(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Hematite]

Spread moves being weakened is still a thing? I never got why that was, especially for moves like Earthquake and Rock Slide. If the move is naturally wide enough to hit both opponents why does it then get weaken in doubles?

It's not a flavor thing - it's because you're effectively using two attacks in one turn (by attacking both opponents) and it would be pretty silly if you could do so at full power. It's a deliberate mechanical tradeoff: either you pick an opponent to prioritize but hit them at full power, or you do less damage to one opponent (75% relative to a single-target move) but more to the opposing team as a whole (150% relative to a single-target move). I think this is a much more interesting mechanic than having no power reduction.

That aside, I'm not sure why you think Rock Slide of all moves necessitates a Wide Lens. In a double battle, there is already a 99% chance of hitting one of your Pokémon and an 81% chance of hitting both - it's not exactly unreliable. There's a much greater chance of Rock Slide causing the target to waste a turn than the user.
also Duraludon can't learn Earthquake

 

[Worldie]

Yeah, pretty sure it is. Kinda awful tbh, especially for moves that aren't really strong to begin with like Rock Slide. And I'm pretty sure I got nothing on his team that would get STAB from it too, so it's not really worth the trouble.

I don't think you really played much of doubles let alone VGC did you...
Rock slide has been the most spammed move for *years* for how good it is. Stab is irrelevant if you can flinch one or both opponents at no downsides, and there's been plenty of tournaments matches that boiled down to "do I get rock slide flinch or not".
Plus, it complements extremely well the ground stabs as mons that resist both rock and ground are rare.


Edit: Bonus, since you talking about "Sandstorm synergy", I also wanted to let you know that Sand Force is a thing and it happens to boost Ground, Steel and Rock attacks.

 

[earl]

Asking for a Rock Slide buff is a pretty unpopular opinion

 

[Pikachu315111]

That aside, I'm not sure why you think Rock Slide of all moves necessitates a Wide Lens. In a double battle, there is already a 99% chance of hitting one of your Pokémon and an 81% chance of hitting both - it's not exactly unreliable. There's a much greater chance of Rock Slide causing the target to waste a turn than the user.
also Duraludon can't learn Earthquake

I'm just saying, also being no trainer has their Pokemon holding any item it would at least be an item for them to be holding that has some use even if by the math it's not a big problem.

And Duraludon should get Earthquake.

 

[Worldie]

I'm just saying, also being no trainer has their Pokemon holding any item it would at least be an item for them to be holding that has some use even if by the math it's not a big problem.

And Duraludon should get Earthquake.

Well Duralodon was designed as special attacker, even though it has a usable attack stat. It does get Stomping Tantrum but not EQ surprisingly.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I don't think you really played much of doubles let alone VGC did you...

Nah, not really. A bit of the GC games and that's about it, really.

It's not like I got an aversion to Slide and refuse to use it, I just went with an EQ-centric team because I already had Hippowdon, Sandaconda and Flygon.

 

[earl]

Well Duralodon was designed as special attacker, even though it has a usable attack stat. It does get Stomping Tantrum but not EQ surprisingly.

Raihan does (stupidly) use physical Duraludon, though.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Come to think of it, would Raihan even use Rock Slide to begin with?

This is the same AI that doesn't have Bea use her G-Max Machamp's signature move because Max Strike off Strength is 15BP stronger.

 

[R_N]

Raihan does (stupidly) use physical Duraludon, though.

you know i figured this was just something they did for the main story, a weird worried about balance tweak perhaps but fascinatingly Raihan continues to use a full physical moveset in his post game match.

its not like his team is unchanged outside levels, either. Torkoal picks up Gyroball (though imo Yawn would continue to be better but w/e), Goodra swapped Rain Dance, Surf & Muddy Water for Life Dew, Hydro Pump and Sludge Bomb.
Odd

 

[Worldie]

GF sadly has an opposition to give story-trainers competitive teams. They've done a bit of this in USUM surprisingly, and... didn't USUM get flamed in JP for being too complex? >_>

I don't think however it's a issue of GF not being able to design competitive pokemon though... their battle facility sets are usually on-point, as well as occasionally some specific story trainers (see USUM again)
But... I always have the feeling GF thinks their average player is too stupid to beat actually good Pokemon. And to be fair, we have seen anecdotal evidence of people actually not being able to beat good movesets...

