Been replaying Arceus lately, and I feel like they missed a trick by not having the character who oversees the pastures be an ancestor of Hayley from My Pokémon Ranch, rather than a generic NPC. In Gen 6, Pokémon Box RS host Brigette got a reprisal as the host of Pokémon Bank, and I just think this would have been a fun way to continue that idea in a way that was relevant to the legacy of the Sinnoh games.
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(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon
- Thread starter BriarRose
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Speaking of Paradoxes: none of the Future ones learn Shift Gear. It would have been perfect on Iron Treads, and Iron Thorns would have liked something to help differentiate it from Tyranitar better since it's just Tyranitar stat-wise but with a worse BST. They have the exact same HP, Attack, and Defense, but Thorns has worse Special Attack and Special Defense with only marginally higher Speed. (Iron Jugulis vs. Hydreigon is in a similar boat, but it's not as bad since the Speed tier bump is far more significant.)
Oh, I see. Yeah, I can see how something like that can slip under the radar.
When it comes to those messages what annoys me most is the ones where the character comments on you doing a Super Effective. For the FIRST BATTLE, okay, that's fine. It's a positive reinforcement for new players that they should be aware of Type Match-ups and aim for doing Super Effective damage (or at least avoid being on the receiving end). It's all the times after which it becomes a problem. Notable, THE CHAMPION BATTLE(S)! Geeta and Nemona should be commenting you on doing Super Effective damage, because that's the very least strategy you should be doing! Now if they scored a Super Effective hit and have a gloating dialogue for that, that's fine, you messed up/got caught off guard. But them commenting you still doing Super Effective damage feels real condescending. Geeta, I defeated the 8 Gym Leaders and Elite Four, all whom are Type Specialists, to battle you. Nemona, I have defeated you in every single battle we've had, battles where you faced against me with the Starter that's WEAK to mine. The only reason I can see either of them being surprised by Type Match-up is because THEY don't know it and trying to cover for their insecurity.
That said, the only Critical Hit message which annoy me is when the character acts like they were expecting the Crit to happen even though it was a random chance. The notable example I'm thinking of is the Sada/Turo battle (are we still ignoring spoilers?), where they gloat that they calculated that Critical Hit they just did was going to happen. Really? That's what we're going with that? Like, I would have them say something like even their Pokemon want to exist in our time or that the prehistoric/futuristic power of their Pokemon is too overwhelming for us to handle.
I feel this is the main issue with Sig Moves & Abilities. I'm not against them making a batch of them for new Pokemon... but be sure they feel like they were an intended part of the design. Like, you can't see this Pokemon being normally played without this Move and/or Ability even if they have other options. Like if you're going to make a new Sig Special Psychic-type move or a Physical Fighting-type move, not only does it need to fit the Pokemon's theme but it better be good enough for me to choose it above Psychic or Close Combat. Because if I rather use Psychic and Close Combat, the Sig move might as well not exist. I think Sig Abilities are a bit better on this front but they too have their caveats, especially when the Sig Ability is a Hidden Ability (why?).
I would have made it the ancestor of Bebe as she is the PC Admin in DPPt.
I would have made Hayley the host of Pokemon HOME instead of the weird choice of Grand Oak.
Hayley is probably in the shadow realm because she's in a....would you even call it a spin off? that wasn't made by GameFreak, sadly. She was probably lucky to get sugimori artwork and a throw away line connecting her to Bebe
Contrast with Brigette and Burnet who were in gamefreak developed titles and thus get to be on call forever.
Man Grand Oak is weird. Even weirder because he's barely even in Home; you get him at start up to walk you through the process and nothing else. Brigette ( & Haylee) are at least constantly talking to you on the menus and such. At that point why not just use vanilla Oak for a more direct cameo.
Contrast with Brigette and Burnet who were in gamefreak developed titles and thus get to be on call forever.
Man Grand Oak is weird. Even weirder because he's barely even in Home; you get him at start up to walk you through the process and nothing else. Brigette ( & Haylee) are at least constantly talking to you on the menus and such. At that point why not just use vanilla Oak for a more direct cameo.
If there's one Pokemon that I hope gets some touch-ups to its model if it ever comes back in S/V, it's Yanmega. I love it's design very much, but it's easily one of the worse transitions to 3D that doesn't get talked about too much.
Let's take a look at Yanma/Yanmega's BW sprites:
Incredible active and always mobile and zooming around, very fitting considering they are speedy little dragonflies. Yanmega even looks more mobile than Yanma, which is why the transition to 3D is gonna hurt it even more.
Yanma's 3D model is this:
Not quite as fast as Gen 5's, but still moves around, even does the head turn once which is a neat detail. Overall one of the better models especially for one introduced all the way back in Gen 6.
Yanmega, however...
