I never knew the Rotom appliances used to be event-exclusive.
Gen 4 Rotom just keeps becoming more of a legendary Pokemon.
Gen 4 Rotom just keeps becoming more of a legendary Pokemon.
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Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!
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Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
Yeah, the only problem is that, for the Gen IV games, you need an insecure Wi-Fi connection to connect...
But for Gen V, if you get a DSi-enhanced game, it's all great.
I have to use my phone's hotspot, it's a total faff
Detective Pikachu's best scene by leaps and bounds and a jaw-dropping showing for my favorite starter. I'm still riding the high of watching this for the first time years later.
Since the Johto games are being discussed again in the unpopular opinions thread, here's something I feel was one of the better changes HGSS made: every gym in Johto, except for the Cianwood Gym, requires you to do something before you can access it.
-Violet Gym cannot be challenged until the player has cleared Sprout Tower*
-Azalea Gym cannot be accessed until the player defeats Team Rocket in the Slowpoke Well
-Goldenrod Gym is closed until the player obtains the Radio Card*
-Ecruteak Gym cannot be challenged until the player meets Morty in the Burned Tower*
-Olivine Gym is vacated until Amphy is healed
-Mahogany Gym is locked until the player defeats Team Rocket in their hideout
-Blackthorn Gym is blocked until the player defeats Team Rocket in the Radio Tower
*In the original GSC the Sprout Tower can be skipped entirely and the player doesn't actually need the Radio Card at any point in the game (source: me, having done both of these things) - Burned Tower is completely optional in GS, but not in Crystal.
I think it's fun that not all the gyms can be immediately challenged the minute you arrive in a new town. It prompts you to explore locations more thoroughly and gives you an actual impetus to talk to NPCs and enter buildings. The Unova games do something similar which I think is partly why I like the plot of those games, and ORAS later tweaks things to prevent the player from skipping gyms as they could in RSE. On the one hand this is a bit railroad-y, but it's a naturalistic way to force the player to actually engage with the game world without feeling too hamfisted. Yeah I just think this is neat.
-Violet Gym cannot be challenged until the player has cleared Sprout Tower*
-Azalea Gym cannot be accessed until the player defeats Team Rocket in the Slowpoke Well
-Goldenrod Gym is closed until the player obtains the Radio Card*
-Ecruteak Gym cannot be challenged until the player meets Morty in the Burned Tower*
-Olivine Gym is vacated until Amphy is healed
-Mahogany Gym is locked until the player defeats Team Rocket in their hideout
-Blackthorn Gym is blocked until the player defeats Team Rocket in the Radio Tower
*In the original GSC the Sprout Tower can be skipped entirely and the player doesn't actually need the Radio Card at any point in the game (source: me, having done both of these things) - Burned Tower is completely optional in GS, but not in Crystal.
I think it's fun that not all the gyms can be immediately challenged the minute you arrive in a new town. It prompts you to explore locations more thoroughly and gives you an actual impetus to talk to NPCs and enter buildings. The Unova games do something similar which I think is partly why I like the plot of those games, and ORAS later tweaks things to prevent the player from skipping gyms as they could in RSE. On the one hand this is a bit railroad-y, but it's a naturalistic way to force the player to actually engage with the game world without feeling too hamfisted. Yeah I just think this is neat.
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Getting past Snorlax?
That's probably the reason it was made mandatory.
Speaking from experience, it was very easy to completely ignore the existence of the Radio Card until you cannot wake Snorlax up.
I think Snorlax only blocks a shortcut since Diglett Cave goes to Pewter but you can go their via Fuschia -> Cinnabar -> Pallet -> Viridian, and Lavender via Saffron City. It's convenient, but theoretically you can get everywhere in Kanto without waking up the Snorlax in GSC, unlike RBY where they were specifically placed at intersections you couldn't navigate around to progress since they blocked Surf, so the Card is only mandatory for the Snorlax itself.
Side note, that Snorlax is a detail I like, with the implication is it's the one Red didn't catch (he has one on his team so presumably he did catch one), with 3 years to itself eating and growing to explain the level difference.
Ah I just knew someone would pull me up on this. Yes - Snorlax.
Technically my post was correct. I should have said that it's the EXPN Card you need, not the Radio Card. But, yes, you do need the radio in general.
You can't go to Cinnabar from Fuchsia, it's blocked off. You have to go via Pallet and approach from the south for the Route 19 beach to be cleared. EDIT: and apparently you need the Volcanobadge. Curious to try that for myself now.
