(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[R_N]

Here, I made a post about it with helpful pictures.

Fun Fact: In Necrozma's concept art detailing what part of its body relates to Ultra Necrozma notes that the chest piece as "tail". So seems like GF may have altered Ultra Necrozma's design between concept art & final model (going to guess this was done so that the now chest piece was constantly visible (whereas the tail would only be visible from behind) and UN's entire body wasn't just a mass of light).

You can probably even see remnants of that idea on UN's final design

the tail's got the same 3 ridges and general bulk. Can easily see an earlier version of this that had a tweaked tail to incorporate it.

Also, looking at this now, kind of interesting to compare the art chestpiece with the in-game one. THis one deemphasizes the ridges and looks more like platearmor

 

[Codraroll]

I get the appeal of dragons and most of my favorite Pokemon are dragon types, but it really gets tiring if any Generation is defined by:
- 3 starters with Grass, Fire, Water Typing
- early route bird
- early route rodent
- pikachu lookalike
- a pseudo legendary that involve a three stage Dragon Type line with one generation doing an exception
- legendary with psychic typing
- legendary, usually the third hidden legendary, that happens to be or become a Dragon Type.

Sadly, it's even more than that. You missed a few:

• Early-route Bug (larva, pupa, insect)
• Early-ish route, cutesy, two-stage Normal-type ("regional cat" is sometimes used, but I think that's a misnomer as most of them aren't cats)
• Normal-type that does not evolve
• Flying-type that does not evolve (I.e. Farfecth'd, Skarmory, Tropius, Chatot, Sigilyph, Hawlucha, Minior, Cramorant)
• Three Mythical Pokémon

I think it gets a little boring when the "checklist" for design concepts they like to repeat every generation becomes so long, even as the size of the generations shrink. It means the "checklist 'mons" take up such a large portion of each new generation. When over half the regional Pokédex gives you Dejà Vu, it makes each generation feels like it brings even fewer new things to the table than what is already the case.

Combine this with Game Freak's trend to make legendaries carry certain typings, and everything just feels even more predictable.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Here, I made a post about it with helpful pictures.

Fun Fact: In Necrozma's concept art detailing what part of its body relates to Ultra Necrozma notes that the chest piece as "tail". So seems like GF may have altered Ultra Necrozma's design between concept art & final model (going to guess this was done so that the now chest piece was constantly visible (whereas the tail would only be visible from behind) and UN's entire body wasn't just a mass of light).

Huh, yeah that does make much more sense. I just couldn't see it from the in-game model. Didn't scream "parts of a dragon" to me at all. But good to know they actually did have it planned out and didn't just go "ugh, we need a Dragon-type. Make Necrozma one!"

 

[Pikachu315111]

You can probably even see remnants of that idea on UN's final design

the tail's got the same 3 ridges and general bulk. Can easily see an earlier version of this that had a tweaked tail to incorporate it.

While I always support posting the image, I think this is one of the few cases where posting the image's URL may be the better idea as I can barely see any of Necrozma's light body against a white background, lol!
https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/8/8b/800Necrozma-Ultra.png/600px-800Necrozma-Ultra.png
But yes, I see what you mean.

Huh, yeah that does make much more sense. I just couldn't see it from the in-game model. Didn't scream "parts of a dragon" to me at all. But good to know they actually did have it planned out and didn't just go "ugh, we need a Dragon-type. Make Necrozma one!"

Which was on purpose. Only really the "chest" resembled a part of a dragon (what would later be revealed to be UN's head). Since the rest of UN's body is light, there was no way to piece together the other parts until UN was revealed. Other things which made telling how Necrozma "came together" as a dragon was we didn't know UN has two pair of wings, that one of the wings "structures" was used as arm peices on normal Necrozma, and that Necrozma's hands was UN's feet (and vice versa, normal Necrozma's feet turned out to be the top pair of wings structures which also worked as hands).

