(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Two minor annoyances I've had so far with Let's Go Pikachu (just curb stomped Lt. Surge with Growth Gloom) are
- Training on wild pokemon
- Some movepool choices

For training on/catching wild pokemon (which seems to be the most effective way to train), I don't like that besides berries (which really should last more than one throw & I'm assuming you can farm at some point) and actually aiming properly there isn't much you can do to improve the odds of a catch & I feel like I'm just throwing whatever the strongest pokeball available is until it sticks. I think it'd be super cool to have a hybrid system (something like lower health => slower movement/easier to time the circles), but the gameplay loop of "walk into route, throw pokeballs at every rattata you see, send them all to the professor" is one I'm not the biggest fan of.

This next one is odd but who decided Growlithe should get Flamethrower (a 90BP move) at like level 18? That's around when Psyduck gets Confusion (which is a 40BP non-STAB move), an Ivysaur would still have Vine Whip as its best STAB (next best move is Razor Leaf at 31), etc. Yeah Pikachu gets Thunderbolt at 21 but its the mascot. Are there not fire-type moves between Ember and Flamethrower? This is sort of the opposite but did they not think to give Grass-types access to Grass-type moves via level-up between Mega Drain/Razor Leaf in the 20's and Solarbeam/Petal Blizzard in the 40's/50's? Magical Leaf is in the game (I think?), Energy Ball exists, the buffed Giga Drain somewhere in there would be cool. Infinite TMs do help this a lot (Lance is going to get absolutely demolished when every member of my team that can have BoltBeam will have it), so good STAB/coverage isn't too hard to come by. It's more the imbalance that makes me go :puff:

Not being able to turn off the effect of natures will always frustrate me a bit in a pokemon game, but at least there are STAB options for both attacking stats now.
 
Maybe it's just me and my obsession with overcomplicated strategies, but given how few mons with Run Away that would be usable in a post game facility, I feel like this is cutting off a legitimately clever idea that isn't broken enough to warrant it.
I recall that was actually a thing that suppose to work 10 years or so ago when I read on Bulbapedia. It can be that I misread it back then. My English are pretty terrible.
The closest thing useful for a Run Away Pokemon I found over the years it to catch Ditto in the friend safari for breeding by using a Run Away Caterpie to decrease its catchrate and escape from battles I don't want to participate in.
 
Let's Go's "movexit" decisions are really bizarre. Like, got rid of Giga Drain, I assume because it wasn't in the originals, but then keep Power Whip? & Then buff Mega Drain to Giga Drain's power level?? Get rid of large swaths of mid-tier fire moves, but keep Heat Wave. Just seemed to pick dark type moves out of a hat.
 
The closest thing useful for a Run Away Pokemon I found over the years it to catch Ditto in the friend safari for breeding by using a Run Away Caterpie to decrease its catchrate and escape from battles I don't want to participate in.
Run Away can make exploring the Wild Area early in SwSh very low-stress. I mean, the game throws poke dolls at you so you aren't whiting out anyway, but having a Run Away lead means that lvl 40 wild encounters while you're grinding Watts for the Dig Bros are an annoyance, not wasting a limited resource. That's probably why Thievul keeps the ability even after evolution, despite all non-speed focused mons with the ability being first-stage.
 
The craziest thing about that is RSE, dont really give items to anyone. Gym Leaders & E4 members in Emerald only get Sitrus berries and RS....actually I don't think anyone else has items.

Do all "final match" teams have items....? It's the first I've heard of any of this, and is pretty wild.
 
I remember this game I played as a kid, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, had a similar mechanic. At one point replaying it, I realized that enemies would infinitely re-equip their weapons after you stole from them and could be used to farm for money and EXP at the same time. A few key enemies, however, had a low % chance to re-equip endgame equipment instead of their regular gear, giving you access to busted abilities like Doublecast and Stopshot early, or even limited items like Ribbons. It was a ton of fun to progress through the game stealing shit left and right, one of my favourite implementation of the Thief class in any game.

Obviously the main difference here is that 1) there is no other way to get these items in RSE and 2) it's not a mechanic you engage with at all in normal gameplay, making it even more unlikely you'll stumble on to it. However, I would be lying if my first reaction to that reddit post wasn't "damn, that's super cool!" At the time, these ridiculously convoluted hidden mechanics were probably designed to sell guides, which was scummy, but in this day and age I find they really add to the charm of older games. Kinda crazy that we're still discovering this stuff.
 
