(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Pikachu315111 said:
No, he just learned how to ride on top of his Pokemon without needing Surf. Surf is just a shortcut, the Pokemon to teach it to instantly learns how to keep you on top of it without you falling off of it. The Ace Trainer meanwhile practiced riding on top of his Pokemon requiring the skill to do so without needing the Pokemon knowing the HM. If anything the Ace Trainer's skill is more versatile as he/she can now ride on top of any large Pokemon who's capable of swimming while the player has to teach his/her Pokemon Surf thus filling up a move slot.
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So Ace Trainer Honor is surfing on top of her Torkoal or Medicham and Ace trainer Hisato is surfing on top of his Pinsir? Almost all surfing trainers don't have pokemon that can swim (I think only one has a water type a Rhydon lol). I think you are just trying to troll or something so I'll just stop replying to you...
 
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vzxt said:
So Ace Trainer Honor is surfing on top of her Torkoal or Medicham and Ace trainer Hisato is surfing on top of his Pinsir? Almost all surfing trainers don't have pokemon that can swim (I think only one has a water type a Rhydon lol). I think you are just trying to troll or something so I'll just stop replying to you...
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How am I trolling? You're asking for a logical explanation and I'm trying to give you one. But yeah, let's just drop the subject, you listed your annoyance and that's all there is to it.
 
Caramel Prisoner said:
I always thought that trainers often just might not use their full team to battle against you. So they might have a Bibarel or something to cut trees and swim and stuff.
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Well that would be sort of unfair because you as the player don't have that option to forfeit or limit the amount of pokemon you battle with in-game. Thinking about it... you can forfeit in online matches but not in-game? That's weird and sort fo cruel, being forced to battle until all your pokemon are fainted.
 
Kurona said:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GameplayAndStorySegregation
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Yeah I know about that guess that ace trainer with a single froslass in victory road just shattered the illusion. :P

:O they have a section for pokemon in that article

Generally, lots of things that the Pokédex in Pokémon says directly contradict gameplay. Ironically, some examples were done correctly. One example is the Shedinja actually "shedding" from a Nincada, others could include a Mantyke requiring a Remoraid to evolve. If they were all Hand Waved, one could just assume they kept the games simple... but when half of it is correct, it turns weird.
  • Drowzee/Hypno are said to live off of dreams; it's their defining trait. Yet they can only learn the attack Dream Eater by TM (or, in later games, via breeding). You'd think they'd be able to learn it by leveling up, but...
  • Abra is said to sleep through most of the day, teleporting away from danger in its sleep, yet the Sleep status affects it just like everything else.
  • Cubone is said to lose its mother as it is born and wears its skull as a memento. Breeding for a Cubone, however, doesn't cause any ill effects for the mother, whether or not it is a Marowak.
  • Evolving Nincada into Ninjask also earns you a Shedinja, but only if you have a slot free in your party and an unused Poké Ball in your bag. For some reason you can't just ship the thing off to your PC like everything else you catch. And staring into Shedinja's backhole is supposed to mesmerize and then steal the soul of the victim. All of its player-side battle sprites have the backhole clearly visible, but nothing unusual happens to you when you fight others with it.
  • Pichu is said to hurt itself whenever it uses a lightning based attack; however, this doesn't happen in the games unless you use Volt Tackle. Unfortunately, it does happen in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and is a significant drawback to using Pichu.
  • The games insist on judging your power by number of badges, regardless of the level of your Pokémon. Mt. Silver should be no problem for a trainer with six Pokémon of levels 80-100, but you can't get to it unless you have 16 badges. Of course, the same argument could be made at that point that getting those badges should be rather easy.
