(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[Ironmage]

Sorry for double-posting, but I'm looking through the new items from the DLC on Serebii and something struck me as odd. Nothing major, more a nitpick but:

Color Clash

Why don't the Mochi colors match the colors usually associated with the Stat?

Generally, HP is red, Attack is orange, Defense is yellow, Special Attack is blue, Special Defense is green, and Speed is pink. Sometimes they have Attack as Red if they don't give HP a color, but that's how it usually goes.

But the Mochi colors is Health/HP is blue, Muscle/Attack is red, Resist/Defense is black, Genius/Special Attack is purple, Clever/Special Defense is yellow, and Swift/Speed is green (Fresh-Start/White resets base stats which I think is appropriate).

And, no, the Item descriptions don't help as they're all the same (can't even say what flavor they are, GF?).

BTW, do the newly added Pokemon drop material? Or did Serebii just not update that list yet?

This is actually the fifth arrangement in the main series by my count:

1. Used by stat-changing moves in gen 3 and the labels on vitamins. Blue HP, Orange Atk, Green Def, Red SpA, light Green SpD, cyan Speed.
2. Used by the comparison between natures and contest stats. Red/Orange Atk, Yellow Def, Blue SpA, Green SpD, Pink Speed
3. Used by the Power items. Green HP, Red Atk, Orange Def, Purple SpA, Yellow SpD, Blue/Cyan Speed.
4. Used by the wing/feather items. Yellow HP, Red/Orange Atk, Blue Def, Cyan SpA, Purple SpD, green Speed.

I don't think the devs actually have a consistent ordering, even if the nature-based one is commonly used in places like Bulbapedia.

 

[R_N]

Sorry for double-posting, but I'm looking through the new items from the DLC on Serebii and something struck me as odd. Nothing major, more a nitpick but:

Color Clash

Why don't the Mochi colors match the colors usually associated with the Stat?

Generally, HP is red, Attack is orange, Defense is yellow, Special Attack is blue, Special Defense is green, and Speed is pink. Sometimes they have Attack as Red if they don't give HP a color, but that's how it usually goes.

But the Mochi colors is Health/HP is blue, Muscle/Attack is red, Resist/Defense is black, Genius/Special Attack is purple, Clever/Special Defense is yellow, and Swift/Speed is green (Fresh-Start/White resets base stats which I think is appropriate).

And, no, the Item descriptions don't help as they're all the same (can't even say what flavor they are, GF?).

BTW, do the newly added Pokemon drop material? Or did Serebii just not update that list yet?

yes the new pokemon drop materials, they're required for the new TMs

 

[Pikachu315111]

This is actually the fifth arrangement in the main series by my count:

1. Used by stat-changing moves in gen 3 and the labels on vitamins. Blue HP, Orange Atk, Green Def, Red SpA, light Green SpD, cyan Speed.
2. Used by the comparison between natures and contest stats. Red/Orange Atk, Yellow Def, Blue SpA, Green SpD, Pink Speed
3. Used by the Power items. Green HP, Red Atk, Orange Def, Purple SpA, Yellow SpD, Blue/Cyan Speed.
4. Used by the wing/feather items. Yellow HP, Red/Orange Atk, Blue Def, Cyan SpA, Purple SpD, green Speed.

I don't think the devs actually have a consistent ordering, even if the nature-based one is commonly used in places like Bulbapedia.

So counting the Mochi items:

HP: 2 Blue, 1 Green, 1 Yellow
Atk: 3 Red, 2 Orange (NOTE: I counted the Contest Stats & Wings as .5 points for each color)
Def: 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 Orange, 1 Blue, 1 Black
SpA: 2 Purple, 1 Red, 1 Blue, 1 Cyan
SpD: 2 Yellow, 1 Light Green, 1 Green, 1 Purple
Spe: 2 Green, 1.5 Cyan, 1 Pink, 0.5 Blue

Huh, I stand corrected, them adding the Mochi sort of cemented the colors (at least for now; and still doesn't excuse the bland descriptions).