I remember this game I played as a kid, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, had a similar mechanic. At one point replaying it, I realized that enemies would infinitely re-equip their weapons after you stole from them and could be used to farm for money and EXP at the same time. A few key enemies, however, had a low % chance to re-equip endgame equipment instead of their regular gear, giving you access to busted abilities like Doublecast and Stopshot early, or even limited items like Ribbons. It was a ton of fun to progress through the game stealing shit left and right, one of my favourite implementation of the Thief class in any game.

Obviously the main difference here is that 1) there is no other way to get these items in RSE and 2) it's not a mechanic you engage with at all in normal gameplay, making it even more unlikely you'll stumble on to it. However, I would be lying if my first reaction to that reddit post wasn't "damn, that's super cool!" At the time, these ridiculously convoluted hidden mechanics were probably designed to sell guides, which was scummy, but in this day and age I find they really add to the charm of older games. Kinda crazy that we're still discovering this stuff.
I am curious if the japanese guides actually poitn these out or not. The english guides sure dont
 
I dislike that Salamence was introduced in Gen 3. It's sprite didn't look like something I would like to put into my team, but that isn't really the reason I disliked it.
Salamence, at least in most generations, was just a better Dragon/Flying Pseudo Legendary than Dragonite.
It has better offenses, speed and it has intimidate to make up for having worse defense. It's barely even a competition.
You grind 5 levels less to reach it's final form.

It kinda bothers me that a Pokemon gets introduced that outclasses something that badly despite the intention being them being both good at something different.
It's a shame, because Dragonite's movepool is so colorful. It's like a dragon that can control various elements.
This is probably why I enjoy Gen 5 OU the most. Dragonite can really take advantage of it's movepool thanks to weather and the addition of Multiscale really helped.
 
Why is there so little dragon/fire types? Is it just that obvious of a combo that they avoided it? Then again, most dragon mythos do look like dragon/flying dudes with access to flamethrower, but the fact it took 5 generations to make a dragon/fire, and then another 2 to make another one who isnt a forme change is just... Weird I guess
Which is why I prefer to call the Dragon type the "Dinosaur" type, as most Dragon-types don't resemble either the western or eastern dragon stereotypes.
 
Which is why I prefer to call the Dragon type the "Dinosaur" type, as most Dragon-types don't resemble either the western or eastern dragon stereotypes.
I do have an issue with dragon for being a rather arbitrary typing (along with bug, fairy and the "verb" types flying and fighting), but even if its just dinosaur/monster type, things spewing fire is such a common cliche in the west that even then it bothers me. I guess it's fitting that the first dragon/fire mon was on the first western region
 

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Why is there so little dragon/fire types? Is it just that obvious of a combo that they avoided it? Then again, most dragon mythos do look like dragon/flying dudes with access to flamethrower, but the fact it took 5 generations to make a dragon/fire, and then another 2 to make another one who isnt a forme change is just... Weird I guess
My guess is that it's because Dragon/Fire is an unresisted STAB combo, at least until the introduction of the Fairy type. They held back on it until Reshiram, which must have seemed like a suitable occasion to unleash that combo. And after Fairies were introduced, there has only been one or two families of each type introduced per generation, which means fewer type combinations used overall. There simply haven't been many opportunities for Pokémon to be Dragon/anything in the recent generations (1 pseudo-legendary + 1 legendary + 1 other family per generation as a rule of thumb) so it's no wonder Dragon/Fire has only come up at two instances since then.
 
My guess is that it's because Dragon/Fire is an unresisted STAB combo, at least until the introduction of the Fairy type. They held back on it until Reshiram, which must have seemed like a suitable occasion to unleash that combo. And after Fairies were introduced, there has only been one or two families of each type introduced per generation, which means fewer type combinations used overall. There simply haven't been many opportunities for Pokémon to be Dragon/anything in the recent generations (1 pseudo-legendary + 1 legendary + 1 other family per generation as a rule of thumb) so it's no wonder Dragon/Fire has only come up at two instances since then.
Heatran is always here :D But I agree with the first part. It would have been too strong at first. Later, well ... there are a lot of interesting dual types to cover !
 
