(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Fond memories of the Hoenn era anime just have random Pokemon you wouldn't be able to get for several years throughout its life time.
A lot of Gen 2 Pokémon not in the Sinnoh PokéDex (eg: Ariados, Ursaring) were weirdly prominent in the DP anime. Remake-shadowing, perhaps?

Also, here's a fun fact: a lot of Gen 3 Pokémon haven't been in a regional dex since their introduction, and therefore haven't gotten new PokéDex entries since HGSS. Cacnea/Cacturne are the first ones that come to mind.
 
A lot of Gen 2 Pokémon not in the Sinnoh PokéDex (eg: Ariados, Ursaring) were weirdly prominent in the DP anime. Remake-shadowing, perhaps?

Also, here's a fun fact: a lot of Gen 3 Pokémon haven't been in a regional dex since their introduction, and therefore haven't gotten new PokéDex entries since HGSS. Cacnea/Cacturne are the first ones that come to mind.
if bulbapedia wasn't such a never ending nightmare lately i'd probably have posted my big document tracking stuff like this

there's some real fascinating gaps and tendencies. Gen 6 pokemon in particular are in a real feast or famine dichotomy because ORAS didn't have unique second set of entries for the majority of Pokemon and a number of them werent in Alola or Galar.
But the ones who do can see their dex entry numbers explode.

So you have weird instances of the starter pokemon only having 2 entries to their name but Pangoro getting 8 because it was in SM, USUM & SWSH. & because gen 7 started giving different forms their own entry you have stuff like Pumpkaboo & Gourgeist got 10 because they got unique entries for their 4 sizes so SWSH gave them 8.
 
TLDR; You shouldn't have to be in a specific part of the world for monster pals to be able to follow you or be able to put ont what are essentially pet shows as opposed to some unique battle style that's consistent to the locale, is that right?
Moreso that I can tolerate something like Pet Shows or a norm/practice of letting your animals out being region specific than something that is depicted as much more intrinsic to the Pokemon than the area or a practice.

Funnily enough, Megas and Z-Moves almost dodged this by my criteria. If the devs simply don't have their Mega Stones show up (despite every other Legendary or Form related item finding a way to exist in every region with the Pokemon available in it somehow), it'd be a simple handwave excuse, but they threw a wrench in the system with Mega Rayquaza, whose Mega form occurs via energies and a gameplay condition that can exist strictly via Rayquaza itself, due to Dragon Ascent not being removed from Gen 8.
 

Samtendo09

Ability: Light Power
is a Pre-Contributor
The problem is less potential system bloat and more about “style over substance” to an excessive point.

Game Freak have said balancing as one of the reasons for Dexit. As already shown, even if Dynamax was considered the “most balanced” compared to Mega and Z-Moves, but I beg to differ, SwSh have by far one of the worst Generations in terms of balancing. Here are some examples;
  • Severe power difference between Zacian and Zamazenta; Zacian is hated for being way too powerful for it’s own good, while Zamazenta, while it does see usage in Smogon Ubers Doubles, is criticized for being too weak on it’s own for it’s own good.
  • Wild overcompensation on certain new Pokémon that could end up being mediocre or bad without, or even turned out bad despite or even because of it. Dracovish’s Fisheous Rend made it infamous thanks to Strong Jaw, but it might not go far without Fisheous Rend, while Morpeko’s Hunger Switch makes it unreliable at worst even in-game, and Aura Wheel can make it unfun to fight against.
  • Some new Pokémon proved hazardous to use in-game, like Nickit line having high Special stats but level-up movepools being too physically inclined to use, enforcing finding TMs / TRs a bit too much.
  • The Intimidate nerf proved too little, at least in OU and VGC, since Defiant is still overall better and many Pokémon that runs any of Intimidate-immune Abilities are already almost deadweight in almost many highest-level metagames.
 
