No, if they didn't want to be creative the Shiny change would be simple: flip the colors. Charcadet and Armarouge would become blue/purple, and Ceruledge would become yellow/red. There is no excuse for anything less than that:
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
- Start date
I have a Shiny Ceruledge that I use quite often and I actually think the orange/yellow eyes really pop against the purple color scheme. I’m pretty fond of it. I wouldn’t say it’s at all hard to notice, but I know that’s the kind of judgment that’ll be different from person to person.
Yeah, they also got hard to remember. "Fog badge" "Marsh badge" "Fen Badge" there's no way to tell from those whether they're fire, grass, poison, or whatever. I very much prefer they have a cool design rather than a cool name, and SWSH was good on that front.
SV wasn't. I get they want consistency(which justifies the names), but the design should be obvious which of the three paths it came from at a glance. Star badges are(though some of those are ugly as a result), but I can't figure out how we're supposed to tell the other 13 badges apart.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Unpopular opinion (oops, wrong thread) I greatly prefer ambiguous badge names to overly-specific ones. Naming a badge the Iceberg Badge or the Volcano Badge or something is fine, but personally it's much more interesting to have one with only a passing link to the type in question, or one that has more of a thematic link to the city or town the gym happens to be in (ex: Rainbow Badge; Cobble Badge; Storm Badge; Fen Badge; Balance Badge; Rising Badge). The Rising Badge in particular is one I've always found intriguing given that it's the badge that unlocks Waterfall (which literally rises you up one), although I'd assume "rising" is likely meant to evoke a sense of "you are rising in power and accomplishment"; there's a similar "rise to greatness" vibe with Unova's Legend Badge.
Why wasn't this guy Bug/Dragon? Dragon would have fulfilled the same role as representing physical prowess and brutality as Fighting, Heracross is already in the game as a Phyiscal Bug/Fighting type with high Special Defense, and Paradox Pokemon aren't afraid to use unused type combos, as seen in Great Tusk and Iron Valiant.
A few of the Paradox Pokemon I felt had some awkward Typing, like they made the Paradox first and THEN thought what its Type would be.
- Scream Tail: Why part Psychic? What is Psychic about Scream Tail? Granted, this probably isn't an issue with design but rather lack of flavor text properly explaining ANYTHING about the Paradox Pokemon's behavior or special abilities.
- Sandy Shocks: So, is it no longer made of metal? It would make more sense if it went from Electric/Steel to Ground/Steel. "It's a reference to Gen I"! That's odd, my memory may be failing, but if I recall Gen I Magnemite family was a pure Electric-type. And that still wouldn't explain away why this metallic creature isn't Steel-type.
- Roaring Moon: While nothing is wrong with its Type, as the same time kind of preferred if it kept its Flying-type and swapped Dragon with Dark. Just with how much emphasis they've put on the Salamence family striving to become flyers over the years, to then have a Pokemon related to them which isn't purposely twisting that aspect but still tossing out the Flying-type (even though it can still fly but doesn't have Levitate, aka can be hit by Ground-type Moves) just feels like missing the entire point.
- Most Future Pokemon: Yeah, remember what I said about Sandy Shocks? Well, aside from Iron Treads, you can apply that "but it's made of metal" complaint to ALL the other Future Paradox Pokemon. You see GF, that's the problem when you make all the future Pokemon into robots. "Well, maybe they're not made of a material that's metallic in nature". *Points to my complaint about Scream Tail*
- Iron Jugulis: Now I know the Occulture books are total BS, still, if you're going to go with "it's a hybrid between a Hydreigon and a robot" than I think if any dragon were to keep its Dragon-type it would then be Hydreigon becoming a Dragon/Steel. Of course I am just saying this because I suggested above Roaring Moon become Dark/Flying which is IJ's current Type, though there's nothing saying they couldn't have two Dark/Flying with different stat spreads (though both of my suggestions does give them "unique" Type combinations not done a Pseudo Legendary).
- Iron Moth: Why part Poison? That feels the MOST random of them all. It looks like a satellite thus related to space which has been attributed to a Psychic-type. Why not Fire/Psychic? Heck, you could then give Scream Tail Fairy/Poison and have it learn Poison Fang and Poison Tail, I also feel Poison makes more sense for a natural creature than a robot.
