Pokemon that disappointed you in-game despite looking good initially?

[cityscapes]

View attachment 815510
freaking PROBOPASS in Platinum

On paper Nosepass looks great. You evolve immediately and have great bulk and Thunder Wave...but throughout my whole Platinum playthrough, it was hard to find a situation where switching to Probopass was a good option. Rock/Steel is a pretty bad defensive type (Water and Ground and Fighting moves own it pretty hard), and it really doesn't help that Wake, Cyrus, Cynthia - basically all the big battles in the game with the notable exception of Fantina - have ways to neuter it. Most of its good moves come basically at the Pokemon League and with only 75 Special Attack, it hits like a wet towel (on the other hand, Rock Slide is okay for the midgame despite 55 base Attack).

My main issue with Probopass is that despite being billed as a defensive Pokemon, it has almost no good support moves outside Thunder Wave (nobody is using Gravity lmao). No Reflect, no Light Screen, just basic Toxic...WOO GET EXCITED! You know it is bad when Pachirisu with Charm and Super Fang and Light Screen is better in a support role. Heck, my Yawn Chimecho with screens was better, and that's sad. For the entire game, Probopass will sit there, eat a strong hit, Thunder Wave, and then be immediately borderline useless for the rest of the battle. Even the victories it gets in Gyms like Candice are really not notable when Choice Specs Glaceon of all things can destroy Candice.

It's hard to find an actually good wall in Platinum, granted, but still. Probopass might look hilarious, but in-game, just Probopass on it and use something else.

you didn’t even mention the funniest part of probopass which is the gardenia fight. so you get it right before the eterna gym, right, and of course it’ll likely have the best statline out of your whole party at that time in the game, and it even gets this handy steel typing to negate the grass weakness. so you figure, yeah, this should be a good choice for the gym, right? and then you send it vs roserade and get hit by max power grass knot.

being such a heavy mon at that point in the game that you get owned by very specifically grass knot (and not just dying to any grass move like geodude/onix) is a legitimate achievement. im pretty sure the only other mon that gets there is gyarados.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

you didn’t even mention the funniest part of probopass which is the gardenia fight. so you get it right before the eterna gym, right, and of course it’ll likely have the best statline out of your whole party at that time in the game, and it even gets this handy steel typing to negate the grass weakness. so you figure, yeah, this should be a good choice for the gym, right? and then you send it vs roserade and get hit by max power grass knot.

being such a heavy mon at that point in the game that you get owned by very specifically grass knot (and not just dying to any grass move like geodude/onix) is a legitimate achievement. im pretty sure the only other mon that gets there is gyarados.

Yeah it's pretty hilarious Grass Knot owns Probopass

I used chimecho and ponyta there though

check out chimecho's meteoric rise here in my full 12 episode playthrough (starts being used in episode 3)

 

[Wukong]

View attachment 815510
freaking PROBOPASS in Platinum

On paper Nosepass looks great. You evolve immediately and have great bulk and Thunder Wave...but throughout my whole Platinum playthrough, it was hard to find a situation where switching to Probopass was a good option. Rock/Steel is a pretty bad defensive type (Water and Ground and Fighting moves own it pretty hard), and it really doesn't help that Wake, Cyrus, Cynthia - basically all the big battles in the game with the notable exception of Fantina - have ways to neuter it. Most of its good moves come basically at the Pokemon League and with only 75 Special Attack, it hits like a wet towel (on the other hand, Rock Slide is okay for the midgame despite 55 base Attack).

My main issue with Probopass is that despite being billed as a defensive Pokemon, it has almost no good support moves outside Thunder Wave (nobody is using Gravity lmao). No Reflect, no Light Screen, just basic Toxic...WOO GET EXCITED! You know it is bad when Pachirisu with Charm and Super Fang and Light Screen is better in a support role. Heck, my Yawn Chimecho with screens was better, and that's sad. For the entire game, Probopass will sit there, eat a strong hit, Thunder Wave, and then be immediately borderline useless for the rest of the battle. Even the victories it gets in Gyms like Candice are really not notable when Choice Specs Glaceon of all things can destroy Candice.

It's hard to find an actually good wall in Platinum, granted, but still. Probopass might look hilarious, but in-game, just Probopass on it and use something else.

Bronzong is kinda what Probopass wishes it was in Platinum. Clear defensive identity across typing, ability and movepool. Even if about even statistically.

Thunder Wave utility and that Fantina matchup are great. But it falls off a cliff after that. Not that Bronzong is winning many awards either but still.