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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
One of my biggest nitpicks with Gen 8 is the fact that Incenses still exist and this was the Gen they could finally do away with them.
I think that when GF introduced Incenses they wanted to address an inconsistency. If Wynaut exists, why would we hatch Wobbuffet when breeding in Gen 2? Their answer: "Oh, silly you, that's because Wynaut only hatches from parents that are exposed to this specific Incense." Ok, I dislike it but I guess we can go with that.
Next question: Why would I go through the trouble of hatching a Wynaut, if I'm going to evolve it anyways? To answer this, GF added exclusive egg moves to baby Pokémon that required Incense. For instance, Wynaut could learn Encore and Mantyke had access to Tailwind, but their evolutions did not. So if you want a better version of Wobbuffet you'll want to use Incenses.
The two points that justified the existence of Incenses (consistency and exclusive EMs) are now void.
GF always strived to keep things somewhat consistent with cross-gen (pre)-evolutions. Admittedly they have had a few slip-ups (i.e., Mamoswine and Lickilicky), but their intention has always been the same. "See Leafeon has always existed, you just couldn't get it because it evolves in a exclusive area that was not present in Kanto/Johto/Hoenn." They broke the rule this time around (soemthing I'm actually grateful, because cross-gen evolution methods were getting out hand) with Leafeon and Glaceon, which can now evolve with the use of the elemental stones.
Secondly, exclusives EMs no longer exist. Excepting learning moves earlier, now there is no disadvantage to evolving ASAP. Pokémon that evolve by stone like Arcanine and Clefable can learn all of their base form moves. Wobbuffet has access to Encore if you take it to Move Relearner. Mantine now gets Tailwind as an EM and so forth. This change has made Incense baby Pokémon completely irrelevant. Now there's no incentive to obtain them other than recording an extra dex entry.
So yeah, I wish we could do away with the Incenses and just have baby Pokémon be the base form of their evolutionary line. While I understand babies were introduced to showcase the breeding mechanic, I don't get why they needed to add cross-gen babies past Gen 2 (although I won't deny the likes of Bonsly and Mantyke are super cute) and make it such a chore to obtain with this mechanic. I seriously thought GF abandoned the concept, but Toxel proves they still remember baby Pokémon exist.
I think that when GF introduced Incenses they wanted to address an inconsistency. If Wynaut exists, why would we hatch Wobbuffet when breeding in Gen 2? Their answer: "Oh, silly you, that's because Wynaut only hatches from parents that are exposed to this specific Incense." Ok, I dislike it but I guess we can go with that.
Next question: Why would I go through the trouble of hatching a Wynaut, if I'm going to evolve it anyways? To answer this, GF added exclusive egg moves to baby Pokémon that required Incense. For instance, Wynaut could learn Encore and Mantyke had access to Tailwind, but their evolutions did not. So if you want a better version of Wobbuffet you'll want to use Incenses.
The two points that justified the existence of Incenses (consistency and exclusive EMs) are now void.
GF always strived to keep things somewhat consistent with cross-gen (pre)-evolutions. Admittedly they have had a few slip-ups (i.e., Mamoswine and Lickilicky), but their intention has always been the same. "See Leafeon has always existed, you just couldn't get it because it evolves in a exclusive area that was not present in Kanto/Johto/Hoenn." They broke the rule this time around (soemthing I'm actually grateful, because cross-gen evolution methods were getting out hand) with Leafeon and Glaceon, which can now evolve with the use of the elemental stones.
Secondly, exclusives EMs no longer exist. Excepting learning moves earlier, now there is no disadvantage to evolving ASAP. Pokémon that evolve by stone like Arcanine and Clefable can learn all of their base form moves. Wobbuffet has access to Encore if you take it to Move Relearner. Mantine now gets Tailwind as an EM and so forth. This change has made Incense baby Pokémon completely irrelevant. Now there's no incentive to obtain them other than recording an extra dex entry.
So yeah, I wish we could do away with the Incenses and just have baby Pokémon be the base form of their evolutionary line. While I understand babies were introduced to showcase the breeding mechanic, I don't get why they needed to add cross-gen babies past Gen 2 (although I won't deny the likes of Bonsly and Mantyke are super cute) and make it such a chore to obtain with this mechanic. I seriously thought GF abandoned the concept, but Toxel proves they still remember baby Pokémon exist.
Honestly, I'd 100% agree with you; but this is one dumb GF thing I'm happy to let past if only because it means when chainbreeding I don't have to evolve Munchlax or Azurill a thousand times.