Telekinesis is a thing
Screen Shot 2022-07-20 at 5.05.17 PM.png


why tho
Screen Shot 2022-07-20 at 5.05.42 PM.png


literally less than a handful of mons learn it naturally

it was a TM in an off-the-beaten-path area (Route 18, the route you Surf to near Nuvema) in its debut generation and a move tutor in USUM but I have yet to see a Pokemon actually have Telekinesis in their strategydex or whatever (though I don't look at doubles much at all). they then removed it as a TM in Gen 6, probably because it was one of the most situational moves out there

the same gen that gave us shell smash and quiver dance and work up gave us telekinesis. I don't get itttttttttttttttttt

see also: wonder room and magic room - did you remember these moves exist either?
 

DrCoeloCephalo

Banned deucer.
Game Freak have said balancing as one of the reasons for Dexit.

I'm also disinclined to believe they cared about balance because so many of the monsters they allowed into SWSH were already on the stronger side like Clefable, Tyranitar, Conkeldurr, Excadrill, etc.

I tend to look towards YKW3 for having kept all past monsters yet still making a more balanced meta but then that game completely changed to a grid-like chess system, heavily rebalanced alot of monsters and even made it so you have the option to make common low tier monsters have better stats.

One can't expect Game Freak to make changes that drastic if only because staying the same kept the game successful up until PLA kinda shows otherwise.
 
I am fascinated by some of the minutia on display in that move

Like how it flat out wont work on the Diglett & Sandygast lines (&...mega gengar, even though its not actually tethered to the ground...he's got frog legs!) and how despite it being impossible to come up because its put into an "airborne" state it avoids spikes.
Wow, I didn't realize it went so far as to just have a handful of Pokémon immune to it. I know Sky Drop was given a weight limit after its introduction, but it can still be used on all the Pokémon Telekinesis fails on (except Palossand, since it's heavy enough). I think both the weight limit for Sky Drop and the arbitrary Pokémon restrictions are fun ideas but kind of frustrating from a gameplay standpoint.

(It's not like weight stops the use of moves like Circle Throw or Seismic Toss, and all the Pokémon that can't be Telekinesised have bottoms to their models...)
 
  • Dynamax is distributed like Z-Moves, but just weighted even more heavily towards offense by nature. They basically made it immune to every form of counterplay that isn't a status (which Dynamax mons still have ways around like Max Lightning Electric Terrain for Sleep) while jacking the HP stat up to ensure anything that wasn't made of outright soaked tissue paper would take hits and get to fire off the moves. Every special effect is attached to generic attack moves as a secondary effects, while literally every status/non-damage move becomes Max Guard, something you'd only care about on a Dynamax mon if fighting another Dynamax mon that you can neither take a hit from nor KO yourself. No items or any committal mechanic means you can just throw your team together and Dynamax however suits your fancy over the fight, which some would say calls for mindgames, but I personally think just leads to offense spam because Defensive responses to Dynamax are garbage and you're just leaving yourself with fewer Dynamax response options of your own.
From my experience playing random battles, the best counter play to Dynamax is Dynamaxing yourself. Dynamaxing at the correct time & using Max Guard + stat lowering moves like Max Flutterfly or Max Wyrmwind really slows the rate at which the opponent can Snowball and can put the momentum in your favor if used at the correct time. The bulk increase can help your own mons even in unfavorable matchups because Dynamax moves are nowhere near as strong as Z-moves. And there is a level of commitment when dynamaxing, because a badly timed Dynamax will give your opponent a significant advantage, especially if they haven't used their own Dynamax since you don't have as much counterplay available to stop them from snowballing.

I think Z-Moves and Dynamax both have their merits. Z-Moves are more fun to use and strategize around since it gives your Pokemon a lot more options to get past traditional counterplay. However, it arguably makes a lot of Pokemon a bit too versatile, which is fun to use, but nightmarish to deal in the teambuilder, since you don't know wtf is using a Z-Move. Dynamax is an option you always have available on the fly and is a sort of trump card you need to time well in order to maximize the returns off of. Dynamaxing yourself lets you handle opposing Dynamaxers too, rather than being caught off guard like with Z-Moves.

One situation that I remember quite well is facing an Espeon in a Random battle. I had a Rhydon out and I was expecting the Espeon to Dynamax because I didn't have anything else on my team that could threaten it outside of Rhydon. Knowing this, I dynamaxed my Rhydon to use Max Flutterfly on the Espeon. By doing this, I was out of the KO range of the Espeon's second Max Mindstorm and put them in a bad spot since they would get KO'd the next turn. I'd imagine if that Espeon had a Z-Crystal instead, my options in this scenario seem like they'd be more limited, since I would just get KO'd by Shattered Psyche.

