(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[iamfanboy]

So... they just released the newest Pikachu Short, "What's This Key?", on their main site. Hey, you know what else came along with that short in Japan? An event where players got to vote for either Victini, Manaphy, Jirachi, or Darkrai and the winner was given out! The winner in Japan was Darkrai... not like it matters because I have a feeling we're neither going to get a chance to vote or at least get the Darkrai they got. Heck, being Jirachi was also heavily focused in the short they could have also given us the Shiny Jirachi they gave away during this year's Tanabata! But NOPE, we should just consider ourselves lucky we got the Pikachu Short (how dare I ask we get an equal experience the Japanese players get).

You want bad, try Sega's treatment of American players in their Phantasy Star ORPG games. Now THAT'S bad. They segregated the servers of PSU into Japanese/Everywhere Else right from the start, and when the Everywhere Else servers were overrun by hackers and cheated weapons within a week of starting, they did nothing for three months. In only five DAYS of that shit starting in Japan, they come up with code to find the cheats, banhammer everyone involved, and then took another three WEEKS to do the same on the US side - just in case you were under the delusion that it took them that three months to create the cheat-finding code.

It reminded me forcefully that Japanese may be the most polite and nicest individuals you'll ever meet, but as a group they're racist as any who put on a white hood. If you're not nihonjin, you're gaijin - which might as well translate as "Shit on the end of my shoe."

Sorry I got a little nasty there. Bad memories, and not just having to do with games. So, in that light, I actually find Game Freak's treatment of foreign players pretty damned enlightened - probably because they know where their money's coming from. I feel as though it's cluelessness, asking "Why would they care about Tanabata?" rather than outright nastiness.

 

[Pikachu315111]

You want bad, try Sega's treatment of American players in their Phantasy Star ORPG games. Now THAT'S bad. They segregated the servers of PSU into Japanese/Everywhere Else right from the start, and when the Everywhere Else servers were overrun by hackers and cheated weapons within a week of starting, they did nothing for three months. In only five DAYS of that shit starting in Japan, they come up with code to find the cheats, banhammer everyone involved, and then took another three WEEKS to do the same on the US side - just in case you were under the delusion that it took them that three months to create the cheat-finding code.

It reminded me forcefully that Japanese may be the most polite and nicest individuals you'll ever meet, but as a group they're racist as any who put on a white hood. If you're not nihonjin, you're gaijin - which might as well translate as "Shit on the end of my shoe."

Sorry I got a little nasty there. Bad memories, and not just having to do with games. So, in that light, I actually find Game Freak's treatment of foreign players pretty damned enlightened - probably because they know where their money's coming from. I feel as though it's cluelessness, asking "Why would they care about Tanabata?" rather than outright nastiness.

Yikes, that's bad. Sorry to hear you and the other non-Japanese players had to deal with that nonsense. :(

Now hold on, let's watch who we call "racist". Now it's historically been known that Japan does tend to be a bit xenophobic which has led Japanese companies to be treating those outside of Japan with lesser regard. They're not exactly racist, they're just more focused on their home people since they know what they like. Now that doesn't excuse them giving international customers a lesser experience, but it is a reason. Heck, even the Japanese people don't like stuff outside of Japan as it's too different from what they're used to. The most obvious example would be the XBox who after their spectacular failure launching the XBone One there have decided to no longer bother with the Asian market. Another example I can think of is with the Metroid series. Despite it being beloved outside of Japan, it doesn't sell well in Japan. The Metroid Prime series was one of the best selling Metroid games of all time, yet since it didn't do well in Japan they decided to hand development over to Team Ninja (a Japanese studio who are known for jiggle physics the Dead Or Alive series, the Prime series was made by an American studio called Retro Studios who you may know for releasing the new Donkey Kong games). The reasoning was to try to appeal to the Japanese audience, so they REMOVED THE PRIME SERIES FROM THE TIMELINE and allowed Team to do whatever they want. What we got was Metroid: Other M, a game that filled the Metroid series with typical anime/manga tropes which angered many fans and thus effected sales making it not meet Nintendo's expectations.

