(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Hugin]

Well, there's the unused God Stone from BW1 (why not say it's actually a Mega Stone?), and Mega Aerodactyl being stated to be Aerodactyl's true appearance sets some sort of precedent.

Wait, then why is it still Rock/Flying? That doesn't make any sense.

And yeah, I really want LA to do well just so we get more stuff set in the distant past discussing all these legendaries. Give us a doomed plot of trying to stop Az from firing the weapon. OG Genesect before the metal. Come on GF, you know you want to...

 

[Pikachu315111]

This is mainly because I'm never going to do all the Pokestar Studio movies so want to get my trainer card as high as I possibly can.

Why not? They're pretty fun.

Original dragon should only be added if the narrative around it makes up for the fact that you're removing a really cool mystery and probably replacing it with a mediocre design that no one will really like because they put their expectations of the original dragon through the fucking roof.

If we get a Legends game based in ancient Unova, that is the only chance the original dragon has of showing up as a proper Pokemon.

In fact, if we ever do see the original Dragon, it'll be in such a game. If it takes place in the ancient past, before it split into Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem, in a time built around the formation of Unova.

Okay, I got it:

This got longer than I thought it would

We get a Legends: Unova. It takes place before the kingdom splits and we're shown that the king is in control of a dragon. However the dragon only has maybe a passing resemblance to what you'd think a combined form of Zekrom and Reshiram would be, also a notable feature is 3 horns around its head resembling a crown.

The player is a new student for the castle's head magister (their version of a Professor) and assigned to a new initiative that is to tame and catalogue all the Pokemon into a Bestiary. It should be noted this game takes place just when the term "Pokemon" was starting to be used; most people still refer and think all Pokemon as beasts or monsters not really related to one another; the king's dragon is even considered a deity or holy being which exists to prove the king's right of rule. The point of the Magister's research is to prove that the "beasts" aren't all unrelated but rather all "Pokemon"; the proof being the development of a primitive Poke Ball; letting you capture the "monsters" which you can than carry around in your "pocket", a "pocket monster". The player will go around the region going on tasks for not only the Magister but for the King, the princes, nobles, other castle staff, and helping out anyone they meet while catching and researching Pokemon. But that's the basic gameplay loop, we're talking about the driving plot.

So, it'll be revealed the king is dying and his two sons are trying to claim the throne by proving themselves worthy to the king's dragon. Eventually, the king's health has deteriorated to to the point he calls upon the Princes to go on a grand quest to prove who is worthy. Some time afterwards the king is on his deathbed prompting the princes to return with what achievements they have done. The king considers them both worthy, but only one can rule so lets his dragon decide... and it chooses one of them. No splitting apart, no battles, not even a moment of hesitation, the king's dragon just chooses the one it thinks it most worthy (now between the princes leaving and returning they could have the player pick to help the princes on various tasks, so maybe have it so who the player helps out most affects the choice). The other Prince runs away furious & ashamed and shortly the king finally passes on. On the night of the crowning ceremony there's a marvelous display of shooting stars... and then a giant flash followed by a loud crash in the nearby mountains.

Next day, wanting to know what that flash & bang was about, the new king goes on an expedition along with his dragon, knights, the Magister, and the player to the mountains. Eventually the location is reached, what would be Giant Chasm, when the expedition is attacked by an icy creature, this one more looking like a Kyurem! The king's dragon battles the icy creature, and though it fights it off, the mysterious creature does something to the king's dragon resulting half of it to become black and the other half white. They follow the creature to where it fled to discover a new palace being built (the Abyssl Ruins) and the one who is building it: the other prince. The king confronts his brother and a fight breaks out, the icy creature then appearing under the prince's command and attacks the king's dragon once more. However, this time it finishes what it started to do: it splits the king's dragon into Zekrom & Reshiram (though before it did the spikes on its head shoot off) and then fuses with one of them to become a Fused Kyurem. The prince declares himself the new king now that he has his own dragon, forcing the expedition to retreat (it'll later be explained that the other prince was living in Undella Bay when the icy creature landed during the shooting stars night. He travelled to a nearby small settlement, Lacunosa Town, who told him a monster has appeared and has taken some people & Pokemon, they also starting building a wall around the town to protect themselves. Staying in the town that night, the icy creature did attack and the prince fought it off and followed it, finding the kidnapped people and Pokemon in its lair, still alive but weak & unable to move. The prince confronts the icy creature who at first lashes out but soon collapses & cowers. Feeling sympathy (and curious if its a Pokemon), the prince captures it. The people of Lacunosa swear loyalty to the prince, and soon the prince learns about the icy creature's power to absorb energy (which affects its shape). With people and a plan to get his own dragon, they all went back to Undella Bay to start building the prince's palace).

