(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

I will put forward the hot take of, even in their initial generation 1, those bad pokemon were still bad & I'm glad gen 5 on has more or less made their crap mons into the realm of usable out of the gate.

me and my friends look at Aipom: haha cute monkey
me and my friends looking at Aipom's moves & stats in the guidebook: oh

I had one of those guide books that had little profiles on pokemon you could encounter and let me tell you they were not very kind even in the year 2000.


Also...while you do lament the pokemon being good-but-not-great keeps them out of the redo bin that's not FULLY true. This generation alone finally undid that stigma. We got 3 galarian variants of generation 5 pokemon: Darumaka/Darmanitan (complete with zen mode!), Stunfisk, and probably most inexplicably Yamask who also got a new evolution.
 
Codraroll said:
I'm actually, somehow and in some respects, of the opposite opinion. Recent generations have too few crapmons, if that makes sense. From Gen V onwards, and especially noticeable in Gen VI onwards, they tried to make sure that each Pokémon family had its gimmick or its competitive niche. Every Pokémon seems to be designed to perform some job or another in competitive play, to have its little trick to show the metagame and not be totally useless.

And that's fine, but it also effectively eliminated the potential for future makeovers. Be it through regular evolution, Mega Evolution, new abilities... there just isn't that much to build on when it comes to later-gen upgrades for recent-gen Pokémon. They already have their niche, their gimmick they were designed to play out, and stats balanced around that.

Take the loads of crapmons in Gen II, for instance. When they were new they were interesting, if not overwhelming. In Gen III, their shortcomings became more apparent, but they still had some of their novelty. And in Gen IV they were given badass makeovers to bring them up to speed with the rest of the metagame. 'mons such as Gligar, Sneasel, Togetic or Roselia would have been nothing without their Gen IV evolutions, and thanks to those evolutions the evolution families are cherished to this day, mainstays of many a playthrough. Mediocre Pokémon made great.

But now... it's like there's nothing old and outclassed left to bring into the limelight anymore. Notably, the Pokémon that got new forms and new evolutions in Gens VI-VII were mostly ones from Gens I-III. They're the ones with potential left to unleash. Weezing, Corsola, Farfetch'd, Linoone... they were easy candidates for an upgrade. But what forgettable 'mons are there from recent generations to give the same treatment? Ones that are mediocre and forgettable because they have terrible stats or lack a gimmick that defines them? You might make a case for Pyroar or Swirlix/Aromatisse, but even in those cases, their stats aren't exactly screaming "give me an evolution!" The evolution might then be all but cosmetic without changing much (in a vein similar to Rhydon -> Rhyperior), to avoid being overpowered - which would just make it pointless.

Worst thing is, all this is while more Pokémon than ever are created as single-stage or two-stage evolution families. There are so many evolution families that strictly speaking have room for more members, but it seems like the Pokémon were designed to be fully evolved and usable from the get go, making potential evolutions either overpowered or pointless. We still dream about evolutions for the likes of Chimecho, Qwilfish or Torkoal. There don't seem to be any Pokémon with that same potential in recent generations, and the signal this sends - "don't expect future cross-gen evolutions" is a little sad to me. It's as if a solid border was drawn along the edge of a dream.
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I think you need to flip your line of reasoning to take into account the whole picture. While being a crapmon makes it likelier that it will receive an overhaul in a later generation, it's not necessary in order for that to happen. Take R_N's examples of Darmanitan-Galar and Runerigus (which is essentially Cofagrigus-Galar), but also Ninetales-Alola, Diancie-Mega, Houndoom-Mega, Lucario-Mega, Sharpedo-Mega and others. All of these Pokémon were not only totally viable for an in-game run, but keeping the paces in OU/UU in the generation before they were introduced (besides Diancie-Mega who was introduced alongside Diancie but Diancie was more than viable). Even in Gen IV where, though most of the cross-gen evolutions were given to crapmons, totally competent Pokémon such as Piloswine, Magneton, Rhydon, Porygon2, and Dusclops received them while they were holding their own in competitive and were therefore more than viable options for an in-game team. Plus the unnecessary branched evolution of Gallade while Gardevoir was just fine. Even in Gen II's cross-evolutions they introduced branched evolutions for Pokémon whose original evolutions were more than viable such as Slowpoke and Poliwhirl -- though all of the new evolutions for Pokémon who couldn't already evolve were admittedly given solely to crapmons, the only generation where this is true.

