Well, for the Elite Four part, by that point it's a established trend. Not a good trend, but at least veteran players will see it coming.
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
Well, for the Elite Four part, by that point it's a established trend. Not a good trend, but at least veteran players will see it coming.
Isn't N also guilty of suddenly challenging you to a battle when you least expect it (and possibly not ready for a tougher than usual battle) in BW?
Yes, but so is every rival in the Unova games. Bianca, Cheren, Hugh, all of these people tend to just appear from somewhere offscreen when it's time for a rival battle. Now that I think about it, this happens a lot, in a lot of different games.
Okay touché. BW1 is very guilty about “HEY STOP AND FIGHT ME FOR REASONS.”
It’s one of the reasons I don’t like Cheren’s characterization in the originals. Bianca does it too but I like her development more (she’s my favorite rival in the series).
Tiny nitpick, but I've never understood why Flip Turn is only 60 BP instead of 70 to match U-turn and Volt Switch.
I remain fairly convinced that they were fully aware of how thunderously poo the implementation of the difficulty system was, and yet decided to go forward with it anyway out of sheer stubbornness.
My favourite hypothesis is that the game director thought difficulty modes weren't in line with the spirit of the franchise or somesuch, but that it was forced upon him by the executive board because, c'mon, every game has difficulty modes. He gave in on the condition that they'd be using the online functionality of BW2 to count how many percent of users were bothering to change the difficulty, and how many just left the game on default. If the difficulty modes weren't used much, they wouldn't have to be implemented in the next Pokémon games going forward.
Cue the most deliberately obnoxious implementation of difficulty modes in gaming history, and during design meetings for the next games the game director could triumphantly show that only half a percent or so of players ever used the difficulty modes during the main story, with the rest keeping the default mode on.
That, or the esteemed director-san had what he thought was a good idea, instructed it be put into the game, and then dismissed all feedback from the playtesters on grounds of seniority. "What do they know, they haven't been making these games since the 1990s and I have. The feature stays."
Either way, it would be hard to convince me that any significant portion of the designers thought this system would honestly be a good idea. If you can open a door without the aid of an instruction sign more than half the time, you know that this system is incredibly antagonistic to anyone who wants to use the feature.
that....sure is a theory......
You can say it's completely idiotic.
Let's break some of that down:
So, the idea wasn't a difficulty mode for the game you're playing, it's for the OTHER version. Which means they actually expected players to buy both versions. So, was this meant to be like a bonus feature just for the people who bought both versions?
Not to mention this only applies to Black 2 to White 2, as Black 2 is the one with Challenge Mode which would be the additional mode worth playing through the game again to try out (in theory). If you already played through the game there's no reason to play through them again on Easy Mode, so if you have both games and played White 2 first the jokes on you.
... What Masuda said and what Unno said contradict each other. Masuda was talking about adding challenge via making stronger Pokemon appear. And now Unno is talking about helping someone who's having problems complete the game?
I think Codraroll's second theory is likely the reason for this nonsense:
They so wanted to enforce this "resonance" idea of one game doing something to change the other game's world this was the best idea they could come up with: one game makes the other easier while the other makes it harder.
And you know, MAYBE the idea could have worked, but rather have each game have different ways to make the other version easier AND harder. This of course on top of making Easy Mode and Challenge Mode available from the start in BOTH versions, then when you finish the game you unlock a batch of keys which switches things up and that you can have different between versions. (That and an additional save file so that you can play with these keys without having to overwrite your "main" file).
Friends. Pokemon is meant to be a social game and japan's audience in particular has a very high density. See also: the seven thousand local multiplayer features of the DS & 3DS era and I'm not just talking about Pokemon.
