• Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!

(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon

Eh, I kind of like unique evolution mechanics. Maybe it's beacuse I've evolved too many Pokemon, but it gets mind-numbingly boring to evolve everything in the same manor. Level-up generally just involves me pressing A until the sun sets, and GF has made evolution stones so ridiculously easy to get that I haven't had stone scarcity issues since Gen 4. Though I do agree that unique evolution methods need to be better tuned to the game cycle (and that GF has a terrible track record doing so).

Do what I do and evolve Pokemon in different houses! :v4:
 
To be fair this does sound like a unlucky moment and not intentional :blobthinking: from what I remind the dens that are active are the usual timestamp-based ones
I guess. Checked it now and some were lit up. I guess that's why I never win anything in the Roto-ID Lottery. :psysly:

Do what I do and evolve Pokemon in different houses! :v4:

Does that mean that I can evolve a Rufflet in Fodlan and get a Black Braviary? :psywoke:
 
Super probably has the tightest gameplay in the PMD series, but dam, I hate that they made type matchups (besides immunities) basically worthless. STAB is only thing that gets you noticeable bonus damage when it comes to types... what where they thinking? Was it an oversight? I mean, type matchups are core to Pokemon, and to make them essentially meaningless rubs me the wrong way (I know PMD has always deemphasized them, but Super takes it up a notch. You at least get noticeable bonus damage in the other games.).
 
I uh... buffed Crawbrawler slightly in my hack. And made it and Charjabug stone evos. And buffed their evos as well. And you can buy Eviolites a bit before where you can buy the stones. Really, there's no more location based evos besides Magneton (For balance reasons. Magnezone is still really fucking good. And as mentioned before, you can buy Eviloites to help it keep up in the mean time.). I like to think that I helped here.

What is this? Good game design? BEGONE! Only ideas good on paper here!

Good news then since GameFreaks apparently thought the same, and all the previous "location evos" are stone evolutions in generation 8!

(and then there's galarian yamask...)

Also Farfetch'd need 3 Critical Hits in a row. It feels like they had two different teams working on this.

Team QoL: Okay, we have orders to make the game mechanics more streamlined. Any Ideas? Oh, simplify some of the complex evolution methods, that's a good one! You know what, let's get rid or the location based and just make those Evo Stones. Also let's just have Sylveon evolve with high Friendship, we'll just make it so if it has a Fairy move it's given the priority otherwise it'll evolve either into Espeon or Umbreon.

(Meanwhile in the office next door)

New Pokemon Team: *In the middle of taking a big puff of a bong*... and then, AND THEN, after taking 50 HP of damage in one hit, you need to walk under the archway in the desert area to evolve Galarian Yamask. Are we missing something? Huh? Why 50 HP? I dunno, you have a better suggestion? 49?! WHOA, you just BLEW my mind. No one would EVER expect 49! That'll take them like an extra hour or so, heh heh heh. Huh, you got a better number than 49? 51?! DO YOU THINK YOU'RE WORKING ON A CHEAP FANHACK!? "They're gonna go past 49 HP anyway if they make Yamask lose 50". That's what YOU sound like. I'm stressing out man, I need another hit *inhales bong*.

Sadly, I had already learned to look up evolution methods the hard way.

I remember grinding a Kadabra to Lv. 55 thinking it was just a late evo like Dragonite.

(Filling out my dex during post game)

"Man, Doublade hasn't evolved yet even after reading Level 50. Am I doing something wrong... *looks up how Doublade evolves*... ugh..."

But as of the Crown Tundra, the balance is thrown off. Now you can find G-Max Coalossal Raids in both versions, and you can encounter it through Dynamax Adventures, too. But the same doesn’t apply to Lapras - it’s still exclusive to Shield players. (Granted, all exclusive G-Maxes can be circumvented with Max Soup, but still, it’s kind of weird they didn’t let Sword players find “natural” G-Max Lapras in order to maintain the equity.)

Since you got Klara they decided to give Shield players something extra to make up for it. :psysly:

I think the issue here is the fight between having new pokemon appearing in late vs being able to make them future proof. You could always set their evo level lower than the encounter, dunno if it's the best solution but it would make it futureproof, kinda.

You could also make late areas only have evolved pokemon and have the pre evo only available through breeding. Or keep it mostly made out of single stage mons.

Being completely honest, all these options are kinda meh, it's a more difficult issue than it seems imo

  1. Take a look at all the Pokemon which evolve by Level in the regional dex.
  2. Check where in the game players would most likely encounter it first and note the Level its at.
  3. Check it's Evolution Level.
  4. Is the evolution level 15 to 20 levels after the Level of it's most likely first encounter point?
  5. If yes, leave it as is.
  6. If no, adjust it so that it is.
  7. Rinse and repeat for every Pokemon.
  8. Make sure if it appears on a later route, if it reaches over the evolution level, instead have its evolution appear there if it's not already. If its evolution can evolve, check its evolution level to make sure it wouldn't be at its final stage already.