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Wow, Johto talk is pretty popular right now.
Here's a good one: Gold and Silver, and their remakes, are the only paired games in the series that send you to completely different dungeons for their respective box legends. I love that. They get to actually play differently beyond the small handful of mons gated off from the other version, and it facilitates the setup where both box legends exist in both universes, but the version difference is which one you pick up as part of the main story and which one you grab halfway through the Kanto section.
Here's a good one: Gold and Silver, and their remakes, are the only paired games in the series that send you to completely different dungeons for their respective box legends. I love that. They get to actually play differently beyond the small handful of mons gated off from the other version, and it facilitates the setup where both box legends exist in both universes, but the version difference is which one you pick up as part of the main story and which one you grab halfway through the Kanto section.
I absolutely love that GS made both box legendaries available in both games, and just made one available significantly earlier than the other. Now that they don't seem to be doing third versions anymore, it's an approach that I'd like to see come back. I guess what PLA did kind of counts.
That said, GS did still have some version exclusivity in that Lugia could only have Aeroblast in Silver and Ho-Oh could only have Sacred Fire in Gold. This was because the off-version legendary was caught at too high a level to still have its signature move. It's not a bad compromise between full sharing and full exclusivity, but the introduction of the Move Reminder in Gen III kind of eliminated it as an option from then on. Unless they wanted to just be like "this mon can't learn this move naturally but happens to somehow know it on capture in this game," which I guess they could do.
That said, GS did still have some version exclusivity in that Lugia could only have Aeroblast in Silver and Ho-Oh could only have Sacred Fire in Gold. This was because the off-version legendary was caught at too high a level to still have its signature move. It's not a bad compromise between full sharing and full exclusivity, but the introduction of the Move Reminder in Gen III kind of eliminated it as an option from then on. Unless they wanted to just be like "this mon can't learn this move naturally but happens to somehow know it on capture in this game," which I guess they could do.
Two things to add to this:
-In Crystal neither have their Signature move
-For the non-Virtual Console Gold/Crystal Lugia and Silver/Crystal Ho-oh, you could actually let them learn the moves via Stadium 2, which had a move-relearner available as a repeatable reward after beating the Elite Four and Champion in the Gym Leader castle if you used a team of only Pokemon from your gameboy titles(only one pokemon among your party could use it, and only one move could be relearned, and works with both Gen I and Gen II games).
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I love the progression of the move reminder
Gen 1: None, just catch a new one it's fine.
GSC: None, but there was breeding for most of them so egg moves could kinda sorta circumvent it
Stadium 2: Fine yo ucan have a move reminder but you better be ready to beat the Champion every. Single. Time. And you dont forget to actually bring it!
RSE: Grind Luvdiscs for Heart Scales to give to the guy, how simple and easy
FRLG: Grind...Paras to give Mushrooms to the guy. Ahhhh that's...not great, actually, considering that they're pretty annoying to find.
XD: For some reason XD, and only XD, has a move reminder and it costs 1000 pokecoupons per pop which is frankly the second most ridiculous behind Stadium 2.
Gen 4: Heart scales again; leads to an interesting aspect, however, that you can only use it in full in HGSS after beating the game but you'll see some Heart Scales throughout Johto iirc.
Gen 5: Heart Scales again but now there's a bunch more options than just Luvdisc
Gen 6: Heart scales but I'd like to mention this was the weird point where they decided to have a bunch of moves learned at both high levels...but also level 1. Gen 6 also introduced the concept of Pokemon Memory, so a variety of "unique" or egg moves can now be reminded.
Gen 7: Heart scalesssss. At the very last part of the game but lets you learn any move in the learnset
SWSH: Available in every Pokemon center, for free!. Lost the ability to learn the entire moveset for obvious reasons. Unless you're a stone evolution which lol, lmao.
BDSP: Back to the Heart Scales to one guy at the mid game, but after 10 uses it's free forever, pretty rad
LA: Cut the middle man, you can just do it in the menu at any time.
we've come so far
Gen 1: None, just catch a new one it's fine.
GSC: None, but there was breeding for most of them so egg moves could kinda sorta circumvent it
Stadium 2: Fine yo ucan have a move reminder but you better be ready to beat the Champion every. Single. Time. And you dont forget to actually bring it!
RSE: Grind Luvdiscs for Heart Scales to give to the guy, how simple and easy
FRLG: Grind...Paras to give Mushrooms to the guy. Ahhhh that's...not great, actually, considering that they're pretty annoying to find.