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

New annoyance to me (probably an old annoyance but the DLC reminded me) of how GF just ignores some pokemon every time they hand out new toys. My favorite (Golem) being a prime example but a lot of others too.

golem got an alolan form (and, more importantly, a rather spiffy beard)

 

[doipy hooves]

New annoyance to me (probably an old annoyance but the DLC reminded me) of how GF just ignores some pokemon every time they hand out new toys. My favorite (Golem) being a prime example but a lot of others too.

Since Gen 3 to Gen 6, the very last move in Illumise's level up learnset has been Covet. Gen 7 added Infestation afterwards as a final special Bug STAB, but it's clear that Game Freak originally intended Illumise to end on learning Covet as its ultimate attacking move after Tackle and Quick Attack, with Illumise's only Bug STAB back then being Silver Wind as an egg move which doesn't exist anymore.

When Illumise returned in the Gen 9 DLC, they went out of their way to make one change to the level up learnset by removing Covet. Thank you game freak.

What's even worse is that Volbeat and Illumise used to have synchronized level up learnsets and so Double-Edge was the counterpart to Covet back in Gen 3. It turns out that Volbeat still had Signal Beam in its USUM learnset at Level 26 which doesn't exist anymore, so Game Freak's solution was to just delete that slot and move everything else down. Then they decided to remove a later move from Illumise too which made none of their shared moves learned at the same time anymore. Also, Volbeat used to learn Flash at level 1 to match Illumise's Play Nice but they removed that too so Volbeat still learns one less move than Illumise anyway.

How BDSP handled this was to replace Signal Beam with Encore, which was Illumise's choice in that slot but Volbeat always got Encore by egg move anyway since Gen 4. Well in Gen 9, Volbeat doesn't even get Encore by egg move anymore because it gets it by TM.

Also, from Gen 3 until XY, Volbeat learned Confuse Ray at 9 to match Illumise's Charm at 9, but ORAS changed this to 8 for some reason when all wild Volbeat are above that level anyway.

Speaking of egg moves, while they lost most of their egg moves due to being TMs, Volbeat inexplicably gained Counter as an egg move while Illumise got Attract and Roost, turning formerly shared TMs into more ways to differentiate the two which is fine. On the other hand, one of Volbeat's exclusive egg moves over Illumise has always been Trick since Gen 3, but now Illumise learns Trick via TM anyway which is the exact opposite situation.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Much as I love Kitakami as a region, already annoyed that it doesn't have its own heading in dex listings and is just considered part of Paldea. Incredibly dumb decision imo.

 

[R_N]

Much as I love Kitakami as a region, already annoyed that it doesn't have its own heading in dex listings and is just considered part of Paldea. Incredibly dumb decision imo.

It is very silly that it's expliclity this separate region but just so happens to use the Paldean mark and has terastalization and crystals

Going to get even sillier when we go to a Unovan terrarium in 3 months

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

These two separate regions having Terastallization and crystals is not necessarily a bad or inconsistent thing, it just shows that Terastal from a lore standpoint has manifested in three different parts of the world with different lore about how it got there. Indigo Disk may expand on it further.

It's no different from how Mega Evolution had concentrated bouts of it in both Kalos and Hoenn, each with its own separate lore about how Infinite Energy and Mega Stones got there. Mega Evolution is a transformation that can hypothetically occur anywhere in the world with Trainer and Pokemon but two different regions are its "home" regions in that Mega Stones are there and there's special energy that caused it to form.

Terastal is in-lore a similar case most likely: Terastal energy was found in Area Zero in Paldea, and in this distant region called Kitakami, and in the Unovan Terarium with Blueberry Academy, all with likely different ways of how it got there. Terastal with the Tera Orb can even hypothetically be used anywhere: it's just that it was supposedly first found in Paldea's Area Zero by Sada/Turo and then they created an orb to harness its power outside of Area Zero.

That said, Kitakami not having a completely separate mark is likely just a matter of coding logistics because of both being in the same game. XY and ORAS were two separate games for instance and so they were easy to distinguish.

SV is one game that happens to take place on three separate landmasses, effectively three different regions when all is said and done, but this is the first time they've ever done that. I think it's a coding logistics complication that stems from all three being from just one game, when these kinds of denotes are mainly used to identify which game a given individual Pokemon originated from. I don't think Game Freak has really figured out how to code separate markings for different Pokemon from different regions in the same game given SV is the first time they've done this.

