(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Magcargo said:
You've got me stumped on legendaries - I do not know how a lot of them would be integrated into new regional dexes without big reworks. I feel like the paradox Pokemon specifically will just be an SV feature and won't return ever again.
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We've got plenty of ""creative"" ways for legendaries to show up anyway...

In pokedexes specifically? Unlikely unless lore reasons, not happening.
"Random bullshit go brrr to catch all legendaries available in the game"? Eh, Hoopa holes, ultrarifts, dynamax adventures, and their latest idea, smelly sandwitches, at this point I trust they can come up with a ultradimensional cookie that spawns pokemon from another dimension/timeline.
 
Worldie said:
We've got plenty of ""creative"" ways for legendaries to show up anyway...

In pokedexes specifically? Unlikely unless lore reasons, not happening.
"Random bullshit go brrr to catch all legendaries available in the game"? Eh, Hoopa holes, ultrarifts, dynamax adventures, and their latest idea, smelly sandwitches, at this point I trust they can come up with a ultradimensional cookie that spawns pokemon from another dimension/timeline.
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do they have to come up with lore reasons though? Feels like that can be easily explained away with "cuz its a video game".
 
The Leader's Crest is a pretty awesome new item in gen 9. I think its pretty cool that this item is only on Bisharps that "lead" a group of Pawniards and think its pretty flavorful. That said, I don't like how it has no other use outside of acting as a flag for Kingambit to check if its KO'd the right kind of Bisharp. It doesn't sell for much, it does poor damage with Fling, and it doesn't do anything special for Bisharp or Kingambit themselves either. I wish it had some additional effect - even a basic one - similar to other evolution related items like the metal coat, Razor Fang, or King's Rock. Considering you only get it by capturing a certain kind of Bisharp, I feel this would be fair.
 
tentaghost said:
do they have to come up with lore reasons though? Feels like that can be easily explained away with "cuz its a video game".
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If we take “it’s a video game” to its logical extreme, then everything begins to break down. Why can’t infinite Arceus spawn in the wild on Route 4? Why can’t the professor offer you a choice between Kubfu, Darkrai, and Scream Tail?

There is, strictly speaking, no reason why Game Freak couldn’t do these things. All they would have to do is disregard the lore that they’ve established around the Legendaries and Mythicals. But they don’t do that, because the end result would be ridiculous in terms of both game balance and the sense of immersion that they want the player to have.

Pokémon games are RPGs, so “the lore” is designed in the way that it is in order to create a certain feeling when you’re in the game world. Rupturing that lore is trivially easy to do… but if you’re going to do that, then it’s fair to ask why you even shaped the lore that way to begin with?

That’s partly why a lot of people dislike, for instance, the process of receiving Mythicals from a delivery man. That’s a prime example of “it’s a video game” logic that dispenses with “the lore” in order to get the gameplay element into the players hands more quickly. But those people would actually prefer it if Game Freak prioritized the lore by weaving those Mythicals into the setting directly and organically, even if it means doing more work to obtain the Mythical in question, rather than just relying on “it’s a video game” logic that breaks immersion.
 
My nice nfe oras team will end-dont want to teach starter surf, and so wingull must Evo ugh. Stupid tms. Was going great, no real trouble even on Norman, but now can't see if I can finish game without Evo if I want mudkip to have anything but water tbh. Hm actually I'll just sac it as a slave, but still a hate I have.
 
Esserise said:
If we take “it’s a video game” to its logical extreme, then everything begins to break down. Why can’t infinite Arceus spawn in the wild on Route 4? Why can’t the professor offer you a choice between Kubfu, Darkrai, and Scream Tail?

There is, strictly speaking, no reason why Game Freak couldn’t do these things. All they would have to do is disregard the lore that they’ve established around the Legendaries and Mythicals. But they don’t do that, because the end result would be ridiculous in terms of both game balance and the sense of immersion that they want the player to have.

Pokémon games are RPGs, so “the lore” is designed in the way that it is in order to create a certain feeling when you’re in the game world. Rupturing that lore is trivially easy to do… but if you’re going to do that, then it’s fair to ask why you even shaped the lore that way to begin with?

That’s partly why a lot of people dislike, for instance, the process of receiving Mythicals from a delivery man. That’s a prime example of “it’s a video game” logic that dispenses with “the lore” in order to get the gameplay element into the players hands more quickly. But those people would actually prefer it if Game Freak prioritized the lore by weaving those Mythicals into the setting directly and organically, even if it means doing more work to obtain the Mythical in question, rather than just relying on “it’s a video game” logic that breaks immersion.
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Well, we should have an asterisk that the "lore" given doesnt even have to be a lot or acknowledged. Kalos dex was also the one where they just kind of shrug at there being mewtwo in the pokemon village and the legendary birds just flying around. Presumably they just kinda, wander around sometimes. Lends credence to Snacksworth, I suppose.

