(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

There is no universe where Steven doesn't get a Mega Metagross let's be real here. While cool factor may have applied, his iconic ace has always been Metagross
I also doubt Mega Salamence was designed with Drake in mind at all, incidentally. Altaria doesnt even enter the equation, it's just the fact that the e4 rematches were very likely a late in development thing, their mega items are generic and not on their artwork, and likely would have been paired with their proper aces across the board (Dusknoir for Phoebe, Walrein for Glacia)

Salamence was probably made for Zinnia, who as a dragon trainer would make sense to have hoenn's most iconic dragon type (well, non legendary) and oh hey sure enough she's got the fancy mega item and Salamence as her ace.
 
Mega Altaria also has a reason to exist, but it's not because of battles.

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It's similar to the reason Mega Flygon was going to be a thing (because of the Secret Power NPC), but then Sugimori got artist's block.
 
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In regards to Mega pseudo-legendaries, the matter of Mega Hydreigon not existing has been raised, and it's assumed it's because it's not a Gen I Pokémon.

But that raises a whole new question entirely: why does Mega Dragonite not exist? It's popular, it's a pseudo, it's a Dragon, it's from Gen I...

(And I doubt the Mega Stone name is a problem, as it's not a problem in Japanese)
 
Siggu said:
But that raises a whole new question entirely: why does Mega Dragonite not exist? It's popular, it's a pseudo, it's a Dragon, it's from Gen I...

(And I doubt the Mega Stone name is a problem, as it's not a problem in Japanese)
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I brought this up in the Mysteries and Conspiracies thread some months ago, but what makes this even more strange is that Dragonite has oddly enough remained untouched to this day. No Mega, no signature Z-Move, no G-Max, no regional form. Nothing. Considering it's such a popular fan favorite you'd think it'd get something, but nope.

That being said, someone in the OI Discord recently brought up the idea that they may have had several planned designs for a Mega Dragonite and possibly later forms too, but the design team was dissatisfied with all of the designs they had for it and ultimately scrapped them, thus leading to Dragonite not getting a Mega because they couldn't come up with a good design for it.
 
Ngl, good thing Game Freak aborted Megas, because man, what a cavalcade of bad ideas.

R_N said:
Evolutions generally, though not always, approach stat distribution with "what was there prior, but a little more". Occasionally they'll dump one stat to distribute across the others (torracat -> incineroar), or tweak them to emphasize a different stat (Porygon2 -> Porygon-Z which honestly could've just been a form change or a split evolution but I digress) but for the most part they're "reigned in" unless you're in a gimmick line where the entire shtick is they go from trash/mediocre to really good.
They're meant to be "step up" but in line with what you were. Going from a normal statline to a min-maxed statline just isn't a design ethos they generally want but one that Mega Evolution (as a once-per-match, only one pokemon at a time, can't use your held item and cannot increase your HP form change) kind of necessitates, especially for weaker Pokemon.

Which is all to say that if Sableye got a normal evolution, perhaps even one that sent it all the way to 500 BST, it would probably be distributed more evenly and likely wouldn't get magic guard. Lot of "useless" statpoints distributed elsewhere, most notably to HP (well HP isnt useless, but it's something to be mindful of) & speed.
A theoretical Mawile 2 is absolutely not getting Huge Power; the highest attacking stat used by someone normal with Huge/Pure Power is Medicham at 60. Normal Mawile has 85. Mega Mawile's 105 got away with it (& Mega Medicham's 100, for that matter) because it needs to be absurd by design.

Or to maybe turn this discussion around a little...Linoone -> Obstagoon is a 100 BST increase and you can just tell from its statline at a glance that had this been a mega they would have tanked its speed (& possibly special attack) way harder and dumped way more into both defenses and probably given it Fur Coat or an alike ability. Linoone was not a great Pokemon, ergo with a Mega they would have gone way harder on it


And none of this is to say that I wouldn't welcome them going "woops, here's some sableye & mawile evos" just I'd be looking at & using them and then glancing over at the megas they had and going "hm" because by design they can't be as good, you know?
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This. All of it. Megas were busted by design and just horrendously harmful to all levels of play. Even if Mawile got a legit evo, it wouldn't be as busted as Mega Mawile.

Well, except the Porygon part. P2 actually managed to do well with a legit evo because it can use Eviolite to make its bulk even better and stand out more from PZ.

PZ on the other hand plays completely different from 2 with that ridiculous SpA + its abilities.

That's definitely a win-win for all involved when it comes to a cross-gen evo.
 
Siggu said:
In regards to Mega pseudo-legendaries, the matter of Mega Hydreigon not existing has been raised, and it's assumed it's because it's not a Gen I Pokémon.

