(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Kurona]

I've been lucky in the myriad of times I've wanted to obtain all three in that I've been able to get a Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, and Hitmontop without really trying beyond knowing how the stats have to roughly be at the time of evolution from Tyrogue - and not really understanding what EV's, Nature, IV's, etc. are. But I haven't done it since Fire Red, and really don't want to go through that headache.

I've had success in the few times I've evolved Inkay, but then I pretty much had the 3DS upside-down for the entire battle it would gain enough EXP to level up. And yet I curse the gyroscope's existence in Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon when I'm being asked to cross a narrow plank as Luigi seems to love losing his balance and falling off at least 55% of the time... (though this does make me curious how this will be handled for the Switch games... and worry what methods they'll come up with that weren't possible with the 3DS)

Shake both joycons at the same time to evolve maractus into maracaraca

 

[Altissimo]

Tyrogue evolving btw is a double pain in Mystery Dungeon because stats are set in that game unless you get boosts via Gummis or the stat drinks, there's no EVs or natures so any two Pokémon at the same level will have the same stats, and Tyrogue's Attack is ridiculously higher than its Defense so lol have fun with Hitmontop and Hitmonchan.

 

[Zowayix]

Tyrogue evolving btw is a double pain in Mystery Dungeon because stats are set in that game unless you get boosts via Gummis or the stat drinks, there's no EVs or natures so any two Pokémon at the same level will have the same stats, and Tyrogue's Attack is ridiculously higher than its Defense so lol have fun with Hitmontop and Hitmonchan.

Wait, are stats in the Mystery Dungeon series that completely different from the core series? Tyrogue's base Attack and base Defense are the same.

And of course Japan gets more events than the rest of world ._.

This Reddit post explains why events in Japan are actually much less accessible than ones outside, with corroboration from a number of players who are actually in Japan. tl;dr Wi-Fi events are practically nonexistent, store events require the average person to travel longer and more expensively than a comparable out-of-Japan store event, and loads of events straight-up require purchasing with money. The worst offender is Shiny Arceus which is a straight-up lootbox, costing ~$13 for a 1/19 chance (average cost ~$247). Japan also got 0 of the 20th anniversary event re-releases, while North America, Europe, and Australia got all of them.

Edit: More examples of events that Japan got bad:

• Why does the Odd Egg have a 50% Shiny chance in Japanese Crystal, but a 14% Shiny chance in international Crystal? Because the Odd Egg was event exclusive in Japanese Crystal. (This also means that international Virtual Console Crystal can still get Odd Eggs easily, while Japanese VC Crystal will never legitimately have an Odd Egg.)
• Why does Japanese FRLG's Trainer Tower get 41 Trainers, while international FRLG gets 32 Trainers? Because Japanese FRLG's Trainer Tower gets four Trainers in the base game. The remaining 37 are ~$205 'DLC' (in the form of e-cards).
• Japanese Emerald's Trainer Hill has it even worse - everything is double battles, so each purchased card effectively has half a Trainer. The base game Trainer Hill gets two Trainers. The remaining 33 (total 35) are ~$234 DLC. Meanwhile, international Emerald's Trainer Hill gets 16 Trainers at $0 extra cost.
• The Crown City beasts (14th movie Shiny legendary beasts) were $0 Wi-Fi downloads in all European-language games. In Japan? That'll be ~$39.
• The Manaphy Egg (and the other three non-distribution missions) in Ranger 1? $0 in all European-language games with an in-game password. In Japan? Hope you spent the ~$13 pre-ordering a ticket for the 9th movie, brought the cartridge with you to the cinema twelve years ago, and kept the cartridge ever since.

edit: updated some numbers to be more accurate

 

[Hugin]

Yeah, GF really needs to just be willing to retcon stuff. The Evos and Baby pokes introduced in later gens tend to be intentionally obtuse, to justify “Well, you couldn’t get Mamoswine in Gen 3 because it didn’t have Ancient Power when you leveled it up”, when really they could just add a level-up evo to it and no one would mind. They need to go through and figure out a handful of ways to evolve mons and then apply those evolution methods to every mon. Eevee is a perfect example. The games have Leaf, Sun, and Dusk stones, just make Eevee evolve with those instead of hiding a random rock at the very end of the game or forcing me to play over my lunch break.