I'd say I personally still prefer Megas and Z-Moves to Dynamax, but I would like to see Gamefreak incorportate more mechanics like this that grants you more dynamic in-battle options and encourages smart play in the moment rather than the teambuilder. Something like the Agile and Strong Style from legends Arceus seems like it'd be more fun to toy around with, though that might also be a bit broken.
 
Last edited:
In Emerald, Pokémon have a small animation they do when they come into battle, which I think is pretty neat. However, some of them take way too long. More specifically, there are some Pokémon that jump back and forth, the ones I remember being Carvanha, Azumarill and Nosepass. This animation takes a good few seconds to finish and it annoys me. It's specially annoying when you have to fight a bunch of Team Aqua grunts and they all have Carvanha so you have to see it over and over.
 
In Emerald, Pokémon have a small animation they do when they come into battle, which I think is pretty neat. However, some of them take way too long. More specifically, there are some Pokémon that jump back and forth, the ones I remember being Carvanha, Azumarill and Nosepass. This animation takes a good few seconds to finish and it annoys me. It's specially annoying when you have to fight a bunch of Team Aqua grunts and they all have Carvanha so you have to see it over and over.
Emerald Barboach might legitimately be the longest "intro" animation in the series
 
Telekinesis is a thing
View attachment 441382

why tho
View attachment 441383

literally less than a handful of mons learn it naturally

it was a TM in an off-the-beaten-path area (Route 18, the route you Surf to near Nuvema) in its debut generation and a move tutor in USUM but I have yet to see a Pokemon actually have Telekinesis in their strategydex or whatever (though I don't look at doubles much at all). they then removed it as a TM in Gen 6, probably because it was one of the most situational moves out there

the same gen that gave us shell smash and quiver dance and work up gave us telekinesis. I don't get itttttttttttttttttt

see also: wonder room and magic room - did you remember these moves exist either?
useless moves you forgot existed part 2: ion deluge, electrify, and magnetic flux
Screen Shot 2022-07-25 at 7.59.30 AM.png

do any top tier pokemon get this mov-

Screen Shot 2022-07-25 at 8.02.12 AM.png

Screen Shot 2022-07-25 at 8.02.35 AM.png

yeah let's move on


you know what other forgettable move Ion Deluge reminds me of? Electrify! Which is literally only learned by Helioptile, Heliolisk, and...Boltund.
Screen Shot 2022-07-25 at 8.00.26 AM.png


why does this exist

onto Magnetic Flux, perhaps my pick for "most obscure Pokemon move of all time"

Screen Shot 2022-07-25 at 8.03.53 AM.png

Only Ampharos, Klinklang, and Toxtricity get either Plus or Minus with Magnetic Flux, and I assure you all three Pokemon are much better off attacking, or in Klinklang's case, setting up with an actually cool obscure move in Shift Gear.

seriously why does Magnetic Flux exist

it's so funny to me the terrain moves, another Gen VI forgettable move thing, went from nobody to nightmare after the Tapu came around, much like weather (albeit through their Abilities)
 
Last edited:
I swear there were multiple moves related to Plus and Minus in Gen 6. It has a lot of oddly specific status moves, like Game Freak were trying to make certain things more viable by throwing gimmicks at the wall.
You're right! It is actually a Gen 7 move (can't blame you for not knowing the gen it debuted in, it's so obscure), I forgot how pointless Gear Up was!

Screen Shot 2022-07-25 at 8.29.00 AM.png


Why do they keep trying to make Klinklang a Special Attacker? It has base 70 Special Attack.

I don't get itttttttttttttttt
 
I swear there were multiple moves related to Plus and Minus in Gen 6. It has a lot of oddly specific status moves, like Game Freak were trying to make certain things more viable by throwing gimmicks at the wall.
I think it was less "will THIS make things viable?" and more just wanting to have weird gimmick shit for variety

Like Rototiller!

You're right! It is actually a Gen 7 move (can't blame you for not knowing the gen it debuted in, it's so obscure), I forgot how pointless Gear Up was!

