(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

so with most Pokémon games, they give a special reward in the dual pack, to give a reason aside from completing the pokedex without wonder trade/gts/home to buy both games. ORAS had a dual pack, let’s see what the reward is...
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100 normal potions.
who is going to need 100 normal potions

(tbh, the wording doesn’t say if the codes are one per game, or if you can use them both on one of the two. If it’s the latter, the player certainly doesn’t need 200 normal potions)
 
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All the dual pack bonuses are just.....bad.
I think ORAS with its ~100 potions~ is probably the worst but
SM: 100 pokeballs. Probably the best of the lot, you can at least just throw them out at anything and maybe get lucky; save some money early game too??
USUM: Nothing! You get a steel book instead! wow!!
SWSH: One (1) crystal (per game) to spawn a dynamax Jangmo-o or dynamax Larvitar (once, each, expire midnight the day you activate the den)

I don't think Let's Go had a dual pack (& the steel book was a....separate thing you got as a bonus for buying at certain retailers....?).

BDSP I think doesn't have a steel book so it might have a bonus to be detailed later.
 
Lemingue said:
Isn't this cooler than in-game rewards though? I mean as a genuine question, because getting physical goodies is really cool to me, as someone who casually collects. And it's not like they'll ever give something exciting as an in-game reward, because otherwise it'll break the game's flow or something
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This is partially my own biases coming through, that being: i dont think steel books are very cool or exciting.

But also partially the USUM steelbook just looks bad.
 
I really wish Game Freak could have re-released both the Stadium games (or at the very least some sort of comparable analogue to them) that could have communicated with the Gen I and II VC titles. I came a bit too late to the series to play either Stadium game (and never had an N64 in any case) so it's a piece of Pokemon history that's lost to me. It also means that several event Pokemon from those games like Earthquake Gligar are lost.

Yes, sure, I could buy an N64 and play with the cartridges I have (I still have physical copies of Yellow, Red, and Crystal) but why would I when a) it's a lot of expense to go to and b) the save files I'm invested in are on the 3DS now. As someone pointed out in a Youtube video, neither method of playing Gen I or II now lets you have "the full effect" - cartridge can do all the extra fun stuff, VC can communicate with the rest of the series.*

*(unless you're technologically savvy enough to move your save file from GB to VC, but I'm not)




Come to think of it, this is more of a major thing that bugs me rather than a little one. But still.
 
green_typhlosion said:
I really wish Game Freak could have re-released both the Stadium games (or at the very least some sort of comparable analogue to them) that could have communicated with the Gen I and II VC titles. I came a bit too late to the series to play either Stadium game (and never had an N64 in any case) so it's a piece of Pokemon history that's lost to me. It also means that several event Pokemon from those games like Earthquake Gligar are lost.

Yes, sure, I could buy an N64 and play with the cartridges I have (I still have physical copies of Yellow, Red, and Crystal) but why would I when a) it's a lot of expense to go to and b) the save files I'm invested in are on the 3DS now. As someone pointed out in a Youtube video, neither method of playing Gen I or II now lets you have "the full effect" - cartridge can do all the extra fun stuff, VC can communicate with the rest of the series.*

*(unless you're technologically savvy enough to move your save file from GB to VC, but I'm not)




Come to think of it, this is more of a major thing that bugs me rather than a little one. But still.
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Here I am hoping they would release GBA and GC games on Switch Online, particularly for Colosseum and XD, since I never played those games.
 
DreamPrince said:
Here I am hoping they would release GBA and GC games on Switch Online, particularly for Colosseum and XD, since I never played those games.
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That would be cool, though I think the GC games are a long shot. Which is a real pity since those games are so neglected and unknown to a good chunk of players.