But also, again, the real thing that needs to be acknowledged here is "if they dont want them in the regional dex, they simply won't be there". BW2 expanded its regional dex but despite having a bunch of post-game only Pokemon listed, it still opted to not include the legends meandering around the region's post game in there. And those ones had "reasons" to be there!
Crown Tundra's pokedex had the musketeers despite being a post-game quest for Sonia, but not Cosmog (gift), Poipole (also a gift), Regigigas (lurking in the giant's seat), or Keldeo and obviously did not include any of the dynamax adventures gang. I note the gifts because Galar's base game dex DID opt to include Type Null, but opted out of even including the mythics available at the time.
This also extends to normie Pokemon. Paldea could have easily had a 402 listed Pokedex, but Quagsire & Perrserker were both left out even though they were readily obtainable and Galar included Persian & Cofagrigus. BW2 made sure to include all the non-legendary goobers on land in the post game, but continued to exclude anything that was found in the fishing spots. Isle of Armor decided against counting the alolan starters. The Crown Tundra dex excluded the hoenn starters and Wailmer. And wailmer's just in the tundra lmao.

If they want a number, they'll hit it and if they go over that number then oh well, they're in the 'foreign' category and just don't count to the dex, even if you can obtain them in regular(or regular-ish) gameplay. We'll likely see paradoxes again in the future but even if there were only 5 of them, the odds weren't in the favor of being in a regional dex.
 
Annoyed at the fate of Ash-Greninja. Maybe we will get a reveal in legends Za, but I honestly hope they don't throw it all in the dumpster. "This is the first pokemon in existence we will pretend never happened" despite merch going with it. Even journeys did everything possible to not show much of Ash-Greninja. I get its purpose, give greninja a new form without stepping on other Megas. Hope both Ash-Greninja and Mega can coexist in champions but I doubt it.
 
Sulfurian said:
Annoyed at the fate of Ash-Greninja. Maybe we will get a reveal in legends Za, but I honestly hope they don't throw it all in the dumpster. "This is the first pokemon in existence we will pretend never happened" despite merch going with it. Even journeys did everything possible to not show much of Ash-Greninja. I get its purpose, give greninja a new form without stepping on other Megas. Hope both Ash-Greninja and Mega can coexist in champions but I doubt it.
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Eh, it's not even retconned out of existance.

By all means, Ash Greninja is, well, Ash's greninja. They don't need to retcon anything if simply they go by "this is not ash's greninja".
 
Worldie said:
Eh, it's not even retconned out of existance.

By all means, Ash Greninja is, well, Ash's greninja. They don't need to retcon anything if simply they go by "this is not ash's greninja".
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I mean, they literally got rid of the form in SV. That's pretty retconned, even if it's still going to be listed in the online pokedexes and home.
 
Hugin said:
They deleted it from flashbacks in the anime, that's pretty retconned.
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When they inevitably do an adult Ash sequel OVA there's a very serious chance he brings out his Greninja and Mega Evolves it and the narrative pretends it's always been like this ("There it is... the power my Charizard faced at the Kalos League all those years ago..." Alain With A Beard gruffly mutters)
 
You can have 1 more Pokémon seen in Black 2 with the male character than the female character, 537 v 536. Tbh this doesn't even annoy me I just saw it on reddit and wanted to share it, and couldn't think of anywhere else to do so.
 
MoonlightRose said:
You can have 1 more Pokémon seen in Black 2 with the male character than the female character, 537 v 536. Tbh this doesn't even annoy me I just saw it on reddit and wanted to share it, and couldn't think of anywhere else to do so.
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Related: the catching tutorial in HGSS is faster when playing as the girl due to less text. Apparently women talk more according to the writers because your instructor is the opposite player character.
 
Karxrida said:
Related: the catching tutorial in HGSS is faster when playing as the girl due to less text. Apparently women talk more according to the writers because your instructor is the opposite player character.
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For that cutscene in particular it's more because Lyra has an extra moment with Marill where she catches a Pokemon 'too fast' for the player to properly observe:

It's definitely true that the female rival/counterpart tends to have more dialogue than the male one, though.
 