I recently hatched a flawless 0 Spe IV shiny Kecleon using a parent from Eisenherz 's giveaway thread in gen 7. I was very disappointed when I opened Amie and found out it didn't have a cool electric blue tongue 
. Looked it up on Bulbapedia to make sure I wasn't crazy and sure enough the shiny had a blue tongue that only showed up in the animation in Emerald (the entire reason I thought it was a cool shiny!) and BW/B2W2. I guess the company making the 3D models in gen 6 never thought to check. Now I'm sad because I wasted a great egg seed on a not great shiny :(
I wonder if there are other examples of shiny mistakes like this? I know the color palettes are sometimes tweaked (see Gengar) and that a lot of gen 2 colorings are straight up abandoned (see Ponyta).
. Looked it up on Bulbapedia to make sure I wasn't crazy and sure enough the shiny had a blue tongue that only showed up in the animation in Emerald (the entire reason I thought it was a cool shiny!) and BW/B2W2. I guess the company making the 3D models in gen 6 never thought to check. Now I'm sad because I wasted a great egg seed on a not great shiny :(I wonder if there are other examples of shiny mistakes like this? I know the color palettes are sometimes tweaked (see Gengar) and that a lot of gen 2 colorings are straight up abandoned (see Ponyta).
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It really blew my mind that they retconned Leafeon, Glaceon, SYlveon AND Vikavolt but touched absolutely no one else. Like the obvious answer is "they didn't have locations (& affection) to evolve the normal way" but they could have like...so easily added mossy/icy rock and magnetic area flags in lots of places
So if you're already retconning things, just go whole hog! Overhaul those gen 5 pokemon & also noibat with way too high evolution levels. Get rid of incenses. Take the one thousand item + trade combos and throw them into the trash.
Something little, but the additional trainers for the Champion Cup Rematches kind of felt like missed opportunities.
First off, they're all Type Specialists. Which would have been fine if they were filling in for the missing Types the Gym Leaders aren't, but here's where things gets weird and many of the additional trainers use the same the Type Gym Leaders. There's an additional Trainer for Grass, Water, Fire, Fighting, Ghost, Rock, Ice, & Dragon (and many use the same Pokemon as the Gym Leaders). Not only that, while they do have Types that none of the Gym Leaders cover (Normal, Bug, Poison, Ground, Electric, & Steel) they're missing one Type that doesn't have a specialist: Psychic (well, doesn't have a specialist anymore as Bede became a Fairy-type trainer). Like, fill in the missing Types definitely but after that how about having something like an Eeveelution Trainer, Fossil Trainer; maybe bring back some of the Gym Challengers who had to drop out so we could see what they were about (like the old man who got pretty far as I recall), wouldn't mind also battling against our number one fan (you know, the girl with the Blipbug/Dottler/Orbeetle who you find in the corner of every Stadium) or Ball Guy. They could also have had Oleana, Sordward, and Shielbert too.
Second, if they were going to have these additional Type Specialists, why not make them the Minor League Gym Leader? "They're probably saving some/all of them for the third version/sequel version". Alright, in that case maybe have a Gym Trainer representing that Gym. Give us a sneak peek at what the Gym and the Gym Leader could possibly be about but not go into full detail. Also, I think they could of had the version exclusive Gym Leaders that didn't appear in the game you're playing (Allister & Melony for Sword, Bea & Gordie for Shield) instead of generic trainers using their Type.
Also would have been cool to throw in an Easter Egg/cameo. Like how about Ryuki, or maybe have someone from Kalos like Shauna.
First off, they're all Type Specialists. Which would have been fine if they were filling in for the missing Types the Gym Leaders aren't, but here's where things gets weird and many of the additional trainers use the same the Type Gym Leaders. There's an additional Trainer for Grass, Water, Fire, Fighting, Ghost, Rock, Ice, & Dragon (and many use the same Pokemon as the Gym Leaders). Not only that, while they do have Types that none of the Gym Leaders cover (Normal, Bug, Poison, Ground, Electric, & Steel) they're missing one Type that doesn't have a specialist: Psychic (well, doesn't have a specialist anymore as Bede became a Fairy-type trainer). Like, fill in the missing Types definitely but after that how about having something like an Eeveelution Trainer, Fossil Trainer; maybe bring back some of the Gym Challengers who had to drop out so we could see what they were about (like the old man who got pretty far as I recall), wouldn't mind also battling against our number one fan (you know, the girl with the Blipbug/Dottler/Orbeetle who you find in the corner of every Stadium) or Ball Guy. They could also have had Oleana, Sordward, and Shielbert too.
Second, if they were going to have these additional Type Specialists, why not make them the Minor League Gym Leader? "They're probably saving some/all of them for the third version/sequel version". Alright, in that case maybe have a Gym Trainer representing that Gym. Give us a sneak peek at what the Gym and the Gym Leader could possibly be about but not go into full detail. Also, I think they could of had the version exclusive Gym Leaders that didn't appear in the game you're playing (Allister & Melony for Sword, Bea & Gordie for Shield) instead of generic trainers using their Type.
