(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

[DrrT]

This is a nitpick that may (hopefully!) age like milk, but I just realized that ZA taking place on a single city means we won't get to see Xerneas or Yveltal's habitat propertly again.

I wanted an actual showing of that and at most it feels like we may get a Hoopa ring that drops us in a generic forest or wasteland. Where do they usually rest, like in what part of Kalos? Where did Team Flare pick them up? Come on, this shouldn't be a mystery in the same region where Mewtwo is hiding in a cave that is like three meters deep.

 

[R_N]

This is a nitpick that may (hopefully!) age like milk, but I just realized that ZA taking place on a single city means we won't get to see Xerneas or Yveltal's habitat propertly again.

I wanted an actual showing of that and at most it feels like we may get a Hoopa ring that drops us in a generic forest or wasteland. Where do they usually rest, like in what part of Kalos? Where did Team Flare pick them up? Come on, this shouldn't be a mystery in the same region where Mewtwo is hiding in a cave that is like three meters deep.

My increasingly thinning hope is we'll at least get cutscene segments in areas like this -even if it's just an aside in a generic forest setting and generic mountain setting with a map showing where you are-, geosenge town, anistar, tower of mastery and the terminus cave.

 

[AztecCroc]

This is a nitpick that may (hopefully!) age like milk, but I just realized that ZA taking place on a single city means we won't get to see Xerneas or Yveltal's habitat propertly again.

I wanted an actual showing of that and at most it feels like we may get a Hoopa ring that drops us in a generic forest or wasteland. Where do they usually rest, like in what part of Kalos? Where did Team Flare pick them up? Come on, this shouldn't be a mystery in the same region where Mewtwo is hiding in a cave that is like three meters deep.

I mean they're necessary to fire the ultimate weapon, and had to expend a significant amount of energy to fire it. Maybe they just found them already in the weapon, sleeping off the first use?

 

[R_N]

I mean they're necessary to fire the ultimate weapon, and had to expend a significant amount of energy to fire it. Maybe they just found them already in the weapon, sleeping off the first use?

Xerneas' tree was located in a forest and Yveltal's coccoon in a mountain range and Team Flare found them after asking around

Supposedly, after Xerneas released its remaining
energy, it transformed into a dried-up tree.
It remains in hiding deep within the forest.
According to old tales, as I say. Stories and tales.

I heard about the incident in Geosenge Town.
They say that the strange group dressed in red
managed to find Xerneas asleep somewhere.
A few years back, a different group of people
came around here, asking the same questions.

In the tales, after Yveltal finished storing the energy
it had absorbed, it transformed into a kind of
cocoon, remaining in hiding deep in the mountains.
According to old tales, as I say. Tales and stories.

I heard about the incident in Geosenge Town.
They say that the strange group dressed in red
managed to find Yveltal asleep somewhere.
A few years back, a different group of people
came around here, asking the same questions.

The storyteller hedges his stories of their involvement in the war (there's a separate tale that has the pair involved 800 years ago) as tales & metaphor and Sycamore theorizes their energy was involved in the weapon's original firing but there is, to my recollection, no indication that they were stuck inside the Weapon this entire time & I think the game would've been more explicit about finding them with the weapon after directly mentioning their other resting locations. AZ also doesn't mention them at all, either.

Kind of a mess, really...

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Reminded of Zacian's execrable "turning on the spot" animation today, bleurgh

 

[Yung Dramps]

View attachment 728356

Reminded of Zacian's execrable "turning on the spot" animation today, bleurgh

15 years from now when we get a return to Galar on the Nintendo On I hope everything is hyper-gorgeous with next-gen cutscene animations for every line of dialogue, 240fps and giga ultra raytracing with individual dew drops rendered on the leaves of Grass Pokemon. From there I hope they keep the dogs' turning animation and make a Galarian Sudowoodo that's just The Tree

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Galarian Sudowoodo that's just The Tree

I need that as a mod NOW

 

[Worldie]

15 years from now when we get a return to Galar on the Nintendo On I hope everything is hyper-gorgeous with next-gen cutscene animations for every line of dialogue, 240fps and giga ultra raytracing with individual dew drops rendered on the leaves of Grass Pokemon. From there I hope they keep the dogs' turning animation and make a Galarian Sudowoodo that's just The Tree

Honestly many other companies would have accepted the failure, and transformed it in a meme in other games.