- Iron Thorns: So, Iron Hands is Electric because its defining feature, its hands, are specifically made of LED lights. Alright, makes sense. So what's Iron Thorns reason? Like, all the Future Paradox Pokemon have glowing bits so can't be just that. And is another example of a future Pokemon that would make sense being part Steel as Tyranitar is Rock/Dark so its rock is replaced with metal (something which its flavor text mentions) to Steel/Dark. "Bu it's kind now"! Find, Rock/Steel. It would at least serve it better than an Electric STAB on a Physical Attacker without an Ability or Signature Physical Electric move to help it out.
I think the general consensus on Poison Iron Moth is radioactive. Which sure why not. You can probably make all kinds of thoughts about the various typings: maybe Scream Tail is part psychic because it gives off mind blasts from its "tail" that conspiciously reminds me of Mega Mewtwo Y's.
A lot of Paradoxes feel like they have "weird" typings on purpose, to compliment their off putting, kind of unknowable flavor.
A lot of Paradoxes feel like they have "weird" typings on purpose, to compliment their off putting, kind of unknowable flavor.
No, the Ultra Beasts look like their Type (for the most part, of course there are some cases of "um, if you say so"). The idea behind the Ultra Beasts is that they broke Pokemon design rules which GF made for themselves, iir. Paradox Pokemon look like "normal" Pokemon for the most part, but with the idea they would be that version of the Pokemon from the far past/future. So already they were going to share a Type at least, but to make them more interesting/different from the original they added/changed a Type and that's where we enter this discussion: it doesn't feel like the Type change was quite in the idea of the designers when making the Paradox Pokemon.
I personally believe that they tried to avoid Rock-type past paradox mons and Steel-type future paradox mons to keep the type diversity of the group up. Iron Treads is then the exception, which I believe to be because it wasn't so much designed on its own merits as them needing a future Donphan to match the titan encounters between versions (did leak information also suggest there were no Steel-type future paradox mons as well, or am I misremembering?). I also believe Scream Tail's design was also phoned in to make sure there was one with an allegedly cute inspiration for a cutscene.
I think there's two reasonably good explanations for Iron Moth being Poison. First up, moths in general have minor associations with the type (Venomoth, Dustox, the only non-Grass users of PoisonPowder being lepidopterans). Iron Moth's Japanese name apparently also refers to toxic moths specifically. Secondly, as mentioned above, there's a decent chance it's radioactive in reference to the sun using nuclear reactions. I also remain unconvinced that Poison isn't suited to an inorganic creature when Grimer, Koffing, Trubbish, Varoom, and Glimmet exist.
There's already some association between spikiness and the Electric type, so Iron Thorns plays into that aspect. Jolteon is noted in dex entries to have its fur sharp enough to be used as a piercing weapon (this is why it has always learned Pin Missile via level), and the "spiky tackle" move is Electric type as well (Zing Zap, used by Togedemaru and Pincurshin). Something about lightning rods, I guess. Iron Thorns does get Pin Missile similar to Jolteon, but could reasonably do with learning Zing Zap.
As an aside, I'm not sure about that explanation for Iron Hands. The big glowy panels look distinct from the LED faces, and show up in different colours as the namesake part of every future paradox. The info they provide about being Electric-type would instead be that they're yellow, which is used as a shorthand for the type. I decided to check the full set:
- Treads (red): Usually Fire or Fighting. Originally Fighting, changed later to not overlap Great Tusk?
- Bundle (light blue): Ice or Water.
- Hands (yellow): Electric
- Jugulis (purple): Main ones within pokemon would be Poison and Dragon, though purple's been used in tons of other media for when black isn't suitable so Dark is possibly there as well. Definitely an oddity.
- Moth (orange): Fire
- Thorns (green): Would usually indicate Grass or Bug. Those do have their own associations with thorns/Pin Missile (so it could have originally been one of them but changed later), but green electricity isn't that odd in other media (main example off the top of my head is Kirby) so if Hands was designed first they may have just shunted Thorns over.
- Valiant (pink): Psychic or Fairy
- Miraidon (light purple): Here it's definitely Dragon.
