(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[DrPumpkinz]

These two annoy me for a few different reasons. The overlapping reason is that most of the moves that synergize with their abilities were added to their movepools in Gen 6, meaning they were added specifically to make the mega idea work as opposed to the mega idea arising from the tools they already had in place. Heracross only knew Fury Attack, and Blastoise only knew Water Pulse. And then on top of that, they each have additional reasons they annoy me that are specific to them. Heracross already had monstrously powerful Bug STAB, its signature move Megahorn. Why would they not play into that, or at least not actively overshadow it with a generic Bug move that Heracross doesn't even fucking learn? Additionally, it's the only mega that lowers a stat and doesn't dump the extra points into an unused stat (Beedrill notwithstanding, also I'm oversimplifying for the sake of brevity), so if someone were to run a Pet Mod dedicated to designing megas and put rules in place to ensure stat changes follow the guidelines set by vanilla, they would need to include a really clumsy 10 point minmax window specifically because of Mega Heracross (cough). As for Mega Blastoise, it was introduced in the same generation as Clawitzer, another cannon-based Water-type with Mega Launcher and a similar movepool. So basically Gen 6 introduced two completely unrelated Pokemon who have basically the same mechanical and visual design.

 

[R_N]

I wonder why Heracross got the skill link gimmick to begin with.

I can totally understand how they'd design Mega Blastoise and then want to actually play into the "mega launcher" they gave it, independently of actually having the set up for the mega launcher. It has cannones, what if we gave it areally big cannon, oh we made a pokemon with this "mega launcher" ability this would work really well with this new mega blastoise

But Heracross turned from a beetle known for flipping & throwing to a beetle ...still known for flipping & throwing just this time by grabbing. Giving it a Skill Link gimmick seems strange.

 

[pika pal]

Heracross definitely feels like the most min-max based Mega in terms of its updates being about how it plays vs how it is designed to look.

 

[Magcargo]

Additionally, it's the only mega that lowers a stat and doesn't dump the extra points into an unused stat (Beedrill notwithstanding, also I'm oversimplifying for the sake of brevity), so if someone were to run a Pet Mod dedicated to designing megas and put rules in place to ensure stat changes follow the guidelines set by vanilla, they would need to include a really clumsy 10 point minmax window specifically because of Mega Heracross (cough).

I'm confused by what you mean here. How is this different that Garchomp lowering its Speed by 10? Is it because those 10 stat points gets put into its Special Attack, whereas Mega Heracross doesn't increase its Special Attack at all?

I do agree that Mega Heracross's Skill Link focus is kind of weird. I would have liked it more if Arm Thrust got boosted to 25 BP, but it didn't so Mega Heracross still winds up running CC like it did before. Skill Link Pin Missile is solid (has an effective 118.75 BP compared to Megahorn's 102 BP) but Bug STAB is horrible and usually one of the things Heracross is completely fine dropping. Bullet Seed is honestly horrible coverage too since it has so many overlapping resistances with Heracross's Fighting STAB. This leaves Rock Blast as the one move that Heracross is consistently using that will benefit from Skill Link. The improved rock coverage is definitely nice, but frankly,, I'm not sure how much better it is compared to Guts boosted Facade that Base Heracross normally runs.

I actually really like Mega Heracross since its stat distribution is really nice (for such a strong mon, its really bulky with those 80 / 115 / 105 defenses) but Skill Link always felt like the wrong way to go on. This didn't even have to be the case since Arm Thrust has more notable advantages over Close Combat compared to Pin Missile to Megahorn. However, since Arm Thrust's BP never got buffed, Skill Link's benefits are largely relegated to Heracross's lesser used moves compared to its main STAB, which is fine, but a bit disappointing.

Also they took away Arm Thrust from Heracross's Sword and Shield movepool for no reason, which I always found odd. Throh losing Mat Block and Reuniclus losing Night Shade are other weird instances of this happening.