View attachment 442423

Why do they keep trying to make Klinklang a Special Attacker? It has base 70 Special Attack.

I don't get itttttttttttttttt
That's weird complaint to levy at the move that (1) does still raise the Attack stat and (2) since allied Pokemon with Plus/Minus gets effected raising both stats makes sense to cover their bases
 
I think it was less "will THIS make things viable?" and more just wanting to have weird gimmick shit for variety

Like Rototiller!


That's weird complaint to levy at the move that (1) does still raise the Attack stat and (2) since allied Pokemon with Plus/Minus gets effected raising both stats makes sense to cover their bases
it does raise the Attack stat but like...if I wanted to boost my Attack...I'd use Shift Gear, which is better than even Dragon Dance at buffing. so yeah I stand by my point: why does Gear Up exist

and yes, the Z-Move effect is there, but...are you really going to essentially Nasty Plot on a Pokemon with 70 base Special Attack when most people aware of the move would likely be competitive players or people in "moves you forgot existed" scenarios like me

huh, Klinklang gets Power Gem now apparently, maybe Special Klinklang is the new meta???

Pokemon is weird
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

On to new Horizons!
is a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Klinklang feels like a Pokemon that was designed very specifically with Doubles in mind, and it sorta feels like it was designed to be a mixed attacker with Plus/Minus boosting its Special Attack to a level that effectively makes it on par with Magnezone, while its decent Base 100 Attack would be boosted by Shift Gear which also in turn boosts its Speed, making it fast and strong.

It seems like the intended strategy with Klinklang is that it should ideally be used in tandem with a fellow Plus/Minus user in Doubles, one of them has Magnetic Flux while the other has Gear Up, and possibly Shift Gear from Klinklang itself, so that it gets +1 Attack, +1 Special Attack, +1 Defense, +1 Special Defense from Gear Up+Magnetic Flux, while Klinklang could also possibly use Shift Gear itself to boost its Attack further and give itself a Speed boost, effectively giving it +2 Attack, +1 Defense, +1 Special Attack (also boosted by Plus/Minus), +1 Special Defense, and +2 Speed, basically making it strong, bulky, and fast all at once while it decimates opponents with STAB Gear Grind and some sort of coverage move like Thunderbolt, Power Gem, or something among those lines.

All the while Gear Up/Magnetic Flux also boosts the offenses and defenses of the other Plus/Minus user, so you have Klinklang as a fast, strong, and bulky sweeper while the other is also a tanky hard hitting nuke. A Klinklang/Low-Key Toxtricity combo with Klinklang having Gear Up and Toxtricity having Magnetic Flux basically makes for a rather deadly combo in theory.

Alternatively, in-game you could have two or three Klinklang in Doubles/Triples who boost each other up and one of them has Shift Gear, while they all share a different special coverage move, effectively having multiple Klinklang that are all omniboosted and they all sweep the opposing team with ease.

The problem is that the strategy itself ends up being highly impractical to use because it effectively employs two turns of setup, and Klinklang shares a Ground weakness with just about every fellow Plus/Minus user in existence, so the synergy is fairly minimal at best, not to mention that in the likes of VGC the metagame is too fast paced for such a strategy to get going. Battle facilities and competitive PvP employ species clause so using two-three Klinklang is strictly impossible, and Klinklang will have to rely on a separate different Pokemon to boost alongside.

The strategy is hypothetically usable in-game, but the issue there is that Doubles and Triples are so few and far between that the opportunities to actually employ the strategy with multiple Klinklang are very limited. It's like the designers thought of a fun gimmick behind Klinklang when they were designing its battle capabilities between its stats, abilities, and movepool, but they didn't actually think beyond the surface of it: they didn't stop to consider that Doubles/Triples are a rarity in-game and that competitive VGC environment and battle facilities would make the intended strategy behind Klinklang even harder to pull off.
 
I have to wonder if the influx of "boost all allies with the right attribute" moves in gen 6 was an attempt to make Triple Battles more interesting. The format was more prominent then in terms of postgame/mulitplayer content, and that's where "all non-user allies" and "single target ally" is a meaningful distinction.

