(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[pika pal]

The thng I find weird about Archduraludon is not so much revisiting Duraludon, but that it's an evolution specifically, in the Gen that retained Regionals forms AND introduced two different "similar but not quite" Pokemon ideas between Convergents and Paradoxes.

 

[Esserise]

Yeah, overall I do think the Regigigas lore needs a new chapter to it. It's no longer a sleeping titan that was underneath Sinnoh Temple for centuries, they've made too many instances of both it and the Titan Trio that there's multiple of them. Now this isn't a bad thing, as I said it would allow them to improve Slow Start, and establishing new lore let's them expand on what they could do with it in the future.

If I had to cobble together a theory (with the caveat that GF obviously care about none of this), I’d probably point to Legends: Arceus. If we assume the LA protagonist canonically completed their Pokédex (and I would say that’s a relatively safe assumption since it’s the foremost goal of the game, even moreso than usual), that means they had to have awakened and caught the Sinnoh Regigigas. Perhaps that Regigigas was slumbering for millennia up to that point, and only after that instance of capture (and eventual release) did it start going on check-up trips to Hoenn. Since LA probably doesn’t happen more than 200 years before the modern era, that roughly lines up time-wise with the girl in Pacifidlog having a grandfather from Sinnoh who could be in the know about this stuff. (Maybe he was part of the Galaxy Team?)

Mind you, none of this really justifies the workings of Slow Start, but considering how that ability isn’t even exclusive to Regigigas anymore, I’ve kind of stopped trying to make sense of it. Maybe Regigigas just happens to have developed an unusual metabolic rate or something.

I would think that if they were going to expand on its lore any further, they would have done so in the SwSh DLC or in Legends: Arceus, but alas.

 

[R_N]

The thng I find weird about Archduraludon is not so much revisiting Duraludon, but that it's an evolution specifically, in the Gen that retained Regionals forms AND introduced two different "similar but not quite" Pokemon ideas between Convergents and Paradoxes.

I think Archaludon (I also kept making the same naming mistake...it isn't Arch-duraludon) tracks as an evolution design wise. Diplin, is the one I'm surprised is an evolution. Like I love it, it's fun that it is an evolution, but also the first time I saw it I assumed it was some kind of Kitakami form

 

[Hugin]

Mind you, none of this really justifies the workings of Slow Start, but considering how that ability isn’t even exclusive to Regigigas anymore,

What.

WHAT.

WHY?!

(Yes, it's presumably purely thematic and will literally never matter. But given that it turns into Filter on evolution, which isn't particularly thematic and also isn't great, I repeat, why?)

 

[R_N]

What.
View attachment 544722
WHAT.
View attachment 544724
WHY?!

(Yes, it's presumably purely thematic and will literally never matter. But given that it turns into Filter on evolution, which isn't particularly thematic and also isn't great, I repeat, why?)

It's definitely a joke so the real question is why on earth didn't they give Revavroom Speed Boost as its hidden ability to go with it. Everyone runs into Mela first and not a single person question Speed Boost Revavroom; don't leave it on the dang starmobile!

 

[Pikachu315111]

If I had to cobble together a theory (...)

Mind you, none of this really justifies the workings of Slow Start, but considering how that ability isn’t even exclusive to Regigigas anymore

What.
(Image showing its Varoom's Hidden Ability )
WHAT.
(Image of Varoom's stats, aka stats of a basic stage Pokemon)
WHY?!

New Theory: Varoom are reincarnated Regigigas who were tired of having Slow Start as their Ability. What better modern day analog to the mythical golem than the combustion engine?

 

[misterdarvus]

What.
View attachment 544722
WHAT.
View attachment 544724
WHY?!

(Yes, it's presumably purely thematic and will literally never matter. But given that it turns into Filter on evolution, which isn't particularly thematic and also isn't great, I repeat, why?)

