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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
To be fair some of the Pokemon you're flashing by are also inanimate objects: Graveler is a rock, Exeggutor are eggs, and Muk is a pile of sludge.
But all seriousness that "theory" is silly. Also Cubone isn't a baby/rejected Kangaskhan (or Charizard). However I am likely to believe Ditto are failed clones of Mew.
I dunno. I'm not entirely sold on it either, but the connections between Kangaskhan and the Cubone family are... suspicious.
- Kangaskhan and the Cubone family have appeared in the exact same areas as the other since HeartGold and SoulSilver, with the exception of Pokemon Tower in Let's Go (Cubone, but no Kangaskhan).
- Cubone is one of the few Pokemon able to SOS a Pokemon of a different family, and it can call Kangaskhan.
- There's this sprite of a Marowak evolution that apparently comes from a prototype version of Red and Green.
If you squint, it kinda looks a Marowak holding a baby.
If anything, that should give the idea that the design was separated into two Pokémon. Just like Latias and Blaziken.I dunno. I'm not entirely sold on it either, but the connections between Kangaskhan and the Cubone family are... suspicious.
- Kangaskhan and the Cubone family have appeared in the exact same areas as the other since HeartGold and SoulSilver, with the exception of Pokemon Tower in Let's Go (Cubone, but no Kangaskhan).
- Cubone is one of the few Pokemon able to SOS a Pokemon of a different family, and it can call Kangaskhan.
- There's this sprite of a Marowak evolution that apparently comes from a prototype version of Red and Green.
If you squint, it kinda looks a Marowak holding a baby.
Kangaskhan had been aroudn since near the beginning so I imagine the marowak evolution idea was similar to what we saw happen with Ballonda & the jigglypuff line as well as "buu" and Jynx: two divergent but similar ideas where they nixed the overlap, except Cubone & Marowak got to stay on since they took it to a different direction whiel giving a "story" boss/roadblock ala Snorlax. Marowak, the evo & haunter even happen to be right next to each other, probably indicating a poitn where they were ironing out the Pokemon Tower idea.
As time went on, they decided to play into their similarities probably as a reference to their themes. If Kangaskhan ever gets a regional form I expect them to fully thread the needle and have it be a Ground type kangaskhan who specifically adopts Cubones, likely because their own child was lost.
As time went on, they decided to play into their similarities probably as a reference to their themes. If Kangaskhan ever gets a regional form I expect them to fully thread the needle and have it be a Ground type kangaskhan who specifically adopts Cubones, likely because their own child was lost.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
So a lot of people have discussed how recent Mythicals since like... Gen 6 or 7 have become kinda flaccid. Even ones I like personally such as Marshadow and Melmetal are kinda derided and even I admit there's something missing, although for a while I couldn't figure out what. Well, I think I just did: There's little to no reason for them to be considered "Mythical" or really special in any way.
Now, what do I mean by this? Well, as much as I hate to do this kinda stuff, let's look back on examples of how they did Mythical lore in the good old days:tm:
-Mew is an incredibly mysterious being in-universe and the supposed original ancestor of all Pokemon, which is reflected by how it can learn every TM and Tutor move. It was also used to create Mewtwo, Gen 1's most powerful Pokemon.
-Celebi can manipulate time and travel people and Pokemon to the past, a capability which has been reflected in stuff like the HGSS Celebi event.
-Jirachi is basically a genie: It only awakens every thousand years or so and people can make a wish to Jirachi and it'll make that wish come true. As for Deoxys it's an alien created by human lasers with multiple, insanely min-maxed forms.
Then we look at some of the recent mythicals and it's like they have little more background than basic Pokemon. Take Zeraora: Its dex entries talk about the power of its claws and its fast attacks... ...And that's about it. No interesting lore and no special connection to its home region either, you could literally retcon it to originate from Hoenn or Sinnoh and nothing about Alola's geography or culture would change. Not all mythical backstories have to have divine feats or high stakes either: Shaymin, one of the more well-liked ones has a really simple but cute story about filling a once desolate land with flowers and grass as an expression of gratitude. Sinnoh as a region would not be the same without it, which can't be said for the likes of Volcanion and Melmetal, which also don't have an interesting myth around them like Mew or Victini do.