TBH I think it says something about Steel Wing I never even knew that.

It woudl be cool if they made it like flying press, but steel-flying. Flying Press was a neat idea that was never expanded on...

Problem with Steel/Flying is that it'll be double resisted by Electric & Steel. Flying/Fighting is one combination that doesn't share a weakness or resistance so it's either super effective (2x), neutral (1x), resisted (.5x), or immune (0x). There are a few others, but at that point it feels really forced you're trying to make a Flying Press expy.
 
Also Farfetch'd need 3 Critical Hits in a row. It feels like they had two different teams working on this.
Well at least they had the decency of making this actually easy to do, since Farfetch'd learns several high crit moves, Leek gives +1 crit, and iirc he learns the +1 crit buff, so it's actually possible to reach 100% crit and just faceplant into wild inoffensive pokes like Wobbaffets.

Not intuitive but easy to engineer and tecnically futureproofed, differently from "arbitrarly pass under this arc after you lost 49 hp". :|
 
  1. Take a look at all the Pokemon which evolve by Level in the regional dex.
  2. Check where in the game players would most likely encounter it first and note the Level its at.
  3. Check it's Evolution Level.
  4. Is the evolution level 15 to 20 levels after the Level of it's most likely first encounter point?
  5. If yes, leave it as is.
  6. If no, adjust it so that it is.
  7. Rinse and repeat for every Pokemon.
  8. Make sure if it appears on a later route, if it reaches over the evolution level, instead have its evolution appear there if it's not already. If its evolution can evolve, check its evolution level to make sure it wouldn't be at its final stage already.

Honestly my issue here is that you end up running out of evolutions to the end of the game, which can affect the chance of these pokemon to ever be used

Then again, being available in the last third of the main game is usually a death sentence already
 
Super probably has the tightest gameplay in the PMD series, but dam, I hate that they made type matchups (besides immunities) basically worthless. STAB is only thing that gets you noticeable bonus damage when it comes to types... what where they thinking? Was it an oversight? I mean, type matchups are core to Pokemon, and to make them essentially meaningless rubs me the wrong way (I know PMD has always deemphasized them, but Super takes it up a notch. You at least get noticeable bonus damage in the other games.).
Yeah, it's roughly only 1.2x for SE/Stab for Super, though more documentation is needed

For EoS for ref

SE is around 1.4x, not 2x like maingames
Not effective is around 0.715x, so reapply those for 2 type super effectiveness/resist (so 2 type resist is roughly 0.51x damage, 2 type SE is 1.94x damage)

-Erratic Player's IQ skill tweaks this so it's 1.7 SE, 0.5 NE

-Swarm/Blaze/Torrent/Overgrow are 2x multipliers, Crit also is 1.5x (or 2 with sniper)

-Male/Genderless and female affects crit rate, evasion, and accuracy. Males/Genderless are 1.5x crit rate to the move crit rate, though are 1.027 more times likely to be hit Females have 1.04x accuracy

-STAB is 1.5x, so yes, SE damage is worse in most situations (Normalize Skitty rejoices). Coverage doesn't really matter anyway, git good ranged moves

-Immunities don't exist for OG RT/EoS, bar Wonder guard/abilities. Instead the move was treated as Little effect, which does 0.5x damage (0.25x for Erratic Player). So that means Earthquake can hit Flying types

-Shedinja has 5 hp, given neutral none move attacks do 1 hp of damage. Items can kill it easily though

-Typeless moves exist in OG RT/EoS (and interestingly Wonderguard doesn't block em). Removed post Wiiware
 
Last edited:
Not sure if this is little enough. But I really wish I could put eggs in Pokemon Home and Bank.

If I could, then I could do a proper egglocke in a legitimate game without screwing around with hacking or genning, randomly selecting eggs to start a new game. Instead, you can't get that moment of randomly hatching a pokemon in-game and seeing what it is.

Also, if I want to start a new game using whatever pokemon I like from Home (for instance if I wanted to use pokemon from BDSP to do a new playthough of SwSh), they will already be hatched with a different OT, so they get exp. points way too quickly.
 
Ever since the games went 3D, I feel like they need to blatantly telegraph even mild battles, to the point where it kinda takes me out of the experience a bit. This is less a "3D game bad, 2D game good" post, but it feels like after Gen V they really stopped wanting to put in surprise battles in their games.

