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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
Almost like this a competitive site used by competitive players or something weird like that.
Actually I like the theory that the 18k thing is a typo that no on has caught (both in real life and in-world) and it's actually 1,800 F / 1,000 C which is closer to the actual temperature of lava, you know, thing thing its made of.
Don't forget that suddenly Kanto just has some new Pokemon: Houndour & Murkrow. You only find them in Kanto, yet there listed with all the Johto Pokemon like you find it in Johto.
Let's not forget the original mon that changed Types.
Magnemite: Hey, Mag, Nee, Sium, do you also suddenly feel immune to Poison and weak to Fire & Fighting?
Magneton: We do Paul, we also resist half the Type Chart and REALLY hate Ground.
Paul: Which is really weird cause we're floating. Maybe one day we'll wake up with hidden traits and there will be one which make us immune to Ground moves.
Mag, Nee, & Sium: Right... So did you hear how like half our fleshy neighbors gained a gender?
Considering they're mixed up fossils I kind of like the English name is also mixed up like that too.
Ugh, don't get me started. I went to my local GameStop the second day of the event after work and was told they were all gone. Like I had this problem only once before and I think it was with a Gen IV Darkrai Event, though apparently back then GS was able to print up codes via their cash registers (but you had to ask of course). But nope, can't even do that now. It's absolutely stupid. They know scalpers are a problem, why did they think the event cards would be immune?
This was supposed to be the last event for SwSh, a last "hurrah" for the gen. This should have either been an online distribution or an award for participating in the online battle tournaments (like they did with the Shiny Galar Birds). Heck, they just had Eternatus reappear in the anime, have it so the event is connected to that and at the end of the episode they'll reveal the code needed to get it (sure, would mean by the time we got the event the new games will be out, but it's not like we won't have our old game). But if they must partner up with a 3rd party, make it so I just need to be at the location & connect to their WiFi to get it (or, as you said, that app they quickly abandoned). HOME! It could have also been a HOME giveaway! Remember when they did some of those for a hot second and never again?
And most frustrating part is you know that the Pokemon Company can easily whip up some new codes and give them over online. "Sorry scalpers took all the cards, just contact us with your Trainer Account and we'll send a code to your email". But NOPE! It was conceived as a in-live card event so they gotta now pretend it's impossible for them to do that.
Because when you're having a good experience it can feel more personal and so you don't feel like you need to exactly share it.
However if you have a bad experience you want to see if anyone else had the same thought/problem and so go to fansites to rant. Because, the thing is, you're still seeking some form of gratification that the game has not given you. So now the only way to get it is via the community surrounding the game and sharing your experience, either satisfied to get what's bugging you off your chest and/or feeling justified as others agree with you.
Honestly, we call it "little things you like", but those are the type of good things that are either taken for granted or one keeps to themselves, the stuff thy do share on the thread being more grander stuff, particular details, or things people have done. Meanwhile the little annoyance/unpopular opinion get ALL of the nitpicks, all the "hey I just experienced how bad it is to play with this specific Pokemon", all the "I just played this game and noticed this off feature/character/quote/quick". It's not that there's more bad than good, it's just that when something is bad people tend to be much louder about it.
(TBC)
Obviously, nighttime hadn't been invented yet in Gen 1. =P (I vaguely remember reading about a fanfic where Arceus cosmic retcons new Pokémon into existence every few years.)
All this talk about fast Rock-type Pokémon and no words about fast Ground-type Pokémon.
Dugtrio being extremely frail but fast is part of why I love Whac, A, and Moles, because Pikachu315111 gave awesome nicknames to their Magneton.
So this is why Magcargo is found in Kanto...
Dugtrio being extremely frail but fast is part of why I love Whac, A, and Moles, because Pikachu315111 gave awesome nicknames to their Magneton.
Shouldn't Kanto be an hostile desert world for anything that isn't a Magcargo?
So this is why Magcargo is found in Kanto...
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y u bulli
Even in the casual section, the site is heavily populated by competitive minded players. Also I'm not sure the term "circlejerk" is what one uses here since this is less self-congratulatory and more circular conversation/argument whenever someone brings up (or double posts) about something balanced related.