  • Supposedly, Charizard's fire breath is hot enough to melt boulders. Still doesn't have much effect on Rock types. It's also stated that the surface of Magcargo's skin is hotter than the surface of the sun. Somehow, the Earth and everything else around it aren't becoming instant slag. Spiritomb is 108 souls sealed in a stone, but it can breed and create more Spiritomb. Arcanine is renowned for its impossible speed, but there are a lot of mons that have higher Speed stats, including its counterpart, Ninetales.
  • Metapod and Kakuna are supposed to be totally immobile and only know Harden. And ones you fight in the wild do only know Harden. Where this trope comes into play is that a Caterpie or Weedle you evolve yourself will still know the moves it did before. Pupitar, on the other hand, are flat out stated to be fully mobile.
  • Regice is stated to be so cold that dipping it in magma would not harm it at all and instead freeze the magma solid. Just being near it exposes you to the intense aura of near-absolute zero air surrounding it. Yet its opponents suffer no ill effects from biting it, punching it, kicking it, wrapping their bodies around it, etc. And fire is still super-effective against it.
  • In Generation I, only Pokémon with the bird-like overworld sprite could learn Fly. This meant that you couldn't fly on the back of a Charizard (in Red and Blue), Golbat, or Dragonite, but a tiny Pidgey had no problem ferrying you from one side of the region to the other. Venomoth and Beedrill can clearly fly but are not classified as flying types. Doduo and Dodrio are said to have poor flying skills and have no visible wings, nevertheless, they can learn Fly. This one at least has a explanation; the Japanese name for the move can also mean "Sky Jump."
  • Qwilfish is often refered to as a bad swimmer, but can learn Surf and has Swift Swim as one of its abilities.
  • The Pokédex entry for Escavalier says it flies around at high speed. Turns out it is one of the slowest Pokémon in the game.
  • Many Pokédex entries for the Slowpoke line make mention of Shellder biting onto a Slowpoke's tail/head in order to evolve. While it is like this in the anime, one does not even need to see a Shellder to evolve Slowpoke into Slowbro (evolves via leveling up) or Slowking (evolves via trade while holding a King's Rock) in the games.
  • Nidorina and Nidoqueen are unable to breed, perhaps originally due to a bug in Gold and Silver, four major engine rewrites and fifteen years ago. This is despite the fact that their Pokédex entries mention (and in the case of the latter, make a major point out of) them taking care of their young.
  • Snorlax cannot be battled at all without waking it first with a pokeflute, but once the battle begins you're free to both fight it when it uses Rest (making itself fall asleep) and put it to sleep yourself. Likewise you can't use any sleep canceling attacks or abilities to wake it without the flute.
  • Goomy's Pokédex entry describes it as the weakest of all Dragon-types, even though stat-wise, that designation belongs to Noibat.
  • Anytime an NPC stands in your way and bonus points if they're an enemy team grunt. The point of a pokemon battle is that a regular human can't fight even low level pokemon without risking serious injury so wining a battle means that the opponent has no defenses and likely has to flee. If a grunt flat out refuses to stop blocking your path they're treated like an impenetrable wall rather than someone you could use your endless array of abilities on even if you wanted to be gentle and just use a sleep attack.
  • This same problem applies to the existence of HMs. These moves are the only things that can solve puzzles outside of battles, doing things like destroying rocks, moving boulders, or cutting down trees. Things like swimming or flying are more or less sensible, but the game never really explains why a tiny little bush can only be cut down by a special hidden technique, and not, say, any of the dozens of moves that should be effective at getting a tiny little bush out of the way. This might make sense if Cut was a strong move and could therefore destroy obstacles that Fury Cutter or Slash or Sacred Sword or Flamethrower can't, but in battle, Cut is utterly unremarkable even for an early-game move.
  • Mega Evolution is supposed to be possible because of strong bonds between trainer and Pokemon. However, Mega Evolution has no required Friendship level, and in fact the first time you press the button is with a Lucario you just received, with 70 Friendship.
 
