(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Codraroll

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I think I've said a thing or two about the lacklustre performance of Ice-types in the Pokémon games in this thread.

Well, I decided to do it properly now. Crunched the numbers and all. I've taken my rants to the Flying Press, Smogon's own Article subsection, and got some help to illustrate it and check the language and everything:

Shafted by design: What's wrong with the Ice-type?

Spoiler: Ice is not a particularly good type by any means. I haven't found a single metric where it performed more favourably than average. Other types may have their problems, but Ice has all the problems.
 

Pikachu315111

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So I just got to Level 100 in Festival Plaza! What cool thing would I get this time? Maybe the ultimate castle? Offered a batch of rare venues? I'd even accept a ton of free items, especially if they're bottle caps. Okay, Sophocles, lay it on me!


... HEY! Let's do a comparison what Join Avenue did when you got to the pinnacle of Join Avenue (level 20):


Now sure, we didn't get anything, but at least it felt special. It felt like we reached a major milestone and our reward was a parade down Join Avenue with our assistants as we pass by the shops, all shopkeepers greeting us with the greeting we gave them and getting their shop level and when we met. All of it ending with our assistants sounding off in a front shot looking down the mall as we're told how great our mall is. Meanwhile confetti is falling down. PLUS we can replay this scene again whenever we like.

Oh, and Sophocles is still offering me level 2 and 3 venues that aren't special (though I did get another level 1 Rare Kitchen... but I passed over a Ball Shop not realizing that also was a rare venue. TELL ME IF IT'S RARE (or at least what it does)!).
 
Oh, and Sophocles is still offering me level 2 and 3 venues that aren't special (though I did get another level 1 Rare Kitchen... but I passed over a Ball Shop not realizing that also was a rare venue. TELL ME IF IT'S RARE (or at least what it does)!).
It lets you buy packs of like 12 pokeball for Friend Coins, not like apricorn ball but regular pokeballs o3o
I woudn't bother with anything but Rare Kitchens, Fortune Tents (ant region will do), Treasure Hunts and maybe Big Dreams if you really want another Master Ball

also Bouncy Houses, but only if you're really lazy to EV train and too impatient to use Poke Pelago and have lots of extra Friend Coins laying around
 
I really hate how Fairy resist Bug-type moves. Given that the Fairy type was suppose to be a way to balance the game by making lesser used type coverage like Steel- and Poison better as well as toning down the power of the more commonly used offensive types, resisting what was already one of the worst offensive-types is downright stupid.
 
I really hate how Fairy resist Bug-type moves. Given that the Fairy type was suppose to be a way to balance the game by making lesser used type coverage like Steel- and Poison better as well as toning down the power of the more commonly used offensive types, resisting what was already one of the worst offensive-types is downright stupid.
I think it's fine as is. Bug already hits Grass, Psychic, and Dark types for super-effective damage, and Fairy also seems to want to give some support to Psychic types by deflecting Dark and Bug moves. And gen 7 did give major buffs to Leech Life and Fel Stinger, so it's not like Bug is completely neglected. Bug moves, like Dark moves, can often have surprising effects when used in certain situations.
 
my finger is tired from holding down the b button man.
This reminds me, why was the toggle button for running shoes from HGSS ever removed? Was it really that hard to find a place in the UI to put that little toggle button? It could have easily gone into the options menu, or the b button could naturally work like a toggle for running.

I swear, every time Gamefreak gives you whatever kind of little freedom in the form of an UI option or something, they remove it in the next gen. Gamefreak should really have some sort of document with all the useful little things they included from all the generations, like ride pokemon and the berry pots, so they won't forget to include them in the newer gens.
 
This reminds me, why was the toggle button for running shoes from HGSS ever removed? Was it really that hard to find a place in the UI to put that little toggle button? It could have easily gone into the options menu, or the b button could naturally work like a toggle for running.

I swear, every time Gamefreak gives you whatever kind of little freedom in the form of an UI option or something, they remove it in the next gen. Gamefreak should really have some sort of document with all the useful little things they included from all the generations, like ride pokemon and the berry pots, so they won't forget to include them in the newer gens.
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they brought HMs back next gen.
 
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they brought HMs back next gen.
Well, this is actually pretty likely. Ride Pokemon seem like an Alola gimmick, as we've seen with mechanics before SuMo Game Freak seem keen on ditching them. But Ride Pokemon just seem like an Alola thing, similar to the trials. Not sure how to explain it but I feel like it was designed with Alola in mind.
 
