(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Speaking of evil teams with stupid plants, the Aether Foundation also struck me as kind of odd. While they get involved in the Ultra Beast plot, it doesn't seem as if that was their goal from the outset. Only a handful of scientists were ever involved in the experiments on Type:Null and Cosmog, suggesting that most of the organization isn't actually evil, but as idealistic as they make themselves out to be. Most of the foundation, all the way up to Lusamine, actually seems devoted to their primary purpose of rescuing and sheltering Pokémon.

...so what the heck are they doing in Alola? It's a region with few cities, literally zero polluting industry, and one entire island is already a dedicated Pokémon sanctuary with extremely little human activity - which arguably is the case for most of the land on two of the other islands as well. Only Melemele Island has human settlements all over the island, but even that one has its fair share of natural habitats. Both Akala and Ula'ula sport large swathes of untouched nature where Pokémon are free to roam away from human influence. To top it off, all the islands already have legendary Pokémon guarding their nature and wildlife. The Aether Foundation may have a noble purpose, but the demand for their presence isn't very big. Alola seems to be a natural paradise already without their help.

And to top it off, we don't even see them putting in a protest when Professor Kukui turns the sacred, untouched, natural mountaintop of Lanakila into a construction site. If there was one time Alola needed some natural protection, this would be it. The Elite Four doesn't need to build entirely new digs from scratch in a nature reserve when there's a ton of unused and abandoned real estate in Po Town. The Aether Foundation both seems committed to a job nobody needs them to do, and also not being very effective in actually doing the job.

Hm, come to think of it, that might actually be some sort of commentary. Doubt it's intentional, though.
 
Codraroll said:
Most of the foundation, all the way up to Lusamine, actually seems devoted to their primary purpose of rescuing and sheltering Pokémon.

...so what the heck are they doing in Alola? It's a region with few cities, literally zero polluting industry, and one entire island is already a dedicated Pokémon sanctuary with extremely little human activity - which arguably is the case for most of the land on two of the other islands as well. Only Melemele Island has human settlements all over the island, but even that one has its fair share of natural habitats. Both Akala and Ula'ula sport large swathes of untouched nature where Pokémon are free to roam away from human influence. To top it off, all the islands already have legendary Pokémon guarding their nature and wildlife. The Aether Foundation may have a noble purpose, but the demand for their presence isn't very big. Alola seems to be a natural paradise already without their help.
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Alola's coral population is under treat by Mereanie and its suffering of infestations of both Yungoose an Rattata -:<
 
Codraroll said:
Speaking of evil teams with stupid plants, the Aether Foundation also struck me as kind of odd. While they get involved in the Ultra Beast plot, it doesn't seem as if that was their goal from the outset. Only a handful of scientists were ever involved in the experiments on Type:Null and Cosmog, suggesting that most of the organization isn't actually evil, but as idealistic as they make themselves out to be. Most of the foundation, all the way up to Lusamine, actually seems devoted to their primary purpose of rescuing and sheltering Pokémon.

...so what the heck are they doing in Alola? It's a region with few cities, literally zero polluting industry, and one entire island is already a dedicated Pokémon sanctuary with extremely little human activity - which arguably is the case for most of the land on two of the other islands as well. Only Melemele Island has human settlements all over the island, but even that one has its fair share of natural habitats. Both Akala and Ula'ula sport large swathes of untouched nature where Pokémon are free to roam away from human influence. To top it off, all the islands already have legendary Pokémon guarding their nature and wildlife. The Aether Foundation may have a noble purpose, but the demand for their presence isn't very big. Alola seems to be a natural paradise already without their help.

And to top it off, we don't even see them putting in a protest when Professor Kukui turns the sacred, untouched, natural mountaintop of Lanakila into a construction site. If there was one time Alola needed some natural protection, this would be it. The Elite Four doesn't need to build entirely new digs from scratch in a nature reserve when there's a ton of unused and abandoned real estate in Po Town. The Aether Foundation both seems committed to a job nobody needs them to do, and also not being very effective in actually doing the job.