I do kind of like Klinklang having a gimmick of being able to boost every stat depending on moveset. Still wish we got a 5-klink horde fight at some point.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
In some way or form, though, we already have a triple typing of sorts with Dhelmise, even if the "third typing" is just a STAB-like boost.
It would have made sense if "As One" allowed Calyrex to at least keep the Grass STAB, given some more use to the Ability as honestly atm it's not that impressive. Like having access to the Wild Horse's Ability is nice, but Unnerve feels like a let down to be the other Ability. I think it would have been neat if they gave Calyrex two normal Abilities which one of them pairing nicely with one of the Wilde Horse's Ability: Justified and Competitive (called "Determined Spirit" in Japanese). Justified and Chilling Neigh give Calyrex two ways to increase its Attack, Competitive and Grim Neigh give it two ways to increase its Special Attack. I would have suggested Defiant instead of Justified, but Defiant's Japanese name is "Competitive Spirit" which doesn't quite fit Calyrex's personality (and don't ask me why the English translators decided to name Defiant's Special counterpart the first part of its Japanese name, I'd personally would have gone with something like "Refractory").

"How would it decide the Ability for the first battle before you decide what horse you want"? Random for first Calyrex battle (which is supposed to be easy as Calyrex is currently "weak") and then when it becomes one of the Rider forms it'll then have Calyrex have the appropriate matching Ability.

"But wouldn't this still mean you could get a Chilling Neigh/Competitive or Grim Neigh/Justified combination"? Yes, but those who have one of those combo either isn't battling competitively or probably isn't going to stay long in a tournament. It's not a perfect solution by any means (unless they give Calyrex a special method to easily switch between its Abilities outside Ability Capsules), but being the Calyrex you finally catch will have the Ability matching its Wild Horse that shouldn't be too much of a problem. A Calyrex trained to be in its Ice Rider form will not have the right Nature & EVs (and possibly IVs) to so easily switch to be a Shadow Rider.

Dhelmise would be so happy to have also the Steel resistances from Steelworker ability
Unfortunately what is actually Dhemlise, the (haunted) seaweed, is wrapped around the anchor. Getting Steel STAB makes sense as it can use the metal anchor to attack, but its unable to use the anchor in any defensive way to prevent damage being done to the seaweed.

So I am playing Pokemon Inclement Emerald right now and one cool change that game made is making it so that abilities like Blaze, Overgrow, etc. increase 1.2 normally and 1.5 when you are below 33%.. Now this change is pretty great, but it sort of made me realize that abilities like Swarm, Blaze, etc. are actually kind of bad in their current state.

(...)

Now Gamefreak doesn't necessarily need to do the same thing inclement Emerald did, but I do hope do something to buff these abilities because I'm not a fan of how they work currently.
While I'm not sure if adding in a 20% increase at 50% HP is needed, what I do think they should do is make it so that the 33% increase is also applied to secondary effects and maybe even Accuracy. If the idea is the associated elemental moves is getting more power put into them, the other key aspects of the Move should also get an increase.

:ss/heracross-mega::ss/blastoise-mega:

These two annoy me for a few different reasons.
Heracross/Skill Link: I had a quick thought that maybe originally they were going to give Pinsir the Mega but then decided to switch to Heracross to have some more Gen representation, I thought Pinsir learned Pin Missile, Fury Attack and a few other multi-hit moves. But, no, it doesn't, so even if it was meant for Pinsir they would have to have still give it multi-hit moves. The only other thing I can think is maybe they just wanted to make a Mega Pokemon with the Skill Link Ability, looked at the Mega candidates they had, and decided on Heracross since its Signature Megahorn is inaccurate so not that reliable so why not give its Mega a more reliable alternative? It does feel for quite a few Mega that them getting it isn't cause they had a great idea for a super version of that Pokemon but giving that relatively popular Pokemon an alternative niche it can better use. Anyway a "proper" Ability for M-Heracross probably would either be a Horn/Head version of Iron Fist, Compound Eyes if they changed its eyes to be like that, or good ol' Adaptability.