Dude went limp. Yanmega definitely suffers from the flying model syndrome where they just float in place (like Xatu and Salamence) but it stings here a lot more because it's just NOT supposed to float in place. Its Dex entries constantly talk about it flying at high speeds which is reflected in it's B/W sprite very well, but here it just doesn't work. Even then, I can't say Yanmega's model looks bad, cause it's Yanmega. Yanmega just cannot look bad cause it's really cool, but it's definitely one of the bigger disappointments coming into 3D. With some models seeing revisits from GameFreak in Gen 9, there's a non-zero chance, however small it may be, that Yanmega can be improved. Of course, that's a big if it even comes back this gen. (Absent in Gen 8 too btw, this line does not get a break!)
Let's take a look at Yanma/Yanmega's BW sprites:
Incredible active and always mobile and zooming around, very fitting considering they are speedy little dragonflies. Yanmega even looks more mobile than Yanma, which is why the transition to 3D is gonna hurt it even more.
Yanma's 3D model is this:
Not quite as fast as Gen 5's, but still moves around, even does the head turn once which is a neat detail. Overall one of the better models especially for one introduced all the way back in Gen 6.
Yanmega, however...
Dude went limp. Yanmega definitely suffers from the flying model syndrome where they just float in place (like Xatu and Salamence) but it stings here a lot more because it's just NOT supposed to float in place. Its Dex entries constantly talk about it flying at high speeds which is reflected in it's B/W sprite very well, but here it just doesn't work. Even then, I can't say Yanmega's model looks bad, cause it's Yanmega. Yanmega just cannot look bad cause it's really cool, but it's definitely one of the bigger disappointments coming into 3D. With some models seeing revisits from GameFreak in Gen 9, there's a non-zero chance, however small it may be, that Yanmega can be improved. Of course, that's a big if it even comes back this gen. (Absent in Gen 8 too btw, this line does not get a break!)
Shiny Pokemon in the battle frontier. They are teasing you by showing something you won't obtain. Today my opponent sent out a Shiny Arbok. My Latias and Raikou refused attacking because Battle Palace and lost, then I switched to Metagross and it finished it off with EQ. Guess what happened next? My opponent send out Solrock...
So this has probably applied to earlier games, but I hadn't used the search function as much as I have in SV
"Foreign" pokemon, that is Pokemon that are in the game but not in the Pokedex, don't show up in the box's Pokemon Name search. So the Charizard, Cinderace & Greninja lines despite being available and in the box, don't show up in the search by name.
Made doubly silly because the Move search display every move in the game even if you don't have the pokemon, and the Ability search displays every ability in the series even the ones who likely will never return!
"Foreign" pokemon, that is Pokemon that are in the game but not in the Pokedex, don't show up in the box's Pokemon Name search. So the Charizard, Cinderace & Greninja lines despite being available and in the box, don't show up in the search by name.
Made doubly silly because the Move search display every move in the game even if you don't have the pokemon, and the Ability search displays every ability in the series even the ones who likely will never return!
Just learned some tidbits about Battle Bond Greninja that make me resent the seeming/attempted Exodus even more, namely that the "Ash-Greninja" name was coined by Bonnie and episodes delving into the Bond Phenomenon show it occurred with another Greninja in the past, i.e. the form is neither officially named for nor exclusive to Ash and his Greninja even within the Anime lore, much less games or other media.
This just further highlights to me Gamefreak is trying to put the genie back in the proverbial bottle by just pretending the form doesn't exist
This just further highlights to me Gamefreak is trying to put the genie back in the proverbial bottle by just pretending the form doesn't exist
Which is funny since Ash-Greninja is present in the opening for the current final run, with new animation. This was after showing it in the flash back as normal Greninja like 8 weeks ago
make up your mind!
Wasn't the form shown in a mural in the SV games though? The games as such still seem to acknowledge the phenomenon's existence. During the Masters 8's airing one of the writers briefly acknowledged it in an interview.
Honestly it being unusable in the games is likely as simple as it being an honorary Mega Evolution and the fact that Megas are currently not in the games and they want to keep anything Mega-adjacent out of the games that don't have Megas.
Even Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon were completely absent from SwSh (and presumably SV if/when they are usable there) despite neither being an actual Mega Evolution because both are honorary Megas in their own right.
Ash-Greninja from its conception was a pseudo-Mega, it called upon similar concepts (power of bonds), in the anime it was always used in Mega mirror matches when it showed up (its main opponents were the likes of Mega Abomasnow, Mega Sceptile, and Mega Charizard X for instance), and in the SM games the form was a 110 BST boost which is similar to a Mega Evo's BST boost (Mega Alakazam was a 90 stat point increase in XY, most are 100). And as it stands Megas are currently out of the games and they also intend to keep out Mega-adjacent transformations, and Bond Phenomenon Greninja is in a similar boat to Primal Kyogre/Groudon in that regard.
Honestly it being unusable in the games is likely as simple as it being an honorary Mega Evolution and the fact that Megas are currently not in the games and they want to keep anything Mega-adjacent out of the games that don't have Megas.
