(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Then I look at X-Scissor, Fury Cutter, and U-Turn and I'm like... :smogduck:
All 3 are definitely meta-related decisions rather than anything flavorful.
X-Scissor is definitely a case of "we need a powerful bug move, lots of bugs have claws, let's make a move that's cutting something with claws and give it to all the bugs." Fury Cutter is the same thing, except they forgot the "powerful" part.

U-Turn I think is supposed to be because bugs will bump into you and bite you, then fly away too fast for you to smack them, but I think it's also just that Bug is considered a weak type(though it's decent offensively). Volt Switch and U-Turn are both very potent moves, used on anything that gets them, and I think both types were chosen to be easy to counter in case they were too powerful.
 
All 3 are definitely meta-related decisions rather than anything flavorful.
X-Scissor is definitely a case of "we need a powerful bug move, lots of bugs have claws, let's make a move that's cutting something with claws and give it to all the bugs." Fury Cutter is the same thing, except they forgot the "powerful" part.

U-Turn I think is supposed to be because bugs will bump into you and bite you, then fly away too fast for you to smack them, but I think it's also just that Bug is considered a weak type(though it's decent offensively). Volt Switch and U-Turn are both very potent moves, used on anything that gets them, and I think both types were chosen to be easy to counter in case they were too powerful.
Fury Cutter was likely made Bug-type specifically because of Scyther. Wouldn't be surprised if X-Scissor was the same.
 
After watching a video yesterday that reminded me, lazy shiny colorings really annoy me. If they're going to be special, make it more than one small part recolored.

It's all about the context but sometimes the "one small part" shinies work pretty well. Like sure there's some which are just unforgivably bad, like Snorlax or Garchomp or Blissey or all forms of Paldean Tauros, and some, like Tandemaus and Characadet, feel like a deliberate troll, but some are quite attractive - Phanpy, for instance, looks distinct and a much more pleasant colour IMO even though the difference isn't massive. Shuppet, similarly, is a very minor change overall but the teal green is much more visually engaging than the regular colour. I'd say my favourite "small change" shiny is Runerigus, which is initially almost unnoticeable but I find just works so much better - the pattern being violet rather than red and the stone being that slight shade lighter just makes it pop so much better than the regular form.

Obviously we're way past the GBC days but there's a lot of not-very-different shinies in Gen II I think are done well there too: Venonat and Weezing go from purple to a deep blue colouration I think is very pretty and I'm weirdly drawn to Raichu's shiny colouring which is a sort of gold/silver palette instead of the usual yellow/orange. And then there's Moltres, which looks way better than the regular.

There's lots of shinies that are a complete change, but small changes aren't always bad.
 
i think the charcadet line shinies are some of the best in the franchise cuz honestly I love a bit of dev trolling. it feels like a dying art to just own your player a bit in games that arent either made to be frustrating or made to be hard as hell. im sure theyre aware of how quickly pokemon stuff leaks and blind shiny hunting is impossible (and no one does it anyway cuz they want to know if they like a shiny before spending the time lol) so its not as if people had to waste their time to find it out.
 
i think the charcadet line shinies are some of the best in the franchise cuz honestly I love a bit of dev trolling. it feels like a dying art to just own your player a bit in games that arent either made to be frustrating or made to be hard as hell. im sure theyre aware of how quickly pokemon stuff leaks and blind shiny hunting is impossible (and no one does it anyway cuz they want to know if they like a shiny before spending the time lol) so its not as if people had to waste their time to find it out.

Makes looking for them on Home a nightmare, though. I wish there was a more obvious signifier on the GTS that a Pokemon is shiny, many of the Gen IX ones you really have to squint to make out.
 
and some, like Tandemaus and Characadet, feel like a deliberate troll
It's not trolling if the end effect is indistinguishable from the bog-standard laziness that characterizes 50% of the rest of the mons. Yes, it might be deliberate, but how could you tell?

