.
Just confirming that by "types" you mean "pokemon with specific types" because moves also have types, but powerful moves being turned into TMs doesn't really have any particular bearing on their type.
I generally agree with the sentiment that the moves turned into TMs should probably be refined with certain powerful options not being used, and I agree that some moves are too widely distributed for what they are (I am a fellow Close Combat hater). I disagree with the idea that moves should have more than a small handful of special, exclusive moves, though.
I think a good TM list would have a mix of the following (only really thinking of attacking moves here, status TMs are a slightly different beast):
- Reliable, useful moves that are used to give Pokémon consistent STAB options (also for "adjacent" types, more on that later)
- Weaker or more situational moves that have strategic use that may be more widely distributed than the first category
- Unorthodox or creative TMs that can expand coverage past the usual typing groups.
There's always going to be some overlap between these groups (Scald is uncomfortably between groups 1 and 2, though there are a couple of interesting learners that like it for group 3 reasons). A TM list also needs to account for use in both single and double battles, and it ought to provide attacking options on both the physical and special side. An in-game consideration is also deliberately making weaker TMs across the types to give coverage options for the mid-game, even if these options get overshadowed by stronger options later on. Game Freak has tried to address this in the last two generations and I think it's kinda fun.
Okay, so I brought up "adjacent" types earlier. That really wasn't great wording. What I'm thinking of is how a lot of Pokémon types end up feeling similar in the moves they learn because of how strictly type often dictates what moves they're "allowed" to have. Direct contact physical attacks sometimes get a little more freely distributed than indirect physical or special moves, since they're based on physical attributes/body type, but type can still restrict who learns what.
- Normal and Dragon have traditionally been allowed to learn moves of a lot of different types. You don't see as much of the Gen 1 kaiju coverage nowadays on Normal pokes, with their learnsets being more determined by their concept, but there is still the example of the Normal/Dragon Drampa being able to learn attacking moves of every type but Poison.
- Fire and Electric tend to have narrow type coverage, but maybe this is more a result of so many examples of these types being monotype. Solar Beam was given to Fire types for the sun connection, and Electric types sometimes get light-based attacks like Flash Cannon (RIP to Signal Beam).
- Water types usually can learn a smattering of potent Ice-type moves, but this doesn't often go the other way for Ice. Specially-focused Ice Pokémon are often at the mercy of their secondary type for coverage, if they have one.
- Grass and Bug Pokémon often feel extremely same-y because they have a hard time branching out. Both types are pretty likely to get Poison coverage, Grass Pokémon might get some Ground attacks, and Bug often gets Grass moves (and, in earlier Gens, Psychic moves), but these aren't the most useful attacks for hitting the 7 types that resist their STABs.
- Ground and Rock tend to get very similar coverage sets, with both types usually learning each other's premier moves. More hefty Steel types also get these attacks, though Steel types have some affinity for Electric coverage, too.
- Flying types have been given the wind-based coverage moves Heat Wave and Icy Wind, though these only really help if you're a special attacker. Physical Flying Pokémon, particularly bird pokes, get the short end of the stick because they lack the appendages to use punching, biting, or kicking moves; OR they don't have the mass/reasonable facility to use head/body/tail attacks, only hoping that their concept lets them learn something useful.
- Psychic, Ghost, and Dark all overlap in different ways, being mystical and indirect/sneaky types. Psychic and Ghost both have a pretty good chance of being able to learn each other's main attacks, along with Electric and Grass energy attacks. Dark Pokémon often get a little more unique coverage attacks, as a treat.
- Fairy is a little weird, but their nature theming lends them to learning Grass moves, and their ethereal theming often gives them Psychic moves.
My takeaway from this is that Steel is a real problem for types like Flying, Grass, Bug, Fairy, and Ice to account for if they're not lucky.
