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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

This is just a small gripe with an Ability choice for a specific Pokémon, but I think it makes more sense both flavor-wise and balance-wise and the fact that the opportunity was missed has had major, arguably negative consequences on the power level of the Pokémon in question, so I really wish it had gone differently:

Why doesn't:lucario-mega:Mega Lucario have Mega Launcher? It's an Ability that exists solely to boost the moves with a stronger flavor association to Lucario than any other, including providing a direct incentive to run Aura Sphere (a move which has been heavily associated with Lucario since the beginning) over the otherwise-superior Focus Blast. For that matter, even Mega Lucario's design is (supposedly) meant to reflect a heightened flow of aura through its body or something! Don't ask how it makes sense. It was just on the official site's blurb.

But the thing that makes this even more baffling is... I honestly think Mega Lucario would have been much better balanced if it had Mega Launcher, too! I mean, Mega Lucario was banned to Ubers for two main reasons: it's too difficult to guess whether it's physical or special because both variants are equally viable... and even if it only had one of the two, it would still be a pretty big step up from any other Mega Evolution in power alone (it hits noticeably harder than every other Mega Evolution except Medicham, including the Uber ones, and Medicham alone is a justifiable special case anyway) while also having an excellent Speed tier and two excellent boosting moves. I've used Mega Lucario as a comparison before in Megamax really cool meta please check it out basically as a prime example of what not to do in submissions, because no other Mega Evolution so thoroughly encapsulates every obvious balancing mistake at once.
... so how would Mega Launcher help it?

- Since Mega Launcher doesn't boost its physical moves and only puts Aura Sphere on par with an unboosted Focus Blast, it directly nerfs its damage output by 25% on both sides. This means it's "only" hitting about as hard as Mega Gardevoir... which is still really good, because Mega Gardevoir is one of the hardest-hitting Mega Evolutions anyway (especially with Hyper Voice having no drawback or risk attached - and the same is true of Aura Sphere), and Mega Lucario still has the advantage of being 12 points faster (and a whole lot of important Pokémon fall between them).
- Since Aura Sphere doesn't come at any drawback, but Close Combat does... even with both hitting at the same power level, there is now a clear reason to prefer special sets over physical sets - this lowers the unpredictability factor by creating a "default" assumption, and it mitigates the risk attached to guessing incorrectly by making the less likely option also come at a drawback. Having two totally different sets that were equally viable was one of the biggest reasons Lucario had to be banned, wasn't it? But at the same time, it doesn't compromise Mega Lucario's ability to adapt to metagame trends if any specific reason crops up to prefer physical sets - just like how physical Mega Lucario was more relevant in Ubers because of Xerneas rather than because it had any advantage in isolation - so I think it remains true to its identity and doesn't even move the Mega in that different a direction.
- And since this doesn't entail changing stats at all, you don't even have to worry about where to put the leftovers! My own past notions of how to rebalance Mega Lucario all came with the issue of, like, "oh shoot - I nerfed its physical sets, but now its special sets are even better" or "oh shoot - now it's too bulky, so it's better at setting up," but without relocating any stats and only changing an Ability, there's no such issue with distributing its stats. Honestly, I think half of the problem was just trying to balance a Lucario form with Adaptability of all things in the first place, because there really aren't many stat spreads that don't turn it into some kind of menace.

Conclusion: Mega Launcher both makes perfect flavor sense and significantly improves the competitive balance of Mega Lucario in that it arguably (at least theoretically) fixes everything that made it broken. Game Freak... why did you go and give it Adaptability??

Edit: ohhhh, okay, that makes sense! Thank you for pointing that out!
 
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Mega Launcher (same in both japanese & english, incidentally) probably didn't go to Lucario because the "Launcher" aspect is very specifically meant to tie in with the "cannons" (the titular "launcher").

If Mega Lucario came a generation later they probably would have given it the same ability but call it a different name. Like Aura Focus or something.
In contrast if Bruxish & Tsareena were a generation earlier they'd probably have only given one of them the prevent-priority ability
 
OK I think this might have gotten brought up before in passing and I just overlooekd it but why in the world is Snap Trap grass type

it's the signature move of Galarian Stunfisk, the same in both languages and represented by
300px-Snap_Trap_VIII.png

a giant steel trap

what happened here

Ideally it should have been Steel (maybe even ground) but if it had been at least type adjacent I'd still be a little miffed but could maybe understand the logic.