Here's one for me: Pokemon feels afraid to play around with less-Vanilla interactions for more than a semi-Signature Move/Ability on a Pokemon. Stuff like how Dry Skin affected match-ups in Gen 4-onward Mons, moves like Freeze Dry that give Ice types a way around bulky Water problems that Ice-Coverage users alone don't get, etc. They are pretty scarcely distributed in favor of most Pokemon just sticking to standard Types and Stat boosting interactions.
Nowadays every 2nd Pokemon line seems to need a signature gimmick, so there's no real attempts to try new stuff because they have to throw everything weird onto the next trailer fodder Pokemon.
Kinda agree, though the Freeze Dry example is not a very good one. It's actually a good thing few Mons have it, Kyurem (regular one) became "broken" literally when it got Freeze Dry. Without Kyurem, you have to actually go out of your way and use a lesser used Mon (Vanilluxe, Lapras, Aurorus, Glaceon, Articuno, Allan Ninetales, etc.) if you want to abuse the effects of such a move.
I personally would reduce the distribution of some moves:
-I would make Stealth Rock only learnable by Rock Mons and a few others (Clefable since it's meteor related, Hippowdon due to living in the desert and I think it eats rocks, etc.).
-Toxic should be learned by all poison types and a few more (Seadra for having Poison Point ability, Snorlax for eating all kind of trash, Umbreon for originally being designed as a Poison Mon, etc.) . This is something that has already been done in SS and BDSP, and I hope the restriction to old move transfer rumours end up being true.
-Scald should be learned only by water Mons that are asociated with tropical waters or learn fire moves, like Octillery and Slowbro, not by every non-Ice Water Mon.
-Protect should be learned only by Mons that have some kind of armor or psychic power to use as protection. I don't see something like a Persian for example being able to protect itself.
-In Gen 3 Knock Off had what I think is the optimal amount of users: some niche Mons like Hariyama, Armaldo or Kingler. It should have stayed (proportionally in number as more Mons appeared) this way, but instead they gave the move to half of the pokedex.
-Sword Dance shouldn't be learned by Mons whose main Stab attacks are contactless.
Etc. there are many more examples. A positive one is Parting Shot: it has a very low distribution (Pangoro, Alolan Persian, VGC hero Incineroar, Thievul and Silvally) and I would like it to stay that way and not giving it to Landorus, Heatran or Toxapex for example.
Hopefully someone at GF reads this post and acts accordingly.
Well Protect in the games isn't really anything related to psychic powers or supernatural defense, it's simply the act of either defending or evading the attacks. It doesn't necessarly imply actually blocking them.
Different is the anime variant which implies some kind of psychic effort, with most users being psychic types, however there are some more interesting cases like a Magmar using smoke for defense.
Umbreon should learn Parting shot.
Why does Umbreon have such shallow movepool? Or for that matter other eeveelutions.
Springboarding off this, Protect/Detect are interesting to me because while it's never explained how it works, the games - like the anime - do portray it as a big energy shield which certain attacks (like Feint, and in later gens Z-Moves and Max Moves) can shatter or break through. In Gen II when a Pokemon uses Protect or Detect the game says that the move missed, which was due to a redundant text string but caused me to think that Protect literally deflected attacking moves and sent them ricocheting off.
Whereas in the manga the portrayal of these moves varies. For some Pokemon, like Shuckle, it's accomplished by retreating into their shell and withstanding a battering. Others, like Metagross and Sneasel, simply cross their arms and ward off blows. And some, like Rapidash and Magnemite, do create an energy shield. When Emerald's Sceptile uses Detect, this is accomplished by it using some form of "sixth sense" (its eyes are shown to glint) to allow it to jump out of the way of a Glalie's Ice Beam. In this instance, it's implied not to be inherently the move itself that causes it to fail - instead, it's suggested to be the Pokemon itself, as Brandon says "yeah, but how long can it keep that up?", with the general impression appearing to be that eventually it'll make a mistake or get tired and subsequently get hit.
The only description we get is that the user "evades all attacks", which is closer to the manga's depiction. Interestingly, while Detect's description is consistently "evades", Protect's description in the first couple of generations is "foils attack", implying that it does neutralise or block the incoming move rather than simply avoiding it.