EDIT: OK, I have been running Mega Heracross again in national dex and I was talking cap, my b. Rock Blast >>>> Facade since it hits fliers super effectively. Those multi-hit coverage moves are so powerful, that they may as well be tertiary STAB attacks. Even after an intimidate, Cross's Rock Blast was still OHKOing Galarian Moltres. Heracross's CC is a strong move, but it is a tool that you will be using to dissuade Steel-types since its other moves are much safer to spam.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I'm confused by what you mean here. How is this different that Garchomp lowering its Speed by 10? Is it because those 10 stat points gets put into its Special Attack, whereas Mega Heracross doesn't increase its Special Attack at all?

Yes. I'll let the guy who originally pointed this out explain it more clearly (which should also explain why I oversimplified for brevity).

- Any Mega Evolution that lowers a stat always puts at least that many points into its less used offensive stat. For example, Mega Camerupt loses 20 points in Speed, but it also gains 20 points in Attack; Mega Abomasnow loses 30 points in Speed, but it gains 40 in each of its offenses, some of which will almost certainly go to waste no matter how you choose to invest; and Mega Mewtwo Y loses 20 points in Defense, but it gains 40 useless points in Attack. The point I'm trying to make here is that losing points is not used as a way to cheat the +100 limit but actually as a way to weaken a Pokémon - those extra points are fairly consistently thrown away rather than amplifying the Pokémon's best stats even more.

- Something like Mega Sableye might appear to be an exception, but it typically uses neither of its offenses - its -30 Speed is "compensated" with boosts to both Attack and Special Attack that still add up to 30, and its more relevant Defense and Special Defense stats still don't exceed +100 and would be just as possible with no change to its other stats at all.​

- One of the only real exceptions to this is Mega Diancie (which loses a significant number of points from two important, relevant stats in its defenses - its Mega Evolution is a total role shift, not just trying to get better at the same thing by cheating the +100 limit) - and while none of its other stats really count as throwaways because it uses all of them, the fact that these boosts are split equally between its offenses rather than committing to one is still a relevant way to keep it in check. (Imagine a Mega Evolution that had -80 like Diancie and actually tried to optimize for one role! It would be ridiculous.)​

- The only other cases that break this "rule" are Mega Heracross - which loses a mere 10 points from the very relevant and important Speed stat and actually does put those 10 points towards other relevant stats - and Mega Beedrill, which... is Mega Beedrill. I'll cover why Beedrill is an exception next, in fact!​

- The other "rule" about Mega Evolutions is that they only ever lose points in Defense, Special Defense and Speed - as I've said, these are relevant stats that affect a Pokémon's performance no matter what kind of set it chooses to run. If a physical attacker loses Special Attack, this is inconsequential for any set that doesn't use special moves; heck, if a special attacker loses Attack, that's even an actively good thing on some level. But this doesn't happen - they only ever lose Speed and bulk, each of which actually impacts the Pokémon in specific matchups no matter what kind of set it's running. A Pokémon is always actually affected in some way by being slower or by losing bulk - it can't just change the moves it runs and see no difference at all.

- As mentioned, I now need to talk about Beedrill, which is the only Pokémon to be an exception to both of these "rules." Here's the thing about Beedrill - it has a base stat total of 395, one of the lowest of all Mega Evolving Pokémon. Even if it didn't lower its Special Attack at all and just had a +130 BST boost instead of +100, it would still only have 525 - barely even above average for a fully evolved Pokémon, let alone a Mega Evolution. It's clear that Mega Beedrill is an exceptional case and not a precedent that just any Pokémon can follow... and even that was +30, not +80!​

(And even then, it's still Mega Beedrill. It's a pivot with a Stealth Rock weakness, it's an Adaptability user with terrible STAB, and it has base 145 Speed but it's one-hit KOed by nearly every unresisted priority move. Even with the +60 boost to its Attack in conjunction with Adaptability, its damage output is still relatively average for an offensively oriented Mega Evolution. Basically, try to keep in mind how bad Mega Beedrill would have been if it didn't "cheat" like that.)​

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[DrCoeloCephalo]

For the past several months, I've been working towards a long term project of making an independent monster collector. Pokemon, as with many others, is a big inspiration, big part of my life and something I'm passionate about that I've wanted to work towards that dream in which I've been slowly but surely learning game development, game design, coding and listening to lectures involving all of the above as well as chatting with friends or people that I know that work in the game industry.