Honestly though I feel like if they did that with Gen III it would be quite underwhelming for people who played it originally since it had so many good spin-offs that could connect to the main series, like Box and Channel, as well as long-dead peripheries like the e-reader devices. You'd never get the full range of content; there'd be all kinds of stuff like the trainer house in Mossdeep/Sootopolis that inevitably wouldn't be able to function properly. And that's without wondering how they'd handle all the event areas; I suppose you could just tweak it so that Norman gives you the Eon Ticket akin to the GS Ball in Crystal, but there's no analogous event flags for the other items like the Old Sea Map and the AuroraTicket.

I suppose it's an inevitability with any ports of older games, you're never going to get the full experience. The VC titles just straight-up didn't bother incorporating the printer function, and for me at least that's not a terrible price to pay (though I'm sure there's someone out there who probably misses it terribly). But Gen II in particular is so small compared to the others the loss of the Stadium titles does feel quite stark.
 
This is gonna be a bit of an oddball post that I'm only putting here cuz this thread is the closest thing to where it would fit due to its negative nature.

So, I've been recently replaying Platinum in preparation for BDSP. Now, the cool thing is that since I still have my original DS in addition to my 3DS as well as my first copy of Pearl, I can cheese my way to trade evolutions. Yesterday I was going through the process of evolving my Machoke, and as I was preparing my Pearl copy for the procedure I had a harrowing moment of clarity.

Pokemon Pearl was my very first Pokemon game, and one of my first "real" videogames that wasn't edutainment software. By virtue of these things, especially the part about introducing me to this franchise, this game has profoundly affected the course of my life, from being my gateway to countless friendships, to affecting my taste in fictional worlds, potentially other more subconscious effects that I can't even fathom. And yet, with all that said, I have no reason or desire to ever return to it. This game that is so important to me is also a painful slog with a ruthlessly compromised Pokedex, terrible boss teams and lukewarm visuals, and now with its infinitely superior enhancement in my possession, its only remaining value that isn't frivolous sentimentality is as a tool to game a system. And the more I think about it the more I find even the nostalgia angle to be weak: I have no genuinely fond childhood memories of Pearl other than me getting stuck at Mt. Coronet and spending who knows how much time massively overleveling my Torterra before giving up. I have never even beaten it once, and like I said earlier the desire to do so is nonexistent with Platinum around.

While I'm not gonna break down into tears over it, I gotta say that I really feel like I've missed out on something I'll never get back. No other franchise I've loved since my early years is stuck in such an awkward position: For instance, my first Sonic game was Rush Adventure and to this day it's tied with Mania for my favorite in the series out of what I've played. Why couldn't have GF gotten Sinnoh even remotely right the first time around, man?
 
Yung Dramps said:
This is gonna be a bit of an oddball post that I'm only putting here cuz this thread is the closest thing to where it would fit due to its negative nature.

So, I've been recently replaying Platinum in preparation for BDSP. Now, the cool thing is that since I still have my original DS in addition to my 3DS as well as my first copy of Pearl, I can cheese my way to trade evolutions. Yesterday I was going through the process of evolving my Machoke, and as I was preparing my Pearl copy for the procedure I had a harrowing moment of clarity.

Pokemon Pearl was my very first Pokemon game, and one of my first "real" videogames that wasn't edutainment software. By virtue of these things, especially the part about introducing me to this franchise, this game has profoundly affected the course of my life, from being my gateway to countless friendships, to affecting my taste in fictional worlds, potentially other more subconscious effects that I can't even fathom. And yet, with all that said, I have no reason or desire to ever return to it. This game that is so important to me is also a painful slog with a ruthlessly compromised Pokedex, terrible boss teams and lukewarm visuals, and now with its infinitely superior enhancement in my possession, its only remaining value that isn't frivolous sentimentality is as a tool to game a system. And the more I think about it the more I find even the nostalgia angle to be weak: I have no genuinely fond childhood memories of Pearl other than me getting stuck at Mt. Coronet and spending who knows how much time massively overleveling my Torterra before giving up. I have never even beaten it once, and like I said earlier the desire to do so is nonexistent with Platinum around.