Even Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon were completely absent from SwSh (and presumably SV if/when they are usable there) despite neither being an actual Mega Evolution because both are honorary Megas in their own right.
Ash-Greninja from its conception was a pseudo-Mega, it called upon similar concepts (power of bonds), in the anime it was always used in Mega mirror matches when it showed up (its main opponents were the likes of Mega Abomasnow, Mega Sceptile, and Mega Charizard X for instance), and in the SM games the form was a 110 BST boost which is similar to a Mega Evo's BST boost (Mega Alakazam was a 90 stat point increase in XY, most are 100). And as it stands Megas are currently out of the games and they also intend to keep out Mega-adjacent transformations, and Bond Phenomenon Greninja is in a similar boat to Primal Kyogre/Groudon in that regard.
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So why didn't they just make Mega Greninja? Was it a remnant of the mysterious Kalos third-version?
Mega Alakazam is a 90 point increase in Gen 6 and a 100 point increase in Gen 7. The devs apparently increased base Alakazam's SpDef by 10 points after they had already designed Mega Alakazam's stat spread and just forgot to update the mega, and then Gen 7 fixed it by increasing Mega Alakazam's SpDef by 10 points as well.
I’d say it’s more of an abstract painting than a mural, but yeah, it is alluded to:
As I recall, Ash-Greninja came about because the XY anime director wanted a way to visually express Ash and Greninja’s growing bond, and consulted with Game Freak for ideas, which led to GF designing Ash-Greninja. It was tailored to that specific purpose.
Yeah that's about correct
They didn't talk about it, but I imagine that at least the 10% Zygarde was likely the same boat
To which I say "don't put the mural in the game if you're not going to use the form," considering they still brought Battle Bond in but with the altered functionality I can't even tell if they're trying to acknowledge the form or not and it's just creating the worst mix of both camps.
Ah sorry about that, I stand corrected. I remembered something was up with Mega Alakazam but I misremembered how its stat boost was abnormal originally.
But yeah that definitely explains why it was like that to begin with. It also suggests as a general note that the stat spreads for the new Pokemon and the Megas were created first, and then they decided to do all the +10 stat point buffs to the older mons who got them later in XY's development, and in Alakazam's case the original Alakazam got a +10 stat boost but the Mega was based off the original 490 BST Alakazam at first.
The reason they still brought Battle Bond in with altered functionality can be very simply explained in that Greninja is available in and usable in SV, and the Battle Bond variants have to be transferable to the game (from HOME) by proxy.
As I said, they basically kicked out any Mega-adjacent forms in the Switch games where Mega Evolution isn't usable, and Ash-Greninja the form is effectively an honorary Mega like Primal Kyogre/Groudon were, the latter two of who were also rendered unusable in the Switch games where the Hoenn legendary trio is usable in (Sword and Shield and SV itself).
In this case Battle Bond Greninja's pseudo-Mega Evolution form is tied to an ability, which you cannot remove from a Pokemon whatsoever, unlike the usual Megas and Primal Kyogre/Groudon, which are tied to held items. In those cases removing the Mega or Primal is as simple as simply not putting the associated item in the game. An ability on the other hand is integral to a Pokemon, and the Battle Bond variants cannot have their ability changed to either of the normal Greninja's abilities so there's no removing the Battle Bond ability from Greninja, meanwhile a Primal form or Mega is tied to the held item, not being able to have the item means they have no ability to access their Mega/Primal form in that regard.
Ash-Greninja simply had to be approached differently in terms of rendering its Bond Phenomenon form (which sits in a similar boat as ordinary Megas and Primal Kyogre/Groudon) unusable in SV in a similar vein to say, the Primals, because of the way it worked mechanically in-game to begin with, which was inherently unusual. The Megas and Primals were easier to "remove" because held items are a much simpler thing mechanically to deal with.
To be clear, my contention in that part of the comment is "if you're going to retcon Battle Bond to remove the form, fine, but then don't remind us the form exists in the game while making it unusable on the obtainable Greninja"
Either commit to un-Personing the form or bring it back. On a completely different line of argument though, mid-battle transformation aren't exactly a stranger to Gen 9 with Palafin, so removing Greninja just for being a "not Mega" still feels weirdly arbitrary when it behaves similar to most other mid-battle transformations they keep around or continue to iterate on like Meloetta or Zen Mode Darmanitan.
It’s true that the Primals weren’t in SwSh, but on the other hand, Zygarde Complete Forme was, and Ash-Greninja is arguably closer to that in terms of the actual mechanics involved. Mega Evolutions and Primal Reversions (and incidentally, Ultra Necrozma) all rely on a dedicated button in the battle menu in order to induce the form change, whereas Greninja, like Zygarde, just needs a certain special Ability and to meet a specific condition during battle.