 

[AztecCroc]

Infinite Energy

Infinite Energy is everywhere Pokemon just produce it, its not energy field like Galar Particles or Tera Energy.

 

[R_N]

These two separate regions having Terastallization and crystals is not necessarily a bad or inconsistent thing, it just shows that Terastal from a lore standpoint has manifested in three different parts of the world with different lore about how it got there. Indigo Disk may expand on it further.

It's no different from how Mega Evolution had concentrated bouts of it in both Kalos and Hoenn, each with its own separate lore about how Infinite Energy and Mega Stones got there. Mega Evolution is a transformation that can hypothetically occur anywhere in the world with Trainer and Pokemon but two different regions are its "home" regions in that Mega Stones are there and there's special energy that caused it to form.

Terastal is in-lore a similar case most likely: Terastal energy was found in Area Zero in Paldea, and in this distant region called Kitakami, and in the Unovan Terarium with Blueberry Academy, all with likely different ways of how it got there. Terastal with the Tera Orb can even hypothetically be used anywhere: it's just that it was supposedly first found in Paldea's Area Zero by Sada/Turo and then they created an orb to harness its power outside of Area Zero.

The game does explain why terastalization exists in Kitakami, incidentally. A man from long ago brought a lot of tera crystals with him, they're used for the mask. At some point, he put them in the lake at the top of the mountain, where they seemed to propser and it runs through the entire water ways of kitakami. The implication from there being that tera crystals start popping up after presumably being used for water and stuff.

That said, Kitakami not having a completely separate mark is likely just a matter of coding logistics because of both being in the same game. XY and ORAS were two separate games for instance and so they were easy to distinguish.

SV is one game that happens to take place on three separate landmasses, effectively three different regions when all is said and done, but this is the first time they've ever done that. I think it's a coding logistics complication that stems from all three being from just one game, when these kinds of denotes are mainly used to identify which game a given individual Pokemon originated from. I don't think Game Freak has really figured out how to code separate markings for different Pokemon from different regions in the same game given SV is the first time they've done this.

I don't think it's coding logistics at all (XY & ORAS had the same mark, by the way, so that's not even relevant). It's likely something that's pretty easy to code (literally just look at where you are, apply the mark). I think the reason they didn't is despite my quip about it, they probably didn't even think to do it. Or did just go "well its all one game anyway".

 

[Worldie]

I don't think it's coding logistics at all (XY & ORAS had the same mark, by the way, so that's not even relevant). It's likely something that's pretty easy to code (literally just look at where you are, apply the mark). I think the reason they didn't is despite my quip about it, they probably didn't even think to do it. Or did just go "well its all one game anyway".

Realistically speaking I think they want to use the marks just for generational showcase. The specifics of "where in that generation" the pokemon comes from don't matter much.

 

[R_N]

Realistically speaking I think they want to use the marks just for generational showcase. The specifics of "where in that generation" the pokemon comes from don't matter much.

I think tweaking this sentence to "game showcase" and "specifics of where in that generation DO matter" probably reflects what they want considering how last gen worked and how any remaining games in this gen will work.



it'd be cute if next game was in Unova and you could run int a blueberry academy person who gifts you a SV mark Pokemon.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Realistically speaking I think they want to use the marks just for generational showcase. The specifics of "where in that generation" the pokemon comes from don't matter much.

Was going to comment that but Worldie beat me to it. But I'll expand on my thought a little:

The Origin Mark is not meant to be an in-world thing, it's a meta mechanic simply to denote what game a Pokemon is from. The reason for this is, as far as I can tell, is mostly competitive where they can choose to include or exclude Pokemon of certain origin marks (or rather for early cycle competitions focus on the current gen and then later comps allow for foreign origin marks).

Note that the Origin Mark for SV is a Terastal crystal. That is something which Paldea and the DLC locations all have in common (I'm assuming Blueberry Academy will have something to do with Terastal, though even if it doesn't being it's the sister school of Paldea's Academy it's connected to the Terastal phenomenon that way).

it'd be cute if next game was in Unova and you could run int a blueberry academy person who gifts you a SV mark Pokemon.