That doesn't make it less dumb, but it's hardly the first decision rooted in "friends doing something together" rather than "a person on their own". Nintendo throughout the DS & 3DS years had been criticized for this focus on Japan's density without any consideration of the rest of the world
Also just as an aside the "resonance" idea wasn't just rooted in the Key System, it was just one aspect of many that they took into consideration when building the game. Likely if the Key System had been the full focus it'd have been the core (key....?) feature of the game and much more expanded (&....probably much frustrating to deal with) than Regi, Black City/White Forest and difficulty.
e: Weirdly the other half of my post disappeared...anyway the Masuda & Unno examples were 2 counter examples of the same tennent (changing the world).
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speaking about black city/white forest…
so the longer it takes you to beat the game and get to it, the less people are gonna be in it. While this by itself is a not ideal decision, considering the game never tells you this until you get there, there’s something that makes this much worse.
wanna know how you get people back, if it reaches zero?
you use the entralink but only with the other version, another copy of your version doesn’t count, and they give you some residents
and it’s local only,
so the only way is to hope one of your friends has the opposite version, and that they beat the game.
wwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhyyyyyyy
UNRELATED TANGENT TIME
by Xaviere;
by Xaviere;
so the longer it takes you to beat the game and get to it, the less people are gonna be in it. While this by itself is a not ideal decision, considering the game never tells you this until you get there, there’s something that makes this much worse.
wanna know how you get people back, if it reaches zero?
you use the entralink but only with the other version, another copy of your version doesn’t count, and they give you some residents
and it’s local only,
so the only way is to hope one of your friends has the opposite version, and that they beat the game.
wwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhyyyyyyy
Arnold said nothing is impossible.
It is a messed up movie. Skip it and watch the Nostalgia Critic's review.
Regarding the Key system in B2/W2, I think it would have been much better if it had been possible to use it over Wi-Fi instead of just over local wireless. Or even better, if it had been possible to use it over both Wi-Fi and local wireless. If that had been the case, more players would have had access to Challenge Mode as well as the other keys, and there would probably have been less complaints about it.
Personally, I agree that the execution of the key system could have been better. But I think that's about the only negative thing about it. I think that Challenge Mode in itself was a ton of fun, I used it when I played through the main game of White 2. It didn't really make the game harder, just more fun. And somewhat contradictory, it felt like I had to do less grinding when playing on Challenge Mode compared to Normal Mode. I think this was because the opponents had higher levels which meant that I got more Exp. for my team. I also really like how you are able to switch between Black City and White Forest with the key system. This is the first and only time in the series so far where you can change an entire area into another, essentially giving you one more area to explore and challenge in the games.
As for something that annoys me, I guess that would be not the key system in itself, but rather the discussion of how it was implemented. It seems to be the most common complaint about B2/W2 and I'm honestly tired of it at this point because it comes up rather often. To me, it feels like "Stupid key system" has become the negative tagline for B2/W2, similar to "No Battle Frontier" for OR/AS or "Too many cutscenes" for S/M, as well as other similar things for the other games in the series.
Personally, I agree that the execution of the key system could have been better. But I think that's about the only negative thing about it. I think that Challenge Mode in itself was a ton of fun, I used it when I played through the main game of White 2. It didn't really make the game harder, just more fun. And somewhat contradictory, it felt like I had to do less grinding when playing on Challenge Mode compared to Normal Mode. I think this was because the opponents had higher levels which meant that I got more Exp. for my team. I also really like how you are able to switch between Black City and White Forest with the key system. This is the first and only time in the series so far where you can change an entire area into another, essentially giving you one more area to explore and challenge in the games.
As for something that annoys me, I guess that would be not the key system in itself, but rather the discussion of how it was implemented. It seems to be the most common complaint about B2/W2 and I'm honestly tired of it at this point because it comes up rather often. To me, it feels like "Stupid key system" has become the negative tagline for B2/W2, similar to "No Battle Frontier" for OR/AS or "Too many cutscenes" for S/M, as well as other similar things for the other games in the series.
Since we're on the topic of BW2, I think it's a bit of a shame they've never done anything with Yancy & Curtis.