Looking back on this post this is kind of an extension of the complaints about them not doing dedicated events for these guys anymore. And sadly Zarude, while I kinda like its design, seems to be setting a new low for how uninspired and unremarkable a Mythical can be, not even its basic design concept is entirely original for this region. And while we don't know a whole lot about its background yet, I'm not expecting anything remotely interesting or truly deserving of the "Mythical" title.
Now, what do I mean by this? Well, as much as I hate to do this kinda stuff, let's look back on examples of how they did Mythical lore in the good old days:tm:
-Mew is an incredibly mysterious being in-universe and the supposed original ancestor of all Pokemon, which is reflected by how it can learn every TM and Tutor move. It was also used to create Mewtwo, Gen 1's most powerful Pokemon.
-Celebi can manipulate time and travel people and Pokemon to the past, a capability which has been reflected in stuff like the HGSS Celebi event.
-Jirachi is basically a genie: It only awakens every thousand years or so and people can make a wish to Jirachi and it'll make that wish come true. As for Deoxys it's an alien created by human lasers with multiple, insanely min-maxed forms.
Then we look at some of the recent mythicals and it's like they have little more background than basic Pokemon. Take Zeraora: Its dex entries talk about the power of its claws and its fast attacks... ...And that's about it. No interesting lore and no special connection to its home region either, you could literally retcon it to originate from Hoenn or Sinnoh and nothing about Alola's geography or culture would change. Not all mythical backstories have to have divine feats or high stakes either: Shaymin, one of the more well-liked ones has a really simple but cute story about filling a once desolate land with flowers and grass as an expression of gratitude. Sinnoh as a region would not be the same without it, which can't be said for the likes of Volcanion and Melmetal, which also don't have an interesting myth around them like Mew or Victini do.
Looking back on this post this is kind of an extension of the complaints about them not doing dedicated events for these guys anymore. And sadly Zarude, while I kinda like its design, seems to be setting a new low for how uninspired and unremarkable a Mythical can be, not even its basic design concept is entirely original for this region. And while we don't know a whole lot about its background yet, I'm not expecting anything remotely interesting or truly deserving of the "Mythical" title.
I thought marshadow was very well liked? While it's distribution method was meh it's definitely a popular (if despised competitively) pokemon. And somehow Zeraora was like 3rd place in popularity for Alola in the poll, so I guess people like it?
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
honestly probably should've worded it better lol. dunno what i was thinking lumping in the lord marshadow
also i kinda forgot about zera's popularity because seriously wtf
I think the issue is that both the term "legendary" and "mythical" kind of lost their flavour in last gens.
They tecnically represent special, unique pokemon that are meant to be unique or hard to find (see, the lores above)
However, not only most of the "unique" got retconned ages ago, but there is *so many* legendary/mythical pokemon that at this point it's not really a special status anymore.
Basically to this day it's just a fancy word to describe their availability in games (legendaries are usually single copy / non breedable, and mythicals are event only), compared to other "normal" pokemon.
Pretty sad, I feel you.
Legendary Pokemon tend to have more extreme designs, themeing, stats and depending on the pokemon, lore so it's not like it's a fully lackluster title. You look at the Tapu or the cosmog family, those are definitely Legendary. The number of Legends doesn't, to me, take away from that at all.
I think people attributing "specialness" to the concept was always going to have a short shelf life just due to the life of the series. We're 8 generations in, even if there were only ...eh lets say 6 legendary pokemon each in gen 3, 4,5 & 7, that's still 39. People have been beating this drum since gen 3, when where 17 of the things.
I wonder how people would feel about legends if they had used a different nomenclature. Like "mysterious" or something. Same applies to if they had used "Phantom" in the west instead of "Mythical". Or how things would be if they went with what seemed to be their original plan: super rare encounters deep in dungeons.
Sorry just...this has always been one of my pet peeves in the fandom for generations now. Just a fundamental difference in viewpoint on this topic, I suppose.
...That said, I can't help but agree Mythicals feel really phoned in these days. They tend to stick to more "extreme" designs and such, which is nice but it's hard to disagree with how "nothing" these pokemon often are when they're just dropped in your lap with nothing to go with them. Yung Dramps you mention gen 6 but hell, even that one at least had NPCs rush in to tell you some lore, have a little skit about them. Diancie having that Carbink connection is interesting and so is Hoopa being behind the legendary pokemon in ORAS. But Marshadow, Zeraora...even Magearna really, they just have like nothing about them to give any emphasis to them beyond their status as mythical pokemon. Marshadow & Zeraora didn't even really have a movie about them.