I think it’s more that they wanted to lean on the “Sandy” aspect rather than trying to reference Gen 1 (after all, Fairy wasn’t around in Gen 1 either, and yet Scream Tail…). It’s kind of funny because it means they’ve used the “body hair made up of iron filings” trick in three different ways now — for Probopass, it’s meant to help express the added Steel type because magnets attract metal; for the Alolan Geodude line, it follows a similar aesthetic logic with the form’s newly-adapted magnetic properties attracting the iron to its body, but Alolan Geodude is an Electric-type, to emphasize how its natural electric charge is the source of its magnetism, a now with Sandy Shocks, the emphasis is more on the sand-like texture of the filings themselves, since those are the feature that probably most distinguish it from a regular Magneton. At any rate, just add Sandy Shocks to the pile of Pokémon that could very reasonably have three types if that were an option.
See, Iron Jugulis’s typing actually made sense to me right away, ‘cause I was like, “Ah, right, it’s not actually a dragon anymore, it’s a flying robot.”
But really, it could probably go either way, because typing logic is flexible at best and arbitrary at worst. Like, I can already hear someone saying, “But we have a sheep, a dog, a slug, a turtle, a coconut tree, an apple pie, and some sushi that are all considered Dragon-type, so why can’t a robot be one?” and well, they’d be right. But I guess GF just wanted to emphasize the Dark type on this one (Jugulis’s Occulture feature mainly sees fit to talk about how it combines the cold ruthlessness of a machine with the existing brutality of Hydreigon), and/or wanted to make sure that every type (except Normal) was represented across all the Paradox Pokémon, and Dragon was already going to three others (Roaring Moon and the Raidons). Granted, your idea of swapping the types of Roaring Moon and Iron Jugulis would still meet that remit, but, again, I feel like those two are flexible enough to work either way.
The thing I mainly wonder about Iron Moth is, for a Pokémon that specifically got the Poison type added to it, it sure didn’t gain a lot of Poison-type moves. Just Acid Spray, Sludge Wave, Toxic Spikes, and Venoshock (and fair enough, Volcarona can’t normally learn any of those, although Volcarona does get Poison Jab while Moth doesn’t). It kinda makes me wish they’d given each of the Paradoxes a signature move to help emphasize their respective design themes. Like if Iron Moth had a Poison-type move called Radioactive Wave or something then it’d be more clear what the logic was. (Actually, come to think of it, I thought the same thing about the Ultra Beasts. Some of them, like Xurkitree, got some neat and uncommon bits of kit (like Tail Glow, though Xurk lost access to it in the next gen
), but only Blacephalon got a genuine signature move.)Also, if I may nitpick about something Paradox-related: the sequencing of the Raidons’ type combos. I know, I know — it doesn’t make any functional difference. But it’s weird. Every Paradox Pokémon except them has its primary type be the one that it retained from its descendant/ancestor, with the newly-acquired type being their secondary type. So Jigglypuff into Scream Tail goes Normal/Fairy - Normal = Fairy, + Psychic = Fairy/Psychic. Same for the opposite side, like with Iron Thorns. Rock/Dark - Dark = Rock, + Electric = Rock/Electric.
But Koraidon and Miraidon don’t do that. Cyclizar is Dragon/Normal, but the Raidons are Fighting/Dragon and Electric/Dragon, respectively. I guess maybe it’s not as jarring as it could be since they’re obviously meant to be “special” among the rest of the Paradox Pokémon, but I feel like that’s already sufficiently emphasized by them being the box mascots, them having 670 stats and unique Abilities, and so on. Why this weird minor shift in procedure on top of that, especially since it wouldn’t make much difference to keep them consistent?
Ignoring Rock/Steel: Which is fine, but would like just something (be it the Pokedex or some notes from the Professor) which mentions the reason of the new Typing. Something simple as finding a note in one of the Research Stations which said someting like "The "tail" of Scream Tail contains a complex neural network, it uses telekinesis to float because its too heavy to do so by inflating".
Paradox Donphan: Had Donphan been the only Paradox Pokemon with counterparts I could see that, but Volcarona makes me think otherwise. Like Volcarona, Donphan's Paradox relatives emphasize one of its traits over the other: Wild Tusk focuses on its tusks, Iron Treads focuses on its ability to curl into a wheel.
Scream Tail Origins: Yeah, Scream Tail's inclusion feels like something else was planned in its place. I think maybe a more "slime" Pokemon like Grimer/Muk or maybe even Ditto (something which would fit the idea of it being an early life form), but needing something "cuter" picked Jigglypuff.