But that raises a whole new question entirely: why does Mega Dragonite not exist? It's popular, it's a pseudo, it's a Dragon, it's from Gen I...

(And I doubt the Mega Stone name is a problem, as it's not a problem in Japanese)
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The only correct answer is Gamefreak hates Dragonite fans and wants to see us suffer

and they wanted to rob us Americans of "Dragoniteite"
 
For whatever reason, starting in Gen 5, Game Freak kinda just gave up on naming new items.

Prior to Gen 5, there were two sets of type-associated items. The first set were stuff like Miracle Seed and Black Glasses, a menagerie of unrelated objects that all happened to boost the power of a type. Then there were the plates, which had neat names like Meadow Plate and Dread Plate or were at the very least synonyms of their type like Flame and Insect. And then in Gen 5 they just said "fuck it, Grass Gem. Dark Gem. Fire Gem. Bug Gem." This continued into Gen 7, with Grassium Z and Darkinium Z, as well as the plate counterparts in Grass Memory and Dark Memory.

By the way, it's not just sets of type-associated items that dropped the ball on naming. Pokemon-specific items also suffered. Compare Stick and Light Ball with Garchompite and Mewnium Z.
 
Also as we discuss this more and more I'm kinda disliking how Megas were implemented. Giving it to 3 stage Pokemon that need a buff like Charizard and Gardevoir? Totally cool. Giving a 2 stager a Mega because it already feels like the line has reached it's end like Lucario? Also cool, even if that one ended up busted. Giving already powerful 3 stagers like Salamence, Tyranitar, and Garchomp Megas? That's questionable, even if Mega Tar and Chomp are arguably worse than their default forms lol. Giving Legendaries like Mewtwo and Rayquaza Mega evolutions? Even more questionable, but I mean it is kinda fun from a post-game standpoint (you have to remember Gamefreak only considers their official format in terms of competitive balancing most of the time so they were expecting Mega Quaza to not be used that much since it was generally restricted in VGC/BSS with other Box legends. Doesn't excuse it's power level but it is what it is)

Easily my least favorite are the ones that buff single stage Shitmons and make them good. Why do I hate these? Cause Megas are gone now, and Mawile has 0 potential to ever get an evolution without retconning a whole lotta shit. I'm glad Mega Mawile made Mawile good, I love Mega Mawile, but now Megas are gone, and their inclusion in the future will be unpredictable and shaky at best, meaning whether or not I can actually use Mawile and not suffer is up in the balance from game to game. Same applies to ones like Sableye and Audino.
 
Honestly the fact that Mega Evolutions were reduced to an afterthought in Gen 7 and straight up removed in Gen 8 really suggests to me that Game Freak has their regrets about how Megas were ultimately executed. The concept wasn't bad in theory but the execution was very bad both competitively and in-game (in-game they just completely trivialize the game) and I'm sure they probably realize that at this point.

Regional forms and normal evolutions are the far more survivable "changes" to older Pokemon that are executed better. Regional forms granted are more of a YMMV, and come at the expense of potentially rendering the original form more obsolete, but they can in many cases breathe new life into an older Pokemon without completely making it overpowered, while on the contrary in many ways they still make older mons more interesting with the regional forms. New typings, potentially new abilities and movepools, and perhaps even slight stat changes that don't overpower the mon too much make many older mons have a new way to be fun. Alolan Sandslash and Alolan Ninetales are two of my favorites in that regard in that they take totally different directions from their original variants, but the OGs still have their place. Seeing some of them get new evos with Galar was a nice spin on the cross-gen evo tradition too. Not to mention regional forms are much more interesting in terms of flavor. Megas are just an artificial transformation that is temporary. Regional forms have nice flavor in that they come off as adaptations of a Pokemon that is still a Pokemon, but became different from its originally discovered form to adapt to a region it was in. Like how Ninetales, Sandslash, and Darmanitan all adapted to a colder region. Or even a case like Galarian Zigazoon, which is speculated to be the original Zigzagoon, but as they came into Hoenn they became friendlier and lost the ability to evolve into Obstagoon. Or even differences in personality, like how Galarian Darmanitan is much friendlier and calmer than its Unovan form, while the reverse is true for their Zen Mode forms. Or how Perrserker is more violent than Persian who is snobby, and the two mutually dislike each other. There's a lot of room for more interesting flavor there with regional forms.

Of course, normal evolutions themselves already stand the test of time much better anyway. They were a good way to bring new life into older Pokemon, with the likes of the Johto and Sinnoh ones still standing the test of time today as they buffed old Pokemon well enough, and the ones from the regional forms in Galar are also pretty well liked and will likely continue to survive. Look at the likes of Kingdra, Electivire, Magmortar, Yanmega, Steelix, and Togekiss for instance. Or the likes of Sirfetch'd and Obstagoon. The fact that we're still getting regional forms even after their debut in SM, with both Galar and Hisui bringing forth new ones and even new evolutions to older mons, shows that these are here to stay and we will continue to get them in the future. And honestly, that's for the best.