Sadly I am not sure if GF are willing to do so.

 

[RocketSurgery]

Honestly many other companies would have accepted the failure, and transformed it in a meme in other games.

Sadly I am not sure if GF are willing to do so.

 

[DrrT]

View attachment 728356

Reminded of Zacian's execrable "turning on the spot" animation today, bleurgh

Before actually playing SWSH I assumed criticisms of the animations and stuff was probably overblown.

I don't think I have ever facepalmed as far as the moment when Zamazenta did his complete turn after defeating it in Sword. You would think my breaking point would have been earlier but that alone managed to kill my hype for facing Zacian later even with the awesome music.

There is absolutely no way they thought that looked acceptable at all. Which only makes some of the statements they made about Dexit sound completely dishonest.

 

[R_N]

Before actually playing SWSH I assumed criticisms of the animations and stuff was probably overblown.

I don't think I have ever facepalmed as far as the moment when Zamazenta did his complete turn after defeating it in Sword. You would think my breaking point would have been earlier but that alone managed to kill my hype for facing Zacian later even with the awesome music.

There is absolutely no way they thought that looked acceptable at all. Which only makes some of the statements they made about Dexit sound completely dishonest.

well the equally cynical part of that horseshoe about the issue with dexit can be "if this is what it was like after cutting all those pokemon from their workload....it would probably be worse with them"

 

[Karxrida]

I really don't like the human character models in SV. They just look super off somehow -- I think it's something about the faces. There's nothing inherently wrong with their 2D art or designs, it's their actualization as 3D renders that weird me out.

And I want to be clear that my issue is an art style/direction thing and not about graphical fidelity. For comparison, the humans in SWSH look fine despite the graphical faults of Gen 8.

 

[Sonikku A]

"There's nothing inherently wrong with their 2D art"
-Geeta's eyes are freakishly huge in 2D key art. The anime notably shrank them, same for model. The only issue I have is her going from :) to :|, which is not a modeling issue
-The char designs for the player are extremely generic for the school uniform

I've seen way worse 2D->3D translations, SV genuinely has issues in core 2D concepts, largely cuz it's multiple char designers. I love Larry, but why are his pupils square? It stands out ironically to everyone, even though he's meant to be an average unassuming guy
Geeta I mentioned the eyes, and also how bad she looks from the side with how her hair is pushed far back. Her forhead is exposed

And Kieren and his sister pre DLC are this

They look so silly, and the colors clash heavily. Kieren got an upgrade

I feel like char cohesion dipped after Gen 8 for humans, but that's just me. The actual model quality for humans I feel is overhated, it's moreso shit lighting and minimal facial expressions

 

[Karxrida]

"There's nothing inherently wrong with their 2D art"
-Geeta's eyes are freakishly huge in 2D key art. The anime notably shrank them, same for model. The only issue I have is her going from :) to :|, which is not a modeling issue
-The char designs for the player are extremely generic for the school uniform

I've seen way worse 2D->3D translations, SV genuinely has issues in core 2D concepts, largely cuz it's multiple char designers. I love Larry, but why are his pupils square? It stands out ironically to everyone, even though he's meant to be an average unassuming guy
Geeta I mentioned the eyes, and also how bad she looks from the side with how her hair is pushed far back. Her forhead is exposed
View attachment 728556
And Kieren and his sister pre DLC are this View attachment 728554
They look so silly, and the colors clash heavily. Kieren got an upgrade

I feel like char cohesion dipped after Gen 8 for humans, but that's just me. The actual model quality for humans I feel is overhated, it's moreso shit lighting and minimal facial expressions

tbh I think Geeta just has a bad design in general lol. And the player characters are definitely super generic but they don't offend me.

 

[Bakugames]

Geeta looks good as hell to me and i think carmine and kieran look fine, average kinda silly pokemon design but nothing out of the ordinary. Grusha looks hideous though, who gave him that fit

 

[pika pal]

Kieran for Teal Mask looks fine to me considering he's supposed to be a really soft-spoken wimp with no social skills, which definitely tracks with L as an anime reference. It was pretty blunt with the "shift" being marked by him tying his hair up for Indigo Disk. Carmine is a bit more out of place in that regard since she's anything but introverted or quiet.

