(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[QuentinQuonce]

With Galar's I think it makes sense for them to be general as they're intended to be parts of one greater whole and it's inferred that the official lineup of gyms changes in line with their official League rankings, i.e. there's only one Fire gym in Galar so that's the Fire Badge.

But I definitely prefer the much more abstract approach to naming badges the first few generations had (i.e. Plain Badge for Normal is a fitting but not immediately obvious association). What I specifically like about some of the earlier badge names is that they evoke the locations/circumstances of the gyms they're received from rather than their types - in Johto specifically, the Storm Badge evokes Cianwood being an island, the Rising Badge evokes the fact that it unlocks Waterfall (as well as a general sense of rising up the ranks/to greatness), while the Mineral Badge fits with both Rock and Steel as an allusion to Jasmine having originally been a Rock specialist in GSC. In Sinnoh you've got the Coal Badge in a city with a nearby mine, the Forest Badge in the city located next to a forest, the Fen Badge in the city built near a huge marsh, and the Beacon Badge in a city with a famous lighthouse.

Whereas in Unova we see a badge tied to a type rather than a location - Cheren takes over the Basic Badge from Lenora, but obviously not in the same city. There's no reason it couldn't work differently from region to region but I've always thought it made sense for the badges in some areas to be tied to the locations rather than the types or trainers - perhaps some Gym Leaders bring the name of their badge with them but in other places perhaps the badge is handed down as a sort of local heritage. In Viridian City Blue takes over the gym from Giovanni and doesn't rename the badge - sure, he's not portrayed as a terribly attentive gym leader but maybe he didn't actually need to rename it. Eterna City's gym has the Forest Badge, thus it could be supposed that Eterna's gym leader, by convention, is always a Grass (or Bug too, I suppose) trainer. For the Fen Badge I guess it's a bit more abstract due to the variety of types found in the Great Marsh - feasibly the giver of the Fen Badge could specialise in Grass, Water, Poison, Ground, Bug, or even Flying.

So yeah, imaginative badge names good.

 

[R_N]

Yeah I think it's fine for Galar to just be named [Type] Badge. It fits the general vibe they're going for.

SV also naming everything [Type] Badge is...weirder, considering only 8 of the badges are even "official" to begin with. I think at the very least, if they wanted every badge to still be named by Type, they could have gotten cute with like...oh Larry's is the "Normal Badge (trademarked with the pokemon league symbol)". Mela could give the "SCHEDAR'S FIRE BADGE". Arven gives "Replica Rock Badge" and so on.


...OK actually I realized while looking things up that I'm not sure the badges are even actually named like that in game. The Map screen just displays the Gym badge and the associated thing you got it from (ie: Medlai Gym, Schedar Star Base, Stony Cliff Titan). Checking the dialog they just refer to them as like "Hey here's the Titan badge I made!" or "I see you've received Mela's Star Badge..." and internally I guess they're just referred to as "Gym Badge (Normal)", "Star Badge (Fire)", "Titan Badge (Rock)" and so forth.

So I guess....I guess SV's badges aren't really named at all? huh.

 

[AztecCroc]

(i.e.: The Dark Badge should have been called the Demon Badge.)

There are a variety of reasons why Pokémon will never have a Demon anything.

 

[Hugin]

Badge name have slowly gotten uncreative since Kalos (they were at least done 5/8ths right in that region) and came to a breaking point in Galar (more reasons to rag on Sword/Shield, hooray!). I know the badges of Galar are very different in appearance compared to other regions, but couldn't they at least have used a thesaurus or something? (i.e.: The Dark Badge should have been called the Demon Badge.)

Badge shapes are a whole other discussion:
I always say that I really enjoyed the Galar badges. Joining them up was just a good idea.
Paldea was boring, but in a way that worked, given the sheer number you get.
Unova having the tall and thin designs would be cool, but there's just a lot of gold. It's impossible to remember any of them because both shape and color are similar. That said, if the Anime didn't at some point have someone wearing 8 badges as fringe on their coat, they missed a GREAT opportunity.
Everything prior to that point just felt random.