I really wish we had a way to know what sort of feedback they get regarding the difficulty and level curve of the games tbh.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

But... I always have the feeling GF thinks their average player is too stupid to beat actually good Pokemon.

Realistically speaking, they do have little kids as their main audience for in-game. The whole QoL changes for competitive, Battle Tower and all those bells and whistles are for the older fans.

I still maintain my position that Challenge/Hard Mode should be an option.

 

[R_N]

I'm not going to fault them too hard for not going full competitive on their bosses but sometimes they just go completely off the mark. Like I think it's okay if Duraludon had a special attacking move, surely; what happened there, most pokemon tend to have at least one move that goes with their primary stat.


Also here's my hot take: the level curve since at least gen 5 (mostly because I cant remember DP or Sinnoh's level curves) have actually been fine. Good, even. But with the following caveats:
Gen 5: Just straight up this is a good level curve. We have slowly but consistently rising levels and the exp system means that you can get a little ahead, but not too far. The problem is more to do with the strict adhering to "No one gets more than 3 pokemon before the e4, who get 4 and the champion who gets 6". But in terms of level curve, wonderful, have you ever tracked them? I have! Just great.
Gen 6: This is also relatively steady and I think its pretty impressive that we get a Pokemon game that ends at 68 but doesnt feel like a sudden jump at the champion.....on the condition that you dont have EXP share on. I went without EXP share and I actually, even with the 3-pokemon-team rule, had a bit of a challenge! I had to do a lot of careful switch, item usage, and so on. I think there's a bit of a level bump around the 5th gym, where I took a route wit hthe exp share on to catch up a level or two, but before & after that I was smooth sailing with an enjoyable amount of difficulty while my friends were groaning about how easy it was (they were using exp share and a few were using pokemonamie....)
Gen 7: This shares the exp share caveat, for both SM & USUM, and there's a few sections of the game with a sharp level jump (the aether raid in particular) but again without exp share? Quite enjoyable, just the right amoutn of difficulty imo. Gen 7 even started getting away from the 3-pokemon rule.
Gen 8: Okay this is the big one. The few times I was able to wrangle control of levels away? Actually think this level curve would, while not as smooth and suddenly spikes a few times at the end, present an interesting amount of difficulty without otherwise doing a lot of changes. Like yeah the movesets could be improved here & there and some trainers could probably use better Pokemon, but I dunno, Bea & Opal not having stellar movesets didnt stop them from being a more even battle than you'd think. too bad the exp share is always on!


I cannot comment on Let's Go.

In conclusion: Keep the exp share but let you turn it off

 

[Rapti]

GF sadly has an opposition to give story-trainers competitive teams. They've done a bit of this in USUM surprisingly, and... didn't USUM get flamed in JP for being too complex? >_>

O_O where did you heard this?

The animations and camera work can always be improved of course, and they should probably just avoid "super effective" as a trigger state in the future, but I'm not going to fault them for wanting the boss battles to have more cinematic flair to them here and there.

Well, I am because this isn't 1998 where every JRPG spent minutes on the animation of every summon, even in an industry as traditional as the japanese one it's been at least 10 years since developers learnt to at least give you the option to skip text and cutscenes

 

[R_N]

O_O where did you heard this?



Well, I am because this isn't 1998 where every JRPG spent minutes on the animation of every summon, even in an insdustry as traditional as the japanese one it's been at least 10 years since developers learnt to at least give you the oprtion to skip text and cutscenes

this is limited purely to boss battles that have like...3 or 4 of them? Like 7 if you're Hop because he hwas a trigger for SE hits and Criticals.
On average these little interjections take about 4 seconds start to finish. So about 20 seconds on the high end in total across the entirity of a match. Opal takes longer because of her quiz gimmick.

Even if SWSH had the most blazing fast battles around and everything from animations to dialog was fast and snappy I still wouldn't think this would be unbearable or ridicluous to have in a game. Hop is the only thing that really makes it annoying because you fight him so frequently and he has so many more talky bits and even then that's more because of his SE dialog than there being dialog itself (no one really complains about his 7 turn monologue in the post game).

