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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
We don't have to be happy that they are providing some minor flavour, but I feel like it's bizarre to be mad at them for it.
The only two reactions to this as far as I can tell are "oh this is cool", or complete disinterest.
Frankly, most players don't even read the Dex entries.
You realize that the suggestion is just...the same? Its just instead of swapping around on the main dex you have to go to an entirely separate dex where all the form changes are.
And, side note, if they ever did decide to just shove all the forms into their own dex (for.....some reason) the end result would very likely be the same. One shared description that varies the flavor and nothing else
It's a pointless inclusion then. It's telling us something that we can already tell with our eyes with it being different forms and those forms having names. If they have nothing more to tell us besides that it feels like instead of splitting the descriptions between four they could have just made two bigger descriptions.
Yeah, you're right, asking them to give a little more detail about how the various flavors could have affected the way the Alcremie behaves or what changes occur within Silvally's body for it to adapt to the Type change is like requesting they tell us how Rotom messes with people in its various Appliance Forms or that they make unique descriptions for all the Curry in the Curry Dex, all 101 of them.
I've actually become a lot more interested in the Dex entries since they've... well, started to write new ones. For the first six gens, it was a case of copy-paste for old Pokemon; for the vast majority of older Pokemon, there were about 3 or 4 distinct entries they'd just recycle across games.
And it bugged me because... was it really beyond the capability of Nintendo/Game Freak to write new entries for all the Pokemon? Like I don't think it would have been that hard, nor especially time-consuming. But it didn't explicitly need to be done, therefore it wasn't.
It was especially grating since the TCG snippets were often pretty cool (I've not played the TCG since I was young, but the little flavour text on the cards were often much more interesting than the main games' dex entries). My favourite is "more and more people play the slots every day, trying to win a Porygon". EDIT: Apparently I misremembered this and only certain cards had unique text. Point still stands, though.
But the entries for older Pokemon from SM/USUM and SS are often much more interesting or reveal little nuggets of information that give a bit more context and world-building than "this Pokemon does [behaviour]" or "this Pokemon lives in [place]". I'm talking about things like Muk going extinct, Porygon being created 20 years ago, and Raichu's dex entries mentioning that it's rare because people in-universe are reluctant to evolve their Pikachu. You can really tell they've been putting a bit more thought into dex entries lately and it's a change I really appreciate.
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Ok, and? I dont see the issue? They just wanted to name drop the flavor profile and type. Sure they could have NOT done it, but they wanted to.
Well, in terms of Pokemon, there are 5 rotom appliance forms (so about 10 entries) and let me see here ah yes 17 Silvally and another 8 Alcremies, requiring 34 & 16 entries in total. and these are pokemon that'll keep coming again and again moving forward.
The curry is all new feature & almost certainly a one-off for the series. Probably thought it was more worth the time to have distinct entries than a pair of color swaps.
There's definitely different considerations at play here, likely with different levels of planning & different staff on each part of the project (Or Train Employee was supplanted by Curry Employee). Assuming they even thought about it more than "should we mention the flavor? Sure why not"
e: Ugh you know what I dont care anymore now i'm getting worked up over nothing, I'm just dropping this.
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But as I pointed out, we can see the difference. Taking a note from the Rotom forms, while the Rotom forms dex entries are also formulaic in parts, they also do include at least one sentence of unique description. In the case of the Rotoms it was how it tormented people with the Appliance they're possessing. It's nothing major, but a nice little extra bit of information that we wouldn't otherwise know. I'm just asking they do at least that much with the Alcremie forms, surely the flavor the Alcremie is would affect when it would like to offer its cream. Same with Silvally, but while I would consider it a fun opportunity to expand upon the lore of an interesting Pokemon like Silvally, I can see having 17 unique dex descriptions could make a things more complicated... in which that case stick with the one per version. Once again, it doesn't say anything unqiue, it just says something we can see with our eyes.
Which is why I brought up the idea of a form dex. They'd only need two basic version exclusive dex descriptions and then a sentences or few of unique information for each form in the form dex. So for Alcremie it would be 11 entries (2 for dex, 9 for forms) and Silvally be 20 (2 for dex, 18 for forms).
Was thinking earlier about Berries, particularly in gen 3 and 4.