But onto Pokemon, GameFreak does treat its international audience very well. Yeah we don't get all the Events the have in Japan, but that's probably because Japan is a smaller nation and Nintendo has closer ties to companies there then they do here. It's also there culture so they know what they can do and know it'll probably be a success. But hey, GameFreak shows they know there's a world outside of Japan and have even started basing regions on said places. Unova is based on New York, USA and Kalos is based on Paris, France. Though with that said there are still plenty of Japanese/Asian stuff in the games. Though they've based plenty of Pokemon on native animals, we still end up with things like the Unova Legendaries being based on the Yin Yang and the Kalos bird is based on the Japanese Robin. But being the game makers are Japanese that's to be expected, but with now a new popular monster collecting game, Yokai Watch, on the rise it might be a good idea for GameFreak to maybe focus the game design on more international stuff.

While I don't think the Tanabata Festival is that big of a deal, the thing is Jirachi is based on it. Thus almost every year during the Tanabata a Jirachi event has been done. This year they did something additionally special by making the Jirachi shiny. Of course this and Darkrai wasn't the only event we never got, I remember one of the most annoying events we never got was a Shiny Rayquaza to coincide with the release of Pokemon Conquest in Japan! Pfft.

 

[BriarRose]

Why aren't you guys using Repels while DexNaving? :/ The DexNax mons still show up but it stops other encounters.

A case of in-game poverty?

I for one haven't bought any poke-be-gone spray for a while.
(Stupid, stupid 999 999 poke ribbon... why must you look so good....)

Plus there's the whole: "ooh, nice mirage spot. Better buy repels...."

(Looks at time- 11.59 pm)

Hello random encounters.

 

[JES]

The ironic thing is that I actually managed to get that special shiny Rayquaza, albeit by cheating. Pokedit, how I miss you. :3

But the point is that I shouldn't have to cheat to get a shiny Jirachi. I'm not expecting to have it handed to me–I'll happily catch it if I have to. I just wanna have a chance to get it, and I mean without having to travel.

Speaking of which, when are they going to have another Jirachi event? I mean, Gen III remake time. I'm sure that there are new players who'd like to complete their 'Dex, and didn't get a Jirachi like you and me.

 

[Antihaxxer]

All the event Pokemon are pissing me :( Especially Gen I/II/III/IV :/

 

[BriarRose]

Urgggh, I spent more than an hour trying to grab a Custup Berry and this is all I get?

Micle Berry02

Yache Berry01

Wacan Berry04

Petaya Berry02

Rindo Berry01

Passho Berry01

Apicot Berry01

So many p-miles wasted and I still don't have the one competitively useful new berry.

But Mickle Berries. Yay for that raised accuracy.

 

[iamfanboy]

Now hold on, let's watch who we call "racist".

People that have Japanese names, with Japanese parents, whose great-grandfathers were Korean, are classified as immigrants still, and can have trouble getting jobs and even married if that fact is known. Burakumin, a caste that did 'dirty work' like tanning and gravedigging centuries ago, still face segregation and prejudice - and those guys ARE Japanese in every sense of the term. Laws exist against it, but laws only work so fast.

And, while this is anecdotal, a lot of gaijin who've spent time around actual Japanese folk echo it: When you speak Japanese, you're treated either as a dog who does an amusing trick ("Look how well the foreigner talks like us!") or a serious threat to their culture. I personally won't read some manga I used to enjoy because of how one mangaka acted, and stay away from her newest stuff. I may be big and scary looking, but I was nothing but polite and was owed nothing but politeness in return, not what she said to me.

So, yeah. Xenophobia might be a nicer word, and it IS getting better, but there's still such a knee-jerk reaction to any perceived attempt to move from 'out-group' to 'in-group' that racism is what I have to apply. It isn't all about burning crosses or lynching, after all; it's a process of thought that believes one group to be superior over all others because of some physical or linguistic difference, and the actions which spring from that.


EDIT: Uhhh.... I think this has drifted away from Pokemon.

 

[Kurona]

... I mean I'm not entirely sure if "Little things that annoy you in Gen 6" extends to a discussion about the nature of Racism in Japan, but alright.

 

[Litra]

... I mean I'm not entirely sure if "Little things that annoy you in Gen 6" extends to a discussion about the nature of Racism in Japan, but alright.

On the upside, it's a little semi-educational reminder of how flawed a country's culture can be compared to someone bitching about how annoying it is to get nothing but escape ropes from their secret base pals.

 

[Pikachu315111]

People that have Japanese names, with Japanese parents, whose great-grandfathers were Korean, are classified as immigrants still, and can have trouble getting jobs and even married if that fact is known. Burakumin, a caste that did 'dirty work' like tanning and gravedigging centuries ago, still face segregation and prejudice - and those guys ARE Japanese in every sense of the term. Laws exist against it, but laws only work so fast.