Also would have been cool to throw in an Easter Egg/cameo. Like how about Ryuki, or maybe have someone from Kalos like Shauna.
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This so much. Sword and Shield really stand with their legs in two camps: Performing some much-needed overhauls on one side, and doing business as usual on the other. At times it felt like they wanted to address the item/feature/mechanic bloat that has accumulated over the history of the franchise, other times they casually keep doing more of the stuff that led to the bloat in the first place. Location-based evolution goes out the window, okay, it might have been a gimmick whose novelty value didn't justify the hassle of implementing it in every game henceforth, but then they still added a crapton of Alcremie forms, invents a new form of evolution requirement both for Milcery and Galarian Farfetch'd, adds a secondary form (and required item) for the Sinistea line, and creates an even more contrived form of location-based evolution just for the sake of Galarian Yamask.
It is obvious that following the same old model would take them to a point where maintaining all the various content becomes an insurmountable task, but then they address it by simply throwing out some of the content and then continuing to follow the same old model. Taking out some obscure mechanics and replacing them with even more obscure mechanics - which will just require them to do the same thing over again in the future.
First time this was brought up I tinkered with what I think would be a way to both expand the information the Pokedex tells you as well as make the player work for it but have it be easy/fun:
1. First when you catch a Pokemon you're told the basic information: Type, Body Style, Footprint, Color, Egg Group, & Location Found.
2. Each Pokemon also has a meter. Meter starts at 0% and can be raised by doing the following: Encountering that Pokemon=+1%, Knocking it out=+1%, Catching it=+5%, Using in battle=+1%, Leveling-up=+1%, Evolving into/from it=+5%, and Hatching one=+10%. Also if you're using one and it has a high enough friendship maybe double the gains of Using it in battle, Leveling-up, & Evolving into/from it.
3. As the meter fills out, there are four sets of "Reveals" that, well, reveal at a certain percentage:
- Level-Up Moveset Reveal %: 1%=Levels 2-10, For every 10% after that reveals the next 10 levels, 100%=Level 1 moves (aka moves you need Move Reminder to get)
- Abilities Reveal %: 1%=All Normal Abilities, 50%=Hidden Ability
- Base Stats Reveal %: 20%=Min-Max at Lv 25, 40%=Min-Max at Lv 50, 60%=Min-Max at Lv 75, 80%=Min-Max at Lv 100, 100%=Shows Base Stats; By "Min" means 0 IVs/0 EVs/Negative Nature & by "Max" means 31 IVs/255 EVs/Positive Nature
- Additional Reveals %: 5%=Catch Rate, 10%=Gender Ratio, 15%=TMs/HMs/Tutors, 20%=Evolution Method, 25%=Form Changes & Method, 30%=Wild Held Items, 40%=Egg Moves, 50%=Hatch steps, 60%=Exp. Yield, 70%=EV Yield, 80%=Leveling Rate; 90%=Shiny, 100%=access to Stat Calculator
Especially since said Hidden Ability, Anticipation, makes a bit more sense for Ferroseed to have as it's even more immobile than Ferrothorn who can at least awkwardly walk with its vines. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, Anticipation isn't that really a game changer of an Ability so Ferroseed having it wouldn't change anything (it would probably still rather have Steel Barbs).
Well for why GF tries to keep each story separate from each other as long as possible, it's the easy way out. GF are good at making intriguing characters but having these characters function within an over-arcing story involves a lot more work. So the over-arcing story is given to the villain team who they can make all the characters involved easier fit into what the team's/leader's goal is (which explains why many admins and other characters in this part of the story may not feel as fleshed out as the Pokemon League story characters, they only exist to serve a function). Meanwhile the Pokemon League story is more of a moment instances as the Gym Leaders rarely interact with each other. What happens in a town/city stays in that town/city, even moreso with the Gym and the Gym Leader. To be fair, recent games have been trying to push this by having clashes between the villain team & Pokemon League and the Pokemon League characters interacting with each other more, however it's only a slight push and varies between games. Obvious only exception to this is Gen V which leads to the scenarios you have above (Gen V being Scenario 3).
For one thing, I think there's WAY more scenarios you can do then just those above three. Infact Gen VIII just tried one: making a mystery to solve along your journey. Granted Gen VIII's attempt was very lackluster as the mystery of "The Darkest Day" had some logic gaps and you were pretty much fed the answers with no way of coming up with a wrong conclusion. Other scenarios I can think of: trying to prevent a natural disaster, trying to make peace between factions, trying to bring attention & build-up your hometown, seeking out/hunting down a certain person or group, you're given something and/or a task and now other people are hunting you down, etc.. With that all said, there is one thing I think can't be done: not having the Pokemon League or something like it. And in a way I also think you just can't have the Pokemon League. The Pokemon League is the base; you need something else on top of it, notably some conflict, to give the player some motivation and and urgency in what they're doing. Remember, the player character is treated as a prodigy, this special kid who just has this supernatural connection with Pokemon who is nigh unbeatable and it's not a question of if they will become Champion but when.
