(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Those stretches/tunnels of empty space (usually framed by arches) that pop up in certain areas in Rumble World. Absolutely no purpose to them other than to look pretty...and break your combos...
 
Those stretches/tunnels of empty space (usually framed by arches) that pop up in certain areas in Rumble World. Absolutely no purpose to them other than to look pretty...and break your combos...
Probably there so it can so the game can load a little bit on longer levels. I know like Metroid Prime and a few other games had that kind of loading.
 
Baby Pokémon existed way before the 3IVs thing
Well aware of this, but aside from Dex completion, there seems to have been little practical reason to have one (but hey, maybe you just want one). Pichu and Tyrogue maybe, but why would I want a Cleffa or Azurill, aside from it being so damn cute?

Also, Bulbapedia says the three-perfect-IV thing only applies to wild-caught babies. Strange...
 
Well aware of this, but aside from Dex completion, there seems to have been little practical reason to have one (but hey, maybe you just want one). Pichu and Tyrogue maybe, but why would I want a Cleffa or Azurill, aside from it being so damn cute?

Also, Bulbapedia says the three-perfect-IV thing only applies to wild-caught babies. Strange...
I mean regardless, the whole 3IVs on babies thing seemed to be more an error than anything. It was simply applied to the Undiscovered Egg Group as that was the one that contained Legendaries, ie the ones that can't be bred for IVs. It just so happened that baby Pokémon were also in that Egg Group, so for ORAS they 'fixed' that.
 
Tyrogue was definitely required because it tied in Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee (and the newcomer Hitmontop). A few of the Gen IV ones (the ones you capture in the wild during the storyline but especially Budew) seem to be in place to give you a returning Pokemon earlier than its power levels would suggest.
 
The fact that there's no item for enhancing fairy-type moves like Blackglasses, Charcoal or Dragon Fang irks me.
I mean, yeah okay there is the pixie plate and that does the exact same thing, but it's just kinda traditional that there's a type-enchancing item alongside the plate. Could even have brought back Gen 2's Pink Bow or Polkadot Bow or something.
 
The fact that the plates aren't named like Grass plate, water plate... etc
Very difficult to memorize/ to find in alphabetical order because you just have no idea what they are called. (And you often need to look up in Bulbapedia to see what they are called)
 
I feel we already talked about these topics before.

The fact that there's no item for enhancing fairy-type moves like Blackglasses, Charcoal or Dragon Fang irks me.
I mean, yeah okay there is the pixie plate and that does the exact same thing, but it's just kinda traditional that there's a type-enchancing item alongside the plate. Could even have brought back Gen 2's Pink Bow or Polkadot Bow or something.

Sadly having the Pixie Plate is probably why they felt they didn't need a Fairy-type powering-up item. Why have two items that do the same thing except one changes Arceus forms? That said I've always felt that the basic power-up items needed a bit of an upgrade. Like maybe when attached to a Pokemon of their type they not only power-up STAB moves but also add/increase the chance of doing a secondary effect. Like a Fire-type holding the Charcoal will have a better chance of burning an opponent with a Fire-type move, Ice-type holding NeverMeltIce have a better chance of Freezing with an Ice-type move, etc.. Of course at some point you'll need to get a bit fancy for types that don't have a status ailment you can relate to them, but I think stat increases to user/decreases to opponent's can fill those out (or multiple types will share a status ailment).

And yeah, Pink/Polkadot Bow would have been both a perfect match for a Fairy-type power-up item AND also throw in a bit of nostalgia/callback that GF love to throw in now and again.

The fact that every Gem other than the Normal Gem has gone AWOL in Generation VI. No more Flying Gem Acrobatics.

I think Flying Gem Acrobatics is why they removed all types except Normal. The Gems were a bit too powerful so they sort of removed them without actually removing them since I have a feeling they want to bring them back. "Well why don't they just decrease how much of a boost your Pokemon gets?" I hear you ask. Here's the thing, they did. Gem's went from 50% boost to 30% in Gen VI, but instead of seeing if that fixed the problem they decided to make them not obtainable entirely. Hopefully maybe in XY2 they'll bring them back in some capacity (and if they still don't want to use the Gems in competition they can ban them. Soul Dew is getting kind of lonely being the only item on the ban list).