Remember in BW1 how Cheren would constantly show up almost announced to challenge you after almost every gym? Sure, the execution left something to be desired (who the heck uses a Liepard unironically, though I can somewhat defend Unfezant) but the fact was you were always on your toes. The only time the game telegraphed rival battles was perhaps twice: once when Cheren asks you in the Trainer's School, and a combined instance where you get called by Bianca and see Cheren on Route 4 after Castelia City. This also holds true with the end of the game where they pull a bait-and-switch final boss right after the first one, something only Pokemon Colosseum did beforehand (Colosseum did it in the worst way possible, but I digress).

The game didn't need to put up a giant neon sign saying "HEY A BATTLE IS COMING UP!" every two seconds. This holds true for the rival battles in Gens 1 through 4 as well. Gym battles / kahunas I don't mind being too telegraphed / ask you if you are ready because they are supposed to be the highlights of the game. This goes hand in hand with how the games fully heal you frequently, to the point where it's a surprise when you go in a menu and go "wait I actually have to remember game mechanics." Before the first Giovanni battle in Kanto he didn't look at the camera and say "Hey, you should probably save before saying yes!"

in Alola this is everywhere, though it has its roots in Kalos with things like Sycamore asking you to battle. Sina / Dexio do it. Ultra Recon Squad do it with the Poipole battle. And they (sometimes invisibly) heal you constantly. And it bugs me. To the point where I'm actually surprised when Gladion just cuts straight to the battle, no option to decline (a good way of getting across his character). I know I can't complain too much since the games aren't made for 24-year-olds like, but it sometimes feels like the game almost never trusts the player to think on their feet.
 
Last edited:
Ever since the games went 3D, I feel like they need to blatantly telegraph even mild battles, to the point where it kinda takes me out of the experience a bit. This is less a "3D game bad, 2D game good" post, but it feels like after Gen V they really stopped wanting to put in surprise battles in their games.

Remember in BW1 how Cheren would constantly show up almost announced to challenge you after almost every gym? Sure, the execution left something to be desired (who the heck uses a Liepard unironically, though I can somewhat defend Unfezant) but the fact was you were always on your toes. The only time the game telegraphed rival battles was perhaps twice: once when Cheren asks you in the Trainer's School, and a combined instance where you get called by Bianca and see Cheren on Route 4 after Castelia City. This also holds true with the end of the game where they pull a bait-and-switch final boss right after the first one, something only Pokemon Colosseum did beforehand (Colosseum did it in the worst way possible, but I digress).

The game didn't need to put up a giant neon sign saying "HEY A BATTLE IS COMING UP!" every two seconds. This holds true for the rival battles in Gens 1 through 4 as well. Gym battles / kahunas I don't mind being too telegraphed / ask you if you are ready because they are supposed to be the highlights of the game. This goes hand in hand with how the games fully heal you frequently, to the point where it's a surprise when you go in a menu and go "wait I actually have to remember game mechanics." Before the first Giovanni battle in Kanto he didn't look at the camera and say "hey you should probably save before saying yes!"

in Alola this is everywhere, though it has its roots in Kalos with things like Sycamore asking you to battle. Sina / Dexio do it. Ultra Recon Squad do it with the Poipole battle. And they (sometimes invisibly) heal you constantly. And it bugs me. To the point where I'm actually surprised when Gladion just cuts straight to the battle, no option to decline (a good way of getting across his character). I know I can't complain too much since the games aren't made for 24-year-olds like, but it sometimes feels like the game almost never trusts the player to think on their feet.
Literally, everyone in SwSh does this.

Hop does it for every single battle, Bede too, and even Marnie. The DLC isn't free of that issue either.

It kinda gets silly after a while tbh.
 
Remember in BW1 how Cheren would constantly show up almost announced to challenge you after almost every gym? Sure, the execution left something to be desired (who the heck uses a Liepard unironically, though I can somewhat defend Unfezant) but the fact was you were always on your toes. The only time the game telegraphed rival battles was perhaps twice: once when Cheren asks you in the Trainer's School, and a combined instance where you get called by Bianca and see Cheren on Route 4 after Castelia City. This also holds true with the end of the game where they pull a bait-and-switch final boss right after the first one, something only Pokemon Colosseum did beforehand (Colosseum did it in the worst way possible, but I digress).
I wouldn't call this "keeping the player on their toes", I would call it "bad game design". I think getting jumped by a strong trainer partway through a route when your team could already be weakened from fighting other things is unfair and annoying. If they heal you beforehand, like with Ghetsis, then it's whatever.
 