Hm, come to think of it, that might actually be some sort of commentary. Doubt it's intentional, though.
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I mean I don't think there's anything wrong with an environmentalist group setting up shop in a place like Alola. Just because there isn't a demand for it doesn't mean they can't still put in usefulness and provide additional aide. At the very least no one in Alola thinks poorly of them and they also seem to run an orphanage. Which is...interesting...
And just because there's island guardians doesnt mean anything. They are, in-universe, fickle and capricious. They can go ages without being seen & they can fuck with you on a whim as much as they might protect you. Lele is literally described as being cruel by nature for as often as its scales can help people.
They likely also do research on Pokemon, habitats and so forth so they're likely providing extra information for the world at large. At the very least we see them working with Dexio & Sina, quasi-publicly, on researching Zygarde's presence in Alola.



And failing that as an explanation, here's another easy explanation: The seedy underbelly of Aether didn't really ramp up until Mohn got lost and Lusamine went off the deepend. The AF was interested in the possibilities & curiosities of the Wormholes, so they set up shop in Alola where they can provide extra aide to the region (& learning opportunities, iirc) while researching with the (public!) Dimensional Research Lab.
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So all that said here's something that bugs me now that I think about it: they really should have had Aether cameo in Sword & Shield. Just something simple, like an Aether house, would have been cute. I don't think there's any indication that they aren't a world wide organization so it'd be cute to have this thread carry through to all future regions, you know?
I guess it just stems from gamefreak being a little picky about when & what they reference. Magma/Aqua got a pair of grunts in BW and so did the foreign Rocket member from gen 2 but outside of that it's only....Rainbow Rocket? Galactic reformed and lord knows they don't get a mention in Sword "We decided to have an energy crisis plot" Shield. Plasma's reformed twice and you'd think they would come up at least once since then, but no.
 
leonard (from big bang theory) said:
The special stat only existed in gen 1. By gen 2 we had special defense and attack
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Well yes, but also no. There were two different base stats, but they shared the same IV and stat exp to make trading with gen 1 easier. So you would still only be breeding for 5 stats.

Re: alola, there is something that bugs me about the invasive species. Specifically, that there's two different cases of it that are portrayed as complete opposites. On one hand, we have Rattata and Yungoos, introduced by humans (accidentally and deliberately, respectively), that are found nearly everywhere in large numbers. Nobody cares, and they even get a trial devoted to them. Then you have the UBs, which previously arrived only through natural events, and are flat-out incapable of breeding in the environment they find themselves in. But these are the ones we're supposed to care about their ability to disrupt the ecosystem. Sure the power of an individual is quite different, but it still gives off the impression that people are lashing out at the big scary aliens instead of actually trying to do conservation work.
 
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Hmm, about Yungoos and Rattata, I'm not really sure if the games want us to read them as a bad thing. I know it seems like a really misguided way to portray invasive species in the context of the real-world inspiration for the two lines, but it's worth noting that in-world, they're never actually suggested to cause direct problems for other species (which is actually a pretty big deal in Alola in particular, which is all about showing the "cruel side" of nature in many, many other cases).
While the real-world basis for Yungoos went on to threaten other species, we're told that they still mostly eat Rattata despite the, uh, schedule conflicts - Gumshoos is even suggested to be pretty particular about this: "Gumshoos has a tenacious personality, which is why it targets one prey for so long without wavering. But when the sun goes down, it runs low on stamina, falling asleep right on the spot. Gumshoos can withstand a great deal of hunger. It’s able to stay perfectly still while waiting for its prey, keeping watch without eating a thing." It doesn't seem like they did just give up and start targeting other species like real mongooses did, and since the only reason they were brought over in the first place is because nothing else was preying on the Rattata, they're not really competing with other species, either.
Meanwhile... and this is actually a somewhat bigger one... Rattata are only ever cited as being a nuisance for people - they live in urban areas and steal food from human homes and restaurants - and not other Pokémon in the wild. But I think this dynamic actually captures something that Alola is trying to promote: in the present day, Alolan Rattata and Raticate have adapted to coexist with people by filling a unique and mutually beneficial niche. We know from various Pokédex entries that they've started to cooperate with each other, and while wild Rattata are still sometimes pests for humans, there's also a Ratatouille-esque relationship where people rely on Rattata and Raticate to distinguish fresh ingredients and they've actually become both employed and used as a sign of prestige by restaurants.
All in all, I think both sides of this relationship are meant to be conveyed as harmless, and we're meant to see Yungoos and Rattata as a positive example of adapted species - specifically as a contrast to the Ultra Beasts, in a way that highlights one of Alola's main themes.