Also they made a Fairy Gem which they didn't release, yet not a Fairy-type power-up item. What?

The fact that the plates aren't named like Grass plate, water plate... etc
Very difficult to memorize/ to find in alphabetical order because you just have no idea what they are called. (And you often need to look up in Bulbapedia to see what they are called)

I kind of find that interesting, it sort of gives the Plates a bit of "character". Like it sort of add another layer to the types by adding in another word you can relate to them. Now sure some of these words are obvious relations you didn't really need the plates to spell out for you, but at the same time it does add some officialism to those terms. That said in the Japanese version some plates do keep their type name like Dragon, Steel, and Rock (though the Japanese is spelled differently). Also if you think the English names are confusing some of the Japanese come out of nowhere. Insect Plate is Jewel Beetle Plate, Meadow Plate is Verdure Plate, and Mind Plate is Mysterious Plate *shrugs*.

Though I kind of wished they work on the descriptions more. Actually that'll make for a good new annoyance:

New Annoyance: I find that sometimes the description of Items, Moves, or Abilities are either boring or straight forward. I'm not saying that's bad, but personally I kind of wished they just split those descriptions into two. Like one description is the flavor description which tells you a little about the Item, Move, and Ability while there's a second which tells you the effects of them.

Using the above as an example, I like some of the Gem's description. Now they do follow a pattern, it basically goes like "A gem with an essence of (type descriptor). When held, it strengthens the power of a (type)-type move one time". Now obviously the (type) is just the gem's type, pretty straight forward. However the (type descriptor) sometimes isn't that straight. Now for some types it is like for Fire, Water, Ice, Poison, Rock, and Steel. Then we got some which is just a natural evolution from the type's name like Electric's descriptor is Electricity, Dark is Darkness, and Dragon is Draconic. But THEN we get into ones which uses a new world altogether, similar to the Plates. Grass is Nature, Fighting is Combat, Ground is Land, Flying is Air, Psychic is Mind, Bug is Insect-like, Ghost is Spectral, Normal is Ordinary, and Fairy is The Fey. Those special descriptors kind of make me wish they went back to Fire, Water, Ice, Poison, Rock, and Steel and give them something special like Flame, Seas, Frost, Toxicity, Mountains, and Metal. And the same with the Plate description. The Plate description is "An item to be held by a Pokemon. It is a stone tablet that boosts the power of (type)-type moves". First off, do we really need that first part? How about we change it so that the plate is maybe giving off a feeling or essence of its type. Like:

Draco: "A tablet that gives off a sense of legends. It boosts the power of Dragon-type moves."
Dread: "A tablet that gives off a sense of foreboding. It boosts the power of Dark-type moves."
Earth:
"A tablet that feels like soil to the touch. It boosts the power of Ground-type moves."
Fist: "A tablet that gives off a sense of combat. It boosts the power of Fighting-type moves."
Flame: "A tablet that feels hot to the touch. It boosts the power of Fire-type moves."
Icicle: "A tablet that feels cold to the touch. It boosts the power of Ice-type moves."
Insect: "A tablet that gives off a sense of jitters. It boosts the power of Insect-type moves."
Iron: "A tablet that feels metallic to the touch. It boosts the power of Steel-type moves."
Meadow: "A tablet that feels like leaves to the touch. It boosts the power of Grass-type moves."
Mind: "A tablet that gives off a sense of intelligence. It boosts the power of Psychic-type moves."
Pixie: "A tablet that gives off a sense of magic. It boosts the power of Fairy-type moves."
Sky: "A tablet that feels light weight to the touch. It boosts the power of Flying-type moves."
Splash: A tablet that feels wet to the touch. It boosts the power of Water-type moves."
Spooky: "A tablet that gives off a sense of creepiness. It boosts the power of Ghost-type moves."
Stone: "A tablet that feels like gravel to the touch. It boosts the power of Rock-type moves."
Toxic: "A tablet that gives off a sense of illness. It boosts the power of Poison-type moves."
Zap: "A tablet that feels staticky to the touch. It boosts the power of Electric-type moves."