And, while this is anecdotal, a lot of gaijin who've spent time around actual Japanese folk echo it: When you speak Japanese, you're treated either as a dog who does an amusing trick ("Look how well the foreigner talks like us!") or a serious threat to their culture. I personally won't read some manga I used to enjoy because of how one mangaka acted, and stay away from her newest stuff. I may be big and scary looking, but I was nothing but polite and was owed nothing but politeness in return, not what she said to me.

So, yeah. Xenophobia might be a nicer word, and it IS getting better, but there's still such a knee-jerk reaction to any perceived attempt to move from 'out-group' to 'in-group' that racism is what I have to apply. It isn't all about burning crosses or lynching, after all; it's a process of thought that believes one group to be superior over all others because of some physical or linguistic difference, and the actions which spring from that.

EDIT: Uhhh.... I think this has drifted away from Pokemon.

Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't know. That's all horrible, I didn't think Japanese was that behind the times. Living in New York I sometimes forget that other parts of the world that isn't as culturally mixed treat anyone outside their kin as inferiors. Sorry to hear about that mangaka you met, out of everyone you'd think someone who creates content for enjoyment would be more friendly toward a fan of their work (then again there's plenty of American content creators who are jerks so that's a universal thing). :(

So, umm, let's move back to Pokemon:

Speaking of which, when are they going to have another Jirachi event? I mean, Gen III remake time. I'm sure that there are new players who'd like to complete their 'Dex, and didn't get a Jirachi like you and me.

Also wouldn't mind another Mew Event. And Mew was given out during Gen III. The last time Mew was given out was 2010 during HGSS.

 

[JES]

Oh... I'm sorry, I didn't know. That's all horrible, I didn't think Japanese was that behind the times. Living in New York I sometimes forget that other parts of the world that isn't as culturally mixed treat anyone outside their kin as inferiors. Sorry to hear about that mangaka you met, out of everyone you'd think someone who creates content for enjoyment would be more friendly toward a fan of their work (then again there's plenty of American content creators who are jerks so that's a universal thing). :(

So, umm, let's move back to Pokemon:



Also wouldn't mind another Mew Event. And Mew was given out during Gen III. The last time Mew was given out was 2010 during HGSS.

Yeah, hot-blooded fools will be hot-blooded chauvinistic fools. I never knew that some of the Japanese were like that. If I were insulted like that, and were fluent enough, I'd probably make it very clear that I will take such insults seriously, and might even refuse to respond in Japanese to the offending individual until I get an apology (assuming that I can understand their responses with great fluency), because if I were speak in the local's language, it is for their benefit. If they want start trading insults, they can do so in my language for all I care. :P

And yeah, I wouldn't mind another Mew event. Maybe if they remake Gen I (and there are many who suspect that this might happen), they can even throw in Mega Evolutions, since his GM counterpart got them.

 

[DHR-107]

Okay, what the hell guys?

I am very tempted to go back through and delete the last half a page of posts. If someone goes off topic. Do not reply. Just read it and move on or ignore it. Let's not bait people into rants and raves over this sort of thing.

 

[Lady Vader]

To help change the topic, one thing that bothers me is Delibird's Hidden Ability, Insomnia. This bothers me since one of its regular abilities is Vital Spirit. Both are identical in-battle: Delibird can't be put to sleep, making it a pointless addition. I know, Delibird would still have terrible stats and wouldn't be good, but it is the principle of the thing.
Also, it was weird that you got an insomniac from Dream World.

 

[Pikachu315111]

To help change the topic, one thing that bothers me is Delibird's Hidden Ability, Insomnia. This bothers me since one of its regular abilities is Vital Spirit. Both are identical in-battle: Delibird can't be put to sleep, making it a pointless addition. I know, Delibird would still have terrible stats and wouldn't be good, but it is the principle of the thing.
Also, it was weird that you got an insomniac from Dream World.

If you want to talk about the king of having useless Abilities then let's not forget about good ol' Fan Rotom. A Flying-type with Levitate, you might as well give it an Air Balloon to hold to complete the redundancy set. Now I can sort of understand having Rotom keep Levitate throughout its forms, but considering its possessing certain machine surely they'll give Rotom access to a different Ability. If you still want the Rotom forms to have access to Levitate then give it a second Ability that'll change or a Hidden Ability.