Being part of a specific fangame Discord, the main dev had a goal to limit the usual TM distribution from the main series and to make Egg Moves coverage or strategy options first and foremost. He also feels that every Pokémon of a given type defaulting to a group 1 TM is boring (Thunderbolt for special Electrics, as an example). It's a Gen 2 hack, so things are considerably more simple than modern Pokémon, but I respect and to some extent agree with that viewpoint. I think in a lot of cases in modern Pokémon, when Game Freak gives TMs out, the thought process is "Why not?" instead of "Why?", leading to repetitive strategies between Pokémon of the same type, with efficacy being dictated mostly by differences in stats or abilities. That said, I think deliberately preventing a Pokémon from getting a TM it should logically get for balance reasons is pretty corny (Hurricane Zapdos in the past, Dragon Dance Garchomp for a modern example).
Apologies for any weird sentence constriction, I'm not proofreading this, as it was written on my phone with rewrites here and there where i may have missed a word or added a redundant phrase.
See, this is where it gets problematic.
The way I see it, types should have moves and concepts heavily tied to them. For example, Electric with paralysis and speed control in general.
So while I'm fine with say, Thunderbolt being a common coverage TM, I'm not exactly sold on Discharge and maybe even Thunder being available to random Joe Schmos.
In my opinion, if you want big damage, and especially the effects that are tied to that type's identity, you should use that type. For that to happen, you need TM coverage to be limited.
Think of it as the antithesis of the idea that "the best Ice-type is a Water-type with Ice Beam" that we had more prevalently in older gens.
There's no bigger sign that a type is messed up when it's relegated to a coverage move at best.
I have no issues whatsoever with Close Combat. It's an excellent, unique move. I do have an issue with it being a TM and mons like Haxorus having it. It's literally just power creep. Before, if you wanted to use it, you needed a Fighting-type. Now you got a Dragon of all things able to click CC for a gorillion damage and no accuracy issues on two types that could check it otherwise.
That's just hack-tier design.
I think the issue is how a lot of these high power moves also have very broad flavor. close combat is probably one of the most generic fighting moves out there, its literally just "throw yourself and punch and bite and KILL!!!!", which of course almost any living being is capable of doing. At least something like play rough has flavor that makes it having a more restricted distribution make sense.
My take? make close combat weaker and replace it with a more fighting focused move with high damage.
My take? make close combat weaker and replace it with a more fighting focused move with high damage.
While we're at this, Fire could really use some better synergy with burn. I never really felt Poison was being crowded out by Toxic being everywhere between the accuracy boost when it's used by Poison types and other moves like Toxic Spikes and Venoshock being more restricted, meanwhile there's nothing to pull burn away from the generic status type of Ghost.
Did the post say that they were meant to be anime-"exclusive"? Zeraora and Zarude were obviously made with their movies in mind but that doesn't mean they were never planned to be in the games. The logical explanation to me is that Game Freak left spots open for new Mythicals and let the anime team come up with whatever ideas they wanted.
On the topic, I'm a little surprised that Zeraora and Zarude are the only anime original Mythicals. Volcanion, Magearna, and Marshadow kind of just exist too (and Meltan and Melmetal but those are GO tie-ins), but they were included at the beginning of their respective generations so GF probably had to come up with them from the start.
As for Ash-Greninja, I get the impression that GF only included it in the games out of obligation (because they didn't want an anime-exclusive form) and didn't have a problem dropping it in Gen IX.
The wording I've seen is anime-original, which could be taken to mean "designed specifically for the anime" or simply "appears first in the anime". A lot of leakers took that to mean that it was the same situation as Lugia (i.e. being exclusive to the movie and not in the games at all) so it's not clear - it's also possible the translation is ambiguous.
I'd be surprised if Celebi, at least, wasn't designed specifically for the anime given the planned GS Ball arc. Or Togepi, actually (though that's obviously not a mythical)
LOL!! I've been thinking about some stuff related to the last line for awhile.She gives me maternalistic vibes too, what with all the chores she assigns me
“Be a dear and take this medicine to those sick Psyduck on the other side of the region, if you’d please?”
“Be a dear and run this necklace up to my grandma in the next town over, would you?”
“Be a dear and stop that genocidal lunatic and the rampaging antimatter demon from destroying the world, if you wouldn’t mind?”
