(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

ScraftyIsTheBest

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BDSP sold gangbusters in a 1 month time span somehow I don't think they're going to abandon that fully for the sake of full LA styled games moving forward
A bit late to the conversation, but I wouldn't use sales to determine whether they would find it ideal to continue doing BDSP-styled "faithful remakes" going forward.

The thing with Pokemon in particular is that it's practically guaranteed to sell well because the name brand of Pokemon is just that powerful. Pokemon is a powerhouse franchise, and any game with "Pokemon" attached to it is guaranteed to sell multi millions because of the sheer brand power behind Pokemon. I think everyone in the room as far as the companies go, not just the developers like Game Freak, but also the higher up corporations including TPC and Nintendo, is probably fully aware of this.

BDSP selling well was practically a given in this regard. It didn't sell gangbusters because of anything particularly unique to it. It sold well because it's Pokemon. And of course, it came out in the holiday season as usual for Black Friday and Christmas. It was of course going to sell superbly given those circumstances. And the thing is that its sales weren't particularly exceptional for a Pokemon game either. Its sales are about as on par as any other Pokemon game would sell. So I don't think BDSP selling would particularly encourage them to continue making games of its type.

What matters more, I imagine, is feedback and attachment. Response to feedback is important, and consumer feedback plays an important role in whether a company should continue making products of a certain type or not. Moreover, attachment value is vital, because it would be less encouraging to continue creating something of a certain type if people don't stick to it in the long term.

Looking at BDSP in particular, observing overall trends, it is notable for two things:

- The attachment level people have had to BDSP is quite low. It sold well in the early days shortly after release, but people dropped it like a rock within months, especially after Legends: Arceus came out. As far as being in the eye of public attention, BDSP rapidly faded into obscurity in lieu of Legends: Arceus. Sword and Shield, meanwhile, despite being older, has still continued to maintain a relatively steady level of attention over two years after release, staying in the center of attention alongside Legends: Arceus and even in the midst of us being in the Scarlet and Violet pre-release period.
- The Japanese fandom's sentiment towards BDSP has been overwhelmingly negative. The folks in the room, when listening to feedback, tend to prioritize feedback from the Japanese audience first and foremost since that is their domestic/home audience, so while we all know Western fandom has a negative opinion towards BDSP, it is especially more apparent that the Japanese fandom shares the exact same sentiments towards BDSP. The Japanese fandom has been excessively critical of BDSP for many of the same reasons many of us here in the West have criticized it, and have also considered it one of, if not the worst game in the franchise. Just recently, BDSP was announced in Japan as having received a "Global Category" reward, and Japanese Pokemon fans immediately took it upon themselves to express their dislike of BDSP. Many have panned it for its glitches, being an overly faithful and bland experience, and have hurled insults at the game calling it a blemish on the Pokemon series and "Shitty Game of the Year". That really reflects a rather poor light on BDSP.

The above two sentiments I feel are more important in determining whether they would want to continue doing BDSP-style "faithful remakes" and combined with the fact that it was inherently a secondary concern and a crutch measure in case Legends: Arceus didn't sell well, I think it's likely they would want to move away from doing BDSP-esque games in the future. The low attachment value and exceedingly negative reception towards BDSP are very notable: BDSP was bought up due to being a remake of a popular game (combiend with Pokemon's brand power) but immediately was followed up with immense disappointment and people dropping it like a rock less than 3 months after release. The nearly universally negative sentiment towards the game combined with how quickly it fell off the face of the Earth after its "new toy" season ended pretty much makes it clear that it's less likely they would want to do this kind of game again in the future.

Plus from Game Freak's perspective, Legends: Arceus was the game they actually wanted to make in the first place. Legends: Arceus selling well is more notable because of that, and especially so given that it was released at an awkward time in the year, and is a singular version mainline game instead of a paired version like most mainline Pokemon games. And not only did PLA sell magnificently, it has been met with very positive reception for the most part, especially from the Japanese fandom, many people loved the direction it took, and it has remained prominent in the public consciousness even while we are now quickly in the midst of SV+Gen 9 hype season. This would *definitely* encourage Game Freak to do more Legends styled games for future past generation revisits.