Poison Moth: Well its Japanese name refers to poison moths because, well, it's a moth that's Poison-type; had it not been Poison-type it would refer to another kind of non-poisonous moth. I'm pretty sure the names were likely the last thing thought of for the Paradox Pokemon.
Inorganic Poison: True, there is plenty of inorganic poison, I should have been more specific. Though, even what I was actually thinking was disproven by the radiation connection. "Iron Moth's wings are composed of solar panel able to extract both heat and gamma waves from stars which it than processes into flames and poisonous substances".
Eh, that's kind of a weak connection. Sure, we have spiky Electric-types, but also Pokemon of other Types (same with Move, a lot being Grass-type). Also, you're once again focusing on the name being the reason which I don't think is the case this time; it's more of a coincidence here. If I had to make a guess, maybe Iron Thorns is meant to be an energy generator or something, a possible slight nod to Godzilla often being compared to a living nuclear reactor.
Yes, LED panels show up on every Future Paradox Pokemon, but for Iron Hands specifically it's a notable part of its design. All the others just have parts of their body with details that light up and that's it, but Iron Hands has the entire inside of its hand light up. I think the idea is that, since the LED is on the part its attacking/grabbing you with, its going to shock you too.
Also I think you're applying the color theory idea after the fact. I wouldn't heavily rely on that being part of the core design.
Because then they would have to address people
Legitimate answer for me is I think there were certain types they were trying to minimize the usage of because they seemed a bit on-the-nose for the mons of either theme? Steel was brought up for Futures, only going to Iron Treads who serves as the big preview to Future Paradoxes, and they only have a couple Electrics, while for Past I think those types were Rock (as is often used for Fossil Pokemon) and then few Dragons (since it's become a pseudo "Dinosaur" type when you look at a lot of Pokemon with the typing outside Legendaries), only doing Roaring Moon for the latter outside of the Box Legendaries, and in his case because that was one of his natural typings already.
Fighting feels like a typing they leaned on for a sort of primal-caveman like aggressiveness, showing up on 3 Pokemon including the Box Legend.
Though all of these just barely lack the frequency or consistency to be called a pattern, to the point I wonder if that was intentional to keep a theme or the nature of the Paradoxes confusing and abnormal, given they're as Alien to the setting at the Ultra Beasts and now inviting speculation they're flat out not natural to any setting or time like those were.
I wouldn't be bothered by Slither Wing being part Fighting if Great Tusk wasn't already fulfilling the unorthodox Fighting type niche. With the other physically-inclined past Paradoxes, Fighting, Dragon, and Dark are used to signify primordial strength (Great Tusk, Brute Bonnet, Roaring Moon, Koraidon), so while I get why Slither Wing is a Fighting type, it feels like a missed opportunity to have a unique Dragon type that Game Freak seems to love to showcase.
Maybe they picked Fighting for Slither Wing specifically because it was a combo they'd done before. Something I notice is that exactly one of the "big boss" Paradoxes in each game highlights a unique combination, Great Tusk as a Titan for Ground/Fighting, and Iron Valiant for Fairy/Fighting. Since Slither Wing is just "one of" the various Paradox Pokemon, they might not have elected to give it too unique a type combo or role in gameplay over that?
Like if Slither Wing and Iron Moth had been a Titan, maybe they would have considered the more unique typing (no accounting for effectiveness of it) to pop more.
Them and their “making each region more unique” route at cost of actual quality of competitive and the region in question.
Speaking of Battle Box and Competitive, it doesn’t seems that Game Freak were being sincere about competitive, balancing and what-not when you consider how little the QoL mattered in the end since they could just revamp some more annoying systems as easier and more accessible. As examples:
- For every nerfed Pokémon, they ended up creating twice as many overpowered Pokémon to the point of ridicule. This also happens with Moves and Abilities since the sixth Generation, and SV shown the worst case yet. This is just a case of horrible or lack of competitive playtesting.
- Making such “QoL” or competitive-helping items such as Nature Mints (back in SwSh at least), Ability Patch, Tera Shards and other ended up excessively rare or tedious, discouraging potential competitive players to bother and just go into Showdown instead.
- No effort to improve type chart, like not buffing the worst types like Bug and Ice (defensively for the latter) and nerfing the overbearingly best types like Steel, Fairy and Water.
- Using a quick fix for problematic or controversial mechanics like Stealth Rock by giving Heavy-Duty Boots instead of nerfing the move’s set damage.