The Audacity of GF to give a Car Engine Pokemon Slow Start for thematic reason but not U-Turn

 

[Coronis]

It's definitely a joke so the real question is why on earth didn't they give Revavroom Speed Boost as its hidden ability to go with it. Everyone runs into Mela first and not a single person question Speed Boost Revavroom; don't leave it on the dang starmobile!

I mean in universe isn’t this explained by Ortega personally modifying the Starmobiles?

 

[R_N]

I mean in universe isn’t this explained by Ortega personally modifying the Starmobiles?

I'm not questioning the starmobiles having different abilities, I'm saying it should have had Speed Boost to begin with because it fit so well.

 

[Pikachu315111]

I'm not questioning the starmobiles having different abilities, I'm saying it should have had Speed Boost to begin with because it fit so well.

There's quite a few neat things they could have done with Revavroom being it's a car Pokemon, but also felt that they didn't want to go too over the top for that reason (which I disagree with. You made a CAR Pokemon, just lean into the nonsense).

Anyway, wouldn't mind if they gave Revavroom a way to have the Ability & Signature Move of the Starmobiles (though I wouldn't change the Type, gotta balance it somehow). Like a "Hubcap" Held Item for each squad.

 

[pika pal]

There's quite a few neat things they could have done with Revavroom being it's a car Pokemon, but also felt that they didn't want to go too over the top for that reason (which I disagree with. You made a CAR Pokemon, just lean into the nonsense).

Anyway, wouldn't mind if they gave Revavroom a way to have the Ability & Signature Move of the Starmobiles (though I wouldn't change the Type, gotta balance it somehow). Like a "Hubcap" Held Item for each squad.

My immediate thought is the Rotom forms, because the Starmobiles feel like the same concept (a machine-related Pokemon with multiple type-varied forms based on what kind of machine it's actually inhabiting), just not actually obtainable like the Rotoms are. Even then though they change things much more drastically since they alter type, ability, share a modified signature move (Torque), and more dramatically alter their stats than the Rotom forms.

 

[Mex]

The Buried Relic is, to me, one of both the most interesting, and annoying, dungeons in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon franchise, specifically in Rescue Team DX

To start, it's a 99 floor postgame dungeon. There are no restrictions on it, unlike most 99 floor dungeons where you're either set down to the starting level or, in the case of Silver Trench, is a water dungeon, which means no natural food spawns increasing the overall difficulty pretty significantly.

Buried Relic, on the other hand, is a dungeon with the quest to find, and recruit, Mew. First you have a fight vs each of the three Regis, which you get fully healed after each, and after that you have the ability to find Mew. The catch is that Mew only spawns on 6 floors of the entire dungeon, one of which is the last legitimate floor (99f is a treasure floor rewarding you for your efforts in beating the dungeon), with no guarantee of it even showing up on the given floor. Along with that it spawns with Transform as a move so you can very realistically run into it without knowing it, and its base recruit rate is only at 8.2%, not insanely low but annoying when you're not 100% able to set it up right and miss out because of it.

In theory, it's an endurance run, with the goal being to find Mew and then get out. In practice, it's a laughably easy endurance run, with food items everywhere and enemies that barely tickle, at the start because the difficulty is meant to scale, and at the end the other gimmick of the dungeon comes to bite it significantly. Said other gimmick is that the dungeon is one of very few with buried items in the walls. Specifically vitamins, and several on each floor. Because of this, even if the enemies are scaled on the last floors to be actually difficult, by the time you reach them your stats are so insanely buffed up that they become jokes.

Having said this, I will admit I do actually like the quest to find Mew in theory, especially in the original version where Mew can actually spawn on any floor and just has higher rates on the floors it was made exclusive to. In addition, the addition of the Strong Foes in Rescue Team DX with shiny chances is neat, as Buried Relic's is Ditto, with the highest chance in the game of encountering a shiny at, I believe, 50%. The reference to a fairly popular fan theory is pretty neat, and having a long dungeon with a realistic chance of encountering a shiny Strong Foe, especially in a dungeon where your goal is recruiting a difficult to recruit pokemon to begin with, is cool. I just wish the rest of it were a bit more challenging. Maybe i just overprepared for it though, idk.