Like they have unique designs and a small "arc" and an extensive sidequest and probably more dialog than some actually important characters....but they never get used in anything ever. There's no merchandise, no references to them in subsequent games, they have no TCG cards, no anime appearences. Masters is still ongoing, but I have doubts that they'll show up there any time soon if at all.
Their only other appearences are in BW2 Adventures manga...and Curtis I believe is basically jsut a cameo and Yancy is just there at the very start (+ a few other cameos).
Not like they need to be important, per say, but I dunno. Considering the amount of stuff they did get in the games, I just think it'd be neat to see them again or referenced. I think they would have really fun TCG full arts if nothing else.
Like they have unique designs and a small "arc" and an extensive sidequest and probably more dialog than some actually important characters....but they never get used in anything ever. There's no merchandise, no references to them in subsequent games, they have no TCG cards, no anime appearences. Masters is still ongoing, but I have doubts that they'll show up there any time soon if at all.
Their only other appearences are in BW2 Adventures manga...and Curtis I believe is basically jsut a cameo and Yancy is just there at the very start (+ a few other cameos).
Not like they need to be important, per say, but I dunno. Considering the amount of stuff they did get in the games, I just think it'd be neat to see them again or referenced. I think they would have really fun TCG full arts if nothing else.
Baby Pokemon.
A certain new move was introduced in Generation VI, which I can only describe as the most pointless attack to ever be introduced into the game: Petal Blizzard.
Ho boy, where do I begin? First of all, I'll give credit where credit is due: its flavour is amazing. The image of a Venusaur, Bellossom, or Lilligant filling the air with sakura petals that slice into the opponent is all at once beautiful and terrifying.
Sadly, this does not translate well into actual viability, for one main reason: it's a Physical move, and of all of the (short list of) Pokemon who can learn it, only Lurantis is actually a Physical attacker; furthermore, Lurantis also learns Leaf Blade, which directly outclasses Petal Blizzard due to its higher crit rate and it not hitting your ally in Doubles.
This is a move that was clearly meant to be in a Pokemon's "final" moveset (as opposed to being replaced with something stronger as you progress further into the story), and could have had so much potential as a Grass attack that hits both opponents, but because it's Physical and hits the ally as well, it will likely never see use.
Ho boy, where do I begin? First of all, I'll give credit where credit is due: its flavour is amazing. The image of a Venusaur, Bellossom, or Lilligant filling the air with sakura petals that slice into the opponent is all at once beautiful and terrifying.
Sadly, this does not translate well into actual viability, for one main reason: it's a Physical move, and of all of the (short list of) Pokemon who can learn it, only Lurantis is actually a Physical attacker; furthermore, Lurantis also learns Leaf Blade, which directly outclasses Petal Blizzard due to its higher crit rate and it not hitting your ally in Doubles.
This is a move that was clearly meant to be in a Pokemon's "final" moveset (as opposed to being replaced with something stronger as you progress further into the story), and could have had so much potential as a Grass attack that hits both opponents, but because it's Physical and hits the ally as well, it will likely never see use.
Obviously you've never heard of the VGC king Cherrim
Nah but the problem with petal dance isn't that it hits your ally and is physical on special attackers - self proccing weakness policy is the foundation for a lot of VGC teams and almost every team has WP and a way to self proc it. The problem is just that no good WP users are weak to grass. If there was a steam engine equivalent for grass moves we'd probably see Petal Dance Venusaur take the meta by storm
They were forced to do a catch-all for all int'l versions, since if they didn't the band would have to sing SMOGON in the German version.
Self-proccing WP wasn't a thing at all until gen 8 and Dynamax, though. At least, not on any serious teams that I know of.
This may be unreliable as I often peruse gimmick sets, but I seem to vaguely recall physical venusaur for some reason (better coverage?). It used power whip over petal blizzard, though.
