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Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
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It's actually a gimmicky at best mechanic.
There was a time in early SS where one of the funny gimmick in some Smogon OM was trying to get Wonder Guard on a Burn Up arcanine which would TECNICALLY make it invulnerable.
...Except it's still Arcanine, died to Mold Breaker and clones, entry hazards, weather, without a stab and with 1 less attack slot since Burn Up has to be run for this to work.
Another example of a funny WG related gimmick was also actually running Soak Tapu Fini + Shedinja in SwSh/SS. Similary, it was gimmicky at best, and like the above, still died to pretty much any sort of indirect damage on top of having to deal with ability ignoring signature moves and Shedinja itself not exactly being the pinnacle of damage.
Like, making a "invulnerable" pokemon sounds fun at start until you realize that powercreep got to a point where Wonder Guard isn't as good as it sounds even when giving it to somewhat good pokemon otherwise.
I do know that Shedinja can be used as a surprise win-con against big threats like Kyogre or Zacian since, unless they prepared for Shedinja with Ancient Power or Fire Fang, are walled completely by it.
Well not so much surprise wincon since team preview exists but yes, it has had actual world cup vgc usage due to it pretty much demolishing kyogre. However that is mainly a niche case and it struggled a ton with the fact Incineroar exists.
I actually disagree calling it a “ gimmick “. I remember using this in the Moon series of VGC where I used Soak Tapu Fini alongside a Zekrom/Reshiram core. Essentially, Tapu Fini would Soak Ground Types allowing Zekrom to blast through Ground types. Fini also had support options for Zekrom, like Swagger for Attack Boosts and Misty Terrain for Zekrom’s Misty Seed, and halving Dragon type damage. Shedinja was an additional countermeasure against Xerneas, and Soak Fini could use it on Shedinja to ruin common answers like Incineroar and Yveltal by giving it only two weaknesses. I had a battle that lasted 50 turns because it came down to Soak Shedinja vs Xerneas and Incineroar, which I won.
Soak Fini per se wasn't a gimmick, I remind it was used, but Soak + Shedinja definitely was. I don't remind anyone basing their team around it, if anything it may have been an afterthought if you happened to run both for some reason.
However as you prolly figure yourself, it also relied on you using already gimmicky Restricteds that didn't really see much serious usage :P
Something I never see anyone talk about is how much Emerald improved Pokemon distribution compared to RS. I'm not talking about wild distribution, which for the most part is almost the same, but among NPCs.
Several games prior to DPP are notorious for having "invisible" members of their regional Pokedexes that will not be seen in a typical playthrough because they aren't used by any NPCs, and have such convoluted or difficult methods of obtaining them that the vast majority of players won't stumble across it by accident. In GSC, this was fully intended and kind of justified by the fact that some of the new evolutions are meant to be hidden - a Super Nerd in the basement of Slowpoke Well hints at how to get Slowking, for example, though this still needs another game to accomplish. RBY has a whopping 26/151 Pokemon not used by any trainer. Obviously in DPP, BW, and XY the Pokedex is completed by seeing every species in it, so NPCs tend to have teams with every Pokemon in it.
But Hoenn has SO many Pokemon not used by anyone, including those that are super-rare. Emerald, of course, did not expand the Pokedex like later games do, but it did tweak NPC Pokemon usage to fill in the gaps in the Pokedex that probably confused a lot of people (I imagine a few casual players were surprised to learn Chimecho existed at all).
Examples (there might be more, but these spring to mind):
But the addition of species like Chimecho to enemy rosters is much welcomed. It makes the game world actually feel more lived-in for me; Chimecho is ultra-rare in RSE, but it feels really stupid if the player is the only one to ever find it. To me it's a great bit of world-building to imagine that some earnest Psychic or Hex Maniac stumbled across one as well.
Even if it remains frustratingly rare, giving you the "seen" entry tips you off that it exists and it gives you motivation to go after it. And the trainer who uses it is herself off the beaten path, so it's still not a sure thing you'll see it - but the fact that it's there is cool. I guess my point is - exploration should always be rewarded.