A Pokémon doesn't need to be bad to receive support later on anyway, and I actually think it's preferable if two forms perform different roles that make both viable at once while building lore around the family. Take Porygon2 and Porygon-Z for instance: one is a tank and the other a glass cannon, and both perform their roles well despite Porygon-Z evolving from Porygon2. Electivire, Magnezone, and Magmortar trade speed for power compared to their pre-evolutions in the same way that Scizor does in addition to a new typing meaning their pre-evolutions are still better if you can in return trade power for speed. Murkrow later gained Prankster to give it a niche use over Honchkrow, and Eviolite arrived to make Dusclops surpass Dusknoir in viability entirely. Ninetails retains Drought while Ninetails-Alola has Snow Warning making them two different weather setters; Garchomp-Mega is slower yet more powerful than its base form, Sharpedo-Mega loses Speed Boost in favour of the power offered by Strong Jaw, Diancie is all defensive while its mega is all-offensive the list goes on.

This type of game design is I think way more preferable than just straight up upgrading an old design into an evolution, and every Pokémon having an already fairly cemented niche actually facilitates this design. Base Salazzle can poison Steel-Type Pokémon which is totally cool, now there's an Electric-Type regional variant that can paralyse Electric-Type Pokémon instead. Mudsdale increases its Defense every time it's hit? Well slap an Eviolite on it and watch your opponents suffer -- or its evolution increases its Attack every time it's hit instead if offense is more your playstyle. Each Pokémon having a more defined niche makes it easier to give new life to them later on by approaching that niche from another angle, and I think the new regional evolutions are a key demonstration of this. The fact that your Mime Jr. can now evolve into either a Mr. Mime or a Mr. Mime-Galar is the same thing as Poliwhirl getting the choice between Politoed or Poliwrath way back in Gen II -- both have different typing and different stats but there's something that ties the designs together and makes them counterparts, meanwhile both are viable in their own rights (in theory, Mr. Mime and Politoed aren't winning any competitions and are perhaps bad examples).

The overall point is that while being a crapmon helps your chances at getting support later down the line with an overhaul, it's not necessary in order for that to happen. Slowbro's been overhauled thrice, first with Slowking, then with Slowbro-Mega, and now with whatever Slowpoke-Galar is going to evolve into, which is bizarre since it's been pretty consistently viable and isn't a hugely iconic Pokémon that Game Freak is trying to push. After they overhaul a few previously unviable Pokémon, it seems like they pretty much go wild and just overhaul their favourites; having less crapmons means that the designers have more liberty to overhaul whoever they want, and to me that's an exciting prospect.
 
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CoolMan6001 said:
Mega Sharpedo has Strong Jaw...

You might be confusing it for Crawdaunt, another Water/Dark mon introduced in the same gen that received Adaptability as a HA
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Fixed. It doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence since Strong Jaw is another ability that trades the speed offered by Speed Boost for power instead though. Thanks :P
 
Codraroll said:
I'm actually, somehow and in some respects, of the opposite opinion. Recent generations have too few crapmons, if that makes sense. From Gen V onwards, and especially noticeable in Gen VI onwards, they tried to make sure that each Pokémon family had its gimmick or its competitive niche. Every Pokémon seems to be designed to perform some job or another in competitive play, to have its little trick to show the metagame and not be totally useless.

And that's fine, but it also effectively eliminated the potential for future makeovers. Be it through regular evolution, Mega Evolution, new abilities... there just isn't that much to build on when it comes to later-gen upgrades for recent-gen Pokémon. They already have their niche, their gimmick they were designed to play out, and stats balanced around that.