 

[Sonikku A]

I find the color ratio bad too. The DLC edges more for purple red and it gels a lot better, while Carmine is...still a mess

Grusha looks hideous though, who gave him that fit

I don't mind the outfit, but the colors again clash poorly

Tried making it orange, though people hate orange these days...

 

[R_N]

I find the color ratio bad too. The DLC edges more for purple red and it gels a lot better, while Carmine is...still a mess


I don't mind the outfit, but the colors again clash poorly

Tried making it orange, though people hate orange these days...

View attachment 728699

Yeah I'm not gonna lie, I find Grusha's color scheme fine and a lot better than that.

I get this aws probably a quick & dirty job but this just looks like a pile of orange & blue. The scarf doesn't contrast at all and the hair color would've been totally fine if kept light blue

 

[Yung Dramps]

I really do like Sneasler a lot but the way he's pretty much just a strictly better Toxicroak is probably the most egregious instance of "Conkeldurr syndrome" in the whole series. RSE Salamence/Vivillon/the aforementioned Conkeldurr are already pretty clumsy for how they're just more optimized versions of Dragonite/Butterfree/Machamp respectively but it's a whole different ballgame to pull a stunt like that in the revisit of the original Pokemon's debut region. Retroactively making Croagunk into Poison/Fighting Sinnoh Spearow is absolutely foul work

 

[Bakugames]

as a big toxicroak fan that doesnt care for sneasler, i dont think its a big issue. whatever new poison/fighting released would be better than toxicroak, it releasing on sinnoh/hisui means very little, especially since the way toxicroak is powercrept is not significant in the main game. its still a great mon in the main game, unlike spearow/fearow which dies in complete mediocricy

the actual issue is that sneasler could have been a much more interesting type in poison/ice

 

[DrrT]

The new TCG Unova set is indeed a special one which means I'm not buying it simply because I'm not dealing with scalpers and we also had this in normal sets in 2011. A set with only Unova Pokemon? Like literally the starting ones from the B&W era? I know it's just supposed to be a sequel of 151 but I can't not look at it cynically when it also seems obvious they are taking advantage of Unova being popular now (because Pokemon fans are always in denial for some reason) and when I don't even agree behind the concept of special sets to begin with. The way they are sold is almost insulting.

Another TCG thing: a third set in the block being based about Charizard and some kind of dark motif! It has been going on for years now, and while I understand it was just asking to happen with the rerurn of Mega Charizard X, naming the entire set Inferno X is too much. I may prefer it over Y but come on, favoritism while already doing a favoritism set? Maybd it could have been avoided if ZA actually revealed any new Megas they could market by now...but both Horizons and the TCG suggest they are focusing on returning ones which is disappointing.

I really do like Sneasler a lot but the way he's pretty much just a strictly better Toxicroak is probably the most egregious instance of "Conkeldurr syndrome" in the whole series. RSE Salamence/Vivillon/the aforementioned Conkeldurr are already pretty clumsy for how they're just more optimized versions of Dragonite/Butterfree/Machamp respectively but it's a whole different ballgame to pull a stunt like that in the revisit of the original Pokemon's debut region. Retroactively making Croagunk into Poison/Fighting Sinnoh Spearow is absolutely foul work

I actually like all of the Hisui new mons and thought they were all awesome (not really any personal favourites in there outside of the Origin forms and Wyrdeer, but I really like the designs on general terms) but I have always thought Sneasler is just particularly weird.

I really wonder what was the thought process behind it. They took the kamaitachi Pokemon that lives in cold areas and changed its typing so it isn't Ice anymore, based it in a completely different mythological monster, had it overlap with Croagunk, and more importantly, in the one game bringing back all the gen 4 mons which means you need to have Weavile there, avoided an Alolan Marowak situation and also gave a regional form to Sneasel, pushing it into some weird limbo where they needed to have both forms avaliable so Weavile is in the game.

It doesn't annoy me, I just find it bizarre and fascinating. Someone must really have liked the concept behind it that specifically but also pushed for it to be a thing in LA in particular despite the mental gymnastics needed for it to work.