Also apple traps are the bane of my existence, seriously who greenlit these.

 

[Sonikku A]

The Buried Relic is, to me, one of both the most interesting, and annoying, dungeons in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon franchise, specifically in Rescue Team DX

To start, it's a 99 floor postgame dungeon. There are no restrictions on it, unlike most 99 floor dungeons where you're either set down to the starting level or, in the case of Silver Trench, is a water dungeon, which means no natural food spawns increasing the overall difficulty pretty significantly.

Buried Relic, on the other hand, is a dungeon with the quest to find, and recruit, Mew. First you have a fight vs each of the three Regis, which you get fully healed after each, and after that you have the ability to find Mew. The catch is that Mew only spawns on 6 floors of the entire dungeon, one of which is the last legitimate floor (99f is a treasure floor rewarding you for your efforts in beating the dungeon), with no guarantee of it even showing up on the given floor. Along with that it spawns with Transform as a move so you can very realistically run into it without knowing it, and its base recruit rate is only at 8.2%, not insanely low but annoying when you're not 100% able to set it up right and miss out because of it.

In theory, it's an endurance run, with the goal being to find Mew and then get out. In practice, it's a laughably easy endurance run, with food items everywhere and enemies that barely tickle, at the start because the difficulty is meant to scale, and at the end the other gimmick of the dungeon comes to bite it significantly. Said other gimmick is that the dungeon is one of very few with buried items in the walls. Specifically vitamins, and several on each floor. Because of this, even if the enemies are scaled on the last floors to be actually difficult, by the time you reach them your stats are so insanely buffed up that they become jokes.

Having said this, I will admit I do actually like the quest to find Mew in theory, especially in the original version where Mew can actually spawn on any floor and just has higher rates on the floors it was made exclusive to. In addition, the addition of the Strong Foes in Rescue Team DX with shiny chances is neat, as Buried Relic's is Ditto, with the highest chance in the game of encountering a shiny at, I believe, 50%. The reference to a fairly popular fan theory is pretty neat, and having a long dungeon with a realistic chance of encountering a shiny Strong Foe, especially in a dungeon where your goal is recruiting a difficult to recruit pokemon to begin with, is cool. I just wish the rest of it were a bit more challenging. Maybe i just overprepared for it though, idk.

Also apple traps are the bane of my existence, seriously who greenlit these.

"Elekid used Screech"
"Elekid used quick attack"
Yeah, OG had a lot more traps in general, along with Mew only having a 0.9% recruit rate, so it's a tad harder in later floors. But RTDX balance....kinda nukes it

Speaking of, noticed so many people beating Purity Forest so fast. Mega Hera stronk

 

[KalosianPorygon]

Speaking of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, I am torn on whether Explorers of Sky making Explorers of Time/Darkness 100% obsolete is a great thing or a bad one.
Look at the mainline games. The third version is very much an upgrade to the initial two versions with a couple alterations. These alterations generally makes the third version the better game, but at least it was interesting to see the changes between versions. Not to mention the version exclusive Pokémon (most notoriously, no Mareep in Crystal).

Compare with the Explorers games' situation. Time and Darkness split the first 491 Pokémon between each others, as well as version-exclusive items. To get version-exclusive items or Pokémon, you had to use Wonder Mail blah blah blah.
Explorers of Sky has the first 492 Pokémon without trade unlike the first two Explorers games, all items from the two first Explorers games and more (the Lookalike items were cool and funny, fight me), plus new locations like the Spinda Bar, new Dungeons, Special Episodes, and even new Partner Pokémon like Riolu or Shinx.

My point is, why ever bother with Explorers of Time/Darkness? Other than the price tag of course.

 

[Mex]

There are a couple of minor things included in Time and Darkness but not in Sky, most notably the ability to have the main Hero be a Meowth or a Munchlax.

There is also a lack of the evolution glitch where evolving a pokemon with a 10 character name / nickname would softlock the game, or at least according to bulbapedia that's only present in Sky.