While I'm not gonna break down into tears over it, I gotta say that I really feel like I've missed out on something I'll never get back. No other franchise I've loved since my early years is stuck in such an awkward position: For instance, my first Sonic game was Rush Adventure and to this day it's tied with Mania for my favorite in the series out of what I've played. Why couldn't have GF gotten Sinnoh even remotely right the first time around, man?
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I feel you there. I don't think it was my first ever Pokémon game, but one of my big nostalgic games is HG, and wow that game does not hold up to my memories of it at all and I will probably never play it without emulator speedup again. It sucks to realize that something important to you isn't actually all that good. At least Platinum holds up pretty well.
 
1624553926414.png

This ugly-as-sin card offends me to no end. Most full-art GX cards are pretty bland and have to rely on the Pokemon render to look good, but this Sceptile crawled from the depths of hell itself, bringing alongside a green screen and a reminder that EX full-arts are far superior.
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Thankfully, V full-art cards are more in-line with EX art, having bold outlines and effects in the background.
1624554398205.png
 
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Yung Dramps said:
This is gonna be a bit of an oddball post that I'm only putting here cuz this thread is the closest thing to where it would fit due to its negative nature.

So, I've been recently replaying Platinum in preparation for BDSP. Now, the cool thing is that since I still have my original DS in addition to my 3DS as well as my first copy of Pearl, I can cheese my way to trade evolutions. Yesterday I was going through the process of evolving my Machoke, and as I was preparing my Pearl copy for the procedure I had a harrowing moment of clarity.

Pokemon Pearl was my very first Pokemon game, and one of my first "real" videogames that wasn't edutainment software. By virtue of these things, especially the part about introducing me to this franchise, this game has profoundly affected the course of my life, from being my gateway to countless friendships, to affecting my taste in fictional worlds, potentially other more subconscious effects that I can't even fathom. And yet, with all that said, I have no reason or desire to ever return to it. This game that is so important to me is also a painful slog with a ruthlessly compromised Pokedex, terrible boss teams and lukewarm visuals, and now with its infinitely superior enhancement in my possession, its only remaining value that isn't frivolous sentimentality is as a tool to game a system. And the more I think about it the more I find even the nostalgia angle to be weak: I have no genuinely fond childhood memories of Pearl other than me getting stuck at Mt. Coronet and spending who knows how much time massively overleveling my Torterra before giving up. I have never even beaten it once, and like I said earlier the desire to do so is nonexistent with Platinum around.

While I'm not gonna break down into tears over it, I gotta say that I really feel like I've missed out on something I'll never get back. No other franchise I've loved since my early years is stuck in such an awkward position: For instance, my first Sonic game was Rush Adventure and to this day it's tied with Mania for my favorite in the series out of what I've played. Why couldn't have GF gotten Sinnoh even remotely right the first time around, man?
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I think Diamond and Pearl are best described as "good for its time". It's a game that was incredibly fun and awesome to play back in its heyday, but is more or less obsolete now and has not aged very well either.

Yeah, when you look at DP nowadays with hindsight in mind, they really aren't that great compared to other Pokémon games. All of the flaws you mentioned, plus the game's slow speed, stick out a lot more now that we're many games later into the series and especially with Platinum in the picture, with Platinum being infinitely more polished than DP, it's harder to go back to DP individually when Platinum added so much polish to the experience.

But DP back in its heyday before Platinum was even in the picture was a massive success, and brought about a new wave of Pokémania after the recession that was Gen 3. Lots of kids got into Pokémon through Diamond and Pearl (I'm a Gen 4 kid myself) and the game was a big hit that brought so many people into playing it and enjoying it, and the game had its good points even way back then: it took advantage of the awesome DS's features, it had tons of cool new Pokémon, and quite a lot of cool stuff to do such as the Underground and Wi-Fi connectivity to interact with many people wirelessly, which was super cool and brought people together really by making Pokémon a massive success again. Many kids have distinct memories of playing it because DP were the games that introduced them to Pokémon.