 

[Kurona]

Yeah, GF really needs to just be willing to retcon stuff. The Evos and Baby pokes introduced in later gens tend to be intentionally obtuse, to justify “Well, you couldn’t get Mamoswine in Gen 3 because it didn’t have Ancient Power when you leveled it up”, when really they could just add a level-up evo to it and no one would mind. They need to go through and figure out a handful of ways to evolve mons and then apply those evolution methods to every mon. Eevee is a perfect example. The games have Leaf, Sun, and Dusk stones, just make Eevee evolve with those instead of hiding a random rock at the very end of the game or forcing me to play over my lunch break.

This, honestly. It's cute at first that they would try and give explanations for this stuff, but at the end of the day, these 'explanations' have just provided more harm than good. Not just the aforementioned confusion, but also just the huge amount of items dumped on us that are otherwise useless but we need to evolve past gen pokemon into new gen pokemon. Reaper cloths and Sun Stones and Wave Incenses; they're all just excess baggage and I could do without it.

 

[Altissimo]

Wait, are stats in the Mystery Dungeon series that completely different from the core series? Tyrogue's base Attack and base Defense are the same.

Yes. I don't know how they are determined but they are definitely different than in the mainline games. At level 20, with no modifications, a Tyrogue's Defense will be literally half its Attack.

Mystery Dungeon is... weird. Unfortunately with UPokecenter down I can't really show you some of the more bizarre things since archive.org doesn't have everything archived, but there's some weird stuff like Regirock having one of the highest Attack stats at level 100 and Venomoth having a bizarrely high stat (can't remember which, this is why I wish I could get back to the UPC pages) and Meganium too and weird things like that.

 

[Zowayix]

Yes. I don't know how they are determined but they are definitely different than in the mainline games. At level 20, with no modifications, a Tyrogue's Defense will be literally half its Attack.

So bizarre. I checked out Mew also and the stats are similarly lopsided.

Only relation I can think of is that stat stages in Mystery Dungeon are super lopsided too; they go up to -10/+10 instead of the core series' -6/+6, but

• -10 [Special] Attack is a 0.5x multiplier
• +10 [Special] Attack is a 1.85x multiplier (not quite double)
• -10 [Special] Defense is a whopping ~0.027x multiplier (more than 36 times the damage!)
• +10 [Special] Defense is a 3.3x multiplier

I have to wonder what kind of in-game testing was around this.

 

[Codraroll]

Today on the OI Discord channel, we were briefly talking about content pile-up in Pokémon. The series has accumulated a lot of strange mechanics over the years, and nowhere is this as prevalent as in the Pokémon themselves. 807 'mons is a lot, but I think we all enjoy and appreciate the diversity. It's fun to play each new game and see what new additions are added to the franchise. New creatures with new lore, and maybe new and strange ways to evolve, and ...to be honest, that bit in particular is starting to pile up a bit more than I'd like. It may be fun to discover that a new Pokémon has a signature item it can use for some new and fancy purpose, but then the designers have to put that item into every new game from now on. Often, the items don't even have any other purpose than doing that one thing for that one Pokémon. And then in later games, as you explore the world you realize that a lot of the things (locations, items, NPCs) you find exist merely to provide the necessary support for the overwhelming load of baggage that the series has accumulated since the turn of the millennium (the first signature items arrived in Gen II).