Do these make Time / Darkness worth playing over Sky? Probably not, but there are still things the games have that Sky doesn't

 

[QuentinQuonce]

The fact that my Youtube timeline keeps recommending videos with titles like "10 obscure things you never knew about Pokemon" and they're all basic-ass stuff like Azurill changing gender or Missingno having 3 or 4 different forms. I appreciate I'm not exactly paddling in the shallow end but c'monnnnnn.

 

[Worldie]

The fact that my Youtube timeline keeps recommending videos with titles like "10 obscure things you never knew about Pokemon" and they're all basic-ass stuff like Azurill changing gender or Missingno having 3 or 4 different forms. I appreciate I'm not exactly paddling in the shallow end but c'monnnnnn.

I feel you brother, both my youtube and chrome feeds are full of these and generic "can i beat X game with stupid self imposed limit?" (Spoilers, the answer is "yes just grind more" every time)

It's got even worse nowadays on chrome feed (and i assume similar ones) due to the spam of those low budget AI generated articles.
One of my favourite "pokemon related" one was "How to get your starter in pokemon scarlet and violet". Gdi really?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

It's got even worse nowadays on chrome feed (and i assume similar ones) due to the spam of those low budget AI generated articles.
One of my favourite "pokemon related" one was "How to get your starter in pokemon scarlet and violet". Gdi really?

UGH yes. I've dabbled in Quora in the past and it's full of bot-generated questions that are literally surface-level things from the topic in question like "who is Ned Stark's wife". Mindnumbing.

...both my youtube and chrome feeds are full of these and generic "can i beat X game with stupid self imposed limit?" (Spoilers, the answer is "yes just grind more" every time)

I think this specifically is what motivates me to find more creative ideas for challenge runs. Broadly speaking, you can beat the game with anything, literally even Cosmog or Pyukumuku, if you grind enough and/or put enough time into it. You see a lot of videos like "Can I beat Pokemon Red with JUST A PORYGON?" and I'm like, yes, yes you can.

 

[Worldie]

I think this specifically is what motivates me to find more creative ideas for challenge runs. Broadly speaking, you can beat the game with anything, literally even Cosmog or Pyukumuku, if you grind enough and/or put enough time into it. You see a lot of videos like "Can I beat Pokemon Red with JUST A PORYGON?" and I'm like, yes, yes you can.

Which is fine on its own, if one wants to play the game and see how much you can get away with, but I kinda grow tired of people just making youtube videos about them (since as you also agree, the answer is always "yes just grind more" as far as turn based games go)

 

[R_N]

I feel you brother, both my youtube and chrome feeds are full of these and generic "can i beat X game with stupid self imposed limit?" (Spoilers, the answer is "yes just grind more" every time)

I think this specifically is what motivates me to find more creative ideas for challenge runs. Broadly speaking, you can beat the game with anything, literally even Cosmog or Pyukumuku, if you grind enough and/or put enough time into it. You see a lot of videos like "Can I beat Pokemon Red with JUST A PORYGON?" and I'm like, yes, yes you can.

In fairness to a number of challenge runners, the title is just for algorithm purposes and the video's more about what degree of challenge is met along the way and if they do have to grind, to what extent. And in some cases, more about the journey of experiencing it. For example beating Lunatic FE Awakening with just Chrom & Robin is not only possible, but one of the key ways of beating it available; but the guy hadn't done that and more importantly hadn't played Awakening in over a decade. IT was as much rediscovering a game he liked with a gimmick attached as incentive to learn a different side to it.
I felt similarly about the various Pokemon. Like yeah okay "grind more" but what else, because it's not always grind.