Your character in a way is a Mary Sue/Stu... and thus the Pokemon League story has little conflict. You're going to win, that's a forgone conclusion. The point of the Pokemon League story is to be a stepping stones of how you come to greatness and having some fun along the way. You becoming Champion is no big deal if that was all there was. However, that's not the only thing you did. You're the Champion who stopped an evil team from taking over the region. You're the Champion that stopped a natural disaster that threatened thousands of lives and possible the world. You're the Champion that found answers to unsolved mysteries and brought peace. You're not just a Champion, you're a hero. That's why for the Gen VIII games you're playing the character you are and you're not playing as a younger Leon going on his Pokemon journey. Thus, we need both the Pokemon League story and conflict story, so the challenge is how can they be woven together.
Just some quick things wanted to address on the last page. Now onto the current page.
Yeah, Hop showed more frustration from losing than Leon does (and Hop has suffered a lot of defeats before by the player, Bede, and some of the Gym Leaders). Now by that point of the game they made it clear Leon was a good guy so I wasn't expecting him to turn nasty or breakdown, but he was very quick to go "YOU GOT A NEW CHAMPION! I'M OUT!". Granted, he was probably playing up to the crowd, in a middle of a stadium isn't really the time to enter into a daze or start distantly contemplating, but I think maybe setting us something BEFORE this would have made Leon's sudden "I'm out, new Champ in" response feel more genuine.
Easiest thing to do would have been, after Eternatus broke out of the Poke Ball that Leon used (really Leon, a Poke Ball? You don't have Ultra Balls?), have a quick shot of Leon injured on the ground looking on in horror as Eternatus turns toward you and Hop. Then, when the cutscene plays of you and Hop summoning the Legendary Wolves, have a quick shot of Leon looking on in shock and awe. Finally, when you catch Eternatus, have a final shot of Leon at first looking in disbelief but then smiles, maybe even having him musing "He/she caught Eternatus when I couldn't". Nothing drastic, mostly subtle, but it would show Leon coming unto the realization how truly strong the player is could be concluded he mentally was preparing to losing to the player. If they wanted to go further with this have this be the reason why Leon took over Rose Tower and turned it into the Battle Tower, probably thought that was the next step for him after being Champion so he can keep on showing people how fun it is to battle.
Not really, I think he's just putting on a show. And even then he says he knew the player would "reach this far", give out a "I won't be defeated this time", and then after being defeated admits he knew the battle could easily turn to the player's favor but won't give up trying to become stronger. Honestly it's all pretty generic.
I always though of, instead of getting rid of these items, expanding on what they can do. And not just the Incenses but also the effect-less Berries, Fossils, and even Evo Stones.
"Um, the Incenses do have an effect when a Pokemon hold them". Yeah, but they're super generic and most are copy of other items. What I'm thinking is that, in addition to the effect they have now, give them two additional effects for the species the Incenses were made for. One, no matter what the IVs of the parents are, the Hatched Pokemon will have 3 max IVs in the stats that species excels in (but one of the parent must be a member of Incense's specified species). Second, they'll have a unique effect for its species when held during battle. Some quick ideas:
Full Incense (Munchlax & Snorlax): Hatched Pokemon will have max HP/Atk/SpD IVs. In-battle heals 1/8 of max HP at end of each turn.
Lax Incense (Wynaut & Wobbuffet): Hatched Pokemon will have max HP/Def/SpD IVs. In-battle, if about to be knocked out, survives with 1 HP.
Luck Incense (Happiny, Chansey, & Blissey): Hatched Pokemon will have max HP/SpA/SpD IVs. In-battle is only hurt by direct damage (ignores entry hazards, weather damage, burn/poison, etc.).
Odd Incense (Mime Jr. & Mr. Mime): Hatched Pokemon will have max SpA/SpD/Spe IVs. In-battle doubles amount of turns Light Screen, Reflect, Aurora Veil, and Safeguard.
Pure Incense (Chingling & Chimecho): Hatched Pokemon will have max Def/SpA/SpD IVs. In-battle boosts & gives +1 Priority to healing moves (Recover, Heal Pulse, & Wish heals 75%; Healing Wish heals allies in Double/Triple Battles).
Rock Incense (Bonsly & Sudowoodo): Hatched Pokemon will have max HP/Atk/Def IVs. In-battle Rock-type moves cannot miss.
Rose Incense (Budew, Roselia, & Roserade): Hatched Pokemon will have max SpA/SpD/Spe IVs. In-battle, when physically attacked, the attacker receives recoil damage equal to 1/5 of their HP.