You can decry the perceived loss of "special" to the title of Legendary, but you can take more information and interaction with just about any given legendary Pokemon to the bank then some mythics. The Musketeers may just hang out in caves, but they have backstory about their history with humans, how they protect pokemon and how they worry about the region; they even get directly involved with mythical Keldeo! Thundurus & Tornadus are asshole not-gods who cause mischief and storms all over and are only reigned in by Landorus, who iis a fertility not-god who is silently prayed to for good harvest. Heatran was feared for its control over volcanoes, leading to tales of its presence and danger if you wake it up (& I think hangs out in the unova cave to cool down?). Regigigas was clearly worshipped and gets to hang on to the existing regi lore; its presence deep under Unova's Spiral Mountain also leads to some "hmmm" questions that are interesting to consider.
The legendary birds & the Lati twins....well....well okay they can't all be winners. They at least got dungeons, though!!
meanwhile marshadow just hangs out in shadows and learns kung fu and zeraora is like really vicious, ya'll.
e: That said, Meltan & Melmetal did pretty good. They had some lore to them and al ot of emphasis placed on them. Not bad for literally the most commonly available mythics in the series!
I think people attributing "specialness" to the concept was always going to have a short shelf life just due to the life of the series. We're 8 generations in, even if there were only ...eh lets say 6 legendary pokemon each in gen 3, 4,5 & 7, that's still 39. People have been beating this drum since gen 3, when where 17 of the things.
I wonder how people would feel about legends if they had used a different nomenclature. Like "mysterious" or something. Same applies to if they had used "Phantom" in the west instead of "Mythical". Or how things would be if they went with what seemed to be their original plan: super rare encounters deep in dungeons.
Sorry just...this has always been one of my pet peeves in the fandom for generations now. Just a fundamental difference in viewpoint on this topic, I suppose.
...That said, I can't help but agree Mythicals feel really phoned in these days. They tend to stick to more "extreme" designs and such, which is nice but it's hard to disagree with how "nothing" these pokemon often are when they're just dropped in your lap with nothing to go with them. Yung Dramps you mention gen 6 but hell, even that one at least had NPCs rush in to tell you some lore, have a little skit about them. Diancie having that Carbink connection is interesting and so is Hoopa being behind the legendary pokemon in ORAS. But Marshadow, Zeraora...even Magearna really, they just have like nothing about them to give any emphasis to them beyond their status as mythical pokemon. Marshadow & Zeraora didn't even really have a movie about them.
You can decry the perceived loss of "special" to the title of Legendary, but you can take more information and interaction with just about any given legendary Pokemon to the bank then some mythics. The Musketeers may just hang out in caves, but they have backstory about their history with humans, how they protect pokemon and how they worry about the region; they even get directly involved with mythical Keldeo! Thundurus & Tornadus are asshole not-gods who cause mischief and storms all over and are only reigned in by Landorus, who iis a fertility not-god who is silently prayed to for good harvest. Heatran was feared for its control over volcanoes, leading to tales of its presence and danger if you wake it up (& I think hangs out in the unova cave to cool down?). Regigigas was clearly worshipped and gets to hang on to the existing regi lore; its presence deep under Unova's Spiral Mountain also leads to some "hmmm" questions that are interesting to consider.
The legendary birds & the Lati twins....well....well okay they can't all be winners. They at least got dungeons, though!!
meanwhile marshadow just hangs out in shadows and learns kung fu and zeraora is like really vicious, ya'll.
e: That said, Meltan & Melmetal did pretty good. They had some lore to them and al ot of emphasis placed on them. Not bad for literally the most commonly available mythics in the series!
I feel like legendaries stopped being special from gen 2 to gen 3. It started the whole "actually these legendaries arent one of a kind theres more of them" with lugia and latis. Then we had shaymin and heatran and its when it felt like these are only unique for gameplay purposes. I think the only true one of a kind legendaries are arceus, giratina and maybe the weather trio and dialga/palkia
So I was replaying Super Mystery Dungeon and there's something I didn't remember off that quickly ticked me off.
It's about the whole "Unavailable Pokémon" mechanic. No, I'm not talking about the mechanic itself as it's already been complained to death. I'm talking about the fact there is no Filter or Sort functionality to know which Pokémon are available for the current day.