I think mega evolution stuff works bc it just explains why you can't mega evolve other trainer's or wild pokemon, that's all. iirc poke balls automatically use some sciencey stuff to make pokemon fall under your control = bond?

(just addressing last part of tvtropes thingy)
 
That last bullet point was actually my addition. (Seriously, check the edit history.)

So this "bond" is something illusive, something beyond either Friendship or Affection or any real-world feelings you may have for your mons. That's going to the mysteries thread, that would be more appropriate, I think.
 
tfw you see somebody post TV Tropes stuff and all you care about is how badly the entries are organized and written.

Now I have to go edit that shit before I forget.

EDIT: Here's the updated list.

  • Pokémon:
    • In FireRed and LeafGreen, there's a ranger on Seven Island who claims that city trainers (meaning trainers from Kanto) "sure are tough". Seven Island is an area that can only be reached after the game has been beaten, so the trainers living there are actually stronger than nearly any Kanto trainer.
    • During a cutscene in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers, Grovyle blinds several opponents using a Luminous Orb to cover for an escape attempt. The Orb's sole use during gameplay is to reveal the layout of the dungeon floor it is used on.
    • In Pokémon Black and White, N will always say that your Pokémon like you regardless of what their in-game friendship stat says.
    • In Pokémon X and Y it's stated that Mega Evolution is supposed to be possible because of strong bonds between a trainer and their Pokémon. The hidden friendship stat has no bearing on the ability to trigger Mega Evolution, so it's possible to activate it on a Pokémon that hates your guts or was freshly caught.
    • A lot of the Flavor Text provided by the Pokédex directly contradicts gameplay or Pokémon stats.
      • Supposedly, Charizard's fire breath is hot enough to melt boulders. A Fire-type move used by Charizard on a Rock-type will still deal half damage.
      • Metapod and Kakuna are supposed to be totally immobile and only know Harden. It's entirely possible to get either of them to know Tackle from evolution and fight with them.
      • Nidorina and Nidoqueen are unable to breed, but several Pokédex entries talk about how they take care of their young.
      • Drowzee and Hypno are said to live off of dreams; it's their defining trait. The one attack that literally involves this, Dream Eater, is not in their level-up movepool.
      • Abra is said to sleep through most of the day, teleporting away from danger in its sleep. They are not immune to being inflicted with the the Sleep status, and are affected by it normally.
      • Cubone is said to wear the skull of its dead mother, but you can freely breed Cubone without any ill efforts for the mother.
      • Many Pokédex entries for the Slowpoke line make mention of Shellder biting onto a Slowpoke's tail/head in order to evolve. Having a Shellder is not required for Slowpoke to evolve.
      • Arcanine is renowned for its impossible speed, but its Speed stat isn't that high and easily beaten by other Pokémon.
      • Magcargo's body temperature is supposed hotter than the surface of the sun. While this should kill everything on Earth, it doesn't.
      • Qwilfish is often referred to as a bad swimmer, but one of its abilities is Swift Swim (which even doubles its Speed in rain).
      • Staring into the hole in Shedinja's back is supposed to mesmerize and then steal the soul of the victim. All of its player-side battle sprites have the hole clearly visible, but nothing unusual ever happens to the player character.
      • Regice is stated to be so cold that it can be dipped in magma without harm and can freeze anything that gets near it. Fire-type moves will still harm it and Pokémon can make contact with it without any ill effects.
      • Spiritomb is supposed to be made up of 108 souls sealed in a stone, but it can breed and create more Spiritomb.
      • The Pokédex entry for Escavalier says it flies around at high speed. It's actually one of the slowest Pokémon.
      • Goomy's entry describes it as the weakest of all Dragon-types. Stat-wise, that designation belongs to Noibat.
 
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That one's on a different part of the website. I need to go through the character pages and add those, along with a ton of other ones.
 
Addressing some of the TvTropes headscratchers:

City Trainers: The Pokemon Ranger was probably referring just to you when he said "city trainers sure are tough". For all we know we're the only city trainer he had ever battled.
Blinded By The Orb: Maybe you have more of a sense of fair play so only use the Luminous Orb to see where you're going?
Hidden Bond: We already talked about this on the "Mysteries and Conspiracies Thread" but I'll sum up what I said there. Basically the bond seems to be an implied thing, we're able to do it because we're the player and a prodigy. Like in-story most NPCs we face are using Pokemon by selecting attacks. However player (and NPCs with more complicated AI) use strategy when battling, notably switching our Pokemon out, using status moves at opportune moments, and using an item (which aren't just potions, notably revives). I think it's more that the Pokemon would sense they can completely trust the player.
Charizard Melts Rock: But a Rock-type Pokemon isn't just a boulder, now is it. ;)
Standing Mobile: I think they prefer to be immobile and use harden to protect their soft body. However that doesn't mean they can't move or attack if they knew how before evolution.
Nidofemale: Well Nidoran is able to breed. Also it could be a communal thing.
Sleep Awarness: Maybe only Abra's consciousness is asleep while its subconscious is awake. When you put it to "Sleep" you're putting its subconscious to asleep too.
Speed Machine: But Arcanine is able to learn Extreme Speed as so with many other Pokemon who aren't so speedy (and some very fast Pokemon don't learn Extreme Speed). The Speed stat in general seems to be more of a "reaction" stat.
Over-imagining: A lot of Dex entries state some impossibilities or something which should have killed everyone. I think it's more that we got a KID to do scientific research and the professors being too lazy to correct it. :P
Just Keep Swimming: Just cause its a bad swimmer doesn't mean it can't speed through the water. Like it could maybe jet itself in a straight line but it can't turn itself.
Superstition: In addition to being a kid doing the science, myths and legends that have no scientific merit seem to become dex fact time to time.
Ice Like Steel: It seems like Pokemon attacks have different properties than to natural forms of that element/energy. Natural magma in volcanoes can't melt Regice, but the magical fire of a Pokemon can.
Soft & Squishy: Maybe by weakest they meant physiologically? Like Goomy is soft and squishy, you step on it and you'll probably flatten it and leave a shoe print. Noibat is weakest by stats but if you step on it it'll keep its shape. Also Goomy is a pure Dragon while Noibat is not only half Dragon but its it secondary typing.

I can sort of come up with an excuse for some others but they're stretching or involve a bit of a re-imagining of what we're being told.
 
Ksh13 said:
To me it seems like it is in order to make Gardevoir better tbh. I'm actually serious.
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I mean I guess I can see where you're coming from, but there aren't that many bugs OU (like 1 I think) and only four in BL. Gardevoir doesn't really need that support.
 
U-turn is primarily used by non-Bugs, though, right?