If they keep doing them sometimes they even pivot to a more interesting aspect: Scott's Thoughts is the one runner I actively keep up with these days and he specializes in runs with a single Pokemon while trying to be as effecient, consistent and fast as possible. It's not always just the same strategy and just the grind every time, and he winds up planning routes, specific move choices and if he does have to grind has to figure out what the ideal level actually is. Keeps a whole chart tracking everyone's times, thoughts on how they might improve, what level they finished at, etc. He hosted a Smeargle in Yellow Race with both randos and people in the attached chalenge community and it was pretty interesting in that regard too. And he started as just doing it because he liked challenge videos and wanted to learn video editing, and now he managed to pivot the algorithm into just "<Game> - Solo With <X>" instead of "can i beat the game with x?"





That said, this whole things reminds me of this time I watched that nuzlocker FlygonHG guy. And putting other quibbles I had, was he's this guy who always tries to play Most Optimally for all nuzlockes because he does "hardcore" nuzlockes that have levelcaps and stuff and that involves trying to preplan teams and maximize EVs as soon as able. And that's already a varying level of overkill depending on the game, but SV's nuzlocke made me almost lose my mind
Pokemon are easy games for babies, we all know this. So complaining about that is bread & butter, nothing weird there. But not only did he continue to do the Most Optimal EV stuff he also did the most absurd set up strategies, and then still turned around and complained at length about how easy the game was and its like bro it doesnt matter how easy the game normally is I think it loses some punch when you go out of your way to make it as easy for possible.

ALSO that mid-game Nemona battle where Geeta watches he spent like 10 minutes (?!) doing a set up on a Pokemon, knocked out that Pokemon and then SWITCHED THE POKEMON OUT. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS DEFINITELY IN NO DANGER. What was the point?! You could have just knocked out the Pokemon in question instead of doing your dumb overly long set up that went no where!

 

[Coronis]

In fairness to a number of challenge runners, the title is just for algorithm purposes and the video's more about what degree of challenge is met along the way and if they do have to grind, to what extent. And in some cases, more about the journey of experiencing it. For example beating Lunatic FE Awakening with just Chrom & Robin is not only possible, but one of the key ways of beating it available; but the guy hadn't done that and more importantly hadn't played Awakening in over a decade. IT was as much rediscovering a game he liked with a gimmick attached as incentive to learn a different side to it.
I felt similarly about the various Pokemon. Like yeah okay "grind more" but what else, because it's not always grind.

If they keep doing them sometimes they even pivot to a more interesting aspect: Scott's Thoughts is the one runner I actively keep up with these days and he specializes in runs with a single Pokemon while trying to be as effecient, consistent and fast as possible. It's not always just the same strategy and just the grind every time, and he winds up planning routes, specific move choices and if he does have to grind has to figure out what the ideal level actually is. Keeps a whole chart tracking everyone's times, thoughts on how they might improve, what level they finished at, etc. He hosted a Smeargle in Yellow Race with both randos and people in the attached chalenge community and it was pretty interesting in that regard too. And he started as just doing it because he liked challenge videos and wanted to learn video editing, and now he managed to pivot the algorithm into just "<Game> - Solo With <X>" instead of "can i beat the game with x?"





That said, this whole things reminds me of this time I watched that nuzlocker FlygonHG guy. And putting other quibbles I had, was he's this guy who always tries to play Most Optimally for all nuzlockes because he does "hardcore" nuzlockes that have levelcaps and stuff and that involves trying to preplan teams and maximize EVs as soon as able. And that's already a varying level of overkill depending on the game, but SV's nuzlocke made me almost lose my mind
Pokemon are easy games for babies, we all know this. So complaining about that is bread & butter, nothing weird there. But not only did he continue to do the Most Optimal EV stuff he also did the most absurd set up strategies, and then still turned around and complained at length about how easy the game was and its like bro it doesnt matter how easy the game normally is I think it loses some punch when you go out of your way to make it as easy for possible.

ALSO that mid-game Nemona battle where Geeta watches he spent like 10 minutes (?!) doing a set up on a Pokemon, knocked out that Pokemon and then SWITCHED THE POKEMON OUT. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS DEFINITELY IN NO DANGER. What was the point?! You could have just knocked out the Pokemon in question instead of doing your dumb overly long set up that went no where!

lol I have enough trouble watching my own playthroughs while I’m playing through them I could never watch other people’s.