It's a generational thing. Early gens especially, difficulty seems intended to come from resource management. You could explore and find everything in a route/dungeon, but that meant wild/trainer encounters and losing HP that you might need for a boss fight at the end*. But between healing items and the fact that nothing resets, it was easy to just leave and heal up as needed. SM and SwSh seem to be much more about 'enter a battle at near-full, face a challenge that can knock out multiple mons if you aren't careful'. How well that works is up for debate, but it seems like their goal.

(I think XY had an interesting approach to forcing resource management, there seemed to be quite a few 'take on these 3 fights in a row' challenges, and the gyms were much harder to just walk out of than previous gens. Healing items and a busted economy still ruin it, but it's a nice idea)

*Look at how many Victory Roads end with either your rival ambushing you or a double battle. You being weak before a serious fight is definitely the intention.
 
I wouldn't call this "keeping the player on their toes", I would call it "bad game design". I think getting jumped by a strong trainer partway through a route when your team could already be weakened from fighting other things is unfair and annoying. If they heal you beforehand, like with Ghetsis, then it's whatever.

I disagree it's bad game design, or at least all examples of it are. The only thing I would say is that they shouldn't have these battles take any money if you lose since you were taken by surprise, but otherwise I feel surprise battles help enforce the player needs to keep their Pokemon's health in check. Unless you're grinding against wild Pokemon, you probably shouldn't have any of your Pokemon fall below half their HP. You should be well aware what Pokemon you have in your first party slot (then again maybe they could allow you to choose what Pokemon you want to send out first in a trainer battle; in a Wild Battle & against the villain teams it makes sense you sent out the first as it's a reaction to protect yourself, but against trainers you'll have plenty of time to make a choice). What items and moves they have (and how much PP you have). As a trainer, you're in charge of these 6 creatures & making sure they're as strong as they can be at the moment and not sending them into unfavorable situations. A surprise boss battle with a rival or the like is a test of this, a battle that have you been maintaining your team you should have no problem with. The game gives you plenty of money and healing items, don't be stingy (and if you decide to grind and thus low on PP, you should really go back to the previous Pokemon Center and heal instead of pushing forward as low PP is the closest way of the game saying your Pokemon is tired and needs to rest).

Can it be done badly? Sure, if they make the opponent too powerful even if you've been maintaining your team. However recent games gives the player SO much advantage that unless you're purposely holding back you'll like be overleveled and the opponent would maybe be considered too easy. A battle where the opponent prompts you for a battle should be more difficult as you're given time to prepare, that should be the trade off but recent games have the tendency to let the players have their cake & eat it too.
 
not something that annoys me per se, but while leveling up my 2x31 iv Timid Dialga in Platinum to level 70, it suddenly wanted to learn the move slash. Uhm... why did they put such a move that late in its movepool? The move Dialga learned prior was Earthpower, so I would expect a more "useful" move down the line such as Outrage, Hyper Beam, Iron Tail or Flash Cannon.
Not a 70 base power Normal Type move with a high critrate.
 
I'm watching FSG's video on Typhlosion and you know how the newer models don't have his Fire lit up unless he's attacking, which results in Typhlosion looking quite dull? Well...apparently they also did that with his model in the Battle Stadium type games too. Why does Typhlosion always get screwed over in regards to 3D models? Typhlosion without his cool fire collar is literally just an angry honey badger. It would make sense to not have the Fire activated in the overworld or in modes like Pokemon Aime or Refresh, but there's no reason it shouldn't have it activated during a battle.
 
Mr. Mime being 50% female is still extraordinarily disturbing...
Is this not the most feminine Pokemon you've ever seen:
866Mr._Rime.png
 
Mr. Mime being 50% female is still extraordinarily disturbing...
Its original Japanese name didn't have anything to indicate gender, and Nob Ogasawara (the guy in charge of localizing most of the English text up to Platinum, though apparently not the names) was against naming it Mr. Mime for that very reason: if gender were ever introduced into the games as a mechanic, then it would be really weird.
 
Its original Japanese name didn't have anything to indicate gender, and Nob Ogasawara (the guy in charge of localizing most of the English text up to Platinum, though apparently not the names) was against naming it Mr. Mime for that very reason: if gender were ever introduced into the games as a mechanic, then it would be really weird.

In-game it is, but in the real world not so much. We gender things in language all the time, even when it makes no sense - certain sounds and phrases signify masculinity or femininity for cultural reasons, and we assign gender even to inanimate objects based on their shape or colour. French is a particularly well-known example of a language which genders absolutely everything - even words for concepts, such as history or memory. It's therefore not completely unthinkable that we'd assign a masculine term to a Pokemon which can be either male or female.

All this is a long way of saying I've never found Mr Mime's name particularly incongruous, but maybe that's a Western thing.
 
Back
Top