Once you have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Connected Pokémon, looking for a viable available partner can take quite a lot of time as you look and think "Hey, this could work! Oh... it's shut off". It's quite annoying.
It's about the whole "Unavailable Pokémon" mechanic. No, I'm not talking about the mechanic itself as it's already been complained to death. I'm talking about the fact there is no Filter or Sort functionality to know which Pokémon are available for the current day.
Once you have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Connected Pokémon, looking for a viable available partner can take quite a lot of time as you look and think "Hey, this could work! Oh... it's shut off". It's quite annoying.
One thing that personally bugs me in Pokemon is Legendary Pokemon. Here we have these creatures of incredible power that are notoriously difficult to catch and train, and they're almost always forcibly thrown into the plot of the game and used as brand recognition (if anything else). I argue that they feel like living macguffins sometimes - they feel so insignificant and/or forgettable to the plot of the game that you could replace it with any other Pokemon and it would have just as little impact.
It's what makes me loathe X/Y and makes me adore Sun/Moon. X and Y's legendaries is basically "here's a bejeweled deer, an edgy dragon, and a squishy lizard. These fashion freaks wish to use their power to end the world because humans are bad", whereas Sun/Moon has you try to take care of Nebby, Lillie's Cosmog, who eventually is revealed to be the legendary Pokemon after having stolen your heart with his adorable antics and his helplessness that motivated you to protect him at all costs from Lillie's abusive mother.
If Legendary Pokemon are going to contribute to the story of Pokemon games, I want it to be developed in a way that allows us to feel closer to them - to bond with and empathize with them. I don't want to get reeled into some ancient prophecy nonsense or go on a mission to save the world just so I can spam Ultra Balls at a Pokemon that can easily sweep my entire team. That battle needs to feel earned - not forced.
It's what makes me loathe X/Y and makes me adore Sun/Moon. X and Y's legendaries is basically "here's a bejeweled deer, an edgy dragon, and a squishy lizard. These fashion freaks wish to use their power to end the world because humans are bad", whereas Sun/Moon has you try to take care of Nebby, Lillie's Cosmog, who eventually is revealed to be the legendary Pokemon after having stolen your heart with his adorable antics and his helplessness that motivated you to protect him at all costs from Lillie's abusive mother.
If Legendary Pokemon are going to contribute to the story of Pokemon games, I want it to be developed in a way that allows us to feel closer to them - to bond with and empathize with them. I don't want to get reeled into some ancient prophecy nonsense or go on a mission to save the world just so I can spam Ultra Balls at a Pokemon that can easily sweep my entire team. That battle needs to feel earned - not forced.
I'd argue that X and Y (and keep in mind that I'm not super familiar with X and Y) are the only games where the main legendary Pokemon could really be called MacGuffins.
MacGuffins, at least defined by their creator Alfred Hitchcock, aren't just a fancy way of saying "thing that is important". It is very specifically something that advances the plot, yet holds no narrative significance. They also aren't necessarily bad things. When used well, they're useful writing tools that let you go on an adventure without needing to have the reason set in stone. For example, if you want to create a heist story, but you want the focus to be on the heist itself, then you don't need to be very specific about what is actually being stolen until near the end of writing. It can be gold, diamonds, a priceless artifact, whatever. It doesn't really matter. Nando v Movies made a great video about this topic, which you can check out here if you're interested.
With that in mind, let's examine the box legendaries of Hoenn onward, as that was when they started becoming plot relevant.
Definitely not MacGuffins. Groudon's and Kyogre's mastery over land and sea is integral to the plot, as is Rayquaza's unique ability to calm the other two.
Not MacGuffins. While Dialga and Palkia are interchangeable between one another, the story of Diamond and Pearl still wouldn't work without them, as their unique abilities are key in universe creation. Giratina is even more significant; it's the only thing that could drag the plot into the Distortion World.
Not MacGuffins. The conflict of truth vs ideals are central themes in the plot. Kyurem's powerful ice is significant in New Team Plasma's plan, as is its ability to fuse with Reshiram and Zekrom.
From what I can tell, sort of MacGuffins. To my knowledge, they don't have any significance beyond Lysandre using them to power the ultimate weapon, and their unique traits of life and death don't seem to be of any importance. They're just batteries.