Anyway, point being, while sales may matter, in this case reception and feedback are very much important factors as well, and so is attachment value to a game in the long term. Especially in this case, sales would likely matter *less* than feedback because in the case of Pokemon, selling well is a given considering Pokemon's brand power, so sales alone cannot be used to determine whether the developers would consider it worth it to continue taking a certain direction with the games moving forward.
 
I take reception with a grain of salt because there's always the big chance of vocal minorities and silent majorities in a game.

At the end of the day, despite an explosive start and a supposed drastic loss of interest towards BDSP, Legends has failed to outsell a clear afterthought of a remake.
The timing of the two releases is a factor to be considered. BDSP were out close to the Holiday season when a lot more people are in a shopping mood for themselves or to gift things to others. Legends Arceus by comparison was released in late January, and while I don't know if this is strictly true of games, January is kind of a dumping ground for things like movies, where Studios will release works that they don't expect much of after the blockbusters fought over the Holiday season bucks and everyone's done with their free time (both in having less because of returning to work as well as simply being tired of/out of money for indulging in more stuff).

Typically, Legends Arceus selling a comparable amount to a highly requested Remake (which Gen 4 was before the less-than-stellar unveiling) would already be a pretty decent sign, especially releasing after it since you'd assume a lot of people would buy the safe game before the new one, not to mention the one that was simply available first on a browse/impulse buy. This is without giving weight to the potentially significant factor of BDSP having an advantageous release window for sales, and LA having one much less so (as far as an expected disparity between them moreso than one selling and the other not in individual figures).

The release window timings wouldn't have me expecting Legends Arceus to outsell a mainline title/remake (also because it was in the LGPE weird area of "people took a while to confirm it was Mainline or not"), but the fact the numbers are both pretty high and relatively close reflects well on the game given it had a few smaller factors that seem mildly detrimental to its sales expectations for Pokemon.
 
PLA releasing, like, two months after BDSP is super weird to me, I expected a six-month gap at minimum.
*grumbles about Rock Head and Reckless*
I am still mad at Steel Beam's HP cost not being considered recoil. It's confusing and makes the move more impractical, as if finding a Steel-type Pokémon with high Special Attack wasn't hard enough.
(I was thinking of making a Specially offensive Steelix set with this move.)
 
PLA releasing, like, two months after BDSP is super weird to me, I expected a six-month gap at minimum.

I am still mad at Steel Beam's HP cost not being considered recoil. It's confusing and makes the move more impractical, as if finding a Steel-type Pokémon with high Special Attack wasn't hard enough.
(I was thinking of making a Specially offensive Steelix set with this move.)
To be fair, people have found other more clever uses for Steel Beam. It's interesting for example for suicide lead pokemon (albeith realistically you could only really see it used on Mew or maybe Cobalion), as well as (obviously not really smogon related) as a option for a high BP max steelspike.
 
And to top it all off, they also left out Diantha’s Gardevoir altogether, presumably because you only ever battle it as a Mega Gardevoir, but since Mega Evolution isn’t in SwSh, you can’t recreate that. But like… is regular Gardevoir somehow not close enough?! We’re talking about her ace Pokémon here!
so hey turns out they actually updated the rules today, so Gardevoir's usable now

hooray!
 
To be fair, people have found other more clever uses for Steel Beam. It's interesting for example for suicide lead pokemon (albeith realistically you could only really see it used on Mew or maybe Cobalion), as well as (obviously not really smogon related) as a option for a high BP max steelspike.
Y'all been seeing WeedleTwineedle vids, huh? :psysly:
 
In the Japanese version of Red, Blue and Yellow, Swift, unlike the western releases, does not bypass accuracy checks, and is thus susceptible to 1/256 Gen 1 miss / Sand-Attack cheese

what.