Take the loads of crapmons in Gen II, for instance. When they were new they were interesting, if not overwhelming. In Gen III, their shortcomings became more apparent, but they still had some of their novelty. And in Gen IV they were given badass makeovers to bring them up to speed with the rest of the metagame. 'mons such as Gligar, Sneasel, Togetic or Roselia would have been nothing without their Gen IV evolutions, and thanks to those evolutions the evolution families are cherished to this day, mainstays of many a playthrough. Mediocre Pokémon made great.

But now... it's like there's nothing old and outclassed left to bring into the limelight anymore. Notably, the Pokémon that got new forms and new evolutions in Gens VI-VII were mostly ones from Gens I-III. They're the ones with potential left to unleash. Weezing, Corsola, Farfetch'd, Linoone... they were easy candidates for an upgrade. But what forgettable 'mons are there from recent generations to give the same treatment? Ones that are mediocre and forgettable because they have terrible stats or lack a gimmick that defines them? You might make a case for Pyroar or Swirlix/Aromatisse, but even in those cases, their stats aren't exactly screaming "give me an evolution!" The evolution might then be all but cosmetic without changing much (in a vein similar to Rhydon -> Rhyperior), to avoid being overpowered - which would just make it pointless.

Worst thing is, all this is while more Pokémon than ever are created as single-stage or two-stage evolution families. There are so many evolution families that strictly speaking have room for more members, but it seems like the Pokémon were designed to be fully evolved and usable from the get go, making potential evolutions either overpowered or pointless. We still dream about evolutions for the likes of Chimecho, Qwilfish or Torkoal. There don't seem to be any Pokémon with that same potential in recent generations, and the signal this sends - "don't expect future cross-gen evolutions" is a little sad to me. It's as if a solid border was drawn along the edge of a dream.
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The Simis, Zebstrika, Bouffalant, Basculin, Gogoat, Furfrou, Carbink, Gumshoos, Thievul, Pincurchin, Eldegoss, and probably plenty of other things I looked over. All of these have potential for getting buffs in some form: Regional Variants, Megas, normal evos, you name it. The shitmons from new gens maybe don't reach the embarassing lows that stuff like Kricketune does (although I'd honestly argue Furfrou and Thievul get damn close to that level), but they aren't totally set for life in their current states either. There will always be mediocre stuff, and as long as that trend continues there will always be room to improve on mons, even if the bar isn't quite as low as it once was. Your comment about evos for some of these potentially being OP due to stats gained actually highlights a perk Regional Variants have over normal cross-gen evos: Since they often don't change stats at all or at most sidegrade them, this allows those Pokemon in the gray area of needing a buff but an evolution possibly being too much/underwhelming/not possible to get their moment (see Articuno, Darmanitan and Cofagrigus).

With that said and based Celever's comment factored in, I can safely say this is a pretty crappy take.
 
Sorry to detract from this talk but i can't stop thinking about Runergrus' evolution method and that brought up a...well...it definitely fits the "little things that annoy you" title

I don't understand how they expect people to figure out some of these evolution methods. Like, in the context of we don't have datamines and people dedicated to figuring it out asap so they can update their wikis and websites. Some are, okay, you can kind of gleam them through talking to each other. Like happiness evolutions can be a little tricky, so can time of days, but reference poitns are easy to pinpoint & recreate. Location based evolutions fall in that bin too.
And other times NPCs might point in the direction. But even that can be kind of fraught; I believe Sliggoo's method is mentioned on a signpost but not that it must be natural rain (& at a certain level).

But other times you just kind of go huh???
Like let's actually break down Yamask for a second:
-must have taken at least 49 HP of damage
-within one battle, and cannot have fainted
-must move, on the overworld, under a specific unmarked arch in the wild area
So far as I know, no one hints at this at all and considering the Arch is as dully detailed as everything else in the wild area it's not even a thing where you can put two & two together that, aha, this is a clay arch! Or aHA this arch has the markings of Yamask's chunk of stone, could this be related. I still don't know how people stumbled into this one to begin with and I can't imagine the cross section of "wants to use Galarian Yamask" and "carries it around the Dusty Bowl" and "took about 50 HP in a single battle prior to walking under the arch" is.

