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Little things you like about Pokémon

Finally caught up on everything in this thread! No more replies though. Instead, a few other things I like.

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In Pokémon Adventures, Mewtwo fights using a giant spoon. I think it is really cool. I guess it is a reference to how spoons in Pokémon are often associated with the Psychic-type, with the Twisted Spoon boosting Psychic-type moves and Kadabra/Alakazam are holding spoons.

Another thing I like related to the above is how Mewtwo was portrayed in the FR/LG chapter of Adventures, and its role in said chapter. The manga creators clearly took a lot of inspiration from the anime, but I think it was really cool and it is something I consider a good anime reference. I like how Mewtwo teams up with Red (and the other Pokédex holders), then it fights together with Red against Deoxys and Giovanni. I was already a fan of Mewtwo, but I started to like it even more after reading the FR/LG chapter.

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I am not a big fan of HMs, and I am glad to see that they have not been a thing since Gen 6. However, I remembered one positive thing about HMs from the past. Starting in Gen 2, you no longer had to open the menu in order to use a HM. Instead, you could just use them directly by interacting with the things you needed them for. As seen in the image above, walking up to the water and pressing A allowed you to Surf directly without having to open the menu. That was a really good change since it saved time and made playing the games a little more convenient.

Are we allowed to post things we like from Legends: Arceus yet? I have one thing I want to share and I think it is safe since it is spoiler-free. I love the way nicknames are handled in the game. You can nickname your Pokémon directly on the party screen! From what I have understood, this was first introduced in LGP/E, then skipped in S/S and BD/SP for whatever idiotic reason, and now it is back! Hopefully to stay. Forever. I don't think I would have nicknamed my in-game teams in Legends if this change hadn't been made.
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My third team in the game, with their nicknames!
It is easily my favorite feature/mechanic from Legends and if you can nickname Pokémon with a different OT/ID without any restrictions as well (haven't been able to test this myself), then they have finally perfected nicknaming in Pokémon. But even if you can't, it is still excellent and much better than the old system. I will be extremely disappointed if this isn't kept in all future games.
 
Among all the many nods and references to other regions in PLA, minor and major, shoutout to Kamado for bringing us one of the most esoteric pieces of fanservice I've seen in any media

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It's literally an identical armor design just with a different color, right down to having the same Pokeball holster on the side. I've seen some say this is just some sneaky model recycling, a compelling theory until you realize that Wikstrom's only modeled appearance in XY gave him a dinky-ass chibi that's completely unusable for a Switch title released over 8 years later. No, this is absolutely deliberate, and I applaud it for its sheer obscurity. 99% of players sure as hell aren't going "Oh wow, it's the armor of the semi-obscure Elite Four member from the decade old 3DS game!"
 
It's a reference to the fact a lot of high ranking lords, samurais and captains of japan would commission and wear expensive european armor, both to show off their wealth and iirc because it was pretty good vs swords (the modernization of the japanese army took years of dismantling the samurai caste system and was only done recently, so I don't even think they even started mixing up guns at the time pla is based on, or if they did, it was only barely)
 
Since there's been quite a bit of talk about gen 2 around here recently, figured I might as well chime in with my own bit.


One of my favorite moments in gen 2 is when you're about to face champion Lance at the league. The league's music itself is already pretty heavy and serious, showing just how culminative and decisive of a point this is for your journey, finally reaching its climax. And then, once you enter into the champion room, as you talk towards Lance....the music stops playing, as Lance gives out his speech before the final battle. It is precisely during this brief silence, with maximum suspension, that you realize things are about to go down hard during these final few moments, that will determine it all. And then, once said silence is over, the champion battle theme starts playing; initially low-pitched yet fast-paced, it is quick to build up and add tension during the whole fight, giving it a real sense of a final boss battle. The fact that said theme is a battle-style remix of the game's opening intro theme only further serves to highlight how it's all coming together, full circle at this point. It truly made for a memorable highlight of said games in my eyes, even to this day. Which is why I was bummed out that hgss removed the silence during Lance's speech and just had the league theme still playing, ruined the suspension part a bit imo.