 

[leafsaber47]

There are a variety of reasons why Pokémon will never have a Demon anything.

Pokédex entries beg to differ (i.e.: Wishiwashi, Beartic).

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Unova having the tall and thin designs would be cool, but there's just a lot of gold. It's impossible to remember any of them because both shape and color are similar. That said, if the Anime didn't at some point have someone wearing 8 badges as fringe on their coat, they missed a GREAT opportunity.

Disagree entirely, Unova's badges stick out to me very strongly. I love the visual consistency and the design of a lot of them - the Quake, Wave, Legend, Basic, and Insect Badges in particular have a really iconic and unique look to them. The only one I really dislike is the Toxic Badge. The gold framing on all of them adds a real sense of sparkle and prestige - they actually look like things people would realistically wear. Sinnoh's badges have a sense of aesthetic continuity to them too, but Unova's are the only set that really look like part of a connected group to me.

 

[Hugin]

Disagree entirely, Unova's badges stick out to me very strongly. I love the visual consistency and the design of a lot of them - the Quake, Wave, Legend, Basic, and Insect Badges in particular - have a really iconic and unique look to them. The only one I really dislike is the Toxic Badge. The gold framing on all of them adds a real sense of sparkle and prestige - they actually look like things people would realistically wear. Sinnoh's badges have a sense of aesthetic continuity to them too, but Unova's are the only set that really look like part of a connected group to me.

I agree the shape is good, it's just the gold makes them all look a similar color, which combined with the shapes being similar causes issues. But I also think it was the first attempt to do a solid theme, and I appreciate that. (I'm also just not a fan of gold in general, so that probably influences me).

 

[R_N]

I agree the shape is good, it's just the gold makes them all look a similar color, which combined with the shapes being similar causes issues. But I also think it was the first attempt to do a solid theme, and I appreciate that. (I'm also just not a fan of gold in general, so that probably influences me).

Different strokes and all that but looking at the badges as a refresher, I feel the colors have a fair amount of pop against the gold. I think the only ones where the gold is overwhelming is the Trio Badge (which is primarily gold with 3 small colored dots) & the Bolt Badge (where the shade of yellow just makes the whole thing look gold). Maybe the Quake Badge, since brown's not exactly popping in the best of circumstances.

 

[Wukong]

Dark Pulse, Iron Head, X-Scissor, Flash Cannon, Dragon Rush, Cross Poison, Earth Power, Force Palm, Aqua Tail, Bug Buzz, Power Gem, Poison Jab, Stone Edge, Zen Headbutt.

Not this, but not even mentioning: Aura Sphere, Dragon Pulse, Seed Bomb, Energy Ball, Signal Beam, Shadow Claw, and Psycho Cut. And breathing life into the elemental punches and Waterfall as the physical variants of their specially inclined elemental counterparts.

Gen 4 hit a sweet spot for me when it came to constructing rewarding end game move sets. Up till that point, move availability seemed a little too sparse in general. And Gen 5 onwards made things a little too easy in my opinion despite the convenience of reusable TMs.

Although HGSS worked off the same mechanics as Platinum, the latter did it far better as far as making moves reasonably available and not paced poorly or locked behind cumbersome methods like the former did.

Yet another reason (what feels like the hundredth such I've said in this forum) why Platinum is still the best game in the series for me.

 

[DrrT]

I got reminded of someone who has annoyed me for years, and I only forgot about it because the Emerald episode in the manga solved the issue...but the games themselves didn't.

Sp, Spencer. Why is he themed after Kyogre? I know he has limited interactions with the player but come on. Any throwaway line would have been enough to satisfy my child self. The manga did a great job with it, but it isn't nowhere else. No other type of media even attempts to explain it.

 

[R_N]

I got reminded of someone who has annoyed me for years, and I only forgot about it because the Emerald episode in the manga solved the issue...but the games themselves didn't.

