Clear Smog is described as "a clump of special mud", even though it's a Poison-type move and the thing in the animation doesn't look like mud. This isn't a translation issue, because the Japanese name is the English words "clear smog" in katakana.
First thing I did was checked to see what the Japanese version's description said. It too translated to the move being a "clump of special mud" so this oddity is consistent between languages.
So with that done, this to me screams "changed last moment & forgot to change an easily overlooked thing". Sounds like it was a Ground-type move at first, maybe the original idea was the Pokemon was tossing exfoliating mud hence the stat change removal.
Not sure why they decided to make it a Poison-Type though. Gen V only introduce 2 Ground-type moves (Earth Power & Drill Run) while Poison got 5 (Acid Spray, Coil, Sludge Wave, Venoshock, and of course Clear Smog). Adding Clear Smog doesn't really attribute much in terms of filling any gaps, infact if that was the purpose staying Ground-type would have been the better choice. So I'm thinking it maybe has to do with the aesthetic of what Clear Smog became.
First, let's address the seemingly oxymoron name: Clear Smog. It's the same in Japanese too, using "kuria" for "clear". If "kuria" has the same set of definitions as "clear" does, which from what I can find it seems to, then I think when they say "clear" isn't that you can see through the smoke but that the smoke is being used to "clear away" the stat changes. So in that regard it sounds like they're treating Clear Smog as an attacking version of Haze (in Japanese called "Black Mist"). However, while Haze is an Ice-type Move so a bit odd to see on Fire and Poison-type movesets, Clear Smog being Poison-type makes more sense as fire & some violent chemical reactions create smoke that is dangerous to breath in. In addition smoke from fires are used as a method of "smoking someone out" of a hiding place.
I'm curious if the change was also done for wanting to make the Trubbish and Foongus families have more defensive options.
So was Meowstic supposed to be Psychic/Fairy at one point? I swear, Serena's spams Disarming Voice more than is healthy.
She just REALLY wants to make sure he attacks never miss.
Joking aside, two questions: what point of the game is this at & what Pokemon did you have out? Was it resistant to Psychic-type moves? Throughout most of the game her Meowstic only has Disarming Voice, Psychic-move, Fake Out, and Light Screen. If your Pokemon resisted Psychic it's only other option would be Disarming Voice.
Who knows where SV is going to land. The TM/TR split made some sense (still stupid to do, but i get the design around it) when they want you on the Grind as some weird quasi-gaas type deal but SV wont necessarily have those.
I don't think the system is necessarily bad as it does put the "good" moves back into items. TRs being one use again is annoying and brings back my suggestion of you not losing the TR upon using it but instead you need to recharge it again. Has the same effect of a "one-use" but instead of struggling to find another TR you just either go someplace or get an item that can recharge it so it can be used again. Or, heck, maybe make it need a certain amount of Watts to recharge thus keeping a use for that currency.
Speaking on that, having to grind BPs for hours to get move tutors in the past gens in horrible and I really hope that doesn't ever come back
Or have an easy way to grind BP someplace else. Gotta give USUM credit for making it easy to get those "
Beach
Points" *winkwinknudgenudge* through a relatively fun mini-game.
Personally I say bring the Game Corner back BUT make it into an arcade (which is what they did in Let's Go) and have us earn "
Bonus
Points" *winkwinknudgenudge* through playing a batch of mini-games. As long as you decorate the place to look like a Chuck-E-Cheese/Dave & Buster the ESRB isn't going to notice that it's still the same concept as a (Japanese) gambling parlor.
Emerald and FRLG incorporated Move Tutors in a really fun way, making them NPCs with a bit of character and backstory to them, and they're some of the most entertaining NPCs in those games because of how they're written. Not only this, but because FRLG's Move Tutor system is largely based off RBY's move list (many tutors simply directly teach the move they would have given you in the original games) you can get some pretty strong moves early on. This meant that there was always an incentive to go and seek out these NPCs, even if it's just because they're fun to talk to.
This would be a fun idea to bring back, especially if they can have the NPC teach a group of related moves based on the quirky personality they give them.
Though going back to a bit of a boring method, I also ways thought that the Gyms should have someone that offers to tutor moves of its Type specialty. Neat if it was the Gym Leader though that may limit what they could do with them, but maybe they could combine it with the above idea and having it be a (quirky) NPC that appears in the Gym after defeating it.
Final old posts going back to:
In the Abyssal Ruins text, the symbols for 2, 3, and 5 clearly contain 2, 3, and 5 marks, but the symbol for 7 only contains 6 marks.
Very odd, though maybe just has to do with how their numbering system worked? Like they got up to 5 or 6 marks and then decided "it's going to get pretty complex if we make a single mark for each count, let's add a symbol that stands for a multiple". Now what this could be we don't know, we only have those 5 numbers to go off of. If I had to guess, maybe the "x" represent 2 individually but when there's two "x"s they count as 5. So two "x" (5) plus two marks (2) equals 7.
(Not even gonna touch upon re-doing evolution methods/levels and re-balancing stats discussion, post is already pretty long. If it's brought up again I'll add my two cents...)