Alternatively it could, like Jaw Lock (which really should've been Rock type probably), at least be thematic. Like the concept of Jaw Lock doesnt seem opposed to being a dark type move; it is kind of a jerk maneuver fitting with the type. There's nothing about Snap Trap that says "grass"
 
Actually, I'd still question why Mega Lucario doesn't get Mega Launcher. Sure, yes, the theming of that ability doesn't make sense... but Game Freak were the ones behind designing and naming both it and Mega Lucario. Why, in the design process; did they come up with a powered-up form for the Pokémon themed around Aura and Wave attacks, went to give it a new ability, and didn't make it the ability they were designing that was a power-up to Aura and Wave-themed attacks? It seems random to give it a generally powerful ability, and to use the ability that would fit more a strange theming of these attacks being from a 'launcher', and then even proceed to give it to a Pokémon that didn't even have any of these moves besides Water Pulse to begin with and who it doesn't thematically fit.

And don't get me wrong, I LOVE that Blastoise is now bizarrely one of the few Pokémon in existence with enough mental fortitude and willpower to basically turn the force into a kamehameha, but it... it certainly is a design decision.
 
The connection between aura/pulse moves and Mega Launcher led me to a different question: why does Mega Launcher only boost aura/pulse moves? Why not other projectile attacks like Ice Beam or whatever?

Looking into aura/pulse moves a bit, I did learn something interesting. In triple battles, some attacks can target any Pokemon, even ones that are far away. These moves are:
  • Every single-targeting Flying attack
  • Flying Press
  • Every single-targeting aura/pulse move
Though that doesn't really answer the question so much as it replaces it with a new question: why were specifically aura/pulse moves chosen to have increased range in triple battles (when I'm pretty sure is a move trait that didn't exist beforehand), as opposed to "long range projectile" moves in general?

R_N said:
OK I think this might have gotten brought up before in passing and I just overlooekd it but why in the world is Snap Trap grass type

it's the signature move of Galarian Stunfisk, the same in both languages and represented by
300px-Snap_Trap_VIII.png

a giant steel trap

what happened here

Ideally it should have been Steel (maybe even ground) but if it had been at least type adjacent I'd still be a little miffed but could maybe understand the logic.

Alternatively it could, like Jaw Lock (which really should've been Rock type probably), at least be thematic. Like the concept of Jaw Lock doesnt seem opposed to being a dark type move; it is kind of a jerk maneuver fitting with the type. There's nothing about Snap Trap that says "grass"
Click to expand...
General consensus is that the move was designed with Carnivine in mind (and maybe also Victreebel, Torterra, and Parasect now that I think about it). As for why they would design a signature move around Pokemon that aren't in the game, no one knows. :blobshrug:
 
Hematite said:
Why doesn't:lucario-mega:Mega Lucario have Mega Launcher?
Click to expand...

Because GF realized players used Lucario as a Physical fighter more often than a Special fighter. However they wanted to keep Lucario close to its slight Special leaning root so both its offense stats were given the same increase (though Attack was made 5 points higher) and an Ability that benefited both a Physical or Special set.
 
Back on the topic of " Highly Questionable Design Choices in SwSh ", It's how the game manages Battle Boxes in SwSh. The first inconvenience I find is that you cannot do things like nicknames and apply ribbons. I only found about this recently in SwSh, so when I get to the lady who hands you the ribbon is SwSh I got the message please remove the Pokemon because its in the Battle Box. I know the PC is with you all the time, but its still an inconvenience, especially since my Boxes are unorganized and I have to search for that Pokemon for naming and depositing in the Battle Box.

The Second is when you are participating in an online competition. The battle box gets locked, and you cannot do anything with it. NOTHING. That means no battling in any other place other than the online competition, including Battle Stadium and Link Battles. The latter was really annoying, since I met a friend who plays VGC and I wanted to share my team through battling, but we couldn't due to this unrequited restrictions. What was the point of this restriction? It's not like any info changes if you use them in these formats; not to mention that the 3DS games let use boxed Pokemon on ladders, so I can't help but note this is another oversight that provides unrequired in convenience to the player. (Not to mention that it took us 10 minutes to link despite being in the same room thanks to that awful link code system .)
 