XD: For some reason XD, and only XD, has a move reminder and it costs 1000 pokecoupons per pop which is frankly the second most ridiculous behind Stadium 2.
Gen 4: Heart scales again; leads to an interesting aspect, however, that you can only use it in full in HGSS after beating the game but you'll see some Heart Scales throughout Johto iirc.
Gen 5: Heart Scales again but now there's a bunch more options than just Luvdisc
Gen 6: Heart scales but I'd like to mention this was the weird point where they decided to have a bunch of moves learned at both high levels...but also level 1. Gen 6 also introduced the concept of Pokemon Memory, so a variety of "unique" or egg moves can now be reminded.
Gen 7: Heart scalesssss. At the very last part of the game but lets you learn any move in the learnset
SWSH: Available in every Pokemon center, for free!. Lost the ability to learn the entire moveset for obvious reasons. Unless you're a stone evolution which lol, lmao.
BDSP: Back to the Heart Scales to one guy at the mid game, but after 10 uses it's free forever, pretty rad
LA: Cut the middle man, you can just do it in the menu at any time.
we've come so far
There is a small hallway in Mount Moon that has a 100% Paras encounter rate. Said hallway is also often sited in online guides as by far the best place in the game to grind for Attack EVs without having to pay any attention to what you are encountering(might want to have the sound on in case of a Shiny, though)
I can't wait for SV to change it over again, because GF...
I definitely think Arceus' variant is the best, though with the way level 1 moves work in the main series, I think it'd need some change (maybe could be something you unlock after beating the game or after beating all gyms).
I dunno I think level 1 moves work fine in Gen 8 , unless you're a stone evolution in which case, bit of right and left not fully meeting here.
And even then that was mostly an "issue" because the wild area was effectively your third route and had stone evolutions just lying around
- Move relearner is easily accessible from the start of the game
- Move relearner can teach moves that would otherwise be prevo-exclusive
- Most stone evolutions don't learn new moves through level-up after evolving
It occurred to me that I never actually checked how stone evolutions worked in LA and looking it up now I see that they just...have normal level up movesets.
Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu all the same, down to the very level. Same applies to all evolution line
I guess that's one way of approaching it
Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu all the same, down to the very level. Same applies to all evolution line
I guess that's one way of approaching it
Updating the stone evo moveset would definitely the best way to remove the issue. I don't quite think the reason for their skewed moveset exists anymore anyway... it used to be "evolve early but give up power" yadda yadda anime powers, but at this point there's plenty of exceptions to this rule anyway on top of certain Pokes that can only evolve via stone due to previous conditions not existing anymore anyway.
I’d say there ought to be two Move Relearners; one that operates like the ones from Gens 3-6 who can be found earlier in the game and offers free services, and one like the ones in Gens 7 and 8, to the point of being able to teach a stone evo its prevo’s level-up moves, found right at the end of the game, but costs something (whether it be Heart Scales or just money). That would be the most balanced, IMO.
The simple solution would be to have Move Relearners be like the ones in Gen 8 until you beat the game, upon which you can use start to it to teach moves of a higher level as in Gen 7.
Also in Gen 8 I don't think you can have a pokemon relearn TM or TR moves (can't remember which).
You are mistaken, that is not the case at all, at least in Sword and Shield. When you teach an individual Pokemon a move via TR in Sword and Shield, it is effectively permanently etched into the individual mon's learnset in that even if you replace the move, you don't need to use the same TR on it again to have it learn it again: you can go back to the move relearner to have it relearn the TR move. So for example, when you teach a Dragapult Psychic Fangs, if you replace Psychic Fangs but want Dragapult to learn it again later, you can just visit a Pokemon Center's move relearner and have the relearner re-teach Dragapult Psychic Fangs.
This isn't the case with TMs technically, but TMs in Sword and Shield are infinite use anyway so it's not like that matters much. That being said, if we're talking that thing we call BDSP, TMs aren't relearnable via the relearner NPC despite being one-use and you need to use the same TM again on a mon if you want them to relearn a move. But in Sword and Shield a TR move is effectively etched into a Pokemon learnset in such a way that a move relearner can reteach a TR-learned move to an individual Pokemon at any time.
Recently, there were a bunch of negative posts about Johto in the unpops thread… followed by several positive posts about Johto in this thread. I want to continue on that track, so here’s some more positive things about Johto! No, this is not a joke.