To be fair, TPC is in a tough place with shinies. If you make them better, there's a reasonable question the fans will have about why you didn't just make the good design the default. If you make them worse, fans will question why they should bother shiny-hunting. If it's indistinguishable it's boring, if it's obvious it's obnoxious.

THAT SAID, there are some where the clear option is available and yet they don't do it. Give the regional forms the kanto colors. Charcadet's evos can just steal elements of each others' palettes. Any mon with a strong binary color scheme, just swap the two colors.

I sort of feel like TPC wants to keep the shinies palettes feeling random, but no. Y'all are artists, spend 10 seconds thinking about it and come up with some cool alternate color schemes for each mon. The current approach just makes shinies too boring to be worth showing off.
 
Honestly my thoughts of modern bad shinies drift to
-the designer doesn't actually want to change the colors they decide on, so they just pick a small part or a very minor color shift and be done with it
-the designer genuinely thinks it's a good thing to be overly subtle

And then it gets approval because they're alternate colors, so they probably feel they can do whatever so long as they aren't eye bleedingly awful.
 
Funny thing for me is, I agree that the choices for things like Shiny Tandemaus and Paldean Tauros aren’t good, but I genuinely like the Shiny Charcadet line. I think the swapped eye colors pop very nicely against their regular color schemes. :blobthumbsup:
 
While I like the shiny Paldean Tauros more and wonder why ir wasn't the default coloring to begin with, I don't understand why the shiny is not Kanto-colored. I captured it by pure chance because of how long it took for the Blaze breed to show up.

Tandemaus is at least slighly cute, but the Charcadet line is such a shame... And, while I enjoy their vibrant colors, it would have been funny for the convergents to have the original coloration too.

I find it weird how, in the gen where we finally get ro see all mons in the overworld, they made such underwhelming shinies (in general, talking about new mons). There are great ones of course (Palafin, Dripplin) but for example the starters just look very washed out and uninspired, when they could have gone crazy with Quaquaval.
 
So after making the post about the stat-boosting berries in the mysteries thread, I thought "hey, I wonder if their lore is reflected in their Natural Gift types"

:liechi-berry:power of the sea = Grass-type
:ganlon-berry:power of the land = Ice-type
:salac-berry:power of the sky = Fighting-type
:petaya-berry:power of all living things = Poison-type
:apicot-berry:?????????? = Ground-type

they absolutely are not reflected in their Natural Gift types
most of them seem almost like the opposite of their descriptions tbh. strange... (& they don't even particularly correspond to their in-battle effects)
 
So after making the post about the stat-boosting berries in the mysteries thread, I thought "hey, I wonder if their lore is reflected in their Natural Gift types"

:liechi-berry:power of the sea = Grass-type
:ganlon-berry:power of the land = Ice-type
:salac-berry:power of the sky = Fighting-type
:petaya-berry:power of all living things = Poison-type
:apicot-berry:?????????? = Ground-type

they absolutely are not reflected in their Natural Gift types
My understanding is that Natural Gift is mostly going through the types in index order. Resist berries have Natural Gifts of their own type, and the Kee and Maranga berries seem to be on their own, but those are the only exceptions I'm aware of.

Frustratingly, while the Kee berry fills a needed gap of a max power Fairy attack, the Maranga berry is typed as Dark despite Dark already having that option with the Rowap berry and Steel also missing a 100 power berry.
 
Remakes not using the 3rd Version additions to the game at all. This complaint is most common for BDSP, but even in ORAS they ignored the improvements to gym leaders and random trainers from E in favor of directly cloning RS. The hard work of coming up with better teams is already done, why not make use of it?
Because they're remakes of the first two games and not the third version?

Though ORAS's random trainers actually mostly don't the RS orEmerald versions.
 