(Indeed, the very fact that Zygarde’s big power-up is Ability based whereas Necrozma’s relies on the same mechanical principle as Mega Evolution is why I always thought there was at least some logic in including Complete Forme Zygarde in SwSh but not Ultra Necrozma, even though Necrozma ends up feeling incomplete as a result, and it’s why I assumed that Ash-Greninja would be a safe inclusion in any future games that included Greninja, even if they banned it from official competitions.)
Battle Bond Greninja’s other mechanical counterpoint, Own Tempo Rockruff (which is comparable in the sense that they both required GF to basically program an identical alternate form for the Pokémon in order to accommodate their special Ability slot), has also survived two installments now.
While I do understand your point, I would like to highlight that Primal Reversion isn't a "button in the battle menu" transformation like Mega Evolution or Ultra Burst Necrozma: it's actually an immediate and automatic transformation that occurs the very moment Groudon or Kyogre enter the battlefield. In other words, it's not one of those things where you can choose whether to keep Groudon/Kyogre in base form or not: they transform as soon as they enter battle, in other words, it's not something the player chooses to activate. All you have to do is give them the Red Orb/Blue Orb to hold and when they're in battle, they transform automatically and on their own once they make their entrance onto the battlefield.
It's admittedly kind of arbitrary but I do feel they make a distinction between forms that were designed as "super forms" aka an artificial power-up (like Megas/Primals/Ultra Burst) and gimmick/novelty Pokemon where in those cases the form changes in question are a design quirk and gimmick the entire Pokemon was designed around from the very beginning.
Pokemon like Palafin, Meloetta, Darmanitan, Minior, Wishiwashi, Aegislash, etc. were deliberately designed as novelty or gimmick Pokemon that have in-universe behavior and quirks that the designers also integrated into their battle capabilities which extends to form changes, and in those cases you straight up cannot remove any form change from them because their alternate forms and corresponding transformations are an integral part of the Pokemon's design. A similar case applies to several Legendary Pokemon who had alternate forms that debuted in games after their debut, like Kyurem or Zygarde, and even in those cases there was obviously an intention for them to have new forms introduced in a later game as that's part of their own lore. It's a different case from super forms that were posthumously designed after the original Pokemon, and I do feel they distinguish between the two to a pretty large extent.
The pokedex feels very finnicky, i had problems getting the other tatsugiri forms to show up when pressing up/down. Are you viewing it in the full line up or in the "recent captures/evolution" section because the latter feels like it only shows that specific form.
I think the next update's patch notes mentioned something similar to this so maybe it'll be fixed then.
Yeah, good point, not sure how I managed to forget that
I guess for me, the odd one out in all of this is really just Necrozma, because like, at least with all of the Megas, the Primals, and Ash-Greninja, there is the fact that those were retroactive add-ons to Pokémon whose profiles were already considered to be pretty much complete. Whereas Ultra Necrozma is more like BW Kyurem and 100% Zygarde; it is Necrozma’s “true” form according to the lore, without which it is either literally an incomplete remnant or a parasite piggybacking on Solgaleo or Lunala. It wasn’t something that they tacked onto it ten years after the fact — the intention to eventually show that form was probably present from early on in the design process. (After all, many fans were able to tell right away that Necrozma’s body parts could be rearranged into a draconic shape.)
Time for a big post about why Pokemon Colosseum is in my opinion, one of the worst Pokemon games of all time, spinoff, main series, whatever. If you like it, that's great and more power to you.
First, the story, or rather lack of one. The problem lies entirely with an intriguing opening cutscene that teases an actual character arc but then swaps that out for a silent protagonist yes / no text box monstrosity that only seems interesting because of the framing and that motorbike. In the actual game, Wes doesn't emote, so HELLO wasted potential!
Everyone likes Miror B, but Dakim's character is lol he punches people, Venus's character is super generic brat, and Ein mass-produces Shadow Pokemon and that's literally the only thing we know about him outside the Ein Files (tip: if your character depth is in menus outside cutscenes, you're doing it wrong). Nascour makes the other admins look like N in terms of depth and Evice would be a cool twist if it weren't the most BS fight in the series.
Everyone likes Miror B, but Dakim's character is lol he punches people, Venus's character is super generic brat, and Ein mass-produces Shadow Pokemon and that's literally the only thing we know about him outside the Ein Files (tip: if your character depth is in menus outside cutscenes, you're doing it wrong). Nascour makes the other admins look like N in terms of depth and Evice would be a cool twist if it weren't the most BS fight in the series.
This is where the game really falls apart. You purify Shadow Pokemon by using Shadow Rush until they get in Hyper Mode and you call them out of it, or by using Scents with the Cologne Case you get after beating Dakim at Mt. Battle. There is no real variation when objectively your best strategy for most physical attackers is spamming high-crit Hyper Mode Shadow Rush. Outside legendaries and starters, your only real special attackers that are viable are like...Espeon and Flaaffy and that's basically it??? And you're gonna be stuck with Shadows until you beat Skrub in Relic Forest...which is like...roughly a third to a half of the game. Outside of Umbreon and Espeon, this basically forces you to be underleveled until then for no real reason.