Now with a war going on between the two brothers, one with either Zekrom/Reshiram and the other with a Fused Kyurem of the other dragon's half, it's a major change. Still hoping for reconciliation and undoing what was done to the king's dragon, a peace negotiation group is formed which include the Magister and player who are allowed to travel between both territories for missions of peace and to continue the magister's research (both Princes had showed interest in it at the very beginning). The conflict reaches a new height when the Prince builds a tower (Dragonsprial Tower) closer to the King's castle (obviously Relic Castle). Using the Magister's research new beasts are made to protect both, Sigilyph for the castle and Golett family for the tower, much to the Magister's dismay as they're now turning the beasts into tools which is opposite of his goals.

Jump forward to the final battle happening in the center of Unova (where the Entralink is now located, before just all a dense forest initially left unperturbed as a "Beast Sanctuary"). The King and Prince have their final clash where it looks like the King is about to lose, but then suddenly three Pokemon bearing the crown horns come in with an army of Pokemon to help the King, the Swords of Justice (btw it would be the Magister and player who went around finding the Swords of Justice and convincing them to help). Still, even with their help the battle is dire, the King's dragon is injured leaving the King to face (a weakened) Fused Kyurem alone. But that's when the King revealed a back-up plan: two circular stones & a monochomre spike. Stabbing Kyurem with the spike (the DNA Splicer), it activates and the King pulls his dragon into one of the spheres and the other half of the dragon out of Kyurem and into the other, forcefully changing Kyurem into the form we know it as. The Swords of Justice fight Kyurem shattering most of its body though it releases its remainder of power into a Glaciate to escape, the Prince also vanishing along with it.

For their help, the King declares all the beasts to be living beings. However the damages done to the King's castle (an attack by Kyurem slowly turning the area into a desert) and the Prince's palace (it's unstable foundation sinking it beneath the sea) leave both unsuitable to rule a kingdom from. And with how much harm him and his brother has done, the king decides to let the people of his kingdom rule themselves while he stays in the forest to rebuild the forest and watch over all the region, the Swords of Justice joining him. Post game would start with everyone moving to a new settlement: Opelucid City. The King's dragon's orb would be hidden in Relic Castle, the other orb would be placed in Dragonspiral Tower, and the DNA Splicer kept in Opelucid. A final thing we learn is the people who followed the Prince had "surrendered" and became subjects of the king. They all return to the abandoned Lacunoda Town and finish building the wall in fear of the prince & Kyurem returning for revenge, telling their children of the monster of Giant Chasm as a way to keep them from wandering there. But, before they abandoned the sinking palace, they wrote a legend of the king and left it in there: King defeated Kyurem alone. The Swords of Justice joined King in a day. King called Beasts (Pokemon) beings. King is hope and future. The great King Harmonia.

Wait, then why is it still Rock/Flying? That doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, I call the description that Mega Aerodactyl being the "real" version BS.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Why not? They're pretty fun.

Ehh not to me. I never enjoyed the mandatory bit they make you do as part of the plot and it put me off. Never say never, though.

Okay, I got it:

Okay that was great and I want this very much can you please go and work for Game Freak now

Your story planning teamed up with whoever designed BDSP's rosters would be *unstoppable*

 

[Siggu]

And yeah, I really want LA to do well just so we get more stuff set in the distant past discussing all these legendaries. Give us a doomed plot of trying to stop Az from firing the weapon. OG Genesect before the metal. Come on GF, you know you want to...

Legends is such a lose-lose situation...

If it succeeds, Pokémon will see a larger amount of open world games (which is extremely bad in any franchise).
If it fails, the whole "region in the past" thing is unlikely to happen again (which is also bad).

 

[Worldie]

If it succeeds, Pokémon will see a larger amount of open world games (which is extremely bad in any franchise).