Remakes not using the 3rd Version additions to the game at all. This complaint is most common for BDSP, but even in ORAS they ignored the improvements to gym leaders and random trainers from E in favor of directly cloning RS. The hard work of coming up with better teams is already done, why not make use of it?
Interestingly ORAS random trainers don't even fully clone RS. While it excludes the Emerald trainers and definitely favors RS as their baseline, if you start comparing the routes you'll see lots of little differences

Route 102, for example

Calvin: Level 5 Zigzagoon -> Level 4 Zigzagoon
Rick: 2 Level 4 Wurmple -> 1 Level 4 Wurmple
Allen: Level 5 Poochyena & Level 3 Taillow -> Level 4 Poochyena & Level 2 Taillow
Tiana: 2 Level 4 Zigzagoon -> 1 Level 5 Zigzagoon

No one ever really talks about this, probably since no one actually cares about less obvious changes like this.
ORAS actually also added a number of trainers, specifically to the underwater areas or New Mauville and I believe overhauled the Sea Mauville/Abandoned Ship. Roster updates also become much more overt in the end game since the National Dex is given to you before the 8th Gym.

The rematch teams also got changed up pretty considerably. Before they only unlocked, I believe, after beating Norman and then just updated as you beat them?
Calvin
Rematch 1: Level 27 Linoone
Rematch 2/3: Level 28/31 Swellow, Level 30/33 Linoone
Rematch 4: Level 34 Swellow, Level 32 Vigoroth, Level 36 Linoone

But now the teams start updating based on 1st, 3rd, 5th and Post-Game
Rematch 1: Level 12 Zigzagoon
Rematch 2: Level 13 Taillow, Level 15 Zigzagoon
Rematch 3: Level 25 Swellow, Level 27 Linoone
Rematch 4: Level 47 Swellow, Level 47 Linoone, Level 47 Lickilicky

The post game rematches in particular are pretty interesting when you start looking around. Some of them basically become mini-gym leaders.


Honestly it makes them not wanting to tweak the leaders more weird. They tweaked the levels and movesets, but Flannery swapped one of her Slugma for Numel so like....I mean at that point why not do that more? You've abandoned "Just use RS"for "use RS as a baseline" a hundred times over throughout the game...could do some hot swaps or add an extra to them, surely. Just for flavor.

And the leader rematches, why not add those on? Especially in the post game which is a big love letter to Emerald.

Anyway, since I'm here....it also goes for wild encounter tables. Continuing to use Route 102
On Land:
Poochyena: 15% with Level 3-4 -> 20%, Level 2-3
Zigzagoon: 30% with Level 3-4 -> 30%, Level 2-3
Wurmple: 30% with Level 3-4 -> 30% Level 2-3
Lotad/Seedot: 20% with Level 3-4 -> 15% Level 2-3
Ralts: 4% with Level 4 -> 4% with Level 3
Surskit: 1% with Level 3 -> 1% with Level 3 (unchanged)

(observation: the lower wild levels correspond with the lower trainer levels; the back half of the game trends towards higher levels on both)

Surfing:
Marill: 99%, Level 5-35 -> 50%, Level 15
Surskit: 1%, Level 20-30 -> 15%, Level 20
Azumarill: N/A -> 31%, Level 20/25
Masquerain: N/A -> 4%, Level 25

Fishing
Old Rod:
Goldeen: 30%, 5-10 -> 35%, 5
Magikarp: 70%, 5-10 -> 65%, 10/15

Good Rod:
Goldeen: 20%, 10-30 -> 35%, 25
Magikarp: 60%, 10-30 -> 60%, 25
Corphish: 10%, 10-30 -> 5%, 25

Super Rod:
Corphish: 100%, 20-45 -> 100%, 30/35/40

And of course ORAS added the special hidden encounters (including Surskit in the grass), horde encounters and the hidden national dex encounters.






This post is "BDSP you are so disappointing in so many ways" disguised as ORAS Apologism
 
Yes, that must be why HGSS included the expanded Suicune subplot from Crystal and ORAS invented a whole extra sequence for Rayquaza heavily influenced by Emerald
Those were new versions of the thing from the third versions though, not just the third version's content plopped in.