Interesting idea, though once again goes against the purpose of the mark's meaning. Note the Origin Mark also matches with the Met Location data. I think maybe what you want is something akin to the "Fateful Encounter" flag which Event Pokemon are given. That would more match with noting the Pokemon you were given is special without obscuring what game it originated in.

 

[R_N]

Was going to comment that but Worldie beat me to it. But I'll expand on my thought a little:

The Origin Mark is not meant to be an in-world thing, it's a meta mechanic simply to denote what game a Pokemon is from. The reason for this is, as far as I can tell, is mostly competitive where they can choose to include or exclude Pokemon of certain origin marks (or rather for early cycle competitions focus on the current gen and then later comps allow for foreign origin marks).

Note that the Origin Mark for SV is a Terastal crystal. That is something which Paldea and the DLC locations all have in common (I'm assuming Blueberry Academy will have something to do with Terastal, though even if it doesn't being it's the sister school of Paldea's Academy it's connected to the Terastal phenomenon that way).



Interesting idea, though once again goes against the purpose of the mark's meaning. Note the Origin Mark also matches with the Met Location data. I think maybe what you want is something akin to the "Fateful Encounter" flag which Event Pokemon are given. That would more match with noting the Pokemon you were given is special without obscuring what game it originated in.

No, I think I just want them to have more fun with Origin marks now that their original purpose is useless. So sure mark a gift Pokemon in the next game as a SV Pokemon, who cares

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Yeah, I should clarify I'm not expecting Pokemon from the DLC to actually show up as being from "Kitakami" as opposed to "Paldea" on their status screens. That's never how it's worked since a Pokemon's origin is purely derived from the game it's originally from (so you have stuff like the Deoxys caught on Birth Island in Emerald being from Hoenn, Pokemon caught in Kanto or in the Pokewalker in HGSS being from Johto, and so on).

What I meant was Kitakami not having its own separate region tab. Home has the Kitakami Pokedex as a discreet listing in the same way it has the Crown Tundra and Isle of Armour Pokedex listings, but on the National Dex the Kitakami species all show up as part of Paldea, as opposed to how all the species introduced in PLA were in a separate "Hisui" tab.

Be interesting to see whether Pokemon Go follows suit: in that game the Pokedex is split up into Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Hisui, and Paldea subheadings (and "unknown" for Meltan & Melmetal, too).

 

[R_N]

Yeah, I should clarify I'm not expecting Pokemon from the DLC to actually show up as being from "Kitakami" as opposed to "Paldea" on their status screens. That's never how it's worked since a Pokemon's origin is purely derived from the game it's originally from (so you have stuff like the Deoxys caught on Birth Island in Emerald being from Hoenn, Pokemon caught in Kanto or in the Pokewalker in HGSS being from Johto, and so on).

What I meant was Kitakami not having its own separate region tab. Home has the Kitakami Pokedex as a discreet listing in the same way it has the Crown Tundra and Isle of Armour Pokedex listings, but on the National Dex the Kitakami species all show up as part of Paldea, as opposed to how all the species introduced in PLA were in a separate "Hisui" tab.

Be interesting to see whether Pokemon Go follows suit: in that game the Pokedex is split up into Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Hisui, and Paldea subheadings (and "unknown" for Meltan & Melmetal, too).

I'm guessing they just follow what the main games (or the marketing, rather) do, so they will continue to place them in the Paldea tab.




Related to that though, I'm very curious how the Sitting Cuties line (which I see no reason for them to stop doing) will handle Meltan/Melmetal and the Hisui pokemon.
"Unknown region" of all 2 Pokemon does not a merchandise line make, you know? So do they just lump them with Alola (since they are gen 7, and its where they're usually lumped since that's when they were merchandised) or Galar (like the google poll, and maybe to match up with the gmax) and do they acknowledge that they aren't from there? Special promo side items?
Hisui is more consistently marketed around "wow, the hisui region and its hisui forms and hisui pokemon!" , and has more Pokemon, but even on the assumption all the regional forms go in there, it's a pretty small line. Do they just power through and decide to do that anyway or do they go ahead and lump them with Galar. Maybe a "Galar & Hisui" collection...

Very invested in this line of plush that won't reach it for another 3+ years

 

[Coronis]

Feels like the animations for Night Slash and Shadow Claw are reversed..