Eh, I doubt it.
The semi-openworld system is not bad if executed properly.
SwSh had a good idea with the Wild Area which was executed poorly, and massively improved in the two DLCs
(Sure the textures in the wild areas are uuugh horrible, but the way both Armor and Tundra wild areas were executed was MUCH better than the original one)

Obviously if done poorly it just leads to empty spaces that obtain nothing, but I do not think that moving from full route based to a semi open world system would be bad for the franchise, if anything the opposite.

 

[Siggu]

The semi-openworld system is not bad if executed properly.

But there is no proper execution no matter where you look at.

When the game does not pressure you into following a line... what do you even do? Where's the motivation?

Not to mention the whole "do what you want" thing makes no sense when the game does not even tell you what you can do in the first place.

 

[Worldie]

But there is no proper execution no matter where you look at.

When the game does not pressure you into following a line... what do you even do? Where's the motivation?

Not to mention the whole "do what you want" thing makes no sense when the game does not even tell you what you can do in the first place.

You're confusing pure open worlds with semi openworlds.
Remember that L:A is already confirmed to be a semiopenworld.

Semi openworlds like Xenoblade Chronicles still have a clear plotline, the usual "go here" objective marker and some sense of linearity, simply you actually are ALSO able to explore the areas and deviate in them to do stuff.

It's different from pure openworlds like Skyrim or BotW that go full "ok do what you want."

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

But there is no proper execution no matter where you look at.

When the game does not pressure you into following a line... what do you even do? Where's the motivation?

Not to mention the whole "do what you want" thing makes no sense when the game does not even tell you what you can do in the first place.

You're confusing pure open worlds with semi openworlds.
Remember that L:A is already confirmed to be a semiopenworld.

Semi openworlds like Xenoblade Chronicles still have a clear plotline, the usual "go here" objective marker and some sense of linearity, simply you actually are ALSO able to explore the areas and deviate in them to do stuff.

It's different from pure openworlds like Skyrim or BotW that go full "ok do what you want."

From what has been shown about Legends: Arceus over the past few months, it's actually still going to be a fairly structured experience. It still has checkpoints and a clear sense of progression from one point to the next, with the Wardens being marketed as being akin to "Gym Leaders" in most traditional mainline titles in that you meet them in a certain order and battle their Noble mons or something like that, and a few sub-bosses here and there, making it very akin to Alola in a sense in terms of the flavor.

Also it's definitely not going to be a "do what you want" experience in that the game's schtick in terms of plot is that you're hired as a member of the Galaxy Expedition team, a dedicated research team dedicated to studying mons in Hisui (or ie ancient Sinnoh), and the people higher up in command such as Commander Kamado, Professor Laventon, and Cyllene are always going to give you research missions to do and complete, and no matter what when you complete one research mission, you report back to them and they give you another mission. You will always have specific goals to achieve no matter where you go: yeah, there's a lot of exploration going on in a full on 3D environment, but the experience is still fairly structured and Legends: Arceus is going to be a game that will always explicitly tell you what to do, because the Expedition Team will always have specific missions to send you out on, not to mention there are distinct story checkpoints akin to Gym Leaders in the form of the Wardens and the Noble Pokemon. So in that sense, the experience of Legends: Arceus is still structured in a sense.

Despite making some changes to the gameplay and exploration in terms of a Pokemon game, Legends: Arceus while deviating from the norm is still in many ways structured like a traditional mainline title. In addition to the sense of structure I pointed out, there's the traditional Grass/Fire/Water starter trio, levels, four moves in combat, a boy and girl protagonist, a Professor, and a post-game (confirmed that there will be an unlockable Shaymin post-game quest if you have SwSh save data in your Switch). So in some ways, it still adheres to traditions of the core series despite also making major changes in the gameplay department.

 

[Hugin]

But there is no proper execution no matter where you look at.

When the game does not pressure you into following a line... what do you even do? Where's the motivation?

Not to mention the whole "do what you want" thing makes no sense when the game does not even tell you what you can do in the first place.

You're thinking of Skyrim, which isn't what they're doing*. The place to look is Metroidvania games. The serious ones, where there may be an intended sequence, but large areas are open from the beginning and you can do big chunks out of order. Ocarina of Time types of Metroidvania**.

*Also, Skyrim is incredibly popular, so clearly other people get something out of it that you do not. You want a linear experience, that's fine, but some people prefer being given an overall goal, a handful of tools, and let loose to accomplish it however they feel like.