Normal cross-gen evolutions and regional forms will inevitably in the long term stand the test of time better than Megas ever will.
 
Aside from evolutions and regional forms, moves and abilities also help Pokémon stand the test of time. Which is why I hate how much signature features newer Pokémon receive. Gen 7 is the biggest offender of this because almost every, if not every evolutionary line received a signature move, ability, or both. This is especially annoying when new Pokémon steal signature features of old Pokémon while simultaneously receiving something exclusive for themselves. Lunala stole Night Daze, Calyrex and Mr. Rime line stole the Ice/Psychic type, Togedemaru stole Iron Barbs, Rolycoly stole Heatproof, Magearna stole Shift Gear and Heart Swap. When people were speculating a Z-Move for Magearna I wanted to facepalm because it already has Fleur Cannon and Soul-Heart. It does not need any more exclusivity.

What's particularly annoying is how some newer signature moves eventually gets distributed to older Pokémon over time like Solar Blade or Psychic Fangs. But to promote newer Pokémon, they wait an entire game or generation before giving newer moves to older Pokémon. And even then some moves like Floral Healing or Zing Zap are still exclusive or not distributed enough. Sadly, abilities do not have the same luxury since they change a feature of a Pokémon instead of adding onto what's already there. Hidden abilities were a great way to introduce newer abilities to older Pokémon, but I don't think they plan to add another hidden ability slot. Some abilities like Triage or Merciless deserve to be given to the original forms of older Pokémon. Triage Mega Audino is such a waste of potential, but I rather have it on its base form (or both). Now I don't mind some features being exclusive to certain Pokémon, but later generations have too much special treatment.

And to add onto DrPumpkinz's post about items and the general discussion on why Z-Moves and megas do not help Pokémon stand the test of time is how they stopped making regular but exclusive items like Thick Club. Regular items are a more permanent feature, but since Gamefreak doesn't want regular items like Soul Dew outclassing whatever gimmick they want to do with the item slot, they stopped making them. In fact, Thick Club is the only great signature item for a fully evolved Pokémon that's not a Z-Crystal or mega stone. The rest are either meh (like the nerfed Soul Dew or Creation Trio orbs) or for unevolved Pokémon (Light Ball or Clampearl evolutionary items).
 
Nokocchi said:
To be fair, there isn't many electric types that would makes sense to have Zing Zap, since it's Japanese name pretty much states that the Pokemon has to be spiny, which is why Togedemaru and Pincurchin are the only Pokemon to get the move.
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Its also the same reason why only Bouffalant can learn Head Charge, the Japanese name is " Afro Break "; both moves are names that are lost in localization, other examples are Tail Glow and Spore.
 
FloopThePig said:
Aside from evolutions and regional forms, moves and abilities also help Pokémon stand the test of time. Which is why I hate how much signature features newer Pokémon receive. Gen 7 is the biggest offender of this because almost every, if not every evolutionary line received a signature move, ability, or both. This is especially annoying when new Pokémon steal signature features of old Pokémon while simultaneously receiving something exclusive for themselves. Lunala stole Night Daze, Calyrex and Mr. Rime line stole the Ice/Psychic type, Togedemaru stole Iron Barbs, Rolycoly stole Heatproof, Magearna stole Shift Gear and Heart Swap. When people were speculating a Z-Move for Magearna I wanted to facepalm because it already has Fleur Cannon and Soul-Heart. It does not need any more exclusivity.

What's particularly annoying is how some newer signature moves eventually gets distributed to older Pokémon over time like Solar Blade or Psychic Fangs. But to promote newer Pokémon, they wait an entire game or generation before giving newer moves to older Pokémon. And even then some moves like Floral Healing or Zing Zap are still exclusive or not distributed enough. Sadly, abilities do not have the same luxury since they change a feature of a Pokémon instead of adding onto what's already there. Hidden abilities were a great way to introduce newer abilities to older Pokémon, but I don't think they plan to add another hidden ability slot. Some abilities like Triage or Merciless deserve to be given to the original forms of older Pokémon. Triage Mega Audino is such a waste of potential, but I rather have it on its base form (or both). Now I don't mind some features being exclusive to certain Pokémon, but later generations have too much special treatment.