A recurring parallel in Alola's story is drawn between those who've adapted to thrive in an ecosystem (literal or metaphorical) by coexisting with the others in it and those who've refused to change, who try to change their environment to suit them instead of adapting to their environment, and who end up destructive in the process. There's a huge emphasis on being able to live alongside one another instead of resisting change.
One of the big examples of this is Guzma vs Kukui: Guzma is someone who couldn't thrive in Alola's trial system, so he dedicated himself to taking it down and ended up as one of the game's main antagonists; meanwhile, Kukui challenged the Pokémon League of Kanto and decided that he wanted to modernize Alola and help its Trials find a place amongst the rest of the world's Pokémon Leagues, so he set out to create a Pokémon League that stayed true to Alola and retained its unique and long-standing Trial tradition while also being able to coexist with other regions and be recognized by the rest of the world, and he's regarded as one of the best role models in the game (there's a reason he's the first professor to act as Champion - he embodies the ideals of Sun and Moon just as clearly as Alder and Iris embody the ideals of BW and B2W2 and Diantha embodies the ideals of XY, in a way that no other professor has quite matched).
The failures of the Aether Foundation are also designed to reflect this. Lusamine's most explicit flaw (and kind of the only one that stayed consistent between SM and USUM, so we know Game Freak thought it was important) is that, even when she thinks (or chooses to believe) that what she wants is what's best for someone else, she doesn't give them a say and just pushes them to suit her whims. When she goes off the deep end in Sun and Moon, she becomes more explicit about actually just wanting a world that's perfect for her, and when she goes after Necrozma in USUM, even knowing that everyone else is against her plan, she's so absorbed in her apparent good intentions that she consciously chooses to ignore them. On the other hand, when we're first properly introduced to the conservationist side of the foundation, Wicke - one of the most explicitly benevolent and genuine people in the foundation - tells us, "Nature does have its own balance, of course. It can be difficult to judge just how much we humans should try to affect it, can't it?" This feels like an acknowledgment of what the Aether Foundation should actually be doing: understanding the world before they change it and making sure that what they do isn't going to stifle what others (people or Pokémon) want or need.
But the reason I bring up this recurring parallel is that the two major new classes of Pokémon in Alola - regional variants and Ultra Beasts - are also designed based on this theme. They both have the common ground of being Pokémon introduced from far away, but at least as far as Alola is concerned, just about every example we have of a regional variant is a positive one - they're pretty much all species that have successfully adapted to their environments and that coexist with people and other Pokémon rather than being destructive. Heck, Grimer and Muk are among the most pollutive and destructive Pokémon in the world, and their regional variant is highlighted as one of the Pokémon that cooperates with humans the best. On the other hand, when the Ultra Beasts are regarded as a threat, it's because they don't really do that - in Sun and Moon, all of the invading Ultra Beasts are said to be stressed by their new environments and are incredibly destructive in their search for a way home, rejecting Alola and recklessly causing collateral damage because it's not the environment that suits them. The International Police also initially rejects them and plans to destroy them, but they, too, are portrayed negatively for it - while Anabel and Looker are the ones who ask the player to befriend them and help them adjust and are portrayed positively for it. And it's honestly incredibly fitting that most players accept them as cute, funny and likable after they're caught - read: after they start cooperating with the people and Pokémon of Alola and adjust to life there instead of rejecting the world around them.
The choice to base a seemingly positive instance of adaptation in Alolan Rattata and Yungoos on such an obviously negative real-world situation is a strange one, but I think, in general, Alola's regional variants are meant to show exactly what should happen when one is in an unfamiliar environment, and the Ultra Beasts (which we've been told are based on "the idea of" invasive species in themselves) are meant as a contrast and what shouldn't. I agree that Yungoos and Rattata are a weird case from an out-of-world angle, but I think they make perfect sense thematically and are consistent with Alola's ideals.
 
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One of the bigger things I see from Alola is actually a failure to embrace nature to its fullest, that it's only paying lip service. Nature is wierd, creatures exist based on what works, rather than any point of 'normalcy,' and nowhere should that be more clear than someplace directly tied to an ocean (so much of Earth's wierdness is in the ocean). And then there's the fantasy aspect, which can make nature take on even more forms. Look at Unova's Chargestone Cave. Everything in there is natural, despite our preconceptions about where gears come from, and it is all the more beautiful for it. Alola is the opposite of that. The wonders of nature still exist (see dhelmise or pallosand), but care was taken to make sure they're never on the beaten path (again, see dhelmise or pallosand). Hell, look at what the Bug-type expert is portrayed as: a villain to be pitied. It all feels so damn fake. Alola's a garden to me, with all the pruning, weeding, and pesticide use that entails.
 