Back to Delibird, it does show that honestly some Abilities need to be changed to make them different from one another or more useful. And yes, sometimes similar Abilities are like that for flavor reasons, though surely that additional bit of flavor could help give them one more additional thing to help separate them.

 

[Kurona]

I always found it annoying how some abilities were just downright useless in multiplayer; not just as a competitive player but even just like because it makes the Pokémon on the first routes or whatever even more useless, which is p bad when a lot of these will make their way onto a lot of kids' final teams. Just something like making Run Away immune to trapping abilities and moves would be cool and fitting.

 

[JES]

Yes, why can't Run Away be immune to Arena Trap or Shadow Tag? That would actually make it a useful ability.

 

[Hyper Cutter]

To help change the topic, one thing that bothers me is Delibird's Hidden Ability, Insomnia. This bothers me since one of its regular abilities is Vital Spirit. Both are identical in-battle: Delibird can't be put to sleep, making it a pointless addition. I know, Delibird would still have terrible stats and wouldn't be good, but it is the principle of the thing.
Also, it was weird that you got an insomniac from Dream World.

I swear, half the Dream World abilities were either picked via dartboard or were deliberate trolls by Gamefreak. See also: Unnerve.

Looking up what Pokemon get Unnerve reminded me that Aerodactyl has Rock Head as an ability but doesn't learn either of the recoil moves it gets STAB on.

 

[Random Passerby]

While we're on the topic of Dream World, what about those minigames that they force you to play each time you want to recruit a Pokemon? It might be nice for the first few times but playing the same thing over and over gets old fast (and you're going to want to play many times due to the points system required to unlock certain areas and Pokemon).

Secondly, we can't even choose the area that we want to visit (yes, using Pokemon of a certain type gives you a higher chance of visiting a particular area but it is no guarantee that the game loads the area you want. This, combined with the time limit enforced due to heavy traffic on the server, caused heachaches for players. Especially when you finally found the elusive Pokemon and the website hangs, forcing you to reload (and have to find the Pokemon again)

EDIT: That reminds me, why do we have to earn the points for each game separately instead of just adding onto the points we accumulated in a different game? Example: If I have a White version with say, 10000 points, why do I have to grind from 0 if I start a new game in White 2? Especially when you connect both games to the same Global Link Account. Seriously, Troll Freak?

 

[Pikachu315111]

I swear, half the Dream World abilities were either picked via dartboard or were deliberate trolls by Gamefreak. See also: Unnerve.

Looking up what Pokemon get Unnerve reminded me that Aerodactyl has Rock Head as an ability but doesn't learn either of the recoil moves it gets STAB on.

Related to Pokemon who have a Hidden Ability they can't really use, how about a Mega Pokemon given a Ability or even Type they can't fully use? Mega Pinsir with Extreme Speed, Mega Mewtwo X with Close Combat, Ampharos & Sceptilewith Draco Meteor, making all multi-hittings moves have 25 Power so that Mega Heracross could possibly use Arm Thrust as its STAB Fighting-type move (and also maybe giving it Icicle Spear), Gardevoir and Altaria with Hyper Voice/Uproar/Boomburst, Beedrill with Gunk Shot (and maybe Megahorn (it can use its stinger as a horn)), Pidgeot with more powerful low accuracy moves (Zap Cannon, Thunder, Leaf Storm, Night Daze, (Blizzard?)), and I'm sure there are a few others. These are MEGA Pokemon, let them abuse their Abilities as their name applies they'd be able to!

While we're on the topic of Dream World, what about those minigames that they force you to play each time you want to recruit a Pokemon? It might be nice for the first few times but playing the same thing over and over gets old fast (and you're going to want to play many times due to the points system required to unlock certain areas and Pokemon).

Secondly, we can't even choose the area that we want to visit (yes, using Pokemon of a certain type gives you a higher chance of visiting a particular area but it is no guarantee that the game loads the area you want. This, combined with the time limit enforced due to heavy traffic on the server, caused heachaches for players. Especially when you finally found the elusive Pokemon and the website hangs, forcing you to reload (and have to find the Pokemon again)

EDIT: That reminds me, why do we have to earn the points for each game separately instead of just adding onto the points we accumulated in a different game? Example: If I have a White version with say, 10000 points, why do I have to grind from 0 if I start a new game in White 2? Especially when you connect both games to the same Global Link Account. Seriously, Troll Freak?