The reason I bring this up is because something that's been bugging me lately in my research towards my own project is Pokemon's damage formula.

The whole thing is a complete mess of overcomplications and there doesn't seem to be any clear reason I can find on why that is and it doesn't exactly do it any favors as a casual or competitive game.

I've played a wide variety of monster collectors both older and newer than Pokemon like Dragon Quest 5, Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition, the entire Yo-Kai Watch series available in English, Monster Sanctuary and more and yet all these games tend to have damage formulas that are far more streamlined, easy to remember or are just super simple.

Heck, Digimon's damage formula is just an easy "User's attacking stat x Attack power move / Enemy's Defense stat".

The only reason I don't have to be bothered to know off the top what Pokemon's is is thanks to fanmade sites that do the calcing for me but that isn't to the credit of the game itself.

I feel like the damage formula merits a dev interview or some DYKG episode of some kind to explain why they did what they did to feel the need to make it so convoluted tho I wouldn't be surprised if the reasoning fell somewhere along the lines of making a system that made for a simple and streamlined casual experience, given they had no original intentions of the game having PVP battle.

 

[R_N]

Im guessing they just wanted level to matter more to the formula since it's the primary way to differentiate CPU pokemon from your Pokemon.

the A/D part of the formula, and likely the /50 part of the formula, I can see either following in that foot step or was done to make the numbers come out "right" with the HP ranges they wanted.

everything else is just various simple multiplication because Pokemon has a pretty wide array of moves & abilities that do various things and need to be accounted for.

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

Im guessing they just wanted level to matter more to the formula since it's the primary way to differentiate CPU pokemon from your Pokemon.

I could see this bieng the case. Alot of these games tend to avoid the use of level as a variable.

everything else is just various simple multiplication because Pokemon has a pretty wide array of moves & abilities that do various things and need to be accounted for.

That actually ties into another thing that's been annoying me lately. For some reason, many of Pokemon's damage modifiers and multipliers are way too large compared to other games. Most of these games use multipliers that go in much smaller intervals of 5% or 10%. Most of Pokemon's more relevant modifiers are 30% or 50% such as Life Orb, Choice Items, buffs and debuffs. I guess this is just another mystery until further notice that will bug me.

 

[R_N]

I could see this bieng the case. Alot of these games tend to avoid the use of level as a variable.



That actually ties into another thing that's been annoying me lately. For some reason, many of Pokemon's damage modifiers and multipliers are way too large compared to other games. Most of these games use multipliers that go in much smaller intervals of 5% or 10%. Most of Pokemon's more relevant modifiers are 30% or 50% such as Life Orb, Choice Items, buffs and debuffs. I guess this is just another mystery until further notice that will bug me.

Well again they're also working in a different ecosystem. The reason level is usually (SMT5 actually has it play a huge role in the damage formula for some reason I'm not sure of; it really sticks out even compared to Pokemon) not a factor is because its a purposely uneven system. This can also be applied to things like "moves have small percentage buffs). The monsters you fight have inflated stat values to varying degrees and you're often having teams of ~3+. You're doing a lot more actions (in theory, in practice this varies wildly game to game and what options they give and what specific ecosystems they're crafting) to a lot more HP, so extra damage and extra effects have lower probabilities.