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I, uh... I'm not really sure whether I'm going to convince you of anything, but I could not disagree more strongly?
First of all, Alola has one of the most consistently "weird" sets of new Pokémon in the series. Almost all of them play up a degree of weirdness, ugliness or scariness as part of their charm - Gumshoos, Vikavolt, Crabominable, Wishiwashi, Toxapex, Araquanid, Shiinotic, Salazzle, Bewear, Oranguru, Golisopod, Pyukumuku, Type: Null, Turtonator, Bruxish, Drampa, Dhelmise... even Mimikyu, the most popular Pokémon in Alola, got there by having an unusual combination of cuteness, creepiness and sympathy while being exaggeratedly and comically dangerous.
Some of the new Pokémon happen to be a bit out of the way, but that's not to "hide" them from the player - in fact, most of the rarer Pokémon compensate by being used in mandatory story battles and are frequently even Totems or major characters' signature Pokémon, so you're almost guaranteed to see them at some point. (Also note that the aforementioned most popular Pokémon in Alola, Mimikyu, is a 5% encounter in a single location, and even the heavily promoted Rockruff is in an out-of-the-way area that many people will outright miss - I don't at mean to suggest that there's a correlation there, but I can hardly see why you'd think popularity and rarity are inherently inversely proportional! Honestly, you could say "it's too out of the way and hard to find" about almost any Generation VII Pokémon past Melemele Island, and that is a pretty valid complaint, but I don't understand at all what you mean by saying that it's to hide the strangeness of nature and push the player into an illusion of normalcy or something...)
I'm pretty sure the reason Guzma is a villain has absolutely nothing to do with any intention to put down his Bug-type specialty. The reason for that is his use of Golisopod as his ace - and Golisopod specifically (not Bug-types in general) very clearly does suit his personality, as someone who's intimidating, terrifying and seemingly brutal but actually falls somewhere between defeatist and craven - and it's not like it's an insult to the rest of the type, which has plenty of positive representation elsewhere. It's also worth noting that all three of the new Bug-type lines except Golisopod get to be Totem Pokémon, which is the exact opposite of the reason why Guzma is portrayed negatively (and on that note, the reason Guzma is a type specialist and has more Bug-types than just Golisopod is because he wanted to be a Trial Captain; he may have failed, but the use of all three other new Bug-types seems like a pretty firm counterargument to the notion that it's because of the type and not because of his personality).
Even the example of the Ultra Beasts... like I said, as far as I can tell, you're supposed to like them once you catch them and get to know them, and the idea of making a rash judgment and rejecting them is pretty firmly condemned (by Sun and Moon in particular).
 
First up, I do think that USUM did a much better job than SM did when it comes to seeming more sincere. We get the two other Bug totems, and a friendly UB-using group introduced. It also leans more to having Lusamine herself be off her rocker rather than effectively blaming Nihilego for the whole thing. It also helps to alleviate problems with using less "natural" mons by not having the magnetic area unbearably late. I still would have liked an Electric trial that isn't "technology is uncontrollable and destructive, we need the power of the wild to stop it", but that's potentially a separate point.

I think another big sticking point is the Tapus. They're held up as both the embodiments of nature and (within Alolan culture) as beings worthy of respect, despite the fact that they clearly aren't the latter. This really casts doubt on the truthfullness of the "nature" aspect as well. All this talk of adapting to new envrionments, but the old guard sure seems violently resistant to any change that's a loss of power for them. I look at them and I see cruel beings ruling by fear, yet for some reason we're supossed to stop them being attacked instead of rallying the lost and the bullied to finally end "nature's" madness.
 
Back at it again with another animation gripe: multihit moves. Because each hit has its own animation, the moves feel incredibly stilted. It's especially bad with moves like Bullet Seed or Double Iron Bash, whose animations already show multiple "hits" for each hit. It would look so much better if all the hits happened in a single animation. Though that does mean that some changes would need to be made:

  • Moves with a variable amount of hits would likely need multiple animations for each number of hits.
  • To avoid single-hit weirdness, knocking an opponent out mid-attack would probably still play the animation for all the hits.
  • Health bars would also need their animation tweaked to properly show multiple hits in quick succession. Something like what is done in Dark Souls and other games that I don't remember the names of:
hp-drain.gif