But then, Stealth Rock remains a thing, and Bugs got hammered pretty hard by it (not as bad as Ice, but Ice kind of sucks defensively even without OP Rock). How Gamefreak was okay enough with "fuck you, everything weak to Rock" to not only put it into Gen IV but leave it unchanged for two generations now, I'll never know.
 
Hyper Cutter said:
U-turn is primarily used by non-Bugs, though, right?

But then, Stealth Rock remains a thing, and Bugs got hammered pretty hard by it (not as bad as Ice, but Ice kind of sucks defensively even without OP Rock). How Gamefreak was okay enough with "fuck you, everything weak to Rock" to not only put it into Gen IV but leave it unchanged for two generations now, I'll never know.
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It's not like it's impossible to clear Stealth Rock away, and a good chunk of those weak to it aren't vulnerable to any other entry hazard. Not to mention Game Freak apparently having a general level of disdain for stall...
 
Stealth Rock is still a bit OP. When a move can cut off half a Pokemon' max HP then maybe it needs to be brought back a bit. Like I think it removing 1/4th, while still a lot, is enough to make it potent. It also kind of overshadows Spikes which, while isn't effected by type, needs to be done 3 times decrease a Pokemon's HP by 1/4th.
 
Not that many fully evolved Pokemon lose half their health to it, many that take 25% or 50% are immune to Spikes so it's the only way to punish them, and several of them like Talonflame would easily be banworthy if it didn't exist because they're that threatening.

While it overshadows Spikes somewhat, Spikes is still useful on certain builds to wear down specific targets and has set damage to wear down Rock resists like Ferrothorn.
 
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Karxrida said:
Not that many fully evolved Pokemon lose half their health to it, many that take 25% or 50% are immune to Spikes so it's the only way to punish them, and several of them like Talonflame would easily be banworthy if it didn't exist because they're that threatening.

While it overshadows Spikes somewhat, Spikes is still useful on certain builds to wear down specific targets and has set damage to wear down Rock resists like Ferrothorn.
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I still think the most it should do is 1/4th (and to be fair the least it would do is 1/16. Or completely redo the damage done so that it does 1/6 normally, 1/3 if weak to, and 1/12 if resistant), it's needed to check some threats but at least give those threats some chance to do at least one move. And it'll put it on par with Spikes. Stealth Rock you only need to do once and hits everything but type is a factor to how much damage it does. Spikes you need to layer 3 times to do 1/4th damage but it'll always do 1/4th damage except to Pokemon immune to it. I think that makes a fair balance.

BUT I think we're getting onto wishlisting so I think this point is moot as it doesn't look like they're changing Stealth Rock anytime soon.

So anyone else find it odd that the Phantump and Pumpkaboo family are meant to be pairs/version exclusives but the Pumpkaboo family get an additional gimmick of it being various size while the Phantump family doesn't? It's like those who got the Pumpkaboo family got 4 Pokemon to the Phantump's one.
 
Pikachu315111 said:
I still think the most it should do is 1/4th (and to be fair the least it would do is 1/16. Or completely redo the damage done so that it does 1/6 normally, 1/3 if weak to, and 1/12 if resistant), it's needed to check some threats but at least give those threats some chance to do at least one move. And it'll put it on par with Spikes. Stealth Rock you only need to do once and hits everything but type is a factor to how much damage it does. Spikes you need to layer 3 times to do 1/4th damage but it'll always do 1/4th damage except to Pokemon immune to it. I think that makes a fair balance.

BUT I think we're getting onto wishlisting so I think this point is moot as it doesn't look like they're changing Stealth Rock anytime soon.

So anyone else find it odd that the Phantump and Pumpkaboo family are meant to be pairs/version exclusives but the Pumpkaboo family get an additional gimmick of it being various size while the Phantump family doesn't? It's like those who got the Pumpkaboo family got 4 Pokemon to the Phantump's one.
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Perhaps it is Spikes that needs tweaking, but I'm not going to go wish-listing on how.

As for Pumpkaboo and Phantump, how are they meant to be version exclusive when I can find them both in roughly the same route? (and Trevenant in Route 20) Pumpkaboo represents a pumpkin - usually you want to search for the biggest one you can find. (granted, I think the smallest one is sometimes also used) I am a little confused as to why there's four sizes of Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist but only three different stat spreads, (small, huge, and the in between) though.
 
Karxrida said:
Not that many fully evolved Pokemon lose half their health to it, many that take 25% or 50% are immune to Spikes so it's the only way to punish them, and several of them like Talonflame would easily be banworthy if it didn't exist because they're that threatening.

While it overshadows Spikes somewhat, Spikes is still useful on certain builds to wear down specific targets and has set damage to wear down Rock resists like Ferrothorn.
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I really don't like the "Talonflame/Charizard/Volcarona would be overpowered!!!" argument because, like... okay sure they are, just ban 'em. Done. Who cares lmao
 
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