Towards the end of his part of the plot, Cyrus complains all of his goons are complete idiots. And they are!! They're silly, and above all else, childish. One thing about the first few generations of Pokemon, is that while our character is clearly a child, most people they meet treat them like an adult and are more childish than anything themselves. Hikers, models, swimmers, gamblers, you name it, all throw fits when they lose. Criminals twice our size concede instantly the second they lose a battle. The sole reminder that we're a child is that people constantly give us free things and occasionally lavish praise from our ability as trainer. The only real people who act as authority figures are our mother, gym leaders and Elite 4, alongside a few wise elders who tell you useful things.
Cyrus's co-leaders/assistants, such as Jupiter, are more serious and have intent, specifically they are using Cyrus and team Galactic to reach their own goals. What's interesting about these dynamics, is they show how Cyrus has created his own misery: he surrounded himself with idiots who wouldn't question his intentions and would willingly go along with his malicious schemes, and a few smarter individuals who were just as self-serving as himself. No one who he could treat as an equal and call a friend. No one who could challenge his cynicism about humanity and his self loathing and superiority complex. A natural consequence of needing to be the smartest person in the room.
Cynthia sees this, gauges Cyrus' plan, and his strength, and decides he isn't a threat. It feels like your whole final confrontation with Cyrus is like destiny, there is always something that would have come in Cyrus' way, something of the world that loves it and will stop at nothing to save it. What Cyrus needs to do is to see and be reminded of that love. And what better means to do that than have him be humiliated by the child who's intent on stopping him (also a good learning opportunity for the child). Cynthia is patient with Cyrus, asking him why he feels the way he does, and when he tells her, reveals how pathetic he is. And she says as much.
Were he really a threat, she would have taken him out there or the Distortion World. But that isn't necessary, and we, the child trainer, grow from the experience.
Pokemon's Sense of Mystery and Our Place in its World
As I mentioned earlier, in Pokemon's first few generations, your ostensibly 10 year old character is treated as someone much older. Something else interesting is the sense of mystery in the games. In the first few generations, Pokemon are a relatively new phenomenon, and the point of reference can often include real world examples of animals. You are playing a real and important role in researching them, and the world feels full of mystery. As more games are released, this becomes more and more retconned. There is always some mystery, usually surrounding the Legendary Pokemon and Mythical Pokemon of that generation, but Pokemon feel more and more like a natural part of the world, and are understood.
It gets to the point that Pokemon trainers are their world's professional sports league, (Lance vs Leon ppv price is crazy!! me and all my roommates chipped in), or in Generation 9 the completion of the pokedex is a project of personal growth that many schoolchildren complete, and the Elite 4 more like an analogue to some sort of professional certification than a memorable accomplishment.
A lot of this does make sense. It would be weird if people were still excited by stone evolutions the 9th continent they came up in.
Alongside this, you are treated more and more like a child. I'd say this starts in Gen 5 where despite beating the villains in battle they still kick you of their boat, have to be taken care of in more traditional means, and the transition to 3d where adults look taller and bigger this feels more inevitable. Idk, it's weird, but I feel like the adults are treated more as authority figures atp, and are more competent. Your adventures feel unrealistic in a YA sense where somehow you get involved in some plot, rather than in early generations where someone of any age could encounter the same problems.
That's one thing that L:A was trying to return to, the sense of mystery.
Even though the flavor is as generic as it gets, the move itself is done in a very unique way, so I don't mind tbh.
I do agree with you though. Types should have something that really define them over other types. Ironically, CC is that for Fighting. Focus Punch too tbh. That was a great TM too.
I wanna add a more thought-out post to the discussion, but one comment about close-combat: in boss battles and online you may not think about the drawbacks because you're getting value from it (and in boss battles you're more likely to outspeed with EVs honestly) but in game, something like Close Combat is interesting because you definitely feel the weaker defense over repeated battles. Same thing with recoil moves to a smaller extent: you get chipped down over time which is interesting drawback to overcome.
IE in the Platinum postgame, Close Combat on Staraptor wasn't working well because it wasn't getting KOs and I was taking too much damage from it.
it's also a fun drawback when used against you. Underleveled, weak to fighting? Well now your opponent is on an artificial timer.