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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

This has almost definitely been said before, but me and a friend were discussing it and I felt it'd be worth bringing up.

Unova's evolve times are really late. Like, notably so. They feel really arbitrary and all over the place, without much rhyme or reason.

Like, can someone explain why Klingklang is available at level 49? That's later than Haxorus for christ's sake, for a fairly weak mon. Meanwhile, you can go ham with a Zoroark from level 30 onwards.

Mandibuzz and Braviary are at level 54. Sure it's not terribly far off from when you get their pre-evos, but its still so pointless to have. Excadrill can just pop off at 31, with oftentimes similar level investment (i.e. not much).

It goes on. Ferrothorn? 40, not great in game. Beeheeyem? 42 for a slow ahh Psychic. Amoonguss? 39, when you can just catch it later as-is and when it sucks in game. But don't worry, Reuniclus is 41 with the useful Duosion at 32. Cinccino is shiny stone'd and you get to tail slap a ton of the game. Krookodile? 40, after a level 29 Krokorok.

The most egregious to me is Eelektrik being at level 39. Not a good mid-evo, not the final evo. A middling mid-evo, at level 39, from one of the rarest and most notoriously weak Pokemon in the game. And in BW1 you can't even catch Eelektrik as-is. You have to find and evolve Tynamo? WHY?

Hoenn has this issue too to a lesser extent, mostly because it has useful enough mid-evos and because it feels more, idk, natural to me? Like there's a clearer idea that better mons evolve later, etc. with some exceptions. But Unova just feels nonsensical, and lowkey a joke that GF pulled on us.

This has been discussed before in another thread - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...y-levels-of-each-generations-pokemon.3676292/ - and it seems the only trend is when the mon is obtained. This evo level spread doesn't really factor in how much work it actually takes to evolve the mon, if there's a good mid-evo or not, or how useful the final evo actually is, unlike a lot of the other regions. I really wish Unova factored that in more.
 
I think it was to make sure you always use each pokemon in the line during the game even if they're late in the game. Which I can understand, but they really should have lowered a lot of them in later gens because random weak first stages evolving 10 levels after most pokemon in other gens is ridiculous.
 
This has almost definitely been said before, but me and a friend were discussing it and I felt it'd be worth bringing up.

Unova's evolve times are really late. Like, notably so. They feel really arbitrary and all over the place, without much rhyme or reason.

Like, can someone explain why Klingklang is available at level 49? That's later than Haxorus for christ's sake, for a fairly weak mon. Meanwhile, you can go ham with a Zoroark from level 30 onwards.

Mandibuzz and Braviary are at level 54. Sure it's not terribly far off from when you get their pre-evos, but its still so pointless to have. Excadrill can just pop off at 31, with oftentimes similar level investment (i.e. not much).

It goes on. Ferrothorn? 40, not great in game. Beeheeyem? 42 for a slow ahh Psychic. Amoonguss? 39, when you can just catch it later as-is and when it sucks in game. But don't worry, Reuniclus is 41 with the useful Duosion at 32. Cinccino is shiny stone'd and you get to tail slap a ton of the game. Krookodile? 40, after a level 29 Krokorok.

The most egregious to me is Eelektrik being at level 39. Not a good mid-evo, not the final evo. A middling mid-evo, at level 39, from one of the rarest and most notoriously weak Pokemon in the game. And in BW1 you can't even catch Eelektrik as-is. You have to find and evolve Tynamo? WHY?

Hoenn has this issue too to a lesser extent, mostly because it has useful enough mid-evos and because it feels more, idk, natural to me? Like there's a clearer idea that better mons evolve later, etc. with some exceptions. But Unova just feels nonsensical, and lowkey a joke that GF pulled on us.

This has been discussed before in another thread - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...y-levels-of-each-generations-pokemon.3676292/ - and it seems the only trend is when the mon is obtained. This evo level spread doesn't really factor in how much work it actually takes to evolve the mon, if there's a good mid-evo or not, or how useful the final evo actually is, unlike a lot of the other regions. I really wish Unova factored that in more.
the thing that really gets me the most is often even the three stage lines have the first stage just be way too weak for how long you're expected to carry them around even relative to where you encounter them. Rufflet is caught on the penultimate route why on earth is it 350 BST.

Ponyta isn't fantastic and no one is especially thrilled at its level 40 evolution level but you know what it does have? 410 BST. More than servicable. Yes this is likely because Puchicorn was cut later in development and Ponyta was originally a middle stage, but it happened and the result is being faster, stronger, bulkier than Rufflet basically across the board. You can do a lot with those extra 60. You can carry Ponyta through the game and its like, fine. You wish it was better but honestly that's more on movepool.
And I say this as someone who dragged Vullaby through Black 2 as an egg and had it perform "okay, i guess"; it's just way too long
 
didn't they add in Mandibuzz and Braviary as route 4 special encounters?

Mandibuzz level 25 on Thursdays in Black 2 and Braviary level 25 on Mondays in White 2
They did, which makes me think I was either
1. confusing it with Black 1
2. confusing it with White 2 and I used the Braviary you get alongside it

I think the former is more likely but I'd need to pull out my games again to check
 
Jacinthe's official art. Why tf is her skin so washed out?
Oh wow you know I forgot just how dark she is in game. I remember seeing her official art and just being impressed she was still so dark but its quite the degree huh?
If I'm charitable it also seems like her outfit & hair aren't as vibrant either so could just be an engine thing, since this is likely how she always looked in concept art. Like how a lot of Splatoon artwork is more washed out in general leading to Marina not being as dark as her in-game model but everyone isn't as dark (contrast with the horrible sanrio marina plush where that girl is just white now). Her full art in the TCG is darker and more vibrant over all probably to play into the holofoil effect while her SIR is more washed out because of all the gold lighting around her.

You see it with Canari too. Her skin is lighter in the artwork...but also so is everything else. Her yellows are brighter, her blues are brighter, even the black part of her outfit is brighter (interestingly, all her TCG cards veer closer to her in-game coloring though).



It's kind of interesting now that I'm really looking through all these...even putting aside possible biases from different members of the art team, I never noticed how much darker Z-A's game is. Even white boys like Ivor seem generally darker in game.
I decided to look at a few characters in SV and it's kind of the opposite situation. SV's lighting engine washes everything out more, so everyone's more faded. Nemona's not a very dark skinned character but her artwork/anime is consistently a noticeable tan-brown color meanwhile in some spots like the Mesagoza lighting girl looks nearly white.
 
You see it with Canari too. Her skin is lighter in the artwork...but also so is everything else. Her yellows are brighter, her blues are brighter, even the black part of her outfit is brighter (interestingly, all her TCG cards veer closer to her in-game coloring though).
Speaking of Canari why tf does she have green hair on her official art? It may be a very washed out yellow in game but as long as its not in the shadow its still yellow.
 
Honestly the levels so many Unova mons evolve at is like half the reason I just play rom hacks because so many Mons just aren’t good enough to lug around unevolved until the final boss.
I wish Gamefreak would just go back to those Mons and just drop their evolving level by like, 10 so that they’re fully evolved around Gyms 6/7.

Tbh, I quite like ZAs darker, more saturated colouring vs SVs paler colors, and I’m glad WIWA is leaning more towards the former than the latter. Pokémons design leans so much better into more brighter saturated colours on its characters and Mons. You put SV next to anything and it’s so washed out.
 
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