Or how about Inkay. How long would this have taken to figure out had it not leaked ahead of time. I've still seen people *in the gen 7 & 8 era* be confused as to how to evolve it, ask for help online, go that's bullshit, and then get the malamar and go what.

Even some of the more "conventional" methods can be kind of questionable. Turn the clock back to gen 4. How do you figure out that Dusclops evolves with the Reaper Cloth (while trading)? The descriptoin only ever says "loved by a certain Pokemon". Just keep running through the battle tower until you see a Dusknoir, realize it's an evolution of DUsclops, and then haphazardly try anything you come across?? How about gen 2, what on earth makes you connect giving poliwhirl a king's rock and getting a politoed out of this.

I might've mentioned this somewhere in the things I like, but it was both nice & overdue that BW2 let you talk with I think Cheren to find out evolution methods. Just one of those things where they should offer some glossary for those not wanting to just look it up online; put it in the post game, at least. If you still want to keep the gamey "discover it" stuff maybe you could fill out a list of methods (for rewards??) and just give hints like "a hurt pokemon....a certain arch...."


Course in the long run thsi doesn't really matter. Guides exist, websites exist, after a few days of a game being out it's pretty easy to just look it up. But just...one of those things I think about time to time, when I look at Pokemon as a game that needs to give information to you.
 
R_N said:
Sorry to detract from this talk but i can't stop thinking about Runergrus' evolution method and that brought up a...well...it definitely fits the "little things that annoy you" title

I don't understand how they expect people to figure out some of these evolution methods. Like, in the context of we don't have datamines and people dedicated to figuring it out asap so they can update their wikis and websites. Some are, okay, you can kind of gleam them through talking to each other. Like happiness evolutions can be a little tricky, so can time of days, but reference poitns are easy to pinpoint & recreate. Location based evolutions fall in that bin too.
And other times NPCs might point in the direction. But even that can be kind of fraught; I believe Sliggoo's method is mentioned on a signpost but not that it must be natural rain (& at a certain level).

But other times you just kind of go huh???
Like let's actually break down Yamask for a second:
-must have taken at least 49 HP of damage
-within one battle, and cannot have fainted
-must move, on the overworld, under a specific unmarked arch in the wild area
So far as I know, no one hints at this at all and considering the Arch is as dully detailed as everything else in the wild area it's not even a thing where you can put two & two together that, aha, this is a clay arch! Or aHA this arch has the markings of Yamask's chunk of stone, could this be related. I still don't know how people stumbled into this one to begin with and I can't imagine the cross section of "wants to use Galarian Yamask" and "carries it around the Dusty Bowl" and "took about 50 HP in a single battle prior to walking under the arch" is.

Or how about Inkay. How long would this have taken to figure out had it not leaked ahead of time. I've still seen people *in the gen 7 & 8 era* be confused as to how to evolve it, ask for help online, go that's bullshit, and then get the malamar and go what.

Even some of the more "conventional" methods can be kind of questionable. Turn the clock back to gen 4. How do you figure out that Dusclops evolves with the Reaper Cloth (while trading)? The descriptoin only ever says "loved by a certain Pokemon". Just keep running through the battle tower until you see a Dusknoir, realize it's an evolution of DUsclops, and then haphazardly try anything you come across?? How about gen 2, what on earth makes you connect giving poliwhirl a king's rock and getting a politoed out of this.