This reminds me, why was the toggle button for running shoes from HGSS ever removed? Was it really that hard to find a place in the UI to put that little toggle button? It could have easily gone into the options menu, or the b button could naturally work like a toggle for running.

I swear, every time Gamefreak gives you whatever kind of little freedom in the form of an UI option or something, they remove it in the next gen.
this is why I think HGSS had the best interface and harbor a lot of resentment for BW for being a total jerk about its UI
 

Pikachu315111

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Well, this is actually pretty likely. Ride Pokemon seem like an Alola gimmick, as we've seen with mechanics before SuMo Game Freak seem keen on ditching them. But Ride Pokemon just seem like an Alola thing, similar to the trials. Not sure how to explain it but I feel like it was designed with Alola in mind.
We can only hope they either go back to the design that they're only needed to access extra areas or something that lessens needing to waste move slots/HM slaves.

That said, there is nothing wrong with bringing PokeRides to other regions. PokeRides adds lore to the games by showing us a service where anyone with a Ride Pager can rent a Pokemon to help them overcome obstacles in their way. Infact it would further help develop regions if each one had its own set of PokeRides, showing how each region adapt to challenges unique to them with the Pokemon they have on hand.

The only argument for bringing HMs back, aside from just having it as an option, is that HMs were suppose to make it feel like the trainer was using their Pokemon for more than just battling. HMs let the Pokemon that knows them have a utility outside of battling, helping their trainer and sometimes other characters get over an obstacle to progress, a sign their physical strength and bond with their trainer is growing stronger with each Badge earned. Also there does seem to be some obstacles which either can only be done or done more easily with an HM such as cutting.

Of course, there's nothing saying we can't have both Poke Rides and HMs. Poke Rides can be used to get over difficult terrain, flying, and surfing while HMs can be utility like cutting trees, smashing/pushing rocks in narrower passage ways, creating light, blowing away fog, etc.. They would still have to do something to make the HMs not feel like a wasted moveslot/party member though if I can think of a few ways to do that (like how about just letting us use the HM without needing to teach it to our Pokemon) I'm sure GF can too.
 

cityscapes

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yeah honestly the part i really hate about hms is the fact that they really force you to carry certain mons. like when i make a new game in gen 4 and plan out my party, i feel forced to carry a flying type, a water type, and so on just to traverse the region. although you can just keep stuff in the pc and take it out when you need it, that's honestly so inconvenient.

new one: trade evolution.

now i can see what they were going for with it. and i honestly don't really mind the inconvenience of trading that much. but the thing is, it's so obscure. the game rarely, if ever, tells you that that's what you need to do to evolve something. that's why back when my brother and i were kids, we'd have these unevolved level 70 mons because we didn't know how to evolve them. honestly having to use the internet to find out these things is kinda dumb and i don't like it. thanks.
 
yeah honestly the part i really hate about hms is the fact that they really force you to carry certain mons. like when i make a new game in gen 4 and plan out my party, i feel forced to carry a flying type, a water type, and so on just to traverse the region. although you can just keep stuff in the pc and take it out when you need it, that's honestly so inconvenient.

new one: trade evolution.

now i can see what they were going for with it. and i honestly don't really mind the inconvenience of trading that much. but the thing is, it's so obscure. the game rarely, if ever, tells you that that's what you need to do to evolve something. that's why back when my brother and i were kids, we'd have these unevolved level 70 mons because we didn't know how to evolve them. honestly having to use the internet to find out these things is kinda dumb and i don't like it. thanks.
1) I think the problem there is with HMs (apart from them existing) is the HM distribution between games. Disregarding RSE and DPP (which are by far the worst ones due to having way too many HMs), and ignoring Cut (as it's often required for exactly one point early-game and never again afterwards) is that it tends to happen that Pokemon either learn a lot of HM moves or learn none of them - most grating example being Water-types on games that have three Water-type HM moves. You either need to have two Water-type Pokemon or sacrifice the only Water-type you have to essentially have only two moveslots to work with.

2) In BW2 you could call Bianca to learn how to evolve a Pokemon. Now, why was this feature dropped?
 
We can only hope they either go back to the design that they're only needed to access extra areas or something that lessens needing to waste move slots/HM slaves.