Sea Incense (Azurill, Marill, & Azumarill): Hatched Pokemon will have max HP/Def/SpD IVs. In-battle, when hit with a Water-type move, it receives no damage and heals 1/3 of its max HP.
Wave Incense (Mantyke & Mantine): Hatched Pokemon will have max HP/SpA/SpD IVs. In-battle its Water-type moves hits all adjacent opponents.
Not only would something like this give the Incenses more use in breeding (if you noticed the way I worded it, the hatched Pokemon doesn't need to be the Baby Pokemon it's associated with. Yes, the Baby Pokemon will also benefit from this boon, but if you want another Pokemon to hatch with max HP/Atk/SpD IVs, then you'd probably want the father being a Snorlax holding a Full Incense) but also be useful in battle but only for a certain few Pokemon.
I do agree with this, though. Just simplify certain evolution methods and lower/adjust the level threshold so they make sense. Or give alternative ways to evolve the Pokemon that may be more roundabout/require an item or money. The Evolution Stones are just sitting there, do something where they work for a lot more Pokemon. Once again, a quick thing I thought up:
Evolution Stones can be held by a certain Type of Pokemon to evolve them early (whether they're consumed or not depends on how easy they are to get in the game, honestly all games should have a Stone Shop where you can buy more): Fire Stone (Fire), Water (Water), Thunder (Electric & Steel), Leaf (Grass & Bug), Moon (Fairy & Rock), Sun (Dragon & Ground), Light (Psychic & Normal), Dusk (Dark, Ghost & Poison), Dawn (Fighting & Flying), & Ice (Ice). It can change evolution methods in the following ways:
- By Level: Lowers required level to 3/4th.
- By Friendship lowers from 220 to 165.
- Increases chance of finding an item needed for evolution by 50% (including other Evo Stones).
- If needed to trade will now evolve via Friendship. If needs item must be holding item.
- Ignores time of day stipulations.
Which looks like they have no problem doing... and I don't mind it to be honest. Sure, for its debut game (and any remakes of it) let it have a special evolution method to make it unique. However, afterwards, why not make getting it easier? It's a similar thought I have for the Mythical Pokemon, sure in their debut gen make them only obtainable via Events but after that make most if not all of them available in-game for the next gen in some way. If they did that they wouldn't need to worry about having all these evolution methods to keep track of or Mythical Pokemon they need to plan Event releases for, and with that done they can focus on making the newer Pokemon feel more special.
That's the one upside; Anticipation is garbage compared to Iron Barbs especially on something like Ferrothorn so it's not like you'll be going for it. Buuut as someone who collects HAs, boy is it a thorn in my side.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
I always found it incredibly bizarre how once you beat the Champion in most games, there seems to be no visible effect on how the League operates. Forget trainers not acknowledging your new position, why the heck do the Elite 4 say the exact same lines of dialogue when you head there for rematches? And more importantly, why is the old champion still standing there, approaching and talking to you like nothing happened? Get out of my Pokemon League, your time as Champ's up sir/madam. And yeah I guess it was a bit more excusable in early generations where stories in Pokemon were not as well-developed and consistent, but did it really need to take until Sword and Shield for this decades-old gaping plot hole to finally be addressed?
In my headcanon there was a difference between being "League Champion" and being a "Champion Title Holder".'
"Champion Title Holder" just means you've beaten the Elite Four & League Champion and are now officially recognized as one of the strongest Trainers in the region. And that's really it, you're still free to do as you wish and can challenge the Pokemon League anytime you like, plus some additional benefits like access to the Battle Tower/Frontier/etc., but otherwise you're not required to defend your title.
Being "League Champion" is a job, you're a Champion Title Holder who was then at some point hired & assigned by the Pokemon League to test other trainers who also wish to become "Champion Title Holders". Blue (& Trace), Lance, Steven, Wallace, Cynthia, Alder, Iris, & Diantha are all working for the Pokemon League as a representative of one of the strongest trainers in their region. Now if any of them choose to step down, that's where being a Champion Title Holder becomes important as any one of them would be next in line to be League Champion. Not sure how the process is decided, so far looks to be decision made by the Champion & Pokemon League committee.
- Blue/Trace was offered the job as he was the first(?) to defeat the Elite Four and there was no Kanto League Champion, and he accepted. Even though Red beat him moments later doesn't matter, Blue/Trace was the first to sign that contract.
- But of course Blue isn't one to settle down in one place for a long time so eventually resigned. Now I guess between that time Lance was successful at beating Blue and getting a Champion Title, thus being the strongest after Blue he was then became Kanto League Champion.
- Being long time rivals with Steven, Wallace probably earned a Champion Title but chose to be a Gym Leader for his home city. When Steven stepped down, Wallace was offered to be League Champion and decided to accept leaving the Sootopolis Gym in the hands of his mentor, Juan.