 

[SaphireStorm]

The fact that pineco is a pure bug type. It's not even a bug, it's a plant, yet it's pure bug type?

 

[NaturalTropius]

The fact that pineco is a pure bug type. It's not even a bug, it's a plant, yet it's pure bug type?

It's not actually a pinecone! Like Burmy, it's based on the bagworm- which sometimes can almost appear to look like a pinecone! They're insects under the umbrella of butterflies/moths that build pupae out of the surrounding materials, from twigs to soil to sand (Burmy definitely does this bit better). It's also similar to a grenade in appearance, explaining its explosive nature. Forretress, I think, leans more on the latter.

Image (contains bug)

Hope that clears things up :)

 

[Coronis]

Feels like the animations for Night Slash and Shadow Claw are reversed..

Something I thought of whilst seeing this play out again with my Meowscarada vs Rhyme - why the hell are there no double battles in the game? Like 1 Gym leader is good and all - but you’d think there’d be more stuff ingame considering its the official Meta and all…

 

[Hugin]

Something I thought of whilst seeing this play out again with my Meowscarada vs Rhyme - why the hell are there no double battles in the game? Like 1 Gym leader is good and all - but you’d think there’d be more stuff ingame considering its the official Meta and all…

The problem as I see it:
Teams are usually built for a specific format, and suck in all others(singles, doubles, Sky, inverse, etc)
Therefore shifting formats on a regular basis in the game is likely a bad thing
So they have to pick one to use the majority of the time
And singles is more intuitive(it's the anime, it's basic, etc), it's easier to write around for major story battles(tutorial, 1v1ing a legendary, etc), and it has less moving parts for the 8 year old kid playing Pkmn for the first time

So they make everything singles, and just assume people will make the effort to learn doubles afterwards if they want to VGC.

I disagree with this, and think they could do a LOT of cool things with a mainline game where everything is doubles, but sadly GF doesn't select their dev leads from the Smogon forums.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

The problem as I see it:
Teams are usually built for a specific format, and suck in all others(singles, doubles, Sky, inverse, etc)
Therefore shifting formats on a regular basis in the game is likely a bad thing
So they have to pick one to use the majority of the time
And singles is more intuitive(it's the anime, it's basic, etc), it's easier to write around for major story battles(tutorial, 1v1ing a legendary, etc), and it has less moving parts for the 8 year old kid playing Pkmn for the first time

So they make everything singles, and just assume people will make the effort to learn doubles afterwards if they want to VGC.

I disagree with this, and think they could do a LOT of cool things with a mainline game where everything is doubles, but sadly GF doesn't select their dev leads from the Smogon forums.

I totally agree. I understand why it hasn't happened, but a new game with a focus on doubles would also help address a lot of the problems the series has with battle design and difficulty, without the devs really having to change much about the AI. Well-designed PvE double battles present a more interesting challenge than single battles, purely by virtue of being less predictable and less cheeseable with setup.

 

[RocketSurgery]

Poison tera mold breaker male Basculegion 6* raids. >:(

Psychic types? Wiped out by Crunch.
Ground types? Wiped out by Wave Crash.
Any other type? Also wiped out by Wave Crash.

I eventually beat it with Gholdengo with AI Staraptor for intimidate, because apparently Basculegion prefers to use wave crash and not crunch. At least now I have a Basculegion in a dusk ball to match all my other ghosts.

 

[Sonikku A]

Poison tera mold breaker male Basculegion 6* raids. >:(

Psychic types? Wiped out by Crunch.
Ground types? Wiped out by Wave Crash.
Any other type? Also wiped out by Wave Crash.

I eventually beat it with Gholdengo with AI Staraptor for intimidate, because apparently Basculegion prefers to use wave crash and not crunch. At least now I have a Basculegion in a dusk ball to match all my other ghosts.

Storm Drain Gastrodon:

 

[Coronis]

So doing a replay of Violet with Teal Mask - which is the reason for my glut of annoy/like posts.

ALFORNADAS GYM TEST

All the others I’m positive to neutral on but Alfornada’s Gym test was by far the worst. Most painful experience in SV so far (even worse than accidentally KOing a random shiny Lycanroc on my first playthrough).

Makes Tulip my least favourite Gym Leader in SV just due to that tbh.