To sum up, there are 125 regular items that serve only one purpose for one Pokémon (or in some cases, one evolution family), and are completely useless (except for selling them for money) beside that:

- 5 orbs, for Kyogre/Groudon/Dialga/Palkia/Giratina
- 4 Drives, for Genesect
- 48 Mega Stones
- 17 Memories, for Silvally
- 17 signature Z-Crystals, for roughly as many Pokémon (the Tapus share a Crystal)
- 4 Nectars for Oricorio
- DeepSeaTooth/-Scale for the Clamperl family
- Dragon Scale for Seadra
- Up-Grade and Dubious Disc for the Porygon family
- Electirizer for Electabuzz
- Magmarizer for Magmar
- Prism Scale for Feebas
- Protector for Rhydon
- Reaper Cloth for Dusclops
- Sachet for Spritzee
- Whipped Dream for Swirlix
- Oval Stone for Happiny
- Light Ball for Pikachu
- Lucky Punch for Chansey
- Metal Powder and Quick Powder for Ditto
- Soul Dew for Lati@s
- Stick for Farfetch'd
- Thick Club for the Cubone family

In addition, there are a bunch of Key Items, tutors, and other mandatory features to accommodate form changes, mostly for legendaries:

- Deoxys' meteorites
- Dragon Ascent tutor for Rayquaza
- Rotom's appliances
- The Gracidea Flower for Shaymin
- Ice Rock and Moss Rock for Eevee
- Reveal Glass for Unova's Genie trio
- DNA Splicers for Kyurem
- Secret Sword tutor for Keldeo
- Relic Song tutor for Meloetta
- Hair Dresser for Furfrou
- Zygarde Cube for Zygarde
- Prison Bottle for Hoopa
- N-Solarizer for Solgaleo
- N-Lunarizer for Lunala

You could also add stuff like Arceus' Plates being redundant with type-boosting items such as Mystic Water, and Razor Claw being identical to Scope Lens if not for the thing about evolving Gligar.

All this in total adds up to a checklist of more than 150 things the designers have to put into each new game, to enable players to obtain every Pokémon and use them in ways they've become used to, but which have no real purpose apart from that. Or a bit of a retcon may soon be in order. Either way, this pile of baggage is starting to be a little too big for immersion to me. Most of it is dumped into your lap early in the postgame, to give you the means to obtain and use every Pokémon as originally designed. It comes off as a big pile of optional offers handed to you at earliest convenience, that the designers had to stuff somewhere on the off-chance that you would want to use any of those Pokémon at some later point.

 

[Worldie]

I would DEFINITELY appreciate if they don't make us pile up on things like Memories, Plates or Drives and other items that we cannot re-acquire in game but at same time just pile up in the inventory as they won't get used.

Other items at least go in the "Key item bag" or are NPCs somewhere, but the items that can be assigned to Pokemon really start to clutter the inventory in USUM.

At least give us back the item PC so we can throw them in there ._,

 

[Hyper Cutter]

For starters, the pledges, the elemental hyper beams, Relic Song, Secret Sword, Dragon Ascent, and so forth (V-Create for Victini too) should just be folded into the relevant Pokemon's movepool.

Also get rid of the generic type-boosting items and just let Arceus plates have that job (not that they were ever good to begin with). Also while we're at it let Silvally use the plates to change type so we don't need the memory items either.

 

[Siggu]

I can understand some moves and otherwise-identically-functional items being given special treatment because of lore, but there's a limit. There are times where lore needs to be put aside in lieu of practicality. Signature tutor moves, for instance, should be level-up moves... and some of them being tutor moves make no sense in lore either. Say, why can't Victini learn V-Create without a tutor? It's a V MADE OF FIRE, which is exactly what Victini is.

The plates are a more difficult matter, though, because they can have a purpose in working around the Item Clause. Memories, however, can go to the Distortion World - the lack of boost means they don't even have that super-niche "Item Clause workaround" trait.

 

[Kurona]

Say, why can't Victini learn V-Create without a tutor? It's a V MADE OF FIRE, which is exactly what Victini is.

