(Little) Things that annoy you in Pokémon


Watching the Youtube of all the entries now:

So apparently the (quick) story is that a father wrote this Pokedex for their daughter and her friends since they liked Pokemon but there was no official translation in Russian. He then sought a publisher and illustrator and released this book.

Not all of them are QUITE as insane as this above Meowth one, but many are still very odd. Mentions of death, smoking, drinking, what feels like political propaganda, and some that are very rude & condescending. I don't know who the father asked to write this stuff? It can't just be kids, there feels like some info here has a propaganda agenda.

I'll admit, I am curious whether the father is maybe showing some bias, the intro of the book takes note how his daughter and friends spends a lot of money on Pokemon merch; while he loves his daughter to make this, I can also see him thinking all this is stupid and a waste of money. Also, being this is Russia, another part of me is wondering IS this all what the father wrote, OR did the publisher maybe have a government overseer see this as an opportunity to start molding some young minds.


EDIT: I wrote a new post below now having watched the entire video and reading some of the Youtube comments from Russian viewers.
 
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Lance getting Tyranitar was independent of whether Karen should get one.

Karen still annoys me with her Gengar. Elite Four members having one not-on-type Pokemon wasn't uncommon in the first couple gens, but unlike Agatha who literally did not have enough Ghost types for a team, Karen picks Gengar, a Pokemon that already appeared multiple times AND means she is passing over 1-2 Dark Types introduced that Gen (Sneasel is there even if they don't give her Tyranitar).

I'm not opposed to the type specialists having team members outside their type, even with stuff like Flint being a bit silly, but what bothers me with Karen is that we already had a major Gengar before here, Koga's a Poison Specialist if we need a fit, and Sneasel doesn't show up anywhere despite being available in Johto (see Houndoom)
Late by a week but related: Koga's use of Forretress at least still fits with the whole tricky ninja thing since it has Spikes and Explosion. (He should have led with it but w/e.) I like off-type choices like that for specialists.

Also Karen's Gengar only has fucking Lick as a damaging move in GSC.
 
Not all of them are QUITE as insane as this above Meowth one, but many are still very odd. Mentions of death, smoking, drinking, what feels like political propaganda, and some that are very rude & condescending. I don't know who the father asked to write this stuff? It can't just be kids, there feels like some info here has a propaganda agenda.

So, after having watched the entire video, just want to more focus and re-analyze my initial thoughts.

First off, my comments of political propaganda? I think they're completely off the mark. After reading some of the Youtube comments from Russian commenters, the strangeness isn't propaganda but more social commentary of Russian society and world views.

The hate for journalists permeating throughout the entries? Basically all Russian "journalists" who have any notoriety work directly for either the government or the Oligarchs, a group of super rich businessmen who took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union and purchased most of the state assets (this includes things like public property, land, buildings & other infrastructure). Either you write what they tell you to, or you do not have a career (and may also possibly "disappear"). In fact, the Meowth one that was spread around is actually sounding like they're a commentary on the Oligarchs. So, in a way, the entries that are anti-journalist are actually anti-propaganda as that's what Russian journalists are mainly only allowed to write.

Another theme I noticed is that quite a few have Pokemon essentially taking on what sounds like certain stereotypes of homeless, low class, and impoverish people. Like people who you'd either see or encounter while walking down the street or "that homeless/poor guy" who hangs around the neighborhood. I'm curious why he gave certain Pokemon the stereotype he did, was it just that he was working on the Pokemon's dex entry when he remembered the stereotype or was it something about the Pokemon, be it from its appearance or description given, that reminded him of them.

There's also a few cases where I'm curious if the anime may have influenced what he heard. As I said, he likely asked a batch of kids about the Pokemon so those kids bias would influence what was written (like the Bulbasaur family entries, I would not be surprised if he's so down on it because most kids think Bulbasaur "stinks"; the kids mean as a Starter choice compared to the fire dragon and turtle with cannons, but the father may have taken it literal as it smells bad (not sure if the pun works in Russian, but I think the scenario works out)). Now since the kids likely couldn't understand what was written, when it came to Pokemon behavior it may have been how the anime portrayed them that molded their image. For example, Diglett blowing up cars with annoying car alarms. I recall back to the Diglett (and Dugtrio) episode of the anime where the plot was the Diglett family was hampering construction of a dam to prevent their home from being flooded. What did they do to hamper construction? They wrecked the trucks and construction vehicles. Now in the episode they did so by digging holes, but that little detail may not be obvious for a kid to mention to an adult inquiring about the Pokemon: "Diglett destroys vehicles which they don't like"; and from there the father filled in the blanks.