Now, as a younger player who didn't get access to the Gamecube games for a few years and rarely had access to events before they all went online (growing up in the backwoods of the UK will do that to you) I was obsessed with the ultra-elusive stat-boosting Berries like the Liechi and the Petaya Berry as well as the totally inaccessible e-reader Berries you can't get unless you have some obscure Japanese peripheral device - they were completely unobtainable in normal gameplay, only available from the Gamecube titles or from somehow finding your way to Mirage Island. They were so rare, so valuable, so ineffably cool. And yet opponents in places like the Battle Frontier have them, no big deal. I found it infuriating - how was it that those cheating NPCs had those items when I didn't? How on earth were you supposed to get them? It just wasn't fair. I even wasted ages training up a Mightyena to trade to LeafGreen and steal a trainer's Salac Berry from Trainer Tower before discovering that items couldn't be stolen from there.
Looking back, I wonder why exactly I was so keen to get my hands on them. Sure, they can be effective under the right circumstances, but most Pokemon have a better item option available to them and Endure-boosting isn't particularly great even in-game. Realistically, they're much more valuable for making Pokeblocks with than for battling - most of the e-reader Berries don't even have an in-battle use at all.
Worse, though, is that all the games have an NPC give you the Lansat and Starf Berries after some improbable win streak at a Battle Facility as if it's some lofty prize when... it's not? The Lansat Berry stinks. The Starf Berry can be useful, but again only under limited circumstances. But as prizes go, they're pretty underwhelming.
Gen IV didn't improve matters by adding a few more underwhelming event berries:
-First, they added an effect to the formerly useless Enigma Berry - it restores 25% health if you're hit by a super-effective move. Whoop-de-flipping-do. Note that you have to actually survive being hit with a super-effective move to get the benefit. Ice Beam will still be KOing Salamence pretty handily.
-The Jaboca and Rowap Berries damage the foe (for a piddly amount) when it hits the wielder with a certain kind of move (one physical, one special). Again, whoop-de-flipping-do. Rocky Helmet does this far better and far more reliably.
-The Micle Berry raises the accuracy of a move when the wielder goes below 25% HP. Can come in handy one time out of a thousand when you really need your last Focus Blast to hit. But that would require you to hold the Micle Berry instead of the Wide Lens or literally anything more useful.
-The Custap Berry allows the wielder to move first on the next turn if it goes below 25% HP. Actually not too bad, especially next gen when Sturdy got turned into a free Focus Sash. Gives slower Pokemon some options.
Pokemon wouldn't be Pokemon without event-only content, but it's always bugged me how comparatively useless these items are given how hard the older games made you work to get them.
Now, as a younger player who didn't get access to the Gamecube games for a few years and rarely had access to events before they all went online (growing up in the backwoods of the UK will do that to you) I was obsessed with the ultra-elusive stat-boosting Berries like the Liechi and the Petaya Berry as well as the totally inaccessible e-reader Berries you can't get unless you have some obscure Japanese peripheral device - they were completely unobtainable in normal gameplay, only available from the Gamecube titles or from somehow finding your way to Mirage Island. They were so rare, so valuable, so ineffably cool. And yet opponents in places like the Battle Frontier have them, no big deal. I found it infuriating - how was it that those cheating NPCs had those items when I didn't? How on earth were you supposed to get them? It just wasn't fair. I even wasted ages training up a Mightyena to trade to LeafGreen and steal a trainer's Salac Berry from Trainer Tower before discovering that items couldn't be stolen from there.
Looking back, I wonder why exactly I was so keen to get my hands on them. Sure, they can be effective under the right circumstances, but most Pokemon have a better item option available to them and Endure-boosting isn't particularly great even in-game. Realistically, they're much more valuable for making Pokeblocks with than for battling - most of the e-reader Berries don't even have an in-battle use at all.
Worse, though, is that all the games have an NPC give you the Lansat and Starf Berries after some improbable win streak at a Battle Facility as if it's some lofty prize when... it's not? The Lansat Berry stinks. The Starf Berry can be useful, but again only under limited circumstances. But as prizes go, they're pretty underwhelming.
Gen IV didn't improve matters by adding a few more underwhelming event berries:
-First, they added an effect to the formerly useless Enigma Berry - it restores 25% health if you're hit by a super-effective move. Whoop-de-flipping-do. Note that you have to actually survive being hit with a super-effective move to get the benefit. Ice Beam will still be KOing Salamence pretty handily.
-The Jaboca and Rowap Berries damage the foe (for a piddly amount) when it hits the wielder with a certain kind of move (one physical, one special). Again, whoop-de-flipping-do. Rocky Helmet does this far better and far more reliably.