Sp, Spencer. Why is he themed after Kyogre? I know he has limited interactions with the player but come on. Any throwaway line would have been enough to satisfy my child self. The manga did a great job with it, but it isn't nowhere else. No other type of media even attempts to explain it.

Suppose it's not really surprising no explanation is given, to be fair. None of the Brains had any real lore to them in Emerald (I don't think they even got PokeNav entries), none of them showed up in ORAS and only Anabel got more stuff to her in future titles. And the anime just sort of ran with the little the games had for his 1.5 episodes

Maybe Masters will do something with it, if he's ever added.


Sadly the boring answer is probably just they wanted a guru guy and felt a connection to the revered super ancient Pokemon helped tie to the spiritism stuff aesthetically. And Kyogre beat out the other 2 for aesthetics.

As an aside I always read his arm tattoos as Unown A, rather than Kyogre's fin symbols

 

[AztecCroc]

Signal Beam

Signal Beam is a gen 3 move...

Not this, but not even mentioning: Aura Sphere, Dragon Pulse, Seed Bomb, Energy Ball, Signal Beam, Shadow Claw, and Psycho Cut.

And Aura Sphere, Dragon Pulse, Seed Bomb, Shadow Claw, and Psycho Cut don't have secondary effects.

 

[Wukong]

Signal Beam is a gen 3 move...

And Aura Sphere, Dragon Pulse, Seed Bomb, Shadow Claw, and Psycho Cut don't have secondary effects.

Fair on both. Though the latter group of moves still speaks to the overall point of Gen 4 introducing 70-100 BP moves to shore up types which lacked viable, consistent attacking options - now across the physical & special spectrum. I don't think QuentinQuonce's point was super stringently about the secondary effects of these moves (X-Scissor and Power Gem don't either) which was rarely relevant; more so their consistency in attacking power.

 

[Just A Seaking]

I'm very late to this discussion, but I had a half-typed up comment so I'm going to finish it.

re: Evice: speaking only for myself, I found him to be blissfully easy, but that's because the one time I played the game I was using Jumpluff. Seriously, fast Sleep Powder just trivializes everything in this game, it's absurd. I'm sure that I would have had more trouble if I had been running a different Pokemon in that slot instead. I'm sure I would have struggled a lot more with a different 'mon in that team slot.

As for Colosseum as a whole, it's certainly a flawed game, but I appreciate its limited roster. Responding to this in particular since it best illustrates my take:

One of Pokemon's greatest attributes in the installments that stick with the core teambuilding gameplay is the replay variety. Colosseum gives you limited tools but a lot of them have insane asterisks. Almost every XD option, even most of the late ones in the final dungeon are capable (tho idk why they included Farfetch'd in a boss roster lmao) and it goes a long way in making me want to play it again.

Among other Pokemon games, I think Colosseum having a really limited roster with very few straightforwardly-good options is one of the most unique and compelling aspects going for it. Of course I totally see why this aspect of the game would be frustrating to people, and admittedly I can't speak much to replayability since I've only played the game once, but I found it really cool trying to construct a good team while working around all these limitations. I'm not going to assert that you should necessarily enjoy Colosseum for those reasons, because it's very atypical for the series and makes the game a lot more difficult in a way that could be justifiably called unfair, but trying to make the best with the gen 2 shitters I've got was very fun and compelling for me. I feel like it also adds a lot to Colosseum's overall aesthetic - it's a barren and poor region with no wild Pokemon, so you have to make do with what you can steal off of people. (You're stealing for a good reason, of course, but still!)

 

[Genuine_Angus_B33F]

On a note related to move design, I think the generic competitive moves introduced in the Isle of Armor / Indigo Disk DLCs are stand outs in terms of design and don't get enough appreciation.