Speaking of the Dream World, that was a neat concept that went nowhere. I spend so much time collecting all the furniture pieces, including all the PokeDolls, only for them to decide they don't want to bother with it anymore so deletes the whole thing! Thanks for wasting my time! The very least you could have had an album somewhere on my Global Link account showing off people's stats from the Dream World like how many points they had, what Furniture they had, the Pokemon friends they made, etc.. Oh, but that would make the people who didn't get a chance to participate in the Dream World said, boohoo...

Oh, and also you're now no longer able to switch the skins of your C-Gear in the Gen V games. I have my White set to Victini and White 2 set to Keldeo though of course if I ever decide to restart those games they'll delete them so I can never really restart my file.

... I'm beginning to think one of GameFreak's problems is that they only really think in the now instead of trying to set any definite future plans (or at least ones they actually stick with).

 

[BriarRose]

Want the Gen 2 HA starters?

Keep renewing your Pokebank subscription.

Nintendo = drug dealers

 

[Pikachu315111]

Want the Gen 2 HA starters?

Keep renewing your Pokebank subscription.

Nintendo = drug dealers

*sigh* While I am annoyed they decided to do that, I'm also slightly okay with it as long as they don't do it with anything notably special like say the Event Legendaries. If they want to every once in awhile give away a Pokemon through Pokemon Bank which has its Hidden Ability, a special move, or maybe based on a Pokemon that won one of their tournaments then fine. However Event Legendaries should be made available to everyone because this is dangerously close to DLC right here.

 

[Kurona]

I honestly don't see the problem as in the big scheme of things, it's rather insignificant. It's the sort of thing people on their own can just replicate - through breeding - and spread around to everyone very easily.

 

[hard]

Want the Gen 2 HA starters?

Keep renewing your Pokebank subscription.

Nintendo = drug dealers

Had high expectations to get the remaining HA starters in fashionable balls in the next game?

On another topic: I´m still super annoyed of all the noisy sounds that interrupt me enjoying the route themes.
Why don´t they keep the battle music to trainer battles and keep the route themes during wild encounters? It just doesn´t fit imo.
The whole prompt sounds are also aweful, I want to bump into walls silently!!!

 

[Pikachu315111]

Had high expectations to get the remaining HA starters in fashionable balls in the next game?

On another topic: I´m still super annoyed of all the noisy sounds that interrupt me enjoying the route themes.
Why don´t they keep the battle music to trainer battles and keep the route themes during wild encounters? It just doesn´t fit imo.
The whole prompt sounds are also aweful, I want to bump into walls silently!!!

I always saw the music as background music for the player's benefit. Don't get me wrong, I love the music in Pokemon and have many of times went to Youtube to listen to music tracks, but when playing the game the music is meant to help me keep from getting bored and give the area your in a bit of identity. While I can agree we don't really need the wall bumping sound (I can kind of see I'm walking into a wall) the beeps when interacting with something helps confirm you've interacted with it. Especially when you're interacting with someone/something that has multiple dialogue boxes to know when you gone to the next box or you may have accidentally skipped over dialogue.

The same for battle music, at least during the main game. I like hearing the super effective hit or the sound effect for certain moves.

I suppose having an option to turn off the beeps and bloops wouldn't hurt, though if you just want to listen to the music you could just look it up on Youtube. However, personally, when I'm playing the game I kind of expect and like hearing the beeps and bloops to let me know I'm interacting with the world around my character in one way or another.

 

[JES]

Want the Gen 2 HA starters?

Keep renewing your Pokebank subscription.

Nintendo = drug dealers

Going to do so in March. Still, if they keep giving us these little perks every year for those five bucks that I pay each year, it seems more worth it.

But those who don't have Pokebank yet are probably raging, and for good reason. Why couldn't they just distribute them similar to how they distributed the Gen 5 Hidden Ability Starters?

The good news it that I'll be happy to breed them for members here who just don't want to pay 'Bank's fee, if they ask.

And who the hell thought that Leaf Guard would be a fantastic ability for Meganium anyways?! Natural Cure probably would be better, since Leaf Guard only activates when under intense sunlight, which is like inviting a sun-boosted Flamethrower as far as I'm concerned!

But Flash Fire Typhlosion and Sheer Force Feraligatr is really going to make those two classics more useful! I'm really looking forward to Flash Fire Typhlosion!