That said, there is nothing wrong with bringing PokeRides to other regions. PokeRides adds lore to the games by showing us a service where anyone with a Ride Pager can rent a Pokemon to help them overcome obstacles in their way. Infact it would further help develop regions if each one had its own set of PokeRides, showing how each region adapt to challenges unique to them with the Pokemon they have on hand.

The only argument for bringing HMs back, aside from just having it as an option, is that HMs were suppose to make it feel like the trainer was using their Pokemon for more than just battling. HMs let the Pokemon that knows them have a utility outside of battling, helping their trainer and sometimes other characters get over an obstacle to progress, a sign their physical strength and bond with their trainer is growing stronger with each Badge earned. Also there does seem to be some obstacles which either can only be done or done more easily with an HM such as cutting.

Of course, there's nothing saying we can't have both Poke Rides and HMs. Poke Rides can be used to get over difficult terrain, flying, and surfing while HMs can be utility like cutting trees, smashing/pushing rocks in narrower passage ways, creating light, blowing away fog, etc.. They would still have to do something to make the HMs not feel like a wasted moveslot/party member though if I can think of a few ways to do that (like how about just letting us use the HM without needing to teach it to our Pokemon) I'm sure GF can too.
If they bring back HMs, one thing they absolutely need to do is remove the requirement that it "can't be forgotten" without the use of a move deleter. I understand the purpose of such a requirement (so you don't get stuck with things like Surf if I remember correctly?) but they can just design the map so the player has a way of always getting a Pokemon with the ability to learn the HM. The old requirement is a disgrace.
 
yeah honestly the part i really hate about hms is the fact that they really force you to carry certain mons. like when i make a new game in gen 4 and plan out my party, i feel forced to carry a flying type, a water type, and so on just to traverse the region. although you can just keep stuff in the pc and take it out when you need it, that's honestly so inconvenient.

new one: trade evolution.

now i can see what they were going for with it. and i honestly don't really mind the inconvenience of trading that much. but the thing is, it's so obscure. the game rarely, if ever, tells you that that's what you need to do to evolve something. that's why back when my brother and i were kids, we'd have these unevolved level 70 mons because we didn't know how to evolve them. honestly having to use the internet to find out these things is kinda dumb and i don't like it. thanks.
I can let Kadabra, Machoke, Haunter, and Graveler off the hook for this as I distinctly remember in Crystal an NPC saying that these four evolve by being traded. Fair enough, it added to the element of exploration of trading different Pokemon with your friends to see what might happen. It's the ones that evolve by being traded while holding a certain item that bug me a bit. I mean, I guess being sent through a trade with an Upgrade disc would cause Porygon to process the new data and evolve into the more advanced Porygon2, (and then someone made the Dubious Disc which causes Porygon2 to evolve into the corrupted Porygon-Z) but how does that work with a Scyther or Onix holding Metal Coat? (though it does kind of make sense considering their evolutions are Steel type) Or the Dragon Scale for Seadra? Some of the others do at least hint that the item is loved by a certain Pokemon, but you're still left guessing what you're supposed to do with it, especially as you've ones like Happiny and Sneasel that just need to level up while holding the item to evolve. At least Shelmet and Karrablast say stuff happens when they're near each other and an electrical source.

But, like, what part of Politoed screams "kingly"? Then again, I guess the anime demonstrated Poliwhirl and Slowpoke evolving if holding a King's Rock, though not necessarily the trading part. (Slowpoke had to grab it and then immediately get bit on the head by Shellder to evolve into Slowking IIRC)
 
They would still have to do something to make the HMs not feel like a wasted moveslot/party member though if I can think of a few ways to do that (like how about just letting us use the HM without needing to teach it to our Pokemon) I'm sure GF can too.
I'd do it this way:

HMs stay as they are, being moves that you need to teach a Pokemon in order for it to be able to use the field ability. The difference is that instead of having to keep the move around, the Pokemon in question only needs to learn the move once in order to be able to use the field ability. If the move is deleted afterwards, the ability stays, but the move is gone. Personally, I'd actually prefer that over the Ride system we've got now.
 
Having played a game that allows me to listen the musics I have heard so far, it now annoys me that Pokemon lacks that. I never recall seeing someone who let me to freely replay these unless battling or only on select musics, unless I missed that. It is awful shame.