Now I'm gonna review every Pokemon rapid-fire, good mons are in blue
Espeon: Best mon in the game bar none.
Umbreon: Requires Toxic, pretty meh as it has a ho-hum defensive type with few resistances, just drop it.
Makuhita: Good as Hariyama, but Makuhita is insanely frail and always moves last thanks to Vital Throw (don't use Cross Chop). Despite being the first Shadow Pokemon, it's a huge drag to raise earlygame and you're gonna be using Vital Throw for what feels like forever unless you get Brick Break from Pyrite Colosseum lategame. Not recommended overall.
Bayleef: Decent moves but lol Grass type starter. It's a tiny bit better off thanks to weather TMs and SolarBeam, but not by much.
Quilava: Good, but not many mons are weak to Fire and you're basically forced to use Fire Blast to do any real damage, which is risky on a glass cannon in a game where Earthquake or Water moves are everywhere.
Croconaw: Best starter by a mile. Surf with Rain Dance later is pretty good and Water is always good defensively.
Slugma: This has Flamethrower...and that's where the postives end because it is slow with an awful defensive type, and again, not much is weak to Fire.
Noctowl: Cool in theory with Hypnosis and Reflect, but I'd imagine you'd have to give this thing Toxic to do decent damage.
Flaaffy: Purified Thunderbolt + evolution is amazing but you have Dakim right after so lawl. You also have Thundershock for what feels like forever. Pretty good though, first good mon outside starters and Espeon.
Skiploom: You are only using this for a fast Sleep Powder: you're lying if you say it's good outside that niche. Pretty bad.
Quagsire: Fluctuating but a good option overall. Good defensive type, good lategame Earthquake, amazing in the Shadow Pokemon Lab. A solid choice.
Misdreavus: Literally the only Ghost type in the game, only decent for Confuse Ray hax because special moves require Mt. Battle. Though the bonehead Ai can make you laugh sometimes I guess. Meh, not worth it: it lacks moves.
Furret: MAN I LOVE THIS. Follow Me and Helping Hand on the same Pokemon in a Doubles-centric game with a strong early Strength to top it off? Fantastic by any measure and honestly a reason to pretend like I'm playing a good Pokemon game. If every Pokemon was as spicy as Furret, this game would be actually playable.
Yanma: l m a o G e n 3 Y a n m a
Remoraid: Level 20 when you start the game at level 25 about a fifth of the way through the game? It gets decent moves but who designed this?
Mantine: Good type for Dakim but then it falls off a cliff because BubbleBeam is pretty much its only move. If this thing had Surf I'd recommend it but it doesn't so no.
Qwilfish: Physical Gen 3 Water type where the Sludge Bomb TM can only be gotten from Under Colosseum Round 2: that's in the 50s so this thing is basically useless even with Surf. When Remoraid looks more attractive, you've got problems.
Meditite: Hey look another actually usable Pokemon, that's like what the fourth one after Flaaffy and Quagsire and Furret (discounting starters)? Hi Jump Kick is baller and even before evolving crit Shadow Rushes hit like hydrogen bombs.
Dunsparce: Glare and Yawn are cool if you were anything other than Dunsparce. Bad.
Swablu: Basically a souped up Noctowl with a better type and no Reflect. Dragon Dance is nice but using Fly to slowly sweep is meh with those offenses. Passable but not good, you just kill things too slow. Safeguard is good for Venus and you're okay for Miror B I guess?
Sudowoodo: Hmmm, let's see. Bad defensive type? Check. Slow as beans? Check. Natural Rock Slide means nothing when you'll never get an attack off, plus the bosses hate its guts? Check. Again like Qwilfish I feel for this thing.
Plusle: Traded EXP and Helping Hand are cool, coming at level 13 is not.
Hitmontop: This thing is way worse than it seems. Intimidate would be cool if you weren't stuck with lol Triple Kick until Pyrite Colosseum's Brick Break TM in the 50s. The ONE game Hitmontop could have shined in, and they screwed it up.
Entei: A normally bad legendary only looks good when you compare it to the mostly garbage options until now. You kinda want to Time Flute this.
Ledian: Ledian Mega Awful Offensively: you use screens and then you die: terrible.
Suicune: Rain Dance and Surf with actual stats means this is the best Water type in the game. Requires Time Flute.
Gligar: Awful moves and requiring the Earthquake TM (it doesn't even get Dig on purification WTF) means that you'd have to be desperate to use this.
Stantler: How do you make Hitmontop look good? By being Stantler. Intimidate and Hypnosis mean nothing with no solid STAB (Take Down sucks),
Piloswine: Natural Dig and Blizzard are cool but are slow and unreliable respectively, and that defensive typing is pretty bad.
