Little things you like about Pokémon

Long ago, Electrode was the fastest Pokemon in existence. Then, everything changed when a ninja cicada and space virus attacked.

18 years passed, and Game Freak saw Electrode, a Pokemon barely alive. They said to themselves, "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology." So they took Electrode's movepool, jacked up its stats, gave it a broken ability, and made Regieleki.
 
I like when they go back and give signature traits to old Pokémon. Gen 5 out of nowhere gave Mewtwo a new exclusive move and Zangoose a new exclusive ability, both of which were fantastic and really helped invigorate them.
Gen 7 randomly gave Heatmor of all things a signature move. Sure, it wasn't a signature move anymore by the next game, but it's still crazy how they remembered about this obscure, competitively irrelevant Pokémon that I don't think even was in the Alola dex
 
One of the things I like about IoA is the fact that you can catch several Pokémon early that wouldn’t be found until late in base SwSh (specifically, near or after the fifth Gym, which is when I prefer to have a full team) Granted, a few of them are rare, but one notable ‘mon is Clobbopus; not only is it super-common in Loop Lagoon, but you can get the TR for Taunt fairly easily if you know how to use the Cram-o-matic, meaning you can potentially get a Graploct before the first gym.
 
This is something I think is overlooked by a lot of people in the DLC (admittedly because by the time they were out every hardcore player had had a complete dex for months) -- a smaller, subtle sales point to them is making rarer Pokémon much easier to get. Dragapult and Mimikyu which only appear in one specific area under one specific area in small percentages in base game are very common in Crown Tundra's cemetery; trade evolutions like Rhyperior are wandering around; this even extends to items -- I had to laugh a little when IoA released and I found a Toxic Orb on the ground almost instantly as if it was nothing.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
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Ghetsis's Hyrdeigon can hit every member of N's team with super effective damage, just in case his plans to usurp N weren't apparent enough. N's dragon doesn't even have any Dragon moves.
Not just Hydreigon, Ghetsis's entire team felt like it was meant to hard counter N's team.
I really appreciate how each Gen changes the designs of previous trainer classes, it really helps giving each game some visual variety in ways that don't necessarily involve adding new content. Even a class as simple as the Fisher manages to have different designs between each Gen:

Hmm, not exactly related, but close enough: shameless plug for the "Trainer Lines" article that I and TMan87 wrote...
 
Random thought, but I've noticed PoGo has had an arc over the course of its lifespan that mirrors that of the franchise itself: A Mania phase where everybody and their mother was uber-hype about it, a dead phase where it became kind of uncool to still be playing, and now a phase where, while far from its heights, it's still in the public consciousness thanks to a loyal playerbase.

To anyone whose entry point into the franchise was Go, congratulations. You've experienced a taste of both the highest highs and the lowest lows of being a lifelong Pokemon fan in just four years.
 
I really like Lumiose city. I guess that's an unpopular opinion, because Lumiose city is apparently very disliked in the community. Still though, its probably my favorite city in the Pokemon world. Here are the reasons: #1. The music. It feels so grand. Like you are exploring a giant city full of grandeur. I remember when I arrived in XY, I was amazed at how huge this city was, since no other city in Pokemon has ever been this huge.

#2: Speaking of the city, Let's talk about the hidden (literally) gem of Lumiose: For those that don't know, Lumiose City has a hidden mechanic called style, which increases as you do activities within the city. It can range from shopping items or participating in battles at restaurants. Here's a list on Bulbapedia. I think it is a really cool way to encourage the player to go around, exploring the city, and trying all the facilities.

So let's talk about why its disliked: It's way too big and its hard to navigate. That's valid, though I do feel like it is blown out of proportion. There are cabs all over the city and they allow travel city very easily, especially if you have high style points. The other issue might be the fixed camera. When you are in Lumiose, the camera angle changes from bird's eye to first person, and is fixed. This creates a problem when you are navigating the city going downward, as the camera angle is stuck on your face and you can't see where you are going. It is really easy to get lost in that city when you cannot tell where you are going.

