(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Karxrida]

Been playing Violet more. While I am enjoying it a lot I have more gripes.

1.) Battles feel weirdly paced and slow even if they don't take long. Progess seems to randomly pause between actions and text boxes. While is some cases it's because the game really wants to play trainer animations (which you cannot even see a good chunk of the time due to how the camera works) or some Pokémon reaction animations, other times it just lingers on moments for no reason. And it's not like the game itself is lagging, because I'm playing the Switch 2 version and I can see a bunch of Pokémon running around in the distance while in the middle of a battle with zero frame drops.

2.) There is zero grace period after ending a fight with a wild Pokémon and you can immediately get thrown back into combat with no recourse. I have been frame 1 pounced by something lingering nearby after finishing a fight because I made the mistake of being in a cave with super narrow corridors quite literally housing 20 Pokémon.

3.) The texture work for the environment can be super bad. The OoT tree memes for SWSH were frankly spot on for modern Game Freak because some textures legitimately feel like they're N64 quality.

4.) While I appreciate the idea of how your character turns to face a destination marker after you exit the map menu, having that happen all the time with seemingly no way to turn it off can be quite disorienting.

5.) Related to the above: the map doesn't show you which way you're facing. Also super disorienting when you exit the menu.

 

[Just A Seaking]

2.) There is zero grace period after ending a fight with a wild Pokémon and you can immediately get thrown back into combat with no recourse. I have been frame 1 pounced by something lingering nearby after finishing a fight because I made the mistake of being in a cave with super narrow corridors quite literally housing 20 Pokémon.

This is an extreme example, of course, but by far the most infuriating experience I've ever had with this series (moreso than losing a shiny Dratini in the Safari Zone. I am serious) was getting slingshotted fifteen times between different wild Pokemon on Lake Casseroya with no chance of escape. I specify the location because Lake Casseroya is fundamentally a broken area that does not function correctly, so the mere process of entering each wild battle was excruciatingly slow. Between Lake Casseroya's general lag, SV's glacial battle speed, and all the Dondozo and Veluza who wanted to eat me, I estimate it took about 10 minutes for me to get out of that loop? Absolutely miserable.

Tangentially, running into wild Pokemon that I can't see because they're too small pisses me off and I hate it. Good environmental storytelling or whatever, it is actually realistic that people would probably stumble into little guys like Applins irl, but grinding everything to a screeching halt just because I want to drive somewhere and a functionally-invisible Applin is blocking me is obnoxious. I don't actually know how one would go about fixing this issue, though.

 

[R_N]

This is an extreme example, of course, but by far the most infuriating experience I've ever had with this series (moreso than losing a shiny Dratini in the Safari Zone. I am serious) was getting slingshotted fifteen times between different wild Pokemon on Lake Casseroya with no chance of escape. I specify the location because Lake Casseroya is fundamentally a broken area that does not function correctly, so the mere process of entering each wild battle was excruciatingly slow. Between Lake Casseroya's general lag, SV's glacial battle speed, and all the Dondozo and Veluza who wanted to eat me, I estimate it took about 10 minutes for me to get out of that loop? Absolutely miserable.

Tangentially, running into wild Pokemon that I can't see because they're too small pisses me off and I hate it. Good environmental storytelling or whatever, it is actually realistic that people would probably stumble into little guys like Applins irl, but grinding everything to a screeching halt just because I want to drive somewhere and a functionally-invisible Applin is blocking me is obnoxious. I don't actually know how one would go about fixing this issue, though.

Charge power up that sends the Pokemon flying if they're small enough.

Run into a tauros? Still your fault
Run into a hoppip? What hoppip. Don't worry about it.

 

[Karxrida]

Just learned Repels don't exist in SV.

Inexcusably shitty game design lmao.

 

[CPU]

I understand why they removed them and can actually see possible problems with implementing them with purely overworld spawns (mainly from a niche "player can't get to a shiny/rare pokemon because a repel is active" standpoint). The other thought is to have them just reduce overworld spawns, which could work, but how big of a radius is the game going to enable for that (particularly with SV's detrimentally ambitious overworld loading).