It reminds me of how when I tried to explain to someone how the Mr Mime like worked before SV they were understandably confused. "You have this already evolved Pokemon, but if you want the preevolution you have to breed it in a special way, and only the british Ice version can evolve even further , not the usual one".

 

[Eeveeto]

I really do like Sneasler a lot but the way he's pretty much just a strictly better Toxicroak is probably the most egregious instance of "Conkeldurr syndrome" in the whole series. RSE Salamence/Vivillon/the aforementioned Conkeldurr are already pretty clumsy for how they're just more optimized versions of Dragonite/Butterfree/Machamp respectively but it's a whole different ballgame to pull a stunt like that in the revisit of the original Pokemon's debut region. Retroactively making Croagunk into Poison/Fighting Sinnoh Spearow is absolutely foul work

Dry Skin is enough to differentiate Toxicroak from Sneasler. With Tera, it can do pretty funny things and be used defensively. The only limitation is that you can,t now use Toxicroak (competitively, in-game you obviously can) with the obvious Max Attack, Max Speed investment, since Sneasler is just better. You need to use the strength it has over Sneasler (and Okidogi), so its pretty much commited to Rain now.

In VGC I am pretty sure that Toxicroak can be used well with Kyogre as teammate. In singles, I have assembled this team several months ago: https://pokepast.es/87f58e8cb1ea1b39

Not a good team by any means, but viable enough. Toxicroak is a bulky "pivot" that removes Toxic Spikes, checks some Water Mons, Knocks stuff and uses Tera Ice as a last resort vs Kyurem (who is deveastating vs Rain).

In VGC (not expert there), Toxicroak has over Sneasler:
-Dry Skin, so an immunity.
-Super Fang to do big damage to everything not Ghost.
-Knock Off (bye items)
-Sucker Punch
-Icy Wind/Bulldoze for Speed control.
-Encore to disuade Protect.

And several other things. In earlier generation, they used to make Mons almost fully outclassed by other Mons. There was almost no reason to use Vileplume over Victreebel or Venusaur in Gen 1 (except in Red if you didn,t choose Bulbasaur). Pidgeot and Fearow were almost fully outclassed by Dodrio, and Dewgong had almost 0 things to distinguish from Cloyster and Lapras.

Nowadays cases like that are very rare. They are making Mons with VGC in mind and with the intent of every single one of them having something that distinguishes them from Mons of the same type combination. Some are less obvious than others, though.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Toxicroak also has an acceptable Special Attack and Nasty Plot, which means it can hit from both sides of the spectrum, something Sneasler can't do as it's minmaxed to an extreme. While it's still a lower tier mon that gives it something to do, the ability to hit from both sides, and with Nasty Plot it can use Sludge Wave/Bomb and even priority Vacuum Wave. In-game this also lends to Toxicroak being a fun in-game mon in the games it's in as it has a flexible toolkit that allows it to be used in several ways. Dry Skin and Drain Punch also allow physical Swords Dance Toxicroak to have HP recovery in rain that give it some degree of longevity in competitive spheres. Stats aren't everything: it's a combination of stats, movepool, and abilities that work together to make a Pokemon.

Not to mention while I like Sneasler and think it's a cool design, Toxicroak and its pre-evolution Croagunk are still among my favorite designs in the series. Croagunk is the mascot of Pastoria City in-universe, and it has a good reason to be. Croagunk and Toxicroak's shit-eating grin and accordingly cheeky and skeevy personality are one-of-a-kind and lovable in a very odd way that stands out, and I really like them for that reason. That's something no other Pokemon (except arguably Scraggy and Scrafty, but they're a different flavor of that kind of lovable) has ever really managed to match.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

I really do like Sneasler a lot but the way he's pretty much just a strictly better Toxicroak is probably the most egregious instance of "Conkeldurr syndrome" in the whole series. RSE Salamence/Vivillon/the aforementioned Conkeldurr are already pretty clumsy for how they're just more optimized versions of Dragonite/Butterfree/Machamp respectively but it's a whole different ballgame to pull a stunt like that in the revisit of the original Pokemon's debut region. Retroactively making Croagunk into Poison/Fighting Sinnoh Spearow is absolutely foul work

Croak has unique tools at its disposal, which raises a different issue I have with it.