I'm guessing those criticisms are why we never had a giant city like Lumiose despite it being very possible on the Switch. Its kind of a shame though, because the only issue I found was that of the camera angle. I still stand that Lumiose is one of the most unique and interesting places in the Pokemon world to explore.
 
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Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
I really like Lumiose city. I guess that's an unopopular opinion, because Lumiose city is apparently very disliked in the community.

(...)

So let's talk about why its disliked: It's way too big and its hard to navigate. That's valid, though I do feel like it is blown out of proportion. There are cabs all over the city and they allow travel city very easily, especially if you have high style points. The other issue might be the fixed camera. When you are in Lumiose, the camera angle changes from bird's eye to first person, and is fixed. This creates a problem when you are navigating the city going downward, as the camera angle is stuck on your face and you can't see where you are going. It is really easy to get lost in that city when you cannot tell where you are going.
I've never heard this reason. The reason I know many don't like Lumiose City initially is because most of the city is blocked off when you first get there and the reason given is a bit flimsy (a citywide blackout... yet at night you see the buildings where there is supposed to be the blackout have lights, oops). However, once it all opens up, it's an expansive city to explore with many buildings to enter, alleyways inbetween, and people all over. For those who like exploration it provides that and more. It's funny they tried to push Lumiose and Mauville being "sister cities" when it more feels like Lumiose would more be sister cities with Castelia.
 
I've never heard this reason. The reason I know many don't like Lumiose City initially is because most of the city is blocked off when you first get there and the reason given is a bit flimsy (a citywide blackout... yet at night you see the buildings where there is supposed to be the blackout have lights, oops). However, once it all opens up, it's an expansive city to explore with many buildings to enter, alleyways inbetween, and people all over. For those who like exploration it provides that and more. It's funny they tried to push Lumiose and Mauville being "sister cities" when it more feels like Lumiose would more be sister cities with Castelia.
I've heard this reason plenty of times. Lumiose is, straight up, too big and while every road has a name its a lot to take in at once (or not notice) and still get lost.
 

Ema Skye

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I've never heard this reason. The reason I know many don't like Lumiose City initially is because most of the city is blocked off when you first get there and the reason given is a bit flimsy (a citywide blackout... yet at night you see the buildings where there is supposed to be the blackout have lights, oops). However, once it all opens up, it's an expansive city to explore with many buildings to enter, alleyways inbetween, and people all over. For those who like exploration it provides that and more. It's funny they tried to push Lumiose and Mauville being "sister cities" when it more feels like Lumiose would more be sister cities with Castelia.
On this note, Castelia seems to be the 'big city done right'. Both are encountered at similar points (Castelia is the 4th [BW2] or 5th [BW] city the player encounters; Lumiose is the 4th). Castelia actually feels like a huge city with different 'biomes' like a park, sewers, hidden allies and piers so it all feels different. Whereas Lumiose is larger, it all feels the same due to everything looking so similar (big buildings and trees).

I've heard this reason plenty of times. Lumiose is, straight up, too big and while every road has a name its a lot to take in at once (or not notice) and still get lost.
Same thing here, and I think part of the reason why people get lost there so easily is that everything looks the same.

(maybe) hot take: Castelia is the best city in the series.
 
TBH Castelia has the same problem as Lumiose, to a lesser extent. The 27 unintuitive loading screens between areas as well as the awful camera make it a pain to traverse. While Style was indeed pretty cool (I love when pokemon has those side goals, kind of like the house in platinum or the contest paintings), I think Goldenrod and ORAS's Mauville are overall much better executed "big cities".
 
Castelia is mostly fine, but I think it has a bit of a problem with how almost everything in the city becomes available all at once. If you're the kind of player who likes to do everything you can in a new area as soon as it becomes available, then Castelia can be a bit of a mess, specially in repeated playthroughs. With the way the city is structured and how you can never remember what's inside each building, Castelia can end up feeling like a giant checklist. Lumiose has a similar problem, but at least it blocks off half of the city in your first visit so that you're only able to do some of its content later in the game.
 

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