Pokemon is 1v1 bouts of up to 6 on each side. Each pokemon you face is, by & large, exactly what your Pokemon is capable outside of factors like early evolution (& even then if YOUR purugly could be obtained at that level, it would function similarly) or applying stat boosts (used rarely) and so forth. So you get larger swings in power, slightly balanced out by the damage formula, in 30% & 50% both to burn through HP bars at a decent (or purposely stalled) clip and so status effects have a chance of being more relevant as each side burns through their various Pokemon.

Or something to that effect. As I alluded to earlier there's obviously a ton of variance game to game based on their own goals. For Pokemon clearly they're doing something right since, even with power creep, these 50% boosts and chances are still enough to avoid OHKOs based on other circumstances but not so shortchanged that they're irrelevant.

 

[AztecCroc]

You have to remember though that many other mon games have a tendency to just make HP be ten times what the other stats are, even when the other stats are about on the same level as Pokémon and it results in even the weakest monsters having thousands of HP at max level, whereas Blissey the Pokémon with the highest HP maxes out at just above 700 (714 to be exact).
To use the Digimon example in Cyber Sleuth Botamon at level 50 has 690 and has 1180 at max, and that's Botamon, a Baby, Omegamon has 1100 HP at level 1.

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

You're doing a lot more actions (in theory, in practice this varies wildly game to game and what options they give and what specific ecosystems they're crafting) to a lot more HP, so extra damage and extra effects have lower probabilities.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this about extra effects having lower probabilities. Could you elaborate on that or is there something I'm misunderstanding? Do you mean like status debuffs and status conditions such as Ice Beam's chance to Freeze or Shadow Ball's chance to lower SpDef? Because alot of these games or skills tend to have higher odds or even guarantees towards doing that kind of thing


I would also say it's the opposite given that more actions, skillset slots and the 3v3 or 4v4 systems allow for more control over alot more factors.

For example, alot of these games allow for alot more freedom to control extra effects involving crit rate, accuracy and evasion in some way.

Pokemon doesn't really allow for much room to get extra effects off that make use of those, so moves like Stone Edge and Focus Blast tend to get memed on and even ones that do are either heavily outclassed low tiers or situational gimmicks (Machamp or Kingdra for example).

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I've played both Temtem and Monster Sanctuary a lot, and I find their different approaches to random chance in battles fascinating. The former has no hax; there's no accuracy or evasion stats, no critical hits, and secondary effects always occur. The latter is all about manipulating hax to your favour; you can increase the frequency and damage of critical hits, make attacks more likely to inflict negative status effects, and some monsters have learnsets built around evasion. There's also the fact that Monster Sanctuary's core gameplay loop is a lot less time-consuming, but that's getting off-topic.

 

[R_N]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this about extra effects having lower probabilities. Could you elaborate on that or is there something I'm misunderstanding? Do you mean like status debuffs and status conditions such as Ice Beam's chance to Freeze or Shadow Ball's chance to lower SpDef? Because alot of these games or skills tend to have higher odds or even guarantees towards doing that kind of thing

Your original post pointed out how boosts were 5 or 10% in other games while Pokemon is like 50%. If you used those type of boosts as recklessly as POkemon does in other games it would proc a lot with how many actions you're expected to go through per battle. Pokemon, meanwhile, likely has boosts that high so that you actually see them with the action economy you're expected battle to battle.
That entire chunk you quoted is pertaining to other games.

 

[Siggu]

Not to mention that it's omitting some factors of the other games.

Say, Cyber Sleuth might have smaller boosts, but then everyone and their mother can use moves that ignore the target's defensive stats, heavily compensating that. And being so overpowered they had to be nerfed AND they had to add a new item that reduces damage taken by those moves in Hacker's Memory.

It's not that simple. Whether Pokémon or something else.

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

Not to mention that it's omitting some factors of the other games.

Say, Cyber Sleuth might have smaller boosts, but then everyone and their mother can use moves that ignore the target's defensive stats, heavily compensating that. And being so overpowered they had to be nerfed AND a new item that reduces damage taken by those moves in Hacker's Memory.