My guess is that it's because Dragon/Fire is an unresisted STAB combo, at least until the introduction of the Fairy type. They held back on it until Reshiram, which must have seemed like a suitable occasion to unleash that combo. And after Fairies were introduced, there has only been one or two families of each type introduced per generation, which means fewer type combinations used overall. There simply haven't been many opportunities for Pokémon to be Dragon/anything in the recent generations (1 pseudo-legendary + 1 legendary + 1 other family per generation as a rule of thumb) so it's no wonder Dragon/Fire has only come up at two instances since then.
Thats true, but also i expected them to do that because it is an unresisted stab combo, making it the mons gimmick, the same way how spiritomb and sableye (to a less extent) whole gimmick is that they couldnt be hit super effectively until fairy. Though theyre pretty average pokemon, and at that time most dragon types were op as hell, so thats probably why they didnt use it as a gimmick, thinking about it
 
Thats true, but also i expected them to do that because it is an unresisted stab combo, making it the mons gimmick, the same way how spiritomb and sableye (to a less extent) whole gimmick is that they couldnt be hit super effectively until fairy. Though theyre pretty average pokemon, and at that time most dragon types were op as hell, so thats probably why they didnt use it as a gimmick, thinking about it
If they were worried about the type combo they could have just made a mediocre dragon like Altaria, Flygon, or Druddigon too.


Also is fire/dragon any more unresisted than Ground/Dragon or Water/Dragon? Dragon only hits Steel for NVE prior to Fairy and Ground hits it SE and Water doesnt care.

e2: also for as much as can be complained about fewer type combos gen 8 had a surprising numebr of dragons
Dreepy line
Applin line
both Draco___ fossils if we want to count them as a set
Duraludon
Eternatus

(& Regidrago as DLC)

For such a small generation that's not bad. They're all even dual type (except regidrago but again, dlc) which is novel
 
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Also is fire/dragon any more unresisted than Ground/Dragon or Water/Dragon? Dragon only hits Steel for NVE prior to Fairy and Ground hits it SE and Water doesnt care.
Before Gen VI, it was. Ground/Dragon was resisted by Steel/Flying, and Water/Dragon, by Steel/Grass, Steel/Fire, and Steel/Water. Dragon/Fighting was resisted by Steel/Ghost, but that typing did not exist.

Dragon/Fire was completely unresisted outside of Flash Fire Heatran.
 
Before Gen VI, it was. Ground/Dragon was resisted by Steel/Flying, and Water/Dragon, by Steel/Grass, Steel/Fire, and Steel/Water. Dragon/Fighting was resisted by Steel/Ghost, but that typing did not exist.

Dragon/Fire was completely unresisted outside of Flash Fire Heatran.
OK, I see
gotta say, though, Kingdra going uncontested until gen 4 (Heatran, Empoleon) and 5 (Ferrothorn) and Flygon/Garchomp only being resisted by Skarmory, I feel like they still could've just done a Fire/Dragon if they really wanted without it being super OP (especially if it was on a mediocre pokemon) or even specifically introduced a counter alongside it (a steel type with flashfire would be fun, it could be like a knight) if they were worried about Kingdra 2



Could've made Heatproof an outright resistence to Fire and have Bronzong be the counter
 
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If they were worried about the type combo they could have just made a mediocre dragon like Altaria, Flygon, or Druddigon too.


Also is fire/dragon any more unresisted than Ground/Dragon or Water/Dragon? Dragon only hits Steel for NVE prior to Fairy and Ground hits it SE and Water doesnt care.

e2: also for as much as can be complained about fewer type combos gen 8 had a surprising numebr of dragons
Dreepy line
Applin line
both Draco___ fossils if we want to count them as a set
Duraludon
Eternatus

(& Regidrago as DLC)

For such a small generation that's not bad. They're all even dual type (except regidrago but again, dlc) which is novel
Not only that, but all of the dual-type Dragons have mostly unexplored combos.

Dragon/Ghost: Giratina
Dragon/Grass: Alolan Exeggutor and Mega Sceptile
Dragon/Electric: Zekrom and Mega Amphraros
Dragon/Water: Palkia and Kingdra
Dragon/Steel: Dialga
Dragon/Poison: Dragalge and Naganadel

They may not be new but they haven't really been done all that frequently before, especially if you discount legendaries and megas.
 

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