I wonder if that, In an odd way, writing these dex entries may have been sorta stress relieving for the father. So many social issues are on display, maybe things the father wanted to get off his chest but couldn't outright without fear of punishment or ridicule. By disguising his woes and observations with these fantasy creatures, he's able to get out these stereotypes (exaggerate them even) without fear for himself or his family. In addition, he gives his daughter and friends (and later other Russiand kids) both entertainment but also glimpses of "real life".

Sadly the father and the illustrator he hired passed away several years ago (additionally sad is there seems to be lost work) so we'll never know the full story. But for Russian kids it gave them a way to have some more fun with Pokemon (and I guess learn about what's going on in their country) and, now, a two hour video astonishing people around the world. Not a bad legacy to leave behind, so a shot of vodka for you Mr. Alexander Zhitinsky; wherever you are let there be no journalists.
 
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I think Pokemon games need to have the option to skip cutscenes. It can be annoying to have to sit through and watch the dialogue cutscenes at times, especially if you've already played the game and are just replaying through it.
There is something weird with some japanese RPGs and their developers being allergic to cutscene skips. Yes i'm looking at you Atlus.

Took even Square ages to get cutscene skip in Final Fantasy (I think 13 was the first with actual cutscene skip?)
 
There is something weird with some japanese RPGs and their developers being allergic to cutscene skips. Yes i'm looking at you Atlus.

Took even Square ages to get cutscene skip in Final Fantasy (I think 13 was the first with actual cutscene skip?)
And they don't even add it to remasters/updates to games that lacked them before (one of many reasons I consider FFX HD inferior to PS2 International)
 
All pokemon games right? I love Explorers of Sky BUT several things annoy me. The abilities Run Away and Gluttony, and more to the point the fact my hatched(this should make stats go up more as far as I know) Hoppip has awful stats, at level 74. It isn't worth training to see if it somehow gets better towards the end, takes too long. Bounce deals absurd damage, but that's the move not the mon, Atk is like 76 LOL.
 
Golisopod's Emergency Exit.
Not because I think it makes the Pokémon broken.
It's just how many times I've forced a switch-out on Guzma is silly.
Extremely small, barely affects gameplay, somehow annoying.
 
There is something weird with some japanese RPGs and their developers being allergic to cutscene skips. Yes i'm looking at you Atlus.

Took even Square ages to get cutscene skip in Final Fantasy (I think 13 was the first with actual cutscene skip?)
They at the very least made sure to put a cutscene skip option in Kingdom Hearts II. Which is from 2006.

I would hope they didn't wait until freaking XIII to have it in a mainline Final Fantasy.

And they don't even add it to remasters/updates to games that lacked them before (one of many reasons I consider FFX HD inferior to PS2 International)
They did for the HD version of the original Kingdom Hearts! The PS2 version only let you skip cutscenes before bosses if you died to them. But for some reason there's exactly one cutscene that cannot be skipped ever.
 
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The fact that the fandom still keeps crediting Genius Sonority for good Pokemon anims, despite...