It's not that simple. Whether Pokémon or something else.

Fair point. You can't deny however that that's still more effort put into keeping and improving a mechanic as opposed to outright removing a mechanic many enjoyed and then replacing it with another mechanic that proved even MORE broken as Pokemon has done with Dynamax.

I'm still annoyed by that.

Edit: come to think of it, Hyper Beam is a good example of something that went through that tho that's more like a bugfix.

 

[Bakugames]

Fair point. You can't deny however that that's still more effort put into keeping and improving a mechanic as opposed to outright removing a mechanic many enjoyed and then replacing it with another mechanic that proved even MORE broken as Pokemon has done with Dynamax.

I'm still annoyed by that.

Edit: come to think of it, Hyper Beam is a good example of something that went through that tho that's more like a bugfix.

dynamax is only broken in singles. Gimmicks are not popular in VGC but I'd argue Dynamax is a lot more balanced than the hell of gen 6 Megas and the nightmare of gen 7 mega z crystal (which is probably one of the reasons they stopped going backward compatibility with old gimmicks, beyond the bloat itself).

I'm more annoyed gimmicks are the new thing of every gen. I kinda missed when the generation gimmick was either a side mode (contests) or a new battle type (tripe, rotation, inverse). Yeah it's flashier and probably more marketable but I'm so tired of megas z moves and dynamax

 

[Hugin]

dynamax is only broken in singles. Gimmicks are not popular in VGC but I'd argue Dynamax is a lot more balanced than the hell of gen 6 Megas and the nightmare of gen 7 mega z crystal (which is probably one of the reasons they stopped going backward compatibility with old gimmicks, beyond the bloat itself).

I'm more annoyed gimmicks are the new thing of every gen. I kinda missed when the generation gimmick was either a side mode (contests) or a new battle type (tripe, rotation, inverse). Yeah it's flashier and probably more marketable but I'm so tired of megas z moves and dynamax

The thing with Dynamax is that it avoids all attempts to deal with it other than "Hit Hard". It goes through protect, immune to forced switches, immune to flinch, ignores trick choice, takes less damage from poison etc...I get that they didn't want kids to DMax and immediately lose it to Whirlwind, but they went so far in the other direction that it's not worth doing anything clever. And they removed the non-attacking Z moves, which were actually interesting(though generally as gimmicks, and they eliminated most of those in Dexit). It just makes everything so much blander than it could be.

 

[AztecCroc]

The thing with Dynamax is that it avoids all attempts to deal with it other than "Hit Hard". It goes through protect, immune to forced switches, immune to flinch, ignores trick choice, takes less damage from poison etc...I get that they didn't want kids to DMax and immediately lose it to Whirlwind, but they went so far in the other direction that it's not worth doing anything clever. And they removed the non-attacking Z moves, which were actually interesting(though generally as gimmicks, and they eliminated most of those in Dexit). It just makes everything so much blander than it could be.

Sleep and Paralysis work just fine for stopping it though.

 

[pika pal]

Here to remind anyone who says Dynamax is more balanced (in a Singles context) that the entire mechanic skews so heavily towards offensive beatdown that our own competitive community banned it from every tier, vs select Megas at worst getting the boot and (to my knowledge) no Z-Moves being banned in comparison to he user(s).

Dynamax to me just epitomizes why I hate the "gimmick mechanic" design Pokemon fell into since Gen 6 as a concept, despite my bias towards enjoying most Megas; the mechanics themselves just got lazier in design.