People were talking Kanto in Unpopular Opinions and kinda touched upon how it's never meaningfully updated and it reminded me of something
Look, at this point I've accepted that Game Freak has no real interest in updating that ancient Game Boy map design to a modern standard. I'm not really torn up about it, either. Well, except for one thing. More specifically, one settlement, that being Saffron City.
Because you know what Saffron City's supposed to be? In case you've forgotten, it's supposed to be Tokyo. One of the biggest metropolises on the entire planet.
Pokemon has come a long way since those days, and SV has made this clear in one way: The towns and cities look flippin' awesome. Obviously they aren't going to be 1 to 1 recreations of their real life counterparts anytime soon, but if you've seen the shots of Mesagoza and the like you can see a world fully realized like ever before after nearly 30 years of handheld-friendly approximations. Pokemon running about, detailed storefronts and interiors, funky-ass neon signs, that kind of thing. Still some limitations that come from being on relatively weak hardware and Pokemon's unique graphical struggles, but pretty cool all the same and gets one amped both for this game and for the future (imagine how expansive and beautiful they'll be able to make major landmark settlements on the inevitable Switch 2!).
So open your eyes, your hearts and minds. Open them all up and try to imagine a Pokemon city that is modeled after and has the titular creatures and their trainers roaming places like THIS.
This, my friends, is a taste of what a next-gen Saffron City could look like. Imagine pesky Rattata and Meowth scampering about the narrow backstreet of picture 2. Or how about picture 5 with a bunch of ads for Pokemon-themed items, including references to companies and products from previous games? Maybe you could even catch a glimpse of Sabrina at somewhere like picture 3, using the tranquil surroundings to calm her mind and refine her Psychic powers while similarly relief-seeking Psyduck drift in the water, pink petals lazily falling on their faces.
This is a Saffron we can dream about. And yet it may very well be a Saffron that we will never see. Tokyo was spent on a region that might never be anything more than what was implementable on hardware from the 80s that even back then was already a decade out of date. And that's just sad. I don't blame RBY for it, heck I don't even blame current Game Freak for it, but it's sad all the same.
Look, at this point I've accepted that Game Freak has no real interest in updating that ancient Game Boy map design to a modern standard. I'm not really torn up about it, either. Well, except for one thing. More specifically, one settlement, that being Saffron City.
Because you know what Saffron City's supposed to be? In case you've forgotten, it's supposed to be Tokyo. One of the biggest metropolises on the entire planet.
Pokemon has come a long way since those days, and SV has made this clear in one way: The towns and cities look flippin' awesome. Obviously they aren't going to be 1 to 1 recreations of their real life counterparts anytime soon, but if you've seen the shots of Mesagoza and the like you can see a world fully realized like ever before after nearly 30 years of handheld-friendly approximations. Pokemon running about, detailed storefronts and interiors, funky-ass neon signs, that kind of thing. Still some limitations that come from being on relatively weak hardware and Pokemon's unique graphical struggles, but pretty cool all the same and gets one amped both for this game and for the future (imagine how expansive and beautiful they'll be able to make major landmark settlements on the inevitable Switch 2!).
So open your eyes, your hearts and minds. Open them all up and try to imagine a Pokemon city that is modeled after and has the titular creatures and their trainers roaming places like THIS.
This, my friends, is a taste of what a next-gen Saffron City could look like. Imagine pesky Rattata and Meowth scampering about the narrow backstreet of picture 2. Or how about picture 5 with a bunch of ads for Pokemon-themed items, including references to companies and products from previous games? Maybe you could even catch a glimpse of Sabrina at somewhere like picture 3, using the tranquil surroundings to calm her mind and refine her Psychic powers while similarly relief-seeking Psyduck drift in the water, pink petals lazily falling on their faces.
This is a Saffron we can dream about. And yet it may very well be a Saffron that we will never see. Tokyo was spent on a region that might never be anything more than what was implementable on hardware from the 80s that even back then was already a decade out of date. And that's just sad. I don't blame RBY for it, heck I don't even blame current Game Freak for it, but it's sad all the same.
No offense, but it looks like Castelia on crack.
Which is kind of sick tbh...
Oh. Now I got another unpopular opinion, brb.
The catch here is that GF can reduce the distribution of OP moves all they want, but it still won't matter in Showdown competitive scene as long as transfers are allowed and Smogon declares them as legal. I do agree with all these reduction, early Gen 8 was a nice picture of what it would have been.