Colo/XD credits for Poke Model/Anims
Kei Hoshiba- Stadium, Mon model director for Colo, misnamed Hashiba
Kazuo Yazawa- Stadium, Lead modeler for Colo
Takeshi Iizuka - Stadium
Ken Ikuji - Stadium
Atsuo Ujiie- Stadium
Satomi Kokubo- Stadium
Keita Komatsu- HAL (Melee)
Hiromichi Sugiyama- HAL (Melee)
Jungo Suzuki- Stadium
Katsura Tabata- HAL (Melee)
Shinichi Yoshikawa- Stadium
Kiyoshi Utsunomiya- Colo (No more afterward)
Misaki Nakaoka- Genius Sonority, Colo (did later Creature's Inc games Wii era + Pokedex 3D)
Yosuke Yamashita -Colo (From Capcom)
Masahiro Abeki- Stadium 2
Yuji Kawarada- Stadium 2
Yuichi Sawayama- Stadium
Nachi Sugiyama- Stadium
Yoshiyuki Yagawa (called Tagawa) - Stadium
Mikio Menjo - HAL (Melee)
Masaya Akiyama - HAL (Melee)
Kumiko Oka - Colo (no more games afterward)
Toshiyuki Honda - Colo (From Akira Co)
Kiyotaka Hirata - Colo (From Intelligent Systems)

PBR Credits
Yasuki Watanabe- Modeling Director, later did Pokepark
Yasuyuki Sakuma (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark and Pokedex 3D Pro)
Yusuke Shimada (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark and Pokedex 3D Pro)
Masahiko Ishii (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark and Pokedex 3D Pro)
Misaki Nakaoka - Genius Sonority, Colo
Hiroyuki Takahashi (Creatures Inc, did Pokepark and XY models)
Mikiko Takeda- Creatures Inc
Sachi Matoba- Creatures Inc
Kazuaki Aihara- Freelance
Shou Kumagai- Freelance
Hiroyuki Sekiguchi- Freelance
Takaharu Nagashima- Freelance
Hiroyuki Masuda- Freelance
Yūki Yoshida- Freelance
Yusuke Ishikawa- Freelance
Tokimitsu Uchibori- Freelance
Otokazu Eda- Freelance
Satoshi Kobayashi- Freelance
Hisatoshi Sawamoto- Freelance
Kenji Tanaka- Freelance
Fumihito Akiyama- Freelance
Tatsuo Asai- Freelance
Naomi Imaoka- Freelance
Emi Oba- Freelance
Naoyuki Osada- Freelance
Shinichi Kawabe- Freelance
Ryota Saito- Freelance
Hideaki Takahashi- Freelance
Hiroki Takahashi- Freelance
Masato Nozawa- Freelance
Rindo Adachi- Freelance
Sadamu Sudoh- Freelance
Naoyuki Wada- Freelance

Bonus: Pokemon Channel 3D modeling
Kei Hoshiba- Stadium
Ken Ikuji - Stadium
Masahiro Sugiyama- Hey Pikachu (Also did TCG alongside Nachi and Hiromichi Sugiyama)
Shigeo Masaki- Melee (via Marigul services)
Junko Kanbe- Custom Robo (Noise Inc connections to HAL/Marigul)
Yoshiharu Sakakibara- Custom Robo (Noise Inc connections to HAL/Marigul)
Yuichiro Komoriya- Custom Robo (Noise Inc connections to HAL/Marigul)
Yoshitaka Mizushima- Custom Robo (Noise Inc connections to HAL/Marigul)
Ryuta Kisumi- Stadium

Bonus: Pokedex 3D Pro
Hiroki Fujiwara- Modeling Director, Creatures Inc, did XY-LA
Shunsuke Uematsu- Modeling Director, Creatures Inc, did Pokepark-SunMoon
Takabon- side company, does TCG at times
Yasuyuki Sakuma- (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark)
Hazuki Ago- (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark)
Hiroaki Ito- Stadium (probably is why Pokedex 3D Pro reused Stadium anims for select Gen 1/2 mons, XY modeler)
Yusuke Shimada (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark)
Kenichi Higeta- (Creatures Inc, also did Pokepark)
Sachi Ichikawa- Creatures Inc
Masahiko Ishii- (Creatures Inc, also did PokePark)
Misaki Nakaoka- Genius Sonority, Colo
Wataru Kawahara- Freelance, did SwSh Humans
Takanari Takano- Creatures Inc
Toru Hashimoto- Creatures Inc, did XY models
Hidenori Fujita- Creatures Inc, did XY and SwSh models

TLDR: Hal was supremely integral Gen 1-3, Creatures Inc got more involved Gen 4, many coming later to post XY
 
I'll be honest I never see people credit Genius Sonority for "good pokemon animations". All the animations I see people gush over were usually the Stadium games (do you know how many times I've seen the Kabutops drop kick....)...but still interesting to see how many HAL folks were involved in Colosseum.