  • Substitute raises a big problem with this idea. Some way to convincingly break the Substitute mid-animation would need to be developed. Though to be fair, Substitute would appreciate an animation overhaul anyway, as the hopping between doll and mon between almost every action is super clunky.
  • Critical hits also pose an issue, as it wouldn't be possible to display a message for each crit. Either a single message would just be displayed at the end, regardless of how many crits there were and when they occurred in the move, or it would go back to the Gen 1 method of crits being all or none, thus making the single crit message at the end more appropriate.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
Back at it again with another animation gripe: multihit moves. Because each hit has its own animation, the moves feel incredibly stilted. It's especially bad with moves like Bullet Seed or Double Iron Bash, whose animations already show multiple "hits" for each hit. It would look so much better if all the hits happened in a single animation. Though that does mean that some changes would need to be made:

  • Moves with a variable amount of hits would likely need multiple animations for each number of hits.
  • To avoid single-hit weirdness, knocking an opponent out mid-attack would probably still play the animation for all the hits.
  • Health bars would also need their animation tweaked to properly show multiple hits in quick succession. Something like what is done in Dark Souls and other games that I don't remember the names of:
View attachment 230383
  • Substitute raises a big problem with this idea. Some way to convincingly break the Substitute mid-animation would need to be developed. Though to be fair, Substitute would appreciate an animation overhaul anyway, as the hopping between doll and mon between almost every action is super clunky.
  • Critical hits also pose an issue, as it wouldn't be possible to display a message for each crit. Either a single message would just be displayed at the end, regardless of how many crits there were and when they occurred in the move, or it would go back to the Gen 1 method of crits being all or none, thus making the single crit message at the end more appropriate.
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I ean seems like the easy way would be to have the multihit move have a 2-part animation that it alternates on, then stops in the event ofsomething like a Crit or a sub break.
So Fury Swipes, right? Would do a slash right animation, slash left animation [crit happens], slash right animation [sub breaks], slash left, slash right for 5 hits.
Bullet Seed would...basically have to be the same. The animation already shows more than 5 seeds per hit so you have to assume its like Yoshi's Island where each "hit" is actually like 5 mini-hits. But you'd just have the animation run continously rather than stopping to breathe, I guess.
 
Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) said:
something that will always annoy me is pokemon being unable to use moves like recover and heal bell outside of battle.

if the pokemon is so good at healing its wounds even when under attack by enemies, it should have no problem doing the same thing in a peaceful area, right?
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the exception is miltank, but even then, it can only heal other members of the party - at the cost of its own hp, no less
 
Gurpreet Patel (Sent you a Friend Request) said:
something that will always annoy me is pokemon being unable to use moves like recover and heal bell outside of battle.

if the pokemon is so good at healing its wounds even when under attack by enemies, it should have no problem doing the same thing in a peaceful area, right?
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I think out of combat healing could actually be an interesting mechanic, if balanced properly. Healing moves are kind of bad for in-game runs, but if a pokemon could heal half of its health outside of battle, healing moves would actually be decent. I don't think it would be as broken as it might appear at first, because it's balanced by PP. You 'waste' a move slot on a pokemon as well. Heal bell as a sort of catch-all full heal for the entire team seems like it would be a great niche for in-game pokemon that get that move. It might incentivise people to use support Pokemon more in general.

The developers can also make routes and dungeons longer, safe in the knowledge that players have the right tools to get through. I mean, this won't ever actually happen, but the idea is nice.


DrPumpkinz said:
More accurately, Milk Drink and Softboiled could be used to transfer HP, though only before Gen 7.

Actually, Gen 7 seems to have removed all instances of moves being usable outside of battle, which kinda sucks.
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I agree, it kinda sucks. Lot's of people hate on HM's, and for good reason, but I personally actually like moves that can be used outside of battle. Moves like teleport or dig can really add some personality to certain Pokemon. With more of these moves, there would also be a better incentive to catch a variety of different kinds of pokemon. I still think that HM's should have been passive skills, rather than removing them entirely in favor of ride pokemon or an ugly amphibian bike.
 
i hate how you cant fly/taxi/etc from inside buildings, i know it makes perfect sense, but i consistently try to do so from a pokemon center and, well, it's just one of those little things that annoy me. it's my own fault i know. instead of being transported by a flying pokemon, they should have it so a psychic type just teleports you, then you can do it no matter where you are. also, i wish when you got an egg it showed you how many eggs you already have in your party. another minor inconvenience for those of us with limited gray matter.
 