Too bad ORAS stamped pretty much all of Emerald's better changes out. Which is why, much like Crystal, Emerald outflanks the remakes and is the best Hoenn experience overall.
Several games prior to DPP are notorious for having "invisible" members of their regional Pokedexes that will not be seen in a typical playthrough because they aren't used by any NPCs, and have such convoluted or difficult methods of obtaining them that the vast majority of players won't stumble across it by accident. In GSC, this was fully intended and kind of justified by the fact that some of the new evolutions are meant to be hidden - a Super Nerd in the basement of Slowpoke Well hints at how to get Slowking, for example, though this still needs another game to accomplish. RBY has a whopping 26/151 Pokemon not used by any trainer. Obviously in DPP, BW, and XY the Pokedex is completed by seeing every species in it, so NPCs tend to have teams with every Pokemon in it.
But Hoenn has SO many Pokemon not used by anyone, including those that are super-rare. Emerald, of course, did not expand the Pokedex like later games do, but it did tweak NPC Pokemon usage to fill in the gaps in the Pokedex that probably confused a lot of people (I imagine a few casual players were surprised to learn Chimecho existed at all).
Examples (there might be more, but these spring to mind):
- In RS no-one uses Pinsir or Absol; Emerald adds a double battle with a pair who do, as well as another trainer in Victory Road with an Absol
- In RS no-one uses Spoink, but in Emerald a trainer in Mossdeep Gym has one
- The Jigglypuff line isn't used by anyone in RS, but in Emerald a trainer in Norman's gym has a Wigglytuff
- Chimecho is utterly invisible in RS but Emerald adds a trainer in the Trick House who has one
- Wobbuffet isn't used by any trainer in RS but Emerald adds two trainers who use it: one in Trick House, one in Mossdeep Gym
But the addition of species like Chimecho to enemy rosters is much welcomed. It makes the game world actually feel more lived-in for me; Chimecho is ultra-rare in RSE, but it feels really stupid if the player is the only one to ever find it. To me it's a great bit of world-building to imagine that some earnest Psychic or Hex Maniac stumbled across one as well.
Even if it remains frustratingly rare, giving you the "seen" entry tips you off that it exists and it gives you motivation to go after it. And the trainer who uses it is herself off the beaten path, so it's still not a sure thing you'll see it - but the fact that it's there is cool. I guess my point is - exploration should always be rewarded.
Too bad ORAS stamped pretty much all of Emerald's better changes out. Which is why, much like Crystal, Emerald outflanks the remakes and is the best Hoenn experience overall.
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So I was curious about that last bit, because I know that ORAS actually altered a very large chunk of non-leader rosters, so I wanted to see "how many of these Pokemon, still don't show up in Trainer rosters?"
Pinsir
-Is now used by a Bug Maniac's 3 rematch teams on Route 120 (2 pre-post game, 1 post game)
-Is now used by an Ace Trainer's default team on 127
Starmie
-Used by a new underwater trainer
Huntail
-Used by a new underwater trainer's rematch team (she also uses Gorebyss)
-Used by a trainer in the sootopolis gym
Gorebyss
-Used by a new underwater trainer's rematch team
-Used by a (different) trainer in the sootopolis gym
Chimecho
-Used by a trainer in the Mossdeep gym
-Also used in a Sea Mauville trainer's rematch team
Spoink
-Used by a trainer on 111
Rhyhorn
-Used by a Pokemaniac's rematch team on Route 114
-Used by an Ace Trainer on Route 123
Jigglypuff
-Used by a trainer at the Food Court
-Used by a trainer in Mt Pyre (it evolves into Wigglytuff in rematches)
-Used by a trainer in Jagged Pass
Weezing
-Used by a Ninja Boy's (final) rematch team on Route 113
-Used by Maxie, and assorted Magma Grunts in their hideout, in Omega Ruby (Archie & Aqua use Muk instead)
Absol still only appears on Sidney's team, however.
Wobbuffet (& Wynaut) don't appear on any teams, however. Overly skiddish, perhaps?