And not having Platinum in the picture back then is also key, because yes, it's easy to say DP were very heavily flawed when Platinum exists now (and they are), but way back then before Platinum even existed, DP's flaws were inconsequential to most of the people who played them: not many people really batted an eye to the poor Pokédex or the slow as fuck Speed, or at least if they did, they considered these flaws forgivable: after all, Diamond and Pearl were their first entries on a new platform on the DS, and given that, they did the best they could: the next DS Pokémon games will surely be better. Especially in regards to the technical side of things like the lukewarm visuals. That stuff looks bad in the present day with hindsight in mind, but back then? This was the newest game on the market, and compared to the older games, this game was cool and in many ways, revolutionary because of the many new things it brought to Pokémon plus the surge of new kids who got into the franchise.

But yeah, DP didn't really age very well and nowadays are more or less rendered obsolete by Platinum. Platinum polished the Sinnoh experience so much that it's very easy to tell how much better Platinum is compared to DP, and because of that DP's flaws stick out a lot more than they did back then in 2007, and now there's really no reason to go back to DP when Platinum has more or less established itself as the definitive Sinnoh experience so far.
 
I think the freakiest part of DP is that it was the end result after a one year delay. Few people seem to remember or mention this, but they were actually announced in 2004 and originally forecasted for a late 2005 release but got pushed back. I'm pretty sure this is the only time a delay this big has ever happened in the history of mainline Pokemon, in which case I absolutely shudder to imagine the state the game was in prior to that first target to make them go "We can't release it like this". Actually, we barely even have to imagine: Just look at the 2020 DP beta leak, which shows us a game that even just a few months out from the revised 2006 date was still scuffed as shit. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we may have avoided Pokemon 06
 
R_N said:
DP's flaws absolutely stuck out even back in the day. The same complaints we have now are the same complaints everyone was making back then. There's a reason Platinum basically obsoleted them, a lto of it was due to direct response to feedback
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And yet Diamond and Pearl heavily outsold Platinum, as it the case every time for the initial release of a new generation, because most consumers don't think the small tweaks of upper versions are worth it when they already beat an almost completely identical game, no matter how much they improve the experience.
 
Yung Dramps said:
I think the freakiest part of DP is that it was the end result after a one year delay. Few people seem to remember or mention this, but they were actually announced in 2004 and originally forecasted for a late 2005 release but got pushed back. I'm pretty sure this is the only time a delay this big has ever happened in the history of mainline Pokemon, in which case I absolutely shudder to imagine the state the game was in prior to that first target to make them go "We can't release it like this". Actually, we barely even have to imagine: Just look at the 2020 DP beta leak, which shows us a game that even just a few months out from the revised 2006 date was still scuffed as shit. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we may have avoided Pokemon 06
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Several things:
1. interestingly, I (& a member of helix chamber (separately, not together)) remember looking into the initial forecast announcement of DP's year but strangely couldn't find a definite answer. The initial announcement of DP was obviously quite documented but only a few outlets specified a date and the thing that supposedly gave the year we just couldn't find. I do think it was actually delayed just for a few reasons, but strangely they never really talk about it, either when it ws originall out or that there was a delay at all.
2. I find it really important to note that many games are in a scuffed state until right before release. I have seen countless developers say as much. The builds we have are missing various components but that doesn't mean there wasn't constantly work being done on them before being put into the builds. I suspect a number of "perfect" games were utter disasters 6 even 3 months before release before all the compopnents were put together and bug tested. Just in general...it's a good idea not to assume that builds like these necessarily mean it was 1 week from disaster, that goes for any game.
3. Gold & Silver, as "Pokemon 2" was originally intended for late 97, then at Spaceworld 97 delayed to March 1998 and then delayed again to November 1999 and as we all know from the builds that involved a complete overhaul of everything that ALSO continued to run through their release year
 
Xaviere said:
100 normal potions.
who is going to need 100 normal potions

(tbh, the wording doesn’t say if the codes are one per game, or if you can use them both on one of the two. If it’s the latter, the player certainly doesn’t need 200 normal potions)
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Eh, during the main game I find the smaller potions (and HP healing berries) useful for healing your Pokemon outside of battle. A few of your Pokemon get below half HP & you're a good way into the next route/dungeon and don't want to go back. You're pretty sure your Pokemon will get you through just fine, even if one or two does end up fainting... BUT you have all these extra low healing items and why miss out on potential experience or, if you're playing the first time, caught by a surprise boss battle? Take a few seconds to give your worn out Pokemon some of the healing items you won't be using during a battle thus both using up these filler items and keeping those higher healing items for future battles.