Granted, your Raidon should be able to close the distance from any Pokémon trying to flee from a Repel-enabled player, but I still think it would be a bit of a hassle.

Stopping the player from getting encounter stunlocked feels like it would be better solved by creating a radius that wild Pokémon can't cross while you're already in a battle (which would also solve aggressive Pokémon like Tauros or Veluza nonsensically impaling the player) and to have a minor window preventing an aggro rush once said battle completes.

 

[R_N]

Seems like the best way to make Repel work (iirc Legends Arceus lacks it too so there's clearly a design conceit here if so) is just disable spawners entirely, or unless it generates a Pokemon at higher level, and not have them literally repel away from you.

Just make it apply to the same radius as it would check for spawns.

 

[pika pal]

My compromise for Repels would be to disable "aggresssive" Pokemon behavior. Like Tauros won't charge at you if you're higher level, or mons will just stay in their "watch and observe" state so YOU have to intentionally walk into them to initiate the battle. It's the best compromise I can muster for wanting to minimize unwanted battles without disabling spawns for something like shiny hunts or the overworld encounters in general

 

[Yung Dramps]

Yeah idk I can't say I ever missed Repels at any point while playing Legends Arceus. I'd hazard to say that the entire concept of the item doesn't work in 3D because now instead of eliminating the nuisance of random encounters you're eliminating the the lynchpin that makes the environments fun and atmospheric: Why would I want to go through the Heartwood without Psyduck bathing in the river and Buneary hopping around on its shoreline? Even pika pal's proposal of freezing certain behaviors sounds lame for similar reasons.

The problem here seems much more like a combination of "SV, especially on Switch 2, has overtuned spawn volume that makes certain areas a chore to get through" and "SV's lack of Legends catching mechanics making it so battles are automatically triggered by touching the Pokemon". Just fix those and you're good

 

[R_N]

Yeah idk I can't say I ever missed Repels at any point while playing Legends Arceus. I'd hazard to say that the entire concept of the item doesn't work in 3D because now instead of eliminating the nuisance of random encounters you're eliminating the the lynchpin that makes the environments fun and atmospheric: Why would I want to go through the Heartwood without Psyduck bathing in the river and Buneary hopping around on its shoreline? Even pika pal's proposal of freezing certain behaviors sounds lame for similar reasons.

The problem here seems much more like a combination of "SV, especially on Switch 2, has overtuned spawn volume that makes certain areas a chore to get through" and "SV's lack of Legends catching mechanics making it so battles are automatically triggered by touching the Pokemon". Just fix those and you're good

the spawn volume in SV is, to be fair, something that becomes a lot more manageable when you're in areas that don't spawn small guys in grass you can't see and dont throw One Million Tauros/Veluza at you.

I've blitzed through all kinds of areas while running around the game and the ability to do this without issue is strictly dictated to visibility because its easy to swerve around stuff that doesn't want to kill you or that throws you into a battle because you stubbed your toe. Area Zero has the most spawners in the game by far but is super manageable 99% of the time because everything is clearly visible and lacks the aggression of Tauros.

Kitakami also has a lot of tall grass, but it's a bit off to the side of the main path and is generally populated by more visible Pokemon.

Honestly probably a lot of jank that'll just be resolved by different area design that'll happen game to game.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I understand why they removed them and can actually see possible problems with implementing them with purely overworld spawns (mainly from a niche "player can't get to a shiny/rare pokemon because a repel is active" standpoint).

• Don't make 1%/Shiny encounters run away. It's really that simple.

Tangentially, running into wild Pokemon that I can't see because they're too small pisses me off and I hate it.

People were crashing out over mons not being canonically sized in battle, now we're all paying the price.

A lot of these realistic mechanics for vibes and immersion make the game more cumbersome instead of fun.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Hot take: I actually like having a few "problem" encounter species like Tauros and Veluza. It offers an ever so slight feeling that the entire range of the world's wildlife does not in fact exist for your convenience.

Although the key word in that sentence is definitely "few."

• Don't make 1%/Shiny encounters run away. It's really that simple.

Yeah like they already carve in special exceptions for that kind of stuff when handling auto battles. Wouldn't be fundamentally different to do that for a Repel.