-The Micle Berry raises the accuracy of a move when the wielder goes below 25% HP. Can come in handy one time out of a thousand when you really need your last Focus Blast to hit. But that would require you to hold the Micle Berry instead of the Wide Lens or literally anything more useful.
-The Custap Berry allows the wielder to move first on the next turn if it goes below 25% HP. Actually not too bad, especially next gen when Sturdy got turned into a free Focus Sash. Gives slower Pokemon some options.
Pokemon wouldn't be Pokemon without event-only content, but it's always bugged me how comparatively useless these items are given how hard the older games made you work to get them.
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I've thought of another thing: starter abilities.
For once, I'd like to have a starter with something other than Overgrow, Blaze, or Torrent. Every other pokemon has two abilities you can pick from in-game, so why not starters? Give them a cool new ability and second ability that you can use in-game. It might also help to diversify the competitive scene, since you basically have to use its HA unles it's really, really useless.
For once, I'd like to have a starter with something other than Overgrow, Blaze, or Torrent. Every other pokemon has two abilities you can pick from in-game, so why not starters? Give them a cool new ability and second ability that you can use in-game. It might also help to diversify the competitive scene, since you basically have to use its HA unles it's really, really useless.
That's a starter tradition. Calling for a second ability for each or having an Ability other than those three starter abilities would very likely cause an outcry. I'm sorry but that's a really big daunting task for GF to change or adds to such a traditional detail.
But you know what annoys me? The starters becoming increasingly archetypical to the point it is becoming a fault. It was since Gen 4 and 5 where not all starters are bipedal and job-based as final evolutions. Gen 6, 7 and 8's final evos really really makes the whole "job-based bipedal" route becoming increasingly forced, especially jarring on the Litten line. At least Scorbunny and Grookey do foreshadow their mid-evo and final evo's route as is by contrast.
It really feels like a gamble to attract popularity to those Pokémon. While that paid off for Greninja and the Gen 7 starters (Incineroar was polarizing at first for sure though), it started to backfire as Gen 8's final evo were decidedly more polarizing by comparison. That has nothing to do with in-game and competitive success, with Primarina raising in VGC and even Smogon OU prominence, but still... It started reaching a fever pitch where GF would need to tone it down, as zero-chance as it sounds.
I’ve gotta be honest with you, I don’t think anyone off the forums would care and those who do would be openly mocked because it’s an extremely stupid thing to have an outcry over
Or make the Starter Abilities (and Swarm) better. Seriously, at 1/3rd of HP STABS get a 50% power boost and that's it? Suggestions: Activates at half HP and STABs ignore Type Match-ups, Abilities, & Stat Changes (maybe also increase chance of a secondary effect by 50%). Make my Starter go Super Saiyan like Ash's Infernape:
The starter abilities are already very good. A 50% power boost is massive, and 1/3 HP is low enough to be risky but not so low as to be unreasonable. They also make speedruns much more interesting. Also, what you suggested sounds disgusting.Or make the Starter Abilities (and Swarm) better. Seriously, at 1/3rd of HP STABS get a 50% power boost and that's it? Suggestions: Activates at half HP and STABs ignore Type Match-ups, Abilities, & Stat Changes (maybe also increase chance of a secondary effect by 50%). Make my Starter go Super Saiyan like Ash's Infernape:
Or simply a 25% boost at half health, 2/3 health, or so In addition to the effects. (So you can still go for 1/3 HP to get that 50% boost)Or make the Starter Abilities (and Swarm) better. Seriously, at 1/3rd of HP STABS get a 50% power boost and that's it? Suggestions: Activates at half HP and STABs ignore Type Match-ups, Abilities, & Stat Changes (maybe also increase chance of a secondary effect by 50%). Make my Starter go Super Saiyan like Ash's Infernape:
it can create a scenario where the ability can still feasibly activate, but you still have to the full work to get the full power
Sorry to respond to something from so long ago but I found it interesting that the fences received so much hate. As far as ridiculous blockades go, the fences weren't that bad. There were worse blockades in Sinnoh and Kalos, to be fair. Alola seems to put a large emphasis on people and Pokemon interacting and working together. So you have the pokemon that will play with you, you have the Tauros (Stoutland was quite a bit more grating, admittedly) and you have Ilima going around with Smeargle, keeping the city clean and hanging Totem stickers for trial goers. I don't think it's the worst thing GF has done, and even the dancing people in B2W2 were a nice nod (some day we will be gone for no reason).