There, doesn't that give the Plates some more "character"? The power-up items are okay with their descriptions, though I do wonder how some of those items exactly power-up their type.
 
I just hate how all the Baby Pokemon besides maybe Tyrogue only evolve via Friendship. Besides the gameplay pain in breeding, I have a big reason for this.

I get that it's supposed to be cute and affectionate, but Evolution always struck me as a Pokemon maturing in its life cycle. Real animals need to be nurtured, yes, but they mainly grow and become self-sufficient by being taught how to fed for themselves without clinging to their parents.

For example, in the anime, there was a big deal in the Mirage Kingdom about Misty's Togepi evolving into Togetic to protect everyone and growing up. Except Misty never did anything to get Togepi there. She babied it and tried to hide it from harm during battles. I understand that's your natural instinct with a baby, but Togepi itself showed no signs of capability until evolving.

The anime usually isn't the best parallel, but Baby Pokemon usually end up the same way: avoid battling with them at all costs until the evolve and become half competent. Even more than something like Crobat or Blissey (which is at least a Pokemon based around happiness), Baby Pokemon suddenly going from helpless to decent battlers simply from being babied and spoiled feels like the biggest "power of love" BS mechanic in the game. Hell, the Blissey line gets it better since Happiny evolves via the Oval Stone into Chansey, which is Happiny practicing the kind of habits it would need to know in its second state.
 
I just hate how all the Baby Pokemon besides maybe Tyrogue only evolve via Friendship. Besides the gameplay pain in breeding, I have a big reason for this.

I get that it's supposed to be cute and affectionate, but Evolution always struck me as a Pokemon maturing in its life cycle. Real animals need to be nurtured, yes, but they mainly grow and become self-sufficient by being taught how to fed for themselves without clinging to their parents.

For example, in the anime, there was a big deal in the Mirage Kingdom about Misty's Togepi evolving into Togetic to protect everyone and growing up. Except Misty never did anything to get Togepi there. She babied it and tried to hide it from harm during battles. I understand that's your natural instinct with a baby, but Togepi itself showed no signs of capability until evolving.

The anime usually isn't the best parallel, but Baby Pokemon usually end up the same way: avoid battling with them at all costs until the evolve and become half competent. Even more than something like Crobat or Blissey (which is at least a Pokemon based around happiness), Baby Pokemon suddenly going from helpless to decent battlers simply from being babied and spoiled feels like the biggest "power of love" BS mechanic in the game. Hell, the Blissey line gets it better since Happiny evolves via the Oval Stone into Chansey, which is Happiny practicing the kind of habits it would need to know in its second state.

Well they do get a big increase in their happiness when they level up while fainting only decreases their happiness by a point. But still yeah, like I would understand if the Baby Pokemon would also need to be at a certain level to start evolving thus incentive to battle with it AND show it some extra care, but no Pokemon that evolves via Friendship does that (we have ones that require it to be day or night, but not at a certain level). Just keep it in the back of the party, turn on the Exp. Share and it should be ready to evolve by the time you're party is coming together. Well during the game that is, post game just buy a ton of vitamins and shove it down their throat (and level it up either with a Rare Candy or by battling).

Thinking about it I'm sure you can find a batch of things that bother you just by looking through the ways Pokemon evolve. Maybe I'll do that later...
 
Well they do get a big increase in their happiness when they level up while fainting only decreases their happiness by a point. But still yeah, like I would understand if the Baby Pokemon would also need to be at a certain level to start evolving thus incentive to battle with it AND show it some extra care, but no Pokemon that evolves via Friendship does that (we have ones that require it to be day or night, but not at a certain level). Just keep it in the back of the party, turn on the Exp. Share and it should be ready to evolve by the time you're party is coming together. Well during the game that is, post game just buy a ton of vitamins and shove it down their throat (and level it up either with a Rare Candy or by battling).