This isn't precisely an annoyance but it's something I've always wondered about - why are Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum so named?

The names of all the other games make sense, and (generally) tie into the plot or aesthetics of the game.

Red/Blue/Green/Yellow - the colours of the mascot starter Pokemon, as well as the names of the protagonists. The "basic" primary colours also fit the fact that these are the first Pokemon games. FireRed and LeafGreen are extensions of this idea - Charizard is literally Fire Red, and Venusaur is Leaf Green.
Gold/Silver/Crystal - gold and silver are the colours of Ho-Oh and Lugia. Crystal is a bit more "out there" (Turquoise would be more accurate but not nearly as cool-sounding, so I can let that slide). HGSS adds a few references about the heart and the soul to make the names more blatant, but it also ties into the plot - the protagonist proves that they are a good person who truly loves Pokemon.
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - basically red/blue/green levelled up to represent the fact that the mascots here are legendaries and not the starters. FRLG have the quest to obtain literal Ruby and Sapphire gems which allow trading with those games.
Black/White (&2) - Reshiram and Zekrom are white and black, the games are all about dualities, N even states that he dislikes that "black and white have intermingled, and the world has become grey".
X and Y - This one's a bit more ambiguous. Xerneas and Yveltal look like the letters X and Y but beyond this the names aren't hugely relevant. I've seen an interview in which Satoru Iwata explains that they're called that because "people exist on the X and Y axis" which... sounds a bit wishy-washy.
Sword/Shield - fits the British theme; Zacian and Zamazenta are a literal sword and shield.

But why precisely did they call the fourth-gen games Diamond and Pearl? Dialga is blueish and Palkia is pink (and Giratina is platinum-coloured if you squint very hard) but beyond that... there's not really much of a link. The fact that people were coming up with all sorts of ideas for what the third game of the trio would be called - Opal, Topaz, Carnet, etc - highlights that Platinum doesn't have a particularly strong association with Diamonds and Pearls (which are often paired together in popular culture). By contrast, I remember people asking "do you know when Emerald will be released?" long before it was initially announced because it's the logical fit to go with Ruby and Sapphire.

The only reasoning I've seen is an interview with (iirc) Junichi Masuda where he says that DP were intended to be the "ultimate" Pokemon games (highly ironic in hindsight) and "Diamond" represents that as the hardest, most precious jewel. But it seems a pretty weak rationale.
 
Dialga is steel type (thus: defensive, hard as diamond) and Palkia is water type (thus: pearls, which are found in the ocean). They and Platinuim are all high value precious gems/metals so that ties into the "ultimate" theme. Seems no more or less valid than X because Xerneas is shaped like an x when it spreads its legs (they seriously did not think this through at all with Xerneas's default pose huh) or that XY(Z) on the game that shifted fully to 3D.

Now that said I absolutely agree on Platinum not being obvious at all as the third version to Diamond & Pearl. It only kind of makes sense in retrospect, Giratina is meant to come from Platina/Purachina = Platinum and again Platinum is a high value precious metal, and even then it's pretty weak. Especially when Giratina's name also references a type of red opal!
More to the point I can think of nothing about the Ghost typing that relates to Platinum at all. It's...ethereal??? I don't think that works...
Opal has the same issue but at least it more obviously fits the precious gem aesthetic.

e: Also I hate that the Griseous orb is not obviously a chunk of platinum (unless unrefined platinum is supposed to be that color??) OR AN ORB
 
R_N said:
Dialga is steel type (thus: defensive, hard as diamond) and Palkia is water type (thus: pearls, which are found in the ocean). They and Platinuim are all high value precious gems/metals so that ties into the "ultimate" theme. Seems no more or less valid than X because Xerneas is shaped like an x when it spreads its legs (they seriously did not think this through at all with Xerneas's default pose huh) or that XY(Z) on the game that shifted fully to 3D.

Now that said I absolutely agree on Platinum not being obvious at all as the third version to Diamond & Pearl. It only kind of makes sense in retrospect, Giratina is meant to come from Platina/Purachina = Platinum and again Platinum is a high value precious metal, and even then it's pretty weak. Especially when Giratina's name also references a type of red opal!
More to the point I can think of nothing about the Ghost typing that relates to Platinum at all. It's...ethereal??? I don't think that works...
Opal has the same issue but at least it more obviously fits the precious gem aesthetic.

e: Also I hate that the Griseous orb is not obviously a chunk of platinum (unless unrefined platinum is supposed to be that color??) OR AN ORB
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greentyphlosion said:
This isn't precisely an annoyance but it's something I've always wondered about - why are Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum so named?