The Delta Episode also has more in common with the Aurora Ticket event (which was in RS) than any of the Emerald exclusive content, not that Emerald had much to begin with, it was mostly just Ruby and Sapphire merged for the main plot, Juan and Wallace, and the Battle Frontier. ORAS didn't even have the Battle Tower and Juan was nowhere to be found, not even as a cameo.

The HGSS Suicune plot also has zero relation to the Crystal version beyond the fact that Eusine exists and it kicks off in Cianwood. In Crystal you fight Suicune on the way to Ho-Oh in Tin Tower, it just jumps you in the area that HGSS calls Bellchime Trail. In HGSS, it's up by Bill's house just standing around and watching Misty.
 
Those were new versions of the thing from the third versions though, not just the third version's content plopped in. [...] The HGSS Suicune plot also has zero relation to the Crystal version beyond the fact that Eusine exists and it kicks off in Cianwood. In Crystal you fight Suicune on the way to Ho-Oh in Tin Tower, it just jumps you in the area that HGSS calls Bellchime Trail. In HGSS, it's up by Bill's house just standing around and watching Misty.

"New versions of the thing from the third versions" i.e. content from the third versions.

Sure they were updated or altered but the Suicune subplot in HGSS, for instance, is basically the same thing as Crystal's - events just play out slightly differently. Which is inevitable; even remakes very rarely do things exactly identically to the originals. FRLG is very accurate to RB in essentials but makes a ton of little changes.

Also no, it doesn't appear in the Bellchime Trail in Crystal and it's not on the way to catching Ho-oh (unless you deliberately leave it unfought until then and specifically catch Entei/Raikou first); it's in the Tin Tower itself and you go there deliberately after being told to - it doesn't "jump" you.

The Delta Episode also has more in common with the Aurora Ticket event (which was in RS)...

No, it wasn't

...than any of the Emerald exclusive content

Er, how exactly? The Auroraticket sequence is event-exclusive content with no exposition, info, or lore. The Delta Episode is pretty much the opposite of that in every respect - the only thing that really links the two is the reference to the triangle on Birth Island before encountering Deoxys. And if that makes the DE have something in common with the Birth Island event then by that logic the DE has more in common with Emerald-exclusive content since it goes out of its way to reference Emerald at every turn: the player has to seek out Wallace (who uses his Emerald team) to unlock the Sky Pillar, the Sky Pillar uses music from Emerald instead of its original theme, there's a whole sequence with the villainous team in the Mossdeep Space Centre reminiscent of Team Magma's takeover in Emerald, and the game points to Steven's eventual retirement as Champion. And, as I just pointed out, the Aurora Ticket event itself is literally Emerald-only content! (in the context of Hoenn, that is - because it's also in FRLG)


not that Emerald had much to begin with, it was mostly just Ruby and Sapphire merged for the main plot, Juan and Wallace, and the Battle Frontier. ORAS didn't even have the Battle Tower and Juan was nowhere to be found, not even as a cameo.

No, but they allude to him pretty clearly by inferring that Wallace will step down from his role as Sootopolis Gym Leader and Lisia (iirc) names him directly. ORAS also references Brandon, Lucy, and Scott by name.
 
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Hydrapple is such a good looking mon. It makes me wish they made a bigger deal about it in the Indigo Disk- sure it's Kieran's ace, but I feel like it could have been more built up as a new mon. Specially because, with the way it evolves in-game it's kind of implied he beat Drayton with Dipplin not fully evolved which is very amusing considering Archaludon.

I also never really got the Fighting Tera but maybe it was just to nor overlap with Carmine and Drayton himself (which could have been avoided if the later used Tera Electric Archaludon as a twist, but I guess we can't have Tera being used in unique ways by the opposing trainers...)
 
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