R_N said:
OK I think this might have gotten brought up before in passing and I just overlooekd it but why in the world is Snap Trap grass type

it's the signature move of Galarian Stunfisk, the same in both languages and represented by
300px-Snap_Trap_VIII.png

a giant steel trap

what happened here

Ideally it should have been Steel (maybe even ground) but if it had been at least type adjacent I'd still be a little miffed but could maybe understand the logic.

Alternatively it could, like Jaw Lock (which really should've been Rock type probably), at least be thematic. Like the concept of Jaw Lock doesnt seem opposed to being a dark type move; it is kind of a jerk maneuver fitting with the type. There's nothing about Snap Trap that says "grass"
Click to expand...

Its japanese name is also foothold trap....can't imagine it not being an oversight esp considering stunfisk learns only one physical steel move (metal claw if you were wondering)
 
DrPumpkinz said:
General consensus is that the move was designed with Carnivine in mind (and maybe also Victreebel, Torterra, and Parasect now that I think about it). As for why they would design a signature move around Pokemon that aren't in the game, no one knows. :blobshrug:
Click to expand...

Hokkaido confirmed! Maybe Galarian Stunfisk was orginally part Grass rather than Steel? It has green patches on it. While on the topic, G.Stunfisk learns as many Water type moves (Water Gun, Muddy Water, Rain Dance, Surf, and Scald) as Steel (Metal Claw, Metal Sound, Iron Defense, Flash Cannon, and Steel Beam) with Snare Trap being its only Grass move despite hiding out of the water.
 
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This isn't really an annoyance so much as a quandary, but isn't it weird how no villainous NPC has used a Toxapex yet? It seems created to be a villain Pokémon. Its dex entires speak of how "it leaves a trail of Corsola bits scattered in its wake", and it has the ability Merciless. Plus it's Poison-Type, which is traditionally used by the evil teams.

This is especially bizarre considering Plumeria is in its introductory generation, a Poison-Type specialist on Team Skull. She does use a Toxapex in the title defence battle in the postgame but she never uses one during the main story, instead opting for Golbat and Salazzle. I suspect that if they had given her 3 Pokémon instead of just 2 (why did they leave her at 2 Pokémon, come on Game Freak) then Toxapex would have been her third, but besides oldgen callbacks to every enemy grunt having a Zubat or Golbat, I don't see how that fits better on her team than Toxapex would have. Salazzle is a good choice, though, and perhaps fits her character better than Toxapex would have.

And besides Plumeria, it's still a valid option for Lusamine. Toxapex is somewhat effeminate, and just for the symbolism of having a "merciless" Pokémon on her team I think it would be fine to replace Milotic with it.

I hope we see a villainous leader with a Toxapex as their ace at some point in the future.
 
Celever said:
This isn't really an annoyance so much as a quandary, but isn't it weird how no villainous NPC has used a Toxapex yet? It seems created to be a villain Pokémon. Its dex entires speak of how "it leaves a trail of Corsola bits scattered in its wake", and it has the ability Merciless. Plus it's Poison-Type, which is traditionally used by the evil teams.

This is especially bizarre considering Plumeria is in its introductory generation, a Poison-Type specialist on Team Skull. She does use a Toxapex in the title defence battle in the postgame but she never uses one during the main story, instead opting for Golbat and Salazzle. I suspect that if they had given her 3 Pokémon instead of just 2 (why did they leave her at 2 Pokémon, come on Game Freak) then Toxapex would have been her third, but besides oldgen callbacks to every enemy grunt having a Zubat or Golbat, I don't see how that fits better on her team than Toxapex would have. Salazzle is a good choice, though, and perhaps fits her character better than Toxapex would have.

And besides Plumeria, it's still a valid option for Lusamine. Toxapex is somewhat effeminate, and just for the symbolism of having a "merciless" Pokémon on her team I think it would be fine to replace Milotic with it.