Minor nitpick, but V-create is an event-exclusive move and has never been available by tutor (which, arguably, is far far worse). Generally agree with the spirit of the post though; but I think there are far more efficient ways of keeping lore intact while making it practical without removing stuff.
The whole point of Silvally is that it's an inefficient attempt at creating God, so it not being able to use Plates in the same way as Arceus and needing a workaround makes sense. Said workaround, though, absolutely should have the type-boosting element or something else. Heck, maybe give them tiny stat boosts instead depending on the type; I think that'd be interesting.

 

[bluhacks]

A list of things I hate in Pokemon

>:(

-No move tutors in pokemon games that are the first in their generation. (Ruby & Sapphire, Diamond & Pearl, Black & White, X & Y, and Sun & Moon) but the third versions/sequels/remakes got them.
-Yellow and HGSS being the only core series games to have following pokemon.
-The HMs before gen 7, one of the most stupid features to put in pokemon, I remember a NPC saying something that pokemon are not tools, which is ironic in this case.
-You can't evolve a gen 1 pokemon to a evolution debuting in gen 2/3 without receiving the National Dex in FRLG.
-VC releases of Red/Blue being in 4 monochrome colors, while VC Yellow is in COLOR.
-That person in Snowpoint City that trades you a Haunter for a Medicham,........holding a everstone.
-The move Feint, useless unless you're attacking someone with Protect or Detect.
-Confusion having a 99% chance of hitting your pokemon while your opponent with confusion has a 1% chance to hit themselves.
-Ice types being bad defensively.

 

[Zowayix]

-VC releases of Red/Blue being in 4 monochrome colors, while VC Yellow is in COLOR.

Be glad that there's any color at all. VC Japanese Yellow is monochrome.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Item Bulk:
Ever since the reveal of the Memories I've been thinking there's been an overload of held items with only one purpose. Heck, even for the items that generally any Pokemon can use, I find some of there uses limited and makes you wish that it was somehow more flexible. I think to better explain my thoughts I'll touch on a few items:

Too Many Items

Berries: There's a lot of Berries which have no effect without Pokemon Contests, at best they're used for selling fodder. As a thought experiment I tried to give every Berry its own effect, taking note of Berries which seem to be part of a group, and was able to easily do it. And if I can do it, what's GF's excuse? Also some of the effects of certain Berries could use an updating, notably the curing Berries (also Leppa Berries are way too powerful and make Ethers pointless).
Pokemon Specific Items: The Orbs, Soul Dew, Stick, Lucky Punch, Thick Club, Light Ball, items only existing to evolve a Pokemon, etc.. Like while I get they want these items to have a special association with a certain family of Pokemon at the same time I don't think there's any harm giving them a general effect any other Pokemon can use them for. Heck, some of these items either need a redo (like Lucky Punch) or need to be given an in-battle effect. I get that they want to get accross the idea that not all items are used for battle... at the same time that kind of makes them useless 99% of the time and not worth clogging my Bag if I'm not using the Pokemon it's specific for. Though with that said, the general effect could be limited to a handful of other Pokemon; not all item needs to be usable by every Pokemon but usable by more than one family would be nice.
Type Enhancing Items, Plates, & Memories: Speaking of which, these are the most notable offenders. When not used on Arceus, the Plates have the exact same effect as the Type Enhancing Items, meanwhile the Memories only change Silvally's type and that's it, Silvally doesn't even get a STAB boost like Arceus does from a Plate. Not only do the Memories need to be given a general effect (if a Pokemon can learn a new move from CD-like TM I don't see why other Pokemon can't get a benefit from the CD-like Memories) but they either need to make these group of item's effect different or give them an additional effect on top of the STAB boost.
Gems: Come on, bring them back. You weakened them so them being OP can't be the excuse. And if it's because of the Flying Gem + Acrobatics combo, here's an idea: make it so Acrobatics doesn't double its Power on the same turn the Gem is consumed.
Incense: Pretty much my complaint for the Pokemon Specific Items applies here too, but the Incenses also have use in the Daycare which I think can be expanded upon to other Pokemon.
Fossils: What I said for Pokemon Specific Items applies to Fossils too, give them a general effect plus a bonus effect if held by the Pokemon family they're a fossil of.
Repels: Give the repels differet effects. Like plain Repel prevents encountering a Pokemon you had already registered in your Pokedex, Super Repel prevents encountering any Pokemon unless you're in a middle of chaining, and Max Repel prevents all encounters period, regardless of level.
Medicine: Thanks to Berries and Pokemon Refresh, Medicine is kind of pointless. They need to be made more useful then they currently are. One idea is that, in addition to healing their status ailment, they also heal 50% (25% for Full Heal) of the Pokemon's max HP (but they need to have the status ailment, thus you can heal them with Pokemon Refresh but if they lost a good chunk of their HP maybe it would be a better idea to heal them with a medicine instead).
Ethers: In addition to weakening Leppa Berries (have it restore 1 PP of each move outside of battle), sell the Ethers in the Marts and change the effect of the Ether and Elixir: Ether restores 2/5th of each move and Elixir fully restore two moves with the lowest PP.
Drinks: Instead of healing a set amount, they heal a percentage: Fresh Water heals 25%, Soda Pop heals 1/3, Lemonade heals 50%, and Moo Moo Milk heals 75%.
Herbal Medicine: I think they should be given a holdable effect.