I'm a bit surprised PBR doesn't credit any of the HAL folks who were responsible for the Stadium models; I know they did have to tweak and add new ones but I'd have thought they'd still need credit.
Though...I guess that might just be normal for the industry, thinking on it. Remembering some of the weird crediting I've seen in other games (smash bros comes to mind).
 
I don't know why, but it pisses me off that Wiglett has 20 less BST and points in Special Defense compared to Diglett. I genuinely thought this was an oversight by the dataminers when I first saw it (Toedscool and Tentacool have the same stats), but naw, Wiglett is just worse than Diglett. Its already at a disadvantage since it doesn't have Arena Trap - you don't need to make its stats worse too.
 
I don't know why, but it pisses me off that Wiglett has 20 less BST and points in Special Defense compared to Diglett. I genuinely thought this was an oversight by the dataminers when I first saw it (Toedscool and Tentacool have the same stats), but naw, Wiglett is just worse than Diglett. Its already at a disadvantage since it doesn't have Arena Trap - you don't need to make its stats worse too.
That's really weird; Toedscool, Toedscruel and Wugtrio all have the same exact Base Stats as their normal variants too so its literally just Wiglett that has 20 less special defense. Nothing else is different about Wiglett either: same HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack and Speed.

Maybe it was an error of Gamefreak's part that they never bothered fixing because the 20 sp.def is meaningless on a Pokemon as frail as Wiglett that evolves anyway?
 
Duraludon, in its 535, higher than Charizard BST, getting an evolution. It was already bad seeing Alakazam-tier 'mons evolving 17 years ago, and the return to that a year and a half ago... but this is irritating. Give it a preevolution at least.

Meanwhile, stuff like Swoobat remains radiating middle stage energy. Poor guy didn't even get the stat boost that was intended for it in SM (it went to Woobat instead because of human error I suppose).
 
Home's GTS lets you search by form. Both useful and aggravating depending on what it is you want out of the GTS. The forms you can't search for make sense: can't search for temporary/inbattle forms, can't search for stuff like Spinda spots (although you gotta admit having 4 billion search options would be pretty funny), you can search for Alcremie's flavors but not the decorations, etc. You can't search out mythic forms, but that's probably more because you can't search Mythics at all*.

Except

You cannot search for the Antique Sinistea or Polteageist.

I didn't realize it until thinking "hey is it weird this 1% encounter that you can't breed for isn't all over the GTS asks" and then seeing oh that's why. I mean the asks would probably all be for DLC pokemon anyway, but how obnoxious



*Which, side note, makes it very odd the legendary option states "Include people searching for Legendary, Mythical and other special Pokemon". You've literally never been able to search for them or ask for them! I mean that's for the best, the GTS is already a pain. BUt still
 