- Major NPCs misusing Pokémon, to the point it will occasionally show the least optimal way to use the Pokémon in question. This seems harmless for children at first, but it can tell them the wrong way to use the Pokémon and that can cause some major backlash once such children realized how poorly the major NPCs used those Pokémon. That isn’t an issue for minor NPC Trainers; when Gym Leaders or other major NPCs did that, you wondered how they managed to get that position.
- Adding to previous example, the lack of a variety of strategy the major NPCs bothered to do, often making the casual players naive and thought competitive is an easy ride while it’s far from reality.
I'd probably also add the stripping down and removal of Battle Facilities to the list, since it provided a location for competent AI sets (even if the earliest matches wouldn't usually qualify) and for players to build up their familiarity with the official formats (3v3 singles and 4v4 doubles, lvl 50, item/species clauses, etc.).
Run Away has a special interaction with Teleport, but no Pokemon can have both.
The closest we got is two Pokemon that can learn the Teleport TM in Gen I VC and Let's Go (Butterfree and Venomoth) that evolve from Pokemon with Run Away as their Hidden Ability (Caterpie and Venonat) that cannot learn the TM themselves.
The closest we got is two Pokemon that can learn the Teleport TM in Gen I VC and Let's Go (Butterfree and Venomoth) that evolve from Pokemon with Run Away as their Hidden Ability (Caterpie and Venonat) that cannot learn the TM themselves.
Who thought the Sprout Tower was a good idea? It's just a gauntlet of mindless battles against level 3 Bellsprout. There's no challenge, no variety, it's just padding.
In GS, it's skippable for experienced players, but makes a good grind spot/baby's first dungeon for new players. So of course they made it mandatory in HG/SS.
I've been playing through Crystal for the first time and went through it just to grind before Falkner. You get Flash from it, and I don't want to fumble around in the dark, so...
Sometimes I wish Audino was a dinosaur.
The rest of the time, I think she's one of the most underappreciated Pokemon ever, and probably cutest...
The rest of the time, I think she's one of the most underappreciated Pokemon ever, and probably cutest...
This is Winona's Altaria in ORAS.
Notice anything? It's missing Aerial Ace and Dragon Dance.
Aerial Ace is Winona's TM, and Altaria is the only Pokémon on her team without it. Because uhhhhhhh. This also means it has no Flying STAB in the Flying Gym.
You could argue getting rid of Dragon Dance was fine since it made Altaria extremely scary in RSE, but ORAS also hands you a mandatory free (Mega) Lati and Game Freak still decided to give Altaria Dragon STAB to fuck with people using them. (Probably should have been Dragon Claw to go with Earthquake and Dragon Dance, but whatever.)
Notice anything? It's missing Aerial Ace and Dragon Dance.
Aerial Ace is Winona's TM, and Altaria is the only Pokémon on her team without it. Because uhhhhhhh. This also means it has no Flying STAB in the Flying Gym.
You could argue getting rid of Dragon Dance was fine since it made Altaria extremely scary in RSE, but ORAS also hands you a mandatory free (Mega) Lati and Game Freak still decided to give Altaria Dragon STAB to fuck with people using them. (Probably should have been Dragon Claw to go with Earthquake and Dragon Dance, but whatever.)
Actually, the reason it's not running Aerial Ace in ORAS is because Aerial Ace is actually not Winona's TM in ORAS anymore, despite the move itself still being TM40. Despite Aerial Ace staying a TM, they changed Winona's reward TM (and thus her recurring move) to Roost (TM19 in Gen 6), which is now the recurring move that her mons use.
And as you can see, ORAS Altaria is running Roost. Since Roost is a recovery move, they changed Altaria's moveset to become more defensively oriented to synergize with her new TM move being a recovery move instead of an attack. So it's now running Cotton Guard and a STAB that can inflict paralysis, unlike in RSE where Altaria is boosting with Dragon Dance and then trying to sweep, the ORAS version of Altaria is now running a more defensive set with Cotton Guard boosting its Defense to make it harder to KO while Roost keeps its HP up.
Yeah, surprisingly they replaced Winona's reward TM in ORAS even though they didn't need to, it's actually Roost in ORAS instead of Aerial Ace. A similar case happened with Norman, who originally gave out TM42 Facade in RSE, but despite Facade still being a TM in ORAS, Norman in ORAS gives out TM67 (Retaliate) instead.