What are thooooooose?

Toxicroak is very unfortunate in the bulk department, which makes all of its defensive potential go to waste. It's a classic case of mid. As unique as it is, it's clearly a mon that's better in-game, shining brighter if available in the early mid-game.

It could use a buff to its Special Attack, as it really wants to be as flexible as possible, because both its physical movepool and its special movepool rely on moves with big drawbacks. It'd be interesting if it could fully focus on being a mixed threat. Oh well, unfortunately, EVs suck anyway, so I guess we'll never see it reach its full potential.

Also, mandatory "Dire Claw is BULLSHIT" mention.

The new TCG Unova set is indeed a special one which means I'm not buying it simply because I'm not dealing with scalpers and we also had this in normal sets in 2011. A set with only Unova Pokemon? Like literally the starting ones from the B&W era? I know it's just supposed to be a sequel of 151 but I can't not look at it cynically when it also seems obvious they are taking advantage of Unova being popular now (because Pokemon fans are always in denial for some reason) and when I don't even agree behind the concept of special sets to begin with. The way they are sold is almost insulting.

Another TCG thing: a third set in the block being based about Charizard and some kind of dark motif! It has been going on for years now, and while I understand it was just asking to happen with the rerurn of Mega Charizard X, naming the entire set Inferno X is too much. I may prefer it over Y but come on, favoritism while already doing a favoritism set? Maybd it could have been avoided if ZA actually revealed any new Megas they could market by now...but both Horizons and the TCG suggest they are focusing on returning ones which is disappointing.

I actually like all of the Hisui new mons and thought they were all awesome (not really any personal favourites in there outside of the Origin forms and Wyrdeer, but I really like the designs on general terms) but I have always thought Sneasler is just particularly weird.

I really wonder what was the thought process behind it. They took the kamaitachi Pokemon that lives in cold areas and changed its typing so it isn't Ice anymore, based it in a completely different mythological monster, had it overlap with Croagunk, and more importantly, in the one game bringing back all the gen 4 mons which means you need to have Weavile there, avoided an Alolan Marowak situation and also gave a regional form to Sneasel, pushing it into some weird limbo where they needed to have both forms avaliable so Weavile is in the game.

It doesn't annoy me, I just find it bizarre and fascinating. Someone must really have liked the concept behind it that specifically but also pushed for it to be a thing in LA in particular despite the mental gymnastics needed for it to work.

It reminds me of how when I tried to explain to someone how the Mr Mime like worked before SV they were understandably confused. "You have this already evolved Pokemon, but if you want the preevolution you have to breed it in a special way, and only the british Ice version can evolve even further , not the usual one".

It was an odd decision for sure. I'd understand it in some other region, but Sinnoh was the one to introduce Weavile. Both types being different is a choice too.

And several other things. In earlier generation, they used to make Mons almost fully outclassed by other Mons. There was almost no reason to use Vileplume over Victreebel or Venusaur in Gen 1 (except in Red if you didn,t choose Bulbasaur). Pidgeot and Fearow were almost fully outclassed by Dodrio, and Dewgong had almost 0 things to distinguish from Cloyster and Lapras.

That particular case, and many others, were related to the idea of Pokémon still having strong JRPG roots.

Vileplume has *always* been supposed to be "Venusaur at home". It's strictly worse than it so that Venusaur can be relevant as a starter. Just how Fearow is supposed to be worse than Dodrio, but compensates for it with much better availability.

The cases where it goes awry are when mons are just outclassed from the jump. For example, Pidgeot. At no point having Pidgey over Spearow is beneficial in RBY, and its biggest draw over it at all is having access to Reflect.

 

[leafsaber47]

I'm increasingly finding it irksome that getting a perfect IV Pokémon in-game without resorting to Hyper Training with bottle caps amounts to massive amounts of chain-breeding (worse if you don't have the Destiny Knot held by one of the two progenitors of any breeding chain). Pokémon pulled a Habsburg on competitive battling. That 6IV male Ralts you finally hatched? That's just Charles II of Spain. By now the Ralts's egg group should be Undiscovered.