Not really. The starter abilities having become stale and predictable has been a rather popular sentiment for a while now. I doubt there would be a group clamoring to "bring the boring back!" if the Gen IX starters had different abilities.
And while the abilities may be useful in certain situations, one can hardly consider them noteworthy. There is no text prompt or animation showing when the abilities activate, so many players would be going through their entire game without really noticing that their starter's ability does anything. You rarely get to see these abilities in play, and even when you do it's not obvious what's going on.
Though I guess we should be thankful that the starter's abilities don't prompt text popups or animations in every battle, given how annoyingly long it usually takes for such things to show, and how many battles the starters are likely to participate in. Still, I feel there's a middle ground between total obscurity and pace-killing repetitiveness that should have been explored more.
even something quick like pressure's message would work (so, "rillaboom's overgrowth activated!" or similar - or maybe a more flavourful line like "cinderace is blazing hot!").
What you *would* get instead, is a plethora of people demanding that *all previous starters* also get new abilities in order to keep fair game.
Nope, not gonna happen.
Here's a little thing that I remembered that bugged me from my playthrough of X & Y earlier this year. Y'all know how in X & Y there is the forced Mega Lucario v. Mega Lucario battle with Korrina at the top of the Tower of Mastery? You do the battle, take or leave the Lucario, and move on. Well later on at the Route 19 bridge / battles with the other friends, they mention that your rival is off training with the Mega Evolution guru, who you met before at the Tower of Mastery. After the battles were over, I thought to myself, "huh, wonder if there is some extra text / dialogue for going back to the Tower of Mastery, seems something to check out since it was mentioned. Why else mention that [Rival] is training with that guru?"
Well after going back, there was no extra story / dialogue from the guru or your rival, but there was Korrina, still standing at the top of the tower, saying the same post-battle lines. And that is where she stays for the entire game, after going back in the post-game to check, she is still standing there in the rain talking about our battle. :\ I guess the idea was that no one would come back, so why change anything? I know Korrina needs to be somewhere to give you the Lucario if you decline taking it initially, but why leave her up there? Does she not have a gym or something to run...
Well after going back, there was no extra story / dialogue from the guru or your rival, but there was Korrina, still standing at the top of the tower, saying the same post-battle lines. And that is where she stays for the entire game, after going back in the post-game to check, she is still standing there in the rain talking about our battle. :\ I guess the idea was that no one would come back, so why change anything? I know Korrina needs to be somewhere to give you the Lucario if you decline taking it initially, but why leave her up there? Does she not have a gym or something to run...
I remember playing Gen 3 as a kid and thinking my starter's ability never did anything bc I never got a notification that it activated
A ridiculously annoying thing for some competative players like me:
WHY DOES THE FLYING TYPE ONLY GET AIR SLASH AND HURRICANE AS SPECIAL STAB??????
No, seriously. Unless you are Yveltal or Lugia, that's all you have. Here's the complete list of special Flying-type moves (that are not signature moves):
Hurricane (110 BP, 70% Accuracy, may confuse)
Air Slash (75 BP, 95% Accuracy, may flinch)
Air Cutter (60 BP, 95% Accuracy, high crit hit ratio)
Hidden Power Flying (60 BP, 100% Accuracy)
Gust (40 BP, 100% Accuracy)
...what the hell.
The real outrage is that Air Slash still only have 95% accuracy.
So for special flying types, your options are Hurricane, which only have 70% accuracy (unless you are in the rain like Pelipper), or Air Slash, which only have 75 BP and still isn't perfectly accurate. And if you happen to not have either, you have to resort to Hidden Power Flying. A Pokemon forced to rely on Hidden Power as their STAB move. The only Pokemon that have to do that which I can name on the top of my head is Unown.
Oh, and outside of HP Flying, the strongest Flying-type move that have 100% accuracy is the almighty Gust. Pathetic.
Unfortunately, the Flying type is not the only type that have those woes. The best physical move Electric gets is Wild Charge, which gives recoil and have questionable distribution (in what universe does Snorlax Wild Charge?). Second place goes to Thunder Punch, with its sad 75 BP. Psychic have a grand total of 4 physical moves, the strongest of which is Psychic Fangs. Rock is even more pathetic, with only three special moves, with one of them, Meteor Beam, being almost useless as it needs a charge turn (not to mention the second strongest, Power Gem, have horrible distribution). And what about poor Steel? Sure, it is the best defensive type in the game, but it comes with horrible costs. Steel have only two special moves, which are Flash Cannon and Mirror Shot, both of which have average or below-average BP. Physically, it's not much better, with Iron Tail and Iron Head as its best options (although some Pokemon are able to make use of Heavy Slam and Gyro Ball). When you compare those to types like Fighting and Dragon, with a diverse amount of options for attacking, you know what is wrong.