However, there's another thing with items I noticed: many are very situational. And I don't mean like Quick Claw or Bright Powder, I mean items which you'd wish there was another item like it but it maybe increased a different stat or just has a slight different effect. While I know it's been overdone, maybe Pokemon should consider having a modding option for some items. For example:

Mod Options

Mega Stones: Can make it so it keeps the Ability the Pokemon already has.
Absorb Bulb, Cell Battery, Luminous Moss, Snowball, Electric/Grassy/Misty/Psychic Seed: Choose which stat it increases.
Assault Vest: Increases Defense.
Flame/Toxic Orb Can activate either once the Pokemon enters battle or in two turns.

Why, I'd maybe even dare suggesting maybe even having item melding, at least in a way you can upgrade certain items or create some hard to get items.

Meld Recipes

Two Potions = Super Potion
Super Potion + Potion = Hyper Potion
Hyper Potion + Super Potion = Max Potion
Two different Medicines = Full Heal
Max Potion + Full Heal = Full Restore
Hyper Potion + Full Heal = Revive
Full Restore + Revive = Max Revive
Two Full Heal = Ether
Two Ether = Max Ether
Max Ether + Ether = Elixir
Two Elixir = Max Elixir
Full Restore + Max Elixir = PP Up
Two PP Up = PP Max
Pretty Wing + Full Heal = Health Wing
Pretty Wing + X Attack = Muscle Wing
Pretty Wing + X Defense = Resist Wing
Pretty Wing + X Sp. Atk = Genius Wing
Pretty Wing + X Sp. Def = Clever Wing
Pretty Wing + X Speed = Swift Wing
Full Restore + Health Wing = HP Up
Full Restore + Muscle Wing = Protein
Full Restore + Resist Wing = Iron
Full Restore + Genius Wing = Calcium
Full Restore + Clever Wing = Zinc
Full Restore + Swift Wing = Carbos
Hyper Potion + Super Potion + Full Heal = Full Restore
Max Potion + Full Heal + Revive = Max Revive
Elixir + Max Ether + Ether = Max Elixir
Full Restore + Max Revive + Pretty Wing = Rare Candy
Fire + Flying + Steel Gem = Fire Stone
Water + Ice + Rubber Gem = Water Stone
Electric + Steel + Rock Gem = Thunder Stone
Grass + Bug + Ground Gem = Leaf Stone
Fairy + Dark + Alien Gem = Moon Stone
Dragon + Fire + Grass Gem = Sun Stone
Normal + Electric + Fairy Gem = Shiny Stone
Dark + Ghost + Poison Gem = Dusk Stone
Psychic + Ice + Fighting Gem = Dawn Stone
Normal + Poison + Rock Gem = Everstone
Ice + Fairy + Steel Gem = Ice Stone

They also need to add sub-categories in the Bag's categories for the series of items.