And to add onto DrPumpkinz's post about items and the general discussion on why Z-Moves and megas do not help Pokémon stand the test of time is how they stopped making regular but exclusive items like Thick Club. Regular items are a more permanent feature, but since Gamefreak doesn't want regular items like Soul Dew outclassing whatever gimmick they want to do with the item slot, they stopped making them. In fact, Thick Club is the only great signature item for a fully evolved Pokémon that's not a Z-Crystal or mega stone. The rest are either meh (like the nerfed Soul Dew or Creation Trio orbs) or for unevolved Pokémon (Light Ball or Clampearl evolutionary items).
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Pokémon with an exclusive Ability that serves to just changes it’s in-battle forms tend to not stood the test of time either. While that worked on Mimikyu and Aegislash, there is no denying that they had gone overboard to the point questions are asked if all those form-changing Abilities are really worth it.

I still stand about the fact that several single-staged Pokémon introduced in generation 3 aged the worst, but the other single-stages relying a lot on their gimmicky Ability, except Mimikyu, Minior and Wishiwashi, can and will age poorly.
 
DreamPrince said:
Its also the same reason why only Bouffalant can learn Head Charge, the Japanese name is " Afro Break "; both moves are names that are lost in localization, other examples are Tail Glow and Spore.
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It's the same thing with moves that have an odd distribution for their name, like Aerial Ace(it's a sword move named after a bird, called Reverse Swallow, which is why so many pokemon with claws and blades can learn it, and stuff like Diglett that learn many other slashing moves) and Sucker Punch(It's just known as "ambush" in Japan, and it's English name creates some oddities like Hitmonlee and Hitmontop being able to learn the Gen IV move tutor, but not Hitmonchan, and many things with no arms or even limbs like Electrode)
 
Another thing that bugs me in GSC is the Charcoal guy in Azalea Town, or more specifically what he says. After you rescue his Farfetch'd he says "You chased off TEAM ROCKET and went to ILEX FOREST alone? That takes guts! I like that. Come train with us." But you... never get the chance to train with him.

I know NPCs say dumb unconsequential shit like that all the time (I once flew to Hearthome City and explored every corner of the Contest Hall because when Fantina visits your villa she says "let's meet at the Contest Hall!", stupid me) but it'd be cool if you could meet up with the Charcoal man and his apprentice and battle with them, perhaps as a daily event. Sure Pokegear rematches already exist, but it'd be neat regardless. There are a few other NPCs in Johto like the Karate King and the Meowth trainer on Route 39 where I feel like they should want to rematch you given what they say after you beat them. But no.

(Also is it just me that thinks he's super dumb for leaving his Pokemon with the apprentice when the apprentice literally says it won't obey him because he doesn't have Azalea's badge, or)
 
ScraftyIsTheBest said:
Yeah if they really wanted to give a Mega to some Pokemon from Gen 5 there were way more eligible candidates for sure. You bring up Zebstrika which would've been great with a Mega, but the likes of Excadrill, Scolipede, Whimsicott, Lilligant, Krookodile, Darmanitan, Gothitelle/Reuniclus, Eelektross, Chandelure, Haxorus, Golurk, Bisharp, Braviary, Mandibuzz, Volcarona, and Hydreigon would've had way more interesting Mega Evolutions than Audino, and all of them are much more popular Gen 5 Pokemon than Audino ever was. Especially the latter two, since Hydreigon hasn't really gotten anything amongst its pseudo-legendary brethren.



Its sole purpose is to exist as a means to get tons of EXP quickly anyway so it's not like it would matter either way in the long run xD.
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Volt-Ikazuchi said:
Audino was horrible and now it's going to be unlikely for it to get a legit evo outside of a regional evo.

It lost on all fronts. Tbh, all Megas that are tied to non 3rd stage mons are instant mistakes.
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whoa guys don’t hate on Audino, it’s secretly good in-game (in BW1 at least, in BW2 it got power creeped like crazy).

Regenerator is a solid Ability (the only other non-Hidden Ability Unovan user of this is lolMienfoo) , Work Up is the best TM it could ever ask for with such an expansive TM learnset, and when we used it for the list it ended up in the respectable C tier (I thought it was E-rank trash initially).

I mean sure, it’s hard to recommend completely over the other Normal types but I think it’s a great beginner-friendly mon, teaching new players the importance of Abilities, stat buffs, and the concept of type coverage.

So yeah. If you ever find yourself complaining about how BW1 earlygame has (somewhat justifiably) boring earlygame selection, try Audino out after the first Gym. You’ll have to buff with it sure, but it still won’t fall off until the Pokemon League.
 
Siggu said:
You cannot get Audino before the first Gym IIRC, because rustling grass does not show up until after you get the first badge.

(I learned it the hard way when I wanted to get a Dunsparce in BW2)
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The more things I remember about BW1, the more I feel I should play it again. It's been way too long and I might hate them more than I think...
 
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