The de-specialization of the Dragon type was the absolute best thing to happen to Dragon designs. Not to say they were bad prior to Gen 6, far from it (Dragonite my beloved), it's just that now we get all these funky and dope "middle class" Dragon designs at a way higher clip. The Applin line, Tyrantrum, Alolan Exeggutor, Cyclizar and of course Turtonator and my beloved Drampa are all premium, accessible kino.
Altaria gets so much hate and yet it walked so that others could run
Altaria has an active haterbase?
To be honest, I personally prefer those types of dragon mons. Like, sure, salamence and dragonite are epic, there's no denying of that. But what rly makes them stand out on top of being cool dragons? Compare that to dragalge (a literal leafy seadragon) flapple and appletun (wyrms fused with apples) and noicern (a literal wyvern that uses sound waves to attack!).
But maybe that's just me and my silly personal opinion.
But maybe that's just me and my silly personal opinion.
Where have you been living?!
my house
(nah but seriously this is news to me, i thought most people liked or at least were neutral towards the cloud bird)
people have been clowning on the bird since gen 3
distinct, vivid memories of how it was uncool and barely a dragon (derogatory)
Pokemon Masters released Sygna Suit Wally with Shiny Gardevoir. While it is a reference to him originally using a Gardevoir and as a way to differentiate from Diantha, there's another reference to consider.
I wonder if maybe that played a factor in Pokemon's creation, at least in making it an RPG. Tajiri is well known for having been a bug collector when he was a kid and likely would notice how often early enemies included bugs. In addition to imagining bugs crawling across the link cables as being the inspiration for Pokemon, I could also see at some point while expanding the concept remembering all those bug enemies he fought in RPGs. "What if, instead of you fighting, you sent out of the bugs you collected to fight and capture new ones". Yes, bug fighting would be part of the game already, but having bug fighting competitions and using your bugs to capture more are two different concepts which can just so happen be rolled into one mechanic.
But yeah, Tajiri wasn't going to leave out bugs (insert Gen I programming joke here), though it is interesting he made it a Type. With the scrapped "Bird" and having other unique Types like Flying, Fighting, Ghost, and Dragon, I'm now wondering if maybe we have the Bug-type to possibly thank (and blame) for the complexity of the Type Chart and it not just sticking with only the "common" elements.
Hey, if it thematically fits, profit.
Luckily there's very few instances where the player ever battles an NPC with a Wobbuffet. It's either in the game where obtaining Wobbuffet isn't possible or at the very least difficult, in the post game so by GF's stance it's your own fault, or in a Battle Facility where you can just quit the battle.
Oh sweet Arceus, if they make a Let's Go GS and bring back the Master Trainer concept please let the Wobbuffet trainer just require to see a high CP (like with Ditto) and not actually battle it (like they for some reason required with Magikarp).
It's a groundhog.
Though if it were up to me I would have named it Watchuck as another name for the "groundhog" is a "woodchuck". Just in general the translation team makes questionable decisions, often times trying to stick way to close to the original spirit of the Japanese pun.
I gotta admit I do have a soft spot for Koffing as well.
Now I want there to be trainers who just have team of Unown but they send them out in a certain order to spell out something as a joke (though it would likely be in Japanese).
I would actually more associate that with Tajiri's personal experience. His father was a Japanese salaryman thus, as Worldie said, often away from home and his mother mostly raised him. This personal experience has cemented itself in a subtle way into the games where its easily overlooked as it gives the player a quicker way to get onto the journey (since the mother is always okay with it).
In general, in no game is your mom said to be divorced or a widow. In addition a few games do sometimes make an off mention of the father. The feeling seems to be that your parents are still together but your father's job keeps him away from home; because he makes a steady income your mother can just be a homemaker and raising you.
Heck, even the only player father we have seen, Norman, is also someone who's job takes him far from home even after the family moved to be closer to his workplace (though it is said he does make the round trip from Littleroot & Petalburg daily). But that also does give us a sneak peak into a bit of the darker side of this as we see Gen III's protag's parents marriage isn't the most happy (and this is a game where we learn about Professor Cozmo's parents messy breakup and see what it did to his father).
(TBC)