I'd also just make a new item that replaces the Deoxys' Meteorites, Rotom Appliances, and Furfrou Hair Dresser having to be on the overworld somewhere.

Special Move Tutors:
I agree that they should probably just add Secret Sword/Relic Song/V-Create to Keldeo/Meloetta/Victini's movepool as a move it needs to relearn.

However I'd make the Elemental Hyper Beams, Pledge Moves, Draco Meteor, and Dragon Ascent remain as a Tutored move but all wrapped into one tutor. At first they'll only teach the Pledge moves but they'll give you the other options as soon as you can acquire them: the Elemental Hyper Beams when you have a fully evolved Starter, Draco Meteor if you have a Dragon-type, and Dragon Ascent for Rayquaza (but maybe post game). Reason I seperate Dragon Ascent is because it needs to be explained with the move Rayquaza can Mega Evolve.
With that said, I'd also have some more Pokemon able to learn the Pledge Moves.
Also the Pledge Moves and Elemental Hyper Beams should go off the user's highest offense stat. But the Pledge moves uses the opposite defense stat of the target (for example: User's Attack & Target's Special Defense) while the Elemental Hyper Beams uses the matching defense stat of the target. That way the Pledges have an unique use and the Elemental Hyper Beams have consistency.

Some More Things:
Commenting on bluhacks list:

!0o0!

Move Tutors: I agree that the initial paired games should at the very least have the Move Tutors of last generation; the third version/remakes can then have the updated Tutor list.
Following Pokemon: That's the kicker here, Gen VII also had walking Pokemon... they were just never implemented! Every Pokemon was given a walking and running animation... and they never used it. Like, okay, maybe they didn't have time to do it for SM, but what's they're excuse for USUM?!
HMs: I actually liked HMs but agree the idea needed to be made less intrusive. Like one idea is letting us use the HM without needing us to teach it to a Pokemon. Or, maybe a set of items which copy the effects of HMs.
No Evolution For You: Eh, I found that Everstone Haunter trade funny. :P

 

[Detective Barricade]

A list of things I hate in Pokemon

>:(

-No move tutors in pokemon games that are the first in their generation. (Ruby & Sapphire, Diamond & Pearl, Black & White, X & Y, and Sun & Moon) but the third versions/sequels/remakes got them.
-Yellow and HGSS being the only core series games to have following pokemon.
-The HMs before gen 7, one of the most stupid features to put in pokemon, I remember a NPC saying something that pokemon are not tools, which is ironic in this case.
-You can't evolve a gen 1 pokemon to a evolution debuting in gen 2/3 without receiving the National Dex in FRLG.
-VC releases of Red/Blue being in 4 monochrome colors, while VC Yellow is in COLOR.
-That person in Snowpoint City that trades you a Haunter for a Medicham,........holding a everstone.
-The move Feint, useless unless you're attacking someone with Protect or Detect.
-Confusion having a 99% chance of hitting your pokemon while your opponent with confusion has a 1% chance to hit themselves.
-Ice types being bad defensively.

At least Feint can work regardless of whether or not the target is protecting themselves since gen 6. Anyone who says they liked the Medicham for Haunter holding an Everstone trade is clearly lying or being sarcastic. (though through GBA insertion, wild Gengar can be rarely found in the Old Chateau. Of course, this assumes you have an old DS model that still had a GBA cartridge slot and any of the gen 3 Pokemon games)

 

[Kurona]

It annoyed me, but in retrospect the Medicham for Haunter trade was kinda funny.