Thinking about it I'm sure you can find a batch of things that bother you just by looking through the ways Pokemon evolve. Maybe I'll do that later...
Technically it'd be cheaper to give them the EV-reducing berries. I kind of feel like most baby Pokemon were a bad idea...
 
Detective Barricade said:
Technically it'd be cheaper to give them the EV-reducing berries. I kind of feel like most baby Pokemon were a bad idea...
The one that bugs me the most is Riolu. Most baby pokemon were introduced in separate generations than their evolutions, making them unable to evolve by level-up. Riolu, on the other hand, has no business even being considered a baby pokemon, and could very easily evolve by level-up.
 
*cough* Wynaut *cough*
Keyword being most. And Wynaut also doesn't require friendship, just getting it to level 15.
The one that bugs me the most is Riolu. Most baby pokemon were introduced in separate generations than their evolutions, making them unable to evolve by level-up. Riolu, on the other hand, has no business even being considered a baby pokemon, and could very easily evolve by level-up.
I... guess they wanted a repeat of Togepi? Except Togetic got an evolution in that generation, Togekiss, and Lucario got its Mega Evolution in the current generation. Both gain a new type upon evolving, (Flying for Togetic, Steel for Lucario) and have that *insert deity of choice here*-awful gender ratio also shared by the fossils and starters. Why? I don't know. It doesn't help that unlike Togepi, Riolu only evolves during the day. Once nighttime rolls around you're SOL until the next day.
 
Baby Pokémon have far outlived their intended purpose, being a way to show off the then-new concept of breeding in Generation II. Later Baby Pokémon (with the exception of Riolu) are even worse since they are purely Dex filler and optional. Yeah, some have moves that their evolutions can't get, but the only one I can name that is useful is Wynaut's Encore and Munchlax's Stockpile (though you are better off with Curse)*. Mantyke doesn't even have an exclusive move that Mantine can't get! Plus, you can't hold Destiny Knot, Everstone, and the required Incense. In order to get decent IVs and the right nature, you are better off not holding an Everstone and just hope for a 1/25 chance for nature instead of a ~1/160 chance for 5IVs**.

*Again, not counting Riolu since he is not optional.
**Also applies to the Pikachu line and Volt Tackle. Seriously, once we get one with Volt Tackle, it should be a normal egg move from then on!
 
Baby Pokémon have far outlived their intended purpose, being a way to show off the then-new concept of breeding in Generation II. Later Baby Pokémon (with the exception of Riolu) are even worse since they are purely Dex filler and optional. Yeah, some have moves that their evolutions can't get, but the only one I can name that is useful is Wynaut's Encore and Munchlax's Stockpile (though you are better off with Curse)*. Mantyke doesn't even have an exclusive move that Mantine can't get! Plus, you can't hold Destiny Knot, Everstone, and the required Incense. In order to get decent IVs and the right nature, you are better off not holding an Everstone and just hope for a 1/25 chance for nature instead of a ~1/160 chance for 5IVs**.

*Again, not counting Riolu since he is not optional.
**Also applies to the Pikachu line and Volt Tackle. Seriously, once we get one with Volt Tackle, it should be a normal egg move from then on!

And honestly making Baby Pokemon relevant is a simple fix. Think, why normally don't you evolve a Pokemon when you can? Normally because there's a move it can learn early on or ONLY in a previous form. To me that should be the reason why Baby Pokemon should exist, to give you access to certain moves that family normally wouldn't learn. Like people always wanted Slack Off on Snorlax, well how about if it can get it but only though Munchlax? That'll certainly give Munchlax some use.

Also, though they started doing this, adding Baby Pokemon to early routes would help give you access to "later stage" Pokemon early by just first having to deal with their Baby form. Yes in BW2 you can catch a Magby and a Riolu before getting to the mainland Unova and in XY you can get an Azurill early, though I still think they can add more.