- An interesting case with Alder is that N said the Unova Pokemon League hired Alder, hinting he may not have earned the position. Maybe Unova had a similar situation as Kanto where there was no League Champion. However they decided to want one and so sought out Alder who they knew was a strong trainer, had him defeat the Elite Four, and offered him the Unova League Champion position.
- Through B2W2's Memory Link there's an episode where we learn how Iris became Champion. She agreed to become Drayden's pupil only if she could become Champion, and then after BW's Team Plasma incident, Alder worked with Drayden so that he could have the toughest battle with Iris that they can so that, when Iris wins, there would be no question she should become the next Unova League Champion and Alder can retire.
While it seemed like Gen VII did things differently, it actually didn't because instead of your rival being first it was YOU who defeated the new Alola Elite Four and become the first Alola League Champion. Now you're the one other trainers have to beat in order to get a Champion Title.
Gen VIII is when things were done differently. No Elite Four, instead Galar has a tournament system where one Gym Challenger and the Gym Leaders compete to see who gets to face the Galar Champion. And when the Champion loses they do give up their position as Champion, though they probably still remain a Champion Title Holder and can challenge the new Champion. So in that regard Galar has no League Champion.
BTW, if you're wondering where the Elite Four figures into all this, I imagine the Elite Four being "Champion Challengers", those who are able to beat the Elite Four but loses to the League Champion. Like the League Champion, the Elite Four are a group four of these Champion Challengers hired to act like gatekeepers for League Challengers; probably with the benefit of being allowed to challenge the Champion anytime they wish to try and earn a Champion Title (this could be the case with Lance).
I'll be honest, nothing about any of the games feels like they're addressing item bloat at all.
Like, okay. SWSH did get rid of Z Crystals (which had their own dedicated pocket and were a non-factor) and mega stones (purely because they got rid of megas). And there's a rando massortment of items soft-snapped since the POkemon aren't in the game at all, like genesect's drives. These aren't choices done to curb bloat, it's just a byproduct of other decisions.
But *everything else* is still there and we inexplicably got the pokemon who has 17 dedicated items to change its type and that's on top of all the million new items. Alcremie got 10 things. Sinistea has 2 pots to huck around. Applin has 2 different apples.
and of COURSE they get rid of the free space pocket, which come on they had to know we use it to unload all the garbage!
ADD MORE POCKETS, GAMEFREAK
and put all of silvally's memories into something like the rotom catalog, where you just put them all into one item that then lets you pick which memory to apply.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
Roxie was created 3 generations too early. A rock star that specializes in Poison types? Bruh this girl was literally designed to use Toxtricity but it just didn't come to pass because I guess God has foresaken this timeline
seriously
LOOK AT IT
Don't worry. Once gen 5 remakes come GF will be sure to include Toxricity just for Roxie!
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
They don't even gotta wait that long to correct this mistake, actually. Roxie is in Pokemon Masters, so just release a new version of her with Toxtricity as a Sync Partner and boom, easy money.
A couple of incredibly minor qualms with SwSh that don't impact my enjoyment of the game too much, but still shouldn't really exist.
I've reset that game recently to begin a nuzlocke adventure so that I can use a wider batch of Pokémon, and spent around half an hour at the start of the game playing between "casual" and "standard" controls because L=A wasn't working, whereas R=A was. I even recharged my left joycon and tried with a pro-controller, but it still wouldn't work. Turns out, L=A is disabled until you meet Professor Magnolia for the first time. ......why? That must have just been an oversight, right? But it's such an odd oversight to have because L=A exists in both control schemes -- the only difference is the left D-Pad turning into the equivalent of ABXY -- so it's a completely different control mapping with L=A disabled that I guess was left in from an early build of the game only right at the start of the adventure? I'm also not sure how this wasn't caught in playtesting unless the playtesters weren't historic Pokémon players, since as far as I know L=A is used very widely.
The other thing is to do with the Wild Area, and I'm sure others have echoed these annoyances before, but we had the prospect of being able to catch a wide variety of Pokémon teased to us in the buildup to the game and then when it finally came out the rug was pulled from under us. Having no control over weather is I guess fine, but something I dislike about it is how rain, sun, and clear skies seem to be way more common than everything else. Misty Terrain and Hail in particular are missed because there really aren't a lot of Ice- or Fairy-Type Pokémon in the game, much less until the mid-to-late game where outside of the Wild Area in those specific weather conditions I'm pretty sure there aren't any at all. However, something that's incredibly frustrating is how the section of the Wild Area that you go to before getting your first gym badge is very samey in terms of what types of Pokémon you can find. It's predominantly Normal-, Grass-, Flying- and Water-Type Pokémon, plus Tyrogue and Stufful for Fighting-Types, and Baltoy and Mudbray for Ground-Types. This is made so much worse by having a Ghost-Type area right there in Watchtower Ruins, but the overworld encounters are all too strong for you to be able to catch, making hunting for a certain Ghost-Type Pokémon in the wild grass there an utter chore as you try to avoid all of the overworld Drifloon, Golett and Duskull just so you can find them in the grass instead. I see no reason why the overworld encounters in the Watchtower Ruins should be overleveled so that you can't catch them, and though I can sort of see why they don't want to give players too much type diversity right at the start, it shouldn't have been teased that a big feature that the Wild Area is home to all sorts of different types of Pokémon and that you go there within the first hour of the game, because it's natural to put 2 and 2 together and expect to be able to have a really diverse team from the word go.