 

[ToadBrigade]

It annoyed me, but in retrospect the Medicham for Haunter trade was kinda funny.

A good tutorial on how not to evolve your pokemon

 

[Rapti]

I actually don't mind the fact that there're so many items, the should be more than just pokemon shops in a world and thing like the incenses make it so things like a store that sells something different make both sense mechanically and the world more inmersive
now if many of the other items where sold in their own store that would be much better

now I know many of you may think something like "but the number of NPCs dedicated to items/tutors/form changes is way to high already), it appears that way only because pokemon cities are tiny

that's the reason why S&M seems so claustrophobic, the proportions are more realistic but there's still only like 5 buildings per town (that you can enter anyway), make the town actually larger and suddenly you realize how meager the selection of items you can buy in any town actually is just look at the item selection on the Thrifty Megamart or the fact that Hauoli city's mall has 3 stores

like, let's say in like the 4th town there's a speciality store that sells evolution items and one of the NPCs there also explains what pokemon evolves with each item and how and suddenly you got a solution for one of the franchises most obtuse problems

there's not too many items I say, they just need to be distributed better

except for the memories, drives and mega stones, like maybe make a single memory and drive and make it so you can change their typing and idunno, keep mega stones all the way in the back of the battle facility for only competitive players to see and probably not buy (who would even buy an audinonite really?)

 

[Codraroll]

(who would even buy an audinonite really?)

Oh, dunno.

 

[hypno28]

I actually don't mind the fact that there're so many items, the should be more than just pokemon shops in a world and thing like the incenses make it so things like a store that sells something different make both sense mechanically and the world more inmersive
now if many of the other items where sold in their own store that would be much better

now I know many of you may think something like "but the number of NPCs dedicated to items/tutors/form changes is way to high already), it appears that way only because pokemon cities are tiny

that's the reason why S&M seems so claustrophobic, the proportions are more realistic but there's still only like 5 buildings per town (that you can enter anyway), make the town actually larger and suddenly you realize how meager the selection of items you can buy in any town actually is just look at the item selection on the Thrifty Megamart or the fact that Hauoli city's mall has 3 stores

like, let's say in like the 4th town there's a speciality store that sells evolution items and one of the NPCs there also explains what pokemon evolves with each item and how and suddenly you got a solution for one of the franchises most obtuse problems

there's not too many items I say, they just need to be distributed better

except for the memories, drives and mega stones, like maybe make a single memory and drive and make it so you can change their typing and idunno, keep mega stones all the way in the back of the battle facility for only competitive players to see and probably not buy (who would even buy an audinonite really?)

Great post.

I think they need more items, tons more, and lots of them should be redundant in their gameplay functions.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

I actually don't mind the fact that there're so many items, the should be more than just pokemon shops in a world and thing like the incenses make it so things like a store that sells something different make both sense mechanically and the world more inmersive
now if many of the other items where sold in their own store that would be much better

now I know many of you may think something like "but the number of NPCs dedicated to items/tutors/form changes is way to high already), it appears that way only because pokemon cities are tiny

that's the reason why S&M seems so claustrophobic, the proportions are more realistic but there's still only like 5 buildings per town (that you can enter anyway), make the town actually larger and suddenly you realize how meager the selection of items you can buy in any town actually is just look at the item selection on the Thrifty Megamart or the fact that Hauoli city's mall has 3 stores

like, let's say in like the 4th town there's a speciality store that sells evolution items and one of the NPCs there also explains what pokemon evolves with each item and how and suddenly you got a solution for one of the franchises most obtuse problems

there's not too many items I say, they just need to be distributed better

except for the memories, drives and mega stones, like maybe make a single memory and drive and make it so you can change their typing and idunno, keep mega stones all the way in the back of the battle facility for only competitive players to see and probably not buy (who would even buy an audinonite really?)