Also I looked through evolution methods and found some annoyances I have with them:

Certain Level + Time of Day:
Now while Amaura also evolves this way, being its design incorporates aurora which you can only see at night there is some sense there. But Tyrunt? Sure the Tyrunt has some sun-like frill and crest to it a well as some "king" aspects added to it (and since Kalos is based on French you can make a relation to King Louis XIV who was called "The Sun King"), that's still a long way to go to justify it. Though I suppose you can also justify it by it just being a counterpart to Amaura. So in that case I say make both of them just evolve at a certain level, you can do something else depending on the time of day (like maybe only at night you can see Amaura's aurora and during the day Tyrunt's frills are glowing).

Any form of Trading:
With the exception of Shelmut and Karrablast I find trade evolutions annoying nowdays, especially now that there's a work around if you have two games. I'm not saying remove it, all I'm saying is that can't there just be another way? And if you want to encourage people to trade how about having the Pokemon learn (a) special move(s) if you evolved it through trading.

Interesting One-Off Evolution:
What I mean by this is a Pokemon who evolves a unique way only its family does. Pancham needing another another Dark-type in the party, Sliggoo evolving when its raining, Shelmet & Karrablat's swap trade evolution, all of these are interesting ideas yet they're the only ones who do it. "Well they can do something similar to it next gen". Oh, but they would have done it already so they'd be looking for NEW ways to evolve a Pokemon. It's similar to my problem of Evolution Stones, neat idea but used rarely (though I guess you can argue why do certain Pokemon need Evolutionary Stones when having them evolve normally probably wouldn't cause any difference, but that's another story). Just saying focus a bit on the gimmicks you have instead of always trying to make new ones (like you can expand on the gimmicks here. Evolving during different weather conditions, evolving with different types in the party, etc.).

Tyrogue's Branch:
Never sat well with me how Tyrogue evolved to Hitmonchan and Hitmontop. As far as I can tell you'd want all the Hitmons to focus on their Attack yet to get 'chan you need Defense higher than Attack and to get 'top you need them to be equal. It feels like they're dictating the way you should train your Pokemon even though it makes no sense. Wouldn't it make more sense to change it now that it depends on the moves it learns? Knows a kick evolves to Hitmonlee, knows a punch evolves to Hitmonchan, knows a spinning/dancing move evolves to Hitmontop.
 
And honestly making Baby Pokemon relevant is a simple fix. Think, why normally don't you evolve a Pokemon when you can? Normally because there's a move it can learn early on or ONLY in a previous form. To me that should be the reason why Baby Pokemon should exist, to give you access to certain moves that family normally wouldn't learn. Like people always wanted Slack Off on Snorlax, well how about if it can get it but only though Munchlax? That'll certainly give Munchlax some use.
That'd probably make people hate the babies more since they'll have to go through breeding BS to get good moves.
 
Pichu's also a good one with moves (Nasty Plot Pikachu hits like a truck if you can find time to use it. But then again, Pichu is also required. No fiddling around with incenses and that junk.
 
I just wish baby pokemon can breed, so I dont need to evolve it before I switch parents.
But allowing Smoochum to breed might be quite sick.
 
Hmm, maybe they should just re-stat the families with baby Pokemon (well actually I think they should restat most Pokemon, but that's not the point right now) so the Baby Pokemon are as strong as Basic Stage and also make it so that the Baby Pokemon is the one that always hatches from the Egg without or without an incense. I get the idea that GF was going for, at least originally, you're artificially causing the Egg to hatch early when the Pokemon developing inside is at an earlier stage of development (you monster). But being we're now finding wild Baby Pokemon that to me indicates even wild Pokemon are producing Baby Pokemon which means the lines are starting to be blurred (or a trainer has been breeding and releasing nearby, explains the perfect IVs).