Upper Hand and Psychic Noise are a pair of moves remixing existing design space from moves like Quick Guard and Heal Block, but them both being direct damage dealing attacks makes them much more dynamic, having them actually interact with the mechanics of the game. It's also not for nothing that Upper Hand is, for my money, the most exciting move in the entire game - few other moves can be said to be exciting and skillful in the majority of situations they're used to any effect. (Related to this, I've enjoyed the trend of making news moves by tying defunct status moves into an attack - think Clear Smog, Pollen Puff, Plasma Fists, Ceaseless Edge, etc. I wonder if we'll see a move than inflicts effects from Torment, Embargo, Gastro Acid, Charge, Ingrain / Aqua Ring, Telekinesis, Topsy Turvy, or others.)

Meteor Beam is also a fantastic move with a ton packed into it at once - damage scaling, very high immediate damage and a pretty weird type - category combo, but with the downsides of (usually) forcing a specific item, not being spammable, and the dreaded 10% miss chance. This is also a spin on an old move, this time Skull Bash, a move which has never been used competitively, and just a few crucial changes have made it a specific yet dangerous move. It's distribution is also very fun, including lots of Pokemon that don't otherwise care to run Special Rock coverage but do so anyway because dealing damage and stat scaling in a single move is strong.

So many others are still design hits. Poltergeist introduces some very fun mindgames when explicitly planning against it and using consumable items, Triple Axel pulls from a totally forgetten move and has a cool flavor element that makes it's distribution very unique, Scale Shot is neat when thinking of it as a Dragon Dance sidegrade and produces completely unique sets, Coaching and Dragon Cheer are super cool doubles support tools, and Dual Wingbeat is a move that fits so well it's bizarre that it's only existed in two generations.

 

[Yung Dramps]

August is gonna be such a nerve-wracking month for the Pokemon fanbase. All it takes is one direct that reveals Z-A releasing February 2025 for some ungodly reason or an intermediary kusoge remake and we might be cooked

If we get through the next 30 days without anything like that we're probably good, TPC listened to some extent about the scheduling problems, yippee. If not though, it's back to DOOOOOOOOOOM

 

[pokemon4eva]

Meteor Beam is also a fantastic move with a ton packed into it at once - damage scaling, very high immediate damage and a pretty weird type - category combo, but with the downsides of (usually) forcing a specific item, not being spammable, and the dreaded 10% miss chance. This is also a spin on an old move, this time Skull Bash, a move which has never been used competitively, and just a few crucial changes have made it a specific yet dangerous move. It's distribution is also very fun, including lots of Pokemon that don't otherwise care to run Special Rock coverage but do so anyway because dealing damage and stat scaling in a single move is strong.

Not to mention, Meteor Beam is a rare special Rock type move, there aren't much of these aside from the elusive Power Gem or the underpowered Ancient...Power. My fav user of this move is Archeops, finally he gets a more usable Rock type special STAB, plus Air Slash.

 

[R_N]

August is gonna be such a nerve-wracking month for the Pokemon fanbase. All it takes is one direct that reveals Z-A releasing February 2025 for some ungodly reason or an intermediary kusoge remake and we might be cooked

If we get through the next 30 days without anything like that we're probably good, TPC listened to some extent about the scheduling problems, yippee. If not though, it's back to DOOOOOOOOOOM

There is nothing that could be revealed in August that will result in 0 "we're so over" responses so I think worrying about this isn't worth the headspace honestly.

 

[yourDeadGrandad]

Mighty Ape (New Zealand) has this up for pre-order. Unless I’m missing something about a February release being bad?

 

[R_N]

Mighty Ape (New Zealand) has this up for pre-order. Unless I’m missing something about a February release being bad?

View attachment 652225

Dates like this don't mean much since most of these places often just have to put in some date as a placeholder.

Anyway February is "bad" because people want these games to take longer time in the oven and the most pie in the sky wish is that Z-A comes out much later in 2025. Coming out earlier also opens the door to launching the same year as another [gamefreak] game like L:A & SV did, but that's going to be the "fear" no matter what so see what I mean again about "we're so over"


That said personally I think anyone thinking Z-A will be anything further than I dunno May are kidding themselves.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Dates like this don't mean much since most of these places often just have to put in some date as a placeholder.