**The third type of open world game, which I don't think they're doing but provides another interesting option, is Grand Theft Auto/Saint's Row. "Here's a massive open world, go anywhere. When you're ready, select the next mission and we'll drop an objective and a bunch of enemies somewhere on the map. Have fun!" Games which can be played as linear shooters or as open-world sandboxes depending on how much the player rushes through the missions vs wanders around getting into trouble.

 

[R_N]

You're confusing pure open worlds with semi openworlds.
Remember that L:A is already confirmed to be a semiopenworld.

Semi openworlds like Xenoblade Chronicles still have a clear plotline, the usual "go here" objective marker and some sense of linearity, simply you actually are ALSO able to explore the areas and deviate in them to do stuff.

It's different from pure openworlds like Skyrim or BotW that go full "ok do what you want."

Also, just grabbing BOTW as the link here since it's the one I'm most familiar with, the motivation is "do the plot"
BOTW forces you to do things on the Great Plataeu (albeit in any order you want) and then you're let loose on Hyrule, but the plot threads have you go to Impa first (if you want) and then go handle the 4 divine beasts (if you want) and that's the loose guide you can follow while making your ways to the corners of the world and then go to Hyrule Castle for end game (which you can also do at any time, just....probably dont unless you're an expert). And obviously idealy you'd find some sidequests or a little exploration to do on the side.

A lot of BOTW doesn't appeal to me, but that's more to do with open world gameplay isn't what I want from Zelda, but motiviation is absolutely supplied in most open worlds.
And I suspect that if LA was this huge ridiculous run away success and they immediately decided to pivot to this style of game forever
and also
decided to not keep the more linear experience they seem to have set up for LA (as ScraftyIsTheBest has pointed out), they would probably go with the BOTW style "do these things, then do end game, feel free to do them in mostly any order while doing other stuff along the way"

 

[Atem91]

Funny you say that, because I'm just now trying to (finally) fully level up my Entree on Black 2 (it's a grind-y nightmare if anyone has any tips). This is mainly because I'm never going to do all the Pokestar Studio movies so want to get my trainer card as high as I possibly can.

Though I don't think Gen V deserves all the criticism for this when you consider that Gen VI significantly downgraded the concept of the trainer card level. Sure there aren't stars on your trainer card in BW/B2W2 but it still levels up and changes colour like the others do.

Both Gen V titles have five requirements to level up the dex, a couple of which are legitimately difficult. Whereas XY has... enter the Hall of Fame (standard), see all the Pokemon in the Kalos Dex (not terribly difficult if you fight every trainer and explore a good amount, plus you don't even need to see Mewtwo or the bird trio which feels unnecessarily lenient - they're not hard to find), and defeat one of the Chatelaines (a bit strenuous, but you only have to beat one of them). ORAS isn't much harder - it just swaps seeing 450 Pokemon for catching 200 (which with the GTS being a thing now is far easier than it ever was in RSE).

I just recently got both my black and white entree to lv 100 lol, was hell but finally have game complete and my 45 pass powers including the shiny charm power for black lv 100, best way to level em up is with 2 games and consoles do lost items mission start in roundabout castelia go down main street then loop round seafront till end fly to pwt and go into driftveil and end on bridge should usually get between 54-66 every time and will always get 1 level up and sometimes a 2 level bump which is nice

 

[Atem91]

I agree BW1 missed a post game reward system coming off the heels of Emerald, Platinum and HGSS with their Battle Frontiers and respective symbols.

However, BW2 made up for this in my opinion. I like that your trainer card gets upgraded by beating the Champions Tournament at the PWT. That's a very viable goal worth striving for, even with an in-game team.

And Black Tower/White Treehollow handled this pretty well too, with the token shiny Dragon you get.

I get your point, but I didn't really feel like I missed out on a post game achievement system in BW2 with the way they handled things.

I did as everything in bw2 just felt grindy and repetitive for no good reason like alot of the medal requierments and at same time game doesn't force you to do anything well just mindlessly repeat the tasks, I didnt have to put in the same effort like in previous gens.

 

[Nokocchi]

Oranguru not getting Tri Attack via TR. Tri Attack is given to lots of Psychic types, even in its debut in Gen I as a TM, and Oranguru is both a Psychic type AND a normal type, so it would get a nice normal STAB option. Instead it is stuck with the low-powered Round, the unreliable Hyper Beam, and the completely useless Snore.. I do hope that, if it is more specially-inclined(Since stanter's special attack is only slightly lower than its Attack), that Wyrdeer gets a decent special Normal STAB option, since Stantler currently only has Round, Uproar, Snore, and Swift as options.