Sneasel: What if you woke up one morning and decided to use Sneasel? Your whole life would change. Oh, the places you'll go nowhere with because Ice and Dark were Special back then off 35 S p e c i a l A t t a c k so have fun with Screech, Brick Break and (Mt. Battle) Shadow Ball through TMs. The best thing about Sneasel is its animations. Literally purifying it makes it worse because its better as a Hyper Moding, Shadow Rush critting piece of garbage.
Aipom: LOL Tickle bot
Murkrow: One of the better bad choices, Fly and decent Speed as well as a Dark type immune to Earthquake makes it slightly better than a 3/10.
Forretress: Only decent if you give it the Toxic TM: its only niche offensively is Explosion. Still not worth getting excited over because the endgame has plenty of things that hit Forretress neutrally. You can maybe wall Nascour's Psychic users I guess?
Ariados: STAB Sludge Bomb is good: too bad you have Ariados's stats which are firmly outclassed at this point.
Granbull: Wow an actually good Pokemon. STAB Strength, Intimidate, can take a hit. Alright.
Vibrava: Requires a TIme Flute and the Earthquake TM. According to my friend a Vibrava would need 16,830 XP to get to level 45, which basically forces you to use the three Rare Candies near Venus. You can only barely call it good enough.
Raikou: Requires Time Flute: good otherwise.
Sunflora: literally lol
Delibird: don't even think about it
Heracross: Hot take but this thing blows. After the four admin rematches, requires a crap ton of grinding to stand up to the final bosses, weak to to FOUR of Nascour's Psychic users (also weak to Blaziken), Evice's Salamence bodies it and his mons weak to Heracross can take a hit because you are underleveled (Slaking has Aerial Ace too by the way). Don't be fooled.
Skarmory: Okay so I wrote off Forretress for being hit neutrally endgame. Not the case with Skarmory. Yes, you only have six battles left. But this is your ticket to having a managable Nascour and Evice. Dusclops can't touch you, Xatu can't touch you, Metagross can't touch you, Walrein plays the neutral game - so only Gardevoir and Blaziken threaten it in Nascour's lineup. As for Evice, you resist Slowking's Psychic and everything Scizor and Salamence and even Slaking (!!) can do. Only Machamp and Tyrantitar can pose a threat as you Toxic stall them, though watch out for their boosting moves. An excellent Pokemon even if it's only around for the last couple battles.
Miltank: LMAO final boss gauntlet, shame as it has good moves
Absol: LMAO final boss guantlet
Houndoom: LMAO final boss guantlet, why the HECK wasn't this available at like, the Shadow Lab?
Tropius: LMAO final boss guantlet
Metagross: Good emergency check for Nascour (if you lose) and Evice if you have a Time Flute to spare. Last good mon.
Tyranitar: LOL final boss
Smeragle: Postgame, I'm not even gonna comment
Ursaring: Postgame trash
Shuckle: Postgame, requires Toxic, mostly inferior to Skarmory and even Forretress imo due to the worse type
Togetic: Literal last fight in postgame. Also, why is it level 20?
Togepi, Mareep, and Scizor: LOL Japanese e-reader
So roughly only a third of the 50 or so Pokemon are usable. and a few of those require Time Flute. You will always use the same Pokemon in this game unless you play with suboptimal choices. This ruins Pokemon's greatest aspect in my opinion, that being the team customization.
Now I'm gonna review every Pokemon rapid-fire, good mons are in blue
Espeon: Best mon in the game bar none.
Umbreon: Requires Toxic, pretty meh as it has a ho-hum defensive type with few resistances, just drop it.
Makuhita: Good as Hariyama, but Makuhita is insanely frail and always moves last thanks to Vital Throw (don't use Cross Chop). Despite being the first Shadow Pokemon, it's a huge drag to raise earlygame and you're gonna be using Vital Throw for what feels like forever unless you get Brick Break from Pyrite Colosseum lategame. Not recommended overall.
Bayleef: Decent moves but lol Grass type starter. It's a tiny bit better off thanks to weather TMs and SolarBeam, but not by much.
Quilava: Good, but not many mons are weak to Fire and you're basically forced to use Fire Blast to do any real damage, which is risky on a glass cannon in a game where Earthquake or Water moves are everywhere.
Croconaw: Best starter by a mile. Surf with Rain Dance later is pretty good and Water is always good defensively.
Slugma: This has Flamethrower...and that's where the postives end because it is slow with an awful defensive type, and again, not much is weak to Fire.
Noctowl: Cool in theory with Hypnosis and Reflect, but I'd imagine you'd have to give this thing Toxic to do decent damage.
Flaaffy: Purified Thunderbolt + evolution is amazing but you have Dakim right after so lawl. You also have Thundershock for what feels like forever. Pretty good though, first good mon outside starters and Espeon.