Not MacGuffins. Nebby is a central character in the narrative, so the plot as we know it wouldn't work without it. Necrozma's gluttony for light is also incredibly significant.
Not MacGuffins. The heroism of Zacian and Zamazenta is key to the lore and finale, and Eternatus is incredibly important to the finale.
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As weak as XY was from a gameplay standpoint I definitely feel like we were robbed of its legendaries actually being integrated into the region. A decent amount of other storylines (AZ, Essentia) seemed to be better written and fleshed out than the main plot (granted, AZ/the war 3000 years ago and its weapon are related to it), which is a big shame.
Basically, yeah.
From what I can tell, sort of MacGuffins. To my knowledge, they don't have any significance beyond Lysandre using them to power the ultimate weapon, and their unique traits of life and death don't seem to be of any importance. They're just batteries.
The pair do have lore but it's ancillary to anything else. I think you vaguely learn they're searching for the pokemon and then you talk to a NPC in allistar to get some (actually fairly interesting imo) lore but none of it matters.
Xerneas' power over life is referenced but it's like two total lines across the game and one of them is making his threat of the legendary weapon cursing you with immortal life.
The sad thing is they aren't even the only battery. They have as much significance to the plot as the unseen pokemon tied to the rocks outside the town. Strictly speaking I don't think the weapon even needed them, but Flare wanted to boost the power of the weapon or something (thus why they kept attacking the power plants).
It's a real shame and probably XY's biggest story failing, because those 2 designs are so cool and the power of life & death should be way more important. X should have been a fountain of youth story line and Y should have been a death cannon storyline, or something.
once again the XY anime kind of picks up the slack here. I've gone to bat for that season several times but one thing you can take to the bank is they did not waste Zygarde and its powers at all. And while Xerneas & Yveltal were relgated to a single bonus episode (which the west actually got!), it sold their powers way better; warring factions trying to abuse the two pokemon, yveltal wiping out all life and turning it into a barren wasteland full of statue'd people, a man's decades long quest to revitalize the land leading to Xerneas coming to bless the land and such and talks of other legends about them.
From what I can tell, sort of MacGuffins. To my knowledge, they don't have any significance beyond Lysandre using them to power the ultimate weapon, and their unique traits of life and death don't seem to be of any importance. They're just batteries.
And that's the confusing part. The Ultimate Weapon works by taking life and giving it to another (though it takes many lives to resurrect/give someone immortality). They could have essentially made Xerneas & Yveltal serve the same purpose that Dialga & Palkia did by being the needed tool in the villains plans. In X they'd explain that by taking lives with the Ultimate Weapon it'll be absorbed by Xerneas which they'll then drain to both empower the weapon and give them immortality. In Y they'd explain that Yveltal's power to drain life will be added to the weapon's power so that it can be shot multiple times and obtaining immortality as a side effect. Without either the Ultimate Weapon is just a powerful cannon that they can only fire once, they need the Legendaries life manipulating power for the desired effects (become immortal and get the power to use the Ultimate Weapon multiple times).
Though honestly part of this confusion could also be that Team Flare was clearly being pulled in two directions by the creative team and instead of deciding on one (either a goofy team or a serious team) they compromised in a way that causes mood whiplash.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I honestly think that Mythical Pokemon only exist for one reason: To promote merchandise, specifically, the movies. Traditionally speaking, every Mythical Pokemon ( exception of Meloetta ) has been debuted in Films. What better way to get popularity and convince people to see the movies other than a brand new Pokemon? Keep in mind that how Japan receives Mythical Pokemon is very different from the West: Sometimes the Pokemon is only available from the Pokemon Center, so if you live far away from the Pokemon Center, your kind of screwed. In this case however, the Mythical Pokemon are used to sell the film. For M13, in order to get the Crown Beasts, you had pre-order tickets for that film. And you got one beast per ticket. So if you wanted all 3 beasts, you had to buy multiple tickets. That being said, I feel from 1-5 the mythical Pokemon were incorporated in the region quite well, it was the lore first, then the movie. Though 5 also started the trend of giving Mythical Pokemon away for free, at least there were strong connections to the lore, like Genesect's and Keldeo's relationship with Team Plasma and the Swords of Justice. As of Gen 7 and 8 however, the movies take place priority, and then the game. Heck, Zarude isn't even in the base game, its being added to promote the new movie! Its unfortunate, because mythical Pokemon can't be used in official competitions or ladders, while the movies suffer even worse quality due to focusing on a Pokemon that has no relevance to movies. Its a lose-lose for both.