I've reset that game recently to begin a nuzlocke adventure so that I can use a wider batch of Pokémon, and spent around half an hour at the start of the game playing between "casual" and "standard" controls because L=A wasn't working, whereas R=A was. I even recharged my left joycon and tried with a pro-controller, but it still wouldn't work. Turns out, L=A is disabled until you meet Professor Magnolia for the first time. ......why? That must have just been an oversight, right? But it's such an odd oversight to have because L=A exists in both control schemes -- the only difference is the left D-Pad turning into the equivalent of ABXY -- so it's a completely different control mapping with L=A disabled that I guess was left in from an early build of the game only right at the start of the adventure? I'm also not sure how this wasn't caught in playtesting unless the playtesters weren't historic Pokémon players, since as far as I know L=A is used very widely.
The other thing is to do with the Wild Area, and I'm sure others have echoed these annoyances before, but we had the prospect of being able to catch a wide variety of Pokémon teased to us in the buildup to the game and then when it finally came out the rug was pulled from under us. Having no control over weather is I guess fine, but something I dislike about it is how rain, sun, and clear skies seem to be way more common than everything else. Misty Terrain and Hail in particular are missed because there really aren't a lot of Ice- or Fairy-Type Pokémon in the game, much less until the mid-to-late game where outside of the Wild Area in those specific weather conditions I'm pretty sure there aren't any at all. However, something that's incredibly frustrating is how the section of the Wild Area that you go to before getting your first gym badge is very samey in terms of what types of Pokémon you can find. It's predominantly Normal-, Grass-, Flying- and Water-Type Pokémon, plus Tyrogue and Stufful for Fighting-Types, and Baltoy and Mudbray for Ground-Types. This is made so much worse by having a Ghost-Type area right there in Watchtower Ruins, but the overworld encounters are all too strong for you to be able to catch, making hunting for a certain Ghost-Type Pokémon in the wild grass there an utter chore as you try to avoid all of the overworld Drifloon, Golett and Duskull just so you can find them in the grass instead. I see no reason why the overworld encounters in the Watchtower Ruins should be overleveled so that you can't catch them, and though I can sort of see why they don't want to give players too much type diversity right at the start, it shouldn't have been teased that a big feature that the Wild Area is home to all sorts of different types of Pokémon and that you go there within the first hour of the game, because it's natural to put 2 and 2 together and expect to be able to have a really diverse team from the word go.
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Tell me about it. Ever since the day I beat Milo, I've been trying to find a Solosis. It's been three weeks without fog at Giant's Cap.
That wouldn't surprise me, honestly. And it would be another big annoyance.
Quite early on, there's a mandatory battle against Bede, where he uses Solosis and Gothita. A player, like me for instance, might see those Pokémon and wish to use them themselves. So they open the Pokédex and see where and when to find them. Giant's Cap, foggy conditions. A Sword player might find it attractive to use a Gothorita against Bea's Fighting-type Gym in Stow-on-Side too, perhaps putting off the Gym challenge until Gothita can be caught.
All right, gotta wait for fog at Giant's Cap, then. One roll of the nine-sided dice per day. The game tells you the conditions required for Solosis/Gothita to appear. But it doesn't indicate in any way whatsoever that these conditions won't appear until after you've become Champion. Without messing with the Switch's date settings, it can take a long, long while for players to realize this by themselves. Have fun wasting weeks until you give up.
Needless to say, I don't think these games are very well designed.
Man, if only GF would have made a trading hub where players can either put up a Pokemon for trade and make a request for what they want or search through trades other players have put up for the Pokemon they want and see what they're requesting. Would make it real easy for people to trade version exclusives, Starters, or any Pokemon they're just having a difficult time finding.
Oh wait, I'm describing the Global Trading Station, easy for me to forget because they removed it from Sword & Shield for some baffling reason.
"You can still trade via the internet". Yes, but here's the problem with that: as far as I can tell there's no way to tell the other player what Pokemon you want! And you have to be lucky in the first place if they just to happen to have an extra.