It kind of annoys me that Empoleon isn't Water/Ice. Water/Steel is a sick and unique typing don't get me wrong. But if Empoleon were Water/Ice, Sinnoh's starter trio would be perfectly synergized with all three being neutral against one another. It's even a penguin for fuck's sake, it wouldn't have been a huge stretch to make it Water/Ice. Sinnoh's starter trio is still the best in the series for me, but they were this close to perfection...
Water/Ice wouldn't have been neutral, though. It'd still be weak to Torterra (ice doesnt resist grass) and Infernape has no net change (fire still neutral instead of resisted, fighting still super effective)
So I was told to come here to add my rant list so here goes :D
Gen 5 negatives
No genies in bw2 and dream radar is annoying to get and playthrough.
To many things require access to the other 3 game versions, like prankster genies, keys, entree and funfests and medal requierments.
Serious lack of wifi options in comparison to gen 4, most things like unova link, entralink and subway are wireless or infrared only making it extremely awkward to complete these features.
Multi subway is terribly designed, for one you cant link up with a friend via wifi to get the trophy and to make matters worse you only have 1 choice of AI to team up with who has a very mediocre selection of pokemon and you dont even get to see what they will be using beforehand so you cannot bring a team to synergize with them, making the challenge completely inconsistent and luck reliant, considering in gen 4 you had 5 AI choice partners with good legendaries and drastically better pokemon and could wait for them to have a team that synergizes with yours and even then it was hard, this gen took a huge step backwards in this area.
All kind of commemorative achievement things were removed like symbols for subway bosses ( gen 4 had trophies to for battle tower so we are not counting those ) stylish ribbons, and stars on trainer card, without looking up the colour upgrades there is no way to tell a trainer level by merely looking at the card.
Alot of medal requierments are ridiculous and add no challenge or fun to the game such as passing 1000 people or doing a funfest with 30 people, the medals idea was great to make you try everything the game has to offer but the final version of the product is not to great.
Musicals are contests with no actual substance or challenge and are utterly boring
Movies are better than musicals but still not that captivating they are way inferior to pokeathlon and gen 3 and 4 contests.
Hgss cons
No story in kanto which feels bit dry and empty they could have expanded the rocket giovanni and silver storyline into kanto.
Customisable safari was a fun idea but the final version of it is horrible, having to wait nearly a year for some pokemon is just insane what where they smoking at the time lol.
Repeat battle frontier from platinum feels a bit cheap, could have at least brought back emerald frontier instead which was awhile ago and would have felt fresher in a gen 4 game.
Gym leader numbers are way to awkward to get without online research which you should not need to resort to, way it worked in emerald and platinum was fine.
Platinum cons.
Id say the game basically has none except for a few not massively important things like some gen 1 and 2 pokemon sprites instead of changing them they just made them get stuck like mid animation the result looks bizzare like a cut off gengar and a raichu and geodude that look like they need a shit lol.
And since alot of pokemon moved into the sinnoh dex many routes were left without a radar exclusive pokemon or a swarm pokemon so they could have taken some pokemon that are gba cart exclusives and made them into radar exclusive or swarms reducing the need for so many gba carts to get or chain every pokemon, and on this topic in south route 204 ralts is no longer a radar exclusive so they could have made sunkern be the one for the whole route rather than just the north part where its impossible to chain it because there is not enough grass.
Emerald cons
No second improved league like FRLG makes it a bore and very hard to level grind and on top of that you can only battle Steven once in the whole game rather than once in awhile at least like the gym leaders, and there is no postgame area with decent level trainers to level grind so its a mercy you can clone in emerald otherwise leveling stuff for the frontier would be a nightmare.
Not being able to battle the rival later in the game sucks, they could have changed this since RS.
Lack of decent prizes for BP to many expensive plushies and no tms or anything important that you need repeats of, again thank god you can clone lol.