Anyway February is "bad" because people want these games to take longer time in the oven and the most pie in the sky wish is that Z-A comes out much later in 2025. Coming out earlier also opens the door to launching the same year as another [gamefreak] game like L:A & SV did, but that's going to be the "fear" no matter what so see what I mean again about "we're so over"


That said personally I think anyone thinking Z-A will be anything further than I dunno May are kidding themselves.

What do you mean it'll be the fear no matter what? Once we know Z-A isn't Q1 2025 then we know there isn't any time left for another GF game to be shoved out. Even if it comes out in Summer or something that leaves the following months filled in by free updates and such

Also legit question: Is there any reason to expect them to dump Z-A in January/February that isn't just arbitrary dooming? If they've shown once and for all they are completely blowing off the scheduling/lack of polish complaints then might as well make it an end of 2024 release to cash in on holiday, no? Q1 in general tends to be a pretty quiet month for games, all the high-profile releases usually get saved for summer and christmas unless it's something that's been delayed a bajillion times like the Switch 3D Zeldas

If it wasn't obvious when I say "Nerve-wracking month for the Pokemon fanbase" I am including myself in that lol

 

[Dive Missile]

On a note related to move design, I think the generic competitive moves introduced in the Isle of Armor / Indigo Disk DLCs are stand outs in terms of design and don't get enough appreciation.

Upper Hand and Psychic Noise are a pair of moves remixing existing design space from moves like Quick Guard and Heal Block, but them both being direct damage dealing attacks makes them much more dynamic, having them actually interact with the mechanics of the game. It's also not for nothing that Upper Hand is, for my money, the most exciting move in the entire game - few other moves can be said to be exciting and skillful in the majority of situations they're used to any effect. (Related to this, I've enjoyed the trend of making news moves by tying defunct status moves into an attack - think Clear Smog, Pollen Puff, Plasma Fists, Ceaseless Edge, etc. I wonder if we'll see a move than inflicts effects from Torment, Embargo, Gastro Acid, Charge, Ingrain / Aqua Ring, Telekinesis, Topsy Turvy, or others.)

Meteor Beam is also a fantastic move with a ton packed into it at once - damage scaling, very high immediate damage and a pretty weird type - category combo, but with the downsides of (usually) forcing a specific item, not being spammable, and the dreaded 10% miss chance. This is also a spin on an old move, this time Skull Bash, a move which has never been used competitively, and just a few crucial changes have made it a specific yet dangerous move. It's distribution is also very fun, including lots of Pokemon that don't otherwise care to run Special Rock coverage but do so anyway because dealing damage and stat scaling in a single move is strong.

So many others are still design hits. Poltergeist introduces some very fun mindgames when explicitly planning against it and using consumable items, Triple Axel pulls from a totally forgetten move and has a cool flavor element that makes it's distribution very unique, Scale Shot is neat when thinking of it as a Dragon Dance sidegrade and produces completely unique sets, Coaching and Dragon Cheer are super cool doubles support tools, and Dual Wingbeat is a move that fits so well it's bizarre that it's only existed in two generations.

i feel like body press is kinda perfectly designed tbh. enough bp to be threatening but not broken, a typing that is good offensively but has plenty of counterplay on top of not usually being stab for its users, and an interesting gimmick that creates new sets for defensive mons. i feel like it wouldve been really easy to make it crap or just busted so im impressed game freak got it down so well tbh

 

[DrumstickGaming]

I'm very late to this discussion, but I had a half-typed up comment so I'm going to finish it.

re: Evice: speaking only for myself, I found him to be blissfully easy, but that's because the one time I played the game I was using Jumpluff. Seriously, fast Sleep Powder just trivializes everything in this game, it's absurd. I'm sure that I would have had more trouble if I had been running a different Pokemon in that slot instead. I'm sure I would have struggled a lot more with a different 'mon in that team slot.