Going off on a different yet similar topic, why is GF so adamant with trying to explain why you couldn't use a new evolution/pre-evolution? They come up with new evolution methods, new items, or link it to new game mechanics to explain cross gen evolutions. Why couldn't Golbat evolve to Crobat in Gen I? Well because the Friendship mechanic didn't exist (which doesn't make sense in-world but whatever). Why couldn't I breed for a Azurill in Gen II? Well because the Sea Incense item didn't exist. Why couldn't Aipom evolve to Ambipom in Gen II? Eevee is the king of this with it getting a new evolution usually with its very own evolution method. Eevee is the only one who needs the Moss Rock, Icy Rock, and Pokemon-Amie. But the thing is, when they remake the games THEY RETCON IT! Why go through the trouble of "explaining" why the Pokemon couldn't breed/evolve to a certain evolution stage only to retcon it when you remake the games they debut in later? Just say there was a new mutation and for whatever reason this Pokemon has this new evolution/baby stage, end of story.
 
Hmm, maybe they should just re-stat the families with baby Pokemon (well actually I think they should restat most Pokemon, but that's not the point right now) so the Baby Pokemon are as strong as Basic Stage and also make it so that the Baby Pokemon is the one that always hatches from the Egg without or without an incense. I get the idea that GF was going for, at least originally, you're artificially causing the Egg to hatch early when the Pokemon developing inside is at an earlier stage of development (you monster). But being we're now finding wild Baby Pokemon that to me indicates even wild Pokemon are producing Baby Pokemon which means the lines are starting to be blurred (or a trainer has been breeding and releasing nearby, explains the perfect IVs).

Going off on a different yet similar topic, why is GF so adamant with trying to explain why you couldn't use a new evolution/pre-evolution? They come up with new evolution methods, new items, or link it to new game mechanics to explain cross gen evolutions. Why couldn't Golbat evolve to Crobat in Gen I? Well because the Friendship mechanic didn't exist (which doesn't make sense in-world but whatever). Why couldn't I breed for a Azurill in Gen II? Well because the Sea Incense item didn't exist. Why couldn't Aipom evolve to Ambipom in Gen II? Eevee is the king of this with it getting a new evolution usually with its very own evolution method. Eevee is the only one who needs the Moss Rock, Icy Rock, and Pokemon-Amie. But the thing is, when they remake the games THEY RETCON IT! Why go through the trouble of "explaining" why the Pokemon couldn't breed/evolve to a certain evolution stage only to retcon it when you remake the games they debut in later? Just say there was a new mutation and for whatever reason this Pokemon has this new evolution/baby stage, end of story.
I agree they should re-stat most Pokemon that came before Gen 5.
Stats on Gen 5 Pokemon are so unreasonably strong! Look at stuff like Chandelure-- crazy special attack for a non-legendary!
They really should re-stat most of Kanto and Johto especially if they aren't evolving or Mega-ing.
 
The first batch of baby Pokemon I can understand: they're from the generation that introduced both breeding and happiness evolution, so Gamefreak wanting to
I agree they should re-stat most Pokemon that came before Gen 5.
Stats on Gen 5 Pokemon are so unreasonably strong! Look at stuff like Chandelure-- crazy special attack for a non-legendary!
They really should re-stat most of Kanto and Johto especially if they aren't evolving or Mega-ing.
They'd need to rebalance their movepools, too. A lot of more recent Pokemon have much more restricted movepools than the earlier ones, and that could be an issue.
 
Darth Manaphy , no way they're included to reduce stress on the system, if anything they increase it because the game loads the entire area as you enter (each stage is made up of areas linked by portals)

To add to that, the team should have done more to reduce lag. Killing too many enemies or even too many enemies spawning at once will cause the game to hitch like crazy because every time an enemy is hit, spawned or killed they release sparkles, etc. You'd have thought a high-profile Pokemon game (even a free-to-play one) would have an engine/code optimized to deal with that sort of stuff.

To add to add to that, the way they implemented the Spinner for Stages is whack too. Sometimes the wheel will stop on the stage you pressed A/B on, but most of the time it will randomly stop two to three to four stages away. Considering that some balloons take up to 8 hours to refill, it means you can waste a lot of time due to the wheel being finnicky and deciding it doesn't want to stop on the stage you pressed the button on.

Other than that though I actually love this game, very well designed and its kept me hooked for a while.
 
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