Though I'm wondering if the reason why they don't bother with Repels now is because of how multiplayer sessions complicate spawns.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Hot take: I actually like having a few "problem" encounter species like Tauros and Veluza. It offers an ever so slight feeling that the entire range of the world's wildlife does not in fact exist for your convenience.

I liked getting jumped in PLA.

The catch is that divebombing Murkrow didn't get me into a whole battle animation that I couldn't escape from.

Though I'm wondering if the reason why they don't bother with Repels now is because of how multiplayer sessions complicate spawns.

 

[Samtendo09]

Very good counterargument, I’m just curious where did you find that.

As for Sixtyfour:

Hot take: I actually like having a few "problem" encounter species like Tauros and Veluza. It offers an ever so slight feeling that the entire range of the world's wildlife does not in fact exist for your convenience.

I can see why, as long as they are not completely unavoidable and not too difficult to fight against. I do fear excessive power creep in future generation may eventually end up making “problem encounters” being unberarable, but we’ll see.

 

[R_N]

I can see why, as long as they are not completely unavoidable and not too difficult to fight against. I do fear excessive power creep in future generation may eventually end up making “problem encounters” being unberarable, but we’ll see.

I physically cannot envision powercreep causing wild encounters to be obscene. That is seriously not even something to bother thinking about, especially in a series that has items to instantly run away. Much less this series, the easy game for babies

 

[Karxrida]

Yeah like they already carve in special exceptions for that kind of stuff when handling auto battles. Wouldn't be fundamentally different to do that for a Repel.

I can't imagine it would be too difficult to make it so Repels don't affect Shinies. With the "don't spawn Pokémon at all" version you would have it so Shinies will still spawn but presumably remain rare so it doesn't become an automatic cheat code. Would also make hunting those Shinies (you know the ones) easier when they're not blending in with their normal-coded kin. For the "literally repel the Pokémon away" version you should be allowed to approach and run into Shinies without issue.

 

[R_N]

I can't imagine it would be too difficult to make it so Repels don't affect Shinies. With the "don't spawn Pokémon at all" version you would have it so Shinies will still spawn but presumably remain rare so it doesn't become an automatic cheat code. Would also make hunting those Shinies (you know the ones) easier when they're not blending in with their normal-coded kin. For the "literally repel the Pokémon away" version you should be allowed to approach and run into Shinies without issue.

I think in the "just dont spawn them" it would just...not spawn shinies. In this scenario it wouldn't even be rolling for shinies because it's not rolling encounters at all. If you want to shiny hunt you'd just. Not use them?

Like people did in every wild hunt game from Gen 2-8 where Repels worked normally.

 

[pika pal]

Small complaint of my own: Steel Beam. For PvP I think this move is cool, Recoil being either a Risk-Reward or even an asset to KO yourself and deny something like Rapid Spin or Switch Advantage.

However, this move in Raids is absolute garbage. So many times I see randos spam the move and drain the clock to the point I can't tell if they're dumb or trolling. Is it too much to ask for Self-KO's to not deplete the timer, or to change the mechanic in his setting (they already proved they can make exceptions with Stellar Tera as a mechanic)?

I think in the "just dont spawn them" it would just...not spawn shinies. In this scenario it wouldn't even be rolling for shinies because it's not rolling encounters at all. If you want to shiny hunt you'd just. Not use them?

Like people did in every wild hunt game from Gen 2-8 where Repels worked normally.

The funny part is SV unintentionally gave us a precedent for how this could behave with Sandwich hunting Flutter Mane. Ghosts seem to essentially despawn Frame 1 when they appear during the Day, but Shinies have their despawning disabled, which is how people run around the Depths at "Night" and any FM that appears and stays is the Shiny.

 

[Hugin]

Small complaint of my own: Steel Beam. For PvP I think this move is cool, Recoil being either a Risk-Reward or even an asset to KO yourself and deny something like Rapid Spin or Switch Advantage.

However, this move in Raids is absolute garbage. So many times I see randos spam the move and drain the clock to the point I can't tell if they're dumb or trolling. Is it too much to ask for Self-KO's to not deplete the timer, or to change the mechanic in his setting (they already proved they can make exceptions with Stellar Tera as a mechanic)?