You summed up my version of this problem pretty neatly. Many people complain about there being too many specific items and that Pokemon is "crumbling under its own weight", but I disagree. I feel the opposite. I think that they aren't doing anywhere near enough with all the things they have. If certain Pokemon have items or MT moves that are exclusive to them, they need to actually do something with them in the games as opposed to just leaving them somewhere without ever being mentioned, or locking them behind Battle Tree shops or something similar. There is a lot of potential for things they could do with everything they have in the games, but most of the time, they aren't doing anything with it. I don't think they have ever handled all of these things well in any past game either.

 

[Detective Barricade]

You summed up my version of this problem pretty neatly. Many people complain about there being too many specific items and that Pokemon is "crumbling under its own weight", but I disagree. I feel the opposite. I think that they aren't doing anywhere near enough with all the things they have. If certain Pokemon have items or MT moves that are exclusive to them, they need to actually do something with them in the games as opposed to just leaving them somewhere without ever being mentioned, or locking them behind Battle Tree shops or something similar. There is a lot of potential for things they could do with everything they have in the games, but most of the time, they aren't doing anything with it. I don't think they have ever handled all of these things well in any past game either.

I'd be happy if they gave more pockets in the bag to sort everything in, as there are certainly WAY too many items just crammed into the main items pocket. If having too many pockets visible is the problem, then stick a few as separate inventories accessible in the Key Items pocket like what FR/LG did with Berries and TMs & HMs. Give Poke Balls their own separate pocket again. Maybe do the same with fossils and battle items. Heck, give us more free space pockets so we have the option to further organize our bags if we so choose.

 

[bluhacks]

Following Pokemon:

That's the kicker here, Gen VII also had walking Pokemon... they were just never implemented! Every Pokemon was given a walking and running animation... and they never used it. Like, okay, maybe they didn't have time to do it for SM, but what's they're excuse for USUM?!

I heard that walking pokemon was going to return in Sun/Moon but the 3DS's limitations can't handle it and they scrapped it, which also doesn't make sense. Games like Super Mystery Dungeon and Super Smash Bros have 3D models all around the place with no lag on the old 3DS. I'm sure the 3DS could handle one more model on the overworld following you. Game Freak is just bad at game optimization apparently. On a related note, would Sun/Moon/USUM had more features if it was New 3DS only? (New 3DS is actually downclocked to nearly old 3DS speeds when playing these games because of compatibility with old 3DS communications)

 

[R_N]

I heard that walking pokemon was going to return in Sun/Moon but the 3DS's limitations can't handle it and they scrapped it, which also doesn't make sense. Games like Super Mystery Dungeon and Super Smash Bros have 3D models all around the place with no lag on the old 3DS. I'm sure the 3DS could handle one more model on the overworld following you. Game Freak is just bad at game optimization apparently. On a related note, would Sun/Moon/USUM had more features if it was New 3DS only? (New 3DS is actually downclocked to nearly old 3DS speeds when playing these games because of compatibility with old 3DS communications)

I think pointing at those game in particular is a bit much since the former is fairly simple and the latter runs flawlessly on original 3ds....at the expensie using literally everything in the 3DS. There's a reason it couldn't use MiiVerse and had to reboot the system to return to the home screen.

But there were plenty of, high-intensity 3DS games (Kid Icarus comes to mind) that had neither issue so its just...astonishing that for such a big name title like Pokemon it had the performance issues it did through 4 sets of games. And SM was an improvement on Gen 6! It can't even entirely be blamed on the model quality (absolutely an issue because seriously the amount of polygons involved in something like volcanion is absurd), because these issues extended to the overworld.
I remember the game lagging if i rode the bike in a rainy area. XYORAS could not handle horde battles so its a small miracle that Battle Royals and double battles (which ahve to have the trainers on screen) run as well as they do (even with frame drops...).