Well, I can circumvent it by having a battle video to do mock rematch with selected music, but....
At least Pokemon Mystery Dungeon has this with the Sky Jukebox in PMD:Sky, which was a great addition to the game and lots of people loved it. I agree that it'd be a great feature to bring in to the main series.

The main series could learn quite a lot from the side games, now that I think about it.
 
The main series could learn quite a lot from the side games, now that I think about it.
Ranger lets you re-live the final boss, cutscenes and all. It'd be cool if you could re-fight certain important fights in the main series games too. I mean, we can already fight the Elite Four, but half the time there's no rebattling Gym Leaders and certainly no re-fighting the Evil Team Leader.
 
There's another thing that annoy me in Moon.

In X and AS, I can have the wallpapers of God of Life and the King of Oceans adorn my Pokemon Box (IIRC, unlocked after finishing the story), and I like them especially on my loved 'mon. Come Alola, the PC storage doesn't even have any special wallpapers. Seriously? My favourite 'mon are stuck with lame artless wallpaper.

I was expecting how impressively majestic the Goddess Emissary of Moon would be on the Box wallpaper.... sighs....
 

Karxrida

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The fact that the trainers right outside the elevator you take to the Under in Colosseum can refresh is incredibly dumb. I don't want to fight every time I go there, dammit.
 

HotFuzzBall

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new one: trade evolution.

now i can see what they were going for with it. and i honestly don't really mind the inconvenience of trading that much. but the thing is, it's so obscure. the game rarely, if ever, tells you that that's what you need to do to evolve something. that's why back when my brother and i were kids, we'd have these unevolved level 70 mons because we didn't know how to evolve them. honestly having to use the internet to find out these things is kinda dumb and i don't like it. thanks.
THIS

I'm a loner so I don't have anyone reliable to do trade evolutions for me :[ Seriously though, trade evolutions are so dumb, like why can't I evolve my own mons smhsmhsmhsmsh >.>
 

Max. Optimizer

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new one: trade evolution.

now i can see what they were going for with it. and i honestly don't really mind the inconvenience of trading that much. but the thing is, it's so obscure. the game rarely, if ever, tells you that that's what you need to do to evolve something. that's why back when my brother and i were kids, we'd have these unevolved level 70 mons because we didn't know how to evolve them. honestly having to use the internet to find out these things is kinda dumb and i don't like it. thanks.
I couldn't possibly agree more with you on that matter.

As a kid, there's no way you'd figure out on your own that trade evolution is a thing (at least not until much later when your Pokémon are notably over-leveled, just like you already said).
In addition to this you also had to have access to a Link Cable or you had to know someone that was willing to let you borrow theirs.

However, in this day and age where Wi-Fi connection is a thing and where there exists a plethora of Pokémon forums and chat rooms, it's actually not that tedious anymore.
People in the Simple Questions/Request thread in Smogon's Wi-Fi section (including myself) are always willing to help out with trade evolutions for example.

In addition to this, I couldn't help but notice in the latest couple of games that they've developed a habit of wanting to take you by the hand and walk you through everything.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing considering the fact that there's a whole new generation of young players that are only just picking up the games for the first time, but they should in my opinion give more clues and hints to specific evolution methods while they're at it.

I mean, they could for example give you some sort of indication in the Pokédex entries of Pokémon like Graveler, Haunter, Kadabra etc.

The same thing applies to the obscure evolution method of Inkay.
I mean, who in their right mind holds their 3DS upside-down while getting their Inkay to Lv. 30?

I'm a loner so I don't have anyone reliable to do trade evolutions for me :[ Seriously though, trade evolutions are so dumb, like why can't I evolve my own mons smhsmhsmhsmsh >.>
Let's not forget that this was intentionally designed so that players would have to interact with each other in order to progress and complete their collections.
I'm also genuinely happy that they implemented this core theme in one of the early Sun and Moon teasers by using words like "Connect", "이어지다", "Se connecter", "Miteinander", "Conectar", "Comunicazione" etc.

At the end of the day it's the fertile ground for communities like Smogon and it stimulates its beating heart.
 
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For those saying Gen 1 trade evolution lacks hints: There's a note you can read in Silph that flat out says some Pokémon can only be evolved by trading and then lists Machoke and friends.

RPG. Explore. Check stuff. The works.
Yellow also has a guy that will trade you a Machoke. That alone gives a pretty good hint that other Pokémon may evolve the same way.
 

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