I'd probably add Ho-oh and Lugia in HGSS as McGauffins. They aren't really that relevant to the plot, the Kimono Girls force you to capture them for whatever reason.I'd argue that X and Y (and keep in mind that I'm not super familiar with X and Y) are the only games where the main legendary Pokemon could really be called MacGuffins.
MacGuffins, at least defined by their creator Alfred Hitchcock, aren't just a fancy way of saying "thing that is important". It is very specifically something that advances the plot, yet holds no narrative significance. They also aren't necessarily bad things. When used well, they're useful writing tools that let you go on an adventure without needing to have the reason set in stone. For example, if you want to create a heist story, but you want the focus to be on the heist itself, then you don't need to be very specific about what is actually being stolen until near the end of writing. It can be gold, diamonds, a priceless artifact, whatever. It doesn't really matter. Nando v Movies made a great video about this topic, which you can check out here if you're interested.
With that in mind, let's examine the box legendaries of Hoenn onward, as that was when they started becoming plot relevant.
Definitely not MacGuffins. Groudon's and Kyogre's mastery over land and sea is integral to the plot, as is Rayquaza's unique ability to calm the other two.
Not MacGuffins. While Dialga and Palkia are interchangeable between one another, the story of Diamond and Pearl still wouldn't work without them, as their unique abilities are key in universe creation. Giratina is even more significant; it's the only thing that could drag the plot into the Distortion World.
Not MacGuffins. The conflict of truth vs ideals are central themes in the plot. Kyurem's powerful ice is significant in New Team Plasma's plan, as is its ability to fuse with Reshiram and Zekrom.
From what I can tell, sort of MacGuffins. To my knowledge, they don't have any significance beyond Lysandre using them to power the ultimate weapon, and their unique traits of life and death don't seem to be of any importance. They're just batteries.
Not MacGuffins. Nebby is a central character in the narrative, so the plot as we know it wouldn't work without it. Necrozma's gluttony for light is also incredibly significant.
Not MacGuffins. The heroism of Zacian and Zamazenta is key to the lore and finale, and Eternatus is incredibly important to the finale.
Something related to MCGauffins, but what really bothers me about Pokemon in general used as plot devices: The Pokemon don't have a voice. In Diamond and Pearl, after Dialga/Palkia are rescued from Cyrus, this is what Rowan says: " But to me, Palkia appears to be waiting for you, Player... It seems to be challenging you to a test... Go on Player... Face up Palkia! Listen to its Heart. Understand its thoughts. Palkia is out of control after being dragged out by the Red Chain and forced to use its power. Palkia seems to be entrusting you to stop it...
So let's get this straight. Palkia was dragged out using a chain creates by Humans, and was forced to use it power against its will. Now imagine if you are Palkia right now. Would you ever give a human, a species that just mind-controlled you, a chance you calm down?
Probably not.
Xerneas/Yveltal fail in that department for the same reason. After being freed from Lysandre who tried to use their life force, why would they would wanna be with friends with you? This is the probably the reason why people don't like forced encounters with Legendary Pokemon or with Pokemon in general. We never get to hear what the Pokemon's feeling. It feels so forced.
I dislike Ultra Necrozma for the reason that its an antagonist who doesn't have its voice. The games has it take control of Nebby, the Pokemon who used to travel with you, in order to suck it's light; as well as Alola. Yet, Lillie says, " Necrozma is in pain. We have to help it! ". It just ruins the atmosphere of Alola having it's light stolen and being in an apocalypse. What's worse Lillie states that Lunala/Solgaleo want to be the host for Necrozma, despite being forcibly taken.