I haven’t done the calcs, but doesn’t it still beat em all 1v1 despite this handicap? I’d imagine the OG trio can’t hit it hard enough with Drain Punch, dunno about Eleki and Drago.
Got curious and checked, using level-up movepools, full IVs, blank EVs, neutral natures, no setup or crits:
  • Lacking special moves, Slow Start Gigas bounces off Rock's 200 Def, taking the entire 5 turns to KO with Hammer Arm if Rock keeps the same level of Defense throughout. Rock's own Hammer Arm can manage in 3. Without Slow Start, Gigas cleanly beats non-Superpower Rock in 3 Hammer Arms, but terrible damage rolls might leave it just short of 2HKOing against Superpower, at which point it no longer outspeeds (exposing itself to Rock's 75% chance of 3HKO). One Body Press into two Hammer Arms beats all attacks Rock can go for assuming Gigas is up and running.
  • Lucky accuracy and damage rolls give Regice a chance with Blizzard, but the odds still favour Gigas under Slow Start. Without slow start, Gigas would need to unnecessarily use an inaccurate move and miss.
  • Registeel is strictly worse than Regirock in this contest due to lower physical stats and less powerful moves. It only has a 9% chance to 3HKO but still wins the Hammer Arm-off against Slow Start Gigas due to outspeeding as Gigas always needs 4 swings. There's a possibility Gigas could skip one Hammer Arm and thus outspeed for turn 4, but it needs some amount of damage roll luck to still get the 4HKO. Non-Slow Start Gigas gets a clean 2HKO and so doesn't need to worry about speed problems (it still outspeeds at -1).
  • Regieleki's speed is about 150 points overkill against Slow Start gigas. It can manage a reliable 3HKO helped by Thunder Cage's trapping damage, but Slow Start Gigas threatens a 2HKO with Crush Grip into Giga Impact (or, if it prefers gambling with damage rolls over accuracy, Mega Punch). Eleki may thus need to rely on the RNGfest of Zap Cannon, which needs extremely good damage rolls to 2HKO on top of its coinflip accuracy. Non-Slow Start Gigas can OHKO with Crush Grip.
  • Full-health Dragon Energy into Dragon Claw 2HKOs, and Gigas cannot OHKO even without Slow Start. However, non-Slow Start Gigas outspeeds Drago and can deliver its own 2HKO first while also gutting the strength of Dragon Energy.
It's a close match with Slow Start Gigas, I'd say it has the better matchup only against Ice and Eleki. Non-Slow Start Gigas beats all of them.
 
Regigas having Slow Start. The king of the regis is the worst regi because of this ability.....
Got curious and checked, using level-up movepools, full IVs, blank EVs, neutral natures, no setup or crits:
  • Lacking special moves, Slow Start Gigas bounces off Rock's 200 Def, taking the entire 5 turns to KO with Hammer Arm if Rock keeps the same level of Defense throughout. Rock's own Hammer Arm can manage in 3. Without Slow Start, Gigas cleanly beats non-Superpower Rock in 3 Hammer Arms, but terrible damage rolls might leave it just short of 2HKOing against Superpower, at which point it no longer outspeeds (exposing itself to Rock's 75% chance of 3HKO). One Body Press into two Hammer Arms beats all attacks Rock can go for assuming Gigas is up and running.
  • Lucky accuracy and damage rolls give Regice a chance with Blizzard, but the odds still favour Gigas under Slow Start. Without slow start, Gigas would need to unnecessarily use an inaccurate move and miss.
  • Registeel is strictly worse than Regirock in this contest due to lower physical stats and less powerful moves. It only has a 9% chance to 3HKO but still wins the Hammer Arm-off against Slow Start Gigas due to outspeeding as Gigas always needs 4 swings. There's a possibility Gigas could skip one Hammer Arm and thus outspeed for turn 4, but it needs some amount of damage roll luck to still get the 4HKO. Non-Slow Start Gigas gets a clean 2HKO and so doesn't need to worry about speed problems (it still outspeeds at -1).
  • Regieleki's speed is about 150 points overkill against Slow Start gigas. It can manage a reliable 3HKO helped by Thunder Cage's trapping damage, but Slow Start Gigas threatens a 2HKO with Crush Grip into Giga Impact (or, if it prefers gambling with damage rolls over accuracy, Mega Punch). Eleki may thus need to rely on the RNGfest of Zap Cannon, which needs extremely good damage rolls to 2HKO on top of its coinflip accuracy. Non-Slow Start Gigas can OHKO with Crush Grip.
  • Full-health Dragon Energy into Dragon Claw 2HKOs, and Gigas cannot OHKO even without Slow Start. However, non-Slow Start Gigas outspeeds Drago and can deliver its own 2HKO first while also gutting the strength of Dragon Energy.
It's a close match with Slow Start Gigas, I'd say it has the better matchup only against Ice and Eleki. Non-Slow Start Gigas beats all of them.

Obvious statement is obvious, but I feel like this whole line of thought is missing the point that Gigas isn't meant to be fighting with Slow Start factored in. Of course Slow Start makes Gigas worse than the others: that's the point. Without Slow Start it's indisputably the best Regi, and wipes out all 5 of its juniors.

That's like complaining that base form Calyrex sucks. Yeah, it's meant to.
 