In SV, there are a couple of things I classify as "cute but grind my gears", both of which involve the overworld spawns. The first is tiny pokemon I can't see and run into, the second being how aggressive AI can cause pokemon to crowd you while you're in menus and can't move.
Both are understandable inclusions, but they kind of wear thin for me, especially the latter one. I've ended up in situations where I get stuck in repeated wild battles because as soon as I exit one, I'm physically on top of another pokemon and get pulled in immediately.
Minor gripes, still enjoy the mechanics overall
 
xonsh said:
In SV, there are a couple of things I classify as "cute but grind my gears", both of which involve the overworld spawns. The first is tiny pokemon I can't see and run into, the second being how aggressive AI can cause pokemon to crowd you while you're in menus and can't move.
Both are understandable inclusions, but they kind of wear thin for me, especially the latter one. I've ended up in situations where I get stuck in repeated wild battles because as soon as I exit one, I'm physically on top of another pokemon and get pulled in immediately.
Minor gripes, still enjoy the mechanics overall
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I've complained about the frame trapping before. It's crazy how there seems to be no grace period of invulnerability after fighting a wild Pokémon.

Repels died for this.
 
Sky Battles in XY legitimately could have been a really interesting concept - other than the postgame-only Restricted Sparring from SwSh, it's the only case in Pokemon games where the composition of your team itself is restricted. Unfortunately, Game Freak went overboard with the difficulty and made them overleveled with great coverage to the point where nobody actually attempts them.
xonsh said:
In SV, there are a couple of things I classify as "cute but grind my gears", both of which involve the overworld spawns. The first is tiny pokemon I can't see and run into, the second being how aggressive AI can cause pokemon to crowd you while you're in menus and can't move.
Both are understandable inclusions, but they kind of wear thin for me, especially the latter one. I've ended up in situations where I get stuck in repeated wild battles because as soon as I exit one, I'm physically on top of another pokemon and get pulled in immediately.
Minor gripes, still enjoy the mechanics overall
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I’m pretty sure I’ve driven the local Capsakid population around Cascarrafa to extinction with how many of them I’ve accidentally run over with my Miraidon.
 
okispokis said:
Been building fake Regional Dexes recently, and I had a realization: Pokemon has some issues with futureproofing mons. I was playing around with including Paradoxes, and it dawned on me that the Paradox Pokemon might ironically be the least futureproofed mons in the series. Unless you're willing to break up the set, that's a minimum of 14 slots, meaning these guys probably aren't getting included in another proper regional Dex. Add to that the DLC trios, which are also spinoffs of Legendaries that themselves will likely be saved for post-game in DLC 2 each gen, I am really curious how they're going to handle these guys going forwards.

But that's not the only case of newer Pokemon not being futureproofed. The other obvious example is regional forms, especially ones that have the same base stage. It's been over five years since you could evolve Exeggcute into A. Exeggutor or Pikachu into A. Raichu, and they're only going to get harder to obtain the further we get from Alola; that is, of course, barring making those forms catchable in the wild but unevolvable because apparently making it so a mon can evolve into two different forms is too hard to figure out? Ditto the Hisuian forms. That's also not mentioning the nonsense with how Ursaluna and Kleavor are available in SV but you can't evolve into them because...? Wyrdeer is especially baffling since they did figure out something for Overqwil.

Though that's not to say this is a wholly new issue. For instance, the Nidoran line definitely got screwed over in the long run because they got introduced before genders were a thing. They've been in almost no regional Dexes post-Johto, and it's easy to guess it's because the planners don't think their 6-slot cost is worth it. You also got the elemental monkeys, a six-pack of what's basically the same line 3 times and who aren't especially popular, so why bother bringing them back? In a series all about bonding with your Pokemon and taking them on journey after journey, it would feel wrong for any of them to be permanently left behind.

I could go on, so a few more examples:
  • Ultra Beasts: Predecessor of the Paradox mons, similar problem with Dex space.
  • Meltan and Melmetal: Unless Go's servers stay open forever, they will eventually need another way to obtain this guy.
  • Gholdengo: What happens if future titles don't adopt the collectable parts system?
  • Hydrapple: A cute reference to G-Max forms, sure, but in games without Dynamax Hydrapple's existence puts Flapple and Appletun into an awkward spot.
  • Lycanroc-Dusk: I will never forgive GF for making me breed for this shiny thanks to that stupid ability lock.
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ngl I wish they named the regional forms differently. Naming them after the region they first appear in makes it so that putting them anywhere other than that region feels weird, as they're named for a region that isn't the one they're appearing in, which means they'll very rarely, if ever, allow them in other regions/pokedexes, which is a shame since some of them have really good designs. It'd be a shame to never see stuff like Clodsire, Alolan Marowak, or Galarian Zigzagoon ever again outside of transferring from home. Thankfully we did recently get a good place to put regional forms in with the Terraium, but situations like that won't show up all that much. Plus, I feel like something like Alolan Vulpix should be able to appear in snowy environments, Alolan Exeggutor in tropical ones, etc, and the naming scheme makes that more awkward than it should have to be.
 