Also, it kind of annoys me that Rhydon (and partially Rhyperior) has both Rock Head and Reckless yet it can only use them with Normal moves such as Take Down and Double-Edge. While it's fun to use in-game, it feels like wasted potential. I'm not even advocating for it to get Head Smash, just something like Wild Charge would make it useful. Hopefully Wave Crash in Gen 9, since it can learn Surf?
There are rumors that this will actually happen,as far as I know (maybe I am wrong though) Home/Bank or whatever its called ríght now allows transfer between SS, BDSP and Legends, but replaces moves that are not learned in the destination game (except in SS, which did allow older moves to be transfered, just not used in battles) with leves-up moves. If this continues in SV, Showdown will have to Ban those moves too (except in non-oficial formats like National Dex).
IIRC Celadon City also represents part of Tokyo.
Don’t you trash talk Lucario, Garchomp and Rotom
I’m saying that the other Gen 4 Pokémon aren’t that good to begin with, and that the three we mentionned are the exception in that they are actually great.
Now that you mention it, I've seen "what if Gen 1 Pokémon were made today?" and "what if [current gen] Pokémon were made in Gen 1?", but never with generations in the middle. There was a sudden change in the way Pokémon was marketed in Gen 6, where most new Pokémon get a dedicated segment in a trailer and/or article on the official website that shows off their obligatory gimmick, and I'm now wondering if it's because the days of waiting a year for the games to be translated are behind us.
I think its probably because there's so many Pokemon, and they want new ones to have a lil spice
though a lot of gen 6 pokemon didn't really get that. Or, if they did, it wasn't necessarily talked about.
Gen 7 (& 8) definitely emphasized it more, though they still sometimes just used a POkemon to show off a new move/ability that wasn't necessarily exclusive.
e: More talking about in pre-release reveal materials, to be clear
Now that you mention it, I think I recall seeing a video which explained that several of the cities surrounding Saffron, including Celadon as you mentioned, are meant to be stand-ins for Tokyo's various districts. If I'm right on that, then that just makes things even sadder. A colossal gigacity with multiple gyms and other key locations sounds like it would be absolutely incredible in a modern game. Mesagoza seems to sort of be going for that, but hypothetical fully realized Saffron would be a step beyond.
Freeze Dry is by no means a balanced example in gameplay practice of the concept, but it was an immediately illustrative one for the points I wanted to maybe see tackled, that being a move or ability that has a very particular usage pool (be it a creature theme or maybe focusing just on a type) without being so limited as to be defined as a signature move, which several of your examples illustrate decently as well.
To bring in concepts from another RPG, Job Systems like the Final Fantasy series or some Dragon Quest games often allow your characters to learn skills or moves from other classes, but primarily base themselves in the one you assign them as their primary one (EX: A Knight with Healing Magic is still a Physical powerhouse while a White Mage w/ Knight moves is still primarily a healer). I would kind of like this to be an approach to coverage and Pokemon design in a few more cases, with certain abilities or moves primarily showing themselves on a specific STAB users. Freeze Dry is the example I went to because it is primarily found on very overtly Arctic-cold Pokemon thematically and gives them an advantage against Waters that non-Ice Types using it for coverage won't get. So instead of the past talk about mechanics changes to Hail or resistances or Weather interactions to buff Ice, the advantages of being an Ice type would be "you have worse defensive synergy, but gain offensive advantages beyond STAB power that coverage (cross-classing like) Pokemon won't have".
This I think would particularly help with some imbalance concerns because it doesn't necessitate the players having to learn entirely new systems or interactions as when new Types, the Physical-Special Split, or the concept of abilities were added to the game, just more thoughtful design by GF on the creation of new Pokemon and one (admittedly meaty) backtrack wave for any past mons they want to bring in on the approach.
Each type having their own unique moves that isn’t distributed widely but aren’t signatures will definitely help each type being more distinct without forcing ”stereotypes” or gimmicks into too many new Pokémon in terms of stat distribution. This is similar to how some Abilities are only given to Pokémon of one type.
Big concern is that, knowing GF, it can cause an already great type (i.e. Steel) even better by giving a move that is absurdly good to the point the Pokémon with type weak to it (i.e. Ice, Rock) can become obsolete. A Pursuit situation but worse.