But, yeah, as a pre-order bonus? Sucks.

R_N said:
All the dual pack bonuses are just.....bad.
I think ORAS with its ~100 potions~ is probably the worst but
SM: 100 pokeballs. Probably the best of the lot, you can at least just throw them out at anything and maybe get lucky; save some money early game too??
USUM: Nothing! You get a steel book instead! wow!!
SWSH: One (1) crystal (per game) to spawn a dynamax Jangmo-o or dynamax Larvitar (once, each, expire midnight the day you activate the den)

I don't think Let's Go had a dual pack (& the steel book was a....separate thing you got as a bonus for buying at certain retailers....?).

BDSP I think doesn't have a steel book so it might have a bonus to be detailed later.
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And honestly it's not that hard to think of a GOOD bonus. SM was close with the 100 Poke Balls, but, how about instead of a100 normal Poke Balls you'll quickly outgrow, why not give us like, 5 each of each type of Special Poke Balls? Fast, Level, Lure, Heavy, Love, Friend, Moon, Net, Nest, Repeat, Timer, Luxury, Dive, Dusk, Heal, Quick, Dream & of course Master. Heck, that's actually only 18 types so you'll be getting less than 100 BUT it would still be WAY better than 100 Poke Balls (heck, better than getting 100 Ultra Balls even).

I can think of plenty of other ideas (a "medicine pack" actually worth a damn, a ton of Exp Candies now that they're a thing, maybe a bunch of TRs and Held items to get an early leg-up in battles, etc).

Though, at the same time, even if they did what I suggest above it's still "meh" in a grand scheme of things as those are just virtual awards of items you can get in-game, some may require more work but it's doable. Like the "best" pre-order bonus is usually the Event Pokemon they have available for download for like the first month the games are out as that's at least something you can transfer up. And while I also don't see much value in steel books, I do agree with Lemingue that it's at least a physical object that the only original way to get is via pre-ordering so has some "value" even if its just as a souvenir/memento.

green_typhlosion said:
I really wish Game Freak could have re-released both the Stadium games (or at the very least some sort of comparable analogue to them) that could have communicated with the Gen I and II VC titles.
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That would have been a fun idea, make it a budget double-pack. But of course GF are the masters of missed opportunity.

green_typhlosion said:
Honestly though I feel like if they did that with Gen III it would be quite underwhelming for people who played it originally since it had so many good spin-offs that could connect to the main series, like Box and Channel, as well as long-dead peripheries like the e-reader devices. You'd never get the full range of content; there'd be all kinds of stuff like the trainer house in Mossdeep/Sootopolis that inevitably wouldn't be able to function properly. And that's without wondering how they'd handle all the event areas; I suppose you could just tweak it so that Norman gives you the Eon Ticket akin to the GS Ball in Crystal, but there's no analogous event flags for the other items like the Old Sea Map and the AuroraTicket.