First of all, let’s talk about the Johto episode of Pokémon Evolutions: The Show. I really like this episode. As said in the unpops thread, I think it is a great example of how Johto is at its best outside of the games.
There is a lot to like about this episode. One thing I noticed was how it made use of colors regarding the Kimono Girls and their Pokémon.
The first Kimono Girl has a Moon Ball in her hair, she wears a black dress with yellow rings and she uses Umbreon.
The second has a Fast Ball in her hair, she has a orange/yellow-ish dress with a somewhat zagged pattern, she uses Jolteon.
The third has a Level Ball in her hair, she has a dress with a fiery pattern, and she uses Flareon.
The fourth has Lure Ball in her hair, she wears a blue dress with a watery pattern, and she uses Vaporeon.
The fifth has a Love Ball in her hair, she wears a pink dress, and she uses Espeon.
I really like the way they made use of the colors here.
I also like how they used the Eeveelutions to symbolize the events of the story.
Umbreon: The night when it happened
Jolteon: The lightning that struck the Tower
Flareon: The fire that started afterwards
Vaporeon: The rain that put out the fire
Espeon: The morning after
That was really cool.
Another thing I like is how the episode showed a little “behind the scenes” with various Pokémon helping with the special effects on the theater.
I also like how this episode focused on Lugia instead of Ho-Oh. While it would have felt more natural for them to go with Ho-Oh instead as it resides on the top of the Bell Tower (as opposed to Lugia living at the bottom of the Whirl Islands), I feel like Lugia has gotten a bit shafted over the years so it was great to see it get some attention once again.
Let’s continue with saying more nice things about Johto! Another thing I like, which has been talked about before, is the atmosphere of Kanto in G/S/C and how it is ultra-industrialized to the extreme. I believe green_typhlosion was the first to bring this up in the past.
I decided to take a more in-depth look at G/S/C Kanto to see how it is. Here’s everything I could find:
- The Power Plant is back up and running, compared to being closed in R/B/Y
- The Safari Zone is closed
- Viridian Forest is gone, it is replaced by a small maze of bushes
- Seafoam Islands is just one very small cave
- Mt. Moon is much smaller and it has a square with a house, which wasn’t there in R/B/Y
- Cerulean Cave is gone
- In Lavender Town, the Pokémon Tower is replaced by a Radio Tower
- The Magnet Train between Saffron and Goldenrod has been built (though it is up to the player to get it up and running)
- Celadon City seems to have been polluted as the ponds are inhabited by nothing but Grimer and Muk. FR/LG seems to have made a minor reference to this as in those games, you have a 1% chance of encountering Koffing while Surfing, and Grimer when fishing with the Super Rod
- Route 23 has been shrunk down to almost nothing. In comparison, it was a quite long natural road in R/B/Y
- Some changes in the overworld design tiles, one of the most notable changes is the borders around the water routes are plastic things instead of the more natural rocks and cliffs
- The Pewter Museum is closed for renovations (it may not be completely related to this, but it was something I noticed and I just wanted to mention it)
Another notable thing is how Kanto is a lot smaller in G/S/C. Upon taking a closer look, it seems like the majority of the more natural areas (routes and dungeons) are smaller than in R/B/Y, the majority of them have been shortened or shrunk down. But most of the actual settlements are as big as they were in R/B/Y. This contributes to making the region feel industrialized.
I found a map which compares the overworld of Kanto in R/B/Y and G/S/C:
https://i.redd.it/gq6guoea8q661.png
It makes it very clear that Kanto is considerably smaller in G/S/C.
Looking back, Kanto in G/S/C was really unique. While it was very heavily flawed from a gameplay perspective, the atmosphere was really special. I guess that a lot of areas had to be removed or get smaller because of technical limitations in the games, but seeing how most of these were the more natural areas, I wonder if it might have been at least partly intentional. Either way, I think it created something very unique. I never thought the day would come when I would say something positive about Kanto in the Johto games, but here we are. Unfortunately, HG/SS decided to get rid of the atmosphere but keep all of the gameplay flaws, which is a shame.
However, I think there is one area where HG/SS really nailed it. Cinnabar Island. They captured the atmosphere here so well. This island was once bustling with life and featured a city, then the volcano erupted and everything except the Pokémon Center got wiped out. The music in HG/SS is also perfect. It suits the situation so perfectly. When I played HG/SS, I would often Fly to Cinnabar Islands to listen to the music and relax after being frustrated by all the issues in these games. While I think HG/SS changed many things in Kanto for the worse compared to how they were in G/S/C, I think this is one of the few things (maybe even the only thing) they actually changed for the better, if only ever so slightly.
