This is probably a minor peeve, but I hate that most of the Legendaries/fixed encounter mons are Shiny Locked, especially since we've hit the generation that makes it possible to turn "trash" shinies into viable mons with Hyper Training (which I haven't done and have heard is tedious, but nonetheless is possible). It feels incredibly pointless to have this "trophy" quality that can apply to every Pokemon except the ones people would want to use/boast about the most. It feels like a cheap way to make events like the Shiny Tapu Koko seem more special, but I think the novelty to them should be in the rarity rather than impossibility of obtaining them in normal gameplay.
Annoying but I think understandable. Since a Pokemon being Shiny isn't decided until the moment you battle the Pokemon, if a story important Legendary/fixed encounter is used in a cutscene or has their sprite/model part of a plot-related event they can't swap a normal one out for the Shiny version. For story flow it's just easier to shiny-lock. However any additional Legendary shouldn't be Shiny Locked, like Tapu Koko is shiny locked as we see it but the other Tapu shouldn't be since they have no appearance or that much of a role in the story.
EDIT: Okay, so apparently all Gen VII "Legendaries" are shiny locked. That's Tauros mulch. The only ones that should be Shiny Locked are Tapu Koko & Lillie's Solgaleo/Lunala. All the others have no reason to be Shiny locked. Not even Nihilego as we know there's more than one of them so why are it and the other Ultra Beasts locked? And the Type: Null we get isn't the one Gladion uses (especially since his evolved to Silvally), so it shouldn't be locked either.
The fact that unless you've beaten the game, have the necessary items (or can get them quickly enough), and the means to raise Pokémon in the necessary time, there is zero point in entering the April competition.
I haven't completed Sun, and am not in a position to beat the game anytime soon, so bred by Pokémon in Alpha Sapphire, since I was able to use Pokémon brought over from there in the last competition. So when I found out that you can only use Pokémon you've raised in Sun, I was absolutely outraged. I mean, hello! Not everyone has beaten the game! They can't spend hours upon hours doing so!
All that time breeding and raising a team was a waste, and even then, it would have been a challenge, due to not having access to the Beasts and Tapus. But this is the last straw. Unless someone is willing to breed and raise my entire team (I can't even do the latter), there is zero point in entering, because what I caught in Sun is shit compared to what I'd have to got up against.
The Mega Stones had better be released again at a later time, or I will give Nintendo of America a piece of my mind. What's the point of entering a competition if you can't even hope to win a single fucking battle?
Think we discussed this somewhere else but I'll post my thoughts here too.
You can say that about any of the competitions. I hate to be "that guy", but the games have been out for a few months now. It's not their fault you haven't finished the game and had time to raise a competitive team. There's plenty of people who have and, if anything, these competitions are one of the only things keeping them coming back to the game as they have nothing else left to do in it. It's not fair to them to not do these competitions just in case someone hasn't completed the game, because if they did that then no competitions will ever be held since there's always a new player who may want to compete but don't feel they're ready as they haven't finished the game.
Also I enter online competition with my main story team (and later with just Tapu and Ultra Beasts I caught) without competitive training them and surprisingly did well. I think some players I beat had competitive teams and I was just able to overpower them, essentially the Pokemon version of button mashing.
There is also a small little fact about the Sun and Moon that bothers me way more than it should. The fact that Hau and the player are supposed to be eleven years old. I honestly was more shocked by this than by Lusamine being over forty, I though that the player was at least sixteen or something. I guess this is also the case in most older gens, but there you have to judge the main characters' age from a sprite. The characters in Sun and Moon also meets much more dangerous/agressie pokemon than in the older gens, so it's even more unbelievable...
It's not the player's/Hau's age which bothers me, but Guzma. Guzma looks like a young adult, but I think its applies he's only a few year's older than the player & Hau; and older teen. And if that's the case, how old is Plumeria? I took her to be the older teen so is she the same age as Guzma?
Removal of type power boosting gems is stupid The presence of Z-moves sort of mitigates their removal, but the gems themselves should still be in the game, especially since they provide a noticeably weaker boost to power than Z-moves.
Not to mention that, if you hacked them in the Gen VI games, they not only reduced the gem's boost but also added in a Fairy Gem. Why go through the bother if you weren't going to add them back in? And if they were still OP either release a patch or just ban them from competitive, but at least test them first.
Buffs to Knock off The Base power buff is fine, but I feel that the 1.5 boost in power when Knocking off an item really is too much, especially since the penalties of losing an item already are so huge.
That does seem unnecessary, if anything I'd say all Knock Off needs is to have its power lowered to 60 so Technician users could really make use of it, and for every other Pokemon it's just a useful utility move that does damage.
Imbalances in the game between physical and special attackers Physical attackers in Pokemon suffer from noticable restrictions that special attackers barely have to worry about. Most physical attacks are noticably weaker then their special couterparts and usually when they are strong, they suffer from major penalties such as Stat drops and recoil, wheras the only penalties most special attackers suffer from is imperfect accuracy. Additionally, Physical attackers are almost completely crippled by Burn and Intimidate, moves that special attackers almost never have to worry about.
Hmm, could be why a lot of Special moves we debuffed last generation. That said I think that can be fixed by making better/improving existing Physical moves.
As for Special Attackers not worrying about status ailments, as
Taistelu said I think Poison decreasing Special Attack wouldn't be a bad idea. As for the Ability, well either introduce a new one or, better yet, just have Intimidate lower the highest offense stat (or if that's too OP have a way to have Intimidate lower either Attack or Special Attack).
The way the games tells you its limiting progression I'm fine with pokemon games limiting progression with natural barriers like rocks and trees and with NPCs that need help with something / are researching something, but when the game limits progression with Dancing men or by literally telling you that a gym badge is needed to go, thats where I draw the line.
Eh, I could take or leave the dancing men. My personal favorite Gen V roadblock is them testing the bridge's capacity by having a ton of people stand on it. It's just a funny sight to see all those NPC sprites stacked next to each other, and the idea is ludicrous since I don't think that's safe incase the bridge can't take the weight.