On a related note, let's also talk about the music playing during the last few parts of BW1, and all of its transitions. First, we have the league music, which with its slow, intimidating tones already makes for a fitting atmosphere for your journey's final challenge; doubly so considering N's already ahead of you in said league challenge as is and you gotta overcome the strongest trainers in the region to catch up to him. The elite 4 theme itself is certainly a bop, and I believe well known enough to not need much introduction/explanation; though it's worth noting that the transition between the league's theme and said battle theme is quite seamless and helps improve the immersion by a considerable margin. Then, once N's defeated Alder, you get to see all the castles emerging from the ground in a startling fashion. As N leaves, he invites you to follow him toward his castle through the bridge that's just appeared. The music playing during this brief moment is also a well-known fan favorite by this point, but it's still worth pointing out how fitting it is considering you now have to gather the courage to carry on, and follow N towards the true final destination of your journey, where everything will finally be determined.
As you enter the castle, the game spends no time immediately immersing you in the castle's sheer size and epicness with dramatic music right from the start. Said music also gives off a certain vibe of royalty through it, not only perfectly illustrating the castle's sheer scale and epicness but also truly acting as a final area for the game. As the 7 sages surround the player during said music playing, the gym leader's last pokemon theme starts playing as, all of a sudden, all the gym leaders except the first triplets show up to help you, with the music's triumphant sounds being perfectly suited to what's happening right at the moment, with the leaders all covering up the issue and letting you move along, as the castle's theme starts playing again. The legendary dragon's battle theme at the final scene is also nothing short of a mix of heroism, epicness and adrenaline all gathered in one, as you finally become an equal opponent to N in terms of each having a dragon of legend as their ally. Then, as the castle music plays for a bit yet again....N' final battle theme starts off immediately strong. This theme truly encapsulates how N's ideals/truths are more at stake than ever; he has to prove for one final time that he's in the right, and he's NOT holding back this time, giving it everything he's got, even though he's actually more indecisive than ever before, having had his beliefs challenges by the player constantly throughout their journey.
As the battle ends....a totally new theme starts playing, as ghetsis finally snaps and reveals how everything's been pulld by his strings all along, yet now that his plan is in shambles, he's got to get matters in his own hands if he wants to succeed. This theme perfectly encapsulates how something's wrong in all this, the gravity of the shocking revelations, and how this is truly the single most decisive moment up to this point, however sudden and all out of the blue it came as. And then....his battle theme is low pitched, yet ominous, and especially the infamous chorus part where his name is said out loud helps demonstrate his power as one of the 7 sages. Once said battle is over, the infamous wavering emotions theme plays as N turns over a new leaf, and realizes he needs to find a new purpose in life, as he flies off afterwards. And finally, the credits theme plays, giving off the perfect vibes of a journey wrap-up, ending in a triumphant way.

One last honorable mention, again for bw1, is route 10's theme. Said theme packs a LOT of emotional weight in it, and there's just something about it that encapsulates uncertainty, determination to move forward, but also bittersweetness all in one package. But said theme becomes especially a highlight when cheren stops you and talks to you before your battle, being more determined than ever to test your strength; even though you have all the badges, it by no means guarantees that you're ready for what lies ahead. It is during this speech that said music gains the strongest impact on the player, at least imo. And the victory road theme that plays afterwards also shows just how serious things are now, and how you better bring your A game if you want to succeed.


So yeah, I really like these little transitions to help with the emotional atmosphere shift by music, as they really help estabilish a certain point of the game on its whole, and make for some of the most memorable moments for me.
 
I have gone back to playing Emerald recently, as the first part of my new Battle Facility project. While playing it, I realized that the graphics of Gen 3 are quite charming. Gen 3 is obviously not as technically advanced as Gen 4/5, but it was still a pretty huge step up from Gen 1/2. The GBA really took Pokémon to another level in terms of graphics. It is also notable that the GBA is the only system which only featured one generation of Pokémon, not 2 like all other systems have done. Thus, Gen 3 can't be compared to another generation on the same system, allowing it to stand a bit more on its own graphically. I think some Gen 3 sprites look a bit weird, and the colors are a bit off for some of them, but I still like them on the whole.

One thing I particularly noticed now is that certain trainers have overworld sprites which are completely different from their in-battle sprites. There are also some trainers which share an overworld sprite.

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Beauties have green hair on their overworld sprite, but their in-battle sprite shows them as blonde.

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Lasses and female Psychics share their overworld sprite. The sprite in question was clearly designed to look like a Lass, which means that when facing a female Psychic, she will look completely different in battle compared to on the overworld.

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Guitarists, Bird Keepers and Kindlers also share an overworld sprite. This one seems to be mostly designed after the Guitarist.

I know there are many cases like this in Gen 1/2 as well. In Gen 4/5, most overworld sprites match the in-battle sprites for the trainers, with some minor exceptions. Basically, every trainer class got their own unique sprite. Anyway, this was something I noticed when I went back to Emerald now and I find it really charming in its own quirky way.

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Next, I want to talk about another battle challenge I like. The Challenge Medals in B2/W2. Getting all of them was a lot of fun, designing a monotype team for all 17 types was an interesting challenge. It took a long time when I did it, but that was since I decided to do it super seriously. I RNGed all team members with good IVs/Natures and then EV-trained them as well. It took me months before I was done. But it was worth it in the end. Even so, I wish I had actually spent more time on creating my teams. Looking back, I should have focused on using my six favorite Pokémon from each type instead of the ones that worked the best for getting as many medals as possible without using too many different Pokémon.

The challenge itself isn't impossible as it can be overcome by leveling. Though you need to be able to beat Iris's Haxorus, so you more or less need to train to level 80+ if you want to win. In addition to the 17 Type medals, there was also one medal you got for beating the E4 and Champion with just one single Pokémon. I used Chandelure for that challenge and it was probably not the best choice as it had problems against certain opponents in the E4. But it worked. It was really fun and a bit challenging too.