The above made me think about another thing. Cinnabar Island has a volcano, but it is never visible anywhere in the Kanto games, only in the Johto games. But it is clearly shown in other media like the anime and Pokémon Adventures. No idea why. To make it suitable for this thread, I guess I sort of like how the volcano on Cinnabar exists in the Kanto games without being visible... or something.
Onto something else. In Gen 1-3, getting certain badges would boost one stat of all the player’s Pokémon (for pure in-game use). But it seems that in Gen 2, each badge would also boost the power of the moves used by the same type. I just randomly learned this yesterday. In Gen 2, every Badge boosts the power of the type it is associated with. For instance, the Zephyr Badge boosts Flying-type attacks. And so on. While there isn’t a Ground-type Gym in the Johto games, the Earth Badge still boosts Ground-type moves. I guess Dark misses out on this boost as there is no Dark-type Badge in Johto. Though I’m not sure, maybe Dark-types get boosted through some other means, like after beating Team Rocket.
Moving on from Johto, another thing I really like and that I have always liked is how Pokémon evolutions are showcased in the anime. When I was a kid, I saw the anime before playing the games, and I always thought that evolution looked a lot cooler in the anime than in the games. Even now in Gen 8, I still think evolution looks much cooler in the anime than in the games. It feels like despite how it has evolved (pun intended) in the games throughout the years, it still hasn’t reached the level of coolness it has always had in the anime.
I have continued playing Emerald, and one other thing it made me think about that I like is how OR/AS kept most of the NPC designs from R/S/E for the new trainer artwork in OR/AS. For instance, here’s the sprites for Pokémon Breeders in R/S/E and the art for them in OR/AS.
Their art in OR/AS is clearly based on their sprites in R/S/E, but with some minor changes. I think it is really neat. The same goes for most/all other Hoenn trainer classes as well, which is cool.
OR/AS also did some updates to the more important NPCs (Gym Leaders, E4 and Champion) as well, and I think those are great. My favorite is Roxanne, I think her OR/AS design is much better than her original from R/S/E.
First of all, let’s talk about the Johto episode of Pokémon Evolutions: The Show. I really like this episode. As said in the unpops thread, I think it is a great example of how Johto is at its best outside of the games.
There is a lot to like about this episode. One thing I noticed was how it made use of colors regarding the Kimono Girls and their Pokémon.
The first Kimono Girl has a Moon Ball in her hair, she wears a black dress with yellow rings and she uses Umbreon.
The second has a Fast Ball in her hair, she has a orange/yellow-ish dress with a somewhat zagged pattern, she uses Jolteon.
The third has a Level Ball in her hair, she has a dress with a fiery pattern, and she uses Flareon.
The fourth has Lure Ball in her hair, she wears a blue dress with a watery pattern, and she uses Vaporeon.
The fifth has a Love Ball in her hair, she wears a pink dress, and she uses Espeon.
I really like the way they made use of the colors here.
I also like how they used the Eeveelutions to symbolize the events of the story.
Umbreon: The night when it happened
Jolteon: The lightning that struck the Tower
Flareon: The fire that started afterwards
Vaporeon: The rain that put out the fire
Espeon: The morning after
That was really cool.
Another thing I like is how the episode showed a little “behind the scenes” with various Pokémon helping with the special effects on the theater.
I also like how this episode focused on Lugia instead of Ho-Oh. While it would have felt more natural for them to go with Ho-Oh instead as it resides on the top of the Bell Tower (as opposed to Lugia living at the bottom of the Whirl Islands), I feel like Lugia has gotten a bit shafted over the years so it was great to see it get some attention once again.
Let’s continue with saying more nice things about Johto! Another thing I like, which has been talked about before, is the atmosphere of Kanto in G/S/C and how it is ultra-industrialized to the extreme. I believe green_typhlosion was the first to bring this up in the past.
