I wanted to discuss evolutions...specifically, how much does Game Freak expect players to know about the non-level evolutions? Do they expect players to have access to the Internet to have bought a strategy guide? Back in RBY, there were stone evolutions and trade evolutions. I wasn't into Pokemon then but I still knew that Kadabra, Machoke, and Haunter only evolved by trading, and that Pokemon like Vulpix and Clefairy only evolved with a stone. In the anime we see that Pikachu needed a Thunder Stone to evolve (bad-ass episode, by the way) and I knew that trading was necessary to have a full Pokedex, but...how did I know those three needed to trade, and that set need stones? How did my friends who played know?
Item descriptions in the fourth generation suggest items need to be used ("It is loved by a certain Pokemon") but do not really specify what Pokemon or at what time (i.e. Gligar needs to hold a Razor Fang, but only evolves into Gliscor at nighttime). Bulbapedia theorizes that the GTS glitch - where you put one up for trade and then make a trade - might have been intentional on Game Freak's part so that people could get evolved forms, but I don't know how many players would just randomly put up, say a Porygon2 with a Dubious Disc, and ask for an impossible Pokemon and come back 24 hours later.
The reason I ask is because I think the fourth generation was just ridiculous...like having to level up at a specific place (Magneton, Probopass, Leafeon, and Glaceon) or having to use a move like Ancientpower (Piloswine, Tangela) or Rollout or level up at a specific time (Gligar, as I said before), stuff that I'd absolutely have no clue to even guess at how to evolve unless I had Psypokes or other encyclopedias at my fingertips. If anything, I would have tried to use a Leaf Stone to evolve Eevee into Leafeon.
Example: There was one time where I didn't consult a FAQ and traded for a male Combee only to find that male Combees would never evolve into Vesipquen. Then I set up an egg run and later found out that females only had a 12.5% chance of hatching. So I went back on the GTS to find a Vesipquen. I was able to trade for a shiny one, so that was cool, but the frustration still remained with the whole male-female, level-up-at-specific-times/areas, and split evolutionary lines stuff that Game Freak seems to be trending on and will surely happen in the fifth generation when original Pokemon get some love and some awesome evos or useless pre-evos.