• Gen 6 Megas were tailored to the Pokemon receiving them, so they could be made to play a variety of roles be it repairing issues in how a Pokemon was built or completely changing up its playstyle (be it role or how it fulfilled the role such as Mega Sableye and Slowbro). A few Megas were OP to be sure but that's no different than a new Pokemon being poorly balanced when added or updated in general.
• Z-Moves were generally given to everyone, with a few signature/exclusives to show off in promotions or the anime. Z-Moves generally saw most of their usage as a one-off Power play to break certain walls, but they didn't completely lack for some utility uses, and the different status moves did at least have an array of secondary effects they could provide ranging from healing to a stat boost. Like Megas, the Z-Crystal was also your item slot and a one-per-team mechanic, so there was a level of commitment to running it.
• Dynamax is distributed like Z-Moves, but just weighted even more heavily towards offense by nature. They basically made it immune to every form of counterplay that isn't a status (which Dynamax mons still have ways around like Max Lightning Electric Terrain for Sleep) while jacking the HP stat up to ensure anything that wasn't made of outright soaked tissue paper would take hits and get to fire off the moves. Every special effect is attached to generic attack moves as a secondary effects, while literally every status/non-damage move becomes Max Guard, something you'd only care about on a Dynamax mon if fighting another Dynamax mon that you can neither take a hit from nor KO yourself. No items or any committal mechanic means you can just throw your team together and Dynamax however suits your fancy over the fight, which some would say calls for mindgames, but I personally think just leads to offense spam because Defensive responses to Dynamax are garbage and you're just leaving yourself with fewer Dynamax response options of your own.

The mechanics clearly became less about anyone having anything interesting to build or design around a concept like a Super Form, and much more transparently a big flashy image to throw into trailers (Megas served as these as well but they functioned enough to disguise/mitigate it some). This is the kind of thinking that leads to content bloat such that they eventually have to abandon the mechanic for comprehensibility, on top of Gamefreak's penchant for doing that as far back as Gen 4 or 5. Pokemon mechanics aren't about giving it systems or identities there, it's about giving them flashy anime super moves or forms because those worked in other properties so they'll work for Pokemon, system bloat and long-term marketing cohesion be damned.

I want to see the timeline where Gamefreak actually stuck with Megas as a concept to build on. Stuff like Ultra Necrozma is a Mega in all but name, and it's not like Z-Moves or Dynamax got any kind of lore or worldbuilding role that Mega Energy wouldn't have filled equally enough in the plot scribbles that are Pokemon stories.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I remember when people thought the Mega Evolution lore was too complicated for a game mechanic. Good times.

Also, I was going to make a point about how flashy gimmicks du jour might've influenced the direction of spinoffs, but then I realised I was cherrypicking.

 

[R_N]

Well I dont think it's contributing to.... "system bloat" anymore than any other one off mechanic. I think "system bloat" is only an issue if gamefreak starts spending a lot of time bringing forward every mechanic which

as we are all very aware


9 times out of 10 they don't. they're designed for that one game in mine, perhaps the follow up, and never again. Even if there are some they really should...

And "marketing cohesion" doesn't seem to be an issue either. The lens through which this all goes is Pokemon and the fact SWSH, BDSP & LA all had their own mechanics (or lack there of, with BDSP) didn't seem to affect anything so I guess people are pretty okay with realizing one isn't going to be in the other.

 

[pika pal]

Well I dont think it's contributing to.... "system bloat" anymore than any other one off mechanic. I think "system bloat" is only an issue if gamefreak starts spending a lot of time bringing forward every mechanic which

as we are all very aware


9 times out of 10 they don't. they're designed for that one game in mine, perhaps the follow up, and never again. Even if there are some they really should...

And "marketing cohesion" doesn't seem to be an issue either. The lens through which this all goes is Pokemon and the fact SWSH, BDSP & LA all had their own mechanics (or lack there of, with BDSP) didn't seem to affect anything so I guess people are pretty okay with realizing one isn't going to be in the other.