 

[mertyville]

Sadly, it's even more than that. You missed a few:

I didn't want to add everything. And per generation it gets more and more stale like you have to have at least one new form, regional variation and new mechanic (not only stuff like Megas but even Pokemon just representing Double Format or something).
I personally wouldn't mind adding certain animals for each gen. I mean every region will have a certain bird, a specific fish and some bugs you won't find in another, but I don't feel GF does a good job with it IMO.

Even the starters. Does every region have exclusive 3 stage starter Pokemon that each represent either Cute, Derpy or Cool? I really don't like the way the starters also evolve that they become what look like character with a fixed characteristic like all Litten becoming Pro-Wrestlers or all Gen 8 Fire Starter become soccer player.
What next? A cute bear Pokemon fire starter becoming a cook hitting opponents with a drying pan?
Not that I mind humanoid Pokemon, but seeing something designed like Fennekin, just a fox that can breath fire, turning into a magical girl and then a witch just feels wrong. Especially for a starter Pokemon that to me should have a design where you can insert your own personality into it.
I find it pretty ironic that my criticism mainly falls to fire types. I have been wondering why I still like Infernape and Blaziken compared to Inciniroar and Emboar as starter Pokemon. But I personally feel Infernape still feels like more of the animal than an actual "humanoid" or "furry". Similar I feel about Blaziken.
I don't know how to describe it properly. Emboar just doesn't feel like it suppose to be an animal but more like a Pig Person.
Or if I were to compare them to fictional characters:
Infernape is more like Apu from Disney's Aladdin
Emboar is more like Ganon from the Legend of Zelda
If that analogy makes sense to any of you.

I also feel it restricts designs when you go by just 3 characteristics.

 

[Worldie]

What next? A cute bear Pokemon fire starter becoming a cook hitting opponents with a drying pan?

Someone already made this one, don't worry
https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Chef_Nomi

 

[Magcargo]

I don't like how the Gigantiax Eevee / Pikachu you get in Sword and Shield don't have higher stats like in Lets Go. It makes them feel pretty underpowered since they can't evolve, so they'll be stuck with crummy stats for the whole adventure. Pikachu can at least be somewhat salvaged if you go out of your way to find a Light Ball, but Eevee doesn't have the same luxury.

 

[Samtendo09]

I don't like how the Gigantiax Eevee / Pikachu you get in Sword and Shield don't have higher stats like in Lets Go. It makes them feel pretty underpowered since they can't evolve, so they'll be stuck with crummy stats for the whole adventure. Pikachu can at least be somewhat salvaged if you go out of your way to find a Light Ball, but Eevee doesn't have the same luxury.

Don't forget Meowth got a G-Max form too, with no better stats either.

I believe this is a sentiment shared with many people about them. It comes off as milking those three dry instead of trying to genuinely improve the three all together. To be fair, those three would be fine for before the first gym, but they falter quickly after the second gym where other, decently strong options would do the Dynamax usage much better. G-Max Pikachu could be decent and even a surprise pick in VGC with Light Ball, but otherwise, not something to bother in the long run.

 

[R_N]

Definitely feels like they should have just had them be the Let's Go eevee & pikachu, even without the extra moves. And then boost meowth accordingly.

 

[Kurona]

I really feel like they should have just let the LGPE partner Pokémon be in SwSh; have transfer from LGPE delete the file or something with a big warning attached to it. They're extremely average 'mon even with their moves and stats so it'd be fine.

 

[Worldie]

You already know why they didn't, and it was to not add extra bloat by having yet another version of the pok---

Who am i kidding they're already at like 10 different pikachus, could have had one more

 

[R_N]

You already know why they didn't, and it was to not add extra bloat by having yet another version of the pok---

Who am i kidding they're already at like 10 different pikachus, could have had one more

The event Eevee, Pikachu & Meowth are all internally listed as different forms specifically so they cant evolve.

they literally added 2 entirely new cap pikachus

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

The event Eevee, Pikachu & Meowth are all internally listed as different forms specifically so they cant evolve.