I honestly think that’s more egregious than Focus Energy‘s glitch because Swift was literally the only “always accurate attack” back then (since it is Gen 1, you probably are using Slash more than you would be using Focus Energy even if the latter did work properly)
 
People always complain about the many Japan-only events, but one thing that is overlooked is the South Korea only events, which are not even released in Japan and are pretty interesting overall. Some highlights include the following:

-Tangrowth with Morning Sun in Gen IV (Only way to get this normally is to evolve the Tangela from Pokemon XD, but outside of the original Gold and Silver Korea didn't start getting official translations of Pokemon games until Heart Gold/Soul Silver)
-Jumpluff with False Swipe in Gen V (It cannot get this move otherwise)
-Shiny Volcarona in Gen V (No other region had this event)
-Telepathy Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina in Gen VI (The Dialga was highly sought after because it was the only way to get Telepathy Dialga in the Gen VI VGC)
-Hold Back Mareep in Gen VI (Like False Swipe Jumpluff, it cannot get this move outside of this event)
-Taking the Gen VII Ash's Charizard Event and releasing it for Sword and Shield(Thus making Seismic Toss Charizard Gen VIII VGC legal, not that anyone would use it)
-Taking the Gen IV Level 100 Regigigas Event and releasing it for BDSP and Legends: Arceus (It is the only way to get Icy Wind and Iron Head on Regigigas in BDSP, due to the lack of Platinum tutors and the fact that is stores a separate moveset from SwSh/Home)
 
In Gen 1, there was a pair of mist moves. White Mist (or as we know it, Mist) protected you from stat drops, while Black Mist (Haze) reset everyone's stat changes.

Come Gen 3, one of the inaugural abilities was White Smoke, which functioned has a passive White Mist. However, there was no Black Smoke ability to match it.

Finally, all the way in Gen 8, we get an ability that resets stat changes. Its name is Curious Medicine, it has the obnoxiously specific flavor of medicinal shells, and it only targets your ally so it sucks shit.
 
In Gen 1, there was a pair of mist moves. White Mist (or as we know it, Mist) protected you from stat drops, while Black Mist (Haze) reset everyone's stat changes.

Come Gen 3, one of the inaugural abilities was White Smoke, which functioned has a passive White Mist. However, there was no Black Smoke ability to match it.

Finally, all the way in Gen 8, we get an ability that resets stat changes. Its name is Curious Medicine, it has the obnoxiously specific flavor of medicinal shells, and it only targets your ally so it sucks shit.
Reminds me the pair Gen V events where Reshiram got Mist and Zekrom got Haze due to their Japanese names.
 
Reminds me the pair Gen V events where Reshiram got Mist and Zekrom got Haze due to their Japanese names.
Just for flavor, I wish these moves are part of their normal level-up movepool.

While we are talking about region-exclusive events, it still bothers me that the Faraway Island Mew event for Emerald is released only in Japan and Taiwan. Few things made me scream "Why!?" more than this.
 
Why would they make U-Turn weaker?
Literally only for Scizor. You know, the Pokemon who famously never uses Technician because it doesn't get any moves that synergize with it. It really is baffling why Game Freak would go so long without giving Scizor a Technician tool that it can make its own.

60 power U-turn and Tough Claws Weavile are things Arkm has already complained about it the Unpopular Opinions thread. It seems they have realized other threads exist, but still haven't quite grasped that this subforum isn't a place to pitch their ideas for a community ROM hack. The bit about special and mixed attackers is new, though.

Here are the number of physical, special, and mixed attackers, assuming it requires an offensive stat greater than or equal to 90 to be considered proficient.

Physical: 203
Special: 133
Mixed: 137

Here are the results again, filtered for fully evolved Pokemon.

Physical: 166
Special: 104
Mixed: 125

While there significantly more physical attackers than special or mixed attackers, about 1.5x more than either and making up about 40% of all offensive Pokemon as a whole, I would not go so far as to say there "so few" special and mixed attackers.