I might've mentioned this somewhere in the things I like, but it was both nice & overdue that BW2 let you talk with I think Cheren to find out evolution methods. Just one of those things where they should offer some glossary for those not wanting to just look it up online; put it in the post game, at least. If you still want to keep the gamey "discover it" stuff maybe you could fill out a list of methods (for rewards??) and just give hints like "a hurt pokemon....a certain arch...."
Click to expand...
Two words: Player Guides
 
R_N said:
Sorry to detract from this talk but i can't stop thinking about Runergrus' evolution method and that brought up a...well...it definitely fits the "little things that annoy you" title

I don't understand how they expect people to figure out some of these evolution methods. Like, in the context of we don't have datamines and people dedicated to figuring it out asap so they can update their wikis and websites. Some are, okay, you can kind of gleam them through talking to each other. Like happiness evolutions can be a little tricky, so can time of days, but reference poitns are easy to pinpoint & recreate. Location based evolutions fall in that bin too.
And other times NPCs might point in the direction. But even that can be kind of fraught; I believe Sliggoo's method is mentioned on a signpost but not that it must be natural rain (& at a certain level).

But other times you just kind of go huh???
Like let's actually break down Yamask for a second:
-must have taken at least 49 HP of damage
-within one battle, and cannot have fainted
-must move, on the overworld, under a specific unmarked arch in the wild area
So far as I know, no one hints at this at all and considering the Arch is as dully detailed as everything else in the wild area it's not even a thing where you can put two & two together that, aha, this is a clay arch! Or aHA this arch has the markings of Yamask's chunk of stone, could this be related. I still don't know how people stumbled into this one to begin with and I can't imagine the cross section of "wants to use Galarian Yamask" and "carries it around the Dusty Bowl" and "took about 50 HP in a single battle prior to walking under the arch" is.

Or how about Inkay. How long would this have taken to figure out had it not leaked ahead of time. I've still seen people *in the gen 7 & 8 era* be confused as to how to evolve it, ask for help online, go that's bullshit, and then get the malamar and go what.

Even some of the more "conventional" methods can be kind of questionable. Turn the clock back to gen 4. How do you figure out that Dusclops evolves with the Reaper Cloth (while trading)? The descriptoin only ever says "loved by a certain Pokemon". Just keep running through the battle tower until you see a Dusknoir, realize it's an evolution of DUsclops, and then haphazardly try anything you come across?? How about gen 2, what on earth makes you connect giving poliwhirl a king's rock and getting a politoed out of this.

I might've mentioned this somewhere in the things I like, but it was both nice & overdue that BW2 let you talk with I think Cheren to find out evolution methods. Just one of those things where they should offer some glossary for those not wanting to just look it up online; put it in the post game, at least. If you still want to keep the gamey "discover it" stuff maybe you could fill out a list of methods (for rewards??) and just give hints like "a hurt pokemon....a certain arch...."


Course in the long run thsi doesn't really matter. Guides exist, websites exist, after a few days of a game being out it's pretty easy to just look it up. But just...one of those things I think about time to time, when I look at Pokemon as a game that needs to give information to you.
Click to expand...

Is an old japanese design concept intended to incite people to work together by making progress so obscure in its criteria that players are forced to communicate between each other to proceed

I call it Tower of Druaga design

"What first appears like a slow-moving D&D-ish game is actually about secrets. One is tempted to call them riddles, but honestly, riddles give clues, while Tower of Druaga has none!"
 
Codraroll said:
I'm actually, somehow and in some respects, of the opposite opinion. Recent generations have too few crapmons, if that makes sense. From Gen V onwards, and especially noticeable in Gen VI onwards, they tried to make sure that each Pokémon family had its gimmick or its competitive niche. Every Pokémon seems to be designed to perform some job or another in competitive play, to have its little trick to show the metagame and not be totally useless.

And that's fine, but it also effectively eliminated the potential for future makeovers. Be it through regular evolution, Mega Evolution, new abilities... there just isn't that much to build on when it comes to later-gen upgrades for recent-gen Pokémon. They already have their niche, their gimmick they were designed to play out, and stats balanced around that.

Take the loads of crapmons in Gen II, for instance. When they were new they were interesting, if not overwhelming. In Gen III, their shortcomings became more apparent, but they still had some of their novelty. And in Gen IV they were given badass makeovers to bring them up to speed with the rest of the metagame. 'mons such as Gligar, Sneasel, Togetic or Roselia would have been nothing without their Gen IV evolutions, and thanks to those evolutions the evolution families are cherished to this day, mainstays of many a playthrough. Mediocre Pokémon made great.