Skiploom: You are only using this for a fast Sleep Powder: you're lying if you say it's good outside that niche. Pretty bad.
Quagsire: Fluctuating but a good option overall. Good defensive type, good lategame Earthquake, amazing in the Shadow Pokemon Lab. A solid choice.
Misdreavus: Literally the only Ghost type in the game, only decent for Confuse Ray hax because special moves require Mt. Battle. Though the bonehead Ai can make you laugh sometimes I guess. Meh, not worth it: it lacks moves.
Furret: MAN I LOVE THIS. Follow Me and Helping Hand on the same Pokemon in a Doubles-centric game with a strong early Strength to top it off? Fantastic by any measure and honestly a reason to pretend like I'm playing a good Pokemon game. If every Pokemon was as spicy as Furret, this game would be actually playable.
Yanma: l m a o G e n 3 Y a n m a
Remoraid: Level 20 when you start the game at level 25 about a fifth of the way through the game? It gets decent moves but who designed this?
Mantine: Good type for Dakim but then it falls off a cliff because BubbleBeam is pretty much its only move. If this thing had Surf I'd recommend it but it doesn't so no.
Qwilfish: Physical Gen 3 Water type where the Sludge Bomb TM can only be gotten from Under Colosseum Round 2: that's in the 50s so this thing is basically useless even with Surf. When Remoraid looks more attractive, you've got problems.
Meditite: Hey look another actually usable Pokemon, that's like what the fourth one after Flaaffy and Quagsire and Furret (discounting starters)? Hi Jump Kick is baller and even before evolving crit Shadow Rushes hit like hydrogen bombs.
Dunsparce: Glare and Yawn are cool if you were anything other than Dunsparce. Bad.
Swablu: Basically a souped up Noctowl with a better type and no Reflect. Dragon Dance is nice but using Fly to slowly sweep is meh with those offenses. Passable but not good, you just kill things too slow. Safeguard is good for Venus and you're okay for Miror B I guess?
Sudowoodo: Hmmm, let's see. Bad defensive type? Check. Slow as beans? Check. Natural Rock Slide means nothing when you'll never get an attack off, plus the bosses hate its guts? Check. Again like Qwilfish I feel for this thing.
Plusle: Traded EXP and Helping Hand are cool, coming at level 13 is not.
Hitmontop: This thing is way worse than it seems. Intimidate would be cool if you weren't stuck with lol Triple Kick until Pyrite Colosseum's Brick Break TM in the 50s. The ONE game Hitmontop could have shined in, and they screwed it up.
Entei: A normally bad legendary only looks good when you compare it to the mostly garbage options until now. You kinda want to Time Flute this.
Ledian: Ledian Mega Awful Offensively: you use screens and then you die: terrible.
Suicune: Rain Dance and Surf with actual stats means this is the best Water type in the game. Requires Time Flute.
Gligar: Awful moves and requiring the Earthquake TM (it doesn't even get Dig on purification WTF) means that you'd have to be desperate to use this.
Stantler: How do you make Hitmontop look good? By being Stantler. Intimidate and Hypnosis mean nothing with no solid STAB (Take Down sucks),
Piloswine: Natural Dig and Blizzard are cool but are slow and unreliable respectively, and that defensive typing is pretty bad.
Sneasel: What if you woke up one morning and decided to use Sneasel? Your whole life would change. Oh, the places you'll go nowhere with because Ice and Dark were Special back then off 35 S p e c i a l A t t a c k so have fun with Screech, Brick Break and (Mt. Battle) Shadow Ball through TMs. The best thing about Sneasel is its animations. Literally purifying it makes it worse because its better as a Hyper Moding, Shadow Rush critting piece of garbage.
Aipom: LOL Tickle bot
Murkrow: One of the better bad choices, Fly and decent Speed as well as a Dark type immune to Earthquake makes it slightly better than a 3/10.
Forretress: Only decent if you give it the Toxic TM: its only niche offensively is Explosion. Still not worth getting excited over because the endgame has plenty of things that hit Forretress neutrally. You can maybe wall Nascour's Psychic users I guess?
Ariados: STAB Sludge Bomb is good: too bad you have Ariados's stats which are firmly outclassed at this point.
Granbull: Wow an actually good Pokemon. STAB Strength, Intimidate, can take a hit. Alright.
Vibrava: Requires a TIme Flute and the Earthquake TM. According to my friend a Vibrava would need 16,830 XP to get to level 45, which basically forces you to use the three Rare Candies near Venus. You can only barely call it good enough.
Raikou: Requires Time Flute: good otherwise.
Sunflora: literally lol
Delibird: don't even think about it
Heracross: Hot take but this thing blows. After the four admin rematches, requires a crap ton of grinding to stand up to the final bosses, weak to to FOUR of Nascour's Psychic users (also weak to Blaziken), Evice's Salamence bodies it and his mons weak to Heracross can take a hit because you are underleveled (Slaking has Aerial Ace too by the way). Don't be fooled.