I would also mention the fact that apparently, a 10-ish yo boy is by far the best option to gain complete control over <insert semi-divine entity who just threatened to destroy the world or worse> in basically every game since gen 3, but then, it's Pokemon we're talking about, and you know what I think of the relationship between Pokemon and Logic :D
Regarding Mythical Pokémon, I mostly agree with DreamPrince. They were well done from Gen 1-5, they had good lore and/or an in-game encounter (through some event), which was cool. But they have been lacking from Gen 6 and on. The Mythicals in Gen 6 and 7 have just plain existed, wtihout their backstory/lore being significant. Some of it is interesting, but it is poorly handled in the games. It definitely feels like the newer Mythicals were created just to promote the movies, with their appearance in the games taking second priority at best. And I find this annoying because I really like several of the newer Mythicals. Magearna and Zeraora are two of my top favorite Mythicals, I am very fond of Diancie too. Volcanion also has a cool and unique type combination, Hoopa has an interesting form change and Marshadow is quite cool. Another annoying thing is that Diancie and Hoopa got more attention in OR/AS than in X/Y, their respective Mega and alternate form are exclusive to these games but they can't be obtained in X/Y. Though I guess that would probably have been different if we had gotten a Kalos follow-up game. As for Zarude, I really like it too from what I have seen, but despite everything they could do with S/S in terms of DLC and updates, I fear that it will be handled the same way as the Mythicals from Gen 6 and 7.
As for legendary Pokémon being "MacGuffins", I agree that Ho-Oh/Lugia in HG/SS and Xerneas/Yveltal in X/Y are the only real examples of this. They were both just forced into the story for no real good reason. While I like X/Y on the whole as well as their legendaries, I do think the story/characters/lore is one of their weakest parts. Which also makes me wonder what it could have been like in a follow-up game... I guess we'll never know.
Lastly, one minor thing that annoys me is this: In HG/SS and all subsequent games, the stats that are affected by the Pokémon's Nature are marked on the status screen, the stat that is increased is colored red and the decreased stat is colored blue. So that's cool. Or it could have been, but it doesn't work for me. In my mind, blue is postive and red is negative, and the games have them switched around. This always confuses me, so I have never actually liked this feature or been able to utilize it. It isn't super annoying since I know the effects of all the useful Natures by heart, but still. It could have been a lot better if they had just switched the colors around.
As for legendary Pokémon being "MacGuffins", I agree that Ho-Oh/Lugia in HG/SS and Xerneas/Yveltal in X/Y are the only real examples of this. They were both just forced into the story for no real good reason. While I like X/Y on the whole as well as their legendaries, I do think the story/characters/lore is one of their weakest parts. Which also makes me wonder what it could have been like in a follow-up game... I guess we'll never know.
Lastly, one minor thing that annoys me is this: In HG/SS and all subsequent games, the stats that are affected by the Pokémon's Nature are marked on the status screen, the stat that is increased is colored red and the decreased stat is colored blue. So that's cool. Or it could have been, but it doesn't work for me. In my mind, blue is postive and red is negative, and the games have them switched around. This always confuses me, so I have never actually liked this feature or been able to utilize it. It isn't super annoying since I know the effects of all the useful Natures by heart, but still. It could have been a lot better if they had just switched the colors around.
It was marked in all games starting from HGSS? I don’t recall seeing that up until SwSh. That was also a problem in SwSh. When I first looked at Natures, that was a problem for me too. I thought Blue was positive and Red was negative.
I feel you on the colors for Natures being deceiving. I remember when I first started to EV train stuff in White, I thought Red was Negative and Blue was positive, so I unintentionally raised things like - Attack Krookodile and + Special Attack Excadrill.
It also matches the colors we've used for in-battle stat boosts and debuffs since Diamond and Pearl (which is just slightly before HGSS introduced this feature). I guess I might be lucky - I started with Gen IV, so those stat stage colors were intuitive to me in the first place by the time the nature mechanic came around, but I can see why it might be harder for people to catch on if the animations from older Generations are more familiar to them. (Wasn't Gen III color-coded by stat rather than having a consistent "up color" and "down color?" And Gen II was... I want to say blue for both?)
In any case... I think a darker, bolder red (as opposed to this light, warm tint) would still read as a bad thing, or maybe a pair of red and green would make me think of red as the bad one, but it feels more like a case of "red is aggressive/blue is calm" to me, so red being the stat that's extreme/intensified and blue being the stat that's low/mitigated has always made sense.
In any case... I think a darker, bolder red (as opposed to this light, warm tint) would still read as a bad thing, or maybe a pair of red and green would make me think of red as the bad one, but it feels more like a case of "red is aggressive/blue is calm" to me, so red being the stat that's extreme/intensified and blue being the stat that's low/mitigated has always made sense.