But now... it's like there's nothing old and outclassed left to bring into the limelight anymore. Notably, the Pokémon that got new forms and new evolutions in Gens VI-VII were mostly ones from Gens I-III. They're the ones with potential left to unleash. Weezing, Corsola, Farfetch'd, Linoone... they were easy candidates for an upgrade. But what forgettable 'mons are there from recent generations to give the same treatment? Ones that are mediocre and forgettable because they have terrible stats or lack a gimmick that defines them? You might make a case for Pyroar or Swirlix/Aromatisse, but even in those cases, their stats aren't exactly screaming "give me an evolution!" The evolution might then be all but cosmetic without changing much (in a vein similar to Rhydon -> Rhyperior), to avoid being overpowered - which would just make it pointless.
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It's really dangerous game-design to basically deliver half a pokedex and tell your audience: "maybe we'll finish the dex in a later game, maybe we won't". Why would you want to get a half-baked dex, only for the chance that Gamefreak can make improvements later. Why not, you know, make a good, complete dex in one go. We all know that GF missed upportunities in the past, like Luvdisc > Alomomola.

Looking at X and Y's dex, it's true that there aren't any shitmons in the same tier as Yanma or Aimpom. All of the gen VI pokemon are perfectly usable both in-game and in competitive. That just means that it's not as necessary to make new evolutions of older pokemon, which is exactly the reason why gen IV was the last time we saw a big bunch of cross-gen evolutions (excluding Sylveon and Obstagoon).

I do want to mention that, while not strictly necessary, it's still possible to make new evolutions of newer pokemon. First of all, there are still plenty of outclassed pokemon in the newer gens. Liepard, Watchog, Gumshoos and Thievul are all notably terrible early route pokemon, worse than Linoone ever was imo. These could really use an Obstagoon-like evolution so they can scale into the late game better.

Another way to make new evolutions is to make them side-grades instead of upgrades. Scizor, for example, has the same base stat total as scyther, yet it plays very differently thanks to a different typing and different stats. Gallade and Politoed also have the same stat total, but they also play differently thanks to diffent stats, typings and abilities. Again, this isn't necessary, but it's not pointless either. Scizor and Gallade especially seem just as cherished as cross-gen evolution that actually made big improvements, even though Scyther and Gardevoir were already good pokemon. Maybe GF can make a side-grade of Dottler with a more offensive statline. Maybe GF can make a pre-evo of Duraludon so it can be placed earlier in the story. There are still plenty of options.

Codraroll said:
Worst thing is, all this is while more Pokémon than ever are created as single-stage or two-stage evolution families. There are so many evolution families that strictly speaking have room for more members, but it seems like the Pokémon were designed to be fully evolved and usable from the get go, making potential evolutions either overpowered or pointless. We still dream about evolutions for the likes of Chimecho, Qwilfish or Torkoal. There don't seem to be any Pokémon with that same potential in recent generations, and the signal this sends - "don't expect future cross-gen evolutions" is a little sad to me. It's as if a solid border was drawn along the edge of a dream.
Click to expand...

This is something I agree with. I do like to see more three-stage evolutions, because they scale well into the story and they fit the philosophy of the Pokemon franchise. If GF is going to design their dexes in such a way that they don't have to come back to them later to fix them, they should at least strive for more three-stage evo's right away. It's true that many two-stagers seem like they are designed to be finished. As I said, I think that's a good thing, but it also means that it's harder to add cross-gen evolutions to make more three-stage families later on. So that's why GF should scrap some of the worthless single-stage pokemon (looking at you SM), and replace those with three-stagers. It makes sense from a design pov too, because it's probably easier to make one three-stage family than two distinct single-stage pokemon.
 