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Continuing on that track, I should say that I liked the Medal system in B2/W2 on the whole. Maybe I have said this in the past, but if so, then I'll say it again. I liked doing various things and obtaining Medals for them. I got some medals more or less automatically, while there were others I had to actually go out and do things for in order to get. It was really fun. I managed to obtain a total of 242 Medals on both of my games in the end, which felt very satisfying as my initial goal was 200 and I managed to surpass it by quite a large margin. I'm glad they kept the Medal system in Gen 6 (but in a different form), too bad it was dropped in Gen 7 and on.

Random other thing I thought about just now. In the Hoenn games, there are the Aqua Admins Matt and Shelly, as well as the Magma Admins Tabitha and Courtney. Their designs were all notably changed between R/S/E and OR/AS. While this was not a problem for the games, it could have been a big issue in Pokémon Adventures since the manga used their old designs in the R/S Chapter. So how did they solve it in the OR/AS Chapter? By making it so that the names Matt, Shelly, Tabitha and Courtney were not actual names, but rather codenames used by the Team Aqua/Magma Admins! I think that was a really cool solution.

Another thing I like related to the above is how Pokémon Adventures often introduce original Admins or high-ranking members of the evil teams. The most notable ones are Carl, Sham, Carr, Orm and Sird for Team Rocket, though as for Sird (big spoilers ahead) it is later revealed that she is actually a member of Team Galactic, she was just working as a spy for them while she was in Team Rocket. There's also Amber for Team Aqua and Blaise for Team Magma. I think it is really cool how the manga introduced these and several other original characters which doesn't appear in the games or anime.
 
Basculegion being part Ghost isn't even that far-off from how real salmon end up at the end of their spawning migration. Something else I like is how Hisuian Basculin are the first Pokemon to have their gender ratios changed from being 100% male, to 50/50 male/female. This opens up previously gender exclusive species to new forms, egg moves, or alternative evolutions. Edit: Unova Basculin isn't male only
 
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Imperial Magala said:
Basculegion being part Ghost isn't even that far-off from how real salmon end up at the end of their spawning migration. Something else I like is how Hisuian Basculin are the first Pokemon to have their gender ratios changed from being 100% male, to 50/50 male/female. This opens up previously gender exclusive species to new forms, egg moves, or alternative evolutions.
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Aren’t Basculin Red and Blue already 50/50 male/female? I checked out Bulbapedia about it.
 


Pointing this particular PLA overworld theme out because I really like it and think its pretty great and a relaxing theme to listen to. But what's nice is that of all the overworld themes this one from the Cobalt Coastlands really takes similar notes from Coumarine City from XY, and sounds very similar to it. Granted it's likely because it's from the same composer (Hitomi Sato) but it's interesting that while most of the overworld themes take from DPP route themes and city themes, this one seems to largely strike similar notes as a previous theme from a completely different game from a different region, but I like it a lot. Despite being a Sinnoh game, PLA does quite a lot of indirect shout outs to other regions like Unova, Alola, and Galar and this one, whether completely intentional or not, really reminds me a lot of Coumarine City's theme and I like it.
 
I really enjoy the new battle system of PLA with Agile/Strong Style moves and removing held items and Abilities. It adds a whole new layer of difficulty and addresses something that I've been thinking about for a while: How much your character is buffed in other games. Rant incoming!
You have the ability to grind and level up beyond any of the bosses and trainers in other games. PLA addresses this by buffing the opponents, allowing them to use multiple Pokemon in battle at once. I can't be the only one who had trouble with Sabi's battle at Snowpoint temple, even if her two other Pokemon were 20 levels lower. Another balance thing they did was give the opponents (Including wild Pokemon, i.e. Alphas) the ability to use the Agile/Strong Style moves.
My main problem with Mega Evolution was that it made the entirety of XY easy by not giving anyone else Megas... Except your rival (at the very end), Diantha (at the very end), and Lysander (at the very end). Yes, underleveling, but still, Mega Lucario and the mega of your starter really unbalanced things. Alola's Z-Moves were slightly better because other Trainers (including some generic Trainer battles) and used in the boss battles. BUT in USUM they buffed you again by letting you use Z-Moves twice. Dyna/Gigantamax was just not very good. Since basically every boss battle is single-typed, you can just bring one Pokemon with one move that's advantageous and sweep the whole team. And then, in PLA, they let the opposing Pokemon do the same thing you can, all the time. Even Alphas can do that, which is honestly terrifying! And an opponent swapping in a new 'mon and using two moves in a row before you can even move once is so cool.
And items and Abilities are similar to the last two things. Items gave you some extreme buffs and made a lot of battles way to easy, and opposing Trainers almost never used them (except healing items obviously). And for Abilities it's just that you can find a Pokemon with an Ability that makes the opposing Pokemon worse somehow, like Intimidate, or using a Pokemon with Huge Power or something. But honestly Abilities are much smaller.

Anyway, that's my big bad opinion for the week. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
 
Incineroar is Fire/Dark. Decidueye is Grass/Ghost. Primarina is Water/Fairy. What do all of these Pokemon have in common?

All of their secondary types are super effective against Ultra Necrozma, which makes this fight just a bit easier. Unfortunately, this didn't help the difficulty at all. Small little thing I realized earlier today, and felt dumb for not seeing it sooner.
 
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