I assumed by "worst regi" meaning as just like. General use.
Which is true, regardless of intentional mechanics, you're better off with the other regi for any given purpose.
 
Possibly wrong thread but what is the lore reason behind Slow Start if there is one?

I think its the whole "giant slowly awakes and regains their power" thing. Regigigas wakes up from slumber and takes a bit before it regains its full power. Having it as an ability /is/ kinda silly, kinda implies its always waking from a slumber, but abilities was the closest thing they had to represent that.

I think a modern gigas would have a different ability and just have the "waking up" thing be a unique boss battle mechanic (see eternamax).
 
I think its the whole "giant slowly awakes and regains their power" thing. Regigigas wakes up from slumber and takes a bit before it regains its full power. Having it as an ability /is/ kinda silly, kinda implies its always waking from a slumber, but abilities was the closest thing they had to represent that.

I think a modern gigas would have a different ability and just have the "waking up" thing be a unique boss battle mechanic (see eternamax).
To be fair I think modern Regigigas would instead have an ability where the first time you send it out it falls asleep. Sleep is 1-3 turns now, so it’s way more balanced for this sort of situation even if it’s a little RNG-y. To circumvent it further you could instead automatically use Rest the first time it’s sent out in a battle — this ensure 2-turn sleep and heals off hazard damage — but obviously Rest also existed when it was introduced with the same mechanics.

Any of these mechanics are a little strange in the ability role, as you noted though. Regigigas having the slow start / wake up only makes sense in the boss battle, after which point it’s awake and you own it and it’s already battled. I think the mentality back then was Regigigas is so hard to obtain it’s basically just a trophy and not really intended to be used in battle. It wouldn’t surprise me if at some point Regigigas gets a Hidden Ability, especially if we get another batch of minor Regis, and have it be spotlit a bit. If Gen 4 remakes were actually made by Game Freak, I suspect it would have happened in them.

As a side note, something I appreciate about the original Regi trio is how they did actually feel quite special on account of being single-typed Pokémon of types that on their introduction barely had any single-typed representation. In Gen I there were actually 0 mono Rock- or Ice-Type Pokémon, and of course Steel-Type didn’t exist yet, but in Gen 2 no mono Steel-Type or Ice-Type Pokémon were introduced either and the only mono Rock was Sudowoodo. Gen 3 gave us other monos for each type, in the subpar Mawile, Nosepass, and Snorunt and Glalie, meaning that the Regis stood out as the only particularly strong representatives for JUST their assigned type with no dual types. When you think through the type chart as a whole, they’re actually the best 3 types to be used for this, and I think it was a very intentional decision. You may be thinking what about Dragon-Type, but Dratini, Dragonair, Bagon, and Shelgon outnumber the other types, even if they’re not fully-evolved.

Of course, later on Regigigas eschews it as mono-Normal is very common, but a Normal-Type legendary is so rare that it gets a free pass IMO. Arceus is the only other mono-Normal legendary and its entire purpose is to change to any type.

Regidrago and Regieleki? Yeah, not so much. I actually think Regidrago does decent here — mono-Dragon FE Pokémon are not common at all, the only ones being Haxorus, Druddigon, and Goodra, and since it’s so late in the series this is now a better metric to work with. Mono-Electric is very common though with decently strong FEs, and there are plenty of types that fit the bill way better. Mono Bug has few actual FE and battle-ready Pokémon, with Pinsir and Accelgor being the best on offer. Mono-Poison actually has a great claim to this, because it is extraordinarily rare nowadays as a monotype; the LC Pokémon Poipole is the most recent one, before that you have Trubbish and Garbodor, and before that Seviper, Gulpin and Swalot! And, of course, Mono-Flying, but Tornadus sort of occupies the “this legend is cool because it’s mono-flying” territory already. I think Poison makes the most sense here going by the “ages” concept, since mono-Poison Types either represent pollution, are snakes, or are Swalot or Poipole, and we all know later human activity is uh, not great with regards to pollution.

I think it’s why I’ve never been that keen on the new duo, Regieleki in particular. A mono-Electric mon isn’t special at all, we get them all the time lol.
 
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