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I suspect Gen 6-8's trend towards single & 2-stage lines might have been their attempt to get more "value" out of their limited new pokemon.
Sure it's probably relatively easier to make...let's just say Ribombee & Palossand three stage lines. But they wanted more "new lines", so this is why we get things like Komala, Minior, Drampa, Turtonator, etc who are standalone and relatively self sufficient and often have their own distinct gimmick they wanted to employ. If not value, then definitely flavor. They do seem more open to 3rd stages in Gen 8 relative to 7, but it probably helps that a lot of design practice wasn't being put to standalone-by-design legendary-tier pokemon (putting aside Silvally & Cosmog lines there's 6 "Legendary", 2 Mythics and 7 UBs in SM as opposed to SWSH's 3 despite a similar number of pokemon added over all)






Granted...let's be real, a number of Megas could have been with a little tweaking just straight up evolutions (Mega Mawile & Camerupt come to mind immediately). And frankly some g-max forms could've been repurposed as 3rd stages, too...I think gamefreak's just kind of juggling a bunch of things when it comes to Pokemon at this point. Sometimes I really wish this series was into retconning more than it was, especially since things like Megas in particular will go years without coming back in the main games.
 
Transferring a Pokemon from one of the older generation games (pre-BW) to one of the newer games by the use of Pokemon Bank on the 3DS doesn't automatically change the Pokemon's name from ALL CAPS, which it was before BW, to what a regular proper noun would be. You'd have to manually change the name in the game you're transferring your Pokemon from to its proper noun name to make it similar to other Pokemon in the newer gen games. You wouldn't be able to change the name in the newer gens, either, because it classifies you as a different trainer. It's a weird nitpicky thing though and it's probably just me.
 
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I am rather annoyed by the naming of flash cannon and steel beam, even though its definitely a very minor and subjective nitpick. Flash cannon is an intimidating name and sounds like an incredibly powerful attack, like a character's signature finishing move in a mecha or shonen anime. Steel beam, as a name, at least to me, seems rather mundane. The first thing that comes to mind is a girder made of steel, not an attack at all.

I personally would prefer that steel beam would be the regular, lower BP steel special attack and flash cannon be the super hard hitting one that costs hp.
 
galarian darmanitan said:
I am rather annoyed by the naming of flash cannon and steel beam, even though its definitely a very minor and subjective nitpick. Flash cannon is an intimidating name and sounds like an incredibly powerful attack, like a character's signature finishing move in a mecha or shonen anime. Steel beam, as a name, at least to me, seems rather mundane. The first thing that comes to mind is a girder made of steel, not an attack at all.

I personally would prefer that steel beam would be the regular, lower BP steel special attack and flash cannon be the super hard hitting one that costs hp.
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Be aware that the two moves were introduced at different times.

Though there probably were other names Steel Beam could have had.
 
galarian darmanitan said:
I am rather annoyed by the naming of flash cannon and steel beam, even though its definitely a very minor and subjective nitpick. Flash cannon is an intimidating name and sounds like an incredibly powerful attack, like a character's signature finishing move in a mecha or shonen anime. Steel beam, as a name, at least to me, seems rather mundane. The first thing that comes to mind is a girder made of steel, not an attack at all.

I personally would prefer that steel beam would be the regular, lower BP steel special attack and flash cannon be the super hard hitting one that costs hp.
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If it makes you feel better, it's a pun.
It's a steel beam, it's meant to remind you of a physical steel beam.
The Japanese name actually has a similar pun "The Japanese name of this move literally means an "all-out resistance" (徹底抗戦 tettei-kōsen), while also incorporating puns on 鋼鉄 kōtetsu (steel) and 光線 kōsen (beam). "

Also this move was named as part of a CoroCoro contest.
 
galarian darmanitan said:
I am rather annoyed by the naming of flash cannon and steel beam, even though its definitely a very minor and subjective nitpick. Flash cannon is an intimidating name and sounds like an incredibly powerful attack, like a character's signature finishing move in a mecha or shonen anime. Steel beam, as a name, at least to me, seems rather mundane. The first thing that comes to mind is a girder made of steel, not an attack at all.

I personally would prefer that steel beam would be the regular, lower BP steel special attack and flash cannon be the super hard hitting one that costs hp.
Click to expand...