As for Colosseum as a whole, it's certainly a flawed game, but I appreciate its limited roster. Responding to this in particular since it best illustrates my take:



Among other Pokemon games, I think Colosseum having a really limited roster with very few straightforwardly-good options is one of the most unique and compelling aspects going for it. Of course I totally see why this aspect of the game would be frustrating to people, and admittedly I can't speak much to replayability since I've only played the game once, but I found it really cool trying to construct a good team while working around all these limitations. I'm not going to assert that you should necessarily enjoy Colosseum for those reasons, because it's very atypical for the series and makes the game a lot more difficult in a way that could be justifiably called unfair, but trying to make the best with the gen 2 shitters I've got was very fun and compelling for me. I feel like it also adds a lot to Colosseum's overall aesthetic - it's a barren and poor region with no wild Pokemon, so you have to make do with what you can steal off of people. (You're stealing for a good reason, of course, but still!)

This is a really great post and I support it

 

[AztecCroc]

Gastro Acid

Zygarde's Core Enforcer

 

[R_N]

What do you mean it'll be the fear no matter what? Once we know Z-A isn't Q1 2025 then we know there isn't any time left for another GF game to be shoved out. Even if it comes out in Summer or something that leaves the following months filled in by free updates and such

Because there is, genuinely, nothing stopping them from coming out in, say, April or May and Gen 10 in November.

Like do I think that is going to happen? Not necessarily. Gen 10 being saved for the anniversary feels more likely, regardless of where Z-A lands; if there's a "second game" next year it'd probably be an outsourced one.
But it is a possibility and it is absolutely one people think will happen until they get explicit confirmation otherwise so it's what I mean when I say "fear regardless"

Also legit question: Is there any reason to expect them to dump Z-A in January/February that isn't just arbitrary dooming? If they've shown once and for all they are completely blowing off the scheduling/lack of polish complaints then might as well make it an end of 2024 release to cash in on holiday, no? Q1 in general tends to be a pretty quiet month for games, all the high-profile releases usually get saved for summer and christmas unless it's something that's been delayed a bajillion times like the Switch 3D Zeldas

Is there a reason given based on what we know? not really. Since we don't know anything.

but I can spitball a few:
1. They saw the reaction before and knew they weren't going to talk about it in more detail for minimum 6 more months anyway. So just say 2025 up front so the entire conversation for the entire year is not "those dumb asses are shoving these out the door again". Incidentally if they announce an ILCA game in August for release in November, this would be the same boat.
2. They wanted to keep the possibility of a delay open. It's likely they were always aiming for January* like last time, but everything being so........well, modern Pokemon.....keeping it open to go a little further without committing to a specific fiscal quarter. This is the "man SV came in hot huh, but we're deep in the Z-A development mines already and have too much lined up...but we could go further if needed" compromise scenario.
3. A variant on #1 where there is not bait & switch conspiracy, they just didn't want to show the game until closer to release and just stated 2025 instead of Early 2025 or January 2025 on a whim.
4. I suppose some would think it would be kind of weird to have Z-A somehow be the signature game of 2 Pokemon Day Presents, and possibly a Worlds** and also maybe another Pokemon Presents if we have one this year. So sort of a "meta" marketing outlook.***

Are any of those reasons necessarily likely? Ehhh some are pretty conspiratorial. And we won't know until we see.....literally anything about the game, anyway. But they're possibilities nonetheless.

my ideal would be it's a BW2 situation. It'll come out around May as sort of a final Switch 1 hurrah and then Gen 10 on Switch 2 the following holiday. But I'm also just feeling "march", you know?

*Why January over Holiday? Because they knew they could finish it by January and knew from last time this wouldn't impact things that much.
**BDSP/L:A missed being at Worlds reveals on the back of not having a Worlds in 2021. So It'll be interesting to see if Z-A shows up.
***The flipside to this is the possibility that their shifting to revealing titles like a year+ ahead of time and going back to the olden days of announcing DP early as sin then drip feeding at susbequent areas.