Showdown commands used in the methodology:
/nds attack >= 90, special attack < 90
/nds attack < 90, special attack >= 90
/nds attack >= 90, special attack >= 90
/nds attack >= 90, special attack < 90, fe
/nds attack < 90, special attack >= 90, fe
/nds attack >= 90, special attack >= 90, fe
 
Literally only for Scizor. You know, the Pokemon who famously never uses Technician because it doesn't get any moves that synergize with it. It really is baffling why Game Freak would go so long without giving Scizor a Technician tool that it can make its own.

60 power U-turn and Tough Claws Weavile are things Arkm has already complained about it the Unpopular Opinions thread. It seems they have realized other threads exist, but still haven't quite grasped that this subforum isn't a place to pitch their ideas for a community ROM hack. The bit about special and mixed attackers is new, though.

Here are the number of physical, special, and mixed attackers, assuming it requires an offensive stat greater than or equal to 90 to be considered proficient.

Physical: 203
Special: 133
Mixed: 137

Here are the results again, filtered for fully evolved Pokemon.

Physical: 166
Special: 104
Mixed: 125

While there significantly more physical attackers than special or mixed attackers, about 1.5x more than either and making up about 40% of all offensive Pokemon as a whole, I would not go so far as to say there "so few" special and mixed attackers.

Showdown commands used in the methodology:
/nds attack >= 90, special attack < 90
/nds attack < 90, special attack >= 90
/nds attack >= 90, special attack >= 90
/nds attack >= 90, special attack < 90, fe
/nds attack < 90, special attack >= 90, fe
/nds attack >= 90, special attack >= 90, fe
How are there more mixed attackers than special attackers?

Anyways, my comment was regarding OU in mind

For a mon to be a good attacker in OU it needs to hve atleast 110 stats in attack unless u have some broken ability(like tough claws, huge power, guts, sheer force etc) or broken move(like bolt beak, fishous rend, head smash etc)

Physical : 119
Special : 81
Mixed : 49

While there are decent amount of special attackers, the are very few mixed. But my comment wasn't just regard to BST. Special moves generally have bad distribution, lower power and accuracy compared to physical moves. Compare flare blitz and focus blast to fire blast and close combat. Also the lack of special priority moves.


Also, Why does Swampert not have shore up?
Why does Snorlax not have slack off?
Why is Sunflora not fire/grass type?
Why is Lucario slow?

What, and 10 less BP would nerf these other mons? Lando doesn’t care if it does a bit less damage with U-Turn, it uses it to get a guaranteed counter-switch if the opponent switches out. Don’t pretend you have any justification for this besides Scizor.
It will decrease chip damage. Nerfing it to 50 will make it too weak.
 
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Also, Why does Swampert not have shore up?
Because its design has nothing to do with sand???
Why is Lucario slow?
It is faster than an average fully-evolved Pokemon and slightly faster than an average fully-evolved Fighting type. If you're asking "why isn't it fast by OU standards" it's because 1) they made it that way and 2) Pokemon shouldn't be designed to constantly stay at OU level.
 
Because its design has nothing to do with sand???
To add on this is, the move is called "Sand Gather" in Japanese, implying that Sandygast/Palossand are gathering up nearby sand to repair the damage done to their body, which is also why it heals more during a sandstorm. Last I checked, Swampert is not made of sand and thus would not crumble if damaged(or at least, I hope it wouldn't)
 
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Things that annoy me in Pokemon: People posting the same topic after repeatedly posting their faulty logic in another thread because it wasn't met with much agreement there.

For a real listing, Gamefreak seems to have this insistence on ignoring or missing the flaws in their design of certain types, like the infamous Slow-Bulky Ice-Type. This isn't me saying they should always be Glass Cannon speedsters like Weavile, but they seem to think if they just keep trying and pumping up numbers that it'll work (see Avalugg) as opposed to just giving them abilities or tools that would compensate Ice's shortcomings (Playing more into Hail, reasonably applicable bulky abilities like Fur Coat, status access with defensive utility, better solutions to Hazard weakness, etc)
 

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