On the same kind of idea, the french name of Twister (the weak dragon move of 40 base power) is "Ouragan" which means... Hurricane. So how is the move Hurricane called in french ? It is "Vent Violent" which means "violent wind"...
They should have switched the name of the moves as well or just find an other name for Twister. Anyway, I'm also annoyed by this kind of thing, don't worry, you are not alone.
 
Union Caboche said:
On the same kind of idea, the french name of Twister (the weak dragon move of 40 base power) is "Ouragan" which means... Hurricane. So how is the move Hurricane called in french ? It is "Vent Violent" which means "violent wind"...
They should have switched the name of the moves as well or just find an other name for Twister. Anyway, I'm also annoyed by this kind of thing, don't worry, you are not alone.
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Again, I would like to mention that Twister was introduced before Hurricane, so for Hurricane to have that name it would have to be reserved for it, which seems unlikely.
 
Two things constantly irk me regarding move effectiveness. The first is that if a move is blocked by something like Protect or type immunity, the move's animation won't play. It's as if the attacker took one look at the target and said "Nuh uh. This attack won't work. I won't even try." The second is that if the move hits multiple Pokemon, and only some targets are hit (like using Earthquake when there's only one Flying-type on the field) every target will visually get hit by the attack, even if they aren't getting damaged.

People complain all the time about how attackers should have more animations, but as much as it would be great to have punch/kick/slam/headbutt/etc animations for different attacks, I think fixing the issues with defender animation would go much farther.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
Two things constantly irk me regarding move effectiveness. The first is that if a move is blocked by something like Protect or type immunity, the move's animation won't play. It's as if the attacker took one look at the target and said "Nuh uh. This attack won't work. I won't even try." The second is that if the move hits multiple Pokemon, and only some targets are hit (like using Earthquake when there's only one Flying-type on the field) every target will visually get hit by the attack, even if they aren't getting damaged.

People complain all the time about how attackers should have more animations, but as much as it would be great to have punch/kick/slam/headbutt/etc animations for different attacks, I think fixing the issues with defender animation would go much farther.
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Having to play the animation every time your move is blocked would be super annoying imo, like "i get it bro its blocked", especially with moves like waterfall or legendary signature moves. I agree on the second point though
 
Lemingue said:
Having to play the animation every time your move is blocked would be super annoying imo, like "i get it bro its blocked", especially with moves like waterfall or legendary signature moves. I agree on the second point though
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You could truncate the animation if it gets blocked. Alternatively, you could just not have long-ass animations in the first place, as they're likely to become stale regardless of whether or not they hit. Best of both worlds would probably be for the long version to play only the first time the move is used in that battle.
 
Something that has been annoying me recently is certain aspects of the TM lists over the generations.

1. Why were Fissure and Horn Drill TMs in Generation 1 but Flamethrower wasn't (especially considering Thunderbolt and Ice Beam were TMs).

2. Why did Generations 4 and 5 have only 92 and 95 TMs, respectively, instead of having 100 TMs like in Generation 6 onwards.

3. Why were the TMs re-ordered in the Let's Go games and Generation 8 instead of trying to let certain moves keep their TM number from previous generations?

4. Why were almost all the TM moves made into TRs in Sword and Shield and replaced with a bunch of rather crappy moves?
 
Pikadavid14 said:
4. Why were almost all the TM moves made into TRs in Sword and Shield and replaced with a bunch of rather crappy moves?
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This one is quite simply answered; it's because they clearly want to bring back the old TM system while recognising the boons of the new; and consider things like Fire Blast and Earthquake as infinitely usable TMs to be broken in some sense. TMs are are mostly bad because otherwise there'd be little point in TRs.

That said, I do feel like they went a little too far with it -- the 'decently powerful' ones like Flamethrower, Energy Ball, Dark Pulse and Surf could have been infinitely re-usable TMs and just restricted to late-game as far as single player is concerned. The elemental punches and Giga Drain actually get this treatment too, so it's hardly like they'd be considered too overpowered for TMs.
 
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