I hope we see a villainous leader with a Toxapex as their ace at some point in the future.
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To be fair, Guzma uses one during the Battle Tree in M/UM.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
That seriously has got to be one of the weirdest inspirations for a Pokemon. Has any other Pokemon been this overtly sexual and kinky? The closest ones I can think of are Lopunny, who seems to be a Playboy Bunny but doesn't really go anywhere with that beyond general appearance, and the Machamp family, who apparently have a canon fetish community "fan club" according to the researchers at Death Battle, but started out as regular body builders with the horny women added later. Tsareena, on the other hand...






Seriously, what the fuck happened to "it protects the Bounsweet in its herd flock? orchard? from getting eaten"
Click to expand...

Ok, that does raise a different question.

Why is Tsareena not a Dark-type then? The "cackling while it kicks down its defeated opponent stuff" is some psycho stuff man!!!

Tbh, a lot of mons don't really have types that make sense and even more missed the opportunity of getting re-typed in later gens.

Pikachu315111 said:
As a counterpoint, maybe at least having a WILD Legendary exhibiting "power" (aka mechanics) beyond what it's capable of when in a trainer's ownership could address the issue they've had with the mascot Legendaries:
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And that's something I actually like about SnS introducing raids to the main series.
It's cool in a way that they made Eternatus a real boss-type mon. (Those stats are just not ok tho.)
I'd have liked if most legendaries (like the obvious forces of nature that the cover legends are for the most part) had a "super" mode that the player could access in a limited way.

This is getting confusing, so let me try to explain it with a practical example.

Let's assume that Primal Groudon and Kyogre weren't playable in the way they were in ORAS, but instead they were limited to say a 3-turn transformation like Dynamax.

That would make them more interesting because, for that short period of time, you'd get to play with mons that are terrifyingly powerful, some real forces of nature that could change the course of a match because they really are that powerful.

Looking back, that could have made the Mega Evolutions a bit less of power creep and kinda puts Dynamax in a new light for me, shame it's so absurdly broken that even the 3-turn limit is too much.
 
Leafon and Glaceon are the ignored step-children of the Eeveelutions.
  • DP: Post game only
  • Platinum: Leafon is obtainable right when you meet Bebe, but the Eevee is lv.20, meaning you have to wait to relearn Razor Leaf, Leaf Blade is at lv.71 and Seed Bomb is post game, leaving Leafon with only Special moves, despite having 60 base Spa. The Icy Rock to get Glaceon is right before the 7th badge, making it a real Ice type by having be late game.
  • HGSS: No Mossy or Icy Rock at all even though IIex Forest, Viridian Forest, Ice Path, and the Seafoam Isles are all viable choices.
  • B2W2: Eevees in the Unova Dex, the Rocks are in Unova, but Pinwheel Forest and Twist Mountain are now post game only. Lostlorn Forest, Abundant Shrine, and Giant Chasm could have been other locations.
  • XY: The rocks are late game again, this time with Frost Cavern and Route 20. Sylveon laughs at them with its own Kimono Girl.
  • SM: Leafon is finally relatively early game with lv.45 Leaf Blade, but the Icy Rock is now at Victory Road.
  • USUM: Could have made Glaceon evolve due to location changes like Crabominable, but no. Seed Bomb is now a mid game move tutor.
  • SWSH: Finally, all Eeveelutions are early game and able to learn viable moves.
 
So the original Kanto games only had battle themes for Wild Pokemon, Trainer Battle, Gym Leader (used for the E4 as well) and Champion. That's fairly understandable, gmaeboy space is tight and they seemed to want to focus on environment themes in particular (nearly every dungeon has their own track).

FRLG added a Legendary Battle theme and Mewtwo battle theme (shows how much I remember, I though Mewtwo & the birds shared a theme), which is always appreciated, but it is odd to me they didn't get the Elite 4 a battle theme or, more curiously, Team Rocket/Giovanni. I suppose in Giovanni's case his "final boss" appearence would be as a Gym Leader and it wouldn't be until Piers where the idea of a team leader being the gym leader would come up again, but it is odd to me they didn't add a VS Team ROcket theme for how often you fight them. And they do, indeed, have a Rocket Battle theme in GSC/HGSS; would have been a fun opportunity to remix that theme especially with the post game involving the admins.