The names of all the other games make sense, and (generally) tie into the plot or aesthetics of the game.

Red/Blue/Green/Yellow - the colours of the mascot starter Pokemon, as well as the names of the protagonists. The "basic" primary colours also fit the fact that these are the first Pokemon games. FireRed and LeafGreen are extensions of this idea - Charizard is literally Fire Red, and Venusaur is Leaf Green.
Gold/Silver/Crystal - gold and silver are the colours of Ho-Oh and Lugia. Crystal is a bit more "out there" (Turquoise would be more accurate but not nearly as cool-sounding, so I can let that slide). HGSS adds a few references about the heart and the soul to make the names more blatant, but it also ties into the plot - the protagonist proves that they are a good person who truly loves Pokemon.
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - basically red/blue/green levelled up to represent the fact that the mascots here are legendaries and not the starters. FRLG have the quest to obtain literal Ruby and Sapphire gems which allow trading with those games.
Black/White (&2) - Reshiram and Zekrom are white and black, the games are all about dualities, N even states that he dislikes that "black and white have intermingled, and the world has become grey".
X and Y - This one's a bit more ambiguous. Xerneas and Yveltal look like the letters X and Y but beyond this the names aren't hugely relevant. I've seen an interview in which Satoru Iwata explains that they're called that because "people exist on the X and Y axis" which... sounds a bit wishy-washy.
Sword/Shield - fits the British theme; Zacian and Zamazenta are a literal sword and shield.

But why precisely did they call the fourth-gen games Diamond and Pearl? Dialga is blueish and Palkia is pink (and Giratina is platinum-coloured if you squint very hard) but beyond that... there's not really much of a link. The fact that people were coming up with all sorts of ideas for what the third game of the trio would be called - Opal, Topaz, Carnet, etc - highlights that Platinum doesn't have a particularly strong association with Diamonds and Pearls (which are often paired together in popular culture). By contrast, I remember people asking "do you know when Emerald will be released?" long before it was initially announced because it's the logical fit to go with Ruby and Sapphire.

The only reasoning I've seen is an interview with (iirc) Junichi Masuda where he says that DP were intended to be the "ultimate" Pokemon games (highly ironic in hindsight) and "Diamond" represents that as the hardest, most precious jewel. But it seems a pretty weak rationale.
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To be fair though, Dawn’s counterpart from Pokemon Adventures was named Platinum, which could have been foreshadowing the 3rd version.
 
Two things about Regigigas; one is more of a curiosity, while the other is indeed an annoyance.

Despite being a master over ice, clay, and magma, Regigigas seems to be particularly fond of ice, as each of its appearances place it in a frosty location. In Sinnoh, it's found at the bottom of Snowpoint Temple in the middle of a sliding ice puzzle. In Unova, it's resting just one room over from the Ice Rock in Twist Mountain. And in Hoenn, not only does it share a tomb with Regice, but Regice is much more involved in its puzzle that Regirock or Registeel. Speaking of which...

ORAS Regigigas's ridiculous spawn conditions are probably something that bothers people, but I actually don't mind it at all. One of my fondest memories of Emerald was the air of mystery surrounding the Regis. Finding a secret underwater cave and using the Braille alphabet from the instruction booklet and Prima guide to (attempt to) decipher the clues on the wall was exciting, and Registeel's tomb in plain view with no entrance was tantalizing. I could see all these puzzle pieces scattered about, daring me to put them together. It was fantastic. And Regigigas had the potential to be even more exciting. Imagine finding Braille tablets scattered across Hoenn, each revealing one part of Regigigas's puzzle. If you can find a way to smush two of the four requirements into a single clue (nickname Regice, give it a cold item, have the other two also, visit Island Cave during the day) maybe the tablets could be located in areas that represent the trio: Granite Cave for Regirock, Shoal Cave for Regice, and Mt. Chimney / Fiery Path for Registeel. Imagine feeling your way through Granite Cave with only two badges under your belt and stumbling across a bizarre collection of dots saying something about "reuniting the three", whatever that means. That would be so cool!