Didn't notice that when I was messing with SwSh's files. Interesting.

But yeah, if they can't evolve or have the LGPE moves and they're separate forms anyway, might as well give them the better stats. Same deal for the assorted hat Pikas.

 

[R_N]

Didn't notice that when I was messing with SwSh's files. Interesting.

Oh, was I mistaken? I know there's one million Pikachus because of all the damn caps so maybe I just lost count. Maybe I'll dig up the pastebins to double check.
I feel like they should be separate, though, just because that's probably the easiest way to make them not evolve (otherwise i have questions for why there are separate entries for each and every single cap pikachu....)

But yeah, if they can't evolve or have the LGPE moves and they're separate forms anyway, might as well give them the better stats. Same deal for the assorted hat Pikas.

My big conspiracy theory based on the rebalanced eevee & pikachu moves was at one point the eevee/pikachu you get were meant to equate to (but not actually be) the partner versions. Increased stats, access to the moves. That'd still leave Meowth up a creek but who knows, in this scenario maybe they'd have given meowth some extra goodies too.

e: Ah, found the pastebins. https://gist.githubusercontent.com/...c649ebaf286ce/Pokemon%20-%20Sword%201.2.0.txt
I was mistaken, there weren't separate versions of Pikachu, Eevee & Meowth. So I guess they were just able to set a flag to prevent evolution? Do these separate listings of all the Pikachus & Alcremies only exist for pokedex purposes.....

 

[NaturalTropius]

Just... I'm really bothered by how they reshuffled a lot of movepools in SW/SH.

moveset silliness

Zubat outright doesn't get Wing Attack through level-up anymore- its first Flying move is at level 25 (while it does have Poison Fang at 15).
Marshtomp can have EQ immediately at any level without a TR, and Combusken and Grovyle can have Flamethrower and Energy Ball in the same manner.
Inexplicably, they added Rock Smash to Mudkip's level-up moveset at level 6.
Lickitung learns Rollout at level 6. This means, effectively, it evolves at level 6.
Purrloin doesn't get STAB until level 21.
Nidoran (male) has Poison Sting as its only STAB until level 50.
Sneasel waits for level 42 for physical STAB, and even then, it's Beat Up.
For some reason, Golett learns Pound at level 8 now.
Litwick's best Fire-type move until level 40 is Ember (Fire Spin is in between, but does that really help?)

For most of the Dark-types, I get that they put a lot of Dark-type TMs earlygame, which mitigates this. But a lot of this is just confusing.

 

[R_N]

The Sneasel comment got me to look it and Weavile up and why are you like this to these poor weasels, gamefreak. It is gen 8 let them be.

The one upshot to this is you can, in theory, get a Sneasel early and then sneak up to the Dusty Bowl to get a Razor Claw and evolve it with instant access to Ice Shard and Assurance but this is still Not Great.

 

[CoolMan6001]

Just... I'm really bothered by how they reshuffled a lot of movepools in SW/SH.

moveset silliness

Zubat outright doesn't get Wing Attack through level-up anymore- its first Flying move is at level 25 (while it does have Poison Fang at 15).
Marshtomp can have EQ immediately at any level without a TR, and Combusken and Grovyle can have Flamethrower and Energy Ball in the same manner.
Inexplicably, they added Rock Smash to Mudkip's level-up moveset at level 6.
Lickitung learns Rollout at level 6. This means, effectively, it evolves at level 6.
Purrloin doesn't get STAB until level 21.
Nidoran (male) has Poison Sting as its only STAB until level 50.
Sneasel waits for level 42 for physical STAB, and even then, it's Beat Up.
For some reason, Golett learns Pound at level 8 now.
Litwick's best Fire-type move until level 40 is Ember (Fire Spin is in between, but does that really help?)

For most of the Dark-types, I get that they put a lot of Dark-type TMs earlygame, which mitigates this. But a lot of this is just confusing.