Its okay to have a little cinematic flavor, sometimes! Especially since by design you don't see this dialog in every single battle in the game and its snappy enough to not break the flow (the final pokemon/dynamax time in particular i think has great flow, especially when the music changes in time with them) or have to walk through much longer, should by all means be skippable, text heavy cutscenes with often poor direction and pacing.

e: let :clap: the :clap: battle cinematic director :clap: direct cutscenes :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[CPU]

I definitely want to chime in that, despite my post about the Stadium games handling in-game trainer quips more organically than SwSh, the lead up before a boss dynamaxes their Pokémon and the personalized animations for throwing their dynamax Pokéballs are all really good and add to the game. It's good that they're all at the start of the turn, and, despite the unfortunate fact that many of them are going to die in one hit before they can attack, adds a good bit of drama to the scene (helped by the Gyms' audience chorus, of course). I don't have a major problem with in-battle quips but ones lile Hop's could probably have been better implemented than they were. The many unskippable cutscenes are all a lot worse for game pacing and taking you out of the gameplay.

(However, all the dynamax Pokéball animations do kind of add to the question on what's actually happening during dynamax because, if it's just an illusion, why does Opal stagger when going to throw hers?)

 

[R_N]

I definitely want to chime in that, despite my post about the Stadium games handling in-game trainer quips more organically than SwSh, the lead up before a boss dynamaxes their Pokémon and the personalized animations for throwing their dynamax Pokéballs are all really good and add to the game. It's good that they're all at the start of the turn, and, despite the unfortunate fact that many of them are going to die in one hit before they can attack, adds a good bit of drama to the scene (helped by the Gyms' audience chorus, of course). I don't have a major problem with in-battle quips but ones lile Hop's could probably have been better implemented than they were. The many unskippable cutscenes are all a lot worse for game pacing and taking you out of the gameplay.

This reminds me that I wish this game had the ability to choose how you threw the ball. Both dynamax and normally. That was a cool thing that Gen 7 had and seeing the....gosh 20 by this point probably animations makes me wish you could map them to your trainer too. Let my trainer do the intense Honey yeet or the "nuh uh!" Klara throw.

(However, all the dynamax Pokéball animations do kind of add to the question on what's actually happening during dynamax because, if it's just an illusion, why does Opal stagger when going to throw hers?)

It's not meant as an illusion its like...a projection, or something. Like a hard light hologram, or whatever; something that has actual mass to it.

The more confusing thing about dynamax is when there is apparently biological changes to the Pokemon and not just "oh wow, over flowing energy makes them project a huge form and super charging attacks!"
Like Toxtricity has this

Out of control after its own poison penetrated its brain, it tears across the land in a rampage, contaminating the earth with toxic sweat

Like ....are G-Maxes meant to be a mega-like reaction to the dynamax energy and then also they do the projection to show them as huge? I suppose that tracks with how the animation plays out (iirc they're still sent out starting small-but-transformed then grow to full size) but its still pretty weird.

 

[Worldie]

Like ....are G-Maxes meant to be a mega-like reaction to the dynamax energy and then also they do the projection to show them as huge? I suppose that tracks with how the animation plays out (iirc they're still sent out starting small-but-transformed then grow to full size) but its still pretty weird.

A issue with this is shown in the Twilight Wings episode about Oleana, where she gets angery at the radio for not understanding how Gigamax Lapras works.

I'm not sure anyone at TPCI or GF has a actual coherent idea of what Dyna/Gigamax is...

 

[Pikachu315111]

Like ....are G-Maxes meant to be a mega-like reaction to the dynamax energy and then also they do the projection to show them as huge? I suppose that tracks with how the animation plays out (iirc they're still sent out starting small-but-transformed then grow to full size) but its still pretty weird.

I'm not sure anyone at TPCI or GF has a actual coherent idea of what Dyna/Gigamax is...

And that's exactly the issue. They wanted the kaiju aesthetic but didn't actually want the Pokemon growing big so came up with a hand wave explanation you're expect to accept and not think about it further (despite making the region's professors area of study the Dynamax phenomenon so should be better explained...).

I'm going to assume the Pokemon do change form. However, due to the energy needing to access this form is also the energy that creates a large energy projection of the Pokemon, as far as we know you can't separate the Gigantamax form change with the large projection. Infact, with how some Gigantamax dex entries are written, it seems like Gigantamax Pokemon have a much closer connection to their projection selves than a Dynamax Pokemon.