 

[ZettaiRyouiki]

Since everyone is celebrating Sun and Moon's anniversary, reminder Europe and JUST Europe was forced to wait an extra five days to get the games (And ORAS took an extra week too, but that wasn't the start of a new gen). No reason was giving except gaming companies hate Europe. Joy.

 

[Siggu]

Since everyone is celebrating Sun and Moon's anniversary, reminder Europe and JUST Europe was forced to wait an extra five days to get the games (And ORAS took an extra week too, but that wasn't the start of a new gen). No reason was giving except gaming companies hate Europe. Joy.

You're from the same region that gets a 1 USD = 1 Euro conversion for stores even though it obviously does not work that way, so...

 

[ZettaiRyouiki]

You're from the same region that gets a 1 USD = 1 Euro conversion for stores even though it obviously does not work that way, so...

Not all games! Only 99% of them.

 

[R_N]

The Grand Underground is actually pretty neat but it is so immensely frustrating at the same time.

Why aren't every Platinum Dex pokemon available before beating the game? Off the top of my head Nosepass, Tangela, Tropius can show up in there but only after the national dex.
Why on earth isn't Eevee, specifically, in the underground at all? The porygon line and Yanma (for some reason????????) don't show up either.
Why would you plop down items around the Underground, something they had to specifically think about and implement because that wasn't there in DP, and not put the various Platinum evolution items. Why isn't the Razor Fang found there? Why is the Deep Sea Scale found there?!

 

[Sonikku A]

The Grand Underground is actually pretty neat but it is so immensely frustrating at the same time.

Why aren't every Platinum Dex pokemon available before beating the game? Off the top of my head Nosepass, Tangela, Tropius can show up in there but only after the national dex.
Why on earth isn't Eevee, specifically, in the underground at all? The porygon line and Yanma (for some reason????????) don't show up either.
Why would you plop down items around the Underground, something they had to specifically think about and implement because that wasn't there in DP, and not put the various Platinum evolution items. Why isn't the Razor Fang found there? Why is the Deep Sea Scale found there?!

Note: it's version exclusive based too!
And the spawns are affected by level/badge count

 

[R_N]

Note: it's version exclusive based too!
And the spawns are affected by level/badge count

I'm fine with those things, I just care that they're present at all.

 

[qtrx]

Whose idea was it at ILCA to include so many reflective ground surfaces in BDSP? e.g. in the Galactic or mossy biome battles. I was at Canalave Library a while ago and even the wooden floor in the overworld looked like mirrors.

Maybe it's their way to make the game look fancier. But surfaces don't really work that way. Additionally the fact that I was playing as Dawn highlighted how poor of a design choice it was. Or perhaps that was the intention?

 

[Siggu]

Whose idea was it at ILCA to include so many reflective ground surfaces in BDSP? e.g. in the Galactic or mossy biome battles. I was at Canalave Library a while ago and even the wooden floor in the overworld looked like mirrors.

Maybe it's their way to make the game look fancier. But surfaces don't really work that way. Additionally the fact that I was playing as Dawn highlighted how poor of a design choice it was. Or perhaps that was the intention?

Sinnoh people spend two thirds of their day polishing the floor.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Sinnoh people spend two thirds of their day polishing the floor.

They get restless whenever they finish polishing their badges.

 

[R_N]

They made reflective surfaces
*loads gun*

and you're going to enjoy them

 

[Siggu]

So here comes a bizarre restriction in BDSP: you cannot enter a Union Room while you're in a cave. Pressing the Y button does nothing in there.

 

[Wukong]

This definitely qualifies as a "little thing that annoys me" because it's hardly worth mentioning. And it's in my favorite game Platinum, which my criticisms of are quite minor anyway.

But I don't like how Cyrus switches aces in between his three battles. In his first two battles it's Murkrow/Honchkrow. Then suddenly it's Weavile in his battle in the Distortion World.

Both mons/evolution lines are cool, I just wish he'd pick one and stick to it throughout his three battles. Even DP/BDSP didn't do that, clearly sticking with Sneasel/Weavile throughout.