Oh yeah thanks for bringing this up as a subject, because there's a trend in these level-up movepools that bothers me:

With few exceptions, every damaging move listed after another damaging move has increased power. Keep in mind this is linked to only power.

What we get out of this trend is quite a number of moves that probably shouldn't be listed after others. A couple of examples off the top of my head:

-Tangela manages to learn Vine Whip at level 16, only for it to already have learned Mega Drain at level 12.
-Tauros learns every coverage move in level-up before it even gets Take Down. (Note that the strongest it gets is Zen Headbutt) It gets Take Down at level 35 and remains without coverage.
-Timburr learns Slam at 24, after learning Rock Slide at 20. Considering the two accuracies, Slam should probably come earlier.

I'm sure I can find more if I spend a bit more time.

 

[Kurona]

The Sneasel comment got me to look it and Weavile up and why are you like this to these poor weasels, gamefreak. It is gen 8 let them be.

The one upshot to this is you can, in theory, get a Sneasel early and then sneak up to the Dusty Bowl to get a Razor Claw and evolve it with instant access to Ice Shard and Assurance but this is still Not Great.

The Razor Claw spawn point is across water; in all my times of daily item collection I've never found one anywhere else in Dusty Bowl.

 

[R_N]

The Razor Claw spawn point is across water; in all my times of daily item collection I've never found one anywhere else in Dusty Bowl.

gamefreak why

 

[DrPumpkinz]

The Sneasel comment got me to look it and Weavile up and why are you like this to these poor weasels, gamefreak. It is gen 8 let them be.

The one upshot to this is you can, in theory, get a Sneasel early and then sneak up to the Dusty Bowl to get a Razor Claw and evolve it with instant access to Ice Shard and Assurance but this is still Not Great.

I'm more disgusted at half of Weavile's moves being level 1.

 

[R_N]

I'm more disgusted at half of Weavile's moves being level 1.

Looks like its because most of those moves are exclusive to Sneasel



which brings up the question of why are their movesets structured like this at all! Its not like gligar & gliscor are like this in earlier generations and hell I think even Sunkern/Sunflora (which started out like this as part of the question of when to evolve) stopped doing this so its like ???

 

[NaturalTropius]

The only thing that could give Sneasel a STAB move before Beat Up is through TMs you'd find ingame- being Payback (bad choice, given Sneasel's weakness to a stiff breeze), Thief (60 BP. Your best option.), or, ironically, Beat Up. For physical Ice STAB, it's Avalanche (see Payback, also it's after 6 badges), breed for Ice Shard or Icicle Crash (not really reasonable) or wait until Wyndon for Ice Punch. Lord, the person at Game Freak who hates this thing but left after the Physical-Special split has returned with a damn vengeance.

Edit: It also only has one ear.

 

[R_N]

Most pokemon: learn slash somewhere in your 20s, maybe early 30s!
Ninjask, for no real reason: level 50
Sneasel for some god forsaken reason: level 60

It's baffling, doubly so because it learns it at the much more reasonable level 35 in gens 4-7. Slash as the final levle up move at 60 is like, a weird gen 1 era decision.

 

[MZ]

So I'm working on completing the Crown Tundra dex, and Wailmer and Wailord just aren't in it? Despite Wailmer being a normal wild encounter? As far as I can tell this doesn't have any comparable cases, den legends and UBs and Regigigas are at least raid only and even Keldeo is still a mythical even though the 3 swords are in the dex. But it was just so baffling to catch a wild Wailmer and realize that it's just not recognized at all, to the point where I'm still not sure if I just got this wrong.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

They’re likely locked to the isle of armour dex
because of gamefreak’s brilliance, the only Pokémon in the CT dex are the pokemon only found in the CT

Except no, because there are a ton of base Gen 8 Pokemon in the CT dex like Centiskorch and Tyranitar.

Unless maybe mons that were added in IA are exclusive to the IA dex? I don't really feel like cross referencing those lists.