I decided to take a more in-depth look at G/S/C Kanto to see how it is. Here’s everything I could find:
- The Power Plant is back up and running, compared to being closed in R/B/Y
- The Safari Zone is closed
- Viridian Forest is gone, it is replaced by a small maze of bushes
- Seafoam Islands is just one very small cave
- Mt. Moon is much smaller and it has a square with a house, which wasn’t there in R/B/Y
- Cerulean Cave is gone
- In Lavender Town, the Pokémon Tower is replaced by a Radio Tower
- The Magnet Train between Saffron and Goldenrod has been built (though it is up to the player to get it up and running)
- Celadon City seems to have been polluted as the ponds are inhabited by nothing but Grimer and Muk. FR/LG seems to have made a minor reference to this as in those games, you have a 1% chance of encountering Koffing while Surfing, and Grimer when fishing with the Super Rod
- Route 23 has been shrunk down to almost nothing. In comparison, it was a quite long natural road in R/B/Y
- Some changes in the overworld design tiles, one of the most notable changes is the borders around the water routes are plastic things instead of the more natural rocks and cliffs
- The Pewter Museum is closed for renovations (it may not be completely related to this, but it was something I noticed and I just wanted to mention it)
Another notable thing is how Kanto is a lot smaller in G/S/C. Upon taking a closer look, it seems like the majority of the more natural areas (routes and dungeons) are smaller than in R/B/Y, the majority of them have been shortened or shrunk down. But most of the actual settlements are as big as they were in R/B/Y. This contributes to making the region feel industrialized.
I found a map which compares the overworld of Kanto in R/B/Y and G/S/C:
https://i.redd.it/gq6guoea8q661.png
It makes it very clear that Kanto is considerably smaller in G/S/C.
Looking back, Kanto in G/S/C was really unique. While it was very heavily flawed from a gameplay perspective, the atmosphere was really special. I guess that a lot of areas had to be removed or get smaller because of technical limitations in the games, but seeing how most of these were the more natural areas, I wonder if it might have been at least partly intentional. Either way, I think it created something very unique. I never thought the day would come when I would say something positive about Kanto in the Johto games, but here we are. Unfortunately, HG/SS decided to get rid of the atmosphere but keep all of the gameplay flaws, which is a shame.
However, I think there is one area where HG/SS really nailed it. Cinnabar Island. They captured the atmosphere here so well. This island was once bustling with life and featured a city, then the volcano erupted and everything except the Pokémon Center got wiped out. The music in HG/SS is also perfect. It suits the situation so perfectly. When I played HG/SS, I would often Fly to Cinnabar Islands to listen to the music and relax after being frustrated by all the issues in these games. While I think HG/SS changed many things in Kanto for the worse compared to how they were in G/S/C, I think this is one of the few things (maybe even the only thing) they actually changed for the better, if only ever so slightly.
The above made me think about another thing. Cinnabar Island has a volcano, but it is never visible anywhere in the Kanto games, only in the Johto games. But it is clearly shown in other media like the anime and Pokémon Adventures. No idea why. To make it suitable for this thread, I guess I sort of like how the volcano on Cinnabar exists in the Kanto games without being visible... or something.
Onto something else. In Gen 1-3, getting certain badges would boost one stat of all the player’s Pokémon (for pure in-game use). But it seems that in Gen 2, each badge would also boost the power of the moves used by the same type. I just randomly learned this yesterday. In Gen 2, every Badge boosts the power of the type it is associated with. For instance, the Zephyr Badge boosts Flying-type attacks. And so on. While there isn’t a Ground-type Gym in the Johto games, the Earth Badge still boosts Ground-type moves. I guess Dark misses out on this boost as there is no Dark-type Badge in Johto. Though I’m not sure, maybe Dark-types get boosted through some other means, like after beating Team Rocket.
Moving on from Johto, another thing I really like and that I have always liked is how Pokémon evolutions are showcased in the anime. When I was a kid, I saw the anime before playing the games, and I always thought that evolution looked a lot cooler in the anime than in the games. Even now in Gen 8, I still think evolution looks much cooler in the anime than in the games. It feels like despite how it has evolved (pun intended) in the games throughout the years, it still hasn’t reached the level of coolness it has always had in the anime.
I have continued playing Emerald, and one other thing it made me think about that I like is how OR/AS kept most of the NPC designs from R/S/E for the new trainer artwork in OR/AS. For instance, here’s the sprites for Pokémon Breeders in R/S/E and the art for them in OR/AS.
Their art in OR/AS is clearly based on their sprites in R/S/E, but with some minor changes. I think it is really neat. The same goes for most/all other Hoenn trainer classes as well, which is cool.
OR/AS also did some updates to the more important NPCs (Gym Leaders, E4 and Champion) as well, and I think those are great. My favorite is Roxanne, I think her OR/AS design is much better than her original from R/S/E.
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