Then, with Let's Go the theme situation on the wild side is a little goofy. The wild battle theme is now a Catch! Pokemon theme (which...fair enough) while the old battle theme is now for the Legendary pokemon + Snorlax since those are the only actual wild battles in the game. But Mewtwo doesnt have its own theme now, which is a bummer. But once again they neglected to get any themes for team rocket &/or Giovanni; not even a remix of the GS theme for the Archer battle in the post game. Double weird since they DID give a brand new battle theme for Master Trainers (which I think is another remix of the standard battle theme).
Triple weird because hell USUM had just come out with another remix for Rinabow Rocket and Giovanni got his own theme finally! Granted it was more a medley of Rocket leitmotif but, still.

And as an aside I think it was a missed opportunity to not remix the gen 2 Champion/Red theme for the battles with Red, Blue & Green.

It's just a shame. Especially for Let's Go, since by this point Pokemon has gone crazy with battle themes all over the place (one of its biggest pluses!).


While on this subject, I think that HGSS did not make a new theme for the birds & Mewtwo. And that's pretty hilarious considering all the other music under its belt up to & including individualized versions of Legendary Pokemon battle themes for all 5 of Johto's legendary Pokemon (correct me if I'm wrong but I think these are all based on Crystal's Vs Suicune which was the only legendary theme in gen 2?). Surely they could have at least done one more new song for the kanto legends, even if they weren't individualized.

Imperial Magala said:
Leafon and Glaceon are the ignored step-children of the Eeveelutions.
  • DP: Post game only
  • Platinum: Leafon is obtainable right when you meet Bebe, but the Eevee is lv.20, meaning you have to wait to relearn Razor Leaf, Leaf Blade is at lv.71 and Seed Bomb is post game, leaving Leafon with only Special moves, despite having 60 base Spa. The Icy Rock to get Glaceon is right before the 7th badge, making it a real Ice type by having be late game.
  • HGSS: No Mossy or Icy Rock at all even though IIex Forest, Viridian Forest, Ice Path, and the Seafoam Isles are all viable choices.
  • B2W2: Eevees in the Unova Dex, the Rocks are in Unova, but Pinwheel Forest and Twist Mountain are now post game only. Lostlorn Forest, Abundant Shrine, and Giant Chasm could have been other locations.
  • XY: The rocks are late game again, this time with Frost Cavern and Route 20. Sylveon laughs at them with its own Kimono Girl.
  • SM: Leafon is finally relatively early game with lv.45 Leaf Blade, but the Icy Rock is now at Victory Road.
  • USUM: Could have made Glaceon evolve due to location changes like Crabominable, but no. Seed Bomb is now a mid game move tutor.
  • SWSH: Finally, all Eeveelutions are early game and able to learn viable moves.
Click to expand...
I have never understood why they didn't just extend the icy rock area of effect to the entire location. I genuinely though when I first played the game that Crabominable & Glaceon shared the same evolution, and the icy rock just extended to all of mt lanikila. But no! And it's always worked like this, it has to be proximity to the rock. It's very dumb.
And the only reason Glaceon gets to be early game is because they retconned its evolution to use the Ice Stone, meaning you can sneak over to the digging brothers and just grind them for one. before you're "supposed" to find one, either at Route 9 or Lake of OUtrage

AKA After the 6th gym.

I mean take what you can get but it genuinely seems like a happy accident. Ridiculous!
 
Volt-Ikazuchi said:
Not really and thanks for reminding me.

Why does most of the E4 (Except Lance) use the standard trainer theme? :pikuh:
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I really should have queued up soem videos to double check, that's an oops on my part. I guess...the idea was to have Lance stand out from the other 3? Since, remember, there isn't a champion so far as you know; Lance was supposed to be the final battle since there was no standing champion.
But there's only 3 trainer themes and they wanted to save the champion theme as blue's specifically. So even though it thematically seems wrong for the other 3 E4 to use the trainer theme, it's done to elevate Lance as a fake final boss.
 