This in its own way is kind of what I'm getting at. The mechanics reached such a point that GF couldn't maintain most/all of them, hence even something with as much marketing push as Megas and Z-moves are restricted to two out of the eight "Generations" or sets of games. The cases I discussed feel egregious to me because they're given prominent marketing during the generation and still generally kept around/remembered in a fairly normal manner outside the games (Megas and Z-Moves kept showing up in media produced during Gens 7 and 8 like the anime and various spin-offs I know), and mechanically they affect the Battle System (a sound case for your primary method of interacting with the games and the Pokemon) in-action, as compared to something like Walking Pokemon or Dexnav being aesthetically pleasing or affecting the raising aspect prepping for the battles (I am aware this is me getting a bit fine/overly specific on the distinction).

They kept to their "one-and-done" mechanic mentality for mechanics that are much more integrated with the Pokemon concept than an individual game or region, which makes their absence stick out more. The issue is not System Bloat happening, rather than Gamefreak has to simply cut these significant mechanics to avoid it because they did not futureproof/plan ahead for maintaining them.

I would also say marketing cohesion is a concern in at least some minor-but-not-negligible ways. It's fair to assume that Pokemon's Anime (main singular or plural for the IP's entries in said medium) reaches a larger audience than its games do overall at this point, and I would be willing to wager that significantly more people would pick up the games after watching the show than vice versa. This seems like it has potential for disconnect when trainers are still commonly using Megas and Z-Moves (which are not in SwSh) alongside Dynamax throughout Journeys, which despite the Globe-Trotting is still ostensibly the Gen 8 anime or so heavily entrenched in it as to be connected to those games before any others in particular. To so prominently feature mechanics/selling points that do not appear in the related games feels off to me, and this is regarding a layman/new player picking the game up from seeing other media, much less the mild backlash that occurred when returning players learned the mechanics had been excluded.

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

and mechanically they affect the Battle System (a sound case for your primary method of interacting with the games and the Pokemon) in-action, as compared to something like Walking Pokemon or Dexnav being aesthetically pleasing or affecting the raising aspect prepping for the battles (I am aware this is me getting a bit fine/overly specific on the distinction).

They kept to their "one-and-done" mechanic mentality for mechanics that are much more integrated with the Pokemon concept than an individual game or region, which makes their absence stick out more. The issue is not System Bloat happening, rather than Gamefreak has to simply cut these significant mechanics to avoid it because they did not futureproof/plan ahead for maintaining them.

TLDR; You shouldn't have to be in a specific part of the world for monster pals to be able to follow you or be able to put ont what are essentially pet shows as opposed to some unique battle style that's consistent to the locale, is that right?

I would also say marketing cohesion is a concern in at least some minor-but-not-negligible ways. It's fair to assume that Pokemon's Anime (main singular or plural for the IP's entries in said medium) reaches a larger audience than its games do overall at this point, and I would be willing to wager that significantly more people would pick up the games after watching the show than vice versa. This seems like it has potential for disconnect when trainers are still commonly using Megas and Z-Moves (which are not in SwSh) alongside Dynamax throughout Journeys, which despite the Globe-Trotting is still ostensibly the Gen 8 anime or so heavily entrenched in it as to be connected to those games before any others in particular. To so prominently feature mechanics/selling points that do not appear in the related games feels off to me, and this is regarding a layman/new player picking the game up from seeing other media, much less the mild backlash that occurred when returning players learned the mechanics had been excluded.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason Journeys isn't strictly Galar and goes anywhere else is so they aren't limited by what Pokemon are or are not there, so they just avoid the problem they created for themselves. They can just make the excuse of the Pokemon being from anywhere else if it's not in the Galar Dex. Kinda like how the Pokemon Company had to address Dewgong being in Twilight Wings despite Dewgong being nowhere in Galar. It's inconsistent and borders on blatant false advertising.

 

[R_N]

Fond memories of the Hoenn era anime just have random Pokemon you wouldn't be able to get for several years throughout its life time.

 

[DrCoeloCephalo]

Back when getting every monster required buying extra games and remakes that had passion and didn't make you pay for a scam of a cloud service.