I suppose it's an inevitability with any ports of older games, you're never going to get the full experience. The VC titles just straight-up didn't bother incorporating the printer function, and for me at least that's not a terrible price to pay (though I'm sure there's someone out there who probably misses it terribly).
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As you said, they made changes with the other Virtual Console versions, don't see why they can't do that here:
  • Box, Channel, & E-Reader functionality is out of the question.
  • By Trainer House I think you meant Backdoor House, correct? They could just program the E-Reader trainers into the game and have you battle a random one each day/each time you defeat the Elite Four, maybe as a bonus have them award you with a rare Berry for beating them.
  • Eon Ticket, as you said, they could have you talk with Norman maybe after capturing the one that's normally available as a callback to ORAS (yes, a callback to the remake of the game the Virtual Console is a port of).
  • Old Sea Map could be given to you by Mr. Briney.
  • Aurora Ticket could be given to you by Professor Cozmo.
  • Mystic Ticket could be given to you by Captain Stern.
As for removing GB Printer, they could have just allowed you to save photos to your 3DS and then send them to your email.

Dire Dire Docks said:
The roaming Moltres in Platinum knows Roost. Why? Was it not enough to make it one of five roamers in Platinum that all look identical on your little map thing?
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Maybe because it's a phoenix?

Imperial Magala said:
1624553926414.png

This ugly-as-sin card offends me to no end. Most full-art GX cards are pretty bland and have to rely on the Pokemon render to look good, but this Sceptile crawled from the depths of hell itself, bringing alongside a green screen and a reminder that EX full-arts are far superior.
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This card is just asking someone to put Sceptile in a strange location/situation (or maybe the burning bowls of hell, finish the job for them).

DreamPrince said:
All three know Roost actually.
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Ugh, just use an ActionReplay to clone a few Master Balls and be done with it.

Random Passerby said:
I once got a 5 IV Gible through Wonder Trade. The catch? It had 0 IVs in Attack.
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Well, if you transfer it up to at least Gen VII you can now fix it with a Silver Bottle Cap!
 
Pikachu315111 said:
Eh, during the main game I find the smaller potions (and HP healing berries) useful for healing your Pokemon outside of battle. A few of your Pokemon get below half HP & you're a good way into the next route/dungeon and don't want to go back. You're pretty sure your Pokemon will get you through just fine, even if one or two does end up fainting... BUT you have all these extra low healing items and why miss out on potential experience or, if you're playing the first time, caught by a surprise boss battle? Take a few seconds to give your worn out Pokemon some of the healing items you won't be using during a battle thus both using up these filler items and keeping those higher healing items for future battles.

But, yeah, as a pre-order bonus? Sucks.



And honestly it's not that hard to think of a GOOD bonus. SM was close with the 100 Poke Balls, but, how about instead of a100 normal Poke Balls you'll quickly outgrow, why not give us like, 5 each of each type of Special Poke Balls? Fast, Level, Lure, Heavy, Love, Friend, Moon, Net, Nest, Repeat, Timer, Luxury, Dive, Dusk, Heal, Quick, Dream & of course Master. Heck, that's actually only 18 types so you'll be getting less than 100 BUT it would still be WAY better than 100 Poke Balls (heck, better than getting 100 Ultra Balls even).

I can think of plenty of other ideas (a "medicine pack" actually worth a damn, a ton of Exp Candies now that they're a thing, maybe a bunch of TRs and Held items to get an early leg-up in battles, etc).

Though, at the same time, even if they did what I suggest above it's still "meh" in a grand scheme of things as those are just virtual awards of items you can get in-game, some may require more work but it's doable. Like the "best" pre-order bonus is usually the Event Pokemon they have available for download for like the first month the games are out as that's at least something you can transfer up. And while I also don't see much value in steel books, I do agree with Lemingue that it's at least a physical object that the only original way to get is via pre-ordering so has some "value" even if its just as a souvenir/memento.
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Yeah a code for a bunch of the weird balls would be anice one. Like 10 each of the apricorn balls, or the "useful" devon balls or whatever. Or just, hey, you spent a lot of money on this double pack, here's a bunch of money-giving items to sell at your leisure. Honestly can't help looking at all the codes they gave over the course of SWSH's life and going hey why not just use those as a bonus (but more, maybe).


Also to be a bit nitpicky, these aren't preorder bonuses these are purchase bonuses. The dual packs themselves come with the code; pre-orders tend to be actual (exclusive, sometimes) merchandise that varies based on region & retailer.
 
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