R_N said:
I really should have queued up soem videos to double check, that's an oops on my part. I guess...the idea was to have Lance stand out from the other 3? Since, remember, there isn't a champion so far as you know; Lance was supposed to be the final battle since there was no standing champion.
But there's only 3 trainer themes and they wanted to save the champion theme as blue's specifically. So even though it thematically seems wrong for the other 3 E4 to use the trainer theme, it's done to elevate Lance as a fake final boss.
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That makes sense, but it does make the other 3 look like scrubs.
(They are, Agatha straight-up uses Dream Eater on mons that aren't asleep on neutral matchups, but that's not my point.)
 
I really hate how GF hasn't uploaded HQ quality for old artwork for Gen 1-2
Gen 2 VC release at least had most of its artwork rereleased. But its not enough, and obscure art like Cardass is REALLY cool
 
Falinks was mentioned in another thread recently, so I figured I'd state my main complaint with it.

It's shown in both its idle and attack animations to fight lengthwise, when it lacks any reason to do so. The units in the back are completely useless since they can't reach the opponent and don't even have their shields set up to block anything that might be felt through the leader. What annoys me so much is that it's trivial to fix: rotate their idle animation 90 degrees. Then you not only have a real shield wall, the better-armoured leader at one end is a nice nod to the slight asymmetry in the Greek formation (the soldiers held their shields off-center, so better fighters were usually put on the left end to compensate for the slightly worse defense).

Alternatively, give the units spears and have them form a house centipede instead of a caterpillar. I mention this species specifically because its leg pairs vary in length. In this case, this would be to make a better use of a deeper formation (allowing all the points to be at the same distance from the front).

It's just so close to being a really good design.
 
Ironmage said:
Falinks was mentioned in another thread recently, so I figured I'd state my main complaint with it.

It's shown in both its idle and attack animations to fight lengthwise, when it lacks any reason to do so. The units in the back are completely useless since they can't reach the opponent and don't even have their shields set up to block anything that might be felt through the leader. What annoys me so much is that it's trivial to fix: rotate their idle animation 90 degrees. Then you not only have a real shield wall, the better-armoured leader at one end is a nice nod to the slight asymmetry in the Greek formation (the soldiers held their shields off-center, so better fighters were usually put on the left end to compensate for the slightly worse defense).

Alternatively, give the units spears and have them form a house centipede instead of a caterpillar. I mention this species specifically because its leg pairs vary in length. In this case, this would be to make a better use of a deeper formation (allowing all the points to be at the same distance from the front).

It's just so close to being a really good design.
Click to expand...
At least it isn't as bad as Snom. Freaking butt face
 
Ironmage said:
Falinks was mentioned in another thread recently, so I figured I'd state my main complaint with it.

It's shown in both its idle and attack animations to fight lengthwise, when it lacks any reason to do so. The units in the back are completely useless since they can't reach the opponent and don't even have their shields set up to block anything that might be felt through the leader. What annoys me so much is that it's trivial to fix: rotate their idle animation 90 degrees. Then you not only have a real shield wall, the better-armoured leader at one end is a nice nod to the slight asymmetry in the Greek formation (the soldiers held their shields off-center, so better fighters were usually put on the left end to compensate for the slightly worse defense).

Alternatively, give the units spears and have them form a house centipede instead of a caterpillar. I mention this species specifically because its leg pairs vary in length. In this case, this would be to make a better use of a deeper formation (allowing all the points to be at the same distance from the front).

It's just so close to being a really good design.
Click to expand...

The way I see them fighting is sort of like a Newton's Cradle. An individual unit isn't really that strong. But:
  • When Attacking: It attacks by stabbing but by itself it can't build up the speed to piece the enemy that deep. However, if the leader unit gets a push forward by the five units behind it'll have 5x the force it would normally which is enough to piece a target.

  • When Defending: If hit by an attack straight forward, a singular unit would be sent toppling back. So, with having 6 units it can either (1.) withstand the attack as each unit add its weight & mass to the whole or (2.) the force of the attack is transferred through the leader & middle units and only knocks back the last unit. With the leader & middle units still up they can still defend themselves while the last unit gets up and rejoins the group.
 
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