Blastoise/Mega Launcher: Mega Launcher makes sense, but in name only. I have no idea why Mega Launcher is a Pulse-powering up move. Already a "pulse" trait move is pretty niche. Aura Sphere ("Pulse Bomb" in Japanese) was originally a Signature Move for Lucario, Dark Pulse & Dragon Pulse exist only to be the default "strong" Dark & Dragon Special move when Gen IV did the Physical/Special Split, and Water Pulse I think was made to just be a mid-power Special Water-type move to fill in midlevel Move slots. Not to mention that, at the same time we got Mega Launcher, we also got Tough Claws. Tough Claws increases the Power of all Moves that make contact (aka most Physical Moves) to their opponent by 30%. Why wasn't Mega Launcher made a Special equivalent?

Funnily enough, Megas and Z-Moves almost dodged this by my criteria. If the devs simply don't have their Mega Stones show up (despite every other Legendary or Form related item finding a way to exist in every region with the Pokemon available in it somehow), it'd be a simple handwave excuse, but they threw a wrench in the system with Mega Rayquaza, whose Mega form occurs via energies and a gameplay condition that can exist strictly via Rayquaza itself, due to Dragon Ascent not being removed from Gen 8.
Rayquaza can be handwaved if you stretched the details. It seems like for Rayquaza to Mega Evolve it does need to eat a lot of a specific kind of space debris (or absorb the energy it gives off). In ORAS we gave Rayquaza the special meteorite which allowed it to Mega Evolve again. The Rayquaza catchable in USUM came from Ultra Space which is a whole matter of strange energy thus likely has absorbed the necessary energy to Mega Evolve once it gets Dragon Ascent. But in Galar the Rayquaza we get is from a Dynamax Lair (and is Dynamaxed). Dynamax energy different from the energy needed to Mega Evolve so if Rayquaza is empowering itself on that (as it's more abundant) than it doesn't have enough of the Infinity Energy that Mega Evolution needs. "But what about Rayqauza transferred from previous games? Ones before ORAS never at a meteorite and ones from ORAS & USUM can't Mega Evolve in Galar". Those Rayquaza are non-canon, they don't exist in-world, they only exist in the meta so that players can transfer them up and use them. Thus, non-canon Rayquaza must follow the rules which the canon Rayquaza are set too.

Telekinesis is a thing

why tho

(...)

see also: wonder room and magic room - did you remember these moves exist either?
GF Staffer: Hey, I have an idea for a Move that makes sense for a Pokemon to have.
Director: Interesting, program it into the game, give it to a few mons, and we'll see how it works out.
GF Staffer: Done! Now just need to keep track of how its used.
*They don't keep track of it and possibly forget it exists*

Like, I can see the idea behind these moves and why they think they may have some use:

  • It makes sense a Psychic-type would be able to lift its opponent up making them vulnerable to attack but also immune to Ground.
  • Wonder Room is a way for the user, a likely Special-focused Psychic-type, to switch the defense stats so either it can more heavily hit a normally Special Defense tank or give a Physical partner a better time taking down a Defense tank. It could also be used to trip the opponent up and making them now have to go against a higher defense stat.
  • Magic Room is a way to even the playing field or surprise an opponent who's relying on some extra benefit from an item; we see how effective this is with Knock Off.
It's just that they never did take off.

But hey, I see more point to them existing than Kinesis.

Steel not being super effective against Dragon.
Eh, the reasoning I can only think of, the classic depiction of a knight's lance slaying a dragon, is kind of weak justification. In a lot of those stories the reason the knight is able to kill the dragon isn't the weapon itself but its either magical (Fairy) or the dragon has a weak spot and the knight aims for it. These stories will usually also sometime include that there been other knights who have tried to but were slain cause they didn't have the special weapon/secret weakness knowledge.

huh, Klinklang gets Power Gem now apparently, maybe Special Klinklang is the new meta???
Wait, what? Why? How? Because of its blue hinges? Those count now? Yet not the the gems on:
  • The foreheads of Golduck, Tentacool family, Espeon, and the Lake Guardians?
  • The front/chest of Deoxys, Manaphy, and Phione?
  • The sides (and head) of the Amaura family?
  • The arch of Arceus?
When you beat them, they combine into Mega Klinklang for a boss battle.
You may not like it.

But this is what peak performance looks like.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 6, Guests: 14)

Top