Raids are cooperative multiplayer and multiplayer will always have incompetent noobs and trolls. Pokemon is worse since there's essentially no matchmaking, no moderation, and no coordination.

Basically, good luck. They're not fixing anything and even if they tried, Raids can't be fixed.

 

[R_N]

If self-inflicted KOs didn't take away the timer then you suddenly get to just spam the strongest moves in the game with only the comparatively minor wait time as penalty. It makes a lot of sense for recoil and such to continue to punish you like it was a normal KO.

You can't do much about people trolling, though. Which is the only real instance I see of people bringing in moves like this....honestly it's pretty easy to forget a move like ethat even exists.

 

[pika pal]

If self-inflicted KOs didn't take away the timer then you suddenly get to just spam the strongest moves in the game with only the comparatively minor wait time as penalty. It makes a lot of sense for recoil and such to continue to punish you like it was a normal KO.

You can't do much about people trolling, though. Which is the only real instance I see of people bringing in moves like this....honestly it's pretty easy to forget a move like ethat even exists.

My simplest solution was to make KO's penalize the individual instead of the party, like a longer time-out instead of draining the clock everyone uses.

My position is that it's better raids be too easy that annoying and lacking agency (no amount of skill by the other 3 players matter if one person sandbagging drags EVERYONE down, doubly so when basic QoL like team recommendations or the ability to kick players from a lobby don't exist (and yes, I think the ability to kick players who don't contribute outweighs any potential toxicity of excluding players. If Kids want to play co-op online, better they learn not to bring things that they won't win with).

 

[Karxrida]

A lot of these realistic mechanics for vibes and immersion make the game more cumbersome instead of fun.

Bringing this back to point out the reasoning for a new complaint now that I've beaten Violet.

You get to finally add your Raidon to your party after beating the game. Cool! It's ripped out of your party whenever you ride it, which will happen often. Extremely not cool!

The insistence on the game allowing you to battle anywhere in the overworld and not go to a dedicated battle screen like prior titles causes a lot of small problems, but this is a huge one because you will constantly be stumbling into it.

(Yes I know you can get a second Raidon, but it's not the one you've been bonding with the entire game and seems to exist almost purely for trading.)

Oh also regarding raids: they are indeed super lame.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

(Yes I know you can get a second Raidon, but it's not the one you've been bonding with the entire game and seems to exist almost purely for trading.)

Seems to me that the second one is very much intended as the one to battle with because its preset nature is optimized for it.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Only just realising now how many Pokemon were done dirty by the 3DS graphics/lighting. Caught and evolved a shiny Kommo-o in Pokemon Go this weekend and the colours on my phone looked simply gorgeous, in a way I'd never particularly thought it did in the Gen VII titles. But I don't know why I'm surprised by that when there are all those videos in which people upscale the 3DS games to remove the harsh black outlines and make the colours pop a little more.

...do I need to start emulating the 3DS games to enjoy them at their fullest? I feel like the answer is staggeringly obvious

 

[AztecCroc]

Only just realising now how many Pokemon were done dirty by the 3DS graphics/lighting. Caught and evolved a shiny Kommo-o in Pokemon Go this weekend and the colours on my phone looked simply gorgeous, in a way I'd never particularly thought it did in the Gen VII titles. But I don't know why I'm surprised by that when there are all those videos in which people upscale the 3DS games to remove the harsh black outlines and make the colours pop a little more.

...do I need to start emulating the 3DS games to enjoy them at their fullest? I feel like the answer is staggeringly obvious

I mean, even in the unmodified 3DS games Kommo-o was a particularly vibrant and saturated shiny. Go doesn't seem to have changed anything colorwise as far as I can tell.
SM:

Go:

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I mean, even in the unmodified 3DS games Kommo-o was a particularly vibrant and saturated shiny. Go doesn't seem to have changed anything colorwise as far as I can tell.
SM:

Go:

No, it hasn't changed the colour scheme but both the pink and the gold look cleaner/brighter to me in the bottom image. The lack of black outlines helps, but the shading is also noticeably softer - overall the image is lifted.

It's certainly a vibrant shiny in either case, it's just the only one that's stood out to me so starkly.