SwampySwampert said:
Sky Battles in XY legitimately could have been a really interesting concept - other than the postgame-only Restricted Sparring from SwSh, it's the only case in Pokemon games where the composition of your team itself is restricted. Unfortunately, Game Freak went overboard with the difficulty and made them overleveled with great coverage to the point where nobody actually attempts them.
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I don't think Sky Battles were overleveled or had necessarily great coverage. I think they all just used level up learnsets and most of them seem to be approximately in line with surrounding trainers.
If there was a reason to not do them it was probably because you had a pretty limited pool of Pokemon you could even use them for, so depending on team composition you uh. May be out of luck entirely.
There's also only 14 of them and I dont think you can rebattle any of them. So even if you did do them, there's like...not much else to talk about with them.

I'd say the reason they dropped them after that was because they realized the idea was a bit too cute, likely around the time they decided ORAS would have literal battles in the sky and that this would just be annoying.
 
R_N said:
I don't think Sky Battles were overleveled or had necessarily great coverage. I think they all just used level up learnsets and most of them seem to be approximately in line with surrounding trainers.
If there was a reason to not do them it was probably because you had a pretty limited pool of Pokemon you could even use them for, so depending on team composition you uh. May be out of luck entirely.
There's also only 14 of them and I dont think you can rebattle any of them. So even if you did do them, there's like...not much else to talk about with them.

I'd say the reason they dropped them after that was because they realized the idea was a bit too cute, likely around the time they decided ORAS would have literal battles in the sky and that this would just be annoying.
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I really like the concept and also it was implemented really poorly. You're right that they're not intentionally using serious coverage etc, but most teams will have exactly 1 mon that is valid for Sky Battles. Meanwhile, I think the devs wanted to showcase as many mons as possible for Sky Battles, which means most of the trainers have roughly 2 mons, and a shocking number of those are SE against flying-types. On a mono-flying playthrough(I did one), that's fine, but for the average player with just a Fletchinder, the first Emolga or Rock Slide Vibrava that wipes you is a good way to stop attempting Sky Battles entirely.

I've said before, but I think a lot of RPGs need to give people better ways to run. The system in Pokemon where you walk into a fight and either win, white out and lose 50% of your cash, or reset to last save is not great, and encourages saving before every fight and reloading if you get bad luck. These games are extremely binary in outcomes, and I think that builds bad habits in gamers.
 
Scarlet and Violet were some of the most grindy experiences for a competitive player on cart. You don't have pokerus for evs, you don't have fast locations to grind levels in like Horde battles (xp candy raids fixed this sort of) evs take a ridiculously long time, your temporary solutions range from mashing a or getting a controller to mash for you to get enough money to get vitamins and caps, the god awful TM system that requires me to search all over, or go through guides. Its too late in the game for crafting items to have ???? And then spend so many minutes just searching for the combinations of items and their location. It doesn't keep me engaged when I have to search to find how to craft scale shot. These are not systems that are designed for someone to play after the main story, they are designed for you to put the game away after you made your ultimate teams, not for making new teams or builds, new set ideas for the same pokemon. Its just a hassle. Raids weren't a good bandaid either especially when they become so brain dead easy but the RNG of your items meant you may have to go back and do another one.
 
Sulfurian said:
Scarlet and Violet were some of the most grindy experiences for a competitive player on cart. You don't have pokerus for evs, you don't have fast locations to grind levels in like Horde battles (xp candy raids fixed this sort of) evs take a ridiculously long time, your temporary solutions range from mashing a or getting a controller to mash for you to get enough money to get vitamins and caps, the god awful TM system that requires me to search all over, or go through guides. Its too late in the game for crafting items to have ???? And then spend so many minutes just searching for the combinations of items and their location. It doesn't keep me engaged when I have to search to find how to craft scale shot. These are not systems that are designed for someone to play after the main story, they are designed for you to put the game away after you made your ultimate teams, not for making new teams or builds, new set ideas for the same pokemon. Its just a hassle. Raids weren't a good bandaid either especially when they become so brain dead easy but the RNG of your items meant you may have to go back and do another one.
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It feels designed for people like me, who just like. Played the game a bunch, just did raids for fun, some slight shiny hunting on the side, and constantly ran across the region picking up items and spent a lot of time on the item printer because it was hitting the good vibes on me, and now have more resources (money, LP, every item under the sun, hundreds of tera shards) than I can reasonably use up because I don't play competitive. useful for doing whatever I want forever in the raids + pokedex shenanigans (when you're near the cap of exp candies you can level things up to whatever you want, aha...) though?

The irony deepens further because all of this means I would probably have enjoyed trying out the battle tower this go around but. Well.





Looking forward to the complaints about Champions not resolving the "they want you to play the game for a long time" problem
 
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