 

[Imperial Magala]

Real big "Use cheap strategy made by fans, complains why developers made game easy" energy.

 

[Hugin]

The fact that my Youtube timeline keeps recommending videos with titles like "10 obscure things you never knew about Pokemon" and they're all basic-ass stuff like Azurill changing gender or Missingno having 3 or 4 different forms. I appreciate I'm not exactly paddling in the shallow end but c'monnnnnn.

I had that with Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Youtube pushed a "Can you beat OOT without a sword" video at me for multiple months because I follow one speedrunner of it.

OOT mechanics

Me, thinking: Well, Kokiri Sword is completely skippable, nothing as child requires it and leaving the forest without it is easy. And Biggoron Sword is optional. The problem is Master Sword. Even if you use Stale Reference Manipulation to become adult, I think the game puts the sword in your inventory. So you can't beat the game normally at all or access most adult stuff without Sword. And wrongwarping from Deku Tree to the endgame doesn't help, since even if you arrive as child Link, the game forces you to pick up and swing the Master Sword once to trigger the credits.
BUT. If you escape the forest as child, make your way to Fire Temple(picking up a few specific items as you go). Use EquipSwap for hammer to beat the Fire Temple boss, and then wrongwarp out of Fire Temple, That takes you to the end credits. No sword required. The problem is IDK if it's even reasonable to reach Fire Temple as child(you may need to glitch extra heart containers or something to reach it), and thesetup to wrongwarp from Fire Temple-Credits was made for adult and IDK if it works as child. So it's plausible, but there's a lot of failure points.

Me, months later: Fine, I'll watch this video.
Player: So we're going to pick up and equip the Kokiri Sword to get through this door, but we're never going to use it.
Me:

I don't even play OOT, I just like weird glitches.

 

[R_N]

So in gen 4, there was a change to form changes. Namely, if you were a Mythic or Legendary pokemon it is no longer "Form" it is now "Forme". Because.....I don't know they needed to be fancier, I guess? I'm not sure if this is carried over from Japanese at all, so it might just be a localization decision.
Basically something like Deoxys is now Speed Forme, something like Giratina is Origin Forme but something like Castform is Windy Form or Alolan Rattata is "Alolan Form".

The thing that gets a little under my skin is there's 3 kind of weird inconsistencies:
Keldeo's 2 forms are "form", not "forme". Aegislash's forms are "Formes". Terapagos' forms are just "Forms". The legendary birds also go with "Galarian Form" rather than "Galarian Forme" but to be fair that's probably more wanting consistency with the other regional variants.

Like if you're going to have this distinction at least commit to the bit! Aegislash aint THAT special


Related, but although normal Giratina started calling itself "Altered Forme" in Platinum, Dialga & Palkia's normal forms aren't given such a title.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

So in gen 4, there was a change to form changes. Namely, if you were a Mythic or Legendary pokemon it is no longer "Form" it is now "Forme". Because.....I don't know they needed to be fancier, I guess? I'm not sure if this is carried over from Japanese at all, so it might just be a localization decision.
Basically something like Deoxys is now Speed Forme, something like Giratina is Origin Forme but something like Castform is Windy Form or Alolan Rattata is "Alolan Form".

The thing that gets a little under my skin is there's 3 kind of weird inconsistencies:
Keldeo's 2 forms are "form", not "forme". Aegislash's forms are "Formes". Terapagos' forms are just "Forms". The legendary birds also go with "Galarian Form" rather than "Galarian Forme" but to be fair that's probably more wanting consistency with the other regional variants.

Like if you're going to have this distinction at least commit to the bit! Aegislash aint THAT special


Related, but although normal Giratina started calling itself "Altered Forme" in Platinum, Dialga & Palkia's normal forms aren't given such a title.

Deoxys's forms are still called Forme in my Gen 3 Prima guides, so I doesn't seem like a Gen 4 invention. They don't use either Form or Forme Castform or Unown so I dunno what the official word for them was at the time.