Skarmory: Okay so I wrote off Forretress for being hit neutrally endgame. Not the case with Skarmory. Yes, you only have six battles left. But this is your ticket to having a managable Nascour and Evice. Dusclops can't touch you, Xatu can't touch you, Metagross can't touch you, Walrein plays the neutral game - so only Gardevoir and Blaziken threaten it in Nascour's lineup. As for Evice, you resist Slowking's Psychic and everything Scizor and Salamence and even Slaking (!!) can do. Only Machamp and Tyrantitar can pose a threat as you Toxic stall them, though watch out for their boosting moves. An excellent Pokemon even if it's only around for the last couple battles.
Miltank: LMAO final boss gauntlet, shame as it has good moves
Absol: LMAO final boss guantlet
Houndoom: LMAO final boss guantlet, why the HECK wasn't this available at like, the Shadow Lab?
Tropius: LMAO final boss guantlet
Metagross: Good emergency check for Nascour (if you lose) and Evice if you have a Time Flute to spare. Last good mon.
Tyranitar: LOL final boss
Smeragle: Postgame, I'm not even gonna comment
Ursaring: Postgame trash
Shuckle: Postgame, requires Toxic, mostly inferior to Skarmory and even Forretress imo due to the worse type
Togetic: Literal last fight in postgame. Also, why is it level 20?
Togepi, Mareep, and Scizor: LOL Japanese e-reader
So roughly only a third of the 50 or so Pokemon are usable. and a few of those require Time Flute. You will always use the same Pokemon in this game unless you play with suboptimal choices. This ruins Pokemon's greatest aspect in my opinion, that being the team customization.
Okay, so we've established that 2/3s of the dex is pretty bad. What did the developers do? They made some of the most annoying bosses in existence. Miror B has a grand total of two super-effective options for his fight (Swablu and Noctowl, don't even consider Qwilfish), Dakim is a little more managable but way more threatening offensively, Venus is just status cancer, and Ein is arguably even worse coinflips because of that awful Golbat with Confuse Ray and his mons hit fairly hard. This is compounded by how virtually the entire game, you WILL be underleveled unless you go grind between each major boss. It's not fun, it's not real difficulty, it's just tedious as all get out and kills the novelty the first 3D Pokemon game has.
-Saving only at PCs. Even RBY let you save anywhere while being somehow more playable, there's no excuse for this.
-Rui can get in your way occasionally if you need to turn around.
-Why the heck is a third of the game in Pyrite Town by technicality?
-Why does Nascour have no battle music?
-All those weird earlygame event flags like buying Poke Balls and talking to Duking and the like. I've seen a friend of mine who has played the game several times before forget where to go because the game doesn't railroad you that well until the Pyrite Building (I don't blame them). Don't you just love talking to random NPCs to trigger the next story event?
-Hey, you know what this game's postgame needed? Even more level spikes! Also, the postgame is dull, because again, you're underleveled with mostly bad options. XD doesn't have a whole lot of postgame either outside Orre Colosseum but if you're gonna have much of a postgame at all, make it worth my time please. The Fein battle is neat but not enough to make me want to play postgame often.
-Rui can get in your way occasionally if you need to turn around.
-Why the heck is a third of the game in Pyrite Town by technicality?
-Why does Nascour have no battle music?
-All those weird earlygame event flags like buying Poke Balls and talking to Duking and the like. I've seen a friend of mine who has played the game several times before forget where to go because the game doesn't railroad you that well until the Pyrite Building (I don't blame them). Don't you just love talking to random NPCs to trigger the next story event?
-Hey, you know what this game's postgame needed? Even more level spikes! Also, the postgame is dull, because again, you're underleveled with mostly bad options. XD doesn't have a whole lot of postgame either outside Orre Colosseum but if you're gonna have much of a postgame at all, make it worth my time please. The Fein battle is neat but not enough to make me want to play postgame often.
The game looks pretty nice for GameCube standards and has some great music: too bad the actual game isn't engaging.
Yeah I got nothing else.
Yeah I got nothing else.
In conclusion, Pokemon Colosseum is an mostly awful game loaded with artificial difficulty like constant level spikes, usually bad Pokemon where the well runs dry after like two playthroughs, and has boss design that is borderline ROM hack levels where you have access to like 15 Pokemon only moderately better than a couple competent Pokemon Stadium rentals. Avoid this game like the plague. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness by contrast, is like 50 billion times more playable, eases up on the difficulty, and is just extremely fun to play while executing this game's premise of limited options so much better than Colosseum ever did - you purify mons way earlier, the Purify Chamber makes purifying mons way less of a hassle, and oh yeah, it doesn't kick you in the teeth every two seconds because "lul games can only be fun if they are hard!!!!"
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