Now I'm lucky enough that my Wild Area worked with me (eventually) and was able to get all the Pokemon I can catch in my game. Also thankfully I got all the new Pokemon (thanks to my cousins who had the other version I didn't) so all I need are a few old ones which I can now just wait for Pokemon HOME (because Arceus forbid they have the service required to transfer Pokemon from last gen to the next up and running by the time the new games are released or ... or, you know, just upgrade the PREVIOUS service that was intended to do). But if they had the GTS or something similar I would be able to do that now and I don't think I'm the only one.
"Use Reddit/Discord". First off, that's a "third party solution" for something that GF had a solution for in-game, that's not a replacement, that's people finding outside fixes for GF's mistake. Second, look, despite what it seems I'm really not that social or engaging of a person. I'll leave comment & responses on forums cause I like that way of communicating, I feel more fluent in typing where I can get my thoughts together before sending it out into the world (and even then I've looked stupid/paranoid at times). I don't like seeking out other people and having to talk with them cause I don't want to feel like I just want to use them... which I technically am, and though they understand that and using me too so its a mutual agreement still feels awkward (at least to me). But that's a personal problem I (and maybe others) have, there's also others like little kids (you know, that market GF keep claiming they make the games for yet have plenty of stuff in the game that says otherwise) & those who may not have great or limited internet service.
The delayed transfer seems to be a purposeful thing. Bank launched after XY. Bank did not update day & date for ORAS, SM & USUM. Bank probably has its own dev team so I doubt this is just a people issue either, I'd guess they just want you to stick with "that" game for a bit before you transfer over your old dudes to fill out the pokedex or start breeding or whatever (& they don't block trading within the same generation for similar reasons probably because it involves extra facotrs)
And upgrading the previous service wouldn't really do anything. They still need to develop and release Bank on Switch and Phones alongside the compatability reasons and whatever other nonsense is going on with Home. And Bank will probably be put to bed within a few years (which boy howdy...)
And let me remind everyone that when that happens it's going to cause 2 (possibly 3) "generation lockouts":
Can't transfer up Pokemon from Gen III-V (RSE, FRLG, DPPl, HGSS, BW, B2W2) to Gen VI (XY & ORAS).
Can't transfer up Pokemon from Gen VI to Gen VII (SM & USUM).
And if you can't send Pokemon directly from Gen VII to HOME that would be a 3rd lockout.
And remember GF's excuse for doing this (and not having ANY way for the games to interact between each) was a "future proofing" plan where Bank will always be the "go-to" app for your transferring need. And that lasted all for 2 years but GF is like a child inventor who makes something and claims big plans with it but soon gets bored of it and discards it for something new. Only hope to prevent a generation lockout is if they make it so Bank directly transfers a Pokemon to HOME. Of course that means you can't transfer a Pokemon from Gen V to VI or VI to VII but, to be fair, the only reason you'd play a past game is for the novelty of it and/or experience what it had to offer (and there's always hacks, especially for the games that can connect via Wifi and using an app that lets you spoof Pokemon).
NEW ANNOYANCE: Version Exclusive ITEMS
So, trying to make all the Curry to fill the Curry Dex. I'm missing some ingredients so I check where they are and while most I guess are rare when the Ingredient Hiker will sell them, I discover there's one that they will never sell because it's version exclusive. You can only get Bob's Food Tin in Sword and Bach's Food Tin in Shield.
This is stupid. Remember, you can't easily trade items, only way to swap items is by having a Pokemon holding it. So for a Sword/Shield player would need to trade 6 Pokemon minimum (provably Pokemon they quickly caught on Route 1, aka reducing Pokemon nothing but item trading fodder) just so we can fill the curry dex. Well, I guess there's also making curry with friends but I hope that person is right next to you so they know exactly what Berries to throw in to get the 6 entries you need (and make Curry 6 more times to help fill their dex if they don't already have it).
Like, I'm fine if they just had made it rarer in different versions, but don't completely make it version exclusive. I mean with the Fossil Pokemon, which I could consider something more important than curry thus worth the extra effort, not only do you just need to trade over at max 4 items BUT you can also use the Treasure Digging Brother to actually find the other version exclusive fossils in your game rarely (and if you do enough raids you'll have plenty of Watts to keep on trying to get them, you may even get a Bottle Cap or Golden Bottle cap in the process). Yet it's curry ingredients they make completely version exclusive thus a hassle to get if you want a full Curry Dex. *sigh*
Well, if we are going to complain about that, then let's complain about Applin's apples.
The fact it evolves from a version-exclusive item not only causes the issues you mention, but it actually makes the trade evolution process take more time than any older evolution that required trading. You can't just "trade to evolve, then trade back". You have to "trade, end the trading process to evolve, and THEN trade back". Or trade several exclusive apples that, again, takes a lot of time.