Emerald has so many cool islands from mirage to all the event islands and the fact to most of us never got to see them really sucks,
They could have least done rare random days when a tv anouncement says mirage island has been spotted that day regardless of the ID thing, also I think that after obtaining all the gold symbols and the gold shield, Scott should give the player a master ticket or something granting you access to all the event islands, what better way to reward such an ordeal and allow you to go places normal trainers are not, the events would still have been the only way for the majority and for the few dedicated it would have been nice to have an alternative.
Gen 5 negatives
No genies in bw2 and dream radar is annoying to get and playthrough.
To many things require access to the other 3 game versions, like prankster genies, keys, entree and funfests and medal requierments.
Serious lack of wifi options in comparison to gen 4, most things like unova link, entralink and subway are wireless or infrared only making it extremely awkward to complete these features.
Multi subway is terribly designed, for one you cant link up with a friend via wifi to get the trophy and to make matters worse you only have 1 choice of AI to team up with who has a very mediocre selection of pokemon and you dont even get to see what they will be using beforehand so you cannot bring a team to synergize with them, making the challenge completely inconsistent and luck reliant, considering in gen 4 you had 5 AI choice partners with good legendaries and drastically better pokemon and could wait for them to have a team that synergizes with yours and even then it was hard, this gen took a huge step backwards in this area.
All kind of commemorative achievement things were removed like symbols for subway bosses ( gen 4 had trophies to for battle tower so we are not counting those ) stylish ribbons, and stars on trainer card, without looking up the colour upgrades there is no way to tell a trainer level by merely looking at the card.
Alot of medal requierments are ridiculous and add no challenge or fun to the game such as passing 1000 people or doing a funfest with 30 people, the medals idea was great to make you try everything the game has to offer but the final version of the product is not to great.
Musicals are contests with no actual substance or challenge and are utterly boring
Movies are better than musicals but still not that captivating they are way inferior to pokeathlon and gen 3 and 4 contests.
Hgss cons
No story in kanto which feels bit dry and empty they could have expanded the rocket giovanni and silver storyline into kanto.
Customisable safari was a fun idea but the final version of it is horrible, having to wait nearly a year for some pokemon is just insane what where they smoking at the time lol.
Repeat battle frontier from platinum feels a bit cheap, could have at least brought back emerald frontier instead which was awhile ago and would have felt fresher in a gen 4 game.
Gym leader numbers are way to awkward to get without online research which you should not need to resort to, way it worked in emerald and platinum was fine.
Platinum cons.
Id say the game basically has none except for a few not massively important things like some gen 1 and 2 pokemon sprites instead of changing them they just made them get stuck like mid animation the result looks bizzare like a cut off gengar and a raichu and geodude that look like they need a shit lol.
And since alot of pokemon moved into the sinnoh dex many routes were left without a radar exclusive pokemon or a swarm pokemon so they could have taken some pokemon that are gba cart exclusives and made them into radar exclusive or swarms reducing the need for so many gba carts to get or chain every pokemon, and on this topic in south route 204 ralts is no longer a radar exclusive so they could have made sunkern be the one for the whole route rather than just the north part where its impossible to chain it because there is not enough grass.
Emerald cons
No second improved league like FRLG makes it a bore and very hard to level grind and on top of that you can only battle Steven once in the whole game rather than once in awhile at least like the gym leaders, and there is no postgame area with decent level trainers to level grind so its a mercy you can clone in emerald otherwise leveling stuff for the frontier would be a nightmare.
Not being able to battle the rival later in the game sucks, they could have changed this since RS.
Lack of decent prizes for BP to many expensive plushies and no tms or anything important that you need repeats of, again thank god you can clone lol.
Emerald has so many cool islands from mirage to all the event islands and the fact to most of us never got to see them really sucks,
They could have least done rare random days when a tv anouncement says mirage island has been spotted that day regardless of the ID thing, also I think that after obtaining all the gold symbols and the gold shield, Scott should give the player a master ticket or something granting you access to all the event islands, what better way to reward such an ordeal and allow you to go places normal trainers are not, the events would still have been the only way for the majority and for the few dedicated it would have been nice to have an alternative.
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