To put my theory/headcanon into perspective, think that when a Pokemon Dynamaxes they're using the Wishing Star energy (WSE) to pretty much create a Power Ranger/Super Sentai zord of themselves, the projection. While the projection mimics their movements, the Pokemon and projection are two separate entities. This could be why Dynamax Pokemon only have access to the basic Max Moves, they may control the projection but not the WSE that created the projection so have to work within certain limits (the Ranger inside the zord is controlling it but the zord has its own abilities separate from the Ranger). As for why in the story some Pokemon go wild when suddenly Dynamax, well, how well do you think you'll do just suddenly placed inside a giant body of yourself, copying your exact movements and by your point of view you're still sensing things are "normal" (seeing from the eyes, smelling from the nose, hearing from the ears) but it's the projections eyes, nose, ears, etc. the sensory information is coming from. You'd probably be startled too, especially if you're a creature that relies on instincts more.

Gigantamax on the other hand is more complex. In addition to the SWE energy forming a projection around the Pokemon, it also is absorbed by the Pokemon thus changing their form (similar to Mega Evolution in that regard). However, now that the Pokemon has absorbed SWE within it, it now has a closer connection to the projection. It's not just the power of the SWE it absorbed that it's feeling, but also the power of the ENTIRE projection. The projection isn't mimicking its movements, they ARE its movements. And thus the Pokemon gains special attributes that it can then amplify via the projection (hence the Pokedex description) and even bend the SWE in different ways no other Pokemon can (hence the GMax Moves). Of course, with the Pokemon having so much energy now bonded to them some go kind of crazy or are unable to properly wield such power. Others may have the discipline/strength to handle the power but the physical changes that are now being amplified by the projection is unsustainable for a long period of time.

 

[Rapti]

e: let :clap: the :clap: battle cinematic director :clap: direct cutscenes :clap: :clap: :clap:

NO

If I've gone to the trouble to go mess around with the settings to disable cutscenes I expect this:

"O mad and greedy waters, rise up and storm the very heavens... Tidal Wave!"

to turn into this:

"Blah blah blah! Tidal Wave!"

I'll accept nothing less

nothing less I say

 

[jordanthejq12]

I can always appreciate a good Vesperia reference. Well played.

Anyway, I had a long rant about dropped mechanics typed up, but I'm sure we've all heard that one before. I'll hone in on just one: Remember natural objects, another of the one-and-done XY features wherein using certain spread moves in certain areas could drop items after battle? And that those items could be most of the available Berries, weather rocks, type-enhancing items, Evolution Stones? Wasn't that cool? I would have loved to have seen something like that developed in later titles (its implementation in XY, limited by location and the moves that triggered it and then an additional RNG roll on top of those, was pretty weak as-is).

 

[Pikachu315111]

Anyway, I had a long rant about dropped mechanics typed up, but I'm sure we've all heard that one before.

So much so it has several meme pictures:
Pic1
Pic2

 

[Worldie]

So much so it has several meme pictures:
Pic1
Pic2

To be fair, some of those are better gone than brought back :V

 

[Kurona]

Berry Growing being gone is just wild to me as not only is it a feature we’ve had for most the franchise - as opposed to specific single-game gimmicks - but it’s part and parcel of berries just as a thing. Even when they made HGSS and had no place in Johto/Kanto to put berry fields, they just gave you portable berry farming just to have it. Gen 5 put it in the dream world for some reason, but every game except FRLG has had a way to berry farm... except SwSh. And it’s such a strange, strange omission.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

My assumption is that they wanted to encourage players to shake the many Berry trees in the Wild Area and use that as their Berry mechanic for Sword and Shield. So instead of actively planting Berries and producing them you're basically counting on the Berry trees which infinitely spawn random Berries on a daily basis, which is essentially a different Berry spawning mechanic for the game: count on the RNG to indefinitely spawn Berries instead of farming them.

That being said, it would've been very interesting to have some Berry planting patches for Berry farming somewhere in Galar to farm Berries you've picked up from the trees, but alas.

 

[R_N]

My assumption is that they wanted to encourage players to shake the many Berry trees in the Wild Area and use that as their Berry mechanic for Sword and Shield. So instead of actively planting Berries and producing them you're basically counting on the Berry trees which infinitely spawn random Berries on a daily basis, which is essentially a different Berry spawning mechanic for the game: count on the RNG to indefinitely spawn Berries instead of farming them.

That being said, it would've been very interesting to have some Berry planting patches for Berry farming somewhere in Galar to farm Berries you've picked up from the trees, but alas.

I mean that mechanic is effectively the same as SM/USUM. The berry piles respawn every day but also you, like, have the best berry farm in the entire series.

It's an active step back.