And yet, ORAS doesn't quite deliver. Instead of Braille tablets, you're fed one of four cryptic clues from a girl in Pacifidlog Town. Now, I have to give credit where credit is due. Pacifidlog is right next to the Sealed Chamber, so the Regi connection isn't completely absent (the folks there might have even mentioned the Regis in the originals and I've just forgotten). Also, giving the player only one clue forces the them to take the puzzle into the real world and track down other players who were given different clues, which can potentially result in a really cool moment of group problem solving. However, there are two main issues with this:

1) By 2014, most people playing Pokemon are very familiar with the internet. What could have been an outstanding puzzle in the originals is reduced to near worthless. After all, why bother trying to track down people to compare notes with when your favorite Pokemon message board has all the people you could possibly need all in one place, who may or may not have already solved it long before you arrived and left the solution written in plain text for all to see?

2) C'mon, no Braille? Part of the thrill of the main Regi puzzles came from decoding the Braille clues. Sure, in reality you're just replacing letters made of dots with the same letters but made of lines, but it still feels like you're a master archeologist deciphering a mysterious ancient language. Even if Game Freak was adamant on giving each player a single clue to send them on the mini-ARG, they could have at least put that single clue on a Braille tablet somewhere!



Geez, was that town name always so ugly? All these years, I've been calling Pacifilog. That D just messes up everything. Pa-cif-id-log. Pacifid-log. There's just no way to say those last two syllables smoothly.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
Two things about Regigigas; one is more of a curiosity, while the other is indeed an annoyance.

Despite being a master over ice, clay, and magma, Regigigas seems to be particularly fond of ice, as each of its appearances place it in a frosty location. In Sinnoh, it's found at the bottom of Snowpoint Temple in the middle of a sliding ice puzzle. In Unova, it's resting just one room over from the Ice Rock in Twist Mountain. And in Hoenn, not only does it share a tomb with Regice, but Regice is much more involved in its puzzle that Regirock or Registeel. Speaking of which...

ORAS Regigigas's ridiculous spawn conditions are probably something that bothers people, but I actually don't mind it at all. One of my fondest memories of Emerald was the air of mystery surrounding the Regis. Finding a secret underwater cave and using the Braille alphabet from the instruction booklet and Prima guide to (attempt to) decipher the clues on the wall was exciting, and Registeel's tomb in plain view with no entrance was tantalizing. I could see all these puzzle pieces scattered about, daring me to put them together. It was fantastic. And Regigigas had the potential to be even more exciting. Imagine finding Braille tablets scattered across Hoenn, each revealing one part of Regigigas's puzzle. If you can find a way to smush two of the four requirements into a single clue (nickname Regice, give it a cold item, have the other two also, visit Island Cave during the day) maybe the tablets could be located in areas that represent the trio: Granite Cave for Regirock, Shoal Cave for Regice, and Mt. Chimney / Fiery Path for Registeel. Imagine feeling your way through Granite Cave with only two badges under your belt and stumbling across a bizarre collection of dots saying something about "reuniting the three", whatever that means. That would be so cool!

And yet, ORAS doesn't quite deliver. Instead of Braille tablets, you're fed one of four cryptic clues from a girl in Pacifidlog Town. Now, I have to give credit where credit is due. Pacifidlog is right next to the Sealed Chamber, so the Regi connection isn't completely absent (the folks there might have even mentioned the Regis in the originals and I've just forgotten). Also, giving the player only one clue forces the them to take the puzzle into the real world and track down other players who were given different clues, which can potentially result in a really cool moment of group problem solving. However, there are two main issues with this:

1) By 2014, most people playing Pokemon are very familiar with the internet. What could have been an outstanding puzzle in the originals is reduced to near worthless. After all, why bother trying to track down people to compare notes with when your favorite Pokemon message board has all the people you could possibly need all in one place, who may or may not have already solved it long before you arrived and left the solution written in plain text for all to see?

2) C'mon, no Braille? Part of the thrill of the main Regi puzzles came from decoding the Braille clues. Sure, in reality you're just replacing letters made of dots with the same letters but made of lines, but it still feels like you're a master archeologist deciphering a mysterious ancient language. Even if Game Freak was adamant on giving each player a single clue to send them on the mini-ARG, they could have at least put that single clue on a Braille tablet somewhere!



Geez, was that town name always so ugly? All these years, I've been calling Pacifilog. That D just messes up everything. Pa-cif-id-log. Pacifid-log. There's just no way to say those last two syllables smoothly.
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With Emerald being my first Pokémon game, i agree that they made the Regis quest much less fun and without that mysterious atmosphere that the original game had.
 
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