WHY DOES THE FLYING TYPE ONLY GET AIR SLASH AND HURRICANE AS SPECIAL STAB??????
No, seriously. Unless you are Yveltal or Lugia, that's all you have. Here's the complete list of special Flying-type moves (that are not signature moves):
Hurricane (110 BP, 70% Accuracy, may confuse)
Air Slash (75 BP, 95% Accuracy, may flinch)
Air Cutter (60 BP, 95% Accuracy, high crit hit ratio)
Hidden Power Flying (60 BP, 100% Accuracy)
Gust (40 BP, 100% Accuracy)
...what the hell.
The real outrage is that Air Slash still only have 95% accuracy.
So for special flying types, your options are Hurricane, which only have 70% accuracy (unless you are in the rain like Pelipper), or Air Slash, which only have 75 BP and still isn't perfectly accurate. And if you happen to not have either, you have to resort to Hidden Power Flying. A Pokemon forced to rely on Hidden Power as their STAB move. The only Pokemon that have to do that which I can name on the top of my head is Unown.
Oh, and outside of HP Flying, the strongest Flying-type move that have 100% accuracy is the almighty Gust. Pathetic.
Unfortunately, the Flying type is not the only type that have those woes. The best physical move Electric gets is Wild Charge, which gives recoil and have questionable distribution (in what universe does Snorlax Wild Charge?). Second place goes to Thunder Punch, with its sad 75 BP. Psychic have a grand total of 4 physical moves, the strongest of which is Psychic Fangs. Rock is even more pathetic, with only three special moves, with one of them, Meteor Beam, being almost useless as it needs a charge turn (not to mention the second strongest, Power Gem, have horrible distribution). And what about poor Steel? Sure, it is the best defensive type in the game, but it comes with horrible costs. Steel have only two special moves, which are Flash Cannon and Mirror Shot, both of which have average or below-average BP. Physically, it's not much better, with Iron Tail and Iron Head as its best options (although some Pokemon are able to make use of Heavy Slam and Gyro Ball). When you compare those to types like Fighting and Dragon, with a diverse amount of options for attacking, you know what is wrong.
I can understand some types being more inclined to a specific side of the physical/special split (ie: there's not many special rock types) but it is a little odd that flying types have such a gulf between Air Slash and Hurricane. Feels like an easy niche to fill and special oriented flying types arent THAT rare.
Gen 3 has a lot of abilities like that which don't give any indication they're there at all. It's only in gen 4 onwards that they started bringing in little notifications for passive abilities like Pressure and Mold Breaker. Probably a change for the better though it sometimes makes it impossible to play "which ability am I running" mind games in player vs player battles.
Not to mention how if a Pokemon with Trace acquires Intimidate, nothing happens. That always ticked me off.
Nitpicks about movepools that no-one cares about but me:
-Drifloom/Drifblim do not get any special Flying moves outside of Gust via level up and Air Cutter via Gen IV Move Tutors.
-Combee not being compatible with the Swift TM in Sword and Shield despite learning it in Gen IV.
-Kantonian Golem, Rhydon, Kantonian Marowak, and Aerodactyl getting nothing of to use with Rock Head outside of Double-Edge, which is exclusive to Gen III(Also Rhydon and Aerodactyl get Take Down, but no-one cares about that)
-On a similar note, The Rhyhorn line Getting Reckless as their Hidden Ability but get nothing but Take Down without the help of the Gen I VC games, and even with them all it adds is Double-Edge and Submission(It also gets Double-Edge via Dream World, but that's long gone)
-Drifloom/Drifblim do not get any special Flying moves outside of Gust via level up and Air Cutter via Gen IV Move Tutors.
-Combee not being compatible with the Swift TM in Sword and Shield despite learning it in Gen IV.
-Kantonian Golem, Rhydon, Kantonian Marowak, and Aerodactyl getting nothing of to use with Rock Head outside of Double-Edge, which is exclusive to Gen III(Also Rhydon and Aerodactyl get Take Down, but no-one cares about that)
-On a similar note, The Rhyhorn line Getting Reckless as their Hidden Ability but get nothing but Take Down without the help of the Gen I VC games, and even with them all it adds is Double-Edge and Submission(It also gets Double-Edge via Dream World, but that's long gone)